Israeli Weapons Aid Potential Genocide in Myanmar and Burundi

Throughout its short history Israel has been a dependable weapons supplier to pariah regimes, from apartheid South Africa and South Sudan to Rwanda and Serbia as genocides were underway.

Now we can add Myanmar and Burundi to the list.

For decades Myanmar, also known as Burma, suffered under the rule of a military junta so brutal most of the international community, including the US, imposed sanctions on the country.

In 2011, Myanmar began a process of partial transition to civilian rule, though the army remains very much in control.

This prompted the US to ease some trade restrictions, but military sanctions remain intact given that the Myanmar Armed Forces, referred to as Tatmadaw, still wield enormous power. (Courtesy of thecitizen.in)

Myanmar military appoints MPs for new parliament

Myanmar’s powerful army has appointed hundreds of military lawmakers to the new parliament set to convene after November’s landmark polls, choosing MPs that an academic said Tuesday would check the election-winning opposition party.

The Union Election Commission chaired by former general Tin Aye approved Monday the appointment of 386 military MPs to the new national and regional legislatures that will be dominated by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) after its landslide victory.

Unelected military MPs are allocated 25 percent of all seats in Myanmar’s legislatures, giving them veto power, under the 2008 constitution. (Courtesy of Fulton News)

New report alleges military involvement in Myanmar murders

A new report investigating the rape and murder in northern Shan State of two Kachin Christian teachers alleges that a high-ranking military officer was involved in the cover-up of the crime carried out by soldiers.

The Kachin Women's Association of Thailand and the Legal Aid Network released the report "Justice delayed, justice denied" on Jan. 19, which coincided with the one-year anniversary of the two teachers' deaths.

The report makes claims to expose an alleged cover-up of the military's involvement in the case. The report also states that the investigation into the murders has been one-sided, which led to delays and a denial of justice.

The report analyzes witness testimony that identifies as a key suspect the commanding officer from Myanmar's army, which was camped in the village. (ucanews.com

Mandalay mob beats alleged child kidnapper to death

Police in Mandalay have opened an investigation into the deadly mob beating of a man by bystanders who believed he was attempting to kidnap a child. The attack occurred on Strand Road in Aung Myay Tharzan township on the evening of January 14.

“People say they saw the man holding a child’s hand and leading him away, so they started beating him,” a police officer from the Mandalay Region Police Office said on January 18.

“The man later died from the beating, so we have opened a case and we have started questioning the people suspected of beating him.”

The beating victim is from Singaing township in Mandalay Region. He was a vendor at a night market in Mandalay, along with his wife. (Courtesy of Myanmar Times)

Remembering the Motherland

Ma Lynn Pwint Naddy, 11, likes to think of herself as Burmese, not American. She speaks Burmese with her parents, she explains Burmese history and culture with her classmates, and she is learning the traditional dances of her native Yangon.

But Ma Lynn Pwint Naddy has not been to Burma (as her family chooses to call it) since she was a baby. For the last four years she has attended the Thabyay Nyo Burmese school, where her distant language and culture has been restored to her one Saturday at a time.

Thabyay Nyo, which is Myanmar for “Image of Burmese History”, holds weekly classes in a rented elementary school at Rockville, a small town just north of Washington DC. The school teaches Burmese language, history and culture for free to children from the 40 or so migrant families in the area. It was founded by Daw May Nyein, an activist and former literary criticism professor at Yangon University who went to the US in 2009 and began tutoring the children of political exiles from Myanmar. Thabyay Nyo launched in 2010 when Daw May Nyein and the other parents decided to make their sessions official. (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)

Special report: Hunting for jade in a corner of hell

From the dispassionate eye of a satellite in space, the area around Hpakant, a town in Myanmar's Kachin state, looks like a dry brown moonscape in a sea of green.

The mostly potholed dirt and gravel road to Hpakant twists through emerald hills; in the rainy season, it is reduced to reddish-brown mud, and wooden pontoons load vehicles two or three at a time to swing them across swollen rivers.  Around Hpakant itself - a ramshackle organic boom town - over 850 jade mining firms operate over some 9,000ha.

On the ground, the mines are something out of a brutal pre-industrial era. Dump trucks rumble along the tops of high ridges, stick their rumps out and tip their heavy loads of earth and rock tailings from the mines down the slope into deep canyons gouged from the earth.  (Courtesy of The Straits Times)

Computer ‘mole’ found in Myanmar gov’t computers

A sophisticated computer “mole” has been discovered in the computers of Myanmar government and non-governmental organizations, which is believed to have been launched by an Asian source.

The cyber threat was announced by Arbor’s Security Engineering and Response Team (ASERT) on its website on January 11. ASERT called the computer threat “The Seven Pointed Dagger.”

The computer threat  involves a newly discovered Remote Access Trojan (RAT) which has been labeled Trochilus by security researchers at Arbor Networks.

Trochilus (pronounced “tro kil us”) is part of a seven-piece malware cluster that offer hackers a variety of capabilities, including deep entry into compromised networks and snooping on data, ASERT said on its website. (Courtesy of Mizzima)