dejunter burma

Source: The Irrawaddy - By BA Kaung

Aung San Suu Kyi Welcomed her lawyer Nyan Win with an ice-cream. "I made it myself," she said. "Eat it up Quickly before it melts."

Making ice-cream cakes and baking is one of the ways Suu Kyi fills the long hours of her enforced detention in her dilapidated home on Rangoon's Inya Lake.

Aung San Suu Kyi looks on Following a meeting with a delegation led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell at a hotel in Rangoon Nov. 4, 2009.

"She spends a good deal of time working out how to Strengthen the party [the National League for Democracy]," said Nyan Win Effective a visit to Suu Kyi's home on Thursday.

Reporting on the visit, Nyan Win said he found the 64-year-old NLD leader in good health and "vigorous."

The lawyer Told The Irrawaddy he and Suu Kyi HAD Discussed how to Pursue a final appeal against her current term of house arrest, the expansion of the NLD and her frustrated efforts to repair her house.

Suu Kyi aussi spends her time reading Buddhist religious texts, travel and history books, Including ones written in French, listening to the radio and watching television All which can only receive state-run channels, Nyan Win said.

The lawyer said he is allowed to give Suu Kyi censored copies of the magazines Time and Newsweek. He aussi Gave her 20 French books she HAD requested.

"She Abebooks web sites for me many 'international' books," Nyan Win said. "But I am not always allowed to give 'em to her." HOWEVER, on Thursday, he managed to present to her a book as a gift from Nobel Economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz Have you visited Burma in December. During the trip, Nyan Win Stiglitz Abebooks web sites to give His book Globalization and Its Discontent to Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi is serving an 18-month term of house arrest, Reduced from an original sentence of three years' hard labor pronounced by a court in Insein Prison last August. At the end of the farcical trial, Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo Appeared in court with a special order from junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe Stating That as Suu Kyi is the daughter of national hero Gen. Aung San, her sentence shoulds be halved and the rest suspended.

Aussi Maung Oo read out a puzzling clause Stating That if she behaved "well" at her Inya Lake home under the restrictions Imposed on her, Suu Kyi Would Be Granted amnesty before her suspended sentence expired.

Suu Kyi has-been detained This Nearly for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest. Analysts Generally competitive That The trial was a political showcase and That the military junta want to keep her under arrest ahead of the elections in 2010.

Suu Kyi HAS Already served Almost half of her 18-month house arrest period All which Began in May, 2009. In view of Maung Oo's hint of her release in November, the diet to Suu Kyi's Message Appears to Be That she is not behaving well and needs to serve the full sentence.

Described HAS Suu Kyi Maung Oo's recent indication That She Will Be released in November as totally "unfair." According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi factotum believes the comment is obstructing the short awaited ruling over her final appeal.

Asked if Suu Kyi Could expect to be released in November When her 18-month house arrest expires, Nyan Win said: "It Would not be unusual if a person is released at the end of his or her punishment."

Using a Burmese proverb, Nyan Win added: "But, if she is not really released at That Time, then They [the Burmese rulers] Would look like swallowing Their own vomit."

"What is good behavior After All?" Nyan Win Abebooks web sites. "We assume That she has-been behaving well Because She Does not break the terms of the restrictions on her."

Suu Kyi and the NLD Were reprimanded by the state-run media last month, HOWEVER, for making public the text of letters she wrote to Than Shwe.

"The leak of Aung San Suu Kyi's letters to the media Before They Were received by the leader of the government is Intended to damage the image of the ruling government, and this might delay the processes of the other side [the military government]," said an Article Carried by state-run newspapers.

Suu Kyi's life in detention has-been made even more uncomfortable by the official obstruction of her Attempts to repair her home, All which Has Fallen in disrepair. Work on repairing the house was halted Effective objections Were Lodged by her brother and other relative.

The building is now in an unsafe condition, According to Nyan Win.

Suu Kyi's piano, for so long a symbol of her detention, Has not Worked for some years, yet she was said to be still Spending some of her time on artistic activities.

The author Alan Clements, Have you wrote the book Voice of Hope, based on interviews with her ​​Mainly Effective she was released her first house arrest in 1995, The Irrawaddy Told her life in detention HAD Become Progressively more difficult.

"The most prominent features I remember Were her serenity and sincerity," Clements said. "I did not detect a moment of ill will or vindictiveness: towards anyone, Including her Oppressors.

"To the Contrary, She Would Often remark how she genuinely wishes for the day Abebooks web can all be friends, how much better it Would Be For the entire country."

A Burmese journalist was sentenced to 13 years in prison for illegally working for media in exile, said a lawyer Friday, less than a month after a heavier penalty yet been brought against a colleague.

"Ngwe Soe Lin was sentenced to 13 years in prison Wednesday by a special court in Insein prison" in Rangoon, said Aung Thein, a lawyer disbarred Yangon by the junta last year and that this now as a legal adviser.

Ngwe Soe Lin alias Kyaw Kyaw was arrested in an internet cafe in the neighborhood of Rangoon Kyaukmyaung June 26, 2009, with one of his friends who has since been released.

He worked for television "Democratic Voice of Burma '(DVB), based in Norway. The lawyer said that the journalist would appeal.

"This is another sign that the regime wants to control the flow of information within and outside the country," lamented Aye Chan Naing, DVB boss in Oslo, confirming it.

"It should be seen in the context of the upcoming elections. The regime wants to impose even stricter rules against freedom of expression and information. "

December 31, Hla Hla Win, a video journalist who also collaborated with DVB, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

"They arrest journalists after another. This was not the case before, "said Aye Chan Naing, condemning the methods of" intimidation "against all Burmese media.

The junta has promised elections this year but has not yet chosen the date. The poll is the first since he won in 1990 by the National League for Democracy (NLD) of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has never been allowed to exercise power.

Many activists, monks, students and journalists were sentenced to heavy penalties for their alleged in the 2007 protests against the regime roles, and the organization of non-official aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis operations, May 2008.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been his private share of freedom for more than 14 of the past 20 years.

Source: AFP

The Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said it was "unfair" information that could be released in November, while the Supreme Court must decide soon on the case, said Thursday one of his lawyers.

According to media and witnesses, the Burmese Interior Minister Maung Oo had said Thursday that the release of the dissident might occur in November. These statements have not been officially confirmed.

Ms. Suu Kyi "said the comments of Minister of the Interior was totally unfair. She said that the (legal) file had not yet been to an end, "he told AFP Nyan Win, a lawyer and spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party of Suu Kyi.

The Supreme Court must decide next month on an appeal by the "Lady of Rangoon" against his conviction in August to an additional 18 months of house arrest.

This sanction, already confirmed on appeal, the de facto excludes the elections promised by the junta this year, the date has not yet been announced. The opponent has spent more than 14 of the last 20 years of private freedom.

Aung San Suu Kyi, "said the court had the right to make a decision. Such a statement is an insult to the court, "the lawyer insisted, adding that she also qualified these remarks" illegal. "

NLD remained cautious after its reported a meeting in the center of the country reports, highlighting a release in November the force to go after his current sentence and therefore had "absolutely nothing strange."

The junta should have ruled in late May 2009 at the end of the residency of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

But she had imprisoned mid-May and sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labor for having briefly hosted an American who swam to her home on the shores of a lake again. The sanction was immediately commuted to house arrest.

The United States has again demanded his immediate release Tuesday. The spokesman for the State Department, Philip Crowley, said it was "unfortunate" the idea that Suu Kyi could only be released in November, "by chance after the election."

If applicable, the election promise this year will be the first since the 1990, the NLD won without ever being allowed to exercise power.

source: idfmedias.fr

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source: Europe 1

More than 2,000 members of the ethnic minority Karen have fled their villages in eastern Burma before the offensive of the government army unleashed January 17, said Saturday the NGO Free Burma Rangers (FBR). The soldiers killed hundreds of people, burned houses, arrested villagers and forced others to forced labor, the organization added. Similar fights in recent years have forced tens of thousands to seek refuge in neighboring Thailand. Karen guerrilla struggle for autonomy since Burma's accession to independence in 1948. According to the rebels, the offensive aimed at eradicating all opposition before the general multiparty elections promised for 2010.

The political activist Aung San Suu Kyi will be released in November, said the Burmese Minister of the Interior according to witnesses, a term which would exclude undoubtedly elections this year. (Reuters / Kerek Wongsa)

The first opponent of the Burmese military junta is under house arrest in her home for many years.

General Maung Oo, Minister of the Interior, made the remarks at a meeting on 21 January in Kyaukopadaung, a town about 560 km north of the former capital Yangon, according to three participants who required the anonymity.

It was not possible to independently verify the information source.

Aung San Suu Kyi could be released and a month after parliamentary elections that the junta plans to hold in October, according to most observers.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention. His arrest was extended by 18 months in August because a U.S. citizen had entered her home, where he was not invited.

This new conviction, which occurred while the arrest of activist of 64 years came to an end, had maintained skepticism about the intentions of the junta for elections. The incident dates back to May 2009, also before the end of an assignment.

MARKET ECONOMY

Elections that the junta count organize in October would be the first since 1990 that resulted in a landslide victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) Suu Kyi. The military refused to recognize the results.

According to witnesses, General Maung Oo told officials that the Vice-President of the NLD, Tin Oo, would be released on February 13. Former Minister of Defence, retired General Tin Oo, 82, was detained for more than ten years.

The junta also wants to move towards a market economy open to the outside after holding "free and fair" elections, said Maung Oo.

For the NLD, it is crucial that Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi to be released before the election. "The most important is that they should be released in time to achieve national reconciliation," said one official, Khin Maung Swe.

The junta has not yet officially set a date for the elections, which it has promised the United States and its Asian neighbors that they would be free, fair and open.

The NLD has not ruled on its participation in the elections. General present him as a step towards a multi-party democracy where the opposition sees a sham to enable them to retain power.

Several countries, including the United States is trying to encourage Burma to its democratic transition and consider revising their policies against him, after years of sanctions and embargoes.

source: Liberation

Live, despite the dictatorship. Director Anne Murat and photographer Brice Richard seized the Burmese daily, away from clichés.

By ARNAUD Vaulerin

Source: AFP

It is not uncommon for a guitarist reduced his instrument to pieces before a crowd of punks in ecstasy, but the scene takes place in Burma, where the military regime for half a century has done little, it is a euphemism for the emergence of against-culture.

Musicians determined to occur in public should submit their lyrics to censorship of the junta, and caution is usually sufficient to prevent any political message.

But a speech emerges anyway when the singer began a virulent version of the song "I want to kill you."

In the outdoor park, fans in international regulatory and gothic punk outfit, makeup and included wanting more red hair: "At home, I am not interested in anyone. I care about my neighbors. I'm punk and I do what I want, "proclaimed Ko Pyae, 16, dressed all in black.

Nothing elaborate in this spotty claim. In 2007, the streets of Rangoon were covered with the blood of protesters followed suit not Buddhist monks during the "Saffron Revolution".

While the art scene as it can be adapted and created the spaces that she invents. Outsider, a group of hard and works in a dingy studio to create his first album.

"If I want to write something about freedom, I can not do directly. If I want to show something that represents the people of Burma, there is no way to do it. Because if I write this, it becomes political, "admits drummer and author Thar Nge.

The restrictions go further. Alcohol and cigarettes are also taboos, like everything that the regime considers contrary to traditional Burmese values. Must master the art of analogy, the second degree. "We do what we can," admits the musician. "But we're not trying to change the policy. Above all, we are musicians. "

Debbie Stothard, pro-democracy activist based in Bangkok, condemns a system that forces artists to ignore politics. The military power in Burma since 1962 and imprison those who oppose them, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel peace.

"Young people have learned to think that the policy was dangerous and political being, it was ask to be locked up, to lose his job, to be tortured and killed," said the activist. "But in the end, everyone comes to sing what he thinks."

Aung, a painter and video artist who hides behind a pseudonym, selling paintings to live and created for his pleasure conceptual videos. They express frustration, but it does show it to anyone, or almost, and he says he does not seek to change the system.

One of them shows a goldfish in a glass of water. A slack hand a tablet that dissolves in causing intense tub. The fish struggles, bangs against the wall, then dies when eventually clear cloudy water.

Aung spoke of the "Saffron Revolution". Some have criticized the cruelty to fish. "And the people who were killed here in Burma? Why did not he speak? "Is he unworthy.

Punks, they have other concerns. At the end of the concert, they break bottles, trying to destroy the scene, urinate on posters of the group. The police let him: they just claim a reminder of their favorite band.

Source: AP

Burma's Supreme Court began on Monday to consider the request of the lawyers of Aung San Suu Kyi who challenge his conviction in an additional 18 months of house arrest. A decision is expected this week.

Lawyers for the Nobel Peace Prize seized the high court last November after the confirmation of the sentence by a Burmese court. The opponent, who has already served 14 of the past 20 years, was sentenced Aug. 11 to have hosted for two days in May, a U.S. citizen arrived at her house to swim. She lives on the shore of a lake in Rangoon.

The lawyers will argue that this extension is based on a provision of the 1974 Constitution which is no longer in force and therefore has no validity. The opponent was not allowed to attend the hearing.

Burma's Supreme Court also agreed to hear an appeal by two former classmates of Aung San Suu Kyi, also under house arrest for 18 months.

The extension of her house arrest excludes de facto elections this year, the first in Burma in two decades.

source: The Cross

Certainly, the question arises again and again ...

Trips are offered today in Burma, Sudan and Ethiopia. Should he choose these destinations? Agencies and NGO leaders meet

Elephants and riders in traditional dress in front of the zoo in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma. (Pennington / AFP)

Can we do tourism in countries subject to the dictatorship? About Burma, but beautiful country afflicted with one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, that of General Than Shwe, the question comes naturally.

About China, Vietnam, Cuba, also open to tourists and little respect for human rights and democracy, there is less of the issue. And in Tunisia, tens of thousands of holidaymakers each year are sunbathing without questioning the very repressive regime of President Ben Ali. Is there damage to human less objectionable than other men?

"Philosophically, there is no small or big dictatorships replica Emmanuel Foiry, CEO of Kuoni France. Obviously, tourism has never dropped dictatorships. It is not also its function. "

Contribute to the formation of public opinion

However, Kuoni is convinced that "tourism contributes to openness and a positive change in the country, and also to provide an income for part of the population. A boycott, however, prejudice to more people than those who oppress them. "For Emmanuel Foiry, opt for a controversial destination shall anyway" personal choice. "

This choice, Annette B., professor of philosophy at retirement and never late for a fight for human rights, has, without a bad conscience, visiting China and Burma. "Before deciding on Burma, we thought a lot about. And during the tour with New Frontiers, we discussed with our companion, the situation in the country, it does insist, but if you go only in countries where human rights are respected, there visit not two-thirds of the planet.

It is important that we realize for ourselves what happens. This contributes to the formation of an international public opinion, which sometimes can change situations. "Finally, she adds," nothing is gained to lock in a blanket of silence people who already suffer from a dictatorship. For them, seeing other people, even tourists, it is not so bad! In addition, it can help them earn a living. "

Economic sanctions worsen the situation

While tourism in Burma creates more controversy, this is because of the terrible events of 2007: the bloody suppression of the revolt of the monks (the "Saffron Revolution"), then abandoning the victims of Cyclone Nargis by private Junta of international relief. And also because several NGOs called for a boycott, arguing that from Burma "tourists condone dictatorship and an economy based on drugs, labor and forced displacement."

They thus relayed a position taken ten years ago by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace and figure of the Burmese opposition. The latter has recently evolved, after realizing that economic sanctions worsened the situation of Burmese junta without weakening.

This is a campaign of the British NGO Burma campaign UK which led to abandon Kuoni Burma destination reopened recently and sparingly: "We accompanied only 200 French tourists in 2009," says Emmanuel Foiry.

The tour "responsibility and solidarity"

Now in its catalog, Kuoni alert its customers about the political situation in the country and mention the position (and coordinates) of Burma Campaign UK. "Our customers choose and knowingly," he argues. Tourism receipts are they not picked up by the junta? "We take precautions, he retorts. We do not program the hotels that we know belong to members of the junta. "

"We also, we take tourists in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Burma," agrees Marianne Didierjean of "Voyager otherwise," the tour "responsibility and solidarity" in the blue group vacation.

"Travelling otherwise," who wants to understand, appreciate and respect the lifestyles and cultures of the countries visited, thoroughly informed before departure, clients on the realities they encounter. And once there, it introduces them to official institutions or associations.

Paula BOYER