BURMA RELATED NEWS – AUGUST 06-09, 2010
Aug 9th, 2010
Sun Aug 8, 1:33 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Subdued religious ceremonies by activists and pro-democracy politicians marked the anniversary Sunday of the 1988 uprising that was brutally crushed by Myanmar’s military.
More than 1 million people rose up Aug. 8 that year to protest an entrenched military-backed regime headed by Gen. Ne Win that had wiped out the savings of many by a sudden demonetization of the currency.
An estimated 3,000 people were killed before the demonstrations were crushed in September. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s detained pro-democracy leader, rose to prominence during the uprising.
“We are holding this religious ceremony in memory of those who had sacrificed their lives during the protest and in honor of those who are in prison for their beliefs and for those who had taken part in the nationwide protests 22 years ago,” said Tint Hsan, a former student activist who organized the event.
The ceremony in an eastern suburb was attended by politicians and many activists, including some Buddhist monks recently freed from prison.
Yangon’s streets were quiet and residents went about their normal Sunday routines, with some having forgotten the anniversary date. Others gave food to Buddhist monks to mark the protests.
Student activists from the ‘88 generation managed to make their voices heard again in 2007 in an uprising led by Buddhist monks, which was also put down violently by the military. Many of them were given prison sentences of 65 years.
“I don’t want people to go out on the streets and get killed or imprisoned again. We believe that we can bring about a change of government through elections,” said Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, general secretary of the newly registered Democratic Party.
The ruling junta has called for the first polls in two decades to be held later this year, though no date has yet been set. Critics have dismissed the election as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party is boycotting the polls because of what it calls unfair and undemocratic election laws. It was disbanded in May because it refused to register.
The league swept elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been held under house arrest by the military government for about 14 of the past 20 years.
Sat Aug 7, 12:30 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – A bomb exploded in a crowded market in a Myanmar border town, killing at least two people and wounding at least eight others, an official said.
The blast occurred Friday evening in the town of Myawaddy, across a river from Thailand, according to the Mizzima news agency, run by Myanmar exiles in Thailand. The explosive was believed thrown from a vehicle into the night bazaar.
An official in Yangon, Myanmar, who demanded anonymity since he was not allowed to speak to the press, confirmed that two persons had died and at least eight others were injured.
The area was cordoned off immediately after the blast and victims were taken to hospitals.
It was unclear whether the attack was related to fighting between Myanmar’s military and the ethnic minority Karen, who are seeking an independent state, or criminal activities.
The town is a center for both a vigorous illegal cross-border trade and smuggling of goods, drugs and people, mainly laborers seeking employment in Thailand.
Several bomb blasts have rocked Myanmar this year, including three blasts in Yangon that killed nine people and wounded 170. The incidents come as the ruling junta prepares for a general election that opponents have called unfair and undemocratic.
Mon Aug 9, 11:25 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Sai Aik Paung is perhaps one of only a very few independent political figures in Myanmar who is confident of success in the country’s rare and controversial elections expected later this year.
As a prominent ethnic Shan leader, the 65-year-old believes his party can count on the support of the vast majority of voters in Shan State in eastern Myanmar in the country’s first poll in two decades.
Such were his hopes for winning control of a newly-created regional parliament that he decided to return to politics after 14 years, forming the new Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) to contest the vote.
While critics have dismissed the election as a sham aimed at shoring up the ruling junta’s power, Sai Aik Paung said the SNDP has chosen to trust the military regime.
“The government has announced that it will hold free and fair elections and we believe and expect this,” he told AFP.
“I cannot guarantee it will completely happen. We just hope, that’s why we are planning to participate. ”
The SNDP, widely known as the White Tiger party, believes it is supported by 90 per cent of Shan State’s six million people, which will have its own parliament along with other states following the election.
Shan are the second largest population — after the more than 30 million Burmese that dominate the ruling regime — in a country that has long struggled with tensions and separatist movements among disparate ethnic groups.
Sai Aik Paung was previously a senior member of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), which emerged as the second biggest party in the country’s last elections in 1990, with 23 seats.
It was the vote that saw Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) achieve a landslide victory — but the generals never permitted the party to take power.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the last two decades in jail or under house arrest and is barred from standing in the polls because she is a serving prisoner.
The NLD is boycotting the vote because the junta’s rules would have effectively forced it to expel Suu Kyi and other members in prison before it could participate. It has since been forcibly disbanded by the ruling generals.
With the NLD out of the picture, the SNDP still has to contest with a formidable opponent — the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
“Our rival party in the 1990 election was the NLD, but the USDP is our rival now. They are the powerful party, but if the election is free and fair, we will win with a majority in Shan State,” Sai Aik Paung said.
He said he hoped the parliaments created in this election will be able to work to create a democratic nation, despite the fact that the 2008 constitution that comes into force with the vote hands 25 per cent of the legislature to the military.
“We assume that the military is now ruling the country with 100 per cent,” he said. “In the future, civilians will participate in the administration with 75 per cent — and isn’t getting 75 per cent better than nothing?”
Sai Aik Paung is used to negotiating with the regime from within the approved political structure, attending the national convention off and on from 1993 to 1996, when he retired from politics due to health reasons.
The SNDP, which includes former SNLD members, is attempting to smooth its path into power by avoiding confrontation with the military and other parties.
“We also do not want undisciplined democracy immediately, it’s better to go step by step gradually,” Sai Aik Paung said.
But despite this appeasement the party has not been immune to the difficulties that have beset those attempting to contest the polls because of government rules to inhibit political campaigning.
The party intends to lodge a complaint with the authorities in the administrative capital Naypyidaw over travel restrictions imposed on a trip in July in Kayah State, where members were barred from entering a town.
Sai Aik Paung, who lives in a rural mountainous area, believes agriculture is crucial to the economic future of Myanmar, where 70 per cent of the 57 million population live in the countryside.
He wants a market-driven future and appeared to push for greater openness — a key issue in a country where critics accuse the junta of handing lucrative business interests to its cronies.
“There should not be nepotism in the economy, all should be equal and transparent, ” he said.
Monday 09 August 2010
by: Marwaan Macan-Markar | Inter Press Service | Report
Bangkok – When a U.N. human rights investigator for Burma called for an international inquiry to look into possible war crimes by the country’s military regime, he added significant weight to similar calls that had been made in other quarters.
But that call in March by Tomas Ojea Quintana, as part of a scathing 30-page report delivered to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, has come back to haunt the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, as Burma is also known.
Quintana has been denied a visa by the junta to return to the South-east Asian nation for his fourth visit, according to diplomatic and U.N. sources.
But Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile are hardly surprised by the treatment given to the Argentine lawyer, who is currently on a visit to Thailand and Indonesia ahead of preparing another report on Burma to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in October.
His predecessor, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, was also shut out from the country by the junta following critical reports tabled before the world body.
“It was very clear that Quintana touched on a very sensitive issue for the Burmese regime when he called for the setting up of an international committee to look into war crimes,” said Khin Ohmar, coordinator of the Burma Partnership, an Asia-Pacific network of civil society groups championing democracy and human rights in Burma. “The regime cannot tolerate such criticism.”
In fact, Quintana broke new diplomatic ground with the strong words he said in March, added the Burmese political exile. “It was the first time that a crime against humanity inquiry was called for by a U.N. human rights rapporteur.”
Despite being denied a visa, “he (Quintana) is still committed to pushing the inquiry forward,” revealed David Scott Matheison, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based global rights watchdog. “He is not giving up; he wants to go back inside and engage with as many actors.”
The United Nations established a mandate to look into human rights violations in Burma in 1992. That year also saw the start of resolutions critical of the junta being tabled during the annual sessions of the U.N. General Assembly. But it was only in 2002 that the reports on war crimes allegations levelled at the junta began to emerge, confirming a worsening climate of oppression and abuse in a country that already had a growing list of gross human rights violations. The most damning report was ‘License to Rape’, published by the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a group from Burma’s Shan ethnic minority.
This disturbing report documented the Burmese military’s rape of Shan women as part of their war effort against Shan ethnic rebels.
Following that 2002 report, the U.N. General Assembly approved for the first time a resolution calling for an independent inquiry to investigate cases of rape and other crimes committed by the Burmese regime in the border areas that are home to ethnic minorities where separatist battles were being waged.
Yet the disclosures in the SWAN report changed little, as reflected in other reports that followed. Some were published by women belonging to the Karen minority living along Burma’s eastern borders, where a six-decades long separatist conflict continues.
The Karen and Shan victims are among those in the north and eastern corner of Burma, close to the country’s borders with Thailand and China, where some 500,000 internally displaced people live in dire conditions after fleeing conflict situations in their villages.
The impacts of these conflicts on the ethnic civilian population were exposed in a 2009 report authored by five international jurists. Over 3,000 ethnic nationality villages have been burnt to the ground by the Burmese military regime, revealed the report produced by the International Human Rights Clinic at the law school of the U.S.-based Harvard University.
“This is comparable to the number of villages estimated to have been destroyed or damaged in Darfur (Sudan).”
“The world cannot wait while the military regime continues its atrocities against the people of Burma,” added the jurists from Britain, Mongolia, South Africa, the United States and Venezuela in the report ‘Crimes in Burma’. “We call on the U.N. Security Council urgently to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.”
Quintana echoed similar sentiments in his March report: “The U.N. institutions may consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact- finding mandate to address the question of international crimes.”
Quintana’s report, which followed his third trip to Burma in February following his appointment in May 2008, highlighted a litany of violations that included deaths and torture of detainees, forced labour, arrest of dissidents and the lack of freedom of expression and assembly.
“This report was the highest from a U.N. official and confirmed what ethnic communities living in the war zones have been saying during the past years,” said Charm Tong, a ranking member of SWAN, which produced ‘Licence to Rape’. “The victims are still under attack and have to flee the Burmese army.”
For this suffering to end, Quintana’s concerns and his call for a war crimes inquiry should “break the silence at the U.N. Security Council,” the Shan activist told IPS. “We want Burma to be discussed at the Security Council.”
08/09/2010 | 04:32 PM
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto Romulo said this year’s elections in junta-ruled Myanmar would be considered a sham if opposition members would not be allowed to participate in the process.
In an interview on Monday, Romulo said the elections would be a farce if opposition members, including jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi would not be allowed to participate in the Myanmar election, the first since 1990.
“All the parties should be there and not only should be there but they should be allowed to campaign and their votes should be counted. You know what democracy is all about,” Romulo said.
Romulo has been very vocal about his concerns on the political developments in Myanmar, repeatedly calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other political detainees and their participation in the elections.
Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) party won the last election by a landslide but was never permitted to take office.
The ruling junta has imposed a law banning Suu Kyi from participating in the polls.
Suu Kyi’s party has disbanded and opted not to take part in this year’s election, saying it will be a sham.
Suu Kyi was convicted last year for violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man illegally swam across a lake to her waterfront villa. The man reportedly hid in her compound for two nights.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years of hard labor but the court “mitigated” the sentence to 18 months of house arrest.
Suu Kyi, 63, has spent more than 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
Doubts on credibility of polls
The United States and the European Union, Myanmar’s staunchest critics, voiced doubts about the credibility of the scheduled elections in the military ruled-state, formerly known as Burma.
They have been urging the junta to let the opposition and ethnic minorities become involved in the elections.
The ASEAN’s standing policy of non-interference in their members’ domestic affairs has constrained efforts to enforce the protection of human rights in Myanmar.
The ASEAN has also been criticized for not exerting pressure on Myanmar’s junta to enforce democracy and institute reforms.
The members of the ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Amid opposition from Western countries, the ASEAN supported the entry of Myanmar into the group as its tenth member in 1997.
Asia Times Online – Civil society enters Myanmar’s election fray
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK – Civil society organizations in Myanmar are joining pre-election activity in the military-ruled country, giving rise to possible shifts in the political landscape.
They have been training potential candidates for the general election that Myanmar’s military leaders have promised to hold this year, carrying out activities in areas like Yangon, the former capital, in central Myanmar and in the border areas that are home to a multitude of restive ethnic minorities.
This pre-election work is being led by larger officially recognized civil society organizations (CSOs) and smaller ones working quietly to avoid detection by the authorities.
Myanmar Egress, formed in 2006 by magazine publisher Nay Win Maung, is among the larger CSOs leading political education programmes aimed at the 44 political parties that have registered to contest the poll, whose date has yet to be announced.
Twenty of these parties are ethnic-based, a significant fact given that tenuous ceasefire accords exist between many ethnic rebel groups and the junta in Myanmar.
“It is clear that Egress has taken the lead in political education for potential candidates, party cadres and party members,” says a Yangon-based Western analyst, who declined to be identified. “They meet newly formed parties, discuss the constitution, electoral laws, a party’s regulations and democratic functioning, and relations between political parties and civil society organizations or the media.”
CSOs in education, agriculture, health, environment and gender are also involved in getting the message of democracy out in an oppressive environment where over 2,200 political dissidents have been jailed.
“If their aim is to educate people inside the system to democratic ways and means, and to show them that civil society can and must be a partner for the government in making decisions, then this aim is clearly being served very efficiently, ” the analyst said in an interview from Yangon. “The number of people involved in this non-confrontational movement, whether they join political parties or work with civil society organizations, is growing every day.”
Myanmar reportedly has 64 non-governmental organizations and 455 officially recognized community-based associations. “[But] there are many more CSOs in the country not registered who are working to help the people. They are getting small amounts of funds from foreign governments, ” a Yangon-based CSO activist told Inter Press Service (IPS) on condition of anonymity.
CSOs like Egress enjoy the blessing of the military, which has ruled Myanmar since a 1962 coup. A provision in the 2008 constitution recognizes CSOs’ role to participate in the political landscape.
The CSOs’ foray into Myanmar’s politics comes in the wake of their pivotal role after the massive destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
This time, the training that CSOs are giving political parties comes as a relief given the heavy odds faced by some of these parties, which could “be described as a possible opposition to the regime”, says an European diplomat who handles Myanmar affairs. “The list of candidates to contest nationwide is very thin because of the political risk and those who qualify as candidates are very limited.”
In this context, assistance on leadership issues, campaigning skills, public speaking and political acumen will help candidates in a country that last held an election two decades ago, the diplomat told IPS. The 1990 election was won by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) but its results were nullified by the military.
“At least five of the parties have come to represent an opposition force, positioning themselves somewhere in the middle,” the diplomat added. “They say they are not close to the NLD, making this election more complex and less black-and-white. ”
Among them is the National Democratic Force (NDF), a new party led by former political prisoner Than Nyein, who together with others broke away from the NLD, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The split followed Suu Kyi’s asking her party to boycott this year’s poll due to the junta’s repressive election conditions.
Other parties like the NDF, the Union Democratic Party (UDP) and the Democratic Party of Myanmar (DPM) are “very much on their own” in this contest, the diplomat added. “They are not backed by the Burmese political exiles and not supported by Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD inside the country.”
Besides the lack of support from the more recognized pro-democracy Myanmar constituency and the challenge they face from a regime determined to stay in power, candidates of the NDF, UDP and the DPM have to overcome a financial burden too. Each candidate has to pay the Election Commission 500,000 kyat (US$500), an amount that is over half the annual wage of a middle-ranking civil servant.
Against this backdrop, exiled activists, who until now have been seen as standard bearers of the country’s democracy movement, are dismissive of the CSOs’ training of candidates.
“Groups like Myanmar Egress claim it is good to educate people to be part of the political process, to be involved,” said Soe Aung, deputy head of foreign affairs of the Forum for Democracy in Burma, the largest network of Burmese political exiles. “But such training will not help to change the situation on the ground under the current circumstances the military regime has employed.
“It is very clear that the military junta is not willing to have a free and fair election,” he told IPS. “So why bother with the training of candidates?”
AsiaNews.it – MYANMAR: Junta causing hunger in Burma
by Tint Swe
Tint Swe, a member of Burma’s government in exile, looks at his country’s food problem. Since democracy was replaced by the dictatorship, Burma has suffered in every domain.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Food shortages have affected Myanmar for the past three years because of drought. Things could get worse as a result of unpredictable weather, which has led farmers to plant at the wrong time. According to the outgoing country director for the World Health Organisation (WHO), the situation will get worse. Making matters worse, the despotic regime of General Than Shwe is preventing long-term action that could bring a solution, thus putting millions at risk.
AsiaNews spoke to Tint Swe, a member of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) that was set up in exile after the military junta cancelled the 1990 elections won by the National League for Democracy. After finding refuge in India in 1990, he settled in New Delhi on 21 December 1991.
Disasters are unavoidable and unfortunate natural events occur in every part of the world. Fingers point to climate change and global warming as well as new large-scale constructions. It is more accurate to lay the blame in the authorities for other, man-made tragedies taking place in Burma.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has correctly pointed out that food shortages in central Burma are due to excessive restrictions imposed by the military junta. However, this has been the regime’s standard practice since the military seized power in 1988. Aid groups, including UN agencies, are seen as a security threat, not in terms of the national interest, but as potential challengers to the regime’s grip on power.
The Burmese people were once proud of their rich resources and abundant wealth. According to a traditional saying, Burma had enough cooking oil to have a bath and mountain-size heaps of paddy. But it was true before the military took power and the economy.
Led by Ne Win, the first generation of military rulers turned well-to-do Burma into a Least Developed Country (LCD) by 1987.
Under Saw Maung and Than Shwe, a new generation of generals led the country to the bottom third position in terms of development in the world.
In recent years, the current regime opened the doors to the market economy and direct foreign investment. On its website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs updated that Myanmar’s development endeavours gained further momentum. In 1999-2000, the GDP grew by 10.9 per cent so that the value of foreign approved investment reached US$ 7.4 billion million by 31 December 2002. According to the latest figures by the World Bank’s World Development Indicators released on 27 July 2010, Burma received US 283 millions in foreign direct investment.
Unfortunately, a UN 2009 report titled Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to Myanmar said that 52 townships in the states of Shan, Chin State and Kachin are deemed highly vulnerable in terms of food security. Devastatingly, one in ten people in Burma, that is more than 5 million, suffer from chronic hunger (going without adequate food on a daily basis), the report said, especially in Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Arakan and Chin. The recent WFP report mentioned that the states of Arakan, Chin, Kachin and Shan as well as the Magwe and Irrawaddy Divisions are in urgent need of emergency food assistance.
Once regarded as the rice bowl of Southeast Asia when Burma was a democracy, the Irrawaddy Delta was dealt a heavy blow in May 2008 when Cyclone Nargis hit the area and killed 140,000 people. Despite the great need, the military regime deliberately initially barred all international aid. When it allowed foreign aid to come in, late, it politicised it. State-run television endlessly broadcast images of Generals handing out disaster relief as if those were personal gifts.
The regime effectively blocked the foreigners whilst arresting and imprisoning local aid workers, including distinguished comedian Zaganar who, on 21 November 2008, was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment. On 29 November 2008, he received an additional 14 years. On 16 February 2009, the Yangon Divisional Court reduced the prison sentence by 24 years, bringing it down to 35 years.
According to a WFP assessment undertaken in June 2008, the people in northern Arakan State face malnutrition because of a 75 per cent jump in rice prices compared to the previous year. As of 25 June this year, at least 63 people have been confirmed dead after heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in the state.
In Chin State, there are reports of food shortage due to a rat infestation triggered by the flowering of bamboo, beginning in the early 2006. A Chin news group reported on 3 August 2010 that with the rat infestation on the rise again, the rodents are destroying crops in more than 20 villages in the southern townships of Chin state.
Stories about the food crisis in Pa’an District in Karan State were published in March 2005. Before that, Rich Periphery, Poor Center: Myanmar Rural Economy was published in March 2004.
On 4 Aug 2010, an NGO said that HIV-positive rates in areas controlled by cease-fire groups in Kachin State were more than 16 times the national average.
In January 2006, Deserted Fields: The destruction of agriculture in Mong Nai Township, Shan State was published. It highlighted wrong-headed agricultural and development policies, counter-insurgency activities, as well as corruption and cronyism by the Burmese military regime.
Currently, an unreported humanitarian crisis is looming in Burma and the culprit is chronic mismanagement by military authorities. All reliable figures show that infant mortality rate is 76 per thousand births. About 31.8 per cent of children under the age of five are undernourished, the obvious result of the government spending just 2.8 per cent on health care, which is among the lowest anywhere in the world.
Natural disasters prevail in central and lower Burma. Areas inhabited by the country’s ethnic minorities, which are characterised by armed resistance, people are deprived from both natural and man-made disasters. In any event, no square mile of Burma is free from dictatorial control.
Aug 6, 2010, 12:17 GMT
Bangkok – Russia has trained 4,185 Myanmar military officers in nuclear sciences over the past decade but only a ’sprinkling’ of scholars have pursued the positive uses of the energy source, a Myanmar academic said Friday.
Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions have been a subject of concern in recent years after allegations by defectors that the pariah regime is keen to develop nuclear weapons in cooperation with North Korea.
Myanmar’s ruling junta, however, claims that its nuclear ambitions are purely medical in nature.
Maung Zarni, a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, pointed out that only a handful of the Myanmar graduates who have studied nuclear-related technologies in Moscow had medical backgrounds, raising questions about the regime’s claims of pursuing nuclear energy for medicinal reasons.
‘Between 400 to 600 graduates are sent to Russia every year and out of those graduates only a sprinkling of officers have medical backgrounds, ‘ he told a seminar at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
Zarni estimated that only five to 20 of the military graduates attending nuclear-related courses in Moscow since 2001 had medical backgrounds. He had compiled the list of 4,185 based on interviews with former graduates, he said.
‘And if the nuclear programme is for medical purposes why isn’t there any involvement by the Ministry of Health,’ Zarni noted.
He acknowledged that it was still difficult to prove whether Myanmar’s military junta had acquired or developed nuclear weapons, but argued their intent to do so was pretty clear.
At this stage the junta might be more interested in using the threat of a potential nuclear arsenal as a ‘big stick’ in diplomacy, he speculated.
‘The fact that the US and other powers have not done anything substantive to rein in North Korea is because they have the bomb, so that’s a role model for a lot of rogue states,’ Zarni said.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.
Myanmar Worker Killed After Drinking Bout KULIM, Aug 8 (Bernama) — A Myanmar worker died after a drinking session among a group of countrymen in their 20s ended in a fight at a house in Taman Mutiara, Sungai Kob on Saturday’s night.
In the 10.45pm incident, the victim was said to have managed to break free from his assailants but collapsed in front of the house, said Kulim police chief Supt Ghuzlan Mohd Salleh.
He said the police found the victim’s body sprawled in a pool of blood in front of the house which the workers had been renting.
“The police discovered the victim was hit on the head with a blunt object and suffered several stab wounds on the abdomen.
“There was a blood trail from the house leading to the body and the victim had yet to be identified,” said Ghuzlan.
He said the police arrested four Myanmar workers, who worked with an engineering factory here, in connection with the murder.
August 07, 2010
IPOH, Aug 7 — A Myanmar worker allegedly axed his two countrymen to death in a quarrel over money at a house in Menglembu here early today.
The duo succumbed to injuries on the abdomen and head in the 2.15am incident, said Perak CID chief Datuk Mohd Dzuraidi Ibrahim.
He said the police failed to identify the two victims as no personal documents were found at the house where they stayed together with the assailant.
A suspect, an illegal immigrant working at a shoe factory, was arrested in Lahat, two hours after the attack, Dzuraidi told reporters today.
He said the police, who were alerted about the incident at 2.20am, found the bodies of the victims in the living room of the house.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the burned body of a contractor was found in his car at Kampung Baru Bukit Merah, Menglembu at 12.20pm today.
Dzuraidi said passers-by tried to pull out the victim but intense heat beat them back.
The victim, Ho Hoon Fong, 60, who suffered 80 per cent burns on his body, was already dead by the time firemen arrived.
Dzuraidi said the police found a lighter and a bottle of fuel in the car.
The police do not suspect foul play and have classified the case as sudden death,
he said, adding that the victim was believed to be a jilted lover.
News Desk
The Nation (Thailand)
Publication Date : 09-08-2010
A month-long closure of the Thai-Burmese border to trade has caused a shortage of consumer items such as televisions and refrigerators in Rangoon, media reports said Sunday (August 8).
Burmese ruling junta last month shut down the Myawaddy-Mae Sot border crossing after accusing Thailand of building an embankment on the Moei River to alter the common border line.
Mae Sot, in Thailand’s Tak province, is a major source of Thai consumer goods into neighbouring Burma, usually transported across the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge.
With the route now blocked, retailers in Rangoon – Burma’s largest city and former capital – have started to complain of shortages and rising prices, the Myanmar Times reported.
“Television sales increased prior to and during the World Cup. I was able to sell almost every TV set I had and I’m about to run out,” a senior sales and marketing manager of an electronics firm was quoted as saying.
Htay Aung, a spokesman for Khit Thit Electronics Center, said the only products his company had left were those that have been imported via normal trade channels.
UPDATE : 9 August 2010
Security along the Thai-Burmese border in Tak province has been tightened, following a blast in the town of Myawaddy in Myanmar.
Colonel Padung Yingpaibulsuk, the special forces commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment, said security has been scaled up along the border with Myanmar in Tak province, after a bombing in the Burmese town of Myawaddy, opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot district, last Friday.
The blast, which occurred less than 250 meters from the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, killed two people and wounded ten others.
Padung added that apart from the bomb attack, there were also skirmishes between junta troops and the rebel group KNU on the Burmese side.
Border patrol police from the 346th company have been stationed along the Thai-Burmese border, and will be focused on protecting the Friendship Bridge in the Mae Sot district and the banks of Moei River.
Article published on 9th August 2010
Myanmar is planning to add some 400,000 additional lines to its GSM and CDMA networks this year, reported the local Eleven publication, citing the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).
The secretive country is estimated to have around 500,000 GSM subscribers along with 700,000 CDMA users.
At present, GSM mobile phones can be used in 80 towns in the country. The CDMA network is understood to have been recently upgraded to cover the entire of Yangon and Mandalay after initially covering just the main business and government facilities. Mobile phone ownership in Myanmar is heavily restricted and usually only available to the government/military or well connected businessmen.
A WCDMA network was launched last year, with very limited availability.
Tomorrow marks 22 years since the peaceful pro-democracy movement in Burma began. I hope William Hague remembers
Waihnin Pwint Thon
guardian.co. uk, Saturday 7 August 2010 12.00 BST
“Don’t worry, don’t worry daughter, everything will be fine, change is coming soon.”
Tomorrow is an important day. William Hague, the UK’s foreign secretary, may not be aware of the date’s significance, but August 8 should be etched into his memory, as it is mine.
Tomorrow is my father’s day. When I was very young, I was taught that my daddy was a man in a photograph, and later I was shown he was the man in the prison, where we visited him and where I touched his fingers through iron bars and pretended that the armed guards surrounded him to protect him. Now I know him to be a hero of Burma, and my greatest inspiration.
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the start of a peaceful protest movement in Burma, protests that would end in ongoing tragedy, bloodshed and decades of global inaction. On 8 August 1988, my father, Ko Mya Aye, led thousands of students on to the streets of Rangoon as part of a wave of a million people, who gathered to peacefully protest against the ruling military junta. The protests were put down by the most brutal means, and organisers such as my father were beaten, tortured and jailed.
These protests were repeated in 2007 by defiant individuals who desired democracy so fiercely that they were prepared to risk their liberty and lives a second time. Individuals such as my father who, as part of the iconic Generation 88 students group he co-founded, again helped orchestrate mass protests on the very same streets of Rangoon, this time as part of the so-called “saffron revolution”.
Both times the events offered hope to the long-suffering people of my homeland. Both would end with the Burmese authorities ruthlessly quashing dissent. By the end of the summer of 1988, more than 3,000 peaceful protestors had been killed.
In 1988, my father was arrested and given an eight-year jail sentence. In 2007, his sentence was 65 years. Without a regime change, I will never see him again.
Sadly, the human rights situation in Burma remains as grim now as it has ever been. It is illegal for more than five people to gather together to talk about politics, the internet and the media are severely restricted, torture is routine and there are currently 2,200 political prisoners.
Yet countries such as India and China continue to cosy up to the Burmese authorities in an attempt to tap into Burma’s natural resources. British politicians have been at the vanguard of calling for change, but they need to go the extra mile. William Hague needs to build a global consensus that exposes Burma’s human rights violations – especially now, with elections planned for the end of the year. And that means working hard to persuade the likes of India and China to change their tune. After all, they ultimately risk shooting themselves in the foot: Burma’s military junta cannot go on for ever, and any new government is unlikely to forget who helped prop the junta up. My father will not, and nor will I.
I left Burma in 2006 to study at university. From the moment I arrived in the UK, I talked to various media outlets about my father and his activities. It did not go unnoticed back home. The Burmese authorities went to my parent’s home and questioned my father about me, and it was then that my father told me it was not safe to come back. He said he did not want to lose his daughter.
I applied for asylum in the UK in April 2007. Just a few months later, the saffron protests started.
I remember speaking to my father over the phone on August 21. I told him how proud of him I was to see such big demonstrations and the international attention they were receiving, and I begged him to be careful. He said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry daughter, everything will be fine, change is coming soon.” He was full of hope.
He was arrested later that night. Despite our concerns for his safety, we expected him to get sentenced to 20 years at the most. Sixty-five years is a death sentence.
I am 21 now and my father remains my biggest inspiration. As long as I am in the UK, I can be his words. I just want to make sure the politicians are listening.
(philstar.com) Updated August 08, 2010 12:05 PM
YANGON (Xinhua) – Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe on Sunday expressed hope that the master plan on ASEAN connectivity would reach a win-win solution to reflect the interest of all member states and strive for balance between regional and national interest.
Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made the remarks in his congratulatory message on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the ASEAN Day.
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have tasked a high-level task force on ASEAN connectivity to develop an ASEAN master plan on regional connectivity, which is expected to complete by the 17th ASEAN Summit in October.
The master plan will focus on physical connectivity, institutional connectivity and people-to-people connectivity.
The ASEAN leaders discussed the concept of regional connectivity and adopted a statement at the 15th ASEAN Summit in Oct. 2009, observing that, located at the cross-roads of an economically vibrant and growing region, ASEAN thus had the potential to physically anchor itself as the transportation, information and communication technology and tourism hub of the region.
Over the last couple of years, ASEAN has made important milestones including the enforcement of the ASEAN Charter in December 2008 and the declaration of the roadmap for the ASEAN Community in March 2009, the leader’s message noted.
“Progress is being achieved in the implementation of the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Blueprint, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community ( ASCC) Blueprint,” the message added.
Myanmar joined the ASEAN in July 1997 which also comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Monday, 09 August 2010 00:00
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian premier and the top man of Myanmar separately said that communication among societies was a significant element in establishing an integrated community under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). In order to raise the level of communication among Asean member-countries, regional connectivity through development of physical infrastructure networks, trade, investment, tourism and cultural integration should also be stepped up, according to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Asean groups Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In a statement issued here on Saturday in conjunction with the 43rd Asean Day, August 8, Najib said that Asean’s effort to realize the Asean Community by 2015 remained the responsibility of every Asean citizen.
He added that it was important for all Asean citizens to assimilate the values of the Asean Way in realizing the Asean community, which was not only visible superficially but also rich in values of appreciation.
Meanwhile, Najib noted that free trade agreements (FTAs) between Asean and its several dialogue partners that came into full implementation starting early this year would help develop the economies of Asean member-countries.
He said that free trade is the backbone of growth in trade between Asean and countries in the region and would serve to raise the living standard of Asean societies.
Moving forward, Najib added that Malaysia should cooperate with Asean’s dialogue partners to fully utilize the various programs and available funds for infrastructure development projects for mutual benefit.
Asean Day is marked to raise awareness about the regional bloc and promote and establish an Asean identity across the region.
Region-wide celebration would stimulate “Think, Feel and Act Asean” activities and programs.
In Yangon, Myanmar’s top leader Senior General Than Shwe on Sunday expressed hope that the master plan on Asean connectivity would reach a win-win solution to reflect the interest of all member-countries and strive for balance between regional and national interests.
Burma (today’s Myanmar) joined Asean in July 1997.
Than Shwe, also the chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made the remarks in his congratulatory message on the occasion of the 43rd Asean Day.
Asean leaders have formed a high-level task force on Asean connectivity to develop an Asean master plan on regional connectivity, which is expected to be completed by the 17th Asean Summit in October this year.
The master plan will focus on physical, institutional and people-to-people connectivity.
The Asean leaders discussed the concept of regional connectivity and adopted a statement at the 15th Asean Summit in October 2009, observing that, located at the cross-roads of an economically vibrant and growing region, the regional bloc had the potential to physically anchor itself as the transportation, information and communication technology and tourism hub of the region.
Over the last couple of years, Asean has made important milestones including the enforcement of the Asean Charter in December 2008 and the declaration of the roadmap for the Asean community in March 2009, the leaders noted.
11:05, August 08, 2010
There has been more and more private airlines established in Myanmar over the past two decades with one more such airline, the Air Kanbawza, being introduced soon.
The emerging private airline will stand the fifth after Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways, Myanmar Airways International and Air Bagan.
The Air Kanbawza will use five 100-seat Canadian-made jets MA- 60 and ATR-72 to start its domestic flight services by October, according to Kanbawza Economic Group which owns the airline.
The Kanbawza group claimed that it had taken over Myanmar Airways International (MAI) for continuous operation under the government’s privatization plan,
MAI is currently operating regular flight services to four destinations — Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Gaya.
The Kanbawza has bought 80 percent stake of the airline with the remainder to be held by the government.
MAI was once a joint venture set up between the state-run Myanmar Airways and a Singapore-based company in 1993 for sole international flights covering three scheduled flight destinations — Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
In 2007, the Region Air of Hong Kong took over the 49 percent stake held by the Singapore firm, while the remainder 51 percent is possessed by the Myanmar Airways.
In March this year, MAI increased its flight services to Singapore on daily basis from thrice a week with a new Airbus-320 amid peak tourism season.
The airline has also launched lower-price e-ticketing service as a promotion sale to attract travelers to the country.
In the latest development, the MAI is planning to operate a new route between Yangon and Guangzhou by October using Airbus A-320 to enhance the country’s tourism industry.
The MAI will become another airline flying between the two cities after China Southern Airlines.
To improve general handling services of the Yangon International Services, the Myanmar government has granted a private company — Pioneer Aerodrome Services to undertake the task.
Under a 30-year lease contract signed between the company and the government, the private company will run the airport’s office and shop leasing business, airport maintenance as well as upgrading of airport machines and equipment.
According to the contract, the company will renovate the old airport terminal this year.
Meanwhile, another Myanmar private company — the Asia World will take over the ground handling service of the airport from two private airlines — Myanmar Airways International and Air Bagan which have been handling the ground work.
To meet the airport service cost, Myanmar aviation authorities has increased the airport tax with the Yangon International Airport to 3,000 Kyats (about 3 U.S. dollars), which is six times more than the previous rate of 500 kyats ( 5 U.S. cents), starting July 1.
The new tax rate is collected for Myanmar national passengers taking flights while the original tax rate of 10 dollars for foreign passengers remains unchanged.
The airport tax hike is due to increased cost for installing new digital machines at the arrival and departure lounges for rapid service.
Yangon International Airport was built in 1957 and the new terminal was constructed in 2003 by the Asia World Company.
Yangon international airport received over 251,800 foreign tourists in the fiscal year 2009-10, according to statistics.
There is one Myanmar international airline, the MAI, and 13 foreign airlines operating between Yangon and nine destinations, namely Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing via Kunming, Guangzhou, Calcutta, Chiang Mai, Taipei, Doha and Hanoi.
By WAI MOE – Sunday, August 8, 2010
BANGKOK—The Burmese military junta’s nuclear ambitions were criticized at a seminar held at Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University, saying it is a security threat to the region, particularly to Thailand.
The seminar on Friday on Burma’s nuclear ambitions and its planned election was sponsored by The Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS), a think-tank in Bangkok.
Speakers included Dr. Zarni, a long-time Burmese expert, who is currently an ISIS fellow; Larry Jagan, a British journalist specializing in Burma; Kavi Chongkittavorn, an assistant editor of The Nation media group; and Belgium ambassador to Thailand, Rudi Veestraeten.
During the discussion, Zarni first raised the issue of Burma’s nuclear ambitions with the aid of North Korea, emphasizing that the issue has a “regional implication” for the international community, particularly in terms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the US-led non-proliferation agreement.
In his analysis, he noted that the junta’s desire to have nuclear weapons can be viewed from an international perspective, but also from the viewpoint of its two closest neighbors, Thailand and Bangladesh.
Zarni showed photos of North Korean experts in Burma who were touring the country as well as statistics showing Burmese military officers who have been studying nuclear science in Russia since 2001.
Based on his research, he said that North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Poland, the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan and South Africa are possible sources to obtain nuclear technology. He said that Russia and North Korea are currently preferred sources because of lower costs.
He also criticized oil companies such as Total and Chevron for providing a financial lifeline to the Burmese junta which uses the income for militarization.
On the nuclear ambition of the Burmese junta, Larry Jargan said that during a visit to Burma in 2003, he saw North Korean experts and diplomats in Rangoon and Mandalay, four years before Burma and North Korea officially had reestablished diplomatic relations in April 2007.
“At the time, I saw North Korean and South Korean delegations visiting Burma and staying at the same hotel,” said Jagan.
Jagan said that he believed China is concerned about Burma’s nuclear ambitions, saying that China does not want another North Korea on its southwest border. India shares the same concern, he said.
Jagan said that vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the deputy commander-in- chief of the Burma armed forces and the commander-in- chief of the Burma army, has overseen the junta’s nuclear program since 2003.
Pyongyang has shipped suspected long-range missiles at least six times in recent years, with the last known shipment in April, Jagan said.
Kavi Chongkittavorn of The Nation said the Thai security services have followed the issue for a long time. “The information about Burma’s nuclear program came from Thai intelligence officials in 2005,” Kavi said.
Belgium Ambassador Rudi Veestraeten said Burma’s planned election is now at a crossroads for positive progress or the country could go on as before with a repressive military exercising total power.
“The elections [could be an] opportunity to steer the country to the better future,” he said, particularly if the junta releases pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and allows them to participate in the election.
On Burma’s ethnic issues, he questioned how the elections could be held in ethnic areas if there is no resolution between the regime and the armed ethnic groups over the border guard force plan, which would require them to place their troops under the regime’s control.
“I know how difficult these issues are. Nevertheless, the only way to resolve it is genuine national reconciliation and dialogue. However, serious human rights violations against ethnic minorities have to immediately stop,” he said.
He repeated US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement in Hanoi during the Asean Regional Forum in July that Burma’s relationship with North Korea is a concern, and it is being closely watched.
He called on the junta to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to respect UN Security Council resolution 1874.
He said people in Burma are now more open to talk about the situation in the country.
“Even government officials, they are now willing to criticize,” he said. “All people [there] want change.”
By SAW YAN NAING – Monday, August 9, 2010 JAKARTA—Indonesia will take over the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2011, and many observers have high expectations from the region’s largest democracy.
Some believe that Indonesia will be a good Asean chair because the nation is now viewed by many to be a model country as a defender of human rights within the Asean grouping.
Thung Ju Lan, a professor at the Research Center for Society and Culture in the Indonesia Institute of Science, told The Irrawaddy in Jakarta that Indonesia can be a catalyst to find a common platform for the rest of Asean members, especially in regard to Burma improving its human rights record.
Sources within Asean in Bangkok also told The Irrawaddy that when Indonesia becomes Asean chair, it may actively pressure the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to push Burma to improve its human rights record and t0 work harder on democratic reform.
During the Asean summit in Hanoi last month, Asean Deputy Secretary-General Bagas Hapsoro told the Jakarta Post that he wished to see Jakarta become the “Brussels of the
East,” increasing in power and relevance under the 2008 Asean Charter.
“There will be a lot of meetings, not only in Jakarta but also in other cities,” said Bagas, when Indonesia becomes the host of Asean.
Some believe that Indonesia’s role is set to increase further, becoming a regional center for economic and diplomatic activity, since the Asean office is based in Jakarta.
Other observers, however, have raised concerns about the expectations of the secretariat’s capability to facilitate the bloc’s vision of making Asean states a fully integrated community by 2015.
Addressing the issue of multi-cultural differences and the various needs of ethnic minorities, Thung Ju Lan, said, “The first thing we need is to try to understand the differences and respect them.”
Some observers also noted that Asean’s core principle of non-interference in a member country’s internal affairs is a de facto Asean element that has been used by the Burmese military regime since 1962 to avoid censure and deflect criticism.
Anggara, who uses one name, a humarn rights advocate and lawyer who is executive director of the Indonesian Advocates Association in Jakarta, told The Irrawaddy that his country needed to somehow redefine the non-interference principle in order to promote human rights more effectively.
At the recent 16th Asean summit in Hanoi, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the bloc wanted very much to see the Burmese election attain international recognition and credibility.
In March 2010, during his visit to Burma, Marty Natalegawa told his Burmese counterpart, Nyan Win, in Naypyidaw that Jakarta expected the regime to “uphold its commitment to have an election that allows all parties to take part.”
Some observers have said change will come slowly in Burma and it will come from within despite the Burmese military regime’s suppression of democracy.
An Indonesian human rights defender, Rafendi Djamin, who is a representative of Indonesia to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), said Burma’s future is not guaranteed to improve after its planned election.
“There will be a lot of risk,” he said. “ And the country will have to find a way to deal with difficult situations. The more repressive the regime is, the more you need smart people to be able to sustain the [democracy] movement.”
By SAI ZOM HSENG – Monday, August 9, 2010
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) led by Burma’s current prime minister is campaigning aggressively by distributing loans at below-market rates, mainly in central Burma and Arakan State, according to the local sources.
A former party member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) from Nat Mauk Township in Magway Division told the Irrawaddy, “They [USDP] persuade people to take their loans by discounting their interest for the loans. If someone has to pay 5 to 10 kyat for the interest at other places, they [USDP] just asked the people to pay 2 kyat.”
A local farmer in Nat Mauk Township said, “The people are not forced to take the loans, but many people take it because the interests is cheaper than at other places.”
Under the party’s rules, it will only give a loan from party funds to party members; if someone wants a loan, they must be a USDP member or they must join the party, said a local resident.
The party began distributing loans early this month in Taung Twin Gyi, Yaynangyaung, Nat Mauk and Magway townships in Magway Division.
“One household from Nat Mauk Township can get 30,000 kyat (US $30) to 100,000 kyat ($100) depending on the size of their farm,” said a farmer from Nat Mauk township.
The local authorities require people who apply for a loan to provide supporting documents and to sign a contract. They have to repay the loan within 6 to 12 months.
The USDP is authorized to use 8.4 million kyat ($8,400) in loans in Taung Twin Gyi Township, according to an USDP organizer from Magway Township.
In Magway Township, the USDP also offers anti-snake venom because there are so many poisonous snakes in the area.
“If there are emergency cases in our region, many people has passed away because they didn’t get the treatment and anti-snake venom in time,” a local resident told The Irrawaddy.
The USDP is also campaigning in Northern and Eastern Shan State, Irrawaddy Division, Rangoon Division and Arakan State.
In Myay Pone, Minn Pyar and Ann townships in Arakan State, each township is allocated 2 million kyat ($2,000) in loans and five CDMA mobile phones. Only people who have connections with USDP organizers can get the mobile phones, according to a source in Myay Pone Township.
A government employer from Rangoon told The Irrawaddy: “In Rangoon Division, the Rangoon mayor used more than 5 billion kyat ($500,000) to give loans to farmers last year, and he’s doing the same thing again this year.”
However, a USDP Rangoon Division organizer said that charge was incorrect.
“We didn’t campaign by offering money or something to the people to be a party member. We are campaigning under the rules of the Union Election Commission,” he said.
The USDP is led by former military general Prime Minister Thein Sein. The party is a proxy for the military government and received its funding from the government.
Monday, 09 August 2010 21:09 Kyaw Mya
New Delhi (Mizzima) – A British Burma rights advocacy has called on the government of the recently elected British prime minister to take the lead in pushing for stronger and more effective international action on Burma, with more than a thousand letters from staff, volunteers and supporters, the rights group said.
Burma Campaign UK representatives last Wednesday hand-delivered the 1,657 letters from British supporters of democracy in Burma to 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and the headquarters of the current government.
The delivery was made by international co-ordinator Zoya Phan, and other campaigners Seng Pan, Mary Hla, Than Than Soe and Jacqueline San at 10.30 a.m. British time, a rights group statement said.
“Altogether, there were 1, 657 letters, all individually written … by members of the public of the United Kingdom who support the democracy movement in Burma,” Seng Pan said. “They wrote to the prime minister asking his support and to take action on Burma.”
The rights group recently urged the youngest British prime minister, and Foreign Secretary William Hague, to raise Burmese issues during their three-day visit to India.
The supporters of Burma Campaign UK wrote urging Cameron to take the lead in pushing for stronger and effective international action on Burma over the military regime’s international human rights violations, which have continued since the junta took power in a military coup in 1962.
More than 2,100 political prisoners, including Novel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, are currently detained by the Burmese military government, almost all on spurious charges or the subject of laws specifically targeting pro-democracy activists or opposition party members.
Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party that won a landslide victory in nationwide elections in 1990, has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest. She is barred from standing in this year’s elections by the junta’s electoral laws because she is a serving prisoner.
The letters sought “to ask the prime minister to prioritise and take the lead on Burma, pushing for stronger international action … we want him to push for united UN-led efforts to secure dialogue between the dictatorship, and Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic groups, and to push for a commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity, and for a global arms embargo” Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner told Mizzima.
The letters were timed four days ahead of the 22nd anniversary of the 1988 democracy uprisings in Burma yesterday. In 1988, the junta ordered a brutal crackdown in which thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed, many were arrested and many were forced to flee the country.
The rights group urged the British government to take the following actions: build support for a global consensus for a United Nations arms embargo against Burma; persuade European Union partners to support a UN commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma; work to build international support for a UN-led process persuading the dictatorship to enter into genuine dialogue with Burma’s democracy movement and ethnic groups; maintain planned increases of aid to Burma; and, increase cross-border humanitarian aid for internally displaced people.
“So far the new prime minister, David Cameron, has spoken out about Burma and had been raising Burma internationally, so we are hopeful that he will continue to do so and to do more, so it’s good when he went to meet [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon he talked about Burma; when he went to India he talks about Burma so it’s a good sign to build on that,” Farmaner said.
Campaigner Mary Hla said in the advocacy group’s statement: “David Cameron has already shown that he sees Burma as a priority,” adding that, “we hope he will take the lead in building support for practical steps.”
“When he goes to the UN General Assembly in September he has the opportunity to push for them [assembly members] to establish a commission of inquiry into [the junta’s] war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma,” she said in the statement.
Mizzima made repeated calls to No. 10 for a response to the letter campaign and none were returned as the prime minister’s staff had promised.
Britain is one of the strongest supporters of political reform in Burma along with Canada, the EU, Australia and the United States. It has imposed financial and travel sanctions against the military regime and has been pushing for a global arms embargo. It is also a stronger supporter with Australia for a UN commission of inquiry into the Burmese dictatorships’ numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, among many other human rights abuses.
Monday, 09 August 2010 23:16 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand today to meet activists during a fact-finding mission ahead of the submission of a report on Burmese junta’s rights violations, activists said.
Quintana spoke to such activists at the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) based in Chiang Mai for about an hour after being in Thailand since Friday.
“I presented to him information about the human rights situation in Burma such as the fact that right activists have to hide their human rights educational work from authorities, the activists, who are arrested if they use rights terms in their work,” HREIB staff member Cherry Zahau said. “Moreover, I told him that 43 child soldiers had been recruited so far in this year, according to various reports on this issue.”
Meeting Quintana was for restoration of democracy in Burma and the HREIB was willing to co-operate with the military junta to fulfill this mission, the institute told the UN human rights special envoy at the meeting.
The UN envoy also met pro-democracy and ethnic organisations based in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border on Saturday, Teik Naing, general secretary of the Association Assistance for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPPB), said.
“We explained how the junta has tortured and persecuted political prisoners … For instance, innocent persons were framed as suspects in the Thingyan bomb blast case, were severely beaten under interrogation and forced to give confessions,” Teik Naing said, of those accused of the blasts at a water-festival pavilion in Rangoon in April.
Moreover, Quintana told the Burmese pro-democracy organisations he would collect information on the situation of refugees who had recently fled across the Thai border, Forum for Democracy in Burma General Secretary Dr. Naing Aung told Mizzima.
“And also he told us about the ‘commission of inquiry’ and his opinions on it, the probable obstacles and difficulties it would face, the grounds for constituting this commission of inquiry, who will give a final decision on it, the impact of such a commission would have, not only on the SPDC [the junta] but also on others,” Naing Aung said, of Quintana’s call in March for the UN Human Rights Council to consider the establishment of a commission of inquiry into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.
Such a high-level UN inquiry into serious international crimes in Burma could result in a recommendation for a Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to initiate an investigation.
Quintana said in his March 8 report to the UN rights council that the grave crimes perpetrated by the Burmese army were a “result of state policy that involves authorities in the executive, military and judiciary at all levels”.
He was appointed in 2008 and has visited Burma three times, last visiting for the country five days in February this year, on missions that led to the recommendations for an inquiry in the March report.
Inter Press Service news agency reported today, citing diplomatic and UN sources that the Burmese junta had denied Quintana a visa to return to Burma for his fourth visit.
The report said: “But Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile are hardly surprised by the treatment given to the Argentine lawyer, who is currently on a visit to Thailand and Indonesia ahead of preparing another report on Burma to be presented to the UN General Assembly in October.”
His investigations on this trip to Thailand also led to meetings with members of the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), the Shwe Gas Movement, and ethnic Shan, Mon and Chin rights organisations.
The junta’s mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, reported on April 7 that the junta’s human rights committee would submit its report to the UN Human Rights Council next February, a year after Qintana’s. Home Affairs deputy minister Major General Maung Oo is head of the committee, which reportedly constituted nine sub-committees handling home affairs, legal, social, labour, health, education, international affairs, religious affairs and women’s affairs rights issues.
By GAYATRI LAKSHMIBAI
Published: 9 August 2010
Maternal health in eastern Burma has improved considerably, a report released by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health earlier this month has indicated. The positive trend is a result of a community-based maternal health programme called MOM (Mobile Obstetrics Medics) project.
Owing to internal displacement, forced labour and lack of medical resources, Burmese women face a number of pre- as well as post-natal health complications. Hypertensive disorders, haemorrhage and septic abortions remain major causes of maternal death in the country.
The MOM project has brought about improvement in the prevailing conditions of maternal health in eastern Burma. The project trained 200-odd traditional birth attendants from four ethnic minorities — Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon — over a three-year period and set up 11 clinics in the eastern region of the country. As per the survey conducted by the programme, almost 72 percent of the women in the specified area received ante-natal care as opposed to the 39 percent before the intervention.
The Reproductive and Child Health Programme manager of the Burma Medical Association (BMA), Eh May Htoo told DVB that; “Before initiation of the project we faced many cases of maternal deaths and still-born babies. This was mainly because of unskilled traditional birth attendants who weren’t medically equipped for safe delivery methods. Though we have experienced complications with respect to haemorrhage and septic abortions after the introduction of the project, we haven’t encountered any maternal deaths.”
Educating women to seek maternal care was also part of the programme. Volunteers spent time explaining the importance of family planning to women in these areas resulting in greater use of contraception. “We did face certain challenges while working on the field. Language was one of the problems because of the different ethnic languages involved. Another challenge was providing enough medicines for the clinics. On the positive side, more women now know about the services available and more and more of them go to hospitals now,” Eh May Htoo said.
Also, according to the World Health Organisation’s 2010 report, Burma’s under-5 mortality rate is almost double that of the global average. The reason for this, May Htoo said, is the lack of education among mothers about the common diseases infecting their children. The Communicable Disease Control Programme (CDCP) is working towards solving this issue. Children are given nutritional supplements like vitamin A tablets and mothers receive tutorials in caring for their child’s health and nutritional needs.