by Salai Pi Pi
Sunday, 29 November 2009 00:33

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Parliamentarians from South and Southeast Asia on Friday jointly called on Burma’s military rulers to implement genuine democratic changes, starting with re-drafting of a constitution with all stake holders taking part.

Legislators from India, Nepal and Singapore agreed that changes in Burma is crucial for the region but admits that it requires a coordinated effort by all regional countries including India and China in pushing the Burmese generals to implement change.

The Parliamentarians were meeting in New Delhi’s constitution club under the ‘Consultation meeting on Parliamentarians’ Solidarity for the Struggle of Democracy in Burma’ hosted by Indian Parliamentarians’ Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB) on Friday.

The meeting that drew together Indian MPs across party lines demanded the Burmese junta to release political prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and also condemned India for its lack of interest in Burma and its struggle for democracy. Sharad Joshi, MP and Convener of IPFDB said both the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Burma is a member and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), of which India is a leading member, should work together for the release of all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi and for the restoration of democracy in Burma.

“Restoration of democracy in Burma is in our [India] interest,” Joshi said.

Brinda Karat, MP and Polit-bureau member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), sharing similar view saying Indian Parliament discussions on foreign policy rarely touches on Burma while it is mainly dominated by other neighboring countries.

“We had debates (in Indian parliament) on India’s foreign policy related to Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, but no debates on Burma,” Karat said. “The issue of India’s policy and stand on Burma must be discussed when we discuss foreign policy.”

India, a once strong supporter of democratic changes in Burma, took a ‘U’ turn in its policy in the early 1990s, saying it is in India’s national interest to engage the military rulers. India said it needed Burma’s support in cracking down the North-eastern rebels, and to counter the growing Chinese influence in the region by taking a foothold in Burma.

India also eyed for Burma’s natural gas and oil reserves and began dogging the generals in order to have stakes in the exploration, production and purchase of the hydrocarbon reserves.

But China in September, announced that it has started constructing a duel gas and oil pipeline in Burma’s western state of Arakan to transport oil and gas from the offshore Shwe gas fields, which India has also raced to obtain the purchasing rights, to its South Western province of Yunnan.

Parliamentarians, during the meeting called on India to actively engage the ASEAN and the international community including the United Nations in finding ways to urge Burma’s military rulers to implement genuine democratic changes in the country.

Charles Chong, who was representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said, ASEAN’s approach towards Burma has failed to bring any changes and that it requires a coordinated effort.

“ASEAN cannot do it on its own because the military generals have made it clear that the western sanctions will not have any impact so long as the two largest neighbours India and China continue to do big business with Burma,” Chong, Vice-Chair of the AIPMC, said.

A former Member of Parliament (MP) from India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chandan Mitra, in his speech at the meeting, strongly condemned India’s policy of engaging the Burmese generals saying India has not been benefitted by engaging the junta.

“I don’t think we have influence on [Burmese] military junta. We haven’t got any economic benefits from them. India needs energy but the energy goes to China. [Burmese] Military had sold it to China,” Mitra, who is also Editor In-Chief of The Pioneer, India’s one of national newspapers said.

The Parliamentarians demanded Burmese military regime to immediately halt hostility against ethnic minorities and political opposition, called for the release of all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to re-draft a constitution with the participation of all political stake holders and to conduct a general election based on the new constitution.

“Before the election [in 2010], the regime needs to release Aung San Suu Kyi and have dialogue with her and National League for Democracy. Then it is also needed to talk with minority groups in Burma as the rights of ethnic groups are very crucial for unity in Burma,” Brinda Karat said.

Sharad Joshi, MP and convenor of the IPFDB, said while election in general is welcomed, it could not be held under fraud constitution that does not reflect the peoples’ desire and aspirations.

Unless the constitution forcibly approved by the military junta in 2008 is revised and a new constitution re-drafted with the participation of all stake holders, Joshi said, “The 2010 election will be a farce and result to strengthen military position.”

Edited by Mungpi

by Usa Pichai
Sunday, 29 November 2009 01:06

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Thai officials have seized illegal logs in the National Park on the Thailand-Burma border, even as local Burmese authorities lodged a protest with Thailand after they found about 2,000 acres of forests in Burma had been trespassed and cleared.

Thai senators, who are members of the military committee of Thailand’s Senate, led by Pol Gen Sonthaya Sangpao, used a helicopter to inspect the contentious National Park on the Thailand–Burma border in Chumporn Province, given the severe deforestation and poaching of wildlife. This has triggered conflict with local politicians.

Local authorities in Chumporn Province bordering Mon State of Burma have decided to step up restriction after it discovered deforestation of large areas of Krom Laung Chumporn National Park, which was being trespassed. A nexus between businessmen and local politicians is suspected.

The national park is in Tasae district of Chumporn Province in southern Thailand. The deforestation and trespassing was by businessmen who want to be into coffee or palm oil plantation by hiring local Thai and Burmese villagers to fell trees. Currently the destroyed area accounts for a total of about 20,000 rais or 8,000 acres. Karan Supakijvilekakarn, Chumporn Governor reported to the senators that the officials found 500 illegal wood boards on Thursday hidden in the area and arrested eight loggers, according to a report by the Thai National News Bureau.

Col Pornsak Poonsawat, commander of the Thai Army’s 25th Infantry revealed that “there are about 8,000 rais (2,000 acres) of forests in Burmese territory, which has been destroyed and trespassed. The Burmese authorities have submitted a letter through the Thai Embassy in Rangoon demanding the Thai government expedite solving the problem.”

However, local politicians denied any nexus but the Senate Committee is investigating.

The Thai cabinet imposed martial law in 2008 in this area to protect the national park. The Thai military sent in troops to the area on 16 November 2009 because it is apprehensive that the problem would increase and affect bilateral relationships with neighbouring countries.

In addition, the local environmentalist Damnern Woraphan, a staff of the Wild Life Rescue Center Chumporn Province, and Wild Life Friend of Thailand Foundation said poaching of wild life is for commercial purposes meant for selling to tourists. This has increased particularly along the Thailand – Burma border in Tasae district. It goes up, particularly at the end of every year during the holiday season because roadside restaurants have a high demand for wildlife products.

စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴး ဗုိလ္မွဴးေဂ်ာ္နီသည္ (ကစုိ) ေရာက္ျပီး အျငိမ့္ငွားသည္။ ထုိအျငိမ့္အဖဲြ႔ကုိ (ဖါးကပ္) သုိ႔ေခၚခဲ့ကာ ရန္သူကုိ (ဖါးကပ္) သုိ႔ျမဴဆြယ္၍ က်ံဳးသြင္းရန္ စီစဥ္ခဲ့ျခင္းျဖစ္သည္။ မိမိတုိ႔စစ္ေၾကာင္းသည္ စစ္ဆင္ေရး စီမံခ်က္အတုိင္း (ညာမေရာ) မွတဆင့္ (ဖါးကပ္)သုိ႔ ည (၉)နာရီတြင္ ေရာက္ရွိသြား ေတာ့သည္။

တပ္ခဲြမ်ားအား သတ္မွတ္ထားသည့္ေနရာ၌ ေနရာယူျခင္း၊ လက္နက္ႀကီးမ်ား ပစ္လမ္းေၾကာင္း ေရြးခ်ယ္ျခင္း၊ ကတုတ္က်င္း တူးျခင္း၊ ပစ္ပုိင္နယ္ ရွာေဖြ သတ္မွတ္ျခင္း၊ သတ္ကြင္းမ်ား ေရြးခ်ယ္ျခင္း စသည္တို႔ကို ခံစစ္စီမံခ်က္အတိုင္း စနစ္တက် ျပင္ဆင္ေဆာင္ရြက္ခဲ့ပါသည္။ ထို႔ေနာက္ တပ္ခဲြရွိ ရဲေဘာ္ မ်ားအား တစ္ဝက္ပဲြၾကည့္ေစၿပီး တစ္ဝက္ကို ကင္းခ်ရန္ ညြန္ၾကားလုိက္သည္။ စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴး ငွားလာေသာ အျငိမ့္အဖဲြ႔သည္ (ဖါးကပ္) ရြာ၌ စတင္ ကျပလ်ွက္ရွိသည္။ ဆုိင္းသံ၊ ဗံုသံကတညံညံ၊ ရယ္သံက တေဝါေဝါ၊ မင္းသမီး သီခ်င္းသံက တလြင္လြင္၊ ၾကည္လင္ေအးျမတဲ့ ညအခ်ိန္ ျဖစ္ေနပါ ေတာ့သည္။ “ငေပြး ဂေယာင္ နီလာေတာ့ ခုေလာက္ဆုိ မင္းသမီးေတြနဲ႔ လံုးေနေရာေပါ့၊ ဒီီေကာင္ေတြကုိ အရွင္ဖမ္းမယ္။ မနက္ဆုိရင္ အတံုးအ႐ုံး အိပ္ကုန္ပါျပီ၊”—လုိ႔ ရန္သူ႔တပ္ရင္းမွဴးက ယူဆေနမွာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ စီမံခ်က္သာ မရွိခဲ့ရင္၊ ျဖစ္႐ုိးျဖစ္စဥ္ အရ ဒီအတုိင္းဘဲ ျဖစ္မွာပါ။

နံနက္ (၉းဝဝ) နာရီထုိးပါျပီ။ ရန္သူစစ္ေၾကာင္းသည္ အာသာငမ္းငမ္း ထိုးေကၽြးထားေသာ အစာကို လာဟပ္ပါေတာ့သည္။
“ဒက္၊ ဒက္၊ ဒက္၊ ဒံုး၊ ဂ်ိမ္း၊ ဂြမ္း”— ဟူေသာ လက္နက္ငယ္၊ လက္နက္ၾကီးမ်ိဳးစံု အသံမ်ားသည္ (ဖါးကပ္) ရြာကုိ အ႐ုပ္ဆုိး၊ အက်ည္းတန္ သြားေစေတာ့ သည္။ ရန္သူသည္ ခပ္စိတ္စိတ္ ရင္ေဘာင္တန္း ပစ္ရင္း၊ ေအာ္ရင္း ခ်ီတက္လာသည္။ မိမိတုိ႔သည္ က်ည္ေရာက္၊ လူေရာက္စနစ္အရ မပစ္ေသးဘဲ ရန္သူအား အနီးကပ္ ပစ္ခြင့္ရတဲ့ အကြာအေ၀းအထိ အပိုင္ပစ္ႏိုင္ေအာင္ ေစာင့္ဆိုင္းျခင္းျဖင့္ တိတိက်က် လုိက္နာလုပ္ေဆာင္သည္။ (က်ည္တစ္ေတာင့္၊ ရန္သူတစ္ေယာက္)၊ မူအရ ပစ္ပုိင္နယ္ (၂၅) ကိုက္ ရန္သူမ်ား အေရာက္၊ မိမိတပ္ခဲြ၊ တပ္စု(၁)၊ တပ္စိတ္ (၁) မွ တပ္စိတ္မွဴးတပ္ၾကပ္ (မူးမူး) ေခၚ (ေကာ့နား) ၏ အမ္ဂ်ီ (၄၂) စက္လတ္ စတင္လွဳပ္ရွားလုိက္သည္နွင့္ တျပိဳင္နက္ တပ္စု (၁) တစ္စုလံုး၏ ေသနတ္မ်ား လွဳပ္ရွား ပစ္ခတ္ၾကပါေတာ့သည္။

ရင္ေဘာင္တန္း ခ်ီတက္လာသည့္ ရန္သူ (၈) ေယာက္၊ အ႐ုပ္ႀကိဳးျပတ္ လဲက်ကုန္ေတာ့သည္။ အနည္းငယ္ ျငီးျငဴယံုမွွအပ၊ မၾကာခင္ပင္ အသက္ထြက္ ကုန္ၾကေတာ့သည္။ မိမိတုိ႔၏ က်ည္ေရာက္ လူေရာက္ စီမံခ်က္ေၾကာင့္ ေသနတ္သံ စတင္ထြက္္သည္နွင့္ ဝါရင့္စစ္သည္ေတာ္မ်ားသည္ ရန္သူ႔လက္နက္ (၈) လက္ကုိ သြားေရာက္ေကာက္ယူလုိက္ျပီး ျဖစ္သည္။ ရန္သူ႕ထံမွ (၉) မမ ဘေရာင္္နင္ ပစၥတုိ (၂) လက္၊ ကါဘုိင္ (၁) လက္၊ ဂ်ီ (၃)၊ ဂ်ီ (၄) – (၅) လက္ စုစုေပါင္း လက္နက္ (၈) လက္ သိမ္းပုိက္ရရွိလိုက္သည္။ တုိက္ပဲြကာလ (၁၅) မိနစ္သာ ၾကာလုိက္သည္။

“ေလာကြားမွ တာဖ အသံေကာင္းလား” စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴးမွ မိမိအားေခၚေနသည္။
“တာဖ မွ ေလာကြား၊ အသံ ၅” မိမိျပန္ေျဖသည္။
“အေျခအေနသတင္းပုိ႔”
“ေသနတ္ (၈) လက္ဘဲ ရေသးတယ္၊ ရန္သူ႔ျငီးသံၾကားေနရတယ္” လို႔ ကၽြန္ေတာ္က ျပန္သတင္းပို႔လိုက္ပါသည္။
စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴးက “အေကာင္းဆံုးဆက္လုပ္” — ရန္ညြန္ၾကားလုိက္သည္။

အဆိုပါ ဆက္သြယ္ေရး စကားလုံး ေ၀ါဟာရအရ ေလာကြားသည္ စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴး စကားေျပာစက္ အမည္ျဖစ္ၿပီး တာဖ သည္ မိမိ၏စကားေျပာစက္အမည္ ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ အသံ (၅) သည္ စက္အသံ အတုိးအက်ယ္အဆင့္ႏွင့္ ၾကည္လင္ျပတ္သား၊ ရွင္းလင္းမႈကို ေျဖၾကားျခင္း ျဖစ္ပါသည္။

ရန္သူ၏ ေရွ႕ေျပးတပ္စု ေျခမွဳန္းခံလုိက္ရျပီးေနာက္ မိမိတုိ႔နွင့္ထိေတြ႔မႈျဖစ္ေနေသာ တပ္ရင္းမွ၄င္း၊ (ေဖြးေထာရူ) ရွိ ပိတ္ဆုိ႔ေရး ယူထားေသာ အျခားစစ္ေၾကာင္းမ်ားမွ (၈၁) မမ စိန္ေျပာင္း၊(၇၅) မမ ေနာက္ပြင့္ ရိုင္ဖယ္၊ (၆ဝ) မမ စိန္ေျပာင္း စသည့္ လက္နက္ၾကီးမ်ားျဖင့္ အျပင္းအထန္ ပံုေအာ ပစ္ခတ္လ်ွက္ရွိသျဖင့္ မိမိတုိ႔ပတ္၀န္းက်င္ တစ္ခုလံုး မဲေမွာင္ေနေတာ့သည္။

တပ္ခဲြ႐ုံမွ ရဲေဘာ္မ်ားျဖစ္ၾကေသာ တပ္ၾကပ္ပုခ်ိဳ (ဝမ္းခါ) (ကက္ဘလူးတုိက္ပဲြတြင္က်ဆံုး)၊ ရဲေဘာ္ ေအာင္ပ၊ ရဲေဘာ္အယ္မြီး၊ ရဲေဘာ္ခင္ေမာင္ဦးတုိ႔သည္ ကတုတ္က်င္းထဲ၌ ရန္သူတက္လာမည္ကုိ သဲသဲမဲမဲၾကည့္ေနသည္။ ပစ္ပုိင္နယ္ (၂၅) ကုိက္ေရာက္မွ ပစ္ၾကမည္ျဖစ္သည္။

ရန္သူသည္ မိမိတုိ႔ စကားေျပာစက္သံကုိလည္း ၾကားျဖတ္ နားေထာင္ေလ့ရွိတတ္ေၾကာင္း သိရွိထားသျဖင့္ ရန္သူအား လွည့္စားရန္ လုိအပ္လာျပီျဖစ္ပါသည္။

“ေလာကြားမွတာဖ၊ ရန္သူ႔လက္နက္ၾကီး ပစ္ခတ္မွဳ သတင္းပုိ႔” စတင္ အသံေပးလိုက္သည္။
“တာဖ မွ ေလာကြား၊ (အလြန္တည္ျငိမ္ ေအးခ်မ္းေသာေလသံျဖင့္) ရန္သူ႔လက္နက္ၾကီး ပစ္ေနတဲ့ေကာင္ေတြ ေတာ္ေတာ္ ညံ့တယ္ဗ်၊ ဘယ္နုိင္ငံမွာ သင္တန္းသြားတက္ထားတယ္ မသိဘူး၊ ပစ္ရာတျခား၊ ရွရာတျခား ျဖစ္ေနတယ္၊ ဒီအတုိင္းသာ ဆက္ပစ္ေနရင္၊ ဗမာတျပည္လံုးကုိေရာင္းျပီး ပစ္တာေတာင္ တစ္ဦးတစ္ေယာက္မွ ထိမွာမဟုတ္ဘူး” ဟု ဆြေပးလိုက္သည္။

အမွန္မွာ မိမိတပ္ခဲြမွ စစ္သည္တစ္ဦး၊ တပ္ခဲြ (၅) မွ စစ္သည္တစ္ဦးစီ ဒဏ္ရာအသီးသီးရထားသည္။ မိမိ ရန္သူကုိ လွည့္စားေနမွန္း စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴးက သိေနသျဖင့္-
“ဒါဆုိဘယ္ေလာက္ကြာလဲ”-လုိ႔ေမးလုိက္ရာ-
“ကုိက္(၅ဝဝ) ေလာက္ကြာတယ္” ဟု က်ဥ္လမ္းေၾကာင္းလႊဲ ေျပာလိုက္သည္။

ၾကားျဖတ္နားေထာင္ေနေသာ ရန္သူ႔ ဗ်ဴဟာမွဴးသည္ ၄င္းတုိ႔၏ လက္နက္ၾကီးမ်ားကုိ အေနာက္ဘက္ကုိက္ (၅ဝဝ) သုိ႔ ေရြ႔ခုိင္းလုိက္ေတာ့သည္။

“အံုး၊ ဒုိင္း၊ ဂ်ိမ္း၊ ဂြမ္း”
“ေလာကြား မွ တာဖ၊ အေျခအေနဘယ္လုိလဲ”
“တာဖ မွ ေလာကြား၊ (အလြန္ရွဳပ္ေထြး၊ ေယာက္ယက္ခပ္ေနသည့္ ပံုစံျဖင့္) “အေျခအေန မေကာင္းဘူး၊ ထိပ္ေပၚတည့္တည့္ဘဲ”—ဟုေျဖလုိက္သည္နွင့္ -

ရန္သူဗ်ဴဟာမွဴးမွ “အဲဒီေနရာကုိ ေသေသခ်ာခ်ာ မွတ္ပံုတင္ထားကြ၊ အတဲြလုိက္ပစ္၊ (၃) စကၠန္႔တလံုးပစ္”—ဟု ညြန္ၾကားသံကုိ မိမိတုိ႔ၾကားျဖတ္စက္မွ ၾကားေနရသည္။ ရန္သူ႔လက္နက္ၾကီးက်ည္မ်ား မိမိတုိ႔ေနာက္ဘက္ ကုိက္(၅ဝဝ) ခန္႔ ေက်ာ္သြားၿပီး ေပါက္ကဲြေနသည္ကုိ မိမိနွင့္ စစ္ေၾကာင္းမွဴးတုိ႔ ျပံဳးၾကည့္ေနေၾကာင္း ရန္သူ႔ဗ်ဴဟာမွဴး ျမင္ခဲ့ပါမူ ရင္နာလို႔ မဆုံး ျဖစ္မည္မွာ ေသခ်ာလွပါသည္။

ရန္သူ႔လက္နက္ၾကီး အႏၱရာယ္ ကင္းေဝးသြားသည္နွင့္ ဒဏ္ရာျဖင့္ ညီွးညူေနေသာရန္သူအား ေခ်ာ့ျမဴ သိမ္းသြင္း ေခၚယူရန္၊ ရန္သူနွင့္အနီးကပ္ (၁ဝ) ကုိက္သုိ႔ ခ်ည္းကပ္သြားေတာ့သည္။

“ေဟ့ ရဲေဘာ္၊ ဒုိ႔ဆီလာခဲ့” ရန္ ေခၚလုိက္သည္။
“ကြ်န္ေတာ္လာလုိ႔ မရဘူး၊ ေျခေထာက္မွာဒဏ္ရာ ရထားတယ္”
“ဒါဆုိ မင္းေသနတ္ ေရွ႕ခ်ထား” ဟု ေျပာေျပာဆုိဆုိ မိမိ ကာဘုိင္ေသနတ္အား ၄င္းထံ ခ်ိန္ရြယ္ထားလုိက္သည္။ မိမိအား ရန္သူလွည့္စားေနတာလား၊ ဟုတ္မွဟုတ္ရဲ႕လား — ဆုိေသာသံသယျဖင့္ သတိၾကီးစြာထားျပီး ရန္သူကုိ ဂ႐ုတစိုက္ ၾကည့္ေနသည္။

“ကြ်န္ေတာ့ေသနတ္မရွိေတာ့ဘူး၊ အေဖၚေတြ ယူေျပးသြားျပီ” လို႔ ေျပာသည္။
အဆိုပါ ရဲေဘာ္ရဲဘက္စိတ္ ကင္းမဲ့စြာ ပစ္ထားခဲ့ၿပီး ေသနတ္ကိုေတာ့ လူထက္တန္ဖိုးထားသည့္ သတင္းအား စိတ္ဓါတ္စစ္ဆင္ေရး ၀ါဒျဖန္႔ခ်ီေရး လက္နက္တစ္ခုအျဖစ္ ထိေရာက္စြာ သုံးႏိုင္ပါသည္။ စစ္ေျမျပင္၌ ယခုလုိ ရန္သူနွင့္ အျပန္အလွန္ စကားေျပာခြင့္ရျပီးသည္နွင့္ ရန္သူကုိ မိမိတုိ႔ စည္း႐ုံး သိမ္းသြင္းႏိုင္ျပီး ျဖစ္သည္။

“ဒါဆုိ တြားတက္ခဲ့”–ရန္ ေအာ္ေျပာလုိက္သည္။

စစ္ေျမျပင္တစ္ခုလံုး ေခတၱ တိတ္ဆိတ္ေနသည္။ ေရွ႕ေျပးတပ္စု ေျခမွဳန္းခံလုိက္ရေၾကာင္း ရန္သူဗ်ဴဟာမွဴး သိေနသည္။ တခုခု ေဆာင္ရြက္လာမည္ ျဖစ္သည္။ အခ်ိန္ဆဲြေန၍ မျဖစ္၊ တြားတက္ခဲ့ရန္ မိမိ ညြန္ၾကားခ်က္ကုိ နာခံလုိ႔ထင္သည္၊ ေရွ႕မွရန္သူ၏ လွဳပ္ရွားသံကုိ ၾကားလာသည္။ ေျမၾကီးနွင့္ ကုိယ္ခႏၱာ ပြတ္တုိတ္သံကုိ ၾကားေနရသည္၊ တစတစ နီးလာပါျပီ၊ မိမိကာဘုိင္ ေသနတ္အား ေသခ်ာစြာ ခ်ိန္ရြယ္ထားျပီး ၾကည့္လုိက္ရာ-

“အုိး၊ ေျခေထာက္မွာေသြးေတြ၊ ဒဏ္ရာ ရထားပါလား” အံ့ၾသစြာ သိလိုက္ရသည္။

အပိုင္း (၃) ကို ေနာက္အပတ္တြင္ ဆက္လက္တင္ျပသြားပါမည္။

ဖုိးတရုတ္ဘေလာ့မွရယူတင္ဆက္သည္။

ျပန္ေခါက္ပါ…

Andrew Heyn
The Guardian, UK
November 26, 2009

Flurry of activity could prove, as so often before, to be just window dressing, writes British ambassador Andrew Heyn
This is a particularly interesting time for Burma watchers. A flurry of activity, both domestically and internationally, has aroused hopes that things might be starting to move in a positive direction. But the optimism is offset by fears that this might be a repeat of the window dressing, so often seen before, that is designed to obscure the reality of a regime conducting business as usual.

The optimists point to recent engagement by the US, and nascent dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese regime. Aung San Suu Kyi has recently written to Senior General Than Shwe offering to meet him to discuss how they can work together for the benefit of the people of Burma.

Were it not for bitter experience, people might be getting ready to celebrate and preparing for a new, properly inclusive form of politics. But Burma has seen many false dawns and no one is getting too excited.

In terms of hard facts there is not much to get excited about. A few months ago I sat in the Rangoon court that, after a show trial, sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further period of house arrest. More than 2,100 political prisoners remain in jail. Elections next year look like going ahead on the basis of a constitution that delivers 25% of the seats in the new national assembly to the military before a single vote has been cast. Burma’s record on human rights and wider political freedoms remains dreadful, as last week’s EU-tabled resolution in the UN’s human rights committee made depressingly clear. The economy continues to stagnate.

The most widespread reaction in Burma to these recent developments is to wait and see. People recognise that it is far too early to assess how successful renewed international efforts by the US and EU (along with the UN and Asean) will be. Neither do we know whether Senior General Than Shwe will respond positively to Aung San Suu Kyi’s conciliatory and constructive offer to work together for the benefit of all the Burmese people. In the meantime the EU remains clear that, in the absence of concrete progress on the ground, sanctions that are carefully targeted at the economic interests of the regime and its associates will stay in place. The US approach is the same. We are clear that if there is genuine irreversible progress, we will respond positively and make proportionate adjustments to our restrictive measures. In the meantime we are increasing our commitment to ordinary people through our programme of humanitarian aid, which is delivering crucial support, including for basic healthcare and for poor families in rural areas.

Everyone hopes that the optimists are right. Real change here would transform the lives of the Burmese people – not only by helping them escape the poverty trap in which so many of them find themselves mired, but also by alleviating the atmosphere of fear and suspicion in which they live.

Diplomats are spared the worst of the overt intrusions and scrutiny which are a daily reality for many people, especially those who work for political change. A small reminder of the ubiquitous nature of the security presence occurred last weekend. A visit to a pagoda, about 20 miles south of Rangoon, concluded with the close questioning of our local driver by a special branch officer who seemed to appear from nowhere after we parked the car.

I reflected how it must be for the Burmese. Without recourse to, or support from, a democratically elected government and its institutions, they would surely see the questioner an instrument of dread.

The climate of fear and suspicion is well founded. This is why those who are cynical about the government’s intentions significantly outnumber the optimists on the streets of Rangoon. The Burmese people will make their judgement about whether there has been genuine change on the basis of actions, not words.

Sat 28 Nov 2009, INMA, Rai Maraoh
Security has tightened around the site of a November 15th explosion in the Kanbuak to Miang-Kalay gas pipeline, near a rural settlement between the villages of That Kaw and Wei Win Kara in Thanphyuzayart Township.

Artillery Regiment (AR) 318, the battalion that that has thus far led the security measures enacted at the site, has unofficially blamed the explosion on Mon splinter group activity in the area, and a new security checkpoint has been created on the central highway running through the region. IMNA’s field reporter also learned that as of this week, the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) in Thanphyuzayart Township has ordered all villages in the Township to take responsibility for reburying exposed sections of the pipeline, as a precaution against rebel activity.

“Yesterday, the soldiers checked the people who passed through on the Thanphyuzayart to Kyaikkhami main road. The checkpoint is at the rain road pass” said a source who passed through the check point.

Locals report that the explosion resulted in an 18- inch horizontal crack in the pipeline itself and a 3-foot-deep crater at the site of the blast.

IMNA reported on the pipeline explosion on November 18th; at the time, the cause of the explosion was still up for debate. However, the recently tightened security in the area indicates that the Burmese Army has attributed the blast to a rebel group-laid bomb, rather than to a structural problem in the pipeline.

“The gas explosion was not normal, the explosion was like a bomb exploding, not through gas or a fire accident. One possible [explanation] is, maybe they [Burmese soldiers] caused the explosion, so that after it happened they could accuse Mon splinter groups [of setting a bomb on the pipeline],” a New Mon State Party (NMSP) member living in the area told IMNA. Villagers informed IMNA that after the explosion, the Burmese soldiers and policemen who arrived at the scene reportedly told the villagers that “Mon people” (meaning Mon splinter groups) had cause the incident. The Burmese army’s knee-jerk accusations against Mon groups has many residents in the area worried that the battalion will eventually use the incident as an excuse to move against the NMSP itself.

“We know they want to accuse the NMSP, but the NMSP never did this [caused the explosion] like they are thinking,” the local NMSP member informed IMNA.

According to IMNA’s field reporter, villagers in the area have been paying pipeline security fees since 2006, after a pipeline explosion between Kwan-hlar village and Young Doung village in Mudon Township. The blast resulted in Burmese authorities imposing a 3000 kyat per-household monthly security tax on all villagers in both Mudon and Thanphyuzayart Township.

BANGKOK, 28 November 2009 (NNT) – Mr Sergei Sabianin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and the Presidential Office Head, paid a visit to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Government House in Bangkok yesterday.

The two sides discussed joint collaborations on various aspects particularly in military and security, culture, and energy development. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister stated his readiness to support Thailand for development and research of fuel resource and natural gas in the same manner as the collaboration with other countries.

Mr Abhisit said the participation of Mr Sabianin in the 4th Joint Commission (JC) Thailand – Russia held on 27 November could lead to the progress in the two countries’ relations and the expansion in diverse aspects. To tackle the collaborating expansion, Thai government presently has implemented the second phase of economic stimulation scheme. Also, the progress of ASEAN integration as a community would bring about preferable environment for investment in the country. Thailand’s EXIM bank was another organization to support the investment of the two countries.

In addition, Mr Abhisit pointed out that the meeting of the Joint Commission between Thailand and Russia should bring forward matters such as energy development for mutual benefit. Thailand was emphasizing the feasibility study of a nuclear power plant project concerning environmental effects and related issues.

Prime Minister Abhisit also expected to visit Russia in early 2010 and hoped to see strengthened relations of the two countries through the Joint Commission implementation.

News ID: 255211280024

Sat, 28/11/2009 – 09:48
IFEX
(CMFR/SEAPA/IFEX) – Condemning the problem of impunity in the Philippines, 47 IFEX members appeal for justice in the horrible massacre of a reported 28 journalists:

Attn: Members of the Philippines government, judiciary, police and military

We, the undersigned 47 members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network join the people of the Philippines in condemning, in the strongest terms possible, the massacre of at least 57 Filipinos in the southern Philippines.

Any murder is reprehensible, but as freedom of expression and press freedom advocates, we are especially appalled by the most recent media reports that at least 28 of those killed in the province of Maguindanao on 23 November 2009 were journalists.

IFEX members monitor attacks on journalists and media on a daily basis, throughout the world. Our members call attention to various forms of violence and threats not just to journalists, but to the larger environments in which independent media must survive. And still, the massacre of journalists in Maguindanao staggers our community. It is a crime of such scale and horror that is incomparable to anything we have seen.

Initial reports from Maguindanao point to the massacre being politically motivated, specifically tied to a rivalry between two entrenched political clans. Among those reported killed, after all, was the wife of one clan leader who was hoping to make a run against the incumbent governor. Whatever the motives, the Philippine government must work swiftly and with urgency to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. Beyond what is attributed to election-related violence and the reality of “warlordism” in the Philippines, we urge the Philippine government to address the larger problem of impunity that festers in Philippine society. It is this environment, where violence and crime go unpunished, that leads to tragedies such as what befell our colleagues in Maguindanao. It is the same toxic environment for which the government itself must be held accountable and take responsibility.

Our members, the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), and the Bangkok-based regional Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), of which CMFR is one of the founding members, note that the 23 November killings have increased the number of Filipino journalists killed in the line of duty this year from 3 to 31. That adds to the 81 journalists killed in the line of duty in the Philippines since 1986.

Clearly, the Maguindanao tragedy goes beyond one day’s carnage. It is rooted in impunity that begets more violence, and encourages more (and more deadly) intolerance for dissent and independent discourse. It is the same climate of impunity that our members, for years now, have been saying is at the root of the high rate of journalist killings in the Philippines.

Given these realities, we call on the Philippine government to do all that it must to halt the violence and bring the murderers to justice, as swiftly as possible.

Finally, we join the CMFR in rejecting any reaction from the government that would further limit or block independent media access to the situation in Maguindanao. Proposals to place the entire province under emergency rule, and therefore under military control, will likely restrict information where information and truth is precisely needed, and further discredit the sincerity of the government to get to the bottom of this tragedy.

We support our colleagues in the Philippines in their call for an independent fact-finding mission to Maguindanao, and stand ready to help in any way that we can. We urge caution given the volatile situation in Maguindanao, but at the same time call on the Philippine government, the police and military, to be accountable for the security and safety of any such missions in the coming days.

Signed,
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
Southeast Asian Press Alliance
Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists)
ARTICLE 19
Africa Free Media Trust
Association of Caribbean Media Workers
Association of Independent Electronic Media
Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo de Investigação
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Cartoonists Rights Network International
Center for Media Studies & Peace Building
Centre for Independent Journalism
Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social
Centro de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala
Comité por la Libre Expresión
Committee to Protect Journalists
Exiled Journalists Network
Freedom House
Hong Kong Journalists Association
IPS Communication Foundation
Independent Journalism Center
Index on Censorship
Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety
Institute of Mass Information
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN Writers in Prison Committee
International Press Institute
Maharat Foundation (Skills Foundation)
Media Foundation for West Africa
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Media Rights Agenda
Media Watch
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
National Union of Somali Journalists
Norwegian PEN
Observatoire pour la liberté de presse, d’édition et de création
Pacific Freedom Forum
Pacific Islands News Association
Pakistan Press Foundation
Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms
Reporters Without Borders
Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay
Thai Journalists Association
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
World Press Freedom Committee
prachatai.news

Number of under age children working in Burma are raising. Children are out of school and getting all kinds of jobs to support families.