Tuesday, 15 December 2009
They are my heros
ey
Do you know who they are?
They are ordinary Burmese people who want freedom for Burma.
They are student's leaders of 88generation.
They are my heros.
Monday, 24 August 2009
The Show Must Go On By NEIL LAWRENCE / RANGOON JUNE, 2008 - VOLUME 16 NO.6
As ordinary Burmese displayed resilience in the face of Cyclone Nargis, their rulers showed they weren’t going to allow a major disaster to upstage their farcical referendum FORTY-six years of military rule have prepared Burma well for Cyclone Nargis, the most devastating natural disaster to hit the country in living memory. Less than a week after the deadly cyclone struck on May 2-3, the former capital, Rangoon, was slowly crawling back to its feet—deprived of water and electricity, and littered with filth and fallen trees, but moving forward with inexorable dignity. Sidewalk hawkers and teashops—ubiquitous symbols of the subsistence economy that supports the majority of ordinary Burmese—wasted no time getting back to business. Meanwhile, barefooted children played soccer in a narrow lane next to Trader’s Hotel, using piles of fly-covered garbage as goalposts, as passersby hastened to get on with their lives. After a pause, he added: “The people have good hearts, but they need to eat.” Meanwhile, a little more than seven months after a brutal military crackdown on monk-led protests grabbed international headlines, another side of the country’s ruling regime was on full display. Rangoon residents said that in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, soldiers were conspicuous by their absence. Days later, they finally made an appearance, clearing trees from wealthy neighborhoods or along some of the city’s strategically important main thoroughfares. For Burma’s ruling junta, the only kind of catastrophe that matters is one that threatens its hold on power. So it came as no surprise to most Burmese that as Rangoon struggled to restore a semblance of normalcy and the Irrawaddy delta remained a scene of nightmarish devastation, the regime pressed ahead with a referendum to approve a constitution intended to strengthen its political stranglehold. The draft constitution, which will reserve 25 percent of political positions for the military, is the junta’s answer to all that ails Burma. More specifically, it is designed to nullify the results of the last electoral exercise in the country—the 1990 general election that the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won by a landslide. Eighteen years later, the regime is still struggling to come to terms with its humiliating defeat. Ignoring the outcome of the 1990 vote and resisting calls for a handover of power, it has tried to impose an alternative political process on the country. The May 10 referendum was hailed by the state-run media as a crucial step in this “seven-part road map” to “disciplined democracy.” Never mind that nobody else seemed to care.
But this hard-won resilience—a product of decades of economic mismanagement by successive military regimes—has its limits. There were also signs that under the gritty surface lay an even grittier reality: An article in The Myanmar Times, a semi-official weekly newspaper, reported a mysterious rise in demand for razor wire, in a city noted for its low crime rate; a middle-class woman complained of routine theft at the meditation center where her mother resides; and a Singapore-based Burmese businessman, after listening to a comment on the remarkably good-natured Burmese response to adversity, smiled, and then lowered his voice in warning: “Don’t walk alone after nine o’clock at night.”
A man casts his vote for the constitutional referendum in cyclone-hit Hlaing Thayar Township west of Rangoon on May 24, two weeks after the first round of referendum voting in most of the country. (Photo: AFP)
“Our government neglects the people. And when the people complain, the government bullies them,” said one businessman, succinctly describing the twin principles of Burmese military rule: inattention to the needs of ordinary citizens and a readiness to crush dissent at a moment’s notice.
Burma’s junta leader Snr-gen Than Shwe, center, along with top military brass, inpects relief supplies provided to cyclone-affected families at a showcase refugee center on the outskirts of Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)
Friday, 14 August 2009
If you don't know how to fix the country, please don't break it.
by: Ba Kaung , 061107
Open your mind, face the reality and see what you have done now compare with the status from 40 years ago. Are you saying that you are doing for the sake of people? No. you are not. You are only building the destructed mechanism for my country. You are blinded with the glistering light of dimonds that you are stealing from your own people. You might thought that you are making good fortunes and reputations for your next generation with those dimonds, money and power that you have, but you are wrong. You are literally wrong. You are supposed to be like a father to look after your people because you are the leader of million of people but you just turned your face away. What's it in your mind? What are you thinking?
Images from aljazeera.net
When I was young and old enough to understand the love and affection between mother and child, I saw a cow looking for her young calf with full of tears in her eyes. The calf might have somehow lost his way back home, and so mother cow went out and calling out for her child at every corner of the streets. She finally made sure that her child was safe and happy under her protection. At least, she felt something and has affection for her own child.
So, how is yours? Can you protect us? Can you make your people to be proud of being the citizen of Myanmar? My country is suffering. My people are dying with povety. I know you are such a stubborn or afraid one to face the true reality. What make you think that you can do better than others? You can't even approved your capabilities to build up the better country during past 20 years except increasing number of homeless, poverty, prostitutions, jobless, lower income rate, higher living costs. If you are afraid, tell me what you are afraid of. Are you afraid that the other people might say the true factors, and they will tell you that the things you are doing are wrong? Are you afraid that the people of Myanmar will get educated and bring the authetic visions for the bright future of the country? Do you know that the majority of your people are living in the dark world where there are no foods, no proper education, no shelters, and they are suffering? I will tell you what I am afraid of. I am afriad that my country will never able to stand up again as before because of what you had done, but I put my faith in my people for the good changes. I am sure they truly will.
Please don't tell me that our country is declining because of people. Please don't project us. We are your people. We are just ordinary citizens living within your military framework. I don't say the term "military" is evil thing, but just that you are not providing us the basic human needs. Please take your full responsibilities, otherwise let someone else take it.
Do you think this is going to last forever? Do you think you can shut down the gate of truth and reality with your military might? I don't think so. Did you ever ask yourself just like a child without having smeared influences why there are so many poverties in your country, and your people are dying in hungers and diseases while your families are celebrating birthday parties. Why? Why? Why? You are the leader of the country. Did you ever try to find a solution for those thousand of people who are dying under your dictatorship? What can you do for my country? If you can not do, what can I do for my country? What other people can do for the country? Do you need help? If you need help, just ask. It is just pretty simple. You need to accept the fact that you can not build the country alone. You also aware that Aung San Suu Kyi and other brilliant political leaders can help and lead the country. I don't understand why you don't incorporate with them. You are either too stubborn or just a dumb leader.
I don't think you are doing a good job for the country. More than 40 millions people are living in the country but as long as all those 40 millions people are not well educated, I wouldn't say you are creating the proper education system for the country. If someone say, "hey! my children are going to school and they are learning computer at home". Of course, you idiot!, you can effort to send your children to good school, but what about the other millions of people who can't even make enough incomes to provide the daily foods for their family. I am not talking about your little cheesy world. I am talking about my people. my Myanmar people. for Everyone. the whole country. Don't say our education system is not so bad. You haven't seen the world. You haven't seen the superior education system which would train the children to become managers, leaders, businessmen and they will be on top of everyone. I want my child to become a manager, to become a leader. I don't want my child to work like a slave in other counties. What can you do for that?
I am a citizen of Myanmar, but I am not proud of myself for being a citizen of Myanmar. Evertime I travel to other countries, I have more difficulties than other nationalities. Do you know why? People thought that the people of Myanmar are inferior. That's the nature of human. I have to try so hard and struggle more than others to get better impression for being a Myanmar. Why can't Myanmar people instantly be well recognized for the good courses? Can you make the people of Myanmar to be superior? I honestly want to be proud of my country. I long the time when Myanmar used to be on top of other Asia countries, but you destroyed the reputations. Don't you feel ashamed of yourself when the world is watching you as a brutal and evil one.
I took a taxi the other day in an event that it was drizzling and I was also late for my work. After having a long silent ride in the cab, me and taxi driver started to strike a conversation. What amused me the most was that everytime I tell my identity for being a Myanmar nationality in my english accent, everybody got stunned. After explaining who I am and what I do for living in a diplomatic way, the taxi driver proudly revealed the secret he had done in Myanmar 30 years ago. I am even more stunned when he told me what he did in Myanmar during those socialist days in Myanmar. He was a business man and sold watches in Yangon. He did illegal watch trafficking in Myanmar. He was able to buy lands and houses in Singapore because of his business. Since Myanmar was under socialist government, it was illegal to import and sell watches in Myanmar as private own. He said if he pay a box of whisky bottles, he could easily pass through the custom and immigration counters at the Yangon airport. Airport authorities even let him sleep with the girls they detained from illegal trafficking business. Most of the girls were about 13 or 14 years old. He is a Singaporean and the girls he raped were Myanmar but helped by Myanmar authorities. What was going on? Who is going to protect us if Myanmar government can not protect our nationalities? Where is the law? Is the law literally exist in Myanmar just not to send the people into jail for saying what they believe, but for the protection of every Myanmar citizens?
Sometime, I truly wish there will be a internal corruption inside your military framework in order to break down the structure, and so somebody could take control over the existing military power and reform the whole country. A lot of people tremendouly sacrificed their lives, their families, their properties, their love ones while doing what they believe to get better living standard for the people of Myanmar. They believe democracy is the only way out for the country. I believe it too. Since your military system didn't work for the country, you have to accept or compromise the dialogue with the other political parties.
It is really funny to see you are fooling around UN, ASEAN and other countries. How long has it been since we had our genuine election? Wow..it's been almost 20 years now. How could that happen? Well.. obviously UN is weak, international pressure is weak, ASEAN is weak, but our people get killed occasionally one by one, group by group. Military regime made up every possible tricks, they cheated, they tell lies. It comes to the realization that only the people of Myanmar can change the future of Myanmar.
Metta,
Ba Kaung
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World By AUNG NAING OO Friday, February 6, 2009
After the 1988 uprising, around 15,000 students, farmers, workers, monks and professionals left for the jungle—to carry on the fight against the Burmese military. Most of us were men, with just a few women in our midst. In our camp, the ratio of men to women was 97 to 3. "Living together" was a huge social no-no. The women lived in their own barracks, and we had the jungle law to protect them from any abuse. For instance, rape was punishable by death. Luckily, there only a few reports of harassment and nothing serious happened to the women. In the jungle, freedom abounded. But the Camp Committee felt we could not just let young people "live together" freely, as our customs frowned on such unofficial unions. Once, a Burmese professor who was living in the US and married to an American paid us a visit in the jungle with his 17-year-old daughter. With his fair-skinned daughter at his side, the professor quickly became very popular among the men, who—simply curious or unashamedly determined—followed them everywhere in the camp. He said, "Ah Kong in the jungle liked my daughter so much, I had to leave her in Thailand." I had a hard time keeping a straight face, since "Ah Kong" is a general word for insects or animals, and also an impolite word for men.
Given the statistics, single women naturally became the center of attention. For the majority of them, there was an oversupply of love, allowing them to pick and choose potential partners—or not. They were all very strong and dedicated women, but it was in many ways an intimidating experience for them to find themselves among hundreds of young males. Men, by contrast, vied with each other for a woman’s attention.
I still think that the women were a lucky bunch. But this isn’t to suggest that they were out of control. Despite our new-found freedom, we all came from a very conservative society and had norms and customs to adhere to.
For the men, life in the jungle was tougher. Despite our burning idealism—we all believed anything was possible—it soon dawned on us that love, or sex, would be the second sacrifice we would make for the revolution, after the first and continuous battle with malaria.
Phoo Law Khwa, the Karen officer in charge of the Thay Baw Boe area, was right when he told us—soon after we arrived in the jungle—that we would make many sacrifices, including the absence of love, and our eyes would soon see that "even a female buffalo is beautiful."
Most of the men looked with green eyes at the lucky few among us who won the heart of a woman. The lovelorn with a sweetheart left behind held on to their memories, hoping they would soon be reunited. In the meantime, we consoled ourselves by sharing tales of those we had left behind.
In Burma proper, it was nearly impossible for young unmarried couples to have sex anyway—due to social and official restrictions. It was even difficult for unmarried couples to find privacy to express their deepest feelings and desires. Young women were constantly under the watchful eyes of their family and neighbors, and couples were not allowed to stay in government hotels together unless they could show they were legally married.
Thus, we provided 500 baht, a rice sack and a supply of condoms to each young couple to organize a party, which was a way to acknowledge to the camp residents that they were married and living within the social norms accepted by our traditional customs. It was a common law marriage rather than a union with an official document.
It served as a convenient arrangement between the Camp Committee, which wanted to maintain traditional social cohesion in the camp, and couples who understood the social imperatives. Some of the couples we “married” are still together to this day.
Given the gender imbalance among the exiled students, some visiting foreigners asked us how we survived in the jungle without sex. They didn’t believe us when we told them that we had gone without sex for years. Indeed, most of us had decided we were married to the revolution.
In the jungle, love could even rise to the level of politics. We were a democracy and one camp leader lost an election over a woman. In one of the KNU fourth brigade area camps, a charismatic camp chairman won the heart of the belle of the camp, but his triumph cost him his leadership position because of the jealousy it generated.
The next time the professor visited, he was alone, prompting someone to ask about his daughter.
During my time in the jungle, I also met two foreign men who claimed to have seen the "most beautiful woman" in the world. Once was in Mae Sot and the other—a strange phenomenon for men in the jungle—actually happened in the jungle.
The first man was an American writer.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Friday, 17 July 2009
Surviving the Storm By THE IRRAWADDY JUNE, 2008 - VOLUME 16 NO.6
Bloodied, traumatized and heartbroken, the survivors of Cyclone Nargis are now victimized and treated with contempt by the military authorities KYIN Hla suddenly stopped doing her household chores at 11:20 on the morning of May 2. The wind had started swirling fiercely and from her farmhouse window she saw the sea swell and turn black. The 65-year-old woman called to her grandchildren to stop playing and come indoors. She closed the windows. The house began shaking violently. The noise outside grew louder and louder. Suddenly the roof was blown clean off the farmhouse, then the walls were pulled down one by one. She managed to hold on until the tidal wave struck at 1 p.m. The force ripped her grandchildren from her arms. She remembers one child screaming “Grandmother!” as they were swept away. The wave carried Kyin Hla into a tree. With the last of her strength she grabbed the branches and held on until the wave subsided. Then she collapsed. When she woke up, she was surrounded by dead bodies, animal carcasses and debris. Her clothes had been ripped off, and she had to take a longyi from a dead woman to cover herself. Her village had been destroyed. She staggered around until she met some other survivors who gave her some coconut. That was her only food for the next four days until she managed to get to a shelter in Laputta. Kyin Hla was reunited with three of her sons, but 12 members of the family had died, including all her grandchildren. Apart from the trauma of experiencing such a terrifying natural disaster and the heartbreak of losing their loved ones, Cyclone Nargis survivors have had to endure abysmal conditions in the aftermath of the storm. Thousands of children were orphaned and thousands of people were injured or have since died from disease. The majority of the 2.4 million people in the Irrawaddy delta directly affected by the cyclone were farmers whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, especially rice cultivation, and livestock to work the fields. With their homes leveled, their rice paddies inundated with seawater, their livestock dead and their villages reduced to rubble, most rural survivors had no choice but to leave behind the stench of death and walk or be carried to the nearest town. Thousands gathered in Buddhist monasteries where monks fed and sheltered them. Others crammed into schoolhouses or public buildings. There was seldom any electricity or medical help, or enough fresh water, food or sanitation. Many families were lucky to receive a daily ration of one tin of rice. While the junta dragged its feet on allowing in international aid, private Burmese philanthropists attempted to come to the rescue. Burmese celebrities, such as comedians Zarganar and the Moustache Brothers, and the actor Kyaw Thu joined local NGO efforts to deliver supplies to cyclone survivors. Many private donors packed their vehicles with small makeshift aid packages and drove to the delta to hand them out. In Bogalay, some three weeks after the cyclone had killed her father, 12-year-old Lei Lei was still begging for handouts at the side of the highway. She had her baby sister tied on her back in a longyi and was competing with hordes of other cyclone victims for packages of food occasionally thrown from of passing vehicles by private donors. However, the authorities moved to impede the effort, preventing aid donors from entering the delta or asking them for bribes at each checkpoint. Through the media, the junta went so far as to warn the public against helping the survivors, saying it would “make them lazy.” Apart from those refugees sheltering at a handful of showcase camps—set up methodically as photo-op backdrops for the Burmese generals, international dignitaries and the media—most survivors had still not received any aid three weeks after the disaster. Then, when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the military authorities ordered rural survivors to return to their villages. The government argued that towns such as Laputta and Bogalay were overcrowded and could not support the influx of refugees from the countryside.
By midday the sky had turned “an angry red color” and dark clouds had gathered overhead. Instinctively alarmed, Kyin Hla drew her grandchildren closer and began praying.
A young girl waits for food in the rain on the outskirts of Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Protesting Dogs Are Now on the Regime’s Wanted List
The Burmese authorities have a new enemy to hunt down—dogs which are roaming Rangoon with pictures of Than Shwe and other regime leaders around their necks.
A resident of Shwegondine, Bahan Township, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that she saw a group of four dogs with pictures of the regime’s top generals around their necks.
Sightings were also reported in four other Rangoon townships—Tharkayta, Dawbon, Hlaing Tharyar and South Okkalapa.
Some sources said the canine protest had started at least a week ago, and was keeping the authorities busy trying to catch the offending dogs. “They seem quite good at avoiding arrest,” laughed one resident.
Associating anybody with a dog is a very serious insult in Burma.
Spray-painters are also at work, daubing trains with the words “Killer Than Shwe” and other slogans.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Cyclone Nargis survivors face new battles under General Than Shwe
From The Times
May 2, 2009
Passengers carry supplies onto a boat in the fishing town of Labutta on the Ayeyarwady River
The human survivors were still coming to terms with their shock and grief when they began to notice it: one after another, the water buffalo, which ploughed the fields and fertilised the ground, were starting to die.
“They suffered from the shock, too,” said Aung Moe, a farmer in the village of Bantoung Khaung. “For six or seven months, they were slow, sad, we could not make them work. And they began to die gradually.”
When the dead creatures were examined, their stomachs contained a brick of muddy earth. “They drink the cyclone water,” Aung Moe said. “And the water is so muddy.”
It is a year today since Cyclone Nargis struck southern Burma, passing straight through Bantoung Khaung. Looking at the village today, it is hard to recall the scale of the disaster. The corpses have been cleared from the creeks and trees; the smashed houses have been replaced with neat, fragile shelters of bamboo and palm.
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Beneath the surface, though, the physical and psychological trauma is profound — and it is felt in changes to the natural world as much as the human.
The people of the Irrawaddy delta are no longer dying but they are communities on life support. They have roofs over their heads but most are so flimsy that it would take less than a cyclone to blow them away again. They are supplied with enough food aid to fend off hunger and disease but many are still unable to support themselves. Their buffaloes — the lumbering tractors of the paddy fields — have died and there is no money to replace them.
Even if these problems were solved they would still face an enemy as implacable and destructive as the surging tidal water and raging winds: the Burmese junta, which condemns its people to poverty by its stubbornness and greed.
However much physical reconstruction has taken place, one thing has not changed: the people’s latent fear of their Government.
From Rangoon, the largest city in Burma, it is an eight-hour drive, followed by a one-hour journey by boat, to Bantoung Khaung. Foreign journalists are barred from Burma and an elaborate subterfuge is required to gain the necessary documents and pass through the checkpoints on the road to Labutta, which is the closest town.
Once there, police and military intelligence make suspicious inquiries. Local people and even international nongovernmental organisations and United Nations agencies are afraid to give on-the-record interviews (all names in this article have been changed).
They have good reason: 21 people are serving prison sentences, from 2 to 35 years, on charges associated with taking aid into the Irrawaddy delta. It is this which sets Cyclone Nargis in a different category from a natural disaster such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004: it was quickly caught up in the politics of one of the cruellest, most stubborn dictatorships in the world.
About 140,000 people were crushed or drowned by the storm, which pounded the low-lying delta with winds of 135mph (215km/h) and waters 12ft (3.5m) high. Almost immediately offers of help came in from across the world but the Government of General Than Shwe refused to allow nonBurmese aid workers into the area.
After three weeks of international pressure, the junta unexpectedly gave in and allowed foreign aid — and aid workers — to come to the disaster area. There was no secondary disaster of mass deaths due to starvation, disease and exposure but a visit to a village such as Bantoung Khaung reveals how far the stricken area is from full recovery.
The biggest problem is the lack of clean water. The village used to thrive on its 51 wells, which produced clean, fresh water. “People from the other villages would come here for our water,” Soe Min Myat said. “But now they are all salty.”
The villagers have drained the wells and painstakingly dug out replacements, but in vain. The problem suggests a sinister possibility: that the force of the cyclone permanently altered watercourses in the area, forcing salt into the groundwater. The residents rely on deliveries of purified water brought in by boat, which is the only way to gain access to the village.
The salt has washed through the fields, harming their productivity. “To plant rice we only needed a buffalo and a knife,” Soe Min Myat said. The farmers of Bantoung Khaung have neither, and the rice planting, which should take place in July, is in doubt.
They used to have 1,600 water buffaloes; 60 of them have survived. Animals brought in from other parts of the country died because they were unaccustomed to the climate, and the mechanical tillers provided by aid workers are unpopular with the farmers, who have used buffaloes for centuries. There is not enough seed, and no money to buy it.
The salt factories and rice mills that used to provide income and employment have been washed away. In previous years the farmers borrowed money from wealthy dealers as an advance on their crop — but they are in debt from last year when lending was never repaid because the cyclone washed everything away.
“There’s no employment and no food,” said Chris Kaye, of the UN World Food Programme, which is feeding 190,000 of the 480,000 people in the Labutta district.
Even the generosity of the outside world appears to have given out. Only two thirds of the appeal for $477 million (£320 million) was raised — compared with $12 billion for the victims of the 2004 tsunami. Funds for road building, shelter and other infrastructure are in short supply, because of the aversion of foreign governments to being seen to help the military regime rather than its victims.
There is gross inconsistency in this: General Than Shwe’s compatriots receive only $2.80 per head in foreign aid, compared with $55 for Sudan and $49 in the communist dictatorship of Laos, which neighbours Burma.
In recent weeks the junta has shown signs of revoking the few freedoms that it yielded in the delta. The fast-track process for applying for visas for aid workers has been brought to an end. Permission to fly the World Food Programme’s helicopter, which has done invaluable work in surveying damaged areas and transporting officials, may not be renewed. Outside the delta, in areas wholly unaffected by the cyclone, Burmese remain among the poorest people in the world.
The estimated GDP for the country is barely half that of developmental disaster areas such as Cambodia and Bangladesh and almost one third of children under 5 are malnourished. The Government’s spending on health and education combined is less than 1 per cent of GDP — compared with an estimated 40 per cent for its armed forces.
This is the true tragedy of the Burmese: however much is done for the survivors of the storm, they remain in the grip of the far greater disaster of their rulers.
Waves of destruction
138,400 deaths due to Cyclone Nargis
54% of victims were children
2,000 children orphaned
2.4m villagers affected by the cyclone
£320m target for the United Nations emergency appeal
£150m raised after six months
£211m raised so far
£6.7m lost by the UN in an exchange-rate scam led by the junta
130 tonnes of aid sent to Burma by the Red Cross
350 tonnes of medical supplies distributed by the World Health Organisation
21 political prisoners arrested for helping victims without permission
Source: Times archive
Monday, 4 May 2009
Burma’s Prime Minister, 'Butcher of Depayin,' Dies after Long Illness By The Associated Press Saturday, October 13, 2007
urma’s Prime Minister Gen Soe Win, who had been blamed with overseeing a 2003 attack against pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, died Friday after a long illness. He was 59.
Soe Win
The fourth-ranking member of the junta, he had been ailing for months with what relatives said was acute leukemia. His death was announced by state media.
He had returned September 30 from extended hospitalization in Singapore and had been warded at Mingaladon Military Hospital on the outskirts of northern Rangoon, relatives said.
Soe Win's death on Friday came as the junta continued its crackdown on democracy advocates, following more than a month of street protests in the tightly controlled country.
His departure was unlikely to cause a ripple in the regime's grip on power. Soe Win had little if any policy-making role as prime minister, and was largely considered a figurehead for the junta.
Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who has been serving as acting prime minister since at least May, was expected to succeed Soe Win. Thein Sein is known as a fierce loyalist of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the junta's chief.
Soe Win was nicknamed the “Butcher of Depayin” for his role in the 2003 attack on Suu Kyi and her followers in the northern town of Depayin.
Details of the attack remain murky, but several dozen of Suu Kyi's supporters were believed killed when a mob of government supporters ambushed her motorcade. Soe Win is considered the mastermind behind the attack, according to diplomats, rights groups and government critics.
He first achieved notoriety as one of the officers who brutally suppressed a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, commanding troops around Rangoon University—a center for demonstrations—and giving orders to open fire on a crowd of protesters in front of Rangoon General Hospital.
Soe Win was also an air defense chief and a commander for the northwestern military region of the country. He joined the junta's inner circle as Secretary-2 in February 2003, and was promoted to Secretary-1 in an August 2003 Cabinet shake-up. He became prime minister in October 2004, replacing then premier and intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt, who was removed on corruption and other charges and is currently under house arrest.
He is survived by his wife, and their son and daughter. Soe Win's twin brother died on September 19.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Explosives Found in Monastery, Says Junta By The Associated Press Thursday, October 18, 2007
Burma's military regime, which acknowledged detaining nearly 3,000 people during a recent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, said Thursday that it seized large quantities of US-made explosives that a monk had been hiding in a Buddhist monastery.
Forty-eight blocks of TNT were found last week after investigations by authorities which led to U Kovida, a 23-year-old monk at Rangoon's Nan Oo monastery, the state-run New Light of Myanmar said. He reportedly hid the explosives in the monastery and then moved them to another location, where they were found.
Monks were at the forefront of mass anti-government demonstrations, which the military brutally suppressed. The junta said Wednesday it detained nearly 3,000 people in connection with the protests, adding that hundreds remain in custody and that it is still hunting for others.
The newspaper report, which did not say if Kovida was arrested, said explosives were being smuggled into the country and people suspected of having links with the smuggling operation were being questioned.
London-based Amnesty International said Wednesday that an increasing number reports from Burma tell of deaths, torture, lack of food and medical treatment in overcrowded detention facilities across the country.
"The current arbitrary arrests, secret detention and widespread reports of ill-treatment and torture make a mockery of promises made by the Myanmar [Burmese] authorities to cooperate with the United Nations ... for early release of all political prisoners," a statement from the human rights group said.
An official statement in the New Light of Myanmar said 2,927 people had been arrested since the crackdown started and nearly 500 were still in custody. "Some are still being called in for questioning and those who should be released will be," it said.
Everyone released from custody was required to sign "pledges" the military statement said, without elaborating. Protesters freed from custody have said in interviews that they had to sign statements saying they would not take part in protests or support the pro-democracy movement.
The opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel laureate Suu Kyi said Tuesday that more than 300 party members had been detained since August, including 60 within the past week.
The junta has said 10 people were killed when troops fired into crowds of peaceful protesters during the Sept. 26-27 crackdown.
Diplomats and dissidents say they believe the death toll is higher and that up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has come under increasing international pressure to call off its crackdown, as Japan canceled a multimillion dollar grant and China threw its weight behind a U.N. envoy's efforts to ease the crisis.
But ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, said it would not support any sanctions against the military regime
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Refugee camp under threat (between Burma & Thailand)
Saturday, 31 January 2009 18:32 Daniel Pedersen
Mae Sot (Mizzima) - As night closes in on Noe Poh refugee camp, about five hours south of Mae Sot in northern Thailand bordering town with Burma, the road that skirts its edge clears of people.
By 9 pm, should anyone be reckless enough to light a candle, Karen National Liberation Army, the armed-wing of Karen National Union, one of the longest running ethnic rebels in Asia against the military-ruled Burma, soldiers will quickly ensure it is extinguished.
By now though, after two weeks of bolstered security in the face of intrusions upon Thailand's sovereignty by Burmese government-backed fighters, mostly no one would be foolish enough to dare light their surroundings.
No one moves from their ramshackle perches in the night, a strict curfew is policed by both Thai soldiers and KNLA foot patrols.
Two weeks ago the camp was shutting down at 8.45 sharp, but one inhabitant said the "situation has calmed down a lot now".
Just weeks ago brazen sorties by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a break away Karen faction but aligned with the military junta, had everyone on edge.
DKBA "spies", Karens not part of the camp population, were intercepted creeping around in the darkness four nights in a row.
So paranoid were camp security officers that, at the height of tensions in the area around the camp, one accused spy was arrested and executed.
"I don't think he had a trial," said a teacher working at the camp.
"They've caught nine or 10 so far," he said, adding that a committee member of the school at which he teaches, the ESC (for English Speaking Course), came across three in one night.
The word "course" in the school's name replaces college, because Thai authorities do not allow colleges, which would suggest permanency.
Serious fighting has come as close as 10 kilometres to Noe Poh camp.
The DKBA is pursuing remnants of the KNLA's 103 Special Battalion, which early this year lost its base camp further north.
As the KNLA unit pulls back into ever-higher mountains in the south it lays landmines, creating a constant stream of DKBA casualties, the most serious of which are admitted to Umphang Hospital, run by the Thai government.
The base camp of 103 was one of the last two KNLA Sixth Brigade footprints in Karen State. Its loss means only Wah Lay Kee, further north, remains.
A foreign donor who helps humanitarian fund the Karen struggle for recognition said he felt KNLA commanders now accepted Wah Lay Kee would also be lost.
"I think, just strategically, because they're so outnumbered, they figure it is better to keep the soldiers safe by keeping them on the move," he said.
DKBA and SPDC troops have been poised to take Wah Lay Kee at their liberty for weeks now, but have not yet launched a final push.
But the Thais know Wah Lay Kee is bound to fall and vigilant patrols have sealed the border, waiting to deter any combatants or civilians fleeing the fighting from limping into Thai territory.
The foreign donor explained the apparent reticence of DKBA and SPDC troops thus: "They're not keen to go in because they know the place will be booby-trapped and there won't be anyone there.
"And they know they will take casualties."
Benedict Rogers, author of "A Land Without Evil" lamented 103's loss over coffee in Mae Sot.
"You know I come here two, maybe three times a year and every visit another bit of land is lost.
"I see that they [KNU/KNLA] are being ground further and further down," he said, shaking his head.
On this visit Mr Rogers will meet with the KNU's new leadership, filled with hope the orginization can revitalize its struggle against Burma's State Peace and Development Council.
"You know since Mahn Sha's death (the former KNU secretary-general who was assassinated at his home near Mae Sot on February 14, 2008) there's not been any real leadership.
"He was a unifying figure who drew together different strands of opinion, religion and he maintained links with the various democracy groups. He saw the big picture."
Mr Rogers said the SPDC's latest offensives, which began in Karen State but have now pushed into Shan and Karenni States, are part of an outright bid to force rebels fighting for self-determination into submission before the 2010 elections.
Burman dissidents in Mae Sot agreed, saying the SPDC would pressure armed groups weakened by the current extreme military offensives to sign ceasefire deals before next year's poll.
Mr Rogers said he feared the international community, irritated and embarrassed by the junta's harsh and belligerent excesses, might be willing to accept a veneer of calm, no matter how artificial it might be.
"That's particularly the case with Asian countries, they're tired of it," he said.
The "official" population of Noe Poh camp is about 14,000, but each week new arrivals bolster that figure, as Thai brokers deliver their quarry hidden in cars or trucks.
People living in the camp, which is largely forgotten by the constant stream of foreign volunteer teachers, Christian groups and non-governmental organisations that pour into more accessible camps during the dry season, say passage from Mae Sot to Noe Poh costs about 5000 baht.
Carl Browne, who until this week was the only foreign teacher at Noe Poh and has more than 600 students, says once fugitives make it to Noe Poh, they're safe.
"The real issue is getting in," he said.
"But because we're so far away from Mae Sot, we sort of get forgotten, or left alone – we have internet cafes, we have shops.
"There's more and more activists seeking refuge at Noe Poh, from Rangoon, former political prisoners, there's more than in Mae La even.
"That's why Noe Poh is really under pressure, the junta wants to clean up before next year," he said.
People living at Noe Poh know full well the junta wants to destroy the camp.
"Hell, the DKBA even contacted the Thai camp commander and said 'get your people out, we're coming in to burn it down'," said Mr. Browne.
"The camp commander said no."
Last Updated ( Monday, 02 February 2009 16:28 )
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Monks Sentenced to Six Years Imprisonment; Rangoon, Mandalay Locked Down by Troops By The Irrawaddy Saturday, September 29, 2007
Streets in Rangoon and Mandalay were relatively quiet on Saturday, following three bloody days in which at least 10 protesters were gunned down, according to state-run media, and scores of monks and civilians were beaten and arrested by security forces.
However, members of Burma's opposition groups say as many as 200 people may have been killed in the standoff between monks, pro-democracy demonstrators and security forces. Many hundreds of people were seriously injured.
Many corpses were taken to secret locations, according to opposition sources.
In Rangoon, as many as 1,000 monks have been imprisoned since a boycott on alms from the military government and its supporters was declared on September 17, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners based on the Thai-Burmese border.
The monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison and the Government Technology Institute compound, located near the prison in north Rangoon, according to sources in Rangoon.
A senior monk who was taken to Insein Prison by authorities to talk to the monks said they were stripped of their robes and are now wearing prison clothing. Some monks have already been sentenced to six years imprisonment by a specially convened court, he said.
Throughout the day scattered protesters numbering in the dozens to several hundred, mostly young and bold, played hit-and-run games with security forces in Rangoon.
"Some young people appeared on the streets, holding fighting peacock flags and wearing arm bands. When the army trucks come, they run away," said one resident.
The authorities, who clearly have control of Rangoon, fired tear gas in reply to groups who dared to venture out, and there were numerous arrests.
There is some hope among protesters that Sunday may see larger demonstrations to take advantage of the presence of UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who arrived in Rangoon on Saturday. Opposition forces are hopeful some type of dialogue can begin with the junta with Gambari as mediator.
Authorities maintain a heavy presence around many of the most active monasteries in Rangoon and Mandalay. Many shopping malls, businesses, grocery stores and public parks are closed.
Ngwe Kyar Yan Monastery in Rangoon, the scene of a bloody overnight attack in which about 200 monks were detained early Thursday morning, has since been looted by army troops, according to sources close to the monastery. Everything of value was carted away, including scores of Buddha statues. The head of one of the largest Buddhas, embedded with valuable jewels, was cut off.
Meanwhile the price of basic food in Rangoon is increasing hour by hour. Some retail shops say rice stocks are very low. "I have rice to sell for only two or three days," said one shop owner. A dusk to dawn curfew in Rangoon and Mandalay has made life very difficult for the people.
Authorities cut Internet service within the country on Friday and phone service has been sporadic, further isolating residents.
The largest demonstration in the country on Saturday occurred in Kyaukpadaung in Mandalay Division when about 1,000 monks led an estimated 30,000 people in a peaceful march despite the heavy presence of security forces and military troops.
Sources say a disinformation campaign consisting of counter-demonstrations organized by the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a junta-backed group, has forced people from Kyaukpadaung, Myingyan and Nyaung Oo to demonstrate in support of the junta crackdown.
Over the past weeks, leaders and members of the National League for Democracy and other opposition groups in Rangoon, Mandalay, Magwe division and Arakan state have been arrested by local authorities, essentially decimating the ranks of the political opposition. Thand Nwe Oo, a youth leader of the NLD who was arrested in Thaingangyun Township is 6-months pregnant, said a source.
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