Candle4Burma's Blog – January 2009 Archive (34)

BREAKING NEWS!: Burmese army(DKBA) attacks refugee camps and villages inside Thailand

DKBA soldiers burn down huts, detain villagers, loot property and shoots at villagers in Thailand

Following skirmishes on January 1st 2009 between soldiers from DKBA Battalions #999 and 907 and KNLA Battalion #103 in north-eastern Dooplaya District, DKBA troops crossed the Thai-Burmese border and have since been operating in and around Thai-Karen villages in Umphang District of Thailand's Tak province and harassing local villagers. This area also includes Noh Poe refugee camp, home… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 22, 2009 at 1:18am — No Comments

Breaking News!: Karenni State: Burma Army attacking villagers in hiding

Karenni State:In southern Karenni State the Burma Army is trying to terrorize the population into submission by attacking those in hiding, capturing and forcing villagers to act as guides and porters, laying landmines between villages and extorting property from villagers at will.

Burma Army landmines (M14 and their copies of M14 landmines) found in… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 19, 2009 at 10:20pm — No Comments

BREAKING NEWS! : Central Karen State: Burma Army Attacks against villagers in Dooplaya District

Displaced families moving in search of a secure hiding place in Dooplaya District.

Villagers seek refuge from attacks in Dooplaya District. About 280 villagers have fled attacks in this area.

Burma Army and DKBA troops… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 19, 2009 at 10:14pm — No Comments

THANKS YOU TO ALL THE FRIENDS ON IPEACE!!!! :Burmese weblog Mettacarra wins "Best Asia Blog" award for 2008

New Delhi (Mizzima) - The weblog of venerable Burmese Buddhist monk, Ashin Mettacara, has bagged the "Best Asia Blog" award for 2008.

Publisher of the Weblog Awards, which puts up an online poll on various categories of weblogs, Kevin Aylward, told Mizzima that Ashin Mettacara's weblog has gained maximum votes of 3,383. It stood first with 41 per cent of the total voters voting for it in an online poll conducted since November.

The… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 17, 2009 at 12:00am — No Comments

Burma ranks among worst nations for civilian freedom: Rights Group

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A United States-based Freedom House in its annual global release on freedom in the world, has ranked Burma among the 'worst of the worst' countries, where civilians enjoy negligible political and civil liberties.

The Freedom in the World 2009, which examines the state of freedom in 193 countries and 16… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 13, 2009 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

“Transferring political prisoners to labor camps is like pushing them into their graves,”

A teenage political activist, who was sentenced last month to three years imprisonment for taking part in the 2007 monk-led demonstrations, was transferred last week from Insein Prison to Shwe Tathay labor camp in Twante Township, according to a source close to his family.

Prisoners in Burmese labor camps have to endure harsh conditions and brutal treatment, and are compelled to work long days in chain-gangs at highways, dams, irrigation canals, special agricultural projects and rock… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 10, 2009 at 1:51am — No Comments

Relatives blocked from attending NLD member’s funeral

Jan 9, 2009 (DVB)–Two sons and a daughter in law of the late National League for Democracy member Hlaing Aye, who are currently being detained in Insein prison, were refused permission to attend his funeral on Thursday.

Hlaing Aye, a member of Hlaing Tharyar township NLD’s organising wing, passed away on Tuesday in Rangoon at the age of 70.

NLD information wing member Nyan Win said Hlaing Aye’s two sons Thant Zin Oo and Thant Zin Myo, and daughter-in-law Hla Hla Maw were… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 10, 2009 at 1:48am — No Comments

Nowhere to Hide

By JAMES FORREST

They are constantly running and hiding from the Burmese army. One 62-year-old Karen man said he believed he had fled in fear more than 100 times in his life. They build makeshift shelters in the jungle wherever they can and plant fields that might never see a harvest. With only the clothes on their backs and a few tools in their hands, they build schoolhouses from bamboo and try to give their children an education. More than anything, the Internally Displaced People… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 10, 2009 at 1:26am — No Comments

Fresh offensive on Thai-Burmese border

by Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A fresh offensive has broken out along the Thai-Burmese border between ethnic Karen guerillas of the Karen National Union (KNU) and a joint force of Burmese Army troops and those from the Karen splinter group Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), sources along the border said.

The offensive is taking place opposite the Burmese border in the vicinity Ohn Pyan village near the town of Mea Sot in Thailand's Tak province. Observers said… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 10, 2009 at 1:02am — No Comments

PLEASE HELP MY FRIEND METTACARA FROM BURMA!!!!!!!!!!!

Burmese Monk blogger in running to win "Best Asian Blog"

VOTE HERE FOR MY FRIEND METTACARA

The Weblog of a veteran Burmese Buddhist monk, Ashin Mattacara, which contains writings on Burma, has been selected among the finalists for the 'Best Asian Bolg' Award for 2008.

The Weblog, (www.ashinmettacara.org), has garnered 870 votes in an online poll conducted since… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Urgent Statement by the Karen Women's Organization

KWO demands accountability for SPDC rape and killing of 7-year-old girl

The Karen Women's Organization is demanding the immediate arrest and prosecution of an SPDC soldier who raped and killed a young girl in Burma's northern Karen State last week, as well as punishment of his commanding officer for failing to take action over the crime.

The body of the 7-year-old girl was found near her house with gunshot wounds in her chest and signs of rape in the village of Ma Oo Bin,… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

URGENT NEWS FROM INSIDE BURMA: New Burma Army sweeping operations

Burma Army Activity in Southern Karenni State.

The Burma Army is now conducting sweeping operations and patrols in southern Karenni State, searching for IDPs and pro-democracy Karenni resistance troops. On 31 December, more than 200 soldiers from LIBs 337, 430, and 135 began sweeping through the villages of Bwa Doh, Bu Koh, Kwa Kee, and Koh Has Kee, searching for Karenni Army soldiers and forcing villagers to provide food and other materials for them. The troops from IB 135 were… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 2:27pm — No Comments

URGENT NEWS FROM INSIDE BURMA: Hundreds of villagers are in need of food and medical supplies after Burma army attacks!

Today I received this email from my friends inside Burma;

New offensive Burmese army against villagers

Burma Army Displaces More Than 300 Villagers in New Attacks in Dooplaya District

Hundreds of villagers are in need of food and medical supplies as new Burma Army and DKBA attacks have displaced more than 300 villagers in eastern Dooplaya District, central Karen State. In addition, at least twenty people have been forced to porter for the attacking… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Detained NLD member denied family visits

Jan 8, 2009 (DVB)–Insein township National League for Democracy member Tun Tun Naing has been banned from receiving family visits in Meikhtila prison, where he has been detained since 24 November last year.

Tun Tun Naing was sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment in connection with the September 2007 protests.

Aye Aye Thet, Tun Tun Naing’s wife, said he had been banned from receiving visitors for one month.

"Apparently some senior officials came to the prison… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 12:35am — No Comments

Commodity protestor beaten in Bago prison

Jan 8, 2009 (DVB)–Detained commodity protester Aung Kyaw Oo, who has now been sent to the remote Pu-Tao prison, has told his wife he was badly beaten when he arrived in Bago prison on 24 December.

Aung Kyaw Oo is the joint secretary of Taik Gyi township National League for Democracy.

He was sentenced to 13 and a half years’ imprisonment in December 2008 and has now been sent to Pu-Tao prison on the northern edge of Burma in Kachin state.

Aung Kyaw Oo’s wife Aye… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 12:21am — No Comments

Humanitarian crisis in Chin state likely to escalate in 2009: NGO

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – With crop yields declining due to severe weather conditions and the devastation caused by rat infestation, a humanitarian crisis is imminent for western Burma's Chin state in 2009, a leading humanitarian worker in Chin state said.

Joseph Win Hlaing Oo, director of the Rangoon-based Country Agency for Rural Development in Myanmar (CAD), on Thursday said the humanitarian crisis in Chin state caused by both drought and rat infestation in… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 9, 2009 at 12:01am — No Comments

Engine failure strands 191 Myanmar refugees on tiny Indonesian isle+

AP (Kyodo), Jakarta: A small, wooden boat carrying 191 people from Myanmar was stranded on a tiny island off the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island due to engine failure Wednesday, local government officials told Kyodo News.

Local fishermen discovered the men, between 17 to 30 years old, adrift off Aceh Province’s Weh Island north of Sumatra at 7 a.m.

The fishermen then reported their presence to the navy.

“We haven’t been able to find out where they are… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 8, 2009 at 10:52pm — No Comments

Some villages could not celebrate Christmas because of famine

Some villages in Chin state could not celebrate Christmas 2008 because of famine, caused by bamboo flowering.

A report said that the 80 per cent of Chin state used to celebrate Christmas every year, but this time they could not.

Zo Human Rights Foundation, based in Manipur Indo-Myanmar border, member Mr.Min Thang said, "It was very sad that Chika villagers could not celebrate Christmas by having pigs and Mithun. They only prayed and worshipped in the… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 8, 2009 at 10:42pm — No Comments

“A people at the brink of extermination.”

The military regime in Burma, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continues

to perpetrate gross violations of human rights, amounting to crimes against humanity, against

all its citizens and particularly the ethnic nationalities.

Among the most persecuted and oppressed people groups in Burma are the Rohingya, a

Muslim people residing primarily in northern Arakan State, western Burma, along the border

with Bangladesh. In the words of one representative… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 8, 2009 at 5:51pm — No Comments

Rohingyas in dire straits: CSW

Hundreds of Burmese Muslim minorities, seeking refuge on the Bangladesh-Burma border, are in dire straits, despite escaping brutal repression by the Burmese military junta, said a new report by the Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The new report called "A people at the brink of extermination," released yesterday, said Rohingya Muslims, who live in western Burma's Arakan State are one of the minority groups that have suffered appalling oppression by the ruling junta.

The… Continue

Added by Candle4Burma on January 8, 2009 at 5:47pm — 1 Comment