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Because We Are Buddhists
Who will give attention to the issue of Burma's longest serving prisoner of conscience?
UNICEF praises Myanmar cyclone recovery
A Nation Under Different Nomenclatures
46 Anniversary of UNFORGETABLE 7th JULY-2008-(I.C.B-NY)
Press, politics and public response
Burma's cyclone victims get plastic sheets, promised houses
Recent Burma News (07-07-08)

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Because We Are Buddhists

Delivered by Ashin Uttama under the auspices of the Minorities Right, in front of the Alawiya Mosque, Bihar, India.

There are those who ask us why we march with the Muslims. Why do we raise the Islamic flag? Why do we support the Muslim cause?

"You are Buddhists!" they tell us. What are you doing?

And our response, which I'd like to share with you this afternoon, is very simple.

IT IS PRECISELY BECAUSE WE ARE BUDDHISTS THAT WE MARCH WITH THE MUSLIMS AND RAISE THEIR FLAG!

IT IS PRECISELY BECAUSE WE ARE BUDDHISTSS THAT WE DEMAND THAT THE MUSLIM PEOPLES BE RETURNED TO THEIR HOMES AND PROPERTIES!

In our Dhamma we are taught, that we are forbidden to have Buddhist Nationalist State, even if all the nations including the Minorities living in mainly Buddhist countries, would agree to give it to us. Yes, in our Dhamma we are taught that we have to respect lives and we are forbidden to kill and loot other people. The Dhamma clearly states that Buddha foreswore us with three oaths; one, that we are not to go up to destroy lives. Two, that we are forbidden to take up arms against any nation. Three, we should not attempt to take other people properties by any means. We are to wait patiently the appearence Mittaya Buddha (In Christian traditions Second comming of Christ, in Muslim traditions comming of Imam Mehdhi). At that time, He Himself, without any human intervention will bring the Truth. At that time all the nations will recognize the one G-D and will serve Him together peacefully.

Secondly, we are commanded to be good and compassionate. Of course we are forbidden to steal, kill, etc. Yes, in our Dhamma we are commanded to be fair. We are called upon to pursue justice. And, what could be more unjust then the century old attempt of the so called Buddhists Nationalists movement to invade an other people's land, to drive them out and steal their property?

Palestine was a land with a people. A people that were developing a national consciousness.

We have no doubt that would Buddhists, have come to Muslims, not with the intention of dominating, not with the intention of making a Buddhist state, not with the intention of dispossessing, not with the intention of depriving the Muslims of their basic rights, that they (Buddhists) would have been welcomed by the Muslims, with the same hospitality that Islamic peoples have shown Buddhists throughout history. And we would have lived together as Buddhists and Muslims lived before in Burma in peace and harmony.

To our Islamic and Muslim friends around the world, please hear our message --
There are Buddhists around the world who support your cause. And when we support your cause we do not mean partion of Buddhists and Muslim communities but to live together as relatives and friends.

We do not mean anything other than returning the entire lands, properties and rights unjustly taken away from you.

This is the only path to true reconciliation.

But we demand yet more. We demand, that in returning the lawful rights back to its rightful owners, we have not yet done enough. There should be an apology to the Muslim people which is clear and precise. Nationalist government did you wrong. Nationalist government stole your homes.

By so proclaiming we proclaim before the world that we are the people of the Dhamma, that our faith demands that we be honest and fair and good and kind.

We have attended hundreds of pro Muslim rallies over the years and everywhere we go the leaders and audience greet us with the warmth of Muslim hospitality. What a lie it is to say that Muslims in general don't like non Muslims. You hate injustice. Not non muslims. We all have to know how to differentiate between real Muslims and heretic Wahabi Terrorists.

Fear not my friends. Evil cannot long triumph. The Wahabi nightmare is at its end. It is exhausted. Its latest brutalities are the death rattle of the terminally ill. All people in the world will see the love, wisdom, philosophy and humanity of Great religion of Islam and Muslim people.

We will yet both live to see the day when Buddhists and Muslims will embrace in peace under the Mettaya/Mehdhi flag in the World.

And ultimately when mankind's Redeemer (Mettaya Buddha or Imam Mehdhi) will come, the sufferings will gone for ever.

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Who will give attention to the issue of Burma's longest serving prisoner of conscience?
by Zin Linn
http://www.opednews.com

The UDHR’s article 1 says: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” But, U Win Tin, famous prisoner of conscience of Burma, cannot even enjoy its first item.

The UDHR’s article 7 and 9 say respectively: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.” (A.7)

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” (A.9)

However, the Burmese junta’s arbitrary court sentenced unfair imprisonments toward U Win Tin in the absence of public including his lawyer.

The UDHR’s article 19 says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

But, several journalists including U Win Tin in the military run country are taken into custody for their dissident opinions.

U Win Tin is the world’s longest serving “prisoner of conscience” and “veteran journalist of Burma”.

Two press freedom associations, Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association issued a statement calling for the release of the veteran journalist, who has spent 19 years in solitary confinement under the inhumane junta’s detention. His health has deteriorated in the past few days.

“It will be exactly 19 years on 4 July since Burma’s military arrested Win Tin,” the groups’ statement highlighted. “The government, which has a responsibility to protect the life of its citizens, should now release him,” it went on.

That famous imprisoned journalist has constantly refused to sign a confession promising to abandon his political career as a condition of his release. The 79-year-old journalist admitted to the hospital for second surgical treatment to a hernia in January 2008. The first surgical treatment to his hernia was in March 1995.

Former editor-in-chief of The Hantharwaddy Daily of Mandalay was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award and Reporters without Border/Foundation de France Prize for his efforts to defend and promote freedom of expression.

Burma has been called “the world's largest prison for prisoners of conscience” including political prisoners and journalists. Burma’s distinguished prisoner of conscience, U Win Tin is one of Burma's most established journalists and executive member of the National League for Democracy (NLD). He has spent 19 years or one fourth of his life in prison. U Win Tin suffers from a serious heart condition and is being treated at the Rangoon General Hospital where he is confined to a tiny box-cell designed for political prisoners.

U Win Tin has been imprisoned since 4th July 1989 in a special cell of the infamous Insein Prison in Rangoon. U Win Tin is the former editor-in-chief of the Hanthawadi Daily, in Mandalay and vice-president of the Burmese Writers and Journalists Association. He was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive prison-terms to a total of 21 years in prison. One of the charges against him stems from his 1995 human rights abuses report in prison to Mr. Yozo Yokota, the then United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in Burma..

U Win Tin was also imprisoned because of his senior position as key consultant to Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). He was thrown into jail for additional years because of attempting to inform the United Nations about human rights violations in prisons under the military rule. Military rulers also accused him of writing political commentaries and poems to be circulated among political prisoners in Insein Prison, where possession of writing materials was forbidden.

The journalist told a friend who was allowed to visit him in 2007: "Two prison officers asked me at a special meeting last week whether I would resume political activities if I were released. I told them that I will definitely do so since it is my duty as a citizen to strive for democracy."

In 1996, in the notorious Insein Prison, the military intelligence personnel regularly visited U Win Tin in order to examine his political stand. They took him to their office in the prison and questioned him on various topics. They frequently tried to persuade him to join the junta. But U Win Tin always turns down their offers.

Zin Linn was born on February 9, 1947 in a small town in Mandalay Division. He began writing poems in1960 and received a B.A (Philosophy) in 1976. He became an activist in the High School Union after the students' massacre on 7th July 1962. He then took on a role as an active member in the Rangoon Division Students' Union. He Participated in a poster-and-pamphlet campaign on the 4th anniversary of 7 July movement and went into hiding to keep away from the military police. He was still able to carry out underground pamphlet campaigns against the Burmese Socialist Programme Party ( BSPP). However, in 1982, he fell into the hands of MI and served two years imprisonment in the notorious Insein prison. In 1988 he took part, together with his old students' union members, in the People's Democracy Uprising. In November of that year, he became an NLD Executive Committee Member for the Thingangyun Township and later became superintendent of the NLD Rangoon Division Office. In 1991, he was arrested because of his connections with the exiled government, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), and the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB) and Sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in the notorious Insein Prison. As a consequence, his wife, who was a curator in a museum in Rangoon, was dismissed from her position immediately. His children were also harassed by the military intelligence from getting good education. In last week of December 1997 he was released. He was given an honorary certificate by Aung San Suu Kyi for his commitment to the struggle for democracy. Zin Linn was an editor and columnist and contributed articles to various publications, especially on international affairs, while in Burma. He fled Burma in 2001 to escape from military intelligence and currently works as information director for the NCGUB while also assisting AAPP. He is also vice president of the Burma Media Association which was founded by exile media related persons from Burma or Myanmar. Zin Linn is still writing articles and commentaries in Burmese and English in various periodicals and online journals on a regular basis.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-will-give-attention-to-by-Zin-Linn-080706-460.html

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UNICEF praises Myanmar cyclone recovery
AP
1 hour, 48 minutes ago

A U.N. agency says the recovery effort in Myanmar's cyclone-hit regions is progressing well despite logistical problems reaching remote areas where roads have been washed away.

Zafrin Chowdhury, a UNICEF spokeswoman, said Monday that despite the problems, recovery has been progressing quickly because U.N. agencies, international organizations and individuals remain focused on relief and recovery efforts.

Cyclone Nargis cut a swath of destruction on May 2-3 through the Irrawaddy delta and the country's largest city of Yangon, killing 84,537 people and leaving 53,836 missing.

The casualties were on a scale experienced by other countries from the 2006 Indian Ocean tsunami, which largely spared Myanmar.

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A Nation Under Different Nomenclatures
Mon, 2008-07-07 04:32
By Nehginpao Kipgen
http://asiantribune .com/?q=node/ 12099

When invited to write an article for the ‘The Chin Student Journal’ on the topic I am passionate about, varying thoughts begirded my mind. Of the umpteen important issues, the impact of nomenclatures on the Chin-Kuki-Mizo people was one unparalleled subject.

Historically, our people were independent from foreign domination. In the evolving process of international politics, we have been dispersed in different parts of the world – notably in Bangladesh , Burma and India .

Our history has been passed on orally with little or no written records of our own. The chieftainship was a cardinal institution. This intrinsic system is still practiced in Manipur and some adjoining states in the northeast India . It was abolished in Chin state in 1948 which became the genesis of Chin National Day.

We are a small group of people approximately 2 million population (only an estimate figure). The judiciary system we had corroborated the significances of mosaic culture and custom in our society. Villages were administered by chiefs from heads of clans.

An online dictionary.com defines nomenclature as “a set or system of names or terms, as those used in a particular science or art, by an individual or community, etc.”

There often betided arguments and counter arguments whenever nomenclature question had been broached. Lucubrating our history, one should neither be stupefied nor petrified; there had been feuds between families, clans, inter and intra-villages. At many instances, the affrays ended with internecine repercussions.

The fact that the same people are known by different names is a consequence of colonialism and influence by others. Traditionally, we were identified by clan or village names. When outsiders came into contact with us, they called us the way they saw or understood us. The western writers recorded us as Chin in the Chin Hills, Lushai in the Lushai Hills and Kuki in other parts of northeast India .

For the sake of administrative convenience, the Burmese government vaguely identifies 53 sub-ethnic groups under Chin nomenclature. The groups in alphabetical order are: Anu, Anun, Asho (Plain), Awa Khami, Chin, Dai (Yindu), Dim, Gunte (Lyente), Gwete, Haulngo, Ka-Lin-Kaw (Lushay), Kaung Saing Chin, Kaungso, Khami, Khawno, Kwangli (Sim), Kwelshin, Lai, Laizao, Lawhtu, Laymyo, Lhinbu, Lushei (Lushay), Lyente, Magun, Malin, Matu, Meithei (Kathe), Mgan, Mi-er, Miram (Mara), Naga, Ngorn, Oo-Pu, Panun, Rongtu, Saing Zan, Saline, Sentang, Taishon, Tanghkul, Tapong, Tay-Zan, Thado, Tiddim (Hai-Dim), Torr, Wakim (Mro), Zahnyet (Zanniet), Za-How, Zizan, Zo, Zo-Pe, Zotung. Many of the spellings here are different from what the locals use.

Although these people belong to the same mongoloid stock and speak Tibeto-Burman languages, any in-depth analysis could escalate into controversy. On the other side of the border in Manipur state, the Indian government recognizes them as three separate ethnic entities: Kukis, Meiteis and Nagas. Despite having a common tribal heritage, Meiteis are categorized in general category population while Kukis and Nagas are placed in tribal category.

In Chin state of Burma , people from Halkha, Falam and Tiddim townships constitute the bulk of our population. In Mizoram, the Lushais (Duhlian dialect speakers) are the majority; and in other parts of northeast Indian states, particularly in the state of Manipur, the Thadou dialect users form the majority.

The term Mizo became popular in the 1940s with a view to uniting all the people in the then Lushai Hills. The introduction of the Lushai Hills Autonomous District Council in 1952 led to the abolition of chieftainship in Mizoram.

As India was closer to independence, the Mizo Union (formerly known as Mizo Common People’s Union ) demanded that the Chin-Kuki-Mizo people inhabited areas adjacent to Lushai Hills be included in the new state. The move was challenged by United Mizo Freedom which advocated for Lushai Hills to join Burma after independence.

During the days of Mizo National Front, our people from different quarters joined the movement in one way or another. However, a dream of amalgamating different geographical regions was unsuccessful. With the formalization of Lushai Hills into Mizoram state on February 20, the Lushai Hills became a unit of the Indian Union in 1987.

The terminology ‘Mizo’ which is more or less synonymous to ‘Zomi’ simply means hill people. Similarly, the term ‘Kuki’ is believed to be an Assamese or Bengali word meaning hill people or mountaineers. In other words, both Kuki and Mizo nomenclatures denote hill people. The origin of ‘Chin’ is convincingly not defined yet, though there are a number of theories.

In the context of Manipur, according to earlier British ethnographers, the Kuki group consists of 22 tribes: Aimol, Anal, Chiru, Chothe, Gangte, Hmar, Koirao, Koireng, Kom, Lamkang, Maring, Mizo (Lushai), Monsang, Moyon, Paite, Purum, Ralte, Simte, Sukte, Thadou, Vaiphei and Zou. Due to socio-political benefits attached to it, new tribe(s) recognition may be in the offing.

As per 2001 census, the Thadous form the single largest unit of tribal population in Manipur. Though outsiders call or know them as Thado or Thadou, some clans within the group are hesitant to identify themselves as such, and thus becoming one most contentious issue and divisive force impeding the unity and progress of any Kuki national movement.

In 1946, an ethnic-based political association called Kuki National Assembly was formed by the non-Naga tribal groups of Manipur. Later, not pleased with alleged Thadou dominance and supremacy, the non-Thadou groups began to look for a more democratic association which gave birth to Khulmi National Union in 1947. Until today, despite belonging to the same family, a wedded relationship cannot be established.

Also in Manipur, seven tribes fall under Naga appellation: Angami, Kabui, Kacha Naga, Mao, Maram, Sema and Tangkhul. In recent years, some Kuki tribes have seemingly been assimilated into Naga fold partly due to geo-political advantages, and also partly due to the Naga armed movement.

While their brethrens have had a statehood status under the aegis of Chin in the Chin Hills and Mizo in the Lushai Hills, the Kukis are stressing the need to come together and demand their inhabited areas in the form of state or autonomy – with particular reference to a Kuki state demand in Manipur.

Given that India is a burgeoning democracy, our people in India are advancing academically and politically. Perhaps, they may have produced more educated individuals, governmental and non-governmental officials than our people from Bangladesh and Burma combined have procreated. Among others, we can see some outstanding individuals who have been elevated to ambassadorial posts.

Generic terminologies such as Eimi, Khumi, Laimi, Zomi, Zo et cetera are also gaining momentum endogenously. On the other hand, there are others who are tenaciously inclined toward the names we are internationally known with. There are also pockets of population who tend to identify themselves distinctively. In every sub-group, elements of both extremism and moderatism exist.

It is not an awry phenomenon to identify ourselves with different names depending on our local or regional dialects. Nonetheless, context or geographical connotation is something that cannot be easily done away with. In Burma , people will continue to call us Chin; Mizo in Mizoram, and Kuki in other parts of the northeast Indian states, particularly in Manipur.

People who prefer Chin refer to all our people when they use the term. Similarly, people who prefer to use either Kuki or Mizo mean to include the same people. Likewise, when names such as Eimi, Khumi, Laimi, Zomi, et cetera are used in local dialects, they refer to all of our people.

The bottom line is that as long as we disagree to agree on having a common platform, our people will remain divided under different nomenclatures despite knowing the fact that we are of one family. If this pattern is to continue unaddressed, future generations could be drearier.

I charily chose this polemic but pivotal subject to inculcate the hearts and minds of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo students and youngsters around the world. No academic research findings will suffice unless our consciences convince us to come together under one nomenclature. Otherwise, we will have to bury ourselves bickering over this.

Finally, let me end by quoting a line from my 2006 Chin National Day message: “Going to school with the eventual aim of making money is good, but it is even better if one can go to school for building his intellectual capacity and enhancing self-confidence in this competitive global village.”

Nehginpao Kipgen is the General Secretary of US-based Kuki International Forum and a researcher on the rise of political conflicts in modern Burma (1947-2004).

Note: For wider audience, this piece is also published in some regional and international news medium with the permission of CSU North America , for whom the article was written.
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Kukiforum News
Visit us at www.kukiforum. com

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Press, politics and public response
Appeals for emergency relief in situations of natural disaster are generally aided by media coverage, but bad press is damning. So what keeps the public giving? Annie Kelly reports
* Annie Kelly
* The Guardian,
* Monday July 7, 2008
* Article history

On May 3 2008, the first reports that a massive cyclone had slammed into Burma started filtering through to news agencies and the UK headquarters of emergency response charities. Four days later the Disasters and Emergency Committee (DEC), an affiliation of 13 UK emergency response charities, launched its Burma appeal, asking the public to give money to help the victims of what was emerging as the worst natural disaster the country had ever endured.

When confronted with pictures of suffering, with people being pulled out of rubble or villages washed away, the UK public gives and gives. As a nation, we give more to international emergency appeals than most other western countries.

But Burma was different. In the first week, the military dictatorship denied access to journalists and foreign NGOs, meaning that the visual triggers and human stories that provide the fuel to fire a national disaster response appeal simply didn't transpire.

"What was exceptional about Burma was the fact that there was a long period of about two or three weeks where there was no story apart from a bunch of murdering generals and a huge, inaccessible disaster zone, with nobody in the position to tell the huge human tale of need in a persuasive way," says Brendan Gormley, chief executive at the DEC.

Instead, at the same time that the DEC was appealing for funds, the media was reporting that no aid was getting through to the disaster zone at all.

"If the media isn't telling the story that there is a need and, more importantly, that there is a way the public can take action to address this need, then it [a fundraising appeal] just simply isn't going to happen," says Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, one of the DEC's founding members. "With Burma, the situation became a bit surreal because on day two or three the media turned on us and the aid agencies became the story instead."

Astarita says that he and his colleagues at the DEC felt "enormous frustration" at the reports on the failure of aid agencies to reach those in need, in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.

"We were all frustrated that the story turned negative, because the Burmese Red Cross had 350 staff in Burma already responding to the situation on the ground; our disaster response machinery had swung into action in the country; we were already delivering aid," he says.

Public response

The DEC's Gormley says that, in the circumstances, the public's response to Burma had been outstanding. The appeal has so far raised £15m, more that the two DEC appeals in 2007 for Bangladesh (£9m) and Darfur and Chad (£13.5m).

This is not to say the negative press coverage didn't have an impact. The death toll in Burma currently stands at over 84,000 with an estimated 2.4 million people affected.

"For a disaster of this scale and with the length of media coverage it received, we would have hoped to have raised as much as the 2006 Kashmir earthquake appeal, which was around £60m," says Gormley. "So yes, in that respect, we wish we could have raised more, but £15m is still impressive under the circumstances. But it's almost impossible to predict how an appeal is going to go."

What galvanises the public to give to emergency appeals will be the focus of a keynote session this Wednesday, at the annual convention of the Institute of Fundraising, the biggest fundraising event outside the US, which opens today in London with the Guardian as principle media partner. The session will be led by media communications specialists from Save the Children and Christian Aid, two of the DEC's largest affiliates.

Ben Hewitt, head of media at Save the Children, who will be co-running the session, says that agencies co-running the Burma appeal worked closely together to ensure that, despite the politics surrounding the disaster, the message on aid and the impartial status of the agencies delivering that aid remained simple and clear.

"Maintaining public trust in what we are doing is absolutely vital," he says. "We worked exceptionally hard to get human voices and stories through to the UK media. A lot of the footage that did get through was shot by aid workers on the ground in Burma and we just kept pressing the point home that local partners were providing the assistance that people needed. There is always the question of trust when it comes to emergency fundraising, but I think we showed that the trust is there and that we are all working hard to maintain it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/07/insidefundraising.society

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Burma's cyclone victims get plastic sheets, promised houses
AFP
Posted 5 hours 56 minutes ago

Burma's premier has promised better housing for cyclone victims in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, where many people have received only a plastic sheet to use for shelter, state media says.

Cyclone Nargis left more than 138,000 people dead or missing when it struck Burma on May 2, washing away entire villages.

Another 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter, or other aid.

"Plans are under way to accommodate [the homeless] at better houses than the previous ones they lived [in]," Prime Minister Thein Sein said.

He also said the military government is working to restore the livelihoods of those in the delta, one of Burma's most important farming regions.

"Officials concerned are to supervise cultivation tasks," he said during a tour of the delta on Sunday, adding that seeds and tools would be distributed to help survivors replant their destroyed vegetable crops.

Burma's junta has come under fierce international condemnation for its slow response to the cyclone and for imposing restrictions on aid workers that have delayed the delivery of relief supplies.

Two weeks ago, an assessment team led by the United Nations, regional experts and government officials estimated that 59 per cent of houses in the storm zone were severely damaged.

Reports say new homes being built from bamboo will last at most two years, and there are calls for sturdier housing for the storm victims.

So far, 428,000 plastic sheets have been distributed to victims, according to the United Nations, leaving families to huddle under their stretch of tarp for more than two months as almost daily monsoon rains sweep through.

- AFP

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46 Anniversary of UNFORGETABLE 7th JULY-2008-(I.C.B-NY)
http://picasaweb.google.com/komyoe88/46AnniversaryOfUNFORGETABLE7thJULY2008ICBNY

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Recent Burma News (07-07-08)

UNICEF praises Myanmar cyclone recovery
1 hour, 47 minutes ago
YANGON, Myanmar - A U.N. agency says the recovery effort in Myanmar's cyclone-hit regions is progressing well despite logistical problems reaching remote areas where roads have been washed away.

Religious leaders ask the G8 for freedom of religion for Tibet and Myanmar
Today, July 07, 2008, 2 hours ago
-- About 50 visitors and 100 Japanese participated at the “summit of religious leaders for the G8”, the meeting that for three years has been gathering representatives of the various faiths ...

U.N. sets up emergency telecommunication center in Myanmar
Today, July 07, 2008, 3 hours ago
The United Nations has set up an emergency telecommunication center (ETC) in Myanmar’s biggest city of Yangon to improve quick communication access in disaster relief and restoration works, reported t...

Bush says China, India Must Also Tackle Global Warming
Today, July 07, 2008, 6 hours ago
US President George W Bush said on the eve of the G-8 summit in Toyako, Japan, that Asian giants China and India must sign on to measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve a globa...

Indonesian FM Says Terror Network Weakened by Arrests
Today, July 07, 2008, 6 hours ago
The arrests in last week of 10 suspected Islamic militants severely weakened Indonesia’s terrorist movement, the country’s foreign minister said on Sunday. The police operation on northern Sum...

Patriarch of Banned Vietnamese Buddhist Church Dies
Today, July 07, 2008, 6 hours ago
Thich Huyen Quang, the patriarch of an outlawed Buddhist church in Vietnam who spent more than two decades in and out of house arrest, has died after months of ailing health. He was 87. The leader of ...

Burmese flock to Thailand looking for work
Today, July 07, 2008, 7 hours ago
Bangkok - Nearly one-third of the Myanmar nationals who during the first six months of 2008 crossed to Thailand over the Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot border town failed to return home, media reports s...

Burmese State Media Dismiss Aung San Suu Kyi
Today, July 07, 2008, 9 hours ago
Burmese state media have dismissed the 1990 election victory by the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, describing it as invalid. An official newspaper ran a commentary Sunday, saying the recent pa...

Third of Burmese fail to return home
Today, July 07, 2008, 10 hours ago
TAK : Nearly one-third of the Burmese who entered Thailand through Mae Sot district this year did not return to their home country. The provincial immigration office reported that 298,847 Burmes...

New Community Center to Open in Honor of Killed Burmese Girl
Today, July 07, 2008, 12 hours ago
Posted on: Sunday, 6 July 2008, 15:00 CDT By Julia Lyon, The Salt Lake Tribune Jul. 6--The little Burmese refugee girl who disappeared and died just steps away from home this spring will leave her ma...

Bush urges Myanmar to free Suu Kyi
Today, July 07, 2008, 18 hours ago
US President George W Bush yesterday renewed his call for Myanmar’s military regime to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. Bush said he intended to raise concerns about Myanmar a...

Corporations doing business with Burma
Today, July 07, 2008, 20 hours ago
These are some of the corporations currently doing business with the Burmese military junta. For a full list, see the Burma Campaign UK’s “Dirty List” of corporations in Burma,

NLD Challenged to Contest 2010 Election
By SAW YAN NAING / Monday, July 7, 2008
The Burmese opposition group, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was challenged by the military government on Sunday to form a political party to contest the 2010 national election and to forget the results of the "illegal" 1990 election.

Dengue Fever Outbreak Feared
By VIOLET CHO / Monday, July 7, 2008
Dengue fever―a mosquito-borne disease that peaks during the rainy season―is likely to strike harder this year in Burma due to Cyclone Nargis, according to sources within the medical community in Rangoon.

Storm Survivors Cobble Together a Meager Future
The Washington Post
BOGALAY ― - Two months after a cyclone ravaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma's southwest, the bones of drowning victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.

Myanmar stepping up prevention against dengue fever
YANGON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is stepping up prevention against dengue fever, especially in two populated suburban townships in Yangon division, following reports on the outbreak in some wards in the townships, according to Monday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.

Supercomputing experts guide Burma's relief efforts
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (ASU) is using its supercomputing capabilities to aid humanitarian organizations attempting to provide disaster relief to victims of Cyclone Nargis that hit the Southeast Asian country of Burma May 2.

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