Burma Related News - Nov 25, 2005.
- From: "Tin Kyi" <maungtinkyi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 07:46:48 +0000 (UTC)
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BURMA RELATED NEWS - NOVEMBER 25, 2005.
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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Southeast Asian Games to open amid threats, delays
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to launch crime-free-week campaign
Xinhuanet - Myanmar top leader stresses strengthening of nationalist
spirit
Bkk Post - From Rangoon to Pyinmana
DVB News - More Shan leaders sent to prisons in remote Burma
DVB News - Urine samples taken from detained Burma?s Shwegu NLD members
DVB News - Burmese civil servants kept within barbed wires at new
capital
DVB News - Another teacher barred from teaching in Burma
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Friday November 25, 1:53 PM
Southeast Asian Games to open amid threats, delays
MANILA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Southeast Asia's version of the Olympics
officially opens in the Philippines on Sunday amid threats of terrorism,
bird flu and domestic political squabbling that has delayed preparations
of venues for the events.
More than 7,000 officials, coaches, trainers and athletes from the
10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Timor
are taking part in the biennial regional games, first hosted by Thailand
in 1959.
"We're ready for the games," William Ramirez, an official on the
Philippines' Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee, told Reuters.
"We're still waiting for some of the equipment to come but we're now
doing the finishing touches on the venues."
The Philippines is hosting the regional games for the third time since
joining the multi-sport event in 1977, known then as the South East
Asian Peninsular Games.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will declare the games open in a
colourful ceremony of Philippine folk dances, music and fireworks during
the parade of athletes at Manila's Luneta Park.
Up to 300,000 people are expected to attend when the symbolic torch is
lit during the two-hour "fiesta" opening, guarded by 15,000 police
officers and soldiers.
About 40 events will be held at 38 venues on three islands from Nov. 27
to Dec. 5. Men's soccer and water polo matches began this week outside
Manila.
SECURITY AND POLITICS
Two days before the opening, dozens of workers were rushing to finish
painting at Rizal Memorial Oval Stadium, where most of the athletics --
the centerpiece event -- will be held.
Some delegations, including the Indonesians, have complained venues for
practising were not ready and that there was little fanfare in Manila
for the region's biggest sporting event.
"Everything is falling into place despite the odds, including the lack
of funding," Jose Cojuangco, head of the Philippine Southeast Asian
Games Organising Committee, told reporters.
Security officials said they have adequate forces to thwart any attempt
by Islamic and communist rebels to disrupt the games and embarrass the
government.
"We're not taking any chances," said Vidal Querol, the police chief in
the capital.
Authorities have also taken measures to prevent the deadly H5N1 strain
of the avian influenza virus from entering the country, including
disinfectant foot baths and thermal cameras to measure body temperature
at Manila's international airport.
Political turmoil that has hounded President Arroyo since early June may
also have dampened local interest in the games.
Except for world-class competition in badminton, boxing and bowling, the
standards of the rest of the events are likely to be below the calibre
of regional games in other parts of the world, contributing to lower
public enthusiasm.
"The development of sports in Southeast Asia has been lagging behind the
rest of the world," Michael Keon, a former head of the Philippine
Olympic Committee, told Reuters.
Keon, who engineered a Philippine rise in athletics in the 1980s, said
the low level of performances in the region reflected the relative lack
of importance Southeast Asian governments placed on sports development.
"In the Philippines, for instance, there's too much politics involved,"
he said.
Feuds among Philippine sports officials led to basketball, the most
popular team sport in the country, being dropped from this year's
Southeast Asian Games.
The competing nations are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and East Timor.
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Myanmar to launch crime-free-week campaign
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-25 11:34:36
YANGON, Nov. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The Myanmar police authorities are
planning to launch a crime-free-week campaign in Yangon soon, aiming to
bring down crime rate, a local press reported Friday.
With a convoy of police to patrol around the downtown areas round the
clock, the campaign will be introduced as a crime prevention measure,
the Yangon Times quoted some district-level police authorities as
saying.
Four downtown areas, where security measures will be heightened against
crime, will be strived as crime prevention model areas and such areas
will be extended to rest of Yangon, the sources said.
The crime-free-week campaign, which will cover education on crime
prevention, will be carried out with the cooperation of non-governmental
organizations, it added.
Currently, there has been some cases of theft, robbery, cheat and murder
occurring in Yangon, according to the local Crime News Journal.
The authorities attributed 80 percent of the crime cases to the
negligence of the victims against crime.
The authorities claimed that the number of crime cases in Yangon which
has a population of over 6.5 million out of the country's over 54
million, is still far less than that compared with cities in other
countries, however, giving no detailed figures.
Myanmar promulgated a law in June 2002 to control money laundering and
another law in September this year to combat human trafficking to serve
as a legal basis to prevent and suppress such crimes especially related
to women, children and youths.
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Myanmar top leader stresses strengthening of nationalist spirit
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-25 11:09:55
YANGON, Nov. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than
Shwe stressed on Friday the need for his country people to strengthen
nationalistic spirit and ensure uplift of national prestige and
integrity.
Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council,made the
remarks in his message on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the
country's National Day which falls on Friday.
Than Shwe also emphasized perpetuity of independence and sovereignty of
the state.
"In this age of advancing science and technology, the neo-colonialists,
instead of using much-obvious colonization and coercion resorting to
force, are trying to encroach and dominate others through the media with
social, economic, human rights and narcotic drug excuses," he warned,
stressing the need to guard thenation against their perpetration with
national awareness that originated in patriotism and union spirit.
He also called for promotion of education in line with the essence of
the national day which was designated 85 years ago when then students
launched a national movement in a bid to establish anew national
education system to replace the British colonial one.
The movement partly led to the successful regaining of the country's
independence in 1948.
In his message , Than Shwe also called for efforts to achieve success
for the realization of the government's current seven-point political
roadmap to democracy, under which the first step of reconvening the
national convention to draw up a new state constitution is underway.
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Bangkok Post - Friday 25 November 2005
>From Rangoon to Pyinmana
It's not fear of a US invasion, it's simply a return to the location of
the traditional, pre-colonial seat of power
By MICHAEL AUNG-THWIN
Much speculation has been generated by outsiders on the shift of Burma's
capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana. It has been attributed to soothsayers,
a fear of US invasion, general paranoia, an atavistic return to the
Burmese monarchy and plain stupidity. When it comes to Burma, it seems
the vaunted free presses of the world have uncharacteristically stooped
to being subtly disingenuous, blatantly biased, or flippantly
superficial. Perhaps it is about time the English-reading public is
given a perspective that is not simply a dissident agenda or a
regurgitation of the US State Department's non-policy on Burma, which,
like its non-policy on Cuba, has become rather personal.
This recent shift of the capital to Pyinmana on the southern edge of the
Dry Zone is not surprising at all.
Indeed, back in 1993, I said as much in an article (``I will not be
surprised if the capital of Burma eventually returns to the dry zone.'')
The reasons for moving the capital to the interior, the Dry Zone of
Upper Burma are historical, cultural and strategic. It has been, for
over 2,000 years, the heartland of the country. This is where the
country's Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and urban cultures were
located.
It is where the capital of the first ``classical state'' of Burma,
Pagan, and where all subsequent capitals of its dynasties (except one)
have been centred.
It is the heart of the country's best literary and artistic traditions,
where their present custodians live, and have lived for generations. It
was the nucleus of the most extensively irrigated region of the country
whose wet-rice production sustained the state and the bulk of its
population, administration, culture and religion for centuries. And it
is where nearly all of the Buddha-prophesied cities and the most sacred
temples holding the majority of the most sacred relics of the Buddha and
Buddhism are located.
The Dry Zone of Upper Burma, in other words, is the ancestral home of
the Burmese people, and it is very much part of their psyche.
In contrast, although the present capital was a small port town known
during ancient times as Dagon, Rangoon itself was a colonial city (in
name, as well as function), it looks like one and was designed primarily
to serve Britain's colonial export economy.
It was imposed as capital by and for outside economic and political
interests. It had no autochthonous religious, historical, or cultural
basis for being anointed the centre of Burma's culture, and has been a
constant reminder of the country's colonial experience. Fittingly, it
has lasted only 57 years.
In one respect, then, this is a return to Burma's historical, religious,
cultural (and therefore, psychological) roots, which had been rudely
interrupted by colonial Britain and is only now correcting itself.
But it also reveals current concerns, a strategic move, as the
Government spokesperson said, with close and easy access to all the
important towns, cities and sub-regions of the Dry Zone. It has direct
access to the passes in the Shan hills on the east, to those in the
Arakan Yomas at Prome on the west (thence to Arakan and the Bay of
Bengal), while Pyinmana itself sits on the main highway to Mandalay, a
most important hub, currently and historically.
The Dry Zone is also much closer to all the most important mineral
deposits and other natural resources whose future development will be
increasing, not decreasing. In short, it is mainly for cultural and
historical reasons, but also for more current strategic ones, that the
colonial capital of Rangoon is being dumped. It has nothing to do with
soothsayers, paranoia, or fear of US attack. It's not about the US or
the ``international community''!
Believe it or not, most nations in the world make internal decisions
that have absolutely nothing to do with us, uncomfortable as that may be
to our sensitive narcissism.
Michael Aung-Thwin is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of
Hawai'i at Manoa
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More Shan leaders sent to prisons in remote Burma
Nov 23, 2005 (DVB) - Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD) chairman
Khun Htun Oo and SNLD secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin and Shan State Peace
Council (SSPC) patron Gen Hso Ten, were transferred to Puta-O, Khamti
and Kalemyo Prisons in northern Burma.
National League for Democracy (NLD) lawyer Aung Thein and the prisoners?
family members went to Mandalay Prison in central Burma where they were
reportedly transferred from, but they didn?t have a chance to see them.
Prison authorities at Mandalay told Aung Thein that Gen Hso Ten was sent
to Khamti Prison, Sai Nyunt Lwin to Kalemyo Prison near India and Htun
Oo was sent to Puta-O Prison.
Aung Thein told DVB that he and two other NLD lawyers Kyi Win and Nyan
Win are planning to lodge appeals on behalf of the defendants who were
given lengthy jail terms, up to 106 years including several life
sentences.
Moreover, the physical and mental conditions of the three leaders are
not known as they have not been allowed to see their family members
since they were arrested in February. It is neither known where the
other six Shan leaders ? Sai Hla Aung, Sa Tha Oo, Myint Than, Tun Nyo,
Sai Myo Min Tun and Ba Thin, who were detained and tried with them, are
being detained currently.
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Urine samples taken from detained Burma?s Shwegu NLD members
Nov 23, 2005 (DVB) - The police at Shwegu, Kachin State in northern
Burma, had taken urine samples from two local National League for
Democracy (NLD) leaders who were arrested on 20 November, so that they
could be indicted with drug related charges.
Shwegu NLD joint-secretary Ko Ko Myint and township organising member
Thein Zaw have been detained on a two week remand because opium resins
and some smoking instruments were 'found' simultaneously at the
compounds of their homes by the local authorities and police during
raids.
Ko Ko Myint?s wife Khin Thè told DVB that nothing is known about what
the two are going to be charged with, and that her husband protested his
innocence and insisted that he was wrongfully arrested.
?My husband doesn?t smoke or chew betel nuts. He did not even use them
as medicines. I believe that he didn?t do that kind of thing even when
he was young.
They won?t find anything (discriminating) in his urine. But at the
moment, the whole town knows that he was arrested because opium was
planted at our house.
Monks and civilians know it. The whole country knows that the situation
is not as it seems. Whatever they could not find in his urine, they will
try to find fault with it one way or another,? she said.
In 2000, Ko Ko Myint was arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison
after attending a meeting at the NLD HQs in Rangoon, and he was released
in 2005.
Khin Thè told DVB that her husband vows to fight on for ?the second
independence? of Burma, even with his life, so that people could be free
from oppression and live freely.
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Burmese civil servants kept within barbed wires at new capital
Nov 23, 2005 (DVB) - Burmese civil servants who were transferred from
Rangoon to the new capital at Kyappyay region near Pyinmana in central
Burma, have been surrounded with barbed wires and guarded by armed
soldiers, it has emerged.
The drastic action of Burma's military junta, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) came after some home-sick civil servants fled
from the area which is said to be infested with malaria carrying
mosquitoes. The civil servants are carrying out their official duties in
an area which looks more like a police-controlled hard labour camp
(gulag), rather than a site designated as the new capital of Burma, a
civil servant from Hotel and Tourism Ministry who doesn?t want to be
named, told DVB.
Many civil servants who fled Kyappyay have returned to Rangoon and many
more are ordered to go there. Those who refuse to obey the order are
threatened with prosecutions under the Emergency Provision Act - 5J for
treason and insubordination.
?Some people from the Interior Ministry returned with malaria, I was
told. According to him, water is also scarce,? a woman civil servant
told DVB. ?Women are among the third and fourth batches. There were none
in the first and second batches. They are in the list of those who have
to go there. They only know that they will have to go, but they do not
know the exact date. They are in trouble. I have a small child who is
attending a kindergarten. The younger girl is only two months old.?
Pregnant women, mothers with young babies and female civil servants with
poor health are said to be refusing to go. Relocated civil servants were
also forced to take part in a bizarre action similar to that of a
warding off evil ceremony, the woman added.
?When they reached Pyinmana, at 6 o?clock and 37 minute, all the civil
servants have to shout, ?We have gone! We have gone!?. I don?t know why.
I wonder of they are warding off evil.?
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Another teacher barred from teaching in Burma
Nov 23, 2005 (DVB) - Another teacher in Burma had recently been barred
from teaching because he is a supporter and member of the main
opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Than Tint, a private tuition teacher from Chauk, Magwe Division in
central Burma was forced to stop teaching English because he has been
actively involved in politics. More than ten private tuition teachers
have been barred from teaching or in some cases, imprisoned, because
they are either the supporters or members of the NLD.
Than Tint told DVB that Magwe Division education officer warned him not
to teach on the pain of arrest and prosecution as he hasn?t ?steered
clear of politics?.
?In my heart, it feels like someone stealing something from me,? thus
said Than Tint when describing the pain of being deprived of his beloved
career. ?I have been teaching for 30 years since the 1980s. In Thayet
Prison, I taught English with Ko Ko Gyi (renowned student leader). I was
there five years. The hobby to teach is stuck in my bones.?
Private tuition teachers Zaw Myo Aung from nearby Aunglan (Allan), Dr.
Zaw Win Khaing and Than Lwin from Rangoon North Okkalapa Township, Zaw
Zaw from Nyaung-U in Mandalay Division and 60-year old U Than from
nearby Pwint Phyu had all been barred from teaching because they are
members and supporters of the NLD and actively involved in political
activities. Aung Pe from Rangoon Twante and Nyunt Aung from Monywa each
had been sentenced to three years in jail for the same reason.
?If you become a human being, you can?t avoid politics. If you do so,
you will become an ox. Not even a normal one, but the one bred for
meat,? said Thant Tint.
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