Mr.Gambari to press Burma over elections


Mr.Gambari to press Burma over elections

The United Nations special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, has said he will press the Burmese military government to make the process leading to elections in 2010 as inclusive as possible.

Speaking on a visit to Indonesia Mr Gambari said he would discuss the exclusion of the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, with the authorities when he next visited Burma.

Under a new constitution to be put to a referendum in May, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would be banned from taking part in the elections because her late husband was a foreigner.

Bomb explodes at Mae Sot rubbish dump

Thirteen Burmese migrants were injured today when a bomb exploded at a rubbish dump on the outskirts of the Thai border town of Mae Sot.


The explosion occurred at around 8.30am when a municipal dumpster with the licence plate 7724 brought the rubbish from Ban Nua market to the dump.

Fourteen Burmese nationals, including three children, were injured in the blast.

Military abducts 15 children in Tharawaddy

Fifteen children from Tharawaddy township in Bago division were abducted by government troops about 10 days ago and forced to join the army, local residents said.


The children were in the forest collecting wood when they were taken by soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion-35.

A Tharawaddy resident said the children were threatened with imprisonment if they would not join the army.

“The children were abducted by LIB-35 about 10 days ago when they went into the forest to collect bamboo,” the resident said.

“They were then taken to the barracks where the military officers apparently told them they had to choose between joining the army and being sent to prison, but the children all said they would prefer to go to prison.”

The children were taken to Tharawaddy police station about three days ago, as the LIB-35 battalion commander was due to come to the barracks and officers were reportedly worried they would be reprimanded for having the children there.

But the police refused to press charges against the children or to keep them in detention, and so the military took them back to the barracks.

The Tharawaddy resident said the police were also worried about action against them if they kept the children at the station.

“Maybe they’re afraid that they’re going to get into trouble for having these children,” he said.

“The police also used to make some money from people who went to the forest to cut wood, but since the military has been discouraging people to go there they are not getting money any more.”

Other local residents said that soldiers from the military recruitment division led by lieutenant Saw Win have taken people from the forest on several recent occasions.

Today, in London, international Parliamentary Union Place of Westmnster of,do a meeting for the situation of women in Iraq & Burma.
Iraq Community Association
Iraq Women's League
Menda'i Association
Global Justice Center
Burma Lawyers' Council
Burma Pro-Democracy Organizations

NLD STATEMENT

Authorities ban Dhamma talk in Magwe

Local authorities in Pwint Phyu township, Magwe division, cancelled a Dhamma talk by a Mandalay abbot on Saturday and told him to leave the town, local residents said.


Abbot U Thu Mingala of Moegok Wipathana monastery in Mandalay was conducting a three-day Dhamma talk in the township.

Residents of Kone Zaung village, Pwint Phyu, said the talk had already run for two days before police came and stopped the event on the third day.

"Local police chief U Sein Win arrived at the location where the talk was being held at around 2pm on Saturday afternoon and said that U Thu Mingala has been banned from conducting Dhamma talks," a Kone Zaung villager said.

"He also demanded that the pavilion be demolished and the monk leave town at once."

Police did not give a reason for the order or show any legal documentation.

NLD statement condemns election plans

The National League for Democracy has criticised the government’s plans for a referendum in May followed by general elections in 2010 when the results of the 1990 elections have still not been recognised.


In a statement issued on Monday, the NLD recalled the promises made by the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the SPDC’s former name, when it took power in 1988, namely to hold multiparty elections and return power to the winning party, and noted that the SPDC had yet to fulfil these promises.

Locals coerced into joining USDA

Residents of Hlaing Tharyar township in Rangoon have complained that the government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association is forcing locals to join the organisation against their will.


U Tin Yu, a resident of Hlaing Tharyar township ward 8, said the local USDA group called ward residents together for a neighbourhood meeting last week to announce that a concrete road was to be built in the ward.

"Hlaing Tharyar ward 8's USDA official Thant Sin called us into a meeting and said the association was going to build a concrete road in our ward,” Tin Yu said.

“We were all happy until they told us we had to join the USDA in exchange for their efforts."

Tin Yu said people from other wards had also been forced to enrol in the USDA at similar meetings in their neighbourhoods.

Rangoon residents have speculated that the authorities’ forced enrolment of people in the USDA could be in order to gain as many supporting votes as possible in the upcoming national referendum.

KNU leader assassinated

Karen National Union secretary-general Pado Manh Sha has been assassinated by two unknown men, according to early reports.


At around 4.30pm today, two unidentified men entered Pado Manh Sha’s house in Mae Sot, Thailand and shot him twice in the chest.

The men then left the scene in a vehicle.

Junta extends U Tin Oo's house arrest

The Burmese government yesterday extended the house arrest of U Tin Oo, deputy chairperson of the National League for Democracy, for one more year, according to NLD officials.


U Nyan Win, a legal expert and member of NLD’s information committee, told DVB that government officials went to U Tin Oo’s house yesterday at around 6pm and read out an official order stating that his house arrest had been extended for another year.

U Nyan Win criticised the regime’s decision to continue to hold the 80-year-old deputy opposition leader.

“U Tin Oo poses no threat to the government as he has been kept inside his house for all these years,” he said.

“Extending house arrest for such a vulnerable person is very unfair, and shows that the government is not keen to bring about national reconciliation.”

U Tin Oo was the commander-in-chief of the Burmese armed forces before he was forced to retire in 1976.

He has detained since the Depayin massacre in May 2003, when a convoy carrying U Tin Oo and NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came under attack from a pro-junta mob.

Burma: referendum, election dates announced

The Burmese military government has set a date for a referendum on a new constitution: it is to be held in May of this year, with a general election to follow in 2010.

The regime had set out what it called a roadmap for democracy but had not previously given any firm timetable.

It made the announcement in a statement on state television and radio.

"It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established," the regime said.

The Burmese have not voted since 1990, when the army invalidated an election won by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

The country has been without a constitution for two decades: a new one is in the last stages of being drafted by a Convention appointed by the ruling generals, from which the NLD has been excluded.

The United Nations and western powers have dismissed the work of the Convention as a sham.

Monastery stops free education service

A free tuition service at Ngway Kyar Yan monastery in South Okkalapa township, Rangoon, that provided extra classes to students from 10 townships in the surrounding area, has been suspended.


Ngway Kyar Yan monastery has been inviting respected tutors to teach extra classes at the monastery every year for the past 14 years, and around 2,000 to 3,000 students have attended each year.

Burmese students often rely on outside tuition to supplement the low standard of teaching in schools, but many are unable to afford a private tutor.

The monastery was running its classes in the lead-up to the grade 10 exams, which are the level required for university entrance and take place in February each year, and monks were able to get popular teachers to provide their services to the monastery free of charge.

One student said that educational opportunities for poorer students would suffer without the free classes.

“This is very bad for students who cannot afford to pay private tutors, because the education programme at Ngway Kyar Yan monastery was taught by well-known tutors and the monastery also provided all the teaching materials, textbooks and notebooks,” the student said.

A monk who was involved in running the service also believed that it would prevent some students from accessing a good education.

“This free education service is necessary for people who want to pursue an education but can’t afford it,” he said.

“These services are helping our nation by building the capacity of our students, and this is something the country should be happy about.”

It is not clear why the classes have been stopped, but students speculated that it was due to the participation of monks from the monastery in last year’s demonstrations.

Ngway Kyar Yan is a lecturing monastery, where over 1000 monks were studying before raids on the monastery following the monk-led protests in September last year.

Since the crackdown, only 40 monks have been left at the monastery.