Burma Related News - Jun 24, 2007.
- From: TIN KYI <mtinkyi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:52:44 -0700
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BURMA RELATED NEWS - JUNE 24, 2007.
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HEADLINES
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AFP - Myanmar pro-democracy party asks to meet Suu Kyi
AP - U.N. special envoy travels to Myanmar to set up monitoring
program on violations against children
Reuters - Civilians still being brutalized in war zones - UN
MCOT - Moderate earthquake in Myanmar felt in northern Thai provinces
IHT - U.S. Senate condemns Myanmar junta for holding Aung San Suu Kyi,
other political prisoners
CNews - 5 killed, 35 wounded in explosion in India's remote northeast
CNews - Bird flu resurfaces in Asia
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Myanmar pro-democracy party asks to meet Suu Kyi
Sat Jun 23, 2:12 AM ET
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's pro-democracy party has asked the military
government for permission to meet with its detained leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, a spokesman said Saturday.
No one from the National League for Democracy (NLD) has met with the
Nobel peace laureate since 2004.
Spokesman Nyan Win said the party leadership wanted to see her to
discuss legal options for appealing for her release from house arrest.
"Our chairman Mr Aung Shwe sent a letter to the cabinet in Naypyidaw
on Thursday to ask permission to meet with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi," Nyan
Win told AFP.
"We want to know what she thinks about a possible appeal to the
authorities regarding her detention," he said.
Myanmar's military government in May extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house
arrest by another year, defying international demands for her
immediate release.
The 62-year-old has spent more than 11 of the last 18 years under
house arrest at her lakeside Yangon home and has little contact with
the outside world, apart from her live-in maid and visits from her
doctor.
The last time the opposition leader -- the world's only Nobel peace
laureate in detention -- left her house was in November 2006 when the
junta allowed her to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari for one
hour.
Some 52 people have been in custody since last month after they were
arrested for participating in a prayer vigil for Suu Kyi's release.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The NLD won
elections in a landslide in 1990, but the military has not recognised
the result.
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U.N. special envoy travels to Myanmar to set up monitoring program on
violations against children
Fri Jun 22, 15:03 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A U.N. special envoy will travel to Myanmar next
week to set up a program to monitor violations against children in the
country, where child soldiers are common.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative for children and armed
conflict, was invited by the Myanmar government to visit from June
25-29. A statement by her office Friday said she would pay particular
attention to ``the issues of children associated with armed groups and
humanitarian access.''
Charles Petrie, the U.N. humanitarian chief in Myanmar, told reporters
at the United Nations on Wednesday that since 2003, the U.N. has been
able ``to start addressing some very difficult issues'' with Myanmar's
military government, including the problem of child soldiers.
Human rights groups have long criticized the military junta and
opposition groups for recruiting large numbers of child soldiers, some
as young as 11.
Myanmar, also called Burma, has faced criticism from the international
community for other widespread human rights abuses, including summary
executions, torture and forced labor. The U.S. and Europe have imposed
tough political and economic sanctions on the country.
A spokesman at Coomaraswamy's office stressed that the trip was not a
fact-finding mission but a routine, visit to coordinate U.N. programs
to protect children in the country.
The statement said that Coomaraswamy plans to meet with the
government, U.N. workers, members of civil society and children
affected by conflict.
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Civilians still being brutalized in war zones - UN
Fri Jun 22, 18:41 AM ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, June 22 (Reuters) - Despite campaigns to protect
civilians in war zones, progress is gradual and failure too obvious in
many places in the world, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator said
on Friday.
John Holmes told the U.N. Security Council that in many areas, such as
Sudan's Darfur region, Somalia or Afghanistan, "We are still failing
to make a real and timely difference for the victims on the ground."
"Lip service is easy. Effective action is much harder," Holmes told
the council, which devotes a full session twice a year to the issue of
protecting civilians.
Holmes said there were improvements that would have an effect over
time, including indictments against killers by the International
Criminal Court as well as more robust peacekeeping missions to help
protect civilians.
But the statistics were still horrific, Holmes said.
In Somalia, fierce fighting in Mogadishu involving heavy weapons
between March and early May resulted in the killing of over 400
civilians and the wounding of 700 more, including women, children and
the aged. In Afghanistan, 18 children died as a result of attacks by
insurgent and multinational forces.
In Iraq, the United Nations estimates 94 civilians died violently
every day through 2006. In the first three months of 2007, 700
civilians were killed and more than 1,200 injured. This week, the
bombing of a mosque in Baghdad resulted in the death and injury of
over 200 civilians, Holmes said.
Not all the killing is accidental. Civilians are too often
deliberately targeted to create a climate of fear.
"We see this in calculated attacks by Janjaweed and other militias on
innocent villagers in Darfur and Chad; in brutal sectarian, ethnic and
political violence in Iraq; in large-scale killing and abduction of
civilians, particularly women and girls, in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo," Holmes said.
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Too often rape is a weapon of war -- documented in Bosnia in the
1990s, in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, in Liberia in the 1990s and
now in the Congo and in Darfur.
"Survivors are left with horrific physical and psychological scars,"
Holmes said. In the South Kivu province of the Congo, 27,000 cases of
sexual violence were reported in 2005 and 2006 and in March and April
this year, 6,000 cases were reported in the eastern region of Ituri.
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reported 9.9 million refugees at the
end of 2006, the first increase since 2002, primarily because of
people leaving Iraq. A further 24.5 million lost their homes without
crossing borders.
"Life in a camp, even when basic needs are met, is a life of misery:
inactivity and boredom are profoundly debilitating, and commonly lead
to increasing politicization and militarization of those concerned,"
Holmes said.
Jackie Sanders, a U.S. deputy ambassador, drew attention to Myanmar,
formerly Burma, where "there are widespread reports of serious human
rights abuses, including rape, by Burmese military personnel in
conflict areas and other ethnic minority areas."
"Burmese refugees newly arrived in Thailand and internally displaced
Burmese near the Thai-Burma border report that government soldiers in
Shan, Karen, and Karenni states continue to rape women and girls
there," Sanders said, adding the youngest rape victim was only 8 years
old.
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MCOT
Moderate earthquake in Myanmar felt in northern Thai provinces
CHIANG MAI, June 23 (TNA) - A 5.4 magnitude earthquake, centered in
Myanmar was felt in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Mai and
Chiang Rai on Saturday afternoon.
The tremor, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, rocked an undisclosed
location in Myanmar at 3.17 pm, some 356 kilometres from Chiang Mai's
seismic measurement station, according to the meteorological
department.
A few aftershocks followed the quake but there have been no reports of
damage or casualties.
Many minor earthquakes have recently rattled Thailand's northern
provinces and neighbouring countries.
An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale shook the northern
province of Chiang Mai on June 19. The quake was centred in Chiang
Mai's Mae Rim district, lying on the Maetha active fault line.
An earlier earthquake of 4.2-magnitude earthquake rattled the Myanmar
border and Thailand's Mae Hong Son province on June 18.
On May 16, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1, rocked mainland
Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle region, from its epicentre in Laos,
sending tremblors across Thailand's northern provinces.
Another earthquake, measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, shook Chiang
Mai's Mae Rim district on December 19 last year.
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The International Herald Tribune - Published: June 22, 2007
U.S. Senate condemns Myanmar junta for holding Aung San Suu Kyi, other
political prisoners
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Senate condemned Myanmar's ruling junta on Friday
for its incarceration of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners.
A "sense of the Senate" resolution also demanded that the State Peace
and Development Council release Suu Kyi and the others immediately.
Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years either in prison or under
house arrest. Her problems began after the junta allowed elections in
1990 and her National League for Democracy won a parliamentary
majority. The election was voided, and Suu Kyi was locked up.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the next year "for her
nonviolent struggle for Democracy and human rights." The junta's
ruling council is holding about 1,100 political prisoners.
The resolution, sponsored by Senator Mitch McConnell, leader of the
Senate's Republican minority, and other senators from both parties,
honored Suu Kyi "for her courage and devotion to the people of the
Union of Burma and their struggle for democracy."
Myanmar also is known as Burma.
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CNews - June 23, 2007
5 killed, 35 wounded in explosion in India's remote northeast
GAUHATI, India (AP) - A bomb went off in a busy market in the main
city of India's restive northeast Saturday killing at least five
people and wounding 35 others, police said.
The blast took place at the busy Mackhowa vegetable market in Gauhati,
the capital of Assam state, at around 7.50 am (0210 GMT), just hours
before the start of the Asian Grand Prix Athletics Championship.
"The bomb was kept in a bicycle and it went off killing five people on
the spot and wounding nearly 35 others," senior police official Rajen
Singh said.
Most of those hurt were either morning shoppers or vendors, he said.
The wounded, at least four of whom are said to be in critical
condition, have been taken to hospital, he said.
Over 200 athletes from 20 countries are expected to participate in
Asian Grand Prix Athletics Championship scheduled to start in Gauhati
Saturday.
It is the sixth explosion in the past month in Gauhati where rebels
have strapped bombs to bicycles, Singh said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, but police blamed the
attack on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a rebel
group that has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979.
The rebels say Assam's indigenous people, most of whom are ethnically
closer to Myanmar and China than to the rest of India, are ignored by
the federal government in New Delhi, some 1,600 kilometres to the
west. They also accuse the government of exploiting the northeast's
rich natural resources.
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CNews - June 22, 2007
Bird flu resurfaces in Asia
By MARGIE MASON
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Bird flu has resurfaced with a vengeance in
Vietnam - with five people falling ill in as many weeks - after no
human cases had been reported for a year and a half.
Health experts say the spike is a sobering reminder that the H5N1
virus remains deep-rooted and can kill at any time. The virus also has
flared elsewhere, with people falling ill in China, Egypt and
Indonesia this month alone. And poultry outbreaks have surfaced in
Myanmar, Malaysia and as far afield as the Czech Republic.
Vietnam, previously hailed as Asia's bright spot for beating back the
virus, has seen an unexpected surge since last month, when it reported
its first human case since November 2005. Two patients have died, two
have recovered and one is critically ill.
"It's always been lingering and loitering, but now it's striking and
we don't know why," said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the World
Health Organization's Western Pacific region. "I think the first lead
that we might follow is, have people begun to drop their guard?"
Vietnam was blindsided when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks
across Asia in late 2003. The country logged dozens of human deaths
and suffered huge financial losses before undertaking an ambitious
campaign to vaccinate all poultry.
The plan worked well, and no outbreaks were reported throughout 2006
until the virus re-emerged earlier this year among birds. The latest
flareup began in May and has affected poultry in 18 provinces, killing
or forcing the slaughter of some 200,000 birds.
Four of the human cases were from the north and one was from central
Vietnam, raising the bird flu death toll in the country to 44.
"The virus has all the time had the capability" to infect humans, said
Hans Troedsson, the WHO representative in Vietnam. "Why it happened
now in May and didn't happen in January and February, we don't know."
Agriculture officials say unvaccinated ducks are largely to blame for
the recent problems. In March, the government lifted a ban on hatching
and restocking waterfowl, which has led to more ducklings being raised
and transported without being immunized. Vaccination helps to decrease
the spread of the virus, but even that is not foolproof because ducks
must receive multiple shots each year to ensure immunity.
"It's ducks and it's the duck movement and the upsurge of ducks on the
rice farms - all these things are really the major cause of this
wave," said Andrew Speedy of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
He said the government remains committed to fighting bird flu and has
bought 200 million more doses of vaccine. The prime minister also has
issued new orders for officials to increase their vigilance in a
country where many people now show little fear of bird flu.
"People keep thinking it is impossible for the virus to come back to
their villages," said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Animal
Health Department. "I think this is partly because the last time we
managed to control it, so people have been too confident."
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