MOMC No. 8 Forces Vehicle Owners in Three Pagoda Pass to Transport Military Supplies and Weapons

January 24th, 2011

IMNA : Military Operation and Management Command No. 8 (MOMC) and a battalion based in Three Pagodas Pass (TPP) Township, Karen State has requisitioned 10 vehicles from TPP residents to carry army supplies.

The requisition of vehicles began at 12 and from vehicles owners spread and many vehicle owners in the area are doing their best to avoid being caught by MOMC No. 8 and Infantry Battalion (IB) No.283, explained one vehicle owner.

“The vehicles were taken and sent to Anankwin village. In Anankwin village, the requisitioned vehicles were forced to carry supplies, bullets and ordinances. Twelve military vehicles came from within Burma and the materials were transferred into the vehicles taken from TPP residents.    The military will leave Three Pagoda Pass once it obtains the amount of vehicles needed,” explained a military observer close to government officials.

Reports- Landmines, Victims and Flooding from Burma Army Dam Project

View this document on Scribd

Dipping Dollar Hits Burmese Refugees By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 24, 2011 (IPS) – Tracking gun battles along the Thai-Burma border and preparing for another wave of refugees are not the only things that concern British humanitarian Sally Thompson.

She also spends her days immersed in the fluid world of global currencies, worried about the steadily weakening U.S. dollar.

“We monitor the currency all the time. We have to constantly adjust our budgets,” says 52-year-old Thompson in her office in Bangkok’s busy financial district. “It comes down to our buying power with the baht.”

Thompson and her colleagues at the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) are trying to come to grips with the downward slide of the dollar against the Thai baht, which has appreciated in recent days by 10 percent, emerging as the strongest currency in Southeast Asia.

A strong baht means huge losses for aid groups like TBBC whose funds are dollar-denominated. Its annual budget for 2011 is 40 million dollars, and a drop from 30 to 29 baht to a dollar, which is where the exchange rate stood when the year began, could mean a shortfall of 14 million baht, equivalent to nearly one million kilos of rice. 

Breaking news brief: Journalists released by Thai authorities

Monday, 24 January 2011 18:40 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Mae Sot Immigration office freed John San Lin, a Burmese freelance journalist, and his colleague Pascal Schatterman, a Belgian national, Monday evening on a fine of 500 Thai Baht (US$ 16).

The pair were fined 500 baht for violating the Immigration Act and released, John San Lin toldMizzima.

They were detained on Thursday in Mae Sot after returning to Thailand from Burma, where they reported on fighting between Burmese junta troops and a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

World Report 2011-Human Rights Watch-Thailand engl+thai

View this document on Scribd

View this document on Scribd

Burmese Army Casualties Reported After Artillery Gun Misfires

Burmese troops attempting to fire heavy artillery at a breakaway group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) this morning miscalculated their shot and killed at least one of their own soldiers and injured several others, according to DKBA sources.

“Around 9 am, we saw with our binoculars that four or five shells exploded in their camp. We saw five or six soldiers fall, and later heard by radio that a lieutenant was injured, one private was killed, and several others were also injured,” said Maj Saw San Aung, an operational commander for DKBA Brigade 5.

The incident occurred in one of the Burmese army camps in the Kyauk Khet area of Karen State’s Myawaddy Township, near the Moei (Thaungyin) River separating Burma and Thailand.

WORLD REPORT 2011-Human Rights Watch full report

View this document on Scribd

Human Rights Watch-World report 2011 Burma

View this document on Scribd

Committee to Protect Journalists statement to deported journailst in Thailand

Bangkok, January 21, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the charges and threatened deportation of Thailand-based freelance photojournalists John Sanlin, a Burmese passport holder, and Pascal Schatterman, a Belgian national.

“We call on Thai authorities to reconsider the deportation of journalists John Sanlin and Pascal Schatterman and take into consideration the prospect that Sanlin will suffer severe reprisals if he is forcibly returned to Burma,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Thailand has long been a safe haven for exiled journalists to report freely on Burma. CPJ encourages the Thai government to maintain that important press freedom role for the region.”

Both reporters were arrested by Thai authorities at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday in the Thai border town of Mae Sot after re-entering the country from Burma, where they were covering the escalating armed conflict between Burmese government troops and ethnic Karen insurgents.

Authorities confiscated their video footage, including images of internally displaced people suffering from severe deprivation in the remote conflict zone, according to CPJ sources. Today, a Thai court sentenced Sanlin and Schatterman to one-year terms, imposed nominal fines of 500 baht (about US$16), and ruled they could remain in the country because they had no previous immigration offenses.

But after immigration police conferred with the presiding judge, the two journalists were taken back into custody at the courthouse and told they would be deported to their respective countries in the next day or two, according to CPJ sources. The two reporters are expected to be transported on Saturday to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where they are scheduled to be deported.

Sanlin, who has previously provided video footage to Al-Jazeera and France 24, told CPJ he fears that he will suffer reprisals for his journalism if he is deported to Burma. He said he holds a student visa for Thailand, which is valid through March.

Sanlin was on the front-lines of Thailand’s armed street clashes last year and provided exclusive video footage aired by France 24 of an April 10 grenade attack that killed and severely injured several Thai soldiers.

 

Thailand to deport two journalists-now released

Chiang Mai – Thai authorities are set to deport John San Lin, a Burmese freelance journalist, and his colleague Pascal Schatterman, a Belgian national, after they were arrested in the Mae Sot area on Thursday.

————————

UPDATE   RELEASED-   24 January 2011 18:40 Myo Thant   Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Mae Sot Immigration office freed John San Lin, a Burmese freelance journalist, and his colleague Pascal Schatterman, a Belgian national, Monday evening on a fine of 500 Thai Baht (US$ 16).
————————————————————-
The pair were fined 500 baht for violating the Immigration Act and released, John San Lin toldMizzima.

They were detained on Thursday in Mae Sot after returning to Thailand from Burma, where they reported on fighting between Burmese junta troops and a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Thai authorities arrested the pair shortly after they entered Thai soil from Burma.

The journalists were covering the SPDC assault against a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and its impact on local civilians.

The Committee to Project journalists issued a press release on Friday that urged the Thai government not to deport San Lin,  saying his life would be in danger if he is sent back to Burma.

In the press release, Shawn Crispin, the CPJ senior Southeast Asia representative, called on Thailand to ‘take into consideration the prospect that San Lin will suffer severe reprisals if he is forcibly returned to Burma’.

According to the CPJ, Thai authorities confiscated their video footage which included ‘images of internally displaced people suffering from severe deprivation in the remote conflict zone’.

San Lin has worked for Aljazeera and France 24 and several other news agencies while covering the Southeast Asia region.

In a chance meeting in Mae Sot last week, San Lin told this reporter that he had come to the border to cover the conflict and was deeply moved by the plight of civilians caught in the crossfire between the Burmese military and other forces.

According to the CPJ on Friday, a Thai court first sentenced San Lin and Schatterman to one-year prison terms, a 500 baht fine but ruled that both men could stay in the Kingdom of Thailand because neither had been convicted of a prior immigration related offence.

The CPJ says, however, that both men were taken back into custody and told they ‘would be deported to their respective countries in the next day or two’ after Thai Immigration police intervened with the judge.