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Burmese
Border Security Forces shoot a Bangladeshi citizen
The Nasaka
Burmese Security Forces shot a Bangladeshi and arrested another
from the no-man's land along the border between Bangladesh and
Maungdaw township in the western part of Arakan (Rakhine State)
in Burma, according to our correspondent, quoting a reliable
source in the Township administration.
On 26th February a Syed Alam (40), son of Halim and Habibur
Rahman (31) son of Nur Ahmed were ambushed and arrested from the
border north to Kraungdaw village under Maungdaw township
allegedly with a handmade gun around ten in the evening.
The team was led by the Nasaka Two Area Commander Major
Naing Linn.
The two were then brought to Nasaka Area Two headquarters.
The Nasaka physically tortured Syed Alam to interrogate,
charging him as an armed cadre of the Rohingya rebel
organizations, then at one stage they shot him to death. According to our correspondent who conducted an investigation,
the said Syed Alam hails from Jamchhari village, close to border
pillar No. 45, under Naikkyaungchhari upazila of Bandarban Hill
District of Bangladesh, close to the Burmese border.
The fate of the other man remains unknown.
When the Bangladesh Rifles stationed at the Asat-tali BDR Camp
on the border came to know from an official letter of the Nasaka
forces on 5th March, they formally demanded investigation
about the whereabouts and into the fate of the two Bangladeshi
citizens on the seventh of this month. The
Bangladeshi authority also demanded the holding of a flag
meeting regarding the incident. In an Official
Memorandum, dated the 7th of March, the Bangladeshi authority
also called for an impartial investigation into the matter,
return of the corpses of the killed, compensation for the
two persons to their family members (in case they have been
killed), and taking proper action against the perpetrators in
the Nasaka.
Previously the Nasaka forces also arrested three Bangladeshis on
13th February from inside Bangladesh between border pillars No.
42 and 43 and nothing has yet been heard about the fate of
them, it was learnt from a reliable source in the area.
Source: Narinjara News,19th March 2002
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Campagners
call for Tougher sanctions against" The Next South Africa"
Lawmakers
are being asked Monday to press the government of Prime Minister
Tony Blair for sanctions against the military dictatorship in
Myanmar (formerly Burma), bolstered by a declaration from Nobel
peace prizewinner Desmond Tutu that "Burma is the next
South Africa."
Members of a
new coalition--including The Burma Campaign UK, Friends of the
Earth, Tourism Concern, and the Body Shop--have backed sanctions
calls by Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, and pledged
to apply pressure in their own sectors to help Burmese people
who are "engaged in an epic struggle for freedom."
Tutu praised
the United States federal ban in the late 1990s on investment in
the southeast Asian country and said Britain and other European
governments must follow suit by stopping their companies from
investing in tyranny.
"It's time
for sanctions and not just pious words," said Barry Coates,
director of the London-based World Development Movement, which
campaigns for stronger regulation of the international trading
system to ensure it benefits people in poorer countries around
the world.
Tourism
Concern's Lara Marsh, said the British government accepts that
holiday travel to Myanmar does not help its development of
democracy or human rights. But she wanted the government to
impose a direct ban on British tourism companies with
investments in the country.
Geoff Wilson, a
spokesman for Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said
that European Union countries, including the U.K., had
already imposed an arms embargo, frozen assets held in the U.K.
by members of the regime, and stopped issuing them with visas.
It had also banned the sale of arms, equipment that could be
used for torture, and non-humanitarian assistance.
These sanctions
would remain in force until the regime showed its commitment to
political reform, said Wilson, but there were no plans for
stronger sanctions. "We think the measures we've taken are
appropriate," he said.
A leading group
in the new coalition said Monday that a political shift might be
under way in Burma following the reported arrest of the
country's former military ruler, Ne Win, and members of his
family earlier this month. John Jackson, director of The Burma
Campaign UK, said the regime had succeeded in lifting some of
the pressure on it by engaging in talks with the opposition. He
welcomed the talks, but said they must be backed up by
international pressure, "otherwise they serve to legitimize
the regime."
Today's move
coincides with the unexplained last-minute cancellation by the
Myanmar government of a visit to Yangon (formerly Rangoon) by a
United Nations special envoy, Razali Ismail, who has been
trying to promote reconciliation between the government and Aung
San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for
Democracy, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 but
was barred from taking office by the military regime.
Source: Daniel
Nelson, One World UK. March 18,2002
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Professor
gets 7 years for handing out leaflets
Kyaw Zwa Moe in the
Irrawaddy-Online (with additions):
March 18, 2002
RANGOON -- Dr Salai Tun
Than, a retired professor who was arrested last November for staging a
one-man protest against Burma's ruling junta, has been sentenced to
seven years in prison, according to a reliable source in Rangoon.
Dr Salai Tun Than, 74, was
sentenced under Article 5(J) of the 1950 State Emergency Act for his
solo protest in front of Rangoon's City Hall on Nov 29.
According to the source, a special court in the compound of Insein
Prison, where he is currently being held, passed sentence on February
8.
During his protest, Salai Tun Than, the former rector of Yazin
University in Pyinmana, Upper Burma, distributed copies of a letter he
wrote demanding political reforms in Burma. In the letter, he
also expressed a willingness to pay a high price for his protest.
"It is better to die than to live under the military
regime," he wrote.
The source added that the
retired rector, who is an ethnic Chin, is now permitted to receive
visits from relatives. In February, the United Nations' Human Rights
rapporteur for Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro made a special point of
visiting with Dr Thun Tan during nine hours of visits with elderly
prisoners in Insein prison. Word of the harsh sentence, brought a
quick response from around the world. In London Foreign Office
Minister Ben Bradshaw said he was dismayed by the news. "His only
crime was peacefully to express his hope to see democracy in Burma
soon -- an aspiration which the Burmese government claims to share.
His detention is completely unjustified and I call on the Burmese
authorities to immediately release him, if for no other reason than on
humanitarian grounds due to his age. Such an unjustified and
severe penalty only serves to call into question the authorities which
claim commitment to pursuing democracy and national reconciliation in
Burma.'
In Hong Kong, the Asian
Human Rights Commission renewed an urgent appeal for the professor's
release. The AHRC has mounted a website with detailed information of
the distinguished career of Dr Thun Tan and his protest. It also
contains the model of a brief letter or post card which can sent to
authorities in Burma on behalf of Dr Salai Thun Tan.
http://www.ahrchk.net/tunthan
Source: Burma Courier, No.
313,17th-23rd
March,2002
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Those
forgotten Burmese in the prisons of Bangladesh
A score of
Burmese prisoners out of the six hundred waiting for their
release in the prisons of Bangladesh will be taken back shortly,
according to our correspondent.
These prisoners, some of who have been lingering in various
jails of Bangladesh for as long as six years due to the
negligence of the Burmese junta to recognize them as their own
citizens and take them back accordingly, have only been taken
back in small numbers beginning from 2001.
A former Burmese prisoner who was recently released from a
Bangladeshi prison and taken up by the UNHCR, Bangladesh
chapter, informed the Narinjara that twenty two of the Burmese
prisoners who have been kept behind bars three to six years
after the expiry of their prison terms in Bangladesh due to
unwillingness by the Burmese military regime to take them back
have at long last been duly recognized by the junta and will be
released on 19th this month. The prisoners will be released from
the prison at Cox'sbazaar in the south-eastern part of
Bangladesh.
These twenty-two are the remnants of the group of prisoners who
had been lingering in the Comilla prison to be taken back by the
Burmese authority. On 21st March 2001 an official from the
Burmese Embassy in Dhaka came to the Comilla prison and handed
over a list of 132 prisoners they recognized out of the more
than three hundred in the prison who the Burmese military regime
offered to take back. They requested the prison officials to
move the said 132 persons to the Cox'sbazaar prison, from where
they would be taken to the border areas where the Burmese
officials would receive them on the other side.
The official from the Embassy pledged to arrange everything for
the repatriation of the prisoners in six months' time. But six
months afterwards, on 28th September 2001, only eighty-nine
prisoners out of the said 132 were received by the Embassy
officials and handed over to the Nasaka Security Forces at
Maungdaw, the bordering town with Bangladesh on the Burmese
side. Afterwards the prisoners were each handed over kyat 1000
at Maungdaw as fare for their trip back home. At present only
twenty-two Burmese inmates are left in the Cox'sbazaar prison
from that group.
Fifty-one prisoners out of a hundred and thirty-eight were
shifted from the Comilla prison to the Rangamati prison on 13th
December 2001. When they all staged hunger strikes in the new
prison denouncing the Burmese authority, they were badly treated
and put into a cell. Six of the Burmese prisoners from the
Sylhet prison were transferred to the Rangamati prison on 16th
February this year. In the Sylhet prison the total number of
prisoners waiting for their release is forty.
In the Bandarban prison there are more than four hundred Burmese
prisoners who have completed their prison terms but have been
waiting for some time to be recognized and received by their
military government. Till this day there has been no query from
the Burmese Embassy in Dhaka regarding the fate of these Burmese
citizens waiting for their freedom, though the Burmese Embassy
officials have on many occasions visited the town to a pagoda
built by a large donation of money by the Burmese Embassy, it
was learnt.
Source: Narinjara News,18th
March,2002
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U.N
envoy trying to promote reconciliation talks in Myanmar will
return next week
UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. envoy trying to promote reconciliation
talks between the ruling military regime and the pro-democracy
opposition in Myanmar will return to the southeast Asian nation
next week for a new round of meetings, the United Nations
announced Friday.
After a
weeklong visit in late November, Razali Ismail said he was
hopeful that "significant progress" could be made in
the near future on reconciliation talks.
During his four
day visit from March 19-22, Razali is scheduled to hold talks
with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council as the ruling junta calls itself, and
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and senior members
of her National League for Democracy.
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan hopes Razali's upcoming mission "will provide
the process with a fresh momentum to assist the two sides to
develop their confidence-building talks into a more substantive
dialogue in the near future," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe
said.
Myanmar, also
known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962. The
current group of generals came to power in 1988 after leading a
bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations.
The junta
called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results when
the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory.
Instead hundreds of National League activists were jailed. Suu
Kyi has been under house detention for over a year.
Razali, a
former Malaysian diplomat, facilitated face-to-face talks
between the junta and Suu Kyi, which started in October 2000.
The contents of the talks have been kept secret.
This will be
his seventh visit to Myanmar since his appointment in April
2000.
When Razali
left in late November he also urged the government to release
political prisoners.
At the end of a
10-day visit to Myanmar last month, the U.N. investigator on
human rights in the country, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, urged the
military to release all political prisoners and allow Suu Kyi to
resume "normal political activities."
Source: By EDITH M. LEDERER, AP Writer, March 15, 2002
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No
Longer safe
According to Burma's military junta, the recently arrested
members of former dictator Ne Win's family believed black
magic would assist in their attempt to stage a coup. Briefing
foreign correspondents on the alleged plot, the country's deputy
head of military intelligence, Major
Gen. Kyaw Win,
said that astrological charms, a royal dagger, figurines of top
Burmese leaders and another of a frog were among the items
seized in a raid on the conspirators' headquarters.
Like any other
pronouncement from Rangoon's rulers, such accounts must be
treated with caution. After all, this is a regime that spews
venomous propaganda against its political opponents, as well as
locking them away and torturing them. It has consistently
refused to implement the results of free elections 12 years ago.
But whether or
not the government is telling the truth about the reasons behind
the arrests, there is a message with wider implications in the
March 7 detention of Aye Zaw Win, husband of Ne Win's ambitious
daughter Sandar Win, and their three sons. As Burmese exile Aung
Zaw explains, the crackdown was primarily driven by business
squabbles. Having always previously been accustomed to acting
with impunity, the family of the man who ruled Burma for 28
years had become increasingly irate at no longer being able to
treat lucrative government contracts as their exclusive
preserve.
And whatever
the military junta's motives for arresting Ne Win's relatives,
their task was made much easier by the way many of the clan had
acted with such blatant disregard for the law for so many years.
Several had become notorious for exploiting their family
connections for commercial advantage. One was renowned in
Rangoon for his links with violent gangs.
That, of
course, is not a problem confined to Burma . In autocratic and
dictatorial states the world over, there has hitherto been a
tendency for relatives of unelected leaders to feel they can
cheat, steal and even kill without the slightest risk of ever
having to pay a price for their actions. In Indonesia, it took
the advent of democracy before former president Suharto's
relatives could even begin to be held to account. Now in Burma ,
the process has begun while the military still remain in power,
but only selectively and as part of ongoing struggles for power.
Nevertheless,
this seems to have served as a warning to others. Already
China's No. 2 man in the Politburo, Li Peng, is reportedly
demanding guarantees against a corruption investigation into his
family before he steps down as chairman of the National People's
Congress later this year. And if today's dictators -- and their
relatives -- become more fearful of one day being held to
account, that might just act as a constraint on the worst
excesses of their behavior.
Source: The Asian Wall Street Journal March
15, 2002
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Real
inside story of Burma's Princes
Submitted By MM
Prince ( Letter to the
Editor )
-- I have
written these comments as feedback to the world's journalists
who did not really cover the inside story (in Burma) but only
wrote stories based on rumors and unreliable information. The
world will never know how Burma's VIP generation is getting
special privileges and how they bullied the civilians of Burma.
As one of
Myanmar's high-society, I knew a lot of sons of VIPs and rich
kids and I know the true story behind the curtain. Let me start
with Kyaw Gyi, a.k.a. Kyaw Ne Win, and how he truly saw himself.
Among us Kyaw Gyi and his brothers, Aye Ne Win, a.k.a. Ko Aye,
and Zwe Nay Win, a.k.a. Zwe, were known as, "The Crown
Princes of Burma". There are also more princes around
(Burma) but these are the most famous.
First of all I
would like to clear the rumor about their association with the
Scorpion Gang. They are neither leaders nor members of the gang
but they often used them at times and supported them, as most of
the Scorpions are their friends. They also used another gang
called the White Snakes.
Kyaw Gyi is a
crazy guy. He always acts like a VIP or royalty. He was so proud
of himself that he even thought S1 (Sec-1 Lt Gen Khin Nyunt) was
scared of him. His actions and moves were insulting to the
current government. Kyaw Gyi and his brothers would show off
their power in public by always going with long queues of
vehicles. In Yangon nightclubs dozens of bodyguards would also
surround them like the President of the USA.
The biggest
illegal thing Kyaw Gyi did was smuggling and selling
unregistered vehicles, which was strictly prohibited by Myanmar
Authorities. They used license plates that nobody was allowed to
use in Myanmar: 3B/99, 4B/99, 5B/99. In selling the cars they
were joined by another prince, Wai Lin San the grandson of
former President U Aye Ko who is also close to U Ne Win. They
teamed up with others from the VIP generation and formed the
Royal Gang and insulted authorities and harassed civilians.
Military Intelligence (MI) and police dared not take action
against them because S1 was giving the gang lots of favors.
One of the
stories that nobody outside the society knows is he (Kyaw Gyi)
was a great enemy with another prince, Sit Thway Aung, the
younger son of Burma's Forestry Minister. They nearly killed
each other once, but friends stopped them before anything
happened. Sit Thway and Kyaw Gyi have been competitors in
driving great cars like Land Cruisers, Mercedes, BMW X5 SUV and
Mega-Cruiser SUV and also in showing off their power.
Another unknown
story is that they once arrested a guy named Nyan Soe Moe, the
grandson of a well known and respectable business man named R.A.
U Hla Htun, after Kyaw Gyi and him got in an accident while
racing their cars. Kyaw Gyi's newly bought Mercedes SL 500 was
totally destroyed. Two days later Kyaw Gyi and a group smashed
into Nyan Soe Moe's Land Cruiser with their unregistered Toyota
Hilux SR 5, injuring Nyan Soe Moe. After that, Kyaw Gyi said he
had Nyan Soe Moe arrested for one day by MI to teach him a
lesson.
So those are
only a few stories about Kyaw Gyi and VIP kids. Here is a list
of princes in Burma, although there are a lot more of
untouchable rich kids in Yangon including sons and daughters of
ex-guerilla leaders like Kaung Myant Thu, son of U Nay Win Htun
an economic advisor for the Pa-Oo Group.
(1) Aye Ne Win,
Kyaw Ne Win, Zwe Ne Win, grandsons of U Ne Win
(2) Thar Gyi,
son of Agriculture Minister
(3) Sit Taing
Aung and Sit Thway Aung, sons of Forestry Minister
(4) Zaw Naing
Oo and Ye Naing Win, sons of Sec-1
(5) Min Zeyar Hlaing, son-in-law of Yangon Division Commander
(6) Win Htway Hlaing, son of Home Affair's Minister
(7) Thaung Su Nyein, son of Foreign Affair's Minister
(8) Sein Than Wai, son of Brig Gen Sein Lay
(9) Daughter of
General Maung Aye
(10) Sons of Sr
Gen Than Shwe
(11) Wai Lin
San, grandson of ex-president U Aye Ko
(12) Sons of
Police Chiefs
(13) Si Thu Moe Myint, son of famous businessman U Michael Moe Myint
(14) Son of
businessman U Moe Kyaw Thaun
Source: The
Irrawaddy ,March 15, 2002
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Myanmar
Junta alleges Coup Plot
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government said Tuesday
that relatives of a former dictator and other suspected coup
plotters planned to seize power by abducting the ruling junta's
top three leaders in a military operation.
The son-in-law
and three grandsons of former dictator Ne Win were arrested
Thursday in the alleged plot. Twenty other people have been
detained since, said Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, the deputy head of
military intelligence.
The plotters
sought to form a new government after coercing the abducted
junta leaders into swearing allegiance to Ne Win, now 90, Kyaw
Win said.
"They
didn't seem to have the intention to be the government but
wanted to form a new government with military leaders who would
owe allegiance to Ne Win," Kyaw Win said.
He refused to
say if Ne Win personally was involved in the plot. Ne Win ruled
from 1962 until 1988, when he retired just before a failed mass
uprising for democracy in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
The deputy
intelligence chief said the coup plotters had planned to win
over military commanders and use their units to overpower
security men at the residences of the government's top three
officials — junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, army chief Gen. Maung
Aye and Secretary One Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt.
The three
leaders were then to be taken to Ne Win's house to be detained
unless they agreed in his presence to establish a new
government, the deputy intelligence chief said.
He said the
coup was to have taken place on March 27, Armed Forces Day, when
all three leaders would have been in Yangon. He said Ne Win's
son-in-law, Aye Zaw Win, and his family planned the coup,
apparently because they were upset at losing economic and social
privileges it previously enjoyed.
The plot was
foiled when a divisional military commander approached by the
former dictator's informed the government, he said.
He said the
plot by Aye Zaw Win and his three sons, Aye Ne Win, 25, Kyaw Ne
Win 23, and Zwe Ne Win, 21, amounted to a criminal offense and
legal action would be taken against them.
In a related
development, the government fired the air force chief, the
national police chief and a top regional military commander.
Kyaw Win, the deputy intelligence chief, said they were not
directly involved in the coup plot but were "organized by
Aye Zaw Win and his sons."
The general
said the authorities confiscated a gun, 15 unregistered motor
vehicles, 59 communications sets, 27 rubber batons, two mine
detectors, military uniforms, badges and berets that were to be
used in the coup.
Kyaw Win said
all the equipment was seized from a Yangon hotel managed by Aye
Zaw Win's wife, Sandar Win, who is Ne Win's daughter.
Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the junta's third-ranking member, said Tuesday: "We
are very much disturbed by an untoward incident aimed at
undermining our cherished goals and disintegration of the armed
forces."
Source:
Source: AP News
By AYE AYE WIN, March 12, 2002
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Rohingya
villagers being relocated
Maungdaw: On 24
February 2002 the district administration had issued an order
asking the villagers of San Thay Pran (Hatipara village),
with about 400 households, in Longdun village Tracts of Na Sa Ka
area No. 5, under Maungdaw township, Arakan, to leave their
hearth and home. Of them 10 well-to-do families of the village
were first expelled from their houses and were relocated in
nearby 10 villages (that is, one family in each village) of (1)
Rwa Nyo Taung (2) Ramiyabil (3) Bora Shikderpara (4) Sali
Pran (5) Mingla (Thara Oo) (6) Bor Gojirbil (7) Churaw
Gojirobil (8)Rangabali (9) Fua Khali (10) Kular Bil ( Thu
Oola ), an eye witness said on condition of anonymity.
Gura Miah, Nabi Hussain, Amir
Hussain, Rohul Amin, and Amin are among those
heads of the families who were expelled from the Longdun
village. The rest of the villagers will have to leave their
ancestral homes soon and are awaiting to be relocated in the
said 10 villages, the sources said.
It may be
mentioned that many Rohingya villagers, who included old men,
women and children, were arrested from Longdun village,
following an incident in the Lun Htin camp of the village, on
the night of 23rd November 2001 in which 4 policemen and a women
were killed and 6 fire arms taken away. According to villagers
and concerned sources, the incident was masterminded by two of
the Lun Htin policemen of the camp and Rohingya villagers have
been made scapegoats.
By our correspondent
Source: Kaladan Press Network, March 7, 2002
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Construction of
cross dam on Naf river
By Special correspondent
On 21 February
2002 the commander of the Western Command Gen. Maung Oo held a
meeting at Maungdaw in the office of the Na Sa Ka. After the
meeting, he together with officials of the different departments
sailed in three speedboats to Crow Island (Kyi Kyung), an island
close to Bangladesh border on the river Naf, said a concerned
source.
On arrival the
commander and members of the team were welcomed by the Village
Peace and Development Council Chairmen, secretaries and village
elders of the Na Sa Ka Area No. 3. The team took photographs
covering different sites of the Kyi Kyung Island and told the
people that a cross dam will be constructed soon on the river
Naf from the island. Common people living in the border are concerned about possible tension between Burma and Bangladesh if
Burma is constructing such a cross dam.
It may be
mentioned that last year tense situation was created on the
border when Na Sa Ka personnel began construction of a cross dam
across the "Dabfari khal"on the river Naf on January
2, 2001, and Bangladesh had accused the Burmese Government of
violating international law as well as the existing border
treaty between the two counties.
Source: Kaladan
Press Network, March 6, 2002:
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