Burma10.com | NEWS, CULTURE AND TRAVEL FROM MYANMAR
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12.03.2008
NEWS OF THE DAY from BURMA10.com
Thousands of Karen civilians displaced in fresh attacks
The Burma Army has launched fresh attacks on civilians in northern Karen State this month, causing the displacement of over 2,100 villagers.
According to the Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation working in the conflict areas of eastern Burma, the attacks are “the largest against civilians in northern Karen State since the Burma Army completed the re-supply of its camps and construction of roads at the end of 2007.” Over 30,000 people are displaced in northern Karen State, and it is estimated that there are over one million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burma altogether.
The Burma Army attacked several villages in northern Papun District, Karen State, on 4 March, according to the Free Burma Rangers. Nine homes and three farm houses were burned down in Ga Yu Der village. The Burma Army also fired eight mortar rounds into Tay Bo Kee village. In both cases villagers fled before the troops came, and are now on the run in the jungle. The Free Burma Rangers report that the Burma Army is pursuing those who fled, “seeking out villages and pockets of IDPs and destroying homes, food and property.”
These latest reports follow the recent visit of the UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Burma. The ruling military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), rejected the envoy’s proposals to amend the draft constitution to allow Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest, to contest elections. Mr Gambari failed to meet the SPDC’s Senior General Than Shwe, and the regime refused to allow UN monitors to observe the planned referendum on the constitution in May.
I ribelli dello Shan preparano le armi
U Tu Way fa quello che un birmano non osa fare mai: si lascia andare, parla di politica. Approfitta della birra che gli imprime più coraggio, butta giù l'ennesimo sorso e si libera di un rospo che si è tenuto dentro per vent'anni. "La rinascita partirà da qui, da queste montagne", annuncia. "I segnali mi dicono che sarà così. Durante le rivolte del 1988 sono stato un leader studentesco. Ci abbiamo creduto fino in fondo con forza e dignità. Molti sono morti, tantissimi scomparsi, altri fuggiti. Altri ancora, forse migliaia, restano in prigione. Abbiamo perso, ma la prossima volta non finirà in questo modo. La gente non ce la fa più, vuole cambiare, ha bisogno di aria nuova. I generali, i nostri padroni, hanno fatto il loro tempo".
U Tu Way parla piano, quasi sotto voce. Il regime di Than Shwe ha creato una tale psicosi che i birmani non si sentono sicuri neanche in casa. Cerca le parole che non trova. Guarda fuori dalla finestra della sua bella baita in tek, in cima ad una delle montagne che circondano questo villaggio della grande provincia dello Shan, nord-est del paese. Si passa la mano sulla gamba sinistra. Ce la indica: "Non ci sono più tendini. E' accaduto in prigione". Si blocca un attimo. La gola è stretta dall'emozione: per i ricordi che tornano ad affiorare, per lo straniero a cui confessa l'inconfessabile.
Five facts about Burma
Following are five key facts about Myanmar, a former British colony which has been under military rule for 46 years. Six months ago, Buddhist monks led the biggest demonstrations against the junta since a 1988 uprising.
-- Having won independence in 1948, what was then called Burma was roiled by political feuding and ethnic guerrilla conflicts until a 1962 coup. It has been run by the army ever since and ethnic insurgencies, in many cases fuelled by the opium trade, continue to rumble on.
-- Although it is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups, nearly 70 percent of its 53 million people are ethnic Burman. Significant minorities are the Shan and predominantly Christian Karen.
-- Ranked as one of Asia's most promising economies in the 1950s, it is now one of the region's poorest nations, due mainly to decades of disastrous socialist central planning by the military government.
It possesses some of Asia's largest reserves of natural gas, as well as the world's finest rubies and extensive teak forests.
Myanmar Monk Tells Story of Killings
A Myanmar monk called for a global weapons embargo on his country, telling a human rights conference Thursday that the junta's military leaders must not be allowed to use guns against his people again.
U Awbata said he struggles to shake memories of Myanmar soldiers opening fire on fellow monks during street protests last September, stomping on their heads and pummeling them with batons.
"It doesn't matter how many tears I shed," U Awbata said at the three-day conference in Indonesia. "I cannot erase these images from my mind."
'Noi, monaci che sfidammo il regime'
Cinque mesi dopo, restano ancora le tracce della battaglia. Fuori, lungo i muri di cinta sbrecciati dalla pallottole; dentro, sui pavimenti in legno anneriti, nei giardini invasi dalle erbacce, nei bagni collettivi allagati, nell'infermeria saccheggiata, nelle stanze dei novizi vuote e sporche. Persino i corridoi, luogo di meditazione e di lettura, sono occupati dai resti di armadi, sedie e tavoli ammassati alla rinfusa.
Per terra, allineati con cura in una stanza chiusa a chiave, si sono salvati solo loro: i libri sacri dello Sangha, la chiesa buddista, e le antiche pergamena di palma scritte a mano. Il grande bonzo, il capo spirituale del monastero, è assorto nella sua lettura.
E' solo, al centro del salone al primo piano dove si tengono le lezioni, disteso su un letto in tek coperto da un telo rosso scuro. Restiamo in attesa, avvolti da un cupo senso di desolazione.
Il maestro piega il libro. Si mette seduto, incrocia le gambe, si gira verso di noi, porta le mani giunte sulla fronte. "Siate i benvenuti", ci dice dopo minuti che sembrano eterni.
Myanmar's past key to changing its future
By Gill Murdoch
A pariah state led by generals who have oppressed their people for more than 40 years: Myanmar is a black and white story to most writers.
But understanding how history has shaped Southeast Asia's most stubborn military junta not only adds accuracy to debate about the former Burma, it is key to changing the country's future, argues historian Thant Myint-U.
In his latest book "The River of Lost Footsteps", the grandson of U.N. Secretary-General U Thant draws on history and his personal experiences to analyse the prospects for change.
He spoke to Reuters Life! while on a visit to Singapore.
Q: Many writers struggle to make sense of Myanmar. Some romanticise it as a forgotten tragedy, others characterise it as on the cusp of revolution. What do you make of these depictions?
A: An old but still current way of seeing Burma is as a sort of tyranny that can be stripped away -- that underneath there's a timeless, peaceful, Buddhist country. That was the paradigm through which the British saw it in the 1880s before their invasion. That's why they thought that the removal of the king would change everything very quickly for the better. The results were a disaster.
Laughing through the junta's gag
Myanmar's famous comedy troupe, unable to publicly stage its satirical routines, still pokes fun at the ruling generals nightly at home. 'Joking shares the suffering,' says one member.
By Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times
The generals, to put it mildly, can't take a joke. But the Moustache Brothers make their living mocking fools, including those who wear military uniforms.
So they have drawn a battle line in this country's long struggle for democracy with a small stage that cuts across their cramped living room, site of the three-man comedy troupe's nightly performance.
The military regime silenced street protests last fall by arresting and, in some cases, shooting peaceful demonstrators. That has left dissidents such as comedians Lu Zaw, Lu Maw and the lead satirist of the family, Par Par Lay, to tend the embers of opposition by poking fun at the regime. In the past, the junta that rules Myanmar -- also known as Burma -- has tried to shut them up too, hoping to intimidate them with prison terms, hard labor and torture.
But the comedians are exploiting a loophole in a ban on their act by staying on the attack at home, in English, with biting humor that ridicules the junta as a bunch of bumbling thugs, thieves and spies. The Moustache Brothers, one of Myanmar's most famous comedic acts, are determined to get the last laugh. "Joking shares the suffering," said Lu Maw.
"That's what the government is afraid of because jokes are like wildfire. They want to hide deep problems under the covers, and jokes spread the word, mouth to mouth, door to door and outside the country. Then they are disgraced. They are ashamed."
Burma reigns king of methamphetamines
Despite a slight upswing in opium cultivation, the United States says Burma's position as the global leader in methamphetamine production now poses the greater threat to the region.
Dubbing the region the "Ice Triangle", a reference to the burgeoning production of amphetamine-type stimulants in the area famously known as the "Golden Triangle", the 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report warns that subduing illicit trade will require the Burmese government to work closely with both domestic and international actors.
At present "the lack of cooperation that we have from Burma threatens not just its own public but also the countries of Southeast Asia," David T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told reporters in Washington on Friday upon release of the 2008 survey.
According to the study the production and trafficking of narcotics in and through Burma is often conducted in collaboration with Chinese gangs.
Myanmar bans public speeches
Myanmar's military rulers said Wednesday they would imprison anyone caught giving public speeches or distributing leaflets about a constitutional referendum set for May.
The junta announced earlier this month that it would hold the referendum in May to set the stage for elections in 2010, a process critics say will only entrench military rule.
A new law enacted to oversee the balloting allows for up to three years in prison for "attempts to destroy the referendum by giving a speech in public and leafleting," the official Mirror newspaper said.
"Whoever breaks these restrictions or attempts to break them, whether found breaking them or helping to break them, can be sentenced to not more than three years' imprisonment or a 100,000 kyat ($85) fine," it said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
focus:
Birmania, la resistenza di Taunggok
Come nella Gallia di Asterix assediata dai Romani, anche la Birmania avvilita dai generali ha il suo villaggio che non si rassegna. A Taunggok (nello Stato di Arakan, Rakhine secondo la nuova denominazione, parte centro-occidentale del Paese), a cinque mesi dalle manifestazioni nazionali represse nel sangue, la resistenza al regime continua seppur in forma semiclandestina ed isolata.
Già nel settembre caldo questa località, nota per il suo attivismo politico, era stata teatro di una delle marce più imponenti al di fuori dell’ex capitale Rangoon: quarantamila civili, accompagnati da centinaia di monaci e novizie avevano sfilato chiedendo condizioni di vita più umane. Poi il silenzio imposto dalla violenza di Stato aveva avvolto anche le sue strade.
A metà gennaio, però, una nuova concentrazione popolare davanti al mercato locale (settanta le persone coinvolte) ha costretto le autorità a bloccare le strade e a chiudere le scuole per evitare che altri partecipanti – soprattutto contadini - si unissero al corteo.
Nei giorni successivi il consueto paesaggio fatto di squadre anti-sommossa a presidiare i punti nevralgici della cittadina insieme ad un numero crescente di agenti in borghese, in un clima di intimidazione già noto agli abitanti di Taunggok: molti membri della Lega nazionale per la democrazia (il partito di Aung San Suu Kyi) sono da mesi detenuti nelle prigioni locali. Ma come in un gioco di squadra preparato a tavolino, i gregari emergono quando i leader si trovano in difficoltà.
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