News & Articles on Burma

Sunday, 24 July, 2011
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Burma must start a true talk, not a ploy
By Zin Linn Jul 24, 2011 10:30PM UTC

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with Labour Minister Aung Kyi, the first rare meeting between the Nobel laureate and the new army-backed government, quoting an official Reuters News said on Sunday.

At the behest of namesake Burma civilian government, Burma’s Nobel laureate would meet on Monday with Labour Minister Aung Kyi, who stands for the ruling generals in earlier talks with the democracy icon.

However, the Burmese government has warned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) to end “illegal activities”, including its agitation and opposition to the newly elected legislative body.

A letter signed by the Home Minister and send to Suu Kyi’s party in June said the NLD had been officially dissolved in September last year. Because, the NLD preferred to boycott election held in last November while Suu Kyi and two thousands political prisoners were in prison.

The 30 June state-owned newspaper raised the issue in a commentary under the caption of “Right to make choice still in the hand” by a ghost-writer.

In one paragraph, the commentary says, “From the point of law, NLD is defunct. The Union Election Commission issued Announcement (18/2010) dated 9-4-2010 reminding the 10 political parties that still met Article 25 of Political Parties Registration Law at that time that they could apply within 60 days for continued existence as political parties. However, only five of them did so. It is common knowledge that the five political parties did not include NLD.”

It also underscored that the NLD has been removed from the list of political parties and has been dissolved according to Announcement 97/2010 dated 14-9-2010 by the Union Election Commission.

The home minister’s letter also spotlighted that the government was deeply worried that if Aung San Suu Kyi makes political tours to rural parts of the country, there may be anarchy and unrest, as experienced by prior incidents in 2003.

It is not known whether the meeting will be a flexible gesture in stance by the latest government, which is led by members of the junta that controlled the country for decades. The ex-generals in this government were strongly opposed to Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

A government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the meeting would take place early Monday afternoon at a state guesthouse close to Suu Kyi’s residence. In his former part as liaison officer for the junta, Aung Kyi met Suu Kyi 10 times while she was under house arrest.

According to one NLD spokesman, the party has had no knowledge of the meeting, but welcomed the government’s move to engage with Aung San Suu Kyi.

In frequent media interviews, Suu Kyi expressed her aspiration to hold talk with the new government to press for some changes to help people of Burma. The government did not act in response.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday called on Thein Sein government to free political prisoners, address non-proliferation concerns and start a dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Clinton, speaking at a regional security forum of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bali, said Burma (Myanmar) was a major challenge to the regional group and would have to be addressed.

Aung Kyi is regarded as a moderate minister in military-dominated government, and this will be his first meeting with the democracy icon as labour minister in the new government.

Analysts say it is expected Burma’s rulers are aware of Suu Kyi’s influence on the international community and realize her involvement as a necessity to do away with Western sanctions since 1988.

Some analysts also concerns about the meeting on Monday as they have experienced in the past that the consecutive military regimes typically arrange such show to mislead the international community. http://asiancorrespondent.com/60777/burma-must-start-a-true-talk-not-a-ploy/
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SSA Ethical Stand against Burma Army Barbarian Acts
Sunday, 24 July 2011 18:00
By: Sai Wansai

Maj Gen Pang Fa, general secretary of the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and Commander of the Shan State Army (SSA) “North”, issued a directive on 19 July prohibiting his troops from emulating the Burma Army which he said was ordered on 14 July “to kill every man and rape every woman in the war zone.” On the contrary, Shan troops were told:

Not to kill people from any nationality
Not to commit human rights abuse on people from any nationality
Not to take any property belonging to the people without payment
To avoid becoming a burden for the people

Brigade 1, led by Maj Gen Pang Fa, is the strongest of the SSA-North's three brigades, with an estimated 3,000 troops. The former cease-fire group's other two brigades, 3 and 7, have joined a Border Guard Force (BGF) under Burmese military command, but Brigade 1 refused to accede to the plan and have been fighting a defensive war since last four months.

By doling out such orders, Maj Gen Pang Fa is literally trying to show the people in general that the Shan resistance fighters are on a much higher moral or ethical ground than the intruding Burma Army.

While the Burma Army has been trying to portray the recent ethnic conflict as being horizontal or wider racial conflict of one ethnic group going all out to eliminate the other, similar to Rwanda, the real nature of conflict is a top-down, vertical one, which means that the Burmese government military apparatus is ruthlessly oppressing a chosen ethnic group, through genocide and using rape as a weapon of war.

In other words, the non-Burman ethnic groups are not against the Burman or Bama and there have been no racial hatred or conflict, but are only fighting a defensive war against the Burma Army onslaught, to restore their rights of self-determination, human rights, equality and democracy.

In contrast, the troopers of Burma Army have been indoctrinated to believe that the non-Burman ethnic groups are sworn enemies and they are allowed to lay waste in their areas of operation, which could be translated “to kill, rape, loot and burn”.

According to Myo Myint, in the documentary video titled “Burma Soldiers”, released early this year, commanders were said to have “brainwashed” the soldiers into committing gruesome attacks like torching homes to the ground and using unarmed villagers as human shields. On top of that the soldiers were told that “the ethnic armies and the democracy protestors are enemies of the state [and] killing them is your duty,”

In the same vein, as the recent SSA directive, one could read the civilized treatment of the Kachin Independence Army fighters on Burma Army’s prisoners of war in Kachin State, where the Burma Army offensive is in full swing.

To sum up, the Burma Army’s calculation of igniting a full fledge racial conflict like in Rwanda is not working for the ethnic resistance armies are not walking into the trap to fuel the tension. As the saying goes, “One couldn’t make noise by clapping with one hand.” Instead they are revealing the real nature of Burma Army’s top brass evil intention by making an ethically, correct moral stand for all to see.

But whether the Burma Army will become humane and refrain from using this ancient doctrine of incentive to benefit from the spoils of war is the question only the Burmese generals can answer.

The author is General Secretary of the exiled Shan Democratic Union.
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3874:ssa-ethical-stand-against-burma-army-barbarian-acts&catid=opinions&Itemid=308
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Myanmar opposition leader to meet government liaison officer
Jul 24, 2011, 4:26 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was scheduled to meet this week with the government's chief liaison officer for the first time since it took power, sources said Sunday.

Labour Minister Aung Kyi, who was the chief liaison officer between Suu Kyi and the previous military junta that ruled Myanmar, was scheduled to meet with the Nobel laureate on Monday, government sources said.

'He continues to carry out the role of liaison minister in the new government' said the official, who requested anonymity.

It would be the first such meeting between Aung Kyi and Suu Kyi since the new government took power in April this year.

Yangon-based local and foreign media were invited by the information ministry to be present at the meeting in Yangon, but Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party said they had not been informed of the pending talks.

'We do not know about this,' said Nyan Win, an NLD executive.

Suu Kyi, who was released from a seven-year house detention term on November 13, met with Aung Kyi at least ten times during her incarceration, but the talks did not lead to any breakthroughs in Myanmar's political impasse.

Western powers have urged the new government to open a dialogue with Suu Kyi to tackle Myanmar's ongoing problems that continue to earn it pariah status among democracies.

Suu Kyi's NLD won an earlier general election in 1990 but was denied power by the military for two decades. The stage-managed November 7 polls has brought to power a pro-military regime that is unlikely to push through democratic and economic reforms, which are deemed crucial to Myanmar's acceptance by the world community.

Among other issues, western leaders have demanded that the new government release an estimated 2,100 political prisoners and open a dialogue with Suu Kyi if they wish to see economic sanctions against the country eased.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1652845.php/Myanmar-opposition-leader-to-meet-government-liaison-officer
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Refugee admits to secret military past
Jessica Marszalek
July 24, 2011 - 12:49PM

AAP

A Brisbane refugee has come forward to confess to his secret military past, saying he caused the deaths of up to 50 people in Burma.

Moon Hsar, 44, says he worked as a secret agent for the Burmese military from within the Karen revolutionary army between 1984 and 1987, having been seduced by its power and wealth.

He claims it was his job to incite conflict between his own Karen people and other ethnic groups by rumour-mongering and blaming innocent parties for others' deeds.
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He would also pass intelligence back to the junta via the animal trade.

"There was a lot of fighting. Three years is a long time," he told AAP through an interpreter.

"Forty to 50 people (died) because of me, because of order from military government.

"I feel guilty, very guilty. I feel like they use me as a knife to kill my own people."

It is the second time in two weeks a former junta functionary has come forward to clear his conscience.

Australian citizen Htoo Htoo Han last week confessed to executing 24 anti-government protesters and student leaders as an officer in Burmese intelligence from 1988.

Mr Han, who came to Australia as a refugee in 1996 and has since been involved in campaigns aimed at highlighting human rights abuses in Burma, said he was also indirectly involved in at least 100 other murders.

He said nine others from his group were now lived in Australia.

He is now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police and wants to go to jail for his crimes.

Mr Hsar, a father of five, said while his own situation was unrelated to that of Mr Han, he too wanted to get the secrets plaguing him off his chest.

The low-ranking sergeant said he stopped working for the military when he saw soldiers punishing a Karen-controlled village in about 1987.

"The army come in, they rape the women, everything, I see this woman being raped ... I very, very angry so I cut it off," Mr Hsar said through the interpreter.

"They kill really all woman, children, they kill them all."

An Australian citizen, Mr Hsar came to Australia five years ago after leaving the Karen army in 1998 and staying at a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

He indicated there may be more like him living in Australia, now willing to confess their pasts after reading Han's story.

© 2011 AAP http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/refugee-admits-to-secret-military-past-20110724-1huxh.html
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STRAITS TIMES: Jul 24, 2011
Second Myanmar refugee admits to killings

SYDNEY - A SECOND refugee from Myanmar now living in Australia has admitted to being involved in killings in his homeland, saying he was responsible for the deaths of 40 or 50 people, a report said on Sunday.

The 44-year-old man told Australian news agency AAP through an interpreter that he had acted as an undercover agent for the military between 1984 and 1987, giving them intelligence on ethnic Karen fighters.

'Forty to 50 people (died) because of me, because of orders from military government,' he said.

'I feel guilty, very guilty. I feel like they use me as a knife to kill my own people.'

The admission is the second in a fortnight to the Australian media from someone claiming to be a former Myanmar military operative.

It follows statements from another long-time Australian resident and citizen originally from Myanmar that he shot dead 24 anti-government protesters in his former homeland in the late 1980s. -- AFP
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Refugee admits to secret military past
Jessica Marszalek
July 24, 2011 - 12:49PM
AAP

A Brisbane refugee has come forward to confess to his secret military past, saying he caused the deaths of up to 50 people in Burma.

Moon Hsar, 44, says he worked as a secret agent for the Burmese military from within the Karen revolutionary army between 1984 and 1987, having been seduced by its power and wealth.

He claims it was his job to incite conflict between his own Karen people and other ethnic groups by rumour-mongering and blaming innocent parties for others' deeds.
Advertisement: Story continues below

He would also pass intelligence back to the junta via the animal trade.

"There was a lot of fighting. Three years is a long time," he told AAP through an interpreter.

"Forty to 50 people (died) because of me, because of order from military government.

"I feel guilty, very guilty. I feel like they use me as a knife to kill my own people."

It is the second time in two weeks a former junta functionary has come forward to clear his conscience.

Australian citizen Htoo Htoo Han last week confessed to executing 24 anti-government protesters and student leaders as an officer in Burmese intelligence from 1988.

Mr Han, who came to Australia as a refugee in 1996 and has since been involved in campaigns aimed at highlighting human rights abuses in Burma, said he was also indirectly involved in at least 100 other murders.

He said nine others from his group were now lived in Australia.

He is now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police and wants to go to jail for his crimes.

Mr Hsar, a father of five, said while his own situation was unrelated to that of Mr Han, he too wanted to get the secrets plaguing him off his chest.

The low-ranking sergeant said he stopped working for the military when he saw soldiers punishing a Karen-controlled village in about 1987.

"The army come in, they rape the women, everything, I see this woman being raped ... I very, very angry so I cut it off," Mr Hsar said through the interpreter.

"They kill really all woman, children, they kill them all."

An Australian citizen, Mr Hsar came to Australia five years ago after leaving the Karen army in 1998 and staying at a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

He indicated there may be more like him living in Australia, now willing to confess their pasts after reading Han's story.

© 2011 AAP http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/refugee-admits-to-secret-military-past-20110724-1huxh.html
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Clinton urges Indonesia to be role model for democratic transition in Myanmar
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, July 24, 3:52 PM

BALI, Indonesia — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging Indonesia to promote democracy in Myanmar and countries in the Middle East and North Africa in the throes of upheaval. She says its successful transition from dictatorship and status as a vibrant Muslim-majority democracy make it an ideal role model for both Myanmar and the Arab world.

In meetings with senior Indonesian officials on Sunday in Bali, Clinton said the country’s recent history “provides an example for a transition to civilian rule and building strong democratic institutions.” She said Indonesia has made significant strides toward democracy and shown that Islam and democracy can co-exist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/clinton-urges-indonesia-to-be-role-model-for-democratic-transition-in-myanmar-middle-east/2011/07/24/gIQA36PPWI_story.html