Visiting the Rohingya, Burma’s Hidden Population
Posted by nyein in 7:26 pm, under Uncategorized | Comments Off
‘Sorry,’ I was told, ‘but there are no Rohingya here.’ I was mystified. From everything that I had heard about this persecuted Muslim minority, the Rohingya come from western Burma’s isolated Arakan State. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, who speak a dialect similar to that of Bengalis from neighboring Bangladesh, have fled the brutality of Burma’s military regime by escaping their Buddhist-majority homeland for lives as illegal immigrants. The ruling junta has denied the Rohingya some of the most basic human rights — no citizenship, no freedom of movement, no marriage without permission. In January, their plight made headlines when Thai forces reportedly towed hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople who made it to Thai territorial waters back out to sea in leaky vessels with little food or water. Some are now missing and presumed dead. The Rohingyas’ situation is so acute that they were a major topic of discussion at last week’s summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
French Minister of state and human rights visits Burmese refugee camp in nother Thailand
Posted by nyein in 5:04 pm, under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
French Minister Rama Yade aged 34 meets Burmese refugees in Thailand she also meets human rights defenders of Thailand.
Reforestation in Burma draws private investors
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Moscow. Mar 12, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. A 30 year plan for reforestation has been drawn up in Burma. The plan invites companies from the private sector, both national and international to invest in the country’s developing woodlands, as Xinhua news agency informed Lesprom Network.
Among the international companies, Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has introduced a project worth of $1.5 million to improve rehabilitation capacity of the deforested Nyaung U region, while a Japanese company, Kokusai Kogyo Co., has offered to provide consultant services for an a forestation project in the same dry zone under a grant aid assistance worth 61million yens (nearly $500 thousand).
Myanmar sees 25-fold rise in amphetamine seizures
Posted by nyein in 4:11 pm, under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
YANGON, Myanmar: Law enforcement officials in Myanmar seized more than 1.3 million methamphetamine tablets last month, a 25-fold increase over January’s total, a report said Thursday.
The state-run Myanma Ahlin daily reported that police, military and customs officials in February seized about 1,300 pounds (630 kilograms) of assorted narcotic drugs and drug-making chemicals including almost 840 pounds (380 kilograms) of opium from which heroin is derived and more than 1.3 million methamphetamine tablets.
