Day: September 22, 2011

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) raided a Burmese government labor camp on Wednesday, Sept. 21,frees 52 Prisoners

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The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) raided a Burmese government labor camp on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at about 2 p.m. local time and freed at least 52 prisoners, KIA officers said.

Mainly drug addicts and people related to ethnic armed groups and political organizations were included among the released prisoners, said KIA officers.

The labor camp was located at Shwe Pyi Thit, between the villages of Nam Um and Dima, in Muse Township in Northern Shan State, eight miles southeast of the Mandalay-Muse China border trade route.

The raid was carried out by the Dima-based KIA Battalion 9, under officers from Brigade 4.

The prisoners were freed to mark the September 21 World Peace Day, battalion officers said.

After the raid, the KIA also arrested 8 armed policemen, who guarded the labor camp, added KIA officers.

The government’s Drug Treatment Center (Rehab) is located near the labor camp but it was not harmed in the KIA’s raid, according to local witnesses.

Both the government labor camp and rehab centre were opened in the controlled area of the KIA’s Battalion 9 during the earlier 17-year ceasefire period between the KIA and Burmese government.

The ceasefire ended on June 9, when civil war broke out between both sides in the KIA controlled areas in Kachin State and Northern Shan State.

Aung San Suu Kyi addresses at Clinton Global Initiative Conference-video

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Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told a global audience not to take its eye off her country on the road to freedom.

In a videolink from Burma to an audience in New York for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Suu Kyi said the political thaw in her country after the flawed election in November 2010 needs to be carefully watched.“What we really need is awareness of what is going on in our country,” she told the audience of political and business leaders, according to Agence France-Presse.

Suu Kyi said the situation was changing. “Change is not always for the better and even if it is for the better, it’s not always sustained,” she said during the video link. “We would like the world to keep an eye on what’s happening.”

Audience members including Chelsea Clinton, left, watch a discussion with Aung San Suu Kyi, the general-secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma, as she speaks via satellite during the seventh annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York. Photo: AFPAudience members including Chelsea Clinton, left, watch a discussion with Aung San Suu Kyi, the general-secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma, as she speaks via satellite during the seventh annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York. Photo: AFP

“If the world wants to help Burma, the world needs to know what’s going on in Burma. You really have to follow what is going on there.”

The Burmese opposition leader stressed the importance of India and China, but hoped they would focus on their relations with Burma’s people as much as Naypyitaw. Continue reading “Aung San Suu Kyi addresses at Clinton Global Initiative Conference-video” →

DASSK Message Written at Today’s Save the Irrawaddy Art Show

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(Mizzima) – Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended “The Sketch of A River” art exhibition in Rangoon on Thursday, highlighting the possible adverse impacts on the environment because of the Myitsone Dam project.

The exhibition at Gallery 65 on Yawmingyi Road includes paintings, photos and cartoons that highlight gold mining, timber harvesting and other activities that can adversely affect the river.

Aung San Suu Kyi is surrounded by viewers and the media at 'The Sketch of a River' art exhibition in Rangoon on Thursday, September 22, 2011. Photo MizzimaAung San Suu Kyi is surrounded by viewers and the media at ‘The Sketch of a River’ art exhibition in Rangoon on Thursday, September 22, 2011. Photo Mizzima

Aung San Suu Kyi, the general-secretary of the National League for Democracy, has urged the government to review the dam project and its possible consequences before it is too late.

She said: “At the present time, we have to face many things in order to achieve unity in the country. The affair regarding the Irrawaddy River is not likely to make us united. But if we all work in unison and we are united, we can get good results regarding the Irrawaddy.”

In a book marking the exhibition, she wrote, “May the Irrawaddy River survive forever for the unity of all the sons and daughters of the Union.”

The three-day art exhibition, organized by the Green Hearts Conservation Group, will run through Saturday.

Work on the Myitsone Dam project, located near the confluence of the Maykha and Malikha rivers, is a joint under taking of the No. 1 Electrical Power Ministry and the China state-own China Power Investment Corporation. Environmental activists and political groups have launched campaigns to urge the government to reconsider the project, calling for more environmental studies, disseminating the studies by experts more widely and accepting public input before deciding to continue the project.

However, on Saturday, Burmese No. 1 Electrical Power Ministry Minister Zaw Min cited parliamentary decisions as the authorization for moving ahead on the project.

“The ministry will continue implementing power supply projects in line with the decisions of the Parliament, and the adopted policies of the government within the framework of law,” Minister Zaw Min told a group of MPs in a small workshop, according to an article in the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar on Sunday. Continue reading “DASSK Message Written at Today’s Save the Irrawaddy Art Show” →