BURMA RELATED NEWS

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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 18, 2011
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US envoy holds talks with new Myanmar government
2 hrs 17 mins ago

YANGON (AFP) – A US envoy held talks with Myanmar's foreign minister Wednesday in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since the handover of power to a new army-backed government, an official said.

Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, was also expected to meet with democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi during his four-day visit to the military-dominated country.

US President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 launched a drive to engage with Myanmar's junta, which in March this year made way for a nominally civilian government after the first election in 20 years.

Washington has voiced disappointment with the results of the dialogue and refused to ease sanctions after the November poll, which was marred by complaints of intimidation and fraud.

A US State Department spokesman said in Washington Tuesday that there were "fairly serious challenges to address" in relations with Myanmar.

"We're going to continue to pursue a dual-track policy that involves pressure but also principled engagement," he added.

A Myanmar official said Yun held talks with Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin in the capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday but he was not scheduled to meet President Thein Sein, a former general who shed his uniform to head the army-backed party which won the November election.

Yun was expected to meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi on Thursday at her Yangon home. The 65-year-old was released in November shortly after the poll, having spent most of the past two decades in detention.

Yun's trip came just days after a senior UN official visited the country and said that recent signals from the new government were "very encouraging", although the words needed to be matched by action.
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Myanmar frees thousands in 'pathetic' jail-term cut
Tue May 17, 4:41 am ET

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar began releasing 17,000 prisoners on Tuesday, an official said, in a limited jail-term reduction slammed by critics as it leaves more than 2,000 political prisoners still languishing behind bars.

Among those set to be released were some of the intelligence personnel purged after the ousting of former premier and army intelligence chief Khin Nyunt in a power struggle in 2004, the official told AFP.

But the vast majority were expected to be common criminals, despite repeated calls on the regime to free the huge numbers of political prisoners, often held under vague laws for double-digit jail terms.

Myanmar's President Thein Sein, in a message read on state television on Monday, said that the government was reducing all inmates' sentences by one year and commuting the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Human Rights Watch called the announcement a "sick joke" given the numbers of political prisoners in the country, while the United States urged the regime to go much further as it renewed economic sanctions against Myanmar.

The US and democracy activists have long called for a broader amnesty in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military handed over power to a nominally civilian government led by a retired general after an election last year.

While it was unclear how many political prisoners had less than one year to serve and so would be released, the numbers were expected to be extremely small.

"This is a pathetic response to international calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The group said the government's decision was a "slap in the face" for senior UN envoy Vijay Nambiar, who just last week visited Myanmar and said recent signals from the new government were "very encouraging".

But Nambiar said it was important to watch whether there was real progress in areas such as human rights, notably on the release of political prisoners.

A senior envoy from the United States, Joseph Y Yun, is expected to visit the country on Wednesday, which may partly explain the timing of Thein Sein's announcement.

About 2,600 prisoners began to be released from Yangon's notorious Insein prison on Tuesday, the Myanmar official said.

"Altogether about 17,000 prisoners from the prisons around the country will be released. Jailed former intelligence personnel will be among those released," the official told AFP, declining to be named.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest in November shortly after the election, Myanmar's first in 20 years.

The West welcomed her freedom but criticised the poll as anything but free and fair, and has urged the government to do more to improve its human rights record.

In a formal notice to Congress on Monday, President Barack Obama said that he was renewing sanctions that would otherwise have expired this month because Myanmar was taking actions "hostile to US interests".

Obama, using language nearly identical to previous years, criticised actions by the regime including the "large-scale repression of the democratic opposition" in deciding to extend the measures that limit trade with Myanmar.

His administration launched an engagement drive with Myanmar in 2009, concluding that the previous Western policy of trying to isolate the regime had failed, but it has expressed disappointment with the results of the dialogue.
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Bomb on Myanmar train kills 2, injures 7
2 hrs 1 min ago

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – An official says a bomb has exploded on a passenger train near Myanmar's capital, killing two people and injuring seven.

The public security official says the explosion occurred Wednesday evening about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the capital Naypyitaw on the line to Mandalay. It appeared that none of the victims were foreigners. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information.

No one has taken responsibility for the blast and no suspects have been named.

Bombing are rare but not unknown in Myanmar, where pro-democracy activists and ethnic minority groups are at odds with the military-backed government. The government usually blames opposition militants for such blasts, but most remain shrouded in mystery.
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UK cautions ASEAN from allowing Myanmar leadership
Wed May 18, 3:09 am ET

MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The British government has cautioned Southeast Asian countries not to allow Myanmar to take the leadership of their regional bloc.

It says Myanmar will need to show "enormous political progress" to deserve the prestigious role that it now seeks.

Myanmar, among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has sought the annual chairmanship of the 10-member bloc in 2014. Fellow members have not raised any objection but urged it to continue taking steps to realize a long-unfulfilled promise to fully democratize.

U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden says it's up to ASEAN to decide on Myanmar's leadership role.

He says Washington hopes Myanmar will take seriously the new ASEAN charter, which includes promotion of human rights.
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Rights group: Let political inmates go
Published: May 17, 2011 at 3:52 PM

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, May 17 (UPI) -- A human rights group says Myanmar's decision to lift the death penalty and reduce prison terms doesn't meet a U.N. call for release of all political prisoners.

In Naypyidaw Monday, Myanmar President Thein Sein ordered the commutation of death sentences to life in prison and the reduction of other prisoners' sentences by one year.

Prisoners with less than a year to go in their sentences presumably will be released, New York's Human Rights Watch said.

Prison Department Director General Zaw Win said 348 death-row prisoners' sentences will be commuted to life sentences, the Jakarta (Indonesia) Post reported.

But the human rights group called the move "a slap in the face" to Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's envoy to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"The government's gesture will be welcomed by a great many prisoners in Burma, but for the 2,100 political prisoners unjustly serving sentences of up to 65 years, the one-year reduction is a sick joke," said Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director.

Since presidential elections in November, there have been no significant releases of political prisoners in Myanmar despite calls from many governments around the world and from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the organization said.
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May 18, 2011
Straits Times - Only 47 political prisoners freed in Myanmar amnesty

YANGON - JUST 47 political prisoners were among those freed in a mass amnesty in Myanmar this week, an opposition group said on Wednesday, urging the military-backed government to release the estimated 2,100 that remain behind bars.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), a banned political party and Myanmar's biggest pro-democracy group, said 23 of its members were among the 47 activists released on Tuesday, too few to be taken seriously as a gesture of reconciliation.

In all, 14,600 people were freed.

Myanmar's government insists there are no political prisoners in its jails. Rights groups say hundreds of jailed politicians, students and activists were convicted on trumped-up charges to justify their incarceration.

'There was no general amnesty granted for the prisoners of conscience, just a reduction in prison terms of criminal convicts,' said Nyan Win, spokesman for the NLD, the popular movement led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, herself a former political detainee.

The issue of political prisoners in Myanmar has been key to the imposition of economic sanctions on the country since a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1988. Critics say the embargoes have failed and have only alienated Myanmar's leaders from the international community.
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Asian Correspondent - People call for free political prisoners to initiate reconciliation in Burma
By Zin Linn May 18, 2011 9:54PM UTC

Burma’s Thein Sein government seems following the former junta’s anti-reconciliation political stance that totally opposed a meaningful dialogue with democratic and ethnic stakeholders. The new president’s inconsistent amnesty grant has been witnessing it.

The Burmese President Thein Sein’s clemency program stated publicly on Monday (16 May) commuted death sentences to life imprisonment and decreased all other jail terms by one year. The worst is that ‘Thein Sein government’ continues to reject the existence of political prisoners in Burma.

The official statement says: “On the grounds of humanitarian and out of consideration for the families of the inmates, the President granted an amnesty in accordance with Section 204 (b) of the State Constitution for those who are serving prison terms for the crimes they committed before 17 May 2011, as follows:- (a) Death sentences are commuted to life sentences. (b) Other prison terms are commuted by one year exclusive of remission days.”

The Burmese authorities Tuesday began releasing more than 14,600 prisoners who had less than one year left on their terms. However, under this clemency program, very few political prisoners will be released most of who are serving terms of up to 65 years. Together with its political prisoners, Burma has more than 60,000 prisoners in 42 prisons and 109 labor camps.

According to Prison Department Director General Zaw Win, most of the inmates, including 2,166 women, were being freed Tuesday (17 May) from jails around the country. There were only three dozens political prisoners so far whose terms were almost finished.

Human rights watchdogs and the U.S. State Department have stated the government must go further and immediately release Burma’s estimated 2,100 political prisoners. U.S. President Barack Obama renewed American economic sanctions on Burma for another year Monday, saying the large-scale repression of the democratic opposition in that country has not been resolved.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington that the U.S. reiterated its call that all political prisoners be released immediately.

New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement calling the clemency “a pathetic response to international calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners.”

“For the 2,100 political prisoners unjustly serving sentences of up to 65 years, the one-year reduction is a sick joke,” the HRW said Tuesday.

At the winding up of a three-day visit last week, Vijay Nambiar, the chief of staff to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, called that Burma’s new government must take “concrete steps” to implement the “important” reforms President Thein Sein described in his inaugural speeches.

Mr Nambiar also said expectations were high both nationally and globally that the government would make progress on issues including reconciliation, human rights, economic development and the rule of law.

A movement of letter-campaigns has been widening across the country in since last month urging President Thein Sein to release all political prisoners for the sake of national reconciliation. Several famous writers, poets, musicians, artists and intellectuals have signed the petition letter in order to initiate national reconciliation in Burma.

According to Burma observers, the country will not step into a democratic phase while sham civilian regime has been keeping political prisoners in jail and heightening the wars on ethnic communities. If Thein Sein government overlooked the reconciliation process, Burma’s civil strife could go on for decades.
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Amnesty International - Myanmar: Prison sentence reductions are not enough
17 May 2011

The Myanmar government’s reduction of prison terms must be swiftly followed by the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International said today.

The Myanmar government said on Monday it had reduced by one year the sentences of all current prisoners and commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment.

“While the reductions are welcome news for political prisoners, they are astonishingly insufficient”, said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher. “These actions fall well short of the comprehensive release of all prisoners of conscience desperately needed in Myanmar”.

Amnesty International also called upon Myanmar to go beyond commuting death sentences and join the worldwide trend towards the complete abolition of the death penalty.

While no death row prisoner in Myanmar is known to have been executed since 1988, the death penalty is still in the statute books and death sentences continue to be imposed.

“The commutation of these death sentences is encouraging, but the next move should be to bring about all necessary legislative changes to abolish the death penalty in Myanmar”, said Benjamin Zawacki.

The Myanmar authorities hold over 2,200 political prisoners, many of whom have been subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. They are held in poor conditions in prisons that lack adequate medical treatment and are often located far away from prisoners’ families.

The international community has repeatedly called on the Myanmar authorities to release political prisoners, especially in the run-up to the country’s first elections in 20 years that took place in November 2010. However, at the January 2011 United Nations Human Rights Council, Myanmar government representatives denied that there were any political prisoners in the country.

“The Myanmar government has for decades used imprisonment to silence peaceful dissent, opting for sentence reductions and selective periodic amnesties as a small concession to international criticism of its human rights record,” said Benjamin Zawacki.

Last week, Mr. Vijay Nambiar, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General, stressed the release of all political prisoners during his first post-elections visit to Myanmar.

Amnesty International also urged Myanmar to take concrete steps toward guaranteeing basic freedoms.

"The authorities should repeal or amend laws and practices that arbitrarily restrict rights, such as the Electronic Transactions Law that prevents the reporting of views critical of the government, and should ensure that the judiciary is free from political interference and other abuses", said Benjamin Zawacki.
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Time Magazine - HBO Documentary Burma Soldier Shows Nuances of Life Under Junta
By Hillary Brenhouse Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Burma has been rendered in journalism, activism and art as a country of plain dichotomies: good vs. evil, liberty vs. suppression, the saintly Aung San Suu Kyi vs. the brutal monolith of the military junta. By its very premise, Burma Soldier, which airs this evening on HBO, muddies this picture. The documentary's subject, Myo Myint, is a former soldier who gave his adolescent years to the regime but came in adulthood to join the democratic opposition against it. Says Nic Dunlop, writer-photographer and a co-director of the film with Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern: "Myo Myint's story is extraordinary because it incorporates victim and perpetrator in a single narrative." Extraordinary, yes, and yet this project's greatest strength is its willingness to consider that the lowest ranks of the Burmese army are rife with men as petrified and cynical of the regime as the people they terrorize in its name.

Much of Burma Soldier consists of an unsettling monologue, filmed almost entirely at a refugee camp of grassy huts on the Thai-Burma border. From there, Myo Myint waits to be granted asylum, like his siblings were a decade ago, in the U.S. He came to the army, he tells us, as most Burmese soldiers: teenaged, apolitical and looking for employment and esteem. "Then I didn't know the difference between people showing respect and people acting out of fear," he says. He revisits the details of atrocities committed by fellow service members and to which he was a reluctant witness — the raping of ethnic-minority women, the torching of their villages — in quiet and deliberate tones. The interviews were shot in the less than two weeks before Myo Myint boarded a plane for America, but his narrative has nothing of this urgency. (Is Burma's strongman really retiring?{http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2064470,00.html})

Myo Myint worked as a military engineer, laying and clearing minefields, until an enemy mortar shell set off a mine and blew away a leg, an arm and a few of his fingers. Recalling his subsequent time in hospital, he sheds tears so suddenly that he seems to startle himself. As a crippled civilian, he would retreat first into drink and later, with a yen for peace, into the pro-democracy movement. He established a youth library of banned books, met with democracy leader Suu Kyi and, as protests rocked the country in 1988, addressed a rally of 8,000 antiregime demonstrators from his crutches. More than 200 men in uniform, emboldened by his example, joined the uprising. For defying the dictatorship, Myo Myint was tortured and sentenced to first seven years, then almost immediately after his release, 10 years in prison. He served close to 15.

Burma's generals came to control what had been a newly independent nation in a bloody coup in 1962, one year before Myo Myint was born. In the decades since, the junta has waged an endless civil war against ethnic groups, formed an economic oligarchy, defied international pressure and gunned down pro-democracy demonstrations. "The lower ranks, most of them are illiterate and uneducated," Myo Myint tells TIME, "and they're brainwashed into thinking that all dissidents are enemies of the army, of the state, of the people." In 1990, the regime nullified an election that would have brought Suu Kyi's now banned National League for Democracy party to power. For 15 of the past 21 years they kept her locked up. Last November, Suu Kyi was released from her most recent term of house arrest and in March, a new military-backed government was sworn in, but seemingly little has changed.

Burma Soldier punctuates Myo Myint's grim chronicle with scenes of this junta rule, footage of troops battling protesters or parading in shows of malevolent force. Much of it was smuggled out of the country by dissidents, the rest taken from the BBC, a Burmese humanitarian-service movement, the Web and even a spate of foreigners on gap year. "Begged, borrowed, stolen and in some cases actually paid for," says Dunlop of the images. But for all its impact — there is something uniquely horrifying in watching an army fire on its own people — the material is rarely as effective as Myo Myint's defeated but still handsome face. (See how Burmese activists have launched an antidictatorship Facebook group.{http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2058582,00.html})

Months before that face was set to speak to a foreign audience in its HBO debut, the team behind the movie focused its attentions on Myo Myint's countrymen. In an act of what producer Julie LeBrocquy has christened "reverse piracy," Burmese-language copies of the movie are being smuggled back into Burma. Activists are taking great risks to leave DVDs behind in Rangoon's Internet cafés to be discovered by future cyberusers. By a recent count, the Burmese-language version had been viewed online close to 33,000 times.

In Fort Wayne, Ind., where he now lives among the largest community of Burmese Americans (and where the film's end captures his fateful reunion with his family), Myo Myint is working still to give Burmese an account of their own history that hasn't been written by the ruling elite. And that includes his current neighbors. For while he has gladly found the plentiful and uncensored stacks of an American library, many of the Burmese in Fort Wayne cannot read English. He acts, among other things, as a translator and interpreter for incoming refugees and has his hands in both a local Burmese-language magazine and weekly Burmese-language TV program. "I have no right to directly participate in Burma's politics," says Myo Myint, who took with him to the U.S. a plastic bag of Burmese soil. "So this is my politics: struggling to help my people, my nation." It is a striking patriotism for a man who is not allowed to go home.
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ABC Online - Suu Kyi risks arrest over Australian message
By Jeff Waters
Updated May 18, 2011.

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be arrested again for recording a video message aimed at Australian MPs.

In the three-minute video, Ms Suu Kyi says there have been no real moves toward democracy in the 100 days or so since the Burmese junta held a national election, which was widely described as fraudulent.

The recording appears to have been made on a home video camera.

"We have not seen any positive, definite move towards a truly democratic process. I am particularly grateful to the members of the Australian Parliament," she said.

Ms Suu Kyi says if there was genuine democracy in Burma, all political prisoners would be released.

Supporters say she is risking rearrest by distributing the video.

Dr Sean Turnell of Macquarie University says she is a brave woman.

"I think she's trying to have an impact on the Australian Parliament and clearly on the Australian Government, but also to get out the message a little more broadly," he said.

Ms Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest.

She was released from house arrest in November last year.
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The Diplomat - ASEAN Stands Up to Burma?
May 18, 2011
By Baroness Glenys Kinnock

Thein Sein has had a tough start to the presidency in Burma. But denying Burma the ASEAN chair would have to be only the start of increased pressure.

Burma’s hard-line new dictator, President Thein Sein, has suffered a series of setbacks in his attempts to persuade the international community that there has been real change in Burma.

First the United States and Canada ruled out relaxing their economic sanctions, saying they wanted to see substantive change first. Then the EU followed suit, maintaining its economic sanctions, and only temporarily relaxing diplomatic sanctions on a small number of government officials.

These setbacks alone would have been disappointing for Thein Sein—as someone in the top circle of the dictatorship for 14 years, he was one of the architects of the new Constitution, which was designed in part to persuade the international community to relax pressure against the regime.

But now he has received another blow, one that will hurt even more because it was dealt to him by a friend. Association of Southeast Asian Nation leaders have delayed a decision on his request for Burma to assume the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014. This isn’t just a public humiliation for Thein Sein, but also a major diplomatic miscalculation.

So why didn’t he sound out fellow ASEAN members before making his bid?

ASEAN has long provided protection to the dictatorship. But although it may still approve the chairmanship, comments from an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson were unusually blunt, stating that Indonesia expects a ‘genuine democracy and reconciliation that involves all parties in Myanmar.’

ASEAN has also laid the groundwork for its get-out clause for refusing the request, while avoiding the real political reason, stating that Burma must have the physical infrastructure required for becoming chair.

If even ASEAN, one of the Burmese junta’s closest allies, doesn’t accept that there has been genuine change in the country, what hope do they have of persuading the rest of the world?

Perception and reality have often been distant bedfellows in Burma. A few fine words and vague promises from the dictatorship are enough to get diplomatic pulses racing. Throw in the token release of a high-profile political prisoner and the generals know that diplomats and the media will be talking about change being on the way. They know this because they’ve pulled the same trick repeatedly over the decades.

Last year, after blatantly rigging elections, the dictatorship played its trump card, again. For the third time, they released Aung San Suu Kyi, and initially at least, the tactic worked.

The rigged elections were forgotten or ignored, as were the 2,000 political prisoners still in jail, and the increased attacks against ethnic minority civilians in eastern Burma.
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Offshore Magazine - PTTEP drops Myanmar exploration block
Published: May 18, 2011
Offshore staff

BANGKOK, Thailand – PTTEP International Ltd. has relinquished the entire exploration block M4 in the Gulf of Martaban offshore Myanmar. PTTEP has completed its exploration work commitment on the tract.

PTTEP retains three exploration projects, Myanmar M3, M7, and M11; one development project, Myanmar Zawtika, which is expected to begin production in 2013; and two joint ventures now in production, Yadana and Yetagun projects.
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The Irrawaddy - Burma Censors Reports on UN Envoy Press Briefing
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) has rejected attempts by local journals to print the words spoken by UN Special Envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar at a press briefing following his three-day visit to Burma, according to sources from the Rangoon media community.

During his press briefing at the Rangoon International Airport, Nambiar told reporters that when he met with top Burmese government leaders he demanded that the government release all political prisoners and start a tripartite dialog for national reconciliation, according to the media sources.

The sources said that the PSRD rejected attempts to print any of this information.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, a local reporter said, “It seems that the Burmese government won't accept the use of the term 'political prisoner.' That’s why they rejected all of the information through the PSRD, but allowed descriptions such as: We welcome the new government; We welcome the speech of the president; etc.”

The PSRD also rejected the use of any part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s press briefing but allowed descriptions on the journals' inside pages of the meeting between Nambiar and Aung San Suu Kyi.

An executive editor of a local journal who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Irrawaddy that, “A reporter asked Aung San Suu Kyi during her press briefing what she thought of the Burmese government trying to become the chairman of Asean (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations). She replied that it is more important to have a change in the country than to become the chairman of Asean. The PSRD rejected this part.”

Many from the local media community said that the PSRD will not allow descriptions of Aung San Suu Kyi or her National League for Democracy's (NLD) political and social activities.

“Although the PSRD blocked descriptions of the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi’s activities, they forced us to put in descriptions of the [government backed] Union Solidarity and Development Party’s activities,” said a Rangoon-based reporter.

Meanwhile, the PSRD suspended publication of the Rangoon-based weekly True News for two weeks after the PSRD accused the journal of misreporting a mobile phone offer by the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs (MCPT). It is the first suspension of a local journal since the new civilian government took office.

Reporters Without Borders issued a statement on Tuesday which said that press freedom and online freedom of information are still being restricted in Burma despite the formation of the new civilian government.

“He [Burmese President Thein Sein] promised to respect the role of the media, but heavy jail sentences for journalists, suspension of newspapers and police raids on Internet cafes show that there has been no let-up in controls and intimidation,” the statement said.

Recently, the MCPT sent a new set of rules to the public Internet cafes which are more restrictive than before.

The rules require 12 commitments, including: to record the personal information (name, identity card number, contact address, phone number, etc) of the Internet users; to submit the records of the users (date, time, screen shot, URLs) to the Directorate of Communication once a month; to not allow the use of floppy drives, USB ports and other external drives by the users; to not allow VoIP calls (Gtalk, Skype, Pfingo, etc) by the users; and to permit inspections by the Internet service providers and the authorities.

Rule number 12 said that information that could harm the state's security and interest must not be leaked. Perpetrators who leak such information will be punished under the State Secrets Act.

Reporters Without Borders said that Burma is still on a list of “Enemies of the Internet.” Seventeen video journalists are still in jail and serving long prison sentences, and three of the most prominent—Zarganar, a famous comedian; Nay Phone Latt, a blogger; and Kaung Myat Hlaing, also known as Nat Soe in the Burmese bloggers community—are sserving long sentences for freely expressing their views online.
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The Irrawaddy - Karen State Conflict Intensifies
By SAW YAN NAING Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Armed clashes have been occurring across Karen State on a near-daily basis for the past four months with no end in sight.

Divided loyalties following the split in Buddhist Karen ranks over last year's border guard force (BGF) proposal, and a lack of confidence in Naypyidaw's new government have cemented the Karen rebels' resolve against the Burmese army, rebel sources say.

According to a report from the headquarters of the Karen National Union (KNU), between January and April, a total of 359 clashes have taken place, mostly in southern Karen State, between Burmese government troops and a combined force of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and renegade fighters from Brigade 5 of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).

During that four-month period, the KNU report claims that just six Karen rebels have been killed, and seven injured, while the Burmese army have reportedly lost 611 soldiers, with 848 injured.

Government sources confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the Burmese army has lost soldiers on a near-daily basis.

While most battalions of the DKBA remain loyal to the ceasefire agreement the group signed with the Burmese government, a breakaway faction, Brigade 5, led by Brig-Gen Saw
Lah Pwe, has turned sides and joined forces with the KNU's military wing, the KNLA.

Brig-Gen Saw Johnny, the commander of KNLA Brigade 7, said, “So far, we have not seen any positive signs from this new government,” said Johnny. “They [the government] needs to put an end to this armed conflict and bring about peace. They have to call an immediate halt to their assaults in ethnic areas.

“They have to sit down at the negotiating table with ethnic and opposition leaders and find a solution to the problems,” he added.

Since Burma staged a general election in November last year, armed conflict has intensified across Karen State in both urban and rural areas.

The day after the election, on Nov. 8, a serious clash broke out in Myawaddy Township between Burmese government troops and DKBA Brigade 5, forcing more than 20,000 local residents to seek refuge temporarily in Thailand.

Sources said that the Karen rebels have become markedly stronger since Brigade 5 led split from government ranks and rejoined its old ally, the KNLA.

Karen rebel sources have claimed that there is a great deal of internal conflict within the newly founded BGF units, which are formed by former members of the DKBA. Some of the Karen BGF members have reportedly deserted and defected to the KNLA and the DKBA.

“We are stronger than before,” said Col Paw Doh of the KNLA. “Our troops can now patrol areas that we had abandoned in the past.”

“If the government wants to meet and talk with us in the interest of peace, we will ensure a reduction in hostilities,” he said. “Otherwise, the conflict will go on. It all depends on the new government.”

According to a recent Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) report, at least three civilians died and eight were injured during battles between April 22-30 in Kya In Township in southern Karen State. The firing of mortars by the Burmese army in civilian villages also forced at least 143 villagers from four villages to seek refuge across the Thai border.

On May 13, the KHRG reported that the firing of mortars and light skirmishes were ongoing in the areas of K' Lay Kee and Noh Taw Plah, and that some villagers continued to seek refuge at discreet locations in Thailand.
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The oldest free funeral service in Burma
Tuesday, 17 May 2011 13:55 Mizzima News
(Interview) - Abbot U Teach of Tang Slain Monastery established the Free Funeral Service Association in Mandalay in 1988 when he learned there were many people who could not afford a funeral for their loved ones. Local businessmen, doctors, the literary community, monks and government officials have supported the organization over the years, which has also had to overcome severe obstacles from the local government. The association also offers assistance in health care and disaster relief across the country. Mizzima reporter Kyaw Kha interviewed chairman Dr. Win Myint on the role of the organization and the difficulties it has faced.

Background

Question: How was the free funeral association established?

Answer: The ‘Byahmaso’ free funeral service association was formed on May 7, 1998, under the guidance of Taung Salin Monastery Abbot U Teikkha. When we formed the organization, the Mandalay municipal government was doing the job with two or three old hearses and their service was poor. The hearses broke down during funerals. The abbot donated some land to us, and he organized influential people in the community who saw a need for public service.

Q: Who led the group when it was formed?

A: We formed this organization with private businessmen, local elders, people from all walks of life, and people from the literary circle. From the literary community, we had Daw Ahmar, from the hotel industry, Zaw Oo and Aung Khaing, from the Chamber of Commerce, Tun Thein and Thein Tun, from the literary community, Kyaw Yin Myint, and from the media circle Ba Oo and reporter Htay Aung.

Q: Did you encounter difficulties initially?

A: Because of their superstition, the houses opposite of our association hurled stones at our office building and called us pallbearers. They didn’t want to mingle with us. Some devotees of the abbot stopped visiting his monastery when they saw the hearses.

Q: Did you face harassment from the local authorities?

A: The local authorities demanded our biographical data. We applied and had to reapply for registration. We had trouble renewing our permit. Intelligence people called us to their office and asked many questions about the organization. At that time, our chairman was uncle Mya Aung. The Mandalay Division Peace and Development Council ordered him to put divisional and township level administrative officials in our organization, giving them whatever posts they wanted. Uncle Mya Aung said the organization welcomed government officials but because this organization was an NGO, the officials must resign from their official posts before joining. When Major General Ye Myint was chairman of the Mandalay DPDC, he despised our group and said it was run by Communists, because the sons of Ludu Daw Ahmar were Communists. He accused our organization of being a political group. So they gave us a lot of trouble and made many accusations.

They wouldn’t give permission to us to build a hospital even though we had donors. Our donor had to build a two-storey building for Mandalay General Hospital when the local authority pressured him. This donor donated 80 million kyat (about US$ 9,000) in 2004, but we only got permission to build a two-story dispensary in 2009-10. The donor donated a total of 150 million kyat.

In the meantime, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDP) tried to seize our organization. They forced us to perform our free service in their name to win the people’s support. But, we stood firm no matter if we received permission to build a hospital or not. When the election was close, ministers Aung Thaung and Kyaw Myint frequently visited the abbot’s monastery and met our patrons too. Health Minister Kyaw Myint was my teacher when I was in medical college. He encouraged us and also promised to help us. Soon after that, we received permission to build a dispensary.

Q: What is the strength of your membership?

A: The significance of our organization is that is has no membership. We have only patron members of eight monks and 10 laymen along with 22 executive committee members. That’s all. The main reason for not recruiting membership is to avoid hatred and trouble with the local authorities. We have only 20 staff members. There is no membership here.

Q: What type of funeral services do you offer?

A: We provide three types. The first provides a free funeral service. If the family is really poor and cannot afford a funeral, we give them 16,000 kyat for expenses because the municipality collects 16,000 kyat for a cremation. And if they cannot afford things for a religious ceremony we give an additional 4,000 kyat totaling 20,000 kyat (about US$ 23). Moreover, we provide the people assorted coffins free of charge. We have ready-made coffins for Christians, Chinese and ordinary coffins.

The second type provides assistance to police in inquest cases such as a drowning, suicide, car accident and motorcycle accident. When police ask for our service, we go to the scene and provided our free services.

The third type is carrying patients to their hometown from Mandalay hospital when their health condition deteriorates.

Q: Do you collect donations depending on the financial capacity of the families?

A: No, all is free of charge. Even if they want to donate to our group, they are told to come back after one week and after performing religious rites and offering alms to monks.

Q: Do you provide special services depending on race and creed?

A: Monks use our service too. For Buddhists, we provide both burial and cremation. Muslims do not use our service. They have their own free funeral service. For Christians, we carry bodies from their homes to churches and then to a Christian cemetery.

Q: Who uses your service, only people from urban areas or from rural areas too?

A: The people from rural areas rarely request our service. Sometimes we help them by carrying a body from Mandalay Hospital to their hometown. We carry patients to different places in the country when requested. Some people die in Mandalay while visiting. We transport the body to their hometown, sometimes even to Rangoon. If they use ordinary cars and taxis, they are charged exorbitant prices so they came to our association and requested our service.

Q: How many free funeral service associations are there in Mandalay?

A: There are about 50 free funeral service associations in Mandalay alone. Our Brahmaso Association is the first ever such association in Burma. The actor Ko Kyaw Thu’s association in Rangoon is three years younger than us. Ko Kyaw Thu’s association provides about 50 funeral services daily, and we have five to 10 services daily. We have provided a total of 51,670 free funeral services from 1998 to May 7, 2011.

Q: Kyaw Thu’s association has had problems with the free funeral services offered by the USDP. Have you had similar problems?

A: No, we haven’t. In Mandalay, the USDP has one association but they are not serviceable and workable.

Q: We’ve heard that your group will also help intoxicated people found on the roadside to get to their home. Is that true?

A: Yes, we’ve helped them. We will take people found on the road no matter what, because of drinking or illness with some disease. Sometimes the police inform us, and we help them.

Medical Services

Q: Brahmaso Association also offers free medical care to needy patients.

A: We started helping with free medical care in 2000. Some patients could not afford to buy medicine prescribed by doctors, or could not pay for needed tests and medical procedures. In some cases, they would die if they cannot afford to buy these things. We started by spending about 300,000 kyat per month in helping sick patients in hospitals. Sometimes these patients are referred by Mandalay General Hospital, Central Women’s Hospital and Eye Hospital, etc. We help about 400 needy patients per month with our limited financial resources. We started with a mere 300,000 kyat per month and now the amount has been increased gradually to 10 million kyat (about $11,000) per month this year. We have helped a total of 35,109 patients from 2000-2011 at a total cost of 465 million kyat (about $ 500,000).

Our free clinic, which started in 2009, is open on weekends. About 600 patients visit on these days. About 100 are eye patients and the rest are general patients. We have an eye ward, EENT ward, obstetrics and gynecology ward, a pediatric ward, orthopedic ward and a general practice ward in our clinic. We refer patients to government hospitals when needed. We have a goal to upgrade our clinic to a hospital.

Disaster Aid

Q: We heard that your association also provided natural disaster relief aid. How do you provide such assistance?

A: In Cyclone Nargis, we donated relief supplies worth more than 100 million kyat to the cyclone-hit areas, led by Abbot U Teikkha, two executive committee members and a medical doctor. We raised funds for this relief work by organizing preaching sessions in Mandalay and opening donation centres for both cash and goods. Sayadaw U Teikkha preached sermons at these sessions. Also, we helped to repair monasteries there, as much as we could. We provided relief supplies to fire victims in Myayee Nandar Ward in Mandalay. We provided basic relief items to 345 households of fire victims plus we gave 10,000 kyat to each household.

Then when Cyclone Giri hit the Rakhine coastal areas, all charity organizations in Mandalay joined together and formed the Mandalay Myittarshin Group and donated relief supplies to the cyclone victims under the leadership of the Shwesandaw Abbot. In this relief campaign, our organization donated 5 million kyat.

When the Dohttawady River flooded in Mandalay last year, all the free funeral service associations in Mandalay joined together again to provide relief supplies to the flood victims. We donated two rice bags (about 100 kg) and 100,000 kyat to each monastery in flood-hit areas because people could not offer alms to monks regularly.

Similarly, we donated eight rice bags (50 kg each) and 500,000 kyat to the relief camp opened in Laymyethnar Pagoda. Twenty rice bags, 1 million kyat and drinking water bottles were donated to another relief camp opened in Waso Oo Monastery in Aung Pin Le Ward. We also opened two free clinics for about 10 days for the flood victims.

The last relief work we provided was for the earthquake victims in Tahlay. We sent 5 million kyat to Ngwe Taung Oo Monastery in Tachilek to provide relief work and supplies on behalf of us.

Q: How do you create your donor base?

A: The donors are from far and near, at home and abroad, and the people in Mandalay. In Singapore, people run a ‘One Dollar Fund’ campaign by donating one dollar daily and they send this money to us. Another fund raising group called ‘Myanmar for Myanmar’ raises funds for us. Some donors in the UK also donate money to us too.

The rest are donors from Mandalay. One person donated a tonometer (a device for measuring intraocular pressure in the eye) to our clinic which was worth 36.5 million kyat. Similarly, a company, Mint Khan Hormone (a traditional Burmese snack), donated a surgical microscope worth 16 million kyat. Similarly, there are many donors such as the Mauna Kane gold shop in Mandalay. Many local businessmen donate money.

Expansion plans

Q: What are your next goals?

A: We want to form a blood donation group. We plan to open an X-ray lab, a dental clinic and perform minor operations at our free clinic. The patients will be admitted in the morning, undergo an operation and be discharged in the evening and go back home. Also we plan to offer some education classes. We will run a class for street children. We will also open a library.

Q: What kind of assistance does the government provide to you?

A: No, they don’t give any assistance to us. Even more, our non-profit organization has to pay a business tax to the municipality as a business entity.

The Future

Q: Are young people in Mandalay interested in your charity work?

A: Yes. A youth group called ‘Seta Theca’ brings patients to our clinic. They accompany the patients to the doctors they have to see.

Q: It looks like the role of your organization just keeps expanding?

A: The people badly need our assistance because they can not afford health care expenses in this poor economy. The people are in a hand-to-mouth living mode, and they don’t have any disposable income for their heath care. We are getting more donations as people trust us more.
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Senior U.S. diplomat to meet Suu Kyi
Wednesday, 18 May 2011 19:13 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – On Thursday, the US deputy assistant secretary of state, Joseph Yun, will meet Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu, according to the National League for Democracy (NLD).

He will also meet with NLD central executive committee members, Thein Oo of the NLD information department told Mizzima.

Yun arrived in Burma on Wednesday morning and arranged to meet with Burma’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and People’s Parliament Deputy Speaker Nanda Kyaw Swar, according to the diplomatic sources. He is expected to meet with lawmakers, nongovernmental organizations and ethnic leaders during his four-day visit.

This is his second visit to Burma. He visited first in December 2010.

The U.S. government renewed sanctions against Burma on May 16, saying the Burmese government has not shown significant progress in imporoving human rights. Despite the sanctions, the Obama administration has built a direct relationship with Burma’s new government.
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Glamour and brutality: Understanding Burma’s army
Wednesday, 18 May 2011 14:38 John Graham

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Nang Sap never saw her sixth birthday. It was October 1999 and the 5-year-old Shan girl was grabbed by Burmese soldiers from her village and taken to nearby Homong town. Her mother Nang Khi was worried sick but only found out what happened after local people noticed a bad stench coming from one of the pagodas in the town.

Nang Sap was allegedly bricked up alive in the pagoda. The bodies of two other children and six adults were also found. Typically, pagodas are repositories for holy items. But the soldiers who killed her apprently sought to bring down black magic and bad luck on the Shan in Homong, the former base of narco-trafficker Khun Sa.

Today, more than a decade on, the girl’s mother, Nang Khi, remains traumatized, unable to utter her daughter’s name.

Nang Sap’s untimely death says much about the Tatmadaw, Burma’s military. The death is another statistic among thousands of brutal incidents over half a century. Murder, torture, forced labour, rape–it’s all in a day’s work for soldiers who, when it comes to brutality, on the face of it appear to rank close to the now-defunct, genocidal army of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

But it is too easy to label Burmese soldiers as ‘baby killers’, as some critics do, and not look at the circumstances and culture in which good men become evil. Soldiers are, after all, people’s sons, brothers and fathers.

This is one of the subjects touched upon but not looked at in depth in the recently released documentary, Burma Soldier produced by first-time filmmaker Nic Dunlop and Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern and scheduled to be shown on the US network HBO on May 18.

Beyond the screenplay of Burma Soldier, Anglo-Irish filmmaker Dunlop wonders what makes Burmese soldiers do what they do, what makes them murder little girls.

Dunlop is no stranger to cruelty, having discovered the notorious Cambodian Khmer Rouge prison guard Duch and through publicizing his story helped bring him to justice for the murder of thousands of people–a story told in his book, The Lost Executioner.

Nang Sap’s murder in Shan State is just one of numerous cases Dunlop has recorded over more than a decade reporting in Burma. Her death is not in his film, as documentaries leave out as much as they include, but it is just one example of the thousands of cases that human rights organizations have on file, hinting at the extent of the horrors perpetrated by the Tatmadaw. But Nang Sap’s death and the other cases do not shine much light on the ‘why’.

As Dunlop points out, when it comes to Western or Burmese exile media images of the Tatmadaw they are too often simplistic. It is easy to paint the Tatmadaw as black and pro-democracy activists as white. Yet the reality of rank and file membership of the Burmese armed forces is likely to be grey.

Dunlop knows from his reporting in Burma that soldiers are ordinary people often pushed into extraordinary positions. He recalls visiting an army frontline position and recognizing that the soldiers were surprisingly normal compared with the “baby-killer” image he had often heard about.

His film Burma Soldier tells of the life of just one of these seemingly normal people, Myo Myint, who joined the army in the 1980s and was seriously maimed during fighting, and cashiered out. After being imprisoned for political work in which he questioned the actions of the armed forces, he eventually fled to Thailand and found a comfortable home in the United States.

But the documentary’s made-for-HBO ‘happy ending’ hides Myo Myint’s continuing nightmares and overreliance on whisky to try to blot out the past, including incidents not included in the film.

‘There are many reasons people voluntarily join the Tatmadaw’, Dunlop told Mizzima. ‘They're attracted to the glamour of being a soldier, the power and privilege it brings and the perceived security and the escape from the poverty that wracks the country. Many national heroes are ‘warrior kings’ including Aung San Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, and he was the founder of the Tatmadaw. So these are some of the role models young men are taught about and encouraged to emulate’.

Myo Myint says he joined the army because of the glamour and image, and the fact that it offered a career and security in a country steeped in poverty. He had grown up with the common image that soldiers were protectors of the country. What he found was altogether different.

During the years Myo Myint was in the Burmese army, he witnessed firsthand brutality against ethnic groups, including gang rape of women in the minority states, and the racial discrimination that leads to the soldiers using minority people as forced labour, including portering, mine clearing and road building.

Dunlop says there is a perception that joining the army provides a security that doesn't exist elsewhere. ‘People see the generals, the privilege and power they have, and people are drawn to that’, he said. ‘But many of the officer classes come from military families and the children are expected to follow in their footsteps. These families are isolated from much of the rest of the population and so they don't get much exposure to the outside world–there are options limited by their environment’.

This privileged ‘other world’ was glimpsed in the opulent wedding of Senior General Than Shwe’s daughter, Thandar Shwe, in July 2006. The wedding, which allegedly cost more than three times the country’s annual health budget, upset many Burmese after a YouTube video of the event went viral on the Internet.

The Tatmadaw is split into two dramatically different worlds. The generals’ rich lifestyle contrasts starkly with the lives of rank and file soldiers who do the ‘grunt work’ and face the dangers on the battlefield.

The Tatmadaw soldiers are a mix of volunteers and forced conscripts, sometimes as young as 11. As Andrew Selth, author of Burma’s Armed Forces: Power Without Glory, points out, Burma’s armed forces grew from about 250,000 in 1988 to 400,000 in 2003, but since that time there have been problems in maintaining numbers. In efforts to stem the drop in manpower, boys are kidnapped off the streets or from the villages to bolster the ranks.

Although the Tatmadaw leadership rhetoric talks of an external threat, Burma has been at war with itself for as long as most people can remember. It has been fighting battles with ethnic insurgents and narco-armies since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948. The leaders of the Tatmadaw, largely Buddhist Burmans, portray themselves as the only thing standing in the way of Burma disintegrating and what they believe is a real threat of invasion by foreign forces. This paranoia was demonstrated in the recent building of the junta’s new capital Naypyitaw with its air raid bunkers, and when US and other foreign naval ships downed anchor off the coast but were prevented from offering emergency supplies in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Call it a siege mentality.

Unity is painted as their raison d’etre. The Burman-led junta believes other ethnic nationalities are inferior. Dunlop says this goes back to General Ne Win, who grabbed power in a coup in 1962, and his efforts to promote an ethnic Burman identity. It also works the other way with ethnic nationalities believing they are superior to the Burman majority as well as other 'lesser' peoples or ethnic minorities. The Burmese army, in ethnic areas, is seen as an army of occupation.

Status and hierarchy also play an important part in perceptions and therefore treatment, Dunlop says. ‘Many societies in this part of the world are deeply hierarchical and all these factors contribute to the kinds of atrocities that we've all heard about in ethnic areas’, he notes.

As Myo Myint said, he was taught to believe that these people were simply 'enemies' and that they could be treated with contempt. As he indicates in the film, he had little choice but to go along with this fiction, even when soldiers in his company gang-raped one of the Shan women porters they had forced into service. Myo Myint describes watching the torture of a Shan villager, seemingly torn between turning away and curiosity, as a soldier stuck a knife through the man’s cheek and twisted it. He does not say what eventually happened to the victim.

Brutality is the stamp of Burma’s military junta and its soldiers. Dunlop says this attitude appears to date back to immediately after the Second World War, when the country nearly collapsed from the weight of numerous insurgencies. The soldiers and the population were told that these people were trying to break up the country and threatened the survival of the state.

‘The soldiers are taught to believe that they are the last line of defence to safeguarding the unity of the country and this is used as part of the propaganda within the military itself’, he says.

The fact that the founding fathers of independent Burma including independence hero Aung San and General Ne Win and were trained during the Second World War by the Japanese army has impacted modern-day military behaviour in the field. ‘The most striking characteristic from the Japanese Imperial Army is a rigid discipline coupled by total impunity in the field’, Dunlop says. ‘Brutality is not only tolerated but encouraged. Innovation and initiative are frowned on and obeying orders is central’.

The Tatmadaw looked to Imperial Japan for inspiration, according to Donald M. Seekins in a paper, Japan's ‘Burma Lovers’ and the Military Regime, written for the Japan Policy Research Institute in the United States. The Burmese army is largely modeled on Japanese rather than British lines. In 1988, when still in a position of power, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt commented that they would ‘never forget the important role played by Japan in our struggle for national independence’, adding, ‘We will remember that our Tatmadaw was born in Japan’.

Ethnic minorities like the Karen and Shan who have experienced the Tatmadaw counterinsurgency campaigns in the border areas also claim that its brutal behaviour was inspired by the Imperial Japanese Army.

The Japanese army’s bad treatment of prisoners of war and atrocities in Asia during the Second World War are the stuff of books and movies, a notorious legacy that still troubles Japanese society today. Even pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi has weighed in, while criticizing the modern-day Japanese government’s economic engagement with the junta, noting how the Burmese junta’s treatment of ethnic groups has led to ‘forced labour projects where men, women and children toil away without financial compensation under hard taskmasters reminiscent of the infamous (Japanese-built) railway of death of the Second World War’.

As Dunlop explains, to some extent, Burmese soldiers are brainwashed; that ‘enemies’ are trying to break the country up, but they're also an army that follows orders too. ‘It's easier not to engage with the idea that the people you are opening fire on are real people; abstracting your targets comes much more easily than embracing the idea that these are real people you're shooting at. In that sense the Tatmadaw is no different than any other army. Abstracting the enemy is essential to carrying out the order to kill. It's not that difficult to understand. The traditional antipathy to 'the other' coupled with complete obedience results in this degree of brutality that we have seen characterize the Burmese army’.

Young men with guns in a war zone is a recipe for abuse even amongst the professionally trained, as seen in incidents of US army misconduct during the Vietnam War and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

‘It's not any one factor but a combination of things that enable young men to treat these people so badly’, says Dunlop, referring to the population in Burma’s ethnic areas. ‘The army considers and treats these areas as free fire zones where everything is a legitimate target. The abuses such as gang-rape, slavery, torture and indiscriminate killings are all part of subjugating the population. And the only way the generals believe in obtaining unity is through force. That's all they understand’.

As Dunlop points out, the soldiers on the ground see the people as potential enemies, much as the Americans in Vietnam did during the Vietnam War. ‘They can't discriminate. They are young and afraid’.

Fear permeates the ranks. According to observers, soldiers are fearful of their superiors as well as the dangers of the battlefield.

Myo Myint does a good job of describing the fear within the military. There is no security from the lowliest soldier to the very top. Military Intelligence agents permeate all the ranks and so there is no dissent. In frontline areas the common enemy keeps them together and in some cases committing atrocities as part of a group unites the men–like gang rape–which make dissent psychologically very difficult, if not impossible. And anything can happen in the jungle.

The presence of such a network of spies and informants is deeply entrenched, making insubordination within the ranks more difficult. That said, insubordination is said to be a serious problem, according to internal regime documents researchers have unearthed.

Dunlop says he remembers a case where soldiers murdered a sergeant who was particularly brutal to the young boys under his command, and then they escaped into the jungle. The ‘fragging’ of officers is not unheard of.

However, the Tatmadaw mindset should be considered in context. ‘These minorities who are in open rebellion are viewed much in the same way Western governments might look at the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan or other terrorist groups. And because of the general ignorance among the population of the nature of the conflict, through lack of information, the population supported the army up until 1988. The 1988 crackdown (on protestors) using soldiers marked a shift in perception’.

The beating and killing of protestors by soldiers during pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma proper, including during the 2007 ‘Saffron Revolution’, graphically illustrated how political dissidents and even Buddhist monks were just as much the ‘enemy’. No longer was it a war ‘out there’––it was a war against their own people.

When Burmans targeted Burmans, it left many Burmese asking questions.

As Dunlop makes clear, this is not a neatly divided crisis between the army and the people. The divisions have split families and friends, with military families having detractors across the table from those who believe in the army.

Ethnic minority soldiers within the Tatmadaw have participated in atrocities; minority armies have committed crimes as well. Many opposition National League for Democracy members are former supporters of General Ne Win and themselves fought vicious campaigns against minority armies.

The overall picture is far more nuanced and complex than a straightforward morality play, says Dunlop.

‘One ex-soldier I met was convinced that at least 50 per cent of the army supported pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’, Dunlop says, ‘which begs the question– what holds the Burmese military together?’
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Prayer ceremonies held in Rangoon for political prisoners
Wednesday, 18 May 2011 17:04 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Activists including National League for Democracy (NLD) members held prayer ceremonies at two locations in Rangoon on Tuesday for the release of all political prisoners.

About 30 members of the Tuesday Prayer Group, NLD youth communications network and blood donors’ group, plus activists from Khayan-Thonekhwa participated in a prayer ceremony at Shwedagon Pagoda. A prayer ceremony was also held in Dagon Myothit (North).

Myo Yan Naung Thein, a member of the youth communications network, told Mizzima that because it was Kasone Full Moon Day, a religious holiday in Burma, the Shwedagon Pagoda was crowded and visitors were interested in the ceremony. ‘I saw some people shed tears', he said.

Similarly, the Association Aiding the Poor organized a prayer ceremony in the 44th Ward in Dagon Myothit (North) in Rangoon. NLD central executive committee member Win Tin, Nai Nai, prominent politician Thakhin Ohn Maung, members of the NLD youth communication network, Human Rights Activists Network, the blood donors’ group and New Generation Students took part, totaling about 100 people.

In accordance with the presidential commutation, more than 14,600 prisoners are scheduled to be released from 42 prisons across the country. So far, 36 political prisoners have been released, according to information received by Mizzima as of Tuesday evening.

Senior NLD leader Win Tin said, ‘The commutation isn’t enough. They ignored the hopes of the Burmese people and the world. They made a joke by destroying our hope. It’s very clear that they don’t want to release political prisoners. For instance, the prominent student leader Min Ko Naing is still being detained’.

Myo Yan Naung Thein said, ‘We will never desert the political prisoners. We miss all of them. We want to give them a message that we strongly support them and if necessary we will face jail. The new government doesn’t want to release political prisoners. So, we need to put the government under more pressure to release all political prisoners immediately. We must step up our actions’.

A similar prayer ceremony is scheduled to be held in Dagon Myothit (South) on Sunday.
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DVB News - Freed hip-hop star says Burma ‘regressing’
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 18 May 2011

One of the handful of political prisoners released yesterday in the much-criticised amnesty has said that little has improved in Burma during his three years behind bars.

Zayar Thaw, a prominent hip hop artist and member of the outlawed Generation Wave youth activist group, yesterday arrived back at his home in Rangoon, one of around 30 political prisoners of a total of 17,000 released in the amnesty.

Critics of the government variously called it a “sick joke” and a “pathetic” attempt by President Thein Sein at carrying through his pledged reforms. The 31-year-old says that despite three years in jail, the outside world is much the same as before.

“Our country is still in a state of regression,” he told DVB. “Every sector – education, health – is going backwards. The economic system only favours one’s close aides and our
human living standards are dropping.”

Zayar Thaw rose to fame with Acid, one of Burma’s first hip hop groups whose veiled anti-government lyrics earned them an enthusiastic following. The group’s first album, Beginning, also hailed as Burma’s first home-produced hip hop offering, spent several weeks at the top of the charts.

Following the September 2007 uprising, he co-founded Generation Wave (GW), known for their guerrilla-style methods of distributing subversive material in coffee shops around Rangoon. Fifteen members of GW remain behind bars.

“I would like to tell them, as well as their families and all the parents and siblings of all prisoners of conscience that I very much sympathise them and I will work personally to ensure their freedom, just like mine.”

Of the three years he spent in Kawthaung prison in southernmost Burma, he is more reserved. “In terms of food and living conditions, I don’t want to say whether they were good or bad because there are regulations and restrictions according to prison standards.”

He said however that healthcare was scarce, and the medical staff incompetent. His fellow inmate, Pyone Cho, a prominent leader of the 1988 student uprising, was in urgent need of help for hypertension.

“The doctors noted in his medical record that his blood pressure needed to be checked on a daily basis, but it has been six months that he has not received any medical help at all.”

He is also wary of putting too much emphasis on his release. The amnesty reduced all prison terms by one year, and commuted death sentences to life imprisonment. But more than 2,000 political prisoners remain in detention, some serving sentences of more than 100 years.

“Our brothers and sisters are yet to be released. It would be very sad for future generations if we, the youth, cannot fulfil the responsibility of pulling our country out of this downward spiral.

“It would be hard for us to call this government a truly democratic one without releasing the prisoners of conscience.”

He said that the draft text for the constitution that was brought into power with the convening of parliament in March was released before his sentencing in March 2008, giving him enough time to study it.

“I expected that any government elected under this constitution would be a dictatorship or at least those who are puppets of dictators. And I still haven’t changed by belief on that.”
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DVB News - Ex-intelligence among 17,000-strong amnesty
By AFP Published: 17 May 2011

About 17,000 prisoners were due to be released nationwide in Burma, an official said Tuesday, after the president announced a limited jail-term reduction that was greeted with disappointment by critics.

Among those set to be released were some of the intelligence personnel purged after the ousting of former premier and army intelligence chief Khin Nyunt in a power struggle in 2004, the official told AFP.

But the vast majority were expected to be common criminals, despite human rights groups accusing Burma of holding more than 2,000 political prisoners.

Burma’s President Thein Sein, in a message read on state television on Monday, said that the government was reducing all inmates’ sentences by one year and commuting the death penalty to life imprisonment.

Human Rights Watch called the news a “sick joke” given the numbers of political prisoners in the country, while the United States urged the regime to go much further as it renewed economic sanctions against Burma.

The US and democracy activists have long called for a broader amnesty in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military handed over power to a nominally civilian government led by a retired general after an election last year.

Many political opponents remain held under vague laws for double-digit terms, and while it was unclear how many had less than one year to serve and so would be released, the numbers were expected to be extremely small.

“This is a pathetic response to international calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

About 2,600 prisoners began to be released from Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on Tuesday.

“Altogether about 17,000 prisoners from the prisons around the country will be released. Jailed former intelligence personnel will be among those released,” the official told AFP, declining to be named.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November shortly after the election, Burma’s first in 20 years.

The opposition and the West welcomed her freedom but criticised the poll as anything but free and fair, and have urged the government to do more to improve its human rights record.

In a formal notice to Congress on Monday, President Barack Obama said that he was renewing sanctions that would otherwise have expired this month because Burma was taking actions “hostile to US interests”.

Obama, using language nearly identical to previous years, criticised actions by the regime including the “large-scale repression of the democratic opposition” in deciding to extend the measures that limit trade with Burma.
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