Thai police continue to dispute cause of refugee camp fire

Saturaday, 30 March 2013 20:53 The Bangkok Post Several clues indicate that the cause of the fire that killed 37 people at Mae Surin refugee camp was arson, the district police chief insists. Mae Surin refugee camp after the fire on Friday, March 22, 2013. (PHOTO: TBC) Khun Yuam district police chief Pol Col Nitinart Wittayawuthikul says he stands by his remarks despite the fact that authorities...

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President’s Office refutes UN envoy allegations

Saturday, 30 March 2013 20:22 AFP Myanmar on Friday strongly rejected comments by a senior United Nations official linking the state with recent anti-Muslim riots that have left at least 40 people dead and seen mosques razed in several towns. Ye Htut The UN's special rapporteur on Myanmar human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana on Thursday said he had "received reports of state involvement in some...

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UK priest in bizarre blood ritual for Burma

Saturday, 30 March 2013 13:40 Mizzima News In one of the more bizarre protests against oil and gas investment in Myanmar in recent times, an English priest commemorated the Christian festival of Good Friday on March 29 by pouring his own blood over the floor of a petrol station before lying down to block the entrance. English vicars Fathers David Fudger and Keith Hebden outside Total petrol...

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Jimmy Carter to visit Myanmar

Friday, 29 March 2013 17:10 Mizzima News [Photo: The Carter Center] Former US President Jimmy Carter will come to Myanmar next week to explore ways to support the country's ongoing democratic transition. Jimmy Carter is leading members of the Carter Center, an NGO that he founded with his wife, around the world to encourage democracy and human rights. He is visiting Nepal ahead of his trip...

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Myanmar must take ‘bold steps’ to tackle unrest: UN envoy

Friday, 29 March 2013 16:03 Mizzima News Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana. UN Photo/Pierre-Michel Virot The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, on Friday issued a statement from Geneva expressing his “serious concerns” about the spread of violence between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Myanmar and urged the Thein Sein...

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Kachin human rights issues must be addressed

Friday, 29 March 2013 14:57 Rosie Gogan-Keogh As peace talks continue in the Kachin State, the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has recommended immediate de-mining; no forced recruitment of soldiers; and easy access for humanitarian aid to the conflict-stricken region. The makeshift shelter of a Kachin family displaced by war. (PHOTO Partners Relief and Development) The calls...

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Thein Sein warns: ‘I will not hesitate to use force’

Thursday, 28 March 2013 19:22 Mizzima News In a televised address to the nation on Thursday at 6 pm local time, Myanmar President Thein Sein said he was saddened by the religious violence that has taken part in central Myanmar in recent days, and warned instigators that he had the power to deploy security forces to protect his fellow citizens. “In general, I do not endorse the use of force...

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Mae Surin fire was accident, says Thai security chief

Thursday, 28 March 2013 16:05  The Bangkok Post The blaze that raged through the Mae Surin refugee camp in Mae Hong Son's Khun Yuam district on Friday was probably an accident, [Thailand’s] National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said. The aftermath of Friday's fire at Mae Surin refugee camp in which at least 37 people were killed. Photo: TBC He said there seemed...

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CPJ condemns threats against journalists in Meiktila

Thursday, 28 March 2013 16:55 Rosie Gogan-Keogh Following severe violence and intimidation against reporters covering the inter-communal riots that erupted in Central Myanmar on March 20, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on authorities to ensure the security of journalists. Journalists at a Myanmar presidential press conference. (Photo: Ye Min / Mizzima) “We condemn the...

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Mob violence spreads in Bago

Thursday, 28 March 2013 15:37 Khaing Khaing and Saw Zin Nyi Anti-Muslim mob violence broke out on Wednesday afternoon in Minhla and Zigon villages in the Bago Region, local residents told Mizzima. At about 1 pm on Wednesday afternoon, about 1,000 people from Minhla and nearby villages destroyed mosques and property owned by Muslims, said Hla Hla Moe, a local resident. “The mob destroyed some houses and some mosques. We heard that either two or three mosques were seriously damaged. But the mob did not harm anyone,” he said. At around 4 pm,...

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Security beefs up in Bago

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 20:31 Saw Zin Nyi             View Larger Map Rumors of impending riots in the town of Nattalin, about 50 km south of Pyay, have led to an increase in police and military presence in the area on the evening of March 27. The deputy police officer for the area told Mizzima that the increase in security was due to reports that mobs were planning to riot, following incidents the night before when a mosque and several houses were destroyed in the village. “We have stretched our...

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Rohingya face ongoing humanitarian crisis

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 17:59 Rosie Gogan-Keogh Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Myanmar government of restricting humanitarian aid to Rakhine State and discriminating against Muslim Rohingyas in a report released on March 27. Displaced people in one section of Ah Nauk Ywe makeshift camp in Rakhine state. (PHOTO: UNHCR/V.Tan) “Burmese [Myanmar] government restrictions on aid to Rohingya...

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Indian firm fails to compensate farmers

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 16:07 Thein Hlaing Punj Lloyd Upstream Ltd, an Indian company which is building an extension of the Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline, has been accused of failing to compensate for damages relating to the construction of the pipeline. The accusations have come from local community-based organizations and some of the 161 farmers who utilize a reservoir that the pipeline...

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Refugee camp fire not an accident, says police chief

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 16:31 THE BANGKOK POST The fire that ravaged Mae Surin refugee camp [in Thailand] on Friday was not an accident, embattled Khun Yuam district police chief Pol Col Nitinart Wittayawuthikul claimed Tuesday. Thai officials examine the aftermath of the fire at Mae Surin refugee camp on Friday, Mar 22, 2013. (PHOTO: TBC) The district police chief was transferred, pending...

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Indonesian cement company solidifies Myanmar deal

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 15:49 Mizzima News Indonesia’s largest cement producer, PT Semen Indonesia Tbk, says it will begin building a US $200 million cement plant in Myanmar early in 2014, according to a report in the Jakarta Post on Tuesday. The Indonesian firm originally announced that it was seeking Myanmar partners and that it intending starting construction by the end of this year. Semen...

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Private donations needed after refugee camp blaze

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 15:24 Mizzima News The Border Consortium (TBC), an umbrella group of NGOs which supplies humanitarian relief to some 140,000 refugees at the Thai-Myanmar border, has launched an emergency appeal to collect 13 million Thai baht (US $433,000) which it says it needs to replace essential food, homes and community buildings destroyed at Mae Surin refugee camp in a devastating...

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Yangon residents react to rumors of communal violence

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 13:06 Rosie Gogan-Keogh In the wake of the Meiktila riots and ongoing Buddhist-Muslim inter-communal fighting across Myanmar, fears have been growing about the violence spreading to Yangon. Reports of mob violence and mosques being burnt down in Bago, a town 150 km north of the country's biggest city, came as rumors of street fights, anti-Muslim mobs forming and mosques being stoned in various Muslim-populated areas of Yangon stirred. Myanmar authorities are reported to have reacted by implementing a curfew on businesses...

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Military will continue to play political role, says army chief

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:45 Mizzima News Addressing more than 6,300 soldiers on Wednesday morning, Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said that the military will continue to play a political role as the country transforms itself into a democracy, according to a report by Associated Press (AP). Myanmar’s commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing at during Myanmar’s...

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Mosques destroyed by mobs in Bago

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:12 Mizzima News Fresh Buddhist-Muslim violence broke out late on Monday and again on Tuesday in villages in the Bago Region, some 150 km north of Yangon, with several mosques and dozens of homes reported to have been destroyed, according to AFP. Myanmar’s state-run television announced that Muslim religious buildings, shops and houses had been damaged. It also confirmed on Tuesday that eight more bodies had been uncovered from the debris in Meiktila—the central Myanmar town where an innocuous incident in a gold...

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UN envoy slams anti-Muslim campaign

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 11:13 AFP Muslim homes have been targeted with "brutal efficiency" in deadly new unrest in Myanmar, a UN envoy who has just been to the troubled country said Tuesday. Vijay Nambiar, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Myanmar. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine Envoy Vijay Nambiar said that "incendiary propaganda" had been used to stir unrest between Buddhist and Muslim communities...

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Police chief transferred after refugee camp blaze

Wednesday, 27 March 2013 10:22 The Bangkok Post Fire breaks out at Mae Surin refugee camp on Friday, March 22, 2013. PHOTO: Karenni Further Studies Program via Facebook The Khun Yuam district police chief was hit with a lightning transfer order Monday for alleged negligence in handling Friday's deadly inferno at the Mae Surin refugee camp which resulted in almost 40 deaths. In the order signed...

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