Burma Newscasts

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

‘SOS BURMA,’ time for UN to do the right thing

by May Ng
Mizzima News

Unlike in the past visit, this time there was no real expectation that the United Nations General Secretary’s visit to Burma would change anything.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) wanted Ban Ki-moon only to see a sterile and desolate Naypyidaw and forget the long suffering Karen and Shan people living in armed conflict areas, or the hellish lives of exiled Rohingyas, or the Chin, Kachin, Arkan, Mon, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Chinese who lack citizenships or human rights, and the revered Buddhist monks living under severe oppression.

But one thing is certain that conflicts are only between the SPDC and the rest of Burma. Be it among ethnic nationalities or people of different shade of skin or faith it is only when SPDC enters the picture sparks of resentment ignite and even the same ethnic brothers are persuaded to take up arms against each other.

The generals may consider Naypyidaw their spanking modern Kyan-sit-thar fantasy land. But in reality they are surrounded by enemies they have created. They are digging tunnels deeper underground and they do desperately seek nuclear and missile capability. There is every reason to assume that the latest North Korean ship which has turned back might have been carrying suspicious weapons for the military junta in Burma.

In 1952 the great traveler Norman Lewis wrote that to cross the Burmese frontier was to pass behind a curtain excluding all news of the outside world. And he said that while in Vietnam the established authority was challenged by a united opposition with a single ideology, in Burma the government was opposed by countless band of oppositions and ideologies. He also wrote that unlike Vietnam in the 50’s where even after the years of Japanese occupation and the war with the French, much of the ordinary routine of life had survived, Burma in comparison had remained isolated and mysterious.

The military in Burma therefore came to power by default rather than by its ability. Its intention now is to hold Burma a hostage to its past. But things have changed since the internet generation came of age as seen in the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

Without true liberty and equality, small minorities even while oppressed by the mighty military or invaded by a major ethnicity, will continue to rebel. Political turmoil across the globe from Baghdad to Urumqi in Xinjiang clearly suggests that the use of force alone gains very little. No matter how large the military force the ghost of discontent will continue to circle unseen, only to show its anger and ferocity in another unexpected corner.

The battle ground will shift but Generals in Naypyidaw will continue to be haunted by ghosts of yesterday’s rebels long after their tunnel complexes are built and their arsenals fully assembled.

The Shan State armed movement initiated first by a small band of July 7th student rebels after the 1962 coup, has evolved into today’s Shan State Army South. Its present chairman Colonel Yawd Serk said that a political party without an army is similar to a tiger without claws and fangs; nevertheless he also believes that it is the political force which must lead the army. And to be able to lead, the political force must have a good competitive constitution, rules and regulations and clear political policy. The humanitarian wing of the SSA organization, the Shan Health Committee member Sai Khur Hseng has been trying to procure funds to provide political and democracy lessons to its fighters. The priority and the frontline of Burma’s fight for freedom have moved on and now traverse across linguistic, cultural, political and racial barriers. It is now expected that uniting the efforts of all political and ethnic movement is more possible than ever.

Besides, with the electronic speed of traversing borders, Burma is now clearly visible on the world’s stage. The challenge for Ban ki-moon is what can the United Nations do to stop the overt hostility of the Burmese military junta against their own people, and to help end the political persecution and military aggression on ethnic areas in Burma? For a start Ban should press the UNSC to forbid all arms sale to the military regime. The Saffron Revolution central leader U Pyinya Zawta urged that to be effective President Obama, ASEAN and EU must all work together to continue to pressure the Burmese military. It is right that Ban Ki moon asked for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners to make clear to the regime of Naypyidaw that the 2010 election will be a sham without freedom for the people in Burma.

The Burmese people will never forget their leaders in junta’s jails. Not withstanding what James George Scott wrote in 1886 that ‘Pohn-gyee’ or Burmese monk’s person is sacred and inviolable and nothing he does can subject him to the civil law. U Pyinya Zawta, a Saffron commander in exile confirmed that Ashin U Gambira, the spokesperson and a distinguished monk leader of the ABMA during the Saffron Revolution is now sick in prison from torture and severe punishment by the military in Burma.

Min Ko Naing’s poem written in 2007,

‘8888’
Slavery by foreigners
Or slavery by military dictators
No slavery will be tolerated
Flag of the Peacock!
Atop the student union
We shall resurrect ‘Daun A Larn’ the Peacock flag

and the traffic volume on Ko Moethee Zun’s web blog are evidences that, even in the aftermath of the bloody show of force against the young leaders during the 2007 Saffron Revolution, nothing will stop the anti-government activities continuing in the shadow of bloody oppression in Burma. The new generation leaders believe that the freedom prize they seek is not worth anything if it isn’t worth dying for.

(May Ng is a member of Justice for Human Rights in Burma.)

Uighurs protest outside Chinese consulate in Sydney

(SMH) - Uighur protesters have rallied outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney, demanding freedom and justice for their Muslim countrymen in China.

They chanted "freedom to Uighurs" and "shame on you murderers" in front of the closed consulate in Camperdown.

Some carried banners reading "World listen to our plea" while others draped themselves in chains symbolising the oppression of their people in China.

The rally was in response to the deaths of 156 Uighurs in a Chinese military crackdown in Xianjing in western China at the weekend during what was intended to be a peaceful protest.

Retaliatory attacks have continued and ethnic tensions remain between the Uighurs and Han Chinese.

Australian Uighur Association spokesman Kuranda Seyit contrasted the Sydney protest with the Chinese rally.

"We are gathered here today at a peaceful protest," Mr Seyit told the crowd.

"There's nobody shooting us. There's nobody hitting us with sticks. There is nobody oppressing us.

"We want our freedom and democratic rights to express our disappointment and anger with the Chinese authorities.

"This is how a free and open society can be and this is what we want in China ... for the Uighur people."

However, police tackled and arrested one protester after he threw an egg at the consulate gates.

The 41-year-old was issued with a court order for throwing a missile in a public place, police said.

Mr Seyit called on the international community to pressure China after it supported Beijing's successful bid to host the Olympic Games.

"With one hand they open their palms to welcome the people of the world and with the other they are beating and killing Uighur people," he said.

"How on earth can the rest of the world tolerate this injustice against the Uighur people?"

The Uighur association's general secretary Mamtimin Ala said about 2,000 Uighurs live in Australia.

"I strongly urge the Australian government to put diplomatic pressure on China to exercise maximum restraints to handle this problem in a more ration and moral and legal way," Mr Ala said.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said he deplored the attacks in China's only region with a Muslim majority.

He said a longstanding relationship between Muslims and Chinese for more than 1,400 years should not be allowed to be overtaken by violence and injustice.

"Australian Muslims appeal to the Chinese government to realise that persecution of its Muslims will not go unnoticed nor uncommented upon," Mr Patel said in a statement.

South Australian independent MP Kris Hanna has organised a rally in Adelaide on Thursday calling for the military crackdown in Xianjing to be condemned.

"Just as in Tibet, this is a disturbing case of old-fashioned imperialism by a repressive autocracy intolerant of cultural diversity," Mr Hanna said in a statement.

"In spite of our economic relationship with China, we need to tell Beijing that brutal violence and unjustified killing on ethnic or religious grounds is wrong and an offence to humanity."

AAP - July 8, 2009 - 5:21PM

China's Urumqi divided along tense ethnic lines

SMH

The flashpoint city of Urumqi has become China's Baghdad, a fearful resident said, as thousands of troops draw a line in the sand to prevent new ethnic unrest between the Han and Uighur people.

A demarcation line was set up along Renmin Road, the east-west artery through the city where troops carrying semi-automatic machine guns and heavy batons cut the city in half to separate the two communities.

Thousands of Han Chinese, armed with clubs, metal pipes and blunt weapons, had crossed the road the day before seeking revenge against Muslim Uighurs after riots Sunday.

Residents welcomed the security but many, especially Uighurs, expressed fears for the future.

"I'm afraid there will be more violence," said a Uighur man named Ali, who was allowed through security along with many other Uighurs to head home after spending a tense night at his workplace on the north side of the boundary.

"There was too much hatred around now. The future looks bad."

He also expressed fear about going home because of reports circulating among Uighurs that Chinese police were breaking into Uighur homes to arrest suspected rioters from Sunday.

The Han are China's dominant ethnic group, making up 91.5 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people, according to the latest government figures.

But in Xinjiang, a vast region of deserts and mountains bordering Central Asia, eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs make up nearly half the population.

Uighurs have consistently complained about discrimination and repression under communist Chinese rule over the past 60 years, accusations the government denies.

Many Han people also felt the dividing line between the two sides in Urumqi would likely last a long time, in a figurative if not physical sense.

"This will be very difficult to resolve. There is a lot of bad blood now because of the Uighurs," said Chen Xiping, 32.

"We needed this security because Urumqi has become our Baghdad."

But other Han were more optimistic.

"We will return to normal soon. I'm confident," said a Han man named Run as he watched army trucks rumbling along Renmin Road.

"This week we have seen the worst violence in Urumqi in 60 years. That shows that we basically have stability between the people."

However, illustrating the ethnic division, he rejected Uighur accusations of political, religious and cultural oppression by China.

"No, no, no, that's nonsense," he said.

"There is religious freedom and cultural freedom in China. They have as much freedom as we do."

But a Uighur eye doctor named Halisha said that type of attitude was one of the reasons behind the recent unrest.

"The Uighur people are always kept down by Chinese. So there will continue to be anger," said Halisha, who spent Tuesday night in his clinic in the Uighur district because he could not return to his home north of the security line.

AFP - July 8, 2009 - 4:02PM

Crowd vents fury at police after bloodshed

Fury ... a woman shoves Chinese soldiers in riot gear as angry locals confront authorities in Urungi. "Release our husbands, free our sons," they chanted. Photo: Reuters (check the video on the SMH site)

John Garnaut Herald Correspondent in Urumqi -SMH
July 8, 2009

CHINA'S far-western Xinjiang province was again at flashpoint last night after a large crowd of distraught Uygur women carrying their babies confronted riot police in the heart of the provincial capital, Urumqi.

About 100 women in traditional Uygur dress and headscarves openly defied Chinese police - many carrying revolvers, rifles and tear-gas guns - to punch their fists in the air and demand the release of their sons and husbands, who they said had been beaten by police and taken to unknown destinations.

"Release our husbands, free our sons," chanted the women in the Uygur language. The crowd was swelled by hundreds of local residents who at one stage were beaten back by riot police with batons. Further bloodshed was narrowly averted - directly in front of the Herald - when a small group of Uygur men held back the crowd when it coalesced in a line to advance on riot police who were brandishing batons and advancing on them.

The line of riot police was engaged in a violent skirmish before being ordered to retreat. Later, senior police officers shouted amid the mayhem to restrain their troops, many of whom were armed and visibly angry.

A teenage Uygur boy next to me picked up a brick, broke it in half on the kerbside and moved to throw it at police before being persuaded to drop it.

Yesterday's extraordinary protests were fuelled by unconfirmed rumours that police had opened fire in a nearby area on Sunday night, killing many, and that mass arrests were continuing late yesterday.

The majority of protesters appeared beyond caring about their own physical safety despite, or perhaps because of, Xinjiang's recent history of protesters and rioters being met with brutal police reprisals.

The Chinese Government said 156 people were killed on Sunday night, mainly in Urumqi, by far the biggest officially acknowledged death toll from any civil unrest since the massacre in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

One Uygur onlooker told the Herald he had seen police shooting protesters on Sunday night - he said hundreds had been killed - but the Herald was been unable to verify any of the claims. Yesterday's protests began about 11am local time, and within 30 minutes police separated the protesting men and chased them down an adjacent lane.

The women and children remained to stage a sit-in on the bitumen of Dawen South Road, sandwiched between approaching lines of armed police in military camouflage and riot police with loaded tear gas canisters.

One young man who had incited the crowd was taken away in handcuffs but the Herald witnessed no further arrests. The women were leaving the scene about 11.45am when the Herald and other foreign journalists were asked to leave.

The incident appeared to have been inadvertently triggered and then constrained by the presence of foreign journalists who had been taken there by bus by the Government.

The tour had been intended to display the damage to burnt out car yards from Sunday and show that the tension was under control. Before the protests, a worker at the Geely car yard, who gave his name as Mr Xi, showed bruises on his arm and abdomen from rioters who swept through the area on Dawan South Road on Sunday night.

"I was protecting the yard with about 10 others when a couple of Uygurs entered," he said.

"I thought I could stop them but they chased me into the basement, where I hid under cars. But they dragged me out and beat me before I escaped back under the car again. I couldn't see clearly - I was covering my head - but I was beaten with sticks, rocks and other objects."

He said there were about 600 or 700 people in the crowd on Sunday night.

While the Herald interviewed him, before yesterday's protests, police shouted at Uygurs to disperse as I approached them, making it difficult to report their side of the story.

One young Uygur man, Atili, showed me a large bruise on his arm, which he said he received on Monday afternoon when police beat him while he was attempting to sell naan bread on the side of the road.

I asked if he had seen TV footage of the riots and he replied: "Our electricity has been cut off; we have not been allowed out even to get food."

Other Uygurs confirmed they were hungry and had not been allowed out since Sunday, even though the official police curfew applies only at night.

The short guided tour of Dawan South Road confirmed beyond doubt that large numbers of Xinjiang's Uygurs, who comprise nearly half the autonomous region's population, are fed up with decades of what they say is political, economic and physical repression under the tight leash of the Chinese Communist Party.

The cycles of protests, police violence, riots and further police repression have not ended.

Yesterday at 3.20pm more than a thousand angry Chinese vigilantes marched down the road outside the Haide Hotel and past the People's Square, one of Urumqi's most heavily guarded areas.

They were all armed with heavy, metre-long wooden and metal poles and some carried large carving knives.

"I've volunteered to protect the streets," said one man, carrying a wooden pole.

An elderly man chanted: "Protect the fruits of development."

After marching for four blocks the vigilante crowd was dispersed with tear gas, according to witnesses.

THE SEEDS OF PROTEST

Who are the Uygurs?
They are Muslims who live in Xinjiang, an enormous oil-rich desert province to the north of Tibet. Uygurs have their own Turkic language and a rich cultural and trading history.

Why are they rioting?
The protest was to call for an inquiry into the deaths of two Uygur factory workers in southern China last month. However, the Uygur population has grown increasingly resentful of Chinese rule.

Does Xinjiang want independence from China?
Communist officials say there is a threat from Uygur nationalists. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, China pushed the US to classify two little-known separatist groups, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the East Turkestan Liberation Organisation, as terrorist organisations. Several Uygurs were held in Guantanamo Bay. But there remains scant evidence of a serious separatist movement.

Telegraph, London

Chinese troops flood into restive Urumqi

Armed Chinese soldiers in riot gear run down a main street leading to the end of the city occupied by ethnic Uighurs in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Photo: Reuters

(SMH) -China poured troops into the restive city of Urumqi today in a massive show of force, but fresh unrest flared as Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs armed themselves with makeshift weapons.

As one of the worst spikes in ethnic tensions to have hit China in decades showed no signs of easing, President Hu Jintao abandoned a Group of Eight summit in Italy to deal with the crisis.

In Urumqi, the capital of the remote northwest Xinjiang region where 156 people died in riots on Sunday, army helicopters circled overhead as thousands of soldiers and riot police filled the city shouting out "protect the people".

"We support this. The government has to take action to protect the people," said a Han Chinese man surnamed Run, 45, as he watched the troops roll by in trucks.

"But they should have got here sooner. It took them three days to do this. Why so long?"

After authorities blamed Muslim Uighurs for Sunday's unrest that also left more than 1000 people injured, Han Chinese took to the streets Tuesday with shovels, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons vowing to defend themselves.

The city descended into chaos as mobs, sometimes made up of thousands of Han, surged towards Uighur neighbourhoods, only to be pushed back by security forces who fired volleys of tear gas.

After a night-time curfew was declared on Tuesday, Chinese authorities appeared determined to show they were able to maintain order, with some troops carrying rifles with bayonets affixed.

Thousands of riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields lined up on a main road in Urumqi dividing the city centre from a Uighur district, with columns of soldiers behind them.

Military trucks rolled by with loudspeakers blaring: "Everybody please cooperate, please go home."

But while the mobs had not returned and there was no more bloodshed, many Han Chinese and some Uighurs were still carrying makeshift weapons in the city centre and outlying districts, AFP reporters witnessed Wednesday.

In one incident, about 200 Uighurs armed with sticks, pipes and rocks began protesting directly in front of a police cordon that was dividing their neighbourhood from a Han-populated area, one AFP reporter said.

A smaller group of Uighurs had been trading insults and accusations with Han who were on the other side of the cordon and similarly armed with makeshift weapons.

The crowd of Uighurs grew after a helicopter dropped leaflets blaming Sunday's unrest on exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, but they also claimed police had overnight allowed Han Chinese to freely attack Muslim areas.

"Last night about 300 Han came through the security over there (pointing to the police cordon) and they attacked people's homes and smashed up a restaurant," Akbar, 20, told AFP.

It was not immediately possible to verify the accusations.

During Wednesday's stand-off the Uighurs yelled at police but there were no immediate violent clashes. Police moved foreign reporters away from the scene after about 15 minutes, stopping them from being able to witness events.

Earlier in the day and in the mainly Han-populated part of town, one woman in her 30s was seen walking on the street carrying a large stick with nails coming out of it, while others were carrying knives and steel poles.

Many shops and businesses remained closed and there were no buses or taxis running through the centre of town.

Highlighting the severity of the crisis, the government announced Hu had cut short a trip to Italy for the G8 summit.

"In light of the current situation in Xinjiang, President Hu Jintao returned to China early this morning," the foreign ministry said.

International alarm over the crisis intensified, with Muslim countries, the United Nations and the European Union expressing concern.

Xinjiang's eight million Uighurs make up nearly half the population of the region, a vast area of deserts and mountains rich in natural resources that borders Central Asia.

The Turkic-speaking people have long complained of repression and discrimination under Chinese rule, but Beijing insists it has brought economic prosperity to the region.

AFP

Burma Rebuilding Uneven After Cyclone

By JOHN HEILPRIN / AP WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

KYON DA VILLAGE, Burma — As the UN helicopter skimmed above the placid Irrawaddy Delta, Burma's military junta was putting the final touches on its showcase village.

This picture provided by the United Nations shows UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arriving at the village of Kyon Da in the Delta of Burma to see the progress of reconstruction from last year's devastating cyclone which killed over 130,000 people.

Throngs of people lined the muddy walkways of Kyon Da village, a relief camp erected in this cyclone-hit area, while others stayed in their homes—neat rows of small houses made out of dried palm and matted bamboo.

The new houses on stilts replaced the plastic tents and stacks of supplies put on display for visitors a year earlier, after Cyclone Nargis devastated the delta in May 2008.

For last weekend's visit by UN officials, some villagers smiled, and their kids sported freshly starched and ironed white linen garments. Many of the women and children wore Thanaka, a cosmetic used by Burmese women for 2,000 years—golden-colored tree bark that is ground, made into paint and used to draw circles on the cheeks and even their ears.

About 1,000 homes collapsed and more than 100 people died in Kyon Da when the cyclone struck.

The angry waters that swallowed 138,000 lives in the cyclone have receded. Seen from above, where there had been a monolith of shimmering water was now a patchwork of rice field and border, river and shoreline, muddy pond and gray cloud.

Gone were the endless stretches of flooded rice fields and islands of destroyed homes with a few people standing on the rooftops. It affected more than two million, leaving a quarter-million homeless.

The biggest health threats remain HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to the International Organization for Migration, which began partnering with Myanmar's government in 2005. In the past year IOM-led medical teams treated 110,613 people in 858 of the affected villages.

Local medical officials in Kyon Da Village began to explain to a reporter last Saturday how the clinics were all busy, with the village and the broader Irrawaddy Delta region suffering from a high number of respiratory infections.

But after government minders began listening in, the medical officials suddenly seemed to lose their ability to speak English. End of conversation.

Residents spoke of some improved health conditions—fewer cases of diarrhea and several new clinics nearby. Some other improvements were obvious, but this was the camp that the xenophobic junta that rules Burma wanted the world to see.

"Clearly, they are living in their own world," a senior UN official along for the village inspection said of Burma's ruling junta, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering authorities.

Many Western nations haven't fully opened their wallets to the UN's three-year, $691 million recovery plan, lacking trust in Burma or not wanting to provide too much help to an authoritarian regime, a senior UN humanitarian official said on condition of anonymity to protect his relationship with Burmese authorities.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's first trip to Burma more than a year earlier helped overcome the reluctance for which the junta was widely condemned in granting foreign aid agencies access in the first weeks after the disaster, which almost certainly added to the death toll.

But to focus on securing cooperation from Burma's government with various humanitarian agencies, Ban dropped any appeals to the ruling generals to improve their human rights' record or to release jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands of other political prisoners.

Ban's visit last weekend was meant to make up for that. He held two rare meetings with the junta chief, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, but was not allowed to see the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been detained by the ruling generals for nearly 14 of the past 20 years.

Suu Kyi is now on trial, charged with violating her house arrest, and faces five years in prison if convicted in a trial that has sparked global outrage.

On a brief visit to Kyon Da Village carefully scripted by Burmese regime, the UN chief was haunted by the memory of a baby girl he encountered here a year ago. "She was only one day old," Ban mused aloud.

He had seen the mother living in a tent with the girl, hours after her birth. He'd seen another girl, too, just 19 days old, sick and clinging to life, but lacking medical support. He'd told the mothers not to lose hope, the United Nations was there to help.

But the UN's World Food Program, which has operated in Burma for 15 years, still cannot muster 44 percent of the $79 million it says is needed over three years. The World Health Organization still lacks 57 percent of $42 million in projected needs for 325 townships.

Ban wasn't able to determine the whereabouts of those fledgling lives he'd seen the year before. Instead, he and his entourage—top aides and two journalists—got a snapshot that showed some improvements while masking remaining problems.

Ban, who carried the same message as last year that the UN was there to help and keep hope alive, said he was satisfied "the government has taken necessary measures."

Nearly a quarter-million people in remote villages rely on boat deliveries of clean drinking water, rice fields remain bare or contaminated with salt from the floodwaters, and food handouts are increasingly scarce.

Schools are rebuilt but short of teachers, and a half-million people still live in the most basic of shelters.

US Expresses Concern over Burma

By LALIT K JHA
The Irrawaddy News

WASHINGTON — The United States expressed concern on Tuesday over the state of democracy in Burma, and urged the military junta to release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I think our concerns with the state of democracy are very well known. We, of course, have called for the release of the 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” the State Department spokesman, Ian C Kelly, told reporters at his daily press briefing.

Kelly said the Obama Administration has called very specifically for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.

The spokesman said the Obama Administration is currently reviewing its Burma policy. “We have a new Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell. So I would suspect that we will have more to say when we will begin to wrap up this policy review and have more to say at that time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced in Bangkok on Saturday that Ibrahim Gambari, the Special UN Envoy for Burma, would convene a meeting of the Group of Friends on Burma for a briefing upon his return to New York.

Hu Jintao leaves G8 as riots in China escalate

(news.com.au) -CHINESE President Hu Jintao, on an official visit to Italy for the G8 summit, has decided to return to China due to the situation in Xinjiang where riots have claimed more than 150 lives, ANSA news agency reports.

"Given the worsening of the disorder in Xinjiang, President Hu Jintao has decided to move forward his return to China and not participate in the G8 summit'" which opens on Wednesday in the central Italian town of L'Aquila, Tang Heng, first political counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Rome, was quoted as saying.

Mr Hu, visiting Pisa in Tuscany, "is leaving this town to return to Beijing," the Italian news agency said.

State Councillor Dai Bingguo would take part in the summit of the Group of Eight and major developing countries on Mr Hu's behalf, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

Fresh ethnic strife erupted in Urumqi, capital of China's remote northwest Xinjiang region, yesterday as thousands of angry Han Chinese armed with poles, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons stormed through the streets as the flashpoint city riven by ethnic tensions descended into chaos.

Heavily armed security forces fired tear gas at the crowds and ordered a night curfew in an effort to restore calm in Urumqi, where 156 people died in weekend clashes.

G8 leaders gathering in Italy faced deepening crises in Iran and China and a warning that the worst political and social effects of the global economic downturn are still to come.

Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and a host of emerging powers meet until Friday in the city of L'Aquila, which was devastated in April by an earthquake that killed nearly 300 people.

From correspondents in Rome
Agence France-Presse

VIDEO below by Sydney Morning Herald: Violence in China: eyewitness

Ahmadinejad vows changes to team

Let's watch the dictator and welcome the changes

(news.com.au) -IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to make changes to his team and "respect" young people when his new government takes office after his disputed re-election.

"The structure of government should change, the changes in the government will be considerable," Mr Ahmadinejad said in a televised address to the Iranian people overnight.

He said his new government will put "housing, employment and economic reform" on its agenda.

"I am against police confrontation with people... We must respect people's tastes especially the youth," said Mr Ahmadinejad, whose opponents say was only re-elected through vote rigging.

The hardliner, who enjoys the backing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was announced the winner of June 12 poll amid fraud allegations by former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi.

The disputed results spurred hundreds of thousands to take to streets in week-long protests which police admit led to the death of at least 20 Iranians and the arrest of more than 1000.

Human rights groups say the number arrested was more than 2000 in the biggest upheaval since the Islamic Republic was established 30 years ago.

Iran has accused Western powers, notably Britain and the United States, of stoking post election unrest.

Mr Ahmadinejad hit out at world powers over their "interference and childish acts" and vowed that Iran "will not back down in seeking its deserved position and rights".

Iran is locked in a standoff over its controversial nuclear program which the West fears is a cover for weapons development, a charge than Tehran denies.

Mr Ahmadinejad insisted that the election was fair, saying: "This was the most beautiful and cleanest election."

From correspondents in Tehran
Agence France-Presse
July 08, 2009 04:48am

Everyone is complicit in propping up the evil Burmese regime

JOHN SYMONS
BANGKOK -The Nation

Re: "Burmese junta does not respect anyone", Editorial, July 7.

You rightly address the visit of the secretary-general of the United Nations to Burma in your Tuesday editorial as it is of regional and international importance, and you are rightly dismissive, in general, towards the effectiveness of this visit. I share your feelings but mine are far more extreme as they are simply derision.

This man in his toadying to a regime which everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten is totally illegitimate - having acted to prevent a democratically elected government taking office and removing its leader from society and keeping her in total isolation - has yet again given it credibility and legitimacy.

He, his office and the United Nations have been comprehensively ridiculed by a murderous thug parading as the leader of Burma. This is a man who ruthlessly suppresses the people of Burma, murders monks, and while the country starves happily organises a wedding for his daughter that made the excesses of the American soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty" look small beer.

Yet Thai ministers merrily trot off to this vile regime, along with an endless collection of others, to, in their words, "engage" with the generals in the hope of encouraging them to have a Pauline conversion and happily move the country to a democracy.

In what drug-fuelled fantasy do these sycophants live? It does not take the intellect of Einstein nor the reasoning power of Euclid to deduce this is as likely to occur as Kim Jong-il seeing the errors of his ways next Tuesday, closing down all his nuclear facilities and inviting McDonald's to open a chain of stores throughout the country.

The world in general and the UN, Asean and those countries bordering Burma specifically have brazenly betrayed the people of Burma under the cruelly fatuous nonsense of engagement.

China's behaviour of not caring a jot can be expected as it has little concern for its people, having cheerfully announced that Western style democracy would never be allowed to be established in the communist dictatorship. It simply wants raw materials at any cost to keep the juggernaut of economic progress rolling, as any blip in that might unseat communist control.

India, despite being a democracy, does no better, being presumably motivated by base greed and jealousy of China's gains in resources from Burma, and happily looks the other way while trying to feed from the trough.

The UN is regretfully an excessively expensive, impotent irrelevance, and Asean but a callous collection of dictatorships and faux democracies trying to play on a world stage. All lack the ability, motivation or intention to right this grotesque aberration that blights the modern world.

China's Urumqi province capital in chaos

China has imposed a curfew on the chaotic city of Urumqi
after two days of riots that killed 156, amid
signs of growing anti-Han Chinese protests
by Muslim Uighur residents like this woman.

By: Bangkok Post - AFP

Beijing: Thousands of angry Han Chinese armed with poles, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons stormed through Urumqi Tuesday as the flashpoint city riven by ethnic tensions descended into chaos.

Heavily armed security forces fired tear gas at the crowds and ordered a night curfew in an effort to restore calm in Urumqi, capital of China's remote northwest Xinjiang region, where 156 people died in weekend clashes.

But tensions remained at boiling point, with Han Chinese roaming the city wielding machetes, bricks, chains, steel bars and other weapons while calling for revenge against Muslim Uighurs who they blamed for Sunday's carnage.

"The Uighurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them," one protester, who was carrying a metal pipe, told AFP.

World leaders have urged restraint from protesters and the authorities to prevent further violence.

"I urge Uighur and Han civic leaders and the Chinese authorities at all levels to exercise great restraint so as not to spark further violence and loss of life," said Navi Pillay, the UN's top human rights official.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Monday said the United States was "deeply concerned" about the reports of deaths in Urumqi and called for "all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint".

Sunday's unrest, which also left more than 1,000 people injured, began with protests by Xinjiang's Uighurs, who have long complained of repression under Han Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities have blamed exiled Muslim Uighurs for masterminding the unrest -- charges they deny -- and announced Tuesday they had arrested 1,434 suspects for murder, assault, looting and other crimes linked to the violence.

But Han Chinese in Urumqi declared they were not satisfied with the government response.

"It is time we looked after ourselves instead of waiting for the government," said Dong Sun, a 19-year-old leader of one mob.

Police prevented the crowds, one of which an AFP reporter estimated was more than 10,000-strong, from entering Uighur neighbourhoods by firing tear gas and erecting barricades.

But in other areas of Urumqi police and other security personnel simply looked on as mobs swept through the streets shouting nationalist slogans.

Others chanted, "Protect our families! Protect our homes!", the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The only incident of direct violence against a Uighur that AFP witnessed was when a small mob stopped a car being driven by a Uighur man. The mob smashed his car but the man was able to drive off.

There were no reports from Chinese state media of direct violence against Uighurs.

Xinjiang Communist Party chief Wang Lequan called for calm as authorities announced a night-time curfew.

"Neither the Han nor Uighur people are willing to see the Han people being attacked," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

"It is the same the other way around. If the Han people attack the innocent Uighur people, it is also heart-breaking."

Earlier Tuesday, more than 200 Uighurs, mostly women, staged a protest in front of foreign reporters to demand the release of their relatives detained in the security sweep that followed Sunday's unrest.

The women, with tears rolling down their faces, shook their fists in the air and yelled at police in a tense stand-off that lasted about an hour before ending peacefully.

China's eight million Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people who have long complained about the influx of Han Chinese into what they regard as their homeland, a vast area of mountains and deserts that borders Central Asia.

Exiled Uighur groups have sought to lay the blame for Sunday's violence on Chinese authorities, saying the protests were peaceful until security forces over-reacted and fired indiscriminately on crowds.

China has accused exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer of masterminding the violence but she has denied the accusations and called on Monday for an international probe into the violence.

The identities of those killed and injured in the riots remained unclear on Tuesday. Chinese authorities have not said how many were Han Chinese or Uighur.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Burma rebels vow to stop using child soldiers

By Mark Tran

Shan insurgents get foreign aid in return for halting use of children in country with highest number of underage conscripts

The Guardian UK -One of Burma's main rebel groups has pledged to stop using child soldiers in return for outside aid in an effort to enhance its international credibility.

Leaders of the Shan State army (SSA), one of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the country's military junta, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), two western non-governmental organisations, to prevent minors serving in its forces.

Burma has the highest number of child soldiers in the world – about 70,000. A Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found widespread forced recruitment of boys as young as 11. Subsequent reports say the number of child soldiers in Burma is largely unchanged despite international condemnation.

International law prohibits the recruitment of children under 15 and the use of child soldiers has been recognised as a war crime under the statute for the international criminal court.

In Burma, the national army is the biggest culprit. Flouting the country's own laws that prohibit any recruitment of under 18s, the army apprehends boys at public places such as markets and bus stations, using threats and violence to force them to join. Once trained, children as young as 12 have been sent to fight against ethnic insurgent groups.

Rebel groups also forcibly conscript children. The United Wa State army, the biggest rebel force, has the largest number. The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls. The SSA and the Karen National Liberation army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.

Christian Elliott, of the IOCC, who signed the agreement with Lieutenant Colonel Kon Jern, a SSA commander, said the reason behind the insurgents' anti-child soldiers pledge was international credibility.

"They are looking for brownie points any way they can and in return we will provide them with educational material for teachers and children, including books writing materials, computers and distant education opportunities," Elliott said.

The Shan area once used to be a major producer of heroin but the rebel groups have made an effort to stamp out production as part of the drive for international respectability.

Elliott, who made the arduous trek into Burma to sign the agreement, said the SSA has between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers aged 16-18.

The rebel group has also agreed to provide evidence of human rights abuses by the Burmese army in the form of video and photographs. The material is to be displayed on the Abolish Slavery website in support of the SSA's to help the people of the Shan state, in the east of the country.

Home to several ethnic armed groups, Shan remains largely outside central government control.

Die Hard’ spirit of 7-July; Burmese activists vow to march ahead

by Mungpi

New Delhi (mizzima) - Burmese activists and Indian supporters on Tuesday reiterated their call to the Indian government to stop supporting Burma’s military regime and instead support the movement for democracy in the country.

Marching along Parliament Street in New Delhi, India’s capital, scores of Burmese and Indian activists held protest rallies on Tuesday marking the 47th anniversary of 7-July, on which day in 1962 Burma’s military rulers’ cracked down on student protesters in Rangoon University.

Protesters said, with the world witnessing the latest injustice by the Burmese regime - the trumped-up charge and trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi - India and China should stop adhering to their soft stand on the regime but join the global outcry and pressurize the junta.

While with the spirit of ‘7-July’, Burmese students will continue the fight for human rights and democracy in Burma, it is crucial for the international community, particularly neighbouring countries, to keep up their support in order to usher in changes in Burma, the protestors said.

The protesters, many of them former students in Burma, who fled the junta’s brutal crackdown, urged India to be a responsible neighbour and called on Russia and China to refrain from exercising their veto power to block a Security Council resolution against the regime.

Students have played a vital role in the history of Burma, from the time the people fought for independence from British rule, to the most recent protests in September 2007.

On July 7, 1962, scores of university students staged a protest in the Students’ Union building in Rangoon University. They were mainly protesting against the strict rules imposed by the General Newin led new military regime, which grabbed power in a military coup on March 2, 1962.

The protests, however, were met with brute force by the Burmese Army, which opened fire, killing scores of students. The new regime, threatened by the protests, on July 8, secretly ordered the Student Union building to be blown up.

The blowing up of the Union building marked a new era of suppression and repression of Burmese students, who have been in the forefront of all Burmese movements in the past. Since then, Burma’s students have had no other Union building till date.

The military regime under Newin had particularly targeted students as they were viewed as a threat to their rule. Despite the regime’s repressions, Burmese students have led several protests including the popular uprising of August 8, 1988, which put an end to the Newin regime.

Maintaining the legacy of Newin, the present military dictators continue to suppress students by arresting and sentencing student activists to long prison terms and also by dividing university campuses, which effectively divides the student mass to hold convenient meetings.

But protesters in New Delhi said, despite all the suppression, students will continue fighting against military dictators and urged India and China to stand by them, and not seek short-term temporary national interests by cooperating with the regime.

Air Mandalay to resume Int’l flight in August

by Phanida

Chiang Mai (mizzima) - Air Mandalay, one of Burma’s private (??? junta private?) airlines, is set to resume international flights between Burma’s former capital Rangoon and Thailand’s northern city Chiang Mai in August, it was learnt on Tuesday.

An Air Mandalay official told Mizzima that the airline was forced to suspend international flights in September 2008 due to technical reasons. But having purchased ATR aircrafts, Air Mandalay will operate flights twice a week - Mondays and Fridays – between Rangoon and Chiang Mai.

“We will resume flights in August twice a week. The fares have been fixed at USD 113 for a one-way flight and the flight timings will be mostly in the evenings from Rangoon. We will use two types of aircraft. The bigger aircraft will be 68-seaters and the smaller ones will be 46-seaters,” the official said.

Air Mandalay is a joint venture of Air Mandalay Holdings Singapore and Myanma Airways. It was established on October 6, 1994 and began operations on October 18, 1994.

In September 2008, the airline suspended international flights citing technical reasons. Though it was announced that the airline will resume Rangoon-Chiang Mai flights in October 2008, it could not.

“We heard that they will resume the flights in August. But we don’t know how far it will come true,” an official in a tour agency in Rangoon said.

An Air Mandalay official in the Bangkok office, however, said though they were informed that flights will resume in August, they are not sure.

Air Mandalay has domestic flights to Rangoon, Mandalay, Hehoe, Tavoy, Myeik, Kawthawng, Sittwe, Thandwe, and Tharchileik. The airline also had an international flight between Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai and Rangoon.

Renew import ban on Burma, AAFA tells US

by Mungpi

New Delhi (mizzima) - The US Congress has been urged by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) on Monday to renew the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, which imposes a ban on import of goods from Burma.

Citing further human rights abuses in Burma by its military rulers, the AAFA called on the US Congress to renew the Act, slated to expire on July 26.

AAFA, the national trade association representing the apparel and footwear industry, and its suppliers, in its letter applauded US lawmakers Joe Crowley and Peter King for sponsoring the resolution which calls for the renewal of the Act.

The resolution was cosponsored by 19 other Congressmen and was introduced on July 4. It has been sent to the House Committee on Ways and Means for necessary action.

A similar resolution was also introduced by Senators Diane Feinstein and Mitch McConnell and cosponsored by 15 influential Senators including John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden at the Senate.

“AAFA strongly supports this renewal because it will send a clear and unmistakable message that the United States is not interested in doing business with regimes like the one that brutally enslaves the people of Burma,” Kevin Burke, president and CEO of AAFA said in a joint letter to Crowley and King.

“A unilateral approach, however, will only bring about a limited effect,” said Burke. “I hope the world community will join the United States in implementing economic sanctions to demonstrate that there is no room for oppression in the global marketplace,” Burke said.

Despite tightening of sanctions by the US and the European Union, Burma’s military rulers continue to enjoy business relations with neighbouring countries including members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China and India.

Critics said western sanctions have had little impact on the junta and has not forced them to change their behaviour because they continue to enjoy business relationship with neighbouring countries.

According to a local Weekly journal in Rangoon, foreign investments in Burma have touched USD 15 billion since the country opened up to foreign investment in 1988.

The report reveals that several neighbouring countries as well as the European Union member country like the United Kingdom are among the top investors in Burma.

While UK is the second largest investor in Burma over the past two decades with an estimated investment of USD 1.8 billion, the US ranked eighth with an estimated investment of USD 243.56 million.

The sanctions notwithstanding, Burma’s military regime has not shown any willingness to address the problems that made the sanctions necessary in the first pace but continue to violate the rights of the Burmese people, the AAFA said.

The junta has lately drawn international condemnation for charging and putting on trial detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The international community is outraged by the junta’s charges against the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi that she violated her house arrest terms and putting her on trial.

Under the charges, if found guilty, the Nobel Peace Laureate, whose party won a landslide victory in Burma’s last election in 1990 but was denied power, could face up to five years imprisonment.

Opposition groups as well as the international community believe that the charges and trial is a move by the junta to isolate Aung San Suu Kyi from the Burmese people and keep her out of the way during the general elections in 2010.

India urged to stop helping Burmese junta

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Indian government has been exhorted to stop helping the Burmese military regime by student leaders and journalists from Northeast Indian states, who in a show of solidarity, demanded the unconditional release of Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya, advisor of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Tuesday said he supports restoration of democracy in Burma and urges India to initiate a move for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, currently being tried in Rangoon’s Insein prison court.

“We want democracy to be restored there and at the same time, the leader [Aung San Suu Kyi] should be released,” Samujjal Bhattacharya told Mizzima.

Journalists and student leaders from Northeast India voiced their demand as India continues to be silent about the trial of Augn San Suu Kyi and has steadfastly refused to join the global outcry against the junta.

Nava Thakuria, a Guwahati-based Assamese journalist said, India as the largest democracy in the world should review its ‘Look East’ policy, which claims to be based on its national interest.

Thakuria said the focus of India’s foreign policy on Burma is to counter China’s influence in Burma and flush out all Northeast militants based in Burma’s northern Kachin state and North-Western Sagaing division with the help of the military regime.

“But we can say this policy has failed, as there are still many Northeast militants sheltered on Burmese soil,” he added.

In a show of solidarity, Indian journalists, social activists and student leaders of Northeast India on July 4, held a round-table meeting highlighting ‘India’s policy on Burma: A northeast Perspective’, in Guwahati, capital of Assam state.

Indian students, journalists and activists called on India to stop supporting the Burmese regime especially with the sale of military hardware.

“India has sold military hardware including helicopters and tanks to the Burmese military regime earlier. We urge them not to sell more armaments in the future because they are used for repressing the people,” said Thakuria, who also acted as the contact person for the Roundtable discussion in Guwahati.

He said, while New Delhi has boosted bilateral trade with Burma, it should also accommodate Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile to help their political cause.

India and Burma, in recent years, have stepped up bilateral trade relationship. The Indo-Burmese bilateral trade for the fiscal year 2007-08 stood at US $ 901.3 million with Burma's export to India standing at US $ 727.85 million.

Burmese Army orders civilians to pay cash gifts at wedding

By Takaloo, Rathidaung (Narinjara): The Burmese Army based in Rathidaung in Arakan State has recommended that people carry cash gifts to an army official’s wedding, according to local businessmen.

“The Acting Commander from LIB 536, told us to take cash gifts to the army official’s wedding, if we attended the ceremony. We had to give in to the demand in fear of retaliation and since it was an army official’s wedding,” he said.

The wedding ceremony was held on February 3, 2009, for Corporal Thaung Tun Oo and his warrant officer Tun Myint’s daughter Nwe Nwe Soe at Ray Thon Ray Hall for the Rathidaung-based Light Infantry Battalion 536.

“The amount of cash was mentioned along with the invitation for a particular businessman and VPDC Chairman, as ordered by the acting commander of Light Infantry Battalion (536) Major Thein Nine to be given during the marriage,” the businessman said.

The Burmese Army had demanded Kyat 30,000 from a shrimp trading center, Kyat 15, 000 from one general store, Kyat 10,000 from a rice-mill and Kyat 15,000 to Kyat 30, 000 from a motor-boat owner inRathidaung Township, as gifts at the army personnel’s wedding.

Despite being unwilling to spend such a lot of money due to a crisis in their businesses, all the invited businessmen had to pay the recommended amount to avoid future problems with the army, another businessman said.

“The army had recommended a compulsory gift amount to be offered to the couple at the ceremony, while they were inviting us. Our businesses are not doing well currently and we were not willing to give such a lot of money. However, we had to pay because we are afraid of their interference in our business,” said the businessman.

The VPDC Chairmen of the township were also ordered to give not less than Kyat 5,000 by the army, a Chairman said.

According to local villagers, most of the chairmen had collected the cash from the villagers, citing the orders of the army.

According to a local source, Burmese Army battalions stationed in Arakan State used to collect illegal toll tax from local businessmen and rich men, whenever the army held any army official’s wedding ceremony or religious festivals.

Extensive farm lands confiscated in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State (Kaladan): The concerned authorities, namely Nasaka or Burma’s border security force, confiscated more than 1,000 acres of farmland in Maungdaw Township on June 15, a local from Kyikanpyin village said.

The confiscated lands belong to Kyikanpyin village tract, he added.

The authorities did not mention the reason for the confiscation. During the monsoon season, the authorities offered to take lease of the farm lands from the Nasaka, in a bid to cultivate the lands during the season, a farmer from the village said.

However, none of the farmers agreed to lease their lands and the area was existing as a grass field.

On the other hand, the concerned authorities with the Land Survey Committee members measured the lands and erected posts with red flags and marked the boundary area in Shweza village tract, claiming it was for the new settlers, who would come from Burma proper. But, still the owners of the lands would be able to cultivate on those field, a village authority member said.

In Buthidaung Township, the authorities ordered the evacuation of 12 Rohingya villages of Wariyoung (Say Ohkya) village tract, last month for relocation of Natala villagers in that area, a school teacher from Buthidaung said.

Most of the villagers are farmers, after confiscation of their lands, the Rohingya become landless and jobless. Arakan State will turn into a place, where the Rohingya community will starve, because without their land, the Rohingya farmers will be compelled to cross the Burma-Bangladesh border. It is a very dangerous policy, which is followed by the junta authorities to wipe out the Rohingya community from Arakan soil, according to a politician from Arakan.

Rohingya youth murdered near Burma-Bangladesh border

Teknaf, Bangladesh (Kaladan): A Rohingya youth, who recently returned from Saudi Arabia, was murdered and his body found near a brick field of Lada yesterday, according to a source of the Teknaf Police.

Shahzan (33) son of Abdul Majed , returned from Holy Makkah of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on June 20 and was residing in the border area since he could not enter Burma for fear of arrest by the authorities, according to a refugee from Nayapara.

Shahzan met Kamal Shah, a registered refugee from Nayapara, who has a laundry shop in Lada Market near the unregistered Lada Camp and Bangladesh Riffles (BDR) camp. They became friends as Kamal was helping Shahzan to stay in the area, Kala Meah from Lada Market said.

Shahzan visited the Nayapara refugee camp frequently with Kamal Shah and stayed in his shed numbered 1020 and room number 6. With an introduction from Kamal Shah, Shahzan met Ali Ahmed, a local near the Nayapara camp and Kamal from Lada refugee camp. Shahzan kept his money with Ali Ahmed, according to a refugee, who did not want to disclose his identity.

On June 27, Shahzan drank alcohol and was wandering in the camp, when the security personnel arrested him and sent him to the Camp in Charge, where he was asked why and how he entered the camp. The Camp in Change handed him over to the Teknaf police station, but he was released on June 28 with the help of Ali Ahmed and Kamal Shah and stayed in Lada market in a teashop, said Anwar, who works in the Lada Market.

Ali Ahmed returned the money to Shahzan after he was released from the police station, Anwar added.

Yesterday, Shahzan’s body was found near a brick field and sent to Cox’s Bazaar for autopsy. Teknaf police have arrested Kamal Shah, Ali Ahmed and Kamal. However, the three persons are still in Teknaf police station and nobody knows who murdered Shahzan. The police are investigating the case, an aide of the police said.

Rohingya people, who work in Saudi Arabia, are mostly the victims of robbery, fraud and loot, when they return. They either lose their money or their lives as they cannot enter Burma, for fear of being arrested, a Rohingya elder, who stays in the refugee camp, said.

“Some go to Burma secretly to see their family, some come safely and some lose their money and their property while others are arrested,” he added.

Ethnic Burmese among world’s ‘most threatened’

(DVB)–Nine ethnic groups in Burma have been ranked fifth on a table measuring groups of people throughout the world deemed to be most under threat of genocide, mass killing and other systematic violent repression.

Burma’s myriad ethnic groups, thought to number 137 in total, have long been marginalized by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, which is made up predominantly of the Burman group, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of Burma’s population.

The conflict between government forces and the ethnic opposition Karen National Union (KNU), which appears to be nearing an end, is thought to be the world’s longest running, and has forced 140,000 Karen into refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border.

Burma stands out in the Peoples Under Threat 2009 table, compiled by Minority Rights Group International (MRGI), as being one of only three countries in the top ten where Islam is not the dominant religion.

It is the threat of conflict in Muslim countries, in the context of Western countries tackling Islamic extremism, that dominates the top of the table.

Burma also takes a surprisingly high place given that, unlike Iraq, Afghanistan and, to an extent Pakistan, who rank second, fourth and sixth respectively, Burma faces no external interference.

Several prominent authorities on Burma, including British MPs, senior judges and a former advisor to the International Criminal Court, have said that state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Burma could now warrant charges of war crimes.

An Early Day Motion put forward by over 60 British MPs in May urged the UN to act on the campaign of ethnic cleansing that the ruling State Peace and Development Council is carrying out against ethnic nationalities.

The plight of Burma’s ethnic population was thrown into the spotlight earlier this year when around 1000 Rohingya refugees washed up in boats on Thailand’s shores, only to be towed back out to sea and set adrift by Thai authorities.

The Rohingya, who are a minority Muslim population, are not recognized by the Burmese government and suffer frequent discrimination due to their lack of legal status.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Suspected North Korean Ship Returns Home

BLOGGER's WARNING:
Must keep an eye on shippings coming from other countries
by land, air, sea and strict control around the borders as well

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

A South Korean official reported on Tuesday that the North Korean vessel, Kang Nam I, which the U.S. Navy had been tracking because it was suspected of carrying illicit cargo, had probably arrived back home, according to a report by the Associated Press on Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy reported on June 19 that it was tracking the cargo vessel after it left port. The ship, which was believed destined for Burma, suddenly turned back on June 28 without delivering its cargo.

The Kang Nam I is believed to have entered the port of Nampo on North Korea's western coast late Monday, said a South Korean Defense Ministry official, who spoke of condition of anonymity, citing department policy. He said South Korea was trying to obtain confirmation of the vessel's return.

The chief of U.S. Naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, told reporters in Seoul on Monday that the ship's pending return showed that efforts are working to enforce UN sanctions.

"I think that's an indication of the way the international community came together," Roughead said of the ship's reversal.

He called the monitoring of the Kang Nam I "a very effective way" of stopping proliferation, and said the Navy will continue to conduct operations that support the effort to sanction North Korea.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council issued a condemnation of North Korea's recent missile tests after a closed meeting in New York on Monday.

Accordingly to an Agence France Presse report on Tuesday, Japan's cabinet is expected to send a bill to parliament that allows the coast guard to inspect North Korean ships for nuclear and missile-related materials, in line with a UN resolution.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s cabinet hopes parliament will pass the bill by the end of this month, officials said, but the bill’s passage is not certain due to opposition to the unpopular prime minister.

The bill would authorize the coast guard to inspect ships both on the high seas and in Japanese waters. Inspectors would first be required to get approval from the captain of any ship targeted and from its country of origin, however.

Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force, which is banned from offensive military action, could be called on to back up the coast guard if a ship targeted for inspection appears heavily armed, government officials said.

A UN Security Council resolution over North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests passed last month calls on member states to stop and search vessels suspected of carrying banned weapons for the communist state.

Neither the UN resolution nor the Japanese bill authorizes the use of force.

Along with the United States, Japan pushed hard for tough sanctions after North Korea launched a long-range rocket on April 5, and conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25, followed by a series of missile launches.

UN Security Council Condemns NKorea Missiles

By RON DePASQUALE / AP WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council on Monday condemned North Korea's recent firing of seven ballistic missiles on US Independence Day, the reclusive country's biggest display of firepower in three years.

Uganda UN Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, who holds the 15-member council's rotating presidency, said the council members "condemned and expressed grave concern" at the missile launches, which violated UN resolutions and "pose a threat to regional and international security." The council will continue to closely monitor the situation and is committed to a "peaceful, diplomatic and political solution," he said.

On Saturday, North Korea fired missiles into the ocean off its east coast in violation of three UN resolutions.

Security Council members agreed that Pyongyang "must comply fully with its obligations" under the resolutions, Rugunda said.

The North's missile tests aggravated tensions that were already high after its May 25 underground nuclear test blast.

The council punished the North after its May nuclear test with a resolution and tough sanctions clamping down on alleged trading of banned arms and weapons-related material, including authorizing searches of suspect ships.

Japan requested Monday's Security Council meeting. Japanese UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu said the council should act "calmly and responsibly" and focus on enforcing existing resolutions.

"Those are very effective measures if everyone implements them," Takasu said.

He said Japan has asked all Southeast Asian nations, except junta-ruled Burma, to enforce the UN's North Korea resolutions. Takasu credited the new resolutions with forcing a North Korean ship suspected of possibly carrying illicit cargo to turn back, saying Pyongyang is "changing its behavior" and is "getting the message."

However, exactly why the ship, Kang Nam 1, turned back or what kind of cargo it carried remains unclear. Some observers have speculated that it was carrying weapons, possibly to Burma, where it has been suspected of transporting banned goods before.

The ship, that has likely returned home, according to South Korean officials, was the first to be monitored under UN Security Council Resolution 1874, passed last month. North Korea has said it would consider interception of its ships an act of war.

Takasu said that while the North's missile explosions were a provocation, the UN must not overreact.

"The Security Council should not be dictated by the pace and timing of the actions of the D.P.R.K (North Korea), we should be in control of the situation," he said. "In other words, we should try to contain the situation and try to diffuse emotional tensions as much as possible."

Time to rethink multilateralism?

by Joseph Ball

Mizzima News - Much has been made in recent weeks of Burma's burgeoning relationship with North Korea – illicit arms trafficking, assistance in obtaining "the bomb" and expert direction on the construction of tunnel facilities. Admittedly, these are interesting stories to follow. But by far the greatest, and most contradictory, gift the reclusive regime in Pyongyang has provided the generals in Naypyitaw with is the gift of how to survive in the midst of a hostile international community.

Acquiring nuclear weapons is very much a long-term prospect, and incorporates a process fraught with significant obstacles. The recently exposed tunnel complexes are ultimately of less practical military use and purpose than what is at times inferred. But how to plot a course through an international diplomatic minefield…well, that is a gift that gives and just keeps on giving.

In his talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the past weekend, Burma's military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, is reported to have explicitly related to the Secretary-General – regarding the refusal of permission for Ban to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi – that the junta will not be seen to kowtow to international pressure.

And so, they didn't.

In short, the crux of Pyongyang's curriculum in conducting international relations encapsulates a need to appreciate that the international community must alternately be placated and put in its place, while staunchly adhering to the belief that it is bilateral relations that definitively carry the day. Any welcomed access to international institutions is viewed as a result of a progression in bilateral relations, as opposed to the corollary – which would see bilateral acceptance coming on the heels of adherence to international prerogatives.

The most prominent example of Pyongyang both placating and confronting the international community is the on-again off-again six-party talks. While often held out as a possibility through which to address the crisis in Burma, the six-party talks, covering 2003 to 2007, have arguably resulted in no tangible progress of which to speak, with North Korea at present – sparked by international outrage over an April satellite launch – claiming it "will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks." Pyongyang, too, will not be seen to kneel before any international community.

Meanwhile, the North has long held to a foreign policy prioritizing bilateral talks with the United States in order to address the fifty-six year impasse on the peninsula, as the United States is perceived as critical in assisting the country out of its economic malaise and in relieving pressure on the security sector.

However, the United States has not warmed to the idea of bilateral talks – opting instead to try and work through an international framework – leaving a North Korean regime increasingly feeling threatened and fixated on security concerns and, thus, ignoring the development of the state and people, though able in turn to blame sanctions for the state of the economy.

It should not be forgotten that it was a bilateral initiative launched by the United States toward North Korea at the close of the eighties that realized the most success, before souring over the course of the nineties. During the course of the thaw, regular exchanges between the two countries took place in such diverse theaters as academia, sports, journalism and cultural studies.

The Tatmadaw, Burmese military, is a highly nationalistic institution. As such, it attests to represent the state of Burma. And the state of Burma exists within a system of states. States have armies and defined national interests. The international community, practically speaking for the purposes of the junta, has neither.

In the aftermath of Ban's largely perceived failed visit, several voices are calling for ever greater international action to ratchet up the pressure on the junta. This is a pipedream. Burma's generals are acutely aware that the United Nations is not the equivalent of a World Government. For that matter, regional organizations are also of limited importance to the junta in its attempts to balance security and economic interests.

A practical limitation on regional, or international for that matter, organizations clearly played itself out this past week in Honduras. While much was made of the Organization of American States (OAS) determining to expel the Central American country this past Saturday, the fact is Honduras had already unilaterally rejected any authority of the OAS. Significantly, this means – barring some kind of agreement between the competing factions – that it will be up to individual states to decide how to punish the country. Of course, it will also be up to individual states to decide if it is in their greater national interest to pursue a positive relationship with the new government.

The argument that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs Burma more than Burma needs ASEAN is not new. It is not difficult to envision a non-ASEAN Burma quickly reaching bilateral trade and economic packages with a number of remaining member states.

Bilateral relations, as with North Korea's leadership, do matter to Burma's generals – and North Korea is but one example of this. Junta representatives were not sent to ASEAN or U.N. headquarters in recent months to seek consultation and exchange information on recent events inside the country and other matters. No, liaisons were instead sent directly to national capitals maintaining a working bilateral relationship with the regime.

Further, the visit earlier this year of former Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to Naypyitaw is likely one of the more significant visits by a foreign leader or delegation in some time. Serving as an ambassador for the interests of the Lion City – as opposed to any wider grouping – in the future of Burma, reported exchanges between Than Shwe and Goh took a decidedly different turn to, say, what the United Nations top diplomat experienced.

As with North Korea, Burma is interested in bilateral relations with North American and European powers in order to gain access to greater financial rewards and, by default, access to and acceptance within the international community. But, with little interest on the part of prospective partners, the regime instead consistently resorts to a disproportionate emphasis on security doctrine – ensuring its own survival to the detriment of the greater good.

It may be that there is no diplomatic, bilateral or otherwise, breakthrough presently waiting to be had concerning Burma's heretofore recalcitrant generals, but pretending that increased pressure from an international consortium is automatically the most effective means of assuaging change is to refuse to question and challenge an historically failed strategy.

If the United States and other national governments currently viewed as hostile to the Burmese junta are to try and wrest change from the generals, it may be time to contemplate more actively joining in the game already in progress – expanded bilateral relations – instead of waiting for the start of a game Burma's generals have no intention of ever seriously playing. Results certainly won't be easy or swift to come by, but the last decades prove this of all strategies thus far employed.

For those obsessed with the primacy of multilateralism and international action…think of it as a strategy of enhanced multilateral bilateralism on the part of the international community.

And, it unfortunately has to be noted, the adoption of additional sanctions by sovereign governments does not count as pursuing a bilateral policy – as it has been remarked upon seemingly ad infinitum of the need for international acceptance of a sanctions policy vis-à-vis Burma if sanctions stand a chance of critically affecting the existing socio-political power matrix.

In the meantime, headlines will continue to be dominated by evolving "diabolical" bilateral workings between Pyongyang and Naypyitaw in concert with a litany of calls for increased international pressure to counter the growing threat. As well as, it should be noted, calls for China to increase bilateral pressure on the junta. But where's the bilateral carrot and stick game from governments of a different political ilk to that of Beijing?

In the absence of an altered strategic approach, Burma's generals will continue to ape, intentionally or not, the North Korean perfected and contradictory response of over emphasis on military security at the expense of socio-economic and political development and a truly national agenda. But, despite its considerable shortcomings, it is a strategy thus far proven to at least do one thing – maintain the political status quo in the face of stiff international consternation.

Two DKBA soldiers desert

HURFOM (Rehmonnya): Many young people have to flee their homes in Karen State, due to recruitment for Border Guard Forces (BGF) and other government-run militias, and increased militarization.

According to two soldiers who deserted from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), “Some of the DKBA higher-ranking Generals agreed with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to be a BGF; therefore, the DKBA tries to recruit for the BGF…many young people have been fleeing from their home to avoid the recruitment.”

The two former-DKBA soldiers, three-year veterans who arrived at the Thai-Burma border, told HURFOM of the concomitant increase in troops: “the DKBA has been increasing their troops in the area…now, the DKBA has 6,000 troops. They [DKBA] will try to get another more than 3000 troops to develop their army. They target the young people between 20 and 30 (years-of-age) and recruit them in the army.

“In early May 2009, the [DKBA] Chief of staff Oo Kyaw Than and Junior Chief of staff Htun Hlaing have been commanding their troops to join the [Burmese] army and recruiting new soldiers…a hundred young people have been recruited by the DKBA army in our area.”

Because the DKBA Battalions force young people to join, many have fled, including Kha Lae Dta Gone Daing village, Kyainnseikyi Township (where the DKBA’s Battalion no. 906 is located) and Thee Khu Thaw village (where the DKBA’s Battalion no. 901 is located).

The two ex-DKBA members, 25- and 28-years-old, said that, “many Karen young people flee to the Thai – Burma border. Some young people who come from wealthy families, they just escape to Rangoon (Yangon) and find jobs there.”

HURFOM confirmed the report that the DKBA’s Colonel Saw Chit Thu commanded his army to recruit about 3,000 to implement their new brigade and insisted on recruiting as many young people as possible in Meh Naw Hta and Meh K’Taw, Karen State.

Said one of the deserters, 25, “Because of the fighting between two Karen groups [KNU and DKBA], Karen young people don’t want to join the army. They worried killing each other. As a result, they avoid joining the army with the DKBA.

“Because of the desire to be private troops for the SPDC, they followed whatever the SPDC commanded of them. We are like their slaves; we cannot do for our people anymore. Now, the SPDC forces us to fight and kill each other. This situation is awful in our Karen history. We don’t want to accept [this]; therefore, we left the DKBA army.”

HURFOM received minutes from a May 12th DKBA meeting. In the meeting, it was announced that the DKBA had only 6,000 soldiers and needed more than 3,000 to extend their troops, focusing on young men to be mercenaries. For those extant DKBA soldiers over 50-years-old, the meeting addressed pensions they would receive from the SPDC.

IDPs, land confiscation and forced recruitment in Papun District

Karen Human Reports

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In the northernmost township of Papun District, 13 of 46 Burma Army battalions deployed as part of an ongoing offensive in northern Karen State were withdrawn between the end of 2008 and the start of 2009. Although this has opened some space for villagers, they report continued patrols, restricted access to farmland and severe food shortages. Elsewhere in the district where SPDC control is more comprehensive, villagers report forced labour and land confiscation for road construction as well as conscription as 'human minesweepers' and into the local government militia. This report presents information on ongoing abuses committed by SPDC forces in Papun District from February to May 2009.

IDPs, land confiscation and forced recruitment in Papun District

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