BURMA RELATED NEWS – DECEMBER 17, 2010
Dec 18th, 2010
By JAMIE STENGLE – 50 mins ago
DALLAS (AP) – Former first lady Laura Bush, a longtime advocate for free elections in Myanmar, spoke for the first time Friday with the isolated Asian country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released last month after more than seven years of house arrest.
Bush told The Associated Press that “it was thrilling” to finally get to speak to Suu Kyi by phone.
“I was especially happy to hear how strong her voice was and how enthusiastic,” Bush said.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested by Myanmar’s military junta in 1989 and has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention.
Bush, the wife of former President George W. Bush, has advocated for free elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and has spoken out many times about Suu Kyi’s plight, raising the issue at United Nations meetings and with U.S. senators.
Bush said Suu Kyi told her that during her house arrest, she listened to the Voice of America on the radio and was aware of how much support she had around the world. She said she also knew of a 2008 visit Bush and her daughter, Barbara, made to a refugee camp in Thailand for political refugees from Myanmar.
“She was very forthcoming but we both assumed the call was bugged. She was circumspect and so was I,” Bush said.
Suu Kyi’s release last month came a week after Myanmar’s first election in 20 years, which was widely seen as a sham. The 1990 election was won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, but the military refused to hand over power and instead clamped down on its opponents.
Bush said that it appears that the government is allowing Suu Kyi to conduct the meetings and phone calls she wants.
“I hope I’ll have the chance to speak with her again,” Bush said. “I hope that someday we’ll have the chance to meet face to face.”
by Hla Hla Htay – Fri Dec 17, 6:27 am ET YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s pro-democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday ruled out a reorganisation of her party’s top ranks to replace elderly leaders with a younger generation of activists.
In an interview with AFP, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was released last month from seven straight years of house arrest, also said she would not use the issue of sanctions as a bargaining chip with the ruling generals.
Suu Kyi is fighting for the existence of her party, which has been officially disbanded by the military regime because it opted to boycott the country’s first election in 20 years, held last month.
Many senior NLD members are in their 80s and 90s and there had been speculation that the dissident might overhaul its Central Executive Committee (CEC) to bring in new blood.
But she said she had no plans for such a move.
“We are not going to ask our older leaders to leave because they want to serve as long as they have strength to serve the party and I think that is a good thing to be encouraged,” the 65-year-old said.
“We are not going to reorganise the CEC or anything like that,” said Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades locked up by the junta.
The NLD’s decision to boycott the first election in 20 years deeply split the opposition, between those in agreement and others who saw the vote as a chance for gradual change, albeit through a deeply flawed electoral process.
Suu Kyi’s closest political allies reacted angrily after a group of former NLD members broke away and set up a new party — the National Democratic Force — to contest the poll, accusing them of betraying their colleagues.
A leaked diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Yangon expressed concern about the ageing party leaders, whom it described as “elderly NLD uncles”.
“The way the Uncles run the NLD indicates the party is not the last great hope for democracy and Burma,” said the 2008 confidential memo, released by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks earlier this month.
“The Party is strictly hierarchical, new ideas are not solicited or encouraged from younger members, and the Uncles regularly expel members they believe are ‘too active’,” it said.
Suu Kyi has said one of her tasks will be to restore unity within the fractious pro-democracy forces following last month’s election, in which the junta’s political proxies claimed an overwhelming victory.
She has held talks with other opposition camps since her release on November 13, days after the vote, but acknowledged that divisions remained.
“Of course it’s true that we are not united as a whole. But this is normal and natural. No two persons think alike,” she said.
“There are many people working for the same goal. They have different ideas and try their best to reach that goal. So we must try to achieve unity as much as possible.”
Suu Kyi has called — so far in vain — for talks with the military rulers and suggested a softening of her earlier support for economic sanctions against the generals.
She said that she was not planning to offer support for an end to the US and European punitive measures in return for concessions from the regime.
“I don’t look at sanctions as a bargaining chip but as a way of trying to improve the situation,” she added.
Suu Kyi’s party has also softened its previous opposition to tourists visiting Myanmar, although it says people should avoid joining tour groups because the government could benefit financially.
The democracy icon said her party’s senior members had decided several months ago, while she was under house arrest, that they would “stand strongly against group tourists”.
But “they would not object to individual tourists coming to study the situation and to find out what is really happening in Burma. This would also bring income into private enterprises,” she said.
Dec. 18 2010 – 10:18 am Latest WikiLeaks release show Americans vainly thought they could soften the junta’s stance, writes Simon Roughneen for Asia Sentinel.
Diplomatic cables by the US Embassy in Rangoon show that American officials were unrealistically optimistic about dialogue with Burma’s military government, as Democrat Sen. Jim Webb visited ruler Senior-General Than Shwe in August 2009.
“It is certain Than Shwe believes he has unclenched its fist,” said a cable released by Wikileaks overnight. The reference is to US President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech in which he said the US would offer an open hand to any nation that didn’t meet it with a clenched fist.
The note suggested that the Burmese ruler regarded the Webb-Shwe meeting and the release of American prisoner John Yettaw as a major concession that required an American counter-offer. “We should allow Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win to visit the Embassy in Washington following UNGA” (United Nations General Assembly), the cable author wrote.
The meeting between Webb and Than Shwe “was decidedly more upbeat than expected”, with the reclusive Burmese ruler said to have “greeted Senator Webb and Charge (Larry Dinger, the US Charge d’Affairs in Rangoon) warmly.” Than Shwe repeatedly spoke of “friendship” throughout the conversation, which Sen. Webb oiled by swiftly changing the subject when Aung San Suu Kyi was mentioned.
Dec. 17 2010 – 09:54 pm
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s (DKBA) battalion 902 commander Colonel Kyaw Thet in Palu village, where fighting recently broke out with the Burma army, said the group will commence guerrilla warfare in “every township” if the military regime continues its offensive against them, Democratic Voice of Burma said today.
Meanwhile, civilians in Dooplaya District in Karen State continue to be impacted by conflict between the Burma army and armed ethnic Karen groups, according to The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG). The armed conflicts between junta’s forces and Col. Saw Lah Phwe’s Karen ceasefire group have increased since 7 November, 2010. Since larger battles occurred in Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass towns on November 8 and 9, the conflict has been characterized by frequent skirmishes, shelling and guerrilla style attacks throughout areas opposite Tak and Kanchanaburi provinces, Thailand.
Updates on the situation have been focused on December 16 and 17 in Waw Lay, Gk’Neh Leh village, Thay Baw Boh, Palu, and Min Let Bpaing villages in Kawakareik Township where there has still been danger. Civilians in those villages have continued to inform about an array of protection concerns, including shelling and the placement of landmines by armed groups.
As fighting goes on the threats of violence by Burmese soldiers still exists. Villagers also have to face detention as well as being forced to act as porters and carry military supplies for the junta’s soldiers. Schools have had to close due to the risks of continued armed conflicts. Villagers dare not work in their own agricultural fields because of physical risk. The frequent displacement and livelihoods threats include death, injury, or destruction of property as a result of skirmishes between armed groups.
Villagers in eastern Dooplaya are also taking active steps to avoid or lessen these protection concerns, as said by the KHRG. Villagers are seeking temporary refuge in more secure locations both inside and outside of Burma during fighting. They always try to avoid contact with soldiers to reduce the risk of arrest for questioning or maltreatment.
According to KHRG’s report, many villagers have decided to run away with their families temporarily toward more secure locations from which they can monitor the security situation and check on their homes, property and crops.
Villagers attempting to get temporary sanctuary in Thailand, however, have faced a number of obstacles. Food, fresh water and medicine will be the most serious demands. Several sources including the DKBA, have told that they expect the battles to continue in the near future. The local inhabitants have suggested that the safeguard alarm to villagers in eastern Dooplaya will remain critical.
While there has been no skirmishing in Palu presently, at least four clashes broke out between the DKBA and the Burmese army in Kyar-inn-seik-kyi, Kaw-ka-reit and Pa-pun townships.
The ruling military junta has set an ultimatum with the rebels; either yield their arms or join the BGF by December 31 or face attack, as said by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) in November.
Five junta battalions are in the surrounding areas, ready to attack. DVB quotes Commander Saw Lah Pwe, head of the breakaway 5th Brigade, as saying: “If they will attack us then we’ll have to fight back, but we will only target junta officials.”
Due to earlier skirmishing between the military and DKBA, almost 20,000 refugees have escaped across the border into Mae Sot on the Thai-side.
Last updated on: December 17, 2010 16:24 IST
Contending that Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Sui Kyi’s time “had come and gone,” an Indian officer told a United States diplomat in 2004 that democracy in Myanmar could be encouraged only through greater engagement with the ruling military regime.
According to a United States embassy cable released by WikiLeaks, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had himself raised the issue of democracy with Myanmar’s military leader Than Shwe during the latter’s visit to New Delhi. In a meeting with US embassy officials, Mitra Vashishta, the joint secretary, Southeast Asia, said that India would welcome US suggestions on how to best to promote democracy in Myanmar.
Asserting that sanctions had only isolated the country, she said if India also isolates Myanmar, “no one will be able to engage Rangoon (now Yangon) on democracy or other issues”. Expressing concern about Chinese influence in Myanmar, Vashishta said that the State Peace and Development Council has been “learning from the master about how to hoodwink the international community” on human rights.
She said India had agreed to provide grants and limited military equipment to Rangoon in an attempt to encourage cooperation against anti-India insurgents located along the Indo-Burma border. “However, there are no Indian plans to conduct joint military operations with the junta,” said the cable.
The US has accused WikiLeaks of stealing its secret cables, but had neither denied nor confirmed the authenticity of these cables. “The decision to encourage democracy in Rangoon reflects the Government of India’s belief that India is best placed to help Burma reform, that Aung San Suu Kyi’s time has come and gone, and that democracy will take root in Burma only through greater engagement and people-to-people ties,” the cable said. Democracy topped India’s agenda for the October 24-29 visit of Than Shwe, Vashishta was quoted as saying on November 1.
Dr Singh himself raised the issue with Than Shwe “in a much more intense way than could be expressed” in the media, she said, noting that India had decided to take this up with its neighbouring country despite “potentially negative consequences for the relationship”.
According to Vashishta, democracy in Burma is too closely linked with the greatly respected Sui Kyi, whose day has come and gone.
She said Than Shwe had expressed a commitment to democracy during the visit, and speculated that he would be more apt to bring about democratic reform if he could do so without losing face. The cable does not say if the meeting between the US and Indian diplomats was official or was an unofficial conversation.
Vashishta reported that New Delhi had to battle for the inclusion of a joint statement paragraph emphasising India’s desire to see a stable, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Myanmar, the cable said.
She commented that Myanmar’s delegation was “willing to do anything” to have that paragraph removed, adding that the inclusion of the paragraph was a “coup for India”. The final version of the document released on October 29 expressed support for national reconciliation and an early transition to democracy in Myanmar, the cable said.
Asked about New Delhi’s plan to further encourage democracy in Burma, Vashishta responded that Rangoon considers India a democratic role model, and emphasised that the GOI has the ‘best credentials’ to promote democracy there.
“She mused that democracy could only be established through grassroots initiatives, and stressed that India would do whatever it takes to empower the people of Burma in this respect,” the cable said.
The US official “underlined US concerns about the lack of democracy in Burma and expressed the hope that India would continue to press this issue with the junta,” the cable said.
“Vashishta reiterated India’s belief that only constructive engagement of the military regime could bring about any meaningful change, saying sanctions have only isolated Burma, and have not encouraged democratic reforms there,” it said.
She said the country is so isolated that members of Than Shwe’s delegation wondered whether they would have to “go nuclear” to get US attention, noting the comparison to Pakistan.
According to the cable the Indian diplomat argued that the United Nations has lost credibility in the eyes of developing countries and should at least make an attempt to be more pro-Myanmar.
The European Union is too obvious, shabby, shortsighted and full of contradictions to play a meaningful role in Myanmar, she argued, while Thailand takes a pro-active approach to Yangon only because one of their ministers wants to be the next UN Secretary General, it said.
She said that China would like an Indian Ocean port and hopes to project its influence everywhere India does, it said. Vashishta argued that what you hear about the China’s People’s Liberation Army in Burma is only the tip of the iceberg, as US intelligence must know. Myanmar’s engagement with India stems in part from Yangon’s belief that China takes them for granted, she asserted, the cable said.
AFP Fri, Dec 17, 2010
BANGKOK, THAILAND – Myanmar’s military regime suggested six years ago it might “go nuclear” to gain the attention of the United States, according to a senior Indian diplomat quoted in a leaked US cable.
The memo from the US embassy in New Delhi also quoted the diplomat as saying Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s “day has come and gone” and that only engagement with the junta could bring meaningful change.
Sanctions had isolated Myanmar, also known as Burma, and had not encouraged democratic reforms, Mitra Vasisht, joint secretary at India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said after a visit by military leader Than Shwe.
“Burma is so isolated that members of Than Shwe’s delegation wondered whether they would have to ‘go nuclear’ to get US attention, she remarked, noting the comparison to Pakistan,” according to the November 2004 memo, obtained by British daily The Guardian from the WikiLeaks website.
Another leaked cable from the US embassy in Yangon, released by Wikileaks earlier this month, showed that Washington has suspected for years that Myanmar has a secret nuclear programme, possibly supported by North Korea.
One memo, dated August 2004, quoted an unidentified source as saying he saw about 300 North Koreans working at an underground site in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s junta has dismissed reports of its nuclear intentions and brushed aside Western concerns about possible cooperation with North Korea.
The regime last month held a widely criticised election seen as prolonging military rule, with Suu Kyi locked up during the vote.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent most of the past 20 years in detention but was freed from her latest seven-year stretch of house arrest on November 13.
Her National League for Democracy party was disbanded for boycotting the country’s first election in 20 years in response to rules that seemed designed to bar her from taking part.
The US memo from New Delhi also said Myanmar’s military ruler travelled with the wives of two other powerful generals, Thura Shwe Man and Soe Win, “who she (Vasisht) mused may have been used as ‘hostages’ to ensure tranquillity among the generals in Rangoon (Yangon) during Than Shwe’s absence”.
VOVNews.vn – Vietnam, Myanmar increase two-way trade
A conference on trade between Vietnam and Myanmar, held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee in Yagon, Myanmar has successfully ended.
The conference attracted the participation of representatives from both countries’ ministries, administrative agencies and businesses working in the field of electronics, , building materials, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, footwear, garments, cosmetics, chemicals, food processing, plastics, fertilisers, tourism and import-export services.
They also pointed out the potentials of both countries’ potentials and cooperation opportunities in trade, economics, investment and tourism.
In 2009, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Myanmar reached US$99 million and jumped to US$129.7 million in the first ten months of 2010. The import-export turnover this year is expected to pass US$160 million.
Nirmal Ghosh The Straits Times
Publication Date : 18-12-2010 On a street called Loi Kroh in Chiang Mai, young, tanned foreigners saunter among rows of shops and bars, in a scene typical of Thailand’s many tourist enclaves. But venture into one of its dingy side lanes, and the smart strip quickly reveals its grimy underbelly.
Here, unwashed foreigners, many with sallow skin from too much alcohol and too little sunlight, wander among semi- abandoned buildings. Beckoning to them are young Thais perched on parked motorbikes, selling sex and drugs.
Chances are the drug is methamphetamine, known widely in Thailand as ‘ya ba’, or ‘crazy drug’. The nickname comes from the effects of the drug – excitement, hyperactivity, irritability, hallucinations, paranoia, psychosis and, occasionally, aggressive behaviour.
Nen, a counsellor at a drop-in centre run by social workers struggling to cope with the flood of drugs, is familiar with the symptoms – she is an addict herself. The 27-year-old was introduced to pills that she and her friends called ‘meth’ when she was 13.
“I started because I wanted to be accepted by my circle of friends and my boyfriend,” she said.
Initially, she would heat one meth pill, inhale the fumes, and ride the effects for three hours or so. But soon, one pill was not enough. When Nen was 16, her boyfriend gave her her first meth injection. She was afraid of the needle, she said, but when she felt the power reach her brain so quickly, she knew she wanted to do it that way.
“It saves money and is more intense”‘ she said. “When you smoke it, the effect comes slowly and stays with you for about three hours. When you inject it, you feel it straightaway and it lasts four or five hours.”
Nen now needs an average of three meth pills per day, with each costing anything from 180 baht to 250 baht ($6-$8).
Easy to make, easy to sell
Whether it is called ya ba, ice, shabu, crystal or batu kilat (’shiny rocks’ in Malay), a flood of meth has swept across Asia, a rising tide assuming the proportions of a tidal wave.
Unlike heroin, cocaine and other hardcore drugs, meth is easy to make and transport, cheap and highly profitable. It can be put together from precursor chemicals using basic laboratory equipment, producing a white, odourless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that dissolves in water or alcohol.
Meth is one of the most popular types of amphetamine-type stimulants, which have become the primary drug threat in many countries, displacing opiates.
According to a report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as many as 20.7 million people in Asia have used amphetamines in the past year. Some estimates say there are as many as 53 million meth users around the world.
Many use it recreationally at first, as a party drug. Others – like long-distance truckers – often use it to stay awake or alert in demanding physical jobs.
And it is not the preserve of an underclass. In their 2009 book Merchants Of Madness, authors Bertil Lintner and Michael Black note that, unlike heroin, meth “has successfully transcended socioeconomic barriers, creating a new wave of drug addiction on an unprecedented scale in Thailand”.
Much of South-east Asia’s meth is from eastern Burma, where drug warlords linked with insurgent ethnic groups have long been known for producing and trafficking in narcotics to fund their feud with the government.
This corner of Indochina is better known as the Golden Triangle, once the centre of the opium trade. Today, while opium is also making a comeback, it is meth that is mostly trafficked across the porous borders with Thailand and Laos.
In Burma itself, drugs are destroying the lives of thousands of young people, especially at ethnic minority areas in the country’s north and east.
In 2008, the authorities seized about one million meth pills. By last year, that number had jumped to a staggering 24 million. Burma is said to have 60,000 to 90,000 drug users who inject meth, with the sharing of needles causing a HIV prevalence rate of 36 to 38 per cent.
The use of drugs has become so widespread that at Myitkyina University, in the state of Kachin, there are special dustbins for drug users to dump their needles to avoid accidents.
Meth is not only easy to produce, but also easy to transport, making it a source of easy money for its manufacturers. A man can cross the Burma-Thailand border on a footpath through rugged hills and dense jungle with a few thousand pills in a single backpack.
And Thailand is bearing the brunt of the rise of meth. Last year, 26.6 million meth pills were seized, 20 per cent more than in the previous year, and almost double the number in 2007. Amounts of crystalline meth seized have also soared.
The trade has bounced back after Thailand, under ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, launched his “war on drugs” in 2003. Then, the police homed in on thousands of suspected dealers in a controversial drive that ended up killing over 2,500 people, many of them small-time pushers and users, but some who were innocent.
However, it did serve to dampen supply, and saw the number of meth pills seized – which hit 95.9 million in 2002 – dropping to 31.1 million pills in 2004 and 15.4 million in 2005.
Since then, the scourge has bounced back.
And when the Thai authorities clamp down on them, the traffickers look for other routes – like neighbouring Laos, which has weak enforcement and a 4,800km border with five countries. The country seized 2.3 million pills last year.
Tough battle
The speed at which meth producers and smugglers make comebacks and move their operations show how challenging a task governments face.
Precursor chemicals are often easily available, sometimes in legitimate medicines. And meth laboratories are small, can be set up anywhere, and are usually safe from aerial detection, which is the main method for finding opium fields.
Intelligence and enforcement capabilities of countries vary widely; the UNODC has a programme that aims to share more information and better integrate often disjointed global responses to the trade.
In Burma’s north and east, however, there are areas where state control is weak or non-existent.
Gary Lewis, UNODC’s Bangkok- based regional representative, said that as most of the precursor chemicals needed to make meth come from India, China and Thailand, it is critical that the authorities try to disrupt the supply.
While the authorities in Burma were very active in battling the drug menace, he added, the only sustainable solution to the problem in areas like the Shan state is a “political solution”.
In its absence, a toxic mix of money, drugs and arms continues to fuel the rising tide of meth, which is a source of quick and relatively easy money.
But Nen in Chiang Mai cares little where the meth pills come from. After her brother contracted HIV from meth injections, she became a counsellor at a drop-in centre for younger addicts.
She is also learning to come to terms with the impact of her meth habit on her daughter. “My baby already has it in her blood, in her system,” she said simply.
Meth addicts have few options for treatment, which leaves a lot to be desired, experts say. Addicts are often thrown into boot camp-like facilities run by enforcement agencies rather than medical and social workers. Many return to the habit once they are out.
“There is no medicine to help me out of it,” said Nen resignedly. “And I do not have the will to stop. The only problem is that it costs too much.”
By Tovin Lapan — Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted: 12/16/2010 06:11:26 PM PST
Updated: 12/16/2010 06:22:11 PM PST
Neither food poisoning, repressive tropical heat nor a government that forbids foreign journalists could stop UC Santa Cruz student Rian Dundon and his camera.
The first-year graduate student in UCSC’s social documentation program spent three weeks in Myanmar in April, the hot season, documenting the lives of the country’s young people. In advance of the November elections in the Southeast Asian country, Time magazine ran his photo essay along with other coverage of the elections on its website.
“No one has cell phones, and all the cars are from the ’70s,” Dundon said. “There is no electricity in a lot of places. In downtown Yangon they only have electricity half the time or less…. Visually its kind of a time warp.”
Dundon had been living and working in China for the last five years, and decided to take a side trip to Myanmar, also known as Burma, well aware that international attention would focus on the country as elections came closer and he may be able to sell his photos.
Dundon, 29, liked to skateboard growing up in Monterey, and when he spotted people at a skate park in the city of Yangon he was able to parlay the shared interest into connections.
“I grew up skating so when I go to another country I can hang out with skaters, I can roll. It’s just one in with some of the people.”
Before Dundon could do his work, first he had to get into Myanmar.
“They don’t allow foreign journalists, so everyone I know who goes tries to stay
under the radar on a tourist visa,” Dundon said. “I have an American journalist friend who was denied a visa in China to go to Burma. They said they Googled his name and found out that he was a photo journalist. So, instead of going through China, I went through Bangkok where a lot of tourists and backpackers go through. I kept that profile and didn’t tell many people I was a working journalist.”
Once in Myanmar he was able to speak English with most people in the former British colony, but he still needed to make contacts quickly and make his subjects comfortable with his presence.
“I’ve never been anywhere as hot as that, and I got crazy food poisoning. That was difficult,” he said. “I was hanging out and spending time making people comfortable with me. But I was only there for three weeks, and I was sick for half that time. Right when people got that comfort level with me is when I had to leave.”
He chose the two-year graduate program at UCSC over traditional journalism programs, such as at Berkeley and Columbia, because he was more interested in long-form work and large projects, not daily or even weekly turnarounds. He went to New York University for his undergraduate degree in photography and imaging.
“In the UCSC program you have two years to do a thesis,” Dundon said. “The way I work, I’m slow and need a lot of time. I didn’t want to go into a weekly assignment type of atmosphere. I made the right choice for me. This allows me to work on the academic and research side of the work more, something I needed to build up.”
Dundon, who speaks Mandarin, said his thesis will focus on his work in China, but he has not refined the topic yet.
While he will return to China in the summer to work on his major project, he still holds the possibility open of returning to Myanmar.
“I’d love to go back, and I have stayed in touch with some people,” Dundon said. “It’s a matter of time and finances. One thing I know now is to not go there during the hot season, I won’t do that again.”
2010-12-17 10:40:00
Kolkata, Dec 17 (IANS) Leading hosiery company Dollar Industries, which is behind the highest selling Indian innerwear brands in the Gulf, now plans to venture into Iraq, Iran and Myanmar, a top company official says.
‘As of now, we are looking to enter Iraq, Iran and Myanmar by the end of the current fiscal,’ managing director Vinod Gupta told IANS in an interview here.
The company, which makes brands like Dollar Club and Myme, joined hands with German retail giant Carrefour and Lulus three years ago to sell its products in the Gulf, Gupta said.
‘Our brand has the highest sales among Indian companies in the Gulf. We are exporting to the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Doha and Bahrain. We are now selling about 60 lakh (six million) pieces annually,’ said Gupta.
It has also begun forays into Nepal.
With a turnover of Rs.296 crore (about $65 million) in 2009-10, the company is expecting to grow by 18 percent to reach a size of Rs.350 crore ($77 million) by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.
‘We exported only to the Gulf last year. Our performance was the best in Oman, where our sales are the largest among all brands. In Oman, we cater to the mid-segment and last year sold 38 lakh pieces, more than the country’s population,’ Gupta said.
By tagging on to Carrefour and Lulus, the Kolkata- and Ahmedabad-registered company is now moving ahead with plans to enter Europe. ‘A deal is going on. But I can’t say when it will materialise,’ he said.
It exported goods worth Rs.25 crore ($5.5 million) last year, and plans to raise the amount to Rs.28 crore by the close of 2010-11.
It has four production units in Kolkata, Tirupur, Ludhiana and Delhi, with a total capacity of over 350,000 pieces a day.
Dollar Industries, which has Bollywood hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador for the Dollar brand, acquired a state-of-the-art spinning mill in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu through auction last month.
‘Our total investment is Rs.65 crore (nearly $15 million). It’s a three-year-old mill and will help our backward integration service and quality maintenance. We will get an instant supply of cotton yarn,’ said Gupta.
‘It will also help in improving our bottomline as we won’t have to pay VAT because consumption will be in-house.’
The innerwear manufacturer is also setting up three wind turbines – two of 1.25 MW and the third of 1.5 MW capacity – in Tamil Nadu.
RESETTLEMENT
The Japan Times – Pilot resettlement program put to test with first Karens
Beyond support until spring, government has no idea how to proceed
By MASAMI ITO Staff writer
This fall, five families from Myanmar arrived in Japan filled with hope and excitement for a new life.
For the 27 ethnic Karen allowed to resettle here, it was the start of a new chapter in their lives, having first fled their home to escape persecution by Myanmar’s military junta and then spending years of trying to survive in a refugee camp in Thailand.
And for Japan, this is a unique attempt to accept asylum seekers as part of the so-called third-country resettlement program initiated by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the first such attempt by an Asian nation.
But it is still a pilot program, and the government has yet to hammer out numerous details if it’s going to work and be a pathway for a permanent settlement system.
The UNHCR program, adopted by more than 20 countries, gives people stuck in refugee camps the opportunity to build a stable home in a third country. While the West, including the United States, European countries and Canada, has been actively accepting people for resettlement, Japan is the first Asian country to try it.
“Japan is taking the lead within Asia on finding durable solutions for refugees who are not able to return home,” said Johan Cels, the UNHCR’s representative in Japan. “And it is a major component of international burden-sharing.”
According to the UNHCR website, 112,400 refugees were admitted for resettlement in 19 nations in 2009. The United States accepted 79,900 of them, Canada took in 12,500 and Australia received 11,100. The top three countries of origin were Myanmar, Iraq and Bhutan.
“The third-country resettlement program provides a permanent home for refugees not in their country of origin or a temporary shelter but in a third country,” said Yuichi Oba of the
Foreign Ministry’s humanitarian affairs division. “And amid the grave refugee situation in the world, UNHCR has been calling on various countries (to introduce the program) as a permanent solution.”
In December 2008, the government agreed to introduce a pilot resettlement program that would accept 90 people from the Mera refugee camp in Thailand over a three-year span starting this fall.
According to Oba, Japan chose Myanmar because it is one of the countries in Asia that has produced a large number of refugees. But he added that nothing has been decided regarding what will happen when the three-year pilot program runs its course, including the possibility of taking in refugees from countries other than Myanmar. The 27 Karens are recognized by the U.N. as refugees, but the Justice Ministry merely regards them as new permanent residents.
“Japan is part of Asia and its foreign policy is based on Asian diplomacy,” Oba said. “Myanmar has a lot of refugee problems and we felt that it was the appropriate country for Japan to first lend a hand to.”
This isn’t the first time Japan has accepted a large number of asylum-seekers. In the late 1970s, thousands of boat people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos made their way to Japan. In the end, Japan accepted more than 11,000 Indochinese who were given language and vocational training, and cultural lessons to integrate into Japanese society.
Oba said that experience formed the basis for the Karen families’ training program.
Some experts say 30 resettlers a year isn’t going to make much of a difference. According to attorney Masako Suzuki, many lawyers have reacted “relatively coolly” to the program.
“I think that the ultimate objective for the third-country resettlement program is to appeal to the international community,” said Suzuki, who works in the Tokyo Public Law Office. “But of course, it’s better than nothing.”
Suzuki pointed out that Japan, as a signatory member of the U.N. refugee convention, is obligated to give asylum to people who have fled their countries of origin to Japan. In recent years, there have been more than 1,000 applications in Japan annually, but only a handful actually win recognition as refugees.
“Japan has the responsibility as a convention member to give protection to asylum seekers who only have Japan to turn to,” Suzuki said. “It’s not a bad thing, of course, to expand the acceptance of resettlers, but Japan can’t ignore its duties to give protection to asylum seekers who come here directly.”
According to the Foreign Ministry, there was no specific reason why the government reached a figure of 30 refugees per year.
“It is impossible for Japan to accept tens of thousands of refugees, let alone even several hundred, and that would just result in misfortune for the refugees as well,” Oba explained. “The government figured that with about 30 people, it could give its full attention and support to them.”
The Mera camp is the largest refugee facility in Thailand, hosting 50,000 people who fled from Myanmar mainly because of the armed conflict between the junta and Karen National Union rebels. The five families who came to Japan lived in the camp for more than 10 years.
“Being the largest refugee camp, there is a high degree of need for third-country resettlement at the Mera camp,” Oba said, adding the camp already had an established system to smoothly send refugees to third countries.
The UNHCR first compiled a list of refugees willing to go to Japan. Then, Japanese officials held interviews at the camp and looked to select around 30 people, this time picking 27. Oba said Japan was looking for those with a strong will to live independently once they got here.
“What is very important is that the families volunteer,” UNHCR’s Cels said. “It is not that we do the selection for (the refugees) . . . because it is a life-changing decision and they have to be comfortable with that.”
Since their arrival, the 27 ethnic Karens have been provided temporary housing in the Tokyo metropolitan area while undergoing training to integrate into society.
The media have been given very little opportunity to report on the resettlers by the Foreign Ministry. According to Oba, this is to protect their privacy and safety.
Thus little is known about their current situation.
“They are refugees and we must respect their privacy to the maximum,” Oba said, adding they need to focus on resettling in Japan. “We are aware, however, that the press and the people’s interest in this issue is strong and that we should provide the public with as much information as possible because we are using taxpayers’ money for this new policy.”
From morning till dusk, the resettlers are taught everything from the Japanese language and the rules for throwing out trash to using flush toilets and the handling of electronic goods, according to Oba. He added that the culture gap was so wide all sorts of details had to be taught.
The acclimation program lasts only six months, and come spring the settlers must be ready to start building their lives on their own. However, the details of where they will be going, where they will be working or receiving education has not been decided yet.
“For these refugees to live independently in Japan after next April, they are going to need a lot of support from various people,” Oba said, including the companies for which the fathers will work, the community where they will live and their local governments. “There is a limit to the government’s aid, and I think the key will be other support.”
In the long-term view, the major issue will be what will happen after the three-year trial period ends. But the Foreign Ministry says nothing about the future of the resettlement program has been decided.
“We are still trying to make sure that the first group becomes independent in the spring,” Oba said. “We will begin discussions with related ministries going forward, but the future is currently a completely blank sheet of paper.”
UNHCR’s Cels said he isn’t concerned with the relatively small number of people accepted for resettlement. He is focusing more on making sure the three-year pilot program becomes permanent.
“I think what is important for the first three years is to develop a very good system which is successful,” Cels said. “Because if we can show everybody, the public, the politicians, that indeed refugees can successfully resettle to Japan, integrate to Japan and contribute to Japan, I think there will be a very strong and very solid support for this program.”
With scant opportunity for a stable life in camps, including employment and education, Cels stressed the importance of the resettlement program.
“Their only option is that either they stay in a camp for 10, 20, 30 years with very limited options or possibilities . . . or resettlement,” Cels said. “I think this resettlement therefore gives an opportunity for people who otherwise have no chance to start a new life.”
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Moreh, December 16 2010: The 2nd Indo-Myanmar Border Laison Meeting between Moreh and Tamu Liason Officers was held today at Trade Centre Conference Hall, Moreh at 10.30 am after the 2nd Indo-Myanmar Police Officers Meeting was held here yesterday.
DC Chandel H Dilip led the Indian delegates which includes Chandel SP K Radhashyam, Moreh ADC Lunminthang Haokip, Chandel Additional SP Md Feroz, ASP (ops) Y Ashokumar, SDPO M Rameshwar, SDO Moreh Ranjan Vishal, Ukhrul SDO, Sailesh Chaurasia, SP (NCP) RK Ibungosana, SP CRP Moreh RK Dorendrajit.
Delegates of Myanmar were led by Unyi Htwe, DC, General Administrative Department, Tamu.
Police Lt Col Zaw Myint Oo, SP,Tamu, MPF, Police Lt Col Khin Maung Zaw, SP, Kalay District, U Kyi Sein Tun, DC, Imigration Department, Tamu, U Aung Kyi, SP Customs, Tamu, Police Captain Ne Win, SP of AN (Spl) TF, Captain Thaw Min Oo, MASU, Captain Si Thu Aung, representative of RCC were the delegates of Myanmar.
According to an official who do not want to disclose his identity, the meeting discussed on matters about the trade policy, law and order, development and peaceful co-existence.
However pressmen were not allowed to cover the meeting.
According to a reliable source, Indian delegates proposed their Myanmarese counterparts to allow free movement of Indian and Myanmar national upto Mandalay and Imphal respectively.
The Myanmar delegates also expressed their desire to accept the proposal and assured to inform after discussion with higher authorities.
SP Chandel, K Radheshyam presented a phone to the Myanmar delegates as a sovenir.
A lunch was also arranged for the delegates of both countries.
But the lunch party was held very late.
By YENI Friday, December 17, 2010
Burma’s censors have been ordered to block publication of interviews with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to editors of local journals and officials from the ruling regime’s censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD).
The PSRD, which operates under the Ministry of Information, exercises draconian control over all publications in Burma, and has recently been told to step up its efforts to prevent privately owned journals from pushing the envelope in their coverage of Suu Kyi.
“This week we received requests from several journals that wanted to run interviews with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but we are under orders from Naypyidaw not to allow them to go into print,” a PSRD proofreader told The Irrawaddy.
Since Tuesday, one month after her release from seven continuous years of house arrest, Suu Kyi has spoken privately with a number of reporters from leading publications and Rangoon-based foreign correspondents, according to local media sources.
The sources said that many journalists in the former capital were testing the waters to see how far they could go in playing a role in the country’s recent political developments.
Officials from Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said they appreciate the efforts of the Burmese press to cover the activities of the party and its leader.
Pe Myint, a well-known writer and the editor of the Rangoon-based weekly, Pyithukhit (“People’s Era”), told The Irrawaddy that efforts to cover news related to Suu Kyi were not about boosting sales, but a response to the PSRD’s apparent relaxation of restrictions on covering political issues, noting that interviews with some other politicians have recently appeared in print.
Accustomed to working in an extremely restrictive media environment, Burmese journalists are careful about dealing with politically sensitive issues, but are also adept at getting around the censors.
Last month, however, nine Burmese publications were penalized for crossing the line in their coverage of Suu Kyi’s release. Two journals, First Eleven and Hot News, were ordered suspended for two weeks, while 7 Days News, The Voice, Venus News, Pyithu Khit, Myanmar Post, The Snap Shot and Myanmar Newsweek were given one-week suspensions.
Burma currently has more than 100 privately owned publications, all of which are subject to PSRD scrutiny. After several journals produced special pages devoted to Suu Kyi’s release and put them over their front pages, the head of the PSRD, former army major Tint Swe, summoned the editors to warn them against further violations, without explaining what the alleged transgressions were.
The PSRD later sent them a list of 10 rules for editors and the sanctions they will incur for not respecting them. The penalties included confiscation of printed material; temporary or permanent suspension of publishing rights; confiscation of printing presses; and lengthy prison sentences under laws first introduced in 1962, when the military seized power.
“It confirms that Burma continues to be a paradise for censors. And the military will stop at nothing to ensure that no embarrassing news items slips through the net,” said Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and its partner organization, the Burma Media Association, in a recent press release.
The organizations said the intimidation directed at the publications “highlights the scale of the censorship and threats with which the privately owned media are confronted while trying to inform the public.”
Since then, publishers and editors of publications seeking to improve relations with Naypyidaw have reportedly warned reporters to stay away from Suu Kyi and her political allies, according to several sources close to those respective publications.
In an apparent attempt to distract readers from news about Suu Kyi, Popular News, run by Kalayar, daughter of ex-Lt-Gen Win Myint, Secretary 3 of the former junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, published a front-page story announcing that residents of Rangoon’s North Dagon Township had seen a UFO.
Meanwhile, the PSRD has forced all local journals this week to print a propaganda article titled “Don’t Trivialize the National Cause,” cheering the junta’s seven-step road map to democracy and stating that holding a second Panglong-style conference with Burma’s ethnic groups, as proposed by Suu Kyi and her political allies, is impossible.
It was the first time in three months that privately owned journals were ordered to print a propaganda article.
It comes after a story critical of Suu Kyi, written by well-known junta propagandist Ngar Minn Shwe, was voluntarily published by three journals.
At the same time, the Burmese junta is expanding its media presence in Naypyidaw with military propaganda outlets such as Myawaddy FM, Myawaddy TV, and Myawaddy Publications. According to sources, the Burmese-language Naypyidaw Newspaper will be printed by Myawaddy Publications, which has its headquarters in Naypyidaw and offices in Rangoon and Mandalay. All army broadcasters and publications are run under the military’s Directorate of Public Relations and Psychological Warfare.
According to sources at the PSRD, the Information Ministry has imposed strict rules on the publication of photos of Suu Kyi because of her calls for a second Panglong-type conference. When one publication sought permission to run a photo of Suu Kyi meeting with visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Joseph Yun, the PSRD permitted the paper to refer to Yun only as “a foreign guest,” according to an editor at the news journal.
However, the junta allowed the media to print photos of Suu Kyi with her son, Kim Aris, at Rangoon’s Mingaladon Airport. According to the PSRD sources, the ruling generals wanted the public to see images of Suu Kyi’s reunion with her son, who she had been separated from for 10 years, because they wanted to highlight the fact that she had married a foreigner, the late British academic Michael Aris, and has two “mixed-blood” sons who are staying in “foreign countries.”
But in a sign that the regime remains extremely wary of Suu Kyi’s popularity, it has reportedly ordered Myanma Athan radio, the national radio station, not to air stories about mothers, because of many of the 65-year-old Suu Kyi’s younger supporters refer to her as “Amay Suu,” meaning “Mother Suu” in Burmese.
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Friday, December 17, 2010
BANGKOK—Diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Rangoon show that American officials were optimistic about dialogue with Burma’s military government when Democrat Senator Jim Webb met Snr-Gen Than Shwe in August 2009.
“It is certain Than Shwe believes he has unclenched its fist,” said a cable released by Wikileaks on Dec. 12. The note opined that the Burmese ruler regarded the Webb-Shwe meeting and the release of American prisoner John Yettaw as a major concession, thereby requiring an American counter-offer.
“We should allow Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win to visit the Embassy in Washington following UNGA [United Nations General Assembly],” the cable’s author wrote.
The meeting between Webb and Than Shwe “was decidedly more upbeat than expected,” with the reclusive Burmese ruler said to have “greeted Senator Webb and the Chargé [Larry Dinger, U.S. Chargé d'Affairs in Rangoon] warmly.”
Than Shwe repeatedly spoke of “friendship” throughout the conversation, which Sen. Webb oiled by swiftly changing the subject when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was mentioned.
The Webb-Shwe meeting on Aug. 15, 2009 came just days after Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years additional house arrest after US citizen John Yettaw entered her Rangoon home earlier in 2009, breaching the terms of her earlier house arrest, according to the Burmese courts.
Yettaw was released by the Burmese during Sen. Webb’s visit, while Than Shwe commuted Suu Kyi’s sentence to 18 months, meaning she was to be freed on Nov. 13 2010—a week after Burma held its first general elections in two decades.
Suu Kyi also met with Sen. Webb during his visit, and stressed her openness to talk to the Burmese rulers “without preconditions,” according to the leaked cable.
Webb in turn emphasized the importance of freeing Suu Kyi to the Burmese rulers, saying that most of the world judged the Burmese government “by how it treats ASSK,” according to notes from the meeting.
However, in the time since her release on Nov. 13, Burma’s rulers have shown no indication that they will engage with Suu Kyi.
Than Shwe’s well-known antipathy toward the Nobel laureate, which is confirmed by US diplomatic accounts, ensured she was to be denied any role in the new faux-civilian government to be formed early in 2011 following the junta’s manipulations to ensure that their Union Solidarity and Development Party won a landslide victory in the Nov. 7 election.
Another cable newly-released by Wikileaks covers a 2006 meeting between Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State under the Bush administration, and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei.
According to notes from that meeting, Wu told his American counterpart that, “Burmese officials made clear that their vision for national reconciliation does not include Aung San Suu Kyi,” adding that “most senior leaders fear her.”
China is the second biggest investor in Burma, after Thailand, and its government is thought to be closer to the regime than anyone else.
Dinger, writing in February 2009, speculated that one reason the Burmese junta wanted to talk to the US was because some of the generals were growing concerned “with Burma’s ever-growing dependence on China.”
Sen. Webb’s meeting with Than Shwe, the first between the Burmese ruler and an American official, came the day after Sen.Webb and Dinger sat down with Prime Minister Thein Sein on Aug.14.
At this meeting, Thein Sein criticized US sanctions on Burma, according to the cable, but said his administration wanted “the ability to communicate directly with Washington.”
Other Burmese ministers and officials attending the meeting included Foreign Minister Nyan Win and U Thaung, Minister for Science and Technology, who Thein Sein touted to Sen. Webb as a possible negotiator on behalf of the Burmese in any dialogue with the Americans.
Months before the unprecedented meeting between Sen. Webb and Than Shwe, the US embassy in Rangoon proposed changing US government policy on the country’s name, to use “Myanmar” instead of “Burma”, as one of the concessions to be offered to the junta. Burma’s military rulers changed the country’s name in 1989, but the amendment has not been acknowledged by the US and many of Burma’s opposition groups.
This concession would have come about if the junta accepted “some tweaks to the electoral process,” such as accepting international observers.
The US Embassy in Rangoon also hoped that some relaxation of Suu Kyi’s house arrest might have been granted, and that some of the country’s more than 2100 political prisoners might be released before the election, with the International Committee of the Red Cross granted access to remaining detainees as per international law.
However none of this happened, despite PM Thein Sein’s pledge to Sen.
Webb to hold fair elections. It all makes the US representatives seem somewhat naive in retrospect—the only official international observers allowed to monitor the rigged Nov. 7 election were diplomats already stationed in Burma who were willing to accompany a delegation led by the North Korean Ambassador.
Speaking in India as the voting took place on Nov. 7, US President Barack Obama dismissed the election as a farce, though the US has said it remains open to dealing with the Burmese regime.
The new cables do not show the Americans to be entirely gullible, however. While the US contemplated a mutual upgrading of diplomatic representation to Ambassador level, there was no indication that sanctions against the Burmese junta and its business cronies would be dropped. Amid all the panglossian hopes for reform in Burma, the Americans still retained some of their diplomatic sharp edge.
After initially fearing that the US navy attempt to bring aid in May 2008 to survivors of Cyclone Nargis was a disguised invasion plan, the junta later expressed gratitude for the assistance, according to American diplomats.
In a cable in April 2009 suggesting that properly designed aid could have political purposes, Dinger said: “Aid is subversive more directly as well: recipients understand who helps them (international donors) and who doesn’t (the regime).”
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, December 17, 2010 A battalion of regular troops from the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) on Dec. 11 launched a short attack on the Burmese army in Manerplaw, and have remained active in the area. Manerplaw was the headquarters of the KNU from 1948 until it fell into Burmese army hands in 1995.
Located in Hlaingbwe Township in Karen State at a picturesque juncture on the Moei River, which seperates Thailand and Burma, Manerplaw was the KNU’s most strategic base during the reign of Gen Bo Mya, the former chairman of the KNU. Its fall into enemy hands—primarily due to the notorious betrayal of the KNU by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)—marked a turn in the decades-old civil conflict which resulted in several ethnic armies signing cease-fire agreements with the military regime, while members of the KNU were forced to flee to refugee camps in Thailand or to small guerilla bases in remote parts of Karen State.
After the Fall of Manerplaw in 1995, the KNU was unable to launch major offensives against government forces around that area, and it became a Burmese army stronghold and an ideal base to coordinate cross-border trade, especially logging.
KNU sources said that Battalion 202 from Brigade 7 of the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and some members of a Karen specialist unit known as the “Special Force” were involved in a skirmish with government forces involving gunfire and mortar attacks.
The KNU fighters retook some of their former bases around Manerplaw, and are now patrolling along the trails and hills of Kachaw Wah Lay, Htee Thit Kee, Manerpaw, Htoo Wah Lu, Law Kwa Lu and Yadae Nee, said the sources.
Nang Paw Gay, the editor of the Karen Information Centre, said that the KNLA’s Battalion 202 led by Maj Saw Tamla and the “Special Force” have been much more active in the area since the beginning of December.
Small skirmishes between Burmese government troops (assisted by DKBA regulars who are now part of the border guard force) and KNU Brigade 7 have been occuring on a near daily basis since early December in the areas surrounding Manerplaw, souces said.
The worst fighting broke out on Dec. 10-11, which resulted in some 300 local villagers fleeing to the Thai side of the river to seek refuge in Sop Moei District in Mae Hong Son Province, according to one source who visited the refugees.
Mahn Mahn, a leader of the Backpack Health Worker Team, a medical relief group which works in Karen State, said, “Some pregnant women who are ready to give birth were among the villagers. We had to make preparations to deliver their babies en route.”
The refugees will be unable to return home while the fighting is ongoing, the sources said. Some refugees who tried to get into Mae La Oon refugee camp in Mae Hong Son Province were prevented by the Thai authorities.
Relief workers have said that there are several refugees who are sick among those held up at the border.
Friday, 17 December 2010 23:20 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Sixteen political prisoners who had served their full terms were released today from Burmese jails, infamous for their brutal, neglectful treatment of inmates, a spokesman of a prisoners’ aid group said.
Those released were Buddhist monk Ashin Sandima, Kyaw Kyaw San, Chit Khin, Myint Swe, Thein Win, Han Sein, Maung Sein, Htay Aung, San Baw, Soe Ohn, Tun Myint, Maung Maung Than, Dr. Robert San Aung and three members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma secretary Tate Naing said.
Other than the three ABFSU members, the group was arrested in 2008 for protesting against the junta and demanding the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who at the time was under house arrest. They were sentenced to two years and six months for violating a ban on public gatherings of more than five people.
The three ABFSU members, Han Win Aung, Kyaw Kyaw and Lwin Ko Latt, were arrested for opposing the junta’s “road map to democracy” and sentenced to seven years in prison.
“We had served our full prison terms. Our sentences were not reduced,” Han Win Aung told Mizzima.
Two other ABFSU members Nanda Swe Aung and Kyaw Lin Tun; are still serving 20-year prison terms in Hpaan Prison and Insein Prison, respectively.
On August 30 in 2003, six ABFSU members were arrested by intelligence officers. Kyaw Soe Moe, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, was released last year under an amnesty.
“It doesn’t matter for how long they’ve detained us … how brutal they were, we will never be broken in spirit. Our beliefs are unshakeable. We will flourish under Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership for the sake of democracy and political freedom,” Han Win Aung told Mizzima.
Han Win Aung suffered pneumonia in prison.
Burmese prisons are notorious worldwide for their inhumane and dirty conditions, abusive techniques, failure to provide adequate food, hygiene or health care, and uses of mental and physical torture.
One of Insein Prison’s most famous prisoners was the Nobel Peace Prize winning pro-democracy leader, Suu Kyi, who was confined there Insein on three separate occasions in 2003, 2007 and last year. The Burmese ruling military junta released from house arrest last month.
By MAUNG TOO
Published: 17 December 2010
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s (DKBA) battalion 902 commander Colonel Kyaw Thet in Hpalu village, where fighting recently broke out with the government, said the group will commence guerrilla warfare in “every township” if the SPDC continues its offensive against the renegade DKBA faction.
“If they won’t be considerate on us, we will commence guerrilla warfare. We have deployed our units already and we would have to proceed… in every township across Burma,” said Colonel Kyaw Thet.
“We are using the [Burmese Army’s] break from the fighting as an opportunity to reorganise our forces and restock ammunition. We have already prepared ourselves for defence.”
He said more fighting is likely in other ethnic regions due to a growing impatience with the government and that victory can be achieved if all ethnic armies coordinate and fight against the Burmese Army.
There has seemingly been repeated attempts to unite disaffected ethnic armies and rebel groups, with the All Burma Students Democrtaic Front (ABSDF) recently telling DVB that they will join with their Karen counterparts.
While there has been no fighting in Hpalu this week, at least four battles broke out between the DKBA and the Burmese army in Kyarinseikgyi, Kawkareit and Hpapun townships.
A faction of the DKBA broke ranks earlier in the year when it decided against signing the government’s border guard force (BGF) plan, which was an attempt to assimilate ethnic armed groups into the Burmese military.
There has been low intensity war fare occurring in Karen State ever since troops under Saw La Bwe a.k.a Na Kham Mwe took positions in and around the major border town of Myawaddy the day after November’s controversial election.