Clinton gets no commitment from Japan on base row
by Lachlan Carmichael – Tue Jan 12, 9:37 pm ET
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed her Japanese counterpart here to stick by a deal on moving a controversial US air base, but got no commitment from Tokyo during the meeting.
At hastily-arranged talks with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Honolulu, Clinton said she had stressed the need to resolve the fate of the Futenma base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
But she also expressed confidence the row would be resolved, saying Tokyo understands that the 50-year-old alliance with Washington is "fundamental to the future" of both Japan and the region.
The meeting with Okada was added to the beginning of an Asia tour by Clinton amid growing concerns of a rift between Washington and the new center-left coalition government in Tokyo, which includes elements opposed to the presence of the US base on Okinawa.
"I have stressed again today ... that it is important to move on Futenma," Clinton said at a press conference with Okada in the garden of a luxury hotel on the Pacific Ocean.
She reiterated the US view that a 2006 base deal known as the "realignment road map" is "the way forward". The accord was to move the base from an urban area on the island of Okinawa to a coastal region.
Okada said the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama would decide by May where to relocate the base, even if the decision risks breaking up his coalition.
The government is considering alternative sites for the base, with various options including moving it off Okinawa altogether.
The 2006 accord was part of a broader realignment of US forces in Japan and includes the redeployment of around 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
Soon after coming to power, Hatoyama's center-left government announced a review of the agreement, provoking irritation in Washington, which has long guaranteed security for Japan.
Hatoyama's junior partners in government, the Social Democrats, have threatened to quit the coalition if it agrees to the original relocation plan.
The United States, which defeated Japan in World War II and then occupied the country, now has 47,000 troops stationed there, more than half of them on Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Clinton said the US view is that 2006 agreement offers the best solution for both the security of Japan and the residents of Okinawa.
"We want to get a decision by May because much of the rest of the work around the realignment roadmap has already proceeded," the chief US diplomat said.
"The United States has already made decisions based on that roadmap, which was accepted by prior governments," referring to the previous administration of president George W. Bush and the conservative government in Japan.
She did not answer a question on whether she received an explicit commitment from Okada not to move the base off Okinawa altogether.
She said she was confident the two sides would find a solution that reflects the "very best of our alliance" and provides the security guarantees Japanese want.
Okada said: "we must make the Japan-US. alliance sustainable for the next 30 or 50 years, and further deepen this alliance."
The security treaty, signed on January 19, 1960, has formed the bedrock of the post-war Japan-US alliance, under which pacifist Japan relies on a massive US military presence to guarantee its security.
The two chief diplomats also discussed problems in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar as well as global warming, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, a broad range of issues that Okada said testify to the importance of the alliance.
Clinton will travel Wednesday to Papua New Guinea for talks on climate change and economic development before heading to New Zealand and Australia, where she will discuss similar issues as well as international security.
Making her fourth tour of Asia since she became secretary of state a year ago -- the first stop of her first tour was in Japan -- Clinton is due back in Washington on January 20.
In a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Clinton said President Barack Obama's administration would work more closely with Asian countries and regional organizations than in the past.
"Half of diplomacy is showing up," she said in a dig at the previous administration of president George W. Bush which skipped high-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
by Lachlan Carmichael – Tue Jan 12, 9:37 pm ET
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed her Japanese counterpart here to stick by a deal on moving a controversial US air base, but got no commitment from Tokyo during the meeting.
At hastily-arranged talks with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Honolulu, Clinton said she had stressed the need to resolve the fate of the Futenma base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
But she also expressed confidence the row would be resolved, saying Tokyo understands that the 50-year-old alliance with Washington is "fundamental to the future" of both Japan and the region.
The meeting with Okada was added to the beginning of an Asia tour by Clinton amid growing concerns of a rift between Washington and the new center-left coalition government in Tokyo, which includes elements opposed to the presence of the US base on Okinawa.
"I have stressed again today ... that it is important to move on Futenma," Clinton said at a press conference with Okada in the garden of a luxury hotel on the Pacific Ocean.
She reiterated the US view that a 2006 base deal known as the "realignment road map" is "the way forward". The accord was to move the base from an urban area on the island of Okinawa to a coastal region.
Okada said the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama would decide by May where to relocate the base, even if the decision risks breaking up his coalition.
The government is considering alternative sites for the base, with various options including moving it off Okinawa altogether.
The 2006 accord was part of a broader realignment of US forces in Japan and includes the redeployment of around 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
Soon after coming to power, Hatoyama's center-left government announced a review of the agreement, provoking irritation in Washington, which has long guaranteed security for Japan.
Hatoyama's junior partners in government, the Social Democrats, have threatened to quit the coalition if it agrees to the original relocation plan.
The United States, which defeated Japan in World War II and then occupied the country, now has 47,000 troops stationed there, more than half of them on Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Clinton said the US view is that 2006 agreement offers the best solution for both the security of Japan and the residents of Okinawa.
"We want to get a decision by May because much of the rest of the work around the realignment roadmap has already proceeded," the chief US diplomat said.
"The United States has already made decisions based on that roadmap, which was accepted by prior governments," referring to the previous administration of president George W. Bush and the conservative government in Japan.
She did not answer a question on whether she received an explicit commitment from Okada not to move the base off Okinawa altogether.
She said she was confident the two sides would find a solution that reflects the "very best of our alliance" and provides the security guarantees Japanese want.
Okada said: "we must make the Japan-US. alliance sustainable for the next 30 or 50 years, and further deepen this alliance."
The security treaty, signed on January 19, 1960, has formed the bedrock of the post-war Japan-US alliance, under which pacifist Japan relies on a massive US military presence to guarantee its security.
The two chief diplomats also discussed problems in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar as well as global warming, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, a broad range of issues that Okada said testify to the importance of the alliance.
Clinton will travel Wednesday to Papua New Guinea for talks on climate change and economic development before heading to New Zealand and Australia, where she will discuss similar issues as well as international security.
Making her fourth tour of Asia since she became secretary of state a year ago -- the first stop of her first tour was in Japan -- Clinton is due back in Washington on January 20.
In a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Clinton said President Barack Obama's administration would work more closely with Asian countries and regional organizations than in the past.
"Half of diplomacy is showing up," she said in a dig at the previous administration of president George W. Bush which skipped high-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
***********************************************************
World saw declines in freedom in 2009, think tank finds
January 12, 2010 2:13 p.m. EST
Washington (CNN) -- The unsolved murder of human rights activists in Russia. Their detention, torture and murder in Iran. Their jailing in China and Vietnam.
Attacks on journalists in the Philippines, Pakistan, Mexico and Somalia.
Coups in Africa and Central America.
All isolated incidents around the world that together made 2009 a grim milestone in world freedom, according to a United States think tank that tracks liberty around the globe.
Declines in freedom around the world outweighed gains last year, for the fourth year in a row, Freedom House says in its annual survey published Tuesday.
"This represents the longest continuous period of deterioration in the nearly 40-year history" of the report, writes this year's author, Arch Puddington.
There were only 116 electoral democracies around the world in 2009, the group found -- the lowest number since 1995.
But the world is doing relatively well at democratic elections, compared with some other indicators.
"Governments are more likely to permit relatively honest elections than to allow an uncensored press, a robust civil society, and an independent judiciary," Puddington writes.
The report is not all doom and gloom.
There was progress in Iraq, the Balkans, Malawi and Togo, Freedom House said.
And taking the long view, the world was more free in 2009 than when revolutions swept the communist world 20 years earlier. The Central and Eastern European democracies born in 1989 have largely retained their freedom, despite economic pressures stemming from the worldwide recession.
But much of the former Soviet Union is in a dire state. Central Asia is the least free region in the world, according to Freedom House, and contains two of the nine countries that got the survey's "worst of the worst" rating.
Central Asia's former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are on that list, along with North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea and Somalia.
Ten other countries and territories fared only slightly better. They are Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Guinea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, and Western Sahara, which is fighting for independence from Morocco.
Freedom House groups countries into three categories: free, partly free and not free.
A total of 89 countries were rated free in 2009. That's 46 percent of the 194 countries and territories in the survey, representing 46 percent of the world's population.
Freedom House listed 58 countries as partly free. That's 30 percent of the world's countries, with 20 percent of the global population.
The group said 47 countries were not free -- just under one in four of the countries in the world, but just over one in three of the world's people.
China is home to more than half the people in the "not free" category, Freedom House said.
Freedom House describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. It has been publishing its annual report since 1972.
January 12, 2010 2:13 p.m. EST
Washington (CNN) -- The unsolved murder of human rights activists in Russia. Their detention, torture and murder in Iran. Their jailing in China and Vietnam.
Attacks on journalists in the Philippines, Pakistan, Mexico and Somalia.
Coups in Africa and Central America.
All isolated incidents around the world that together made 2009 a grim milestone in world freedom, according to a United States think tank that tracks liberty around the globe.
Declines in freedom around the world outweighed gains last year, for the fourth year in a row, Freedom House says in its annual survey published Tuesday.
"This represents the longest continuous period of deterioration in the nearly 40-year history" of the report, writes this year's author, Arch Puddington.
There were only 116 electoral democracies around the world in 2009, the group found -- the lowest number since 1995.
But the world is doing relatively well at democratic elections, compared with some other indicators.
"Governments are more likely to permit relatively honest elections than to allow an uncensored press, a robust civil society, and an independent judiciary," Puddington writes.
The report is not all doom and gloom.
There was progress in Iraq, the Balkans, Malawi and Togo, Freedom House said.
And taking the long view, the world was more free in 2009 than when revolutions swept the communist world 20 years earlier. The Central and Eastern European democracies born in 1989 have largely retained their freedom, despite economic pressures stemming from the worldwide recession.
But much of the former Soviet Union is in a dire state. Central Asia is the least free region in the world, according to Freedom House, and contains two of the nine countries that got the survey's "worst of the worst" rating.
Central Asia's former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are on that list, along with North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea and Somalia.
Ten other countries and territories fared only slightly better. They are Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Guinea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, and Western Sahara, which is fighting for independence from Morocco.
Freedom House groups countries into three categories: free, partly free and not free.
A total of 89 countries were rated free in 2009. That's 46 percent of the 194 countries and territories in the survey, representing 46 percent of the world's population.
Freedom House listed 58 countries as partly free. That's 30 percent of the world's countries, with 20 percent of the global population.
The group said 47 countries were not free -- just under one in four of the countries in the world, but just over one in three of the world's people.
China is home to more than half the people in the "not free" category, Freedom House said.
Freedom House describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. It has been publishing its annual report since 1972.
***********************************************************
Clinton Calls for Asia to Cooperate More on Economy, Security
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan – Wed Jan 13, 12:00 am ET
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Asian and Pacific nations to boost cooperation to strengthen security, expand trade and jobs, and foster democracy and human rights in the region where the world’s fastest growing economies have emerged.
The Obama administration wants to play an active role in building Asia’s security and economic architecture, Clinton said, and will be looking to large and small Asian nations alike to “focus on action” through regional forums to solve problems such as nuclear proliferation, food security and climate change.
“No country, including the U.S., should seek to dominate these institutions,” Clinton said yesterday in a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu. “But I believe that Asia benefits enormously from an active and engaged United States.”
Clinton stopped in Honolulu en route to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia, kicking off her fourth Asia-Pacific trip in her first year as secretary of state. Before her speech, she met with her Japanese counterpart in an effort to resolve a disagreement with the longtime ally over the relocation of a U.S. military base on the southern island of Okinawa.
“We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments, including on Futenma,” she said, referring to a 2006 accord to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station. That deal has met resistance from the new Japanese government that took office last September.
‘Much Work’
“We have much work to do together, but I’m confident that our alliance is up to the task,” Clinton said after the meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada failed to resolve the dispute.
Speaking hours later at the East-West Center where President Barack Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, studied in the early 1970s, Clinton said the U.S. "can provide resources and facilitate cooperation in ways that other regional actors cannot replicate."
She cited American leadership in the civilian and military responses to humanitarian crises including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year’s cyclone damage in the Philippines.
Clinton cited numerous examples of senior Obama administration officials attending Asian regional meetings over the past year, including forums that had been ignored by President George W. Bush’s administration.
“The United States is back in Asia,” she said, and “it is here to stay.”
Collective Action
At the same time, Clinton said collective action is needed among all Asian nations, from long-standing world economic power Japan to rising powers China and India and emerging economies, including Vietnam.
"Systems that reward free riders and minimalist contributions are designed to fail,"
Clinton called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Regional Forum to “make good” on a vision laid out last year “to assume greater responsibilities for disaster relief and humanitarian operations,” and take more leadership on human rights issues, such as the suppression of democracy activists by Myanmar’s military rulers, which she said “have a substantial effect on regional peace and security.”
Praising the six-nation talks that have forged a united front among the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia to insist that North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons program, Clinton said in her speech that the effort underscores “the potential of an informal arrangement to advance shared interests.”
Asked after her speech by a Chinese graduate student about U.S.-China relations, Clinton said the two nations “have differences,” while insisting they “won’t be knocked off course” by those disagreements.
Airbase Dispute
After the meeting with the Japanese foreign minister yesterday, Clinton said the U.S. would respect Japan’s process in resolving the dispute over the relocation of the U.S. airbase on Okinawa.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan promised in its campaign last year to “reexamine” the accord. Residents of Okinawa, which is home to half of the 50,000 U.S. forces stationed in Japan and has been the site of fatal accidents and crimes involving U.S. military personnel during the past half-century, have demanded the base be moved to another prefecture.
“The Japanese government has explained the process that they are pursuing to reach a resolution of the issues that they are working through, and we respect that. We remain of the opinion that the realignment roadmap is the way forward,” Clinton said yesterday, referring to the 2006 accord.
The dispute threatens to delay a $10.3 billion plan to build replacement facilities for a new base and relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam. President Barack Obama in November called on Japan to resolve the matter “expeditiously.” Jan. 19 marks the 50th anniversary since the two countries signed a security treaty.
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan – Wed Jan 13, 12:00 am ET
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Asian and Pacific nations to boost cooperation to strengthen security, expand trade and jobs, and foster democracy and human rights in the region where the world’s fastest growing economies have emerged.
The Obama administration wants to play an active role in building Asia’s security and economic architecture, Clinton said, and will be looking to large and small Asian nations alike to “focus on action” through regional forums to solve problems such as nuclear proliferation, food security and climate change.
“No country, including the U.S., should seek to dominate these institutions,” Clinton said yesterday in a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu. “But I believe that Asia benefits enormously from an active and engaged United States.”
Clinton stopped in Honolulu en route to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia, kicking off her fourth Asia-Pacific trip in her first year as secretary of state. Before her speech, she met with her Japanese counterpart in an effort to resolve a disagreement with the longtime ally over the relocation of a U.S. military base on the southern island of Okinawa.
“We look to our Japanese allies and friends to follow through on their commitments, including on Futenma,” she said, referring to a 2006 accord to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station. That deal has met resistance from the new Japanese government that took office last September.
‘Much Work’
“We have much work to do together, but I’m confident that our alliance is up to the task,” Clinton said after the meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada failed to resolve the dispute.
Speaking hours later at the East-West Center where President Barack Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, studied in the early 1970s, Clinton said the U.S. "can provide resources and facilitate cooperation in ways that other regional actors cannot replicate."
She cited American leadership in the civilian and military responses to humanitarian crises including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year’s cyclone damage in the Philippines.
Clinton cited numerous examples of senior Obama administration officials attending Asian regional meetings over the past year, including forums that had been ignored by President George W. Bush’s administration.
“The United States is back in Asia,” she said, and “it is here to stay.”
Collective Action
At the same time, Clinton said collective action is needed among all Asian nations, from long-standing world economic power Japan to rising powers China and India and emerging economies, including Vietnam.
"Systems that reward free riders and minimalist contributions are designed to fail,"
Clinton called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Regional Forum to “make good” on a vision laid out last year “to assume greater responsibilities for disaster relief and humanitarian operations,” and take more leadership on human rights issues, such as the suppression of democracy activists by Myanmar’s military rulers, which she said “have a substantial effect on regional peace and security.”
Praising the six-nation talks that have forged a united front among the U.S., South Korea, Japan, China and Russia to insist that North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons program, Clinton said in her speech that the effort underscores “the potential of an informal arrangement to advance shared interests.”
Asked after her speech by a Chinese graduate student about U.S.-China relations, Clinton said the two nations “have differences,” while insisting they “won’t be knocked off course” by those disagreements.
Airbase Dispute
After the meeting with the Japanese foreign minister yesterday, Clinton said the U.S. would respect Japan’s process in resolving the dispute over the relocation of the U.S. airbase on Okinawa.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan promised in its campaign last year to “reexamine” the accord. Residents of Okinawa, which is home to half of the 50,000 U.S. forces stationed in Japan and has been the site of fatal accidents and crimes involving U.S. military personnel during the past half-century, have demanded the base be moved to another prefecture.
“The Japanese government has explained the process that they are pursuing to reach a resolution of the issues that they are working through, and we respect that. We remain of the opinion that the realignment roadmap is the way forward,” Clinton said yesterday, referring to the 2006 accord.
The dispute threatens to delay a $10.3 billion plan to build replacement facilities for a new base and relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam. President Barack Obama in November called on Japan to resolve the matter “expeditiously.” Jan. 19 marks the 50th anniversary since the two countries signed a security treaty.
***********************************************************
The Oxford Press - Local church installing fresh water wells in Peru, Burma
By Staff Report 5:05 PM Tuesday, January 12, 2010
OXFORD — More than a year ago, the leaders of Oxford’s Cobblestone Community Church began planning to participate in a grassroots movement to change the way people celebrate Christmas.
They decided to participate in “The Advent Conspiracy,” a program with more than
1,000 churches in 17 countries that asks people to focus on actions that can change the world instead of holiday spending, eating and partying that has often come to characterize the season.
Cobblestone’s leaders challenged their congregation to buy one less gift this year and use that money to fund the digging of a well in some town or village in the world that has so far lacked access to clean water.
They hoped to fund at least one full well project, which could cost between $2,000 and $6,000 depending on the location and other circumstances. Over the five weekends, members and attendees of the church gave more than $20,000 toward the effort.
Those funds will result in the completion of one well in Arequipa, Peru – which is already under way – and another eight wells throughout the Asian nation of Myanmar, or Burma, with the cooperation of Operation Blessing, an international non-profit relief organization.
“Cobblestone is a generous church,” said Bob Hostetler, the church’s pastor of leadership and teaching, “but I think we were all caught a little off-guard by just how generous.
People really got enthusiastic about changing their perspective and their celebration of Christmas.
“One couple in the church asked how much one well in Burma would cost, and supplied the funds on the spot. Others revised their practice of gift-giving in their family to focus more on the reason Jesus came into the world. And many folks even went beyond the well project itself, participating in efforts like Angel Tree and Operation Christmas Child and providing groceries for neighbors, and much more.”
Over the coming months, Cobblestone’s members will be informed of the exact location of the wells in Burma, and in April a team of volunteers from the church will travel to Peru to conduct some construction projects for the pueblo and church.
“By that time, the well our friends in Oxford have provided should be fully functional,” said the Rev. Donald Latta, the missionary Cobblestone supports in Arequipa. “And, since Arequipa is located in a very dry part of Peru, that only gets water from January to March, this well will be a huge help, providing water not only for a new micro-enterprise (a pig farm), but irrigating the land and providing opportunities for the poor people of the pueblo by letting them grow crops for themselves and for the pig farm.”
Vic Conner, Cobblestone’s director of missions, added, “I find great joy in the realization that these nine wells we’re funding will be a gift to these towns and villages for many years to come. It’s a real reflection of the spirit of Christmas to give something that keeps giving, year after year, because that’s what Jesus did when he came into the world.”
Cobblestone Community Church hosts two worship celebrations at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at “The Loft,” 4191 Kehr Road, in Oxford. Free coffee, tea and hot chocolate is served in the spacious atrium before and after each celebration. A full slate of children’s ministries for ages infant through fifth grade takes place in the Loft’s West Wing at the same time as the 10 a.m. celebration, and teen and adult Bible classes take place concurrent with the 11:30 worship celebration.
By Staff Report 5:05 PM Tuesday, January 12, 2010
OXFORD — More than a year ago, the leaders of Oxford’s Cobblestone Community Church began planning to participate in a grassroots movement to change the way people celebrate Christmas.
They decided to participate in “The Advent Conspiracy,” a program with more than
1,000 churches in 17 countries that asks people to focus on actions that can change the world instead of holiday spending, eating and partying that has often come to characterize the season.
Cobblestone’s leaders challenged their congregation to buy one less gift this year and use that money to fund the digging of a well in some town or village in the world that has so far lacked access to clean water.
They hoped to fund at least one full well project, which could cost between $2,000 and $6,000 depending on the location and other circumstances. Over the five weekends, members and attendees of the church gave more than $20,000 toward the effort.
Those funds will result in the completion of one well in Arequipa, Peru – which is already under way – and another eight wells throughout the Asian nation of Myanmar, or Burma, with the cooperation of Operation Blessing, an international non-profit relief organization.
“Cobblestone is a generous church,” said Bob Hostetler, the church’s pastor of leadership and teaching, “but I think we were all caught a little off-guard by just how generous.
People really got enthusiastic about changing their perspective and their celebration of Christmas.
“One couple in the church asked how much one well in Burma would cost, and supplied the funds on the spot. Others revised their practice of gift-giving in their family to focus more on the reason Jesus came into the world. And many folks even went beyond the well project itself, participating in efforts like Angel Tree and Operation Christmas Child and providing groceries for neighbors, and much more.”
Over the coming months, Cobblestone’s members will be informed of the exact location of the wells in Burma, and in April a team of volunteers from the church will travel to Peru to conduct some construction projects for the pueblo and church.
“By that time, the well our friends in Oxford have provided should be fully functional,” said the Rev. Donald Latta, the missionary Cobblestone supports in Arequipa. “And, since Arequipa is located in a very dry part of Peru, that only gets water from January to March, this well will be a huge help, providing water not only for a new micro-enterprise (a pig farm), but irrigating the land and providing opportunities for the poor people of the pueblo by letting them grow crops for themselves and for the pig farm.”
Vic Conner, Cobblestone’s director of missions, added, “I find great joy in the realization that these nine wells we’re funding will be a gift to these towns and villages for many years to come. It’s a real reflection of the spirit of Christmas to give something that keeps giving, year after year, because that’s what Jesus did when he came into the world.”
Cobblestone Community Church hosts two worship celebrations at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at “The Loft,” 4191 Kehr Road, in Oxford. Free coffee, tea and hot chocolate is served in the spacious atrium before and after each celebration. A full slate of children’s ministries for ages infant through fifth grade takes place in the Loft’s West Wing at the same time as the 10 a.m. celebration, and teen and adult Bible classes take place concurrent with the 11:30 worship celebration.
***********************************************************
Last Updated:[1/13/2010 6:37:36 AM]
Toboc - Trade News - Myanmar Will Bring China and India Closer by Reopening Old Route
By Jose Roy
According to sources, Myanmar has agreed to honour a long standing need of the region by re-opening the Stilwell Road to facilitate trade among China, India and Myanmar. At the recently concluded 5th North East Business Summit at Kolkata, the Foreign Minister of Myanmar Nyan Win said that Myanmar was ready to open the old route as per the proposal by India.
The reopening of this route means the distance between India and China will considerably reduce from about 6000kms to less than 1750kms. China’s Yunnan province and India’s Assam state are likely to benefit through this decision though it opens up trade potential to Myanmar and Thailand.
The historic 1,726 km road, built by the Allied and Chinese forces under the supervision of the US Army General Joseph Stilwell, was used to transport the first supplies to the beleaguered Chinese Army during World War II in 1945 when Japanese troops invaded China. The Stilwell Road starts from Assam, in the heart of India's North-east, and cuts through the Pangsau pass in Myanmar to Kunming in South China.
Nyan informed that China had already constructed the road up to Tanai and there was a balance portion from Tanai to the Indian border which could now be completed with the support of India. The Stilwell Road on the Indian side is about 61kms and the major stretch of 1,033kms lies within the jungle-covered mountains and swampy valleys of northern Myanmar's Kachin State, while in China it is 632kms.
In the past three years, China has taken proactive measures to cash in on the trade opportunities in Myanmar and India by constructing several stretches of the Stilwell Road. Moreover, Myanmar and China have an MOU to supply gas from Myanmar to China, and with the new discoveries of gas fields in Myanmar, India too nurses similar ambitions.
The re-opening of the road is expected to make the North-east region of India to become a major hub for almost all its neighbours to obtain Indian automobile components, fruits, grains, vegetables, textiles and cotton yarn. On the other hand, the Indian traders will have easy access to electronic gadgets, synthetic blankets, teak, gold and semi-precious stones from its South-east Asian neighbours.
Toboc - Trade News - Myanmar Will Bring China and India Closer by Reopening Old Route
By Jose Roy
According to sources, Myanmar has agreed to honour a long standing need of the region by re-opening the Stilwell Road to facilitate trade among China, India and Myanmar. At the recently concluded 5th North East Business Summit at Kolkata, the Foreign Minister of Myanmar Nyan Win said that Myanmar was ready to open the old route as per the proposal by India.
The reopening of this route means the distance between India and China will considerably reduce from about 6000kms to less than 1750kms. China’s Yunnan province and India’s Assam state are likely to benefit through this decision though it opens up trade potential to Myanmar and Thailand.
The historic 1,726 km road, built by the Allied and Chinese forces under the supervision of the US Army General Joseph Stilwell, was used to transport the first supplies to the beleaguered Chinese Army during World War II in 1945 when Japanese troops invaded China. The Stilwell Road starts from Assam, in the heart of India's North-east, and cuts through the Pangsau pass in Myanmar to Kunming in South China.
Nyan informed that China had already constructed the road up to Tanai and there was a balance portion from Tanai to the Indian border which could now be completed with the support of India. The Stilwell Road on the Indian side is about 61kms and the major stretch of 1,033kms lies within the jungle-covered mountains and swampy valleys of northern Myanmar's Kachin State, while in China it is 632kms.
In the past three years, China has taken proactive measures to cash in on the trade opportunities in Myanmar and India by constructing several stretches of the Stilwell Road. Moreover, Myanmar and China have an MOU to supply gas from Myanmar to China, and with the new discoveries of gas fields in Myanmar, India too nurses similar ambitions.
The re-opening of the road is expected to make the North-east region of India to become a major hub for almost all its neighbours to obtain Indian automobile components, fruits, grains, vegetables, textiles and cotton yarn. On the other hand, the Indian traders will have easy access to electronic gadgets, synthetic blankets, teak, gold and semi-precious stones from its South-east Asian neighbours.
***********************************************************
The News-Herald - New form of malaria renders drugs worthless
Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
EDITOR'S NOTE: Once-curable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria are coming back, as germs rapidly mutate to form aggressive strains that resist drugs. The reason: The misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us has built up drug resistance worldwide. Second in a five-part series.
PAILIN, Cambodia — O'treng village doesn't look like the epicenter of anything.
Just off a muddy rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines.
Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. This time, scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.
If this drug stops working, there's no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million annually. As a result, earlier this year international medical leaders declared resistant malaria here a health emergency.
"This is not business as usual. It's something really special and it needs a real concerted effort," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University in Bangkok who has spent decades trying to eradicate the disease from Southeast Asia. "We know that children have been dying in Africa — millions of children have died over the past three decades — and a lot of those deaths have been attributed to drug resistance. And we know that the drug resistance came from the same place."
Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, The Associated Press found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying.
Already, the AP found, resistance to malaria has spread faster and wider than previously documented. Dr. White said virtually every case of malaria he sees in western Cambodia is now resistant to drugs. And in the Pailin area, patients given artemisinin take twice as long as those elsewhere to be clear of the parasite — 84 hours instead of the typical 48, and sometimes even 96.
Mosquitoes spread this resistant malaria quickly from shack to shack, village to village — and eventually, country to country.
And so O'treng, with its 45 poor families, naked kids, skinny dogs and boiling pots of rice, finds itself at the epicenter of an increasingly desperate worldwide effort to stop a dangerous new version of an old disease.
Substandard medicine
Bundled in a threadbare batik sarong, 51-year-old Chhien Rern, one of O'treng's sick residents, sweats and shivers as a 103-degree fever rages against the malaria parasites in her bloodstream.
Three days ago Chhien Rern started feeling ill while looking for work in a neighboring district. So she did what most rural Cambodians do: She walked to a little shop and asked for malaria medicine. With no prescription, she was handed a packet of pills — she's unsure what they were.
"After I took the drugs, I felt better for a while," she says. "Then I got sick again."
The headaches, chills and fever, classic symptoms of malaria, worsened. Chhien Rern's daughter persuaded her to take a motorbike taxi past washed out bridges and flooded culverts to the nearest hospital in Pailin, a dirty border town about 10 miles from O'treng.
Doctors say there's a good chance Chhien Rern was sold counterfeit drugs.
People generate drug resistant malaria when they take too little medicine, substandard medicine or — as is all too often the case around O'treng — counterfeit medicine with a pinch of the real stuff. Once established, the drug-resistant malaria is spread by mosquitoes. So one person's counterfeit medicine can eventually spawn widespread resistant disease.
Yet in most parts of the world, people routinely buy antimalarials over the counter at local pharmacies and treat themselves.
A recent study out of neighboring Laos found 88 percent of stores selling artemisinin-based drugs, the same ones scientists are desperately trying to preserve, were actually peddling fakes. Worse, nearly 15 percent of the counterfeits were laced with small hints of artemisinin, which could prompt resistance. The researchers found indications that some were made in China, feeding smugglers' routes that snake through Myanmar and into Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The counterfeits, along with outdated drugs, are jumping continents. In Africa, where malaria is endemic in 45 countries, the fake drug industry is thriving. A 2003 World Health Organization survey found between 20 percent and 90 percent of antimalarials randomly purchased in seven African countries failed quality testing, depending on the type of drug.
WHO and Interpol formed a task force three years ago to try to stop counterfeiters, seizing millions of fake malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and other pills in Southeast Asia and Africa. But officials say the work is only as good as the countries' legal systems.
"One of the problems is that there's not really any enforcement, so what happens when they find a drug that's counterfeit or substandard?" says David Sintasath, a regional epidemiologist at the nonprofit Malaria Consortium in Bangkok. "The policy is to take it away from them. That's good until the next month when they get their next shipment, right?"
Countless unlicensed shops in Cambodia sell artesunate, a single-drug therapy that has been banned in the country. Artesunate, a modified version of artemisinin derived from a Chinese herb, has been hailed as miracle treatment worldwide because it works so well with so few side effects. But Cambodian surveys have shown that many patients take artesunate alone instead of mixing it with another antimalarial drug, making it easier for resistance to build.
"The drug has been around for a long time and misused for a long time and this is all encouraging the parasite to develop resistance," says Dr. Delia Bethell, of the U.S. Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, whose research has been at the forefront of identifying emerging resistance on the border.
Back in western Cambodia a few miles from O'treng village, shopkeeper Nop Chen turns a flashlight on a glass case full of drugs he hawks from inside his cramped roadside house. He digs through the many boxes and produces two different types of artemisinin-based antimalarials. Both lack the full amount of a second required medication, mefloquine, necessary to treat the strain of malaria in the area and ward off more resistance.
But Nop Chen, a former Khmer Rouge medic, points to a small Cambodian seal on the boxes and says he feels confident the drugs are the real deal. Still, he acknowledges he is not licensed to sell the pills and he's unsure where they originated.
"I'm not concerned because it's got the sticker and the stamp," he says, squinting at the Khmer script on the labels. "Because of the logo, I trust it to not be fake — it was made in Cambodia."
Dangerous parasites
Walk past O'treng's cluster of sagging huts, cross another cornfield and hike a twisted mile on a dirt track to a wooden shack where a string of smoke is curling through the wooden floor planks in a largely futile effort to keep mosquitoes away. It's here that skinny 13-year-old Hoeun Hong Da wakes up on the floor nauseous and burning with fever.
Hong Da recovered from malaria two months ago, but now the dizziness and headaches are back. He's been sickened by the disease six or seven times in his short life — too many to remember. He knows that if he doesn't get to a hospital soon, he could die.
With no new treatments in the pipeline, normally reserved scientists are quick to use words like "disaster" or "catastrophe" when asked what might happen if they don't contain the disease that's ravaging young Hong Da before it spreads to Africa. There, malaria already kills an estimated 2,000 kids daily.
For the past 50,000 years the malaria parasite has been evolving, and migrating, alongside humans. It moves within the huts of O'treng, and into neighboring towns when men like Hong Da's father and older siblings float from job to job.
Some work is close enough for them to return home at night, but other jobs keep them away for stretches of time. They sleep in tight rows, sweating and weary, in disintegrating bamboo huts with workers who are also traveling, and possibly infected with malaria.
The concept of containing drug resistance has never been tried before. Scientists wonder: How do you control the spread of a resistant parasite transmitted by mosquitoes that bite people who live and work in infested jungle areas, then scatter in all directions, all the time?
This area, the former stronghold of the murderous Khmer Rouge, has a notorious history. Burmese migrant workers who once mined rubies and sapphires in these now deforested hills are believed to have helped transport strains resistant to the drug chloroquine back to Myanmar a half century ago. From there it spread to India and later over to Africa until the drug was useless worldwide.
A decade later, history repeated itself when resistance to the drug sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine followed the same path.
Now, in western Cambodia, scientists are concerned because the artemisinin-based drugs are taking longer than usual to kill the parasites. Earlier this year, an army of aid agencies and experts from the WHO began racing to this impoverished corner on the Thai-Cambodian border to divvy up a $22.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at stopping this virulent new strain.
But grants haven't stopped lines of Cambodians, sick or not, from queuing up every morning at Thailand's border, charging past the checkpoints in search of work or goods. Some may carry resistant strains in, others may bring them home.
And grants haven't stopped the parasite from spreading in the O'treng area, despite widespread bednet distribution, awareness campaigns and enhanced surveillance systems. Some scientists say the only sure way to fix the problem is to eradicate malaria entirely from western Cambodia.
"It's really dangerous," says Dr. Rupam Tripura, who's conducting a study in Pailin for the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Program. "What will happen to the mosquitoes? Can you kill those living in the jungle? No, so you cannot kill the strain."
Malaria strikes again
If O'treng is the epicenter of this emerging disease, Phoun Sokha is the point man aimed at controlling it.
At 47, Phoun Sokha is the village malaria worker who lives at the mouth of the hamlet and proudly displays an orange plastic kit that resembles a tackle box.
Phoun Sokha is serious about his packets of medicine and his rapid tests to prick blood from sick villagers' fingers to determine if they have malaria and if so, what type. He makes sure patients are taking their free medicines and checks to see if they're improving. If not, Phoun Sokha can even arrange transportation to the hospital.
But treating O'treng's malaria patients can be frustrating.
"Some of the patients, when they went to the hospital, after one month, maybe they get malaria again," he says.
Today Hong Da, the village boy who has fought malaria so many times before, heads home from the hospital after a few days of treatment. He clutches a new mosquito net he hopes will prevent yet another infection. Together, the recovering boy and his weathered mom shuffle past sick neighbor Chhien Rern's shack before disappearing among the tassels of the cornfield toward their home.
But all is not well.
Under a tattered quilt, Hong Da's 9-year-old sister Hoeun Chhay Meth is curled on a thin mattress atop the wooden floor inside the family's open-air home.
She had malaria alongside her brother two months ago. They share a mosquito net that she burned a hole in when she stayed up one night reading by the light of a makeshift candle. Her brother thinks that's how the mosquitoes infected them.
"Very afraid of dying," says Chhay Meth, who has started taking medicine provided by the village malaria worker. "I feel worse than before. I cannot walk myself or stand up by myself and cannot eat well."
Hong Da understands. He gently lifts his little sister's limp body, scooping her up, his strength returning. Chhay Meth reaches weakly for her mother.
Like her big brother, this child doesn't know about counterfeit drugs or antimalarials.
She only knows she's sick. And the medicines don't seem to work as well any more in this little village she calls home.
Martha Mendoza is an AP national writer based in Mexico City.
Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
EDITOR'S NOTE: Once-curable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria are coming back, as germs rapidly mutate to form aggressive strains that resist drugs. The reason: The misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us has built up drug resistance worldwide. Second in a five-part series.
PAILIN, Cambodia — O'treng village doesn't look like the epicenter of anything.
Just off a muddy rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines.
Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that keeps rendering one powerful drug after another useless. This time, scientists have confirmed the first signs of resistance to the only affordable treatment left in the global medicine cabinet for malaria: Artemisinin.
If this drug stops working, there's no good replacement to combat a disease that kills 1 million annually. As a result, earlier this year international medical leaders declared resistant malaria here a health emergency.
"This is not business as usual. It's something really special and it needs a real concerted effort," said Dr. Nick White, a malaria expert at Mahidol University in Bangkok who has spent decades trying to eradicate the disease from Southeast Asia. "We know that children have been dying in Africa — millions of children have died over the past three decades — and a lot of those deaths have been attributed to drug resistance. And we know that the drug resistance came from the same place."
Malaria is just one of the leading killer infectious diseases battling back in a new and more deadly form, The Associated Press found in a six-month look at the soaring rates of drug resistance worldwide. After decades of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and staph have started to mutate. The result: The drugs are slowly dying.
Already, the AP found, resistance to malaria has spread faster and wider than previously documented. Dr. White said virtually every case of malaria he sees in western Cambodia is now resistant to drugs. And in the Pailin area, patients given artemisinin take twice as long as those elsewhere to be clear of the parasite — 84 hours instead of the typical 48, and sometimes even 96.
Mosquitoes spread this resistant malaria quickly from shack to shack, village to village — and eventually, country to country.
And so O'treng, with its 45 poor families, naked kids, skinny dogs and boiling pots of rice, finds itself at the epicenter of an increasingly desperate worldwide effort to stop a dangerous new version of an old disease.
Substandard medicine
Bundled in a threadbare batik sarong, 51-year-old Chhien Rern, one of O'treng's sick residents, sweats and shivers as a 103-degree fever rages against the malaria parasites in her bloodstream.
Three days ago Chhien Rern started feeling ill while looking for work in a neighboring district. So she did what most rural Cambodians do: She walked to a little shop and asked for malaria medicine. With no prescription, she was handed a packet of pills — she's unsure what they were.
"After I took the drugs, I felt better for a while," she says. "Then I got sick again."
The headaches, chills and fever, classic symptoms of malaria, worsened. Chhien Rern's daughter persuaded her to take a motorbike taxi past washed out bridges and flooded culverts to the nearest hospital in Pailin, a dirty border town about 10 miles from O'treng.
Doctors say there's a good chance Chhien Rern was sold counterfeit drugs.
People generate drug resistant malaria when they take too little medicine, substandard medicine or — as is all too often the case around O'treng — counterfeit medicine with a pinch of the real stuff. Once established, the drug-resistant malaria is spread by mosquitoes. So one person's counterfeit medicine can eventually spawn widespread resistant disease.
Yet in most parts of the world, people routinely buy antimalarials over the counter at local pharmacies and treat themselves.
A recent study out of neighboring Laos found 88 percent of stores selling artemisinin-based drugs, the same ones scientists are desperately trying to preserve, were actually peddling fakes. Worse, nearly 15 percent of the counterfeits were laced with small hints of artemisinin, which could prompt resistance. The researchers found indications that some were made in China, feeding smugglers' routes that snake through Myanmar and into Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The counterfeits, along with outdated drugs, are jumping continents. In Africa, where malaria is endemic in 45 countries, the fake drug industry is thriving. A 2003 World Health Organization survey found between 20 percent and 90 percent of antimalarials randomly purchased in seven African countries failed quality testing, depending on the type of drug.
WHO and Interpol formed a task force three years ago to try to stop counterfeiters, seizing millions of fake malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and other pills in Southeast Asia and Africa. But officials say the work is only as good as the countries' legal systems.
"One of the problems is that there's not really any enforcement, so what happens when they find a drug that's counterfeit or substandard?" says David Sintasath, a regional epidemiologist at the nonprofit Malaria Consortium in Bangkok. "The policy is to take it away from them. That's good until the next month when they get their next shipment, right?"
Countless unlicensed shops in Cambodia sell artesunate, a single-drug therapy that has been banned in the country. Artesunate, a modified version of artemisinin derived from a Chinese herb, has been hailed as miracle treatment worldwide because it works so well with so few side effects. But Cambodian surveys have shown that many patients take artesunate alone instead of mixing it with another antimalarial drug, making it easier for resistance to build.
"The drug has been around for a long time and misused for a long time and this is all encouraging the parasite to develop resistance," says Dr. Delia Bethell, of the U.S. Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, whose research has been at the forefront of identifying emerging resistance on the border.
Back in western Cambodia a few miles from O'treng village, shopkeeper Nop Chen turns a flashlight on a glass case full of drugs he hawks from inside his cramped roadside house. He digs through the many boxes and produces two different types of artemisinin-based antimalarials. Both lack the full amount of a second required medication, mefloquine, necessary to treat the strain of malaria in the area and ward off more resistance.
But Nop Chen, a former Khmer Rouge medic, points to a small Cambodian seal on the boxes and says he feels confident the drugs are the real deal. Still, he acknowledges he is not licensed to sell the pills and he's unsure where they originated.
"I'm not concerned because it's got the sticker and the stamp," he says, squinting at the Khmer script on the labels. "Because of the logo, I trust it to not be fake — it was made in Cambodia."
Dangerous parasites
Walk past O'treng's cluster of sagging huts, cross another cornfield and hike a twisted mile on a dirt track to a wooden shack where a string of smoke is curling through the wooden floor planks in a largely futile effort to keep mosquitoes away. It's here that skinny 13-year-old Hoeun Hong Da wakes up on the floor nauseous and burning with fever.
Hong Da recovered from malaria two months ago, but now the dizziness and headaches are back. He's been sickened by the disease six or seven times in his short life — too many to remember. He knows that if he doesn't get to a hospital soon, he could die.
With no new treatments in the pipeline, normally reserved scientists are quick to use words like "disaster" or "catastrophe" when asked what might happen if they don't contain the disease that's ravaging young Hong Da before it spreads to Africa. There, malaria already kills an estimated 2,000 kids daily.
For the past 50,000 years the malaria parasite has been evolving, and migrating, alongside humans. It moves within the huts of O'treng, and into neighboring towns when men like Hong Da's father and older siblings float from job to job.
Some work is close enough for them to return home at night, but other jobs keep them away for stretches of time. They sleep in tight rows, sweating and weary, in disintegrating bamboo huts with workers who are also traveling, and possibly infected with malaria.
The concept of containing drug resistance has never been tried before. Scientists wonder: How do you control the spread of a resistant parasite transmitted by mosquitoes that bite people who live and work in infested jungle areas, then scatter in all directions, all the time?
This area, the former stronghold of the murderous Khmer Rouge, has a notorious history. Burmese migrant workers who once mined rubies and sapphires in these now deforested hills are believed to have helped transport strains resistant to the drug chloroquine back to Myanmar a half century ago. From there it spread to India and later over to Africa until the drug was useless worldwide.
A decade later, history repeated itself when resistance to the drug sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine followed the same path.
Now, in western Cambodia, scientists are concerned because the artemisinin-based drugs are taking longer than usual to kill the parasites. Earlier this year, an army of aid agencies and experts from the WHO began racing to this impoverished corner on the Thai-Cambodian border to divvy up a $22.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at stopping this virulent new strain.
But grants haven't stopped lines of Cambodians, sick or not, from queuing up every morning at Thailand's border, charging past the checkpoints in search of work or goods. Some may carry resistant strains in, others may bring them home.
And grants haven't stopped the parasite from spreading in the O'treng area, despite widespread bednet distribution, awareness campaigns and enhanced surveillance systems. Some scientists say the only sure way to fix the problem is to eradicate malaria entirely from western Cambodia.
"It's really dangerous," says Dr. Rupam Tripura, who's conducting a study in Pailin for the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Program. "What will happen to the mosquitoes? Can you kill those living in the jungle? No, so you cannot kill the strain."
Malaria strikes again
If O'treng is the epicenter of this emerging disease, Phoun Sokha is the point man aimed at controlling it.
At 47, Phoun Sokha is the village malaria worker who lives at the mouth of the hamlet and proudly displays an orange plastic kit that resembles a tackle box.
Phoun Sokha is serious about his packets of medicine and his rapid tests to prick blood from sick villagers' fingers to determine if they have malaria and if so, what type. He makes sure patients are taking their free medicines and checks to see if they're improving. If not, Phoun Sokha can even arrange transportation to the hospital.
But treating O'treng's malaria patients can be frustrating.
"Some of the patients, when they went to the hospital, after one month, maybe they get malaria again," he says.
Today Hong Da, the village boy who has fought malaria so many times before, heads home from the hospital after a few days of treatment. He clutches a new mosquito net he hopes will prevent yet another infection. Together, the recovering boy and his weathered mom shuffle past sick neighbor Chhien Rern's shack before disappearing among the tassels of the cornfield toward their home.
But all is not well.
Under a tattered quilt, Hong Da's 9-year-old sister Hoeun Chhay Meth is curled on a thin mattress atop the wooden floor inside the family's open-air home.
She had malaria alongside her brother two months ago. They share a mosquito net that she burned a hole in when she stayed up one night reading by the light of a makeshift candle. Her brother thinks that's how the mosquitoes infected them.
"Very afraid of dying," says Chhay Meth, who has started taking medicine provided by the village malaria worker. "I feel worse than before. I cannot walk myself or stand up by myself and cannot eat well."
Hong Da understands. He gently lifts his little sister's limp body, scooping her up, his strength returning. Chhay Meth reaches weakly for her mother.
Like her big brother, this child doesn't know about counterfeit drugs or antimalarials.
She only knows she's sick. And the medicines don't seem to work as well any more in this little village she calls home.
Martha Mendoza is an AP national writer based in Mexico City.
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January 13, 2010 14:24 PM
Visiting Foreigners In Myanmar Taking Up Position To View Solar Eclipse
YANGON, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Foreigners visiting Myanmar have arrived at a number of the most ideal locations in the country to take up position to watch the millennium's longest solar eclipse, which will take place on Friday, China's Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
These locations are selected as Ngapali, Bagan, Popa, Mandalay Hill, Sagaing Hill and Monywa, and hotels in these areas have been packed with foreign travellers.
The annual solar eclipse with the longest duration of 11 minutes and 8 seconds in the 21st century, will be visible in Sittway in the west, Shwebo, Mandalay and Monywa in the central region, and Pyin Oo Lwin and Lashio in the east and northeast of Myanmar.
The astronomical phenomenon will begin in Myanmar at about 1:00 p.m. (Myanmar Standard Time) which will last for 3:30 hours until 4:30 p.m., said Myanmar's Meteorology and Hydrology Department, adding that the eclipse will reach its maximum between 3:05 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
The Jan 15 annual solar eclipse will start from central Africa and move across the Indian Ocean, southern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.
Astronomers in Myanmar said there will be two solar eclipses in the year 2010 and Myanmar will witness the first event on Jan 15, while the next one in July 1 would not be visible in the country.
Myanmar will only see such solar eclipse again on July 22, 2085, the astronomers added.
Visiting Foreigners In Myanmar Taking Up Position To View Solar Eclipse
YANGON, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Foreigners visiting Myanmar have arrived at a number of the most ideal locations in the country to take up position to watch the millennium's longest solar eclipse, which will take place on Friday, China's Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
These locations are selected as Ngapali, Bagan, Popa, Mandalay Hill, Sagaing Hill and Monywa, and hotels in these areas have been packed with foreign travellers.
The annual solar eclipse with the longest duration of 11 minutes and 8 seconds in the 21st century, will be visible in Sittway in the west, Shwebo, Mandalay and Monywa in the central region, and Pyin Oo Lwin and Lashio in the east and northeast of Myanmar.
The astronomical phenomenon will begin in Myanmar at about 1:00 p.m. (Myanmar Standard Time) which will last for 3:30 hours until 4:30 p.m., said Myanmar's Meteorology and Hydrology Department, adding that the eclipse will reach its maximum between 3:05 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
The Jan 15 annual solar eclipse will start from central Africa and move across the Indian Ocean, southern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.
Astronomers in Myanmar said there will be two solar eclipses in the year 2010 and Myanmar will witness the first event on Jan 15, while the next one in July 1 would not be visible in the country.
Myanmar will only see such solar eclipse again on July 22, 2085, the astronomers added.
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Insurgent blasts pylon in Myanmar Shan state-south
www.chinaview.cn 2010-01-13 10:40:13
YANGON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- An electricity pylon of a power grid in Myanmar's Shan state-south was officially confirmed Wednesday to have been blasted by an insurgent group last weekend, ausing interruption of power supply.
The authorities charged the unidentified insurgent group with leveling the 230-KVA cable-carrying tower to ground near Marseplovillage in Pekhon township at a location between Lawpyita and Toungoo on Jan. 9 evening, according to Wednesday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.
The damaged pylon is under emergency repair to resume power supply as soon as possible, the report said.
www.chinaview.cn 2010-01-13 10:40:13
YANGON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- An electricity pylon of a power grid in Myanmar's Shan state-south was officially confirmed Wednesday to have been blasted by an insurgent group last weekend, ausing interruption of power supply.
The authorities charged the unidentified insurgent group with leveling the 230-KVA cable-carrying tower to ground near Marseplovillage in Pekhon township at a location between Lawpyita and Toungoo on Jan. 9 evening, according to Wednesday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.
The damaged pylon is under emergency repair to resume power supply as soon as possible, the report said.
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People's Daily Online - Myanmar, Japan cooperate in resettlement project for disabled
15:32, January 11, 2010
Myanmar Health Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have been cooperating in implementing a resettlement project for the disabled in the country, aimed at helping them in their recovery efforts, sources with the ministry said on Monday.
The five-year project (2009-2013), being implemented at the National Disabled Recovery Hospital in Yangon, includes education and human resource development and upgrading of medical equipment for the hospital, the sources said. adding that information network between the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, non-governmental organizations and the health ministry will be established.
Under the technical cooperation project, the JICA is to provide technical know how to Myanmar and train Myanmar government employees in Japan, it said.
During last year, the Myanmar Disabled People Association (MDPA)drew two long-term resettlement projects for the disable people in the country as an encouraging measures by providing them with vocational opportunities.
The first three-year project have started implementation by the European Union organization and the Leprosy Mission International (TLMI) in five townships in the Yangon municipal area.
Another five-year project with TLMI in five regions of Mawlamyaing, Pathein, Taungoo, Pakkoku and Kyaingtong to be followed includes disseminating educational talks, teaching programs and vocational training programs.
In Myanmar, there are over 50 million populations, of which the disabled take up 1.3 million.
Among them, handicaps stood the highest with 72.3 percent, followed by visual impairment with 10.9 percent, hearing impairment with 9.5 percent and mentally impairment with 9 percent.
15:32, January 11, 2010
Myanmar Health Ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have been cooperating in implementing a resettlement project for the disabled in the country, aimed at helping them in their recovery efforts, sources with the ministry said on Monday.
The five-year project (2009-2013), being implemented at the National Disabled Recovery Hospital in Yangon, includes education and human resource development and upgrading of medical equipment for the hospital, the sources said. adding that information network between the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, non-governmental organizations and the health ministry will be established.
Under the technical cooperation project, the JICA is to provide technical know how to Myanmar and train Myanmar government employees in Japan, it said.
During last year, the Myanmar Disabled People Association (MDPA)drew two long-term resettlement projects for the disable people in the country as an encouraging measures by providing them with vocational opportunities.
The first three-year project have started implementation by the European Union organization and the Leprosy Mission International (TLMI) in five townships in the Yangon municipal area.
Another five-year project with TLMI in five regions of Mawlamyaing, Pathein, Taungoo, Pakkoku and Kyaingtong to be followed includes disseminating educational talks, teaching programs and vocational training programs.
In Myanmar, there are over 50 million populations, of which the disabled take up 1.3 million.
Among them, handicaps stood the highest with 72.3 percent, followed by visual impairment with 10.9 percent, hearing impairment with 9.5 percent and mentally impairment with 9 percent.
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Narinjara - Kyaukpru Seaport Renovated for Chinese Ships
1/12/2010
Kyaukpru : Arakan State's Kyaukpru Seaport, particularly Jetty No. 1, is being renovated by the junta authority in order to accommodate Chinese cargo ships using the port to transport Chinese goods and materials for the gas pipeline, said one engineer.
"The renovation of the jetty started this month and the jetty's length will be extended to 600 feet. The previous jetty was unable to harbor foreign ships. The renovation is intended to allow Chinese ships to harbor to it unfettered," he said.
Kyaukpru, located on Rambree Island in Arakan State, has become a key location on the Arakan Coast for dispatching gas and oil to China via pipelines.
The Chinese oil company Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, has been constructing a pipeline in the area since September 2009.
The pipeline is planned to extend from Madeira Island in Kyaukpru and run through Arakan State, Magway Division, Mandalay Division, and Shan State, and will enter China at Ruili in Yunnan Province.
"The Chinese company has now started the gas pipeline construction in our area and many cargo ships come to Kyaukpru to transport goods related to the pipelines. So the jetty is in need of modernization to harbor the cargo ships," the engineer added.
China will transport gas from Arakan State as well as oil from Africa and the Middle East through the pipelines using the Kyaukpru Harbor.
The pipeline will allow China to shorten the time for oil delivery from the Middle East by cutting out the need for oil tankers to travel through the Malacca Straits.
China is Burma's fourth-largest foreign investor, with a total investment of 1.3 billion dollars. Bilateral trade between the two neighbors reached 2.6 billion dollars in 2008.
1/12/2010
Kyaukpru : Arakan State's Kyaukpru Seaport, particularly Jetty No. 1, is being renovated by the junta authority in order to accommodate Chinese cargo ships using the port to transport Chinese goods and materials for the gas pipeline, said one engineer.
"The renovation of the jetty started this month and the jetty's length will be extended to 600 feet. The previous jetty was unable to harbor foreign ships. The renovation is intended to allow Chinese ships to harbor to it unfettered," he said.
Kyaukpru, located on Rambree Island in Arakan State, has become a key location on the Arakan Coast for dispatching gas and oil to China via pipelines.
The Chinese oil company Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, has been constructing a pipeline in the area since September 2009.
The pipeline is planned to extend from Madeira Island in Kyaukpru and run through Arakan State, Magway Division, Mandalay Division, and Shan State, and will enter China at Ruili in Yunnan Province.
"The Chinese company has now started the gas pipeline construction in our area and many cargo ships come to Kyaukpru to transport goods related to the pipelines. So the jetty is in need of modernization to harbor the cargo ships," the engineer added.
China will transport gas from Arakan State as well as oil from Africa and the Middle East through the pipelines using the Kyaukpru Harbor.
The pipeline will allow China to shorten the time for oil delivery from the Middle East by cutting out the need for oil tankers to travel through the Malacca Straits.
China is Burma's fourth-largest foreign investor, with a total investment of 1.3 billion dollars. Bilateral trade between the two neighbors reached 2.6 billion dollars in 2008.
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Burma to see longest solar eclipse of 21st century
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 16:31 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Residents of central Burma are poised to witness the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century, according to the Astrology Research Organization.
On January 15th, throughout middle Burma, including Monywa, Shwebo and the popular tourist locations of Pagan, Nyaung Oo, Poppa, Mandalay and Sagaing, the spectacle of the moon passing between the sun and earth will be readily visible.
Astrological events such as eclipses are of great importance to many Burmese, a country with a rich history of turning to the heavens in explanation of worldly events.
"After a solar and lunar eclipse, we have to see the omens, such as an earthquake or rain. Only after seeing and judging these omens, can we predict the future. If it rains after a solar eclipse, all the evils will be washed away. We also have to see the color of the sun at the time of the solar eclipse. We cannot simply, randomly and arbitrarily judge,” Burma Astrology Research Organization spokesman Kyaw Myint told Mizzima.
"Shwebo and Monywa will be the closest places in the line of the solar eclipse,” he added. “Mandalay will also see this eclipse fully, while people in Rangoon will only see a partial eclipse. This solar eclipse will first be seen in Sittwe in Burma and then pass across a line of Shwebo, Monywa, Shan State and into China. There will be both good and bad effects from the solar eclipse.”
According to the Astrology Research Organization, the solar eclipse will start at ten o'clock in the morning and culminate between three and four in the evening, Burma Standard Time.
"In Burma, we will see the solar eclipse at just past 10 o'clock in the morning and it will end at three to four o'clock in the afternoon. So we will not see a totally black object rising and setting in our country. Those countries in which such a sighting will be seen will have bad effects from the solar eclipse," explained Kyaw Myint.
The eclipse will be visible across the Indian Ocean, southern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma and China.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 16:31 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Residents of central Burma are poised to witness the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century, according to the Astrology Research Organization.
On January 15th, throughout middle Burma, including Monywa, Shwebo and the popular tourist locations of Pagan, Nyaung Oo, Poppa, Mandalay and Sagaing, the spectacle of the moon passing between the sun and earth will be readily visible.
Astrological events such as eclipses are of great importance to many Burmese, a country with a rich history of turning to the heavens in explanation of worldly events.
"After a solar and lunar eclipse, we have to see the omens, such as an earthquake or rain. Only after seeing and judging these omens, can we predict the future. If it rains after a solar eclipse, all the evils will be washed away. We also have to see the color of the sun at the time of the solar eclipse. We cannot simply, randomly and arbitrarily judge,” Burma Astrology Research Organization spokesman Kyaw Myint told Mizzima.
"Shwebo and Monywa will be the closest places in the line of the solar eclipse,” he added. “Mandalay will also see this eclipse fully, while people in Rangoon will only see a partial eclipse. This solar eclipse will first be seen in Sittwe in Burma and then pass across a line of Shwebo, Monywa, Shan State and into China. There will be both good and bad effects from the solar eclipse.”
According to the Astrology Research Organization, the solar eclipse will start at ten o'clock in the morning and culminate between three and four in the evening, Burma Standard Time.
"In Burma, we will see the solar eclipse at just past 10 o'clock in the morning and it will end at three to four o'clock in the afternoon. So we will not see a totally black object rising and setting in our country. Those countries in which such a sighting will be seen will have bad effects from the solar eclipse," explained Kyaw Myint.
The eclipse will be visible across the Indian Ocean, southern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma and China.
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Palpable tension between LID 66 and MAS unit
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:54 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – There is palpable tension between the Inma village based Burmese Army battalion under LID 66 and a battalion of the Military Affairs Security (MAS) in Pyi district of western Pegu division for unspecified reasons.
Local residents said, tension has been building up for about a week, between the MAS, the group that replaced the former Military Intelligence (MI), sent from Rangoon and the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 80 and LIB 5 based in Inma village of Thegon Township based.
“We have learnt that an intelligence unit, MAS, was sent recently from Rangoon to the LIB 5. There was some tension between this unit and the LIB 80. There have been disputes between them for about a week now. We also heard that it is an instance of disobedience and insubordination,” a local resident from Paungde town told Mizzima on Wednesday.
But BBC Burmese service broadcast in its yesterday evening programme, that there was shooting by LIB 80 under LID 66 on Sunday evening, which left a Sergeant from ILB 5 intelligence unit critically injured. He succumbed to his injuries at the military hospital between Inma village and Ywa Taung.
The BBC quoted a local resident of an army family saying, “LID 66 could not intervene in the current situation where tension has intensified. All the soldiers have been asked to take rest. Yesterdays’ shooting was reportedly the result of forcible entry by the intelligence unit.”
The BBC report added, “LIDs 80, 68 and 75 battalions have been disobedient and shown insubordination because of difficulties in day to day living since the third week of December”.
Though there has been a tradition of tension and dislike between infantry battalions and military intelligence units in the Burmese Army, there has so far been no incidents of such shooting among them, leaving people doubting the veracity of the news, a Rangoon based Mizzima reporter said.
But a former army officer, now living in exile, told Mizzima that in late December the LID 80 along with two other battalions based in the area were disobedient in connection with their poor salaries. He said, following the incident, at least 50 officers and other ranks were arrested.
Besides, the LID 66 commander Col. San Myint (BC 17953) has been court-martial and is put on trial at a military tribunal.
The former officer said, “It is not a clash, just tension among them mainly because of difficulties in their livelihood. They are unhappy about the unequal and higher pay being paid to ceasefire groups so they became disobedient.”
But, a regular military-affairs writer and columnist, Gamani said that there was a clash saying, “The shooting lasted only a while. The other side withdrew and currently the situation is calm.”
The LID 66, which was stationed at Kadone Kani village in Irrawaddy Delta during the Cyclone Nargis relief operations, have reportedly been into violation of the rights of villagers including the use of forced labour.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:54 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – There is palpable tension between the Inma village based Burmese Army battalion under LID 66 and a battalion of the Military Affairs Security (MAS) in Pyi district of western Pegu division for unspecified reasons.
Local residents said, tension has been building up for about a week, between the MAS, the group that replaced the former Military Intelligence (MI), sent from Rangoon and the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 80 and LIB 5 based in Inma village of Thegon Township based.
“We have learnt that an intelligence unit, MAS, was sent recently from Rangoon to the LIB 5. There was some tension between this unit and the LIB 80. There have been disputes between them for about a week now. We also heard that it is an instance of disobedience and insubordination,” a local resident from Paungde town told Mizzima on Wednesday.
But BBC Burmese service broadcast in its yesterday evening programme, that there was shooting by LIB 80 under LID 66 on Sunday evening, which left a Sergeant from ILB 5 intelligence unit critically injured. He succumbed to his injuries at the military hospital between Inma village and Ywa Taung.
The BBC quoted a local resident of an army family saying, “LID 66 could not intervene in the current situation where tension has intensified. All the soldiers have been asked to take rest. Yesterdays’ shooting was reportedly the result of forcible entry by the intelligence unit.”
The BBC report added, “LIDs 80, 68 and 75 battalions have been disobedient and shown insubordination because of difficulties in day to day living since the third week of December”.
Though there has been a tradition of tension and dislike between infantry battalions and military intelligence units in the Burmese Army, there has so far been no incidents of such shooting among them, leaving people doubting the veracity of the news, a Rangoon based Mizzima reporter said.
But a former army officer, now living in exile, told Mizzima that in late December the LID 80 along with two other battalions based in the area were disobedient in connection with their poor salaries. He said, following the incident, at least 50 officers and other ranks were arrested.
Besides, the LID 66 commander Col. San Myint (BC 17953) has been court-martial and is put on trial at a military tribunal.
The former officer said, “It is not a clash, just tension among them mainly because of difficulties in their livelihood. They are unhappy about the unequal and higher pay being paid to ceasefire groups so they became disobedient.”
But, a regular military-affairs writer and columnist, Gamani said that there was a clash saying, “The shooting lasted only a while. The other side withdrew and currently the situation is calm.”
The LID 66, which was stationed at Kadone Kani village in Irrawaddy Delta during the Cyclone Nargis relief operations, have reportedly been into violation of the rights of villagers including the use of forced labour.
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Junta finds scapegoats for government leaks, says former colleague
Sunday, 10 January 2010 21:59 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - A former foreign ministry employee has accused the Burmese military regime of trying to wipe out secrets of the past – the killing of SPDC's Secretary 2 General Tin Oo, who died in a controversial helicopter crash in 2001 by giving death sentences to two officials last Friday.
They were accused of leaking secret details of the military government’s ministerial visits to abroad and the network of tunnels built in Burma.
Sein Lwin, a former employee in the Burmese embassy in Cambodia told Mizzima in an interview that he does not believe that those who were sentenced to death by the Burmese regime last Friday leaked the information as accused by the Burmese government.
Sein Lwin (35), was in the Burmese embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia till 2004 as head of branch II and worked for intelligence gathering and reporting for the Burmese military. However, he was not in Burma at the time of the arrests last year.
Excerpts from the interview:
Qs. 1. What do you think of the recent death sentence to two officials because of secret documents leaked?
Ans: Starting from July 2009, the Head of Sa- Pha-Ra (Military Affairs Security- MAS) issued orders to his newly appointed intelligence officers at Naypyidaw to find out details of the leakage.
The new intelligence officers had to find scapegoats for temporary satisfaction of Lieutenant General Ye Myint, the chief of MAS. If the two men could be blamed for blowing the whistle, there would be no more news regarding transfer of staff members to embassies and abroad.
The dictators may hope that by giving the death penalty to the whistle blowers will stop others, but sooner or later, there will be more news and pictures on the public media again and again, until the regime is changed.
Qs: 2. Can you tell us about former army Major Win Naing Kyaw (who is a friend of Zaw Tun Oo, son of General Tin Oo) and how he was arrested?
Ans: He was working and living in Phnon Penh, Cambodia. He was traced by Brg. Gen Than Han from Military Attaché office in the Burmese embassy in Cambodia. He did not know that he was being watched and not only the leaked files. He knew that His boss Lt-Gen Tin Oo, former Secretary-2 of SLORC (State Law and Development Council, the name of the junta, which was changed to State Peace and Development Council) was assassinated in 2001. By this time, the Generals used one stone to kill two birds. Win Naing Kyaw was changing to the side of democracy activists and one day, if he revealed the details of the conspiracy, the current batch of generals would lose the support of the new generation within the army.
He came back in early December 2009. He was arrested at the Rangoon Mingalardon airport by MAS. To be honest, I was not in Burma but according to my sources, MAS found the pictures of tunnels and Gen. Shwe Mann’s North Korea trip. But the true reason is more secret files of Secretary 2 were stored in his laptop. But the generals did not want more ripples in the case.
Qs: 3. How can you tell that he is not the one who leaked secret files to the media in exile?
Ans. Win Naing Kyaw is not from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His last post was Director of the Foreign Economic Relations Department in the Ministry of National Planning. He quit his post around 2004-05 as he got a job with a UN agency.
In MOFA the cases are usually copied to Ka Ka- Kyi (Office of Chief of Staff of Defence Services - Army), Ka Ka (Hlan) (Chief of Staff of Defence Service s- Intelligence) and the Head Office of Home Affairs. The John Yattaw case for instance and all other files spread around the government departments.
Qs: 4. The junta sentenced to death not only Win Naing Kyaw but also Thura Kyaw, a clerk in the Foreign Ministry. The files may have come from Thura Kyaw. What do you say?
Ans. Even though the case file was from Thura Kyaw’s office room, there are similar copies in other government agencies. In Naypyidaw, there is freedom to access the internet and they also need to count on Ka Ka- Kyi and Ka Ka- Hlan. Someone else from the defence establishment could have easily sent it. In this case, finding Thura Kyaw’s files in the laptop of Win Naing Kyaw is illogical but they could not defend themselves at the junta court controlled by MAS.
At any cost, Senior Gen Than Shwe wanted to wipe out the straw from the past. This time, finding files in his laptop became valid evidence in court.
Qs. 5. Did you know where they were detained and about his trial?
Once they caught him, they reported to the headquarters of the MAS and sent him to Yae Kyi Eye for interrogation then before being sentenced he was sent to Insein Prison. The court is the northern province court in Insein township, Shwe Pyi Tha road.
Qs. 6. What is the evidence that S2 was assassinated?
Ans. While I was attending the the Criminal Investigation Department - CID’s course at the old MOFA in 2002, Win Naing Kyaw attended that course too and we become close friends. At that time, the helicopter pilot, a Major was saved from the San Lwin River but was shot dead.
Qs. 7. Who shot the pilot?
Ans. It is not known. But it could be between the military intelligence or the army.
The authorities did not allow publication of the funeral advertisement in the state-run newspaper. Zaw Tun Oo, son of S2 Tin Oo is still in MOFA. He and I were in the same batch in Phaung Gyi (government employees training) in 1998. According to him, there was a big power rivalry between his father and Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt at that point in time.
Qs. 8. Why did you decide to defect and what are the immediate causes?
Well, former Major Win Naing Kyaw did not know that he was being watched and was blacklisted. If he knew he would not have gone back to Burma. As for me, I learnt that I and some of the other former staff members were already blacklisted. So, I had to defect, even though I love my country. The day it is safe I will proudly go back to Burma and that would be the day the country gets genuine democracy.
Qs 9. What do you think of the nuclear ambition of the regime?
The military government is really afraid of being attacked by the US like Iraq.
Having military might by getting nuclear missiles may give it more weight politically and it assumes the US will not attack the regime.
Qs. 10. What do you know about regime 2010 election plan?
Ans. The regime won’t allow free and fair polls like 1990. The Union Solidarity Development Association would win by a majority. So, with one stone the junta will kill three birds. The junta will also automatically cancel the results of the 1990 elections and disarm ethnic groups.
Qs. 11. What do you know about the regime's plan for ceasefire and the Border Guard Force issue?
Ans. The cease-fire groups are already in the trap of the Generals with their long term plan, which was initiated by former Military Intelligence Chief Khin Nyunt. Forming the Border Guard forces under army control is a tactic to destroy the armed groups over a five year plan. Five years on, there will be no Border Guard Force troops, who Burmese Army soldiers will replace gradually.
Qs 12. What do you think of the relationship between North Korea and the Burmese regime? What are North Korea’s projects in Burma?
Ans. The two countries are politically isolated in the international community. There are a lot of nuclear projects including the training of Burmese military intelligence personnel. You may already have read about the secret files and these are true.
Sunday, 10 January 2010 21:59 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - A former foreign ministry employee has accused the Burmese military regime of trying to wipe out secrets of the past – the killing of SPDC's Secretary 2 General Tin Oo, who died in a controversial helicopter crash in 2001 by giving death sentences to two officials last Friday.
They were accused of leaking secret details of the military government’s ministerial visits to abroad and the network of tunnels built in Burma.
Sein Lwin, a former employee in the Burmese embassy in Cambodia told Mizzima in an interview that he does not believe that those who were sentenced to death by the Burmese regime last Friday leaked the information as accused by the Burmese government.
Sein Lwin (35), was in the Burmese embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia till 2004 as head of branch II and worked for intelligence gathering and reporting for the Burmese military. However, he was not in Burma at the time of the arrests last year.
Excerpts from the interview:
Qs. 1. What do you think of the recent death sentence to two officials because of secret documents leaked?
Ans: Starting from July 2009, the Head of Sa- Pha-Ra (Military Affairs Security- MAS) issued orders to his newly appointed intelligence officers at Naypyidaw to find out details of the leakage.
The new intelligence officers had to find scapegoats for temporary satisfaction of Lieutenant General Ye Myint, the chief of MAS. If the two men could be blamed for blowing the whistle, there would be no more news regarding transfer of staff members to embassies and abroad.
The dictators may hope that by giving the death penalty to the whistle blowers will stop others, but sooner or later, there will be more news and pictures on the public media again and again, until the regime is changed.
Qs: 2. Can you tell us about former army Major Win Naing Kyaw (who is a friend of Zaw Tun Oo, son of General Tin Oo) and how he was arrested?
Ans: He was working and living in Phnon Penh, Cambodia. He was traced by Brg. Gen Than Han from Military Attaché office in the Burmese embassy in Cambodia. He did not know that he was being watched and not only the leaked files. He knew that His boss Lt-Gen Tin Oo, former Secretary-2 of SLORC (State Law and Development Council, the name of the junta, which was changed to State Peace and Development Council) was assassinated in 2001. By this time, the Generals used one stone to kill two birds. Win Naing Kyaw was changing to the side of democracy activists and one day, if he revealed the details of the conspiracy, the current batch of generals would lose the support of the new generation within the army.
He came back in early December 2009. He was arrested at the Rangoon Mingalardon airport by MAS. To be honest, I was not in Burma but according to my sources, MAS found the pictures of tunnels and Gen. Shwe Mann’s North Korea trip. But the true reason is more secret files of Secretary 2 were stored in his laptop. But the generals did not want more ripples in the case.
Qs: 3. How can you tell that he is not the one who leaked secret files to the media in exile?
Ans. Win Naing Kyaw is not from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His last post was Director of the Foreign Economic Relations Department in the Ministry of National Planning. He quit his post around 2004-05 as he got a job with a UN agency.
In MOFA the cases are usually copied to Ka Ka- Kyi (Office of Chief of Staff of Defence Services - Army), Ka Ka (Hlan) (Chief of Staff of Defence Service s- Intelligence) and the Head Office of Home Affairs. The John Yattaw case for instance and all other files spread around the government departments.
Qs: 4. The junta sentenced to death not only Win Naing Kyaw but also Thura Kyaw, a clerk in the Foreign Ministry. The files may have come from Thura Kyaw. What do you say?
Ans. Even though the case file was from Thura Kyaw’s office room, there are similar copies in other government agencies. In Naypyidaw, there is freedom to access the internet and they also need to count on Ka Ka- Kyi and Ka Ka- Hlan. Someone else from the defence establishment could have easily sent it. In this case, finding Thura Kyaw’s files in the laptop of Win Naing Kyaw is illogical but they could not defend themselves at the junta court controlled by MAS.
At any cost, Senior Gen Than Shwe wanted to wipe out the straw from the past. This time, finding files in his laptop became valid evidence in court.
Qs. 5. Did you know where they were detained and about his trial?
Once they caught him, they reported to the headquarters of the MAS and sent him to Yae Kyi Eye for interrogation then before being sentenced he was sent to Insein Prison. The court is the northern province court in Insein township, Shwe Pyi Tha road.
Qs. 6. What is the evidence that S2 was assassinated?
Ans. While I was attending the the Criminal Investigation Department - CID’s course at the old MOFA in 2002, Win Naing Kyaw attended that course too and we become close friends. At that time, the helicopter pilot, a Major was saved from the San Lwin River but was shot dead.
Qs. 7. Who shot the pilot?
Ans. It is not known. But it could be between the military intelligence or the army.
The authorities did not allow publication of the funeral advertisement in the state-run newspaper. Zaw Tun Oo, son of S2 Tin Oo is still in MOFA. He and I were in the same batch in Phaung Gyi (government employees training) in 1998. According to him, there was a big power rivalry between his father and Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt at that point in time.
Qs. 8. Why did you decide to defect and what are the immediate causes?
Well, former Major Win Naing Kyaw did not know that he was being watched and was blacklisted. If he knew he would not have gone back to Burma. As for me, I learnt that I and some of the other former staff members were already blacklisted. So, I had to defect, even though I love my country. The day it is safe I will proudly go back to Burma and that would be the day the country gets genuine democracy.
Qs 9. What do you think of the nuclear ambition of the regime?
The military government is really afraid of being attacked by the US like Iraq.
Having military might by getting nuclear missiles may give it more weight politically and it assumes the US will not attack the regime.
Qs. 10. What do you know about regime 2010 election plan?
Ans. The regime won’t allow free and fair polls like 1990. The Union Solidarity Development Association would win by a majority. So, with one stone the junta will kill three birds. The junta will also automatically cancel the results of the 1990 elections and disarm ethnic groups.
Qs. 11. What do you know about the regime's plan for ceasefire and the Border Guard Force issue?
Ans. The cease-fire groups are already in the trap of the Generals with their long term plan, which was initiated by former Military Intelligence Chief Khin Nyunt. Forming the Border Guard forces under army control is a tactic to destroy the armed groups over a five year plan. Five years on, there will be no Border Guard Force troops, who Burmese Army soldiers will replace gradually.
Qs 12. What do you think of the relationship between North Korea and the Burmese regime? What are North Korea’s projects in Burma?
Ans. The two countries are politically isolated in the international community. There are a lot of nuclear projects including the training of Burmese military intelligence personnel. You may already have read about the secret files and these are true.
***********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Burma Ranked ‘Worst of the Worst’
By ARKAR MOE - Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Freedom House, the Washington- based human rights group, says Burma is the "worst of the worst" in providing political rights and civil liberties to its citizens.
The report, released on Tuesday, which surveyed 194 countries, said that some Asian countries saw progress, while others—including Burma, China and North Korea—continued to repress the basic rights of their citizens.
The "Freedom in the World 2010" report found the longest continuous period of decline for global freedoms in the nearly 40-year history of the report, according to a press release.
Founded in 1941, Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights and publishes an annual report each year.
The survey analyzed developments that occurred in 2009 and assigned each country a freedom status—free, partly free, or not free—based on a scoring of performance on key indicators.
There were no surprises among countries designated as "Not Free:" nine countries— including Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Tibet, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—received the lowest possible scores, the "worst of the worst."
This year’s findings reflected growing pressures on journalists and new media and restrictions on freedom of association and repression aimed at civic activists who promote political reform and respect for human rights.
"The decline is global, affects countries with military and economic power, affects countries that had previously shown signs of reform potential and is accompanied by enhanced persecution of political dissidents and independent journalists," Arch Puddington, the Freedom House director of research said in a press release. "To make matters worse, the most powerful authoritarian regimes have become more repressive, more influential in the international arena and more uncompromising."
The group also noted that analysis of data between 2005 and 2009 shows "there have been growing pressures on freedom of expression, including press freedom, as well as on civic activists engaged in promoting political reform and respect for human rights, including the rights of workers to organize."
Intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists around the world helped make 2009 a "rights recession," the watchdog group said.
Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “The Burmese military junta should take note of the reports of Freedom House and other world organizations because they can provide guidance about how to solve issues.”
Freedom House says more than 2.3 billion people in the world live in societies where fundamental political rights and civil liberties are not respected.
By ARKAR MOE - Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Freedom House, the Washington- based human rights group, says Burma is the "worst of the worst" in providing political rights and civil liberties to its citizens.
The report, released on Tuesday, which surveyed 194 countries, said that some Asian countries saw progress, while others—including Burma, China and North Korea—continued to repress the basic rights of their citizens.
The "Freedom in the World 2010" report found the longest continuous period of decline for global freedoms in the nearly 40-year history of the report, according to a press release.
Founded in 1941, Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights and publishes an annual report each year.
The survey analyzed developments that occurred in 2009 and assigned each country a freedom status—free, partly free, or not free—based on a scoring of performance on key indicators.
There were no surprises among countries designated as "Not Free:" nine countries— including Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Tibet, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—received the lowest possible scores, the "worst of the worst."
This year’s findings reflected growing pressures on journalists and new media and restrictions on freedom of association and repression aimed at civic activists who promote political reform and respect for human rights.
"The decline is global, affects countries with military and economic power, affects countries that had previously shown signs of reform potential and is accompanied by enhanced persecution of political dissidents and independent journalists," Arch Puddington, the Freedom House director of research said in a press release. "To make matters worse, the most powerful authoritarian regimes have become more repressive, more influential in the international arena and more uncompromising."
The group also noted that analysis of data between 2005 and 2009 shows "there have been growing pressures on freedom of expression, including press freedom, as well as on civic activists engaged in promoting political reform and respect for human rights, including the rights of workers to organize."
Intensified repression against human rights defenders and civic activists around the world helped make 2009 a "rights recession," the watchdog group said.
Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “The Burmese military junta should take note of the reports of Freedom House and other world organizations because they can provide guidance about how to solve issues.”
Freedom House says more than 2.3 billion people in the world live in societies where fundamental political rights and civil liberties are not respected.
***********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Rice Price Increases Halt after Ministry Appeal
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Increases in the price of rice in Burma's markets halted on Wednesday after Ministry of Commerce warned traders to keep prices stable in order to slow inflation.
The warning comes as inflationary pressures increase following a round of salary increases for civil servants. Rice prices rose steadily this week and rumors circulated that electricity charges were to double.
The domestic price for 25 percent broken export rice increased this week from 13,500 kyat (US $13.5) a 50 kg sack to 13,900 kyat ($13.9), and the price for high-grade Ziya export rice rose from 17,000 kyat ($17) to 19,000 kyat ($19).
Last year, Burma sold 25 percent broken rice at $270-$280 per tonne free on board (FOB), compared with $348-$353 quoted for a similar Vietnamese variety.
In the fiscal year 2007-08, Burma's rice exports were a meager 358,500 tons, much of it to Africa.
The country's rice exports fell after Cyclone Nargis struck in May 2008 and the Burmese junta banned exports to preserve stocks. The ban, however, was eased in July 2008.
Currently, Burma has been endeavoring to expand its international rice market especially to countries of the European Union, according to China's Xinhua news agency.
Increases in the price of rice and other goods were expected following an across-the-board salary increase of 20,000 kyat ($20) for civil servants and military staff earning between the lowest monthly wage of 15,000 kyat ($15) and 200,000 kyat ($200).
Burma has an estimated 20,000 government staff working at 30 ministries, according to the AFP news agency.
Among recent price rises was a doubling by the Myanmar [Burma] Post and Telecommunication Enterprise of the call charge of mobile phones from 25 kyat ($ 0.025) to 50 kyats ($ 0.05) per minute, which came into effect on Jan. 1.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Increases in the price of rice in Burma's markets halted on Wednesday after Ministry of Commerce warned traders to keep prices stable in order to slow inflation.
The warning comes as inflationary pressures increase following a round of salary increases for civil servants. Rice prices rose steadily this week and rumors circulated that electricity charges were to double.
The domestic price for 25 percent broken export rice increased this week from 13,500 kyat (US $13.5) a 50 kg sack to 13,900 kyat ($13.9), and the price for high-grade Ziya export rice rose from 17,000 kyat ($17) to 19,000 kyat ($19).
Last year, Burma sold 25 percent broken rice at $270-$280 per tonne free on board (FOB), compared with $348-$353 quoted for a similar Vietnamese variety.
In the fiscal year 2007-08, Burma's rice exports were a meager 358,500 tons, much of it to Africa.
The country's rice exports fell after Cyclone Nargis struck in May 2008 and the Burmese junta banned exports to preserve stocks. The ban, however, was eased in July 2008.
Currently, Burma has been endeavoring to expand its international rice market especially to countries of the European Union, according to China's Xinhua news agency.
Increases in the price of rice and other goods were expected following an across-the-board salary increase of 20,000 kyat ($20) for civil servants and military staff earning between the lowest monthly wage of 15,000 kyat ($15) and 200,000 kyat ($200).
Burma has an estimated 20,000 government staff working at 30 ministries, according to the AFP news agency.
Among recent price rises was a doubling by the Myanmar [Burma] Post and Telecommunication Enterprise of the call charge of mobile phones from 25 kyat ($ 0.025) to 50 kyats ($ 0.05) per minute, which came into effect on Jan. 1.
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The Irrawaddy - NLD Reorganizes For New Challenges
By WAI MOE - Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The National League for Democracy (NLD) has reorganized its Central Executive Committee (CEC) to prepare for new challenges, including the coming national election.
The CEC met at its Rangoon headquarters on Monday and named 9 new members to the current 11-member board.
The new CEC members, all in their 60s or 70s, were not identified, but will be announced sometime next week. The new members all currently serve on the NLD central work committee supporting the CEC.
Names being tipped by NLD sources as new CEC members include Han Thar Myint, May Win Myint, Nyan Win, Ohn Kyaing,Than Nyein, Thein Nyunt, Tun Tun Hein, Win Myint and Win Naing. All were elected members of parliament in the 1990 elections. The military junta never honored that election's results.
“Even though the party chose not participate in the election, we will have to prepare for the pre- and post-election period,” said Win Tin, a prominent NLD leader. “The NLD leadership, with new CEC members, will be more dynamic and proactive to face the country’s dilemmas and challenges.”
Several of those tipped have helped support the current CEC board, in effect filling in for a number of aged NLD board members who have not been able to fully meet their duties. As members of the NLD’s information committee, Han Thar Myint and Nyan Win, are well known by the public. Ohn Kyaing is chairman of the NLD relief committee.
Younger NLD sources said ailing NLD chairman Aung Shwe took an active role in selecting the new CEC members. Tun Tun Hein and Win Myint are considered his close associates.
Following the reorganization of the leadership team, the NLD will also reorganize at the division, state and township levels, said Win Tin. However, he said that the junta could deny the NLD permission to re-open its offices outside of Rangoon, most of which have been closed for years.
In the early 1990s, the junta’s election commission announced that it would not allow reorganization of leadership within political parties in Burma. The junta forced the NLD to remove detained leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo, Win Tin and Khin Maung Swe from leadership positions.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were reappointed to the CEC in 1995 following their release. Win Tin and Khing Maung Swe became CEC members again in 2009. Both of them were released from prison in late 2008.
Among the challenges the NLD could face this year would be the abolition of the party should it fail to take part in the election. It's participation would give the election more credibility within the country and the international community.
The NLD currently stands behind its Shwe Gone Taing declaration, which calls for the release of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, a review of the Constitution, political dialogue and recognition of the 1990 elections results. However, many observers believe it could still find a way to participate in the election, even if its conditions are not met.
Win Tin said that since the election law has yet to be made public, it is too early to say whether the NLD will join the election.
The CEC reorganization was a disappointment for some political observers, who were expecting more participation by younger members.
“I expected the CEC reorganization to bring dynamic leaders in from the lower levels of the party rather than all coming from the top,” said one ethnic leader in Rangoon, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But leadership from the ground level is yet to come.”
“2010 is quite important for all citizens of Burma and as the main opposition, the NLD has more responsibility,” he said. “It's time the NLD played a more active role.”
By WAI MOE - Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The National League for Democracy (NLD) has reorganized its Central Executive Committee (CEC) to prepare for new challenges, including the coming national election.
The CEC met at its Rangoon headquarters on Monday and named 9 new members to the current 11-member board.
The new CEC members, all in their 60s or 70s, were not identified, but will be announced sometime next week. The new members all currently serve on the NLD central work committee supporting the CEC.
Names being tipped by NLD sources as new CEC members include Han Thar Myint, May Win Myint, Nyan Win, Ohn Kyaing,Than Nyein, Thein Nyunt, Tun Tun Hein, Win Myint and Win Naing. All were elected members of parliament in the 1990 elections. The military junta never honored that election's results.
“Even though the party chose not participate in the election, we will have to prepare for the pre- and post-election period,” said Win Tin, a prominent NLD leader. “The NLD leadership, with new CEC members, will be more dynamic and proactive to face the country’s dilemmas and challenges.”
Several of those tipped have helped support the current CEC board, in effect filling in for a number of aged NLD board members who have not been able to fully meet their duties. As members of the NLD’s information committee, Han Thar Myint and Nyan Win, are well known by the public. Ohn Kyaing is chairman of the NLD relief committee.
Younger NLD sources said ailing NLD chairman Aung Shwe took an active role in selecting the new CEC members. Tun Tun Hein and Win Myint are considered his close associates.
Following the reorganization of the leadership team, the NLD will also reorganize at the division, state and township levels, said Win Tin. However, he said that the junta could deny the NLD permission to re-open its offices outside of Rangoon, most of which have been closed for years.
In the early 1990s, the junta’s election commission announced that it would not allow reorganization of leadership within political parties in Burma. The junta forced the NLD to remove detained leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo, Win Tin and Khin Maung Swe from leadership positions.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were reappointed to the CEC in 1995 following their release. Win Tin and Khing Maung Swe became CEC members again in 2009. Both of them were released from prison in late 2008.
Among the challenges the NLD could face this year would be the abolition of the party should it fail to take part in the election. It's participation would give the election more credibility within the country and the international community.
The NLD currently stands behind its Shwe Gone Taing declaration, which calls for the release of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, a review of the Constitution, political dialogue and recognition of the 1990 elections results. However, many observers believe it could still find a way to participate in the election, even if its conditions are not met.
Win Tin said that since the election law has yet to be made public, it is too early to say whether the NLD will join the election.
The CEC reorganization was a disappointment for some political observers, who were expecting more participation by younger members.
“I expected the CEC reorganization to bring dynamic leaders in from the lower levels of the party rather than all coming from the top,” said one ethnic leader in Rangoon, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But leadership from the ground level is yet to come.”
“2010 is quite important for all citizens of Burma and as the main opposition, the NLD has more responsibility,” he said. “It's time the NLD played a more active role.”
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Army reshuffle focuses on ceasefire areas
Jan 13, 2010 (DVB)–Part of a reshuffle within the Burmese army has included the promotion of a number of middle-ranking officials to positions in close proximity to a fragile ceasefire area, according to leaked information.
At least six Lieutenant Colonels were recently promoted to Tactical Operations Commander (TOC) and Military Operations Commander (MOC) positions, four of these in Shan state, which is largely controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Despite holding a ceasefire agreement, relations between the Burmese army and UWSA are growing increasingly strained. The ruling junta has pressured all of Burma’s ceasefire groups to transform into border patrol forces, and thus come under direct control of the junta, prior to elections this year.
The refusal by the UWSA and the majority of the 17 other ceasefire groups has led to speculation that fighting will erupt in ceasefire areas in the run-up to polling.
Another army official, Lieutenant Colonel Aung Zaw Oo, has been sent to Burma’s western Arakan state, while Lieutenant Colonel Thike Soe will serve as Tactical Operations Commander in Mandalay division’s Light Infantry Division 99. Troops from the LID 99 were sent to fight in the Kokang conflict in Shan state last year.
Furthermore, Colonel Win Thein, who previously served in the office of Joint Chief of Staff General Thura Shwe Mann, has become vice commander of the North Eastern (Regional) Military Command, based near the Kokang region.
Burmese military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw said that the recent reshuffle that came after the junta’s quarterly meeting was incongruent with the normal practice of promoting people from TOC and MOC ranks to those higher.
“So we are wondering where the [previous] TOC and MOC commanders have gone,” he said. “Were they transferred to civilian postings as a preparation for the elections?”
He added that the Burmese government was also “siphoning off officials in the foreign ministry”. Around 30 high-ranking Burmese embassy officials have been reshuffled in what analysts have said could be a diplomatic offensive prior to the elections.
But according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, in previous years the military generals have assigned TOC and MOC commanders to the foreign ministry, while current foreign minister, Nyan Win, was formerly a headmaster in the Defence Services Academy.
He said that this could account for the “disappearance” of current TOCs and MOCs from the military following the promotions, although the Burmese government rarely publicises details of army reshuffles.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw
Jan 13, 2010 (DVB)–Part of a reshuffle within the Burmese army has included the promotion of a number of middle-ranking officials to positions in close proximity to a fragile ceasefire area, according to leaked information.
At least six Lieutenant Colonels were recently promoted to Tactical Operations Commander (TOC) and Military Operations Commander (MOC) positions, four of these in Shan state, which is largely controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Despite holding a ceasefire agreement, relations between the Burmese army and UWSA are growing increasingly strained. The ruling junta has pressured all of Burma’s ceasefire groups to transform into border patrol forces, and thus come under direct control of the junta, prior to elections this year.
The refusal by the UWSA and the majority of the 17 other ceasefire groups has led to speculation that fighting will erupt in ceasefire areas in the run-up to polling.
Another army official, Lieutenant Colonel Aung Zaw Oo, has been sent to Burma’s western Arakan state, while Lieutenant Colonel Thike Soe will serve as Tactical Operations Commander in Mandalay division’s Light Infantry Division 99. Troops from the LID 99 were sent to fight in the Kokang conflict in Shan state last year.
Furthermore, Colonel Win Thein, who previously served in the office of Joint Chief of Staff General Thura Shwe Mann, has become vice commander of the North Eastern (Regional) Military Command, based near the Kokang region.
Burmese military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw said that the recent reshuffle that came after the junta’s quarterly meeting was incongruent with the normal practice of promoting people from TOC and MOC ranks to those higher.
“So we are wondering where the [previous] TOC and MOC commanders have gone,” he said. “Were they transferred to civilian postings as a preparation for the elections?”
He added that the Burmese government was also “siphoning off officials in the foreign ministry”. Around 30 high-ranking Burmese embassy officials have been reshuffled in what analysts have said could be a diplomatic offensive prior to the elections.
But according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, in previous years the military generals have assigned TOC and MOC commanders to the foreign ministry, while current foreign minister, Nyan Win, was formerly a headmaster in the Defence Services Academy.
He said that this could account for the “disappearance” of current TOCs and MOCs from the military following the promotions, although the Burmese government rarely publicises details of army reshuffles.
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw
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