______________________________________________________________________
(1) Ceasefire groups told to help round off roadmap
(Politics)
(2)
(3) Yawdserk: War unlikely
between
(4) Three-Day Biswa Ijtema Ends Dec. 5 with Final Prayer (Religion)
______________________________________________________________________
Ceasefire groups told
to help round off roadmap
=======================================
Shan Herald Agency for News
6 December 2004n (Politics)
The eight ceasefire and militia groups that met the ruling
military
council's number three man Dec. 4
were urged to help speed up the
seven-phase roadmap to a successful
conclusion, according to ceasefire
sources from northern
Representatives from the six ceasefire groups and two
militia forces
who Met Lt-Gen. Thein
Sein, first secretary of the State Peace and
Development Council and chairman of the National Convention
Convening
Commission, in Lashio were also
asked to attend the next round of the
National Convention without fail.
Gen. Thein Sein,
who was accompanied by Brig. Gen. Than Htun, deputy
minister for Development of Border
Areas and National Races and
another minister, also talked about
"earning one's livelihood by
lawful means."
As Thein Sein
met the groups separately, each session lasted no more
than 10-15 minutes (the longest was
with the Kokang, 20 minutes"). The
whole city of
floors and roof decks of tall
buildings. Attendants and personal aides
of the representatives were also
stopped outside the meeting hall at
Shweli Yeiktha,
Northeastern Region Command headquarters, and not
allowed to follow their superiors.
The groups that met Gen Thein Sein were as follows:
* Kokang
Special Region # 1, Peng Jiasheng.
* Wa, Special
Region # 2, Bo La Kham.
*
*
* Kachin
Democratic Army, Special Region # 5, Mahtu Naw.
* Palaung State
Liberation Army, Special Region # 7, (name Not
available).
* Manparng
Militia Force, Bo Mon.
* Mongha-Mongheng
Militia Force, Lao Ma.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
=======================================================
Nava Thakuria
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
Guwahati: The
Khaleda Zia-led
ministry in
nation gas pipeline connecting
that
goods to
“
drawn from
its land to transit goods to and
from
trade between the two countries,”
Bangladesh Finance and Planning
Minister Saifur Rahman disclosed.
pipeline proposal last week,
arguing for consent from a higher
authority. Meeting in
that the decision on the gas
pipeline should be dealt with by Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia’s office, which looks after
issues. Rahman
is expected to raise the issue at a three-day
Economic
He said he has had discussions with Prime Minister Zia in this
regard. “In fact, the issue is
expected to top the agenda at the tri-
nation energy ministers’ conference
to be held in January 2005 in
The gas pipeline project will be shared between
a Bangladeshi company, Mohona Holdings, is also recognized as a
stockholder. The $1 billion project
is planned to export natural gas
from Burmese soil to
Tripura province is to be fed into
the pipeline. The Indian government
has tried to export gas from
domestic opposition in
energy experts as well as civil
society vehemently oppose gas export
to
The government of
arguing that it will benefit both
benefit
Holdings Ltd. of
The Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government in
ready to support the gas pipe line
project. The proposal was first
submitted in 1996 to
considered pro-India, could not get
support from other political
parties. Mohoma
Holdings submitted the proposal to
the government changed in 2002. The
Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led
government, though it showed
interest in the beginning, later deferred
the decision.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yawdserk: War unlikely between
=========================================
Shan Herald Agency for News
Wa, will keep on dodging, thereby
disappointing
anxiously predicting an imminent
showdown between the two sides,
Yawdserk, leader of the Shan State
Army "South" (SSA) said to
S.H.A.N.during an exclusive
interview Nov. 30, Hawkeye reports:
"The war against the Wa may bring clapping hands from
the United
States and
Council of
S.H.A.N.question.
"But they must be balanced against other inevitable
outcomes like it
may inadvertently help to bring
together the whole opposition, both
armed and unarmed, against the
regime. No, I think the odds are more
in favor of picking a fight with
non-Wa groups, as most of them, apart
from being militarily weaker,
cannot expect to count on any foreign
country for assistance."
He concluded that, at least in the short run, the Burma Army
would
choose to go on crowding the Wa and
its allies until it can
comfortably call a checkmate.
"On the other hand, in the event that it is opting for
a fight, you
can bet the generals will certainly
not be advertising it as an anti-
Wa campaign," he said,
"but as War against Drugs to mislead the rest
of the world."
Pressed by S.H.A.N. to say what his position would be in
case of a
Rangoon-Panghsang conflict that
might bring the former, for the first
time since 1988, in favor with
bow to the demand on the home front
and that is unity. It does not
mean we will ally with drug lords
but only with our national brethren.
The alliance therefore must unequivocally advocate an anti-narcotics
policy, among others."
Conflicting reports, meanwhile, continue to emerge from the Wa areas.
While the United Wa State Army's
spokesperson U Aung Myint a.k.a
Li
Julieh was telling the Oslo-based
Democratic Voice of
planned demobilization of up to
5,000 Wa troops to ease the burden of
the local populace, other Wa
sources insisted that the trend is the
other way round.
"Each division used to have around 3,000 men before
October," said a
highly-placed source from the
border, "but now orders are out that
each must expand up to 5,000 and
more."
The interview took place after some sympathetic border
watchers
suggested all armed ethnic groups
join together for a common political
stand. "It may be able to
withstand a fight," a veteran watcher of
more than 40 years told S.H.A.N..
"It might even prevent a fight."
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Three-Day Biswa Ijtema Ends Dec. 5 with
Final Prayer
====================================================
Kaladan News
The three-day Biswa Ijtema (world religious gathering)
in the
suburban town of Tongi about 30 km. from
Dec. 5 with akheri munajat ( final prayer),
said Tin Soe of Kaladan
Press, who participated in the gathering.
More than 3-million people, including President Iajuddin Ahamed, Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia and other cabinet members, Opposition Leader
Sheikh Hasina and other opposition
leaders, joined in the last prayer
led by Maulana
Jobayer Hasan of
Thousands of women also took part in the munajat
from rooftops of
nearby mills, factories and
high-rises and houses in Uttra and Tongi,
attending the solemn annual
function while staying at their relatives’
homes, said Sayed.
who also took part in the Ijtema.
The second-largest Muslim congregation after the Hajj,
organized by
Tablig Jamat,
started Friday, with over 1.5 million devotees offering
the Juma
prayer together Saturday; he added, quoting the Tablig
Jamat
organizing committee.
A total of 3,733 foreigners from 54 countries participated
in this
year’s Ijtema.
At least 127 couples had marriages solemnized without
dowry in the Ijtema,
Tin Soe said, according to Tablig
Jamat.
More than 15,000 security personnel, including 6,500 police
and 1,000
troops of Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB), were deployed in the area to
maintain law and order. The law
agencies arrested 127 people for fraud
and pick-pocketing in the area. A
man about 65 years old died on
Friday, apparently of cardiac arrest, on
the Ijtema grounds. Three
other people received serious burn
injuries while cooking when a
kerosene stove suddenly burst, and
40 others became ill and were sent
to nearby hospitals for medical
treatment, Tin Soe said after asking a
duty police officer.
Maulana M. Mostakim
from
lecturers in the Ijtema, said A. Karim, who
participated in the Ijtema.
The government agencies concerned arranged special bus,
train and
ferry services for the Ijtema participants
#END#
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