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Myanmar forces open fire on protesters

saigontoine — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:09:00 +0700

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar security forces opened fire on Buddhist monks and other pro-democracy demonstrators Wednesday for the first time in a month of anti-government protests, killing at least one man and wounding others in chaotic confrontations across Yangon.
Finally, after 3 weeks of black out all around Asia, the media start to inform their public about the dramatic situation in Burma and the pacific protest of the monks against the military regim..

Dramatic images of the protests, many transmitted from the secretive Southeast Asian nation by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet, riveted world attention on the escalating faceoff between the military regime and its opponents.

Clouds of tear gas and smoke from fires hung over streets, and defiant protesters and even bystanders pelted police with bottles and rocks in some places. Onlookers helped monks escape arrest by bundling them into taxis and other vehicles and shouting "Go, go, go, run!"

The government said one man was killed when police opened fire during the ninth consecutive day of demonstrations, but dissidents outside Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths.

Some reports said the dead included monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyr figures could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.

As the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, the crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated regime, especially from its chief economic and diplomatic ally, China.

The United States and the European Union issued a joint statement decrying the assault on peaceful demonstrators and calling on the junta to open talks with democracy activists, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate.

"What's going on in Burma is outrageous," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The U.N. Security Council met in private to be briefed on developments, and issued a brief statement expressing concern about the violent response to demonstrations.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was sending a special envoy to the region, urged the junta "to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar."

There was no sign the government had any intention of backing down, and monks said the violence would not deter them from pressing on with what has become the most sustained anti-junta protest since a failed 1988 democracy uprising. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands.

John Dale, an associate faculty member of George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, said the involvement of monks had made it clear the demonstrations would not peter out and it was surprising the military held back this long.

"Now that it's turned violent, there's high risk activity," Dale said. "The regime signaled they are sincerely prepared to use violence."

The junta issued an edict late Tuesday banning gatherings of more than five people, but the order was ignored by democracy activists and the public alike Wednesday.

The number of protesters seemed a bit less than on Tuesday, but thousands massed at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, including monks in cinnamon robes, students, members of Suu Kyi's democracy movement and activists waving flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock — a symbol of Myanmar's democracy movement. Large crowds of bystanders also gathered to watch.

Police fired tear gas and made some arrests trying unsuccessfully to scatter the demonstrators. Protesters marched off toward the Sule Pagoda in the heart of Yangon, but were later blocked by military trucks and security officers with riot shields, clubs and guns. Groups of marchers then fanned out into other streets, chased by security forces.

Officers fired warning shots and tear gas trying to disperse the main group and began dragging monks into army trucks — the first mass arrests since protests against the military dictatorship erupted Aug. 19.

Reporters saw some monks beaten, and an exile dissident group said about 300 monks and other protesters had been arrested in small clashes across Myanmar's biggest city.

There were reports of destruction of property but it was unclear whether it was done by demonstrators or pro-junta thugs who were seen among the soldiers and police. Witnesses said a mob burned two police motorcycles.

Myanmar's government said security forces fired when a crowd that included what it called "so-called monks" refused to disperse at the Sule Pagoda and tried to grab weapons from officers. It said police used "minimum force."

The junta statement, read on state radio and television Wednesday night, said a 30-year-old man was killed by a police bullet. It said two men aged 25 and 27 and a 47-year-old woman also were hurt when police fired, but did not specify their injuries.

Witnesses known to The Associated Press reported seeing two women and one young man with gunshot wounds.

Exiled Myanmar journalists and democracy activists released reports of higher death tolls, but the accounts could not be independently confirmed.

Khim Maung Win, deputy editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition-run shortwave radio service based in Norway, said five monks and three civilians were reported killed and at least four seriously injured.

Zin Linn, information minister for the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which is Myanmar's self-styled government-in-exile, said at least five monks were killed.

An organization of exiled political activists in Thailand, the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, said three monks had been confirmed dead and about 17 wounded.

Such reports, as well as photos and video taken covertly and then sent over the Internet and by other means, have helped keep the momentum of the protests going. Transmitted back into the country, the dissident views counter reports from state-controlled media ridiculing demonstrators.

Voice of Burma's chief editor, Aye Chan Naing, said activists were using the Internet and cell phones to funnel news out of Myanmar. He declined to discuss details because that could help the military disrupt the messages, saying the junta already had cut some cell phone service.

Naing said activists sometimes transmitted video one frame at a time over the Web and also hid information within seemingly innocous e-mails.

During the marches in Yangon, bystanders joined with protesters to stand up to security forces, driving them back with a barrage of bricks and bottles that scattered debris and broken glass on the street.

Demonstrators tried to shame one group of soldiers by chanting: "You are the army of the people, we are feeding you! Be just to us!"

When words failed to move the 70 soldiers and the crews of two fire trucks being used for crowd control, people began hurling stones and the line gave way to allow protesters through, many of them monks headed back to their monasteries.

"They will kill us, monks and nuns. Maybe we should go back to normal life as before," said a young nun, her back pressed against the back of a building near the scenes of chaos. But a student watching the arrival of the demonstrators said, "If they are brave, we must be brave. They risk their lives for us."

The two asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.

___

Associated Press writers Grant Peck in Bangkok, Thailand, and Edith M. Lederer and Carley Petesch in New York contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with additional details on protests, corrects that Yangon is not capital. AP Video.)

City drivers fail to heed traffic safety month

saigontoine — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:46:00 +0700

(18-09-2007) HA NOI — September is Viet Nam’s traffic safety month but preliminary figures show that the message has fallen on deaf ears, especially in Ha Noi and HCM City.

Hospitals report no fall in the number of traffic deaths and injuries although complete statistics are not yet available.

And traffic police say jams have increased in the country’s two major cities since the first week of September.

Early figures show that 987 people were killed and 746 suffered serious and minor injures in more than 1,000 road accidents during August.

The numbers offer a glimmer of hope because they were slightly less than from the same month of last year.

Capital gridlock

In Ha Noi, major routes have been gripped in gridlock since September 1 – the beginning of the second month since Government Resolution 32 introduced a series of measures intended to curb the carnage.

Resident Le Thanh Hung complained that he spent almost three hours on Wednesday, September 5 and Monday, September 10, travelling the 12 km to his home in the southern Thanh Xuan District from his office in the central Hoan Kiem District.

"All the major roads to my home were blocked by cars and motorbikes," he said adding that the traffic jams had prevented him from collecting his son after school.

Hung managed to escape a major jam between Pham Ngoc Thach and Chua Boc streets but was halted in a narrower street because many others had chosen the same route.

"I saw a few traffic policemen but with so many vehicles and people they could do nothing," he said.

He was used to regular jams but not the snarl of those particular two days.

Ha Noi Public Security Department director Nguyen Duc Nhanh offered several explanations for the serious jams.

School had resumed and parents had to deliver and collect their children about the same time as officials and workers started or finished their day.

Heavy rain had caused floods and detours.

The easing of rules for the registration of new vehicles earlier in the year had prompted a rapid increase in the number of new motorbikes and cars on the city’s roads.

The city now had more than 2 million motorbikes and 200,000 cars and the new registration rules meant the numbers were unlikely to fall soon, Nhanh said.

The city also had many roads under construction with work way behind schedule.

Nhanh said measures to control the traffic chaos had included the doubling of registration fees for second vehicles; increased penalties for traffic violations and more and regular traffic patrols.

More patrols would force people to honour traffic laws that were usually ignored when drivers and riders thought they could avoid doing so.

The city administrators had proposed staggered hours for all workers and students but it was not known when the new system would be introduced.

HCM City

Similar jams are happening in HCM City where on many roads people can walk faster than those travelling by vehicle.

The Transport and Public Works Department reports that rush-hour traffic averages 3kph compared with 6-8kph off-peak.

The HCM City People’s Committee says transport infrastructure is overburdened from an increasing number of vehicles and by the number of immigrants who arrive each month to look for work.

Road Traffic Police say 280,000 motorbikes and 20,000 cars were registered in the first eight months of this year taking the number of vehicles travelling the city’s roads to 3.5 million.

Road building, or widening, including work on the drainage system, has contributed to the traffic jams.

Financial loss

Yearly financial losses from traffic jams will continue to grow, warns the dean of the HCM City University of Technology’s Transportation Technology Department, Pham Xuan Mai.

The prevailing yearly estimate was VND14,000 billion, about US$875 million, represented by lost time at work, medical costs due to pollution, and loss of profits.

Many city businesses say they lose money because of traffic bottlenecks.

"Motorbikes using the pavement in front of our shop prevent us from doing business in a normal way," said a clothing-shop owner on Nguyen Kiem Street, Go Vap District.

City officials say that more money has had to be spent to hire extra traffic police and volunteer youth who act as traffic wardens at street intersections.

Traffic Police commander Senior Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Thinh says 500 volunteers will be assigned to city streets to control traffic because there are not enough police.

The policeman suggests that the People’s Committee reduces traffic jams by staggering working hours.

But traffic jams will continue at least until the subway is finished.

The work is scheduled for completion by 2020.

Waterways

HCM City uses more waterborne transport than anywhere else in Viet Nam and a campaign to stiffen the regulations – punish violations and provide ferry passengers with safety gear – started this week.

The Transport Ministry’s Waterways Department director Tran Dac Suu, says the campaign is aimed at the promotion of positive changes among waterway commuters

About 70 per cent of the city’s goods are carried by water making it necessary to improve traffic-safety awareness among commuters, boat owners and crew.

The city has more than 200 landings, including overload jetties that berth a high density of cargo vessels, small boats and tourist craft.

The city’s water police and inspectors have toured the city’s docks and major waterways encouraging people to follow the safety regulations for themselves; their passengers and property.

Water police also inspected water craft for safety equipment and ownership registration in Vinh Long Province.

The province has more than 1,700km of waterways.

Its water police saythat although there were no serious accidents during the first eight months of this year, the possibility is high if safety regulations are ignored.

Patrols were also increased and the need for safety emphasised in central Nghe An where 19 students died in an accident on the water while going to school at this time last year. — VNS

Immediate measures ordered

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has instructed all ministries, government agencies, provincial administrations and the National Traffic Safety Committee to immediately activate traffic-safety measures. Their job is to have the public understand the urgent measures of Government Resolution 32 effective from last month, he says in a letter sent last Friday. This is to be done through outdoor advertisements, brochures, leaflets and slogans to warn that safety helmets will be compulsory for all motorbike riders and their passengers from December. Government officials, public servants and Viet Nam Communist Party members in all government offices are required to set an example. The Deputy Prime Minister asks the Public Security Ministry to increase patrols and inspections with the focus on speed, overloads, underage riders and drivers and unregistered transport vehicles. Hung has instructed the Ministry of Education and Training, which has responsibility for about 22 million students, to focus on encouraging high school, college and university students to obey the traffic laws and practise traffic safety. Appropriate ministries are responsible for the quality of safety helmets and the National Traffic Safety Committee has oversight and review of the programme. Also on Friday, National Traffic Safety Committee chairman Ho Nghia Dung said eight working groups had been formed to start a massive inspection programme for implementation of Resolution 32. The committee would first ask riders and passengers to wear helmets and then check on passenger transport including bus and boat. Other issues such as traffic-law education; the checking of licence procedure and publicity campaigns would follow.— VNS

HCM City to teach traffic rules with cartoons

saigontoine — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:02:00 +0700

VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City Department of Transport and Public Works on September 12 introduced a set of cartoon books on traffic safety. The department plans to provide around 45,000 sets free of charge to children less than 16 years old.

HCM City to teach traffic rules with cartoons

12:58' 13/09/2007 (GMT+7)13/09/2007 (GMT+7)

This set of cartoons includes three volumes, entitled: The city at your convenience, The city in dreams, and Safety, right!

Instead of teaching traffic rules by unattractive traditional methods, the department hopes that those cartoon books will simplify the skills to use traffic lamps, traffic signals, wearing helmets when riding motorbikes, etc. by simple pictures and language, which is suitable for children.

The department will present those cartoon books to children of up to 16 years old, who will attend the Traffic Safety Camp on September 19 at the Zoological Botanical Garden in HCM City.

More than 2,000 students from 40 secondary and high schools in HCM City will take part in this camp, which will have various activities and contests related to knowledge about traffic safety.

This event is part of the second Traffic Safety Month but this is the first time the camp has been organized for children.

“We hope that through this camp, not only children but their parents and siblings will have more knowledge about traffic safety and urban traffic culture,” said Director of the HCM City Department of Transport and Public Works, Tran Quang Phuong.

He said that the Department of Transport and Public Works will combine with the local Department of Education and Training to organize similar camps in all districts and to teach traffic rules at general schools.

According to statistics of the HCM City Traffic Police Agency, nearly 7,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in the south since 2006, accounting for 50% of the fatal cases caused by traffic accidents in Vietnam. Notably, up to 40% of them are less than 20 years old.

(Source: VNE)

9/11

saigontoine — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:55:00 +0700

''No comment on September 11th BDay.. When the counter from NGO's in Irak annoucing over 1 million dead people...''

This one belongs to the war propaganda : Irak body count