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Fifth NLD arrest this month as junta uproots opposition activity

By
Staff Reporter
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2

Mar 17, 2009 (DVB), A National League for Democracy member has been arrested in what one political prisoner expert believes is an attempt by Burmese authorities to destroy opposition activity before the 2010 elections.

Rangoon’s South Dagon Myothit township NLD member Kyi Lwin was arrested and taken away by authorities at around 1.30am on 16 March, party spokesman Nyan Win said.

"I was told around 30 policemen came to his house and arrested him," he said.

"His health is not good. He is over 50 and had a stroke."

Nyan Win said that Kyi Lwin had been an executive committee member but became an ordinary member due to his poor health.

Kyi Lwin is the fifth NLD party member to be arrested this month, along with Myint Myint San (also known as Ma Cho), Sein Hlaing, Shwe Gyo and Thein Lwin.

Bago division’s Paungde township NLD chairman Saw Maung was also interrogated and intimidated on 15 March by local police for attending a plenary meeting of party members.

"The authorities said they are holding the election in 2010," said Assistance Association for Political Prisoners' joint secretary, Bo Kyi.

"It seems that they intend to uproot and destroy all those who are [politically] active before the election.

"The NLD is a legal party in Burma and it has the right to rally freely," he added. "By unfairly destroying it, the [State Peace and Development Council] is doing the opposite of its slogan that it is substantiating democracy."

The number of political prisoners has doubled since the end of the monk-led protests in September 2007. According to AAPP, there are more than 2100 political prisoners in Burma.

"It proves that the country is not peaceful or stable," said Bo Kyi.

"If they want the country to be peaceful and want to solve political problems peacefully, all these political prisoners needed to be released immediately.

"At the same time, the arrests must stop."

Reporting by Thurein Soe

Increase in unqualified doctors performing cosmetic surgery

By
Staff Reporter
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19

Mar 17, 2009 (DVB), The number of unregistered clinics offering cheap cosmetic surgery by unqualified surgeons has increased in Burma over the last year, according to beauty stylists and government officials.

Many clinics are offering services including breast implantation and face modification for women, yet do not meet the qualification standards to perform plastic surgery operations, said a beauty stylist.

The operations performed by unqualified doctors and surgeons are not always successful, he said, and have left some customers with serious health-related side effects.

"They often miscalculate in operations such as nose replacement and the customer is left with a nose looking worse than the one he or she wanted to get rid of before," he said.

Ko Ko, owner of Ko Ko beauty salons in Rangoon, said that only well-trained, qualified doctors should handle such sensitive operations.

"These should only be handled by well-trained professionals that have graduated from foreign universities, not by some random person who could only guess what to do next," he said.

"People should be careful with this because if something goes wrong, you can end up ruining your own body."

A senior official at the Ministry of Health said that, according to the law, surgical operations were only allowed to be performed at hospitals approved by the ministry.

He warned that people should consult with professionals and learn the full details of operations they want before starting with them.

In Rangoon, plastic surgery operations were legally available at two well-known private hospitals; Sakura and Bangkok Hospital, with price varying from about 400,000 kyat ($US400) to 800,000 kyat ($US800).

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

Norway divests from company supplying military trucks to Burma

By
Staff Reporter
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1

Mar 16, 2009 (DVB), A state-owned Norwegian fund has pulled shares from a company that sells trucks to the Burmese government after it emerged they were being used for military purposes, the Norwegian Finance Minister said on Friday.

The Government Pension Fund-Global, the company that invests Norway's vast oil and gas wealth in foreign stocks, removed Chinese company Dongfeng Motor Group from its list of assets after receiving advice from a Norwegian special ethics panel.

Global reportedly owns shares in some 7,700 companies worldwide.

"We cannot finance companies that support the military dictatorship in Burma through the sale of military materials," Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said in a statement.

Global's divested holdings in Dongfeng Motor Group, who sold an estimated 900 trucks to Burma in the first half of 2008, were worth $US4.5 million.

Both the United States and the European Union have maintained arms embargoes against the Burmese government.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Local claims footage of Kachin poppy eradication is propaganda

By
Staff Reporter
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3

Mar 16, 2009 (DVB), Television footage broadcast by the Kachin Independence Organisation that showed government soldiers and KIO ceasefire rebels destroying poppy fields in Laizar region was a set up, said a local resident.

The resident who watched the footage, shown by the KIO's own Laizar Broadcasting station in Naphaw, said that subtitles indicated that the fields apparently being destroyed had already been harvested for heroin production.

"The KIO had subtitles in the footage indicating that some nearby poppy fields that were not ready for harvesting were skipped by government soldiers," said the Laizar resident.

"The footage also included shots of some poppy farmers fleeing their fields as government and the KIO soldiers arrived, but it also included voices of the soldiers signalling them to start running."

The resident said it was likely the government wanted this footage of apparently active poppy fields in order to discredit the KIO.

"The KIO went for tit-for-tat back to them by including the subtitles underneath their footage," he said.

He added there were still a large number of poppy fields in nearby Phapaw area, which was previously controlled by the KIO and is now under the control of government troops.

The KIO headquarters in Laizar was unavailable for comments.

Reporting by ATK

Police deployed to quell activity on Burma Human Rights Day

By
Staff Reporter
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2

Mar 16, 2009 (DVB), Security was tight in Burma's former capital and economic hub Rangoon last Friday as overseas Burmese democracy activists marked the 21-year anniversary of the country's Human Rights Day.

The event coincides with the anniversary of the death of Rangoon Institute of Technology student Phone Maw, shot by government soldiers during a protest in 1988. It was this incident that became a key trigger of the 1988 nationwide uprising.

A resident in Rangoon said on Friday that no sign of activity from the opposition to mark the day was seen. Authorities had dispatched conveys of armed policemen to crowded junctions in downtown Rangoon.

"We are seeing long conveys of police trucks loading and unloading armed police officials at every intersection in Rangoon," said the resident. "They are disturbing a peaceful view for us."

"The policemen were restless. They were jumping in and off from their trucks all the time while waving their big guns around, as if our country was in a civil war," he said.

Other Rangoon residents said that heavily armed riot-police squads were stationed at Shwe Dagon pagoda and Shwegondai and Hledan intersections.

Maung Maung Lay, of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network, said Friday's situation in Rangoon highlighted the human rights situation in Burma.

"We can't say our human rights situation has been improved just because the government agrees sign the ASEAN human rights charter and agreed to let some human rights diplomat from United Nation in the country," said Maung Maung Lay.

"Firstly the government needs to be really devoted to granting us the human rights."

Reporting by Thurein Soe

Former army official sent to US on diplomatic duty

By
Staff Reporter
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151

Mar 16, 2009 (DVB), The State Peace and Development Council is sending former army officer-cum-diplomat to the United States to lobby related powers, said former military intelligence officer Aung Lin Htut.

SPDC chairman General Than Shwe’s close aide Colonel Than Swe (now U Than Swe) was appointed ambassador to the UN on 11 March.

Fifty year old Than Swe was a graduate of Defense Services Academy (Batch 16), and was notorious for human rights abuses while in charge of military offensives in Karen State.

Violations by the Burmese military in Karen state are reported to have included the burning of villages and rape of women.

Than Swe is also the right-hand man of regional commander General Myint Aung, who ordered the shooting of Aung San Suu Kyi during a public rally.

He has little diplomatic experience, although he was temporarily in charge of the Burmese embassy in Washington as ambassador, said Aung Lin Htut.

"After serving as the strategist, Ko Than Swe was appointed the chief director of ethnic national development projects," he said.

Former ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe was replaced with Than Swe in June last year after negotiating the entry of foreign warships into Burma to help victims.

"After Nargis struck, former ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe offended higher echelons of army generals," said Aung Lin Htut.

"When it comes to [Burmese embassy staff in] New York, the generals don't trust them."

The SPDC has been working hard, with the help of China, to change US policy on Burma since Barrack Obama was elected US president last year, Aung Lin Htut said.

"I heard that [the generals] officially requested the current Chinese Foreign Minister to plead with President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to improve relations with the Burmese government.

"The reason is that, in 2008, Burmese ministers and American officials were allowed to meet in China," he said. "They are proposing to hold a similar meeting, I heard."

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

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