၂၀၁၂ခုႏွစ္ ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၂၉ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ လူထုေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္
သည္ တနသၤာရီတိုင္း ထားဝယ္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္သို႔ ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ႏိုင္ငံေရး ခရီးစဥ္အျဖစ္
သြားေရာက္ခဲ့ပါသည္။ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၂၉ ရက္ေန႔နံနက္၈နာရီခန္႔တြင္ထားဝယ္ေလဆိပ္သို႔
ေရာက္ရွိခဲ့ၿပီး နံနက္ ၉ နာရီခန္႔တြင္ထားဝယ္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ အမ်ိဳးသားဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္
ရံုး၌ ျပည္သူမ်ားအား မိန္႔ခြန္း ေျပာၾကား သြားခဲ့ပါသည္။ထို႔ေနာက္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစု
ၾကည္သည္ထားဝယ္မွ တဆင့္ ေလာင္းလံုးၿမိဳ႕၊ေအာက္ေရျဖဴရြာ၊ ကေျမာကင္း၊ေမာင္း
မကန္ စသည့္ ေနရာမ်ားသို႔ သြားေရာက္၍ ျပည္သူမ်ားအား ႏႈတ္ဆက္စကားႏွင့္မိန္႔
ခြန္းမ်ား ေျပာၾကားခဲ့ကာ မြန္းလြဲ ၄ နာရီ ၂ဝ ခန္႔တြင္ ထားဝယ္ ေလဆိပ္မွ ျမန္မာ့
ေလၾကာင္းျဖင့္ ရန္ကုန္သို႔ ျပန္လည္ထြက္ခြာခဲ့သည္ဟု သိရွိရပါသည္။
ေအာက္တြင္Video ဖိုင္ၾကည့္ရႈႏိုင္ပါသည္။
Burma Flag
ေတာ္လွန္ေရးသီခ်င္းမ်ား(Politics Song)
Monday 30 January 2012
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ထာဝယ္စည္းရံုးေရး ခရီးစဥ္
Saturday 28 January 2012
Tuesday 24 January 2012
ျမန္မာ့ လက္ေရြးစင္ တုိက္စစ္မွဴး ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုအား ဂ်ာမန္ကလပ္ ႏုရင္ဘတ္ ေဒၚလာ ၅သိန္း ၀န္းက်င္ျဖင့္ ကမ္းလွမ္း
2012-01-23
ဂ်ာမန္ ဘြန္ဒက္လီဂါ ကလပ္အသင္း ႏုရင္ဘတ္သည္ ျမန္မာ့ လက္ေရြးစင္တုိက္စစ္
မွဴး ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုအား ေျပာင္းေရႊ႕ေၾကး ေဒၚလာ ၅သိန္း ၀န္းက်င္ျဖင့္ ကမ္းလွမ္းမႈ တစ္ရပ္ ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
ေဇယ်ာေရႊေျမ အသင္း တာ၀န္ရွိသူ တစ္ဦး၏ အဆုိအရ ဂ်ာမန္ ကလပ္ အသင္းသည္
ျမန္မာေနရွင္နယ္လိဂ္ကလပ္မ်ားအတြက္ ကစားသမားမ်ား ေခၚယူေပးခဲ့ဖူးသူ ေအးဂ်င့္
ဒရာဂန္မွ တစ္ဆင့္ ဆက္သြယ္ကမ္းလွမ္းလာခဲ့ျခင္း ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေက်ာ္ကိုကို၏ ေျခစြမ္းအား
စမ္းသပ္လုိေနေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။ေျခစြမ္းအစမ္းသပ္ခံစဥ္ကာလအတြင္း ေလယာဥ္ခ၊
ေနထုိင္စားေသာက္စရိတ္ အစရွိသည္တုိ႔အား၎တို႔အသင္းဘက္မွက်ခံေပးမည္ျဖစ္ၿပီး
အကယ္၍သာ ေခၚယူျဖစ္ခဲ့မည္ဆုိပါကလစာအေနျဖင့္ ေဒၚလာ၄၀၀၀မွ ၅၀၀၀ၾကား
ရရွိႏုိင္မည္ ျဖစ္သည္။
ထို႔အတူ ေဇယ်ာေရႊေျမအသင္းကိုလည္းေဒၚလာ၄သိန္းမွ ၅သိန္းအထိေျပာင္းေရႊ႕ေၾကး
အျဖစ္ေပးေခ်မည္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းသိရသည္။ထိုပမာဏသည္ ျမန္မာ့ေဘာလံုးသမိုင္းတြင္
ျမန္မာကစားသမားတစ္ဦးအတြက္အျမင့္မားဆံုးေျပာင္းေရႊ႕ေၾကးတစ္ရပ္လည္းျဖစ္လာ
ဖြယ္ရွိေနကာ ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုအေနျဖင့္ အာရွတိုက္ ျပင္ပသုိ႔သြားေရာက္ကစားသည့္ပထမ
ဆံုး လက္ေရြးစင္ ကစားသမားလည္း ျဖစ္လာမည္ ျဖစ္သည္။
ထိုကိစၥႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍ ေဇယ်ာေရႊေျမအသင္းက ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုအား ဂ်ာမနီသို႔ ေစလႊတ္
ႏိုင္ရန္ အတြက္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ေဘာလံုး အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္သုိ႔ တရား၀င္ စာတင္ထားေၾကာင္း သိ
ရသည္။ေဇယ်ာေရႊေျမ အသင္းသည္ ဂ်ာမန္ ကလပ္အသင္းထံသို႔ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၃၁ရက္
မတုိင္မီ ေစလႊတ္ႏုိင္မည္ မေစလႊတ္ႏိုင္မည္ဆုိသည္အားအေၾကာင္းျပန္ရမည္
ျဖစ္သည္။
ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုသည္ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ဆီးဂိမ္းစ္ ၿပိဳင္ပြဲတြင္ ေျခစြမ္း ထင္ေပၚခဲ့သည့္ ကစားသ
မားတစ္ဦးျဖစ္ကာ Goal.com ၏ အေရွ႕ေတာင္ အာရွ၏ အေကာင္းဆံုး ကစားသမား ၅ဦး စာရင္းတြင္ ေရြးခ်ယ္ျခင္း ခံခဲ့ရသည္။ ၎အား အေရွ႕ အလယ္ပိုင္းမွ ကလပ္အ
သင္းမ်ားကလည္း စိတ္၀င္စားခဲ့ဖူးၿပီး ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္ အတြက္ တစ္ႏွစ္တာ အေကာင္းဆံုး ကစားသမား ဆုအားလည္း ရရွိထားသူ ျဖစ္သည္။(soccermyanmar)
ပါကစၥတန္သမၼတနဲ႔ အိႏိၵယ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္တို႔ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံကို လာမည္
2012-01-23
ျမန္မာအစိုးရေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲဲဲ႔ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ ပူးေပါင္းေဆာင္ရြက္မႈ တိုးျမႇင့္ေရး ေဆြးေႏြး
ဖို႔နဲ႔ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကိုေတြ႔ဆံုဖို႔ ပါကစၥတန္ႏိုင္ငံ
သမၼတ မစၥတာဇာဒါရီဟာ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံကို ႏွစ္ရက္တာခရီးစဥ္အျဖစ္ ဒီကေန႔ ေရာက္
လာဖုိ႔ ရွိပါတယ္။
မစၥတာဇာဒါရီဟာ ႏိုဘယ္ဆုရွင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကို ေတြ႔ဆံုဖို႔ ေနျပည္ေတာ္ကေန ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ကို သီးသန္႔ သြားေရာက္ လိမ့္မယ္လို႔လည္း ပါကစၥတန္ အစိုးရအရာရွိ
ေတြက ေျပာပါတယ္။
ဒီအေတာအတြင္းမွာပဲ အိႏိၵယ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ မန္မိုဟန္ဆင္းကလည္း ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံကို လာ
မယ့္ေမလမွာ သြားေရာက္ လည္ပတ္မွာ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အိႏိၵယ အစိုးရ သတင္းရပ္ကြက္
ကေန သိရပါတယ္။
အိႏိၵယ ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ဟာ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႔ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးမွာျဖစ္ၿပီး BIMSTEC ေခၚ ဘဂၤလားပင္လယ္ေအာ္ ႏိုင္ငံမ်ား စီးပြားေရးႏွင့္ နည္းပညာဆိုင္ရာ ပူးေပါင္း ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈ ထိပ္သီး အစည္းအေ၀းကိုလည္း တက္ေရာက္မွာ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သိရပါတယ္။
တနဂၤေႏြေန႔က ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီး ဦး၀ဏၰေမာင္လြင္ဟာ နယူးေဒလီၿမိဳ႕ကို
ေရာက္ခဲ့ၿပီး ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ ေမလ ၁၀ ရက္က ၁၂ ရက္ထိ လည္ပတ္မယ့္ အိႏိၵယ ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ရဲ႕ ခရီးစဥ္အတြက္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ၀န္ႀကီး အက္စ္အမ္ ခရီစၥနာနဲ႔ ဒီကေန႔
ေတြ႔ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးမွာ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သိရပါတယ္။
အိႏိၵယ ျမန္မာ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ ခ်စ္ၾကည္ေရး၊နယ္စပ္ေဒသ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးနဲ႔ပူးေပါင္းေဆာင္
ရြက္ေရးေတြမွာ ပိုမုိတိုးျမင့္ရန္ လိုအပ္ေၾကာင္း ဒုတိယ ျပည္ထဲေရး၀န္ႀကီး ဗိုလ္မွဴးခ်ဳပ္
ေက်ာ္ဇံျမင့္နဲ႔ အိႏိၵယျပည္ထဲေရး အတြင္းေရးမွဴး အာရ္ေကတို႔ကၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့ၾကာသပေတး
ေန႔က ေနျပည္ေတာ္မွာ ျပဳလုပ္တဲ့ အစည္းေ၀းမွာ ထပ္မံ ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ၾကပါတယ္။
Monday 23 January 2012
Saturday 21 January 2012
Friday 20 January 2012
အက္ကဲြေသာ္လည္း မၿပိဳက်သည့္ အလံုၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ရွစ္ထပ္တုိက္ ျပန္လည္ေနခြင့္ျပဳၿပီ
ရန္ကုန္၊ ဇန္နဝါရီ ၂ဝ 
အက္ကဲြၿပိဳက်ႏုိင္သည္ ဟု ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္စည္ပင္ႏွင့္ သက္ဆုိင္ရာမွ ကနဦးယူဆထားေသာ အလံုၿမိဳ႕နယ္ အထက္ၾကည့္ျမင္တုိင္လမ္းရိွ ရွစ္ထပ္တုိက္ႏွင့္ ၄င္းတုိက္၏ ေဘး ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္မွ လူေနတုိက္ခန္းမ်ားမွ အိမ္ေထာင္စုမ်ားအား ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၂ဝ ရက္
ေန႔တြင္ ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္စည္ပင္၊ အင္ဂ်င္နီယာဌာန (ယာ/အံု)မွ မူလအတုိင္း ျပန္လည္ေန ထိုင္ခြင့္ ျပဳလုိက္ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
အက္ကဲြၿပိဳက်ႏုိင္သည္ဟု သက္ဆုိင္ရာႏွင့္ အဆုိပါတုိက္တြင္ ေနထိုင္သူမ်ား၏ ကနဦး
ယူဆေသာ တုိက္မွာ အလံုၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ ေစာရန္ပိုင္ေျမာက္ရပ္ကြက္၊ အထက္ၾကည့္ျမင္
တုိင္လမ္းေပၚ ရိွ အမွတ္ (၃၆၇) မွ ေျမပုိင္ရွင္ ေဒၚ ေလးစိန္၏ အလ်ား ၈၉ ေပ၊
အနံေပ ၂ဝ ႏွင့္ အျမင့္ ၇၉ ေပရိွေသာ ရွစ္ထပ္တုိက္ျဖစ္ၿပီး ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၁၉ ရက္
ေန႔ ည ၁ဝ နာရီ ၄၅ မိနစ္ အခ်ိန္၌ ဒုတိယထပ္၏ ညာဘက္ ေနာက္ေဖးအစြယ္တြင္ ၾကမ္းခင္း ကြန္ကရစ္မခုိင္မႈေၾကာင့္ ညာဘက္သို႔ ငါးေပခဲြခန္႔ ႐ုတ္တရက္ အက္ကဲြ
သြားခဲ့ေၾကာင္း အဆုိပါတုိက္တြင္ ေနထုိင္သူမ်ားထံမွ သိရ သည္။
ထိုိသုိ႔ အက္ကဲြသြားမႈေၾကာင့္ အဆုိပါတုိက္တြင္ ေနထိုင္သူမ်ားမွာ မေနရဲေတာ့ဘဲ သက္ဆုိင္ရာသို႔ အေၾကာင္းၾကားခဲ့ရာ သက္ဆုိင္ရာမွ လာေရာက္စစ္ေဆးခဲ့ၿပီး အဆုိပါ တုိက္တြင္ ေနထုိင္သူမ်ား အပါအဝင္ ထိုတုိက္၏ ေဘးပတ္လည္တြင္ ရိွေသာ လူေနအိမ္မ်ားမွ လူဦးေရ ၃၂၈ ဦးအား အ.ထ.က (၁) အလံုႏွင့္ အ.မ.က (၄) အလံုတို႔တြင္ ယာယီ ေျပာင္းေရႊ႕ေပးခဲ့သည့္အျပင္ အထက္ၾကည့္ျမင္တုိင္ လမ္းကိုလည္း ယာယီပိတ္ထားခဲ့ရသည္။
အဆိုပါေနရာသို႔ ဇန္နဝါရီ လ ၂ဝ ရက္ေန႔ နံနက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ရန္ကုန္တုိင္းေဒသႀကီး အစိုးရအဖဲြ႕ မွ နယ္စပ္ေရးရာႏွင့္ လံုၿခံဳေရးဝန္ ႀကီး ဦးတင္ဝင္း၊ စည္ပင္ခ႐ိုင္မွဴး ႏွင့္ ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္စည္ပင္ အင္ဂ်င္နီယာဌာန (ယာ/အံု) မွ တာဝန္ရိွသူမ်ား မွ ေျမညီထပ္ကို စစ္ေဆးခဲ့ရာ ထိုတုိက္၏ တိုင္ယက္မတန္းမ်ားမွာ ပ်က္စီးမႈမရိွသျဖင့္ အႏၲရာယ္မရိွဟု ယူဆ၍ လူေနထိုင္ခြင့္အား ျပန္လည္ခြင့္ျပဳခဲ့သည့္အျပင္ ယာယီပိတ္ထားေသာ အထက္ၾကည့္ျမင္တုိင္လမ္းအား ျပန္လည္ဖြင့္ေပးခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ထပ္မံသိရသည္။ ထိုတိုက္မွာ ၂ဝဝ၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ တည္ေဆာက္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သိရွိရသည္။
ဗို္လ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညြန္႔ သို႔ အိတ္ဖြင့္ေပးစာ (၁)
ဦးသိန္းစိန္နဲ႔ဗို္လ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညြန္႔တုိ႔ကုိေကာင္းတယ္လုိ႔ေျပာတဲ႔သူေတြဒီကိစၥကုိဘယ္လုိ႔ရွင္းမလဲ?အဲဒီတုံးကအမိန္႔ခ်ခဲ႔တဲ႔သူေတြ၊ႏွိပ္စက္ခဲ႔တဲ႔သူေတြကုိအေရးယူဖုိ႔ဘယ္လုိ႔ေဆာင္ရြက္သင္လဲ?
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညြန္႔ ခင္ဗ်ား …
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညြန္႔ဟာ တိုင္းျပည္မွာ တာ၀န္အရွိဆံုး လူေတြထဲက တေယာက္အျဖစ္နဲ႔ ၁၉၈၈ ခုႏွစ္ အာဏာသိမ္းယူၿပီး သည့္ အခ်ိန္က စၿပီး ၂၀၀၄ ခုႏွစ္အထိ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးဌာနရဲ႕ အႀကီးအကဲ အျဖစ္ေရာ၊ အတြင္းေရးမွဴး (၁) အေနနဲ႔ ေရာ ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္အျဖစ္နဲ႔ပါ တာ၀န္ ထမ္းေဆာင္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အဲလို တာ၀န္ ထမ္းေဆာင္ေနတဲ့ ကာလေတြက မွားယြင္းခဲ့ တာေတြ ဒုနဲ႔ေဒး ရွိခဲ့ပါတယ္။ အဲဒီထဲက က်ေနာ္ အပါအ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံေရး လႈပ္ရွားသူေတြကို သတင္းအမွား အေျမာက္အ မ်ားကို အေျခခံၿပီး မတရားသျဖင့္ ႏွိပ္စက္ ညႇဥ္းပန္းျခင္းနဲ႔ မွ်တေသာ တရားစီရင္ျခင္းမရွိဘဲ ေထာင္သြင္းအက်ဥ္းခ်ထား တာကလည္း တခု အပါအ၀င္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အဲဒီလို မတရားသျဖင့္ အႏွိပ္စက္ခံ၊ အက်ဥ္းခ်ခံရလို႔ ဘ၀ပ်က္သြားတဲ့ မိသားစုေတြ သာမက အခုခ်ိန္အထိ အက်ဥ္း ေထာင္ထဲမွာ ဆက္ရွိေနသူေတြလည္း အမ်ားႀကီး ရွိေနပါတယ္။ ဒီအထဲက ကိုသန္းေဇာ္ (ခ) သန္႔ေဇာ္ တေယာက္က နမူနာပါ။ သူ႔လိုမ်ဳိး ျဖစ္ရပ္ေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး ရွိပါေသးတယ္။ ဒီ့အတြက္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီး ခင္ညြန္႔ အေနနဲ႔ မွားယြင္းခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ၀န္ခံဖို႔နဲ႔ ကိုသန္႔ေဇာ္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ဖို႔ ၀ိုင္း၀န္း ႀကိဳးပမ္းေပးဖို႔ လိုအပ္ပါတယ္။
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မွဴးႀကီး သန္းေရႊနဲ႔ သမၼတ ဦးသိန္းစိန္မွာလည္း တာ၀န္ရွိပါတယ္။ ၂၀၀၄ ခုႏွစ္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီး ခင္ညြန္႔နဲ႔ အဖဲြ႔က မွားယြင္းၿပီး ဖမ္းခဲ့တဲ့သူေတြကို ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးပါတယ္ဆိုၿပီး လႊတ္ေပးခဲ့တုန္းကလည္း ကိုသန္႔ေဇာ္ မပါ၀င္ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ အဲဒီ တုန္းက ျပန္လြတ္လာတဲ့သူေတြကို ဘယ္တာ၀န္ရွိသူေတြကမွ ေတာင္းပန္မႈမ်ဳိး မလုပ္ခဲ့သလို ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးလိုက္တဲ့ အ တြက္ ေက်းဇူးတင္ရ မလိုေတာင္ ေျပာခဲ့တာေတြ ရွိပါတယ္။ ျပန္လြတ္လာသူေတြဟာ ပညာေရး၊ က်န္းမာေရး၊စီးပြားေရး၊ လူမႈေရး ဒုကၡေတြေ၀ခဲ့တယ္။ ဘယ္တာ၀န္ရွိသူကမွ ေလ်ာ္ေၾကးေပးတာမ်ဳိး၊ ျပန္လည္ ကုစားေပးခဲ့တာမ်ဳိး မရွိခဲ့ဘူး။ ဒါ ဟာ မွားယြင္းေၾကာင္း သိတယ္ဆိုရင္ အစိုးရတရပ္ အေနနဲ႔ လူသိရွင္ၾကား ေတာင္းပန္ရမွာပါ။ ေနာက္ဆက္တြဲ အေနနဲ႔ ထုိက္သင့္တဲ့ ေလ်ာ္ေၾကးေတြ၊ ျပန္လည္ ကုစားမႈေတြ ေပးရမွာပါ။ ဒါ ႏုိင္ငံတကာ အစိုးရမ်ားရဲ႕ က်င့္၀တ္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
မွားခဲ့တာကို ‘မွားပါတယ္’ လို႔ ၀န္ခံ ေျပာဆိုျခင္းဟာ အမ်ဳိးသား ျပန္လည္ သင့္ျမတ္ေရးအတြက္ အေကာင္းဆံုး ေဆးတ ခြက္ပါ။ ဒါမွ မဟုတ္ရင္ အမ်ဳိးသား ရင္ၾကားေစ့ေရးအတြက္ အေကာင္အထည္ ေဖာ္ေနပါတယ္ ဆိုတာကို ျပည္သူေတြ ယံုၾကည္ဖို႔ အင္မတန္ ခက္ပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကိုသန္႔ေဇာ္ရဲ႕ ျဖစ္စဥ္ဟာ အစိုးရရဲ႕ တာ၀န္ပ်က္ကြက္မႈေတြကို မီးေမာင္းထိုးျပေနတဲ့ ၀မ္းနည္းဖြယ္ရာ ျဖစ္စဥ္တခု ျဖစ္ပါ တယ္။ မွားယြင္းစြာ ဖမ္းဆီးခဲ့ေၾကာင္း ေပၚလြင္ေနတာေတာင္မွ မေတာင္းပန္တဲ့အျပင္ အခုခ်ိန္အထိ ဖမ္းဆီး ခ်ဳပ္ေႏွာင္ ထားတာဟာ အလြန္ ရွက္စရာေကာင္းတဲ့ အျပဳအမူ ျဖစ္သလို ႀကီးမားတဲ့ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးခ်ဳိးေဖာက္မႈလည္း ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ႏွိပ္စက္ ညႇဥ္းပန္းျခင္း မျပဳရလို႔ ျပည္တြင္းနွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ ဥပေဒေတြက ျပ႒ာန္းထားေပမယ့္လည္း ဗုိလ္ခ်ဳပ္မွဴးႀကီး သန္း ေရႊ၊ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီး ခင္ညြန္႔ႏွင့္ ဦးသိန္းစိန္တို႔ ႏွိပ္စက္ျခင္းေတြ က်ဴးလြန္ခဲ့သူေတြအေပၚ အေရးယူတာမ်ဳိး မလုပ္ဘဲ ကာ ကြယ္ေပးထားျခင္းဟာ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္က ႏွိပ္စက္ညႇဥ္းပန္းျခင္းကို မူ၀ါဒ ခ်မွတ္ၿပီး က်ဴးလြန္ေနသလို ျဖစ္ေနပါတယ္။ ဒီအ တြက္ တာ၀န္ရွိပါတယ္။
အခု ကိုသန္႔ေဇာ္ ကိုယ္တိုင္ ေရးခဲ့တဲ့ သူ႔အမႈအေၾကာင္းကို ဖတ္ၾကည့္မယ္ဆိုရင္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးတို႔ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ရက္စက္ခဲ့တယ္ ဆိုတာကို ေတြ႔ရပါလိမ့္မယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ျဖစ္စဥ္အက်ဥ္း
ေန႔စြဲ။ ။ ၃၁၊ ၇၊ ၉၅
၁၉၈၉ ခုႏွစ္၊ ဇူလိုင္လ ၁၃ ရက္ နံနက္ ၄ နာရီခန္႔မွာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ၿခံဝင္းတံခါးကို ဖ်က္ဆီးဝင္ေရာက္ၿပီး ဧည့္စာရင္း စစ္မည္ ဟုဆိုကာ အိမ္တံခါးကို ဖြင့္ခိုင္းပါသည္။ အိမ္တံခါးဖြင့္၍ ေပးၿပီး ခ်က္ခ်င္းဆိုသလို ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား လက္ထိပ္ခတ္ၿပီး အမ်ဳိး သားေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမွ ဟု ဆိုကာ ဖမ္းဆီးေခၚေဆာင္သြားပါသည္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေနအိမ္ႏွင့္ ၿခံဝင္း အတြင္း တို႔ကိုလည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ေခၚေဆာင္ၿပီး ေနာက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားသည္ ပိုက္စိပ္တိုက္ ရွာေဖြၾကသည္ဟု ေနာက္မွ သိရပါ သည္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ဖမ္းဆီးခ်ိန္တြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သေဘာေပါက္သည္မွာ ဇူလိုင္ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ အခမ္းအနား ကိစၥႏွင့္ လာမည့္ ၁၉ ရက္ေန႔ အာဇာနည္ေန႔တြင္ ျပဳလုပ္မည့္ အာဏာဖီဆန္ေရး အစီအစဥ္တြင္ ဦးေဆာင္မႈ အခန္း၌ ပါဝင္ပတ္သက္ျခင္းကို သိရွိသြား သျဖင့္ ဖမ္းဆီးခံရသည္ဟု ယူဆမိပါသည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား တင္ေဆာင္သြားသည့္ သံလ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ရဲစခန္းမွ လင့္႐ို ဗာ ကားျပာေလးသည္ တေနရာတြင္ ေခတၱရပ္ၿပီး ‘မိုးေက်ာ္သူ’ (၁၈ ႏွစ္) အား ဖမ္းဆီးလာသည္ကို ေတြ႔ရေသာအခါ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အဖမ္းခံရသည့္ကိစၥမွာ ဇေဝဇဝါ ျဖစ္သြားရပါတယ္။ အဘယ့္ေၾကာင့္ဆိုေသာ္ အာဏာဖီဆန္ေရး ျပဳလုပ္မည့္ အ စီအစဥ္တြင္ ေသာ္လည္းေကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏ္ုပ္၏ ႏိုင္ငံေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားတြင္ေသာ္ လည္းေကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမို ကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္၏ လုပ္ငန္းေရးရာ အသီးသီးတြင္ လည္းေကာင္း၊ ပါဝင္ပတ္သက္မႈ (အတြင္းစည္း) မရွိသူ (သုိ႔မဟုတ္) မသိသူတဦး ျဖစ္ေနသည့္အျပင္ ‘မိုးေက်ာ္သူ’ ဆိုေသာ လူငယ္ေလးမွာ ႐ိုးသားၿပီး အိမ္၏ စားဝတ္ေနေရးအတြက္ ေက်ာင္းမွထြက္ကာ အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသူ တဦး ျဖစ္တာေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ေသခ်ာသည္မွာ ဇူလိုင္ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ အခမ္းအနားတြင္ အခမ္းအနားလာၿပီး တက္ေရာက္သူအျဖစ္ တႀကိမ္သာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ႏွင့္ စကားေျပာဖူးသူ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ယခင္ ဒီမွာ က်င္းပေသာ စည္းေဝးပြဲမ်ားတြင္ လည္းေကာင္း စည္း႐ံုးေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားတြင္ လည္းေကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ တႀကိမ္မွ် မေတြ႔ဖူးသူ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ဆိုလိုသည္မွာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ဖမ္းဆီးခံရျခင္း အေၾကာင္းရင္းမွာ စဥ္း စား မရႏုိင္ေအာင္ပင္ ျဖစ္ေနပါေတာ့တယ္။ ထပ္ၿပီး ခြဲျခမ္း စိတ္ျဖာၾကည့္မယ္ ဆိုပါကလည္း ၁၂၊ ၇၊ ၈၉ ရက္ေန႔ ေန႔ လယ္တြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္မွ ေဒါက္တာဝင္းႏိုင္(MP)၊ ဦးျမင့္ေဆြ၊ ဦးခင္ေမာင္ဦး (မခ) တို႔ကိုသာလွ်င္ ဇူလိုင္ ၁၉ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ျပဳလုပ္မည့္ အာဏာဖီဆန္ေရး အစီအစဥ္ကို အနည္းငယ္သာ ေျပာျပထားတာပဲ ရွိပါတယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ကို သန္လ်င္ဘက္ကမ္းမွ သေဘၤာျဖင့္ ရန္ကုန္ဘက္သို႔ မ်က္ႏွာကို အဝတ္စည္း၍ ေခၚေဆာင္ သြားပါတယ္။ တေနရာအေရာက္တြင္ ဆင္းခိုင္းၿပီး အခန္းငယ္တခု အတြင္းသို႔ လူခြဲ၍ ေခၚေဆာင္သြားပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို လက္ထိပ္ ခတ္သည့္အျပင္ ဝါယာႀကိဳးမ်ားျဖင့္ပါ တကိုယ္လံုးကို ပတ္ၿပီး ခ်ည္ေႏွာင္ထားပါသည္။ ေနာက္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကိုေမးပါတယ္ “သန္လ်င္ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံုကို ခြဲတာ မင္းမဟုတ္လားတဲ့၊ ဘာမွ မျငင္းေနနဲ႔ေတာ့တဲ့၊ ဒီဗံုးကို ဘယ္က ရလဲ” တဲ့။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ေခါင္းနားပန္း ႀကီးသြားရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ တသက္တာတြင္ မခံစားဖူးေသာ ထိတ္လန္႔ တုန္လႈပ္မႈႀကီးကို တမုဟုတ္ခ်င္း ခံစားလိုက္ရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္လည္း ခ်က္ခ်င္းပင္ လံုးဝ မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း၊ လံုးဝ မသက္ဆိုင္ေၾကာင္း ျပန္လည္ ေခ်ပပါ တယ္။ ခ်က္ခ်င္း ဆိုသလိုပဲ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ မ်က္ႏွာဆီသို႔ လက္သီးမ်ားျဖင့္ မိတ္ဆက္လိုက္ၾကပါတယ္။ လက္သီး ဆုေၾကးမ်ား ပင္ မကေတာ့ဘဲ ဝါယာႀကိဳးျဖင့္ လည္းေကာင္း၊ တုတ္မ်ားျဖင့္ လည္းေကာင္း ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ပါေတာ့တယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ မ်က္ႏွာ အား အဝတ္စည္းထား၍ ဘယ္ႏွစ္ေယာက္က ဝိုင္းၿပီး ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ေနသည္ကို မခန္႔မွန္းႏုိင္ေတာ့ပါ။
ေနာက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားသည္ ႏွစ္ေယာက္တဖြဲ႔ ခဲြကာျဖင့္ လည္းေကာင္း၊ တေယာက္ခ်င္းျဖင့္ လည္း ေကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား နည္းမ်ဳိးစံုျဖင့္ ႏွိပ္စက္၍ ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲေၾကာင္း အတင္းအဓမၼ ဝန္ခံခိုင္းၾကပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္လည္း ေသ ခ်င္ ေသပေလ့ေစေတာ့ အမွန္တရားပဲ၊ လံုးဝ ဝန္မခံဘူး ဆိုၿပီး ႀကိတ္မွိတ္ခံေနပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ ၎ဗံုးကိစၥတြင္ လံုး ဝ ပါဝင္ ပတ္သက္ျခင္း မရွိေၾကာင္း အခ်ိန္ေနရာ၊ သြားလာလႈပ္ရွားမႈ အတိအက်ကို အေထာက္အထား ခုိင္လံုစြာျဖင့္ သက္ေသ သကၠာယမ်ား ခိုင္လံုစြာျဖင့္ မည္မွ်ပင္ ထပ္တလဲလဲ ေျပာျပေသာ္လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို စစ္ေဆးေနေသာ ေထာက္ လွမ္းေရးမ်ားသည္ အတင္းအဓမၼပင္ ဗံုးခြဲသည္ဟု ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ ထိုးႀကိတ္၍ ဝန္ခံခိုင္းသည္။ ၎တို႔ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ညႇဥ္းပန္း ႏွိပ္စက္မႈမ်ားထဲတြင္ ႏွစ္ရက္တိတိ အစာမေကြၽး၊ ေရမတိုက္ျခင္း၊ ဦးေခါင္းကို လံုးပတ္ တက်ပ္လံုးရွိ တုတ္ထိပ္ဖ်ားျဖင့္ အခ်က္ေပါင္း ေျမာက္ျမားစြာ ႐ိုက္ျခင္း၊ မတ္တတ္ရပ္ ေျခကားၿပီး ဒူးကို ေကြးခိုင္း၊ေျခဖ်ားေထာက္ၿပီး ေျခဖေနာင့္ေအာက္ တြင္ အပ္ ေထာင္ထားျခင္း၊ ႏွစ္ရက္တိတိ မတ္တတ္ရပ္ခိုင္းျခင္းႏွင့္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ လိင္တံကို တုတ္ျဖင့္ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ျခင္းတို႔မွာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အတြက္ အရွင္လတ္လတ္ ငရဲခန္းသို႔ ေရာက္ေနသလို ခံစားရပါတယ္။
၎တို႔ မည္မွ်ပင္ ႏွိပ္စက္သည္ျဖစ္ေစ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ လံုးဝ က်ဴးလြန္ျခင္း မရွိေသာ သန္လ်င္ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံု ဗံုး ေဖာက္ကြဲမႈကို ကြၽႏု္ပ္ လံုးဝ မလုပ္ေၾကာင္း အဖန္ဖန္ ျငင္းဆိုေနပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေနအိမ္ကို ရွာေဖြရာတြင္လည္း အစိုး ရဆန္႔က်င္ေရး စာရြက္စာတမ္း တေစာင္တေလေသာ္လည္းေကာင္း ေဖာက္ခြဲေရးပစၥည္း တပိုင္းတစေသာ္လည္းေကာင္း အလ်ဥ္း ရွာေဖြေတြ႔ရွိျခင္း မရွိၾကပါ။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား အတင္းပင္ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ညႇဥ္းဆဲ၍ ဝန္ခံခိုင္းေနပါတယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ထက္ ေစာ၍ အဖမ္းခံရသူ ‘….’ (၂၂ ႏွစ္၊ NLD လူငယ္) ကို ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေရွ႔ေမွာက္သို႔ ေခၚလာၿပီး …. ေထာက္လွမ္း ေရးမ်ားက ေျပာခိုင္းေစသည္မွ…“ကုိသန္းေဇာ္ အသား အနာမခံနဲ႔ေတာ့၊ က်ေနာ္ေတာ့ ဝန္ခံလုိက္ၿပီ္။ ခင္ဗ်ားလည္း ေယာက်္ားပဲ ဟုတ္တယ္လုိ႔ ဝန္ခံလုိက္ေတာ့”လုိ႔ ေျပာပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္လည္း လြန္စြာ ေဒါသျဖစ္မိၿပီးေတာ့ “မင္းလည္း မ ဟုတ္ဘူး၊ ငါလည္း မဟုတ္ဘူး၊ မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႔ ဘာေၾကာင့္ ဝန္ခံရမွာလဲ”လုိ႔ ေျပာအၿပီးမွာ ကြၽႏု္၏ မ်က္ႏွာႏွင့္ ခႏၶာကုိယ္ အႏွံ႔အျပားအေပၚ လက္သီးမ်ား တုတ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ထုိးႀကိတ္ ရိုက္ႏွက္တာကုိလည္း ခံရပါတယ္။
….. ဟာ ဇူလိုင္ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈ မျဖစ္ခင္ကေရာ ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈျဖစ္ပြားခ်ိန္မွာေရာ ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈ ျဖစ္ပြားၿပီးတုန္း ကေရာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ႏွင့္ အနီးကပ္ဆံုး အခ်ိန္မ်ားစြာ ပါတီလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ဦးေဆာင္မႈျဖင့္ လုပ္ ေဆာင္ခဲ့သူ တဦး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ရပ္ကြက္ေက်းရြာ ေအာက္ေျခစည္းရံုးေရးက အစ အတူတူ အနီးကပ္ဆံုး တြဲလာခဲ့သူ တက္ႂကြသူတဦး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ခ်က္ခ်င္း သေဘာေပါက္မိပါတယ္။ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားဟာ ညီညီဦးကို ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ ညႇဥ္း ပန္း၍ အတင္းအဓမၼ ဝန္ခံခိုင္းၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား … ကဲ့သို႔ ဝန္ခံေစရန္ ျပဳလုပ္ျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ ဆက္လက္၍ ပင္ ျငင္းဆန္ခဲ့ပါသည္။ မည္သို႔ပင္ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ေစကာမူ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ အခင္းျဖစ္ပြားခ်ိန္ ဇူလိုင္ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ မတိုင္မီ တရက္ ႏွစ္ရက္ကပင္ N.L.D ဇူလိုင္လ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ အခမ္းအနား အတြက္ ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း NLD ရံုးတြင္ အမွတ္တရ စာေစာင္ထုတ္ ေဝေရးကို က်ေနာ္က ဦးေဆာင္၍ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္အတြက္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေနေၾကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ႏွင့္ အတူတူပင္ ညီညီဦး လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အနီးတြင္ ရွိေၾကာင္း ၎တို႔ကို အခမ္းအနား တက္ေရာက္လာသူ ပါတီအဖြဲ႔အစည္း ေပါင္းစံုမွ ပုဂၢဳိလ္မ်ား သိၾကသည့္အျပင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ ႐ံုးခန္း NLD ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္မွ လူမ်ားလည္း သိေၾကာင္း စသည့္ တိက်ေသခ်ာ ခိုင္လံုသည့္ အ ေထာက္အထားမ်ား ျပဆိုေသာ္လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ညႇဥ္းပန္း ႏွိပ္စက္၍ အတင္းအဓမၼ ဝန္ခံခိုင္းေနပါတယ္။
မေရွးမေႏွာင္းမွာပင္ … ကို ေခၚလာၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ထပ္မံ ေျပာခိုင္းပါတယ္။ “ကိုသန္းေဇာ္ ေျပာလိုက္ပါေတာ့။ လုပ္တယ္ ဆိုတာကို က်ေနာ္ေတာ့ ေျပာလိုက္ၿပီ” ဟု မိုးေက်ာ္သူက ငိုၿပီး ေျပာပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ရင္ထဲတြင္ ဝမ္းနည္းျခင္း၊ စိတ္မ ေကာင္းျဖစ္ျခင္း၊ ေဒါသထြက္ျခင္းတို႔ ေရာျပြန္းၿပီး “… မင္းလည္း ဘာမွမလုပ္ဘူး။ ငါလည္း မဟုတ္ဘူး။ ငါတို႔ထဲက ဘယ္ သူမွ မလုပ္ဘူး။ ဒီကိစၥ ငါတို႔နဲ႔ လံုးဝ မပတ္သက္ဘူး။ မင္းတုိ႔ မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႔ ဘာျဖစ္လို႔ ဝန္ခံရတာလဲ” လို႔ မဆိုင္းမတြဘဲ ျပန္ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ခႏၶာကုိယ္ အႏွံ႔အျပားတြင္ ဒဏ္ရာဒဏ္ခ်က္မ်ား ဗရပြ ျဖစ္ေနၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ မ်က္ႏွာတ ျပင္လံုး ေသြးခ်င္းခ်င္း ရဲေနပါၿပီ၊ ဦးေခါင္းကလည္း ေရအိုးကို ေခါင္းတြင္ စြပ္ထားၿပီး ျမင္းမိုရ္ေတာင္ႀကီးကို ေရအိုးေပၚ ဖိထားသလို တင္းက်ပ္ ေလးလံစြာ ခံစားေနရပါၿပီ။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ထပ္တလဲလဲ သက္ဆိုင္ရာမ်ားကို ေျပာပါသည္။ သန္လ်င္ ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံုဝင္းအတြင္း ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈ ျဖစ္စဥ္တြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ လံုးဝ မပါဝင္ မပတ္သက္ၾကပါ။ တရားခံ အစစ္အမွန္ကို ႀကိဳးစားၿပီး စံုစမ္း ေထာက္လွမ္းၾကပါ။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔မွာ တ ရားခံ အစစ္အမွန္မ်ား လံုးဝ အလ်ဥ္းမဟုတ္သည့္အတြက္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔လည္း နစ္နာသည္။ ျမန္မာႏုိ္င္ငံ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရး အဖြဲ႔ အရွက္တကြဲ ျဖစ္မယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ တိုင္းျပည္ကို အလြန္ခ်စ္ပါသည္။ ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံုႀကီး ေပါက္ကြဲသြားေအာင္ႏွင့္ တ ျခား ျပည္သူလူထု နစ္နာေစမည့္ အဖ်က္လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ လုပ္ေဆာင္မည္ မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း လႈိက္လႈိက္လွဲ လွဲ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ရင္တြင္းမွ ခံစားခ်က္မ်ားကို ေသခ်ာဂဏစြာ ေျပာျပပါေသာ္လည္း ႐ိုက္ႏွက္၍သာ အတင္းဝန္ခံခိုင္းေနပါ သည္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား စစ္ေဆး ႏိွပ္စက္မႈမ်ား သံုးရက္ၾကာေသာအခါ …. ကို ညသန္းေခါင္ယံတြင္ ထပ္မံ၍ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေရွ႕သို႔ ေခၚ လာၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ဝန္ခံဖို႔ တိုက္တြန္းပါတယ္။ …. ၏ မ်က္ဝန္းတြင္းမွာလည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အတြက္ စိတ္မေကာင္းျခင္းႏွင့္ ဝမ္း နည္းေၾကကြဲမႈ အရိပ္အေရာင္မ်ား ျမင္ေနရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကေတာ့ စူးစူးရဲရဲပဲ သူ႔ကို ျပန္ၾကည့္တယ္။ ေဒါသျဖင့္ သူ႔ကို ျပန္ေျပာတယ္။ “မင္း မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႔ ဘာလို႔ ဝန္ခံရတာလဲ မင္းေျပာတာေတြ ဘာမွ မဟုတ္ဘူး” ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏စိတ္ေတြ ထူပူေန ၿပီ အိပ္ခြင့္မေပးတာ၊ နားခြင့္မေပးတာ၊ အစာစားခြင့္ မေပးတာ၊ ေရေသာက္ခြင့္မေပးတာ၊ နည္းမ်ဳိးစံုျဖင့္ ႐ုိက္ႏွက္ေနတာ၊ စနစ္တက် ညႇဥ္းပန္းႏွိပ္စက္ေနတာ၊ သံုးရက္သံုးညရွိၿပီ၊ …. ေျပာပံုကိုလည္းၾကည့္ဦး “ကြၽႏု္ပ္အိမ္မွာ သူနဲ႔ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ၆ ရက္ ေန႔ တညလံုး ဗံုးကို ျပဳလုပ္တပ္ဆင္တယ္” တဲ့။ “ကိုသန္းေဇာ္ ဘာမွ ျငင္းမေနနဲ႔ေတာ့ အသားနာခံ မေနနဲ႔ေတာ့” တဲ့၊ “လုပ္ရဲရင္ ခံရဲရမွာေပါ့” တဲ့။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အျပတ္ျငင္းလုိက္တဲ့ အသံရဲ႕ေနာက္ပိုင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္မွတ္မိတယ္၊ ၁ဝ ေယာက္ေလာက္က ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ၀ိုင္း႐ိုက္တယ္။ နံၾကားထဲကို လက္သီးနဲ႔ ထုိးတဲ့သူက ထုိးတယ္ (ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို အဲဒီအခ်ိန္က မ်က္ႏွာကို အဝတ္ မစည္းထားဘူး) ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ေခြ လဲသြားတယ္၊ လက္ထိပ္ကို ေနာက္ျပန္ခတ္ထားတယ္။ ကိုယ္ကိုလည္း လက္ထိပ္ အျပင္ ထပ္ၿပီး ႀကိဳးနဲ႔တုပ္ထားတယ္။ နာၾကည္းမႈ၊ ဝမ္းနည္းမႈ၊ ေဒါသျဖစ္မႈ၊ ျပန္လည္တုံ႔ျပန္လိုမႈ မခံမရပ္ႏုိင္ျဖစ္မႈ၊ စိတ္ေၾကကြဲ ယူက်ဳံးမရျဖစ္မႈ စတာေတြဟာ ေရာယွက္ျပင္းထန္စြာ ေပါက္ကြဲေနစဥ္မွာပဲ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အႀကံတခု ရလာတယ္။ (ကြၽႏု္ပ္ႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္သည္ဟု ယူဆၿပီး ဖမ္း ဆီးထားသူေတြလည္း အေယာက္ ၂ဝ ေက်ာ္ေနၿပီ) အဲဒါက ကြၽႏု္ပ္မျဖတ္ရင္ ဒီကိစၥၿပီးမွာ မဟုတ္ဘူး။ အားလံုးက အ သား အနာမခံႏိုင္ၾကေတာ့ဘူး၊ တေလသံတည္း ျဖစ္ကုန္ၿပီ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ဆီမွ ဂိတ္ဆံုးေနၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္ တခုခု လုပ္ရေတာ့မယ္ေပါ့ ေသမလား သို႔မဟုတ္ ျပန္တုံ႔ျပန္မလား ဒါပဲ ရွိေတာ့တယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အေကာင္းဆံုးျဖစ္မယ္လို႔ ယူဆၿပီး ျပန္တုံ႔ျပန္ဖို႔ ဆံုးျဖတ္လိုက္တယ္၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ေခြၿပီး လဲက်သြားတာကို ႏွစ္ေယာက္ က ခ်ဳပ္ေပးတယ္။ ထုိးႀကိတ္လိုက္၊ ႐ုိက္လိုက္ေပါ့။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ တခြန္းပဲ ေျပာလိုက္တယ္။ “ခင္ဗ်ားတို႔ ျဖစ္ခ်င္တာ က်ေနာ္ ေျပာမယ္” ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ႐ုိက္ႏွက္တာ ရပ္သြားတယ္။ သူတို႔မ်က္ႏွာေတြ ၿပံဳးလာတယ္၊ ခက္ထန္ေနတာက ကြၽႏု္ပ္ေပါ့။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ဗံုးေပးတဲ့သူက ‘မိုးသီဟ’ ဆိုသူ ေက်ာက္တံတားၿမိဳ႕နယ္ လမ္း ၄ဝ တြင္ ေနထိုင္သူ၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က လိပ္စာကို အိမ္ နံပါတ္မွ အစ အတိအက် ေျပာလိုက္တယ္။ ၎ မိုးသီဟသည္ ၁၉၈၉ ဧၿပီလ ၁ ရက္ေန႔က ေတာခိုသြားတာက အစေပါ့၊ တေန႔ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ဆီ ေရာက္လာၿပီး ဗံုးခြဲရန္ လာေရာက္ ေျပာဆိုေၾကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကလည္း လုပ္ေပးမည္ဟု ေျပာၿပီး လုပ္ေပး လိုက္ေၾကာင္းေပါ့၊ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးေတြက ခ်က္ခ်င္းပဲ မိုးသီဟ လိပ္စာအတိုင္း သြားဖမ္းတာေပါ့၊ မမိဘူးတဲ့ (ဘယ္မိမွာ လဲ မိုးသီဟက ရွိမွ မရွိတာ၊ သူက ေတာထဲမွာပဲ။ မရွိတဲ့သူ၊ ဖမ္းလို႔ မရမယ့္ သူေတြကို ေျပာရတာ။ မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႔ ကိုယ္ ေျပာလို႔ အဖမ္းခံရရင္ သမိုင္းပ်က္မွာေပါ့၊ သမိုင္းေတာ့ ဘယ္အပ်က္ခံပါ့မလဲ) ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးေတြ ျပန္ေရာက္ေတာ့ “မင္းေျပာတာေတြ ဟုတ္တယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ဒီေကာင္ ေတာခိုသြားၿပီး ကတည္းက အိမ္ကို ျပန္မလာဘူး” တဲ့၊ အိမ္က ဓာတ္ပံုတခ်ဳိ႕ကို သိမ္းဆည္းလာၿပီး ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးေတြက ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ျပတယ္။ မိုးသီဟ အလွ႐ိုက္ထားတဲ့ ပို႔စကတ္ ဆိုက္ အျဖဴအမည္းဓာတ္ပံုေတြ၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က “ဟုတ္တယ္ အခု သူနဲ႔ေတြ႔တာ ဒီပံုစံအတိုင္းပဲ” ဆိုၿပီး အသားနားဆံုး ပံုတပံု ကို ညႊန္ျပလိုက္တယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ထင္ထားသည့္အတိုင္းပဲ ေနာက္ေန႔ သတင္းစာ၊ ေရဒီယို၊ ႐ုပ္ျမင္သံၾကား သတင္းေတြထဲမွာ ပါလာပါေတာ့တာ ပါပဲ။ တကမာၻလံုး သိကုန္ၿပီေပါ့ ဒီသတင္းက အမွန္လား အမွားလား တကယ္လား လံၾကဳပ္လားဆိုတာ ဘန္ေကာက္ သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲက အေျဖေပးလိုက္တယ္။ မိုးသီဟက ႏိုင္ငံတကာ သတင္းေထာက္ေတြ သတင္းစာဆရာေတြကို ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း၊ NLD ကို သိကၡာခ်ျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းေပါ့။
မေရွးမေႏွာင္းတင္မွာပဲ KNU အဖြဲ႔က ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေစာဘိုျမကလည္း သန္လ်င္ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံု ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲသူမွာ မိမိတို႔ ၏ လက္ခ်က္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ NLD မွ လူငယ္မ်ားႏွင့္ လံုးဝ မပတ္သက္ေၾကာင္း၊ ႏိုင္ငံတကာသို႔ လည္းေကာင္း နဝတ သို႔ လည္းေကာင္း အသိေပး ေၾကညာပါတယ္။ (ထိုအေၾကာင္းမ်ားမွာ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္တြင္းေရာက္မွ ၾကားသိရျခင္းျဖစ္ပါ တယ္။)
၁၇၊ ၇၊ ၈၉ ေန႔မွာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ကို အင္းစိန္အက်ဥ္းေထာင္သို႔ ပို႔ပါတယ္။ ထိုေန႔တြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ထားရွိရာ အထူးတိုက္ခန္းမွ ေန၍ ေစာင္ျဖင့္အုပ္ၿပီး အခန္းတခုသို႔ ေခၚေဆာင္သြားပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ထုိင္ေစၿပီးမွ အုပ္ထားေသာေစာင္ကို ခြာခ် လိုက္ပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ေရွ႕တြင္ ပထမဦးဆံုးေတြ႔ရွိသူမွာ တရားသူႀကီးတေယာက္ျဖစ္ ၿပီး (သူ႔ကိုယ္သူ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား မိတ္ ဆက္ေပးေသာေၾကာင့္ တရားသူႀကီးမွန္း သိရပါတယ္) လက္ဝဲဘက္ေဘးတြင္ အမ်ဳိးသမီးႏွစ္ေယာက္ ေတြ႔ရပါတယ္။ သူ တို႔သည္ သက္ေသမ်ားဟု ေျပာပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ လက္ယာဘက္တြင္ အေဝးထိန္း ဗီြဒီယိုကင္မရာတခု ေထာင္ထားၿပီး ၎မွန္ဘီလူးက ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ခ်ိန္ရြယ္ထားပါတယ္။ ၎ဗြီဒီယို ကင္မရာေဘးတြင္ ျမန္မာသတင္းစဥ္ (သို႔) ေထာက္လွမ္း ေရးမွဟု ယူဆရေသာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ဓာတ္ပံု႐ိုက္ယူေနသည့္ ဓာတ္ပံုကင္မရာသမားတဦးကို ေတြ႔ရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ေရွ႕ ႏွစ္ေပခန္႔အကြာ စားပြဲခင္း၏ေအာက္တြင္ အသံဖမ္း မိုက္က႐ိုဖုန္း (Microphone) အျပာေလးကို ေတြ႔ရပါတယ္။ ၎မွ ထြက္လာေသာ ဓာတ္ႀကိဳးသည္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေနာက္ေက်ာ ဆယ့္ႏွစ္ေပခန္႔အကြာရွိ တိတ္ေခြႏွစ္ေခြထည့္ထားေသာ ကက္ ဆက္ရီေကာ္ဒါ ႏွစ္လံုးဆီသို႔ ဆက္သြယ္ထားေၾကာင္း ေတြ႔ရွိရပါတယ္။ ၎အနီးအနားတြင္ စစ္တပ္မွ အရာရွိအခ်ဳိ႕ကို လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ လွည့္ၾကည့္ေသာေၾကာင့္ ေတြ႔ခဲ့ရပါတယ္။
တရားသူႀကီးဆိုသူက သူ႔ကိုယ္သူ မိတ္ဆက္ၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲမႈႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးရန္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း မေပးလိုပါက မေပးဘဲ ေနလို႔ရေၾကာင္း ေျပာပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ မဆိုင္းမတြပင္ “ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးရန္ ဆႏၵ လံုးဝမရွိေၾကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္မွာ က်န္းမာေရး မေကာင္းေၾကာင္း၊ တရား႐ံုး ေရာက္မွသာ အမ်ားေရွ႕ေမွာက္္တြင္ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ ေပးမွာျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း” ေျပာရာ တရားသူႀကီးက ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား “စဥ္းစားပါဦး။ အခု တခါတည္း ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးေစလိုေၾကာင္း” ေျပာရာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က “အႏူးအညြတ္ ေတာင္းပန္ပါေၾကာင္း၊ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးရန္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တြင္ လံုးဝ ဆႏၵမရွိပါေၾကာင္း၊ စဥ္းစား ၿပီးမွ တရားသူႀကီးမင္းအား ေျပာျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း” ေျပာရာ တရားသူႀကီးက “ထပ္မံစဥ္းစားပါရန္” စဥ္းစားဖို႔ ခဏ အခ်ိန္ ေပးလိုက္ပါတယ္။ အဲဒီအခ်ိန္က ေန႔လယ္ ၁၂းဝဝ နာရီေက်ာ္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အဲဒါနဲ႔ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားဟာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ေစာင္ၿခံဳေစ၍အျပင္သို႔ေခၚသြားၿပီး တျခားအခန္းတခုထဲသို႔ ေခၚသြားပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ကို ဆဲဆိုၿပီး ဝိုင္းထုိးႀကိတ္ၾကတယ္။ ေျခေထာက္ေတြနဲ႔ ေဆာင့္ကန္တယ္။ ေစာင္ကိုခြာလိုက္ၿပီး မ်က္ႏွာကို လက္ သီးေတြနဲ႔ ထုိးတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား စတင္ဖမ္းဆီး စစ္ေဆးႏွိပ္စက္ေသာ ရန္ကုန္တိုင္း မရမ္းကုန္းၿမိဳ႕နယ္၊ က်ဳိက္ဝိုင္းဘုရား လမ္းရွိ ေအာင္သေျပ ရဲရိပ္သာမွ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားပင္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္လည္း ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္မေပးႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း တရား ႐ံုးေရာက္မွ အမွန္အတိုင္း အမ်ားေရွ႕ေမွာက္တြင္ ေျပာမည္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အဖန္ဖန္ေတာင္းပန္ တိုးလွ်ဳိး၍ ေျပာပါတယ္။
အခ်ိန္မွာလည္း တျဖည္းျဖည္း ညအခ်ိန္သို႔ ေရာက္ရွိလာပါတယ္။ ေရဒီယိုမွ ည ၈ နာရီ ထိုးသည့္အသံ သတင္းေၾကညာ ေသာ အသံကို ၾကားေနရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ေကာင္းစြာၾကားေနသည္မွာ ၎သတင္းတြင္ စစ္ခံု႐ံုးမ်ား ဖြင့္လွစ္ျခင္းကို ေၾက ညာသံ ၾကားရပါတယ္။ မေရွးေႏွာင္းတြင္ နဝတ အတြင္းေရးမွဴး (၁) ဦးခင္ညြန္႔က သန္လ်င္ေရနံခ်က္စက္႐ံု ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲ မႈႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္ေသာ သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲ ျပဳလုပ္ေၾကာင္း ေၾကညာသံကို ၾကားေနရပါတယ္။ ထို႔ေနာက္ ခ်က္ခ်င္းပင္ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားက တျခား မၾကားႏိုင္သည့္ေနရာကို ေခၚေဆာင္သြားပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္သည္ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ မေပးခ်င္၍ တမင္ အခ်ိန္ဆြဲေနလည္း မရပါ။ အတင္းအဓမၼပင္ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးခိုင္းပါသည္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ ေရွ႕မွ ညီညီဦးႏွင့္ မိုးေက်ာ္သူ တို႔ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးသြားေၾကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ျပပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ဆက္လက္၍ပင္ ျငင္းဆန္ေနပါတယ္။ ႏွိပ္စက္မႈ ျပင္းထန္ ၿပီး မေပးလွ်င္ မရေၾကာင္း အဓမၼ ျပဳလုပ္ခိုင္းပါသည္။
အခ်ိန္မွာ ည ၉ နာရီ ေက်ာ္ေနပါၿပီ၊ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ေပးမည့္ တရားသူႀကီးႏွင့္ သက္ေသဆုိသူ အမ်ဳိးသမီးႏွစ္ေယာက္မွာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ မေပးမခ်င္း ေစာင့္ေနပါတယ္။
ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားသည္ အတင္းအဓမၼ အခန္းထဲ ဆြဲသြင္းၿပီး ကုလားထိုင္တြင္ အတင္းထုိင္ေစ၍ ၎တို႔ ေအာင္သေျပရဲရိပ္သာ စစ္ေၾကာေရးစခန္းတြင္ လံၾကဳပ္ ေျပာခဲ့သည့္ ဗံုးေပါက္ ကြဲမႈအေၾကာင္း ေျပာခိုင္းပါသည္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္လည္း ဘာမွ မတတ္ႏိုင္ေတာ့ဘဲ စိတ္မပါ့တပါျဖင့္ လည္းေကာင္း ေမးခြန္းမ်ား ကို ျပန္လည္ ေျဖဆိုျခင္းကို တံုဏွိဘာေဝ ေနျခင္းျဖင့္ လည္းေကာင္း ဂရုမထားသည့္ ဟန္မ်ဳိးျဖင့္လည္းေကာင္း၊ ေရွ႕ ေနာက္ မညီေအာင္ လံၾကဳပ္ ေျဖာင့္ခ်က္ႀကီးကို ညသန္းေခါင္ ၁၂းဝဝ နာရီအထိ ေျပာခဲ့ရပါတယ္။
၂၇၊ ၇၊ ၈၉ ေန႔ နံနက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား တိုက္ခန္းဝင္း ေရွ႕တံခါးမွ ထုတ္၍ ကားျဖင့္ လာေရာက္ေခၚသြားပါတယ္။ အင္းစိန္ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္ေဘးရွိ ခန္းမတခုသို႔ ေခၚသြားျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ၎ေနရာတြင္ ညီညီဦးႏွင့္ မိုးေက်ာ္သူတို႔ကို ေတြ႔ရပါတယ္။ သူတို႔ႏွစ္ေယာက္ေရာ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ပါ လက္ထိပ္ခတ္ထားၿပီး အတူ ထိုင္ခိုင္းထားပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔၏ မ်က္ႏွာ မ်ားကို မဖံုးထားသည့္အတြက္ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ အားလံုးကို ျမင္ေနရပါတယ္။ တရားစစ္ေဆး ၾကားနာဖို႔ ျပင္ဆင္ေနတာကို ေတြ႔ရပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က အထင္ျဖင့္ ညီညီဦးႏွင့္ မိုးေက်ာ္သူတို႔အား ယခု လုပ္ေနသည္မွာ စစ္ခံု႐ံုးျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ဘာပဲျဖစ္ ျဖစ္ အမွန္အတုိင္း ျပတ္ျပတ္သားသား ေျပာရန္ အထပ္ထပ္ မွာၾကားပါတယ္။ ေသခ်ာပါတယ္။ စစ္ခံုရံုး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ျပင္ ဆင္ၿပီးတာနဲ႔ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ သံုးဦးကို ၎ခုံရံုးစင္ျမင့္ေရွ႕တြင္ ထိုင္ေစပါတယ္။ ဒုတိယဗိုလ္မွဴးႀကီး ေအာင္ညြန္႔(ေလ) ဥကၠ႒ ျပဳလုပ္ေသာ စစ္ခံု႐ံုး ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ကို ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲသည္ဟုဆိုကာ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားက စာတတန္ ေပတတန္ျဖင့္ စစ္ခံု႐ံုးတရားသူႀကီးမ်ားအား ဖတ္ျပၿပီး ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ တရားခံသံုးေယာက္အား ျပင္းထန္ေသာ ျပစ္ဒဏ္ေပးပါရန္ ေျပာပါသည္။ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ကို စြဲဆိုထားေသာ ပုဒ္မမ်ားမွာ ၃ဝ၂/၁ (ခ) ၃၄ ဟုလည္း တပ္ထားပါတယ္။ ၎စြဲခ်က္မ်ားသည္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တင္မဟုတ္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔၏ ပါတီကိုပါ ေစာ္ကားသိကၡာခ်ျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အဆုိပါ ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲမႈတြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ႏွင့္ လံုးဝ မပတ္သက္ေၾကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ လံုးဝ မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲမႈ မျဖစ္သြားမီ ေန႔မ်ား၊ ဗံုးကြဲသည့္ ဇူလိုင္ ၇ ရက္ေန႔ႏွင့္ ဗံုးကြဲၿပီး ေနာက္ပိုင္းအထိ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ ဘယ္ေနရာတြင္ ရွိသည္၊ ဘယ္သူေတြႏွင့္ ရွိေနသည္၊ ဘယ္အခ်ိန္တြင္ ရွိေနသည္ စသည္ျဖင့္ တိက် ခိုင္လံုေသာ အ ေထာက္အထားမ်ား သက္ေသမ်ား ျပဆိုႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား စစ္ေဆးေသာ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားသည္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ အား အရြယ္ျဖင့္ မလိုက္ေအာင္ နည္းမ်ဳိးစံုျဖင့္ ညႇဥ္းပန္း ႏွိပ္စက္မႈတို႔ကို မခံမရပ္ႏုိင္ ျဖစ္ျခင္းေၾကာင့္ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရး မ်ား အလိုက် ေျပာခဲ့ရေၾကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔တြင္ လံုးဝ လံုးဝ အျပစ္မရွိပါေၾကာင္း ႏွစ္နာရီခန္႔ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ ေလွ်ာက္လဲ ေျပာဆိုခဲ့ ပါတယ္။ ထုိအခါ တရားသူႀကီး ဥကၠ႒ ေအာင္ညြန္႔က ေခတၱနားမည္ဟု အမိန္႔ေပး၍ တရားစစ္ေဆးျခင္းကို ေန႔လယ္ ၁၁းဝဝ နာရီတြင္ ေခတၱရပ္နားပါသည္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားက အတင္းဆြဲေဆာင့္၍ ကားေပၚတင္ၿပီး အင္းစိန္ေထာင္တြင္းသို႔ ျပန္ပို႔ပါတယ္။ ကားေပၚတြင္လည္း အကန္ခံရပါေသးတယ္။
ေန႔လယ္ ၁းဝဝ နာရီတြင္ ထပ္မံၿပီး ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးမ်ားက လာေခၚ၍ တရား႐ံုးသို႔ ကားျဖင့္ပို႔ပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား တရားရံုးစင္ျမင့္ေရွ႕တြင္ ထုိင္ခိုင္းၿပီး တရား႐ံုးအစီအစဥ္ကို စတင္ရာ တရားသူႀကီးဥကၠ႒ ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ္မွဴးႀကီး ေအာင္ညြန္႔ (ေလ) က “တရားခံမ်ား ျဖစ္ၾကေသာ နံပါတ္(၁)တရားခံ ေမာင္သန္းေဇာ္၊ (၂) တရားခံ ညီညီဦး၊ (၃) တရားခံ ေမာင္မိုး ေက်ာ္သူ တို႔အား စစ္တရားခံု႐ံုး အမွတ္ (၁)မွ အျပစ္ရွိသည္ဟု ယူဆေသာေၾကာင့္ အျပစ္ေပးမည္ ျဖစ္သည့္အတြက္ ဘာေျပာခ်င္ေသးလဲ” ဟု ေမးပါသည္။ ထုိအခါ ကြၽႏု္ပ္က စတင္ၿပီး ၇၊ ၇၊ ၈၉ ေန႔ ေရနံခ်က္ စက္႐ံုးဝန္းအတြင္း ဗံုးေပါက္ ကြဲမႈအတြက္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ လံုးဝပတ္သက္ျခင္း မရွိေၾကာင္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ လံုးဝ မျပဳလုပ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔တြင္ အျပစ္ မရွိသည့္အ တြက္ အျပစ္ေပးစရာ မလိုအပ္ေၾကာင္း လံုးဝလႊတ္ေပးရန္ လိုလားေၾကာင္း၊ ဓမၼပါလ ၾသဝါဒတြင္ “ျပစ္မႈ က်ဴးလြန္ေသာ တရားခံ ဆယ္ဦး လြတ္သြားျခင္းထက္ လံုးဝ အျပစ္ မရွိေသာ သူတေယာက္အား အျပစ္မေပးမိပါေစႏွင့္” ဟု မိန္႔ဆိုထား သည္ကို သတိျပဳရန္၊ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား တရားေသ လႊတ္ေပးပါရန္ စသည့္ အခ်က္မ်ား အပါအဝင္ အမႈက်ဴးလြန္ျခင္း မရွိ သည့္ သက္ေသ အေထာက္အထားမ်ား ထုေခ် ေလွ်ာက္လဲပါတယ္။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း စစ္ခံု႐ံုးတရားသူႀကီးသည္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အပါအဝင္ ညီညီဦးႏွင့္ မိုးေက်ာ္သူတို႔ပါ အျပစ္ရွိေၾကာင္း ယူဆသည္ဟု ဆိုကာ ‘ေသဒဏ္’ အမိန္႔ ခ်မွတ္လိုက္ပါတယ္။
ကြၽႏု္ပ္၏ျဖစ္စဥ္မွာ ‘ေသဒဏ္’ အျပစ္ တခုတည္းတြင္သာ မကပါ။ ၅၊ ၉၊ ၈၉ ေန႔တြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္ႏွင့္ ညီညီဦး အား လက္ကို ႀကိဳးမ်ားျဖင့္တုပ္ၿပီး အင္းစိန္ႀကိဳးတိုက္မွ ေန႔လယ္ ၁၁းဝဝ နာရီခန္႔တြင္ ေခၚသြားၿပီး၊ သံေျခက်င္းမ်ား ခတ္ေစပါသည္။ ထို႔ေနာက္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား ေခါင္းစြပ္မ်ားစြပ္၍ ကားျဖင့္ တေနရာသို႔ ေခၚေဆာင္သြားပါတယ္။ အဲဒီေနရာမွာ ယခင္ ‘ေသ ဒဏ္’ ခ်မွတ္ခဲ့ေသာ စစ္ခံု႐ံုးအမွတ္ (၁) ေနရာပင္ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔အား အစိုးရ ဆန္႔က်င္သည့္ ေျမေအာက္လႈပ္ ရွားမႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္သည္ဟုဆိုကာ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ပုန္ကန္မႈ ပုဒ္မ ၁၂၂ (၁) ျဖင့္ တရားစြဲဆိုျခင္းျဖစ္ပါသည္။
ဤအထက္ပါ အမႈတြင္လည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္တို႔ အစိုးရ ဆန္႔က်င္သည့္ ေျမေအာက္လႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ား မျပဳလုပ္ေၾကာင္း ေၾကာင္းက်ဳိး ဆက္ႏြယ္ၿပီး အေထာက္အထား ခိုင္လံု ျပည့္ဝစြာျဖင့္ တဦးခ်င္း အျပစ္မရွိေၾကာင္း အခ်ိန္မ်ားစြာ ေလွ်ာက္လဲေခ်ပေသာ္ ျငားလည္း ကြၽႏု္ပ္ အပါအဝင္
ေမာင္ညီညီဦး (NLD လူငယ္တာဝန္ခံ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္)
ေဒါက္တာထြန္းသူ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ဖားကူးေက်းရြာ စည္းရံုးေရး NLD အဖြဲ႔ဝင္)
ေမာင္ေအာင္ေက်ာ္ဆန္း (NLD အဖြဲ႔ဝင္ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ဖားကူးေက်းရြာ)
ေမာင္ေဌးလြင္ (NLD အဖြဲ႔ဝင္ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ဖားကူးေက်းရြာ)
ေမာင္ေထြးေမာင္ (NLD အဖြဲ႔ဝင္ သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ဖားကူးေက်းရြာ)
ေမာင္အံုးဝင္း (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္စန္းေအာင္ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္ေအာင္သန္း (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္မိုးေက်ာ္ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္ေနလင္းစိုးရင္ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္ေအာင္ႏိုင္ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္ေဇာ္ထြန္းသက္ (သန္လ်င္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္ NLD လူငယ္)
ေမာင္သက္ခိုင္ (ဗကသ၊ သုဝဏၰၿမိဳ႕နယ္)
ေမာင္ေအာင္ေအာင္ (လူ႔ေဘာင္သစ္ဒီမိုကရက္တပါတီ၊ ေကာ့မွဴးၿမိဳ႕နယ္)
ေမာင္မိုးသက္ (လူ႔ေဘာင္သစ္ဒီမိုကရက္တပါတီ၊ ေကာ့မွဴးၿမိဳ႕နယ္)
စုစုေပါင္း ၁၆ ေယာက္အား ပုဒ္မ ၁၂၂ (၁) ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ပုန္ကန္မႈျဖင့္ တသက္တကြၽန္း ျပစ္ဒဏ္ ခ်မွတ္လိုက္ပါတယ္။
ထိုသုိ႔ ျပစ္ဒဏ္မ်ားျဖင့္ အင္းစိန္အက်ဥ္းေထာင္ ႀကိဳးတိုက္ထဲတြင္ ခါးသီးေသာ အေတြ႔အႀကံဳမ်ားကို လက္သီးဆုပ္မပ်က္ ရင္ေကာ့ခံစားရင္း ၁၉၉ဝ ခုႏွစ္ စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၅ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ေထာင္တြင္းမွ ႏို္င္ငံေရး ေတာင္းဆိုမႈမ်ား သပိတ္ တိုက္ပြဲမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္ဖန္တီးသည္ဟုဆိုကာ သရက္အက်ဥ္းေထာင္သို႔ ေသြးရဲရဲ သံရဲရဲ အ႐ိုက္အႏွက္ ၾကမ္းတမ္းစြာ ျပဳ လုပ္၍ ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား လံုၿခံဳေရးအေစာင့္မ်ားျဖင့္ ၂၆၊ ၉၊ ၉ဝ ေန႔တြင္ ပို႔လိုက္ပါသည္။
ယခု ကြၽႏု္ပ္အား ၁/၉၃ျဖင့္ ေသဒဏ္မွ အႏွစ္ ၂ဝ၊ တသက္တကြၽန္း ျပစ္ဒဏ္မွ ၁ဝ ႏွစ္ စုစုေပါင္း ၃ဝ ႏွစ္သို႔ ေျပာင္းေပး လိုက္ပါတယ္။
မည္သို႔ မည္သို႔ပင္ ဆိုေစ အမႈႏွစ္ခုလံုးတြင္ ကြၽႏု္ပ္၌ ထင္ရွားေစသည့္ စာရြက္စာတမ္း သဲလြန္စ ခိုင္လံုသည့္ အေထာက္ အထား တစံုတရာ စိုးစဥ္းမွ် မရွိဘဲႏွင့္ ျပစ္ဒဏ္မ်ား အတင္းအဓမၼ ခ်ၿပီး ယေန႔အခ်ိန္အထိ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္ တိုက္ခန္းအ တြင္း ေလွာင္ပိတ္ထားျခင္းကို အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳံး၍ အစီရင္ခံ တင္ျပအပ္ပါတယ္ ခင္ဗ်ား။ ။
ေမာင္သန္းေဇာ္
အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ (လူငယ္)
မွကူးယူေဖၚျပသည္။
( လက္ဆင့္ကမ္းျဖန္႔ေဝျခင္းျဖင့္ကူညီေစလုိပါသည္။ )
BURMA RELATED NEWS - JANUARY 20, 2012
Insight: Freed prisoners add momentum, risks to Myanmar reform
By Aung Hla Tun | Reuters – 9 hrs ago
YANGON (Reuters) - Buddhist monk Shin Gambira endured solitary confinement, beatings and sleep deprivation in Myanmar's prisons for his leading role in the 2007 "Saffron Revolution" -- peaceful protests that were crushed by the country's military.
Finally free at a monastery on the outskirts of Myanmar's main city of Yangon, about the worst he will say of his captors is that they were "very rude and cruel".
"Don't let me elaborate on it. Let bygones be bygones," the 33-year-old former protest leader said of his ordeal, following his release last week with about 300 other political prisoners.
Interviews by Reuters with more than a dozen of the newly released prisoners reveal a similar remarkable lack of bitterness toward their captors after years of imprisonment and torture for their beliefs. They described overcrowded cells at the notorious Insein detention center, watching a fellow inmate die from a lack of medical care, and routine deprivation of water and sleep among other abuses.
But nearly all said they backed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's decision to place trust in the government's reform pledges and take part in April by-elections that could give her National League for Democracy (NLD) party a vital foothold in parliament, part of dramatic changes underway in the former Burma.
Still, the interviews with the former prisoners in Myanmar reveal an undercurrent of skepticism about the government's true intentions and an impatience for more concrete democratic reforms.
Many also expressed concern that Suu Kyi risks weakening her powerful political capital if, as some believe, she takes a ministerial role as part of the reconciliation process. That could point to future tensions within the opposition and complicate the reform process if the pace of change stutters in coming months.
Sources within the opposition told Reuters there was already intense debate among dissidents over whether to set up a new political party as an alternative to the NLD. Opponents of such a move fear it would dilute the opposition's message and pave the way for further splintering.
Htay Kywe, who helped lead pro-democracy protests in 1988 in which thousands of demonstrators were killed by soldiers, said Suu Kyi had made a "practical choice" to run in the by-elections and help restore the rule of law in the country.
"This is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi trying in the most non-violent way to work for the country's transition to democracy. We support this," said the 44-year-old, referring to Suu Kyi by her honorific title.
Htay Kywe, who spent about 17 years in prison in two spells after his first arrest in 1991, is among many members of the so-called "88 generation" who have been released in recent months and who are sure to play an important role in opposition debate.
The largest release yet of high-profile dissidents promises to speed up the national reconciliation process and provides a powerful argument for the United States and other Western nations to lift economic sanctions against the impoverished but resource-rich country.
Business executives, mostly from Asia, have swarmed into the commercial capital, Yangon, in recent weeks to hunt for investment opportunities in the country of 60 million people, one of the last frontier markets in Asia. Myanmar is also at the centre of a struggle for strategic influence as the United States sees a chance to expand its ties there and balance China's fast-growing economic and political clout in the region.
Myanmar has thawed astonishingly quickly in the past year.
The government has begun peace talks with ethnic rebels, relaxed its strict media censorship, allowed trade unions and protests, and showed signs of pulling back from the powerful economic and political orbit of its giant neighbor China. It was rewarded last November when Hillary Clinton made the first visit to the country by a U.S. secretary of state since 1955.
The exact number of political detainees still locked up in Myanmar's prisons remains in doubt. But the opposition and government agree it is now in the hundreds. That may not be
much higher than some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, making it hard for countries to argue in favour of maintaining sanctions.
Communist Vietnam, which has a bilateral trade deal with Washington, for instance, probably has political prisoners "in the hundreds", said Bangkok-based Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
RECONCILIATION RISKS
Last week's release brings the number of political detainees freed since last May to 645, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. This number represents a significant body of high-profile dissidents who are likely to influence internal opposition debate.
The latest group, ranging from the former head of military intelligence to a musician who penned songs about Suu Kyi, rejoin the political scene just as the government and opposition engage in a delicate, high-stakes dance toward reconciliation.
The views of this respected group of dissident opinion-formers are a vital gauge of support for Suu Kyi's leap of faith in engaging with the nominally civilian government. If they clamor for faster reforms than the government or Suu Kyi are comfortable with, for example, it could risk a backlash from military hardliners who many observers believe are eager for a chance to reverse the democratization process.
"We shouldn't settle for the present situation, there is a lot to be done," said Gambira, the freed Buddhist monk.
"Since the people were deprived of everything under a brutal regime for about 50 years they tend to be satisfied when they get something, compared with nothing in the past. I'd like to stress there is no room for complacency at present."
Skeptics worry that Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, herself released from house arrest in late 2010, could be walking into a trap, handing valuable international legitimacy to the
government before any fundamental changes in Myanmar's political system are secured. The United States, which has made the freeing of political prisoners a condition for lifting sanctions, said after the latest release it would exchange ambassadors with Myanmar for the first time in 20 years.
But Myanmar's generals still effectively control parliament after a deeply flawed 2010 election and the constitution, written in 2008, guarantees the military's dominant role in politics.
"Concerning the overall political situation, I'm not that optimistic. I'll put it at about 55 percent," said Khun Tun Oo, chairman of an ethnic Shan party allied to Suu Kyi's NLD and who was released after nearly seven years in jail.
He plans to re-register his party but not to run in the upcoming by-elections, which many believe would legitimize the 2010 elections widely seen as a sham.
"No doubt she (Suu Kyi) will have her say but I'm not sure she will be able to change the constitution ... the military is in a position to put a spanner in the works since they have the constitutional right."
MEDITATION AND GARDENING
Khun Tun Oo appears to have suffered relatively little torture in prison, but others were less fortunate.
Sithu Zeya, a 22-year-old journalist for exiled media outlet Democratic Voice of Burma, said he had to drink toilet water for the first five days in prison in 2010 and went without sleep for 15 days. He was regularly beaten and saw an old man in his cell die from breathing difficulties after medical help failed to arrive on time. Like many fellow prisoners, he found solace in meditation and limited chances to read and play sports.
"We have been released because foreign countries demanded it, not because they (the government) think it was wrong to have political prisoners," the former biology student told Reuters.
He said he supported Suu Kyi's participation in the elections but worried she would be a weaker voice as a lawmaker. "I don't want that to happen," he said.
Perhaps the most remarkable figure to emerge from detention last week was former military intelligence chief and prime minister Khin Nyunt, whose purge from the government in 2004 turned him overnight from one of the regime's most powerful figures into a lowly prisoner.
Ironically, he coped with his seven years under house arrest on charges of corruption in much the same way as Suu Kyi -- meditating every day and tending to his garden.
Deprived of financial support, he said he and his wife scraped a living by selling orchids from their garden and later by selling his clothes, including traditional silk "longyi" garments he had received as gifts when he was thought to be the regime's third most powerful official.
"It's embarrassing to tell this but this is the truth," he told Reuters at his home and former prison.
He ruled out a return to politics, saying he wanted to focus on his religious practice. Asked if he thought President Thein Sein could operate independently in his dealings with Suu Kyi, he smiled. "I think so, but I don't know for sure."
A concern repeatedly voiced by the freed dissidents was that the revered Suu Kyi could jeopardize her iconic and clean status by being drawn into a flawed political system.
"I'm fully confident in Aunty Suu's leadership. She's a national leader," said 32-year-old blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was picked up by security forces at a Yangon café in January 2008. "But I'm really worried that she will become a cabinet member. Then she might lose contact with the party."
Win Min, a Burmese political scientist at Harvard University and a student protester in the 1988 uprising, said the newly released 88 generation faced a challenge to push for genuine reforms without giving hardliners an excuse to crack down.
"At this critical juncture, 88 generation leaders may want to work in a space between the politics of struggle and normal politics to encourage the continuation of reform in a non-threatening way to the hardliners," he said.
"For the moderates in the government, the challenge is how to work with the opposition and the 88 generation leaders to improve the economy on the grassroots level."
"PEOPLE STILL SUFFERING"
Many freed prisoners cautioned that ordinary Burmese, struggling in poverty and often at the mercy of authoritarian local officials, have yet to benefit from the changes.
"They keep saying the higher authorities have changed, but the officials on the ground have not changed so the people are still suffering," said Zeya, the journalist. "The reforms have yet to make positive impacts on the general public so I can't say they are successful just yet."
A near-term source of tension is likely to be the fate of the political prisoners who remain behind bars.
Of the 604 political prisoners claimed by the NLD, the government only released 302 by its count, saying that 107 had already been released, others had been double-counted or died and that 128 would not be freed because they had committed serious crimes such as using explosives.
"I want the government to carry out more meaningful changes like releasing the remaining prisoners of conscience, which really will benefit the people and the country," said Nilar Thein, a female leader of the 88 generation whose latest arrest was in 2008.
For her, though, the most promising sign of real change in Myanmar was the confident smiles that greeted her on her recent release from detention. "I was really encouraged to see the courage and confidence on the faces of the people," she said.
"There is more transparency then before. It was a big difference from my previous releases."
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Myanmar president says no turning back on reforms
Associated Press – 7 hrs ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's president has told a U.S. newspaper that his country's democratic reforms are irreversible, as he urged the West to lift sanctions. He even dangled the possibility of giving opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi a Cabinet post.
"We are on the right track to democracy," President Thein Sein said in the interview with The Washington Post published Friday, his first with Western media. "Because we are on the right track, we can only move forward, and we don't have any intention to draw back."
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy responded to the newspaper report by saying it would be too early for the U.S. and its allies to lift economic sanctions because the reforms aren't complete yet. It also welcomed the notion of a Cabinet post for Suu Kyi, while saying it was too early to discuss the matter.
Thein Sein's government took office in March, ending a half century of military rule. Since then, it has rolled out reforms at a pace that has surprised even Myanmar's staunchest critics.
Thein Sein said he felt his government had met the West's conditions for lifting sanctions by releasing many political prisoners, scheduling parliamentary elections for April 1 and allowing Suu Kyi among others to participate.
"What is needed from the Western countries is for them to do their part," he said.
Thein Sein repeatedly called for the lifting of severe economic sanctions that the U.S., European Union and others imposed while Myanmar was under military rule. He said the sanctions hurt the people of Myanmar much more than the former junta leaders and were holding back the country's economic progress.
The U.S. and European Union have praised the recent reforms but said they will monitor how the April vote is conducted, among other considerations, before revising sanctions.
Suu Kyi has said she will personally contest the elections, a historic event that could usher the Nobel laureate and former political prisoner into her first parliamentary seat.
"If the people vote for her, she will be elected and become a member of Parliament. I am sure that the Parliament will warmly welcome her. This is our plan," Thein Sein said.
Asked if he would like to see Suu Kyi in his government, Thein Sein replied: "If one has been appointed or agreed on by the Parliament, we will have to accept that she becomes a Cabinet minister."
Nyan Win, the spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said it was premature to speak of a Cabinet post but that Suu Kyi "is a very capable leader and she could take any leading position." He also said it was too early to lift sanctions.
"We acknowledge that reforms have been made in the country and we welcome the reforms. However, we don't consider the reforms complete yet," Nyan Win said.
After a recent visit to Myanmar, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said he would take his cue on lifting sanctions from Suu Kyi. He said a key test would be free and fair conduct of April 1 elections. He also sought more moves to end ethnic violence, and for Myanmar to discontinue its relationship with North Korea, which is suspected to have sold it missiles in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Some in the U.S. Congress maintain that there is ongoing nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
Thein Sein said the two countries have diplomatic relations but denied any military ties with North Korea.
"These are only allegations," he said. "We don't have any nuclear or weapons cooperation with (North Korea)."
Thein Sein said that the government was committed to ending the country's long-running ethnic conflicts and was currently communicating with all armed ethnic groups. Cease-fire pacts have been signed with some, including the Karen.
"Soon we will try to achieve an eternal peace in country. However, this will require time," he said.
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Myanmar holds new cease-fire talks with Kachin
By AYE AYE WIN | Associated Press – Thu, Jan 19, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's government and ethnic Kachin rebels met Thursday for cease-fire talks to end several months of armed clashes near the northern border with China, but their preliminary meeting did not make any major breakthroughs.
After two days of negotiations, a high-level government team and members of the Kachin Independence Organization agreed to continue talks later and in the meantime to inform the other side before deploying troops, according to an official at the talks who declined to be named.
The talks were the latest efforts by Myanmar's new, nominally civilian government to end the country's long-running ethnic conflicts, one of many reforms under way after years of military rule.
Stopping ethnic clashes is a key demand of Western governments that are weighing lifting sanctions imposed during the junta's rule. Last week, the government signed a cease-fire pact with Karen rebels in eastern Myanmar, in a major step toward ending one of the world's longest-running insurgencies. Other talks are reportedly taking place with the Shan, Karenni and Chin.
A prominent Kachin mediator, Rev. Saboi Jum, told The Associated Press that talks were held across the border in Ruili in China's Yunnan province.
"Too much damage has been done since fighting erupted in June last year. It is most important to build confidence and trust between each other, and a lot of tension will be reduced if government troops withdraw from the KIO areas," he said.
The next round of negotiations would be held in Myanmar, according to the official who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to disclose details of the talks.
The Kachin Independence Organization reached a peace deal with the country's former ruling junta in 1994, but the truce broke down in 2010 after the group rejected a call by the junta to transform its troops into border guards under the government's leadership.
The Kachin have been fighting the government since June, when the army tried to break up some of their militia strongholds. Thousands of ethnic Kachin have fled their homes to avoid the fighting.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has described an end to the fighting with ethnic guerrillas as a national priority, and last month said she would be willing to help with peace negotiations.
The Nobel laureate and former political prisoner sent a letter to the Kachin people expressing compassion, particularly for the women and children who have been uprooted by the fighting, said Saboi Jum.
She "expressed her hope that one day the effected population would be able to come home and live in peace," he said, saying that Suu Kyi's message "lifted our spirits and we are very happy."
Suu Kyi's enormous popularity with the poor and disenfranchised majority is expected to propel her to her first seat in parliament during April by-elections.
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Report: Myanmar stops snake smuggling attempt
Associated Press – 7 hrs ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Forestry officials in central Myanmar have seized nearly 10,000 snakes in 400 crates that were to be smuggled to China.
The weekly journal Modern reported Friday that 50 cobras were among the 9,176 snakes seized in Pyin Oo Lwin district near Mandalay on Jan. 12.
Wildlife smuggling is endemic in Asia, where exotic species are used for food and traditional medicine.
The report did not say how many people were arrested but said those involved would be charged under the Protection of Wildlife and Conservation of Natural Areas law, which carries a five-year prison sentence.
It said the 7,000 non-poisonous snakes were released into a wildlife reserve, while the vipers and cobras were sent to the state pharmaceutical company for their venom.
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Myanmar election fever grips Suu Kyi party
By Didier Lauras | AFP – 2 hrs 22 mins ago
With the fighting peacock flag flying outside, Aung San Suu Kyi's Yangon party headquarters are once again a hive of activity as her Myanmar opposition prepares for its first poll battle in two decades.
The excited crowds that gathered around the democracy icon this week as she registered her candidacy for April 1 by-elections testified to the new energy galvanising Myanmar's politics after almost half a century of military rule.
Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades in detention, has already registered to run for a lower house seat in a rural constituency near Yangon -- the latest dramatic change in the country formerly known as Burma.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San, was under house arrest at the time of her party's 1990 landslide election victory, which was ignored by the ruling generals.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party boycotted a 2010 election that swept the army's allies to power, saying the rules were unfair.
But with a new-found confidence in the government, she will engage in battle herself for the first time -- a challenge she appears to address with humility.
"Am I looking forward to it? I am not sure I think of it as anything other than hard work. But I am not afraid of hard work," she said at a recent press conference.
Myanmar's regime has surprised even critics with a series of reformist moves including dialogue with the opposition, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and peace talks with armed ethnic minority rebels.
The upcoming vote is seen as a major test of the new administration's democratic ambitions after a series of conciliatory gestures by the army-backed government that replaced the long-ruling junta last year.
To those who -- in Myanmar and abroad -- have put Suu Kyi on a pedestal and believe running in this election is beneath her, she defends the will of the people.
"This is a very dangerous attitude to think that any politician is too high up to be involved in the basis of parliamentary democracy. I think we all have to start with at least a sense of humility," she said.
Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in Myanmar and there is little doubt she would be elected if the polls are free and fair.
"Of course I will vote for the NLD because we love Daw (Aunt) Suu and General Aung San," said Yangon taxi driver Khin Aye. "We believe in her. She will be the one who can work for our country and the people."
One danger raised by observers is that Suu Kyi's election could legitimise the regime in a parliament still dominated by the former generals and their allies, with a quarter of seats reserved for unelected military officials.
A total of 48 seats are up for grabs in the April vote, not enough to threaten the resounding majority held by the ruling party, but this does not seem to concern Suu Kyi, 66.
"The greatest risk is the people in our party fighting to be candidates among themselves," said the woman widely and warmly known in Myanmar as simply, "The Lady".
The NLD headquarters in central Yangon, a dusty and somewhat shabby building, teems with activists, followers and journalists, while notice boards appeal for new party members.
On the first floor Suu Kyi holds meetings with the party's central committee while on the ground floor young people prepare for the elections.
Women openly sell T-shirts, key chains and calendars with the image of Suu Kyi and her father, while on Yangon's streets her face is on the front pages of newspapers and posters for sale -- something unthinkable just a year ago.
Khin Myat Thu, 28, joined the NLD eight years ago, following in the footsteps of family members. Her grandfather fought alongside Aung San and today her own commitment as the party youth spokeswoman is evident.
"Majority or minority (in parliament) is not important. We will stand for the rule of law," she said.
"Aung San Suu Kyi will try to have some influence on the other MPs so that the democratisation process is accepted by everyone."
Suu Kyi's family home on the shore of Inya Lake in Yangon is also constantly busy with a stream of foreign dignitaries.
There is little point in removing the stage set up on her doorstep for TV cameras between such visits, while solar-powered lighting is installed in the garden along with flags bearing the NLD party's new symbols.
Progress in the NLD's political platform is matching developments on the house. The official party programme is being drafted and the first issue of a booklet informing the faithful about the campaign was released this week.
Phyu Phyu Thin, 40, is running in a Yangon constituency and hopes her experience helping the campaign for the 1990 elections will stand her in good stead.
But she warned people not to get their hopes too high. "There will be no promises. The main thing is to lead people to participate in the political process."
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Myanmar eyes more talks with Kachin rebels
AFP – 8 hrs ago
Myanmar's government and ethnic minority Kachin rebels have agreed to hold further negotiations in search of an end to a bloody conflict in the country's far north, state media said Friday.
The regime's olive branch to the guerrillas is one of a number of reformist steps by the new government which took power last year, although deep distrust about their sincerity lingers in ethnic conflict zones.
A government delegation led by Labour Minister Aung Kyi agreed after two days of talks with representatives of the Kachin Independence Organisation to pursue further dialogue, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
"The government and KIO will continue the negotiation between them through political means," it added, quoting a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting in the Chinese border city of Ruili on Thursday.
Fierce fighting in northern Kachin state between government troops and the KIO's armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), since June last year has displaced tens of thousands of people.
A presidential order issued in mid-December for the military to cease attacks against Kachin guerrillas failed to stop heavy fighting in the region, according to the rebels.
Immigration minister Khin Yi told AFP this week that the regime had told the military to halt all offensives in ethnic conflict zones, but he admitted that the order was sometimes proving hard to implement on the ground.
Since December, the regime has reached peace deals with Shan and Karen rebels in eastern border regions.
Civil war has gripped parts of Myanmar since independence in 1948. An end to the conflicts and alleged rights abuses involving government troops is a key demand of Western nations which impose sanctions on the regime.
The regime has surprised observers with a series of reforms, including talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been allowed to stand in an April by-election, and the release of hundreds of political prisoners.
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Q+A-Myanmar releases political prisoner Htay Kywe
20 Jan 2012 13:11
Source: Reuters Alertnet
BANGKOK (AlertNet) - Htay Kywe, 44, who spent about 17 years in prison in two spells, is among many leaders of Myanmar’s so-called "88 generation" liberated last week. It is the largest in a recent string of releases for political prisoners there, speeding up national reconciliation after November 2011 elections saw the military nominally hand over power to civilian officials.
Htay Kywe was first arrested in 1991 after leading the 1988 student protests in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and was released in 2004. Dropping his university degree in geology, he continued political activities with student leaders from the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students Group, starting what later led to the Saffron Revolution –2007 protests, largely consisting of monks, calling for democratic change but crushed by the military.
He was imprisoned again on October 2007, and sentenced in November 2008 to 65 years in prison. AlertNet spoke to Htay Kywe this week about his incarceration:
How do you feel to be back home?
(Laughs) Well, now that I’m released, I can meet my friends and comrades-in-arms and talk about what we can do and what is the situation in the country right now.
Did you know you were going to be released?
I didn’t know I was going to be released. We knew about the announcement in the evening but didn’t know I was going to be released. Prison officials told us at 7am, calling our names and bringing us out. They read aloud the announcement from the president, citing the Article 401/1 for our release. I don’t think there are any major restrictions or limitations on us. They didn’t ask us to sign anything.
Did you see any difference in prison conditions between 1988 and the last time you were in jail?
During ‘88 and ‘89, it was very rough to be in the prison. They did everything they could to oppress us. Medical help and living conditions were so insufficient many people lost their lives. After the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) came in around 1999, we were allowed to read, even though it was restricted to religious books.
After this new government came to power, the prison conditions became much better. There were improvements in terms of medical help, living conditions and the relationship with prison officials. But it is not the same everywhere, it also depends on the personality of the prison officials.
Torture is not eradicated yet but it is a lot less... It used to be very bad. I have personal experience of being placed in solitary confinement, beaten up and tortured.
How do you spend your time in prison every day?
As soon as we woke up in the morning, we gave ourselves some functions to do. We would have breakfast, do a bit of exercise, read, walk a bit, talk to the others and meditate. This is how we spent every single day.
While we were in prison we used to say we shouldn’t kill time, we should consume it.
A long time ago, when we were not allowed to read, we would read it voraciously even if we saw a palm-sized piece of paper, and then share the information amongst ourselves.
Because we can now read books, we are able to learn languages, read religious books and be informed. This is a good development. But a prison is still a prison. In democratic countries, people should not be thrown in jail because of their political beliefs and stance. I hope in the new era we could try and close prison doors for political prisoners.
What are your future plans?
We joined Myanmar’s political movement in 1988 and we have also spent many years in prison. All of us, we want to work together so there is democracy and peace within the country. This is something that all the Myanmar citizens should do. We will continue to work on this.
Do you think the reforms in the country are genuine and moving fast enough?
Since I was released, the main change is between the coup government, or the de facto government before, and the de jure government now which came to power after the elections and which has to be responsible to the public. There is emergence of elections and political parties. We are also starting to see changes in the economic area and there is now slightly more freedom for the media. We do notice these. These are good signs.
I think we can say this is the start of an era where we are trying to put in place conditions that are absolutely necessary for changing (the system). We are only at the start now. We need to continue working to make sure these conditions are accelerated and don’t regress.
Our country has been poor and undeveloped for a very long time so we do need to be attentive when changes occur, but there are certain issues that should happen quicker, for example on issues regarding ethnic groups. If we cannot resolve the ethnic issue, it is impossible for Myanmar to develop. These issues should be addressed urgently. Peace should be achieved as soon as possible.
We need to move firmly to a system where the country is governed by the rule of law... All citizens have the right to be protected under the laws and all citizens have the same rights and opportunities under these laws. I think only when we can build these conditions then will we be successful in Myanmar’s transition to become a democratic country. And this is the responsibility of both the government and the opposition forces.
The important thing is for the public to be united.
What do you think of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's foray into politics considering you were vocal vocal about boycotting the 2010 elections while still behind bars?
The government who was organising the 2010 election a coup government. More importantly, the rules and regulations governing the election were very restrictive. We cannot accept this kind of election.
But there are now slight changes in the political system. I think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi running in the by-election is a practical choice resulting from looking at what is going on within the country and how foreign countries are reacting to Myanmar. This is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi trying in the most nonviolent way to work for the country’s transition to democracy. We support this.
There is controversy within exiled groups regarding Aung San Suu Kyi's decision. What do you think about this?
We all want Myanmar to become a truly democratic country and I know many had to overcome lots of difficulties and challenges. And after 20 years of working on this and having lost and sacrificed many things, there are many deep-seated feelings.
But feelings alone are no longer enough. I think we all need to analyse the current situation from a practical point of view... Yes, we do know the changes are not completely genuine and real but we cannot disagree that we are on the road to change. I think the important thing is for us to work together to accelerate this and make it genuine.
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Myanmar, India vow to ensure border stability
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private Limited – 6 hours ago
Yangon, Jan 20 (IANS) Myanmar and India have pledged to ensure everlasting border stability, friendship and bilateral cooperation between the two countries, official media reported Friday.
The two sides stressed this at a meeting held in Nay Phi Taw Thursday. Deputy Home Minister Brigadier-General Kyaw Zan Myint from Myanmar and Home Secretary R.K. Singh from India attended the meting, said the New Light of Myanmar.
The meeting discussed a memorandum of understanding on Myanmar-India border affairs and matters of common interest, reported Xinhua.
The national level coordination meeting of Myanmar-India border civil authorities has been held alternatively since 1994.
Both countries claimed that the coordination has brought about cooperation in ensuring stability and enhancing socio-economic status of inhabitants of border regions of the two countries with deeper mutual understanding.
In October 2011, Myanmar President U Thein Sein paid a state visit to India, during which both sides reaffirmed their unequivocal and uncompromising position against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, agreeing on enhancing effective cooperation and coordination between the security forces of the two countries in tackling the deadly menace of insurgency and terrorism.
Both sides also underscored the need to strengthen institutional mechanisms for sharing intelligence to combat insurgency, arms smuggling and drug trafficking, and agreed to strengthen border management mechanisms.
They reiterated that the territory of either would not be allowed for activities inimical to the other and resolved not to allow it to be used for training, sanctuary and other operations by terrorist and insurgent organizations and their operatives.
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New York Times - An Ethnic War Is Rekindled in Myanmar
By EDWARD WONG
Published: January 19, 2012
MAIJA YANG, Myanmar — Even as the Burmese government initiates political reforms in much of the country, it has intensified an ethnic civil war here in the resource-rich hills of northern Myanmar, a conflict that at once threatens its warming trend with the United States and could alienate Chinese officials concerned about stability on the border.
This month hundreds of mortar rounds fired by the Burmese military landed within miles of this town near the mountainous Chinese border. International human rights groups and soldiers and officials of the Kachin ethnic group say that Burmese soldiers have burned and looted homes, planted mines, forcibly recruited villagers as porters and guides, and raped, tortured and executed civilians. Several thousand villagers have fled to China. Tens of thousands more who have been displaced could follow if the Burmese Army continues its offensive, local relief workers say.
Lazum Bulu will not be going farther. Exhausted by the flight from her village, she died on Jan. 10 in a bare concrete room in a camp here for the displaced. People said she was 107. Her body lay on blankets on the floor. “I regret that my mother can’t be buried with my father,” said her daughter, Hkang Je Mayun. “The Burmese Army was coming, and we didn’t want to live in the village anymore. We were afraid they would kill all the Kachin people.”
The fighting has raised questions about the limits of the reform agenda pushed by President Thein Sein, Myanmar’s first civilian president in nearly 50 years, who has led the opening to the West. Some analysts in Myanmar say Mr. Thein Sein has been unable or unwilling to control the generals pressing the war.
Myanmar, formerly Burma, is riddled with ethnic civil conflicts, but this is the largest, with the greatest at stake. Right on the Chinese border, Kachin State is rich in jade, gold and timber, and has rivers that are being exploited by Chinese hydropower projects. Part of the state has long been controlled by the Kachin Independence Army and its political wing, which levies taxes on all commerce. The army allowed a reporter and a photographer recently to visit an area rarely seen by Western reporters for one week.
Both the United States and China would like to see the war resolved: the Chinese to ensure stability on the border and access to resources and important power projects; the United States to forestall the kinds of abuses by the Burmese military that present one of the biggest obstacles as President Obama considers lifting economic sanctions. At the same time, some Chinese officials and executives might welcome Burmese military control of the resource-rich areas, preferring to cut deals with the Burmese rather than the Kachin, foreign analysts say.
Some Kachin commanders say one factor that rekindled the war last June after a 17-year cease-fire may have been a desire by the Burmese military to widen its control of the areas with Chinese energy projects.
Such projects are a source of tension. After protests last year by Kachin civilians, Mr. Thein Sein suspended the planned Myitsone Dam, which was being built by a Chinese company in a part of the state controlled by the Burmese. That angered Chinese officials and executives, some of whom suspect Mr. Thein Sein of trying to wean Myanmar off its overreliance on China and to encourage investment from the West.
Despite the war against the Kachin, Mr. Thein Sein, a former general, has tried to quell other ethnic conflicts and push reforms, like his release of 651 political prisoners last week. After the release, the Obama administration upgraded relations by agreeing to exchange ambassadors.
American officials have told Myanmar, which reached a cease-fire agreement on Jan. 12 with a major ethnic Karen army, that it must prove its commitment to reforms by resolving its many other ethnic conflicts, including the Kachin war. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, has said the same. On Dec. 10, Mr. Thein Sein ordered a halt to attacks against the Kachin, but Burmese commanders have carried on.
Kachin officials said they held inconclusive negotiations this week with the Burmese in a Chinese border town; talks held last fall failed.
Chinese officials are anxious about the refugees. Since June, about 7,000 have fled to China, and 50,000 or so are displaced on this side of the border, said Lahkang May Li Awng, director of a local aid organization.
The Chinese government has made no formal statement about the war, but analysts in Beijing say officials want a settlement.
“With the military conflict, Chinese companies operating in the area are definitely affected,” said Xu Liping, a scholar of Southeast Asia at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “China obviously hopes the Myanmar government and the local Kachin regime can seek reconciliation together and treat regional development as a priority.”
At the conflict’s resumption in early June, the Burmese military attacked a Kachin post at Bum Sen, near a hydropower project operated by the China Datang Corporation that sends 90 percent of its electricity to China. Chinese workers fled, but the project resumed operations last month.
A major cause of the fighting was a government push in 2009 to get all the ethnic militias to disarm and join the Border Guard Force. A few groups agreed, but most balked. The Kachin intensified their military training. Their leaders now say they will not enter into another cease-fire unless Mr. Thein Sein can guarantee real political dialogue. Their aim is to maintain autonomy. Independent Kachin candidates were barred from taking part in the parliamentary elections of November 2010.
“We want our autonomous area,” said Brig. Gen. Sumlut Gun Maw, 49, as he sat in the Kachin army’s command center in a hotel in Laiza, a Christmas tree and a portrait of Jesus against one wall. (Most Kachin are Christians, while most Burmese are Buddhists.) “But they couldn’t address this problem by means of politics, so they decided to do it by means of arms.”
The general said at least 140 Kachin soldiers had been killed out of a force of more than 10,000, and he estimated that there had been 1,000 battles or skirmishes since June. There are no accurate numbers for civilians killed or wounded.
The Kachin army has lost significant territory in recent months, and it and the civilians are now pressed up against the Chinese border. Its bases are mostly huts strung along ridges or at roadsides. Soldiers carry old automatic rifles, and some have slingshots tucked into their belts. Much of the recent fighting has been near Maija Yang, the second-largest town under Kachin control and a place that once drew Chinese gamblers with its Chinese-run casinos.
This month, residents heard heavy mortar fire from dawn until late night. The barrages lessened after two Kachin posts on a strategic road were taken. Now residents fear Maija Yang could soon fall. The commanders of the Third Brigade of the Kachin army have abandoned their headquarters here and retreated to an old base in the mountains. They are also evacuating amputee soldiers.
“I think it’s impossible for us to defend our territory because of the unequal strengths of the two armies,” said Cpl. Waje Naw Ja, 32, as he lay in a hospital bed stained with dried blood, his right leg amputated below the knee because of a landmine wound. Both sides are rampantly planting mines.
The Kachin government is struggling to support the displaced civilians. Camps here and in China lack adequate food, health care and education facilities. Outside Laiza, a camp of 5,000 people has sprung up, with three families squeezed into each bamboo hut and the air smoky with cooking fires. The Burmese government has allowed United Nations agencies to enter the Kachin areas only once.
“We’re so scared now; we think it’s a curse to be Kachin,” Hpakum Kaw, 50, said the day after arriving in the camp outside Laiza with her husband and daughter.
She said the family fled their village after it came under mortar fire and was occupied by Burmese soldiers. On Jan. 6, the soldiers arrested a village representative and began circulating a list of names of wanted men that included her husband, she said. About 200 Kachin households have fled, and only 20 or so remain, she said.
At least 10,000 displaced people live in camps in areas controlled by the Burmese government. In one of them, run by a Baptist church in the town of Bhamo, a father of three said he was one of five men from his village pressed into service as porters and guides by Burmese soldiers in October. The Burmese fired mortars right before entering. One boy was killed, and many of the villagers fled, said the father, Tumai Nhkum, 29. The soldiers ransacked shops and homes, burning down one, and shot farm animals. They stayed three days, then marched onward with the porters.
Tumai Nhkum said he had to carry radio batteries, rice and a typewriter captured from the Kachin army. The porters were beaten, then let go after 20 days.
“I cried when I was finally released because I was so worried about my children,” he said. “I went straight back to my family and brought them here, where it’s safer. I don’t know when I’ll be able to return.”
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Daily Telegraph - Burma president calls on West to lift sanctions
Burma's president has called on the West to lift sanctions on his regime as it fulfills a reform agenda that has seen the country transform its international reputation in his first interview with a foreign newspaper.
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
12:07PM GMT 20 Jan 2012
Thein Sein, a former general who was elected by parliament to the civilian post of president last year, outlined his determination to achieve full democracy in the former dictatorship by allowing free elections, sealing peace deals with ethnic rebels and undertaking economic reforms.
But he demanded movement on the reduction of sanctions from Western states that ban investment and target senior officials associated with the military. He said Burma was meeting Western demands.
He said: "There are three requirements that Western countries would like to see us do. First is the release of political prisoners. Second is to hold the [parliamentary] election.
Thirdly, to have Aung San Suu Kyi and others participate in our political process. I believe we have accomplished these steps already. What is needed from the Western countries is for them to do their part.
President Thein Sein told the Washington Post he had reached an "understanding" with the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stage free elections.
"If the people vote for her, she will be elected and become a member of parliament," he said. "I am sure that the parliament will warmly welcome her. This is our plan."
He hinted that she could serve as a cabinet minister after the balance in parliament changes. Miss Suu Kyi's party is contest by-elections for 48 parliamentary seats, about one-tenth of parliament, after it was banned from last year's general election.
The Burmese leader made the most direct official plea for the removal of sanctions yet seen. He said that although the sanctions mainly consist of targetted measures against leading figures, the burden was borne by ordinary people. About a quarter of Burmese live in abject poverty, he said and blamed sanctions for their predictament.
He said: "That is because for over 20 years sanctions were placed on our country. Sanctions hurt the interest of our people. For that reason, there were no job opportunities in our country. If you would like to see democracy thrive in our country, you should take the necessary actions to encourage this by easing the sanctions that were placed on our country."
The 66-year old added however that the military, which has governed Burma since a coup in 1962, would not withdraw from a powerful role in state affairs.
He said: "We cannot leave the military behind because we require the military's participation in our country's development."
A spokesman for Miss Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said it was too early to ease sanctions pressure on the government. He played down suggestions that Miss Suu Kyi could join the cabinet after the April elections. "We acknowledge that reforms have been made in the country and we welcome the reforms. However, we don't consider the reforms complete yet," Nyan Win said.
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Europe Online Magazine - EU foreign ministers to consider easing of Myanmar sanctions
Europe 20.01.2012
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Brussels (dpa) - European Union foreign ministers will review the bloc‘s policy of sanctions against Myanmar next week, diplomats said Friday, with some member states pushing for an immediate loosening of restrictions in response to the country‘s democratic progress.
Some EU countries believe it would be "useful" to have an announcement as early as Monday on the "suspension or lifting" of travel bans that have been slapped on leadership figures in Myanmar, a senior diplomat told reporters in Brussels.
Other sources said the foreign ministers‘ meeting would at the very least yield a timetable for the potential phasing-out of sanctions. A lifting of all sanctions by the end of the year could be a possibility if Myanmar continues to progress towards democracy, they said.
The country has been under economic sanctions since the army cracked down on demonstrations in 1988, killing an estimated 3,000 people.
In August, Myanmar President Thein Sein initiated a political dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, paving the way for her to contest the April 1 parliamentary by-election.
He also initiated ceasefire agreements with three ethnic minority rebel groups. Since March, Myanmar has released hundreds of political prisoners.
The release of all political prisoners and end to hostilities with ethnic minorities are the two main conditions set by the West for normalizing ties with Myanmar. dpa ss pj amh ar Author: Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl
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Jan 20, 2012 | 12:33PM
Nasdaq - Myanmar President Says Suu Kyi May Become Cabinet Minister If Voted In
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Myanmar President Thein Sein said opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi could be made a cabinet minister if she's elected in the April by-election, the Washington Post reported Friday.
"If one has been appointed or agreed on by the parliament, we will have to accept that she becomes a cabinet member," said Thein Sein in a wide-ranging interview available on the Washington Post website.
The regime has recently implemented a series of surprising reforms, including talks with Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, the release of hundreds of political and other prisoners, and meetings with top foreign diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Thein Sein told the Washington Post he'd like to see the U.S. and European Union lift sanctions that have been in place for around 20 years, adding that the sanctions only hurt ordinary citizens, not the government.
The former general said, according to the Post, that they have already completed the three requirements asked for by Western governments and "what is needed from the Western countries is for them to do their part" in lifting economic sanctions.
"We have done it not because others were putting pressures on our country. We did it because we felt it was necessary to do for our country," said Thein Sein, according to the report.
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Brisbane Times - Inside story: Burma's long road back
Lindsay Murdoch
January 21, 2012
Six months have made a world of difference to this isolated country that is now starting to welcome overtures from the West.
Lu Maw emerges from a dark lane-way leading to his home in Burma's northern city of Mandalay, ignoring three chain-smoking government spies lurking in shadows.
''No time. Come with me. The show starts soon,'' he says, referring to a live performance that Burmese are banned from seeing.
Lu Maw, the frontman for the Moustache Brothers comedy troupe, leads a small group of foreign journalists 200metres along the street to a tent where dozens of people are pushing to buy posters, calendars, coffee mugs, key rings and other souvenirs of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Only four months ago anyone in Burma displaying a photograph of Suu Kyi, known affectionately across the country as ''the lady,'' would have been arrested and possibly jailed.
But momentous change appears to be underway in south-east Asia's second-largest country, with a population of 59 million mostly impoverished people that borders China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh and India.
In front of a fund-raising tent for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, supporters chant ''Suu Kyi, Suu Kyi'', and surge forward to enthusiastically shake hands with the foreign journalists.
Thirty minutes later Lu Maw is warming up an audience of tourists sitting on plastic chairs in his family's garage.
''Why don't the people of Burma go to the dentist when they have a toothache?'' Lu Maw asks.
''Because they can't open their mouths!''
Every night Lu Maw, 62, his brother Par Par Lay, 64 and cousin Lu Zaw, 59, perform slapstick comedy and satire that is sharply critical of Burma's former military rulers who jailed them in 1996 for telling a joke during a function at Suu Kyi's home.
When most of the audience has gone, Lu Maw sits cross-legged on the concrete floor and predicts that Suu Kyi will one day be Burma's president.
But he remains wary of the civilian government made up of former generals that has overseen a raft of changes that appears to signal a willingness to end their brutal rule. ''New bottle, old wine,'' Lu Maw says.
Like hundreds of other released political prisoners the Moustache Brothers have become celebrities in the country where dissent had been brutally suppressed since a military coup in 1962.
Among 651 prisoners released last week were democracy activists, senior monks, ethnic leaders and even a former prime minister.
Crowds lined the roads to greet Min Ko Naing, the leader of a failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising, as he made the 550-kilometre journey from the jail in Thayet, in Burma's north, to the former capital Rangoon.
People shouted ''good health'' and ''long live Min Ko Naing'' and showered him with flowers as he was escorted by dozens of motor cyclists, their horns blaring.
Min Ko Naing, 49, does not have the star status of Suu Kyi, the 66-year-old daughter of Burma's independence hero Aung San, who spent 15 years under house arrest. But Min Ko Naing and dozens of others activists freed in recent amnesties will, like Suu Kyi, be key players in the country's future.
Some are likely to challenge Burma's ageing and superstitious leaders whose disastrous socialist dictatorship took the resource-rich country from being the ''rice bowl'' of Asia and the shining jewel of the British empire into one of the poorest nations on earth.
Min Ko Naing told supporters outside the prison that he would continue their struggle and asked for their support.
''We were involved since 1988 because we wanted to help wipe away your tears but we ourselves had to cry when we saw the atrocities,'' he said.
Even before many of the prisoners had arrived home the United States had announced it was normalising relations with Burma and would soon appoint an ambassador to the country after an absence of two decades.
Australia also has announced it will begin relaxing some financial and travel restrictions on serving and former government officials.
While the momentum for change will be difficult to reverse, reports have emerged of friction between moderates, such as the President, Thein Sein, implementing the reforms and military hardliners opposed to them.
But Shwe Mann, a former general who is considered one of the most powerful men in the government, insists there is ''no other way'' but to embrace democracy.
''It's very difficult to say how long it will take to become a democratic system,'' Shwe Mann said this week. ''We cannot say the timetable exactly but we will quickly try our best to achieve our goals.''
Suu Kyi, who will contest an April byelection to enter parliament, acknowledges the military still wields enormous power and warns reforms are not unstoppable. But locals say Burma is a different place to six months ago as new freedoms take root, including new labour laws and the easing of media censorship.
Newspapers feature once-taboo news of the democracy movement and Suu Kyi. Websites such as CNN and the BBC, once denounced as ''sowing hatred among the people'' and ''killer broadcasts designed to cause trouble'' have been unblocked.
Young Burmese sit hunched over flickering screens in tiny internet shops watching YouTube and foreign news for the first time. Politics, once whispered for fear of imprisonment, is now discussed openly.
Generals living in luxurious mansions still drive around Rangoon in Land Cruisers with tinted windows but the city's rubbish is now collected regularly. But it is early days. Many parts of Burma seem suspended in time. Its stock exchange has no computers and even chairs appear to be in short supply as traders sit cross-legged on the pavement outside, juggling mobile phones.
In over-booked hotels, executives from around the world huddle in meetings with Burmese contacts planning for investment opportunities they hope will arise - possibly this year - when the US and European Union lift economic sanctions imposed in 1988. But potential investors will have to overcome many difficulties.
The red tape is stifling and laws weak or non-existent. Roads, ports and other infrastructure are collapsing after years of neglect, requiring multibillion-dollar upgrades.
Already the price of dilapidated colonial-era buildings in Rangoon has soared.
In Mandalay, the second-biggest city, motorcyclists queue around the block for petrol while people cram into ageing and overcrowded buses.
The city portrayed as an Eastern paradise in Rudyard Kipling's poem On the Road to Mandalay has been reshaped into a bustling satellite of China where Chinese immigrants, mostly from Yunnan province, dominate upper Burma's economy.
Residents say anti-Chinese sentiment is growing as China invests more in dams, roads and pipelines. A six-lane Chinese-built highway between Rangoon and Mandalay is the called the ''Great China Road''.
Deep divisions exist among Burma's myriad ethnic groups and the powerful armed forces who for decades have been given extra privileges. While an average worker earns the equivalent of $70 a month, the starting salary for a school leaver entering the army is $300 with board and lodging included.
The military has built new hospitals for its soldiers across the country while medical care for millions of other people is poor or non-existent.
Near the former British hill station of Kalaw in central Burma teenage girls earn the equivalent of $3 a day filling road potholes by hand while soldiers roar past in new vehicles.
An estimated one-quarter of Burma's national budget, or about $US2 billion, ($1.9 billion) is allocated to maintain more than 400,000 troops and another undisclosed fund is designated for ''defence against enemies'' although the country has no external threats and has not fought a foreign war since the 19th century.
But there is no doubt big changes are underway in the corridors of power.
In the sprawling, surreal new capital Naypyidaw, built from scratch in the middle of nowhere in 2005, bureaucrats in previously secretive government departments have begun regularly meetings foreign diplomats and representatives of United Nations agencies and international aid groups.
For the first time high-level government officials are acknowledging huge problems across the country. For example, Burma has one of the world's smallest budgets for health and education spending. A new constitution has given regional administrations increased powers, allowing them to improve access to long-neglected communities.
Australian Brian Agland, 63, who has lived in Burma since 2007, says there is an unprecedented buzz of excitement in the country. ''You can feel it with the Burmese staff you work with,'' Agland, the country director for Care International, says. ''Everyone here is amazed at the pace this is happening at all levels of government,'' he says.
Agland says government officials are now reaching out to international agencies to help better deliver services.
Burmese are standing up for their rights for the first time in 50 years. The government was forced to back down on a proposed steep rise in electricity charges after an angry public response. And last September the government suspended construction of a $US3.6 billion Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam in a rare concession to environmental activists.
But Agland says areas outside the cities, where 70 per cent of people live, remain deprived of access to adequate government services including health and education. Vast areas in so-called ''black'' conflict areas remain closed to outsiders despite tentative ceasefire agreements reached between the government and armed ethnic groups that have been waging guerilla wars for decades.
Agland says villagers in these areas are among the world's most disadvantaged people.
One of the consequences of the reforms and high-profile visits by world leaders including the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is an anticipated invasion of foreign tourists eager to see a country where until recently they were unwelcome.
Indeed Burma has been nominated by The New York Times as one of the top three hottest tourist destinations of this year after Suu Kyi reversed her boycott of private tourism.
Up to 1 million tourists are expected to visit this year, a three-fold increase from last year, placing enormous strain on infrastructure and facilities.
Domestic flights across the country are fully booked weeks in advance to foreigners, leaving locals to travel long journeys on antiquated buses and trains.
In rural areas bullock carts and tourist buses vie for space on narrow potholed roads.
Intrepid Travel in Melbourne last week took its first organised trip to Burma since it suspended operations there in 2006. The company vetted hotels, transport and other services it uses to ensure money flows into local economies and poor ethnic communities in remote areas.
In Hingagone village in the mountains of central Shan State, which Intrepid is supporting, village chief Aung serves green tea in tiny cups as he complains that for years government officials have promised to provide services for his people but never have.
Villagers live hand to mouth, growing mostly oranges and tea in a corner of the notorious ''Golden Triangle'' where opium buyers offer 12 times more money for the sap of opium plants than other crops.
But Aung says village chiefs have banned opium growing and use. ''People who use opium are sent out of the village … it makes people lazy,'' he says. People's lives are improving
mainly because foreign tourists are buying fruit and food in the village.
Respected Shan State political leader Tommy Aung Ezdani, 67, a former political prisoner, says it will not be easy for the government, which he calls ''big brother'', to give up its iron-fist rule and vested interests.
''We can't forget what has happened but we can forgive,'' says Ezdani, who heads a non-government organisation called Rural Development Society that provides services in remote villages.
He says it will be also difficult for some ethnic groups to reach compromise with the government, especially those who have seen their women raped, youths dragged into forced labour and villages looted and burned over many years.
But he says unless all sides are flexible the country will not unite in peace.
Ezdani's father, a well-known doctor, was friendly with Suu Kyi's mother, who was a nurse.
Ezdani and Suu Kyi played together as children and he remembers her as a ''real little tom boy''.
''I admire her a lot but, for the sake of the union, she must win the military to her side,'' says Ezdani, who was a pro-democracy candidate in 1990 elections which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won in a landslide victory the military refused to accept.
Suu Kyi is expected to easily win a seat in Burma's 440-seat parliament at the April byelection, which her supporters believe will prove to be a springboard for her to eventually lead the country. ''She will have to speak diplomatically and keep a low profile … big brother will fight back ruthlessly if cornered,'' Ezdani says.
Lindsay Murdoch travelled within Burma courtesy of Intrepid Travel.
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Mainichi Daily News - Fortune-tellers believed to be behind mysterious relocation of Myanmar's capital
January 20, 2012
Myanmar, under military rule for many years, is an intriguing country. It is little known by news organizations because authorities controlled speech and the media and shut out foreign journalists. In particular, Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar, is shrouded in mystery, and the reason why the country's capital was suddenly shifted to the area from Yangon remains unclear.
I stepped into Myanmar in summer last year when dialogue between the government and pro-democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi had got under way, and there are signs that the country is changing.
I traveled north on a 320-kilometer expressway from Yangon, the previous capital which is now called Myanmar's "largest city," to the new capital Naypyidaw. After passing a banner saying, "Welcome to Naypyidaw," houses with thatched roofs were no longer seen. Instead, luxurious mansions were seen standing on hilly areas. As I traveled further into the city, I arrived in a hotel zone, which is dotted with fancy hotels. Some of them look like castles in fairly tales.
Naypyidaw was secretly built by cutting through the jungle and redeveloping farmland. Rumors surfaced among diplomats that a secret city was being built in Myanmar after U.S. forces attacked Iraq in 2003. In 2006 the Myanmar government announced that it had shifted its capital.
"The city is situated at the center of the country and gives easy access to all parts of the country. It'll be advantageous for developing provincial cities," said the information minister. However, no one took the comments seriously.
Capital relocation is a major project that can determine the fate of a country. However, one of the widely-presumed reasons behind the relocation is fortune-telling. It is widely known that fortune-tellers have played a certain role in making policies since Myanmar was under the rule of dynasties. Fortune-tellers appear to still have some influence on top officials of the Myanmar government.
"We desperately looked for fortune-tellers as excellent sources of information," a local diplomatic source admitted.
Bright green leaves of palm trees and other plants stand against the background of the modern spacious city. Electric power cables are buried underground and there are large spaces between buildings. There is not much traffic there. Police officers and soldiers cannot be visibly seen, raising speculation that they are plain-clothed and blend into the crowd.
There are many off-limit military zones in Naypyidaw, and no foreign diplomatic establishments are there. However, people can freely travel in commercial districts, and Japanese cosmetic products and cutting-edge flat-screen television sets are on sale at an American-style shopping mall in the city. Movie theaters and golf courses have reportedly opened one after another in the region.
Official residences for public servants and shops are colorful and fancy and look like theme parks. However, there are areas with many fruit and vegetable stalls that look as if they symbolize the daily lives of ordinary citizens that support government workers' lives.
Estimates for the population of Naypyidaw vary from as little as tens of thousands to 1 million. However, it has already wiped out its image as an unlively town. The city is undergoing rapid changes and stadiums are under construction with an eye to hosting international sporting events.
The most majestic structure in the capital is the parliament building. I stood by a wide street in front of the building and counted the number of lanes on the road. There were an astonishing 18 lanes -- nine inbound lanes and nine outbound lanes. (By Takayuki Kasuga, Foreign News Department)
(This is part 1 of a series on Myanmar)
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The Economist - Change in Myanmar Follow my lead
The government moves, and gets its rewards
Jan 21st 2012 | SINGAPORE | from the print edition
A LULL in Myanmar followed the excitement of secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s historic visit to the country in early December, the first by a senior American official in half a century. Perhaps, some even wondered, this was the point at which the reform process initiated by Myanmar’s president, Thein Sein, might come unstuck. Yet from the evidence of the past week, things are on track.
On January 13th the government undertook the biggest yet in a series of releases of political prisoners: 302 according to the authorities, 287 according to the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a monitoring group in Thailand. Either way, it was a sizeable number and included many of the democratic opposition’s most prominent figures. Some had spent two decades in jail for their part in the first student uprisings against the military government in 1988. Several, including Nilar Thein, Min Ko Naing and Htay Kywe, were leaders of the “88 Generation movement”. But student revolutionaries were not the only people set free. One surprise was the release from house arrest of Khin Nyunt, the former military junta’s intelligence chief, and prime minister until he was ousted in 2004. All in all, the government’s intentions to move from a military dictatorship to greater pluralism appear sincere.
The release of political prisoners has always been a foremost condition set by the United States before considering restoring full diplomatic relations. These were downgraded in 1988 and then all but broken off in the early 1990s as punishment for the government’s brutal crackdowns on the democratic opposition. America has for some months pledged that releases of political prisoners will be rewarded by carefully calibrated measures to end Myanmar’s isolation, something the government appears to crave. Sure enough, right after the prisoner release, America duly announced it had restored full diplomatic ties. It was, a senior American diplomat says, “a concrete response to a concrete sign of reform on the Burmese side.”
Other countries have been moving too. On January 14th Norway announced that it would end its policy of discouraging investment in Myanmar. Australia is lifting financial and travel restrictions on certain Burmese citizens. More significantly still, France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said that the European Union will respond “positively” to the latest developments. The EU is currently reviewing its sanctions against Myanmar and seems likely to relax them over the next few months.
Mr Juppé is the latest in a string of foreign dignitaries to visit Myanmar in the past few months, another sign of the diplomatic thaw. William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, preceded Mr Juppé by only a few days. These visitors are now given interviews with Mr Thein Sein, and all come away impressed by the seriousness of the government’s attempts to change the country, even if there is still a long way to go. Even one of the regime’s fiercest critics, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the United States Senate, praised Mr Thein Sein as a “genuine reformer” after his own visit to the country this week.
All these worthies meet the de facto leader of the opposition too, Aung San Suu Kyi. That boosts the domestic standing of an already wildly popular figure, key to the country’s political development. Only a year ago Miss Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, was not even allowed to be mentioned in the government-controlled media. Today, her face smiles on magazine covers sold in the streets of the capital, Yangon. The president knows that the Western investment and recognition that he badly wants hang almost entirely on her say-so. Indeed, the next big test of the regime’s will for reform comes with by-elections for parliament in early April. Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, hitherto banned, has been legalised and will contest 40-odd seats. Ms Suu Kyi herself has just declared her candidacy for a seat on the edge of Yangon. Should these elections be deemed credible, and Miss Suu Kyi take up her seat in parliament, more international rewards for the regime will certainly follow.
Yet there is much, much more goodwill that the government needs to show, including over political prisoners. Their remaining numbers, despite the latest release, are no lower than before the “Saffron revolution” and subsequent crackdown in 2007-08. Meanwhile, the army, which ran Burma from 1962 till last year, remains a force largely unto itself, as a look at Myanmar’s tangled ethnic conflicts around the peripheries of the country suggests. These struggles have been a hugely destabilising factor in the country’s history. Here, too, is cause for some optimism. On January 13th the government signed a ceasefire agreement with the Karen National Union. The Karen have been fighting the government ever since the country won independence from the British in 1948, making the conflict the world’s longest-running civil war. It would thus be real progress if the Karen ceasefire led to a durable peace. Everyone acknowledges that if Myanmar really is to recover and prosper again, then these little wars will have to be brought to an end.
Yet, as if to illustrate just how hard this will be, fighting has worsened in Kachin state in the north, a result of an army offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) which has displaced 50,000 people, some fleeing into China. Talks are apparently taking place in China between the KIA and the Burmese government. Even when there are hopeful signs springing up everywhere, a peaceful Myanmar can never be taken for granted.
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The Irrawaddy - Burma: An End to Civil War?
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, January 20, 2012
Foreign investors are among the observers anxiously watching events unfold in Burma, monitoring the new government's program of reforms, trying to lipread government officials and foreign diplomats for indications that economic sanctions might soon be lifted.
We have seen in recent weeks two of the three criteria met: the release of political prisoners; and a willingness to bring Aung San Suu Kyi and the opposition into the political fray.
The main obstacle remaining is unarguably the most difficult condition that Naypyidaw must fulfill: bringing a peaceful end to decades of civil war.
However, where just months ago the chasm of distrust between the warring sides appeared too ingrained to resolve, the recent statements issued by ethnic representatives following rounds of ceasefire talks have resounded of positive sound-bites.
Even when negotiations have broken down, both the government delegation and ethnic militias have agreed to further talks.
Of course, signing a truce and ceasing hostilities at the frontline can be diverging interests; but several observers say they believe the all-important political solution is closer to reality, while the military solution is more frequently being seen as outdated.
Perhaps, finally, Burma watchers say, one of the world's longest-running insurgencies is drawing to a close.
A look at the outcome of each ethnic group's bilateral talks with the Burmese government reveals that progress has indeed been made, but skepticism generally remains high.
Naypyidaw can take credit for a string of political coups—the apparent progress in relations with the the Karen, the Shan, the Chin and the Wa. And the domino effect of momentum has ensured negotiations with resistant ethnic militias, most notably, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), have been rekindled.
According to Shan journalist Sai Murng, the ethnic rebels are “testing the waters” to see how their long-time enemy reacts.
On Jan. 12, the Karen National Union, seen by many as the keystone of the ethnic rebellion, signed a ceasefire agreement with a government peace delegation in Pa-an, tentatively ending a 63-year-long war.
KNU peace negotiator Saw David Taw said, “We have been fighting and demanding our rights for a long time. Now, because we see the government attempting to find a peaceful solution, I think the armed conflict will end slowly and step by step.
“The modern world does not support solutions by military means. War is out of date in this age,” he said. However, the KNU will hold on to their weapons for self-protection “just in case,” he said.
Although it is very early days, no reports of a breakdown in the ceasefire have been reported.
David Taw noted that the previous ceasefire, in 2004, had been a verbal agreement. He said he believed last week's signed ceasefire was evidence of steps toward a “real peace.”
The estimated 3,000 fighting men of the Shan State Army–South (SSA–South) have also enjoyed a time-out in hostilities since the group reached an 11-point plan for a ceasefire on
Dec. 2, its first truce with the Burmese army after decades of continual conflict.
Maj Sai Lao Hseng, the main spokesperson for the SSA–South, said that military resistance was not the solution to Burma's ethnic conflicts—only political agreements.
The SSA-South says it now plans to officially reopen its liaison offices around Shan State.
Also based in Shan State, the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic rebel group in the country with an estimated 30,000 troops, partnered by its ethnic allies the Mongla Group, also reached ceasefire agreements with Naypyidaw in December.
Non-ceasefire groups are watching these agreements closely and with due caution.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), said, “If all the other ethnic armed groups make peace deals with the government, we will also follow suit.”
However, he said that he doubted the government could maintain truces in the region, and cited as evidence its continuous attacks against strongholds of the KIO in Kachin and Shan states.
The NMSP has met several times with government delegations, but failed to come to any agreement.
However, other ethnic representatives who have sat around the table in recent months with the so-called Union Level Peace Discussion Group leaders have praised the government delegation for its sincerity and most agreed that Naypyidaw's approach this time is much different from previous meetings when their delegates were often described as “arrogant.”
The ethnic sources said that the new government delegation has a higher authority, and includes decision-makers such as Aung Min, the Minster for Railways, who is close to the office of President Thein Sein.
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The Irrawaddy - Gov’t Negotiator Offers Talks with Exiled Dissident Groups
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, January 20, 2012
The Burmese government’s main negotiator with ethnic armed groups has offered informal talks with non-armed dissidents living in exile in Thailand, as Naypyidaw attempts to reach agreement with Burma’s non-armed groups.
Aung Min, the chief of the Union Peace Building Group and railways minister, signaled through brokers on Thursday that his government was interested in informal talks with an umbrella group of representatives from the Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) and the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), according to Burmese dissident sources in Thailand.
Naing Aung, the general secretary of the FDB, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that, “U Aung Min offered talks with us through brokers such as Ko Kyaw Yin Hlaing [of Myanmar Egress] and Ko Nyo Ohn Myint [of the National League for Democracy- Liberated Area].”
“But the offer is just for informal talks now,” he said. “The meetings will be in early February. But first we have to discuss the issue with each other.”
Naing Aung is a former chairman of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, an armed group formed by student activists who fled the country after the previous regime’s brutal crackdown on the 1988 demonstrations, which has also been approached by the Burmese government for informal talks.
The FDB was formed with seven different pro-democracy groups and some individuals in exile. Naing Aung represents the Network for Democracy and Development at the FDB.
Although Naypyidaw has held peace talks in past months with ethnic armed groups, including the Karen National Union and the Kachin Independence Organization, this marks the government’s first offer to negotiate with non-armed dissident groups since President Thein Sein’s administration came to office on March 30.
Aung Moe Zaw, the chairman of the DPNS, said he sees the offer as a positive step, but said the offer does not mean that Burma is on the way to democracy.
“It is just a beginning. But we also need to discuss the offer within the party soon,” said Aung Moe Zaw.
Alongside its offer to non-armed groups such as the FDB and the DPNS, Aung Min also offered to hold informal talks early next month with the Karenni National Progressive Party, an ethnic armed group that has not previously signed a ceasefire with the government.
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The Irrawaddy - China's Outlaws Find a Second Home in 'Lawless' Burma
By PATRICK BOEHLER Friday, January 20, 2012
On a hot and humid summer afternoon in June last year, a delegation of urban officials met with the village representatives of Huotian village in China’s eastern Jiangxi province.
Huotian (“burning field”) village is a sleepy settlement of several hundred farmers, surrounded by fields and woods and with one main road intersecting a row of plain houses. Burning Field village has so far missed the seething industrial development so prevalent around it.
A look at a map reveals the likely reason for their trip: Burning Field village’s farmland. Huotian is located only a mile away from the Kunming-Shanghai expressway, one of China’s main transport arteries. Villages to the east of Huotian have already been taken over by industrial complexes taking advantage of low rural land prices and government policies favoring industrial development.
It is unclear what these city officials discussed with the village representatives.
What is known is that the villagers did not like what they heard and the ensuing dispute turned violent. A 35-year old villager surnamed Fu wounded several of the visiting officials.
He reportedly fled to first to Hunan, then to Beijing and eventually to Burma via the Chinese province of Yunnan, which has a 600-mile-long border with Burma.
The local authorities in Fu’s hometown formed the “6-24 working group,” named after the day he committed his crime, June 24, and followed his trail.
On Jan. 1, 2012, Fu was arrested by Burmese police and handed over to Chinese authorities. “The criminal confessed to his crimes under questioning,” China Police Daily reported on Jan. 9.
Recent cases such as farmer Fu’s have shown that the Chinese presence in Burma has a different, more obscure dimension than that normally reported. The two countries’ porous border continues to make Burma a safe haven of choice for Chinese on the run.
Chinese state-owned enterprises building dams, bridges and ports, plus the thousands of migrant workers looking for a better life, have dramatically increased the Chinese presence in Burma.
Kickbacks for border guards are as low as five yuan (US $0.80) and reflect the high frequency of illicit and undetected crossings between the countries.
The Chinese border town Ruili has even taken the initiative to set up a “joint border dispute mediation small group” with neighboring Burmese villages. Chinese municipal legal cadres and local village elders regularly meet their Burmese counterparts trying to informally solve legal disputes affecting members of both communities through mediation.
They have even set up a “mechanism for handling sudden incidents” to deal with the sometimes volatile relations between the diverse ethnic communities living in the area, reported the Beijing-based Legal Daily.
On the upside, the porousness of border areas has allowed families living on both sides to keep connected. Children can attend better schools and their parents are able to earn more in wealthier towns on the Chinese side.
But the steady stream of trade and people has also brought a flow of weapons, drugs, criminals and trafficking victims, as the situation on the Burmese side of the border remains volatile.
Ethnic rebels and petty criminals
The Burmese government army continues to engage the Kachin Independence Army northwest of Ruili despite Burmese President Thein Sein's order in December to end offensive actions.
Two years ago, the Kokang incident taught Beijing what the full potential of conflicts near its border could be.
Fighting broke out in the Kokang Economic Zone after a Chinese tip-off led Burmese armed forces to close in on a gun- and drug-trading ring near the border town Laukkai, only 10 miles away from China. Tens of thousands of civilian refugees fled the fighting, overwhelming the Chinese authorities.
Two years on, with most Kokang refugees more ore less forcibly returned to Burma, media coverage of the border areas in the Chinese media has returned to episodes of petty crime.
The Guizhou Morning Post reported the deportation to China of two members of a notorious gang on the run in Burma last week.
The “Zunyi Ten” terrorized lorry drivers in the remote southern province of Guizhou, known for its liquor and poverty, by plundering their freight and money with nightly roadblocks.
When the police caught four gang members in a raid last September, the six others fled to Burma. Two gang members, including the gang’s “backbone,” surnamed Zhang, were caught at an undisclosed location by Burmese authorities and extradited to China last week, according to the Guizhou Morning Post.
The remaining four members of the gang are still on the run in Burma.
In another case, Burmese military police, assisted by their Chinese counterparts, raided a house in Laukkai, arresting a Chinese suspect wanted for a robbery committed in Chengdu, central China, in 2003, the West China Metropolis Daily reported in December.
Last autumn, Chinese police reported the busting of a gun-running ring allegedly linked to Burma that had, according to a Chinese Ministry of Public Security statement, been smuggling weapons to Tibet since 2009.
Earlier this month, the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing witnessed a vast manhunt for a certain Zeng, suspected of having killed seven people and severely injuring another two in an eight-year robbing spree throughout the country.
China National Radio reported that Nanjing police mobilized a force of 13,000 and set up roadblocks around the city to capture Zeng.
Zeng Kaigui, nicknamed “four-girls Zeng,” was armed with a type-54 pistol of alleged Burmese origin. The Nanjing police authorities were not available for comment on why they thought his weapon was Burmese. Despite their assertion’s dubiousness, their pointing to Burma is representative of a general perception of the country as a land of outlaws and violence.
Weapons from Burma, a country awash with weapons from decades of ethnic conflict, smuggled across Yunnan’s porous borders, are readily available to Chinese petty criminals.
However, the arms trade also seems to go the other way—from China via Burma to India’s restive northeast.
In December, the Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said in a parliamentary Q&A session that northeastern insurgents buy their weapons from smugglers from Burma and Yunnan.
“Around 80 percent of the weapons seized or recovered from the militants in recent years have a 'star' mark on them, which means they were manufactured in China,” the Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed intelligence official.
Human trafficking
The border area has also become a major source of women for China's trade in involuntary wives.
The one-child-policy and traditional preference for male offspring has led to a increasing gender imbalance in China, which in turn has spurred the trafficking of girls and women from Burma.
Last August, a Burmese woman was freed in the central Chinese province of Henan after a tip-off to the local authorities. She had been sold by a Yunnan trafficker for 25,000 yuan ($3,960) in 2010.
In a campaign against human trafficking in 2009, Yunnan authorities were reported to have uncovered 22 criminal gangs, arrested 601 suspects and freed 342 women and children.
China Economic Weekly, a Beijing-based government publication, reported that in 2010 prices for trafficked women “exploded”—increasing fourfold in only one year up to 50,000 yuan ($7,920).
In April 2010, Deputy Police Chief Huang Bin of Jiangdu city, near Nanjing, was charged with the task of identifying the origin a trafficked woman. She couldn’t speak or write Chinese. Inspired by her Southeast Asian appearance, he thought of a creative way of letting her reveal her origin.
He played to her the national anthems of Southeast Asian countries one after the other. When she heard the Burmese anthem, the woman gesticulated intensely. She recognized her anthem. Her traffickers were identified and jailed and she was freed and taken to Burma, reported the Yangtse Evening Post.
Drugs and HIV
Yunnan’s border towns registered China’s very first HIV infections back in 1985. As prosperity was on the rise with China’s capitalist conversion, so drug abuse increased in towns and villages through which illicit substances were smuggled to the newly rich in the country's booming east.
Yunnan now has “one of the largest populations of injection-drug users in the world, 12 percent of whom are estimated to be HIV positive,” claimed a study published in Geospatial Health last year.
Yunnan continues to have disproportionately high rates of HIV infection, way above the national average, especially in border areas close to Burma and Laos, according to statistics by the provincial AIDS prevention bureau.
More than 93,500 new HIV infections or AIDS cases were reported in the first 10 months of last year.
More than two percent of the registered population of Ruili is on record as HIV positive, not counting those who don’t know or don’t tell and those who live but simply are not registered there.
Yunnan: China’s “bridgehead”
The Yunnan provincial government work report 2011, delivered by Yunnan Governor Qin Guangrong to a plenum of the provincial People’s Congress last February, contained a triumphant self-congratulatory assertion.
“After years of continuous struggle,” Qin declared, “the exploration and opening up of Yunnan’s border areas have received the attention of the Central Government within the framework of the grand strategy of establishing Yunnan as the bridgehead of our nation towards the southwest.”
With the construction of roads, train tracks and pipelines linking China to Burmese ports nearing completion, the border areas’ sense of remoteness will decrease and the Chinese authorities' ability to detect and deal with cross-border crime will also change.
If infrastructure projects continue at their current pace and ethnic violence on the Burmese side can be contained, those pushing ahead with progress claim the short-lived Burmese refuge of farmer Fu, the questionable origin of Zeng Kaigui’s pistol and the Burmese trafficked wife recognizing her anthem will soon become just anecdotes of a coarse past.
But Yang Shoulu, a researcher with the Dehong county government in Ruili, doubts this. “With the current environment inside and outside Burma and lacking a solid foundation for border-area cooperation, to talk about comprehensive, wide-ranging cooperation is without a doubt a utopian dream,” he told a visiting journalist last summer.
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RFA airs satellite TV news program in Burma
Friday, 20 January 2012 21:37 Mizzima News
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Radio Free Asia’s Burmese service broadcast the first episode of a nightly television news program in Burma on Thursday.
Hosted by two co-anchors, the half-hour program aired via television satellite at 8:30 p.m. local time, and featured news about Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s registration to participate in the country’s upcoming elections and interviews with recently released Burmese political prisoners.
In a recorded statement that aired on the inaugural program, Suu Kyi praised Radio Free Asia (RFA) for its continued excellence in delivering accurate news and information to the Burmese people, according to a statement released by RFA on Thursday.
“It’s a great honor to greet the viewers of Radio Free Asia’s first ever television program in Burma. While I was under house arrest, not only did Radio Free Asia keep me informed about the latest news happening in Burma, it gave me knowledge,” Suu Kyi said.
Nyein Shwe, the director of the Burmese service, said, “With the vastly growing popularity of television in Burma, this is an exciting opportunity for Radio Free Asia to build on the phenomenal success of our radio journalism.”
The program will air seven days a week, with new episodes on weekdays and repeated content on weekends. With content gathered within Burma from videographers and stringers, the nightly program will feature interviews, news, and reports on developments in the country, with an immediate focus on the April 1 elections, according to the statement.
The televised program will supplement the four hours of daily RFA Burmese broadcasts via satellite and shortwave. Television episodes are also available online on the RFA Burmese service’s website at http://www.rfa.org/burmese/.
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
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Four dissolved ethnic parties to re-register
Friday, 20 January 2012 13:46 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Four well-known ethnic political parties that were dissolved in the 1990 general election will re-register to run candidates, according to party officials.
Officials from the Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD), Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) and Zomi National Congress (ZNC) said they will re-register because the government amended the political party registration law and released political prisoners including Khun Tun Oo, the SNLD leader.
The SNLD, led by Khun Tun Oo, was automatically dissolved following the 2010 political party registration law; the remaining three parties were dissolved in 1993 when former General Khin Nyunt was in power. All four parties objected to the 2008 Constitution and the 2010 electoral laws and decided not to re-register and contest in the 2010 general election.
SNLD spokesman Sai Late told Mizzima, “We give first priority to re-register the party and top priority for the health of party chairman [Khun Tun Oo] and secretary [Sai Nyunt Tin]. Presently, we are holding a party central executive meeting. It’s very likely that we will register.” However, it’s not certain if the party will contest in the April 1 by-election, he said.
The SNLD won the largest number of parliamentary seats in Shan State in the 1990 general election and won second place in the whole country.
The ALD, the third largest winning party in the 1990 general election, will register the party in early February but it will not contest in the by-election. It will conduct activities regarding national affairs, education, health and farmers’ affairs, according to ALD leader Aye Tha Aung.
“The government amended some electoral laws. Moreover, politicians like Khun Tun Oo and Min Ko Naing whom we urged the government to release have freedom. That’s why we’ve decided to re-register the party,” Aye Tha Aung told Mizzima.
Similarly, the MNDF and ZNC plan to re-register in February or after the by-election, according to party leaders.
“This month ethnic leaders including Khun Tun Oo will hold a meeting. Then, we will register the parties. Under the current circumstances, it is unlikely to contest in the coming by-election,” MNDF Vice Chairman Nai Ngwe Thein said.
The MNDF was formed on October 11, 1988; five out of 19 MNDF candidates won parliamentary seats in the 1990 general election.
ZNC chairman Pu Cin Sian Thang told Mizzima, “We haven’t held a meeting with party members. I think they will agree in order to get a chance to conduct activities legally.”
On Wednesday, a meeting between former MPs of 1990 general election was held at Khun Tun Oo’s home and he suggested the political parties re-register.
The United Nationalities Alliance [UNA], a coalition of 11 ethnic political parties that contested in the 1990 general election, will hold a meeting in January.
The parties planning to register said the UNA and the Committee Representing the People's Parliament members would not object to their plan to re-register because of Burma’s current political atmosphere.
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Human rights document to be judged by universal standards
Friday, 20 January 2012 13:29 Mizzima News
(Commentary) – The long-awaited Human Rights Declaration by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to be finalized in the coming months, but human rights groups say the process has been surrounded in secrecy, raising concerns. The process also calls for the setting up of a human rights body.
The drafting process under the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights is now in full swing and is expected to gather momentum, but challenges abound when trying to reconcile the desires of the 10-member regional body, many of whose governments are recognized as not free, and which limit the scope of human rights.
Writing in the Bangkok Post on Friday, Vitit Muntarbhorn, a professor of law at Chulalongkorn University, outlined some of the challenges.
First is the long-cherished Asean principle of national sovereignty and "non-interference in the internal affairs of a state," which has been citied as reason for Asean not to become involved in controversial issues in the past.
“From an international perspective, however, sovereignty itself comes with the responsibility to protect human rights. Moreover, international human rights advocacy is a part of international law and jurisdiction, and cannot be considered to be interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. This is easily illustrated by the fact that all Asean countries were and are against apartheid, and have never considered their advocacy on this front to be interfering in the internal affairs of another state,” Vitit wrote.
“Second, there may be a question as to whether to refer to various particularities, such as by means of the term ‘Asean values,’” in the draft text.
He said the term itself has a negative connotation because the term implies that there should be deference to "authority," dictating that the government's action should prevail over the rights of individuals and that economic rights should prevail over political rights.
“A better term is to underline ‘values in Asean’ which support universal human rights standards,” said Vitit. “A positive list of these values includes our commitment to peace, non-violence from the home to the state level, and a caring community that cherishes human dignity and the rights and freedoms of individuals to help strengthen international human rights law rather than to compromise it.”
Third, he said the draft declaration should aim for “a balance between responsibilities on the part of individuals and responsibilities on the part of the state and other non-state actors.”
“Internationally, every person is already under a duty towards his or her family, community and state, and he/she must exercise his or her rights with due regard to the rights of others. For instance, freedom of expression cannot be used to defame others,” he said.
“However, the duties and limitations to be imposed on individual rights must also be based on fair and transparent criteria: there must be a limitation on the limitations.
“Internationally, therefore, if there are to be such limitations to constrain the exercise of human rights, they must be in accordance with the law and not be based on arbitrary action; necessary in view of the risks; proportionate to the circumstances; and in the pursuit of democratic aims.”
Vitit emphasized that the universal principle of human rights is based on non-discrimination.
“They are not only the rights of our nationals but of all persons on our territory, including stateless persons, refugees, displaced persons, migrant workers, minorities and indigenous peoples, bearing in mind gender sensibility,” he said.
Human rights are also premised on basic minimum standards of humane treatment for all: protection from violence, access to justice and access to basic services and assistance, including free and compulsory education, birth registration and emergency healthcare.
“On another front, it is now internationally accepted that every nation has a responsibility to protect its population from serious violations, such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, failing which the international community can offer a helping hand and take other actions under the UN charter,” he said.
The Asean Human Rights Declaration will be judged, said Vitit, on whether it unambiguously meets universal human rights standards.
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DVB News - Famine threat looms in Chin state
By HANNA HINDSTROM
Published: 20 January 2012
Up to 100,000 people in one of Burma’s poorest regions face starvation after renewed food shortages triggered by a bad harvest, a report due for release this week warns.
Testimonial evidence from nine villages in Chin state suggested they would run out of harvested food supplies by the end of this month at the latest, the UK-based Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) says. The likely repercussions include forced migrations of people from four townships – Kanpetlet, Matupi, Mindat and Paletwa – when food stores run out.
“[Many] villagers face two options: either to migrate elsewhere in search of refuge or food, or to seek labour in neighbouring regions and find a way to transport rice back to their families,” said the report.
Villagers have sought help from the World Food Programme (WFP), whose “Work for Food” programme – which requires villagers to build roads in exchange for provisions – has come under fire.
“Such a programme creates massive problems for villagers who now need to be tending to their own agricultural priorities,” warns the report.
A farmers’ representative told HART: “600 people are having to make a road through the jungle with only axes and knives. They are exhausted. If we have to make roads to obtain food aid, please can we have some assistance with road building?”.
Villagers are also “concerned about reports that UNDP will be cutting their [food] support from 10.5 kilograms per capita in 2010 to 7.5 kilograms in 2012.”
WFP told DVB that they are conducting an extensive food security assessment and results will be available by mid February. “In the meantime nutritional initiatives are being
launched in the worst affected areas,” said a spokesperson. “Apart from the logistical challenges, WFP and all the organisations involved in the assessment and possible response in the area face an acute lack of funds.”
The current food shortage can be traced back to the 2007 Mawta famine, where an infestation of rats destroyed thousands of acres of crops almost overnight. It took a concerted international effort to stem the crisis, which was aggravated by severe aid restrictions imposed by the military government. Much of the region has never recovered.
Chin state – a predominately Christian region – is one of the most neglected areas in Burma, facing decades of human rights abuses under military rule. Rights groups have reported widespread incidents of forced labour, arbitrary detention, torture and religious repression. Up to 100,000 Christian refugees have fled to neighbouring India, where they have faced further discrimination in exile.
Today aid agencies are hopeful that political changes will spell improvements. “We have been told by villagers in Chin state that conditions are much better,” said Baroness Caroline Cox, Founder and CEO of HART. “For example there is no more forced labour and they [Burmese authorities] seem to have stopped their policy of theft of land and livestock.”
Earlier this month a historic ceasefire agreement was negotiated between the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Burmese government. The agreement includes provisions for the creation of a special economic zone, as well as improved access for development organisations and NGOs.
The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has signalled that they will provide emergency food aid to the Chin area in response to the ongoing crisis and will be meeting with HART next week to discuss plans. Earlier this month, they announced a £10 million microfinance investment project across ethnic Burmese regions, including Chin state, as part of a re-invigorated humanitarian strategy for the country.
Chin state has just allowed HART to open their first health centre in the region, called Health and Hope, which could previously only operate in Chapi, India. Many challenges remain in this poverty stricken region, including poor access to health, education and limited infrastructure, such as roads, as well the obvious political hurdles.
“We are taking things one step at a time,” said Baroness Cox. “I think what’s happening is significant and we welcome it. Now the extent to which ethnic national groups are included in the processes for democratic reform will be something that we are looking for.”
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DVB News - Evicted Burmese monk pledges no return
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 20 January 2012
A high-profile Burmese monk with links to the political opposition has agreed not to return to the Rangoon monastery from which he was evicted by authorities this month.
Ashin Pyinya Thiha, abbot at the Thardu monastery, was described by Burma’s government-backed monastic body as “disobedient” after he spoke at the National League for Democracy’s headquarters in Mandalay last September, despite a ban on him giving public speeches.
He also hosted a ceremony in December to mark 20 years since Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize, and met with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton late last year.
His growing profile has irked the government in Burma, which considers the Sardu monastery as something of an organising hub for the opposition. The Rangoon division of the Sangha Nayaka monks’ council yesterday urged him to sign an agreement pledging that he would leave the monastery by 19 February.
“I don’t want you to think that I have no courage but I wanted to solve this peacefully,” he told a crowd at Sardu following the meeting.
“I worried very much that our people and the country will lose their chance to experience democracy when it’s so close. I don’t want to start a problem which may lead to unrest, and thus repeat history. I choose to sign the pledge – the peaceful solution to avoiding damage to our country and the people.”
A 500-strong crowd, including monk leader Ashin Gambira, who was released last week after serving three years of a 65-year prison sentence for his role in the September 2007 uprising, gathered outside the building where the meeting was taking place to show their support for the revered monk.
Monks continue to hold substantial political clout in Burma, despite regular intimidation by authorities. A group of monks who in November last year protested in Mandalay are now reportedly under “village arrest” in Thaphyay Aye in Sagaing division, signifying ongoing unease within the government about the degree of influence they have over Burmese.
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DVB News - Suu Kyi urges ‘sense of humility’ for April vote
By AFP
Published: 20 January 2012
With the fighting peacock flag flying outside, Aung San Suu Kyi’s Yangon party headquarters are once again a hive of activity as her Burmese opposition prepares for its first poll battle in two decades.
The excited crowds that gathered around the democracy icon this week as she registered her candidacy for 1 April by-elections testified to the new energy galvanising Burma’s politics after almost half a century of military rule.
Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades in detention, has already registered to run for a lower house seat in a rural constituency near Rangoon — the latest dramatic change in the country.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, the daughter of Burma’s independence hero General Aung San, was under house arrest at the time of her party’s 1990 landslide election victory, which was ignored by the ruling generals.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party boycotted a 2010 election that swept the army’s allies to power, saying the rules were unfair.
But with a new-found confidence in the government, she will engage in battle herself for the first time — a challenge she appears to address with humility.
“Am I looking forward to it? I am not sure I think of it as anything other than hard work. But I am not afraid of hard work,” she said at a recent press conference.
Burma’s regime has surprised even critics with a series of reformist moves including dialogue with the opposition, the release of hundreds of political prisoners and peace talks with armed ethnic minority rebels.
The upcoming vote is seen as a major test of the new administration’s democratic ambitions after a series of conciliatory gestures by the army-backed government that replaced the long-ruling junta last year.
To those who — in Burma and abroad — have put Suu Kyi on a pedestal and believe running in this election is beneath her, she defends the will of the people.
“This is a very dangerous attitude to think that any politician is too high up to be involved in the basis of parliamentary democracy. I think we all have to start with at least a sense of humility,” she said.
Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in Burma and there is little doubt she would be elected if the polls are free and fair.
“Of course I will vote for the NLD because we love Daw [Aunt] Suu and General Aung San,” said Rangoon taxi driver Khin Aye. “We believe in her. She will be the one who can work for our country and the people.”
One danger raised by observers is that Suu Kyi’s election could legitimise the regime in a parliament still dominated by the former generals and their allies, with a quarter of seats reserved for unelected military officials.
A total of 48 seats are up for grabs in the April vote, not enough to threaten the resounding majority held by the ruling party, but this does not seem to concern Suu Kyi, 66.
“The greatest risk is the people in our party fighting to be candidates among themselves,” said the woman widely and warmly known in Burma as simply, “The Lady”.
The NLD headquarters in central Rangoon, a dusty and somewhat shabby building, teems with activists, followers and journalists, while notice boards appeal for new party members.
On the first floor Suu Kyi holds meetings with the party’s central committee while on the ground floor young people prepare for the elections.
Women openly sell T-shirts, key chains and calendars with the image of Suu Kyi and her father, while on Rangoon’s streets her face is on the front pages of newspapers and posters for sale — something unthinkable just a year ago.
Khin Myat Thu, 28, joined the NLD eight years ago, following in the footsteps of family members. Her grandfather fought alongside Aung San and today her own commitment as the party youth spokeswoman is evident.
“Majority or minority (in parliament) is not important. We will stand for the rule of law,” she said.
“Aung San Suu Kyi will try to have some influence on the other MPs so that the democratisation process is accepted by everyone.”
Suu Kyi’s family home on the shore of Inya Lake in Rangoon is also constantly busy with a stream of foreign dignitaries.
There is little point in removing the stage set up on her doorstep for TV cameras between such visits, while solar-powered lighting is installed in the garden along with flags bearing the NLD party’s new symbols.
Progress in the NLD’s political platform is matching developments on the house. The official party programme is being drafted and the first issue of a booklet informing the faithful about the campaign was released this week.
Phyu Phyu Thin, 40, is running in a Rangoon constituency and hopes her experience helping the campaign for the 1990 elections will stand her in good stead.
But she warned people not to get their hopes too high. “There will be no promises. The main thing is to lead people to participate in the political process.”
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