Free Republic

Tune in at 10am for the live webcast of our human freedom event featuring Pres & Mrs Bush & Aung San Suu Kyi http://t.co/6FhKWnJr Submit your Q's for Aung San Suu Kyi using hash tag #FreedomCollection & watch her answers live here: http://t.co/dfDOoYwC -- A Celebration of Human Freedom May 15, 2012 On Tuesday, May 15, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will hold a special event to celebrate the brave efforts of dissidents and activists around the world in their fight to be free. Joined by leading voices of liberty, President Bush will deliver major remarks on the fight...

The Terrible Tiger Vietnam may look like a success story, but with Burma's recent thaw, it's now the most repressive country in Southeast Asia. Nearly four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, America's former foe is seen globally as a success story. It boasts a booming economy, a growing middle class, and thriving tourism and manufacturing industries. But as political reforms transform Burma, Vietnam is in danger of becoming something else: the most repressive country in Southeast Asia. This week, prosecutors at a court in Ho Chi Minh City charged three Vietnamese bloggers for "conducting propaganda against the...

It’s like something out of an Indiana Jones film, if you take away the religious overtones and ophidiophobic adventurer. After 15 years, a British farmer’s quest to find a squadron of legendary fighter planes lost in Burma during World War II has finally paid off. Lincolnshire farmer David Cundall, 62, has spent £130,000, traveled to Burma a dozen times and negotiated with the cagey Burmese government, all in the hopes of finding a stash of iconic British Spitfires buried somewhere in the Southeast Asian country. Cundall started his search after his friend heard from a group of U.S. veterans...

EXTRAORDINARY plans to raise a lost ''squadron'' of Spitfires that have lain buried in Burma since the end of World War II were revealed at the weekend as David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister, visited Rangoon. A Lincolnshire farmer who devoted 15 years of his life to finding the planes has spoken about his quest to recover them and get them airborne. David Cundall, 62, has spent £130,000 ($200,000) of his money, visited Burma 12 times, persuaded its secretive regime to trust him, and all the time sought testimony from a dwindling band of Far East veterans in order to locate...

Historic planes buried in Second World War are to be shipped back to Britain after their mystery locations were discovered War leaders did not want them to fall into foreign hands when they demobilised in 1945 Hidden in crates at a depth of 4ft to 6ft the RAF then forgot where they were Twenty brand-new RAF Spitfires could soon reach for the sky following a deal reached with Burma yesterday. Experts believe they have discovered the locations of around 20 of the Second World War fighters buried at airfields around the country. David Cameron has secured an agreement that they...

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed on Monday a by-election landslide for her party, which she hoped would mark the beginning of a new era for Myanmar after a historic vote that could prompt the West to end sanctions. The charismatic Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the struggle against military rule in the former Burma for two decades, was one of 44 candidates her National League for Democracy Party (NLD) said won all but one of the legislative seats being contested. The by-elections followed a year of astonishing change for a country that was in...

Burma's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has won a by-election for parliament, her party says, after a landmark vote that saw 45 seats contested. Ms Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said she had easily won in Kawhmu. Official results are not expected until later in the week. In a statement, she urged supporters to show restraint in their celebrations. The vote is a key test of political reforms, though the army and its allies dominate the 664-seat parliament. The NLD was competing in its first elections since 1990. 'Dignified' Thousands of people who gathered outside the...

Amid the scramble in newsrooms and government offices around the world that followed Kim Jong-Il’s death, one important piece of news from Asia missed all the headlines. The real news in Asian politics yesterday, the kind of thing that will likely show up in the history books, was a quiet meeting announced by the State Department. If you missed it, it’s because people didn’t cover it much, but for the first time ever, India, Japan, and the US held a round of trilateral talks on the future of Asia and the strategic picture. The session, reads a State Department media...

The introduction of a slew of economic reforms and political initiatives by the Burmese government in the second half of 2011 have significant implications for the carriage of Burmese foreign policy. Indeed, the surprise announcement in September suspending construction of a major Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam is an indication that China’s privileged place in the hierarchy of Burma’s foreign relations―a position it has greatly benefited from since the West shunned Burma in 1988—can no longer be taken for granted. Nevertheless, even as these changes unfold, the two neighbors will seek to maintain close and cordial relations in recognition of inescapable geographical...

YANGON, Myanmar — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a landmark visit to Myanmar on Thursday that the U.S. would ease aid restrictions and consider further steps to improving relations with the country's autocratic rulers if they continued down a path of political and economic reform. Clinton described her meeting with Thein Sein, Myanmar's president, as "candid, productive," but cautioned that while the "measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just the beginning." She said Thein Sein told her during a private 45-minute meeting that he "hopes to build on" a flurry of political overhauls...

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Detecting "flickers of progress" in the long-shunned nation of Myanmar, President Barack Obama announced Friday that he will send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the repressed country next month, the first official in her position to visit in more than 50 years. "We want to seize what could be an historic opportunity for progress and make it clear that if Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said Friday during his diplomatic mission to southeast Asia.

Workers in Burma will be allowed to form unions and go on strike under a new law signed this week by the president, officials say. The law permits unions with a minimum of 30 members to be formed and allows strikes if a notice period is given. Unions have not been allowed to operate in Burma since 1962. The law appears to be the latest in a series of changes being introduced by Burma's new military-backed, civilian-led government. Signed on Tuesday, it also sets out penalties for both employers and employees who do not abide by its terms. "Clearly the...

RANGOON, Burma — Burma on Tuesday announced amnesty for 6,359 prisoners, a group expected to include hundreds of political prisoners whose release would be a dramatic sign of opening after nearly 50 years of autocratic rule. The United States and Europe have long demanded the release of political prisoners as a condition for the lifting of economic sanctions on Burma, also known as Myanmar. The sanctions tightly restrict investment, trade and financial transactions. Easing them would probably accelerate a realignment of Burma’s previously close relations with authoritarian China, which was stunned last month when Burmese President Thein Sein halted construction...

Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow. The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings. Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death.

Barnaby Phillips follows the life of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II.

Myanmar's government invited pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a meeting Friday with the new president, an official said, in the clearest step toward a political dialogue since she was released from house arrest in November.

Russia closing deal over 20 fighter jets By FRANCIS WADE Published: 4 August 2011 Russia is believed to be close to finalising a deal over the sale of 20 advanced fighter jets to the Burmese military, which has sought to expand its air power in tandem with ground forces. The MiG-29 planes have been purchased directly from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, in a deal estimated at more than $US570 million. The additional planes, due to shipped before the end of next year, will double Burma’s fighter jet fleet, and becomes one of the biggest sales of its kind by...

This week deadly armed clashes near Burma’s border with China ended a nearly two-decade-old ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burma’s government. About 10,000 people have fled to refugee camps along the Chinese border and 215 Chinese workers from the Datang United Hydropower Developing Co. returned home after the KIA captured a Chinese-built and operated hydropower plant last week. A KIA spokesperson told the Thailand-based Irrawaddy that the uprising began when the government reneged on an agreement to share electricity generated from the region’s Chinese-built hydropower plants with local people. “This electricity is now going to China, not...

WASHINGTON – John R. Alison, a World War II fighter pilot who helped lead a daring and unprecedented Allied air invasion of Burma, has died, a son said Wednesday. The retired Air Force major general and former Northrop Corp. executive died of natural causes Monday at his home in Washington, John R. Alison III said. Alison's wartime achievements included seven victories, six in the air, qualifying him as an ace, .. Alison was chosen in 1943 by Army Air Forces commander Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold for a top-secret mission that flew more than 9,000 troops, nearly 1,300 mules and 250...

BANGKOK — Ending a three-day visit to Myanmar, Senator John McCain warned the country’s leaders that “the winds of change” now blowing in the Middle East could spread if governments do not listen to the needs of their people. “Governments that shun evolutionary reforms now will eventually face revolutionary change later,” he told reporters at a news conference in the main city, Yangon, according to wire service reports. He urged the government to free political prisoners and to assure the safety of the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who said recently that she was planning to travel through...

WASHINGTON — Arguing that nothing has changed in Burma under the new government, four key American Senators—from both Democrat and Republican parties—have introduced a legislation in the Senate seeking to renew US sanctions against Burma. The resolution approving the renewal of import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 was introduced ahead of a visit to Burma by powerful Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday. “I can confirm the senator will be traveling to Burma this week,” a spokesman for Sen McCain told The Irrawaddy. The other sponsors of the resolution are Sen Dianna Feinstein (Dem),...

His name is Clemente Vismara. He spent his life in the missions. He planted the Church where Christianity had never come before. An ordinary sanctity, that simply put into practice the Sermon on the MountROME, May 23, 2011 – The beatification of John Paul II has rocked the whole world like a hurricane. "But there are also other exemplary witnesses of Christ, much less known, whom the Church joyfully points out for the veneration of the faithful": this is what Benedict XVI said at the "Regina Cæli" two Sundays ago. Humble, ordinary saints – including those who will never get...

Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency By GINGER THOMPSON and SCOTT SHANE WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables. In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Credit Suisse Group helped clients in Iran and elsewhere conduct financial transactions in secret, saying Wednesday the Swiss bank "established a business model to allow these rogue players access to U.S. dollars." Mr. Holder and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau detailed a decade-long effort by the bank to carry out transactions from Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba. The men announced a $536 million settlement by Credit Suisse, one of several banks accused in a long-running case that has netted roughly $1 billion in fines. The bank, which paid the biggest of the fines,...

A senior U.S. official arrived Tuesday in Yangon on an unannounced trip to continue Washington's new policy of engaging the military government, in the first visit since the country's recent elections. The trip by Joseph Y. Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific, comes after widely criticized Nov. 7 elections that were overwhelmingly won by a military-backed party. Yun's visit also will allow the U.S. to review its humanitarian assistance to Myanmar, embassy spokeswoman Adrienne Nutzman said. Yun was scheduled to stay through Friday for a visit that will include talks with senior government officials, ethnic...

Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be rapidly gaining military support against the regime...Released from 15 years of house arrest earlier this month, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be rapidly gaining support against the regime as she and her party attempt to be re-instated and challenge recent dubious elections... While worldwide leaders celebrated the brave -and attractive- 65-year-old's release, now infantrymen from two Burmese army divisions confirmed reports that several hundred soldiers travelled to Rangoon to witness Ms Suu Kyi regaining her freedom. This is the first time we've heard of such a split in the military......

After 15 years of house arrest, the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the 65-year-old pro-democracy leader of Burma, was celebrated around the world last Saturday. Her steadfast promotion of freedom and liberty against the forces of repression is admirable. World leaders were not the only ones in jubilance. There are reports that foot soldiers among the Burmese military’s lower ranks, view Suu Kyi as a gateway to changing the oppressive nation for the better.According to the BBC News service in Burma, several hundred disgruntled soldiers from battalions in Rangoon and Bago divisions, along with their families went to see...

The military authorities in Burma have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. She has appeared in front of a crowd of her supporters who rushed to her house in Rangoon when nearby barricades were removed by the security forces.

President Obama condemns the elections in the nation of Burma: "The November 7 elections in Burma were neither free nor fair, and failed to meet any of the internationally accepted standards associated with legitimate elections

China is reportedly engaged in a covert diplomatic campaign to sabotage efforts to launch a United Nations probe into war crimes in Burma. The Chinese have for two months been lobbying European and Asian states at the highest level to neutralise support for the Commission of Inquiry (CoI), the Washington Post reported Monday, claiming that the campaign had “taken the steam” out of the initiative. China’s opposition to the investigation is well known, and experts were unsurprised at the revelations. Professor Ian Holliday, a specialist in China-Burma relations at the University of Hong Kong, said the move was “very much...

Burma is working on a nuclear weapons programme, experts have concluded, after its existence was exposed by leaked photographs. Burma is working on a nuclear weapons programme, experts have concluded, after its existence was exposed by leaked photographs. Intelligence monitoring of the country’s arms purchases from North Korea has been intensified as a result. Satellite tracking and electronic surveillance in particular have been stepped up. Concerns over the regime’s attempts to develop a nuclear bomb prompted the US State Department to demand last week that the ruling junta disclose an inventory of its nuclear technology.

In the popular imagination, Tibet is a land of snow-capped mountains and sweeping vistas, fluttering prayer flags, crystal blue skies, saffron-robed monks spinning prayer wheels... SNIP Tibet's enduring hold on Western minds -- together with the energetic, globe-trotting advocacy of the Dalai Lama -- helps explain why the concerns of the region's minority population are so familiar to so many so far away. (By comparison, it took violence in the streets of Urumqi to awaken foreign readers to the agitation of another of China's minority groups, the Uighurs.) In the Washington, D.C., neighborhood where I live, more than a few...

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of seven servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.Army Capt. Joseph M. Olbinski, Chicago; 1st Lt. Joseph J. Auld, Floral Park, N.Y.; 1st Lt. Robert M. Anderson, Millen, Ga.; Tech. Sgt. Clarence E. Frantz, Tyrone, Penn.; Pfc. Richard M. Dawson, Haynesville, Va.; Pvt. Robert L. Crane, Sacramento, Calif.; and Pvt. Fred G. Fagan, Piedmont, Ala., were identified and all are to be interred July 15 in Arlington National Cemetery.On May 23, 1944, the...

If you're interested in international security, I strongly recommend that you check out a new documentary titled Burma's Nuclear Ambitions. The film comes from the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an Oslo-based nongovernmental organization that has made a name for itself as a source of good independent reporting on events inside that benighted country. The reporters at DVB spent the past five years collecting the material for this project, which makes a persuasive case that the generals who run Burma (aka Myanmar) have spent vast sums on a program to develop weapons of mass destruction. Robert Kelley, an ex-U.S. nuclear...

The United Nations, which is quietly planning a major aid program to North Korea despite U.N. sanctions against the regime, also intends to ship hundreds of millions of dollars to Burma, another brutal Asian dictatorship, despite allegations that the country also known as Myanmar is trying to acquire nuclear weapons technology. [snip] The Burmese bomb-making program was allegedly developed with help from nearby North Korea — whose own nuclear weapons program became enmeshed in scandals involving U.N. aid programs. Just three years ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) closed its offices in North Korea amid allegations — later confirmed...

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 06/08/2010 17:26INDIA – MYANMARA silent international community faces Myanmar’s nuclear ambitionsby Tint SweFor the past ten years, Myanmar’s military junta has been involved in a secret nuclear weapons programme with the cooperation of North Korea. ASEAN and SAARC are doing nothing to stop the military regime in accordance with the principle of non-interference. “It is time for the world to act,” exiled Burmese minister says. New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Myanmar’s military junta is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles with the assistance of North Korea, this according to documents...

The Burmese Government is attempting to build nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, according to a military defector who smuggled photographs and documents of secret nuclear equipment out of the isolated dictatorship. Evidence presented by the former Burmese officer and weapons engineer suggests that the country is still a long way from creating usable nuclear weapons. But the fact that it has even a nascent nuclear programme will cause international alarm at a time when the West is struggling to contain the ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Jim Webb, the US senator, who in recent months has become an unofficial...

BANGKOK (AP) -- Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday. The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.

The United States is concerned over Myanmar's "growing military ties" with North Korea and will work to ensure a UN ban on arm exports from Pyongyang is enforced, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday. US defense secretary Robert Gates's press secretary said the United States was closely monitoring Myanmar's cooperation with North Korea in light of UN Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or nuclear technology. "We are concerned with growing military ties with the DPRK (North Korea) and are following it closely to ensure that the multiple UNSCRs (UN Security Council resolutions) are enforced," press secretary Geoff...

For the past year, intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Asia have been watching as equipment and machines capable of being used to build nuclear weapons have been flowing into Burma, raising the specter that the isolated and secretive Southeast Asian nation may become the world’s second rogue nuclear power. Because of the nature of Burma's paranoid and repressive ruling military junta, there is tremendous fear that, if it acquires a nuclear capability, it will set off an arms race that could change the political dynamics of Southeast Asia. But experts caution that Burma, also called Myanmar, is so closed...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "Three explosions have ripped through Burma's former capital Rangoon, killing nine people and injuring dozens others. The blasts in Rangoon are the worst to have hit the city since 2005 The triple blast was reported alongside Kandawgyi Lake, where hundreds of people had gathered for the country's New Year celebrations. A fourth bomb was later found and defused, according to official sources. Witnesses said people fled and ambulances rushed to help casualties. One Red Cross official said: "I saw blood on many people. The rush to help the injured So far it is unclear who is...

Burma: Not My Backyard “The world needs to know about the genocide that is happening today in Burma.” — Patrick Klein, Vision Beyond Borders The Burmese army is carrying out a massive killing campaign against its people, and the world is unaware, Patrick Klein of Vision Beyond Borders told VOM staff.

High-ranking Burmese military officials joined a ceremony to mark the 68th birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, according to Burma's state-run media. Lt-Gen Tin Aye, ranked No 5 in the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) hierarchy, attended a ceremony at the Chartrium Hotel in Rangoon on Sunday to mark the birthday of the North Korean leader. The state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Monday ran a front-page story with a photograph of Lt-Gen Tin Aye and North Korean Ambassador H.E. Kim Sok Chol holding hands together at a welcome reception. Kim Jong Il's birthday will be on Tuesday....

According to a Washington Times report, President Obama is preparing to meet with members of the junta military regime currently ruling Burma (known locally as Myanmar), a stark departure from decades of American policy. To say that this a surprising move is sever understatement, not just because of the sea change (after all, it wouldn't be the first sea change of this administration), but this move would have consequences far beyond mere diplomatic ones. To put it simply, beginning a dialogue with this regime may carry with it disastrous national security implications.

Obama urges Burma to free Suu Kyi US President Barack Obama has urged Burma's prime minister to release the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Mr Obama delivered the message as he met leaders of the Asean grouping of south-east Asian nations in Singapore.

Obama To Meet With Myanmar Rulers By Matthew Mosk and Simon Roughneen THE WASHINGTON TIMES SINGAPORE | President Obama on Sunday will become the first American president in more than 40 years to attend a meeting with the repressive rulers of Myanmar, marking a dramatic shift in the U.S. approach to bringing change to a regime that responds brutally to dissent, locks up journalists and political opponents, and has kept itself largely walled off from the Western world. Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar has for years played the role of skunk in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as...

The military junta of Burma is working hard at oppressing the country’s people and is following in North Korea’s footsteps in becoming a rogue state. At this time when the U.S. is most strategically and morally obligated to support the country’s democracy movement, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has begun engaging the junta, drawing the ire of today’s Martin Luther Kings and George Washingtons in Burma. Senator Webb became the first member of Congress to visit Burma on August 15, and granted the leader of the junta, General Than Shwe, his first visit from a senior American policy-maker. Webb also...

In my last post on Burma, I reported the second meeting in as many months between Senator Jim Webb and Nyan Win, the foreign minister for the Burmese junta. This time the meeting was in Washington, which required that Win be granted a visa waiver (he, like the rest of the junta's senior figures, is on a prohibited list). [snip] Foreign Minister Nyan Win is actually Major General Nyan Win in the Burmese Army. Before heading up the Foreign Ministry where he became the point man for explaining away the butchery his regime visits on the Burmese people, he was...

According to Reuters, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win "has arrived in New York after being granted permission to visit the Burmese embassy in Washington, a US official said yesterday." The unnamed source quoted by Reuters stated that Nyan Win "made a side trip" to the embassy in Washington, but did not meet with any members of the US government." The Burmese embassy has so far refused to comment but Burma-watchers in Washington believe he is still there. All senior members of Burma's military junta are banned from visiting Washington except for very specific international meetings. Nayan Win would certainly fall...

BANGKOK — After two decades of relative calm in northern Myanmar, fighting has broken out between the central government and upland ethnic groups, sending tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into China and threatening a fragile patchwork of cease-fire agreements that ended decades of civil war. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: MyanmarThe fighting began between soldiers from the Kokang minority group and government troops, but it broadened to involve at least two more groups, the Wa and the Kachin. All three groups oppose the central government. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that refugees were fleeing...