Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Armed Mon group calls on army to return abducted members

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 04:38 AM PDT

The New Mon State Party (NSMP) is calling on the government to release two of its members who were captured by the Burmese military after clashes erupted in southern Burma's Tenasserim division last week.

According to the NMSP, the group's members Nai Aung Htun and his wife Ma Cho were abducted by troops from the Burmese army's 581st Light Infantry Battalion in Tenasserim's Bokpyin township following an unprovoked attack targeting the rebel's outpost in Thumingalan village on 16 July.

Two NMSP members and one Burmese solider were reportedly killed during the skirmish.

Nai Ong Seik Chan, a lieutenant colonel in the NMSP, said the Burmese military has admitted to mistakenly attacking their outpost after troops assumed that the position belonged to another Mon armed group, the Hanthawaddy Restoration Party.

Despite the admission, the government has yet to respond to the NMSP's request to release its members.

"On the evening of 17 July, we contacted the [army] but so far there has been no response, but we are trying to reach out to the regional military command through our liaison office to clear up the misunderstanding," said Nai Ong Seik Chan, adding that the government troops were still holding positions in the area surrounding their outpost.

The NMSP, which signed a truce with Naypyidaw in February 2012, also urged the government to refrain from attacking ceasefire groups or arresting their members.

During a speech in London last week, President Thein Sein described Burma's ongoing civil wars as complex, but insisted that his government aimed to a declare a country-wide ceasefire soon.

"Very possibly, over the coming weeks, we will have a nation-wide ceasefire and the guns will go silent everywhere in Myanmar (Burma) for the very first time in over sixty years," said Thein Sein.

However, the president noted that such a deal would "only [be] the first step towards the just and lasting peace" in Burma.

Since Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government came into power in 2011, Naypyidaw has succeeded in inking ceasefire agreements with ten of the country's eleven major armed groups.

Locals upset after upper house speaker snatches historic notebook

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 02:49 AM PDT

Residents in central Burma's Yaynanchaung are upset with the parliament's upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint after he commandeered a notebook containing General Aung San's original handwriting that was being kept at a local high school.

Mu Mu Htun, headmistress of Magwe division's Yaynanchaung High School-1, said Khin Aung Myint took the book during his recent visit to the town on Martyrs' Day and said he would preserve it.

"We understand he wishes to preserve the notebook and keep it at the national museum where the public will have wider access, but we don’t want to give it up that easily – we feel the loss," said Mu Mu Htun.

According to the school's secretary Kyaw San Oo, the town's residents are preparing to lobby Aung San Suu Kyi with the help of Ashin Sandra Dika, a revered Buddhist monk and Yaynanchaung native, to help retrieve the book.

"We will try to ask for the notebook back through Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Ashin Sandra Dika – hopefully it will go well and even if it doesn't, we will still have to try. This book is precious to the town's residents," said Kyaw San Oo.

Ashin Sandra Dika, who was a student at the school that housed the artifact, said the book was priceless to the town and taking it away could lead to public protests.

"Residents have been seriously thinking about staging public protests to ask for the book back and I, as a former student at the school who regards general Aung San as our forefather, also wish to have it with us," said Ashin Sandra.

"We wouldn't give it up for even one billion kyat."

Locals said they were prepared to let the government have the book, but they said would prefer to hand it over at an official ceremony.

The upper house speaker was unavailable for comment.

The notebook belonged to Burma’s famed independence leader when he attended a Pali language course at Rangoon University in 1933 and contains notes written in English by hand. He later gave it as a gift to a friend, who passed it on to Yaynanchaung-based journalist to donate to an appropriate school in the town. Aung San had himself previously attended high school in Yaynanchaung.

Yaynanchaung High School-1 was planning to exhibit the notebook during the school's 100th year anniversary celebrations in January 2015.

Local films look to return to the silver screen

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 01:58 AM PDT

Filmmakers in Burma are slowly producing movies again, in a country once under strict military rule and government censorship.

Since the quasi-civilian government started to introduce sweeping reforms, there has been an explosion of news media but filmmakers have been more reticent to touch on sensitive subjects, such as politics or corruption, that were formerly off limits.

In the 1950′s, Burma’s film industry was booming and it was free from state or self censorship.

Now the country produces only 20 films per year and they're often shot in a couple weeks or even days rather than over the course of one or two years.

But producers say it will take time for the industry to be as successful as it once was.

Burma frees around 70 political prisoners: official

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 01:47 AM PDT

Burma has agreed to release some 70 political prisoners, an official said Tuesday, after President Thein Sein vowed to free all dissidents by the end of the year.

“The president has signed an amnesty for about 70 political prisoners around the country,” presidential advisor Hla Maung Shwe, a senior official at the Myanmar Peace Center, told AFP.

Last week, Thein Sein said there would be “no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar” during a speech in London as part of a European tour aimed at shoring up the country’s international image in the wake of reforms that have swept the nation since the end of junta rule in 2011.

Rights groups and officials estimate there were between around 100 and 150 political prisoners in Burma ahead of Tuesday’s announcement.

Hla Maung Shwe said some of those being released were ethnic minority rebels from northern Kachin state, where the government is working on brokering a crucial ceasefire deal.

He said some prisoners had already been freed.

Sports writers downplay ministry’s ambitions for SEA games

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 01:25 AM PDT

Sports columnists in Burma have their doubts concerning the Ministry of Sports' goal for the country to finish in the top three of the Southeast Asian Games' medal count.

The games, which are set to kick off in Burma this December, will host 33 approved sporting events. But according to sports columnist Soe Nyi, there are at least seven categories that Burmese athletes have no shot of winning a gold medal in.

"There are 41 gold medals for the swimming event and we could win about one if we were very lucky – but chances are still very slim even for that. And I see that cycling would be another type of sport with very tough competition for us to win a gold medal because we've been out of touch with this for generations," said Soe Nyi, adding that there was almost no chance for Burma to win gold in table tennis events which is largely dominated by Singaporean athletes.

"There is no way we would be able to beat Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in badminton, and based on our current records, we could win only as many as five gold medals out of the 46 for the track and field events. And we will definitely not win hockey."

However, the columnist argued that Burmese competitors were expected to do well in martial arts events.

According to the Ministry of Sports' Sports and Physical Education Department director Htay Aung, the government body has been working hard to ensure that Burmese athletes capture gold medals on their home soil, but he admits the competition will be tough.

"We are training [athletes] intensively with various methods, including sending them to participate at international events as well as hosting events back home. We are doing everything necessary," said Htay Aung.

"However, since athletes in other countries were also training at their best, we might not have as much gold medals as we expected. But since we are the host, we'll do our best to fulfil the public's wish [for victory.]"

Earlier this year, Burma announced that it was excluding gymnastics and tennis from the competition, which prompted accusations from participants that the host country was engineering the selection in order to ensure that Burmese athletes won more medals.

In May, the Philippines unleashed vocal protests against Burma's handling of the games and announced that the country would only be sending a small delegation of athletes in response to the host country's exclusion of the events.
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