Bombs explode in 3 Myanmar cities, wounding 2
Fri Jun 24, 7:57 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Four bombs exploded in three Myanmar cities Friday, wounding at least two people, the government and residents said.
The perpetrators were not clear, but bombings have increased recently in Myanmar, where pro-democracy activists and ethnic groups are at odds with the military-backed regime.
A government official told The Associated Press that one blast occurred in a house near a market in the administrative capital, Naypyitaw, not far from a zone housing most of the new city's hotels. It is also near the Gems Museum where a mid-year gems emporium will be held on July 1. Such sales normally raise millions of dollars from visiting foreign buyers.
Another explosion, also around noon, occurred near another market in the second-largest city, Mandalay. It destroyed a car and wounded a traffic policeman and another person, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Another bomb exploded in Mandalay at about 3 p.m., just three blocks away, but causing no injuries.
About 20 miles (30 kilometers) to the north, a third explosion hit the town of Pyinoolwin, home to a defense academy, a resident reached by phone there said. The blast appeared to originate in an unoccupied house.
The government had blamed ethnic Karen rebels for a bombing in Naypyitaw this month and a May train attack near the capital that killed two and injured nine.
Although Myanmar has faced armed rebellions for decades from ethnic minority groups, bombings are relatively rare and generally no one takes responsibility.
Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, held its first elections in 20 years last November. The new government, comprising mostly retired military officers, has promised democratic reforms but made no major gestures in that direction. Critics say the vote was orchestrated to keep power in the military's hands.
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Myanmar's beautiful game loses its lustre
By Alex Delamare | AFP News – 10 hours ago
When Myanmar's junta leader ordered the creation of a new football league two years ago -- apparently after ruling out a bid for Manchester United -- he harked back to the country's glory days.
But despite a successful start, the nation's Premier League is struggling to lure supporters who are used to watching multi-million dollar players from the big European clubs.
In a half-deserted Yangon stadium recently, a handful of Manaw Myay FC fans -- almost outnumbered by armed police -- could barely contain their anger at their club's poor performance.
"Mothers go home!" shouted one fan at his team as they trudged off the pitch after the 7-2 thrashing by Naypyidaw FC.
"In 2009 there were big crowds, now it's half," one league club manager, who did not want to be named, told AFP.
"There are maybe five or ten good players in Myanmar," he said, explaining that new investment in training facilities and relatively high player salaries will take time to translate into better performance on the pitch.
Added to that, most games are played in the capital, far from the home states of many of the new teams.
Poverty, poor transport infrastructure and travel restrictions -- imposed after decades of civil war between the government and ethnic minority rebels -- mean fans cannot move freely around the country to watch games.
Four decades ago Myanmar, also known as Burma, was a major footballing force in the region, winning five South East Asian Games between 1965 and 1973.
Since then the national team has suffered a precipitous decline as the military dictatorship laid waste to the economy.
After almost half a century of military rule, the country is ranked 167th by the world football body FIFA, three places below Afghanistan.
"The national team lose every match, they are not interesting... Even in 10 years we will not be the same level as in the past," said the manager, who has worked in the game for 20 years.
Andrew Marshall, author of "The Trouser People", a book about politics and football in Myanmar, said the country did well before because "it didn't have this poverty, this great weight of being a dictatorship on its shoulders".
Across society "the best people don't rise to the top because it's a corrupt and inequitable system", he said.
"I do see football as being quite symbolic of a country where they have an enormous amount of talent, usefulness that is never harnessed," he said.
Several clubs are controlled by notorious regime cronies targeted by Western sanctions, including Yangon United owner and alleged arms dealer Tay Za and Magway's Steven Law, who is accused of links to drug trafficking.
The taint of corruption has cast a shadow over FIFA's efforts to provide training that would bridge the gap between the vibrant grassroots game and the professional sport.
Following a visit by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in March the organisation had to fend off allegations that it breached sanctions rules by paying grants through a banned company.
The footballing body, currently facing a slew of unrelated corruption scandals, has denied the claims.
Myanmar's league was the brainchild of senior general Than Shwe, who held the impoverished country in an iron grip until controversial elections heralded the arrival of a nominally civilian parliament in March.
It was the next best thing to buying his favourite team -- Manchester United -- after he decided a billion dollar bid for the English club "could look bad", according to a leaked US diplomatic notes from June 2009.
Unfettered by transparency requirements, the junta leader simply ordered a group of cronies and businessmen to found -- and fund -- the professional football teams, possibly to distract attention from the country's political and economic problems, the US cable said.
Businessmen were said to have been lured by incentives from the regime, including construction contracts, new gem and jade mines and the opportunity to use club sponsorship as a platform to advertise their companies.
US diplomats noted the league had been a "huge success" in its first month, despite ticket prices of up to $1 -- as much as half a day's salary for the average person.
But there were reports that club owners paid up to $3 a head to get people into stadiums.
The football manager said that the Naypyidaw FC owner, Myanmar's new sports minister Tint San, boosted turnout by offering concession tickets to staff at his ACE construction and hotel companies.
None of the Manaw Myay supporters approached by AFP were from the team's home state of Kachin, in the far north of Myanmar, as most games are played in the capital.
"I think what they have got to do is prove they have got a product that ordinary Burmese want to watch and to do that we are going to need more than one or two super clubs owned by military cronies," Marshall said.
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Myanmar politician warns of Arab spring
Published: June 24, 2011 at 12:15 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, June 24 (UPI) -- As bombs rocked three Myanmar cities, a member of Parliament warned against the country slipping into an "Arab spring."
The people of Myanmar should work together to prevent the same uprising as beset north African countries that could damage the interests of the nation, Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House of Myanmar's Parliament, said.
"As U.S. Senator John McCain said when he visited Burma, we have to make sure that the kind of unrest that has happened in the Middle East doesn't happen here," Mann told members of Yangon's regional assembly.
Mann praised the efforts of another member of Parliament, Thein Zaw, to end the fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels in the northern Kachin State that erupted in early June, a report by the Norway-based independent news Web site Democratic Voice of Burma said.
Fighting broke out June 9 near Bhamo, around 40 miles from the Chinese border, between the Kachin Independence Army and government troops. The clashes marked the end a 15-year cease-fire between the KIA and the Myanmar central government.
Unconfirmed reports said at least four rebels and a number of government troops died. Religious groups, including Christian churches, in the town of Laiza in the mountainous Kachin state bordering China are caring for the refugees.
Clashes between government troops and KIA are one of several ethnic conflicts that the central government -- mostly a military one -- has been trying to keep under control since early the 1960s. Other states, in particular Shan and Karen, also have rebel groups that periodically clash with government troops.
Mann's warning comes after three bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in three cities yesterday. No deaths have been reported in the blasts that occurred in the capital Naypyitaw, Mandalay -- Myanmar's second largest city -- and the garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin.
However, the explosions have not been officially acknowledged by the government, ostensibly a civilian administration after elections in November, although it is led by former junta officers who resigned their commissions to run as civilians.
The blast in Naypyitaw happened near a market and several new hotels. In Mandalay, the explosions destroyed a parked car and wounded two people, including a traffic policeman, a government official told media on condition of anonymity.
He gave no details of the explosion in Pyin Oo Lwin.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombs, but the government has blamed similar explosions in the past on ethnic rebels.
A train attack near the capital in May killed two people and injured nine others.
In April, eight people died and 170 were injured in a series of three bomb blasts in Yangon during an outdoor water festival. The government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar Web site described the bombs as "merely intended to tarnish Myanmar's traditional culture and insult the public."
Earlier this week, the KIA warned its troops in Kachin state to expect protracted fighting.
The government blamed the escalation in fighting on the KIA for entering the Tarpein hydroelectric dam, a joint China and Myanmar project, and seizing ammunition from security guards.
Troops were moved into the area to protect civilians and the dam, a New Light report said.
However, the KIA said fighting is a result of the breakdown of talks aimed at having KIA members join the central government's Border Guard Force, made up mainly of former rebel forces. The KIA refuses to join the BGF.
The government's policy of maintaining the BGF has been a relatively successful tactic between it and insurgents in several sensitive border areas, mainly in Kachin, in Shan state directly to the south and in Karen state, further south and which borders Thailand.
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Al Jazeera - Military plays a civilian-looking game
Burma's adoption of some forms of representation lead to hopes that it could be on track to an Asian-style democracy.
Larry Jagan Last Modified: 11 Apr 2011 16:33
A new quasi-civilian government has taken over in Myanmar, the country also known as Myanmar, but diplomats, analysts and pro-democracy activists are dismissing it as nothing more than "old wine in a new bottle".
Myanmar analysts believe that strongman Than Shwe has only retreated to the backroom. Than Shwe recently stepped down as commander-in-chief of the Burmese army and relinquished day-to-day control of the country after nearly two decades as head of the military junta.
"He is likely to be pulling the strings from behind the curtain," said the Burmese academic Win Min, now based in the US. "He will use his influence behind the scenes, relying on personal patronage and connections."
"If anyone thinks this new government is a step towards democracy they are sadly mistaken," said Maung Zarni, researcher at the London School of Economics.
Yet there are those who see change coming to Myanmar, though not the sort that most Burmese people are yearning for.
A new system of government has been unveiled, in which parliament will play a subsidiary part, and the executive, headed by newly elected president Thein Sein, will play the leading role.
The new government was formed after elections last November, in which the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won by a landslide.
Most western countries, and the pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have rejected the results as a sham.
But there has been a clear transfer of power to a new generation. Although mainly military men or former soldiers, most of Myanmar's new leaders are under the age of 60 and have a technocratic background.
Even the military officers turned politicians, who occupy part of the 25 per cent of parliament seats reserved for serving soldiers, have a different outlook.
The new army chief, 55-year-old General Min Aung Hlaing, is reported to be a professional soldier keen on restoring the prestigious image of the army tainted by the repression after the uprising of 1988, and the 22 years of authoritarian rule that followed.
There are other signs of change. On his recent visit, senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin, the fourth most important man in the Communist party's political bureau, did not meet Than Shwe. Jia was instead hosted by Thura Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House and vice-president of the ruling party USDP.
But there are other signs that those who have resigned or retired from the army no longer have their military stripes.
Soldiers no longer guard the homes of former top military officers, including Than Shwe and the former No. 2 leader Maung Aye, either in the capital Naypyidaw or Rangoon, according to residents in these cities. The police have taken over that duty, as they do in most countries that are regarded as civilian democracies.
This is a sign that Myanmar is moving, albeit tentatively, towards becoming a civilian-governed society. Of course, what Myanmar is experiencing now is a transition; it is not yet democracy and it may not yet be significant change. It is something akin to Indonesia under Suharto's Golkar-led government.
This may not be the sort of democracy that most Burmese people want, but it could be a significant step towards an Asian-style democracy.
Even in Thailand the military continues to play a significant political role behind the scenes, and in the recent past shown it was not averse to intervening with force as it did in September 2006, the last time the military staged a coup.
This is the critical hope for Myanmar – a transition similar to what has happened in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand in the last 20 years.
Of course, worrying signs still remain that Myanmar's form of "disciplined democracy" as the military prefer to call it, may not match the minimum standards of civilian-military regimes in the rest of Asia. Too many military men and former soldiers dominate the country's emerging political scene.
Change is impossible as the military mind remains entrenched even in the new political system which pretends to be a civilian administration, according to Maung Zarni of the London School of Economics.
Even if the top generals have retired to the back room, the new crop of officers are effectively clones. "The officer corps are a sub-class of society that has come to view themselves as the ruling class, feeling they are eternally entitled to rule," said Zarni.
"Whoever takes their places (Than Shwe and Maung Aye) will not be more enlightened or more progressive, simply because they have all been inculcated with thuggish, racist, sexist and neo-totalitarian leadership values, and only junior generals who are their mirror image have been promoted," continued Zarni.
As yet there is still little room for discussion and dialogue – crucial elements of a democracy or an emerging civilian form of government. Parliament is yet to be a fully functioning legislature, though some questions that had been taboo before – ethnic education issues, land confiscation, the release of political prisoners – were put to the president.
The parliament is now in recess and may not meet again for another year, the minimum set by the constitution.
But above all there is no role as yet for Myanmar's real opposition – Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) – though the opposition leader has asked to meet the new president and government, according to senior sources in the NLD.
But there is good reason to remain skeptical. Change will not happen quickly. "The train has left the station, but we don't know where it going or how long the journey will be," said a Burmese academic on condition of anonymity.
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BigPond News - Rudd to meet Aung San Suu Kyi
Friday, June 24, 2011 » 07:55pm
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will meet Burma's pro-democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi when he visits the country next week.
During the visit, which will be the first by an Australian foreign minister since 2002, Mr Rudd will have discussions with members of Burma's new government along with leaders across the political spectrum including Nobel Peace laureate Ms Suu Kyi.
'I will use these meetings to reiterate Australia's long-standing calls for genuine progress towards national reconciliation and democratic reform, Mr Rudd said in a media release on Friday.
'This visit comes at a critical juncture in Burma's history and will allow the Australian government to assess how it can best support reform and economic development.'
Mr Rudd will first travel to Equatorial Guinea for the opening session of the African Union executive council meeting and address the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Kazakhstan.
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Brisbane Times - Suu Kyi to press Rudd on Burma inquiry
Ron Corben
June 25, 2011 - 3:29AM
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to press Australia to take a more active role in the setting up of a United Nations commission of inquiry into human rights in Burma, rights groups say.
The call by Ms Suu Kyi is set to take place during talks with Australia's Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd during an official visit to Burma next week.
Mr Rudd, who on Friday announced plans to go to Burma, said the visit, the first by an Australian foreign minister since 2002, came at a "critical juncture in Burma's history".
He said the trip would allow the Australian government to "assess how it can best support reform and economic development".
Besides meeting with Ms Suu Kyi, Mr Rudd will also meet with "members of the new Burmese government and leaders across the political spectrum".
A new civilian government took over from a military-led regime after general elections last year. But rights groups and analysts say former army leaders remain the main power in the country with the new parliament dominated by military-backed politicians.
Australia was one of the first countries to support calls by the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights situation in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, for an independent commission into rights abuses in Burma.
Rights groups have accused Burma's military of crimes such as the forced displacement of people, murder, sexual violence including rape and sex trafficking, torture, and the persecution of people based on religious or ethnic identity, among others.
Ms Suu Kyi, during a special message to US lawmakers this week, urged the United States to support setting up of a Commission of Inquiry by the UN into alleged human rights violations in Burma.
Thailand-based Soe Aung, spokesman from the Forum for Democracy in Burma, said this is the message Ms Suu Kyi is set to convey to Mr Rudd during talks.
Establishing such a UN-led commission of inquiry was one of the key factors to bringing about change in Burma, Mr Aung told AAP.
Zetty Brake, a coordinator with Burma Campaign Australia, agreed that Australia had to be more active in the formation of the UN commission.
Ms Brake said Australia should go beyond just supporting the commission, by actively looking to ensure that it is established to look at potential crimes against humanity and war crimes that have been happening in Burma.
She also called on Mr Rudd to press Australian companies investing in Burma to ensure investment funds were not supporting the military regime.
"What Australia can do is to ensure that Australian businesses aren't helping fund the military regime in Burma and that's specifically around the oil and gas industry and the revenues from those industries that do go back into the coffers of the military regime," Ms Brake told AAP.
Australian mining magnate Bill Clough has a $US30 million ($A28.57 million) investment through Twinza Oil Co, exploring oil reserves off Burma's southern coast.
Mr Aung said Mr Rudd should urge the regime "to release all political prisoners, which will pave the way to national reconciliation and the real genuine dialogue".
Burma continues to detain more than 2000 political prisoners.
Mr Aung said Ms Suu Kyi will also call on Australia to press Burma for "genuine dialogue between the military regime and the opposition including the (Suu Kyi's) National League for Democracy".
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Toronto Star - Burma’s ‘lady’ is free, but her country still in chains
Published On Thu Jun 23 2011
By Olivia Ward Foreign Affairs Reporter
She’s directed Britain’s biggest summer festival, won applause from a Canadian conference and delivered a ringing human rights message to the U.S. Congress.
But seven months after her release from house arrest — and two decades of on-and-off detention — Burma’s iconic democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spends most of her time in her cramped Rangoon office, and has yet to leave her authoritarian country for fear of permanent exile.
She has answered a flurry of international invitations with virtual, videotaped appearances that give her a global presence and polish her already glowing image as Burma’s face of principled resistance. And a new film on her life and career is attracting plaudits at festivals worldwide.
She has also met with international officials and visitors in Rangoon.
But opinion is sharply divided about the effectiveness of her stance in pushing Burma down the road to democracy. And she herself cast doubt on the progress the isolated country has made since its widely condemned elections last November, in which senior generals left their army posts to run as civilians.
If the government were sincere it would not be holding some 2,000 political prisoners, Suu Kyi told American lawmakers. And she called for a commission of enquiry into Burma’s many human rights abuses, but did not mention the sanctions that are a major bone of contention for policy makers.
“She’s still iconic, but the game has moved on,” says Justin Wintle, London-based author of her biography Perfect Hostage.
“The elections were obviously fixed, particularly with the generals leaving the army and becoming ‘civilians’ (in the new government). But there is a feeling that Suu Kyi’s party made a mistake in not contesting them, and it split the party. She has not played her political hand well.”
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was de-registered when it boycotted the polls, which were skewed in advance against the opposition.
Many Burmese, as well as international observers, are fiercely loyal to Suu Kyi and believe her firm stand on maintaining sanctions against Burma must continue until there are signs of real democracy.
But says Roberto Herrera-Lim of the Eurasia Group in Foreign Policy, the outcome may be deeper ties between Burma and Asian countries who are less interested in its democratic credentials than its gas and mineral reserves.
“No matter what the country’s politics, they want access to its natural resources,” he said.
Last month Suu Kyi said she was “saddened” by India’s “disappointing role” in tightening its ties with the Burmese regime.
Meanwhile, reports have surfaced about worsening human rights abuses against political prisoners, and in Burma’s restive border areas, where minority groups have been fighting for rights and autonomy for half a century. Suu Kyi, who is closely watched by the authorities, said she planned to travel upcountry, a move they are likely to block.
“I admire her greatly, but she has not addressed the question of the civil war,” says Ngun Cung Lian, assistant director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at Indiana University, and a former Burmese freedom fighter. “There are about half a million people without homes because of it. That should be a priority for a leader.”
Last month Suu Kyi told a group of Danish students that “all this injustice” to minorities must stop, and that it was wrong for displaced people to be living in fear in their own country.
“We must make them feel that they enjoy equal rights,” she said.
But Suu Kyi’s biggest tests lie ahead. She must not only strengthen her party, but convince younger activists who went through the brutally suppressed “saffron revolution” that gradual change is the best route to democracy.
And she must grapple with the fact that some Western countries, especially Europeans, believe that her release is reason to thaw relations with the out-of-uniform ruling Burmese generals. Yet if that fails to happen, the backlash from an embittered government may hit her directly, and her period of freedom be all too brief.
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In Brief: UNODC warning on opium cultivation in Myanmar
BANGKOK, 24 June 2011 (IRIN) - A rapid increase in opium cultivation in Myanmar's eastern and southern areas of Shan State since 2009 is an alarming trend for Southeast Asia, says a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on 24 June.
“The resurgence of opium cultivation is a great concern for the region,” Gary Lewis, UNODC’s regional representative for East Asia and the Pacific, told IRIN.
Opium production in Myanmar has increased by 250 tons - from 330 in 2009 to 580 currently. “Poor farmers in Shan State turn to poppy farming, knowing the risks, because they need a cash income to buy rice and pay back debts incurred to feed their families,” Lewis explained. To reduce cultivation of the drug, “farmers need to be given alternatives,” he said.
The East Asia-Pacific region has three million injecting drug users, 600,000 of whom have become infected with HIV as a result, according to UNODC.
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Jun 24, 2011
Straits Times - Myanmar drug production booms: UN
UNITED NATIONS - A PLANT disease devastated Afghan opium production last year but Myanmar is seeing a worrying boom, the UN anti-narcotics agency warned on Thursday.
Global production of cocaine also fell last year because of reduced coca growing in Colombia, but consumption in Europe is fast catching up with the United States, the top world cocaine market, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
Use of so-called 'synthetic' drugs such as methamphetamine also reached a new peak, and UNODC's annual report highlighted particular fears about production in South-east Asia.
A plant 'blight' in Afghanistan, which accounts for about two thirds of the global area under opium poppy cultivation, meant that world production declined by 38 per cent to an estimated 4,860 tons (4,409 tonnes), UNODC said.
Afghanistan still accounted for 3,600 tons (3,265 tonnes) of opium and UNODC executive director Yury Fedotov said 'Afghan opium production will probably bounce back in 2011'. Opium prices have tripled in the past year, according to UN estimates.
The agency said Myanmar has re-emerged as a major heroin producer. Cultivation in Myanmar rose by 20 per cent in 2010 and with Afghanistan's decline, its share of global opium production has risen from five per cent in 2007 to 12 per cent last year, UNODC said.
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Jun 24, 2011
Straits Times - Japan envoy to meet Suu Kyi, Myanmar government
TOKYO - JAPAN will send a senior diplomat to Myanmar next week to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hold talks with the government, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said on Friday.
Parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta said she will discuss financial aid with Myanmar officials, although Tokyo believes more has to be done to fully democratise the country after recent polls.
She will be Japan's first senior official to meet Nobel Peace laureate Ms Suu Kyi in nine years. She will also meet Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin for the first senior-level talks since elections last year.
Myanmar's regime said the November 2010 poll was a step toward democracy, and it later handed over to nominally civilian rulers. But many outside observers say that the changes are purely cosmetic.
'I hope my visit will be the first step toward building a new relationship between the Japanese government and the new administration which is moving toward democratisation,' Ms Kikuta said.
Tokyo has suspended economic assistance since 2003, except for humanitarian and emergency aid, due to Ms Suu Kyi's arrest and long-term house arrest, and a crackdown on democracy advocates.
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Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Japan Times - Senior official to meet Suu Kyi, urge democracy
Kyodo
Parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta said Friday that Myanmar has agreed to allow her to meet Aung San Suu Kyi next week.
It will mark the first official encounter since 2002 between a senior Japanese official and the democracy icon.
Kikuta said she will leave for Myanmar on Monday to meet Suu Kyi and urge the Myanmar government to promote democratization.
The last meeting was in 2002, when Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi held talks with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Kikuta will also be the first senior Japanese official to visit Myanmar since May 2008.
At a separate meeting with top officials of the Myanmar government, Kikuta will call for Suu Kyi's political freedom to be guaranteed and greater efforts to investigate the death of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai, who was shot and killed while filming the crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators in Yangon in 2007.
Myanmar shifted to a nominally civilian government in March after decades of military rule. Suu Kyi was released from 7½ years in detention after last November's general election.
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June 24, 2011
The Hindu - Editorial: Drop the pretence on Myanmar
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has returned from a three-day official visit to Myanmar without meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and international democracy icon who was freed in late 2010 by that country's military regime after several years under house arrest. He left that chore to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. The Minister's visit was billed as India's first high-level interaction with the “new civilian government.” It would be best to drop the pretence.
The Myanmar government is not civilian by any standards. It is run by the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military proxy that unsurprisingly won a sham election in October 2010. Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy boycotted the election as the junta introduced new rules to keep the Nobel Laureate out of the process. The newly elected Parliament, dominated by the military and its proxies, chose USDP leader Thein Sein as the new “civilian” President in March 2011 after he was handpicked by Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the junta's outgoing State Peace and Development Council. President Sein was a serving general until last year and the Prime Minister in the SPDC regime. A junta loyalist, he is expected to maintain continuity with the junta's policies.
Thanks to WikiLeaks, we know that the Indian foreign policy establishment thinks Ms Suu Kyi's “day has come and gone,” and that India's engagement with the Myanmarese military is based on security considerations in the North-East and its fears of losing influence to China. But if this is India's state policy, it should say this openly instead of projecting its dance with the generals as “engagement” with civilians.
India and Myanmar have come a long way in their bilateral ties since New Delhi's barely remembered conferment of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding on Ms Suu Kyi in 1991. Engagement with the generals has paid India dividends: Myanmar is no longer soft on militant groups that operate in India's North-East; New Delhi is involved in a dozen ventures in the energy, agriculture, power, telecommunications, and infrastructure sectors. The construction of a $110 million “multi-nodal” Kaladan transport project linking the landlocked North-East with Sittwe seaport in Myanmar is well under way, and Mr. Krishna's visit has netted more MoUs. But while New Delhi furthers its ties with Myanmar's men in uniform, it will live on India's conscience that it quietly abandoned the Gandhian Ms Suu Kyi. Only last week, on the occasion of her 66th birthday, she reiterated a plea to India to live up to its democratic credentials by “engaging more” with Myanmar's democracy activists. It seems even that was too much to ask.
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June 24, 2011 14:57 PM
Asean-Russia Senior Officials Meeting Held In Myanmar Capital
YANGON, June 24 (Bernama) -- The 8th Asean-Russia Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) has been held in Myanmar's capital of Nay Pyi Taw, attended by representatives and senior officials from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the Russian Federation, Xinhua news agency reported, citing official media report Friday.
Co-chaired by visiting Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei N. Borodavkin and Director-General of Asean Affairs Department of the Myanmar Foreign Ministry U Tint Swai, the meeting on Thursday discussed development of Asean-Russia cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issue, said the New Light of Myanmar.
The meeting reviewed Asean-Russia dialogue relations and discussed issues concerning future direction including implementation of Asean-Russia energy cooperation work plan, cooperation in countering terrorism, working on emergency management, implementation of comprehensive programme of action plan 2005-2015 to promote cooperation between Asean and Russia Federation, road map of trade and economic cooperation and interaction in field of science and technology, the report added.
The meeting agreed to hold the next Asean-Russia SOM in Russia in 2012.
Myanmar has been serving as the country coordinator of Asean-Russia dialogue relations for three years since 2009.
Myanmar hosted the 8th Asean-Russia Joint Coordination Committee Meeting, the 7th Asean-Russia Joint Planning and Management Committee Meeting, the 2nd Asean-Russia Working Group Meeting for 2nd ASEAN-Russia Summit in November 2009.
Meanwhile, foreign ministries of Myanmar and Russia held consultations on Wednesday on promotion of bilateral relations and enhancement of cooperation in regional and international organisations with the two delegations represented by Deputy Union Foreign Minister U Maung Myint and his Russian counterpart Borodavkin respectively.
The two deputy foreign ministers exchanged views on current international issues.
Borodavkin arrived in Nay Pyi Taw earlier on Wednesday for the 5th regular consultations between the two foreign ministries.
On the same day, Myanmar Vice President U Tin Aung Myint Oo and speaker of the House of Representatives U Shwe Mann met with Borodavkin.
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ABC Radio Australia - Kachin Burmese protest in Canberra
Updated June 24, 2011 21:20:49
Dozens of supporters of Kachin independence have protested outside the Burmese embassy, in Australia's capital.
Government troops and separatists from the Kachin Independence Army are fighting near Burma's northern border with China.
The fighting followed the collapse of peace talks.
The protestors say they want an immediate ceasfire to the conflict, and they want the UN to mediate a new round of peace talks.
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Aliran Online - Shan refugees in Malaysia (Part 1)
By admin, on 20 June 2011
To mark World Refugees Day on 20 June, we carry a three-part story by Antonio Graceffo on the difficult and perilous plight of Shan refugees in Malaysia.
For seven days, they were locked in a container, traveling in the back of a truck. With no idea where they were going, they may just as well have been sold into slavery or prostitution at the end. But their situation in Burma was so dire that even taking such a risk seemed worthwhile.
In an anonymous housing block in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a Shan refugee, 29-year-old Hsai Yisep (not his real name) told me the story of his desperate escape from a dictatorial regime.
(Most of this text is a transcript of a recorded interview I conducted with Hsai Yisep and other Shan refugees. In some places, I have corrected their grammar, just to make it more readable. But to the extent that I was able, I left the text in their exact words. I have omitted all of their names and been vague about location, for the sake of their safety. – Antonio Graceffo)
“The Burmese took our farm, so we didn’t have any way to grow food. Everyday they would come to our village and ask for forced labourers. If we didn’t go, they would just take us and make us work. One day, we couldn’t provide enough people, so they took us. We told them we were sick from working for them every day, and that we didn’t have food for our families. So, they beat us. Our friends came that night and helped us escape.
Then we went to Malaysia.
I went to Tachilek (on the Thai border, across from Mae Sai). Then an agent came and took me in a container in the back of a car. We didn’t know where we were going or anything. Seven days. Sometimes at night, we would run or walk through the forest, south, all of the way through Thailand to Malaysia.
When I first came to Malaysia it was so difficult. We didn’t have any ID card and we couldn’t speak Malay or English. I learned a little English here,” concluded Hsai Yisep
We were seated on the floor, sharing bowls of fresh fruit. At first, the refugees were understandably nervous about talking to me. These are people whose lives hang by tiny threads and blow with the political wind.
One of the refugees suddenly said that he recognised me from the videos I had made with the Shan State Army in 2007 and 2008. He smiled broadly. “I saw you on youtube, and now you are here.” He began telling the other men about me, and several of them turned out to be fans of Martial Arts Odyssey. Suddenly, my job got a lot easier.
The Youtube fan sat next to me and opened up, telling me about the arduous life of the refugee. Little by little, other refugees joined us, and began adding information of their own.
The Youtube fan told me, “Most of the Shan in Malaysia try to find work in restaurants. Some of them can speak Chinese, so they are lucky. They can work in restaurants or as sales promoters. A few of my friends can work in a workshop. They can get better pay if they know how to fix motorcycles and cars. It depends on your experience. If you can speak Chinese, maybe you can get RM800 or RM1000 (about US$260-$330). Some people get RM1200 per month.” He himself was working in a restaurant.
Most of the Shan refugees in Malaysia do not have a Burmese passport or ID card. Inside Burma, it is extremely difficult for the ethnic peoples to obtain these types of documents.
For this reason, their only means of leaving the country is to travel, crossing borders illegally. When they arrive in their destination country, whether it be Thailand or Malaysia, it is impossible to obtain a work permit or residency visa, because they don’t have a passport. This relegates the refugees to working illegally and for the lowest wages.
A few of the Shan men I spoke to on this day were university graduates, but they were happy to get work as bus boys in restaurants, earning a few hundred dollars per month.
Although very few of the refugees had any clear plan upon their arrival in Malaysia, with the benefit of hindsight and experience, they explained to me that, after arriving in Malaysia, the Shan refugees should register with the Shan community office. The community will then issue them an ID card. The community card is not a legal residency permit, but at least they have something in their pocket when and if they get arrested. Next, the community will help them to register with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
The final step is that they get in a long queue, awaiting resettlement in a third country.
The line ahead of them moves very slowly, as less than 3 per cent of the Shan in Malaysia will be resettled in a given year. But the line behind them grows longer and longer, as more Shan are driven from their homes by the military junta (SPDC).
But what would happen if they were caught by the police? I asked a leader of the Shan community office.
“Get caught by the police, if you have the UNHCR card it is not a big problem. But if you have only the Shan community ID card, this is a problem. Sometimes they have combined raids with police and Rela,” replied the leader.
Rela is a volunteer police organisation which enforces immigration law. Many international observers and even the Malaysian Bar have petitioned the government to close this force down. Instead, Rela numbers increase each year. Members are often paid bounties for each refugee they capture.
As the government doesn’t recognise the UNHCR card as a legal residency permit in Malaysia, sometimes even UN-registered refugees can be arrested.
“Every Sunday, the police wait by the lift and ask for your documents. If you don’t have any, they arrest you. They take you to the police station and (allegedly) ask for money. Sometimes our members come here to do their member card and the police catch them. They are scared to come here.”
“When people get arrested they have to call the centre and we go to get them out of jail. It costs a lot of money. Luckily, the government and the UNHCR together have said that the police will not arrest our people who have UNHCR card.”
With about 4000 completely undocumented Shan refugees wandering around, it is just a roll of the dice to see who will get picked up.
“We have about two to three times per week, someone is arrested and we have to go get them out of jail.” said the leader.
“When a Shan refugee is arrested, after two or three days, the authorities will report to the Shan Community office that they have some of our Shan in jail. If it is too far, we cannot go there.”
The Shan community office has almost no money. So, even purchasing petrol or train tickets to go bail people out of jail can be problematic.
“If it is close by, we can go there. The police tell us to bring a letter from the police officer who arrested them, and we must go to meet them. Some of the officers are nice, and they will help. Some cases we can negotiate, and some cases we cannot.”
“If we cannot get the refugees out, then they stay 14 days in lockup. After that, they are sentenced to jail. Some people serve four or five months in jail. After the jail, they are sent to the camp. The camp means ready to deport. Some have been sent back to Burma. But some have been in the camp for a long time.”
When I did similar stories on other Burmese ethnics, I was told that there are refugees stuck in the detention camp for years, with no end in sight. Burma often will not accept them and certainly won’t pay for their deportation. This leaves them in legal limbo.
“If they are in the camp, we report to UNHCR. Then, later, UNHCR will go interview them and maybe UNHCR will bail them out of the camp.”
“UNHCR helps us a lot,” said the Shan leader.
He explained that the Shan community office has no real power. “We also cannot do anything. The Malaysian government says the UNHCR card is not a legal document to remain in Malaysia. They say passports only. If we have the card, they will check to make sure it is a real one because there are a lot of fake ones around.”
“Unfortunately our members think we have more power than we have. If they get arrested or have a car accident or pregnancy, they come to us for help. But actually, we can do nothing. We are also dependent on UNHCR.”
“Last month, we had 10 people arrested. Some we could bail out, some we couldn’t. Every month, it depends on the raid operations. Most of the Shan don’t have a passport. Very few come as students, with passport. But very few.”
I asked why they didn’t just go to Thailand.
“In Thailand it is easier to hide because Shan look like Thai and speak like Thai. But in Malaysia, Shan can get recognised by the UNHCR,” one refugee explained.
Victims of genocide can often become official refugees, registered with UNHCR, and possibly be resettled in a third country. To prove an allegation of genocide, the victims must all be of a recognised ethnic group. The most well-known example, of course, was Hitler’s genocide against the Jews in the Second World War. The Jews are a well-defined group, and it was clear that Hitler was trying to exterminate them. For some of Burma’s other ethnics, such as Chin and Padaung (the Long Neck Karen) getting recognised as a distinct ethnic group was no problem.
It is a well known fact among cross-border aid workers and refugees alike, that the UNHCR, at least in Thailand, does not recognise the Shan as a distinct ethnic group. The Shan are one of several Tai peoples, who migrated down from Sipsong Panna, China, millennia ago. Other members of the Tai race include the Thais and the Lao. One of the greatest hurdles for people working on Shan aid projects is getting UNHCR to recognise that the Shan are a distinct group of people, with their own religion, language, and culture, which, although related to Thai, is not Thai.
This is one of the main reasons why four times as many Chin refugees are resettled from Malaysia, than Shan.
Where it is difficult for the Shan to be recognised by UNHCR in Malaysia, it is nearly impossible in Thailand. So, coming to Malaysia, while more risky from a security standpoint, is a more attractive choice to people who would rather face any hardship than be returned to Burma.
One of the Shan men told me had done basically all that he could and now his case was in the hands of God. He had been in Malaysia since 2009 and managed to register with the UNHCR. At this point, he and his wife and child could only stand, feebly by, awaiting resettlement.
“I don’t know if I will get resettled. I hope so.” He said. “But it depends on UNHCR. No one can say what they will do or when.”
The men were all quick to praise the help they did receive from UNHCR. At least there seems to be some hope, but the road to freedom is still a long way off for these people who have already suffered so much.
Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the books, “Warrior Odyssey’ and “The Monk from Brooklyn.” He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.
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Aliran Online - Shan refugees in Malaysia (Part 2)
By admin, on 21 June 2011
Quote from a Shan refugee who is a big fan of Martial Arts Odyssey.
‘I was taken in a truck, by a driver with a gun. The man was chewing Kratom leaves (a stimulant). There were twelve of us in the back of the van. Not all were Shan. Some were Arakan or Mon (two ethnic minorities in Burma). The driver was Thai. It took two days three nights to get here (Malaysia). At that time it cost RM1800 ringgit (US$592).” Hsai Khun, (not his real name), was telling me the story of how he came to be a Shan refugee in Malaysia.
“When we go, the agent he will ask, which way do you want to go? The more we pay, the more comfortable the ride,” he continued.
Five hundred dollars could be several years’ wages for a poor Shan farmer living in Burma. Unfortunately the price freedom has increased.
“Now we pay 37,000 baht.(more than $1000).”
For many of the Shan suffering inside of Burma escaping to Malaysia would be an unattainable dream. But it is only the first in a long sequence of steps toward resettlement in a free country. After arriving in Malaysia, the Shan should obtain a community ID card, then register with the UNHCR. Sadly, very few of the Shan refugees in Malaysia get this far.
“We cannot get UNHCR for everyone,” the Shan community leader explained. “We have about 5000-6000 Shan refugees in Malaysia. Only 1500 are registered with the UNHCR.
Four thousand have our community ID card.” He went on to say that he hasn’t been able to help as many Shan as he would like. “Many people don’t know that we have an office.”
“UNHCR only does registration once per year. Last year, about 400 registered, but less than 200 were recognised and issued cards by UNHCR.”
At that rate, to register all of the 6000 Shan in Malaysia would take 30 years. Of course, as the war and the genocide in Burma continue, the refugees will keep coming.
“They come in day by day. Everyday, more people come and don’t know to register with us.”
“Some people come to Malaysia, but they are afraid to come here and register because they are afraid of getting arrested.”
Switching gears, I asked about Shan families and children. As far as I knew, most of the refugees were men.
“There are some children here. Some people come with their families. There is a school for them in the refugee centre, but not many. We only have about six or seven students. The parents send them here to learn; then, later, when they can read and write, they go out and new people come. They are coming and going. Many come and learn for a few months and then go away,” explained the leader.
“The new arrivals sometimes leave their children at the school. They study and sleep there, and the teacher takes care of them.” Upstairs from the school is a Thai prayer room with a Thai monk. “The monk also helps teach classes.”
“We only accept very young children. They must be under 18. If they are 19 and want to learn, maybe we can accept them. Most who come are men. Even the children are 15 or 16, which means they can work and make money already.”
Many of the refugees, even at age 16, have never attended school.
“One of our kids is 12 and one 16. And they don’t even know how to read and write. So, they stay in our school hostel. We educate them in English. UNHCR gives some support, and they also provide teacher training. So some of our refugees who have some education already go for teacher’s training. We have two Shan who have been through teacher training, and they help us to be self-sufficient. We have one volunteer foreign teacher from England, who teaches English. And the monk also helps us a lot with teaching.”
“The government doesn’t allow the refugees to go to school. Since 2010, the government has given us an opportunity. There is one private school which will accept refugee children, but we must have the UNHCR card, and we need to pay the school fees.” It costs RM60 a month for school fees and RM60 for bus fares. “Most refugees can’t pay it though.”
I asked if he had a family.
“I was already married in Burma. Then I sent for my wife and two children. I already had the experience of hiding in the car; so I knew to pay more to bring my family here so they could come comfortably and safely.”
“Will you get resettled?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I have refugee status now.”
I asked about the election in Burma.
“They selected a military man to be the ruler of Burma,” explained one refugee, a college graduate, now working part-time in a restaurant. “This is not an election; this is a selection. They chose their own people and changed the name and called it an election.”
Burmese exiles in other countries told me that they were surprised to find out that their votes had been cast on their behalf, either at the embassy or back in their home village, without their knowledge. And of course, those votes went in support of the SPDC. “Maybe you voted for the junta and don’t know it,” I suggested.
With little or no hope on the political front, talk drifted to the war.
“I think they are going to attack all of the rebels,” explained a man who had recently been notified that he would be resettled. He still kept his eye on Burma although, hopefully, he would soon be going to a land of freedom. “Now there is a lot of fighting in Shan State, and people are running away. The army has taken all of the property of the Shan. I think hard times are coming to Shan State.”
“The junta have big weapons. The rebels have small weapons. What can they do?” asked another man. He had recently married a Shan refugee woman, and now the two eked out an uncertain living with their part-time work.
All of the refugees were in agreement that they didn’t want to go back to Burma. But the subject of Thailand came up a lot. There are thought to be between one and two million Shan in Thailand.
“Kuala Lumpur is better than Thailand. At least we can get recognised by UNHCR here,” explained the newlywed. “Even though only a few of us get recognised, it is still better than Thailand. In Thailand UNHCR doesn’t recognise Shan. They say Shan and Thai are the same ethnic. But security here is worse.”
All of the men agreed that security, meaning getting arrested, was their biggest concern.
Earlier, one of the refugees, a YouTube fan, had recognised me from my Burma videos. Now, several men commented on the fact that they had watched me in Martial Arts Odyssey.
Now, they were ready to talk. The YouTube fan asked me, “Do you know about a school for human rights?”
In my experience, somehow, the minute a young Shan person learns English, they go online and learn about Human Rights. I have worked with and reported on tribes and ethnic minorities across Asia, but I have honestly never met a people like the Shan. My opinion is probably biased by the fact that I am mostly meeting very intelligent people, rather than a fair cross section of the population. But, the fact still remains that I have never encountered this phenomena in other ethnic groups. The Shan seem incredibly adept at learning English and then actually putting it to use, informing themselves about world events, world history, and subjects relevant to their struggle.
Nearly every English-speaking Shan I have ever worked with or interviewed could talk intelligently about Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and even Martin Luther King and Ho Chi Minh.
Maybe the Burmese government is right to be blocking the internet and stopping education in Shanland. I can’t imagine what an entire generation of educated Shan could do to the junta.
“In Burma I didn’t know about Human Rights. I heard that first in Malaysia,” the YouTube man told me. “Back in Burma, we live like blind. They close the door on information. They block our way, and don’t let us know about human rights.”
Talking to refugees is often makes for a sombre experience, but in this case, I was smiling inside, almost crying as his youthful enthusiasm and the simple correctness of what he was saying infected me. He was like many of the Shan I had known when I was embedded with the Shan Army. They were bright, intelligent young people, who had always suspected something had been stolen from them. The minute they learned English and gained access to a computer, they confirmed their suspicions and then educated themselves on what it was exactly they had been robbed of.
“My friend worked for an NGO. He told me about human rights. I think human rights are very high intelligence. I feel so proud about that.”
His next statement was so perfect, it was like Muhammad Ali saying, “No Viet Cong ever called me Nigger.”
“Human rights are very nice.”
Yes, I agreed, human rights are nice.
Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the books, “Warrior Odyssey’ and “The Monk from Brooklyn.” He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries.
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Aliran Online - Shan refugees in Malaysia (Part 3)
By admin, on 24 June 2011
This is the final segment of a three-part story by Antonio Graceffo on the difficult and perilous plight of Shan refugees in Malaysia.
“In the history books in Burma they change everything. If they can change history it’s not history. It is their story.”- Burmese refugee in Malaysia.
“The first time I came to Malaysia I see the Malaysia is very freedom. You want to go somewhere you can go, no one block your way,” said a Shan refugee who was a fan of Martial Arts Odyssey, my web TV show. “My country is not like that. After 9.00pm, you cannot go out of the house. If the military saw you on the road they would beat you up, they would beat you.”
“When I was young, staying with my family in my home town I didn’t know about the information that military is beating the people and killing them, burning our farms. I didn’t know. The information is blocked.”
“When I came outside I have freedom of information. We get to know everything they are doing to us.”
“Before I came to Malaysia I didn’t know about internet. We didn’t know anything in Burma. I came here, and I saw even a small baby can use internet. They are professional already. They are higher than me, higher than us.”
“It is better here than Burma. Even though we are refugees here, we have more rights than in our home town. But we also don’t want to move our home town.”
This was an important point, which I had only recently come to understand. Shan people are fleeing Burma in droves. They go to Thailand, or in this case, Malaysia. But this is not
what they want. What most of them want is for the fighting in Burma to stop. While they may openly dream of resettlement in the US or Australia, what they all told me, when they revealed what was in their heart, was that they just want to go back to a free and democratic Burma.
That is what this man meant, when he said, “But we also don’t want to move our home town.” He still wished he could live in his home town, but life there is simply untenable.
“Our Shan culture is that we don’t want to go to a foreign country. If we had a choice we would go back to Burma. So many only stay here four or five years, and then they go back.”
“In our country is the military law. They blocked skype, facebook, and information. They have bad policy no human rights. Everything under control,”
I asked if they had SPDC government spies here in Malaysia?
“Yes, we do. But we don’t know who. It could be anyone. It could be our best friend. We don’t know about their secrets… intelligence. They know everything we are doing. But they also cannot do anything. They can only get information and send back to Burma. But if they plan to do something we also don’t know.”
He told me that he had studied at university in Burma. “But we didn’t learn Shan history. I didn’t get to know our history till now. They don’t have it in the student book in Burma. In the history books in Burma they change everything. If they can change history it is not history. It is their story. So we don’t know our history we only know Burmese history.”
“I couldn’t write in Shan. I learned here in Malaysia. In Burma they didn’t allow us to teach Shan writing. But we could sometimes learn the reading from Shan karaoke.”
“They replaced all of our history with Burmese culture. In Malaysia we have a big celebration for Shan New Year, in central KL. We started in 2006 and we have every year. In Burma, Shan New Year was outlawed.”
“One group of Shan in Burma have forgotten their language. The government prevented them from learning holidays, language, and culture. They have become Burmese already.
They can speak properly Burmese, so they are like Burmese already. But they know their parents and grandparents were Shan. They know they are Shan, but they don’t know anything about Shan.”
“Can you imagine you cannot do your Shan New Year. It is celebrated according to Shan calendar, usually in November. And then the religious New Year is the same as Thailand (Song Kran) usually in April. We also call that New Year.”
Historically, the Shan and the Thai have been closely related. They share some culture and their festivals. But, it is important to remember that the Shan and the Thai are two unique peoples. And, the Shan should be recognised as an ethnic group by the UN and other international organizations.
One of the other refugees told me that he had married a Shan refugee locally. They had a baby, but the baby’s birth was registered by the immigration department. He has a birth certificate, but the baby can’t be considered a Malaysian citizen.
I told him it was sad that his baby can’t be a Malaysian citizen. Refugee babies born in America are considered US citizens.
“We have no choice. We have a lot of struggle.”
When I asked what the biggest problem faced by refugees in Malaysia was, he answered, “The most challenging is security.” By security, he meant that the refugees get arrested by the Malaysian police on a regular basis.
As much as the refugees are struggling to survive, they continue to do what they can to further the cause of human rights inside of Burma, and to let the world know what the Shan people are suffering.
“In 1990s we submitted photos and documents of genocide (to the UN).
“Last year again, in central Burma, the government attacked and destroyed all of the villages. And the innocent people suffer. They (the villagers) have farmland. It belonged to their ancestors, their forefathers, but Burmese government took it away easily. They say will build a railway or a road so they confiscated the Shan land.”
Large scale infrastructure projects in Burma generally lead not only to land seizure, but to forced labour. Villages are threatened with death if they do not provide a certain number of workers. Many of those workers are never seen again. In numerous interviews I have done with refugees subjected to forced labour, they all reported having been beaten, tortured, starved, and often raped or they witnessed killings. Often, the forced labourers are used as human mine detectors, being pushed into the mine fields, ahead of the construction project.
I asked my new friend if he had a final message he wanted to send out to the world.
“For the Shan people what I want to say now, the situation is very bad. We are under the control of the Burmese military. When the Burmese army comes, they (the Shan people) are very afraid. They cannot do anything. They cannot depend on the Shan army to protect them. Example, when the Burmese army comes, the Shan army has to run away. So they cannot do anything. So many girls were raped or taken away. Hard times for Shan people. Even though we have the Shan army, we don’t know when we will get freedom.”
“The world must know about this and the world should put pressure on the Burmese government.”
“If we are still under the Burmese military, our rights …we have no human rights.”
Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the books, “Warrior Odyssey’ and “The Monk from Brooklyn.”
Visit his website: www.speakingadventure.com
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COMMENTARY
The Buffalo News - Refugees find high risks on Squaw Island
By Donn Esmonde News Columnist
Published:June 24, 2011, 12:00 AM
Like most teenagers, Lah Aye believes that bad things only happen to someone else. That is what we are up against at Squaw Island Park.
Aye is 17. He came here from strife-torn Burma four years ago. He speaks English well enough to translate for other Burmese. His yellow high-top sneakers and lopsided baseball cap testify to his Americanization. Yet he has the deferential manner of a different culture.
I asked Aye whether he swims in Squaw Island’s ponds—one of which recently claimed the life of 9-year-old Joel Rama, an immigrant from Burundi. It was the second Squaw Island drowning in the last 13 months.
“Not in the small pond,” Aye told me. “The water looks bad. But in the [bigger] pond, yes. And in the river, too.”
He is not alone. Despite the drownings, Aye and a horde of other kids, mostly immigrants who flock to the park, still swim in its deadly waters. This is what we are up against.
Squaw Island used to be a city garbage dump. It was transformed a few years ago into a slice of serenity. Cross over the single- lane railroad bridge off Niagara Street and find a waterfront park with tree-shaded riverbank, two ponds and acres of grassland.
For whatever reason—its isolation, its recent conversion—the park is a refuge for refugees. I stopped by early Tuesday evening. Vehicles stuffed with families who fled conflict in Burma, Somalia and other Parts Distant rolled in. Volleyball nets went up, drawing a flock of teenagers. Families gathered on blankets along the shady riverbank. It looked like a Norman Rockwell slice of new-citizen Americana.
Overshadowed by the serenity is the rushing Niagara River and two potentially deadly ponds.
Joel Rama’s family came to America for a better life. His life ended in a murky swimming hole two months shy of his 10th birthday. Since the drowning, “No Swimming” signs have gone up around the pond. Similar signs are posted around the park’s larger pond, where 16- year-old Diquan Warren drowned in May of last year.
There are no fences around the ponds. There is no barrier between the park and the river’s deadly currents. There is no pool, splash pad or other water alternative in the park. Most immigrants don’t have backyard pools. City pools don’t open until July. Which leaves ponds and the river.
Lah Aye showed me a tree with branches hanging over the river. He and his friends jump in upstream and let the current carry them down.
“We[grab] the tree branches,” he said, “and climb out.”
It is a dangerous game. Joel Rama’s drowning has not stopped them from playing it. Something needs to be done before we count another casualty.
“Leaders of the main refugee populations— Burmese, Burundi, Somali— have called me,” said Anna Ireland, “wanting to know how we can make this area safe.”
Ireland works at Hope Refugee Center. As we walked in the park, several Burmese called her by name. Joel Rama, the boy who drowned, and his family were her clients. Ireland and refugee leaders have ideas. They range from swimming lessons for immigrant kids, to parents preaching the No Swimming rule, to fencing the smaller pond, to putting in a splash pad.
“I think that a splash pad would save lives,” Ireland said.
Common Council Member Joe Golombek told me that the park is topsoil over an environmental “cap,” which makes it tough to run water pipes.
“But I am open to any discussion,” Golombek said.
Two kids have drowned on Squaw Island in 13 months. Summer is upon us. Lah Aye and his friends do not believe that anything bad can happen to them.
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IBNLive - Krishna wraps up Myanmar visit; President Sein to visit India
PTI | 09:06 PM,Jun 22,2011
India already has a presence in the country but is looking at a bigger role and is currently identifying mutually beneficial areas of cooperation. India is the thirteenth largest investor with an investment estimated at USD 189 million in five projects.However, China is the biggest investor in Myanmar with investments totalling to about USD 9.6 billion. Sources said Sein suggested Small Medium Enterprises sector, hydro electricity, agriculture and capacity building as the main segments that India could chip in besides others. The two sides also discussed issues relating to security, connectivity, and more people to people contacts and parliamentary exchanges. On the security front, Myanmar gave "firm assurances" to India that its territory will not be used for anti-India activities.
Krishna had said security is the "most crucial and sensitive issue". Security cooperation has been a major part of India- Myanmar relations because of the long border that it shares with four northeast states. Many insurgent groups operating in the area are known to take advantage of the thick jungles along the border in Myanmar to take refuge. While the meetings were a bid to foster strategic and economic ties between the two neighbours, sources said a number of issues with regard to cooperation in the field of health and agriculture were also discussed. India has in principle agreed to modernise the children's hospital in Yangon by supplying the latest modern equipments. Talks are also on for building a state of the art general hospital in Sittwe with Indian help, sources said. Extending a helping hand to cyclone-prone Myanmar, India handed over 10 modern and disaster-proof rice silos built at a cost of USD 2 million to preserve grains during natural calamities.
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International Transport Journal
ITJ - Double-track-line-Construction China-Myanmar started
24. Juni 2011
The work on a 330 km double-track railway line from Kunming in China to Myanmar has started. More than 75% of the line will be in tunnel or cutting given the mountainous terrain. 12 million tonnes of freight per annum could be carried when the construction is finished.
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The Irrawaddy - Moscow's Nuclear Envoy Visits Burma
By KO HTWE Friday, June 24, 2011
Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexey N. Borodavkin, who is also the country's nuclear envoy to North Korea, led a delegation to Naypyidaw on Wednesday to meet Burmese counterparts.
According to Burma's state-run The New Light of Myanmar, Borodavkin met with Burma's Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo, Minister for Foreign Affairs Wunna Maung Lwin, house speaker Shwe Mann, and Minister for Science and Technology Aye Myint.
Observers said the talks are expected to focus on weapons deals between the two countries. The foreign mission from Moscow follows hot on the heels of an upgrade in the strategic partnership between China and Burma.
Aung Naing Oo, a political analyst based in Thailand, said relations are close between Burma and Russia. While Burma sends students to Russia to study, Russia sells weapons to Burma.
If the Burmese authorities' relationship with China and India breaks down, they can always turn to Russia, he said.
Like China, Russia remains a staunch ally of Burma at the United Nations, frequently vetoing Western attempts at the Security Council to impose resolutions on the Burmese government. It also has a track record of selling weapons, including MiG-29 fighter jets, and conducting officer training regarding nuclear and missile technology.
According to previous reports, Russia had plans to build a “nuclear studies” center in Burma, which would include a 10-megawatt, light water-moderated nuclear reactor, but later the plan was canceled.
Beijing and Naypyidaw have enjoyed a marked upgrade in their strategic partnership since Burma's new president, Thein Sein, visited China in May. Other nations, including the US, India, the EU and now Russia have been quick to mobilize delegations to the southeast Asian country, which is recognized as rich in natural resources yet boasts one of the poorest economies in the world.
Thakhin Chan Tun, a former diplomat who previously served as Burma’s ambassador to North Korea, and the People’s Republic of China, said that the recent diplomatic missions from Russia and India helps to balanced the outside influences on Burma.
“Burma has to rely on Russia, China and India, because the European Union is leading a boycott,” he said. “India doesn't want Burma to side with China. They want to do what they can in terms of trade and commerce.”
In recent years Russian companies have been involved in Burma's mining sector.
A Russian-trained Burmese army defector and missiles expert, Maj Sai Thein Win, said that Russian companies were exploring for thorium in northern Burma. Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element which can be used for nuclear power plants, and is highly sought for its safety benefits.
“Russia especially wants thorium from Burma,” he said. “However, China has been smuggling it out in the metal-rich sand and silt from the U Ru Hka stream in Kachin State since 2006.
He said the Burmese government only recently became aware that Chinese companies were secretly smuggling the riverine sand and extracting thorium from it.
Meanwhile, Russian company Dalmorneftegeophysica, or DMNG, which provides an extensive range of geophysical services for the petroleum industry worldwide, including surveys planning, data acquisition, processing, interpretation and hydrocarbon resource evaluation, opened an office in Rangoon on June 18, according to The Myanmar Times.
DMNG has 10 years experience working in Burma on oil and gas projects, and its exploration contract with Thai state company PTTEP expired in January, said the Rangoon journal.
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NEWS ANALYSIS
The Irrawaddy - Kachin Conflict Intertwined with Chinese Interests
By HTET AUNG Friday, June 24, 2011
Due to the reemergence of armed conflict between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Burma's northern Kachin State, the region has once again become unstable after an era of relative calm during the 17-year-long ceasefire between the opposing armies.
With respect to the number of casualties, the intensity of the battles could be called low. But with respect to their current and potential future impact on the region, the armed conflicts are huge. Already, more than 10,000 local residents have sought refuge near the China-Burma border area; a hydro-power dam project on the Taping River has been shut down, resulting in 215 Chinese engineers and workers fleeing back to China; and border trade has slowed, affecting the local economy.
If the war spreads into other parts of Kachin State, even more Chinese companies involved in natural resource extraction will have to leave their multimillion dollar investments unprotected on the battlefield. In addition, the unknown numbers of Chinese workers who have migrated to Kachin State, and are occupying jobs that could have been taken up by local residents, will have to flee as their countrymen in the north recently did.
Unlike the pre-ceasefire armed conflicts in Kachin State, in which the government’s one military ambition was to occupy the territory controlled by ethnic armed groups in order to spread the military regime’s authority in the border region, the current conflicts are intertwined with the protection of China’s economic interests in the area.
Kachin State is rich in natural resources, particularly water resources, and China has invested in at least nine major hydro-power projects, including one of the two dams on the Taping River in the conflict area. Most of the jobs on these projects are being given to Chinese workers, and most of the combined 12,000 megawatts of electricity that Earthright International estimates will be generated by the dams will be exported to China.
In addition, projects such as the Myitsone Dam, currently being constructed on the Irrawaddy Confluence, carry with them enormous environmental concerns and will displace thousands of local residents.
In March, the KIA sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao requesting a halt in the construction of the Myitsone dam, which is being financed by China Power Investment Co. Ltd. In the letter, the KIA said that if the dam construction continues, a civil war could be resumed.
Unsurprisingly, and in line with the past practice of the former military regime, Burma’s new government has blamed the KIA for all the recent armed clashes and accused the ethnic armed group of attempting to destroy Chinese interests in their area.
“[The] KIA based in Kachin State is committing deterrence to development projects of Kachin State, disturbing the tasks and posing threats to Chinese staff who are working at
hydropower projects,” reported the state-run New Light of Myanmar on June 18.
“As [the] KIA members disturbed and threatened Chinese experts and employees assigned to the project, [the Burmese] authorities warned them not to cause hindrances to the project,” the newspaper said.
Lahpai Nawdin, the editor of the Thailand-based Kachin News Group, said that it was predictable that China's increased investments and the expansion of the dam projects within and close to the KIA-controlled area would trigger renewed conflict between the KIA and the Burmese army.
One question being debated is whether Burma’s President Thein Sein and his new government solicited and received China's support to eliminate the KIA.
After the ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the former Burmese military junta was put into effect in the early 1990s, the KIA leaders made efforts to build up urban areas like Laiza and Maijayang with their own resources, and to facilitate the growth of the border economy, said Aung Thu Nyein, a PhD candidate at the National Institute of Development Administration in Thailand and a senior researcher at the Bahu Development Research Institute based in Thailand.
He said the KIA leaders were proud of their accomplishments, and expected that the Burmese government would give them proper credit and respect for these efforts. But now, everything is back to square one after the government once again labeled the KIA an “insurgent group,” which tarnished their image.
KIA spokesperson Colonel James Lum Dau agreed, telling The Irrawaddy that: “The characteristic of an insurgent group is to kill people, rob their property, burn down their houses and destroy everything.
We don't do these things; they are not our policy.”
Asked whether China's growing business ties with the Naypyidaw government and their investments in Kachin State could be a threat to the KIA, James Lum Dau said that Chinese leaders know clearly what happened in Kachin State, and based on the recent conflicts, they know the importance of including all the stakeholders, including the KIA, in attempts to bring peace to the state.
With the armed conflict in Kachin State serving as a case study for how much progress the new government has made towards democracy and reconciliation as compared to the previous military junta, it seems that Burma has at best gone nowhere, and at worst gone backwards.
The leadership of President Thein Sein, who pledged to “give top priority to national unity” during his inaugural speech to the new Parliament, can be justly called into question. And apparently the new Kachin State Parliament and regional government, headed by a chief minister, has absolutely no role or voice in tackling instability in their state.
Aung Thu Nyein said that if the new government does not change its mindset, more problems will lie ahead in Burma’s ethnic states. He said that if the new government is not willing give both opportunity and the authority to the leaders of ethnic states in order to provide them with a sense of ownership in developing their own areas of administration, the country’s prospects as a whole have a dim future.
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The Irrawaddy - US Lawmakers Differ on Approach to Burma
By LALIT K JHA Friday, June 24, 2011
US Congressmen are advocating different approaches to achieving the goals of establishing real democracy and protecting human rights in Burma in the post-election era, wherein Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from jail, and a new civilian government, even though dominated by the army, has taken over the reins of the country.
This was more evident at a Congressional hearing on Burma on Wednesday as lawmakers came out with different ideas to achieve this goal of democracy and human rights. It varied from tougher sanctions against Burma to more engagement with the new Burmese regime. Suu Kyi gave her views through a prerecorded video message.
“I believe the administration has tools within its shed or arrows in its quiver to really act on the Burma JADE Act,” said Congressman Joe Crowley during a congressional hearing on Burma on Wednesday.
“What's the sense of having these tools if the regime continues to rape and to murder and to dehumanize the people that they supposedly are leading? It's just something that I think is intolerable and needs to change,” he said.
“From my perspective, I believe we should find new ways to approach Myanmar [Burma], including high-level engagement with the new regime,” argued Eni Faleomavaega, the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
In November of last year, Burma's ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council, held the first election since 1990. The results, which gave the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a super majority in all houses of Parliament, were mired in controversy.
While many nations, including the United States, continue to impose sanctions on Burma's military leaders in an effort to bring about democracy reforms, apparently the strategy is not working, said Faleomavaega. “I believe this is in part because we do have a double standard when it comes to sanctions,” he added.
“When it's convenient for us we apply section 508 sanctions law against Thailand, Myanmar, Fiji, for example, but in 1999, when Gen Pervez Musharraf overthrew the democratically elected government of then-Prime Minister Sharif, the US waived the section 508 sanction law, despite the fact that for nearly 10 years Gen Musharraf never made good on his promise to resign his military commission and hold free, fair and transparent elections in Pakistan,” he said.
Congressman Donald Manzullo, who chaired the hearing, said that since the election, one has witnessed a distinct point of view emerging from some Burma experts arguing that no matter how fraudulent, the elections represent an important shift in domestic Burmese politics.
“As the argument goes, this shift might lead to real changes in the future, even if nothing significant occurs immediately. Furthermore, the existing opposition party, the National League of Democracy, is incapable of grasping this opportunity because the group and its leader, Ms. Suu Kyi, have an all-or-nothing approach. This is what is characterized as the 'pragmatic engagement theory',” said the congressman.
“Since the Obama administration began its policy of pragmatic engagement in 2009, US relations with Burma have not changed. Let us not forget there are still 2,200 political prisoners languishing in Burmese gulags, including peaceful monks and citizens that took part in the Saffron Revolution four years ago,” said Manzullo.
The Burmese government, as an effort of goodwill prior to a visit by US officials in May, announced a disappointing one-year blanket reduction of jail sentences for all criminals, but it is not clear whether this includes political prisoners, he observed.
“The recent news of clashes in Burma's Kachin [State] between government troops and ethnic minorities, which has been the heaviest fighting in 17 years, adds further evidence to the argument that the situation in Burma has not changed,” he added.
“If proponents of pragmatic engagement are correct, then Burmese leaders should recognize this unprecedented opportunity being offered by the Obama administration and seek to improve relations with the US by demonstrating tangible change,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case. The State Department's visit to Burma in May is further proof that change in Burma is extremely difficult to achieve, at a time when it seems Western influence is dwindling,” he said.
“Burma is actively engaging with its neighboring countries, constructing gas pipelines to Thailand and China and accepting investments from China, its largest trading partner,” Manzullo said.
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A second bomb goes off in Mandalay–fourth bomb on Friday
Friday, 24 June 2011 16:44 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A second bomb exploded in Mandalay on 84th Road between 31st Road and 32nd Road at around 3 p.m. on Friday. There were no injuries.
The bomb exploded near the Sainsabelphoo gold shop and a rubbish pile located near Pariyatti Sasana Association. The location is 800 feet from the site of the first bomb explosion around noon.
According to authorities, a bomb squad sealed off the area around the dump site around 2 p.m.
On Friday, four bombings have been reported in Burma; two explosions in Mandalay; one in Naypyitaw and one in Pyinoolwin (English name: Maymyo).
The first bomb explosion occured on 84th Road in Mandalay at noon when a bomb was placed in a Pajero sports utility vehicle with license plate number 3B/1984 parked in front of the Zaygyo Hotel. The second and third explosions occurred in an empty house in Naypyitaw and an empty house in Maymyo (Burmese name: Pyinoolwin), where a large number of military schools are located respectively. The explosions occured in two-storey homes and the blasts occurred on the upper floors nearly simultaneously.
One person in Mandalay was injured in the first explosion.
In other towns, there were no casualties. Military officers are investigating the bomb scenes.
In Maymyo (Pyinoolwin), rumours have circulated that more bombs will be detonated.
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Burma photographs win international award
Friday, 24 June 2011 11:43 Jim Andrews
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A three-year wait for the opportunity to meet Aung San Suu Kyi was finally rewarded with an invitation to British photographer James Mackay to a tea-time photo shoot that produced award-winning portraits of the pro-democracy icon.
Mackay’s black and white studies of Suu Kyi won a gold award in the 2011 Prix de la Photographie, Paris (known as the PX3), a silver and an honorable mention, in the categories ‘People’, ‘Political’ and ‘Portraiture’.
The PX3 contest is one of Europe’s most prestigious, and this year attracted entries from 85 countries.
Mackay’s image of a wounded political prisoner won a gold award, and his portrait of the codirector of the Mae Sot-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), Bo Kyi, won a PX3 bronze—the result of two photo shoots that set him off on his next project, to gather images of political victims of Burma’s rigid rule.
For James Mackay, who runs the London-based photo web site Enigma Images, the photo shoot at Suu Kyi’s lakeside home in Rangoon, marked not only the culmination of three years’ project planning but was also ‘without doubt the biggest moment of my life’.
When Mackay began to plan his photo shoot, Suu Kyi was under house arrest and unable to receive unauthorized visitors. But Suu Kyi’s release from detention last November gave Mackay his long-awaited opportunity and time to prepare for what he describes as his ‘date with destiny’.
The invitation to tea at Suu Kyi’s home came in a telephone call from Rangoon—‘a soft eloquent voice, speaking perfect English, is on the other end of the phone. Whatever it is you do in life they say you always remember your first time and this will be a moment that stays with me forever’.
Mackay decided, for security reasons, to visit Suu Kyi at the end of his time in Rangoon. ‘As the taxi turned into University Avenue my mind was cast back to my first visit here many years ago, standing alone outside the famous gates (then a faded green) of number 54 whilst Burma’s most famous political prisoner sat alone inside.
‘I dreamt then that one day I would be able to walk in and that more importantly The Lady would be able to walk out. As we pulled up to number 54 the big yellow gates were opened and we drove through into the famous compound; a sense of excitement and disbelief inside me mixed with a nirvana of memories and stories that have been shared with me over these past years by those former Tri-Color students and other NLD (National League for Democracy) members who spent so much time here working and looking after The Lady.
‘I had to pinch myself that I was really here, standing in Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound, closing my eyes imagining what it might have been like to be standing behind these gates with thousands cheering outside as The Lady delivered her speeches back in those heady days of the late 1980s, let alone just being here at any other time over the past 20 years’.
Mackay was ushered into the house. ‘My heart missed a beat as in she walked and with her an aura that is simply indescribable. Everything anyone has ever said is true. And then some. Dignity, grace and beauty personified, I was completely captivated by her and in awe to be in her presence, ‘To meet The Lady is more than just a lifelong dream and personal ambition, it is a truly incredible experience, made more so if one has more than just a passing interest in Burma.
‘We chatted and shared tea for some time’. Then, in the friendly and relaxed atmosphere, Mackay took his award-winning shots.
Mackay told Mizzima on Wednesday: ‘Meeting the Lady was without doubt the biggest moment of my life…she is a heroine of mine and to be able to meet her was incredible and inspiring at the same time.
‘It drives me on even more, not just having shared an insight with The Lady but in the hope that one day we can all be there and have that experience, sharing tea in true Burmese fashion and chatting about politics and pianos’.
Mackay said his interest in Burma began at the time of the 1988 uprising. ‘I was a first year university student at the time and whilst there was really extremely limited news and, in particular, images coming out of Burma, during that time of mass upheaval, I remember reading and hearing about what was going on in Burma and being drawn to want to understand more about it. I guess it just struck a chord in me’.
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USDP members directly appointed as Burmese village administrators
Friday, 24 June 2011 19:33 Tun Tun
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese township authorities have directly appointed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) members as ward and village administrators, according to political parties that contested in the election.
‘These reports were sent to us from Rangoon and Bago regions and some townships from Magwe Region’, National Unity Party (NUP) spokesman Han Shwe told Mizzima.
He said the 2008 Constitution Chapter 5 Executive Article 289 stipulated, ‘The administration of wards or village-tracts shall be assigned in accord with the law to a person whose integrity is respected by the community’. It offers no detailed provisions in this regard.
‘The necessary laws for this matter must be made by Parliament. Our party wants, as the Constitution stipulates, the administrators to be people whose integrity is respected by the community’, Han Shwe said.
Unity and Diversity Party chairman Nay Myo Wei said such appointments also occurred in Mingaladon Township and in Bogale. I have been told by my party members that there were no invitations or prior information. All these administrators were appointed directly by an order given by higher authorities’.
Rangoon Region government minister Nyan Tun Oo was quoted by Rangoon journalists in May 2011: ‘The ward and village tract administrators will not be members of any political party'. He also said that the appointments must be made by coordination with local elders and respected community figures.
Observers said only USDP members were appointed as ward or village-tract administrators.
Thirty-five people from Rangoon Region, North Htaukkyat Ward, have sent a letter to the district administrator objecting to the appointments.
‘The USDP manipulated these appointments and no local elders were informed in advance. When you look at what Minister Nyan Tun said and what actually happened it’s clear. There was no transparency’, Shwe Nyein, one of the local elders who signed the letter, told Mizzima.
Residents in wards including Ye Su, Ye Su South, Lay Su Taung, Ywama and Bawlonekwin will also send similar objection letters.
There are 33 townships in Rangoon Region with 2,056 village tracts and 657 wards, according to a domestic news journal quoting Region Command commander Major General Win Myint in January 2010.
Ward and village-tract administrators are influential in handling petty crimes in local areas, making sale deeds of property and performing religious functions, social functions and funerals. They are also the key person in communicating with the township, district and region chairmen for the area. Since the time of the former military regime, local administrators have been directly appointed by higher authorities.
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DVB News - Migrants killed in Thai road accident
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 24 June 2011
Four Burmese migrant workers and a Thai national were killed and nine injured in southern Thailand yesterday when a van they were travelling in collided with a 10-wheel truck.
The accident took place in Prachuap Khiri Khan province as the overloaded van carrying 13 passengers made its way from Ranong, on the border with Burma, to Ban Saphan town.
An official at Bang Saphan hospital told DVB that four Burmese and the driver, a Thai national, were killed while nine were sent to the hospital with injuries, a number of which have since left.
In April nine Burmese migrants were killed in similar circumstance when the lorry they were travelling in near the Thai port town of Mahachai, near Bangkok, collided with a 10-wheel truck.
More than three million Burmese migrants are estimated to live in Thailand, the majority working in low-skilled industries such as fishing and construction where accidents are common.
The quasi-legal status many of them hold means they often struggle to claim compensation, although unlike many incidents, the employer of the four migrants killed yesterday reportedly visited the hospital where the injured had sought treatment.
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ေတာ္လွန္ေရးသီခ်င္းမ်ား(Politics Song)
Saturday, 25 June 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - JUNE 24, 2011
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