Locals Extorted for Army Propaganda Troupe

Pauk taw: A Burmese army performance troupe is roaming from one town to another in Arakan State to put on public performances that propagate junta policies through several kinds of dramas.

The army troupe performed two nights in Pauk Taw Town, 20 miles east of the capital Sittwe, on 11 and 12 January, 2010.

During the performance, Pauk Taw authorities forced businessmen in the town to contribute large sums of money to the troupe.

A businessman from Pauk Taw said, on the condition of anonymity, “I am the owner of a small rice mill. So I was forced by authorities to donate 20,000 kyats to the troupe. Similarly, goldsmith owners and shrimp farm owners were also forced by authorities to pay the same amount to the troupe.”

Five Killers of the Father of Bangladesh Hanged

Dhaka: Five killers of the “father of Bangladesh”, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were executed at the Dhaka Central Jail shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

The executed men are Lieutenant Colonel (Fired) Syed Faruque Rahman, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed (artillery), Major (Retired) Bazlul Huda, and Major (Retired) AKM Mohiuddin (lancer).

According to a jail source, Mohiuddin Ahmed was first to be executed at 12:05 am, and the four others then walked to the gallows one after the other. Major (Retired) Bazlul Huda was executed next, followed by Lt. Colonel (Retired) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Syed Farooq Rahman, and finally Major (Retired) AKM Mohiuddin.

The executions were carried out following the dismissal of their review petitions by the Supreme Court and the rejection of their mercy petitions by the president.

According to sources, six more of Bangabandhu’s killers remain at large.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, architect of the country’s independence, was assassinated along with 16 of his family members on the fateful night of August 15, 1975.

The security in Dhaka, especially around the prison area, was beefed up during and after the executions.
Narinjara

For the first time, Kachins in Singapore together urged today China to stop the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam project in Burma

Anti-Irrawaddy dam movement gathers momentum
Thursday, 28 January 2010 KNG
With the anti-Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam movement gaining momentum, signatures collected demanding a halt to the project in Burma’s Northern Kachin State were handed over today by ethnic Kachins in Singapore to the Chinese Embassy in the city-state, said anti-dam activists.The signature campaign letters were signed by 110 Kachins in the city-state and were handed over this morning to Mr. Cheng Hong Bo, Second Secretary of the Political and Press Section of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China by two representatives of the Singapore-based Kachin Literature and Culture, also called Jinghpaw Laili Laika hte Htunghking Hpung (JLH) in Kachin, the organization’s general secretary Awng Di told Kachin News Group today.

DVB reporter Ngwe Soe Lin sentenced to 13 years

Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:43 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Reporter Ngwe Soe Lin of the Norway-based opposition radio station Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment yesterday by the Rangoon Western District Court sitting inside Insein prison, close associates said.

According to confidants, Ngwe Soe Lin (28), who lives in Rangoon’s South Dagon Township, was charged under the Electronic and Immigration Emergency Provisions Acts, receiving associated terms of ten and three years imprisonment, respectively.

“Ngwe Soe Lin was yesterday given ten years in prison under the Electronic Act and another three years under the Immigration Act’s section 13(1),” his sister-in-law, Aye Mee San, told Mizzima.

Aung Thein, a legal counsel of the accused, said, “We heard that he was interrogated and sentenced to imprisonment yesterday at about 4 p.m. with cases charged under section 33(a) of the Electronic Act and section 13(1) of the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act. He was given a total prison term of 13 years.”

Ngwe Soe Lin, a DVB video reporter, was honored with the the Rory Peck Award for his work in documenting orphan victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in the first week of May 2008.

KYO Felicitation Letter of _61th _ KRD_Burma_

View this document on Scribd

In Haiti, Chinese Team Dug Up Its Own and Left,

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 — UN peacekeepers have been firing tear gas and, according to eye witnesses, rubber bullets at Haitian aid seekers. Meanwhile, the UN confirmed on Wednesday that the Chinese search and rescue team which appeared so quickly in Haiti left just as quickly, as soon as it recovered the bodies of its own national who had been visiting the UN Mission, MINUSTAH.

Inner City Press asked MINUSTAH’s David Wimhurst about the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, which Wimhurst previously said he had not witnessed in Cite Soleil on January 24.

Wednesday, Wimhurst counted the Cite Soleil “incident” as one of two uses of tear gas. He said the use by the UN is under “strict rules and regulations” that are “well established.” Video here, from Minute 32:31.

Wimhurst said he is “not aware of rubber bullets” being used, despite numerous eye witness accounts of both Uruguayan and Brazilian UN peacekeepers firing into the air. Inner City Press asked about similar reports of peacekeepers leaving behind food and in one case a pile of radios, which were then fought over. continue
http://www.innercitypress.com/haiti1rentchina012710.html
BTW.Myanmar Junta had banned MEDIA News that US troops are in Haiti to support,instead the hail the Chinese ,so nothing to report anymore

Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday described as ‘unfair’ a minister’s comment that she would be released in November as it pre-empted a court decision

MYANMAR’S detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday described as ‘unfair’ a minister’s comment that she would be released in November as it pre-empted a court decision, her lawyer said.

Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo reportedly told a meeting of local officials in central Myanmar last week that the release of the 64-year-old, who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, would come in November.

Ms Suu Kyi ‘said the home affairs minister’s comment was totally unfair,’ her lawyer, Nyan Win, told AFP after meeting her on Thursday.

A decision is expected from Myanmar’s top court within three weeks on an appeal against her conviction last August. The conviction related to an incident in which a US man swam to her house and led to her being sentenced to another 18 months under house arrest.

‘She said the case has not reached the end yet. She said the court has the right to make its own decision. Saying this is hurting the court decision,’ Mr Nyan Win said.

Thailand issues residential permits to Burmese migrant children_VDO

Global Action for Burma (GAB): UNSC Must Declare Burmese Juntas 2008 Constitution as NULL and VOID-VDO

Expelled Hmong Imprisoned in Laos

Around 50 Hmong refugees who were forcibly repatriated by Thailand to Laos on Dec. 28 have been imprisoned in Paksan jail, according to the Fact Finding Commission (FFC), an American based NGO.

It is suggested that the group may have been isolated because of their role as leaders in the camps and during the “secret war,” when the CIA hired the Hmong as foot soldiers to prevent the spread of communism during the Vietnam War.Using a secret network of undercover researchers called “blackbirds,” the FFC were able to get confirmation on Tuesday morning about the group’s imprisonment.“We received confirmation from our contact that around 50 leaders have been imprisoned,” said Bhou Than of the FFC.

“We are very concerned about what is happening to them and expect that more will face similar detention in the coming months.”