Burma: More soundbites

“Today, the military government has used force. They have done inhumane acts against the monks and the people and have killed them again. Last night, they entered Ngwe Kya Yan monastery and detained the monks and beat them, and kicked them with their army boots. We saw pools of blood at the monastery.” — Rangoon resident

“Now everyone, everyone from the houses, people from the stores, women, men, people my age, many people were holding sticks. All of us were angry and swore at them. We’d already gone and taken a look at the monasteries the night before, and it was really bad.” –  Rangoon resident

Burma: Continuing violence in Rangoon and Mandalay

The following are translated extracts from interviews done by RFA’s Burmese service:

Eyewitness Account
09/27/07

Speaker: I saw it at Myintha Project area.  That was the Number 31 old bus terminal.   I went there because I heard people couldn’t stand it any more, so they had surrounded the security forces and attacked them with knives. It’s really true that with knives they were attacking people holding guns. According to unconfirmed news [Translator’s Note: Unclear], even the guns have arrived.  The military arrived after we did.  They came in their vehicles, and there were at least 15 people in a vehicle.  I saw four vehicles.  I saw them shooting, with my own eyes.  I saw them shooting, and I saw people shot at.  I don’t know whether they died or how many corpses there were.

RFA interview with a Singaporean shot in Rangoon

RFA’s Mandarin service interviewed this man last night. You can read the interview in full below, and go to our English Web story for more background and context. [Photo via Ko Htike.] 

“I’m a citizen of Singapore who lives in Rangoon. At around 4:00 in the afternoon today (Thursday), my wife and I were on our way back to my office… We were some 500 meters from a huge crowd of protesters who were surrounded by troops. We heard gunshots, lots of gunshots. The road to my office was blocked. I got out of the car to see what was going on. All of a sudden, a truck carrying soldiers pulled up. More than 20 soldiers got out and started shooting, firing rubber bullets. I told my wife to duck. One of the soldiers shot me twice with rubber bullets, one in the left leg, one in the right foot. They kicked me and the other people around me and told us to squat down in a ditch.

Burma: Monks continue protest

Some translated extracts from recent reporting by RFA’s Burmese service:

1) The following are quotations from interviews with two monks who were among 2000 monks chanting prayers in front of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound:

“Today we gathered 2000 monks on the Shwedagon Pagoda, and then we came down from western entrance onto Pyi road. We stopped in front of Burma broadcast station and prayed there. Then we marched toward University Avenue from Hledan junction, stopped outside Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound [located on the University Ave.]. When we chanted prayer, she stepped out of her house, coming near the fence and listened to our prayer and receiving our passion.”

Women take a high profile as Burma protests continue

“I don’t even remember how many times I was beaten. The only thing I heard was ‘Hit that bitch! Hit that bitch!’ from the plainclothes security officials. My clothes were torn, my watch broken, my umbrella and sandals were lost there.” — Ni Mo Hlaing, a female protester

Any discussion of Burma will inevitably conjure up images of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose face more than anything carries a message about ideals of freedom and democracy in that country. But many less well-known Burmese women have a habit of activism too, it seems, and have been playing a prominent part in opposition to the military regime there. The following women spoke recently to RFA’s Burmese service about their part in the recent protests, sparked by a rise in fuel prices:

“The officials didn’t just stop us—they cursed at us, grabbed some of us, and threw people into trucks. We decided to sit on the pavement and hold one another’s arms as a human chain to prevent our arrest.” Yin Mar Htun, a female protester

Mandarin: Listener comment on the Hong Kong media

MANDARIN: LISTENER HOTLINE – Hong Kong Media (08/09/07)
Reporter: Wei Lian
Length: 5:10

Wei Lian: Hi, this is Listener Hotline. I’m Wei Lian.

Male Voice: Hi, Mr. Wei Lian.

Wei Lian: Please tell me where you are calling from.

Male Voice: Jiangxi.

Wei Lian: Hi, listener from Jiangxi. Please go ahead.

Male Voice: I have a question for you. Recently, I read some articles on Chen Liangyu’s case in Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao. I’ve found that the Hong Kong media is very different from what it used to be.

Burmese: Buddhist monks under curfew in Rangoon

BURMESE:  Interview with Venerable Sayadaw (6/8/07)
Reporter:  SKH
Length:  6:00

Don’t run away.  Do what you have to do.  Don’t be afraid of anything.  Say what you have to say.  Be united.  I said, “I attack so that you won’t run away.”  We attacked the English so that they would run away.  I was part of it.  I was 20 years old.  I was over 20 at that time.  We attacked the English so that they’d run away.  When General Aung San and all did that, they all ran away.

—  Venerable Sayadaw

Newsdesk: Laura Bush ‘praying’ for Aung San Suu Kyi

An Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) delegation led by Dr. Salai Lian Hmung went to the White House at the invitation of First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush to talk about Burma’s political situation. He told RFA:

[Mrs. Bush] listened very intently, and said she did seriously take into consideration Burma’s 50 year civil war, as well as Burmese refugees problems too, and said she understands and sympathizes with sufferings of Burmese people, She also said she was working together with Representatives from both Senate and House to solve Burma’s problems and to help Burmese people; also together with her husband the President , they have desire to continue to help Burmese people and are praying for them.

Burma: Account of spirit festival nat pwe

By Erik Davies on Techgnosis:

The crowded central footpath through Taungbyon was flanked by food stalls, tea shops, and globalist collages of t-shirts and cheap jeans. A labyrinth of smaller paths radiated from this main artery, and beckoned us with clanging gongs, drum beats, and otherworldly folk-pop squealings—the sonic signs that the nats were in the house, or, more accurately, inside the bedecked and spangled bodies of Burma’s incomparable spirit mediums. Following one of these paths, we stumbled upon a group of smiling women who invited us to join them inside a small stall set up next to a particularly boisterous orchestra.

We settled down on the raised platform, joining what turned out to be a small and informal session with a spirit medium, or nat gedaw, who sat cross-legged before a lacy altar wearing a glazed, otherworldly look in his eye. Most of Taungbyon’s mediums are, in some manner or another, transgendered—”ladyboys” in the local parlance. The nat gedaw before us was clearly a man, though he was dressed in an effeminate array of pink and white chintz and wearing a fetching orange bandana topped with a few crisp low-denomination units of Burmese kyat.

Photo credit: Erik Davies

Polio Outbreak in Burma

BURMESE: Polio Outbreak, Part 2 (05/09/07)

Reporter: Khin May Zaw

Length: 3:08 minutes
Announcer: We contacted the WHO office based in Rangoon and interviewed them on the detection of polio in Maung Daw Township in Rakhine State. First, when we asked if it was happening only in Rakhine State and how it was discovered, Dr. Nihal Sighn, the medical officer from the WHO, answered as follows: