Bengali-Muslims killing Buddhist-Yakhines in Malaysia

(This post is translation of news article from the Narinjara.)

Three Buddhist-Yakhine men working as tappers in a rubber plantation near the town of Alor Setar in Malaysia were brutally killed during the night of December 28.

They were severely tortured, raped, and their throats cut by a Muslim mob of at least 15 Bengali men. Apparently the victims and the attackers all are illegal immigrants from Burma.

The Yakhines killed were Khaing Thaung (38) son of Phoe Thar (F) and Oo Mhya Thein (M) of Pauk-Taw-Pa-Laung village in Kyauk Taw township, Hla Shin Maung (21) son of Maung Hla Yin (F) of Zay-Di-Taung village in Myauk-U township, and Than Shwe (21) son of San Aye (F) of Zay-Di-Taung village in Myauk-U township.

Armenian Genocide (1915-1918)

(This post is direct from the United Human Rights Council.)

The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th Century, occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations and massacres between 1915 and 1918.

The Ancient Armenians: For three thousand years, a thriving Armenian community had existed inside the vast region of the Middle East bordered by the Black, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. The area, known today as Anatolia, stands at the crossroads of three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. Great powers rose and fell over the many centuries and the Armenian homeland, when not independent, was at various times ruled by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and Mongols.

Despite the repeated invasions and occupations, Armenian pride and cultural identity never wavered. The snow-capped peak of Mount Ararat became the focal point of this proud people and by 600 BC Armenia as a kingdom sprang into being.

Tensions between the OIC pals: Bangladesh & Turkey

(This post is direct from the Daily Star Newspaper December 28, 2012.)

Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Diplomatic tension has been created between Dhaka and Ankara over Turkish President Abdullah Gul's letter to President Zillur Rahman calling for "clemency" to the accused under trial in the International Crimes Tribunal for the "sake of peace in the society". Gul requested clemency for Ghulam Azam and the other accused, foreign ministry sources said.

Tension intensified as Ankara summoned yesterday Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey Md Zulfiqur Rahman, a day after Dhaka summoned Turkish Ambassador in Bangladesh Mehmet Vakur Erkul on Wednesday.

The foreign ministry sources told The Daily Star yesterday that content of the December 23 letter from the Turkish president is not acceptable and it is a clear interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh. Gul said the accused leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami are too old to stand trial and apprehended that it might cause a civil war in Bangladesh, the sources mentioned.

Escape From the Werewolves: ABSDF Student Army

(Translation of the Prologue of Samar Nyi Nyi’s book “Escape From the Werewolves”.)

Assam Hill aka Execution Hill at Pajau ABSDF-NB HQ.

Four prisoners, ABSDF Chairman Htun Aung Kyaw and Executive-Committee members Cho Gyi and Kyaw Wai and Kyaw Kyaw Min, standing almost naked on the low Assam Hill known as the Execution Hill were shaking to their cores in the bone-chilling cold of the freezing rain and icy wind.

But their tormentors were not as they all were in their rain coats or thick ponchos. ABSDF General-Secretary Aung Naing and Chief-of-Staff (CS) Than Gyaung and Vice-Chief-of-Staff (VCS) Myo Win.  

Behind the prisoners was a large hole already dug as the mass grave for them. Armed guards mostly young men and rural boys holding Chinese M-22 rifles were surrounding the four prisoners and their military leaders facing the prisoners.

Merry Christmas and Peace In Kachin Land!

I wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I especially wish for everlasting peace in Kachin land and peaceful coexistence between the Burmese and Kachin brothers. We have been killing each other far too long since 1961.

Sydney Mosque Puts Fatwa On Christmas!

(This post is direct from The Sydney Morning Herald on 23 December2012.)

Imam Sheik Yahya Safi of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney.

SYDNEY - No merriness here as mosque puts fatwa on Christmas. The head imam at Lakemba Mosque has told the congregation they should not participate in anything to do with Christmas.  

THE Lakemba Mosque has issued a fatwa against Christmas, warning followers it is a ''sin'' to even wish people a Merry Christmas. The religious ruling, which followed a similar lecture during Friday prayers at Australia's biggest mosque, was posted on its Facebook site on Saturday morning.

The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, had told the congregation during prayers that they should not take part in anything to do with Christmas. Samir Dandan, the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, which oversees the mosque, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Mosquebusters: Busting the Islamic Beachheads!

(This post is Spike Johnson’s MOSQUEBUSTERS from the ForeignPolicy.)

LONDON — It is winter, the middle of December, and I find myself making an odd phone call. Pacing around my living room, I kick at the carpet as I dial the number.

"Hello?" I say.

"There's no time," the man on the other end of the line answers immediately. His name is Gavin Boby. We have e-mailed before, but I introduce myself again, explaining my background: education, photography and video experience, that sort of thing.

Boby's tone is measured and businesslike. "It sounds like you have skills that could be of use. Muslims are very bad losers," he says matter-of-factly. He'd like me to act as a witness, he tells me, videotaping his court appearances and searching the Internet for "targets." The conversation is taking me into uncomfortable territory; my voice wavers, and I begin to flounder. Boby doesn't notice. "I'll send you instructions on how we work," he says and hangs up. I have just become a Mosquebuster.

Baptist KIA fighting a Proxy War for Communist China?

(This post is translation of news articles from the Opposite Eyes Blog.)

Last month just before the Burmese police’s napalming of the mob protesting against Chinese copper mine near Monywa U Aung Min the Special Minister for the President of Burma admitted openly to the people and media that Burmese Government was really scared of China Bear right across the north-eastern border.

He even recalled the un-declared Border War, more than 20 years long, between Burmese Army and Chinese-sponsored CPB (Communist Party of Burma) from 1967 to 1989. Big Bad China can and will do nasty things against our country just simply by starting another war where they don’t even need to fight. Burma has so many ethnic insurgents who are willing to fight as the proxy for China. And KIA (Kachin Independence Army) is just one of them.

Moe Thee Zun Charged with Htay Naing’s 1993 Murder

(This post is direct translation of news articles from the MEG.)

Former ABSDF Chairman Moe Thee Zun.

North Dagon Township Police in Rangoon has charged former ABSDF (All Burma Student Democratic Front) Chairman Moe Thee Zun with the 1993 Manerplaw murder of former ABSDF Chief-of-Staff Haty Naing on December 13, 2012.

According to the case summary (Pa) 831/2012 (Act 302 – Capital Murder) released by the North Dagon Police Station the plaintiff is deceased Htay Naing’s mother Daw Khin May Myint (age-78) a resident of Maha Thukha Street, North Dagon of Rangoon Division.

According to Daw Khin May Myint she had lost contact with her two sons Htay Tint and Htay Naing for more than 15 years since they took to the jungle on Thai border after the failed 8-8-88 Uprising in 1988. Only in 2004 the elder son Htay Tint called her and told her that his younger brother Htay Naing the Chief-of-Staff of the student army ABSDF was severely tortured and jailed and eventually killed by Moe Thee Zun, then the ABSDF Chairman, at Manerplaw KNU stronghold in some time 1993.

KIA and Bertil Lintner Lie about Carl Gustav Launchers

(This post is direct translation of news article from the Opposite Eyes Blog.)

KIA displaying supposedly-captured Carl Gustav.

The recent big news about the big-bad-wolf Burma in the international media was of KIA and Bertil Lintner accusing Burma army for using Swedish-made Carl Gustav AT-4 recoilless-launchers, one of which, the compulsive liar KIA (Kachin Independence Army) claimed to have captured from the Army.

To tell you the truth Burma army had been using AT-4 launcher since mid 1980s and the army got these powerful recoilless-launchers (the first generation versions) and assorted shells direct from the manufacturer SAAB Bofors Dynamic of Sweden. Burmese army’s nomenclature for 84mm Carl Gustav launcher is AT-4 as it is basically an anti-tank weapon.

4,000 Bad Lebanese-Muslims Let into Aus in 1976 alone?

(This post is Matthew Franklin’s article“Fraser was warned on Lebanese migrants” from the January 1, 2007 issue of Australian newspaper.)

Downtown Beirut during Lebanese civil war (1976).

IMMIGRATION authorities warned the Fraser government in 1976 it was accepting too many Lebanese Muslim refugees without "the required qualities" for successful integration.

The Fraser cabinet was also told many of the refugees were unskilled, illiterate and had questionable character and standards of personal hygiene.

Cabinet documents released today by the National Archives under the 30-year rule reveal how Australia's decision to accept thousands of Lebanese Muslims fleeing Lebanon's 1976 civil war led to a temporary collapse of normal eligibility standards.

Vicious Lebanese-Muslim Crime-Gangs Running Sydney?

(This post is former Sydney police detective Tim Priest’s article “The Rise of Middle Eastern Crime in Australia” from The Mackenzie Institute’s WWW site. Lebanese-Christians have been immigrating to Australia for a very long time now and they have assimilated extremely well into Australian society. Present governor of the State of NSW is a distinguished Lebanese-Christian woman. The trouble in Sydney with vicious middle-eastern criminal-gangs only started back when the Hawke-Keating Labor Government let the Lebanese-Muslims - many of them really are displaced Palestinians - from Lebanon’s Hezbollah-controlled Bekkah Valley come into Australia about 30-40 years ago.)

When one hears a cri-de coeur from an experienced front-line worker, such as a street cop, one should always pay close attention to it. The problems that Tim Priest, a former police detective from New South Wales Australia, describes are not isolated ones.

First, there is the combination of willful political negligence which leads to police inaction that lets gangs develop and prosper in the first place. Canadians are becoming increasingly aware (Finally!) of the growing severity of gang problems in our major cities.

Unlike Australia or many European states, we (in America) have yet to see the full start of Middle Eastern crime, with its added dimension of Islamic militancy to compound the normal agenda of street thugs… but there are signs that this will come. Let’s take Tim Priest’s warning to heart.

(Editor’s remark by John Thompson)

Thais’ Love Affairs with Burmese King Bayinnaung?

(This post is direct from http://rebound88.tripod.com/sp/ngb/sthai24.html.)

King Bayinnaung (1516-1581).

Of special interest to Thais as the conqueror of Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1569, the facts about King Bayinnaung are however surrounded by myth and folk tales. Thai historians gathered recently to hear Burmese scholar U Thaw Kaung deliver a paper on the life of the man considered to be Burma's most influential ruler. Subhatra Bhumiprabhas reports.

Authors may go to great lengths to avoid overt bias but historiography is always subjective. The victors and the vanquished write widely differing accounts of the same war, downplaying or omitting to mention failures, exaggerating or inventing successes.

So commonplace a phenomenon that scepticism has long been a necessary companion on any journey into the past. Much less common is the sight of former traditional enemies meeting, centuries after the event, to try and separate fact from falsehood, truth from folk tale.

The war in question ended in 1569 with the conquest of Ayutthaya by the armies of Bayinnaung, king of Toungoo, Pegu (aka Hongsawaddy) and Ava. The Siamese kingdom was to remain under Burmese suzerainty for the next 21 years; its titular ruler, Maha Thammaracha, subordinate to the regional superpower to the west.

Aljazebra’s Lies about Muslim Killings in Arakan?

(This post is Aljazebra’s “Mass Graves for Myanmar’s Rohingyas” published on August 9 by the notoriously-biased Arab TV station sponsored by the Islamic Mafia OIC.)

A recent journey to western Myanmar has revealed a provincial capital divided by hatred and thousands of its Muslim residents terrorised by what they say is a state-sponsored campaign to segregate the population along ethno-sectarian lines.

Decades-old tension between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in coastal Rakhine state exploded with new ferocity in June, leaving at least 78 people dead and tens of thousands homeless. 

Exclusive reporting conducted last week in the highly restricted region suggests that the long-term fallout from recent violence could be even more damaging than the bloodshed. The United Nations has estimated that 80,000 people are still displaced around the cities of Sittwe and Maungdaw, and international rights groups continue to denounce Myanmar for its role in the conflict.

As it stands, any thought of reconciliation between local Buddhists and Muslims appears a distant dream. Many Rohingya have fled the polarised region, fearing revenge attacks and increasing discrimination. Their status has sparked international concern and disagreement.

Victorious Burmese Women U-19 Soccer Team

(This post is news from AFC - Asian Football Confederation and Eleven Media Group.)

Burmese Women Under-19 Soccer Team in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City: Lin Ohnmar Tun's second-half strike was enough for Myanmar to edge neighbours Thailand 1-0 on Sunday and book a place in the 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship.

The defender scored the only goal of a keenly-contested qualification play-off with 67 minutes at the Thong Nhat Stadium played as Myanmar joined the top five finishers from the last competition in the list for next year's finals.

Japan won the 2011 AFC U-19 Women's Championship by finishing top of the six-team table in the round-robin league tournament played at the same venue in Ho Chi Minh City ahead of runners-up DPR Korea, third-place China, Korea Republic and Australia, whose epic 4-3 win over Vietnam was enough for the Young Matildas to take fifth position ahead of the hosts.

Berkeley Mafia and Indonesia's 1965 Genocide - Part 3

(This post is David Ransom’s “The Berkeley Mafia and the Indonesian Massacre” direct from the Webspace of The University of Taxas at Austin.)

Indonesia's powerful ministers known as Berkeley Mafia

By early September the economists had their plans drafted and the generals convinced of their usefulness. After a series of crash seminars at SESKOAD, Suharto named the Faculty's five top men (the "Berkeley Mafia") his Team of Experts for Economic and Financial Affairs, an idea Ford man Frank Miller claims as his own.

Armed with Sadli's January 10, 1967, investment law, the economists could put on their old school ties and play host to the lords of the great American corporations. In August the Stanford Research Institute - a spin-off of the university-military-industrial complex - brought 170 "senior executives" to Djakarta for a three-day parley and look-see.

Australia Welcomes Muslim Illegals with $220 Weekly-Dole

(This post is direct from The Australian December 3 and 6, 2012.)

Afghans waiting in Indonesia welcome Julia Gillard's policy.

ASYLUM seekers in Indonesia (waiting to take a rewarding boat trip to Australia) have swung into party mode and labelled Julia Gillard a "hero" after learning they will receive welfare payments and rent assistance should they make it to Australia by boat.

The wannabe citizens are ecstatic the government has conceded detention centres are beyond maximum capacity and that asylum seekers would need to be released into the community while their applications for refugee status were processed.

They would be given financial and housing support - as well as free basic health care - a massive boost from their current financial status in Indonesia where many are struggling to afford food.

Berkeley Mafia and Indonesia’s 1965 Genocide – Part 2

(This post is David Ransom’s “The Berkeley Mafia and the Indonesian Massacre” direct from the Webspace of The University of Texas at Austin.)

Indonesian Communist Leader Aidit.

Berkeley phased its people out of Djakarta in 1961-62, The running battle between the Ford representative and the Berkeley chairman as to who would run the project had some part in hastening its end.

More important, the professors were no longer necessary; in fact, they were probably an increasing political liability.

Sumitro^'s first string had re-turned with their degrees and resumed control of the school.

The Berkeley team had done its job, "kept the thing alive," Glassburner recalls proudly. "We plugged a hole .. and with the Ford Foundation's money we trained them 40 or so economists."

What did the University get out of it? ^"Well, some overhead money, you know." And the satisfaction of a job well done.

Berkeley Mafia and Indonesia’s 1965 Genocide – Part 1

(This post is David Ransom’s “The Berkeley Mafia and the Indonesian Massacre” direct from the Webspace of The University of Taxas at Austin.)

“Indonesia is the best thing that's happened to Uncle Sam since World War." -- A World Bank official

Indonesia, which in the past fired the imagination of fortune-hunters and adventurers as the fabled East Indies, was long regarded as "the richest colonial prize in the world." Harking back to such times, Richard Nixon described Indonesia in 1967 as "the greatest prize in the Southeast Asian area."

Not too many years earlier, however, the prize had been thought all but lost to the fiery nationalist, Peking-oriented Sukarno and the three million-strong Indonesia Communist Party waiting in the wings.

Then in October 1965 an unsuccessful coup and a swift move by Indonesia's generals immobilized the leader and precipitated the largest massacre in modern history, in which from 500,000 to a million unarmed communists and their peasant sympathizers were killed.

No More Demo-Activists, Burma Needs Berkeley Mafia!

(This post is Francis Fukuyama’s “What Myanmar Needs” from The American Interest.)

Francis Fukuyama at Rangoon Airport (22 Aug 2012).

The second leg of my recent trip took me from Mongolia to Myanmar (it’s not an easy itinerary getting from Ulaan Baator to Naypyidaw, believe me). I was there to teach a short course on private sector development with my former SAIS colleague Roger Leeds.

This curriculum, which Roger and I have developed under the grandiose title of the Leadership Academy for Development, is based on HBS-style cases of efforts to promote private sector growth through public sector reform–either governments getting out of the way, or actively intervening to help business.

It’s aimed at younger mid-level public officials in developing countries who are not old enough to have yet been completely corrupted, but are still in a position to act as reformers at some future point in their careers. We taught a shortened version once to a group of civil society activists and parliamentarians in Yangon, and then to a number of bureaucrats in Naypyidaw.

Jim Dunnigan’s Take on the Arrakan Crisis of Burma

(This post is part of the StrategyPage’s article “Screwed By The Fracked Chinese”.)

Checking of Citizenship Status in Maungdaw (Nov 2012).

For three weeks now police and government officials in Rakhine state have been checking the citizenship status of ethnic Rohingya. These are a Moslem people originally from neighboring (majority Moslem) Bangladesh.

The ethnic Burmese not only look different but are Buddhist, a religion Moslems have never gotten along with.  The government believes that documenting the citizen status of Rohingyas will make it easier to deport them. But no countries want the Rohingya, no matter what the Burmese government thinks their citizenship status is.

In the last six months violence in Rakhine state has caused over a thousand casualties (and over 200 dead), most of them Moslem, and left thousands of buildings destroyed. This has displaced over 110,000 people (about 75 percent Moslem). The Moslems and Buddhists have never gotten along in Rakhine State and there's always been some tension.

China’s Take on Anti-Copper Mine Protests in Burma!

(This post is China’s Global Times’ article “Weak Democracy Hurts Myanmar Business”.)

Letpadoung Copper Mine Ground Breaking Ceremony.

The Letpadaung copper mine project, jointly established by China and Myanmar, has become the target of growing protests. The Myanmar government arrested some protesters on Tuesday, but this has not stopped the action. The leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, said that she will visit the area. She also insists that Myanmar should stick to its agreement with Chinese companies.

It will be a lose-lose situation for China and Myanmar if the project is halted. Only third parties, including some Western forces, will be glad to see this result.

Protesters first asked for more compensation, but now want to stop this project and are demanding that the Chinese company leave. There are definitely some Westerners and NGOs instigating these protesters. More importantly, however, Myanmar's political climate has changed and the government cannot control public opinion.

No Buddhist and Godless-Atheist are accepted!

(This post is an email from an expatriate Burmese Engineer working in Europe.)

Egyptian Muslims protesting at Burma Embassy in Cairo.

When I went to Saudi after high school before university, I was suggested to fill (the immigration forms) as Burmese Muslim like by a Burmese who is a Buddhist, he was in 30s and I was 19, as he worries I will be harassed.

So he did but I did not and I filled in as Buddhist but I did not face harassment as I chose to act rough since I arrived there till I left there from brewing wine to broadcasting Khin Maung Toe's songs in merchant marine routes in gulf via radio telephone channels. I found Saudis are religious people but I promised myself I will never go there again.