Taliban Threatens Burma over Rohingyas

(This post is direct from the IOL News on 26 July 2012.)

A Taliban protester at Burmese embassy in Bangkok.

The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday threatened to attack Myanmar to avenge crimes against the Muslim Rohingya, unless Pakistan halts all relations with the government and shuts its embassy in Islamabad.

In a rare statement focused on the plight of Muslims abroad, the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) group sought to present itself as a defender of Muslim men and women in Myanmar, saying “we will take revenge of your blood”.

Spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan demanded that the Pakistani government halt all relations with Myanmar and close down its embassy in Islamabad.

“Otherwise we will not only attack Burmese interests anywhere but will also attack the Pakistani fellows of Burma one by one,” he said in a statement.

Population Explosion in Bangladesh!

(SCRIBD: Bangladeshis- Unwanted guests in its neighboring countries by Aung Kyaw.)

Extremely crowded trains in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi population, now at whopping 160 millions for a very small and slowly-sinking country, doubles every 30-40 years.

Bangladeshi illegal immigrants to its neighboring countries cause great alarm in India and Burma. The illegal immigrants’ issues have rocked Indian Parliament many times and caused strong protests from students, civil societies and many intellectuals.

The illegal immigrants pose great danger to the Arakanese people in western Burma, and the large influx of immigrants without any check could endanger Arakanese or cause minority in their own land. Some humanitarian activists are supporting these illegal immigrants without taking account of venerable people whose populations are very small.

There were 67,906 tribal people out of the total population of 91,765 in 1876 in Tripura State in India (Naih). The tribal population of Tripura was reduced to minority people by these illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Stock Exchange & Massive Cloud Network from Daiwa

(This post is direct from the Reuters UK on 23 July 2012.)

Low-Tech Main Board of Myanmar Stock Exchange (2012).

(Reuters) - Daiwa Securities Group aims to spearhead a $380 million investment in Myanmar to build an information technology backbone for the government in partnership with major Japanese tech companies.

The ambitious plan underscores the drive by Japan to stake out a competitive position in Myanmar, a resource-rich and infrastructure-poor country of 60 million that began opening its economy just a year ago after nearly 50 years of army rule.

Daiwa, which has long-standing links in Myanmar and has already been chosen to help set up a local stock exchange, has been selected by the central bank to draw up plans for the computer network and is seeking Japanese government aid to offset the cost, a Daiwa executive said.

Riots between Bengali-Muslim Illegals & Natives in Assam

(This post is direct from the International Business Times on 23 July 2012.)

Rioting Bengali-Muslim Illegals in Assam.

In civil unrest that echoes the violence witnessed in Myanmar, at least 19 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the eastern Indian state of Assam over the weekend in clashes between indigenous Assamese Bodo tribes and Muslim immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

The disturbances have also led to an estimated 50,000 people fleeing their homes from the state’s western Kokrajhar district to take refuge in relief camps.

The violence reportedly erupted on Friday night when four youths of the Bodo tribe were killed by persons unknown -- in retaliation, armed Bodos attacked Muslims, which led to a spiraling of bloodshed between the two groups who have long been in conflict. In the carnage, cars were overturned and burned, and houses and schools were set ablaze.

Naval Arms Race between Burma and Bangladesh?

(This post details the rapidly accelerating Naval Arms Race between Burma and Bangladesh the neighbouring twos of the poorest nations on earth after their bitter maritime territorial disputes over the off-shore exploration and extraction of natural gas right on their disputed maritime border line.)

New F-22B Frigate of Bangladeshi Navy (2012).

Population-exploding and slowly-sinking Bangladesh, one of the most poorest nations on this planet and the recipient of US$ 2 billion worth of international aid last year alone to feed its half-starving populace of 160 millions, has recently purchased two brand new Jiangwei II (053 H3) guided-missiles frigates from China at the cost of US$ 200 million each frigate.

The 324 ft (108 M) long frigate displaces 2,400 tons and carries 200 km range C-803 ship-to-ship guided missiles and 8.6 km range surface-to-air missiles. The brand-new missile frigates are newest additions to the two type 53H2 used-frigates already purchased from China. Bangladesh Navy was known to have six missile-capable frigates in 2008.

New Warships of Burma Navy

(This post is direct translation of the article from Myanmar Military on 16 July 2012.)

5-series Fast Attack Crafts of Burma Navy (2012).

At present the most interesting warships for people who closely follow the developments of the Burma’s Navy are the 5-series Patrol Boats classified as the 5-series Fast Attack Crafts being built in Navy’s own dockyard.

According to the people from Navy circles there are already 20 warships of that class starting from 551 to now 570 operating in the Burmese Navy. Navy is building these 5-series Fast Attack Crafts also in the civilian-controlled Sin-ma-laik Dockyard in Rangoon.

Burmese Navy now has guided-missiles-armed large frigates and modern corvettes in addition to these Fast Attack Crafts to guard Burma’s territorial waters and her long coast line.

Stateless People of Bangladesh

(This post is direct from the International Observatory on Statelessness.)

Rohingya refugees begging to let into Bangladesh.

For many years, Bangladesh has hosted several stateless populations, including the Urdu-speaking minority (also known as the Biharis or “stranded Pakistanis”), Rohingya refugees (the returnees from Burma’s Arrakan), and individuals of Indian origin. In 2008, the High Court provided a remedy for many of the Biharis.

For 37 years, at least 200,000 and as many as 500,000 Urdu speakers have lived in urban camps throughout Bangladesh, where they have suffered discrimination, demographic stress, poor conditions, and lack of basic amenities.

Aung Thein Lin’s Interview with Chinese Newspaper

(This post is direct from the Network Myanmar on 18 July 2012. Titled “Myanmar MP: Some people want to setup a puppet regime (of the West) in Myanmar” by Zhang Zhe and Ye Weimin, Southern Weekend (China) – 5 July 2012. This is an unofficial translation from the Chinese original.)

Burmese MP Aung Thein Lin.

Editor: Different political forces in Myanmar are trying to consolidate and reconcile. But on the other hand, the game among them and the under the table confrontations never stopped.

For Myanmar today, the ruling party- USDP- is without question the most important leading force. Will USDP step out of its historic shadow? In the “new” parliament, how will USDP and the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi co-exist with each other?

With these questions, the reporters from Southern Weekend interviewed Aung Thein Linn, executive member of the Central Committee of USDP, chairman of the Reform and Modernization Supervisory Committee of the Myanmar parliament, and a former mayor of Yangon.

Armed-Bengali Intrusion from Bangladesh

(Direct translation of the article from the Narinjara News Agency on 16 July 2012.)

Burmese naval boats off  Arrakan Coast.

There was a violent clash between Burmese naval boats and the armed-motorboats manned by Bengali-Muslim intruders from Bangladesh at the dawn of July 15 in the Burmese Waters near the The-khone Village in the Pauk-taw Township of Arakan State.

“At about 5:30 in the morning of July 15 we got the news of three Bengali motorboats coming into Sit-ke village at the west of Pauk-taw town. So our naval boats went out to check and ran into one of them Bengali boats near the village of The-khone. According to the navy men that boat started shooting at them and they had to shoot back. And they wounded one Bengali in the chest and captured the rest with the boat,” relayed the news by one Pauk-taw local who heard the whole incident.