Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here Sun May 18, 2008 6:54 pm
CHILDREN of some of the most senior members of the Burmese regime are studying at Australian universities, local Burmese say.
They include the son and daughter-in-law of a minister, whose names are on a list of banned figures, and the son of a colonel in the Burmese military.
The former foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, said it was "likely that some elements of the regime would have children studying here".
The junta has aroused international disgust by blocking foreign aid after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis this month.
Last October, the federal government and the Reserve Bank placed financial sanctions on 418 members and supporters of the regime, including military officers, MPs, former commanders and their families.
A former University of NSW student - who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals against his family in Burma - said one woman on the list, Wei Wei Lay, graduated in engineering in the early 2000s and had since become a permanent resident in Australia.
Her husband, Aung Myat Soe, who is also known as Kyaw Myat Soe and is the son of Burma's minister for national planning and economic development, was doing a masters of engineering at the university, the former student said.
Universities are prevented under privacy laws from commenting on their students and the University of NSW declined to confirm or deny whether it had a record of the students.
It said: "A person's suitability to be granted entry to, or residency in, Australia is a matter for the Government and the Department of Immigration. The university's responsibility is to comply with all relevant government legislation and regulations. The university has a totally objective system for accepting students, which is based on the student's academic merit."
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Government was aware that two people on the financial sanctions list were living in Australia and had been since before the sanctions were imposed.
Neither of the students could be located by the Herald and it is not known if they have changed or anglicised their names. But the name "Kyaw Soe" is listed on an online database as a candidate in the university's telecommunications masters course and due to graduate at the end of this year.
The son of a Burmese colonel is also studying in Sydney. His uncle, a psychiatrist living in Carlingford, confirmed that his brother's son was studying at Central Queensland University's Sydney campus.
But the colonel's brother, Raymond Tint Way - who is a pro-democracy advocate and organiser of Concerned Burmese Physicians and Professionals - said there were many children in Australian universities whose parents were more senior than his brother, who was only a soldier and not a member of the elite group.
Kyaw Myint Malia of the Burmese Friendship Association said local Burmese were aware that the children of several junta members were studying at universities, but many of them changed their names and background details before applying for their student visas.
The website Burma Dictator Watch says the youngest daughter of one of the regime's most senior military commanders is also studying at a Sydney university.
Thomas Tunra, a democracy activist, said local Burmese believed Major-General Tin Hla had been in Sydney about six months ago, but he did not know whether his daughter had been enrolled at a university at that time.
Subject: Re: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here Sun May 18, 2008 9:04 pm
Yeah I know what you mean...
But their parents & relatives are living by extorting the hapless population at large... they know this (their kids) and are happy to cash in and take advantage of their own immorally privileged position...
Well, if they are happy to cash in on the evil racket, then they implicitly accept the risks that go with such immorally privileged lives...
Or do they consider themselves as untouchables..?
ANCAPS will give them their "untouchable"...
RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here Sun May 18, 2008 10:28 pm
Subject: Re: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here Sun May 18, 2008 11:36 pm
Wholesale gift...
For the Junta's precious children...
RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here Mon May 19, 2008 11:07 pm
THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has known since October that family members of the Burmese military junta who are banned from conducting business in Australia are living in the country, but has taken no action.
Burmese people living in Australia have identified children of the regime's most senior figures studying in Australian universities, despite some of their names being among the 418 Burmese political and military leaders on the Federal Government's financial sanctions list.
Macquarie University economics academics told the department and the Reserve Bank shortly after the list was released last October that at least three people on the list were living in Sydney.
Alison Vicary, an editorial member of the Macquarie periodical Burma Economic Watch, said anyone who was on the list was either directly implicated or had benefited from the crimes perpetrated by the Burmese regime, including military assaults, forced labour, forced relocation and theft.
"Anyone on the list in Australia has benefited from one or more of these practices, living here on wealth stolen from the people of their own country," Ms Vicary said. "Those now living and being educated in Australia have obtained wealth, while materially impoverishing and severely circumscribing the freedom of the majority of their fellow citizens."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs has the power to cancel the visas of people whose presence is deemed to be contrary to the national interest.
The former minister, Alexander Downer, who deported the children of the Zimbabwean regime, said he had not thought of doing the same with the children of the Burmese regime partly because he was distracted by the November election. "It would certainly be a way of targeting the regime," Mr Downer said.
The minister, Stephen Smith, did not reply to questions by last night.
Burmese people in Australia say Kyaw Myat Soe, the son of a senior minister, is studying engineering at the University of NSW while living in Sydney with his wife, Wei Wei Lay, who is a former student of the university. Kyaw Myat Soe is the son of Soe Tha, Burma's National Planning and Economic Development Minister.
The university declined to comment on whether it had a record of the students but said suitability was a matter for the Department of Immigration.
Monique Skidmore, who specialises in Burma at the Australian National University, said her university used to teach students whose parents were connected to the junta until she and others brought it to its attention five years ago.
"There was such a push to try to get children from Asia, and the people who were [recruiting them] had never actually worked in Burma and they didn't understand what the situation was," Dr Skidmore said.
But Trevor Wilson, a former ambassador to Burma and visiting fellow at the ANU, said the children of Burma's ruling class were precisely the type of people universities should be educating.
"I think the only issue we should have about this is if they're children of generals or children of leaders of the regime, not just ordinary soldiers," Mr Wilson said.
"These are exactly the kind of people we want, to change the way they think."
Subject: OZschwitz: Children of Burma junta studying here 
Sun May 18, 2008 6:54 pm
