NLD CEC List Updated

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A second woman is set to join the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Burma’s main opposition party

NLD restructures top decision-making body

New Delhi (Mizzima) – A second woman is set to join the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Burma’s main opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD), as the party today formally announced the expansion of its principle policy organ.

In a statement on Thursday, the NLD announced the addition of nine new members to its CEC, including Dr. May Win Myint, an elected Member of Parliament from Mayankone Township, and Dr. Than Nyein, the brother-in-law of the former Military Intelligence (MI) Chief and purged Prime Minister Khin Nyunt.
Dr. May Win Myint will be the second woman to serve on the NLD’s steering committee after the party’s detained General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi. Before her arrest in 1997, she led the NLD’s women’s wing.

2010 Election: Buddhist Monk and Youth Arrested, Tortured by Kaowao

January 14, 2010
Efforts by the Burmese authorities to suppress and clampdown on dissent is in full force after a young Buddhist Monk in Mon State came under immediate suspicion for owning a laptop and was targeted for allegedly taking part in an anti-2010 election campaign. The monk was arrested on January 7 and subjected to brutal torture which sent him to the hospital for emergency treatment, a Mon monk who recently arrived at the border area said.

“His computer presumed to have disseminating information along with digital images were seized and is now in the hands of the SPDC’s security intelligence,” the young monk said who requested anonymity for fear of arrest. “I just heard he was disrobed and immediately brought to Rangoon from Moulmein (the capital of Mon state) for further investigation,” he added.

Another source reported a young man, Kyaik Soi from Mutdon Village of Chaung Zon Township in Biluu Kyun was also arrested by local police on January 11, 2010 followed the forced investigation of the monk.

Nai Ajjae, 28, was on the way to a funeral service of Krein Kreik of Zopbu (Thanbyuzayat in Burmese) Township, Mon State, when he was arrested by the military’s security intelligence and hauled into their office along with his computer and camera in hand for questioning. He was planning to take photographs of the Buddhist Monk funeral ceremony, the most famous ceremony to be held in a long time in the township.

Nyan Win on ASEAN MEETING: promised elections would be held this year and would be fair, the ASEAN secretary general said on Thursday.

Burma pledges free election
Jan 14, 2010 (AFP)–Burma’s foreign minister has told Southeast Asian counterparts that promised elections would be held this year and would be fair, the ASEAN secretary general said on Thursday.

Surin Pitsuwan said the military-ruled state’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, made the comments at a dinner on Wednesday in Vietnam with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“That was done last night and it was assured that it will be this year, and it will be free, fair and credible,” Mr Surin told reporters on the sidelines of an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting. “No date has been set, but everything is moving on course. That’s what we were told.”
Mr Surin said the ASEAN ministers “have expressed their high hope that the issue of Burma will be resolved this year and that we can move on to the new era of ASEAN relations and cooperation with the international community.”
ASEAN, which has a principle of non-interference in members’ affairs, has long faced criticism for not taking a firmer stand on Burma.
Mr Nyan Win refused to make any comment to AFP on Thursday.
The United States and the 10-member ASEAN bloc agreed in November that Burma’s scheduled 2010 elections must be “free, fair, inclusive and transparent” to be credible.
The call came after President Barack Obama and Burmese prime minister Thein Sein took part in the first-ever ASEAN-US summit, a reversal of a longstanding US policy of shunning the Burmese regime.

Than Ooh Too Jan 10

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Bghlatun s Order

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The international expansion of Chinese dam builders by Burma Rivers Network

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:19
CSR Asia

Historically, Western countries have provided the technology for the bulk of China’s hydropower dams. The first turbines to be installed on a river in China was under the Qing Dynasty in 1909, by German company Siemens. But when the Chinese government decided to build the giant Three Gorges and Ertan dams in the early 1990s, it decided to do things differently. Western equipment suppliers were still needed, yet this time, the rules were that the leading hydropower companies of the time, including ABB, Alstom, General Electric and Siemens, had to manufacture half of the turbines and generators on Chinese soil in co-operation with Chinese partners. As in the case of other manufacturing sector players entering joint ventures with Chinese suppliers, technology and knowledge of dam building were transferred in the process. From that point on, China became one of the biggest players in the international dam market in the 21st century.
Chinese firms are now building 19 of the 24 largest hydropower plants currently under construction worldwide. Roughly half of all the world’s large dams are within China’s borders. With a capacity of more than 170,000 megawatts, China is now the world’s largest producer of hydropower. Chinese manufacturers had been involved in small dam building in countries such as Burma and Nepal for several decades but it was only in 2003 that they entered the exclusive market for large hydropower projects. Three companies which had picked up the latest technology in the Three Gorges and Ertan projects and soon managed to underprice and outpace their Western competitors were Dongfang Electrical Machinery, Harbin Power Equipment and Sinohydro, China’s leading Beijing-based hydropower contractor. Adapting Western technology to poor-country needs, China’s hydropower companies have ventured into foreign markets en masse. continue
http://www.burmariversnetwork.org/news/11-news/293-the-international-expansion-of-chinese-dam-builders.html