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BURMA RELATED NEWS - FEBRUARY 01, 2012

2012-02-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

Insight: At Suu Kyi's rallies, signs of a new Myanmar
By Jason Szep | Reuters – 9 hrs ago
DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) - Shortly after her aging aircraft rattled its way off the runway and into the skies of southern Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi crossed the aisle to where three orange-robed Buddhist monks were seated in the first row.

She knelt down and bowed her head, as passengers watched aboard a suddenly hushed plane. Media were not alerted. There were no clicking cameras.

"That's a wonderful moment," the lone Western diplomat on the plane said quietly.

Her display of obeisance and humility, less than an hour after ecstatic crowds feted her like a rock-star in the southern city of Dawei, revealed a side few have seen.

This more deferential demeanor of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate may well help sustain the most sweeping reforms in the former British colony since a 1962 military coup when it was known as Burma.

DEMONISED AS WESTERNISED

While she is widely admired at home, figures in her own movement have criticized her as too dogmatic, inflexible or arrogant - accusations amplified by state media under the former military junta which handed power to a nominally civilian parliament in March.

The ruling generals often demonized her as Westernized, out of touch with Myanmar. It contrasts with her international image as an enduring symbol of democracy, locked away 15 of the past 22 years for her beliefs until freed from house arrest in November, 2010.

Her steadfast support of Western economic sanctions over the years, however, divided the dissident community. Some felt they hurt the general public and allowed the junta and its cronies to carve up Myanmar's resources and other assets for themselves. Suu Kyi countered they were crucial to force the generals to produce sincere reforms, echoing U.S. and European views.

But as Myanmar changes, so too, is she. At 66, many see her now as more politically astute, more realistic.

"She wasn't always humble, she wasn't always flexible. But to succeed now, she needs to be flexible, and she is starting to show that," said one veteran Burmese journalist.

Her genuflection in the plane was emblematic of her position as opposition leader as well: monks have been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, and Suu Kyi had just finished speeches calling for changes to the army-drafted constitution at the heart of Myanmar's power structure.

Later, speaking with Reuters aboard the 1970s-era Myanma Airways aircraft, she ticked off her top priorities, including introducing the rule of law and ending several ethnic insurgencies. But above all, she wants to amend the 2008 constitution ensuring the military's strong influence over the resource-rich country of nearly 60 million people.

"That's our election platform," she said.

UNLIKELY LEADER

Her last campaign, ahead of the 1990 elections, awoke similar passions and ended with troops surrounding her lakeside villa, locking her under house arrest.

In the tumult before the election, thousands of pro-democracy protesters were killed, and the 43-year-old Suu Kyi emerged as an unlikely leader. She had a home in Oxford, England, a British husband and two sons. But as the daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San, considered by many as the nation's founding father, she was urged to speak up.
Just months after returning to Yangon to care for her ailing mother in 1988, she shot to prominence.

"I have never really wanted to get involved in politics but the people of Burma had a very high regard for my father ... so obviously I felt a sense of responsibility," she told Reuters in an August, 1988, interview. "After the August demonstrations and the killings, I felt it would be too cowardly of me to sit tight in my house and pretend that nothing was happening."
In less than a year, she was drawing tens of thousands of supporters at rallies, becoming a symbol of democracy. After her arrest, the junta tightened its grip.

STAR POWER

Two decades later, her star power is undimmed.

In Dawei on Sunday, thousands of ecstatic supporters turned out for a glimpse of her, lining dusty streets, cheering and waving little red-and-white flags, the colors of her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Some wore shirts with her image. Many chanted "long live mother Suu."

At each stop, she roused them into wild cheers.

After her rallies in Dawei, state media reminded candidates that formal campaigning had yet to begin for the 48 available seats in the 1,158-seat legislature.

Suu Kyi's speeches on Tuesday in rural Myaing township toed that line. She did not mention the election or even her party, speaking instead about a British development project.

While in 1989 she defied authorities by holding illegal rallies and ended up under house arrest, Suu Kyi now seems less willing to provoke authorities into a backlash that could undermine the nascent reforms.

But her appearances in Dawei had the unmistakable feel of a campaign. She spoke on stages over loudspeakers in four villages, pressing her demand for changing the constitution whose clauses reserve a quarter of parliament's seats for the military, and warning that any government that lies to the people should be removed.

"There are certain laws which are obstacles to freedom of the people, and we will try to abolish these laws within the framework of the parliament," she said at one rally. "Only when democracy prevails will the people's power rule."

LIVELY PARLIAMENT DEBATE

While little has changed physically on Myanmar's rutted streets, the government has seen a dramatic transformation the past six months. Last August, President Thein Sein, a former junta leader, stunned lawmakers in the capital Naypyitaw, urging them to pursue reforms, adopt good governance and do the unthinkable: freely voice opinions.

Since then, hundreds of political prisoners have been freed. The government regularly engages with Suu Kyi. Parliament, dismissed as a rubber-stamping sham when it opened a year ago, began a third session last week with lively debate on a reform program that could lead the West to start lifting sanctions by mid-year.

Anti-corruption legislation is being drafted, along with bills ending the secrecy surrounding the national budget. A law is in the works that would overhaul a village administration system that has stacked election odds in favor of the dominant military-backed party. U.S. President Barack Obama has hailed Myanmar's "flickers of progress."

"We're finally moving in the right direction," said Sai Saung Si, 65, a lawmaker from northern Shan State and vice-chairman of the Shan Nationalities Development Party, a major ethnic party that won 18 seats in the lower house in 2010.

Each Sunday, he holds meetings in his home for villagers to raise issues. At first, people were afraid to speak up. But that's changing, he said. "When I go back to my town and when there are problems, because of my status as a member of parliament, what I say takes effect. It is working," he said.

He takes the most difficult problems directly to the relevant ministries. If they try to ignore him, he plays back the president's words. "I tell them the president wants good governance. They generally don't argue with that."

CLOUD OF REPRESSION LIFTING

During Suu Kyi's swing through Dawei, children in white and green school uniforms lined the streets waving and cheering. Under the junta, they would have been strictly barred from opposition events.

The usual retinue of undercover police did not trail her every move as they did on a July 5 visit to Bagan, north of Yangon, where some feared a reprise of the 2003 bloody attack on her motorcade in which 70 supporters were killed.

In Yangon this week, journalists, government officials and media executives both local and foreign met in a conference room to discuss changes to laws that for a half-century meant that every song, book, cartoon, news story and planned piece of art would require approval by teams of censors rooting out political messages and criticisms of Myanmar's authoritarian system.

"Now we have a chance to change our policy," U Than Htay, Minister of Energy, told Reuters in an interview in Naypyitaw. "Once we took office, we have changed many things to develop our nation than previously." His first policy shift was to ban the export of natural gas from new fields in Myanmar, and use those resources to speed up development of local industry.

STRONGMAN RETIRED?

A turning point for Suu Kyi came on August 19 when she and President Thein Sein met one-on-one in Naypyitaw. The president has since repeatedly urged parliament to pursue reforms, while Suu Kyi has voiced support for the government.

What the two discussed has not been made public. Some people here think Thein Sein may have reassured Suu Kyi of not just the government's support but also of the military's. More importantly, they speculate, Thein Sein conveyed another, crucial message: that Myanmar's former strongman, retired Senior General Than Shwe, had given his blessing to the reforms.

That is not entirely clear. But diplomats say it would allow him to retire in peace rather than face the possibility of an Arab Spring-style popular revolt.

The 78-year-old military strategist remains mostly out of public view and seldom speaks with outsiders. Dissidents paint him as a paranoid despot driven by a mixture of greed, fear and superstition. But the general who spent much of his military career as an expert in psychological warfare is also considered a brilliant tactician and is thought to remain influential.

Some skeptics in the democracy movement say Suu Kyi is working too closely with a government stacked with the same former generals who persecuted dissidents, fearing she is being exploited to convince the West to lift sanctions.

"If it will serve the country, let them exploit me, let them take advantage of me," Suu Kyi said in response to such criticism last year.

PRESIDENT ONE DAY

The breathtaking pace of reforms does pose plenty of challenges for her.

Her party lacks experience in administration and organizing campaigns, but that also may be changing. In the Dawei region, t-shirts with her image or the party's name were distributed free of charge before her arrival in a sign of efficiency.

Another question is how much influence she can wield over the year-old parliament. But lawmakers interviewed by Reuters said it could be formidable.

"When she comes to the parliament, if she raises one issue, and this issue is very beneficial to the country, then who will dare go against it?" said Sai Saung Si of the Shan Nationalities Development Party.

Still, it will take time before many Burmese no longer fear their government - something Suu Kyi directly addressed.

"You must be able to go to bed without having to worry who will come and knock on your door at night, and you must be able to wake up with this in your mind," she told one rally at Dawei.

But she was also careful not to raise expectations too high, telling party leaders not to "give impossible pledges....When you persuade someone to vote for you, it should be done spiritually."

Managing expectations could her most daunting challenge. If she wins the April 1 by-elections, her supporters expect her to accelerate the reform process and possibly transform parliament. And many have even higher hopes.

"As to whether we should feel optimistic about the changes happening in Myanmar, the key person is Aung San Suu Kyi," said Maung Tin Thit, an environmental activist and former political prisoner in Mandalay. "She is the person who will decide whether we should be optimistic. She will be president one day."
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Myanmar says will put stability ahead of economy - report
Reuters – 9 hours ago

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Myanmar President Thein Sein said his government was committed to political reform and would put the stability of the country ahead of economic development, Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The president, in Singapore for a three-day official visit that began on Sunday, has overseen dramatic reforms over the past few months, including the freeing of hundreds of political prisoners, a loosening of media controls and engagement with Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the fight for democracy.

The government has also agreed to ceasefires with several ethnic rebel groups in the past three months and is holding talks with others, some of which have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

"The future of Myanmar lies in peace and stability, while economic development is a secondary priority for the country," Thein Sein said in an interview with the newspaper.

"We are already on the chosen path to democracy and we will continue. We are nurturing the system to have a flourishing democracy in the country," he said.

Thein Sein was part of the junta that stepped aside when a nominally civilian government took office last March. As the country has opened up to the outside world, ministers have started speaking more to the media.

The president indicated interest in developing trade in foreign currencies and stocks as part of economic reforms.

"At the moment we do not have the skills and expertise (in this area) and are seeking technical assistance from international financial institutions," he said.

Japan's Daiwa Securities is advising on how to develop the barely functioning stock exchange it helped set up in Myanmar in the 1990s. South Korean bourse operator Korea Exchange has held talks with the authorities on a separate bourse.

The International Monetary Fund is advising on currency reforms.

Singapore said on Monday it would help Myanmar train its people in areas such as economic planning and urban development.

The government has launched a number of initiatives to boost the economy, introducing tax breaks for foreign investors and announcing tax exemptions to help exports of commodities such as rice, beans, corn and rubber.

But the secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, said on Tuesday that more needed to be done in order to enjoy the trade perks the grouping can offer.

"We make it clear Myanmar will not benefit from dynamism from ASEAN, all the connectivity with ASEAN and the rest of the world until Myanmar makes adjustment inside, make some changes, amendment in the law, in the foreign investment law, in the production system," Surin Pitsuwan told a news conference in Tokyo.

"We do not just look for resources, we do not just look for manpower, cheap labour... We also would like to share with them our own experiences. They can emulate what is right, they can avoid what we have done wrong. But Myanmar has certainly ASEAN to rely on."
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Myanmar agrees to ceasefire with Mon separatists
Reuters – 4 hrs ago

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar agreed to a cease-fire with ethnic Mon separatists Wednesday, a peace mediator said, the latest in a series of tentative peace deals sought by a nominally civilian government trying to escape economic sanctions.

The cease-fire between the army and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) was the seventh such agreement between the government and ethnic rebel groups since former military junta leader and now President Thein Sein made a public call for peace talks with separatists late last year.

The cease-fire, one of 11 being sought by the government which came to power in 2010 in disputed polls, may strengthen Myanmar's case for getting Western sanctions lifted.

Along with freeing political prisoners and holding fair by-elections in April, the United States and European Union have made peace with ethnic militias a pre-requisite for a review of their embargoes.

The NMSP, the political wing of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), which has fought for autonomy in eastern Mon State under various guises since 1948, agreed to set up liaison offices and restrict movement of weapons, a mediator told Reuters.

"The Mon State government and NMSP this morning signed a five-point preliminary agreement in principle," Hla Maung Shwe said by telephone from Mawlamyaing, the venue for the talks about 304 km (190 miles) east of the biggest city, Yangon.

Most ethnic groups seek some form of self-rule.

Deals have been reached with the Karen National Union (KNU) and Shan State Army (South).

But talks with the powerful Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been derailed by persistent fighting that aid groups say has displaced as many as 50,000 people and underlines the high political, economic and diplomatic stakes at play.

Kachin State is central to the energy interests of both Myanmar and China, hosting crucial hydropower dams and twin pipelines that will transport oil and natural gas to supply southwestern Yunnan province.
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Michelle Yeoh calls Myanmar's Suu Kyi her 'hero'
By THANYARAT DOKSONE | Associated Press – 1 hr 5 mins ago

BANGKOK (AP) — Michelle Yeoh remembers her pride as a Southeast Asian youth when Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the actress thinks she's the right person to portray the Myanmar democracy icon.

Suu Kyi "was fighting for democracy in a nonviolent way, where passion was the armor and love for liberty was the weapon," Yeoh told The Associated Press.

"I've been in the business long enough to recognize what an amazing story that she has that we can tell," she said. "If anybody should play her, it's me."

The 49-year-old Yeoh said Suu Kyi is a "very big hero" of hers and she was keen to play her as soon as she heard a film was being made about the life of the 1991 Nobel recipient.

"The Lady," directed by Frenchman Luc Besson, was screened at international film festivals last year and opens in U.S. theaters next month.

Yeoh, a former Miss Malaysia, is internationally known for roles in the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies," ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."

She spoke to The Associated Press while promoting the movie in Thailand, Myanmar's eastern neighbor and where most of "The Lady" was filmed. It tracks Suu Kyi's involvement in her native country's politics and how her dedication tested her marriage with British scholar Michael Aris, played by David Thewlis.

Suu Kyi, 66, was released from house arrest in November 2010. She had spent 15 years of the past two decades locked away by the military, who had ruled Myanmar since 1962.

A military-backed but elected government is now instituting reforms after the years of repression, and Suu Kyi plans to seek a parliament seat.

Yeoh recalled watching news coverage of Suu Kyi's 2010 release along with director Besson, the other lead actors, and Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris. She said she played the identical scene of Suu Kyi coming up the gate and waving at the crowd earlier that morning.

"We were so crazily happy that finally ... she was freed," she said.

Yeoh traveled to Myanmar and met Suu Kyi in December 2010.

"I was extremely nervous because I was afraid she would look at me and go 'Whoa, my god, why are you portraying me?'" she said. "But when she was in front of me, all she did was she open her arms, (and) welcome me like a family member."

"She's one of those people that you meet and you'll never forget," Yeoh said.

The government was less welcoming. Yeoh was deported from Yangon, Myanmar's former capital, last June, and told that her name was on a blacklist.

Yeoh's enthusiasm for the cinematic Suu Kyi is not entirely requited. Suu Kyi said in an interview at her Yangon home last month that she doesn't plan to see the movie.

"I don't really like seeing films which are supposed to be about me," she said.

After the years of isolation, Suu Kyi is catching up with movies and the digital revolution, watching DVDs at home, she said, adding that she favors the films of actors she knew from her old moviegoing days, several decades ago.
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Reforms in Myanmar may spark refugee return
Possible repatriation of 1 million refugees looms as Myanmar undergoes rapid reforms
By Denis d. Gray, Associated Press | Associated Press – 31 minutes ago

MAE LA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand (AP) -- The pastor stood before more than 300 young Burmese refugees gathered for morning prayers in a weathered, jungle church.

"There's a time for war, and a time for peace. Sixty-three years is long enough for killing," he told them. "Hope to see you all soon in our beautiful land."

Simon Htoo's buoyant words would have been unlikely just a few months ago, but surprisingly rapid reforms and cease-fires under way in Myanmar are opening the prospects for the return of one of the world's largest refugee populations — some 1 million Burmese huddled in frontier camps and hideouts across five countries.

The looming task for the international community will be massive. One of the least known Diaspora of recent times includes an array of ethnic groups and religions — Buddhist, Christian and Muslim — driven from their homeland by oppression of political dissidents and brutal military campaigns against Myanmar's minorities.

The fighting and human rights abuses still persist in some areas, and even if stopped, many refugees say the hatreds, suspicions and double-crosses of past decades must be overcome before they feel safe enough to return.

One of the ethnic groups, the Karen, has been waging a guerrilla war for greater autonomy for 63 years from iron-fisted military regimes. The Kachin took up arms again last year.

"Signing a cease-fire is very easy — you can do it in a few minutes — but implementation is a different matter. That depends not on the smiles on their faces, but their sincerity, what is really in their hearts. Maybe it's another trick," Htoo, a Karen Baptist pastor, said after his sermon in this camp sheltering more than 50,000 refugees.

When they do return, the refugees will emerge from Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia and China, a refugee mass that with the Iraqis and Afghans ranks among the largest in the world.

Their living conditions vary vastly. In the fetid settlements of Bangladesh, as many as 400,000 illegal Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority, hover on the edge of existence. Others live in a well-established string of U.N.-recognized camps along the Thai border, home to three generations who have known no other life.

Most would be returning to border regions of razed villages, minefields, traumatized people and almost nonexistent support systems in a country that is already among the world's poorest. Many fear that with the world quick to applaud Myanmar's reforms, pressure will mount to force them back before conditions are right.

"People in the refugees camps must be given a choice: to go home, stay in Thailand or be resettled abroad. We don't trust Burmese politics because things are still very unclear," says Dr. Cynthia Maung, a refugee doctor they call "Mother Theresa of Burma" whose Thai border clinic has treated thousands. "Nobody is going back now."

Although preliminary plans for repatriation are being discussed among aid organizations and refugee leaders, roughly 1,000 are still fleeing into Thailand every month, says Jack Dunford, veteran head of the Thai Burma Border Consortium, which provides basic food and supplies to the Thai camps.

Thailand insists that there will be no forceful repatriation "until the situation is safe," Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi told The Associated Press. "No time frame has been set for their return."

But in Bangladesh, more than 10,000 are set for repatriation, and negotiations are under way with Myanmar for the rest to follow.

"Right now we are motivating the refugees to return home since we believe the human rights situation has improved," said Firoz Salahuddin, the Bangladesh government official in charge of the repatriation. "But it's a difficult task. Refugees are still fearful and need a lot of persuasion."

Those who qualify can seek resettlement in third countries, which have taken 114,000 from the Asian region since 2005, according to the International Organization for Migration. Of these, 90,000 have gone to the United States, with the others spread among 12 other nations, including Australia, Canada, Sweden and Japan. Up to 18,000 will be resettled this year.

The U.S. government intends to continue supporting both the refugees and increasing aid to Myanmar if reforms continue. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who visited Myanmar in December, said Washington was committed to "helping the refugees for the future in their homeland, so they can become self-reliant after two decades of just being dependent on aid in the camps."

But other donors enthusiastic about the recent changes, notably the European Union, are shifting their focus and funds to Myanmar's heartland, dominated by the Burman majority, and the refugees are feeling the crunch.

Dunford says food distributions will have to be slashed further this year to a "breakpoint" 1,650 calories — well below the World Health Organization minimum daily adult requirement of 2,100 — along with items for shelter like bamboo and salaries of camp teachers.

In camps like Mae La, a warren of thatch and bamboo huts sprawled below limestone cliffs, everyone closely follows developments in Myanmar with a mix of hope, anxiety, suspicion and indecision.

"I want to go back to my country, but not now. There may be changes in the big cities, but not in the countryside," said May Soe, who fled to Thailand after Burmese soldiers killed her father and raped women in her village.

Torn between following her brother to the United States or staying, the 41-year-old medic remained behind to serve in the children's ward of Dr. Cynthia's Mae Tao clinic.

Others, like 36-year-old teacher Saw Wado, are ready to return and help rebuild the country. "We have lived at such a low level for so long that we are not afraid to go home," he said.

The Karen and other ethnic minority Christians have also retained an unwavering faith, more akin to that of the 19th century when they were converted by American missionaries.

At the camp's Care Villa, a shelter for the most severely handicapped, a group of young men — all blinded by land mines, missing arms and legs — joyously belted out a hymn.

"We don't know what the next day will bring, what the future holds for us, but God will lead the way," they sang in flawless part-harmony.
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Brisbane Times - Suu Kyi campaign sheds light on Burma's political spirit
February 2, 2012

DAWEI, Burma: Euphoric supporters waved opposition party flags and offered yellow garlands. They lined crumbling roads and climbed trees, cars and roofs as Aung San Suu Kyi spoke at impromptu rallies. Some cried as her convoy passed.

Cheered by tens of thousands, the 66-year-old opposition leader electrified Burma's repressive political landscape everywhere she travelled on her first political tour of the countryside since her party registered to run in a historic ballot that could see her elected to parliament.

''We will bring democracy to the country,'' Ms Suu Kyi said to roaring applause as her voice boomed through loudspeakers from the balcony of a National League for Democracy office in the southern coastal district of Dawei. ''We will bring rule of law … and we will see to it that repressive laws are repealed.''

As huge crowds screamed ''Long Live Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!'' and others held banners saying ''You Are Our Heart'', she said: ''We can overcome any obstacle with unity and perseverance, however difficult it may be.''

Ms Suu Kyi's campaign - and byelections due on April 1 - are being watched closely worldwide as a crucial test of whether the military-backed government is committed to reform.

The fact that Ms Suu Kyi was able to speak openly in public - and her supporters were able to greet her en masse without fear of reprisal - was proof of dramatic progress. Such scenes would have been unthinkable just a year ago, when the long-ruling junta was still in power and demonstrations were all but banned. Suu Kyi's visit was equivalent to waking a sleeping dragon, said the environmental activist Aung Zaw Hein.

''People had been afraid to discuss politics for so long,'' he said. ''Now that she's visiting, the political spirit of people has been awakened.'' Looking into the giant crowds, Mr Hein said: ''I've never seen people's faces look like this before. For the first time they have hope in their eyes.''

A National League for Democracy win on April 1 would be highly symbolic, but Ms Suu Kyi's party would have limited power since the parliament is dominated by the military and the ruling pro-military party. Up for grabs are 48 seats vacated by MPs who were appointed to the cabinet and other posts.*
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BusinessWeek - Myanmar Rice Shipments May Double This Year, Group Predicts
January 31, 2012, 6:20 PM EST
By Supunnabul Suwannakij

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Rice exports from Myanmar may more than double to 1.5 million metric tons this year, an industry group forecast, highlighting the country’s potential to boost overseas trade as its government pursues reform.

As the government starts to purchase production at above- market prices to encourage greater planting, shipments may increase to as much as 2 million tons next year and reach 3 million tons by 2015, according to the Myanmar Rice Industry Association. Sales totaled 700,000 tons in 2011.

An advance in exports may bolster global stockpiles, while boosting competition for Thailand, Vietnam and India. The projected gain may make Myanmar the world’s sixth-largest shipper this year, with volumes at the highest level since the 1960s, when the country was the world’s largest exporter, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Myanmar coming into the market will take away some markets from Thailand, worsening Thai rice exports,” said Vichai Sriprasert, honorary president of Thai Rice Exporters Association. “In the long run, Myanmar has the potential to become the top exporter because of its fertile land and water.”

The price of 100 percent grade-B rice from Thailand, a benchmark variety from the largest exporter, plunged 18 percent from a three-year high in November to $546 per ton on Jan. 18. Rough rice traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, which was at $14.49 per 100 pounds at 5:33 p.m. in Singapore, has lost 2.5 percent this year. Prices have declined as India resumed exports of non-basmati rice after a four-year ban.

‘Economic Frontier’

Myanmar has the potential to become the Asia’s “next economic frontier” if it takes advantage of its natural resources, young labor force and proximity to China and India, the International Monetary Fund said last week. The country, which shares borders with the world’s two most-populous nations, may grow 5.5 percent in 2011-2012, the IMF said.

Myanmar President Thein Sein has been releasing dissidents and engaging with the opposition, prompting the U.S. and Europe to reassess sanctions against the former military dictatorship. The country is the “most promising” Asian market as the government reforms the political system in a nation that has ample natural resources, investor Jim Rogers said in November.

Target Markets

While local consumption accounts for 11.5 million to 12 million tons per year, total milled-rice output may increase 11 percent to 13.5 million tons in the year that started in October, and climb to 15.5 million tons over the next three years, the association said in an e-mail. Target markets for white-rice sales are Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines, it said.

The increase in planting was driven by a government policy of buying rough rice at about 10 percent above the market rate, according to the association. The program started in about the middle of January, it said.

Global rice stockpiles may gain 3 percent to 100.1 million tons in 2011-2012, the highest level since the season ended 2003, as worldwide output increases 2.5 percent to a record 461.4 million tons, according to projections from the USDA.

Myanmar has agreed to sell 200,000 tons of white rice to Bulog, Indonesia’s state food agency, the association said in a separate statement on Jan. 29. That’ll be the first exports to Indonesia in more than 10 years, it said.
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Myanmar to introduce e-visa system
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private Limited – 7 hours ago

Yangon, Feb 1 (IANS) Myanmar is going to introduce e-visa system as a pilot project in February to facilitate foreign travellers' visits and promote tourism in the country.

Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, which will introduce online electronic visa system, has started installing internet lines at the information departments of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Immigration and Population, Xinhua reported citing the Yangon Times.

The move will facilitate world visitors in those countries where there is no Myanmar embassy.

Some airlines arranged visa-on-arrival for visitors from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Ahead of the country's general election in November, 2010, Myanmar regranted the visa-on-arrival service of its kind, which was halted in September during the same year.

In 2011, the number of tourists arrival at Myanmar's Yangon International Airport reached a total of 359,359.

Also, Myanmar is implementing a plan to extend and upgrade the Yangon International Airport into an international aiport that is capable of handling 3.8 million passengers a year and providing full service needed to attain an international airport's standard.

There are six domestic airlines in Myanmar including the state-owned -- Myanmar Airways -- and five private-run -- Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways, Air Bagan, Asian Wings and Kanbawza.

There is also another Myanmar international airline -- the Myanmar Airways International (MAI)-- flying solely some foreign destinations.

Besides the MAI, which flies internationally as Myanmar's national flag carrier, there are 13 foreign airlines flying Yangon comprising Air China, China Southern Airline, China Eastern Airlines, Thai Airways International, Indian Airlines, Air Asia, Taiwan region's China airlines, Silk Air, Malaysian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Jetstar Asia, Thai Air Asia and Vietnam Airlines.
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Washington Examiner - Myanmar reveals its external debt is $11 billion
By: The Associated Press | 02/01/12 11:28 AM

Myanmar owes $11 billion in sometimes-decades-old foreign debt and is negotiating with Japan and Italy to repay the outstanding sums, the finance minister said, disclosing the country's external debt for the first time in recent years.

Myanmar's economy was stunted for many years by mismanagement and by Western sanctions imposed as the long-ruling military failed to implement democratic reforms. The military-backed but elected government that took office last year has pushed political and economic changes.

Finance Minister Hla Tun told Parliament that as Myanmar makes reforms and expands its international relations, it has begin discussions on the debt with multilateral institutions and donor nations, including Japan and Italy.

He revealed the figures in Parliament on Tuesday, and lawmaker Thein Nyunt recounted details to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Hla Tun said $8.4 billion in debt dated from the socialist regime of the late Gen. Ne Win between 1962-1988 and $2.61 billion debt was incurred after a military junta took over in 1988, making a total of $11.023 billion.

He said the pre-1988 debt represented bilateral loans and borrowing from and multilateral institutions that the government was unable to pay because loans and grants were stopped after the junta violently quashed a 1988 pro-democracy uprising. Available revenue at the time went into development projects.

The largest creditor before 1988 is Japan, with loans of $6.39 billion, he said, and the biggest post-1988 creditor is China with $2.13 billion.
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Feb 2, 2012
Asia Times Online - When rogues drift apart
By Jacob Zenn

When United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar, she pointedly raised Washington's concern about the country's military links with North Korea. While most of the news out of Myanmar since has focused on President Thein Sein's reform signals and the US's positive responses, the state of Naypyidaw's bilateral ties with Pyongyang looms quietly over Washington's engagement gambit.

Isolated and sanctioned by much of the international community, North Korea has traded its weapons-making expertise with rogue regimes in Syria, Libya and Myanmar. Bilateral relations and commercial exchanges with Myanmar had taken on greater importance after the Arab Spring upended Libya's Muammar

The question now is whether the US's recent rapprochement with Myanmar, a process that began behind the scenes in 2009, will cost the North Korean regime another of its few, arms-purchasing allies. While the US has predicated the removal of its sanctions against Myanmar on democratic reforms, severing ties with Pyongyang could be highly lucrative for Thein Sein's nominally civilian, military-backed government.

To be sure, Myanmar's ties to North Korea are based on shaky historical foundations. Myanmar, then known as Burma, broke off ties with Pyongyang in 1983 after North Korean agents attempted to assassinate then South Korean president Chun Doo-Hwan in a bombing in the old capital of Yangon that killed over 20 people, including a South Korean deputy prime minister.

Myanmar restored formal diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2007, notably at a time it came under rising pressure from the US. Before that, Myanmar and North Korea has conducted several underground deals. For instance, North Korean "foreign advisers" were depicted in photographs helping Myanmar to build an extensive tunnel network, including near the new capital of Naypyidaw, between 2003 and 2006.

While it is still unclear whether these tunnels were related to Myanmar's alleged efforts to build a nuclear weapon capability, they certainly would have served the dual purpose as an emergency shelter in case of any foreign attack or internal insurrection. The US Navy has in recent years turned back at least two North Korean ships destined for Myanmar that were suspected of carrying weapons and possible nuclear materials.

It is also unclear how much of Myanmar's recent engagement with North Korea was meant as a deterrent against a possible US attack similar to the pre-emptive assault against Iraq. The George W Bush administration frequently referred to Myanmar as an "outpost of tyranny", along with Iran and Syria. Former First Lady Barbara Bush openly cheered on street demonstrators who protested against the Myanmar government in the so-called 2007 "Saffron" revolution.

In return for North Korea's tunnel-building assistance and weapons sales, Myanmar provided North Korea with rice to help the former Kim Jong-il regime alleviate the country's chronic food crisis. The terms of recent deals are unclear, but Myanmar has a steady source of foreign exchange earnings from natural gas sales to China, India and Thailand to purchase North Korean wares.

Now, with the gathering US-Myanmar rapprochement, security analysts are looking for outward clues that Myanmar has downgraded ties with North Korea. As part of its terms of engagement, the US has demanded that Myanmar come clean about its past dealings with North Korea, particularly concerning weapons procurements and possible nuclear contacts.

United States Senator Mitch McConnell, a steadfast critic of Myanmar's military regime, has called on Naypyidaw to sever its relationship with North Korea altogether. President Thein Sein, on the other hand, has consistently denied that Myanmar has had any nuclear weapons-related contacts with North Korea. (An expose report by the exile-run Democratic Voice of Burma argued with compelling evidence that Myanmar was actively pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, most likely with North Korean help.)

The US is also apparently working with regional ally South Korea to drive a wedge between Myanmar and North Korea, including through conventional arms sales from Seoul. Unlike the US and European Union, South Korea does not maintain formal sanctions against Myanmar.

When Thein Sein began his tentative political reforms in 2011, South Korea resumed offering loans to the country for the first time since 2005. South Korea had temporarily halted lending because of the military junta's abysmal human-rights record, exhibited by the regime's brutal clampdown on anti-government protests in 2007.

Before 2005, South Korea had provided aid and grants worth an estimated US$120 million. South Korea also maintains various natural gas concessions in Myanmar waters. The resumption of South Korean lending will give the Myanmar economy a much-needed boost while it undertakes badly needed reforms to its distorted financial architecture.

Washington is wagering that the carrot of removing economic sanctions will influence Myanmar to move away from North Korea and a potential nuclear brinksmanship scenario. That trade-off and the promise of less international isolation probably look increasingly attractive from Thein Sein's perspective.

Kim Jong-il's son and successor, Kim Jong-eun, is beginning his reign more isolated than either his father or grandfather, Kim Il-sung. Meanwhile, North Korea's past proliferation partners, Libya and Syria, are no longer reliable customers. And with Myanmar drifting into the US's orbit, an isolated Kim Jong-eun may be forced to negotiate a detente with the US and South Korea.

Instead, the evolving engagement between the US and Myanmar could serve as a guide for a potential US-North Korean accommodation. By tempering relations with the US and suspending its nuclear program, including cooperation with Iran, North Korea could be rewarded with reduced economic sanctions and with Western investments that mitigate Pyongyang's economic and financial dependence on China.

Both were apparently key motivations for Myanmar's recent diplomatic shift towards the US and potential drift away from rogue regimes like North Korea.

Jacob Zenn is a lawyer and international security analyst based in Washington, DC. He writes regularly on Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Nigeria and runs an open-source research, translation, and due diligence team through http://zopensource.net/ and can be reached at jaz@Zopensource.net.
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COMMENTARY
Bangkok Post - Much to look forward to in Myanmar
Published: 1/02/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Every road is leading to Myanmar and a number of Thai and foreign companies are joining the bandwagon as they don't want to miss the golden opportunities opening up next door.

I had a chance to visit Myanmar last month. After my four-day trip to several cities, I can say that this once-closed country will become very attractive in many areas once the long imposed trade sanctions by Western countries including the United States, are lifted.

In my opinion, the atmosphere in many big cities that I went to, is similar to that of Bangkok or Chiang Mai some 30-40 years ago.

I was quite impressed to see that people in Myanmar are very religious and go to pay respects to the Lord Buddha at temples near their homes and workplaces many times a day. Such a thing is rare in Thailand nowadays.

Our local guide said Myanmar, which could be dubbed "a sleeping tiger", is turning over and waking up from a long sleep. Its people are pinning their hopes on future economic development, now that the country's military regime is shifting towards democracy.

He complimented our tour group and said Thai businessmen should invest more in his country. The Burmese people like Thailand, and millions of them have come to work here. Moreover, they consider Thai-made products to be luxury items due to their high quality. I was not completely taken in by these sweet words, however.

It is undeniable that Myanmar has a lot of opportunities awaiting investors from around the world and Thailand should make the most of this. We are already so close, it only takes an hour by plane to reach the commercial capital of Yangon.

Myanmar is rich in natural resources and cultural heritage, and if the country uses these two boons efficiently, it could develop very quickly and attract a lot of tourists.

And if the few million Myanmar workers currently here in Thailand should decide to return home, what would Thailand do? We would be in short supply of maids and factory workers. At present our country has a serious labour shortage, so we have no choice but to rely on foreign workers.

And have you heard about the Dawei industrial development project in the eastern part of Myanmar? It is 10 times bigger than Rayong's Map Ta Phut industrial estate. If this project really takes shape, it will draw a lot of foreign investment for sure and this will eventually affect Thailand. (It is not my intention to make Thai factory owners nervous; what I am saying is that we should prepare ourselves to take on a different role, so as to make the most of the precious opportunities opening up across the border.)

Indeed, Thai companies should invest in Myanmar, using their own strengths and production advantages to establish a presence there. It's time the Thai people learned to speak Burmese and familiarised themselves with the food and culture there. We could also take on the role of an elder brother, assisting a younger sibling to stand and walk firmly.

Myanmar's growth will be good for Thailand as well. One point we cannot overlook is that we ourselves will need to develop a step further so as not to compete for cheap labour. We must increase the value of our products and make more high-end goods.

In the area of tourism, Thailand will have to find new angles and products to attract more foreign visitors because our eco-tourism sites are probably not as fresh and exciting as the places now opening up in Myanmar. If Thailand can find a new selling point, we will be able to maintain our leadership in regional tourism and continue to advance alongside our neighbouring country because the Thai brand remains strong in the world community.

My Myanmar guide told me one thing I won't easily forget. Everything is in a flux, he said. Myanmar used to be the centre of development in Southeast Asia 40 years ago; then it suffered a serious setback brought on by decades of military rule. Now the sleeping tiger has awoken, and as it increases speed to catch up on developments, it might even overtake Thailand _ if the Thais don't stop fighting among themselves. Dare I believe him? The truth of his statement should become clear in the very near future.

Krissana Parnsoonthorn is Deputy Business Editor, Bangkok Post.
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The Nation - Burma relaxes foreign currency exchange controls
February 1, 2012 6:08 pm

Rangoon - Burma's government on Wednesday relaxed rules on legitimate money exchangers, allowing them to swap up to 10,000 dollars into the kyat currency without documentation from Burmese nationals.

Under the previous rules, Burmese nationals with identity cards could only buy or sell a maximum of 2,000 dollars daily at official foreign exchange outlets.

Those seeking to exchange more than 2,000 dollars needed to provide evidence of how they had acquired the foreign currency. As of Wednesday, the limit was hiked to 10,000 dollars without documentation, bank sources said.

The exchange rate Wednesday was 820 kyat for 1 dollar, compared with the black market rate of 810 kyat.
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Asia News Network - Gold rush to Burma as country opens up
Businessmen from the US, Germany and Japan flock to the country in search of the next big thing
Nirmal Ghosh, The Straits Times
Publication Date : 01-02-2012

The region's latest gold rush is on, and all the roads, it appears, are leading to Burma.

As the government opens up the previously tightly-controlled economy and accelerates reforms, and as some Western-imposed sanctions get lifted, businessmen from the United States, Germany and Japan, among others, have been flocking to the country in search of the next big thing.

For weeks now, business hotels in Rangoon have been running at full occupancy, while real estate prices have shot up and so have rentals, the result of the influx of foreigners. Investors are scouting for opportunities in a country with much untapped potential across the board, from mining and energy to tourism and telecommunications.

"Things are beginning to fall into place in Myanmar (Burma)," observed Singapore-based Manu Bhaskaran, chief executive of Centennial Asia Advisors. "Obviously there is risk, but clearly there is momentum."

That momentum is evident in the growing number of visits by businessmen from around the world.

This month, an American delegation is due to visit. Last month, billionaire George Soros went, and said he would set up an office to facilitate philanthropic work. In December last year, a group of executives from Germany's biggest bank and its government investment arm visited, as did a Japanese team of corporates from Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsui, Itochu, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, and Marubeni.

Investors from as far away as Norway, Brazil and Russia have expressed interest in Burma's energy sector, while neighbours China, India, Thailand and Vietnam have held trade shows in Rangoon or dropped by to explore infrastructure projects.

The keen interest follows the rapid political and economic reforms that Burma's government has been carrying out, at a pace that has surprised even critics. On Monday, in an exclusive interview with The Straits Times, President Thein Sein pledged his commitment to the reforms, saying they will go on until Burma achieves a "flourishing democracy".

International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive Meral Karasulu, after a mission to Burma early last month, told reporters: "Myanmar has a high growth potential and could become the next economic frontier in Asia, if it can turn its rich natural resources, young labour force, and proximity to some of the most dynamic economies in the world into its advantage."
Indeed, there is vast opportunity in the country of 62 million, Asean's biggest after Indonesia. It boasts natural resources such as gas deposits, has a large, young workforce, and offers many opportunities in tourism and infrastructure development.

But, as Bhaskaran pointed out, numerous risks remain in doing business in a country that has just emerged from decades of military dictatorship.

Among the problems, it has a poorly developed financial sector, a very small stock market, an unsettling dual foreign exchange rate, and frequent power shortages. There is no statutory minimum wage, and health care and educational systems have been eroded. Young people in Burma today speak less English than those in their 60s.

"There is certainly a gold rush, but at the same time, a lot of money is still off the table," noted professor Sean Turnell, head of the Burma Economic Watch unit at Australia's Macquarie University. "People are visiting and recognising that there is good potential, but they are still cautious."

One of the key barriers is the massive gap between the official and black market rate for the kyat - 6.5 kyat to US$1 versus about 800 kyat to US$1 on the latter - which complicates business.

Another key issue is labour law reform, needed to protect both employers and workers. A new law allowing trade unions to be formed has not yet taken effect because the rules have not been finalised, although they could be ready in weeks. A new law covering labour disputes is also in the works.

The country could also find a shortage of skilled workers, which could see many locals returning from abroad - including Singapore - to take up the new jobs when investments take root. Sceptics also warn of 'potential volatility' in the reforms.

But analysts noted that the government is making moves in the right direction, such as making plans to empower its central bank to fix the exchange rate issue, and working to set up market structures for trade.

"At the top level they are genuinely trying and would like to do it as soon as possible," observed Turnell.

Thein Sein, who is now in Singapore on a state visit, this week also signed an agreement for Singapore to train Burmese officials in a wide range of sectors, from legal, banking and financial to trade and tourism.

Bhaskaran pointed out that such constraints were not unlike those found in China and Vietnam when those countries began opening up.

"These are problems but they are not insurmountable," he said. "With some economic sanctions being reduced, and economic and political reform, the momentum will soon become unstoppable."
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The Epoch Times - Military-Backed Rule Blurs Hopes for Democracy in Burma
By Kremena Krumova
Epoch Times Staff Created: January 31, 2012 Last Updated: February 1, 2012

Nearly unimaginable a year ago, the recent reforms in Burma—releasing political prisoners, allowing democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to run for Parliament, loosening censorship, and holding peace talks with armed ethnic groups—have been widely lauded and even rewarded by Western governments. In the last month, the United States restored diplomatic relations with Burma (also called Myanmar), and the EU removed travel bans on top officials.

Yet the reforms are inherently fragile, supported only by good will, and not rule of law. The country’s less than democratic constitution and the lack of transparency over who is really governing the country, means that any change could be reversed at any moment.

“If we are saying we are going toward democracy, these undemocratic elements in the constitution have to change,” says Dr. Sein Win, Burma’s prime minister-in-exile, who lives in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Sein Win, a first cousin to Suu Kyi, is chairman of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the government-in-exile. The NCGUB was formed in the aftermath of the 1990 general election that Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide and the junta ignored.

A guiding principle of the NCGUB is that once democracy and human rights are restored in Burma it will dissolve. That time has yet to come.

Under Burma’s Constitution—drafted by the military generals in 2008 and endorsed in a sham referendum—the military has an enshrined role in political leadership in the form of the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), a permanent military institution.

The NDSC has 11 members, including the president, two vice presidents, the commander in chief, his deputy, and two speakers, and four key ministers—foreign affairs, home affairs, defense, and border affairs. The latter three ministries all go to the military, or “Tatmadaw,” effectively giving them majority voice in the council.

Moreover, 25 percent of seats in the national Parliament and regional assemblies are also reserved for Tatmadaw members.

And although the president appoints the commander in chief, the military chief has a strong say in ruling the country through his ministers. He can also suspend all “fundamental rights” “if necessary” during an emergency, although formally he needs presidential approval.

After the November 2010 election, the country’s first in 20 years, the ruling junta was dissolved and power was handed to a quasi-civilian government under President Thein Sein, a former general. The 2008 constitution also remains in place.

Win says the real power in Burma, therefore, is still in the hands of the army, which means that without the agreement of the commander in chief, nothing substantial can happen.
It is possible, the army supports democratic reform, but Win says without a real change to the constitution, those reforms can be reversed at any time.

“Only reforms are not enough—they have to be backed by law,” said the PM-in-exile.

Achieving this is what’s tricky. Tim Aye-Hardy, director of the New York-based Burma Global Action Network, describes the current constitution as intentionally designed to create significant confusion and a lack of consistency between the president, parliament, and the military.

“This is what they [the generals] have planned for so long to happen and I feel like the international community and Daw Suu are somehow compelled to play along with it.” Daw is an honorific affectionately used to refer to Suu Kyi.

Following the plan, Suu Kyi and the NLD are allowed to run for government in by-elections in April. Out of 664 seats in Parliament, 48 are vacant. If elections are fair, the NLD can be expected to win all of them.

Window of Opportunity

But while 48 seats, or roughly 7 percent of Parliaments, are not enough to impose legislative changes, some feel that it’s positive that the opposition will be in Parliament at all.

“A small window of hope is about to open by having Daw Suu and other NLD members in the Parliament, that she might be able to persuade the MPs from the military and majority party (USDP) to support any proposed bills and overturn existing unjust laws,” said Aye-Hardy.

Then the proposed changes need to be taken up by the president who he has to “convince or impose” them on the military, said Paul Copeland, a Toronto-based lawyer and longtime activist for democracy in Burma.

“Suu Kyi can initiate the changes but the president has to drive them. If he is not interested in these changes, it is not going to happen. But I think he is,” said Copeland.

The lawyer says that even if the military still has the say in Burma, the country has gone a long way away from absolute control.

“It would be unfair to the president, to say that the military are ruling behind the scenes, as he has been the one driving democracy in Burma. I think the president has to be given credit.”

The release of 651 prisoners earlier this month came after a presidential amnesty. The NLD was allowed to register for the by-elections under President Thein Sein, and he displayed good will in meeting Suu Kyi after her release from detention shortly after the November elections.

Last week, Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin declared the reforms in Burma “irreversible.” And in President Thein Sein’s first interview with foreign media, he told the Washington Post that he vowed to bring peace and stability to the Burmese people and all ethnic groups.

Believing Too Soon?

Still, the extent of the president’s power has been questioned. Only half of those released in the amnesty were political prisoners, leaving several hundred dissidents behind bars.

And despite peace talks and ordering a ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army, government troops have continued to attack ethnic Kachin bases in northern Burma.
It begs the question of who is really calling the shots in Burma.

“The real power is in the ex-Commander in Chief Than Shwe, while the current one, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seems to be the paper tiger,” says Kanbawza Win, former foreign affairs secretary to the prime minister of Burma in the 1970s, who now lives in exile in Canada.

Commenting via email from Vancouver, Kanbawza Win says Shwe still influences the NDSC and is pulling the strings behind the scenes. The ex-official doesn’t believe the government or the generals will ever change their mentality and will thus cling to the current constitution in order to remain “the only pebble in the beach.”

In the article titled “Why Should the West Fall into the Burmese Trap,” published in Burma Digest, Kanbawza Win warns, “The West should not be carried away by some cosmetic reforms and that Burma’s long-ruling military still wields enormous power despite a veneer of democracy provided by the sham elections with a dubious constitution.”

When it comes to lifting economic sanctions on Burma, most experts agree that without real reforms, the gesture does nothing to help the Burmese people, and will only benefit the regime and its cronies.

“We should all be aware that economic hardships and severe poverty that people of Burma are facing are the direct results of the decades of economic mismanagement by the regime and plunder of the country’s natural resources for their own personal benefits, not because of sanctions imposed by the Western countries,” says Aye-Hardy.

Thus many Burma activists argue that the best course is for the West to offer cautious support for the changes, and remain vigilant about protecting interests of the people in one of the poorest countries in the world.

“It’s important that the international community remains strong in its approach on Burma until there is genuine and deeper political reforms taking place. What people in Burma want is the release of all political prisoners and a nationwide ceasefire that leads to a long-term political settlement through national reconciliation,” wrote Zoya Phan from Burma Campaign U.K. in an email from London.
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February 1, 2012 3:38 pm
The Financial Times - Myanmar’s dissident media feels pinch amid reforms
By Gwen Robinson in Chiang Mai

With its bold, politically charged covers and reports on everything from prison conditions to ethnic conflicts in Myanmar, the Irrawaddy magazine became famous for its reliable reporting when independent media was being brutally suppressed inside the country.

Set up by young activists who fled Myanmar after the 1988 military crackdown Irrawaddy, from its base in Thailand, developed into an influential voice advocating changes that are now playing out in Myanmar, from the release of political prisoners to the lifting of censorship and promises of free elections.

Yet just as the world welcomes Myanmar’s move out of diplomatic isolation, the final print edition of the magazine will be published this week. In some respects it is the victim of its own success.

Despite a tiny circulation of about 5,000 and an annual subscription of just $50, the Irrawaddy magazine has helped “shape international policy [on Myanmar] over two decades, and we’re proud of that,” said managing editor Kyaw Zwa Moe.

As Aung Zaw, chief editor, founder and brother of Kyaw Zwa Moe, puts it, the Irrawaddy is both beneficiary and casualty of recent reforms. “If real change is coming to Myanmar, it’s an equally big transition for us,” he said.

A funding crisis nearly killed off the magazine after Myanmar’s November 2010 elections. While widely condemned as flawed, the poll put some opposition activists into parliament and prompted some donors to cut funding to exiles such as Irrawaddy in favour of groups inside Myanmar, in order to “encourage” early signs of reform, as one diplomat explained.

The two brothers who felt strongly about continuing the magazine, decided to turn the journal into a quarterly and boost Irrawaddy’s online content. In recent months its online readership has soared, to nearly 6m page views per month from about 2.5m since Myanmar lifted online censorship in August, according to its figures in late 2011.

The numbers “ring true,” noted a western aid donor. “The Irrawaddy has become very popular with Burmese readers.”

Even so as Myanmar’s nominally civilian government rolls out ambitious reforms, aid donors have shifted funding priorities. Among the Irrawaddy’s key donors, at least two European governments have withdrawn funding.

Some European countries, including Denmark and Norway, have increased spending on NGOs within Myanmar at the expense of exile groups. Many donors have criticised the “dependence mentality” among exiles and are tightening criteria for funding, said a UK aid official.

“Donors are getting exhausted, not just from supporting groups like us, but the whole [dissident] movement,” noted Mr Aung Zaw, “but it’s not all bad, this will make us more independent, stronger”.

But other donors, among them the Open Society Foundations of billionaire investor George Soros, who recently opened an office for philanthropic activities in Yangon, are maintaining funding for exile groups and in Irrawaddy’s case, have increased assistance.

“With some of the recent changes in Burma, the press seem somewhat freer, but the laws regulating media are still on the books – none have been revoked,” said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of OSF’s Myanmar programme.

Other Myanmar watchers fear the Irrawaddy’s demise signifies the premature end of exile groups that have played a valuable role with their critical eye and well-placed sources inside the country.

The Irrawaddy was “a very good source of information”, said Bertil Lintner, a prominent commentator and author on Myanmar. “It would be a pity if the exiled media disappeared. No one knows how long the so-called ‘spring’ inside Burma will last. The situation there is not irreversible.”

While censorship may appear to have eased, below the surface, it is still pervasive and news journals must submit articles for official approval, say Yangon-based journalists. “At this time, we’re facing some of the hardest censorship we’ve known – it’s so ironic,” one local journalist remarked.

“Of course it’s sad, to let this successful and influential magazine fade away,” said Mr Kyaw Zwa Moe. “For Burma, such a print magazine is still essential, not only now but in the future. But at least we have the websites to continue our mission.”
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COMMENTARY
The Irrawaddy - The ‘Rule of Law’ in Burma
By STEPHEN BLOOM Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Over the past several months, Burma’s pro-democracy icon and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has constantly repeated the refrain that the government must establish the “rule of law.”

That’s a worthwhile goal, as well as a necessary achievement if Burma is going to raise the quality of life and standard of living for its 54 million long-oppressed and impoverished people.

In the words of William H. Neukom, the president of the World Justice Project (WJP), “The rule of law is the foundation for communities of opportunity and equity—it is the predicate for the eradication of poverty, violence, corruption, pandemics and other threats to civil society.”

But what does the “rule of law” mean?

The answer is important, because if Suu Kyi cannot articulate, communicate and get general agreement on what the “rule of law” means to the Burmese people, it threatens to become just a political slogan rather than a tangible goal towards which objective progress can be measured.

This is easier said than done, however, because just like the term “democracy,” there are many different interpretations of the “rule of law.” As a result, for Suu Kyi to both define and gain a shared understanding of the rule of law may be the political equivalent of rounding up a school of fish with her bare hands. But it is important that she try.

Even legal scholars and political scientists cannot agree on the meaning of the rule of law. On a macro level, the people wishing to nail down the concept fall into two camps: the proponents of a “thick” definition and the proponents of a “thin” definition.

A thick definition of the rule of law would include both adequate procedures to ensure that Burma is “a government of laws and not of men,” as well as substantive laws that protect fundamental human and democratic rights.

The UN secretary-general’s definition of the rule of law provides an example:

The rule of law is “a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards.

It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.”

This is a good definition, and if broken down could be one useful way of measuring Burma’s progress towards the rule of law.

But the problem with adopting a definition which is too “thick” is that it allows a great deal of discretion by both authorities and citizens, uses terms that are vague and difficult to define, and therefore runs counter to important aspects of the rule of law.

The risk is that anyone who believes a law is unfair or was not democratically adopted could choose not to abide by it and argue that the action is justified.

For this reason, the advocates of a “thin” definition say that the term “rule of law” should apply to procedures only—i.e., that a law must be prospective, well-known and have characteristics of generality, equality, and certainty, but the content of the law and how it was adopted are irrelevant.

The “thin” definition, however, would allow the Burmese government to argue that the rule of law exists even if democracy and individual rights do not, which is clearly problematic.

The former chief justice of South Africa, Arthur Chaskalson, had a persuasive response to those who argue for a strictly “thin” definition.

He pointed out that the apartheid government was accountable in accordance with laws that were clear, publicized, and stable, and were upheld by law enforcement officials and judges. But the process by which the laws were made in South Africa under apartheid was not fair because only whites, a minority of the population, had the right to vote, and the laws themselves were not fair because they institutionalized discrimination, vested broad discretionary powers in the executive and failed to protect fundamental rights.

Without a substantive content, Chaskalson said, there is no answer to the criticism that the rule of law is “an empty vessel into which any law could be poured.”

Even the US could be used as an example of what happens when a definition that is too “thin” is adhered to.

Before the Bill of Rights was adopted, could it really be said that the US had the rule of law?

In any event, even if certain fundamental rights are not technically within the definition of the “rule of law,” they are still factors worth striving for, and so measurement of them should go hand in hand with measurement of the rule of law and should not be dismissed on a legal technicality.

It remains important, however, to understand the competing concepts of the rule of law, because if members of Burma’s political opposition fail to understand the debate, they risk being manipulated by those with personal vested interests on one side or the other.

The WJP has endeavored to strike a fair and measurable balance between the two definitions, and has fleshed out the components and meaning of the rule of law in an index that any opposition politician or activist in Burma would be well-served to become familiar with.

The Rule of Law Index developed by the WJP is based on four universal principles that incorporate ten different dimensions of the rule of law, all of which will be critical to Burma’s political, legal and economic development.

The WJP’s first universal principle is that a government and its officials are accountable under the law.

This means that government officials are subject to the law the same as any citizen, their powers are limited by laws, checks and balances, an independent judiciary and the freedom of the press, and they are punished for misconduct.

It also means that the government is not corrupt—i.e. that government officials exercise their functions without improper influence and do not request or receive bribes or misappropriate public funds or other resources.

The WJP’s second universal principal is that the laws are clear, publicized, stable, and fair, and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property.

If the factors making up this second principal are in place, the general public knows what the law is and what conduct is permitted and prohibited.

In addition, if the rule of law is in place and enforced, then the general public does not fear for their safety or their property. Crime is under control and people do not resort to violence to redress personal grievances.

Finally, the second universal principle says that the fundamental rights of equal treatment and non-discrimination under the law are guaranteed and applied, as well as the right to due process of law, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly and association, fundamental labor rights and other similar rights that bear an essential relationship to the rule of law.

The principle does not include, however, all of the social, economic, and cultural rights that could be found, for example, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This does not mean these rights are unimportant, just that they should not be included in measuring progress towards the rule of law.

The third WJP principle is that the process by which the laws are enacted, administered and enforced is accessible, fair and efficient.

This means that government proceedings are open to the public and official information is reasonably available. It also means that regulations are effectively enforced and applied fairly, equally and without improper influence, and that the government does not expropriate private property without adequate compensation.

This principle does not address, however, the question of whether the laws are enacted by democratically elected representatives, and therefore implies that countries without Western-style democracies can still have the rule of law.

Access to government must still be present, however, and the indications of whether this is the case include whether lawmaking proceedings are held with timely notice and are open to the public; whether the lawmaking process provides an opportunity for diverse viewpoints to be considered; and whether records of legislative and administrative proceedings and judicial decisions are available to the public.

Fairness in the administration of the law includes the absence of improper influence by public officials or private interests, the adherence to due process of law in administrative procedures and the absence of government takings of private property without adequate compensation.

The fourth and final WJP principle is that access to justice is provided by competent, independent and ethical judges and attorneys who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.

This means that the general public is aware of available remedies and can access and afford legal counsel in civil disputes. It also means that civil justice is impartial, free of improper influence and unreasonable delays, and is effectively enforced.

With respect to the criminal justice system, it means that the system of adjudication is timely, effective, impartial and free from outside influence.

In other words, the due process of law and rights of the accused are effectively protected.

The WJP Rule of Law Index provides a series of benchmarks for measuring a government’s progress towards the rule of law. While its 2011 Rule of Law Index assessed 66 countries, the WJP has never measured Burma.

The World Bank, however, includes the rule of law in its World Governance Indicators project that assesses the quality of good governance in 213 countries, and has rated Burma in the bottom 5 percent of those countries with respect to the rule of law in every year since 2002.

Even without any outside reports, the clear reality to any Burmese citizen or Burma observer is that the country does not presently have anything approaching the rule of law, and the Burmese government would abjectly fail almost every aspect of an assessment using the WJP’s universal rule of law principles and their components.

Blame for this could easily be assessed, and would no doubt lie with many of those currently in charge of Burma’s government. But although justice may require an assessment of blame, it is not necessary for the purpose of determining where Burma stands today, what reforms are needed and how much progress the government is making in the future.

As the WJP points out, no country is perfect when it comes to the rule of law, and what is an acceptable outcome for Burma depends on circumstances and cultural factors that its citizens have the right to determine.

Under any definition, however, it is clear that Burma is starting from scratch when it comes to the rule of law, and that practices and habits that are deeply embedded in the
government, the military and even the society will have to change if anything approaching the rule of law is to be achieved.

This will be a long and arduous process, but it should begin with as much of a shared understanding as possible among the Burmese people as to what the ultimate goal is and what the benchmarks along the way will be.

For this to happen, Suu Kyi and her opposition colleagues need to educate the public about what exactly they mean when calling for the rule of law in Burma.

Therefore, while effective politics must be concise and not get bogged down in academic nuances, it would be a good idea for Burma’s opposition leaders to add a few more details to their stump speeches.

For example, Suu Kyi could explain to her supporters that that her call for the rule of law means that :

Government officials are accountable to the people, subject to the same laws as everyone else and not corrupt.

Everyone is treated equally under the law, is given due process of law and is protected by the law.

The people’s freedoms of expression, assembly and belief are protected.

All laws are clear, public and prospective, and every person has access to the justice system.

The judiciary is independent and free from outside influence.

All laws are enacted in a transparent process that every citizen can witness and participate in.

If Suu Kyi fleshes out the rule of law with basic statements such as these and repeats them often enough so that everyone understands what she means by the term, she will have developed a platform for progress rather just a slogan for political victory.

In addition, she will put those in power on clear notice of what the opposition expects from them. Making specific proposals shines a spotlight on the ruling powers, because every proposal that is rejected can be framed as a rejection of the rule of law in Burma’s quest for democracy.

In that respect, if President Thein Sein really wants reform, then he would be well-advised to actually invite the WJP into Burma to perform an independent assessment. This would not only demonstrate his commitment to rule of law, but give his government an objective understanding of where Burma stands today.

Although many factors will determine how fast the country can progress towards the rule of law, if power players can be convinced it is in their own best interest, rule of law reforms will move faster. As a result, it may ultimately be the demands of potential investors that spur rule of law reform efforts in Burma.

Care should be taken, however, to ensure that rule of law reforms happen across the board and protect the rights of all citizens, not just the economic rights of the powerful, the elite and the foreign investment community.

It must be also stressed that while democracy is not necessarily a component of the rule of law, it is one of the best ways of ensuring that the rule of law exists. In addition, while it may be possible to have the rule of law without true democracy, Burma cannot have a true democracy without the rule of law.

So if Burmese leaders want to be taken seriously when they say they are on the path to democracy, they must simultaneously be on the path to establishing the rule of law.

Stephen Bloom graduated from Georgetown University Law School in Washington D.C. and previously practiced law in the US for more than 10 years.
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Property Prices Rocket by Dawei Deep-Sea Port
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Property and land prices in Dawei, also known as Tavoy, in southernmost Burma have sky-rocketing to hundreds of millions of kyat due to the development of the nearby Thai-backed deep-sea port project, claim local businessmen.

Real estate prices are highest around Ar Zar Ni Road, in downtown Dawei, where most private banks have opened branch offices. A businessman in Dawei said, “The prices go up because more commercial companies want to open branch offices and hotels in Dawei.”

According to local people, even land measuring just 40 by 60 feet can costs 200-300 million kyat. And despite the sky-rocketing prices, businesspeople have been clamoring to acquire land and property. Max Myanmar Company reportedly just purchased real estate in downtown Dawei for hundreds of millions of kyat.

Prices increased when the deep-sea port project began as speculators tried to make a quick profit, but these later came down and stablised.

“Then after Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo’s visit, prices went up again,” said a Dawei resident.

Tin Aung Myint Oo visited the Dawei project last month to oversee proposed renovations to the airport and continued construction work.

A property agent from Dawei said that land near the airport is also interesting buyers. He added that there will be more high prices in Dawei because of plans to expand the airport and deep-sea port.

The Italian-Thai Development Company originally invested in the Dawei deep-sea port project and now Japan and other Asian countries are conducting studies to determine whether to get onboard.

More than a thousand engineers and labors from Thailand and Burma are also working on road construction projects.

The Dawei deep-sea port project has courted controversy with campaigners worried about the adverse affect to the environment and forced relocation of local villages.

Some 4,000 megawatts of electrical power is required to run the industrial zone, which includes a coal facility that experts say will severely impact the livelihoods of local people.

The Burmese and Thai governments signed a contract in May 2008 to begin construction on the Technical Zone in Dawei deep-sea port.

The project is eight times bigger than the Map Ta Phut Industrial Zone in Rayong, Thailand, according to the Foundation for Ecological Recovery.

Map Ta Phut is estimated to have cost some 370 billion baht (US $10.5 billion) while the Dawei project is estimated at around 303 billion baht ($8.6 billion).
Dawei would become Burma's first Special Economic Zone, which includes plans to develop a 250 square-kilometre industrial estate with sea and land links to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as a gas pipeline to Thailand through Kanchanaburi Province.
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The Irrawaddy - NMSP, Govt Reach Five-point Agreement
By LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Burmese government reached a tentative five-point agreement on Wednesday following a second round of peace talks held in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State, according to Mon sources.

Nai Soe Myit, one of the NMSP representatives who took part in the talks, told The Irrawaddy that the two sides agreed to stop fighting; to hold political talks at the Union government level; to open liaison offices; not to allow weapons to be held in certain restricted areas; and to base troops only at agreed-upon locations.

The NMSP leaders did not sign the agreement on Wednesday, but will present it at a Central Committee meeting to be held next week. If approved, the agreement could be signed in the third week of February.

The Mon delegation, led by NMSP Vice-Chairman Nai Rot Sa, included seven senior party members, four Mon community leaders and three Mon Buddhist monks.

At the meeting, the government's chief negotiator, Railways Minister Aung Min, also agreed to a request from the Mon delegation to allow the Mon language to be used in schools and to release two Mon political prisoners, Min Nay Win (aka Nai Yekha) and Min Myo Thwe, who are currently serving life sentences.

“Aung Min told us that his government will release Mon political prisoners when the NMSP becomes a legal party,” said Nai Soe Myit.

The Mon leaders said that the decision to allow students in predominantly Mon areas to use their native language in public schools was also mentioned by Ohn Myint, the chief minister of Mon State, during dinner on Tuesday evening.

Regarding future political discussions, the NMSP repeated its calls for a nationwide ceasefire that includes all ethnic armed groups, and said it wants talks on political issues to take place within 45 days, with the participation of outside observers.

After the first phase of bilateral talks, the NMSP wants to take part in multilateral negotiations that include other ethnic political parties and the opposition National League for Democracy, the Mon leaders said.

Nai Soe Myit said that the agreement reached on Wednesday was unlike the one the NMSP signed in 1995 with former military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt because this time,
political talks were on the table.

Also an the agenda was economic development. Aung Min told the Mon leaders that they should open an economic zone in Three Pagodas Pass, in NMSP-controlled territory on the Thai-Burmese border, and invite Thai companies, according to sources.

The NMSP held its first peace talks with Aung Min on Dec. 22 in the Thai border town of Sangkhlaburi, near Three Pagodas Pass.
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Quintana to visit Karen and Mon states
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 15:04 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – The United Nations human rights envoy to Burma will visit Hpaan in Karen State and Mawlamyine in Mon State to assess the plight of Burmese ethnic groups.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, who arrived on Wednesday, will also meet with the speakers of the two houses of Parliament and a number of ministers including those of foreign affairs, defense, border affairs, home affairs and information.

During his last trip to Burma in August 2011, he welcomed the government's reform efforts and acknowledged steps in improving its human rights situation.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the government’s democratic reforms so far and said he planned to Burma the country soon to have further discussions with the authorities.

“I am very pleased and encouraged by what the current Myanmar authorities led by President Thein Sein have been doing, including the releasing of political prisoners,” Ban said in New York.
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Burma joins naval exercises
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 12:18 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – The Burmese navy took part in a joint exercise organized by the Indian Navy off the strategic Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, local media reported on Tuesday.

Warships and delegations from 14 countries of the Asia-Pacific region will participate in the “Milan” exercise, which will focus on countering maritime terrorism, piracy and poaching as well as search and rescue operations and capacity building, the Times of India quoted officials as saying.

Navy ships from Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Maldives, the Seychelles and Mauritius took part in the exercise.

One naval concern in the region is the protection of sea-lanes through the Malacca Strait. An estimated 60,000 ships sail through it every year, carrying around 30 percent of the world trade in goods.

An Indian officer said: “India’s central location in the Indian Ocean, astride these major commercial routes and energy lifelines, makes us a major stakeholder in the region's security and stability.”
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Suu Kyi on poverty tour in Magway region
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 18:32 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Aung San Suu Kyi observed poverty alleviation programs on Tuesday in Myaing Township in the Magway Region.

Her visit included British and Australian diplomats who accompanied her to Paypintike and Kyittee villages to observe programs in education, agriculture, health and business.

“The British government has launched international development funds, and some of them have been allocated to fight poverty,” said security official Khun Thar Myint who accompanied Suu Kyi.

The Department for International Development [DFID], a United Kingdom governmental department, has earmarked 300 million pounds for Burma from 2012 to 2015 to aid in poverty alleviation, to be delivered through UN organizations, international and local NGOs and social organizations.

During the trip, Suu Kyi observed small-scale sewing enterprises, a bakery and agricultural projects, all intended to employ and empower villagers.

In reply to Suu Kyi’s questions, villagers talked about the need for more water for agricultural and other needs. Suu Kyi said she would help the villagers to overcome those difficulties and urged them to venture out and try to do more.

Suu Kyi did not inform the public in advance about her visit, officials said, because the trip had nothing to do with politics and canvassing. However, very large groups of supporters turned out along the Bagan-NyaungU-Pakokku-Myaing route, according to reporters who accompanied Suu Kyi’s trip.

“During her round trip, there were many supporters, especially in Pakokku. The ides of the roads were very crowded with supporters, and drivers could not drive fast. Our cars took more than three hours for a one-hour trip. Many people welcomed her. They welcomed her with various styles. In Myaing, people welcomed her by banging Burmese drums,” a reporter who accompanied her told Mizzima.

A woman told Mizzima, “I’m over 20. In the past, I have seen her only in photos. Now, I have seen her in the real world. She’s too much prettier than in her photos. When I approached her to give flowers, there was a big crowd, so I had to shove to get to her.”
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DVB News - Burmese warships join Indian naval drill
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 1 February 2012

Burma is among 14 countries to take part in a joint naval exercise with India today in the Bay of Bengal, with the show of force likely to trigger concern in China that its close ally to the south is being drawn further into New Delhi’s orbit.

The five-day naval drill, known as the Milan exercise, is focused on joint efforts at combating piracy and terrorism in the strategically key waters off eastern India. Burma’s maritime territory also extends into the Bay of Bengal.

The Times of India said that of particular concern to regional countries is the stability of the Malacca Straits beneath Singapore, through which up to 60,000 vessels pass each year transporting cargo to and from Asia-Pacific economies. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, around which this week’s exercises will take place, act as a gateway to the strait.

That choke-point is also a key route for Middle Eastern and African oil bound for China, which has already signalled concern about US warships that patrol beneath Singapore, and the potential for it to be cut off.

The sight of warships that belong to countries like India and Vietnam, whose relations with China are strained, carrying out joint drills in the Bay of Bengal is sure to unnerve Beijing, which has sought to develop an alternative to the Malacca Straits with the trans-Burma Shwe oil and gas pipelines.

China’s once unrestrained ability to tap Burma’s natural resources took a knock last October when Naypyidaw announced a decision to scrap the Myitsone Dam in Kachin state, which was financed by Beijing and whose output would have fed China’s southern Yunnan province.

The decision pointed to a growing unease within the Burmese government at its economic reliance on China, and Burma’s leaders will now seek to draw themselves away from Beijing through boosting economic and security cooperation with India.

Burma’s foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, was in New Delhi last week on a four-day visit where he met with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna – the latter said after the talks that the two country’s “security interests are intertwined”, particularly along their lengthy shared border where India separatist groups shelter, sometimes on Burmese soil.

But India and Burma’s security relations go further, with India thought to be one of a handful of countries that still supplies weaponry to the Burmese, although this thought to comprise mostly artillery which is destined mainly for Burmese army camps in its northwest close to where Indian separatist groups are located.
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DVB News - Budget revamp targets health, military
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 1 February 2012

Burma's parliament is due to discuss week a proposal to boost spending for health, education and the military (Reuters)

Parliament will soon vote over whether to approve a four-fold increase in government spending on healthcare in Burma, a sector that currently receives one of the lowest levels of state support in the world.

A budget proposal submitted to parliament this week by planning ministers could also see education spending double, from 4.1 percent of the government budget to 8.3 percent.

But what will likely irk Burmese is a push for more finance to be allocated to the military, which already accounts for 23.1 percent of spending, or around $US2 billion per year. If approved, that figure will climb to 25.1 percent in a country where the majority of military operations occur in the border regions in battles against ethnic armies.

The boost for the military does not include money already set aside for the Special Funds Law, a decree announced in March last year that allows the army chief to channel unlimited
finance to the military without parliamentary consent.

But for other sectors, the news is promising: only 1.3 percent of government spending, or $US2 per person each year, currently goes to healthcare. In comparison Thailand’s healthcare sector receives 11 percent.

Phone Myint Aung, an MP in the National Parliament, said the proposed budget would be debated next week. However he quoted Finance Minister Hla Tun who in parliament defended the proposed boost in military spending by arguing that Burma still spends far less than Thailand or Singapore, which spends around $US8 billion each year and which is a chief supplier of weaponry to Burma.

What the finance minister failed to note however, according to Phone Myint Aung, is the discrepancy in GDPs between the countries, with Singapore’s currently standing at around $222.7 billion and Burma’s less than $US85 billon.

Burma is also grappling with a debt of almost $US11 billion, Hla Tun admitted, but the economy is currently witnessing something of a transformation as the country attempts to open up to western investors. The IMF said last week that GDP could grow to six percent by 2013.
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DVB News - UN envoy to press govt on Kachin
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 31 January 2012

The UN’s special rapporteur for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, will arrive in Rangoon this afternoon to assess claims made by the government that it has embarked on a reform programme to bring to an end decades of human rights abuses against Burmese.

Exactly who he will meet has not been confirmed, according to the UN’s information officer in Rangoon, Aye Win. He is due to travel to the capital, Naypyidaw, tomorrow and hopes to meet top-level government officials, whilst holding talks with in-country UN teams.

Quintana said in a statement prior to the trip that “significant developments” have occurred in Burma in recent months, and that the country was witnessing an “important moment in [its] history”.

But the envoy has been among the more vocal critics of the government within the UN, and has consistently pushed for the release of all political prisoners and an end to protracted civil wars in the country’s border regions.

Jong-Gil Woo, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bangkok, who will also be travelling to Burma today, told DVB that Quintana will raise concerns about ongoing fighting in Kachin state in the north, which has forced up to 70,000 people from their homes. The UN was granted access to a number of refugees in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) late last year, but permission has not been given since.

Woo said there had been “no information on further access” to the refugees, but that Quintana would seek to convince the government to drop its guard on international assistance to those displaced since June last year.

Aye Win corroborated that UN teams in the country had been working on additional aid distribution since the December 2011 visit to the KIA’s headquarters in Laiza on the China border, but were “not at a stage when we can deliver another aid convoy”.

Also subject to speculation is the fate of a potential UN Commission of Inquiry into past crimes committed by the former junta, many of whose senior members, including President Thein Sein, are now in the government.

A number of countries, including the US and Britain, who had supported the creation of a probe appear to have retreated in the wake of reforms enacted by the government.

Quintana, who first raised the prospect of an inquiry by the UN last year, has not made any recent statements on the matter, although there is a feeling among the UN and former backers of a probe that it should be put on hold while the world gauges developments in Burma.

Woo said that Quintana has “not thrown that idea into the gutter, but his line is fundamentally that it is important to establish justice and accountability measures,” and that the “primary responsibility for accountability rests with the government”.

That sentiment was echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said during her December visit to Burma that “it’s important to try to give the new government and the opposition a chance to demonstrate they have their own approach toward achieving [accountability for past state crimes]”.
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ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ထာဝယ္စည္းရံုးေရး ခရီးစဥ္

2012-01-30T22:41:00.000-08:00

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။

ACR News

2012-01-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

ACR News (29.01.12)

ျမန္မာ့ လက္ေရြးစင္ တုိက္စစ္မွဴး ေက်ာ္ကိုကိုအား ဂ်ာမန္ကလပ္ ႏုရင္ဘတ္ ေဒၚလာ ၅သိန္း ၀န္းက်င္ျဖင့္ ကမ္းလွမ္း

2012-01-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

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။

88,Genaration Statement In Yangon

2012-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

Burma Yangoon Statement by the 88 Generation Students 21-01-2012 Burmese

ACR News

2012-01-21T04:10:00.000-08:00

ACR News (22.01.12)-1

အက္ကဲြေသာ္လည္း မၿပိဳက်သည့္ အလံုၿမိဳ႕နယ္ ရွစ္ထပ္တုိက္ ျပန္လည္ေနခြင့္ျပဳၿပီ

2012-01-20T21:31:00.001-08:00

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။

ထမီကၽြတ္၍ လႊတ္လိုုက္သည္

2012-01-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

“ထမီကၽြတ္၍ လႊတ္လိုုက္သည္” (ကာတြန္း ဘီ႐ုုမာ – မိုးမခ၀က္ဘ္ဆုိက္မွ)

ဗို္လ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညြန္႔ သို႔ အိတ္ဖြင့္ေပးစာ (၁)

2012-01-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

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."
******************************************************
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.
******************************************************
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.
******************************************************
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.
******************************************************
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."
******************************************************
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.
******************************************************
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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ဒီဗြီဘီ ေငြေၾကးအလြဲသံုးစားလုပ္သူ( ၂ ) ဦး နံမည္ႏွင္႔တကြ ေငြစာရင္းမ်ား၊ သက္ေသ အေထာက္အထားမ်ား ေပၚကုန္ပါျပီး

2012-01-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

ဇန္နဝါရီလ (၂၀) ရက္ေန့၊ ၂၀၁၂ ခုႏွစ္။ ေအာ္စလိုၿမို့
သတင္း......ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ Posted by ျမတ္ေလးငုံ
ေငြေၾကးအလြဲသံုးစားလုပ္ၿပီး ဘတ္ေငြ ႏွစ္သန္းခုနစ္သိန္းျဖင့္၂၀၀၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ဝယ္ယူခဲ့သည့္ ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမို့ ေနအိမ္

၁။ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ ျပည္တြင္းသတင္းလုပ္ငန္းကို ဦးေဆာင္သူမ်ားက လုပ္ငန္းအတြက္ သတ္မွတ္ေပးထားေသာ အဖြဲ့အစည္းပိုင္ ေငြမ်ားကို အလြဲသံုးစားျပုလုပ္ေနေၾကာင္း ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ အုပ္ခ်ုပ္ေရး တာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ားျဖစ္သည့္ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉးႏွင့္ လက္ေထာက္ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉးတို့က အေထာက္အထားအခိုင္အမာ ေတြ႕ရွိခဲ့သည္။ ေငြေၾကးစီမံခန့္ခြဲေရး အပါအဝင္ ျမန္မာျပည္တြင္းသတင္းလုပ္ငန္းကို ဦးေဆာင္တာဝန္ယူသူ ဦးမ်ိဳးမင္းနိုင္ (အမည္ခြဲမ်ား- ကိုေနထြန္း၊ ကိုနႏၵ၊ ကိုမ်ိဳးႀကီး) ႏွင့္ ဦးေအာင္မ်ိဳးေက်ာ္ (အမည္ခြဲမ်ား- ပြႀကီး၊ အရွည္ေလး) တို့ႏွစ္ဦးသည္ မမွန္ကန္ေသာ ေငြစာရင္းမ်ားတင္ျပကာ ပုဂၢိဳလ္ေရး အက်ိဳးစီးပြားအတြက္ အဖြဲ့ပိုင္ေငြေၾကးမ်ားကို မတရားရယူေနေၾကာင္း သက္ေသ အေထာက္အထားမ်ားအရ သိရသည္။ ထို့ေၾကာင့္ ယမန္ႏွစ္ စက္တင္ဘာလက ထိုေငြေၾကးအလြဲသံုးစားမႈကို အုပ္ခ်ုပ္ေရး တာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ားက ဘုတ္အဖြဲ့သို့တင္ျပခဲ့သည္။ ထိုအခ်ိန္မွစ၍ ဘုတ္အဖြဲ့က အဆိုပါ ေငြေၾကးအလြဲသံုးစားမႈကို တာဝန္ယူ စံုစမ္းေဖာ္ထုတ္ခဲ့သည္။

၂။ လြတ္လပ္၍ သမာသမတ္က်ေသာ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးမႈကို ဦးတည္ေသာအားျဖင့္ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး ဦးေအးခ်မ္းနိုင္ႏွင့္ လက္ေထာက္ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး ဦးခင္ေမာင္ဝင္းတို့သည္ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးမႈ ၿပီးသည္အထိ စီမံခန့္ခြဲေရးတာဝန္မွ ယာယီရပ္နားၿပီး အသံလႊင့္လုပ္ငန္းပိုင္းကိုသာ တာဝန္ယူခဲ့သည္။ ထိုကာလအတြင္း ဒီဗြီဘီ စီမံခန့္ခြဲေရးကို တာဝန္ယူရန္ ယာယီ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားမႉးအျဖစ္ ဦးဟန္ေညာင္ေရႊႏွင့္ ယာယီရံုးအုပ္ခ်ုပ္ေရးမႉးအျဖစ္ Ms. Vibeke Hermanrud တို့ကို ခန့္အပ္တာဝန္ေပးခဲ့သည္။

၃။ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးမႈျပုလုပ္ရန္ Price waterhouse Coopers (PwC) ကို ငွားရမ္းခဲ့သည္။ ေနာ္ေဝး နိုင္ငံႏွင့္ ထိုင္းနိုင္ငံတို့တြင္ အေျခစိုက္ေသာ PwC ရံုးခြဲမ်ားမွ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးေရးမႉး ေျခာက္ဦးသည္ ယမန္ႏွစ္ နိုဝင္ဘာလဆန္းမွစ၍ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးခဲ့သည္။ ေအာ္စလိုၿမို့ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ ရံုးခ်ုပ္ရွိ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ားကို ပထမေမးျမန္းၿပီး ေငြစာရင္းမ်ား၊ သက္ေသ အေထာက္အထားမ်ားကို စစ္ေဆးခဲ့သည္။ ေနာ္ေဝး PwC ရံုးမွ စစ္ေဆးေရးမႉးႏွစ္ဦးႏွင့္ ထိုင္းနိုင္ငံ PwC ရံုးမွ စစ္ေဆးေရးမႉး တဦးတို့က နိုဝင္ဘာလလယ္ပိုင္းတြင္ ထိုင္းနိုင္ငံအတြင္း စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးခဲ့သည္။

၄။ ယခုအခါ PwC က ၎တို့စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆး ေတြ႕ရွိခ်က္မ်ားကို အစီရင္ခံစာ ေရးသားထုတ္ျပန္လိုက္ၿပီျဖစ္သည္။ အဓိက ေတြ႕ရွိခ်က္မ်ားထဲတြင္ ေအာက္ပါအခ်က္မ်ား ပါဝင္သည္။

(က) ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ၏ ျပည္တြင္း သတင္းလုပ္ငန္း ကြန္ရက္ကို ၂၀၀၆ ခုႏွစ္ တည္ေထာင္ခ်ိန္မွစ၍ အခုအခ်ိန္ထိ တာဝန္ယူႀကီးၾကပ္ေနေသာ ေအာ္စလိုအေျခစိုက္ တာဝန္ခံ ဦးမ်ိဳးမင္းနိုင္ (အမည္ခြဲမ်ား- ကိုေနထြန္း၊ ကိုနႏၵ၊ ကိုမ်ိဳးႀကီး) ႏွင့္ ျပည္တြင္းသတင္းလုပ္ငန္းအတြက္ ေငြေၾကးကို မဲေဆာက္မွ ႀကီးၾကပ္သူ ဦးေအာင္မ်ိဳးေက်ာ္ (အမည္ခြဲမ်ား- ပြႀကီး၊ အရွည္ေလး) တို့ ႏွစ္ဦးမွာ အလြဲသံုးစားလုပ္သူမ်ား ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း PwC အစီရင္ခံစာ က ေထာက္ျပထားသည္။

(ခ) အလြဲသံုးစားလုပ္ခဲ့သည္ဟု PwC က အတည္ျပုေသာ ေငြပမာဏမွာ ေနာ္ေဝးေငြ ကေရာင္း ၂,၂၁၈,၁၄၁၊ (အေမရိကန္ေဒၚလာ ၃၆၉,၀၇၅၊ ျမန္မာက်ပ္ ၃၁၀,၀၀၀,၀၀၀) ျဖစ္သည္။ အလြဲသံုးစား ျပုလုပ္ခံရေသာ ေငြမ်ားမွာ ျပည္တြင္းႏွင့္ မဲေဆာက္ရံုးတာဝန္က် သတင္းေထာက္ႏွင့္ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ား၏ လစာေငြမ်ား၊ ဖမ္းဆီးခံထားရေသာ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ ျမန္မာ့အသံ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ား၏ မိသားစုမ်ားအတြက္ ေပးေသာ ေထာက္ပံ့ေငြမ်ား၊ ရံုးခန္းငွားခမ်ားႏွင့္ လုပ္ငန္း လည္ပတ္စရိတ္အတြက္ သတ္မွတ္ေပးထားေသာ ေငြမ်ားျဖစ္သည္။

(ဂ) အလြဲသံုးစားလုပ္၍ စုေဆာင္းရရွိေသာ ေငြမ်ားျဖင့္ ထိုင္းနိုင္ငံႏွင့္ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံတြင္ အိမ္မ်ား၊ တိုက္ခန္းမ်ား၊ ေမာ္ေတာ္ယာဉ္မ်ား၊ ေျမကြက္မ်ား ဝယ္ယူထားသည့္အျပင္ ေလာင္းကစားႏွင့္ အျခား စီးပြားေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကိုလည္း လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနသည္။

(ဃ) အက်ဉ္းေထာင္အသီးသီးတြင္ ေထာင္ခ်ခံခဲ့ရသည့္ ဒီဗြီဘီ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ားႏွင့္ မိသားဝင္မ်ားအတြက္ ေထာက္ပံ့ေငြမ်ားကိုအလည္း အလြဲသံုးစား လုပ္ခဲ့ၾကသည္။

၅။ အလြဲသံုးစားေငြမ်ားထဲမွ ဘတ္ေငြ ႏွစ္သန္းခုနစ္သိန္းျဖင့္ ၂၀၀၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ဝယ္ယူထားေသာ ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမို့ရွိ အိမ္တလံုးကို ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံက ျပန္လည္သိမ္းယူထားၿပီးျဖစ္သည္။ က်န္ေနေသးေသာ အထက္ေဖာ္ျပပါ ပစၥည္းမ်ားကို သိမ္းယူနိုင္ရန္ ဆက္လက္ေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမည္။

၆။ စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးမႈ စတင္ကတည္းက ေဖာ္ျပပါ အလြဲသံုးစား လုပ္သူမ်ားသည္ သူတို့အေပၚ နိုင္ငံေရး လုပ္ၾကံမႈျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ေကာလာဟလသတင္းမ်ား လႊင့္ခဲ့သည္။ ျပည္တြင္းသတင္း ကြန္ရက္တြင္ တာဝန္ထမ္းေဆာင္ေနေသာ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ားႏွင့္ နိုင္ငံေရးအဖြဲ့မ်ားအၾကား သတင္းမွားမ်ား ျဖန့္ခ်ိကာ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ အကြဲအၿပဲျဖစ္သေယာင္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနသည္။ ၂၀၀၇ ေရႊဝါေရာင္ ေတာ္လွန္ေရးအတြင္း ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ား၏ စြန့္စားလုပ္ေဆာင္ခ်က္မ်ားကို မွတ္တမ္းတင္ထားသည့္ “Burma VJ” မွတ္တမ္းတင္ ရုပ္ရွင္ကား အမည္ကို အသံုးျပုၿပီး Burma VJ Media Network ဟု ေခၚေသာ အဖြဲ့ကို တည္ေထာင္ထားသည္။ ထို့အျပင္ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံက ထုတ္ေပးထားေသာ ပစၥည္းကိရိယာမ်ား၊ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံ မူပိုင္ျဖစ္ေသာ archive ဗြီဒီယို၊ ဓာတ္ပံုႏွင့္ အျခား အေရးႀကီး သတင္းအခ်က္အလက္မ်ားကိုလည္း ျပန္လည္အပ္ႏွံျခင္းမရွိဘဲ သိမ္းယူထားဆဲျဖစ္သည္။ ဒီဗြီဘီပိုင္ ပစၥည္းမ်ားအား အလြဲသံုးစား လုပ္ထားျခင္းအေပၚ ဆက္လက္ အေရးယူေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမည္။

၇။ အခက္အခဲမ်ားစြာကို ရင္ဆိုင္ကာ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံတြင္ ဆက္လက္ တာဝန္ထမ္းေဆာင္ေနေသာ ျပည္တြင္းသတင္းကြန္ရက္မွ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ားအားလံုးကို ခ်ီးက်ူးဂုဏ္ျပုပါသည္။ အျဖစ္မွန္ကိုသိ၍ ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ ျမန္မာ့အသံႏွင့္ ျပန္လည္လက္တြဲလုပ္ကိုင္လိုေသာ ဒီဗြီဘီ သတင္းေထာက္မ်ားအားလံုးကို ဖိတ္ေခၚပါသည္။

၈။ ဘုတ္အဖြဲ့က ဦးေအးခ်မ္းနိုင္ႏွင့္ ဦးခင္ေမာင္ဝင္းတို့ကို ၎တို့ယာယီနုတ္ထြက္ထားေသာ ရာထူးမ်ားျဖစ္သည့္ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉးႏွင့္ လက္ေထာက္ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး ရာထူးမ်ားတြင္ ၂၀၁၂ ဇန္နဝါရီ ၁ ရက္ေန့ကတည္းက အသီးသီး ျပန္လည္ခန့္အပ္ထားၿပီး ျဖစ္သည္။

ဆက္သြယ္ရန္

1. Mr. Harald Lars Bøckman, ဘုတ္အဖြဲ့ဥကၠ႒၊ harald.bockman@sum.uio.no, +47 94143838
2. Mr. Eirik Vinje, Attorney-at-law, ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ျမန္မာ့အသံေရွ့ေန၊ ev@gmco.no, +47 92 88 67 79
3. ဦးေအးခ်မ္းနိုင္၊ ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး၊ acn@dvb.no, +47 91107743
4. ဦးခင္ေမာင္ဝင္း၊ လက္ေထာက္ဦးေဆာင္ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမႉး၊ kmw@dvb.no, +47 45276649

Group Mail မွရရွိပါသည္။

ဗကသမ်ား အဖြဲ ့ခ်ဳပ္ တရား၀င္ရပ္တည္နိုင္ေရးအတြက္ ဗဟိုစည္းရံုးေရး ေကာ္မတီဖြဲ ့စည္းၿခင္း

2012-01-20T19:43:00.001-08:00

၂၀၀၇ မ်ဳိးဆက္ ဗကသကို မၾကာေသးမီက ေထာင္မွ ျပန္လြတ္လာသူတုိ႔ႏွင့္ ျပန္လည္ ဖြဲ႕စည္းလိုက္သည္
ကိုေက်ာ္ကိုကို၊ ဥကၠ႒
ကိုဒီၿငိမ္းလင္း ဒု- ဥကၠ႒
ကိုလင္းထက္ႏိုင္၊ ဒု- ဥကၠ႒
မၿဖိဳးၿဖိဳးေအာင္ အတြင္းေရးမွဴးတို႔ျဖစ္သည္ဟု သိရသည္။

ABSDF လည္း ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ဆႏၵရွိ

2012-01-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

၂၀/ဇန္နဝါရီ/၂၀၁၂

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလံုးဆိုင္ရာေက်ာင္းသားမ်ားဒီမိုကရက္တစ္တပ္ဦး ABSDF ကျမန္မာအစိုးရ
ႏွင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးေဆြးေႏြးရန္ ဆႏၵရွိေၾကာင္း အဂၤါေန႔က အေၾကာင္းျပန္ၾကားလိုက္ၿပီ
ဟု အဖြဲ႔ေျပာခြင့္ရသူ ဒုဥကၠ႒ ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္း က ေျပာသည္။

ျပည္ေထာင္စုၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးေဖာ္ေဆာင္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ဦးေအာင္ေသာင္းကိုယ္
စားဒုဗိုလ္မႉးႀကီးေဟာင္းေစာခင္စိုး လက္မွတ္ထိုး၍ ကိုယ္တိုင္လာေရာက္ေပးပို႔သည့္
ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၁၀ ရက္စြဲပါ ကမ္းလွမ္းစာကို အေၾကာင္းျပန္ လိုက္ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

ေစာခင္စိုး၏ စာတြင္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးစားပြဲဝိုင္းတြင္‘တန္းတူညီတူ’ေဆြးေႏြးမည္ဟု ေဖာ္
ျပပါရွိၿပီး မိမိတို႔ဘက္မွ သေဘာဆႏၵကို ျပန္ၾကားလိုက္ျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ဦးမ်ဳိး၀င္း က
မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

“ႏိုင္ငံေရးျပႆနာေတြကိုတန္းတူညီတူအေျဖရွာႏိုင္ဖို႔အတြက္က်ေနာ္တို႔ဘက္က
လည္းပဲ ဆႏၵရွိတယ္ဆိုတာကို အဓိကပါ။တရားဝင္စာနဲ႔ေတာ့ မေန႔ကပဲ က်ေနာ္
တို႔ဆက္သြယ္ေရး လမ္းေၾကာင္းကေနတဆင့္ အေၾကာင္းျပန္ လိုက္ပါၿပီ” ဟု
ေျပာသည္။

ေက်ာင္းသားတပ္မေတာ္(ေခၚ)ABSDF အေနျဖင့္ အမ်ဳိးသားျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရး၊
ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး၊ ဖက္ဒရယ္ ျပည္ေထာင္စုတည္ေဆာက္ေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီႏွင့္
လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး စသည့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားကို ၾကိဳးပမ္းေနျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း
စာအတြင္း၌ ထည့္သြင္းေဖာ္ျပခဲ့သည္ဟု သိရသည္။

ေတြ႔ဆံုမည့္ ေနရာႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍မူ “က်ေနာ္တို႔ေရြးခ်ယ္မႈအတိုင္း သူတို႔လက္ခံ
ေဆာင္ရြက္သြားမယ္လို႔ သေဘာထားကေတာ့ သူတို႔ အၾကမ္းမ်ဥ္း မိတ္ဆက္ေပးပါ
တယ္။ ဒီကိစၥ ေတြကို က်ေနာ္တို႔ ဘာမွ မေဆြးေႏြးရေသး ပါဘူး” ဟု ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္း
က ေျပာသည္။

ဦးသိန္းစိန္ အစိုးရအေနႏွင့္ တိုင္းရင္းသား အဖြဲ႔ ၅ ခုႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္ သေဘာတူညီ
မႈမ်ား ရထားၿပီးျဖစ္ေသာ္လည္း တျပည္လံုးအတိုင္းအတာအပစ္ရပ္ကာႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္
ငန္းစဥ္မ်ား ပါဝင္ရမည္ဟု အႏွစ္ ၂၀ ေက်ာ္ အေတြ႔အႀကံဳကိုအေျခခံ၍ သံုးသပ္
ထားေၾကာင္း ဦးမ်ဳိးဝင္းက ေျပာသည္။

ABSDF ၏ တပ္ရင္း ၉ ရင္းအနက္ အမ်ားစုမွာ ျမန္မာအစိုးရႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္သေဘာ
တူၿပီးျဖစ္သည့္ ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသားအစည္းအရံုး KNU နယ္ေျမအတြင္းႏွင့္ကရင္နီ၊ မြန္၊
ကခ်င္ႏွင့္ ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္စပ္တို႔တြင္ အေျခခံ လႈပ္ရွားေနၾကျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

KNU ႏွင့္ စစ္ေရးပူးေပါင္းလႈပ္ရွား ေဆာင္ရြက္ႏိုင္ျခင္း မရွိဘဲ ျဖစ္လာႏိုင္သည့္တိုင္
ႏိုင္ငံေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားကိုမူ ဆက္လက္ေဆာင္ ရြက္ႏိုင္မည္ဟု KNU ႏွင့္ ႏွစ္၂၀
ေက်ာ္ ဆက္ဆံေရးအေပၚအေျခခံ၍ ABSDF က ယံုၾကည္သည္ဟု ဆိုသည္။

KNU အေထြေထြအတြင္းေရးမႉး ေနာ္စီဖိုးရာစိန္ကမူ အစိုးရႏွင့္ အပစ္ရပ္ထားေသာ္
လည္း ႏိုင္ငံေရး လုပ္ငန္းစဥ္မ်ားေဆြးေႏြးရန္က်န္ရွိေသးသည္ဟု ေျပာသည္။

“တျပည္လံုးအတိုင္းအတာ အပစ္ရပ္ေရးရမွ ေျပလည္မွာေပါ့ေလ။ႏိုင္ငံေရး ေဆြးေႏြး
စရာ အမ်ားႀကီးရွိေသးတယ္။ (ABSDF နဲ႔) ေလာေလာဆယ္ ပူးေပါင္းလႈပ္ရွားတာ ရွိေသးတာေပါ့။ မဟာမိတ္က႑မွာ ျပန္ေဆြးေႏြးရမွာေပါ့” ဟု မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

ၾကားျဖတ္ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲဝင္ရန္မည့္ အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ NLD သဘာပတိ
အဖြဲ႔ဝင္ ဦးဝင္းတင္က အစိုးရႏွင့္ ABSDF အၾကား ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး ေဆြးေႏြးမည္ကို
ႀကိဳဆိုလိုက္သည္။

ျပည္တြင္းၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးလုပ္ငန္းစဥ္တြင္ ABSDF ၏ အခန္းက႑သည္ တိုင္းရင္းသား
မ်ားနည္းတူ အေရးပါေၾကာင္း၊သို႔ေသာ္ အဖြဲ႔အတြင္း အေက်အလည္ သေဘာတူရန္
အေရးႀကီးသည္ဟု သံုးသပ္သည္။

ထို႔ျပင္ျမန္မာ့တပ္မေတာ္၏သေဘာထားကိုလည္းသတိရွိရန္လိုသည္ဟုေထာက္ျပသည္

“ဒီဇင္ဘာလ ၁၀ ရက္ေန႔မွာ သမၼတက ထိုးစစ္ေတြရပ္ပါလို႔ ကာကြယ္ေရးဦးစီးခ်ဳပ္
ကို ညႊန္ၾကားတယ္။ထိုးစစ္ေတြ က ထိုးေနတုန္းပဲ။သံုးဘက္ရွိတယ္ဗ်။လက္နက္ကိုင္
အဖြဲ႔အစည္းမ်ား အကုန္အစံု၊ တဘက္က အစိုးရ သူတို႔ survival အရ၊ သူတို႔
လုပ္ငန္းေတြ ေအာင္ျမင္ဖို႔အရ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရး လိုအပ္ၿပီဆိုတာ သိတယ္။ တဘက္က
အစိုးရ စကားေတာင္မွ နားမေထာင္ဘဲနဲ႔ ဒီေန႔အထိ ထိုးစစ္ေတြလုပ္ေနတဲ့ စစ္တပ္
ရွိတယ္” ဟု ဦးဝင္းတင္က မဇၥ်ိမကိုေျပာသည္။

၁၉၈၈ ဒီမိုကေရစီအံုၾကြမႈၾကီးမွ ေက်ာင္းသားလူငယ္မ်ားျဖင့္ ဖြဲ႔စည္းခဲ့သည့္ ABSDF
အေနျဖင့္ အစိုးရႏွင့္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးေဆြးေႏြးရန္အတြက္ မိမိအဖြဲ႔တြင္းႏွင့္ ျပည္တြင္း/
ျပည္ပ ေက်ာင္းသားလူထု၏ သေဘာထား အႀကံဉာဏ္မ်ား ရယူသြားရန္ စီစဥ္ေန
ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံလံုးဆိုင္ရာ ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ား ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္တပ္ဦး (မကဒတ)
All Burma Students’ Democratic Front-ABSDF
မွတ္ခ်က္။ ။ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ရွိ မကဒတတပ္ဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားအတြင္း သူလွ်ဴိမႈျဖင့္ ဖမ္းဆီးသတ္
ျဖတ္မႈမ်ား ၁၉၉၁ခုတြင္ျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည္။အမႈမွန္ေပၚေရး လက္ရွိ မကဒတ ဗဟိုေကာ္
မတီက အလုပ္အဖြဲ႔တခု ဖြဲ႔စည္း ေဆာင္ရြက္ေနသည္။(မဇၥ်ိမ)

အဖ်က္သိမ္းခံ တိုင္းရင္းသား ပါတီႀကီး ေလးခု မွတ္ပံုတင္ရန္ရွိ

2012-01-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၁၉ ရက္ ၂၀၁၂ ခုႏွစ္
(ပူက်င့္ရွင္းထန္ေဆြးေႏြးပံု)

၁၉၉၀ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲတြင္ ထင္ရွားသည့္တိုင္းရင္းသား ပါတီႀကီးေလးခုက လူထုအေရး
ကို တရားဝင္လုပ္ေဆာင္ႏိုင္ၾကဖို႔အတြက္ျပန္လည္မွတ္ပံုတင္ရန္ စီစဥ္ေနၾကေၾကာင္း၊
၎ပါတီမ်ား၏ တာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ား က ေျပာသည္။

ရွမ္းအမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမုိကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ SNLD၊ ရခိုင္ဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ALD၊မြန္အမ်ဳိး
သားဒီမုိကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ MNDF ႏွင့္ ဇိုမီးအမ်ဳိးသားကြန္ကရက္ ZNC တို႔က ပါတီ
မ်ားမွတ္ပံုတင္ျခင္း ဥပေဒကို ျပင္ဆင္ေပးျခင္း၊ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦး အပါအဝင္ ႏိုင္ငံေရး
အက်ဥ္းသားမ်ား ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးျခင္းတို႔ေၾကာင့္ ယခုကဲ့သို႔ဆံုးျဖတ္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း
ပါတီ တာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ားက တညီတည္း ေျပာဆိုၾကသည္။
ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦး ေခါင္းေဆာင္သည့္ SNLD ပါတီမွာ ၂၀၁၀ ႏိုင္ငံေရးပါတီမ်ား မွတ္ပံုတင္
ျခင္း ဥပေဒအရ အလိုအေလ်ာက္ပ်က္ျပယ္ခဲ့ရၿပီး က်န္ပါတီသံုးခုမွာ ၁၉၉၃ ခုႏွစ္ ဗိုလ္
ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးခင္ညႊန္႔ လက္ထက္ကတည္းက ဖ်က္သိမ္း ခံထားရသည့္ ပါတီမ်ား ျဖစ္သည္။ ၂၀၀၈ အေျခခံ ဥပေဒႏွင့္ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲ ဥပေဒမ်ားကို ကန္႔ကြက္ခဲ့ၾကၿပီး မွတ္ပံုမတင္
ဘဲ ေနခဲ့ၾကသည့္ ပါတီမ်ား ျဖစ္သည္။

“ပထမ ဦးစားေပး အေနနဲ႔ မွတ္ပံုတင္ဖို႔ ကိစၥနဲ႔ ဥကၠဌ (ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦး) နဲ႔ အတြင္းေရးမႉး
(ဦးစိုင္းညႊန္႔တင္)တို႔ရဲ႕ က်န္းမာေရးကိစၥေတြကို လံုးပန္းေနပါတယ္။ေလာေလာဆယ္
ေတာ့ ပါတီ ဗဟိုဦးစီးအစည္းအေဝး လုပ္ေနပါတယ္။တင္ျဖစ္ဖို႔ အလားအလာမ်ား
ပါတယ္” SNLD ေျပာေရးဆိုခြင့္ရွိသူ ဦးစိုင္းလိတ္က မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။
ၾကားျဖတ္ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲကို ဝင္ေရာက္ယွဥ္အေရြးခံရန္္ မေသခ်ာေသးဟု ဆိုသည္။

SNLD သည္ ၁၉၉၀ ေ႐ြးေကာက္ပြဲတြင္ ရွမ္းျပည္နယ္အတြင္းမဲအမ်ားဆံုးရရွိခဲ့ကာ
တႏိုင္ငံလံုး၌ ဒုတိယ မဲအမ်ားဆံုး ရရွိသည့္ ပါတီအျဖစ္ ရပ္တည္ခဲ့သည္။

တတိယ မဲအမ်ားဆံုးရရွိထားသည့္ ရခိုင္ ALD က ေဖေဖၚဝါရီလဆန္းတြင္မွတ္ပံုတင္
မည္ျဖစ္ၿပီး ၾကားျဖတ္ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲကို ယွဥ္ၿပိဳင္သြားမွာ မဟုတ္ေသးဘဲ အမ်ဳိးသားေရး
၊ပညာေရး၊ က်န္းမာေရးႏွင့္ လယ္သမား အေရးမ်ားကို လုပ္ေဆာင္သြားဖို႔ရွိေၾကာင္း
ALD ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ဦးေအးသာေအာင္ က ေျပာသည္။
“အစိုးရကလည္း ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲ အခ်က္တခ်ဳိ႕ ျပင္ေပးတယ္။ေနာက္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ေျပာ
ေတာင္းဆိုေနတဲ့ ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦး တို႔လို႔ မင္းကိုႏိုင္တို႔လို ႏိုုင္ငံေရး အင္အားစုေတြလည္း
လြတ္ေျမာက္လာၿပီ ဆိုေတာ့ ပါတီ မွတ္ပုံတင္ဖို႔ ဆံုးျဖတ္လိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္” ဟု
မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

အလားတူ မြန္ MNDF ႏွင့္ ဇိုမီး ZNC တို႔ကလည္း ေဖေဖၚဝါရီလ(သို႔မဟုတ္)ၾကား
ျဖတ္ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲအၿပီးတြင္ ပါတီမွတ္ပုံတင္ၾကရန္ စီစဥ္ေနေၾကာင္းပါတီေခါင္းေဆာင္
မ်ားက ေျပာသည္။

“ဒီလထဲမွာ ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦးအပါအဝင္ က်ေနာ္တို႔တိုင္းရင္းသားေတြ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ
လုပ္ဖို႔ရွိတယ္။ဒါၿပီးရင္ေတာ့ မွတ္ပံုတင္ဖို႔ ရွိတယ္။လတ္တေလာအေနအထားေတြအရ
ၾကားျဖတ္ကိုေတာ့ ဝင္ၿပီးၿပိဳင္ျဖစ္ဖို႔ နည္းပါတယ္” ဟု MNDF ဒုဥကၠ႒ ႏိုင္ေငြသိမ္း
က မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

မြန္အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ကုိ ၁၉၈၈ခုႏွစ္၊ေအာက္တိုဘာလ ၁၁ရက္ေန႔က စတင္
ဖဲြ႔စည္းခဲ့ၿပီး ၁၉၉၀ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲတြင္ကိုယ္စားလွယ္(၁၉)ဦး ဝင္ၿပဳိင္ခဲ့ရာ ငါးေနရာ
အႏိုင္ရရွိခဲ့သည္။

ZNC ဥကၠ႒ ပူးက်င့္ရွင္းထန္ က“ပါတီက အဖြဲ႔ဝင္ေတြနဲ႔ေတာ့ အစည္းအေဝးေတြ
မလုပ္ရေသးဘူး။သူတို႔ဆီကလာတဲ့ အသံေတြအရပဲ ေျပာရတာ။တရားဝင္လုပ္ကိုင္
ခြင့္ အခြင့္အေရးကို ရဖို႔ဆိုေတာ့ သူတို႔အားလုံးသေဘာတူ လိမ့္မယ္ထင္တယ္”
ဟု သူက မဇၥ်ိမကို ေျပာသည္။

ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၁၈ ရက္ေန႔က ဦးခြန္ထြန္းဦးေနအိမ္တြင္၉၀ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲဝင္အမတ္မ်ား
စုေပါင္းေတြ႔ဆံုပြဲ ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ရာတြင္ ဦးခြန္ထြန္ဦးက ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ တရားဝင္လုပ္ကုိင္
ႏိုင္ရန္အတြက္ ပါတီမွတ္ပုံတင္ရန္ အၾကံျပဳသည္။

၁၉၉၀ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲဝင္ တိုင္းရင္းသားပါတီမ်ား ၁၁ ပါတီျဖင့္ စုေပါင္းထားေသာ
စည္းလံုးညီၫႊတ္ေသာ တိုင္းရင္းသားလူမ်ဳိးမ်ားမဟာမိတ္အဖြဲ႔ UNA ႏွင့္ဇန္နဝါရီလ
အတြင္း ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးၾကရန္ ရွိေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

မွတ္ပုံတင္ရန္ ျပင္ဆင္ေနၾကသည့္ ပါတီမ်ားကို လတ္တေလာ ျမန္မာ့ႏိုင္ငံေရး အေျခအေနအရ UNA ႏွင့္ ျပည္သူ႔ လႊတ္ေတာ္ ကိုယ္စားျပဳေကာ္မတီ CRPP အဖြဲ႔ဝင္မ်ားအေနျဖင့္ ကန္႔ကြက္လိမ့္မည္ မဟုတ္ဟု ယူဆေနၾကသည္။(မဇၥ်ိမ)

CNF Press Release To The People

2012-01-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

CNF Press Release to the People-1

ၿမန္မာမ်ားပါဝင္ေသာ ေတာင္ကိုရီးယားသေဘၤာ Titanic ဆန္ဆန္ ေပါက္ကြဲနစ္ၿမဳပ္

2012-01-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

၁၅/၀၁/၂၀၁၂
ဒီကေန ့ ( ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၁၅ရက္ တနဂၤေႏြေန ့ ) မနက္ ကိုရီးယား စံေတာ္ခ်ိန္ ၈နာရီ
ဝန္းက်င္တြင္ ျမန္မာသေဘၤာသားမ်ား လုပ္ကုိင္ေနေသာ Dura No. 3 အမည္ရွိ ကုိရီးယားသေဘၤာတြင္ ေပါက္ကြဲမႈမ်ားျဖစ္ပြားေသာေၾကာင့္ နစ္ျမဳပ္မႈ ျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည္။
အဆိုပါ ေပါက္ကြဲမွဳတြင္ ၅ဦးေသဆံုးၿပီး ၆ဦး ေပ်ာက္ဆံုးေနသည္ဟု သတင္းမ်ားက ဆိုပါသည္။ ၅ဦးကို ကယ္ဆည္ႏိုင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ေပ်ာက္ဆံုးေနေသာ ၆ဦးကို ဆက္လက္ရွာေဖြ
ေနဆဲ ၿဖစ္သည္။

အဆိုပါ သေဘၤာသည္ ေရနံထြက္ပစၥည္းႏွင့္ ဓါတုေဗဒ ပစၥည္းမ်ား Bunker-C oil တန္ ၈၀ ႏွင့္ ဒီဇယ္ တန္ ၄၀ တင္ေဆာင္ ထားသည္။ မည္သည့္အေၾကာင္းေၾကာင့္ေပါက္ကြဲ
မွဳၿဖစ္ရသည္ကို မသိရွိေသးေသာ္လည္း ဆီမ်ား ယိုစိမ့္မွဳေၾကာင့္ ၿဖစ္ႏိုင္ေခ်မ်ားသည္
ဟု သတင္းမ်ားက သံုးသပ္သည္။

ေပါက္ကြဲမွုမွ လြတ္ေၿမာက္လာေသာ သေဘၤာကပၸတိန္ကေတာ့ အဆိုပါအခ်ိန္တြင္ ဝန္ထမ္း ၁၁ဦး သေဘၤာေပၚ ဂက္စ္သံုးၿပီး အလုပ္လုပ္ခ်ိန္ ဝါယာေရွာ့ ၿဖစ္ရာမွတဆင့္
ေပါက္ကြဲမွဳ ၿဖစ္ႏိုင္သည္ဟု ဆိုသည္။

ေပါက္ကြဲမွဳ ၿဖစ္သည့္ေနရာသည္ ေၿမာက္ကိုရီးယား နယ္စပ္ဝန္းက်င္တြင္ ၿဖစ္ပြားခဲ့
ေသာ္လည္း အဆိုပါေပါက္ကြဲမွဳသည္ ေၿမာက္ကိုရီးယားမွ ၿပစ္ခတ္မွဳမၿဖစ္ႏိုင္ဟုဆို
သည္။

၂၀၁၀ခုႏွစ္အတြင္းကေၿမာက္ကိုရီးယား၏လက္ခ်က္ေၾကာင့္ေတာင္ကိုရီးယားေရတပ္
သေဘၤာတစ္စင္း နစ္ၿမဳပ္ခဲ့ဖူးသည္။အဆိုပါနစ္ၿမဳပ္မွဳတြင္ ေတာင္ကိုရီးယား ေရတပ္
တပ္သား ၄၆ဦး အသက္ဆံုးရွဳံးခဲ့ရသည္။

ယေန႔ေပါက္ကြဲ နစ္ၿမဳပ္ခဲ့ေသာသေဘၤာတြင္ ကိုရီးယား၁၁ဦးႏွင့္ၿမန္မာ ၅ဦးတာဝန္
ထမ္းေဆာင္လ်က္ရွိသည္ ဟုဆိုသည္။သေဘၤာသည္ေပါက္ကြဲအၿပီး ထက္ပိုင္းက်ဳိး
ကာ တိုင္တန္းနစ္သေဘၤာနစ္ၿမဳပ္သလို နစ္ၿမဳပ္သြားသည္ဟု သတင္းမ်ားကေဖာ္ၿပ
သည္။ေသဆံုးမွဳတြင္ ၿမန္မာ ၂ဦး ပါဝင္ၿပီး ေပ်ာက္ဆံုးမွဳတြင္ ၿမန္မာ ၃ဦးပါဝင္သည္
ဟု ဆိုသည္။
http://www.washingtonpost.com

လက္၀ါးကားတုိင္ၿဖိဳလွဲမႈ ကိစၥ အေရးယူမႈ မျပဳပါက လူထု သုံးေသာင္း လက္မွတ္ထုိးၿပီး ထပ္မံအေရးဆုိမယ္

2012-01-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

January 14th, 2012 |

၂၈၊၇၊၂၀၁၁ခုႏွစ္ဇူလုိင္လ
၂၈ရက္ေန႔ကခ်င္းျပည္နယ္
ကန္ပက္လက္ၿမိဳ႕နယ္မုန္း
ေခ်ာင္း တံတားအနီး တြင္
စုိက္ထူထားေသာ ခရစ္
ယာန္လက္၀ါးကားတုိင္
အားက်င္ေဒြးရြာသားမ်ား
ကမီးရႈိ႕ျဖဳတ္လွဲခဲ့သည့္
အမႈကိစၥကုိ သက္ဆုိင္ ရာမွ အေရးယူမႈမျပဳပါက လူထု သုံးေသာင္းမွ လက္မွတ္ထုိးအေရးျပန္ဆုိမည္ဟု သိရသည္။

လက္၀ါးကားတုိင္ဖ်က္ဆီးမႈကုိ ေဒသခံျပည္သူတဦးက တရားခံေဖာ္ထုတ္အေရးယူ
ေပးေရး ေနျပည္ေတာ္သုိ႕ တုိင္ၾကားေသာ္လည္း သက္ဆုိင္ရာမွ လူေပါင္း၁၀၀၀
လက္မွတ္ထုိးမွသာ အေရးယူေပးမည္ဟု တုံ႕ျပန္လုိက္သျဖင့္ လူေပါင္း ၁၀၀၀
လက္မွတ္ထုိးၿပီး တုိင္ခ်က္ဖြင့္ခဲ့ရာ ယေန႕ထိအေရးယူျခင္း မရွိေသာေၾကာင့္
ယခုကဲ့သုိ႕ျပဳလုပ္ရန္စီစဥ္လုိက္ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။

အမည္မေဖာ္လုိသူ ေဒသခံတဦးက“ယင္းကိစၥကုိ ျပည္နယ္၀န္ၾကီးတဦးကျပဳလုပ္
ခုိင္းျခင္းျဖစ္လုိ႕ အေရးမယူ ရဲၾကတာပါ” ဟု ေျပာသည္။

ဆက္လက္ၿပီး “ ျပည္နယ္၀န္ၾကီးဘယ္သူဘယ္၀ါဆုိတာကုိေတာ့ မေျပာရဲဘူး”
ဟု ဆက္ဆုိသည္။

အလားတူ အဆုိပါ ခရစ္ယာန္လက္၀ါးကားတုိင္ဖ်က္ဆီး သေရာ္မႈကုိ အေရးယူ
ေပးရန္ ၉၊၁၁၊၂၀၁၁ ရက္စြဲပါ စာျဖင့္ ခ်င္းျပည္နယ္ လႊတ္ေတာ္ကုိယ္စားလွယ္
၁၈ ဦးက ျပည္ေထာင္စုျမန္မာနုိင္ငံ ေတာ္ဖြဲ႕စည္းပုံအေျခခံ ဥပေဒပုဒ္မ ၃၄၊
၃၅၄(ယ)၊ ၃၆၄ပါ ျပဌာန္းခ်က္ ႏွင့္ ညိစြန္းသျဖင့္ စုံစမ္းေဖၚထုတ္မူျပဳလုပ္ေပး
ၿပီး အေရးယူ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးပါရန္ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္ သမၼတ ထံ တုိင္ၾကားခဲ့သည္။

လုပ္ထုံးလုပ္နည္းအရ မိတၱဴကုိ-နာယက၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စုလႊတ္ေတာ္၊ေနျပည္ေတာ္
ဥကၠဌ၊ ျပည္သူ႕ လႊတ္ေတာ္၊ေနျပည္ေတာ္ဥကၠဌ၊ အမ်ဳိးသားလႊတ္ေတာ္၊ေနျပည္
ေတာ္။ ျပည္ေထာင္စု၀န္ၾကီး၊ သာသနာေရး၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ေနျပည္ေတာ္၀န္ၾကီးခ်ဳပ္၊
ခ်င္းျပည္နယ္အစုိးရအဖြဲ႕၊ဟားခါးျမဳိ႕။ျပည္နယ္လူမွဳေရး၀န္ၾကီး၊ခ်င္းျပည္နယ္အစုိး
ရအဖြဲ႔၊ ဟားခါးျမဳိ႕ခ်င္းျပည္နယ္လႊတ္ေတာ္ကုိယ္စားလွယ္မ်ားအားလုံးအားေပးပုိ႕
ထားသည္ဟု ထပ္မံ သိရသည္။

လက္၀ါးကားတုိင္ကုိ ေဒသခံ ခရစ္ယာန္ဘာသာ၀င္မ်ားမွ လြန္ခဲ့သည္ ၂ ႏွစ္ခန္႔
က စုိက္ထူထားၾကျခင္း ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေဒသခံတခ်ဳိ႕က ၂၈၊ ၇၊၂၀၁၁ ရက္ေန႔တြင္
ကားတုိင္ကုိ မီးရွဴိ႕ ခုတ္လွဲသည့္ အျပင္ လက္၀ါးကား တုိင္ေပၚတြင္ မိန္းမ
အဂၤါ ရုပ္ ကုိ သေရာ္ထြင္းခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။(ခုန္ႏုမ္ထုန္)

ACR News

2012-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

ACR News (15.01.12)

NLD မွ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲဝင္မည့္စာရင္းထုတ္ျပန္ေၾကျငာခ်က္

2012-01-13T20:02:00.000-08:00