China & Russia Protecting Myanmar From UNSC Assault

(Michelle Nichols’s article from The REUTERS on 07 November 2017.)

S.G. Min Aung Hlaing Thanking President Xi in Beijing.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council urged the Myanmar government on Monday to “ensure no further excessive use of military force in Rakhine state,” where violence has forced more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee the Buddhist-majority Asian country.

To appease council veto powers Russia and China, Britain and France dropped a push for the Security Council to adopt a resolution on the situation and the 15-member body instead unanimously agreed on a formal statement.

(From New York Times: Last month, those two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council shielded Myanmar from an attempt by other nations to condemn the Myanmar military for its so-called clearing operations in Rakhine.)

The United Nations Security Council expressed deep concern on Wednesday about violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where about 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee to Bangladesh.

American Teachers In Burma: Peace Corps Volunteers

(Volunteer Teachers' Stories from The US PEACE CORPS Education Program in Myanmar.)

US Peace Corps Volunteers in Myanmar teach English at public middle and high schools in small cities and towns. They co-teach with Myanmar English teachers in the classroom and focus on the capacity building of the co-teacher in the areas of teaching methodologies, lesson planning, classroom management and assessment.

Volunteers also work with students in the classroom on their English language acquisition, particularly on speaking and listening skills. In addition, Volunteers may teach English at the community level and get involved in community activities. Miss Abbey Hester (above) is one of the Peace Corp volunteer teachers and she is teaching TEFL English at a High School in the town of Tha-nat-pin in Pegu Division.

The whole Peace Corps volunteer teachers thing started soon after US President Barack Obama’s visit to Burma in 2012. Right now more than 200 young Americans are in Burma teaching English at basic level to middle and high school students. Followings are the personal stories told by three American volunteer teachers now working in Burma, from US Peace Corps WWW site.

German Far-Right Relishes Its Power As Merkel Struggles

(Deborah Cole’s article from The AFP on 26 November 2017.)

Potsdam (Germany) (AFP) - The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) sees Chancellor Angela Merkel's struggle to form a new government as proof of its growing power to upend the country's political order, a top party official told AFP.

Parliamentary group leader Alexander Gauland said in an interview that the current turmoil showed that the four-year-old AfD had succeeded in its primary goal in September's general election. "It's all downhill for Merkel now and that is partly our achievement," Gauland said, sipping a glass of rose wine at a lakeside Italian restaurant in the eastern city of Potsdam.

"Her time is up -- we want her to leave the political stage." The AfD campaigned on the slogan "Merkel must go", railing against her decision to let in more than one million mainly Muslim asylum seekers since 2015.

General Min Aung Hlaing In China To Thank The Chinese

(News article from The MYANMAR ARMY CHIFE Facebook on 21 & 22 November 2017.)

SG MAH inspecting Chinese Honour Guard in Bejing.

A Myanmar Tatmadaw goodwill delegation led by Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing this morning left Nay Pyi Taw Airport for China at the invitation of Member of the Central Military Commission and Chief of the Joint Staff Department Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Republic of China.

The Myanmar Tatmadaw goodwill delegation led by the Senior General was seen off at the airport by Chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) General Mya Tun Oo, Commander-in-Chief (Air) General Khin Aung Myint, senior military officers of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army), the commander of Nay Pyi Taw Command, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Mr. Hong Liang and officials.

The Senior General was accompanied by senior military officers of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army). During the trip, the Senior General will meet with leaders of Chinese government and chiefs from the People’s Liberation Army of China, and visit military training schools in China, factories and significant places.

Angela “Mutti” Merkel Fighting For Her Political Life

(Daniel Schoot’s report from The RABO RESEARCH on 20 November 2017.)

Merkel fights for her political future: The breaking down of ‘Jamaica’-coalition talks last night brings unprecedented political uncertainty to Germany. Parliamentary prevent a swift move to new elections; first talking with the SPD will be tried before thinking about a minority government.

The political initiative and control is moving away from Merkel towards the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who can ultimately trigger new elections In any case, Merkel will be severely weakened from here on onwards. Macron will be looked at as the new de facto leader of Europe.

(Blogger's notes: Merkel's sudden downfall is definitely the direct result of her mad open-door policy letting more than a million of stone-aged Muslims from all over the world into Germany and also letting them freely rape and murder young Germany women and girls like that 19-yr-old medical student Maria Ladenberger allover the country.)

Indian Army Crossed Into Burma & Killed Naga Rebels

(Staff articles from The TIMES OF INDIA on 11 June 2015.)

NEW DELHI: Army sources said on Tuesday that at least 20 militants were killed in the operations across the border in Myanmar and conceded that retaliatory attacks were a possibility in the coming days. "We would keep up pressure on them," one senior officer said, indicating the possibility of more such cross-border operations.

And unlike what has been reported in the media, an Army source said: "There was no heli-drop. It was a one-night, ground operation. We couldn't have carried out a heli-drop because that would have alerted the militants." The SF troops were moved close to the border in advance by helicopters.

On Monday night, about 20-25 commandos trekked across the porous frontier into Myanmar. For some stretch of the approach to the camps, the commandos crawled to move in undetected. About 25 commandos of the 21 Para Special Forces (SF) battalion were involved in the 45-minute-long raids on two militant camps across the India-Myanmar border. An SF battalion usually comprises four teams, each of about 100 commandos. These are further divided into groups and then into squads.

Rohingya Refugees Behaving Badly In US: Child Rapists

(Articles from The REFUGEE SETTLEMENT WATCH on 21 September 2017.)

Rohingya rapist of a 7-yr-old girl.

Nashua, New Hampshire: Muslim refugee charged with inappropriate sexual contact with several young girls. The Rohingya Muslim refugee, Mohammod Rafique , is described as a man who arrived from Myanmar two years ago.

That would make him one of the 19,000 plus Rohingya refugees we have admitted from Burma (aka Myanmar) in the last ten years. Nashua Mayor Jim “We love diversity” Donchess proposed a resolution last year to make Nashua a “welcoming city for Muslim refugees.”

Prosecutors wanted a $50,000 bond but the judge set bail at $15,000.  If he gets out, will he return to court or disappear into the woodwork of America like so many other Muslim refugees charged in a variety of assault cases in recent years?

Tillerson Refusing To Use “Ethnic Cleansing” Term

(Tracy Wilkinson’s article from The LA TIMES on 17 November 2017.)

What ethnic cleansing? The Rohingyas just want to go to USA.

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made his first official trip to Myanmar on Wednesday, he did not describe the country’s brutal military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims as ethnic cleansing, as other diplomats have done.

Security forces have conducted or allowed what critics call systematic rape and murder against the Rohingya minority, leading more than half a million to flee to squalid camps in neighboring Bangladesh since August.

But speaking in Naypyidaw, Myanmar's capital, Tillerson declined to call for sanctions or other censure, saying more investigation is needed. "If we have credible information that we believe to be very reliable that certain individuals were responsible for certain acts that we find unacceptable," Tillerson said, "then targeted sanctions on individuals very well may be appropriate."

Mutti Merkel Fails To Form Govt: Elections Coming Again?

(AP article from The NEW YORK POST on 19 November 2017.)

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged early Monday to maintain stability after the Free Democratic Party pulled out of talks on forming a new government with her conservative bloc and the left-leaning Greens, raising the possibility of new elections.

Merkel told reporters that the parties had been close to reaching a consensus on how to proceed with formal coalition talks but that the Free Democrats decided abruptly to pull out just before midnight Sunday — a move she said she respected, but found “regrettable.” She said she would consult with Germany’s president later in the day to brief him on the negotiations and discuss what comes next.

Without bringing the Free Democrats back to the table, Merkel will be forced to try to continue her current governing coalition with the Social Democrats, although that center-left party has said it will not do so, or she could try to form a minority government, which was seen as unlikely. Otherwise Germany will have to hold new elections.