Free Republic

Myanmar claims 'Jamaat link' Friday, June 15, 2012 Front Page Sectarian Clash Dipu Moni tells JS Staff Correspondent The Myanmar government has conveyed its anxiety to the Bangladesh mission there that the Jamaat-e-Islami had been helping the Rohingya groups in Bangladesh with arms to incite sectarian clashes in Myanmar. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said this in a statement in parliament yesterday. “For the sake of its national security, Bangladesh will not allow any more Rohingya in,” she said. Referring to appeals from different human rights bodies and non-government organisations to allow the Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh, Dipu Moni said Dhaka...

..as the poverty-stricken country of 55 million makes a delicate transition to democracy, hateful comments are also flourishing online about a Muslim ethnic group, the Rohingya, that is embroiled in sectarian clashes in western Myanmar that have left more than two dozen people dead. ..In online forums, Rohingya are referred to as dogs, thieves, terrorists and various expletives. Commenters urge the government to “make them disappear” and seem particularly enraged that Western countries and the United Nations are highlighting their plight. ..the government of President Thein Sein tries to steer the country toward reconciliation between the military and the people,...

Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a passenger bus and killed nine Muslims, police said on Monday, the deadliest communal violence in the tense region since a reformist government took power a year ago. The bus was besieged near Taunggoke town in the western state of Rakhine on Sunday evening by a group who blamed some of its passengers for the murder of a Buddhist woman a week ago, said local residents and politicians. One of those killed was travelling in a separate car. Rakhine is home to Myanmar's largest concentration of Muslims, but their presence is often resented by...

Tune in at 10am for the live webcast of our human freedom event featuring Pres & Mrs Bush & Aung San Suu Kyi http://t.co/6FhKWnJr Submit your Q's for Aung San Suu Kyi using hash tag #FreedomCollection & watch her answers live here: http://t.co/dfDOoYwC -- A Celebration of Human Freedom May 15, 2012 On Tuesday, May 15, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will hold a special event to celebrate the brave efforts of dissidents and activists around the world in their fight to be free. Joined by leading voices of liberty, President Bush will deliver major remarks on the fight...

The Terrible Tiger Vietnam may look like a success story, but with Burma's recent thaw, it's now the most repressive country in Southeast Asia. Nearly four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, America's former foe is seen globally as a success story. It boasts a booming economy, a growing middle class, and thriving tourism and manufacturing industries. But as political reforms transform Burma, Vietnam is in danger of becoming something else: the most repressive country in Southeast Asia. This week, prosecutors at a court in Ho Chi Minh City charged three Vietnamese bloggers for "conducting propaganda against the...

It’s like something out of an Indiana Jones film, if you take away the religious overtones and ophidiophobic adventurer. After 15 years, a British farmer’s quest to find a squadron of legendary fighter planes lost in Burma during World War II has finally paid off. Lincolnshire farmer David Cundall, 62, has spent £130,000, traveled to Burma a dozen times and negotiated with the cagey Burmese government, all in the hopes of finding a stash of iconic British Spitfires buried somewhere in the Southeast Asian country. Cundall started his search after his friend heard from a group of U.S. veterans...

EXTRAORDINARY plans to raise a lost ''squadron'' of Spitfires that have lain buried in Burma since the end of World War II were revealed at the weekend as David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister, visited Rangoon. A Lincolnshire farmer who devoted 15 years of his life to finding the planes has spoken about his quest to recover them and get them airborne. David Cundall, 62, has spent £130,000 ($200,000) of his money, visited Burma 12 times, persuaded its secretive regime to trust him, and all the time sought testimony from a dwindling band of Far East veterans in order to locate...

Historic planes buried in Second World War are to be shipped back to Britain after their mystery locations were discovered War leaders did not want them to fall into foreign hands when they demobilised in 1945 Hidden in crates at a depth of 4ft to 6ft the RAF then forgot where they were Twenty brand-new RAF Spitfires could soon reach for the sky following a deal reached with Burma yesterday. Experts believe they have discovered the locations of around 20 of the Second World War fighters buried at airfields around the country. David Cameron has secured an agreement that they...

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed on Monday a by-election landslide for her party, which she hoped would mark the beginning of a new era for Myanmar after a historic vote that could prompt the West to end sanctions. The charismatic Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the struggle against military rule in the former Burma for two decades, was one of 44 candidates her National League for Democracy Party (NLD) said won all but one of the legislative seats being contested. The by-elections followed a year of astonishing change for a country that was in...

Burma's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has won a by-election for parliament, her party says, after a landmark vote that saw 45 seats contested. Ms Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said she had easily won in Kawhmu. Official results are not expected until later in the week. In a statement, she urged supporters to show restraint in their celebrations. The vote is a key test of political reforms, though the army and its allies dominate the 664-seat parliament. The NLD was competing in its first elections since 1990. 'Dignified' Thousands of people who gathered outside the...

Amid the scramble in newsrooms and government offices around the world that followed Kim Jong-Il’s death, one important piece of news from Asia missed all the headlines. The real news in Asian politics yesterday, the kind of thing that will likely show up in the history books, was a quiet meeting announced by the State Department. If you missed it, it’s because people didn’t cover it much, but for the first time ever, India, Japan, and the US held a round of trilateral talks on the future of Asia and the strategic picture. The session, reads a State Department media...

The introduction of a slew of economic reforms and political initiatives by the Burmese government in the second half of 2011 have significant implications for the carriage of Burmese foreign policy. Indeed, the surprise announcement in September suspending construction of a major Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam is an indication that China’s privileged place in the hierarchy of Burma’s foreign relations―a position it has greatly benefited from since the West shunned Burma in 1988—can no longer be taken for granted. Nevertheless, even as these changes unfold, the two neighbors will seek to maintain close and cordial relations in recognition of inescapable geographical...

YANGON, Myanmar — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a landmark visit to Myanmar on Thursday that the U.S. would ease aid restrictions and consider further steps to improving relations with the country's autocratic rulers if they continued down a path of political and economic reform. Clinton described her meeting with Thein Sein, Myanmar's president, as "candid, productive," but cautioned that while the "measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just the beginning." She said Thein Sein told her during a private 45-minute meeting that he "hopes to build on" a flurry of political overhauls...

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Detecting "flickers of progress" in the long-shunned nation of Myanmar, President Barack Obama announced Friday that he will send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the repressed country next month, the first official in her position to visit in more than 50 years. "We want to seize what could be an historic opportunity for progress and make it clear that if Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said Friday during his diplomatic mission to southeast Asia.

Workers in Burma will be allowed to form unions and go on strike under a new law signed this week by the president, officials say. The law permits unions with a minimum of 30 members to be formed and allows strikes if a notice period is given. Unions have not been allowed to operate in Burma since 1962. The law appears to be the latest in a series of changes being introduced by Burma's new military-backed, civilian-led government. Signed on Tuesday, it also sets out penalties for both employers and employees who do not abide by its terms. "Clearly the...

RANGOON, Burma — Burma on Tuesday announced amnesty for 6,359 prisoners, a group expected to include hundreds of political prisoners whose release would be a dramatic sign of opening after nearly 50 years of autocratic rule. The United States and Europe have long demanded the release of political prisoners as a condition for the lifting of economic sanctions on Burma, also known as Myanmar. The sanctions tightly restrict investment, trade and financial transactions. Easing them would probably accelerate a realignment of Burma’s previously close relations with authoritarian China, which was stunned last month when Burmese President Thein Sein halted construction...

Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow. The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings. Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death.

Barnaby Phillips follows the life of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II.

Myanmar's government invited pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a meeting Friday with the new president, an official said, in the clearest step toward a political dialogue since she was released from house arrest in November.

Russia closing deal over 20 fighter jets By FRANCIS WADE Published: 4 August 2011 Russia is believed to be close to finalising a deal over the sale of 20 advanced fighter jets to the Burmese military, which has sought to expand its air power in tandem with ground forces. The MiG-29 planes have been purchased directly from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, in a deal estimated at more than $US570 million. The additional planes, due to shipped before the end of next year, will double Burma’s fighter jet fleet, and becomes one of the biggest sales of its kind by...