Saturday, July 31, 2010

Thirty-two US senators urged to prove UN on Burma's nuclear ambition


Thirty-two US senators urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to back the creation of a special UN commission to investigate possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Myanmar.

"While your administration continues along a path of sanctions and pragmatic engagement with Burma, we believe that such a commission will help convince Burma's military regime that we are serious about our commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law for the people of Burma," they wrote.

The group, led by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senator Judd Gregg said a UN Commission of Inquiry for Myanmar was needed to look into "a number of reports" that showed "a consistent pattern" of rights abuses.

They cited "the use of child soldiers, the destruction of villages and the displacement of ethnic minorities, the use of rape as a weapon of war, extrajudicial killings, forced relocation, and forced labor."

The lawmakers noted that the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Quintana, had called for such a commission when he reported UN Human Rights Council in March after a visit to Myanmar a month earlier.

US officials refer to the country as Burma.

Friday, July 30, 2010

US WATCHES NORHT KOREA AND BURMA RELATION


The U.S. said it is carefully watching the budding secretive relationship between Myanmar and North Korea for signs of nuclear cooperation, as official talks between the authoritarian regimes entered a second day Friday.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun's four-day visit to Myanmar is shrouded in secrecy. Myanmar has not officially announced the visit is taking place, and few details have leaked out about the nature of the trip, which is Pak's first since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 2007.

Asked to comment on the visit, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley urged Myanmar to adhere to U.N. sanctions on North Korea that include restrictions on arms transactions.

"North Korea is a serial proliferator. North Korea is engaged in significant illicit activity. Burma, like other countries around the world, has obligations, and we expect Burma to live up to those obligations," he told reporters Thursday in Washington. He said the lack of transparency surrounding their ties makes it difficult to assess if North Korea is indulging in nuclear proliferation with Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

"It is something that is of concern to us, given North Korea's historical record. And it is something that we continue to watch very carefully," Crowley said.

Pak went Friday to the junta's headquarters in the administrative capital of Naypyitaw to meet his Myanmar counterpart, Nyan Win, as well as Prime Minister Thein Sein, diplomats and officials said on condition of anonymity to stay below the junta's radar.

The talks begin the substantive part of Pak's visit after since sightseeing on Thursday in Yangon, the biggest city, where he visited the famed Shwedagon Pagoda and the National Museum.

It was not known if Pak would meet junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe who returned Thursday from a visit to India.

Myanmar and North Korea are two of Asia's most authoritarian regimes, and both face sanctions by the West. They have had increasingly close ties in recent years, especially in military affairs, and there are fears Pyongyang is supplying the army-led Southeast Asian regime with nuclear technology.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raised concerns about Myanmar at a security meeting last week with senior Asian officials.

"We continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program," Clinton said.

Myanmar denies it is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Last month the junta dismissed reports on the subject as coming from "army deserters, defectors and dissidents."

Myanmar severed diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983, following a fatal bombing attack during a visit by South Korea's then-President Chun Doo-hwan that killed 21 people, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.

Three North Korean commandos involved in the bombing were detained — one blew himself up during his arrest, a second was hanged and a third died in prison in 2008.

North Korean diplomats seize books on Kim From Writer


North Korean diplomats in Myanmar have confiscated hundreds of copies of a locally published biography on the Stalinist state's reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, the book's author said Friday.

Prominent Burmese writer Hein Latt, 62, said two senior embassy officials visited his home and took away the remaining 300 copies of the book, which they said was "false and inaccurate" and could endanger ties between the two countries.

"I handed over these books just because I don't want to take the trouble to sort out whatever consequences will appear," Hein Latt told Reuters, adding he had not received any complaints from the authorities in military-ruled Myanmar.

There was no immediate explanation as to why diplomats were acting to confiscate books in a foreign country.

North Korea and Myanmar have developed a close diplomatic relationship, causing concern among Asian and Western countries fearful the two are cooperating on issues related to nuclear weapons technology.

North Korea's Foreign Minister, Pak Ui-chun, is currently in Myanmar on a four-day visit.

Hein Latt, who has authored about 25 biographies, including books on U.S. President Barack Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, said about 700 copies of his book had been sold since it was launched two months ago.

He said the biography, entitled "Kim Jong-Il: The Dear Leader of North Korea," had been approved by the Press Scrutiny Department of the Myanmar's Ministry of Information. It was written in the Burmese language.

The embassy officials said it contained false information because it made references to other texts published in North America about Kim, son of North Korea's late founder, Kim Il-sung, the country's "eternal" president.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Martin Petty and Ron Popeski)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

NUCLEAR GODFATHER-NORTH KOREA FM VISITS ON BURMA

North Korea's foreign minister visited Myanmar on Thursday for high-level talks that come on the heels of a U.S. warning against any cooperation between the two nations on nuclear technology.

Officials and diplomats confirmed the arrival of Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, who is on a four-nation tour and making his first visit to Myanmar since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 2007. The sources spoke anonymously because the visit has not been officially announced by the military-ruled government.

Few details are known about Pak's four-day visit. He was scheduled to tour Yangon's famed Shwedagon Pagoda before traveling Friday to the administrative capital of Naypyitaw to meet his counterpart, Nyan Win, and other senior government officials, the officials and diplomats said. The subject of talks has not been disclosed.

Myanmar and North Korea are two of Asia's most authoritarian regimes, and both face sanctions by the West. They have had increasingly close ties in recent years, especially in military affairs, and there are fears that Pyongyang is supplying the army-led Southeast Asian regime with nuclear technology.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed concern at a security meeting last week with senior Asian officials about reports that North Korea had delivered military equipment to Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"We continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program," Clinton said. "We will be discussing further ways in which we can cooperate to alter the actions of the government in Burma and encourage the leaders there to commit to reform and change and the betterment of their own people."

On his regional tour, Pak also visited Vietnam and Laos and was headed next to Indonesia, diplomats said.

Myanmar severed diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983, following a fatal bombing attack during a visit by South Korea's then-President Chun Doo-hwan that killed 21 people, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.

Three North Korean commandos involved in the bombing were detained — one blew himself up during his arrest, a second was hanged and a third died in prison in 2008.

ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီး Pak Ui Chun သည္ နအဖစစ္အစုိးရႏွင့္ ေဆြးေႏြးရန္အတြက္ ယေန႔ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ေရာက္ရိွေၾကာင္း အစုိးရအရာရိွတဦးအား ကိုးကားၿပီး ဘန္ေကာက္ပို႔စ္သတင္းတြင္ ေဖာ္ျပသည္။

Pak Ui Chun သည္ မနက္ျဖန္တြင္ စစ္အစိုးရ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီး ဦးဉာဏ္၀င္းႏွင့္ ေနျပည္ေတာ္တြင္ ေတြ႔ဆုံရန္ရိွၿပီး ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၌ လာမည့္တနဂၤေႏြေန႔အထိ ေနထိုင္သြားရန္ရိွေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသည္ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားႏွင့္ ၁၉၈၃ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ သံတမန္ အဆက္အသြယ္ျပတ္္ေတာက္ခဲ့သည္။ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ လာေရာက္လည္ပတ္သည့္ ယင္းအခ်ိန္က ေတာင္ကိုရီးယားသမၼတ ခ်မ္ဒူး၀မ္အား ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕အာဇာနည္ ဗိမာန္တြင္ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား ေအဂ်င့္မ်ားက ဗုံးခဲြလုပ္ႀကံသတ္ျဖတ္ရန္ ႀကိဳးစားမႈျဖစ္ေပၚခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ သံတမန္ အဆက္အသြယ္ျပတ္္ေတာက္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။ ယင္းဗုံးေပါက္ကြဲမႈေၾကာင့္ လူေပါင္း (၂၁) ဦး ေသဆုံးခဲ့သည္။

သို႔ေသာ္ ၂၀၀၇ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ သံတမန္ဆက္ဆံေရး ျပန္လည္ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့သည္။

အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီး မစၥစ္ကလင္တန္က ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ သီတင္းပတ္အတြင္း ဗီယက္နမ္ႏိုင္ငံ ဟႏြိဳင္ၿမိဳ႕တြင္ က်င္းပခဲ့သည့္ အာဆီယံေဒသတြင္း ထိပ္သီးေဆြးေႏြးပြဲတြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံႏွင့္ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားႏိုင္ငံတို႔၏ စစ္ေရးအရ ဆက္ဆံမႈမ်ားအေပၚ စိုးရိမ္ေၾကာင္း ထုတ္ေဖာ္ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။

ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသေဘၤာတစင္း စစ္လက္နက္ပစၥည္းမ်ားတင္ေဆာင္ကာ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ဆိုက္ေရာက္ခဲ့ျခင္းႏွင့္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရသည္ ႏ်ဴကလီးယား ထုတ္လုပ္ေရး အစီအစဥ္အတြက္ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားထံမွ အကူအညီယူေနသည္ဆိုသည့္ သတင္းမ်ား ထြက္ေပၚခဲ့ျခင္းအတြက္လည္း စိုးရိမ္ပူပန္ျဖစ္မိေၾကာင္း မစၥစ္ကလင္တန္က ေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။

ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ဇြန္လအတြင္း၌လည္း ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ႏ်ဴကလီးယားလက္နက္ထုတ္လုပ္ေရး စီမံခ်က္မ်ားကို ေဖာ္ထုတ္သည့္ သတင္းမွတ္တမ္းတခုကို္ အယ္လ္ဂ်ာဇီးယား ႐ုပ္ျမင္သံၾကားမွ ထုတ္လႊင့္သြားခဲ့သည္။ ယင္းထုတ္လႊင့္ခ်က္ကို နအဖအစိုးရက ျငင္းပယ္ခဲ့သည္။

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

ORTH KOREA HAS BEEN SELLING MISSILES TO BIN


Wikileaksက ဇူလိုင္လ (၂၅)ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ထုတ္ျပန္လိုက္ေသာ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရး အစီရင္ခံစာအတြင္း ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသည္ ကမာၻ႕အၾကမ္းဖက္ အဖြဲ႕အစည္းမ်ားသို႔ ဒံုးက်ည္မ်ား ေရာင္းခ်ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း စြပ္စြဲေဖာ္ျပခဲ့သည္။ အာဖဂန္မွ ဩဇာႀကီးမားသည့္ စစ္ေသြးၾကြ ေခါင္းေဆာင္တစ္ဦးျဖစ္ၿပီး အၾကမ္းဖက္ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ႀကီး အိုစမာ ဘင္လာဒင္၏ ေငြေၾကးဆိုင္ရာ အႀကံေပး တာ၀န္ခံဟု ယူဆရသူ တစ္ဦးသည္ (၂၀၀၅)ခုႏွစ္အတြင္း ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား အာဏာပိုင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ဆက္သြယ္ကာ ေျမျပင္မွ ေ၀ဟင္ပစ္ ဒံုးက်ည္မ်ား ၀ယ္ယူခဲ့ေၾကာင္း Wikileaksက ေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။ “(၂၀၀၅)ခုႏွစ္၊ ႏို၀င္ဘာ (၁၉)ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ဟက္ဇ္ဘ္-အစၥလာမီပါတီ အႀကီးအကဲ ဂူလ္ဘူဒင္ ဟက္မက္တရာႏွင့္ ဘင္လာဒင္၏ ေငြေၾကးဆိုင္ရာ အႀကံေပး တာ၀န္ခံ ေဒါက္တာအမင္တို႔သည္ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသို႔ အီရန္မွတဆင့္ အေရာက္သြားခဲ့သည္”ဟု အဆိုပါ ေဖာ္ျပခ်က္တြင္ ပါရွိသည္။ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသည္ အေ၀းထိန္းစနစ္ျဖင့္ ပစ္ခတ္ႏိုင္သည့္ ဒံုးက်ည္လက္နက္မ်ားကို စစ္ေသြးၾကြမ်ားထံသို႔ ေရာင္းခ်ခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း ထိုလက္နက္မ်ားကို မည္သည့္ႏုိင္ငံတြင္ ထုတ္လုပ္သည္ကိုမူ တိတိက်က် မသိရဟုလည္း Wikileaksက ေဖာ္ျပခဲ့သည္။ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရး အစီရင္ခံစာမ်ားကို အေျခခံထားသည့္ အဆိုပါ ေၾကညာခ်က္က ေနာက္ထပ္(၁၈)လအၾကာတြင္ အာဖဂန္နစၥတန္၌ အေမရိကန္၏ Chinook စစ္ရဟတ္ယာဥ္တစ္စင္း ဒံုးက်ည္ျဖင့္ ပစ္ခ်ခံရမႈသည္ အဆိုပါ အေရာင္းအ၀ယ္ႏွင့္ ဆက္စပ္ေနဖြယ္ရွိေၾကာင္း ေရးသားထားသည္။ Wikileaksက ဘင္လာဒင္၏ ေငြေၾကးဆိုင္ရာ အႀကံေပး တာ၀န္ခံဟုဆိုသည့္ ေဒါက္တာအမင္ႏွင့္ ပတ္သက္သည့္ အေသးစိတ္ အခ်က္အလက္မ်ားကိုမူ ေထာက္လွမ္းရန္ ခက္ခဲေနဆဲဟုဆိုသည္။ ကိုရီးယား ေရလက္ၾကား ေျမာက္ပိုင္းရွိ ကြန္ျမဴနစ္ ႏိုင္ငံသည္ ဘင္လာဒင္၏ ကမာၻ႕ရန္ျဖစ္သည့္ အေမရိကန္ႏွင့္ ခါးသီးေသာ ဆက္ဆံေရးမ်ား တည္ရွိေနၿပီး ယခုအခါ ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယား၏ ႏုိင္ငံေရးၿပိဳင္ဖက္ ေတာင္ကိုရီးယားႏွင့္ အေမရိကန္တို႔သည္ ပူးေပါင္းစစ္ေရးေလ့က်င့္မႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္ေနေၾကာင္း သိရွိရသည္။

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Burma junta accused of extortion, rape


Burma's junta has sent a team of officials to investigate allegations that militia border guards are committing extortion, rape and assault against Burmese people being deported from Thailand.

The Thai government is under heavy criticism over the allegations, which come amid a new crackdown on illegal Burmese workers who are being sent home.

Some deportees say they have faced beatings and even conscription into a Burmese militia army.

At an immigration detention centre on the Thai-Burma border, there is a depressing daily ritual.

"Before we only had one to 200 people per day [being sent home]," immigration police colonel Montree Manjit said.

"But now we have about six or 700 people per day."

Fifteen thousand illegal migrants from Burma went through the centre last month. They were then trucked to the border and deported.

Burmese are the biggest migrant group in Thailand. About 900,000 have legitimate work permits but even they are being sent back.

They are now required to apply for passports and they have to go back home to get them.

Passport brokers help them with the process but they are only accessible to those with money.

Those with letters from bona fide employers who are seeking passports cross at the official border gate.

But labour rights activist Moe Swe says paperless illegal workers with few means are facing extortion and worse when they get to the other side of the river.

"I must say 95 per cent of people are facing that problem. Everybody is extorted at the checkpoint," he said.

The informal checkpoints are run by the Burmese junta's proxy militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

They impose a fee of just over $40 on the deportees before they enter Burma and most do not have it.

One young woman who was working illegally in Thailand was recently released after being caught and deported by Thai authorities.

"I was sleeping in the afternoon when I heard a boy shouting 'police are arresting, police are arresting' and I ran away," she said.

"It was the border police and I got caught by them. They took us away."

After she crossed the border, she says she was held in a cell by the militia until a friend came to pay the fee.

She left others behind who were told they would be conscripted into the militia force if they did not find the money.

Mr Swe says it is a common story.

The crackdown is being criticised by human rights groups after some deportees have reported being beaten and raped.

Despite the risks, the border remains a revolving door for impoverished Burmese who take great risks crossing back and forth to work.

Thai authorities expect to deport 300,000 people in the next three months.

JANE SATELLITE WATCHES REGIME NUCLEAR PLAN IN BURMA


Allegations by a Burmese defector that the military-run country is pursuing a nuclear program are corroborated by newly available commercial satellite images, Jane’s Intelligence Review said in an article released yesterday.

The photos of buildings and security fences near the country’s capital, Naypyidaw, confirm reports by Major Sai Thein Win of machine tool factories and other facilities alleged to be part of a nascent program to build nuclear weapons, the magazine reported from London.

“They will not make a bomb with the technology they currently possess or the intellectual capability,” Jane’s analyst Allison Puccioni said in an interview. “The two factors do make it possible to have a route to one.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern about reports that North Korea and Burma are expanding military ties and sharing nuclear technology at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Thailand last year.

Clinton said the U.S. would remain “vigilant” against any military cooperation between the two countries. Yesterday, Clinton announced further sanctions against North Korea in an effort to halt the country’s nuclear-weapons program.

Sai said he worked at two factories involved in the nuclear program. His report to a Burmese opposition news website, Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Norway, included documents and color photographs of the interior of the installations.

The satellite imagery reviewed by Jane’s showed only the exterior of the buildings, Puccioni said.

‘Overly Ambitious’

Jane’s said Burma’s nuclear program is “overly ambitious with limited expertise,” in a statement yesterday. While Burma is a signatory to international agreements to control nuclear weapons use, it hasn’t agreed to more recent changes in the treaties and therefore isn’t subject to international inspections, the magazine said.

“With Myanmar’s current freedom from sanctions and relative economic prosperity, the junta may be able to outsource the technical know-how and tools to reach its goals far sooner than expected,” Christian Le Mière, editor of Jane’s Intelligence Review, said in a statement.

“Someone had to be assisting them, that’s the frightening thing,” said David Kay, a former United Nations weapons inspector and now a fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia, in an interview. “Myanmar is uniquely incapable of carrying this through.”

North Korea could be the country providing aid, said Michael J. Green, an adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former senior director for Asia on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.

North Korea

During the Bush administration, North Korea discussed delivering short-range missiles and nuclear capability to Burma, Green said.

“We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology” and indications of clandestine military cooperation between two of Asia’s most secretive regimes, Clinton said last year. “I’m not saying it is happening, but we want to be prepared to stand against it.”

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on July 12 that the U.S. continues “to have concerns about Burma’s relationship with North Korea. It’s something that we watch very, very carefully and consistently.”

Last year, the U.S. Navy followed the Kang Nam I, a North Korean freighter headed in the direction of Burma with unknown cargo. The ship turned around and returned home.

The evidence points to a method of uranium enrichment, laser enrichment, that the North Koreans have never used, Kay said. “If it is laser enrichment the finger points more toward Chinese assistance or some place in the former Soviet Union,” he said.

United States concerned about Myanmar-North Korea military ties


Hanoi, Vietnam (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed U.S. concerns about Myanmar's reported military ties to North Korea and its potential impact on the region during a visit to Vietnam Thursday.

"We know that a ship from North Korea recently delivered military equipment to Burma and we continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear program," Clinton said.

Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.

Clinton's comments came after meetings with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem.

In June, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, a key member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, postponed a trip to Myanmar out of concern that Myanmar's government was working with North Korea on the development of a nuclear program.

At the time, Webb noted that "a defecting officer from [Myanmar's] military claims direct knowledge of such plans, and reportedly has furnished documents to corroborate his claims."

Webb said it was unclear "whether these allegations have substantive merit."

However, in light of the U.S. State Department's recent accusation that Myanmar has violated a U.N. Security Council resolution "with respect to a suspected shipment of arms from North Korea, there are now two unresolved matters related to activities of serious concern between these two countries."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Regional Forum begins in Friday in Hanoi. Developments in Myanmar are likely to be a popular topic of discussion at the summit.

A military junta has ruled Myanmar since 1962 and preparing to hold its first elections in 20 years, but no date has been announced.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

ASEAN leaders unsure about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions


ASEAN leaders are unsure about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions, a regional foreign policy expert said Tuesday.

A documentary produced by Burmese journalists alleged in June that Myanmar, a member of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is developing nuclear weapons.

Myanmar could be purchasing nuclear weapon technology from North Korea, said Tim Huxley, executive director of the Singapore branch of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, but ASEAN members are reluctant to comment on that in "strong terms."

"ASEAN countries aren't sure how to deal with" Myanmar's alleged nuclear ambitions, Huxley said. "If they confront Myanmar, Myanmar will just say they have a right to develop nuclear energy for civil purposes, and they would simply deny any links to North Korea."

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the German PressAgency dpa that nuclear weapons would not be on the agenda of his bilateral meeting with Myanmar officials Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters in Hanoi that there was no consensus among member nations about Myanmar's nuclear ambitions.

"But there is certainly the ASEAN charter and the (South-East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone) treaty, which requires that South-East Asia be free of nuclear weapons," Pitsuwan said.

The 1997 treaty binds ASEAN countries to a pledge against the use, manufacture or transport of nuclear weapons. They also promised not allow other countries to develop or manufacture nuclear weapons inside their borders.

A spokesman for US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last week that the United States was concerned about a lack of transparency surrounding Myanmar's "commercial interactions" with North Korea. Clinton plans to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi on Thursday and Friday.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Burma gets 'earful' from Asean on elections


Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win "got an earful" from his Southeast Asian colleagues on the need for elections in his country to be fair and credible, the Asean bloc's chief said Tuesday.

"Myanmar, I think, got an earful last night," Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters, referring to a working dinner Monday by the group's foreign ministers.

"Asean is very much concerned and Asean is very much interested in the peaceful national reconciliation in Myanmar."

Surin said Nyan Win was told the elections could have "positive or negative implications" for Asean, a 10-nation group of 600 million people trying to project itself as a major trade and investment partner.

Burma's top diplomat "listened very, very attentively" during the discussions, Surin added.

Nyan Win briefed his fellow ministers on the progress of the elections planned for this year, but gave no date for the vote.

Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been disqualified from taking part in the elections.

The country's military regime disbanded her National League for Democracy but gave permission to some of its former members to run under a new name.

Burma also assured Asean it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons, as reported in the media, Surin said.

As well as Burma, Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Monday, July 19, 2010

North Korea and Myanmar hot-top agenda for Asia security meet


Tension on the Korean peninsula, elections in military-ruled Myanmar and the question of whether the former Burma is developing nuclear arms will top the agenda of meetings of Asian foreign ministers this week in Vietnam.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers met in Hanoi on Monday to discuss regional security ahead of talks this week with counterparts from China, Japan, North and South Korea, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

Myanmar's foreign minister repeated that the country had no ambition to become a nuclear power, denying a report published in June by an exile group that it was trying to develop a secret nuclear program with the intention of making an atomic bomb.

"Myanmar told the meeting that it's not attempting to procure or develop nuclear weapons and we thanked them for their clarification on the matter," said Thani Thongpakdi, a deputy spokesman for the Thai foreign ministry.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives on Thursday and will reinforce Washington's commitment to Asia in the face of rising Chinese influence and growing tensions with North Korea during two days of meetings, U.S. officials say.

A copy of a draft statement to be issued by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said the 10-member group shared "deep concern" at the sinking of a South Korean warship and growing friction on the Korean peninsula.

Tension between North and South Korea remains high following the March sinking of the corvette Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang has denied responsibility and escaped censure this month from the United Nations, which condemned the attack but, under pressure from China, did not blame North Korea.

"We expressed deep concern over the sinking of (the) ship Cheonan," said the draft, which also did not blame Pyongyang.

U.S. officials say Clinton is also likely to discuss human rights concerns, and could touch on prospects for Pacific trade talks that the Obama administration hopes will open regional markets to more U.S. exports.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun will attend Friday's ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's largest security dialogue that includes all six parties in the stalled North Korean nuclear talks -- North and South Korea and regional powers China, Japan the United States and Russia.

PRESSURE ON MYANMAR

U.S. officials say Clinton will raise concerns about election preparations in Myanmar, hoping to underscore that the country's military leaders must be held accountable for the lack of real democratic reform.

Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors have urged the junta to hold "free and fair" elections, expected this year, and to free pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Southeast Asia has been divided over the issue. Early last year some Southeast Asian countries urged ASEAN to take a tougher stand with a public appeal calling on the junta to grant an amnesty to Suu Kyi.

That went nowhere. Several ASEAN nations rebuffed it, saying it contravened the grouping's long-standing non-interference policy in each others' internal politics. The detention of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been jailed or under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years, has led the West to sharply criticize the former Burma's election plans.

"There will certainly be questions about Myanmar on progress and preparation for the upcoming elections. But it is unlikely to be strong, stinging words," Chitriya Pinthong, deputy permanent secretary of Thailand's foreign ministry, told Reuters.

"Things are moving in a positive direction and we want to engage the government in a constructive way rather than condemnation even before elections take place."

The United States is also increasingly concerned about potential links between Myanmar and North Korea, including reports by an exiled anti-government group that Myanmar may be harboring nuclear ambitions of its own, U.S. officials said.

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the United States would press Myanmar to implement U.S. Security Council resolutions tightening sanctions on North Korea but that there were "no plans in the current climate" for Clinton to meet representatives of either North Korea or Myanmar in Hanoi.

(Additional reporting by John Ruwitch, Andrew Quinn and Jack Kim; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

REGIME FORMS MISSILE FORCE


The Burmese military junta has formed a strategic missile force that works with North Korean suppliers and reports directly to Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the commander-in-chief of the army, according to military sources who leaked the classified information to The Irrawaddy.

The Directorate of Missile, formed in September 2009 to work alongside the Artillery Force and the Air Defense Force, comprises one of Naypyidaw’s major defense initiatives to strategically prepare for modern warfare and protect against external threats to the country's long coastline, strategic defense industries, command centers and air force and naval bases.
Burma’s missile force is armed with two types of weapons: surface-to-surface missiles, including short and medium range ballistic missiles such as the Scud-type Hwasong-6 imported from North Korea, and 122-mm and 240-mm multiple rocket launch systems imported from China and North Korea.

Known in the Burmese language as Ka Ka Dom, the Directorate of Missile is currently headed by Maj-Gen Myint Soe, who is reportedly close to Maung Aye.

There are 10 missile operations commands under the Directorate of Missile: Kyaukse in the Naypyidaw Regional command; Hmawbi in the Rangoon regional command; Bilin and Moulmein in the Southeast Regional Command; Dawei and Myeik in the Coastal Regional Command; Kengtung in the Triangle Regional Command; Loikaw in the Eastern Regional Command; and Sittwe in the Western Regional Command.

Under the missile operation commands, mobile battalions are deployed in locations such as Mong-Hnyin in Kachin State, Nawng-cho in northern Shan State and Kyaukpadaung in Mandalay Division, as well as other undisclosed places in the country.

Comprising another important wing of the Directorate of Missile are electronic battalions, which are deployed within missile operations commands and have the task of mapping and finding targets with electronic devices.

The idea for the strategic missile force came in 2007, when the National Defense College suggested forming a new directorate to better manage imported missiles and multiple rocket launchers.

The Directorate of Missile was formed as a separate entity from the Directorate of Artillery. Previously, Burma’s Artillery Force and Armor Force were under the same command, the Directorate of Artillery and Armor. However, in 2005, the junta separated the two directorates for better military mobilization

To protect Burma's 1,385-mile coastline, artillery and missile units are deployed on strategic off-coast islands.

Lt-Gen Myint Hlaing, the chief of the Directorate of Air Defense who commands eight air defense operations commands, and Maj-Gen Mya Win, the chief of the Directorate of Artillery who commands 10 artillery operations commands, are also reportedly close to Maung Aye.

34 REBELS IN INDIA


အိႏၵိယ အစိုးရက ၁၂ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ၾကာ ထိန္းသိမ္းၿပီး တရားစြဲဆို ထားေသာ ျမန္မာ သူပုန္မ်ားကို ေထာင္ဒဏ္ႏွင့္ ေငြဒဏ္မ်ား အသီးသီး က်ခံေစရန္ ကာလကတၱား တရား႐ံုးမွ ယမန္ေန႔က အၿပီးသတ္ ဆံုးျဖတ္ခဲ့ ေသာ္လည္း ကြင္းလံုးကၽြတ္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ရန္ မေရရာေသးေၾကာင္း သတင္းရရွိသည္။
ကာလကတၱားၿမိဳ႕ ပရက္စီဒင္စီ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္တြင္ ထိန္းသိမ္း ထားေသာ ရခုိင္ႏွင့္ ကရင္ တိုင္းရင္းသား ၃၄ ဦးတို႔ကို လက္နက္ ခဲယမ္းႏွင့္ ေဖာက္ခြဲေရး ပစၥည္းမ်ား ကိုင္ေဆာင္မႈ အက္ဥပေဒ၊ တရားမ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားသား အက္ဥပေဒ တို႔ျဖင့္ အလုပ္ႏွင့္ ေထာင္ဒဏ္ ၁ ႏွစ္ႏွင့္ ၃ လ အျပင္ ေငြဒဏ္ ႐ူပီး ၆၀၀၀ စီ အသီးသီး ခ်မွတ္ခဲ့သည္။

“တရား႐ံုးက ဒီအမႈ ၿပီးသြားၿပီ ဆိုၿပီးပဲ ေျပာလိုက္တယ္။ သူတို႔ဟာ ေထာင္ထဲမွာ ၁၀ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ ေနခဲ့ၿပီးၿပီ။ ေထာင္ထဲ ဆက္ေနဖို႔ မလိုအပ္ ေတာ့ဘူး။ ဒါကို တရား႐ံုးက တခုခု လုပ္ေပးရမွာ ျဖစ္ေပမယ့္ သူတို႔ကို အေၾကာင္း ျပခ်က္မရွိဘဲ ေထာင္ထဲမွာပဲ ေနေစခ်င္ ေနတယ္။ က်ေနာ္ တို႔လည္း ဘာမွ လုပ္ေပးလို႔ မရဘူး ျဖစ္ေနတယ္” ဟု ေရွ႕ေန တဦးျဖစ္သူ Akshay Sharma ကေျပာသည္။

အက်ဥ္းေထာင္တြင္ ႏွစ္ရွည္လမ်ား ေနခဲ့ရၿပီးျဖစ္ေသာေၾကာင့္ အဆိုပါ ခ်ဳပ္ရက္မ်ားကို ခံစားခြင့္ေပးသည့္အေနျဖင့္ ေထာင္ ဒဏ္မ်ား ေလွ်ာ့ေပါ့ေပးခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း သက္ဆိုင္ရာအာဏာပိုင္မ်ားက ကြင္းလံုးကၽြတ္ လႊတ္ေပးလိုျခင္းမရွိ ျဖစ္ေနသည္ဟု ျမန္မာသူပုန္မ်ား၏ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္အျဖစ္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးေနသူ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ညြန္႔ေပါင္းအစိုးရ (NCGUB) ၀န္ႀကီး ေဒါက္တာ တင့္ေဆြကလည္း ဆိုသည္။

“အလုပ္နဲ႔ ေထာင္ဒဏ္ကေတာ့ သူတို႔ ခ်ဳပ္ရက္ေတြ ေလွ်ာ့ေပးလိုက္လို႔ က်ခံဖို႔ မလိုေတာ့ဘူး။ ဒဏ္ေငြကေတာ့ ေဆာင္ရမယ္။ မေဆာင္ရင္ ေထာင္ဒဏ္ ၈ လ လို႔ ထပ္ေျပာတယ္။ ဒဏ္ေငြ ေဆာင္မယ္ဆိုရင္ေတာင္ သူတို႔ကို မလႊတ္ေပးခ်င္ဘူး ျဖစ္ေနတယ္။ တရားမ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားသား ပုဒ္မ တပ္ၿပီး ေထာင္ထဲကို ျပန္ထည့္ဖို႔လုပ္ေနၾကတာ” ဟု ေဒါက္တာ တင့္ေဆြက ေျပာျပသည္။

ဒဏ္ေငြေဆာင္လိုက္ပါက လြတ္ေျမာက္ရမည္ ျဖစ္ေသာ္လည္း ထိုသူတို႔သည္ အိႏၵိယေျမေပၚတြင္ တရား၀င္ ေနထိုင္ခြင့္မရွိသည့္အတြက္ တရားမ၀င္ ႏိုင္ငံျခားသား အမႈျဖင့္ အိႏၵိယ အစိုးရက ထပ္မံ အေရးယူႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။

ေဒါက္တာ တင့္ေဆြက ဆက္လက္၍ “သူတို႔ကို UNHCR က ဒုကၡသည္အျဖစ္ အသိမွတ္ျပဳဖို႔ စဥ္းစားဆဲအဆင့္ လက္မွတ္ကို တင္ျပထားေပမယ့္ ဒါက တရား၀င္ေနထိုင္ခြင့္ မဟုတ္ဘူးဆိုၿပီး ပယ္ခ်ထားတယ္။ အဲဒီေတာ့ သူတို႔ေတြ လံုး၀ လြတ္သြားဖို႔ အတြက္က က်ေနာ္တို႔ ဆက္ၿပီး သက္ဆိုင္ရာ အဆင့္ဆင့္ကို တက္ၿပီး ႀကိဳးစားၾကရဦးမယ္” ဟု ေျပာသည္။

အမႈအေပၚ ညႇာတာ ေထာက္ထားၿပီး ေထာင္ဒဏ္မ်ား ခ်မွတ္ရာတြင္ သတ္မွတ္ထားသည့္ ႏွစ္မ်ားထက္ ေလွ်ာ့ေပါ့ ခ်မွတ္ေပးခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း တရား႐ံုး၏ ဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္မွာ ရွင္းလင္းမႈ မရွိေၾကာင္း ေရွ႕ေနမ်ားက ဆိုသည္။

အမႈၿပီးဆံုးသြားၿပီဟု ဆိုေသာ္လည္း ျမန္မာသူပုန္မ်ား၏ လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးမွာ မေရမရာျဖစ္ေနၿပီး ကာလၾကာရွည္ ထိန္းသိမ္းခံထားရသူမ်ားအေပၚ ခ်မွတ္သည့္ ဒဏ္ေငြပမာဏမွာလည္း မ်ားျပားေနသျဖင့္ တရား႐ံုး၏ ဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္မ်ားသည္ တရားမွ်တမႈ မရွိေၾကာင္း လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး လႈပ္ရွားသူမ်ားက ေ၀ဖန္ၾကသည္။

လတ္တေလာတြင္ ၃၄ ဦးအနက္ ကုိစိုးႏိုင္ဆိုသူသည္ အစာအိမ္ေရာဂါ ခံစားေနရသည္မွ လြဲ၍ က်န္သူမ်ားမွာ က်န္းမာေရး ေကာင္းမြန္ေနၾကၿပီး ကာလကတၱားရွိ ပရက္စီဒင္စီ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္တြင္ပင္ ေနၾကရမည္ျဖစ္သည္ဟု သိရသည္။

“သူတို႔ကေတာ့ ေထာင္ပဲ အက်ခံလိုက္မယ္ ေျပာၾကတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ကေတာ့ သူတို႔ လံုး၀ လြတ္ေျမာက္ဖို႔ လုပ္ရမယ္။ သူတို ခံခ့ဲရတာေတြက မ်ားလြန္းေနၿပီ” ဟု ေဒါက္တာ တင့္ေဆြက ေျပာသည္။

အိႏၵိယေရပိုင္နက္အတြင္းရွိ လန္းေဖာလ္ကၽြန္းသို႔ ေရာက္လာေသာ ရခိုင္အမ်ဳိးသား ညီညြတ္ေရးပါတီ (NUPA) ႏွင့္ ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသား အစည္းအ႐ုံး (KNU) တို႔မွ ရခိုင္ႏွင့္ ကရင္တုိင္းရင္းသားမ်ား ပါ၀င္သည့္ လူစုကို ၁၉၉၈ ေဖေဖာ္၀ါရီလ ၁၁ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ အိႏၵိယေရတပ္က ဖမ္းဆီးခဲ့သည္။

ထို႔ေနာက္ လက္နက္ခဲယမ္းမ်ား လက္၀ယ္ေတြ႔ရွိမႈျဖင့္ အက္ဒမန္ကၽြန္းစု ပို႔ဘလဲယားၿမိဳ႕တြင္ ၈ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ၾကာ အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ျဖင့္ ထားရိွခဲ့သည္။ ထိုအေတာအတြင္း သူတို႔အဖြဲ႔မွ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ၆ ဦးတို႔မွာ ေသဒဏ္ေပးကြပ္မ်က္ခံရၿပီး က်န္သူမ်ားကိုမူ ကလကတၱားအက်ဥ္းေထာင္သို႔ ပို႔ေဆာင္၍ အိႏၵိယဗဟို ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးအဖြဲ႔ (CBI) က ၂၀၀၆ ေအာက္တိုဘာလတြင္ တရားလိုျပဳ တရားစြဲဆိုခဲ့သည္။

ျမန္မာ သူပုန္မ်ားဟု အစြပ္စြဲ ခံခဲ့ရသူမ်ားသည္ အိႏၵိယေထာက္လွမ္းေရးအဖြဲ႔မွ ဒုဗိုလ္မႉးၾကီး ဗီ အက္စ္ ဂရာဝယ္လ္ (Lt. Col. V.S. Grewal) ႏွင့္ လွ်ိဳ႕၀ွက္သေဘာတူညီထားသည့္ “ပင္လယ္ေမွ်ာ့ စစ္ဆင္ေရး”အတြက္ လာေရာက္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ လက္ေတြ႔တြင္မူ အိႏၵိယ ေထာက္လွမ္းေရးအဖြဲ႔ႏွင့္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရတို႔ ပူးေပါင္းအကြက္ခ် ဖမ္းဆီးျခင္းခံခဲ့ရသည္။

အိႏၵိယ အစိုးရမွ စြပ္စြဲသည့္အတိုင္း အိႏၵိယ ခြဲထြက္ေရး သူပုန္မ်ားကို လက္နက္မ်ား ေထာက္ပံ့မည့္ လက္နက္ကိုင္ သူပုန္မ်ား မဟုတ္ေၾကာင္း အဖမ္းခံရသူမ်ားက အစဥ္တစိုက္ ထြက္ဆိုခဲ့ၾကသည္။

အမႈ စစ္ေဆးစဥ္ ကာလတေလွ်ာက္လံုး တရားလိုဘက္မွ အေထာက္အထားမ်ား၊ သက္ေသမ်ား တင္ျပရန္ ပ်က္ကြက္မႈမ်ားစြာရွိခဲ့ျပီး တင္ျပခဲ့သည့္ အေထာက္အထားမ်ားမွာလည္း ခိုင္လံုမႈ တစံုတရာမရွိေၾကာင္း ျမန္မာသူပုန္မ်ား၏ ေရွ႕ေနမ်ားက ေ၀ဖန္ျပစ္တင္ခဲ့သည္။

အဆိုပါ ၃၄ ဦးတို႔ကို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ျပန္မပို႔ရန္ ေရွ႕ေနမ်ားက ေလွ်ာက္လဲခဲ့ၾကၿပီး ကုလသမဂၢ ဒုကၡသည္မ်ားဆိုင္ရာ မဟာမင္းႀကီး႐ံုး (UNHCR) ၏ ဒုကၡသည္အျဖစ္ အသိအမွတ္ ျပဳေပးေရးအတြက္ စဥ္းစားေနဆဲအဆင့္ လက္မွတ္မ်ားကို တင္ျပခဲ့ၾကသည္။

ျမန္မာသူပုန္မ်ားကို ႏိုင္ငံေရး ခိုလႈံခြင့္ေပးရန္ ခ်က္သမၼတႏိုင္ငံက ေျပာဆိုမႈမ်ား ရွိခဲ့ၿပီး ျမန္မာသူပုန္မ်ားအေရး လႈပ္ရွားေနေသာ Solidarity Committee ကလည္း ဒုကၡသည္အျဖစ္ အသိအမွတ္ျပဳေပးရန္ ေတာင္းဆိုျခင္းမ်ား ရွိခဲ့သည္။

ဖမ္းဆီးထားသူမ်ား လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးအတြက္ အိႏၵိယ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး လႈပ္ရွားသူမ်ားက ႀကိဳးပမ္းခဲ့ၾကၿပီး ေဒါက္တာ တင့္ေဆြ၊ Euro Burma ႐ံုးမွ ဒါ႐ိုက္တာ ဦးဟန္ေညာင္ေဝႏွင့္ အိႏၵိယႏိုင္ငံ အေနာက္ ဘင္ေဂါျပည္နယ္ရွိ အားကစားေရးရာ ၀န္ႀကီးဌာနမွ အရာရွိတဦးတို႔ကလည္း တရား႐ံုးတြင္ အဖမ္းခံရသူ ၃၄ ဦးသည္ ျမန္မာျပည္ လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးအတြက္ ႀကိဳးပမ္းေဆာင္ရြက္ေနသည့္ ေတာ္လွန္ေရး သမားမ်ားသာ ျဖစ္သည္ဆိုသည့္ အေထာက္အထားမ်ားကို ယမန္ႏွစ္ ႏို၀င္ဘာလအတြင္းက တင္ျပ ထြက္ဆိုခဲ့ၾကေသးသည္။

အိႏိၵယႏိုင္ငံသည္ ၁၉၈၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ဒီမိုကေရစီအေရးကို ေထာက္ခံအားေပးခဲ့ေသာ္လည္း အေရွ႕ေမွ်ာ္ မူ၀ါဒကုိ စတင္က်င့္သံုးခဲ့သည့္ ၁၉၉၀ ေနာက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ျမန္မာ စစ္အစိုးရႏွင့္ ရင္းႏွီးစြာ ဆက္ဆံခဲ့ျပီး စစ္သံုးပစၥည္းမ်ား၊ နည္းပညာ အကူအညီမ်ားေပးျခင္း၊ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ ကုန္သြယ္ေရး လုပ္ငန္းမ်ား တိုးျမႇင့္ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္းမ်ား ျပဳခဲ့သည္။

US worried the polls would be unfair


WASHINGTON DC, United States—The US said Monday it was deeply worried Myanmar's upcoming election would be unfair, dismissing the junta's move to allow former members of the main opposition party to run.

The military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, disbanded democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) but last week gave permission to some of its former members to run under a new name.

"It doesn't change our concern about the electoral process. We think that this is a flawed electoral process," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

"We respect decisions that former NLD members have made," he said. "We certainly do not have any expectation that what proceeds in Burma here will be anything that remotely resembles a free, fair, or legitimate result."

The NLD plans to boycott the elections this year, believing they are an attempt for the junta to legitimize its rule.

The polls will be the first since 1990, when the NLD triumphed but was never allowed to take power. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest.

Some activists believe the junta allowed the registration of the new National Democratic Force in part to splinter the opposition, weakening the influence of the NLD and of Suu Kyi.

President Barack Obama's administration has made dialogue with US adversaries a signature policy and last year opened talks with the junta aimed at repairing relations.

Crowley acknowledged the talks have not borne fruit on democratization but said the United States planned to stick with the policy.

"We have years, if not decades, of experience that tells us that isolation has not worked, either," he said.

"We will continue to engage them not to reward them, but just simply to make sure that they have clarity that if they envision any different kind of relationship with the United States, that fundamental processes within their own country have to change," he said.

Friday, July 9, 2010

MILITARY REGIME KILLS MILITARY OFFICER DURING INTERROGATION IN NAYPYIDAW


An official from the Burmese regime's War Office died recently while being interrogated by the junta's military intelligence service, according to sources in Naypyidaw.

“He was arrested by military intelligence agents three weeks ago. Three days later, they informed his family that he had died during interrogation,” the source said.

“He was an army major in his early 30s who lived in Sein Pan Avenue in Naypyidaw,” the source added, referring to a residential area that is home to many senior officials from the War Office.

According to the source, the officer was arrested by Military Affairs Security (MAS), the junta's military intelligence service, on suspicion of leaking secret information about the War Office to a former senior officer living in exile.

The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm any details relating to the officer's death. Sources in Naypyidaw said that his family has since disappeared and that access to his house on Sein Pan Avenue has been blocked by local authorities.

Meanwhile, there are reports that MAS also arrested a former intelligence officer at his home two weeks ago.

The officer, Col Yan Naung Soe, served under the commander of the Rangoon Regional Military Command.

The recent arrests are the latest sign that the Burmese regime has stepped up its efforts to stem leaks from within its military command.

Earlier this year, it sentenced ex-Maj Win Naing Kyaw and Foreign Ministry official Thura Kyaw to death for revealing information about the junta's secret relations with North Korea to the exiled media.

According to military sources, the MAS has increased its surveillance of officials and non-officials from the War Office since missile expert Maj Sai Thein Win defected earlier this year with photographs and documents that served as the basis of a report revealing the regime's secret nuclear weapons program.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Plague-infected rats reported in capital NAPYIDAW


Plague-infected rats reported in Myanmar's capital 07 Jul 2010 10:17:15 GMT
Source: Reuters
YANGON, July 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar's health ministry has circulated a warning among government departments about rat-borne plague after finding infected dead rodents in a compound of a government office, an official said.

Half a dozen dead rats were found in a ministry in the new capital, Naypyitaw, an official told Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

The warning called on other ministries to look out for dead rodents at their offices and at living quarters, urging civil servants to report cases to the nearest health office.

Villagers and motorists between Yangon, the former capital, and Naypyitaw reported seeing thousands of field mice on the move and squashed on the highway in what could possibly be a mass migration away from an affected area.

"I saw hundreds of dead mice killed after being driven over by vehicles scattered on the highway when I drove back to Yangon last week," Min Kyaw, a Yangon-based travel agent, said.

Thai-based Irrawaddy magazine said an unspecified number of Yangon residents had been diagnosed with plague in June, citing an epidemiologist. The report said all were treated and had since recovered.

A senior health ministry official told Reuters the authorities were alert to the dangers of the contagious disease primarily transmitted by rodents and had taken measures, but insisted there had been no humans affected.

State-owned Myanmar language newspapers carried a public notice about the danger of bubonic plague spread by infected rat fleas on July 1, calling on civilians to report cases to the nearest health department. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Ambika Ahuja; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

REGIME FUNDS GAS TO NUCLEAR BOMB


Funding for Myanmar nukes

PARIS - MYANMAR'S military rulers are using gas revenue from US and French energy giants Chevron and Total to fund an illegal bid to build nuclear weapons, human rights monitors said in a report on Monday.

Myanmar's Yadan gas pipeline, run by the two companies along with Thai firm PTTEP, made billions of dollars for the military leaders, the Paris-based group EarthRights International said, citing data from the firms.

The NGO also branded the companies complicit in human rights abuses such as targeted killings and forced labour at the pipeline.

It said Chevron, Total and PTTEP have generated US$9 billion (S$12.5 billion) from Myanmar's Yadana gas pipeline since 1998, more than half of which has gone straight to the ruling junta.

'The companies are financing the world's newest nuclear threat with multi-billion dollar payments,' EarthRights said in a statement.

'The funds have enabled the country's autocratic junta to maintain power and pursue an expensive, illegal nuclear weapons programme.' The United States has voiced concerns about Myanmar's cooperation with alleged nuclear proliferator North Korea after the Norwegian-based news group Democratic Voice of Burma said Myanmar was trying to build an atomic bomb. -- AFP

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Tensions between locals and the Chinese community grow in Burma




Tensions between locals and the growing Chinese community in Burma are rising, as Beijing’s influence in its southern neighbour expands. Some analysts are warning that widespread race riots – which broke out in the 1960s – could occur again.

People in Burma, particularly in the northern part of the country where the majority of Chinese immigrants have settled, are increasingly vocal in their criticism of the newcomers, as well as of China’s policies towards their country.

Most of those moving to Burma from China are businesspeople in search of new markets, and bring with them their own workers from China. Locals complain that the Chinese businesses are of little benefit to them economically while the people make little or no attempt to integrate.

“The Chinese get rich whilst we get poor,” said Soe San, who is from a small village on the Irrawaddy Delta, south of Bhamo. “All the opportunities are taken by them.”

The widespread Sinophobia is aimed at the “New Chinese”, recent immigrants from China, as opposed to the second and third generations of Sino-Burmese, who are well-integrated, speak Burmese and practise Buddhism – Burma’s dominant religion.

“Recent migrants, mainly from the [south-western] Yunnan province, have little attachment to the country and keep their language and culture intact,” said a Sino-Burmese analyst in Rangoon, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Exact numbers of Chinese immigrants to Burma are unknown – especially as acquiring Burmese citizenship is a fairly simple process that many have undertaken. Estimates run anywhere between one to three million.

Whatever the true figure, Mandalay, Burma’s second biggest city, is 30 per cent to 40 per cent Chinese, according to statistics from Global Witness, a London-based human-rights monitor; Lashio, the capital of Shan state, is dubbed “Chinatown”, and Mandarin is the language of choice in Kachin state.

Denied permission to work in professional positions, many of the Chinese immigrants entered business with large firms bringing in Chinese workers. They dominate Burma’s economy and have a disproportionately large presence in the country’s higher education.

Burmese industry is underdeveloped as China supplies cheap goods from Yunnan province. Imports from China to Myanmar have reached unprecendented levels, rising in value from US$546 million (Dh2 billion) in 2000 to $2bn in 2008, according to the Internatonal Monetary Fund.

The real value of exports is likely far higher given the considerable black market trade.

Underlying much of the tension between the Burmese and Chinese immigrants are Beijing’s policies in Burma.

Political support from Beijing, which has a veto in the United Nations Security Council, is seen as a major reason for the stability of Burma’s junta, a source of resentment among many in Burma who long for democracy.

China is also pushing to extract more of Burma’s resources, including hydropower, oil and gas.

“The Burmese population believe that China’s exploitations have caused environmental degradation and undermined Myanmar’s democratic aspirations,” said the analyst in Rangoon.

China has rapidly expanded its foreign direct investment in Burma in recent years, mostly in the field of resource extraction, and now boasts $1.85bn in official direct investment in the country; the real figure is believed to be higher as not all such investment has to be channelled officially.

According to a 2008 report by Earth Rights International, there are at least 69 Chinese corporations investing in over 90 hydropower, mining, oil and natural gas projects in Burma.

Two Chinese pipelines running through Myanmar are due to go online within the next two years. One will bring oil from the Middle East, while the other will have the capacity to bring 12 billion cubic metres of Burma's gas to China every year.

Apart from concerns about the fact that Burma – where electricity is intermittent – is selling off gas it needs itself, critics accuse China of brutally exploiting both people and the environment in its quest for resources.

“Imagine your home has been bulldozed for a dam construction project, your farm, which is your livelihood, has been seized without compensation, and you and your family are forcibly relocated,” said Ko Ko Thett, a commentator for The Irrawaddy, a Rangoon-based daily.

“Then the Chinese immigrants come to work the land where your farm used to exist. This is the source of tensions.”

In the past two months there have been protests by villagers in Kachin against the Myitsone Dam being built by the state-owned Chinese Power Investments Company which is causing the relocation of up to 15,000 people. In April unclaimed bomb blasts killed 300 Chinese workers.

In addition, a conflict between the Burmese army and the Kokang, a largely Chinese minority, has intensified in the border region.

“Repressed anger against the New Chinese has been seething for years and could easily build up to a communal clash,” said Ko Ko.

“There is also potential for the destruction of Chinese projects as long as there are groups which can exploit the justifiable grievance of the local people who have been displaced by such projects.”

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

‘No Rallies, No Slogans’ Order Shackles Parties Ahead of Poll


Burma’s military regime is giving its critics more ammunition, tightening its grip ahead of a general election this year by seeing to it that independent political parties are barred from chanting slogans, marching in rallies and displaying their party flags when they campaign.

Ahead of national elections for parliament – meant to set the foundation for a "discipline flourishing democracy" in the South-east Asian nation -- the country’s latest restrictions aim to stamp out the customary colour, animated campaigning and slogan cheering that is the standard feature of pre-poll politics in the more vibrant democracies in the region, such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

These limitations were spelled out in a late June directive issued by Burma’s powerful Election Commission (EC), whose rulings cannot be challenged in a court ahead of the poll. The election date itself has not been announced.

Published in the local media, ‘Directive 2/2010’ reveals the lengths to which the EC has gone to protect the authoritarian order in Burma, also called Myanmar.

Declared taboo during the campaign are any speeches and published material that "tarnish" the image of the military-run state, its over 400,000- strong armed forces and the junta-shaped 2008 Constitution. Candidates have been warned to avoid public utterances that undermine "security and community peace."

And even if the independent parties – only three of the registered 33 so far – yield to these shackles, they face even more challenges when they organise public meetings for candidates to address the estimated 27.2 million voters across the country.

The parties have to first seek approval from the EC and three different local authorities a week ahead of a planned meeting, specifying the building where it will be held.

In addition, their applications need to state how many people will attend each meeting and give a detailed biography and photograph of each speaker, as well as the exact time each speaker will begin and end speaking.

"This is blatant interference by the junta to try and control the outcome of this year’s election," said Zin Linn, spokesman for the National Coalition Government for the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the democratically elected government that won Burma’s last general election in 1990 but has since been forced into exile. "Some of these restrictions are more severe than those in the 1990 election."

That this election will be a "sham" is confirmed by the unlimited freedom enjoyed by the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Zin Linn says. "It is allowed to break all the limits placed by the EC on political parties. The junta is also openly encouraging people to support the USDP," he told IPS.

The USDP, headed by the junta’s second-in-command, Prime Minister Thein Sein, is the political wing of the pro-regime Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

But the USDA, which at one time declared that it had 18 million members, does more than serve as the social and welfare arm of the regime. Its members have been used to harass those with the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party led by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The NLD, which won the 1990 elections with a thumping 82 percent of the 485 seats in parliament, was forced to dissolve as a party after it announced in March that it would boycott the poll given the junta’s restrictions around the conduct of this year’s poll.

The NLD’s high-risk political gamble was in solidarity for Suu Kyi, who has spent over 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, and the country’s over 2,200 political prisoners.

The poll restrictions come at a time when Burma’s military rulers have a greater stranglehold on the country than they had in 1990. That poll was held two years after a student-led democracy uprising was brutally crushed. Thus, the intervening years saw the regime at the time -- in power since a 1962 coup – nurse uncertainty about its absolute hold over the country.

That political atmosphere enabled the 1990 poll to be held with "a bit more openness" than this year’s general election, says Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst living in exile in Thailand. "Political parties had 17 months to campaign and although there were restrictions, not all were properly enforced."

"There was lot of intimidation against the NLD but no rules against parties that are as restrictive as this year’s," he told IPS. "Election Day was very, very free and fair; vote counting was very transparent."

That same poll saw some 230 political parties apply to contest the election, but only 93 vied for seats in the legislature on voting day. And although the military warned that the number of people at campaign meetings in townships could not exceed 50, NLD’s meeting reportedly drew between 300 to 500 people at times.

This time around, the junta appears determined to avoid a repeat of seeing a pro-junta party trounced at the polls, an attitude that has alarmed rights groups.

"The laws have been drafted with broad language as to what would constitute illegal or not," said Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher for the London-based Amnesty International. "The powers vested in the EC gives them complete discretion and there is no appeal process."

"There are three freedoms utterly fundamental for an election – the human rights for freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association," he said in an interview. "We see these three freedoms clearly under attack this time." (END) By Marwaan Macan-Markar