News & Articles on Burma, Thursday, 09 July 2009
Jul 9th, 2009
UK Brown Meets S Africa Pres, UN Chief On G8 Sidelines
Russian Mine to Supply Uranium to Junta?
Many Die as Landslide Sweeps through Jade-mining Area
Thai PM proposes visit to Burma
US ‘concerned’ about North Korea-Burma nuclear trade
Malaysia Won’t Allow Banks To Violate UN Sanctions On North Korea – Najib
Did Foreign Pressure Make Ship Turn Back?
Ban Ki-moon vs Than Shwe: Did the UN really lose?
Facing down persecution
KNLA 7th Brigade loses a quarter of its territory
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UK Brown Meets S Africa Pres, UN Chief On G8 Sidelines
1 hour, 18 minutes ago
L’AQUILA, Italy (Dow Jones)–U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown discussed the situations in Zimbabwe and Myanmar with fellow leaders Thursday morning on the sidelines of the Group of Eight developed nations meeting.
Brown met with South African president Jacob Zuma and U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon.
His spokesman said Brown and Ban agreed “there could be no credible elections in Burma without (opposition leader) Aun Sun Suu Key’s participation.”
Ban visited Myanmar last week.
In his meeting with Zuma, the two leaders discussed Zimbabwe, with Brown’s spokesman saying “it was important that the power-sharing government delivered on the reform commitments that it had entered into.”
Late Tuesday, Brown also met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Relations between the U.K. and Russia have been strained in recent years. Brown’s spokesman said the two discussed the global economy, energy cooperation and the situation in Iran.
“While not ducking the difficult, outstanding bilateral issues, this was a constructive meeting,” the spokesman said.
-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9270; laurence.norman@dowjones.com
http://news.ino.com/headlines/
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Russian Mine to Supply Uranium to Junta?
By KHUN CHAN KHE Thursday, July 9, 2009
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s controversial two-day trip to military-ruled Burma to discuss the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and conditions in the country prior to the 2010 elections has been widely criticized as a failure. Eight previous diplomatic visits by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari also failed to dent the intransigence of the military regime.
However, the reason for the UN’s inability to effect positive change in Burma has less to do with these failed diplomatic visits than with the remaining obstacles at the UN Security Council.
Conventional wisdom suggests that China’s permanent seat on the Security Council and its policy of non-interference in Burma, a policy no doubt underscored by Chinas well-documented interest in maintaining access to Burma’s natural resources, has prevented effective UN action on Burma.
Much less attention, however, has been paid to the obstacle posed by Russia. Like China, Russia has a permanent seat on the Security Council and also blocked a 2007 UN draft resolution that would have applied enormous pressure on the regime. Russia also has interests in Burma’s natural resources, and perhaps in cooperating with the regime’s increasingly public nuclear ambitions.
Since 2006, I have been monitoring an iron ore mining project unfolding around my village in a remote ethnic Pa-O area in war torn Shan State, led by the state-owned Russian company Tyazhpromexport.
The company has invested upwards of US$150 million and is constructing an iron processing plant only 10 kilometers from the Burmese Army’s Eastern Command. This command is responsible for fighting in several areas of Shan State, and Burmese army soldiers have raped, beaten, mutilated, tortured and murdered civilians in their ongoing suppression of ethnic minorities. I, my colleagues, and other organizations have documented these abuses.
The Russian processing plant, which is sited in the Hopone Valley located at the east of the Shan State capital of Taunggyi, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It is equipped with underground bunkers and is surrounded by two ten-feet-high cement walls and barbed wire.
The direct impact of the project has already been severe: 55 people have been forcibly relocated out of three villages to make way for the factory, and 11,000 acres of farmlands have been confiscated by local authorities on behalf of the company. Complaints by the villagers to local government offices were summarily dismissed.
Preparations for the first of a series of open pit mines in the area by Tyazhpromexport have also begun. Barring a radical change in the way the regime and its corporate partners do business, the forced relocation of approximately 7,000 ethnic Pa-O people living directly around the site is all but certain.
Erosion and the release of mining waste into our main water source, the Thabet Stream, is also a serious concern. This would affect 35,000 people downstream. The company is already diverting the stream to their factory, leading to unusually low water levels this year.
However, there is an even more serious aspect to this operation. In May 2007, one year after Tyazhpromexport declared its involvement in the iron ore project, Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom announced that it had reached a deal for cooperation with the Burmese regime on a nuclear program. No further information about this nuclear cooperation has been made public, but suspicions are rife that it is linked to the Hopone Valley mining project.
Local people in my community are worried. Uranium occurs naturally alongside iron ore and the military regime’s Ministry of Energy has acknowledged the existence of uranium deposits in Burma. Extreme travel restrictions have been imposed against local people by the Burma Army around the iron project, and there has been an almost complete lack of public information about the project, to a degree unusual even for the reclusive Burmese regime. Local villagers have quietly heard from staff insiders that the factory will be used to process both iron and uranium.
The Burmese regime’s nuclear ambitions are no secret. For years it has been sending students to Russia to study nuclear technology, and it has normalized relations with North Korea, the world’s problem child playing with nuclear arms, despite a problematic history between the two nations. Recently, The US tracked a North Korean ship that was thought to be headed for Burma’s shores with arms and ammunitions, in violation of a UN Security resolution against Pyongyang. The vessel turned around and returned to North Korea.
Japanese authorities arrested three men in June for allegedly attempting to send weapons-making technology to Burma at the behest of North Korean agents, and photos have been distributed showing an intricate tunnel system throughout Burma being constructed with North Korea’s help.
The idea that a Russian firm might be quietly mining uranium in the country is by no means so far-fetched.
Whatever the case, the widespread human rights abuses connected to the project are no less worrying.
We don’t expect Ban Ki-moon’s visit to change our plight in any significant way. What is really needed is a way to subvert the so-called policies of “non-interference” at the UN Security Council so it can do its job to protect against the military regime’s ongoing threats to international peace and security.
Khun Chan Khe is an ethnic Pa-O and the General Secretary of the Thailand-based Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO). Recently the PYO released firsthand documentation on the Russian-led mining project in a report entitled “Robbing the Future.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/
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Many Die as Landslide Sweeps through Jade-mining Area
By LAWI WENG Thursday, July 9, 2009
At least 30 people have died in a massive landslide that swept away homes, blocked roads and cut communications in Burma’s northern Kachin State.
Miners at a jade mine in Hpakant. (Source: Kachin Development Networking Group)
No official death toll has been released. Reuters news agency put the toll at 30, but local sources told The Irrawaddy at least 70 people died when the landslide swept through an area near the jade-mining center of Hpakant.
The dead included several miners. Local people blamed the disaster on jade mining, which creates large dumps that block the flow of water from the heavy rain that has been falling in the area since the start of July.
“The landslide occurred because the water can’t flow into the Uru River,” said a Hpakant resident. “I’ve never seen so much water in my life.”
About 100 jade mining companies operate in the Hpakant area. The Kachin Environmental Organization, based on the Sino-Burmese border, says that people living in the Hpakant area had appealed to the companies not to dump waste near the Uru River and to avoid environmental damage. The companies enjoy government backing, however, and locals complain that their appeals and warnings are ignored.
Local people said that at least 60 homes were swept away by the landslide.
On Thursday, the water level was receding and telephone communications had been restored. But several roads were still blocked.
An official at the hospital of Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina told The Irrawaddy on Thursday he was not authorized to disclose how many victims had been admitted. Burma’s state-owned media carried no report on the disaster.
Several thousand workers are employed in the jade mines of Hpakant, which are a major foreign currency earner for the state. Working conditions are very bad and TB and HIV/AIDS are rife in the camps where the miners are housed.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
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Thai PM proposes visit to Burma
by Mizzima News
Thursday, 09 July 2009 15:20
New Delhi (mizzima) – Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjejiva proposes to visit neighbouring military-ruled Burma later this month, sources in the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The PM, according to a ministry official, has sounded out the Burmese junta on his visit as the current rotating Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is also a member.
“It will be at a convenient date for both sides [Thailand and Burma]. It is tentatively planned but so far there is no response from the Burmese government,” the official told Mizzima on Thursday.
The official, however, declined from commenting on the purpose of the Thai Premier’s proposed visit.
Meanwhile, sources said Burma’s military rulers are unhappy with Thailand for its sharp reaction over the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a special court in Rangoon’s Insein prison.
Following the framing of charges and trial against the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate, Thailand, as the Chair of the Asean issued a statement expressing ‘grave concern’ over the developments in its member state, and said the ‘honour and credibility’ of Burma is at stake.
“The Government of the Union of Myanmar [Burma], as a responsible member of ASEAN, has the responsibility to protect and promote human rights,” Thailand said on behalf of the group.
In retaliation, Burma’s military regime ran commentary pieces on its state-run newspapers accusing Thailand and the Asean of interfering in its internal affairs and justifying its action of charging and conducting a trial against Aung San Suu Kyi.
The visit of Vejjejiva could be diplomatic protocol as the new Prime Minister, sources in the Thai government said.
Reporting by Solomon, writing by Mungpi http://www.mizzima.com/news/
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US ‘concerned’ about North Korea-Burma nuclear trade
July 9, 2009 (DVB)–The United States has expressed concern over the possibility of an emerging nexus between North Korea and Burma that would see the two countries trade in material for nuclear proliferation.
The issue of Burma’s nuclear ambitions, and North Korea’s role in achieving these, has been thrown into the spotlight over the past month following an incident in which a North Korean ship carrying suspect cargo was thought to be heading toward Burma, before making a U-turn last week.
A network of underground tunnels constructed throughout Burma with the help of North Korean advisers was also recently exposed by DVB, with intercepted intelligence documents revealing the possibility of them accommodating heavy weaponry.
A senior US State Department official during a press briefing yesterday was questioned about whether strengthening ties between North Korea and Burma were related to respective nuclear ambitions.
“I think we’re concerned about trade and cooperation between countries that have undertaken nuclear programs, but I don’t want to go much further than that,” he said.
On the subject of the North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, the official said that its decision not to arrive in Burma was perhaps a result of “a combination of sharing information with many of the countries in the region” about obligations to inspect and warn on suspect ships.
The US navy had been closely monitoring the Kang Nam 1, which arrived back in North Korea yesterday, following new UN sanctions on Pyongyang that banned the export of any weapons material.
Burma is also under far-reaching sanctions from both the US and European Union.
Journalist and North Korea expert Bertil Lintner said last month that the two incidences are a sign that ties between the countries are strengthening.
“Even China is reluctant to sell certain types of equipment to Burma but North Korea will be willing to sell anything they want,” he said, adding that “Burma has absolutely no interest in supporting an arms embargo”.
Reporting by Francis Wade http://english.dvb.no/news.
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July 09, 2009 17:12 PM
Malaysia Won’t Allow Banks To Violate UN Sanctions On North Korea – Najib
PUTRAJAYA, July 9 (Bernama) — 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 http://www.bernama.com/
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Did Foreign Pressure Make Ship Turn Back?
By LALIT K JHA Thursday, July 9, 2009
WASHINGTON — Pressure from Burma’s key neighbors including India, China and members countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) could have persuaded the military junta not to be associated with North Korean nuclear activities at this point of time. The controversial North Korean ship heading for Burma may have been turned around as a result.
“In the specific instance with Burma, that too could have played a role. But I don’t know that it was—that that was the definitive reason,” a senior State Department official said in background briefing on interagency delegation meetings in China and Malaysia related to enforcing UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea on Wednesday.
Throughout the trip, the US interagency team made the point that Burma was a destination in the past for North Korea.
“That this was a particularly difficult issue given Burma’s own isolation and own problems with the international community, but that this was a focus for Asean, for the United States, for China, for India, for other countries with some sort of influence to persuade Burma not to participate in any way in North Korea’s illegal activities,” the official said.
Such a statement led many to interpret that because of diplomatic pressure from neighboring countries on Burma, the ship was turned back, and that the Burmese realized that it would not be an appropriate moment to accept that ship.
However, the official clarified that this was not the exact case. “I don’t think—I think that’s taking it one step beyond where I want to go with it,” he said.
“What I do want to say is that a combination of sharing information with many of the countries in the region about their obligations and our collective obligations to inspect, to warn ships, to what maritimers call hail and query, that all of those things combined, convinced or played a role perhaps in convincing the North Koreans to turn the ship around,” the official said.
“Asean, as a whole, and the individual countries have all pledged their commitment to the resolutions, and therefore, by extension, to preventing the use of Burma or any other country as a conduit for North Korea’s illegal activities,” the official said.
The Kang Nam I, a North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy, is believed to have entered the port of Nampo on North Korea’s western coast late Monday. Speculation has included the possibility the Kang Nam 1 was carrying weapons, possibly to Burma. The ship has been suspected of transporting banned goods to the military-ruled country in the past.
The UN Security Council issued a condemnation of North Korea’s recent missile tests after a closed meeting Monday in New York. According to the Japanese UN Ambassador, Yukio Takasu, Japan has asked all Southeast Asian nations, except junta-ruled Burma, to enforce the UN’s North Korea resolutions.
Meanwhile, Malaysia pledged to work with the United States to block North Korea from using the nation’s banks to fund any weapons deals. The assurance came as Philip Goldberg, a US envoy in charge of coordinating the implementation of sanctions against Pyongyang, met with Malaysian officials.
South Korean media have reported that North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for the suspected shipment of weapons to Burma via the Kang Nam I.
US Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey has traveled to China and Hong Kong this week to gain support for US efforts to keep North Korea from using banks and businesses to buy and sell missile and nuclear technology. He arrived Monday and was scheduled to meet with government officials and private sector executives Wednesday through Friday.
On June 30, the US imposed sanctions and froze the US assets of Namchongang Trading Corp (NCG) and Iran-based Hong Kong Electronics in an attempt to choke off the firms’ funds. The two companies are charged with being at the center of Pyongyang’s attempts to export its nuclear and long-range missile technologies, according to US officials.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/
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Ban Ki-moon vs Than Shwe: Did the UN really lose?
By: LARRY JAGAN
Published: 9/07/2009 at 09:28 AM
Newspaper section: NewsEveryone seems to want to dismiss UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s ill-timed trip to Burma as a disaster.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expresses disappointment at being denied a visit to jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while briefing reporters on the outcome of his second meeting with the Burmese junta chief on July 4 at the airport in Naypyidaw. – AP
Although he seems to have left the country empty-handed, on what was seen beforehand as a crucial visit to strengthen the UN’s role in the country and encourage the junta to be inclusive and transparent in its national reconciliation process, his score card is not as bad as those who want to write his trip off as a major mistake, without looking at what he may have achieved.
The UN chief obviously was personally rebuffed by the junta’s top general, when he denied him access to the Lady _ who is currently in Insein prison on trial for allegedly breaking the conditions of her house aarrest.
Mr Ban was obviously personally disappointed by this, as he believed he had established a special relationship with Senior General Than Shwe during his discussions with him last year and was sure he would listen favourably to his request.
“I’m deeply disappointed,” Mr Ban told journalists at Rangoon airport when he arrived by plane from the capital Naypyidaw, after a second meeting with the top junta leader.
“I think they have missed a very important opportunity of demonstrating their willingness to commit to continuing reconciliation with all political leaders. It is a setback to the international community’s efforts to provide a helping hand to Myanmar at this time.”
But is it really such a big deal _ symbolically important for sure? Even Mr Ban on reflection seems to concede this much.
“My meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, however, should not be seen as the only benchmark for success or failure of my visit,” he told journalists in Bangkok after he flew out of Rangoon.
But of course he would say that, wouldn’t he?
Access to Aung San Suu Kyi is the only card the regime has to play when dealing with the UN and its Western detractors.
But the UN involvement in Burma is far greater than that, and involves political, development and humanitarian issues.
The photo opportunity of the senior UN officials, even the boss, is really a matter for the scrapbooks.
What is really important, as Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly said, is the start of genuine dialogue with the military regime.
And for many of the poor in Burma, the more immediate question is humanitarian aid and development assistance, especially the thousands still struggling to rebuild their homes and lives in the Irrawaddy delta after last year’s devastaing cyclone.
Mr Ban came with an extensive and detailed agenda that he laid out before the regime’s top leaders during his meetings with them.
Apart from the need for credible, political change, which the regime smugly believes is the central aim of its “road map to democracy,” the UN boss reminded the generals that they were missing out on the region’s economic miracle.
While the government has taken steps to develop the country, tackle human trafficking and curtail opium cultivation and control the spread of the HIV/Aids problem in the country: “The reality is that millions continue to live in poverty,” Mr Ban said. “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,” Mr Ban advised the junta. “We must work to ensure that the people of Myanmar can benefit from and contribute to the regional and global economy.”
Mr Ban also made these remarks in a public address to a joint gathering of diplomats, civil leaders and representatives of community groups and international aid organisations shortly before he boarded the plane to leave.
This in itself was an important concession that the UN secretary-general’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, was able to wring out of the generals in advance, a week before his boss was due to arrive.
This is something that neither Bangladesh nor Sri Lanka allowed when the UN chief recently visited for fear that the government would not like what he said, according to senior UN officials. The junta leaders will certainly not have liked what they heard, though most of the country’s businessmen, middle class and poor would have endorsed his remarks unreservedly.
Now it remains unclear whether Mr Ban was able to get any concessions on any of the major issues they discussed during the two meetings with Gen Than Shwe _ national reconciliation, economic development, dealing with the cease-fire groups and humanitarian assistance.
One thing is for sure: Gen Than Shwe was never going to make any public concessions during the visit.
“These things happen in the weeks after UN envoys leave _ like in the case of the last time Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest [on May 6, 2002]. Mr Razali [the envoy at the time] was clearly told: it will happen two weeks after you leave the country,” a senior diplomat involved in the process said.
“This is not a make or break trip,” the secretary-general’s special envoy to Burma, Mr Gambari, told the Bangkok Post on the eve of the visit. “The important thing is to keep the process of UN engagement in the country going, and, if possible strengthen and deepen it.”
While Mr Ban raised the issues of the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi as soon as possible, the resumption of talks between the military and the pro-democracy parties, and making sure the planned elections in 2010 are inclusive and credible, he also discussed ways the UN could support the Burmese government’s plans for economic development, especially in the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sector.
On the extremely vexed question of post-Nargis recovery plans related to humanitarian assistance, he raised the need especially for the swift issuance of visas.
“I discussed, as well, the expansion of humanitarian assistance beyond the delta area.These are all areas where I expect the Myanmar government to demonstrate progress in the very near future,” he told Bangkok-based journalists.
So what assurrances did he receive from the senior general?
“I was assured that the Myanmar authorities will make sure that this election will be held in a fair and free and transparent manner,” Mr Ban did say after his first meeting with the general.
But to his other key suggestions, the junta’s response is pending.
“It’s too early to tell whether Than Shwe completely rebuffed Ban Ki-moon, the regime seldom makes concessions during these kinds of visits. It’s usually before or after,” said Derek Tonkin, former British ambassador to Thailand and veteran Burma watcher.
“I sense that there may be a few concessions later, like the release of non-political prisoners, but little else,” he added.
Diplomats and UN officials in Rangoon believe there will be some goodwill gestures from the regime in the weeks to come.
“We can expect some releases of political prisoners _ maybe even hundreds as the UN SG requested during his talks with the Senior General,” said a western diplomat in Rangoon.
But most analysts fear that the UN’s role in brokering national reconciliation between the two sides has hit a dead end. So, as always, whether Mr Ban or Burma’s top general won this round, the Burmese people have lost again. But the UN is unlikely to keep trying to assist Burma in whatever ways might be possible.
Mr Ban will brief the Security Council later this week on his visit.
Then the United Nations will be expected to make the next move in what is becoming a serious chess game.
“The question today is this: how much longer can Myanmar afford to wait for national reconciliation, democratic transition and full respect for human rights,” Ban Ki-moon said in his public address in Rangoon.
“The cost of delay will be counted in wasted lives, lost opportunities and prolonged isolation from the international community.”
The real question is how can the UN actually help bring about these changes that will allow the Burmese people to enjoy the fundamental rights enshrined in the UN charter, to which Burma was one of the first signatories.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/
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Facing down persecution
Behind Aung San Suu Kyi stand hundreds of lesser known writers and activists paying the price for speaking out
by – Melissa Benn
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 8 July 2009 16.17 BST
There was a powerful moment at the end of a recent vigil held to mark the 64th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi and to call for an end to her decades long detention. One of the demonstrators pinned a photograph of General Than Shwe, the head of Burma’s ruling military junta, to the doorway of the silent but watchful Burmese embassy, across the portal from a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The juxtaposition of the two faces highlighted, far more forcefully than a dozen speeches or articles, the gaping moral gap between a regime responsible for brutal and systematic persecution and a profoundly human opposition.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s dignity and beauty are undoubtedly powerful tools in the campaign against the junta and one of the many reasons that the ongoing campaign for democracy has supporters right up to the highest level, including our own prime minister who is said to telephone the UN’s Ban Ki Moon, just returned from an apparently fruitless mission to Burma, twice a week to discuss the situation there.
But we must not forget the many hundreds of lesser known writers and activists who live in daily fear of assault or assassination or are wasting away for lack of medical help in some of the world’s most notorious jails.
In some cases, there are only one or two photographs of them in existence – grainy snaps of their younger, more hopeful selves – for us to look upon and mobilise around.
That is why tomorrow, English PEN, with the help of comedian Jo Brand and poet Ruth Padel among many others, will be highlighting the situation of imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world.
Those like Mexican writer, Lydia Cacho, author of several books on the child pornography trade who lives in fear of having her throat slit by shadowy forces who want to stop her work. Or the Saudi Arabian author and journalist Wajeha al-Huwaider who has been arrested and harassed repeatedly for her human rights writing and activism.
The tomorrow’s main focus will be on Burma. We will hear the words of Aung San Suu Kyi whose trial on trumped up charges begins again on Friday. But there will also be readings form the work of the Burmese comedian and poet Zargana who was sentenced last year to 59 years in prison, commuted to 35, for leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of the Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
Many other writers have been rounded up during recent crack downs; those like journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, sentenced to 19 years for helping Zargana in the relief effort or the Burmese musician and Win Maw, arrested in a Rangoon tea shop and charged with “threatening national security” after sending news reports and video footage to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma radio station during the protests in August and September 2007. Win Maw is now serving six years in the infamous Insein prison in Rangoon.
It is for these brave individuals just as much as Aung San Suu Kyi, that we need far more decisive international action against the junta. Her global fame offers a level of protection.
The lesser known must live in fear of the worst fate of all; that they will become just one of the many faceless disappeared.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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KNLA 7th Brigade loses a quarter of its territory
by Mizzima News
Thursday, 09 July 2009 13:20
Chiang Mai (mizzima) – After a month-long fierce military offensive, the joint forces of the Burmese Army and Karen splinter group – the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) – have taken possession of much of the 7th Brigade base of the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union.
KNU’s Secretary (1), Maj. Saw Hla Ngwe said, the KNLA’s 7th Brigade has lost about 25 per cent of its base to the joint enemy forces. It is being forced to operate in small areas of their base while much of their former territories have become a no man’s land.
“About 25 per cent of the total territory has been occupied by them [DKBA and Burmese Army]. At the most, 40 per cent of this territory has become a no man’s land,” Maj. Saw Hla Ngwe told Mizzima on Wednesday.
“It is because they might erect fences, plant land mines and booby traps, as security measures our troops are operating in about 20 per cent in this no man’s land day and night, to avoid landmines,” he said.
Reportedly, the fighting between the KNU and a joint force of the Burmese Army and DKBA, which began in early June, is petering off though there are reports of sporadic clashes.
According to Saw Hla Ngwe, the enemy suffered heavy losses during the campaign with at least 84 soldiers of the DKBA killed and another 175 injured. While the Burmese Army lost about 10 soldiers and two were wounded, the KNU lost only one soldier and eight were injured. However, the Karen resistance group has lost many areas.
Movements of soldiers from both sides in the battle field have been largely limited as landmines and booby traps abound in the area, sources said.
Meanwhile, the KNLA, in a change of strategy, are now said to be preparing for an urban warfare, which they have never been good at, and are into reconnaissance tours behind the enemy lines.
Saw Hla Ngwe said the latest military operation against the KNLA only proves that the Burmese regime has no desire to resolve the problems through political means but are keen to suppress with military might and violence.
Following the military offensive, rights groups said, at least 3,000 Karen refugees have fled their homes in eastern Burma to Thailand.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/
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