Former Student Leader, Min Ko Naing Transferred

Former student leader Min Ko Naing and eight leading political activists from the 88 Generation Students group were transferred on Friday morning from Rangoon’s Insein Prison to Maubin Prison in Irrawaddy Division two days after they were sentenced to six months imprisonment for disrespecting the court, according to sources inside Insein Prison.

A staff member at Insein told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Min Ko Naing and eight political prisoners were loaded into a prison truck, which left the prison at about 7am escorted by two police vehicles.

Min Ko Naing (Photo: Dominic Faulder)

The nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were sentenced to six months imprisonment on Wednesday under Section 228 of the penal code—for contempt of court—by the Northern District Court inside Insein Prison in the northwestern suburbs of Rangoon.

According to the source, the nine political prisoners were named as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (aka Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung Naing.

Several members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Pyone Cho, after they led a march on August 19, 2007, against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities, which led to mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks the following month.

Since August 2008, more than 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group have been charged by the Insein Prison Special Court under a variety of charges, including Section 4 of the SPDC Law No. 5/96 (Endangering the National Convention).

The joint-secretary of Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP-Burma), Bo Kyi, said that the nine members of the 88 Generation Students group were moved to Maubin Prison because they verbally appealed to the judge for “free and fair justice.”

“They will not get regular family visits in Maubin,” Bo Kyi said. “The prison transfer will cause trouble for the prisoners’ health, their families and their lawyers.”

According to the AAPP-Burma, a political prisoner, Kyaw Myo Thant, died in Maubin Prison in 1990 under what it called “awful” conditions.

Burmese Join US Presidency Debate

Please read the detailed story HERE

The United States presidential election is just one week away, and Burmese both at home and in the US are watching closely to decide for themselves who is more likely to have a positive impact on Burma’s future.

Both presidential candidates are seen as having similar positions on Burma, in keeping with the tradition of bipartisan support for democratic reform in the Southeast Asian country. But each candidate has some specific appeal for different members of the Burmese public.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain. (Photo: Reuters)

Some believe, for instance, that Republican hopeful John McCain will take a greater interest in Burma because he has visited the country. Supporters of the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, on the other hand, say that he is a strong advocate of human rights who will do more to press for improvement of Burma’s horrific record on this issue.

Not surprisingly, the debate has been most vocal among Burmese living in the US.

While some US-based Burmese lobby groups note that American trade unions support both Obama and Burma’s pro-democracy movement, providing a natural link between them, some activists still favor McCain because he has been more outspoken in his criticism of Burma’s military rulers.

“He [McCain] is very interested in Burma,” said Moe Thee Zun, a former Burmese student leader now living in the US. “He has been to the country and he is one of the leading senators who have backed sanctions against the Burmese junta.”

McCain, who visited Burma in the 1990s, was especially impressed with the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he described at the time as “the greatest person I have ever met in my life.”

Even Cindy McCain, the Republican candidate’s wife, has expressed strong views on Burma’s rulers.

“It’s just a terrible group of people that rule [Burma], and the frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and starvation and everything else and it doesn’t matter,” she said during a trip to Vietnam in June, describing the regime’s response to the humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis in early May.

For some Burmese living in the US, however, there are other concerns besides Burma which have persuaded them to throw their support behind Obama.

“When I migrated to the US during the Clinton administration, I got a job easily. But then George W Bush won the election and 9/11 happened, and now I have to struggle harder than before,” said Ko Shwe, a Burmese with US citizenship living in New York.

“After two terms of a Republican presidency, the economy has gotten worse. Now it affects everybody in the US,” he added.

Ko Shwe also expressed doubt about how much McCain could do to end tyranny in Burma, even if he did win the election.

Maung Yit, a Burmese who lives in California, cited Obama’s age as a key reason he has decided to support the Democrat.

“He is the same age as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was twenty year ago,” he said, suggesting that Obama’s relative youth would put him in a position to transform his country’s political scene in the same way that Suu Kyi consolidated Burma’s pro-democracy movement two decades ago. 

While Burmese immigrants in the US try to decide who will do a better job of leading their adoptive country, interest is also strong in Burma, where privately owned newspapers and journals have given extensive coverage to the US election.

Local publications have tended to emphasize news that shows a more favorable outlook for Obama. The Burmese version of The Myanmar Times, for instance, recently highlighted poll results that gave Obama a nine-point lead over his Republican rival, while a report in the popular Weekly Eleven suggested that the Democrat’s strong showing in the last presidential debate practically guaranteed his victory on November 4.

Another leading weekly, The Voice, looked elsewhere for evidence that Obama was sure to win: In a report published this week, the Rangoon-based weekly said that the Russian government expected Obama to become the next president of the US.

Some local supporters of McCain have even echoed the complaints of US conservatives, who have long accused the media of a “liberal bias.”

“All the Burmese journals are covering the US presidential election and most of them favor Obama for the presidency,” said a businessman in Rangoon who said he would prefer a McCain presidency.

Burmese Women Smuggled into China Arrested

About 200 Burmese women have been arrested in China, after they were smuggled into the country under pretext of finding work, said a source on the border.

Aung Kyaw Zwa, a Burmese businessman on the China-Burma border, told The Irrawaddy that 200 Burmese women, who said they had entered the country illegally through the help of human traffickers, are being held in Chinese jails.

Twenty-four Burmese women were deported two days ago, he said. The others remain in jail where they will serve a three-month sentence for violating Chinese immigration laws, he said.

One young woman who was deported on Monday told a story about being “married” to a Chinese man about 60 years old. She said the man broke two of her teeth and cut her long hair, because he worried that other men would try to take her away from him.

The woman said she was told that if she agreed to be smuggled into China, she could earn 150,000 kyat monthly (US $121). 

“They come here, and it is very risky,” said the source. “They hope for some good luck but most of them are unlucky.”

Earlier this month, the businessman said an18-year-old Burmese woman who was in China illegally returned to her smuggler’s home to seek help after experiencing difficulties. The smuggler refused to help her, and she was reportedly raped and killed. 

The Thailand-based Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) released a human trafficking report in August, titled “Eastward Bound,” based on interviews with 163 human trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007. The report said 37 percent of the women ended up as “wives” of Chinese men and about 4 percent worked as housemaids or in the sex industry.

After Cyclone Nagris, Burma’s economy has suffered and increasing numbers of women from Rangoon, Mandalay and the Irrawaddy delta have migrated to towns on the Chinese border in hope of finding a better life. 

Burmese men, women and children are smuggled into Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau and Pakistan.

Kachin Schoolgirl Rape and Murder – 3 Months Later, No Arrests, No Justice

Three months after a 15 year-old schoolgirl in Kachin State, Burma, was gang-raped, mutilated and murdered, no-one has been arrested and charged, despite eye-witnesses identifying suspects.

On 27th July 2008 near Nam Sai Village, Bamaw District, Kachin State, northern Burma, a 15 year-old schoolgirl, Nhkum Hkawn Din, was attacked and killed on her way to bring rice to her brother, who was working on a paddy field on the family farm.

After a three-day search her naked and mutilated body was found 200 meters from an army checkpoint. A local witness testified that they had seen Burmese Army soldiers follow Hkawn Din on her way to the paddy field. After her body was found other witnesses testified that they had seen soldiers leave that area after the time she had disappeared.

She had been raped, and brutally tortured and mutilated. Injuries included:

1) Her skull was crushed beyond recognition.
2) Her eyes were gouged out.
3) Her throat was cut.
4) She had a stab wound on her right rib cage.
5) All her facial features were obliterated.
6) She has been stabbed in the stomach
7) After the rape, she was further violated with knives

Local people were very angry about the failure to investigate the brutal murder. Posters demanding justice were put up in the Kachin capital Myitkyina. On August 16th witnesses identified one of the soldiers involved, Soe Thu Win, during a line-up. He later confessed under interrogation. A local commander reportedly stated that he will be sentenced to 20 years in jail, even though he has had no trial. However, it is now three months since the murder, and the Burma Campaign UK has been informed that no-one has been formally charged. Instead the family was offered around $500 plus some food staples as compensation for the murder.

Financial compensation for crimes is common in Burma, but reports received by the Burma Campaign UK indicate that the family wants justice, not money.

Locals and family members believe they know which soldiers were involved in the attack, but local authorities have refused to take action.

“The United Nations Security Council have described the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a crime against humanity,” said Nang Seng, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “This case is just one of thousands, and shows that soldiers have the green light to rape ethnic women, knowing there will be no punishment. How long will Security Council members stay silent while women and children in Burma are being raped, tortured and murdered?”

Rape is systematically used as a weapon of war against ethnic minorities in Burma, more than a thousand cases have been documented. There is a culture of impunity, where no action is taken against soldiers who rape. In early 2007 four schoolgirls in Kachin state were arrested, charged with prostitution and imprisoned after being gang-raped by Burmese Army soldiers. After the case received international attention the regime said it would take action against the soldiers involved, but at least one of the rapists remains in the army and at liberty.

On June 19th The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1820 noting that rape and sexual violence can be described as a crime against humanity. The Women’s League of Burma has called for Burma’s generals to be taken to the International Criminal Court over the systematic use of rape by the Burmese Army.

-------------------

So devastating news! Thanks to my friend from Japan, who shared this article. Justice will find those inhuman Burmese Soliders!

Democracy in Burma Will Take Generations: UN Official

The top UN human rights official on Burma told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that it will take generations to achieve full democracy in Burma because the junta is not ready for civilian rule.

"Restoration of democracy cannot happen overnight; it will take generations," Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, told a meeting of the General Assembly.

The statement, though disappointing to pro-democracy groups, pleased the Burmese permanent representative Ambassador Thaung Tun, who said in a statement: "I am encouraged by Quintana's openness and candor in highlighting the fact that Myanmar [Burma] is going through a unique moment in history."

Quintana, who made his first trip to Burma in August and intends to visit the country by the end of the year, later told UN reporters that his assessment that it would take generation for the restoration of full democracy in Burma is based on his interaction with the junta leaders, political prisoners and the political realities.

"To get a civil government will take time. They (the junta) are not prepared for that. They are prepared for war, not for a civil government," Quintana told reporters when asked about his statement in the General Assembly.

"Obviously the restoration of democracy would take time because all the government officials are monitored by the military,” he said.

Serving in an independent and unpaid capacity, Quintana, an Argentine lawyer, said he has proposed four core human rights elements for completion by the government before the proposed junta elections in 2010.

These include revision of domestic laws to ensure their compliance with human rights; progressive release of all prisoners of conscience; and reform of the military and independent judiciary. He said he has asked the government to begin reviewing the laws that limited human rights, such as freedom of expression.

Quintana said his first visit to Burma in August lasted only four days and was a difficult one. "The government didn't know me […] it was difficult to go into the prison," he said. But the visit had been very important, he said, and included three hours of private meetings with detainees.

"The prisoners were very open with me. It gave me a lot of sense of what was going on in the country," he said. The visit had also given him and the various players in the country an opportunity to get to know each other.

Observing that violation of human rights continue, the UN expert said the continued detention of the popular Burmese leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is arbitrary and urged the military junta to release her as soon as possible.

At the same time, Quintana said he was not confident that she would be released in the near future. "There is no access to fair justice (to her),"he said. "I am trying to find strategies to make the Government understand that she is under arbitrary arrest, but I do not have a lot of expectations about that," he said.

Although encouraged by the September release of seven prisoners of conscience, Quintana said 2,000 other political prisoners remained in institutions around the country. Those people, who had been imprisoned for expressing themselves, should be participating in the process that would lead to the 2010 elections, he said.

Source: Irrawaddy News

Australia Extends Sanctions on Burma

ANBERRA — Australia extended financial sanctions against another 45 of Burma's military leaders Wednesday as a protest against the junta's lack of progress toward democracy.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the new list of 463 individuals singled out for sanctions included members of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, government ministers and military officers as well as the regime's business associates and relatives.

It replaces a list of 418 people announced a year ago after the junta brutally crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in Burma, which is also known as Myanmar.

"This was, unfortunately, only the most recent very public instance of the brutal treatment meted out to civil society in that country and to those seeking to make Burma a better society and a nation based on democratic norms and ideals," Smith told Parliament.

"Australia will continue to press Burma's regime for meaningful political progress toward democracy," he added.

Smith said the detention of 2,000 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is "a major impediment to political progress."

The junta's initial response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May was "very disappointing" and the referendum days later that approved Burma's new military-backed constitution was "a sham," Smith said.

The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government—the worst natural disaster in the nation's modern history.

Australia has long banned defense exports to Burma and denies travel visas to members of the regime.

Burmese Migrant Women in Thailand Targeted by Rape Gangs

Burmese migrant women working in the factories of Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon Province, run a high risk of being sexually abused and raped, according to Thai human rights groups.

Mahachai has the highest concentration of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, most of them employed in the area’s seafood processing plants.

A lawyer with the Mahachai-based Raks Thai Foundation said about 30 Burmese migrant women had been raped in the area in the first eight months of 2008.

Another rights group, the Labor Rights Promotion Network, said it was working on the investigation of six cases of alleged rape.

The network’s director, Sompong Srakawe, said about two women fell victim to gang rape in the Mahachai area every month.

The Raks Thai Foundation lawyer said legal proceedings were now under way in the case of two Burmese women who complained they had been held against their will and raped by members of a human trafficking gang.

Rights groups accuse the Thai authorities of failing to take rape complaints seriously enough.
“Street gangs say ‘the Burmese women are illegal migrants and we can’t be arrested if we rape them’,” said Sompong.

According to the Raks Thai Foundation lawyer, only five percent of rape complaints are followed up by the authorities. “If you are Burmese, your case is delayed and you can’t get fair justice,” he said.
Victims are often dragged from their rooms and taken away in trucks to be gang-raped, he said.

Hong Son, a factory worker from Ye Township, in Mon State, said a 14-year-old acquaintance had been abducted by a gang, beaten up and raped.

A member of the Raks Thai Foundation said shame and the fear of deportation caused some victims to remain silent.

Around one million Burmese migrants are registered to work legally in Thailand, while about the same number are illegally employed, according to the Mahachai-based Labor Protection Department.

Burmese Woman Activist Jailed in Rangoon

Accused of illegally handling foreign currency, Khin Moe Aye, 40, a prominent social and political activist, was sentenced to three years imprisonment, along with former student leader Kyaw Soe, at Rangoon’s Insein prison court on Thursday, according to her lawyer, Khin Maung Shein.

Former political prisoners Khin Moe Aye and Kyaw Soe were arrested by military intelligence officers in Kyaikto Township in Rangoon’s northeastern suburbs on December 12.

Khin Moe Aye

Khin Moe Aye has been imprisoned by the military junta three times before. Her first arrest was in 1990 when she was jailed for one or two months. She was rearrested in December 1991 for her role in leading student demonstrations in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi winning the Nobel Peace Prize. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail, but was released in May 1992. While continuing her pro-democracy activities, she was arrested again in February 1998 and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for assisting an author, Aung Tun, in documenting a history of the Burmese student movement. She was released on May 4, 2003.

Kyaw Soe

In recent times, Khin Moe Aye has worked to provide aid, food and education to orphaned children and has founded an orphanage in Rangoon. 

  Tate Naing, secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Khin Moe Aye actively participated in the 1988 popular uprising as a student leader of Rangoon University’s student union and was an active member of the All Burma Federation of Students Unions.
“She was often pressured by the military authorities for her involvement in social and political activities,” he said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi To Reach 13 Years In Detention

On Friday October 24th Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent a total of 13 years in detention.
On the same day leaders of Asian and European countries are holding the ASEM Heads of State Summit meeting in China.

The Burma Campaign UK and fellow campaign groups worldwide are calling on the leaders to back UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in securing the release of ALL political prisoners when he visits Burma in December.

There will be a protest at the Chinese Embassy in London: 12:00pm - 1:00pm,
49 Portland Place, near Oxford Circus tube. This protest is organized by a coalition of campaign groups and Burmese community organisations in the UK.

13 people wearing Aung San Suu Kyi face masks will hand a giant key in to the Chinese Embassy, representing the key to freedom that world leaders hold, if they work together to pressure the regime. The key will have the names and pictures of Burma’s 2,120 political prisoners on it
The number of political prisoners in Burma has almost doubled in the past year, despite calls from the United Nations Security Council for their release. These people have committed no crime. They have been locked up for calling for freedom.

Although Ban Ki-moon visited Burma twice after Cyclone Nargis struck the country earlier this year, this will be the first time a UN Secretary General has visited Burma to discuss political problems.
“We have never had European and Asian government joining forces to directly pressure the regime to release prisoners,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “For too long the UN has fallen for the lies of the regime. Thirty-seven visits by UN envoys have secured not a single reform. It is time the UN set timelines and benchmarks for change. The release of political prisoners should be the minimum benchmark for progress that Ban Ki-moon aims for in December.”

Last week Ban Ki-moon stated that he wanted to see the release of political prisoners as a sign of progress for when he visits Burma in December. It is the first time he has linked his visit with the release of political prisoners.

Fears are growing that the UN’s controversial lame-duck envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, will be unable to negotiate any agreement with the generals in advance of Ban Ki-moons visit, and that the Secretary General will use this as an excuse to cancel the visit. Last week the UN warned they wanted to see political progress or they would cancel the trip.

On recent trips to Burma none of the senior generals agreed to meet Gambari, even though he is widely viewed as being too soft on the generals. On his last visit Aung San Suu Kyi also refused to meet him.
“Regardless of people’s opinion on whether Gambari’s is biased or not, what is clear is that he does not have the confidence or respect of either side, and so will find it impossible to negotiate any breakthrough,” said Mark Farmaner. “We are in a catch 22 situation. Ban Ki-moon doesn’t want to go to Burma unless his envoy secures an agreement in advance, but we have no chance of getting an agreement without his personal engagement, as the generals ignore his envoys.”

The United Nations has ruled that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention is illegal under international law.

British Government Pledges To Do All It Can to Help People Of Burma

The British Prime Minister’s website has issued a response to an online petition about Burma from the Burma Campaign UK. In its response the government pledges to do all it can to help the people of Burma.

The petition was started one year ago during the democracy uprising, and called on the Prime Minister to personally engage world leaders on the issue of Burma, and set timelines and benchmarks for change.
“We are pleased by the commitment of the British government to continue supporting us in our struggle for freedom, said Hlaing Sein, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “Prime Minister Gordon Brown has consistently raised Burma with fellow world leaders, and has become one of the strongest voices supporting our cause. However, we need to see more concrete action from the international community, and we hope he will lead the way in pushing for a stronger approach by the UN, and more targeted sanctions from the European Union.” 

For more information contact Hlaing Sein on 020 7324 4710.

THE ONLINE PETITION

“We congratulate the Prime Minister on his statement of 2nd September supporting calls by the Burma Campaign UK and other Burmese pro-democracy organisations for the United Nations Security Council to discuss the current crisis in Burma, where almost 200 peaceful protestors have been arrested since August 21st. We also warmly welcome his pledge to personally raise Burma in discussions with his counterparts around the world. We note that this is the first time a British Prime Minister has made such a statement, and hope that it will lead to concerted international pressure on the regime for the first time. We call on the Prime Minister to set benchmarks and timelines for change in Burma, after which, if no progress has been made, steps will be taken to increase political and economic pressure on the regime.”

THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE

The political situation in Burma has continued to be a priority for the Government and the Prime Minister personally over the last twelve months. The UK helped to secure unprecedented Security Council action on Burma in response to the violent crackdown on peaceful protests last autumn. The Council unanimously endorsed a strongly worded Presidential Statement on 11 October 2007 setting out clear expectations for progress, including the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners, and the start of a genuine dialogue between the regime, opposition and ethnic groups. These demands were reaffirmed by the Security Council on 2 May 2008.

At the same time the UK supported the introduction of further EU sanctions targeting economic sectors that provide revenue to the military regime - timber, precious metals and gems. The EU has made clear its readiness to introduce further sanctions in the continued absence of progress.

Burma’s neighbours have a key role to play in encouraging political reform in the country, and the Prime Minister has raised the issue repeatedly in his discussions with Prime Minister Wen of China, PM Singh of India and other leaders in the region. He has also discussed the situation on many occasions with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, whose good offices mission remains the focus of international efforts to end the appalling human rights abuses

perpetrated by the regime, and start the long-overdue transition to democracy.
The Government will continue to do all it can to help the people of Burma achieve the peaceful, prosperous and democratic future they deserve.

Of course, in the last 12 months the people of Burma have not only had to endure continued oppression at the hands of the military regime, but also the devastating impact of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country in May, killing over a hundred thousand people, and leaving hundreds of thousands more homeless and destitute. The UK remains the single largest donor to the relief effort, having committed £45 million to helping those affected by the disaster.

UN Outlines Steps to Improve Burma’s Human Rights

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special reporteur on human rights in Burma, outlined “core human rights elements” that should be put in place before the 2010 general election, in a statement released on Wednesday.

The elements include:
—Amend domestic laws that limit freedom of expression, opinion and peaceful assembly.
—Release of political prisoners.
—Repeal discriminatory laws.
—Stop the recruitment of child soldiers.

"Respect for international human rights standards is indispensable" for the regime's proposed "roadmap to democracy" to gain international acceptance, Quintana said.

He said full enjoyment of human rights does not exist in Burma, according to "reliable reports on the extension of detentions and/or new arrests of political activists."

The release of political prisoner would reduce tension and inspire political participation among stakeholders in Burma, he said.

The transition to a multi-party democratic and civil government, as planned under the new constitution, will require “an intensive process of incorporating democratic values,” Quintana said.
He suggested a number of changes in the country’s judiciary, which currently "is not independent and is under the direct control of the government and the military."

Proposed changes include guaranteeing the due process of law, establishing a fully independent and impartial judiciary and setting up a mechanism to investigate human rights abuses.
Quintana, who took up his post in May 2007, visited Burma in August and met with prominent political prisoners, including U Gambira, the head of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance, a leading force in the 2007 demonstrations. He met with Gambari in Insein Prison, where he was being held prior to standing trial for posing a threat to the security of the state.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday his planned visit to Burma in December might not take place unless he sees the regime is ready to produce tangible results toward progress in democratization.

Also, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, this week called for the release of all political prisoners including detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

The junta now holds 2,123 political prisoners in various prisons across the country, according to a report compiled by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and the US-based Campaign for Burma.

Two leading activist groups in a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Ban released on Sunday said, "Dramatic increases in the number of political prisoners show the junta's defiance of the United Nations and international community, as well as its own people." 

Five Burmese Educational Journals Shut Down

Five educational journals have disappeared from Burmese schools following a publication ban imposed by the Ministry of Education, according to informed sources.

The ban, imposed in July, closed down publication of Educator, Prime, Digital Way, Nyein and Pan Daing [“Goal”], which were aimed at middle and high school students.

A member of the Educator staff said no reason had been given for the ban, which had been imposed by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board on the instructions of the Ministry of Education.
Staff of the five publications are reportedly discussing with the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board a possible resumption of publication.

The Board is currently reviewing 80 educational books, according to media sources.
Several parents and teachers expressed concern about the disappearance of the five banned publications. “It will have an effect on most high school students,” said one Rangoon resident.
The five publications were valued as supplements to the inadequate teaching material provided by state schools.

Educator, a fortnightly journal, was founded in 2001 and reached a circulation of 15,000, mostly tenth graders. Nyein was also a fortnightly.
Prime and Digital Way, both weeklies, were founded in 2005 for middle and high school students. Pan Diang was published monthly.

Burma's IT Generation Combats Regime Repression

A truck carrying a squad of police pulls up in front of a Rangoon's Internet café. The police burst into the café and shout to the customers sitting at the computer terminals: "Hands off!" Then they tour the terminals and check every screen, asking users to describe what they are looking at.

If anyone is found using G-talk, the police inquire further—"Who are you chatting with?" "Where do they live?" Customers who come up with wrong or suspicious answers can be arrested.

Burma’s Internet cafes are becoming subject to severe surveillance by the police. (Photo: AFP)

This scenario is a common one in Rangoon's Internet cafes nowadays—in this era where tech-savvy young Burmese chat away on G-talk, check out the social-networking sites Facebook, Hi5 and Friendster, surf exiled Burmese websites and blogs and even share information about how to slip past regime censors by using proxy servers.

  Since the September 2007 uprising, the Internet has shaped the way they think, relax and communicate in their isolated, military-ruled country. The Internet has created a virtual community and a new arena for freedom of expression.

"The uprising in Burma is ultimately an example of a protest where digitally network technologies played a critical role," researcher Mridul Chowdhury reported in his paper "The Role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution," a case study for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Equipped with cell phones and digital cameras, and with access to the Internet, determined young Burmese are communicating with each other and the outside world as never before.

During last year’s monk-led demonstrations, known as the Saffron Revolution, Internet users also became publishers of text, audio, and video files illustrating what was happening inside the country. Suddenly, Burma was attracting the full attention of such international media as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. Condemnation of the regime’s repression of the protests followed from many governments.

Burma’s IT generation had a chance to flex its muscles before the generals pulled the plug on the Internet at the height of their crackdown on the September protests.

The junta has prevented Burmese citizens from using services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail and to block Web sites and blogs set up by exiled Burmese critics of the regime. But Internet cafes responded by installing foreign-hosted proxy servers to circumvent the government restrictions.

Risking arrest, imprisonment and torture, young Burmese—notably journalists and bloggers—have continued to play a crucial role in informing the outside world of the true situation in Burma.
They are more likely than ever to see the Internet as a means of achieving freedom of expression with the advent of information technology. In their blogs and chat rooms, they have been demonstrating the active role they play in sharing information and debating important issues in politics and other areas of domestic concern.

This is the reason why, one year after the Saffron Revolution, Internet cafes are becoming subject to severe surveillance by the police. Cafe owners are forced to take screenshots of user activity every five minutes and deliver these images to the authorities on a regular basis.

The owner of one Internet cafe in downtown Rangoon said the local authorities and police intelligence officers had issued orders to provide ID information about customers.

According to Internet cafe owners and users in Rangoon, Internet speeds have slowed down considerably since mid-September, making it impossible to upload large files such as photos or videos.

Meanwhile, the Web sites of the exile-run, Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and New Delhi-based Mizzima News were hit in July by DDoS attacks, shutting them down for several days.
Another DDoS attacks were again in September launched against The Irrawaddy, DVB and the Bangkok-based New Era Journal. The Web site of Mizzima News was hacked on October 1 with a cross-site scripting, making it inaccessible.

According to Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist Brian McCartan, two community forums Mystery Zillion and Planet Myanmar—Web sites providing information and instruction on how to circumvent the regime's control—were also disabled and shut down by similar attacks in August.

Forced Labor Used in Delta

LAPUTTA — Burmese military authorities have conscripted cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta to construct a road in exchange for international aid, according to villagers.

Local sources said people have been conscripted to work by military officers with Light Infantry Division No 66. An order was received in 17 villages in the Pyinsalu Village Tract, located in the coastal area of Laputta Township, saying one person from each family would be required to work on the construction of the Laputta-Thingangyi-Pyinsalu road.

Ma Nwe, who is four months pregnant and lives in Wabokhone village, told The Irrawaddy that she was conscripted to work on the road project, and her husband was conscripted to work on a government building in the city of Pyinsalu.

She said they had no choice but to do as ordered. "So I came here,” she said. “I can't refuse their order."

The village headman of Khonegyi village said he knew of 50 people were who sent to construction sites in Pyinsalu. The laborers have worked since September 16, he said, and no one knows how long the construction projects will continue.

According to villagers, the army said the workers will receive aid from INGOs and the government. Sources said the aid included a basic family water kit from UNICEF, "dignity kits" of clothes and personal hygiene items from the United Nations Population Fund, rice, food, and medicine.
In the areas of Laputta, regime-friendly companies such as Ayear Shwe Wah, Max Myanmar and Wah Wah Win have involved construction projects in Laputta Township, according to sources.
Ayer Shwe Wah was established by Aung Thet Mann, the son of junta member Gen Thura Shwe Mann, who has been accused of using his position to win contracts for construction work in the capital, Naypyidaw.

In June, London-based Amnesty International said the military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food, and authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert international aid to be used for regime-friendly projects, or to be sold in black markets.
Meanwhile, the United Nations' flash fundraising appeal for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis remains 50 percent unfunded, according to a statement issued by the Tripartite Core Group, which has coordinated relief efforts since June and is comprised of representatives from the military government, UN agencies and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Burmese Generals Authorized to Buy and Sell Land Cruisers with Profits

The latest perk for Burma’s senior military officials is a Toyota Land Cruiser, according to a source close to the military government.

"Nowadays the talk in the army is the news that all high ranking military officers above major general have permission to buy Land Cruisers," the source told The Irrawaddy. 
Low-ranking officials are unhappy about the news, said the source, griping that the vehicles could end up being sold on the black market.

"The permit allows buying a vehicle for 140,000,000 kyat (US $112,450). But a vehicle that’s bought could be sold on the black market for 500,000,000 kyat ($401,606)," according to the source. The price for a 2009 Toyota Land Cruiser in the United States is around $65,000.

About 50 high ranking officers above major general work in the Ministry of Defense.
Abuse of power and corruption are common in the military government. According to the Global Corruption Report 2008, recently released by Transparency International, Burma is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ranking just ahead of Somalia and tied with Iraq at the second-lowest ranking.

Meanwhile, about 1,000 vehicles that were seized in southern Burma for not having legal registration papers were auctioned this week by Southeast Command in Moulmein, according to a source with the Mon ceasefire group.

Sources at the New Mon State Party said the vehicles, seized in the past few years, have been re-registered with new titles and licenses. The number of vehicles to be sold is not known. In the past, such vehicles were usually sold to businessmen favored by the regime. 

The source said about 50 vehicles were sold or traded last week at the Southeast Command in Moulmein.

A Toyota Mighty 8 Hilux brought from 10,000,000 kyat ($8,032) to 30,000,000 kyats ($ 24,096), depending on the model’s year.

Most vehicles were seized from local residents or members of the Mon ceasefire group. In 2003, the regime passed a law allowing seizure of vehicles without legal registration papers and imprisonment of the owner for up to three years.

Reports of Rape Surface in Cyclone-devastated Delta

LAPUTTA — Reports of rape and other abuses of women are surfacing as communities in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta continue to recover from May’s Cyclone Nargis.

Women were particularly vulnerable in the cyclone and its aftermath, when social order broke down. Many complain their plight was ignored by local authorities and the military.

One 20-year-old woman from a village in Laputta District said three men who responded to her cries for help the day after the cyclone raped and tried to rob her.

One villager reported seeing two men armed with knives rape a 15-year-old girl before drowning her. “I was afraid to try and help the girl and I pretended to be dead,” he confessed.

The rapes and killing continued weeks after the cyclone, as devastated communities tried to restore normal life, according to villagers.

A resident of Gyin Yah village in Laputta District said that a month after the cyclone he had discovered the body of a teenage girl who had been raped and killed, then dumped in a rice paddy.
Some villagers accused military authorities of trying to prevent news of rape and pillage becoming public. Villages allowing news of the abuses to escape were threatened with destruction, sources said.

One man from Kyane Gone village in Laputta District said a soldier had tried to drag away his daughter as they waited for aid at a military base. He had complained to an officer, who had angrily sent him away.

A woman survivor from Sate Gyi village in Laputta Township said: “I don’t dare return to my home. I’m the only woman survivor and would be the only woman among eight men.”

Burmese Exile Media Web Site Again Under Attack

The Web site of the Mizzima Burmese news organization in exile has again come under attack by pro-regime hackers.

Sein Win, editor of the Mizzima news agency, said the site, www.mizzima.com, had been briefly knocked out on Wednesday morning by hackers calling themselves “Independence Hackers from Burma.” The attack lasted about 10 hours.

Visitors to the site found a crude, ungrammatical message reading: “Dear MIZZIMA Readers...Listen Please, Why Hack This Website?... Because we are Independence Hackers from Burma. We Born for Hack Those F**king Media Website, Which Are Ever Talk about only Worse News for Our Country. We are very sorry for Webadmin, You Need to More Secure Your Website. Now We Warn to All Media Webadmins That is "Prepare to More Secure Your Work."   

Mizzima and three other exiled Burmese Web sites—The Irrawaddy, the Democratic Voice of Burma and Khitpyaing—came under cyber attack late last month.

Mizzima was hacked while the three other sites were bombarded by a so-called “distributed denial-of-service”, or DDoS, which overloads Web sites with an unmanageable amount of traffic.

The attacks coincided with the first anniversary of the regime’s brutal suppression of monk-led demonstrations in September 2007. 

Exiled media groups, bloggers, reporters inside Burma and citizen journalists played major roles in reporting on the September 2007 uprising.
As Burmese commemorated the September 2007 uprising, the authorities intensified their watch over Internet cafes in Rangoon. In some Internet cafes, users have to show their ID, while informers observe students playing video games. Buddhist monks complain that they are treated like criminals if they are seen using the Internet.