Freedom and Democracy for Burma

Golden Land of Arakan

2010-07-16T00:55:00.003-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Rakhine people

formerly Arakanese), is a nationality of Myanmar, and form the majority along the coastal region of present day Rakhine State or Arakan State. They possibly constitute 4% or more of Myanmar's total population but no accurate census figures exist. Rakhine people also live in the southeastern parts of Bangladesh, especially in Chittagong and Barisal Divisions. A group of Arakanese descendants, living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh at least since the 16th century, are known as the Marma people. These Arakanese descendants have been living in that area since the Arakanese kingdom's control of the Chittagong region.

Arakanese descendants spread as far north as Tripura state in India, where their presence dates back to the ascent of the Arakanese kingdom when Tripura was ruled by Arakanese kings. In northeast India, these Arakanese people are referred to as the Mog, while in Bengali, the Marma (the ethnic Arakanese descendants in Bangladesh) and other Arakanese people are referred to as the Magh people.

According to the Rakhine Chronicles, the name Rakhine or Rakhine was originated from Pali word Rakhapura meaning the land of the people of Rakshasa (Rakshasa > Rakha > Rakhine) who were titled this name in honour of preservation on their national heritage (a myo) and ethics or morality (sila). The word Rakhine means, "one who keeps his own race."

The Rakhine are predominantly Theravada Buddhists and are one of the four main Buddhist ethnic groups of Myanmar (the others being the Bamar, Shan and Mon). They claim to be one of the first groups to become followers of the Buddha in Southeast Asia. The Rakhine culture is similar to the dominant Burmese culture but with more Indian influence, likely due to its geographical isolation from the Burmese mainland divided by the Rakhine Roma and closer proximity to South Asia. Traces of Indian influence remain in many aspects of Rakhine culture, including its literature, music, and cuisine.

The Rakhine speak Arakanese language which is an archaic form of Burmese. Still generally mutually intelligible with standard Burmese, Arakanese retains the /r/ sound, which is now a /j/ sound in Burmese. Modern Arakanese script, aside from few vocabulary differences, is essentially the same as standard Burmese script. (The northern Brahmi-based Rakhawunna script found in stone inscriptions in the Vesali (Wethali) era is no longer in use.

The people of Rakhine claim a history that began in 3325 BC and archaeological evidence has been found for later period of the beginning of the 1st century AD after the excavations of the Dhanyawadi city . According to the chronicles, the first independent Rakhine (Arakanese) kingdom was established in 3325 BC by King Marayu. The name of the kingdom “Dhanyawadi” means the land "blessed with abundant grain". Buddhism was introduced into Rakhine during the lifetime of Buddha himself. According to Rakhine Chronicles, Buddha in his lifetime visited the city of Dhanyawadi (Grain Blessed) in 554 BC The Rakhine king Sandar Surya (Sun Moon) requested Buddha to leave the image of Himself. After casting the Great Image Mahamuni, (Great Sage) Buddha breathed upon it which resembled the exact likeness of the Blessed One.

Ancient Dhanyawadi, lies west of the mountain ridge between the Kaladan and Le-mro rivers. Its city walls were made of brick, and form an irregular circle with a perimeter of about 9.6 km, enclosing an area of about 4.42 square km. Beyond the walls, the remains of a wide moat, now silted over and covered by paddy fields, are still visible in places. The remains of brick fortifications can be seen along the hilly ridge which provided protection from the west. Within the city, a similar wall and moat enclose the palace site, which has an area of 0.26 square km, and another wall surrounds the palace itself. From aerial photographs we can discern Dhanyawad I's irrigation channels and storage tanks, centered at the palace site.

The 243 Rakhine kings ruled Arakan for a long period of 5108 years. The oldest artefact, stone image of Fat Monk inscribed "Saccakaparibajaka Jina" in Brahmi inscription comes to the date of first century AD.

An ancient stone inscription in Nagari character was discovered by renowned Archaeologist Dr. Forchhammer. Known as Salagiri, this hill was where the great teacher came to Rakhine some two thousand five hundred years ago. Somewhere from eastern part of this hill, a stone image in Dhamma-cakra-mudra now kept in Mrauk-U museum, was found earlier in 1923. This relief sculpture found on the Salagiri Hill represents Buddha preaching King Chandra Suriya belongs to 4th century AD; five more red sandstone slabs with the carving were found close by the south of this Salagiri Hill in 1986. They are the same type as the single slab found earlier in 1923. These carving slabs of Bhumispara-mudra, Kararuna-mudra, Dhammacakra-mudara, and Mmahaparinibbana-mudra represent the life of Buddha.

These sculptures provide earliest evident about the advent of Buddhism into Rakhine; during the life time of the Buddha and these discoveries were therefore assumed as the figures of King Chandra Suriya of Dyanawadi, who dedicated the Great Maha Muni Image. These archaeological findings have been studied by eminent scholars and conclusion is that the Maha Muni was made during the king Sanda Suriya era.

The founder of Vesali city, King Dvan Chandra carved Vesali Paragri Buddha-image in 327 A.D and set a dedicatory inscription in Pali verse

ye dhamma hetuppabuava / Tathagato aha / tesan ca yo niyodho / evamvadi Mahasamano.

That Buddha-image is carved out by a single block and the earliest image of Vesali.

The meaning of Ye Dhamma verse is as follow.

Of these dhammas which arise from causes / The Tathagata has declared causes / Lord Buddha preached about the causes / And the effects gained by the causes / And that which is the ceasing of them, Nirawda Thitesa / This the great ascetic declares.

The verse, which is considered as the essence of Theravada spirit, bears testimony to the fact that Buddhism flourished to an utmost degree in Vesali. The relationship of Vesali with foreign countries especially Ceylon would be established for Buddhism.

The stone inscriptions are of Sanskrit, Pali, Rakhine, Pyu languages. Anandachandra Inscriptions date back to 729 AD originally from Vesali now preserved at Shitethaung indicates adequate evidence for the earliest foundation of Buddhism. Dr. E. H. Johnston's analysis reveals a list of kings which he considered reliable beginning from Chandra dynasty. The western face inscription has 72 lines of text recorded in 51 verses describing the Anandachandra's ancestral rulers. Each face recorded the name and ruling period of each king who were believed to have ruled over the land before Anandachandra. Archaeology has shown that the establishment of so many stone pagodas and inscriptions which have been totally neglected for centuries in different part of Rakhine speak of popular favored by Buddhism.

The cubic stone inscriptions record the peace making between the governor of Thandaway (Sandoway) Mong Khari (1433-1459) and Razadhiraj the Mon Emperor in Rakhine inscription. This was found from a garrison hill at the oldest site of Parein. A stone slab with the alleged figure of the Buddha preaching, King Chandra Suriya bore testimony to the Salagiri tradition, depicting of the advent of the Teacher to Dyanyawaddy.

The crowing event in the history of Rakhine was the Convention of the Buddhist Council at the top of golden hill of Vesali under the royal patronage of King Dhammawizaya in 638 AD through joint effort of two countries, Rakhine and Ceylon. This momentous triumph of the great council was participated by one thousand monks from Ceylon and one thousand monks from Rakhine kingdom. As a fitting celebration of the occasion, the lavish construction of pagodas, statues and monasteries were undertaken for the purpose of inscribing the Tripitaka. After Vesali, Pyinsa was found by Lemro dynasty in 818 AD; the great king of dynasty (AD 818-1430) was King Mim-Yin-Phru, who turned his attention towards the development of Buddhism, and in 847 AD he convened the second Buddhist council in Rakhine attended by 800 Arahants. Rakhine chronicles report that therein the Tripitaka and Atthakatha were inscribed on the golden plate and enshrined. Never has there been impediment in the practice of Theravada Buddhist faith since it has introduced in Rakhine. The copious findings of inscription Ye Dhamma verse were practical evidence that Theravada was dominant faith if epigraphic and archaeological sources were to be believed. The Royal patronage has always been significant factor contribution to stability and progress of the religion in Rakhine.

Mrauk-U, the last kingdom of independent Arakan founded by King Mong Saw Mon in 1430, has become the principle seat of Buddhism, has reaching at zenith of the golden age. Mrauk-U was divided into three periods: the earliest period (1430-1530), the middle period (1531-1638), and the last period (1638-1784). In Arakan antiquities at the Mrauk-U seems to give rational evidence as to where Buddhism was settled down. The golden days of Mrauk U city, those of 16th and 17th centuries, were contemporary to the days of Tudor kings, the Moghuls, the Ayuthiya kings and Ava (Inwa), Taungoo and Hanthawaddy kings of Myanmar. Mrauk U was cosmopolitan city, fortified by a 30-kilometer long fortification and an intricate net of moats and canals. At the centre of the city was the Royal Place, looming high over the surrounding area like an Asian Acropolis. Waterways formed by canals and creeks earned the fame of distinct resemblance to Venice. Mrauk U offers some of the richest archaeological sites in South-East Asia. These include stone inscriptions, Buddha images, the Buddha's foot-prints and the great pagoda itself which, stripped its later-constructed top, would be of the same design as the Gupta style of ancient India. In the city of golden Mrauk-U there are scattering innumerable temples and pagodas which preserved as places, there by exerting a great influence on spiritual life of the people.

Arakanese chronicle records that more than six million shrines and pagodas flourished in Mrauk-U. In fact, they formed the pride of golden Mrauk-U. Dr. Forchhammer in his book entitled "Arakan", "in durability, architectural skill, and ornamentation the Mrauk-U temples far surpass those on the banks of Arrawaddy". Buddhist arts both in the field of architecture and Buddha-image constructions are on the same line of flourishing. An illustrative example of this fact can be seen in the temple of Chitthaung pagoda and colossal Dukekanthein temple. Gold and silver coins serve as the priceless heritage of the Mrauk-U period. The tradition of coin-making was handed down from the Vesali kings who started minting coins around the fifth century. The coins so far found are of one denomination only. Inscribed on the coins are the title of the ruling king and his year of coronation; coins before 1638 had Rakhine inscriptions on one side and Persian and Nagari inscriptions on the other. The inclusion of the foreign inscriptions was meant for the easy acceptance by the neighboring countries and the Arab traders. Twenty-three types of silver coins and three types of gold coins have so far been found. All the kings who ascended the throne issued coins. City walls, gates, settlements, monastery sites, fortresses, garrisons and moats are the other priceless heritages left to the safe keeping of today's Rakhine people. Stone rubbles of proud mansions of that period are also priceless reminders of Rakhine glory. It is no wonder that Mrauk U is properly known as the "Land of Pagodas" and Europeans remarked Mrauk U as "The Golden City". The Rakhine of those days were proud of Mrauk U. They were entirely satisfied to be the inhabitants of Mrauk U. The history shows what happened in the city in early times.

The country had been invaded several times, by the Mongols, Mon, Bamar and Portuguese and finally the Bamar in 1784 when the armies led by the Crown Prince, son of King Bodawpaya, of the Konbaung dynasty of Burma marched across the western Yoma and annexed Rakhine. The religious relics of the kingdom were stolen from Rakhine, most notably the Mahamuni Buddha image, and taken into central Burma where they remain today. Moreover, the Burman invaders destroyed many valuable creations of Arakan including royal palace, city gates, the clock-tower, the booming drum that was believed to have a mystical effect on the Burman dynasties and many other edifices of splendour. The industries and business centres were also destroyed by them. The Ancient Chronicles, the Tripitaka and books were carried away by them with an intention of eradicating of national feeling of the Arakanese people, and many others were destroyed. The Arakanese books on literature, arts, traditional medicines, warfare, metallurgy, architecture , shipbuilding , which were carried away by the Burman invaders, are estimated to be about the height of two toddy palms. During their invasion, the Burman invaders’ forces committed a crime against humanity with a genocide killing about 236,000 Arakanese civilians including 10,000 infants of cradle age. They killed the infants mercilessly with the slogan of “while cutting down the stalk of a reed, its stump should not be left out”. A mass of 100,000 skilled workers, artisans, intellectuals and Buddhist monks were arrested and taken across the Arakan mountain ranges, and they all were initiated into slavery and servitude at pagodas and temples of pagan, Sagaing and Mandalay. The people of Rakhine resisted the conquest of the kingdom for decades after. Fighting with the Rakhine resistance, initially led by Nga Than Dè and finally by Chin Byan in border areas, created problems between British India and Burma. The year 1826 saw the defeat of the Bamar in the First Anglo-Burmese War and Rakhine was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Yandabo. Sittwe (Akyab) was then designated the new capital of Rakhine. In 1852, Rakhine was merged into Lower Burma as a territorial division.

Rakhine was the center of multiple insurgencies which fought against British rule, notably led by the monks U Ottama and U Seinda.

During the Second World War, Rakhine was given autonomy under the Japanese occupation and was even granted its own army known as the Arakan Defence Force. The Arakan Defence Force went over to the allies and turned against the Japanese in early 1945.

In 1948, Rakhine became a division within the Union of Burma. Shortly after, violence broke out along religious lines between Buddhists and Muslims. Later there were calls for secession by the Rakhine, but such attempts were subdued. In 1974, the Ne Win government's new constitution granted Rakhine Division "state" status but the gesture was largely seen as meaningless since the military junta held all power in the country and in Rakhine. In 1989, the name of Arakan State was changed to "Rakhine" by the military junta.

The Burma-North Korea Axis

2010-07-16T00:44:00.004-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

This is a sensitive moment in relations between the United States and the world’s most corrupt regime: the military junta that has plundered Burma for decades as if it were a private fiefdom.

The regime in Burma has a history of deceiving American officials. I know; before defecting to the United States in 2005, I was a senior intelligence officer for the war office in Burma. I was also the deputy chief of mission at Burma’s embassy in Washington.

In the autumn of 2003, a senior staff member for a U.S. senator came twice to our embassy in Washington to call on Ambassador U Lin Myaing and me. At about the same time, officials from the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council also met in New York with U Tin Win, from the office of Burma’s prime minister, and Colonel Hla Min, the government’s spokesman.

The American officials were checking reports that Burma had secretly renewed ties with North Korea — one of the three pillars of George W. Bush’s “axis of evil.”

Burma had severed ties with North Korea in 1983, after North Korean operatives attempted to assassinate South Korea’s president, Chun Doo Hwan, during a state visit to Rangoon. Chun was unhurt, but 17 senior South Korean officials — including the deputy prime minister and the foreign and commerce ministers — were killed.

The head of Burma’s junta, Senior General Than Shwe, instructed us to lie to the Americans. We did. We blamed Burma’s political opposition for the “rumors” that Rangoon had renewed ties with Pyongyang. The Americans wanted proof. Than Shwe then ordered Foreign Minister U Win Aung to send a letter denying the reports to Secretary of State Colin Powell. The British government knew the truth. London’s ambassador to Rangoon rightfully called U Win Aung a liar.

Why did Burma renew ties with North Korea? Regime preservation.

In the aftermath of the 1988 nationwide uprising in Burma, many foreign joint ventures for the production of conventional weapons were cancelled. Than Shwe began the secret re-engagement with North Korea in 1992, soon after he took control of Burma’s ruling clique.

He argued that Burma faced potential attack from the United States and India, which at the time was a champion of Burma’s democracy movement. He wanted a bigger army. He wanted more modern weapons. He even wanted nuclear arms. He cared not at all for the poverty of Burma’s people.

Than Shwe secretly made contact with Pyongyang. Posing as South Korean businessmen, North Korean weapons experts began arriving in Burma. I remember these visitors. They were given special treatment at the Rangoon airport. With a huge revenue bonanza from sales of natural gas to Thailand, Burma was soon able to pay the North Koreans cash for missile technology.

The generals thought that they could also obtain nuclear warheads and that, once these warheads were mounted on the missiles, the United States and other powerful countries would not dare to attack Burma and have much less leverage on the junta.

Than Shwe hid these links with North Korea as long as he could from Japan and South Korea, because he was working to lure Japanese and South Korean companies to invest more in efforts to plunder Burma’s natural resources. By 2006, the junta’s generals felt either desperate or confident enough to publicly resume diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Burma has worked for almost a decade to expand its production of missiles and chemical warheads. General Tin Aye — chairman of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, the military’s business arm — is the top manager of ordinance production and main liaison with North Korea.

According to a secret report leaked last year, the regime’s No. 3 man, General Shwe Mann, also made a secret visit to Pyongyang in November 2008. He signed an agreement for military cooperation that would bring help from North Korea for constructing tunnels and caves for hiding missiles, aircraft, even ships.

That this information was leaked by Burmese military officials working on such sensitive activities shows both the degree of Than Shwe’s military megalomania and the existence of opposition within the regime itself.

The words “pragmatic engagement” should not become synonymous with any weakening of Washington’s firm opposition to Burma’s rulers.

The United States and other nations must continue to question the legitimacy of Than Shwe and the regime. They should not believe his promises to hold free and fair elections this year.

Only coordinated pressure from around the globe will be effective in dealing with this master of deceit.

Aung Lynn Htut is a former senior intelligence officer in Burma’s Ministry of Defense. He is working on his memoirs.

9th Waso Robe Ceremony in New York

2010-07-16T00:11:00.003-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The 9th Waso Robe ceremony, one of holy ceremony for Buddhism in New York, will be held in New York in July 25, 2010 by the following agendas.

Date: July 25, 2010 Sunday
Time: 10:00 am - 2:00pm(EST)
Place: P.S 222 Q
86-15 37th Avenue Jackson Heights NY 11372

Admission is Free for All attendees and Rakhine Traditional 'Mont` de' will be served for every one. The ceremony is always lead by Buddhist Missionary Society (B M S)of New York and you may donate any kinds of donation to the society.
B M S was established by Dr. Ashin Nayaka and some Rakhine nationals of the United States. As a non-profit organization, you may donate any money to that society.

16th Rakhine Water Festival in New York

2010-07-15T23:52:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The 16th Rakhine Water festival, Burmese New Year Ceremony will be held in 18th July 2010 in New York City. It will be held by Thingyan Association of New York and this is one famous festival of the Burmese Community of the United States.

The traditional dancing, dancing, the elderly respect for Rakhine traditional will be included in that ceremony. The admission is Free for ALL.

You may taste very different Burmese traditional snacks, light foods and some meals in that party. The Water festival is huge ceremony for all Burmese nationalities especially for Buddhist religious.

The Watering ceremony is focused on new year , new ideas and all kinds of excuses and human being for all Buddhism and it has been established by Lord Buddha Ghaudama.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

2008-05-09T01:56:00.003-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Myanmar: Cooperate with international community to ensure appropriate aid for victims

Following the impact of Cyclone Nargis on Myanmar, which killed tens of thousands of people and displaced around a million more, Amnesty International is calling urgently on the government to open its borders to relief workers and ensure aid is provided on the basis of need without discrimination. Government red tape in providing visas is costing lives, while some donors are delaying aid in the fear that it will be siphoned off to the army,said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International Myanmar researcher. The government should now provide access and assurances to international relief workers. Amnesty International calls on the Government of Myanmar to ease visa restrictions and customs procedures that have hampered access by international relief workers over the past few days and slowed the delivery of desperately needed aid. While some international aid has arrived in Yangon (Rangoon), the government has not yet mobilized the tremendous logistical effort necessary to provide assistance to the hardest hit populations. Amnesty International recognizes that at this point the situation in southern Myanmar is primarily a humanitarian and rehabilitation crisis.

Experience after other natural disasters of this scale, for instance the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, has proven that protecting human rights is essential for effective relief and a sustainable recovery. Amnesty International therefore calls on the government of Myanmar to cooperate closely with international relief efforts and establish clear and transparent mechanisms for delivering aid. The government should provide aid according to need, without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status of recipients.

In post-disaster situations, women are often particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, and frequently receive less aid. The Myanmar government must also ensure that the nearly one million people believed to have been displaced by the cyclone urgently receive adequate rehabilitation and assistance, including essential shelter, food, water and health care. Given the government's record of forcibly relocating its own citizens, Amnesty International calls on the government to avoid using excessive force against understandably distraught displaced populations.

The Myanmar government's history of corruption and abusive behaviour raises concerns that it would misuse relief efforts as cover to forcibly relocate populations in order to clamp down on or undermine support for opposition groups. Any relocation of internally displaced persons from camps or disaster areas must be voluntary, unless the safety and health of those affected requires evacuation. They should not be coerced in any way, including through the suspension of assistance to those persons.

The right of internally displaced persons to return voluntarily to their former homes or lands in safety and with dignity should be respected and the authorities should assist them in either returning or resettling in another part of the country. Human rights are most in jeopardy in situations of crisis and emergency,said Benjamin Zawacki. So it is critical that the Myanmar government and other actors recognize and support the central role of human rights defenders, including those engaged in humanitarian work and those monitoring violations, in the relief and reconstruction process.

Military Juntas don't care for Cylone Nagris in Burma

2008-05-07T09:04:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Even cyclone Nagris destroyed in the Irrawady delta region and more than 22,000 have been killed by the disaster, the military rulers do not care for their relifes and resettlements. Then they do not have any plan to issue the visas for any foreign NGOs or foreign supporters.

" Even more than a millions of people have been died, they won't care and they only care for their power stability, I pray for any International support as a food,water and shelter" said by the one Yangon resident.

"Actually living cost in Yangon is getting higher everday. Even as an egg 300 kyats, (0.30cents of US$). gasoline price is 9,000 kyats (9.01US$). However their income is very poor than one dollar per day. How can they survive in Burma, terrible and Burmese military government is very curious than facisim when we were occupied in Japanese and English in the 1940s."

"The international attack is urgently needed. The military group is only caring of US forces. I pray for US and other International attack. Currently situation is getting serious and other information is under severe condition" said by Ko Tun Aung from Yangon.

Myanmar cyclone a 'major, major disaster'

2008-05-07T08:59:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON, Myanmar - Hungry crowds of survivors stormed the few shops that opened in Myanmar's stricken Irrawaddy delta, where food and international aid has been scarce since a devastating cyclone killed more than 22,000 people, the U.N. said Wednesday.

The U.N. said some 1 million people were homeless in the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma."Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.
"Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water," he said. This is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with."
But a massive international aid effort was being kept on hold by Myanmar's military rulers. Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the junta, which has kept the impoverished nation isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control.
"Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out," according to the minutes of a meeting of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

It said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "will contact Myanmar" Wednesday to arrange a meeting with high-ranking officials on the issue.
State media in military-ruled Myanmar said more than 22,000 people died when Cyclone Nargis blasted the country's western coast on Saturday and over 41,000 others were missing. But Horsey predicted the number of fatalities could rise "dramatically."

The U.N. World Food Program says as many as 1 million people may have been left homeless, with some villages nearly destroyed and vast rice-growing areas wiped out. The Irrawaddy delta is considered Myanmar's rice bowl.
The military junta normally restricts the access of foreign officials and organizations to the country, and aid groups were struggling to deliver relief goods.
"Most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in Yangon. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify salt water," he said.

First international aid reaches Myanmar after cyclone

2008-05-07T01:07:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

International aid began to trickle into Myanmar on Tuesday, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world.In the former capital of Yangon, soldiers from the repressive military regime were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since Cyclone Nargis hit over the weekend, helping to clear away rubble. Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielded axes and long knives to remove ancient, fallen trees that were once the city's pride.However, coastal areas of the delta worst hit by the high winds and tidal surges were out of reach for aid workers, isolated by flooding and road damage.Electricity remained cut for nearly all 6.5 million residents of Yangon, while water supply was restored in only a few areas. Some residents waited in lines for nine hours or more to buy gasoline to fuel generators and their cars. At one gas station in the Yangon suburb of Sanchaung, fistfights broke out, with weary residents hitting each other with sticks after someone tried to cut in line.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said international aid began to flow, with 800 tons of food getting through to the first of nearly 1 million people left homeless by the cyclone.Concerns mounted over the lack of food, water and shelter in the delta region and adjacent Yangon, where nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people live, as well as the spread of disease in a country with one of the world's worst health systems."Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself," said Caryl Stern, who heads the U.N. Children's Fund in the United States.After days of little military presence in the streets, soldiers were out Tuesday clearing massive felled trees with power saws and axes and using their bare hands to lift debris into trucks.

State television played up the effort, showing images of a government truck distributing water, though residents said they hadn't seen any water trucks around the city. There were no images of the hundreds of monks helping the recovery effort.The broadcaster in its news program Wednesday quoted Yangon official Gen. Tha Aye as saying the situation was "returning to normal." He was shown visiting a Yangon-area village where residents were cutting apart downed trees and brush to clear the roads.

The streets of Yangon were filled Tuesday with residents carrying buckets to bring water from monasteries or buy it from households with generators that could pump it from wells. The main plant of Dagon Ice Factory, a drinking water brand, turned people away, posting signs saying "no more."While residents of Yangon struggled to clear away the rubble, the Irrawaddy delta was cut off.Images on state television Tuesday showed mangled trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads as well as roofless houses ringed by water in the delta, a lacework of paddy fields and canals where the nation's rice crop is grown.Based on a satellite map made available by the United Nations, the storm's damage was concentrated over about a 11,600-square- mile area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines less than 5 percent of the country, but home to nearly a quarter of the country's population.A C-130 military transport plane carrying government aid from neighboring Thailand flew into Yangon, where an Associated Press reporter watched it unload rice, canned fish, water and dried noodles.

The goods_ the first overseas aid to arrive in the stricken nation were transferred to a helicopter, which Myanmar military officers said would ferry them to the most stricken areas.

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. would send more than $3 million to help cyclone victims, following an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.

President Bush called on the junta to allow the United States to send in a disaster assessment team, which he said would allow for quicker and larger aid infusions."The United States has made an initial aid contribution but we want to do a lot more," Bush said. "We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country." Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Navy has three ships in the Gulf of Thailand the USS Essex, the USS Juneau and the USS Harper's Ferry preparing to participate in an annual exercise with Thailand's naval forces. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said two aircraft carriers the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Nimitz as well as the USS Blue Ridge, are also within reach of Myanmar.

The Essex, an amphibious assault ship, has 23 helicopters aboard, including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well as 1,800 Marines. The Myanmar military, which regularly accuses the United States of trying to subvert the regime, is unlikely to allow a U.S. military presence in its territory. But reflecting the seriousness of the crisis, the government has appealed for foreign aid and also announced Tuesday that it is delaying a crucial constitutional referendum in the hardest-hit areas. Australia announced Wednesday that it will give $3 million in aid to Myanmar.

State radio said Saturday's vote on a military-backed draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Yangon area and seven in the wider delta. Pro-democracy advocates, including the political party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have denounced the constitution as a tool to perpetuate the military's grip on power.

Inadequate warnings about the approaching storm and the ineffectiveness of the government in its aftermath could sway angry voters to reject the charter. State radio said most of the 22,464 dead, as well as the 41,000 missing, were in the densely populated Irriwaddy delta, home to 6 million people. It said 671 were killed in the Yangon area. Brig. Gen. Kyaw San, the information minister, said most fatalities were caused by tidal waves.

The death toll is the highest from a natural disaster in southeast Asia since the tsunami of December 2004 killed 229,866 people in Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of southeast and south Asia. With 61 dead, Myanmar was largely spared the devastating impact of the tsunami, which killed 130,000 people in Indonesia and 35,000 in Sri Lanka. In its wake, an extensive warning system was established in much of the Pacific region, but Myanmar did not participate. Disaster experts cited lack of funding and said the country planned to rely on regional systems. As the cyclone came bearing down on Myanmar late Friday, television broadcasts warned of 120-mph winds and 12-foot storm surges.

But electricity is so spotty in Myanmar that few households, especially in the poor rural areas that were worst hit, were aware of the warnings. The U.N. World Food Program offered a grim assessment of the destruction: up to 1 million people homeless, some villages almost totally destroyed and vast rice-growing areas wiped out. Rice futures rose Tuesday in response to the news that vast swaths of Myanmar's rice-growing areas had been wiped out. Myanmar grows 11 million tons of rice per year but exports only a small fraction, representing about 1.7 percent of world trade, according to USDA figures. It had been forecast to export about 400,000 tons this year, and concerns that Myanmar may not meet that target helped push U.S. rice futures 10 cents higher to settle at $21.15 per 100 pounds Tuesday on the Chicago Board of Trade. The military government said it was trying to move in aid and some foreign agencies managed to send assessment teams, including five from UNICEF. Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, noted the closest airport to the Irriwaddy delta is in Yangon. "The biggest problem will be to reach the affected areas. There will be a huge logistical problem," he said, adding that "for remote areas, assessment teams ... will need to go by helicopters and boats." The delta is criss-crossed with waterways, but Horsey said they are not easily accessible, even during normal times. "The big concern is waterborne diseases. So that's why it's crucial to get safe water in. Then mosquito nets, cooking kits and clothing in the next few days," he said. "Food is not an emergency priority. Water and shelter are."Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Myanmar cyclone death toll to rise past 15,000

2008-05-06T01:41:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON (Reuters) - At least 15,000 people were killed in the Myanmar cyclone and the toll was likely to rise as officials made contact with the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta areas, the military government's foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had died in just one town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of what is emerging as the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh.

The total left homeless by the 190 km (120 miles) per hour winds and 12 foot (3.5 meter) storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say, and could run into the millions.
The scale of the disaster drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Bernard Delpuech, a European Union aid official in Yangon, said the junta had sent three ships carrying food to the delta region, rice bowl for Myanmar's 53 million people. Nearly half the population live in the five disaster-hit states.
Aid agency World Vision in Australia said it had been granted special visas to send in personnel to back up 600 staff in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
"This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunami level, but in terms of impact of millions displaced, thousands dead, it is just terrible," World Vision Australia head Tim Costello said.
"Organizations like ours have been given permission, which is pretty unprecedented, to fly people in. This shows how grave it is in the Burmese government's mind," he said.
The town-by-town list of dead and missing announced by Nyan Win showed 14,859 deaths in the Irrawaddy division and 59 in Yangon, the biggest city of five million and the former capital.

The hardest-hit area was the Irrawaddy region where about 10,000 people died in Bogalay, 90 kms (55 miles) southwest of Yangon.
In Yangon people were queuing up for bottled water and there was still no electricity four days after the vicious Cyclone Nargis struck.
"Generators are selling very well under the generals," said one man waiting outside a shop, reflecting some of the resentment on the streets to what many described as a slow warning and response.
Very few soldiers were seen clearing debris and trees, except at major intersections, residents in the former capital said. Monks and residents, using what tools they had, cut trees.

The junta has moved even further into the shadows in the last six months due to widespread outrage at its bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in September.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Grant McCool)

US imposes new sanctions on Burma companies

2008-05-02T22:18:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The US president, George W Bush has ordered a new round of sanctions on Burmese state companies.He has instructed the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Burmese state-owned companies that fund and prop up the military junta.

The sanctions target companies and industries that produce timber, pearls and gems. The sanctions are the latest US effort to increase pressure on Burma after its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters last September.The Treasury Department has already slapped sanctions on Burma's private companies and military leaders.

No press freedom for Myanmar constitution vote

2008-04-25T02:46:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Myanmar's junta has barred domestic media from reporting on opposition to next month's referendum on a new constitution, media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Thursday. RSF and the Burma Media Association said they were "outraged" by the methods used by the junta to prevent reporting on opposition to the charter, which pro-democracy activists say will allow the generals to entrench their rule."The military government is stopping at nothing to rig a referendum that looks as though it is going to be a sham rather than a free and transparent election," the two organisations said in a joint statement."

The supporters of a 'No' vote must be able to express themselves freely in the media, and journalists must be allowed to report all viewpoints."They said no Myanmar media had been allowed to publish the views of supporters of a "No" vote in the May 10 referendum.RSF also called on the authorities "to let the press do its work without prior censorship and to allow foreign reporters to visit Burma freely.

This is a condition for the international community's recognition of the validity of this election."State media have been running extensive editorials and junta slogans calling for a "Yes" vote but have not reported on opposition to the charter."To approve the state constitution is a national duty of the entire people today. Let us all cast 'Yes' vote in the national interest," the English-language New Light of Myanmar said in a front-page banner on Thursday.The back page urged all those who are real patriots, and "loathe foreign interference and manipulation" to "VOTE 'YES' for ratification of the constitution. "The paper has also published daily poems and cartoons praising the constitution and calling for a "Yes" vote.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has called on the public to vote "No" and said any attempts to campaign against the constitution were being suppressed, sometimes violently."An intimidating atmosphere for the people is created by physically assaulting some of the members of (the) NLD," it said in a statement earlier this month."For these reasons, it is now obvious that the forthcoming referendum cannot be free and fair."The European Union said Wednesday it hoped for a free vote but was preparing to extend sanctions against the regime, while the United States announced it would resubmit a draft statement in the UN Security Council to insist on a "credible" referendum.Washington's ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad cited "disturbing signs that the process (in Myanmar) is not a credible process.""It is very important that given the upcoming referendum and elections, the council sends a strong message, a clear message that the process needs to be credible," he added.

The referendum will be the first balloting in Myanmar since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory that was never recognised by the junta.The generals say the referendum will pave the way for democratic elections in 2010, but analysts say the constitution enshrines the role of the military which has ruled since 1962 and leaves political parties with little room to campaign.

Popular Burmese Rap Performer Arrested

2008-04-23T03:13:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Burmese authorities have arrested popular rap and hip-hop performer Yan Yan Chan in a continuing round-up of celebrities who support the pro-democracy movement.
A resident of Monywa Township in Upper Burma who knows Yan Yan well said he was arrested with a friend, Mie Mie, early Thursday. They were arrested at the house of a mutual friend in Monywa Township, the resident said.

Yan Yan Chan and three musicians founded Burma’s first hip-hop band, ACID in late 2000 and became very popular on the country’s music scene.
A singer who is a friend of Yan Yan Chan said the pop star had been under observation by the authorities since the arrest of his friend Zayar Thaw, another member of ACID, in late February. Zayar Thaw was sent to Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison.

Burmese authorities have become increasingly nervous about the activities of the country’s pop music community and Internet bloggers since the monk-led demonstrations of September 2007.
Musician Win Maw, leader of the Shwe Thansin group, was arrested last November 27 in a Rangoon teashop. He had already been sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1997 for writing songs in support of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In January this year, the authorities arrested one of Burma’s best known bloggers, Nay Phone Latt, whose Internet sites were a major source of information about the protests and the regime’s brutal crackdown.
Nay Phone Latt, a youth member of the opposition National League for Democracy, owned the Explorer Internet café in Rangoon’s Papedan Township, the Heaven Internet café in Thingangyun Township and a third in the same suburb.

The authorities have also tried to break contacts between Burmese bloggers and the outside world by blocking and slowing down Internet transmission speeds.

http://irrawaddy.%20org/article.%20php?art_id=

BY:min lwin

Myanmar junta identifies bombing suspect as member of anti-government group

2008-04-23T03:11:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military junta says it has identified a suspect wanted in two weekend bombings as a member of an exiled anti-government group, state media reported Tuesday.Security cameras behind the Traders Hotel in Yangon, the biggest city in Myanmar, filmed a man "carrying explosives" on Sunday evening before blasts went off in the area, The New Light of Myanmar reported.

The newspaper reprinted a snapshot from the security camera, showing a blurry image of a man in a T-shirt and knee-length shorts holding what appears to be a small bag and another nondescript item.Citing anonymous sources, the state-run newspaper said the man has been identified as a member of the exiled group, Vigorous Burma Student Warriors.

The paper said the man went by the code name Storm, and had entered Myanmar after attending explosive training courses in an unnamed country.Authorities appealed to the public for help in finding the suspect.The second explosion on Sunday went off behind the luxurious Traders Hotel, about an hour after a blast nearby in downtown Yangon.The blasts were caused by explosives planted under cars and caused no injuries, the newspaper said.

Myanmar anti-junta protester dies after setting himself ablaze, hospital officials say

2008-04-23T03:08:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON, Myanmar - A man who set himself on fire at Myanmar's most revered Buddhist temple to protest military rule has died of his injuries, hospital officials said Tuesday.Kyaw Zin Naing suffered burns to more than 60 percent of his body in his March 21 protest at the Shwedagon pagoda in the city of Yangon, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they could be punished for revealing information about a politically sensitive matter.

The 26-year-old man died April 17, they said.Kyaw Zin Naing's protest was the first known case of self-immolation in Myanmar since the military took power in 1962. According to witnesses, the man shouted "Down with the military regime," before dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself ablaze.His action came at a time of heightened political tension in Myanmar, which has been preparing for a referendum on a new military-backed constitution.The junta's critics charge that the charter _ a stage on the junta's so-called "roadmap to democracy" _ was drafted in an undemocratic way, and that it would perpetuate military rule.

The National League for Democracy party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged voters to reject the draft constitution, but long-standing restrictions on freedom of speech and harassment of pro-democracy activists have made it difficult to mount a campaign against the proposed charter.Thousands of pilgrims were at the pagoda for a Buddhist holy day when Kyaw Zin Naing set himself alight.The Shwedagon temple has a history of being a center for mass political gatherings, and was a focus for Buddhist monks and pro-democracy protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the country's military rulers cracked down on the peaceful demonstrations.

Myanmar has had no constitution since 1988 when the current junta took power and scrapped the previous charter after violently quashing mass pro-democracy demonstrations.Suu Kyi's party won the last general election in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power, instead stepping up its repression of dissidents.

2 bombs explode in Myanmar's biggest city of Yangon

2008-04-22T02:46:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON, Myanmar - Witnesses say two bombs have exploded in the biggest city of military-ruled Myanmar. No casualties were reported and the cause of the blasts Sunday was unclear.Witnesses, who insisted on anonymity for fear of official reprisal, said the first explosion took place on the street in the downtown area of Yangon at around 8 p.m.The second blast occurred on a different street in the downtown area, about an hour later.No further details were immediately available, and there were no immediate claims of responsibility. The government has not blamed any group.

Suu Kyi can vote in Myanmar charter poll, her party says

2008-04-22T02:22:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has the right to vote in a referendum next month on a military-backed constitution, her political party said Tuesday. "According to the law, (Aung San Suu Kyi) has the right to vote at the referendum as her detention was not a court order or sentence," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD)."It was just an administrative function," he told AFP.Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 12 of the past 18 years locked away by the ruling military junta in her sprawling lakeside home in Yangon.

Her latest period of detention began in 2003 after a deadly attack on her convoy by supporters of the junta, and has been periodically extended since, with little sign that the generals plan to free her.The regime has called a referendum on May 10 on the proposed new charter, which they claim will -- if approved -- lead to general elections in 2010.Under the new constitution, which was drafted by a committee hand-picked by the junta, Aung San Suu Kyi would be barred from running for office because she was married to a foreigner, Michael Aris, a British citizen who died in 1999.People convicted of a crime by a court are not allowed to vote in the referendum, but detainees who have not faced trial can cast a ballot.There are currently about 1,850 political prisoners in Myanmar, at least 700 of whom were arrested after anti-junta demonstrations last September, which the military crushed, killing at least 31 people, the UN says.

Next month's referendum will be the first balloting in Myanmar since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory, which was never recognised by the junta.The NLD and other activists are calling for a "No" vote on the charter, which analysts say simply enshrines the military's role.

British Envoy Says 'Atmosphere of Intimidation' Clouds Burma Polls

2008-04-22T02:19:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

BANGKOK (AFP) -- A top British envoy on Myanmar [Burma] said Friday an "atmosphere of intimidation" was clouding next month's referendum on a new constitution and urged the military-ruled country to let opposition forces take part.Michael Williams, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's envoy on Myanmar, said Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party must be allowed to participate in the May 10 poll.Williams, who was in Bangkok for discussions with Thai officials, told reporters that he hoped the vote "will have credibility and legitimacy and will allow participation and inclusion of all Myanmar's social and political forces.""At the moment, for the UK, we are concerned there is an atmosphere of intimidation prevailing about the country," he added."The process falls short of what the UK would like to see," Williams said on the last leg of his four-country Asian tour.

The NLD is urging people to vote against the junta-backed charter, which activists say will simply entrench the army's role in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.At least 23 anti-charter activists were arrested on Tuesday for wearing T-Shirts emblazoned with the world 'No,' the NLD reported.The party has also said that any attempts to campaign against the constitution were being suppressed.Official NLD documents were being confiscated by authorities, they said, while local party organisers had been detained and interrogated,The referendum will be the first balloting in military-run Myanmar since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory that was never recognised by the junta.

She remains under house arrest.The regime says the referendum will pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010, but activists say the constitution was drafted with no public input.The NLD and other pro-democracy groups are calling for a "No" vote, but they have little ability to campaign effectively because the junta has outlawed speeches and leaflets about the referendum.

Hundreds protest Dalai Lama in Seattle

2008-04-15T02:09:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

SEATTLE - In a showing of pro-Chinese support, hundreds of demonstrators protested outside a college arena Monday as the Dalai Lama spoke to students on solving problems through dialogue.

Thousands of people have flocked to Seattle to hear the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader speak since he arrived Thursday for a five-day conference on compassion, but the city's Chinese community had remained largely silent until Monday.
Demonstrators held signs alleging media bias and protesting the violence from rioting by Tibetan monks.
Some echoed Beijing's stand that the Dalai Lama is behind the recent uprising against five decades of Chinese rule. Signs called the Dalai Lama a liar and a "CIA-funded militant." Many people waved large Chinese flags.
"I think that people are misinformed. They have media discrimination," demonstrator Jiange Li said. "Tibet was freed — 50 years ago."

The group chanted "We love Tibet," "Stop lying" and "Dalai, your smiles charm, your actions harm," as thousands of people filed into the University of Washington arena. A small plane flew overhead with a banner mirroring the chants.
The China-born community is the largest Asian immigrant group in Seattle, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
However, Seattle has historically been friendly to the Tibetan cause. The Dalai Lama has visited the city several times and has always been warmly welcomed.
Inside the arena, the Dalai Lama received an honorary degree and spoke of the importance of employing dialogue and mutual respect to solve problems.
He was greeted by a standing ovation. University president Mark Emmert welcomed the Tibetan leader, calling him the "pre-eminent spiritual leader of our time."

"You will make this century of peace," the Dalai Lama told students. "Today's world (is) heavily interdependent. Destruction of your neighbor or enemy is destruction of yourself."
He said dialogue is the only way to solve conflict, especially because he sees poverty and environmental problems increasing in the future.
While his visit to the United States was billed as nonpolitical, the Dalai Lama is expected to meet with a senior U.S. official next week to discuss China's crackdown on anti-Beijing protesters in Tibet.

Suu Kyi's party calls for 'No' vote on Myanmar constitution

2008-04-02T14:00:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party Wednesday urged voters to reject an army-backed constitution, turning next month's referendum into Myanmar's first battle for ballots in nearly 20 years. The National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a statement calling on the public "to clearly and bravely vote 'No' when you mark your ballots."The party accused Myanmar's ruling junta of handpicking the drafters of the constitution, saying it was written without consulting any opposing voices.The final version of the constitution has not been released to the public, but leaked copies show the basic law would give the military continued dominance over the government even after elections slated for 2010.Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner who is under house arrest, would be barred from running for president because she married a Briton.The military would also receive broad powers to declare a state of emergency, allowing the generals to take direct control of the government while granting them immunity from prosecution.

The NLD said the constitution would not bring democracy to Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962."It cannot give any guarantee for democracy and human rights, which are strongly needed by the people," the party said."It is not in accord with the basic democratic principle that the sovereign power of the state is derived from the people," it added.The referendum in May will be the first balloting in Myanmar since 1990, when the NLD won a landslide victory that was never recognised by the junta.

The junta says the referendum will pave the way to multiparty elections in 2010, but analysts say the constitution leave political parties with little room to campaign for the polls.Many of Myanmar's 54 million people have never voted before, so the NLD also issued a one-page guide explaining exactly how ballots are cast -- instructing people how to inspect the voter roll, tick the ballot, and then ensure it is kept secret as it goes into the box.The statement was the party's official stand on the referendum, although the NLD's youth wing had last week joined other dissidents in campaigning against the charter.

Myanmar's secretive regime surprised the world by announcing its election timetable in February.The junta says it is building a "discipline- flourishing democracy," but critics accuse the generals of trying to enshrine their control of the government while distracting the world's attention from its deadly crackdown on protests last year.Buddhist monks in September led the biggest anti-government marches seen in nearly two decades, but the military responded by opening fire on the crowds and beating protesters in the streets.The United Nations estimates that at least 31 people were killed, while Amnesty International says more than 700 remain behind bars.The junta last month rebuffed an offer by a UN envoy to send observers and provide technical support for the polls.

The regime has outlawed speeches and leaflets about the referendum, and the NLD's ability to campaign is severely hampered because the party is only allowed to maintain one office in Yangon. Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined to her home for 12 of the last 18 years, and her top lieutenant is also under house arrest. Myanmar has not had a constitution since 1988, when the current junta took power by crushing a pro-democracy uprising, leaving at least 3,000 dead.

NLD urge the people to make their protest vote in referendum

2008-04-02T13:55:00.003-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Dear all,NLD EC announced today that that they reject the SPDC's constitution and urge the people to cast their pretest vote.

http://burmese.dvb.no/news.php?id=4198

Prayer Service for Thingyan New Year

2008-04-02T13:45:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

You are cordially invited to participate with family and friends at the Thingyan New Year Prayer Service to be held by the Buddhist Missionary Society, New York. The ceremony will be conducted with the following programs. It will be a good opportunity to meet new friends, renew acquaintance and perform meritorious deeds on the auspicious occasion of Thingyan New Year.

Programs:

Date: April 20, 2008 (Sunday)

Time: From 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Place: PS 222 (86-15)

FF Christopher A. Santora School
37th Ave, Between 86th and 87 Street
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Subway: Take # 7 train and get off 90th Street.

Phones: (718) 898 8274/ (718) 899 6081

In the service of Dharma
Buddhist Missionary Society
New York
May you be full of bliss

The HUMAN RIGHTS Council must follow up on Myanmar

2008-04-02T02:33:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The UN special expert on Myanmar has just presented his report to the Human Rights Council. In it, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro talks of systematic and extremely serious human rights violations and calls on the Council now to follow up on its own resolutions on Myanmar.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, presented two reports during the 7th session of the Human Rights Council on Thursday (March 13). The first was on the general situation in the country, the second on events following the peaceful uprising in September 2007, bloodily put down by the ruling Junta. The renewal of the Rapporteur’s mandate is due to be reviewed during this session.
For seven years Pinheiro has worked on the issue of human rights in Myanmar. “I did not create my mandate. You have entrusted me with the follow-up of your resolutions” he told Council members. He said there has been no progress on the Council’s recommendations of December 2007. "Read the resolutions that you have adopted and see if they have been respected or not in Myanmar,” he demanded.
The sombre atmosphere in the room reflected the gravity of the human rights violations listed in his report: summary executions, torture, forced labour, sexual violence, recruitment of child soldiers, detention of political prisoners, forced displacement, confiscation of land, restrictions on the rights of assembly, on humanitarian aid, on the opposition, on freedom of the press, the culture of impunity. But it is not an exhaustive list.

Sham Reforms

In 2004 the Burmese authorities announced a seven-point road map leading to democratic transition. A referendum on a new constitution is due to take place in May 2008, as well as multiparty elections in 2010. In between came the peaceful demonstrations of September 2007 and their bloody repression by the military junta.
Since December 2007, the government has not given Mr Pinheiro permission to visit the country. He did however, make a report. “At least 31 people have been killed, between 3,000 and 4,000 people were arrested between September and October 2007 and at least 74 disappearance cases merit serious investigation” said Mr Pinheiro, adding that, “at least 1850 political prisoners are behind bars”.
He also revealed that, “activists, human right defenders, and journalists are hunted down and arrested for such reasons as having a copy of my last report to the Council. I am extremely concerned that official reports by this Council can be used as proof of criminal activity”.

Only 15 dead

For its part, the Burmese delegation totally rejected both the Pinheiro reports, considering them “completely lacking in objectivity and impartiality. It accused the Special Rapporteur of interfering in the country’s internal affairs and stressed Mayanmar’s “positive and significant” development towards a democratic state. The Ambassador explained the reasons for refusing to give permission for Mr Pinheiro to visit Myanmar since December 2007. “The timing is not opportune…the government has had a very busy and important schedule” in the run up to the referendum. He also told the Council “we would like to restate that only 15 people died” in the crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations.
Twenty- one delegations and eight NGOs responded to his remarks. China said it hopes Myanmar will adopt a more conciliatory attitude in the Council. India called for a “process involving all sections of society including Mrs Aung San Suu-Kyi and ethnic groups”. The International Commission of Jurists said “the situation is a test for the Council as well for all its members to exercise their responsibility so that the government of Myanmar is held to account”
“If the Council wants to have meaning, said Pinheiro, taking the floor for the last time. "I think it is fundamental that its resolutions are respected. It is time to check what is applied and what is not”.
His final words received thunderous applause broke out. According to seasoned Council observers, “it was a rare moment within these walls”.

At least 40 protesters convicted in secret Myanmar trials

2008-04-02T01:57:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

BANGKOK (AFP) - At least 40 protesters in Myanmar, including seven Buddhist monks, have been sentenced to prison after secret trials over last year's pro-democracy marches, Amnesty International said Tuesday. In September, Buddhist monks spearheaded the biggest anti-government protests in Yangon in nearly 20 years, but the military regime violently suppressed the movement by opening fire on crowds and beating people in the streets.Officially, more than 3,000 people were arrested during the crackdown.

The junta says the vast majority have been released.But Amnesty said in a statement that at least 700 are still behind bars, and at least 40 of them have been sentenced to prison after secret trials.The rights watchdog said its research found protesters had been convicted "for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.""Three people were sentenced merely for giving water to monks on the street," the statement said.

The group urged the UN Security Council to pass a resolution reflecting the international community's concerns over the country, after a visit in March by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari yielded no progress on the human rights situation."Rather than comply with the Security Council's appeals, the Myanmar authorities have instead moved to the next phase of their crackdown and suppression of the human rights of the Myanmar people with these sentences," Amnesty said."The Council cannot allow this to continue."

The United Nations estimates that at least 31 people were killed during the crackdown six months ago.In addition to the 700 jailed protesters, Myanmar has another 1,150 political prisoners held prior to the monks' marches in September.Most famous among them is Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

Myanmar Deports Tibetan Activists

2008-04-02T01:36:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — An ethnic minority group that was pressured by Beijing has deported to China two key Tibetan political activists who were hiding in northern Myanmar, a dissident group said.
The two, who had been hunted by authorities after they fled from China's Yunnan province, were turned over to the Chinese shortly after their capture Sunday, the Kachin News Group said in a press release Monday.
The activists, who were not identified, were captured by the Kachin Independence Organization, or KIO, one of several ethnic minority groups that has signed cease-fire agreements with Myanmar's ruling junta after decades of rebellion.
The Kachin News Group, one of several news agencies based in Thailand that are operated by anti-junta activists, said the two Tibetans were arrested by the KIO in the Myanmar town of Laiza.
The KIO could not immediately be reached for comment.
The KIO exercises some autonomy in areas under its control, and its military wing has been allowed to retain its weapons, but tensions between the Kachin and the central government have been reported in recent years.
China has tightened security in Tibetan areas of Yunnan province following bloody anti-Chinese riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
Myanmar's military government, which has close ties with Beijing, said last week that it opposed any moves to link recent unrest in Tibet with the Beijing Olympics in August. It said the unrest in Tibet was "purely the internal affairs" of China.

Russian Ambassador Opposes UN ‘Presidential Statement’ on Referendum

2008-04-02T01:23:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

A tentative move by the United States to have a new UN Security Council presidential statement on the Burmese constitutional referendum was met with opposition by the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, on Monday.
Churkin made his remarks on his last day as president of the Security Council, which rotates each month among its 15 members. South Africa takes over the presidency for the month of April starting on Tuesday.

The Russian ambassador indicated that his country, which has the power of veto in the Security Council, would oppose any proposal to issue a new presidential statement in regard to the referendum on a draft constitution in Burma in May.
The Burmese draft constitution is loaded heavily in favor of the military junta, say critics. It would prevent Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy opposition group, from running in the election and does not include safeguards for democracy and ethnic groups.
Referring to the UN Security Council meeting on Burma last month, which was addressed by the UN Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, the Russian ambassador said: “In the course of the consultation, one delegation said that maybe we should have another presidential statement.”
The statement was made by the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad.
“In fact, the way it was described by the authors of that idea was that the presidential statement should be focused very heavily on the way the referendum is going to be conducted in Myanmar [Burma]: listing some criteria for the success or openness or the democratic nature of that referendum,” Churkin said.
“Responding off the top of my head, I said to the members of the Council that the way I heard this idea, to me it is somewhat improper for the Security Council to go into describing modalities for a referendum or an election because we are not an election board,” he said.
“We are the Security Council; we are dealing with issues of threats to international peace and security,” he said.
Noting that there are other institutions within the UN that can provide recommendations or set criteria for elections, Churkin said: “To involve the Security Council in this kind of exercise, to me, did not sound like something which is justified; not because of the Myanmar situation but as a general proposition of the role of the Security Council and prerogative of the Security Council.”
Churkin noted that there has been no proposal for a presidential statement so far.
“If they were to propose something, we would be looking into it, but I would like to remind you that we do have a Presidential Statement on the Security Council on Myanmar (October 2007), and Gambari’s mandate derives from the General Assembly. So we have to keep those two things in mind when we look at things that could be done by the Security Council,” he said.

Referendum Sub-commissions Formed by Local Authorities

2008-03-22T01:15:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Burma’s military government has organized township sub-commissions to prepare for the referendum on the constitution in May, staffed mainly with officials from the townships’ ruling councils and regime supporters, USDA sources say. The junta did not include executive members of its mass organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), on the local sub-commissions.

USDA sources told on Thursday that local authorities formed sub-commissions recently made up of the head of each Township Peace and Development Council and Village Peace and Development Council. Officials of township administrations will serve as secretaries of sub-commissions across the country. Sources said USDA executive members from townships were told by authorities they would not be named to the sub-commissions, but regular USDA members would be appointed instead. Officials from immigration offices and other government services would also be included on the sub-commissions, a source close to the USDA said.

Authorities have still not released any detailed information about the May referendum voting process to sub-commission members, said the source.The regime’s main referendum commission is chaired by Aung Toe, the chief of justice and head of the constitution drafting committee. According to a news report in the state-run Myanma Alin on Thursday, a central secretary of the USDA, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, who is also the information minister, met with members of the USDA from Mingalar Thaung Nyunt Township in Rangoon . The election commission and sub-commissions appointed during the 1990 nationwide election included local residents and ordinary citizens.

Local observers say the current sub-commissions do not represent a cross-section of the public. Meanwhile, the United Nations Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, briefed the UN Security Council on March 18 on his latest trip to Burma. He expressed disappointment in the outcome but vowed to keep the crisis on the Security Council’s agenda.“Whereas each of my previous visits produced some results that could be built upon, it is a source of disappointment that this latest visit did not yield any immediate tangible outcome,” Gambari told the 15-member council.The UN’s proposals for Burma included an inclusive national reconciliation process with UN involvement; genuine dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi; and measures to address political, human rights, economic and humanitarian issues. The ruling junta snubbed the UN proposals during Gambari’s visit.

The US Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters, “We are disappointed by the lack of any concrete achievement.” Gambari’s visited to the Southeast Asian country from March 6 to 10.

Gambari to Meet UN Chief, Brief Security Council

2008-03-11T23:03:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that his special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, had not been able to achieve as much as he had hoped during his recent trip to Burma. Still, he said, the United Nations would continue to press the military junta to move towards democratization.
Gambari, who left Burma Monday following a five-day trip to the country, will meet the secretary general in Dakar, capital of the African nation of Senegal, later this week. Ban will be attending the 11th summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The secretary general said Gambari has briefed him in detail on his trip to Burma. “Of course, he was not able to meet with Snr-Gen Than Shwe, but he has met many senior people, even including the constitution- drafting and review committee members. That was unusual,” Ban told reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

Ban, who was addressing the media on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, was specifically asked how disappointed he was, as Gambari was unable to get an agreement from the military junta for UN monitoring of elections in Burma, or for any amendment to the constitution that would allow Aung San Suu Kyi to run for office.

“There was some progress, but we were not able to achieve as much as we had hoped. This is an ongoing effort. But I will continue to press this issue so that Myanmar will meet the expectations of the international community towards democratization,” Ban said.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said reports coming from Burma were not encouraging and he was looking forward to hearing Gambari’s briefing to the Security Council.

“It’s not encouraging based on what we saw and we want to hear from him—we look forward to him reporting to the (Security) Council very quickly after he returns to New York and for the Council to deliberate on what needs to happen to incentivize the military regime to cooperate with the mission the good office of the secretary-general’ s advisor,” Khalilzad told reporters at the UN.

Given that Gambari will be briefing Ban at Dakar later this week and is expected to return to New York over the weekend, his briefing to the Security Council, if any, will be held early next week at the earliest.

Gambari meets Myanmar ministers

2008-03-11T22:58:00.002-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The UN special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, Sunday met a group of mid-level ministers in a visit to Myanmar that so far appears to have failed to push the ruling junta into making any concessions on an upcoming vote. Twice during his trip the regime has openly rebuffed his diplomatic overtures, while he has been denied access to key decision-makers such as junta leader Than Shwe, casting real doubt on how much his mission can achieve. Gambari met Myanmar’s minister of health, minister of planning, deputy foreign minister and civil service chairman at a military guesthouse on Sunday morning, a United Nations statement said.

It gave no details on what was discussed.A government official said earlier that Gambari met the information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, but the UN did not mention the meeting. The Nigerian diplomat was granted a rare meeting here Saturday with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, that was quickly overshadowed when the junta rejected his offer to send foreign observers to a planned constitutional referendum in May designed to pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010. Gambari’s visit had already run into trouble Friday when Kyaw Hsan accused him of bias in favour of Aung San Suu Kyi, and said the junta would not make any changes to the constitution, which bars her from running.

The UN envoy had been expected to leave military-run Myanmar on Sunday, but extended his trip by one day despite the setbacks. ‘His visit has been extended, so he will go back tomorrow. His schedule is always changing,’ said a government official who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Gambari had arrived Thursday aiming to push the junta to include Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party in the referendum and elections. The constitution would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from the polls because of her marriage to a foreigner, while a new law limits the NLD’s ability to campaign by criminalising public speeches and leaflets about the referendum.

Rakhaing Orphanage School in Bangladesh

2008-03-11T22:54:00.001-04:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Here is a video clip of rakhaing orphanage school in Bangladesh. http://youtube.com/watch?v=pv3hv9ZnBBE . I am very sorry that I had to take down the first clip due to some reasons. This orphanage school is also run by a monastery in Bangladesh. Unlike the first clip that I put on net few days ago, the current clip contains interviews with monks, laymen, and children. I hope you can do something for them.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pv3hv9ZnBBE

Myanmar to prioritise China, India

2008-03-11T22:50:00.001-04:00

Myanmar will attach priority to agreements for export of gas to China and India, officials said on Sunday. The Southeast Asian neighbour will consider exporting gas to Bangladesh only after meeting the demands of China and India or if the country finds new gasfields. In such a situation, the government is also considering import of liquid natural gas to face the lingering gas crisis, the officials with the energy and mineral resources division said.

The chief adviser’s special assistant M Tamim who is in charge of energy told the news agency on Sunday: ‘Myanmar has informed us that at the moment they do not have enough gas to export to us.’ ‘If they find further gas deposits, they will consider our request.’ Myanmar’s stance on gas export to Bangladesh was communicated to the foreign affairs secretary, Md Touhid Hossain, when he visited the neighbouring country in mid-February.

The foreign affairs ministry wrote a letter to the energy and mineral resources division on Myanmar’s position. The special assistant said, ‘We will now contact Myanmar authorities directly.’ ‘For now, we are thinking of signing a memorandum of understanding on gas with Myanmar.’ A top official of the energy and mineral resources division, asking not to be named, said the government was still hopeful of importing gas from Myanmar. After being informed of Myanmar’s stance, the government is also thinking of importing LNG to overcome the gas crisis.

According to Petrobangla, the current gas production capacity is 1800 million cubic feet, with actual output of around 1700 million cubic feet per day. Of this, 240 million cubic feet is being supplied to fertiliser industry against total demand for 289 million cubic feet per day. Daily demand from the country’s power plants at present stands at 841 million cubic feet, but only 633 million cubic feet gas is supplied. According to the Power Development Board, electricity generation is being greatly hampered by the gas crisis.

Suu Kyi must have role in politics: Myanmar

2008-02-26T22:48:00.003-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi must be allowed to play a role in the nation's political process, her party said yesterday, adding the ruling junta was wrong to bar her from elections.Foreign Minister Nyan Win last week confirmed to his Southeast Asian counterparts that the military's new constitution would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running in elections that have been slated for May.Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), warned in a statement that the junta was wrong to rule her out before voters were given a chance to decide on the charter in a referendum set for May.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is someone who definitely must be involved in Myanmar's political process," the NLD said."It's completely unlawful for an unauthorised person to comment on the election, because there is still no constitution and no election law," the party said, referring to Nyan Win."This comment is a personal and political attack on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, and it also sounds like a pre-determined decision to not allow her to participate in elections," it said.

Nyan Win told a regional gathering in Singapore that the new constitution would ban Aung San Suu Kyi from politics because she married a Briton and her two sons have British nationality.But the party insisted that Aung San Suu Kyi's family has unrivaled nationalist credentials, because her father General Aung San gave his life to lead the struggle for independence from Britain.

Nyan Win's comments could "harm the national reconciliation process and the country's peace and stability," the party said.Myanmar's military has ruled the country formerly known as Burma since 1962.If held, the promised elections would be the first since Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 polls.The junta has never recognised the result, and instead has kept the Nobel peace prize winner under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.The United States has ridiculed Myanmar's proposed constitution, urging the regime to "start from scratch" and draft a new one with NLD's participation.

Three Chinese marine police hurt in Myanmar shootout: officials

2008-02-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Three Chinese marine police have been injured in a gunfight with Myanmar drug traffickers in the notorious Golden Triangle along the Mekong river, Thai officials said yesterday.The Chinese boat was patrolling the river where it flows between Myanmar and Laos, under a regional co-operation scheme aimed at fighting drug trafficking in an area renowned for opium and now a major producer of amphetamines.
A second boat carrying half a dozen suspected drug traffickers opened fire as it approached the Chinese vessel, Thai navy officials said.As the boats neared, the Myanmar gang boarded the Chinese craft, shooting and stabbing some of the six police before jumping back on their own vessel to escape, said Commander Pakorn Pothichai of the Thai Navy Mission for the Mekong.The clash lasted about five minutes. The three wounded Chinese police have been hospitalised in the northern Thai town of Chiang Rai, he added.Pakorn said the gang was believed to be working to protect a drugs shipment on the river."Chinese officials apparently had a tip-off of about the drugs delivery, so the drug traffickers were trying to stop them," he said.Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium after Afghanistan.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in October that after nearly a decade of decline, opium production in Myanmar was up 46 percent on the previous year.The UN agency blamed the jump on "corruption, high-level collusion and weak border security."In recent years, Myanmar has also become a major producer of amphetamines.
The United States says several hundred million amphetamine tablets are produced in Myanmar every year and shipped by gangs to neighbouring China and Thailand.China, one of Myanmar's few supporters, has also publicly pressured the junta to do more to reduce the drug problem.China blames drugs from Myanmar for high rates of addiction and HIV in its southwestern Yunnan province.

CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE

2008-02-26T22:40:00.001-05:00

A Fire Broke out in Mandalay of Burma

2008-02-25T23:38:00.001-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

A fire broke out this morning at Yadanpon Market in Burma's second largest city of Mandalay.
The fire started at 8:00 a.m. (local time) and continues to burn at the time of this filing, 9:00 a.m. (local time).
It is the second such incident within a week in Mandalay.
Eyewitnesses say the fire is continuing and is reportedly heading towards the 'AM Fashion' store in the market.
"If the fire continues for another hour, everything will be consumed," a witness told Mizzima.
Yadanapon Teleport is also reportedly beginning to catch the fire.
The fire broke out as vendors at the market began opening their shops this morning. While the cause of the fire is still unclear, initial reports claim that the cause of the fire was an electrical wire shock.
With heavy smoke choking the air, firefighters are reportedly finding it difficult to enter the market to extinguish the fire.
"Shop owners and others stood desperately and watched the fire consume the market," an eyewitness recounted.
On February 24, a fire erupted at Mandalay's 84th Street, 25th – 26th Street Junction. Reports suggest that there were casualties during the fire.
The Yadanpon Market is located at the 32nd and 78th Street junction, and has several stores popular nation-wide, including service centers such as the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Park (MICT Park), Skywalk sales room and Orange supermarket.
The Market complex, the second largest in Mandalay after Zegyoe Market, was built in 2003. Besides hosting a range of stores, it also has entertainment venues such as snooker rooms and restaurants.
With no more adjacent buildings to which the fire could spread, the inferno gradually burnt itself out at approximately 11 a.m. (local time).
A local resident said that blasts from gas cylinders in the Market's restaurant complex could be distinctly heard throughout the area.

Indian company to explore gas in Myanmar inland block

2008-02-23T22:28:00.001-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

February 21, 2008
Indian oil company, the Essar, will start drilling test well to explore natural gas at an inland block in Myanmar's western coastal Rakhine state during this year under a production sharing contract with Myanmar initiated more than two years ago, the leading local weekly Yangon Times reported Wednesday.

The drilling will be undertaken at Block-L in Sittway of the state. Block-L stands one of the two blocks which the Indian company is to explore gas under the contract signed with the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise in May 2005.

The gas exploration on another block A-2 lying off the Rakhine coast will follow later, the report said. The Essar is another Indian company engaged in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar after the ONGC Videsh Ltd of India and the Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), both of which are being involved in similar activities since 2000 at Block A-1 and A-3 in the same offshore area in partnership with South Korea's Daewoo International Corporation and South Korea Gas Corporation.

The consortium is led by Daewoo. In September last year, the ONGC signed separate production sharing contracts with Myanmar to explore natural gas in three deep-sea blocks of AD-2, AD-3 and AD-9 in the Rakhine offshore areas, according to earlier official report. Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources especially in the offshore areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said, adding that the country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve.

According to the Central Statistical Organization, in the fiscal year 2006-07, Myanmar produced 7.707 million barrels of crude oil and 13.039 BCM of gas. Gas export during the year went to 13.028 BCM, gaining 2.03 billion U.S. dollars. The latest figures indicate that in the first half (April-September) of 2007-08, the country's crude oil production amounted to 3.857 million barrels, while its gas output 6.74 BCM. Gas export was registered at 9.17 BCM during the period, obtaining 1.531 billion dollars.

More statistics reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas sector had reached 3.243 billion dollars in 85 projects as of the end of 2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, standing the second in the country's foreign investment in this sector after electricity industry. Currently, 13 foreign oil companies, mainly from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Russia, are involved in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, according to official sources.

Source:Xinhua

Golden Yellow New History By Thiri_Nyunt

2008-02-23T22:24:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Dedicated Song to the Monks of Burma democratization movement under the miitary junta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_m-N76yDqY

Enjoy and You have to unity for freedom to democracy.

Myanmar's gas exports to Thailand surge 55pc

2008-02-23T22:20:00.001-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Saturday, February 23, 2008YANGON:
Military-ruled Myanmar, facing a spate of sanctions from the West for its human rights record, saw its natural gas exports to neighbouring Thailand soar 55 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year.The state-run Central Statistical Organisation said in a recent report the junta made $1.56 billion from exports of 324,109 million cubic feet of natural gas in April-September 2007, a 76 per cent jump in value from the same period last year.

Thailand, which uses natural gas as its prime fuel for power production and which is the sole importer of Myanmar gas, buys between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of its gas requirements from its western neighbour.The two countries signed an agreement in 1995 for the sale of gas from Myanmar's two offshore fields, and delivery of gas started through a cross-border pipeline in July 1998.

Myanmar gets most of its export earnings from selling gas to Thailand, which is competing against China and India for a slice of the country's abundant gas reserves, despite international calls for it to shun trading with the junta. The United States, which imposed a ban on new investment in Myanmar in 1997, tightened sanctions after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September last year, in which at least 31 people were killed.

Good Website for Arakanese

2008-02-23T22:14:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

> http://www.arakanmusic.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=92> http://www.arakanmusic.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=92> http://www.arakanmusic.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=92>

KNU: More Leaders Targeted for Assassination

2008-02-18T00:32:00.001-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Two more senior military leaders of the Karen National Union (KNU) are on Karen splinter groups’ hit lists, according to KNU sources.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy by phone on Friday and Saturday, a KNU senior officer said that Gen Mu Tu, commander in chief of the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and Brig-Gen Jonny, commander of KNLA Brigade 7, were targets for assassination by both the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council.

The claims follow the assassination of Mahn Sha, general secretary of the KNU, on Thursday.
“Ever since Htain Maung defected, he has always planned to kill the KNU’s top leaders,” said a KNU source who works closely with the KNU leadership.
Maj-Gen Htain Maung led some 300 soldiers from Brigade 7 in defecting to the Burmese army in February 2007. His splinter group is now known as KNU/KNLA Peace Council.

Another KNU source said that speculation had been rife that Mahn Sha was assassinated by the DKBA, which who split from the rebel coalition in 1995.
Mahn Sha was secretary general of the KNU, an ethnic rebel group that has been fighting for independence since 1949.

The source said that two days ago before Mahn Sha’s assassination, a DKBA member named Soe Myint, also known as San Pyote, called a friend of hers who was living in the same house as Mahn Sha and asked for the address of his home. San Pyote said that he was interested in buying Mahn Sha's car.
San Pyote belongs to the DKBA Battalion 999.
However, a DKBA source has denied the accusation.

He said, “It is not possible—the DKBA split from the KNU more than 10 years ago. After Mahn Sha was killed, even some of the DKBA’s leadership called me and asked me what happened.”
Mahn Sha had received phone threats before his assassination, said Blooming Night Zar, an acting contact person regarding the death of Mahn Sha.
She said, “On Karen Revolution Day, an unknown man phoned Mahn Sha and said to him, ‘I will come and shoot you!’”

KNU sources claim that prior to Thursday’s assassination, about 20 spies from the DKBA were assigned and deployed in the Mae Sot area for purposes of assassination. Sources believe the plot to kill Mahn Sha was well planned weeks in advance.

Assassinations among the KNU, the DKBA and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council have increased since the defection of Htain Maung’s faction.
After the assassinations of Lt-Col Kyi Linn, a commander of the KNLA, in August 2007, who met secretly with Lt-Col Min Chit Oo of the Burmese Southeast Military Affairs Security department, and Col Ler Moo, the son-in-law of Htain Maung, who was killed last month, Mahn Sha and Jonny were blamed for masterminding the plots and were targeted for assassination, a KNU source said.

Meanwhile, opposition groups in exile have accused the Burmese military regime of being responsible for Mahn Sha’s assassination.
In November 2007, San Pyote tried to kill Brig-Gen Jonny, a KNU official from Brigade 7.

“All this is enough to make the Burmese government very happy,” Brig-Gen Jonny told The Irrawaddy. “We Karen people should be unified. If we are divided, we will never achieve self-determination and the rights we demand.”

BURMESE RAMAYANA IN NYC

2008-02-18T00:03:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

One of the famous drama in Budhhist's history, Ramayana ,that was born in India, will be held in New York city as a Burmese Ramayana.Featuring and directed by Shwe Man Win Maung, son of Shwe Man Tha Bin, and the epic Ramayana will be portrayed as a dance-drama by his 14 fellow members in the following timetable.

Burmese Ramayana

Friday: March 7,2008...8:00P.M.

Saturday: March 8,2008....2:00P.M and 8:00P.M.

Place: The Hudson Guild Theater

441 West 26th Street

Admission: $100,$30,$20

UN Chief Convenes Burma Meeting

2008-02-18T00:00:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday convened a meeting of his “Group of Friends” on Burma to discuss the situation arising out of the Burmese military government’s unilateral decision to hold a referendum on its draft constitution followed by general elections.

This was the second meeting of the Secretary-General’ s “Group of Friends” on Burma, the first being in December.
The group comprises 14 members, including Burma’s neighbors India, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. The permanent members of the Security Council—China, the US, Britain, Russia and France—were also involved, as was Slovenia, in its capacity as European Union president, as well as Australia, Norway and Japan, the largest donor country to Burma.

While details of the meeting held at the UN headquarters were not immediately available, it is understood that some of the key international players, such as the US, France and Britain, observed that such an announcement coming from the Burmese military regime is in “open defiance” to the view of the international community.

In October, in a presidential statement, the UN Security Council urged the Burmese junta to initiate dialogue toward the restoration of democracy in the country with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy and the ethnic groups. The statement also called for the immediate release of all political prisoners and an all-inclusive and transparent process toward a new democratic constitution and the protection of human rights.

The US, Britain and France are believed to have argued the case for stronger UN intervention and a binding Security Council resolution in this regard. They also urged countries like India and China, which hold a considerable degree of influence over the military regime, to play a more assertive role.
On the other hand, countries like China, India and Thailand are understood to have taken the stance that the Burmese junta’s announcement must be respected and that this is the first step toward the restoration of democracy in the country.

Addressing the representatives of the 14 countries, Ban Ki-moon is believed to have said that, at this juncture, it is important that UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari visits the country as soon as possible.
According to the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday exchanged views by telephone regarding a planned visit to China by Gambari.
Ban informed the “Group of Friends” that the special envoy is scheduled to visit Beijing from February 18 to 19, followed by trips to Jakarta and Singapore.

Death Video of KNU's assassination

2008-02-15T23:28:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

here is the video released a few minutes from the Thailand-Burma border.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OQYJy40XMk

KNU name new leader

2008-02-15T23:21:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

The Karen National Union (KNU), a leading ethnic rebel group in Burma, has named a new leader following the mysterious murder of its chief.
It also vowed to continue its decades-long struggle against the country's military junta.

KNU general secretary Mahn Sha was shot by two gunmen on Thursday at his home in the Thailand border town of Mae Sot, according to Thai police.
"We lost one of our leaders but nothing will affect our movement," said Ba Thien, president of the KNU, who blamed the killing on troops loyal to the junta.

"The struggle for our cause will continue."
Thai police who investigated the shooting said the murder may have been the result of internal differences in the rebel group.
The KNU's number two official, Htoo Htoo Lay, 61, automatically became the group's new leader, according to the KNU's constitution.

The killing came less than a week after Burma's military government announced plans for a referendum on a new constitution in May, to be followed by a general election in 2010.
The plans have been denounced by the KNU and other opponents of the regime as a sham devised to perpetuate military rule.

Sourced By: The Associated Press

CSW condemns assassination of Karen leader in Burma

2008-02-15T23:18:00.001-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Christian Today-Posted: Friday, February 15, 2008, 9:17 (GMT)

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has expressed its “deep shock, sadness and outrage” at the assassination of the General Secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), Padoh Mahn Sha, in Thailand on Thursday.

Mahn Sha, one of Burma’s most prominent ethnic leaders, was shot dead at his home on the Thai-Burmese border on Wednesday afternoon. It is believed that the murder was ordered by Burma’s military regime.

A delegation from CSW had met with Mahn Sha and other KNU leaders in his home just three days earlier, on Monday.

CSW’s Advocacy Officer Benedict Rogers said: “I knew Padoh Mahn Sha personally, considered him a friend, and met with him many times.
"His assassination is shocking, and robs Burma and its ethnic nationalities of a wise, courageous, humble, principled leader who has now paid the ultimate sacrifice for his people and their cause.

"He was held in great respect by many people, and was deeply committed to freedom, democracy and human rights for the whole nation of Burma. On behalf of CSW, I wish to express our very deepest condolences to his family and friends, and to all Karen people. We join in their mourning, and hold them in our prayers.”

CSW is currently in the region on a fact-finding visit and has obtained fresh evidence of systematic and widespread human rights violations including forced labour, rape and torture.

First-hand testimonies were obtained from Burmese monks who fled as a result of the September crackdown, Shan and Karen internally displaced people and refugees.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/csw.condemns.assassination.of.karen.leader.in.burma/16892.htm

Arakanese and Burmese Interpreters Needed!!!

2008-02-14T23:06:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Freelance Interpreters Needed!!!

Reply to: dilnoza.djurahodjaeva@lionbridge.com

The Lionbridge is the proud recipient of several federal contracts for interpretation services. We are currently recruiting telephonic and on-site freelance interpreters for the Department of Justice and Homeland Security.

Lionbridge is recruiting the following languages:

Spanish (In Philadelphia, PA and York, PA) Burmese Arakanese Foochow (Fuzhou, Fuchou dialect) Wenzhow (Wenchow, Wenzhou) Indonesian Vietnamese Ilocano Pampangan/Kapampangan Karen Segaw Palauan Pohnepaen Hainan Lin Gao Falam T’en (Pingtan) Henan/Jinyu .

*Must be a US citizen or Permanent Resident *Must be at least 18 years of age *Must have lived in the US for 3 of the last 5 years *Must be willing to submit to a basic background check with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security *Must pass an oral proficiency exam with a score of 70 or above We offer free training, competitive pay and travel opportunities .

If you would like to become a Lionbridge interpreter, send your resume to Dilnoza.Djurahodjaeva@Lionbridge.com. Please put the language(s) you speak and your city in the subject line of the email. To learn more about Lionbridge, please visit our website: www.lionbridge.com http://interpretation.lionbridge.com/
Location: Philadelphia
Compensation: Competitive

2008-02-14T21:59:00.004-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, 64, a leader of the Karen National Union, one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting Myanmar's military government, was killed by gunmen on 14.02.2008 at his home in Maesot, Thailand.

The tragic death of Padoh Mahn Sha is an immeasurable loss for all freedom loving people of Burma and it indeed is a deadly blow to the entire pro-democracy and human rights movement of all people of all ethnic races in Burma.

Biography:

Secretary-General and spokesperson for the Karen National Union
Born on the 5th July 1943, in Taw Gyaung village, Pan Tanaw Township, Maaubin District, Delta division, Burma.
He is a Buddhist, Poe Karen with have two sons and two daughters.
Padoh Mahn Sha graduated from Rangoon University in 1966 with a degree in History. He then joined Karen Revolution led by KNU in 1966. Before joining KNU, He was one of the KNU – UG from 1963 to 1966.
From 1966 to 1974, He had visited Ethnic revolution in Kareni, Shan and Kachin states several times. During that period, He traveled to China two times to talk with BCP and CPC.

From 1975 to 1984, He became a Joint Secretary of KNU, Nyaung Lay Bin District. In November 1984, He became a member of KNU central committee and moved to KNU Headquarters.

After joining the Karen Revolution in 1966, later he became a personal secretary of General Saw Bo Mya in 1988, the time when Saw Bo Mya was the president of KNU, DAB and NCUB.
In 1995 KNU 11th congress, He was elected as a Joint General Secretary, and in 2000 KNU 12th congress, he was elected as a General Secretary of KNU. Simultaneously he became a member of National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) secretariat.

Mahn Sha was elected General Secretary of the KNU again in 2004 KNU 13th congress and remains in that position until today.

US Senators Introduce Bill to Grant Burma's Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Congress' Most Prestigious Honor, Congressional Gold Medal

2008-02-13T23:13:00.002-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

For Immediate Release to Media: February 13th, 2008, 2:15 PM

Contact: Jeremy Woodrum (202) 234-8022(Washington, DC)

Weeks after the House of Representatives voted 400 - 0 to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the leader of Burma's democracy movement Aung San Suu Kyi, 75 US Senators have introduced an identical measure today in the US Senate.The effort is spearheaded in the US Senate by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The measure is supported by Presidential front-runners Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama.

"Thousands of our members across the United States have worked very hard to ensure that this great honor is bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi," said Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma and a former political prisoner in Burma. "Aung San Suu Kyi is a giant for human rights and democracy, and we hope this award will strengthen her efforts even further."

Added Jack Healey, Director of the Human Rights Action Center, "We also want this award to send a strong signal to China. China has paralyzed United Nations efforts on Burma while providing billions in arms to Burma's military regime. There should be no 'business as usual' between China and the US as long as China continues to prop up this brutal regime."

The Congressional Gold Medal, launched in 1776, is considered the most prominent award given by the United States government. The first medal was awarded by the Second Continental Congress to then-General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War.

Recipients include Thomas Edison, Sir Winston Churchill, Robert Kennedy, Elie Wiesel, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.Since the Gold Medal's inception 232 years ago, only 19 foreigners have received the award, and Aung San Suu Kyi would be the 20th.

Under Congressional rules, 2/3 of both the House and Senate must co-sponsor and pass resolutions authorizing the award. The 75 Senators introducing the bill exceed the required number of co-sponsors.In the House, the effort was led by Representatives Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL).

Reads the legislation: "[Aung San Suu Kyi] is the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, spending more than 12 of the past 17 years under house arrest." The bill further states that "Despite an assassination attempt against her life, her prolonged illegal imprisonment, the constant public vilification of her character, and her inability to see her children or to see her husband before his death, Ms. Suu Kyi remains committed to peaceful dialogue with her captors, Burma's military regime, and Burma's ethnic minorities towards bringing democracy, human rights, and national reconciliation to Burma."Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of Burma's democracy movement, rising to national prominence in 1988 after the country's military regime gunned down up to 10,000 civilians during nationwide nonviolent marches calling for an end to military rule.

Subsequently, she led her political party the National League for Democracy to win 82% of the seats in parliament in Burma's last democratic election in 1990. The military annulled the results of the election and locked up hundreds of her supporters. She has been held under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years while her supporters wage a peaceful struggle for human rights and democracy.

Burma was catapulted onto the front pages of newspaper in September and October 2007 when Buddhist monks and students led nationwide peaceful demonstrations calling for an end to military rule.Suu Kyi's admirers around the world include Nobel Peace laureates Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams, and Adolfo Perez Esquivel, musicians R.E.M., Damien Rice, and Ani DiFranco, and Hollywood stars Jim Carrey, Anjelica Huston, Julie Benz, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Szmanda, Walter Koenig, and many more. Successive US administrations under Presidents Clinton and Bush have stood strongly in support of Suu Kyi, while 60 former Presidents and Prime Ministers signed a united call for her release in June 2007.

Progress in Burma has been mainly blocked by China, which serves as the Burmese military regime's chief supplier of military hardware. China also vetoed a peaceful resolution at the UN Security Council that would have required Burma's military regime to participate in negotiations with Aung San Suu Kyi. China scheduled the opening of the 2008 Olympics on the anniversary of a major democracy uprising in Burma, and activists plan to use the occasion to focus attention on how China is unilaterally paralyzing UN and international efforts to support peaceful change in Burma.

UNION DAY IN JAPAN

2008-02-12T23:42:00.003-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Under the agreement of Pin-Lon treaty in 1947 FEBRUARY 12, the 61st anniversary of Union day of Burma are being held around the world.

Here is a ceremony of Union Day that was held in TOKYO, Japan in February 10,2008.

Ashin Nayaka,visiting scholar of Columbia university of United States, has gave an address on that event and he pointed many things out to Burma military regime.

Here is a video documentary at the youtube and you may enjoy.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ay8z7H8JA

Military Junta lied Again ???

2008-02-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Myanmar's surprise announcement that it will hold a vote on a new constitution this May and a general election in 2010 drew little enthusiasm Sunday among the military regime's critics and the public at large. The official announcements late Saturday of the constitutional referendum and the election were the first moves by the junta to set dates for stages of its so-called road map to democracy."The time has now come to change from military rule to democratic civilian rule," said the announcement for the 2010 polls, broadcast on state TV and radio.

"I am not interested in their referendum because the results are known already," said 48-year old noodle salad seller Mar Mar Aye, echoing the popular belief that the government is confident its constitution will be approved.

"The announcement is vague, incomplete and strange," NLD party spokesman Nyan Win said Saturday night.

Scheduling the referendum for May makes it difficult for the junta's critics to mount a campaign against it, particularly because most of the country's leading pro-democracy activists are in jail, many detained in connection with last year's anti-government demonstrations.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in 1988, when the army brutally put down earlier pro-democracy demonstrations and the current junta took power.

Guidelines for a new constitution were adopted by a military-managed national convention last year, and a government-appointe d commission is now drafting the document.

Myanmar's ethnic minority groups, some of whom have been seeking greater autonomy for decades, complained the constitution would give the central government greater powers even as the minorities have been seeking more administrative and judicial autonomy in their home areas.

A clause in the draft guidelines guarantees the military 25 percent of the seats in the country's parliament, with the representatives nominated by the commander in chief. The guidelines also disqualify presidential candidates who are "entitled to the rights and privileges of a ... foreign country." The clause would bar Suu Kyi, because her late husband was British, thus conferring on her some of the privileges of British nationality.

who will be responsible for Freedom to Democracy in Burma?

2008-02-09T15:37:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

After taking free Independence from the British, the politics have been collapsed in Burma. The Bamar leaders,not minority ethnics,firstly intended to get monopolize in their power.They actually betrayed and lied to the other ehtincs. Under the Pinlon agreement treaty, every ethnic will have to get freedom and equal chance to demcracy.

During 1948's, as mojority Bamar leaders have been lied and they did not want to listen about FEDERAL LAW.

Actually they feared for the federal law. So they played only for politics and seeing for power control. So the KNU fought for freedom first that was led by Saw Ba Oo Gyi. On that time ,the Rangoon Government had been known in Burma.

In 1958~1962, the priminster ,U Nu,pointed the military out to take a coup in Burma.On that time,the military regime understood how feel was best for their life....

Sourced by; Minbargyi (NY)

Myanmar junta to hold elections in 2010

2008-02-09T15:10:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Reuters -

Sunday, February 10YANGON, Feb 9 (Reuters) -

Army-ruled Myanmar said on Saturday it will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May followed by elections in 2010, a move critics said was aimed at deflecting pressure after last year's crackdown on protesters."We have achieved success in economic, social and other sectors and in restoring peace and stability," the junta announced on state television four months after the army crushed monk led, pro-democracy protests, killing at least 31 people.

"So multi-party, democratic elections will be held in 2010," said the statement issued in the name of Secretary Number One Lieutenant-General Tin Aung Myint Oo, a top member of the junta.The elections would be the first held in the former Burma since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won multi-party elections later rejected by the military, which has ruled in various guises since 1962.The NLD, which boycotted a constitution- drafting convention while its leader, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest, called the announcement "erratic".

"They have now fixed a date for the election before knowing the results of the referendum. I can't help but wonder how the referendum will be conducted," NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.The Burma Campaign UK, a London-based pro-democracy group, called the announcement "public relations spin"."It is no coincidence that the announcement comes at a time when the regime is facing increasing economic sanctions following its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, " Campaign director Mark Farmaner said in a statement.

He said it was a "move away from democracy, not towards it," noting that the draft constitution would enshrine military rule by giving it veto power over decisions made by parliament.In Bangkok, a spokesman for a group of exiled MPs elected in 1990 but who fled after the junta rejected the result, said the news meant nothing unless Suu Kyi was freed and took part."Without the participation of Suu Kyi, the NLD and ethnic parties the people will not accept this constitution, " said Zin Linn of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.Saturday's announcement from the junta did not make clear whether the NLD would be allowed to take part, but the constitution is believed likely to disbar Suu Kyi from office by ruling out anyone married to a foreigner.Suu Kyi's husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in March 1999.

The new constitution, now being drafted after the completion of a national convention first convened in the 1990s, will be finished soon, the statement added."In accord with the fourth step of the seven-step roadmap to democracy, a nationwide referendum will be held in May 2008 to ratify the newly drafted constitution, " it said.The government announced the seven-step roadmap in 2003 but had refused to set a firm timetable until now.Some Southeast Asia neighbours have been increasingly critical of Myanmar's foot-dragging on reforms, while the West has tried to pressure China, one of Myanmar's few friends, to coax the generals to change.Beijing, which has interests in Myanmar's resource wealth such as natural gas and timber, has refused to back sanctions against the regime. But last month it urged the regime to allow U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to return to Myanmar soon to promote a genuine dialogue between the junta and opposition.

"China may have put pressure on them to announce something acceptable. They may have used the Olympic Games as a bargaining chip," a Yangon-based Asian diplomat said of the junta's announcement.Rights groups have seized upon the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a chance to exert pressure on China for everything from the conflict in Darfur to Beijing's support of Myanmar's junta.

SOURCED BY: UNG HLA TUN

BURMESE DEMONSTRATION IN NY CITY

2008-02-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

FREEDOM TO DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

NY 02/09/2008 11:00p.m

There was a demonstration happened at the front of the United Nations building in New York city today. 20 people of Burmese people gathered and asked for release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners immediately. Officially today is a weekend day and it rained a little bit and the weather is getting freezing.

Most of them looked like freezing and colder. However they want to get freedom for Burma and they are ready to help to the Burmese people under the Military rule.

The current situation is getting worse and the military regime getting growing and threatened to neighboorhood countries in ASEAN. Singapore is a very good back ground and heaven for the military junta. All invesments and money laundry of Burmese military group that has been in Singapore and China.

The Burmese military tortured to the people especially to the other ethnics in many ways.The regime only care for the western power and they believed that there will be no more battle for fredom in Burma.

As a Burmese, they feel like that they are fighting for second Independence battle. Under the military rule, every one getting poorer and they are starving for rice and tea. Even in Yangon,capital of Burma, the basic groceries rates and living costs are getting higher that everyday. The inflation cannot be estimated because of they control in every thing. No one can be discussed about even the cost of living in their whole life. They feel like they want to freedom without military rules.

released by:ZMO(NY)

Three Video Halls Shut Down in Sittwe

2008-02-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

Sittwe: Three video movie halls in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, were closed by the military authority on accusations they had displayed images of the Saffron Revolution to monks, said one owner on condition of anonymity.

"The authority closed down my own video showrooms along with the another two without notice. They also seized all equipment related to the video showroom after accusing us of displaying anti-government pictures in our rooms," said the owner.

The three closed video halls are San Htoo, Thit Ten, and Pyi Pyo, all of which are located in downtown Sittwe.

The owner said, "The authority accused us not only of displaying Saffron Revolution pictures but also distributing Saffron Revolution CDs to the public after making copies in the rooms on the video players. They could not find any evidence from us, but they seized all the equipment in our show halls."

A town elder told Narinjara yesterday over the phone that the authority publicized among the public that they had to close the video halls for illegally showing foreign movies to the people.

The authorities in Arakan have not allowed any video halls to show foreign movies to the public anywhere in the state. The authorities have never explained why foreign movies have been prohibited in Arakan State, said the town elder.
People in Arakan State are very poor and most can not afford to buy TV sets for their homes. Many people depend on video halls for entertainment to see movies and international sports competitions such as football games.

Sourced by: Narinjara News

Mahar Nway or Supreme Song of Arakanese

2008-02-02T23:14:00.000-05:00

Composor :Win Ko Khaing

Song: Mahar Nway or Supreme Song of Arakanese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPBZTkFFRA

With Regards,

ZMO

Arakanse Students demonstration in New York

2008-02-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

Here is the video attachment concern with Araknase student demonstration infront of Burmese Permanent Mission Office in New York City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iNX_bmKlKg

with sincerely,

ZMO

One died, two missing while crossing Naff River in Arakan State

2008-02-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Teknaf, Bangladesh : One died, two missing while some Burmese nationals crossing the Naf River through the Nattaung Para point of Teknaf yesterday after sinking the ferry rowboat, at about 7:30 pm, nearby the Bangladesh side.

A ferry rowboat carrying 35 Burmese nationals from Maungdaw Township , Arakan State , crossing the Naff River , which demarcates Burma and Bangladesh , unfortunately it was sunk nearby the Bangladesh side. One died after reaching on the bank and two have been missing and the rest were, however, rescued by other fishing boats. They crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border for medical treatment and to see their relatives in the refugee camps, according to a relative of the victims.

Meanwhile, some fishing boats from Naf River and two other boats from Bangladesh side went to the spot hearing the hue and cry, to escape them from the Naf River and carried them to the bank of Bangladesh side.

After reaching the Bangladesh side, the Burmese nationals immediately disappeared as fear of arrest by the Bangladesh concerned authorities.

On information, 4 -BDR, or Bangladesh Rifles from Teknaf BDR Battalion No. 23 went to the spot and met a woman named Shuna Mher (55), who was on critical condition because of cold biting. Seeing her in critical condition, the BDR ordered her relatives to carry her in safe place. So, her relatives brought her to the Nayapara refugee camp, where her relatives have been living. However, she was dead after half an hour, said a refugee from the camp on condition of anonymity.

Today, her relatives are preparing in Nayapara refugee camp to bury the dead body nearby grave yard without giving information to concerned police station.

The missing two have been identified as Halima Khatun (40), and Noor Nahar (10). All the rowboat passengers are Burmese nationals from Maungdaw Township .

The boatmen (ferry carrier) were identified as Abul Kalam from Burma side, and Islam, Mahadu and Kalaya from Bangladesh side, said a fisherman from Nattaung Para of Teknaf.

Sourced By: Kaladan News

Burmese Army Loots Rice From Traders

2008-02-02T22:48:00.000-05:00

Soldiers from the Burmese army stationed in Buthidaung have looted several tons of rice from local traders transporting the rice from Sittwe on board the Danyawaddy ferry ship to be sold in Buthidaung markets, one woman trader told Narinjara over the phone yesterday.

The incident took place on place on the ferry ship on 25 January, 2008, on the way to Buthidaung from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. The woman said that several rice traders were transporting many tons of rice from Sittwe to Buthidaung, where the price of rice is double that in the capital, after bribing local law enforcement officials at the Sittwe jetty and shipescorts.

The authority in Arakan State does not allow the transport of rice from the middle of the state to the north in order to control the ricemarket in Arakan, so traders must bribe local authorities in order to transport rice to the north. Transportingrice to Buthidaung and other parts of northern Arakan is a lucrative business for poor traders, and many unemployed people are involved in the business, the trader said. On the ferry ship on the day in question, a platoon of about 50 army personnel boardedalong with other passengers, but soon began drinking a lot on board, she said.When theship began to approach Buthidaung, the soldiers started to look for rice, accusing the traders of smuggling.

Afterward,the soldiers took the rice from the traders and began throwing it into the water from the ship. Many rice traders were crying as their rice was thrown overboard. Some traders were attempting to drag their rice bags away fromthe army men in hopes of holding on to it, and the atmosphere on the ship became chaotic and confusing.Although they threw many bags overboard, many army personnel secretly stowed some of the looted rice in their own bags and packages to bring back to the barracks and tosell in the markets, the woman added.

Referrenced By:Narinjara News

Burmese Monks without Shelter

2008-02-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

Many Burmese monks who've recently arrived in Bangladesh'scapital Dhaka from Burma to apply for refugee status with the UNHCR are facing trouble with finding shelter. Monk UPayna Dissa said, “There is no accommodation for monks in Dhaka. We have difficulties staying in Dhaka when we come here to apply for refugee status at the UNHCR."In Dhaka, there are a few Buddhist monasteries, but the Buddhist monks are unable to stay there because they donot have valid travel documents.

The monasteries in Dhaka also worry that Bangladesh authorities might take action against them if the undocumented monks take shelter there. Many monks in Burma have recently come to Bangladesh to escape arrest by the Burmese military authorities after the monk-led protests last fall. Some Burmese refugees requested that the UNHCR office in Dhaka set up a room for the Burmese monks to stay in when they come to Dhaka to seek asylum, but the request was denied. In Dhaka, there are a few offices belonging to democratic activists working for the Burmese democracy movement, and all offices are now crowded with many Burmese people who have fled Burma seeking safety after the Saffron Revolution.

The director of Narinjara News also reports that the Narinjara office will have tomove to another location at the beginning of March as their landlord has refused to continue renting to them after so many people have had to come and stay there. Other Burmese democratic activists in Dhaka are facing similar problems as Burmese people come to themfor shelter. U PaynaDissa has made a plea through Narinjara to democratic activists in exile,including monk organizations abroad, to consider how they can help the Burmesemonks in Dhaka in finding shelter.

Sourced By: Narinjara News

President Bush Vows to Support Burma Democracy

2008-02-01T23:58:00.000-05:00

January 29, 2008

The United States president, George W Bush, on Monday reiterated his commitment to help the people of Burma suffering from years of authoritarian rule under the Burmese military junta.
Delivering his last “State of the Union” address, Bush said: “We support freedom in countries from Cuba and Zimbabwe to Belarus and Burma.”
Although Burma figured only once in the president’s speech, a few hours before the “State of the Union” address, a White House official explained that the US was reiterating its commitment for freedom, democracy and human rights to the people of Burma.
A 36-page document, prepared by the White House for the occasion, described in detail the steps that the Bush administration had announced over the past six months to help Burmese people bring peaceful change to their country, where the president said the Burmese junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear.
It also said that the first lady, Laura Bush, continued to support the Burmese people's demands for national reconciliation and basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, worship, association and assembly.

In the past six months, the US has tightened existing economic sanctions and levied new sanctions against the leaders of the regime and their financial backers. It imposed an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, as well as their family members.

Besides continuing to support Burmese who seek a peaceful, democratic transition, he called on the government of Burma to uphold its obligations to the United Nations Security Council. Bush also voiced support for the efforts of humanitarian groups working to alleviate suffering in Burma and tightened the US Commerce Department's export control regulations against Burma.

Aung Kyi meets with party members

2008-02-01T23:56:00.000-05:00

BURMA'S detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi today met with top members of her party as well as with a government liaison officer.The talks lasted about 90 minutes and took place at a military facility near her lakeside home in Rangoon, where she has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest, an official said.

The Nobel peace prize winner was taken to and from her home in an official convoy, witnesses said. During the talks, she was allowed to speak with members of the Central Executive Committee of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and with the liaison officer, Labour Minister Aung Kyi, the official said. Aung San Suu Kyi was last allowed to meet with her party's leadership on November 9, when she spoke with four top party members for about one hour at the same military compound. The facility has also been the site of her four previous meetings with Aung Kyi, who was appointed as liaison officer in the wake of a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September. Their last talks were held on January 11. The talks came as the ruling military junta intensified the pressure on political dissidents. A popular blogger who belongs to the NLD was arrested along with another party member yesterday, apparently for defying the military's tough internet controls, party spokesman Nyan Win said.

Ten leaders of last year's protests have been also charged with violating the nation's strict publishing law, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, the party said yesterday. US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey denounced the charges as ``further evidence that the regime is rejecting all efforts to promote dialogue and national reconciliation' '. The protests spearheaded by Buddhist monks in September were the biggest threat to military rule in nearly two decades. The United Nations says at least 31 people were killed during the suppression, and 74 remain missing.

Hoping to quell international outrage at the bloodshed, Burma made a series of conciliatory gestures, including allowing UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and a UN rights investigator to visit the country. Mr Gambari made two trips to Burma, but when he requested to make a third this month, the junta pushed him off until April. Meanwhile censors have tightened controls on the media, banning one newspaper for a week over an article that said the government had backtracked on a huge hike in fees for satellite television. Another paper was placed under investigation over a love poem that carried a secret message calling junta leader Than Shwe "power crazy''.
.

2008-02-01T23:52:00.001-05:00

January 30, 2008—Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been given permission to meet leaders of her political party at a state guest house in Rangoon on Wednesday, party sources said.
It was not known which National League for Democracy (NLD) figures would be allowed to attend.

Party number two Tin Oo, who like Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003, was barred from attending a meeting with Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders in November.

That meeting stemmed from unprecedented international pressure on the former Burma's military rulers after their bloody crackdown on mass protests in September against decades of army rule and declining living standards.
At least 31 people were killed in the crackdown, the United Nations says.
UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has been allowed into the country twice since the protests, although he failed to obtain a third visa in December to try to kick-start formal talks between the junta and Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi and the NLD won an election landslide in 1990 but were denied power by the military, which has ruled in one form or another since a 1962 coup. During that time, the once-promising economy has collapsed.Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years in prison or under house arrest.

UN Report Accuses Regime, Armed Ethnic Groups of Recruiting Children

2008-02-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

January 30, 2008

A United Nations report released on Tuesday accused the Burmese armed forces, the country’s Tatmadaw, and armed ethnic groups of recruiting children to serve as soldiers.

The groups named in the report are the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Union-Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council; Kachin Independence Army (KIA); Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), Karenni Army (KA), Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Shan State Army-South (SSA-S).

This is more than double the number of armed ethnic groups named in last year’s “Children and Armed Conflict” report, which listed only three—the KNLA, KA and United Wa State Army.
In the 45-page report, submitted to the UN Security Council and General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon alleged that the Burmese armed forces have also been responsible for killing and maiming children and denying humanitarian access.
Besides Burma, the report said child soldiers were being recruited in recruitment in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

The report recommended the use of a range of measures, including bans on military aid and travel restrictions, against parties to armed conflict who continued to systematically commit grave violations against children.
It also urged the Security Council to refer violations against children in armed conflict to the International Criminal Court.

The report said that, despite regime denials, reliable reports from UN partners indicate that attempts to recruit children forcibly for Tatmadaw service were still occurring. “It is difficult to systematically verify the extent of recruitment or the number of children in military camps owing to access limitations,” it added.
The report said the UN had not received any reports of new recruitment of children by the KNLA, KA or KNPP in the period under review.
However, the limitations imposed by the junta on UN access to areas of operations and on dialogue with the KNLA and KA hampered efforts to verify whether those groups had in fact stopped recruiting children.
Reports had been received indicating that a breakaway faction of the KNU, the KNU-KNLA Peace Council, had recruited children from the Mae La refugee camp and villages in the border areas.

“Sources suggest that several boys were deceived into crossing the border by promises of pay and participation in celebrations but were subsequently coerced into joining the armed group,” the report said. “While most of the children have returned, four boys are reportedly still missing. It is not known whether the KNU-KNLA Peace Council continues recruitment, and the UN has not been able to verify the reports of recruitment.”

Reports had been received of a “one child per family” recruitment policy by the KIA. In early 2007, the UN verified a report of a 15-year-old girl recruited by the KIA when she returned to her home village from school in Myitkyina, Kachin State. “To date, the girl remains with KIA,” the report said.

Eyewitness accounts had been received of children serving with the United Wa State Army in northern Shan State, despite the UWSA’s recent statement to the UN special representative that no children had been recruited since the ceasefire agreement reached by the group with the Burmese regime.
“There are reports of Shan State Army-South recruiting children as part of a new mandatory recruitment policy,” the report said. “Children are also recruited and used by Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang) in northern Shan State.”

Information had also been received that children were serving with the KNPLF and DKBA. “However, in-depth monitoring is hampered by access limitations to areas of operations of these groups,” the report said.

Meanwhile Maj-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who heads a panel charged with ending the practice of forcing minors into the army, told that from 2002 to 2007, officials had returned 792 children from the military to their parents.
The junta's mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar quoted him as saying the authorities had "taken action" against 43 military personnel, including some officers. The paper, however, gave no details on the punishments.

Aung San Su Kyi and Military Junta in Burma

2008-02-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

Aung Kyi insisted Suu Kyi to endorse the regime`s " Seven step roadmap during the meetings
In the reconciliation talks between Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s liaison officer, Aung Kyi, most of the time is taken up on trivial subjects, according to sources in the National League of Democracy.

Senior members of the NLD who asked for anonymity told on Thursday that sometimes an hour- long meeting is filled up with explanations and questions, such as “What is cooperation?” and “What is collaboration?” by the junta liaison officer, Suu Kyi told a group of NLD members whom she met with on Wednesday just prior to her fifth meeting with Aung Kyi.
Suu Kyi said she has spoken to Aung Kyi about important issues, and he replies that he will report her remarks to top officials and then a month goes by with no discussions, NLD sources said.
Suu Kyi told her colleagues that Aung Kyi told her to endorse the regime’s “seven-step road map” to democracy because it’s the foundation of the junta’s plan for the country.

Instead, Suu Kyi suggested an inclusive reconciliation process that includes participation by ethnic group leaders in any talks about the country’s future.
“She [Suu Kyi] is not pleased with the talks,” said an NLD member. “She does not mean the process is hopeless, but it is being drawn out and prolonged.”
Suu Kyi’s request to meet with the head of the military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has received no response from the junta, and the talks are proceeding without a time frame.

Suu Kyi said she does not want to give false hope to the people of Burma, but in such conditions something positive could happen.
On Wednesday, she said she recalled her father Aung San’s famous remark before he held talks with the British government in London during the pre-independence period, “Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
A veteran journalist in Rangoon, Sein Hla Oo, commenting on the talks, said, “She [Suu Kyi] is not satisfied with the process. She thinks meaningful dialogue is very important for the country, but others think it is not important.”
Suu Kyi reportedly told her NLD colleagues to move forward without her, said the source. Sometimes she can lead the party; sometimes she will follow others’ leadership within the party, he said.

She suggested that sometimes the party needs to push and sometime it needs to pull, and if it is necessary, everyone needs to give up everything, he said.
He said she asked authorities to allow NLD deputy leader Tin Oo to participate in the meeting on Wednesday, but the authorities rejected the proposal.

ARAKANESE AND BURMESE REFUGEES

2008-02-01T23:33:00.000-05:00

Here is the slides of Arakanese and Burmese refugees...

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DbfyB4Zm1No

ZMO

Burmese blogger Nay Phone Latt, mysteriously missing

2008-02-01T23:28:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2008

The Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, allegedly arrested by the police on Tuesday has mysteriously gone missing, family members complained.Daw Aye Aye Than, mother of blogger and writer, Nay Phone Latt, said, the whereabouts of her son cannot be confirmed as authorities including police officers in Thuwana and Thingan Kyun police stations and Ministry of Home Affairs deny detaining him.Daw Aye Aye Than said her son left home on Tuesday at about noon but when they tried to contact him on cell phone at about 1:00 p.m. he could not be contacted."And at around 2:30 p.m. the authorities came to our house but did not ask for Nay Phone Latt. They looked around the house. So I think he must have been arrested before they came to us," Daw Aye Aye Than told Mizzima.She added that the police team led by Maj. Hein Htet while not mentioning their purpose searched around the house, as if looking for someone in hiding.

"We went to the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Tingankyun and Thuwana police stations to inquire about him but all the authorities would tell us was they don't know him and he is not here," Daw Aye Aye Than said.Daw Aye Aye Than said she is worried for her son and could not understand the reason for his mysterious disappearance."I am very sad for this kind of unlawful action, I don't understand why they [authorities] are doing this to my son because he is not involved in any illegal activities and does all his work openly," Daw Aye Aye Than said.Nay Phone Latt, who has a blogsite www.nayphonelatt. blogspot. com, reportedly disappeared on Tuesday. While many of his colleagues believe he has been arrested by the police, there are, so far no eyewitness accounts.While earlier, some friends said he was taken away by the police from an internet café in Thingan Kyun township in Rangoon, his mother's version indicates that he was arrested while on the road.While either version cannot be independently verified, it is still uncertain that the authorities have taken him away, as there are no eyewitnesses.

SOURCED BY: MIZIIMA

UN envoy ends visit to India on Myanmar

2008-02-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India said it was "worried" Myanmar was not moving fast enough on democratic reforms, although New Delhi remained opposed to imposing sanctions on the regime to speed up the process.

A senior foreign ministry official made the comment as United Nations envoy on Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari ended a three-day visit to New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders on its military-run neighbour."What worries us is that (Myanmar's) transition to democracy ... has not made rapid progress ... has not moved as fast as we would want," said the official who did not wish to be identified.The official said New Delhi would continue to "encourage" Myanmar to hold talks with pro-democracy groups "because we need a peaceful" neighbourhood.Gambari met with top Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon during his visit.Indian leaders have come in for heavy criticism over their muted reaction to the junta's violent crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks last year.But Gambari said during a visit here in October that he was "encouraged" by Indian pledges to support efforts to resolve the Myanmar crisis.India's prime minister also emphasised the also met with his Myanmar counterpartIndia has cultivated close ties with Myanmar's military rulers in recent years, citing its huge energy requirements as well as its need to jointly battle separatist rebels who are active along the two countries' jungle border.

The country is also competing for influence with its main Asian rival, China.The official said Thursday New Delhi supported UN efforts for a return to democracy in Myanmar but opposed sanctions as "regimes like that know how to ride sanctions." "Many years of sanctions have not worked... we need to work together" to bring in democracy, he added.

Top US diplomat in Myanmar wants international pressure on junta for reforms

2008-02-01T23:17:00.000-05:00

Top US diplomat in Myanmar wants international pressure on junta for reformsBy GRANT PECK,Associated Press Writer AP - Saturday, February 2BANGKOK, Thailand - Fresh international pressure is necessary to push Myanmar's military rulers toward reform because the momentum for change after last year's demonstrations has been lost, the top U.S. diplomat in the country said Friday.The appeal by Shari Villarosa, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Yangon, followed signs that the ruling junta was again stepping up repression of dissidents.It also came after Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Wednesday she was dissatisfied with the progress of her reconciliation talks with the junta, and cautioned the public to "hope for the best and prepare for the worst."Myanmar's crisis attracted world attention when Buddhist monks last September began leading anti-government protests, the biggest in two decades. At least 30 people are believed to have been killed when the government suppressed the demonstrations, and thousands detained, though most have since been released.

Under pressure from U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, the junta appointed a "Minister for Relations" to talk with Suu Kyi, but their few meetings have borne no results, and junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe has made no further moves toward reconciliation."I think everybody hoped that there was genuine will on the part of Than Shwe and his senior generals to begin a real dialogue, and what is increasingly evident is that they have no intention whatsoever in engaging in a genuine dialogue," Villarosa said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Bangkok.Earlier this week, lawyers working with the pro-democracy movement said that about two dozen members of the 88 Generation Students group, whose small protests against a fuel price hike mushroomed into last September's massive demonstrations, would face trial.

They are charged with making illegal statements and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.Last week, human rights group Amnesty International said the ruling military had continued to arrest political activists, despite its promise to the United Nations that it would halt arrests following September's demonstrations.Amnesty International said 1,850 political prisoners were behind bars, including 96 imprisoned since early November when the government told the world body it had stopped all arrests.Villarosa said it was crucial for Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with its giant neighbors China and India, to push the junta to open up to dialogue and reconciliation with its opponents. The U.N. also needs to be involved, she said.

Laura Bush pushes Security Council on Myanmar

2008-02-01T23:12:00.000-05:00

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AFP) -

US First Lady Laura Bush has pressed Panama, which holds the UN Security Council's rotating presidency, to help keep pressure on Myanmar's junta, the White House said Friday.Bush, in New York for a heart disease awareness event on Thursday, met with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, who was receptive to her message, spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

"Mrs Bush took the opportunity to remind and reinforce the importance for the UN Security Council to keep pressure on the military junta in Burma," said Fratto."President Torrijos said that he would of course want to keep the pressure on Burma to make the democratic changes that we all have been calling for," the spokesman said.In mid-January, the UN Security Council bemoaned the slow progress in initiating democratic reforms in Myanmar, where the junta in September crushed the biggest pro-democracy protests in nearly 20 years.

Myanmar junta takes aim at latest Rambo movie

2008-02-01T23:01:00.000-05:00

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police in Myanmar have given DVD hawkers strict orders not to stock the new Rambo movie, which features the Vietnam War veteran taking on the former Burma's ruling military junta, a Yangon resident told Reuters on Friday. Despite the prohibition, pirated copies of the movie are widely available on the streets of the former capital, where it is fast becoming a talking point among a population eager to shake off 45 years of military rule."People are going crazy with the quote 'Live for nothing, die for something'," one resident said, referring to the tagline of the fourth Rambo installment, which opened in the United States this week.

Even though it received lukewarm reviews, it is likely to be a sure-fire hit with opponents of the junta, with some even hoping it could spur a change of regime in the impoverished southeast Asian nation."This movie could fuel the sentiment of Myanmar people to invite American troops to help save them from the junta," one Yangon resident told Reuters by e-mail.In the movie, John Rambo, played by Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone, comes out of retirement in Bangkok to save a group of Christian missionaries taken captive by troops in the jungles of eastern Myanmar.As with previous Rambo films, it is short on plot and long on blood and guts -- although viewers appear to think it is all relative."Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta," a Myanmar student in Thailand, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.

Cracked the Saffron Revolution Down in Burma

2008-01-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

“FEAR”, the lady used to say, “is a habit.” This week, inspired in part by the lady herself, Aung San Suu Kyi, partly by the heroic example set by Buddhist monks, Myanmar's people kicked the addiction.

Defying the corrupt, inept, brutal generals who rule them, they took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands to demand democracy. They knew they were risking a bloody crackdown, like the one that put down a huge popular revolt in 1988, killing 3,000 people or more. In 1988 Burma's people were betrayed not just by the ruthlessness of their rulers, but also by the squabbling and opportunism of the outside world, which failed to produce a co-ordinated response and let the murderous regime get away with it. This time, soldiers are once again shooting and killing unarmed protesters (see article). Can the world avoid making the same mistake twice?

In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Western leaders, led by George Bush, harangued the junta, and threatened yet more sanctions. They have probably already shot their bolt. Western sanctions have been tried and have failed, in part because Myanmar's neighbours have for years followed a different approach. Its fellow members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations waffled about “constructive engagement” while making economic hay in Myanmar from the West's withdrawal. India, too, anxious about China's growing influence, and hungry for oil and gas, has swallowed its democratic traditions and courted the generals

Suu Kyi to meet party colleagues

2007-11-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government announced that it will allow detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet her party's officials Friday, the first such meeting in more than three years.

The announcement on state radio and television news Thursday came hours after U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari left Myanmar, saying he had made progress in his six-day mission to promote a dialogue between the junta and Suu Kyi.
Aung Kyi, the government minister in charge of relations with Suu Kyi, will see her first to make arrangements for the meeting, state media said.
Suu Kyi has been detained since May 2003, and has not seen fellow executive members of her National League for Democracy since May 2004.
There had been signs that Gambari's trip did not go well, including his failure to be received by the junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and the military government's rejection of Gambari's proposal of a three-way meeting involving Suu Kyi, a junta member and himself.

The government invited Gambari to return to Myanmar, and he expects to do so in the next few weeks, said a statement posted on the Web site of the U.N. Information Center for Myanmar at the conclusion of the envoy's visit.
The statement also said Suu Kyi, who has been detained continuously since 2003, has authorized Gambari to make a statement on her behalf, although it did not say when he would do so. Gambari met Suu Kyi for an hour just before his departure Thursday from Myanmar.

The statement would apparently be the first message from Suu Kyi since she was detained, and would be the first chance to gauge her reaction to September's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and the U.N. mediation efforts afterward.

"We now have a process going which would lead to substantive dialogue" between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi, said the U.N. statement.
"The sooner such a dialogue can start, the better for Myanmar," said the statement, issued after Gambari departed for Singapore en route to U.N. headquarters in New York.

Ref: AP

SASANA MOLIA EVENTS ON SATURDAY AT NY

2007-11-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

SASANA MOLIA memorial service and sermon by the International Burmese Monks Organization
There will be a memorial service and sermon to be given by the members of International Burmese Monks Organization.
Date: Saturday, 10, November 2007

Venue: 777 UN Plaza (corner of 44th Street and 1st Ave.)New York, NY 10017 (2nd Floor)

The members of sangha will be officiating the memorial service to recognize thepeople of Burma who have given their lives for justice, peace and democracy in that country.The detailed programs are as follows:

10:00 – 11:30 AM: Meal offering to the members of Sangha
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Memorial Service
1:00 – 4:00 PM: Sermon by the Sasana Moli Sayadaws
Please Note: Refreshments will be served to the attendees between 10:30-11:30 AM.
International Campaign for Burma (ICB - New York).
For further information,

please contact: Ko Ye Htut (347) 226-0572 Ko Kyaw Zwar Lwin (917) 478-7086 Ko Zeyar Win (917) 834-6590 Ko Zaw Win (917) 238-8273 Ko Kyaw Thu (646) 404-4831 Ma Sandi (917) 445-9222 Ma Shwe War (347) 229-4309 Ma May Thet (917)586-1726 Ko Aung Khant (516) 808-1515 Ko Aung Min Htun (917) 415-7809 Ko Zaw Latt (718) 864-2032

CRY, BELOVED BURMA

2007-11-06T22:45:00.000-05:00

VIEW: Cry, beloved Burma -U Gambira And Ashin Nayaka

As monks, we believe in alleviating suffering wherever we see it, as part of the vows we have taken. We could not ignore our people’s suffering. We formed the Sangha Coalition when we saw that the country’s monks were unitedReligious orders of monks have been the face of Burma ever since Buddhism was introduced here more than 1,000 years ago. For a monk to involve himself in politics or to hold a political post is contrary to the ethical code of Theravada Buddhism. But in Burma today, this spiritual philosophy, rooted in compassion and non-violence, has assumed unexpected dimensions of defiance and recalcitrance, as monks challenge the hegemony of the military junta that rules our country.We are both Burmese Buddhist monks — a leader of the All Burma Sangha Coalition that led the recent protests, and a scholar teaching in the United States. One of us is in hiding today, because Burma’s military government met the peaceful protests of our Buddhist brothers and sisters with violence and brutality.Many monks and nuns have been abused and beaten, and thousands who have been arrested endure continued brutality. More than 1,000 are missing, and many are presumed dead.A few weeks ago, Burma’s monks began to march and pray and spread loving kindness in an effort to solve our nation’s problems peacefully. Burma is a country rich in natural resources, but its people are poor. When the government suddenly and capriciously increased the price of fuel by as much as 500% overnight, everyone was affected — and made even more desperate. As monks, we believe in alleviating suffering wherever we see it, as part of the vows we have taken. We could not ignore our people’s suffering. We formed the Sangha Coalition when we saw that the country’s monks were united.Those of us who are studying and teaching abroad share this unity, and have rallied to the support of those of us in Burma. And it is not only the monks who are united. When we started our peaceful marches for change, students, youth, intellectuals, and ordinary people joined us in the streets, in the rain.We thought that we could appeal to some, if not all, of the generals — Buddhists themselves — who control our country to join us in trying to right the many ills befalling Burma. At first, we tried to show our displeasure with military rule by refusing to receive alms from them. We turned our begging bowls upside down as a gesture of our feelings. We have not lost our loving kindness towards ordinary soldiers, nor even towards the leaders who ordered them to brutalise their own people, but we wanted to urge them to change while there was still time. We know that some people in the army and organisations close to the regime have been reluctant to use violence against the monks. We want to tell the people who are violent towards their own countrymen to stop and think whether their actions are in accordance with the dharma, whether they are acting for the good of Burma’s people. Some of the soldiers who were ordered to beat us and to stop us from marching actually refused to do so, because they understood the truth of what we were doing.We hoped to create a way out for the military leaders, a way to start a real dialogue with the people’s leaders and the leaders of ethnic groups, for the unity of the nation. But that hope was short-lived. The regime is now hunting down those who participated in the demonstrations and committing unspeakable acts of violence. They have attacked monasteries and arrested monks and nuns by force. Guards are everywhere, on all the streets, around the pagodas and residential areas. Wounded demonstrators are reported to have been buried alive in mass graves, and there are confirmed reports of bodies washing ashore in the waterways near Yangon (Rangoon). The regime is brutalising the Burmese people, and lying to the world about its actions.Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, a representative of the military, recently told UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari that the marchers in the streets were “bogus monks.” But we are genuine, and thousands of us — from Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu, Arakan, Magwe, and Sagaing — demonstrated for peace. Some have said that the uprising in Burma is over. That is what the junta wants the world to think. But we believe that the protests represent the beginning of the end of military rule in our country. The generals who ordered the crackdown are assaulting not only Burma’s people, but also their own hearts, souls, and spiritual beliefs. The monks are the preservers of dharma; by attacking them, the generals attack Buddhism itself.We know that the international community is trying to help us, but we need that help to be more effective. We thank the many people and organisations abroad who are helping us regain the rights denied to us for more than 40 years. But we also appeal to the international community to make its actions practical and effective. The military government will do anything to remain in power, and their violent acts must be exposed to the world. They may control the streets and monasteries, but they will never be able to control our hearts and our determination.

U Gambira is the pseudonym of one of the leaders of the All Burma Sangha Coalition; Ashin Nayaka is founder of the Buddhist Missionary Society and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University

NO LONGER THE GENERALS' BURMA

2007-10-24T01:07:00.000-04:00

No Longer the Generals' Burma
Published in The Washington Post
by Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director

In 1988, the people of Burma launched a nonviolent struggle for democracy and were met with gunfire. I was working for Sen. Pat Moynihan, about the only prominent American to notice then what was happening in that isolated country. One day, after the Senate passed its first-ever resolution on Burma, a photo arrived in our office showing a column of Burmese marching with a banner reading: "Thank you Senator Moynihan." We were proud but profoundly sad. We knew that our meager words could not keep those brave people from being killed or their movement from being crushed. Today, Burma's military dictators have again met demands for human rights, this time from Buddhist monks, with force. Some believe that another Burmese Spring has been extinguished, and that we can do little to help. I disagree. The most recent peaceful uprising reflects fundamental changes within Burma and the wider world. Its implications won't be felt for some time but can be guided by the right international response. We should have no illusions about what is going on in Burma. Soldiers are hunting down leaders of the protest movement and torturing them. Revered Buddhist monasteries are being occupied; the monks are being defrocked, beaten and sometimes killed. Government newspapers demand unity against "neo-colonialist stooges" and "killers in the airwaves" -- the Western radio stations that Burmese depend on for news. People are afraid. But the government also has reason to worry. By attacking monasteries, it has created a problem it cannot solve: These sacred spaces cannot be shut forever (any more than Poland's communist government could have closed its Catholic churches); when they reopen, dissent will reemerge. Through the Internet, Burma's dissidents are more connected to each other and the world than ever before. The leadership is more disconnected from its people, and from reality, holed up in a bizarre new capital in the jungle. Meanwhile, Burma's neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations no longer stand by the generals; they have expressed "revulsion" over the violence. The UN Security Council, where China vetoed a resolution on Burma nine months ago, has demanded, with China's consent, that Burma release political prisoners. It has sent an envoy to mediate the only solution that appears realistic -- a negotiated political transition in which the military saves some of its status and face. What will induce Burma's generals to listen? Sanctions -- imposed by only a few countries -- have not convinced them before. Skeptics point out that if Western oil companies leave Burma, Asian companies will vie to take their place. If the United States and Europe stop buying Burmese gems and hardwood, others will fill the gap. Yet the generals are vulnerable. Whether they get rich from gas, gems, timber or narcotics deals, the revenue is usually deposited in hard currency (since Burmese cash is worthless) in accounts in such places as Singapore and Dubai. That cash generally can't be used internationally without passing through the US or European banking system, where it can be blocked, as President Bush announced Friday that the administration would try to do. America and Europe can persuade, or compel, the banks themselves to freeze the junta's accounts. Diplomats and foreign policy experts sometimes discount sanctions because -- like most of us -- they don't understand the arcane world of global finance. But targeted financial sanctions have become highly sophisticated. For example, decades of generalized trade restrictions against North Korea had little impact -- but when the United States, acting alone, caused one foreign bank to freeze one account belonging to North Korea's leaders, Kim Jong Il came to the nuclear negotiating table pretty fast. Even hermit kings can't afford to have their credit cards frozen, as Burma's rulers may soon learn. The alternative some suggest is to flood Burma with aid to raise living standards. But Burma's rulers are not like those in South Korea, where growing prosperity contributed to political opening -- they have deliberately neglected the country's schools and health care. They have squashed private initiative while building a system that works splendidly for them: No one can prosper without their permission. Outside aid might help some Burmese survive. But to think it can bring prosperity (much less spur political change) is naive. There is one problem with smart sanctions: The only policy that can work with Burma requires sustained attention that no administration has yet been willing to provide. Senior people in Washington will have to work seven days a week tracking Burmese money around the world while simultaneously managing complex, multiparty diplomacy. But here is something else that is new: The American president cares about Burma and is energizing his administration to act. And he should: Burma is one place where America remains largely admired; where the administration doesn't have to choose between the best of bad options; where it can still leave a legacy of nurturing democracy. Those who mistrust -- legitimately -- Bush's approach to the world should not be cynical about his efforts on Burma or the possibility of success if other nations do their part. The main obstacle to a successful Burma policy is the belief that we are as powerless today as we were 20 years ago. Let the generals hiding in their jungle fortress believe that nothing in the world has changed. And let us prove them wrong.

Activists tell of Myanmar 'witch hunt'

2007-10-24T00:38:00.000-04:00

Activists tell of Myanmar 'witch hunt'
For media: Download audio and watch video of eyewitnesses and activists (17 October)
Older video: Footage of the demonstration in London on 6 October (RealPlayer) Footage of the repression in Myanmar, 27 Sept. demo in London and Amnesty International's call (RealPlayer) Footage of the protests in Myanmar (RealPlayer) AI activists demonstrate in London (27 Sept.) (RealPlayer)(last updated 19 October)
Monks and activists in Myanmar have told Amnesty International of the brutal repression suffered by anti-government protesters in the country.A series of interviews with prominent activists, including Mie Mie, Htay Kywe and Nay Tin Myint, have exposed government tactics of ongoing night raids, arbitrary arrests and appalling detention conditions.These first-hand accounts follow last weekend's detention of six people, including Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi and and young activist Zaw Htet Ko Ko, all members of the 1988 Generation Students group. "We have seen police asking for money from families of detainees if they want their family members to be released. Young people who are on their way to offices and schools are not only stopped and checked but also robbed," said Mie Mie shortly before her arrest. Burmese who had fled to the Thai-Myanmar border described violence by riot police against marchers and onlookers, including women and monks."Some of the injured were so bloody that you couldn't tell where blood was coming from. Some of the monks lost the top part of their robes. I saw civilians trying to help an injured monk. Most of their injuries were head injuries. The riot police were aiming for the head," said a 31 year-old monk who witnessed confrontations between protesters and police at Shwe Dagon pagoda on 26 September.Shortly before his arrest, Htay Kywe said, from hiding, that "the international community must stand clearly to prevent further violations." He also called on "the international community to help as much as it can" to prevent further violations.Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi and Zaw Htet Ko Ko were involved in the early protest marches in August, but were soon forced into hiding as the authorities launched a manhunt for those they perceived as the leaders of the protests, in particular Htay Kywe. On 21 August, 13 key activists of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested in an overnight operation.
Demonstrations around the worldSlideshow: Amnesty International leads protests across the globe on 6 October (see also the pictures from the end of September)
The release on Wednesday of famous comedian and former prisoner of conscience, Zargana, was overshadowed by emerging reports that a growing number of those arrested in the crackdown have been sentenced to jail or labour camps in highly flawed proceedings, including in hastily convened courts behind prison walls.State press has earlier warned that those held over the protests could face jail sentences. The New Light of Myanmar warned on 9 October, "Anyone who is detained for his violation of law must be charged and serve prison terms if he is found guilty."Continued arrests fly in the face of the promises made last week by the Myanmar authorities to cooperate with the United Nations. On 11 October, the UN Security Council strongly deplored the violent crackdown and stressed the importance of the early release of all political prisoners.Up to now, the Myanmar state media has indicated that nearly 3,000 people have been arrested and more than 2,500 have been released, but the true number of people still in detention is likely much higher. At the time of writing, arrests continue to be reported. In their announcements, the Myanmar authorities have also failed to provide details about who has been detained, where people are held, in what conditions and why they have been arrested. There are continued disturbing reports of searches, surveillance and harassment of people who took part in the protests. Threats are reportedly also made to family members and neighbours of suspected protesters. Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has reported that a detained member of the National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, died as a result of torture during interrogation. Ko Win Shwe, 42, was reportedly arrested with four others on 26 September because of their participation in demonstrations.Despite Zargana's release, his fellow comedian Par Par Lay, and many others continue to be denied their freedom.
Read the stories of the two comediansAmnesty International has condemned the use of violence against peaceful protestors and is seriously concerned at the safety of all those detained across the country. The organisation has called on the authorities to ensure that detainees are not subjected to torture or any other ill-treatment and are released immediately.Read more:Myanmar: New video and audio testimony of 'witch hunt' and brutal repression (Press Release, 17 October 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must focus on concrete action (Press Release, 11 October 2007)Myanmar: Security Council must follow up the recent visit by Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari (Press Release, 5 October 2007)Myanmar: Global demonstrations to support peaceful protestors (Press Release, 5 October 2007)Human Rights Council deplores Myanmar repression (News, 2 October 2007)UN must impose arms embargo on Myanmar (Web Feature, 1 October 2007)Myanmar: Prompt action needed from ASEAN countries (Press Release, 27 September 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must increase the pressure (Press Release, 27 September 2007)Myanmar: UN Security Council must deploy urgent mission (Press Release, 25 September 2007)Myanmar’s Political Prisoners: A Growing Legacy of Injustice (Report, 16 June 2005)
Take action!
Please urgently send emails, faxes or letters in English or your own language. You may wish to use the suggested text below which you may cut and paste into your message.
Dear Minister
I am deeply concerned by the reports that thousands of monks and other peaceful protesters, including well-known activists Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Aung Thu, Aung Gyi, Zaw Htet Ko Ko and comedian Par Par Lay, have been detained.
I strongly urge the Myanmar authorities to release them and those connected to them immediately and unconditionally, unless they are to be charged with recognizably criminal offences. I call on the authorities to ensure that, while they remain in custody, all the detainees are held only in official places of detention, and are given immediate access to lawyers, their families and any medical treatment they may require. I also call on the authorities to ensure that the detainees are not subjected to torture or any other ill-treatment.
I also call on the authorities to release the estimated 1,150 political prisoners from before the start of the crackdown two months ago, including senior political representatives of the ethnic minorities, NLD members and young activists.
I call on the authorities to ensure that all people in Myanmar are able to peacefully exercise the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly without fear of harassment, intimidation or arbitrary detention, in line with international human rights standards.
Yours Sincerely

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In a Southern State,Immigrants' Son Takes Over

2007-10-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 21 — The first words from Bobby Jindal to his supporters after he won the Louisiana governor’s race on Saturday night were not about his victory, but L.S.U.’s triumph over Auburn the same day.
The message could not have been clearer: I’m one of you, a normal, red-blooded football-loving Louisiana guy. It is a theme that seems to have informed the youthful Republican congressman’s every step, from his decision at age 4 to jettison his given name of Piyush for that of a character in the television series “The Brady Bunch” to the attentive faith-infused courting of conservatives that led to his victory on Saturday with 54 percent of the vote.
Mr. Jindal’s reach for normalcy only highlights, though, what is glaringly obvious to anyone who sees and hears the slight 36-year-old son of immigrants from India. He is a highly unusual politician, becoming the nation’s first Indian-American governor in a Southern state where race is inseparable from politics.
Still, Mr. Jindal offered something few others could to a state that is on its knees. Louisiana is more desperate than ever, a place where the glaring needs of its citizens evidently trumped considerations of race and ethnicity.
He has taken an already lengthy public policy résumé, mostly in health care, along with sterling educational credits (Brown University and Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar) and come back home instead of using his credentials as a ticket to escape, as many other accomplished Louisianans do.
Louisiana — largely impoverished, undereducated and unhealthy — has been left behind by whatever national prosperity has accrued in recent decades. Hurricane Katrina only knocked it back further. Mr. Jindal, outside the Louisiana mainstream but within the well-to-do 21st-century American one, seemed to offer a ticket to the latter.
Mr. Jindal is a technocrat and a Roman Catholic convert, a policy aficionado well-versed in free-market solutions to the crisis in health insurance and a proponent of “intelligent design” as an alternative theory to evolution, suggesting it may be appropriate in school science classes.
His ascent has delighted many Indian-Americans, who have never seen one of their own elected to such a high political position. Sanjay Puri, chairman of the U.S.-India Political Action Committee, predicted that Mr. Jindal would surprise doubters with the depth of his understanding on policy issues. Others, however, are cautious, saying that Mr. Jindal is out of the mainstream on issues that matter to Indian-Americans.
“The fact that he’s of Indian ancestry is a subject of jubilation,” said Vijay Prashad, professor of South Asian history at Trinity College in Hartford, speaking of the way Mr. Jindal has been portrayed in the Indian-American press. “But there’s a very shallow appreciation of who he really is. Once you scratch the surface, it’s really unpleasant.”
Mr. Jindal’s platform, though conscientiously detailed, was hardly revolutionary, and the campaign itself was a study in caution. Louisiana’s rickety fiscal structure went mostly ignored. And Mr. Jindal, intent on not jeopardizing a big lead in the polls, shunned reporters.
Though he was criticized during the campaign for talking relatively little about hurricane recovery in still-suffering New Orleans, he said Sunday he hoped to secure more federal assistance for homeowners and planned to meet with President Bush to discuss the region’s needs.
Piyush Jindal was born on June 10, 1971, in Baton Rouge to Hindu parents who had come to the United States six months before so his mother could pursue a graduate degree in nuclear physics at Louisiana State University. His father was an engineer from the Punjab region of India, the only one of nine siblings to attend high school. The younger Jindal, growing up in Baton Rouge, was not expected to come home from school with anything less than 100 on tests. Public high school in Baton Rouge was followed by Brown, where Mr. Jindal was Phi Beta Kappa, and a conversion to Roman Catholicism that Mr. Jindal has described in transformative terms. “I draw my definition of integrity from my Christian faith,” Mr. Jindal said during the campaign. “In my faith, you give 100 percent of yourself to God.”
“But we live in a pluralistic state,” he was careful to add.
After Oxford, a well-paid stint at the Washington consultants McKinsey and Company was followed by an interview for the job of secretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals with the newly elected Republican governor of Louisiana, Mike Foster, in 1995. Mr. Jindal was 24; it was the biggest department in state government, and it was in serious financial trouble. He got the job despite Mr. Foster’s initial skepticism, made cuts and restored the department to financial stability; Louisiana still has one of the highest percentages of uninsured, however.
More high-level jobs followed in quick succession: chairman of a bipartisan Medicare reform commission in Washington, head of the statewide University of Louisiana system, assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services under Mr. Bush.
He and his wife, Supriya, returned to Louisiana to so he could run for governor in 2003. The Jindals have three young children, Celia, Shaan and Slade.
During that campaign, Mr. Jindal attacked liberals in radio advertisements and talked up his connections to Mr. Bush. The so-called bubba vote was nonetheless against him that year and he lost to the current governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, who has chosen not to run again.
Mr. Jindal was elected to Congress from the New Orleans suburbs in 2004, and it was common knowledge that he was biding his time for another run at the governor’s mansion. His short time in Washington was unobtrusive, and he continued to campaign at home while others in the state’s Congressional delegation established a more forceful presence as hurricane recovery efforts unfolded.
Mr. Jindal’s biggest test comes now. Failure to lift Louisiana would be obvious. He said he arrived in Baton Rouge intent on “cleaning up the corruption” and determined to “show the voters and the entire country that we are serious about changing our reputation.”
Legislators in Huey Long’s state Capitol are sensitive to such suggestions, however. Mr. Jindal’s honeymoon could be short.

referrenced by: NYtimes

About BURMA

2007-10-21T02:01:00.000-04:00

Country profile: Burma

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions.
The generals and the army stand accused of gross human rights abuses, including the forcible relocation of civilians and the widespread use of forced labour, which includes children.

OVERVIEW

A popular uprising was forcibly crushed in 1988 and mass demonstrations were not seen again until 2007, when a small string of protests about living standards gained momentum among a public normally too cowed to voice any dissent.

Politics: Burma has been under military rule since 1962; the regime stifles almost all dissent
Economy: Burma is one of Asia's poorest countries; its economy is riddled with corruption
International: Burma is seen as a pariah state by the West, which maintains sanctions; China is its main ally

Timeline

Prominent pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has had various restrictions placed on her activities since the late 1980s.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in 1990 in Burma's first multi-party elections for 30 years, but has never been allowed to govern.
Military-run enterprises control key industries, and corruption and severe mismanagement are the hallmarks of a black-market-riven economy.
The armed forces - and former rebels co-opted by the government - have been accused of large-scale trafficking in heroin, of which Burma is a major exporter.
The largest group is the Burman people, who are ethnically related to the Tibetans and the Chinese. Burman dominance over Karen, Shan, Rakhine, Mon, Chin, Kachin and other minorities has been the source of considerable ethnic tension and has fuelled intermittent separatist rebellions.
Military offensives against insurgents have uprooted many thousands of civilians.
A largely rural, densely forested country, Burma is the world's largest exporter of teak and a principal source of jade, pearls, rubies and sapphires. It is endowed with extremely fertile soil and has important offshore oil and gas deposits. However, its people remain very poor and are getting poorer.
Activists argue that French oil interests fuel oppression by co-operating with the junta in a joint venture to exploit gas. They allege that France has been blocking tough European Union sanctions against the military.
The country is festooned with the symbols of Buddhism. Thousands of pagodas throng its ancient towns; these have been a focus for an increasingly important tourism industry.
But while tourism has been a magnet for foreign investment, its benefits have hardly touched the people.

FACTS
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
Official name: Union of Myanmar
Population: 50.7 million (UN, 2005)
Capital: Nay Pyi Taw
Largest city: Rangoon (Yangon)
Area: 676,552 sq km (261,218 sq miles)
Major languages: Burmese, indigenous ethnic languages
Major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam
Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 63 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 kyat = 100 pyas
Main exports: Teak, pulses and beans, prawns, fish, rice, opiates, oil and gas
GNI per capita: not available
Internet domain: .mm
International dialling code: +95

LEADERS
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
Head of state: Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Senior General Than Shwe is the country's top military leader and heads the SPDC, the body of 12 senior generals that runs the country and makes the key decisions.

Than Shwe, a one-time specialist in psychological warfare
He has steadfastly ruled out a transfer of power to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
In 1993 he established the National Convention, a reconciliation process aimed at drawing up a new constitution. However, the general is said to be in no hurry to allow political change and talks have been boycotted by the NLD.
Born in 1933 near the town of Mandalay, Than Shwe joined the army at the age of 20. His career included a stint in the department of psychological warfare. He was decorated more than 16 times during his career as a soldier.
He is said to be introverted and superstitious, frequently seeking the advice of astrologers.
Reports in early 2007 said the 73-year-old had sought treatment in Singapore for an undisclosed medical condition.
Power struggles have plagued Burma's military leadership. Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was sacked and arrested in 2004. The former premier, who said he supported Aung San Suu Kyi's involvement in the National Convention, was seen as a moderate who was at odds with the junta's hardliners.
Vice-chairman of SPDC: Maung Aye
Prime minister: Soe Win (deceased)
Defence minister: Than Shwe
Foreign minister: Nyan Win
Home affairs minister: Maung Oo

MEDIA
OVERVIEW FACTS LEADERS MEDIA
The Burmese media have been strictly controlled since the 1962 military coup. Everything from poetry to films is censored, filtering not only criticism of the government but most bad news, including reports of natural disasters and sometimes even defeats by the national football team.
The state controls the main broadcasters and publications. Print and broadcast media are dominated by formulaic reports on the daily official and religious ritual activities of the ruling generals, accounts of progress in the implementation of policies, and denunciations of alleged US and UK plots against Burma.
Foreign radio is a key source of information about both the outside world and events at home. The BBC, Voice of America, the US-backed Radio Free Asia and the Norway-based opposition station Democratic Voice of Burma target listeners in Burma.
Well-off Burmese have access to some international television and a limited number of international publications.
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has placed Burma among the bottom 10 countries in its world press freedom ranking. It says the press is subject to "relentless advance censorship".
Internet access is tightly controlled by the government. It is further hampered by a poor telephone infrastructure and an unreliable supply of electricity. Reporters Without Borders calls Burma a "black hole" whose system "increasingly resembles an intranet as more and more foreign electronic services have been cut".
The press
Kyehmon - state-run daily
Myanmar Alin - organ of State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
New Light of Myanmar - English-language organ of SPDC
Myanmar Times - state-run English-language weekly
Television
TV Myanmar - state-run, operated by Myanmar TV and Radio Department - broadcasts in Bamar, Arakanese (Rakhine), Shan, Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Chin, Mon and English
MRTV-3 - state-run international TV service
Myawady TV - army-run network
TV5 - state-private joint pay-TV venture
Radio
Radio Myanmar - state-run, operated by Myanmar TV and Radio Department
City FM - entertainment station operated by Rangoon City Development Committee
Democratic Voice of Burma - opposition station based in Norway, broadcasts via shortwave
News agency/internet
Myanmar News Agency (MNA) - state-run
Mizzima News - run by Burmese exiles

ref: BBC

Fear is a Constant Companion!!!

2007-10-21T01:44:00.000-04:00

YANGON, Myanmar, Oct. 17 — Worshipers have begun returning to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the towering gold-coated landmark that had been cordoned off with soldiers and barbed wire only days before.

At the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. The government just ended a ban on gatherings of more than five people there.
Myanmar Government Lifts Curfew (October 20, 2007)
But at its four entrances, pictures of what appeared to be detainees, their faces harried or bruised from beatings, were posted as a warning. Soldiers in green uniforms lurked in the shade with their rifles. The surrounding area looked deserted, with the monks having fled and many shop workers, witnesses to the bloody crackdown, hauled away for questioning or told to relocate.
An ominous calm has settled here, less than a month after the military junta crushed an uprising for democracy led by the nation’s revered monks. People have quietly returned to the squalor and inflation that brought them to the streets in protest. There are even suggestions of peace: young couples embracing under trees around scenic Kandawgyi Lake; music from a restaurant drifting across the placid water.
But beneath the surface, anger, uncertainty, hopelessness — and above all, fear of the junta — prevail.
“It’s not peace you see here, it’s silence; it’s a forced silence,” said a 46-year-old writer who joined last month’s protests in Yangon and was now on the run, carrying with him a worn copy of his favorite book, George Orwell’s “1984.” “We are the military’s slaves. We want democracy. We want to wait no longer. But we are afraid of their guns.”
After the government shut down Internet access and denied visas for outside journalists, keeping much of the world at bay, terror continued to rage through Yangon, the main city, for days, according to witnesses and dissidents here. Soldiers raided homes and monasteries to arrest demonstrators, witnesses said, using pictures taken by government informers during the protests.
“Keep your pen and piece of paper in your pocket; there are spies everywhere,” said a 62-year-old retired man in Yangon’s Chaukktatgyi Pagoda. “Please don’t tell anyone my name. Big trouble for me.”
On the campus of the defunct Government Technology Institute, one of the several detention centers believed to hold people arrested during the nighttime raids, soldiers tore off monks’ saffron robes, beat them and made them “jump like frogs,” said a 60-year-old monk.
Even now, weeks after the initial crackdown, “neighbors are looking for their family members missing,” said a 33-year-old businesswoman. She added: “We have never seen anything like this in our history. Even the British colonial rule, they stopped chasing people when they ran into a monastery.”
By perpetrating what most Burmese felt was unthinkable — the beating and killing of monks — the ruling generals proved that they would stop at nothing to keep their grip on power. People were again cowed into subjugation. Now dissidents worry that the world, after its initial uproar, will again leave the Burmese people to cope with the junta on their own.
“We want to explode our feelings, but if we do, who will help us?” said a 58-year-old businessman who, like many, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “The U.N.? The U.S.? China? They all said they would help us. But all they did was blah, blah, blah.”
Some residents specifically found fault with the recent report on Myanmar by Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations special envoy, who cited “continuing and disturbing reports” of abuses, including “beatings, arbitrary arrests and disappearances.”
“Does the U.N. Security Council really think the regime here will care about its statement?” asked a 46-year-old dissident journalist.
Like diplomats here, many Burmese continue to quietly question the government’s official death toll — which stands at 10 — but they have little more than rumor to go on.
After the protests, the government banned gatherings of more than five people. But each day, across the nation, it organized rallies attended by thousands of people holding signs that condemned “external interference” and accused the BBC, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia of “airing a skyful of lies.”
The junta also sought to discredit the monks. The New Light of Myanmar, a government-run daily newspaper, reported that during “purification” searches at 18 monasteries, the authorities had found, among other things, pornographic videos, “one Nazi headband and two American headbands.” At the same time, government-run media carried pictures of generals kneeling and bowing before senior monks with cash and food donations — an apparent effort to soften the military’s image.
“They come with fire in one hand and water in the other,” said the 60-year-old monk. “These days, I cannot even leave my monastery without their permission.”

Referenced By: the NYtimes

US sanctions to Burmese Militray's possessions

2007-10-21T01:33:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday set new sanctions against members of Myanmar's military junta and their associates in response to the junta's violent crackdown on democracy protesters.

President Bush announces new sanctions on Myanmar's ruling junta on Friday.

"We must not turn a deaf ear to their cries," Bush said of those who have taken to the streets for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.
In late September, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was freezing the assets of 14 senior members of the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Also, the State Department imposed travel restrictions against the same junta leaders.
Bush said Friday he was expanding those sanctions to include 11 more members of the ruling junta. In addition, 12 individuals associated with Myanmar's government will face U.S. sanctions.
"Burma's rulers continue to defy the world's just demand to stop their vicious persecution," Bush said in explaining the additional sanctions.
Bush praised nations that have joined in sanctions on Myanmar and asked others to join in the effort to hasten democratic reforms in the country.
Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Myanmar in August after the government raised fuel prices as much as 500 percent. Nearly a month later, Buddhist monks took the lead in the protests and defied military orders that they stop.
The protests reached their height on September 27, when at least nine people, including a Japanese photojournalists, were killed by government troops.
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Myanmar's ruling junta said earlier this week almost 3,000 people were arrested in connection with the protests that began in August. Almost 500 people were still being held, the junta said, and others accused of participating in the protests were still being sought.
Bush called on the junta to release political prisoners and negotiate with the democratic opposition, threatening to increase U.S. pressure if that does not occur.
"We will continue to review our policies and consider additional measures if Burma's leaders do not end the brutal repression of their own people, whose only offense is the desire to live in freedom," Bush said.
On Thursday, the State Department announced new sanctions on Myanmar for not doing enough to combat human trafficking, saying the Myanmar government is directly involved in forced labor and reportedly drafts children into the nation's military. E-mail to a friend

referrenced by : CNN.com

Militray Juntas drop the curfew

2007-10-21T01:27:00.000-04:00

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar lifted a curfew Saturday and ended a ban on assembly imposed during a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

The crowded streets of Yangon, Myanmar are returning to normal after mass demonstrations in September.

The move is the latest sign the military rulers are confident they have fully crushed the largest demonstrations in two decades.

The White House dismissed the change as "cosmetic" a day after President Bush announced new penalties against the military-run government.

"What we need are signs of serious intent to move toward a democratic transition," presidential press secretary Dana Perino said.

The relaxing of restrictions imposed September 25 was announced from government vehicles driven through the streets of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"The curfew and ban on assembly has been revoked effective today, because security and stability has improved," according to the announcement issued from a speaker atop one of the vehicles.

It was not immediately clear if the restrictions were also lifted in Mandalay, another major city and a focus of last month's anti-government demonstrations.

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The lifting of the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and ban on gatherings of more than five people indicates the junta believes it has stamped out the uprising that was sparked in August by public anger at a sharp rise in fuel prices. Small protests quickly grew into anti-government demonstrations tens of thousands of people strong and spearheaded by legions of the country's respected Buddhist monks.

It was the largest show of dissent in the tightly controlled state in nearly two decades.

The junta responded by detaining thousands of demonstrators and shooting into the crowds, killing as many as 10 by official count. Diplomats and activists say the death toll is much higher.

Since the crackdown, authorities in Myanmar have attempted to apply a softer touch. They have cleared the streets of soldiers and released some prominent activists.

Perino said Saturday's announcement was "a bad sign that the regime now feels confident that it has cleared the monasteries of dissidents by either jailing them or sending them to their home villages, and arrested all the major players in the demonstrations and sent into hiding or exile those they have not captured."

Perino urged the junta to enter talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition leader, and invite U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to return.

The junta has also been intensifying efforts to arrange talks with Suu Kyi, issuing an unusual plea in state media Saturday for her to compromise for the sake of national reconciliation.

The government announced earlier this month that military leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe was willing to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner, but only if she meets certain conditions, including renouncing support for foreign countries' economic sanctions targeting the regime.

The junta has also urged Suu Kyi, detained for 12 of the last 18 years, to give up her support for "confrontation" and "utter devastation" -- an apparent reference to the recent protests.

Myanmar's repressive regime has repeatedly rebuffed the world's calls for democratic reforms, saying it will follow its own seven-step road map to democracy that is supposed to culminate in a general election.

While Gambari has been working toward a dialogue, the United States and other governments have stepped up pressure on the regime by tightening sanctions.

Bush announced Friday that Washington would expand sanctions imposed last month to punish the military-run government and its backers for the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Referenced by the CNN.com

Green Politics

2007-10-20T02:27:00.000-04:00

These contradictions also invlove the political structures suggested to resolve the ecological crisis.One of the isues considered in this work is whether green politics is a new phenomenon. In general,green politics has become a catch-all term in which any political group or action concerned with the environment finds ittself covered. However,the traditions of interest in the natural environmental stretch back into political history way beyond the areas discussed below.However,the terms used are varied and need to be explored.
In Britain and the United States earlier concepts if conversation and environmentalism had existed before the development of green politics and equally recent concept of political ecology. These terms need disentangling as they may help to identify different types of political action, from a reformist position to more radical life-style politics.

Green Politics

2007-10-20T01:47:00.000-04:00

The development of green politics has been seen as a major revolution in social and political thought. It has also bred a form of political activity which is intimately linked to ideas of personal transformation and a change in lifestyle. Its rise and influence on mainstream politics is so significant that critics have sometimes referred to a green establishment, and are critical of the way in which green issures are so readily accepted and used in educational establishments.

Earlier efforts to lift environmental issues into the popular consciousness were not to successful. However,the association of a new political movement with a particular science and a spiritual revival has been unique in recent years and this assocaition has also resulted in a series of contradictions.