Burma: Grave Fears for Zarganar

Zarganar - a great Burmese talent
What has happened to one of Burma's boldest and bravest? I am referring to comedian and poet Maung Thura (popularly known as Zarganar)? He was arrested Burma's military government on 25 September as part of the violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

Information from PEN points to his arrest for supporting the monks demonstrating in Burma's capital, Rangoon. Zarganar remains in detention and there are mounting concerns for his well-being and safety.

PEN has long been concerned about freedom of expression in Myanmar. Since the 1988 crackdown on the National League for Democracy (NLD) in which thousands were killed and thousands more arrested, the numbers of detained writers known to PEN has remained largely unchanged.

PEN is currently campaigning for the release of nine writers serving sentences ranging from seven to twenty-one years imprisonment in Myanmar. All are detained for their peaceful opposition activities. They include Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the NLD and writer, who has spent the large part of the past eighteen years in detention.

To download PEN's latest caselist click here.
Click here for more details about PEN's work for Aung San Suu Kyi:

Burma: The Junta's last stand?

From The Irrawaddy:

Rangoon, Morning—About 10 fire trucks took up positions around Rangoon’s City Hall on Friday morning, and about 12 empty military trucks were positioned at Bandoola Park, according to witnesses. Authorities have also blocked a main road with barbed wire leading to Sule Pagoda. Authorities also positioned security forces at Kandawgyi Park and the Livestock and Fisheries office in Kyeemyindaing Township, witnesses said. According to sources in Rangoon, representatives elected in the 1990 election (nullified by authorities) plan to lead a demonstration march on Friday.

Rangoon, Midday—Demonstrators gathered in front of the Trader Hotel around noon on Friday to start a peaceful march, a source told The Irrawaddy. The demonstration will be lead by politicians elected in the 1990 election that was nullified by the junta. A source said they will try to talk to the soldiers and ask them not to shoot at peaceful demonstrators. A large number of soldiers have been positioned around Sule Pagoda.

Burma's Pressure Cooker

Street tension mounting in Rangoon

Ask yourself: How long could you stand living in a country under iron-fisted military rule, with no democracy and in fear of a violent crackdown at any time?

This is the Pressure cooker that is Burma.. and once again we are seeing - if only a glimpse - what happens when a long-suffering people take to the streets.

A Burmese blogger gives a first hand account at Ko Htike’s Prosaic Collection

History shows that eventually, regimes like Burma's military junta can't last. People need their dignity and are resilient enough to hold out for basic human rights.

The last time I was in Burma was 2002.. just as the military junta was planning to release Aung San Suu Kyi. They did - for a short while - and I was privileged to be in Rangoon reporting the event for ABC TV.

I also compiled a report for ABC Radio's The World Today about the quirkiness of reporting in Burma

Cameraman Mark Laban who travelled with me to Burma in 2002

Protest in Indonesia's Papua

Papua's remarkable highland peaks. Below the mist is the Grasberg mine carved out of the mountains. This is the traditional lands of the Amungme people. According to legend these mountains are the sacred home of their ancestral grandmother who guards the balance of nature. Freeport has been accused of disturbing this natural balance.

In an unprecedented action, thousands of workers from a giant US-run mine in Indonesia's remote Papua province have staged a protest demanding better wages and welfare.

The workers come from the Grasberg gold and copper mine high up in the mountainous interior (see photo above). They demonstrated outside the Indonesian headquarters of Freeport-McMoRan, which is in the lowlands about 70 kilometres downstream from the minesite. News reports say the protest was peaceful , but the thousands of demonstrators were flanked by Indonesian police at all times.

The workers have been gathering in Timika from surrounding villages and towns demanding to speak with a Freeport executive in the US via teleconference.
Critics accuse Freeport of not giving enough to the people of Papua in return for the mine. They allege the mine causes pollution and that the military's protection of the site leads to human rights abuses.
The firm has disputed the claims.
A Freeport spokesman told the AFP News Agency that in the past decade the company had almost quadrupled its Papuan employment, from some 800 in 1996 to the current 3,000 workers.

Freeport runs its Grasberg mine under a 30-year contract with the Indonesian government that began in 1992. The company owns 91 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia, with the rest in government hands.

Members of the Amungme people who live downstream from the Freeport mine project. In 2000 I reported on a mine spill which wiped out part of the Amungme village of Banti. You can read about this story and the struggles of Papua's people in my book Running Amok