An election campaign has been launched by Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) throughout parts of Mon state, a source from the Mon community told Kaowao.

“General Aung San fought for Burma’s independence with 30 comrades. We have over a million members and we can do more for our nation if you vote for us,” said one participant quoting one of the campaigners. “We will focus on local development, health care, and education if you vote for us (USDA).”

The USDA campaign group is led by Minn Lun Aung, USDA secretary of Kyaikmaraw (Kyaikmayaw) Township, followed by U Aung Myo, the former township educational department in charge and U Sein Hlaing.

“On November 20, the USDA’s election campaign kicked off with a tour through Kaw Palaing, Kaw Soi, Kaw Sak, Tarana and Dhamasa Mon villages in Kyaikmaraw, Mon state and Kawkareik township in Karen State. These areas were first priority for the USDA because the Burmese candidates from the NLD and other parties were defeated by the Mon political party (MNDF) in the last 1990 election. The Mon political party won the most seats without much campaigning,” said a political observer in Moulmein.

A New Mon State Party officer of Thaton District based in this area told Kaowao that the local civilians are disappointed because the Burmese government has yet to announce its election rules. “The USDA said they can do more than other political organization and asked the voters to vote for them. We also want to hear from other parties too,” he added.
The USDA, founded by the SPDC as a GONGO (government organized non-governmental organization) in 1993, is notorious for its brutal crackdown on opposition forces along with security forces. It claims they have 22 million members as of 2005.

In June, a Mon working committee, comprised of NMSP veterans, Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) members and retired civil servants, was formed to prepare for the upcoming 2010 election in Moulmein, capital city of Mon State.

“We are waiting for the SPDC’s regulation and rules so we can prepare for the upcoming election; we can do nothing until then,” said a spoke person from the Mon working committee.

However, the main political parties, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF) oppose the upcoming general election and Burma’s 2008 constitution.

Kaowao news

Shan locals imprisoned for ‘insurgent links’
Nov 26, 2009 (DVB)–Arrests of civilians in Shan state have reportedly intensified in recent weeks as the Burmese government looks to break perceived links between locals and rebel groups in the region.

Four people are currently standing trial in the southern Shan state townships of Siseng and Hopon.
Military authorities have accused them of having contact with the anti-junta Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), which now controls Siseng, and the Shan State Nationalities People’s Liberation Organisation (SSNPLO).
The government first launched a crackdown on local Shan after a senior member of the Burmese military was shot dead by an unidentified gunman early last year.
“This has been the way the [junta] has been treating the people of Shan state in recent times,” said SSA-S spokesperson, Sai Lao Seng. “They accuse villagers of having contacts with rebels and oppress, arrest, torture and even kill them.” “The situation is particularly worse when there are clashes with armed groups. No one is solving this problem.”
They four men are being charged with section 17/1 of the Illegal Organization Act, according to sources close to family members of the accused.
One of the defendants is reportedly a member of the pro-government Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), an organization widely tipped to play a key role in government affairs following elections in Burma next year.
The latest crackdown follows the recent imprisonment of seven Shan villagers who were also accused of having links to local insurgent groups. They were each given two year sentences.
Many civilians in the region have been forced to sign pledges asserting that they will not aid or abet ethnic groups opposing the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
The threat of arrest and interrogation by military personnel, added to the numbers of people already imprisoned, has been an effective tool in coercing villagers to sign the pledges, locals said.

Villagers taxed to provide for people’s militia in Kawzar Sub-Township.
November 26, 2009
HURFOM, Ye: Infantry Battalion (IB) no. 31, based in Khawza Sub-township, held a meeting in Khawza Sub-town regarding the establishment of a people’s militia for the region, in the second week of November 2009.
According to HURFOM’s field reporter, IB no. 31 informed the sub-township chairman that roughly 30 people were required to enlist in the new people’s militia and attend the yet-be-held Khawzar Sub-town training. The remaining Khawazar residents have been given the responsibility of providing for the militia’s needs, including guns and uniforms for the new recruits.
Reportedly, IB no. 31 divided Khawaza sub-town residents into three different tax brackets, based on their household incomes. The first, wealthiest bracket of villagers has been required to pay 50,000 kyat to the new militia’s fund, while the other two brackets must pay 30,000 kyat or 20,000 kyat respectively, depending on their households’ standard of living.
According to residents, event though Khawzar Sub-Township contains around 800 households in total, only 500 households are being required to pay the taxes; the remaining 300 household are connected to the Burmese Army or are employed by the Burmese government.
“We villagers don’t want to be involved in the militia, most of us prefer to give money to them instead; but some villagers, such as daily workers, have no choice. So, some of them prefer to join the militia because they have no money to offer [instead],” claimed a female Khawza resident.
According to HURFOM’s field reporter, roughly ten villagers villages near Khawzar Sub-town have also been required to send residents to the militia training in Khawzar Sub-town. It has yet to be confirmed if these villages are also being taxed to provide for militia members’ needs.
According to a resident of Toe Tat Ywa Thit village near Khawszar Sub-town, IB no. 31 has made repeated attempts over the past two or three years to establish similar people’s militias in the region, including in Toe Tat Ywa Thit village and in Hangan village; such attempts have always failed due to residents’ lack of participation.

November 26, 2009
WCRP: An Underground Mon Migrant Union, which operates in southern Thailand, has freed several migrant women.
According to the Union’s advisor, the organization was established in 2002 to protect Mon migrant workers, although recently it has been focusing efforts on rescuing endangered Mon women.
On November 17, the Union went to 7 of the 30 brothels in Phang-nga, Kuraburi, Thailand, and purchased 19 Mon prostitutes’ freedoms.
The Union had been contacted by a man who was missing his sister. The man suspected that she was working as a prostitute in Phang-nga, but the Union could not locate her. During the search, members met numerous desperate and trapped women, which inspired them to organize the rescue mission.
Before liberating the women, members of the Union held secret meetings with Mon prostitutes. Members then separately negotiated costs and release terms with brothel owners. In total, the Union paid 1.4 million baht, to various brothels, for the 19 women.
The President of the Union said, “Over the past 7 years we have only helped 12 women, this is the first time we have saved so many troubled women.”
The Union currently has 400 members and each pays a 500 baht monthly fee, which goes towards rescue missions and management costs. Over the past 7 years, over 70 of its members have died during excursions.
The Union plans to continue rescuing female migrant workers as well as protecting them from being unknowingly sold to brokers Laos.

THURSDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2009 17:39 HSENG KHIO FAH

Failing to persuade ceasefire groups to fully transform themselves as border guard forces (BGF), the junta military is now reported to have turned to accelerate recruiting and forming militia units into battalions, according to sources from the Thai-Burma border.

A Lahu militia unit, which is based in Talerh, 48 km northeast of Tachilek, eastern Shan State and has been active along the Mekong, has been recently transformed as the Mekong Border Security Battalion. It leader, Sai Awn, son of well-known militia chief Kya Seubo, was promoted as its commander, said a source close to the group leadership.

The group has over 400 men. Early in the month, over 60 men living along the Mekong were recruited by the group, he said. “Currently, they are undergoing military training,” he said.

The group will be provided uniforms, rations and pay by the Burma Army beginning the end of the year. Each private will be receiving Kyat 20,000 ($20) per month, same as the Burma Army’s.

“Militiamen are believed to enjoy more rights than junta soldiers because some businessmen from the area are giving money to apply for membership hoping to be allowed to trade freely,” another source said, “Some have paid up to Baht 30,000 ($902.42).” Likewise, Mongton township, opposite Chiangmai’s Chiangdao district, have one militia battalion. Tin Win, head of Maeken militia, is reportedly battalion commander and two others Ja Pikoi, based in Pongpakhem, and Jakaw, based in Mongton, as deputy commanders.

Senior Gen Than Shwe had issued a directive that there must be “One village tract, One battalion” across the country, according to Network for Democracy and Development (NDD), an exiled group specializing in research on the Burmese military on 15 July 2007.

All militia groups are categorized into three levels: Home, Hardcore and Reserve in accordance with its People’s War Strategy, but so far there has no more than 1,000 men from all the three levels in each township or sub-township, the group said.
According to its research, Burma has 13,725 village tracts, 325 townships and some 60 sub-townships.

A veteran Burma watcher said, “The militias will be used as cannon fodders in the Burma Army’s future offensives against armed opposition groups.”

At the same time, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), after its meeting with Lt-Gen Ye Myint Chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS) in Shan State North’s Tangyan on 14 November, has been intensively reinforcing more troops, supplies and weapons to border areas facing Burma Army bases, said a source from the Sino-Burma border.

It main focus areas are Mongpawk in the south, Hopang-Panglong in the north and Manghseng, west of its capital Panghsang. It has been digging trenches and building concrete bunkers at the three bases.

Many people have also expected that if there will be fighting, it might break out at the said three places, most likely at Manghseng because it is near the road that serves as a convenient route for the Burma Army to access, the source said. ( The UWSA’s Mangpart base faces the Burma Army’s Loi Panglong base there.)

“No agreement was reached despite the softened stand from the Wa side,” he said, “Looking at the Wa preparations, it is likely they are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.”

Meanwhile, the Wa officials announced that people holding ID cards that specify them as Burmans are not allowed to enter to its territory anymore. In addition, those working in Panghsang and have gone on a visit to their hometowns are also not allowed to return, according to a truck driver visiting the Thai border.

“Us drivers are also warned not to bring any more Burmans,” said the driver, “As for those remaining in Panghsang, they must have some local recommendations.”

Currently, there are around 200-300 Burmans working in Panghsang. They are being watched by Wa officials as there is reason to believe some are spies, according to the source.

Tensions between the Naypyitaw and the ceasefire groups have mounted since April, when the latter were presented with the BGF proposal which requires all their battalions to be run by junta officers.
shanland org

WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2009 17:08 S.H.A.N.

The Most Venerable Sobhita, popularly know to Shan/Tai Buddhist devotees as either Sao Sra Sophi or Sao Sra Mwe-daw and to the Burmese devotee as Pinlon Sayadaw, was the lord abbot of the Mangala Mwe-daw Monastery in the historic town of Panglong, Shan State, the Union of Myanmar.

He had been active in the promotion of the study of Buddhist scriptures in the Tai (Shan) language for over forty years through the examination board, Pariyatti saddhammapala of the Shan State, annually and jointly organised by his and another neigbhour monastery, Wat Pitaka Tai. Together, both monasteries constitute the HQs of the Shan State Sangha and the translation of the Tipitaka into Tai.

The Venerable Sobhita Mahathera was elected chairman of the board and he served for many years in that capacity as well as in lesser ones. Prominent among the Tai Buddhists,the Venerable was elected to represent in the Sate Ecclesiastical Central Representatives Council, Loilem District (i.e. 11 townships) Sangha when the new Buddhist ecclesiastical administration knwon as Sangha Mahanayaka for the whole country came into being in 1980. Just over a decade later in 1991, he was promoted to the highest executive body, State Sangha Mahanayaka Committee, which he served more than ten years. When he retired in 2007, he was made a member of the State Ecclesiastical Advisory Council.

For his dedicated service to the Buddha-sasana, he was awarded by the government the titles of aggamaha-pandita for his contribution in promoting Budhdist studies in among the Tai/ Shan monastics, and the aggamaha-saddhamma- jotikadhaja for propagating the dhamma among the populace.

He was taken ill in 2008 with TB and received medical treatments in Rangoon, Taungyi and Singapore. He passed away at 11.05pm on Sunday 22 November 2009 in his monastery. He was 78 and had been in higher ordination, a bhikkhu/monk, for 57 years. His remains will lie in a specially arranged pavilion, traditionally called Kyaung nikban, Nirvanic Abode; the ceremony of moving the remains to the Abode will take place on 1 December 2009. The cremation is yet to be announced.
shanland

Burma: Under military dictatorship—Half the century

1988: Current junta came to power—Gunned down 3000 peaceful demonstrators

1990: Junta held the election—Aung San Suu Kyis party NLD won landslide—Junta refuses to recognize it

1993: Junta draft the constitution—Hand-picked delegations—It took 14 years

2008 May: Cyclone Nargis struck Burma—250, 000 died & 2.5 million homeless—Adopt the constitution unilaterally

Aung San Suu Kyi, Democratic and Ethnics groups say— NO !

WHY ???

Please see the 2008 Constitution Discussion video at Burma Democratic Concern (BDC)s bdcburma channel at youtube.

COMING SOON !!!

Invitation for the 10 December 2009 Demonstration in UK

by Usa Pichai
Thursday, 26 November 2009 12:04

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Apprehensive that Burmese migrant workers may join anti-government demonstrations, Thai officials have imposed restrictions along the border.

Lt Gen Thanongsak Apirakyothin, Commander of the Thai Third Army said on Wednesday that the army has ordered officials along the Thai-Burma border in Northern Thailand to impose restrictions. The directives follow a report that migrant workers from neighbouring countries may join anti-government demonstrations likely in Chiang Mai and Bangkok against Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva. The PM is scheduled to visit Chiang Mai on Saturday to attend the annual Thailand Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Lt Gen Thanongsak, however, dismissed a rumour that former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may enter the country illegally through the northern border at the end of this month, according to a report in Thai News Agency’s website.

Suthep Thaugsuban, Deputy Prime Minister said he felt the PM should avoid going to Chiang Mai because the red-shirts there had past records of resorting to violence. He feared that the red-shirts in Chiang Mai and Bangkok were cooperating to incite unrest and instigate violence. However, if Abhisit insists he should go, Suthep said he would propose the Internal Security Act be imposed in Chiang Mai without inconveniencing people there. He said he was more concerned about the red shirts inciting unrest. He was confident security agencies could protect the PM.

“A small clash can snowball into a big issue. I have been assigned to monitor the situation closely and cooperate with local authorities because the PM would like to go there since he believes it would help in restoring the confidence of the private sector,” he said.

However, the leader of the red-shirt group announced on Wednesday that the protests in Bangkok will be postponed. The announcement seemingly follows fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra suggesting it was not the right time to assemble. However, officials will still increase surveillance for any unseemly incidents.

The government will impose the Internal Security Act in Bangkok from Saturday November 28 to December 14 even though the red shirts said yesterday they will defer their planned rally indefinitely.

Jeerasak Sukonthachart, Director of Thailand’s Department of Employment said that the authorities have warned employers to prevent their migrant workers from joining political demonstrations because it is illegal.

According to Thai law, migrant workers could join demonstrations if they are not linked with politics or national security. If they are found among red-shirt demonstrators they would be repatriated to their country and the employer will face trial.
mizzima

La Viceconsejera de Cultura, Isabel Muñoz, y el Decano de la Facultad de Comunicación, Francisco Sierra, junto al Secretario General de CANF-COCEMFE, Gonzalo Rivas y su presidenta, Mª Ángeles Cózar

La Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de Sevilla acoge desde ayer la 8ª edición de la Muestra de Cine y Discapacidad organizado por la Universidad de Sevilla junto a la Confederación Andaluza de Personas con Discapacidad Física y Orgánicas (CANF-COCENFE Andalucía). Más de 170 estudiantes de la Hispalense participan de unas jornadas centradas en dar a conocer la realidad social de las personas con discapacidad a través de proyecciones cinematográficas, charlas y coloquios con los principales exponentes  que tratan la cuestión de la discapacidad en el panorama audiovisual actual.

Juan C. Romero. El decano de la Facultad de Comunicación, Francisco Sierra, inauguró oficialmente la 8ª edición de la Muestra de Cine y Discapacidad que anualmente organiza la Universidad de Sevilla junto a la Confederación Andaluza de Personas con Discapacidad Física y Orgánica (CANF-COCENFE Andalucía). En el acto de apertura intervino la presidenta de la CANF, Mª Ángeles Cozar, quien incidió en el hecho de que “es una muestra llena de arte, pero sobretodo de reflexión y contenido”.

La sociedad actual no es justa para casi nadie “pero mucho menos lo es para las personas con discapacidad”, y es en el cine donde se demuestra también esta tesis según Cózar: “Hay que poner los medios necesarios para que las personas con discapacidad puedan aportar su creatividad, sus valores, y todo su arte al cine”. En este sentido la sociedad tiene que estar abierta al discapacitado para permitir que puedan gozar de un derecho al que todos debemos tener acceso, “hay que abordar la discapacidad desde un punto de vista positivo”, asegura.

Por su parte, el decano de la Facultad de Comunicación, Francisco Sierra, abogó por el derecho de los discapacitados a la cultura, “no únicamente como el acceso a los bienes simbólicos, sino como la capacidad de reconocimiento en ellos”. Las minorías deben exigir sus derechos a la libertad de expresión, también a través del cine. “El cine como el espacio que alimenta nuestros sueños y configura nuestro imaginario, como un espacio cultural en el que todos pueden expresarse y tener visibilidad”, como contraposición al cine “como mercancía de la industria cultural”.

En este sentido, Sierra manifestó el apoyo de la Universidad de Sevilla, “como espacio público de encuentro y de participación”, a las personas con discapacidad “en su lucha por la dignidad”, y puso como ejemplo a la profesora del Departamento de Sociología, Trinidad Galiana por su compromiso como organizadora un año más de la muestra de cine que trata la discapacidad “desde la concepción transformadora y democrática de la comunicación”.

Los directores de ‘Yo también’ en el primer coloquio

Álvaro Pastor y Antonio Naharro, directores y guionistas de la película ‘Yo, también’, por la que sus protagonistas Lola Dueñas y Pablo Pineda recibieron la Concha de Plata en el último Festival de San Sebastián,  abrieron la jornada a la participación. Tras la proyección del largometraje en el salón Blanco White, los más de 170 universitarios inscritos, compartieron una charla-coloquio con los ponentes, quienes respondieron a las cuestiones de los estudiantes.

En el largometraje ‘Yo también’ pretendemos romper con muchos tabúes, aseguran Naharro y Pastor, “contamos una historia de la vida general, de personas  normales con capacidad de amar y ser amadas, con deseos y también con problemas”. Eso es algo que tanto los directores del filme, como su protagonista, Pablo Pineda, declaron a Sevilla Actualidad, en el prestreno de la película en Sevilla.

Director y guionista abordaron preguntas a cerca de la producción del largometraje y su trabajo con los actores con síndrome de Down que participan. Así, explicaron como desde primera hora se fijaron en Pablo Pineda, ajeno al mundo del cine, para contar la historia que pretendían transmitir. “Habíamos esbozado ya un guión, y abordamos a Pablo a la salida de su trabajo en Málaga, le explicamos el proyecto y le pedimos su colaboración”. Pero para no asustarle, en principio no le hablaron de protagonizar una película, “sólo de contar con su colaboración, aunque poco a poco nos fuimos convenciendo de que Pablo Pineda era el único que podía interpretar a nuestro personaje”.

Por la tarde la muestra recibió al actor Fele Martínez (‘Tesis’, ‘Abre los ojos’ y ‘La mala educación’) estuvo presente con la película ‘Carmo’.  La muestra continúa hoy con la proyección del documental ‘La teoría del espiralismo’ de Mabel Lozano, que cuenta la historia de cinco deportistas paralímpicas. Raquel Acinas, ciclista paralímpica y una de las protagonistas, junto a Luis Leardy, director de comunicación del Comité Paralímpico Español, hablarán sobre este proyecto.

Para la clausura, estará  presente esta tarde Santiago Zannou, director de ‘El truco del manco’, largometraje reconocido con tres Goyas, que presentará su película. Lo acompañará el humorista, actor y presentador de Canal Sur Radio, Paco Aguilar que cerrará la muestra.

Lea este artículo en:

www.SevillaActualidad.com

ကမၻာ့အလားအလာ ဗမာ့အလားအလာႏွင့္ လူငယ့္တာ၀န္ – အပိုင္း(၂)

ရွာေဖြတင္ျပသူ – ေမာင္ေက်ာ္ရင္

အပိုင္း (၁) ကို ဒီေနရာမွာ ၾကည့္႐ႈႏိုင္ပါသည္။

အဲဒီက မီးေတြဟာ ယခုကမၻာစစ္ႀကီး ျဖစ္တဲ့အထိ ဥေရာပတိုက္ေရာ အာရွတိုက္ကပါ ျဖစ္ေနတယ္။ ေရွးေခတ္ႏွင့္ ယခုေခတ္ ႏႈိင္းစာၾကည့္လွ်င္ အစစ အရာရာ အကုန္ပိုလာတယ္။ စီးပြားေရးမွာလည္း အရင္ကထက္ ပိုတယ္။ လူအား မွာလည္း အရင္ကထက္ပိုတယ္။ နယ္ကလဲ အရင္ကထက္ ပိုက်ယ္လာတယ္။ ဒီစစ္ႀကီးျဖစ္တဲ့အတြက္ ဗမာျပည္ ကလဲ လြတ္လပ္တဲ့ ဗမာျပည္ ေပၚလာတယ္လို႔ ေျပာၾကတယ္။ ဒီစစ္ကို ဘယ္သူႏိုင္သလဲ ဘယ္လိုျဖစ္မလဲ ေရွ႕အျဖစ္ ေနာက္အျဖစ္ အခ်ိန္အခါေတြကို ေတြးေတာၾကည့္ရင္ အေတာ္အေတြးရက်ပ္တယ္။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း ဒီစစ္ႀကီး ဘယ္သူ ႏိုင္မယ္။ ဘယ္သူ႐ွဳံးတယ္ဆိုတာ ဘယ္သူမွ မေျပာႏိုင္ဘူး။

ပထမဦးအစက ဥေရာပတိုက္မွာ ဂ်ာမနီႏိုင္တယ္။ အခုေတာ့ သူတို႔ကို ျပန္ခ်ေနတယ္၊ အေရွ႕ဘက္မွာဆိုရင္ တ႐ုတ္က ေတာင့္ခံေနတယ္။ အေနာက္ဘက္မွာဆိုရင္ ႐ုရွားက ေတာင့္ခံေနတယ္။ ဒီၾကားထဲ အဂၤလိပ္က လက္နက္ေတြလုပ္ၿပီး တိုက္ခိုက္တဲ့အတြက္ ဒီလို ျဖစ္တယ္၊ အဂၤလိပ္က မႏွစ္ကၾသဂုတ္လမွေနၿပီး တိုက္တာ အခုထက္ထိ အကုန္မႏိုင္ေသးဘူး။ ပထမဦးဆုံးေတာ့ ဂ်ာမနီက အေတာ္အေရးသာေနတယ္။ ေနာက္က်ေတာ့ ႐ုရွားက ျပန္ခ်လိုက္တယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ လုံးလုံး မႏိုင္ေသးဘူး၊ အေနာက္ဘက္ စစ္္မ်က္ႏွာဟာ စစ္ျဖစ္တာ ၅ ႏွစ္ေက်ာ္ေနၿပီ၊ ဒါေပမဲ့ ဘယ္သူ႐ွဳံးတယ္၊ ဘယ္သူ ႏိုင္တယ္ ဆိုတဲ့ အေျခကို မေရာက္ေသးဘူး။

continue
http://photayokeking.net/Articlesmm/general-and-his-commands-part-2.html

Dear friends, Burma workers, Europeans, supporters and all,
As many of you know we are weeks away from a major event happening in Brussels this December 12. Director Ruud Gielens has put together an incredible line-up of speakers, entertainers, activists and all manner of engaged people.
Speakers like Karel De Gucht, current E.U. Commisioner for Development have lent their time and efforts to this one-off social enterprise (in the form of an event). Burma VJ is recieving international aclaim and we have one of the main protagonists, Aung Htun, coming from S.E. Asia to speak with us. There is strong media interest and we will be shining a light on the prospective 2010 elections. We are also highlighting the human response of cross-border NGO agencies and in this light we are delighted that Steve Gumaer, founder of Partners World will be speaking at the event

Bangkok, 25 November 2009
ASEAN, in partnership with the UN and humanitarian partners, mobilised over US$ 88 million to assist Cyclone Nargis survivors with recovery activities at the Post-Nargis and Regional Partnership Conference in Bangkok today.
The conference – co-chaired by Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN and Dr Noeleen Heyzer, Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) – aimed to raise funds to address critical needs for the continuing reconstruction in cyclone affected areas.

“While much has been done, there are many affected communities across the Delta who are still highly vulnerable and require urgent continued humanitarian assistance, especially in the areas of shelter, livelihoods, water, sanitation and hygiene, education and health,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan in his opening statement. “If support is not forthcoming soon, gains made over the past 18 months will be quickly lost, and the window to provide timely assistance will close.”

Dr Noeleen Heyzer also called for increased funds for recovery activities in her statement.

“Today, we are in danger of falling short of our promise to the people of the Ayeyarwady Delta. International support for the post-Nargis recovery effort has helped open an extraordinary window of opportunity for the international humanitarian community to work with ASEAN and the Government of Myanmar,” Dr Heyzer said. “However, so far only a small portion of the total appeal for humanitarian assistance has been met by the international community. If we are to continue our work for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, additional resources are urgently needed.” Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar on 2 and 3 May 2008, causing catastrophic destruction and at least 140,000 fatalities. Damages were estimated at over US$4 billion, which made it the most damaging cyclone ever recorded in the region.

At the conference today, the donor community pledged an approximate total of $88 million, over 85% of the $103 million appeal. Pledges came from Australia, Denmark, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, the European Commission, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, amongst others.

The contribution will be used towards the provision of 17,800 new houses, 40 new schools, 16 cyclone shelters, livelihood programs for 1 million people, water and sanitation facilities for 800,000 people, education facilities to 35,000 students and health services to 900,000 individuals as mapped out in the Prioritised Action Plan of the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP).

“I wish to express on behalf of the affected people, our heartfelt thanks to the governments and peoples of all countries and organisations who have contributed towards Nargis relief and recovery, and for their continued generosity and kind assistance,” said U Kyaw Thu, Chairman of the Civil Service Selection and Training Board and Chairman of the Tripartite Core Group. He went on to request all humanitarian donors to continue to prioritise the recovery efforts according to the PONREPP Action Plan.

The conference was attended by around 140 participants, including representatives of ASEAN Members States, heads of diplomatic missions, UN agencies and national and non-governmental organisations.

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Contact details:

Mai Phuong Tang
Communications Officer, ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force
Coordinating Office in Yangon
Tel: +951 544500 Ext. 428
mai.aseanhtf@gmail.com

traditional cosmetic paste, known as Thanakha in Myanmar language and produced by the “Shwe Pyi Nan” Company, has won two international awards presented by the Philippines, sources with the company said on Wednesday.

The awards given are titled — 2008 Global Excellence Awards and 2009 People’s Choice Awards, the sources said.

The company’s ready-made Thanakha products are being exported to Thailand and the Philippines, the sources said, adding that, these products are also seeking export market to South Korea.

Myanmar has opened its first traditional cosmetic paste museum in the ancient city of Bagan to introduce to the world its Thanakha, which is a kind of tree and its bark and root are used in making a fragrant paste for cosmetic purposes

Collected nationwide by the famous private company of Shwe Pyi Nan since 1999, these 100-year-old rare and valuable Thanakha trees with flat and circular stone used for grinding Thanakha or medicinal herbs in successive eras are displayed at the museum.

The Myanmar Thanakha traditional cosmetic paste has also traditionally attracted tourists visiting the country, standing as one of the popular local cosmetic products that world travelers used to buy for its wonder when they land in Myanmar.

by Nem Davies
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 20:20

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Aung San Suu Kyi, detained Burmese opposition leader has been permitted to repair her lakeside home on Rangoon’s University Avenue, Nyan Win her party spokesperson said.

The Rangoon municipality has granted the Nobel Peace Laureate permission to repair the balcony of her lakeside home, following a request about three months ago, Nyan Win told Mizzima on Wednesday.

“The permission was granted about two weeks ago. Now Daw Suu is in discussions with engineers and the Special Branch of the police about bringing in workers to repair her house,” Nyan Win said.

“The repair work will start by this week. Daw Suu is also scheduled to meet her [engineer] friend and other engineers who will oversee the work,” Nyan Win added.

Authorities, according to Nyan Win, have set February 2010 as the deadline to complete the repair work.

But Nyan Win, the spokesperson of the National League for Democracy, said he does not believe that the permission to repair the house, where Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of her 14 years in solitary confinement, is an indication of relaxation of her house arrest.

Following the devastating Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, authorities allowed the Burmese pro-democracy leader to repair the roof of her house, which was blown off and damaged.

The Burmese democracy icon is currently under house arrest serving an 18 months suspended sentence. She was convicted by a special court in the notorious Insein prison in August, on charges of allowing an American, John William Yettaw, who paid a secret visit to her lakeside home and stayed for two nights in May.

A war on monks is still underway in Burma, revenge for the monk-led peaceful mass demonstrations in 2007. The military junta continues to put pressure on monks and their family members, place bans on preaching the Dhamma and impose travel restrictions.

Ashin Thavara, the secretary of the India-based All Burma Monks’ Representative Committee (ABMRC), told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday: “My parents go to sign up at the township authority every month, and the authorities order my family to inform them whenever I contact them. They also pressured my parents’ employer to fire them from their job.”Ashin Thavara, 26, played a leading role in in the demonstrations and is a founding member of the ABMRC, which launched the demonstrations together with other monk organizations.“The Burmese authorities confiscated all of my belongings in February 2008, they have pressured monks leave my monastery, Zeya Theikdi Monastery in Rangoon’s Thingankyun Township. It now has only one old monk.”

On Sept. 27, 2007, the military government cracked down on the demonstrators and scores of monks were forced to flee their monasteries to escape arrest. Dozens of monks fled the country .

According to official data, there are now more than 400,000 monks in Burma, and its community, the Sangha, is considered one of the strongest and most revered institutions in the country.
Ashin Issariya, one of the founders of All Burma Monks’ Alliance (ABMA), said: “The military junta still oppresses and insults monks and the Buddhist religion. There are currently more than 250 monks and more than 20 nuns in prison in Burma for their political activities.” The regime’s Ministry of Religious Affairs seeks to control monks through the Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee (a state-sponsored Buddhist monks’ organization), which has issued orders restricting monks’ travel and ability to offer dhamma teachings.

Authorities have also banned individual monks, such as Shwe Nya War Sayardaw, the dean of Shwe Nya War Buddhist University in Rangoon, from delivering dhamma talks.

A monk who studied at the Buddhist University told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “ Shwe Nya War Sayardawgyi has been banned from Dhamma talks in Rangoon since last year, because of his two Dhamma CDs, “True Independence” and “Don’t be Unfair.” Recently, he was also banned from presenting talks on full moon day in Hledan Township and Kyee Myin Daing Township on Nov. 19.”

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has also stopped issuing letters of recommendation, which are required, for a monk to travel to a foreign country.

A monk in Rangoon, Ashin Panyarsarmi, said, “Now the authorities are watching monks closely, and it’s very difficult to get visas and scholarships.”

Ashin Nayminda, who played a leading role in the 2007 demonstrations, said the authorities told his friends that if they contacted him, they could be arrested.

“Some of my friends who took part in the demonstrations have stayed away from me and returned to lay life,” he said. “All of my property in my monastery in Dawbon Township in Rangoon was confiscated.”

An abbot in Mandalay Division told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “Plain clothes security officers are closely watching certain monks and monasteries.”

He said four youths who were in contact with monks in Mandalay were detained in September. “Their family and relatives do not know where they are now,” he said.

State authorities closed Maggin Monastery in Rangoon’s Thingankyun Township in November 2007 after its abbot, Sayadaw U Indaka, was arrested for his involvement in the demonstrations. Monks and novices were evicted along with several HIV/ AIDS patients who were receiving treatment in the monastery at the time.

In October 2009, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance expelled Sen-Gen Than Shwe from the Buddhist faith because he had failed to issue an apology for his abuse of monks and the religion of Buddhism.
irrawaddy

About 62 Burmese migrants who work at the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai were arrested on Tuesday, reportedly as part of a security sweep prior to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s two-day visit to Chiang Mai starting on November 28.

Aung Toe, 40, a Burmese migrant, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “They arrested many people while they were working, including some who had work permits.”

He said authorities swept through the popular Night Bazaar looking for people who appeared to be Burmese.

“I escaped because I look more Chinese or Japanese,” Aung Toe said.

Another Burmese worker in the market, Phe Be, said people who tried to run away were beaten by police.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will be in Chiang Mai on a two-day visit, his first since he was elected one year ago.

The security in the city is tighter than before since a local radio station announcer who supports anti-government group reportedly made threatening remarks about taking the prime minister’s life if he came to Chiang Mai. The government is investigating the threat.

An opposition political group, known as the Red Shirts, has said it will hold demonstrations during the prime minister’s visit.

Jackie Pollock, a founder of of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP), a Chiang Mai-based NGO said, “The challenge to the current administration is from the electorate, not from the migrants who have no political rights. To try and silence a group of people like the migrants who are already silenced makes little sense beyond diverting the media and others’ attention away from the real issues.”

An estimated 80,000 Burmese migrants—both registered and unregistered—work in the Chiang Mai area. The majority are ethnic Shan.
irrawaddy

by Karen united com

The tatmadaw trained this fat spoilt horrible litte boy to give suffering to the people of Burma!
on Signboard