On one side China; on the other India. The world’s two most rapidly growing economies, two regional super-powers. They care what happens in Burma, and so should we.

What next in Burma?
Post categories: Burma, China
Robin Lustig | 14:57 PM, Friday, 17 July 2009
Remember Burma? Remember those protests nearly two years ago by thousands of saffron-robed Buddhst monks, protesting against a dictatorial military government?

Let me jog your memory, because I think Burma may soon be back in the news again, and I’d hate to think you weren’t ready for it. (As you may recall, I see it as part of my task in these notes to act as a sort of early warning system. Consider this your Burmese early warning.)

First, within the next few weeks, the opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will learn whether her lengthy period of detention is to be extended yet again. (She has already spent 14 of the past 20 years either under house arrest or in prison, since before her party, the National League for Democracy, won an overwhelming victory in the country’s last elections in 1990.)

The latest charge against her is that last May she broke the rules of her current detention order by allowing into her house an uninvited American guest, who had taken it upon himself to swim across a lake to her home.

The expectation is that she will be found guilty as charged (the judicial process is not exactly as independent as might be thought desirable). And if she is convicted, there is a chance of more street protests, because the woman referred to by the Burmese simply as “the Lady” remains a potent political force.

Dr Lun Swe Khitpyaing Articles Vol 3

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Bogyoke Aung San

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I really want to work for the interest of the Karen but, we cannot fight each other,” a sergeant told the Karen Information Center (KIC). The sergeant worked for six years for the DKBA’s 999 special battalion. He surrendered to the KNU 101 battalion of the 7th Brigade on July 14, 2009.

DKBA soldiers suffer from depression
News – KIC
REPORT BY NAN HTOO SAN
FRIDAY, 17 JULY 2009 09:22

Troops of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a break-away Karen ethnic armed group, are suffering from depression because they have been pushed into a battle by the Burmese military junta against rivals, the Karen National Union (KNU). “All of us are Karen and fighting each other,” complained some DKBA soldiers.

“I really want to work for the interest of the Karen but, we cannot fight each other,” a sergeant told the Karen Information Center (KIC). The sergeant worked for six years for the DKBA’s 999 special battalion. He surrendered to the KNU 101 battalion of the 7th Brigade on July 14, 2009.

“I don’t want to be a soldier. It’s because we Karen are fighting each other that nobody reaps any benefits. Therefore, I want to live like a normal civilian,” said Sergeant Saw Duu Kuu, (25) from DKBA’s 999 special battalion.

DKBA’s brigades 999, 333, 555 and the headquarter guard force, which is supported by battalions under the Burmese Army’s brigade 22, launched military offensives in the KNU’s 7th brigade area in early June. DKBA brigades overran some areas of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) battalions. According to KNU’s 7th brigade, over 200 soldiers of all rank of the DKBA were killed in battles.

Over 4,000 villagers from 20 villages in this area fled their homes to Thailand to get away from the military offensive. They were unable to take their belongings with them. Besides, family members of the dead are heartbroken.

“I became a solder when DKBA recruited us from our village. I have to be in the army for three years. Now I have already completed one year in the army. When I patrolled the front line in the KNU 7th brigade area, I stepped on a landmine and lost one leg. I don’t want to fight but I cannot do anything except feel sad. It is a debt from my past life,” said a 20-year old DKBA soldier, who is being treated in Mae Sot hospital, from Noe Pho Htee Mu Htar village.

Lt. Col Saw San Pyauk, a battalion commander of battalion No.7 under DKBA brigade 999, and his company were killed in an ambush. DKBA accused the KNU for the ambush. Even as the accusation spreads, they don’t trust each other in DKBA. According to border sources DKBA soldiers, on duty in KNU brigade 7 areas are suffering from depression.

A week has passed since the biggest seizure in the Golden Triangle has been made by junta authorities in Tachilek, opposite Thailand’s Maesai, yet the big question is still being left unanswered, who or what tipped off the authorities, according to sources on the border.

Controversy surrounds drug haul
SATURDAY, 18 JULY 2009 17:04 S.H.A.N.
A week has passed since the biggest seizure in the Golden Triangle has been made by junta authorities in Tachilek, opposite Thailand’s Maesai, yet the big question is still being left unanswered, who or what tipped off the authorities, according to sources on the border.

While many believe it was the Chinese as they were the one who did it in 2005, when almost half a ton of heroin was seized near Mongpiang, 260 km northwest of Maesai, one seasoned security officer has a different answer: it was plain fluke.

“The leading truck had passed without being subject to inspection at the Loi Taw Kham checkpoint,” he said. “But when one of the officials waved down the following truck, the driver’s sidekick panicked and ran. That one stupid act brought the 400 km haul to a sad end (for the smugglers).”

The New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday that 340,000 speed pills along with 761 kg of heroin were seized in Tachilek on 10 July.

“Were they tipped in advance, the first truck wouldn’t have escaped,” he reasoned.

The truck owner Myint Swe and his driver who were in the leading truck reportedly disappeared following the mishap.

To the business circle in Tachilek, it appears druglord We Xuegang, wanted both in Thailand and the US on drug charges, must have used junta authorities to get rid of his business rivals. “The consignment was ordered by Ah Chang, Wei’s trusted aide,” said a trader. “The current price is $ 10,000 per kilo, but he had offered $ 10,200.”

Ah Fa aka Chen Tafa, a Kokang militia leader in Nakawngmu, Mongton township, was at first pinpointed as the owner of the shipment. “Now we know he’s only the middle man,” he said.

The journey was said to have started on 7 July from Namzang, where militia leader Zhou Sang of Nayai is running refineries. “The 4-day journey across the Salween, Mongton and Monghsat came to an end in Tachilek,” he quipped.

Prior to the latest seizure last week, the biggest haul in eastern Shan State was in September 2005, when 498 kg of heroin was discovered on the trucks owned by the United Wa State Army.

shanland org

62nd Anniversary of Burma’s Martyr Day by Ko Myoe-VIDEO

Burmese refugees rounded up and sold in Malaysia-vdo

In Malaysia, some immigration officials have been accused of involvement in selling refugees from Myanmar, also known as Burma, to gangs in Thailand.

The attorney generals office in Malaysia says 10 immigration officers are being investigated after the U.S. State Department placed Malaysia on its list of the worlds worst human trafficking offenders last month.

Karen Zusman, an independent journalist, recently returned from Malaysia, where she reported on the plight of the Burmese refugees.

The Rangoon based Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS) will officially reopen their clinic for poor and dispossessed people despite obstacles put up by the Burmese authorities.

Rangoon Charity Clinic to Reopen Despite Harassment
By SAW YAN NAING Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Rangoon based Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS) will officially reopen their clinic for poor and dispossessed people despite obstacles put up by the Burmese authorities.

Well-known actor Kyaw Thu will preside over the opening ceremony in North Dagon Township on July 19.

Kyaw Thu, a leading member of the FFSS, said that the new clinic will provide free medical assistance at birth and post-natal health care, as well as general health care for children and other outpatients. The clinic will treat diseases of the eyes, bones and skin, and will provide dental care.

However, ever since Kyaw Thu and members of the charity organization were involved in the pro-democracy uprising led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, Rangoon-based journalists and magazines have been banned from reporting and printing stories about FFSS activities.

In February this year, after pressure from the authorities, the FFSS had to move its offices from Thingangyun Township to North Dagon Township in the far outskirts of Rangoon.

Natmauk – General Aung San of Burma-VDO

The search for the truth continues – Natmauk the birthplace of General of Aung San in Magwe Division. The house was once a museum but like everything to do with Bogyoke Aung San and the history of Burma, the military junta are determined to eradicate all traces

EU to toughen Myanmar sanctions if Suu Kyi found guilty: diplomat

(BANGKOK) – A British diplomat Friday said the European Union would likely toughen sanctions on Myanmar’s military regime if pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty at her ongoing trial.

The Nobel peace laureate is being held at a guesthouse on the grounds of Yangon’s notorious Insein prison as her trial on charges of violating her house arrest nears its end after a final witness was heard last week.

Asif Ahmad, Southeast Asia head for the British foreign office, told AFP that diplomats expected Aung San Suu Kyi to be found guilty over the incident in May when an American man swam to her lakeside house uninvited.

He said if that was the case, once any appeal had been exhausted, the EU would slap further measures on the junta to signal its disapproval.

“Financial sanctions have been certainly at the forefront of what we would be doing,” Ahmad said.

“If the final sentence is anything other than her being free… Looser chains are not acceptable, she has to be free,” he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide victory in elections in 1990.

The EU’s current sanctions — in place since 1996 — include a travel ban and the freezing of assets of Myanmar’s leaders and their relatives, as well as a ban on arms exports to the country.

The sanctions also limit diplomatic relations between the Southeast Asian nation and the European bloc.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi met her lawyers for two hours Friday to discuss final arguments in the court case, and protested at the treatment she said she was receiving at the hands of authorities. She said that, as trespassing is entering by breaking through security and… no action has been taken so far against any security officials, it was one-sided,” her lawyer Nyan Win told AFP, adding however that she did not want any security guards to be targeted.