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Opening Shan embassy in Germany
Junta announced the date for referendum and election
Indonesia's dictator Suharto died in 86
Indonesia's Ex-Dictator Suharto Buried<br /><br />By IRWAN FIRDAUS <br />Associated Press Writer<br /><br /><br />AP Photo/Anung<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Ex-Indonesian Dictator Suharto Dies<br /><br />Advertisement<br /><br /><br /><br />Buy AP Photo Reprints<br /><br /><br /><br />Your Questions Answered<br /><br />Ask AP: From Watergate to Jose Padilla<br />PHOTO GALLERY<br /><br />Ex-Dictator Suharto Dead<br /><br /> Images of Suharto's Life<br />SOLO, Indonesia (AP) -- Former Indonesian dictator Suharto, a U.S. Cold War ally whose military regime killed hundreds of thousands of left-wing opponents, was buried Monday at a state funeral with full military honors as tens of thousands mourned.<br /><br />Throngs of Indonesians lined the streets to watch a motorcade carry his body to the family mausoleum. Many sobbed and called out the name of the man whose three-decade rule, though harsh, brought stability and economic growth to Indonesia.<br /><br />President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono led a ceremony televised live across the nation from the mausoleum near Suharto's hometown of Solo, some 250 miles east of the capital. After a reading of Suharto's military accomplishments, a shot was fired in his honor and Yudhoyono offered a salute.<br /><br />"We offer his body and his deeds to the motherland," Yudhoyono said. "His service is an example to us."<br /><br />Islamic prayers were said and as his body was lowered, mourners tossed flower petals into his grave. A military band played a dirge.<br /><br />Suharto died Sunday of multiple organ failure after more than three weeks on life support at a Jakarta hospital. He was 86.<br /><br />Yudhoyono had already declared a week of national mourning and called on Indonesians "to pay their last respects to one of Indonesia's best sons."<br /><br />"He was a great man," said Sumartini, 65, who came from a nearby village with her four children to watch the funeral procession. "His death touched us deeply."<br /><br />Suharto loyalists, who run the courts, called for forgiveness and a clearing of his name. But survivors want those responsible for atrocities to be held accountable.<br /><br />"I cannot understand why I have to forgive Suharto because he never admitted his mistakes," said Putu Oka Sukanta, who spent a decade in prison because of his left-wing sympathies.<br /><br />Suharto was finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998 at the peak of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.<br /><br />His departure from office opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people, and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable Jakarta villa.<br /><br />Suharto ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian archipelago that stretches across more than 3,000 miles.<br /><br />Since being forced from power, Suharto had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech. Poor health - and continuing corruption, critics charge - kept him from court after he was chased from office.<br /><br />The bulk of killings occurred in 1965-1966 when alleged communists were rounded up and slain during his rise to power. Estimates for the death toll range from a government figure of 78,000 to 1 million cited by U.S. historians Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr, who have published books on Indonesia's history.<br /><br />During Indonesia's 1975-1999 occupation of East Timor, up to 183,000 people died due to killings, disappearances, hunger and illness, according to an East Timorese commission sanctioned by the U.N. Similar abuses left more than 100,000 dead in West Papua, according a local human rights group. Another 15,000 died during a 29-year separatist rebellion in Aceh province.<br /><br />Suharto's five successors as head of state all vowed to end the graft that took root under his regime, yet it remains endemic at all levels of Indonesian society.<br /><br />With the court system paralyzed by corruption, the country has not confronted its bloody past. Rather than put on trial those accused of mass murder and multibillion-dollar theft, some members of the political elite consistently called for charges against Suharto to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.<br /><br />Some noted Suharto also oversaw decades of economic expansion that made Indonesia the envy of the developing world. Today, nearly a quarter of Indonesians live in poverty, and many long for the Suharto era's stability, when fuel and rice were affordable.<br /><br />But critics say Suharto squandered Indonesia's vast natural resources of oil, timber and gold, siphoning the nation's wealth to benefit his cronies, foreign corporations and family like a mafia don.<br /><br />Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed "Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country."<br /><br />"When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century," Winters said.<br /><br />Those who profited from Suharto's rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an "iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator," he was able to stay in his native country.<br /><br />Like many Indonesians, Suharto used only one name. He was born on June 8, 1921, to a family of rice farmers in the village of Godean in the dominant Indonesian province of Central Java.<br /><br />When Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch in 1949, Suharto quickly rose through the ranks of the military to become a staff officer.<br /><br />His career nearly foundered in the late 1950s, when the army's then-commander, Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution, accused him of corruption in awarding army contracts.<br /><br />Absolute power came in September 1965 when the army's six top generals were murdered under mysterious circumstances, and their bodies dumped in an abandoned well in an apparent coup attempt against Sukarno, Indonesia's founding father who helped win independence from the Dutch. Suharto, next in line for command, quickly asserted authority over the armed forces.<br /><br />What followed was a nationwide purge of suspected leftists, a campaign that stood as the region's bloodiest event since World War II until the Khmer Rouge established its gruesome regime in Cambodia a decade later.<br /><br />Over the next year, Suharto eased out Sukarno, who died under house arrest in 1970. The legislature rubber-stamped Suharto's presidency and he was re-elected unopposed six times.<br /><br />During the Cold War, Suharto was considered a reliable friend of Washington, which did not oppose his violent occupation of Papua in 1969 and the bloody 1974 invasion of East Timor. The latter, a former Portuguese colony, became Asia's youngest country with a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite in 1999.<br /><br />President Bush sent his regrets over Suharto's death. "President Bush expresses his condolences to the people of Indonesia on the loss of their former president," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.<br /><br />Even Suharto's critics agree his hard-line policies kept a lid on Indonesia's extremists and held together the ethnically diverse and geographically vast nation. He jailed without trial hundreds of suspected Islamic militants, some of whom later carried out deadly suicide bombings with the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah after the attacks on the U.S. of Sept. 11, 2001.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the ruling clique that formed around Suharto - nicknamed the "Berkeley mafia" after the U.S. school they attended, the University of California, Berkeley - transformed Indonesia's economy and attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment.<br /><br />By the late 1980s, Suharto was describing himself as Indonesia's "father of development," taking credit for slowly reducing the number of abjectly poor and modernizing parts of the nation.<br /><br />But the government also became notorious for unfettered nepotism, and Indonesia was regularly ranked as one of the world's most corrupt nations as Suharto's inner circle amassed fabulous wealth. The World Bank estimates 20 percent to 30 percent of Indonesia's development budget was embezzled during his rule.<br /><br />Even today, Suharto's children and aging associates have considerable sway over the country's business, politics and courts. Efforts to recover the money have been fruitless.<br /><br />Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was released from prison in 2006 after serving a third of a 15-year sentence for ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court judge. Another son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, joined the Forbes list of wealthiest Indonesians in 2007, with $200 million from his stake in the conglomerate Mediacom.<br /><br />State prosecutors accused Suharto of embezzling about $600 million via a complex web of foundations under his control, but he never saw the inside of a courtroom. In September 2000, judges ruled he was too ill to stand trial, though many people believed the decision stemmed from the lingering influence of the former dictator and his family.<br /><br />In 2007, Suharto won a $106 million defamation lawsuit against Time magazine for accusing the family of acquiring $15 billion in stolen state funds.<br /><br />The former dictator told the news magazine Gatra in a rare interview in November 2007 that he would donate the bulk of any legal windfall to the needy, while he dismissed corruption accusations as "empty talk."<br /><br />Suharto's wife of 49 years, Indonesian royal Siti Hartinah, died in 1996. The couple had three sons and three daughters. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-28371786457701805122008-01-20T21:10:00.000-08:002008-01-20T21:41:38.028-08:00
exclusive interview with Gambari
Lalit K Jha<br />Sunday, January 20, 2008 (United Nations)<br />The Special UN Envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, is scheduled to visit New Delhi later this month to have another round of discussion with (his) Indian (counterpart) leaders on how they can play an influential and meaningful role in meeting the Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon's goal of a peaceful, united, stable and democratic Burma, respectful to human rights.<br /><br />Here are excerpts from an exclusive interview to NDTV.com given by Gambari.<br /><br />NDTV: What has been India's role towards achieving your mission of a democratic Burma?<br /><br />Gambari: When I took over as Special Advisor to the Secretary General last year in May, India's position that time was ambivalent, and vaguely supportive of Secretary General's role, but they really did not much with that. I do not want to use the word pressure, but try to strongly urge Myanmar to co-operate fully with the Good Offices role of the Secretary General.<br /><br />I am happy to say that after two visits to India, India's position seems to have evolved. At least they have now publicly said that they strongly support the role of Good Offices of the Secretary General. Secondly, they have also been sending messages to the authorities in Myanmar to cooperate fully with me. I believe that is a step forward.<br /><br />NDTV: Is it enough?<br /><br />Gambari: We want India to do more because, as you know - it is public, they are not hiding - India is just in the process of signing a huge contract to build a port there (in Myanmar). What we are saying is that to the extent that gives India some leverage, we would like (India) to help on other front, to be able to send the right messages to the authorities to cooperate fully and make the process of engagement with them and Good Offices of the Secretary General to produce tangible results. So far, some progress has been made, but still a lot more needs to be done.<br /><br />NDTV: How much influence India has on Burma?<br /><br />Gambari: It is difficult to say. India is a big neighbor. So, clearly Myanmar should take into account India's views. There are also, insurgent groups who are fighting from Myanmar side of the border; fighting the Indian government. So I think there is some mutual - and of course India is interested in some of the resources of Myanmar oil and gas and others. The way we see it that it positions them to be helpful. It is also true that it modifies how far they can go, how far they are willing to go, but we think they have enough and sufficient influence to be helpful to us in what is our common objective of a peaceful, united, stable and democratic Myanmar respectful to human rights.<br /><br />This would be consistent with India's own being. It is a democratic country with true commitment to human rights. We also believe that a peaceful prosperous and democratic Myanmar would be even a better partner for India than what the situation is right now.<br /><br />NDTV: What further steps you would like India to take in the coming months?<br /><br />Gambari: I would really like to impress upon the authorities in Myanmar that it is in their interest as well as the interest of the neighboring countries, ASEAN and the international community that they engage seriously with the Good Offices Mission of the Secretary General and work with me to bring up tangible results from the engagement. That message has to be delivered, and if India offered to do so, it would be extremely helpful to us.<br /><br />NDTV: Hasn't India delivered that message in the last couple of months?<br /><br />Gambari: We read some reports that the Foreign Minister of Myanmar was visiting India. We also read the public statement and hope that even in the private conversation, this point would be made much more strongly. Fortunately, the Indian government has invited me and I would be going there (India) at the end of this month. I would try to find out from them, what further steps they have taken or intend to take and even more importantly what feedback do they have from conversations with the representatives of the Myanmar government.<br /><br />NDTV: When you visit India at the end of this month, what would be on your agenda?<br /><br />Gambari: I would like to continue the conversation and consultation on how best we can all work together to bring about tangible results we expect from the authorities in Myanmar. Do not forget, on December 19, the Secretary General inaugurated the Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar. India is a member of this. So I want to review this, how they see this group, in what direction it is moving and how to strengthen it. Also, to get brief on that conversation with authorities and finally to seek their support for my next visit, which I hope would be sooner than later to Myanmar with the objective of deliverance of tangible results.<br /><br />NDTV: What are the tangible results? What are you looking for? <br /><br />Gambari: First of all we believe the current situation in Myanmar can only be resolved through dialogue. A process of dialogue has been ensued between the government and the leader of the opposition. There are three things we are looking for in that dialogue. Firstly, the dialogue should lead to tangible results in terms of advancing the process of democratizations; advancing more inclusive national reconciliation process; advancing the writing of the constitution in a way that it takes into account the views of the opposition and ethnic nationalities group and including views of those who were excluded from the national convention process or decided not to participate because they thought it was not serious. That is something I would like to see either before or at least during or immediately after my next visit to the country.<br /><br />The second is that hopefully my next visit would also lead to release of political prisoners particularly Aung San Suu Kyi. We believe that if a political figure - her party NLD had won the last election in 1990 - is to be considered as a true partner then she should not be subject to the same restrictions as she is having before engaging her as a partner in the dialogue.<br /><br />The third major thing that hopefully would come out is the decision by the Myanmar government on establishment of what we recommended as a Poverty Alleviation Commission, because we feel strongly at the UN that the root causes of discontent are not only political, but also social and economic and that these should be addressed.<br /><br />A commission can begin to identify the scale of the problem and strategies for addressing them. I can assure them if there is tangible progress overall, the international community is ready to help them in addressing the root cause of the discontent.<br /><br />NDTV: Since August 2007 how much progress has been made by military junta towards achieving these tangible results?<br /><br />Gambari: Well, they have released some detained people, including those detained in the last crisis in September and October. They have allowed (the UN Special Rapporteur) Prof Paulo Penheiro to come into the country. I have been allowed back and forth in the country twice including the opportunity each time to see Aung San Suu Kyi and to help facilitate the dialogue.<br /><br />They have also appointed the Minister of Labor as the Liaison Officer, which has had four meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi. She has also been allowed to have, on one occasion, to meet with some executive members of her political party. They have also taken the step to appoint a constitutional drafting committee. Now we recommend a Constitutional Review Commission.<br /><br />So these are potentially positive, but a substantive dialogue is yet to be started. Aung San Suu Kyi is still in detention. We have yet seen no commitment to open up the process of constitutional drafting that takes the views of others, who were excluded and finally establishment of a broad based national poverty alleviation commission.<br /><br />NDTV: How much hopeful are you that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released soon? <br /><br />Gambari: I can only hope sooner than later. The reason: after accepting some one as partner, you can't continue to put that partner in the condition she is now. People of Myanmar would be better served when their leaders are talking about how to jointly address the challenges facing the country. We believe that is the best way forward and this would send the right signal not only to people of Myanmar but also to the neighbors.<br /><br />NDTV: You are the only one from the outside world to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. What is her vision for Burma? Is she willing to talk and have a dialogue with the junta leaders?<br /><br />Gambari: You know, the government authorities in Myanmar used to say that she was stubborn and impossible; she does not want to talk. Well she has said publicly in statement that she was ready on her behalf. She was also committed to cooperate with the government with a view to start a dialogue. <br /><br />I think she wants to engage in dialogue, but not a dialogue just for the sake of dialogue but something that would be substantive, time bound and at some point later would include ethnic nationalities because she realized that Myanmar is no where close where it should be. It is a resource rich country, but has been forced to a state of isolation and subject to sanctions. That is not where she would like her country to be. I think, she wants a country that is united, there is national reconciliation so that it can realize its true potential and also be a respected member of the international community. I believe that she should be given an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to take the country in that direction.<br /><br />NDTV: Coming back to India, in the last one decade India moved from being pro-democracy supporter to almost pro-junta and now it appears to be that it is gradually moving towards pro-democracy. How do you assess India's progress?<br /><br />Gambari: I did not handle these until 2006. I read about India's previous position. Once I started working on this issue first as the Head of the Department of Political Affairs and now as the Special Envoy, it has coincided with what I believe is gradual movement of India living true to its own principles - democracy, open society and respect for human rights. This is where I believe India should be. I am happy we have seen that. What I am urging is to translate this into concrete support to the Good Offices of the Secretary General so as to produce tangible result in terms of our engagement with the authorities and believe that they can do it. I see the willingness that they want to do it.<br /><br />NDTV: Observers say that in the last couple of months, India has been sending mixed signals. How do you view all this?<br /><br />Gambari: Well, I guess as a neighboring country the bilateral relationship between India and Myanmar is very varied and multidimensional but what concerns us is not really their bilateral relations, but to use that in our view as an opportunity and leverage to help us by transmitting right messages and strongly encourage the authorities there to do the right thing. We strongly believe that the best guarantee for India's investment really is a peaceful, stable and democratic Myanmar. This would be the best for people of Myanmar and also for neighboring country such as India for sustainability of their bilateral relations and their investments in that country. <br /><br />NDTV: Do you think, China influences India's role in Burma?<br /><br />Gambari: I am told that one of the reasons in the past that Indian has not been as forthcoming as they could have been, was geo-political relationship between India and China. And there was fear that if they played too hard on the generals that would push them further in the hands of China. I do not know if that is correct analysis or not. But, what I know is that it is not in China's interest or India's interest or any neighboring country's interest or ASEAN's interest, certainly not in the interest of the people of Myanmar if the status quo continues. It is not sustainable. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-59094551497935258572008-01-16T04:54:00.000-08:002008-01-16T04:55:28.850-08:00
Aung San Suu Kyi will be on the screen
Film on Burma 's detained Nobel Laureate to commence soon  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  January 15, 2008 - Italian film director Giuseppe Tornatore will soon capture the journey of Burmese pro-democracy icon, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, on celluloid in an effort to honour and highlight her struggle to restore democracy in her native land.  It will be an English film with an estimated budget of 30 million US dollars, Naofumi Okamoto, the film's Japanese producer said. Okamoto happens to be among the very few foreigners, who have met the detained Burmese leader. She has been under house arrest for the last 12 years of the 18 years she has spent in Burma.  Speaking to Mizzima over the telephone, Okamoto said, "The purpose of producing this film is to honour Noble Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, because she chooses to be a mother to a nation instead of being a mother to a family, it is a very difficult thing for women to do."  The film's script will be completed in May and shooting is likely to begin by September or October this year. It would be the first movie depicting the life and times of the Nobel Laureate.  "We are still working on the script, it may be finished by May and after that we will start shooting," Okamoto said.  According to the producer, the film would be shot in Southeast Asia, with Thailand and Vietnam being the most likely venues. Malaysia could also be considered. However, he added that nothing had been confirmed yet. He had chosen Italian award winning director Tornatore, as he was famous for making women-centric films, Okamoto said.  The Japanese producer, who had a chance to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the early 1990s, said he has been working on the film for several years and had finally, thought of commencing shooting.  "I have been trying to make this film for the past ten years and we have already met three times [with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] and also got the permission from her for creating this film," Okamoto said.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, who spearheaded the Burmese independence movement against the British colonial rulers. Educated at Oxford University and married to an English scholar, Suu Kyi, returned to her homeland in 1988, only to be met with political chaos, where the student-led protestors put an end to the more then 20 years of one party rule in the country.  She was catapulted to lead the Burmese Opposition after her public speeches during the time of protests. She later formed a political party – the National League for Democracy – which won a landslide victory in the 1990 General Elections.  Despite leading her party to victory, Suu Kyi was never allowed to govern the country, which her father had envisaged as a free and prosperous nation. Instead, the military rulers had her put under house arrest, detaining her for the past 12 of 18 years. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-55919398384329998082008-01-14T22:25:00.001-08:002008-01-14T22:25:42.133-08:00
meeting between aung san suu kyi and u aung kyi
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ရရန္ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ လိုလား  ဖတ္သူေပးတဲ့အမွတ္: / 5 ည့ံေကာင္း  သန္းထိုက္ဦး  Monday, 14 January 2008 21:33 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္ ပါတီ အေထြေထြအတြင္းေရးမႉး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကို အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ဝင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ ေပးသင့္သည္ဟု အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္က ယေန႔တြင္ ေျပာဆိုလုိက္သည္။   ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ နအဖ ဆက္ဆံေရးဝန္ႀကီး ဦးေအာင္ၾကည္တို႔သည္ ၿပီးခဲ့ေသာ ေသာၾကာေန႔က ၃ လအတြင္း ၄ ႀကိမ္ေျမာက္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္က ယခုကဲ့သို႔ ထုတ္ေဖာ္ ေျပာၾကားလုိက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။   “အခု က်ေနာ္တို႔ ေတြ႔ဆံုဖို႔ ျမင္ရတဲ့ အခ်က္အလက္ေတာ့ ဘာမွ မရွိပါဘူး။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း အဖြဲ႔နဲ႔ အဖြဲ႔ေခါင္းေဆာင္က အျမဲတမ္း ထိေတြ႔သင့္တယ္ေလ။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ေမွ်ာ္လင့္တာေပါ့” ဟု ပါတီ ေျပာခြင့္ရ ပုဂၢဳိလ္ ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းက မဇၩိမကို ေျပာသည္။  ေနာက္ဆံုး ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲတြင္ ေဆြးေႏြးသည့္ အေၾကာင္းအရာမ်ားကိုလည္း အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္က ယခုတုိင္ မသိရေသးဟု သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။   ၂ဝဝ၃ ခုႏွစ္ ေမလကတည္းက ထိန္းသိမ္းခံေနရေသာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ ေခါင္းေဆာင္မ်ားျဖစ္ေသာ ဦးေအာင္ေရႊ၊ ဦးလြင္၊ ဦးၫြန္႔ေဝ၊ ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္းတို႔သည္ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ႏိုဝင္ဘာလ ၉ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ စစ္အစိုးရ၏ အစီအစဥ္ျဖင့္ ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ျပန္လည္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ ရခဲ့သည္။  ၎ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲတြင္ နအဖ အႀကီးအကဲ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မႉးႀကီး သန္းေရႊ၏ ေၾကညာခ်က္ပါ ေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္မ်ားအျပင္ စက္တင္ဘာ ဆႏၵျပပြဲအတြင္း ထိခိုက္ဒဏ္ရာ ရသူမ်ားကို အဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္အေနျဖင့္ အကူအညီေပးေရး ကိစၥမ်ား ေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ၾကသည္။  ဒီမုိကေရစီ လုိလားသူမ်ားကို စစ္အစိုးရက အၾကမ္းဖက္ ႏွိမ္နင္းခဲ့ေသာ စက္တင္ဘာ အေရးေတာ္ပံု အၿပီးတြင္ ရွားပါးစြာ ထုတ္ျပန္ခဲ့ေသာ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မႉးႀကီး သန္းေရႊ၏ ေတြ႔ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးေရးႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္ေသာ သေဘာထားတြင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္အေနျဖင့္ ထိပ္တိုက္ ရင္ဆုိင္ေရး၊ အလံုးစံု ပ်က္သုဥ္းေရး၊ စီးပြားေရး ပိတ္ဆို႔ေရး အပါအဝင္ အလံုးစံု ပိတ္ဆို႔ေရးတို႔ကို စြန္႔လႊတ္လွ်င္ သူကိုယ္တုိင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုမည္ဟု ဆုိသည္။  ကုလသမဂၢ အထူးကုိယ္စားလွယ္ မစၥတာဂမ္ဘာရီ၏ ျမန္မာျပည္ ေနာက္ဆံုးခရီးစဥ္ အၿပီးတြင္ ထြက္ေပၚလာေသာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္၏ ေၾကညာခ်က္တြင္ သူ႔အေနျဖင့္ အမ်ဳိးသား ရင္ၾကားေစ့ေရး အေကာင္အထည္ေဖာ္ရန္ အသင့္ရွိသလို၊ ဆက္ဆံေရးဝန္ႀကီး ခန္႔အပ္သည့္အေပၚ ႀကိဳဆိုေၾကာင္းႏွင့္ ေနာင္တြင္ ပံုမွန္ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္သြားရန္ ေမွ်ာ္လင့္ေၾကာင္း စသည့္အခ်က္မ်ား ပါဝင္သည္။   စစ္အစိုးရသည္ တဖက္တြင္ လမ္းျပေျမပံုအတုိင္း ဆက္သြားမည္ဟု ေျပာဆိုထားၿပီး အျခားတဖက္တြင္ ဆက္ဆံေရး ဝန္ႀကီးခန္႔အပ္ၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုေနသည့္အေပၚ ျပည္တြင္းျပည္ပမွ သတိျဖင့္ ေစာင့္ၾကည့္ေနၾကသည္။  ျမန္မာ့အေရး ေလ့လာသူ ဦးေအာင္ႏိုင္ဦးက “ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔ အခုလို ေတြ႔ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးေရး ေန႔မ်ိဳးေတြေတာ့ ဆက္ျပီးေတာ့ လုပ္ႏိုင္တာမ်ဳိးရွိတယ္။ အေျဖရတယ္၊ မရဘူးဆိုတာေတာ့ တပိုင္းေပါ့။ တနည္းအားျဖင့္ ေျပာရရင္ဗ်ာ၊ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ႏိုင္ငံမွာ ဆိုလို႔ရွိရင္ ဘာျဖစ္လဲဆိုေတာ့ အမ်ဳိးသား ညီလာခံ ရွိတယ္ မဟုတ္လား။ စစ္အစိုးရက အမ်ဳိးသား ညီလာခံကုိ အသံုးျပဳၿပီးေတာ့ ေတြ႔ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးေရး လုပ္ေနပါတယ္။ ေျပလည္ေအာင္ လုပ္ေနပါတယ္။ စသျဖင့္ ဒါမ်ဳိးေျပာတာ ရွိတယ္ေလ။ အဲဒီနည္းနဲ႔ပဲ တျဖည္းျဖည္း ၁၄-၁၅ ႏွစ္ေလာက္ အခ်ိန္ဆြဲသြားတာ ရွိတယ္” ဟု ေျပာသည္။  လက္ရွိ ေတြ႔ဆံု ေဆြးေႏြးမႈမ်ားသည္ ႐ုပ္ျပသေဘာလည္း ျဖစ္ႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း တိက်စြာ ေျပာရန္ ခက္ခဲသည္ဟု သူက ဆိုသည္။   “အဲဒီလို တျဖည္းျဖည္းနဲ႔ ေတြ႔-ေတြ႔၊ ေတြ႔-ေတြ႔၊ ေတြ႔ၿပီးေတာ့ တကယ္ လက္ေတြ႔ အေျဖမရတာလည္း ျဖစ္ႏိုင္တယ္။ အခုပဲ တခ်ဳိ႔ ေျပာေနတာကေတာ့ မစၥတာ ဂမ္ဘာရီ လာမွာ ျဖစ္တဲ့အတြက္ ႀကိဳၿပီးေတာ့ ေတြ႔တာမ်ဴိး ဆုိၿပီးေတာ့ ေျပာေနတာမ်ဳိးလည္း ရွိတယ္ဆိုေတာ့ က်ေနာ့္ အေနနဲ႔ေတာ့ အတိအက် ေျပာဖို႔ေတာ့ ခက္တာေပါ့” ဟု သူက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။  ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္လ ၃ ရက္ေန႔က ေနျပည္ေတာ္တြင္ ျပဳလုပ္ေသာ သတင္းစာ ရွင္းလင္းပြဲတြင္ ဆက္ဆံေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဦးေအာင္ၾကည္က ပထမအႀကိမ္ ေတြ႔ဆံုမႈသည္ ႏွစ္ဘက္ နားလည္မႈအတြက္ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းႏွင့္ ဒုတိယအႀကိမ္မွာ အနာဂတ္ ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲမ်ားအတြက္ မူေဘာင္ သတ္မွတ္သည့္အဆင့္ ျဖစ္ၿပီး တတိယအႀကိမ္မွာမူ မူေဘာင္တြင္ ေနာက္ထပ္ ထည့္သြင္းရမည့္ အခ်က္မ်ားကို ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။   သို႔ေသာ္ ယခု ေနာက္ဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ေတြ႔ဆံုမႈႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္၍ စစ္အစိုးရဘက္က ယခုအခ်ိန္ထိ တစံုတရာ ထုတ္ေဖာ္ ေျပာၾကားျခင္း မရွိေသးပါ။ cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-71932138413760964462008-01-14T04:41:00.000-08:002008-01-14T04:42:41.607-08:00
suhato in serious condition ( Burma prime minister postponed the trip)
အင္ဒိုနီးရွားသုိ႔ ျမန္မာ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္သြားေရာက္မည့္ခရီးစဥ္ ေရႊ႕ဆိုင္း AFP/Javno ၁၄ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၂၀၀၈     ျမန္မာ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ ဒု-ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မႉးႀကီး သိန္းစိန္ ယခုသီတင္းပတ္အတြင္း အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏိုင္ငံသို႔ သြားေရာက္လည္ပတ္မည့္ ခရီးစဥ္ကို ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရႏွင့္ အင္ဒုိနီးရွားအစိုးရတို႔က ေရႊ႕ဆိုင္းရန္ သေဘာတူလိုက္သည္။  အင္ဒိုနီးရွားသမၼေဟာင္း ဆူဟာတို၏ က်န္းမာေရးဆိုး၀ါးလာမႈေၾကာင့္ အဆိုပါခရီးစဥ္ကို ေရႊ႕ဆိုင္း လုိက္ျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အင္ဒိုနီးရွားသမၼတ၏ ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္က ယမန္ေန႔တြင္ ေျပာသည္။  ဆူဟာတိုသည္ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ေသာၾကာေန႔တြင္ ကိုယ္အဂၤါအစိတ္အပိုင္း လႈပ္ရွားမႈအားလံုး ယိုယြင္း လာေနၿပီး က်န္းမာေရးအေျခအေန ပိုမိုဆုိးရြားလာသျဖင့္ ေဆး႐ုံတင္ထားရသည္။  ယင္းအခိ်န္တြင္ မေလးရွားႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ေရာက္ရိွေနသည့္ အင္ဒိုနီးရွား၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ ဆူဆီလို ဘမ္းဘန္ ယူဒိုယိုႏိုက ၎၏ခရီးစဥ္ကို ႐ုတ္တရက္ရပ္ဆုိင္းခဲ့ၿပီး အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏိုင္ငံသို႔ အလ်င္အျမန္ ျပန္လာခဲ့သည္။  ဆူဆီလိုဘမ္းဘန္က ယင္းအေျခအေနႏွင့္ပတ္သက္၍  ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ အင္ဒိုနီးရွား အစိုးရအဖြဲ႔  ၀န္ႀကီးမ်ားႏွင့္ အစည္းအေ၀းတရပ္ ခ်က္ခ်င္းေခၚယူခဲ့သည္။   ျမန္မာ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္သိန္းစိန္၏ အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏိုင္ငံသို႔ သြားေရာက္လည္ပတ္မည့္ခရီးစဥ္သည္ အဓိက အားျဖင့္ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ စီးပြားေရးဆက္သြယ္မႈ တိုးျမႇင့္ရန္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သမၼတ၏ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ ဒိုင္ႏိုပတ္တီဒီဂ်ာလာက ေျပာသည္။  ျမန္မာအစုိးရႏွင့္ ညႇိႏိႈင္းတိုင္ပင္မႈ ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ ျမန္မာ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္၏ခရီးစဥ္ကို ေရႊ႕ဆုိင္းရန္ သေဘာတူညီမႈရရိွခဲ့ၿပီး အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏိုင္ငံအေနျဖင့္ ယခုလက္ရွိတြင္ ယင္းခရီးစဥ္အတြက္ အာ႐ံု မစိုက္ႏိုင္ေသးေၾကာင္း၊ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံစလံုးက အဆင္ေျပမည့္အခ်ိန္တြင္ ေရႊ႕ဆိုင္းထားသည့္ရီးစဥ္ကို ျပန္လည္စီစဥ္မည္ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း ၎ကေျပာသည္။  အသက္ (၈၆) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ရွိ စစ္ဗုိလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေဟာင္းျဖစ္ခဲ့သည့္ သမၼတေဟာင္း ဆူဟာတိုသည္  ၁၉၆၇ ခု၊ သမၼတ ဆူကာႏိုလက္ထက္တြင္ အာဏာသိမ္းယူခဲ့သည္။  ၎သည္ ၁၉၉၈ ခုတြင္ ႏိုင္ငံတ၀န္းဆႏၵျပလႈပ္ရွားမႈေၾကာင့္ ရာထူးမွ ဆင္းေပးခဲ့ရၿပီး အေမရိကန္ ေဒၚလာ သန္းေပါင္း ရာႏွင့္ခ်ီေသာလာဘ္စားမႈျဖင့္ တရားစြဲခံခဲ့ရသည္။   သို႔ေသာ္ သမၼေဟာင္း ဆူဟာတို၏ ဆိုး၀ါးေနသည့္ က်န္းမာေရးအေျခအေနေၾကာင့္ အင္ဒိုနီးရွား အစိုးရက အမႈကို ႐ုပ္သိမ္းေပးခဲ့သည္။ ။ cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-50564171901022110512008-01-14T04:40:00.001-08:002008-01-14T04:40:35.347-08:00
bomb blast in burma ( January )
မန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၌ (၃) ရက္အတြင္း ဗံုးကြဲမႈ (၃ ) ႀကိမ္ျဖစ္ပြား စစ္အစိုးရက ျပည္ပအဖြဲ႔အစည္းႀကီးတခုကို စြပ္စြဲ NEJ/ ၁၄ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၂၀၀၈     ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္းလမ္း ဘူတာႀကီး အထူးတန္းလက္မွတ္႐ံု၌ ယမန္ေန႔မြန္းလြဲ  (၂) နာရီခန္႔က ေပါက္ကြဲမႈတခုျဖစ္ပြားၿပီး အဖြားအိုတဦး ဒဏ္ရာရရွိသြားေၾကာင္း ျမန္မာစစ္ အစိုးရက သတင္းထုတ္ျပန္သည္။  လက္မွတ္႐ံုအနီး ေရခ်ဳိးခန္းအိမ္သာအနီး၌ ေပါက္ကြဲျခင္းျဖစ္ၿပီး ေရခ်ဳိးေနသည့္ အသက္  (၇၃) ႏွစ္အရြယ္ ေဒၚေအးျမင့္၏ လက္ႏွင့္ တင္ပါးတို႔တြင္ ဒဏ္ရာရကာ ရန္ကုန္ေဆး႐ံုႀကီး၌ ေဆးကုသမႈခံယူေနရသည္ဟု ယေန႔ထုတ္ျမန္မာ့အလင္းသတင္းစာ၌ ပါရွိသည္။  လက္မွတ္႐ံုသည္ ရန္ကုန္၊ မႏၲေလး၊ ေမာ္လၿမိဳင္စသည့္ၿမိဳ႕မ်ားသို႔ သြားသည့္ခရီးစဥ္အတြက္ လက္မွတ္ေရာင္းရာ ေနရာျဖစ္၍ နံနက္ (၁၁) နာရီခန္႔အထိသာ လက္မွတ္၀ယ္သူမ်ားႏွင့္ စည္ကားေနတတ္ၿပီး ေပါက္ကြဲမႈျဖစ္ပြားခ်ိန္သည္ အျပင္လူမ်ားမရွိဘဲ လံုုၿခံဳေရးႏွင့္ မီးရထား  ၀န္ထမ္းမ်ားသာ ရွိေနခ်ိန္ျဖစ္သည္ဟု ေပါက္ကြဲမႈျဖစ္ပြားရာေနရာသို႔ ေရာက္ရွိသြားသူ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ခံတဦးက ေျပာသည္။  ၎က “ရန္ကုန္မွာ ယူနီေဖာင္း၀တ္ရဲအပါအ၀င္ လံုၿခံဳေရးေတြ အမ်ားအျပားခ်ထားတယ္။ ဒီၾကား ထဲက ေပါက္ကြဲမႈျဖစ္တယ္။ ေပါက္ကြဲမႈျဖစ္ၿပီးၿပီးျခင္း လက္မွတ္႐ံု၀င္ေပါက္ကို အာဏာပိုင္ေတြ ကပိတ္လိုက္တယ္။ လက္မွတ္႐ံုေရွ႕ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္လမ္းေပၚမွာလည္း လံုၿခံဳေရးေတြေနရာယူလိုက္ တယ္။ ျဖတ္သြားျဖတ္လာ တကၠစီေတြကို စစ္တာကလြဲရင္ ထူးျခားတာ ဘာမွမေတြ႕ရဘူး” ဟု ေျပာသည္။  ဗံုးခြဲတရားခံကို အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားက ဖမ္းဆီးႏိုင္ျခင္းမရွိေသးဘဲ ျပည္ပရွိအဖြဲ႕ႀကီးတဖြဲ႕က ျပည္တြင္း ၌ အၾကမ္းဖက္ ေဖာက္ခြဲဖ်က္ဆီးေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား လုပ္ေဆာင္ရန္ ေဖာက္ခြဲေရးသမားမ်ားကို ေစလႊတ္ေနသည္ဟုသာ စစ္အစိုးရက စြပ္စြဲသည္။  ယခုဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈသည္ (၃) ရက္အတြင္း တတိယေျမာက္ ျဖစ္ပြားျခင္းျဖစ္ၿပီး ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ေသာၾကာေန႔ကလည္း ေနျပည္ေတာ္ဘူတာ႐ံုႏွင့္ ပဲခူးတိုင္း ျဖဴးၿမိဳ႕နယ္တို႔၌ ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈ ျဖစ္ပြားသည္။  ေနျပည္ေတာ္ ဘူတာ႐ံု အိမ္သာ၌ ဗံုးေပါက္ကြဲမႈတြင္ ေနာ္ေဂးလာအမည္ရွိ အသက္ (၄၀) အရြယ္ အမ်ဳိးသမီးတဦး ေသဆံုးၿပီး ထိုအမ်ဳိးသမီးသည္ ဗံုးေဖာက္ခြဲရန္ျပင္ဆင္ေနစဥ္ ေပါက္ကြဲ၍ ေသဆံုးျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းႏွင့္ ျဖဴးၿမိဳ႕နယ္ေညာင္ပင္သာရြာ ေဘာလံုးကြင္း ေပါက္ကြဲမႈ၌လည္း ဗံုးခြဲသူ ေကအန္ယူတပ္သားတဦး ေသဆံုးၿပီး အမ်ဳိးသမီး (၃) ဦးႏွင့္ ကေလးငယ္ (၁) ဦး ဒဏ္ရာရေၾကာင္း စစ္အစိုးရပိုင္ သတင္းစာမ်ား၌ ေဖာ္ျပသည္။ ။ cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-8096961765383422692008-01-14T04:38:00.000-08:002008-01-14T04:39:16.766-08:00
bird flu in bangladesh
ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္တြင္ ၾကက္ငွက္တုပ္ေကြးေရာဂါျဖစ္ပြား  Reuters / ၁၄ ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၂၀၀၈     ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ႏိုင္ငံ အေရွ႕ေျမာက္ဘက္ခ႐ိုင္တခုတြင္ ၾကက္ငွက္တုပ္ေကြးေရာဂါျဖစ္ပြားသျဖင့္ ၾကက္ေကာင္ေရ (၅၀၀) ေသဆံုးခဲ့သည္။  ေရာဂါျဖစ္သည့္ေမြးျမဴေရးၿခံသည္ ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ဒါကာႏွင့္ မိုင္ (၁၅၀) ေက်ာ္ေ၀းသည့္ ေမာ္လာဗီ ဘာဇားခ႐ိုင္အတြင္း တည္ရွိၿပီး ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ျဖစ္ပြားျခင္းျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း တာ၀န္ရွိသူမ်ားက ယေန႔အတည္ျပဳေျပာၾကားသည္။  အစိုးရေမြးျမဴေရးဆိုင္ရာဌာန ဒါ႐ိုက္တာဆလီဟတ္ဒင္ခန္းက “ေရာဂါျဖစ္တယ္လို႔ ေသခ်ာၿပီးတဲ့ ေနာက္ ေရာဂါျဖစ္တဲ့ၿခံရဲ႕ (၁) ကီလိုမီတာအတြင္းက ၾကက္၊ ဘဲ အေကာင္ (၈၀၀) ေလာက္ကို  တာ၀န္ရွိတဲ့သူေတြက သတ္လိုက္တယ္” ဟု ေျပာသည္။  ၾကက္ငွက္တုပ္ေကြးေရာဂါအား ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္ႏိုင္ငံတြင္ ယမန္ႏွစ္ မတ္လအတြင္းက ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ဒါကာ အနီး၌ ပထမဆံုးေတြ႕ရွိခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ ႏိုင္ငံေျမာက္ပိုင္းသို႔ အဓိက ပ်ံ႕ႏွံ႕သြားခဲ့သည္။ ယခုအထိ ၾကက္ ငွက္ေပါင္း (၃၀၀,၀၀၀) ေကာင္ေက်ာ္ကို သုတ္သင္ခဲ့ၿပီးျဖစ္သည္။  ယခုေနာက္ဆံုးျဖစ္ေပၚမႈအပါအ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံတြင္းရိွ ခ႐ိုင္ (၆၄) ခုအနက္ (၂၂) ခုရွိ ေမြးျမဴေရးၿခံေပါင္း (၇၁) ၿခံ၌ အဆိုပါေရာဂါ ကူးစက္ခဲ့ၿပီးျဖစ္ေသာ္လည္း လူသို႔ကူးစက္မႈမရွိေသးေပ။  ဘဂၤလားေဒ့ရွ္တြင္ လူေပါင္း (၄) သန္းခန္႔ မီွခိုလုပ္ကိုင္ေနေသာ ေမြးျမဴေရးၿခံေပါင္း (၁၅၀,၀၀၀)  ၀န္းက်င္ရွိၿပီး ႏွစ္စဥ္ ၀င္ေငြအေမရိကန္ေဒၚလာသန္း (၇၅၀) ေက်ာ္ ရရွိေနသည္။  ယခုလဆန္းပိုင္းကလည္း ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္ဒါကာရွိ မီရာပူးအရပ္တြင္ အဆိုပါေရာဂါေတြ႔ရွိခဲ့သျဖင့္ ၾကက္ငွက္ (၂၀,၀၀၀) ခန္႔ကို သတ္ပစ္ခဲ့ရသည္။  ၾကက္ငွက္တုပ္ေကြးေရာဂါအား ၂၀၀၃ ခုမွစ၍ ယခုအထိ ႏိုင္ငံေပါင္း (၁၄) ႏိုင္ငံတြင္ လူကိုကူးစက္ ခဲ့ၿပီး (၁၂) ႏိုင္ငံတြင္ ေရာဂါကူးစက္မႈေၾကာင့္ လူေပါင္း (၂၁၆) ဦး ေသဆံုးခဲ့သည္။ ။ cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-10134163484852029822008-01-09T21:43:00.000-08:002008-01-09T21:45:19.519-08:00
Myanmar MBBS students going on abroad for study
Exodus of Medical Students from Burma<br />By Min Lwin <br />January 9, 2008<br /><br /><br /> Email Article Print Article<br />Medical students in Burma are frustrated by the lack of opportunities and future prospects, according to Aye Sandar, who is studying a Third MB junior degree at Medical University of Rangoon No 2 in North Okkalapa in the outskirts of Rangoon.<br /><br />“Traditionally, medical universities are popular destinations for eager young minds, said Aye Sandar. “However, nowadays, young medical students are losing interest; they are leaving medical school to go abroad.”<br /><br />“I was really interested in learning medicine,” said Ze Yar, a student at Rangoon Medical University in 2006. “But when I started attending the class, it was different to what I had imagined. There were 20 students performing surgery on each cadaver. We were not getting enough experience, so I decided to go and study in Singapore,” he told The Irrawaddy by phone on Tuesday. “What we learnt in medical university in Burma didn’t fit the medical profession.”<br /><br />“It is estimated that there are currently up to 900 former medical students from Burma studying for diplomas in Singapore,” said Ze Yar, who is himself studying education at a polytechnic in the island state.<br /><br />According to Ze Yar, graduating medical students in Burma must wait a long time until the Department of Health selects a post for them. Degrees and diplomas obtained at Burmese medical universities are not internationally recognized.<br /><br />Ze Yar said he had no regrets about turning his back o¬n the country of his birth. “I spent 18 years of my life in Burma, but the government didn’t do anything for me,” he said. He feels no sense of gratitude towards Burma—on the contrary, he says, “I’d really like to serve my home country, but I owe my gratitude to Singapore.”<br /><br />Another former student of Medical University of Rangoon No 2, Kyaw Tun, now works at an electronics store in Singapore after receiving a diploma from Nanyan Polytechnic in Singapore. Like thousands of young Burmese before him, Kyaw Tun sought employment abroad.<br /><br />“I left Burma to give my life stability, and that’s the main reason I joined the polytechnic,” he told The Irrawaddy in a phone interview. For Kyaw Tun, stability means the opportunity to earn a secure living in a country free from the restrictions and uncertainties of life in Burma.<br /><br />“It’s very sad that even the brightest Burmese students only receive diplomas in Singapore; they cannot even hope to get a degree, because it’s so difficult,” says Thidar, a former teacher at Medical University of Rangoon No 1.<br /><br />Thidar says that the difficulties in applying the knowledge learnt in the medical profession in Burma is an additional reason why so many Burmese medical students elect to study abroad after completing their matriculation exams.<br /><br />Ko Htike, who qualified to go to medical university in Burma but did not attend, said most of the outstanding young students don’t want to be doctors. “They are not interested in working as doctors,” he said. “They leave their home country because there is no future there.”<br /><br />Less than six years ago, Ko Htike was at high school in Burma, contemplating his future. Now he works as a technical assistant in Singapore. He added that all technicians from Burma are in high demand within Singaporean industries.<br /><br />After graduating from the prestigious Medical University of Rangoon No 2 in 2004 with a degree, Zin Mar Aung could not find suitable employment. “In Burma, it’s difficult for general practitioners to find jobs, and their salaries are so low,” she said. “I regret that it took me six years to earn my degree.”<br /><br />Zin Mar Aung left home seven months ago to study for a master’s degree in business at the National University of Singapore. “It is good to be here because I wouldn’t be able to do anything in Burma,” she said, adding that many students who graduated from her college are now working as salespeople for pharmaceutical companies in Rangoon.<br /><br />A total of 2,400 students per year are entitled to apply to study medicine in Burma at one of the four medical universities, according to the university entrance guide booklet from the Department of Higher Education in Rangoon.<br /><br />Students who graduate from medical universities have to wait for several months just to work as assistant doctors because the government cannot find posts for the number of students who are graduating each year in medical science. “Half of the students who graduate go to work in government hospitals,” says Dr Tint Zaw, formerly of North Okkalapa General Hospital.<br /><br />Thidar is acutely aware of the irony inherent in medical universities where there is a lack of teachers. The former teacher drew a comparison with the insufficient equipment in laboratories. While she sees the necessity in gaining work experience, she still despairs. “I am afraid that the next generation of doctors in Burma coming from these universities will be unqualified,” she said. <br /><br />Singapore has been a popular destination for Burmese students since the 1990s. The city state suffers from a manpower shortage and lures foreign students with offers of permanent resident status and 80 percent loans. Recipients repay the loans by working for the Singaporean government after completing their studies. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-16335855634570043522007-12-27T22:08:00.000-08:002007-12-27T22:12:32.189-08:00
Benazir Bhutoo died ( December 27)
Dec 28, 12:10 AM EST<br /><br />Pakistan's Bhutto Killed in Attack<br /><br />By SADAQAT JAN and ZARAR KHAN <br />Associated Press Writers<br /><br /><br />AP Photo/B.K.Bangash<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Bhutto's Life: A Sweeping Epic of Controversy<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />World Condemns Bhutto Assassination<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Bush Condemns Bhutto Assassination<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Karzai: Bhutto 'Sacrificed Her Life'<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Pakistanis in NYC Angered by Bhutto Assasination<br />Watch Related Video<br /><br />Rice Condemns Attack, Urges Calm<br /><br />Advertisement<br /><br /><br /><br />AP AUDIOS<br />Benazir Bhutto's assassination couldn't come at a more intense time as the country is two weeks away from a general election. Correspondent Roger Kaplinsky reports. <br />Buy AP Photo Reprints<br /><br />PHOTO GALLERY<br /><br />Bhutto Killed in Suicide Attack<br /><br />Multimedia<br /> Benazir Bhutto, 1953-2007<br /> Capturing Bhutto: A Photographer's Experiences<br /> Pakistan in Turmoil: Bhutto's Death Deepens Political Crisis<br /> Oct 18: Bhutto Returns After 8-Year Exile<br /> Oct 18: Suicide Blast Mars Bhutto's Homecoming<br /> Nov. 9: Bhutto Placed Under House Arrest For One Day<br />Latest News<br />Countries Condemn Bhutto Killing<br />Analysis: Bhutto's Death Shakes Pakistan<br />Bhutto Target of Many Militant Groups<br />Pakistan's Bhutto Killed in Attack<br />Bhutto Death Roils US Presidential Race<br />Analysis: Bhutto Death Deals Blow to US<br />U.S. Reactions to Bhutto Assassination<br /> <br /><br />RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- Enraged crowds rioted across Pakistan and hopes for democracy hung by a thread after Benazir Bhutto was gunned down Thursday as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle. The death of President Pervez Musharraf's most powerful opponent threw the nation into chaos just 12 days before elections, and threatened its already unsteady role as a key fighter against Islamic terror.<br /><br />The murder of Bhutto, one of Pakistan's most famous and enduring politicians, sparked violence that killed at least nine people and plunged efforts to restore democracy to this nuclear-armed U.S. ally into turmoil.<br /><br />Another opposition politician, Nawaz Sharif, announced he was boycotting Jan. 8 parliamentary elections in which Bhutto was hoping to recapture the premiership, and Musharraf reportedly weighed canceling the poll.<br /><br />Bhutto, 54, was struck down amid scenes of blood and chaos as an unknown gunman opened fire and, according to witnesses and police, blew himself up, killing 20 other people.<br /><br />Musharraf blamed Islamic terrorists, pledging in a nationally televised speech that "we will not rest until we eliminate these terrorists and root them out."<br /><br />President Bush, who spoke briefly by phone with Musharraf, looked tense as he spoke to reporters, denouncing the "murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan's democracy."<br /><br />U.S. intelligence officials said they were trying to determine the validity of purported claims of responsibility by al-Qaida, stressing they still couldn't say who was responsible.<br /><br />Bhutto's death marked yet another grim chapter in Pakistan's bloodstained history, 28 years after her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, another ex-prime minister, was hanged by a military dictatorship in the same northern city where she was killed.<br /><br />Her death left her Pakistan People's Party leaderless and plunged the Muslim nation of 160 million into violence and recriminations, with Bhutto supporters accusing Musharraf's government of failing to protect her in the wake of death threats and previous attempts on her life.<br /><br />As the news spread, supporters gathered at the hospital where Bhutto had been taken, smashed glass doors, stoned cars and chanted, "Killer, Killer, Musharraf."<br /><br />At least nine people were killed in violence across the nation.<br /><br />Musharraf called senior staff into an emergency meeting to discuss a response to the killing and whether to postpone the election, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. Musharraf also announced three days of mourning for Bhutto, with all businesses, schools and banks to close.<br /><br />The killing appeared to shut off a possible avenue for a credible return to democracy after eight years under Musharraf's increasingly unpopular rule, and left a string of unanswered questions, chiefly whether it could strengthen Musharraf by eliminating a strong rival, or weaken him by sparking uncontrollable riots.<br /><br />The U.S. was struggling to reformulate its plan to stabilize the country based on a rapprochement between Bhutto and Musharraf. Bhutto had returned in October after nearly a decade in exile hoping for a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, but had become his fierce critic, accusing elements in the ruling party of backing militants to kill her.<br /><br />Pakistani analysts were plunged into gloom.<br /><br />"This assassination is the most serious setback for democracy in Pakistan," said Rasul Baksh Rais, a political scientist at Lahore's University of Management Sciences. "It shows extremists are powerful enough to disrupt the democratic process."<br /><br />Analyst Talat Masood, a retired general, said: "Conditions in the country have reached a point where it is too dangerous for political parties to operate."<br /><br />Sharif, another former premier who now leads an opposition party, demanded Musharraf resign immediately and announced his party would boycott the elections, seen as vital to restoring democracy. He also called for the resignation of Musharraf, a former army chief who toppled Sharif in a 1999 coup.<br /><br />"Musharraf is the cause of all the problems. The federation of Pakistan cannot remain intact in the presence of President Musharraf," he said.<br /><br />Next to Musharraf, Bhutto was the best known political figure in the country, serving two terms as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. An instantly recognizable figure with graceful features under an ever-present head scarf, she bore the legacy of her hanged father and was respected in the West for her liberal outlook and determination to combat Islamic extremism.<br /><br />It was a theme she had often returned to in recent campaign speeches.<br /><br />Addressing more than 5,000 supporters Thursday in Rawalpindi, Bhutto dismissed the notion that Pakistan needed foreigners to help quell resurgent militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida in the area bordering Afghanistan.<br /><br />"Why should foreign troops come in? We can take care of this, I can take care of this, you can take care of this," she said.<br /><br />As Bhutto left the rally in a white SUV, youths chanted her name and supportive slogans, said Sardar Qamar Hayyat, an official from Bhutto's party who was about 10 yards away.<br /><br />Despite the danger of physical exposure, a smiling Bhutto stuck her head out of the sunroof and responded, he said.<br /><br />"Then I saw a thin young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away. That was the time when I heard a blast and fell down," he said.<br /><br />Bhutto was rushed into surgery. A doctor on the surgical team said a bullet in the back of her neck damaged her spinal cord before exiting from the side of her head. Another bullet pierced the back of her shoulder and came out through her chest, he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. She was given an open-heart massage, but the spinal cord damage was too great, he said.<br /><br />"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital.<br /><br />Hours later, supporters carried Bhutto's body out of the hospital in a plain wooden coffin. Bhutto will be buried near her father's grave in the family's ancestral village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Friday afternoon, said Nazir Dkhoki, a spokesman for Bhutto's party. He added that Bhutto's husband and three children have arrived from Dubai to attend.<br /><br />Bhutto had returned to Pakistan from nearly a decade in exile on Oct. 18, and her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, who killed more than 140 people. She narrowly escaped injury.<br /><br />Rawalpindi, a former capital, has a history of political violence. The park where Bhutto made her last speech is the same one where the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot to death in 1951. It is named after him.<br /><br />Musharraf survived two bombing attacks here in 2003. Earlier that year, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was captured in Rawalpindi. In recent weeks, suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted security forces in the city.<br /><br />Bhutto's father was hanged in 1979 in Rawalpindi on charges of conspiracy to murder - an execution that led to violent protests across the country similar to those that raged Thursday.<br /><br />Thursday's rally was Bhutto's first since returning to Pakistan, Musharraf having forced her to scrap a meeting here last month citing security fears. Hundreds of riot police manned security checkpoints at the park.<br /><br />Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who met with Bhutto just hours before her death, called her a brave woman with a clear vision "for her own country, for Afghanistan and for the region - a vision of democracy and prosperity and peace."<br /><br />Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., visiting Pakistan with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he was just leaving his hotel room for dinner with Bhutto at her home when he got the news.<br /><br />"I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press by phone. "Her death really dashed the hope of many here in Pakistan and that's why there's so much disillusionment and anger being vented through these protests that are lighting up the sky tonight as people set fires all over the countryside."<br /><br />U.S. intelligence agencies said it was to soon to say who carried out the attack.<br /><br />FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the agency "continues to work with our U.S. intelligence community partners reviewing the al-Qaida claims for responsibility for any intelligence value. The validity of those claims are undetermined."<br /><br />The statement came after a law enforcement official told the AP that a national FBI and Homeland Security bulletin to law enforcement agencies cited Islamist Web sites as saying al-Qaida had claimed responsibility. The official asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it.<br /><br />Director of National Intelligence spokesman Ross Feinstein said his agency was "in no position right now to confirm who may have been responsible."<br /><br />One man was killed in a shootout between police and protesters in Tando Allahyar, a town 120 miles north of Karachi, Pakistan's commercial hub, said Mayor Kanwar Naveed. Four others were killed in Karachi, two were killed elsewhere in southern Sindh province and two in Lahore, police said.<br /><br />Karachi shopkeepers quickly shuttered their stores as protesters burned vehicles, a gas station and tires on the roads, said Fayyaz Leghri, a local police official. Gunmen shot and wounded two police officers, he said.<br /><br />Bhutto's supporters in many towns burned banks, shops and state-run grocery stores. Some torched ruling party election offices, according to Pakistani media.<br /><br />The U.N. Security Council vigorously denounced the killing and urged "all Pakistanis to exercise restraint and maintain stability in the country." cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-25029311497832964992007-12-21T03:31:00.000-08:002007-12-21T03:33:45.451-08:00
Rome peace prize award for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Friday, December 21, 2007 Aung San Suu Kyi awarded "Rome for Peace and Humanitarian Action" prize  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  December 20, 2007 - Detained Burmese icon for democracy Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been awarded "Rome for Peace and Humanitarian Action" prize for 2007, sponsored by the City of Rome, Italy for her relentless commitment to and struggle for democracy and human rights in military-ruled Southeast Asian country.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, mostly known as Aunty Suu to the Burmese, has spent over 12 of the past 18 years in Burma in detention for her non-violent campaign for democracy in the country which has been plagued by the military dictators for over four decades.  The City of Rome, in recognition to her commitment, has announced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as the recipient of the 2007 Peace and Humanitarian award.  The prize will be received by Dr. Sein Win, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's cousin brother and also the Prime Minister of Burma's government in exile – the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB) – during a ceremony in Rome on Thursday, as she remains under house arrest in Burma's former capital city of Rangoon.  "I am happy and proud to receive this award on her [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] behalf. I am happy not only for her but for all the Burmese people who are suffering because with this honour it [the city of Rome] is showing its solidarity with us," Sein Win told Mizzima over telephone as he prepares to attend the award giving ceremony in Rome.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San, came to be known as the leading opposition figure during her visit to Burma to see her ailing mother in 1988. The year coincided with the popular uprising for democracy led by students, which the military junta brutally crushed, killing at least 3,000 students, and civilians.  Despite her party – the National League for Democracy – winning a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections the current military clique refuse to hand over power but instead she has been kept under house arrest.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was announced recipient of the US Congressional Gold Medal by the Congress earlier this week, has received several awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her relentless pursuit to the cause of democracy and human freedom.  Following a military coup by Gen. Newin in 1962, which is the beginning of the rule of military dictatorship in Burma, the country has been plagued by severe economic deterioration.  While successive military dictators have suppressed voices of opposition calling for political changes, it has failed to implement economic reforms that brought down the status of Burma, which was once known as the rice bowl of Asia to the United Nations list of Least Develop Countries (LDCs).  In August, the people's suffering quadrupled with the junta's unannounced fuel price-hike leading to the people peacefully taking to the streets demanding economic stability. However, when the country's revered Buddhist clergies led the protests, the junta brutally suppressed the protests killing more than a dozen and arresting at least 4,000 people.  "Burma urgently needs a political solution. The junta must initiate a dialogue with the election winning party and with ethnic groups in order to avoid the country going to deeper despair," Sein Win said.  " cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-38720333271375253852007-12-18T03:51:00.000-08:002007-12-18T03:52:29.501-08:00
WHO announced to control H5N1 in Burma
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  December 17, 2007 - Despite detecting a case of human infection of the deadly avian flu, the World Health Organization said it had contained the H5N1 flu, which has reportedly been spreading in eastern Burma's Shan state since last month.  WHO spokesperson in Rangoon told Mizzima that with culling of birds and chickens and by providing effective awareness training, the spread of the deadly virus has been contained.  "We have been doing all we can, so basically, the situation is under control. And the patient who was confirmed to be affected by the H5N1 disease has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital," the spokesperson said.  WHO said it has collaborated with other organizations including UNICEF and has begun to check on poultry and animal farms. And also conducted awareness training on how to prevent and cure the flu.  "We control the movement of animals and prevent the sick birds from reaching to other areas and on the human side basically we cooperate with UNICEF and other agencies for doing public awareness training and communicate with the people of affected areas. And we are still investigating," added the spokesperson.  The WHO Myanmar praised the Burmese government for cooperating in the culling of birds and containing the disease saying "they [government] have done an excellent job," on the bird flu virus protection mission.  On Saturday, WHO as well as the Burmese government through its state-run media confirmed of a human infection of the deadly bird flu.  Nam Khan Than, a seven year-old girl in Kyaing Tong township in eastern Shan State , was taken to hospital on November 27 after detecting avian flu and developing symptoms of fever.  However, the girl survived as she was quarantined at the hospital and was given timiflu pills. She was discharge from the hospital on December 12.  Contradictory statements  Contradicting the WHO's statement that the disease has been contained, local sources in Shan state said bird flu has been detected in eastern Shan state since last month, and with the authorities concealing the cases, there are possibility of other human infections.  A local resident in Kyaing Tong, who requested not to be named, said there could be other human infection as the disease has been spreading since last month after more than 600 ducks from China was brought in by a local merchant.  "We are worried that there are many people suffering from fever. We cannot be sure that the flu has not infected others," added the local.  With local authorities concealing the case, measures to contain the flu started late after the first case of the death of birds in the region, the local said.  Possible Confusion  However, a Thailand based ethnic Shan reporter, said the locals might be confused between malaria fever and bird flu fever.  Sai Moeng, who followed the bird flu outbreak in Shan State, said while there are reports of local residents suffering fever, the causes could also be Malaria, which is common in the region.  "People suffer from malaria in this season, so it can be that local residents are confusing it with bird flu," Sia Meong said.  However, Sai Meong does not rule out the possibility of more people infected with the flu. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-52653466309825950992007-12-09T22:59:00.001-08:002007-12-09T22:59:57.154-08:00
North Korea started tie with Burmese Junta
North Korean envoy takes up Myanmar post  YANGON, Myanmar — North Korea's first ambassador to Myanmar after a 24-year diplomatic rupture has taken up his post, state media reported Saturday.  Myanmar and North Korea — both Asian pariah states due to their reputations for repression — agreed to resume diplomatic ties when North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il visited the military-ruled nation in April.  Myanmar and North Korea severed their diplomatic relations in 1983, after North Korean commandos carried out a bombing during a visit to Myanmar by South Korea's then-President Chun Doo-hwan. Chun was unhurt, but 21 other people died, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.  The countries' relations have warmed in recent years as Pyongyang has become a supplier to Myanmar's military. But both countries have chilly relations with the West.  In September, Myanmar's ruling junta violently crushed peaceful street protests and detained thousands of people, sparking international outrage. On Friday, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a U.N. human rights investigator, said he knew of at least 31 people killed in the crackdown, but that he suspected the toll was far higher.  Meanwhile, recent progress on nuclear disarmament in North Korea has improved the country's relationship with the international community, though it has long been isolated from the West and cut off from much of the world. North Korea agreed in February to disable its nuclear programs in return for energy aid and other benefits.  The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the new ambassador, Kim Sok Chol, 52, presented his credentials to Senior Gen. Than Shwe at a ceremony Friday in the capital, Naypyitaw.  Details of North Korea-Myanmar dealings are hard to verify because the two nations are among the world's most secretive.  Researchers cite impoverished North Korea as a source of last resort for arms buyers who cannot purchase them elsewhere. Most Western nations embargo arms sales to Myanmar due to its poor human rights record and the junta's failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.  The Arms Transfer Project of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute claims Pyongyang delivered 16 large artillery pieces to Myanmar in 1999. Reports in publications such as Jane's Intelligence Review and the Far Eastern Economic Review suggest much more extensive dealings. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-88788134454260598952007-12-07T22:03:00.000-08:002007-12-07T22:04:46.792-08:00
Junta asked money from the local people forcibly
Authorities extort money for road construction in Myit Kyi Na  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  December 7, 2007 - In rank display of bad governance and arm twisting the Burmese military regime instead of providing for the upkeep of utility services have been forcibly collecting funds from residents in Myit Kyi Na town of Kachin state in northern Burma for road construction.  People are being made to pay as much as 200,000 Kyat (US $ 150) for construction of new roads in the town.  Under the pretext of reconstructing the main road at Dumare quarter of Myit Kyi Na town, capital of Kachin state, authorities as of last week extorting money from residents, locals said.  "Those living along the road are being asked to shell out 200,000 Kyat and for those living away from the road are giving 100,000 Kyat," a resident, who was also forced to pay up, told Mizzima over telephone.  However, the local, who wished to remain anonymous said, the authorities have demand a higher amount from those having a flourishing business. The amount is as high as 300,000 Kyat.  It is not the first time that the local authorities are collecting money forcibly. Besides road construction, authorities also collect money under the pretext of fire security or even for government plantations, he said.  "It is not the first time, all quarters of the town have to give huge sums of money whenever there is any road construction," the local added.  With frequent collection of money by the authorities for various reasons, local residents, particularly those with lower incomes including widows have been hard hit. Those who cannot afford to pay, have to resort to selling of their homes and shifting to other localities.  "It is impossible to give such large sum of money every time. So many people are finding it difficult to solve this problem. Some even have had to sell of their houses," the local added.  People's average monthly income in Myit Kyi Na town could be raging from 20,000 Kyat – 30,000 Kyat (US $ 15 to 20) and having to pay huge sums of money to the authorities is causing severe problems to the residents, who are trying hard to make ends meet.  Despite the huge monetary contribution by locals for the road construction, local residents said, the roads are poorly constructed.  "We will never be satisfied with their work. Because after two or three years all portions of the road are ruined and cannot be used. They [authorities] lack the technique and are careless rushing to finish the job," another local resident, who was also forced to give money, told Mizzima.  Now, the authorities have begun constructing the road in Dumare quarter and will soon complete the half-mile project, the local said. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-90125197182571448382007-12-07T03:35:00.000-08:002007-12-07T03:37:27.911-08:00
Thai base burmese refugee become a bad day
Burmese refugees in Thailand face food aid cut  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  December 6, 2007 - A cut in food provisions has had to be enforced on Burmese refugees by a humanitarian agency working along the Thai-Burmese border due to fund shortfall.  The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which has been providing food aid to over 150,000 Burmese refugees in 10 camps for nearly two decades, said the shortfall in funding and continuous influx of new refugees has forced the group to roll back its food supplies.  "We are affected by exchange rates (US dollar to the Thai Baht), and we continue to see new arrivals in the camps, even as commodity prices rise," Sally Thompson, deputy Executive Director of the TBBC said.  The strength of the Thai Baht against the US dollar means that the group is losing about 7 percent of around 80 million baht, of its funding. Therefore, the group is being forced to consider cutting off some of the food supplies.  The cut in food provisions began since the beginning of December. While the group continues to provide major staple food, it has reduced a few food items including chilies, and fish paste, Ms Thompson said.  However, Thompson said, the cutbacks are temporary and they will resume normal supply once more funding is received.  "To solve these problems, we are seeking some more funds through our contacts with various communities and are trying to get more funds for 2008," added Thompson. Saw La Myint, an official of the Karen Refugees Committee, said, "It seems it is not their policy to reduce supplies but because of the situation they have to reduce some of the less important things like soap, chilies and fish paste."  The TBBC provides a refugee with rice, cooking oil, mung beans, chilies, sugar, salt, soap, charcoal, bean cake and fish paste. TBBC also provides food, shelter and non food items to displaced people from Burma.  "It is possible that they have to cutback food provisions as more refugees have come to the border area in 2007," Saw La Myint, said.  However, he expressed concern over the cut back of food provisions saying it will mean extremely hard times adjusting with limited supplies.  Besides, the group, which is also providing food and shelter to Internally Displaced Persons in conflict zones inside Burma, said the cutback will also impact the IDPs living inside Burma.  Pe Sai Leng, a Shan ethnic refugee, while expressing his concern over the cutback, said the hardest hit will be the IDPs, who will now receive only food supplies for four months from the initial six months supply.  The TBBC, which was formed with 11 international non-governmental organizations, said it will strive to garner more support to increase its funding in order to keep up with the needs of the Burmese refugees and IDPs cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-9105778033013191712007-12-03T05:17:00.000-08:002007-12-03T05:18:21.449-08:00
Chinese Dam project damage the Local people
China urged to review dam policy  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  December 3, 2007 - Lack of transparency in constructing dams and hydroelectric projects by Chinese companies in Burma has impacted severely on the environment, villages and local residents, and threatens negative repercussions for China as well, according to a Burmese environmentalist group.  In a press statement released today, the Burma Rivers Network (BRN) discloses the language of a letter it authored to the President of China, Hu Jintao, outlying its case as to why the proposed infrastructure projects should be rethought.  With no proper environmental assessment, dams constructed by Chinese companies have forced thousands of villagers to relocate and caused environmental destruction, says BRN.  "These projects are being conducted with a complete lack of transparency, no environmental or social impact studies, and no notification of intent to local communities," continues BRN.  Campaigners say that within the last five years at least ten Chinese companies have been involved in an estimated 20 major hydropower projects in Burma, with an energy generating capacity of around 30,000 megawatts and costing well over $30 billion.  "Though the local people will see a little progress, like in the construction of roads, buildings and a meager supply of electricity, the junta will gain a large sum of foreign income by selling the electricity, which will prolong military rule in Burma," Aung Ngyeh, secretary of BRN, says.  Ngyeh adds that local residents are neither given prior notice nor asked for their consent regarding construction projects.  "Dam construction spoils the livelihoods of the people as most of the people living around dam sites have to relocate and most of their agricultural lands will be inundated," points out Ngyeh.  BRN further argues that revenue from the projects would go toward the purchase of more arms and lead to the increased suppression of local communities, who already find themselves suffering human rights abuses at the hands of the military in an attempt to secure ethnically dominated regions in proximity to proposed construction sites.  "Any dam construction will therefore compound the suffering of ethnic people living in both ceasefire and non-ceasefire areas, many of whom have already become internally displaced people or refugees," argues the letter.  Ultimately the displacement of human populations will not be confined inside Burma, says BRN, warning that migratory human flows across international borders, including that with China, will lead not only to refugee problems but also to the spread of disease, including HIV/AIDS.  According to BRN the dams will also negatively affect the image of China in the opinion of the international community.  Recognizing the commendable legislation governing dam-building inside China, as well as its stated foreign policy of fostering "peaceful development," activists urge the Chinese government to commensurate standards for its companies operating in Burma.  BRN asks the Chinese government, prior to following through with construction, to implement social and environmental impact studies, while making public the findings of the studies and details of proposed contracts.  Campaigners say Chinese officials at the consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand, refused to accept the petition in person.  The appeal is endorsed by over 120 Burmese and international organizations, as well as receiving support from more than 50,000 persons potentially affected by construction of the dams. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-69519008720069252152007-11-30T22:22:00.000-08:002007-11-30T22:26:28.249-08:00
War began between KNU and SPDC
Junta launches fresh campaign against KNU  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  November 30, 2007 - Sporadic guerilla warfare has once again shaken eastern Burma's Karen State as the Burmese Army has begun a fresh offensive against the ethnic Karen's main armed resistant group, the Karen National Union (KNU), said the General Secretary of the group.  Padoh Man Sha, General Secretary of the KNU, told Mizzima that sporadic fighting has been ongoing in Kawkreik and Myawaddy Townships in the eastern regions of Burma since September, as columns of the Burmese Army - Light Infantry Battalions 230, 231 and 549 - push into areas controlled by the KNU's 6th Brigade.  "Fighting is continuing. Since they [Burmese army] are using human shields, we [KNU] have to utilize guerilla warfare tactics with sporadic attacks," Man Sha said.  Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw, a Karen journalist based on the Thai-Burmese border, said the Burmese Army is using the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a Karen armed group which has a ceasefire agreement with the junta, in their campaign against the KNU.  "The current campaign is led by the DKBA, and the Burmese army is joining them. Sources close to the DKBA say they have proclaimed that they will capture areas controlled by the KNU's 6th Brigade within 3 months," Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw said.  She added that a source in Kawkreik Township, who is close to the DKBA, has revealed that the current campaign is designed to capture KNU dominated areas so as to clear the way for the construction of the Asian Highway, which is to pass through Kawkreik and Myawaddy Townships in Karen state.  The Burmese Army has joined the DKBA's Brigades 333, 907, 901 and Special Battalion 999 in the new campaign against the KNU.  "A DKBA Captain named Bo Mojo is said to have led the campaign and used villagers for portering as well as for human shields, to prevent the KNU from launching counter attacks," Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw said.  However, Man Sha said that counter offensives have killed several attacking troops, with the KNU suffering only a few casualties.  "Since they [the Burmese army and DKBA] are randomly pushing their way in, they suffer more casualties. Our boys launch sporadic guerilla attacks," Man Sha added.  However, Man Sha could not provide a casualty figure for either side. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-79750390822254256182007-11-30T22:08:00.001-08:002007-11-30T22:10:06.012-08:00
New generation ruler of Than Swe
Junta reshuffles commanders, showcases changes  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  November 30, 2007 - In what, is in all probability a diversionary tactics adopted by the Burmese military junta, it has effected another military reshuffle. Critics feel it is to showcase changes in the regime in the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on September's monk-led protests, which had invited world-wide wrath.  The junta has promoted Brig. Gen Myint Soe, commander of the Taugup based No. 5 Military Operation Command as the Northwest Military Command commander, sources close to the military establishment said.  Rector of the Defence Service Academy, Brig. Gen Kyaw Swe was promoted as commander of the Southwest Command and his position was filled by Brig. Gen Zeya Aung, commander of Light Infantry Division 88.  While Brig. Gen Tin Ngwe of the War Office General Staff was posted as the commander of the Central Command, the War Office General Staff position was filled in by Brig. Gen Sann Oo, commander of the Maingnaung based No. 2 Military Operation Command.  Kale Regional Operation and Strategic Command commander Col Khin Maung Htay was also promoted as commander of the LID 99.  While there are more promotions in the offing in the military hierarchy, secrecy in the military establishment made it difficult to confirm more of the new postings. The newly appointed commanders were told to join their new posts or report to the Military Headquarters on November 28, sources said.  Prior to the appointment of several new commanders, the junta promoted the former Northwest Command Commander Maj. Gen Thar Aye to Commander of Bureau of Special Operation, former Commander of Central Command Maj. Gen Khin Zaw was promoted to Commander of Bureau of Special Operation 6 and former Commander of Southwest Command Thura Myint Aung was promoted as Adjutant General, sources said.  While the Burmese junta has a penchant for reshuffling its commanders from time to time, some critics view the current reshuffle as an effort to showcase that the junta is implementing some changes even within its own military establishment, sources said.  Win Min, a Thailand based Burma affairs analyst, said, it is about time that the junta promoted some of its commanders like Thar Aye and Thura Myint Aung but since the reshuffle came following the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, it could involve an effort to showcase that the junta is implementing changes.  "By reshuffling some of its commanders the junta wants to give hope to the people that there will be more economic and social stability in the country," Win Min added.  Besides, the reshuffle could also mean that the junta supremo Than Shwe is strengthening its stranglehold on the military establishment by promoting his loyalists, Win Min said.  "If we look at the reshuffle, we can see that most of the commanders are close to Shwe Mann (who is a close ally of Than Shwe). So it is like, even while going by seniority, it has been carefully planned to choose Than Shwe and Shwe Mann's allies," Win Min added, citing a rift in the top brass of the junta between Senior General Than Shwe and Vice Senior General Maung Aye. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-42524718943919859942007-11-30T22:01:00.000-08:002007-11-30T22:02:38.188-08:00
Student leader Htay Kywe's mother die
Prominent 88 generation student, Htay Kywe's mother dies  Maung Dee  Mizzima News ( www.mizzima.com)  November 30, 2007 - Daw Mi Mi Lay (68), mother of Burma's prominent detained activist, Htay Kywe died on Thursday evening at her residence in Rangoon , family sources said.  She died at about 9 p.m. (local time) after suffering from brain tumor and paralysis, Htay Kywe's sister Khin San Myint, said.  "Our mother has been suffering from cancer in the abdomen for four years now. She went to Bangkok for treatment but it seems the malignant cells had spread to her brain. Half her body was paralysed," Khin San Myint, told Mizzima.  Daw Mi Mi Lay will be cremated on December 3 and family members said they will seek permission from prison authorities at Insein to allow Htay Kywe to attend the funeral service.  "We don't know whether he [Htay Kywe] will be allowed to attend the funeral service, but we want him to at least pay his last respects to mother. I feel really sorry for my brother," Khin San Myint told Mizzima even as she began to cry.  Htay Kywe, one of the 88 generation student members, who led the September peoples' protest, was arrested after visiting his mother in Shwegonedine Special Clinic when her health deteriorated.  However, fearing that his mother's health might deteriorate further, Htay Kywe requested family members not to disclose his arrest to her. Daw Mi Mi Lay died unaware about her son's detention.  "Our mother was waiting for her son. Since she was terminally ill, we did not dare disclose the truth about him [Htay Kywe]. We appealed to the authorities to allow him to come to the hospital before mother died but not long after we made the request mother passed away," continued Khin San Myint.  Htay Kywe's colleagues, the 88 generation students and the All Burma Federation of Students Union expressed sorrow over the death of Htay Kwe's mother and said they will offer flowers as a token of their grief.  "I put myself in his [Htay Kywe] shoes and I feel sad. I feel the same way as he is feeling now," said Kyaw Ko Ko from the ABFSU.  Daw Mi Mi Lay leaves behind five children including Htay Kywe. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-20710396520159645082007-11-30T21:52:00.000-08:002007-11-30T21:54:51.482-08:00
UWSA want democracy and peace
Saturday, December 01, 2007 UWSA defy junta's pressure, refuse to sign pre-written statement  Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com )  November 30, 2007 - A Sino-Burmese border based ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), said it welcomed Burma's pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's statement on national reconciliation and refused to sign the junta's pre-written statement.  An officer of the UWSA, who requested not to be named, told Mizzima that the group, like many other armed ceasefire groups, was pressured by the junta to sign a pre-written declaration condemning Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's statement on cooperating with the ruling junta in order to kick-start a process of national reconciliation.  "U Khin Aung Myint [Burmese Cultural Minister] came to us and pressured us to sign a pre-written statement. But we refused because we did not even see the statement. Moreover, we welcome any efforts toward national reconciliation," the UWSA officer told Mizzima by phone.  Reportedly, the Burmese Cultural Minister traveled to places along the Sino-Burmese border in October and November and held meetings with ethnic armed ceasefire groups and pressured them to sign pre-written statements against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.  However, like the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the UWSA was among the few groups that openly defied the junta's request and refused to sign the document.  Speaking from the UWSA's headquarters in Panghshang, eastern Shan State, the officer revealed that the group would like to see democracy and equality among all ethnic groups in Burma.  "We love democracy and peace and we don't want to face any kind of coercion or violence," he added.  UWSA was until recently widely known as one of the Burmese junta's most favored allies, and is reportedly highly involved in the cultivation of poppies and production of amphetamines along the Sino-Burmese border.  However, with the fall of Burma's former Prime Minister and Intelligence Chief, General Khin Nyunt, and the UWSA's Chairman's promise to the Chinese government in late 2004, there has been a drastic fall in opium poppy cultivation.  The UWSA is one of the 17 armed ceasefire groups that attended the Burmese military junta's long and winding National Convention that concluded this past September.  Following the conclusion of the National Convention, the UWSA, along with other ceasefire groups, has come under pressure from a Burmese military junta determined to completely disarm the ceasefire groups.  According to the UWSA officer, the Burmese junta has been pressuring the group and is banning some of its members based along the Thai-Burmese border from traveling freely and conducting business.  The junta also decided in its National Convention that Wa dominated areas in the south, close to the Thai-Burmese border, would fall under Shan administration, he added.  However he reiterated the Wa's relentless desire for self-determination, adding, "the Wa army still has 20,000 strong men and the Wa population is estimated at 500,000." cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-50594419889551275992007-11-28T21:20:00.000-08:002007-11-28T21:22:01.535-08:00
ENC urged to India for support tripartite dialogue
Thursday, November 29, 2007 Ethnic delegates seeks Indian support for tripartite dialogue  Mizzima News ( www.mizzima.com )  November 28, 2007 - The Indian government has been urged by the Ethnic Nationalities Council to use its influence over the Burmese military and help kick-start the process of national reconciliation through a tripartite dialogue. The Council is an umbrella group of Burmese ethnics in exile.  A four-member ENC delegation, visiting India's capital New Delhi, said during their meetings with Indian leaders they highlighted the need for a tripartite dialogue between the Burmese military junta, pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders to resolve Burma's long political impasse.  "We believe Burma 's political crisis can be best solved through the process of tripartite dialogue," Dr. Lian H. Sakhong, General Secretary of the ENC said.  The ENC delegates, who are on a three-day visit, from November 25 to 27 to India at the invitation of the Indian Parliamentary Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), met Indian leaders including members of Parliament, civil societies, journalists and human rights activists.  The delegates said they briefed Indian leaders of the importance of supporting Burma's process of dialogue and argued that India 's interest would be better served by a federal democratic system in Burma.  In response to the ENC delegates' request, Indian parliamentarians said they would highlight the Burma issue at the next parliamentary session.  "We have discussed with some of the Indian Members of Parliament the Burma issue and they agreed to take it up as a Parliamentary debate in the next session," Harn Yawnghwe Director of Euro-Burma office and Adviser of ENC said.  India was one of the few countries that had in the past maintained a hard-line stance against the current Burmese military generals, when they came to power after brutally suppressing the students-led pro-democracy uprising in 1988.  Reportedly, the Indian embassy in Rangoon had sheltered Burmese student activists when the junta randomly cracked down on them and even suggested the activists flee to India for refuge.  However, Indian foreign policy on Burma took a U turn in the late 1990s, with Indian policy makers claiming the need to engage the Burmese generals in their national interest, which included countering Chinese influence on Burma.  "The Indian government should not compete with China for favours from the Burmese junta basically because of two things. Both India and China have a different political system. While India is a democracy, China is a Communist state. India should think of its long term interest, and maintaining a relationship with the junta will only hamper its image," Sakhong said.  The ENC leaders said India 's national interests as well as the interest of regional countries could only be best served with a genuine solution to Burma 's long political stalemate.  Sakhong said, Burma's political crisis can only be genuinely resolve with a tripartite dialogue that will bring an end to military rule, restoration of democracy and establishing a genuine federal system of government based on the1947 Pang long agreement, initiated by Burma 's independence hero Bogyoke Aung San. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8447588205837991707.post-75099242070579235512007-11-23T04:57:00.000-08:002007-11-23T05:00:19.353-08:00
WLB organized worldwide for protecting women rights
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)  November 23, 2007 - Burma's women's leadership does not stop with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A new publication profiles and draws attention to the detention and plight of some twenty other women who performed critical functions during the protests of August and September.  Accordingly, a group of rights activists is calling for 16 days of campaigning to bring attention to the plight of Burmese women activists in the country's ongoing struggle for human rights and democracy, from November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to December 10, International Human Rights Day,  "For women of Burma who face and are under state-sanctioned violence this call cannot be more relevant than ever and the international community needs to have strong commitment and will to work harder towards protecting and securing women's human rights," reads a statement from the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Partnership for Burma (APPPB).  APPPB says that international focus and assistance to the struggles of Burma's women is especially important, as there exist no domestic organizations inside Burma to which the women can turn for help. Women's organizations in Burma are said to fall under the jurisdiction of the military and are managed by wives of military personnel.  A majority of the cases that the release studies concern women who have been active since the 1988 uprising and had since joined ranks with the 88 generation students movement.  Women 'fugitives' arrested are subjected to harsh prison conditions with scant medical attention. Some of those that fled arrest are chronicled as having to leave children behind, while others have had relatives arrested in their place.  The report goes on to mention that in addition to the number of arrests made against women activists on the streets of Rangoon and throughout Burma, the regime detained hundreds of nuns who, in their pink dress, participated alongside monks in the mass protests of late September.  Five women still on the run from Burmese authorities, including Phyu Phyu Thin and Ni Mo Hlaing, also yesterday sent a letter addressed to several United Nations officials. The missive calls on the international organization and its representatives to undertake a thorough study of human rights abuses perpetrated against women at the hands of the military junta.  In the run-up to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Women's League of Burma (WLB) has initiated a Women's Human Rights Defenders Campaign.  The group is calling on the release of all detainees by December 10. According to a WLB statement released today, 106 women, inclusive of six nuns, remain in custody.  "We are particularly concerned that the women, including nuns, recently detained are facing gender and sexual violence in addition to the other deprivations and unacceptable conditions in the prisons," says WLB spokesperson Paw Hset Hser.  The Campaign was launched this morning at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok. WLB brings together a dozen national and ethnic-based Burmese women's rights groups. cnjp newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15845320536260597545noreply@blogger.com0