CULTURE MONSTER:See Shepard Fairey’s latest campaign poster -DASSK

These days, every political movement needs a logo, and who better to supply the hip revolutionary imagery than street artist Shepard Fairey, whose poster of Obama (“Hope”) became a cultural phenomenon unto itself — a Warholian meta-event that combined fashion, hipsterism and a political call to action.

Fairey has been bogged down with legal problems in recent weeks, but he’s apparently found time to lend his creativity to another cause. Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is a human rights activist who has fought for years against the repressive regime of dictator Than Shwe. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist has been under house arrest for several years now, but that hasn’t stopped her from campaigning with her political party, the National League for Democracy. In the last election, her party won a majority of seats in the Myanmar parliament but the ruling party has refused to let the winners take their seats. continue

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/shepard-fairey-new-post.html

DASSK TRIAL:Police patrol Rangoon, security tightened near Insein prison

by Myint Maung
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 22:16

New Delhi (Mizzima) – There is heightened security in Rangoon with at least 30 army trucks with uniformed riot police personnel, patrolling the city on Wednesday.

The army trucks are each carrying at least 20 policemen and are patrolling various townships of Rangoon, eyewitnesses said.

“We can see about 30 to 40 army trucks carrying uniformed policemen patrolling the city. It looks like they are on high alert. They also have machine guns mounted on the trucks. They came to our township at about 3 p.m. (local time),” an eyewitness from Insein Township told Mizzima.

“Earlier, when they patrolled like they are doing now, the police would carry shields but today they had a policeman standing on the truck with a machine gun mounted on the hood,” he added.

Another local resident said he had seen about three army trucks, full of riot police, patrolling downtown Rangoon near the City Hall, which is one of the busiest places in town.

“They had the trucks covered with shields and had batons and guns in their hands,” he said.

A source near the Insein prison told Mizzima that the riot police No. (8) have been relocated and repositioned near the Insein prison.

Some of the townships, where eyewitnesses saw army trucks patrolling include San Chuang and Dagon South.

The reason for the sudden tightening of security, however, remains unknown but some believe it could be because of the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who reportedly is planning to visit the country later this week.
mizzima

Palpable tension between junta and ethnic armed groups

by Solomon
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 21:35

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese Army has significantly increased its military presence in northern and eastern Burma, where ethnic ceasefire armed groups are based, following their widespread rejection of the junta’s proposal to transform to a border guard force.

An official of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) told Mizzima on Wednesday that they have witnessed the Burmese Army relocating more troops along with arms including mortars in bases near their controlled areas in eastern Shan State.

“We have seen the Burmese Army moving in more troops, in what seems like a preparation for a war,” the official said.

He told Mizzima that the junta is likely to mount more pressure on them after they rejected the proposal to transform their army into a ‘Border Guard’ force.

“Changing our army’s name is not a problem but if we accept their proposal, we will lose our forces, so it’s not possible for us,” he said.

In late April, the junta proposed to ceasefire armed groups to change their armies into a ‘Border Guard’, which will be supervised by the junta. According to the junta’s plan, each battalion of the border guard will consist of 326 soldiers out of which 30 soldiers from the Burmese Army will be included.

World Drug Report 2009-released 24.June

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khitpyaing.org/news 24.June Karen

စစ္ပြဲဂယက္မ်ားေၾကာင့္ ထုိင္းဘက္ထြက္ေျပးလာသည့္ ကရင္စစ္ေျပးဒုကၡသည္မ်ားအား ခုိလႈံခြင့္တခုတည္းတြင္ စုစည္းထားရိွသြားမည္ဟု ကရင္ဒုကၡသည္ေကာ္မတီ (KRC) အဖြဲ႔ဥကၠ႒ ေရာဘတ္ေထြးက ေျပာသည္။ continue

http://www.khitpyaing.org/news/june_09/24-6-09d.php

Aung San Suu Kyi thanks supporters for birthday events-VDO

DASSK Trial:However, Nyan Win added that the High Court judges told them it might be impossible to accept Tin Oo as a witness as he is currently under house arrest.

High Court hears Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers’ arguments
by Mungpi
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:26

New Delhi (mizzima) – Burma’s High Court on Wednesday heard defense arguments for allowing two more witnesses in the controversial trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but did not make any ruling on the matter.

Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said the defense team argued it is in accordance with the law to allow the remaining two witnesses – Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and Win Tin, a veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the NLD.

“The High Court doesn’t make immediate decisions and will take some time before announcing their decision. And we don’t know when that announcement will be,” Nyan Win said.

However, Nyan Win added that the High Court judges told them it might be impossible to accept Tin Oo as a witness as he is currently under house arrest.

The judges further explained, according to Nyan Win, that as Win Tin has given several interviews to the exile-based Democratic Voice of Burma, BBC and Radio Free Asia, in which he demonstrated a distinct difference of opinion to that of the authorities, he may not qualify either.

But Kyi Win, Aung San Suu Kyi’s primary lawyer, said the law prescribes that in finding the truth even criminals serving a death sentence can be brought as witnesses.

The sailing sets up the first test of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes member states to inspect North Korean vessels suspected of carrying banned weapons or materials.

N. Korean ship could test UN resolution when it refuels
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 2:55 AM
BY HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea — An American destroyer tailed a North Korean ship yesterday as it sailed along China’s coast, U.S. officials said, amid concerns that the vessel is carrying illicit arms destined for Myanmar.
The sailing sets up the first test of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes member states to inspect North Korean vessels suspected of carrying banned weapons or materials. The sanctions are punishment for an underground nuclear test the North carried out last month in defiance of past resolutions.

A U.S. official said last week that the American destroyer has no orders to intercept the ship, but experts say the vessel will need to stop to refuel soon. The resolution prohibits member states from providing such services to ships accused of bearing banned goods.

Nearby Singapore — the world’s largest refueling hub — says it will “act appropriately” if the ship docks at its port with suspicious goods on board.

Also yesterday, U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials said that a missile test threatened by North Korea is expected to launch short- to medium-range missiles rather than a long-range missile similar to one tested in April

But in the event North Korea launches a long-range missile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the deployment of a ground-based mobile-missile-intercept system and a radar system to Hawaii.

The North Korean-flagged Kang Nam left the port of Nampo last Wednesday, with the U.S. destroyer following it.

Burma’s jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Ulster.

Published Date: 24 June 2009
Burma’s jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Ulster.
The Nobel Peace Laureate will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) in absentia at the university’s forthcoming graduation ceremony in Derry.

The pro-democracy activist has led peaceful and non-violent resistance against the Burmese dictatorship for more than 20 years and won the right to be prime minister in the 1990 election despite being put under house arrest.

She continues her fight for democracy and freedom for the people of Burma despite her imprisonment by the Burmese authorities.

The degree will be accepted on her behalf by Mra Razam Linn who will deliver a speech written by Aung San Suu Kyi at the graduation ceremony which takes place at Derry’s Millennium Forum on Tuesday, July 7.

Also receiving an honorary degree at the Derry graduation ceremony will be singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paul Brady.

The Strabane-born artist is to receive the degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) in recognition of his services to traditional Irish music and songwriting.

He started performing at the age of 16 and was a member of several rhythm and blues bands before recording an album of traditional Irish music in 1976.

He went on to record many other albums in genres spanning rock, pop and Irish, while also enjoying considerable success as a song writer.

Brady has penned songs for artists such as Tina Turner, Garth Brooks and Santana
derryjournal

Does Kang Nam carry arms to kill ceasefire forces?

WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE 2009 20:13 HSENG KHIO FAH
Reports of North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam on its way to Burma has raised speculations among ceasefire groups who are resisting Naypyitaw’s demand to transform themselves into troops under the Burma Army’s command that it could be linked to current tensions between the two sides.

During the visit of Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the junta’s chief negotiator, to Mongla, opposite China’s Daluo on 9 June, Sai Leun, 63, leader of the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS), informed him of the rejection by the army and people under his leadership of the junta’s proposal to transform themselves into a border guard force. Upon hearing it, Ye Myint mentioned the amazing growth and development of the ceasefire areas during the past 20 years and said, “Don’t you feel sorry to lose them if you reject our proposal?”