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အာရပ္ႏိုင္ငံေတြမွာ ေအာင္ပြဲခံခဲ့၊ ေအာင္ပြဲခံဖို႔ အားထုတ္ေနတဲ့ အာဏာရွင္အစိုးရျဖဳတ္ခ်ေရး ေတာ္လွန္ေရးလႈိင္း ကို ျမန္မာျပည္မွာလဲစီးဖို႔ လိုလား ႀကိဳးစားေနၾကသူေတြ မနည္းမေနာ ရွိေနပါတယ္။ အခုအခါ အာရပ္လႈိင္းကို ကမၻာ့ႏိုင္ငံ ေပါင္း ၅၂ ႏိုင္ငံမွာ စီးခဲ့ၿပီျဖစ္ေပမဲ့ ကမၻာ့ဝါရင့္အာဏာရွင္ႏိုင္ငံ ျမန္မာျပည္ က်န္ေနပါေသးတယ္။ အခု ေဆာင္းပါးမွာ အာရပ္လႈိင္းစီးခဲ့တဲ့ႏိုင္ငံေတြကို တတ္ႏိုင္သေလာက္ စာရင္းေကာက္ထားပါတယ္။
၁။ ၂၀၁၀ ခုႏွစ္ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၁၇ ရက္။ အေရွ႕အလယ္ပိုင္းက အာရပ္ႏိုင္ငံတခုျဖစ္တဲ့ က်ဴနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံမွာ အာဏာရွင္ လက္ပါးေစ ပုလိပ္မတေယာက္ရဲ႕ ႏွိပ္စက္မႈေတြကို မခံႏိုင္ေတာ့တဲ့အဆံုး ဘြဲ႔ရအလုပ္လက္မဲ့ တျဖစ္လဲ ဟင္းရြက္စံု တြန္းလွည္းသမားေလး မိုဟာမက္ ဘြာဇီဇီ ဟာ ကိုယ့္ကိုယ္ကို မီး႐ႈိ႕သတ္ေသခဲ့ရာကေန က်ဴနီးရွားေတာ္ လွန္ေရး ေပါက္ဖြားလာခဲ့ၿပီး ၂၈ ရက္အၾကာ ၂၀၁၁ ခု ဇန္နဝါရီ ၁၄ ရက္မွာ အာဏာရွင္သမတ ဘင္အလီ ထြက္ေျပး သြားတဲ့အတြက္ ဒီမိုကေရစီလိုလားသူေတြ ေအာင္ပြဲရသြားခဲ့ပါတယ္။ ဒီလူထုတိုက္ပြဲအတြင္း လူ ၂၀၀ ေက်ာ္ ပစ္သတ္ ခံခဲ့ရပါတယ္။

ဒီမိုကေရစီဆိုလို႔ မူးလို႔ေတာင္႐ွဴစရာမရွိဘဲ အာဏာရွင္ေတြနဲ႔ သက္ဦးဆံပိုင္ပေဒသရာဇ္ေတြႀကီးစိုးတဲ့ အာရပ္ကမၻာ၊ အၾကမ္းဖက္ဝါဒ အားေပးတယ္ဆိုတဲ့ အစၥလမ္အာရပ္ကမၻာမွာ ၾကံဳေတာင့္ၾကံဳခဲ ဒီမိုကေရစီေတာ္လွန္ေရးတခု ေအာင္ ပြဲခံသြားတာဟာ အာဏာရွင္ေတြရဲ႕ဖိႏွိပ္ခ်ဳပ္ခ်ယ္မႈေတြကို အံႀကိတ္ခံေနရတဲ့ ဘဝတူအာရပ္ႏိုင္ငံေတြကို ဂယက္႐ိုက္ သြားခဲ့ပါတယ္။

By Phil Thornton, Diplomat


Aung San Suu Kyi's backers say it's time for her to meet the public. She's been attacked once by junta supporters. Could it happen again?

‘They tried to assassinate her then…and today…the military hardliners still want her dead. They won’t do it themselves, but they’ll use drunken thugs like they did in Depayin,’ says Moe Zaw Oo, joint secretary of the exiled branch of the National League for Democracy.
Back in May 2002, following her release from 19 months of house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi, with permission from the military regime, embarked on a mammoth political tour of 95 townships. She met with various ethnic groups including Shan, Kaichin and Karen. She also opened NLD offices in rural areas.
Suu Kyi’s ability to attract large, passionate crowds confirmed her position as a national leader – and a huge threat to the regime. Years of house arrest and official vilification by the regime have done little to diminish her popularity. From makeshift stages, Suu Kyi urged the thousands of enthusiastic supporters who came to meet her in each town to continue to struggle for democracy and to respect human rights.

နိဒါန္း။ ။

ကြ်န္ေတာ္၏ ကိုယ္ေတြ႕ခံစားခ်က္ကို အဂၤလိပ္ဘာသာျဖင့္ ေရးသားၿပီး “I Do not Want to Go to a  Zoo Any More” ေခါင္းစဥ္ၿဖင့္ အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံထုတ္ “Yellow Medicine Review” A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought စာစဥ္၏ (Spring) ေႏြဦးရာသီ ၂၀၀၈ ခုႏွစ္တြင္ ေဖၚျပခဲ့ပါသည္။ အဂၤလိပ္ဘာသာျဖစ္သျဖင့္ ျမန္မာပရိသတ္မ်ားၾကားတြင္ လူသိနည္းခဲ့ပါသည္။ ထို႔ေၾကာင့္ ၎ ကိုယ္ေတြ႕ျဖစ္စဥ္ ေဆာင္းပါးကို ျမန္မာလို ဘာသာျပန္၍ ပိုမို ျပည့္စုံေစရန္ အေသးစိတ္ အျဖစ္ အပ်က္ အခ်ဳိ႕ကိုပါျဖည့္စြက္ကာ ေဒါင္းအိုးေဝ စာေစာင္ အတြက္ေရးသားလိုက္ေသာ္ လည္းစာေစာင္လိုအပ္ ခ်က္ ထက္ႏွစ္ဆမက ပိုသြား သည့္အတြက္ အင္တာနက္မွၿဖန္႔ရန္ဆံုးၿဖတ္လိုက္ပါသည္။ ယၡဳေဆာင္းပါး ထက္ ပိုမိုျပည့္စုံေသာ ကိုယ္ေတြ႕မွတ္တမ္း ကို ဇြန္လအေရးအခင္းေတြ ဆက္လက္ ေရးသားပါမည္။ ကြ်န္ေတာ္တို႔ အေတြ႕အႀကဳံမ်ားကို ေနာင္ လာေနာင္သားမ်ား အတုယူ၍ တိုင္းျပည္ အက်ဳိး ဆထက္တံပိုး က်ဳိးစားလုပ္လိုစိတ္မ်ား ျဖစ္ေပၚလာခဲ့လွ်င္ ႀကိဳးစား ေရးရက်ဴိးနပ္ပါသည္။

ေလးစားလ်က္
ထြန္းေအာင္ေက်ာ္
ဇူလိုင္လ (၇) ရက္ ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္။


Education is a key challenge for Rohingya refugees

KUALA LUMPUR, 8 June 2011 (IRIN) - Graduating from primary school was just a dream for Rohingya teenager Ali Tofik, who, until 2010, lived in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, where access to education, particularly secondary education, is limited. 

In recent decades, this ethnic and religious minority has been stripped of its citizenship and property rights by Myanmar's military-dominated government, leading to human rights abuses and exploitation and resulting in mass exodus. 

Some 200,000 fled to Bangladesh over the years, with smaller numbers to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in the region by boat. 
Now the 17-year-old is keen to get ahead, learning the Malay language with a group of younger students in the two-room Malaysian school. English, Malay, mathematics and science are taught on the second floor of a business block in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. 
"I would like to become a teacher so that I can help my people and I can teach them and talk with the international community," explains Tofik, who fled Myanmar with his family a year ago. 
By Trefor Moss, The Diplomat


Burma’s opposition leader may have achieved less than the Chinese premier. But Suu Kyi’s less is definitely more.

Britain welcomed two distinguished Asian guests at the end of last month. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited London as part of a European tour to sign trade agreements and help sandbag the leaking Eurozone. The following day, Aung San Suu Kyi took over the BBC’s airwaves from back home in Burma to deliver the first of two highly-anticipated lectures, entitled ‘Liberty’ and ‘Dissent’, about her pro-democracy campaign.
Both came armed with criticisms. Wen’s were for his British hosts. ‘On human rights, China and the UK should respect each other, respect the facts, treat each other as equals, engage more in co-operation and less in finger-pointing,’ Wen said in a public rebuke to his British counterpart, David Cameron. Clearly irritated by the UK’s patronising and moralising refrain (as he saw it) about China’s lax human rights record, Wen went in for some patronisation of his own. China has a 5,000 year history, he observed, which has taught the Chinese not to lecture other countries, but to respect them on an equal basis – an evident hint that this was a  lesson that the arriviste British might also eventually learn. Wen signed $2.25 billion in trade deals with Cameron, threw in two pandas for Edinburgh Zoo, and decamped to Germany.

BKK Post, Editorial

Southeast Asia's _ and probably the world's _ most revered female political icon reached out to the region's newest female political icon when Aung San Suu Kyi extended her congratulations last week to Yingluck Shinawatra, who is set to become Thailand's first female prime minister after the Pheu Thai Party's decisive victory in last Sunday's general election. Mrs Suu Kyi, who was in the ancient Burmese city of Pagan, noted that Ms Yingluck is a woman who was chosen to be the leader of a nation in a fair democratic election. The same can be said of Mrs Suu Kyi, although of course she was prevented by the military from taking her role after her National League for Democracy Party won an overwhelming victory in 1990.



Further comparisons between the two are impossible and unfair at this time, but it can only be hoped that Ms Yingluck will emulate Mrs Suu Kyi's longstanding devotion to justice and democracy for her people, which she has maintained at the cost of extreme personal sacrifice.

The Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, explores what freedom means in the first of the 2011 Reith Lecture series, 'Securing Freedom'.





Boatpeople apprehended five months ago on Phuket remain prisoners

By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian 
 PHUKET: Concerns are growing for the physical and mental health of 33 Rohingya, some as young as 14, who have been held in isolation in a cramped cell on Phuket since February.

One teenage Rohingya is believed to have recently fallen sick and been admitted to a Phuket hospital, with others are also thought to be suffering the effects of prolonged incarceration in cramped conditions.
 VOA Burmese
ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံမွာ ၀န္ႀကီးခ်ဳပ္ျဖစ္လာေတာ့မယ့္ ေဖြထိုင္းပါတီ (Pheu Thai) ရဲ႕ ေခါင္းေဆာင္ ယင္းလပ္ ရွင္နာ၀ပ္ (YinLuck Shinawatra) က ျမန္မာ့ဒီမိုကေရစီေခါင္းေဆာင္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္ရဲ႕ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးႀကိဳးပမ္းရပ္တည္ေနမႈေတြကိုအင္မတန္အားက် ေလးစာမိတယ္လို႔ ေျပာလိုက္သလို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရဲ႕ လူ႔အခြင့္အေရးကိစၥေတြအေပၚ သူ႔အစိုးရအဖြဲ႔က အားေပး ေထာက္ခံသြားမယ္လုိ႔ ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။ ဒီကေန႔ ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံ ဘန္ေကာက္ၿမိဳ႕မွာ က်င္းပတဲ့ သတင္းစာရွင္းပြဲမွာ ယင္းလပ္ ရွင္နာ၀ပ္ က အခုလို ေျပာဆိုလိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ အျပည့္စံုကို မသင္းသီရိက အစီရင္ခံထားပါတယ္။
 
By Larry Jagan

BANGKOK - The trappings of the old military regime that ruled Myanmar are slowly fading from view under new democratically elected president Thein Sein and his promises of reform. At the same time, a budding power struggle between the president and vice president Thin Aung Myint Oo has pitted moderate versus hardline agendas and stalled significantly the new government's economic and political progress.

 ျမန္မာျပည္ဖြား ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံသားျဖစ္လွ်က္ႏွင့္ ကုိယ့္ႏုိင္ငံအက်ိဳးကုိအတြက္ တရုပ္ကုိ ေဝဖန္ရင္ ကာယကံရွင္ တရုပ္ေတြထက္ေတာင္ ဆတ္ဆတ္မခံတတ္သူေတြ၊ ကာယကံရွင္ တရုပ္ေတြထက္ပင္ အကြက္ေစ့ေစ့ ကာကြယ္ေလွ်ာက္လႊဲေပးတတ္သူေတြကုိ ရည္ညႊန္းပါတယ္။ (တရုပ္ဆန္႔က်င္ေရး စာမဟုတ္။ တာဝန္မဲ့၊ သိကၡာမဲ့ေသာ တရုပ္ကုိယ္က်ိဳးရွာဝါဒ ဆန္႔က်င္ေရးသာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။)

ျမန္မာျပည္သား တရုပ္ေျပာေရးဆုိခြင့္ရွိသူေတြ ေျပာေလ့ေျပာထရွိတာက ႏုိင္ငံတုိင္းဟာ ကုိယ့္ႏုိင္ငံအက်ိဳးကုိ ဦးစားေပး ၾကည့္တတ္တာမုိ႔ တရုပ္ကလည္း အေနာက္ႏုိင္ငံေတြနည္းတူ ကုိယ့္ႏုိင္ငံအက်ိဳးကုိ အဓိကထားရတယ္ဆုိတာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ မွန္သင့္သေလာက္ မွန္ပါတယ္။

One hundred days after assuming the presidency in Burma, former General Thein Sein has failed to take any meaningful steps towards political, legal, and economic reforms. Thein Sein’s policies have been a continuation of the State Peace and Development Council’s programs.

This five-page briefer reveals that it was “business as usual” for the Burmese military despite President Thein Sein’s much-promoted image as a “softliner”.

The briefer finds that the Tatmadaw continued to commit crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma against both urban and rural populations. Tatmadaw troops continued to attack, kill, and rape ethnic civilians, while over 2,000 political prisoners continued to be detained under atrocious conditions.

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By ARASA / ASIA SENTINEL Thursday, July 7, 2011
In this April, 2009 photo, two Australian naval vessels intercept a boat carrying asylum seekers of Australia's shores. (Photo: AP) 
Australia urgently needs to stop the snake heads who are delivering an unceasing inflow of unlawful or illegal boat arrivals demanding admission to the country as refugees. The solution being proposed by the Labor government led by Julia Gillard, however, has kicked off a storm of political controversy in Canberra, where it remains stalled.

July 7, 2011
The Honorable Mr. Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 2050

By Mail: to above address
By Fax: (202) 456 2461
By Email: C/O Mr. Daniel Russel (Senior Director for Asian Affairs) and Ms. Samantha Power 
(Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs) at the National Security Council
BURMA: Banking Sanctions and Establishment of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry 

Dear President Obama,


It has now been almost two years since your administration launched its new engagement policy with the military government in Burma. Senior officials from the State Department have visited the country several times, met with Burma’s leaders, and tried to persuade them to implement positive changes in the country, as demanded by the people of Burma and the international community.  The steps they have urged include (1) unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners, (2) establishment of a substantive dialogue with democratic forces led by the National League for Democracy and the ethnic minorities of Burma on transition to democratic bgovernment under the rule of law; and (3) allowing humanitarian assistance to populations 
affected by armed conflict in all regions of Burma, as described in the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act 2008 (The JADE Act). Sadly, as of today, these conditions remain unfulfilled.



RANONG : Provincial authorities are taking steps to ensure the new ID cards for children are not issued to the offspring of foreign migrant workers.


A registration official of Yala municipality tests equipment for the production of ID cards for children aged seven and above. The issuance of ID cards for the young will begin on Sunday and officials of Yala municipality will produce ID cards for about 1,300 local children at their schools. MUHAMMAD AYUB PATHANRanong governor Wanchart Wongchaichana said yesterday children will be thoroughly screened to prevent the system being abused. The Identity Card Act of 2011 requires Thais to have ID cards from the age of seven to 70. Previously, the minimum age of ID card holders was 15. The issuance of the new cards will start this Sunday.

A Long History of Injustice Ignored: Rohingya: The Forgotten People of Our Time
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

An often-practiced devious way to grab someones land is to deny his right to that property. Nothing could be more horrific when a government itself gets into such a criminal practice. The most glaring example of such a crime can be seen in the practices of the regimes that have ruled Burma (now Myanmar) since its independence from Britain in 1948 (esp. since 1962 when Gen. Ne Win came to power). In our times, one can hardly find a regime that has been so atrocious, so inhuman and so barbarous in its denial of basic human rights to a people that trace their origin to the land for nearly a millennium. [1[ The victims are the Rohingya Muslims living in the Arakan (now Rakhine) state. They have become the forgotten people of our time. The Burma Citizenship Law of 1982 has reduced them to the status of ғStateless.
BANGKOK - A COALITION of media groups on Thursday called on Myanmar to end the harassment of journalists and to release 17 video reporters serving long prison sentences in the military-dominated country.

A dozen organisations, including the Democratic Voice of Burma and Reporters Without Borders, urged the United Nations, the Asean regional bloc and the European Union to press Myanmar to release all jailed journalists.

'There is evidence that despite pledges to the contrary, freedom of the press and freedom of expression continue to deteriorate in Burma, with regulations over access to the Internet tightened and journalists now forced to self-censor with greater intensity,' they said in a joint statement.
7-7-62. A peaceful march takes place from Convocation Hall along Chancellor Road.
 (Feature) – Rangoon University had a history of incidents of student discontent from British colonial times. But it is 7 July, 1962, that is remembered in Burma.

U Myo recalls when he was growing up, 7 July was like a religious holiday for school kids—no classes. Now a lawyer and member of the Thailand-based Burma Lawyer Council, Myo said he was young when he first heard of the traumatic events that befell students a few years before at the prestigious Rangoon University.
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A source close to the army said that the commander of the Rangoon Command, Brigadier General Tun Than, was relieved of his post on July 5.
Rangoon commander Brigadier General Tun Than attends the opening ceremony for the Yankin Children's Hospital in Kanbae in Yankin Township on March 13, 2011. Photo: Mizzima
If everything was going as planned, the general would have been promoted to Major General within a month.  But he was forced to resign, according to an unofficial source.

During a period of probation he had been earning the salary of a major general although he was still a brigadier general.
Unofficial sources said there are allegations that when he led the Rangoon Command he had accepted bribes and approved farmland to be used for building plots. The information could not be confirmed with other sources. Before he was dismissed, he had been posted in Taungoo, according to the source.

Kaladan Press: Rohingya living in Canada have requested help for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand through an appeal petition to John Baird, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, via honorable Member of Parliament Mr. Stephen Woodworth on June 30, according to Nur Hashim, the Chairperson of the Canadian Burmese Rohingya Organization (CBRO).


CBRO Members with Member of Parliament Mr. Stephen Woodworth
“The Rohingya in Canada (CBRO) had a meeting with Member of Parliament Mr. Stephen Woodworth of the Conservative Government in his office, Suite 12, 300 Victoria Street North, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada on June 30 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.”
“At the meeting, we explained to Mr. Woodworth about the situation of the Rohingya community from northern Arakan, Burma, where the authorities have imposed various restrictions on movement, education, marriage, etc.”
Published on : 7 July 2011 - 11:00am | By Dheera Sujan (Photo: Dheera Sujan)
 He is a good looking man – or he would be, if it wasn’t for the hollowness of his eyes, something about them, that gives the impression that they’re looking at the world in a different, darker way than most other people.

And Mohammed Rohim (28) does indeed have reason to view the world differently.   After all, he is a Rohingya in Bangladesh.  That means that he’s had about a tough a life as it’s possible to have on this earth.
The predominantly Muslim Rohingya come from Rakhine state in western Myanmar, and they are arguably the worst treated of all of the country’s ethnic minorities.  They need official permits to marry, own land or move to another area.  They are often recruited as unpaid porters, used as human mine detectors and heavily taxed in crops and money.  So badly have they been treated, that for years, they’ve been escaping across the river to neighbouring Bangladesh.
By Joseph Allchin

Between Dhaka and the Nasaka


Under the Teknaf sun: The new border fence runs near the Kutapalong refugee camp
Photos: Josheph Allchin
Under the tormenting sun in Teknaf, on the southeastern tip of Bangladesh, Ahmed puts us straight: it is really all about love. His wife stands next to him in his tarpaulined shop in the unofficial Kutupalong refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. He came here, Ahmed says, to marry his childhood sweetheart, fleeing what Physicians for Human Rights, a watchdog group, describes as ‘flagrant and widespread human rights abuses’ that condemned Ahmed to having to pay an exorbitant bribe just to marry. Today, his 18-month-old baby crawls over small packets of paan and snacks on sale, mimicking his father’s voice unknowingly, describing the indescribable – how Rohingya women were told by the Burmese military that, in order to marry, they would have to have an implant rendering them infertile.
Driven from Burma, scorned by Bangladesh thumbnail
By MICHAEL GABAUDAN
Published: 7 July 2011



A Rohingya mother from Burma carries her child inside a makeshift hut in a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar (Reuters)

It’s the “Rohingya problem.” Burma’s history of brutal persecution of the Rohingya – coupled with their lack of citizenship rights – have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s Minister of Food and Disaster Management, Abdul Razzaque, recently blamed western countries for “keeping the problem alive.”

By: Anna Malindog

BURMA is a homeland that has been sick and wounded for a long time. It is a land with rivers that are flowing sores. It seas and oceans is full of poisons. It is a home to men and women who are scattered, families and friends who became desolate and uncertain wanderers parched by the various toxics of social unrest, economic hardships, a long standing civil war between the ethnic revolutionary groups and the Burmese military regime, political turmoil, human rights violations and abuses, and many other problems of the same nature. It is like a wilderness home to frightened and desolate people, – the ethnic peoples of Burma, who are governed by vile and vicious vultures, – the ruling military generals in Nayphitaw, – the manipulators of illusions and deceit, who are blinded and devil possessed by their quest and pursuit for power and the preservation of status quo. Burma is a land home to countless Burmese people who have died and suffered in fighting against its atmosphere filled with oily smoke of countless hellish fires of anguish, torment and misery.
 (Mizzima) – Japan based Burmese pro-democracy forces and the Secretary of the Japan MP Union discussed Japanese foreign policy towards Burma in Tokyo on Wednesday.
 
Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta met with Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon. Photo: Mizzima
Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta met with Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon. Photo: Mizzima
The discussion centered on the issue of possibility of foreign policy change towards Burma and its future prospects, one of the participants at this meeting, Dr. Min Nyo from the Tokyo based-Burma Office, told Mizzima.

The meeting was attended by the MP Union Secretary and ruling Democratic Party Upper House MP Azuma Konno, officials from the Burma Office, the Japan Trade Union and a representative from the Network of Democracy in Burma (NDB). The meeting was held at the office of Azuma Konno in the MP residential block.

The fighting in Shan State, news of importing nuclear weapon technology from North Korea, the use of child soldiers and forced labour issues were also discussed.

 
It’s hard not to be bemused by the timing and nature of the recent defection of a top Burmese diplomat in the US. In a letter yesterday, Kyaw Win, the embassy’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, told Hillary Clinton: “…my conscience would no longer allow me to work for the government.” He is now seeking asylum, fearing retribution if he returns to Burma.

Until yesterday, Kyaw Win had been a solid career diplomat with more than three decades experience in the Burmese foreign ministry. That a man so familiar with the machinations of the regime takes so long to acknowledge that “democratic change under this system will not happen in the foreseeable future,” as the letter laments, is somewhat mystifying. But the timing of the decision, during a period when Naypyidaw is winning plaudits from key international players for seemingly little, appears on the surface a bold statement of protest.
“When I first began my service in the Foreign Ministry I thought that, over time and perhaps with the help of my efforts, the military would ease its grip and send Myanmar [Burma] on a path to greater political pluralism,” he wrote in the letter. “However, the truth is that senior military officials are consolidating their grip on power and seeking to stamp out the voices of those seeking democracy, human rights and individual liberties. Oppression is rising and war against our ethnic cousins is imminent and at present, threats are being made against Aung San Suu Kyi — they must be taken seriously.”


Despite efforts to initiate a ceasefire negotiation on June 17 and 30 by means of meetings between representatives of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese government, fresh clashes between the KIA and Burma armed forces took place on July 2 and 3 in different parts of the Kachin State, Kachin News Group has reported.
On July 2, the Mohnyin Township – Sinbo-based and KIA Battalion 5 – was engaged with Burmese soldiers who tried to penetrate the KIA-controlled area. At least 20 Burmese soldiers died, according to an unnamed source.

By Paul Eckert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 diplomat in Myanmar's embassy in Washington is seeking asylum in the United States because the reports in which he outlined his government's failures have put him in danger, he said on Tuesday.
Career diplomat Kyaw Win sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter before dawn July 4 spelling out his disillusionment with the lack of reform in the Southeast Asian nation also known as Burma, he told Reuters.
Flimsy huts spawl over the hillside at the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh (Joseph Allchin)

Days of heavy rain in eastern Bangladesh have sparked panic in the unofficial Kutupalong camp that houses tens of thousands of refugees from Burma, with flimsy huts destroyed and food shortages worsening.
A Kutupalong camp committee member told the Bangladesh-based Kaladan Press Network yesterday that several huts had been washed out, while many others had lost roofs.
Concerns have also mounted about the ability of the refugees in the camp, none of whom are recognised by the UN’s refugee agency and thus receive no UN assistance, to provide food for themselves, with their normal means of making money scuppered by the extreme weather conditions.
Kaladan Press 
Maungdaw, Arakan state: The Human Trafficking Control Department has been harassing the Rohingya community since the first week of this month, said an elder from Maungdaw.

“The Human Trafficking Control Department was established six months ago to control the trafficking of people from northern Arakan to other countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, the Middle East, and India.”

“Most of the Rohingya are now going to Bangladesh, then to Malaysia or Thailand. The Rakhine are also going to Bangladesh and India by crossing the border.”

“The Rakhine, who are able to move to Rangoon or other parts of Burma, go to Thailand through Myawaddy, then to Malaysia. Some are going with international passports which are issued by the Burmese authorities.”

    • Rohingya Exodus