World focus on Burma (17 December 2008)

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Rice: Under Bush, The US Has Embaced The UN ‘Maybe’ More Than Any …
Think Progress, DC –

… Council resolutions that have been passed be respected, [or] whether it is seeking to deal with human rights and tyranny cases like Zimbabwe or Burma. …

Year ahead: Increased forced migrations, continued lack of quality …
Reuters AlertNet, UK –
In Myanmar (Burma), some three million people have been forced to migrate within the country. Reasons driving the displacement range from conflicts to land …

Dissident’s wife not optimistic about freedom of thought in China
CBC.ca, Canada –

It was given last year to Sudanese human rights lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman. Previous recipients include Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. …

ECHO hosts 15th Annual International Agricultural Conference
North Fort Myers Neighbor, FL –
I also do development work in Myanmar, the old Burma,” he said. “I come here to learn about crops, technology and to network with other people from around …

Reading letter sent to Than Shwe fetches prison term
Mizzima.com, India –
He was arrested on 31 January and charged under section 42 of Burma’s Jail Manual (BJM), bringing unauthorized documents into the prison. …

Burmese in Singapore find it difficult to get air tickets
Mizzima.com, India –
… Peninsula Plaza in Singapore said that all ‘Myanmar Air International’ (MAI) and Singapore airline owned ‘Silk Air’ flights to Burma are fully booked. …

Thailand’s King May Play Politics (No Offense)
Newsweek –
In the age of the Internet, banning publications anywhere is a tricky – and often futile – proposition, apart from in countries like China, Burma and North …

The need to cry out
Taipei Times, Taiwan –
This does not mean that Taiwan should ignore the poor human rights conditions of Burma, Tibet and other places with human rights problems. …

Israel: Reverse Expulsion of Human Rights Rapporteur
منظمة هيومان رايتس ووتش – حقوق الانسان –
With this ill-considered action, Israel put itself in the company of countries like Burma and North Korea in denying entry to UN human rights experts. …

Htoo Comapny to take over Malikha Lodge
Mizzima.com, India –
… tourist spot in northern tip of Burma. The ownership of ‘Malikha Lodge’ of ‘Balloons Over Bagan’ will be transferred to ‘Myanmar Treasure Resorts’, …

Asia review of the year 2008
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom –
The military junta caused international outrage by pressing ahead with a constitutional “referendum” on May 10 and meanwhile delaying and obstructing aid …

Mon political prisoner transferred from Insein to Tharawaddy Prison
Independent Mon News Agency, WA –
Prisoners in Burma are typically allowed visits from family only once every two months, but they are a crucial contact with the outside world and help …

World Press tells junta to stop repression of media
Mizzima.com, India –
by Mizzima News The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) condemned the Burmese military junta for cracking down on freedom of expression, called for the …

Win Tin’s sermon to youth in Rangoon
Mizzima.com, India –
… delivered a lecture to youth members of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in Rangoon, former capital of Burma. …

/REPEAT — Media Advisory – Minister Kenney to meet Rohingya refugees/
Canada NewsWire (press release), Canada –
The ‘Rohingyas’, originally displaced from Burma (also known as Myanmar), have been living in two camps in Bangladesh for 17 years. …

Australian charged with drug smuggling in Thailand: official
ABC Online, Australia –
Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002, but remains a transit point for narcotics produced in neighbouring Burma, the world’s second largest …

Youth meeting held at NLD headquarters
Democratic Voice of Burma, Norway –
Dec 17, 2008 (DVB)–Around 300 young people from Rangoon, Mandalay, Magwe and Irrawaddy divisions attended a meeting at the National League for Democracy …

NLD members call for offices to reopen
Democratic Voice of Burma, Norway –
Dec 17, 2008 (DVB)–National League for Democracy members at a monthly meeting in Yenangyaung township, Magwe division, revived their call for party …

No Immediate Plans for Gambari to Visit Burma
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –
“He has no plans immediately to go to Myanmar [Burma],” Michele Montas, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters at the UN …

How the Regime Punishes Political Prisoners’ Families
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –

… NAING The wife of imprisoned activist Pyone Cho spent about 90000 kyat (US $75) on a 10-day journey to visit him in jail in Kawthaung, southern Burma. …

Weather watch: a record year of extreme events
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia –

A record three major hurricanes (Gustav, Ike and Paloma) hit Cuba, while the most fatal tropical storm was Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May, …

A Toast to Asean
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –
After all, when Asean debated the new charter that also contains a human rights section, the rogue state of Burma, a full Asean member, was at the table …

Cooler Approach, but Business as Usual with Junta
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –
“Thailand’s mid-to-long term energy needs are linked with projects now under way in Myanmar (Burma), and so I think it would be difficult for new prime …

Regime Shrugs Off Effects on Burma of Global Economic Crisis
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –
Even Prime Minister Thein Sein admitted the scale of the disaster, saying recently: “Although Myanmar’s [Burma’s] rice production has increased, …

Desperate Decisions
The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand –
On top of that, she faced three years in prison if anybody learned the cause of her condition. “Most women in Burma are poor and have little knowledge about …

Military supremo in Bagan
Mizzima.com, India –
Than Shwe, the Burmese military junta supremo is visiting Bagan on a vacation, an eyewitness and sources in Nay Pyi Taw said. Than Shwe (75) arrived in the …

The state of human rights in Burma – 2008: A double disaster in …
ReliefWeb (press release), Switzerland –
Perhaps the two most significant features of the human rights landscape in Burma during 2008 were the morally bankrupt and blatantly repressive response of …

Bagan authorities demand money for security measures
Democratic Voice of Burma, Norway –
Dec 17, 2008 (DVB)–Authorities have been collecting 200 kyat each from families in Bagan and the surrounding areas to provide security for junta leader …

Report on Christians’ persecutions
Sunday – Catholic Weekly, Poland –
… Bangladesh, Bhutan, Belarus, Burma/Myanmar, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, South Korea, Cuba, Laos, Lebanon, Maldives, …

East, West merge; build bridge to the Orient
Battle Creek Enquirer, MI –
To the west, literally and figuratively, were four men who had escaped Myanmar — the country they still call Burma — and sought freedom in America. …

Border pact needed to protect Delta diversity
Viet Nam News, Vietnam –
The Greater Mekong Region comprises the six countries through which the Cuu Long (Mekong) River flows: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and the …

MP attends reception to mark Burmese leader’s birthday
WalesOnline, United Kingdom –
… at 10 Downing Street, along with female Burmese exiles, to mark the birthday of the democratically-elected leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi. …

Graphic Novel Review: Burma Chronicles
Hillsboro Argus – OregonLive.com, OR –
For 14 months in 2005-06, Delisle hung out in Yangon, the former capital of Burma — now known as Myanmar by the counties that take the current junta …

A Gentler Hegemony
Washington Post, United States –
We might have intervened in Darfur had we not been bogged down in Iraq; after Cyclone Nargis, our ships would have provided large-scale relief, had Burma’s …

$A172b Asian Monetary Fund ‘going ahead’
Ninemsn, Australia –
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Share, bookmark, and save your favourite …

Committe to Protect Journalits’ 2008 prison census: Online and in jail
RushPRnews.com (press release), Canada –
Cuba, Burma, Eritrea, and Uzbekistan round out the top five jailers from among the 29 nations that imprison journalists. Each of the top five nations has …

Myanmar journalists face intimidation, pressure from junta
Jakarta Post, Indonesia –
Mon Mon Myat, of the Burmese Journalist Protection Committee, said the junta had set up rules under a 2006 law on electronic media and 1996 law on film and …

Despite campaigns, battling graft remains an uphill task
The Malaysian Insider, Malaysia –
Thailand is more or less the same, while others such as Cambodia and Burma are wallowing at the bottom of the league tables. …

Bums of the Indian Ocean
All At Sea, U.S. Virgin Islands –
Don’t go to Burma: I don’t believe in coddling religious people but using the local Buddhist monks for target practice seems, well, intolerant. …

Preliminary analysis says 2008 tenth hottest year on record
The Tech Herald, IN –

The report said the worst weather-related natural disaster experienced during 2008 was Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May, killing an estimated 78000 …

Burma: Lawyer’s Testimony Highlights Distorted Justice
Human Rights Watch (press release) –
In a crackdown that started in October 2008, Burma’s courts have sentenced over 200 political and labor activists, internet bloggers, journalists, …

2008’s Best Comics, Clip Art, and Pedophilia
Village Voice, NY –
I Live Here (Pantheon, 320 pp., $29.95) details war in Chechnya, government oppression in Burma, disappearances in Juárez, and Malawi’s AIDS crisis. …

Canada Congratulates Association of Southeast Asian Nations as …
ISRIA (subscription), DC –
The Charter will give ASEAN a legal identity, create an ASEAN human rights body, enact a dispute settlement mechanism, and formalize a system of personal …

US Restricts Aid to Nations Using Child Soldiers
OneWorld US, DC –
Burma remained the most persistent government offender. OneWorld.net reports. Last month, several young people who survived war and have gone on to become …

Antony Loewenstein, author and journalist, discusses blogging and …
Harvard Law School News, MA –
In smaller states such as Burma, repressive leaders can easily catch dissident bloggers, and even shut down the entire country’s access to the web. …