2008-10-05 Burma News Summary
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Scoop-Burma Military Junta Continues To Arrest Activists
ABC-Burma warns against Chinese milk
ABC-Burma plans offshore oil exploration with Vietnam
Canberat times-Call for Burmese prisoners to be freed
VAO-Eye Doctor Examines Burmese Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi
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Resources
http://paraussies. blogspot. com/2008/ 10/altasean- burma-bulletin- september- 2008.html
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Burma Military Junta Continues To Arrest Activists
Monday, 6 October 2008, 9:29 am
Press Release: Terry Evans
5 October 2008
Despite last month's release of 9,000 prisoners, including a handful of political detainees, Burma's military junta continues to arrest pro-democracy activists.
Last week Ohn Kyaing, a journalist and prominent political ally of the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested at his Rangoon home.
He was previously arrested in September 1990 by Burma's notorious Military Intelligence, and was subsequently jailed for 15 years for "writing and distributing seditious pamphlets". Ohn Kyaing won a seat in the parliamentary elections in 1990 that were annulled by the Burmese generals.
The reason for his recent arrest is still unknown, but Ohn Kyaing had been involved in efforts to help the survivors of cyclone Nargis.
http://www.scoop. co.nz/stories/ WO0810/S00095. htm
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Burma warns against Chinese milk
ABC-Posted Sun Oct 5, 2008 8:15pm AEDT
Burma authorities have urged people not to use Chinese milk and dairy products in the wake of the contamination scandal, state media has reported.
The announcement comes after the country's food and drug watchdog destroyed 16 tonnes of imported Chinese baby formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which is usually used to make plastics, it said.
"Authorities concerned have urged the people not to consume milk and dairy products during the inspection period," the New Light of Myanmar (Burma) reported.
"They also urged those concerned not to sell milk powder contaminated with melamine and to take off the market milk powder under testing."
The paper said the milk powder that was destroyed came from China's Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, one of 22 companies embroiled in the melamine scandal, according to Chinese authorities.
A further 1,500 tonnes of milk powder from companies not listed by the Chinese have not yet been tested, the paper said.
"Safety checks on imported milk powder are being carried out in the interest of the people [in Burma]," it said.
"Import of other milk powder is temporarily suspended while safety checks are being carried out."
Cheaper Chinese products are widely used in Burma, which is under economic sanctions from the US and European Union.
Melamine, which has been detected in a range of China-made milk products, is blamed for the deaths of four Chinese children and for sickening 53,000.
China is struggling to limit the damage to its food safety reputation as a growing number of countries have decided to suspend imports of Chinese milk products or withdraw them from sale over the scandal.
- AFP
http://www.abc. net.au/news/ stories/2008/ 10/05/2382517. htm
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Burma plans offshore oil exploration with Vietnam
ABC-Updated October 4, 2008 19:37:19
Related Stories:
Burmese dissidents in jail on the increase
Burma calls for lifting of sanctions
Small explosion hits Burma's capital
UN welcomes Burma prisoner release
Burma's state oil company is to explore offshore oil and gas in a joint venture with two Vietnamese companies.
The state media reports the companies would be allowed to explore supplies in the Gulf of Martaban, south of Burma in the Andaman Sea.
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise signed the deal with Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd and Joint Venture Vietsovpetro of the Vietnam and Eden Group Co Ltd of Burma.
Burma sells natural oil and gas to neighbouring energy hungry countries such as China and Thailand to earn much-needed foreign currency.
The United States and European countries have banned the import of Burma's natural resources because of its human rights record.
http://www.radioaus tralia.net. au/news/stories/ 200810/s2382211. htm?tab=latest
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Call for Burmese prisoners to be freed
BANGKOK
\Canbeera times-6/10/2008 1:00:00 AM
Human rights groups say the number of dissidents in Burmese jails has nearly doubled to more than 2100 over the past year and called on the United Nations to act to free the prisoners.
A report from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and the United States Campaign for Burma says there are now at least 2123 political prisoners in the country, up 78 per cent on the UN's figure of 1192 in June 2007.
It comes after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called last week for the release of Burma's political prisoners.
Former political prisoner Bo Kyi said, ''By nearly doubling the number of political prisoners, the Burmese regime is directly defying the United Nations. Yet the UN is paralysed because the Secretary General is still reluctant to call on China to work together with other members of the Security Council to secure the release of all prisoners by the end of December.''
China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, is a close ally and economic partner of Burma and opposes interference in its affairs.
The two groups responsible for the report sent an open letter yesterday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging action to secure the prisoners' release.
On September 23 the regime announced an amnesty, releasing more than 9000 prisoners ahead of elections planned for 2010 but only 10 of them were political prisoners. AFP
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Eye Doctor Examines Burmese Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi
By VOA News
03 October 2008
Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)
The party of Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says an eye doctor examined the pro-democracy figure at her Rangoon home for one hour this week.
The National League for Democracy said Friday that Burmese authorities allowed the eye specialist to accompany Aung San Suu Kyi's regular physician on a checkup visit Thursday.
Party spokesperson Nyan Win says Aung San Suu Kyi's regular physician Tin Myo Win spent about four hours at her home, where she has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.
Further details about her condition were not immediately available.
The doctor last visited the Nobel Peace Prize winner on September 14 after her refusal of food deliveries started rumors of a hunger strike.
Nyan Win also said that Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer has completed preparations for an appeal of her continued detention.
The opposition leader refused to meet with U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari during his August visit to Burma, and she has also refused to meet with her government-appointe d liaison.
In related news, the United Nations' new high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, called Thursday for Burma to release all of the country's thousands of political prisoners. During her first news conference since taking office, Pillay said Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is illegal under Burmese law.
Also Friday, Burmese authorities ordered two weekly news journals to stop publication because of their alleged violation of press rules. The True News journal is suspended for two months, while The Action Times is suspended for one month.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
http://www.voanews. com/english/ 2008-10-04- voa13.cfm
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Anil and Sanjoo Verma
Louise Rafkin, Special to The Chronicle
Sunday, October 5, 2008
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By 2003, Anil Verma, now 35, had been living in exile from Burma for more than 10 years - the first five in India, the next five in Thailand. As a political organizer for the National League for Democracy and the National Coalition Government Union of Burma, he was always busy - and sometimes under siege. Hanging over him was the threat of deportation to Burma, where, because of his political alliances, he would be jailed - probably indefinitely. "I had little time for love," he says. "I was always thinking about how much my people were suffering ... wondering when and how we would see change."
Then one morning he woke up unusually joyful and excited. He decided to take the day off and made his way to a Bangkok shopping mall, where he spotted Sanjoo, now 26, also Burmese. "It was love at first sight," he says. "Something came from the bottom of my heart and told me that she was the woman for me."
Anil noted the traditional signs showing that Sanjoo was single: a lack of a certain type of necklace and no orange bindi, ornamentation worn only by married women.
Sanjoo, who had left Burma for economic reasons and was working as a housekeeper, was less smitten - "I was a little afraid!" - but she and her girlfriends agreed to lunch with Anil. Giggling and somewhat shy, Sanjoo became intrigued by her suitor. That night she was the one to make the first call, on a borrowed cell phone. Their chats turned into nightly rituals, and they excitedly made plans to see each other. Soon they were meeting every weekend, making the hour-plus commute across the sprawling city. "I was able to overcome fear because of my love," Anil says, "even though there was the threat of arrest and of being picked up by police." With danger as a backdrop - both were working illegally - they grew to rely on each other.
Within the year, Anil applied to the United Nations for asylum as a political refugee. They jumped into marriage in order to apply as a couple, though both say they were ready to commit themselves. Luckily, their numbers were chosen by lottery, and refugee status in the United States was offered. After months of interviews and classes on "life in America," they arrived here in 2005. Anil now works as a mental health counselor for a nonprofit; Sanjoo is a stay-at-home mom to their year-old daughter, Sonia. Both are involved in Burmese political organizing, and both hope to bring family members to the States someday.
In their East Oakland basement apartment, the walls are covered with colorful pictures of Hindu gods and posters of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's independence movement. "We're lucky," sums up Anil.
Louise Rafkin has contributed to the New York Times and NPR's "All Things Considered." Couple suggestions? Send a story to OntheCouch@sfchroni cle.com.
This article appeared on page F - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? f=/c/a/2008/ 10/03/LVOD134CFO .DTL
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