A small step...but in the right direction...
From VOA:
A Burmese court has agreed to hear an appeal from detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her criminal conviction last month for violating her house arrest.
Her lawyer, Nyan Win, said Friday that Rangoon's Division Court will hear the appeal on September 18. He said he was satisfied with the court's decision to hear the appeal.
The Nobel Peace laureate was convicted August 11 of violating state security laws after giving shelter to American man who swam to her lakeside Rangoon home uninvited in May. She was sentenced to 18 months house detention.
Kyi Win says the appeal will focus on the fact that her conviction is based on the 1974 state constitution, which is no longer in effect.
The verdict was condemned by the international community. Burma's ruling military junta was accused of using the trial as an excuse to keep her out of next year's elections.
John Yettaw says he swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home to warn her about an attempt on her life. He was sentenced to seven years of hard labor, but was released by Burma's military junta last month after a visit from U.S. Senator Jim Webb.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in some form of detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
Click here to continue reading.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Burmese Court Agrees to Aung San Suu Kyi Appeal
Monday, August 17, 2009
Burma's Karen unable to return home
More than 4,000 ethnic Karen in eastern Burma have fled to Thailand after renewed fighting between Burmese government forces and Karen rebels.
Many of those who have fled over the past week were living at the Ler Per Her camp for internally displaced people in Burma - and had already left their home villages.
Rainbow, who is the secretary of the camp and the headmaster of the school there, told the BBC News website about what is forcing the Karen to flee and the difficult circumstances they now face:
Last week government troops attacked our camp. They were shelling every day. The fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen rebels was taking place close to the camp. It became a dangerous place. So we decided to leave. There were 1,264 people living in the camp. Since October 2008 we've had about 300 new arrivals.
The Democratic Karen Buddhist Amy (DKBA) [allied to the Burmese army] have been trying to force people in the area to join them in the last few months.
Click here to continue reading.Burma deports Suu Kyi US 'guest'
From the BBC:
The US man jailed for visiting Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been released and deported.
John Yettaw, whose health is described as fragile, left Burma on a plane with visiting US Senator Jim Webb, who negotiated the deal on Saturday.
Mr Webb was the most senior US official to meet the Burmese leader. He also met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr Yettaw was jailed for seven years over the visit and Ms Suu Kyi was given an additional 18 months' house arrest.
Mr Yettaw flew with Senator Webb to Bangkok, where he was taken to hospital in a US embassy van.
Senator Webb told reporters 53-year-old Mr Yettaw was "not a well man".
"He had a medical incident this morning when they read him his orders of deportation," the senator told reporters at Bangkok airport.
"He's now undergoing a thorough medical review here in a hospital, and soon he will be able to return to his family."
His wife, Betty, told the BBC on Saturday she was happy to hear the "wonderful" news that he would be released.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Welcome to the golden land of Myanmar...
And it's propaganda.
| Senior General Than Shwe sends message of congratulations to Iranian President |
NAY PYI TAW, 1 July - Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar, has sent a message of congratulations to His Excellency Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran on 12 June, 2009.[ more + ] |
Monday, May 25, 2009
Just rumors?
I just read an AP article that Aung San Suu Kyi was supposed to be released the week she was then charged with violating her house arrest terms (Background: American John Yettaw swam across the lake to Suu Kyi's house uninvited and didn't leave when asked to).
Here is the article to check out.
I find Brig. Gen Myint Thein's statement about her release pretty unlikely and just a cover-up to calm Myanmar's partnering countries, who think that the reputation of the government, since Suu Kyi's arrest and trial, is at stake
Friday, May 15, 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi arrested
This is atrocious.
From our friends at the Burma Campaign UK:
Dear Friend,
Yesterday Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by the regime and moved to Burma’s notorious Insein prison. It appears she will face trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest which forbids visitors, after an American man, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake and refused to leave her house.
Aung San Suu Kyi has committed no crime, she is the victim of a crime. There was an intruder in her house who refused to leave, yet she is the one being imprisoned.
HELP AUNG SAN SUU KYI - TAKE ACTION NOW
The United Nations and ASEAN must dispatch envoys to Burma to demand the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma’s political prisoners.
Please go to this page where you can email the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon and ASEAN leaders to urge them to send envoys immediately. http://www.burmacampaign.o
As you know Burma’s generals will use any excuse to keep Aung San Suu Kyi detained. If strong action isn’t taken, Aung San Suu Kyi could face the rest of her life in jail.
Please take action now. Aung San Suu Kyi could now spend the rest of her life in jail. http://www.burmacampaign.o
One year later...
And Cyclone Nargis is forgotten, Burma is out-of-mind.
On May 2 last year, Nargis Cyclone destroyed everything in its path in the south of Myanmar. It left behind 140,000 dead and missing, as well as immense damage. To help those who survived cope with their grief and suffering, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been providing mental health support to populations in the Irrawaddy delta for the past 10 months.
One year after cyclone Nargis massively damaged the Irrawaddy delta, reconstruction work is in process, thanks to the efforts of many national and international agencies. After the first emergency phase ended, emphasis is now put on rebuilding shelters and restoring livelihoods, especially agriculture and fishing. It will still take many years until the situation gets back to normal in the mostly rural areas that compose the southern tip of Myanmar.
No more dead bodies are floating in the river branches that plunge into the Andaman Sea, but the memories of the dreadful event that cost the lives of 140,000 people last year still haunt the two million people who survived and lost their loved ones. To alleviate this suffering, MSF has been providing mental health support to populations in the delta for the past 10 months.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Myanmar opposition meets on next year's election
Via the AP Myanmar's military government tightened security as the country's pro-democracy party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi gathered Tuesday to discuss political issues including next year's planned election. Attendees will consider proposals for the 2010 elections, but might not decide about whether to take part, party spokesman Nyan Win said. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy maintains that the polling will take place under a constitution aimed at ensuring the military's domination of politics. The document also has clauses that bar Suu Kyi from office. The party has repeatedly urged the government to review the military-backed constitution, saying it was "approved by force" in a referendum last year.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
BURMA UPDATE
A recent email from our friend S---,
"It's a common joke in Burma that the best way to find out what's happening in the country, is to leave...now writing from outside, I question that.
The little recent news that has leaked out of Burma's whisper-tight borders has left me less than optimistic. NGO's have been so far allowed to continue their reconstruction work, although the officially recognized disaster area has significantly lessened in size. It seems that aide is being held from particular areas, mainly Karin villages, possibly to "starve" off "undesirable" elements. It has also been reported that Aung San Su Kyi was allowed to meet with UN envoy Mr. Gambari, with no success to speak off. Many see such meetings as the Junta's way to gamble Su Kyi to rid western sanctions on party big wigs, and it is easy to assume that the State Peace and Development Council is waiting for Su Kyi to die under house arrest, as she is perhaps the only one able to unify Burma's remaining scattered and crippled resistance groups.
About two months ago I met a man who had just left the country, and sadly, his impressions were also a bit bleak. "Things seem to be sliding backwards, there's a feeling that we're heading back to the 'ol Ne Win days," he told me. Ne Win was the Junta's previous leader who oversaw a time when imports were outlawed and foreigners were lucky to obtain 48 hour visas. A time that most Burmese prefer to forget. It seems that as the current Junta head General Than Shwe grows older, his paranoia increases as his underlings tussle over power to take his throne. As for talk of democracy, like Su Kyi, it appears to be just another playing card in negotiations with concerned nations- unlikely to bring about any significant change.
But...all in all it is really hard to say. As we in the "outside" world cruise into this future of nearly free information access, Youtube now available in rural Pakistan and Google in the northwest coast of Ecuador, Burma somehow maintains their bizarre information hegemony. The only acceptable email services are run by the government, and all privately run Internet cafes are required to take a screen shot every 7 minutes to be submitted to the intelligence agency NIB. Sites such as Youtube, Yahoo and MSN are almost always blocked off. Local telephone lines are heavily monitored, and receiving an international phone call is highly unlikely. (Although, for a thousand US dollars one can acquire a cellphone sim card, a system entirely run by the government.) As for news, a few copies of last months Economist can be found at the bookstore- about a 4th of the pages gone. Some hotels do have the New York Times, with patchwork holes where articles about China, democracy, rebellion...or whatever...have been scissored out.
And of course surely it makes the SPDC comfortable that no one knows their ACTUAL ability to monitor. (I often wonder where the warehouses with rows of people cutting apart the newspapers are ....How do they feel about such a job?) I can say that in about a month's time, three undercover foreign Journalists were unmasked and deported, each leaving behind a reverberating paranoia among anyone they had spoken to. Confiscated bags, film cards and notebooks are left to the military-green uniformed airport staff (standing near a desk of already outdated computers still shrink-wrapped in original packaging). Helping a foreign journalist usually means prison, and sometimes violent harassment of family and friends.
So the updates I receive from friends and associates in country are almost always self censored- "things are ok...just ok" is a recent one. If someone were to write "Things are horrible, everyone is unhappy" the email likely wouldn't get through, even an interrogation could follow. On the other hand even if things are going relatively well, as long as the Junta is still calling the shots, things will be, at best "just ok".
Ultimately, inside the country or out its nearly impossible to know what's going on, how things work, who's in power when, etc ...and outside of the hyper paranoid ruling Junta, no one ever really has a clue. But one good thing about being outside Burma, is that one can be openly critical...and say things like "free burma" with out being deported and compromising the safety of others. Therefore:
FREE BURMA."
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Mandate of UN-backed group supporting Myanmar cyclone recovery extended
At least we're moving one step...a slow and steady step...but at least it's forward. The mandate of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) – which consists of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Government of Myanmar and the UN – has been extended until next July to allow it to continue its efforts in supporting Myanmar in its recovery. The TCG developed the three-year Post-Nargis Response and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP), which was launched last month and provides a blueprint for the reconstruction of communities devastated by Cyclone Nargis. The medium-term recovery needs identified in the PONREPP amount to $691 million over the next three years and called for the extension of the TCG as a basis for providing continued funding.
From the UN News Center via SaveBurma:
4 March 2009 – The United Nations-backed group assisting the reconstruction of Myanmar after it was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which left around 140,000 dead or missing and uprooted 800,000 from their homes, has been given another year in its role facilitating the recovery work in the South Asian country.
Click here to keep reading.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Environmental + Community Initiatives Launches by HToo Foundation
This is one of the first articles I've come across which addresses the environment/wildlife situation in the Mandalay region:
From the Myanmar Times
By Zaw Winn
THE Htoo Foundation has launched a series of community development projects to conserve Myanmar’s natural forest and wildlife, as well as local customs, languages and dialects.
The foundation was originally created to provide emergency aid in the wake of cyclone Nargis. “Soon after the storm, we organised all companies under Htoo Trading and started donating to victims. Then we decided to keep on doing community development in other regions,” said the foundation’s project director, U Ye Min Oo.
The project will be carried out in Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Shan states, and Pyin Oo Lwin district in Mandalay Division.
“We have now commenced operations in Kachin, Shan and Pyin Oo Lwin,” he said, adding that operations would start in other regions within months.
U Ye Min Oo said the aim of the project was to conserve Myanmar’s natural forest and wildlife in the regions, to develop local ethnic communities in remote regions, encourage the languages and cultures of Myanmar ethnic groups, including minorities, and to help meet emergency needs in natural disasters.
“A primary school and a small hospital are under construction in Mulashidi village, in Kachin State’s Putao region, and are scheduled to be completed by June,” U Ye Min Oo said.
He said the Htoo Foundation was encouraging the wider use of local dialects. “We will persuade local communities to speak their own dialects,” U Ye Min Oo said.
The foundation would also encourage communities to wear traditional dress, he said. “We will try to persuade them to preserve their national identity by wearing national dress at least once a week, to speak their own dialects occasionally, and to work their traditional crafts,” he said.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Global Justice Center Update
Dear Friends,
We need you to join us in making Nicholas Kristof's wake up call on Burma this week the first step in sending the ruling criminal junta to the International Criminal Court.
On February 4, 2009, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof highlighted the ongoing devastation of the people of Burma by the criminal regime, which has ruled with rape and murder for over forty years. There is now a way to end impunity. The UN Security Council can send Burma to the International Criminal Court for investigation and prosecution of war crimes.
We ask you to not only commend Nicholas Kristof, but respond to his column with a call for justice. Although Mr. Kristof commendably calls for "new approaches" on Burma, there is already an available solution. The International Criminal Court was created by the global community precisely to end impunity and remove criminal dictatorships. Learning from history, criminal dictators do not respond to pleas of envoys or sanctions. Ongoing impunity has made General Than Shwe more powerful than ever. Moreover, the call to the ICC is what all of the exile Burma groups are asking of the international community.
GJC Burma Researcher Phyu Phyu Sann posted one call for criminal accountability on Mr. Kristof's blog this morning:
We do not need a new approach, just the old approach - justice.
We people of Burma deserve it. Many of my friends are in prisons calling for justice. This is the dictatorship that put 20 year olds in prison for 104 years and many others.
Not only me but all of my colleagues of 88 generation and monks are calling for justice. There is the International Criminal Court as a way to bring justice for people of Burma. Why do we need a new approach???? We need "Justice", a very fundamental and old one.
-Phyu Phyu Sann
Member of '88 Students
The '88 Generation Students, International Burmese Monks Organizaton, National Council of the Union of Burma, Women's League of Burma, Burma Lawyers' Council and other representatives of Burma's people are calling for justice, as is the European Union. We are asking for you to do the same.
The people of Burma need our help by responding to Mr. Kristof and letting him know that the "new approach" we need is right before our eyes. The crimes that the SPDC is committing are crimes not just against the people of Burma, they are crimes against the entire world. If we do not stand up for people of Burma we are encouraging the next criminal dictator and endangering the next vulnerable population.
Click here to make your voice heard on how we can end the suffering in Burma!
Thank you,
Global Justice Center
Sunday, February 1, 2009
UN envoy meets ministers, diplomats in Myanmar
From the AP/IHT:
YANGON, Myanmar: The United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar met Sunday with government ministers and diplomats in a renewed effort to promote political reform in the military-ruled country, officials and diplomats said.
It remained unclear whether U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari would be able to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his four-day visit, which started Saturday. The trip, his seventh, comes amid criticism that he has failed to produce significant results.
Gambari told diplomats that his objectives are to urge the release of political prisoners, discuss the country's ailing economy and revive a dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta, a Western diplomat said.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of protocol, said Gambari was also preparing for a possible visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but did not elaborate.
Ban visited Myanmar last May after Cyclone Nargis devastated coastal areas and persuaded the junta's top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, to ease access for foreign aid workers and relief supplies.
Click here to continue reading
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The clamping down of Christians in Burma
From Compass Direct:
Burmese authorities last week increased restrictions on Christian activity in the capital city of Rangoon and surrounding areas, including the closure of several churches, Compass sources confirmed yesterday.
Orders issued on Jan. 5 had already forced many Christians meeting in residential homes or apartments to cease gathering for worship. Officials last week ordered several major Rangoon churches, including Wather Hope Church, Emmanuel Church and the Assemblies of God Church, to cease holding services and continued enforcing the Jan. 5 ban on meetings held in unauthorized facilities.
In the late 1990s authorities stopped issuing permits for land purchase or the construction of new churches, leading many Burmese Christians to conduct services in rented apartments or office buildings, according to the Burmese news agency Mizzima.
The Kyauktada Township Peace and Development Council on Jan. 5 invited pastors from more than 100 Rangoon churches to a meeting where they were told to sign documents pledging to cease operation of their churches. About 50 pastors attended, according to Mizzima.
The documents threatened punishment, including potential jail terms and the sealing of church facilities, for pastors who refused to obey the closure orders.
Click here to keep reading
Friday, January 16, 2009
Student gets 104-year sentence
The Burmese government just sentence a student in his 20s to 104 years in prison!
104 years...For going to the Thai border to contact a group in exile.
Students and activists are getting hefty terms for helping Cyclone Nargis victims or rally for Aung San Suu Kyi. How can we protect them?
Click here to keep reading
Thursday, January 15, 2009
MYANMAR RECOVERY TO TAKE UP TO 4 YEARS!
I just saw this on IRIN's website:
YANGON, 15 January 2009 (IRIN) - Cyclone survivors in Myanmar will likely need up to four years to fully recover from the impact of Nargis, according to the UN.
“Full recovery will take three to four years, depending on the availability of funds,” Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.
His assessment runs from May 2008 when the cyclone struck to 2011, the recovery period now being envisioned by the upcoming Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan, a strategic framework for the international community’s recovery assistance.
More than eight months after Nargis left close to 140,000 people dead or missing when it hit the http://www.blogger.javascript:void(0)com/img/blank.gifAyeyarwady delta on 2 and 3 May, life remains a struggle for thousands of the 2.4 million people affected, many of whom lost their homes, property and livelihoods.
Despite a massive outpouring of humanitarian assistance, recovery will not be quick. Indonesia took four to five years to recover from the Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed some 167,000 people in the western province of Aceh in 2004, Parajuli explained.
Click here to keep reading.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Unsung Heroines - The Women Who Fight For Rights
By Farah Milhar, media officer, Minority Rights Group International
Defending human rights is a risky business, but for women on the job the threat is much greater. In every country, amid the deepest crisis - be it in eastern Congo or Sri Lanka - women human rights activists are at the forefront, challenging governments, military forces, militants, community leaders and men in their societies.
At the Hague, Netherlands, late last week Dutch funding agency CORDAID and Justitia et Pax brought together some 30 women rights defenders from across the world to share experience and generate solidarity for their groundbreaking work.
The women were from diverse backgrounds and struggling for a range of issues including extra-judicial killings, evictions, torture, sexual violence, female genital mutilation and domestic violence. Many were from ethnic and religious minorities and indigenous communities, meaning they face multiple levels of discrimination.
"People see you as the enemy. I had to stop going to my parent's house because it was too dangerous for them," said a pastoralist woman from an east African country. Together with other women in her community, this activist - whose name has been ommitted for her safety - has challenged attempts by her government to forcibly take away their land to build a tourist resort.
The price she paid was severe. A member of her family was killed, she has been questioned and interrogated several times by the police, and she has been forced to cut ties with her parents out of fear of their security.
Click here to continue reading