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1polaris Burmese Library - Singapore - Collected Articles VOLUME 82 - BOOKLET VERSION 9.7
1polaris Burmese Library - Singapore - Collected Articles VOLUME 82 - BOOKLET VERSION 9.7
ppftmPm&Sifpepfwdkufzsufa&;
jidrf;csrf;a&;'dDrdkua&pDa&;vlYtcGifhta&;
aqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 82
ဇူလိုင္ (၇) ရက္
ေက်ာင္းသားအေရးေတာ္ပုံေန႔ က်င္းပ
txl;aqmif;yg;
ဆလိုင္းတင္ေမာင္ဦး ဂုဏ္ျပဳဆႏၵျပပဲြ က်င္းပ
ppftmPm&Sifpepfwdkufzsufa&;
jidrf;csrf;a&;'dDrdkua&pDa&;vlYtcGifhta&;
aqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 82
txl;aqmif;yg;
yHkEdSyfrSwfwrf;
သတင္းလြတ္လပ္ခြင့္မရွိဘဲ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲမျဖစ္ႏုိင္
27 June 2009 http://www.voanews.com/burmese/2009-06-27-voa4.cfm
ေဒၞေအာင္ဆန္းစုဳကည္အေပၞ
စၾဲဆိုထားသည့္အမႁႎႀင့္ သတင္းစာရႀင္းပၾဲကၾာဴခားေန
2009-06-26
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/press_conference_different_from_suu_kyi_trial-
06262009163034.html/story_main?textonly=1
ေဒၞေအာင္ဆန္းစုဳကည္၏အမႁ ဇူလုိင္
၃ရက္ေနႛ စစ္ေဆးဖုိႛ ရက္ခဵိန္းေ႟ၿႚဆိုင္း
2009-06-26http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/suu_kyi_trial_adjourned_to_july_3-
06262009143647.html/story_main?textonly=1
အပူလိႈင္းေၾကာင့္ ျမန္မာဒုကၡသည္မ်ား
ေရာဂါေဝဒနာမ်ား ျဖစ္ပြား
ျမင့္ေမာင္
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 22:43 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
နယူးေဒလီ (မဇၥ်ိမ)။ ။ အိႏၵိယႏိုင္ငံ နယူးေဒလီၿမိဳ႕၌ လြန္ခဲ့သည့္ ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႔မွ စတင္ကာ
အပူရွိန္ ျပင္းထန္သည့္ အပူလႈိင္း က်ေရာက္ခဲ့သျဖင့္ ျမန္မာဒုကၡသည္မ်ား ေရာဂါေဝဒနာမ်ား
ျမန္မာေတးသီခ်င္း ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ ၈၀
ရာခိုင္ႏႈန္းခန္႔ က်ဆင္း
မဇၩိမသတင္းဌာန
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 22:41 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ထိုင္း-ျမန္မာနယ္စပ္ Moei
ျမစ္တေလွ်ာက္ လုံၿခံဳေရး တပ္လွန္႔ထား
မဇၩိမသတင္းဌာန
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 22:45 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ခ်င္းမုိင္ (မဇၥ်ိမ)။ ။ ဒီေကဘီေအ လက္နက္ကုိင္တပ္ဖြဲ႔ႏွင့္ ထုိင္းစစ္တပ္တုိ႔
မိနစ္အနည္းအငယ္ၾကာ အျပန္အလွန္ ပစ္ခတ္ခဲ့ၾကၿပီးေနာက္ ထုိင္းလုံၿခံဳေရးအရာရွိမ်ားက
ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ နယ္စပ္ရွိ Moei ျမစ္တေလွ်ာက္ တပ္လွန္႔ထားလုိက္သည္။
မဇၩိမသတင္းဌာန
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 22:46 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
နယူးေဒလီ (မဇိၥ်မ)။ ။ ပဲခူးတိုင္း ဒိုက္ဦးၿမိဳ႕နယ္အတြင္း မိုးေခါင္သျဖင့္ လယ္ေျမအခ်ဳိ႕တြင္သာ
စပါးစိုက္ပ်ဳိးႏိုင္ေသးေၾကာင္း လယ္သမားမ်ား အေျပာအရ သိရသည္။
သတၳဳတူးစီမံကိန္းေၾကာင့္ ပအိုဝ္း
အိုးအိမ္မ်ား ပ်က္စီးမည္ဟု PYO ေျပာ
ကိုဝုိင္း
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 19:13 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ခ်င္းမုိင္ (မဇၥ်ိမ)။ ။ ရွမ္းျပည္နယ္ေတာင္ပိုင္း တေနရာ၌ စစ္အစိုးရႏွင့္ ျပည္တြင္း-ျပည္ပ
ကုမၸဏီမ်ား ပူးေပါင္း၍ သံ႐ိုင္းသတၱဳ တူးေဖာ္မည့္ စီမံကိန္းေၾကာင့္ ပအိုဝ္းျပည္သူမ်ား၏
အိုးအိမ္မ်ား ေထာင္ခ်ီ၍ ပ်က္စီးဆံုး႐ံုးမည္ဟု ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံအေျခစိုက္ ပအိုဝ္းလူငယ္ အစည္းအ႐ံုးက
ေျပာသည္။
သံဃာေတာ္ ထက္ဝက္ေက်ာ္က
ဦးေအာင္ေသာင္းအလႉ သပိတ္ေမွာက္
ကိုဝိုင္း
စေနေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 27 2009 23:52 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ခ်င္းမိုင္ (မဇၩိမ)။ ။ စက္မႈ (၁) ဝန္ၾကီး ဦးေအာင္ေသာင္းသည္ ျမင္းၿခံၿမိဳ႕သို႔ ေရာက္ရွိေနစဥ္
ျမင္းၿခံသံဃာေတာ္မ်ားအား ယေန႔နံက္ အာ႐ုဏ္ ဆြမ္းေလာင္းရာ ၾကြေနက် သံဃာေတာ္ဦးေရ၏
တဝက္ခန္႔သာ ဆြမ္းလက္ခံေၾကာင္း ၿမိဳ႕ခံသံဃာတပါးကမိန္႔သည္။
ဆလိုင္း ပီပီ
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 17:29 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
နယူးေဒလီ (မဇၥ်ိမ)။ ။ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္အမႈအတြက္ တုိင္းတရားက ျငင္းပယ္ခဲ့သျဖင့္ ဗဟိုတရား႐ံုးသို႔
ျပင္ဆင္ခြင့္ ေလွ်ာက္ထားခဲ့ရာ ယခုတရား႐ံုးကလည္း ယေန႔တြင္ ထပ္မံ၍ ပယ္ခ်လုိက္ျပန္ၿပီ
ျဖစ္သည္။
႐ုပ္ရွင္
ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းၿငိမ္း
ေသာၾကာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 26 2009 10:10 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
အာဏာရွင္စနစ္ကို အေျခခံထားကာ
တယူသန္ ဘာသာေရးဝါဒီမ်ား အုပ္ခ်ဳပ္သည့္
အီရန္္ႏိုင္ငံတြင္ အႏုပညာသမားမ်ား၏
လြတ္လပ္စြာ ဖန္တီးႏိုင္မႈႏွင့္
အသက္ေမြးဝမ္းေက်ာင္းမႈမွာ မည္မွ်ပင္
ခက္ခဲေၾကာင္း ယခုႏွစ္ ေမလက ျပင္သစ္ႏိုင္ငံ
ကိန္းစ္ ႐ုပ္ရွင္ပြဲေတာ္တြင္ ဆုရရွိခဲ့သည့္ အီရန္ဇာတ္ကား Nobody Knows About Persian
Cats ဇာတ္ကားက ျပည့္စံုစြာ တင္ဆက္ထားသည္။
Boycott (1985), The Bicyclists (1987) ႏွင့္ Kanadahar (2001) မွာ နာမည္ေက်ာ္
ဇာတ္ကားမ်ား ျဖစ္သည္။ လတ္တေလာ ျဖစ္ပြားေနသည့္ အီရန္ ဆႏၵျပပြဲမ်ားအတြက္ သူ၏
ေက်ာ္ၾကားမႈကို အသံုးခ်ကာ အီရန္ ဆႏၵျပသူမ်ားကို ေထာက္ပံ့ႏိုင္ေရးအတြက္ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ
အကူအညီ ရရွိေစရန္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးေနသူတဦး ျဖစ္သည္။ (ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရးဝါဒီ ဟူစိန္
မူဆာဗိီ၏ ႏိုင္ငံတကာ ေဆာ္ၾသေရးမႉးတဦးလည္း ျဖစ္သည္။)
ႏိုင္ငံေရးစစ္ပြဲ
အပို္င္း (၁)
နိဒန္း
ျပည္တြင္း NLD မွာလည္း သက္ၾကားအုိ စီအီးစီ CEC ေတြရဲ႕ ဦးတည္ခ်က္က ငါတုိ႔ ေခါင္းေဆာင္
မရွိရင္ ငါတုိ႔ NLD ပါတီ ၾကီးထြားၿပီး ဒီမုိကေရစီ ရေအာင္တုိက္မယ္ေဟ့ ဆုိတဲ့ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ ရွိ၊
မရွိ ေဝခဲြရ ခက္လာတယ္။ ေဒၚစု ျပန္လာရင္ ျပန္အပ္ႏိုင္ဖို႔ NLD ကုိ ထိန္းသိမ္းထား႐ုံသက္သက္၊
မလႈပ္မရႈပ္ မျပဳတ္ဆုိတဲ့ မဆလ ေဆာင္ပုဒ္အတုိင္း NLD အသက္ရႉ မရပ္ရင္ ေတာ္ၿပီ။ NLD
မတရားအသင္း ေၾကညာမခံရရင္ ေတာ္ၿပီလုိ႔ သေဘာထား ပုံရတယ္။ (မွတ္ခ်က္ -
ဦးဝင္းတင္ကုိ ဒါထက္ ဦးေဆာင္ခြင့္မျပဳတာ စဥ္းစားရ ခက္တယ္။)
ဗုိလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္းနဲ႔ ဖဆပ
ေဒၚစုနဲ႔ NLD
က်ေနာ့္ ဆႏၵအတိုင္း တင္ျပရရင္ CEC မွာ NLD ရဲ႕ ေခါင္းေဆာင္မႈကို ဦးဝင္းတင္ကို ေပးအပ္ၿပီး
(အသက္အရ) ၄ဝ တန္း၊ ၅ဝ တန္းေတြနဲ႔ ျဖည့္စြက္သင့္တယ္။ အသက္အရြယ္ ရလာၿပီျဖစ္တဲ့
လူၾကီးပိုင္းက တ႐ုတ္ျပည္မွာလို CEC ကို ထိန္းေက်ာင္း (Guide) လုပ္ေပးမယ့္ ပါတီလူၾကီး
(Party elders) ေတြအျဖစ္ ရပ္တည္သင့္တယ္။ လူၾကီးေတြရဲ႕ ပညာ (Wisdom) နဲ႔ လူငယ္ေတြရဲ႕
တက္ၾကြမႈကို ေပါင္းစပ္ႏိုင္ခဲ့ရရင္ အင္အား ပိုျဖစ္လာႏိုင္မယ္လို႔ ထင္မိလို႔ပါ။
ေတာ္လွန္ေရးသမား ကိုေအာင္ဆန္း
ပညာတတ္ႏိုင္ငံေရးသမား ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ရဲ႕ အား Strength မွာ 'ရ' ရမယ္ဆိုတဲ့ သံမဏိစိတ္ဓာတ္ (Determination & Iron Will)
၊ ႐ိုးသား ပြင့္လင္းေျဖာင့္မတ္မႈ (Honesty) တို႔ ျဖစ္လို႔ ဒီစိတ္ဓာတ္ေၾကာင့္ လူထု ရဲ႕
ေထာက္ခံမႈကို ရယူခဲ့တယ္။
ဗုိလ္ခ်ဳပ္ဟာ လူထု ရဲ႕ ေထာက္ခံမႈကို အင္အား အျဖစ္ သံုးလ်က္ ဖဆပလ အဖြဲ႔ၾကီးကို အင္အား
ျဖည့္ခဲ့တယ္။ လူထု အင္အား ကို ျပၿပီး၊ ဖဆပလကို ဦးစီးၿပီး တုိက္ပြဲဝင္ခဲ့တယ္။ ပထမအဆင့္မွာ
ဘုရင္ခံက ဖဆပလကို ေနရာမေပး။ သူ႔လူေတြနဲ႔ အစိုးရဖြဲ႔ၿပီး စကၠဴျဖဴစာတမ္းကို ေဖာ္ထုတ္ဖို႔
ေရနံႏွင့္ ႏုိင္ငံေရး
ဒုတိယ ကမၻာစစ္ၾကီးအၿပီးမွာ အေမရိကန္ သမၼတ ရူဗ္စဗဲ့လ္ Roosevelt နဲ႔ ေဆာ္ဒီဘုရင္ ေဆာ့ဒ္
Saud တုိ႔ ေတြ႔ၿပီး ေဆာ္ဒီေတြက ေရနံေပးမယ္၊ အေမရိကန္က လုံၿခဳံေရးေပးဖုိ႔ ကတိျပဳခဲ့တယ္။
ဒါေၾကာင့္ ေရနံကုိ အေမရိကန္ ေဒၚလာနဲ႔ အေရာင္းအဝယ္ ဒီေန႔အထိ လုပ္ၾကရၿပီး အႏွစ္ ၄ဝ
ေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ ေဆာ္ဒီက ေရနံေစ်းကုိ ထိန္းခဲ့တယ္။ အေမရိကန္ကလည္း စည္းမရွိ၊ ကမ္းမရွိ
သဘာဝဓာတ္ေငြ႔ႏွင့္ ျမန္မာ
တ႐ုတ္ျပည္ၾကီးနဲ႔ တုိးတက္ေရး စီမံကိန္းမွာ ပထမ အေရွ႕ျခမ္း၊ အလယ္ျခမ္းေနာက္မွ
အေနာက္ျခမ္းကို တုိးတက္ေအာင္ လုပ္ဖုိ႔စီမံကိန္း ရွိတယ္။ တ႐ုတ္ျပည္ အေရွ႕ျခမ္းမွာရွိတဲ့
ရွန္ဟုိင္းတုိ႔၊ ေဘဂ်င္း (Beijing) တုိ႔ဟာ ကမၻာ့အဆင့္မီ ၿမိဳ႕ၾကီးေတြ ျဖစ္ကုန္ၿပီ။
စက္႐ုံေတြဟာလည္း တ႐ုတ္ျပည္ အေရွ႕ျခမ္းမွာရွိတာေၾကာင့္ ေရနံတင္ သေဘာၤေတြဟာ
တ႐ုတ္အေရွ႕ကမ္းမွာ စုိက္ၾကရတယ္။ တ႐ုတ္ျပည္အလယ္ပုိင္းနဲ႔ ေတာင္ပုိင္းကုိ
တ႐ုတ္ျပည္အေရွ႕ျခမ္းက ပုိ႔ရင္ မုိင္ ၃ဝဝဝ ေက်ာ္ ေဝးတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ တ႐ုတ္က ေရနံကို
ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ရခုိင္ျပည္နဲ႔ ေမာ္လၿမိဳင္ဘက္ကေန ပုိက္နဲ႔ ယူနန္ ျပည္နယ္ကုိ ပို႔ၿပီး၊
အဲဒီကေနတဆင့္ အလယ္ပုိင္းကို ပို႔ဖို႔ စီစဥ္ေနပါတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ရခုိင္ျပည္မွာ
ေရနက္ဆိပ္ကမ္းကုိ တ႐ုတ္က တည္ေဆာက္ေပးေနတာေပါ့။ နအဖ က ရတဲ့
သဘာဝဓာတ္ေငြ႔က တ႐ုတ္အတြက္ မေျပာပေလာက္ဘူး။
ေဆာင္းပါး
စုိးေနလင္း
ၾကာသပေတးေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 25 2009 11:50 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ႏုိင္ငံတခုရဲ့ ဒီမုိကေရစီေရးဟာ အဲဒီႏုိင္ငံမွာ ခ်မွတ္အေကာင္အထည္ေဖာ္တဲ့ အေျခခံ
စီးပြားေရးစနစ္ေပၚမွာ အမ်ားၾကီး မူတည္ပါတယ္။ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတုိးတက္မႈေပၚမွာ
မီွတည္တယ္လုိ႔ ေျပာလုိ႔လည္း ရပါတယ္။ ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေရရွည္တည္တံ့ခုိင္မာေရး
အလားအလာဟာ ႏုိင္ငံရဲ့ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတုိးတက္မႈ ၾကီးမားမ်ားျပားလာတာနဲ႔အမွ် ပုိၿပီး
အားေကာင္းခုိင္မာလာမယ္လုိ႔ ဆုိရပါမယ္။ ဘာျဖစ္လုိ႔လဲဆုိေတာ့ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတုိးတက္မႈက
ႏုိင္ငံသားေတြရဲ့ အရည္အေသြးေတြနဲ႔ အရပ္ဘက္ဆုိင္ရာ လူ႔အဖြဲ႔အစည္းေတြရဲ့ လုပ္ေဆာင္မႈကုိ
အမ်ားၾကီး သက္ေရာက္မႈ ရွိေနလုိ႔ပါပဲ။ တတုိင္းျပည္လုံး အတုိင္းအတာနဲ႔ က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္႔ျပန္႔
စာတတ္ေျမာက္မႈနဲ႔ ပညာေရးက ႏုိင္ငံသား ျပည္သူေတြကုိ ပုိၿပီး ရင့္က်က္လာေစကာ မဲဆႏၵရွင္
ျပည္သူေတြကုိ ပုိၿပီး သိျမင္နားလည္လာေစပါတယ္။
မိုက္ကယ္ဂ်က္ဆင္ (သို႔မဟုတ္)
ယဥ္ေက်းမႈအသစ္ကို ဖန္တီးသူ - (အပိုင္း - ၁)
ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းၿငိမ္း
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဇြန္လ 29 2009 14:03 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ယေန႔ေခတ္ကဲ့သို႔ သတင္းဆက္သြယ္ေရး
နည္းပညာမ်ား သိပ္မထြန္းကားေသးခင္
ကာလကပင္ မိုက္ကယ္ဂ်က္ဆင္၏
နာမည္သည္ တ႐ုတ္ျပည္ ကုန္တြင္းပိုင္းမွ
လူသူအေရာက္အေပါက္ နည္းေသာ
ေက်းရြာငယ္ေလးမွအစ ရီယို ဒီဂ်နီ ႐ိုး ရွိ
ၾကံစိုက္ ေတာင္သူမ်ားအဆံုး သူ၏ နာမည္ကို
ရင္းႏွီးခဲ့ၾကသည္။
”ျပန္လာရင္ မိုက္ကယ္ဂ်က္ဆင္ရဲ႕
ဓာတ္ျပားတခ်ပ္ေလာက္ ဝယ္ခဲ့စမ္းပါ။ သူ
ကတာေတြက ေကာင္းတယ္ဟဲ့” ဟု
ေျပာသူမွာ ၁၉၈၄ ခုႏွစ္ခန္႔က
အင္ဒိုးနီးရွားႏိုင္ငံ ဆူလာေဝဆီမွ အသက္ ၅၀
ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ အရြယ္ အမ်ဳိးသမီးၾကီးတဦး ျဖစ္သည္။ သူမ ေနထိုင္ရာ ဆူလာေဝဆီ
ရြာေလးတခုမွေန၍ ဂ်ကာတာ ေရႊၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္သို႔ သြားမည့္ လူၾကံဳအား မိုက္ကယ္ဂ်က္ဆင္၏
ေတးအယ္(လ္)ဘမ္ကို မွာၾကားေနျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ကြယ္လြန္သြားၿပီျဖစ္သည့္ ပုပ္ရဟန္းမင္းၾကီး
ဂြ်န္ေပါလ္က “သူက ေသြးမတိတ္တဲ့
ကမာၻၾကီးကို တတ္ႏိုင္သမွ် ႏွစ္သိမ့္ေပးသူပဲ။
ဒါမ်ဳိးက ကမာၻၾကီးကို ကယ္တင္မယ္ဆိုတဲ့
ႏိုင္ငံေရးသမားၾကီးေတြေတာင္
မတတ္ႏိုင္ရွာဘူး'' ဟု
မွတ္ခ်က္ျပဳေျပာၾကားခဲ့သည္။
၁၉၇၉ ခုႏွစ္ သူ၏ ပဥၥမေျမာက္ ေတးအယ္(လ္)ဘမ္ ျဖစ္သည့္ Off the world ႏွင့္ ၁၉၈၂ ခုႏွစ္
ဆဌမေျမာက္ ေတးအယ္(လ္) ဘမ္ Thriller တို႔ ထြက္ရွိၿပီးခ်ိန္၌မူ သူ၏ ေက်ာ္ၾကားမႈကား
အေမရိကန္ ကမ္း႐ိုးတန္းေလာက္တင္ မဟုတ္ေတာ့ဘဲ ေတာေတာင္ ပင္လယ္ သမုဒၵရာ
စစ္အစုိးရ၏ သတၱဳတူးေဖာ္ေရးစီမံကိန္းေၾကာင့္
ျပည္သူ႔အုိးအိမ္ (၇) ေထာင္ေက်ာ္ ပ်က္စီးဆုံး႐ံႈးကိန္းဆိုက္
လူရႊင္ေတာ္ဇာဂနာကို ေထာင္၀င္စာေတြ႔ခြင့္ရ
NEJ / ၃၀ ဇြန္ ၂၀၀၉
သ႐ုပ္ေဆာင္ ဒါ႐ိုက္တာ ေမာင္သူရ ေခၚ လူရႊင္ေတာ္ဇာဂနာကို ခယ္မျဖစ္သူ မၿငိမ္းက
ျမစ္ႀကီးနားေထာင္တြင္ ယမန္ေန႔ နံနက္ပိုင္းတြင္ ေထာင္၀င္စာ ေတြ႔ခြင့္ရခဲ့သည္ဟု မိသားစုနွင့္
နီးစပ္သူတဦးက ေျပာသည္။
ကုလသမဂၢအတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ ဘန္ကီမြန္း
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသြားေရာက္မည္
NEJ / ၃၀ ဇြန္ ၂၀၀၉
ကုလသမဂၢအတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းသည္ လာမည့္ဇူလိုင္ (၃) ရက္တြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔
သြားေရာက္မည္ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားမ်ားအားလုံး
လြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးအပါအ၀င္ အေရးႀကီးသည့္ကိစၥရပ္မ်ားကို ေဆြးေႏြးမည္ဟု ကုလသမဂၢမွ
ယမန္ေန႔က ထုတ္ျပန္ေျပာဆိုသည္။
မယ္လဒုကၡသည္စခန္း ျပာပုံျဖစ္ရမည္ဟု
ဒီေကဘီေအတပ္ဖြဲ႕ ႀကိမ္း၀ါး
ယခုလ (၂၆) ရက္တြင္ ေကအန္ယူ တပ္မဟာ (၇) ေဒသကို ထုိးစစ္ဆင္အၿပီး (၉၉၉) တပ္ဖြဲ႔က
၎တို႔အေျခခ်ဗ်ဴဟာ တည္ရွိရာ ျမ၀တီခ႐ုိင္ ေရႊကုကၠိဳရြာသုိ႔ ေသာင္ရင္းျမစ္ေၾကာင္းအတုိင္း
ဆန္တက္ရာတြင္ မယ္လရြာအနီးရွိ ေမာင္ကလာ၀ဲဟု ေခၚသည့္ေနရာ တြင္
အမည္မသိအဖဲြ႔တဖဲြ႔၏ ခ်ဳံခုိတုိက္ခုိက္မႈကို ခံၾကရျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။
ၿမိဳ႕ေတာ္စည္ပင္ေၾကာင့္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕
ညစ္ညမ္းနံေစာ္ေန
နာဂစ္မုန္တုိင္းသင့္ ေက်းလက္ေဒသမ်ား
နာလန္မထူႏိုင္ေသး
NEJ / ၂၉ ဇြန္ ၂၀၀၉
၂၉ ဇြန္ ၂၀၀၉http://www.khitpyaing.org/articles/june_09/28-6-09.php
ျမန္မာျပည္သုိ႔ လက္နက္ပစၥည္းတင္ပုိ႔သည္ဟု
ယူဆရသူ ၃ ဦး ဂ်ပန္တြင္ အဖမ္းခံရ
TUESDAY, 30 JUNE 2009 19:00 ကိုေထြး
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/2009-06-30-12-01-56.html
တာေဝးပစ္ ဒုံးက်ည္ ဆက္စပ္ပစၥည္းတမ်ဳိး ျမန္မာျပည္သုိ႔ တရားမဝင္ တင္ပုိ႔ရန္ ႀကိဳးပမ္းသူဟု
ယူဆရေသာ လုပ္ငန္းရွင္ ၃ဦး ကို ဂ်ပန္ရဲတပ္ဖဲြ႔က အဂၤါေန႔တြင္ ဖမ္းဆီးလိုက္ေၾကာင္း
ဂ်ပန္ႏုိင္ငံမွ လာေသာ သတင္းမ်ားတြင္ ေဖာ္ျပထားသည္။
ဆင္းရဲမြဲေတမႈ ဟိုင္းေဝး
MONDAY, 29 JUNE 2009 17:25 ကိုေထြး
HTTP://WWW.IRRAWADDY.ORG/BUR/2009-06-29-10-26-20.HTML
မႏၱေလးၿမိဳ႕ႏွင့္ ေတာင္ႀကီးၿမိဳ႕သို႔ ဆက္သြယ္ထားေသာ ကားလမ္းက ရွည္လ်ားလွသည္။
ေျမျပန္႔ျဖစ္သည္ႏွင့္ အညီ လမ္းက ေျဖာင့္တန္းသကဲ့သို႔ အနည္းငယ္ ေခ်ာေမြ႔လာသည္။
"ရွိလား"
"အိုး၊ ဒီေနရာမွာလား"
က်ေနာ္ေတာ္ေတာ္ လန္႔သြားသည္။
ခက္ခဲေသာ ဆံုးျဖတ္ခ်က္
THURSDAY, 25 JUNE 2009 17:38 အဲလက္(စ္) အဲလ္ဂီး
http://www.irrawaddy.org/bur/2009-06-25-10-40-22.html
ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ႏွစ္ပတ္အတြင္း ထိုင္း-ျမန္မာနယ္စပ္တြင္ တိုက္ပြဲမ်ား ျပင္းထန္ေနခဲ့ၿပီး
ကရင္ဒုကၡသည္ ၃,၀၀၀ ေက်ာ္လည္း နယ္စပ္ျဖတ္ေက်ာ္ ထြက္ေျပးခိုလႈံ လာၾကရသည္။
သူစကားေျပာေနစဥ္၌ပင္ ေမာ္တာသံ၊
စက္ေသနတ္သံမ်ား ေတာင္ေၾကာတေလ်ာက္
ပဲ့တင္ျပန္ေနသံကို ၾကားေနရေသး သည္။
ဤေဒသမ်ားက ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသားလြတ္ေျမာက္ေရးတပ္မေတာ္ (KNLA) ၏ ႏွစ္ ၆၀ ေက်ာ္
ေတာ္လွန္စစ္အတြက္ ေနာက္ဆံုး ခံကတုတ္ေဒသမ်ား ျဖစ္ေနသည့္အတြက္ေၾကာင့္လည္း
အျပင္းအထန္ ခုခံေနၾကသည္။
ျပည္သူမ်က္ျဖဴဆိုက္မွ
စစ္ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးမ်ားႀကိဳက္သည္
အဂၤါေန႕၊ 30 ဇြန္လ 2009 စိုင္းေအာင္
http://www.mongloi.org/burmese/2008-08-03-15-59-20/2008-08-03-15-56-21/462-
2009-06-30-07-28-29.html
စစ္အာဏာရွင္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ႀကီးမ်ားခ်ယ္လွယ္ႀကီးစိုးေနသည့္ ယေန႔ေခတ္ကာလတြင္
ဗမာျပည္ေနရာအႏွံ႔အျပား၌ေမွာင္ခို စနစ္လြန္စြာတိုးတက္ ထြန္းကားလွ်က္ရိွသည္။
ယေန႔ဗမာျပည္တြင္ လူ႔ဘဝဇတ္ခံုေပၚ၌ သမုဒၵရာဝမ္းတစ္ထြာအတြက္ ရုန္းကန္လႈပ္ရွားေနရသူ
လူအေယာက္ (၁ဝဝ) လွ်င္ (ဂဝ)က နည္းမ်ိဳးစံုျဖင့္ ေမွာင္ခိုလုပ္ငန္းႏွင့္
ပါတ္သက္စီးပြားရွာေနၾကသူမ်ား ျဖစ္ၾကသည္။
တိုင္စာပို႔ၿပီးေနာက္ပိုင္း အဆင့္ဆင့္စံုစမ္းစစ္ေဆးမႈ႔မ်ားျပဳလုပ္ၾကၿပီး
ပစၥည္းဖမ္းဆီးရာတြင္ပါ၀င္ခဲ့သည့္အေကာက္ အခြန္ဦးစီးမွဴး အရာရိွပိုင္းတခ်ိဳ႕ကို
အလုပ္မွထုတ္ပစ္လိုက္သည္။
ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသေဘၤာ ေနာက္ျပန္လွည့္
01 July 2009 http://www.voanews.com/burmese/2009-07-01-voa1.cfm
UNHCR ရဲ႕ ေျပာခြင့္ရသူ မစၥတာ ၀ီလီယံ စပင္ဒ္လာ (Mr. William Spindler) က မေန႔က
အေယာက္ ၅၀,၀၀၀ ေျမာက္ေသာ ပလူရယ္ ေခၚ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံက ဒုကၡသည္တဦး တတိယႏိုင္ငံကို
ထြက္ခြာခဲ့တာမို႔ ဒါဟာ မွတ္တိုင္သစ္တရပ္ ျဖစ္တယ္လို႔ ေျပာခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ပလူရယ္နဲ႔
သူ႕မိသားစုဟာ အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံကို သြားေရာက္အေျခခ်ၾကမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
တတိယႎုိင္ငံတၾင္ အေဴခခဵသူ
ဴမန္မာဒုကၡသည္ ၅ ေသာင္းဴပည့္႓ပီ
2009-06-30
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/number_of_burmese_refugees_in_3rd_countrie
s_reach_50000-06302009163035.html/story_main?textonly=1
ေဴမာက္ကိုရီးယားသေဘႆာ
ေနာက္ေဳကာင္းဴပန္လႀည့္ေဳကာင္း
သတင္းစာကေဖာ္ဴပ
2009-06-30
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/north_korean_ship_returns_back_home-
06302009160455.html/story_main?textonly=1
ဗိုလ္ခဵႂပ္႒ကီးေ႟ၿမန္း ေဴမာက္ကိုရီးယားကို
လ႖ိႂႚဝႀက္သၾားေရာက္ခဲ့
2009-06-30
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/shwe_mann_secretly_visited_north_korea-
06302009133419.html/story_main?textonly=1
ဴမန္မာ-ေဴမာက္ကုိရီးယား ဆက္ဆံေရး
ကမၻာ့အင္အားၾကီးမ်ားႏွင့္ သံတမန္နည္းလမ္း
တ႐ုတ္နဲ႔ အေမရိကန္တို႔ ျမန္မာျပည္အေရးနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး ေပၚလစီခ်ပံု၊ ေပၚလစီကို
အေကာင္အထည္ ေဖာ္ပံုေတြကို နားလည္ဖုိ႔ လိုတယ္။ ဘာေၾကာင့္လဲဆိုေတာ့ လက္ရွိ
အေျခအေနမွာ နအဖ အေပၚ ၾသဇာ အရွိဆံုးက တ႐ုတ္။ ဒါေတာင္ တ႐ုတ္ၾကီးေျပာသမွ်ကို နအဖ
ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေတြက နားေထာင္တာ မဟုတ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ တ႐ုတ္မပါရင္ မျဖစ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ တ႐ုတ္နဲ႔
အေမရိကန္ဟာ အေရးၾကီးဆံုး။ ဒီ ၂ ႏိုင္ငံ ပူးေပါင္းအေျဖရွာမွ အေျဖရဖို႔၊ တုိးတက္ဖုိ႔
ျဖစ္ႏုိင္တာကိုး။ ဒါက အျပင္က ဖိအား၊ အတြင္းက ဖိအားမပါဘဲလည္း အေျဖမရႏုိင္ပါ။
အတြင္းဖိအားကို တည္ေဆာက္ႏုိင္မွ အတြင္းအျပင္ ဖိအားႏွစ္ဖက္ ညႇပ္ကိုင္မွ နအဖ ကို (ကိုင္)
ႏုိင္စရာ ရွိပါတယ္။
ပူေႏြးေနတဲ့ မ်က္ရည္မ်ား
ေဆာင္းပါး
ႏွင္းပန္းအိမ္
ဗုဒၶဟူးေန႔၊ ဂ်ဴလုိင္လ 01 ရက္ 2009 ခုႏွစ္ 17 နာရီ 09 မိနစ္
(ေဒါက္တာေသာင္းထြန္းႏွင့္ အင္တာဗ်ဴး)
ခ်င္းမုိင္ (မဇၩိမ)။ ။ ကုလသမဂၢ အေထြေထြ အတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ မစၥတာ ဘန္ကီမြန္းသည္
လာမည့္ ေသာၾကာေန႔တြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသို႔ သြားေရာက္မည္ျဖစ္သည္။ သူ၏ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ဆံုခြင့္ ရရွိရန္ ေတာင္းဆိုထားသလို၊ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္မႉးၾကီး
သန္းေရႊႏွင့္ပါ ေတြ႔ဆံုမည္ ျဖစ္သည္။
ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားသေဘၤာ ေနာက္ေၾကာင္းျပန္လွည့္ႏိုင္ဟု
သတင္းမ်ားထြက္ေပၚ
NEJ / ၁ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
စစ္လက္နက္မ်ားႏွင့္ ဆက္စပ္ပစၥည္းမ်ား တရားမ၀င္ တင္ေဆာင္ လာသည္ဟု
သံသယျဖစ္ပြားခံရသည့္ Kang Nam ကုန္တင္ သေဘၤာသည္
မူလလာရင္းလမ္းေၾကာင္းေျပာင္းၿပီး ေျမာက္ကိုရီးယားႏိုင္ငံဘက္သို႔ ျပန္လည္ဦးတည္
ခုတ္ေမာင္း ေနပုံရေၾကာင္း သံတမန္သတင္းရပ္ကြက္မ်ားကို ကိုးကားၿပီး ယေန႔ထုတ္
ေတာင္ကိုရီးယားသတင္းစာ Korea Herald တြင္ ေဖာ္ျပသည္။
အမ်ိဳးသားဒီမိုကရက္တစ္ မဟာမိတ္တပ္မေတာ္
ႏွစ္ပတ္လည္ေန႔တြင္ နအဖတိုင္းမႉးမတက္ေရာက္
NEJ / ၁ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
ထုိ႔ေနာက္ ဇြန္ (၃ဝ) ရက္ ညေန (၂) နာရီမွ (၄) နာရီခဲြအခ်ိန္တြင္ တက္ေရာက္လာသည့္
အဖဲြ႔အစည္းအသီးသီးမွ ကိုယ္စားလွယ္မ်ား ေတြ႔ဆံုပဲြတခု ျပဳလုပ္ၿပီး မိုင္းလားၿမိဳ႕အတြင္း
လွည့္လည္ၾကည့္႐ႈမႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္ခဲ့ေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
တရားမွ်တမႈႏွင့္ တရားဥပေဒေလးစားမႈ
NEJ / ၁ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
၂၀၀၉ ခု ဇြန္ (၂၈ ) ရက္ ည (၈) နာရီဝန္းက်င္တြင္ ဘုရားသုံးဆူၿမဳိ႕ ရပ္ကြက္ (၃) ႏွင့္ (၄) တြင္
ဗုံးႏွစ္လုံး ေရွ႕ဆင့္ေနာက္ဆင့္ ေပါက္ကြဲခဲ့သည္။
နအဖအတြက္ ေတာေျခာက္ေပးရာေရာက္လိမ့္မယ္
ရဲေဘာ္ဖိုးသံေခ်ာင္း
၂ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉ http://www.khitpyaing.org/articles/july09/020709.php
SPECIAL REPORT
Burma’s Secret Mission to North Korea
By AUNG ZAW JULY, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.4
GEN Thura Shwe Mann, the Burmese regime’s No 3 man, made a secret
visit to North Korea in November 2008.
Gen Shwe Mann (left) and Gen Kim Kyok-sik sign a memorandum
of understanding at the defense ministry in Pyongyang
As chief of staff of the army, navy and air force, and the coordinator of
Special Operations, he led a 17-member, high-level delegation on a
seven-day visit to Pyongyang, visiting, among other sites, secret tunnel
complexes built into the sides of mountains to store and shield jet
aircraft, missiles, tanks and nuclear and chemical weapons.
On November 27, Shwe Mann and his North Korean counterpart, Gen
Kim Kyok-sik, signed a memorandum of understanding, officially
formalizing military cooperation between Burma and North Korea.
During his seven-day visit, Shwe Mann visited radar and jamming units
in Myohyang, a highly sophisticated anti-aircraft unit, air force units
and a computerized command control system in Pyongyang.
During the visit, the Burmese were also particularly interested in short-
range 107 mm and 240 mm multi-rocket launchers—a multi-purpose
missile defense system that could be used in case of a foreign invasion,
analysts said.
Historically, Burma has procured small arms, jet fighters and naval
ships from the West, namely the US, Britain and some European
countries. But after brutally crushing the 1988 democracy uprising, it
faced Western sanctions and Burmese leaders desperately looked for
new sources of weapons and ammunition to modernize its armed
forces. Over the last two decades, Burma has bought jet fighters and
naval ships from China, but increasingly it’s looked for alternative
sources because of low quality and poor after-sales service. Burma has
also bought jet fighters, arms, ammunition and hardware from Russia,
Pakistan, India and Eastern European countries.
SPECIAL REPORT
ON June 21, after three weeks of fighting, a joint force of Burmese army and
launched on June 2.
The fall of the KNLA’s last major base inside Karen State was the latest blow for the
ethnic insurgent army, which has been at war with Burma’s rulers for more than 60
years. Fierce clashes also forced some 4,000 people in Pa-an District, including
Karen villagers and internally displaced persons from a camp in Ler Per Her, to flee
Enlarge Image
where the brigade’s Battalions 21, 22, 101 and 202 were
stationed.
Karen State.
The offensive was seen as part of a push to further marginalize the KNU ahead of
next year’s planned election. Some analysts also suggested that it was an attempt to
put pressure on Thailand for its criticism of the Burmese regime’s trial of
The junta is also unhappy with Thailand for allowing family members of KNLA
soldiers to take shelter on Thai soil. However, human rights groups have criticized
Burma’s ruling generals were also said to be inspired by Sri Lanka’s military defeat
of the Tamil Tigers in May, after more than a quarter century of civil war. Sri
June 14-15, during which the two countries pledged closer cooperation on a host of
Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint said the world had witnessed the successful
end of the conflict in Sri Lanka, but had forgotten about the insurgency in Burma.
SPECIAL REPORT
For Karen refugees, the decision to stay or flee through the jungle to
MAE SOT, Thailand — Intense fighting along Burma’s border with Thailand forced
more than 4,000 Karen villagers to flee their homes and livelihood for the safety of
The decision to flee rested with the village leaders—and it wasn’t an easy one.
The village leader ordered people to pack up what they could carry and to leave
immediately. Many of the village men had been conscripted as porters in earlier
“If we stayed, we would have been forced to be porters,” said a villager who had
previously carried the bed of a Burmese commander through the jungle. “The
Burmese commanders want to live like kings, and they want us to live like animals.”
Villagers also feared the Burmese forces would need extra soldiers on the front line,
“How can the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) expect me to fight for the
Burmese army and kill my Karen brothers?” asked one angry villager.
land mines.
KNLA soldier s on patrol along the Thai-
Burmese border. (Photo: Dai Kurokawa)
“One Burmese soldier used me
as a human shield,” said one villager. “As we advanced toward Karen soldiers, he
hid behind me and held his gun over my shoulder. If anyone had fired at him, I
Many of the fleeing villagers had been working hard on their farms and were
waiting to enjoy their harvests. “We had been waiting for the mangoes to be ripe for
Many of the Karen population retain their animist beliefs despite decades of
Christian missionary work. As animists, every mountain, tree and river around a
“They have worshiped the spirits all their lives for protection” explained a Karen
Youth Organization worker. “Outside of their village area, they wouldn’t know the
spirits as well and for people who believe that spirits can kill, this can be terrifying.”
Some villagers hiked through the jungle for three days, traveling slowly to avoid
“Even if we don’t detonate a mine we are still faced with the risk of catching malaria
or being bitten by a snake,” said the village leader. “When you travel with women
When they finally arrived at the Moei River, the refugees crossed over on boats
belonging to the KNLA’s 7th Brigade into the Thai village of Mae Salit. On arrival,
they spread out, locating and staying with Karen families who had settled in the
They arrived in torn and ragged clothing. The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)
told the recent arrivals to congregate at a local monastery, where they were given
Karen organizations.
“There are so many mothers with young babies here,” said Blooming Night, joint
secretary of the KWO. “It’s not right that they should suffer in this way.”
For the children, this latest offensive will have long lasting affects on their lives. The
school year had just started and all teaching material was left behind in the schools.
“It’s very tragic. Most of the children’s parents have probably been taken as
porters,” said Tasanee, the director of Safe Haven Orphanage, who goes by one
name.
Tasanee’s mother established the orphanage in 1994 to look after children in the
area who had been orphaned. Located near the Moei River, the orphanage is still
close to the fighting and the sound of mortar fire often interrupts the children’s
English lessons.
“When the mortars begin, the children stop singing,” said a volunteer English
teacher. “They just sit there glazed over and silently terrified. They know what the
noises are, and they know what they mean. Sometimes they come and hug us but
shell shocked.”
Many villagers were concerned the fighting would spill over onto Thai soil. The
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) reported that a DKBA officer had sent a
villager from the Ler Per Her area as a messenger to contact the recently arrived
refugees. The messenger said the DKBA demanded 3,000 baht (US $100) per
village to reimburse it for the cost of hiring porters to carry supplies during their
offensive.
checkpoints entering Mae Salit, and army jeeps with armed soldiers patrol the main
road.
designed to allow
the DKBA to
as a border guard
and the KHRG reported that DKBA officials are already referring to themselves as
If the DKBA and Burmese army succeed in their mission to eliminate the KNLA
from the border area, many Karen villagers will be displaced and the survivors will
be forced into refugee camps where they will be restricted for a long period of time.
Fully aware of the present dangers, the Karen villagers still managed to laugh and
“Our villagers feel lost and confused, but we are just happy to be away from the
“If I didn’t make the right decision, all our brothers and sisters would have perished
COVER STORY
One-way Street
By AUNG ZAW JULY, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.4
Pro-democracy activists are not the only ones who have been a part of
court
BURMESE lawyers call it “the one-way street,” but it is officially known as the
The accused who end up here know that their fate is sealed before they even enter a
plea. The verdict is preordained, and the sentence is invariably a long stretch in
Whatever the charge, there is never any doubt about the true nature of the offense.
The allegations against the accused may be real or imagined, deadly serious or
utterly ridiculous, but the “crime” is always the same: threatening the country’s
This has been the end of the road for many of Burma’s most prominent political
prisoners, as well as countless others who have fallen afoul of the powers that be.
dissidents have been legally processed here and dispatched with ruthless efficiency
But pro-democracy activists are not the only ones who have been robbed of long
years of their lives by this kangaroo court. Often, those who come here to face
masters. When the mighty fall from grace, this is usually where they land.
Here we present a few of the better known cases of doomed defendants who have
passed through the special court after losing the confidence of their supreme leader.
In 1976, Capt Ohn Kyaw Myint, a personal staff officer of the then-commander in
chief of the armed forces, Gen Kyaw Htin, was arrested along with a group of army
officers for plotting to assassinate Gen Ne Win and other state leaders.
Accused of seeking to overthrow the Ne Win regime because they believed that the
dictator’s “Burmese Way to Socialism” was leading the country to ruin, the
In a rare departure from its normally secretive approach to dispensing justice, the
drama.
The trial went on for nearly a year before it reached its inevitable conclusion: Ohn
Another prominent figure who was tried in connection with the case was Gen Tin
Oo, a former commander in chief of the armed forces. He was found guilty of
treason for withholding information about the coup plan and sentenced to seven
Two decades later, Tin Oo went on to become the vice chairman of the National
League for Democracy. He is currently under house arrest for allegedly threatening
state stability.
to Ne Win, efforts to
Than Sein, Tun Linn and Kyaw Zaw—secretly conspired to vote Ne Win out of
The rebel cadres were purged and were subsequently accused of misappropriating
party funds. They were tried by the special court and given long prison sentences.
In 1983, Brig-Gen Tin Oo, the powerful director of the National Intelligence Bureau
(NIB) and a member of the BSPP central executive committee, was tried by the
assassination attempts against the Burmese dictator and used extensive dossiers on
leading members of the BSPP government to expose rivals plotting palace coups.
Also known as “No 1 and a Half” because of his status as the likely successor to the
aging Ne Win, Tin Oo was often at loggerheads with senior army generals, creating
an atmosphere of tension and suspicion among the top ranks of the military—the
But it was Ne Win’s fears for his own position that eventually prompted him to take
action to neutralize Tin Oo, who had been aggressively consolidating his personal
power base.
The trial at the Insein special court was not open. Tin Oo reportedly sent a long
letter of appeal to Ne Win, but it was ignored. He received five concurrent life
sentences for his alleged crimes, but was released from Insein Prison in 1988 after
Brig-Gen Aung Gyi was No 2 in the Revolutionary Council, the military junta that
ruled Burma for the first 12 years of Ne Win’s reign. However, Aung Gyi’s tenure
was short-lived: within a year of the 1962 coup that installed Ne Win in power, his
lieutenant was forced to resign for openly criticizing the new regime’s economic
policies.
But the retired general remained loyal to the army and maintained his connection
with “the Old Man.” This did not change until the late 1980s, when Aung Gyi wrote
a series of highly publicized open letters to Ne Win urging him to reform the
economy, which after more than two decades of mismanagement was on the verge
of collapse.
movement, which came to a head in August 1988. After the bloody coup that
crushed massive demonstrations around the country the following month, Aung Gyi
became one of the founders of the National League for Democracy. However, he
soon fell out with other leaders and set up his own party.
After doing poorly in the 1990 election, Aung Gyi ended his brief foray into party
1993, however, his political past caught up with him, and he was brought before the
He was sentenced to six months in Insein Prison, while his wife received a stiffer
sentence for allegedly smuggling goods into the country from Thailand—a victim of
Aung Gyi was one of the few people to attend Ne Win’s funeral in 2002. Although
he praised the late dictator for his role in liberating the country from British rule, he
added: “Ne Win betrayed the country. He raped democracy in Burma by staging a
Just nine months before Ne Win’s death in December 2002, the former dictator and
his closest family members received sentences in the special court ranging from
house arrest to the death penalty for allegedly plotting to split the armed forces and
In early 2002, Ne Win’s son-in-law Aye Zaw Win and his three sons were arrested
for conspiring to return the dying man to power to pave the way for a succession
that would have made the family of his favorite daughter, Sandar Win, the most
powerful in Burma.
In the end, however, Aye Zaw Win and his sons were sentenced to death for their
leading role in the sensational plot, while Ne Win and his daughter were placed
under house arrest. Sandar Win was released earlier this year after serving her full
six-year sentence.
Several high-ranking officers were also implicated in the case and purged. In all,
more than 100 people, including four senior officials and an astrologer employed by
the grandsons, were detained and interrogated in connection with the case.
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The four chief defendants were accused of planning to kidnap the regime’s leaders
and seize state power. During the carefully staged trial, the prosecution claimed
that the conspirators had used “black magic” in their bid for power.
Analysts and diplomats expressed doubts about the charges, saying the case
probably reflected a desire by the regime to discredit the once powerful Ne Win
clan.
Aye Zaw Win and his sons remain on death row at Insein Prison, where they
gambling ring. The current regime is not expected to carry out the execution order
against them because it has not administered capital punishment since seizing
power in 1988.
Gen Khin Nyunt was serving as Burma’s prime minister when he was arrested in
2004 for insubordination and corruption. But for most of his career, he was better
known as the regime’s spy chief and the mastermind behind efforts to fabricate
Shan leader Hkun Tun Oo and Burma’s longest-serving political prisoner, Win Tin.
repeatedly extended during his incarceration for a variety of offences linked to his
opposition activities.
Khin Nyunt’s downfall was due to his status as the head of one of the two major
factions in the ruling junta. Despite its key role in keeping the junta in power for the
first decade and a half of its existence, by 2004 the intelligence faction of the
regime, headed by Khin Nyunt, had become a threat to the infantry faction led by
Than Shwe. After years of tensions, the Than Shwe clique moved to take Khin
Khin Nyunt appeared only briefly before the court to hear the verdict against him: a
lives with his wife and three children. Some of his lieutenants did not get off as
COVER STORY
Burma’s military government, but the generals fire back in words and
A mistake should not be repeated but in the case of Burma, mistakes are endless.
Burma into its regional grouping, newspapers and magazines, including this one,
The simple fact is that Burma was not yet ready to join the regional club unless
Asean was willing to serve as a shield, in effect giving political cover to one of the
It’s sad to say that to this day Burma membership has been a disaster, creating a
constant headache for Asean members who have increasingly been concerned with
Ironically, the original goal of taming Burma by admitting the pariah state to the
regional club has only further damaged the grouping’s reputation. Burma is not
Needless to say, Burma has remained a major source of concern as regime leaders
recently detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi inside the notorious Insein
Prison, ignoring the outcry of regional leaders and the international community.
If Burmese leaders are finding it difficult to find excuses to confine the Lady of the
Lake, Asean leaders also are facing a dilemma: how to nurture the rogue regime
Asean has no one to blame but itself for making a hasty decision to admit Burma in
1997 before the junta had made any genuine political progress at home.
Why such haste? one excuse Asean leaders cited was that if they delayed admission,
Even the Chinese leaders—who quietly criticized Burmese officials at the Asia-
Europe Meeting (Asem) held in Hanoi in May—are expressing deep frustration with
the generals. The Chinese typically exercised cautious and quiet diplomacy when
major diplomatic blunders, it always shuts the door, unwilling to listen even to its
biggest neighbor.
It is true that Asean has paid a high price by admitting Burma. The once respected
Asean has lost influence and become a subject of derision for its continuous support
of the junta.
Asean leaders have failed to perform due diligence. Only now, with the latest
incarceration of Suu Kyi, do they seem to have learned the importance of delivering
Recently, Thailand’s prime minister and foreign minister were joined by Singapore
and other original founders of Asean to pour scorn on Burma for staging the bizarre
Suu Kyi trial, demanding her release and that of all political prisoners.
In Hanoi, Asean and its European partners issued a statement also calling for the
Speaking to the Far Eastern Economic Review, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejajjiva said that if the junta fails to release Suu Kyi, Asean’s credibility will be
“affected inevitably,” adding that Burma’s political process must be inclusive to gain
“Thailand, as the Asean chair, expresses grave concern about recent developments
relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, given her fragile health. In this connection, the
Government of the Union of Myanmar is reminded that the Asean leaders had
called for the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Abhisit said.
But Asean alone should not be blamed for Burma’s failure, said the prime minister,
who himself was facing credibility problems at home after Thailand cancelled a
regional Asean summit due to political unrest. Even so, he said, “I think it would be
unfair to single out Asean. I think the whole international community puts in an
Burma, he replied, “We’re neighbors, and there is clearly an energy link, but having
said that, there is a lot of Western business presence in Myanmar [Burma]. Again,
we share a long common border and there’s a lot of border trade too, and the energy
that we buy from Myanmar is the same as we buy from our neighbors. And we have
to make sure that we ensure our people have enough energy and security. So I don’t
think it’s particularly surprising or special, and it wouldn’t in any way detract us
from the goal that we would like to see Myanmar succeeding in her political
transition.”
Thailand and two other Asean partners, Singapore and Malaysia, are major trading
partners of Burma. Thailand heavily depends on Burma’s gas, cheap migrant labor
and natural resources. Singapore is a haven for the regime leaders and family
Thailand’s more pragmatic, tougher support for Burma’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate
in power. The Suu Kyi trial would have received little attention from Thailand.
Instead, the generals would probably have received a tacit blessing from Thai
politicians and army leaders, many of whom have a history of cozy business ties
With Abhisit, Burma was forced to revert to its neighborhood bully role, engaging in
a war of words, telling Thailand in state-run newspapers to mind its own business
demonstrations in which different groups in red, yellow and blue made an attempt
But for the generals words alone were not enough, and actions followed.
Troops of the military regime and its ceasefire group, the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army, launched an unusual rainy season offensive with about 9,000
soldiers against the Karen rebel army and civilians in early June.
Armed clashes forced at least 4,000 Karen refugees to flee their villages and many
are still arriving in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border. The message was
Then Goh Chok Tong, Singapore’s senior minister, flew to Burma with a message.
In meetings with the top brass, Goh acknowledged that the Suu Kyi trial is a
Goh stressed that the 2010 elections must be inclusive and that the opposition NLD
party led by Suu Kyi must be part of the process of national reconciliation.
Goh is the first foreign leader to meet Than Shwe since the trial started, and he used
the occasion to deliver a political message to the top leaders in Naypyidaw, saying,
“I don’t believe any Singapore investors would come in a big way before the picture
Singapore is one of the biggest foreign investors in Burma, with annual bilateral
Burma did not blast Singapore. Instead Goh was given the red carpet treatment
during his four-day trip. Is there any meaning behind that? Maybe not, but many
Burmese analysts believe Goh’s message carried more weight than those from other
Asean nations.
Goh, Abhisit Vejajjiva and Asean leaders performed well on the Suu Kyi trial—
But it’s still doubtful Than Shwe will listen, knowing full well that Asean has its own
weaknesses.
The regime leaders remain defiant and shameless. After killing monks and peaceful
demonstrators in September 2007, the Burmese regime signed the new Asean
Article 1 on democracy, good governance and the rule of law and the promotion and
violation will render the Charter a travesty of regional community objectives and
The Suu Kyi trial and the imprisonment of the political opposition are just the tip of
the iceberg.
Than Shwe has his own grandiose dream of setting Burma on a new course. The
closer relations between Burma and North Korea are one example and a major
cause of concern.
Burma recently hosted an event marking the 45th anniversary of the date when
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il joined the central committee of the ruling
Htay Oo, the secretary-general of the junta’s mass organization, the Union
at the Burmese event, effusing: “One of the feats performed by Kim Jong Il in
leading the Party and revolution to a shining victory, shouldering upon himself the
destiny of the country and nation is that he has strengthened and developed the
“Songun” is North Korea’s “Military First” policy that grants the Korean People’s
Army a leading role in the affairs of state and allocates national resources to the
Burma’s shady military ties with North Korea and the persistent rumors of Burma’s
nuclear ambition, plus the building of tunnels in central Burma and Shan State,
COVER STORY
Confusion in the Court
While the case against Aung San Suu Kyi remains shrouded in
Swimming across Inya Lake with a backpack containing a camera, two sets of
Muslim women’s clothing and a veritable toolbox of other items was no doubt hard
going for the 54-year-old diabetic. But it was probably a cakewalk compared to the
task of trying to get to the bottom of the case against him and his famous co-
There are many hurdles to making sense of the trial against Suu Kyi, her two
personal assistants and her American intruder, not the least of which is the often
impenetrable prose of The New Light of Myanmar, the ruling junta’s main English-
language newspaper.
constitutional issues in a
theories.
Wading through the pages of The New Light of Myanmar for reliable information
is never a very rewarding experience, but in this case, the crudely written
proceedings at the special court in Insein Prison, where Suu Kyi, et al, are being
eight day of the trial, he is reported as telling the court that when he first visited Suu
Kyi’s home on November 30, 2008, “he walked along the bund [embankment] of
circumstances of his intrusion, since it suggests that, at least on the occasion of his
first attempt to make contact with Suu Kyi, he did not actually swim to her house,
But even more interesting is the fact that the newspaper did not report an
encounter between Yettaw and a policeman after he left Suu Kyi’s house last
November. According to a lawyer who was present when Yettaw was giving his
testimony, the American said he was stopped at gunpoint as he was leaving her
Nyan Win, one of the lawyers working for the defense, also told The Irrawaddy that
Yettaw said several policemen threw stones at him as he was entering Suu Kyi’s
residential compound for the second time on May 3—another fact that the state-run
The incompleteness of The New Light of Myanmar’s account will only serve to fuel
suspicions that the regime knew more about Yettaw’s activities than it is admitting,
and was complicit in allowing him access to her compound, just in time to extend
her detention.
Besides the confusion surrounding the actual events that led to the trial, another
baffling aspect of the whole affair is the legal basis on which the case against Suu
At one point, the sole defense witness, lawyer Kyi Win (not to be confused with Suu
Kyi’s defense counsel of the same name), suggested that the Law Safeguarding the
State from the Danger of Subversive Elements, which Suu Kyi has been charged
with violating, was invalid because it was part of Burma’s 1974 constitution, which
was nullified by the 1988 coup that installed the current regime in power.
This complication is not likely to deter the prosecution, however, since the State
Law and Order Restoration Council that seized power in 1988 reinstated the
draconian decree as Law No 11/91 on August 9, 1991, and even extended the
maximum sentence from three years to five (Suu Kyi has already served six years
To deflect some of the intense international criticism it has been facing for the
many irregularities of the case, the junta has launched a counteroffensive designed
misadventure as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi locked up, the junta’s foreign minister
came up with his own conspiracy theory. The whole episode was “timely trumped
The regime also tried to take the moral high ground by castigating Thailand for
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and cited a mildly worded press
statement on the case by the United Nations Security Council as “proof” that its
But China and Russia, the junta’s friends in the UN Security Council, could not
shield the generals from the scathing judgment of legal experts in the world body.
lawyers, one of five UN experts who spoke out on the case, said pointedly: “The trial
of Aung San Suu Kyi and her aides has been marred by flagrant violations of
Although the trial was adjourned pending a decision on whether to allow more
defense witnesses to appear in the court, the regime’s handling of the case leaves
As Mark Canning, the outgoing British ambassador to Burma—one of the few who
outcome in these sorts of trials—and don’t forget we’ve seen over 1,000 political
Yettaw shows how he made his way to Suu Kyi’s lakeside home.
(Photo: MNA)
ေျခာက္ႀကဳိးကေဝ ခ်စ္စမ္းေမာင္ႏွင့္
အင္တာဗ်ဴး
THURSDAY, 02 JULY 2009 15:42 ဧရာဝတီ
Iron Cross (IC) ၏ လိဒ္ဂစ္တာသမား ခ်စ္စမ္းေမာင္သည္ ကြယ္လြန္သူ ေတးေရး
ဂစ္တာသမား ေစာဘြဲ႕မႉး၏ တပည့္ တဦးျဖစ္ၿပီး IC ၏ လိဒ္ဂစ္တာသမား အျဖစ္ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း ၂၀
ေက်ာ္ တီးခတ္ခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္သည္။ အသက္ ၄ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ အရြယ္ ကတည္းက ဂစ္တာ စတီးခဲ့ၿပီး ယခု
အသက္ ၃၀ ေက်ာ္ထိ လိဒ္ဂစ္တာကိုသာ တစိုက္မတ္မတ္ တီးခတ္သူ ျဖစ္သည္။ တကိုယ္ေတာ္
လက္စြမ္းျပ ဆိုလိုစီးရီးအျဖစ္ ေျခာက္ႀကိဳးကေဝ အမည္ရွိ စီးရီးကို ထုတ္ေဝခဲ့ရာ ဂီတေလာက
တြင္ ေျပာစမွတ္တြင္သည့္ စီးရီးတေခြျဖစ္ခဲ့သည္။ ခ်စ္စမ္းေမာင္သည္ အိုင္စီရႈိးတိုင္းတြင္
ဂစ္တာဆိုလို တီးခတ္၍ ပရိသတ္အား ဖမ္းစားႏုိင္သူျဖစ္သည္။ ေရာ့ခ္ဝါသနာအိုး
ဂစ္တာရူးသြပ္သူ လူငယ္မ်ားက ဆရာခ်စ္ ဟု ေခၚတြင္ေသာ ခ်စ္စမ္းေမာင္ကို
ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမိဳ႕တြင္ ေတြ႕ဆံုခိုက္ ဧရာဝတီ မဂၢဇင္းက
ေတြ႕ဆံုေမးျမန္းခဲ့ ပါသည္။
(ဓာတ္ပံု - ဧရာဝတီ)
(ဓာတ္ပံု - ဧရာဝတီ)
ေျဖ။ ။ က်ေနာ့္အေနနဲ႔ကေတာ့
ေကာ္ပီဆိုတာက သူတို႔တီးတာကို
တူေအာင္ျပန္ တီးရတာ ဆိုေတာ့ လြယ္တာ
ရွိသလို လက္ေပါက္ကပ္တာမ်ိဳးလည္း
ရွိပါတယ္။ ေနာက္တခုက သူတို႔ရဲ႕ ကာလာကို
အနီးစပ္ဆံုး တူေအာင္ တီးရတာ ဆိုေတာ့
အရမ္းခ်ိန္ဆရပါတယ္။
ကိုယ္ပိုင္သံစဥ္ကေတာ့ ပိုလြတ္လပ္တာေပါ့ ..
ေကာ္ပီ ကေတာ့ ေဘာင္နဲ႔ ဆိုေတာ့ လုပ္ရတာ
သိပ္မလြတ္လပ္ဘူး။ ခုေနာက္ပိုင္းမွာေတာ့
ကိုယ္ပိုင္သံစဥ္ကိုပဲ ပိုၿပီး လုပ္ခ်င္မိတယ္။ ဒါေပမယ့္ ခု ကိုယ္ပိုင္သံစဥ္ လုပ္ႏုိင္တယ္
ဆိုတာကလည္း တခ်ိန္က ေကာ္ပီေခြေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး တီးခဲ့လို႔ ပညာရတာမ်ိဳးလည္း ပါတာေပါ့။
အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္
လံုၿခံဳေရးထူထပ္စြာခ်ထား
NEJ / ၃ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
အင္းစိန္ေထာင္အထူးတရား႐ုံးတြင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္၏အမႈကို
ယေန႔႐ုံးခ်ိန္းထုတ္သည့္အတြက္ ေထာင္ေရွ႕ႏွင့္ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္တဝိုက္ လံုၿခံဳေရးမ်ား
ထူထပ္စြာခ်ထားေၾကာင္း ကိုယ္တိုင္သြားေရာက္ခဲ့သူတဦးက ေျပာသည္။
Questions have been raised about what Ban believes he can achieve and about
the timing of his visit, which will start as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
widely condemned trial is expected to resume in Yangon.
The Nobel laureate is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest last
month by allowing an American intruder to stay at her home, which prosecutors say
breached a security law designed to protect the state from "subversive elements."
However, critics say the charges are trumped up and the trial is an attempt to keep
Suu Kyi out of multi-party elections next year, which are expected to entrench
nearly half a century of army rule.
There is very little hope of her release at this stage. Her participation in any political
process would be a major threat to the junta's grip on the country.
Analysts say a suspended sentence and a return to house arrest is the best Suu
Kyi can hope for. The generals might favor this outcome, hoping it might be seen as
lenient, while still keeping Suu Kyi out of the political picture.
But diplomats in New York say it would not be enough to call Ban's visit a success.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, mostly under house arrest
at her lakeside home in Yangon.
Ban wants the junta to release all political prisoners, Suu Kyi included, and make
meaningful democratic reforms.
The junta is usually impervious to international pressure, although Ban may believe
he has some sway with the generals, having convinced them to allow aid agencies
to operate in Myanmar after the devastating Cyclone Nargis last year.
Analysts say Ban may have been given some indication by the generals, or by U.N.
envoy Ibrahim Gambari after his trip last week, that his visit can bring some kind of
positive result.
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"There must be something worthwhile he can achieve but it won't be enough to
satisfy the international community," said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian
ambassador to Myanmar.
"He has to be seen to be tough and uncompromising when he meets the generals
and they will appear attentive. However, they're a hardline bunch and I'm not
optimistic they'll change."
The timing of Ban's visit -- just as Suu Kyi's trial resumes -- has baffled analysts
who follow Myanmar.
Diplomats in New York have said that the generals offered him the dates of July 3-4
and were probably not willing to negotiate. Ban would have preferred to push his
trip back so it did not coincide with the resumption of Suu Kyi's trial but was unable
to do so, the diplomats said.
Ban is midway through a five-year term as U.N. chief and the chances of the junta
making any concessions are slim. A fruitless visit at such a critical time would do
nothing to enhance the reputation of Ban, who has been fighting off accusations of
being too soft on the leaders of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Sudan.
"The visit could be auspicious if he sends an unequivocal signal that the U.N. and
the international community wants progress," said Amnesty International
researcher Benjamin Zawacki, a specialist on Myanmar.
"But if he doesn't do that and he lets the generals set the agenda, he'll have
achieved nothing."
Diplomats acknowledge the probability of failure is high. But members of the U.N.
Security Council are backing Ban's visit, some of them reluctantly. Given China's
reluctance to back U.N. sanctions, a visit of secretary-general is the only card they
have to play in Myanmar at the moment.
U.N. diplomats have said Ban was apprehensive about accepting the invitation
because he feared such a visit would be used as propaganda to legitimize the
Myanmar regime and Suu Kyi's trial.
Analysts say the normally reclusive regime will portray the visit as a seal of
international approval for its much-criticized "road map" to democracy.
"He's walking into a trap and anyone with any rational thinking can see that," said
one Southeast Asian academic, who asked not to be named.
"The generals will use the visit to show they are open, legitimate and important
enough for the U.N. secretary-general to give them a 'courtesy call'."
CONTRIBUTOR
Burma’s cloudy political atmosphere is turbulent with concern, doubt and hope
regarding the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visit to Burma on
Friday during the internationally-condemned trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s
icon of democracy and leader of the main opposition party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD).
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his colleagues appeared to have carefully timed the UN
Chief’s visit to coincide with the resumption of Suu Kyi’s trial, which had been
delayed one month. Burmese democratic forces inside and outside the country are
seriously worried that the junta will manipulate Ban’s trip to legitimize their acts
The UN Chief also seemed to have difficulty deciding whether to go to Burma in the
light of the continued failure by the UN to facilitate dialogue between the junta and
the NLD and help bring about genuine progress to restoring democratic governance
in the country.
After his first visit to Burma in 2008 to relax the junta’s tight control over the
cyclone Nargis, Ban said at press conference in October, that he might not be in a
achieved.
The UN has been demanding the junta release all political prisoners, including
Aung San Suu Kyi, and a genuine political dialogue towards national reconciliation
and the inclusion of all parties in the 2010 election. The junta has yet to meet these
demands.
situation over the past 20 years , the UN’s reputation in Burma has been
increasingly damaged.
Since 1992, the UN has been appointing a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on
Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Burma. In the early 2000s, the
UN took a step forward by appointing the Secretary General’s Special Envoy for
Burma to act as a mediator to help genuine political dialogue between the junta and
The UN has so far passed 38 resolutions urging the Burmese military leaders to
respect the 1990 election result and to restore democracy and human rights in the
country.
2007, the UN Security Council (UNSC) issued two presidency statements: the first
demanded the junta release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, and
the second demanded they create the necessary conditions for a genuine political
The UNSC recently issued a press statement and reiterated the council’s demands
when the junta brought Suu Kyi from house arrest to court, accusing her of
breaching the law in the bizarre incident of an American citizen’s intrusion to her
residence.
None of the UN resolutions has influenced the junta. The question must be asked
whether the UN Chief had seen any “tangible progress” before he decided to visit
the country? If he really wanted to see a result, it should have been the release of
Suu Kyi, who can play a key role in resolving the country’s political deadlock.
During his two-day visit, Ban is scheduled to meet the junta’s top general Snr-Gen
Than Shwe as well as leaders of ten political parties, including the NLD. One thing
is certain: if Ban fails to achieve any political progress as a result of this trip, his
"We await the secretary-general's report," Brown said in a statement from his
office. "I hope that there is still the possibility of a change of approach from
Burma.
"But if not, my sad conclusion is that the Burmese regime has put increased
isolation, including the possibility of further sanctions, on the international
agenda."
Brown's comments came after Myanmar's refusal to let Ban meet pro-
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a two-day visit. Ban described the
move "a setback for the international community."
Human rights groups had warned the visit would be seen as a failure unless he
managed to win her release.
Brown said Ban was "right to go to Burma. He gave powerful voice to the
UN's core mission -- our collective commitment to humanitarian relief,
democratic governance and human rights."
Brown had on Friday described Ban's visit as "a crucial moment for the
international community."
In an entry for the Huffington Post blog, the British prime minister had urged
Myanmar to mark Ban's arrival by halting Aung San Suu Kyi's trial -- on
charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest -- and setting her free.
The 64-year-old was transferred from her lakeside home to Yangon's notorious
Insein prison in May to face trial after an American man swam uninvited to the
property. She faces up to five years in jail if convicted.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest or in detention for 13 of the
last 19 years since the junta refused to recognise her National League for
Democracy's landslide victory in Myanmar's last elections, in 1990.
(CNN) -- United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was denied permission to see Myanmar
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reporters traveling with the secretary-
general said Saturday.
Ban told reporters about the denial after he met with Than Shwe, leader of
Myanmar's military junta.
Ban is in Myanmar at the invitation of the ruling military junta for talks that are
expected to include the detention of Suu Kyi, as well as the detention of other
political prisoners.
Officials in Myanmar delayed the resumption of the trial of Suu Kyi Friday. The
delay is the latest in a string of postponements and came as U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Asian nation for talks with government officials.
"The secretary-general believes that the sooner these issues are addressed, the
earlier Myanmar will be able to move towards peace, democracy and prosperity,"
Myanmar's government has said next year's scheduled elections will reintroduce
democracy in the country.
Myanmar's military regime has held Suu Kyi under house arrest for 13 of the past
19 years and rarely allows her visitors.
If convicted, Suu Kyi, 64, could face three to five years in prison. Her trial is being
held inside a prison compound near Yangon. The proceedings have repeatedly
adjourned while Suu Kyi's lawyers have challenged the court's rulings in the case.
Ban told CNN in May that he was in talks with Myanmar's leadership about
traveling to Yangon to seek Suu Kyi's release, as well as push for democratization.
"This is an unacceptable situation when she has been under detention for such a
long time," Ban said. "She's a Nobel peace laureate."
Suu Kyi has been barred for life from running for political office, but human rights
groups suspect that Myanmar's junta worries that her release would invigorate the
opposition.
Her National League for Democracy won more than 80 percent of the legislative
seats in 1990, but she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest,
and the military regime ignored the results.
It was during her house arrest that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Suu Kyi married a British man, who died in 1999, and they have two sons.
Myanmar's government now says citizens who have borne children with foreigners
cannot run for office.
Ban's visit to Myanmar is his first since May 2008. That followed Cyclone Nargis,
which killed an estimated 150,000 people.
Ki Moon's visit to Burma as a diplomatically risky mission that could end in failure.
After it ended, following two days in Burma and two rare and lengthy meetings with
the reclusive leader of the country's military government, Ban had come away with
nothing concrete to show for his venture. His requests to meet imprisoned Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi were rejected. His pleas for the government
to release its 2,000-plus political prisoners were ignored. "I believe the government
Burma, which the ruling junta has renamed Myanmar, hasn't seen anything
resembling openness for nearly five decades, having been ruled by military regimes
since 1962. Its generals have isolated the country, ground it into poverty and
2007, was led by Buddhist monks who were gunned down or arrested. The regime
says it will hold national elections in 2010, but many observers say they are
designed to cement military rule under a civilian guise. The democracy movement's
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been kept under house arrest for 13 of the past 18
years. The regime has now put her on what U.S. President Barack Obama has called
a "show trial" for violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man
broke into her home, claiming he had visions she would be assassinated. She faces a
neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have criticized the regime
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over the trial and Suu Kyi's never-ending imprisonment. (See pictures of foreign
investment in Burma.)
During his first meeting with Than Shwe, Ban asked for permission to see Suu Kyi.
Than Shwe refused. The UN's top diplomat said the success or failure of his mission
should not be judged solely on the benchmark of meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, though
he lamented that it would have been "an important symbol of the government's
credibility to the elections. Ban said his mission served the purpose of allowing him
to convey what the international community and the United Nations expects from
the regime, as far as progress towards democracy, directly to the country's leader
General Than Shwe. He said he did this "as strongly as possible, as hard as I could
press." He believes, he said, that Than Shwe will "seriously consider" his proposals
for making national elections scheduled for 2010 "credible, inclusive and
legitimate."
Democracy activists remain unconvinced. "The regime thumbed its nose at the
network of activist groups campaigning for democracy and human rights in Burma.
"It's time for the international community and the UN to take off the kid gloves. It's
repression and human rights violations as normal for Burma. The regime didn't fail
to take this opportunity, it refused to."
Ban's optimism going into last week's meeting probably sprung from his limited
success with Than Shwe during a previous meeting in 2008, convincing him to
allow outside humanitarian assistance into the country after Cyclone Nargis. But he
is far from the first diplomat to fail to persuade Burma's generals to entertain any
serious notion of real political reform. Going forward, Ban said he would brief the
UN on the visit, and the organization would monitor the regime's progress on his
proposals, which he did not outline in detail, save for saying election laws and an
election commission should be established, and that all political prisoners should
be released and all political parties be allowed to participate in the 2010 polls.
Stothard says the regime fears a Security Council inquiry into war crimes and
crimes against humanity. Burma has been engaged in a civil war with various ethnic
groups since 1948, although some have signed ceasefire agreements with the
government. The regime has been accused of torturing its political prisoners. But
China and Russia have opposed any Security Council action on Burma. China,
the regime's strongest backer in the international community. "It's time China
realized that having instability on its border with Burma is not in its best interests,"
Stothard said, adding that tensions were increasing between the military and ethnic
armies in Burma based near the China border. (Read "The Scramble for a Piece of
Burma.")
Russia's expanding trade with Burma includes an agreement to sell the poverty-
stricken nation a nuclear research reactor, and the regime has also been bolstering
ties with North Korea, receiving arms shipments from its sister Asian pariah state,
Ban stressed that he would remain focused on the situation, and said he expected
the government "to demonstrate real progress in the near future." Real progress,
however, hasn't been seen in Burma since 1962. And contempt for the UN is
General for ten years, from 1961-71. When he died in 1974 and his body was flown
back to Burma, leader Gen. Ne Win, the mentor of current ruler Gen. Than Shwe,
refused U Thant a state funeral, or any honors whatsoever.
Many Burmese are doing just that. The short-lived rally in Rangoon was
one of 20 or so protests that in recent weeks have erupted across Burma
— a rare display of civil disobedience by a people who have been ruled
for 45 years by one of the world's most reclusive, and repressive,
military regimes. The last time there were mass countrywide
demonstrations, in 1988, the military cracked down hard, killing
thousands of protesters and dashing hopes of democratic reform. Now
daily life in this nation of 53 million has become so desperate that an
impoverished populace may feel it has little choice but to take to the
streets again.
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The current rallies were triggered by the junta's Aug. 15 diktat to hike
fuel prices up fivefold, sending everything from food to transportation
costs soaring. Four days later, former student leaders from the '88 era
organized a series of rallies in Rangoon, which drew hundreds of
supporters. Even with most activists now locked up or on the run,
demonstrations have continued to break out like spores across the
nation. Buddhist monks have marched by the hundreds in several
cities, adding a stamp of spiritual authority to the protest movement.
University students have gathered, too, along with sidelined politicians
and even some farmers. Human-rights groups estimate that more than
100 people have been arrested so far, including three bystanders in the
western city of Sittwe whose alleged crime was to offer drinking water
to a procession of protesting monks. On Sept. 3, a march from the town
of Labutta drew hundreds of supporters before security forces broke up
the rally. "If the regime doesn't resolve the underlying economic
problems — and I don't think it can quickly — then things are not going
to quiet down," says Khin Ohmar, an '88 student leader who lives in
exile in Thailand. "We've all been waiting for the point when normal
people overcome their fear of the regime and rise up; this could be that
moment."
the military quickly sent bullets into the crowds. By 1990, elections won
by future Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) had been ignored by the junta. Burma slunk back
into isolation.
support is very important for the people back in Burma, who are risking
their lives to fight the regime."
even a meal every day might become a luxury," says housekeeper May
Oo, who now spends 60% of her salary on her daily commute into
Rangoon. Even upper-middle-class families are cutting back. Say Phaw
Waa, a law student and daughter of a publishing-company executive, is
considering joining a distance-learning program so her family won't
have to shell out her bus fare to the university.
The hardships are made more painful by a widening wealth gap. The
country's military leaders are leading ever more ostentatious lives, their
wallets fattened by gas-pipeline deals with neighbors China, Thailand
and India. The ruling class cruises around in luxury cars and cloisters
itself in compounds ablaze with lights, even as most Burmese face
constant electricity rationing. A samizdat video circulating in Rangoon
shows junta chief Than Shwe's daughter, decked out in jewels, getting
married in a lavish ceremony — this in a country where the average
annual per capita income is just $225. Even more galling, the junta
turned a thicket of jungle into a brand new administrative capital in late
2005, a project that doubtless cost hundreds of millions of dollars to
build. Today, Naypyidaw is an eerie landscape of broad, empty streets
framed by behemoth government ministries. "It's a complete waste of
money," says a senior journalist in Rangoon who asked not to be named
for fear of being arrested. "The same money could have been used to
meet the needs of the poor population."
Public support is paramount for protest leaders who are now on the
run. "The wave of sympathy is in our favor," says one activist who has
so far escaped the police dragnet. "You knock on a door late at night
and whisper, 'Let me in, brother.' People willingly help us, even though
they're well aware of the dire consequences." Still, the regime is doing
its best to prevent further unrest and capture any stray dissidents.
Trucks full of hired thugs patrol major street corners in Rangoon. The
U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio
Pinheiro, says he has received reports that some of the arrested activists
are being tortured. Buses to Thailand, where many dissidents fled back
in '88, are being searched for activists on the run.
Burmese to bang on pots, pans and other metal objects at 7:02 p.m.,
8:01 p.m. and 9 p.m. — all auspicious times that add up to the number
nine so beloved by Burma's military brass. Organizers hope the cover of
night will embolden more people to join the astrologically inspired
noise campaign. Burma's long-suffering citizens can only hope the stars
will finally align in their favor
Not until last Sunday did Ban Ki-moon finally decide to accept this
Mission Impossible, visiting Burma just as Ms Suu Kyi's trial was
scheduled to resume.
France was lukewarm. Britain, the most gung-ho of the major powers at
the UN on this topic, suggested Mr Ban see if he could visit later in July.
Russia and China were supportive of the visit so the UN Security Council,
unhelpfully but typically, was split.
Elusive 'deliverables'
Mr Ban met Than Shwe for nearly two hours on Friday, in the pristine
new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, where they discussed political prisoners and
the trial of Ms Suu Kyi.
The ostensible reason was that she was on trial for failing to observe her
house arrest.
Even before Mr Ban had left Burma, his visit was being criticised.
The generals have assured him they will conduct free, fair and
transparent elections next year.
These will be the first elections for 20 years, since Ms Suu Kyi's party
won and the generals annulled the result.
The generals' roadmap to what they call disciplined democracy has been
widely criticised for underscoring their grip on power.
A quarter of the seats in the new parliament building which I saw under
construction in the capital will go to the army.
Than Shwe did tell Mr Ban that when he came next, the generals would
be ordinary citizens, because the handover of power to a civilian
government would have taken place.
Some analysts say Than Shwe is genuinely thinking about the succession
and how to hand over power, and Mr Ban could be the person to help
bring Than Shwe and Ms Suu Kyi together.
Senior UN officials say the secretary general did speak truth to power,
both when he met Than Shwe and when he delivered a speech in
Rangoon's drug elimination museum in public.
He laid it on the line, said one source, and told them what is required of
them for international respectability.
Western diplomats say Mr Ban has kept the spotlight on the situation in
Burma and this is a process which has some way to go.
Mr Ban was told of the refusal when he held a second round of talks with
military leader Gen Than Shwe.
Ms Suu Kyi's trial on charges of breaking the terms of her house arrest
was postponed again on Friday.
Mr Ban said Than Shwe had told him during their 30-minute meeting, in
the remote administrative capital Nay Pyi Taw, that Ms Suu Kyi was on
trial and he did not want to interfere with the judicial process.
A LIFE IN DETENTION
1988: Junta comes to power after crushing pro-democracy uprising
1989: Martial law declared; opposition NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi
put under house arrest
1990: NLD wins elections; result rejected by the ruling junta
1995: Suu Kyi freed from house arrest; movements restricted
Sept 2000: Under house arrest for trying to defy travel curbs
May 2002: Released unconditionally
May 2003: Detained after clash between NLD and junta forces
Sep 2003: Home after surgery, under effective house arrest
Mr Ban said he had been assured that elections planned for 2010 would
be "held in a fair, free and transparent manner".
The UN chief is due to make a speech outlining his vision for Burma later
on Saturday.
Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate, has spent much of the past two
decades in prison or under house arrest.
Opposition activists say Ms Suu Kyi's trial is designed to keep her out of
the way until after the elections.
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>>
Ban was speaking at a press briefing late Saturday during his stopover at
Suvarnabhumi Airport in the Thai capital of Bangkok after concluding a two-
day official visit to Myanmar.
During his stay in Myanmar's new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, Ban had two
meetings with Than Shwe, who is chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council, on Friday and Saturday.
Ban said the meetings covered a broad range of issues including Myanmar's
forthcoming general election in 2010 and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,
leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).
Ban said Than Shwe told him that Myanmar would continue to follow its
seven-step roadmap, released in August 2003, to national reconciliation and
democracy.
Ban said it was a difficult job for him to convince the Myanmar government
to release Aung San Suu Kyi.
Prior to the news briefing, Ban met with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit to
brief him on his trip to Myanmar and they talked about the upcoming ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meetings due to occur in October in
the southern Thai resort of Phuket.
The trip was the second the UN chief paid to Myanmar. Ban first visited the
country in May last year to see first-handed the devastation left by cyclone
Nargis.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ban-un4-2009jul04,0,2458293.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Q&A
July 4, 2009
But regional powers China and India argued that engagement was more likely
to soften the regime's hard line against political opposition.
Ban did not get the meeting with Suu Kyi on Friday, though he emerged from
two hours of talks with Senior Gen. Than Shwe saying he had urged the
regime to "accelerate the process of democratization."
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Before he left on his trip, Ban sat down in his United Nations office to discuss
Myanmar, Iran and growing criticism that his soft-spoken style has diminished
the secretary-general's moral clout.
You've focused on issues such as hunger and climate change, but one of
the criticisms about your time as secretary-general is that the U.N. has
been marginalized on security issues.
The U.N. has been cooperating with key players and regional organizations.
The perception you raise is because in the past the U.N. was the only universal
body. Now you have the emergence of many regional entities: the European
Union, the African Union. Look at the case of many African conflicts. The
African Union wants to take leadership, with strong [U.N.] material support,
financial support and political support. Even in Darfur, we have a joint
partnership. To people who have not been closely following, the United
Nations has been marginalized. But that is simply not true.
That's an argument for efficiency. But what people miss is the moral voice
they used to hear from the secretary-general.
It is not only the United Nations that can raise a moral voice. But when it
comes to universally accepted principles, the United Nations has been very
vocal. When there are civilian casualties, crimes which should be condemned
in the name of humanity, sexual violence against women, I have been more
vocal than any world leaders. And I was swift in going to Myanmar. I was the
first, and as of now the only one, who has gone into Myanmar and talked to
Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
In order to meet the generals, do you have to trade off the moral elements
of the job?
No, no. I have spoken on the basis of my moral duty. I will clearly tell them
that they must fully understand the expectations of the international
community. The whole international community wants to see Myanmar
promote the protection of human rights; release political prisoners, including
Aung San Suu Kyi; treat Aung San Suu Kyi as a partner for national
reconciliation. She can play an important role.
That is why I have been working very hard to try to open up this dialogue
channel. I was the one to pry open this door last year, and the United Nations
was able to save at least half a million people [after] Cyclone Nargis.
Do you think that some of the criticism you get is because there's a
Western perception of how diplomacy should be conducted, and that
Asian approaches to diplomacy are different?
There is a clearly Asian culture and a clearly Western culture. Both should be
mutually respected and mutually complemented. Most people regard my style
as low-key, soft-spoken. But this so-called quiet diplomacy is just one part of
my diplomatic style.
Sometimes when you deal with a certain leader who has been quite closed, it is
much more effective when you engage one-on-one. For them, they regard their
face, or authority, as No. 1. They don't want to be lectured in front of many of
their senior advisors. My experience tells me if I raise sensitive issues in
public, then their reaction [will be] very official, very emotional and hard-line.
It doesn't help the purpose of our meeting.
But if we meet [in private], we can really open up our hearts and I can really
advise these leaders, very sincerely, in a direct way, a very vocal way
sometimes. Sometimes it is very heated. In many cases, like in a meeting with
President [Omar Hassan Ahmed] Bashir of Sudan, [Zimbabwean] President
[Robert] Mugabe, or even with [Iranian] President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad,
I've been engaged in quite direct, straightforward talks, without much
diplomatic courtesy.
It's up to the member states who should represent their country. If he comes as
president of Iran, I'm ready to meet with him again and discuss all matters. I
expressed my dismay at the excessive use of force against civilians for
expressing their feelings peacefully. They were all stopped, arrested and
beaten, some people were killed -- that was totally unacceptable. Freedom of
expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of information -- those are basic
principles of a democracy. The genuine will of the Iranian people must be
protected and respected.
Do you think the genuine will of the Iranian people was reflected in that
election?
That's what we have to watch. I've been watching very carefully, closely, all of
what's happening in Iran.
Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 years in detention since her party
won the last elections in 1990, faces prison for allegedly
violating a house arrest order. Pro-democracy campaigners
say the potential five-year jailing is designed to prevent the
64- year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner from contesting polls
promised by the ruling generals in 2010.
Suu Kyi was transferred to prison last month to face trial, with
prosecutors alleging she allowed an American intruder to stay
for two days after he swam to her lakeside home in Yangon.
‘Strongest’ Terms
ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရအေနျဖင့္
ႏိုင္ငံေရးအခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ား ဆုံး႐ံႈးဟု
ကုလသမဂၢအႀကီးအကဲ ဘန္ကီမြန္း ေျပာၾကား
NEJ / ၆ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ ပြင့္လင္းမႈရိွေၾကာင္း ျပသႏိုင္သည့္ အခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ားကို ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ အေနျဖင့္
လက္လြတ္ဆုံး႐ႈံးခဲ့ရသည္ဟု ကုလသမဂၢအတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ ဘန္ကီမြန္းက
ေျပာၾကားလိုက္သည္။
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္ ေတြ႔ခြင့္မေပးႏုိင္ေၾကာင္း
ႀကဳိတင္အသိေပးထားဟု နအဖသတင္းစာတြင္ေဖာ္ျပ
NEJ / ၆ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉
ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ႏွင့္
ကုလအတြင္းေရးမႉးခ်ဳပ္ ေတြ႔ခြင့္မရ
ေတြ႔ခြင့္ေပးရန္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစုိးရ ျငင္းဆို
ဖိအားေပါင္းစံုအၾကားမွာ နအဖအစိုးရဟာလည္း
ဆူးၾကား ဘူးသီးသလို ျဖစ္ေနတယ္
ရဲေဘာ္ဖိုးသံေခ်ာင္း
၆ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉ http://www.khitpyaing.org/articles/july09/060709.php
HISTORY
The name of this country was changed from Siam to Thailand during the
tenure of the first Phibulsongkhram government (1938-44). During this period,
which coincided with World War Two, the country was dominated by an
energetic and aggressive brand of nationalism which influenced both domestic
and foreign policies.
In this photograph of the Grand Palace taken during the reign of King Rama
VI, the flag of Siam (white elephant on red cloth) can be seen.
Phibul was supported by men like Luang Wichit Wathakarn (who was
instrumental in bringing in the name change), Luang Promyothi (who
commanded the Thai army which invaded French Indochina in 1940), Luang
Saranupraphan (who composed the nationalistic lyrics for the national anthem
which is still in use) and Sang Phatthanothai (who was responsible for a
nationalist radio talk show called Nai Mun lae Nai Khong).
Phibul and his clique have since been regarded by many as a military
dictatorship and have been linked with the Nazi and fascist movements.
During this period Thailand moved into areas in mainland Southeast Asia
which had previously been divided up between the French and British empires.
In the early 1940s Thailand wrested the Cambodian provinces of Siem Riep,
Battambang and Champasak from French Indochina, occupied part of the Shan
The perception that Phibul had fascist sympathies also derives partly from the
fact that he signed a cooperation pact with the Japanese and declared war on
the United States and Great Britain.
On June 24, 1939, in a swift and dramatic political move, Maj Gen Luang
Phibulsongkhram, aged 42, who had been appointed prime minister only six
months before, declared that the name of the country was to change from Siam
(Prathet Syam) to Thailand (Prathet Thai). The premier announced that: "The
use of the name of the country has been both Thai and Siam, whereas, since
the Thai people are inclined to call the country Thai, the government therefore
deems it to be a ratthaniyom [cultural mandate of the state] that the name of
the country should be in accordance with the name of race and the niyom
[inclination] of the Thai people."
The Museum of Siam, near Pak Klong Talad flower market, offers the viewer
ample materials from the days of 1932.
On the same day the government announced that June 24, the date of the coup
in 1932 which ended absolute monarchy, would henceforth be Wan Chart
(National Day). It was the first time that a public holiday was not related to
religious or dynastic celebrations. A foundation stone was also laid on
Ratchadamnoen Avenue for the highly symbolic Democracy Monument.
Up to this point the government had been rather keen in soliciting support
from, and the participation of, the general public, especially educated people
living in Bangkok and surrounding urban areas. The name change was
discussed and approved by the Cabinet sometime in late May 1939.
In early June, the Ministry of Defence launched an effort to sound out public
opinion on the issue with Phibul putting forward five kham chakchuan
(persuasive words/arguments) in support of the move. They were:
The name "Siam" does not accord with the name of the race which is "Thai".
Siam was a province of the Khom (Khmer) who once ruled the Thai nation and
when Phra Ruang gained freedom, the name "Siam" was dropped.
The word "Siam" is used in the written not the spoken language.
The Thai nation is great and it is only appropriate to give our country a name
which accords with the prestige of the Thai race.
What prompted the decision to rename the country in the first place? And why
has the name Thailand persisted to the present day?
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Western approach to the study of
antiquity had become fashionable among the Thai elite. Their contacts with
and frequent visits to Western colonies in Southeast Asia plus their first-hand
knowledge of European civilisations put them in touch with learned
gentlemen's clubs like the Royal Asiatic Society and l'Ecole Francaise
d'Extreme Orient as well as various museums, libraries and academic journals.
Similar institutions were also set up in the country during this period: the Siam
Society in 1904; Bangkok Library (Hor Samut Samrab Phra Nakhon) in 1905;
and the Royal Research Society (Samakhom Suebsuan Khong Boran Nai
Prathet Sayam) in 1907 - its name was later changed to Borankhadi Samosorn.
These were mechanisms to search for and learn about anything Thai in the
construction of official nationalism. Such studies of antiquity seemed to have
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had a most profound political and psychological impact on the Thai elite as
well as on the lower echelon of the educated urban population.
Here we see the history of the Thai nation as a long march from China into the
"golden land" of the present. On this long march to freedom, Thais established
centres of population in central China (the kingdoms of Mung, Lung, Pa, Ai-
lao, etc), then in Nan Chao in the southwestern province of Yunnan and, after
Nan Chao was destroyed by Kublai Khan, in Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and then
Thonburi/Bangkok.
Here also we see a proliferation of articles and books on Thailand's racial past.
Probably the three most influential books written in this historiographical vein
were Lak Thai (Thai Pillars) by Sanga Kanchanakkhaphan (better known as
Khun Wichitmatra); Prawatisat Sakon (Universal History) by Luang Wichit
Wathakarn; and Reuang Khong Chart Thai (The Story of the Thai Nation) by
Phraya Anuman.
As for the voluminous Prawatisat Sakon, this is more like what we might today
call "world history"; that is, it focuses on major civilisations, West and East. It
is interesting that its author, Luang Wichit, the most influential nationalist
ideologue of his day, managed to "prove" that the Thai race was one of the
greatest in the world.
In addition to books by members of the upper and middle classes, we again see
work written by Westerners during this period not only initiating the linear
racial idea but also helping to perpetuate and consolidate it to a certain degree.
Of all the Western writings from this time, William C Dodd's The Tai Race -
Elder Brothers of the Chinese (1923) was probably the most influential work
published since Parker's Nan Chao, the Thais and Kublai Khan.
Dr Dodd was an American missionary who lived and worked in Chiang Rai
for more than 30 years. Between 1886 and 1918, he travelled widely, mostly
on horseback, to the Shan States, Yunnan and southeastern China. In various
accounts (later complied, edited and published in book form by his wife) he
described meetings with all kinds of Tai-speaking people (notice the
distinction between Tai and Thai), literate and illiterate, Buddhist and animist.
Dr Dodd's first-hand field experiences made the linear racial idea exceptionally
real and convincing to Thais. Needless to say, the idea eventually made its way
into the highly centralised Ministry of Education, influenced the absolute
monarchy and post-absolute (constitutional) monarchy, and was finally and
firmly included in all school textbooks. Thai students learned to memorise the
strange-sounding names of Nan Chao kings, monarchs of whom their
ancestors during the Ayutthaya and early Bangkok periods had probably never
even heard.
Initially, ideas about race, original homeland and successive kingdoms were
probably worked out in a fairly "unconscious" manner. But slowly the
emphasis shifted away from palaces and kings. And by this stage, Thais,
especially those who had had a modern education, thought of themselves as
Thai, as living within the borders of territory called Muang Thai - the country
of the Thai.
Here, again, we can see that a new society with a more horizontal rather than
hierarchical structure was taking shape. Although race is a very general,
Seventy years have passed since the country's name change (in 1939) and
many things have happened during the intervening period. With the end of
World War Two in August 1945, Phibul (prime minister from December 1938
to August 1944) and some of his leading supporters were charged with war
crimes. They were subsequently acquitted.
During this brief, post-war period (1945-48), the name "Siam" was
reintroduced. It was used, however, only in English and other foreign
languages, while in Thai, "Prathet Thai" or "Thailand" persisted. Liberal and
royalist prime ministers like Khuang Aphaiwong (1944), Thawee Bunyaket
(1945) and Pridi Banomyong (1946) did not attempt to change the Thai name
for the Kingdom back to Siam. As mentioned earlier, Pridi's version of the
1946 charter, which he himself counter-signed, was entitled "Constitution of
the Thai Kingdom" (Ratchanachak Thai); no mention was made in the
document to "Sayam" or "Siam."
In 1948, Phibul staged a comeback and became prime minister for another
nine years. The Thai-language name for the country continued to be "Prathet
Thai;" in English "Thailand" again supplanted "Siam." During the drafting of
the conservative/royalist Constitution of 1949, the Siam/Thailand question was
debated and a vote called.
Those in favour of "Thailand" won a narrow victory and the name was in use
throughout the Cold War period. In 1957 Phibul was overthrown by a military
coup group led by his own defence minister, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat. For
almost two years the country was ruled by caretaker premiers (Pote Sarasin
and Thanom Kittikachorn) until Sarit took the reins of power himself in
February 1959. Thus began the long dictatorial military regime of Sarit-
Thanom (in 1963 Thanom Kittikachorn succeeded Sarit as prime minister; he
remained in power until 1973) and the long process of drafting a new
military/bureaucratic-inspired constitution (1958-68).
One would have thought that such an overwhelming vote in favour of Thailand
would have been enough to lay Siam to rest forever. But the 1960s saw
another attempt to bring back Siam as the name of the country. The lead was
taken by a group of intellectuals headed by Sulak Sivaraksa, editor of the
respected journal Sangkhomsat Parithat, and a few other academics.
Their efforts came to nothing despite a partial resurgence during that decade of
the influence of the monarchy. The present King, Rama IX, has since managed
to restore the power and prestige of the monarchy to an unprecedented extent.
But it is obvious that His Majesty is King of Thailand, not of Siam.
In the latter part of the 1980s, when Thailand's bubble economy was at its
peak, Carabao, a popular young folk-rock band, released what is still one of
their best-known hit songs, Made in Thailand.
And one wonders whether Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva could spare one
second for the thought of Siam or Thailand in the middle of this mess of
yellow and red politics?
SOUL SEARCHING
A taboo has been broken
The Jewish lobby and its policies are gradually being subjected to
the process of accountability
By: Imtiaz Muqbil
Published: 21/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/18865/a-taboo-has-been-
broken
Aviation industry conferences are not events where one expects to hear
political statements, so it was a pleasant surprise, nay, shock, to hear former
Singapore prime minister and now Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew talk about,
in a meeting of airline leaders in Kuala Lumpur, the role of the US Jewish
lobby in the continuing problems faced in the Middle East.
Mr Lee was only saying what the world already knows and what many Middle
East commentators have long warned of: Pro-Israeli lobby groups like the
innocuously-named American-Israel Public Affairs Committee have a major
influence in the inner sanctums of decision-making in the US government and
perpetuating the imbalance that triggers much of the violence.
The fact that leaders like Mr Lee are saying publicly what they would not say
when in office is a bit of a curiosity. Had former Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohammed made the same comment, there would have been hell to
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pay. But there was no international media there, except some aviation
correspondents, and the local media missed the comment entirely.
Mr Lee was at the 65th annual general meeting of the International Air
Transport Association, at which he was conferred an award in recognition of
his role in the development of Singapore Airlines and Singapore's Changi
airport. To accompany the accolade, he was interviewed on his life and times
by the BBC's Nik Gowing.
After some discussion of Mr Lee's life and times in the aviation world, Gowing
veered towards world affairs. Naturally, the Middle East situation came up. As
US President Barack Obama had just made his speech to the Muslim world,
Mr Lee was asked what he thought of it.
''Words do not a change of policy make,'' Mr Lee replied, noting that settling
the Middle East impasse was critical to the future of America's relations with
the Islamic world. He indicated that pressure would need to be brought on
Israel to stop its settlement building on the West Bank, which the US is well
placed to do. ''If the funds are cut, despite the very strong Jewish lobby in the
US, then he
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will have to think again,'' Mr Lee
said.
Caught off guard, Gowing tried to cut him off, but Mr Lee went on: ''If you
solve the Middle East problem, you will solve many other problems. You will
solve the violence in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and many other places. Terrorism
will go down. And we will all breathe easier. I put the Middle East very high
on the agenda.''
Aside from underscoring the veracity of what this column has been advocating
for years, the fleeting but highly significant comment only goes to show that
leaders are coming to the end of their tether with Israeli intransigence, and the
monumental waste of human life, time, effort and money in the perpetuation of
one of the world's most intractable problems.
Indeed, the comment sends a clear message that the role of Jewish lobby and
its obstructionist role should be subjected to the same processes of
accountability as Islamic terrorism.
Even the most casual observer of the Middle East knows well the three com
ponents of the Jewish lobby's strategy. In the United States, it is to infiltrate
and influence the political process by flexing the financial muscle which helps
those politicians get elected. In Europe, it is to constantly harp on the
Holocaust and keep Europeans in a permanent state of guilt. In the rest of the
world, it is to market the ''shared values'' ploy by positioning Israel as some
As global leaders become increasingly outspoken about the root causes of the
Middle East problems, Jewish lobby groups need to be aware of three things.
First, they now have a major fight on their hands. The chorus of opposition to
the Israeli occupation will soon match what is being seen in the streets of
Teheran against the Iranian clerics. The Israelis' stalling tactics will not hold
off the pressure indefinitely. Last week, the Arab-American Anti-
Discrimination Committee, based in Washington, DC, held its annual meeting
and came away invigorated and energised to take on the Jewish lobby.
Second, the more global leaders begin to pinpoint the role of the Jewish lobby,
the more scrutiny it can expect of its inner workings, especially funding. The
world will then discover that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is funded
primarily by Jewish groups and Jewish-owned companies abroad, similar to
the funding of Tamil Tiger terrorism by its diaspora living in Europe, North
American and Australia.
Earlier this past week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,
called for an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. According to a UN press
release, she told the Geneva-based council: ''Gazans' rights continue to be
severely undermined or violated. These crippling conditions must be eased.
Ultimately, the blockade and other restrictions that violate human rights must
be lifted.''
So, let's get this right. The children and grandchildren of the victims of the
Holocaust are part and parcel of an occupation that sees people being ''treated
more like animals''. So much for the lessons of the Holocaust. Shame, shame.
As I have written in the past, the intellectual weakness, impotence and lack of
courage and self-respect amongst the leaders of the Arab/Islamic world bears
much responsibility. And there was clear evidence of that, too.
He was then asked if the United States should cut off aid to Israel if it doesn't
comply. Reply: ''Why not? If you give aid to someone and they
indiscriminately occupy other people's lands, you bear some responsibility.''
Finally, he was asked obliquely what should be done if the Israelis don't
budge. Reply: ''What can we do more than that? The land that is occupied is in
the hands of Israel. We don't have anything to offer Israel except
normalisation, and if we put that before the return of Arab land we are giving
away the only chip in the hands of Arab countries.
''What can we do more than that?'' Try highlighting the role of the Jewish
lobby, Your Highness.
Opinion » Opinion
BURMA'S CONDUCT
By subjecting Mrs Suu Kyi to yet another dubious criminal trial, Burma's
junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has shown
yet again that its regime maintenance remains paramount in complete
disregard for international norms and regional rules.
The SPDC's latest charge against Mrs Suu Kyi smells typically fishy.
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A lone intruder named John Yettaw swam a long distance to enter her
lakefront residence uninvited while she was still under house arrest. Whatever
was behind his motives and her willingness to allow his entry, the ultimate
accountability for the intrusion should have rested on the authorities who
supervised her house arrest.
That Mrs Suu Kyi has been put on trial in a prison compound for this murky
misadventure to face another long period of incarceration defies common
sense.
That her previous long spell under house arrest was due to expire around the
same time raises widespread suspicions of the junta's fabricated pretext to keep
her locked up indefinitely.
As elections loom next year after a two-decade hiatus, the SPDC's latest
gambit to prevent Mrs Suu Kyi from playing a role as leader of the opposition
National League for Democracy is all the more appalling.
Yet the SPDC under the leadership of Senior General Than Shwe has hardly
sprung surprises over the years. It has repeatedly jailed thousands of political
opponents, occasionally shot and killed an untold number of civilians who
included Buddhist monks, presided over the impoverishment and systematic
oppression of its own citizens, and privately pocketed the gains from Burma's
extractive industries under its control.
The SPDC remains adept at playing off the major powers from near and far,
and exploiting its place in Asean for maximum international legitimacy.
While not much has changed in the pariah state for nearly two decades since
pro-democracy street protests led to elections won overwhelmingly by Mrs
Suu Kyi's NLD in 1990, what is new is Burma's place in Asean's ostensible
regional community as enshrined in the just-implemented Asean Charter.
Failure to redress this violation will render the Charter a travesty of regional
community objectives and dilute Asean's relevance on the broader
international stage.
As far as the Asean Charter is concerned, the current round of Burma's crisis
represents the first major blow to Asean's vaunted objectives of forging an
integrated community by 2015 based on the three pillars of political-security,
economic and socio-cultural. This lofty objective was already set for revision
and postponement due to recent setbacks to the Asean-related summits.
Now with Mrs Suu Kyi's seemingly imminent detention for another three to
five years, the Asean Charter is in shambles.
Beyond Asean, the geopolitical equation that surrounds Burma may benefit
from newly emerging dynamics. Fresh from a successful election that returned
the incumbent Congress Party-led government to office, India may be in a
position to transcend its short-term interests in favour of showcasing its solid
democratic credentials.
China came out early to insist that Mrs Suu Kyi's scandalous trial is for the
Burmese people to decide, but it also may be more amendable to international
pleas to apply pressure on the SPDC, an international role commensurate with
Beijing's global leadership aspirations.
Yet the ultimate change will have to come from inside Burma, and probably
post-Than Shwe. Here, unlike geopolitical alignments and international
pressure, continued engagement in small ways with civil society elements
inside Burma, partaken by Burmese in the diaspora, is still the way ahead.
Through sheer resilience and personification of the aspirations of her people,
Mrs Suu Kyi has said time and again that a power-sharing arrangement with
the junta through dialogue is always on the table. This option, which could be
worked out through the elections next year, remains the best potential outcome
for a workable transition from military to popular rule.
But it requires Mrs Suu Kyi to be released in order to play a role. Otherwise
the election results will be illegitimate. The ball is in the SPDC's court.
Opinion » Opinion
BURMA
Burma's democracy (or lack of it) and the fate of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi inevitably will hijack other regional issues such as the type A (H1N1)
flu pandemic, the financial crisis and climate change at the 9th Asia-Europe
Ministerial Meeting in Hanoi and the 17th Asean-EU ministerial meeting in
Phnom Penh this week.
There is no better time for the European Union and its partners in this part of
the world to cooperate on the life and death matter of the Nobel Peace Prize
laureate and the future of the country that has caused headaches for the Asean
club to which it has been a member since 1997. But what will come out of the
two forums remain _ again_ doubtful in respect of bringing about abrupt
change in Burma. One reason is that the international community remains
divided over how to deal with a country ruled for 47 years by the military. The
United States has renewed sanctions against Burma in light of the trial of Ms
Suu Kyi but details of the Obama administration's policy towards the country
have yet to be wheeled out by the State Department.
The same is true for the EU, which has also been indecisive on whether to get
tougher on sanctions, or be more selective on visa bans and engaging with the
junta through other ''carrot'' measures. Whatever the case, the Burma issue will
definitely dominate throughout this year as global players, namely the US and
the EU, will be hopping around the region over the next six months for the
Asean Regional Forum in Bangkok (July) and the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation meeting in Singapore (November). At the same time, the Burmese
junta is likely to remain defiant and not listen to what other people say about
their ''internal affairs''. Despite the predictable stance, observers still believe
there are noble obligations that Thailand as chair of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations should and could undertake after settling hiccups in
the past week and coming up with a more credible appeal for the unconditional
release of Ms Suu Kyi.
''What will Asean do if the Burmese government rejects its call? Some sort of
punitive measures must be in place as talking about Burma this year and in the
future will never be the same as in the past. We are now operating under the
same obligations within the Asean Charter rules,'' Mr Sunai said.
Win Min, a Burmese scholar teaching at Chiang Mai University, said the EU
and Asean have no other choice but to work together to push China, either nice
and quietly or through megaphone measures, to pressure Burma on the release
of Ms Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
After Thailand, as the Asean chair, issued the call for ''peace, reconciliation,
and democracy in Myanmar including the release of all political detainees'',
China told the press that ''we hope relevant parties in Myanmar could realise
reconciliation, stability and development through dialogue''.
This might not be in the manner we would hope for, but that was Beijing's way
of talking, said Mr Win Min. Beijing has been working in private on several
issues arising from international pressure upon them over the Burma issue, the
Burmese professor noted. In October 2004, the ousted premier Khin Nyunt
was only put under house arrest despite the court imposing a 40-year sentence
on him for corruption and abuse of power. Mr Win Min said the soft punitive
measure against the reformist Khin Nyunt was a result of Chinese intervention.
''Certainly, Ms Suu Kyi will be given a jail term. But with Chinese helping
hands, she might be put under house arrest with more stringent security details.
But it's better than being put in the notorious Insein prison.''
Although some have their doubts, the lecturer is certain international pressure
somehow works in terms of preventing the situation from worsening for the
democracy icon. Meanwhile five of the world's leading jurists, in a new report
for the Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, have called
for the UN Security Council to act on more than 15 years of condemnation
from other UN bodies on human rights abuses in Burma.
Mr Win Min said the report might not sway China and Russia to do anything
at the UNSC but since the renowned university has gone to such lengths on the
issue it would have some impact internationally.
Another Burmese analyst did not share Mr Win Min's optimism, however.
Aung Naing Oo said such an inquiry would be a lengthy process as there
would be no shortage of witnesses.
''But this is not new. There have also been extensive documentations regarding
abuses by the Burmese military junta over the past decades. But there is no
hope either China or Russia will support such a move,'' he said.
China has repeatedly stated that what has happened in Burma is entirely an
internal affair and that the situation there does not warrant UNSC action
because it does not threaten international peace.
''No matter what the EU, US or UNSC may say about Burma and its generals,''
said the Burmese expert, ''geo-political conditions favour the SPDC
[State Peace and Development Council _ the official name of the junta]
ultimately so I do not think anything meaningful will come out of the UNSC.''
But talk about war crimes by a reputable university like Harvard and the
negative publicity the latest fiasco has garnered will certainly cause some
nervousness for General Than Shwe, Mr Aung Naing Oo believes.
The ball is now in the EU's and Asean's court. Both have an audience at home
to respond to on the plight of the Burmese political prisoners, especially Ms
Suu Kyi.
The 27-nation EU, which outlaws weapons sales to Burma, curbs financing for
its state-run companies and won't allow junta leaders to visit Europe, cannot
just make utterances from a distance if they really want a real result on this
matter. It will have to start talking face to face with Asian powers such as
China and India and tell them to ''do something'' to free Ms Suu Kyi and put
into motion a true and meaningful reconciliation.
THAILAND
Today, May 8, the moon over Bangkok will be bright and the streets empty.
What does Visak (or Visakha in Thai) mean for the Buddhists of Thailand this
year? It is tempting to answer: Time to go shopping.
Filling up one's shopping cart at Siam Paragon, however, may not be a good
way to celebrate the legacy of the Sakya prince who for over 2,500 years has
inspired the civilised world to look beyond material pleasures to find the
deeper meaning of their lives.
Education
At a time when Asians get their values from the West, they are surprised to
learn that Westerners increasingly get their values from Asia. America is
Buddhism's new Mecca. It started about 40 years ago, when Buddhist adepts
from Southeast Asia, Korea, China and Tibet found San Francisco as their new
watering hole. As these separate Asian cultural influences cancelled out each
other, Buddhism spread through US universities and emerged as a secular
philosophy called "mindfulness," a sophisticated way of training the mind
which has replaced the West's idiotic fixation on Freudian psychology as a
way to cope with stress.
But stress reduction is not all that mindfulness can do. Some of America's most
prestigious neuroscience labs have produced functional magnetic resonance
images that prove how mindfulness can make the brain more pliable (they call
it by the fancy word "neuroplasticity") and therefore a basis for interactive
learning.
"Learning how to learn" is a 21st century art, says the Dalai Lama. One of his
students, the best-selling author Dan Goldman explained that mindfulness is
the key to "emotional intelligence," suggesting that more than cognitive skills
are involved in learning.
Like Goldman, MIT Professor (and American Buddhist) Peter Senge has sold
millions of books proposing that educational systems be remade into
mindfulness-inspired "learning organisations". He says mindfulness presents a
shield against addictions.
The economy
It may be a good thing that that Asean summit in Pattaya didn't happen.
Thailand did not offer its own model of economic stimulus to offer "Buddhist
economics," a term introduced by E F Schumacher in 1973 which refers to the
notion that, after meeting basic needs, economies need to be geared to the
cultivation of fundamental human values.
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 82 232
jynfolvlxktaygif;cHpm;ae&aom qif;&J'kuQrsdK;pHkrS vGwfajrmufatmif ppftm%m&Sifpepfudk t&ifOD;qHk;wdkufzsufjypf&rnf/
His Majesty the King embraced this notion, renaming it sufficiency economy.
Democracy
Democracy isn't just about "one man, one vote," a notion that can be corrupted
through vote-buying and debased through crass populism.
Democracy works when citizens participate, rather than wait for government
to fix things. As noted by the Dalai Lama, Buddhism is ultimately democratic
in that it focuses on helping each citizen make his own free choice about how
to find happiness.
Thai democracy has been hijacked as a political slogan by red shirts and
yellow shirts. The government should take a cue from Paiboon
Watanasiritham, the former deputy prime minister, by bringing interactive
learning to the village level through mindfulness practices. This should be a
serious topic for the NESDB.
Where to start?
The prime minister should ask the Education Ministry's Commission on Basic
Education to bring mindfulness into the school curriculum. He should ask the
Science & Technology Ministry's Nectec to use broadband to design
mindfulness-based programmes. He should ask the National
Telecommunications Commission for regulations that cause Thailand's mobile
operators to bring mindfulness learning applications to smart phones.
DKBA-Tatmadaw Look to
Brigade 5
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, July 6, 2009
The DKBA have mobilized battalions 333 and 555, Karen relief groups
reported.
Poe Shen, a field director for the Karen Human Rights Group, said,
“DKBA troops have now become more active in KNLA Brigade 5 areas.
They are also restricting the local villagers’ movements.”
Observers and Karen sources along the border said the joint force
intends to clean up the KNLA-controlled areas along the border before
the Burmese regime holds its planned general election in 2010.
vrf;jyMu,fjrefrmpmMunfYwdkuf ( pifumyl ) vufa&G;pifaqmif;yg;rsm; twGJ 82 234
jynfolvlxktaygif;cHpm;ae&aom qif;&J'kuQrsdK;pHkrS vGwfajrmufatmif ppftm%m&Sifpepfudk t&ifOD;qHk;wdkufzsufjypf&rnf/
Sources said that since the fall of KNLA Brigade 7, the DKBA-
Tatmadaw (Burmese army) joint force will turn its attention to the
KNLA’s southernmost outpost, Brigade 6, before turning its attention
back to the conflict with the KNLA in Brigade 5, which will most likely
resume in September or October.
As per its agreement with the Burmese regime to take over as a border
guard force, the DKBA has been assigned the role of cleaning up the
KNLA areas and enforcing its troop strength along the Thai-Burmese
border.
He said that the DKBA and the Burmese regime were aiming to operate
border trade from KNLA Brigade 6 in the south up to Brigade 5 in the
north, after the battle is won.
According to the Karen National Union (KNU), the political wing of the
KNLA, on June 18 a clash broke out between KNLA soldiers and the
Burmese army in Brigade 6. The KNU said nine Burmese soldiers were
killed or injured while one KNLA soldier was killed in the skirmish.
A force of Burmese army soldiers and DKBA troops has been launching
military offensives in KNLA Brigade 7 sine June 2, resulting in about
4,000 Karen villagers fleeing to Thailand for safety.
The growing tensions between the Burma Army and the ceasefire groups since
April have practically put a stop to the United Wa State Army’s drug
operations along the Thai-Burma border, according to an informed source
from eastern Shan State.
The resulting vacuum is being filled up by the junta-backed militia forces that
are being expanded, trained and armed by the Burma Army to be employed in
the event of war with either the UWSA or Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’, or
both. The best known among them are Punako and Kya Tey in Monghsat
township and Nampong in Tachilek township.
Each of them is said to have one heroin factory in their respective areas
assigned by the Burma Army. “Anyone who wants to grow poppies has to get
himself/herself registered with the local militia,” he said. “And if any of them
needs a starting capital, they will furnish it on condition that the loan will be
repaid in kind. The crop is also not to be sold to outsiders except those
authorized by the group concerned.”
The “king of kings” among them appears to be Punako, led by Ai Long, his
younger brother Kyaderh and their brother-in-law Kya Ngoi. The group first
came to the attention of the Thai media when its drug market cum transit point
at Maejok, opposite Hmong Kaolang, Mae Fa Luang district, Chiangrai
province, was overrun by the SSA ‘South” on 8 February 2002. (Saraburi Coal
Mining, a company from Thailand that had won a local contract in Monghsat
has been recently assigned by the Burma Army to build a road across the
Maejok-Hmong Kaolang border)
Aside from producing and trading in drugs, the group is also running a
protection racket for drugs coming from outside its territory. “Not unlike Naw
Kham (who is running another racket in the Golden Triangle, between Burma,
Laos and Thailand),” he remarked. “Also like Naw Kham, the group is also
paying kickbacks to the junta commanders from the local up to the regional
command.”
One of the trio, Kya Ngoi, is often seen playing golf with the Military
Operations Command (MOC) #14 commander in Monghsat. “While the
Burmese commander has only 4 armed bodyguards, he always comes to the
golf course with around 10 bodyguards of his own,” he said, “leading to a joke
that he must be senior to the MOC commander.”
The Wa, meanwhile, are not completely out of the game. “Their high quality
heroin and yaba (methamphetamine) are coming to Thailand via the Mekong
and Laos,” he maintained. “With ready cash, you’ll be able to buy any amount
you wish to order.”
President Barack Obama has called the War on Drugs, waged since 1971, an
“utter failure”, according to Newsweek, 1 June 2009 issue.
Myanmar was one of the first to United Nations Member States to adopt the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but “unfortunately, that commitment
has not been matched in deed,” Mr. Ban said in Yangon, at the end of his two-
day visit to the country. “Myanmar's human rights record remains a matter of
grave concern.”
The Secretary-General said that Senior General Than Shwe's refusal to allow
him to meet with Ms. Suu Kyi, whose trial is pending, shows that the
Government “has lost a unique opportunity to show its commitment to a new
era of political openness.”
He added that “allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an
important symbol of the Government's willingness to embark on the kind of
meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be
seen as credible.”
“Sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity are legitimate concerns for
any government,” he said, underscoring that “opening and broadening the
This visit to Myanmar was the Secretary-General' s second since last May in
the wake of the devastating Cyclone Nargis, which killed almost 130,000
people.
Mr. Ban, who met with Senior General Than Shwe yesterday and today, as
well as Prime Minister Thein Sein, also urged Myanmar to lift millions of its
citizens out of poverty by unleashing its economic potential.
“The people of Myanmar need jobs, they need food security and they need
access to healthcare,” he said, calling on the country to “take advantage of the
opportunities that the international community is prepared to offer.”
Myanmar, the Secretary-General said, can only benefit from engagement and
has stated many times that cooperation with the UN is the cornerstone of its
foreign policy.
“The more Myanmar works in partnership with the United Nations to respond
to its people's needs and aspirations, the more it affirms its sovereignty.”
Two Burman civilians, one a retired Burma Army man, were taken into
custody last week in Mongphen in the Wa territory, according to a source close
to the Wa leadership in
Panghsang.
Mongphen is in the disputed Mongpawk area. While the Wa claim it has been
under their control for more than 30 years, Naypyitaw insists it is in Mongyang
township, 102 km north of Kengtung, the capital of eastern Shan State.
“We have information that the Burma Army has placed big guns in
Mongkhark (south of Mongphen),” he added. “Even Chinese authorities have
warned them (the Burma Army) that the guns have put the people on the
Chinese side of the border at risk.”
The Wa and its allies, Kokang (to its north) and Mongla (to its south) have
been on the alert since the Burma Army demanded in April that they become
border security forces under the Burmese command. Their other ally National
Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) has already accepted the proposal,
according to Mizzima and Kachin News Group.
The letter was written by the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), the
umbrella group for ethnic parties that had won seats during the 1990 elections.
“It seems Than Shwe may be releasing only non-party activists like Zagana,
Venerable Gambira and such,” he said. “If he’s going to release any Shans at
all, that will be (Major General) Hso Ten (leader of the ceasefire group Shan
State Army “North” who was sentenced to 106 years at Khamti prison).”
Ban Ki-moon met all the parties’ representatives, including the NLD, together
at Myat Taw Win Hotel in Naypyitaw at 16:45. “Each of the parties got only
10 minutes with him,” said the source.
“He is expected to meet the Senior General again this morning,” he added.
All winning parties in the 1990 elections are said to be in the same dilemma:
“If they are going to enter the elections, they can expect all-out attempts to
prevent them from winning. And if they refuse to contest, they are in danger of
being dissolved,” said a political analyst in Rangoon.
တရုတ္ ၀ီဂါတိုင္းရင္းသားအဓိကရုဏ္း လူ
၁၄၀ ေသဆုံး
06 July 2009 http://www.voanews.com/burmese/2009-07-06-voa10.cfm
၆-၇-၂၀၀၉
ေျမာက္ကုိရီးယားသေဘၤာ လွည့္ျပန္မႈအေပၚ
အေမရိကန္ေရတပ္ အႀကီးအကဲ ႀကိဳဆုိ
06 July 2009 http://www.voanews.com/burmese/2009-07-06-voa13.cfm
စစ္အာဏာရႀင္ ဆက္လက္ဆန္ႛကဵင္ေရး
တိုက္ပၾဲေခၞသံထုတ္ဴပန္
2009-07-06 http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/7_july_massacre_remembrance-
07062009162524.html/story_main?textonly=1
ေရႊဂုံတိုင္ေၾကညာစာတမ္းကို နအဖ
ေက်ာခိုင္းျခင္းျဖစ္ဟု
သတင္းစာဆရာႀကီး ဦး၀င္းတင္ေျပာၾကား
မင္းႏိုင္သူ / ၇ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၀၀၉ http://www.khitpyaing.org/news/july09/070709d.php
အန္အယ္လ္ဒီက ထုတ္ျပန္ထားေသာ ေရႊဂုံတုိင္ေၾကညာစာတမ္းပါ အခ်က္အလက္ အားလုံးကို
နအဖစစ္အစုိးရက ေက်ာခုိင္းထားေၾကာင္း မစၥတာဘန္ကီမြန္း၏ ခရီးစဥ္အတြင္း
သိသာေစၿပီျဖစ္သည္ဟု အန္အယ္လ္ဒီပါတီ၀င္ ၀ါရင့္သတင္းစာ ဆရာႀကီး ဦး၀င္းတင္က
ေျပာသည္။
ေဆာင္းပါး
ဘ႐ိုင္ယန္ မက္ကာတန္
တနလၤာေန႔၊ ဂ်ဴလုိင္လ 06 ရက္ 2009 ခုႏွစ္ 16 နာရီ 18 မိနစ္
ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံ၊ ဘန္ေကာက္ (မဇၥ်ိမ)။ ။ အႏၲရာယ္မ်ားလွေသာ ေပၚလစီအတြက္ အႏၲရာယ္
အလြန္မ်ားလွသည့္ ကစားပြဲတခုကို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေျမာက္ဘက္ရွိ တ႐ုတ္ဘက္မ်က္ႏွာစာတြင္
ကစားေနၾကသည္။
မစၥတာဘန္ကီမြန္း
I have to say that the police dealt with the matter the same
way our own riot police would. They were not excessively
violent, nor did they attack unprovoked.
I arrived last night and all day today I've been staying in the
hotel together with my other colleagues. Our team leader is
not allowing us to go out because it looks very dangerous
outside.
Guan/AP
A mob of Han Chinese throw rocks at a building where some Uighurs are
believed to be hiding in Urumqi
The protest was peaceful from the beginning, but then the
police started firing at protesters. As a result the protesters
got angry and that's how the violence began.
The police were chasing them and when they couldn't escape,
they shot at them. One by one the students fell to the ground.
There was a lot of blood. My sister was upset and was crying.
It's a dark day for all Uighurs.
The protests in Xinjiang over the last few days are the most
serious seen in China for many months.
Every day there are thousands of small protests across this country.
For the authorities there is always the fear that they could turn into
something more serious.
'Mass incident'
For three decades in China people have witnessed rapid change as the
economy has been opened up. Many have become much richer. Others
feel left behind.
When Tibetans protested last year and attacked Han Chinese who lived
in that region, the authorities tried to suppress reports of the violence at
first.
Then when pictures of the attacks emerged, they realised the rest of the
country's population was angry about what had happened and was
rallying behind their attempts to punish those responsible.
The Chinese authorities have still tried to control access to the area, and
to ensure that journalists are accompanied by minders, but they have
been far more willing to allow footage showing the protests to be seen in
the rest of the country.
They appear more confident they can control the way the story is
presented in China and abroad.
It is the violence against the Han Chinese which has been given most
prominence in the official media.
Dealing with such protests is challenging, but not beyond the capabilities
of a country with a security apparatus geared up to face demonstrations
on a daily basis.
China_Xinjiang.svg