Tunnels in Burma -- Resurfaced

The Burmese military regime is constructing a tunnel in Rakhine Yoma, some 80 km west of Padan Township in Magway Division, local sources said. The tunnel is 50 feet wide and 50 feet high, a worker from the project said, and is being supervised by North Korean technicians.

On Friday, fresh evidence of the regime constructing a secret network of hidden bunkers and tunnels across the country surfaced. According to an investigative film by an exiled Burmese broadcaster, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), which was aired by Al Jazeera on Friday, some tunnels are marked as substations for fiber optic cables and are part of a plan to provide the military with a secure nationwide communications network.

“They are constructing a tunnel ... a huge tunnel. Many tunnels all over the country,” said Sai Thein Win—a former defense engineer and missile expert who recently defected from the army—in the film. The documentary also revealed bunkers alleged to be used as secret military storage facilities and command centers in case of aerial attacks. -- Irrawaddy

Tunnels again! Before this new evidence from former Major Sai Thein Win, tunnels are believed to be the hiding places for the generals of junta when US aircrafts come. Experts referred these tunnels as rat-tunnel defense used by Vietnams when they fought US in World War II.

Now, these tunnels are proven to be not only bunkers, but also nuclear missile-silos. UN and EU should have closely and tightly scrutinized these rats (generals) since North Korea's ship carrying weapons anchored at Burma shore in June 2009.

Because of these negligence, Burma is going to be a second North Korea and Burmese citizens are in danger of nuclear side-effects and consequences.

Reference:
Paing, Yan. Junta Constructing Tunnel in Magway. The Irrawaddy. June 4, 2010.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18626

Feathers Fly Over Use of Fighting Peacock Image

By Ko Htwe (May 7 2010)

Feathers are flying in Burma over the use of the fighting peacock emblem by two newly registered political parties in their election campaigns.

The emblem—famously associated with the now disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD)—has served as a national symbol since the days of the Burmese monarchy and was a rallying image brandished by student activists in colonial times.

“It's not appropriate to use the student movement's flag as the symbol of a political party,” said prominent journalist Ludu Sein Win, one of a group of about 40 people in the Burmese media world who signed a letter of complaint to the Election Commission.

“The fighting peacock symbol is not the property of a certain organization and it is associated with all Burmese nationals,” said Ludu Sein Win.

The Election Commission has ruled that it will accept objections against the use of flags or symbols by registered political parties.

The fighting peacock symbol is being used by two newly registered parties, the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP) and the 88 Generation Student Union of Myanmar (GSUM), led by two brothers who are former political prisoners. The two are the subjects of unsubstantiated suspicions that they are collaborating with the regime.

Objectors point out that the fighting peacock symbol adopted by the two new parties is similar to the one used by the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), which played a key role in Burma's independence movement against British colonial rule.

Since the 1962 military coup, the ABFSU has been viewed by successive regimes as an illegal organization. Its building on the Rangoon University campus was destroyed in a bomb attack in the year of the coup.

The ABFSU objected to the use of the peacock symbol when it was first adopted by the the now-defunct NLD and used in its party flag, but later dropped its objection.

“The ABFSU flag is being used only in the movement led by students, handed down from one generation to another,” said Myo Myint Nyein, of the Rangoon-based weekly journal The Ray of Light. “I don't agree with using it as the image of a party.”

GSUM chairman Ye Tun said his party and the UMFNP were only trying to trying to preserve the image of the fighting peacock.

The group of objectors agreed in their letter to the Election Commission that the symbol was “crucial for the history of the nation” but said “it should not be the property of any political party.”

Among the signatories of the letter of complaint was Maung Wun Tha, a veteran writer and editor who was a member of the ABFSU before 1962.

Reference:

Htwe, Ko. Feathers Fly Over Use of Fighting Peacock Image . The Irrawaddy. May 7 2010. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18419