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Sunday March 9, 6:17 PM
Thai homicides at 1,498 after
drug campaign began
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Homicides in Thailand have risen to
nearly 1,500 since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched his 90-day
"eye-for-an-eye" campaign against drug traffickers, police say.
The death
toll rose to 1,498 since the campaign was launched on February 1, compared with
a typical number of about 500 killings in a month, police said in a statement on
Sunday.
They gave no breakdown of the number of people killed in
drug-related cases or by drug traffickers, but said they would investigate
further and conclude on the "cause of murder" in some cases on March 16.
Police say they shot dead 31 people in self-defence during raids.
Thaksin's controversial policy aims to wipe out the drug problem
within three months, shrugging off the concerns of local and international human
rights bodies, who fear the crackdown may have involved excessive use of force
and extrajudicial killings.
Police say Thailand consumes about a
billion methamphetamine pills annually. The drug is made in secret factories in
the Golden Triangle region, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos
meet. The region is also a major source of opium and its refined form,
heroin.
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Daily Times - Sunday, March 09,
2003
Myanmar raps its inclusion in US religious freedom
blacklist
YANGON: Myanmarâ??s inclusion on a US
blacklist for abuses of religious freedoms is unfair, the military government
said Saturday.
â??The people of Myanmar together with its government
are disappointed to learn that the US secretary of state unfairly listed Myanmar
for â??severe violations of religious freedomâ??,â?? it said in a
statement.
â??Myanmar is a land where the people of all faiths enjoy
religious freedom and harmony in practice,â?? it said. US Secretary of State Colin
Powell on Wednesday designated China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, North Korea and Sudan
as countries of â??particular concernâ?? on freedom of worship, keeping in place the
possibility of punitive sanctions against them.
In its statement
the junta countered that reports after visits by a journalist and two
fact-finding missions had commented on the religious and ethnic harmony in the
predominantly Buddhist country.
With all the â??religions conflicts
and upheavals occurring in many places around the world including the United
Statesâ?? it was â??absolutely improper and insensitive to accuse other nations or
governments on the basis of hearsay evidence,â?? it said.
The US
State Departmentâ??s annual report on religious freedom worldwide released in
October said Myanmarâ??s government maintained a tight grip on religious activity,
fearful of the Buddhist clergyâ??s support of democracy.
The junta
also discriminated against Muslims and Christians, even though the right to
religious freedom was enshrined in the constitution, the report
said.
More than 100 monks were imprisoned during the 1990s for
supporting democracy and human rights, while the government has tried to link
itself with Buddhism to boost its own legitimacy, the report said. ?AFP
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-09
FIFA funds work on Mandalay stadium
By
Zin Min
Renovation of a Mandalay football stadium using
financial assistance from the Federation of International Football Associations
was nearing completion last week. The eight-month renovation works to the
football stadium at Aung Myay Thazan, costing US$50,000 is part of FIFAç?´ Goal
Project under which Myanmar received $400,000 to upgrade the football grounds.
Upgrading the facility to an international standard has been jointly undertaken
by the Asian Football Federation and Myanmar Football Federation since July and
it is expected to open later this month.
Assistant Director of the
Mandalay Division Sports and Physical Education Department, U Soe Nyunt, said
the football ground has been designed with its centre higher than its boundaries
so that rain water would not gather in pools and 21 underground drainage systems
have also been installed.
Apart from the Goal Project which has
been providing financial assistance to nearly 20 countries, FIFA has, since
1999, been giving a yearly assistance grant of $250,000 to Myanmar under FAP or
Financial Assistance Program.
"Using the funds from the two
sources, Myanmar Sports and Physical Education Department has been making
renovations to the football ground, training staff and constructing two training
centers for the footballers," said another official from the department.
Construction of a $630,000 sports training center with full training apparatus
and accommodation is now underway in Yangon and it is also expected to open in
June or July, he said.
Built in 1987 with the financial assistance
from Japan, Thuwunna National Football Stadium remains the most prominent in
Myanmar. Other famous stadiums like Ba Htoo in Mandalay and Aung San in Yangon
were built 70 years ago.
- The Myanmar Times - 03 - 09 March 2003
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ctnow.com
Going To
India To
Celebrate Kachin Culture
But With
Event Comes Worry Over Future
March 9, 2003
By WASBIR HUSSAIN,
Associated Press
LEKHAPANI,
India -- For two
weeks, Khaong Imphum hiked and hitched rides through the mountains of
Myanmar and into
India to reach
this small town.
"I'm very excited," Khaong, a
petite 20-year-old woman wearing a red hand-woven dress, said while taking a
break from the dancing and drumming of the festival that brought her. "It feels
really nice to be with my own people in a different country."
Every year, in the mountains
of eastern
India, members
of the ethnic group known as the Singpho in
India, and the
Kachin in neighboring
Myanmar, gather
to celebrate the Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi - a festival that honors their
ancestors, but also is increasingly a rallying point for their cultural
identity.
The Singpho in India, who
number about 15,000 and are concentrated here in the northeastern state of Assam
and neighboring Arunachal Pradesh, are just one small outpost of far larger
Kachin communities in Myanmar and China.
They are afraid for their
future in India,
worried they will be swallowed by the larger ethnic groups, particularly the
Assamese, that dominate the area.
They speak the Kachin language
in a region where Assamese is commonly used. They are Buddhists among larger
populations of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Their clothing - men and women
often wear pants formed by cloth they wrap around themselves - differs from the
Western garb typically seen.
"Our identity is at stake,"
said Gauri Gam Singen, a teacher from Ouguri, one of the 27 Singpho villages in
Assam. "We fear
we could get lost due to assimilation with the rest of the communities in the
area."
While
India's
northeast is riven by often-violent ethnic separatism, the Singphos, who
sometimes refer to themselves as Kachin, are proud of their
citizenship.
"We are Indians first, then
Kachins. We want to live in
India, but with
our culture and identity intact," said Rajesh Singpho, a young community
leader.
The issue of cultural
protection is largely focused now on language and marriage. Community leaders
are urging the state government to switch to the Kachin language at primary
schools with Singpho children and are encouraging Singphos to marry within the
tribe.
While the task is daunting,
they have not lost hope.
Innaw Ladgam, a college
student from Arunachal Pradesh, said the festival was one way to keep the
culture alive. "We get to meet our kinfolk from far and near that help us stay
united," he said.
About 2,000 Kachins - most of
them Singphos from
India - came to
the two-day gathering to celebrate their heritage under a huge covering of
bamboo poles and palm leaves.
The festival was held along
the Stilwell Road that
crosses the India-Myanmar border to the Kachin heartland in
Myanmar. The
road, built by
U.S. forces in
World War II and named for the American Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, stretches on to
the Chinese city of Kunming, another
Kachin stronghold some 1,020 miles from here.
The road's border crossing was
closed after
India's
independence from British rule in 1947, but community leaders and state
officials want it reopened. The nearest border post between
India and
Myanmar is
hundreds of miles away, making legal travel nearly impossible between the Kachin
and Singpho areas. The national governments have discussed the idea, but no
decision has been reached.
"We can no longer afford to
have walls around us," said Pradyut Bordoloi, who is
Assam's forest
minister and a member of the State Assembly.
The Singphos, who are believed
to have crossed into
Assam in the
18th century, think of themselves as an international community.
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