BANGKOK – “According to the information given to me by those who come back from the boats, there are no more now offshore,” said Kyaw Hla, a Rohingya businessman who paid out of his own pocket for the safe return to Sittwe of 75 trafficked Rohingya. “I paid 200,000 Myanmar kyat (about US$200) for each human person,” Kyaw Hla told The Edge Review. With the annual rainy season about to hit the Bay of Bengal and surrounding countries, the exodus of Rohingya and Bangladeshis will cease, for now, said Kyaw Hla. But unless conditions improve over the coming months, more Rohingya will likely take to the sea again come October, when the clouds break and the wind and rains stop and the boats point south toward Thailand and Malaysia once more.
Tag: Ye Htut
Myanmar’s (not quite) free media – Nikkei Asian Review
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Myanmar-s-not-quite-free-media YANGON — After five decades of strict censorship and official suppression, Myanmar’s media are now considered freer than...
Scant mention of recent unrest as Burma gears up for ASEAN handover – The Irrawaddy
BANDAR SERI BAGAWAN — At the 23rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and related summits in Brunei-Darussalam this week, there has seemingly been scant mention of the ongoing sectarian violence in Burma, which will chair the bloc for the first time in 2014. Asked if the issue had come up during the course of the various meetings and summits ongoing in Brunei, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natelagawa told The Irrawaddy, “Not to my recollection, except at the Asean meeting, when the Myanmar delegation briefed us on the situation in their country.”
Six years on, truth elusive in Japanese cameraman’s killing – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/44791 RANGOON — Ko Ko Aung cannot forget the day six years ago when he spoke to his friend...
For Burma’s new newspapers, a daily struggle to profit – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/42826 RANGOON — As publisher of one of Burma’s 12 fledgling private daily newspapers, the Yangon Times, Ko Ko...
New Japanese light for Burma’s state-backed mouthpiece – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/42191 RANGOON — Staff from The New Light of Myanmar will visit the Tokyo headquarters of Kyodo News, a...
Shwe Mann, Suu Kyi seek to reassure journalists over media laws – The Irrawaddy
www.irrawaddy.org/archives/42016 RANGOON – In meetings with Burma’s interim Press Council, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Parliament Speaker...
Meeting between Govt, journalists yields no breakthrough on media bills – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/41825 RANGOON — A stand-off between the Burma government and local journalists over proposed media laws looks set to...
Burma to replace controversial electronics law – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/40083 RANGOON — Work on a replacement for Burma’s controversial and draconian Electronic Transactions Law has begun, according to...
Fakebook in Burma: half of all accounts use false IDs, says President’s spokesman – The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/38770 RANGOON — Dismissing “conspiracy theories” that Burma’s government and military have fomented recent inter-religious violence, President Thein Sein’s...