COMMENTS (0)

RECOMMEND (431)

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PLUSONE

MORE

E-MAIL

PRINT

TEXT SIZE

Activist groups welcomed his recommendation, calling it unprecedented since the United Nations established a mandate to look into human rights violations in Burma in 1992.

Tension Rises in Kachin State

Tomás Ojea Quintana

Tension continued to rise around the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Laiza as the latest deadline in February passed for the KIO and other ethnic armed groups to agree to join the regime’s planned border guard force. Kachin sources said the KIO moved all its important documents from Laiza to prevent them from falling into regime hands if government forces launch an attack. The high priority materials—including files and computers—were moved to the KIO’s former headquarters at Laizin. The KIO deployed well-trained militias around its Laiza headquarters and land mines were planted around KIO bases.

Junta Releases American
A Burmese-American activist was unexpectedly released on March 18, a day after his lawyer filed an appeal against a three-year prison sentence he received in February. Nyi Nyi Aung, a 40-year-old activist, had worked full-time in recent years from his Maryland home, funded by grants, to promote democracy in Burma. A political refugee, he became a US citizen in 2002 after seeking asylum but has traveled back to his homeland several times without incident. He was arrested on Sept. 3, 2009, after arriving at Rangoon’s international airport on a flight from Bangkok. He said he was tortured while undergoing interrogation at Insein Prison and last December launched a hunger strike to protest against conditions for political prisoners in Burma.

Cambodia to Build Memorial for Journalists
Cambodia will erect a memorial to nearly 40 foreign and Cambodian journalists who died covering a savage five-year war that ended with the triumph of the Khmer Rouge 35 years ago. The groundbreaking for the monument will take place at the end of April, the anniversary of the Khmer Rouge victory, as foreign journalists who covered the conflict gather for a reunion. At least 37 journalists were killed or are listed as missing from the 1970-75 war, which pitted the US-backed Lon Nol government against the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge. They included reporters, photographers and television cameramen from Japan, France, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, India, Laos, Australia and Cambodia. A number of the journalists were captured by the Khmer Rouge and never seen again.

Google Ends Censorship in China

A supporter presents fowers near Google’s offce in Hong Kong on Jan. 14. (Photo: AP)

Google stopped censoring the Internet for China by removing its search engine from mainland China. Visitors to Google’s old service in China, Google.cn, are now redirected to the Chinese-language service based in Hong Kong, where Google does not censor its search results. Google plans to retain its engineering and sales offices in China so it can keep a technological toehold in the country and continue to sell ads for the Chinese-language version of its search engine in the US. The company also intends to keep its mapping and music services on Google.cn. The revolt against censorship threatens to crimp Google’s growth, particularly if China retaliates by making it more difficult for the company to do business in the country. The Chinese government could react by blocking access to Google’s services, much as it has completely shut off Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

China Drills More Wells, Seeds Clouds Amid Drought
Emergency wells were being drilled and cloud-seeding operations carried out in southern China, where the worst drought in decades has left millions of people without water.