Free Republic

SEOUL, South Korea — He was one of North Korea’s deadliest secret agents. On Oct. 9, 1983, Kang Min-chul and two other North Korean agents bombed the Martyrs’ Museum in Rangoon, Burma, in a plot to kill the South Korean president, who was to have laid a wreath there. The bomb missed its mark — the president’s car had been delayed — but 17 South Koreans, including four cabinet ministers, were killed. For his deed, Mr. Kang was consigned to oblivion. North Korea denied any connection with the attack. In South Korea, where the bombing was declared a North Korean...

Pope Francis on Saturday said he wept hearing the plight first-hand of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, adding that this meeting was a condition set for his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Rohingya meeting was a highly symbolic gesture of solidarity with the Muslim minority fleeing violence in Myanmar, and the pontiff told journalists on his plane flying back to Rome that the refugees cried as well. “I knew that I was going to meet the Rohingyas, but I did not know where and how; for me, it was one of the conditions of the trip,” he said. The usually...

Driving through Naypyidaw, the purpose-built capital of Burma, it could be easy to forget that you’re in the middle of one of south-east Asia’s poorest countries. On either side of the street, a seemingly endless series of giant detached buildings, villa-style hotels and shopping malls look like they have fallen from the sky, all painted in soft pastel colours: light pink, baby blue, beige. The roads are newly paved and lined with flowers and carefully pruned shrubbery. Meticulously landscaped roundabouts boast large sculptures of flowers. The scale of this surreal city is difficult to describe: it extends an estimated 4,800...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "Three explosions have ripped through Burma's former capital Rangoon, killing nine people and injuring dozens others. The blasts in Rangoon are the worst to have hit the city since 2005 The triple blast was reported alongside Kandawgyi Lake, where hundreds of people had gathered for the country's New Year celebrations. A fourth bomb was later found and defused, according to official sources. Witnesses said people fled and ambulances rushed to help casualties. One Red Cross official said: "I saw blood on many people. The rush to help the injured So far it is unclear who is...

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to an additional 18 months house arrest by a court in Rangoon. Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, was convicted of violating state security laws by allowing a US national into her lakeside home after he swam there. She was jailed for three years with hard labour, but this was commuted to house arrest, an official said. American John Yettaw was jailed for seven years, four with hard labour.

Excerpt - YANGON, Myanmar - A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said Sunday. Some dissident groups worried that the military junta running Myanmar would be reluctant to ask for international help. Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box. Some in Yangon complained the...

Rangoon (dpa) - In their ongoing crackdown on dissent in Rangoon, where tens-of-thousands took to the streets in protests last week, military authorities have arrested people who merely clapped for the demonstrators or took pictures of the events, sources said Thursday. On Wednesday night security personnel raided homes situated along Kyartawya Street, east of the Shwedagon Pagoda, and arrested scores of people who had allegedly given moral support to the monk-led peaceful demonstrations that rocked Rangoon between September 18 to 26, informed sources said. "Their crime was for clapping and encouraging the monks," said one observer. The Shwedagon, Rangoon's most...

As the Burmese military brutally cracks down on a popular citizen uprising demanding democracy the question on many minds is—so what is the world going to do about it? From the trend visible so far the answer is simple—nothing at all. Nothing, that is, beyond the usual condemnations and pious appeals for "peaceful dialogue" and the posturing at international forums in support of the Burmese people. Nothing more, that is, than dispatching a lame duck UN envoy to negotiate with the paranoid Burmese generals. Negotiate what? Funeral services for the innocent victims mowed down like rabbits on the streets of...

Thousands dead in the massacre of the monksLast updated at 01:05am on 1st October 2007 Comments Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: 'Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.' Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered...

Troops refuse to fire on crowdsReports from Rangoon suggest soldiers are mutinying. It is unclear the numbers involved. Reports cite heavy shooting in the former Burmese capital. The organisation Helfen ohne Grenzen (Help without Frontiers) is reporting that "Soldiers from the 66th LID (Light Infantry Divison) have turned their weapons against other government troops and possibly police in North Okkalappa township in Rangoon and are defending the protesters. At present unsure how many soldiers involved." Soldiers in Mandalay, where unrest has spread to as we reported this morning, are also reported to have refused orders to act against protesters. Some...

The junta showed a subtle and malignant cunning, and then moved against the monks Burma’s generals silenced the Buddhist monks yesterday morning. For a week and a half, the monks had been on the streets of Rangoon in their tens of thousands, and their angry calm gave courage to the people around them. But overnight, they were beaten, shot and arrested, and locked in their monasteries. Handfuls of them emerged yesterday – two or three brave individuals, a dozen at most – but nothing to approach the mass marches of the previous nine days. Everyone felt their absence. You could...

The monks have vowed to continue their action Lorries with loudspeakers have been driving through Burma's main city of Rangoon warning residents to stop anti-government protests.The broadcasts threatened that "action will be taken against those who violate this order". But hundreds of monks and civilians defied the threats and began fresh protests at the Shwedagon pagoda. On Monday, there were protests in at least 25 towns, with tens of thousands of people marching in Rangoon. Several military trucks are now parked near Shwedagon pagoda, which has been the focus of the protests. Eyewitnesses said several hundred monks gathered at...

Further protests have been held in Burma over fuel price rises, despite the arrest of more than 60 activists by the military since last week. The low-key demonstrations involved some 30 people in Rangoon and up to 200 monks in the western port of Sittwe. But analysts say it is remarkable they are happening at all, given the army's crackdown on last week's protests. The fuel price rise, in the case of cooking gas by 500%, has enraged a population already living in poverty. In addition to deploying soldiers and armed police, the government has sent gangs of thugs, some...

Journalists caught a rare glimpse of Burma's military leader Than Shwe Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world. The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon. Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade. However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here. The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give...

Burma's confirmation that it was shifting its seat of government has left many analysts at a loss to explain the move. After all, why go to the huge trouble and expense of relocating thousands of officials to a remote mountainous region, when there is a well-established political infrastructure in the port city of Rangoon?

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Rumours swirled in army-ruled Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Wednesday that junta strongman Senior General Than Shwe may have been removed, but Thailand's foreign minister said it was only speculation. Reports suggested Than Shwe, head of a military junta which has ruled the former Burma in various forms since 1992, had been ousted by number two General Maung Aye. A Thai intelligence official said he had heard the rumours, but nothing was confirmed. "We've heard Maung Aye has seized power from Than Shwe, citing allegations of corruption and his involvement in illegal trade of weapons," the...

The Associated Press - BANGKOK, Thailand - The Georgia-based rock band R.E.M. will broadcast a song dedicated to Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi into the military-ruled country via satellite television to mark her 60th birthday, a U.S.-based activist group said. The group will perform the unspecified song for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate at its June 19 concert in Dublin, Ireland, and air it inside Myanmar though an Oslo-based dissident television station, the U.S. Campaign for Burma said in a statement dated Wednesday. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma. The broadcast is part of a series...

Four huge bomb explosions have rocked the Burmese capital Rangoon, killing dozens of people and leaving over 200 injured. The near-simultaneous mid-afternoon blasts targeted two packed upscale shopping centres, the Dagon and Junction Eight, and the downtown Rangoon Trade Centre which is hosting a Thai trade fair. A witness at the downtown Dagon centre, where two bombs exploded, counted at least 20 bodies, while a witness at Junction Eight - some 13 kilometres north of the city centre - counted over 40. A Burmese national at the Rangoon Trade Centre says he also saw scores of bodies there. A stall...

<p>United Nations Special Envoy Razali Ismail has just visited Burma and was able to bring us news that Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the leader of a peaceful democratic party known as the National League for Democracy, is well and unharmed. The thoughts and prayers of free people everywhere have been with her these past two weeks. Our fears for her current state of health are now somewhat lessened.</p>