Kyle over at Immigration Orange has been trying to get the word out about Chiquita. The famous banana company pled guilty to paying almost $2 million to right-wing paramilitary organizations in Colombia, even after they were designated as terrorist groups.

I wish I had more time to investigate and write about this issue for my readers, but Kyle has links to more resources and info at his own blog. One link I do want to point out, though, is Oke, a fair-trade banana company!

Nathaniel Tan, the Malaysian blogger and activist who was arrested on the 13th and remanded to police custody for four days has been released on bail. He has posted his statement about the events at his blog. His statement is an eloquent and inspiring response, and there's really nothing I could say to add to it here. Here are a few excerpts from his statement, but do go read the whole thing.

I was eventually made to understand that I was arrested in connection to accusations made on the internet regarding Datuk Johari Baharum.

The connection to me was based on a comment made on my blog that was made by an anonymous commentor on the 10th of Februrary, 2007.

It was prepostorous of the police to suspect me of publishing these accusations based on documents protected by the Official Secrets Act that were supposedly in my posessesion. There is absolutely nothing even remotely resembling proof to substantiate such claims.   more »

Malaysian blogger and activist Nathaniel Tan, from Bangkit.net and Jelas.info was arrested without charge on Friday. He was taken from his work Friday afternoon by plainclothes officers who did not identify themselves, and did not tell him he was being arrested or the reason he was wanted for questioning. He was asked to bring his laptop and told that it had something to do with the internet. Police had him in lock-up for six hours while his friends and colleagues searched for him, all the while denying that they had him in custody.

The court remanded him to custody on Saturday for four days, in a closed-door hearing which police attempted to orchestrate without informing Nat's lawyers (from Elizabeth Wong). Nat has not actually been charged with a crime, but is being held for an investigation - even though the police have already seized his laptop and home computer, as well as CD-Roms and documents.

The current official line is that Nat is being held under section 8 of the Official Secrets Act.   more »

The following article was submitted by a reader and author of the fun and informative website Hella Delicious. Burma is a complex and wonderful country, and it's always great to learn something new about it. Other Burma Underground readers are also welcome to submit articles to be published here.

Golden Spice Lilly of the Golden Land
Renee Htein

An unexpected storm in the middle of the cold dry season caused havoc on the highway up the mountains to the Shan plateau. The large air-conditioned bus with its frozen passengers came to a halt. In the last few minutes before the sun rose I was advised to go to the toilet. “Why?” I asked, expecting to hear an explanation about how the first elimination of the day should be before the sun comes up to maintain a strong constitution. “Once the sun comes up everyone will see you, there are cars stopped on every bend, and who knows how long we will be here,” came the logical answer. I quickly found an especially dark spot to do my business.

As the sun rose I went to have a look at what had stopped the traffic. After passing about fifty huge buses and trucks, I reached the source of the problem. A truck overloaded with cabbages had tried to pass another large truck on a tight corner. It was lucky to still be on the road, the front left tire hung over a steep cliff which disappeared into the mist. People milled around, watching the trucks as if they were going to move themselves. I was soon envisioning being trapped on this red muddy road for days and decided to grab my small bag and head to the other side of the traffic jam. “That mile post does say only twenty miles to Kalaw,” I convinced myself, squinting at the Burmese numerals on the muddy mile post nearby. Another impatient young fellow opted to go with me. After a brief jungle treck we found ourselves being dropped off outside the central market in Kalaw, vastly relieved that a friendly pickup had given us a ride. The journey along the windy mountain road had been much longer than I imagined.   more »