News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 15 February, 2011
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic
Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma
Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
Burmese junta continues to crush free press
Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper
Burma Arrests Publisher
Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic
The European Burma Network (EBN), a coalition of organizations promoting human rights and democracy in Burma, met for two days in Prague on Feb. 12-13. Members of the EBN said they remain deeply concerned about the lack of any improvement in Burma's human rights situation and the failure of the ruling regime to make any progress toward achieving genuine democratization.
Elections held in the country last November had no credibility, the EBN said, citing the fact that the vote did not meet any internationally accepted standards of being free and fair. Vote-rigging on behalf of the Burmese junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, was widespread. Published Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 >>> Irrawaddy
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Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma
published: 15.02.2011, 12:47 | updated: 15.02.2011 12:49:41
Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has called on the international community to step up the pressure on Burma to respect human rights, he said at a conference on Burma in Prague.
Human rights are a universal value and their respect should be demanded more strictly in the globalisation era, Havel said.
"The process of economic integration has not yet been accompanied by sufficient integration in the issue of human freedoms and fundamental human rights," he said.
Countries still seem to prefer economic and technological affairs to human rights, Havel complained.
The recent events in the Arab world show that the longing for freedom and democracy is universal, Havel noted.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg supported the effort at making Burma democratic.
The Czech Republic will further demand that human rights be not violated in Burma, Schwarzenberg said.
He said the European Union should take a clear stance to the situation in Burma.
The Czech Republic criticises the military dictatorship, introduced in Burma in 1962, and it supports members of the Burmese opposition.
Schwarzenberg pointed out earlier that although Aung San Suu Kyi, a Peace Nobel Prize laureate, was released from house arrest, roughly 2,000 dissidents were still being jailed. He was also highly critical of the last year´s parliamentary elections, which most observers say were manipulated by the military junta.
The previous elections, held in 1990, were clearly won by the National League for Democracy lead by Suu Kyi but the junta refused to hand power to the winning group and it kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years.
Author: C(TK
www.ctk.cz http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/vaclav-havel-calls-for-more-pressure-on-burma/596551?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed
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Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A group of civil society organizations, which included Thai and Burmese organizations, sent an open letter to the Thai Ministry of Labor calling for safer and better working conditions for migrant workers in Thailand—most of whom are Burmese—who are often mistreated and exploited by local authorities and their employers.
The letter was signed by a group of 14 human rights organizations and delivered to Singhadet Chuumnart, the director of the Bureau of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Labor. The organizations asked him to take the lead in ensuring that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (the Asean Declaration) is enforced as a legal binding document in Thailand which protects undocumented as well as documented migrants in the country.
The group also called for access to appropriate education and training for the children of migrant workers and improvement in the enforcement of legal protections for women workers. In addition, they asked the Thai government to make information on laws and policies regarding and impacting migrants—including working conditions, types of jobs and existing health education and social services—accessible to migrant communities in their own language.
Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Program for the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), said, “We just try to push Thailand to ensure they act in accordance with the Asean Declaration with respect to the rights of migrant workers.”
The move came as representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines prepare to meet to draft an instrument designed to enable countries to effectively implement the Asean Declaration.
In their joint letter, the rights groups strongly urged the Thai government to take the lead in the Asean Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.
Specifically, it urged the Thai government to work to ensure that the Asean Instrument to Protect and Promote the Rights of Migrant Workers is treated as a legally binding document, covers all migrant workers regardless of legal status and includes the families of migrant workers.
The HRDF told The Irrawaddy that the recent case of Chalee Diyo provides a prime example of migrant worker abuse in Thailand.
According the HRDF, Diyo is a 33-year-old Burmese migrant worker who is currently hospitalized in Bangkok due to a work related accident that broke his pelvis and caused severe damage to his intestines. Despite the fact that Diyo holds a legal work permit, the hospital in Pathum Thani Province where Diyo was first admitted asked the police to arrest him. The police complied, and the Burmese migrant was transferred first to Bangkok's Immigration Detention Centre and then to the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, where he was chained to the bed for four days until rights groups started a campaign against his unlawful detention.
“Chalee’s case is really symbolic,” Hall said, explaining that he is a work-related accident victim with a legal work permit who was detained for 16 days by Thai authorities.
The HRDF said in a statement that such cases as Chalee's should not happen in Thailand because it is shameful, inhumane and tantamount to an attempt to shield exploitative employers from responsibility. Every worker, regardless of his or her nationality, must be entitled to equal protection under the law and the concerned authorities must strictly enforce the law to hold negligent employers to account, the statement said.
With Chalee being threatened with deportation and incurring medical expenses totalling about 70,000 Baht (US $2,400) which his employer refused to cover, the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyer’s Council of Thailand (LCT) helped bring his case in front of the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court.
After reviewing Chalee's case, the court ordered on Tuesday that Chalee be released from custody immediately and that the Immigration Bureau pay him 3,000 Baht ($100) in damages. In addition, the court order stated that Chalee could not be deported to Burma and his employer must pay for his medical expenses.
After the court decision, Vasant Panich, the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the LTC and the lawyer who represented Chalee in court, said, “Chalee’s case highlights how law enforcement officials in Thailand continue to systematically abuse powers of arrest and detention, particular with migrant workers.”
HRDF Secretary General Somchai Homlaor said, “Chalee's case has exposed systemic failures in Thailand's systems of migration management and in particular systems for ensuring protection, treatment and compensation of migrant work accident victims.”
“Migrant work accident victims continue to be unprotected, falling outside work accident protection systems created by the Government for all workers in Thailand,” he added.
There are about 2 million documented and undocumented Burmese migrants in Thailand.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20762
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Burmese junta continues to crush free press
By Zin Linn Feb 15, 2011 4:04PM UTC
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a press release on February 11 stating, “Burma’s new government under Prime Minister Thein Sein must put an end to the former military junta’s despicable policy of imprisoning independent journalists. The most recent case to come to light is the 13-year sentencing of Maung Maung Zeya in a trial held within Insein Prison on February 4.”
The court’s verdict came on the same day the junta-backed president Thein Sein was sworn into office.
Photojournalist Sithu Zeya was sentenced to eight years in jail on December 23. Zeya was sentenced by the military kangaroo-court for his photos of the scene of an explosion at a traditional water festival pavilion near Rangoon’s Royal lake in April last year according to his lawyers.
Sithu Zeya’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a video reporter, was sentenced on February 4, 2011 to a total of 13 years in prison by an arbitrary court in Rangoon. CPJ counted 13 journalists in jail in Burma as of December 1, 2010, making it one of the five worst jailers of journalists in the world.
Journalists based in Rangoon say the detentions were part of a continued crackdown by the military authorities on those involved in the anti-junta activities, including covering news in the exile media.
Burma is trapped in a dark age where freedom of expression has totally vanished. The junta is using the domestic media as a propaganda machine.
It is sad that this country sees no sign of freedom even in this Global Information Age. The junta controls all media access now. Since the monk-led protests known as the Saffron Revolution of September 2007, all news media in Burma is tightly restricted by the military junta. All daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under the junta’s command.
All articles for publication in Burma must be approved by the notorious Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, run by military officers. The military junta has determined that the prior censorship system will be continued regardless of the parliamentarian system started on 31 January, 2011.
Paris based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) ranks Burma 174 out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index. The country is one of the few in the world to operate such a strictly censored system. Burma’s ranking was expected and well deserved. In fact, there is no press freedom at all in Burma.
Even obituaries are subject to censorship. If someone wants to put one of his or her family members’ obituaries in the newspaper, it needs to pass the censor. Obituaries of political dissidents and their relatives had been refused permission by the board.
Journalists in Burma have received draconian jail sentences for reporting information challenging to the regime. In January 2010, DVB reporter Ms. Hla Hla Win received a 20-year sentence for violating the Electronic Act, and now in jail serving 27 years; her helper, Myint Naing got seven years.
Burma was at the forefront of press freedom in Southeast Asia before the 1962 military coup. The country then enjoyed a free press; censorship was something unheard of. As many as three dozen newspapers, including English, Chinese and Hindi dailies, existed between 1948 and 1962.
On the contrary, Burma stands downgraded from a free state to a prison state. All news media in Burma is strictly censored and tightly controlled by the military – all daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under control of the junta.
Some journalists and politicians had a dream prior of the recently held November 7 election that there may be a space for them in the new parliament. But freedom of speech for fresh members of parliament in Burma has been restricted under laws made by the sitting military junta. The emergence of a new nominated pro-junta USDP government seems to follow the former regime’s stance towards the press.
There is also a two-year prison term for any complaint staged within the parliament compound. The laws, signed by junta Chief Senior-General Than Shwe, claim that parliamentarians will not be allowed freedom of expression even in their relevant chambers.
Thus, there is no space for parliamentarians as well as journalists to practice freedom of expression under the so-called civilian government.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/48481/the-junta-refuses-allowing-press-freedom-in-burma/
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Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, February 15, 2011
BANGKOK—The anniversary of the Feb. 12, 1947 Panglong Agreement is focusing some minds on the prospects of reform in Burma, days after the meeting of the new Parliament and the emergence of Thein Sein as the new President.
While the National Democratic Front (NDF) and other small, like-minded parties in Burma's new government may try to discuss issues such as political prisoners and press freedom, it remains to be seen how far they will be able to push these measures.
With the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) dominant in the legislature—backed by a 25 percent bloc representation from the country's army—it will be numerically impossible to pass any laws that the USDP and its allies do not agree with.
However the challenge facing Burma's reform-minded parliamentarians is not just to try to get legislation passed, but to get motions discussed in Parliament in the first place. According to Moe Zaw Oo, from the National League for Democracy, the new parliament's rules and procedures will make it difficult for opposition groups or anyone else to introduce any motions that might be anathema to the USDP, which won 76 percent of the vote in the November 7 elections last year. The USDP functions as the party front for the military junta, which is set to formally relinquish power in the coming weeks.
Irrespective of what transpires in the new Upper and Lower Houses, real power in the parliamentary system in Burma will lie with the president, who is not answerable to Parliament in any case. The new president, Thein Sein, will chair the new National Defence and Security Council, an 11-member committee that has been compared with the politburos of countries such as China and Vietnam.
It is not clear how the new structures will alter the existing relationship between the government and the country's ethnic minorities, many of which have been at war with the Burmese army, off and on, since the country became independent from British rule in the late 1940s. Improving relations between the Burmese rulers and the ethnic groups is key to longterm peace and stability in Burma, says Kheunsai Jaiyen, who heads a news agency focusing on Burma's largest ethnic minority, the Shan, which number around 6 million people.
“Today, unlike in the past, leaders from all the main ethnic parties agree with Aung San Suu Kyi that a new Panglong deal is needed to pacify the country,” he said.
He added that Suu Kyi was the only figure capable of overcoming the historic distrust between the majority Burmans and the ethnic minorities that make up almost 40 percent of the country's population and whose territories constitute around half of area of Burma.
“The main ethnic opposition parties followed Daw Suu’s lead in boycotting the election,” he said. “After their submissions to the National Convention that led to the 2008 Constitution and the new political system were completely ignored by the junta”.
Suu Kyi has called for a “21st Century Panglong Agreement,” along the lines of the 1947 deal between her father, Aung San, who emerged from World War II as the leading Burmese political figure, and representatives from some of Burma's main ethnic minority groups.
However, Khin Maung, an Arakanese activist speaking as representative of one of the groups who did not participate in the original Panglong deal, said that the idea of federalism and decentralized power is anathema to the Burmese military, which took control of the country in 1962 after the 1961 Taunggyi Conference, which he described as “a Second Panglong.”
“Almost all the main ethnic groups were at Taunggyi,” he said. “But the federal principles that emerged surely alarmed the military and led to the coup the following year.”
Suu Kyi's call for a 21st-century Panglong was criticized by the military government, and it remains to be seen if the NDF or others will or even can promote the concept in Parliament. The United States and some European countries have called for a loosely defined “national reconciliation” dialogue in Burma, as a prelude to any relaxing of sanctions on the Burmese rulers, and it is conceivable that the a Panglong-style process could play a major role in implementing such a dialogue.
However, the junta has taken a number of steps, dismissed by many as window-dressing, which could be used to undermine requests for any such reconciliation gathering. The appointment of a Shan vice-president, Sai Mauk Kham, and the creation of 14 regional legislatures means that the Burmese government can say it has worked to alleviate the concerns of ethnic minorities.
However, the ongoing stand-off between the Burmese army and the ethnic militias, who have been told to stand down and merge with the army, simmers on in the borderlands, with the Kachin Independence Organisation and the New Mon State Party labeled as “insurgents” by the government, signaling a deterioration of relations.
In the days after the Nov. 7 elections, armed clashes forced thousands of mainly ethnic Karen refugees into Thailand, and armed skirmishes and stand-offs have continued in border areas since then.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20761
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Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, February 15, 2011
RANGOON—Many Rangoon residents who spoke to The Irrawaddy as part of a recent survey said that Burma's military regime has used the debate over economic sanctions to disunite opposition groups, while most said that the junta's misrule was responsible for the country's economic troubles.
The survey showed that the disagreement between Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and other political parties over economic sanctions has grown and that people are disappointed with the regime's attacks via state-controlled newspapers on Suu Kyi and her party regarding this issue.
The Irrawaddy interviewed 100 people from different walks of life, including 10 low-income laborers, 20 university students, 12 company employees, 10 reporters, two retired government servants, one economist, five politicians not affiliated with any political party, two retired army personnel and a senior government official, about whether the current economic sanctions imposed on Burma should be lifted. Most of the interviewees said that getting rid of the existing administrative structure dominated by former generals was more important than lifting sanctions.
“Before the election, opposition groups were split into two factions. One faction wanted to contest the election but the other didn't. Now they are split into two factions again over the sanctions issue. We can say that the junta's divide-and-rule policy has been successful,” said one senior journalist, who added: “I don't think it is important now to debate whether to keep sanctions or lift them. It is time to topple the dictatorial system and get rid of a sham democracy.”
The economist who participated in The Irrawaddy survey said that while it is generally true that economic sanctions can hinder foreign investment, in Burma this is not the case. Other issues, such as the absence of rule of law, rampant cronyism and the lack of guarantees for foreign investments, are the main reasons that most foreign investors do not want to enter the country, he said.
“Economic sanctions are not the only thing blocking foreign investment. The existence of the rule of law and guarantees for those investments are important. No matter what sanctions are imposed on a country, foreign investors will still come as long as that country is stable, peaceful and has conditions conducive to doing business. From an economic point of view, it is more important to create such conditions than to remove sanctions,” said the economist.
Not everyone agrees with this point of view, however. In a joint statement issued on Feb. 12, Burma's Union Day, 11 of the country's political parties said that US economic sanctions on Burma were having a negative impact on both countries. According to the statement, the United States is losing US $15-19 billion annually because of the sanctions, including more than $1 billion in wages for its workers. The statement also claimed that Burma loses billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of job opportunities because of the sanctions.
The political parties that are calling for economic sanctions on Burma to be dropped include the National Democratic Front, the Democratic Party (Myanmar), the Union Democratic Party, the Union Kayin League, the Chin National Party, the Peace and Democracy Party, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, the Wonthanu NLD (Union of Myanmar), the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics and the Phalon Sawaw Democratic Party.
One respondent to The Irrawaddy's survey—a deputy director from the regime's Ministry of Commerce (MOC)—concurred that US and EU sanctions are having a significant impact on the country's economy, at least from the standpoint of government planning.
“Economic sanctions have really affected the country's economy. Whenever we discuss ways to improve the economy, we have to take sanctions into consideration. We have to think of ways to get our exports to Western markets by hiding the name of our country. We have to find ways to bypass barriers to our exports,” said the MOC deputy director.
However, an independent candidate in last year's November election denied that economic sanctions were seriously affecting the lives of ordinary citizens.
He noted that when companies like Eddie Bauer and Pepsi left the country some years ago as a result of the sanctions, products made in Burma or Thailand soon replaced them. He said that the regime is also not seriously concerned about sanctions because it has income from selling the country's natural resources and economic cooperation with China and India.
For the regime, he said, the sanctions issue was just something to be used to attack opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But one former major currently working as the manager of government-owned sugar factory said that members of the military are far from indifferent to the issue of Burma's persistent economic weakness, which he said was largely responsible for widespread corruption.
“Let's put the issue of economic sanctions aside. If you look at how officers in active service live, you'll find that most will do anything for their survival and their children's health and education. To be perfectly frank, they have to steal. Family comes first and they can't think of other things. And they are not aloneall the top-ranking officers are doing the same thing.”
Most of the students from Rangoon's Dagon University who spoke with The Irrawaddy took the view that this corrupt, military-dominated system is itself the chief cause of the many hardships that ordinary Burmese faced in their day-to-day lives. They said that
people needed to unite to change the current system, instead of arguing over the issue of sanctions.
“I don't think it was economic sanctions that made the country's education and health sectors so poor. Where does the regime spend the money it earns from selling natural gas and other resources? Who are the wealthiest people even when the country is under sanctions? Everything is caused because of this military system, so we have to fight against it,” said one third-year student.
Most of those who barely subsist on their daily wages said they don't really understand the issue of economic sanctions and are only interested in earning enough money to support their families.
One 30-year-old reporter from a Rangoon-based journal said that the Burmese regime is just using the sanctions issue as an excuse for its failure to improve the lives of ordinary Burmese.
“This regime doesn't care about economic sanctions at all. They are satisfied with the way things are right now. They are happy as long as they are in power and their families enjoy comfortable lives. They even killed monks to cling on power. Blaming the country's economic situation on sanctions is just an excuse,” said the reporter.
In a statement issued on Feb. 8, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) rejected the argument that sanctions have adversely affected the lives of ordinary citizens. It noted that the regime has never paid serious attention to the health and education needs of the country's people, despite earning billions of dollars from selling natural gas and other resources.
It is this neglect, and not the policies of Western governments towards Burma, that put the country at the bottom of the United Nations Development Program's 2011 human development index, below Cambodia and Laos.
On Feb. 13, Burma's state-run newspapers ran an article titled “Sanctions, Suu Kyi and the NLD,” which criticized Suu Kyi and her party for continuing to call for sanctions.
Since 1993, the US, the EU and other Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Burma for the regime's widespread human rights violations, including rape and the use of child soldiers.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20760
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Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
14:00, February 15, 2011
The ongoing union parliament session will touch on setting up of a new union election commission Tuesday, which is believed to function for the next general election after five years, according to Tuesday's official daily New Light of Myanmar..
A number of seven members for forming the new union election commission, proposed by president-elect U Thein Sein, was submitted to the union parliament session on Monday for discussion on Tuesday by the union parliament representatives.
The last union election commission chaired by U Thein Soe for the 2010 general election was formed by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.
In Myanmar's presidential election on Feb. 4 after the general election on Nov. 7, 2010, Prime Minister U Thein Sein won the presidency, while U Tin Aung Myint Oo and Dr. Sai Mauk Kham were elected as the vice presidents.
The terms of office of the president and the vice presidents are five years, according to the new state constitution.
The union parliament is constituted with two level of parliaments -- house of representatives and house of nationalities which involves elected ones in the November 2010 general election and 25-percent military-nominated ones.
Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7288393.html
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US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
By AFP
Published: 15 February 2011
The United States said Monday that military-run Burma is “up to its old tricks” with its threats against democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Burma claims there is a new era, but it is up to its old tricks by threatening #AungSanSuuKyi,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Twitter. “New suits does not a new system make,” Crowley added.
State media in Burma warned in a commentary that Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic ends” if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions.
The remarks follow a recent statement by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.
It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release in November after seven years of house arrest, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.
The NLD reacted cautiously to the commentary, saying it had not received any official response from the authorities to its statement on sanctions.
In its statement issued last week, the NLD stressed that any end to sanctions on Burma should be linked to an improvement in the junta’s human rights record, notably the release of political prisoners.
The remarks came days after Washington said it was premature to ease sanctions on Burma and urged the regime to take more concrete steps.
Suu Kyi’s release reignited debate over the effectiveness of the financial and trade measures, enforced notably by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.
Two pro-democracy parties that took part in the November polls have called for an end to sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.
Suu Kyi’s party has no voice in a newly opened parliament dominated by the military and its proxies.
Some observers see the sanctions issue as her only leverage with the authorities because Western nations are considered unlikely to scrap the measures without her support.
http://www.dvb.no/news/us-blasts-junta%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98old-tricks%E2%80%99/14270
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New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper
Former Myanmar Times newspaper chief, Ross Dunkley, as identified in the Phnom Penh Post. He is being held in Burma on immigration charges. [AFP/Phnom Penh Post]
Zoe Daniel, South-East Asia correspondent
Last Updated: 6 hours 48 minutes ago
A new editor-in-chief has been appointed to Rangoon's Myanmar Times, replacing the newspaper's former boss who is being held in a Burmese prison.
The Australian founder of the the Myanmar Times, Ross Dunkley, was arrested last Thursday and is being held on immigration charges, although it is unclear exactly what they are.
Before his arrest he had been engaged in negotiations over the management of the paper with its Burmese co-owner, Tin Tan Oo.
He was appointed to the position by the military government after the previous co-owner was jailed for 14 years for publishing the paper without the correct permits.
Australian mining executive Bill Clough, who is also a co-owner, has now agreed to Tin Tan Oo taking over as editor.
Mr Clough is in Burma negotiating with authorities for Ross Dunkley's release.
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3139390.htm?desktop
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Burma Arrests Publisher
By Luke Hunt
February 15, 2011
It had to happen. Nobody expected the Burmese junta to let the good times roll unimpeded once the rigged elections of last November were out of the way. But I’d thought the focus of their institutionalized paranoia would again be pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. I was wrong.
Instead, the authorities have arrested Australian publisher Ross Dunkley, who is anything but The Lady, and have thrown him behind bars in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, notorious among human rights activists for its atrocious conditions.
His February 10 arrest followed a story published by The Irrawaddy about an internal power struggle at the Myanmar Consolidate Media, which publishes the weekly Myanmar Times, a solid newspaper that trains journalists and focuses on news and current affairs outside of Burma. Local news is censored.
Dunkley is co-founder and one of two major publishers (the other is the owner of Swezon Media Group, Tin Htun Oo, a member of the ruling party who won a seat in the November general election representing the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party).
According to The Irrawaddy, Tin Htun Oo covets the position of chief executive officer and editor-in-chief, a move rejected by Dunkley and which has resulted in an acrimonious split between the pair. Further reports suggest that Tin Htun Oo has simply seized control of the newspaper.
Dunkley is also publisher of the Phnom Penh Post and has extensive media experience in Southeast Asia and Australia. I chatted with Dunkley last week, and he mentioned The Irrawaddy article and that he was returning to Burma, where he intended to state his case.
Silence followed.
David Armstrong, Chairman of Post Media, which publishes the Post, said he was deeply concerned, and noted the arrest was linked to the dispute at the Myanmar Times. He added that some reports surrounding the reasons have been inaccurate. The arrest, he said, ‘coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles—all this at a time of significant political and economic change in Myanmar.’
In Cambodia, the Overseas Press Club (OPCC) was equally concerned about the arrest, and fears it could be part of increased authoritarianism—a growing trend in many countries around the region—while free press advocates from across Southeast Asia and further afield are also worried.
Dunkley’s a tough bloke and will hopefully pull through this ordeal. He’s also a free trade advocate, and his arrest speaks volumes about the bullying of a junta that believes its November elections were grounds for the dropping of sanctions and its re-emergence into the wider world.The bicameral national Parliament has sat for the first time, which brought the new Constitution into effect and officially ended 50 years of military rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed the lifting of punitive measures, prompting Burma's state media to warn that Suu Kyi and her party will meet ‘tragic ends’ if they keep up their support of Western sanctions. By locking up Dunkley, the junta has hardly helped its cause. So it’s business as usual.
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/02/15/burma-holds-australian-publisher/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29
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Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
Ron Corben | Bangkok February 14, 2011
In this June 26, 2007 photo, Ross Dunkley, the editor-in-chief of the Australian publisher of an English-language Myanmar Times' poses for photo with packs of heroin during a ceremony to destroy seized narcotic drugs in Lashio, northeast of Yangon, Myanm
The arrest in Burma of Ross Dunkley, the Australian publisher of the Myanmar Times, has raised fears of even tighter control over Burma’s media by the military.
Dunkly was was arrested in Rangoon shortly after returning from overseas last week. A pioneer in Southeast Asia news media, he founded the Times in 2000.
But there have been reports of a conflict over control of the paper.
Dunkley currently holds 49 percent of Myanmar Consolidated Media, which oversees the paper. The remaining shares are held by Tin Htun Oo.
A statement Monday from the Thailand-based Post Media, a sister company of Myanmar Consolidated, called for Dunkley’s immediate release after authorities failed to press charges. He reportedly was arrested for visa violations and drug possession.
His arrest may have more to do with control over the paper than crime, says Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine about Burma published in Thailand.
"What is clear is that there was conflict between Dr. Tin Htun Oo and Ross Dunkley; and now it is apparent they want to take over the whole Myanmar Times," he says. "That’s why I think probably they will frame up the charges against him, which doesn’t surprise anyone."
Dunkley’s initial partner in the pro-military paper was Sonny Swe, the son of former Brigadier General Thein Swe.
But Thein Swe fell from favor with the top leadership. Sonny Swe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison in 2005. His shares were passed to Tin Htun Oo.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been ruled by the military, which keeps tight control on the media and most aspects of the economy and public life. The country’s first parliament in 22 years was elected in November, but more than 80 percent of its members are either in the military or linked to it. And the parliament selected former Prime Minister Thein Sein to be the new president.
Aung Zaw says Dunkley had initially been hopeful that Burma’s tight media controls would ease. But he says those controls and the country’s politics meant the paper was always a risky investment.
"Ross ... should realize Burma is a political graveyard for everyone," he said. "Even he should realize how many journalists and reporters are being apprehended and spending time ... in prison."
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma says around 30 journalists and media activists are among Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Dunkley also publishes the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia. Some journalists familiar with the operation say there are fears that the loss of the Burma paper could hurt finances at the Post. But the Post on Monday said that although its management is concerned for Dunkley’s well-being, the paper is running as normal.
Dunkley has been viewed as a media maverick and risk taker, after investing in Vietnam’s fledgling news industry in the early 1990s.
Reporters Without Borders in 2010 ranked Burma as 174th out of 178 countries in its annual press freedom index. Several media analysts in Southeast Asia say with Dunkley’s arrest points to tighter control over the media by the military. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Burma-Appears-to-Tighten-Grip-on-Media-with-Arrest-of-Australian-Publisher-116152119.html
Thursday, February 17, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 15 February, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 14 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 14 February, 2011
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Havel to Address Prague Conference on Burma
Suu Kyi Praises Egyptian Army
China Stands Behind Burma
A Sad Valentine’s Day for Karen People
‘Activists’ to serve up to 55 years
Press group urges Myanmar to free Australian publisher
Ex-premier Chuan rocks tour boat in Shan East
Suu Kyi warned over support for Burma sanctions
Australian editor held in Burma
Funding cuts endangering exiled media
Egypt's Revolt Met With Wide Support, Censorship
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Havel to Address Prague Conference on Burma
A conference to discuss the current political situation in Burma is to be held this week in Prague. “Elections in Burma/Myanmar and the European Policy“ is the title of the conference which has been organized by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with NGO People in Need. The conference will be inaugurated on Feb. 15 with opening remarks by Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg, and Václav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic. The seminar will be attended by representatives of ministries of foreign affairs of EU countries, representatives of European institutions, members of the European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma, and representatives of several European civil society organizations active on Burma.
Irrawaddy: Published Monday, Feb. 14, 2011
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Suu Kyi Praises Egyptian Army
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 14, 2011
RANGOON — Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged the country's armed forces to follow the example of Egypt's army, which she praised for not using force against pro-democracy protesters who last week brought down President Hosni Mubarak's thirty years of authoritarian rule.
“Even when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets, the Egyptian army didn't shoot. Instead, it sided with the people,” said Suu Kyi in an interview with local reporters in Rangoon on Saturday.
“The Burmese Tatmadaw should follow their example,” she said, referring to the country's military, which seized power from a democratic government in 1962 and is deeply unpopular for its brutal crackdowns on mass anti-government uprisings in 1988 and 2007.
The weeks-long protests in Egypt, which were led by Internet-savvy youths rather than by the mainstream political opposition, have also inspired Burmese young people to prepare for yet another uprising against military rule.
“We were so fascinated by how young people in Egypt organized their protests. If we can create a network, then we will not need to depend on a particular person for leadership,” said a young Rangoon news reporter.
Suu Kyi said that the Internet and modern communication tools—which ignited the Egyptian pro-democracy movement—could also help to create a network among democracy supporters in Burma and strengthen their struggle against military rule.
In a recent interview with the BBC, however, she said she did not wish the events in Egypt to occur in her country, making it clear again that she preferred dialogue with Burma's military rulers over popular protests as a means to breaking the country's political deadlock.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party was disbanded last year after it refused to run in elections in November that were marred by widespread vote-rigging. The party has no presence in the country's new military-dominated Parliament but continues to command strong popular support.
Earlier this month, the Parliament elected the junta's former prime minister, ex-Gen Thein Sein, as the president of the new government and has chosen several incumbent junta ministers for ministerial positions in the new cabinet.
On Sunday, a commentary in the Burma's state-run newspapers said that Suu Kyi and her party would “meet their tragic end” if they refused to change their continued support for Western economic sanctions against the regime.
http://irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20747
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China Stands Behind Burma
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR Monday, February 14, 2011
BANGKOK—China is throwing its weight behind Burma’s predicted political transformation from military rule to a supposed civilian government, deepening its strong economic ties with the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation some have described as Beijing’s "client state".
China was the first to commend Burma’s new leadership, with President Hu Jintao sending his congratulations within hours after Thein Sein assumed the presidency Feb. 4.
The move is seen as "another confidence building measure by Beijing towards its western neighbor at a time when many countries in the region, from India to Southeast Asia, have their eyes on engaging economically with Burma," a Southeast Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
"Beijing wants to have a solid presence on the ground in case the political change leads to a flood of other economic players," the diplomat added.
China’s gestures toward Burma have come even as Burmese national security experts caution against the rush to accept the new government under President Thein Sein, which is seen as no different from the junta, headed by strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe, it is replacing.
The 65-year-old Thein Sein, a retired army general and former prime minister in the outgoing military regime, was chosen by lawmakers in the first multi- party parliament since the military grabbed power in a coup nearly 50 years ago.
Thein Sein, however, was practically assured of victory in the legislature, of which 80 percent were military delegates and their political allies.
"Unfortunately the civilian head is a puppet. Thein Sein is weak, less ambitious and lacks a powerful base in the army," says Win Min, a Burmese national security expert living in exile in the US.
"Nothing really has changed," he told IPS. "Than Shwe will still be the most powerful man, operating from behind Thein Sein."
Junta or no junta, China has in fact already established a footing in Burma. Its economic record bears this out: last year, China invested 8.17 billion dollars, mostly in Burma’s hydropower, oil and gas sectors.
This surge in Chinese investments has brought to 12.3 billion dollars Beijing’s total investments, out of the nearly 20 billion dollars in foreign funds for big- ticket projects that Burma has attracted since it opened its economy up to free market policies in 1988.
The ties between China and the most recent Burmese junta, which held power for two decades till the general election in early November last year, was also aided by the economic sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union for Burma’s dismal human rights record.
The US government banned new investments in Burma in 1997, and gradually tightened punitive measures, including limiting financial deals and visa restrictions on members of the junta. The EU imposed bans on the sale of weapons to Burma in 1996, followed by visa bans and the freezing of assets of the junta, their families and cronies.
"As long as Western sanctions are in place, China’s economic power in Burma will grow," says Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian and author of ‘The River of Lost Footsteps’, an account of Burma’s transformation during British colonization. "In the eyes of the (Burmese) government, the cost of Western sanctions is diminishing by the day.
"If the government was willing to ignore Western sanctions ten years ago when it was essentially broke, it’s hard to imagine how they’re going to suddenly pay attention to these same demands now, when (gas and oil) pipeline transit fees, natural gas and jade sales and the sale of electricity of new hydropower plants are set to bring in well over ten billion dollars in revenue a year," Thant told IPS, explaining the trade and investment portfolio dominated by China.
China’s growing influence has prompted Burma’s giant neighbor to its west, India, to also increasingly place security and economic interests over political ones to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian nation.
India has also opted for a tone of accommodation toward Burma’s attempts to gain much needed legitimacy for its civilian-led government.
"The recent elections in Myanmar [Burma] are an important step in the direction of the national reconciliation process being undertaken by the government of Myanmar," India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said of the Nov. 7 poll, the first general elections in 20 years, which was plagued by irregularities.
While New Delhi has still not followed Beijing’s lead in praising Thein Sein, the tone of the Indian government’s statement following the elections suggests that "relations with Myanmar have become truly multi-faceted, with cooperation in a range of developmental and other projects in the areas of roads, power, hydro-carbon, oil refinery, transmission lines, telecommunications and information technology," says a South Asian diplomat.
Indian economic cooperation with the Burmese junta began in the mid- 1990s, marking a break from the strong pro-democracy positions it took, backing opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in her struggles with an oppressive regime. China’s growing footprint in Burma was among the reasons for this shift.
"China has majorly expanded in Myanmar and this has facilitated China’s entry into the Bay of Bengal," the South Asian diplomat noted on condition of anonymity. "India needs to have a countervailing presence in Myanmar to ensure its own interests are not jeopardized."
Burma’s neighbors in a 10-member regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have, like India and China, also come on board to accept and give legitimacy to the political culture emerging out of last November’s election.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=20745
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A Sad Valentine’s Day for Karen People
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, February 14, 2011
It was on the evening of Feb. 14, 2008, that two men carrying a gift basket of fruit walked up to the home of Mahn Sha, a prominent and well-respected Karen leader, in the town of Mae Sot, Thailand, and gunned him down.
“Good evening, uncle,” one man said in Karen before firing the first shot. Then another gunman also shot him repeatedly as he fell from his chair.
They rushed back to a black Hilux Vigo pickup truck and drove away. By then, Mahn Sha was already dead from multiple bullet wounds.
He was killed on the balcony where he often rested after lunch, leaving behind a distraught family. His death was also a great loss for Karen people around the world, especially for those who belonged to the Karen National Union (KNU), one of Asia’s oldest armed resistance groups.
Mahn Sha, who had served as the KNU's general secretary, was highly respected not only by the Karen, but also by Burmese opposition groups. He was considered a wise leader because he often spoke of the need for inclusiveness to bring all democratic forces and ethnic minority groups together in their struggle against military rule.
He died at the age of 64, survived by two daughters and two sons, including one adopted son.
“He was a good father not only for us but also for the Karen resistance,” said Say Say, Mahn Sha's adopted son. “He always made his people's well-being his first priority. His family came second.”
He said that although his adopted father spent most of his time with his soldiers, his family never felt neglected.
“It's not that he didn't love his family,” said Say Say. “We knew that he did, but we also knew that he loved his work because he did it for the sake of all his people.”
Mahn Sha graduated from Rangoon University in 1966 with a degree in history. During his time as a student, he was also an underground member of the KNU. He joined the movement full-time soon after leaving university.
From 1966 to 1974, he made several trips to Shan, Kachin, and Karenni states to meet with ethnic resistance groups. He also visited China twice to meet with leaders of the Burmese Communist Party and the Communist Party of China.
In November 1984, Mahn Sha became a KNU central committee member and moved to the KNU's headquarter in Manerplaw, Karen State.
While serving as the KNU's general secretary, Mahn Sha was seen as one of the group's leading lights and was being groomed to take over its troubled leadership.
Many sources said he was on the Burmese junta’s hit list because he was seen as a strong leader who always called for genuine political dialogue. When the KNU sent a delegation led by the late Karen leader Gen Bo Mya to Rangoon in December 2005 for cease-fire talks, the regime requested his exclusion.
In an interview with The Irrawaddy shortly before his death, Mahn Sha said that he had experienced the plight of the Karen people since his childhood. He said the Burmese regime’s oppression of the Karen people was what made him get involved in the Karen fight for freedom.
Today, on the third anniversary of his assassination, Mahn Sha is remembered as a great leader of his people, and one whose name will remain a prominent one among those who have served the Burmese democracy movement.
To preserve his legacy of service to the Karen, his children established the Phan Foundation soon after his death. To commemorate the anniversary of his assassination, the foundation, which also honors Mahn Sha's deceased wife, Nant Kyin Shwe, announced today that it had made grants of £8,000 (US $12,850) to Karen rights groups and individuals.
“We think this is one of the best ways we can pay tribute to our parents, and continue their work. The organizations we are supporting do fantastic work which deserves support,” said Mahn Sha's daughter, Zoya Phan.
“He [Mahn Sha] stood bravely for his people. He sacrificed his life for his people. It was a big loss and sadness,” said Saw Hla Htun, an advisory board member of the Karen Youth Organization.
“While many people happily celebrate Valentine’s Day today, Feb. 14 is a sad day for the Karen people,” said Saw Hla Htun.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20754
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‘Activists’ to serve up to 55 years
By KHIN HNIN HTET
Published: 14 February 2011
Additional sentences of up to 10 years have been given to seven people accused of being behind a spate of bombings, and who are already serving decades in prison.
The five men and two women learnt of their fate on Friday last week following a hearing at Eastern Rangoon Divisional Court. Six of them will serve an additional seven years, while one man, Kyaw Zwa Lin, was handed a decade.
All were charged under the Explosives Act, one of the three charges originally used to imprison them in 2008 when police allegedly discovered them with gunpowder. For this they received sentences of between 20 and 38 years.
Then last year these were extended by a decade after all were found guilty of assisting in the 2004 bombing at Zawgyi House Restaurant in Rangoon and the bombing at the Panorama Hotel in Rangoon in 2005.
Last week’s sentencing for involvement in the Shwe Mann Thu bus terminal bombings in 2005 brings to more than 50 years the longest of the jail terms they will serve. Lawyer Kyaw Ho said however that there was no strong evidence to support the most recent sentencing.
“There was no witness, evidence or exhibit whatsoever to prove their connection with the bombing,” he said. “The only thing used against them in the trial was the confession they gave to police during interrogation, which does not qualify as evidence.”
Similar complaints had been levelled by the defence team last year, particularly over the explosives charge that Kyaw Ho said should require testimonies from “the police’s Criminal Investigation Department and chemical specialists”.
Whether any political motive was behind the sentencing is unclear, but the group is alleged to have held links to the banned All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), a prominent activist group born from the 1988 mass student uprising. That allegation earned them charges under the Unlawful Associations Act.
http://www.dvb.no/news/activists-to-serve-up-to-50-years/14265
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Press group urges Myanmar to free Australian publisher
Posted: 14 February 2011 1750 hrs
PHNOM PENH: A foreign press association expressed concern Monday about the arrest of an Australian newspaper publisher in Myanmar, calling for his release from prison while awaiting trial.
Ross Dunkley, co-founder of the Myanmar Times -- the country's only newspaper with foreign investment -- was arrested in Yangon on Thursday.
He is being held in Myanmar's notorious Insein prison, according to his business partner in Cambodia, where he is a key shareholder in Post Media, the publisher of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.
The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia (OPCC) said in a statement that it saw "no reason to imprison Dunkley ahead of his trial, and is concerned that his arrest is an abuse of the law in order to resolve a business dispute".
It added: "The OPCC is further concerned that Dunkley's arrest is in line with a trend of increasing authoritarianism in some countries in the region and efforts to circumscribe hard-won press freedoms."
Post Media chairman David Armstrong has suggested Dunkley's arrest is linked to a power struggle between foreign and domestic owners of the Myanmar Times, which publishes weekly editions in English and Burmese.
Dunkley co-founded the Myanmar Times in 2000 with local partner Sonny Swe, the son of an influential member of the junta's military intelligence service.
But Sonny Swe was jailed in 2005 and his stake was passed to Tin Tun Oo, who is reportedly close to the military regime's information minister.
Dunkley is due to appear in court on February 24, Armstrong said.
-AFP/ac http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1110664/1/.html
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Ex-premier Chuan rocks tour boat in Shan East
Monday, 14 February 2011 15:58 S.H.A.N.
A low profile visit by former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, last month has prompted junta leaders to impose stiff restrictions on tour buses coming from the kingdom into Burma’s Shan State East, according to sources on the Thai-Burma border.
[Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)]
Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai (Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)
“The trip he made on 23 January wasn’t even his first one,” said an informed source. “He had already made several merit making trips to Thart Zawntawng and Wat Hokhong in Kengtung (160 km from Maesai) with his friends. He even visited Mongla (80 km further from Kengtung) where he was recognized by some locals who seized the opportunity to take photographs with him.”
“Tour buses from Thailand since 10 February are no longer allowed to enter Tachilek (opposite Maesai),” said a visitor. “As for vehicles going to Mongla, there are only vans that are permitted to pass through since 6 February.”
Immigration officials have been blamed by higher authorities for their lax passport scrutiny procedure, but there are as yet no reports whether any official has been punished.
Chuan, 73, has been known as the Thai prime minister least liked by Burma’s ruling generals. He headed the Democratic Party led coalition governments between 1992-95 and 1997-2001. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3462:ex-premier-chuan-rocks-tour-boat-in-shan-east&catid=93:general&Itemid=291
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Suu Kyi warned over support for Burma sanctions
A Rangoon supporter wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Aung San Suu Kyi. [AFP]
PHOTO
A Rangoon supporter wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Aung San Suu Kyi. [AFP]
Last Updated: 6 hours 7 minutes ago
Burma's state media says democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi and her party will meet tragic ends if they keep up their support of Western sanctions.
The remarks follow a recent statement by Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
It argued the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.
It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release after seven years of house arrest in November.
The report, in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, invites Ms Suu Kyi and her party to cooperate with the people in building a democratic nation. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3138638.htm?desktop
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Australian editor held in Burma
February 14, 2011
An associate close to the Australian editor of the Myanmar Times in Burma says the allegations against him are not true.
Co-founder of the newspaper, Ross Dunkley, was arrested in Rangoon late last week for allegedly violating his visa condition and possessing marijuana.
If convicted, Mr Dunkley faces up to five years in jail or deportation.
However, his friends say the arrest comes at a time when Mr Dunkley is engaged in a power struggle with his Burmese business partner, who has links to the country's military.
David Armstrong, the chairman of the Thailand-based Post Media company and a close business associate of Mr Dunkley's, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that there are serious questions over the nature of the allegations.
"There's been a few reports, particularly very early in the piece, which said that he was involved with the possession of marijuana and overstaying the visa and neither of these is true. It's just in the way things happen sometimes in the media," he said.
"People speculate about what might be the reason for something going on. Eventually someone who should know things repeats the speculation and they become a source as it were."
He said that Mr Dunkley's lawyers say his arrest was unlawful.
"I really don't pretend to know what goes in the opaque world [of] the Myanmar (Burma) Government and legal systems, but it's not clear just exactly what Ross has done to breach his visa conditions."
Mr Armstrong said there has been no word on Mr Dunkley's condition in prison, adding that the last time anyone had contact with Mr Dunkley was on Thursday afternoon as he was being transferred from the court to a police station.
Management dispute
While he said it would only be speculation, Mr Armstrong pointed out the coincidence of the arrest with ongoing discussions about who should be controlling the paper.
"There have been discussions about who should be controlling the company and the paper and who should have the management control, because the local shareholding is 51 per cent and I think some of the locals shareholders think that they should have more say," he said.
"However, there is an agreement in the setting up of the company which gives the international investors the management control of the company, but there have been discussions on that issue."
Mr Armstrong also said that Burma's current process of forming government and establishing ministries may have something to do with the arrest.
"This is a time of change in Myanmar and while in general terms, the military still retains fairly firm control, within that, there are changes within ministers and departments and so on, so people who go further down the line who used to exercise power may not be exercising the power in the future, so perhaps in that respect, there is something going on."
Ross Dunkley's next court appearance has been scheduled for February 24. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3138499.htm?desktop
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Funding cuts endangering exiled media
By AFP
Published: 14 February 2011
Burma’s media in exile, long a thorn in the side of the ruling generals, are being squeezed by funding cuts that some blame on a change in policy by Western donors in a shifting political landscape.
Overseas-based media such as the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) are seen as an important source of news in the impoverished nation, where an authoritarian government keeps a stranglehold on domestic reporting.
As a new political system emerges in Burma with a new parliament, some believe donors have been tempted to divert funding into the country, despite evidence it is still dominated by the military hierarchy.
Within weeks of the first elections in 20 years, DVB – an Oslo-based television, radio and on-line news provider that is banned in Burma – cancelled several programmes after suffering big losses in subsidies.
DVB deputy manager Khin Maung Win said the cuts amounted to about $1 million in 2011, partly because the group had received roughly $US500,000 in extra funding last year to cover the November election.
He said it would result in job cuts among some of the group’s 150 journalists based in Norway, Thailand or Burma.
“As of now, we cannot conclude it is a policy change from the donors’ side… But it has a painful effect on us,” he said.
Another exiled news organisation, Thailand-based Irrawaddy, recently axed its monthly printed magazine to concentrate on its online edition.
The situation “weakens the influence of media that have an extremely positive role,” said Vincent Brossel of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Burma 174th out of 178 countries for press freedom.
He said the cuts were especially harsh because the organisations had become gradually more independent from opposition groups such as Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
Burma’s exiled media derives most of its financial support from European governments, mainly Scandinavian, and from public and private donations from the United States.
The DVB did not say which donors were behind the cuts, but it is believed to be mainly European governments.
Mikael Winther, the Danish ambassador to Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, said that his government for its part had not changed its policy toward the junta.
“Denmark is not supporting any government in Burma,” he said. “But since we now have more access inside than we had before, we do support poverty-oriented projects for people suffering inside Burma,” he said.
Some believe that the release of Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest just days after Burma’s controversial polls in November of last year, has heralded new thinking among many donors.
“Definitely there is concern that there is a major shift in donor policy toward exiled groups including cross-border aid assistance,” said Aung Zaw, founder and director of Irrawaddy.
He said some donors might want to channel money to projects inside the country, or be unhappy with exiled media’s coverage critical of the regime and the election.
Irrawaddy has lost around a third of its annual $US1 million in subsidies and has had to cut 20 of its 60 contributors.
Maung Zarni, a Burma researcher at the London School of Economics, argued that funding cuts were part of a “deliberate strategy”.
European policy strategists “have concluded that the only way towards change in Burma is through development of free market institutions and pragmatic collaboration with the generals in power”, he said.
Reporters working inside Burma for banned exile media organisations risk long jail sentences.
Earlier this month DVB video reporter Maung Maung Zeya, 58, was handed 13 years in prison after being caught filming at the scene of a bomb blast in April 2010.
His son Sithu Zeya has been given an eight-year jail term on similar charges, according to Aung Thein, a legal adviser for political prisoners.
DVB TV is watched almost as much as the state-funded channels in Burma, despite a ban on the sale of satellite dishes, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The DVB website is also a respected source of news for those outside the country.
Other established independent media sources covering the country include Radio Free Asia (RFA), financed by the United States, and the BBC’s Burmese service, which recently escaped being axed in severe cuts by the broadcaster.
Many Burmese rely on such radio broadcasts from outside Burma to keep up with world news. Suu Kyi herself regularly tuned into the BBC and other broadcasters during her years of detention.
While access to exiled media websites in Burma is restricted by the authorities, some people use proxy servers to bypass the blocks.
“We think the more sources for accurate, objective information in Burma, the better and the declining trends are troubling,” said RFA spokesman John Estrella.
http://www.dvb.no/news/funding-cuts-endangering-exiled-media/14259
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Egypt's Revolt Met With Wide Support, Censorship
By RAPHAEL G SATTER / AP WRITER Monday, February 14, 2011
LONDON— From London to Gaza City to Seoul, the world was savoring the spectacular fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, with demonstrators rallying in the thousands Saturday in cities across the world. But other authoritarian regimes weren't celebrating — and some were trying to censor the news.
In China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly stamps out dissent, terse media reports downplayed the large-scale pro-democracy protests in Egypt that forced Mubarak from power and instead emphasized the country's disorder and lawlessness.
In oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, where coup leader Teodoro Obiang has been in power since 1979, state-controlled media was ordered to stop reporting about Egypt altogether, according to African news site afrol.com.
Nearly everywhere else, newspapers congratulated Egypt's revolution, with many headlines carrying the word: "Finally."
The headlines were matched with an outpouring of international support. Human rights group Amnesty International organized dozens of rallies around the world, with events in New York, Chicago, Houston and cities in 15 other countries.
In London's Trafalgar Square, thousands gathered to see scenes from Tahrir Square beamed via video link on to a giant screen. Salil Shetty, Amnesty's secretary general, told the crowd that the rally was both a celebration of Mubarak's departure and a protest against the strongmen still holding sway over the region.
London-born Shariff el-Wardany, 33, whose family is from Cairo, said he was "still numb" that the Egyptian dictator had gone.
"We were told many years ago that we would never see this day," he said. "The elite could go anywhere, do anything, they could commit crimes and nobody could touch them. That's all changed now."
In the Middle East and Africa, politicians and activists were still struggling to find their footing as the shockwaves from Mubarak's resignation spread through the region. In Yemen and Algeria, violence erupted as protesters pressed their demands for democratic reforms. In Uganda and Zimbabwe — two countries ruled by long-serving strongmen — opposition figures invoked Mubarak's downfall as a warning to their current rulers.
In Gaza, a celebratory rally organized by the radical Islamist group Hamas — and the silence maintained by both the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government — spoke to the possible repercussions of Mubarak's ouster for long-delayed peace process.
Hamas has had a tense, often angry relationship with the deposed Egyptian president, who, along with Israel, has kept Hamas-ruled Gaza blockaded for the past four years. If Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood wins a role in any post-Mubarak government, it could help Hamas shore up its position.
Wider afield, the congratulations kept pouring in.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd commended Egyptians on what he called a clear and courageous protest movement.
"My view is that the people of this most ancient civilization truly deserve a most modern of democracies," Rudd told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Japan and South Korea issued statements noting Mubarak's resignation, while India — which with Egypt was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War — said it welcomed Mubarak's decision to step down "in deference to the wishes of the people of Egypt."
In Indonesia and the Philippines, two countries whose own "people power" revolts toppled long-ruling dictators, the praise was more fulsome, although there were words of warning too.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, son of the late President Corazon Aquino — the country's democracy icon who was swept to power in a revolt that toppled the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos — welcomed the "relatively peaceful resolution" of the political crisis in Egypt, saying it showed that "aspirations for a more free and fair society are universal."
The country's left-wing alliance Bayan, which fought Marcos and has remained a critic of succeeding regimes, expressed hope that "the great unity and determination of the Egyptian people inspire others worldwide in their fight against tyranny."
"The importance of people power has once again been affirmed," said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes. "What comes after people power however, is another difficult challenge, as we Filipinos well know."
Indonesians — who chased longtime Washington ally Gen Suharto from power in 1998 — largely echoed the sentiment.
"Congrats Egyptians," Luthfi Assyaukanie, leader of Indonesia's Liberal Islamic Network, wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter. "I know how you feel today. I had the same feeling 13 years ago. The real struggle has just begun."
In Thailand, which has been rocked by demonstrations aimed at forcing the country's prime minister to step down, protest leader Thida Thavornseth said Egypt's experience had shown "that the power of the people is enormous and triumphant."
"(Still) if you take Thailand as an example, the people seemed to have won several times, but in the end, power was passed on to the new dictators who then again suppressed the people," Thida told The Associated Press.
Associated Press journalists across the world contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20744
Monday, February 14, 2011
ေဖေဖၚ၀ါရီ တဆယ့္သံုးရက္ကို အျမင့္ဆံုးလႊင့္ထူလိုက္ၾကရဲ ့
ပဥၥလက္ဆံဆံ
ေမွာ္အတတ္မ်ား
အေတာမသတ္ႀကီးထြား
ေကာင္းတာကလြဲလို ့
မေကာင္းတာမွန္သမွ်
အကုန္ရတဲ့ ေနရာႀကီးမွာေမြးဖြားႀကီးျပင္း
က်ေနာ္တို ့ရဲ ့ လူငယ္ေတြ
လူဖ်င္းေတြေတာ့ မဟုတ္ဘူး ။
အရင္က ဘာေတြျဖစ္ခဲ့လဲ
အခု ဘာေတြျဖစ္ေနလည္း
ေနာက္ဘာေတြ ျဖစ္ဦးမွာလဲ
အကုန္သိတယ္…..။
အရင္က ဘာေတြလိုခ်င္ခဲ့လဲ
အခု ဘာေတြ လိုခ်င္ေနလဲ
ေနာက္ ဘာေတြလိုအပ္ဦးမလဲ
အကုန္သိတယ္ ။
အဂၤလိပ္ ဗမာ ပထမစစ္
……………….. ဒုတိယစစ္
………………. တတိယစစ္
နယ္ခ်ဲ ့ကၽြန္ ျဖစ္ခဲ့ရတာ သိတယ္ ၊
သူ ့ကၽြန္အျဖစ္ ႏြံနစ္မခံ
မ်ိဳးခ်စ္ေတြရဲ ့ ပုန္ကန္မႈေတြကို သိတယ္။
ဆရာႀကီး သခင္ကိုယ္ေတာ္မိွဴင္းကို သိတယ္
နတ္ေမာက္နယ္သား ဗိုလ္မင္းေရာင္ကို သိတယ္
လယ္သမားအေရးေတာ္ပံု ဆရာစံကို သိတယ္
သခင္ေအာင္ဆန္းကို သိတယ္
သခင္ဗဟိန္းကို သိတယ္
သခင္သန္းထြန္းကို သိတယ္
ဗိုယ္ေအာင္ေက်ာ္ကို သိတယ္ …
သူတို ့မေမြးခင္က သမိုင္း
သူတို ့ရဲ ့ ဘ၀ အစိတ္အပိုင္းတခုလိုကို သိတယ္။
သူတို ့ေမြးၿပီးတဲ့ေနာက္ပိုင္း
ခမ္းနားႀကီးက်ယ္တဲ ့
ေက်ာင္းသားလႈပ္ရွားမႈသမိုင္း
ျပည္သူလူထု လႈပ္ရွားမႈ သမိုင္း
သံဃာ့ လႈပ္ရွားမႈ သမိုင္း
ရိုင္းစိုင္းတဲ့ အုပ္စိုးသူလူတစုရဲ ့
လူမဆန္တဲ့ သမိုင္း
အကုန္သိတယ္ ။
မ်ိဳးဆက္တို ့ရဲ့ စီးဆင္းမႈ
တာ၀န္သိမႈ တာ၀န္ယူမႈမ်ားထဲက
ကိုယ့္ဘ၀ထက္ ျပည္သူ ့ဘ၀ကို ပိုခ်စ္တဲ့
အေမ တေယာက္ရဲ ့အေၾကာင္းကို သိတယ္ ။
အရိုင္းစံ အရိုးခံ လူသားဘ၀ကို ခ်စ္ျမတ္ႏိုးတဲ ့
သံုးဆယ့္ႏွစ္ႏွစ္ အရြယ္ လူတေယာက္
ရာဇ၀င္ေျပာင္ေျမာက္တဲ့ စြမ္းေဆာင္ခ်က္ေတြ
စိတ္ဓာတ္နဲ ့စိတ္ထား စံထားေလာက္တဲ့တရားမ်ား
မ်ိဳးဆက္သစ္လူငယ္မ်ားရဲ့ အၾကားမွာ
ေတာက္ပ ၀င္းလက္ အနာဂတ္အတြက္
သူတို ့
ေဖေဖၚ၀ါရီ တဆယ့္သံုးရက္ကို အျမင့္ျမတ္ဆံုး လႊင့္ထူလိုက္ၾကရဲ ့ ……။
ရဲရင့္သက္ဇြဲ
News & Articles on Burma-Sunday, 13 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Sunday, 13 February, 2011
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"Tragic end" for Suu Kyi unless change: commentary
Myanmar state media says opposition heads for "tragic end"
Myanmar Times Publisher Arrested
Burmese journalists fear tighter controls
Australian newspaper boss held in Myanmar
China immorally exploits dam-projects in Burma’s Kachin State
-----------------------------------------------------
"Tragic end" for Suu Kyi unless change: commentary
Reuters
Soldiers stand at attention during a ceremony to mark the 64th Myanmar Union Day in front of the City Hall in the new capital Naypyitaw Reuters – Soldiers stand at attention during a ceremony to mark the 64th Myanmar Union Day in front of the City …
By Aung Hla Tun Aung Hla Tun – Sun Feb 13, 5:00 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party will "meet their tragic end" if they stick to their position including support for Western sanctions, state media said on Sunday.
In the first direct criticism of Suu Kyi since she was released from house arrest in November, days after a pro-military party swept elections widely dismissed as unfair, state media also invited Suu Kyi to cooperate "in building a democratic nation."
"If Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD keep going to the wrong way ignoring the fact that today's Myanmar is marching to a new era, new system and new political platforms paving the way for democracy, they will meet their tragic end," state-run newspapers said in a commentary.
"Daw" is an honorific for women.
The state-run newspapers have long been mouthpieces of the military, which ruled the country, also known as Burma, after taking power in a 1962 coup.
Myanmar held its first elections in two decades last November, but the military shows no sign of loosening its grip on power even though a new civilian-led administration is officially taking over.
The warning to Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the previous election in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, comes days after the NLD said it supported Western sanctions but wanted talks on whether to modify them.
Suu Kyi, asked by Reuters at a party function on Saturday to elaborate, said she saw no reason to lift sanctions now.
The newspaper commentary, titled "Sanctions, Daw Suu Kyi and NLD," was signed Yan Gyi Aung, which means Great Victor and was apparently a pseudonym. Commentaries frequently carry such pen-names in state-run newspapers.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country's independence hero, has been excluded from politics since 1989, when she was first detained, a year after the military crushed a student-led uprising.
She has no stake in the new army-dominated system and authorities have ignored her calls for dialogue.
"BIG-HEADED"
Western countries including the United States and the European Union, have imposed sanctions because of Myanmar's human rights record and its suppression of the democracy movement.
There have been hopes last year's election, and Suu Kyi's release, would lead to the end of sanctions on the resource-rich country. Analysts say Western governments will pay heed to Suu Kyi's opinion when deciding whether to maintain sanctions.
Critics say sanctions have not worked and they leave others such as China, India, Thailand and Singapore free to do growing volumes of business with impoverished Myanmar.
The commentary author accused the 65-year-old Nobel laureate and her party of instigating the sanctions.
"Her stance on sanctions has become the policy of theirs," he said, referring to Western governments.
"How big-headed the NLD is to stick to the weapon of sanctions until it gains power by demanding that any changes and modifications should be made in consultation with the party, let alone lifting the sanctions."
But on a conciliatory note, the author did invite Suu Kyi and her party to participate in public life.
"I would like to invite them to cooperate with the people in building a democratic nation in the interests of the nation and the people," Yan Gyi Aung said. He did not elaborate.
(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Ron Popeski) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110213/wl_nm/us_myanmar
----------------------------------------
Myanmar state media says opposition heads for "tragic end"
Feb 13, 2011, 8:32 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's state-run media on Sunday blasted democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party for supporting sanctions on the regime, warning that they were heading for 'tragic ends.'
The New Light of Myanmar and other state-owned newspapers carried a commentary on the position paper of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi's party, on economic sanctions that was released on February 8.
The NLD's four-page paper stated that there was little evidence that economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar by Western democracies had hurt the Burmese people more than the regime's poor economic policies, and called on the US, Europe, Australia and Canada to consult with the NLD before modifying the penalties.
'How big-headed the NLD is to stick to the weapon of sanctions until it gains power by demanding that any changes and modifications should be made in consultation with the party let alone lifting the sanctions,' said The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece.
'If Daw (Madam) Suu Kyi and NLD keep going to the wrong way ignoring the fact that today's Myanmar is marching to a new era, new system and new political platforms paving the way for democracy, they will meet their tragic ends.'
The article was one of the first public indications of the attitude of Myanmar's newly installed government towards the NLD following the November 7 election.
Myanmar's former junta often accused Suu Kyi and the NLD of bringing unnecessary hardships on the people through their support of Western economic sanctions, imposed since 1988 in response to the army's bloody crack down on a pro-democracy movement that left about 3,000 dead.
Suu Kyi, upon her relase from seven years under house arrest on November 13, said the NLD would review their stance on sanctions.
'Available evidence indicates that economic conditions within the country have not been affected by sanctions in any notable degree,' the NLD concluded.
The NLD blamed Myanmar's current economic malaise on the military regime's economic policies, that have stymied market forces, and cronyism between the regime and its select business partners.
Talk of lifting sanctions has increased since Myanmar held a general election on November 7.
The NLD, which lost is status as a legal political party when it refused to register for the elections, continues to be a powerful opposition force, partly due to the international esteem of its leader.
Suu Kyi's influence over Western democracies in persuading them to lift sanctions is deemed one of her few remaining political trump cards in dealing with the regime and the new government which is likely to be formed this month.
The government is slated to be packed with ex-military men connected with the former junta.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1618955.php/Myanmar-state-media-says-opposition-heads-for-tragic-end
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* FEBRUARY 13, 2011, 4:15 A.M. ET
Myanmar Times Publisher Arrested
Associated Press
The Australian editor and co-owner of an English-language newspaper in Myanmar has been arrested in what an associate suggests is a business dispute.
Myanmar Times' editor-in-chief Ross Dunkley is imprisoned in Yangon's main Insein Prison for violating a section of the immigration law applying to overstaying a visa, a business partner said Saturday. The offense is punishable by a maximum jail term of two years, or a fine, or both.
David Armstrong, Mr. Dunkley's partner in a separate newspaper venture, the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, issued a statement saying that Thursday's arrest "coincides with tense and protracted discussions... about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles" he has been holding with his Myanmar business partners. He did not elaborate.
The dispute comes as Myanmar's long-ruling junta prepares to hand the reins to a new government—nominally civilian but packed with its allies. The regime held a lavish national celebration at the isolated capital of Naypitaw for Union Day Saturday, where the leader of the junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, warned against any "disruption" of the new government, urging people to protect what he called the country's nascent "democracy system" a day after a Cabinet was approved. Union Day marks the anniversary of a 1947 agreement among the country's ethnic groups that paved the way to independence from Britain.
After decades of repressive military rule, critics say that Myanmar's self-described transition to democracy is a charade and that last year's election was orchestrated to perpetuate military rule. With one quarter of the seats in the new parliament filled by military appointees, and a lion's share of the remaining seats won by a military backed party, the army effectively retains power.
The future role of the junta officially known as the State Peace and Development Council remains unclear, though it is certain that the military will continue to be the dominant force in government.
Than Shwe's message on Saturday called on the nation's citizens to build and safeguard a "democracy system" that is "still in its infancy." He also urged people "to tackle any form of disruption to the new system."
The new parliament on Friday unanimously approved all of President-elect Thein Sein's Cabinet nominees, although they were not told which post each would take. Thein Sein, who was elected by parliament last week, was prime minister and a top member of the military junta that is handing over power to the new government. It is not clear when he and his Cabinet will be sworn in.
Most of the Cabinet appointees are former military officers who retired in order to run in last November's elections the country's first in 20 years and about a dozen were ministers in the junta's Cabinet. Only four of the appointees are strictly civilian.
The army has held power in Myanmar since 1962. With the military expected to continue to exercise power from behind the scenes, no loosening of restrictions on the press is expected. All daily newspapers and electronic media are directly controlled by the government.
The Myanmar Times's Mr. Dunkley is known for founding English-language newspapers, often with a business emphasis, in authoritarian countries. The Myanmar Times uses many professional journalism conventions naming sources and portraying opposing sides of issues, though it generally pulls its punches when it comes to criticizing the government, which tightly restricts what is published.
Mr. Armstrong said in his statement, published on the website of the Phnom Penh Post, that Mr. Dunkley will be brought to court on Feb. 24.
"His lawyers in Yangon say Mr. Dunkley is confident he can answer any charges or allegations made against him and is looking forward to returning to lead the Myanmar Times group in the exciting times ahead for the publishers and the country," Mr. Armstrong said. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843004576140071747132398.html
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Radio Australia News
Burmese journalists fear tighter controls
The editor of a publication in Burma says he's worried that tighter controls could be placed on journalists after the arrest of Australian journalist and businessman Ross Dunkley.
Mr Dunkley was arrested in Rangoon under Burma's Immigration laws, after returning from a business trip to Tokyo on February 10.
His lawyers say Mr Dunkley is confident he can answer any charges or allegations made against him.
Mr Dunkley is being held in prison until his next scheduled court appearance on February 24.
Aung Zaw, editor of Burmese magazine The Irrawaddy told Radio Australia News the climate is very difficult for the media.
He says there are currently over 30 bloggers and journalists who've been detained in Burma.
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3137555.htm?desktop
----------------------------------------
Australian newspaper boss held in Myanmar
Sunday, 13 February 2011 00:33
NAYPYIDAW: The Australian head of Myanmar's only newspaper with foreign investment has been arrested in Yangon, officials and a business partner said yesterday, amid a power struggle at his group.
Ross Dunkley, co-founder of the Myanmar Times in a nation heavily criticised for its attacks on press freedoms, is being held in Myanmar's notorious Insein prison, according to his business partner in Cambodia.
Dunkley, who divides his time between Myanmar and Cambodia, where he is a key shareholder in Phnom Penh Post publisher Post Media, was detained in Yangon on Thursday after returning from a business trip in Tokyo.
The arrest "has nothing to do with his company" a Myanmar source said.
But Post Media chairman David Armstrong, who said Dunkley was detained in Yangon on immigration charges, said "a key point about the arrest is timing".
"It coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners," he said.
Negotiations have centred on "the future direction" of the media group, "ownership issues and senior leadership roles — all this at a time of significant political and economic change in Myanmar".
Dunkley's arrest comes after mounting rumours of a major power struggle at Myanmar Consolidated Media (MCM), the group that owns the Myanmar Times.
Exile news website the Irrawaddy said in January that Dunkley, who controls 49 percent of MCM, was trying to rebut an attempted editorial takeover by Myanmar partner Tin Tun Oo, who owns 51 percent.
Its report said an item in the state-owned Mirror newspaper referring to Tin Tun Oo as editor-in-chief of MCM had "sent shockwaves around the newsroom at the Myanmar Times" earlier that month.
The Irrawaddy said its sources suggested Tin Tun Oo "may well be successful as the military junta can interfere in the issue at any time".
Dunkley originally co-founded the Myanmar Times in 2000 with local partner Sonny Swe, the son of an influential member of the junta's military intelligence service.
But Sonny Swe was jailed in 2005 and his stake was handed to Tin Tun Oo, who the article said was close to the military regime's information minister.
MCM, which has offices in the capital Naypyidaw and Mandalay, as well as in Yangon, produces the Myanmar Times weekly in English and the country's official language, Burmese.
Armstrong said Dunkley is due to appear in court on February 24.
"His lawyers in Yangon say Mr Dunkley is confident he can answer any charges or allegations made against him and is looking forward to returning to lead the Myanmar Times group in the exciting times ahead — for the publishers and the country," he said.
Tin Tun Oo was a candidate for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) during controversial November polls, but was not elected to the country's new parliament, which opened at the end of January.
Some have suggested political changes have created a glimmer of hope for a country ruled by the military for almost half a century, but critics see merely cosmetic alterations aimed at hiding the generals' power behind a civilian facade.
A media watchdog called on Myanmar yesterday to end a “despicable” junta policy of jailing independent journalists after a video reporter was imprisoned for 13 years.
Maung Maung Zeya, 58, was sentenced on the same day last week that Myanmar announced a new president, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, amid fears that the military has kept a firm grip on the new political system.
The prison term “should dispel any illusions that Burma is on a new path”, said CPJ Asia programme coordinator Bob Dietz, using the country’s former name.
“The old junta’s pretence that its elections would install a democratic government has been revealed for the sham that it really is.”
AFP http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/142375-australian-newspaper-boss-held-in-myanmar.html
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China immorally exploits dam-projects in Burma’s Kachin State
By Zin Linn Feb 13, 2011 9:09PM UTC
Kachin churches in Burma’s northern Kachin State joined in prayer to strengthen their opposition to the huge dam construction at the Myitsone, the confluence of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, Kachin News Group said on 10 February 2011. Church leaders in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina, gathered at the Myitsone village of Tang Hpre, to join in a special prayer service with villagers seeking to halt dam construction at Myitsone, a significant site in the history of Kachin civilization, participants said.
On May 27, 2010, On behalf of the communities suffering from the Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State, Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao to immediately halt the forced relocation and destruction of the villages of those opposed to this project by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).
KDNG said that the dam construction is against the choice of local people and violates China’s own dam construction guidelines as well as international standards. Burma’s military junta ordered over a thousand civilians from Myitkyina to forcibly relocate all the residents of Tang Hpre, the main village at the dam site, before the end of May 2010. If villagers refuse to leave, these civilians have been ordered to immediately pull down houses, schools and churches in Tang Hpre.
The CPI made a contract with junta’s No. 1 Electric Power Ministry in May 2007. The planned dam location is at the junction of May Kha and May Likha, 27 mile upstream from Myitkyina. This venture will generate 3,600 MW of electricity of a total of seven dams; five on May Kha and two on May Likha tributaries respectively.
The dam is being constructed by Burma’s Asia World Company, owned by former drug lord, Lo Hsing Han, and China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CIP). Security for the project is being provided by the Burmese military.
According to the Burma Rivers Network (BRN), the structure of the 152 meter-high Myitsone Dam, which will export electricity to China, started in on formally late last year. Thousands of Chinese migrant labourers have been brought in to build the dam. This development will inundate the famous Myitsone confluence at the starting place of the Irrawaddy river in Kachin State and permanently displace 15,000 people.
The dam, the first in a series of seven on the Irrawaddy and its tributaries, will have disruptive impacts on millions living downstream. Water will be stored and released depending on power demands in China, causing unpredictable water shortages and surges. This, in addition to decreased fish populations and blockage of rich sediments will affect countless farmers, fisherfolk and boat-operators along the river.
Anti-dam activists estimate that about 20 villages between Myitsone and Myitkyina downstream from the site will be flooded if the dams collapse. Many Kachin people at home and abroad, Kachin Student Union, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Kachin in exile are protesting against the huge and dangerous dam development.
Kachin people in exile signed a petition protesting against the dam project and appealing to halt it on 28 January and sent it to Chinese Prime Minister Wan Jia Bao through Chinese embassies in Thailand, India, Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.
The Kachin people officially appealed to Burmese military chief, Senior-General Than Shwe, in 2007, asking him to stop the Myitsone dam project. However, their request was ignored, the Kachin News Group (KNG) said.
The Burma Rivers Network (BRN) has welcomed the 17-January statement by the National League for Democracy (NLD) that dams are being constructed in Burma without any consideration for the environment or for local residents, and that the Myitsone dam, the first on the Irrawaddy, will have negative impacts on the entire country.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/48349/china-immorally-exploits-dam-projects-in-burma%E2%80%99s-kachin-state/
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