Kokang Crisis Disrupts Border Trade

By KYI WAI
The Irrawaddy News

Rangoon — The conflict in the Kokang area near the Sino-Burmese has disrupted border trade and caused shortages of Chinese goods in markets as far away as Rangoon and Mandalay.

The shortages will lead to price rises, according to local traders.

A shopkeeper who sells popular brands of Chinese-made snacks at Rangoon’s Yuzana Plaza in Rangoon said: “If we don't get fresh supplies by the end of this month, prices will jump.”

Other major Rangoon markets such as Mingala, Nyaung-bin Lay and Thein-gyi also report shortages of Chinese goods. One trader said supplies of food, medicine and electronic equipment had dropped in the past 10 days by one-third.

A Chinese trader in Nyaung-bin Lay market said supplies of Chinese-made formula milk powder, biscuits and dry noodles had run out. Suppliers were reluctant to travel to the Kokang area, he said.

"No one dares to go to the border, because we are still receiving information that the situation in that area is still not good,” said a Mingala market trader. “So, there are no new imports. We are buying supplies from other local traders from Muse and Mandalay. I am sure prices will rise.”

In Mandalay, a trader said 70 percent of the consumer goods in local markets came from China.

"We still have some consumer goods in storage to last the next two or three months,” he said. “But we don't know when we can get fresh supplies. So, we have to sell things very carefully."

The trader also thought prices were bound to rise.

Some traders with long experience of market conditions fear that the Kokang conflict could have long-term effects on the Burmese economy.

One Mandalay trader said the Kokang crisis was being followed with concern by Burmese-born Chinese.

"If the Wa group gets involved in this conflict, it will get much worse,” he said. “My relatives in Lashio live in fear, because Burmese government troops are collecting people at night and forcing them to be army porters. Half the population in Lashio are Kokang and Wa.”

The trader said government forces in Northern Shan State are selectively conscripting only Chinese, Kokang and Wa people as porters to be used in the front line.

Meanwhile, the state-run newspaper Myanma Alin reported on Thursday that the Kokang area is now peaceful and stable. The refugees who fled into neighboring China are returning and 14,253 had so far crossed back into Burma, the newspaper said.

Myanma Alin also reported that the authorities are selling chicken and fish cheaply to residents of Laogai, the Kokang capital. Local stores, shops and market are open for business as usual.

The newspaper said government troops were digging new drains and working on other municipal projects for Laogai.

Burma Newscasts - Kokang Crisis Disrupts Border Trade
Friday, September 11, 2009

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Junta Continues its Campaign against Burmese Diversity

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
The Irrawaddy News

Recent fighting in northern Shan state, between the junta’s army and the ethnic Kokang militia known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has fuelled speculation that the regime intends to coerce Burma’s 17 ceasefire groups into accepting a plan to incorporate them into the state security apparatus as border guards.

The ceasefire groups are ethnic militias—most notably the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Kachin Independence Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army—that have fought on and off, in various guises, against central rule since Burma became independent in 1948. They are part of Burma’s remarkably diverse ethnic, religious and cultural demography—40 percent of the country’s population is comprised of non-Burman minorities. In total, the state recognizes 135 different ethnicities.

However, the Burmese regime’s army has fought brutal campaigns against these groups, with long-documented human rights abuses, including mass displacement, forced labor and conscription, as well as countless cases of rape and murder targeting civilians. Some analysts believe that the level of abuses ranks alongside or even exceeds that of Darfur in western Sudan.

In some cases, the junta has successfully co-opted proxy or splinter movements from ethnic insurgent groups as part of its ongoing strategy of “divide and rule” to weaken ethnically based opposition. But far from bringing peace to the country, this approach has served only to perpetuate ethnic tensions.

Indeed, some observers believe that the regime has little interest in resolving a problem that has long been its raison d’etre. “Burma’s ethnic diversity has been one of the main justifications for continued military rule,” said Win Min, an analyst of Burmese affairs based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, adding that the army has long seen civilian government as too weak to prevent potential secession by ethnic minorities.

Going back to the 1947 constitution, the military has always believed that civilian solutions to the problems posed by Burma’s ethnic divisions, such as local autonomy or federalism, with the option of secession in some cases, threaten national unity and foment instability.

The army goes by the maxim that diversity equals disunity, something seen in military-civilian political vehicles such as the National Unity Party, the junta-backed party that ran against the National League for Democracy in the 1990 elections, and the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a mass organization established in 1993 that is expected to be transformed into a pro-junta political party in time for elections in 2010.

The regime’s efforts to undermine ethnically based expressions of identity in Burma are also evident in the 2008 constitution, which circumscribes ethnic autonomy and is a digression away from the establishment of anything resembling a federal union—a demand of many ethnic groups.

“The constitution/election process is driving this policy to marginalize the ethnic groups,” said Sean Turnell, an economist at Australia’s Macquarie University whose research focuses on Burma. “This may come back to haunt the junta, as it has with previous governments,” he added.

If the junta proceeds with its military build-up in Shan State, close to the well-armed UWSA, it may be revisited by the ghosts of insurgencies past very soon. The prospect of renewed ethnic civil war in Burma’s borderlands has caused concern in neighboring countries, particularly China, which remains a key ally of the regime.

The Burmese generals issued an apology to Beijing after being reprimanded over the fighting in Kokang, which saw an estimated 30,000 refugees from this ethnically Chinese region cross into China’s Yunnan Province. The junta risks undermining its relationship with Beijing, as instability is perceived to be contrary to China’s interests.

As K. Yhome, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in India, put it: “Political stability in Myanmar [Burma] is a major concern for Beijing, particularly in the border regions.”

China’s port and pipeline plan linking the Burmese coast with Yunnan is due to get underway this month, and Beijing doubtless does not want the timeframe jeopardized by the junta’s domestic concerns. The pipeline will extend 1,200 km and allow Beijing to bypass the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea when bringing oil imports from Africa and the Middle East into China.

Given that China has “run interference for the junta at the UN Security Council”—in the words of Walter Lohman, an Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation—sending refugees streaming into China seems a bitter payback. Only three weeks ago, Beijing told critics that the August 11 decision to return Aung San Suu Kyi to house arrest was an internal Burmese matter.

Ironically, the junta’s offensive along the Sino-Burmese border may have been intended to send the same message—that the regime manages its internal affairs autonomously—to Beijing. It could also be a hint that there are other options available, should the junta want to diversify its networks of foreign partners.

The regime certainly has reason to believe that Beijing is not its only friend. While China’s tally of oil blocks in Burma is 16, India has seven and Thailand five. Meanwhile, India, South Korea and half of Burma’s fellow members in the Association of Southeast Nations are investing in the country’s vast natural resources and competing with China for trade links with the generals.

According to Turnell, the regime may even be paying China back for entering into a series of gas contracts with Bangladesh over offshore fields in disputed seas between Burma and Bangladesh.

However, it remains to be seen how far the junta could push this attempt to needle China, or to diversify its foreign trade and investment relations. “Myanmar needs to remain focused on Chinese concerns,” said Jian Junbo, an assistant professor of international studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

If the regime seeks to pick a fight with the UWSA or any of the other larger ethnic militias, it could be stirring a hornet’s nest. This type of political instability could threaten Chinese investments in Burma, and Beijing’s growing economy cannot afford that.

Just as it does not want an unstable Burma, Beijing is almost certainly on the alert for any rapprochement between the US and the junta. It is not clear whether the Kokang offensive is linked to the recent visit by Senator Jim Webb to Burma, but the growing military presence in Shan State has taken place while international attention has been focused on Webb’s visit, and the Suu Kyi trial circus that preceded it.

“In the long term, if the US improves its ties with Myanmar, it will have strategic implications for Beijing, which wants to reach the Indian Ocean through Myanmar and the oil and gas pipeline projects that it plans through Myanmar,” said K. Yhome.

3 September 2009
Burma Newscasts - Junta Continues its Campaign against Burmese Diversity

READ MORE---> Junta Continues its Campaign against Burmese Diversity...

Army torches over 300 houses of ethnic Shan

by Myo Gyi

Ruili (Mizzima) – Over 300 houses were torched last month by local Burmese Army columns from townships in southern Shan State, the armed ethnic Shan group statement said.

A statement issued by the 'Restoration Council of Shan State' (RCSS) on August 21 said six Burmese Army battalions set over 300 houses on fire since July 27. RCSS is the political wing of the 'Shan State Army' (South) – SSA-S.

"We want the international community, especially ASEAN and UN human rights organizations to know about the human rights violations in Burma. This statement urges and reminds the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military clique to stop its human rights violations committed on both Shan people and the entire Burmese people," the SSA-S spokesman Sai Lao Sai told Mizzima. SSA-S has been waging war against the junta for the right to self-determination.

Following clashes between the junta's army and SSA-S in central Shan State last month, the Burmese Army destroyed the villages for their alleged role in supporting Shan rebels by setting their houses on fire in keeping with its four-cuts policy, which includes cutting off communication channels between the villagers and the rebel army.

Over 40 villages, which were forcibly relocated, are from Meng Neng, Kehsi, Meng Kai, Leikha, Panlong, Nam Pan, Mone and Kun Hein in southern Shan State. Villagers from these villages now have to roam and hide in the dense forests, spokesman Sai Lao Sai said.

About 42 houses were burnt down in Tatmauk and Wan Ho Lone villages in Leikha Township by army columns led by Maj. Kyaw Thu Hla and Maj. Zaw Myo from IB 12 under the command of LIB 88, the local villagers said.

In a separate video report sent by Mizzima undercover reporters, 154 houses could be seen torched on July 29 in Hokhe village, Meng Kai Township. It left 641 people homeless.

The villagers fled without being able to take any belongings. Among the losses were a small rice mill, six motorcycles, one hand tractor with a trailer and 50 oxen pulled carts.

The homeless people had to take refuge at the monasteries in nearby villages or stay with their relatives.

"They could not bring anything with them except some pots and some clothes. All the paddy was burnt down along with their houses," an undercover Mizzima reporter, who watched the carnage, said in his report from Burma.

Sai Lao Sai said that they had already compiled the human right violations report with facts and figures committed in Shan State from 1996 to 2008. "In their four-cuts campaign, the junta systematically commits human rights violations against the Shan people. This had forced nearly 1,000 villages to be relocated. Nearly 2 million ethnic Shan people are homeless and displaced.

At least 718 women were sexually assaulted and 12 women were killed in sexual violence in Shan State from 1996 to 2005, the RCSS statement said.

READ MORE---> Army torches over 300 houses of ethnic Shan...

Despair, then death: The Rohingya riddle

The deaths of two teenagers held for seven months at Ranong detention centre highlight the inadequacies of government policies and facilities to deal with boat people

by: Piyaporn Wongruang

(Bangkok Post) -They say that despair can kill a man, and so it did with two teenage Rohingya held in the Ranong detention centre for seven months. Two doctors who treated the detainees at the centre said the pair basically starved themselves to death after becoming dispirited and refusing to eat or exercise. The official reason for the two teenagers' deaths is "natural causes" caused by cardiac arrest.

WAITING: Rohingya refugees at the immigration detention centre in Bangkok.

"Their minds were just so sick that they lost enthusiasm for everything," said one of the doctors based at the centre who preferred to remain anonymous. "They refused to take food and they refused to move around. They told me that they were desperate and didn't know what to do with their lives any more. They told me that it's better to kill them than to detain them like this."

The deaths go to the heart of Thailand's problems dealing with illegal immigrants and refugees, and the inadequacy of current policies and facilities to deal with the growing number of cases.

Abdul Salam, 18, died on June 30 on the way to Ranong Hospital. Hammatula, 15, was found dead in the detention centre at 4am on Aug 13, a day after a medical check by one of the doctors. The two were among 78 ethnic Muslim Rohingya boat people fleeing Burma who were intercepted by the navy near Surin Island on Jan 26, and sent to the centre a few days later.

Abdul's and Hammatula's bodies were covered in wounds, after allegedly being tortured by the Burmese military during their boat trip, according to the doctor at the centre. The medical team treated the teenagers' wounds in the first few months of their detention, but the pair were overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. According to the same doctor, they gradually became fatigued, hardly moving and sitting or lying down most of the time.

READ MORE---> Despair, then death: The Rohingya riddle...

They died from hopelessness

By: Voranai Vanijaka

(Bangkok Post) -Time heals all wounds, as the saying goes. Not only that, time also makes you forget and helps you to move on. In one particular case, it seems time has made Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the people of Thailand forget about the Rohingya refugees.

Before the Songkran riot, before Sondhi Limthongkul's attempted assassination, before the Thaksin phone-ins and before the controversy over appointing the new police chief, the Rohingya was the issue that rocked the young prime minister's newly appointed government.

In January, Rohingya refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand. The story made headlines across the world due to alleged abuses by Thai security forces - abuses that included accusations of systematic torture and shipping them back out to sea with no food or water, to die. PM Abhisit went on CNN and other western media outlets, promising to investigate the matter and to rectify the Rohingya problem.

The media submitted photos and video clips of the alleged torture to the authorities. An internal government investigation found the evidence inconclusive, and then everyone forgot about the Rohingya.

We all moved on until this past week's reports that two Rohingya refugees, or illegal immigrants, died in the detention centre in Ranong. According to human rights activists, Abdul Salam, 18, died two months ago after vomiting blood several times. Last week Hammatula, 15, died without any signs of distress. However, Thongchai Keeratihatthayakorn, a doctor in Ranong, said the two had died of sudden inflammation of the heart.

An 18-year-old and a 15-year-old died from heart attacks? That's suspicious. Some reports speculate that they died from starvation. That's more likely, but yet they were fed regularly at the detention centre. Did they starve themselves to death on purpose? But then, to what purpose?

Read also: Despair, then death: the Rohingya riddle

No, heart attack or starvation may have been the nail in the coffin, but the true cause of their death was hopelessness. According to a source who's a doctor at the detention centre, the detainees received food and medical care in the Ranong detention centre. Which obviously wasn't five-star service, but nor was it death-inducing.

What the two Rohingya lacked, according to the source, was hope, a future.

Why were they hopeless?

Seven months of detention and counting, over 70 refugees (each has been fined 2,000 baht by the Ranong Court for entering Thailand illegally) cramped in a single room in a two-storey building. These aren't hardened criminals or prisoners of war. These are simply third world villagers and peasants. People who have suffered through poverty and oppression in their homeland, then braved the sea to find new hope and opportunity, only to be allegedly abused by Thai security forces and thrown into prison. Sitting cramped and idle for seven months and counting, not knowing what's to become of them.

The world has forgotten about them. They don't know how long they will remain there. Nobody tells them anything. They may not have been mistreated in the detention centre, but they have been neglected and mistreated all their lives and, for the past seven months, by the Thai authorities and all those concerned at the policy level.

Neglected and mistreated because the authorities did not have the care, the time or the inclination to solve the Rohingya problem. No direction, no policy and no solution. For seven months the two Rohingya who died sat cramped and idle.

Without hope and without a future, they simply became withdrawn, stopped eating and stopped caring. They had lost the will to live. Whether it's a sudden heart attack, vomiting to death, or simply lying down and dying - it's all one and the same. They died from hopelessness. If things do not change, Abdul Salam and Hammatula are simply the first two to go.

Meanwhile, another 10 or so have fallen sick due to fatigue and malnutrition from their long detention. The remaining Rohingya have been transferred to the detention centre at Suan Phlu, in Bangkok.

It has been seven months since the Rohingya story first broke. From then until now, the only change for these Rohingya has been from one detention centre to another. Meanwhile, the prime minister, the media, the people of Thailand and the world have moved on to what we see as "bigger problems" - and of course, the red versus yellow and the economy are issues that affect our lives directly. What happens to 78 (minus two) Rohingya won't change our lives any.

Deputy Immigration Bureau chief Phitak Jarusombuti said the bureau would not reveal how long the Rohingya would be detained. That's exactly the problem. How long will they have to endure until more of them simply lose all hope, lay down and wither away?

For the world at large, time may change, time may heal, time may make us forget and move on. But for the two dead Rohingya, nothing did change for seven months. They simply sat in the same place, looked at the same walls, cramped and idle, with nothing to do but see and remember their sufferings, locked in a prison in body and mind, unable to move on. Hopelessness.

Email: voranaiv@bangkokpost.co.th

READ MORE---> They died from hopelessness...

Ethnic Kachins banned from having cultural symbols in their state in Burma

by KNG

In a fresh repressive measure the Burmese military junta has banned Kachins, an ethnic nationality, from constructing its cultural symbols – the "Manau Pole and Manau House" in their State, said Kachin cultural leaders.

In Bhamo, the second largest city in Kachin State, the ban comes in the way of construction of the cultural Manau Pole and House on the 13-acre wide Bhamo (also called Manmaw in Kachin) Kachin Literature and Culture compound (BKLC) in Aung Ta village in Two Miles. It was bought from the Bhamo Zonal Kachin Baptist Church in 1996, BKLC committee members said.

Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command (Ma Pa Kha) and the junta's most powerful man in Kachin State thrice rejected the official request for permission to construct the Manau Pole and House this year by the BKLC committee, a committee member told KNG today.

Last July, some committee members met commander Maj-Gen Soe Win in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina in its latest effort. However the commander rejected their request saying "Looking at genuine peace in Kachin State, the construction of Bhamo Kachin Manau Pole and House was banned," said committee members.

Earlier, the military authorities of Kachin State had twice rejected BKLC's letters to the junta's Bhamo District Administrative Office, called Bhamo District Peace and Development Council (or Kha-Ya-Ka) on March 31 and Kachin State Administrative Office, called Kachin State Peace and Development Council (or Pa-Ya-Ka) on May 19, according to the BKLC committee.

Committee members said, both rejection letters came up with the same reasons ---- first, the Kachins already have the cultural venue with Manau Pole and House in Myitkyina indicating "Kachin Traditional Manau Park" in Shatapru quarter in the town, which was constructed in early 2002. Secondly, there are different ethnic nationalities in Bhamo and constructing Kachin traditional symbols may harm unity among them because the Kachin Manau Pole and House represent ethnic Kachins, alone.

BKLC committee members disagreed with Commander Soe Win's rejection notes. They believe that the construction of the Kachin cultural Manau Pole and House will not harm the ethnic unity in Bhamo and Kachins have to build their cultural symbols in every Kachin village, said committee members and Kachin cultural leaders.

On June 22, five BKLC committee members of a total of 40 members were made to forcibly sign in the Bhamo District Administrative Office (Kha-Ya-Ka) to abandon construction of Kachin cultural buildings by the Kha-Ya-Ka chairman Col. Khin Maung Myint, said committee members.

According to Article 22 and 27 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to show, develop and protect their culture and literature.

There are Kachins (also spelled Jinghpaw in Kachin language or Jingpho-su in China and Singpho in India) in three of Burma's neighboring countries like China, India and Thailand and they are authorized to build their cultural symbols - Manau Pole and House.

READ MORE---> Ethnic Kachins banned from having cultural symbols in their state in Burma...

Villagers Fear September Offensive

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

EI TU HTA—After overrunning the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 headquarters in southern Karen State, a joint Burmese army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) force plans to resume its offensive in northern Karen State in September, and take over the remaining KNLA bases along the Thai-Burmese border.

The targeted areas are KNLA Brigade 5 and KNLA military bases along the Salween River on the border with northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province.

KNLA Brigade 5 troops prepare to resist the joint Burmese DKBA offensive. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing/ The Irrawaddy)

The Commander of KNLA Brigade 5, Baw Kyaw, said his soldiers will defend the area and its villages to the best of their ability. He expects the offensive will come soon.

“If the DKBA follows the orders of the Burmese army, they are our enemy,” Baw Kyaw told The Irrawaddy in a KNLA controlled area on the border. The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union.

Many Karen villagers in Papun District in northern Karen State and along the Salween River on the Thai-Burmese border are on alert against the joint Burmese and DKBA force, Karen villagers at the border said.

If the offensive succeeds, thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Karen State and more than 4,000 Karen refugees in Ei Tu Hta, a temporary camp on the Salween River, will be forced to flee to Thai soil, Karen sources said.

Wah Eh Htoo, secretary of Ei Tu Hta refugee camp told The Irrawaddy: “Villagers fear the DKBA plan to take over the border.”

Ei Htu Ta camp is located on the Burmese bank of the Salween River in Karen State.

“We told the refugees to pack their pots and plates after meals and be ready to flee with other belongings at any time,” said Wah Eh Htoo.

Due to Burmese attacks, about 10,000 IDPs are currently hiding in the jungle in Nyaunglebin District in Pegu Division and Luthaw Township in Papun District, northern Karen state, said local villagers and relief groups who met with The Irrawaddy at the border on August 12.

Saw T’kwel, leader of Ei Tu Hta’s zone 6 said if the camp is attacked, the villagers will face problems getting food supplies, medical care and education for their children.

The IDPs dare not return home and fear that if they flee to Thailand, the Thai authorities will not permit them to stay long, he said.

“We live in fear of being caught on the battlefield,” Saw T’kwel said. “The expected offensive is the most common topic of conversation between businessmen and villagers.”

Refugee children in Ei Tu Hta must be ready to flee if they are attacked. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing/ The Irrawaddy)

One anonymous DKBA source said DKBA forces will be stationed along the Salween River after the offensive against Brigade 5 is complete.

The DKBA will take control of logging, border trade taxation and security around dam construction sites on the Salween and Moei rivers, he said.

If the DKBA gains control along along the Salween, Karen relief groups will find it difficult to transport supplies by boat from the Thai border to areas still under KNLA control, sources said.

Border traders also expressed fears about restrictions if the DKBA gains control.

The Salween River is one of the main conduits for Thai-Burmese trade, which decreased after the DKBA split from KNU in 1995. Trade has increased in recent years, however.

Burmese forces stationed in some areas along the river said they will withdraw and be replaced by the DKBA over the next year.

One of the strongest ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma, the DKBA is the only force that agreed with the Burmese regime’s order to transform its troops into a border guard force. Other strong armed groups such as the United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Organization rejected the order.

According to the Burmese regime, the DKBA is among 17 ethnic ceasefire groups that signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese regime since 1995.

The joint Burmese DKBA force overran KNLA Brigade 7 in southern Karen State in July after three weeks of fighting. Since then, some border trade including logging and surveying for dam construction has resumed, border sources said.

READ MORE---> Villagers Fear September Offensive...

Rights groups to regime: Stop atrocities

By Hseng Khio Fah

(Shanland) -Again, overseas Shan rights groups are on calling the Burmese military immediately stop its atrocities and also on the international and regional communities to end their silence and set up an investation team on the regime’s crimes against humanity.

Since 27 July, Burma Army units under the command of the Mongnawng based Military Operations Command (MOC) #2, Shan State South, have burned down over 500 houses, more than 200 granaries, and forcibly relocated an estimated 10,000 villagers from almost 40 villages in Mongkeung, Laikha and Kehsi townships, according to the rights groups.

“We are therefore demanding the regime immediately stop their atrocities against people the and allow all relocated villagers to return to their homes,” said Nang Charm Tong from Shan Women Action’s Network (SWAN) at a press conference held today on the Thai-Burma border.



“On the other hand, we would like to call on the international communities such as the United Nations Security Council, ASEAN and Burma’s neighbors to pressure Burma to stop its oppression on the people. They should not let Burma continue abusing the people,” she added.

According to her, the current forced relocation campaign is the largest forced relocation since 1996-1998, when over 300,000 villagers were uprooted in southern and central Shan State, most of whom have since fled to Thailand.

“This is another attempt to uproot the ethnic people,” she said.

During the 1996-98 campaign against the SSA, almost 1,500 villages were destroyed and more than 300,000 in southern and eastern Shan State were forcibly relocated, a third of which had escaped into Thailand.

“The troops were ordered by their headquarters to burn down the houses, as they repeatedly radioed to their headquarters as the buildings went up in flames,” said Shan Human Rights Foundation’s Director Kham Harn Fah.

"This campaign has been carried out cold-bloodedly and systematically,” he added.

The Burma Army earlier retaliated the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) that had wiped out a 12-men patrol on 3 May by killing two village headmen, torturing more than 80 villagers and gangraped a 15-year old girl in Hsihseng, another southern Shan State township, according to several exile news groups.

READ MORE---> Rights groups to regime: Stop atrocities...

Burmese Army Equipped with New Arms

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

The 400,000-strong Burmese army is now almost fully armed with locally manufactured MA-series weapons, according to several sources within the armed forces and rebel groups.

The sources told The Irrawaddy that the Burmese army—known as the “Tatmadaw”—had equipped all frontline battalions with MA1, MA2, MA3 or MA4 automatic assault rifles.

According to a weapons Web site, securityarms.com, the MA series was manufactured with the help of arms contractor Israeli Military Industries, and was designed similar to the Israeli Galil rifle.

The weapons are expected to be used in conflicts with ethnic rebel groups, in particular the Karen National Union, as the Tatmadaw seeks to extinguish the country’s 60-year-plus insurgency. The Burmese armed forces have one of the world’s most notorious records for atrocities and human rights abuses, such as killing civilians, raping women and conscripting children.

Since the 1950s, the Tatmadaw has traditionally employed German-made G-3 weapons. However, the G-3 assault rifle was considered too heavy for use in jungle warfare and, as the Burmese generals had endured decades of conflict with ethnic groups in Burma’s mountainous border regions, they began manufacture of the MA series in 2002, presumably after signing a license agreement with Israel Military Industries.

The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are shorter and lighter than the G3, but not as powerful, said the sources.

The MA3 is an assault carbine, basically an MA1 with a side-folding stock, and the MA4 is a grenadier weapon, essentially an MA1 equipped with a single-shot grenade launcher.

Sources told The Irrawaddy that the weapons were manufactured at several factories in Burma, but the main factory is reportedly called Ka Pa Sa No 1, and is situated near Rangoon’s Inya Lake.

Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rebel Shan State Army-South (SSA), said, “The MA1 and MA2 assault rifles are not heavy, so they are good for carrying to the frontlines. But they are not powerful like the G-3.”

“The MA1s and MA2s are similar to our M16s. In fact, we can use their ammunition in our M16 rifles, but they cannot use our ammunition in their rifles,” he said.

The Burmese army is one of the most battle-hardened forces in Asia, having fought almost continuously against ethnic insurgents and communist guerillas for more than six decades.

However, following the brutal suppression of student-led demonstrations in 1988, the United States and later the European Union imposed an arms embargo on the Burmese regime.

At the time, Burmese democracy activists and international sympathizers lobbied the West German government to prevent sales of G-3 weapons from the Fritz Werner arms manufacturing company going to the Burmese junta.

The German arms manufacturers registered themselves in Burma in the 1990s as Myanmar Fritz Werner Industries Co Ltd, an electrical and electronics company.

However, the photograph of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai, being shot during protests in 2007 by a Burmese soldier holding what would appear to be a G-3 rifle, raised doubts as to whether local production of the German assault rifle was ongoing.

Despite the Western arms embargo, the Burmese military regime has no shortage of arms suppliers—Israel, Russia, Ukraine and China are reportedly the main players.

Meanwhile, recent reports have indicated that Burma has purchased nuclear material from North Korea and harbors ambitions of creating a nuclear arsenal.

READ MORE---> Burmese Army Equipped with New Arms...

Gang-rape follows Four-Cuts

by Hseng Khio Fah

(Shanland) -Latest reports of the Burma Army’s four-cut campaign said that a Shan woman from Shan State South’s Laikha township was gang raped in front of her husband by the Burma Army that has been waging a four-cut campaign since late July.

The couple was identified as Sai Awta, 23, and her wife Nang Noom, 20 (not their real names), from the 31 household Wan Nawngpoke village, Tarkmawk village tract, Laikha Township, said a source.

The incident occurred only a half of mile south of the village on August 2 at 5 pm, when three privates led by Sergeant Tin Aye from Mongkeung based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #514 was on patrol and found the said couple while they were working in their farm. The group detained them after accusing of being members of the SSA-South.

Some soldiers separated Sai Awta from his wife, tied him with a rope to a post of the hut and beaten him while others raped her wife in front of him in turn including the Sergeant until midnight. After that, the couple was warned not to spread news of the rape, said Sai Awta’s friend who declined to be named.

“They [soldiers] threatened them not to tell anybody; otherwise their family and both of them would be killed,” he said.

On that day, a 25 strong patrol from the battalion together with 14 men of pro-junta Mongzeun militia group (formally Brigade 758 of the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ that surrendered in July 2006) arrived at the village.

It was led by Lt Myint Than and the militia group was led by Sai Yoong whose leader Mongzeun was killed in an attack by the SSA on 25 May.

“Villagers were given a deadline to leave their houses, if not all houses would be burnt down,” said a local source who wishes to remain in anonymity.

A clash between LIB#515 and SSA fighters on 15 July in Laikha township has led hundreds of villagers in Laikha, Kehsi and Mongkeung townships suffer from several human rights violations.

“License to Rape,” a report by the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), which was published in 2002, detailing 173 incidents of rape and involving 625 women and girls, had shaken the international community.

READ MORE---> Gang-rape follows Four-Cuts...

Rakhine woman commits suicide in Paletwa

Paletwa, Chin State (KPN): A Rakhine woman committed suicide after becoming pregnant in Paletwa Township on August 3, said a village elder from Paletwa.

The woman was identified as Ma Nu Sein Oo (18) daughter of U Poe Htha of Maynigone block, Paletwa Township.

Ma Nu Sein Oo was found dead on her bed on August 3, at about 5:30 a.m. when her younger sister went to wake her up for work, said a family member of Ma Nu Sein Oo.

The younger sister found a suicide note in her hand, the family member said.

The note explained that she was in love with Sergeant Kyaw Zaw Aung from the Light infantry Battalions (LIB) 289 and a close relative of the battalion commander.

She told her lover Kyaw that she was one month pregnant. Kyaw reported to his commander and requested permission to marry. But, the commander refused the request and sent him home on a month’s vacation where his family members forced him to marry another woman, the letter stated.

By then Sein Oo was four months pregnant and she did not want her family members to know. So she took poison, the note added.

Ma Nu Sein Oo drank insecticide which used for farmland, said U Poe Htha.

READ MORE---> Rakhine woman commits suicide in Paletwa...

Lack of Factories and Mills Cause Youth Migration

Sittwe (Narinjara): Burmese migrant workers in Thailand and Malaysia have been facing many difficulties, including unemployment, due to a global economic crisis, but many Arakanese are still leaving for the two neighboring countries to find jobs.

A monk from Rangoon said, "At least 10 to 20 Arakanese youths from Arakan State arrive at Danyawaddy monastery in Rangoon on a daily basis to look for jobs. Sometime women and children are among them."

The monastery belongs to Arakanese monks and is located at the eastern foot Shwedagon Pagoda in Bahan Township in Rangoon, and it is bustling with migrant workers from Arakan State.

"Some of them live in Rangoon if they find a job. But most of the youth have left for Thailand and Malaysia through two border towns - Kothaung in Thanintharyi Division and Myawaddy in Karen State," the monk added.

A monk from Aung Dhama Yitha Arakanese monastery in Kothaung said, "Some Arakanese migrant workers return to their homes from Malaysia and Thailand after losing their jobs, but at the same time, many Arakanese youth have left the country through Kothaung to look for work."

It is well known in Burma that the situation is difficult for Burmese workers in Thailand and Malaysia, but the Arakanese youths leave for these countries one after the other.

U Tha Kyaw Aung, a former politician from Owe Dan Ward in Sittwe said, "The migration of youth to neighboring countries to look for work is directly related to the central government in Burma, because the government never set up any factories or mills to develop the state economically after Burma's independence in 1948. This is the root cause of Arakanese youth leaving the state for other parts to look for work. However, the Burmese military government is happy for Arakanese youth to leave the state."

In Sittwe and other towns, there were some large rice mills constructed by British during colonial rule in Burma, but all the mills have suffered damage and are not operating.

A large number of Arakanese left their homes for Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of Burma such as Hpakant in Kachin State, a while ago due to the poor economic situation in Arakan under military rule.

During the time the military government has been in power, over 50 army battalions have been based in Arakan State as part of ethnic cleansing by the junta. Half of the land in Arakan was confiscated and is currently under the control of the army.

"We really worry about our nation and culture because we will lose our national identities in the future because of abuse by the Burmese military government against our people," U Tha Kyaw Aung said.

READ MORE---> Lack of Factories and Mills Cause Youth Migration...

Burmese Muslims attack government office

(DVB)–Around 40 Muslims in western Burma were detained for allegedly ransacking a local immigration office after officials there assaulted a local Muslim man for not paying a fine.

A resident in Arakan state’s Kyauk Ni Maw village said the dispute started after a local Muslim man who returned from travelling refused to pay a fine for exceeding stay outside of the village as shown in his travel permit.

Muslims in Arakan state are required to get a document known as the Form-4 from government immigration if they want to travel outside of their region.

“He said he couldn’t pay the money they asked for as he had already paid a lot acquiring the [permission] document and the officials [at the immigration office] beat him up,” said the village resident, adding that he was left with a broken arm and vomiting blood.”

News on the attack quickly spread to Kyauk Ni Maw village where 75 percent of the population are Muslim. Some local villagers, including the man’s relatives, were enraged.

“They went to the immigration office and beat up the people who beat up the man. They also tore down the office building and broke some flag poles,” he said.

Following the incident, authorities arrested around 40 people, including some who were not involved, the villager said, and detained them in nearby Yanbyal township jail.

The detainees are due to appear in court on 10 August where they will face charges for breaching peace.

“They just arrested random people, but all Muslim, in the village without identifying who was involved in the attack,” said the villager. “Some people had already fled in fear of getting arrested in connection with the case.”

Muslims living in Burma have long been marginalized by the military government.

Three prominent ‘anti-Muslim’ riots have erupted in Burma in the past 12 years following heightened tension between Muslims and Buddhists.

Their situation 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 Thurein Soe

READ MORE---> Burmese Muslims attack government office...

An enduring byproduct of war

By Daniella Nayu

July 20, 2009 (DVB)–For half a century, Burma’s jungles and mountains have hosted a conflict where conventional weaponry has been traded for tactics designed to forever scar the ethnic population of the country.

The byproducts of the world’s longest running internal conflict, grossly under breported, have been so severe that international lawyers and rights groups believe that the ruling junta in Burma could warrant investigation for war crimes. Perhaps most chillingly, young girls have been subject to appalling sexual violence at the hands of a military bent on creating a means of intimidation that will far outlast the brandishing of a gun.

System of Impunity, a 2004 report by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), describes the case of a 13-year-old Shan girl, Nang Ung, who was detained by Burmese troops on false charges of being a rebel. “She was tied up in a tent and raped every day for 10 days [by five to six troops each day]. The injuries she sustained from the repeated rapes were so severe that she never recovered. She died a few weeks after her release.”

Naang Ung’s story has been echoed in every ethnic region of Burma for generations. Burmese rights organisations suggest that military rape of ethnic women has been rife in the country for the last five decades since the consolidation of military rule, and shows no signs of abating.

“It can happen in homes, in the villages, in the forests, in the paddy fields, whether the woman is working alone or whether they are going to their villages,” said Cheery Zahau, an activist from the India-based Women’s League of Chinland (WLC). “In some circumstances they just rape the women in front of the men.”

Sexual torture and violence often accompanies such acts. Testimonies from victims show cases of both old women and young girls being gang-raped by up to 20 men, while others report that women who have endured days of rape are then shot in the vagina or have their breasts cut off. Crimes in Burma, a report released in May by the Harvard Law School, said that on many occasions there had been “no attempt to conceal the bodies of dead women who were raped and subjected to other acts of violence.”

Such descriptions are perhaps indicative of a military which has been partially brutalized by debasement, poverty and high levels of institutionalized corruption. Yet this cannot account for all cases. During an interview, Cheery relayed an account of a woman from Chin state whose son had just been killed by the military. After she was gang-raped, the mother was strung up on a wooden cross: “She was hanging outside of the camp the whole night in the freezing winter weather,” said Cheery. “Why would they make the cross to hang the women? The cross is the symbol of Christianity in Chin state; it’s one of the mockeries against their beliefs.”

Religious persecution adds weight to a belief common among ethnic groups that the generals are attempting an ethnic cleansing campaign to strip non-Burmans of their identity. The regime’s suspected policy of ‘Burmanisation’, as referred to in a number of official reports including one by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), could also help to explain such widespread attempts to impregnate non-Burmese women. While some are convinced on ‘Burmanisation’, the UN’s torture rapporteur for Burma in 2006 reported that state-sanctioned violence against women was used as a control mechanism, and as “punishment” for allegedly supporting ethnic armed groups and “a means of terrorizing and subjugating the population”.

According to Ben Rogers, the Southeast Asia advocacy officer for CSW, it is important to note that “these incidents documented are not simply isolated acts by individual, badly behaved frontline soldiers”. Reports have shown that a high percentage of rapes committed by the Burmese military have been orchestrated by officers. Furthermore, an alarming number have been gang rapes. Moan Kaein, from the Thailand-based Shan Women’s Associated Network (SWAN), stated that 83 percent of the rapes SWAN had documented in Shan state were committed by officers, while 61 percent of all military rapes were gang rapes. Furthermore, there have been reports of officers ordering their men to rape ethnic women on threat of death. “Those who refuse to rape will be shot and killed,” Captain Ye Htut from Pah Klaw Hta army camp was quoted as telling his men in the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) report, Shattering Silences.

“When we document all these cases, none of the perpetrators are punished,” says Cheery, referring to WLC’s 2007 Unsafe State report. Despite international publications of reports that specifically name high-ranking officials and officers involved, no actions have been taken by the Burmese government to punish perpetrators even though such crimes are illegal under Burmese law. “This impunity suggests it is a deliberate policy, and is condoned by the regime,” says Rogers.

While the consequences of rape can be horrific – they include unwanted pregnancy, contraction of HIV, and psychological damage for both victim and family – support for victims is virtually non-existent. Even women who manage to flee to the borders have no real hope of any professional psychological assistance, given that they are often not officially recognised by their country of arrival. While some women have been pushed to suicide, others are forced to keep their rape a secret in order to avoid social stigmas.

“The only solution for them is silence, and often they get rejected by their communities,” says Cheery, while Moan Kaein claims that “some husbands will not accept their wives after they have been raped”. Some women also get accused of “sleeping with” Burmese troops and are told to leave their villages.

There is also the real chance of retaliation from troops and government officials. Rape victims and their families have been the most severely punished when such sexual crimes have been reported. According to press releases from the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), four girls aged 14 to16 from a village in northern Kachin state were arrested and jailed after they relayed to independent Burmese media about having been gang-raped by three army officers and four soldiers from a local military base.

Reports of state-sanctioned rape have been consistently met with a tide of public smears within Burma, as well as mass intimidation and deliberate distraction by the military. The problem has been further aggravated by callous retorts from the Burmese government, including the release of a report, License to Lie, attacking authors of License to Rape.

Perhaps more worrying are threats of violence and even death against those who report such cases. System of Impunity describes how the local military officers threatened to “cut out the tongues and slit the throats” of villagers who had dared speak out to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during their visit to Shan State in January 2003. On 1 June this year, Kachin News Group reported that Kachin youths had been “brutally assaulted” for having prevented the gang-rape of a Kachin girl by four soldiers.

Inaction following international condemnation has also served to dampen hope that ethnic women and campaigners will see change in their lifetimes. On the 24 June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “If we ignore sexual crimes, we trample on the principles of accountability, reconciliation and peace. We fail not just women but all people." The statement coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Security Council’s adoption of resolution 1820 (2008), which notes that “rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict zones can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide”.

The irony of Ban’s proclamation is that sexual crimes in Burma were ignored on his recent visit to Burma earlier this month, just as they are ignored by countries like China and Russia who supply weapons to the junta and by neighboring countries which provide no support for the raped women pouring over the borders. “We call and call,” says Blooming Night, joint secretary of Karen Women’s Organisation, “but nothing happens”.

Increased militarization in many ethnic regions in lieu of the 2010 elections has led to increasing concern for the safety of women living there. “When we documented Unsafe State [in 2007], there were about 33 army camps. Now there are 55 camps, so they’re spreading” says Cheery, adding that “as long as [Burmese] troops are there, there will be sexual violence”. Burma shows no sign of abating its aggressive expansion of the military. If, as it would seem, rape of ethnic women is a byproduct of this, perhaps we should expect the stories of Naang Ung and the thousands of other women and children to continue echoing throughout Burma.

READ MORE---> An enduring byproduct of war...

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.

READ MORE---> Extensive farm lands confiscated in Maungdaw...

Burmese Refugee Numbers Swell in Thailand

By CAROLINE STAUFFER / AP WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

MAE SOT, Thailand — As the 50,000th Burmese refugee to be resettled abroad recently left Thailand for the United States, thousands of others fled their military-ruled homeland to seek shelter under tarps and in temples along the Thai-Burmese border.

"We would be happier if we were back home as this is not our land, but we will stay here because that side is not safe," said a 30-year-old medic treating a child for malaria, pointing across an open field to Burma.

Escalated violence in rural Burma means despite the world's largest resettlement program, Thailand's refugee population—numbering more than 100,000—is not likely to diminish any time soon. More than 4,000 ethnic minority Karen have crossed the border in the past month.

The exodus was sparked by fighting between the Karen National Union and the Burmese regime, a brutal conflict that has been going on for 60 years as the Karen seek greater autonomy.

In addition to the refugees in Thailand, the aid group Thai Burma Border Consortium estimates fighting has spawned nearly 500,000 internally displaced people in eastern Burma and countless atrocities against civilians.

Critics say Burma's army seeks to eliminate opposition from the Karen and other ethnic minorities to seize control of the area's natural resources, a valuable source of income for the impoverished country.

And with elections scheduled for July 2010, securing Karen State would help the ruling generals claim the entire country was behind the vote and their so-called "road map to democracy." Critics have said the moves are a sham designed to perpetuate military rule.

"The main thing is the election—the government wants the Karen out of the picture," said Ba Win, a teacher who worked as a government veterinarian in Karen State for five years.

The latest round of fighting erupted in early June as government troops and the allied Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, or DKBA, moved against Karen military positions and a large civilian camp, sending villagers across the border north of Mae Sot, a Thai border town 240 miles (380 kilometers) northwest of the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The Karen Human Rights Group says the government is also forcing Karen villagers to join the DKBA and turn the group into a border guard force to better control natural resources in Karen State.

Meanwhile, the thin tarps provided the refugees are not keeping the heavy monsoon rains at bay, but they fear if the rain stops, fighting will break out again.

No mosquito nets are available to stop the spread of malaria, and the refugees depend on Mae Sot-based relief organizations and a nearby Thai Karen village for food and supplies.

They won't return home unless land mines in areas surrounding their villages are cleared. "Fighting we can see and run away from, but land mines can be anywhere," said the Karen medic, who like others declined to give a name because of the refugees' precarious status.

A number of the displaced, living in tent clusters according to the village of their origin, say they lost family members to mines during the flight to Thailand.

Other newly arrived Karen refugees have taken shelter in temples and schools along the border, but were wearing out their welcome as Buddhist Lent celebrations began this week, said Kathryn Halley of the aid group Partners, Relief and Development.

The new Karen refugees are to be moved into a single temporary camp, but aid groups and the Thai military have yet to agree on an exact secure location. Permanent camps in the area are too full to accommodate them.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says it will resettle 6,000 of the 112,000 registered Myanmar refugees in Thailand this year. The United States, Canada, Australia and several Nordic countries participate in the resettlement program that began in 2004 and is now the world's largest, according to the agency.

Mae Sot-based aid groups say repatriation has slowed because of the global financial crisis.

The newly arrived are unlikely to become candidates for resettlement abroad and were not even aware of plans to move them to a new location inside Thailand, a trip that will require climbing a muddy mountain pass and crossing a river.

One 50-year-old Karen woman said she had traveled back and forth across the Thai-Burma border three times in her life. "I just want to stay still now," she said. "I am tired."

READ MORE---> Burmese Refugee Numbers Swell in Thailand...

3 held for alleged attempt to export measuring instrument to Myanmar

YOKOHAMA, (Japan Today) — Police arrested three people Monday on suspicion of attempting to export a measuring instrument that could be converted to weapons production to Myanmar without a permit from the Japanese government, police officials said. The suspects, including the 41-year-old president of trading house Toko Boeki in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward and the president of a machinery maker, allegedly attempted to export in January a magnetic measuring instrument, which could be converted to produce missiles and other weapons of mass destruction, from Yokohama port in Kanagawa Prefecture to Myanmar via Malaysia, they said.

The attempted export was discovered before it took place, the Kanagawa police officials said. The Kanagawa police raided locations related to the case in February suspecting that North Korea, which maintains diplomatic relations with Myanmar, could be involved in the deal.

ALSO READ:
Japan thwarts suspect N Korea-Burma missile device deal

June 30, 2009 (DVB)–Japanese police have arrested three men on suspicion of attempting to illegally export into Burma heavy machinery that could be used in the development of missile systems.

The reports surfaced yesterday on the Japanese news website, Yomiuri Shimbun, who reported that the three men, all Japanese nationals, were charged under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.

Concerns over Burma’s military ambitions have been heightened in recent weeks with reports that a North Korean ship suspected to be carrying arms was heading in the direction of Burma.

Similarly, photographs obtained by DVB show a network of tunnels built with North Korean assistance beneath the Burmese capital, with leaked documents revealing plans to hold large rockets and satellite communication command centers inside.

The Yomiuri quoted police as saying that the three men, who were working for a Hong Kong-based North Korean trading firm, were caught with a magnetic measuring device “believed necessary for developing long-range ballistic missile systems on instructions from North Korea”.

The export was attempted in January this year, at a cost of around seven million yen (US$73,000). Police reportedly believe that the same firm has transported similar machinery to Burma in the past.

According to the Yomiuri report, the firm’s office in North Korean capital Pyongyang is believed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to be involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction.

Reporting by Francis Wade

READ MORE---> 3 held for alleged attempt to export measuring instrument to Myanmar...

Over 50 Rohingya pushed back to Burma

Teknaf, Bangladesh (KPN): More than 50 Rohingya were pushed back to Burma this week by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), according to a BDR source from Teknaf.

On Friday, 40 Rohingya ethnic minorities from Burma travelling in two boats were arrested by BDR on Sharpurdip in the morning. They were detained till noon and the men were beaten up. On receiving information, local people from the village went to the spot and requested the BDR personnel to release the Rohingya and send them back to their home land, said Sanmeah from Sharpurdip.

On Sunday, 12 Rohingya were arrested at the Whykong check post while they were proceeding to Chittagong or Cox’s Bazaar for treatment and other purposes. They were unable to process legal papers in Burma given their financial situation and came following an understanding with the Burmese border security forces (Nasaka). The BDR personnel pushed back them in the evening to Burma.

On Thursday, five Rohingya were arrested by the police in Lama in the Bandarban Hill district when they crossed the border. But, there is no information about them being pushed back, said an elder from Lama.

In Burma, the Rohingya community is discriminated against by the ruling junta. The Rohingya try to escape harassment by the authorities. They give money to cross the border from the Nasaka outpost where they pay 7000 kyats per head. This is how they illegally enter Bangladesh. The BDR arrest Rohingya while crossing the border, riding buses on the highway enroute to Teknaf-Cox’s Bazaar, and at the check post. Then the BDR personnel push them back to Burma, said a student who comes to Bangladesh for treatment.

If any Rohingya wishes to cross the border legally, he or she must get a border pass which costs 35,000 kyats, pay 7000 kyats for boat fare and 200 Taka in Teknaf for stamping papers in the entry point. So, the Rohingya are unable to process the border pass, said a trader from Maungdaw who always comes to Bangladesh for business purposes.

READ MORE---> Over 50 Rohingya pushed back to Burma...

Junta to resettle 200,000 Burmans in Hukawng Valley

Written by KNG

The Burmese military junta plans to resettle 200,000 Burman people in ethnic Kachin's Hukawng Valley (also called Hugawng in Kachin) in the country's northern Kachin State before 2010, said regime insiders.

The new Burman settlers, who make up the majority of the country’s population, will be mainly settled in areas close to three Kachin villages known as Nawng Mi, Sahtu Zup and Wara Zup on the Ledo or Stilwell Road also called Burma Road during WW II, added insiders.

In the guise of Rangoon-based Yuzana Company's crop plantation in the Valley, only Burman people from different areas of lower Burma have been resettled in the Valley since late 2006, said native Kachins from the Valley.

A Thai-styled factory is being constructed by Thai technicians under Yuzana Company.

U Htay Myint a Chinese-Burman from Kutkai town in northeast Shan State chairs the company, which bought over 200,000 acres of land in Hukawng Valley from the junta. The purchase was politically motivated, said company sources.

The company is now continuously transporting Burman workers into its crop plantation area in the Valley. However, many workers are leaving the job and fleeing because of very low salaries, said sources among workers.

All runaway workers not only do not return homes from the Valley but the company also does not have a programme of bringing them back, added company sources.

The company has already constructed over 1500 houses for the workers in identical styles in two separate places. Two Thai-styled big factories are also being constructed in two different places near the labour quarters, said eyewitnesses.

The company is now mainly growing Cassava Plants and Sugar Cane in the newly ploughed fields, said eyewitnesses. The glue and curry-sweet powder are being produced for export from next year, according to company sources.

The Burmese military junta plans to resettle 200,000 Burman people in ethnic Kachin's Hukawng Valley (also called Hugawng in Kachin) in the country's northern Kachin State before 2010.

Until now, the junta has already resettled over 40,000 Burman people from lower Burma in the Valley. They were systematically transported by both Yuzana Company and local Burmese Army battalions, said native Kachin community leaders.

There are an estimated 20,000 native Kachin in villages in the Hukawng Valley along the Ledo Road starting from Namti to Shingbwi Yang. The entire Valley has been separately ruled by 12 Kachin Duwas (rulers) in Kachin history until the Britishers gave Burma Independence on January 4, 1948.

At the same time, Htoo Company owned by the Burman tycoon U Te Za (also spelled Tay Za), son-in-law of the junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe is taking out at least 50 trucks of hardwood per day from the Valley to Mogaung train station for export under the banner of Yuzana Company, said company sources.

Besides, U Te Za's Htoo Company is also practically supporting the Yuzana Company with essential finance and construction machinery, according to company insiders.

Recently, the junta's Northern Command (Ma Pa Kha) commander Brig-Gen Soe Win landed in a helicopter at the helipad in No. 1 Yuzana Village of Yuzana Company in the Valley. He proudly spoke to the local people that the crop plantation can be done by every one because peace has been restored in the Valley, said local people.

The Hukawng Valley was named as the world largest Tiger Reserve by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2004. However, the Yunaza Company is destroying the reserve by heavy logging and converting forests into crop fields, said locals.

Locals and eyewitnesses told KNG, the Yuzana Company has already occupied and destroyed the No. 1 Tiger Conservation Camp near Nawng Mi village for crop plantation.

The Burman-dominated junta’s response to people or organizations who oppose the crop plantation of Yuzana Company by saying, "Man is more important than the Tiger", said company sources.

Kachin people in Burma feels that the junta is deeply is into ethnic cleansing and huge land confiscation in Hukawng Valley by using the Yuzana Company and local Burmese Army bases.

READ MORE---> Junta to resettle 200,000 Burmans in Hukawng Valley...

Burmese Army soldiers abandon 210 wives in eight villages

(Narinjara) -Burmese Army soldiers have deserted over 210 women from eight villages located near the town of Rathidaung, 20 miles north of Sittwe, after marrying them, said a youth who compiled a list.

“I have collected the names of the women, who were deserted by Burmese soldiers from only eight villages in Rathidaung Township, but I could not collect the names of women from other villages and townships in Arakan state,” he said.

The list compiled by the youth comes after three army battalions were sent to Rathidaung to be stationed from 1992 to 2008. The three battalions are LIB 536, 537 and 538.

The eight villagers are – Kha Naung Gyi, Say Kan, Kan Byin, Taung Hla Maw, Wra Thit Kay, Nga Tauk Tuu Chay and two other wards in Rathidaung- northeast east and south.

Among the 210 women, some were widowed after the soldiers died on the frontline in eastern Burma. But most of the women were abandoned by the Burmese soldiers.

“I saw many children with the women but I did not get the chance of compiling a list of children due to security problems. I hope to collect the children’s list soon,” he said.

According to a local source, many Arakanese women married Burmese soldiers in Arakanese tradition where there is no need for documents and registers.

“It is a big problem because many parents of women are innocent and poor and they did not know they needed documents and marriage certificates when their daughters married Burmese soldiers. When they complained to army officials after the soldiers left their daughters, the officials refused to pay heed to complaints because there were no marriage documents,” the youth said.

Many local elders blamed the military junta for this because the regime stationed three army battalions in Rathidaung where there is no insurgency. Everybody strongly believes it is a preplanned move by the junta to resort to ethnic cleansing in Arakan state.

U Hla Kyaw, from the motor boat ward said, “Our township was very peaceful in the past as there was no insurgency. But the junta sent three battalions to our town. Afterwards, the prices of goods increased in our town. We also faced many anti-social activities and abuses by soldiers after the battalions came.

It is learnt that there is not a single village in Arakan State where Burmese soldiers do not have a wife after nearly 60 army battalions were stationed in the State since 1988.

READ MORE---> Burmese Army soldiers abandon 210 wives in eight villages...