By JOSEPH ALLCHIN,Published: 25 May 2011
UNHCR chief Navi Pillay has warned Australia against the asylum seeker deal (Reuters)
UNHCR chief Navi Pillay has warned Australia against the asylum seeker deal (Reuters) Canberra’s controversial plan to send asylum seekers detained on Australian soil to Malaysia as part of a “refugee swap” is illegal, according to the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Speaking to Radio Australia on a visit to the country this week, Navi Pillay said that the deal, which is yet to be finalised, would likely violate refugee laws. “They cannot send refugees to a country that has not ratified it,” she said, adding that individuals are not protected in Malaysia, which is not a signatory either to the UN refugee convention nor the UN convention on torture.
VOA News
Photo: Reuters>>Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi looks at pictures of herself at a photo exhibition held at the National League for Democracy's office in Rangoon, Burma, May 23, 2011
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned the use of rape as a weapon of terror in conflicts.
In a recorded video address to a conference in Montebello, Canada, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said rape is used in her country as a weapon against those who want to live in peace, but also want to assert their basic human rights. She said the armed forces use rape to intimidate ethnic nationalities and keep the Burmese people divided.
Aung San Suu Kyi was released in November after having spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention.
In a recorded video address to a conference in Montebello, Canada, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said rape is used in her country as a weapon against those who want to live in peace, but also want to assert their basic human rights. She said the armed forces use rape to intimidate ethnic nationalities and keep the Burmese people divided. Aung San Suu Kyi was released in November after having spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention.
Voice of America
Human-rights groups say more than 20 political prisoners being held in the country’s notorious Insein prison began a hunger strike last week protesting inadequate nutrition for all inmates and calling for fundamental rights.
Human-rights groups say at least 33 political prisoners in the notorious Insein prison near Rangoon began a hunger strike last week, when a group of women prisoners protested a government amnesty that reduced overall prison sentences by one year.
Human-rights groups say at least 33 political prisoners in the notorious Insein prison near Rangoon began a hunger strike last week, when a group of women prisoners protested a government amnesty that reduced overall prison sentences by one year.
by Nurul Islam
Rohingyas have become stateless within the state. The military regime has put up two options before the Rohingya people: either to accept a Barman melting pot and become Buddhist, or migration to alien lands. None of Rohingya could agree to an arrangement that compromises their religious identity. The ancestral land, Arakan is dear and sacred to them. The new form of persecution is increasing every day. It is only the return of Democracy that is likely to break the age-old repressive rule of the Barman over the Rohingyas of Myanmar."
CNN) -- CNN has won an Amnesty International Media award for its documentary World's Untold Stories: Locked up and Forgotten.
The winning half-hour film, presented by CNN's Nairobi correspondent David McKenzie, highlights the negligence and social taboos suffered by Kenya's mentally disabled community, who live a life hidden away in slums and remote villages across the country.
Deprived of medical care and therapy, an estimated three million mentally disabled individuals are ostracized by society, concealed and locked away inside their own communities, often by their own families.
By DAVID WOOD
I am a Rohingya. An oppressed stateless people from Burma.
The Burmese military has long oppressed Rohingya and been involved in an ethnic-cleansing program to prevent the creation of a Rohingya state.
My life in Burma was very hard. My family house was demolished two times by authorities and as a result we had to move to my mothers native village. Every person in that village was subject to violent abuses, fines, extortion, military harassment and corporal punishment. I am aware that at least 100 villagers are still in detention and many have died in detention. My father was died for the subsequent detentions. My siblings were detained in 2008.
After I passed matriculation, I sneaked out Arakan (his home state) to Rangon to continue my study. If I did not leave in secret my family would have had to have paid a large bribe, which they could not afford.
In Rangon, I was involved in research into natural resources, as a part of my research, I was harassed, beaten and detained by government authorities. My colleagues managed to released me through a bribe.
I am a Rohingya. An oppressed stateless people from Burma.
The Burmese military has long oppressed Rohingya and been involved in an ethnic-cleansing program to prevent the creation of a Rohingya state.
My life in Burma was very hard. My family house was demolished two times by authorities and as a result we had to move to my mothers native village. Every person in that village was subject to violent abuses, fines, extortion, military harassment and corporal punishment. I am aware that at least 100 villagers are still in detention and many have died in detention. My father was died for the subsequent detentions. My siblings were detained in 2008.
After I passed matriculation, I sneaked out Arakan (his home state) to Rangon to continue my study. If I did not leave in secret my family would have had to have paid a large bribe, which they could not afford.
In Rangon, I was involved in research into natural resources, as a part of my research, I was harassed, beaten and detained by government authorities. My colleagues managed to released me through a bribe.
By David Scott Mathieson (Asia Times)
MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.
Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by
the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Myanmar's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010?
MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.
Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by
the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Myanmar's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010?
by
Richard Shannon’s solo show, based on the life and activism of Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, is a simple and inspiring record of one woman’s struggle. Using minimal lighting and props, it puts performer Liana Gould centre stage with little else.
Gould shows a compelling emotional range as she leads us through Suu Kyi’s life, as a student in Oxford, dealing with grief at her parents’ illness and death, getting involved in political campaigns, coping with house arrest. She commands our attention because of her sincerity as a performer, and of course, the story itself is both moving and uplifting.
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- With the UN's envoy to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar openly refusing to speak with the press, despite a formal request from the UN correspondents' association, the only way to learn the specifics of his recent visit is to ask the Security Council diplomats he spoke to, then ask the UN to confirm.  |
Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org |
A few days later, the UN secretary-general's acting special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, flew into Burma to meet with government officials and opposition leaders, including Suu Kyi.
Nambiar said, "The government has made some very interesting statements ... which are very encouraging."
He said he hoped that there would be a breakthrough, though he did not elaborate. He went on to urge Naypyidaw to release the more than 2,200 political prisoners in Burma.Then there was a classic play of the military-backed government showing its true colors. It announced a limited amnesty by reducing all current prisoners' sentences by one year. But only 47 political prisoners were released among several thousands of criminals who enjoyed the president’s “clemency.”
By Mong Palatino, The Diplomat Blog
Burma’s bid to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014 was politely dismissed when the bloc concluded its latest summit in Indonesia without a clear commitment on the matter. Instead of receiving support for its bid, Burma was advised by fellow ASEAN members to build better infrastructure first if it really wants to lead the group in the future. But the unstated reason for the quiet rejection of the country’s aspiration is the apparent failure of the ruling junta to improve its poor human rights record. In the eyes of ASEAN, and the rest of the world, Burma’s new government has been unable to hasten the democratization process because of its lack of sincerity and the fact that there is no definite and lasting initiative to promote political reconciliation with dissident parties.
Burma’s bid to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014 was politely dismissed when the bloc concluded its latest summit in Indonesia without a clear commitment on the matter. Instead of receiving support for its bid, Burma was advised by fellow ASEAN members to build better infrastructure first if it really wants to lead the group in the future. But the unstated reason for the quiet rejection of the country’s aspiration is the apparent failure of the ruling junta to improve its poor human rights record. In the eyes of ASEAN, and the rest of the world, Burma’s new government has been unable to hasten the democratization process because of its lack of sincerity and the fact that there is no definite and lasting initiative to promote political reconciliation with dissident parties.AFP: YANGON — A senior US diplomat met Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday for talks about the country's new political landscape following the recent dissolution of the junta.
Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, described the meeting as "very good" but did not reveal details of his discussion with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Joseph Yun, the deputy US assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, described the meeting as "very good" but did not reveal details of his discussion with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
AFP :WASHINGTON — The United States renewed its economic sanctions against Myanmar and urged the military-backed regime to go much further after it reduced prisoners' terms by just one year.
In a formal notice to Congress, President Barack Obama on Monday said that he was renewing sanctions that would otherwise have expired this month because Myanmar, also known as Burma, was taking actions "hostile to US interests."
Hundreds of men belonging to Burma's minority Rohingya ethnic group continue to languish in stateless limbo in an Indian jail, after being rescued at sea more than two years ago.
The waiting came to a welcome end for 18 Rohingya boat people Thursday, as they crossed from India's West Bengal state into Bangladesh. More than 200 other Rohingyas, though, remain in a prison on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in a waiting process that has stretched from months to years.
The waiting came to a welcome end for 18 Rohingya boat people Thursday, as they crossed from India's West Bengal state into Bangladesh. More than 200 other Rohingyas, though, remain in a prison on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in a waiting process that has stretched from months to years.
ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္ အစိုးရ၏ အေရးၾကီးေသာ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနမ်ားထဲတြင္ တစ္ခု အပါအ၀င္ ျဖစ္ေသာ လူ၀င္မူ ၾကီးၾကပ္ေရး (လ၀က) ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကို စစ္တပ္ ၀န္ၾကီး လက္ထဲသို႕ လြဲေျပာင္း ေပးလိုက္ျပီ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း သတင္း ရရွိသည္။
" သူ႕ကို ရာထူးက ဖယ္ရွားလိုက္တာေတာ့ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ သူကိုင္ေနတဲ့ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန (၂) ခုထဲက အေရးၾကီးတဲ့ လ၀က ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကို စစ္တပ္က လာတဲ့ ဗိုလ္မွဴးၾကီး ထိန္လင္း လက္ထဲကို လြဲေျပာင္း လိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ သူရဲ႕ သာသနာေရး ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကေတာ့ သူလက္ထဲမွာ က်န္ရွိေနမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္" ဟု အမည္မေဖၚလိုသူ အစိုးရ အဖြဲ႕၀င္ ၀န္ၾကီး တစ္ဦးက ေျပာသည္။
" သူ႕ကို ရာထူးက ဖယ္ရွားလိုက္တာေတာ့ မဟုတ္ပါဘူး။ သူကိုင္ေနတဲ့ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန (၂) ခုထဲက အေရးၾကီးတဲ့ လ၀က ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကို စစ္တပ္က လာတဲ့ ဗိုလ္မွဴးၾကီး ထိန္လင္း လက္ထဲကို လြဲေျပာင္း လိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ သူရဲ႕ သာသနာေရး ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနကေတာ့ သူလက္ထဲမွာ က်န္ရွိေနမွာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္" ဟု အမည္မေဖၚလိုသူ အစိုးရ အဖြဲ႕၀င္ ၀န္ၾကီး တစ္ဦးက ေျပာသည္။
Thu, May 19th, 2011 12:49 am BdST
Moinul Hoque Chowdhury
bdnews24.com correspondent
Moinul Hoque Chowdhury
bdnews24.com correspondent
Dhaka, May 18 (bdnews24.com) — The Election Commission (EC) has requested the government for information to ensure that foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, are excluded from the voters roll.
The commission's deputy-secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed told bdnews24.com that it has sent a letter to the home ministry requesting information on areas where foreigners and Rohingyas might trespass into Bangladesh.
In 2009, when the voters' roll was being updated, some 50,000 Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts, and 10 people, supposedly ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) members were identified as listed voters in Moulvibazar.
The commission's deputy-secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed told bdnews24.com that it has sent a letter to the home ministry requesting information on areas where foreigners and Rohingyas might trespass into Bangladesh.
In 2009, when the voters' roll was being updated, some 50,000 Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts, and 10 people, supposedly ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) members were identified as listed voters in Moulvibazar.
AP News
The British government has cautioned Southeast Asian countries not to allow Myanmar to take the leadership of their regional bloc.
It says Myanmar will need to show "enormous political progress" to deserve the prestigious role that it now seeks.
It says Myanmar will need to show "enormous political progress" to deserve the prestigious role that it now seeks.
Myanmar, among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has sought the annual chairmanship of the 10-member bloc in 2014. Fellow members have not raised any objection but urged it to continue taking steps to realize a long-unfulfilled promise to fully democratize.
U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden says it's up to ASEAN to decide on Myanmar's leadership role. He says Washington hopes Myanmar will take seriously the new ASEAN charter, which includes promotion of human rights.
VOA News
The United States is sending a senior diplomat for “introductory” talks with leaders of Burma’s new, nominally-civilian, government. The new government was seated in late March to replace a military junta but U.S. officials say the military retains effective control.
Officials here say the dispatch of the diplomat to Burma does not reflect any easing of the critical U.S. view of the political changes there, but that the Obama administration remains committed to trying dialogue with Burma.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun is due to leave Washington Wednesday for a visit to Burma spanning three days.
The senior diplomat last visited Burma in December and so his visit his week will be the first since the new government was sworn in on March 30th.
Officials here say the dispatch of the diplomat to Burma does not reflect any easing of the critical U.S. view of the political changes there, but that the Obama administration remains committed to trying dialogue with Burma.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun is due to leave Washington Wednesday for a visit to Burma spanning three days.
The senior diplomat last visited Burma in December and so his visit his week will be the first since the new government was sworn in on March 30th.
DVB News
One of the handful of political prisoners released yesterday in the much-criticised amnesty has said that little has improved in Burma during his three years behind bars.
Zayar Thaw, a prominent hip hop artist and member of the outlawed Generation Wave youth activist group, yesterday arrived back at his home in Rangoon, one of around 30 political prisoners of a total of 17,000 released in the amnesty.
One of the handful of political prisoners released yesterday in the much-criticised amnesty has said that little has improved in Burma during his three years behind bars.
Zayar Thaw, a prominent hip hop artist and member of the outlawed Generation Wave youth activist group, yesterday arrived back at his home in Rangoon, one of around 30 political prisoners of a total of 17,000 released in the amnesty.Critics of the government variously called it a “sick joke” and a “pathetic” attempt by President Thein Sein at carrying through his pledged reforms. The 31-year-old says that despite three years in jail, the outside world is much the same as before.
“Our country is still in a state of regression,” he told DVB. “Every sector – education, health – is going backwards. The economic system only favours one’s close aides and our human living standards are dropping.”
What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Burma* when population estimates in the country vary widely. Burma has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Burma's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010?
Population estimates between 2008 and 2010 vary from 44.2 million in 2009 according to the United Nations, based on Ministry of Home Affairs figures, to 59.1 million in 2010 according to the government's Ministry of Immigration and Population estimates. The figures stem from a survey of some kind conducted from 2007 in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that estimated the population growth rate at 2.02% annually. From the lowest to highest figures over a two to three year period, there is a 15 million people differential in Burma government, UN and other international organizations' estimates.
RFA Burmese
အာစီယံဥကၠ႒ျဖစ္ေရး၊ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရး အတြက္ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံက ႏုိင္ငံေရးအေျခအေန တိုးတက္ဖို႔လုိေၾကာင္းထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံကို ေရာက္ရွိေနတဲ့ၾသစေၾတလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီးက ေျပာၾကားလိုက္ပါတယ္။
ၾသစေၾတလ် ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Kevin Rudd နဲ႔ ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Kasit Piromya တို႔ဟာ ထိုင္းႏုိင္ငံ ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမိဳ႕ ၾသစေၾတလ်သံရံုးမွာ မေန႔က ေတြ႔ဆံုရာမွာ အာစီယံ ဥကၠ႒ရာထူးကုိ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံက အဆိုျပဳထားတဲ့ ကိစၥနဲ႔ ထိုင္း-ျမန္မာ နယ္စပ္က အိုးအိမ္စြန္႔ပစ္ ထြက္ေျပးေနရတဲ့ စစ္ေျပးဒုကၡသည္ အေရးေတြကို ေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ၾကတယ္လို႔ ဒီကေန႔ထုတ္ The Nation သတင္းစာမွာ ေဖာ္ျပထားပါတယ္။
ဗီြအုိေအ ျမန္မာ
ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာသတင္းသမားေတြအေနနဲ႔ဘက္မလိုက္ဘဲမွန္ကန္တဲ့သတင္းအခ်က္အလက္ေတြကုိပဲ ျပည္သူေတြကုိ တင္ျပႏုိင္ဖို႔အေရးႀကီးတယ္လို႔ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္က ေျပာၾကားလုိက္ပါတယ္။ ဒီေန႔ တနလၤာေန႔ အမ်ဳိးသား ဒီမုိကေရစီ အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ႐ုံးခ်ဳပ္မွာ ဖြင့္လွစ္တဲ့ သတင္းစာပညာသင္တန္း အပတ္စဥ္၁ဖြင့္ပြဲ ႏႈတ္ခြန္းဆက္အမွာစကားမွာ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ကအဲဒီလုိ ေျပာၾကားခဲ့တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အျပည့္အစုံကို ေဒၚခင္မ်ဳိးသက္က တင္ျပေပးထားပါတယ္။
အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမုိကေရစီအဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ဟာ ျမန္မာ့ဒီမုိကေရစီ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ ေနအိမ္အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ကေန ျပန္ၿပီး လြတ္ေျမာက္လာတဲ့ ေနာက္ပုိင္း လူငယ္ေတြအတြက္ အရည္အခ်င္း ျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ပို႔ခ်မႈေတြကို အဆက္မျပတ္ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေနပါတယ္။ တနလၤာေန႔ကေတာ့ လူငယ္ ပညာေပးေရး အစီအစဥ္အရ ဖြင့္လွစ္တဲ့ သတင္းစာပညာသင္တန္း အပတ္စဥ္ ၁ ကို အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ ဗဟိုအစည္းအေ၀း ခန္းမမွာ စတင္ ဖြင့္လွစ္ခဲ့ပါတယ္။
By David Scott Mathieson
MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.
Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by
MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.
Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by
DVB News
The nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Burma are a ‘Bermuda Triangle’ for domestic reporters that creates a misperception of the plight of refugees among the Thai population, a human right expert has said.
The nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Burma are a ‘Bermuda Triangle’ for domestic reporters that creates a misperception of the plight of refugees among the Thai population, a human right expert has said.
Compounded by the difficulties in accessing the camps, Thai journalists rely too heavily on reports issued from the Thai government who “have their own agenda”, said Veerawit Tianchainan, executive director of Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR).“When the Thai media talks about refugees, they talk about ‘problems’ and not about ways to treat refugees better.”
The comments were made last week at the Bangkok launch of Amnesty International’s annual Global Human Rights Report, which noted that the situation with regards to human rights had declined in many Asian nations over the past year.
Monday May 16, 2011
PETALING JAYA: Myanmar refugees in the country want Malaysia and Australia to ensure asylum seekers’ rights before going ahead with their swap agreement.
“These governments must conduct a thorough investigation for these asylum seekers so that their rights are protected,” said Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani in a statement here yesterday.
Zafar said the Malaysian Government should first sign the 1951 Refugee Convention to protect the asylum seekers’ rights and safety.
“As Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, there are currently no legislative or administrative provisions in place for dealing with asylum seekers or refugees in the country,” he pointed out.
Also expressing his concerns over the Malaysia-Australia pact, he said it was vague on how the plan would stop human smugglers.
Link: :http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/16/nation/8689573&sec=nation
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Refugee supporters rally outside Villawood detention centre, April 25. Photo: Peter Boyle
In a joint statement with Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on May 7, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an agreement had been reached to swap 800 future “irregular maritime arrivals” from Australia with 4000 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised refugees from Malaysia over the next four years.
Although the details of the plan are yet to be fully revealed, a number of myths about this so-called solution have already arisen in the media. Here are the facts.
By Pravit Rojanaphruk ,The Nation on Sunday,Published on May 15, 2011
Expert damns harsh attitude of govt, public; calls for sympathetic approach
Expert damns harsh attitude of govt, public; calls for sympathetic approach
Thailand's policy of keeping refugees from Burma in nine camps along the border has caused untold suffering and shows that the government does not know how to handle refugees.
This was particularly the case for 60,000 refugees "not registered" by Thai officials, said Veerawit Tianchainan, executive director of Thai Committee for Refugees (TRC).
Most Thais were not aware that 140,000 refugees had been kept in camps along the border for 26 years, he said.
Veerawit, who spoke during the global launch of Amnesty International's annual Human Rights Report 2011, alleged that the Thai Army had "recently stop distributing food" to the unregistered refugees.
By Matthew Russell Lee.
UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- As UN envoy Vijay Nambiar was on his way to Myanmar earlier this week, Inner City Press asked the UN if he would meet with ethnic minority groups including the Shan, whom the government is attacking. The UN said it didn't know yet.
Now Nambiar has left Myanmar, after issuing a statement that does not mention the Shan or the ending of ceasefires. At Friday's noon UN briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked again the Nambiar take questions from the media when he returns, for example about the situation of the Shan, Karen, Rohingya and other groups, especially since his statement did not mention them.
“How do you know he didn't mention them?” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky demanded.
Well, Nambiar's statement was sent to Inner City Press by e-mail, as were various statements from human rights groups critical of Nambiar's work.
UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- As UN envoy Vijay Nambiar was on his way to Myanmar earlier this week, Inner City Press asked the UN if he would meet with ethnic minority groups including the Shan, whom the government is attacking. The UN said it didn't know yet.Now Nambiar has left Myanmar, after issuing a statement that does not mention the Shan or the ending of ceasefires. At Friday's noon UN briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked again the Nambiar take questions from the media when he returns, for example about the situation of the Shan, Karen, Rohingya and other groups, especially since his statement did not mention them.
“How do you know he didn't mention them?” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky demanded.
Well, Nambiar's statement was sent to Inner City Press by e-mail, as were various statements from human rights groups critical of Nambiar's work.
Hamish Macdonald ,May 15, 2011
THERE is a growing chorus of opposition in Malaysia over Australian plans to send 800 unwanted asylum seekers there. An unlikely coalition of senior justice officials, legal professionals, former diplomats and opposition politicians are questioning the legality of the deal to accept refugees from Australia.
Malaysia's main opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is the latest to join the debate. He says "this is a dubious deal, the legality of which must be investigated" and plans to strenuously object to the proposal when parliament next sits.
Burma Soldier” tells the unforgettable story of a former junta member and Burmese soldier who risks everything to become a pro-democracy activist.
“Burma Soldier” provides a rare glimpse of a brutal dictatorship seen through the eyes of a courageous former soldier who, quite literally, swapped sides. The documentary will offer an exclusive and rare perspective, from inside the heart and mind of a former Burmese soldier who lays bare an understanding of a brutal regime and the political and psychological power of the junta over this country.For decades, the Burmese army has been notorious for its horrific aggression against civilians, especially in conflict areas: underage boys have been forced to join the army; young women, mainly in ethnic areas, have been raped and murdered; locals haved been forced to work as porters—and in some cases even used to sweep for landmines.
“For them [the Burmese military], it is just as normal as eating and drinking,” said Myo Myint, 48, a former Burmese soldier who was an eyewitness to such atrocities and is the subject of the film “Burma Soldier,” a powerful documentary about the life of a former Burmese soldier who risked everything to become a pro-democracy activist.
Link: :http://www.filmdates.co.uk/films/2807-burma-soldier/
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