News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 24 November, 2010
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Prisoner of conscience
Suu Kyi criticises India's ties with Burma junta
Suu Kyi criticizes India's role in Myanmar
Myanmar to evict AIDS victims from Suu Kyi shelter
No Change in the Censors' Restrictive Practises
Nuclear Matter
Myanmar to evict AIDS victims from Suu Kyi shelter
HIV/AIDS Activist Says Closure of Shelter Unjustified
Suu Kyi and her Son Visit Shwedagon Pagoda
‘India saddened me... let’s talk now’
260 state-owned fuel filling stations privatized in Myanmar
Cyclone Aid Hampered by Logistics
Myanmar now the only active landmine user: campaigners
Myamar Lifts Ban on 7 Thai Goods
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Prisoner of conscience
24 November 2010
Because India never had the misfortune of having to live under a dictator or a military junta it was, well, lukewarm in its response to Aung San Suu Kyi’s release ~ the single most momentous event in recent subcontinental history, writes ardhendu chatterjee
SHE is no femme fatale. Physically frail but possessing steely determination, she frightened a mighty military regime and eventually forced them to feel the pulse of the people. Passive resistance was her armour. To her countrymen she is, understandably, both a Gandhi and a Nelson Mandela; to the international community an icon of peaceful revolution. Charismatic, courageous and consistent in the pursuit of her goal, Aung San Suu Kyi will go down in the annals of Burmese history as a champion of democracy and an exponent of freedom.
Suu Kyi strikes a responsive chord with people across nations, who live in dread of their rulers. Her words — “… in an authoritarian state it is only the prisoner of conscience who is genuinely free”— infuse them with optimism in their struggle for freedom from fear. Shaking off the albatross of fear is most important for it “is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it”. Her books Letters from Burma, The Voice of Hope and Freedom from Fear: Any other Writings enjoy worldwide readership. No wonder, the momentous news of the release of Burma’s living legend from house arrest on 13 November last was received with applause by leaders across the globe.
President Obama called Suu Kyi “a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all…” British Prime Minister David Cameron echoed him describing her as “an inspiration for all of us who believe in freedom of speech, democracy and human rights.” His predecessor Gordon Brown wished her to be “able to take her rightful place as leader of her political party” while German Chancellor, Angela Merkel thought her “pacifism and intransigence” had “made her a model”. President Nicolas Sarkozy asserted that France would be “extremely attentive to the conditions” in which “she enjoys her re-found liberty” and expressed his opposition to any “restrictions on her freedom of movement and expression”.
Back home, External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna’s response that her release would “contribute to efforts for a more inclusive approach to political change” was perceived to be rather “lukewarm” despite India honouring her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. In his address to Indian Parliament, President Obama, too, hinted at India’s apathy to the democratic aspirations of Burma.
In sharp contrast, students of Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College, the alma mater of the Nobel laureate and the Ambassador of Conscience, greeted Suu Kyi’s release as a “landmark moment” and a “miracle”, and showered effusive praise on her. Proud of such a distinguished alumnus who has received 23 of the world’s most prestigious awards, they wanted to celebrate the big event differently. She entered the hallowed portals of the college when her mother was appointed Myanmar’s ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960, and graduated with a degree in politics in 1964. Suu Kyi had another two-year stint in India as a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla.
Born in 1945 to Aung San, regarded as the father of modern Burma, and Khin Kyi, a prominent political personality, and educated in Methodist English High School in, Suu Kyi, often called Daw (Madame) San Suu Kyi, pursued her studies at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, after leaving Lady Shri Ram and obtained a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1969 and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, years later in 1985. She was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1990.
Suu Kyi served the UN Secretariat, as Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for three years while in New York, and married Dr Michael Aris in 1972. She became Research Officer in the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bhutan where her husband worked as a tutor to the royal family and headed the Translation Department. The couple was blessed with two sons.
Suu Kyi’s life story reads like a saga of stoic suffering and steadfast determination. As she returned to Burma to look after her ailing mother, she found herself plunged into the nationwide movement for a democratic rule in the wake of General Ne Win’s resignation from the post of Chairman of Burma Socialist Programme Party. The military junta tried to put down the uprising ruthlessly and killed about 5,000 pro-democracy agitators on 8 August 1988. The coup that followed on 18 September 1988 saw the birth of the National League for Democracy, a new pro-democracy party with Suu Kyi as its general secretary. Her detention along with other party workers backfired: it intensified the fight for democracy, and the military regime called a general election in 1990 under international pressure. Although Suu Kyi was debarred from contesting the election personally, her party won 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats. The junta still did not hand over power. Sum Kyi now bore the brunt of the regime’s wrath. Her detentions, mostly under house arrest, amounted to a total period of 15 years. Even the appeal of twelve Nobel laureates failed to secure her release. Though released in between, there were restrictions on her movement. She did not go to London to see her dying husband fearing that the regime would not allow her to return to Burma.
UN Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari vainly tried to mediate. Even the regime thwarted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s attempt to meet Suu Kyi. The rulers also flouted the ruling of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that her detention violated both Burmese and international law. A series of negotiations on the part of British, American and Australian embassy and UN officials in 2009 and 2010 eventually paved the way for her release.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay sees in her release “a very serious process of change underway in Myanmar”. But the shape of things is yet to unfold, and the big question whether her release would lead to the stability of Burma worries everyone. Apprehensions still haunt the Burmese people: Will Suu Kyi’s epic struggle go in vain? Will Burma be another province of China? Or, will it be totally dependent on the USA? Suu Kyi hopes that “India would be more proactive in future” in this crucial transition, for she wants her people “to be more empowered” and “feel more empowered”. She does not “believe in one person’s influence and authority to move a country forward” for “one person alone can not bring democracy to a country”. She has rightly said, “Change is going to come from the people. I want to play my role... I want to work in unison with the people of Burma, but it is they who will change this country.”
The writer is assistant professor of English, Durgapur Institute of Advanced Technology & Management, Rajbandh
http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349650&catid=89
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Suu Kyi criticises India's ties with Burma junta
* Published: 24/11/2010 at 04:00 PM
* Online news: Asia
Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi criticised India in a newspaper interview on Wednesday for doing business with the military dictators who held her under house arrest until 11 days ago.
Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (C) and her younger son Kim Aris (L) offer prayers during a visit at the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon on November 24, 2010. Suu Kyi criticised India in a newspaper interview on Wednesday for doing business with the military dictators who held her under house arrest until 11 days ago.
Suu Kyi, who lived in India in the 1980s, was released in Rangoon on November 13 after spending more than seven consecutive years in detention.
India was once a staunch supporter of her cause, but began engaging with Burma's junta in the mid-1990s over security and energy issues.
The government in New Delhi has been eyeing oil and gas fields in Burma, and is also eager to counter China's growing influence in south-east Asia.
"I am saddened with India. I would like to have thought that India would be standing behind us. That it would have followed in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and (India's first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru," Suu Kyi told the Indian Express.
"I do not oppose relations with the Generals but I hope that the Indian government would talk to us as well," she said.
India, which shares a border with Burma, welcomed the country's reclusive military leader Than Shwe for a state visit in July.
The invitation outraged human rights groups who said India was reneging on its democratic principles in order to improve trade links and to compete with China.
US President Barack Obama, during his trip to India earlier this month, criticised India for failing to condemn human rights abuses in Burma.
"When peaceful democratic movements are suppressed, as they have been in Burma (Burma), then the democracies of the world cannot remain silent," Obama told the Indian parliament.
Suu Kyi also told the newspaper that she had applied for an Internet connection since her release and hoped to communicate with her supporters through social networking websites Facebook and Twitter.http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/207937/suu-kyi-criticises-india-ties-with-burma-junta
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Suu Kyi criticizes India's role in Myanmar
Nov 24, 2010, 10:00 GMT
New Delhi - Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi criticized India for maintaining close ties with the military regime and urged New Delhi to work for restoration of democracy in the country, a report said Wednesday.
Suu Kyi, who studied and lived in India for several years, was freed from seven-and-half years of detention November 13 in Yangon. She made the comments to the Indian Express daily in a telephone interview.
'I am saddened with India. I would like to have thought that India would be standing behind us. That it would have followed in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first prime minister),' Suu Kyi told the daily.
'I do not oppose relations with the generals but I hope that the Indian government would talk to us as well,' she said.
After supporting the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar in 1988, India, seen as Asia's most dynamic democracy, has changed tack and fostered close relations with the ruling junta.
The ties have grown with Delhi seeking to tap Myanmar's oil and gas reserves as well as countering China's growing influence in South Asia.
India's state-run energy firms have been striking deals with the military regime in recent years.
Suu Kyi said it was an opportune time for a fresh political initiative between her party and the Indian government.
'We would like India to work closely with us, that is work with my party, the National League for Democracy (NLD),' she said.
The NLD has been sidelined by the junta since it claimed victory in the 1990 elections.
In July, Delhi welcomed the military ruler Than Shwe on a state visit, which was condemned by human rights groups that said India had compromised on its democratic principles to back a regime which was involved in human rights violations.
Pro-junta parties in early November, days before Suu Kyi's release, held and won elections which were widely criticized for limiting the participation of opposition parties, including the NLD.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1601186.php/Suu-Kyi-criticizes-India-s-role-in-Myanmar
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Myanmar to evict AIDS victims from Suu Kyi shelter
Published November 23, 2010 | Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's health ministry has ordered the eviction of 82 HIV/AIDS patients from a shelter run by supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi because the center is not hygienic, state media said Wednesday.
An official at the facility said the patients have refused to move, setting the stage for a showdown with authorities who said they must vacate by Thursday.
Local authorities last week ordered the HIV/AIDS victims to leave following a visit by the newly freed Suu Kyi, who promised to help provide badly needed medicine.
Health officials inspected the shelter in July and August and found it unhygienic with patients susceptible to infections because of overcrowding, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.
But shelter organizers said authorities simply want to pressure them because of the visit by Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.
Yarzar, one of the center's staff members who uses only one name, admitted the shelter was crowded but said preventive measures were taken against the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Health authorities offered to relocate patients to a state-run HIV/AIDS center, but they refused to move out as their shelter not only offers medical care, food and accommodation but "warmth and affection that no other center can provide," Yarzar said.
Since the patients have decided not to leave, Yarzar said he was ready to face any consequences.
The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested in 1989. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.
Suu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/23/myanmar-evict-aids-victims-suu-kyi-shelter/#ixzz16Ca8G3IQ
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No Change in the Censors' Restrictive Practises
Monday, November 22, 2010
The temporary suspension of at least nine Burmese journals for carrying news about Aung San Suu Kyi is a huge setback for the growing number of privately owned weekly publications who sought a small but enduring space to bring fresh air to a news-hungry Burmese readership.
Burma's censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), announced the suspensions on Monday morning.
The Voice, 7 Day News, Venus, Myanmar Post, Snapshot, Myanmar Newsweek and People's Era were banned from publishing for one week, while First Eleven, a sports journal, and Hot News were banned for two weeks because of their coverage of Suu Kyi's activities.
The release of Suu Kyi and her resumption of a quasi-normal life were the most interesting news in years for Burma's privately owned media. Most news journals also thought that by pushing the envelope in their coverage of the Nobel laureate's release they would boost their sales.
“We couldn't run any large photos of Suu Kyi or put her photo on the front page,” said an editor in Rangoon. “But most journals printed it in supplements. When the journals were displayed on bookshop shelves the large photo of Suu Kyi became the cover. They all sold out, of course.”
On Friday, the PSRD summoned the editors of the journals and accused them of violating censorship regulations, without explaining what the alleged transgressions were.
The PSRD's actions were further evidence to support official international reports showing that the media in Burma is among the world's most tightly restricted. For several consecutive years, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) has ranked Burma among the world's worst five countries for press freedom.
The Burma Media Association and RSF have noted that in the wake of Cyclone Nargis and the May 2008 constitutional referendum, at least 12 journalists and several dozen unpaid media workers including writers, poets and freelancers were jailed or sent to labor camps.
Recently, the Kandarawaddy news journal editor, Nyi Nyi Tun, was sentenced to 13-years imprisonment by a court in Rangoon's Insein Prison for “crimes against the state.” The journal, based in Karenni State, was shut down after Nyi Nyi Tun's arrest in October last year.
The PSRD's latest clampdown is an indicator of what Burma's media can expect in the future and yet another example of the way the junta's years of brutal repression have systematically eliminated press freedom.
It also is a measure of the jealousy felt by the generals because of Suu Kyi's huge popularity. Even the social work she is now undertaking is not immune from the malice of a spiteful regime—which ordered more than 80 HIV/AIDS sufferers to leave a “safe house” run by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy after she visited them and offered comfort and support.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=20149
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Nuclear Matter
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Wednesday, November 24, 2010
BANGKOK — New revelations about North Korea's nuclear weapons program could have implications for Burma, after US scientist Siegfried Hecker revealed over the weekend that he been shown "more than 2,000 centrifuges" for enriching uranium—part of the process for making nuclear fuel or weapons—during a recent visit to North Korea, where he said he also viewed a new light-water reactor, which, when fueled with uranium, is the most common type of nuclear reactor.
"This is obviously a disappointing announcement," said Stephen Bosworth, the US Envoy on North Korea, adding that "it is also another in a series of provocative moves.”
Dr. Robert Kelley, the former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scientist, told The Irrawaddy that the Americans who saw the North Korean centrifuge plant last week were stunned by the sophistication they witnessed. “It has a completely modern control room, nothing like what those Americans have seen in other DPRK [North Korean] facilities”, he said, and concluded that the US “underestimated them.”
Kelley contributed to a Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) report which aired on Al-Jazeera on June 4, which was based on documents and photographs smuggled out of Burma by Sai Win, a defector from the country's military. Kelley maintains that “what we have seen in Burma is intent to build a nuclear program.”
The latest North Korea revelations come amid some contention regarding Burma's alleged nuclear weapons program. On Nov. 15, as the world focused on the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, a ProPublica/PBS report cited Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director of the IAEA and one-time colleague of Kelley's, who said that the evidence provided in the DVB report is inconclusive. "There is no one single piece which puts your mind at rest telling that this is solely for nuclear purposes and for nothing else,” said Heinonen.
This report follows a June 29 critique of the DVB report published by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), at the request of US Senator Jim Webb, who advocates engagement with the military junta in Burma. In his ensuing letter to Sen. Webb, ISIS Director David Albright dismisses DVB as having ”a strong agenda,” and later suggested that Kelley assumed that Burma is attempting to make nuclear weapons and then looked at Win's pictures "in a biased way ascribing nuclear purposes to them," according to a report on the ProPublica website.
ProPublica is a US-based investigative news organization, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for work on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by journalist Sheri Fink. According to the ProPublica article, which is linked to the ISIS page focusing on Burma, “an examination by ProPublica and the PBS program “Need to Know” has found that the question of Burma's nuclear ambitions is much less settled than Kelley contends.”
Kelley says that ProPublica approached him two weeks after the DVB report came out, saying that they had “their own information that they said supported our assessment of a nuclear weapons program in Burma.”
According to Kelley: “They provided two separate Burmese defector debriefings of their own that did specifically talk about a Burmese nuclear weapons program and provided details that supported our main source, such as training in Moscow universities.”
Kelley was interviewed by ProPublica in June, but its offer to take him to Thailand to meet the two other defectors never came to fruition, he says.
Kelley has pointed out on the ProPublica website that Heinonen misread his report for DVB, and says that before the DVB report was broadcast: “Albright declined to even look at the information when I offered to share it with him when it was brand new and collaborate on a joint analysis.”
Later, Albright told Sen. Webb in his letter that “the standards of analysis in the recent reports regarding the conclusion that there exists a nuclear weapons program in Myanmar were not very high.”
Kelley says that he is coming under a lot of pressure to back away from his assessment that Burma is working on a nuclear weapons program. However, the latest revelations about North Korea might prompt some additional concern about what might be taking place in Burma, even if the hearsay so far about direct nuclear cooperation is “too weak to cite,” in Kelley's words.
However, there is ample evidence of ballistic missile and other conventional military cooperation between the two countries.
Kelley warns “that we should not underestimate Burma, especially if they get outside help.”
Speaking at Thailand's Foreign Correspondents Club recently, prior to the weekend revelations about North Korea, Kelley said of Burma's alleged nuclear weapons program: “There is no threat tomorrow, unless the DPRK, which has been helping, decides to do more. Or Pakistan, which has been selling nuclear secrets to anyone who will buy, decides to help.”
In a report published by ISIS in January, which Kelley and Albright co-authored, they said, "There remain legitimate reasons to suspect the existence of undeclared nuclear activities in Burma, particularly in the context of North Korean cooperation.”
ProPublica reported that the Norway-based organization is “a leading opposition group,” rather than a credible media outlet in its own right.
However, according to a spokesperson for Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF): “To be impartial is pretty hard for media,” but added that “of course, some of the exiled media have clearly a stand in favor of the pro-democracy movement.”
Prevented from operating commercially in their natural market, Burmese exile media groups such as DVB and The Irrawaddy are funded by a combination of philanthropic organizations, donor governments and agencies, as well as commercial media sales. In the eyes of RSF: “The fact that they (exiled Burmese media) are funded by some international donors is not really impacting their editorial line.” ProPublica itself is funded by a number of philanthropies, including the Sandler Foundation, The Ford Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
Burma is regarded as one of the least free media environments in the world, with a history of imposing lengthy jail terms on reporters caught sharing information with foreign or exile media, including DVB reporters. The exile media works closely with clandestine journalists inside Burma, seeking to bridge the information and news gap in the absence of Burmese alternatives that can operate without being curbed by the junta's censors.
Nine news journals in Rangoon were suspended on Monday for coverage of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, while foreign journalists were barred from entering the country to cover the Nov. 7 elections. Amid widespread voter apathy and allegations of forced voting, advance voting and ballot stuffing, the regime proxy party took 76 percent of the vote. Before the election, “pro-engagement” voices propagated the view that the elections would open up some form of democratic space in Burma, even if they would not be free and fair.
Related article: “Security Council Gets NKorea Sanctions Report”; November 11, 2010;
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20170
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Nov 23, 11:53 PM EST
Myanmar to evict AIDS victims from Suu Kyi shelter
AP Photo
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's health ministry has ordered the eviction of 82 HIV/AIDS patients from a shelter run by supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi because the center is not hygienic, state media said Wednesday.
An official at the facility said the patients have refused to move, setting the stage for a showdown with authorities who said they must vacate by Thursday.
Local authorities last week ordered the HIV/AIDS victims to leave following a visit by the newly freed Suu Kyi, who promised to help provide badly needed medicine.
Health officials inspected the shelter in July and August and found it unhygienic with patients susceptible to infections because of overcrowding, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.
But shelter organizers said authorities simply want to pressure them because of the visit by Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.
Yarzar, one of the center's staff members who uses only one name, admitted the shelter was crowded but said preventive measures were taken against the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Health authorities offered to relocate patients to a state-run HIV/AIDS center, but they refused to move out as their shelter not only offers medical care, food and accommodation but "warmth and affection that no other center can provide," Yarzar said.
Since the patients have decided not to leave, Yarzar said he was ready to face any consequences.
The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.
Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested in 1989. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.
Suu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MYANMAR_SUU_KYI_AIDS_SHELTER?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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HIV/AIDS Activist Says Closure of Shelter Unjustified
By KO HTWE Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Statements made by government authorities to justify the closure of a Rangoon shelter for HIV/AIDS patients run by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) are not accurate and the shelter and its organizers will defy the government shut-down order, said Phyu Phyu Thin, a well-know HIV/AIDS activist and the NLD's affiliated welfare group leader.
The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, reported on Wednesday that the shelter would be closed because of the “possible spread of infectious disease from the patients.”
The newspaper said that a medical team from the Rangoon Region Health Department explained that “as there are many patients at the shelter in a limited space for the patients it can be a source of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases which are a complication of HIV/AIDS.”
“Out of the patients at the home, 30 patients are also infected with tuberculosis, and it [the government medical team] is concerned about the possible spread of the virus from the patients to neighbors,” and therefore, “it is suggested that the host follow the [government] instructions [to have patients vacate the shelter],” the The New Light of Myanmar said.
In response, shelter organizers said the authorities simply wanted to pressure them because of a recent visit by pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.
The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.
Phyu Phyu Thin said there are factual inaccuracies in the newspaper's reporting and if the Burmese government wants to prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading it needs to report the truth.
“It is true there is limited space for the patients, but we cannot afford an extension,” said Phyu Phyu Thin. “But we are serving under the guidance of doctors and nurses who are HIV specialists.”
“The The New Light of Myanmar's writing style is instigating neighbors,” she said, but added that after residents in the community living near the shelter are educated about HIV/AIDS, they are not afraid to deal with the patients.
“Residents donate food for patients and they also participate in interfacing with township authorities,” said Phyu Phyu Thin.
Since 2002, Phyu Phyu Thin has worked with hundreds of HIV/AIDS patients. The NLD's affiliated welfare group runs three safe houses in Dagon Myothit (South) and Dagon Myothit (North) townships.
Dagon Myothit (South) Township authorities said on Thursday, a day after Suu Kyi's visit to the shelter, that they would not renew the permit for guests to stay in the safe house and those who remained would face legal action. In Burma, a host must receive permission from authorities for overnight visitors.
Shelter organizers said that officials from Burma's Ministry of Health told them to transfer some patients to the government's Tharkayta Township clinic because the NLD-run safe house is too small for the number of patients living there and therefore diseases like tuberculosis can easily infect the residents.
More than 80 people with HIV/AIDS are now facing a move to the government's Special Hospital in Thakayta.
“The move depends on the wishes of the patients. We have to care about their wishes. If the patients don't want to move, we will stand in front of them even if authorities try to arrest us,” said Phyu Phyu Thin.
HIV/AIDS patients living at the shelter told The Irrawaddy that none of them wanted to relocate because they did not believe that assistance at the new location would be as good as that provided by Phyu Phyu Thin with the support of Suu Kyi.
Patients come to the shelter because they trust the clinic—there is no discrimination among patients and patients feel the relationship between them and the staff is warm, Phyu Phyu Thin said.
The HIV patients also worry that they will be required to buy their own food and drinking water at the Tharkayta clinic.
Meanwhile the Geneva-based International AIDS Society (IAS) on Tuesday called on the Burmese government to reverse the ruling to shut down the NLD-run shelter/clinic and allow it to continue operating free from intimidation.
“This clinic is a well known establishment that is dedicated to helping marginalized or displaced people get the HIV treatment they need for free.
It should be allowed to continue with its work and I urge the Burmese government to reconsider and enter productive negotiations with all those involved,” said IAS President Elly Katabira.
IAS is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 19,000 members from more than 190 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS.
According to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS report, in 2009 there were 238,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Burma.
It should be allowed to continue with its work and I urge the Burmese government to reconsider and enter productive negotiations with all those involved,” said IAS President Elly Katabira.
IAS is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 19,000 members from more than 190 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS.
According to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS report, in 2009 there were 238,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Burma.
It should be allowed to continue with its work and I urge the Burmese government to reconsider and enter productive negotiations with all those involved,” said IAS President Elly Katabira.
IAS is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with over 19,000 members from more than 190 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS.
According to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS report, in 2009 there were 238,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Burma.
http://irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20173
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Suu Kyi and her Son Visit Shwedagon Pagoda
By BA KAUNG Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Aung San Suu Kyi and her son Kim Aris visited Burma's holiest shrine, Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda, early on Wednesday.
Suu Kyi once rallied political supporters there before she was consigned by the authorities to a total of 15 years' house arrest.
Her father, Burma's independence hero Aung San, also spoke to supporters at the pagoda, which became a focus of opposition sentiment as well as a hallowed religious monument. Protesting monks massed there during the 2007 uprising.
Freed political prisoners made it a custom to visit the pagoda after their release. Suu Kyi was freed from her current term of house arrest on November 13, but reportedly delayed her visit until after the arrival in Burma of her youngest son, who was granted a one-month visa to enable him to see his mother for the first time in 10 years.
“Mother, please take good care of your health,” cried one of several Suu Kyi supporters who gathered at the pagoda to see her and Kim Aris arrive there at 7 a.m. Rangoon reporters said plainclothes security men also mingled with the crowd.
Suu Kyi and her son paid homage at a planetary post at a corner of the pagoda. Planetary posts mark the days of birth of Buddhist worshipers.
A devout Buddhist, Suu Kyi will arrange for the ordination of Kim into the monkhood for a short period, a widely practiced ritual among Burmese Buddhist families.
She held a novitiation ceremony for Kim and his elder brother Alexander several years ago while their father, British scholar Michael Aris, was still alive. Aris, a respected scholar on Tibetan Buddhism, died in 1999.
Rangoon correspondents contributed to this story.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20167
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‘India saddened me... let’s talk now’
Posted: Wed Nov 24 2010, 05:52 hrs New Delhi:
Expressing her “sadness” with the way New Delhi engaged with the military regime in Yangon while she was in detention, Myanmarese leader Aung San Suu Kyi today called for “talks with (India) as soon as possible.”
She was speaking to The Indian Express over the telephone in her first interview to an Indian news organisation since her release on November 13.
“I am saddened with India. I would like to have thought that India would be standing behind us. That it would have followed in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru,” said Suu Kyi.
A prisoner in her own land, locked in her lakeside home in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, had spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest.
She now sees the time opportune for a fresh political initiative between her party and the Indian government. “We would like India to work closely with us, that is work with my party, the National League for Democracy (NLD),” she said. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-saddened-me...-lets-talk-now/715179/
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260 state-owned fuel filling stations privatized in Myanmar
08:11, November 24, 2010
A total of 260 state-owned fuel filling stations out of 272 throughout Myanmar have been privatized as of June this year, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Tuesday.
These stations are scattered in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyawaddy, Bago, Magway, Sagaing, Tanintharyi regions, Mon, Shan, Kachin, Rakhine, Kayin and Chin states.
Meanwhile, to facilitate running the privatized undertakings, wharves for handling imported fuel and storage tanks are also allowed for building by the tender winning private enterprises.
With legal export earnings, private companies in the country are so allowed to operate fuel filling stations which were formerly run by the Ministry of Energy.
The authorities also encouraged the private enterprises to build such fuel filling stations and fuel tanks on some highways to facilitate motor vehicles running there.
As a follow-up measure, the authorities offered to lease land plots to the private enterprises on a long-term basis for the move after it decided to privatize such stations.
In November last year, Myanmar government's Trade Council, as an initiative, announced a trade policy of allowing private companies to import diesel with their legal export earning.
The government's Privatization Commission revealed that since 2000, two port terminals in Yangon -- Asia World's in Ahlone township and Myanmar International Terminal Thilawa (MITT) in Kyauktan township have been put into private run.
Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90863/7208806.html
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Cyclone Aid Hampered by Logistics
By LAWI WENG Wednesday, November 24, 2010
“We have no water,” said a villager in Saittara village in Myebon township. “We have to go eight kilometers by boat to get water from other villages.”
“Our ponds are contaminated and the cows and buffaloes are dying. What are we going to do in the next few months when there is no rain and it gets hot again?” he said.
Saittara is one of 139 villages in Myebon township hit by Cyclone Giri, a category 4 storm that struck the west coast of Burma's Arakan State on Oct. 22, causing heavy damage in Kyaukpyu, Minbya, Myebon and Pauktaw townships
A cyclone Giri that struck Burma's western coast damaged hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents.
The cyclone damaged bridges and made roads impassable, washing away or destroying villager's boats, adding to transportation difficulties and long-term fears for villagers whose livelihoods have been washed away.
Aye Thar Aung, the leader of the Arakan League for Democracy who traveled in the area by boat in mid Novmember to distribute relief supplies predicted villagers would be confronting health problems in the long term after he saw them using water contaminated with sea water.
“People are getting drinking water from humanitarian organization, but they need much more for their families,” he said.
About 101,923 people remain homeless after at least 20,380 houses were completely destroyed. Cyclone Giri affeted an estimated 260,000 people (52,000 households) according to reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Relief is getting through, according to latest update by OCHA, which said the first food distribution of 1, 355 metric tons of rice was expected to have been distributed by Nov. 20.
Many problems remain, however, as there will be few job opportunities for farmers in the coming months and there will no agriculture income next year, OCHA said.
The cyclone destroyed or partially destroyed 51 percent of the total crop and about 50,000 acres of shrimp and fish ponds in the four townships.
Aye Thar Aung said the cyclone victims need help from the humanitarian organizations to rehabilitate farming land affected by the intrusion of sea water, adding that he has already met with diplomats from the US, Germany and Australia in Rangoon on Tuesday to seek funding, and was granted US $300,000 from the US.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is also seeking to step up National League of Democracy assistance (NLD) for the cyclone victims.
“Suu Kyi told me she will help us get funding for cyclone victims,” said May Win Myint, an NLD executive committee member, on Monday after Suu Kyi had requested that the NLD increase its efforts to assist the cyclone victims.
“We will need time to implement a larger operation,” said May Win Myint, adding that she and her team members found that the victims urgently needed shelter, food and water when they went to assess needs in Kyaukpyu township on Nov. 3.
“They (cyclone victims) told us to bring plastic sheet for roofing and rice,” which she said the NLD will do.
The OCHA report meanwhile said the distribution of emergency shelter kits to support the vulnerable homeless population is very challenging due to natural geography, poor and damaged infrastructure but that almost 10,000 kits were in the final process of being distributed and more than 16,000 are in the pipeline. However the report said more than 7,000 kits still remained unfunded.
OCHA said a total of 600 under-five children who are likely to be severely malnourished and 2,200 children who are moderately malnourished are in need of therapeutic and supplementary feeding. A vulnerable group of an estimated 30,000 under-five children and 12,000 pregnant/lactating women among the affected population of 260,000 in the four townships are in need of micronutrient supplements.
Meanwhile, the Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein visited Myebon, the worst affected township, on Tuesday. He told cyclone victims at a meeting that the government will continue to work giving humanitarian assistance but would be unable to offer resettlement, according to a participant at the meeting.
The OCHA report said the Ministry of Health has mobilized eight teams of medical doctors and student nurses as part of its emergency response and Myebon Township Medical Officer reported that the Department of Health had mobilized four mobile clinics.
Two hospitals, eight rural health centers and 13 sub-rural health centers were damaged to varying degrees in the Myebon, OCHA said.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20165
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Myanmar now the only active landmine user: campaigners
by Staff Writers
Geneva
(AFP) Nov 24, 2010
Myanmar is now the only government still laying landmines after Russia stopped using such weapons, campaigners said Wednesday, noting that 2009 marked the lowest usage of the deadly explosives in a decade.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) credited the 1997 Ottawa international treaty banning anti-personnel mines for the reduction in usage.
"Although no additional countries joined the Mine Ban Treaty in 2009 or the first half of 2010, the power of the international standard rejecting the weapon continued to be evident," said the group in its annual Landmine Monitor.
"Only one government -- Myanmar -- newly laid antipersonnel mines, no state transfers of mines were recorded, and as few as three states were actively producing mines," it said.
"This is the lowest level of recorded use since the monitor began reporting in 1999. For the first time, Russia was not identified as an active user."
Even the list of producers has shortened. Just 12 manufacturers of anti-personnel mines were recorded, with three actively producing -- India, Myanmar and Pakistan. Nepal was dropped from the list of producers.
Nevertheless, such mines are still laid by non-state armed groups in six countries -- Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Yemen, noted the report.
Landmines and explosive remnants of war caused 3,956 new casualties in 2009, although this is the lowest annual total since the ICBL began monitoring the issue in 1999 and 28 percent lower than in 2008. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Myanmar_now_the_only_active_landmine_user_campaigners_999.html
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Myamar Lifts Ban on 7 Thai Goods
UPDATE : 24 November 2010
The deputy commerce minister has disclosed that Myanmar has lifted its ban on seven Thai products, adding that the Thai government has asked its counterparts to also consider removing the ban on four other items.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Polabutr said Myanmar has agreed to lift its ban on seven out of fifteen Thai products, which include apples, Chinese pears, grapes, cherries, monkey apples, oranges, and durians.
He added that the Ministry is also asking Myanmar to consider lifting the ban on four additional products including rambutans, mangosteens, guavas, and longkongs.
Alongkorn noted that according to Myanmar, it is possible to remove the ban on longkongs, as the fruit is not grown locally.
He said Myanmar has explained that Thai beverages and instant noodles are banned in order to protect local producers, while seasoning powder imports are not allowed because of health concerns.
However, the deputy commerce minister said some products can be imported for sale at hotels and duty free stores to serve tourists.
Such products are canned foods, chocolates, chewing gum, liquor, beer, cigarettes, cakes, wafers, and biscuits.
He added that plastic products are also exempt from the ban when they are meant for personal use.
Alongkorn observed that as the 15 products account for a small portion of the total trade value between Thailand and Myanmar, the Thai government should increase exports of cement powder, tiles, and other construction materials as they could generate more revenue considering the rising demand in light of Myanmar's investments in infrastructure development. http://www.thailandoutlook.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1037744
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 24 November, 2010
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