News/Articles:
Toronto Star: Meditating, facing fears in Myanmar
Toronto Star: Paper has influence but no cash
National Post:  Hijacker likely in Canada for good
Epoch Times: Parliament Urges Democracy Leaders' Release
Mizzima: Canadian parliament calls for release of Suu Kyi
Asian Tribute: Canadian Parliament calls for Suu Kyi's release
Montreal Gazette: Burmese democrats to mark a sad birthday this week
Toronto Star: Dissent bubbling to surface in Burma
Irrawaddy: Canadian Writer Win Major Award for Burma Book
Hamilton Spectator: Reflecting on refugees

Press Releases/Statements:
CFOB: Canadian Writer honored for human rights novel on Burma
PFOB: Statement on Suu Kyi in Canadian Parliament
PFOB: Statement on Suu Kyi and work of 10 year old student on Burma
CFOB : 29 Canadian lawmakers and citizens wish for Suu Kyi's Birthday
CFOB: Total and Goldcorp: Corporate donations acceptable?
CFOB: Montreal Protest against the Salween Dam

Action/events:
CFOB: Montreal Demo
CFOB: Meeting for promoting meaningful National Reconciliation in Burma
Winnipeg Free Press: Organizers offer free food, dream of a free Burma
CFOB: Regional Social Forum

Interviews:
CBC: Karen Connelly Interview
___________________________________________________________________________

News/Articles:

Meditating, facing fears in Myanmar
TheStar.com - News

By Joe Fiorito
June 27, 2007

Myint Shwe owned a bookstore in Rangoon, a radical occupation. And when he got out of jail 15 years ago, after a little interlude of torture and a long time in a small jail, he came here.

He went back to Myanmar for a visit recently, which explains why I hadn't seen him for a while. I figured he had stories from the trip. Myint made tea in his apartment near Jane and Finch.

He is the publisher of the Burma Herald, a little newspaper with a lot of influence and the only Burmese/English paper on the continent, although it has, for the time being, ceased publication.

He smiled lightly and said, "There has been no paper for a while because I have to work and save some money." He used his credit card to pay for the trip back home.

Why did he go back?

"I went because I'm still Burmese, I'm still Buddhist, I'm over 50 and I have some nostalgic feelings. I needed spiritual refreshment.

"And there has been some rapprochement. The government is trying to reach out to those of us who were against the regime, but not the nation."

The trip had a split focus: He wanted to spend time in meditation, and he also wanted to collect a series of political interviews.

In spite of the supposed new warmth coming from Burma, he had trouble getting a visa. But he got lucky, and he won't say how. I have not been tortured, so I did not press.

Was he nervous, going back?

"At the airport there was much nervousness. The foreign flights come in through the back door. I got a cheap flight from Bangkok. I was the only `foreigner' on the plane. Everyone else was at one customs counter, and I was the only one at the other.

"I look Burmese, so they weren't friendly to me. The lady officer was yelling at me to put everything out." He feared his bags would be seized or he would be detained or turned away.

"I said I am Canadian. She called the authorities. I told her to look in the computer and find my name. She did. Her attitude changed right away." As I said, someone did him a favour. "After that, I was treated nice."

Nevertheless, he was closely grilled, an uncomfortable experience for a man who was once tortured while being closely grilled. I cannot imagine.

He savoured a particular memory. "Customs officials are licensed to take `tea money,' small bribes. I had brought Centrum vitamin pills, six bottles; very popular in Burma. I told her she could take half the bottles. She said no, she trusted me. My friends were amazed at this."

Me, too.

Centrum?

Myint walked the street in Rangoon where his bookshop used to be; no bookshops on that street now. "Other things I can tolerate – electrical shortages, bad roads – but there are no books and no Internet – you can't get into Yahoo unless you have a proxy server, and very few people have that."

A highlight: "One day I bumped into one of the people I was in jail with. He saw me at a temple. He was looking at me. I tried to ignore him. I was afraid. I was being followed. Finally, I recognized him. He was in jail for 10 years. He was in the labour group and I was in the student group." Old friends, old times, old prison cells.

"I asked why he was at the temple. He said it was his birthday. He came to pay homage. I gave him 5,000 kyat, about five dollars; in real terms, three days' wages."

More to come.
_______________________________________________________________________

Paper has influence but no cash
TheStar.com - News

By Joe Fiorito
June 29, 2007

Myint Shwe and I were catching up the other day. He has recently returned from a trip to Myanmar. He is the editor of the Toronto-based newspaper The Burma Herald.

He went back home to reconnect with his Buddhism, to see the country again, and to get a look at the current political situation.

An irony: He has had to suspend print production of the Herald because he paid for the trip with his credit card; all the news that's fit to print means nothing to a banker.

Myint is a Canadian citizen now, although years ago he was a dissident who was jailed and tortured. So the trip home was not without complications.

"I was watched all the time. I was often stopped and questioned. I had to report to the local police everywhere I went. I made a 10-day trip to the countryside and they followed me and passed messages; the police in the next town were always waiting." The regime claims to be easing up a little. "But," Myint said, "some things stay the same."

His little newspaper, while in production, had a certain influence in Burma, and among refugees around the world. Because of this, or in perhaps spite of it, Myint was able to interview rebel leaders who were attending a convention to create a new constitution; he was also invited to a tea party where he was able to question military officials.

Not bad for the press baron from Jane and Finch.

Myint said, "People outside the convention told me the constitution was a sham. They may be right, but the government is now saying, `It's okay not to support us, just don't support our enemies.'"

An improvement, I suppose.

I asked Myint about the circumstances of his torture years ago. He said, "They beat me, kicked me, stuck me with cigars on the inside of the arm, in the tender place. I refused to answer their questions. They covered me with a blanket so I didn't know where the blows were coming from, and they hit me with sticks or fists." And he laughed, as if he appreciated the cleverness of the blanket, or his distance from it now.

"It was pretty simple. They had an agent provocateur in our group. There were 16 of us, but only two of us were beaten. We refused to answer the whereabouts of our comrade. I collapsed. I was lucky. Some people, they put plastic bags over their heads and tightened. You faint." He laughed again. "After so long, you can laugh."

It was not my place to laugh.

"There was a milder form of torture; no lasting effects." By way of illustration, he stood and spread his legs and squatted, and he held his arms up high in front of him as if he was gripping handlebars.

"They call it motorcycling. You stand for hours. You have to make motorcycle sounds. They make fun of you." He stopped laughing. "The memory persists. They have fun. For you, it is humiliating."

His television flickered in the background; satellite images of golden temples.

After his interviews were complete – all that talk – Myint spent time in a monastery in silent meditation, and then he returned to Toronto.

"I don't think I saw everything I wanted to. On my meditation course, I couldn't concentrate. I should have stayed longer. But without my wife's support, I could not even have gone at all."

His wife is a doughnut packer in an industrial bakery. And Myint is looking for a decent job because the sooner he can clear his credit card, the sooner he can resume print production.

The Buddhist needs an angel.
____________________________________________________________________________

Hijacker likely in Canada for good 

By Stewart Bell
Thursday, June 28, 2007

A Burmese pro-democracy activist who hijacked an airliner and held 50 passengers hostage has lost a court challenge against Canadian immigration authorities who want to deport him for terrorism.

Than Soe had argued he was not a terrorist because he did not intend to harm anyone when he hijacked a Burma Airways flight in 1989 and forced it to land in Thailand, but the Federal Court dismissed his case.

Despite his legal win, there appears to be little chance the convicted hijacker, who entered Canada illegally in 2003, will be deported any time soon because of the Burmese military junta's abysmal human rights record.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says Mr. Soe, also known as Ye Yint and Thit Lwin, faces torture or indefinite detention in Burma for his role in the hijacking and pro-democracy activism.

Mr. Soe admits he hijacked the airliner, held hostages and demanded, among other things, the release of Burmese political prisoners. But he fears he will be tortured if Canada sends him home.

The case has become the latest terrorism-related challenge to Canada's refugee system. Canadian immigration policies make it difficult to deport even known terrorists to countries where they might be mistreated.

In October, 1989, Mr. Soe and another student named Ye Thi Ha hijacked a Fokker-28 passenger plane shortly after it left the Burmese town of Mergui for the capital Rangoon. They ordered the pilot to divert the plane to U-Tapao, Thailand.

Upon landing, they released the 30 oldest and youngest passengers but held the remaining 50 as hostages and reportedly threatened to blow the plane up with grenades unless Burma agreed to release all its political prisoners.

The hostages were eventually released and Mr. Soe surrendered to Thai authorities. Twenty-two at the time of the hijacking, Mr. Soe was sentenced to six years imprisonment. He was released after 2½ years, pardoned by the Thai government and made his way to the United States on a scholarship. From there he fled to Canada.

The Immigration and Refugee Board in 2004 declared him inadmissible due to his past connections to terrorism and a deportation order was issued, but Mr. Soe appealed to Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety, to let him stay on the grounds that his presence in Canada would not be detrimental to the national interest.

The President of the Canada Border Services Agency recommended against the amnesty, writing in a briefing note that "Mr. Soe did commit a terrorist act. He did hijack a plane and people could have been injured or killed. This fact cannot be ignored.

"Mr. Soe has been upfront and honest about his hijacking. He presently does not appear to be a danger to Canadian society; however, his presence in Canada clearly goes against our national interest. Canada should not harbour individuals who had admitted to committing terrorist acts."

He added that there was no compelling reason to grant Mr. Soe refugee status because he was unemployed, had no family in Canada and he could request to return to Thailand, where he had been pardoned.

Mr. Day accepted the CBSA's recommendation on March 27, 2006, and denied the appeal. But Mr. Soe challenged the Minister in court and on April 30, 2007, Justice Michael Phelan tossed out the decision, saying Mr. Day had failed to consider the UNHCR's report.

"For all these reasons, the application for judicial review is allowed, the Minister's decision is quashed and the matter is remitted to the Minister for re-determination," the judge wrote.

A separate legal challenge heard by a different judge ended in the government's favour on Tuesday when Justice Michel Shore upheld an IRB decision that found Mr. Soe inadmissible to Canada for terrorism. Mr. Soe will now likely undergo an assessment to determine whether he faces a risk if Canada returns him to Burma.

Also called Myanmar, Burma is ruled by a military junta that suppresses all dissent and opposition with brute force. Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the...
____________________________________________________________________________

Parliament Urges Democracy Leader's Release
Group wants Burmese diplomats expelled

By Cindy Chan, Epoch Times Ottawa Staff
June 14, 2007

Canadian parliamentarians have voted unanimously in favour of a motion to call on Burma's military junta to release renowned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from a lengthy detention.

If she is not freed, Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) are asking the government to consider expelling Burmese diplomats from Canada.

Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was first placed under house arrest in 1989, and has spent 11 of the past 17 years in detention.

When Suu Kyi's NLD party won a landslide election victory in 1990, the junta refused to recognize the result and held on to power. Two days before her last arrest term was due to expire on May 27, the junta extended her house arrest for another year.

This was despite international demands for her release, including appeals from the U.N., the U.S., the European Union, fellow Nobel laureates, former world leaders, and nearly 40 labour unions worldwide.

Tin Maung Htoo, executive director of CFOB, said the group welcomes the motion but is not optimistic Suu Kyi will be released soon.

He said CFOB's opinion is that there is "no use in maintaining diplomatic relations with the Burmese military junta. Their continuous presence in Canada further legitimizes the military government in Burma, nothing more than that."

Under harsh military rule since 1962, Burma has been plagued by human rights abuses, forced labour, severe economic decline, and a humanitarian crisis due to the junta's attacks against ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Troops killed thousands of demonstrators across the country during a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. The regime is currently holding approximately 1,200 political prisoners.

Tin Maung Htoo said there are other indications of deteriorating human rights, including more oppression against democracy advocates holding peaceful prayer vigils for Suu Kyi's release. Su Su Nway, a recipient of Canada's John Humphrey Freedom award in 2006, was arrested on May 15 along with about 60 other activists.

Her release after 23 days in detention, reportedly on "health grounds," is a positive step, said Larry Bagnell. Bagnell chairs Parliamentary Friends of Burma, a 28-member cross-party group of MPs and Senators working to support democracy in Burma.

This week an article in Burma's military-controlled newspaper used "very tough, harsh words" to threaten activists. The message was, "if you continue to do political activities, you will be punished," said Tin Maung Htoo.

The motion on Suu Kyi is the second Burma resolution passed in the Canadian Parliament. The first was a comprehensive motion in May 2005, with three key recommendations.

In implementing the first recommendation, Canada has openly pressed for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution on Burma. In 2006, 50 MPs signed a letter to then-UN General Secretary and UNSC members.

The U.S. and Britain subsequently initiated a Burma resolution urging the junta to stop persecution and release political prisoners. However, it was blocked by a Russia and China double veto in January this year.

The two other recommendations were to provide monetary support to the Burmese democratic movement and to impose tougher economic measures against Burma. Tin Maung Htoo acknowledged, however, that Canada has "very limited leverage towards Burma in terms of trade and investment."

Bagnell suggested that Canada and other countries lobby China, India, and Thailand, which border Burma, to take a stronger stand against the military dictatorship. Burma has more trade with and economic dependence on these countries, he said, and in particular "China can stop positive developments related to Burma in the U.N."

Pointing to such serious crises as heroin trafficking and transmission of HIV/AIDS, Tin Maung Htoo emphasized that "unless Burma has democracy, all these issues cannot be solved."

Since the current military rulers took power in 1988, Burma's illicit drug trade has increased dramatically. CFOB notes that "over half of Burma's domestic economy is tied to the heroin trade," with ample evidence showing that the military is benefiting from the profits.

Su Su Nway has become known as "Courageous Su Su Nway" to the people of Burma, says Tin Maung Htoo, adding that Suu Kyi has become role model for Burmese activists.

"Suu Kyi is like the hope and inspiration for all Burmese people, the true symbol of democracy." He anticipates continued action in Burma to advance democracy, as there are many activists who have devoted their life to this cause, despite threats and imprisonment.

On the occasion of Suu Kyi's 62nd birthday on June 19, he urged the Canadian government to go beyond making statements and "do something more tangible" by considering the expulsion of Burmese diplomats.
_____________________________________________ ______________________________

Canadian parliament calls for release of Suu Kyi 

By Mungpi
Fri 8 Jun 2007 

In a fresh effort, the Canadian Parliament has unanimously urged the Burmese military junta to release Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, under detention for more than 11 of the past 17 years.

The House of Commons or the lower house of the Canadian Parliament on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion urging for the immediate and unconditional release of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate.

The motion "That this House requests that the Government of Burma release the Leader of the National League for Democracy and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest, since 1989."

The motion, sponsored by the Parliamentary Friends of Burma, is the second Burma motion to be passed in the Parliament. The first Burma motion was passed in 2005.

Larry Bagnell, Chair of PFOB in a press release said, "This may be a small step towards democracy in Burma. But it is a step, nonetheless, and Canada will continue to do what it can to see that it happens."

Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's opposition party - the National League for Democracy - has been under house arrest since 1989. Her latest review came up on May 25 but her house arrest term was extended by one year by the military junta, despite world-wide protests.

Tin Maung Htoo, Director of the Canadian Friends of Burma, a group advocating human rights and democracy in Burma, told Mizzima, "It is amazing to see the amount of support the motion gained in Parliament. This is the first ever motion on Burma that has been passed unanimously."

"As it is from the Parliament, where there are various political parties, it represents the sentiments of the people of Canada," Htoo added.

The Parliamentary Friends of Burma, launched in December 2006 in support of democracy and human rights in Burma, currently consists of 28 members including Senators from all parties of the Canadian Parliament.
____________________________________________________________________________

Canadian Parliament calls for Suu Kyi's release

June 8, 2007

Ottawa, 08 June, (Asiantribune.com): The House of Commons, in a unanimous vote Wednesday (06 June) evening, called for the immediate release of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The motion stated: "That this House request that the Government of Burma release the Leader of the National League for Democracy and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest, which has been imposed on her since 1989."

"We are very proud to announce that our motion requesting the Burmese Government to release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest was passed with the unanimous consent of the House," said Larry. Bagnell, Chairman of Parliamentary Friends of Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma, has been under house arrest since 1989. Her latest review came up on May 25th but was rejected by the military government, despite world-wide protests.

Larry Bagnell submitted the motion and secured all parties support in advance before the motion was tabled in the House.

"This may be a small step towards democracy in Burma", Mr.Bagnell continued, "But it is a step, nonetheless, and Canada will continue to do what it can to see that it happens."

Parliamentary Friends of Burma (PFOB) was launched in December, 2006 in support of democracy and human rights in Burma, and currently consists of 28 Members and Senators from all parties of the Canadian Parliament.
_____________________________________________ ______________________________

Montreal Gazette:

Burmese democrats to mark a sad birthday this week
The legitimate leader of Burma has spent 11 of the last 17 years
in detention

By Norman Webster
Sunday, June 17, 2007

One of the world's most melancholy birthdays will be marked in Burma on Tuesday. In the sweltering heat of Rangon, Aung San Suu Kyi will turn 62 - solitary, heroic, under house arrest, the only legitimate leader of her people but no closer to freedom or power than she was a long, gloomy decade ago.

The military dictatorship in Burma gave her an early birthday present at the end of May. The regime announced a further year of detention for the Nobel Peace Prize winner, adding to the 11 years out of the last 17 that she has been confined to her peeling lakeside villa on University Avenue.

"The Lady," as everyone in Burma calls her, has been a victim of her country's generals since 1990. That was the year the regime carelessly allowed a democratic election and saw its political allies routed. Suu Kyi's National Democratic Party won 392 of 485 seats.

The generals took care of that little difficulty by simply ignoring it, bringing down the hammer of repression. They don't fool around. In 1988, Burmese soldiers massacred 3,000 students in a preview of events a year later in China's Tiananmen Square.

Almost a decade later, when I visited Burma, a sunny afternoon in Rangoon became suddenly chilly as armoured cars, equipped with heavy machine-guns, cruised slowly along downtown streets. Ne Win, who instituted the dictatorship in 1962, once warned, "If the army shoots, it shoots to hit. There is no firing in the air to scare."

Simply put, Burma's leaders are thugs. They are also rather thick. For years they called themselves the State Law and Order Restoration Council ("SLORC"). Western opponents loved to slurp that one out. The junta finally changed its moniker on the advice of a PR agency.

The generals live in splendid isolation, seemingly without a fig for what anyone thinks. Apparently on the advice of astrologers, they have moved the country's capital from Rangoon to a place in the boonies named Pyinmana.

Their idea of subtle denigration is to accuse Aung San Suu Kyi of refusing to denounce party members who killed opponents and, er, ate their livers - i.e. the Lady is soft on cannibalism. Even Danny Williams hasn't used that one, yet.

The regime's main accomplishment has been to drive Burma's once-prosperous economy into the ground. Once the world's largest exporter of rice, the country is now close to a basket case, ruined by isolation and strict, stupid adherence to Ne Win's "Burmese road to socialism."

The only rich people appear to be men in uniform, who prosper through corruption, including rakeoffs from the heroin and amphetamine trades. Recently, the junta's current leader, Than Shwe, draped his daughter in pearls and diamonds at a wedding to rival any Rockefeller's.

The world keeps tapping at the windowpane, but the junta pays no attention. Canada's foreign minister, Peter MacKay, might fulminate honourably against the regime, and the House of Commons pass harsh resolutions, but who cares in Pyinmana?

The countries that count in this equation are Russia, which is helping with a nuclear reactor, and Burma's neighbour China, which is happily gulping its natural resources. Diplomats say Mandalay and the north are starting to look like a province of China.

Meanwhile, the Lady sits alone and incommunicado at 54 University. That is where my wife and I visited her 10 years ago, during one of the periods when she had some freedom to talk to visitors.

It was a memorable encounter with a quick-witted woman even more beautiful than her photographs. I was looking through my notes of that day recently.

"It's not just that they are brutal," she said of her opponents."It's that they are small-minded. That's not a very nice combination." Like Churchill, she sent words out to sting and do battle.

Was she discouraged? "What is there to be discouraged about? Gandhi said the victory is in the struggle itself. The struggle itself is the most important thing. I tell my followers that when we achieve democracy, we will look back with nostalgia on the struggle and how pure we were."

She chuckled. "You know better who your friends are when you are a dissident."

In the end, she was sure, "We will prevail because our cause is right, because our cause is just ... History is on our side. Time is on our side." It was magnificent, inspiring - a Burmese Mandela awaiting her day in the sun.

In Rangoon, a cynical diplomat added some spin: "Yes, and she'll probably be as old as Nelson Mandela, too." Sad to say, he's starting to look like a prophet.
_____________________________________________ ______________________________

Toronto Star:

Dissent bubbling to surface in Burma

Terrible living conditions, as much as politics, have people marching on Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday

By Leslie Scrivener, STAFF REPORTER
June 19, 2007

Behind the walls of a lakeside house in Rangoon, on a street guarded by soldiers, blocked by barricades and razor wire, the world's most famous political prisoner today celebrates her 62nd birthday alone.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Noble Peace Prize winner and Burma's democratically elected leader, cannot communicate with the outside world; her phone is disconnected. No visitors are allowed and it's believed no outsider has seen her for the past three months.

Though her party won by a landslide in 1990, the election was not recognized by the junta – generally recognized as a gang of thugs – that continues to rule the country. She has been in this solitary prison for most of the past 17 years.

In the meantime, the generals have been busy. Hundreds of thousands of members of ethnic groups have fled to refugee camps on the Thai border while others hide out in the Burmese jungle.

Leaders of Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989, have imposed forced labour, burned down villages, taken over farmland and, it's believed, profited from the large opium and methamphetamine trade.

In a fit of paranoia, the junta moved the capital from Rangoon (renamed Yangon) 320 kilometres inland to Naypyidaw, which means Throne of Kings, in 2005.

"They are trying to recreate a despotic monarchy in the 21st century," says human rights researcher Guy Horton. "They are kind of marching backwards into the future. They want to restore the notion of a centralized racist state embodied in the Burmese kings before the British arrived."

But some observers say they see a new stiffening of Burmese resolve, as pockets of emboldened citizens openly protest this backward march.

Democracy advocates, some daring to wear T-shirts bearing the photo of Suu Kyi, demonstrated May 27, the anniversary of her party's 1990 election. No one was arrested because there were too many (about 1,200) taking part, says Bo Hla-Tint, a spokesperson for the Burmese government in exile.

Activists do get arrested, however. A group praying for Suu Kyi at a Buddhist temple last month was jailed and then released.

But recently those perennial activists have been joined by ordinary Burmese protesting rising food prices – the cost of rice has jumped 500 per cent in five years — unemployment and power outages.

Here in Toronto, Lerwah Lobo, sitting in his crowded basement kitchen in the west end with his friend and fellow refugee Minthura Wynn, reflects on Suu Kyi's birthday and their homeland. Wynn, an activist in the 1988 student-led revolts in Rangoon, believes there will be more demonstrations today.

The collapse of the educational system troubles both men, who pause over their soup of chicken broth and fresh mint leaves. Students go to university for only three months of the year and pass their courses. "They are poisoning the future generation," says Minthura Wynn. "Three months is not enough. It's not realistic."

There are whispers of change. "Over the last five years Burmese people have become more brave and exercised their right to freedom of expression," says Khin Maung Winn, deputy director of the Democratic Voice of Burma, an Oslo-based news service.

Even ordinary people are talking to the media, not about politics but about "day-to-day living."

"It's directly affecting the people and making life there almost intolerable," says Horton. "Its impact is greater than ideas of freedom and political liberty."

Despite small signs of hope, there is always worrisome news. For example, last month Russia announced it will build a nuclear reactor in Burma. Russia and China both eagerly exploit the country's natural resources.

While Suu Kyi is the focus of international attention, another former political prisoner, Min Ko Naing, who won Canada's Rights and Democracy John Humphrey Freedom Award in 1999, is also standing up to the junta.

"He is showing strong leadership and we need someone to lead the movement in the absence of Aung San Suu Kyi, " says Tin Maung Htoo, of Canadian Friends of Burma.

"Regardless of the arrests, all these determined young leaders – we will follow them. I believe the momentum is growing and growing and growing."
___________________________________________________________________________

Irrawaddy:

Canadian Writer Wins Major Award for Burma Book

 By Aye Lae
June 12, 2007

Canadian writer Karen Connelly has won a major British literary award for her book set in Burma, The Lizard Cage.

The 2007 Orange Broadband award is for new writers. The chairman of the panel of judges, Jackie Kay, described Connelly's book as "extraordinary, lyrical, visionary and compelling, universal in its depiction of the way the human spirit can survive the greatest brutality," and said it would "open the eyes of every reader and raise the spirits."

The Lizard Cage, Connelly's first novel, tells the story of Teza, a Burmese protest singer who served seven years in solitary confinement in prison. She gathered her material during visits to the Thailand-Burma border, where she met Burmese activists and former political prisoners. The book took her 10 years to write.

Her success in winning the British award was hailed by the Ottawa-based Canadian Friends of Burma. Anne Bayin, writer-photographer, and granddaughter of the former politician Ba Yin, said: "We should celebrate Karen's literary voice and her contribution in making the wider world aware of intolerable conditions in Burma.

"It is a brave and deeply moving book depicting the triumph of the human spirit against the brutal reality of prison under the military regime."

Connelly said in Toronto after traveling to Britain to receive the award: "Telling the true stories of what happens under secretive regimes is an important form of caring, sometimes even of justice. So many Burmese people helped me to write this book; I am glad their stories have been honored in this way."

She said she would use some of the prize money to fund a translation of The Lizard Cage into Burmese.

Connelly has written six other successful works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her first volume of poetry won the Pat Lowther Award for Best Book of Poetry in 1991.

She is now working o­n a collection of essays about Burma and stories from the border area and is preparing a new volume of poetry.
______________________________________________ ______________________________

Hamilton Spectator:

Reflecting on refugees

Compiled by Sharon Boase
Jun 20, 2007

Today, World Refugee Day, the United Nations is asking us to think about the plight of the 40 million people worldwide who, through no fault of their own, are forced to flee war, persecution, environmental pressures, competition for scarce resources and other miserable consequences of dysfunctional

Hser Mu Lar ("It means 'hope,' some people call me Hope), 24
FROM: Burma (formerly Myanmar)
ARRIVED HERE: Nov. 21, 2006
CAME WITH: Mother, Day Day, 50, brothers Ehlah, 21, and Yaemya, 19

THE JOURNEY: Hser's parents were on the run from marauding Burmese military forces when Hser was born in 1983. The jungle was their refuge after their village had been burned down but their bamboo huts and subsistence gardens were wrecked over and over by Burmese forces. Hser was 11 when she and her family landed in the first of several Thai refugee camps along the Burmese border. Her father, Desi, a Christian minister, was killed by Burmese military in 2000 when he went back to the jungle to help his fellow Karen refugees. The Karen people are the largest ethnic minority living in the mountain ranges of eastern Burma.

Hser helped her mother make and sell bread and weave traditional Karen clothing to supplement their meagre rations and to pay for schooling. After high school, Hser studied at a Bible college where she learned English.

Canada wasn't on Hser's radar until a couple of years ago when it became clear they could not return to Burma and that Thailand wouldn't take them as refugees. She convinced her mother Day Day, who had never been to school, that any hope of a future lay in Canada.

CURRENTLY: Hser acts as a translator and life skills teacher to Hamilton's 100-strong Karen ethnic minority group members, most of whom do not speak English. Her brothers are enrolled at Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School. Day Day is learning to read and write and speak English. Hser hopes to go to school.

THE FUTURE: "Being a refugee is very hard. To me, I am not ashamed to be a refugee but I am not satisfied with that. I dream of going to medical school and becoming a doctor."
___________________________________________________________________________

Press Releases/Statements:

Canadian Writer honored for human rights novel on Burma

By Canadian Friends of Burma
June 11, 2007

Ottawa – Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is honoured to inform Burma supporters in Canada and around the world that Ms. Karen Connelly, Burma supporter and Canadian writer, has received a major U.K literary award for her novel The Lizard Cage. She accepted the award at the Orange Broadband Prize gala in London, England last Wednesday June 6, 2007.

"We should celebrate Karen's literary voice and her contribution in making the wider world...