Junta Conscripts Ethnic Youths

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

About 70 Chin teenagers in Matupi Township in Chin State in western Burma have been forced into military training, according to Chin sources.chi

Local sources said soldiers from Infantry Battalion No.304, which is based in Matupi Township, ordered nine villages to select at least eight youths over 18-years-old per village for military training.

“People have to work in the fields to grow paddy at this time of year [the rainy season]. We are short of food and no one wants to go for military training,” said a Chin resident in Matupi.

Matupi is one of seven townships in Chin State facing food shortages due to plagues of rats destroying crops.

The World Food Program (WFP) in Rangoon has reported that about 85 percent of the population in Chin State is in debt after borrowing money to buy food.

Similar conscription took place in the northern part of Ye Township in Mon State in southern Burma in July, when Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 343 ordered 200 youths to go for military training, according to Lawi Oung, a resident in Ye Township.

“The participants were taught how to beat people, how to handle riots and how to hold guns,” he said. “The training took one month, but the participants were only given fake bamboo guns during training.”

The families of those who refused to join had to pay 6,000 kyat [US $5.50] for exemption, according to Lawi Oung.

The villages where conscription took place are in a “black area,” which is close to a Mon rebel-controlled area, according to Thailand-based the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM).

Analysts said that the junta is training militias to prevent any uprising in the planned 2010 election, but they may also be preparing them for use as frontline troops when they attack Mon rebels.

Junta troops have conducted similar military training in several townships in Shan Sate in Northern Burma in recent months, according to the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News.

About 100 youths in Muse Township near the Chinese border in northern Shan State were forced to undergo military training.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Saengjuen, an editor for the Shan Herald Agency for News, said: “an estimated 1000 people have been forced into training. Many are former members of forces loyal to the drug lord Khun Sa [who died in Rangoon in 2007].

“More people have been conscripted this year for basic military training, and to be taught how to collect news, organize campaigns and prepare military operations,” he said.

Saengjuen believes such militia troops will be used to attack armed ethnic ceasefire groups in Shan State, such as those in the Wa, Kokang, and Mong La areas, if tension keeps mounting.

Meanwhile, about 500 private mercenaries from Tang Yan Township in eastern Shan State were forced to join junta troops in preparation for a possible attack on the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

Tension between junta troops and ethnic ceasefire groups has been mounting after the latter refused to transform their troops into border guard forces in Shan State in July.

READ MORE---> Junta Conscripts Ethnic Youths...

Three Village Leaders Abducted by Armed Group

Paletwa (Narinjara): Three village leaders, including two village chairmen, were abducted by an unidentified armed group on the western Burmese border on 24 April, after the group entered Pri Zaw Village on the border to extort money, said a relative of one of the victims.

He said, "I came to the Bangladesh border to enquire about their condition but I have not heard anything about them. An eleven-member group armed with guns abducted the men on the night of 24 April and brought them to the border area near Bangladesh."

The victims have been identified as U Sein Aung, chairman of Pri Zaw Village, U Wai Ni Kyaw, chairman of Mraung Village, and U Tun Aung, a village leader from Mraung Village in Paletwa Township in Chin State.

"The armed group took two chickens and two baskets of rice from our village. Afterward, our chairman was abducted and taken from the village," he said.

According to a border source, most of the villages know the armed group that abducted the three men, but no has revealed its identity for fear of retaliation.

"We do not know why the armed group abducted our chairman and we do not know the organization's name. We have to enquire about the abduction and later may be able to reveal the organization's name," the relative said.

On the western Burmese border, especially in Paletwa Township, there are two or three insurgent groups that sometimes patrol the area in order to ambush SPDC soldiers in the area.

According to a local villager source, the villagers in the area live in a very risky position because both the insurgent groups and the Burmese army abduct and kill villagers whenever they are unable to meet their demands for money, food, or information.

In addition the recent abduction, an elder monk was assassinated by unknown assailants in upper Sami Village in Paletwa Township last week.

READ MORE---> Three Village Leaders Abducted by Armed Group...

Chin villagers forced to work as army porters

(DVB)–State Peace and Development Council troops have been forcing local people to work as porters during offensives against Arakan Liberation Party fighters in Paletwa township, Chin state.

Soldiers from Infantry Battalion–289 forced villagers from Mwe-Letwa, Myeikwa, Shin-Letwa and Kalachaung to carry supplies and ammunition for the army to the Indian border through high mountains.

ALP guerrillas have been ambushing Burmese army supply convoys by the sea route.

The army is carrying out the offensives to clear the rebels from the region, ALP secretary major Khaing Myo Win said.

"We ambushed the enemy and confiscated their supplies two days ago while they were carrying them by boats,” he said.

“Our people and villagers carried them for us. When the army found this out they began targeting our area mainly."

Indian border guarding troops are also close to border crossing points on the request of IB–289. Villagers are worried they will be forced out of their villages to settle in India as refugees if there are clashes.

Reporting by Khin Maung Soe Min

READ MORE---> Chin villagers forced to work as army porters...

Is there a holistic approach to Burma’s refugee problem?

With the Rohingya boat people washing up almost daily on Thai shores, it is appropriate and as well, a welcome initiative for the Thai government to call for a conference, involving and consulting all concerned countries, including Burma, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and India to find durable solutions. In other words, applying a holistic or comprehensive approach, like an opinion piece on 26 January of The Nation rightly pointed out.

By Sai Wansai
Shan Herald Agency for News
29 January 2009

The heart of the Rohingya problem is the Burmese military regime’s denial of rights to exist officially as an accepted ethnic group, within the larger national context of Burma. The bulk of Rohingya’s population, mostly a Muslim ethnic group, resides in northern Arakan state of western Burma

It is believed that 800,000 Rohingya live in Burma, but have not been granted citizenship.

Around a half-million Rohingya fled military crackdowns in 1978 and 1991, the majority moved to Bangladesh and many remain exiled in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Malaysia

While the Rohingya problem has aroused willingness for the concerned states to look for solution in a comprehensive and holistic way, it should also be noted that the woes of the refugees stemming from Shan, Karen, Karenni and Mon states bordering Thailand are identical, where oppression, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses are concerned.

According to Thailand Burma Border Consortium’s (TBBC) conservative estimate count in eastern Burma - Shan, Karen, Karenni and Mon states -, the internally displaced persons population is said to be 500,000. Grand total refugees from Burma for all sites within Thailand is numbered 1 44,455.

Thus, it is quite clear that all these illegal migration spreading out in all directions across the regional is fast becoming a transnational issue and multilateral approach is the only way out.

But what is actually the root cause of such illegal migration?

The answer lies in the Burmese military regimes failed policies and its entrenched racist mind-set.

In other words, its failure to recognise that Burma is a multi-ethnic state and that the Union of Burma is a newly developed territorial entity, founded by a treaty, the Panglong Agreement, where independent territories merged together on equal basis.

The successive military dominated regimes, including the present ruling State Peace and Development Council, see Burma as an existing unified nation since the reign of Anawratha thousands of years ago. As such, all other non-Burmans – Shan, Kachin, Chin, Arakanese, Mon, Karen and Karenni - are seen as minorities, which must be controlled and suppressed, lest they break up the country.

To achieve its goal, the Burmese military goes about with its implementation of protecting “national sovereignty” and “national unity” at all cost. This, in turn, gives way to open conflict resulting in more suppression and gross human rights violations. The intolerance of the military to and its inspiration to “racial supremacy” and to political domination and control has no limit and this could be seen by its refusal to hand over power to the winners of 1990 nation-wide election, the National League for Democracy (NLD), Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and other ethnic parties. The genuine federalism platform, which the NLD and ethnic nationalities embrace, is a threat to its racist mind-set and obsession of domination and control.

In short, the Burmese military regime must come to term that its zero-sum game plan of “total elimination” of the opposition parties, racial supremacy implementation and gross human rights violations are not working to its advantage. Instead, it should opt for real democratisation process, all-inclusiveness and equality to create a better future for the country and its people.

If there is anything that could underpin the condition for holistic approach regarding the Rohingya issue and illegal migration in general, it will be creating a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere within Burma. And the concerned stakeholders should coax or persuade the ruling generals to pave way for such positive change. Otherwise, the refugee problem, stemming from Burma, affecting neighbouring countries will continue to exist for a long time to come.

(Sai Wansai is the General Secretary of the exiled Shan Democratic Union - Editor)

READ MORE---> Is there a holistic approach to Burma’s refugee problem?...

Chin 'living in slavery'

Human rights body highlights plight of persecuted Christian group

By Nirmal Ghosh

BANGKOK (ST): The Chin people, Christians living in remote and rugged north-western Myanmar, are subjected to forced labour, torture, killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, a human rights group said yesterday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report based on interviews with Chin refugees across the region, said thousands of Chin have had to flee their homeland, mostly across the border to India as well as to Malaysia and Thailand.

The population of the Chin state is reckoned to be around 500,000. But between 75,000 and 100,000 Chin currently live in the Indian state of Mizoram, without support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). About 30,000 Chin live in Malaysia.

The refugees have fled lives of constant fear, hardship and harassment, and conditions that amount to little more than slavery.

HRW's report documents cases of Chin people being forced to work without pay for the Tatmadaw - the Myanmar army - in projects such as road-building, construction and porterage. They worked under harsh conditions and could not attend to their crops and families.

The report documents several individual cases of arbitrary abuse ranging from harassment for money, to torture and imprisonment. The Chin people's religious symbols are also often destroyed.

Ms Sara Colm, a senior researcher for HRW, told journalists yesterday that the exodus of minority groups from Myanmar showed no signs of stopping, and had to be recognised as a problem for the whole region. 'The Chin state is a template for how repression works in rural Burma,' she said.

Her comments came amid a storm over the Thai military's alleged abuse of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, which has put pressure on Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to live up to his publicly stated commitments to human rights and justice.

Life for the Chin in their mountainous homeland, hard enough in normal circumstances, is made unbearable by the Tatmadaw which has 10 battalions stationed in the state. An assessment in 2007 by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar came to the conclusion that 70 per cent of the population of the Chin state live in poverty, and 40 per cent are without adequate food sources.

The junta has done nothing to alleviate famine conditions in the state, where the 50-year bamboo flowering cycle has recently fuelled a boom in the rat population - which has attacked crops after finishing off the bamboo.

The Chins' own armed group, the Chin National Army, no longer poses a significant threat to the military regime, but its cadres make matters worse by levying taxes on locals. Any contact, even accidental, between an ordinary local and a Chin National Army cadre is grounds for being beaten, tortured and imprisoned.

Conditions in Mizoram are also not friendly, even though Mizos and Chins are ethnically closely related. Chins have been harassed by the Young Mizo Association, an ultra-nationalist vigilante organisation which constantly threatens to evict them from Mizoram and has carried out its threats.

HRW called on India to do more for Chin refugees in Mizoram, including allowing UNHCR to set up an office there.

The group also called for more assistance in remote areas of Myanmar. 'There is a need to focus international attention on areas of Burma that are extremely remote and neglected,' said Ms Colm.

READ MORE---> Chin 'living in slavery'...

Chins Face Human Rights Abuses: HRW

By MIN LWIN
The Irrawaddy News

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday released a report calling for the Burmese military government to end human rights abuses against ethnic Chin in western Burma.

The New York-based human rights monitors also urged the Indian government and the newly formed Mizoram State government in northeastern India to “extend protection to Chin who have fled to neighboring India to escape ongoing abuses and severe repression in Burma.”

An ethnic Chin child refugee sits with his mother in a refugee camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Burma's military regime is perpetrating widespread abuse of the mainly-Christian Chin ethnic group, who face famine, forced labour, torture and persecution, HRW said. (Photo: AFP)

In the 93-page report, HRW said that ethnic Chin experience a wide range of human rights abuses, including forced labor, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and religious repression at the hands of the Burmese army and government officials.

The report also accused the ethnic Chin insurgent group, the Chin National Army (CNA), of committing abuses against Chin villagers, such as harassment, beatings and extortion.

HRW called on the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups to end abuses and for Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to allow humanitarian agencies in Rangoon unfettered access to Chin State.

The HRW report included testimonies from about 140 ethnic Chin inside Burma or living in Mizoram interviewed between 2005 and 2008.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, HRW Burma consultant David Mathieson said, “That was just from 140 interviews. There are almost half a million people in Chin State. Therefore, the true number of people who have been tortured is very difficult to calculate.

“Wherever there are soldiers of the Burmese army and non-state armed groups, such as the Chin National Front [the political wing of the CNA], civilians are vulnerable to abuses by armed groups,” he said. “Abuses sometimes happen in towns and cities in Chin state, but they happen most frequently in rural areas. Anywhere where there are Burmese army soldiers and any kind of low-intensity conflict, civilians are vulnerable to these types of abuses.”

HRW quoted one Chin Christian church leader now living in Mizoram as saying, “These underground groups, rather than being a help, make life even more difficult for us.”

However, Chin National Front Joint General Secretary (1) Shwe Khar denied the charges that CAN soldiers extort money, food and property from Chin villagers.

“Chin soldiers used to collect donations from the villagers, but did not extort money,” he said.

There are currently about 75,000 Chin people living in Mizoram and a few thousand in New Delhi. Thousands more have migrated to Malaysia and to other countries such as America and Canada.

Last year, at least 70,000 ethnic Chin were affected by a famine caused by a plague of rats, which ate rice stocks in many of the state’s villages, according to exiled Chin rights groups. More than 30 children died as a result of the famine.

READ MORE---> Chins Face Human Rights Abuses: HRW...

Chin activist’s prison term reduced on appeal - Kyaw Soe

(DVB)–Eastern Rangoon Provincial Court yesterday upheld an appeal by ethnic Chin activist Kyaw Soe and reduced his jail term by 13 years, according to his lawyer.

Kyaw Soe, also known as Kamlam Koup, is the son of the Zomi National Congress chairman and 1990 people's parliament representative Pu Cint Sian Than.

He was arrested in connection with the September 2007 demonstrations and was sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment by South Dagon township court in November last year.

His lawyer Kyaw Ho said Kyaw Soe will now serve his two seven-year jail terms under the Press Law concurrently, followed by two other two-year sentences for sedition and causing public disorder, which will also be served concurrently.

The court also decided to combine his three sentences under the Unlawful Assembly Act so he will serve the two terms of two years and one of three years concurrently, bringing his term down from seven to three years.

His sentences under the Immigration Act remains unchanged.

In total, the decision decreases Kyaw Soe’s sentence by 13 years down to 20 years.

Kyaw Ho said the appeal for Pu Cint Sian Than's nephew Anthony, who was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment, was rejected.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

READ MORE---> Chin activist’s prison term reduced on appeal - Kyaw Soe...

Chin Refugee Faces Possible Deportation from Malaysia - William Mung

By Van Biak Thang
Chinland Guardian

A Chin refugee, who has been detained at different detention camps in Malaysia since last November, will be transferred today to Machap Umboo Detention Camp where he will await deportation, Chinland Guardian has learned.

William Mung, an ethnic Chin from Southern Chin State of Burma, was arrested on 22 November 2008 by the Malaysian law enforcement while waiting for the bus at Melaka Bus Station. The 25-year-old faced immigration charges in court on 4 December 2008 and was sentenced to 3 months in jail.

"Mung seems to be in good health but is losing weight and getting thin," according to a foreign friend who asks not to be named, and who visited the detention camp yesterday. "I bought some food and other stuffs including toothpaste and toothbrush from the shop inside the camp as no outside food is allowed," she explains.

The UNHCR office in Malaysia sent legal counsels during his court appearance although William Mung, a Dai-Chin from Awmsoi Village of Matupi township in Burma, is not yet recognized by the office, sources said.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is currently investigating possible involvement of Malaysian enforcement authorities in a human smuggling activity where undocumented migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, are subjected to deportation in collusion with human traffickers operating across the border in Thailand.

Two other Chins are also said to be detained at the same detention camp. Hundreds of Chin refugees and asylum seekers are currently being detained in detention centres across Malaysia.

Shwekey Hoipang, a Dai-Chin pastor and activist based in the UK, said more than 1000 from Dai descent in Southern Chin State alone are in Malaysia with many more at refugee camps in Thailand. "It is sad that they have to face these hardships in Malaysia after having escaped from brutalities and human rights abuses in Burma," he said.

A church minister from Kluang district tried to visit William in jail on two occasions but was denied access both times after he was transferred to Kluang jail on 4 December 2008.

READ MORE---> Chin Refugee Faces Possible Deportation from Malaysia - William Mung...

Child with brain outside skull needs financial assistance for surgery

"This family needs URGENTLY Sponsor for relocation as much as financial assistance for the baby"

By The The

New Delhi (Mizzima) – In a rare case, a child with his brain outside the skull, badly needs financial assistance as surgical expenses, his parents, a Burmese refugee couple from Malaysia said.

The baby boy, who was abnormally born has his brain in a small pouch like cyst in the back of his skull, and frequently suffers from convulsion and seizure. The seven-month- old baby has to be taken to clinic at least twice a month, his parents said.

"We are now on the way to the clinic. He has high fever and is now almost unconscious. He was seriously sick last month also. The doctor gave him lumbar suction treatment," his mother, an ethnic Chin, Man Sien Cin said.

She said, she wants a surgery on the baby as the doctor said the boy, without an operation, would at the most survive a year.

"But we have no money," she said.

The medical expenses provided by 'United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee' (UNHCR) cannot cover all the expenses and his father has to do odd jobs to meet expenses.

But his father cannot work at distant places as his baby, Hau Khan Khai, is frequently sick. He has to do menial jobs and odd jobs available at nearby places.

The boy was born in Klang hospital in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur city in July and he is their first child.

"The doctor said that his brain is outside the skull and there are flesh and pus instead in the skull. If he is shaken when he is held, he cries loudly in severe pain," his mother said.

There is a soft cyst on the top of his skull and his right leg and right fingers are a little deformed.

Man Sien Cin said, just after giving birth to her son, she was given lactation suppressant by the doctor and she could not breastfeed her son. The son has been fed with baby cereal food besides milk powder since he was four months old.

The family of Man Sien Cin hailing from Sielthawzang village, Tonzang Township of Chin State, reached Malaysia in 2007 and was recognized as refugees by UNHCR in early 2007.

To contact :
Ms. Man Sien Cin
Cell : 006 + 016 + 9729 610

Published: January 16, 2009

READ MORE---> Child with brain outside skull needs financial assistance for surgery...

Burma’s Crimes Against Humanity – A Test Case for the ‘Responsibility to Protect’

By Benedict Rogers
Kaladan Press

Burma is ruled by one of the world’s most brutal military regimes, guilty of every possible human rights violation. Known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and led by Senior General Than Shwe, Burma’s junta is not only brutal, but illegitimate. Elections held in 1990 were overwhelmingly won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD won 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats – yet the regime rejected the results, imprisoned the victors and intensified its grip on power. Most of those elected in 1990 are either in prison or exile, and Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.

The regime is also guilty of deliberate negligence. When Cyclone Nargis struck last year, the junta did little to help the victims, and initially refused international offers of aid. Under pressure from the UN and Asian neighbours, international aid was subsequently allowed in, but with significant restrictions on access for international aid workers. Much of the aid was reportedly stolen by the regime, for its own use or to sell in the markets. The SPDC had received 41 warnings from India of the impending cyclone, but did nothing to prepare its people. Over 140,000 people died, and 2.5 million were left homeless.

A similar, though far less known, humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Chin State, in western Burma. Every 50 years, the bamboo in that part of the country flowers and, in a bizarre but predictable natural phenomenon, the bamboo flowers attract vast plagues of rats. The rodents destroy not only the bamboo, which is the major resource for local people, but also paddy fields, rice barns and virtually all other food sources. At least 200 villages, with 100,000 people, are facing severe famine. Like the cyclone, the regime knew it was coming – and did nothing. And like the cyclone, the regime has actively sought to block efforts to help the victims.

In September 2007, the military violently suppressed peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations led by Buddhist monks, in what became known as the ‘Saffron Revolution’. Over 2,000 political prisoners are in jail, subjected to inhumane treatment and terrible torture. Some have recently been sentenced to 65 years or more.

It is a regime which spends almost half its budget on the military, and less than 50p per person per year on health and education. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with price rises making life even harder for most of the people.

In addition to the humanitarian crisis, the economic collapse, the grinding poverty, the lack of investment in health and education and the brutal suppression of democracy, Burma’s military regime stands accused of perpetrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing against many of its ethnic minorities, amounting to crimes against humanity, war crimes and, arguably, attempted genocide. Rape is used as a weapon of war on a widespread and systematic scale, and has been well documented by women’s groups in the ethnic areas. Forced labour is equally widespread, and has been reported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). In eastern Burma, the military is carrying out an offensive against the Karen, Karenni and Shan ethnic peoples in which civilians are shot at point-blank range, including women and children, and people are used as human minesweepers – forced to walk across fields of landmines, clearing them for the military but losing their limbs and sometimes their lives in the process. Since 1996, over 3,200 villages have been destroyed in eastern Burma alone, and a million people internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands have had to flee, as refugees to Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and further afield.

In other parts of the country, religious persecution against Christians and Muslims is rife, and the regime – which suppresses Buddhists that challenge it – uses a perverted, distorted form of Buddhism for political purposes. Christians in Chin State, for example, have been forced to tear down crosses on hilltops, and build Buddhist pagodas in their place. Muslim Rohingyas in Arakan are denied citizenship, despite having lived there for generations, and face severe restrictions on movement, marriage and religion. And Burma has the highest number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world. At least 70,000 children have been taken from the streets and forced to join the Burma Army.

The United Nations has a concept known as the “Responsibility to Protect”, first expressed in 2001 by the Canadian-backed International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) and later enshrined in Security Council resolutions. This principle only applies to the most severe human rights violations – genocide, crimes against humanity and what former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, one of the architects of the term, calls “mass atrocity crimes”. It mandates the international community to respond, using a range of policy options – but not to stand idly by. According to ICISS, the basic principles of the Responsibility to Protect can be summed up in this way: “Where a population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the principle of non-intervention yields to the international responsibility to protect”.

The Responsibility to Protect is often misunderstood as meaning military intervention. But that is not at all what it is about. While it can include, in certain circumstances, military intervention on humanitarian grounds as a last-resort option, it encompasses a far wider range of policy instruments, relating to economic sanctions, diplomatic efforts, prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and increased humanitarian aid. In the case of Burma, some sanctions, some aid and some diplomatic initiatives are already in place, but they need to be intensified, prioritised and strengthened under the Responsibility to Protect framework. Much more humanitarian aid, for example, should be delivered through cross-border delivery mechanisms to those displaced in the jungles along Burma’s borders. A case of crimes against humanity should certainly be referred to the ICC. Through these means, the ‘R2P’ framework can be applied effectively – these measures are both practically and politically feasible.

The crisis in Burma surely meets the criteria defined by the ICISS. Not only is the regime “unwilling or unable” to halt the suffering in Burma – it is the perpetrator and the cause. The crimes inflicted on Burma’s people, particularly the ethnic peoples in eastern Burma, surely amount to crimes against humanity and mass atrocity crimes.

What can you do? You can start by joining a new online campaign, Change for Burma!, which you can find at www.changeforburma.org You will find further information, resources and ways of getting involved. The people of Burma have suffered far too much for far too long. We have a responsibility to protect them.

Benedict Rogers works for the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma’s Karen People (Monarch, 2004). He is currently writing two new books about Burma, and serves as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Group. He has made more than 25 visits to Burma and its borderlands.

READ MORE---> Burma’s Crimes Against Humanity – A Test Case for the ‘Responsibility to Protect’...

Food Aid Starting to Reach Chin Villages

By LAWI WENG

The director of the Country Agency for Rural Development (CAD), a nongovernmental organization, says his group has handed out food aid to about 20 villages in Chin State, in an area that has experienced food shortages for about two years.

At least 70,000 Chin have faced food shortages after rice crops in Chin State were destroyed by a rat infestation and drought, according to NGO workers in Rangoon.

“There are thirty more villages where our aid hasn’t reached yet because of poor transportation,” said Joseph Win Hlaing Oo, the CAD director. He said the Burmese military government allowed aid groups to distribute rice starting in the middle of November 2008.

"We’ve started rice distribution under a food-for-work program, and we started two weeks ago," he said.

“They had no food when we arrived in some villages,” he said. “They try to borrow food from village to village. They promise to pay it back next year. That is how they survive.”

The 50 villages earmarked by the CAD group are near three townships, Haka, Lantalang and Matupi.

Joseph Win Hlaing Oo said an unknown number of additional villages could be experiencing food shortages. He said the CAD group can help only about 50 villages because of budget restrictions.

Many villagers cried when thanking the aid workers who handed out food, he said.

Ray Hay, a resident of Haka Township, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that other villages are receiving rice aid from other NGOs and religious groups.

A report by the UN World Food Program said 75 percent of the crops in the area had been destroyed by rats and 30 percent of the villagers surveyed had been forced to abandon their fields.

The rat infestation began two years ago in Chin State, sending hundreds of Chin to live near the Indian border where they sought to enter the country illegally in order to find work.

In September 2008, about 50 village elders from Chin State traveled to Mizoran on the Indian border to appeal for international aid to address the food famine. The Chin Union Council previously reported that 31 children had died from a lack of food.

Chin Union Council leaders based on the Indian border said the Burmese military authorities had banned ethnic Chin people from receiving food supplies donated by Burmese in foreign countries.

According to a Mizoram-based Chin relief group, the Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee, about 100,000 of the 500,000 people in Chin State had experienced food shortages. The shortage began in December 2007. Many people were surviving on boiled rice, fruit and vegetables.

A famine occurs about every 50 years in the area when the flowering of a native species of bamboo gives rise to an explosion in the rat population, say experts. The International Rice Research Institute had warned of widespread rice shortages in the region.

READ MORE---> Food Aid Starting to Reach Chin Villages...

Pro-junta party kicks off campaign for 2010 polls in northwestern Burma

by Salai Pi Pi
Mizzima News

In the run-up to the junta's general election in 2010, a pro-regime party has launched its poll campaign in Burma's north western Chin state.

Ling Ha, organizational in-charge of the National Unity Party (NUP) of Hakha town, capital of Chin state, on Tuesday said they have begun recruiting new members as part of its campaign for the elections.

"We plan to contest the elections from all the nine townships of Chin state and have started recruiting members," Ling Ha told Mizzima over telephone, adding that he, personally, is gearing up to contest from a constituency in Kanpalat Township, southern Chin state.

Ling Ha said he and his party believe that the junta's roadmap, which has reached the fourth stage since it was chalked out in 2003, is the only way out from the political deadlock and humanitarian crisis.

The NUP is a political party formed in 1990 by members of former military dictator Newin's Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). NUP, while not representing the current batch of military generals, is largely endorsed by the junta.

Ling Ha said junta authorities had not imposed any restrictions on them while campaigning.

"We are into all campaigning within the legal framework," he said, adding the 1990 election law allows parties to assemble less than 50 people during campaign but prohibits parties from using loudspeakers and disallows campaign in public places.

In Burma's last election in 1990, the NUP got one seat in Chin state out of a total of 13 seats. Other parties that had contested the election include the National League for Democracy, Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD), Zomi National Congress (ZNC), Mara People's Party (MPP) and Mro or Khami National Solidarity Organisation (MKNSO).

While the junta in 1992 abolished all other political parties in the state, the NUP and MKNSO continue to function as legal parties. The NLD, though it was not abolished, is banned from opening their offices.

According to Ling Ha, political parties that have been abolished by the ruling junta are unlikely to be allowed to contest in the ensuing elections.

He said, the likely candidates so far in Chin state includes the MKNSO, a party that failed to garner a parliamentary seat in Chin state in the last election, and an independent candidate Dr. Hmu Thang, who individually attended the junta's national convention.

The MKNSO, a party that also contested from the Arakan state's Kyaukdaw constituency in the 1990 election and won a parliamentary seat, also sent a representative to the junta's national convention.

Meanwhile, a leader in exile of the Mara People's Party told Mizzima that Mara people in Chin state are likely to form yet another party to contest the election.

The veteran politician, who requested not to be named said, "I heard that the Mara people are very interested in the 2010 election. They held a meeting and had sent a delegate to study the nature of the election."

However, he said, things would only be clearer once the junta announces the election law.

Edited Mungpi

READ MORE---> Pro-junta party kicks off campaign for 2010 polls in northwestern Burma...

Humanitarian crisis in Chin state likely to escalate in 2009: NGO

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – With crop yields declining due to severe weather conditions and the devastation caused by rat infestation, a humanitarian crisis is imminent for western Burma's Chin state in 2009, a leading humanitarian worker in Chin state said.

Joseph Win Hlaing Oo, director of the Rangoon-based Country Agency for Rural Development in Myanmar (CAD), on Thursday said the humanitarian crisis in Chin state caused by both drought and rat infestation in 2008 is far from being over.

"This year, the situation seems to be getting worse," Joseph told Mizzima, adding that people have already begun running short of food.

"People will need more help," iterated Joseph, whose organization with help from the World Food Programme (WFP) has begun distributing aid supplies to a few villages in Chin state.

On Thursday, CAD began distributing about 700 rice bags to villagers affected by drought and rat infestation in Hakha township, home to the capital of Chin state.

Since the end of 2006, food security in the region has been gradually threatened by the infestation of rats, which are multiplying in great numbers after consuming a special bamboo flower that blossoms only once every 50 years in Chin state.

"Today, we started distributing rice bags to the people in four villages, including Pinam in Hakha township," Joseph said.

But he said aid is not simply given, with villagers instead receiving aid in exchange for community work, such as assistance in the construction of roads to connect villages, under a program called "Food-for-Work".

"We provide rice to villagers according to the work. We give [a total of] 100 bags of rice to 18 people on completion of a mile of road," said Joseph, adding that the 'Work-for-Food' model was utilized to help villagers get the best out of aid supplies.

Joseph said CAD intends to reach at least 30,000 people in three townships - Hakha, Thangtlang and Matupi – with aid supplies. However his initial plan of distributing aid last November was derailed due to difficulties in purchasing good quality rice and high transportation cost.

Additionally, he said aid supplies are still insufficient, as many more villages in other parts of Chin state, including those that are close to the Indo-Burmese border, are yet to be covered. According to him, the food crisis is far more severe along the Indo-Burmese border.

"The problems in the areas close to the India-Burma border are more serious than other areas," said Joseph, with the crux of the problem being a lack of proper roads and means of transportation to reach those areas.

According to an assessment done by the WFP and other relief agencies such as CAD, KARET, World Vision and Karuna Myanmar Social Service (KMSS), at least 60,000 people from 139 villages in Chin state are severely affected by food scarcity caused by rat infestation.

In 2008, the WFP coordinated a relief aid program to help victims in Chin state with 1,451 tons of rice through international and local relief agencies, Joseph said. He added that an additional 800 million kyat (approximately US$ 600,000) will be made available for the first six months of 2009.

Meanwhile Van Lian Thang, spokesperson for the exile-based Chin Humanitarian and Relief Committee (CHRC), recently said people from at least 16 villages in northern Chin state are facing food insufficiency as the harvest of crops such maize and paddy has fallen sharply.

"Because the rate of crops harvested this year is very low, people from some villages in Tedim and Falam townships are facing a shortage of food," said Van Lian Thang.

READ MORE---> Humanitarian crisis in Chin state likely to escalate in 2009: NGO...

At the mercy of Mother Nature and Burma's generals

by Khin Tun
Mizzima News
21 November 2008

Famine forces thousands to do whatever they can to survive in Chin state

On the surface, things can seem brighter than usual for villagers from Matupi in Southern Chin state of Western Burma, home to some 500,000 people. Fathers, mothers and children are busy in the paddy fields reaping their new crop of rice, which has just ripened this past month. However taking a closer inspection of the situation, it soon becomes apparent that there is a serious problem, a lack of food security – adding to the woes in a state where, according to the Chin Mobile Backpack Medical Team, "malnutrition and child mortality is one of the highest in the country." In a sign of desperation, even children, along with their teachers, are forced to leave school in order to harvest crops, because of the fear that the plague of rats might at any moment destroy the very thing which is so fundamental to their survival - rice.

Background

Since 2006, Chin state has been hit by a plague of rats brought on by the dying of bamboo, a natural phenomenon occurring every 50 years in Chin state and the surrounding mountain ranges of northeast India. During the phenomenon, vast forests of bamboo covered jungle produce flowers and a type of fruit which attracts rats. The rats consume the bamboo seeds, which local people believe causes the rat population to rise exponentially.

In a twisted tale of bad luck, for a region which the World Food Programme describes as "one of the poorest and most isolated states in Myanmar," once the bamboo has flowered it dies, causing the plague of rats to turn on villagers' crops for survival. Village elders, who experienced firsthand the last mautam – as the plague is referred to in local jargon – in 1958, explained that this time the situation is much worse. Unusually strong winds have damaged crops, and the dying of bamboo forests at different times has caused the rats to shift unpredictably between areas.

Farmer turned rat catching expert

Local farmer Masie from Matupi is now highly experienced at catching rats. The previous night he caught eight rats, one of which his wife is cooking on the fire. By Masie's high standards, eight rats is a rather low count, as at the height of the rat infestation he caught over 40 rats in just one night. In trying to protect his fields, Masie has handmade over 150 rat traps, locally called, hmakhau, in addition to the more conventional traps he bought from a larger town three to four days walk away. He proudly shows off a collection of rat tails he has collected since this August, numbering over 1,000 so far. Masie describes how the rat infestation affected his family last year:

"Last year the rat infestation was much worse, and I wasn't able to build any rat traps, because I had never experienced this kind of huge rat infestation. I thought we could drive out and scare the rats and protect our crops with ease. But, just before the rice was about to be ripe for harvest the rats came and finished all the rice in the fields in only one night. We lost all our rice from the fields…we came home from the fields with empty hands."

This year things have improved, his family has collaborated with two other families to manage and secure their rice paddy fields. They have fenced in a six tin field area and added over 150 traditional hand-made rat traps alongside nine more conventional traps.

The villagers are trying to harvest very quickly, as they fear the rats might come again, similar to last year, and eat their rice. Masie hopes to harvest over 280 tins (one tin is approximately six kg of cleaned rice) for 18 family members. Unfortunately, even with the preparations of the villagers in protecting their crops – especially the rice, it couldn't stop the rats from wreaking havoc on the villager's cornfields. "This year our harvest of corn was totally destroyed and we harvested nothing," sighed Masie.

Bamboo shortage

Most villagers stay in the fields day and night as this helps to scare away the rats. Yet due to the mautam phenomenon of bamboo dying, there is a shortage of bamboo, which is traditionally used to construct shelter. Therefore villagers cannot construct appropriate huts for living in their rice fields. Instead, they have little alternative but to either walk to their fields for up to an hour each day, or stay in cramped pitiable huts.

Saichea is a crippled old widow staying alone in a small, confined hut. She tells of how her hut's roof is leaking, yet with everyone busy in the fields and a shortage of adequate bamboo, her roof cannot get fixed. "Every time it rains in the night I have to go to other houses to sleep, because my hut's roof is leaking," tells the old woman. When she was a child she sustained an agonizing accident, leaving her unable to use her right hand or foot or work to earn a living. Consequently, she depends on help from neighbors and church leaders. She displayed her meager food supplies of all she has left, consisting of one pot of rice and a few other essential foods donated to her, which she uses very sparingly.

Food crisis destroying communities – villagers flee to India

Since the start of this year, at least 11 households from a border village in Matupi, Burma, have left for neighboring villages across the border in India's Mizoram state. Some villagers departed in secret as it is seen as a disgrace to leave their village and community. Traditionally, the village elders used to kill a pig to compel them to reconsider leaving. However, village elders stated that some villagers who were offered the meat did not accept it, instead insisting on leaving the village.

In the same village, at least ten households last year faced the problem of finishing their rice early, forcing them to find work in India to try and support themselves. Due to job availability, many of the family members have to work apart, some in Saiha in Mizoram, the largest town closest to southern Chin state. They take up any work offered, usually jobs which the local people do not want, such as carrying wood, working in paddy fields, farm cleaning, constructing roads and digging holes for toilets.

Teiko is one such individual that has had to go to India to earn money, working for approximately 15 days at a time. He has been working on the construction of a bridge over the Kaladan River in India. With this money he then buys rice and carries it back to his village in Burma, over two days walk away. He explains his family's situation:

"Last year we could only harvest 30 tins, which lasted only two months. We survive by earning money in India. Because of the struggle for food we could not send all our children to school, our youngest daughter had to stay to work in the fields. She cried, pleading with us to send her to school, but we couldn't afford to.

This year we have nearly finished our harvest and expect 80 tins, but for one year we need at least 140 tins. When I was in India earning money, my wife borrowed rice from villagers, and we had to pay back the rice once I returned from India.

Working in India, luckily I didn't face any problems with getting paid. Most of us are dependent upon earning money in India. It's the only way to solve our food problems. We are struggling for life, but by the grace of God our health is good."

Limited aid assistance to Burma

Teiko's village has received some limited aid (35 rice bags in total, for over 250 people) from neighboring villages across the border in India, but the real need is substantially greater. Therefore, regretfully, there is no alternative for villagers but to find work in India to keep their families alive.

Chihu is a mother with two daughters from a neighboring village in Mizoram, India, an approximately five hour walk from Burma. She also was not spared the destruction of the rat infestation, yet some assistance is reaching them. She elaborates:

"Usually two fields give a crop of 150 tins, yet all our corn and rice fields were destroyed last year. This year we harvested only 50 tins, which lasted only one month, as we host many guests. In some fields the villagers harvested nothing due to the rats, only in some fortunate fields the rats didn't touch could rice be found. Luckily we are in a better condition than our brothers and sisters in Burma, because of help from NGO's from foreign countries. We received this June, 40 kilos of rice, four liters of oil and eight kilos of dal per household."

However, in an extremely positive development, DFID (Britain's Department for International Development), has offered assistance to six out of nine townships in Chin state, with an initial budget of US$ 1,083,450 for the six months from October 2008 – March 2009. An estimated 55,000 people will benefit from the undertaking. DFID's immediate aim is to improve the food security situation of farmers and their family members affected by the rat infestation and crop destruction, in addition to enhancing rural transportation and communication systems through work for food/money programs.

Yet, because the aid will have to come through Rangoon and the Burmese military government's Ministry for Development of the Border Areas and National Races and Ministry of Agriculture – in collaboration with the UN and other organizations active in the country – it is questionable just how much assistance will actually reach the most affected people. Exiled Chin groups based along the Indian-Burmese border have welcomed the aid, but are calling for a much broader relief approach, including cross-border aid, having set up their own food relief committees, including CFERC (Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee) and CHRC (Chin Humanitarian Relief Committee.) These groups have a proven track record of being able to provide assistance to the most vulnerable victims, targeting over 70 villages.

However, due to a lack of financial capacity, local relief efforts are currently unable to have a sustainable impact and reach all the targeted villages.

Tlaiko, a father of four children from one of the worst affected townships in southern Chin state, passionately relates his thoughts on the aid proposal from Britain that will see all efforts first routed through Rangoon:

"You, the British, rescued and saved our spirits as R.A. Laurren (the first missionary from the U.K. to the people in this region, over 100 years ago) built our community, and now you have come to help us in our physical needs. But, we were so heartbroken when we heard that the donations of the U.K. are coming through Rangoon. It is impossible that the donations will reach us through Rangoon. The SPDC (military junta) have been stealing our belongings like thieves. They will surely steal all the assistance from you. How can your government believe them? We will get nothing I am sure. I would like you to think back to Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta. I think you know much better than we do about this. Assistance from your government directly to us on the border would be the quickest and best way."

A village headman from Matupi talked about how the mautam and the Burmese military have affected his village:

"The majority of people have harvested much less compared to last year. We have harvested as a village approximately 1,300 tins of rice, yet we should harvest 3,500 tins. We get nothing from them (the SPDC). Rather, they beat us and take many things like rice, pigs and goats. We heard so many times that they would help, and sometimes they come, but they only give words. It's sure they will be cheating us. We heard that even after Cyclone Nargis they took many things which should have reached the people."

Work for food initiatives

In a self-initiative spawned from a village council in India, villagers asked those from a neighboring village in Burma to clean the road between their villages, receiving 20 rice bags as payment. When asked about this work for food program, village leaders from

Burma were unanimous in their support.

"We want to work for rice, we want more work. Why should we not accept that? That is the best program for us as it will not only solve our food problem, but also assist in our development," prospered one village headman. "We have been working for the SPDC for no pay, portering and serving them, even as they killed our animals."

Just across the border in another village in Mizoram, things are considerably better. The Indian government has actively responded to the mautam, and since 2005 has introduced a 10-year scheme called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The aim of project is to develop agriculture, plantations and fisheries, in addition to undertaking road construction – by means of the government employing erstwhile unemployed members of the local community.

Satae, from a neighboring village in Burma, is now 69 and has spent his entire life in his village. He explains about how he would like to see a similar work for food/money initiative for his village:

"When we think about our village's development, we first think of having good work which can bring about a better solution to our food shortage and development. We heard that our brothers in India are working under a work for food program in Mizoram, which is benefiting the people a lot. We are just dreaming of getting such a beneficial work program. If we could have such a program, that will solve our food shortage problem and will also bring about sustainable development as well. We envy them."

Threatening the very core of Chin livlihood

As part of the traditional approach of shifting cultivation practiced by the Chin, this December and January signals the start of cutting and cleaning the jungle to make way for new paddy fields. March will see the burning of these areas to allow for the planting of new rice paddy in April. Yet, with many villagers having to leave their communities for India to seek food and work, it may prove difficult for them to grow and harvest their own food. As such, some of the very basic tenets of traditional life in Chin state, which have supported local communities for generations, are being threatened by the ongoing food crisis and the inadequate response of external actors to the plight of the population.

However, one thing I have learned, living in India, can be summarized in one sentence from Ghandi: "We have to be the change we want to see..."

READ MORE---> At the mercy of Mother Nature and Burma's generals...

Junta continues crackdown on activists - U Gambira

By Naw Say Phaw

Nov 20, 2008 (DVB)–High-profile monk leader U Gambira has been sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment, the latest in a number of activists to be given long-term sentences this month.

U Gambira, leader of the All-Burmese Monks’ Alliance and a key figure in last year’s public demonstration, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on 18 November for inciting public unrest and religious defamation, according to a lawyer who did not wish to be named.

The lawyer said at the time that U Gambira’s sentence was likely to increase as he is still awaiting trial on several other charges.

The prominent monk has now been jailed for an additional 15 years for offences under the Electronics Act at a hearing today at Western Rangoon provincial court in Insein prison.

Another monk from Mandalay, U Kaylatha, was sentenced to a 35-year jail term under the Unlawful Association Act on 18 November.

Two young Chin men and an Arakanese youth have also been given jail terms ranging from eight to 33 years, according to Pu Cin Sian Thang, leader of the Zomi National Congress.

Pu Cin Sian Thang’s son Kyaw Soe (also known as Kam Lam Khut) was sentenced to 33 years in prison on 10 charges and his nephew Anthony (also known as Kat Kham Kwa), Tin Htoo Aung was given an eight-year sentence.

Arakan national Tin Htoo Aung was sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment.

"I just keep telling myself that at least God knows what [the SPDC] is doing," Pu Cint Sian Thang said.

"I'm expecting the young people will be sent to remote prisons soon and I am very sad about that."

The three were arrested in November last year following the monk-led Saffron Revolution in September.

Meanwhile, two activists from Bogalay, who were recently jailed for nine years along with seven other colleagues, have had their sentences extended.

Activist Thein Zaw was sentenced to five more years in prison while his colleague Thiha Thet Zin was given 10 more years.

READ MORE---> Junta continues crackdown on activists - U Gambira...

Son of Pu Cin Sian Thang handed 33-year prison term

by Than Htike Oo
19 November 2008

Chiang Mai (Mizzima)– Thirty three years imprisonment was handed out to three activists involved in the saffron revolution including a son of 'Zomi National Congress' (ZNC) Chairman and an ethnic Chin leader Pu Cin Sian Thang today by a special court in session inside Insein prison.

The three activists were accused of taking part in protest demanding national reconciliation and arrested at a teashop in Rangoon on 28 October 2007. After being detained for over one year in Insein prison, his son Kan Lan Khote a.k.a. Kyaw Soe and Tin Htu Aung were sentenced to 33 years in prison each and another activist Kan Lan Khwar a.k.a. Khwar Pee was given eight years in jail.

"The monks staged peaceful protests during the saffron revolution. The authorities arrested not only the protesters but also bystanders and spectators. This shows their true colour and nature. It is unfair and unlawful to give them such long prison terms", Pu Cin Sian Thang told Mizzima.

The three activists were charged on eight counts including under sections 17/20 of the Printers Act, sections 13(1) of the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act, section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act and section 505(b) of the Penal Code (inducing crime against public tranquility).

Pu Cin Sian Thang is Chairman of ZNC, and an MP-elect elected from Tiddim, Chin State constituency and a member of the 'Committee Representing People's Parliament (CRPP) which comprises of MPs- elected in 1990 general election. It was formed in 1998.

Similarly nine activists hailing from Bogale, Pathein and Myaungmya were sentenced to lengthy prison terms including 24 years in prison on November 11 by Insein prison court. Two of them from Bogale were given further prison terms under section 13(1) of the Immigration Emergency Provision Act.

Thein Zaw's prison term was increased to 18 years from the previous 10 and Thiha Thet Tin's prison term was increased to 13 from the previous eight years.

"I have no idea why they gave increased prison terms to them on charges under section 13(1) of the Immigration Act. We know nothing about their cases as we were not allowed to attend the court proceedings", Daw Hmwe, aunt of Thiha Thet Tin, said.

READ MORE---> Son of Pu Cin Sian Thang handed 33-year prison term...

Prominent Monk, Others Receive Lengthy Prison Sentences

By MIN LWIN
Mizzima News
November 18, 2008

Ashin Gambira, one of the organizers of a monk-led uprising that captured international headlines last year, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment on Tuesday by a special court convened behind closed doors at Rangoon’s Insein Prison.

A source close to the leading dissident monk said that the sentence did not include all of the charges against him, and would likely be much longer once the court reaches a final decision on the remaining charges.

“His case hasn’t been closed yet,” the source said. “There are still other charges being brought against him.”

The 29-year-old monk, who helped spearhead peaceful protests by thousands of Buddhist monks last September, was charged with violating a number of laws generally having to do with threatening the stability of the state.

These include Section 505 A and B of the State Offence Act, Section 13/1 of the Immigration Act, Section 17/1 of the Illegal Organization Act, Section 303 A of the Electronic Act and Section 6 of the Organization Act.

Intelligence agents arrested Ashin Gambira along with his father last November while he was hiding in Sintgaing Township, Mandalay Division. The authorities later forcibly disrobed him without consulting with the Buddhist monastic community, which alone has the authority to expel monks.

Ashin Gambira co-founded the All Burmese Monks’ Alliance, which led last year’s massive protests in Rangoon and other cities. The subsequent crackdown by the military claimed at least 31 lives, according to human rights groups, while thousands of monks and civilians were arrested and detained.

Besides Ashin Gambira, at least four other people received lengthy sentences today for their involvement in the protests, including fellow monk U Kaylar Tha from Mandalay Township, who was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment by the Kyimyindaing Township special court in Insein prison.

U Kaylar Tha was charged with violating Section 505 B of the State Offence Act, Section 13/1 of the Immigration Act, Section 17/2 of the Illegal Organization Act and Section 6 of the Organization Act.

Three ethnic activists were also sentenced today in connection with the monk-led protests. Ethnic Arakanese protester Tin Htoo Aung and Chin activist Kam Lat Hkoat were sentenced to 33 years imprisonment each, while another Chin activist, Kat Hkant Kwal, was given an eight-year sentence.

READ MORE---> Prominent Monk, Others Receive Lengthy Prison Sentences...

Myanmar courts imprison ethnic minority activists

YANGON, Myanmar (IHT): A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced three ethnic minority activists and a well-known Buddhist monk to prison Tuesday, continuing a crackdown that began last week with pro-democracy activists.

Meanwhile, five United Nations experts issued a statement in Geneva strongly condemning the "severe convictions and the unfair trials of prisoners of conscience in Myanmar." At least 70 activists were sentenced to prison terms last week, and another seven on Monday.

Chin leader Chin Sian Thang said a court inside Yangon's Insein Prison on Tuesday sentenced his son, Kam Lat Khaot to 33 years in prison and his nephew, Kai Kham Kwal, to eight years.

Chin Sian Thang said a member of the Arakan minority was also given 33 years. The Arakan, like the Chin, are clustered in western Myanmar.

Ashin Gambira, one of the most prominent monks leading pro-democracy protests in September 2007, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and still faces further charges, he said.

"The judicial system in Myanmar has collapsed and the courts are passing down sentences in contravention of the law. These secret trials are blatant violations of human rights," Chin Sian Thang said.

Chin Sian Thang is a prominent politician who won a parliamentary seat in elections in 1990, the results of which were never recognized by the ruling junta. He said he received information about the sentencing while waiting outside the prison.

The Chin leader said he was detained for about a month during last year's pro-democracy demonstrations, while his son and nephew were arrested in October. The junta's repression of the protests resulted in at least 31 people being killed and thousands detained, according to U.N. estimates.

The statement from the U.N. experts said they "strongly urge the Myanmar authorities to cease harassing and arresting individuals for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized human rights."

"They further demand that all detainees be retried in open hearings respecting fair trial standards and the immediate release of their defense counsels," it said. Three defense lawyers have been sentenced to several months imprisonment for contempt of court, while several others have been barred from representing their clients.

The U.N. experts are Tomas Ojea Quintana, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; Leandro Despouy, rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers; Frank La Rue, rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression; Margaret Sekaggya, rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Asma Jahangir, rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief.

READ MORE---> Myanmar courts imprison ethnic minority activists...