BURMA NEWS INTERNATIONAL

 

17 November 2004

 

* Burmese minister to attend Indo-ASEAN car rally inauguration

* A drug adductor woman car crash killed one

* (Opinion) Making a Burmese connection in the Northeast 

 

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Burmese minister to attend Indo-ASEAN car rally inauguration

 

Navatha Kuria/Mizzima News

 

November 17, 2004

 

 At least one minister from Burma will attend the inauguration

ceremony of Indo-Asean car rally in Guwahati on November 22, informed

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

 

The ceremony to be taken place at Nehru Stadium in Assam capital will

also be attended by ministers from Thailand and Laos and the High

Commissioners from Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. But the

names of those guests were still not disclosed.

 

The rally, first in Northeast  will  include around 70 cars (including

25 official entrants)  which would pass though  Morigaon, Nagaon,

Numaligarh (in Assam), Dimapur, Kohima (in Nagaland), Imphal, Morey

(in Manipur) to cross to Burma through Tamu and Mandalay. Then it

will  cross Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore to culminate

at Batam in Indonesia.

 

Meanwhile, brisk preparations are going in Guwahati city  for the

rally amidst the threat from All Assam Students Union to protest. The

regional political party Asom Gana Parishad has also extended moral

support to the student body for its action.

 

Moreover, Bharatia Janata Party Assam unit has also decided to express

resentment against the prime minister Dr Singh during his visit to

Assam for anti-Assam policy adopted by Union Government of India.

Speaking to the reporters both the presidents of BJP Assam unit and

AGP (Mr Indra Moni Bora and Brindavan Goswami respectively) expressed

anger that Dr Singh did not find time while the state was facing

severe flood, but now he had coming to inaugurate a car rally.

 

Following the threat from the students body to disrupt the rally not

only in Guwahati but the entire state, the authority has beefed up 

arrangement Meanwhile top officials of Special Protection Group and

Prime Minister Office have arrived in Assam.

 

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A drug adductor woman car crash killed one

==================================

Independent Mon News Agency

November 16, 2004

 

A drug addict woman, who brother killed by Thai police in Three Pagoda

Pass while he try to import amphetamine to Thailand, car with high

speech driven crashed to three motorbike on the crowd road killed one

person and two serious wounded according to victims family.

 

Killed amphetamine trafficker, Mr.Wing Naing sister, Mrs. Kyuu Khaning

with her young baby drove car in to the crowded people road that

people going to festival at about 7:00 PM yesterday night according to

witness.

 

Mr.Ko Soe Naing, who was crashed first died in the Kanchanaburi

hospital after the crash about fours hours and Mr. Naing Woo been

taking treatment in Kanchanaburi hospital with serious injured in his

legs. Mr. Ko Noung got a small wonded according to the victims

families.

 

Her car crashed the killed victim, Mr. Ko Soe Naing first and other

two motorbike later, a witness said. “Her diving speech so high, it

must be about 90 Kilometer a hours speech and she was drunk with

amphetamine,” some witness claimed.

 

“After the crash she did not stop her car, she continued drove in to

the crowd with some damage in her car and some smoke fly out from her

car,” a witness said.

 

“According witness told me, she drove a Kilometer far from where the

crash happened and she stopped the car run out for escape. But people

stopped the fire on her car that fire from the damage,” a reporter Min

Thit Swe said.

 

“Now the women went to the police station by herself for her crash and

for facing court,” Min Thit Swe added.

 

After the crash, the people brought the victim to the Three Pagoda

Pass hospital for treatment. But the victims relation claimed, they

did not unsatisfied with in charge of doctor Dr.Soe Win for did no

treatment to the injured patient.

 

“They had brought the victims by their arrangement. No help gave by

the doctor the victims relation,” said a victim relation who do not

want identify his name for his security.

 

According to Min Thit Swe reported, Mrs. Kyuu Khaing was linked with

amphetamine seller, and she was an amphetamine adductor.

 

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(Opinion) Making a Burmese connection in the Northeast 

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By Nava Thakuria

November 17, 2004

 

The Army operation against India’s Northeastern insurgents, which

has been carried out for the last few decades, hardly makes a

headline, as it is a regular practice for the security personnel

deployed, but it makes sensational news if the operation can be

reported as being carried out jointly with soldiers of neighboring

countries such as Burma, Bangladesh or Bhutan.

 

Readers of a section of dailies from Guwahati were astonished Nov. 6

to read a banner headline saying the Indian Army had launched a

massive crackdown on militants in Manipur, and Burmese soldiers sealed

their border to prevent fleeing militants from sneaking across..

The illustrated news went on to narrate the immediate casualties of 13

insurgents in the offensive, whereas over 34 armed cadres were

arrested. The origin of the news, as reported by four international

news agencies in English said “at least 13 rebels were killed and 34

captured by Indian soldiers” in Friday’s (Nov. 5) military

crackdown. Quoting an Indian Army spokesman (Major S.D. Goswami ) the

reports revealed that around 6,000 Army personnel had surrounded bases

of militants in Bishnpur and the Churachandpur districts of Manipur.

 

“We have nabbed 34 militants and seized 20 sophisticated weapons so

far during the operation.” Another quote reveled that it was “an

offensive entirely by the Indian army with Burmese soldiers simply

guarding their own frontiers on the other side," the news quoted

Goswami.

 

But surprisingly enough, the incident was not reported by appointed

and recognized correspondents of the dailies based in Imphal or

Guwahati. It was filed exclusively by a section of international news

agencies with their correspondents in Guwahati and Kolkata.

 

An agency (BBC News, Calcutta by Matthew Grant) revealed, “The

Indian army says it is conducting a major operation against rebel

bases in the north-east of the country. Burma has sealed its border to

prevent militants crossing into its territory from the Indian state of

Manipur, where the offensive is focused.” The report added, “A

spokesman for the army said it had surrounded 1,500 fighters belonging

to three different rebel groups. He said Burma had stationed troops

along its side of the border to prevent the rebels from escaping.”

Similarly another report (filed by a Guwahati based IANS

correspondent) quoted Army spokesman Goswami adding, “The militants

are getting choked from all sides with our soldiers zeroing in on

their bases in Manipur and across the border you have troops from

Myanmar waiting to repulse any move by the rebels to sneak into their

territory.

 

Until Nov. 7, it was fine. Readers in the Northeast believed only a

few newspapers had the credit to carry the exclusive news. Naturally

they were waiting for detailed followup stories the next day. But

suddenly the army operation lost prominent space in regional dailies.

Imphal, the Manipur capital, hosts news correspondents representing

various regional and national newspapers (and news agencies).

 

But it was surprising how the Imphal-based reporters could afford to

miss the important news, where Burmese soldiers were involved in the

operation.

 

However, on Nov. 8, a national agency (PTI)  report from Imphal

clarified that the Army denied any joint operation with Burmese

soldiers in Manipur. The same spokesman Goswami was quoted as saying

security forces had been carrying out counter-insurgency operations as

a "normal duty". The report quoted Goswami saying, “Security forces

had been carrying out counter-insurgency operations in several areas

of Manipur as a normal duty and at least 13 militants had been killed,

34 ultras apprehended and 20 weapons recovered since September.” He

added that the Indian Army “was not aware whether Burmese troops had

been carrying out a similar operation on their side.

 

Even speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday (Nov. 9), Defence

Minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed that India and Myanmar were still

holding consultations on taking coordinated action against

Northeastern militants along the 1,400 KM border on the Eastern front.

While praising the Royal Bhutan Government for their offensive against

insurgents last December, Mukherjee was still expecting ''similar

supportive cooperation from friendly countries to root out

terrorism”.

It is evident that the Indian Army has carried out an important

operation against insurgents in Manipur with the help of state police.

Director General of Manipur Police A.K. Parashar also acknowledged

that a joint operation with Army personnel was being carried out, but

he too denied involvement of Burmese soldiers in the crackdown.

“There is no report of any such joint operation so far on

Manipur’s soil€ť he said.

 

It can be guessed that those agency reporters intentionally present

the news of the “joint counter-insurgency operations” by the Army

and state police as being carried out by the Indian Army with the help

of Burmese soldiers to make it lucrative. Now the question arises;

what was the use of making news with distorted facts? Was it the Army

source (Major S.D. Goswami), who misguided the agency reporters and

later denied to save his skin; or the intention of those agency

reporters, who went on misguiding the readers with the obligatory

reports from the Northeast?

 

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Burma News International is a network of nine exiled media groups

such as Mizzima News, Shan Herald Agency for News, Kao Wao News Group,

Khonumthung News Group, Narinjara News, Kaladan Press Network,

Independent Mon News Agency, Karenni Information

Network Group and Network Media Group.

 

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