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Date:
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(1) Suu Kyi to retain power if polls are held again
(2)
(3) Forced Labor On Tea
(4) Head of Nasaka
department indicted by local authority
(5) Two Burmese Smugglers Nabbed in
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* For Burmese Language stories please go
to the BNI webpage, www.bnionline.net
Suu Kyi to retain power if polls are held again
===============================================
Mizzima,
Guwahati: Aung San Suu Kyi has all the charisma needed to win a general
election in
The common people in
leadership qualities of Suu Kyi, who is presently under house arrest by
the dictators in
Rally.
Pradip Phanjoubam, editor of the "Imphal Free Press," elaborated in an
article, “Road to
really afraid to talk about Suu Kyi, “because mentioning the name of the
lady (Aung San Suu Kyi) will only invite serious trouble,” he told a
Mandalay-based Burmese. After his first-hand experience interacting with
local people in the second-largest
city in
they do not believe there is a chance of holding another fair election
in
He said local inhabitants had little hope that another general election
would be held under the military regime in the near future. “Maybe not
even in
requesting anonymity. “In this age of information, there is hardly
anybody willing to part with
information in
if the information is political in nature.
All become tightlipped if the query is about the lady most in
international news, Aung San Suu Kyi,” explained Phanjoubam. However, he
said, except for the forced amnesia about Suu Kyi, life otherwise is
very pleasantly normal in
“We did not stay long enough or travel widely enough to know the nuances
of dissident political undercurrents in the country. Otherwise, the
petty crime rate is low, although official corruption, we were told, is
notoriously high.
People of both genders, young and old, are out on the streets till late
into the night going about their everyday business and living out life
as they have always known it to be,” Pradip elaborated, adding that,
“contrary to expectation, missing throughout the
journey was the overbearing presence of the military. In fact, there is
much more olive green in the streets of Imphal or Kohima.”
“
fashion,” he said. “The manner in which the military regime recently
removed prime minister Khin Nyunt, a known moderate with too much ear
for protests from the West, is just an example. He was replaced by a
known hardliner with little sympathy for the pro-democracy movement, Soe
Win.”
“Democracy in
unless the pressures and sanctions on it come from its regional
neighbors first and foremost.
Developments in recent times definitely do not suggest this is about to
happen. Even
with its own strategic security and business interests in mind.”
++++++++++++++
Burma reduces value of the Straits
==================================
S.H.A.N,
The Straits of Malacca's importance to
been significantly reduced by
to use as well as improve its land routes, according to a senior
government official in
"In the past, the Straits had served as a lifeline to both counties,"
said the official, who wished to
remain unidentified. "For
Straits was its access to
its
countries for passage, their future has inescapably become intertwined
with ours."
to develop its dilapidated motorway, railway and waterway systems, he
said. In addition, while
to
(Dawei),
Kyaukhpyu.
"It can therefore be concluded that we will be able to withstand the
sanctions from the West for another 4-5 years," he said confidently,
"and now that we are on board together with our neighbors, when they get
richer, so will we."
1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, according to the Aug.
30
partnership, no amount of sanctions by the European Union and the United
States will alter the situation on the ground in
Gangantah Jha, a security expert and professor of International Studies
at
can afford to wait for democracy to
happen in
October issue of
The late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, a Shan scholar and leader, however,
offered a different slant on the question of sanctions. "What the SPDC
wants is not removal of sanctions, simply because it knows they are
totally ineffective.
What the SPDC wants is resumption of bilateral government-to-government
assistance and multilateral assistance from the global financial
institutions."
++++++++++++++
Seven Burmese troops killed, three captured, KNU says
=====================================================
Han Pai (Mizzima News)
Seven Burmese were killed and three captured, and seven porters were
saved by Karen rebels, and some arms were seized after a clash between
the Karen National Union, the strongest rebel group, and Burmese troops.
Pado Mann Shar, KNU spokesperson, said fighting broke out after Burmese
troops attacked KNU battalion 201, based in Ka Law Waw village, 30
kilometers south of the
Jan.11.
Mann Shar said the KNU seized two 60 mm rockets, two RPG-7s, 4 K3
assault rifles and nine small MaMa guns.
He said Burmese troops started bombing their base along the Thai-Burma
border Jan. 11 before the New Year celebration for Karen and
approached very close to the ceremony.
“The (SPDC) battalion numbers 356 and 230 harassed our ceremony and
approached even 1,000 yards closer. Everything was in disorder.
Villagers ran away,” Mann Shar said. “It should not be. Karen were happy
at the Karen New Year. They should not harass the celebration,.” he added.
It was learned that
celebration sites. The two parties got a “gentleman’s agreement” for a
cease-fire in
December 2003, brokered by former prime minister Gen. Khin Nyunt and
retired rebel leader Gen. Bo Mya. Khin Nyunt was purged last October
and several ethnic rebels groups fear that cease-fires with him and
Burmese troop attacks on ethnic armed groups also stoked the fire.
Burmese troops attacked a Karenni rebel group stronghold along the
Thai-Burma border close to Maehongsong, a Thai border town, since Jan.
9, according to reports. Mann Shar said that despite the attacks, the
KNU will maintain its policy toward talks. But some Karen leader were
disappointed with the current
generals in
Khin Nyunt was sacked and his replacement, Soe Win, is the destroyer of
peace,” KNU Colonel Nerda Mya
told Reuters.
++++++++++
Head of Nasaka department
indicted by local authority
=====================================================
Narinjara News,
The head of the Nasaka force in Arakan state, Lt-Col Aung Nwge, is
currently facing a lawsuit prosecuted by local SPDC authorities for his
involvement in a murder case.
“The police department of Maungdaw received an order from high-ranking
officials of the Western Command to collect evidence to prosecute him,”
said a teacher close to a Maungdaw police officer.
According to a police source, Aung Nwge was indirectly involved in a
murder case in 1993, when a Sergeant Soe Naing, from Light Infantry
Battalion 263, died after a car accident in
Following the accident, Aung Nwge informed the township magistrate that Soe
Naing was killed by a wild elephant while on the way to his house. Aung
Nwge had received a large bribe from the owner of the car, Zohil Armad,
and was an informant for the Nasaka Force, or Border Security Force.
Let-Col Aung Nwge’s business partnership with the car owner may have
provoked him to lie to the
of the case. Acting as head of the Nasaka Force at the time allowed
Zohil Armad many above-the-law privileges in both Maungdaw and
Buthidaung Townships.
A source said the unsatisfied parents of Soe Naing recently complained
to SPDC authorities regarding their son’s case, asking them to revisit it.
The police department is now preparing to prosecute Aung Nwge for
giving false information regarding Soe Naing’s death to the township court.
Car owner Zohil Armad was also arrested and was being interrogated by
police about the accident.
Aung Nwge was arrested by authorities on Dec, 21, along with another 12
Nasaka officials in both Maungdaw and
The fate of the arrested Nasaka officers is uncertain and their
situation dangerous due to the retaliation of SPDC officials, said a
local teacher.
++++++++++++++
Two Burmese Smugglers Nabbed in
==========================================
Kaladan, Cox’ Bazar, January 12:
them from a car recently, according to Shukur, who works at the Cox’s
Bazar Court.
Police arrested smugglers Zabir, 35, and Sallim, 32, both from Shwe
Zarr village in
medicines by car from Teknaf (
When they reached Cox’s Bazar with their goods, suspicious police
wanted to search the vehicle. At once, they started running and police
chased them. Finally two were arrested and three others escaped. Police
recovered many cartons of medicine from their car worth 200,000 taka.
The two arrestees were detained in the Cox’s Bazar jail, said a local
policeman.
The smugglers carried the medicines from
water route and proceeded to
police patrol team met them while they tried to transfer goods to
another vehicle after their arrival at Cox’s Bazar.
They carried Preactin tablets made
in
body weight in human beings and cattle. It is used mostly by women to
increase their weight. Cattle traders also use it to increase the
weight of their cattle.
The Muslim holy Eid-ul-Azha (festival of sacrifice) will becelebrated
Jan. 22; therefore, cattle traders want it very much. But many people in
medicine trader.
It is easy to carry large quantities because the tablets are put in
small packages of 1,000 tablets
that cost 900 taka in
sold for 1,200 taka. Smugglers make 300 taka per package.
Accordingly, the tablets have been smuggled into
amounts from
Burma-Bangladesh border on business.
Hormone-rich medicines made in
and Burmese indigenous medicines
are also being smuggled into
from
On the other hand, birth control medicines -- both tablets and
injections such as Depo, Combination 3 and 5, and Suky tablets, and
cough injections such as Canakort (made in
medicines for treatment of mentally ill persons, medicines which
stimulate sexual desire or potency and all sorts of other medicines are
smuggled into
shopkeeper in Teknaf.
***End***
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Burma News International is a network of nine exiled media groups
such as Mizzima News, Shan Herald Agency for News, Kao Wao News Group,
Khonumthung News Group, Narinjara News, Kaladan Press Network,
Independent Mon News Agency, Karenni Information
Network Group and Network Media Group.
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