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The Mizzima News: Aug 15, 2007
The Mizzima News: Aug 15, 2007
Specialising in Burma-related news and issues
www.mizzima.com,www.mizzima.tv
INSIDE BURMA
OVERSEAS BURMESE
REGIONAL
INTERNATIONAL
ETHNICS
NEWS IN BURMESE
-
Burma hike fuel prices up to 500 percent
- KNU HQ not recognize talk between KNLA and SPDC
- Election and Prospect (Article by Tin Win Thein)
- Genuine protection (Letter to Editor)
- Trick and take (Letter to Editor)
Burma hike fuel prices up to 500 percent
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
August 15, 2007 - Burma has suddenly hiked its fuel prices with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) up to 500 percent, raising havoc with vehicular traffic and causing public commuter buses to stop service.
Despite no official prior announcement for the hike in prices of fuel, the price of CNG increased from 54 Kyat per kilogram to 273 Kyat per Kilogram, while petrol and diesel prices, since the night of August 14th, have increased to 2500 kyat (approx. US$ 2) and 3000 kyat (approx. US$2.30) per gallon, respectively.
"People made a queue this morning to buy fuel, thinking the prices are normal, but when they got their turn, they were told of the increased prices. And since they did not bring enough money, they turned back without buying," a resident from the former capital told Mizzima.
However, compounding the hike in prices, fuel remains in low supply, making it even more difficult for public commuter buses to ply the streets.
Even in the black market, where the price of petrol and diesel rose to 4500 kyat (approx. US$ 3.46) and 6000 kyat (US$ 4.61), respectively, there are still no sales, the resident added.
With insufficient fuel the number of buses plying the city has been drastically decreased. While some buses are servicing only half their normal routes, with an increased fare, many were unable to hit the road entirely on Wednesday.
"This morning, bus conductors said the fares have been increased to 100 kyat (Approx. 7 cents) for 3 bus stops and will cost 300 to 400 kyat (approx. 30 cents) for rural to downtown," government staff told Mizzima.
He added the new bus fares hit hardest the students, who use public buses for their transport to their universities.
"Bus fares from Danyin Kone to Insein now cost 100 kyat (approx. 7 cent), [from 40 kyat (approx. 2 cent)], and this made the young students upset."
Meanwhile, Burma has a daily production of approximately 12,000 barrels of crude oil from its gas fields across the country and is reportedly importing 14,230 barrels of fuels daily.
Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, last raised its fuel prices two years ago, when diesel prices were increased from 160 kyat to 1,500 kyat and petrol from 180 to 1,500 kyat.
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A glimpse into the lives of Burmese sex workers in Thailand
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
Christopher Smith
August 15, 2007 - Though originally released almost a decade ago, "Sacrifice", a film documenting the plight of Shan State girls working in the Thai sex industry, proves no less poignant a saga for today's world.
Set predominantly in the northern Thai border town of Mae Sai, opposite Burma, the film chronicles the factors that force girls from Burma's Shan State to seek employment in the sex industry across the border, and the trials and hardships that follow as a result of their trade.
Though the subject matter of the film is the prostitution of young girls from Shan State, the underlying message is one of social, cultural and economic forces back home that seemingly leave the girls with little choice but to accept their fate in the brothels of Mae Sai.
Socially and culturally, the girls relate how they must find a means of repaying their debt to their parents for bringing them into the world. While sons are said to provide for the life beyond, girls understand themselves to be the providers in this life.
While some of the interviewees said they and their families were tricked into the resulting lifestyle by Thai businessmen with promises of jobs in other economic areas combined with a forward on the girl's wages, many alluded to the economic reality of their situation as forcing their hand.
The girls related how they could hope to earn no more than $8 a month in wages back in Shan State, while there were no doctors or existing social net to provide for the daily needs of life.
The selling of their bodies then became a choice of crude economic necessity, even if it still remained a time-consuming process just to make enough money to pay off their debts to the brothel while earning enough money for meager remittances.
"To be with a man takes minutes, to plant rice takes hours in the beating sun," relates one girl.
The girl, having slept with, in her estimate, over six thousand men in six years, died shortly after filming of AIDS-related complications.
Overall the stories that come across the screen tell the lives of girls whose horizon for life focuses very much on the here and now, an approach to life necessitated by a combination of social and economic factors.
As one girl in the film says, "A little time with something is more than a lifetime with nothing."
Shortly before the release of the film, estimated numbers of Burmese girls and women working in the sex industry in Thailand ranged anywhere from 30,000 to 60,000.
But the issue of Shan State girls seeking to eke out a living as sex workers is not limited to the Thai side of the border. The trade is just as pronounced, and even more visible, on the Burmese side in the town of Tachileik.
Here, literally dozens of brothels exist down the side streets and alleyways of the former heart of the Golden Triangle. Touts on the street are never far between in their offers of introducing prospective clients to the throngs of girls.
In a question and answer session following the screening, Hseng Noung of the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) said that although awareness of the potential lives that befall Shan girls who make the journey to Thailand has improved since the movie was first aired, the traffic of persons coming from Burma to Thailand has only increased as a result of continued and worsening economic hardship and repression.
"Sacrifice" was originally released in 1998 and is the work of United States-based filmmaker Ellen Bruno. The film was screened Tuesday night in Chiang Mai, Thailand, by the Informal Northern Thai Group.
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Burma and Vietnam seek to strengthen bonds
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
August 15, 2007 - Leaders of Burma and Vietnam, Senior General Than Shwe and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, met in Naypyidaw yesterday to initiate discussions on further developing a prosperous relationship between the two ASEAN countries.
The talks are focused on economics and the enhancing of mutual cooperation in the fields of trade and investment.
The Burmese government reports that a Memorandum of Understanding, pertaining to the development of gas and oil reserves, has already been signed between the two leaders.
Other topics of shared economic interest include mining, agriculture and livestock.
It is also reported that Vietnam remains interested in the investment potential of proposed Special Economic Zones within Burma, including in the vicinity of Thilawa Port near Rangoon.
In fiscal year 2006/2007, according to Vietnamese government statistics, the two countries concluded $75 million in bilateral trade, up from $54.4 million the previous year.
Nyugen will spend two days in consultations with leadership of the Burmese governing State Peace and Development Council.
The last high-profile exchange between the countries came in 2005, when Burmese Prime Minister Soe Win paid a visit to Hanoi.
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State Department lists Burma as a Security Council priority
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
August 15, 2007 - "The international community must act now" to address the situation in Burma, reads a public statement, released today, highlighting five countries that the United States government believes should be the subject of strong Security Council action.
The briefing highlights not only the treatment of its own people by the Burmese junta, but also accuses the military regime of threatening regional security.
"The unconscionable human rights abuses visited by the junta upon its own people, nearly a million of whom have been internally displaced or turned into international refugees, are already destabilizing the region," reads the paper.
The spread of HIV/AIDS, human and drug trafficking are also listed as issues not only detrimental to Burmese society but also to regional security on the whole.
The other countries of particular concern and focus, according to the State Department, are Iran, Lebanon, Sudan and North Korea.
The release, issued by the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs and entitled "United States Policy in the United Nations Security Council," reaffirms the United States commitment to work with and through the international body in an effort to address international security issues related to the aforementioned countries.
The United States played a leading role in pushing the issue of Burma onto the Security Council's permanent agenda on the 15th of September, 2006.
A subsequent Security Council resolution related to Burma was vetoed by permanent Security Council members China and Russia.
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Violence continues unabated in Karen State
Mizzima News ( www.mizzima.com )
August 14, 2007 – The Burmese Army continues to further embed itself in Karen State, forcing thousands of villagers to flee their homes amidst growing human rights atrocities.
A report, filed by Free Burma Rangers at the end of last week, documents ongoing human rights abuses directed against the local population of Karen State by the Burmese Army. The report states that the Burmese Army continues to utilize forced labor, the razing of villages and unprovoked shootings as means of driving villagers from their homes.
The Army actions are part of a policy of expanded military influence in the region, including the establishment of new camps, under a protracted offensive operation initiated in February of 2006.
To date, the report accuses the army offensive of displacing over 30,000 persons.
Some villagers, having fled to the mountains, are said to have now been in hiding, exposed to harsh conditions, for over a year.
Meanwhile, "villagers who live in the plains are finding it difficult to survive because of the Burma Army's restriction on movement, and numerous demands for forced labor," states the report.
In one recorded instance, the families of two men who accidentally triggered an Army landmine, resulting in the loss of one man's foot, were subsequently fined 10,000 kyat each by the military.
On August 12 th, the Karen paid honor to their struggle with the 57th commemoration of Karen Martyr's Day. Their fight is often considered the world's longest running civil war.
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NEWS IN BURMESE
. Burma hike fuel prices up to 500 percent
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/oil_prize.php
. KNU HQ not recognize talk between KNLA and SPDC
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/detail.php?news_id=486&cat=7011
. Election and Prospect (Article by Tin Win Thein)
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/detail.php?news_id=485&cat=7018
. Genuine protection (Letter to Editor)
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/detail.php?news_id=484&cat=7023
. Trick and take (Letter to Editor)
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/detail.php?news_id=483&cat=7023
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