Sittwe: A clandestine poster campaign demanding 24 hour electricity be supplied all over Arakan State in western Burma with power generated from local gas was recently launched.

The 24-Hour Action Group Rakhine State has claimed that it has carried out the campaign on the 10th of November, coinciding the religious festive occasion in a number of townships including Sittwe, Ponnakyaun, Mrauk-U, Kyaukpru, Ramere and Taungok.

“Our members in different townships of the state have jointly worked on and launched this campaign at the same time on the same day in almost every township in our state. We have launched this campaign to demand that the Burmese regime supply 24-hour electricity in our state with power generated from the gas extracted from the local Shwe offshore gas fields in the state," said one of campaigners of the group.

The campaigner said they stuck posters that demanded 24-hour electricity at public places, on government buildings, and on the lamp posts of every street and also spread the posters in most busy streets in the towns.

The group had started to launch similar campaigns across Arakan state last October just after the Energy Minister U Than Htay stated in the parliament that his regime had already sold off the natural gas found in the Shwe offshore gas fields in Arakan State to China and had no plans to use any of the gas for the state.

“The regime will export 90% of the natural gas reserves to China within 30 years and will fetch US$ 970 million for exporting 400 cubic feet in a year and we can calculate how much profit the regime will earn by the gas from our state. However we local people will not get any benefit from this gas and that is why we have to launch this campaign to fight for our rights to those natural resources”, said the campaigner.

According to the 24 Hours Action Group, Arakan State is abundant in gas and other natural resources, but even its Capital Sittwe gets only five-hours of electricity supplied per day and the consumers have to pay 500 kyat per unit of electricity a price 20 times higher than that being charged in Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw in mainland Burma. The group said they have also sent a letter to Dr. Aye Maung, the president of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, on the same day of the campaign urging him and his party to work for getting 24-hour electricity supply in Arakan State. 

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Narinjara News

BLOODY 13 AUGUST
By Khine Mongan

It was Sunday on 13 August 1967. The day was cloudy unlike other wet August days in Sitetway (Sittwe), the capital of Rakhine State in Western Burma. General Ne Win was at the helm of the Burmese junta ruling the country.

The capital town is situated at the mouth of the Kalandan River that flows into the Bay of Bengal. Hundreds of people marched along is roads and streets, each of the protester held a banner, and cried out “Rice, rice, - give us rice”, “We Rakhine don't eat boiled rice”, and “Down with the military regime”. At that time the Burmese junta started selling rotten boiled rice to tackle the artificial famine created by themselves in Rakhine State.

Each year, Arakan (Rakhine) produce rice abundantly: in one working year Arakan harvests enough rice for three years. That August, the rice warehouses in every township were full of rice. But the Burmese junta would not sell enough rice to the people of Rakhine State. Disregarding the local needs, the junta exported the whole supply of rice stored in the government warehouses to foreign countries. The farmers received only 8% of the actual open-market price of rice for their rice sales to the regime. Hundreds of people: children, old people, pregnant women, workers and farmers died of diseases caused by malnutrition resulting from hunger. This happened in Rakhine State, also known as Dhanyawaddy the Land of rice!

At that time I was a student midwife in the Akyab General Hospital (now, Rakhine State Hospital, Sittwe). That Sunday was a day off for me. I went into the downtown area to join the protesters, but I failed to join them, as I did not know the exact location of the demonstration. So I went to see my family, and my mother explained what had happened the night before.

The rice mills and warehouses are on the Satt-ro-gya, a tributary creek of the Kaladan River. Many people had already gone there to force the rice warehouses open, my mother said. Hungry people started raiding the rice warehouses and taking the rice bags away. My 12-year-old brother had merely collected 3-4 kgs of rice when the army and navy arrived.

The gun-toting uniformed men caught some demonstrators from the spot. My brother fled and got on to a boat that operated by a rope: he was swinging from the end of a rope to cross the stretch of water and reach the other bank. One soldier saw him and pushed him into the water. Luckily he was able to swim across the creek. He had to hide from the view of the military and move surreptitiously from one house to another before he got home at midnight all wet and with about one kg of rice in his possession.

My mother fearing all the arrests and insecurity told me to go back to the student nurses’ hostel. We, students, were not allowed to go out of our homes after 6 pm. I got to the hostel at about 3:30pm. The military to bring the situation under control, stopped people from going to the rice mills and storage areas. The protesters defied the ban, marched on shouting slogans to open the warehouses. Finally, as the hungry people desperately needed rice and kept trying to reach the storage areas braving the repeated warning by the military, the junta ordered the soldiers to shoot. More than a hundred people, including women and children, were gunned down. The military just loaded the severely wounded into trucks and nothing of them has ever been heard. Many of the wounded never reported to the hospital but took medical treatment secretly for fear of arrests.

It was about 4 o’clock: the Akyab General Hospital was very quiet. The view of the Kaladan River from the hospital offered spectacular scenery. The Principal Surgeon’s house and the nurses’ quarters compound were to the right in front of the hospital. We noticed truckloads of soldiers on the road. Soon the soldiers rounded off the roadside, the hospital compound, the Principal Surgeon’s house and the nurses’ quarters. Everywhere we saw guntoting soldiers none was allowed to go on the road or to the hospital. The trucks stopped at the entrance of the hospital one by one. The soldiers, who were standing in their trucks, got off when we saw the trucks full of wounded people. Some women ran towards the hospital, but the soldiers held them at gunpoint. People came running and tried to pull the women away. The women refused to go back shouting at the top of their voice.

We saw the wounded people were being carried into the hospital, then the trucks drove away with some wounded people still inside. WHY? HOW MANY? WHO were THEY? We asked ourselves awestruck. We then realized that those people were already dead. I wanted to go there to help, but only on-duty nurses were allowed to go into the hospital. I could not sleep the whole night, and got up early next morning and went to the hospital.

There were many wounded people in the overcrowded surgical ward, the eye ward, the Buddhist-monks’ ward, and the gynecological ward. They were lying on beds, on the floor, on the trolleys and there was a long line in front of the operation theatre and X-ray room. In the gynecological ward, there were no beds, no mattresses. All wounded people were lying on the floor with no space left. It was very difficult even to step around. They were all men. The female patients had been moved to the nurses’ sickroom. It was the busiest day of my training life: pushing trolleys and wheelchairs from place to place, from ward to ward with wounded and groaning people. The nurses, the students, the doctors and all of the hospital staff were restless, on duty the whole day and until midnight. From early morning, crowds of people gathered in front of the hospital, looking for their missing sons and daughters, husbands and fathers. They looked at the inpatients’ list and dead people’s list. Many people were missing. No one knew how many people were dead and wounded. The government stated that only 21 people were killed. The list of the dead only included those who died in the hospital.

We heard that the critically wounded, senseless and dead or presumably dead were picked up and drove away out of the city and buried in undisclosed grounds. Slowly words came out from the soldiers’ quarters that even many of the people who gained consciousness and shouting for help in the trucks were buried alive to ensure that the true story of what happened that day and how many were killed remains undisclosed.

The Rakhine people each year remember with heavy hearts the mass killings on that day, remembering the atrocities and the ethnic cleansing of the Burmese junta perpetrated ever since upon their own people. The women hope that if their missing husbands and sons were alive today they would have taken up guns 

Never Forget 13th August!!!

Never Forget 13th August!!!

Never Forget 13th August!!!

http://arakan.myareablog.com/

 

 

 

Maungdaw: Mass protests against the destructive and deceptive use of the term "Arakan" by a group of people who are not associated with it have been arising in western Burma’s Arakan State.

He said the term Arakan or Arkanese is derived from the Pali word "Arakkha" and started to be used widely when the British ruled Arakan State. It is also known as Rakkhapura or Rakhine in ancient history.

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, who won the majority of votes in Arakan State, also held a similar conference on the 27th of October in Ayezayti Monastery in Buthidaung, sixteen miles northeast of Maungdaw, on the Bangladesh border, and again on the 9th of October in its head office in Sittwe, the capital of the State. The different tribes living in those townships participated in both conferences, contributing their support against those who have been perpetuating the misuse of the term Arakan.

"Many people did not want to return home, even after concluding the conference that was held here from 12:30 pm to 4 pm, because they were embittered with the feelings that their land and valued heritages are being insulted by those groups of Chittagonian Bengali Muslims with their made up histories of Rohingya", said a resident from Buthidaung who attended the conference.

U Aung Mra Kyaw, an MP of the State Parliament and the President of the RNDP branch in Sittwe Township said his party held the public conferences not to breed racial or religious hatred amongst the nationalities or communities living together in the Arakan State.

"Some groups of Bengali Muslims living in foreign countries have widely insulted the glory of the land and peoples of Arakan by misusing the term "Arakan" when they are making up their histories of land, peoples, culture, religion and literature. " Arakan" is being used as an English term for Rakhine.

As we are responsible to protect our land and peoples and to raise awareness of those insults amongst true Arakan people, we are holding these public conferences, but we have no intention to breed racial or religious hatred among the peoples living together on our land", said U Aung Mra Kyaw.

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party has also declared in its statement that Arakan and Arakanese are just the English terms for the Rakhine (land and nationalities), and that they strongly denounce the fallacious usage of these terms by groups of Bengali Muslim in Bangladesh.

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Narinjara News

Yangoon: The authorities have been closely watching Ven. U Kawvida who was the former chairman of the government backed Thinga Council ( Monk Council) in the Eastern Township of New Dagon in Rangoon. He was then involved as a leader in the monk-led demonstration known as the Saffron Revolution, and has since been released from Tharat Prison as part of the presidential general amnesty.

Ven. U Kawvida said thst authority forces including the Special Branch of Police (SB), Military Intelligence (MI) accompanied by village administrators have been coming to his monastery to watch his movements since he was released from the prison.

“I am sure that [the authority forces] are closely watching me. The SB came to my monastery yesterday and interrogated other monks in the monastery about me and the day before yesterday the MI accompanied by the village administrators also visited my monastery to inquire about me”, he said.

He said he was being watched by the authority forces as he has been continuing his Buddhist monkhood since he was released from the prison despite the fact that the authority had forcibly disrobed him before he was imprisoned due to his involvement in the Saffron Revolution.

“I have been continuing my Buddhist monkhood since I was released from the prison and I have come to know that they are inquiring about me to find out if I am living in accordance with the disciplines that a monk must keep or not”, he said.

Ven. U Kawvida said that a Buddhist monk could not be removed from his monkhood just by the act of taking his robe off forcibly without his own consent and willingness, so he has adorned himself with the robe again and is upholding his monkhood in accordance with Vinaya, the disciplines for a monk.

He was arrested on the 29th of September 2007 from Takkathilar Maha Padipadan Monastery in East Dagon and forced to disrobe at the office of the home ministry.

“They had forced me to disrobe by the order of the king or ruler, I argued I wanted to disrobe myself but eventually I let them remove my robe because it would not be wise for me to continue to argue with them, as they had assaulted me since my arrest from the monastery. As my robe was forcibly taken off by them, nothing affected my monkhood and I lived as a monk in the prison as well though I was unable to wear my robe there”, he said.

The venerable monk said he has been suffering from diabetes since he was locked in the prison and has to regularly consult physicians about his disease. He was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in jail by the kangaroo court in Insein Prison in October 2008 after being detained in prison for nearly a year without trial.

“The kangaroo court in Insein Prison sentenced me to jail without letting a defense lawyer act for me, nor were my relatives allowed to attend the hearing of my case and I did not get a year reduction from my prison terms as declared by the president”, said the venerable monk.

Ven. U Kawvida is a native of Pauktaw Township in Arakan State and was released from the Tharat Prison under the general amnesty of the president after he completed a total term of 4 years and 1 month in the prison.

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Narinjara News

Minbya: People in Min Bya Township in Arakan have raised their voice regarding their daily hardships in the township at a public meeting that was held on Wednesday as part of the founding day of the township's Rakhine National Development Party, said party leader U Tha Kyaw.

"We held a public meeting during the founding ceremony of the RNDP in Min Bya where over 100 people attended and shared their problems and bitter difficulties. They also demanded we present their difficulties and problems on a daily basis to the state and central government," U Tha Kyaw said.

Most of the people were from rural villages and gathered in the meeting to raise their voice about their daily difficulties in their respective villages in Min Bya Township.

"The people especially presented to us to get more fertilizer and loans from the government for their farming because the government-provided fertilizers and loans are insufficient. We promised to submit their demand to the government authority step by step," said U Tha.

A young farmer who attended the ceremony said that he submitted two points in the meeting - first to form village administrations in accordance with the present constitution, and second to inquire with the high authority about the issue of leasing creeks and rivers in Arakan State.

He said, "Now the current government authority has appointed village administrators in the villages across our township against the present constitution. In the constitution, the village administration must be appointed with respectable gentlemen in the village, but the government authority in our township has appointed the former village chairman, who were appointed by the military government in 2006, to be the village administrators. All of the people in our township want the village administrator to be appointed in accordance with the present constitution, so we revealed this in the meeting."

Many people who attended the meeting from rural areas demanded they eliminate the system of leasing creeks and rivers out to businessmen because the system is very challenging for the survival of Arakanese people throughout the state.

"Many people presented the issue of creek, river, and ocean leasing to private businesses by the government. Most Arakanese people have not been able to carry out their daily livelihoods in the creeks and rivers since the government began leasing them to businessmen," he said.

The RNDP won a majority of elected seats in Arakan State in the last election but was unable to form as a majority in the Arakanese state because the government reserved more seats for former military personnel who are aligned with the government-backed USDP.

RNDP leaders will present the people's difficulties to the Arakan State government as well as the central government during the next parliamentary sessions, said U Tha Kyaw. 

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Narinjara News