The Dictator’s Survival Guide

BY MICAH ZENKO | AUGUST 22, 2011

Seven lessons the world’s remaining autocrats can learn from Qaddafi’s mistakes.

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The Irrawaddy:Burma’s President Invites Exiles to Return Home

Burma’s President Thein Sein announced on Wednesday that his government will allow exiles to return home and will consider leniency with respect to offenses other than murder. The announcement, which further promotes the new government’s message that it has embarked on a political and economic reform process, was delivered in a major speech to local businessmen in Napyidaw on Wednesday.

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The Story of Human Rights

Yangon: Walking Tour – 2011

Vilnius Mayor A.Zuokas Fights Illegally Parked Cars with Tank

My Take: Why evangelicals should stop evangelizing

By Carl Medearis, Special to CNN

Let’s do an exercise. I want you to fill in the blank on what you think you know about me based on what I’m about to tell you.

Here goes: Twenty years ago, I became a missionary. My wife and I left our home in Colorado Springs, Colorado to move to Beirut, Lebanon. Our job description was to plant churches and evangelize to Muslims.

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Wind Of Change

8888 Uprising song (Burma)

Happy World – Burma, the dictatorship of the absurd

BURMA: Company linked to retired army officers bulldozes Muslim cemeter

August 5, 2011

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-135-2011

5 August 2011
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BURMA: Company linked to retired army officers bulldozes Muslim cemetery

ISSUES: Freedom of religion; rule of law
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AHRC WEBSITE: BURMA PAGE
http://www.humanrights.asia/countries/burma
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received details about a private company in Burma that with the backing of retired army officers sent bulldozers in the dead of night to destroy an historic Muslim cemetery so that the land can be claimed for commercial activities. The destruction was stopped after interventions from the local community, but extensive damage was already done and it is feared that the company will use further techniques to force the cemetery off the land. The case is another that illustrates the shifting character of rights abuse in many parts of Burma, from direct violations committed by the armed forces or police to those where private companies backed by serving and former government officials play a key role.

CASE NARRATIVE:

According to information obtained by the AHRC, three bulldozers entered a historic Muslim cemetery in Meikhtila, upper Burma, around 2am on 25 July 2011 and began destroying gravesites without prior warning. After the intervention of the local Muslim community, they left the cemetery at about 11am on the same day. However, extensive damage had already been done to some graves. The bulldozers also have reportedly not been withdrawn completely but are still situated nearby, with the intention that they might be used again.

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BURMA PROJECT – SITUATION OF THE ROHINGYAS IN NORTH ARAKAN STATE

To read the report click here

To read the press release click here

In August 2008 the Irish Centre for Human Rights received funding from Irish Aid to launch a project on the human rights situation of the Rohingyas/Muslims of Rakhine State in Western Burma/Myanmar. As part of the project a research unit was established at the Irish Centre for Human Rights to carry an open source research and take part in a fact-finding mission and the drafting of a report under the supervision of Prof. William Schabas.

 

In 2009, Nancie Prudhomme (project manager and researcher) and Joseph Powderly (project researcher) undertook a 4-week fact-finding mission to gather more detailed, first-hand and new information about the situation of the Rohingyas in Western Burma. As part of their mission Nancie and Joseph visited Burma and Thailand. In Thailand, they had meetings on the
situation of the Rohingya “boat people” pushed back to sea at the beginning of 2009 and on the status of the Rohingya issue within Asia generally and more specifically at the ASEAN level.

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TheStar:Move to minimise confusion in registration of legal and illegal workers

PUTRAJAYA: The task of registering legal and illegal foreign workers will be handled separately to minimise confusion among the tens of thousands of workers who have been queuing up at Immigration Department offices and at the offices of appointed agents.

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