ျမန္မာ ဘေလာ့

Human Rights Roundup is a feature bringing local and global human rights stories from around the Web into one place.

TOP STORY

Anchor babies. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina announced that he plans to introduce a bill to repeal the Anchor Baby clause of the 14th Amendment.

The Americas

One study finds that Latino voters are disillusioned with both parties as midterm election season begins. Meanwhile, estimates show that legal costs to the state of Arizona related to the controversial immigration policy could top $1 million when all is said and done.

Early reviews of Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Mexploitation’ flick Machete are out and indicate that the film has elements of a bloody immigration satire at its core.

Congress is calling on Vietnam to halt human rights abuses against Catholics and other religious groups in the country.

Survivors of the earthquakes in Haiti are taking refuge in The Dominican Republic.

Asia

Canada has joined the list of countries calling for better policing of human rights abuses being perpetrated in Burma.

Pakistan has received significantly less aid than Haiti and a new article by NPR looks at the possible reasons why.

Europe

The human rights lawyer who was forced to flee Iran due to his representation of a woman sentenced to stoning was finally reunited with his family in Norway.

Africa

A father and daughter pair of Eritrean refugees in the U.K. were reunited after 8 years.

Have an interesting or relevant story/article to share? Have your say in the comments!

WCRP, Kawkariet Township, Karen State, Burma: “During this year, the use and sale of Ya Ba [methamphetamine] among the teenage population of Kawkariet Township is increasing”, says a drug user from Kawkariet Township.

A Mon villager from Kawbein village, Kawkariet Township, explained that there has been a recent increase in the sale of drugs in his village, and it is now frequented by many students from elsewhere who know that they can purchase drugs there. “Even if they [the teenaged villagers and students] cannot buy drugs here [Kawbein village] on one day, they just go to Mawlamein, because they can buy them there instead. All the drug dealers have good relationships with each other and know where it is possible to buy drugs on any given day.”

“Ya Ba” [methamphetamine], from the Thai meaning “madness drug” are tablets containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine. Very popular since the 1980s in Thailand, they are less common there now following the Thai government’s crackdown on drug trafficking in 2003, but are still prevalent throughout South East Asia and pose a significant health problem. They are typically produced in the form of small pills and are easily transportable.

Use, sale and purchase of recreational drugs is illegal in Burma, although the laws go largely unenforced by the regime and Burma remains one of the world’s worst offenders for drug trafficking. According to one villager who used to use Ya Ba but no longer does, “Even though the government has made selling drugs illegal, they just put up signs around the town, and do nothing else to enforce the law.”

One tablet of Ya Ba [methamphetamine] in Burma costs around 5000 kyat (approximately US$5), which is a significant sum in a country where the average daily salary for a village farmer is between 1000 and 3000 kyat. “The drugs are very expensive, so it is mostly teenagers from rich families” said one villager from Kawbein Village.

The same problem can be found in Three Pagodas Pass, Karin State, claims a doctor who works in a clinic there: “Many men and children who live around here are using Ya Ba [methamphetamine] regularly.” Methamphetamines are highly addictive and dangerous. Prolonged usage can result in fatal kidney and lung disorders, brain damage, liver damage and psychosis, among numerous other physical and mental problems.

HURFOM: While the USDP has thus far dominated most accounts of government support and abuse against civilians prior to the 2010 election, the NUP has also returned to again contest Burma’s national election. The NUP, intending to raise membership and support before going to the polls, has been coercing the support of voters through incentives of protection against current government abuses. This tactic indicates strong ties with government support despite election laws.

On the 17th and 18th of August, the National Unity Party (NUP), worked to organize 50 people from each Mon village in southern and northern Ye Township, Mon State, to cast votes in favor of NUP party candidates and issued permanent member cards to those people from each Mon village. The NUP, which originally was formed in 1989 by members of the defunct Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), to contest the 1990 elections, reregistered to contest the 2010 election. After the recent candidate registration deadline, the NUP will field more then 800 candidates in the upper and lower house, the second largest candidate list next to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

U Hla Maung, 45, who is chairperson of the NUP, has been organizing at the local level, with campaign messages highlighting the guaranteed changes the NUP can make, and that they want to support Mon ethnicity. At a community speech on August 17th, U Hla Maung was quoted by a HURFOM researcher who attended as saying, “Our party will work hard for Mon people”. U Hla Maung is one of the 800 candidates fielded by the NUP.

Through its campaign in Ang Tan village, Hne Hnor village, Ah-Bal village, in northern Ye Township, the NUP has also issued permanent party member cards for 50 key members from each of those villages. Nai Nyut, who has decided to become one of the 50 key members when the NUP issued party member cards on August 20th, explained what benefits he can get as a NUP party member:

According to what U Hla Maung said, as a holder of an NUP party member card, you will not be stopped by traffic police officers while travelling in Ye Township, none of your family member have to go for Loh Ah Pay [forced labor] while other people have to go for it, and you also do not need to worry about taxation charged by the army.

On August 19th and 20th, Ye Township NUP’s members also organized the party’s campaign in Ka Law village and Han Kan village, in southern Ye Township. Ko Maung Nge, 29, who is working for a local NGO as an intern and was an eye-witness to the activities of NUP members campaigning in the area on August 22nd:

If the villagers from these villages become party members and vote for NUP, they do not need to worry about motorbike confiscation, taxation charges, and Loh Ah Pay work [forced labor], so said the key party members through their campaign activities. Through the campaign, the key party members have new members join, but I cannot estimate how many new members they get. I do know, however, that the NUP is the party at one time formed by General Ne Win. Because this party was once formed by Gen. Ne Win, even though [it says it will] give equal rights, for me, I do not believe in it. The people who do not think like what I think will regret it later on after becoming its [NUP] members. We are the ones who have to write our history. And although prisoners may escape from prisons, it is not considered that they are free. By thinking deeply, no one [should] want to vote in this forthcoming election.

An anonymous villager, from Ye township, who works as a merchant, highlighted why he had joined the NUP:

In my opinion, the citizens can vote for the party that they want to. No one can prevent them from [voting for] which party they want to vote. Persuading people to vote for the party is like how other military regime ruled countries held the election. Apparently, this is called vote-buying. We [our party members] will not do like that. We believe our people. We’ve already known what our people’s real attitude is, and then we will serve our duty for our people fairly.

A monk who preferred to remain anonymous , 40, who lives in Ye Township and teaches Mon language, expressed his concern that the NUP’s campaign making promises that only the government can keep:

There is no need to be doubtful [about that] the government supports this political party in many ways. We can know exactly whether it is right or not when we hear of what they [NUP party members] promise to do. Without any support from the government, they [NUP party members] can’t guarantee that there will be no more Lok Ah Pay [forced labor], motorbike confiscations, and taxation charges.

While the NUP is not the favored of the government parties in the coming election, it still apparently retains its strong connection to the current government. Promises that holding a NUP card stop some of the more frequent abuses highlights the NUP’s continued relationship with government forces. Parties like the All Mon Region Democratic Party (AMRDP) and other ethnic and independent parties that are not affiliated with the regime are substantially limited in the claims they can make, as they do not hold power over junta administrative and military forces. However, the advantage accrued by the NUP from its relationship with the current regime apparently gives NUP cards sway over government administrators and soldiers, as if the NUP were already a victorious party. This would substantiate claims by the critics that the closeness of this relationship violates election laws set by the current regime.

One of the best friend of Burma passed away. May he rest in peace and we will never forget him.

His last words on his Facebook page on August 6.

Brothers in Arms

Burmese Student Army’s (ABSDF)HQ at Manerplaw a former stronghold of democratic opposition and ethnic resistance forces.

ABSDF Casualty of War!

Band of Brothers – Maesod, Tak – 2010

A migrant and a soldier..

A Burmese migrant worker and a Thai soldier watching the Burmese authority from Myawwady ordered the Burmese venders to move-out of “No man Land.”

Salute to Sam

with his Brother hood flag of ABSDF

“He should be declared as ABSDF’s brother and he always will be.” Dr.Naing Aung

http://www.imagesasiamedia.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBK7WiEPW-0
http://www.tvthainetwork.com/forum/id/131
http://www.oknation.net/blog/acharawadee/2010/03/10/ent…
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2…
http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/1398301?view=cr…
http://www.sprword.com/asia.html

BANGKOK, 3 September 2010 (NNT) – The remark on domestic problem in preparation for the coming general election in Myanmar was cited as the cause of Thai-Myanmar border closure.

Speaking at the Regional Border Committee meeting (RBC) which took place at the Centara Mae Sot Hill Resort located in the Mae Sot district of Tak, 3rd Army Chief Thanongsak Apirakyothin said the meeting aimed to negotiate the reopening of Thai-Myanmar border, as discussion took place with participation of delegates from various agencies especially members of the RBC from across the northern region of Thailand.

According to the 4rd Army Chief Prasan Seangsirirak, the border closure is an offshoot of the Myanmar’s preparation for the upcoming national election in November as well as the country’s objection to the river bank construction on the Thai side, since Myanmar has expressed disapproval for nine times, reasoning the construction will cause an erosion on the Myanmar side.

The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), which is part of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok, recently published a nutritional assessment of children in the migrant community around Mae Sot.  Prior to this research, no information on malnutrition in this community was available. The team surveyed 49 schools in and around Mae Sot, including approximately 5,000 children in total. The results are frightening.

Amongst children under the age of five:

• the rate of chronic malnutrition, otherwise known as stunting, was 25.2%
• the rate of acute malnutrition, otherwise known as wasting, was 9.2%
• 21% were found to be underweight.

The rates for stunting and underweight are lower than some areas inside Burma, and quite similar to rates recorded in refugee camps. Children in Northern Thailand have half the rate of stunting and underweight than the migrant children surveyed by SMRU.

The rate of wasting was three times higher for migrant children than the rate for children in refugee camps

Approximately 49% of children at the time of this survey had access to one free meal a day when the survey was conducted in June 2009. Since that time, SMRU reports that a third of those schools who provided a meal are no longer doing so.  In general, this year, schools saw an increase, sometimes up to 15% in attendance. Food prices rose, sometimes doubling (in the case of the highly nutritious yellow beans), and food provision suffered as a result. In short, since this study was conducted, there are now more students, less money, and less food.

Please head to the SMRU website to download a full text version of the survey in order to get all the details and to learn more.

If you live in the UK and would like to do something, please visit this website and contribute to the Big Give Campaign to put feeding programs into as many migrant schools as we can. Thai Children’s Trust is also a donor to the Mae Tao Clinic”s Dry Food Fund, so giving there will get food to children as well. In Canada, you are welcome to send donations to Room to Grow and we’ll turn that money into food.

Room to Grow and our partners are very distressed by this report and will be working hard in the upcoming months to learn more and do more to solve this problem. Any help that can be provided would be greatly appreciated.

(Some Background)

The migrant community consists of people who have come from Burma to Thailand, but who cannot access the refugee camps for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that the Thai government does not often accept applications for refugee status. Another is that the Burmese regime has changed tactics in recent years, opting for measures that have more to do with control than violence. Things like forced labor, burning fields and deprivation of livelihood have forced people across borders, as has the general economic decline brought upon the country by corruption, mismanagement and years of economic sanctions. Burmese migrants are extremely vulnerable in Thailand, as most have no legal status and can be subject to violence, discrimination and deportation. Many work in factories or as agricultural laborers, making a few dollars a day. And many, as this survey demonstrates, are unable to provide healthy food for their children on such salaries.