Myanmar Hands Over Remains to Japan
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - More than 50 years after the Japanese occupation of Myanmar during World War II, the Yangon government gave the remains of three Japanese soldiers to a delegation from their country Tuesday.
The official Myanmar News Agency said the remains, which had been found by workers building a railway, were turned over to the visiting delegation led by a former health minister, Souhei Miyashita, in a ceremony at the Foreign Ministry in the capital, Yangon. It was not clear how the bones were identified as Japanese.
Japanese forces occupied Myanmar, then known as Burma, from 1942 to 1945. The country was then seen as a potential land bridge between Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Japanese soldiers were driven out by Allied forces near the end of the war.
The seven-member Japanese delegation arrived Monday and meet with Myanmar's military intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, before departing Wednesday, diplomats said.
On Tuesday, the delegation met with the health minister, Maj. Gen. Ket Sein, and signed a technical cooperation agreement for treatment of leprosy.
Tuesday, February 15 7:20 PM SGT
Leader of Myanmar embassy raid threatening retaliation: officials
BANGKOK, Feb 15 (AFP) -
The leader of a Myanmar student group which seized Yangon's embassy here last year is alive and threatening to strike again, intelligence officials said Tuesday.
Kyaw Ni, also known as "Johnny," was earlier reported as having been killed in recent fighting between Myanmar troops and the rebel groups, including the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) responsible for the October embassy siege.
Lieutenant General Yothin Matthayomnun, chief of Thai Special Branch, said Johnny was still alive and threatening retaliation against Thailand for comrades killed in last month's seizure by allied God's Army rebels of a Thai provincial hospital.
"He is still still alive, and based ... opposite Thailand's Prachuab Khirikhan and Ranong provinces," he told reporters, referring to border areas about 300 kilometers (183 miles) from Bangkok.
Yothin also said another dissident allegedly involved in the embassy siege was believed to be operating in the Thai capital.
He said police were scouring Bangkok for San Naing, earlier convicted and imprisoned for several years here for the 1988 hijack of a domestic Myanmar airliner and issued a plea for information on his exact whereabouts.
"Now we are searching for him in Bangkok," he said.
The embassy siege in October ended when Thai officials negotiated a deal which saw the hostages released and the rebels flown in a helicopter to the border.
The VBSW holed up with the ethnic Karen God's Army, reportedly led by two 12-year-old boys, after escaping from the embassy.
Since then, Myanmar troops have stepped up operations in the area believed inhabited by God's Army in an effort to root out the dissidents responsible for the embassy incident.
Thai forces have also stepped up border security.
Last month God's Army rebels slipped accross the border into Thailand and took over a provincial hospital with several hundred patients demanding Myanmar and Thai troops cease attacking them.
The hospital siege ended when Thai special forces stormed the building killing all 10 gunmen. At least two of them are reported to have been members of the VBSW.
Yothin said Johnny and remnants of the VBSW had moved southwards to escape attack. He made no mention of God's Army and its leaders.
The special branch chief said intelligence sources warned Johnny had vowed revenge for the deaths of his God's Army comrades in Ratchaburi.
"They have threatened this for some time, and we suspect they may feel that we have treated them unfairly," he said.
The Independent Bangladesh
Myanmar nationals in Sylhet jail revolt : Situation returns to normal after DC's assurance
SYLHET, Feb 14: The foreign prisoners revolted inside Sylhet jail for 6 and half hours from 7 am today demanding their early repatriation.
A jail police and a prisoner injured during the revolt was admitted to the Osmani Medical College Hospital.
Jail Superintendent Ali Akbar Talukdar told UNB that there are 80 foreign prisoners in the jail who are from Myanmar.
The prisoners came out of the jail on plea of taking bath and immediately took their position on the rooftop and trees demanding their safe return to their country. They claimed that their jail term has been completed.
They also alleged that they are given inadequate food and tortured physically inside the jail.
The foreign prisoners also threatened to commit suicide if they were taken back to the prison cell.
Deputy Commissioner Ali Imam Majumdar, Police Super MA Hanif and other senior officials rushed to the jail on receipt of news of the incident. They ordered the security guards and police to deal with the revolt with tenacity. The entire security force in the district was alerted to face any eventuality.
At one stage the DC talked to the rebel prisoners and told them of the formalities to be followed in sending them back home.
On DC's assurance of their early repatriation, the rebel prisoners came down at 1.30 pm and the situation was brought under control.
Our correspondent reports from Sylhet: It may be mentioned here that 79 Burmese people were transferred to Sylhet jail from Rangamati, Bandarban and Chittagong on March 16, 1999 who were convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment by a court in Chittagong in an intrusion case. The court delivered verdict on July 17, 1999. They revolted as their conviction has completed.
Bangkok Post - Feb 15, 2000.
Onnucha Hutasingh
Thailand should continue giving humanitarian
assistance to Burmese minorities and students, as well as encourage Burma to
ease its internal conflicts through non-violent means, a seminar was told. Mark Tamthai, a peace studies lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's faculty
of arts, said Bangkok should have a firm stance on supporting Burma to settle
its internal conflicts peacefully so its existing problems would not
intensify. Bangkok should also come up with policies to avoid settling problems through
violent means, he added. The Thai government should treat refugees in a
humanitarian way. He criticised the government's effort to keep law and order in
border areas by pushing Karen who do not have Thai ID cards out of the country,
and by sending exiled Burmese students to a third country. BBC-Monday, 14 February, 2000, 19:26 GMT
Jailed Briton's
family protest over Burma
The parents of a British pro-democracy
activist, imprisoned in Burma, have joined human rights campaigners in a protest
at alleged atrocities carried out in the country.
James Mawdsley's parents with a birthday
cake
James Mawdsley, who is
27 on Monday, was arrested on 31 August last year for distributing
anti-Government literature near Burma's border with Thailand. He was given a
17-year jail sentence.
Mr Mawdsley is protesting against what human
rights campaigners describe as genocide being carried out against the country's
Karen minority group.
James' parents David and Diana Mawdsley joined the group in a symbolic protest outside the Burmese Embassy in London.
Mrs Mawdsley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The demonstration today is something he would want us to do.
"Many people speak of genocide from the safety of our own established democracies but James has spoken of genocide from its very heartland." she said.
No appeal
Mr Mawdsley, a committed Catholic, is being held in a prison in Keng Tung, in what his family fear are increasingly harsh conditions.
James' mother said her son had not been allowed to receive letters or books since the start of the year.
The British Consul had also passed on news that Mr Mawdsley's exercise allowance had been reduced and regular visits from officials had been withdrawn, she said.
"It is our feeling in the family that they are doing their utmost to try to break him." she told Today.
Last month the family heard that Burmese officials had no intention of reducing Mr Mawdsley's 17-year sentence, saying they had no guarantee he would not reoffend.
The former Bristol University student has said he will not appeal against his conviction because he refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the regime and the sentence.
The first arrest came in September 1997 after chaining himself to a fence in Burma's capital of Rangoon and shouting pro-democracy slogans.
He was immediately deported but returned less than a year later and was re-arrested and held for 99 days during which time, he says, he was tortured.
Last November 28-year-old Briton Rachel Goldwyn was freed from a seven-year sentence imposed by a Burmese court for singing pro-democracy songs.
She had signed a written undertaking never to engage in political activity in the country again.
'Deep respect'
Diana Mawdsley admitted some people in Britain would not understand why her son kept returning to Burma.
"It is easy to say he is foolish from a perspective of safety but having been to Burma myself and having spoken to the people who are suffering under that regime, their opinion is quite the contrary, they hold James in deep respect." she said.
A large gifted-wrapped bamboo cell was placed outside the Burmese embassy with a banner calling for an end to the killing.
Mark Rowland, campaign manager at Jubilee Campaign, said: "I think people in this country are aware that it is an undemocratic regime in Burma, but I don't think the general public is aware what is happening fits the legal definition of genocide.
"The publicity will hopefully serve as the platform for the Burmese authorities to address the issues."