The New Light of Myanmar

BURMA NEWS HEADLINES

2008-02-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

Burma NewsHeadlines

2008-02-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

BOYCOTT THE JUNTA, MONK KILLERS

2008-02-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

An Appeal By The Public Movement Organizing Committee

To The General Public

Under the military rulers we, the general public are getting poorer everyday and the poverty net that surrounds us is just bigger and wider. By contrast, a handful of the military generals, and their families and friends, are getting extremely wealthy, that they can hardly find enough banks to keep all the money they have extorted from the people of Burma.

While repeatedly shouting out loud that they are encouraging a market economy system, the military group are in practice using the Burmese economy as their own market and selling of the counties’ resources for their own benefit. As a result the public, from individual road sellers to small and medium business owners and all other employed workers have to struggle to survive while it is impossible to live and work in a straightforward way as they are forced to pay huge taxes, forced donations and contributions, fines and penalty payments.

Our country’s important businesses and all natural resources are under the control of the military group, where they can sign contracts, permit or license at will, allowing them to steal the nations wealth that is they almost choke on it. Meanwhile we, the public, have to work from dawn till dusk, simply to survive.

Our country’s health, education and social services are also some of the worst in the world. Virtually none of the money stolen from the public, and none of the vast income from the sale of our country’s natural resources are spent on public services. The money goes either to the small ruling junta, family and followers, or to buy more lethal weapons which they can use to intimidate, repress and kill its own monks and citizens. Any public services built with the minimal funds used are for cosmetic effect only, for duping the international media, but what benefit do we actually get? Aren’t we all paying ourselves for health, education, social and all other services? We are like captive zoo animals, used by the junta to gain international aid, through our poverty and suffering, from which the corrupt authorities cut all the flesh for their own consumption, and laugh in the face of the public as they throw them the bones.

Whenever the country’s suffering and poverty is referred to the junta always blame it on the international economic sanctions. The international community has repeatedly offered immediate help and support if they start to make changes in the political and economical situation of the country which the junta repeatedly refuses at the cost of continued public starvation.

Their one real policy is to maintain their control over everything in the country. In such a situation, every investment, all support and aid, pumps money into the junta’s own bank accounts, while the public remains poor.

Intimidation and bullying of vulnerable civilians has become a casual regular practice all the way down from the central to the lower level authorities, where we are being controlled by fear– ludicrously unreasonable laws, arbitrary orders and the grossly punitive prison sentences.

If we continue to put up with the abuse, bullying and repression, our off-springs will also become the slaves to the junta’s obnoxious offspring. We must work to improve our own children’s future. Our reply to the junta must be directed at replacing their violent and grossly evil selfishness with fairness and peace. We must defend ourselves from the lethal power of the juntas’ endless weaponry through the power of the people.

We must now boycott the junta’s own businesses.

That way

• We are systematically helping to reclaim our own rights and economy which has been stolen from us.

• We are protecting and defending our own rights and benefits,

• We are peacefully and lawfully answering the bullies instead of just tamely complying and suffering,

• We are staging the silent mass protest and demonstration, which reflects public solidarity,

• We are helping to stop the arrest, torture and killing of the monks, nuns, students, civilians and ethnic groups.

……..We must all participate …….

• This is an obligation for all of us Burmese who are denied all human rights,
• This is to secure the continued existence of our society into the future,
• This is our National movement.

To start to resolve all the issues and problems which beset our country, including poverty, the SPDC military junta must engage in meetings with public leaders including the ethnic groups and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. This is the only way that the country will be able to find peace and in time, to develop.

We will be maintaining these economic sanctions and boycotts until genuine discussions begin to find a clear resolution to our daily struggle with the problems of basic subsistence, maintaining health and gaining an education.

In solidarity and union, we will march forward together until we achieve these absolutely essential goals.

The Public Movement Organizing Committee

1 All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA)

2 United Groups of Ethnic Youths

3 All Burma Federation of Students Union

4 8888 Generation Students

5 Peace loving Muslim Organization

6 Generation Wave (New Blood Youth Organization)

7 Lawyers Union

8 Poets Union

9 New Generation Journalists Union

10 Public Activities Development Committee (Mandalay)

11 Public Activities Development Committee (Rangoon)

12 Writers and Artists Group

*whoiswhoinburma.blogspot.com

4 bomb blasts rock Myanmar border town, no casualties

2008-02-20T11:12:00.001-08:00

No casualties has been reported in a series of four bomb blasts in Myanmar's border town of Tachilek in eastern Shan state, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

The first bomb went off Monday before dawn near the Paradise Hotel in Tachilek, damaging the hotel's staff quarter, while the other three bombs exploded in five minutes' intervals at the foot of a tree near a tea shop and the mangrove near the tree respectively, the report said.

The incidents, which are under investigation, took place two days after the authorities warned against more possible sabotage in the country in the wake of bomb blasts earlier this year.

There have been a number of bomb blasts in Myanmar since January this year. The Jan. 11 blast in the new capital of Nay PyiTaw rocked a public toilet in the compound of staff quarters near Pyinmana Railway Station, killing the bomber herself.

A second blast in Phyu, Bago division on the same day took place when a circus show was being held at a football ground, killing a man and wounding three women and a child. The dead, allegedly a member of the anti-government ethnic armed group -- Kayin National Union (KNU), blew himself off when he was waiting for his partner to plant the bomb, according to earlier official report.

A bomb explosion hit a women latrine in the Yangon Railway Station on Jan. 13, injuring one woman. And a bomb went off on the rear part of a highway passenger bus on Jan. 16, claiming the life of a bus conductor.

*english.people.com

Myanmar moves to block bid by Aung San Suu Kyi

2008-02-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

Rangoon -- Aung San Suu Kyi will not be allowed to run for election under Myanmar's proposed constitution, which has been drafted ahead of a referendum in May, the military government said yesterday.

The junta says the referendum, if approved, will clear the way for democratic elections in 2010, the first since Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party scored a landslide victory in 1990 polls. The junta never recognized the result.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win told a gathering in Singapore that the document would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running because she had been married to a foreigner.

*theglobeandmail.com

Myanmar arrests two journalists working for news magazine

2008-02-18T10:35:00.002-08:00

YANGON, Myanmar: Authorities have arrested two Myanmar journalists in the military-ruled country and the reason for their detention was not immediately known, their colleagues said Monday.

Police arrested Myanmar Nation magazine's editor in chief Thet Zin and manager Sein Win Maung at their office Friday, several colleagues said on condition of anonymity, citing fears of official reprisal.

The colleagues said police searched the magazine's office in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, before the arrests, but did not explain why the two journalists were taken away.

Myanmar Nation is a private weekly magazine with a very small circulation.

Aung Din, executive director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma — an anti-junta lobbying group — said police found and confiscated the arrested men's mobile phones, a copy of a report on Myanmar by a senior U.N. Human Rights official, a book by an ethnic group leader on federalism and some video CDs containing images of a government crackdown on pro-democracy activists last September.

Troops last September crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks, killing dozens of demonstrators. They also raided monasteries and arrested thousands of people.

Several Myanmar journalists working for publications in Yangon were beaten up by police and soldiers while attempting to cover the demonstrations.

The regime said 10 people were killed during the crackdown, but human rights groups say the death toll was far higher. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a senior U.N. human rights official, said in a report at least 31 died in Yangon.

Police also confiscated poems by Sein Win Maung that were critical of the junta when they searched the magazine's office, Aung Din said, citing witnesses in Myanmar.

Ex-activist Thet Zin has heart and lung problems. He was arrested and tortured in 1988 for involvement in student pro-democracy protests at Rangoon University, and was occasionally detained and interrogated by officials throughout the 1990s, Aung Din said in an e-mail message.

He wrote poems and short stories for magazines under the pen name of Maung Zin and worked as a reporter and editor for several weekly journals before founding Myanmar Nation in 2006.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in 1988, when the army violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations and the current junta took power.

*iht.com

Burma: Ruling junta to blame for murder of top Karen leader, says ITUC

2008-02-18T10:35:00.001-08:00

(ITUC OnLine):As evidence mounts of the Burmese junta’s involvement in last night’s murder of a top Karen political leader on the Thai-Burma border, the ITUC today expressed its horror and disgust at the assassination of Phado Mahn Sha, General Secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), representing Burma’s second-largest ethnic nationality group. Mahn Sha, aged 64, was killed last night, 14 February, by two Karen-speaking assailants who entered his house in Maesod, a town situated inside Thailand on the Burmese border. According to the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB, an ITUC associate organisation), the 4x4 vehicle used by the assassins belongs to a Thai business partner of the DKBA, a proxy Karen militia controlled by Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The attackers reportedly climbed the stairs to Mahn Shar’s flat while he was finishing his meal, greeted him in the Karen language, then drew their guns and shot him twice in the chest. The victim died on the spot.

Mahn Sha was considered as the top leader of the KNU, an ethnic political movement supporting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and other democratic opposition parties in Burma. The KNU, which has struggled for decades to secure increased recognition of Karen peoples’ rights inside the Burmese federation, is widely known for sheltering and assisting victims of forced labour and other egregious human rights violations committed by SPDC and its proxy Karen militia, the DKBA. The so-called Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a para-military structure armed and controlled by the SPDC, has for over 10 years been denounced by the ITUC and its predecessor organisation, the ICFTU, as being responsible for murders, torture, rape, imposition of forced labour and forced recruitment of child soldiers in Burma’s Karen State, which borders Thailand.

“This wicked murder must be fully investigated by Thai authorities and the relevant international agencies and its authors, both material and intellectual, brought to justice, as soon and wherever possible”, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. ”If, as we have every reason to believe, the SPDC is ultimately responsible for it, this killing should help prove to the international community that Burma’s corrupt and murderous regime is not in the least interested in bringing about even the slightest degree of democracy to the country and its citizens, whether through a bogus referendum, so-called national elections or any other deceptive method”, he added. The SPDC has last week-end declared it would hold a “Constitutional referendum” next May and organise national elections in 2010, an announcement widely denounced by Burma’s democracy movement and many foreign governments as a scam designed to relieve mounting international political and economic pressure on the junta.

The ITUC said Burma’s neighbours, particularly India, China and ASEAN member countries now had to face up to their historic responsibilities towards Burma and its 47 million people. China, in particular, has come under strong criticism in international circles for using its veto power to block UN Security Council resolutions aimed at compelling Burma’s ruling junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and engage in a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and representatives of ethnic nationalities. In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Burmese groups around the world have also increasingly drawn parallels between the situation in Sudan’s western Darfur province and Burma, pointing at China’s reluctance to use its considerable influence over both Sudan and Burma over their respective human rights crises.

The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates. Website: http://www.ituc-csi.org

*albawaba.com

Junta in the Cage (Mr. Creator)

2008-02-16T13:25:00.001-08:00

Karen Myanmar leader assassinated by the junta

2008-02-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

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, police said.

KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha was shot at his home in Mae Sot by three men who arrived in a pickup truck, Thai police Col. Pasawat Tangjui said. He said the killing may have been the result of internal differences in the rebel group.

Mahn Sha’s son Hse Hse, another senior member of the predominantly Christian Karen rebel movement, blamed a Buddhist Karen splinter group which brokered a truce with the Myanmar junta in the mid-1990s. “This is the work of the DKBA and the Burmese soldiers,” Hse Hse said, referring to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Mahn Sha, 64, took over leadership of the KNU in 2000 from his ailing predecessor, Bo Mya, who died in 2006. He had been with the KNU since 1963, becoming Bo Mya’s personal assistant and joint general secretary in 1995 before taking the top post.

His neighbor Kim Suay told Reuters at the scene that Mahn Sha Lar Phan, secretary-general of the Karen National Union (KNU), died instantly after beong shot at his two-storey wooden home by two men who arrived in a pickup truck. “One of them walked up to the house and said in Karen ‘How are you, uncle?’ Then the other man joined him after parking the truck and they both shot him with two pistols,” she said, her voice shaking with emotion.

The assassination was immediately blamed on troops loyal to the former Burma’s military junta. The Karen have been fighting for independence in the hills of eastern Myanmar(Burma) for the last 60 years, one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.

Thai police said they had the registration number of the truck of the assassins and were setting up roadblocks around Mae Sot, a “wild west” frontier town of refugees, illegal migrants and gem dealers, to try to catch the two killers.

*burmadigest

Myanmar gives top dissident another year in jail

2008-02-13T10:12:00.001-08:00

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta gave prominent opposition politician Tin Oo another year in jail on Wednesday, dashing hopes of a relaxation of restrictions on dissidents before May's referendum, a home ministry source said.

Tin Oo, number two to detained opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house since May 2003, when their convoy was attacked by pro-junta militiamen in a provincial town.

The extension of his detention was read out to Tin Oo by a junta official who visited his house, the government source said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won an election landslide in 1990, only to be denied power by the former Burma's ruling military. She has spent most of the interim in prison or under house arrest.

The junta surprised the NLD this week, announcing a referendum on a new, as yet unfinished, constitution in May to be followed by a general election in 2010.

Major dissident groups have already said they will campaign to reject the military-drafted constitution. The NLD, by contrast, has failed to come up with a response.

Since September's brutally crushed democracy protests, Suu Kyi has been allowed occasional meetings with members of the NLD leadership, although Tin Oo has not been allowed to attend.

Myanmar has been under military rule of one form or another since 1962.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Michael Battye and David Fox)

Perino: Myanmar's words, deeds don't match

2008-02-12T08:51:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The administration of U.S. President George Bush Monday added its name to the list of skeptics expressing doubt about the planned general election in Myanmar.

"Than Shew's regime continues to arrest, prosecute and imprison peaceful political activists," a U.S. State Department statement said. "No referendum held under these conditions ... can be free, fair or credible."

The military government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, recently announced plans to conduct general elections in 2010 and work toward a new constitution beginning in May.

"The Burmese junta's announcement that it will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May demonstrates its lack of seriousness about an open and fair process for the restoration of democracy," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said during a media briefing.

Perino said the constitution's drafting process neither incorporated opposition views nor allowed enough time for adequate debate. Also, the constitution "has not yet been shared with the Burmese public," she said.

The move toward a democratic government in Myanmar follows more than four decades of military rule.

*upi.com

Elation Over A Murder?

2008-02-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

By Goldie Shwe

I was just skimming through the DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) for Burma’s daily news when I saw that report of the murder of a member of USDA (Union Solidarity and Development Association) - junta's paramilitary wing of 'social welfare' organization. I had hardly finished reading the summary before I started smacking my own arms; the Burmese style war dance and challenge, similar to Maori Haka. My own reaction surprised me and made me think why I naturally reacted with elation and triumph.

Not only was I brought up as a Buddhist, it was also my choice of religion and I have great and fundamental respect for Buddha's teaching. I learnt the 'Five Precepts', the most important basic rules of Buddhism, at an early age. The first of those was not to kill, and have respect for all life. The Buddha said, "Life is precious to all beings. They have the right to live the same as we do." We should respect all life and not kill anything. Killing ants and mosquitoes is also breaking this precept. We should have an attitude of loving-kindness towards all beings, wishing them to be happy and free from harm.

Although I cannot boast that I am one of the most religious and decent of people, I try my best to follow the Five Precepts, most of all not to kill. So why then was I so jubilant, why did I jump up and down in celebration over a horrible murder case?

I have been angry. I have been extremely angry since September 2007. When all the protests and the crackdown of them happening I was unhappy, sad, frightened for people who would be tortured and killed. Eventually my feelings have changed. Everywhere I turned I saw reports of bullies, torturing and killings that junta is doing to innocent and vulnerable civilians in Burma.

I was angry that 400 children die everyday in Burma, either through hunger or diseases related to malnourishment.

I was angry that a monk was tortured, killed and his body thrown into a river.

I was angry that monasteries were raided at night, monks killed, or locked up in prisons.

I was angry that so many elected politicians are locked up in prisons long-term, and denied access to basic medical treatment.

I was angry that many poor unknown people were locked up in prisons and tortured while their families made to travel many miles to visit them.

I was angry that Nilar Thein is on the run, while her husband is in jail and their baby separated from her.

I was angry that United Nations could do nothing to protect innocent people of Burma.

I was angry that the junta's thugs bully and blackmail local people so that they cannot support the members of National League for Democracy Party, which won the landslide election victory in 1990.

I was angry that Aids (HIV) sufferers are denied treatment in hospitals, the monastery which provided their free accommodation was stripped and sealed off, the monks chased away from the place, and their care manager Phyu Phyu Thin is also on the run, and was unable to be with her dying father or at his funeral.

I was angry that street children have been abducted by the junta's thugs and sold to serve in the military and for the girls become prostitutes.

I was angry that the junta's generals and their sycophants are robbing all the country's natural resources, to stuff their own over-full bank accounts.

I was angry that so many ethnic groups have been wiped out by the junta.

I was angry that human rights abuse and forced labour records and reports are so long and depressing that I was too upset to continue reading.

Every item of news and report that I find about Burma has been nothing but intimidation, bullying, torture and the killing of the people by cowardly junta. I have become unable to feel anything other than cold anger, indignation, outrage at the appalling record of the junta.

The feeling of revenge and some satisfaction therefore seemed quite natural when I read about the killing of one of the junta's thugs.The DVB reported that the man, a member of the USDA of Hlaing Tharyar, one of the poorest and most repressed areas of the capital Rangoon, was notorious for his arrogant and threatening behaviour towards the residents. His head was left on public display by unknown assailants in a primitive display for the losers of the fighting or a war. His headless body found nearby was lacerated all over, each cut reflecting the people’s long pent-up hatred for the junta and its minions.

The fact that neither head nor the mutilated body were hidden but left on public display has sent a very clear and loud message to junta and their thug followers that the people will not, and cannot, forget or forgive their treatment for so many long decades. The chilling nature of the murder must have sent shockwaves across the country - the first clear response indicating that the breaking point of the people may be near.

The repugnant Than Shwe and his shameless group of cowardly generals and their families might be residing in huge heavily-guarded estates in Pyin Manar Nay Pyi Daw, enjoying the wealth they have robbed from the country and giving orders to their thugs on how to repress the public and still keeping the most revolting grins on their faces but even they must have seen the first batch of dark clouds that is now beginning to loom over their heads.

For junta's thugs, who were given a share of power and equipped with weapons to control the public, life has been very easy and pleasant. Apart from intimidating and threatening people with their junta-backed power, and occasional arrests and tortures, life has been easy. On top of the benefits of delegated power and weapons, these men have been well paid, with performance bonuses and rewards, and exclusive access to gadgets like mobile phones and video cameras not available to the public. This has all been icing on a very nourishing cake for those official members of junta's many paramilitary organizations.

The report also stated that, following the chilling murder of one of their number, the teams of junta thugs seem to have been rather quiet. More interestingly, the public found that gone is the hitherto haughty and pompous behaviour, to be replaced by a slightly more considerate attitude. The most obvious outcome, immediately after the murder, has been that the thugs have abruptly abandoned their habit of intimidating and harrassing the general public.

The rewards and bribes they receive from the junta for carrying out the practicalities of repressing the public have been good, especially when they can have real power over the lives of many poor and struggling people. Suddenly they are under threat themselves and have to think about the possible price of their activities to themselves and possibly their relatives? At least locally, their demeanour has changed dramatically in the face of these life- threatening issue of a popular fight-back spreading more widely.

Every action provokes its own reaction. The people of Burma have been suffering for too long. Their suffering and distress have been too great that they have been left with no option but to take the law into their own hands.

Yes, we are Buddhist. And yes, the Lord Buddha told us not to kill. And yet, I applauded the cruel murder. My own reaction has shocked me so I had to decide to give myself some time to reflect. After a sleepless night, thinking through every aspect, I still feel exactly the same. I still strongly believe that the murdered junta thug thoroughly deserved his fate. It seems to be the only way that people of Burma can get some form of justice. The ordinary people of Burma are at war with the cruel bullies, torturers and killers of the junta, and this murder somehow seems a fair response to the decades of abuse and robbery. The fight-back may have begun.

And for my own peace of mind, I decided to record my satisfaction and triumph over this horrible murder to be very honest with myself and others, because if I don't, I will only be breaking another of Buddha's Five Precepts - No Lying.

*whoiswhoinburma

Burma poll announcement prompts mixed regional response

2008-02-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

Burma's announcement that it's to hold multi-party elections in 2010 has been welcomed by the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Singapore.

Burma is part of the 10-nation grouping, and Singapore's Foreign Ministry has described its surprise move as a positive development.

But the winner of Burma's last national vote, the National League for Democracy, says it's sceptical about the announcement.

And Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, says he remains very cynical about the Burmese government's motives.

"What we want to see is the UN special envoy, Mr (Ibrahim) Gambari, access to Burma.

"To enable Mr Gambari, the United Nations' core group -- the so call 'Friends of Burma' grouip - and the international community generally to be given a role in bringing Burma to full and complete democracy with the participation of the international community and with all the political players in Burma, including Aung San Suu Kyi, " Mr Smith said.

*radioaustralia.net

Burma election sham

2008-02-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Australian government has criticised the Burmese ruling military regime's claim that it will hold multi-party elections within three years - describing it as a sham.

In a brief statement, Burma's military rulers said a constitutional referendum in May would set the stage for elections in 2010.

The elections would be the first held in the former Burma since 1990.

Critics suggest it's an attempt to deflect international pressure after last year's crackdown on protesters.

At least 31 people were killed in the September protests.

Analysts say the announcement is a sign from the Burmese government that it will implement political changes on its own terms.

'This is much more for the international community, than it is for the Burmese people,' said Burma political Analyst, Larry Jagan.

'This is a way of saying to the international community: 'we're doing it our way, we have a timetable and we don't need your interference'' he said.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says he's very sceptical of the announcement, and is not persuaded to believe it's anything more than a sham.

But the Burma Campaign UK, a pro-democracy group, dismissed it as 'public relations spin' and 'nothing to do with democracy'.

*skynews.com

Junta hell bent on bringing KIO to its knees

2008-02-07T12:01:00.001-08:00

kachinnews/ November has been a cruel month for the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). From mid November the Burmese military junta has started gunning for KIO/A with unconcealed vengeance despite having an almost 14-year ceasefire with it.

The reason --it wants the group to issue a statement to counter the democracy icon Daw Aung Suu Kyi's statement made on her behalf by the UN Special envoy Ibrahim Gambhari in Singapore November 8. The KIO/A has steadfastly refused to be brow beaten by the military regime on this score all though it has made many other compromises earlier.

Suu Kyi's statement said that she was approached by a number of ethnic groups to represent them in the dialogue with the military junta. The junta has been arm twisting a number of ethnic ceasefire groups to issue statements opposing her statement.

While the junta did manage to make a number of ethnic groups to issue statements it reacted venomously towards the KIO/KIA. In a bid to pressurize the KIO, Burma Army troops and officers of the Sa-Ya-Pha, Military Affairs Security Unit also called the military intelligence, surrounded the homes of senior officials of the KIO and went in ostensibly checking for strangers and unreported guests in mid-November. They seized Chinese landline telephones instead. The raid was targeted at the outfit's leadership - brigade commanders, senior officials, and liaison offices in Myitkyina and Bhamo cities including the home of the KIO vice-president N'ban La Awng in Shatapru quarter in Myitkyina.

The raid was ordered by the ruthless Northern Command Commander Maj-Gen Ohn Myint based in Myitkyina and came in the aftermath of a special representative of junta supremo Sr-Gen Than Shwe, Maj-Gen Ye Myint, chief of Military Affairs Security (Sa-Ya-Pha) who met KIO leaders in Myitkyina early in November.

The KIO leaders chose not to react to the raid simply because it did not want to step on the junta's toes and upset the apple cart further. KIO leaders own luxurious homes and are into money making private enterprise in the junta controlled areas of Kachin State and other major cities in Burma.

Just three days later mounting further pressure, the military junta sealed the main gate to the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) Headquarters, in Laiza controlled area on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State at night. All pedestrian and vehicular movement across the gate was brought to a halt. Lajayang Gate is a key border export and import exit and entry point for both Burmese and Chinese merchants in Kachin State. On an average more than 100 people and cars cross the gate daily.

Further harassment was in store for the ceasefire group. Continuing to arm twist the KIO, soldiers of the Burmese Army's, Infantry Battalion No. 142 detained five soldiers and three office staff of the group on November 22. The detainees were from Dingga Controlled Areas Office in Dawhpum Yang region under the KIO's 3rd Brigade. They included the office in-charge and second-office in-charge, an accountant and five soldiers. It is another matter though that the eight detained by the army fled from the detention centre in Kachin State four days later.

The junta has been relentless in its harassment of KIO and its associates. Three Burmese military battalions including Waingmaw based Infantry Battalion No. 58 and Shwenyaungbin based Light Infantry Battalion No. 321 began operations in the gold mining areas in Nam San Yang near Laiza, in KIO controlled areas. The army has arrested and driven out the gold miners.

Around mid-November two of KIO's main gold mining areas were temporarily made out of bounds by the Burmese Army. The main ferry routes to one of the biggest KIO's gold mining areas in upper Mali Hka River (Mayli Kha) in north of Myitkyina were cut off and other smaller gold mines along Namsan River on Myitkyina-Bhamo highway road was taken control of.

The junta is bent on crippling the KIO economically to make it toe its line. It is increasingly placing restrictions in areas of the KIO's core revenue, which are the gold mines in Mali Hka (Mayli Kha) River between Myitkyina and Sumprabum and its Sino-Burma border trade activities along the Myitkyina-Laiza Road. The entire operation to make the KIO kowtow to the junta is being masterminded Kachin State commander, Maj-Gen Ohn Myint.

So vindictive and systematic has been the junta that it is constantly monitoring the activities and homes of senior officers of the KIO and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K).

Early this month security agents of the junta were seen watching the homes of the officers in Myitkyina Township, capital of Kachin State. The harassment has gone to a level where family members of KIO officials were questioned three to five questions daily by officers of the military intelligence also called Military Affairs Security Unit (Sa-Ya-Pha). This is being done twice or thrice a week.

Hemming in the KIO from all sides the Burmese Army disabled two key bridges in N'mai Hka River in Kachin State last month. The two metal-string bridges - the 59-Mile Jubilee (Jubili) and Chipwe (Chahpwi) on Waingmaw-Sawlaw road were partly dismantled by troops. The wooden planks on the bridges were removed. The bridges connect gold mining areas and logging fields under the KIO's 1st Brigade on the western side of N'mai Hka River in the junta and NDK-A controlled areas on the eastern side of the river.

The economic blockade and physical harassment of KIO officials is ample evidence that the ruthless Burmese military junta is hell bent on bringing the KIO to its knees. It is not leaving any stoned unturned to this end putting the KIO in a bind. As it is the KIO has been facing severe criticism from people in Kachin State which had condemned the organization for lending support to the junta's National Convention despite the fact the military regime ignored the 19-point of charter of demand that the KIO submitted at the NC.

People ‘paying the price’ for health care in Burma

2008-02-07T11:59:00.002-08:00

kaowao/ Mawlamyine -- Under-funding, corruption, and mismanagement in Burma ’s health sector are contributing to suffering and unnecessary deaths. People in need of medical care in Mon State are forced to pay unaffordable fees for treatment at corrupt private clinics which provides better care while receiving poor treatment at the public hospitals which is under-funded.

According to local people, patients without referrals from private clinics are denied treatment at the public hospital in Mawlamyine, capital city of Mon State.

When Mrs. Mi Soe, a woman from Thanbyu Zayat Township , sent her son to a public hospital in Mawlamyine the nurses told her that if she did not have a signed patient registration from doctors her son would not be treated or allowed to stay.

Mi Soe then took her son to the Yadanar Mon private clinic to get a doctor’s signature. At the clinic the doctor provided no advice because he knew the boy was seriously ill, so he signed a referral to the public hospital,” Mi Soe explained. “He was worried my son would die at his clinic. So he just signed the registration,” she added. Mi Soe’s son died in the public hospital soon after.

Worried about their reputations, most private clinics in Mawlamyine do not help patients who seem likely to die. People feel that clinic owners and doctors are more concerned about their reputation than the health of the people, because each prospective patient who chooses a different clinic represents lost profits. Seriously ill patients, the very people who need advanced care offered by the private clinics, are sent to public hospitals where care is of poorer quality.

However, people who want to attend the public hospital must first attend private clinics, even if it is likely that they will be sent to a public hospital. The thirty rooms of Yadanar Mon clinic are overcrowded with patients, many of whom are waiting to go to the public hospital.

Forcing people to attend private clinics before they can attend the public hospital causes serious difficulties; the result is that people who cannot afford to pay are denied medical care. From the perspective of the doctors whose salaries are not much better than a street vender and who frequently work at both the clinics and at the hospitals, “if there is no money, there is no treatment. This is how doctors make their living,” said a health worker in Mudon.

The health care in Burma is in shambles due to the mismanagement of the economy in which the military government provides no funding to the social sector, most earnings from investments goes into its defense budget. What health services are available are for the military elite, their families and cronies. Recently, the UN called on the government to address the deteriorating socio-economic situation in the country.

Authorities Hunt Exiled Monks

2008-02-07T11:59:00.001-08:00

narinjara/ Dhaka: Burmese military authorities have been searching for two monks who recently escaped to Bangladesh in their native village in Irrawaddy Division of Burma's delta region, said U Painya Dissa.
The authorities searched the village one week after the two monks had arrived in Bangladesh in their escape from Burma and the junta.

U Painya Dissa said, "Officials from the military intelligence unit first went to Mula Mingun monastery in the town of Pyapon on 29 January to search for me, because I usually visit the monastery on 29 or 30 January every year to meet with my senior abbot there."

U Painya Dissa was living in the Mula Mingun monastery several years ago and was initiated as a monk there.

"Afterward, the authorities went to my village to look for me. The officials searched my village monastery and my houses, and asked several questions of my family, but did not arrest any of my relatives," said the monk.

U Painya Dissa's native village is Wradan Shay located in Bokalay Township of Irrawaddy Division, where his family remains.

U Painya Dissa and one other monk, U Thawa Ra, escaped to Bangladesh from Burma in the third week of January 2008 as they feared the authority would arrest them.

The two monks were involved in leading the recent monk protests in the Saffron Revolution, and they are still executive members of the monk delegation unit that was formed by monks from the seven states and seven divisions of Burma.

The two monks are now staying at Rakhine monasteries in Bangladesh and the UNHCR Dhaka office has also issued a certificate to them for security purposes. #

Rambo & Than Shwe

2008-02-06T11:15:00.001-08:00

Dangers for journalists in Burma on the rise

2008-02-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
February 5, 2008

An annual report on press freedom around the world by a leading watchdog organization concludes that there was no improvement in 2007 in the working conditions of journalists in Burma. In several respects, the report adds, the situation has worsened in the aftermath of last year's protests and subsequent government response.

Released yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalist's (CPJ) report, entitled Attacks on the Press in 2007, states that 2007 has the potential to be the deadliest year on record for journalists, with the death of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai on the streets of Rangoon in September contributing to the tally.

Though Nagai's death is the only journalist fatality chronicled in Burma in 2007, the report emphasizes that the pervading atmosphere of censorship, threats and arrests contribute to Burma being "one of the world's most repressive media environments".

"Censorship of the media was pervasive, with no improvement since CPJ ranked Burma as the world's second-most censored country, after North Korea, in a May 2006 special report," CPJ says of the situation in Burma.

According to CPJ, six journalists were arrested in Burma for their chronicling of September's protests and the military's response, with one of those detained still remaining in custody. However, inclusive of the continued detention of 77-year old U Win Tin, CPJ ranks Burma as the sixth leading jailer of journalists in the world.

During last year's turmoil, the report states that journalists were subjected to ever increasing forms of repression and intimidation by the state sector. These measures are said to include the cutting of phone lines, pulling the plug on the Internet, the closure of independent journals and news outlets and the arbitrary confiscation of photographic and recording equipment.

CPJ maps an expanding and darkening cloud for media freedom encompassing a large swath of Eurasia and extending from Russia in the west, covering much of South and Central Asia and culminating with China in the east.

The report is highly critical of China, with regard to both the domestic environment and China's influence abroad.

China is often viewed as the dominant foreign actor inside Burma, and several governments and activists are urging the international community to pressure China on foreign policy and human rights reforms or risk an embarrassment at this summer's Beijing Summer Olympics.

"If the Olympic Games occur while China is still the word's leading jailer of journalists, still censoring and controlling access to the Internet, still restricting the global media, then it will have demonstrated that it's possible to join, even lead, the international community without honoring the basic right to express ideas and circulate information freely," reads the report.

However a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. told reporters in October that "irrelevant issues should not be linked to the Beijing Olympic games."

The true number of those killed and detained in Burma last year, due to the lack of transparency inside the country, remains uncertain. The problem of an accurate estimate for journalists is further obfuscated by the role, and classification, of citizen journalists during and after the uprising.

Thus far CPJ recognizes the deaths of 64 journalists in 2007, with 22 additional cases still under investigation. The current high water mark was in 1994, which witnessed the confirmed killings of 66 journalists in the line of work.

The U.S. War on Terror is largely responsible for the spike in journalist deaths around the world since 2002, with CPJ documenting 31 deaths of journalists in Iraq alone for 2007. Somalia places a distant second, with seven journalists killed for their work last year.

Burma’s Elderly Turn to Begging for a Living

2008-02-05T15:35:00.001-08:00

(AFP)
A group of senior citizens is sitting and chatting together in a circle, hoping for worshippers to appear at Mandalay’s famed Mahamyatmuni Pagoda in Mandalay so they can beg for money. They are weak, feeble, and entirely dependent on these small offerings from the pious and compassionate.

“They can be seen gathering and talking with each other, like pilgrims at famous pagodas,” said Thura, a resident of Sagaing, a major Buddhist pilgrimage center in Upper Burma. “When their children are unable to look after them, they come here to beg for their daily survival.”

Increasingly, Burma’s elderly, including retired civil servants, are turning to mendicancy to make ends meet. They can be seen near pagodas, in teashops, and on the streets, seeking to supplement their meager pensions with the spare kyat of passersby.

Residents of Rangoon and Mandalay say that senior citizens without support from their families or a place to stay in a monastery face severe hardship. Facilities for assisting those in their declining years are few, and most have already reached their full capacity.

“We can accept new residents only after someone else has died,” said an employee of the Shwe Than Lwin Home for the Aged in Rangoon. “We have only enough room for 96 people,” added the staff member, who was contacted by phone.

Kandawgalay Little Sister of the Poor, a Catholic-run organization in Rangoon’s Mingala Taungnyunt Township, currently cares for 170 elderly people, according to a senior nun who spoke to The Irrawaddy. “If we have places for them to stay, we accept,” she said, adding that all funding comes from local donors.

Rangoon’s Hninzigone Home for the Aged, a non-governmental organization founded in 1933, is funded by donations from within Burma and abroad. It is home to 220 elderly people who meet the minimum requirements of being over the age of 70 and without any other means of support.

In Burma, there are estimated to be 4 million people over the age of sixty, representing roughly 8 percent of the total population. There are just 52 homes for the aged across the nation, with a combined capacity to care for 2,196 senior citizens. All are run by charitable organizations supported by donations.

Public funding for elderly care is conspicuously absent, with the military government providing just 15 million kyat (around US $1,200) a year in cash and medicine to meet the needs of the country’s oldest citizens, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar. This compares with the 40 percent of Burma’s national budget that the government spends on the army.

Inadequate care for the elderly has forced many to rely on others who are also struggling to provide for themselves. “Some older people, leaning on a healthier elderly person, go from car to car along U Wisaya Road, because drivers in this area can afford to give money to beggars,” according to Ma Naing, a resident of Rangoon.

Ma Naing added that insufficient pensions are one of the key reasons so many have been reduced to seeking handouts.

“The pension I receive now is 800 kyat (60 cents) a month, not even enough for a meal,” said a retired teacher in Rangoon. “We fulfilled our duty to our country, but the government has failed to take sufficient responsibility for retired civil servants.”

The former teacher added that the high cost of transportation since the regime raised fuel prices late last year has been especially hard on retired civil servants living in rural Burma, who must go into the city to collect their pensions. Now, he said, much of the money they receive is spent on traveling expenses.

“I don’t like to see old people, weak and shaky, asking for money,” said a civil servant in Rangoon, watching a frail woman in her late seventies with a plastic basket collecting money from shoppers on their way to the market. “Life for them is tough.”

*irrawaddy

Blogger mysteriously missing; authorities deny arresting him

2008-02-05T15:32:00.002-08:00

ABITSU/ (Mizzima/IFEX) - The Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, allegedly arrested by the police on 29 January 2008, has mysteriously gone missing, according to his mother, Daw Aye Aye Than. Daw Aye Aye Than said her son’s whereabouts could not be confirmed as the authorities have denied detaining him.
“We went to the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the 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.

She said her son left home on that day at about 12:00 p.m. (local time). When the family tried to contact him on his cell phone at about 1:00 p.m., he could not be reached.

“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 did not state what they were looking for, but the manner of the search suggested they were looking for someone in hiding.

Daw Aye Aye Than said she is worried for her son and could not understand why he has disappeared.

“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,” she said.

Nay Phone Latt has a blogsite, http://www.nayphonelatt.blogspot.com . Many of his colleagues believe he has been arrested by police, although there are no eyewitnesses attesting to this.

Some friends said he was taken away from an Internet café in Thingan Kyun township in Rangoon. However, his mother’s version of events appeared to indicate that he was arrested while on the road. Neither version can be independently verified.

Five Arrested, Dozens Flee in Raid on Border

2008-02-05T15:32:00.001-08:00

narinjara/ Cox’s bazar: Five Burmese people were arrested and many fled in a police raid in Cox's Bazar border town in Bangladesh on boatmen who were preparing to to travel illegally to Malaysia, said a Burmese Muslim refugee in Cox's Bazar.
The arrestees were identified as Maung Kyaw Soe and Shar Long, both 27 years old, Zawsin, 30 years old, Ku Rin Bular, and another unidentified man. All five hailed from Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships in Arakan State.

An estimated 25 people fled from the police during the raid and are currently hiding in unknown locations to evade arrest by Bangladesh police.

The refugee source said that police are now searching for the Burmese people who fled from the raid on the house in Cox's Bazar.

The arrested men are likely to be charged for illegal entry into Bangladesh, he added.

In Bangladesh, Burmese Muslims are often arrested by Bangladesh authorities as they come to Bangladesh in transit to Malaysia to look for jobs and a better life. #

Than-Shwe naked

2008-02-04T10:16:00.000-08:00

Burma fears Rambo

2008-02-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

Burmese officials have banned even pirated copies of the new Rambo movie, and Hollywood's Sylvester Stallone says he'd love to go to Rangoon and confront the junta face to face.

"These incredibly brave people have found, kind of a voice, in a very odd way, in American cinema... They've actually used some of the film's quotes as rallying points," said Stallone, 61, in a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency.

"That, to me, is the one of the proudest moments I've ever had in film," he told Reuters.

Police in Burma have given market sellers strict orders not to sell pirated copies of the flick.

Just two weeks into its commercial release (panned by most US critics, highly rated by audiences in the US), the movie is available in black-market editions under the counter in markets in Rangoon and towns along the Thai border.

In the movie, ageing war veteran John Rambo, played by Stallone, ventures into Burma to rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by a ruthless local infantry unit.

"Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta," a Burmese student in Thailand was quoted by Reuters.

In Rangoon, local people said Burmese have gone crazy over lines from the film such as

When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing.

Burma's a warzone.

Rambo: Are you bringing in any weapons?
Aid worker: Of course not.

Rambo: You're not changin' anything.

The tagline of the blood and guts movie is: "Live for nothing, die for something."

Stallone's movie specifically focuses on the Karen near the Thai border. The Karen and other groups have suffered half a million cases of forced relocation and thousands more have been imprisoned, tortured or killed by the military dictators.

Stallone told Reuters that he hopes the film can provoke a confrontation.

"I'm only hoping that the Burmese military, because they take such incredible offence to this, would call it lies and scurrilous propaganda. Why don't you invite me over?" he said.

"Let me take a tour of your country without someone pointing a gun at my head and we'll show you where all the bodies are buried... Or let's go debate in Washington in front of a congressional hearing," the movie star said to Reuters.

"But I doubt that's going to happen."

Stallone said he was happy with what he described as "the bloodiest, R-rated film (for) a generation" and hoped to make another.

"It will depend on the success of this one, but right now I think I'm gearing one up. It will be quite different," he said.

(BangkokPost.com)

Burma’s Censors are Now Also Code-breakers

2008-02-04T10:09:00.001-08:00

Burma’s censorship authorities have found new tools to monitor submitted written manuscripts before approval—mirrors and magnifying glasses.

Rangoon-based writers told The Irrawaddy that censors working in the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board office are now equipped with mirrors and magnifying glasses to help them seek out hidden messages in poems, novels, stories and advertisements.

The new tools were introduced following the discovery in a published poem of a clandestine message mocking junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

The first words of each line of the short poem, written by Saw Wai under the title “February 14” and published in the weekly “Love Journal,” made up the message: “Senior General Than Shwe is foolish with power.” Saw Wai was subsequently arrested.

The head of the censorship board, Maj Tint Swe—himself a writer, with the penname Ye Yint Tint Swe—was summoned to a meeting with high-ranking officials, where he had to explain the lapse. Sources say he may soon be fired.

Saw Wai’s ruse was the second of its kind to mock Than Shwe in this way. In July 2007, an advertisement in the English-language semi-official The Myanmar Times newspaper contained a hidden message calling Than Shwe “a killer.”

The advertisement was placed in the paper by a Danish satirical art group posing as "The Board of Islandic Travel Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik and the Danish Industry BesoegDanmark." When read backwards, the Danish-looking word "Ewhsnahtrellik" spelt out "Killer Than Shwe."

A Burmese editor living in Rangoon confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Monday that censors were now using mirrors and magnifying glasses to search for hidden messages in the texts they are required to check before publication.

Editors and publishers say the additional work is slowing up the censorship process. “The censors are even checking cover pages of magazines time and again.”

One Rangoon writer said he now had to submit his manuscripts one month ahead of publication, compared to one week in the past.

*Irrawaddy

Stalllone threatens to expose Burma's killing fields

2008-02-04T10:07:00.000-08:00

Washington, Feb 4 : Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone is upset over the potential ban on his new film in Burma and has threatened to expose the country's killing fields if the movie doesn't hit theatres as planned.

The Burmese authorities are said to be upset with the plot of the film, in which Stallone's character tackles the country's military in a mission to free a group of captured Christian aid workers.

The 61-year-old actor is upset that his film might not reach fans following an official crackdown on the distribution of pirated copies of Rambo.

"If the Burmese government has nothing to hide, I am wiling to go there and show the world where thousands of bodies of innocent women and children are buried," Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

"Let the generals look me in the eye and tell me they have a free country. It will never happen," he added.

*malaysiasun

Stallone says 'Rambo' banned in Myanmar

2008-02-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES - Sylvester Stallone says his latest "Rambo" movie and its tagline are inspiring real-life opponents of Myanmar's ruling military junta - and prompting a government backlash.

While the film has yet to be formally released in Asia, Stallone said he's heard reports that Myanmar police have prohibited DVD sellers from stocking pirated copies. Stallone also said two of the film's actors, who are from the country formerly known as Burma, told him that family members have been arrested.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the claims.

Myanmar's military crushed pro-democracy protests led by students and Buddhist priests last year.

The fourth "Rambo" has the disaffected Vietnam vet trying to find missionaries captured by Myanmar soldiers, who are shown razing villages and killing civilians.

Stallone filmed the movie on a river bordering Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

"Either live for something, die for nothing - it's your choice," Stallone said on Saturday in a phone call from Paris, where he is promoting the new film. "Students have now used this film as a rallying point and are using the quote, thinking maybe the American military will intervene and save them."

He issued a challenge to the junta about its portrayal.

"If they think this movie is a fantasy," he said, "I welcome the opportunity to let me come over there and walk around the country without armed guards following me every inch of the way."

*canadianpress

Junta Charges More Political Prisoners, Others Seriously ill

2008-02-01T13:02:00.002-08:00

irrawaddy/ By Saw Yan Naing
Burmese authorities have charged seven more political prisoners who took part in the September uprising, including prominent activist Htay Kywe, Su Su Nway and Mie Mie, say sources in Rangoon.

Htay Kywe and Mie Mie are leading members of the 88 Generation Students group.

Su Su Nway won the John Humphrey Freedom Award and is a youth member of the National League for Democracy.

Win Maung, the father of Pyone Cho, an 88 Generation Students group member who recently visited Insein Prison, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Htay Kywe and Mie Mie were charged under section 17/20 of Burma’s Printing and Publishing Act.

Su Su Nway was reportedly charged under article 124, 505 and 125 of the penal code. Win Maung said he could not identify the names of all seven activists who were charged.

According to Aung Thein, a lawyer in Rangoon, article 505 concerns a threat to the government’s stability—a charge that could result in three years imprisonment; article 124 reportedly relates to acts that could destabilize the government and could result in life imprisonment.

Su Su Nway is scheduled to go on trial on February 6 in Rangoon’s Bahan Township, Win Maung said.

A fourth political prisoner, pro-democracy activist Win Maw, was charged under article 5 (J)—which involves a threat to the security or stability of the country, which could lead to seven years imprisonment.

A popular Burmese musician, Win Maw was arrested in November along with two friends, Myat San and Aung Aung, as they sat in a Rangoon teashop.

Win Maw, the lead guitarist in the Shwe Thansin group, one of Burma’s top bands in the 1990s, was sentenced in 1997 to seven years imprisonment for writing songs in support of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was released in 2003.

Meanwhile, Myo Yan Naung Thein, a member of 88 Generation Students who was arrested in December, is now in poor health, according to his brother, Myo Hteik, who recently visited him in Insein Prison.

“Someone must help him when he tries to walk,” he said. “He can’t move his body on the left side. I am really worried about his health. I want the authorities to give him a chance to get a medical checkup in a hospital outside of the prison.”

According to reports, Myo Yan Naung Thein was tortured and beaten when he was held in the interrogation center for one week. In 1996, he was imprisoned for seven years.

Meanwhile, other political prisoners are in poor health, according to NLD spokesman Nyan Win.

They include Win Mya Mya, an organizer of the Mandalay branch of the NLD; Than Lwin, the vice-chairman of the NLD’s Mandalay Division; and Shwe Maung, an NLD member. All are detained in Mandalay Prison.

According to London-based Amnesty International, some 1,850 political prisoners are currently held in Burmese prisons, and 96 persons remain unaccounted for following the September demonstrations. An estimated 700 political activists were arrested in September 2007.

Students forced to donate money to school

2008-02-01T13:02:00.001-08:00

Jan 30, 2008 (DVB)–High school students in Htayaw Sakhangyi village, Ma-au Bin township, have been forced to pay money towards new classrooms, causing many poorer students to leave the school.

Local officials and school headteacher Daw Thin Thin Nwe demanded that each student pay 15,000 kyat towards the classroom construction, according to one student.

“The headmistress and village Peace and Development Council officials were collecting 15,000 kyat from each student from the 2006/7 intake of students, which they said was for building new classrooms,” the student said.

A new classroom was built, but the student said that the quality was very poor and it was not adequate for the students’ needs.

The student estimated that around 70 percent of grade 9 and 10 students had been forced to leave the school because they could not afford to pay the 15,000 kyat.

Now officials are again collecting 15,000 kyat from the 2007/8 intake of students for the building of new classrooms.

One female student said that more students had been forced to leave the school this year because they were unable to pay.

“About 50 students from farming backgrounds had to quit school because they couldn’t afford to pay the money that was demanded to build the new classrooms,” she said.

Teachers also instructed the students not to tell officials from the education administration office about the forced donations when they carried out inspections at the school, and threatened them with expulsion if they said anything.

The students are now preparing to file a complaint against the headteacher and local authorities.

This village PDC office and the school’s headmistress were unavailable for comment.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Dagon man arrested for second time

2008-02-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

Jan 30, 2008 (DVB)–A man from New Dagon township in Rangoon who was arrested on 1 January after an argument with a local official has been arrested for the second time, his family said.

Ko Win Ko, from Htaung Taloke village in New Dagon township, was arrested after he got into an argument with a local official’s brother who had not paid money he owed to Ko Win Ko’s brother for farm labour.

The local official, village Peace and Development Council chairman U Aye Myint, then got involved in the argument, punching Ko Win Ko.

The next day, U Aye Myint reported the incident to the local police station and had Ko Win Ko and his father arrested.

Ko Win Ko’s wife, Ma Khin Khin Swe, said she then went to the police station to find out why he had been arrested.

“They said he had been arrested for violating his movement restrictions, but he has never been given any movement restrictions,” she said.

“He was taken to court the next day and placed on remand for five weeks, but on 23 January the court concluded that he had committed no crime and decided to drop the case.”

However, the judge said that Ko Win Ko would face movement restrictions for six months and told him he needed to go to the police station to sign an agreement accepting the restrictions.

The judge advised Ko Win Ko not to challenge the restrictions because he said local authorities had the power to impose restrictions for one or two years.

On his return home, Ko Win Ko went to South Dagon township police station 133 to sign the restriction agreement, but when he got there he was arrested by the deputy police chief on cockfighting charges, which Ko Win Ko’s father is also facing.

Ma Khin Khin Swe said her husband had done nothing wrong and she would take the case further.

“They just arrested my husband when he has committed no crime and I’m very disappointed with that,” she said.

Ma Khin Khin Swe has written a letter of complaint to the minister of home affairs, the attorney general, the justice department and the military commander of Rangoon division, which she sent on Monday.

Ko Win Ko has been detained since his arrest, and is due to appear in court on 7 February.

Reporting by Aye Nai

Burmese junta force villagers to pay for road construction

2008-02-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2008 - The Burmese military junta authorities do not bat an eye lid when it comes to collecting money forcibly from the people.

An order has been issued to collect money from villagers for the construction of a road that will connect Hakha, capital of Chin state to Mantaw village in Kalay Township, Sagaing division.

The order issued by Khuang Hlei Thang, chairman of Township Peace and Development Council in Thangtlang Township in Chin state on January 10 directs each village in Thangtlang to contribute Kyat 200,000 (about US $ 160) each for the 80 mile long Hakha-Mantaw road project.

The order further mentioned that each village must pay at the TDPC office in Thangtlang before the end of February.

The latest move has also added to the trouble of villagers who are facing a famine like situation (food crisis) because of bamboo flowering that helps rats multiply across remote areas Chin state.

"We have no idea where to find so much money when we can hardly generate our daily meal," said a local from Chin state.

The village heads have been assigned to collect the money.

The amount of money to be collected will range from Kyat 2000 to 6000 per household on the basis of the household number in the village. The sum of collected money is estimated to touch Kyat 17,000,000 (US $ 13,654), according to locals.

The eight feet wide Hakha – Mantaw road construction project began in 2006. Initially, it was targeted to be completed in 2007 with government funding. Later, the local authorities carried out the project with fund from civilians and labour of locals.

So far, only 50 miles of the 80 miles of the road has been completed.

On May 2007, the TPDC authorities from Thangtlang town had also collected Kyat 1,000 per household from 85 villages in Thangtlang for labour wages to be paid to road construction workers. – Khonumthung.

A COUP IS INDISPENSABLE INSIDE THE ARMY, NOT IN THE EXILED COMMUNITY

2008-02-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

_ By Ethan Bourne
According to inside sources, the military regime has planned to install a puppet civilian government since October, 2004. To avert attention and trick the nation and the international community, Ne Win formed a Socialist party in which all appointed delegates had to say yes to him within and without the Hluttaw, the Burmese congress. That is how the four generals in Burma are planning to do again. Therefore, the new civilian government in Burma will not be double Dutch to the Burmese and the international community. But it will be the same old record played by Ne Win. Now the player will be Than Shwe and his followers. No wonder Aung San Suu Kyi said “Let’s hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”

Foreign intervention may be necessary to bring change to Burma. Before foreign assistance comes, change inside the army is necessary. A coup must be staged and when the coup is staged and successful, foreign assistance will arrive. Foreign assistance will arrive even in the middle of a coup. A few brave officers need to get organized and stage a coup. These brave officers are a few colonels, majors and captains who will lead a coup that will change the fate of the Burmese people. The day they stage the coup they are colonels, majors and captains. The next day they will become Major Generals, Brigadier Generals and Colonels. [An article on “How To Stage A Coup” will be posted.] Captain Ohn Gyaw Myint attempted a coup in 1976. Unfortunately the coup was seen as undesirable by the U.S. Government at that time because the USG was having a good relation with Ne Win’s regime. Today’s young, brave officers in the army should not worry about that because the CIA is having a very bad relation with the current military regime. When General Khin Nyunt was in power, CIA was having a bad relation with the Burmese military regime but things were making progress. A few of General Khin Nyunt’s officers were sent to CIA for further trainings. When General Khin Nyunt and his OCMI were purged, the CIA lost its sources in the army. Today the CIA is having far worse relations with the Burmese military brass hats who have no understanding of values of intelligence agents, sources and operatives. When and if these young officers stage a coup, the CIA will help.

An exiled government is necessary and there should be only one exiled government that will campaign arduously for change inside Burma. But what if the ruling military junta illegally nullifies the 1990 elections results? What will happen to the exiled government, NCGUB? In the meantime there are controversial disputes over the effectiveness of the exiled government. No matter what there must be an exiled government and it must have a military wing like it does now. However, that military wing should be actively involved in disrupting the military regime’s daily official business. Whether NCGUB remains as an exile government or a new exile government is to be formed, it should and must be involved as a forceful parallel government to the military regime in Burma. There should not be two parallel governments in exile. A coup is necessary inside the Burmese army, not in the exiled community abroad. But if the actions of NCGUB are not acceptable to the democratic forces including NLD and the students who started the revolution, the organization must be reformed or purged and a new GIE is indispensable.

*burmadigest

Myanmar Blogger Arrested: One Voice Heard

2008-02-01T12:38:00.000-08:00

There was a little-noticed bit of news out of Myanmar this week; a blogger, Nay Myo Latt, was arrested after writing about what is happening within the country, including increased loss of freedom following last fall's protests and subsequent government crackdown

As a blogger, I see stories like this fairly regularly coming out of countries with much more oppressive government controls of what people can do and say online. In Myanmar, this arrest is symptomatic of a much larger issue. I spoke with the spouse of a Burmese expatriate, living here in the U.S., to get a better understanding of the access to information and contact with the online community outside Myanmar.

According to my source, who asked to remain anonymous to protect family and friends still in Myanmar as well as safety during any future travel, the government control of Internet cafe users isn't new since the protests. During a visit last summer, these cafes (which really only exist in Yangon and Mandalay, which have more widespread Internet usage than other areas of Myanmar), patrons were required to submit fingerprints as well as personal information All access to free services such as Yahoo! and Google are blocked. Some savvier patrons manage to access sites outside of the allowed sites using anonymizing tools, but the government pays such close attention that access to anonymizers is quickly blocked.

On the whole, the Burmese people live in fear. Both foreign travelers and Burmese citizens are required to provide identifications at checkpoints throughout the country, register if they are staying anywhere other than their own homes (including hotels or other citizens' homes), and are tracked via regular paper reporting.

My source felt that, especially as the owner of Internet cafes, Nay Myo Latt knew exactly what would happen by posting the blog entry. In cases such as this one, it is likely that the dissident felt that the purpose far outweighed the potential risks; after all, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years, even after winning an election whose results were summarily ignored by the regime.

I view blogging as many different things; an outlet, a news source, and a creative endeavor. People blog for many different reasons, but for Nay Myo Latt, it was an attempt to get news out of the country, so that others could understand the situation there and hopefully add more international pressure for the current regime to compromise with pro-democracy supporters. The story needs more attention, to make Nay Myo Latt's voice heard.

More information about loss of freedoms, including the ability to use the Internet to get news in or out of the country,

can be found at The Irrawaddy , Mizzima News and Burma news

*profy.com

Big Rise in Number of Burma’s Political Prisoners

2008-02-01T12:34:00.001-08:00

The number of political prisoners behind bars in Burma increased last year to at least 1,864, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

A statement issued on Thursday said the figure—an increase of 706 over the 2006 total—did not include all those arrested during and after the September demonstrations.

The AAPP drew particular attention to the regime’s practice of arresting relative of wanted political activists as a way of forcing them to give themselves up.

Five such cases, involving eight relatives of wanted activists, were documented by the AAPP.

The arrested relatives were identified as: the mother and mother-in-law of Thet Thet Aung; the wife of Nyein Thit, a poet and former political prisoner; Thein Aye, a friend of Di Nyein Lin, leader of the All Burma Federation of Student’s Union; Peter and Nu Nu Swe, parents of Si Thu Maung; and the father and brother of U Gambira, a leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance.

Nyein Thit’s wife Khin Marlar and U Gambira’s father, Min Lwin, had subsequently been released.

The AAPP charged that the political prisoners were not getting enough food or fresh drinking water. They were not being provided with bedding and blankets and were being kept in overcrowded and poorly ventilated facilities.

“Detainees were tortured by being forced to lie face down on the ground while answering questions,” the AAPP said. “In one case, two detainees were made to slap each other’s face repeatedly both as a means of humiliation and torture.”

Medical care was also being denied, claimed the AAPP—saying it had documented the deaths of at least 30 prisoners in Taungoo prison alone. “Many died as a result of tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS acquired in the prison.”

AAPP said four political prisoners were currently in solitary confinement in Insein Prison. Their families reported that they had been condemned to solitary confinement after a request for proper medical care had been sent to junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the BBC Burmese Service reported.

(Irrawaddy)

Myanmar detains over 1,800 political prisoners: watchdog

2008-02-01T12:32:00.001-08:00

BANGKOK (AFP) — Military-run Myanmar has detained 1,864 political prisoners, including 706 dissidents arrested during the junta's bloody crackdown on protests last year, an exiled opposition group said Friday.

The report by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) also said that prisoners are being tortured and denied adequate drinking water and food.

"While in detention, many detainees were denied access to proper medical care," said the group of former political prisoners who maintain contact with prisons around the country.

The report mirrored findings by Amnesty International, which last week said the regime holds at least 1,850 political prisoners, including about 700 arrested during the junta's deadly suppression of anti-government protests in September.

The report was released just one day after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a sharply worded statement accusing prison guards of abusing detainees and denying them medical care.

Mass protests led by Buddhist monks in September were the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly two decades, but the regime violently quashed the movement, killing at least 31 people and leaving 74 missing, according to the United Nations.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said about 100 people were killed during the September crackdown, far higher than the 15 dead reported by the junta.

*afp.google

‘A Man Without a Head Can Run Burma’

2008-02-01T12:24:00.000-08:00

Burmese comedians’ political satire reveals how the people think and how their rulers live in fear

An American without legs can climb Mount Everest,” the American president said proudly at a gathering of statesmen. Immediately, the Russian president said, “A Russian without arms can swim across the Atlantic.”

The other world leaders were stunned by the two statements. But the leader of Burma came to the rescue:

“In my country, a man without a head can run the country for 20 years.”

That’s a joke by a well-known comedian known as Godzilla, and it drew loud applause from hundreds of Burmese in Bangkok in January.

Cracking such a joke irks Burma’s rulers and can lead to imprisonment for comedians.

However, the five comedians of Say Yaung Sone & Thee Lay Thee, a Burmese traditional a-nyient performance troupe, go about cracking such jokes, ignoring the fact that the ruling generals wouldn’t like them.

The troupe of Say Yaung Sone (colorful) and Thee Lay Thee (referring to the four comedians: Sein Thee, Pan Thee, Kye Thee and Zee Thee) appeared in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore in January and has been invited to perform in Western countries.

Godzilla, in his 40s, and the Thee Lay Thee members, in their early 30s, mainly tell jokes about the Burmese regime’s harsh crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations last September, the regime’s corruption, the lack of electricity and the possibility of change in the country in 2008. The jokes are more than enough for the comedians to be put in jail with long sentences.

Even so, Godzilla quips on stage, “After this performance in Bangkok, we’re going to perform in other countries, including Singapore, [South] Korea, the United States, Canada and Germany. After that, we’re going to perform in Moscow.”

A big laugh sweeps over the audience. In Burma, prison is referred to as “Moscow.”

Actually, Godzilla and Thee Lay Thee were brave enough to crack such political jokes, defying the ruling junta, in a powerful and surprising performance in Rangoon in November, just one month after the demonstrations were brutally put down by the military government.

The well-known comedians, including Godzilla, King Kong, Kyaw Htoo and Thee Lay Thee, performed their political satire on Myaw Zin Gyun, an islet in Rangoon’s Kan Daw Gyi lake. They had been asked by authorities to sign a document saying they would not make political jokes on stage. No such luck.

Their jokes focused on the crackdowns against the demonstrations and the arrests of demonstrating monks. The public performance was unprecedented in the 20 years since the current military regime took power in 1988.

Their performance VCD immediately became popular and was banned by the authorities. The VCD soon traveled beyond the country’s borders, and the comedian troupe was invited to perform by Burmese communities in several foreign countries.

Apart from the political stalemate and national reconciliation, their jokes also focus on rampant corruption, religion and UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

The latter sketch was among the most popular. Two comedians, Sein Thee and Pan Thee, portray Gambari and Kyaw Hsan, Burma’s information minister.

During their meeting, Kyaw Hsan and Gambari talk about how to negotiate constructively with each other. Because of his worldwide travels, Gambari says he knows what Kyaw Hsan’s up to. Kyaw Hsan says to himself, “This man doesn’t know about Myanmar [Burma].”

Then Kyaw Hsan points to the floor, shouting, “Oh! Look! Dollars! Dollars!” Gambari quickly bends over and picks up the money, saying “I love dollars.”

Kyaw Hsan then swiftly kicks Gambari in the rear, laughing, “This is Myanmar!”

Off stage, Sein Thee, who portrays Gambari, told The Irrawaddy: “That is the joke I like the most. That joke is a reality. I don’t believe in his mission. His trips haven’t brought any results yet.”

Godzilla said, “We comedians are just representatives of the people. We are cracking jokes on behalf of the people.”

Throughout Burma’s history, comedians have told jokes in front of kings and royalty who wanted to know what was really going in their kingdom, especially in remote areas. It was a form of reporting on the public mood.

Comedians are aware of people’s feelings because they travel the country, Godzilla said. Ancient kings liked jokes, and, if they were willing to reform wrongdoings, they could take action based on the jokes.

“Like before, we gather jokes from people from all walks of life,” Godzilla said. “They sometimes come out with ideas for us to crack jokes in the performance.”

An a-nyeint troupe, he said, is a form of entertainment that tries to relieve people’s suffering, and the jokes can enlighten leaders.

However, the Burmese generals view comedians who tell political jokes as enemies. Since the current regime took power, comedians Zarganar and Par Par Lay have both been detained in jail several times and during the September demonstrations, they were jailed again for about a month each.

Previously, both were imprisoned for several years. Zarganar is internationally respected for his politically biting satire. He received the Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by New York- based Human Rights Watch.

Godzilla said, “Zarganar paved a new road for young comedians in the early 1980s” under the then authoritarian government.

Godzilla and the Thee Lay Thee comedians are determined to keep spreading political satire despite the fact that they will probably face severe prison sentences like their mentors, Zarganar and Par Par Lay.

Sein Thee said, “Even if we are arrested at Rangoon’s airport on the way back home and put in jail, we will continue cracking jokes because we are comedians, and we want to be comedians forever.”

“Not only in this life but also the next life,” he said. “I want to tell jokes to make people happy.”

*Irrawaddy

Burma arrests 10 over August protests

2008-01-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

Burma has filed criminal charges against 10 activists arrested in August over rallies against the regime that turned into mass demonstrations, a lawyer said Tuesday.

Military-ruled Myanmar has filed criminal charges against 10 activists arrested in August over rallies that snowballed into mass demonstrations against the regime, a lawyer said Tuesday.

Prominent pro-democracy leaders including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi were among those charged under a law that bans unregistered groups from making statements, said the lawyer for the opposition National League for Democracy.

"They are likely to face trials behind closed doors inside Insein Prison," lawyer Aung Thein told AFP.

"I am ready to defend them, but so far I have not been allowed to meet with them," he added.

Each could be sentenced up to seven years in prison, Aung Thein said, adding that it was not clear what statement the activists had been accused of making.

The lawyer said he only learned of the charges from relatives of the activists, who found out while visiting them in prison last week.

Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi were among the top student leaders of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, and both have already served lengthy prison sentences.

They formed the 88 Generation Student Group after their release about four years ago. The group spearheaded demonstrations against the government in August, in anger over a massive hike in fuel prices.

After their arrest, Buddhist monks began leading the protests, which turned into the biggest threat to military rule since the 1988 uprising.

Min Ko Naing's group is not recognised by the government.

*france24

Burma's government tightens its grip on international aid agencies

2008-01-30T14:19:00.001-08:00

Mungpi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2008

New Delhi, India – In what seems to be a renewed effort to control the movement of international aid agencies operating in Burma, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoH) has established new sets of regulations for aid groups.

The new instructions, which are supplementary to the existing rules, were told to International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) operating in Burma by the Ministry of Home Affairs during a meeting on January 11, 2008, held at Burma's new capital of Naypyitaw, according to the meeting minutes, a copy of which Mizzima has obtained.

According to the meeting notes, circulated among concerned government ministries, departments and INGOs, all travel by representatives of aid agencies to the field will have to be approved by the Ministry of Defense. This directive literally controls the movement of aid groups.

"No permission from Ka-Ka-Kyi [Ministry of Defense], no travel," Dr. San Shwe Win, Deputy Director General of the Department of Health, who chaired the meeting, told the aid agencies.

While the authenticity of the meeting minutes could not be independently confirmed, an aid worker in Rangoon told Mizzima, "Yes, there was a meeting in Naypyitaw and one of our senior members attended."

However the aid worker, who wished not to be named, did not elaborate on the meeting.

During the meeting, the Chairman said all visits by expatriates will be accompanied by government appointed Liaison Officers (LO), as done in previous years, and expatriates are advised to stay close to the LO.

The LO will accompany and stay with the expatriates, "if possible in the same hotel, taking the same flight, using the same vehicle." Additionally, the LO should be included in all activity-related trainings or meetings and the aid agency is to bear all expenses of the LO.

Dr. San Shwe Win said the new time frame for all Memorandum of Understandings between the government and INGOs is set at one year, and aid agencies will be required to apply for renewal at least 3 to 6 months in advance.

The Chairman of the meeting encouraged INGOs to minimize the conduct of surveys or assessments and instead utilize existing information from other agencies.

Burma, which has a tradition of hiding or providing widely inaccurate data on health, has always refused the request of international organizations to conduct extensive surveys in the country.

"Surveys and assessments should be confined to "Health Issues"… and there needs to be prior discussion and agreement with non-health sector areas such as education, socio-economic conditions, etc," the meeting minutes said.

In a closing remark, Dr. San Shwe Win, chairman of the meeting, told representatives of the INGOs to focus only on "pure health activities" in order to obtain Memorandum of Understandings from the government.

"In the future, it will be difficult to get Memorandums of Understanding from the MoH if for health-related or non-health activities," added Dr. San Shwe Win.

The Chairman referenced a famous Burmese saying in advising the representatives under what conditions the restrictions may be lifted. "If a person is liked, then the rules are reduced," meaning rules and regulations can be reduced for close friends, "…so try to be liked first!"

Blogger arrested by police: Friends

2008-01-29T14:56:00.001-08:00

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2008

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Police in the former capital of Burma on Tuesday detained a dissident blogger.

Nay Phone Latt (Nay Bone Latt), a writer was picked up by police at a Rangoon internet café, friends told Mizzima. The reason for his detention is not yet clear.

In addition to being a blogger, Nay Phone Latt works for a private business company.

"I am a youth who is crazy about the arts", he wrote as a self introduction in one of his blogs.

Police searched houses in Thingyankyun and Thuwanna, where he used to live, this morning at about 10:00 a.m., according to a friend.

The blogger's aunt's residence was also raided by police.

Internet users in Burma told Mizzima that over the last few weeks authorities have increasingly monitored online activities.

Burmese bloggers hide from police

2008-01-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

Nem Davies
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
January 29, 2008

Apprehensive of the relentless crackdown by the Burmese military junta, several Burmese bloggers in Rangoon have gone into hiding. The scare follows the arrest of a Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, earlier in the day.

Burmese bloggers in the former capital are alarmed and have been forced to go underground in fear of the authorities taking action against them. Nay Phone Latt (Nay Bone Latt), a blogger as well as a writer, was arrested from an internet cafe in Thingan Kyun Township.

A blogger, who requested anonymity in fear of reprisals, said, "At the moment we [bloggers] are fleeing in the wake of the arrest of Ko Nay Phone Latt."

Nay Phone Latt has a blog site www.nayphonelatt.blogspot.com, where he posted writings about expressions of the youth in Burma.

Another blogger said he believes the authorities have targeted bloggers and confirmed that fellow bloggers are on the run in fear of arrests.

Internet users in Rangoon said, over a few weeks ago, authorities have stepped up surveillance of internet users and asked internet café owners to maintain strict records of users.

Blogging, which is popular among Burmese youth, has become a dangerous pastime in the country. The authority's stranglehold over information flow remains as tight as ever and there is zero tolerance over any critical writing.

During the September protests, a Burmese blogger Thar Phyu, who has a blogsite www.mogokemedia.blogspot.com, was arrested and briefly detained for posting pictures of monks and people demonstrating on the streets.

Meanwhile, authorities have shifted poet Saya Saw Wai, who was arrested last week for writing a Valentines' day poem that contains a hidden word – 'Power Crazy Than Shwe', – to the notorious Insein prison on Saturday, family members said.

Army Offensive in Eastern Burma Creates Growing Humanitarian Crisis

2008-01-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Reports from Karen State in eastern Burma say that the army's annual dry season offensive against the Karen National Union is under way. The KNU has been fighting for freedom from the military government for almost 60 years. In the past two years, rights groups say the Burmese army has intensified a scorched earth campaign in Karen State, resulting in a growing humanitarian crisis. Rory Byrne and Wido Schlichting report from the Thai-Burma border.

The war between the Burmese army and the Karen ethnic minority in Burma is thought to be the world's longest running civil war. War broke out shortly after independence from Britain in 1949 when the Karen were denied autonomy from the government in Rangoon, dominated by ethnic Burmese.

Burma's military government justifies its harsh rule in part by saying it is necessary to keep different ethnic groups from trying to split the country. Over the years, more than 17 ethnic groups have fought the government, although in the past decade several signed peace agreements. But in Karen State the fighting continues and villagers are caught in the middle.

Human rights groups say the Burmese army uses scorched-earth tactics to deny Karen guerrillas a support base. Villagers are killed or forced to flee, livestock are shot, homes are burned and landmines are laid to prevent people from returning.

Aid groups say that about 370 villagers have been killed since late 2006. About 30,000 have been displaced.

Debbie Stothard is the coordinator for the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma. She told us, "In the past two and a half years we have seen no let up in the attack – it's no longer a seasonal offensive, it's an on-going intense offensive and that has meant that people – many, many communities – have not been able to grow rice for two years. Twenty-five thousand people are facing imminent starvation."

Human rights groups say that the army often uses captured civilians as forced labor. The Karen say they want peace but, without a peace agreement, they will keep fighting.

Johnny is the commander of the KNU's seventh brigade based on the Thai-Burma border. "Even though we are less in number, what we need is sacrifice, perseverance and unity, so then one day we will certainly obtain our victory and surely achieve our goal," he says.

Sann Aung is a cabinet minister with Burma's government-in-exile, based in Bangkok. He tells VOA, "They would like to negotiate a ceasefire. They have had many talks with the military regime, but the military regime demands their total surrender. That is not acceptable to the KNU [Karen National Union]. That is the situation."

Aid groups expect that in the coming months, thousands more Karen will be forced to flee and more lives will be lost.

*voanews