DATE:
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(1) KNU not invited for Thinggyan (In Burmese)
(2) Vice Ser Gen Maung Aye travels
and gives speech at
(3) MON LITERACY TRAINING CLOSING
CEREMONY HELD FOR MORE THAN 10,000 STUDENTS
(4) FOREIGN TRADE OFFICE IN IMPHAL
TO BOOST INDO-BURMA TRADE
(5) ARAKANESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL IS
KNOCKING AT THE DOOR
(6) SSA SAYS WAR WITH WA INEVITABLE
(7) TWO BANGLADESHI ARAKANESE WOMEN
ARRESTED FOR DEALING IN HEROIN
(8) MORE RICH LAND TAKEN BY JUNTA
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Note: For Burmese Language Stories
Please Read in www.bnionline.net
***
MON LITERACY TRAINING CLOSING CEREMONY HELD FOR MORE
THAN 10,000 STUDENTS
Independent Mon News Agency
A closing ceremony for the
13th annual dry season Mon literacy training,
led by Rev. Palita, a senior
monk, was held April 10 in
Mudon township
for more than 10, 000 students. About 5.000 people from
villages attended the ceremony in which outstanding students
from Mudon
Township received their
certificates, followed by Mon traditional dancing
and songs by entertainers.
Rev. Palita,
the organizing committee chairperson, explained in a speech
the historic background of the Mon language, used in
stone scripture for
800 years, and in Mon
kingdom administration in the 15th and 16th
centuries A.D.
Noting that after the Burman
king annexed the Mon kingdom in 1757 during
the
people that they must maintain their literature and
language, well-known
in the past.
After celebrating the
closing ceremony at the township level, respective
village tract organizing committees held a similar ceremony
at their
village tract. Nyung-gone
village tract, about three miles south of Mudon
town, held the ceremony today.
Last year's ceremony was in Kamawet, the largest village in the township.
Students from all 11village
tracts in the township attended the ceremony
for about 10, 000 students 5 to 18 years old completing
training, most
learning to read and write Mon.
“The objective of Mon
literacy training is to have children be to read and
write Mon language. If they know how to read and
write they can
understand Mon history, and respect the value of Mon literature
and
culture. Now, some Mon children do not know Mon
history well,” said Nai
Aung Moe, a student's
father.
“The dry season Mon literacy
training is arranged only at a specific time.
We do not offer it all
the time. So students are so willing to learn,”
Mr. Moe aded.
Mon Literature and Culture
Committee chairman Nai Tun, from
Three-Pagoda-Pass border
town, said the general objective of training is
to protect Mon literature and language from disappearing,
and let Mon know
how to read and write Mon language.
Tun added that the organizing committee in
have similar training for Mon children and parents on
rubber plantations
and farms far from training locations. They will provide
textbooks,
stationary and teachers.
About 63,000 students have
been involved in dry season Literacy Training
in entire Mon areas including 16 townships in
Division
and Tenasserim Division. About
1,000 teachers, including Buddhist
monks, are appointed as ‘trainers’ for the year.
Mon Literacy Training can
also be arramnged in Mon communities in
+++++
FOREIGN TRADE OFFICE IN IMPHAL TO BOOST INDO-BURMA
TRADE
Surajit Khaund
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
Apr.11, 2005
In a bid to give a boost to
swelling trade with
Ministry has opened a
foreign trade office in Manipur, bordering
The office, set up yesterday
at Imphal, Manipur's
capital, was
necessitated by flourishing Indo-Burma trade in recent years and
quick
disposal of export and import proposals.
The new office would look
after foreign trade, particularly with
other Southeast Asian countries, MK Mero,
foreign trade, told a Mizzima
correspondent.
"During the last couple
of years, border trade with
been increasing substantially and we are targeting more
in the coming
days," he said.
Asked about the Manipur
government's proposal for importing rice from
matter, keeping in view the growing demand for
Burmese rice," he added.
Despite
threats from militants, border trade between
been on a gradual rise. However, export growth is still
poor compared to
import growth. According to official statistics, export
growth is only 7
percent compared to 32 percent import growth.
+++++
ARAKANESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL IS KNOCKING AT THE DOOR
Narinjara News
Akyab, April 11
The Arakanese
new year festival, Thun Gram,
will be held on April 17, and
the Arakanese population of Arakan state and
Thun Gram is an Arakanese word
descended from Pali, the Prakrit
language
of the Buddhist Scriptures, which translates as “period
of transition”
from the old to the new year. According to the Arakanese calendar, the
current year, 1366, ends on April 16. The new
year, 1367, will begin on
April 17,
New Year's Day.
According to Arakanese tradition, during the final three days of the
ending year, water festival celebrations are held in towns
and villages
throughout Arakan state.
In the period running up to
the water festival, Arakanese people visit
Buddhist
monasteries to bathe the many Buddha statues in perfumed water.
This is intended to cleanse
the images. In Arakanese culture, people can
begin the water festival by throwing water at each other
only after this
cleaning process is complete.
Additionally, old people
visit Buddhist temples and monasteries to seek
Kutho (virtuous action) by repeating the Buddhist precepts
recited by
monks each year at this time.
The water festival is a good
opportunity for unmarried young men to
attract the attention of their sweethearts by throwing water
at them. At
this time parents are not entitled to interfere in the
affairs of their
sons and daughters.
This year at the water
festival in Akyab alone, at least 80 women’s water
games societies and over 100 men’s water-throwing clubs
will participate.
There will also be a large
number of dance shows, with decorated floats.
According to Akyab residents, the water festival will have many
performances of Thun Gram songs, music
and dance. They hope the sound will
spread, encouraging people everywhere to join happily in
the New Year
celebrations.
At this time, Arakanese people can forget all problems of their everyday
lives as they look forward to their good life in the
coming New Year.
+++++
SSA SAYS WAR WITH WA INEVITABLE
S.H.A.N
Negotiations between the Wa and Shans broke down yesterday
after
explanations given by the Shan regarding the Wa complaints were
turned
down by the Wa, said Col Yawdserk,
leader of Shan State Army "South."
The Wa
brought four charges against SSA "South" to the meeting near
Maesai, in
abduction of eight people under Wa protection in February,
attacking Wa
convoys, and seizure of a watercourse used by Wa bases on
the Thai-Burma
border.
According to unidentified
Shan representatives, they disclaimed all
responsibility for the first two allegations, but said the last two
could
be true, as the SSA has been defending itself against
Wa attacks since
March 13.
"Panghsang
needs to listen to both warring parties before making any
decision," a Shan representative was reported as telling
his Wa
counterpart.
"The Wa were not
satisfied and cut short our meeting," said Col Yawdserk.
"So it looks like we
are in for yet another scrap before we can have a
chance to sit together again and talk shop."
The Wa
have in recent days deployed about 1,000 more troops in Mongton
township, besides 700-800 from the 171st Military Region
facing the SSA
opposite Maehongson's Pang Mapha district. "For the time being, troops
from Panghsang Central are only
responsible for security behind the
lines," he explained. "They have yet to take
part in the fighting."
The 48-year-old leader, in
the resistance since he joined at 17, also
conveyed his regrets to the Thai government for all
inconveniences
hostilities with the Wa might bring to the kingdom and its
people along
the border.
"This is a fight that I
dearly wish to avoid but cannot," he added,
"because
we know no matter who loses between the Wa and us, the Burma Army
will be the winner."
The Karen National
State Army
"South," the three major armed groups along the border, have
"for
the sake of
The SSA has already engaged
in several encounters with the United Wa State
Army's 171st Military
Region, commanded by Wei Hsuehkang,
since March 13.
The latest major assaults by
the Wa took place on April 3-4.
Since then the Wa had been reinforcing itself, according to both Shan and
Thai
military sources.
+++++
TWO BANGLADESHI ARAKANESE WOMEN ARRESTED FOR DEALING
IN HEROIN
Narinjara News
Cox'sbazar, April 11
Two Bangladeshi Arakanese women have been arrested for heroin-dealing by
police in Cox's bazar, a southern
district town of
The arrest occurred on April
7, according to a Cox's bazar-based Bangali
newspaper report.
Acting on a tipoff, a narcotics control team raided the women's houses
in
the area, recovered the heroin and arrested them, police
sources said. But
one escaped from custody when they were sent to the
police department.
The heroin weighed about 5
grams. The narcotics department, however,
believes drug traffickers behind the operation possess a much
larger
amount of heroin.
According to police sources,
the two women have been involved in
heroin-dealing for many years, working with leaders of trafficking
rings
in the Cox's bazar area.
Police are now searching for
clues regarding other criminals involved in
the heroin trade, also seeking the route by which the
drugs flow into
Bangladeshi authorities have
never stated the origin of the drug route,
even though they have often seized drugs from the areas.
A local Arakanese
community source stated that as Arakanese people are
now
becoming poorer everyday in
becoming involved in drug smuggling and selling alcohol, due
to lack of
community development for minority Arakanese
women living in the area.
+++++
MORE RICH LAND TAKEN BY JUNTA
Kaowao:
Sources from Ye Township report
that several acres of land in southern Mon
State were confiscated by
the State Peace and Development Council, or
SPDC, for
new military development.
The Burmese military regime
is planning to build a new army base on the
British mountain (Day Halae in Mon), the site of old British battalions
during World War 11, the source said. The plan to
confiscate the whole
area will affect about six hundred plots of gardens and
plantations
belonging to local villagers.
“It’s our ancestors’ land
and we have maintained it for many years. Now
they have brutally taken it from us. The New Mon
State Party has no voice
to speak for us,” said Ms. Mi Song from Durae, over the
phone to Kaowao
News.
“The land owners will be
allowed to travel to their farms to take the
products if they can pay 2,500 Kyats per acre to the Burma
Army,” a local
Mon politician said. He
further remarked that, “A land survey has been
conducted by the junta’s Township Land Registry and Survey
Department
since the last week of March.”
According to a retired
agricultural manager, there are over 15,000 acres
of plantations and gardens (horticulture) and about
67,000 acres of rice
fields in the Ye area.
The Secretary General of New
Mon State Party, Nai Hongsar, explained the
annexation of land, saying, “It’s a strategic area. From
the top of the
mountain, they can see all the ships and boats in the sea.”
Day Halae
is the highest mountain in the western Ye area, and it
attracts
many people due to its rich fertile soil, and because it
oversees the
Andaman sea
in the west.
Thailand-Burma border based
Human Rights Foundation of Monland released a
report in 2003 on land confiscation in the Mon areas after
the NMSP and
the Burmese military junta signed the cease-fire
agreement. According to
the report, over the six-year period alone, the junta
confiscated over
7780 acres of land with an
estimated value of Kyat 1,311 million from over
370
farmers in
SPDC has had a widespread
impact in
are found in Ye township.
***End***
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