Comedians Not amused by Reform

The Moustache Brothers and Thee Lay Thee, two of Myanmar’s leading comedy troupes, have complained that they continue to have performances restricted despite the raft of recent democratic changes undertaken by Naypyitaw.

Par Par Lay told The Irrawaddy from The Moustache Brothers’ backstreet theater in Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay that the government now allows all cultural dancing groups to put on shows except political satire.

Educated Exiles ‘ h ave Duty

to Return’

Myanmar‘s future prosperity is under threat from a severe skills shortage and so educated nationals living abroad should return to help develop the country, said 88 Generation Students leader U Min Ko Naing. The 50-year-old activist, who spent 24 years in prison for his role in peaceful democracy demonstrations, made the comments in a Facebook video. “Your motherland

The 64-yearold urged the authorities to mimic other political changes by removing the ban from his group, which has been prohibited from performing since 2001 after he was released from prison in Myitkyina Township, Kachin State, where he served seven years for making fun of the then ruling junta generals.

“I welcome the political changes and I am even glad about them,” he said. “But these changes have not been for me. I want to ask why the authorities have not given me permission to do my favorite performances.” and your country is suffering and under threat from a lack of education,” he said. “It is the right time to come back to work for the country. We are constructing a road. We need people to help grow flowers on this road.”

“I want to say there is still no freedom of art in our country even though they say that things have opened up,” agreed Kye Thee, a member of the Thee Lay Thee troupe.

Opposition Leader a sks for Indian Support

Myanmar’s main opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi used the Jawarharlal Nehru’s Memorial Lecture to urge India to strongly support her country’s nascent democratic transition. “I hope, at this most difficult phase, the people of India will stand by us and walk by us as we proceed on the path that they were able to proceed upon many years before us,” she said. Daw

Aung San Suu Kyi visited the memorials of Indian independence leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru prior to her speech.

30,000 Dawei Villagers forced Out by June

The forced relocation of more than 30,000 villagers by southern Myanmar’s Dawei deep-sea port project will take place before June next year, says Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Support Team Chairman Tin Maung Swe. A total of 16 villages in Yaybyu and Longlon townships in Dawei District of Tanintharyi Region will be moved to three new locations, he told The Irrawaddy . “We will complete a total of 500 new homes in Bawar Village, which is the new place where five villages from the Nabulae area of Yaybyu Township will first be relocated this month,” he said. “So far we have completed building 343 houses.”

govt Reports $70m graft across 15 Ministries

Nearly half of Myanmar’s ministries misused almost 60 billion kyat (US $70 million) in the last fiscal year, Auditor-General U Thein Htike told a session of the Union Parliament in November. One-third of the funds have since been returned, said the report, with many of the involved staff members already punished for their role. The total misuse across 15 ministries took place in the 2011-12 fiscal year under the budget allowance set by the former military government, according to the report.

Rohingya Refuse ‘Bengali’ Registration in Rakhine

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Pauktaw Township, Rakhine State, have refused to sign governmentissued registration forms in order to push for recognition as an official minority. Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project humanitarian group which works for Rohingya rights, told The Irrawaddy that local people were not happy that the authorities erased the term “Rohingya” from completed forms and instead replaced it with “Bengali.” Almost all members of the Muslim Rohingya minority in Pauktaw Township have since refused to cooperate with the registration process.

CSOs Slam $80m World Bank grant to Myanmar

Civil society organizations (CSOs) are taking the World Bank to task for its decision to grant Myanmar US $80 million in development assistance, saying that the Washington-based financial institution had ignored its own polices in making the move. At a press conference in Yangon, representatives from 23 CSOs said that the bank’s decision to provide funding to Myanmar for community-driven development (CDD) projects lacked transparency. It was also unclear, they said, whether the bank had taken into account issues such as ethnic conflict and endemic corruption.

a ncient Buddhist Relics Returned by Workers

Hundreds of 1,000-yearold Buddhist statues have been returned by workmen after an ancient pagoda site in Pyay Township, Bago Region, dating from the Sri Ksetra era of the Pyu Kingdom, was ransacked. The antique Buddhist relics were handed to the authorities after the culprits began to worry about being arrested for stealing the artifacts. Pyay residents had previously sent a letter to The Irrawaddy to complain about the theft, and after word got out those responsible eventually decided to give the treasures back.

Vietnam May Evict Bears from National Park an eviction. Conservation groups say the dispute in Tam Dao National Park is emblematic of conflicts brewing across Vietnam’s protected areas, with environmental safeguards disappearing when developers want the land.

Thai Lèse Majesté Reform Urged by Ex-prisoner

Hundreds of bears, some of them blinded or maimed, may be evicted from a lush national park near Hanoi after a Vietnamese vicedefense minister ordered their sanctuary not to expand further and find another location. Chat Dau Valley is of strategic military importance, but environmentalists allege that vested interests have urged

More Earthquakes on the Cards

In the wake of the powerful earthquake that rattled Upper Myanmar on November 11, a seismologist has warned that regions south of the country’s second largest city Mandalay, including the capital Naypyitaw, remain vulnerable to potent future tremors.

U Soe Thura Tun, the secretary of Myanmar’s Seismological Committee, said central areas are prone to seismic activity mainly because of the Sagaing Fault—a 750-mile (1,200-km) major break that transects the country from north to south, passing through major cities before dipping off into the Gulf of Martaban. Despite their perilous positions, historical records show that no settlement along the line has experienced any major tremor since

1930, when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit Bago (then Pegu), a city 50 miles (80 km) from Yangon. The disaster claimed more than 500 lives.

“According to geological records, a powerful quake tends to strike every 100 years or so. To our surprise, there’s been no single historic quake in the regions ranging from south of Mandalay to Naypyitaw, even though the area is sitting on the moving fault,” said U Soe Thura Tun. “It can be interpreted that a quake is likely to hit the region.”

A Thai-born American who spent more than a year in prison on charges of insulting Thailand’s king says the country’s harsh laws outlawing criticism of the monarchy are holding back democratic development. Joe Gordon, who was convicted last year for translating excerpts of an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej from English into Thai and posting them online, said those jailed under Thai laws protecting the royal family often suffer abuse from prison guards and are treated “like animals.”

Bangladeshi Villages get Internet by Bike

Dozens of “Info Ladies” are biking into remote Bangladeshi villages with laptops and Internet connections to help tens of thousands of people, especially women, get everything from government services to chats with distant loved ones. The Info Ladies project, created in 2008 by local development group D.Net and other community organizations, is modeled after a program that helped make cellphones widespread in Bangladesh. It intends to enlist thousands more workers in the next few years with startup funds from the South Asian country’s central bank and expatriates working around the world.

IN FOcUs

Kachin at War

Kachin i ndependence Army (K i A) soldiers ride in the back of a jeep near frontline positions in the mountains outside Mai Ja yang, K achin State, on January 23, 2012. Conflict between government troops and the KiA resumed on June 9, 2011, after the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire. t he conflict has left tens of thousands of Kachin civilians homeless, including many in rebel-controlled areas and even across the border in China. Despite repeated attempts to negotiate an end to the fighting, peace remains elusive in Myanmar’s northernmost state.