Excerpts: "Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association are appalled to learn that detained poet Aung Than, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy, was probably infected with the HIV virus when he was forcibly injected in Insein prison hospital in 2006. Several people, including the poet’s mother, have told the two organisations that he is now in a critical condition.
“Forcible injections are common in Insein prison. A friend of a Burma Media Association member died of AIDS in prison after being injected by force.”
“One of the most popular performers on Burma’s music scene, hip-hop star Zayar Thaw, was sentenced to six years imprisonment by a Rangoon court on Thursday for his involvement in anti-regime protests.”
And a new report points out that Burma’s HIV/AIDS crisis is deepening. See here.
“Almost 25,000 people will die this year of HIV/AIDS in Myanmar unless lifesaving treatment is significantly increased.” Fat chance of the latter happening!
So now we have a Burmese comedian who dared to give interviews to foreign media and was sentenced to 45 years in prsion for that last week. Then, since he had dared to criticize his government’s response to the cycone, they added another 14 years for good measure, making his sentence 59 years in all. Not sure, but I don’t think they have time off for good behavior in Burma. Story here.
You just can’t let these funnymen run around loose, doncha know. :rolleyes:
And continuing on, here we see that foreign investment in Burma, despite international boycotts and trade sanctions, has nearly doubled in the first 10 months of last year. Thanks mainly to the Chinese.
You don’t squeeze out dictatorships. You kill them.
Frankly, in this crapsack world, I’d rather have the Joker on my side than Batman. The Joker might not like America, but he’d absolutely hate pathetic snots like these.
Wonderful. Thailand has been pushing Burmese boat refugees back out to see. Story here. They’re being urged to stop, but I doubt they will. After all the trouble with the Cambodian refugees during the Khmer Rouge era and the Burmese refugees in the wake of the first uprising in August-September 1988, the issue of refugees is a very sour one for them. Thailand simply does not want any more of them.
Thought I’d throw this report into the mix. Addressing sexual violence in a 50,000-population Burmese refugee camp just inside Thailand. Rather interesting.
Well, no wonder they’re denying it. 500 of the boat people are missing and may very well have drowned! Story here. They’re of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Burma, and the Thai authorities were supposedly afraid they would hook up with the insurgents in Thailand’s deep South. (We’ve had a violent Muslim insurgency raging there for a few years now.)
Gee, Thailand says it really wants to help the UN investigate what’s happened to these refugees from Burma, but the UN can’t seem to formulate its request in a proper way. ??? And this:
“Despite a meeting with security agencies yesterday, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani said they had ‘no clear information’ about the 126 Rohingya boat people in military custody. And the ‘status’ of Sai Daeng Island remained unclear as to whether it was a holding centre for illegal migrants, he said.”
Hmmm. Do I detect a little stonewalling going on here?
That giant of a philanthropic benefactor, Nigeria, slipped half a million US dollars to Burma at the UN late last month. Rather hurriedly and with few witnesses. Supposedly for hurricane relief … 7-1/2 months after the fact?? All very odd.
But then why the nature of the handover of the gift? Almost but not quite completely secret, and at UN headquarters? Something really strange here. They could have done this much more straightforwardly and without attracting attention.
Those Rohingya refugees from Burma are garnering a lot of international attention, which I think is great. Serves the Thai authorities right. The International Herald Tribune has this piece: Fears for 126 Rohingya Rise as Thais Deny Holding Them. And The Economist has a good background piece on the Rohingya themselve: Myanmar’s Unwanted Human Flotsam.
Meanwhile, a good piece on how the soaring kyat is slowwing remittances from abroad is here. The kyat is the unit of currency, pronounced “chaht.” Like “chart” without the R. (In Burmese transliteration, syllables that start with “ky,” it’s pronounced “ch.”)
