Report outlines regime’s post-Nargis ‘failure’

Thomas Maung Shwe, Mizzima News, April 29, 2010.

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A report just issued by New York-based Human Rights Watch sharply counters claims made by some that following Cyclone Nargis there was a general opening of space across Burma.

Human Rights Watch notes in its extensive research that despite making some significant gains in fixing areas severely affected by the cyclone the “Burmese government continues to deny basic freedoms and place undue restrictions on aid.”

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Myanmar calls fatal blasts a terror attack

By the CNN Wire Staff, April 15, 2010 -- Updated 1448 GMT.

Photo:People wait Thursday for word of relatives outside the emergency department of Yangon Hospital in Myanmar.

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) -- The government of Myanmar said three bombs caused the deadly blasts that ripped through Yangon on Thursday, an action it calls a terrorist attack.

At least 20 people have died and more than 70 others were wounded, a staff member at Yangon Hospital said. But the government says only eight have died and more than 90 others were wounded.

The blasts occurred at 3 p.m. local time during a water festival, part of the New Year's celebration taking place in Myanmar and other southeastern Asian countries. People toss water on each other as part of a cleansing ritual during the celebration.

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bomb blast photos in Burma during water festival

Photos Credit: http://blog.nyilynnseck.com

Change Comes to Myanmar, but Only on the Junta’s Terms

By THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 17, 2010.

PYAPON, Myanmar — In the dried mud of the Irrawaddy Delta, workers are welding together the final pieces of a natural-gas pipeline that the country’s ruling generals say will keep the lights on in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, after years of debilitating blackouts.

Residents who for years were lucky to get eight hours of power a day may soon have the luxury of refrigerators that stay cold and televisions that stay on.

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Junta Should Go Before ICC, Nobel Laureates Tell Ban

By LAWI WENG, Irrawaddy News, March 6, 2010.

In a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday, three activists, including two Nobel Peace Prize winners, called on the UN Security Council to refer Burma's junta to the International Criminal Court for its abuses against women.

Thin Thin Aung, a presidium board member of the Women's League of Burma (WLB), and Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams told Ban that sexual violence and other abuses against women in Burma are widespread and systematic, and can only be addressed by referring the matter to the ICC.

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For Sex Workers, A Life of Risks

By MON MON MYAT / IPS WRITER, Irrawaddy News, March 6, 2010.

RANGOON — When Aye Aye leaves her youngest son at home each night, she tells him that she has to work selling snacks. But what Aye Aye, 51, actually sells is sex so that her 12-year-old son, a grade 7 student, can finish his education.

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Mother pleads for release of forcibly recruited son

Credit: Kyaw Kha, Mizzima News, 28 January 2010.

A mother of a 14-year old boy persuaded to join the Burmese army speaks of her family’s ordeal with Mizzima. Sandar Win, the mother, says her son, Maung Kyaw Min Tun (alias Kyar Min) was recruited on the 19th of this month and is being kept at the army’s Light Infantry Battalion 83 based in Michaungye in Taungdwingyi township of Magwe Division.

According to her, she journeyed to the barracks to try and bring her son home, but officials at the gate denied her request. The incident happened soon after Burma's military government renewed a one-year agreement with the International Labor Organization to stop the conscription of underage youth into the army.

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Haiti Aid Response Far Better than Nargis

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN, Mizzima News, Jan 25, 2010.

The slow delivery of humanitarian aid to Haitians has become something of an embarrassment, if not a scandal. All last week, I encountered earthquake survivors who either had not received any relief such as food, water, basic shelter, or had not seen any aid workers in their part of the city. Still others said I was the first foreigner they had met, which in some cases was a week or more after the disaster.

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Businesses accuse Htoo Trading of unfair monopolization

Credit: Myo Thein, Mizzima News, 22 January 2010.

Mobile phone dealers are accusing Htoo Trading of monopolizing the market for CDMA 800 MHz phones following a subsidiary of the parent company being recognized as the sole sales agent of essential SIM card recharge coupons.

Information Technology Central Services (ITCS), a subsidiary of Burmese tycoon Tay Za’s Htoo Trading, began selling the mandatory accessory yesterday, a day after Myanmar Telecom announced the availability of 800 MHz CDMA SIM cards, called 2000 IX, for use in Rangoon.

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Family Disowned Young Burmese Journalist

By NAI NAI, Irrawaddy News, January 18, 2010.

The family of Hla Hla Win, who was sentenced in December to 27-years imprisonment for attempting to smuggle information to the exiled media, had publicly disowned her because of her political beliefs.

“Hla Hla Win’s family opposes her political beliefs,” said a colleague who asked for anonymity. “She seems soft from the outside, but she is a woman of strength. It was very tough for her to decide to go ahead without her family's encouragement. She is in a very difficult battle now without moral support.

“When your family supports your beliefs, you’ve already won half of what you fight for. But if they do not support your cause, then you must hide what you are doing from them.”

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Family Alleges Malpractice Death at Rangoon Clinic

By ARKAR MOE, The Irrawaddy, January 8, 2010.

A 59-year-old woman, Kyi Lay, died while undergoing a hip operation at Aung Yadana Medical Center in Rangoon on Jan. 5. The family told local media that they believe the death was a result of malpractice.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, the deceased's daughter, Aye Aye Thaw, said, "My mother slipped and broke her hand and hip on Dec. 23. She was taken to Aung Yadana Medical Center in Thinganggun Township for treatment. She had to return again on Monday."

She said that her mother was sent to Asia Royal Cardiac and Medical Care Center for diagnosis because there were no cardiac machines in Aung Yadana Medical Center. Kyi Lay was healthy and had no record of heart problems, she said, adding that her mother was operated on by Dr. Myint Swe and passed away in the operating room.

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Burmese refugees find home and hockey in Canada

By Sam Cooper, Vancouver Province, December 5, 2009.

Early in the morning, a 13-year-old child in an eastern Burma village heard a pack of dogs barking. Her parents quickly gathered her sisters and brothers, and the family of 10 ran as government troops stormed their village, firing machine guns and burning huts.

The family hid by a river in the nearby jungle, watching smoke rise above the trees. When day turned to night, they ran through the trees and crossed a river into neighbouring Thailand, where they moved into a refugee camp.

That was 1992.

Now an adult, Zipporah Min, of an ethnic group called Karen, recalls that the leaders of the ruling military junta of Burma — also known as Myanmar — had pledged “the only place you will find a Karen is in a museum.”

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Burma; third most corrupt country

by Salai Pi Pi, Mizzima News, 18 November 2009.

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Military ruled Burma has been ranked third among the most corrupt countries in the world, a Berlin-based global civil society organization, Transparency International (TI), said in a new report.

TI’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on Tuesday, reveals that an unstable and fragile Burma, which has been scarred by war and ongoing conflicts, is third among the worst, with a score of 1.4 at the bottom of the index.

Somali with 1.1, and Afghanistan with 1.3 scores, are the only two other countries, below Burma. The CPI’s index score used a 0 to 10 grading system with 0 to 5 indicating the high levels of corruption and 5 to 10 indicating low levels of corruption.

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Short Skirts Raise Eyebrows in Rangoon

Credit: THE IRRAWADDY NEWS.

Rangoon’s street scene is changing as increasing numbers of young women in Burma’s largest city cast off their sarongs in exchange for miniskirts and hot pants. Low-cut blouses with “spaghetti” straps are also “in,” observers of the local fashion scene report.

Sarongs and even jeans are “out,” according to boutique and clothing store owners. A shopkeeper in Rangoon’s Yuzana Plaza said: “Most teenagers prefer shorts. They like revealing styles.”

Shorts are the preferred style for trips to a disco or a nightclub, but the fashion is also seen increasingly in Rangoon streets and on buses.

Weather plays a role in what the young women of Rangoon are wearing. “When it’s hot they prefer the freedom and light styles of short pants and blouses,” a Rangoon journalist said.

Rangoon fashion designer Thet Hnin Aye, however, advised young women to dress according to the occasion.

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Hazardous Waste Contaminates Rivers near Rangoon

By KYI WAI, The Irrawaddy News Magazine, October 25,2009.

RANGOON — Water pollution is nearing hazardous levels as waste water and chemicals from factories and industrial zones are increasingly discharged into the rivers around Burma's old capital, Rangoon.

"I would say the pollution is at its worst levels, but it is not too late if we can start containing it now,” said an environmental activist. “The main problem is waste water from the factories, which should only discharge waste water after systematic cleaning it. As it is now, the factories and distilleries just dump the waste water out as is."

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No signs of improvement for Burma’s media community

by Mungpi, Mizzima News, 20 October 2009.

New Delhi (Mizzima) - With several journalists and media personnel among the over 2,000 political prisoners, and the government’s censorship board continuing to restrict publications, Burma is holding firm in its position among countries with the lowest levels of press freedom.

Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), in its annual World Press Freedom Index, ranked Burma 171st globally, ahead only of bottom-feeders Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

RSF, in the release, highlighted Burma’s ruling military junta’s continuing censorship of the press and imprisonment of journalists and media workers.

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Migrant group in Thailand welcomes UN report

News: Democratic Voice of Burma(Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC)

A recent UN human development report that takes a positive stance on migration has been welcomed by a Thai-border based Burmese migrant workers group.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) report, ‘Overcoming Barriers’, states that “migrants boost economic output” and recommends the “lowering of barriers to movement and improving the treatment of movers”.

The report highlighted an agreement between Burma and Thailand to issue Burmese migrant workers with temporary passports, although said that “continuing complaints suggest that delays and demands for bribes remain common”.

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Malaysia returns 200 migrants to Burma

Oct 8, 2009 (DVB)–Nearly 200 Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia have been returned to Burma following a mutual agreement between the two governments, with some reportedly detained upon arrival.

Burma’s ruling junta has been urging migrant workers to return to the country, promising employment in agriculture and other industries.

Maung Hla, from the Malaysia-based Burma Refugee Organisation, said that the migrants were told to pay between 550 and 180 Malaysian ringgit ($US160 and $US530) before leaving Malaysia.

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Many Burmese find themselves exploited in Malaysia

"Many Burmese invest hope and money to get work permits for Malaysia, only to find themselves exploited"
By VIOLET CHO / JAHO, MALAYSIA.
Credit: Irrawaddy News Magazine

“I regret coming to Malaysia,” murmured Ko Shwe. “I feel afraid here. The only thing I want now is to go home.”

A farmer from Sittwe in western Burma, Ko Shwe left his home last year after the protests against rising fuel prices sparked a national uprising. Faced with economic misery in Burma, Ko Shwe joined the thousands of Burmese—especially those from rural areas—migrating to foreign countries to earn a living. Just seven days after starting work at a factory in Kuala Lumpur, he lost his right hand while working with an electric lathe.

Hiding his injury self-consciously, Ko Shwe spoke about his plan to return to Burma after he receives some compensation from his employer. However, as his work permit has not yet been approved, he is not confident of getting anything—not even reimbursement for his hospital bill.

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Burma: Thadingyut festival (Festival of Lights) events in October

To celebrate Thadingyut festival (FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS) which falls this year from October 02 to 04, Karawait Garden in Rangoon will host many fun events for the whole month of October. There will be many events including many Burmese celebrities and singers participating in fund-raising activities on Oct.4, Oct.9, Oct.17 and Oct.30.

The popular Burmese rock band Iron Cross together with singers Lay Phu, Ah Nge, Myo Gyi and Y Wine will also entertain the public there on Oct.03.

Thadingyut festival marks the end of the Buddhist Lent, and it is also one of the most prominent festivals of the year in Burma. Pagodas, houses, public buildings, parks, and monuments are all illuminated and there are various kinds of activities for everyone to enjoy. Thadingyut is not only for joyous but also thanksgiving and paying homage to Buddhist monks, teachers, parents and elders, and asking pardon for whatever misdeeds might have committed.