Malaysia calls on Myanmar to free Suu Kyi ahead of polls
Tue Feb 9, 3:06 am ET
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia Tuesday called on military-run Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of national elections it expects to be held around October.
"We want a free, fair and an inclusive election. We should give everybody a chance, including Aung San Suu Kyi," Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told AFP, adding he thought the vote would be held "around October".
"We hope she will be freed. We feel that giving all a chance is democracy. Then it becomes a legitimate election," he added.
Myanmar's junta has pledged to hold elections in 2010, but has not set a date for the polls, which would be the first since 1990, when it refused to recognise a landslide win by Aung San Suu Kyi's party.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic minorities have been deeply suspicious about the election, fearing the junta will use it to legitimise its rule.
Anifah said the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had taken a common stand in urging Myanmar to proceed with its vaunted "roadmap to democracy".
"All the ASEAN countries say: 'Let's have a free and fair election'," he said.
Malaysia had relatively close ties with Myanmar in the past, but the relationship cooled in recent years as Malaysia took a tougher line on the military regime.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said earlier this month that Myanmar's elections are likely to be held around September but that they are shaping up to be a "farce" with Aung San Suu Kyi unable to run.
Suu Kyi, 64, has been held in detention at her lakeside villa in the Myanmar capital Yangon for 14 of the past 20 years.
US President Barack Obama's administration has called for a free election in Myanmar as part of its policy of engagement with the reclusive nation, which is under tight sanctions imposed by the US and European nations.
Tue Feb 9, 3:06 am ET
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia Tuesday called on military-run Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of national elections it expects to be held around October.
"We want a free, fair and an inclusive election. We should give everybody a chance, including Aung San Suu Kyi," Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told AFP, adding he thought the vote would be held "around October".
"We hope she will be freed. We feel that giving all a chance is democracy. Then it becomes a legitimate election," he added.
Myanmar's junta has pledged to hold elections in 2010, but has not set a date for the polls, which would be the first since 1990, when it refused to recognise a landslide win by Aung San Suu Kyi's party.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic minorities have been deeply suspicious about the election, fearing the junta will use it to legitimise its rule.
Anifah said the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had taken a common stand in urging Myanmar to proceed with its vaunted "roadmap to democracy".
"All the ASEAN countries say: 'Let's have a free and fair election'," he said.
Malaysia had relatively close ties with Myanmar in the past, but the relationship cooled in recent years as Malaysia took a tougher line on the military regime.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said earlier this month that Myanmar's elections are likely to be held around September but that they are shaping up to be a "farce" with Aung San Suu Kyi unable to run.
Suu Kyi, 64, has been held in detention at her lakeside villa in the Myanmar capital Yangon for 14 of the past 20 years.
US President Barack Obama's administration has called for a free election in Myanmar as part of its policy of engagement with the reclusive nation, which is under tight sanctions imposed by the US and European nations.
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Too early for decision on Myanmar election, says Suu Kyi
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
YANGON — Detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi believes it is too early for her party to decide whether to take part in Myanmar's national elections this year, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), said the Nobel Peace Laureate had told him that "this is not the time to decide."
"Daw Suu said we cannot say at this moment whether to participate in the election... The main reason she gave is the lack of freedom of information," Nyan Win said, using a term of respect for Suu Kyi.
"Daw Suu said freedom of information, freedom of expression, free and fair elections are important needs. So no decision can be made without these things," he added.
Myanmar's ruling junta has promised polls for this year as part of their so-called seven-step Roadmap to Democracy, but no date has yet been set and critics say the plans are simply to entrench the generals' power.
The elections, which analysts predict will take place in October or November, would be the first held since 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide but was never allowed to take power.
The government claims a new constitution, agreed in a referendum held in May 2008 in the wake of a devastating cyclone that killed up to 138,000 people in Myanmar, nullifies the result of those earlier polls.
The new charter bans Suu Kyi from holding elected office, while reserving a quarter of the seats in parliament for serving soldiers.
Suu Kyi has spent most of the last two decades under house arrest, which was extended by 18 months last August when she was held partly responsible for a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home uninvited.
She is currently appealing against her latest conviction.
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
YANGON — Detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi believes it is too early for her party to decide whether to take part in Myanmar's national elections this year, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), said the Nobel Peace Laureate had told him that "this is not the time to decide."
"Daw Suu said we cannot say at this moment whether to participate in the election... The main reason she gave is the lack of freedom of information," Nyan Win said, using a term of respect for Suu Kyi.
"Daw Suu said freedom of information, freedom of expression, free and fair elections are important needs. So no decision can be made without these things," he added.
Myanmar's ruling junta has promised polls for this year as part of their so-called seven-step Roadmap to Democracy, but no date has yet been set and critics say the plans are simply to entrench the generals' power.
The elections, which analysts predict will take place in October or November, would be the first held since 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide but was never allowed to take power.
The government claims a new constitution, agreed in a referendum held in May 2008 in the wake of a devastating cyclone that killed up to 138,000 people in Myanmar, nullifies the result of those earlier polls.
The new charter bans Suu Kyi from holding elected office, while reserving a quarter of the seats in parliament for serving soldiers.
Suu Kyi has spent most of the last two decades under house arrest, which was extended by 18 months last August when she was held partly responsible for a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home uninvited.
She is currently appealing against her latest conviction.
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Somali pirates say freed Indian-crewed ship
Tue Feb 9, 6:35 am ET
MOGADISHU (AFP) – Somali pirates said Tuesday they have released a Panamanian-flagged ship and its mostly Indian crew of 26 after receiving a ransom of 3.1 million dollars.
"The ship was freed this afternoon after 3.1 million US dollars were paid to the pirates who had been holding it for a long time," Mohamed Ilkase, a pirate leader, told AFP by phone.
The Al Khaliq bulk carrier was hijacked on October 22 around 180 nautical miles from Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
"The ship is still here but the pirates have already deserted it and have come back to shore with their ransom money," said Ilkase, speaking from the main pirate lair of Harardhere, north of the capital Mogadishu.
Other sources confirmed that the ship was free.
"The pirates released this ship they had been holding near Harardhere. I heard they took more than three million dollars in ransom," said Moalim Abdullahi Diriye, a local elder.
A fisherman said he saw some of the pirates returning ashore from the ship with bags of cash.
"The pirates had been holding that ship near Hundule and I saw them coming ashore, they were carrying bags of money in their speedboats," said Hussein Shugle.
The Al Khaliq's crew consists of 24 Indians and two Burmese nationals.
The release of the 22,000-tonne bulk carrier reduces to 11 the number of foreign vessels still held by Somali pirates, together with more than 200 crew members.
The vessel -- seized within hours of the capture of British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler -- was one of the longest-running hijacking cases.
The only remaining vessel to have been held longer is the FV Win Far 161, a Taiwanese fishing vessel which has a crew of 30 from various Asian nationalities and was seized in April last year.
The town of Harardhere is currently awash with cash following the release of several ships in exchange for large ransoms, including seven million dollars air-dropped to free a 330-metre-long Greek supertanker last month.
According to some studies, Somalia's rag-tag army of sea bandits raked in at least 60 million dollars in ransom payments in 2009.
Tue Feb 9, 6:35 am ET
MOGADISHU (AFP) – Somali pirates said Tuesday they have released a Panamanian-flagged ship and its mostly Indian crew of 26 after receiving a ransom of 3.1 million dollars.
"The ship was freed this afternoon after 3.1 million US dollars were paid to the pirates who had been holding it for a long time," Mohamed Ilkase, a pirate leader, told AFP by phone.
The Al Khaliq bulk carrier was hijacked on October 22 around 180 nautical miles from Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
"The ship is still here but the pirates have already deserted it and have come back to shore with their ransom money," said Ilkase, speaking from the main pirate lair of Harardhere, north of the capital Mogadishu.
Other sources confirmed that the ship was free.
"The pirates released this ship they had been holding near Harardhere. I heard they took more than three million dollars in ransom," said Moalim Abdullahi Diriye, a local elder.
A fisherman said he saw some of the pirates returning ashore from the ship with bags of cash.
"The pirates had been holding that ship near Hundule and I saw them coming ashore, they were carrying bags of money in their speedboats," said Hussein Shugle.
The Al Khaliq's crew consists of 24 Indians and two Burmese nationals.
The release of the 22,000-tonne bulk carrier reduces to 11 the number of foreign vessels still held by Somali pirates, together with more than 200 crew members.
The vessel -- seized within hours of the capture of British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler -- was one of the longest-running hijacking cases.
The only remaining vessel to have been held longer is the FV Win Far 161, a Taiwanese fishing vessel which has a crew of 30 from various Asian nationalities and was seized in April last year.
The town of Harardhere is currently awash with cash following the release of several ships in exchange for large ransoms, including seven million dollars air-dropped to free a 330-metre-long Greek supertanker last month.
According to some studies, Somalia's rag-tag army of sea bandits raked in at least 60 million dollars in ransom payments in 2009.
*************************************************************
Riot police deployed at Myanmar factory strike
Tue Feb 9, 2010 3:59pm IST
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government deployed hundreds of armed riot police on Tuesday after more than 2,000 workers from two factories went on strike over low pay.
At least 50 trucks packed with riot police carrying assault rifles and shields were dispatched to secure roads surrounding the Hlaingtharyar Industrial Zone, about 11 km (7 miles) outside the biggest city, Yangon, a Reuters reporter said.
Workers at the Taiyi shoe factory and Opal 2 garment factory began a strike on Monday, said a senior official from the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, adding that an agreement appeared to have been reached on Tuesday between the Taiyi workers and management.
Strikes or other forms of protests are rare in Myanmar, where small demonstrations over hikes in fuel and cooking gas prices in 2007 mushroomed into countrywide marches by Buddhist monks and sparked a government crackdown that killed at least 31 people.
Analysts and diplomats say the government appears to be especially sensitive to the risk of unrest with elections scheduled this year under the final stages of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.
"It is believed that senior officials from the Ministry of Labour are helping to negotiate between the employers and the striking workers," said the official who asked not to be identified since he was not authorised to talk to the media.
There are about 130 garment factories in Myanmar, owned by local and foreign companies and employing about 45,000 people.
Total garment exports during the 2008/09 fiscal year stood at $292 million, compared with $282 million in 2007-08 and $278 million a year earlier, according to official statistics.
Myanmar, faced with Western sanctions imposed over rights abuses, has faced increased competition from other regional countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, which offer low costs and cheap labour.
Tue Feb 9, 2010 3:59pm IST
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government deployed hundreds of armed riot police on Tuesday after more than 2,000 workers from two factories went on strike over low pay.
At least 50 trucks packed with riot police carrying assault rifles and shields were dispatched to secure roads surrounding the Hlaingtharyar Industrial Zone, about 11 km (7 miles) outside the biggest city, Yangon, a Reuters reporter said.
Workers at the Taiyi shoe factory and Opal 2 garment factory began a strike on Monday, said a senior official from the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, adding that an agreement appeared to have been reached on Tuesday between the Taiyi workers and management.
Strikes or other forms of protests are rare in Myanmar, where small demonstrations over hikes in fuel and cooking gas prices in 2007 mushroomed into countrywide marches by Buddhist monks and sparked a government crackdown that killed at least 31 people.
Analysts and diplomats say the government appears to be especially sensitive to the risk of unrest with elections scheduled this year under the final stages of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.
"It is believed that senior officials from the Ministry of Labour are helping to negotiate between the employers and the striking workers," said the official who asked not to be identified since he was not authorised to talk to the media.
There are about 130 garment factories in Myanmar, owned by local and foreign companies and employing about 45,000 people.
Total garment exports during the 2008/09 fiscal year stood at $292 million, compared with $282 million in 2007-08 and $278 million a year earlier, according to official statistics.
Myanmar, faced with Western sanctions imposed over rights abuses, has faced increased competition from other regional countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, which offer low costs and cheap labour.
*************************************************************
Myanmar cyclone survivors haunted by lack of work and shelter
09 Feb 2010 15:00:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet
Feb 9 (AlertNet) - Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, killing nearly 140,000 and leaving 2.4 million destitute, survivors are still struggling to recover their livelihoods and many are living without adequate shelter, a report released on Tuesday in Yangon said.
The region may face a second crisis unless people's livelihoods improve, warned the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) which prepared the Post-Nargis Periodic Review III. The TCG is made up of the regional bloc ASEAN, the Myanmar government and the United Nations.
"Options for income earning appear to have shrunk ... Unless livelihood-related needs are addressed, recovery will be prolonged, raising the potential for another crisis," said the TCG in a statement.
Many communities in the delta region, known as the rice bowl of the country, depend on fishing and farming. The cyclone wiped out 80 per cent of the delta's livestock, according to unpublished figures collected by the TCG.
Dr. William Sabandar, special envoy of the secretary-general of ASEAN for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar, said aid levels have dropped too low to enable cyclone survivors to recover their way of life.
And many people have not been able to borrow enough money to recuperate, Sabandar told AlertNet. As a result, "farmers have begun to sell land to others. Some farmers and fishermen are now making a living as casual labourers".
This in turn has reduced job opportunities for people who were casual labourers before the cyclone struck.
Fishing communities in places such as Bogale and Labutta, which bore the brunt of Nargis, lost many of their boats and commercial fishing "shows no sign of recovery", the TCG report said.
SHELTER NEEDS
Shelter remains severely under-funded, and most families have rebuilt their own homes. In mid-January 2010, over 100,000 households - around half a million people - were living in poor shelters that will not withstand another disaster, the TCG said.
"In the case of shelter, every dry day is valuable," said Srinivasa Popuri, head of the U.N. housing agency UN-HABITAT in Myanmar.
Despite heavy damage - almost 800,000 homes were destroyed or damaged according to an earlier TCG report - donors have been consistently reluctant to fund it. Part of the reason is the perception among donors that housing is the responsibility of the government and most donors want to avoid being seen as subsidising Myanmar's military regime.
Last November, international donors pledged $88 million after an appeal of $103 million. But only $250,000 was pledged - by a single donor - for shelter, said Popuri.
The Myanmar government has funded 30,000 homes at a cost of $1,400 each, most of them built by private companies. Aid agencies have built 37,000 new houses so far, costing between $600 and 800 each, Popuri said.
The latest TCG figures show that 84 per cent of households say their homes are hotter, wetter and/or more crowded than they were before the Nargis disaster.
"Much of the credit goes to the people of Delta themselves, who are so resilient (albeit not by choice) who are still suffering and without any complaints," Popuri said.
The Periodic Review III is an assessment of needs based on interviews with 1,400 households in 30 townships in the Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions.
09 Feb 2010 15:00:00 GMT
Source: AlertNet
Feb 9 (AlertNet) - Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, killing nearly 140,000 and leaving 2.4 million destitute, survivors are still struggling to recover their livelihoods and many are living without adequate shelter, a report released on Tuesday in Yangon said.
The region may face a second crisis unless people's livelihoods improve, warned the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) which prepared the Post-Nargis Periodic Review III. The TCG is made up of the regional bloc ASEAN, the Myanmar government and the United Nations.
"Options for income earning appear to have shrunk ... Unless livelihood-related needs are addressed, recovery will be prolonged, raising the potential for another crisis," said the TCG in a statement.
Many communities in the delta region, known as the rice bowl of the country, depend on fishing and farming. The cyclone wiped out 80 per cent of the delta's livestock, according to unpublished figures collected by the TCG.
Dr. William Sabandar, special envoy of the secretary-general of ASEAN for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar, said aid levels have dropped too low to enable cyclone survivors to recover their way of life.
And many people have not been able to borrow enough money to recuperate, Sabandar told AlertNet. As a result, "farmers have begun to sell land to others. Some farmers and fishermen are now making a living as casual labourers".
This in turn has reduced job opportunities for people who were casual labourers before the cyclone struck.
Fishing communities in places such as Bogale and Labutta, which bore the brunt of Nargis, lost many of their boats and commercial fishing "shows no sign of recovery", the TCG report said.
SHELTER NEEDS
Shelter remains severely under-funded, and most families have rebuilt their own homes. In mid-January 2010, over 100,000 households - around half a million people - were living in poor shelters that will not withstand another disaster, the TCG said.
"In the case of shelter, every dry day is valuable," said Srinivasa Popuri, head of the U.N. housing agency UN-HABITAT in Myanmar.
Despite heavy damage - almost 800,000 homes were destroyed or damaged according to an earlier TCG report - donors have been consistently reluctant to fund it. Part of the reason is the perception among donors that housing is the responsibility of the government and most donors want to avoid being seen as subsidising Myanmar's military regime.
Last November, international donors pledged $88 million after an appeal of $103 million. But only $250,000 was pledged - by a single donor - for shelter, said Popuri.
The Myanmar government has funded 30,000 homes at a cost of $1,400 each, most of them built by private companies. Aid agencies have built 37,000 new houses so far, costing between $600 and 800 each, Popuri said.
The latest TCG figures show that 84 per cent of households say their homes are hotter, wetter and/or more crowded than they were before the Nargis disaster.
"Much of the credit goes to the people of Delta themselves, who are so resilient (albeit not by choice) who are still suffering and without any complaints," Popuri said.
The Periodic Review III is an assessment of needs based on interviews with 1,400 households in 30 townships in the Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions.
*************************************************************
MYANMAR: Livelihoods crucial to cyclone recovery
BANGKOK, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - While thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are benefiting from better healthcare and nutrition, complete recovery may be delayed unless livelihoods are restored, warns a survey released on 9 February.
The review, the third since Nargis struck in May 2008, killing at least 140,000 people, assessed the needs of people in the worst-affected Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions between October and November last year.
It found that focused efforts were still needed to help people with their livelihoods to restore household self-reliance, even 18 months after the disaster.
“Unless livelihood-related needs are addressed, recovery will be prolonged, raising the potential for another crisis,” said the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), comprising the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN, which released the report.
This would include “loss of land to lenders, chronic under-employment and economic stagnation”, it warned in a 9 February statement to mark the report’s release.
Farming, the main livelihood in Nargis-affected areas, relies heavily on capital and access to credit, but the review said this was in short supply. At the same time, there is a need for investment in rebuilding lives and shelters.
“Since Nargis, options for incoming earnings appear to have shrunk, sharply impacting [on] many households’ ability to source capital for the needed rebuilding investments,” William Sabandar, special envoy of the ASEAN secretary-general for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar, told IRIN.
“Credit is scarce, and some households depend on the sale of assets, borrowing, remittances and gifts from family members. Landlessness continues to be a problem, taking account of about 50 percent of the surveyed households,” he said.
The other area still needing attention is shelter; Nargis destroyed or damaged almost 800,000 homes. The review said that while 50 percent of shelters were judged safe, more than 80 percent of households said their shelter was worse than before the cyclone.
Progress report
The TCG said the third review was intended to help donors and humanitarian agencies decide where they should now prioritize recovery efforts and assistance.
Improvements have been made in child mortality, child nutrition, the availability of healthcare and access to clean water, states the review.
More than 90 percent of the 1,400 households surveyed said health personnel and medication were available in healthcare facilities all or some of the time, it said.
It also noted that child mortality rates were lower in the most affected townships than in the less affected townships, which it attributed to greater attention from healthcare professionals.
Despite these gains, TCG members urged donors and humanitarian agencies to continue their support.
The review “clearly demonstrates that the recovery process is moving forward, but also that much more needs to be done in a number of areas”, said Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar.
BANGKOK, 9 February 2010 (IRIN) - While thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are benefiting from better healthcare and nutrition, complete recovery may be delayed unless livelihoods are restored, warns a survey released on 9 February.
The review, the third since Nargis struck in May 2008, killing at least 140,000 people, assessed the needs of people in the worst-affected Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions between October and November last year.
It found that focused efforts were still needed to help people with their livelihoods to restore household self-reliance, even 18 months after the disaster.
“Unless livelihood-related needs are addressed, recovery will be prolonged, raising the potential for another crisis,” said the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), comprising the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN, which released the report.
This would include “loss of land to lenders, chronic under-employment and economic stagnation”, it warned in a 9 February statement to mark the report’s release.
Farming, the main livelihood in Nargis-affected areas, relies heavily on capital and access to credit, but the review said this was in short supply. At the same time, there is a need for investment in rebuilding lives and shelters.
“Since Nargis, options for incoming earnings appear to have shrunk, sharply impacting [on] many households’ ability to source capital for the needed rebuilding investments,” William Sabandar, special envoy of the ASEAN secretary-general for post-Nargis recovery in Myanmar, told IRIN.
“Credit is scarce, and some households depend on the sale of assets, borrowing, remittances and gifts from family members. Landlessness continues to be a problem, taking account of about 50 percent of the surveyed households,” he said.
The other area still needing attention is shelter; Nargis destroyed or damaged almost 800,000 homes. The review said that while 50 percent of shelters were judged safe, more than 80 percent of households said their shelter was worse than before the cyclone.
Progress report
The TCG said the third review was intended to help donors and humanitarian agencies decide where they should now prioritize recovery efforts and assistance.
Improvements have been made in child mortality, child nutrition, the availability of healthcare and access to clean water, states the review.
More than 90 percent of the 1,400 households surveyed said health personnel and medication were available in healthcare facilities all or some of the time, it said.
It also noted that child mortality rates were lower in the most affected townships than in the less affected townships, which it attributed to greater attention from healthcare professionals.
Despite these gains, TCG members urged donors and humanitarian agencies to continue their support.
The review “clearly demonstrates that the recovery process is moving forward, but also that much more needs to be done in a number of areas”, said Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar.
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The Christian Science Monitor
At her Thai border clinic, Cynthia Maung treats victims of war from her native Burma
By Tibor Krausz – Mon Feb 8, 4:10 pm ET
Mae Sot, Thailand – After two decades, the ramshackle scrap-wood hut here that Cynthia Maung turned into a temporary clinic for destitute refugees is still in use.
She found shelter in the Thai border town of Mae Sot herself as a refugee in 1989, following the Burmese junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations the previous year. She'd fled through land-mine-infested jungles from the region of eastern Burma (Myanmar) where she'd worked as a village doctor among the indigent hill tribes.
Appalled by the misery of impoverished Burmese exiles in Thailand, Dr. Maung set up a free clinic for them. She scrounged medicine from foreign aid agencies and used a rice cooker to sterilize her instruments in boiling water.
She expected to go home within months.
Twenty years later, like hundreds of thousands of other Burmese migrants, Maung remains illegally in Thailand, living within sight of a homeland to which she can't return.
Yet she hasn't been idle. Her former clinic now houses volunteer medics and stands beside several concrete-block buildings with corrugated iron roofs in the self-contained leafy squatters' village that has grown up around it.
Her Mae Tao Clinic today boasts a trauma unit, a laboratory, and several patient wards, where emaciated men and women lie wrapped in their longyis, or Burmese sarongs, on simple wooden trestles covered with linoleum and bamboo mats. Relatives hold vigils by their sides, performing simpler nursing duties.
The conditions may not be ideal, yet Maung's clinic saves lives and limbs daily by providing treatment to those who couldn't get it anywhere else. "People come here with a lot of pain and suffering," she says. "Some of them arrive on their last legs in search of help."
"Dr. Cynthia," as the ethnic Karen physician is known here, is an unassuming woman who shuns jewelry and cosmetics, even the beige ground-bark paste that Burmese women smear on their cheeks. Dressed simply without a white coat or stethoscope, she mingles among patients with casual familiarity. A mother of four, she lives at the clinic with her family. She has adopted two of her children from its Bamboo Children's Home orphanage.
"In 20 years here, we still haven't been able to register the clinic" with the government, Maung notes. She adds wryly: "But at least we have regular electricity."
In Burma, even that wouldn't be a given. Ruled by an iron-fisted military regime, the country is among the world's poorest nations, ranked by the World Health Organization as next to last among all nations in the availability of healthcare.
In isolated rural areas, where the annual per capita income is $200, disease and malnutrition are endemic. Burma's infant mortality rate is the highest in Asia, and 1 in every 5 children that survive birth die within a few years.
At Maung's health center, tens of thousands of the neediest – acutely ill people, single mothers, children – receive treatment free of charge each year. Her staff consists largely of Burmese civilians trained as medics by volunteer physicians.
One volunteer is Dr. Terrence Smith of Sacramento, Calif., who spends several months each year at the clinic's maternity unit, which helps up to a dozen poor women a day give birth safely. "Dr. Cynthia serves as an example for encouraging a spirit of self-reliance among the neediest," he says.
A Burmese villager has, in fact, just amputated a leg. "I can do all kinds of operations, no problem," stresses Eh Ta Mwee, a diminutive Karen medic, who has assisted in myriad operations performed by qualified surgeons. If need be, he now can perform surgeries on his own.
The leg that was amputated below the knee was that of another Burmese villager, Htay Gay, who contracted severe gangrene after being shot in the ankle by a Burmese government soldier in Burma's insurgency-troubled Karen State. He reached the clinic after 10 days hobbling through jungle and hills with a bamboo crutch.
"Without Dr. Cynthia, I'd be dead," he says laconically. In a few months, he'll be equipped with a prosthetic leg made in the clinic's workshop.
Like him, many patients come from inside Burma after grueling journeys on foot or borne by relatives on improvised stretchers. Suffering from malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, or from untreated injuries and wounds, many sick and destitute people slip across Burma's porous border with Thailand to seek treatment at the Mae Tao Clinic.
"We won't turn anyone away or leave them to suffer alone," Maung says.
Still, many people in rural hinterlands can't come to Mae Sot, so Dr. Maung's clinic goes to them.
In groups of three to five, some 300 ethnic Karen, Mon, and Shan medics trained by Maung's staff fan out across mountainous hill-tribe terrain to remote villages deep inside Burma. Dodging land mines and ambushes by government troops during these arduous hikes into the war zones of a fierce, decades-old separatist insurgency, members of the clinic's Backpack Health Worker Team lug bulky supplies of medicine in rucksacks and wicker baskets fastened with straps slung across their foreheads.
Several have died or been maimed en route. "We work in a conflict area with free-fire zones," says Mahn Mahn, a Karen who oversees the teams' work. "We're Dr. Cynthia's medical marines."
In bamboo-and-thatch hamlets lashed by torrential monsoon rains, the backpack medics treat diseases, attend to injuries, and teach villagers about hygiene and nutrition.
They distribute birth delivery kits to expectant mothers and dietary supplements to children.
"Dr. Cynthia is a mother figure who gives," notes Tha Tha, a Karen man. "She's built everything from scratch. She has nothing herself, but gives to others who need it more."
Her compassion hasn't endeared the doctor to the Burmese junta, which has declared her a traitor. Maung receives anonymous death threats and is shadowed at crowded gatherings by unarmed volunteer bodyguards.
But Dr. Cynthia is carrying on, undaunted.
"Many sick people in Burma have nowhere to go," she says. "But we're here for them."
At her Thai border clinic, Cynthia Maung treats victims of war from her native Burma
By Tibor Krausz – Mon Feb 8, 4:10 pm ET
Mae Sot, Thailand – After two decades, the ramshackle scrap-wood hut here that Cynthia Maung turned into a temporary clinic for destitute refugees is still in use.
She found shelter in the Thai border town of Mae Sot herself as a refugee in 1989, following the Burmese junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations the previous year. She'd fled through land-mine-infested jungles from the region of eastern Burma (Myanmar) where she'd worked as a village doctor among the indigent hill tribes.
Appalled by the misery of impoverished Burmese exiles in Thailand, Dr. Maung set up a free clinic for them. She scrounged medicine from foreign aid agencies and used a rice cooker to sterilize her instruments in boiling water.
She expected to go home within months.
Twenty years later, like hundreds of thousands of other Burmese migrants, Maung remains illegally in Thailand, living within sight of a homeland to which she can't return.
Yet she hasn't been idle. Her former clinic now houses volunteer medics and stands beside several concrete-block buildings with corrugated iron roofs in the self-contained leafy squatters' village that has grown up around it.
Her Mae Tao Clinic today boasts a trauma unit, a laboratory, and several patient wards, where emaciated men and women lie wrapped in their longyis, or Burmese sarongs, on simple wooden trestles covered with linoleum and bamboo mats. Relatives hold vigils by their sides, performing simpler nursing duties.
The conditions may not be ideal, yet Maung's clinic saves lives and limbs daily by providing treatment to those who couldn't get it anywhere else. "People come here with a lot of pain and suffering," she says. "Some of them arrive on their last legs in search of help."
"Dr. Cynthia," as the ethnic Karen physician is known here, is an unassuming woman who shuns jewelry and cosmetics, even the beige ground-bark paste that Burmese women smear on their cheeks. Dressed simply without a white coat or stethoscope, she mingles among patients with casual familiarity. A mother of four, she lives at the clinic with her family. She has adopted two of her children from its Bamboo Children's Home orphanage.
"In 20 years here, we still haven't been able to register the clinic" with the government, Maung notes. She adds wryly: "But at least we have regular electricity."
In Burma, even that wouldn't be a given. Ruled by an iron-fisted military regime, the country is among the world's poorest nations, ranked by the World Health Organization as next to last among all nations in the availability of healthcare.
In isolated rural areas, where the annual per capita income is $200, disease and malnutrition are endemic. Burma's infant mortality rate is the highest in Asia, and 1 in every 5 children that survive birth die within a few years.
At Maung's health center, tens of thousands of the neediest – acutely ill people, single mothers, children – receive treatment free of charge each year. Her staff consists largely of Burmese civilians trained as medics by volunteer physicians.
One volunteer is Dr. Terrence Smith of Sacramento, Calif., who spends several months each year at the clinic's maternity unit, which helps up to a dozen poor women a day give birth safely. "Dr. Cynthia serves as an example for encouraging a spirit of self-reliance among the neediest," he says.
A Burmese villager has, in fact, just amputated a leg. "I can do all kinds of operations, no problem," stresses Eh Ta Mwee, a diminutive Karen medic, who has assisted in myriad operations performed by qualified surgeons. If need be, he now can perform surgeries on his own.
The leg that was amputated below the knee was that of another Burmese villager, Htay Gay, who contracted severe gangrene after being shot in the ankle by a Burmese government soldier in Burma's insurgency-troubled Karen State. He reached the clinic after 10 days hobbling through jungle and hills with a bamboo crutch.
"Without Dr. Cynthia, I'd be dead," he says laconically. In a few months, he'll be equipped with a prosthetic leg made in the clinic's workshop.
Like him, many patients come from inside Burma after grueling journeys on foot or borne by relatives on improvised stretchers. Suffering from malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, or from untreated injuries and wounds, many sick and destitute people slip across Burma's porous border with Thailand to seek treatment at the Mae Tao Clinic.
"We won't turn anyone away or leave them to suffer alone," Maung says.
Still, many people in rural hinterlands can't come to Mae Sot, so Dr. Maung's clinic goes to them.
In groups of three to five, some 300 ethnic Karen, Mon, and Shan medics trained by Maung's staff fan out across mountainous hill-tribe terrain to remote villages deep inside Burma. Dodging land mines and ambushes by government troops during these arduous hikes into the war zones of a fierce, decades-old separatist insurgency, members of the clinic's Backpack Health Worker Team lug bulky supplies of medicine in rucksacks and wicker baskets fastened with straps slung across their foreheads.
Several have died or been maimed en route. "We work in a conflict area with free-fire zones," says Mahn Mahn, a Karen who oversees the teams' work. "We're Dr. Cynthia's medical marines."
In bamboo-and-thatch hamlets lashed by torrential monsoon rains, the backpack medics treat diseases, attend to injuries, and teach villagers about hygiene and nutrition.
They distribute birth delivery kits to expectant mothers and dietary supplements to children.
"Dr. Cynthia is a mother figure who gives," notes Tha Tha, a Karen man. "She's built everything from scratch. She has nothing herself, but gives to others who need it more."
Her compassion hasn't endeared the doctor to the Burmese junta, which has declared her a traitor. Maung receives anonymous death threats and is shadowed at crowded gatherings by unarmed volunteer bodyguards.
But Dr. Cynthia is carrying on, undaunted.
"Many sick people in Burma have nowhere to go," she says. "But we're here for them."
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TMCnet - Myanmar to hold ICT exhibition in Yangon in March
YANGON, Feb 08, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An information and communication technology (ICT) exhibition will be held in the third weekend of next month at the Tatmadaw Hall in Myanmar's former capital city of Yangon, aimed at empowering people with IT knowledge and enabling them to get in close touch with modern IT equipment.
The three-day event from March 19 to 21, which will be the first ICT exhibition this year, is jointly organized by Myanmar Computer Federation, Myanmar Computer Professionals Association ( MCPA) and Myanmar Computer Industry Association.
With about 156 booths, IT companies will showcase the country's latest technology, hardware, software, communication products, computer-related electronics devices and electrical goods.
Mainly arranged by MCPA, booths measuring 10 square-feet (0.929 square-meters) each, will be rent with both auction and lucky draw, said MCPA spokesperson U Tun Khaing Tuesday, adding that booth hiring will start in early March.
Computer organizations have been holding such ICT exhibition twice a year since 1999 and the latest exhibition of its kind was in October last year, in which 71 companies took part.
Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT. In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin.
The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050 hectares), located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.
The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.
With the establishment of the cyber city, more and more local and foreign information technology (IT) companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development of IT business undertakings.
YANGON, Feb 08, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An information and communication technology (ICT) exhibition will be held in the third weekend of next month at the Tatmadaw Hall in Myanmar's former capital city of Yangon, aimed at empowering people with IT knowledge and enabling them to get in close touch with modern IT equipment.
The three-day event from March 19 to 21, which will be the first ICT exhibition this year, is jointly organized by Myanmar Computer Federation, Myanmar Computer Professionals Association ( MCPA) and Myanmar Computer Industry Association.
With about 156 booths, IT companies will showcase the country's latest technology, hardware, software, communication products, computer-related electronics devices and electrical goods.
Mainly arranged by MCPA, booths measuring 10 square-feet (0.929 square-meters) each, will be rent with both auction and lucky draw, said MCPA spokesperson U Tun Khaing Tuesday, adding that booth hiring will start in early March.
Computer organizations have been holding such ICT exhibition twice a year since 1999 and the latest exhibition of its kind was in October last year, in which 71 companies took part.
Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT. In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin.
The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050 hectares), located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.
The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.
With the establishment of the cyber city, more and more local and foreign information technology (IT) companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development of IT business undertakings.
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breakbulk - Hansaeng Express to Handle Mining and Refinery Cargo
February 9, 2010
South Korea-based Hansaeng Express will be handling Volvo mining excavators and spare parts bound for Yangon, Myanmar from Masan Korea through the end of 2010.
Volume is expected to be 8,000 revenue tons per month and more than two million metric tons of cargo will be moved altogether, according to Hansaeng’s website.
Hanseang will also handle about 50,000 revenue tons of cargo related to a Jubail export refinery project for SKE&C, a South Korean engineering, procurement and construction firm. The cargo will be sourced worldwide and transported by sea and air to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Hansaeng Express is a member of the Worldwide Project Consortium.
Volvo excavators are loaded aboard a roll on, roll off vessel at Masan, South Korea.
February 9, 2010
South Korea-based Hansaeng Express will be handling Volvo mining excavators and spare parts bound for Yangon, Myanmar from Masan Korea through the end of 2010.
Volume is expected to be 8,000 revenue tons per month and more than two million metric tons of cargo will be moved altogether, according to Hansaeng’s website.
Hanseang will also handle about 50,000 revenue tons of cargo related to a Jubail export refinery project for SKE&C, a South Korean engineering, procurement and construction firm. The cargo will be sourced worldwide and transported by sea and air to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Hansaeng Express is a member of the Worldwide Project Consortium.
Volvo excavators are loaded aboard a roll on, roll off vessel at Masan, South Korea.
*************************************************************
Posted: Tue., Feb. 9, 2010, 7:11am PT
Variety.com - 'Burma VJ' wins Mumbai prize
'August 17' nabs Golden Conch for docu
By NAMAN RAMACHANDRAN
Anders Ostergaard's "Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country" won best film at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival of Documentary, Animation and Short Films, which wrapped Tuesday.
The docu tells the story of the 2007 pro-democracy protests in Myanmar using smuggled amateur video footage.
Russian helmer Alexander Gutman's "August 17" won the Golden Conch for docu. The pic looks at Boris Bezotechestvo, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and kept in a small prison cell with a limited view from the window. The jury praised the film's "rigorous, transformative treatment of the unlimited human spirit in an extremely limited space."
Ritu Sarin and Sonam Tenzing's docu "The Sun Behind the Clouds" won the Silver Conch for "upholding the spirit of liberty and maintaining a sense of balance while bringing about different perspectives within the Tibetan struggle."
"The Spell," directed by Umesh Kulkarni, was judged the best fiction film while Sanjay Jangir's "Wait and Path" won the Golden Conch for animation film.
Variety.com - 'Burma VJ' wins Mumbai prize
'August 17' nabs Golden Conch for docu
By NAMAN RAMACHANDRAN
Anders Ostergaard's "Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country" won best film at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival of Documentary, Animation and Short Films, which wrapped Tuesday.
The docu tells the story of the 2007 pro-democracy protests in Myanmar using smuggled amateur video footage.
Russian helmer Alexander Gutman's "August 17" won the Golden Conch for docu. The pic looks at Boris Bezotechestvo, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and kept in a small prison cell with a limited view from the window. The jury praised the film's "rigorous, transformative treatment of the unlimited human spirit in an extremely limited space."
Ritu Sarin and Sonam Tenzing's docu "The Sun Behind the Clouds" won the Silver Conch for "upholding the spirit of liberty and maintaining a sense of balance while bringing about different perspectives within the Tibetan struggle."
"The Spell," directed by Umesh Kulkarni, was judged the best fiction film while Sanjay Jangir's "Wait and Path" won the Golden Conch for animation film.
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Last updated at 06:15 GMT, Tuesday, 9 February 2010
BBC News - Burmese take 'inner-tube taxi' to Thailand
By Rachel Harvey - South-East Asia correspondent, BBC News
Burma is one of the world's most closed and internationally isolated states, and yet a steady stream of people and goods make their way across the Thai-Burmese border each day.
Standing in Thailand, on the edge of the river Moei, it would be possible, with a good arm, to pick up a stone and throw it into Burma on the opposite bank.
You can hear the voices and see the faces of people on the other side.
The official crossing, the Friendship Bridge, is busy from early morning.
Trucks and cars queue up to go from Thailand into Burma and a steady trickle - sometimes a stream - of people comes in the other direction.
There are myriad reasons why people cross the border into Thailand.
One woman, very well dressed and manicured, told me she had come from the Burmese town of Myawadi, just on the other side of the river, to visit a private health clinic.
"The facilities in Thailand are much better, and much cleaner, than in Burma," she said.
Illegal entrants
When the price is right, in other words higher than back home in Burma, she also comes to Thailand to sell gold.
Another woman had come to sell dried shrimps, and a 10-year-old boy, in a smart green and white uniform was on his way back into Burma to go to school.
All cross the Friendship Bridge under the watchful eye of a young Thai immigration officer, Capt Wasuwat.
"The Burmese are only allowed to stay for one day," he told me. "The bridge crossing is open from 0600 to 1800 so they have to be back by 1800."
In theory they are also restricted to the nearby town of Mae Sot, but many stay longer and travel further.
A short distance from the bridge, in a side yard, three blue trucks were parked with their engines running.
On the ground, crouched next to the vehicles, were about 300 Burmese illegal migrants. Thai officials were loading them onto the trucks to be deported.
But they were not simply driven back across the bridge. Apparently, because they had entered Thailand illegally, they were not recognised by the Burmese government as being abroad and could not therefore be sent back the official way.
We followed the convoy through quiet, backstreet villages to a point a little further along the river.
Here the Burmese, mostly migrant workers, were transferred from the trucks to waiting boats, in what was clearly a well-established system.
'Inner-tube taxi'
One young man, a 17-year-old who had been working in a plastics factory, said it was the first time he had been deported, smiling incongruously.
"Will you try to come back again?" I asked. "Oh yes," he said, without hesitating for a second.
But there is a more precarious way of making the crossing - by inflatable rubber rings.
Large inner tubes, which look as though they were designed for competitors in a monster truck derby, are used to ferry people back and forth between Thailand and Burma.
It costs the equivalent of about $0.50 (£0.30) and, of course, it is completely illegal.
One driver, or perhaps that should be paddler, told me 200 to 300 people per day used his services.
There are several points along the river where the "inner-tube taxis" ply their trade. One is no more than three minutes' walk from the official crossing at the Friendship Bridge.
On the opposite river bank, in the shade of the bridge, there was a Burmese military checkpoint, complete with camouflage, sandbags and at least two soldiers in uniform.
They could clearly see everything that was going on - the steady traffic of people, sometimes up to eight at a time, laden with shopping, perched precariously on rubber rings making the journey across the river.
But the soldiers seemed unperturbed. Presumably they were getting a cut.
Spending time on the border puts into perspective all the talk of sanctions against the Burmese military leadership.
Burma's borders are porous. If they really want to, or really need to, people and goods will always find a way to get from one country to another.
BBC News - Burmese take 'inner-tube taxi' to Thailand
By Rachel Harvey - South-East Asia correspondent, BBC News
Burma is one of the world's most closed and internationally isolated states, and yet a steady stream of people and goods make their way across the Thai-Burmese border each day.
Standing in Thailand, on the edge of the river Moei, it would be possible, with a good arm, to pick up a stone and throw it into Burma on the opposite bank.
You can hear the voices and see the faces of people on the other side.
The official crossing, the Friendship Bridge, is busy from early morning.
Trucks and cars queue up to go from Thailand into Burma and a steady trickle - sometimes a stream - of people comes in the other direction.
There are myriad reasons why people cross the border into Thailand.
One woman, very well dressed and manicured, told me she had come from the Burmese town of Myawadi, just on the other side of the river, to visit a private health clinic.
"The facilities in Thailand are much better, and much cleaner, than in Burma," she said.
Illegal entrants
When the price is right, in other words higher than back home in Burma, she also comes to Thailand to sell gold.
Another woman had come to sell dried shrimps, and a 10-year-old boy, in a smart green and white uniform was on his way back into Burma to go to school.
All cross the Friendship Bridge under the watchful eye of a young Thai immigration officer, Capt Wasuwat.
"The Burmese are only allowed to stay for one day," he told me. "The bridge crossing is open from 0600 to 1800 so they have to be back by 1800."
In theory they are also restricted to the nearby town of Mae Sot, but many stay longer and travel further.
A short distance from the bridge, in a side yard, three blue trucks were parked with their engines running.
On the ground, crouched next to the vehicles, were about 300 Burmese illegal migrants. Thai officials were loading them onto the trucks to be deported.
But they were not simply driven back across the bridge. Apparently, because they had entered Thailand illegally, they were not recognised by the Burmese government as being abroad and could not therefore be sent back the official way.
We followed the convoy through quiet, backstreet villages to a point a little further along the river.
Here the Burmese, mostly migrant workers, were transferred from the trucks to waiting boats, in what was clearly a well-established system.
'Inner-tube taxi'
One young man, a 17-year-old who had been working in a plastics factory, said it was the first time he had been deported, smiling incongruously.
"Will you try to come back again?" I asked. "Oh yes," he said, without hesitating for a second.
But there is a more precarious way of making the crossing - by inflatable rubber rings.
Large inner tubes, which look as though they were designed for competitors in a monster truck derby, are used to ferry people back and forth between Thailand and Burma.
It costs the equivalent of about $0.50 (£0.30) and, of course, it is completely illegal.
One driver, or perhaps that should be paddler, told me 200 to 300 people per day used his services.
There are several points along the river where the "inner-tube taxis" ply their trade. One is no more than three minutes' walk from the official crossing at the Friendship Bridge.
On the opposite river bank, in the shade of the bridge, there was a Burmese military checkpoint, complete with camouflage, sandbags and at least two soldiers in uniform.
They could clearly see everything that was going on - the steady traffic of people, sometimes up to eight at a time, laden with shopping, perched precariously on rubber rings making the journey across the river.
But the soldiers seemed unperturbed. Presumably they were getting a cut.
Spending time on the border puts into perspective all the talk of sanctions against the Burmese military leadership.
Burma's borders are porous. If they really want to, or really need to, people and goods will always find a way to get from one country to another.
*************************************************************
Workers strike spreads in industrial zone in Rangoon: Riot Police deployed
Tuesday, 09 February 2010 17:01 Mizzima News
New Delhi (Mizzima) – About 2,000 workers from three factories in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone continued their strike today, demanding better wages.
"The strike is on today but we are not aware what their demands are... Workers of three factories are staging the strike. The policemen are from police battalions and the Rangoon Division police force. The three factories are OPAL 2, Kyarlay and Taiyi," a duty officer from Hlaing Tharyar police station said, adding Police Chief Maj. Gen. Khin Yi arrived at the spot with a large contingent of police personnel. However, a duty officer of the Rangoon Police Head office refused to answer questions on the strike and did not confirm whether Khin Ye was at the spot.
"The streets in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 have been cordoned off and we saw about 30 police vehicles on the roads," a woman school teacher from Hlaing Tharyar said.
The striking workers are demanding an extra Kyat 10,000 (USD 10) in wages and reduction of working hours from the current 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. They have also demanded that their work place and dining hall be made more hygienic with better sanitation.
Similarly about 1,400 workers from the South Korea owned 'Mya Fashion' garment factory in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3, staged a strike yesterday afternoon demanding better pay.
Residents around Hlaing Tharyar told Mizzima over telephone that they were not aware of any arrest or a crackdown by the police on the workers as yet.
About 100 workers from a prawn cold storage in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 2 and women workers from Weng Hong Hung garment factory in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 went for strikes on January 7 and 17 respectively.
There are 50,000 to 70,000 workers in Hlaing Tharyar, the biggest industrial zone in Burma. There are over 800 factories including cold storages, garment factories, foodstuff units, value-added wood industry, chemicals and general merchandise factories here.
According to the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone management committee, of over 800 factories, only 400 are into manufacturing business.
Tuesday, 09 February 2010 17:01 Mizzima News
New Delhi (Mizzima) – About 2,000 workers from three factories in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone continued their strike today, demanding better wages.
"The strike is on today but we are not aware what their demands are... Workers of three factories are staging the strike. The policemen are from police battalions and the Rangoon Division police force. The three factories are OPAL 2, Kyarlay and Taiyi," a duty officer from Hlaing Tharyar police station said, adding Police Chief Maj. Gen. Khin Yi arrived at the spot with a large contingent of police personnel. However, a duty officer of the Rangoon Police Head office refused to answer questions on the strike and did not confirm whether Khin Ye was at the spot.
"The streets in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 have been cordoned off and we saw about 30 police vehicles on the roads," a woman school teacher from Hlaing Tharyar said.
The striking workers are demanding an extra Kyat 10,000 (USD 10) in wages and reduction of working hours from the current 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. They have also demanded that their work place and dining hall be made more hygienic with better sanitation.
Similarly about 1,400 workers from the South Korea owned 'Mya Fashion' garment factory in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3, staged a strike yesterday afternoon demanding better pay.
Residents around Hlaing Tharyar told Mizzima over telephone that they were not aware of any arrest or a crackdown by the police on the workers as yet.
About 100 workers from a prawn cold storage in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 2 and women workers from Weng Hong Hung garment factory in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 went for strikes on January 7 and 17 respectively.
There are 50,000 to 70,000 workers in Hlaing Tharyar, the biggest industrial zone in Burma. There are over 800 factories including cold storages, garment factories, foodstuff units, value-added wood industry, chemicals and general merchandise factories here.
According to the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone management committee, of over 800 factories, only 400 are into manufacturing business.
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Nominations for NLD central committee
Tuesday, 09 February 2010 21:44 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Branches of the National League for Democracy from two divisions and one state have sent their nominees to be selected as central committee members to the party headquarters in Rangoon, it is learnt.
The Rangoon and Irrawaddy Divisions sent seven nominees each and Mon State sent five nominees yesterday, a NLD Central Executive Committee (CEC) member said.
"We are yet to be sent all nominees from all states and divisions. And we are yet to discuss and negotiate with CEC members," CEC member Khin Maung Swe told Mizzima.
The CEC issued a circular to all branches in states and divisions last month to select seven nominees for each division and five nominees for each state for the CC.
The 'Central Committee' is being revamped to make the NLD stronger and consolidate organizational matters for future activities.
The circular states that the nominees shall be selected based on these principles; 'capability', 'loyalty to party', 'always to serve the party and to never stay away from the party', 'standing by party's policies' and 'whom not taken disciplinary action by party'.
After selecting the nominees, the Chairman and Secretary of each State and Division Organizing Committee have to come to the party headquarters in Rangoon with the list of nominees not later than February 16 and 17 to 'negotiate' with the CEC, it is learnt.
Discussion is on in Tanintharyi to select CC nominees today and similar discussions will take place in Pegu Division and Rakhine state tomorrow, according to CEC member Khin Maung Swe.
"We sent an advisory letter to all states and divisions. The remaining states and divisions have not yet sent their nominee lists, " Khin Maung Swe added.
Five nominees representing Karen State have been selected, NLD Pa-an Township constituency No. 3 MP-elect Nan Khin Htwe Myint said.
"We cannot yet release their names but we have selected five nominees though we have not yet sent it to the party headquarters. We will take the list with us. They were selected based on principles laid down by the party," she said.
The party headquarters advisory letter signed by party Chairman and issued on January 27, states that the CEC has the 'authority' to reduce, add, amend, insert, include persons who deserve to be CC members in consideration of party work to the nomination lists made by States and Divisions Organizing Committees.
Tuesday, 09 February 2010 21:44 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Branches of the National League for Democracy from two divisions and one state have sent their nominees to be selected as central committee members to the party headquarters in Rangoon, it is learnt.
The Rangoon and Irrawaddy Divisions sent seven nominees each and Mon State sent five nominees yesterday, a NLD Central Executive Committee (CEC) member said.
"We are yet to be sent all nominees from all states and divisions. And we are yet to discuss and negotiate with CEC members," CEC member Khin Maung Swe told Mizzima.
The CEC issued a circular to all branches in states and divisions last month to select seven nominees for each division and five nominees for each state for the CC.
The 'Central Committee' is being revamped to make the NLD stronger and consolidate organizational matters for future activities.
The circular states that the nominees shall be selected based on these principles; 'capability', 'loyalty to party', 'always to serve the party and to never stay away from the party', 'standing by party's policies' and 'whom not taken disciplinary action by party'.
After selecting the nominees, the Chairman and Secretary of each State and Division Organizing Committee have to come to the party headquarters in Rangoon with the list of nominees not later than February 16 and 17 to 'negotiate' with the CEC, it is learnt.
Discussion is on in Tanintharyi to select CC nominees today and similar discussions will take place in Pegu Division and Rakhine state tomorrow, according to CEC member Khin Maung Swe.
"We sent an advisory letter to all states and divisions. The remaining states and divisions have not yet sent their nominee lists, " Khin Maung Swe added.
Five nominees representing Karen State have been selected, NLD Pa-an Township constituency No. 3 MP-elect Nan Khin Htwe Myint said.
"We cannot yet release their names but we have selected five nominees though we have not yet sent it to the party headquarters. We will take the list with us. They were selected based on principles laid down by the party," she said.
The party headquarters advisory letter signed by party Chairman and issued on January 27, states that the CEC has the 'authority' to reduce, add, amend, insert, include persons who deserve to be CC members in consideration of party work to the nomination lists made by States and Divisions Organizing Committees.
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Australia in joint navy exercises with Burma
Feb 9, 2010 (DVB)–Australia’s announcement yesterday that it will carry out joint military exercises with the Burmese navy has been met with condemnation by Australian activists.
The Burma Campaign Australia further questioned whether the move will be in breach of Australia’s strict embargo on the military regime in Burma.
“Australia has a longstanding arms embargo against Burma’s military dictatorship – we would not sell them weapons, so why does the Australian government think that it is acceptable to participate in military exercises with them?” said the group’s spokesperson, Zetty Brake.
Thirteen Asia-Pacific countries in total will be involved in the naval exercises, due to take place in Indian waters: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
The objectives range from disaster relief to counter terrorism, but confusingly the announcement comes a day after the Australian foreign minister pledged a 40 percent boost in aid, whilst emphasising that sanctions would remain in place.
Australia aid will reach $AUS50 million ($US45 million) annually over the next three years, according to Stephen Smith. He said it was time for the international community to “help prepare Burma for the future” through “rebuilding…economic and social structures”.
But, according to Brake, the pledge will send a mixed message to the Burmese junta. Burma currently receives only $US4 per head in foreign aid, the lowest of all the Southeast Asian countries, despite also being one of the poorest.
“Yesterday Foreign Minister Stephen Smith talked about sending a confusing signal to Burma’s military dictatorship,” said Brake. “What message is Australia’s participation in these military exercises sending to Burma’s millions of oppressed men, women and children?”
“The military dictatorship will never allow Burma’s navy to use the skills gained from these exercises to help the people of Burma, and Australia would be naive, at best, to believe that,” she added.
Reporting by Joseph Allchin
Feb 9, 2010 (DVB)–Australia’s announcement yesterday that it will carry out joint military exercises with the Burmese navy has been met with condemnation by Australian activists.
The Burma Campaign Australia further questioned whether the move will be in breach of Australia’s strict embargo on the military regime in Burma.
“Australia has a longstanding arms embargo against Burma’s military dictatorship – we would not sell them weapons, so why does the Australian government think that it is acceptable to participate in military exercises with them?” said the group’s spokesperson, Zetty Brake.
Thirteen Asia-Pacific countries in total will be involved in the naval exercises, due to take place in Indian waters: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
The objectives range from disaster relief to counter terrorism, but confusingly the announcement comes a day after the Australian foreign minister pledged a 40 percent boost in aid, whilst emphasising that sanctions would remain in place.
Australia aid will reach $AUS50 million ($US45 million) annually over the next three years, according to Stephen Smith. He said it was time for the international community to “help prepare Burma for the future” through “rebuilding…economic and social structures”.
But, according to Brake, the pledge will send a mixed message to the Burmese junta. Burma currently receives only $US4 per head in foreign aid, the lowest of all the Southeast Asian countries, despite also being one of the poorest.
“Yesterday Foreign Minister Stephen Smith talked about sending a confusing signal to Burma’s military dictatorship,” said Brake. “What message is Australia’s participation in these military exercises sending to Burma’s millions of oppressed men, women and children?”
“The military dictatorship will never allow Burma’s navy to use the skills gained from these exercises to help the people of Burma, and Australia would be naive, at best, to believe that,” she added.
Reporting by Joseph Allchin
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