Date:
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(1) Diarrhea outbreaks in Kalay
Prision
(2) More aftershock deaths reported
(3) Shelling increased on
(4)
(5) Sub-town PDC Chairman kicked out after meeting
NMSP members
(6) Surrendered Burmese Insurgents Entered
(7)
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Diarrhea outbreaks in Kalay Prision
===================================
For over two months diarrhea outbreaks in Kalay Prison have killed at
least one person every week, according to a former inmate.
"Three or four inmates died every day in November, but now less than one
or two a week," said Rambo, a Chin ethnic national recently released
from that prison.
The dead bodies are being buried at the Mawleik village cemetery near
the prison. Although they didn't know the exact amount of bodies,
villagers confirmed the death tolls were rising.
The former inmate said the prison authorities refuse to allow outsiders
to take relief to the diarrhea patients, and patients were being sent to
Kalay town hospital when there was significant low blood pressure.
"When they sent patients to the hospital, they brought digging tools
because patients died on the way before they got to the hospital. They
buried the bodies immediately," said Rambo.
He alleged the current prison chief had sold the medicine for the
prisoners and there were medicine shortages.
One hundred fifty inmates were released on Jan. 3 from Kalay prison to
mark Burma Independence day, but no political prisoners.
The freed inmates were set to finish their prison terms in 2005.
Over 1,000 prisoners are in Kalay prison and about 30 of them are
political prisoners.
+++++++++++
More aftershock deaths reported
===============================
King Cobra, S.H.A.N
A total of 13 earthquake deaths were reported by visitors and refugees
from southern
The deaths took place in Namzang, 62 miles east of Taunggyi on 26
December, the day
Richter scale aftershock at 08;00 (
in the township had caused buildings to collapse killing people that
were trapped inside the rubble.
Two of them were Pa Mon, 61, female, and her grandson, Sai Htoon Aung,
7, reported earlier by S.H.A.N. on 4 January, Tsunami quake kills two in
11 others were shopkeepers and customers in the business area of the
town. Their names, however, are not available.
A day later, Captain Zaw Win Naing, Commander of Company 3, Infantry
Battalion 66, came to warn the townspeople "to keep quiet" about the
deaths. "We will ask the government for compensation of your losses," he
was quoted as saying, "but if there is any disclosure of the event
outside, the blame will be on you."
"I don't understand why they are trying to cover up the deaths as though
it were they who had killed them," said a woman trader from the
township. "It was like when they massacred hundreds of people 7-8 years
ago."
According to Thai-based Shan Human Rights Foundation, a total of 664
people were slaughtered by the Burma Army, 159 alone in Namzang, during
the 1996-98 forced relocations in
southern
The 108 Buddha Pagoda, built by the Army near the Namzang airfield, was
also damaged. "We need contributions from you to renovate it," military
officers told the townspeople.
=========================================================
Navatha Kuria/Mizzima News
January 14, 20005
Guwahati: Energy ministers from
principle to corporate the gas exploration and overland pipeline
project on Thursday in
“The government of
statement of the energy ministers of the three countries.
The statement was issued after a two-day meeting of India Petroleum
Minister Mani Shankar
Aiyar with
and Mineral Resources AKM Mosharraf Hossain and Burmese Energy Minister
Brigadier General Lun Thi at the Burmese capital.
The three neighboring countries also agreed to cooperate in exploring
and drilling in the offshore
natural gas field in western
also agreed to establish a Techno-Commercial Working Committee with due
representation from the concerned countries and to exchange relevant
information promoting energy surveys and developing upstream and
downstream projects.
The gas pipeline will run through the Northeastern Indian states of
Mizoram and Tripura before entering
supplied from Arakan
province in
The government in
million in transit fees from the project.
++++++++
Sub-town PDC Chairman kicked out after meeting NMSP
members
===========================================================
Independent Mon News Agency
The Burmese Army’s Tactical Commander has dismissed a Ye Township,
position after he met with a senior leader of the New Mon State Party
(NMSP).
Khaw-zar village headman Nai Hlike was replaced with a retired soldier
of the Burmese Army after he voluntarily received NMSP Tavoy district
officials and NMSP education authorities on Dec. 24.
“Now he was already kicked out by Tactical Commander Col-Nyi Nyi when
I again met him recently,” an NMSP senior member said.
“He told me that the commander met him after he met us and asked him why
he met us. He was accused supporting the Mon rebel group (NMSP), which
is likely supporting the opposition to the government. That was why the
commander kicked him out and did a replacement,” explained the NMSP
senior member.
Khaw-zar has more than 500 households and the Burmese Army created it
as a sub-town in mid-2004 to control the whole area. The Burmese army
confiscated more than 3,000 acres of land and put three battalions in
the area. Before creating the sub-town, the Burmese Army put in the No.
3 Tactical Command to launch military operation against a Mon splinter
group (HRP), which has activities in the area. During 2003-2004 military
operations, gross human rights violations such as sexual violations
against women, summary execution, conscription of
forced labor and cruel mistreatment of civilians were committed by soldiers.
The NMSP had influence in this area more than two decades before it
agreed to a cease-fire with the
military regime in
cease-fire, NMSP authorities and their armed faction, the Mon National
Liberation Army (MNLA), were banned from launching any political and
military activities in the area due to the agreement.
The NMSP now faces difficulty entering the area to provide social
services such as health care and education and judicial affairs
An NMSP local court in Aleskan
village in
by the Burmese Army and three NMSP members were arrested. Accordingly to
senior NMSP members, three NMSP members were sentenced to one-year
imprisonment in
++++++++
Surrendered Burmese Insurgents Entered
=================================================
Kaladan Press
Maungdaw, Jan-13: Seven members of the Democratic Party of Arakan (DPA),
who had surrendered to State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) troops
Dec. 21, reentered
in
DPA members, including 100 members of one family, surrendered to the
SPDC troops based in Platwa township in
Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, with 20 modern guns, he added.
The surrendered DPA members were moved to
surrender and placed at a monastery three miles from Maungdaw. They were
not allowed to move freely without permission of the SPDC authorities
and had to work for the troops. So, they felt uneasy and it was like a
prison for them, said a Rakhine from Cox’s Bazar, who requested that his
name not be mentioned.
The seven DPA members were not originally from
nhabitants of Bandarban District, Chittagong Hill Tracts, and
Bangladeshi citizens. Many Bangladeshi Rakhines or Marmas got
memberships in the DPA while it was
being formed on
added.
On Jan. 2, escaping from the monastery, the seven Bangladeshi DPA
members fled to
people of Aung Bala
model village in
were arrested by the Burmese military and put in jail, he continued.
The DPA members were forcibly collecting money from local people,
robbing Bangladeshi banks and abducting local businessmen, and also
killed Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) armed forces with the cooperation of
Bangladeshi DPA members while they were present on
another Rakhine from Cox’s Bazar who also preferred not his name not be
mentioned.
According to a Rakhine
intellectual from
in Bandarban District of Chittagong Hill Tracts prefer to call them
Marmars or Rakhines, but Rakhine people living in Rangamati and
Khagrachari Districts of
and claim they are descendants of
and Rakhine groups are obligated to fight for the freedom of Arakan,
because they received help in settling
from Arakan’s Kings in an ancient period.
When asked why the Bangladeshis surrendered to the SPDC troops, the
intellectual said, “It is clear they hoped to get more facilities from
the SPDC authorities.”
The DPA is a member organization of the National Council of
the
of Burma (NCUB) and the Arakan National Council (ANC), which was formed
recently. The DPA is also a group split from the National United Party
of Arakan (NUPA).
++++++++++
===============================
Kaladan Press
on Foreign Ministry, observing the “Look East” policy Jan. 10, commented
that it has been put on paper, not into practice. So, it asked the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate steps to cement ties with the
According to a report in The Daily Star Jan. 11, the committee
expressed dissatisfaction over the present status of relations with
blasted the ministry’s handling of
the
Referring to the move to open a
was later shelved, a ruling party lawmaker said at the meeting "it is
unfortunate that relations with
issue."
Regarding the “Look East” policy, members of the committee said there
was no real progress in the government’s move to strengthen relations
with the
was virtually no response from
Though Communication Minister Nazamal
Huda and
Major General Hla Myint Swe laid the foundation stone for the Asian
highway, nearly one year ago, in practical terms no construction works
are being started.
There has been a cloud of misunderstanding and cooling of relations
between
act of a Bangladeshi Survey Engineering team that returned home
immediately without any response from
the
The new administration body of
of businessmen in mid-December, mostly upsetting border trade between
the two neighboring countries,
that since the very beginning of the border trade, non-cooperation from
Burmese authorities has been affecting normal trade relations of the two
countries, sources said.
***End***
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