News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 30 November, 2010

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 30 November, 2010
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Suu Kyi Among Top 100 Global Thinkers
A Video Message from Aung San Suu Kyi
NLD Report Documents Election Fraud
Mistaken shooting of local resident hushed up
‘She gives them strength in their struggle’
Modus operandi adopted by journalists covering Aung San Suu Kyi release
Suu Kyi offers help to kin of political prisoners
Burma’s new leaders court Arakan party
We Will Speak Out, Say Ethnic Leaders
Refugees Flee Fighting Again in Karen State



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Suu Kyi Among Top 100 Global Thinkers
By LALIT K JHA Tuesday, November 30, 2010

WASHINGTON — Burma’s pro-democracy icon and popular leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been named among the top 100 global thinkers for the year 2010 by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.

Suu Kyi, who was released by the Burmese military junta earlier this month after years of house arrest, was ranked No. 75 on a list of 100 eminent global thinkers that is topped jointly by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

The US President, Barack Obama, is ranked third. In a video message commemorating her selection, Suu Kyi noted how the world has changed in the years since she was imprisoned. At the same time, she reaffirmed the need to keep fighting for democracy.

“During the last two decades, my life has swung between periods when I have ample time for thought and contemplation, and periods when I hardly had time to catch thoughts on the wing, because there was so much to do,” she said.

“But in all these years, the one thought that has stayed with me is that we all have to work together to try to improve any situation. That is not an original thought; I think it's as old as humanity: that there is strength in numbers, that we must learn to help each other. But yet, that is a thought that never ages,” the Burmese leader said.

Suu Kyi said when she came out of detention on Nov. 13, she suddenly found herself in a new world, as it were.

“The people who came to support me, to offer me their greetings and their continued belief in our cause, were much younger than the ones with whom I had worked many years ago. A whole new generation—or perhaps I should say several new generations—had joined us, and so it is a younger world,” she said.

“At the same time, it is a startling, stranger world because all these young people were so much more familiar with the new IT revolution than I am.

And that really made me happy. It encouraged me. It invigorated me, because IT technology means simply better communications, better communications between different peoples, between communication between different generations,” she said.

“I do not know what I am supposed to have contributed to the Great Thinkers of this world. All I can say is that I stand ready to be taught, to learn, to learn from the new thinking, to learn from younger people, to learn from those who have spent the years that I have spent in detention out in the free world, seeing what is going on, and from that seeing, learning to think again,” Suu Kyi said.

“We have to think again, and again, and again, and yet, we never come to the end of our thinking. We never come to the final conclusion. That is the beauty of human nature—that we can go on, we can keep on going forward, going upward, going outward in our minds and in our hearts,” she said.
Foreign Policy magazine said Suu Kyi, upon her release, made a remarkably level-headed call for long-term reform of the sort that comes from within: "value change," as she put it, not regime change.

“And she has already begun to take action, filing papers to reinstate her political party and promising an investigation into the recent election. As she said upon her release, 'We have a lot of things to do,'" the magazine said.

A Video Message from Aung San Suu Kyi at Foreign Policy http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20217
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A Video Message from Aung San Suu Kyi

By John Ballard

FP Exclusive, with transcript at the link.
When I came out of detention, on the 13th of this month, I suddenly found myself in a new world, as it were. The people who came to support me, to offer me their greetings and their continued belief in our cause, were much younger than the ones with whom I had worked many years ago. A whole new generation -- or perhaps I should say, several new generations -- had joined us, and so it is a younger world. At the same time, it is a startling, stranger world because all these young people were so much more familiar with the new IT revolution than I am. And that really made me happy; it encouraged me, it invigorated me, because IT technology means simply better communications; better communications between different peoples, between different generations.
http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2010/11/a-video-message-from-aung-san-suu-kyi.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Newshog+%28NewsHog%29
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Mistaken shooting of local resident hushed up
Tuesday, 30 November 2010 13:49 Hseng Khio Fah

Junta officers based in Shan State South’s Mongnawng sub-township, Kehsi township, has warned local residents not to file a lawsuit against their soldiers for their recent wrong shooting of a local villager, threatening to burn the town to the ground if their warning go unheeded, local sources reported.

A 43 year old local man identified as Sai Swe from Quarter No.4 was shot to death last Monday night, 22 November, by Burma Army soldiers from the Mongnawng-based Military Operations Command (MOC) # 2, while he was on the way to buy medicine for his wife Nang Soi.

“There were 4 or 5 gunshots. Then there was the sound of a man groaning with pain and falling to the ground. But no one dared to get out and see who was being shot at that time,” a local resident who asked not to be named said.

But the body was no longer seen on the road the next morning. But a spot of blood remained on the ground. The villagers later found Sai Swe’s remains in a well covered with leaves, 100 yards northeast of the town.

Sai Swe was shot at his waist 5 times, 2 times on his right breast and 1 under his right arm-pit, an eyewitness said.

The culprits were said to be Private Maung Sein Win and Saya (a popular name for corporals and sergeants) Ngwe Maung, another villager said. “The two claimed that they saw Sai Swe from behind and thought he was a rebel.”

The Shan State Army (SSA) South is active in the area.

However, Brig-Gen Tint Lwin, Commander of MOC#2 and G1 Lt-Colonel Wai Lin Aung reportedly ordered police officer Myint Han and Chairman of Quarter No. 4 U Kyaw Lwin to tell villagers and family members not to appeal the case to the top rank and not to leak the information, otherwise the town would be razed to the ground.

The family members and local village headmen buried Sai Swe on 23 November, a day after the shooting.

Sai Swe is survived by 3 daughters, 3 sons and his wife. The family members received Kyat 500,000 (US$ 500) in compensation from Brig-Gen Tint Lwin. http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3342:mistaken-shooting-of-local-resident-hushed-up&catid=87:human-rights&Itemid=285
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NLD Report Documents Election Fraud
By SAI ZOM HSENG Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has completed a draft report that documents cheating and unfair procedures in Burma's Nov. 7 election and the party's central executive committee has approved the report, according to NLD leader Han Thar Myint.

“The cases are coming mostly from individual candidates because they were more oppressed in the election than political parties. There was only one political party which submitted their case to us,” Han Thar Myint told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

“The candidates who submitted their complaints about the Nov. 7 election had to show evidence substantiating their complaint. Although we finished the draft, there are still many more cases to come. We can’t confirm when we will release the report because we have to compile many cases and if necessary translate them into an English version,” said Han Thar Myint.

Dr. Saw Naing, a 42-year-old dentist, was an independent candidate who lost in his constituency in South Okkalapa, Rangoon Division, where he competed for a seat in the Regional Parliament against regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate Aung Kyaw Moe.

When the vote-counting ended the day after the election, the Union Election Commission (EC) declared Saw Naing the winner by six votes. But that evening Burma's state-run television announced that the ballots had been recounted and Aung Kyaw Moe had won.

“If the regime is not going to discuss the NLD report, I will be dissatisfied. I want the regime to review the report and discuss it with the candidates,” Saw Naing told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

In addition to submitting his case to the NLD for inclusion in its report, Saw Naing signed a complaint letter and sent it to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Nov. 29.

He said he also wishes to sue the EC in court, but if a candidate wants to sue the EC or an opposing political party, the complaining candidate first has to pay a 1 million kyat (US $1,150) court fee. As a result, no candidate has thus far been able to afford to file a lawsuit.

The NLD documenting team also collected the Nov. 7 experience of Thu Wai, the chairman of Democratic Party (Myanmar), who was declared to have lost in the general election.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Thu Wai said, “Even though the NLD report won't effect the outcome of the election, it will record its history. Whether the results of the election change depends only on the government.”

On Nov. 17, China's state news agency reported that the regime-backed USDP won 883 of the 1,154 parliamentary seats, or 76.5 percent, in the Nov. 7 election.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20223
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‘She gives them strength in their struggle’
By HTET AUNG KYAW
Published: 30 November 2010

Once Burma’s most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi has used her newly-found freedom to offer support to the families of more than 2000 detained activists and politicians.

The 65-year-old, who was released from seven years under house arrest on 13 November, yesterday met with around 100 families following a memorial in Rangoon to mark the three-year anniversary of the death of prominent student activist Htay Kywe’s mother.

“She asked about their problems and encouraged them, saying she will meet with them again and solve their problems,” said Phyo Min Thein, the brother-in-law of Htay Kywe, who organised the event.

Suu Kyi had until last month been the world’s only imprisoned Nobel laureate, but that changed following both her release and the awarding of this year’s prize to detained Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Unlike Xiaobo and the majority of Burma’s political prisoners, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest at her lakeside compound in Rangoon. Shortly after her release, she told the BBC that she although she had had to depend heavily on inner resources, she “always felt free”, and that the conditions she had spent 15 of the past 21 years under paled in comparison to life inside a Burmese prison.

The majority of Burma’s 2,203 political prisoners are held in harsh conditions, and struggle to access adequate healthcare. Many are tortured during the interrogation process before being sent to dank and cramped cells, while some are kept in hard labour camps hundreds of miles from their families.

Amongst the 2,200-plus political prisoners are 256 monks, many of whom were rounded up after the September 2007 uprising.

According to Phyo Min Thein, Suu Kyi said that she would work to help those who were imprisoned on religious grounds, and well as to find aid for prisoners in poor health “based on the current policies of the ICRC [International Committee for the Red Cross]”, who withdrew from Burma in 2006 after tight restrictions were placed on their access to political prisoners.
http://www.dvb.no/news/%E2%80%98she-gives-them-strength-in-their-struggle%E2%80%99/13144
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Modus operandi adopted by journalists covering Aung San Suu Kyi release
Tue, 2010-11-30 02:26 — editor
* News
By Quintus Perera – Asian Tribune
Colombo, 30 November, (Asiantribune.com):

Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_2_1.JPG
Aung San Suu Kyi
In a dispatch by Reporters without Borders (RSF) under the name of Vincent Brossel, Asia-Pacific Desk, RSF indicated that at least 10 Burmese publications have been sanctioned for paying too much attention to the release of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the opposition National League for Democracy.

It indicated that they have been suspended for one to three weeks on the orders of the military authorities in the capital Naypyidaw after the military-supervised Press Scrutiny Board gave them permission to print her photo and a short article about her release. Any further reporting about Suu Kyi is now banned until further notice.

The dispatch indicated that at the same time, the foreign media have been fairly free to cover her release although at least seven foreign journalists were deported while trying to cover the national elections that the military junta held on 7 November.

RSF and the Burma Media Association indicated that during the past few weeks have shown that the privately-owned Burmese media are capable of covering major events such as the elections and Suu Kyi’s release professionally and creatively, but it is regrettable that the orders coming from Naypyidaw are for more censorship. Therefore RSF urge the authorities to rescind the suspensions and drop the system of prior censorship.

The publications that are known to have been sanctioned include Seven Days Journal and Venus Journal, which have been suspended for three weeks, and Open News Journal, Messenger, Myanmar Newsweek, Voice Journal, People Age and Snap Shot, which have been suspended for a week. The military officer in charge of censorship summoned their editors and notified them of the suspensions. Other publications were given warnings without being suspended.

The dispatch indicated that Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association hail the creative use of cryptic methods by certain Burmese journalists to defy the censors and celebrate Suu Kyi’s release. The sports weekly First Eleven Journal, for example, published the message “ Su Free Unite & Advance To Grab Hope, “ hidden in a front-page headline about British Premier League football results. It has been suspended for two weeks. Hot News Journal, a publication owned by Gen. Khin Maung Than’s daughter, has also been suspended for two weeks.

It indicated that an editor told the two organizations: “The authorities force us to just publish photos of [Suu Kyi] on her own and to describe her party, the NLD, as an ‘banned party’ so we have to find veiled methods to cover what is going on. We thought that the Press Scrutiny Board would loosen its control after the elections but it did not happen.”

In November 2008, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association revealed the existence of a 10-point directive in which the Press Scrutiny Board spells out the censorship rules for editors ( http://en.rsf.org/burma-military-censors-send-privately-04-11-2008,29176 ...).

The dispatch indicated that after providing the junta’s parliamentary elections with extensive coverage, it is unfair and unacceptable that the Burmese media are sanctioned for covering Suu Kyi’s release. The military are using double standards. Asked about the reporting ban, Suu Kyi said it showed that things had not really changed since the elections.

The dispatch indicated that at least seven foreign journalists have been deported after being identified by the security services. Dozens of foreign reporters got into Burma on tourist visas during the elections and Suu Kyi’s release. “The police were on the watch during the elections and anyone identified as a journalist was expelled,” said a European journalist who managed to interview Suu Kyi in Rangoon. “But in the days following Suu Kyi’s release, it was obvious they did not have clear orders.”

Among the latest deportees were two journalists working on a documentary for Australia’s ABC television, who were escorted to the border on 11 November. But the police failed to arrest John Simpson of the BBC, who was able to interview Suu Kyi, the dispatch indicated.

- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/11/30/modus-operandi-adopted-journalists-covering-aung-san-suu-kyi-release
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Suu Kyi offers help to kin of political prisoners
Tuesday, 30 November 2010 02:47 Ko Wild
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Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday attended the death anniversary alms ceremony of the mother of a student leader serving a long prison term, attended by more than 100 family members of other political prisoners.

The ceremony follows the two-day visit of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, who had called during meetings yesterday with Burmese junta officials for the release of all political prisoners.

He met Suu Kyi at her residence on Saturday and also met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, election commissioners and representatives of some ethnic political parties and the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. He claimed the UN’s role in promoting political reconciliation was appreciated by all sides, the Associated Press reported.

Nambiar also called for inclusion of those who were prevented from or failed to contest in the recent general election, not only the winning parties, in the political process, and political change, the US press agency reported.

Meanwhile, a ceremony was held for the third anniversary of the death of the mother of 88-Generation student leader Htay Kywe, serving a 65-year prison term in Buthitaung prison, Arakan State, at the Pannita Yarma monastery in Bahan Township, Rangoon, his younger sister Mi Mi Kywe told Mizzima.

At the event, Suu Kyi and her son Kim Aris, aka Htein Lin begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, met families of other student leaders serving long prison terms across the country and offered words of encouragement. She promised that her National League for Democracy party would help with their difficulties, Mi Mi Kywe said.

“Aung San Suu Kyi told us she would arrange a get-together of all family members of imprisoned student leaders. She also said health was the most important issue for prisoners and that we should watch out for their health. She asked us to inform her if we had difficulty in visiting … our loved ones,” she said.

Mi Mi Kywe said her brother was suffering from a gastric ulcer since starting his prison term at Buthitaung, 700 miles (1,120 kilometres) from Rangoon.

The ceremony was also attended by more than 100 family members of jailed 88-Generation student leaders, politicians elected in the 1990 elections and other prisoners of conscience.

The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners-Burma in a statement said that more than 2,000 political prisoners were still behind bars across the country. Many of them were 88-Generation student leaders who played a pivotal role in the pro-democracy uprisings in 1988 and were arrested and jailed again after they marched in the 2007 protests against fuel and commodity price increases. They were each given 65-year prison terms. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4624-suu-kyi-offers-help-to-kin-of-political-prisoners.html
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Burma’s new leaders court Arakan party
By HTET AUNG KYAW
Published: 30 November 2010

Burma’s new leaders court Arakan party thumbnail
Workers stand in front of the parliament building in Naypyidaw, which is due to convene by February 2011 (Reuters)

The victors in Burma’s recent elections have met with a leading Arakanese party in what analysts claim may be a precursor to choosing a new vice president.

The talks last week between the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 76 percent of seats, and the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), were brokered by the Election Commission. Dr Aye Maung, head of the RNDP, said the “casual” discussion focused on the development of the western state.

The dominance across the country of the USDP, which receives substantial backing from the Burmese junta, did not stretch to Arakan state, where it came in second behind the RNDP. The party won 35 seats, 11 more than the USDP.

Its success there has led analysts to question the motives of the meeting. Dr Aye Maung said that he did not know what the “intentions of the ministers” were, but that a local power-brokering deal was a possibility.

Aung Lynn Htut, once a senior-ranking Burmese diplomat in Washington who later defected, said however that it could be the first step in the junta’s plan to appoint an ethnic representative as a vice president.

“The meeting between the RNDP and the USDP was ordered by Senior General Than Shwe,” he said, adding that “since 2009, the [junta] had a plan to appoint [an ethnic person] for one of the three vice-presidential positions,” and the Arakanese victory made it the strongest contender.

He said the inclusion in the USDP of industrial minister Aung Thaung was a sign that the meeting “wasn’t an honest discussion but more likely [an attempt] to make the RNDP their [USDP’s] subordinate”.

Various struggles for ethnic autonomy in Burma’s border regions have plagued the junta since it came to power in 1962. Its recent attempt to transform 17 armed groups who agreed to ceasefire deals in the 1990s into junta-backed border militias has stalled, and tensions in the already volatile ethnic regions have risen.

Aung Lynn Htut said the courting of the Arakanese party could be a sign that the ruling generals “are looking for new ethnic friends” following the failure of the Border Guard Force plan.

There is also a chance that the RNDP could be more malleable than the Shan Nationalities Democracy Party (SNDP), which was the most successful ethnic party in the elections, winning 57 seats.

The SNDP, whose ideology mirrors that of the former opposition party, the Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD), which came third in the 1990 elections, likely made them more resistant to approaches by the junta proxy, Aung Lynn Htut said.

“When I was [in government], it was the Kachin they were looking to as the first [vice presidential] candidate,” he added. And when a ceasefire deal was struck with the Kachin army, former prime minister Khin Nyunt told them that Burma’s future prime minister would be Kachin, Aung Lynn Htut continued.

But the Kachin army’s refusal to become a border militia has damaged relations, hence the switch to pressuring the Arakanese, he said.
http://www.dvb.no/elections/burma%E2%80%99s-new-leaders-court-arakan-party/13135
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We Will Speak Out, Say Ethnic Leaders
By SAI ZOM HSENG Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Several ethnic leaders who won parliamentary seats in the Nov. 7 general election have told The Irrawaddy that they will not allow restrictions on free speech in the new parliament to block their political activities.

The laws, which were reportedly authorized by Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Friday, stipulate that parliamentarians in the new Upper and Lower Houses will only be allowed freedom of expression in Parliament if they do not “threaten national security, the unity of the country or violate the Constitution.”

The parliamentary restrictions have not yet been made public by Burma's ruling military junta; however, the news agency Associated Press (AP) broke the story on Saturday quoting an official gazette.

AP said the new laws will include a two-year prison term to anyone who protests in the parliament or its compound or physically assaults a lawmaker.

Dr. Aye Maung, the chairman of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), who has stated publicly that he wants to air his views about federal and ethnic issues in the new parliament, said that no one wants to disintegrate the unity of the country or provoke a civil war. He said elected representatives of the RNDP will speak in the new parliaments under the frame of the Constitution.

He also said that he had been unaware of the restrictions until contacted by The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The RNDP won a majority in 35 of the 44 constituencies it contested in Arakan State (Rakhine State).

The chairman of Thailand-based Burma Lawyers Council, Thein Oo, said that the military leaders do not want the representatives to discuss a federal union, and that the new law has been enacted to enforce this.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Thein Oo said, “This law is like a trap—putting pressure on the representatives. If MPs want to amend a law or an article, they will have to challenge the Constitution. The representatives simply won’t have a chance to speak.

“There is not a parliament in the world where delegates are prohibited from speaking their minds,” he added.

Naing Ngwe Thein, the chairman of the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMDP), said that the ethnic leaders will do whatever they have to do for their people.

“We will speak up and raise the issues that are important to our people,” the Mon leader said. “If we are afraid to speak, nothing will ever change.”
The AMDP, which had 34 candidates in the election, won 16 seats exclusively in Mon State.

Pu Zo Zam, the chairman of the Chin National Party (CNP), said that the formation of “new disciplined parliament” is a “necessity.”

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Pu Zo Zam said, “If we speak about a federal union, it will not violate the Constitution or the unity of the country. It is not a sensitive issue.”

“I agreed with the law that was announced recently because we need to have a disciplined parliament. If there is no rule of law, there will be fighting or wrestling in the parliament,” he said.

The Inn National Development Party (INDP), which fielded five candidates in the election and won all five seats, said they will agree with whatever the government rules.

Aung Kyi Win, the chairman of the INDP, said, “We formed this party to protect our literature, our culture and our ethnicity. We will follow whatever the government says. We feel that is our responsibility.”

The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, which won the most constituencies in Shan State, refused to comment on the new laws.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20215
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Refugees Flee Fighting Again in Karen State
By LAWI WENG Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Fighting between Burmese government army troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Brigade 5 flared up on Tuesday morning in Phaluu village in Kawkareik Township near the Thai-Burmese border, causing refugees to flee to the border yet again, according to humanitarian organizations helping the refugees.

Heavy fighting including artillery fire lasted around two hours from 9 a.m., according to the refugees.

“About 15 minutes after fighting started, around 100 villagers fled to the border from their village,” said Blooming Night Zan, joint secretary 1 of the Karen Women's Organization (KWO).

“There are babies as young as one-week old among the 100 or so refugees who fled to the Thai border,” she said.

About 1,000 Karen refugees have fled to the Thai border after fighting broke out over the weekend in Phaluu village in Kawkareik Township. Phaluu village is about 40 kilometers south of the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing on the Thai-Burmese border.

The Thai army forced refugees who had taken shelter at a Buddhist temple and Thai school in Pop Phra-District in Thailand's Tak Province to return home, saying the situation was stable.

Some refugees returned to their village around 9 a.m. On Monday morning but had to return again to the Thai border in the afternoon when fighting renewed around 3:30 p.m, sources in the humanitarian organizations said.

“The Thai authorities do not want them to stay. But, the people are afraid of to go back to their village,” said Blooming Night Zan.

The refugees also want to go home as soon as fighting has stopped to gather in the harvest.

The fighting began on Friday evening when DKBA troops led by Lt Col Kyaw Thet ambushed junta troops sending rations to fellow troops in Way Lay Village, the former HQ of DKBA Brigade 5 they captured on Nov.10. The Burmese support column was forced to stay in Phaluu.

About 30 soldiers from junta units and DKBA brigades that became border guard forces were killed in a coordinated attack by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and DKBA brigade 5 troops on Sunday, according to the Thailand-based Karen Information Center. The KNLA and Brigade 5 troops are known to have suffered casualties but numbers have not been given.

Fighting has been ongoing since Brigade 5 commander Col Saw Lah Pwe refused to put his troops in a border guard force under Burmese army command and attacked Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass townships on Nov. 8.

Fighting is also reported to have spread to Three Pagodas Pass on Monday, where KNLA Brigade 6 troops and junta forces exchanged fire.

Junta forces from Infantry Division 44 suffered three killed and five wounded in fighting around Mae Tha Phu village, 30 kilometers from the Three Pagodas Pass township, according to Thu Rain, a resident in the town.

Junta's troops have banned today travel by boat from Three Pagodas Pass to Kyar Inn Seik Gyi Township in Karen State.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20222