AFP

WASHINGTON — The United States placed a Myanmar general on its sanctions blacklist Tuesday for arms deals with North Korea that violated the U.N. Security Council embargo on buying weapons from Pyongyang.

Weeks after a landmark visit to Washington by Myanmar President Thein Sein celebrated the thaw in relations, the U.S. Treasury named Lieutenant General Thein Htay, the head of Myanmar’s Directorate of Defense Industries, for the sanctions.

The Treasury said the general was involved in buying North Korean military goods despite his government’s support for the Security Council ban.

It said he acted on behalf of the directorate, a Myanmar military agency that was placed on the U.S. sanctions blacklist in July 2012 for arms deals with North Korea.

The Treasury stressed in a statement that the Myanmar government, which until 2011 endured years of isolation and condemnation by the international community for rights abuses, was not targeted by the sanctions.

KUALA LUMPUR: Three Myanmar construction workers were killed while another sustained a broken leg following a landslide at a construction site in Taman Sierra, Ukay Perdana, here yesterday.

The three who died were Mohd Alam, Kowrin and Romzo Ali, aged between 29 and 34, who were buried under the debris.

Assistant operations director of the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department Mohd Sani Harul said the incident occurred at 11.29 yesterday morning when eight workers were working on the drainage system.

“The collapsed wall, which was three metres high, had crashed on four workers but one of them sustained a broken leg and firemen rescued him together with four other workers, who were working near the landslide area.

“We took half-an-hour to pull out the three victims who were buried under the debris. The one who was injured is being treated at the Ampang Hospital,” he said at a media conference at the site.

By Agencies

The Myanmar government will form more anti-riot squads and give them training in accordance with international standards, official media reported Thursday, citing a Myanmar Home Ministry official.

Disturbance acts by illegal organization could negatively impact the interest of the country and the people, warned Deputy Home Minister Brigadier-General Kyaw Zan Myint at the ongoing seventh session of the House of Representatives, or Lower House, on Wednesday.

“Police battalions had been formed to quell violence and riots and plans were underway to form one more battalion in Meikhtila and to add three more security companies to auxiliary forces in Nay Phi Taw and states and regions,” he said.

“After modifying the current anti-riot manual, police forces in states and regions would be trained in accordance with the new manual and training courses organized by Myanmar Police Force,” he added.

Blogger and activist Nay Phone Latt has called for an amendment to the 2004 Electronic Transactions Act that saw him sentenced to 15 years jail in 2008.

He made the comments following the launch of his latest book, which is a series of letters he wrote in prison before he was released during a political amnesty in 2012.

“We have some extent of freedom. But we are not safe,” he said in an interview with Mizzima. “This law still exists. There are no clear definitions in the laws and anyone can be targeted.

“Most people write freely and don’t worry about it, but we are always vulnerable to political change if it is not amended,” he said.

Under the current law, Internet users can be sentenced for a minimum of seven years up to a maximum of 15 for writing material deemed offensive or dangerous. Critics argue that the law—enacted by the military government—is purposely vague.

Author: Eliane Coates, RSIS

Renewed violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar appears to be spreading regionally, with tensions threatening to spill over to Malaysia and Indonesia. In particular, there are concerns that the violence among Myanmar nationals in Malaysia may radicalise Muslims outside Myanmar, which could lead to a vicious cycle of reprisals and counter-reprisals. Such radicalisation, as noted by ASEAN’s former Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, ‘would have wider strategic and security implications for the region’.

Approximately 200 people, mostly Muslims, have died in the expanding sectarian fighting between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar since June 2012. While the violence was still centred in Rakhine State in 2012, it has now spread throughout the country. In May, the violence flared again in northeast Myanmar after a riot between Muslims and Buddhists in the township of Lashio in Shan State, where ‘Buddhist mobs’ set fire to Muslim homes and engaged in indiscriminate killings. These attacks have been associated with the ‘969 campaign’, which promotes the boycotting of Muslim businesses and the segregation of Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar.

There are, as we all know, loads of foreign buyers snapping up property in Britain. Most of London, according to the headlines at least, is owned by a super-rich cabal of Russian, Middle Eastern, Chinese etc investors. But you don’t often here about Myanmar.

And yet Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report suggests that buyers from the nation-formerly-known-as-Burma accounted for just shy of 1% of all £2m+ properties bought in the UK in the 12 months to April 2013. That’s in the same range as buyers from Switzerland and Hong Kong, who get far more column inches.

“The Golden Land” is in the process of shaking off a resolutely shocking human rights record and opening up to the rest of the world. A year after the military Junta was dissolved, and despite visits from President Obama and Tony Blair last year, there are still some tough questions about just how far that human rights record has come, with rumours of ethnic cleansing in the West of the country circulating as recently as April this year. But international economic and military sanctions have been eased or removed over the last couple of years, and now it looks like the UK’s property industry is going in gung ho.

London-based property advisor LondonDom is opening an affiliated office in Yangon in Myanmar, with MD George Shishkovsky heading over there in early July to talk-the-talk face-to-face with potential Burmese clients. The firm has a decent track record in tapping overseas markets, having marketed prime central London properties to buyers in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan since 2004.

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY

Authorities in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, have been rounding up more than 200 Burmese migrant workers on allegations that they are involved in crimes or lack legal permits to stay in the country.

Migrant rights groups complain however, that Thai authorities have started a major crackdown on registered or unregistered Burmese migrants.

Last week, police began setting up checkpoints around Chiang Mai in order to identify migrants and dozens were arrested in subsequent days.

Toom Mawk Harn, a coordinator at the Migrants Assistance Program, said authorities were carrying out a city-wide operation that targeted Shan migrants from Burma. “It has been over a week that we hear about the detention of the migrants, mostly near the Shan communities,” he said.

Foreign ministers of Burma and Bangladesh have met in Brunei to discuss on various bilateral issues. In the sidelines of 20th 0207-aseanRegional Forum Ministerial Meeting, the foreign ministers of both the neighbouring countries sat together on Tuesday for bilateral discussion, said a diplomatic source.

In the bilateral meeting, the Bangladeshi foreign minister Dipu Moni has offered her Burmese counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin to cooperate in various socio-economic activities in Burma including the Bangladesh bordering Burmese province of Arakan (also known as Rakhine).

She also urged the Burmese foreign minister to resume the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Bangladesh.

Wunna Maung Lwin responded positively to her that the Burmese government would actively consider resuming the repatriation process of the already verified refugees.