August 30, 2016
India, Myanmar sign 4 agreements
India and Myanmar today signed four pacts, mostly in the field of infrastructure development and for the cooperation in renewable energy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw witnessed the signing of the agreement after the two sides have a delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House here. The agreements include facilitating construction and upgrade of 69 bridges, Kaleva-Yargi road section of trilateral high project and an MoU on traditional system of medicine. (Courtesy of news.webindia123.com)
Human rights activist denied bail in Sittwe
Ko Khaing Myo Htun has been remanded in Sittwe Prison on incitement charges for his alleged role in documenting military human rights abuses, according to a Friday statement by EarthRights International.
The ethnic Rakhine activist, 34, a deputy information officer for the Arakan Liberation Party, was arrested on July 25 and will next appear before Sittwe Township Court on September 2. He faces a maximum four-year prison sentence if convicted.
Denying a bail application on Friday, the presiding judge referred to the sensitivity of the case against Khaing Myo Htun and noted the defendant had failed to respond to two earlier court summons.
EarthRights said Khaing Myo Htun, a former student of the advocacy group’s human rights and environmental activism school, had been travelling in the weeks before his arrest and had not been informed of the requests to present himself to the court.(Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
A refuge of monastic discipline in Mandalay
HUNDREDS OF monks and novices are walking side-by-side in a long, silent procession along a wide lane, eyes downcast and clasping black offerings bowls. The lane is lined with tamarinds and other big shady trees common in central Myanmar.
About 100 tourists of all ages and nationalities have gathered under the shade of the trees. Nearby, on tables at the entrance of a dining hall are large aluminium tubs of food. As the monks and novices quietly accept their late morning meal, offered by donors, the tourists take pictures.
The sight of such a large number of monks gathered together in a quiet and orderly manner is rare, even in a Buddhist country such as Myanmar. It is the main reason why the Mahagandayon Monastery, at the former royal capital of Amarapura, just south of Mandalay, has been a famous sarthintaik, or Dhamma school, for more than 100 years. The monastery has become a destination for foreigners interested in seeing how Myanmar has perpetuated Theravada Buddhism for thousands of years. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
About 100 tourists of all ages and nationalities have gathered under the shade of the trees. Nearby, on tables at the entrance of a dining hall are large aluminium tubs of food. As the monks and novices quietly accept their late morning meal, offered by donors, the tourists take pictures.
The sight of such a large number of monks gathered together in a quiet and orderly manner is rare, even in a Buddhist country such as Myanmar. It is the main reason why the Mahagandayon Monastery, at the former royal capital of Amarapura, just south of Mandalay, has been a famous sarthintaik, or Dhamma school, for more than 100 years. The monastery has become a destination for foreigners interested in seeing how Myanmar has perpetuated Theravada Buddhism for thousands of years. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
August 29, 2016
Govt Justifies International Involvement in Arakan Issue
Amid criticism of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s appointment to chairman of the new Arakan State Advisory Committee, the deputy-director general of the State Counselor’s Office said the choice was made in response to international pressure.
Deputy director-general U Zaw Htay told reporters at a press conference on the government’s 100-day plan in Naypyidaw on Friday that the decision to include international representatives followed outside pressure, after previous local commissions failed to resolve the Arakan State issue.
The nine-member team includes three international representatives, including Kofi Annan, and six from Burma—including two Buddhist Arakanese members, two Rangoon-based Muslim members and two government representatives. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)
Deputy director-general U Zaw Htay told reporters at a press conference on the government’s 100-day plan in Naypyidaw on Friday that the decision to include international representatives followed outside pressure, after previous local commissions failed to resolve the Arakan State issue.
The nine-member team includes three international representatives, including Kofi Annan, and six from Burma—including two Buddhist Arakanese members, two Rangoon-based Muslim members and two government representatives. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)
The Annan Commission needs to be successful
On Friday, 19 August 2016, the first World Rohingya Day demonstrations took place around the world. Rallies and demonstrations took place in London, UK; Washington DC, Toronto, Canada, New York, Chicago; Stockholm, Sweden; Boston; Los Angeles; and many other places. The speakers demanded end to the ongoing genocide of Rohingya people who are indigenous people of Myanmar (formerly Burma) living in their ancestral lands.
The Rohingyas of Myanmar are a stateless people who are the most persecuted people in our time. They have been facing genocidal campaigns, especially since 2012, which saw a series of ethnic cleansing drives by the Rakhine Buddhists of Arakan – planned and aided by the local and central government and organized and mobilized by racist politicians and bigoted monks. It was a national project put into practice for the elimination of the Rohingya, who differ in ethnicity and religion from the majority Buddhists in this country of 55 million people. As a result, probably thousands were lynched to death, a quarter million lost their homes, tens of thousands were forced to choose exodus from this Buddhist den of intolerance and hatred, and an estimated 140,000 Rohingya internally displaced persons were caged in concentration camps in and around Sittwe (formerly Akyab). (Courtesy of asiantribune.com)
The Rohingyas of Myanmar are a stateless people who are the most persecuted people in our time. They have been facing genocidal campaigns, especially since 2012, which saw a series of ethnic cleansing drives by the Rakhine Buddhists of Arakan – planned and aided by the local and central government and organized and mobilized by racist politicians and bigoted monks. It was a national project put into practice for the elimination of the Rohingya, who differ in ethnicity and religion from the majority Buddhists in this country of 55 million people. As a result, probably thousands were lynched to death, a quarter million lost their homes, tens of thousands were forced to choose exodus from this Buddhist den of intolerance and hatred, and an estimated 140,000 Rohingya internally displaced persons were caged in concentration camps in and around Sittwe (formerly Akyab). (Courtesy of asiantribune.com)
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi faces test at ethnic peace conference
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi faces what could be the toughest test of her leadership yet when she opens a major ethnic peace conference Wednesday aimed at ending wars that have blighted the country since its independence.
The five-day talks will bring hundreds of ethnic minority rebel leaders to the capital, along with military top brass and international delegates such as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
The conference is Suu Kyi’s flagship effort to quell the long-running rebellions rumbling across Myanmar’s impoverished frontier states, fueled in part by the illegal drugs, jade and timber trades. (Courtesy of newsinfo.inquirer.net)
The five-day talks will bring hundreds of ethnic minority rebel leaders to the capital, along with military top brass and international delegates such as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
The conference is Suu Kyi’s flagship effort to quell the long-running rebellions rumbling across Myanmar’s impoverished frontier states, fueled in part by the illegal drugs, jade and timber trades. (Courtesy of newsinfo.inquirer.net)
August 28, 2016
Myanmar for balanced ties with India, China
With Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw began a four-day visit to India from Saturday on the heels of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's day-long visit to that country on Monday, Yangon is seeking to find some kind of a balance in its ties between two large neighbours, India and China.
This will be the first presidential visit from Myanmar after Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) assumed power in March this year. Suu Kyi, who spent a considerable part of her early life in India and was educated at Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, however chose to make Beijing her first port of call after she became the country's State Counsellor and Foreign Minister. She was in Beijing last week.
After the NLD assumed power, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Myanmar as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman earlier led a high-level business delegation to the eastern neighbour for the India-Myanmar Business Conclave on May 18-20. (Courtesy of thehansindia.com)
This will be the first presidential visit from Myanmar after Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) assumed power in March this year. Suu Kyi, who spent a considerable part of her early life in India and was educated at Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, however chose to make Beijing her first port of call after she became the country's State Counsellor and Foreign Minister. She was in Beijing last week.
After the NLD assumed power, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Myanmar as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman earlier led a high-level business delegation to the eastern neighbour for the India-Myanmar Business Conclave on May 18-20. (Courtesy of thehansindia.com)
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