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Some countries block access to the BNN Web sites. Here, you can learn how to use a proxy server.
As the governments of more countries use technology to block their citizens' access to certain Web sites on the Internet, you might encounter difficulty visiting the BNN sites.
However, there are many ways to bypass the Internet blockage.
One of the most popular ways is to use proxy servers.
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| U2 to launch tour with Suu Kyi in audience |
| Tuesday, 30 June 2009 |
Mizzima News - Internationally acclaimed Irish band U2 is poised to commence their latest tour tomorrow, with attendees encouraged to don Aung San Suu Kyi masks during the playing of 'Walk On'.
"U2 believe the world must not be allowed to forget Aung San Suu Kyi and on the 360 Tour fans are being invited to wear the mask when the band play 'Walk On', which was written for her," explains the iconic pop/rock band on their website.
Dedicated to Burma's detained opposition leader, a portion of the lyrics for 'Walk On' read:
And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
The band, and front singer Bono in particular, is well recognized for their interest and social activism in politics and humanitarianism across the world.
"U2 wrote the song Walk On to honor this amazing woman," elucidated Bono in a 2004 article written for Time Magazine's 100 Heroes and Icons, "who put family second to country, who for her convictions made an unbearable choice — not to see her sons grow and not to be with her husband as he lost his life to a long and painful cancer. Suu Kyi, with an idea too big for any jail and a spirit too strong for any army, changes our view — as only real heroes can — of what we believe to be possible."
At the height of the crackdown against protesters in Burma in late September 2007, Bono remarked, "When you are a monk in Burma this very week, barred from entering a temple because of your gospel of peace ... well, then none of us are truly free."
Originally released as a single in 2001, 'Walk On', off the 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind, went on to win record of the year at the Grammys.
The mask is available for download on U2's website, www.u2.com. The reverse side contains a brief quote by Aung San Suu Kyi: "Fear is a habit. I am not afraid."
Opening tomorrow in Barcelona, Spain, the 360 Tour is scheduled to visit 14 European and 16 North American cities en route to its finale in Vancouver, British Colombia, at the end of October.
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| Burma's cyber war rages on |
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by Celeste Chenard
Mizzima News - While the Internet has became one of the main tools at the disposal of opposition elements against political and cultural repression in authoritarian states, governments have in turn used the same technology to limit the effectiveness of political opposition by either commercial or propagandist means.
A debate about the Internet as a tool of democratization has emerged since the first uses of the Internet under authoritarian systems of government. On the one hand, there are those who subscribe to the “determinist” theory, for whom the Internet can contribute to the collapse of dictatorships. On the other hand are the so-called “instrumentalists”, who take the position that an authoritarian regime can control the Web and exploit the Internet to serve its own interests. But the most important question is how authoritarian rulers choose an information technology strategy.
According to Nina Hachigian, in her paper 'The internet and power in one-party East Asian States': “The Internet presents a dilemma to leaders of authoritarian states and illiberal democracies. It promises enticing commercial advantages, such as transaction cost reductions, e-commerce possibilities, and foreign trade facilitation. Yet, by giving citizens access to outside information and platforms for discussion and organization, the Internet can also help politically empower populations and potentially threaten regimes."
According to a report recently released by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) on information filtering in Asia, Asian governments are taking increasingly sophisticated steps to control access to Web content. The report reveals accelerating restrictions on Internet content as Asian governments shift to next generation controls. These new techniques go beyond blocking access to websites and are more informal and fluid while often backed-up by increasingly restrictive and broadly interpreted laws.
The report further points to an emerging inclination for states to actively engage in cyberspace as a way to achieve enhanced control of information: “Since 2006, many Asian governments have quickly realized the potential benefits of exploiting opportunities for conducting propaganda or public relations strategies over the Internet, even while cracking down on independent and critical voices thriving in these online spaces – an example of the evolution towards next generation controls,” finds the report.
Yet, the Internet has simultaneously been shown to be an especially effective tool for journalists, civil society activists and opposition leaders in Asia during elections or other times of national political crisis.
Burma showed one of the most dramatic examples of citizens using online tools to circumvent government control over information during the Saffron Revolution. It is clear that the particular attention of the international community and foreign media toward the 2007 uprising in Burma was partly due to the various uses of new information technology – and particularly the Internet.
These “netizens” have demonstrated that new tools of communication, and especially the Internet, can impact on the global coverage of events and even on the sequence of events themselves. Vital information coming from inside Burma was posted by overseas Burmese news organizations and the international media, ultimately being fed back into the country of origin via satellite television and radio, thus achieving a bi-directional flow of information. Such newly available networks for the diffusion of information are surely challenging the rulers of closed countries like Burma.
Nonetheless, while “citizen journalists” provided the world with footage and news, the government eventually imposed a “blackout of the information”. By cutting all Internet connections, the junta tried to disarm "netizens" – in further testament to the perceived potential destabilizing effects triggered by such endeavors.
The push and pull battle over the Internet raises a serious question: Can emerging online technologies truly alter a country's isolationism and foster real political change?
In a closed country the Internet can effectively serve the propaganda efforts of the authoritarian regime while simultaneously providing a new capacity with which dissidents can communicate relatively freely without considering boarders. Further, more than simply a political weapon, the Internet can also help to mobilize and raise public awareness and coordinate demonstrations and campaigns.
But still, there is a dark side to the Internet that must be considered.
Since 1997 the junta has purchased sophisticated technology from a Singapore-based company to assist in the development of a Cyber Warfare Center in order to accentuate efficacy and surveillance over the Army. Additionally, in May 2004, the junta purchased filtering software from American company Fortinet. ONI, largely as a result of such information technology transfers, has chronicled an increasing level of effectiveness on the part of the Burmese regime in the control of information over recent years.
Burma, in the end, is caught in a vicious cycle. As the junta appears unwilling to improve the life conditions of the population, as one tactic to stay in power, the economy of the country is consequently not industrially and technologically adapted to take maximum advantage of the Internet. Moreover, launching economic development via information technology is not deemed worth the political risk in the battle over the dissemination of information. Severe restrictions on Internet access is thus perceived as one strategy in denying opposition elements a greater foothold in Burmese society.
To summarize, as economic stakes are low and political risks much higher, the junta is less willing to let the population make use of the Internet than other authoritarian countries who limit Internet access to a lesser extent in order to foment economic development. “The exception," highlights the ONI report, "to the general embrace of ICT development [in Asian countries] has consistently been Burma.” However, for the regime there is also a concurrent downside in such an approach, as the country becomes even less attractive to potential foreign investors.
The junta, though, is aware of the necessity to economically compete in the world economy. The construction of a cyber city by the generals is proof of this knowledge, while also further exemplifying the misappropriation of information technology development. The country’s largest information technology development, Yadanabon City – inaugurated in 2007, is projected to serve as the connection point for the regime with economic partners such as China, India and Thailand.
Apart from economic interests, the Internet can also serve the propagandist aims of governments. The junta tries to use the Internet as a tool to spread its propaganda and political message to the world and to contradict accusations of its detractors. An active presence on the Web allows the government to present the world its own version of the facts. That is why the junta launched www.myanmar.com, allowing foreigners to read an electronic version of the state-run English newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.
However, examples of the collapse of governments in Southeast Asia because of popular mass protest with the support of the media – as in the Philippines in 1986 and Indonesia in 1998 – still keeps hope alive of a coming shift in Burma.
But the Burmese example also reveals media pressure and "People Power" are not enough by themselves to ensure political transition. The media can assist in transition but not set the transition itself in motion. The media is dependant on a nexus connecting the economic, social and political spheres.
Nonetheless, if an authoritarian regime can be affected by the uses of the Internet abroad, it is clear the Internet can in fact impact events inside a closed society like Burma as well – by at least forcing the junta to act in a space open to everybody’s eyes. |
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| High Court rejects appeal over Suu Kyi’s defense witnesses |
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by Salai Pi Pi
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s High Court on Monday rejected an appeal by legal counsels to reinstate two allegedly key defense witnesses in the ongoing trial of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nyan Win, a lawyer of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – who is being charged for allegedly violating the terms of her previous house arrest – said the High Court had rejected a final appeal for the reinstatement of the remaining two defense witnesses, Tin Oo and Win Tin, who were earlier disqualified by a lower court in Insein prison.
“The High Court announced the rejection at 10:00 a.m. today,” Nyan Win told Mizzima on Monday.
However, Nyan Win said he was as yet unaware of any justification given for the verdict.
The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi has sparked global and domestic outrage along with repeated calls for her release.
Originally, only one of four defense witnesses was accepted by the court sitting in Insein prison.
However, upon request of the defense team the Rangoon Divisional Court allowed a second defense witness – Khin Moh Moh – to testify, while still rejecting both Win Tin and Tin Oo.
On June 24, the High Court heard arguments by defense lawyers to allow the remaining two defense witnesses to testify.
The special court in Insein prison on Friday adjourned the hearing of the testimony of the second defense witness until July 3.
Nyan Win said because of the ruling by the High Court the defense team is forced to confront several weaknesses in its case defending Aung San Suu Kyi.
“By rejecting the defense witnesses, around whom we had prepared to defend Aung San Suu Kyi, we our not fully enjoying the rights to defense ourselves,” Nyan Win added. |
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| Senior DKBA commander killed in ambush |
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(DVB)–A senior figure in the pro-Burmese junta militia Democratic Karen Buddhist Army has been killed in an ambush rumoured to be by the opposition Karen National Union as clashes continue near the Thai-Burma border.
Five fellow Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers were killed alongside Colonel San Pyone, commander of Battalion 7 of the Brigade 999, on 26 June, while around 10 more were injured.
A source close to the DKBA said that seven boats carrying more than 20 DKBA members from the overrun Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 7 headquarters was ambushed at about 8am on 26 June.
"There must be about 20 casualties, but about six people died on the spot," he said, adding that the corpses of San Pyone and others were taken to the DKBA base in the Shwekokko area of Karen state.
The DKBA has said that the attack was carried out from Thai territory, but this was refuted by the KNU.
“The shooting did happen but not on the Thai side. It happened on the other side [in Burma],” said KNU spokesperson David Thakabaw.
“[KNU] troops retreated from the bases but there are small groups still operating around the bases."
The DKBA have been fighting alongside the Burmese army during an offensive against the KNU that began on 2 June.
Last week the KNU’s strategically important Brigade 7 base was overrun by Burmese troops.
Many Karen civilians have fled the conflict this month, with around 4000 arriving in Thailand.
Many have reported instances of forced recruitment into the army either as porters or to act as minesweepers.
The UN has sent staff to the refugee areas to assess the fallout of a conflict that has attracted international attention.
Reporting by Naw Noreen |
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| Junta Criticized for Censoring Media |
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International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a joint statement with the Burma Media Association on Friday condemning the Burmese military junta for intimidating the press, censoring news and imposing harsh sentences on journalists.
“Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association today condemned the military junta for intimidating the press trying to cover recent national and international events, as a journalist was jailed for two years after being arrested near the home of Aung San Suu Kyi,” the RSF Web site said.
“Since the UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Burma one might expect greater tolerance on the part of the authorities, but on the contrary, the trial of Suu Kyi is being held in a climate of repression and censorship,” it said.
“We call on the UN envoy to show firmness in his talks with the authorities, including the release of all political prisoners and an end to prior censorship. Without this, there can be no approval of any reconciliation process or elections.”
According to the statement, military intelligence agents on June 23 visited several media offices to demand lists of journalists who had taken part in journalism training sessions at the US Embassy in Rangoon.
The two press watchdogs also strongly condemned the two-year sentence imposed on freelance journalist Zaw Tun on 18 June. A journalist with the magazine The News Watch, he was arrested near Suu Kyi’s home in Rangoon by a police officer who claimed he had shown “hostility” toward him.
Another local journalist, the veteran U Win Tin, who was cited as a defense witness in the trial of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, has been under constant surveillance by the police, the statement said, adding that the prosecutor had refused to accept the former political prisoner as a witness because he had criticized the government, particularly in foreign media.
The Burmese military authorities have for many years imposed strict censorship on all media through its draconian Press Scrutiny and Registration Division. It recently banned the publication of news such as the arrival of a North Korean cargo ship, the Kang Nam 1, in Rangoon, the collapse of the Danok pagoda in Rangoon Division, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial.
The censorship bureau also banned several recent articles regarding demonstrations in Iran.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Ludu Sein Win, an experienced Burmese journalist in Rangoon, said, “There is no freedom of the press in Burma, because there is no real democracy. To achieve press freedom, we must first acquire political freedom.
“The nature of dictatorship is very sensitive and takes a defensive view,” he said. “Every dictatorship imposes strict censorship because it is very sensitive about the media. They look at every case with a perspective of defending themselves.”
Ludu Sein Win added: “Actually, the role of the media is very important for the country, just as the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary are. So, it can be said to be the ‘fourth pillar of the state.’
The freedom of media is also very important for free and fair elections. If there is no press freedom, it is rather difficult to envisage a free and fair election.”
Also speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Ohn Kyaing, a Burmese journalist and member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), said, “The censorship bureau is clear evidence that there is no freedom of the press in Burma. The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division consistently bans the publication of news items and imposes strict censorship.
“Actually, news is like a river,” he said. “It needs to flow—be it with new ideas, views, articles or public information. True news and information can develop a country and broaden its citizens’ outlooks.”
RSF revealed at the end of 2008 that the censorship bureau had sent all media offices in Rangoon a document detailing 10 rules that were to be observed by editors, who would also be punished if changes were made to articles after the board had checked and verified them.
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| Junta Officials Snub Mon Party Ceasefire Anniversary |
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Burmese junta officials from the southeast command snubbed the New Mon State Party’s 14th anniversary celebration of its ceasefire agreement with the government at the party’s office in Moulmein on Monday, according to officials.
A NMSP member, who didn’t want to be named, said that the party invited southeast command officials, but none attended.
“They might hate us because we don’t listen [agree] to what they say,” he said. “That’s why they didn’t come to the celebration.”
According to a source close to the party, the junta is worried that NMSP leaders will rescind the ceasefire agreement and also not agree to become a border guard force under the junta’s command.
NMPS leaders have been told to give their answer on transforming into a border guard force by the end of July.
According to a source close to the NMSP, its leaders do not want their military troops to become a border guard force.
However, some party leaders would like to participate in the 2010 election said the source.
The party normally celebrates its ceasefire agreement, which was signed in 1995, at a hotel in Moulmein, but this year it was celebrated at its party office in Moulmein because of budget restrictions.
The junta withdrew its budget to the party following the party’s refusal to join the national convention in 2008. Its contribution in 2008 was about 4 million kyat [US $3,636] a month.
Naing Han Thar, a general secretary of the party, said, “The government doesn’t provide anything for our party any more. It is hard to run the party without enough money. We run [on] money contributed from our people.”
The junta has imposed restrictions on the party from conducting business deals and from taxing the people, which has prevented it from increasing the size of its military force.
In spite of the ceasefire agreement, observers say there has been little political advancement in over a decade in Mon State, and Burmese troops have continued a campaign of human rights abuses.
The Mon Party attended the national constitutional convention held by the regime in 2003, but left after a proposal to form a federal government was rejected. Later the party simply sent observers to the convention.
The Mon Party released a statement opposing the junta’s constitutional referendum in 2008, citing fears that the process would strengthen the government by giving it a veneer of democracy without resulting in any actual improvements.
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| Appeal to Reinstate Witnesses for Suu Kyi Rejected |
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RANGOON — Burma's highest court rejected an appeal Monday by Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers to reinstate two key witnesses in a trial that could send the pro-democracy leader to prison for five years.
High Court judge Tin Aung Aye rejected the appeal because it was "intended to disturb and delay the trial," court officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The court's ruling means Suu Kyi will have only two defense witnesses in her trial, which resumes Friday.
The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.
"This is very unfair. The court had allowed 14 prosecution witnesses but only allowed two from the defense," said Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers.
"We tried our best to have the trial conducted according to the law but it has failed," Nyan Win said.
The trial has drawn outrage from world leaders and human rights groups who say Burma's junta is using the incident as an excuse to keep the country's opposition leader behind bars.
Suu Kyi has been in detention for more than 13 of the last 19 years.
Nyan Win said reinstating the two witnesses would not "delay or defeat the ends of justice."
Suu Kyi's main lawyer, Kyi Wynn, described Monday's ruling as a "rejection of justice."
One defense witness, Khin Moe Moe, is scheduled to testify before the District Court inside Insein prison Friday.
The trial began May 18. The court at first had allowed only one of four defense witnesses to take the stand. On appeal, the Rangoon Divisional Court ruled that Khin Moe Moe also could be heard. Khin Moe Moe is a lawyer and member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
Suu Kyi's lawyers pursued a second and final appeal to reinstate barred witnesses Win Tin and Tin Oo, both senior members of her party.
Prosecutors argued that Win Tin, a prominent former journalist and ex-political prisoner, should not be allowed to testify because he is critical of the government and often gave interviews to foreign media, said Nyan Win.
The defense team argued there was no law in the tightly ruled country that bars court testimony from government critics, Nyan Win said.
Prosecutors argued that Tin Oo, the party's deputy leader, should not be allowed to testify because he is under house arrest, Nyan Win said.
Defense lawyers told the court that Suu Kyi herself was under house arrest but that didn't stop authorities from putting her on trial, Nyan Win said. Suu Kyi was allowed to testify May 26, and her term under house arrest officially ended the next day.
She is currently detained at Insein prison along with John William Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, who is charged with trespassing.
He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court that he had a dream that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he had gone to warn her. Family and friends have said he was working on a book and wished to interview her.
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| Farmers Suffer Drought |
| Saturday, 27 June 2009 |
Sittwe: Farmers in Arakan State are suffering from drought in the area and have been unable to start cultivation of their fields even one month into this year's cultivation season, said one farmer from Arakan.
"Every year we plough our farms in the beginning of June, but this year we can not start to plow even though the time has reached nearly one month. We all want rain to come to our state soon," he said.
Last year at this time, half of the cultivation of the farms was complete in Arakan State, but this year the cultivation has yet to begin due to the lack of rain.
A farmer from Kai Shay Village in Taungup Township said, "All nursery farms were damaged because there is no rain. In the first week of June this year, we were planting seeds in the nursery farms as there was rain in our state, but now the rain has disappeared."
In addition to the lack of rain throughout Arakan, the weather has been extremely hot, making it difficult for people to work outside during the day.
A farmer from Maungdaw said, "I have never seen such drought before. The weather is very bad because there is no rain. We can not go to our farms in the day time for working."
"In another 15 days, Buddhist lent will start. Last year at this time, our farm was almost plowed, but this year there has been nothing to do yet. All farmers suffer from drought and they are worried about their cultivation failing this year," the farmer added.
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| Does Kang Nam carry arms to kill ceasefire forces? |
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Reports of North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam on its way to Burma has raised speculations among ceasefire groups who are resisting Naypyitaw’s demand to transform themselves into troops under the Burma Army’s command that it could be linked to current tensions between the two sides.
During the visit of Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the junta’s chief negotiator, to Mongla, opposite China’s Daluo on 9 June, Sai Leun, 63, leader of the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS),
informed him of the rejection by the army and people under his leadership of the junta’s proposal to transform themselves into a border guard force. Upon hearing it, Ye Myint mentioned the amazing growth and development of the ceasefire areas during the past 20 years and said, “Don’t you feel sorry to lose them if you reject our proposal?”
“This is a strong hint that all that we have built will be destroyed by them,” a ceasefire officer told SHAN.
Another source from northern Shan State also reported that he was told by a senior police officer that new weapons with highly destructive power would be used against ceasefire groups unless they gave in to the junta’s demand.
Meanwhile, Col Yawd Serk, leader of the Shan State Army (SSA) South, remarked that Naypyitaw’s current military preparations are aimed at subduing the United Wa State Army’s forces along the Thai-Burma border. “Panghsang (on the Sino-Burma border) is not their immediate target,” he said. “They want to put pressure on the Wa’s southern forces to give up their resistance. They will deal with Panghsang afterwards.”
The main weapon employed by the junta will be “drugs”, he told SHAN. “The planned burning of drugs in Kengtung on 26 June is therefore significant,” he said.
Kengtung is the capital of eastern Shan State, where the UWSA is active.
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| Mon State dam floods nearby paddy fields. |
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After heavy rains, rice paddies flooded by a dam runoff have yet to be replanted. Many paddy farmers are suffering as the season progresses and they are unable to replant their fields.
About 200 acres of rice paddy fields are flooded with water from the Winphanon dam project in Mudon township, Mon state. The flooding has come after particularly heavy rains in the area.
“About 200 acres of paddy field can’t be replanted with seedlings since the heavy rain. We are out of time now to transplant the paddies. We are trying to make the water drain away so we can weed out the grip grass in our paddy field, so we can grow more seedling plants,“ said a farmer from Doe mar village, Mudon Township.
Since the recent heavy rain, paddy fields near the Winpano dam in Mudon township, have been destroyed in Kalort-tort, Taungpa, Doe-mar, and Kwan-ka-bue villages. Fields were flooded by spill water from the dam, which is located up river from the villages and their fields.
Early on in the month heavy rain hit Mudon township destroying famers rice seedling plants which had already begun to grow.
“We only can grow our plants in 1 acre out of 8. Paddy fields from other townships have been transplanted for growing. Now we have to restart planting. We lose money and time. If we transplant our seedlings late in the season it will be difficult when we cultivate the rice."
After the government built Winphannon dam in 2001, the main river that flowed out to sea was blocked. The government authorities dug a trench to act as an alternative runoff for overflow water. But because the trench is unfinished the overflow water has not been able to runoff in the rainy season and instead flows into paddy fields and lower land village.
According to several Taungpa villagers, the Burmese authorities grow their own summer paddies in the villagers’ paddy fields around the Winphanon dam. The Burmese authorities use water from the dam in summer. But, according to local villagers, the workers for the authorities are inexperienced, and cultivate the crop in such a way that a lot of grass ends up growing in the paddy fields. So when the rainy season arrives, farmers find their fields destroyed and have to take time pulling out the grass.
“When it rains heavily the water floods our villages and we can’t go anywhere,” a villager who lives near the dam said. “Before the Winphannon Dam project was done, we didn’t face this kind of situation.”
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| Junta to resettle 200,000 Burmans in Hukawng Valley |
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The Burmese military junta plans to resettle 200,000 Burman people in ethnic Kachin's Hukawng Valley (also called Hugawng in Kachin) in the country's northern Kachin State before 2010, said regime insiders.
The new Burman settlers, who make up the majority of the country’s population, will be mainly settled in areas close to three Kachin villages known as Nawng Mi, Sahtu Zup and Wara Zup on the Ledo or Stilwell Road also called Burma Road during WW II, added insiders.
In the guise of Rangoon-based Yuzana Company's crop plantation in the Valley, only Burman people from different areas of lower Burma have been resettled in the Valley since late 2006, said native Kachins from the Valley.
U Htay Myint a Chinese-Burman from Kutkai town in northeast Shan State chairs the company, which bought over 200,000 acres of land in Hukawng Valley from the junta. The purchase was politically motivated, said company sources.
The company is now continuously transporting Burman workers into its crop plantation area in the Valley. However, many workers are leaving the job and fleeing because of very low salaries, said sources among workers.
All runaway workers not only do not return homes from the Valley but the company also does not have a programme of bringing them back, added company sources.
The company has already constructed over 1500 houses for the workers in identical styles in two separate places. Two Thai-styled big factories are also being constructed in two different places near the labour quarters, said eyewitnesses.
The company is now mainly growing Cassava Plants and Sugar Cane in the newly ploughed fields, said eyewitnesses. The glue and curry-sweet powder are being produced for export from next year, according to company sources.
Till now, the junta has already resettled over 40,000 Burman people from lower Burma in the Valley. They were systematically transported by both Yuzana Company and local Burmese Army battalions, said native Kachin community leaders.
There are an estimated 20,000 native Kachin in villages in the Hukawng Valley along the Ledo Road starting from Namti to Shingbwi Yang. The entire Valley has been separately ruled by 12 Kachin Duwas (rulers) in Kachin history until the Britishers gave Burma Independence on January 4, 1948.
At the same time, Htoo Company owned by the Burman tycoon U Te Za (also spelled Tay Za), son-in-law of the junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe is taking out at least 50 trucks of hardwood per day from the Valley to Mogaung train station for export under the banner of Yuzana Company, said company sources.
Besides, U Te Za's Htoo Company is also practically supporting the Yuzana Company with essential finance and construction machinery, according to company insiders.
Recently, the junta's Northern Command (Ma Pa Kha) commander Brig-Gen Soe Win landed in a helicopter at the helipad in No. 1 Yuzana Village of Yuzana Company in the Valley. He proudly spoke to the local people that the crop plantation can be done by every one because peace has been restored in the Valley, said local people.
The Hukawng Valley was named as the world largest Tiger Reserve by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2004. However, the Yunaza Company is destroying the reserve by heavy logging and converting forests into crop fields, said locals.
Locals and eyewitnesses told KNG, the Yuzana Company has already occupied and destroyed the No. 1 Tiger Conservation Camp near Nawng Mi village for crop plantation.
The Burman-dominated junta’s response to people or organizations who oppose the crop plantation of Yuzana Company by saying, "Man is more important than the Tiger", said company sources.
Kachin people in Burma feels that the junta is deeply is into ethnic cleansing and huge land confiscation in Hukawng Valley by using the Yuzana Company and local Burmese Army bases.
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| Junta deploys more troops along Shweli River |
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More troops have been deployed along the Shweli (Ruili in Chinese) River in northern Shan Sate in Burma since early this month by the ruling junta, said local sources.
Over a dozen ferry stations are located along the Shweli River (N'Mau Hka in Kachin) and Burmese troops are stationed at these stations, a local eyewitness told KNG today.
The river divides Shan and Kachin States. Strategically Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers cross the river on their way between the general headquarters in Kachin State and its 4th brigade in northeast Shan State, said local residents.
At the moment No. (33) Light Infantry Division from Ywataung in Sagaing Division, No. (58) Infantry Battalion (IB) from Waingmaw town and No. 437 Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) from Momauk (N'mawk in Kachin) are operating in the area along the left and right flanks of the river, according to local travellers.
Except No. (33) Light Infantry Division, different Infantry and Light Infantry Battalions are operating there in rotation for short periods, said local sources.
No. 12 and No. 27 KIA battalions are based in the north of the river. The KIA’s 4th brigade and its three battalions are stationed in the south west of the river, said KIO sources.
KIA officers in the area feel deployment of Burmese troops could be aimed to check KIA soldiers from crossing the river from the different ferry stations along the river and isolate the KIA 4th brigade from the headquarters in Kachin State.
The KIO has been pressurized to convert its armed-wing the KIA into a battalion of a "Border Guard Force" since April. The KIO has been given a deadline of October to respond to the junta proposal, said KIO sources.
As a response to the junta, the KIO is now into two missions--- launching a civilian and organizational awareness campaign on transforming the KIA while KIA troops have been ordered to stand by for defensive action against the Burmese Army as in the pre-ceasefire period.
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| Junta deploys fresh troops secretly in Kachin State |
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The Burmese military junta is secretly deploying more combat troops in Kachin State at a time when negotiations are on with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) over the transformation of its armed-wing into a battalion of a "Border Guard Force", said local sources.
As of the second week of June, able soldiers have been selected from different battalions and secretly infused into local Burmese Army battalions and military bases in the frontlines in different regions of Kachin State by the instruction of Lt-Gen Ye Myint of Chief of Military Affairs Security of the junta. They include two unidentified Light Infantry Divisions, said a source close to Burmese troops.
The new batch of troops are now secretly being stationed in the areas around Bhamo District in the eastern region of Irrawaddy River (also called Mali Hka in Kachin) and the areas between Myitkyina-Mandalay railways in the western region of the Irrawaddy River, the sources added.
Eyewitnesses in Bhamo said they often see Burmese military columns on the road between Bhamo-Namkham (Namhkam in Kachin), the illegal border trade route with China. They also see military columns of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of KIO on the same trade route.
The KIO suggested to the junta that the KIA be made a "State Security Force" instead of the junta-proposed "Border Guard Force" during the meeting between KIO delegates and the regime over transforming KIA, in Mali Hka Center in the junta's Northern Command headquarters in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina on June 21, said KIO sources.
The KIO delegation was led by Vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng while the junta's delegates were led by Northern Command Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win.
Meanwhile, KIO leaders are campaigning among the Kachin community in its controlled areas in Kachin State and in Northeast Shan State. It is explaining about the proposed KIA’s transformation. They are also asking for written suggestions to be sent to the KIO central committee, said Kachins in the two states. It is a month-long campaign to be concluded in June, said KIO officers.
Meanwhile, KIA troops have been alerted and are on standby in all battalions in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State to defend itself against the Burmese Army, said KIA officials.
All Kachin political organizations in the country and abroad and the Kachin public have advised to the KIO/A to reject the proposal of transforming the KIA and fight the junta, according to the Kachin media.
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| Junta rakes in 1,000 million Kyat from auction of seized cars |
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The Burmese military junta has earned a whopping net profit of over 1,000 million Kyat (an estimated over US $909,091) from its biggest auction ever of seized cars in Myitkyina, the capital of the country's northern Kachin State. The revenue was raked in, in a matter of days, local sources said.
Hundreds of car dealers, brokers, businessmen and the rich, mainly from Rangoon and Mandalay dropped in at the car auction venues in the Kachin State Football Stadium and the Burmese Army compound of the No. 37 Infantry Battalion in Myitkyina in the 2nd week of this June, said local residents.
Over 400 unlicensed cars were show cased in the exhibition. Most were luxury vehicles made in Japan while a few cars were of Chinese make, said local visitors.
All the cars in the auction were seized mainly in Myitkyina town as of 2000 from local civilians, businessmen and officers of two Kachin ceasefire groups--- the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) by the town’s military authorities, according to residents of Myitkyina.
Now, the junta's town Municipal Office is collecting the annual 'Wheel Tax' from motorcycles owners in Myitkyina at the rate of 3,500 Kyat (US $3.2) per vehicle, said residents.
Sources close to the civic body said, the office earned over 20 million Kyat (an estimated over US $18,182) as revenue from imposing fines on motorcycle owners who drove it without paying the annual ‘Wheel Tax’.
Moreover, unlicensed Chinese motorcycles are always stopped and owners fined by traffic policemen in Myitkyina, local residents added.
Last week, the Municipal Office also forcibly demanded money from shop owners in the town at the rate of 8,000 Kyat (US $7.3) per shop for license cards issued by the civic body, said a shop owner in Tatkone quarter. Actually, it is meant to be free, according to shop owners.
Residents of Myitkyina are accusing the military authorities of trying to fleece civilians whenever they get the opportunity.
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| Kachin state, waiting for an ecological disaster |
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Kachin State in northern Burma is sitting on a powder keg of an ecological disaster. From impending dam related devastation to the rape of the environment in terms of incalculable damage to the flora and fauna has rendered the state extremely vulnerable. Rampant felling of trees and the wanton killing of myriad wildlife for filthy lucre for export to China has led to a serious situation which is far from being addressed.
For instance a series of earth quakes in China's southwest Yunnan province, bordering Burma has thrown up the spectre of future Chinese-made dam disasters in northern Burma. There was an earthquake of 4.9 magnitude on the Richter scale in Ruili (Shweli) on the China-Burma border last week. China's Yunnan province and Kachin state in northern Burma sit on the same earth quake fault line.
China and Burma are into construction of three dams for hydropower projects in Taping River (also called Dapain River in China) in Kachin state. The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) based on the Sino-Burma border nurses fears that if the three dams on Taping River should burst due to earth quakes originating from Yunnan province, the floods will threaten the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Myothit, Momauk (N'Mawk) and Bhamo (Manmaw).
The Burma-Asia World Company and China's China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) are jointly gearing up to construct dams in Myitsone, the Mali-N'Mai River confluence, 10 miles north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state and Chibwe in N'Mai River. There will be a total of seven dam projects in Mali and N'Mai Rivers in Kachin state leading to not only displacement of people but raising the chances of disasters and severe damage to the environment.
Natural disasters man made or otherwise apart, the ecology of Kachin state is being systematically destroyed due to rampant logging where trees by the thousands are being felled.
Rampant logging is one of biggest enemies of Kachin state and big money comes into play in the timber business which is denuding the forest cover of the state and ruining the ecology. In order to allow felling of trees bribes are paid on a monthly basis. Everyone from the Burmese Army to the police and government officials have their palms greased by Chinese timber businessmen in Kachin state.
Chinese loggers and log trucks in hordes from China's northwest Yunnan province arrived in the forests in Bhamo District in Kachin state in early November. At the last count there were 300 Chinese trucks and about 1,000 Chinese loggers. Hardwood and softwood is being felled non-stop and transported to the Sino-Burma border day and night. The lucrative trade that the Chinese are into is spelling the death knell of Kachin state's forest cover.
The heavy logging underway is a direct fall out of a deal struck between the Northern Command commander Brig-Gen Soe Win and local Chinese-Burmese timber businessman Lee Maw Yung. Bhamo District Military Strategic Command commander Lt-Col. Khin Maung Maung and Northern Command commander Brig-Gen Soe Win are said to receive the largest slice of bribes from Chinese timber businessmen. Even loss of life means nothing when it comes to timber trade for on December 15, a villager of Kone Ting in Mansi Township also called Manje in Kachin was shot dead in a dispute over logging between the Kone Ting villagers and timber-logger-thieves close to Chinese loggers.
Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win granted permission to export timber to China through the border checkpoints controlled by the two Kachin ceasefire groups--- Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group (LAWCG) in September after he was appointed as the new commander of Northern Command in June.
While China officially stopped importing timber from northern Burma in late 2005 Chinese timber businessmen had never really stopped timber felling. Now China has resumed importing timber from Kachin state as of early December.
As if denudation of forest cover was not enough, in northern Burma there is a raging trade in elephant body parts. The pachyderms are being killed for its ivory and skin for over a decade by local people. The shocking trade continues unhindered with prices in Kachin state for a set of tusks weighing between one to two Viss at 500,000 Kyat (US $ 397) to 600,000 Kyat (US $ 476). It is over 1.5 million Kyat for a set of tusks weighing over 10 Viss (1Viss = 1.6 Kilograms in Burmese measurement in terms of weight). Again one Viss of dry elephant skin is valued at over 40,000 Kyat (US $32). An elephant has at least over 100 Viss of skin so hunters earn over 4 million Kyat just from the skin. Ivory is mainly exported to Thailand and some to China but elephant skin mainly goes to China for traditional treatment. Here again bribes are offered in abundance to regime functionaries. There are only about 1,000 wild elephants where as the figure in 1994 was over 3,000 in Kachin state.
It would seem that conservation of wild life is an alien concept in Burma. Less than a month ago 2,000 snakes being transported in a truck were seized by special branch policemen in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state.
The reptiles were being exported to China where demand for all varieties of wild animals as food items is high. The snakes were in hundreds of wooden boxes. While some of the reptiles had died the rest were killed by the police and fire brigade personnel. They beat and set the reptiles, which included vipers, cobras and Boa Constrictors on fire without batting an eyelid.
China imports all kinds of wild animals from Kachin state. Leopards and tigers face the danger of extinction. The Chinese import the animals for its flesh, skin, horns, bones and other body parts.
The damage caused to the ecology and the environment is also immense because of rampant trapping and export of wild animals to China for food. Environmentalists are concerned. But the military junta pays no heed to such wanton destruction for money is to be made from all this.
The one thing that the Burmese generals do not do, is think of future generations, even their own, in terms of environment and ecology.
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| Myanmar links US Suu Kyi swimmer to exile groups |
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YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta said Thursday that a US man on trial for swimming to the house of Aung San Suu Kyi had links with exile groups in Thailand, apparently toughening its stance ahead of a visit by a UN envoy.
This Myanmar News Agency photo released in May 2009 shows John William Yettaw (3rdR at the table) talking to the consul of the US embassy Colin P. Furst (3rdL) at the Aung Thaeyey police detention centre in Yangon. Myanmar’s junta said that Yettaw, on trial for swimming to the house of Aung San Suu Kyi had links with exile groups in Thailand, apparently toughening its stance. (AFP/MNA/File)
American John Yettaw, a devout Mormon and US military veteran, has told the trial that he was on a mission from God to warn the Nobel laureate after having a vision that she would be assassinated.
But the military-ruled nation’s police chief, for the first time, Thursday named top dissidents with whom Yettaw had allegedly met before making the first of two visits to the democracy icon’s lakeside residence.
Aung San Suu Kyi is also on trial for allegedly breaching the terms of her house arrest, over what she says were uninvited visits by Yettaw. Both face up to five years in jail.
The junta rolled out the allegations a day before UN troubleshooter Ibrahim Gambari was due to visit Myanmar to lay the groundwork for a planned visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“According to concrete information, during Mr Yettaw’s stay in Thailand he met with some people from illegal organisations,” police chief Khin Yee told a hastily-arranged press conference at the interior ministry in Yangon.
He said that Yettaw had met Bo Kyi, co-founder of leading activist group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma, while he was staying in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in September-October 2008.
Bo Kyi spent seven years in jail following a failed student uprising in 1988 and is an outspoken critic of Myanmar’s military regime.
The police chief named eight other top dissidents whom Yettaw had allegedly met while in Thailand. Reports in exile magazines have previously said that Yettaw was in the neighbouring country at around the same time.
“It’s a thing to consider — what kind of person or organizations supported Mr John William Yettaw to stay… in Thailand and Myanmar for many months using much money although he has no regular job and income,” Khin Yee said.
“There might be some people, such as a planner or instructor or supporter behind the scenes. We are still investigating who or which organization,” he added.
The regime last month said Yettaw’s visits to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house were organised by “anti-government elements” and that he was a “secret agent or her boyfriend”, but has not yet given details of the alleged links.
The trial at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison has heard that Yettaw walked through a drain to briefly visit her house in November 2008 but only left a copy of the “Book of Mormon” and did not see her.
He then swam across a lake to the house in May before staying there for two nights.
UN chief Ban and Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar’s military regime to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990 elections.
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| BURMA: Disabled battle stigma, lack of funds |
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(IRIN) - Nay Lin Soe, aged 28, campaigns for the rights of the disabled in Myanmar, a marginalized group with few rights and little support.
He contracted polio at the age of three, gets around on crutches, and has devoted his adult life to raising awareness of, and dispelling negative attitudes towards, disability.
"People in Myanmar think about disability in a traditional way," Nay Lin Soe told IRIN. "A family will usually regard a disabled person as a burden. And often a disabled person can feel like a burden because he or she doesn’t have a chance to lead a productive life."
Government-funded facilities for the disabled are limited. For a nation of 56 million people, there is just one school for disabled children, one vocational training centre for adults, and one rehabilitation centre - all in the commercial capital Yangon.
The disabled make up around 2.3 percent of the population, or some 1.3 million people, according to government figures.
Stigma and lack of mobility hamper them in their efforts to get a good education and a job. "They are isolated and excluded from society. As children they cannot go to school; as adults they have little or no income because it is almost impossible for them to get employment," said Nay Lin Soe.
The Education Ministry’s policy is to provide opportunities for disabled children in ordinary schools, but problems remain.
This month, the Disabled People's Development Organization (DPDO), a local NGO established in 2003, will open its first office in Yangon. It aims to change attitudes towards disability, campaign for equal rights and provide a place where its 120 members can come and share their experiences.
Nay Lin Soe, who is on the executive committee, told IRIN: "Lack of capacity is our biggest problem in promoting disability awareness and helping people living with disabilities."
Rehab programme
Nay Lin Soe is also the project manager of a community-based rehabilitation programme run by AAR Japan, one of the few foreign NGOs funding projects for disabled people in Myanmar.
AAR runs a vocational training centre in a suburb of north Yangon, where disabled people from across the country learn tailoring and hairdressing.
Chit Hinn Wai, who had both legs amputated above the knee after falling from a train at the age of 13, is learning hairdressing on a three month residential course. Since her accident five years ago she has lived in a government-run orphanage and this is the first time she has been able to share her experiences with other disabled people.
"I've made new friends and I've learned so much. I hope to use my skills and one day lead an independent life," she said.
AAR also runs community-based rehabilitation programmes in three areas affected by last year's Cyclone Nargis. They offer physiotherapy, free crutches and braces, and aim to make schools more accessible for disabled children.
But the one-year programme is a tiny contribution. "There just isn't enough support, from both inside and outside the country," said Nay Lin Soe. "My hope is that all disabled people in Myanmar can live with dignity." |
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| MYANMAR: Food security improving but challenges persist in south |
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YANGON,(IRIN) - More than a year after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, food security shows signs of improvement, but huge challenges remain, particularly in the southern areas of the Ayeyarwady Delta.
Some 140,000 people were killed and 2.4 million affected when the category four storm swept across the low-lying nation on 2 and 3 May 2008.
"The victims in the northern part of the delta are on their way towards recovery," Chris Kaye, WFP country representative, told IRIN in Yangon, noting, however, that critical needs persisted elsewhere.
"Limited agricultural productivity and low levels of employment or other income-generating activities mean that the coming lean season will be particularly difficult for families to feed themselves," he said, referring to the south, which typically has only one rice harvest a year as opposed to two in the north.
"There is clear evidence that much more needs to be done to ensure we have fully put victims back on their feet and that families and communities can sustain themselves," Kaye said - an assessment echoed by others in the humanitarian community.
"While the life-threatening crisis is over, communities are still dependent on assistance since their livelihoods are not yet back to normal," Marc Sekpon, Nargis response coordinator for Action Against Hunger, said.
More than half the labour force works in agriculture, growing rice, corn, sugarcane and other crops.
"Food will not be truly secure until livelihoods have been restored," Tesfai Ghermazien, a senior emergency and rehabilitation coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Myanmar, added.
"Agricultural support, including seeds and tools, is critical for the upcoming planting season," said Belete Temesgen, relief and food department manager for World Vision/Myanmar, which is targeting 140 villages in the townships of Pyapon, Bogale and Hinggyi.
"If they fail to plant due to lack of cash or seeds, they will [slip] away from recovery and this will further erode their coping mechanisms," he warned.
Greatest risk areas
According to the latest WFP Rapid Food Security Assessment (RFSA) conducted earlier this year, food insecurity remains a serious concern in the southern and western areas of the delta.
The survey showed that 51 percent of sampled households in the Labutta and Bogale townships relied on food aid for rice supplies, while only 25 percent reported a recovery in their livelihoods.
A majority - 83 percent - of those surveyed were reportedly in debt, with food purchases the dominant cause.
Unemployment is high, and support is needed to help reconstitute income-generating activities of those affected, whether in agriculture, fishing or petty trading, Kaye said.
"Recovery will require several more years of support and input," he said.
According to the FAO, just 5-10 percent of all lost fishing gear has been replaced, and there is still a shortage of draft animals for tilling by small and medium-sized farmers.
Numbers of pigs, chickens and ducks also need boosting given their importance as a source of income for scores of vulnerable landless households, the agency said.
Rebuilding livelihoods
To rehabilitate individual and community assets, WFP and its partners are increasingly shifting towards more sustainable, medium-term recovery programmes, such as land development and activities that can enhance food production and access to markets.
"While WFP food assistance will be phased out over the course of the next seven months or so, our exit is conditional on the ability of families and communities to extract themselves from the high levels of debt they have incurred as they have tried to rebuild their lives, and to move toward more sustainable livelihoods," Kaye stressed.
In the past year, WFP has delivered food assistance to more than one million beneficiaries, comprising 70,000 MT. The agency is wrapping up operations in Pyapon and Mawgyun, but extending operations in Bogale and Labutta townships until the end of 2009, involving 300,000 people.
Although significantly fewer than the one million people who once received food assistance at the height of the agency's operation in October, the number is significant in an area once referred to as the "bread basket" of Myanmar - which previously did not require food assistance, say specialists. |
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| NDAK ready to turn into ‘Border Guard’ force |
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Chiang Mai/Ruili – The ethnic armed group, the New Democratic Army – Kachin (NDAK), which has a ceasefire agreement with the ruling Burmese junta, has consented to the regime’s proposal of transforming its army into a ‘Border Guard’ force.
NDAK Chairman Zahkung Ting Ying in an interview to Mizzima on Thursday said it had accepted the junta’s proposal to change its army into a border guard force during a meeting with the junta’s Northern Military Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win on June 24 at the NDAK headquarters in Pang Wa.
“We had the meeting in our headquarters. We discussed transforming our army into the border guard and we agreed to do it. We believe we will be able to transform our army,” Zahkung Ting Ying said.
“We are ceasefire groups. We are not armed rebels fighting against the country. We want to transform our army to be able to continue guarding our region,” he added.
The meeting, held in the Sino-Burma border town, was arranged by the Burmese junta. The junta’s delegates was led by Northern Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win along with several other officials, the NDAK was represented by Chairman Zahkung Ting Ying and several other officials.
Zahkung Ting Ying said, the group will form a political party and contest the 2010 general elections. They have demanded that the junta give the right of self-governance to Kachin ethnics.
“At this stage, we are only at the level of demanding special privileges as an ethnic group of the country. But after transformation, the armed groups will be different and those without arms will need to restart our lives again,” he added.
The NDAK is one of the first armed ceasefire groups that the junta wanted to transform into a border guard force. Other groups such as the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and United Wa State Army (UWSA) have rejected the proposal.
Sources close to KIO said leaders of the KIO during a meeting with Brig-Gen Soe Win in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state on June 20, rejected the proposal.
Similarly, the UWSA, during its meeting with the junta’s Military Affairs Security (MAS) Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint on June 7 in Panghsang, rejected the junta’s proposal. Following the rejection, fresh tension was triggered between the groups and the junta. This has resulted in the junta reinforcing its troops based in northern and eastern Burma, an official of the UWSA told Mizzima.
Both the UWSA and KIO, though they have rejected the proposal, said they are willing to hold talks with the new government that will be formed after the election in 2010.
The Zahkung Ting Ying led NDAK is a splinter group of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), which was formed in 1961 to fight for self-determination of the Kachin people. The NDAK was earlier the 3rd Brigade of the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of KIO, which was set up in Pang Wa region in 1968.
Later the NDAK joined the Burma Communist Party’s (BCP) as the 101 military region but broke off with the BCP and on December 15, 1989 the group signed a ceasefire peace pact with the ruling junta. |
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| Ashin Gambira’s prison term reduced by five years |
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Chiang Mai (mizzima) – Monk Ashin Gambira, arrested and sentenced to 68 years in prison for his lead role in anti-junta protests in September 2007 has had his prison term reduced by five years by a district court in Insein prison on Thursday.
The western district court reduced the sentence of Gambira, leader of the All Burma Buddhist Monks Association by five years. He was charged under the Electronics Act. The reverend monk, who was charged on 16 counts, will now have to serve 63 years in prison.
The Electronics Act 33 (a) stipulates that using the internet without the permission of the authorities is an offence and is punishable. The law became a tool for the authorities to sentence the reverend monk, who took a lead role in the September 2007 monk-led protests.
Lawyers of the monk, who is 29, and is currently detained in a prison in Kalemyo in Sagaing division, have appealed to the district court. The court said the appeals were late and rejected appeals for seven counts.
The legal counsels have now, submitted appeals on the other nine counts, and the court has scheduled a session on June 29.
Ashin Gambira, however, denied appealing but the lawyers have been acting on the request of his parents.
Authorities have also arrested the monk’s elder brother Aung Kyaw Kyaw and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. He is currently detained in Tuaggyi prison in Shan state. Similarly, his younger brother Aung Ko Ko Lwin and brother-in-law Moe Htet Lian were also arrested and sentenced to five years each and are respectively in Kyuak Pyu prison in Arakan state and Moulmein prison in Mon state. |
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| Court adjourns Suu Kyi's trial to July 3 |
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New Delhi (mizzima) - The special court in Insein Prison on Friday adjourned the hearing of the testimony of a second defense witness in the trial against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to July 3rd, as the country’s High Court has yet to rule on an appeal to allow the remaining two defense witnesses.
Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said the court on Friday convened at about 10 a.m. (local time) and adjourned about thirty minutes later with the judge scheduling the testimony of Khin Moh Moh, the second defense witness, for July 3rd.
“Since the decision from the High Court has not yet been announced, the lower court cannot go ahead with the case,” Nyan Win iterated.
Earlier in the week, the High Court heard arguments by defense lawyers to allow the remaining two defense witnesses – Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and Win Tin, a veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the NLD – to take the stand.
On Thursday, Burma’s Chief of Police, Khin Yi, told journalists and diplomats at a rare news conference in Rangoon that Aung San Suu Kyi is responsible for the secret visit by the American man, John William Yettaw, as she failed to immediately report the incident to the authorities concerned.
Khin Yi accused the detained Nobel Peace Laureate of delaying notification of Yettaw's initial visit at the end of 2008 by four days, putting authorities in a difficult situation to trace the case.
He added he suspects a mastermind behind Yettaw’s visit to the Burmese democracy icon’s house on the shores of Inya Lake in Rangoon, and that authorities are still trying to find out which group is responsible for the breech in security.
But opposition groups, including the NLD, have accused the junta of using the incident as a pretext to continue detaining Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from the public realm prior to and during their planned election in 2010. |
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| ‘Lawyers of the government’ steering Suu Kyi trial |
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(DVB)–A witness disqualified from testifying in the defense of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday following his appeal that it was not “ordinary lawyers” making key decisions in the trial but government cronies.
Suu Kyi’s defense team yesterday appealed to Burma’s supreme court to admit two witnesses who were disqualified last month by judges from testifying.
One of Suu Kyi’s lawyers said that the decision was not in accordance with Burmese law. One of the witnesses, U Tin Oo, is currently under house arrest, while U Win Tin has been criticized by the junta for giving interviews about the trial to foreign media.
Both are senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy party, which Suu Kyi leads.
“I argued that there is no law there that says that [someone under house arrest]…can't testify,” said lawyer Nyan Win.
“I argued that there is nowhere in the law that says that someone who doesn't agree with the government can't testify, with regards to U Win Tin."
Three of Suu Kyi’s four witnesses were initially barred, although one was later readmitted. The prosecution team was permitted 14 witnesses, although only nine eventually testified.
Win Tin said yesterday that it was clear what the government’s attitude towards Suu Kyi’s team is.
“The people who put forward the [witness disqualification] argument are people from the central lawyers’ office…the lawyers of the government,” he said.
“I feel as if they are giving me a sign that they want to trap me legally, and sue me or intimidate me."
Rumours have been circulating in Rangoon that Win Tin could be charged by judges for refusing to return his prisoner uniform, which he has been wearing since he was released last year from a 19 year sentence.
On the subject of UN envoy Gambari’s visit to Burma, which began this morning, Win Tin said that dialogue must be sought.
"When Mr. Gambari comes, he must meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi - that must be his priority,” he said.
“If he can't do that…his trip has no meaning and has no value.”
Gambari’s trip could pave the way for a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was invited by the government to visit in July, although he has not confirmed whether the trip will go ahead.
“The main thing Mr Ban Ki-moon has to do is to try to arrange a meeting between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Than Shwe,” Win Tin said.
Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet |
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| Gambari in Naypyidaw |
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The UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is visiting Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, to meet with junta top officials on Friday, the same day he arrived in Rangoon. It is uncertain whether he will meet Snr-Gen Than Shwe or opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
There is no sign so far of a meeting with the Burmese opposition, however.
Nyan Win, the spokesperson for the Burmese opposition National League for Democracy, said he received no notification from Burmese authorities regarding a meeting with the UN envoy.
Gambari will meet senior Burmese officials from the military government during his two-day trip.
On Saturday, the Nigerian diplomat will return to Rangoon and hold talks with Burmese officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will then return to the UN headquarters and brief UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, before Ban leaves New York for Japan on Monday, said a UN spokesperson in New York.
The UN envoy is visiting Burma to prepare for a possible visit by Ban.
Ban Ki-moon is reportedly concerned that his possible trip to Burma could be exploited by the Burmese generals, who have put Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on trial.
He will decide whether to fly to Burma after Gambari has briefed him on the outcome of his trip.
Some observers believe that the Burmese officials will treat the UN envoy properly this time, as they want the UN secretary general to come to Burma. They commented that the Burmese generals want to politically exploit a trip by Ban.
Western diplomats in Rangoon believe that the UN envoy will convey Ban’s demands prior to his making a visit to the Burmese generals.
Journalists at the UN headquarters in New York reported on June 11 that Ban said: “Promoting democratization, including the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, has been one of my top priorities and it will continue to be my top priority.”
More than 2,000 political prisoners are now being detained by the Burmese regime in Burma, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).
Observers are hoping that Gambari’s current trip to Burma will get at least one concession from the junta before Ban makes a trip in early July.
The UN secretary general told journalists in New York earlier this month that: “When the time is appropriate and conditions are ripe, as I said many times, I’m ready to visit Myanmar. I’m working on that now.”
The NLD spokesperson, Nyan Win said, “We always welcome any movement by the UN, and we still hope for something positive to come out it.”
Aye Thar Aung, the Rangoon-based Arakanese politician who is chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy, said he did not think Gambari’s trip would have much success, though he was preparing for a visit by Ban.
He said that a political heavyweight like the UN secretary general could play a useful role in pushing the Burmese regime towards national reconciliation in Burma.
“Ban Ki-moon should come to Burma anyway to discuss the situation in person with the Burmese generals,” said Aye Thar Aung, commenting that it was important that Ban saw the situation first-hand.
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| Tunnel Construction Pictures Spark Questions |
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Is the North Korean involvement in advising and building underground tunnels in Burma concentrated on military-based activities, or does it also include hydropower projects which are scattered around the country?
That is one of the questions raised by Burmese civil engineers living inside and outside Burma, since photographs of a tunnel construction site were posted on news Web sites in recent weeks including the Democratic Voice of Burma, Yale Global online and The Irrawaddy.
Unsolicited photographs and video were published in recent weeks from a number of sources including the Burmese military and Burmese activists.
Some of the photographs showing tunnel construction were sent to The Irrawaddy by an organization calling itself the Peace Creation Group, an underground group in Burma.
When The Irrawaddy editors contacted members of the group, they said the photographs were taken around Naypyidaw, but they had no knowledge of what the photographs showed.
Some images appear to show civilian workers in blue-colored uniforms, other people who appear to be foreigners from Asia, Burmese military officers, and normal construction site workers. Workers with the Ministry of Electricity normally wear blue-colored uniforms.
Burmese engineers inside and outside the country noted that the military regime currently has 12 hydropower projects scheduled, including the Ye Ywa hydropower project, 31 miles southeast of Mandalay, the largest in the country.
“I am wondering whether these photos are for hydropower projects or military purposes,” wrote one civil engineer who worked on the Paunglaung hydropower project near Naypyidaw.
“As for me, I can’t distinguish which one is military or for hydropower projects,” he said. “Hydropower project tunnels are quite large, [and] are built underground [and sometimes in] mountains,” he wrote.
Burma’s directorate of military engineers, along with private construction contractors, is involved in implementing hydropower projects and underground tunnels.
Suspicions about the exact purposes of tunnel construction in Burma were heightened recently after accounts surfaced about Burmese-North Korean military cooperation in the areas of military hardware procurement and tunnel construction projects.
According to a MoU signed between Burma and North Korea which has been obtained by The Irrawaddy, Burma plans to build a military headquarter facility with a maze of underground tunnels around Naypyidaw, the remote capital.
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| More than Half of Myitkyina Uni Students Addicted: KNG |
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Addiction to heroin and other drugs has in recent years become widespread among students at Myitkyina University in Kachin State, according to a Kachin News Agency (KNG) report published on Friday.
The KNG report was released on the same day that the Burmese military regime was holding a ceremony to burn seized drugs to mark World Anti-Drug Day. This year’s ceremony took place in Kengtung Township in Shan State.
The eight-page report paints an alarming picture of drug use, and in particular the use of heroin, which has infiltrated the northernmost Burmese state dramatically in recent years. The report also details the endemic use of drugs among workers in the jade mines of Hpakant in Kachin State and the complicity of company bosses and the military authorities in the region.
“Myitkyina University has become a haven for heroin,” he said.
The disturbing report outlines the increase in drug use among university students in the Kachin capital since 2003 and says that both male and female students “are fearless about taking drugs” and that they “shoot up in the classrooms and in the toilet openly.”
It says that heroin is commonly sold to students and other young people in tiny penicillin vial lids at a price of about 1,500 kyat (US $1.50) per cap, although first-time users are often given free samples to get them hooked.
The report says that Myitkyina University has become so notorious for soaring levels of drug addiction among its students that it has become a “source of shame and bitterness for the local community.”
The KNG report also notes that there are thousands of workers in jade mines in Kachin State that line up like they were at “a festival” to buy drugs and often spend more money on drugs than they are able to earn.
The report quotes a jade mine manager as saying: “When the laopan (Chinese company bosses) invite you to their houses, they teat you with opium. All of the jade brokers get addicted.”
Although day laborers earn as little as 1,000 kyat ($1) per day, the report says that a pipe of opium costs at least 3—4,000 kyat ($3-4) while a methamphetamine pill goes for about 6,500 kyat ($6.50).
The report also accuses the Burmese authorities of ignoring the drug problem that is threatening the Kachin community and, in many cases, of being involved with it.
Burma’s state-run media has reported that the country has been successful in eliminating illegal drugs with a decline of 11 percent in drug production in 2007-2008.
The New Light of Myanmar reported that the Burmese authorities had destroyed 312,700 hectares of poppy within the last two years and that Burma has been successful in the first five-year phase of its 15-year narcotic drugs eradication program that began in 1999-2000.
However, according to the 2008 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation increased 29 percent during that period, though it noted that most of this amount originated on poppy farms in the Wa region of Shan State.
Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said it will be difficult to eliminate illegal drugs in northern Burma because the political situation is unstable and many people in Shan State have to rely on income from poppy farms.
Even the ceasefire groups in Shan State have to rely on income from the opium poppy trade, he added.
Of a total of 27,700 hectares (68,419 acres) of opium poppy cultivation in all Burma, Shan State alone accounted for as much as 25,400 hectares (62,738 acres), according to the UNODC report. It is estimated that as many as 150,000 households in Shan State are involved in opium poppy cultivation—an increase of 24 percent from previous years.
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| A Visit to North Korea’s Arms Factories |
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The Burmese junta’s No 3, Gen Thura Shwe Mann, made a secret, seven day visit to North Korea last November, apparently with a shopping list for arms and sophisticated weapons systems.
Shwe Mann, chief of staff of the army, navy and air force, and the coordinator of Special Operations, was shown by his North Korean hosts around arms industry factories and defense installations. He and his 17-member high-level delegation were also taken to Myohyang, where secret tunnels have been built into the mountains to store and shield jet aircraft, missiles, tanks and nuclear and chemical weapons.
Photographs of the visit have meanwhile reached The Irrawaddy and give rarely seen evidence of the range of North Korea’s armaments industry.
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| High Court hears Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers' arguments |
| Friday, 26 June 2009 |
New Delhi (mizzima) - Burma’s High Court on Wednesday heard defense arguments for allowing two more witnesses in the controversial trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but did not make any ruling on the matter.
Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said the defense team argued it is in accordance with the law to allow the remaining two witnesses – Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and Win Tin, a veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the NLD.
“The High Court doesn’t make immediate decisions and will take some time before announcing their decision. And we don’t know when that announcement will be,” Nyan Win said.
However, Nyan Win added that the High Court judges told them it might be impossible to accept Tin Oo as a witness as he is currently under house arrest.
The judges further explained, according to Nyan Win, that as Win Tin has given several interviews to the exile-based Democratic Voice of Burma, BBC and Radio Free Asia, in which he demonstrated a distinct difference of opinion to that of the authorities, he may not qualify either.
But Kyi Win, Aung San Suu Kyi's primary lawyer, said the law prescribes that in finding the truth even criminals serving a death sentence can be brought as witnesses.
“My instinct told me that this will be the kind of excuse they would use to reject Tin Oo. But the law permits the accused to call anybody as a witness, as long as the witness has relevance,” Kyi Win said.
He added that during his experience as a lawyer he has seen judges order a commission be sent to prisons to hear the testimony of prisoners claimed as witnesses for the accused.
With regard to the judges' complaint concerning Win Tin, Kyi Win elaborated that everybody has the right to have their own opinion and having a different opinion to the government is not a crime.
“What we are fighting is for equal representation in front of the court and since the lower court [at Insein prison] has not mentioned any reasons for rejecting the defense witnesses, it is against the law [to exclude the candidates],” he added.
The Insein prison court where Aung San Suu Kyi is facing trial originally scheduled the hearing of the second defense witness– Khin Moh Moh – for Friday. But Kyi Win said there would be no hearing until the High Court makes the decision on whether to allow more witnesses.
The Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate, who has been under some form of detention for more than 13 of the past 19 years, is currently facing trial under charges of breaching her previous term of detention by ‘harboring’ an American man for two days at her lakeside home in early May.
Observers and opposition elements believe the trial, which could see Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to up to five years of further imprisonment if found guilty, is a pretext to continue detaining her in order to further clear the way for the junta’s planned 2010 general election – the country's first since the military annulled a 1990 ballot, which saw the NLD emerge the clear winner. |
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| Palpable tension between junta and ethnic armed groups |
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New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese Army has significantly increased its military presence in northern and eastern Burma, where ethnic ceasefire armed groups are based, following their widespread rejection of the junta’s proposal to transform to a border guard force.
An official of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) told Mizzima on Wednesday that they have witnessed the Burmese Army relocating more troops along with arms including mortars in bases near their controlled areas in eastern Shan State.
“We have seen the Burmese Army moving in more troops, in what seems like a preparation for a war,” the official said.
He told Mizzima that the junta is likely to mount more pressure on them after they rejected the proposal to transform their army into a ‘Border Guard’ force.
“Changing our army’s name is not a problem but if we accept their proposal, we will lose our forces, so it’s not possible for us,” he said.
In late April, the junta proposed to ceasefire armed groups to change their armies into a ‘Border Guard’, which will be supervised by the junta. According to the junta’s plan, each battalion of the border guard will consist of 326 soldiers out of which 30 soldiers from the Burmese Army will be included.
However, most of the ceasefire groups including the UWSA have reportedly rejected the junta’s proposal, triggering renewed tension between the Burmese Army and the rebels.
But the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), an ethnic Karen rebel group which split from the mainstream Karen resistance army – the Karen National Union, have not rejected the junta’s proposal.
“We do not anticipate war, nobody wants to fight, we are still open to talks with them [junta] but we need to defend ourselves, so now, we have alerted all our troops to be ready,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.
UWSA controls two special regions in northern Shan State, bordering China and eastern Shan state, bordering Thailand.
Meanwhile, sources said, the Burmese junta has also increased its military presence in northern Burma’s Kachin State in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A).
Awng Wa, an activist working inside Kachin state said, troops have been reinforced in the Burmese Army, based near the KIO’s main headquarter in the Sino-Burma border town of Laiza.
“More soldiers have arrived in battalion 2 at Daw Hpum Myang [which is close to Laiza],” said Awng Wa.
He said the junta has reinforced the army battalions with more troops since they began proposing the transformation of the KIA into a border guard force.
“It looks to me that a conflict might break out between the KIO and the Burmese Army anytime soon,” he added.
An unconfirmed report received by Mizzima said, leaders of the KIO including Vice-President (1) of the KIO Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, during a meeting with a Burmese junta official in Myitkyina of Kachin state last week, rejected the proposal.
But when contacted by Mizzima, Gauri Zau Seng declined to clarify the matter and referred to the KIO’s spokesperson Colonel Gun Maw. But Col Gun Maw, however, could not be reached for comment.
Sources said, the KIO has been holding meetings within the organisation to discuss the junta’s proposal and had formed a seven-member committee to deal with the issue and to negotiate with the junta. Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng is the leader of the team.
As part of its preparation, KIO in turn has stepped up recruiting new cadres and has called back old comrades. They are also returning into the forests, sources said.
Similarly, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), which has not signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta, said the Burmese Army has also been expanding its presence in eastern and northern Shan states.
Major Long Sai of the SSA-S told Mizzima, that it is the fallout of rejecting the junta’s proposal by ethnic ceasefire groups and the military junta is likely to launch stronger military operations.
“They [junta] are despatching more artillery battalions,” said Long Sai. “They always regarded us as their enemy but we are only fighting for our rights and freedom,” he added.
“I want to call on all ceasefire groups to continue trying what we want and we all have the same goal,” said Long Sai.
Since the beginning of June, the Burmese Army along with their allies - the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) – launched a military offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the KNU.
In the operation, which forced thousands of Karen villagers to flee to Thailand, the joint forces of the Burmese Army and the DKBA overran the bases of KNLA’s 7th Brigade.
But a Sino-Burma border based analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw told Mizzima that so far there is no sign to indicate that the junta will conduct a fresh military offensive against the ceasefire armed groups. Not until the junta completes its planned elections in 2010, he said. |
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| Police patrol Rangoon, security tightened near Insein prison |
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New Delhi (Mizzima) – There is heightened security in Rangoon with at least 30 army trucks with uniformed riot police personnel, patrolling the city on Wednesday.
The army trucks are each carrying at least 20 policemen and are patrolling various townships of Rangoon, eyewitnesses said.
“We can see about 30 to 40 army trucks carrying uniformed policemen patrolling the city. It looks like they are on high alert. They also have machine guns mounted on the trucks. They came to our township at about 3 p.m. (local time),” an eyewitness from Insein Township told Mizzima.
“Earlier, when they patrolled like they are doing now, the police would carry shields but today they had a policeman standing on the truck with a machine gun mounted on the hood,” he added.
Another local resident said he had seen about three army trucks, full of riot police, patrolling downtown Rangoon near the City Hall, which is one of the busiest places in town.
“They had the trucks covered with shields and had batons and guns in their hands,” he said.
A source near the Insein prison told Mizzima that the riot police No. (8) have been relocated and repositioned near the Insein prison.
Some of the townships, where eyewitnesses saw army trucks patrolling include San Chuang and Dagon South.
The reason for the sudden tightening of security, however, remains unknown but some believe it could be because of the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who reportedly is planning to visit the country later this week. |
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| Opium poppy cultivation in Burma rises |
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(DVB)–Burma remains the world’s second largest source of opium, according to a UN report released yesterday that found a slight rise in opium poppy cultivation across Burma but decreasing levels worldwide.
While global markets for most illicit are either steady or in decline, the World Drug Report 2009 reported an increase in production and use of synthetic drugs in the developing world.
Burma remains the world’s second biggest producer of opium behind Afghanistan. While levels of poppy cultivation for opium are a fraction of those of a decade ago, the market is still healthy.
Globally, there are thought to be around 189,000 hectares for cultivation, with 28,500 of those in Burma. Media reports of opium production in Afghanistan often link the trade to the presence of Taliban units, despite there being an increase in production since the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban in 2001.
In Burma, opium production, last year measured at around 4000 metric tons, is often tied to increasing militarization throughout the country, most notably in the country’s eastern Shan state.
In the past decade the government has lumped the army with a self-reliance policy, in which troops must be responsible for their own equipment and food, despite receiving meager wages.
Lower-ranking soldiers are often required to contribute up to 10,000 kyat ($US10) to their unit, despite being on a salary of around 30,000 kyat ($US30) a month.
“This has forced the army units to get involved in all sorts of illegal trade business, including drugs,” said an expert on Burma’s opium trade, Khuensai Jaiyen.
Burma’s aggressive expansion of its military, coupled with the self-reliance policy, compounds a problem for once self-sufficient villagers in Shan state who now are forced to provide food for troops.
The increase from 25 battalions in Shan state a decade ago to over 160 has “caused great burden on the population… [making] it difficult to survive and difficult to feed the family,” said Khuensai Jaiyen.
“If we don’t grow opium, how can we get enough food? If I don’t want to grow opium, I have to come into Thailand and send money back to my family to feed itself for a whole year but also the army.”
Although cultivation of poppies may have increased in recent years, output of opium has decreased. Khuensai Jaiyen warns, however, to exercise caution about praising the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC) alleged eradication programmes.
“Some people might congratulate the SPDC; you had better congratulate the weather instead of the SPDC. Last year the downpour had destroyed, in some places, 60 percent of the fields,” he said.
Reporting by Francis Wade |
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| Police Chief Suspects Yettaw Mastermind |
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The Burmese police chief, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, alleged that a mastermind was orchestrating John William Yettaw, whose intrusion on Aung San Suu Kyi led to her arrest and trial.
“There must be a mastermind behind Mr. Yettaw. We are investigating who exactly is behind this,” the police chief told journalists and diplomats at a press conference in Rangoon on Thursday.
Khin Yi said John William Yettaw was not wealthy enough to travel and stay in Thailand and Burma for several months, and his long stays must have been financed by a group masterminding his actions.
Khin Yi also alleged that Yettaw might have wanted security guards to arrest him, because he did not take the same route entering and leaving Suu Kyi's house . “By swimming through Inya Lake he attracted the attention of police guarding Suu Kyi,” Khin Yi said.
Khin Yi frequently repeated that Yettaw had met with exiled and unlawful groups before his last visit to Burma.
According to Burmese and Thai sources in Mae Sot, a Thai town on the border with Burma, Yettaw, 53, spent more than a month at a hotel in the town after his first visit to Rangoon in November 2008. During this visit he managed to get in to Suu Kyi’s compound, but her companions prevented him from meeting her.
While he was in Mae Sot, people recalled Yettaw saying that he planned to return to visit Suu Kyi again. His second visit led to the fateful encounter with Suu Kyi in May, sources said.
In Mae Sot, Yettaw stayed at the Highland Hotel, where he spoke to several people about Burma and made brief comments about Suu Kyi. He openly told people about his first visit to her compound.
Yettaw was still in debt for the expenses he incurred during his first trip to Burma, according to his family. Before leaving his home in Falcon, Missouri, Yettaw told his wife, Betty Yettaw, that he planned to visit Asia for a book he was writing, according to an Associated Press report.
Yettaw, a Mormon, reportedly does not hold strong political views. He receives disability payments from the US Veteran’s Affairs office for Vietnam-related injuries and has been pursuing studies in psychology.
irrawaddy |
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posted by moderator
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04:02 |
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| N Korean Ship is believed to be carrying weapons, missile parts or possibly even nuclear materials |
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The Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT), believed to be the destination of the Kang Nam 1, a North Korean cargo ship being tracked by the US Navy, has often been used for deliveries of weapons, according to sources at the facility.
The Kang Nam 1, which left a North Korean port on June 17, .
“There are two reasons to use Thilawa,” said an MITT operator. “First, it is not too close to Rangoon, and second, it is easy to increase security here so people don’t know what is being unloaded.”
The international multi-purpose container port, Burma’s largest deep sea port, is located about 30 km south of Rangoon.
According to other MITT employees, the facility has often been used for deliveries of weapons since it was built in the mid-1990s.
“Cargo ships carrying many kinds of weapons from Russia, China, North Korea and the Ukraine have docked at Thilawa,” said an MITT worker.
Normally, the source explained, the ships are offloaded around midnight to avoid attracting attention. Then, around 2 a.m., convoys of trucks deliver the weapons to a military depot at Intaing, about 25 km north of Rangoon.
“When cargo ships carrying military equipment dock at the port, naval personnel based near Thilawa take over port security and coordinate the unloading of the ships,” he said. “No unauthorized personnel are allowed near the port when cargo ships carrying weapons dock here.”
On Wednesday, officials from the Myanmar Port Authority, which operates under the Ministry of Transport, met with the Thilawa port authorities. It is believed that the meeting was related to the imminent arrival of the Kang Nam 1.
“We don’t know when the ship will dock and we haven’t received any instructions concerning its berthing schedule,” said an MITT employee, adding that this was normal procedure for handling ships carrying weapons.
The source also said that employees of MITT had been instructed not to speak to exiled media about the Kang Nam 1.
On Thursday, the Burmese state-run newspaper, The News Light of Myanmar, reported that the government had denied that the Kang Nam 1 was heading for Burma.
The report said that the Burmese junta had not received any information about the Kang Nam 1, but was expecting another North Korean ship, the MV Dumangang, to arrive in Burma on June 27 to pick up 8,000 tons of rice.
The USS John S McCain started following the Kang Nam 1 soon after it left port last week. The USS McCampbell is now shadowing the ship, which is being monitored under UN sanctions imposed earlier this month following North Korea’s underground nuclear test in May.
irrawaddy |
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posted by moderator
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03:59 |
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