Yingluck visit warms ties with Burma

Plans ironed out for port, energy projects

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her delegation concluded a two-day visit to Burma yesterday with an agreement to broaden the kingdom's bilateral cooperation with Naypyidaw .

Before departing for Bangkok last night, she met for half an hour with Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The meeting was Suu Kyi's first ever audience with a head of a government in the region and another milestone in Burmese politics since her release from house arrest about a year ago.

Government spokesperson Thitima Chaisaeng said Ms Yingluck also met Burmese President Thein Sein earlier yesterday. Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the two countries' improving ties and the Thai side is grateful for Burma's decision to reopen its border passage to Myawaddy and free eight Thai prisoners from Kawthaung.

The spokesperson said Ms Yingluck praised Burma for its positive development, especially its national reconciliation and successful truce with many ethnic groups. The Thai prime minister promises to support the work of the Burmese government and hopes its reconciliation policy will be successful.

Ms Yingluck also confirmed Thailand would maintain important mechanisms for bilateral talks, especially the Thai-Burmese Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation.

In the meeting, Ms Yingluck informed the Burmese president that the Highways Department would repair the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge and a connecting road in Myawaddy town as Burma requested. She also asked Burma to support Thailand's plan to develop a motorway from Kanchanaburi to Dawei by opening its border passage next to Ban Phu Nam Ron village in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province.

Meanwhile, Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul and Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan who accompanied Ms Yingluck met with their with Burmese counterparts.

Both Thai ministers met with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and Burmese Energy Minister Than Htay at the Myanmar International Convention Centre in Naypyidaw.

Mr Surapong said both sides expressed intention for bilateral cooperation in many areas. They include Thailand's plan to develop the motorway from the Laem Chabang port via Bangkok and Kanchanaburi to Dawei.

Yesterday's bilateral talks also referred to preparations for a meeting of heads of five ministries of both countries in Dawei on Jan 7.

The session will gather ministers of foreign affairs, energy, finance, industries and transport of both countries. They will discuss development of the Dawei deep-sea port, construction of hydropower dams to supply electricity to Thailand, border industries, and more.

Energy Minister Pichai said both countries would increase their joint offshore gas production in Burma. He referred to the M-9 gas field where drilling will begin in 2013 and the M-3 block that has wet gas suitable for petrochemical industries.

Burma has urged Thailand to sign a contract for the development of the M-3 field soon and PTT Plc plans to start drilling there in 2016, Mr Pichai said.

The minister hopes the bilateral cooperation will secure long-term sources of natural gas for Thailand.

He said Thailand would guarantee fair benefits for Burma from the energy projects.

PTT Plc and PTT Exploration and Production Plc are interested in the exploitation and also the development of petrochemical industries in Burma. Negotiations have started and the Burmese energy minister will be invited to inspect petrochemical production in Thailand.

Mr Pichai said concerned parties are also discussing development in many onshore and offshore oil fields of Burma.

Ref: BangkokPost

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

Ban that Scene! Ban that Scene!!!!

Read more »

Posted in: 10. AUDIO - VIDEO

Havel, Hero of Anti-communist Revolution, Dies

Czechoslovakian President Václav Havel waves to a cheering crowd in Prague, June 9, 1990. (Photo:AP)

PRAGUE—The end of Czechoslovakia's totalitarian regime was called the Velvet Revolution because of how smooth the transition seemed: Communism died in a matter of weeks, without a shot fired. But for Václav Havel, it was a moment he helped pay for with decades of suffering and struggle.
The dissident playwright spent years in jail but never lost his defiance, or his eloquence, and the government's attempts to crush his will ended up expanding his influence. He became a source of inspiration to Czechs, and to all of Eastern Europe. He went from prisoner to president in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and communism crumbled across the region.
Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic. The 75-year-old former chain-smoker had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his time in prison.
Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, Havel helped draw the world's attention to the anger and frustration spilling over behind the Iron Curtain. While he was president, the Czech Republic split from Slovakia, but it also made dramatic gains in economic might.
"His peaceful resistance shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon," said President Barack Obama. "He also embodied the aspirations of half a continent that had been cut off by the Iron Curtain, and helped unleash tides of history that led to a united and democratic Europe."
Mourners laid flowers and lit candles at Havel's villa in Prague. A black flag of mourning flew over Prague Castle, the presidential seat, and Havel was also remembered at a monument to the revolution in the capital's downtown. "Mr. President, thank you for democracy," one note read.
Lech Walesa, former Polish president and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of the country's anti-communist Solidarity movement, called Havel "a great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy."
"Amid the turbulence of modern Europe, his voice was the most consistent and compelling — endlessly searching for the best in himself and in each of us," said former US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who is of Czech origin.
Havel was his country's first democratically elected president, leading it through the early challenges of democracy and its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, though his image suffered as his people discovered the difficulties of transforming their society.
He was an avowed peacenik who was close friends with members of the Plastic People of the Universe, a nonconformist rock band banned by the communist regime, and whose heroes included rockers such as Frank Zappa. He never quite shed his flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a flourish.
"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto, which he said he always strove to live by.
"It's interesting that I had an adventurous life, even though I am not an adventurer by nature. It was fate and history that caused my life to be adventurous rather than me as someone who seeks adventure," he once told Czech radio.
Havel first made a name for himself after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed the Prague Spring reforms of Alexander Dubcek and other liberally minded communists in what was then Czechoslovakia.
Havel's plays were banned as hardliners installed by Moscow snuffed out every whiff of rebellion. But he continued to write, producing a series of underground essays that stand with the work of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov as the most incisive and eloquent analyses of what communism did to society and the individual.
One of his best-known essays, "The Power of the Powerless," was written in 1978. It borrowed slyly from the opening line of the mid-19th century Communist Manifesto, writing: "A specter is haunting eastern Europe: the specter of what in the West is called 'dissent.'"
In the essay, he dissected what he called the "dictatorship of ritual"—the ossified Soviet bloc system under Leonid Brezhnev—and imagined what happens when an ordinary greengrocer stops displaying communist slogans and begins "living in truth," rediscovering "his suppressed identity and dignity."
Havel knew that suppression firsthand.
He was born Oct. 5, 1936, in Prague, the child of a wealthy family that lost extensive property to communist nationalization in 1948.
Ref:  Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD

N Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced.

Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said.

He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent from public view for months.

His designated successor is believed to be his third son, Kim Jong-un, who is thought to be in his late 20s.

North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, urged people to unite behind the younger Kim.

"All party members, military men and the public should faithfully follow the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further strengthen the unified front of the party, military and the public," the news agency said.

A funeral for Kim Jong-il will be held in Pyongyang on 28 December and Kim Jong-un will head the funeral committee, KCNA said. A period of national mourning has been declared from 17 to 29 December.

Heart attack

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says Mr Kim's death will cause huge shock waves across North Korea, an impoverished, nuclear-armed nation with few allies.

The announcement came in an emotional statement read out on national television.

The announcer, wearing black, said he had died of physical and mental over-work. A later report from KCNA said Mr Kim had had a heart attack.

South Korea's military has been put on alert following the announcement and its National Security Council is convening for an emergency meeting, Yonhap news agency reports. The Japanese government has also convened a special security meeting.

The White House said it was "closely monitoring" reports of the death. The US remained "committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies", it said in a statement.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak spoke to US President Barack Obama by telephone.

"The two leaders agreed to closely cooperate and monitor the situation together," a South Korean presidential spokesman said.

Chinese media has reported the death but there has no official reaction from Beijing - North Korea's closest ally and biggest trading party - yet.

Asian stock markets fell after the news was announced. 

Isolated regime

Mr Kim inherited the leadership of North Korea - which remains technically at war with South Korea - from his father Kim Il-sung.

Shortly after he came to power, a severe famine caused by ill-judged economic reforms and poor harvests left an estimated two million people dead.

His regime has been harshly criticised for human rights abuses and is internationally isolated because if its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Under Mr Kim's leadership funds have been channelled to the military and in 2006 North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. It followed that up with a second one three years later. Multinational talks aimed at disarming North Korea have been deadlocked for months. 

Mr Kim unveiled his son as his likely successor a year ago. Many had expected to see this process further consolidated in 2012. 

Professor Lee Jung-hoon, professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, told the BBC that with the transition of power from father to son incomplete, Mr Kim's death could herald "very unstable times" in North Korea.

"We have to be very worried because whenever there is domestic instability North Korea likes to find an external situation to divert the attention away from that - including indulging in provocation."

Christopher Hill, former US representative to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, said all parties needed to "keep cool heads".

As for Mr Kim's son and successor, very little is known about him - including his exact age. He was educated in Switzerland and is the son of Mr Kim's reportedly favourite wife, the late Ko Yong-hui.

He has an older brother, Kim Jong-chol, and a older half-brother, Kim Jong-nam - both of whom appear to have been passed over for the succession.

 Ref: BBC News

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD

International Migrant Day 2011 Activities

International Migrant Day 2011 Activities for Myanmar Migrants in Mahachai, Samut Sakorn. Presentation by Mr. Somchai Rrkkaratumkoon, director from ministry of labour, talking to 300 Myanmar migrants this morning about deportation fund plans for migrant workers for 2012. Activities organized by the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN).

Read more »

Posted in: 01. M.W.R.N.

2 dead, more than 100 missing after boat sinks off Indonesian coast

(CNN) -- At least two people are dead and more than 100 missing after a wooden boat carrying migrants to the Australian territory of Christmas Island sunk off the coast of Indonesia, a rescue official said early Sunday.
The boat was carrying more than 200 people when it left Indonesia's East Java province, according to Angipp Satoto of the Indonesian search-and-rescue team. Nearly 90 people were rescued from the water, he said.
Sutopo Purnomo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, put the number of missing at 182, with 33 people rescued from the water. Three of those rescued were taken to the hospital, he said.
Indonesian authorities are working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the rescue efforts, Satoto said. The area where the boat sunk is difficult to reach, Nugroho said, and searches continue for more survivors.
Most of those aboard the ship were Indonesians. Others aboard were of Afghan, Iranian, Turkish, French and Saudi Arabian origin, Satoto said.
Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, nearer to the Philippines than to Australia. The island is about 1,600 miles northwest of the western Australian city of Perth and 220 miles south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Australia's government has come under fire in the past for what some perceive as a soft border protection policy that encourages asylum seekers to flee to Australia.
In December 2010, a boat carrying as many as 90 asylum seekers crashed into the cliffs along Christmas Island, killing at least 48 people.

Read more »

Posted in: 02. MIGRANT

Philippines typhoon kills more than 400 people

A general view shows a village hit by flashfloods caused by typhoon Washi in Cagayan de Oro in southern Philippines today. Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters

More than 400 people were killed and hundreds are missing after a typhoon hit the southern Philippines, according to the Red Cross.

Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 90km per hour (56 mph), hit the resource-rich island of Mindanao late yesterday, bringing heavy rain that also grounded some domestic flights and left wide areas without power.

The hardest-hit areas were in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

Philippine Red Cross secretary general Gwen Pang said that the latest toll was based on a body count in funeral parlours. She said that 215 died in Cagayan de Oro and 144 in nearby Iligan, and the rest in several other southern and central provinces.

Most of the dead were asleep last night when raging floodwaters tore through their homes from swollen rivers and cascaded from mountain slopes following 12 hours of pounding rain in the southern Mindanao region.

"The death toll might still rise because there are still a lot of missing people," said Ms Pang, adding that the hardest-hit areas were in the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

Almost 400 people were unaccounted for, most of them from a coastal village in Iligan. Houses were swept into the sea by floodwaters while people were sleeping inside late yesterday.

The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago nation.

Many of the bodies in parlours were unclaimed, indicating that entire families had perished, Ms Pang said.

The Philippines social welfare department said about 100,000 people were displaced and brought to more than a dozen shelters in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

Army spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said search and rescue operations would continue along the shorelines in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte provinces.

"I can't explain how these things happened, entire villages were swept to the sea by flash floods," Col Galon said.

"I have not seen anything like this before. This could be worse than Ondoy," he said, referring to a 2009 storm that inundated the capital, Manila, killing hundreds of people.

Television pictures showed bodies covered in mud, cars piled on top of each other and wrecked homes. Helicopters and boats searched the sea for survivors and victims.

"We ran for our lives when we heard a loud whistle blow and was followed by a big bang," Michael Mabaylan, a 38-year-old carpenter, told Reuters. He said his wife and five children were all safe.

Aid worker Crislyn Felisilda said World Vision was concerned about children who became separated from their families or lost their parents.

"Many children are looking for their loved ones," she said, adding children were "crying and staring into space."

Rescue boats pulled at least 15 people from the sea, another army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, told reporters.

Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz said many people were caught by surprise when water rose one meter (three feet) high in less than an hour, forcing people onto roofs.

"Most of them were already sleeping when floodwaters entered their homes," he said. "This is the worst flooding our city had experienced in years."

The national disaster agency said it could not estimate crop and property damage because emergency workers, including soldiers and police officers, were evacuating families and recovering casualties.

Six domestic flights run by Cebu Pacific were cancelled due to the rain and near-zero visibility in the southern and central Philippines. Ferry services were also halted, stranding hundreds of people.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, often causing death and destruction.

Ref: IT

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD

Champions League lifeline for United

Soccer: Manchester United could still be involved in the last 16 of the Champions League after Fifa today threatened to suspend Switzerland over the case involving first division club Sion.

The Swiss FA was given a deadline of January 13th to follow Fifa’s instructions or face a ban which would also result in FC Basel being expelled from the Champions League and a possible reinstatement of last year’s beaten finalists.

The Swiss champions dumped United out of the Champions League and into the Europa Cup, earning a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford before winning the home leg 2-1.

“Should this deadline not be respected, the Swiss FA will be automatically suspended from 14 January 2012 onwards,” the statement said.

If suspended, Switzerland - due to host Argentina in a friendly in February - would not be able to play any international matches and FC Basel would be unable to take part in the Champions League round of 16 tie against Bayern Munich.

Euro 2012 would not be affected, however, as Switzerland did not qualify for the finals.

The warning follows a complex legal battle in which Sion defied Fifa and Uefa statutes by taking its case over a transfer ban to a civil court.

The case began when Sion signed six players in the summer while still subject to the transfer ban for poaching a player from an Egyptian club in 2008.

The six players took their case to a civil court in the canton of Valais, which ruled they could play. Sion subsequently fielded them in the Swiss league.

Some of the players appeared in a Europa League qualifying tie against Celtic. Sion won the tie but were then expelled from the competition by Uefa who ruled the players were ineligible.

Sion then obtained an injunction at another court in the canton of Vaud, where Uefa’s headquarters are based, ordering European soccer's governing body to reinstate them to the competition.

However, this injunction referred the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) which on Thursday ruled in favour of Uefa.

In the meantime, the injunction obtained by the players in Valais canton was also overturned by a higher court.

Fifa now wants the Swiss League to award 3-0 defeats against Sion in every domestic match in which any of the six players were fielded.

“The executive committee decided to give a final deadline of January 13 to the Swiss FA to enforce the registration ban imposed on Sion....and to sanction the attitude of the club repeatedly trying to circumvent this decision in a legally abusive manner," said Fifa.

“As a consequence, all matches in which the relevant players participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted respectively.”

Ref: IT

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD

Burma’s Election Chief Vows By-Election Will Be Free and Fair

Although Burma's election commission did not resolve cases of vote rigging in last year's parliamentary elections, the commission chief, Tin Aye, center, said coming by-elections will free and fair. (Photo: Irrawaddy)

The chief of Burma’s Election Commission (EC) said in a press conference on Friday that upcoming parliamentary by-election will be free and fair and the country’s existing political parties can now start their election campaigns.
During the by-election, expected to be held in March, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP), opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and Burma’s other political parties will compete for 48 vacant parliamentary seats.
Ex-army general Tin Aye, the EC chairman, vowed during the press conference in Naypyidaw on Friday that the by-election will be held in a free and fair manner and that the EC will be independent and not submit to any outside influence. If his prediction comes to fruition, it would stand in contrast to the 2010 parliamentary elections, Burma’s first in 20 years, which the NLD boycotted and observers condemned as widely fraudulent.
During the 2010 election campaign, political parties had to seek advance approval from the EC prior to canvassing for votes and faced various other forms of campaign restrictions. Tin Aye said that in the by-elections, parties will not face a repeat of such conditions and they all can launch their campaigns without reporting to the election commission in advance.
“Only if you can organize the people, then (the parties) can join the Parliament and serve the people,” he said, adding that the commission will act in strict accordance with the Constitution.
He also said that the parties will be notified of the election date three months in advance.
The USDP, led by former army generals including President Thein Sein, won a majority of the seats in last year's parliamentary elections.
There are now only a small number of vacant parliamentary seats, but the by-election is viewed as particularly significant because the NLD has decided to participate and Suu Kyi has stated her desire to compete for a seat in Parliament—a decision that was made following government overtures to the opposition.
The EC chief welcomed the fact that the NLD would compete in the election and noted that Suu Kyi will serve for the good of the public.
Although last year’s elections were marred by heavy vote rigging, the coming by-election is expected be be free and fair, particularly because the USDP has already gained a majority of seats in the parliament and also because the election will test to what extent Burma has made political progress under the new government.
Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

A song for this week on behalf of Kachin Brothers and Sisters

Read more »

Posted in: 10. AUDIO - VIDEO

Thai Activist Gets 15 Years for Insulting Monarchy

Female performers dance with star-shaped lanterns after an early morning mass which signals the beginning of the celebrations for Christmas on Dec. 16, 2011 in suburban Las Pinas, south of Manila, Philippines. (Photo: AP)

BANGKOK— An activist was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for insulting Thailand's king in the third case in a month involving the strict law against defaming the monarchy that is increasingly being criticized as an infringement on free speech.

Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, nicknamed "Da Torpedo" for her aggressive speaking style, has been detained since July 2008 after speaking at a rally using impolite language that was recorded by police.

The Criminal Court found Daranee guilty of violating the lèse majesté law, which provides for a jail term of three to 15 years for anyone who "defames, insults, or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent, or the regent."

Daranee, a journalist, became an activist after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was deposed in a 2006 coup and delivered fiery speeches at rallies organized by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters.

Daranee said she would not appeal her sentence. "I have no will to keep fighting and I will neither lodge an appeal nor seek a royal pardon," she said.

Criticism of the lese majeste law increased last month after a 61-year-old grandfather received a 20-year sentence for four text messages sent from his phone to a government official.

The sentence given Amphon Tangnoppakul was believed to be the heaviest ever received in a lese majeste case because of additional penalties issued under a related law, the 2007 Computer Crimes Act. He denied sending the messages and said he didn't even know how to use the SMS function on his telephone.

The plight of "Uncle SMS," as he became known, has drawn international attention as has the sentencing earlier this month of Thai-born American Joe Gordon to 2 1/2 years in prison for translating excerpts of a banned biography of the king and placing them online. Gordon was in Colorado when the alleged offense occurred and was arrested when he later visited Thailand.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman, Darragh Paradiso, said the United States has utmost respect for the Thai monarchy, but is "troubled by recent prosecutions and court decisions that are not consistent with international standards of freedom of expression."

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, issued a statement of concern, saying "Such harsh criminal sanctions are neither necessary nor proportionate and violate the country's international human rights obligations."

Lese majeste prosecutions used to be rare in Thailand, and were mostly used for partisan political purposes as a means of smearing opponents.

But the number of high-profile cases has risen in recent years as nervousness about the eventual succession to 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej has increased, with the previously taboo subject of the monarchy's proper role starting to become a matter of public discussion.

However, loyalty to the monarch is still a touchstone of Thai politics, and frank discussion is difficult.

A movement led by intellectuals and academics began a public campaign this year for reform of the lèse majesté law.

This was Daranee's second trial. She received an 18-year term in her first trial, but was granted a new trial after courts ruled that her petition against having the first trial closed was not heard in a timely way.

 

Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 06. THAI

Burma's 'Papillon' Goes Back to Prison

Mahn Nyein Maung (PHOTO: Irrawaddy)

Five months after being deported from China, Karen rebel leader Mahn Nyein Maung has been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, according to a source following the case in Rangoon.
A controversial character, Mahn Nyein Maung is often likened to French convict “Papillon” because of his extraordinary escape from prison on Coco Island in 1970 when he floated across the Indian Ocean clutching driftwood.
He went on trial on Dec. 8 behind closed doors at Mingaladon Court in Rangoon and was later sentenced after being charged with having connections to the Karen National Union (KNU), long denounced by the Burmese government as an illegal militia.
Mahn Nyein Maung, a leading member of the KNU and a central committee member of the ethnic armed alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), disappeared at China’s Kunming Airport in late July.
He was subsequently charged in Burma for violating immigration laws and possessing a fake passport. He was sentenced to one year for the immigration charge on Sept. 27, according to Rangoon-based Flower News Journal.
Then, in early December, he was put on trial on the more grievous charges. His case was not publicized and next to no information has been divulged either by the authorities or the KNU about Mahn Nyein Maung’s case or his condition.
An inside source told The Irrawaddy that the Karen rebel leader visited the ethnic Wa region via China on the Sino-Burma border in July. He was subsequently denied reentry into Thailand—where he was living at the time—as he had not applied for a reentry visa when he left from Thailand to China.
Despite his role within the KNU and UNFC, his trip to China and the Wa region had nothing to do with those organization, said the sources. KNU leaders also said that they didn’t know about Mahn Nyein Maung trip to China.
A former activist and political prisoner, Mahn Nyein Maung apparently visited northern Burma to observe first-hand the armed conflict between ethnic armed groups and government troops near the border.
Karen sources have said that after he was denied entry into Thailand, he was sent back to China's Yunnan province where he was detained at the Kunming Airport. Yunnanese authorities reportedly insisted that Mahn Nyein Maung buy an air ticket with his own money for his deportation to Rangoon.
Mahn Nyein Maung was first arrested in 1960 for his work as an underground dissident. He was sentenced and sent to Coco Island, an infamous detention center for political prisoners located about 300 km off the Burmese mainland. He and two other political prisoners, Mahn Aung Kyi and Aung Ngwe, managed to escape from the island in 1970 by floating across the Indian Ocean clutching driftwood.
Due to his extraordinary escape from Coco Island, Mahn Nyein Maung is frequently likened to the famous French prisoner Henri Charrière, nicknamed “Papillon,” who escaped a penal colony in French Guyana. Like Charrière, Mahn Nyein Maung wrote and published a book about his experiences inside the brutal prison at Coco Island and his daring escape.

Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

Dissident Monk Officially Condemned as 'Disobedient'

Ashin Pyinna Thiha, the dissident monk, gets officially denouned as "inobedient" for his anti-government stance.

A prominent Buddhist monk in Rangoon, who actively supports democracy activists, and recently met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Burma, is now under increasing pressure from the official Buddhist monkhood, and looks set to be defrocked.
The news of Ashin Pyinna Thiha's potential humiliation has sent shockwaves across the city, and protesters have gathered at his monastery to show their concern.
A few months ago, Ashin Pyinna Thiha of the Sadhu Pariyatti Monastery, turned his monastery Kyeemyindine Township in Rangoon into a venue for popular political events that were even attended by foreign diplomats. More recently he hosted an event marking the 20th anniversary of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Before his recent meeting with Clinton, the abbot delivered a sermon at the office of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Mandalay in Upper Burma, calling for national unity and emancipation from injustice.
The speech was made in September, but a recorded video of the event recently spread among the Burmese public, in which Pyinna Thiha said he had been forbidden by the State Sangha Committee—which is the authoritative council of Buddhist monks backed by the government—from delivering public speeches due to his anti-government stance.
Apparently citing this video, the 47-member State Sangha Committee issued a statement on Monday that the abbot was “disobedient,” within the monk community, and he was to be evicted from his monastery in Rangoon. They also stated that the monastery could no longer be used for any political events.
In an interview, the abbot only responded to the statement by saying, “The days of arbitrariness are gone. Things must go democratic.”
However, he currently remains in his Rangoon monastery though police had reportedly set up a presence around the compound.
The news has sent a chilling sense of anxiety and frustration around the former capital. Burmese blogs have responded actively, and much resentment seems to rest on the premises that there was a growing acceptance at home and abroad that the days of repression were starting to fade under the country's quasi-civilian government, which had relaxed control over the society in a number of areas.
At 1 pm on Thursday, about 300 lay supporters of the abbot, including leading officials of the NLD, gathered at his monastery in Rangoon due to their concerns that he would be forcibly defrocked.
“We have come here to see that this situation is settled smoothly,” said a Rangoon democracy activist who attended.

Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over

Michael Kamber for The New York Times

Flag bearers carried the colors out at the end of the ceremony marking the end of the United States' military involvement in Iraq. More Photos »

By THOM SHANKER and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

BAGHDAD — The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power.

In a fortified concrete courtyard at the airport in Baghdad, Defense SecretaryLeon E. Panetta thanked the more than one million American service members who have served in Iraq for “the remarkable progress” made over the past nine years but acknowledged the severe challenges that face the struggling democracy.

“Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead — by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself,” Mr. Panetta said. “Challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.”

The muted ceremony stood in contrast to the start of the war in 2003 when an America both frightened and emboldened by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent columns of tanks north from Kuwait to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

As of last Friday, the war in Iraq had claimed 4,487 American lives, with another 32,226 Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.

The tenor of the 45-minute farewell ceremony, officially called "Casing the Colors,” was likely to sound an uncertain trumpet for a war that was started to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction it did not have. It now ends without the sizable, enduring American military presence for which many military officers had hoped.

Although Thursday's ceremony marked the end of the war, the military still has two bases in Iraq and roughly 4,000 troops, including several hundred who attended the ceremony. At the height of the war in 2007, there were 505 bases and more than 170,000 troops.

According to military officials, the remaining troops are still being attacked on a daily basis, mainly by indirect fire attacks on the bases and road side bomb explosions against convoys heading south through Iraq to bases in Kuwait.

Even after the last two bases are closed and the final American combat troops withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31, under rules of an agreement with the government in Baghdad, a few hundred military personnel and Pentagon civilians will remain, working within the American Embassy as part of an Office of Security Cooperation to assist in arms sales and training.

But negotiations could resume next year on whether additional American military personnel can return to further assist their Iraqi counterparts.

Senior American military officers have made no secret that they see crucial gaps in Iraq's ability to defend its sovereign soil and even to secure its oil platforms offshore in the Persian Gulf. Air defenses are seen as a critical gap in Iraqi capabilities, but American military officers also see significant shortcomings in Iraq's ability to sustain a military, whether moving food and fuel or servicing the armored vehicles it is inheriting from Americans or the fighter jets it is buying, and has shortfalls in military engineers, artillery and intelligence, as well.

The tenuous security atmosphere in Iraq was underscored by helicopters that hovered over the ceremony, scanning the ground for rocket attacks. Although there is far less violence across Iraq than at the height of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007, there are bombings on a nearly daily basis and Americans remain a target of Shiite militants.

Mr. Panetta acknowledged that “the cost was high — in blood and treasure of the United States, and also for the Iraqi people. But those lives have not been lost in vain — they gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq.”

The war was started by the Bush administration in March 2003 on arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al

that might grow to an alliance threatening the United States with a mass-casualty terrorist attack.

As the absence of unconventional weapons proved a humiliation for the administration and the intelligence community, the war effort was reframed as being about bringing democracy to the Middle East.

And, indeed, there was euphoria among many Iraqis at an American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. But the support soon soured amid a growing sense of heavy-handed occupation fueled by the unleashing of bloody sectarian and religious rivalries. The American presence also proved a magnet for militant fighters and an Al Qaeda-affiliated group took root among the Sunni minority population in Iraq.

While the terrorist group has been rendered ineffective by a punishing series of Special Operations raids that have killed or captured several Qaeda leaders, intelligence specialists fear that it is in resurgence. The American military presence in Iraq, viewed as an occupation across the Muslim world, also hampered Washington's ability to cast a narrative from the United States in support of the Arab Spring uprisings this year.

Even handing bases over to the Iraqi government over recent months proved vexing for the military. In the spring, commanders halted large formal ceremonies with Iraqi officials for base closings because insurgents were using the events as opportunities to attack troops. “We were having ceremonies and announcing it publicly and having a little formal process but a couple of days before the base was to close we would start to receive significant indirect fire attacks on the location,” said Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the military in Iraq. “We were suffering attacks so we stopped.”

Across the country, the closing of bases has been marked by a quiet closed-door meeting where American and Iraqi military officials signed documents that legally gave the Iraqis control of the bases, exchanged handshakes and turned over keys.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey of the Army, has served two command tours in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, and he noted during the ceremony that the next time he comes to Iraq he will have to be invited.

“I kind of like that, to tell you the truth,” General Dempsey said.

Ref: NYT

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD

Buddhist Abbot Under Pressure Since Clinton Visit

Shwe Nya Wah Sayadaw, a pro-democracy Buddhist monk, speaking at the ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo: Irrawaddy)

A prominent Buddhist abbot whose monastery in Rangoon has hosted a number of political events says he has come under pressure from the authorities since meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Burma earlier this month.
“I am facing pressure that may change my life completely or destroy everything that I have built in my lifetime,” said Ashin Pyinna Thiha of the Sardu Pariyatti Monastery in Kyeemyindine Township, speaking at a ceremony held at the monastery on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi' being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Also called Shwe Nya Wah Sayadaw, the abbot is well known for allowing his monastery to be used by student activists and others as a venue for political events. Due to his prominence in the activist community, he was one of several civil society leaders who met with Clinton during her landmark trip to Burma in the first week of December.  
He said he was unable to say why he has come under pressure, but suggested that it could be because of his meeting with Clinton or his outspoken stance on political issues.
“I don't know if it was because of my meeting with Secretary Clinton, or because the monastery hosted a National Day ceremony, or because of my calls for the release of political prisoners,” he said.
Without elaborating about what kind of pressure he was facing, the abbot said he wouldn't allow it to instill fear in him.
“I am neither upset nor distracted. I am fully committed to sacrificing my life for the greater cause of truth,” he said.
Concerning his decision to allow Suu Kyi's supporters to commemorate her Nobel Peace Prize at the monastery, he said that he had already given them permission before they even asked for it.
Speaking at the event, he also vowed to keep working for peace in Burma until the country achieved it.
“We are calling for the release of political prisoners and the end of civil war, but in a word, what we want is peace. As long as political prisoners remain behind bars and there is war on the border, there is no peace,” he said.
In her speech, Suu Kyi also emphasized the need for peace in Burma, a country that has suffered through numerous military and political conflicts since achieving independence.
“Peace is first, peace is second and peace is third. We should bear in mind that we now have an opportunity that we didn't have before to restore peace. Such an opportunity may not come back again soon, so we must take it and use it for the betterment of all. If we go forward with that belief, peace and democracy will prevail in our country sooner rather than later,” Suu Kyi said.
Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

Kachin Children in War Trauma: Burma Rights Commission

A Kachin child at a temporary shelter for refugees in Laiza, Kachin State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

Children in war-torn Kachin State appear to suffer from psychological trauma while adults experience a sense of insecurity and diminished confidence, the Burmese government rights body reported on Wednesday.
The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission made the statement after visiting Kachin State, northern Burma, to observe the condition of war refugees who have been displaced from their homes.
Despite the local authority of Kachin State and civil society organizations including UN agencies distributing aid to displaced civilians, there is still a need for warm clothes and blankets as the winter weather sets in, according to a report by the observation team in state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.
Kachin State is one of the coldest regions of Burma with heavy seasonal snowfall and ice-covered mountains.
Many families, particularly those with young children, face the additional challenge of sharing overcrowded temporary accommodation, said the report. Most people interviewed by the government rights body said they wanted to return home.
With permission from the Burmese government, a UN team visited the KIA headquarter of Laiza where more than 34,000 refugees are currently sheltering. Of this number, the vast majority are women, children and other vulnerable sections of society.
Despite Burma President Thein Sein instructing government forces in Kachin State not to engage in offensive operations against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rebel group, fighting still continues today.
The government reportedly started using several helicopters in conflict zones by a village known as Maijayang on Tuesday, said La Rip, an aid official representing the local Kachin Development Group.
La Rip told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “There was a battle 10 miles away from Maijayang yesterday and we heard they started to use three helicopters.” He added that UN humanitarian staff are also stranded in Laiza as they cannot go back to Rangoon due to renewed conflicts along their planned return route.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Children's Fund provided 300 family kits to displaced families in Laiza. These contain blankets, clothes and essential household items for basic domestic needs such as cooking, personal hygiene and shelter.
The government human rights commission reported that there are 59 temporary camps in 11 townships where 14,113 people are cared for by the local authority. There are 51 schools in 10 townships with a student population of 7,872 that have temporarily closed due to the instability caused by armed conflicts.
The human rights commission strongly urged that the concerned armed groups strive for the restoration of security and stability in the region. It also encouraged negotiations which would result in the cessation of hostilities and bring about peace throughout the nation.
The commission welcomed the order by Thein Sein to halt armed conflicts and urged the KIA to respond in the same manner.
But civilians remain angry with their living conditions because Burmese frontline troops continue to attack despite the presidential order to end hostilities, claims La Rip. Because of this, refugees are reportedly refusing to receive rice packs donated by Burmese official Thein Zaw, the second-highest ranked member of the government’s Union Peace Committee.
Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

UN Launches Relief Aid in Kachin State Conflict Zones

UN aid convoy enters Laiza, Kachin State, Burma on Dec. 12, 2011. (Photo: Kachin Net)

The UN began initial efforts on Tuesday to provide aid for refugees in the armed conflict areas of Kachin State in northern Burma, where sporadic fighting continues despite Burmese President Thein Sein’s reported instruction to government troops that they should hold fire except in self-defense.

On Monday evening, a small UN team arrived in Laiza, a town on the China-Burma border where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has its military headquarters. They brought with them six truckloads of essential household materials. 
This is the first time that the Burmese government has allowed a UN organization access to KIA-controlled areas since armed conflict between government troops and the KIA broke out June, with clashes consistently recurring since that time.
The over 34,000 war refugees who sought shelter in Laiza have previously received no international or Burmese government aid during the over six months of fighting, forcing them to survive on handouts from local Kachin aid groups and the KIA.
The UN team includes staff from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Organization for Humanitarian Assistance, whose task is to launch an initial relief effort and perform an assessment of the situation.
“As part of the UN team, UNICEF provided 300 family kits, which contain essential household items to cover the basic domestic (cooking, personal hygiene) and shelter needs (blankets and cloths) for as many families,” said Zafrin Chowdury, the spokesperson for UNICEF in Rangoon.
“It is UNICEF and the UN's hope that more convoys with UN supplies will be allowed to reach all those displaced and in need,” he added.
An estimated 40,000 locals have been displaced in the war-torn areas of Kachin State, but until Tuesday the Burmese government authorities had only allowed the UN World Food Program to distribute food to the nearly 6,000 refugees in the government-controlled areas of Kachin State.
The KIA and local aid groups have welcomed the relief efforts by the UN and independent NGOs for the refugees, as many refugees are suffering from malnutrition and are in need of medical care, said La Rip, an official representing the local Kachin Development Group.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special human rights rapporteur for Burma who had called for UN access to the conflict zones of Kachin State, also welcomed the news that relief efforts would be allowed and repeated the urgent need for Burmese civilian authorities to have the power to control the military when dealing with ethnic minority groups.
Fighting in the region continues despite reports that Thein Sein, an ex-army general, issued a written statement signed on Dec. 10 ordering Burmese army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to halt military operations against the KIA except for self-defense purposes.
The statement has not yet been publicly announced, but its existence was revealed to local journalists on Monday by the Kachin State chief minister at a fund-raising ceremony for Kachin war refugees.
There does not appear to be any current prospect of a formal ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the government troops because the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization, has explicitly said that it is seeking a political dialogue with the goal of autonomy and will not accept Burma’s current parliamentary system dominated by former military generals under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, which they say includes only minimal rights for ethnic minorities.
The issue of autonomy has not been an integral part of recent ceasefire agreements between the government and ethnic Shan and Wa armed groups, but the Burmese officials have said that the ethnic groups can work to achieve such an outcome by joining the Parliament and pushing for changes in the Constitution. 
“We are not informed of the reported order by President Thein Sein to the army to hold attacks against us, but nonetheless the fighting will go on because the government army has already occupied a number of our military bases in its recent offensives and because we are yet to hold a true political dialogue with the government,” said KIO/KIA spokesperson La Nan, adding that the Burmese army reinforced its troops in Myitkyina and Bhamo townships of Kachin State on Monday.

Ref: Irrawaddy

Read more »

Posted in: 05. MYANMAR

Rock music fans shaved and shamed in Indonesia

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -- Canadian singer Neil Young might croon a rebellious anthem that “Hey hey, my my, rock 'n’ roll will never die,” but in Indonesia’s Aceh province, the musical art form’s lifestyle is under serious attack. 

In this strict Islamic corner of the world’s most-populous Muslim nation, authorities rounded up 65 male and female punk-rock fans after a recent concert for a bit of “reeducation.”

That meant having their mohawks and dreadlocks shaved, their clothes destroyed and their piercings yanked out before they were paraded around like crime suspects.

The punkers have cried harassment. Authorities say they’ve done nothing wrong.

“We're not torturing anyone. We're not violating human rights,” a provincial police chief was quoted as saying in London’s Daily Mail. “We're just trying to put them back on the right moral path.”

In 2005, after years of armed rebellion, residents of secular Aceh province on the island of Sumatra were granted permission to impose strict sharia, or Islamic law, to better promote moral values at a level not required of the rest of the nation.

In the now-semiautonomous province, bands of religious police wander a region where adultery is punishable by stoning and homosexuals have been jailed or lashed in public with canes. Rights groups complain that women are told they must wear head scarves and cannot dress in tight pants.

On Saturday night, police moved in with batons to break up a concert, scattering scores of young people. Many were loaded into vans and taken to a police detention center, where officers removed the youths’ “disgusting clothes” and handed each detainee a toothbrush.

They were then forced to sit in a muddy pool for what police called “spiritual cleansing.”

Officials said the youths’ lifestyle was a threat to Islamic values. Many of the youths were held in cages. One young girl wept as a woman in an Islamic head scarf shaved her head.

“Why? Why my hair?!” called out a 20-year-old man named Fauzanas he pointed to his clean-shaven head, according to the Daily Mail story. “We didn't hurt anyone. This is how we've chosen to express ourselves. Why are they treating us like criminals?”

The youths will be kept for 10 days and then returned to their families.

 

PHOTOS: Indonesian 'punks' get their heads shaved by police 

Indonesian 'punks'

( Associated Press / December 13, 2011 )

In this Tuesday photo, punks sit inside a pool in a police school compound after their heads were shaved in Aceh Besar, Aceh province, Indonesia. Police official Iskandar Hasan said Wednesday that 65 youths were rounded up during a weekend concert and brought to a detention center where their spiky mohawks -- deemed insulting to Islamic traditions -- were buzzed off.

( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 14, 2011 )

Arrested punkers take a bath before they get moral education at a police school in the Lembah Seulawah, Aceh Besar, Indonesia.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 10, 2011 )

A group of punkers during a punk music concert before being arrested by police in Banda Aceh.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 14, 2011 ) Police watch punkers arrested in a raid against a punker's community.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 14, 2011 ) Police watch punkers arrested in a raid against a punker's community.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 14, 2011 )Punkers arrested in a raid against a punker's community look from a cell.

 

( Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP/Getty Images / December 13, 2011 )

A group of detained Indonesian punks wash themselves in a lake after their hair was shaved off at a police school in Aceh Besar in Aceh province.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP/Getty Images / December 13, 2011 )

An Indonesian police officer cuts the hair of a detained punk at a police school in Aceh Besar in Aceh province.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP/Getty Images / December 13, 2011 )

A police officer lectures a group of detained Indonesian punks at a police school in Aceh Besar in Aceh province.

Indonesian 'punks'

( Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP/Getty Images / December 13, 2011 )

Police shave the hair of detained Indonesian punks at a police school in Aceh Besar in Aceh province.

Indonesian 'punks'

Female punks wait for their hair to be cut by police. ( Hotli Simanjuntak / EPA / December 13, 2011 )

Ref: LAT

Read more »

Posted in: 04. WORLD