Foreigners shot dead in Burma

[paul_au]

The Generals will be falling down, there time is up.

[Khun Don]

Despite the report that all internet links with Burma are cut, reports have still been coming out from individuals and journalists. The BBC has some of them here

[Khun Don]

UN envoy's arrival prompts more arrests in Rangoon

RANGOON -- United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Rangoon Friday afternoon but flew directly to Naypyidaw, the regime's hideaway capital, instead of immediately inspecting the scene of this week's upheaval.

Meanwhile, in downtown Rangoon, soldier detained more than 40 people who had gathered outside the Trader Hotel, cutting short a planned protest for Gambari. The protesters were apparently unaware that Gambari was not coming in to the city.

At least four men were seen bound and kneeling in front of soldiers outside the hotel, before being placed on two trucks with others, witnesses said.

Hundreds of armed soldiers had taken over the streets of Yangon Saturday, hunkering down behind barbed wire at strategic spots.

On Strand Street hundreds of protesters congregated, but they dispersed when they ran into troops blocking the path to Pagoda Street, where the Traders Hotel is located.

In general, Yangon was relatively peaceful Saturday, enjoying its first lull in almost two weeks of increasingly violent protests against the ruling junta and the country's deteriorating economy.

Gambari has been assigned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make an assessment of the situation in Myanmar after almost two months of sporadic and persistent protests against the country's military regime who have lorded over this once prosperous South-East Asian nation for the past 45 years.

Gambari, who last visited Myanmar in May 2006, was tasked to seek talks with religious leaders, political detainees and democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for more than four years.

His last visit was not a resounding success. Although allowed to interview Suu Kyi, who has been kept in near total isolation in her Rangoon home sicne May, 2003, the regime extended her detention by another year, one week after Gambari's visit.

Instead of first visiting the scene of the protests, the former capital of Rangoon, Gambari has flown to Naypyidaw, 350 kilometres north of to pay respects to the junta's leadership.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta styles itself, moved the capital to Naypyiday in late 2005,to the annoyance of the civil service. The move prompted a pay raise in civil servants salaries, to soothe their complaints, which in turn led to double-digit inflation in the rest of Myanmar that set the scene for recent upheavals.

Peaceful protests initially started in Yangon on August 19, in response to a government decision to double fuel prices.

Burmese monkhood took up the movement in early September and started to march against the fuel-price hikes 12 days ago in Yangon.

The movement eventually escalated into the largest and most violently suppressed anti-government demonstrations since 1988.

Riot police and soldiers cracked down on the monks Wednesday, first beating them back from Yangon's famed downtown pagodas of Shwedagon and Sule, and then raided their monasteries Thursday morning, arresting hundreds of the clergy.

The government attack on the monkhood outraged laymen, and led to clashes between people and security personnel Thursday that left at least nine dead, according to state sources.

Independent sources claim the death toll was much higher.

Hundreds of monks have reportedly fled their monasteries in Yangon for other temples.

No monks came to collect alms in many parts of Yangon on Saturday morning, as is their normal practice.

"Now there is no merit making, just demerits," said one Yangon resident.

While Myanmar's 400,000-strong monkhood is generally revered in this predominantly Buddhist country, it is not above being disciplined by the military.

The army crackdown on anti-military demonstrations in September 1988 left an estimated 3,000 people dead, hundreds of whom were monks who had joined the protests.

The crackdown has prompted almost universal condemnation of the regime, drawing harsh rebukes even from Myanmar's neighbours in South-East Asia.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

The Nation

[Khun Don]

Thailand tightens Burma border security

Thailand's army has heightened security along its border with Burma in order to prevent an expected influx of refugees following the ongoing anti-junta protests in Rangoon and other cities, army commander-in-chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said Saturday.

Gen. Sonthi, also chairman of the National Security Council (CNS), said the tightened security was also to prevent the smuggling of narcotics that would likely intensify while Burma is in a time of crisis.

"Minority groups living along Thai-(Burmese) border might take this opportunity to smuggle drugs and other contraband items into Thailand", said the general.

The CNS chairman said the situation in Burma had not directly made any negative impact on Thailand. However, he said, the army was closely monitoring the situation and always prepared to evacuate Thai nationals if necessary.

Gen. Sonthi declined to comment on the interim government's stance regarding joining with other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in movements against the Burmese military junta's crackdown on the protesters. (TNA)

Bangkok Post

[paul_au]

it's about time Thailand invaded Burma and set the people free towards democracy.
But let Thailand set an example first by returning to a democracy.

[marohnicelena]

it's about time Thailand invaded Burma and set the people free towards democracy.
But let Thailand set an example first by returning to a democracy.

Day dream....
Myanmar is just stubborn... i dont think they will return to democracy...

[Khun Don]

'Rambo' claims Burma death threats

Hollywood (Agencies, BangkokPost.com) - Actor/director Sylvester Stallone suffered a series of death threats on the Thai-Burmese set of the upcoming movie sequel about heroic John Rambo.

He also provided Hollywood reporters with some unique accounts of events along the frontier that seem more out of one of the Rambo movie scripts than real life.

Stallone and his crew made the movie around the border of Thailand and troubled Burma, where he insists a "full-scale genocide" is currently going on.

The 61-year-old, who witnessed refugees fleeing from Burma to Thailand, and the crew received a "lot of threats" and were warned they'd be shot.

Stallone tells TV show Entertainment Tonight, "It's the most brutal regime in the world and the most secretive. It has an oppressive regime that (keeps all riches) for themselves. Everyone is forced into drugs or prostitution or slavery.

"People are escaping all the time (from Burma), coming over with gaping, maggot-infested wounds, their ears being cut off. You saw a lot of suffering, a lot of malnutrition.

"We were on the Salween River and we were told to get out because we were going to be shot."

[Khun Don]

Some hope for UN envoy, but Burmese intellectuals uncertain

Rangoon (dpa) - "Gambari, Gambari is good!" the young moneychanger in Rangoon yells out to passing Westerners as UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Burma on the heels of clashes between the ruling military junta and pro-democracy demonstrators.

Even if outside news is banned, the word has spread of the special envoys visit prompted by the crisis. Gambari travelled to Naypyidaw, to meet with government officials in Burma's new administrative capital, 350 kilometres inland from Rangoon.

But some UN vehicles were spotted in Rangoon at the Traders Hotel, within sight of the Sule Pagoda, where thousands of demonstrators had taken to the streets in midweek and at least one protestor was shot.

"There he can see how the regime deals with his," the security guard of a nearby office building said, pointing to the uniformed police that sit just 20 metres away from the hotel.

The protest signs and batons still lie scattered on the ground in testament to the week's brutal events.

Directly behind stand at least 20 soldiers with machine guns. At the street crossing in front of the hotel stand two troop transports with another 15 or 20 men.

A soldier comes around the corner, dragging an older man by the collar to a waiting truck.

Someone nearby yells "democracy" and a few bystanders begin to clap. WIthin seconds, the soldiers and 11 men they have captured speed away to interrogation.

About 100 metres closer to the pagoda, majestic old trees are used to hold barbed wire, with four strands cutting off the street from the sidewalks.

This does not look like a state indulging in freedom, reconciling the people and working for the benefit of the masses, as state newspaper The New Light would have its readers believe.

"The will of the people," the banner headline screams. "We want stability. We want peace. We are against unrest and violence."

"They forgot one thing," says an author who spent three years in prison after the junta crushed protests in 1988. "We don't want to starve."

Recent drastic price hikes for petrol and cooking oil and a high rate of inflation brought the poor people to the brink of ruin, in their desperation they took to the streets in huge protests inspired by thousands of Buddhist monks. Everyone without exception blames the military regime that has held Burma, formerly known as Burma, in its grip for decades.

"Gambari will help," the money changer says, smiling.

Saturday saw only small demonstrations here and there, after major protests earlier in the week that left at least nine people dead.

"Of course we are afraid, we are unarmed," a librarian said.

Hopes seem to be turning toward Gambari, but disappointment at the likely outcome of the UN envoy's visit are also widespread, especially among the educated.

"The generals don't care about the opinion of other governments, they don't care about the opinion of their own people, and they certainly won't care about the clever advice of a UN diplomat," the author said.

Still, even Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo is holding out hope, saying the situation could worsen if the diplomatic measures fail.

His statements sound like a call to the people of Burma to hold in their anger. If they take to the streets during Gambari's visit, it could create added tension.

A dissident from the 1988 student generation also spoke out against further street protests, out of fear that the regime could strike back brutally.

"We must organise a boycott, all officials must stay and home in order to paralyze the land," said the woman in her mid-40s, who spent six years behind bars. "But it is unbelievably difficult to spread such a call."

Telephone lines have been cut often.

What Gambari can accomplish remains unclear. He has been to Burma often and has met with the highest circle of the military junta. His visits have at least shed a small light on the country, but calls for the release of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi have been ignored.

Suu Kyi has spent years under house arrest since winning 1990 elections.

"Gambari, why do they all look to Gambari?" the dissident asks. "He is not one of us, the solution must come internally."

"Neither the protests, nor the sanctions, nor Gambari will convince the generals to give up power," the author said. "Our only hope, even if it is slim, is to have reform-minded people in the junta."//dpa

The Nation

[Khun Don]

UN envoy meets Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon

Rangoon - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Sunday in Rangoon on Sunday as part of his mission to asses the country's situation in the aftermath of anti-government protests and a brutal crackdown, diplomatic sources said.

Gambari arrived in Rangoon on Saturday but was flown to Naypyidaw, the ruling junta's hideaway capital, 350 kilometres north of Rangoon.

He returned to Rangoon on Sunday and was immediately granted talks with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003.

Gambai flew to Burma for discussions with the country's entrenched military government on Saturday, seeking to resolve a bloody political uprising which that has generated worldwide demands for the Burmese junta to halt their repression and make way for democratic reforms.

The protests that for nearly two weeks have rocked Burma's two main cities, Rangoon and Mandalay, were reduced to knots of youths shouting insults at thousands of armed police and soldiers deployed on the streets to smother the campaign, according to internet reports from Burma activists and exile groups in neighboring Thailand.

The Buddhist monks who had been leading the protesters were blocked inside monasteries for a second day, surrounded by army troops and frightened by a wave of arrests, the reports said.

The U.N. envoy for Burma, also known as Burma, landed in Rangoon and headed for Naypyidaw, the isolated official capital 250 miles to the north that was chosen two years ago as headquarters for the ruling State Peace and Development Council headed by Senior Gen Than Shwe, according to news agencies.

The Singapore foreign minister, George Yeo, said in New York that Gambari's mission was the best hope for a peaceful end to the crisis and movement toward a political transformation after nearly half a century of military dictatorship.

But in Washington, U.S. officials said the Bush administration was putting pressure on China to play a more active role in persuading Than Shwe and the ruling council to open up space for political reform.

China, with large investments and a strategic partnership with the military junta, has been singled out as the country with the most influence in Burma, which lies along its southern border, Washington Post reported.

Chinese officials so far have declined to intervene forcefully, however, citing a traditional policy of non-interference in other countries' problems.

The U.S. officials suggested that the goal should be the generals' departure from power, perhaps to exile in China, opening the way for a democratic government. But the National Council of the Union of Burma, a main exile umbrella group, said its goal at this stage was less ambitious: national dialogue between the military junta and other political forces in the country.

"The military would be part of the solution," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the group.

Gambari should first seek a public commitment from the junta to ease its crackdown on demonstrators, he said, and then focus on getting such a dialogue set up.

It would include representatives of the monks who have led the recent protests, he said, in addition to leaders of the National League for Democracy, the party headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nation

[Khun Don]

Buddhists denounce Rangoon crackdown

The statement urged the country's military government to cease violating the fundamental rights of its people.

Meanwhile, Gen. Thongchai Kua-sakul, chairman of the Buddhist Organisation of Thailand, said he would present a petition to the Embassy of Burma in Bangkok at 2 pm (0700 GMT) Monday, calling on the Burmese government to stop killing Buddhist monks and its civilian population immediately.

The letter will also ask the Myanmar government to hold peace talks in a neutral country such as China, India, a member country of the European Union or the United States.

Gen. Thongchai said his organisation and networks would hold a walk, to be led by Thai Buddhist monks and people, around Sanam Luang within this week with an objective to boost morale of Burma's Buddhist monks and people who are being suppressed by the country's authorities during demonstrations.

Security forces swept through Rangoon, Burma's main city on Thursday, killing nine people including a Japanese journalist, and arresting hundreds more in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. (TNA)

Bangkok Post