Vast gas desposits off the coast of western Burma have proven a curse for the thousands of people deemed by the ruling junta to be standing in the way of its development. The construction of a multi-billion dollar pipeline connecting the Bay of Bengal gas fields to southwestern China has caused militarisation and displacement on an alarming scale, as the army looks to 'secure' the route and thus the capital generated from what is known as the Shwe Gas Project, little of which will benefit Burmese people. Rights groups have warned of "systematic" and "shocking" human rights violations along the pipeline's trajectory that include forced labour and forced displacement. Yet the Burmese government continues to aggressively expand its energy sector, with the vast majority of produce siphoned off to neighbouring countries. This, despite Burma suffering from daily power shortages. read more at Democratic Voice of Burma

• Freed American citizen and Burmese activist  recalls his friends behind bars
• State Department pressure leads to release of activist

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN  The Irrawaddy

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Kyaw Zaw Lwin, sounding resolute and in good spirits, walked through Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Thursday a free man, after spending six months in a Burmese prison.

An American citizen, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, he said:"I did not expect to be out so soon. I am really happy to be free, but it is not a deep happiness. I have family and friends who are still in jail in Burma."

Kyaw Zaw Lwin, left, speaks to reporters at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Thursday.

Nyi Nyi Aung was sentenced to hard labor on Feb. 10 on charges of carrying a fake identification card and undeclared foreign currency and for failing to give up his Burmese citizenship. The regime bars citizens from holding a foreign passport or multiple citizenship.

He was arrested in September 2009 at the international airport in Rangoon and accused of attempting to foment political unrest in Burma. He said he was tortured while in detention. 

The US has not shirked from fingering the generals ruling Burma for gross abuses of human rights against the non violent democracy movement in the annual State Department assessment of human rights. The report reminds us that military officers wielded the ultimate authority at each level of government even though pro-democracy parties won more than 80 percent of the seats in a general parliamentary election in 1990. Its a compelling report, though written in the careful language of foreign service diplomats: Think of the democracy protesters languishing in jail as you read this section:

"Prison and labor camp conditions generally were harsh and life threatening. The Department of Prisons operated approximately 40 prisons and 70 labor camps. Food, clothing, and medical supplies reportedly were scarce in prisons. There were reports that authorities in some prisons forced prisoners to pay for food. Bedding often was inadequate, sometimes consisting of a single mat on the floor. Prisoners were forced to rely on their families, who were allowed one or two visits per month, for basic necessities."

Burma's military junta has banned Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's iconic opposition figure, from taking part in the forthcoming elections.

Head of the National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and has been either jailed or under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

"I feel like I'm bleeding," a local said.
Burma's generals are engaged in a selling spree akin to the corrupt privatizations in Russia after the Communist era. "There's something of a grab going on," a diplomat who declined to be identified because he wanted to avoid publicly criticizing the junta told the New York Times. "There's a sense that it may not be done for the right reasons, but it could have a beneficial effect."

Generation Wave wants to encourage people to rise up against junta

This year looks set to be a crucial one for Burma.

The military government plans to stage the first elections for 20 years and international attention is likely to be focused on the detained pro democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But there is another group working to bring about change in Burma whose methods are less conventional.

Generation Wave is a group of hip hop-loving, young Burmese, dedicated to overthrowing the military government.

Their campaigns are run inside Burma, but the group has a safe house in the town of Mae Sot, just across the border in Thailand.

This is a copy of Flower News, a Rangoon-based newspaper that had been marked up by Burmese government censors before publication. Burma is the world's second most censored country, according to a 2006 Committee to Protect Journalists report. As CPJ's Joel Simon says, "You don't have to read Burmese to understand what's going on here. The red marks speak for themselves." Aung-Thwin is the director of the Burma project at the Open Society Institute and one of the world's leading experts on the country.

A report by an exiled and formerly imprisoned Burmese artist 

by Htein Lin

 

About fifty of us, British and Burmese, poets and politicos, went to the Burmese Embassy in London for a poetry protest called 'Love and Hate in Burma'. It was organised with English PEN and the protest was held to mark the second anniversary of Burmese poet Saw Wei's arrest and imprisonment.

 

 

By NAI NAI

Win Maw

Win Maw, a 47-year-old activist and rock musician, has won the 2009 Kenji Nagai Memorial Award for his commitment as a freelance journalist in Burma.

He is currently serving a total of 17-years imprisonment for his journalistic activities.

Hla Hla Win, a 25-year-old female DVB video journalist who is serving a 27-year sentence in Kathar Prison for interviewing monks in Pakkoku, shared the award with Win Maw. She also was convicted for giving information to an exiled news organization.

"In fact, he didn't mean to become a journalist, yet, his desire to expose the real situation inside Burma turned him into an undercover journalist for an exile news station," said his brother, Win Zaw.

In 2006, Win Maw visited Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border to meet Win Zaw, who had had fled from Burma in 2004.

After he returned from the trip, he would occasionally send music, songs, news, photos and videos on various issues to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). He was arrested for those activities in 2008.

By ZARNI MANN
The United Nations' special envoy to Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana on Monday condemned the ruling military government for detaining Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under a 1975 law that is now obsolete.
He made the comment during a one-hour meeting with Suu Kyi's lawyers on Monday afternoon, according to lawyer Nyan Win who is also an opposition spokesman.

"He told us that the law of 1975 was obsolete and that the use of it to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest is outwith international law," the NLD's Nyan Win said after emerging from the meeting with Quintana.

Left: Top Burmese military officials celebrate North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's 68th birthday. Lt-Gen Tin Aye, No 5 in the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) hierarchy, was at the Chartrium Hotel in Rangoon on Sunday to mark dictator's birthday. Here's Tin Aye on page one of The New Light of Myanmar, holding hands with Ambassador H.E. Kim Sok Chol at a welcome reception. Tin Aye's presence signals a growing warmth  between the two countries.

Myanmar Frees an Opposition Leader (nytimes.com)