China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

par | Mar 10, 2017 | Ethnic conflict

CHINA SAYS MORE THAN 20,000 FROM BURMA SEEK REFUGE ACROSS BORDER

More than 20,000 people from northern Shan State have flooded into border camps in neighboring China, seeking refuge from bitter fighting between ethnic groups and security forces, China said on Thursday.
Thousands of people have crossed China’s border in recent months to escape the conflict, which threatens Burma leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s top goal of reaching peace with minorities.
This week, about 30 people were killed in an attack by ethnic Chinese insurgents in Laukkai, a town 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Burma’s commercial hub Rangoon.

China is providing humanitarian assistance while taking steps to ensure peace and tranquility in the border region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
He reiterated a call for all sides involved to “exercise restraint and immediately cease fire” to keep clashes from escalating.
“China supports Myanmar’s peace process and hopes all sides can use peaceful means to resolve their differences via dialogue and consultation,” Geng told a regular news briefing.
Stray shells and bullets had fallen into China territory, injuring one Chinese person living there and causing some other damage, he added, but did not elaborate.
The attack came after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met a delegation of ethnic armed groups last week to convince them to take part in a major peace conference.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi swept to power in 2015 on promises of national reconciliation and the meeting was aimed at giving fresh impetus to the stuttering peace process.
In this week’s attack, fighters of the predominantly ethnic Chinese Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a pre-dawn raid on police, military and government sites in Laukkai, the capital of the northeastern Kokang region.
MNDAA is a part of the Northern Alliance coalition of rebel groups comprising one of Burma’s most powerful militias, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and two smaller groups caught in a standoff with the military since 2015 clashes in the region.
Many died and tens of thousands fled during that fighting, which also spilled into China and led to the death of five of its people, angering Beijing.

 

Burma – By Reuters 9 March 2017

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

Ministry to open workplace nursery schools Nationwide

par | Mar 8, 2017 | Myanmar

Open workplace nursery schools for the convenience of working parents.

Burma’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is taking steps to open workplace nursery schools across the country for the convenience of working parents.
Minister Dr. Win Myat Aye announced the initiative to the press on Tuesday. “If we don’t have a sufficient budget, we’ll accept contributions from foreign investors, foundations and donors as was said by the State Counselor yesterday. As they [the employers] are eager to do this, we’ll initiate this scheme,” said the minister.

 

Daw Win Win Tint, a prominent business leader and chairwoman of City Mart Holdings Ltd., suggested the idea of workplace nursery schools during talks between prominent businesswomen and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw on Monday.
Workplace nursery schools are necessary for working mothers to ensure more women have a say in decision-making processes, she said.
“The government must adopt a standard system of childcare in which the private sector can participate,” the navigator of successful retail chain told The Irrawaddy.
Dr. Win Myat Aye said that his ministry could provide childcare training and arrangements for private businessmen.
“We can provide help for them [businessmen] if they want to open [workplace nurseries]. We’ll cooperate,” said Dr. Win Myat Aye.
Dr. Aung Thurein, a staff officer with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said that the ministry would help other ministries in Naypyidaw with opening workplace nursery schools for children under three.
“Our ministry has already started workplace nursery schools. Children are taken care of by certified nurses and teachers. We’ll provide technical assistance if other ministries want to open them,” said Dr. Aung Thurein.
The government also provides 500 kyats per day for pregnant women and children under two years old in Chin and Arakan states and in the Naga Self-Administered Region as part of social safety scheme.
“We give 500 kyats to them so that they can take nutritional supplements for the children. We also educate them about prenatal care, so more pregnant women come and see doctors,” said Union Minister Dr. Win Myat Aye.

                                                                                   By Htet Naing Zaw 7 March 2017

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

Kokang Rebels Reportedly Attack Laukkai Hotel

par | Mar 7, 2017 | Ethnic conflict

Attack Kokang Rebel

Five police and five civilians were killed in an attack by members of the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Laukkai—the administrative capital of the ethnic Kokang region of Shan State—according to a report issued from Burma’s State Counselor’s Office.
The State Counselor Office Information Committee reported that the MNDAA attacked a hotel in the town near the Chinese border early on Monday morning, burning four cars near the hotel site.

The MNDAA members reportedly were dressed in police uniforms and and first attacked a police station in the town.
“Five police, five civilians, were killed and four other police were taken hostage,” said a report from the information committee, which also stated that no Burma Army soldiers were injured in the attack, but they were able to seize some weapons.
“Other armed groups may even be involved in the attacks,” said the report.
Kokang rebels’ video footage states that they launched an attack on a hotel belonging to the governor of the town, who local sources say was once an MNDAA leader, but now supports the Burma Army.
Col Tar Phone Kyaw from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) told The Irrawaddy that Arakan Army (AA) members may have joined the MNDAA in the attacks.
Fighting has been ongoing in other areas of northern Shan State, where the Northern Alliance—to which the MNDAA, AA, TNLA and the Kachin Independence Army belong—and the Burma Army have clashed. Burmese authorities have blocked roads leaving Laukkai.
Just 10 miles outside of Laukkai town, fighting has been ongoing, according to Col San Aung, from a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) which in January joined the Northern Alliance and is based in the Kokang area.

                                                                                         By Lawi Weng 6 March 2017

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

Bangladesh Calls for Efforts to Curb Influx of Refugees

par | Fév 21, 2017 | Rohingyas

Bangladesh’s foreign minister called on the international community on Monday to address Burma’s treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority, tens of thousands of whom have fled in recent months to Bangladesh.
Speaking at a meeting with Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, who is in Dhaka on a three-day visit, A. H. Mahmood Ali said a peaceful resolution must be found, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Ali also described efforts by Dhaka to engage with Burma bilaterally by establishing border liaison offices and talks on security cooperation, the statement said.

Lee is visiting the Cox’s Bazar area on the border with Burma, where the foreign minister said the influx of Rohingya was having an adverse impact on the local population and undermining security.
In a separate meeting, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, in Dhaka on a two-day visit, urged the international community to put more pressure on Burma to stop maltreatment of the Rohingya.
“The Buddhist majority country has to treat minorities with dignity and inclusiveness,” Brende said.
Nearly 70,000 Rohingya have fled Burma’s Arakan State to Bangladesh since October. They have joined more than 200,000 Rohingya already in Bangladesh, many living in official and makeshift camps, straining resources in one of Asia’s poorest regions.
The UN human rights office said in a report this month that Burma’s security forces had committed mass killings and rapes of Rohingya Muslims and burned their villages. UN officials working with refugees in Bangladesh have told Reuters the death toll from the security sweep could be more than 1,000.
Burma has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses and says a lawful counterinsurgency campaign has been underway since the Oct. 9 attacks on border security posts killed nine policemen.
Following her visit to Bangladesh, Special Rapporteur Lee will share her findings in a report to the UN Human Rights Council which will be available online on March 13, the Foreign Ministry statement said.

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

Shwedagon Pagoda as an addition to a UNESCO

par | Fév 12, 2017 | Culture

RANGOON — Shwedagon Pagoda will be discussed as an addition to a UNESCO tentative list that will inform future World Heritage nominations, according to a UNESCO Rangoon announcement on Friday.

Meetings between UNESCO and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture will be held at Rangoon’s Department of Archeology and National Museum office on Feb. 13-14.

On the first day, the experts will review the cultural sites on Burma’s tentative list. The following day will be dedicated to technical consultations regarding the management of cultural landscapes.

 

Shwedagon’s gilded stupa and centuries-old architecture are locally and internationally known.
Yangon Heritage Trust director Daw Moe Moe Lwin said that Shwedagon Pagoda was a good nominee for the World Heritage list.
She added that the pagoda is highly valued by Buddhists and that a UNESCO preliminary measure is the extent to which locals treasure and maintain the proposed site.
Previous governments had created plans to leave an unobstructed view from Pyay Road to Shwedagon’s western staircase. But high-rise construction could threaten the view, said Daw Moe Moe Lwin.
Daw Moe Moe Lwin was invited to attend the upcoming two-day conference.
Burma’s tentative list of cultural sites has not been updated since 1996 despite Operational Guidelines of the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage encouraging the task to take place every 10 years.
In 2014, the Pyu ancient cities were inscribed as the country’s first World Heritage property.
Currently, Burma is preparing to nominate the Bagan archaeological area and monuments and the Hkakabo Razi landscape in Kachin State.

China says more than 20,000 from Burma seek refuge across border

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.