Scores missing after Indonesia ship wreck

Bad weather is making the search for survivors difficult as most of them are still missing

About 33 people rescued so far after a boat carrying more than 200 migrants sank off the coast of east Java.

A boat believed to be carrying more than 200 migrants, many of them from the Middle East, has sunk off Indonesia's main island of Java, local media reported.
Police blamed the accident on overloading, telling the official news agency Antara on Saturday that the vessel appeared to have been carrying more than twice its capacity.

So far only 33 people have been rescued, Sahrul Arifin, the head of emergency and logistics at the East Java Disaster Mitigation Centre, said.
Bad weather is making the search for survivors difficult as 182 are still missing.
He said strong waves wrecked the wooden boat about 90km out to sea. "Our search and rescue team have begun sweeping the water around where the accident took place but we are now sending body bags to that area."
Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Indonesian capital Jakarta, said that "chances of finding any more survivors was getting slimmer by the hour as the boat sank almost 20 hours ago".
One of the survivors, Esmat Adine, told Antara that the vessel began rocking from side to side, which triggered widespread panic.
The passengers were very tightly packed, and therefore had nowhere to go, said the 24-year-old Afghan migrant.
"That made the boat even more unstable and eventually it sank," he added.
Overcrowded boat

Adine said that he and others survived by clinging on to parts of the broken vessel until they were picked up by the local fishermen.
He estimated that more than 40 children were on the ship. It was not immediately clear if any were rescued.
"It is another case of an overcrowded boat meeting with disaster. There have been similar accidents in the past as migrants come to Indonesia on their way to Australia," Al Jazeera's Vaessen said.
"Lots of people in Indonesia are involved in the business, basically a big people-smuggling business, where lots of money is involved.
"These people [migrants] pay thousands of dollars to take these journeys."
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million people, has more than 18,000 islands and thousands of kilometres of unpatrolled coastline, making it a key transit point for smuggling migrants.
Those on board on Saturday - apparently heading to Australia - were from Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
Last month, a ship carrying about 70 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan capsized off the southern coast of Central Java; at least eight people died.

UN Launches Relief Aid in Kachin State Conflict Zones

The UN began initial efforts on Tuesday to provide aid for refugees in the armed conflict areas of Kachin State in northern Burma, where sporadic fighting continues despite Burmese President Thein Sein’s reported instruction to government troops that they should hold fire except in self-defense.
On Monday evening, a small UN team arrived in Laiza, a town on the China-Burma border where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has its military headquarters. They brought with them six truckloads of essential household materials. 
This is the first time that the Burmese government has allowed a UN organization access to KIA-controlled areas since armed conflict between government troops and the KIA broke out June, with clashes consistently recurring since that time.
The over 34,000 war refugees who sought shelter in Laiza have previously received no international or Burmese government aid during the over six months of fighting, forcing them to survive on handouts from local Kachin aid groups and the KIA.
The UN team includes staff from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Organization for Humanitarian Assistance, whose task is to launch an initial relief effort and perform an assessment of the situation.
“As part of the UN team, UNICEF provided 300 family kits, which contain essential household items to cover the basic domestic (cooking, personal hygiene) and shelter needs (blankets and cloths) for as many families,” said Zafrin Chowdury, the spokesperson for UNICEF in Rangoon.
“It is UNICEF and the UN's hope that more convoys with UN supplies will be allowed to reach all those displaced and in need,” he added.
An estimated 40,000 locals have been displaced in the war-torn areas of Kachin State, but until Tuesday the Burmese government authorities had only allowed the UN World Food Program to distribute food to the nearly 6,000 refugees in the government-controlled areas of Kachin State.
The KIA and local aid groups have welcomed the relief efforts by the UN and independent NGOs for the refugees, as many refugees are suffering from malnutrition and are in need of medical care, said La Rip, an official representing the local Kachin Development Group.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special human rights rapporteur for Burma who had called for UN access to the conflict zones of Kachin State, also welcomed the news that relief efforts would be allowed and repeated the urgent need for Burmese civilian authorities to have the power to control the military when dealing with ethnic minority groups.
Fighting in the region continues despite reports that Thein Sein, an ex-army general, issued a written statement signed on Dec. 10 ordering Burmese army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to halt military operations against the KIA except for self-defense purposes.
The statement has not yet been publicly announced, but its existence was revealed to local journalists on Monday by the Kachin State chief minister at a fund-raising ceremony for Kachin war refugees.
There does not appear to be any current prospect of a formal ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the government troops because the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization, has explicitly said that it is seeking a political dialogue with the goal of autonomy and will not accept Burma’s current parliamentary system dominated by former military generals under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, which they say includes only minimal rights for ethnic minorities.
The issue of autonomy has not been an integral part of recent ceasefire agreements between the government and ethnic Shan and Wa armed groups, but the Burmese officials have said that the ethnic groups can work to achieve such an outcome by joining the Parliament and pushing for changes in the Constitution. 
“We are not informed of the reported order by President Thein Sein to the army to hold attacks against us, but nonetheless the fighting will go on because the government army has already occupied a number of our military bases in its recent offensives and because we are yet to hold a true political dialogue with the government,” said KIO/KIA spokesperson La Nan, adding that the Burmese army reinforced its troops in Myitkyina and Bhamo townships of Kachin State on Monday.

US Wants Burma to Have Good Relations with its Neighbors

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US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, right, during their meeting at Foreign Ministry in Seoul, on Oct. 7, 2011

 

WASHINGTON — The US wants Burma to have good relations with its giant neighbors China and India, a senior US diplomat said ahead of trilateral talks with India and Japan and as the US special envoy for Burma is in Beijing to brief Chinese officials on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to Burma earlier this month.
“We seek a country that has a good, strong, trustful relationship with all its neighbors, principally India and China. We will be in close consultations with both of them about the developments inside the country,” said Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell.
Washington aims to promote further reform in Burma, he said, adding that the US wants to coordinate its efforts with Japan and India during talks with diplomats from those countries to be held next week.
“We would like to compare our overall strategy,” said Campbell, citing the release of political prisoners, the greater opening of political space, an easing of ethnic tensions and progress towards national reconciliation, and the removal of military ties between Naypyidaw and Pyongyang as areas in which the three countries should “speak in one voice.”
Campbell said that the US also wants to coordinate its Burma policy with Asia's two largest democracies in other areas, such as “capacity building, rule of law, agricultural issues and health concerns.”
The trilateral meeting, scheduled to be held in Washington next Monday, will be the first of its kind, and will cover a range of key regional and global economic, military and strategic issues.
Meanwhile, the US special envoy for Burma, Derek Mitchell, told reporters in Beijing that Burma's greatest challenge is national reconciliation, noting that the country needs to resolve the division between the ethnic minorities and the Burman majority if it is to achieve lasting stability.
“I think that remains the biggest concern that we all must have about the stability of the country,” said Mitchell. “You can have artificial stability through force of arms, but that’s not sustainable.”
Mitchell also referred to the impact Burma's conflicts have had on its neighbors.
“I won’t speak for China, but I know there are cross-border impacts of all of this that affect ... Thailand, affect India, Bangladesh, and many of the neighbors. This is something we ought to think about and hopefully assist in the right way Burma’s development towards national reconciliation,” he said.

Scores missing after Indonesia ship wreck

Only 76 people rescued after a wooden vessel carrying 380 migrants sank off the coast of the Indonesian island of Java.

Last Modified: 17 Dec 2011 21:56

A wooden ship believed to be carrying more than 380 migrants, many of them from the Middle East, sank off Indonesia's main island of Java, local media have reported.

Police blamed the accident on overloading, telling the official news agency Antara on Saturday that the vessel appeared to have been carrying more than twice its capacity.

So far only 76 people have been rescued,  said Sahrul Arifin, the head of emergency and logistics at the East Java Disaster Mitigation Centre.
He said strong waves wrecked the wooden boat about 90km out to sea. "Our search and rescue team have begun sweeping the water around where the accident took place but we are now sending body bags to that area."
One of the survivors, Esmat Adine, told Antara the vessel began rocking from side to side, which triggered widespread panic.
The passengers were very tightly packed, and therefore had nowhere to go, said the 24-year-old Afghan migrant.
"That made the boat even more unstable and eventually it sank," he added.

Adine said that he and others survived by clinging onto parts of the broken vessel until they were picked up by local fishermen.
He estimated that more than 40 children were on the ship. It was not immediately clear if any were rescued.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million people, has more than 18,000 islands and thousands of kilometres of unpatrolled coastline, making it a key transit point for smuggling migrants.
Those on board on Saturday - apparently heading to Australia - were from Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
The private television station Metro TV reported that 33 people had been found alive and that perhaps 215 others were still missing.
Last month, a ship carrying about 70 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan capsized off the southern coast of Central Java; at least eight people died.

Suu Kyi, Chinese ambassador meet in Rangoon

Aung San Suu Kyi has reached out to the Chinese ambassador in Rangoon, according to China’s foreign minister, who said the two met privately, according to a Reuters news agency report. He declined to say when or where the meeting took place.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi 

The meeting would mark the highest-level contact in two decades between China and Burma’s opposition.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said China's top diplomat, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, would travel to Burma for a meeting next week of Mekong River countries.
Liu said that ambassador Li Junhua's meeting with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was in response to a request from her.
The ambassador "listened to Aung San Suu Kyi's ideas," he said.
Suu Kyi's chief of staff, Khun Tha Myint, told Reuters that the meeting happened on Dec. 8 at Suu Kyi's residence, and lasted just over one hour.
"The meeting went very well," he said. "It was very cordial and friendly."
China is Burma’s closest foreign ally, but relations took a step back after the new Burmese government suspended the construction of Burma’s largest hydropower project in September, which was funded by China. Almost all of the electricity would have gone to China.
China also invests heavily in infrastructure, an oil and gas pipeline to transport fuel to southern China and other basic resource areas.
Recently, the U.S. has approached Burma in an effort to establish a closer relationship, and help the once-isolated country to move forward on democratic reforms.
Suu Kyi’s move comes only a few weeks after the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma. Observers say the U.S. and China are engaged in a not-so-subtle effort to protect their geo-political interests in Burma, which forms a buffer between China and India.

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Selection or election for village administration officer post in Buthidaung

Buthidaung, Arakan: An election for village administration officer post was held in Buthidaung Township, on December 8. But the election became selection after bribing money to concerned authority, said a village elder from the locality on condition of anonymity.

“An election for village administration officer was held in Sein Nyin Pya (Sein Dee Pran) village, Buthidaung south with four competitors - Abdul Hashim (graduate), Mohamed Sadek (matriculation), Sidique Ahmed (under matriculation), and Nurul Islam (Class III).”

The election was held by the order of district administration officer as the former administration officer was sacked from his post earlier due to corruption. But, the election was held under supervision of Buthidaung Township administration officer.  

Villagers peacefully voted in the election and Abdul Hashim got most votes and Nurul Islam got the least votes among the participants. But, when the result was declared Nurul Islam had won the election. Therefore he became the village administration officer of the village.

“Nurul Islam is USDP member and also bribed two million Kyat to the Township Administration officer  before the election,” said a local trader who denied to be named.

“Nurul Islam is neither speaking nor writing in Burmese. How does he rule his village? Local villagers said that one of the USDP members namely Mohamed Noor will do all the works on behalf of Nurul Islam,” said another local businessman.

“This is a selection, not election,” said the township administration officer while villagers asked , according to a schoolteacher who denied to be named.

“The officer selected the uneducated man means they authority wants the village administration officer to do anything what the higher authority ordered.”

“People across the country and international community said that there were some changing in Burma, but there is no changing in northern Arakan and the political persecutions against the Rohingya community is going on,” said a local politician.

Local youth openly looting Rohingya refugee

Kutupalong, Bangladesh: A group of local youth from Kutupalong is looting unregistered Rohingya refugee in the day time openly, said an elder Refugee from the camp.

“The group is led Afsar son of Shuna Ali healed from Kutupalong area and enter the refugee camp with fake  500 taka note where the group buy goods from glossary  shop.” 

“If the Refugee shopkeepers denied to accept the fake note, the local youths said it is your and you kept the money we toke the goods.”

“The local youths also looted and took chickens from refugee in front of refugee females in the day time, if the owner of chickens stopped the youth, the youth beat the refugees.”

We are facing big problem to complain about fake note to the concerned camp security force as the fake note is in our hand and we have no evidence that it was paid by local youth, said a refugee shopkeeper from camp.

“The camp security police didn’t bar the youth who are entering into camp and made upside down with fake note, but, to harass and to extort money from refugee the police came to camp at any time.”

“We are not registered in Bangladesh as a refugee, so every local enter to the camp where they harass, loot and rape the refugee without any fear of arrest. The police also not protect the refugee while the refugee face problem,” said a religious leader from camp.