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Gunpowder warehouse blast kills 17 in Myanmar: police
By Aung Hla Tun | Reuters – 10 hrs ago
YANGON (Reuters) - At least 17 people died and 80 were injured after an early morning explosion at a warehouse storing gunpowder, likely for use at mine blast sites, in Myanmar's biggest city of Yangon, police and fire officials said on Thursday.
The explosion caused a massive blaze and spewed smoke that was only brought under control by late morning, officials said. A police officer, who declined to be named, said 12 men and five women had been confirmed dead and further deaths were expected.
"A fire first broke out at a warehouse where gunpowder was stored," a Yangon fire department official, who asked not to be named said. "It then caused the explosion and then the fire spread. I don't think it's anything to do with sabotage."
The blast occurred at around 2 a.m. (1930 GMT on Wednesday) in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township in the east of Yangon, Myanmar's former capital and its main commercial centre.
Ko Tin Than, 33, a taxi driver who happened to be driving near the warehouse at the time of the blast, said the whole area was covered with ash afterwards.
"It was just like a volcanic eruption like you see in the movies," he said. "Two or three people more than 100 feet away from the warehouse were killed by flying debris."
Some witnesses said the fire had triggered several smaller blasts. Police said three firemen were among the dead.
"As far as I know, these warehouses belong to the government and some of them were hired to the Myanma Economic Holding Limited under the Ministry of Defense," said a retired civil servant, declining to be named.
"I think the gunpowder stored there was meant for mining purposes, not for manufacturing weapons."
Fire engines from all parts of Yangon were at the scene, witnesses said.
Television pictures showed rescue teams carrying casualties on stretchers in the darkness around what appeared to be badly damaged buildings.
Witnesses said houses and factories were damaged but an early report that fire had spread to a nearby shipyard was not confirmed.
The shock from the explosion was felt by many people in eastern and central Yangon.
Than Soe, a resident in Yuzana Mingalar Housing Areas about a mile away from the site, said buildings shook, windows were shattered and pictures fell from walls.
"It was such a loud noise that at first we thought it was something like an asteroid falling to earth," he said.
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Fire kills 17 in Myanmar's main city of Yangon
By AYE AYE WIN | AP – 7 hrs ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A fire followed by several explosions engulfed state warehouses and neighboring homes in Myanmar's main city of Yangon on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and injuring 108.
The blasts occurred as firefighters were putting out the fire that had started in a state-owned warehouse before spreading to other warehouses and nearby homes and buildings before dawn.
Six of the dead were firefighters, a home ministry source said. He did not want to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
He added the fire and blasts destroyed 16 warehouses, a Buddhist monastery and 76 homes in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township in eastern Yangon.
A total of 108 injured people were brought to Yangon General Hospital, said a senior nurse. The nurse did not want to be identified because she is not authorized to speak to the media.
"Many of the dead were hit by flying debris of broken walls and stone slabs that were flung on to the streets due to the explosions," Maung Win, a 45-year-old resident, told the Associated Press.
The explosions rocked the entire city, jolting residents from sleep. A 20-foot (6-meter) -wide and 15-foot (4.5-meter) -deep crater was visible at the site. Black smoke was seen billowing from the rubble Thursday morning.
Firefighters were searching for bodies from among the debris.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but the home ministry official said the explosions were due to chemicals, including ammonia and potassium nitrate, stored in one of the warehouses.
Residents said the fire started in a warehouse that stored electronic goods then spread to other warehouses and houses.
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Myanmar warehouse blast kills 17
By Soe Than Win | AFP – 9 hrs ago
A pre-dawn blast at a warehouse in Myanmar's biggest city killed at least 17 people and injured dozens more on Thursday, sparking a blaze that took firefighters hours to tame, officials said.
Officials ruled out a bomb but said they had yet to determine the cause of the explosion in Yangon, formerly the capital.
Residents in several areas of the city were woken around 2:00 am (1930 GMT) by the blast, which appeared to have hit a medical warehouse in the eastern township of Mingalar Taung Nyunt, witnesses told AFP.
The flames engulfed several buildings in the warehouse compound and destroyed around 50 homes in the area, most of them wooden dwellings.
At least 17 people, including four firefighters, had died, while 79 others were injured, including around 30 firemen, a government official told AFP.
"It was not a bomb explosion," another official said, though he added that the cause of the blast, which sparked a large fire that destroyed many nearby storage units and houses, remained unknown.
Firefighters battled through the night to douse the flames and finally succeeded in extinguishing the massive fire at around 6:45 am, revealing a scene of utter devastation.
An AFP photographer saw rescue workers frantically searching for survivors, carrying young children to safety and pulling a dead body from the burnt-out rubble.
The blaze left hundreds homeless, a third official said.
"Around 900 people are homeless now and they are sheltering at nearby monasteries serving as rescue centers," he said.
"About seven warehouses were totally destroyed. The responsible officials are still trying to find out what happened," he told AFP.
One resident, Khin Hla Kyi, said she feared for her life as she fled the encroaching fire, which devoured her home and all of her possessions.
"We had to run for our lives," she told AFP. "Now we have nowhere to go. My house was destroyed."
The blast also created a huge crater at least 10 metres (yards) wide and several metres deep, filled with plastic and metal debris.
Dozens of rescue workers and onlookers crowded around the gaping hole to take stock of the damage on Thursday, when white smoke could still be seen billowing from the site.
An exhausted firefighter said he was unable to give details about the blaze, saying only: "We are really tired because we have been putting out the fire all night."
The first funerals for the victims were due to be held Thursday afternoon.
In a city not unused to bomb blasts, the sound of the unexplained explosion overnight brought hundreds of worried locals into the streets.
"We heard a very loud noise from the explosion and saw smoke in the sky. Our building was also shaken by the explosion. We have no idea what's happening," a resident in nearby Botahtaung township told AFP.
Last week, a blast caused by an explosive device killed one woman and wounded another in northern Yangon.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, most of them minor, which the authorities have blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic minority fighters.
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Death toll in Myanmar blast rises
Published: Dec. 28, 2011 at 10:53 PM
YANGON, Myanmar, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A huge explosion early Thursday tore through a warehouse compound near Myanmar's former capital of Yangon, killing at least 20 people, state media said.
CNN, quoting the MR TV (Myanmar's radio and television) said the blast also injured more than 95 people.
The blast occurred in Mingalar Taung Nyunt, near Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, the report said. Myanmar was formerly called Burma.
The report said the explosion struck a warehouse compound, shattering the windows of nearby houses.
Earlier, China's official Xinhua news agency reported the explosion, which occurred about 2 a.m., could be heard miles away. It set off a fire that firefighters had brought under control.
Two nearby schools had been converted into shelters for those displaced by the explosion.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.
There have been a number of such explosions lately in the country, which had been under military rule for decades until a civilian government took over last year. The government has blamed minority separatist or exile groups for those explosions.
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RI helps Myanmar stay on course ahead of ASEAN Community
Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 12/29/2011 6:41 PM
Indonesia and Myanmar are intensifying their bilateral cooperation in the form of their Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), with Myanmar slated to become ASEAN chair in 2014.
Improvements in Myanmar’s democracy will be crucial as its 2014 ASEAN chairmanship will likely test its capabilities to lead ASEAN toward the realization of the ASEAN Community in 2015.
Democratization, good governance and human rights are the main focus of the bilateral cooperation, as Myanmar has been deemed a restive country ruled by an authoritarian government, with a long record of human rights violations.
Indonesia, which in the past had dictator president Soeharto in power for 32 years, but which subsequently transformed itself into a democratic state, is ready to share its lessons learned with Myanmar through various capacity-building programs and diplomatic trainings.
After meeting with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin at the second JCBC, (the first of which was held in 2007), Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said
the two countries had agreed to work on priority areas, namely politics, economics and cooperation within ASEAN.
“In the political arena, Indonesia expressed its readiness to continue working closely with Myanmar in promoting democratization and government reforms, especially through various capacity-building programs,” Marty told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday from Yangon.
“Indonesia is interested to share with Myanmar the lessons it has learned in dealing with challenges, especially in relation to ethnic conflicts,” he said
He said Myanmar had become more open since his previous visit in October, when he traveled as both the foreign minister and ASEAN chairman.
“It has opened up new possibilities. We received visits from [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton, Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, and other dignitaries,” said Marty.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague is also scheduled to go to Myanmar early in January next year.
“Continued attention is being paid to Myanmar, but now in a more uniform and problem-solving way, unlike in the past, when it was all oriented to achieving concrete progress,” Marty said.
He added that the two countries have agreed to boost one another’s economy through cooperation in food security, infrastructure, tourism, fisheries and forestry.
“We want to achieve a target of US$500 million in bilateral trade volume by 2015, to promote direct investment in various areas, including in infrastructure and tourism, and [to boost] cooperation in forestry, culture and fisheries,” Marty said.
“But most important is cooperation in food security and rice productivity.”
According to the Trade Ministry, the total two-way trade stood at $173 million during the first nine months of this year, a slight increase from the $163.8 million recorded in the same period last year.
In an effort to boost tourism, Marty said the two countries were looking forward to operating direct flights between Jakarta and Yangon, or between Bali and Yangon.
He said the JCBC also discussed ASEAN issues and nuclear proliferation.
On the sidelines of his trip to Yangon, Marty said he also met with Myanmar’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, for a private meeting at her house.
He told Suu Kyi about Indonesia’s commitment to helping to “ensure that the momentum toward change in Myanmar’s democracy, human rights and good governance is maintained”.
He said Suu Kyi expressed appreciation for Indonesia’s role vis-à-vis Myanmar.
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Nasdaq - Tata Motors will sell cars in Burma, but not the Nano (TTM, HMC, CRZ)
Posted 12/28/2011 10:36 PM by Emerging Money
Tata Motors ( TTM , quote ), maker of the Nano, the world's cheapest car, will bring plenty of vehicles acros the border when Burma opens up. But few of those car will be the Nano, even though the average income for Burna's 62 million citizens is barely $2.20 a day.
As detailed in articles on www.emergingmoney.com , Tata Motors has been disappointed by the sales of the Nano. A major reason cited in an article in Time magazine is, according to a rival car executive, no one in India wants to be seen driving the world's cheapest car.
This will undoubtedly hold true in Burma as the initial buyers will be the elite. An economy car from Honda Motors ( HMC , quote ) will not meet the status demands of the Burmese high end buyer nor the challenges of the primitive transportation network in the country.
What will meet both of these is a Range Rover or Land Rover from the subsidiary of Tata Motors. In the wake of Britian's colonial empire, Range Rovers and Land Rovers are well regarded throughout Africa and Asia.
Ironically, it will be the luxury vehicles from Tata Motors that sell best in the poorest countries.
More sales of these high-margin vehicles is certainly needed by Tata Motors as its stock price -- like that of the exchange-traded fund for the automobile industry, First Trust Global Auto Index ( CARZ , quote ) -- is near its low for the year.
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Times of India - Myanmar may free more prisoners next week: Official
AFP | Dec 29, 2011, 05.19PM IST
NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's army-backed regime may free more political prisoners on the upcoming national holidays of January 4 and February 12, an official from the lower house of parliament said today.
"More prisoners of conscience will be released very soon for sure," Aung Ko, chairman of the judicial and legal affairs committee of the lower house, told reporters in Naypyidaw.
Aung Ko did not specify how many political detainees might walk free.
He said that Myanmar's Railways Minister Aung Min, who is also the government's envoy for high-profile peace talks with ethnic minority groups, recently said prisoner amnesties could happen on January 4, when the country celebrates Independence Day, and on Union day on February 12.
Hopes for change in Myanmar have grown recently following a series of reformist gestures as the country appears keen to end its international isolation, but pressure remains for it to release all political detainees.
The new nominally civilian government, which in March replaced a long-ruling military junta, pardoned more than 6,300 prisoners -- including about 200 political detainees -- in a much-anticipated amnesty in October.
But the government disappointed observers and the opposition National League for Democracy party by leaving many top dissidents behind bars.
A key demand of the opposition and foreign governments has long been the freeing of Myanmar's political prisoners, estimated by activists to number anywhere from 500 to more than 1,500.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on the release of all of Myanmar's prisoners of conscience during a historic visit to the country earlier this month.
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Myanmar to build Buddhist shrine in Chinese temple
English.news.cn 2011-12-29 17:13:00
ZHENGZHOU, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Baima Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in China, will see a new exotic shrine, funded by the Myanma government, rise in its courtyard next year, local religious affairs authorities said.
Construction on the shrine, which will be designed, funded and built by the government of Myanmar, will begin in April next year, said an official with the religious affairs bureau in Luoyang, capital city of central Henan province, where the temple is located.
The 1,943-year-old Baima Temple, or White Horse Temple, is the first Buddhist temple in China and is considered "the cradle of Chinese Buddhism" by most believers.
The 35-million-yuan project (about 5.56 million U.S. dollars), which will include a shrine, a pagoda and a museum, will cover an area of 7,000 square meters, and construction is expected to take about 18 months, the official said.
In order to make the shrine in a genuine Myanma style, most of the materials and decorations will be shipped from Myanmar.
The Myanmar Buddha hall will not be the temple's first exotic shrine, as it is already home to an Indian shrine and a Thai shrine.
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People's Daily Online - Myanmar gov't, Wa armed group agree on further cooperation
(Xinhua) 08:35, December 29, 2011
YANGON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's central government and the Wa ethnic armed group, based in Wa Special Region-2 in northeastern Shan state, have agreed on further cooperation, state radio reported Wednesday.
In their second round of peace talks between the central government's peace making group, led by U Aung Thaung, and that of the Wa group, led by its chairman U Pauk Yu Chang, held in Pansan, Shan state Monday, the two sides agreed to continue discussing on Wa representatives' participation in parliamentary affairs under a six-point agreement signed after the talks.
The agreement also includes increased cooperation between the central government and the Wa group in defense and security.
The others covered by the agreement include long- and short- term aid to be rendered by the government for the socio-economic development, human resources development and health and education development in the Wa region.
The two sides initiated the first peace talks in Lashio, northern Shan state, in October, during which an agreement on reopening the offices of education, health and communication from both sides, cooperating with the government in drug elimination, promoting the development of border areas and undertaking basic economic needs of both sides had been signed.
Shan State (North) Special Region-2 was the area where the United Wa State Army (UWSA), led by U Pauk Yu Chang, was resettled after it returned to the legal fold in May 1989.
The armed group was among the five peace groups that turned down the central government's transformation into border guard forces under its command.
Myanmar's central government, in its peace efforts, issued an announcement on Aug. 18, calling on anti-government ethnic armed groups to come for peace talks to end internal armed insurrection and build internal peace in the country.
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Boston.com - MIT graduate is identified as victim in bicycle-truck collision
12/28/2011 4:43 PM
By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff
CAMBRIDGE - The bicyclist who was struck and killed in a collision with a truck Tuesday evening was a 23-year-old man from Myanmar who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year, school and law enforcement authorities said today.
Phyo N. Kyaw, who lived in Cambridge, was cut down off his bicycle around 7:40 p.m. at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street, a busy intersection teeming with bikers, pedestrians, and motorists near MIT, said Jessica Venezia Pastore, spokeswoman for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.
Kyaw was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
State Police accident investigators are trying to reconstruct whether there was criminal negligence in Kyaw’s death. The driver of the truck has not been charged.
Cambridge police said that since January 2010 there have been 27 accidents at the Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street intersection.
Kyaw received his degree in chemical-biological engineering from MIT in 2010. A native of Yangon, Myanmar, he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity and was involved at MIT in Camp Kesem, an overnight summer camp for children with a parent who has died of cancer, according to the university.
“This death, so tragic and so close to home, touches and concerns our entire community,” said MIT chancellor Eric Grimson. “Our thoughts go out to Phyo Kyaw’s family, friends, and classmates. We share their sense of loss and grief.”
State Police and Cambridge police are investigating the accident, with assistance from the MIT police.
MIT officials said student support and mental health services are being made available to all members of the campus community. Those affected by this death are encouraged to contact MIT’s mental health services at 617-253-2916.
At the scene of the fatality today, students and commuters described the intersection as busy, but generally safe.
“This is terrible,’’ said MIT graduate student Xin Zhao. “I’m shocked, actually. I don’t think this area is extremely dangerous.”
Joel Dashnaw, a Jamaica Plain resident who rides his bike regularly to work in Cambridge, said bicyclists in urban areas have to be vigilant about obeying the rules of the road and be aware of what is happening in front of and behind them.
“I am surprised and a little horrified,’’ said Dashnaw.
Bikers making the rounds today said they are used to the heavy traffic and do their best to follow the rules of the road. But accidents between bikers and vehicles, do happen, they conceded.
One pedestrian said he’s come close to being hit a few times while crossing the street.
“The cars won’t let me pass,’’ said the man, who would not give his full name.
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The Irrawaddy - Stars Turn Out for Suu Kyi
By WAI MOE Thursday, December 29, 2011
As in many other authoritarian states, celebrities such as actors, musicians and artists have been used in Burma for propaganda purposes for decades by the military junta with the express aim of deterring support for dissident movements and opposition parties.
But in this topsy-turvy world that is the new Myanmar, it is the opposition party that has turned the tables on the government by organizing one of the country's biggest ever concerts, which is due to take place on Friday night at Rangoon’s Myanmar Convention Center.
Sponsored by the National League for Democracy (NLD), the extravaganza will feature as many as 80 of the country's top talents from the worlds of rock, pop, hip-hop, techno and other contemporary musical genres, and will include popular bands Emperor, Metal Zone, Lazy Club, Plus 3, Spectrum, Heaven Born and Vertical Vibration.
Adding to the furore is the fact that NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi will open the concert with a speech. An audience of at least 10,000 is expected with tickets prices between 5,000 and 30,000 kyat (US $6.70 to $40). Profits are to be donated to a education fund for ethnic minority children.
“The concert will be the biggest musical event in 50 years— this is a landmark occasion,” said Pyo Min Thein, one of the concert organizers and a coordinator for a youth education network, adding that its prominence is magnified by the fact that Suu Kyi will make a personal appeal on behalf of suffering children in ethnic areas.
“I decided to join the concert because of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Zaw Win Htut, the lead singer for the rock band Emperor. “She has done so much for our country, and now I want to do something for her.”
He said that Suu Kyi has requested two songs from him: “Mother of the Sky” and “Beginning Anew,” and that he will be glad to sing them for her.
Pop singer Than Thar Win also said she wants to appear at the concert so she can stand alongside Suu Kyi.
“My mother [also a famous signer] will join me tomorrow in meeting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” she told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “Although I will perform late in the evening, I want to be there early to listen to her speech.
“It is amazing that dozens of musicians have joined forces for this concert and for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. No one was forced or invited. They all volunteered themselves,” she added.
Ahead of the concert, large red billboards appeared at busy intersections around the former capital advertising the event, as well as in front of the party headquarters. The billboards indicate the NLD's role as paramount in the event, and list the names of all the bands and musicians.
“This is the first time we have seen these big billboards advertising the NLD logo since the party was formed in 1988,” said Ohn Kyaing, a spokesman for the party.
He said that the idea for the concert was hatched at a fundraiser at the Jason Church in Rangoon in November when Suu Kyi met many of the country's most popular musicians.
During the meeting, Suu Kyi urged them to fight for their country, just as artists had done during Burma’s struggle for independence. He said that several celebrities and rock stars had met again with Suu Kyi at her house in early December to discuss logistics.”
Suu Kyi was released from her last term of house arrest on Nov. 13, 2010, shortly after the general election. Since then, several signs have become evident of progress and cooperation between President Thein Sein’s administration and Suu Kyi's NLD.
Suu Kyi traveled to the capital, Naypyidaw, twice in August and again last week. On her first trip, Suu Kyi held talks with Thein Sein and met other minsters. Her party is currently in the process of re-registering as a political party and returning to the political process.
Several observers have noted that celebrities and pop stars would never previously dare to associate themselves with Suu Kyi or her party.
“The progress in Burma’s political situation might motivate some actors and musicians to become involved in other public projects,” Ohn Kyaing said. “We certainly appreciate their passion and goodwill.”
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Zaw Win of Metal Zone said, “Our involvement in the concert has nothing to do with politics. We, as artists, have simply decided to stand with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”
“This is a concert of collaboration among like-minded conscientious people,” singer Lin Lin said.
Ahead of the NLD concert, there were security concerns in Rangoon due to a bomb blast last week, and because of a horrific explosion caused by a fire at a warehouse early on
Thursday morning.
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Indonesian FM Calls for More Democratic Reform in Burma
By THE IRRAWADDY Thursday, December 29, 2011
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has urged the Burmese government to hold free and fair by-elections as part of its program of democratic reform.
At a press conference at the Sedona Hotel in Rangoon on Wednesday, Natalegawa urged Naypyidaw to allow a free and fair by-election, to make peace with ethnic minorities, to release all remaining political prisoners, and to continue further its democratization process.
“We support the democratic reforms made by the Burmese government,” said Natalegawa. “But it is necessary to continue on this path. We must hold them [the Burmese authorities] to their word,” he said, noting that the measures are linked to Burma's chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Nations (Asean) in 2014.
Natalegawa told reporters that Indonesia can help Burma strengthen its democratization efforts in the same way that his country has achieved over the past decade.
He said Indonesia can help ensure the "irreversibility in the democratization process" taking hold in Burma. He added that the two countries have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and ways to increase trade, which reached US $300 million this year.
According to their latest figures, Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners -Burma has said some 1,572 political prisoners are still being detained in Burma.
With regard to ethnic tensions, Naypyidaw has dispatched negotiating teams to hold talks with ethnic militias, but conflicts in Kachin and Karen states are ongoing.
Natalegawa met with his counterpart, Burma's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, other officials and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday.
Natalegawa also visited Burma in late October when he met President Thein Sein. After returning from his previous trip, Burma was granted the 2014 Asean chairmanship at November's Asean summit in Bali.
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Firemen killed in explosions unaware of chemicals
Thursday, 29 December 2011 22:17 Kyaw Kha
(Mizzima) – Five firemen who died in explosions at a state-owned chemical storage warehouse in Mingalar Taungnyunt Township in Rangoon on Thursday were apparently unaware of hazardous chemicals in the warehouses.
Authorities said the death toll now numbers more than 20 dead and 91 people injured. According to figures compiled at 5 p.m. on Thursday, the 91 people injured in the disaster included 31 firemen, six reserve firemen and 54 civilians.
An official with the Rangoon Region Central Fire Department told Mizzima: “To prevent the fire from spreading to other areas, the firemen only devoted their attention to extinguishing the fire and then the chemical materials exploded. We did not know that they [the chemical material] were in the warehouses.”
The guards at the warehouses were killed in the explosions, he said.
Four of the dead firemen were from the Mingalar Taungnyunt Fire Department, and one was from the Rangoon Region Central Fire Department. The funerals of the five firemen were held on Thursday evening at Yayway Cemetery.
The explosions damaged eight out of 57 fire engines that responded to the scene.
Sixteen of the warehouses, which are said to be owned by the Ministry of Commerce, were destroyed. Township police said at least one of the warehouses is believed to have contained enamel and chemicals, including ammonia and sulfuric acid, which may have caused the explosions.
“If some materials are combined they can react, explode and cause fires. We think the explosions happened this way,” a police officer at the Mingalar Taungnyunt Township Police Station told Mizzima.
Laboratory tests will be conducted to determine if residual chemical materials in the warehouses posed a danger to people, he said.
Meanwhile, critics have blamed not only the government for storing chemicals in a densely populated area of the city, but also the Myanmar Fire Department for failing to provide systematic training to firefighters to better deal with fires that could pose a hazardous chemical threat.
The explosions caused numerous fires that spread through Khtohseik Ward. Estimates say about 1,000 people from more than 140 families are now homeless.
Victims have taken refuge at primary schools No. 20 and No. 24, and the Mahawizaya Yama Monastery in Patheinnyunt Ward in Tamwe Township, said Mingalar Taungnyunt Township deputy police chief Myo Myint Kyaing, who is managing the rescue effort.
Donations to victims have been provided by the central women’s wing of the National League for Democracy, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, charity groups and individual businessmen who have taken food, clothing, drinking water and medicine to the victims.
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Top wars in 2012
Thursday, 29 December 2011 12:40 Mizzima News
Mizzima News – Burma is No. 10 on a list of wars in 2012, according to the International Crisis Groups (ICC ), an NGO that seeks to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts.
Louise Arbour, the group’s president, said in a statement the list reflects the ranking of wars at risk of deteriorating further in 2012.
Arbour said Burma’s civil war in ethnic border areas had a chance to show improvement in 2012.
The ICC statement on Burma said: The government's pledges on reform are being fulfilled: the military has moved out of front-line politics; top opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi was released, is engaging with the government at top levels, and is set to run in elections.
“Many other political prisoners were also released, and there are livelier debates in Parliament that are even broadcast on TV,” said the statement. “There is a major opportunity for this long-suffering country to continue in a positive direction in 2012.
The ICC said, “The outside world, particularly the West, needs to respond by engaging further and dropping counterproductive sanctions that have harmed civilians without loosening the junta's grip on power. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Myanmar in early December was the right move at the right time, but it is not enough.
“Key next steps to watch for from the regime include releasing all remaining political prisoners, passing a new media law that would curtail censorship, and signing cease-fires with armed ethnic groups that would be a key step towards ending abuses by the military in these border conflicts.”
The ICC board is chaired by Thomas Pickering, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Russia, India, Israel, Jordan, El Salvador and Nigeria. Crisis Group’s president and CEO is Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.
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DVB News - ‘I want to see Burma, my country. But it’s not safe for us there’
By KATE KELLY
Published: 29 December 2011
Dickson Hoo is 24 years old, a grade nine mathematics teacher and deputy principal at a mission school. He’s a bright young man who knows all his students by their first names.
But instead of air-conditioned classrooms and computer screens, he teaches quadratics on a donated blackboard with a ragged piece of chalk while his students jostle for a place on rough wooden benches, their feet dangling above a well-swept dirt floor.
Dickson has lived and taught in Mae La refugee camp for the past five years. Mae La is the biggest of nine refugee camps peppered along the Thai border with Burma and overflowing with around 50,000 traumatised, desperate people.
Dickson’s father Saw Tar Hoo is a pastor, a tall solemn man who fled Rangoon with his wife Daisy and their children in 2006 to escape the brutal Burmese military regime. Dickson and his family belong to the Karen ethnic group, which has suffered at the hands of the Burmese government since the country’s independence from British rule in 1948.
The UN Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) reports over 90 per cent of Mae La’s refugees are of Karen ethnic origin and most have fled attacks in southeastern Burma.
Dickson says his students, around 1,300 boys and girls ranging from 11 to 20 years of age, are some of the lucky ones.
“There are still so many children in the camp who cannot come to school because we simply don’t have any more room for them,” he says sadly.
He proudly shows me their small library with rough wooden shelves stacked with books donated from various NGOs. A young Karen girl is sitting in the corner, bent over her books.
Dickson says she’s busy studying for the end of year exams, although he sadly admits that for most of his students there are no further opportunities once they’ve finished their schooling.
“Around one or two per cent of our students may have the opportunity to go to a third country with their families and of course, that’s what everyone here is hoping for,” he says.
Dickson’s elder brother, Nickson, was one of those fortunate to be accepted in the last round of the UNHCR’s resettlement program and now lives in the US. His eyes light up as he tells me how he dreams of following his brother and finishing his own education at a western university.
“I want to get a good education, to become a qualified teacher then come back here to help my Karen people,” he tells me.
He had only just completed the second year of a mathematics degree at West Rangoon University in Burma’s former capital before being forced to abandon his studies, home and childhood friends when his family fled for the safety of the refugee camp.
Dickson says he tried to register himself and his family with the UNHCR and apply for the resettlement program as soon as they arrived in Mae La refugee camp on Boxing Day
2006, but was told by camp authorities the UN was not taking on any new refugees. He says he’s confused and angry because of conflicting information from camp authorities. “In 2007, they told me to wait until 2010, I went back later and they said 2011. Now they’ve told me maybe we can register in 2013 or 2014.”
One camp official told him to stop asking because the UN is not taking on any more refugees. “‘You’ll stay in this camp for the rest of your life,’ he told me.”
Nobody has told Dickson that unless the UNHCR can convince the Thai government to reopen its refugee pre-screening and registration program, his future and that of almost
70,000 other displaced Burmese, is in limbo.
Because his family arrived after the Thai government suspended its screening program in late 2005, he does not have official UNHCR refugee status and therefore cannot apply for third country resettlement. It also means he cannot leave the confines of the camp, go to a library, an internet café or the UNHCR field office in nearby Mae Sot because he does not possess an official UNHCR registration card, which is the only protection that refugees have against arrest and detention by Thai authorities.
Aid agency, the Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), reported in October 2011 that almost 70,000 of some 150,000 of residents across all nine camps are unregistered refugees and most new arrivals since 2005 are not registered.
The UNHCR has resettled over 58,000 refugees in third countries since 2005, mostly the US, Canada and Australia, in a bid to alleviate the congestion in the camps. Some, including Mae La camp, have been operating for more than 20 years.
However, TBBC reports show that despite the mass resettlement program, the population of the camps has remained constant as thousands more displaced Burmese seek refuge from persecution.
However, Dickson and many others hoping to forget the torments of their past and start new lives in a third country do not realise that unless they registered before 2005, they have no chance.
The Thai government has been under pressure from Burmese authorities to close down the camps, giving vulnerable residents no choice but to return to the uncertainty and persecution from which they originally fled.
In April, Thai authorities said they had a three-year plan to close all nine refugee camps, something TBBC deputy executive director Sally Thompson says is unrealistic and premature.
“We all want the camps to close and for the people to return to their homes. But that can only happen when the situation in Burma improves and people are guaranteed safety and security. At the moment people do not feel safe to return,” Thompson says.
But Dickson’s father is growing weary with the desperation and hopelessness of their situation. “It’s like house arrest, we are prisoners here,” he says sadly, staring at the floor. “The Thai authorities won’t allow us to leave the camp but we can’t go back to Burma because we will be killed.”
Nestled at the base of a looming mountain range which is all that stands between the Thai border with Burma, Mae La refugee camp bakes quietly in the heat of the December sun.
Run by the Thai Ministry of Interior, the camp is surrounded by barbed wire and high bamboo fences topped with jagged spikes. A young man in uniform lounges in the sparse shade offered by a makeshift guard post.
A few hundred metres down the road at an official checkpoint, uniformed and armed authorities scrutinise the comings and goings of every vehicle. Burmese refugees caught without an official identity card face imprisonment and deportation.
But this hasn’t deterred a group of youths standing defiantly by the side of the road, around the corner and out of sight of the Thai guards. Theirs is not the bright and shiny world of shopping malls, video games and cinemas.
Even if they did manage to hitch a ride some 60 kilometres to the sleepy border town of Mae Sot, avoiding the various police checkpoints along the way, with no money and no understanding of the Thai language, they would be targets for exploitation by unscrupulous employers who prefer Burmese workers because they can pay them less than a third of the usual going daily rate, around 60 Baht, or $US2 per day.
Dickson says while people know the dangers, some prefer to take their chances because they are desperate and have lost hoping waiting for help in the camp. “Some people have been here 20 years … some have been resettled but so many of us are still here, waiting and wasting our lives.
“If I didn’t have my school … and my family here with me, sometimes I don’t know what I would do,” he says quietly. “Of course we want to go home … I want to see Burma, my country. But it’s not safe for us there.”
Then as a bell rings for the start of school, he squares his shoulders and follows a line of students inside the squat tin-roofed buildings for another day at High School Two, Mae La camp.
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