Cocking a snuke-Carrots, sticks and now a bullhorn fail to deter North Korea

ONE is an ageing North Korean cargo tub with more than one previous owner and a record of weapons trafficking. The other, shadowing the Kang Nam 1 as it chugs slowly round China’s coast on its way, it is believed, to a port in Myanmar via the Malacca Strait, is an American guided-missile destroyer, bristling with up-to-date radars and weaponry. But it is to be hoped that the captain of the USS McCampbell, reportedly taking over the tracking from a sister ship, the USS John McCain, has at least one old-fashioned bit of naval kit on board: a bullhorn.

The American ships are doing UN-approved duty. Resolution 1874, passed unanimously by the Security Council on June 12th permits the searching of North Korean cargoes on vessels on the high seas suspected of carrying illegal arms shipments. But, in what seems a nose-thumbers’ charter, it requires the flag-owner’s consent, which in this case is highly unlikely to be forthcoming. If the Americans cannot direct the Kang Nam 1 with stern words to a nearby port for a search, they will have to hope a shortage of fuel forces it to dock.

During the recent fighting, a KNU leader said two DKBA leaders were spotted in a car traveling with Thai police near the border where Karen refugees have sought shelter in Tha Song Yang District in Tak Province. .

After a long offensive, the Burmese army and its ceasefire militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), has overrun the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 headquarters.

The question now is: What’s next?

Karen sources and analysts said the fighting will continue as the joint Burmese army and DKBA troops focus their attacks toward the KNLA Brigade 6 area.

Analysts said powerful business interests are supporting the offensive
The Burmese regime’s goal is to control all of central Karen State, where the Karen National Union’s KNLA Brigade 7 and 6 are now located, in order to dominate the business and border trade activity with Thailand, said one DKBA businessman who asked for anonymity.
Once dominated, many industries, companies and infrastructure will be improved and supported by the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the businessman.

Important activities will include logging and mining natural resources, including zinc, he said.

He said the Burmese authorities and DKBA troops will construct roads to connect between army headquarters in Myaing Gyi Ngu and border areas.

Once the clashes end, the relationship between the DKBA and local Thai authorities and businessmen in Mae Sot will expand when compared to the past, businessmen said.

During the recent fighting, a KNU leader said two DKBA leaders were spotted in a car traveling with Thai police near the border where Karen refugees have sought shelter in Tha Song Yang District in Tak Province.

Joke of the day by Junta General:”Yettaw had met Bo Kyi, co-founder of leading activist group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma”

Every tourist can visit his Prison museum, make a donation and ask him about his life as political prisoner in Burma under the cruel regime.So What?

Democrats want to FREE DAW AUNG SAN SUU and NOT send her to court by sending a serious man to visit DAW AUNG SAN SUU.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONER NOW!

On the run-Burma,s beleaguered Karens

GOVERNMENT troops advance. Terrorised villagers flee. Rebels fight back. For six decades this has been the rhythm of warfare in eastern Myanmar, where ethnic-Karen insurgents fight the ruling junta. The latest offensive by Myanmar’s army began in June and is unusual not in its ferocity but in its timing, in the wet season. The army, backed by a breakaway Karen militia, has managed to overrun several bases of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). Since June 2nd some 4,000 civilians have fled the fighting and crossed the border into Thailand. There is talk of the rebels’ Alamo moment.

The reasons for the junta’s sudden haste are typically murky. It is preparing for parliamentary elections next year, the first since an annulled 1990 poll, and wants around 17 ethnic rebel groups that have signed ceasefires to take part. The Karen National Union (KNU), the movement’s political wing, is a holdout. The generals, who want to consolidate power and neutralise armed threats, have proposed turning ethnic insurgents into border guards, under their command. They may reckon that the KNU can be similarly corralled. But a crushing military defeat would do just fine.

However the ship may be forced to refuel in Singapore – in which case the Singaporean authorities would face a dilemma over whether to try to inspect its cargo – a move North Korea has warned it would view as an act of war.

Burma has denied any link with a North Korean ship in the South China Sea.
US officials have said they believe the Kang Nam 1 could be heading to Burma, carrying weapons in defiance of a United Nations embargo.
Burma and North Korea ended diplomatic relations in 1983 after a bungled assassination attempt by North Korean agents killed 20 people in Burma.
But in recent years they are believed to be co-operating in a number of areas, including weapons supplies.
Singapore’s dilemma
For the past week the Kang Nam 1 has made steady progress down the coast of China, closely shadowed by a US Navy destroyer.
Now the Burmese government has issued a statement denying that the Kang Nam 1 is heading there, although it also said it was expecting another North Korean ship to arrive with a cargo of rice this weekend.
Burma is believed to have bought significant quantities of conventional weapons from North Korea in the past few years.
Burma is also to believed be getting help in building a sophisticated complex of tunnels and bunkers for its military rulers.
A new UN resolution passed in the wake of North Korea’s recent nuclear test empowers member states to inspect any North Korean ships – but the US Navy has so far not attempted to intercept the Kang Nam 1 on the high seas.
However the ship may be forced to refuel in Singapore – in which case the Singaporean authorities would face a dilemma over whether to try to inspect its cargo – a move North Korea has warned it would view as an act of war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8118647.stm

ananlysis.by Kwekalu Karen News

http://www.kwekalu.net/ananlysis.html

John Yettaw-“There might have been some people who pulled the strings behind the scenes, gave instructions and even provided him with financial and material assistance,”Brigadier General Khin Yi

YANGON (Reuters) – The American who swam to the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was the “key player” in the case against her and may not have been working alone, the country’s police chief said Friday.

Brigadier General Khin Yi said John Yettaw, whose May 4 visit to Suu Kyi’s home could see her jailed for five years, was a man of “high intelligence” who may have received outside support.

“It is quite clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mr. John William Yettaw is the key player in this incident,” Khin Yi told a news conference.

“There might have been some people who pulled the strings behind the scenes, gave instructions and even provided him with financial and material assistance,” he said.

“Necessary investigations are still going on to expose who and which organizations they are.”

Suu Kyi is charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing Yettaw to stay at her home for two days. She has blamed security guards for the breach.

The trial of the Nobel laureate, which is due to resume on Friday, has sparked outrage around the world and critics say the case is an attempt by Myanmar’s military rulers to keep her out of planned multi-party elections next year.
reuters

Arrest and Abduction in Bangladesh-Bangladesh security forces, including the army, are undertaking an operation near the Burmese border to search for two construction laborers in order to rescue them from an armed group.

Arrest and Abduction in Bangladesh

6/25/2009
Dhaka: Bangladesh police arrested five Burmese citizens on Tuesday night as they were intruding into Bangladesh territory, according to a report from the Daily Star.

The report said the five were arrested by police at a village in Lama Township in Bandarban District in the Chittagong Hill Tract, when the group was looking for shelter in the village.

The Burmese citizens were identified as Nurul Alam, 30, Ziaur Rahman, 22, Sayedul Alam, 18, Abdul Hakim, 29, and Zafar, 20. All are reportedly from Buthidaung Township, 80 miles north of Sittwe.

According to a police source, they were produced yesterday in court and sent to jail.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh security forces, including the army, are undertaking an operation near the Burmese border to search for two construction laborers in order to rescue them from an armed group.

The two construction laborers – 40-year-old Alam Majhi, and 29-year-old Shabbir from Roanchari Township – were abducted by an armed group on Tuesday night and taken to an unknown location.

The report said the armed group had identified themselves as members of the Democracy Party of Arakan.

According to a local source, DPA has not been active in the border area for years since many of its members surrendered to the Burmese junta, but local miscreants in the area have been committing crimes under the name of the DPA.

Narinjara news

Monks, Villagers in Kamawet purchase snake antivenom

Thu 25 Jun 2009, Asah,IMNA
In Moulmein hospitals and smaller clinics in Moulmein Township, snake antivenom is hard to come by.

“In the previous years, we have seen people die from snakebites in Kamawet village. Sometimes we didn’t have the medicine in my village and they had to go to the Moulmein hospital, but they might still die,” said the presiding monk of the Lawimanhtaw Buddhist monastery.

The presiding monk formed a committee on June 20th to address this issue for Kamawet villagers. There are many poisonous snakes there, and yet the antivenom is incredibly scarce.

A source close to the presiding monk said that they wanted to have readily accessible antivenom in their village government hospital. His next step was unorthodox: he phoned to the Southeast Command Central in Moulmein to General Htet Naing Win’s wife and requested her help in getting the antivenom.

The General’s wife told the monk that it is very difficult to obtain this, and they should try to buy it in Myawaddy, along the Thai-Burma border.

The monk then announced to the nee committee that they would do just that. They went around all of Kamawet village to take donations and raised 800,000 kyat to buy antivenom.

The presiding monk told IMNA reporters that, as one bottle of antivenom costs 20,000 kyat, many villagers are currently unable to afford it, and this will provide them with the cure for free.

“If the villager is poor and bit by a snake, they can get [the antivenom] in the Village Government hospital for free. But if the villager has money, they will be asked to pay 20,000 kyat per bottle.”

Though the committee meeting occurred five days ago, they have so far only put in the order in Myawaddy for the antivenom.

The leader of the Mon Peace and Defense Front (MPDF), Nai Aung Naing, who was a one time officer of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), but now a monk, is organizing Senior Monks in Mon state to join the MPDF to support him in the coming 2010 election.

Mon splinter group leader courts abbots for 2010 election support
Thu 25 Jun 2009, Kon Hadae,IMNA
The leader of a Mon splinter group, who is a monk, is attempting to organize abbots from Mon state to join his party in a bid for the 2010 election.

The leader of the Mon Peace and Defense Front (MPDF), Nai Aung Naing, who was a one time officer of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), but now a monk, is organizing Senior Monks in Mon state to join the MPDF to support him in the coming 2010 election.

If he participates in the coming 2010 election, the Mon nation and all Mon political parties will be able to remain peaceful. That is the reason he has given for his group choosing to participate in coming election, according to source close to an abbot from Mudon township, that had spoke with the MPDF leader. Nai Aung Naing suggested that the abbot should do like him, because he himself is a monk now, and be part of the 2010 election.

What a trick changing Uniform for a Monks robe
Shame on you!!

Nai Aung Naing is a former major general in the NMSP, and was second in command of the parties armed wing, the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), which he split from in 2008 to form a new group called the Mon Peace and Defense Front. In 2009 after Nai Aung Naing formed the new group, he joined the monkhood, and has remained there, living at the Thanphyuzayet Monastery in Mon state.