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Showing posts from January, 2012

Location, location, location: Myanmar's the hot new neighbourhood

1 of 2. A labourer works at a construction site in Yangon January 24, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun By a Reuters staff reporter YANGON | Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:32am EST YANGON (Reuters) - Property agent Kyaw Saw leafs through a thick pile of real-estate listings in Myanmar's faded commercial capital, Yangon. "Our customers used to be all people from the east -- from China , Taiwan and Japan," said the portly businessman. That's changing fast. "We had no Westerners a year ago. Get in now before the rush begins," said Kyaw Saw, adding his former boss was now his competitor, having just left to start his own agency. If you pay two years up front, Kyaw Saw promises to lock in further price rises at only 10 percent a year. He's keen to tap a sudden wave of foreign interest in a crumbling city that u

‘Burma and Myanmar mean exactly the same thing’

Mizzima News Editor’s Note – The Financial Times in London recently changed its policy of using Burma to using Myanmar when referring to the country. Burma expert Bertil Lintner, the author of numerous books on Burma, wrote to the newspaper, saying the words are synonymous, but other changes involving the names of ethnic towns have more sinister implications. His letter to the newspaper was published on Wednesday, January 11, 2012. The following is an expanded version of the letter and goes into more details about the importance of names in identifying a country or city: Dear Sirs, You claim that you have adopted the name “Myanmar” for Burma “on the grounds of neutrality” and because it “smacks less of domination by a majority ethnic group.” (January 5, 2012). This is linguistically and historically incorrect. It is correct that today’s Burmese rulers claim that Burma, or bama , is a colonial name while Myanmar is more indigenous and encompasses all the many nati

People Support RNDP Plan for Gas Benefits at Rally

Narinjara Kyauk Pru:People in Kyaukpru, a town at the heart of the Shwe Gas project in Arakan State, showed their support for the RNDP's plan for sharing benefits from the gas projects between the central and regional government, said RNDP Vice-President U Tin Pe, who chaired the rally. RNDP rally in Kyauk Pru (Photo by Narinjara) The rally was held by the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, which won 34 seats from Arakan State in the last election in Burma, at the Independence Monument grounds in Kyuak Pru on 1 January, 2012. "The Rakhine state election commission permitted only 500 people to attend the rally but over 1000 people attended the rally and showed their willingness to support our party plan to fight for sharing profits from our own gas that the government decided to sell to China,” U Tin Pe said. The people in the rally cheered and cried out loudly to support the plan of RNDP when party leaders delivered speeches about Shwe Gas and how t

Child Soldier Returned to Parents After Broadcast by Foreign-Based Radio

Narinjara Buthidaung: A child soldier was returned to his parents by army authorities two days after a report was aired by a foreign-based Burmese broadcast service, said a monk close to a relative of the boy. "Maung Ray Nyien was handed over by army officers to his family on 19 November after the BBC broadcasted the report on 17 November," said the monk. 14-year-old Maung Ray Nying, who is studying in class 7, was recruited by Corporal Soe Aung and Private Maung Pya from local LIB 234 based in Buthidaung. They tricked the child by claiming he would get a better education in the army. Maung Ray Nyien is the son of U Aingar Aung and Daw Pulay Maung from Awrama Village in Buthidaung Township. His parents went to the army on 31 October 2011 and asked the army to return their child to them, but he was unwilling to return because he believed he would get a better education if he stayed in the army. Afterwards, a politician in Buthidaung who is close to the fam

Young Woman Commits Suicide After Rejection by Sailor

Narinjara A young woman from Sittwe in western Burma's Arakan State has committed suicide by consuming poison, reportedly after her boyfriend, who is a sailor in the Burmese navy, refused to marry her after she ran away with him. The woman was identified as 19-year-old Moe Moe Ei Khine, the daughter of U Nain Moe and Daw Moe Sandar, from Shwe Mingan Ward in Sittwe. One family member said she committed suicide on the evening of 26 December, 2011 in the canteen inside the naval station in Shwe Mingan Ward, two days after she left home to be with him. "Naval Private Thura Win had secretly taken her from her house to his station on 24 December and then dismissed her back to her house on the morning of 26 December after living together with her for two nights at his station. As her mother had scolded her for running away with him without their knowledge, she went back to him, but he also refused to marry her, and she finally committed suicide by consuming poison

Rakhita Prize to be Awarded to Prisoner Monk Rammarwady Ashin Pinnyasara

Narinjara By Maung Aye ------------------ Tokyo: The Japan-based Arakan Nationlist Group said it has selected Rammarwady Ashin Pinnyasara, who is imprisoned by the Burmese government for his patriotic work, for its annual "Rakhita" prize for national conservation. U Kyaw Than Hlaing, the spokesperson of the group, said the members chose Ashin Pinnyasara by a ballot system on 14 December, and the prize will be awarded to him on 31 December, which marks the 227th anniversary of the downfall of the Kingdom of Arakan to Burmese colonial rule. "We have chosen the venerable monk for the prize after reviewing his selfless service for Arakan. He is a scholar who has made so many valuable contributions to Arakan history and has worked hard to flourish and preserve Arakanese patriotic spirit, culture, and religion, and he is such an affectionate person who has founded an orphanage to nurture the abandoned and orphaned children in our homeland," said U

Farmers Complain of Army Office Confiscating and Leasing Their Land to Foreign Company

Narinjara Kyauk Pru: Local farmers in Arakan State have recently lodged a written complaint with the central government because they have become landless after their arable land in Kyaukpru was secretly grabbed and leased to a foreign company by a retired Burmese naval officer. India Company is bulldozing the lands of farmers. A farmer said their land in Pyatae Village Group in Kyaukpru Township were taken and rented out to an Indian company by the retired navy officer, Lt. Colonel San Aung who bears national identity no. 9/Ma-Na-Ma (Nain) 013961, without their knowledge or consent. "Lt. Colonel San Aung has secretly grabbed 24.16 acres of our farmland in Pyatae Village and rented it out to an Indian company that is cooperating with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise for 29 months at a rent of 20.548 million kyat. Those lands are our traditionally cultivated farmlands and we complained of the matter to the central government on 26 December because we have beco

Colonial Era Exploitation Should Be Avoided: Dr. Aye Maung

Narinjara Sittwe: Dr. Aye Maung, Chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, says the Burmese government should avoid colonial-style exploitation of natural resources, referring to its lack of a plan to utilize any portion of the gas from the Shwe Gas Project in Kyaukpru in Arakan State for regional development. He made the statement when he was asked about his party's public conference that is scheduled to be held on 1 January, 2012, at the clock-tower grounds in Kyaukpru to demand local rights in the project. "Our dreams for unity and amity in our nation will be far away if the natural resources from one region are swept away and just used for the benefit and development of another region in the similar manner of exploitation as in the colonial era. So, the government should share some portion of profits that will be obtained from the gas project in Arakan State for the benefit and development of local Arakanese people, who have rights to t

Arakanese Diaspora Marks 227th Anniversary of the Fall of the Kingdom

Narinjara Dhaka: The Arakanese diaspora in several countries held ceremonies marking the 227th anniversary of the fall of Arakan's sovereignty and called to demolish colonization in Burma as practiced by the Burmese central government in Arakan State. Photo Caption: 1. Thailand, 2. USA, 3. Danmark, 4. Bangladesh. 5 Phuket. The memorial ceremony was held in Bangladesh, Japan, India, Thailand, USA, Denmark, and Malaysia on 31 December, 2011, which was the day in 1784 when Arakan lost its sovereignty when it was invaded by Burma's King Bodawpura. In the USA, over 80 Arakanese and other ethnic people gathered in front of the UN building in New York at noon on 31 December 2011 to demand an end to colonization in Burma. Ko Tin Wai, an organizer for the event, said, "Arakan was a sovereign country until 1784, when the Burmese king invaded. Since then, our people have fallen in one colony after another. Even though Burma regained independence in 1948, our lan