In Rangoon, the Popular Movement for Peace

In Rangoon, the Popular Movement for Peace

par | Fév 6, 2017 | Ethnic conflict

Stop War

RANGOON — Civil society organizations, activists, students and tourists joined a demonstration on Saturday to demand an end to the fighting between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups in the north and northeastern areas of the country.

In Rangoon, the Popular Movement for Peace was joined by more than 500 participants who marched across the city before ending in front of City Hall.

They shouted anti-war slogans while holding placards that said “Stop War.”

The same event was also held in Mon State’s capital Mawlamyein, and Bago, Pyay and Nattalin towns in Bago Division.

Demonstrators in Rangoon demanded four points including an end to the fighting, access to aid war victims, a reduction in military expenditure, and an army announcement of a nationwide ceasefire.

Until recently, Burma has seen fighting in Kachin and northeastern Shan states, where ethnic armed groups in the areas have long been fighting for equality, self determination and federalism while government troops claim they are fighting to protect regional stability.

MAUNGDAW, A solution to ethnic violence remains elusive

par | Nov 29, 2016 | Ethnic conflict

MAUNGDAW, Arakan State.
One of the consequences of the Oct. 9 border outpost attacks in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township has been renewed distrust between self-identifying Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists, despite attempts to rebuild relations after deadly riots erupted in 2012.
According to the government, 10 border police were killed in the attacks, 7 soldiers died during subsequent “clearance operations,” some 70 “suspects” have been killed, and more than 300 people have been detained at various police stations in the township.

Article sur info-birmanieSome 1,200 displaced people from Dar Gyee Zar village—which was almost entirely razed—recently made temporary camps in Abujara and Wa Piek villages in Maungdaw. Sources say that more than half a dozen other villages were burned down in the northern part of the township.
Human Rights Watch said that on Nov. 13, it had identified 430 destroyed buildings in three villages in northern Maungdaw by analyzing high resolution satellite imagery recorded on Oct. 22, Nov. 3 and Nov. 10. On Nov. 21, the organization identified more than 800 more such destroyed buildings in five villages. The Burmese government rejected the report’s findings. Read More ….

 

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Quick Meals, Lasting Effects

par | Nov 21, 2016 | Environment

“I feel like I consume poison every day. I drink cheap liquor. I eat food that contains dye. It is colorful, quick, easy and cheap,” said Kyi Lin, 59, who was diagnosed with liver disease. Kyi Lin is skinny and jaundiced. He often feels tired and dizzy. A friend of his says since he began receiving medical treatment last year, his weight is half of what it once was. “For more than 20 years I drank a lot … and I drank all kinds of alcohol,” he said, while waiting in Rangoon’s crowded North Okkalapa General Hospital to receive care. Read More …

Open Access to Arakan

par | Nov 21, 2016 | Ethnic conflict

Open Access to Arakan

Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma has called for “complete access” to areas undergoing conflict in northern Arakan State.

Referring to the growing reports of human rights violations in the area by members of the security forces on Muslim communities who self-identify as Rohingya, the Special Rapporteur on Thursday called for “an impartial investigation” and said the UN was currently “in the dark.”

Lee said that they had heard reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, many cases of rape, and the killing of civilians.

“These are unverified as of yet but we do have some credible sources that [add] support to these ongoing human rights violations,” she said.

Two temples in Bagan 2 months after earthquake

par | Oct 28, 2016 | Culture

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TWO TEMPLES IN BAGAN COLLAPSE TWO MONTHS AFTER EARTHQUAKE

After a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in late August damaged more than 400 temples in Bagan, two temples suffered partial collapse on Tuesday after rainwater seeped into cracks caused by the Aug. 24 tremors, government archaeologists say.
One temple, built in the “cave” style with a hollow interior and located just south of the famous Htilominlo temple, had roughly half of its structure collapse; the other temple, located in Min Nan Thu village, had one of its walls crumble.
“Both are not that famous, unlike other temples damaged in the [Aug. 24] earthquake. The earthquake caused large cracks in their structures, and they collapsed due to rain,” said U Aung Aung Kyaw, director of the Bagan Archeological Department.
He explained that, in the “cave” temple, the cracks that filled with rainwater were present where reconstructed parts of the temple joined with the original remnants of the antique structure.

                                                                                                           By Kyaw Hsu Mon 27 October 2016
Kyaw Hsu Mon – The Irrawaddy
Kyaw Hsu Mon is Senior Business Reporter at the English edition of The Irrawaddy.

The more than 3,000 temples of Bagan, mostly dating from between the 9th and 13th centuries—when the Kingdom of Pagan ruled over much of lowland Burma—are considered Burma’s biggest tourist draw.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, the Aug. 24 earthquake damaged a total of 449 temples, including iconic favorites such as Sulamani, Ananda, Htilominlo, Myazedi, Shwesandaw, Lawkananda and Dhamma Yazaka, as well as the murals at Ananda Oakkyaung.
Repair and conservation work on 389 of the damaged structures is slated to begin on Jan. 1, with the assistance of Unesco. According to the Bagan Archaeological Department, 36 temples considered most at risk of further damage will be prioritized, followed by 53 temples in a second-tier risk category.
Cyclone “Kyant,” currently brewing in the Bay of Bengal, has led to concerns over heavy rain causing further damage to exposed structures in Bagan awaiting conservation work, although it is currently unclear if, when and where the cyclone will make landfall in Burma.
These reconstructions were part of crude renovation efforts carried out across Bagan under the previous military regime in the 1990s, which have been blamed for preventing Bagan—the site of an ancient Burmese royal capital—from being granted World Heritage Site status by Unesco, the United Nations’ cultural agency. It was these crude reconstructions that reportedly suffered the most damage in the August earthquake.