Freedom News Group

Why Obama Will Meet with a Leader of Burma’s Junta

Posted by nyein in Politics on 17. Nov, 2009 | 0 Comments

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Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009
By Hannah Beech
Among the many hands that Barack Obama will likely shake on his inaugural trip to Asia as U.S. President will be that of a soft-spoken general [...]

Myanmar diplomat: Junta may free Suu Kyi for poll

Posted by nyein in News, Politics on 10. Nov, 2009 | 0 Comments

By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
Monday, November 9, 2009
(11-09) 05:53 PST SINGAPORE, (AP) –
Myanmar’s military-ruled government may release pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi soon, so she can play a role in next year’s general elections, according to a senior Myanmar diplomat.

Burma’s junta in a vise

Posted by nyein in Politics on 03. Nov, 2009 | 0 Comments

from the November 01, 2009 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1101/p12s01-wogn.html
Next year’s elections push ruling generals to contain dissidents and quell insurgencies – without annoying China.
By Simon Montlake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Bangkok, Thailand

The military junta of Burma (Myanmar) has been busy consolidating control ahead of 2010 elections. Last month it upheld a sentence giving opposition [...]

Myanmar: U.S. Delegation to Visit

Posted by nyein in Politics on 22. Oct, 2009 | 0 Comments

By REUTERS
Published: October 21, 2009
The United States will send a fact-finding delegation to Myanmar, formerly Burma, as part of an exploratory dialogue with that country’s military junta,

Law professor testifies before Senate committee on Burma, urges constitutional change

Posted by nyein in Politics on 02. Oct, 2009 | 0 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 2, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Facing the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor David C. Williams urged the federal government not to relax sanctions on the Burmese military regime — the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) — until demonstrable progress can be shown [...]

Elder of Burmese Opposition Grapples With Election Dissonance

Posted by nyein in Politics on 30. Sep, 2009 | 0 Comments

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: September 29, 2009
YANGON, Myanmar — U Win Tin, once Myanmar’s longest- serving political prisoner, was tormented, tortured and beaten by his captors in the notorious Insein Prison for nearly two decades. Now, at 80, he faces a new kind of torment: watching colleagues from his political party decide whether to [...]

Daughters of ex-Myanmar PMs ‘to join new party’

Posted by nyein in Politics on 16. Sep, 2009 | 0 Comments

YANGON (AFP) – The daughters of two former Myanmar prime ministers are aiming to join a new political party that is being set up to take part in next year’s elections, organisers said Tuesday.
The planned Democratic Party is being established by a veteran politician once the ruling junta passes a party political registration law [...]

An ‘Election’ Burma’s People Don’t NeedAn ‘Election’ Burma’s People Don’t Need

Posted by nyein in Politics on 12. Sep, 2009 | 0 Comments

By U Win Tin (Washinton Post)
Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Much attention has been focused on Sen. James Webb’s recent visit to my country and his meetings with Senior Gen. Than Shwe and incarcerated Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. I understand Webb’s desire to seek a meaningful dialogue with the Burmese ruling authorities. [...]

Webb plans to hold hearing on Myanmar

Posted by nyein in Politics on 11. Sep, 2009 | 0 Comments

Published: Sept. 10, 2009 at 4:57 PM
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who just returned from a two-week trip to Southeast Asia, says he plans to hold a hearing on U.S. relations with Myanmar.

Suu Kyi’s party ‘hopeful for release’

Posted by nyein in Politics on 11. Sep, 2009 | 0 Comments

September 8, 2009

The party of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday it was hopeful that she would be unconditionally released after a court agreed to hear an appeal against her recent conviction.

The pagoda’s collapse and the Burmese junta

Posted by nyein in Politics, Uncategorized on 02. Jun, 2009 | 0 Comments

At least two people are found dead and a hundred people reported injured on Saturday, May 30^th, due to the collapse of Danok pagoda, an ancient Buddhist site in Rangoon, Myanmar. The pagoda had been damaged by the Cyclone Nargis last spring – which took the lives of at least 140,000 Burmese – and was under renovation when the pagoda fell. The leader of the military junta Than Shwe had just recently participated in a ceremony at the holy site.

Some Burmese believe the tragedy to be a bad omen that foreshadows further disasters in their country. Proponents argue that these omens have occurred in history. For example, an insane man destructed the statue of Brahman at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok March 2006. Later that year in September, a military coupe ousted the corrupt yet popular Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which leaves a legacy of political turmoil that is still present in Thailand today.

Aung San Suu Kyi (left) remains unwavering in her democratic quest for the Burmese (AP Photo/David Longstreath, File)

No omens came more disturbing than what happened in China in May 1989, during which millions of peaceful protesters in Beijing and other parts of China asked the Communist Party to fight corruption and to allow freedom of press and speech. On May 23^rd 1989, three young men from the Hunan province – the ancestral home of Chairman Mao Zedong – threw paint at his gigantic image hanging outside of the Forbidden City. Dark clouds quickly filled the sky soon after the vandalism occurred, bringing turbulent wind and the unusual summer hail.

The biggest man-made disaster in modern Chinese history soon followed the presage. In order to crack down the demonstration, behind-the-scene dictator Deng Xiaoping and Premier Li Peng ordered the Chinese Liberation Army to respond to the protests on Tianmen Square with hail of bullets. The decision interred more than three thousand innocent people in the city, most of whom were shot dead and crushed by tanks between June 3^rd and 4^th 1989. The “June 4^th Massacre” remains a taboo in China, and its government has blocked any pertaining information from Chinese netizens.

Many Burmese will not find political uproar a surprise. Even without the collapse of the pagoda, many can still see the imminence of insurgencies in Burma. An American man’s decision to sneak into the abode of Aung Saan Su Kyi – the only surviving Nobel Peace Prize winner without the freedom of mobility – has given an excuse for the junta to persecute her. The junta sees this as a golden opportunity to put Su Kyi behind bars as her house arrest order expires.

The Burmese people and analysts have both predicted that Aung Saan Su Kyi will be imprisoned. This possible outcome will likely to spark a series of protests and demonstrations that might result in another “Saffron Revolution”.

During the mean time, the Burmese military is in search of the diamond which Than Shwe had put on the top of the pagoda, while abandoning their fellow citizens’ hearts that are a thousand times more precious. A government that cannot captivate the trust and loyalty of its people is doomed to destruction, and this is only a matter of time. Allowing its people to enjoy freedom and putting a halt to political persecution remains the only pragmatic solution for the junta to get out from the quagmire.

Author: Nelson Ho

What the U.N. Can’t Ignore in Burma

Posted by nyein in Politics on 02. Jun, 2009 | 0 Comments

By Pedro Nikken and Geoffrey Nice
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The trial of the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, has once again catapulted events in Burma onto the front pages of newspapers around the globe. The leader of Burma’s struggle for human rights and democracy has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after an American citizen swam across a lake and broke into her home last month. Heads of state from Asia and the West, celebrities, and U.N. leaders such as human rights chief Navi Pillay have responded strongly, demanding not only an end to the trial in Burma’s kangaroo courts but the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.