ASEAN urges monitoring human rights issues in Burma

By Zin Linn Nov 30, 2011

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) released a press statement in Bali dated 29 November calling on the President Thein Sein government to carry out its obligations keeping on its course of democratization and improve its human rights standards ahead of taking the ASEAN Chair in 2014.

AIPMC welcomed Burma’s recent tentative advances towards political reform. However, it suggested that those changes should turn into substantial and irreversible progress. The caucus also exposed its expectation that in preparation for its 2014 ASEAN Chairmanship, Burma could make further progress with ASEAN’s support domestically.

“Myanmar must be ready to assume the heavy responsibilities that come with being chair of ASEAN,” said Dr Lim Wee Kiak, AIPMC Vice-President and Singapore Member of Parliament. “The chair is also ASEAN’s external face to the world and helps to maintain ASEAN’s international credibility. The success of Myanmar’s chairmanship is important not only to Myanmar and her people but to ASEAN and all of us as well.”

In its press release, AIPMC calls on ASEAN and related bodies to make use of their mandatory commitment ensuring Burma (Myanmar) meets basic human rights standards delineated in the ASEAN Charter and the international law. ASEAN must continually monitor the reform development in Burma that will deliver true democratization, justice and an end to human rights abuses, the statement says.

During its annual Steering Committee Meeting in Bali, AIPMC decided to visit Burma in early 2012 where AIPMC member MPs from across the region hope to meet with government and non-government actors alike.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, AIPMC President and Indonesian Member of Parliament, said, “This is a great opportunity for us to engage with people from across the spectrum in Myanmar that are working towards democratization and improving the extremely desperate human rights situation there.”

“Myanmar and its people have a huge task ahead of them and we all hope for a brighter future. AIPMC, ASEAN, its people and its governments must all take an active interest in a freer, fairer and more open Myanmar, not only for the people of Myanmar but for all of us, as a regional community,” she added.

AIPMC representatives, including AIPMC Vice-President Kraisak Choonhavan and AIPMC member and Malaysian MP Yusmadi Yusoff also met today in Bali with Homayoun Alizadeh, regional representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for South-East Asia. They discussed ongoing developments in Burma and share information on OHCHR’s current human rights capacity building programs for establishing structures for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country.

Alizadeh supported AIPMC’s plan to meet with government and civil society actors in Burma, stressing that a new rising generation of government officials offered hope for genuine change in the future.

“The openness, dedication and commitment and eagerness of this young generation of government officials needs to be recognized. This is the generation that will have a major role to play for the democratization process of the country,” said Alizadeh adding that the government should give more space to civil society to be a part of this changing process.

AIPMC spotlighted its hopes that international and regional human rights bodies, such as the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and OHCHR, have to play a key role in assisting Burma on its path toward reform over the coming years. The caucus also urged all ASEAN states to put greater importance on human rights and exploit the progress achieved under the Indonesian Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2011.

AIPMC also drew OHCHR’s attention to specific human rights concerns in Burma counting issues linked to business and economic development projects funded by overseas investment. Besides, it also suggests focusing on substantive obstacles to national reconciliation and peace talks between the government, political opposition and armed ethnic groups.

The press release concluded: “Ongoing conflicts between the military and armed ethnic groups and the limited progress of peace talks remain a key concern. Burma must take concrete and genuine steps toward entering into upfront and inclusive peace talks with armed ethnic groups as a prerequisite for genuine democratic progress.”

http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/uzinlinn/

Can Clinton visit end ethnic war in Burma?

By Zin Linn Nov 30, 2011 2:38PM UTC

Hillary Clinton will arrive in Burma today, becoming the first US Secretary of State to pay an official visit to the isolated Asian state in 50 years.

She will be in the governmental capital Naypyitaw in the afternoon where she will meet President Thein Sein and his cabinet ministers on Thursday. The US Secretary of State is likely to push for essential changes in the secluded nation as well as seeking to weaken China’s diplomatic influence there.

After, she will fly to Rangoon, former capital and economic hub, to meet with democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ahead of Clinton’s visit most commentators have been focusing on the release of political prisoners and ending the war against the Kachin Independence Army in Northern Burma.

On Tuesday, representatives of the Thein Sein government met with delegates of Kachin Independence Organization for peace talks in Ruili in China’s southwest Yunnan province. This comes after peace talks meeting in Thailand on November 19.

The government broke a 17-year ceasefire by starting a fresh war against the KIO on June 9 this year. An attempt to negotiate for peace failed in August since the government proposed peace negotiations with the KIO on the basis of the 2008 Constitution, which suggests the KIO to disarm its military wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

However the KIO has been demanding peace talks on the basis of the 1947 Panglong Agreement, which guarantees rights of all minorities’ in the multi-ethnic nation.
The Panglong Agreement has been ignored by consecutive Burmese regimes so far.

The Panglong Agreement was signed between General Aung San and leaders of the Chin, Kachin and Shan ethnic groups guaranteeing to establish a genuine federal union of Burma.

The agreement essentially guaranteed self-determination for ethnic minorities and offered a large measure of autonomy, including independent legislature, judiciary and administrative powers.

However, the dream of equality and a federal union is far from being realized some six decades later. On the contrary, many ethnic groups are still engaged in armed conflicts with the Burmese Army, since Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, one of the longest civil wars in the world.

The KIO’s James Lum Dau made the current situation thoroughly clear by saying that, “Now, we will not go for a new peace agreement with the Burmese government unless government troops withdraw from the KIO areas in Kachin State and Northern Shan State.”

Kachin people abroad and inside the country are concerned over the fresh initiative for peace talks because the five-decade imbroglio between Kachin people and military-controlled Burmese government will not be solved through dialogue alone.

Various ethnic leaders underlined that they don’t have confidence in the new 2008 constitution, which will not generate a genuine democratic federal union by any means.

Most Burmese people oppose the inhumane war against the KIA/KIO by the government soldiers. People see the activities of government troops as fresh war crimes and they show their disagreement in various ways publicly.

In addition, the momentum of civil war in Kachin State has been increasing. People throughout the country are against this war since numerous casualties on both sides were citizens of Burma. Accordingly, many people do not have trust in Thein Sein government as a sincere administration that is committed to democratic change.

During Clinton’s two-day visit, she may push Thein Sein’s government to unlock political procedures further and to resolve the conflicts in ethnic areas. Especially, she has to urge the government to end ethic war on Sino-Burma border since the country is promising a shift to democracy.

In the midst of growing concerns about the rise of China, Clinton’s tour is also designed to reinforce US muscle in a country where China exploits the situation not only economically but also politically.


http://asiancorrespondent.com/70922/will-burma-stop-ethnic-war-in-kachin
OKA

Secretary Clinton must focus on abuses against ethnic minorities during upcoming visit to Burma

Overseas Kachin Association

Under Siege in Kachin State, Burma

Overseas Kachin Association

Fighting flares in northern Myanmar

Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive images of renewed clashes between armed Kachin group and government forces.

Last Modified: 29 Nov 2011 11:54



Myanmar is preparing for a visit by US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton this week, which is seen as a sign that the previously reclusive nation may be starting to open up.

Yet it means little to those fighting for their basic rights in the north of the country. Al Jazeera obtained exclusive footage of the fighting.

Kachin Independence Army soldiers, who are trading fire with the Myanmar army, are dug into the sides of mountains as they defend their state and fight for autonomy and greater freedom for their people.

The predominantly Christian Kachin believe this is a fight for survival against a mainly Buddhist government and army.

The latest fighting erupted in June, ending a 17-year ceasefire. The Kachin allege government troops are using chemical weapons against them in a renewed push which has seen soldier numbers increased in the region.

Al Jazeera's Wayne Hays reports from Bangkok, in neighbouring Thailand

Source: Al Jazeera

ျမန္မာအစုိးရ နဲ႔ KIO အဖြဲ ့စတုတၳ အၾကိမ္ေတြ ့ဆံု

China bids to strengthen Burma ties ahead of Clinton visit

By Zin Linn Nov 28, 2011 11:44PM UTC

The Burma Army’s goodwill delegation led by Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services General Min Aung Hlaing left Naypyitaw by air for the People’s Republic of China, the state-media said today.

According to Xinhua News, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Monday hailed the country’s friendship with Burma and pledged further bilateral ties. Xi, also vice chairman of the Central Military Committee, met with Burma’s Commander of the Armed Forces Min Aung Hlaing Monday morning in Beijing.

“The friendship, forged by leaders of the older generations, has endured changes in the international arena,” Xi said. The two countries have put into effect fruitful cooperation and support each other on international and regional issues, Xi added.
The meeting took place a few days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a visit to the reclusive state.

Burma wants a “regular relationship” with the United States, Shwe Mann, the speaker of the lower house of parliament in the military-dominated country said on Friday, ahead of the first visit by a US Secretary of State in over 50 years.
After the Thein Sein government gave a political space to Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, the US showed hinted at warmer diplomatic ties with Burma.

Shwe Mann welcomed the Clinton visit and said Suu Kyi, who is to return to politics, would be embraced by the parliament.

Clinton’s visit on Wednesday is seen as a significant step for the US in a country that has long-lasting close ties to China.

However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week her trip to Burma is to see whether the military-backed leadership of Burma is committed to both political and economic reform.

“We’d like to see more political prisoners released. We would like to see a real political process and real elections. We’d like to see an end to the conflicts, particularly the terrible conflicts with ethnic minorities,” Clinton said in an interview with Fox News.

Burmese government peace delegation will meet with the representatives of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Shweli in China’s Yunnan Province on November 29, Mizzima News said.

On November 19 and 20, Minister Aung Min held preliminary talks with KIO leaders in Mae Sai, Thailand. During the meeting, the KIO presented videos of the three meetings between Kachin leaders and the peace delegates of the Kachin state government to put forward to President Thein Sein.

Burma had held general elections last year and freed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest after polls. Thein Sein met Suu Kyi in August as a sign of change. Thein Sein has also challenged China by shutting down an unpopular dam project at Irrawaddy confluence that planned to supply power across the Sino-Burma border.

Experts say Clinton’s trip to Burma is not only to pressure for reforms in the country, but also to urge ending the ethnic war on China’s doorway. In the midst of growing concerns about the rise of China, Clinton’s tour also designed to reinforce US power in the region.

However, China does not seem fazed by the developments.

“China will work with Myanmar to further bolster the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation,” said Xi.

Burma and China have become close allies during years of US and European sanctions.
Senator John McCain said he hopes Clinton during her trip to Burma will be able to make important progress in establishing democracy and winning the release of political prisoners.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/70802/china-strengthens-ties-with-burma-ahead-of-clinton%e2%80%99s-historic-visit/
OKA

Letter to Secretary Clinton from U.S. NGOs

Interview With NMSP's President Nai Htaw Mon

Chinese Vice President vows to further ties with Myanmar

CRIMES IN NORTHERN BURMA

ဒို႔ျမန္မာေတြ ဘယ္တုန္းက ေတာ္ခဲ့သလဲ ?

Bangkok Post: Brutal reality behind junta's benign face

WOMEN’S LEAGUE OF BURMA: Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton

သမၼတ သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲအဓိပၸယ္ ဘာလဲ?

DVB 11252011

Hundreds die in obscure war on Burma's border with China

Letter to Secretary Clinton from CSW

အႏွစ္၂၀ အေတြ႔အႀကဳံရဲ႕ အမွန္တရား

Burma pursued nuclear weapons with North Korea, U.S. senator says

(J. Scott Applewhite/AP) - Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee received information roughly five years ago that the Burmese government intended to develop nuclear weapons with the help of North Korea.
By William Wan, Published: November 24

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee received information roughly five years ago that the Burmese government intended to develop nuclear weapons with the help of North Korea, according to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).

The committee at the time relayed the details to U.S. officials but did not release the information publicly, according to Keith Luse, a committee staff member.
Lugar’s statement, to be released Friday, comes ahead of a trip to Burma by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will be the first of her rank to travel to the isolated and authoritarian country in half a century.

“With the upcoming visit, Senator Lugar wanted to throw a spotlight on this issue and make sure it’s on the table in our talks with the Burmese government,” Luse said. Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Burmese officials have denied nuclear ambitions and told Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during a visit in June that their country was too poor to pursue a nuclear arms program.

But for years, U.S. officials have kept close watch over the relationship between North Korea and Burma — two of the world’s most heavily sanctioned governments and both accused of human rights abuses.

In recent years, the U.S. Navy has turned away North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons to Burma, also known as Myanmar. Defectors have emerged from Burma with allegations that the country is pursuing nuclear technology. And diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks last year described suspicions among U.S. officials of clandestine cooperation between the two isolated countries and indications that hundreds of North Koreans were at one point working at a covert military site in the Burmese jungle.

“The sincerity with which a wide range of reforms has been promised by the Burmese government must be judged by whether the words are followed by actions,” Lugar said in his statement. “An early goal of the tentative U.S. re-engagement with Burma should be full disclosure of the extent and intent of the developing Burmese nuclear program.”

Clinton leaves for Asia on Monday and will first stop in South Korea to take part in talks on international aid before flying to Burma.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/burma-pursued-nuclear-weapons-with-north-korea-us-senator-says/2011/11/24/gIQAsebUtN_story.html

OKA

ေျပာင္းလဲပစ္၇မယ့္ ျမန္မာအာဏာပိုင္ေတြ၇ဲ ့ စိတ္ဓါတ္နဲ ့ အမူအက်င့္

ေအာက္အီးအီး သူမတြန္မွေတာ့ ေရနံရယ္တတိုင္းခ်င္း လင္းႏိုင္ပါ့မလား

Kyaw Than-02

အစိုး၇စစ္ေၾကာင္း ေပၚတာမ်ားကို အဓမၼခိုင္းေစ

DVB 11242011

Hillary Clinton's Yangon arrival on November 30 and the military-junta's hurried plans against the KIO

Laiza, November 24, 2011

With the arrival of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Yangon November 30, President Thein Sein's military commanders are apparently under orders to do something meaningful quickly against the the KIO. The quick victory the Tatmadaw had initially expected is turning out to be more elusive than scheduled. The US had let it be known meanwhile, that any talk of sanction reduction will not occur until war with ethnic nationalities has completely ceased. Meanwhile, President Thein Sein's reform talk has provided the US a cosy corner to occupy in his quarters; yes, the US will support the reform agenda and even help to push it.

Recently, U Aung Min, a Thein Sein minister, met with representatives of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), including the KIO, the proponents of federalism according to Panglong plans, and assured that he came as a minister of Thein Sein's government, not as a hluttaw delegate, a careful distinction intended to assert that the reform agenda is in the hands of Thein Sein faction. He meticulously enunciated that all political power in the Union is in President Thein Sein's hands, including the military. Thus, it seems likely that the rushed agenda against the KIO originated in the President's very own office.

So why this war agenda against the Kachins? There are two obvious reasons. First, Thein Sein cannot survive at this time without the support of the Tatmadaw, and the government based on the military owes big-time debt to China. Second, among China's agenda items is a highway to India through Kachin State. And China, realizing the implications of increasing US presence in Burma's national politics, feels the time to pursue its agenda may soon be in jeopardy.

Hence, there is the pervasive feeling today in Kachinland that the Tatmadaw will try to make major moves against the Kachins, and this means attack on Laiza itself. The predictable outcome will be the decentralization of Kachin armed resistance into the jungles, and as well, into the Kachin population of Yunnan and Tibetan borderlands. Is this what China and Thein Sein really want?

It is critical for the US to let Thein Sein know that any action on his part that has exacerbating consequence in the region will have impact on Secretary Clinton's plans. Meanwhile, Kachins domiciled all over the world may be on the verge on commencing on a massive hungry strike.


SK for OKA News

Why Go to Myanmar?

Burma Ethnic Rebels Cautious About Government Peace Offer

Myanmar’s Good Deeds Are No Guarantee of Lasting Political Freedoms: View

Photograph by Nelson Ching/Bloomberg; Illustration by Bloomberg View
By the Editors Nov 22, 2011 6:01 PM

It’s understandable that so many people are optimistic these days about Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Last year, the military-dominated nation held its first election in two decades, placing a civilian, Thein Sein, in the presidency. Democratic opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who boycotted the vote, will re-enter electoral politics, her party announced. The junta recently pardoned more than 6,300 prisoners, many of them political detainees. The state has begun liberalizing the economy and lifted some Internet and press censorship. And on Sept. 30, the government suspended construction of a Chinese-financed dam on the Irrawaddy River after protests by Burmese citizens over its likely social and environmental effects.

The regime has been swiftly rewarded for this apparent loosening of control. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to let Myanmar take over the group’s rotating chairmanship in 2014; Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak insists that the military rulers are “on the road to greater democratization and are also being more inclusive”; and, citing“flickers of progress,” U.S. President Barack Obama is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Myanmar early next month.

Time for a reality check. The shiny new capital city of Naypyidaw is an Orwellian Oz, and the man behind the curtain is Senior General Than Shwe, who has been the top man in the junta since 1992 and remains so despite his official resignation as head of state in March.

Hardly a Democracy

The 2010 election was hardly democracy in action, with independent observers citing widespread intimidation and bribery by the government and its supporters, who emerged with more than 80 percent of the parliament’s seats. The U.S. and European Union condemned it as neither free nor fair. And in any case, the military appoints all top ministers and judges and controls the state budget. President Thein Sein is a former general himself, and giving up his military status for appearance’s sake should be seen as a prime example of civilian obeisance to the military regime.
According to the human-rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), there are at least 2,000 political prisoners still being held in the nation’s 42 prisons and 109 labor camps. The dam controversy, which is being seen by many as the Burmese bucking their longtime financial supporters in Beijing, was really a pragmatic move of domestic politics. (The government has for years been battling ethnic militias in the northern region where the dam was located and was probably spooked by civilian protests there.)

The regime’s supposed moves toward liberalization occurred just as the Obama administration was beginning to see its strategy of engagement with Myanmar -- in a complete reversal of the George W. Bush approach -- as a failure. According to a Congressional Research Service report, U.S. diplomats found their Burmese counterparts “relatively unresponsive in the high-level meetings, preferring to confine discussion to the exchange of formal statements that avoid or evade the issues raised by U.S. officials.” One State Department officer, Joseph Y. Yun, told Congress this year that “we are disappointed by the lack of any results from our repeated efforts at dialogue.”

If the Obama administration -- and its Western and Asian allies -- has new hopes for dialogue, they are welcome to give it a try. But there should be no concrete policy concessions. While the International Monetary Fund finds that the near-blanket sanctions imposed by the U.S. (as well as Canada andAustralia) have not been a significant factor in Myanmar’s economic troubles, they are an important moral statement. (The same can be said about infusions of humanitarian aid during crises such as Cyclone Nargis in 2008.)

Economic Disaster Zone

Some argue that increased economic engagement could blunt Chinese influence in Myanmar and the region. That seems unlikely. The economy is a disaster -- commercial banks can lend for a period of no more than a year; mortgages are unheard of; farmers, who make up the majority of the population, are kept out of private credit markets -- and the country will long be dependent on the region’s dominant power. And if economic competition is needed, India is poised to provide it.

Looking ahead, the West should consider what to do should the regime’s talk of change prove a cover for the status quo. Perhaps the European Union might be moved to emulate the stricter U.S. sanctions approach. Officials in Washington could also consider some new steps: banning imports of products manufactured elsewhere using Burmese teak, say, or barring federal contracts to companies doing business in Myanmar.

We all hope that one of the world’s most repressive states is on the path to freedom. And Suu Kyi’s decision to re-enter the electoral fray gives a hint that she, at least, thinks the junta might be beginning to get serious. But nothing the Myanmar regime has done so far merits any major change to how it is treated on the global stage.

To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board:view@bloomberg.net.
OKA

Burma: To continue ethnic war or political reform?

Asian Correspondent
By Zin Linn Nov 23, 2011 4:31PM UTC

Burma’s new Thein Sein government looks as if on the point of a historic move as democracy icon and key opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi recently decided to take part in the country’s official Political arena and President Obama declared plans sending the US Secretary of State to Burma for the first time in half a century.

In an interview with Fox News, the US Secretary of State Ms. Clinton said there were specific steps she expected from Burma. According to Ms. Clinton, the US desires to see more Political prisoners released and to see a real Political process and genuine elections. In addition, US wants to see an end to the conflicts, particularly the terrible conflicts with ethnic minorities, the US Secretary of State said.

Since the US has clearly called for an end to the war against the ethnic people, the Thein Sein government appears to open a first phase of cessation of hostilities plan.

For instance, U Aung Min, union minister of railway transport and special representative of President Thein Sein, met delegations from Shan, Karen, Karenni, Chin and Kachin armed ethnic groups at a secret location on the Thai- Burma border on November 19, as said by Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.).

Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), Karen National Union (KNU) and Chin National Front (CNF) had reportedly agreed to sign ceasefire accords with respective state governments after preparatory meeting with U A ung Min.

However, at the same time, the war against the Kachin rebels has been going on with heavy casualties. On 21 November, 37 soldiers belonging to a Burmese Army’s company died in action in N’Tap Bum war zone in Kachin State, northern Burma. The news was confirmed by a porter who escaped from the clutches of the said Burmese Army’s company. He ran away from the Burmese military column and escaped to the KIA controlled area.

According to the porter, the soldiers were killed in the combat with Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers in different places in the N’Tap Bum mountain range, about 8 miles southeast of KIA headquarters Laiza, near the Sino- Burma border, Kachin News Group reported.

Greater than 1,000 Burmese troops have been secretly deployed in the strategic mountain range since mid-October aiming to capture Laiza, KIA officials in Laiza said. On November 17, the Kachin armed forces successfully pushed back Burmese troops deployed in the mountain range and lots of arms and ammunition were seized by Kachin soldiers, said KIA officials.

However, skirmishes continue between KIA soldiers and the remaining Burmese troops in the mountain range, said KIA officers on the frontline.

Meanwhile, there was a peculiar yellow rain that fell in Mai Ja Yang town in war zone Kachin State on Sunday. The yellow rain fell there in three different places in the town. The dark yellow rain fell from black clouds just like rain, according to residents there. The same yellow rain also fell in Mai Ja Yang on 21 November, as said by residents.

As a result, children in Mai Ja Yang and those of people in refugee camps are suffering from common cough, said a health volunteer in the town. The reason of the cough was not known so far. Almost all children suffering from coughing had oral drought and continuing cough.

Till now, the KIO authorities and residents have no idea about the yellow rain. The rain fell like paste unlike common rain-water, said eyewitnesses. They are extremely worried, wondering whether it is acid rain or chemical rain, a resident told Kachin News Group on Monday.

Most residents believe it could be end result of the poison gas used by Burmese Army fighting against KIO troops near Mai Ja Yang. Burmese soldiers had attacked KIO with chemical weapons earlier this month, a victim of the chemical weapon said.

This act violates the Geneva Protocol which banned use of chemical and biological weapons in both civil and foreign conflicts. President Thein Sein’s government has to take responsibility for the use of such chemical weapons.

In brief, while other ethnic groups are on the way to negotiation, Kachin group has been under government’s severe offensives. The government should not differentiate KIO from other groups.

If the President Thein Sein really sought after a democratic reform in Burma, all the wars with respective ethnic rebels including KIA must be stopped immediately.
President Thein Sein should not say poverty alleviation or good governance while he has been continuing civil war against ethnic groups that make the country underprivileged in the ASEAN region.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/
OKA

သမၼတဦးသိန္းစိန္ဟာ ပကတိ အေျခအေနမွန္ကို၇င္ဆိုင္၇ဲသူလား? စစ္၀ါဒီလား?

DVB TV News (November)

ေကအိုင္အိုကိုယ္စားလွယ္အခ်ိဳ ့အစိုး၇ကိုယ္စားလွယ္ ႏွင့္ေတြ ့ဆံု

DVB 11222011

၂၀၀၈ဖြဲ႕စည္းပံုျဖင့္ႏိုင္ငံေရးျပႆနာ မေျဖရွင္းႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း ABMA ေၾကညာခ်က္ထုတ္

တုိင္းရင္းသားလက္နက္ကုိင္ ၅ ဖဲြ႔နဲ႔ ျမန္မာကုိယ္စားလွယ္အဖဲြ႔ေတြ႔ဆုံ

U Win Tin – စြန္႔လႊတ္ စြန္႔စားရမယ့္ စိန္ေခၚမႈဆီသိုု႔

BURMA: CSW URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO HIGHLIGHT PLIGHT OF ETHNIC NATIONALITIES IN ENGAGEMENT WITH BURMESE REGIME

မွတ္ပံုတင္ျခင္း ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲ၀င္ျခင္းအေပၚသေဘာထားအျမင္မ်ား

Burma Inches Toward Ethnic Peace

RFA: 2011-11-21
Initial but serious talks are held between the government and ethnic rebel groups.


Photo courtesy of Larry Jagan.
Government and ethnic rebel group representatives hold talks along the Thailand-Burma border, Nov. 19, 2011.

Serious negotiations aimed at finally bringing peace to Burma have begun in secret meetings held between the Burmese government and ethnic rebel groups along the Thai-Burma border, officials said.

Railways minister Aung Min—special envoy for the Burmese president Thein Sein—met over the weekend with top representatives from the four major ethnic groups still fighting for independence or autonomy.

“Although these meetings were only preliminary, they are a serious and sincere effort and genuine initiative for a sustainable and long-lasting peace in the ethnic areas,” Aung Min told RFA in a telephone interview.

In what all sides described as fruitful discussions in which a vision for the future was clearly laid out, the minister met with representatives from the Karen National Union (KNU), the Shan Southern Army (SSA, or SURA as the Burmese government calls them), the Karenni National People’s Party (KNPP), and the Chin Nationalist Force (CNF).

“The government of Thein Sein sincerely wants to find a fair and durable peace which would cover all the ethnic groups’ concerns,” the minister said. “It is the president’s intention to invite them to the capital Naypyidaw in the near future to finalize formal cease-fire agreements.”

As a result of these talks, an informal truce is now in place to help the peace process move forward.

Provincial level

The next step will be for ethnic representatives to meet Burmese government officials at the provincial level, including the chief ministers of the respective states and regional military commanders, said a source at the meeting who insisted on remaining anonymous.

At least two groups—the SSA and CNF—have already set dates within the next six weeks for their regional meetings to take place. The KNU agreed in principle to further meetings, but must discuss details with their central committee before scheduling the dates.

Several key conditions were agreed for the interim period.

Members of the various groups will be allowed to travel freely in each other’s areas of control, provided they go unarmed.

And the ethnic rebel groups will be allowed to canvass the opinions of their people in local discussions in the run-up to the planned meetings in the regional capitals—though the government has agreed that these meetings may also be held in a neutral venue, with a final major meeting held in Naypyidaw.

In the meantime, both the government and the ethnic groups will work on development issues and create special economic zones. The Burmese government sees this as crucial for the process to lead to lasting peace and prosperity.

The SSA also insists that the ethnic groups and government cooperate to eradicate all drug production in the Shan state.

Previous cease-fire agreements failed because of a lack of peace planning, according to a government representative at the talks. Essentially, they brought an uneasy peace but no significant economic development.

“Any cease-fire agreement must be in the interests of the ordinary people,” Aung Min said.

Federalism

Participants also agreed that future talks should include the issues of political rights and federalism. The Burmese government is keen for the ethnic groups to compete in future elections—even the upcoming by-elections—once the regional and national talks have been held and a cease-fire agreement has been signed.

The minister told the ethnic representatives that it will always be possible to make changes to the constitution, especially if more ethnic representatives are elected to parliament in 2015.

All parties agreed to a cease-fire, but said they would officially sign the agreement only after further discussions at a later date. After the cease-fire agreement is signed, the second step of the peace process would be to discuss development in the ethnic areas, with a final meeting held in Naypyidaw approving the results of the peace process.

“After the armed ethnic groups reach a cease-fire with the government, it will call a conference in the capital Naypyidaw similar to the Panlong conference,” reports quoted Aung Min as saying. “This conference would be held in front of MPs at the parliament.”

Every party concerned would be invited to take part in the discussions to find a lasting political solution, he said.

Burmese academics, businessmen, and politicians—including some from the educational nongovernmental organization Egress—were involved in setting up the weekend meetings.

Key Shan role

The former Shan leader Harn Yawnghwe, who recently made a return visit to Burma for the first time in nearly 50 years, played a key role in organizing the talks.

This was in fact the second round of talks. The first round took place earlier this month, with SSA leaders afterward visiting Rangoon to help prepare for the next step in the process.

There have been many meetings like this in the past, including the talks held between now-deceased KNU leader Byo Mya and former military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, but these all failed because of a lack of trust on both sides.

This time, everyone seems to be committed to making sure the process does not fail again.

These current talks are running in parallel with similar talks held with the ethnic groups that have already signed cease-fire agreements, especially the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which also met with the minister on the weekend.

Burmese government officials involved in the process are convinced that an end to the country’s devastating civil war is now in sight.


Reported by Larry Jagan in Bangkok for RFA's Burmese service.
OKA

Shagun Laika

Myit hkrum gahkyin gumdin ai hte n tara ai lam hpe adawt ninghkap sa wa ga (Sinat n lang tim mai ai)

De,
Amyu Wunpawng Sha Ni Yawng hpe saw lajin dat ga ai.

Dai ni gaw N’Mau Township, Hkai Bang Mare na chyu chyu Ma naw lu ai Ma Kanu Sumlut Roi Ja hpe Myen Asuya Dap Hk.M.Y (321) a shawng lam hpyen dap lakung rai nga ai Mu Bum Hpyen Dap na hpyen la ni woi mat wa ai dai ni November shata praw (18) ya shani du hkra rai yang ninghtoi (25) ya hpring sai hku re. Dai ni du hkra si ai hkrung ai n chye ai masa rai taw nga ai.

Kanu Kana Sumlut Roi Ja hpe Hk.M.Y (321) dap kung rai nga ai Mu Bum Hpyen Dap na hpyen la marai (6) gaw 2011 ning October shata praw (28) ya shana de hkying 3:00 hte 4:00 laman hta Hkai Bang mare makau na Sumlut Roi Ja ni a yi kaw na rim mat wa ai. Rim mat wa ai shaloi Sumlut Roi Ja hte shi a ningrum ningtau Maru Dau Lum hte asak 70 daram rai sai kagu dingla Maru Ze Dau yan mung lawm ai. Sumlut Roi Ja hte shi madu wa Slg. Maru Dau Lum hpe gaw shanhte sharun da ai hkai nu ma gun shangun ai. Hpyen la ni marai (6) mung shanhte a shingma ba n hpye kaw hpring hpring gun ai. Slg. Maru Dau Lum hte Slg. Maru Ze Dau yan wa gaw lam lapran kaw asak hpe kashun let hprawng mat wa ai majaw hkan gap ai lapran kaw na lawt pru wa ai. Sumlut Roi Ja mung hprawng shakut ai masa nga ai raiitm, n lu hprawng mat ai majaw hpang jahtum Mu Bum hpyen dap de woi lung mat wa sai.

Shi lawt wa na matu anhte makyin jinghku jingyu manaw manang ni, buga amyu shayi ni gaw chye ai made hku gaw shakut yu saga ai. Sumlut Roi Ja a kagu nan mung Kachin State, Government de lawan dat ya na matu ading tawk hpyi shawn ai laika mung ka saga ai. Raitim, Jinghpaw Mungdaw Hkring Mang Daju wa hku nan sagawn ai shaloi G-1 (Hpyen Awn Tsang Langai) kaw nna tsun ai gaw “Hk.M.Y (321) Dap kata kaw dai num n nga ai” ngu tsun ai nga shiga lu la ai.

Ndai gaw myi hpaw da nna masu ai lam she re. Sumlut Roi Ja hpe rim mat wa ai shani jang dai hpyen dap kata de palawng ahkyeng ka ka re hpun ai num langai woi shang mat wa ai mung mu ga ai, October 29,30ya shani ni hta mung shi hpe rim mat wa ai shaloi hpun mat wa ai, palawng ahkye ka ka re ai the shani shagu jan shaw lam, shi dung nga ai, tsap nga ai yawng mu ai. Hpyen la ni yawng shi hpe sa gang, ahpum amyu myu di ai lam ni hpe mu ai ni nga ai.

Anhte Amyu Shayi Ni nan mung myi chyaw mu na matu October shata praw (31) ya shani, shani tup la yu ai shaloi dai shani mung dap wang kata kaw shi hpe naw mu ai. Raitim, palawng galai mat sai. Hpyen palawng jahpun kau ai. Ndai zawn re sak se ni nga nga ninglen, n re ai, n nga ai nga na ningdang ai lam byin nga sai.

November shata praw (1) ya shani kaw na gaw shi hpe dap wang kata kaw n mu sai. Dai ni du hkra n mu sai. N pru shangun mat ai i? (shing n rai) sat kau ya sai i? n dai lam lahkawng hta na langai ngai gaw rai na masa nga wa ai hpe maram lu nga ai.
Dai majaw Amyu Wunpawng Sha ni yawng gaw tinang nga ai ginra, shara, magam bungli hku nna ndai lam hpe ganawng garum na matu hpyi lajin dat ga ai. Anhte a gahkyin gumdin lam hpe madun ga. Anhte kaw nta masha ni hpe interview da ai, mabyin byin ai yi na sumla ni, mu bum kaw mu ai Sumlut Roi Ja a sumla (sumtsan na zom) hte gang nna gayet da ai sumla ni, vedio file ni hpe sak se lu da ga ai.

Bai nna, Lai sai October shata 17 – 18 – 19 ya shana hkan Myitkyina mare kaw Potter lahkawn ai nga shiga mawng pru wa sai. Dai ten hta potter rim la hkrum ai Kachin Ramma marai (20) hpe Sadung, Ga Ra Yang Lam magang ang ai Mikhtila hte Myauk Paing Taing Dap hpawn hpyen n-gun 100 daram re hpyen hpung ni potter rim mat wa ai teng sai hku re. Kaga hpyen hpung ni hta kade naw lawm mat wa ai n chye ai. Raitim, dai ni dai hpyen hpung na lawt wa ai ramma marai (5) hta na langai mi hte ngai nan hkrum nna san htai galaw la lu ai lam nga sai. Dai potter lawt wa ai ramma la kasha gaw ya ten grai hkrit mat ai majaw shinan kadai hte mung san htai galaw na myit rai n jin shi ai hku re.

Shi tsun ai hta dai rim mat wa ai marai (20) kaw num kasha asak naw kaji ai marai (2) ma lawm ai nga ai. Shanhte marai 20 the gaw hpyen la ni kam ai hku htawng bye hkrum ai hta sha n-ga dai num kasha (2) gaw shani shana myen hpyen du (officers) ni e roi rip, jakrin hpyen hpung a man e hka shin shangun, hka shin ngut jang roi, Hpyen du captain langai hte ngam ai langai kap officers ni e kam ai hku shana tup tup jawm roi, Captain wa gaw hpyen hpung a man e jakrin hka shin nna dai num kasha lahkawng hta na kaji ai wa mahtang hka jaw shangun, hka shin ngut jang hkum ting hka katsut jahkraw shangun di nhtawm kata labu buy a rai ai hku re.

Lani mi na dai num kasha 2 hta na loi grau kaba hpum ai jan hpe roi rip ngu nna dai num kasha wag aw tap shinggan e hput di nna akyu hpyi jang “ndai shara akyu hpyi na shara n re, nahte Karai Kasang hpa mung dang di lu ai nga, kanang nang hpe lu hkye nga a ni ngu na du krung kaw lata hte htwi lahtum bang dat ai gaw she gumpye mat wa ai. Dai num kasha mung Captain wa hpe mayen mahtwi jaw jang man hku bai byen anin dat ya ai gaw wa she rum mat ai” nga na tsun dan wa ai.

Dai ni du hkra dai num kasha lahkawng the ngam ai ramma la kasha 13 gaw n lawt wa shi ai hku re. Marai 20 kaw na marai 5 hprawng lawt wa sai.

Dai majaw ndai lam hpe sagawn ga. Kadai mung tinang a jinghku kasha, nta masha mat n mat n sagawn chye ma ai kun? Argentina kaw Penochek wa e kam ai hku rim makoi sat nat zing ri ai shaloi ya na zawn ramma ni mat ma ai. Raitim, Argentina na kanu num ni kade magrau grang a ta nga yang balik dap de sa nna, “Nye kasha mat ai tam ya mi” ndai hku sat sun ai. Hpa majaw nga yang masha mat jang mungdan asuya, balik dap ni, up hkang ai ni hta lit nga ai. Mat ai hpe shanhte n lu tam ya ai nga jang shanhte lama ma di kau ai ga rai nga. Shanhte ni gaw hpaji mung n chye ai kanu ni re.

Dinggai ngawk ngawk ni sa nna balik dap ni hpe hpyi shawn ai lam byin wa sai. Kanu num 1,2 kaw na gawng ngwi ngwi grai law ai hpe shada da mu chye wa sai. Ndai kanu num ni mahkawng wa nna media ni mung myit shang sha wa sai. Hpang jahtum ndai asuya gumshem magam ni n tara ai galaw nga ai hpe mungkan ting chye wa nna Penochek hpe ninghkap ai lamang mungdan ting byin wa ai re.

Argentina na hpyen gumshem magam mung Myen Gumshem magam hte mare sha mazut ai re. Anhte gaw nau hkrit ja ai, hkrit magang roi magang re. Ladat jaw jaw ma galaw yu saga. Dai ni nang n tsun yang hpawt ni nang mare ting ma na, amyu ting wa na hpe dum ga.

Dai majaw ngai tsun mayu ai gaw” tinang a kasha ni mat nga ai n chye ai kun? Kadai mung hpa ntsun; Naw ku hpung ni tinang a hpung masha mat ai n chye ai kun? anhte ndai gaw tara upadi kata na mung mai tsun shaga na mahkrun ni nga na re. Raitim, anhte alliance ngu ai shada pawng hpawm n-gun hte network ngu ai jinghkri gaw nga da ra ai. Ya galai shai na matu shakut ai ngu na mungkan kaw mying shadawng mayu nga ai Asuya a masa hpe tek jum nna tara shang lam yan hku na mung tam wa, hpyi shawn yu ga. Ndai marai 15 a lam a katsi shat awn kau sana kun? kaga kade naw nga ai ngu ai n chye ai mung n de marang chye wa lu na re. Potter rim hkrum na n pru wa ai ni grai law ai. Ndai case ni Naypyidaw de, human rights commission de shadu ga le. Kaga international de mugn du hkra galaw ga le.

Nam Lim Pa mare na Potter marai (9) hpe October shata praw 11 kaw na woi mat wa ai praw (28) ya shani she dat dat ai. Dai marai (9) hpe agying adup zing ri kau ai, lata lahkawng maga gyit gale da nna rai gun shangun ai, n sin gawk kaw bang da ai. Adup na sai pru jang shada mata sha shangun hkat ai. Dai gaw dap (47) ni galaw ai re. Dai hpe mu ai mare Salang langai Man Maw na Lut Daw Kasa Hpau La Kam Hpang hpe tsun shana ya ai majaw Hpau La Kam Hpang hku nna Byu Ha Mu de hpyi shawn nna lawt wa sai.

Gara hku ladat hte mi rai rai anhte yawng gaw ladat lama mi hku sha gaw galaw yu yang mahtai lama ma gaw lu la nhten ngu mu ai. Anhte amyu sha ni hkrit magang roi magang rai nga ai ngu mu mada ai. Tara shingwang kata hku na wuhpung wuhpawng masa hku nna galaw ai hta marai 1,2,3 sha rain a gala wai gaw grau n-gun nga ai. Lama ma action pru hkra galaw ga. Dai n rai yang ndai masha marai 15, sumlut roi ja the rai yang (16) a matu shakut ga law.

Ndai lang gaw shanhte n mai masu sai. Lai sai ten na mabyin ni shanhte n re zawn chyu nga na masu ai. Ningdang ai. Ya gaw shanhte lata nan byin ai hpe anhte yawng hpyi shawn ra sai ngu mu mada ai. “Dat ya rit ngu ai hte sha gaw n ngut sai kun? Anhte kaga ladat hpa naw mai galaw na kun? Human Rights Commission de mung tan gna matu hkyen nga ga ai? kaga galaw mai na ladat hpa ni naw nga na ngu ai hpe yawng jawm myit nna galaw ga ngu saw lajin dat mayu ga ai.

Ndai lang myi tu myi hkye shanhte woi mat wa ai re chye ninglen, a kasi shatawn kau yang gaw anhte hpe matut nna roi sha n hpang shajat la ai lam sha rai na re. Kaning rai roi rip hkrum sha tim anhte gaw azin sha mana sha kau kau re majaw mung dai ni man sha taw nga ai re majaw ndai lang gaw anhte mung majoi gaw n hkam mana sha saga ngu myit ga ai. Ndai amu a majaw hpang de anhte hpe majoi n roi gwi mu ga matu yawng naw jawm marawn, n-dun madun, tara shang mahkrun hku mung shawk din a jawm shakut ga ngu ga saw dat ai.

Saw shaga ai.

Wunpawng Amyu Shayi Ni (Kanu Mungdan)

Myen Asuya ni Tsun ai Eternal peace ngu ai gaw KIA dap ni yawng laknak jahkrat ya ra na lam re

Yellow Rain in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State, Burma-II

ေဒါက္တာဆလုိင္းထြန္းသန္းနဲ႕ အင္တာဗ်ဴး

Yellow Rain in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State, Burma

Appeal to all Kachin People

Today, November 20, 2011, at 2:30 in the afternoon, rain fell with the color of mustard yellow. It is especially heavy around Quarter 2, at the head of Mai Ja Yang village. A thick residue accumulated on top of many houses. On some roofs this residue is particularly visible. It also has substantial accumulation on the garden vegetable leaves of mustard and sweet potato, according to witness accounts of residents here.

Two unusual rushing noises, like during a stormy downpour, preceded this yellow rain. Those who were outside felt a cold splash of liquid in the exposed areas of skin. It dried up quickly. We inspected this yellow rain at 4:00pm at which point all residues were dry. We collected evidence using video equipment. We will be sending out this video report as soon as possible.

Residents and refugees alike who live in Mai Ja Yang are very worried about our drinking water and the vegetable plants we have cultivated, and are avoiding consuming them at this time.

Reported by May Li Awng
Mai Ja Yang
November 20, 2011

Hkungga let,

Wunpawng Sha ni yawng hpang de shana dat ai. Mai Ja Yang kaw dai na de 20/11/2011 shana de hkying 2:30 pm daram hta sanap hka garang da ai nsam hta kachyi mi grau htoi ai nsam hte re marang htu wa ai. Mai Ja Yang mare baw de lawk (2) maga de grau sawng ai. Nkau nta hkan gaw ram ram htat ai. Yi mau chyan nta ntsa kaw gaw grau dan ai. Chyinghkrang lap, nai sam lam ntsa hkan e mung kap taw ai. Rai n htu shi yang n sen lama mi shawng na ai da. Lawk (2) na ni tsun ai. Nsen myu mi nga 2 lang na dat ai hpang marang zawn nga raw nga htu dat ai nsen na ai da. Dai hpang gaw nta shinggan kaw nga taw ai masha ni a lata ntsa kaw mung hkra ai. Hkra ai shaloi gaw akasi nga ai da. Dai hpang gaw hkraw mat ai.

Anhte ni wa yu ai shaloi gaw hkying 4:00 daram rai sai hku re. Dai shaloi gaw hkraw taw sai.

Sak se vedio, photo sumla ni mung la da ga ai. Ya shagun dat ai laika kaw na sumla hte bung ai. Sumla hpe hpang e shagun dat na ga ai. Anhte mare masha ni yawng hte hpyen yen ni yawng grai myit tsang nga ga ai. Hka mung n lu gwi, si mai si maw mung n mai sha ai.

Shana ai

May Li Awng
--------------------------------------------------------
Yellow Rain

1975, following the Vietnam War, the communist governments of Vietnam and Laos launched a retaliatory campaign against Hmong tribesmen in northern Laos, who had sided with the United States during the war and continued to resist communist rule. That summer, reports came from Laos claiming that government forces were using Soviet-supplied chemical weapons to drive the Hmong out of their mountain hideaways. Refugees reported that toxic agents were being delivered by low-flying aircraft; most described an oily, yellow liquid that sounded like rain when it struck leaves or roofs, earning it the nickname "yellow rain."

Many people exposed to yellow rain suffered physical and neurological symptoms, including seizures, blindness, and bleeding. Similar attacks were reported during the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978, and in Afghanistan in 1979. Reports from Chinese analysts suggest that nearly 10,000 people died from these incidents between 1975 and 1982. The similarities between the descriptions of the attacks and subsequent symptoms raised suspicions that the same agent had been used in all three locations.

Initially, U.S. chemical weapons experts were baffled by yellow rain. The symptoms described by refugees did not match the effects of any known chemical weapon agent. However, in July 1981, a U.S. Army toxicologist noted a striking similarity between the symptoms of yellow rain exposure and those resulting from exposure to fungal toxins called trichothecene mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are naturally occurring substances produced by fungi, many of which can be harmful to animals and humans. Trichothecene mycotoxins comprise a group of more than 40 compounds found in common grain mold. Laboratory analysis of a yellow rain sample taken from an alleged attack site in Laos identified three different trichothecenes present in concentrations and combinations not known to occur in nature.

Trichothecene mycotoxins are believed to have been discovered accidentally by the Soviet military during World War II. During that time, thousands of Soviet civilians were afflicted with alimentary toxic aleukia, a highly lethal disease with symptoms resembling radiation poisoning. The disease was caused by the ingestion of bread made with flour contaminated by fusarium mold, which had grown on wheat left in fields all winter long, due to the war. This outbreak spurred intensive Soviet research on mycotoxin poisoning as a public health threat.

The Soviet Union also had some manner of ties to each of the locations where yellow rain had been reported: the Soviets supported the Communist Vietnamese forces and the Pathet Lao political movement in Laos and Cambodia, and were directly involved in the war in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence hypothesized that the Soviets had recognized the military potential of trichothecenes and developed them as weapons. In 1981, based on this hypothesis and the laboratory findings, then U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced that physical evidence had been found, proving that mycotoxins supplied by the Soviet Union were being used as a weapon against civilians and insurgents in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.

The U. S. allegation was not universally accepted. Some nations were unsuccessful in identifying mycotoxins in yellow rain samples, and the United Nations found the evidence to be inconclusive. In 1987, a group of academic scientists, led by Harvard molecular biologist Matthew Meselson, traveled to Laos to conduct an investigation. The team noted that some trichothecene mycotoxins occurred naturally in the region. Based on this and the presence of pollen in some yellow rain samples, the team offered an alternative hypothesis that the yellow rain phenomenon was not a chemical attack, but the result of massive swarms of bees depositing feces over the areas. Such swarms have been documented before and since the yellow rain incidents—although mass casualties did not result from these swarms. An example of one such swarm occurred in India in 2002. This incident is cited by proponents of the bee feces hypothesis as supporting evidence. At that time, a yellow-green rain fell from the sky on the town of Sangrampur, near Calcutta. Fears arose that the rain might be contaminated with toxins or chemical warfare agents, but scientists confirmed that the yellow-green droplets were, in fact, bee feces containing pollen from local mangoes and coconuts. The scientists concluded that the colored rain could have been caused by the migration of a giant swarm of Asian honeybees.

The U.S. government has never retracted the yellow rain allegations, and the controversy has never been fully resolved. A declassified CIA intelligence document written in 1983, suggests that the Soviet Union developed weapons based on trichothecene mycotoxins as early as 1941 and may have tested them on political prisoners. The Soviet Union never declared any stockpiles of trichothecene mycotoxins among their stores of chemical and biological weapons, however, and no trace of a trichothecene-containing weapon was ever found in the areas affected by yellow rain. Their use may never be unequivocally proved.

------------------------

OKA

၂၀၀၈ ဖြဲ႔စည္းပံု၊ ၾကားျဖတ္ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲနဲ႔ တမတ္သားပါလီမန္ထဲအထိေတာ့ လုိက္၍ မေထာက္ခံႏိုင္ပါ

US sanctions on Myanmar to continue

msn News
by Lalit K Jha

Washington, Nov 19 (PTI) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ruled out lifting sanctions on Myanmar, arguing that more concrete steps need to be taken by the new government in the Asian country.

"We''re not ending sanctions. We are not making any abrupt changes," Clinton told the Fox news in an interview.

President Barack Obama said in Indonesia that he is sending Clinton to Myanmar to hold talks with the government and the pro-democracy leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi.

Scheduled to travel to Myanmar on December 1, Clinton would be the first US Secretary of State to travel to Myanmar in 50 years.

Justifying the decision, she said a wind of change is blowing in Myanmar, but more still needs to be done.

"Part of why I''m going is to make my own evaluation as to how serious and sincere they are. We are encouraged by some of the steps that they''ve taken, but they have to do more. And we''ve consistently said that," Clinton told the MSNBC.

"They have to release all political prisoners. I mean, that just is a condition. They need to begin to look at how they resolve these ethnic conflicts that have driven tens of thousands of Burmese of different ethnicities into refugee status. They have to have a real electoral system with an open door to political parties and free expression. I mean, this is about whether they are on a path to democracy," Clinton said.

"There is still a lot to be done and it has to be tested, but I''m going to go and meet with, obviously, Aung San Suu Kyi, but the highest levels of the government, civil society, other members of the opposition, and just convey that the United States is prepared to support a peaceful institutionalization of democracy," she told Fox news.

"We''d like to see more political prisoners released. We would like to see a real political process and real elections.
We''d like to see an end to the conflicts, particularly the terrible conflicts with ethnic minorities. But we think there''s an opportunity and we want to test it," she said.

In another interview to the CNN, Clinton said she is going to Myanmar to test the waters there.

"One of the reasons that I''m going is to test what the true intentions are and whether there is a commitment to both economic and political reform," she said.

"We have followed the situation very closely. We had the first-ever special envoy to Burma, created by the Congress, appointed by the Administration, over the last several months, has been there several times. I''ve talked to Aung San Suu Kyi; the President has.
We''ve had many interactions with her through top officials, along with others. And there certainly does seem to be an opening," Clinton said.

"Now how real it is, how far it goes, we''re going to have to make sure we have a better understanding than we do right now. But at least there has been some forward movement... So we''re hoping, most certainly for the people of Burma, that this is real. But if it is, the United States will support and encourage it," she added.

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5606571

OKA

Will Myanmar's Move Toward Reforms Last?

Thousands of ethnic Kachins displaced by fighting in Myanmar lack food, shelter

Obama to Send Clinton to Myanmar Next Month

KIO STATEMENT 11-18-2011

Kachin Press Release

An Open Letter to World Leaders from HSEPBA

FBR REPORT: Kachin State- Burma Army Burns and Loots Homes in Wai Maw District

VOA: ကခ်င္ျပည္မွာ စစ္ေရးနည္းနဲ႔ဖိအားေပးလို႔ အေျဖမရႏိုင္

ျပည္သူ႔ရင္ခြင္ ေရြးေစခ်င္

KIA Investigation Team start working on Burma Army’s Chemical Weapons

Myanmar ethnic minorities under siege even as government embraces reform

DVB: Interview with Daw Khin Ongmar

DVB 11162011

Deputy carries frightened deer from road to safety

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 9:20am PST
By: Pete Thomas

Deer are famous for "freezing" in the headlight beams of oncoming cars, but for a doe on a rural Michigan highway, there were not only headlights but a mild collision with a car that left it frozen with fear in the middle of the road. The incident last Friday was captured by the video unit of a patrol car used by Deputy Ryan Swartz of the Huron County Sheriff's Department (the video was released Monday). Swartz, who was responding to the deer-versus-vehicle call, was unable to coax the doe off the roadway, so he just lifted the animal and carried it to the embankment.

"What he did is certainly not recommended but he felt confident enough because of his many years of experience with deer," stated a news release issued by the Sheriff's Department.

The deputy said that when he first arrived he thought the deer was a decoy because it stood totally motionless. He told local TV station WNEM TV5, "I figured as I walked up to it, it would just run off the road [but] it just stood still. It wasn't moving at all. So I went up and I pet it and I was thinking that would get the deer off the road."

When that didn't work Swartz simply carried the deer to one side of the road, then the other, and set the animal down. Eventually it regained its composure and trotted into a field. The entire episode lasted about 10 minutes.
OKA

Obama asserts US a Pacific power

Message of former SPDC soldier B.E ( Bomb Engineer & Mine Field Engineer ) Myo Myint Cho

U Thwe Myint(BCP) ၏အျမင္

u-Htwe-Myint-Bcp

DVB: ဆႏၵျပသံဃာတပါးႏွင့္ေမးျမန္းခ်က္

DVB 11152011

မႏၱေလးသံဃာေတာ္မ်ား သပိတ္ေမွာက္

A Kachin elder Mr. Wa Ta escaped from the detention of Burmese Army

ျမစ္ၾကီးနားတြင္ မုိင္းကြဲလူ ၁၀ ဦးေသ

ASEAN urges not to reward Burma for superficial reforms

By Zin Linn Nov 14, 2011 6:03PM UTC

The Jakarta-based ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) today called on leading ASEAN delegates to urgently address concerns regarding democratic reform, ethnic conflict and human rights abuses in Burma (Myanmar) at the upcoming 19th ASEAN Summit in Bali this week.

Although the caucus welcomed recent changes taking place in Burma or Myanmar, AIPMC remains concerned by ongoing military conflicts with ethnic groups and the relatively slow pace of political reform and improvement to human rights in the country. In its 14 November press release, the caucus seriously said that delegates from member-states ensure ethnic conflict and human rights abuses in Burma are officially placed on the agenda at the 2011 ASEAN Summit.

In its June 17 press statement, AIPMC strongly condemns the decision by the Burmese government to send off heavily armed troops into Kachin State and the concomitant outbreak of fighting, which brings an end to the 17-year old ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

“It is clear that the current government of Myanmar lacks the will to push through the necessary reforms,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari, AIPMC President and Member of Indonesian Parliament.

She also said that reconciliation is a precondition of any political initiative for peace in Burma.

In the face of recent limited improvements, the President Thein Sein government has showed a lack of eagerness to carry out genuine reforms, such as releasing political prisoners or ending armed conflict with ethnic groups. Last month amnesty allowed only 10 percent of political prisoners out of an estimated 2,000.

The caucus urges the Thein Sein government to enter into peace talks with the dissident Kachin leaders as an initial step towards a wider nationwide ceasefire and reconciliation process. AIPMC pushes for Indonesia and other ASEAN states to call on Burma (Myanmar) to accept steps toward reconciliation and to offer their assistance in peace process.

AIPMC said that it has also concerned about human rights violations continue to take place in relation to development projects in ethnic areas. Projects, such as the Yadana and Shwe Gas pipelines, undertaken by the Burmese government and financially supported by other states, have led to serious environmental concerns and human rights violations: land confiscations, displacement, torture, rape and other forms of systematic violence among them.

An estimated 50,000 people have been displaced due to the Shwe Gas pipeline project, according to the Shwe Gas Movement. A recent survey by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) found that more people in southeast Burma had been forcibly displaced from their homes during the past year than any other year since data was first collected in 2002.

With a view to protect human rights, AIPMC has urged ASEAN to make a strong call for the immediate cessation of hostilities in Burma. In ethnic areas such as Karen, Kachin and Shan states, there remain grave concerns that war crimes and crimes against humanity continue to be perpetrated, as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana mentioned in recent report.

According to the caucus, ASEAN must strongly urge the government of Burma to initiate progressive democratic reforms and to meet with human rights standards outlined in both the ASEAN Charter and international law prior to its taking the ASEAN Chair in 2014. AIPMC also advices ASEAN delegates to ensure calling on the United States and the European Union to continue using pressure tactics as well as engagement to push for genuine national reconciliation.

“The reform process thus far has been stunted due to it being driven by the individual initiative of President Thein Sein, rather than being part of a national platform for reform. Change that depends on the willingness of the president alone is not reform,” said Ms Sundari. “It is wrong therefore for ASEAN to conclude that further incentives should be given to Myanmar in reward for superficial reforms.”

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) is a network formed in an inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur, on 26-28 November 2004 by and for

Parliamentarians from the ASEAN countries. The aim is advocating for human rights and democratic reform in Myanmar/Burma.

Its members represent both the ruling and non-ruling political parties of countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Cambodia.


http://asiancorrespondent.com/69512/
OKA

တိုင္း၇င္းသားေဒသေတြ ေအးခ်မ္းမွ ဗမာျပည္ ေအးခ်မ္းမွာ

DVB 11142011

အစိုး၇တပ္ေျမေအာက္လိႈဏ္ေခါင္းစခန္းအား KIA တိုက္ခိုက္

mongloi 11142011

Open Letter of Marn Robert Ba Zan

Dr. Kyaw Thu

Interview: KIO Col. James Lum Dau Jumhpauk and RFA

DVB TV News

Tu Maung Nyo – ဖြဲ႔စည္းပံုအေျခခံဥပေဒျပင္ဆင္ျခင္း

VOA: ျမန္မာ့အသြင္ကူးေျပာင္းေရး ေျခလွမ္းတိုးဖို႔ အေမရိကန္တိုက္တြန္း

KIA Masat (2) Dap Ba ginra hta gasat poi byin

Kachin conflict worsens

နားလွည့္ပါး႐ိုက္ခံရျခင္း

KNO Ningbaw a Ndau Laika

KIA: အာမခံခ်က္ေ၇ရွည္ျဖစ္ႏိုင္တဲ့ျငိမ္းခ်မ္းေ၇းပဲလိုခ်င္တယ္

DVB 11112011

In Myanmar, A Wary Welcome For Signs Of Change

KARAI JAW AI AMYU SHA NINGBAW NINGLA NI

Jinghpaw Wunpawng Amyusha ni a labau hpe gawn wa yu ai shaloi, amyu sha ni a matu atsam nga ai made shakut shaja lai wa sai ningbaw ningla ni law law nga lai wa yu sai hpe chye lu ai. English Mung Maden ni shang wa ai ten Mungdan hte Amyu sha ni hpe lam woi gasat ninghkap lai wa sai Share Shagan ai Ningbaw ningla ni nga lai wa ai zawn, Japan Mung Maden hpyen bai du yang mung woi awn lai wa sai Amyu sha ningbaw ningla ni law law rai nga ai, dai hte maren 1961 ning kaw na Myen Mung Maden Gum-shem Hpyen ni hpe ninghkap gasat nga ai majan ni hta mung amyu sha ningbaw ni law law nga lai wa sai, ya mung kam hpa ging ai amyu sha ningbaw ningla ni hte rau rai nga ga ai. Mau na zawn re Karai Kasang kaw na shaman chyeju hte amyu sha ni hpe woi awn nga ai Ningbaw kaba Lanyaw Zawng Hra, Du Kaba Gunhtang Gam Shawng, Du kaba Sumlut Gun Maw ni hpe jinghpaw Wunpawng amyu sha ni yawng ngu na daram tsawra kam hpa chye shajang ai zawn kaga amyu a ningbaw ningla kaja ni mung law law dan pru wa nga sai.

November Shata praw (9)ya jahpawt Myen Hpyen Dap shangun ai bungli ni hpe nhprai ai sha galaw ya nga ai Slg. Zahkung Ting Ying hte Slg. Lasang Awng Wa yan galaw ai zuphpawng hta mung, dai zuphpawng a yaw shada lam hte nhtan shai nna Jinghpaw Wunpawng Amyu sha ni a ningbaw ningla kaja ni dan dawng pru wa nga sai hpe na chye lu ai shaloi ndang tsun hkra kabu nngai.

Ndai Mung shawa zuphpawng gaw Myitkyina Muklum Daju e Myen Asuya kaw na shadut hkyen lajang ya nna galaw ai zuphpawng re hpe nsan sha kadai tim sawn la mai nga ai. Myen Mungdan ting a matu teng man ai hku tang madun lu ai mungdan rapdaw ngu ai pyi nnga shi ai ten hta Jinghpaw Wunpawng amyu sha ni a ningmu hpe chye mayu nna Myen Hpyenla ni a Sanat Pyawng man ang, YMCA e galaw ai zuphpawng ndai kaw sa du na matu salang (80) jan hpe saw shaga tawn ai raitim marai (40) daram sha sa du pru ai rai nna zuphpawng hpe marai (17) daram hte sha hpungdim la ai gaw hpa majaw rai kun? Tinang a hkum ningbaw kaba ngu hkam la ai salang yan hpe kamhpa ai lam madun ai mahtang kun? zuphpawng sa wa ai shawa hpe jaw garan ai laika hpe yu yang mung tinang amyu sha ga hpe pyi atsawm chye ka ai nre majaw Myen hte jinghpaw gayau gaya rai ka tawn ai laika hpe bai garan jaw, baili baila ngu bai htawn tsun,.. re ai majaw poi nbyin ai wa rai kun? 2011 ning July shata Laiza e galaw ai Mung shawa zuphpawng hta Wunpawng Mungdan shara shagu na marai 140 grupyin sa du ai zuphpawng hte Wa-Shakap shai ai gaw hpa majaw wa rai kun?

Dai jahpawt YMCA zuphpawng hta shang lawm ai raitim zuphpawng hta garan jaw ai laika kaw na KIA hpe majan gap ai lam japhoi ahpyak tawn ai hpe mahtang ninghkap dinglun nhtawm hpa majaw KIA ni ninghkap gasat ra ai lam, kadai mahtang majan gasat na matu galaw nga ai lam, kadai mahtang ndai majan hpe jahkring ra ai lam ni hpe magrau grang grang tang madun mat wa ai Jinghpaw Wunpawng Amyu sha ni a ningbaw ningla kaja ni dan pru wa sai hpe na lu ga ai majaw Karai Kasang hpe kalang lata chyeju dum dat nngai.

Howa Du Wa Zau Gam, Sarama Kaba Nhpan Ja Ra, Salang Myitung Tu…. ndai ningbaw ningla ni gaw daini YMCA zuphpawng kaw na amyu sha ningbaw ningla kaja ni re ngu ai hpe Jinghpaw Wunpawng Amyu sha ni a lapran shiga ndai kabu gara lawan dik ai hku daini chyam bra nga sai. teng sha wa nga yang shanhte ni a amyu hpe tsawra ai hte maren amyu sha bungli ni hpe kangka htep lahti galaw ai lam ni gaw ya sha nrai nga masai hpe sagawn chye lu nga ai.

Maigan du Myen Amyu sha ni a Tsawdik Amyusha masat masa hte Noble Peace Prize

Jinghpaw Wunpawng Amyu sha ni hpe sanat laknak hte sat shamyit nga ai Myen Hpyen ni hpe ninghkap gasat padang dip woi na Amyu sha hpyen hpung hte hpyen jaubu ningbaw ningla ni hpe jaw ya ai zawn, Mare buga Mung shawa hpe ndai aten lam woi na ningbaw ningla ni hpe shalat dat ya ai Karai Kasang a hpung shingkang gaw kaba la nga ai.

Daini anhte amyu sha ni hta magrau grang grang amyu sha lam hta woi awn na ningbaw ningla kaja law law dan pru wa ra nga ai ten rai nga mali ai hte maren, dan dawng ai hku karai kasang jaw ya nga sai ndai ningbaw ningla ni hpe myit n-gang mung kahtap bang ya, n-gun jaw hkap tau la ai hku nna Share shagan masat masa shagrau kumhpa ni hpe myit hpang, galaw hpang wa ra sai ten mung rai nga saka ai.

Mungdan kata/ shinggan nga pra ai Jinghpaw Wunpawng amyu sha ni hku nna ya ten hta hpyen tsin yam mung masha ni hpe n-gun myi alu jawm garum nga ai hte maren Satan Myen Hpyen ni hpe ninhkap gasat nga ai shawnglam share shagan ni a hpang lam dinghku kashu kasha ni hpe mung anhte nmai ngam tawn na ga ai. June shata praw(9)ya kaw na hpang wa ai majan ndai gaw shata(6) de pyi lau shang wa nga sai. Kanu Dapnu KIO/KIA kaw na Padang Majan Masing a matu gu-ji gu-yang lit la hpareng nga ai ten, anhte mung shawa ni hpabaw mai galaw nga ai kun? gara daw hpe lit la mai nga ai kun? Amyu sha yawng she shang lawm ai majan ndai gaw Mungdan langai nbyin pru wa na re ngu kadai tsun gwi na rai ta?


Malizup Baren Ninggawn
November 10, 2011

က်ဳံးသြင္းခံရေသာ ဆင္ႀကီးတေကာင္

ဥပေဒအထက္၌ ဖက္စစ္ဗမာ့တပ္မေတာ္ရွိေၾကာင္း ကခ်င္ျပည္သူတို ့ကို ဗမာအစိုး၇ျပသ - ၄

BURMA ARMY ATTACKS CHURCH IN KACHIN STATE, SHOOTING AND TORTURING WORSHIPPERS

အစိုး၇တပ္ထိုးစစ္၇ပ္ေ၇း၀ိုင္း၀န္းၾကိဳးပမ္းသင့္ဟုေလ့လာသူေျပာ

mongloi

Ethnic Council wants Political Talk

Burma govt paves the way for Suu Kyi into parliament – Why?

Burma govt paves the way for Suu Kyi into parliament – Why?

By Zin Linn Nov 06, 2011 1:52AM UTC

Burma’s President Thein Sein has signed an amendment to the law on political parties in a noticeable effort to persuade the National League for Democracy led by democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, to reregister as a party recognizing the new political structure.

President Thein Sein signed the amendments to the Political Party Registration Law on Friday as senior US diplomats and a special UN envoy were ending their visits, pushing his government to drive forward with democratic reforms.

Burma’s state-run TV and newspaper publicized on Friday that President Thein Sein has signed a law that amends three key areas of the Political Party Registration Law. Both houses of the Burmese Parliament had earlier endorsed these amendments.

In the previous law, the wording said that all political parties must “protect” the State’s Constitution. In the amendment law, the word “safeguard” was changed to “respect and abide” by the Constitution.

According to the new law, the previous two clauses were also changed. One clause said that serving prisoners are restricted from being a member of a political party and another clause said that a political party needs to contest in three parliamentary seats at least in an election.

Many analysts believe that the aim of amending the law is to pave a way for the National League for Democracy to reregister as a legal party. If so, the NLD may take part in the upcoming by-elections that would be the first electoral contest of its public reputation within the last two decades.

The Thein Sein government seems to take advantage of bringing Suu Kyi’s party back into the current parliamentary structure which would make the government healthier in authenticity at home and overseas.

At the same time, Burma is expected to release at least 600 political prisoners in the coming days, government and opposition sources said, as part of an amnesty program by President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government. A top government official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Radio Free Asia (Burmese Service) in an interview on Thursday that the release would likely come next week.

“I expect the release date will be Nov. 10, which is the important Buddhist Full Moon holiday,” he said.

“Student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) leader Kun Htun Oo are on the list. The list of those to be released has been submitted to the National Defense and Security Council by the president,” the source said.

Another official, also speaking anonymously, said he believed the release would “benefit national reconciliation.”

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) claims that several hundred political prisoners are yet to be freed. Suu Kyi and Labor Minister Aung Kyi have met several times to talk about the political prisoner situation.

Tin Oo, vice chairman of the NLD, told RFA that the two sides had been making considerable steps forward in resolving their differences, indicating that releases were expected the coming week.

The government’s visible moves – amending the party registration law, planning to free more political prisoners and some soft stances on media freedom – are believed to be a step ahead toward change. But, there are many unconvinced dissident groups inside and outside of the country.

According to those groups, the Burmese government eagerly wants lifting of Western sanctions, financial assistance from monetary institutions and supporting of ASEAN Chairmanship in 2014. So, to fulfill its needs in a short period, there is no other way except to persuade Suu Kyi to join its boat.

Sources close to the NLD also predicted that Suu Kyi and some of her party members are expected to take part in the upcoming by-elections with full strength.

NLD spokesman, Nyan Win, said that the party was likely to get re-registered under an amended party registration law that removed clauses the NLD had pointed out as inappropriate and undemocratic.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia (Burmese Service), Nyan Win said that he considers that she may stand in a by-election if the law was amended. “I personally want her to do so,” he added.

Even though, if she would decide to stand in the by-election after the law was amended, she may need to have the consent of the NLD Central Executive Committee. The next by-elections are reported to be held later this year.

According to some analysts, the government’s reforms, including a rare meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein and the recent release of over 200 political prisoners, are intended for shedding Burma’s friendless situation and to give it some consistency within the international community.

However, there are many democracy-supporters who do not believe that the Thein Sein government’s current steps forward as real change. This is because the civil war in the Kachin State has been ongoing with full-scale offensives and government’s soldiers continue to abuse basic human rights widely. Besides, there are more than 20,000 war-refugees and IDPs along the Sino-Burma border who do not have any humanitarian assistance due to the brutal attacks led by government soldiers.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/68967/