Bits and Bites from around the World > Suu Kyi moved to Solitary Confinement; 22 Students die celebrating graduation; UFOs in Russia and US Navy

..

Myanmar junta moves deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi

to solitary confinement

Has the military had enough of Burma's conscience?

By Clyde Hughes

   

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction.

Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

June 23 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military-led government said on Thursday that it's moved former civilian leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to a solitary confinement prison in Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi, 76, has been in the custody of the military junta since a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. She has since been charged with nearly two dozen criminal offenses, including corruption and using unauthorized communications devices. The charges could keep her in prison for the rest of her life.

"By the law, it's confirmed that [Suu Kyi] has been moved to the prison," Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said, according to CNN. "And she's been kept at separate confinement well."

Deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to several years in prison on various

criminal charges that were filed after the junta takeover in Februry 2021. File Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE

Many senior members of Suu Kyi's government and party are among those held in Naypyidaw. Adviser and Australian economist Sean Turnell is also detained there.

Myanmar military brutalizing children, creating 'lost generation,' U.N. says

In April, the junta-led government sentenced Suu Kyi to five years in prison on a corruption conviction. Military prosecutors said she took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold.

Suu Kyi has rejected the accusations and some independent legal experts have said they are sham charges intended solely to legitimize and justify the military takeover last year.

Since Suu Kyi's removal, the Myanmar military has tried and convicted Suu Kyi on other charges -- including possessing unauthorized walkie-talkies and violating COVID-19 restrictions. She'd already been sentenced to six years in prison on separate charges.

I seriously doubt that she will survive prison. The government can do what it likes there. There should be serious international repercussions for this.

At least 22 'students' dead in South African nightclub

while 'celebrating end of exams'

By JACK WRIGHT and ELIZABETH HAIGH FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:26 EDT, 26 June 2022

At least 22 people have been found dead inside a nightclub in South Africa amid claims they were poisoned. 

Police rushed to the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, a township in the southern city of East London, in the early hours of Sunday after receiving reports from the public.

Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said those killed in the club are believed to be aged between 18 and 20.

The Eastern Cape provincial community and safety department official Unathi Binqose ruled out a stampede as cause of death. He said he understood the patrons were students 'celebrating pens down, a party held after writing (high school) exams'. 

However, regional newspaper DispatchLive reported claims those who died were exposed to some kind of poison. 

Empty bottles of alcohol, wigs and even a pastel purple 'Happy Birthday' sash lay strewn on the dusty street outside the double-storey Enyobeni Tavern, according to Unathi Binqose, a safety government official who arrived at the scene at dawn. 

Local reports suggest none of the bodies had any obvious wounds or injuries, ruling out suggestions that a stampede or similar tragic incident would have occurred. 

At least once a year you hear about multiple deaths at Indian weddings where alcohol was provided, often made with toxic ingredients. This could be a similar catastrophe.

Crowds gather as forensic personnel investigate Enyobeni Tavern, in Scenery Park, today

Local media also reported: 'Bodies are lying strewn across tables, chairs and on the floor; with no obvious signs of injury'. 

Crowds of people, including parents whose children were missing, gathered on Sunday outside the tavern where the tragedy happened in the city of East London, while mortuary vehicles collected the bodies.

Senior government officials rushed to the southern city. They included national Police Minister Bheki Cele, who broke down in tears after emerging from a morgue where the bodies were being stored.

'It's a terrible scene,' he told reporters. 'They are pretty young... It breaks (you).'

The provincial government of Eastern Cape said at least eight girls and 13 boys had died. Seventeen were found dead inside the tavern. The rest died in hospital.

Drinking is permitted for over-18s in township taverns, commonly known as shebeens, which are often situated cheek by jowl with family homes or, in some cases, inside the homes themselves.

But safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced.

'We have a child that was there, who passed away on the scene,' said the parents of a 17-year-old girl.

'This child, we were not thinking was going to die this way. This was a humble child, respectful,' said grieving mother Ntombizonke Mgangala, standing next to her husband outside the morgue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is attending the G7 summit in Germany, sent his condolences.

He voiced concern 'about the reported circumstances under which such young people were gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18'.

The authorities are now considering whether to revise liquor licensing regulations. South Africa is among the countries in Africa where most alcohol is consumed.

'The number has increased to 20, three have died in hospital. But there are still two who are very critical,' the head of the provincial government safety department Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said on local TV. This was before the confirmed death toll rose to 22.

A visibly shocked head of the Eastern Cape Province Oscar Mabuyane spoke from outside the scene, a building surrounded by houses in an area called Scenery Park.

'It's absolutely unbelievable, we can't understand it, losing 20 young lives just like that,' he told reporters, condemning 'this unfortunate consumption, unlimited consumption of liquor'.

'You can't just trade in the middle of society like this and think that young people are not going to experiment,' he said.

Local television showed police officers trying to calm down a crowd of people gathered outside the club in the city, which lies on the Indian Ocean coast, nearly 620 miles south of Johannesburg.

Mr Kinana told the Newzroom Africa rolling news channel: 'The SAPS confirms that about 17... were found dead inside a local cabin in Scenery Park, in the area of East London.

'We received this report in the early hours of Sunday. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation as we speak.

'We do not want to make any speculations at this stage. Our investigation is continuing.'

Russia’s secret UFO files reveal fighter jet was buzzed by strange lights

& 600mph craft moving like ‘no human aircraft’

Henry Holloway

10:50, 27 Jun 2022

RUSSIAN pilots encountered strange lights in the sky and soldiers witnessed objects moving in ways like no human aircraft, secret documents reveal.

Newly uncovered Cold War-era files reveal that it was not just the US who was experiencing encounters with strange objects in the sky - but the same phenomena was being seen in the Soviet Union.

KGB documents showing a sketch of a saucer shape firing a beam'

KGB documents show scores of reports by Russian soldiers, airmen and pilots as they observed eerie shapes, huge objects, glimmering lights and mysterious flashes.

Some of the most striking reports include a Russian colonel who reported a shape-shifting object which fired a "beam of light" towards the ground.

Others include a MiG-21 pilot who was baffled by a mysterious object, and a witness who saw an object that did not move like any known human machine.

The Sun Online can reveal these documents as Russia waded into the UFO debate - which has become a hot topic in Washington DC.

There is much more on this story at the Scottish Sun, including more photos and documents.

========================================================================================

Dozens of sailors confirm their warships were swarmed by

'at least 100' otherworldly UFOs

> Naval crew have told documentary maker Jeremy Corbell that US warships were swarmed in 2019 by 'at least 100' UFOs with unexplainable capabilities

>Last year Corbell published videos from the warship incidents that set social media ablaze

>The videos were verified by the Pentagon and showed flashing objects hovering above US Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean 

>In an historic hearing on UFOs last month, Navy chiefs tried to explain away the incident, saying they were 'reasonably confident' the objects were drones

>Corbell is now hitting back, claiming that he has 'dozens' of accounts from crew, investigators and briefed officials who say that the UFOs were otherworldly 

>The nature and origin of the craft are still unknown, and witnesses say that they flew in ways that would put publicly known drone technology to shame

>A crewman with direct knowledge of the case, who spoke to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity, called the incident 'world-changing' 

By JOSH BOSWELL and CHRIS SHARP FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Please go to the Daily Mail for the full story, more photos and videos.

========================================================================================

Aung San Suu Kyi Earned Her Nobel Prize, Let Her Keep It

Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is gathering criticism from every quarter which seems to be the way things go in this world of social media where people swarm like sharks on a perceived weakling. Suu Kyi's 'weakness' is her refusal to condemn the Burmese (Myanmar) military for their raping and killing of Rohingya Muslims in Burma's Rakhine State. 

Aung San Suu Kyi is the face of democracy in Myanmar. In 1991 she easily won federal elections but was denied power by the military junta that was in control. She spent 15 of the next 21 years under house arrest. She consistently encouraged her many supporters to remain patient and non-violent. For this, and for the extraordinary courage she displayed in facing down military shooters, she won a Nobel Peace Prize, one which other Nobel Laureates would see her return. Is that fair?

The Rohingya

The Rohingya people are native to the sub-continent although a few can trace their heritage in Rakhine State back hundreds of years (some say a thousand years). Some were brought to the state by Portuguese slave traders a few hundred years ago while some others can trace their migration to Rakhine State to British colonialism. Burma was a British colony as well as the entire sub-continent.

After independence in 1948 there were many Rohingyas in Rakine State, such that they elected 5 Rohingya members to Burmese parliament. But then in 1982, the Burmese government passed a law which changed everything. Declaring Rohinyas non-citizens without the right to vote, without education, and ineligible for positions in the civil service, and with movement restrictions. 

 Jihad

The Rohingya jihad movement began in 1947, even before independence, in northern Rakhine State. They wanted the northern part of the state to join Pakistan, but Pakistan refused to entertain that idea, so they began to fight for an independent state. There are still pockets of mujahidin active today and the Burmese military blame the current operation against the Rohingyas on jihad attacks on Rakhine police.

Suu Kyi

This brings us back to Suu Kyi. During her 15 years of house arrest, Suu Kyi studied and practiced Buddhism intensely. She gracefully applied Buddhist pacifism in her struggles with the military junta, but seems to have abandoned that pacifism when it comes to the Rohingya. Is it because, only occasionally in Burma's history have they recognized the Rohingya as Burmese? Is there something in Buddhism where you don't need to apply it to non-Buddhists? Is it because they are mostly Muslim with a minority of Hindi, and therefore are a threat to Buddhists? 

The fact that northern Rakhine Muslims started fighting for independence from Burma even before Burma gained its independence from Britain is rather telling for states where there is a Muslim majority. They do not like to be ruled by a non-Muslim entity and will resort to violence to end such rule. 

Suu Kyi is 'far-thinking' enough to see that nothing good can come from having a Muslim majority state in Myanmar. They will not blend into society, nor will they be ruled by a religion they think is evil. 

The 'religion of peace' proclaims itself as tolerant of other religions but reality testifies otherwise. 

What Muslims call “tolerance,” others correctly identify as institutionalized discrimination.  The consignment of Jews and Christians to dhimmis under Islamic rule means that they are not allowed the same religious rights and freedoms as Muslims.  They cannot share their faith, for example, or build houses of worship without permission. No Muslim majority country has a thriving Christian or Buddhist community.

It seems obvious to me the Suu Kyi is doing what she always did - protecting her country and its Buddhist heritage. Her departure from 'what she always did' is that she is no longer applying Buddhist pacifism in her methods. Is it a case of 'power corrupts'? Or, is there simply no other way to save her country?

Rakhine State, Myanmar