Wednesday, 30 June 2010 15:41 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Canadian Friends of Burma has called on the government of Canada to investigate reports first made by Mizzima that Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines violated Canadian sanctions by allowing its 50 per cent stake in Burma’s largest mine, the Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company Limited (MICCL), to be sold to junta cronies closely connected with Chinese business interests late last year.
CFOB executive director Tin Maung Htoo told Mizzima his organisation was also calling on the Canadian...
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
15 Burmese workers detained in Bangkok unrest
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 17:12 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Fifteen Burmese migrant workers were detained during Thailand’s recent political unrest, according to the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, an NGO based in Bangkok.
After the Thai government crackdown against the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (red-shirt) rally that had paralysed central Bangkok, the Thai police department said 13 of the 417 red-shirt detainees were Burmese, but based on the latest information obtained by the NGO, the number held was 15.
Ten...
Publishers fear delays by new censor board
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 19:24 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Publishers in Burma have expressed concern over the formation of new censorship teams under the junta’s tough media watchdog fearing even further difficulties for their publications under a regime already infamous for its stranglehold on the press.
The media is concerned over potential publishing delays after system changes at the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (censor board) – under the Ministry of Information – at Bahan Township, Rangoon. Publications were censored by...
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Hoteliers allowed to import ‘sightseeing’ cars – at a price
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 18:48 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese authorities are allowing hoteliers to import “tourist sightseeing vehicles”, holding a lottery among proprietors for permits to import a total of 200 cars for the purpose, a hoteliers’ association spokesman said yesterday.
Burma’s auto sector is tightly controlled by the ruling junta, with a quota of only a few thousand cars to be imported each year, high import tariffs and high permit fees.
The objective in allowing the import of the sightseeing vehicles was to revive tourism...
Put Burmese regime on trial at ICC, People’s Court urges
Tuesday, 29 June 2010 23:46 Salai Han Thar San
New Delhi (Mizzima) – A “People’s Court” in Japan passed its verdict on Monday to put the Burmese military regime on trial at the International Criminal Court for its crimes against women in Burma.
The verdict was reached during a mock trial at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, after a five-member panel of experienced judges heard the testimony of four victims from Burma and arguments from prosecution and defence counsels.
“The judges passed eight verdicts during the court’s session, including...
Monday, June 28, 2010
EU cancels visit after request to meet Suu Kyi denied
Monday, 28 June 2010 21:48 Perry Santanachote
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A scheduled European Union high-level visit to Burma was cancelled recently after the Burmese ruling junta denied a request from the EU Presidency Council to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
German ambassador to Burma, Julius Georg Luy, representing the EU presidency currently held by Spain, had on June 15 asked State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Foreign Affairs Minister Nyan Win in Naypyidaw for a meeting with Suu Kyi, the world’s most well-known political...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Chinese arms maker’s copper mine deal raises queries over Canadian stake
Sunday, 27 June 2010 12:34 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – One of China’s biggest arms makers signed a contract with a Burmese junta-controlled entity this month involving “co-operation” in a Monywa copper mine, raising serious questions over the status of Canadian miner Ivanhoe’s holdings in the town northwest of Mandalay and whether Burma sanctions have been violated.
Defence contractor China North Industries Corporation (Norinco), one of the Chinese military’s biggest suppliers, disclosed in a press release that in the first week...
Friday, June 25, 2010
No big policy shifts from new Australian PM, activists say
Friday, 25 June 2010 18:48 Kyaw Mya
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burmese activists in Australia are not expecting any big foreign policy shifts on Burma, they said, after Julia Gillard was sworn in as the country’s first woman prime minister, vowing to bring changes to the government on the domestic front.
Labor Party incumbent Kevin Rudd stepped aside for his former deputy Gillard to take power early yesterday in an apparent bid to save face ahead of a party leadership vote he was assured he would lose.
It was a speedy exit for the first Labor prime...
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Junta poll watchdog bans party marches, slogans
Thursday, 24 June 2010 11:35 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s electoral watchdog has banned marching in procession, holding flags, chanting slogans or any act urging supporters to protest against the ruling government, further tightening the junta’s stranglehold on public space ahead of upcoming national elections.
The bans came in a Union Election Commission 14-point directive dated June 21, and was followed by criticism from political parties preparing to contest in elections to be held this year. Parties must have at least 1,000 members...
USDP uses coercive canvassing tactics in Mon State
Thursday, 24 June 2010 11:23 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The party created by Burma’s ruling military junta is employing coercive measures to recruit new members while canvassing in Chaungsone Township, Mon State, according to residents.
On an election campaign tour this week, Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) township organiser Myo Min Hlaing’s team ordered village peace and development council chairmen to assemble 50 people from each village to tell them to vote for the USDP, led by Prime Minister Thein Sein, a resident...
World Cup kicks traditional dancers off stage
Thursday, 24 June 2010 12:05 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese traditional dance troupes have had to postpone shows until the World Cup ends, putting about 2,000 performers temporarily out of work, dancers said yesterday.
The 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which will finish on July 11, has taken attention away from other forms of entertainment, forcing traditional theatre companies to shut down to avoid financial losses. The closures have also affected, backstage personnel and anyone else linked to such shows.
Forty-eight theatre...
31 Rohingya make day 10 of hunger strike in Australia
Thursday, 24 June 2010 15:15 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Thirty-one Rohingya refugees in a detention centre in Darwin, Australia are entering the 10th day of a hunger strike today in protest at the Australian government’s delay in processing their asylum claims, an average of nine months after their boats’ interception.
The president of the Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia, Kyaw Maung Shamsul Islam told Mizzima in a Burmese-language phone interview conducted late on Wednesday that three of the protesters had been taken...
Starting trade union unlawful, police say
Thursday, 24 June 2010 23:36 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Aspiring trade unionists had their request to form a national industrial and farm workers union flatly rejected yesterday by police carrying the response from junta leader Senior General Than Shwe, according to the workers’ representatives.
Rangoon Division Western District Police Colonel Aung Daing met seven workers’ representatives at his station and told them forming a trade union would be “unlawful” and that police would take action if they went ahead.
Twenty-two trade union...
Aide to US Senator John Kerry meets NLD leaders
Thursday, 24 June 2010 12:15 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – US Senator John Kerry’s assistant Robin Lerner met senior members of the National League for Democracy on Tuesday to discuss the party’s stance on upcoming national elections, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Mizzima.
Lerner, a counsel to the Senate foreign relations committee who arrived in Burma on June 19, met NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo and central executive committee members Nyan Win, Nyunt Wai, Than Tun, Hla Pe, Han Tha Myint, May Win Myint and Win Myint. According to Nyan Win, the one-hour...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Gold prices hit fresh high
Wednesday, 23 June 2010 12:18 Salai Han Thar San
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The price of gold on the Burmese market hit a fresh high today, at 658,000 Kyats (around US$658) per tical (one tical equals 15 grams), after last month’s record of 641,000 Kyats, according to traders in Rangoon.
The trend though was not unique to Burma, the traders said.
“The main reason is the increase of gold prices in the global market,” a gold shop owner on 29th Street in Pabedan Township, Rangoon said. “So the Burmese gold market has shown sharp fluctuations as...
Burmese mission official steps on Suu Kyi’s ‘face’
Wednesday, 23 June 2010 15:55 Perry Santanachote
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Protests outside Burma’s permanent mission to the UN in New York were victim to junta violence of a singular kind at the weekend as a staff member made a rare appearance to enter the building, but not before putting his foot on the face of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi displayed on a poster.
Burmese activists often rally in front of the mission at 10 East 77th Street, Manhattan in continuing calls for the release of Suu Kyi and the more than 2,100 political prisoners...
25-inch Burmese boy reaches for world record
Wednesday, 23 June 2010 16:37 Nyein Thu
Rangoon (Mizzima) – At a mere 25 inches (63.5 centimetres) tall, Zaw Bala Aung had lofty dreams of breaking a Guinness World Record, but at 10 years old, he will not officially qualify for the world’s shortest man for another eight years.
The boy, also known as Balagyi, was born in a Burmese village called Htanpoutkone in Kyaukpadaung Township on March 10, 2000, the second child of four and the only son for parents Win Lwin and Khin Hla. However, he is the only one of his siblings with primordial dwarfism...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Migrant workers in fear amid Thai crackdown
Tuesday, 22 June 2010 12:40 Usa Pichai
Samut Sakhon, Thailand (Mizzima) – Migrant workers in Thailand are living in fear amid a police crackdown over the past week that has led to the arrests of more than a thousand migrants in several regions around the country, some said yesterday.
Nida, a Mon worker in the Mahachai district of Samut Sakhon, a province neighbouring Bangkok on the southern seaboard, told Mizzima today that her family members and friends who work in Thailand were afraid to leave their homes.
“I have a working document but...
NLD top leaders take roadshow to grass roots
Tuesday, 22 June 2010 16:56 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Leaders of the National League for Democracy are conducting a roadshow of states and divisions to meet grass-roots members, explain policies and listen to the challenges they are facing since the party was declared illegal and disbanded by the ruling military junta early last month after deciding against registering under “unjust” electoral laws, a senior leader said.
The tour comes at the request of NLD general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, central executive committee member Ohn...
Monday, June 21, 2010
Nucleolus of nuclear Burma
Monday, 21 June 2010 13:04 Dr. Tint Swe
From time to time Burma draws media attention providing news of military coups, people’s uprisings, news of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the like. The gross human rights violations, the state-sponsored forced labor practices and the use of child soldier issues are not appealing enough to create outside attention. Condemnations and paper resolutions by world bodies did not make many headlines either. But the last piece of nuclear news is like volcanic ashes spreading over the unwarranted preparation of the 2010...
World Cup fans angered at telecast failures
Monday, 21 June 2010 13:17 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese football fans are up in arms, but they are not doing the Mexican wave, after failure by local stations to broadcast World Cup football matches on consecutive days last week, according to would-be viewers.
The military-backed television station Myawaddy and the state-run MRTV have broadcast two matches and one match respectively each day of the soccer tournament in South Africa from its start on June 11, but from June 16, Myawaddy has encountered technical problems and failed...
Opposition alliance marks Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday
Monday, 21 June 2010 13:40 Perry Santanachote
Bangkok (Mizzima) – The Ten Alliances of Burma, a movement for democracy and ethnic rights, joined the people around the world in marking opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday, two days early. Activists and friends of the opposition gathered on Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand to honour “The Lady” and her vision for...
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