News & Articles on Burma-Thursday 23 June, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Thursday 23 June, 2011
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Honorary doctorate for Suu Kyi
Suu Kyi urges US push for rights probe
Suu Kyi urges Congress to push Myanmar democracy
Suu Kyi: Does junta really want democracy?
Refugees struggle as EU cuts aid
Suu Kyi asks US to back war crimes probe
Suu Kyi Urges US Support for CoI
EU mission to Myanmar finds some optimistic signs
Suu Kyi Asks Congress to Help Myanmar Democracy
KIA is Ready for Ceasefire, if Offered Through Proper Channels
War snowballs; Kachin refugees influx to China border
Shwe Mahn to meet with MPs from Rangoon Region Assembly
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Honorary doctorate for Suu Kyi
June 23 2011 at 05:12pm
REUTERS

An honorary doctorate is to be awarded to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the University of Johannesburg's humanities faculty, it said.

An honorary doctorate is to be awarded to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the University of Johannesburg's humanities faculty, it said on Thursday.

Executive dean Professor Rory Ryan said that Suu Kyi represented the university's principles.

These included its respect for diversity and human dignity, and its call for academic freedom and accountability, he said.

Suu Kyi, a world-renowned advocate for human rights, was placed under house arrest in 1989.

The military offered to release her if she would agree to leave Burma, which has been renamed by the military junta as the Democratic Republic of Myanmar, but she refused.

She has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest.

In 1990 she led National League for Democracy to win the election, but the military refused to recognise the party.

In March 2010 power was handed over to a nominally civilian government and Suu Kyi was released.

The university said it would award her a doctor litterarum et philosophiae (honoris causa) during a graduation ceremony in October. -

Sapa http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/honorary-doctorate-for-suu-kyi-1.1087851
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THE MANILA TIMES
Suu Kyi urges US push for rights probe

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Myanmar’s opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) urged US lawmakers to push for a United Nations (UN)-backed probe into human rights in her country as she warned of a long and difficult road to democracy.

Suu Kyi, who was released in November after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest, spoke on a video in a first-ever message to the US Congress, a stronghold of support for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She asked lawmakers to do “whatever you can” to support the work of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and assured that a so-called commission of inquiry would not be a tribunal.

“It is simply a commission of inquiry to find out what human rights violations have taken place and what we can do to ensure that such violations do not take place in the future,” she told a House of Representatives hearing.

Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power, warned that it would take time to reform Myanmar.

“It is going to be a long road; it has already been a long road and a difficult one, and no doubt the road ahead will have its difficulties as well,” she said.

But she added, “With the help and support of true friends, I’m sure we will be able to tread the path of democracy, not easily and perhaps not as quickly as we would like, but surely and steadily.”

The United States has publicly supported a UN-led probe—a longstanding demand of activists—but it has done little to make the investigation a reality, worrying that its efforts may be wasted so long as Asian countries—particularly China—are opposed.

UN-led commissions of inquiry elsewhere in the world have led to charges and prosecution, with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir risking arrest if he travels to countries that recognize the International Criminal Court.

Human rights groups say that Myanmar has a record of severe human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, custodial deaths, torture and frequent rape of displaced women from minority groups.

Recent deadly clashes in far-northern Kachin State have triggered an exodus of refugees toward the border with China.

Suu Kyi has called on Myanmar’s rulers to free some 2,000 other prisoners, which rights groups say are detained for political reasons and often held in poor conditions.

“Why are they still in prison if this government is really intent on making good progress toward democracy? If it is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy to Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country,” she said.
AFP http://www.manilatimes.net/news/world/suu-kyi-urges-us-push-for-rights-probe/
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Suu Kyi urges Congress to push Myanmar democracy

By: MATTHEW PENNINGTON | Associated Press | 06/22/11 10:59 AM

In this photo taken Tuesday, June 21, 2011, Robert Cooper, right, general secretariat of the Council of the European Union, External Economic Relations, Politico-Military Affairs, talks to journalists after meeting with Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon, Myanmar.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi addressed U.S. lawmakers by video on Wednesday, calling for a commission of inquiry into rights abuses in Myanmar and urging lawmakers' support for steps to open up "the real road to democracy" there.

Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest seven months ago, questioned whether Myanmar, also known as Burma, has made any real progress toward democracy since flawed elections in November that were meant to end of five decades of military rule.

"If (the government) is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy into Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country," Suu Kyi said.

Her National League for Democracy party that swept 1990 elections but was barred from taking power has faced years of persecution by authorities.

Rights groups say Myanmar holds more than 2,000 political prisoners. Freeing them is a key demand of the U.S. and other countries that currently maintain tough sanctions against Myanmar and its military leaders.

Suu Kyi called for access to Myanmar for U.N. human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, who is barred from visiting. She supported his call for a commission of inquiry into rights abuses that have taken place in Myanmar, but stressed it would be intended not as a tribunal to punish violators but to ensure rights violations do not recur.

Suu Kyi's comments were made in videotape statement recorded in Myanmar and aired at a hearing in Washington of the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific subcommittee. It is the first time the 66-year old democracy leader, who has spent about 15 of the past 22 years under some form of detention, has submitted such a statement to a U.S. congressional committee.

She urged lawmakers to do whatever they can to get Myanmar to implement the demands of a resolution adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March. The resolution — the latest of many adopted by the world body over the years against Myanmar, but with little impact — calls for prisoner releases, freedom of information and association, an independent judiciary and political reconciliation.

Ending a former U.S. policy of diplomatic isolation of the military regime, the Obama administration has attempted to engage Myanmar in the past 18 months but has made little progress.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., was skeptical about the Obama administration's engagement policy, saying neither Myanmar's relations with Washington nor the situation in the country had changed.

"If proponents of pragmatic engagement are correct, then Burmese leaders should recognize this unprecedented opportunity being offered by the Obama administration and seek to improve relations with the U.S. by demonstrating tangible change. Unfortunately, this is not the case," he said.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/2011/06/suu-kyi-urges-congress-push-myanmar-democracy
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UPI.com
Suu Kyi: Does junta really want democracy?
Published: June 23, 2011 at 4:00 AM

WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- Fulfilling U.N. rights demands is crucial to making Myanmar the democracy the ruling junta claims it wants, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi told U.S. lawmakers.

Freeing the estimated 2,000 political prisoners held by the army government will show that the junta truly wants to create a modern, democratic nation, the pro-democracy activist said in videotaped testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific subcommittee.

Getting the military, which has ruled the country since 1962, to free political prisoners is a key demand of a March U.N. Human Rights Council Resolution.

"If [the government] is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy to Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country," Suu Kyi said, using the earlier name for Myanmar preferred among dissident groups.

"Surely democracy means that we all have the right to our own beliefs," said Suu Kyi, whose democracy party won an overwhelming victory in 1990 elections but was prevented by the military from assuming power.

Freeing political prisoners is a key demand of the United States and other Western countries maintaining tough sanctions against Myanmar and its government, which human-rights groups allege engages in child labor, forced labor, human trafficking and rampant use of sexual violence as an instrument of control.

The junta is eager to remove the sanctions, which bar some leaders from carrying out financial transactions through Western banks and from traveling to the United States, European Union or Australia, The New York Times reported.

Suu Kyi urged U.S. lawmakers to do all within their power to get the junta to comply with the U.N. demands, which also call for an independent judiciary, freedom of information and association, and political reconciliation.

"Without an independent judiciary we cannot have the rule of law, and without the rule of law none of our people can be secure," she said.

Suu Kyi, released from house arrest Nov. 13, 2010, after spending 15 of the previous 21 years in confinement, made the video secretly.

Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., who asked her to testify and arranged for the video testimony, would not say how the video was obtained, The Washington Post reported.

Lawmakers awarded Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal in 2008 -- the highest civilian U.S. award, equal to the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- but are holding off giving it to her until she is able to accept it in person.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/23/Suu-Kyi-Does-junta-really-want-democracy/UPI-79061308816000/#ixzz1Q5bv2K55
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Refugees struggle as EU cuts aid
By MAHN SAIMON
Published: 23 June 2011

Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai border say they have been receiving less food and housing material since the EU reduced border aid earlier this year, triggering concerns about the extent to which already difficult conditions in the camps will be exacerbated.

An official at the Umpiem camp, south of the Thai border town of Mae Sot, said that each house was receiving three wooden poles and only 30 sheets of leaf roofing – “not even enough to build a loo”.

He said that funding was cut in all major sectors of the camp, including food, health, education and social projects. “Now we no longer receive chilli, and rice was also cut down to 13.5kg from 15kg.”

Veerawit Tianchainan, director of the Thai Committee for Refugees, said that following the EU’s decision to cut funding, other civil society groups had followed suit.

During a visit to the populous Mae La camp in March, EU official Kristalina Georgieva told refugees that funding would be reduced as the bloc looks to develop capacity training for its inhabitants in areas like agriculture, livestock and handicrafts.

Nine official camps that house close to 145,000 Burmese, mostly Karen, exist along the Thai-Burma border. The EU has been providing aid since 1995, but announced this year that it would be increasing funding to civil society groups working inside Burma.

The decision to reduce financial assistance before completing career training was criticised by Surapong Kongchantuk, chairman of the sub-committee of the Lawyers’ Council of Thailand.

“If they want to bring comfort for the refugees, they should give them professional training to make them capable of looking after themselves, and then cut down the aid only after that.”

He said that the move compounded concerns about the future of refugees in Thailand, following the Thai government’s campaign to register illegal migrants. Those who do not register face deportation.

Burma was named in a recent UN report as the world’s fifth-highest source country for refugees, higher than that of Colombia and Sudan. Along with the 145,000 in camps in Thailand, the majority of whom have fled decades of conflict in neighbouring Karen state, more than 200,000 ethnic Rohingya live a precarious existence in unofficial camps in Bangladesh.
http://www.dvb.no/news/refugees-struggle-as-eu-cuts-aid/16278
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Suu Kyi asks US to back war crimes probe
By AFP
Published: 23 June 2011

Burma’s opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday urged US lawmakers to push for a UN-backed probe into human rights in her country as she warned of a long and difficult road to democracy.

Suu Kyi, who was released in November after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest, spoke on a video in a first-ever message to the US Congress, a stronghold of support for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She asked lawmakers to do “whatever you can” to support the work of the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma and assured that a so-called commission of inquiry would not be a tribunal.

“It is simply a commission of inquiry to find out what human rights violations have taken place and what we can do to ensure that such violations do not take place in the future,” she told a House of Representatives hearing.

Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won 1990 elections but was never allowed to take power, warned it will take time to reform Burma

“It is going to be a long road; it has already been a long road and a difficult one, and no doubt the road ahead will have its difficulties as well,” she said.

But she added: “With the help and support of true friends, I’m sure we will be able to tread the path of democracy, not easily and perhaps not as quickly as we would like, but surely and steadily.”

The United States has publicly supported a UN-led probe – a longstanding demand of activists. But it has done little to make it a reality, worrying its efforts would be futile so long as Asian countries – particularly China – are opposed.

UN-led commissions of inquiry elsewhere in the world have led to charges and prosecution, with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir risking arrest if he travels to countries that recognize the International Criminal Court.

Human rights groups say that Burma has a record of severe human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings, custodial deaths, torture and frequent rape of displaced women from minority groups.

Recent deadly clashes in far-northern Kachin state have triggered an exodus of refugees toward the border with China.

Suu Kyi called on Burma’s rulers to free some 2,000 other prisoners which rights groups say are detained for political reasons and often held in poor conditions.

“Why are they still in prison if this government is really intent on making good progress toward democracy? If it is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy to Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country,” she said.

Burma held elections in November 2010 which the regime said was a step toward democracy, with the junta later handing over to nominally civilian rulers. But many outside observers say that the changes are purely cosmetic.

A recent joint study by Physicians for Human Rights and Johns Hopkins University found that in western Chin state, 91.7 percent of households had at least one family member who had been forced to work for the military in the past year.

One area of Chin state with particularly high rates of child conscription and sexual assault was under the command of Colonel Zaw Min Oo, who is now in parliament, said Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“In post-election Burma, a military commander whose forces violently repressed the Chin people now represents those same households and communities in the new parliament. That is not change, it is impunity,” Beyrer told the committee.

“The US has recently shown swift and effective leadership in diplomacy on calling for investigations into the killing of civilians by the Kadhafi regime in Libya. Why not Burma, where the evidence is overwhelming?” he said.

President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009 launched a dialogue with Burma, concluding that the previous Western policy of trying to isolate the government had failed.

The administration has repeatedly said it plans to keep pursuing diplomacy despite deep disappointment over the results.
http://www.dvb.no/news/suu-kyi-asks-us-to-back-war-crimes-probe/16272
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Suu Kyi Urges US Support for CoI
By KO HTWE and LALIT K JHA Thursday, June 23, 2011

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged US lawmakers to support the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) by the United Nations into alleged human rights violations in Burma.

Suu Kyi delivered the message at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific through a pre-recorded video message. Chaired by Donald Manzullo, the congressional subcommittee convened the hearing on Wednesday.

“Professor Quintana has spoken of the need for a CoI into human rights violations in Burma,” said Suu Kyi in her address to the congressional subcommittee. “I support his call for such a commission.”

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, has recommended that the UN should consider establishing a CoI into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Burmese government.

Many human rights groups have claimed that the Burmese military regime is guilty of crimes such as the forced displacement of people, murder, sexual violence including rape and sex trafficking, torture, and the persecution of people based on religious or ethnic identity, among others.

Suu Kyi also questioned why the new government continues to detain political prisoners if it really intends to progress toward democracy.

"If [the government] is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy into Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country," said Suu Kyi.

She also urged the US to look at the Burmese situation in the light of the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution which came out in March. The resolution, she said, includes such very important issues as political prisoners, freedom of association and information, independence of the judiciary, and the right of Professor Quintana to visit Burma whenever he thinks it is necessary.

It also includes the need for an inclusive political process in Burma and conditions where there can be a negotiated settlement leading to national reconciliation.

“All [the issues] that the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution has called for are essential if Burma is to enjoy constitutional liberalism and democratic institutions,” she said.

The hearing also featured testimony from Aung Din, the executive director and co-founder of the US Campaign for Burma, as well as Chris Beyrer, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights.

Manzullo, who has also kept pressure on the military junta in Burma by working annually to renew economic sanctions against the junta and its cronies, said in his statement that one should not forget that there are still 2,200 political prisoners languishing in Burmese gulags, including peaceful monks and citizens that took part in the Saffron Revolution four years ago.

The timing of the hearing also coincided with the Burmese army launching military offensives against ethnic resistance groups in Shan State and Kachin State, a maneuver that has driven nearly 20,000 refugees into hiding along the China-Burma border and into China.

“The recent news of clashes in Burma’s Kachin province between government troops and ethnic minorities, which has been the heaviest fighting in 17 years, adds further evidence to the argument that the situation in Burma has not changed,” wrote Manzullo in his statement.

Manzullo said the Saffron Revolution of September, 2007 exposed the Burmese regime for what it is—a brutal authoritarian regime willing to stop at nothing to crack down on thousands of peaceful, nonviolent protesters simply because they demanded their basic human rights.

“The recruitment of child soldiers, detention and torture of political dissidents, restrictions on freedoms of press, speech, assembly and association, and limited religious freedoms continue to prevail in Burma under the highly authoritarian military regime of General Thein Sein,” he said. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21551
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STRAITS TIMES: Jun 23, 2011
EU mission to Myanmar finds some optimistic signs

YANGON (Myanmar) - A EUROPEAN Union delegation saw encouraging signs from Myanmar's new government but promises of reform must be matched by actions, the mission chief said on Wednesday.

The fact-finding mission was meant to measure the extent of change under the new nominally civilian regime as well as prospects for the EU to engage more with it, delegation chief Robert Cooper of Britain said.

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, held its first elections in 20 years last November. The new government, comprising mostly retired military officers, has promised democratic reforms but made no major gestures in that direction. Critics say the vote was orchestrated to keep power in the military's hands.

The EU, like the United States, maintains economic and political sanctions against Myanmar because of its failure to implement democratic reforms and its poor human rights record. Myanmar has long pushed for the sanctions to be lifted.

It was the first high-ranking EU delegation to visit since the elected government took office in March. Mr Cooper asserted that the visit did not represents a change of policy by the European Union. 'The message of our visit was that we are also open to change ourselves in the relationship in response to developments here,' he said. 'We are also ready to change.'

'We see that something is happening in this country. We are trying to understand it a little better,' said Mr Cooper, who added that it met with a wide range of people. He met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday. -- AP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_682974.html
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The Wall Street Journal
Suu Kyi Asks Congress to Help Myanmar Democracy
Associated Press

WASHINGTON–Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi addressed U.S. lawmakers by video on Wednesday, calling for a commission of inquiry into rights abuses in Myanmar and urging lawmakers' support for steps to open up "the real road to democracy" there.

Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to media after her meeting with an EU foreign affairs department official earlier this week in Myanmar. Ms. Suu Kyi addressed U.S. lawmakers via video on Wednesday, urging support for democratic reforms.

Ms. Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest seven months ago, questioned whether Myanmar has made any real progress toward democracy since the elections in November that were meant to end of five decades of military rule.

"If (the government) is sincere in its claims that it wishes to bring democracy into Burma, there is no need for any prisoners of conscience to exist in this country," Ms. Suu Kyi said, using the alternative name for Myanmar preferred among dissident groups.
Video

Watch Suu Kyi's Remarks to the U.S. Congress



http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearings_livestream.asp
Ms. Suu Kyi's remarks were made in a videotaped statement recorded in Myanmar and aired at a hearing in Washington of the House Foreign Affairs Asia and the Pacific subcommittee. It is the first time the 66-year old democracy leader, who has spent about 15 of the past 22 years under some form of detention, has submitted such a statement to a U.S. congressional committee.

Her National League for Democracy party that swept the 1990 elections but was barred from taking power has faced years of persecution by authorities.

Rights groups say Myanmar holds more than 2,000 political prisoners. Freeing them is a key demand of the U.S. and other countries that currently maintain tough sanctions against Myanmar and its military leaders.

Ms. Suu Kyi called for access to Myanmar for U.N. human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana, who is barred from visiting. She supported his call for a commission of inquiry into rights abuses that have taken place in Myanmar, but stressed it would be intended not as a tribunal to punish violators but to ensure rights violations do not recur.

She urged lawmakers to do whatever they can to get Myanmar to implement the demands of a resolution adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March. The resolution—the latest of many adopted by the world body over the years against Myanmar, but with little impact—calls for prisoner releases, freedom of information and association, an independent judiciary and political reconciliation.

Ending a former U.S. policy of diplomatic isolation of the military regime, the Obama administration has attempted to engage Myanmar in the past 18 months but has made little progress.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., was skeptical about the Obama administration's engagement policy, saying neither Myanmar's relations with Washington nor the situation in the country had changed.

"If proponents of pragmatic engagement are correct, then Burmese leaders should recognize this unprecedented opportunity being offered by the Obama administration and seek to improve relations with the U.S. by demonstrating tangible change. Unfortunately, this is not the case," he said. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304791204576402130123153822.html
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KIA is Ready for Ceasefire, if Offered Through Proper Channels
By SAI ZOM HSENG Thursday, June 23, 2011

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is ready to stop fighting, but first it wants guarantees that any ceasefire proposal offered on behalf of the government will be respected by Burmese military commanders, according to officials from the group's political wing.

“We want the Burmese government or a leading member of the Burmese army to offer proof that they will stop firing. We can't just accept a short letter saying that they will stop,” said La Nan, the joint-secretary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, La Nan said that the KIO recently received a letter from Thein Zaw, the former Minister of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, stating that “Northern Regional Military Commander Brig-Gen Zeyar Aung has already ordered his troops to stop firing, and the KIA needs to stop firing as well.”

He said that the letter was written by Thein Zaw in his capacity as an MP for Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, and therefore could not be regarded as representative of the government's position or that of the Burmese military.

La Nan noted that when the KIO agreed to a ceasefire with the Burmese government in 1994, leaders of both sides were present and the agreement was signed in front of several witnesses.

“Even then, we found that the Burmese army couldn't be trusted not to attack our troops. For example, in 2001, they killed about 10 KIA Brigade 4 soldiers in northern Shan State for no reason. We don’t want problems like that in the future. That’s why we're asking for guarantees,” he said.

La Nan said that the KIO also recently received a letter from Zeyar Aung, the Burmese army's northern regional commander, but it made no mention of a ceasefire.

The letter denied that the recent fighting was part of a Burmese military operation, claiming that the conflict started because the army had to “protect a state-level project being carried out in cooperation with a neighboring country”—referring to a hydropower dam being built on the Taping River by a Chinese company.

Clashes between the two sides erupted in the second week of June. Although there has been no major fighting in recent days, there were reports of skirmishes in Putao Township, in the far north of the state, on Wednesday, suggesting that the conflict is spreading.

Despite the relative quiet that has prevailed so far this week, the number of refugees fleeing the affected areas is still high. Many have crossed the border into China, but some have already returned to Kachin State under pressure from the Chinese authorities, according to Mai Ja of the Kachin Women's Association Thailand, one of the groups assisting the refugees.

“Some refugees who are currently in China can't get food or medicine, so they will come back to Kachin State,” she said. “They are forced to stay in small rooms, and conditions aren't very sanitary, so they are having health problems.”

Most of the refugees in China are staying in the villages of Phin Chan, Loi Leng, Jang Fone, Naung Ang and Naung Tao in Yunnan Province's Yingjiang Township. The refugees in Kachin State are receiving assistance from an umbrella group of seven local NGOs known as Wunpawng Ning Htoi (“Lights for the Kachin People”). http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21555
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War snowballs; Kachin refugees influx to China border
Thursday, 23 June 2011 08:29 KNG

The civil war between the Burmese Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has forced nearly 20,000 Kachin refugees to flee to the China border fearing continuous clashes, said a doctor helping refugees.

The number of refugees has touched the figure of 13,000 in five refugee camps in Myu Lawt Wunli, Manau Wang, No. 3 Market place, Hpung Lung Yang and Nawng E Hku camp at the Laiza headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) on the China border said, the doctor.
kachin_refugee_laiza2

Kachin refugees, Laiza.
The KIO, the political wing of KIA is providing each refugee with two cans of rice, while locally based Non Government Organizations (NGO) are providing health care.

In Waingmaw Township on the other side of Mali Hka River of Myitkyina, the Capital of Kachin State, there are over 800 refugees sheltered in a Buddhist monastery and a Christian Mission School said, a pastor from the township.

In Lah Ying village in China near China-Loije on the Burma side there are about 5,000 refugees staying in camps and over 150 refugees fled to the Mahtan village according to lists compiled from those camps.

However, the refugees hiding in the forests are sick from cholera and malaria in the rainy season. They are facing downpour without proper shelter or roof.

Almost all refugees are from the villages on the road between Myitkyina, Manmaw (Bhamo) and Loije and more than 20,000 refugees have fled to KIO controlled areas since the war began on June 9. Some refugees are staying on the other side of Laiza in China.

A bomb exploded in Myitkyina Tuesday night for the first time since the KIA and Burmese took on each other on June 9. http://www.kachinnews.com/news/1978-war-snowballs-kachin-refugees-influx-to-china-border.html
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Shwe Mahn to meet with MPs from Rangoon Region Assembly
Thursday, 23 June 2011 13:13 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The speaker of Burma’s Lower House of Parliament, Thura Shwe Mahn, will meet with MPs from the Rangoon Region Legislative Assembly on Friday. The purpose of the meeting was not announced.

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann.

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann.
According to the agenda, the speaker will meet separately with members of the Lower House and the Upper House.

Legislators from the Rangoon assembly told Mizzima that the body would be convened on Wednesday and Thursday.

In the Rangoon assembly, there are 92 elected legislators and 31 legislators named by the Tatmadaw (armed forces).

Similarly, the Mon Regional Legislative Assembly session will be convened on July 7 and 8.

There has been no agenda announced, said Mon State legislative assembly member Dr. Aung Naing Oo of the All Mon Region Democracy Party.

Sessions of the legislative assemblies in other states and regions are likely to be convened at the end of this month or in early July. http://www.mizzima.com/news/election-2010-/5473-shwe-mahn-to-meet-with-mps-from-rangoon-region-assembly.html