Karen Refugees Have a White Christmas in Ireland – The Irrawaddy
January 4th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17519
Christmas in the west of Ireland (Photo - Simon Roughneen)
CASTLEBAR, Ireland — After fleeing an army campaign of human rights abuses in eastern Burma, a group of Karen refugees celebrated a white Christmas this year in the snowbound west of Ireland.
“Every now and then, the military comes through our village and asks my mother, ‘Where is your son?’” said Po Hta. His mother tells them that he is in Thailand.
But that’s no longer true.
As a teenager, Po Hta fled Burma in 1994, spending a couple of years in Bangkok before the Thai authorities moved him to Ban Don Yang refugee camp in the north. He spent 10 years there, before being sent to Ireland in 2007 under a UN refugee resettlement program
Now he calls a friend in Bangkok every few weeks, who keeps in touch with his mother, mother and son pass information back and forth through the friend.
Po Hta, who asked that his real name not be used, is part of a group of 100 Karen refugees who resettled in Ireland two years ago. Estimated to number around 7 million of Burma’s 56 million population, with another 400,000 Karen native to Thailand, the Karen are both Christians and Buddhists. Of the six Karen who met with The Irrawaddy in Castlebar, Po Hta was the sole Buddhist.
The Karen army has fought the Burmese army on and off since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1948 and ordinary Karens have suffered government army counter-attacks and reprisals. (more…)
North Korean Weapons Mystery: Is Burma the Missing Link?
December 16th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17410
The North Korean arms cargo interdicted in Bangkok seems unlikely to be bound for Burma, despite ties between
Thai military unloads weapons from North Korean cargo plane in Bangkok
Pyongyang and the Naypyidaw military junta. Burmese junta strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe visited Sri Lanka in November, reciprocating a visit made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this year.
The final destination of the cache remains unclear. The crew claim that the airplane was to land in Sri Lanka to refuel, eventually to conclude its journey in the Ukraine, apparently after the cargo had been dropped off elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials denied any knowledge that the embargo-breaking flight was going to land in that country.
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the plane was going to “a destination in the Middle East” to unload the weapons. Earlier this year, authorities in the United Arab Emirates seized 10 containers of North Korean arms on board a Bahamian-flagged ship. Like the Ilyushin-76 flight cargo, the manifest was listed as “oil drilling equipment.” The consignment was supposedly destined for Iran.
Other speculation surrounds a possible African destination. Sudan is also under a UN arms embargo, but acquires weapons from China and Russia among others, and has become increasingly close to states such as Iran and Burma in recent years. The latter two are thought to be key buyers in North Korea’s US $1bn per annum illicit arms bazaar, prompting speculation that a bevy of human rights violators are collaborating in an underground weapons trade.
Sudan’s deputy foreign minister visited Burma in October 2009 to discuss “beneficial cooperation on investment and energy sectors,” according to The New Light of Myanmar, a junta-backed publication based in Rangoon. Both Sudan and Burma are important sources of energy supply to China, which has fostered these links while Western competitors remain largely absent, due to international sanctions on both Khartoum and Naypyidaw. Sudan, like Burma, will stage controversial elections next year, amid speculation that oil-rich southern Sudan will later secede, a move that Khartoum is likely to resist with military force. (more…)
Bad cops, mean streets – The Sunday Tribune – Voice of America – RTE
December 13th, 2009
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/west/decapua-sierra-leone-kids-7dec09-78673062.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1213/worldreport.html
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE – “The police stop us all the time. Sometimes they try to take money from us, sometimes they threaten to arrest us. But the usual trick is to check our handbags. They plant some drugs, then tell us to come with them to the station. The only way to get out is have sex with the policeman, otherwise we go to jail.”
Just 20 years old, Maryama* has lived on the ramshackle streets of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, for eight years.
*Zainab at her stall in Freetown's eastern districts. With GOALs help, she is now off the streets and running her own business. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Her father died when she was 10 – possibly from HIV-AIDS, although nobody knows for sure – leaving her mother unable to bring up their three children. This was at the height of Sierra Leone’s civil war, infamous for anti-government rebels who hacked off arms and hands to deter civilians from voting in elections.
Government-allied militias believed that their magic rendered them invisible and invulnerable in battle against the rebels who funded their war with “blood diamonds” smuggled out of the country and sold on at profit. The mainstream diamond industry and its customers turned a blind eye to the suffering caused by the fighting.
Now the country is peaceful and the diamond trade better regulated. The 2007 elections saw an orderly transfer of control to the winning party, and the economy is growing at around 5% a year. War seems a distant memory, brought to mind only by the sight of war amputees on Freetown’s bustling streets. Their arm (and sometimes leg) stumps are a physical testament to what was a notoriously vicious war, fought at close quarters with AK-47s and sharp blades. Around 50,000 people were killed, mostly non-combatants.
Starting in 1992, the fighting devastated much of the country. It ended only after British military intervention in 2000, which earned Tony Blair an honorary chieftaincy from the Freetown government. Despite a wealth of natural resources, the average per capita annual income in Sierra Leone is only US$240 per person.
Despite a wealth of natural resouces - not only diamonds – but bauxite and large untapped iron ore reserves, which are stoking Chinese interest, the country ranks at or near the bottom of most global indexes of poverty and corruption.
These rankings are not mere abstractions. Behind them lies a harsh and sordid reality. Poverty is part of the reason why young women like Maryama end up on the streets, and corruption makes their life even more miserable. (more…)
Yellow vs Red to Roll On in Thailand – The Irrawaddy
December 12th, 2009
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17387
With the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra taking to the streets once more in Bangkok, Thailand will close 2009 much as it did the previous year. Protests, counter-demonstrations, questions over legitimate government and a spat with Cambodia linger, meaning that the country will remain polarized and unstable for the foreseeable future.
Around 15-20,000 members of the pro-Thaksin National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) convened near Bangkok’s Democracy Monument on Thursday to listen to a video-linked message from Thaksin and to seek the dissolution of parliament and a repeal of the 2007 Constitution, drafted by the army after it ousted Thaksin in a coup in 2006.
The protesters called the Constitution undemocratic and said they want a return to the 1997 Constitution under which Thaksin won two landslide elections in 2001 and 2005.
The UDD earlier canceled a planned three-day rally out of respect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on Dec. 5. Thaksin had been stung by allegations of treachery for taking up a job as economic adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and for an interview with the UK newspaper The Times, which the Thai government views as undermining the country’s revered monarchy.
The night before the demonstration, a fund-raising dinner was held in Bangkok for prachatai.com, a website started in 2004 to attract readers disillusioned with the mainstream Thai media. (more…)
For Now, Peace in Sierra Leone – ISN
December 11th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=110478
Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war is a receding memory, but corruption and poverty need addressing to avoid any relapse
By Simon Roughneen in Freetown for ISN Security Watch
The civil war in Sierra Leone was one of the most violent anywhere in the late 20th century. A death toll of around
Market near Marbella slum, Freetown (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
50,000 did not tell the full story of a conflict where much of the fighting was carried out at close quarters.
Rebels were funded by diamond exports and supported by Liberian warlord-later-president Charles Taylor – who is now standing trial in The Hague at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Machetes were used to lop off hands and arms as a deterrent against voting; child soldiers were forced to kill family members; women were abducted and raped; cannibalism was a war ritual among some combatants; and foreign mercenaries dotted the land.
Then-president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared the war officially over in 2002, after the British Army intervened in 2000 to end eight years of carnage in its former colony. At one stage, despite being only around the same size as Ireland, the country hosted the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission, with 18,000 blue berets in place.
Today, the country is at peace. A 2007 election saw a peaceful transfer of power from Kabbah’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to the party that was in power back when the war started – the All Peoples Congress (APC), led by Ernest Bai Koroma.
The president was in London recently, where he was joined by former UK prime minister Tony Blair in touting the resource-rich West African state as an investment location. Blair was made an honorary paramount chief by Freetown in acknowledgement of the UK’s intervention, which was decisive in ending the war. (more…)
Burma Threatens Thailand’s stability – The Irrawaddy
December 9th, 2009
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17375&Submit=Submit
BANGKOK—Speaking at a dinner talk on Tuesday night, city governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said that Thailand’s already-precarious stability faces an additional spoiler across the border in Burma.
Addressing a forum at the Bangkok Sheraton Grande Hotel, the Democrat Party Deputy Secretary-General and former deputy foreign minister said,“a major source of regional instability is the large standing army maintained by the Myanmar [Burmese] government.”
He compared Thailand’s 430,000-strong military with Burma’s, which has been estimated at more than 500,000 strong and is thought to be the largest standing army in Southeast Asia.
Commenting on the Burmese junta’s attempts to upgrade and expand its military, Paribatra said, “Myanmar [Burma] has been modernizing [its military] for a long time, and this could fuel a regional arms race.” (more…)
Monarchies and Political Systems Discussed in Bangkok – The Irrawaddy
December 8th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17365&Submit=Submi
In a rare gathering, four ambassadors representing constitutional monarchies in Europe and Asia convened at Chulalongkorn University on Tuesday to discuss the political system in their countries.
Opening the discussion, Dr Charas Suwanmala, the dean of the political science faculty, said that “as academics, we want to learn more about how monarchy works in Europe and in Japan.”
The discussion, hosted by the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS), took place just days after His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej celebrated his 82nd birthday, with thousands of Thais taking to the streets of Bangkok to catch a glimpse of the long-serving monarch. (more…)
Unsettling Climate Change – ISN
December 7th, 2009
The Copenhagen climate conference may be overshadowed by leaked emails showing some scientists apparently colluding to exaggerate global warming; and while the scandal does not mean that climate alarmism is unfounded, it does suggest that global warming science is less than ‘settled’.
By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
Arctic Circle designation in Norway (cc) Børge Antonsen/flickr
As world leaders gather today to discuss actions to prevent and mitigate climate change, the conference could be overshadowed by hundreds of emails and files showing prominent climate scientists expressing dismay at the fact that, contrary to predictions, global temperatures have been falling since 1998.
Sometime over the past two weeks, a hacker/whistleblower released thousands of emails and related files from the University’s Climate Reseach Unit (CRU) into cyberspace, after apparently failing at first to get these picked up by mainstream media.
Messages exchanged between scientists at the CRU and counterparts and colleagues elsewhere feature discussions in which scientists lament their inability to explain the post-1998 fall-off as a ‘travesty – internecine doubt that contrasts sharply with public statements that global warming science is ‘settled’.
CRU Director Professor Phil Jones remarked in one 1999 email that he had used “Mike’s Nature [magazine] trick” to “hide the decline” that inconveniently shows up after 1960 in one set of temperature records. In another, dated July 2005, to climatologist John Christy of the University of Alabama, Jones says: “As you know, I’m not political. If anything, I would like to see the climate change happen, so the science could be proved right, regardless of the consequences.”
Missing data
Perhaps most significantly, the CRU – which is one of a handful of key climate research centers and data collectors involved in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – claims that it has “lost” some of the raw data upon which climate projections are ultimately made (more…)
Muddy waters in Thailand’s deep south – ISN
November 24th, 2009
More shootings in Thailand’s troubled south show that no end is in sight for an often brutal insurgency, despite the army’s ‘hearts and minds’ efforts.
-By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok for ISN Security Watch
Lieutenant-General Pichet Wisaijorn, regional commander of the Thai 4th army, told reporters in Thailand’s capital on
Thai army soldiers in Bangkok (cc) Ross Websdale/flickr
18 November that “things are getting better, the number of violent incidents are down, and the traditional life of villagers in the south is returning.”
He was discussing conditions in the country’s ‘Deep South,’ the four southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia, where 90 percent of the two million-strong population are Malay Muslims. Overall, 94 percent of Thailand’s 66 million people are Buddhist.
An oft-described “murky, shadowy” insurgency and terror campaign has rolled on since 2004, with over 3,700 killings. Intermittently heavy Thai army crackdowns impinge on civil liberties, but now the military is attempting hearts and minds development projects to win over ordinary Malay-Muslim Thais.
Coming from the section head of the Thai army responsible for military operations in a region beset by five years of bombings, beheadings and gun battles, such words might be of consolation – if they rang true. Violence dipped in 2008, but has climbed back up in recent months – though how many incidents can be attributed to insurgents on the one hand, or criminals on the other, is not clear. Small arms and drug trafficking are rife in the region, and violence is not always political, according to Marc Askew, a University of Melbourne researcher based in the southern city of Pattani. (more…)
Why are Thais always protesting? – The Casual Truth
November 20th, 2009
http://www.thecasualtruth.com/node/278
Redshirts brave the rain to mark 3 years since Thaksin's ouster, 19/9/09 (Pic: Simon Roughneen)
For over a year, Thailand’s image as a tourist-friendly destination has taken a bit of a battering, with colour-coded political protests almost a weekly event – this week being no exception. But what are the protests and blockades about?
Broadly speaking, Thai politics – or at least Thai protests – are divided between ‘Redshirt’ supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister and telecoms billionaire, and ‘Yellowshirts,’ who support Sondhi Limthongkul, a former Thaksin ally and himself a wealthy media baron.
The remaining Thais do not accept the division and are somewhere in the middle.
Thaksin is probably the most divisive person in Thailand and second most popular after the king. He is currently based in Dubai, but facing corruption charges at home, which poor to middle class Redshirts believe are politically-motivated.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen agrees – and he provoked his bigger neighbour Thailand by offering Thaksin a job as an “economic advisor.” This has sparked a major cross-border row recently, especially when Thaksin was in Cambodia last week.
The Yellowshirts are made up of mostly middle to upper-class people who believe Thaksin threatened the monarchy in Thailand, and alleged that he sought to concentrate power in his own hands. (more…)
