Day: September 12, 2009
Win Tin Released after Questioning
He returned to his home at around 5 p.m., the sources said.
“U Win Tin was taken by four police intelligence officers who said they had to ask him something,” said a close friend who requested anonymity, speaking earlier today.
“He went with them carrying only enough medicine for one day,” the friend added.Eighty-year-old Win Tin spent 19 years in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison until his release last year. Since then, he has spoken frequently to international and Burmese exiled media, often criticizing the ruling regime’s plans to create a military-backed civilian government.
In an opinion piece that appeared in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Win Tin denounced the Burmese regime’s planned election in 2010 as a sham, and strongly rebuked US Senator James Webb, who recently visited Burma, for his uncritical pro-engagement stance.
“Some international observers view next year’s planned elections as an opportunity. But under the circumstances imposed by the military’s constitution, the election will be a sham,” he wrote.
Although he said he could understand Webb’s desire to seek a meaningful dialogue with the Burmese ruling authorities, Win Tin rejected the senator’s calls to participate in a political process designed to keep the military in power. continue
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16773
Veteran opposition leader Win Tin detained
by Mizzima News
Saturday, 12 September 2009 15:57
Win Tin, a senior leader of the National League for Democracy was taken to the Aung Tha Pyay detention camp this morning by the Special Branch of the police in Burma.
The 80-year-old influential leader of the opposition party recently wrote an article critical of and rejecting the junta’s planned 2010 election in The Washington Post.
The veteran journalist wrote an article titled “An Election Burma’s People Don’t Need” in the newspaper on September 9, 2009.
Win Tin has spent 19 years in prison for his political belief, and was released in November 2008.
He has demanded freedom for democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and initiation of a dialogue between the military junta and the opposition leader.
Win Tin, a senior leader of the Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was taken into custody by special police intelligence officers at around 10 a.m. On Saturday, according to his close friends.
Win Tin Summoned for Questioning
Win Tin, a senior leader of the Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was taken into custody by special police intelligence officers at around 10 a.m. On Saturday, according to his close friends.
The sources reported that he was summoned for questioning while visiting a colleague at his home in Kyauk Kone, in Rangoon’s Yankin Township.
“U Win Tin was taken by four police intelligence officers who said they had to ask him something,” said a close friend who requested anonymity.
“He went with them carrying only enough medicine for one day,” the friend added.
Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, confirmed that Win Tin was taken away this morning, but could not provide any further details.
Eighty-year-old Win Tin spent 19 years in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison until his release last year. Since then, he has spoken frequently to international and Burmese exiled media, often criticizing the ruling regime’s plans to create a military-backed civilian government.
In an opinion piece that appeared in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Win Tin denounced the Burmese regime’s planned election in 2010 as a sham, and strongly rebuked US Senator James Webb, who recently visited Burma, for his uncritical pro-engagement stance.
“Some international observers view next year’s planned elections as an opportunity. But under the circumstances imposed by the military’s constitution, the election will be a sham,” he wrote.
Although he said he could understand Webb’s desire to seek a meaningful dialogue with the Burmese ruling authorities, Win Tin rejected the senator’s calls to participate in a political process designed to keep the military in power.
“Unfortunately, [Webb’s] efforts have been damaging to our democracy movement and focus on the wrong issue—the potential for an ‘election’ that Webb wants us to consider participating in next year as part of a long-term political strategy. But the showcase election planned by the military regime makes a mockery of the freedom sought by our people and would make military dictatorship permanent,” he wrote.
irrawaddy
Local authorities of Dalla Township in Rangoon have made no efforts to reconstruct Danok pagoda which collapsed in May.
The authorities have not allowed local residents to collect donations to rebuild the pagoda, said pagoda trustee members and villagers of Danok Model Village. “They haven’t done anything to rebuild the pagoda,” said a resident close to the committee.
The pagoda was visited by Kyaing Kyaing (wife of Snr-Gen Than Shwe), who donated an ornament and in a ceremony on May 7 witnessed its placement on the top of the 170-foot (52-meter) pagoda.
Residents said the authorities have used bricks from the pagoda to pave roads in Danok village, but many people are unwilling to travel on the roads and avoid them, residents say.
“The villagers dare not to step on them. They keep away from the road,” said a villager.
An official of Dalla Township said it has received no instructions from the Religious Affairs Ministry and Rangoon Division PDC on what to do about the pagoda.
“I can’t say anything. I am not sure whether the pagoda will be rebuilt or not,” he said. Continue reading “Local authorities of Dalla Township in Rangoon have made no efforts to reconstruct Danok pagoda which collapsed in May.”
Whereabouts of US Citizen Still Unknown
Relatives of a Burmese-born US citizen who was taken into custody shortly after arriving in Rangoon last week said they have received no news about him, and are concerned about his safety.
“We are extremely worried about him,” said Ko Ko Aung, brother of Nyi Nyi Aung, who was arrested by Burmese military intelligence agents soon after landing at Rangoon’s international airport on a flight from Bangkok on September 3.
According to Ko Ko Aung, the Burmese authorities have provided no information about where Nyi Nyi Aung is being held or what he has been charged with.
“Actually, we don’t even know why he went back to Burma,” said Ko Ko Aung.
Earlier this week, US-based Radio Free Asia reported that the US State Department said it was seeking consular access to Nyi Nyi Aung.
“We have sought consular access,” State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly was quoted as saying. “As soon as we saw this report, we did go to the government in Burma and ask for additional information.”
The US embassy in Rangoon also said that it was looking into the case.
“We have reached out to [the Burmese] government to get additional information,” said an embassy spokesperson, adding that no further information was available.
Nyi Nyi Aung was a student activist during Burma’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising. He later fled to the Thai-Burmese border and was subsequently granted political asylum in the US.
In a letter sent to Collin P. Furst, the consul of the US embassy in Rangoon, Nyi Nyi Aung’s friend Kyaw Zwa Aung said that the detained activist entered Burma with a valid social visit visa obtained from the Burmese embassy in Bangkok.
Five members of Nyi Nyi Aung’s family, including his mother, are serving long prison terms for their role in the September 2007 monk-led pro-democracy uprising, dubbed the “Saffron Revolution.”
Wa to hold late leader’s funeral today
SATURDAY, 12 SEPTEMBER 2009 11:55 S.H.A.N.
Junta’s letter replied
Due to the yet to be resolved tensions with the country’s military rulers, the Wa leaders gathering at Hsaopha, Pangwai township, opposite China’s Cangyuan, decided yesterday to conduct the funeral of Chao Ngi-lai, the Wa State founder who passed away on 8 September today, said a source close to the leadership.The funeral services will be at 14:00 local time. Few leaders from the allied groups and the Burma Army are expected to be present there due to short notice, he added.
The UWSA had also reviewed its 3 September decision not to respond to the Burma Army’s demand that it extradite Peng Jiasheng, deposed Kokang leader who was suspected to be taking asylum in the Wa territory, according to him. “A meeting held two days later resolved that a reply was in order,” he said.
The gist of the reply was that Peng Jiasheng came to Namteuk aka Nandeng, opposite Kokang’s Chin Shwe Haw (Qinshuihe), and stayed there for 3 days, 27-29 August, while the battle for Qinshuihe was taking place. “He left on 30 August, following the fall of Qinshuihe,” he recounted. “He didn’t tell us where he was heading for.”
The reply was most likely prompted by the UWSA’s “friends across the border,” commented a Burma watcher on the Thai-Burma border.
shanland org
democracy for burma 
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