Meri News
Kumar Sarkar
Mon 31 Dec 2007
In the aftermath of the bloody ‘Saffron Revolution’ in September there is fresh unrest among the Buddhist clergy in Myanmar. Posters have begun to appear in central Myanmar exhorting monks to rise in revolt once again against the military regime.
THE MONKS in Myanmar are restive and plans are afoot to restart protest movements similar to September, which has been dubbed the ‘Saffron Revolution’
Posters have begun to appear exhorting the Buddhist clergy to once again hit the streets of Myanmar on the country’s Independence Day. Posters have been seen pasted in Pakhokku town in central Myanmar, the Myanmarese media in exile reports.
The posters have exhorted monks to stage a mass rally of monks on the 60th anniversary of Myanmar’s Independence Day on January 4, 2008. The posters were found pasted on the northern gate of the Mahawihzayarrama monastery, also known as the East monastery, in Pakhokku, a town in Magwe Division where the uprising first took place in September and snowballed across Myanmar. The police hurriedly removed the posters.
In September this year the monks took over the protests from the 1988-generation students and were joined by the people, first demanding a roll back in the hike in fuel prices and essential commodities and then demanding change from military rule to democracy in a country plagued by economic and political deterioration.
The Myanmar military junta came down heavily on the protesting monks’ students and the people killing, beating and arresting large numbers. Though it officially claimed that 10 people died and 3,000 were arrested, human rights activists have gone on record as saying that the numbers were far higher. There has been international condemnation of the high handed and ruthless suppression of the peaceful movement by the Myanmar military junta.
What followed was worse for monks. Many were disrobed forcibly. The younger monks and novices were rounded up and sent back to their hometowns. Those detained were tortured and monasteries taken over. Monks all over Myanmar except those on the side of the ruling regime were publicly humiliated making a mockery of the Buddhist clergy who are held in highest esteem in Buddhist dominated Myanmar. The generals gave the lie to being Buddhists and scorning the clergy.
Now only one-third of the monks are visible in Pakhokku town after the regime drove away many monks and novices to their hometowns.
Monks in Pakhokku have boycotted the monks’ examination being conducted by the junta administration to protest against the treatment of the monks by the junta during the protests and after.
Monday, December 31, 2007
U Gambira of Saffron Revolution: Burma’s Person of the Year
Burma Digest
Mon 31 Dec 2007
In Burma Digest poll for Person of the Year 2007 (Burma), we got hundreds of direct votings on the website, and many more thousands of votes sent via email. U Gambira, and his fellow monks, who led Burma’s Saffron Revolution in 2007 got highest number of votes; and accordingly, named here as “The Person of the Year 2007 in Burma”.
U Gambira, the 29-year old leader of the All-Burma Monks’ Alliance that spearheaded nationwide protests in Burma in September, became a fugitive following the deadly Sept. 26-27 crackdown on protesters in Burma. He made important announcements to the world outside Burma about the alliance’s aims and in a climate of fear and arrests of pro-democracy activists, became one of the new leaders of Burma’s freedom movement.
U Gambira led the life of a monk until summer 2007, dedicating his life to religious study and working compassionately for the benefit of all people. Following the SPDC/USDA/SAS attacks on monks in Pakkoku, U Gambira became involved with what we now call the ‘Saffron Revolution’. His actions and those of his fellow monks brought the world’s attention to the protests in Burma, and gave enormous impetus to the pro-democracy movement inside Burma and with the activist movements around the world. The SPDC saw him and the rest of the protest organisers (and participatants) as their enemy; He was targeted by the SPDC and went into hiding, his family taken hostage until he gave himself up.
U Gambira now languishes in a grim prison cell, and like other protesters beaten and tortured by sadistic SPDC minions. He is reported to be incarcerated at Insein prison and it seems likely that he will be charged with treason and given what amounts to a life sentence behind bars. It was these risks that U Gambira took on himself just a few months ago; he knew the risk, but acted on his conscience and his belief – a belief that non-violent protest and the power of prayer against guns and tanks will eventually win the freedom that the people of Burma so desperately need.
U Gambira acted not for personal gain, or to better himself, or out of any wish for political power; he acted out of compassion and humility and a great love for his fellow man, in a manner true to the fundamental calling of the Sangha. He very deservedly receives our nomination as ‘Person of the Year 2007 in Burma.’
The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks/ All Burma Sangha Coalition
Describing themselves as The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, the author of a widely distributed leaflet gave the military government until September 17 to issue an apology for its brutal suppression of demonstrating monks in Pakkoku by police, soldiers and pro-government paramilitary thugs. When the junta failed to apologize, the alliance urged all Buddhist monks in the country to hold a “patam nikkujjana kamma”—a boycott of alms from members of the military regime and its supporters. The call prompted tens of thousands of monks and civilians around Burma to stage the largest protest marches against the military government in nearly 20 years, calling for better living conditions for the people and national reconciliation.
When the protests began, no one knew the identity of the leaders of the monks’ alliance. However, the Burmese people heard from some of the leaders of the underground network when they gave telephone interviews to overseas radio stations. U Gambira, U Obhasa, U Khemeinda and U Zakada are now household names. All went into hiding when the crackdown began.
Unfortunately, in early November U Gambira was arrested at his hiding place in Kyaukse in central Burma. His brother and father were taken hostage in October in an exchange for U Gambira turning himself in. However, his brother and father have yet to be freed. The 29-year-old leading monk has been charged with treason by the Burmese junta, according to his family. The punishment for treason is a life sentence or death.
Mon 31 Dec 2007
In Burma Digest poll for Person of the Year 2007 (Burma), we got hundreds of direct votings on the website, and many more thousands of votes sent via email. U Gambira, and his fellow monks, who led Burma’s Saffron Revolution in 2007 got highest number of votes; and accordingly, named here as “The Person of the Year 2007 in Burma”.
U Gambira, the 29-year old leader of the All-Burma Monks’ Alliance that spearheaded nationwide protests in Burma in September, became a fugitive following the deadly Sept. 26-27 crackdown on protesters in Burma. He made important announcements to the world outside Burma about the alliance’s aims and in a climate of fear and arrests of pro-democracy activists, became one of the new leaders of Burma’s freedom movement.
U Gambira led the life of a monk until summer 2007, dedicating his life to religious study and working compassionately for the benefit of all people. Following the SPDC/USDA/SAS attacks on monks in Pakkoku, U Gambira became involved with what we now call the ‘Saffron Revolution’. His actions and those of his fellow monks brought the world’s attention to the protests in Burma, and gave enormous impetus to the pro-democracy movement inside Burma and with the activist movements around the world. The SPDC saw him and the rest of the protest organisers (and participatants) as their enemy; He was targeted by the SPDC and went into hiding, his family taken hostage until he gave himself up.
U Gambira now languishes in a grim prison cell, and like other protesters beaten and tortured by sadistic SPDC minions. He is reported to be incarcerated at Insein prison and it seems likely that he will be charged with treason and given what amounts to a life sentence behind bars. It was these risks that U Gambira took on himself just a few months ago; he knew the risk, but acted on his conscience and his belief – a belief that non-violent protest and the power of prayer against guns and tanks will eventually win the freedom that the people of Burma so desperately need.
U Gambira acted not for personal gain, or to better himself, or out of any wish for political power; he acted out of compassion and humility and a great love for his fellow man, in a manner true to the fundamental calling of the Sangha. He very deservedly receives our nomination as ‘Person of the Year 2007 in Burma.’
The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks/ All Burma Sangha Coalition
Describing themselves as The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, the author of a widely distributed leaflet gave the military government until September 17 to issue an apology for its brutal suppression of demonstrating monks in Pakkoku by police, soldiers and pro-government paramilitary thugs. When the junta failed to apologize, the alliance urged all Buddhist monks in the country to hold a “patam nikkujjana kamma”—a boycott of alms from members of the military regime and its supporters. The call prompted tens of thousands of monks and civilians around Burma to stage the largest protest marches against the military government in nearly 20 years, calling for better living conditions for the people and national reconciliation.
When the protests began, no one knew the identity of the leaders of the monks’ alliance. However, the Burmese people heard from some of the leaders of the underground network when they gave telephone interviews to overseas radio stations. U Gambira, U Obhasa, U Khemeinda and U Zakada are now household names. All went into hiding when the crackdown began.
Unfortunately, in early November U Gambira was arrested at his hiding place in Kyaukse in central Burma. His brother and father were taken hostage in October in an exchange for U Gambira turning himself in. However, his brother and father have yet to be freed. The 29-year-old leading monk has been charged with treason by the Burmese junta, according to his family. The punishment for treason is a life sentence or death.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Dhamma banned in Burma
Irrawaddy
Wai Moe
Fri 28 Dec 2007
The Burmese military government has ordered a ban on Buddhist dhamma talks and seminars in Rangoon, according to monks in the former capital.
The monks told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that dhamma [the Buddha’s teachings] talks by four well-known monks were forced to cancel in December. The monks were named as: U Kawthala, also known as Dhamma Sedi Sayadaw; U Kawvida, also known as Mizzima Gon Yi Sayadaw; U Nadapadi, also known as Pyu Sayadaw; and U Sadila, also known as Lu Yay Chun Sayadaw.
Township authorities in Rangoon had been ordered to ban dhamma talks by the Regional Commander of Rangoon, said the sources. On Wednesday, U Kawvida, who is also a PhD in Buddhism, prepared to conduct a Buddhist tutorial in Insein Township, on the outskirts of Rangoon. However, officials arrived at the scene and ordered the dhamma talk to be stopped immediately.
“U Kawvida requested permission from the commander of the Rangoon Regional Command, Maj-Gen Hla Htay Win, to address the crowd, but the commander rejected the monk’s request,” said a monk, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“U Kawvida was scheduled to talk in Rangoon tomorrow, but he has been forced to cancel.”
Meanwhile, in central Rangoon, a dhamma talk by Khamasiri Linkaya, also known as Shwepyihein Sayadaw, was stopped by authorities recently, according to sources in Rangoon.
Khamasiri Linkaya was then interrogated, said a monk who attended the talk, adding that the authorities suspected his speech was critical of the junta and might charge the senior monk.
Since November, dhamma VCDs featuring Burma’s most respected senior monks, including U Nyanithara and U Kawvida, which are critical of the military crackdown , have reportedly been banned by the authorities.
“The authorities ban dhamma CDs and VCDs whether they are directly or indirectly critical of military rule,” said a senior monk.
Meanwhile, the Buddhist University in Rangoon was ordered to close by authorities according to sources. Officials have yet to announce a date for the university to reopen. Monks from the Buddhist University were actively involved in the September uprising.
The Burmese junta often claims it believes deeply in Buddhism and encourages the growth of the faith. It’s a claim that few Burmese people believe since the acts of brutality carried out by the authorities against the revered monks.
Wai Moe
Fri 28 Dec 2007
The Burmese military government has ordered a ban on Buddhist dhamma talks and seminars in Rangoon, according to monks in the former capital.
The monks told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that dhamma [the Buddha’s teachings] talks by four well-known monks were forced to cancel in December. The monks were named as: U Kawthala, also known as Dhamma Sedi Sayadaw; U Kawvida, also known as Mizzima Gon Yi Sayadaw; U Nadapadi, also known as Pyu Sayadaw; and U Sadila, also known as Lu Yay Chun Sayadaw.
Township authorities in Rangoon had been ordered to ban dhamma talks by the Regional Commander of Rangoon, said the sources. On Wednesday, U Kawvida, who is also a PhD in Buddhism, prepared to conduct a Buddhist tutorial in Insein Township, on the outskirts of Rangoon. However, officials arrived at the scene and ordered the dhamma talk to be stopped immediately.
“U Kawvida requested permission from the commander of the Rangoon Regional Command, Maj-Gen Hla Htay Win, to address the crowd, but the commander rejected the monk’s request,” said a monk, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“U Kawvida was scheduled to talk in Rangoon tomorrow, but he has been forced to cancel.”
Meanwhile, in central Rangoon, a dhamma talk by Khamasiri Linkaya, also known as Shwepyihein Sayadaw, was stopped by authorities recently, according to sources in Rangoon.
Khamasiri Linkaya was then interrogated, said a monk who attended the talk, adding that the authorities suspected his speech was critical of the junta and might charge the senior monk.
Since November, dhamma VCDs featuring Burma’s most respected senior monks, including U Nyanithara and U Kawvida, which are critical of the military crackdown , have reportedly been banned by the authorities.
“The authorities ban dhamma CDs and VCDs whether they are directly or indirectly critical of military rule,” said a senior monk.
Meanwhile, the Buddhist University in Rangoon was ordered to close by authorities according to sources. Officials have yet to announce a date for the university to reopen. Monks from the Buddhist University were actively involved in the September uprising.
The Burmese junta often claims it believes deeply in Buddhism and encourages the growth of the faith. It’s a claim that few Burmese people believe since the acts of brutality carried out by the authorities against the revered monks.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
သံဃမဟာနာရကဆရာေတာ္မ်ား ႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္
Irrawaddy
ကိုသက္ | ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၂၁၊ ၂၀၀၇
ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔၏ ဦးေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ၄၇ ပါးအနက္ ၁၀ ပါးခန္႔သည္ ႏို၀င္ဘာလလယ္ ခန္႔တြင္ ႏုတ္ထြက္စာ တင္ၾကေၾကာင္း သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူမ်ားက ေျပာဆိုၾကသည္။
ႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ထားသည့္ ဆရာေတာ္မ်ားတြင္ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယက ဥကၠဌျဖစ္သည့္ မေကြးဆရာေတာ္ ဦးကုမာရ၊ အက်ိဳးေတာ္ေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးၾသသထဘိ၀ံသ၊ အင္းစိန္႐ြာမဆရာေတာ္ ဦးတိေလာကဘိ၀ံသ၊ ေရနံေခ်ာင္း ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေတဇိႏၲတို႔ပါ၀င္သည္ဟု သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူက ေျပာသည္။
ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ကို ဦးေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ၄၇ ပါးျဖင့္ အဖြဲ႔ ၃ ဖြဲ႔ခြဲကာ ဖြဲ႔စည္းထားၿပီး တဖြဲ႔လွ်င္ ဆရာေတာ္ ၁၅ ပါးခန္႔ ပါ၀င္သည္။ ဦးကုမာရ သည္ အဖြဲ႔ ၁ ၏ ဥကၠဌျဖစ္ၿပီး သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔၏ တာ၀န္ အရွိဆံုး ဆရာေတာ္လည္းျဖစ္သည္။ ဆရာေတာ္သည္ ႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ၿပီးေနာက္ မေကြးသို႔ျပန္ႂကြသြားေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
ဆရာေတာ္မ်ားႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ရျခင္းမွာ စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔က ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ ေတာင္ဥကၠလာပၿမိဳ႕နယ္ရွိ ေငြၾကာယံ ပရိယတၳိစာသင္တိုက္ကို စစ္အစိုးရ၏ လက္နက္ကိုင္တပ္ဖြဲ႔၀င္မ်ားက အၾကမ္းဖက္စီးနင္းေသာေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္ႏိုင္သည္ဟု သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူတခ်ိဳ႕က သံုးသပ္ၾကသည္။
စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔ည ၁၂ နာရီေက်ာ္တြင္ လက္နက္ကိုင္စစ္သားမ်ားႏွင့္ လံုထိန္း ၂၀၀ ေက်ာ္တို႔က မ်က္ရည္ယို ဗံုးႏွင့္ ေသနတ္မ်ားသံုး၍ ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္ကို ၀င္ေရာက္စီးနင္းခဲ့ၾကၿပီး သံဃာေတာ္အပါး ၁၀၀ ေက်ာ္ကို အၾကမ္း ဖက္ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ ဖမ္းဆီးကာ လူ၀တ္လဲလိုက္သည္။ ၀င္ေရာက္ စီးနင္းသည့္ကာလအတြင္း ေ႐ႊ၊ ေငြအပါအ၀င္ ကာလတန္ဖိုး က်ပ္သိန္း ၂၀၀ ေက်ာ္ကို စစ္သားမ်ားကသိမ္းဆီးသြားၿပီး က်ပ္သိန္း ၅၀ ခန္႔ကို သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနမွတဆင့္ ေက်ာင္းတိုက္သို႔ ျပန္လည္ေပးအပ္ေၾကာင္း ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္ႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူတဦးက ဧရာ၀တီကို ေျပာဆိုသည္။
ေငြၾကာယံ ပရိယတၳိစာသင္တိုက္၏ ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေရ၀တမွာ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ အမွတ္ ၂ အဖြဲ႔မွ ဒုဥကၠဌ ျဖစ္သည္။ အာဏာပိုင္တို႔က ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေရ၀တ၊ တိုက္အုပ္ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးဥတၱမ အပါအ၀င္ ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္မွ သံဃာ ၅၀ ေက်ာ္ကို ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ ကမာၻေအးရွိ သာသနာ့နယ္ေျမတြင္ အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ ထားကာ ယခုလ ၁၇ ရက္ေန႔၌ ေက်ာင္းတိုက္သို႔ ျပန္ပို႔ခဲ့သည္။
သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားက စက္တင္ဘာလအတြင္းျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည့္ လူထုလႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားကို ဦးေဆာင္ခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ စစ္အစိုးရက ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္း ၆၀ ခန္႔ကို အဓမၼ၀င္ေရာက္ဖ်က္ဆီးကာ သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားကို ဖမ္းဆီးခဲ့သည္။
ႏို၀င္ဘာလကုန္ပိုင္းတြင္ စစ္အစိုးရက HIV /AIDS ေ၀ဒနာရွင္မ်ားအတြက္ လူမႈအေထာက္အကူျပဳ လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေပးေနသည့္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ သကၤန္းကၽြန္းၿမိဳ႕နယ္ရွိ မဂၢင္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္းကို မည္သည့္အေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္မွ မေပးဘဲ ခိ်ပ္ပိတ္လိုက္သည္။ မဂၢင္ေက်ာင္းသည္ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးလႈပ္ရွားသူမ်ား ကိုးကြယ္သည့္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ယခုအခါ နအဖ စစ္အစိုးရက ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ကို အသစ္ျပန္လည္ဖြဲ႔စည္းရန္ စီစဥ္လ်က္ ရွိေၾကာင္း စံုစမ္းသိရွိရသည္။
ကိုသက္ | ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၂၁၊ ၂၀၀၇
ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔၏ ဦးေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ၄၇ ပါးအနက္ ၁၀ ပါးခန္႔သည္ ႏို၀င္ဘာလလယ္ ခန္႔တြင္ ႏုတ္ထြက္စာ တင္ၾကေၾကာင္း သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူမ်ားက ေျပာဆိုၾကသည္။
ႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ထားသည့္ ဆရာေတာ္မ်ားတြင္ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယက ဥကၠဌျဖစ္သည့္ မေကြးဆရာေတာ္ ဦးကုမာရ၊ အက်ိဳးေတာ္ေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးၾသသထဘိ၀ံသ၊ အင္းစိန္႐ြာမဆရာေတာ္ ဦးတိေလာကဘိ၀ံသ၊ ေရနံေခ်ာင္း ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေတဇိႏၲတို႔ပါ၀င္သည္ဟု သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူက ေျပာသည္။
ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ကို ဦးေဆာင္ဆရာေတာ္ ၄၇ ပါးျဖင့္ အဖြဲ႔ ၃ ဖြဲ႔ခြဲကာ ဖြဲ႔စည္းထားၿပီး တဖြဲ႔လွ်င္ ဆရာေတာ္ ၁၅ ပါးခန္႔ ပါ၀င္သည္။ ဦးကုမာရ သည္ အဖြဲ႔ ၁ ၏ ဥကၠဌျဖစ္ၿပီး သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔၏ တာ၀န္ အရွိဆံုး ဆရာေတာ္လည္းျဖစ္သည္။ ဆရာေတာ္သည္ ႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ၿပီးေနာက္ မေကြးသို႔ျပန္ႂကြသြားေၾကာင္း သိရသည္။
ဆရာေတာ္မ်ားႏုတ္ထြက္စာတင္ရျခင္းမွာ စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔က ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ ေတာင္ဥကၠလာပၿမိဳ႕နယ္ရွိ ေငြၾကာယံ ပရိယတၳိစာသင္တိုက္ကို စစ္အစိုးရ၏ လက္နက္ကိုင္တပ္ဖြဲ႔၀င္မ်ားက အၾကမ္းဖက္စီးနင္းေသာေၾကာင့္ ျဖစ္ႏိုင္သည္ဟု သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူတခ်ိဳ႕က သံုးသပ္ၾကသည္။
စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔ည ၁၂ နာရီေက်ာ္တြင္ လက္နက္ကိုင္စစ္သားမ်ားႏွင့္ လံုထိန္း ၂၀၀ ေက်ာ္တို႔က မ်က္ရည္ယို ဗံုးႏွင့္ ေသနတ္မ်ားသံုး၍ ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္ကို ၀င္ေရာက္စီးနင္းခဲ့ၾကၿပီး သံဃာေတာ္အပါး ၁၀၀ ေက်ာ္ကို အၾကမ္း ဖက္ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ ဖမ္းဆီးကာ လူ၀တ္လဲလိုက္သည္။ ၀င္ေရာက္ စီးနင္းသည့္ကာလအတြင္း ေ႐ႊ၊ ေငြအပါအ၀င္ ကာလတန္ဖိုး က်ပ္သိန္း ၂၀၀ ေက်ာ္ကို စစ္သားမ်ားကသိမ္းဆီးသြားၿပီး က်ပ္သိန္း ၅၀ ခန္႔ကို သာသနာေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနမွတဆင့္ ေက်ာင္းတိုက္သို႔ ျပန္လည္ေပးအပ္ေၾကာင္း ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္ႏွင့္ နီးစပ္သူတဦးက ဧရာ၀တီကို ေျပာဆိုသည္။
ေငြၾကာယံ ပရိယတၳိစာသင္တိုက္၏ ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေရ၀တမွာ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ အမွတ္ ၂ အဖြဲ႔မွ ဒုဥကၠဌ ျဖစ္သည္။ အာဏာပိုင္တို႔က ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးေရ၀တ၊ တိုက္အုပ္ဆရာေတာ္ ဦးဥတၱမ အပါအ၀င္ ေငြၾကာယံေက်ာင္းတိုက္မွ သံဃာ ၅၀ ေက်ာ္ကို ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ ကမာၻေအးရွိ သာသနာ့နယ္ေျမတြင္ အက်ယ္ခ်ဳပ္ ထားကာ ယခုလ ၁၇ ရက္ေန႔၌ ေက်ာင္းတိုက္သို႔ ျပန္ပို႔ခဲ့သည္။
သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားက စက္တင္ဘာလအတြင္းျဖစ္ပြားခဲ့သည့္ လူထုလႈပ္ရွားမႈမ်ားကို ဦးေဆာင္ခဲ့ၿပီးေနာက္ စစ္အစိုးရက ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္း ၆၀ ခန္႔ကို အဓမၼ၀င္ေရာက္ဖ်က္ဆီးကာ သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားကို ဖမ္းဆီးခဲ့သည္။
ႏို၀င္ဘာလကုန္ပိုင္းတြင္ စစ္အစိုးရက HIV /AIDS ေ၀ဒနာရွင္မ်ားအတြက္ လူမႈအေထာက္အကူျပဳ လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားကို ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေပးေနသည့္ ရန္ကုန္ၿမိဳ႕ သကၤန္းကၽြန္းၿမိဳ႕နယ္ရွိ မဂၢင္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္းကို မည္သည့္အေၾကာင္းျပခ်က္မွ မေပးဘဲ ခိ်ပ္ပိတ္လိုက္သည္။ မဂၢင္ေက်ာင္းသည္ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးလႈပ္ရွားသူမ်ား ကိုးကြယ္သည့္ ဘုန္းေတာ္ႀကီးေက်ာင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
ယခုအခါ နအဖ စစ္အစိုးရက ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္သံဃမဟာနာယကအဖြဲ႔ကို အသစ္ျပန္လည္ဖြဲ႔စည္းရန္ စီစဥ္လ်က္ ရွိေၾကာင္း စံုစမ္းသိရွိရသည္။
ပဲခူး ကလ်ာဏီသိမ္ေက်ာင္း ဆရာေတာ္ ျပန္လြတ္လာ
Mizzima
ထိန္လင္း
Friday, 21 December 2007 18:21 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ေရႊဝါေရာင္ လႈပ္ရွားမႈႀကီးတြင္ ပါဝင္ခဲ့ရာမွ ဖမ္းဆီးခံခဲ့ရသူ ပဲခူးၿမ့ဳိ ကလ်ာဏီ သိမ္ေက်ာင္းတုိက္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးသည္ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ တနလၤာေန႔က ျပန္လြတ္လာခဲ့သည္။
ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ႏိုဝင္ဘာလ ပထမပတ္တြင္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီး ဦးေတေဇာဘာသ (သက္ေတာ္ ၇၆ ႏွစ္) အား ေရႊတိဂံု ဘုရားေပၚမွအဆင္း စစ္ဖက္လံုျခံဳေရး တပ္ဖဲြ႔ဝင္မ်ားက ဖမ္းဆီးသြားခဲ့ၿပီး ရန္ကုန္တုိင္း လွည္းကူးၿမ့ဳိနယ္ရွိ ရြာသာႀကီး စိတ္ေရာဂါကု ေဆး႐ံုတြင္ ၂၅ ရက္ၾကာ ထိန္းသိမ္းထားရာမွ စခန္းႀကီးေက်းရြာရွိ ဘုန္းႀကီးေက်ာင္း တေက်ာင္းတြင္ ဆက္လက္ထားရွိကာ ယခုလ ၁၇ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးလိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
“ေရႊတိဂံုဘုရားေပၚက အဆင္းမွာ အဖမ္းခံရတယ္ေလ။ ဘုမသိဘမသိနဲ႔ ေခၚသြားခံရတာ။ ၂၅ ရက္ၾကာ အရူးေထာင္မွာ ေနခဲ့ရေသးတယ္။ တနလၤာေန႔ကေတာ့ အိမ္ကို ျပန္ပို႔ၾကတယ္ေလ။ အိမ္က မိသားစုေတြနဲ႔လည္း ဓာတ္ပံု ႐ိုက္သြားေသးတယ္။ ေကာင္းေကာင္းမြန္မြန္ ျပန္ပို႔ခဲ့တယ္ ဆိုတဲ့အေၾကာင္း လက္မွတ္လည္း ထိုးလိုက္ရတယ္” ဟု သမီးျဖစ္သူ ေဒၚျမတ္ျမတ္ေထြးက မဇၩိမကို ေျပာျပသည္။
ယခင္က ေလျဖတ္ေဝဒနာ ခံစားခဲ့ရေသာ္လည္း ဖမ္းဆီးမခံရခင္အထိ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီး တပါးတည္း ေရႊတိဂံု၊ ဆူးေလ၊ ဗိုလ္တေထာင္ဘုရားသို႔ ဘုရားဖူးႂကြခ်ီႏုိင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ယခု ျပန္လြတ္လာရာ၌ က်န္းမာေရး အေျခအေန ေကာင္းမြန္ျခင္း မရွိဘဲ ျဖစ္ေနသည္။
ေဒၚျမတ္ျမတ္ေထြးက “က်န္းမာေရးက အရင္တုန္းကေတာ့ အေကာင္းပဲေလ။ ဟိုအရင္တုန္းက ေလျဖတ္ခဲ့ဖူးေတာ့ ကုခဲ့ရေသးတယ္။ အခု စကားေျပာေတြ တအားေလးေနတယ္။ ေဆးထိုးေဆးေကြ်း လုပ္ေနရတယ္။ ကိုယ္ေတြလက္ေတြကလည္း နာေနတယ္ ေျပာတယ္။ နဂို ေလျဖတ္တဲ့ဒဏ္နဲ႔ ေပါင္းၿပီး အခု စကားေတြက မပီေတာ့ဘူး” ဟု ေျပာသည္။
မလိုအပ္ဘဲ စိတ္ေရာဂါကု ေဆး႐ံုတြင္ ထားရွိခဲ့ၿပီး ျပန္လြတ္လာသည့္အခါ က်န္းမာေရး ခ်ဳိ့ယြင္းလာခဲ့သျဖင့္ ၾကည္ၫိုသူ ဒါယိကာ၊ ဒါယိကာမမ်ားႏွင့္ ေဆြမ်ဳိးသားခ်င္းမ်ားမွ စိတ္မေကာင္း ျဖစ္ေနၾကသည္။
ယခုအခါ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးသည္ ရန္ကုန္တုိင္း ေတာင္ဥကၠလာပၿမ့ဳိနယ္ရွိ သမီးျဖစ္သူ၏ ေနအိမ္တြင္ သီတင္းသံုး ေနထုိင္ၿပီး ပဲခူးေက်ာင္းတုိက္သို႔ ျပန္ႂကြလိုလွ်င္ ေဒသအာဏာပိုင္မ်ားကို သတင္းပို႔ရမည္ ျဖစ္သည္။
စက္တင္ဘာလ သံဃာလူထု လႈပ္ရွားမႈအတြင္း ၿမ့ဳိေတာ္ခန္းမေရွ့တြင္ သခင္ကိုယ္ေတာ္မႈိင္းႏွင့္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း၏ ဓာတ္ပံုမ်ားကို ကိုင္ေဆာင္ကာ တပါးတည္း ဆႏၵျပသကဲ့သို႔ မဟာဗႏၶဳလ ပန္းၿခံေရွ့တြင္ ၃ ရက္ဆက္တိုက္ တရားေဟာခဲ့သည့္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးအား စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ထဲတြင္ ဖမ္းဆီးခ်ဳပ္ေႏွာင္ကာ ေအာက္တိုဘာလ ၂၅ ရက္တြင္ ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးခဲ့သည္။
ထိန္လင္း
Friday, 21 December 2007 18:21 - ျမန္မာစံေတာ္ခ်ိန္
ေရႊဝါေရာင္ လႈပ္ရွားမႈႀကီးတြင္ ပါဝင္ခဲ့ရာမွ ဖမ္းဆီးခံခဲ့ရသူ ပဲခူးၿမ့ဳိ ကလ်ာဏီ သိမ္ေက်ာင္းတုိက္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးသည္ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ တနလၤာေန႔က ျပန္လြတ္လာခဲ့သည္။
ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ႏိုဝင္ဘာလ ပထမပတ္တြင္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီး ဦးေတေဇာဘာသ (သက္ေတာ္ ၇၆ ႏွစ္) အား ေရႊတိဂံု ဘုရားေပၚမွအဆင္း စစ္ဖက္လံုျခံဳေရး တပ္ဖဲြ႔ဝင္မ်ားက ဖမ္းဆီးသြားခဲ့ၿပီး ရန္ကုန္တုိင္း လွည္းကူးၿမ့ဳိနယ္ရွိ ရြာသာႀကီး စိတ္ေရာဂါကု ေဆး႐ံုတြင္ ၂၅ ရက္ၾကာ ထိန္းသိမ္းထားရာမွ စခန္းႀကီးေက်းရြာရွိ ဘုန္းႀကီးေက်ာင္း တေက်ာင္းတြင္ ဆက္လက္ထားရွိကာ ယခုလ ၁၇ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးလိုက္ျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။
“ေရႊတိဂံုဘုရားေပၚက အဆင္းမွာ အဖမ္းခံရတယ္ေလ။ ဘုမသိဘမသိနဲ႔ ေခၚသြားခံရတာ။ ၂၅ ရက္ၾကာ အရူးေထာင္မွာ ေနခဲ့ရေသးတယ္။ တနလၤာေန႔ကေတာ့ အိမ္ကို ျပန္ပို႔ၾကတယ္ေလ။ အိမ္က မိသားစုေတြနဲ႔လည္း ဓာတ္ပံု ႐ိုက္သြားေသးတယ္။ ေကာင္းေကာင္းမြန္မြန္ ျပန္ပို႔ခဲ့တယ္ ဆိုတဲ့အေၾကာင္း လက္မွတ္လည္း ထိုးလိုက္ရတယ္” ဟု သမီးျဖစ္သူ ေဒၚျမတ္ျမတ္ေထြးက မဇၩိမကို ေျပာျပသည္။
ယခင္က ေလျဖတ္ေဝဒနာ ခံစားခဲ့ရေသာ္လည္း ဖမ္းဆီးမခံရခင္အထိ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီး တပါးတည္း ေရႊတိဂံု၊ ဆူးေလ၊ ဗိုလ္တေထာင္ဘုရားသို႔ ဘုရားဖူးႂကြခ်ီႏုိင္ခဲ့ၿပီး ယခု ျပန္လြတ္လာရာ၌ က်န္းမာေရး အေျခအေန ေကာင္းမြန္ျခင္း မရွိဘဲ ျဖစ္ေနသည္။
ေဒၚျမတ္ျမတ္ေထြးက “က်န္းမာေရးက အရင္တုန္းကေတာ့ အေကာင္းပဲေလ။ ဟိုအရင္တုန္းက ေလျဖတ္ခဲ့ဖူးေတာ့ ကုခဲ့ရေသးတယ္။ အခု စကားေျပာေတြ တအားေလးေနတယ္။ ေဆးထိုးေဆးေကြ်း လုပ္ေနရတယ္။ ကိုယ္ေတြလက္ေတြကလည္း နာေနတယ္ ေျပာတယ္။ နဂို ေလျဖတ္တဲ့ဒဏ္နဲ႔ ေပါင္းၿပီး အခု စကားေတြက မပီေတာ့ဘူး” ဟု ေျပာသည္။
မလိုအပ္ဘဲ စိတ္ေရာဂါကု ေဆး႐ံုတြင္ ထားရွိခဲ့ၿပီး ျပန္လြတ္လာသည့္အခါ က်န္းမာေရး ခ်ဳိ့ယြင္းလာခဲ့သျဖင့္ ၾကည္ၫိုသူ ဒါယိကာ၊ ဒါယိကာမမ်ားႏွင့္ ေဆြမ်ဳိးသားခ်င္းမ်ားမွ စိတ္မေကာင္း ျဖစ္ေနၾကသည္။
ယခုအခါ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးသည္ ရန္ကုန္တုိင္း ေတာင္ဥကၠလာပၿမ့ဳိနယ္ရွိ သမီးျဖစ္သူ၏ ေနအိမ္တြင္ သီတင္းသံုး ေနထုိင္ၿပီး ပဲခူးေက်ာင္းတုိက္သို႔ ျပန္ႂကြလိုလွ်င္ ေဒသအာဏာပိုင္မ်ားကို သတင္းပို႔ရမည္ ျဖစ္သည္။
စက္တင္ဘာလ သံဃာလူထု လႈပ္ရွားမႈအတြင္း ၿမ့ဳိေတာ္ခန္းမေရွ့တြင္ သခင္ကိုယ္ေတာ္မႈိင္းႏွင့္ ဗိုလ္ခ်ဳပ္ေအာင္ဆန္း၏ ဓာတ္ပံုမ်ားကို ကိုင္ေဆာင္ကာ တပါးတည္း ဆႏၵျပသကဲ့သို႔ မဟာဗႏၶဳလ ပန္းၿခံေရွ့တြင္ ၃ ရက္ဆက္တိုက္ တရားေဟာခဲ့သည့္ ဆရာေတာ္ႀကီးအား စက္တင္ဘာလ ၂၆ ရက္ေန႔တြင္ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ထဲတြင္ ဖမ္းဆီးခ်ဳပ္ေႏွာင္ကာ ေအာက္တိုဘာလ ၂၅ ရက္တြင္ ျပန္လႊတ္ေပးခဲ့သည္။
Friday, December 21, 2007
Posters exhorting monks' to protest on Independence Day in Pakhokku
Htein Linn
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
December 21, 2007 - Posters have appeared exhorting Buddhist monks to once again take to the streets on Burma 's Independence Day. In what appears to be an effort to renew the 'Saffron Revolution' posters were seen pasted in Pakhokku town in central Burma, sources said.
The posters calling for a mass rally of monks on the 60th anniversary of Burma's Independence Day on January 4, 2008, were pasted on the northern gate of the Mahawihzayarrama monastery, also Known as the East monastery, in Pakhokku, a town in Magwe Division where the September Saffron Revolution was sparked, the source said.
"This morning posters that call for a demonstration to be staged on January 4, were seen pasted at the northern gate. A number of monks and novices went to read the posters," a teaching monk from the monasteries told Mizzima.
However, the posters were removed soon by the local police force, the monk added.
Similarly, on November 9, posters exhorting monks to re-launch a boycott were also seen pasted on the walls of the monasteries.
Following the brutal crackdown on the September protests, the authorities raided several monasteries across the country and sent back most of the monks who were learning and novices to their native hometown, in a bid to weaken the monks' agitation.
Local residents said, only one-third of the monks could be seen present in Pakhokku town after the authorities forcibly drove away many monks and novices to their native hometown.
"Earlier there were about 600 monks but now there are only 200 left. Since there will be no more examinations, the monks left for their hometown after the September protests and did not return," the monk added.
A monk, who wished not to be named, said, authorities under the 'teacher-pupil' project ordered government employees to be informers by serving the monks at the monasteries and watch the activities of the monks closely.
"I have been ordered to work at one of the monasteries on the west of Shwe Street . Since there is no choice we have to do it," a government employee in Pakhokku told Mizzima.
Monks in Pakhokku planned to boycott the monks' examination to be conducted by the local authorities as opposition against the treatment meted out to the monks by the authorities during the Saffron 'Revolution'.
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
December 21, 2007 - Posters have appeared exhorting Buddhist monks to once again take to the streets on Burma 's Independence Day. In what appears to be an effort to renew the 'Saffron Revolution' posters were seen pasted in Pakhokku town in central Burma, sources said.
The posters calling for a mass rally of monks on the 60th anniversary of Burma's Independence Day on January 4, 2008, were pasted on the northern gate of the Mahawihzayarrama monastery, also Known as the East monastery, in Pakhokku, a town in Magwe Division where the September Saffron Revolution was sparked, the source said.
"This morning posters that call for a demonstration to be staged on January 4, were seen pasted at the northern gate. A number of monks and novices went to read the posters," a teaching monk from the monasteries told Mizzima.
However, the posters were removed soon by the local police force, the monk added.
Similarly, on November 9, posters exhorting monks to re-launch a boycott were also seen pasted on the walls of the monasteries.
Following the brutal crackdown on the September protests, the authorities raided several monasteries across the country and sent back most of the monks who were learning and novices to their native hometown, in a bid to weaken the monks' agitation.
Local residents said, only one-third of the monks could be seen present in Pakhokku town after the authorities forcibly drove away many monks and novices to their native hometown.
"Earlier there were about 600 monks but now there are only 200 left. Since there will be no more examinations, the monks left for their hometown after the September protests and did not return," the monk added.
A monk, who wished not to be named, said, authorities under the 'teacher-pupil' project ordered government employees to be informers by serving the monks at the monasteries and watch the activities of the monks closely.
"I have been ordered to work at one of the monasteries on the west of Shwe Street . Since there is no choice we have to do it," a government employee in Pakhokku told Mizzima.
Monks in Pakhokku planned to boycott the monks' examination to be conducted by the local authorities as opposition against the treatment meted out to the monks by the authorities during the Saffron 'Revolution'.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Burmese maze
The Economist
Thu 20 Dec 2007
For Muslims and other minorities, the monks’ battle was not their fight.
In the streets surrounding the Sule Paya pagoda in downtown Yangon, Burmese Muslims ply their trade, selling sweetmeats, calligraphy or spectacles. When the military junta opened fire on protesters led by monks in September, the Muslims had an excellent view of the violence. But for all the expletives they threw at the government, many refrained from joining the protesters. “It’s a Burmese problem,” says a grizzled old man, lolling outside the mosque opposite the pagoda. “Let them deal with it. They don’t think of us as being of their country.” The sense of being apart from Myanmar is an example of the religious and ethnic divisions that will persist, even if military rule eventually gives way to democracy.
The complexities of national identity are starkest in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine (formerly Arakan) state in western Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh. Sittwe’s Muslims, who form anywhere from a third to half of the local population (official estimates of Muslim numbers are notoriously unreliable), are a mixed lot. Some claim descent from Indian and Bengali immigrants, who arrived in the once-thriving port when Burma was still a place where fortunes could be made. Others belong to the Rakhine ethnic group. Still others claim a distinct Rohingya ethnicity (a designation the junta does not recognise). But on one point, all agree: the government, being Buddhist, discriminates against Muslims. “The infidels are cruel to us and beat us,” goes a common refrain.
Severe poverty—the sight of ten people living under a single roof without electricity is as common as that of forced labour on the roads along the marshy sea—exacerbates Muslim resentment, particularly given the false but intractable belief that Myanmar’s Buddhists are getting rich. Although incidents of outright violence have decreased, relations between Muslims and Buddhists remain tense. Some Muslims take satisfaction from the government’s crackdown on the monks. “They [the junta] put them on a pedestal and now they’re the ones having a problem,” grins one local imam. Amongst Sittwe’s Muslims, the otherwise universal admiration for Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition, is tempered. “She can’t help being an improvement on the current government,” says the imam. “But she’s Buddhist too. She’s probably not very good on the Muslim question.”
Religion is not the only source of division. Race plays a powerful role. Sittwe’s Muslims, like its rarer Hindus, find it almost impossible to travel outside Rakhine state. Even inside it, paperwork and perpetual inspections can make a simple fishing trip harrowing. Most attribute these restrictions to the government’s belief that Rakhine is plagued by illegal immigrants from India and Bangladesh who do not deserve citizenship or the right to travel.
Such oversimplifications miss the demographic complexities of Sittwe. Some residents are Indians who were born there. Others are products of mixed marriages. Many have family members in other parts of Myanmar whom they might never see again. “There have been Muslims here since before the British ever came to Burma,” says a local teacher. “And yes, a lot of the people here did come over from Bangladesh. But that was years and years ago.” Small wonder that most of Sittwe’s people nowadays just want to leave. “I’d go to Malaysia or even Bangladesh,” says a young man who was born of a Bengali father and Rakhine mother. “But I don’t have the money.”
Though it is most potent amongst Muslims, the idea of not belonging is common among other ethnic and religious minorities. Sittwe’s Hindus also say they are locked out of the labour market. Buddhists in Rakhine often identify themselves as belonging “Not [to] Myanmar, but the Arakan kings” (a reference to the ancient Rakhine empire). Forging a single national identity from these disparate ethnic and religious groups will be a challenge for any Burmese government. Already, disunity may have harmed the prospects for democratic change. “Where were the ethnic armies?” asked one resident of Yangon, plaintively, of the uprising against the junta in September. “If the Shan and Kachin had come, we might have got somewhere.” Perhaps, like the Rakhine and Muslims, they felt it was not their fight
Thu 20 Dec 2007
For Muslims and other minorities, the monks’ battle was not their fight.
In the streets surrounding the Sule Paya pagoda in downtown Yangon, Burmese Muslims ply their trade, selling sweetmeats, calligraphy or spectacles. When the military junta opened fire on protesters led by monks in September, the Muslims had an excellent view of the violence. But for all the expletives they threw at the government, many refrained from joining the protesters. “It’s a Burmese problem,” says a grizzled old man, lolling outside the mosque opposite the pagoda. “Let them deal with it. They don’t think of us as being of their country.” The sense of being apart from Myanmar is an example of the religious and ethnic divisions that will persist, even if military rule eventually gives way to democracy.
The complexities of national identity are starkest in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine (formerly Arakan) state in western Myanmar, bordering Bangladesh. Sittwe’s Muslims, who form anywhere from a third to half of the local population (official estimates of Muslim numbers are notoriously unreliable), are a mixed lot. Some claim descent from Indian and Bengali immigrants, who arrived in the once-thriving port when Burma was still a place where fortunes could be made. Others belong to the Rakhine ethnic group. Still others claim a distinct Rohingya ethnicity (a designation the junta does not recognise). But on one point, all agree: the government, being Buddhist, discriminates against Muslims. “The infidels are cruel to us and beat us,” goes a common refrain.
Severe poverty—the sight of ten people living under a single roof without electricity is as common as that of forced labour on the roads along the marshy sea—exacerbates Muslim resentment, particularly given the false but intractable belief that Myanmar’s Buddhists are getting rich. Although incidents of outright violence have decreased, relations between Muslims and Buddhists remain tense. Some Muslims take satisfaction from the government’s crackdown on the monks. “They [the junta] put them on a pedestal and now they’re the ones having a problem,” grins one local imam. Amongst Sittwe’s Muslims, the otherwise universal admiration for Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition, is tempered. “She can’t help being an improvement on the current government,” says the imam. “But she’s Buddhist too. She’s probably not very good on the Muslim question.”
Religion is not the only source of division. Race plays a powerful role. Sittwe’s Muslims, like its rarer Hindus, find it almost impossible to travel outside Rakhine state. Even inside it, paperwork and perpetual inspections can make a simple fishing trip harrowing. Most attribute these restrictions to the government’s belief that Rakhine is plagued by illegal immigrants from India and Bangladesh who do not deserve citizenship or the right to travel.
Such oversimplifications miss the demographic complexities of Sittwe. Some residents are Indians who were born there. Others are products of mixed marriages. Many have family members in other parts of Myanmar whom they might never see again. “There have been Muslims here since before the British ever came to Burma,” says a local teacher. “And yes, a lot of the people here did come over from Bangladesh. But that was years and years ago.” Small wonder that most of Sittwe’s people nowadays just want to leave. “I’d go to Malaysia or even Bangladesh,” says a young man who was born of a Bengali father and Rakhine mother. “But I don’t have the money.”
Though it is most potent amongst Muslims, the idea of not belonging is common among other ethnic and religious minorities. Sittwe’s Hindus also say they are locked out of the labour market. Buddhists in Rakhine often identify themselves as belonging “Not [to] Myanmar, but the Arakan kings” (a reference to the ancient Rakhine empire). Forging a single national identity from these disparate ethnic and religious groups will be a challenge for any Burmese government. Already, disunity may have harmed the prospects for democratic change. “Where were the ethnic armies?” asked one resident of Yangon, plaintively, of the uprising against the junta in September. “If the Shan and Kachin had come, we might have got somewhere.” Perhaps, like the Rakhine and Muslims, they felt it was not their fight
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Monks refuse documentary team to film in monastery
Irrawaddy
Saw Yan Naing
Wed 19 Dec 2007
A documentary team, led by Zin Yaw Maung Maung, one of Burma’s best-known film directors, was denied permission to take footage of Burmese minister Aung Thaung making an offering to monks by the resident monks of a monastery in Mandalay on Tuesday.
Buddhist monks at the Maha Gandayon monastery in Amarapura Township of Mandalay refused the documentary team, claiming that they were funded by the pro-junta group, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, according to sources.
A source close to the monks said: “The monks didn’t allow the group to take any footage. However, Zin Yaw Maung Maung tried to film it. The monks finally convinced the documentary group to leave and closed the gate. The group left the monastery at about 2:30 p.m.”
Zin Yaw Maung Maung has produced several films in the past promoting the propaganda of the military government. In 1996, he produced a documentary celebrating the anniversary of the USDA.
The source added that the senior monks urged their members not to accept offerings from Aung Thaung, Minister of Industry-1, who is believed to serve as one of the regime’s hardliners, earning the trust of junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Buddhist monks staged a patta ni kozana kan, meaning a refusal to accept alms from members of the armed forces and their families, in September. Following their activities against the junta, many monasteries were raided and monks were brutally tortured.
Meanwhile, a 76-year-old Buddhist monk, Ashin Tay Zaw Bartha, is now staying at his daughter’s home after being forced out of the Klayani monastery in Pegu Division by the security forces, said sources.
Ashin Tay Zaw Bartha staged a solo protest against the military government at Rangoon City Hall in September and was subsequently arrested. He went missing for 15 days after his release on October 25. After being sent to his daughter’s home in South Okkalapa Township in Rangoon on Monday, he was told by the authorities not to go back to his monastery, said sources.
In late November, Buddhist monks were forcefully removed from Maggin Monastery in Rangoon by the authorities and the monastery was ordered to close. Nine monks, two laypersons and six HIV/AIDS patients were expelled from the monastery to unknown locations, said sources.
The Burmese junta has reported that 13 protesters were killed during the crackdown on September’s uprising; however, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said at least 31 people were killed, while dissidents claimed the death toll was much higher.
As a result of the crackdown, sanctions on Burma have been enforced by several Western countries, led by the US government. A freeze on arms to Burma was also reportedly imposed by the Indian government.
To ease international pressure at that time, Than Shwe announced he would conditionally meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
One month later however, Than Shwe shelved the talks, concentrating instead on his own agenda, including a series of ceremonies invariably bestowing high praise on the soldiers who carried out his shoot-to-kill orders during the pro-democracy demonstrations.
The main opposition party in Burma, the National League for Democracy, said that it did not see any signals of dialogue between Than Shwe and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, said: “The meeting between Than Shwe and Suu Kyi should not take long to hold. It should be accelerated. The authorities should also allow us [NLD leaders] to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi whenever necessary.”
In a move supposedly associated with initiating dialogue between the two parties, the junta recently appointed a liaison minister, Aung Kyi, to deal with the pro-democracy leader.
The latest meeting between the regime’s liaison minister and Suu Kyi was held on November 19. No meeting has been held since, said the party’s spokesperson.
Saw Yan Naing
Wed 19 Dec 2007
A documentary team, led by Zin Yaw Maung Maung, one of Burma’s best-known film directors, was denied permission to take footage of Burmese minister Aung Thaung making an offering to monks by the resident monks of a monastery in Mandalay on Tuesday.
Buddhist monks at the Maha Gandayon monastery in Amarapura Township of Mandalay refused the documentary team, claiming that they were funded by the pro-junta group, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, according to sources.
A source close to the monks said: “The monks didn’t allow the group to take any footage. However, Zin Yaw Maung Maung tried to film it. The monks finally convinced the documentary group to leave and closed the gate. The group left the monastery at about 2:30 p.m.”
Zin Yaw Maung Maung has produced several films in the past promoting the propaganda of the military government. In 1996, he produced a documentary celebrating the anniversary of the USDA.
The source added that the senior monks urged their members not to accept offerings from Aung Thaung, Minister of Industry-1, who is believed to serve as one of the regime’s hardliners, earning the trust of junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Buddhist monks staged a patta ni kozana kan, meaning a refusal to accept alms from members of the armed forces and their families, in September. Following their activities against the junta, many monasteries were raided and monks were brutally tortured.
Meanwhile, a 76-year-old Buddhist monk, Ashin Tay Zaw Bartha, is now staying at his daughter’s home after being forced out of the Klayani monastery in Pegu Division by the security forces, said sources.
Ashin Tay Zaw Bartha staged a solo protest against the military government at Rangoon City Hall in September and was subsequently arrested. He went missing for 15 days after his release on October 25. After being sent to his daughter’s home in South Okkalapa Township in Rangoon on Monday, he was told by the authorities not to go back to his monastery, said sources.
In late November, Buddhist monks were forcefully removed from Maggin Monastery in Rangoon by the authorities and the monastery was ordered to close. Nine monks, two laypersons and six HIV/AIDS patients were expelled from the monastery to unknown locations, said sources.
The Burmese junta has reported that 13 protesters were killed during the crackdown on September’s uprising; however, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said at least 31 people were killed, while dissidents claimed the death toll was much higher.
As a result of the crackdown, sanctions on Burma have been enforced by several Western countries, led by the US government. A freeze on arms to Burma was also reportedly imposed by the Indian government.
To ease international pressure at that time, Than Shwe announced he would conditionally meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
One month later however, Than Shwe shelved the talks, concentrating instead on his own agenda, including a series of ceremonies invariably bestowing high praise on the soldiers who carried out his shoot-to-kill orders during the pro-democracy demonstrations.
The main opposition party in Burma, the National League for Democracy, said that it did not see any signals of dialogue between Than Shwe and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, said: “The meeting between Than Shwe and Suu Kyi should not take long to hold. It should be accelerated. The authorities should also allow us [NLD leaders] to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi whenever necessary.”
In a move supposedly associated with initiating dialogue between the two parties, the junta recently appointed a liaison minister, Aung Kyi, to deal with the pro-democracy leader.
The latest meeting between the regime’s liaison minister and Suu Kyi was held on November 19. No meeting has been held since, said the party’s spokesperson.
Mandalay monks decline junta offering
Democratic Voice of Burma
Aye Nai
Wed 19 Dec 2007
The majority of monks at Maha Gandhayon monastery, a lecturing monastery in Mandalay, refused to accept a food offering from minister for industry-1 Aung Thaung yesterday.
Aung Thaung went to the monastery to offer a meal to the monks, but only 100 of the 1000 monks in the monastery came to eat the meal, according to one of the monks.
“Only around 100 monks came to the meal, while the others went out to collect alms around the town instead,” the monk said.
The previous day, film director Zinyaw Maung Maung and his crew had visited the monastery to make a video funded by the Union Solidarity and Development Association.
The video was intended to be broadcast on state television showing the monks having a meal and accepting alms.
But when the monks became aware of the planned video shoot, they refused to come out of the monastery.
The film crew waited until the afternoon but eventually had to leave without any footage after the monks locked the gates.
One member of the film crew who went into the monastery told DVB that he saw writing on the walls of the toilet calling on the monastery’s monks not to accept Aung Thaung’s meal offering and saying that those who attended the donation would be regarded as traitors.
This is the second time that Aung Thaung’s alms offering has been rejected, after an attempt to give food to Seittabala monastery in Kyaukpadaung township Mandalay on 4 December met with the same response.
Aye Nai
Wed 19 Dec 2007
The majority of monks at Maha Gandhayon monastery, a lecturing monastery in Mandalay, refused to accept a food offering from minister for industry-1 Aung Thaung yesterday.
Aung Thaung went to the monastery to offer a meal to the monks, but only 100 of the 1000 monks in the monastery came to eat the meal, according to one of the monks.
“Only around 100 monks came to the meal, while the others went out to collect alms around the town instead,” the monk said.
The previous day, film director Zinyaw Maung Maung and his crew had visited the monastery to make a video funded by the Union Solidarity and Development Association.
The video was intended to be broadcast on state television showing the monks having a meal and accepting alms.
But when the monks became aware of the planned video shoot, they refused to come out of the monastery.
The film crew waited until the afternoon but eventually had to leave without any footage after the monks locked the gates.
One member of the film crew who went into the monastery told DVB that he saw writing on the walls of the toilet calling on the monastery’s monks not to accept Aung Thaung’s meal offering and saying that those who attended the donation would be regarded as traitors.
This is the second time that Aung Thaung’s alms offering has been rejected, after an attempt to give food to Seittabala monastery in Kyaukpadaung township Mandalay on 4 December met with the same response.
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