Article

2006-02-03 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Burma???

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by raptor 2006-02-03 06:07|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Burma is not in good company:

"At the start of 2006, more than half the people of our world live in democratic nations. And we do not forget the other half -- in places like Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran -- because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom as well." -- Bush's State of the Union speech, 1/31/2006

Posted by Darrell 2006-02-03 08:47|| 2006-02-03 08:47|| Front Page Top

#2 http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=2/2/2006&Cat=4&Num=7

French ex-soldiers join up with Myanmar rebels

PU BO MYA PLAW, Myanmar (Reuters) -- Former French commandos are helping train ethnic Karen guerrillas locked in a decades-long struggle against Myanmar's military junta, rebel leaders said on Tuesday.

Dressed in military fatigues, two foreigners attended a ceremony inside rebel territory to mark the 57th anniversary of the Karen National Union's (KNU) "Resistance Day", the start of what has become one of the world's longest-running conflicts.

"No, I'm French," one of the pair said when asked if he was American. He and his colleague, who appeared to be in their late 20s, refused to answer any more questions from reporters.

They were also reluctant to appear on film, moving away from television cameramen present at the ceremony in the guerrillas' jungle hideout around 150 miles (230 km) east of Yangon.

"They are French commandos who help us fight the SPDC," said Colonel Nerdah Mya, son of renowned and now wheelchair-bound, 79-year-old KNU supremo, General Bo Mya.

The SPDC -- or State Peace and Development Council -- is the official name of the military junta which has run the former Burma under various guises since a 1962 coup. Nerdah declined to give details of the full extent of the French pair's involvement in the KNU's fight for an ethnic Karen homeland inside the southeast Asian nation which won independence from Britain in 1948. ________________________ French mercenaries killed

Officials at the French embassy in Bangkok said they were surprised by the sighting and suggested the foreigners might have been masquerading as Frenchmen.

"I have no information about any French nationals staying with the Karen -- either mercenaries or not. But anything is possible," an embassy spokeswoman said.

However, analysts say it would not be unprecedented for former French soldiers to become involved with the KNU and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), which could have between 2,500 and 5,000 soldiers.

"There has been longstanding, if informal and sporadic, relationship between former French military people and the KNLA," said Anthony Davis of Jane's Intelligence Review in Bangkok.

In 1985, state media in Burma -- as Myanmar was then called -- said 28-year-old Parisian Jean-Phillippe Courreges-Clercq was killed when 150 Karen rebels attacked a Burmese military outpost near the Thai border.

An Australian, identified as Martin Donnelly, 26, alias Sonny Wingate, of Perth, suffered shrapnel wounds in the same incident and was treated in a hospital in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, the reports said.

Four years later, state media in Yangon said a French mercenary, Olivier Thiriat, had died of shrapnel wounds sustained during clashes with Karen guerrillas along the Thai border.

Posted by Besoeker 2006-02-03 09:47|| 2006-02-03 09:47|| Front Page Top

#3 I need some information on the safety of foreign workers in Burma.

If you have to ask, then it's a pretty good chance that "you go at your own risk" will apply.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2006-02-03 10:04|| 2006-02-03 10:04|| Front Page Top

#4 I wouldn't do it. I live in China, and if I have some sort of medical emergency, Shanghai is only 4 hours away by taxi. No such luck in Burma. There's also the military dictatorship thingy. There are other places to make money in the world.

Posted by gromky">gromky 2006-02-03 11:28|| http://communistposters.com/]">[http://communistposters.com/] 2006-02-03 11:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Better watch where he puts that drill:

Feb 01, 2006 (DVB) - Burmas military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) troops have been planting landmines within Taungoo District, east of the new capital Pyinmana in central Burma allegedly for the security of the capital, but killing and maiming only innocent civilians. Thandaung and Htantapin regions within Taungoo District, mainly populated by Karen nationals, are said to be only 8 kilometres away from the new capital Kyappyay near Pyinmana and they are known to be frequented by Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 2 fighters.

The landmines were planted by Burmese soldiers from Thandaung-based Battalion 124, and 2 civilians were killed and 5 wounded by the mines in January alone, according to KNU Information and Organising official David Takabaw. He added the army planted landmines deliberately so that villagers could not go to their farms and internally displaced people (IDP) could not move around or flee from their hiding places. Takabaw also admitted that the junta is trying to stop the movement of the KNU fighters by clearing the grassroot supports, but he insisted that the junta would never be able to stop guerrilla activities without breaking the provisional ceasefire agreement with the KNU.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2006-02-03 14:03|| 2006-02-03 14:03|| Front Page Top

#6 We (the US) have got Burma (Myanmar) under some stiff sanctions for the way they treat dissidents.

More Info Here

Posted by Chinter Flarong9283 2006-02-03 14:15|| 2006-02-03 14:15|| Front Page Top

#7 Raptor, I've never been to Burma, but I know a couple of people who have. The regime is nasty and corrupt, and the people very poor, but otherwise I understand it's a delightful place. Like Thailand was 40 or 50 years ago. Like you, I'd go in a flash.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-02-03 20:00|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-02-03 20:00|| Front Page Top

#8 I think that was Fred's comment, so mine should read.

Like Fred, I'd go in a flash.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-02-03 20:02|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-02-03 20:02|| Front Page Top

#9 Lonely PlanetSince 1988 Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) has been under the military rule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - formerly known as Slorc - an abominable military junta. Prospective travellers should monitor events in Myanmar and weigh up the arguments in support of and opposition to travel.

If the Lonely Planet is hesitant, it's a no. Even Myanmar can be risky - if it's outside there, fagadabadit.

Posted by Hupomoger Clans9827">Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-02-03 21:24|| 2006-02-03 21:24|| Front Page Top

#10 Crap - Mandalay, dammit. Thought I read that over (scusi).

Posted by Hupomoger Clans9827">Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-02-03 21:26|| 2006-02-03 21:26|| Front Page Top

12:58 CaziFarkus
13:09 CaziFarkus
11:06 SOP35/Rat
23:58 Rafael
23:56 Rafael
23:51 Hupomoger Clans9827
23:39 Zenster
23:37 ed
23:33 JosephMendiola
23:30 Frank G
23:27 Pappy
23:23 Barbara Skolaut
23:22 Frank G
23:18 trailing wife
23:17 Frank G
23:15 Frank G
23:13 trailing wife
23:12 ed
23:10 ed
23:07 trailing wife
23:05 ed
23:03 Hupomoger Clans9827
22:59 trailing wife
22:58 JosephMendiola