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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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