The main opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi marked Burma’s Independence Day on Tuesday by urging the country’s military rulers to free all political prisoners, while the junta used the occasion to tell people to be loyal.
Burmese soldiers stand at attention during a ceremony to celebrate the 57th anniversary of independence from Britain Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 at People’s Park in Rangoon, Burma.
At least 25 political prisoners have been released in military-ruled Myanmar, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party said Tuesday, including two party MPs and three journalists.
NLD parliamentarians Ohno Kyaing and Kyaw Khin were released after serving 15 years and nine years in prison respectively, along with six other party members, said a list released at the party’s headquarters.
Hundreds of fishermen were probably killed in Myanmar by Indian Ocean killer waves, the World Food Program (WFP) said Tuesday, as Yangon put the tsunami toll at 53 killed and 21 missing.
“We are afraid that hundreds of fishermen may have died,” WFP spokesman Simon Pluess told AFP.
Text of report by Burmese opposition radio Democratic Voice of Burma web site on 3 January
The death toll from the tsunami waves that hit Burma on 26 December is estimated to be at least over 400, according to reliable sources. Most of those who lost their lives are Salon people who live in the sea and fishermen from Irrawaddy Division. A person who does not want to be identified and who visited Lampi Island where most Salon people live told DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) that almost 200 people were missing from that island alone.
The 6.4 on Richter scale earthquake in southern Shan State that followed its devastating forerunner in Indonesia on 26 December had centered in Namzang township where two people were reported killed when their homes collapsed, said a Shan elder in Taunggyi this morning.
A missioner in Ranong, a town on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, says locals talk about 600 victims. Burmese political dissidents say the same.
Myanmar exposed 266 narcotic-drug- related cases in November last year, punishing 380 people in this connection, state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.
During the month, the army, police and the customs seized 8.7 kilos of heroin and 9.8 kilos of marijuana as well as more than 165,000 stimulant tablets.
Even after looking at satellite photos of Myanmar, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday he isn’t sure what to make of claims by the reclusive country’s military junta that the Asian tsunami killed only 59 people there.
Satellite images of isolated Myanmar’s shoreline reveal it was not as badly damaged by the deadly tsunami as other countries in the region, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
The Indian armed forces have launched its biggest peacetime relief operations in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands through Myanmar, the Indo-Asian News Service reported Tuesday.