News & Articles on Burma, Wedesday 27 January, 2010
Jan 27th, 2010
Imprisoned Comedian Turns 49
Suu Kyi party leaders skeptical on November release reports
US calls for Suu Kyi’s immediate release
Burmese court delays verdict for detained US man: lawyer
Rival groups meet on Karen refugees
Govt to set up border trade centres
Burma junta blames ethnic rebels for blasts
Than Shwe and the Waiting Game
Burmese Soldiers Still Recruit Underage Youth
US Wants Burma to ‘Reach Out’
UN Special Rapporteur to Visit Burma
Burmese Tycoon Takes Over Fuel Imports and Sales
Two explosions slightly damage buildings in Kyaukkyi, Myanmar
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By WAI MOE Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Burmese junta’s top negotiator with ethnic groups, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, is likely to meet representatives of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of big ceasefire groups, at the end of January.
This will be Ye Myint’s first meeting with a ceasefire group in 2010.
Sources close to the KIA on the Sino-Burmese border said Ye Myint, who is chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS), formerly known as the Military Intelligence Service, is reportedly scheduled to meet with his Kachin counterparts on Jan. 29 to once again discuss Naypyidaw’s Border Guard Force proposal.
“During the meeting in December in Myikyina, Maj-Gen Soe Win told Kachin delegates they will hold another meeting early this year,” said Thailand-based James Lum Dau, the deputy chief of foreign affairs for the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the KIA.
In 2009, Junta officials and Kachin representatives met about 10 times and discussed the border guard force issue, he said, adding that the issue is likely to dominate future talks.
The last meeting between Burmese officials led by Maj-Gen Soe Win and Kachin leaders was in Myitkyina on Dec. 30.
Kachin sources told The Irrawaddy that during that meeting the Burmese junta withdrew the deadline for the Kachin to join the border guard force program by the end of 2009.
The Kachin favored the spirit of the 1947 Panglong Agreement, which provided the basis for a federal union in the Southeast Asian nation, the sources said.
Other ceasefire groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the strongest militia with an estimated 20,000 troops based in northern and southern Shan State, as well as the National Democratic Alliance Army in eastern Shan State have yet to agree to the border guard force plan.
As the electoral law and the timetable for the 2010 elections have yet to be announced, the deadlock between the junta and the cease-fire groups over the border guard force plan is a critical challenge for the election.
After the junta launched a military offensive in August 2009 against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Kokang ethnic army that rejected border guard force proposal, Burma watchers expected that other cease-fire groups would be the next targets.
“At the moment, the border situation is as normal—the Burmese army is not making preparations for war in the border area,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, an observer of Burmese military affairs based in Ruili, in China’s Yunnan Province.
“Both the junta and ethnic groups seems to be negotiating for a peaceful solution,” he said.
Last week was a busy time for Burmese military commanders who handle issues in the north, northeast and eastern Burma, where the ethnic ceasefire groups that have yet to agree to the border guard forces are located.
Lt-Gen Tha Aye, chief of the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO)-1 visited sites across Kachin State, inspecting infrastructure projects along with Soe Win, commander of the Northern Regional Military Command, while Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of the BSO-2, traveled in Shan State.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday that Min Aung Hlaing along with Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, the commander of Northeast Regional Military Command, visited state projects in Laogai, the Kokang capital, on Jan. 23.
The visit was one of various trips by Min Aung Hlaing’s to the Kokang area after junta forces overran the area, forcing the Kokang ethnic army to flee in August 2009. At the time the junta accused Kokang Leader Peng Jaiseng of involvement in drug and arms trading.
Kokang officials and their allies in the UWSA denied the allegation, however.
In an editorial on Wednesday called “Wipe the danger of narcotic drugs out,” The New Light of Myanmar highlighted the junta’s “drug elimination measures” along the border with neighboring countries.
The editorial said: “All global countries are trying their utmost to reduce and eliminate narcotic drug production and trafficking assisting each other in the fight against transnational crimes in border regions.”
Intentionally or not, The New Light of Myanmar put the report about Min Aung Hlaing’s trip to the Kokang area beside the editorial.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17674
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Imprisoned Comedian Turns 49
By ARKAR MOE Wednesday, January 27, 2010
While popular Burmese comedian Zarganar spent his second consecutive birthday behind bars in remote Myitkyina prison in northern Burma on Wednesday, a small group of dissidents celebrated his 49th birthday at a Buddhist monastery in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
“We offered alms this morning to the monks in commemoration of Ko Zarganar’s birthday,” said fellow comedian Godzilla of the well-known Burmese troupe Thee Lay Thee A-nyeint. “After all, he has made a real sacrifice for his people. We wish that he––and all the other persons who have made such sacrifices––live long and free from danger.”
Zarganar. (Source: campaigns.ifex.org)
Zarganar’s sister-in-law, Ma Nyein, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Zarganar is suffering from the skin disease pruritus. “I last saw him on Dec. 7, 2009. Like other families of political prisoners, we expect him to be released this year, but it all depends on the Burmese authorities.”
“He is a very funny man who inspires confidence,” said Kyaw Thu, a famous Burmese actor. “He is a true artiste and I very much appreciate his good deeds and brave spirit.”
Zarganar was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his involvement in the humanitarian relief effort in the Irrawaddy delta after Cyclone Nargis devastated the region in 2008.
For years he has been a thorn in the side of Burma’s ruling generals, constantly criticizing them and the government with sharp wit and fierce political satire.
Born Thura to a political family, his parents were well-known writers Nan Nyunt Swe and Daw Kyi Oo.
Zarganar graduated in dental medicine from Rangoon University in 1985.
Adopting the stage name “Zarganar,” meaning “tweezers,” he performed amateur stage comedy shows at Rangoon universities until in 1986, he formed the “Mya Ponnama Anyeint” troupe.
He quickly became known for his “than gyat,” a kind of traditional satirical show popular during Thingyan, the Burmese New Year.
He got away with a highly popular play, “Beggar,” which savagely ridiculed the late dictator Gen Ne Win and his cronies.
Zarganar was arrested for participating in the nationwide uprising in 1988. He was in prison for the next five out of six years.
Between 1997 and 2006, he was banned frequently from show business by the military authorities for making controversial video documentaries and holding interviews with foreign media.
Zarganar wrote a screenplay based on late Gen Aung San’s biography and also directed three short videos and a movie to raise HIV/AIDS awareness with the help of local NGOs.
He became best known for his performances of A-nyeint Pwe, a form of theatre that combines dance, music, opera and comedy, which at times is politically and socially driven and seeks to make light of the stresses of everyday life.
Continually pushing the envelope against government censorship, Zarganar formed a comedy troupe called Thee Lay Thee A-nyeint, which performed mostly in Rangoon and delighted audiences with satirical skits lampooning the military junta.
In 1991, Zarganar was awarded the Lillian Hellman and Dashiel Hammett Award, given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by New York-based Human Rights Watch.
He was arrested on Sept. 26, 2007, for participating in the nationwide “Saffron Revolution.” He and his friend, actor Kyaw Thu, made a public show of offering food and water to Buddhist monks as they prepared to lead anti-government protests. Moreover, he urged the public to support the monks in radio interviews with exiled media.
After Cyclone Nargis devastated in Irrawaddy delta in early May 2008, Zarganar organized a group of about 400 Burmese volunteers to provide disaster relief to survivors in cyclone-ravaged areas.
He was rearrested on June 4, 2008, after a raid at his home in which the authorities seized his computer, about US $1,000 in cash and three CDs containing footage of May’s cyclone devastation, the opulent wedding of junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s youngest daughter and the film “Rambo 4,” in which Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone fights Burmese government soldiers in a mission to rescue kidnapped Westerners.
In November 2008, Zarganar was sentenced to 59 years in prison. Rangoon Divisional Court later reduced the prison sentence to 35 years after an appeal by his family. In December 2008, he was transferred to Myintkyina prison in Kachin State in the country’s far north.
One month before his sentencing, Zarganar was awarded the one Humanity Award by PEN Canada of which he is an honorary member.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17673
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Suu Kyi party leaders skeptical on November release reports
Wed, 2010-01-27 07:14 — editor
* News
From R.Vasudevan—Reporting from New Delhi
New Delhi, 27 January (Asiantribune.com):
Reports that a top Myanmar leader has been quoted as saying detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest ends, have only lowered hopes of human rights’ activists all over the world that she might be freed ahead of the elections.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, felt the comment purportedly made last week by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo was “nothing new or extraordinary.” The release could come probably a month after many observers expect Myanmar to hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades. “If the media reports were correct, hopes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s earlier release under the executive order were dashed,” said Nyan Win, who is also a lawyer for the 64-year-old Suu Kyi. “Daw” is a term of respect used for older women in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Senior NLD official Khin Maung Swe emphasized it was crucial Suu Kyi was released before the election. “The most important thing is they must be freed in good time so that they can work for national reconciliation,” he said.
Home Minister Maung Oo also said 82-year-old NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo, a former defence minister and retired general, would be released on Feb. 13 after 10 years in detention.
News reports on U.S.-government backed Radio Free Asia and elsewhere cited witnesses as saying Maung Oo in a Jan. 21 speech declared Suu Kyi would be freed in November. The reports said he spoke at a meeting of several hundred officials in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 560 kilometers north of Yangon. Maung Oo was also quoted as saying the elections would be “free and fair.” The minister said the government would pursue an international-style market economy after holding “free and fair” elections, including loosening restrictions on car imports. “We are not a power crazy government,” he was quoted as telling the meeting in Kyaukpadaung. “The election will be held in 2010 without fail. I promise the election will be free and fair, there will be no cheating.”
Suu Kyi’s party and pro-democracy activists have complained the constitution that established the polls was undemocratic and unfair. It includes provisions that bar the democracy icon from holding office and ensure the military a controlling stake in government. Suu Kyi’s party has not yet decided whether to take part in the election.
Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. She was sentenced last August to 18 months’ house arrest, with three months in detention awaiting the end of the trial counted toward the total. The National League for Democracy party swept the last elections in 1990, but the results were never honored by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 additional months of house arrest in May 2009 after American John Yettaw sneaked uninvited into her house, prompting her to be tried on charges of government subversion. The 64-year-old had told a Myanmar court that she didn’t know Yettaw, was unaware of his plans to visit and didn’t report his intrusion because she didn’t want him to get into trouble. She was sentenced to additional home confinement after being found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest.
Suu Kyi has appealed her sentence to Myanmar’s Supreme Court in Yangon, which will decide within a month whether to proceed with the case.
The military junta has not set a date for the vote but has promised U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders the vote would be free, fair and inclusive. In recent months Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet the junta’s liaison officer and foreign diplomats.
The United States and others are reviewing policy towards the former Burma after years of sanctions and trade embargoes failed to get the junta to improve its human rights record or relax its grip on power. Obama has offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.
In a report released last week, Human Rights Watch said the new constitution, promulgated in 2008, “entrenches military rule and limits the role of independent political parties”. Attacks on ethnic groups had not ceased and intimidation of political and human rights activists had increased, it said
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/01/27/suu-kyi-party-leaders-skeptical-november-release-reports
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US calls for Suu Kyi’s immediate release
Jan 27, 2010 (DVB)–The United States called Tuesday for Burma to immediately release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after signals that the junta could free her following controversial elections.
The Nobel laureate’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), said it had heard that the military regime was considering freeing her in November – meeting global demands for her release but only after the election.
“The idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
“We will continue to press the Burmese government for her release,” he said.
He was speaking after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with US Senator Jim Webb, the leading advocate in Congress for engaging the junta.
The NLD won a landslide victory in the last democratic elections in 1990, but the junta, which has ruled Burma since 1962, never allowed the party to take office.
The military regime has defied persistent international appeals by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the past two decades.
The opposition has been deeply suspicious of the election which the junta plans to hold sometime this year, believing it is a plot to legitimize its rule.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has launched a dialogue with Burma in hopes of wooing the nation back to the international mainstream.
But the administration has voiced concern about the country’s detention of political prisoners and its military campaigns against ethnic minorities. http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=3260
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Burmese court delays verdict for detained US man: lawyer
Jan 27, 2010 (AFP) – A Burmese court delayed a verdict Wednesday in the case of a US citizen detained in the military-ruled country, whose release has been called for by more than 50 US lawmakers, his lawyer said.
Rights activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was arrested in early September and is being held in prison on charges of fraud and forgery related to a Burmese identity card and of failing to declare currency at customs.
A verdict for the 40-year-old was due Wednesday but his lawyer Nyan Win — who also represents Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi — said it was postponed to February 10. “The court is not ready,” he told AFP.
In December more than 50 US lawmakers wrote to junta chief Than Shwe, urging him to release the Burma-born detainee from prison amid health worries.
The lawmakers said the charges against Kyaw Zaw Lwin were a pretext to hold him and that his “longstanding non-violent activities in support of freedom and democracy” in Burma were the real reason for his imprisonment.
Dissident groups from Burma have said he was hoping to see his ailing mother, herself detained over political activities, when he was arrested.
New York-based Human Rights watch has also called for his release and said the charges — which Kyaw Zaw Lwin denies — were “trumped-up” by the regime in Burma.
“The Obama administration should tell Burma’s generals this trial is a litmus test for its commitment to release political prisoners prior to the 2010 elections,” said Elaine Pearson, the group’s deputy Asia director.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s lawyers say he was deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US consular access in his first two weeks of detention.
His fiancee and his Washington-based lawyer said in December he had gone on a hunger strike to demand better conditions for political prisoners and was in deteriorating health. http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=3262
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Rival groups meet on Karen refugees
Jan 27, 2010 (DVB)–A number of groups, including rival Karen armies, met yesterday in Thailand to discuss the repatriation of some 2000 Karen refugees back to Burma.
The refugees in June last year fled fighting between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), who are both vying for control of Karen state. The DKBA are supported by the Burmese junta.
Both groups however were present at the meeting yesterday, held in Thailand’s Nupo village nearby the populous Nupo camp, along with delegates from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC).
An official elected by the refugees who attended the meeting told DVB on condition of anonymity that the DKBA would ensure that returnees are not forced into labour or army portering; these were two of the main threats the refugees reported when they fled last June.
“However, the [DKBA] said they can’t take responsibility on the landmines laid by the KNU in the region before the offensive began,” he said. “The DKBA can clear the mines they laid themselves but not the KNU mines.”
The KNU reportedly expressed concern that there would be little land available for the villagers to return to farming, although the TBBC has pledged to provide food aid both if the refugees return to Burma, or they remain in Thai camps.
The chairperson of the Nupo camp, Tar Su Nya, said however that “there would be a lot of difficulties” if the refugees returned.
“They are afraid to moved around in the area to collect materials such as wood and bamboo to rebuild their houses,” he said. “If we cannot stay here, then we might have to go back, but to do so, we need assistance with food, health and education from the NGOs.”
The Thai government is yet to announce whether repatriation will be forced or voluntary. The UNHCR has also vowed to help any returnees, but said that it is down to the Thai government whether they are pushed back to Karen state.
“We are refugees,” said one of the camp residents contacted by DVB. “We will stay here if we are allowed and will leave if not allowed. But now, there has been no solid decision made and this is leaving us confused.”
Reporting by Naw Noreen http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=3261
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Bangkok Post
Govt to set up border trade centres
* Published: 27/01/2010 at 12:19 PM
* Online news: Economics
The Foreign Trade Department at the Ministry of Commerce will establish four border trade promotion centres at border provinces adjacent to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia, director-general of the department, Wichak Wisetnoi said on Wednesday.
The center will provide knowledge and advice on border trade, and solution to any related problems for Thai vendors running business along the border areas, Mr Wichak said.
It was the policy of Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai to set up the border trade promotion centres to enable Thai businessmen to maximize benefit from the Asean-Free Trade Area agreement (Afta) which took effect on Jan 1.
“The establishment of these centres would help facilitate border trade with neighbouring countries. The ministry targets to increase the border trade value to at least one trillion baht annually within 2012”, the director-general stated. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/166650/commerce-to-set-up-border-trade-centres
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Bangkok Post
Burma junta blames ethnic rebels for blasts
* Published: 27/01/2010 at 02:53 PM
* Online news: Asia
Burma’s state media on Wednesday blamed ethnic separatists for two explosions in a town in the heart of the military-ruled country.
File photo of Karen National Union (KNU) soldiers standing guard at their base in Karen State. Burma’s state media on Wednesday blamed the ethnic separatist KNU for two explosions in a town in the heart of the military-ruled country.
The New Light of Burma newspaper, a junta mouthpiece, said the separate blasts occurred in Kyaukkyi town in central Bago Division early on Tuesday morning, causing minor damage to property but no injuries.
The newspaper blamed the Karen National Union (KNU), a Christian-led rebel group that has been fighting for autonomy for more than five decades.
“It was learnt that the perpetrations were the acts of a group of KNU Brigade-3,” the English-language article said.
In December the junta also blamed the group for a blast in the eastern state of Karen which killed eight people and wounded 13 others.
“Such incidents have proved that KNU insurgents are detonating bombs, blowing up power lines, planting mines in farms and gardens and extorting money, rice and rations from villages and towns,” Wednesday’s report said.
“It is learnt that as the terrorist insurgents in disguise are penetrating regions where peace and stability prevail, the local people are cooperating with the authorities in exposing them,” it added.
The regime has stepped up its decades-long campaign against minority groups, with offensives against ethnic Chinese Kokang rebels in the northeast in August and the Christian Karen insurgents in June.
On Sunday, aid groups said an army crackdown in the eastern region had forced 2,000 ethnic Karen villagers to flee into the jungle.
Civil war has wracked the country since independence in 1948, and while most rebel groups have reached ceasefire deals with the junta, analysts say the army is determined to crush the rest before national elections promised this year.
Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, has co-opted some previously hostile rebel groups to become junta-backed border forces that have taken on their former brothers-in-arms. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/166669/burma-junta-blames-ethnic-rebels-for-blasts
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COMMENTARY
Than Shwe and the Waiting Game
By AUNG ZAW Wednesday, January 27, 2010
It’s often said that Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe is good at managing time. In 2008, he surprised everyone by calling for a referendum in May and announcing a general election would be held in 2010.
He then fell quiet, allowing people to speculate about an election date and the promulgation of an electoral law. Than Shwe is indeed a time-management genius.
This week it was reported that Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo had told local officials in Kyaukpadaung Township that the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be released in November this year.
Can this be interpreted as a message to the world that Suu Kyi will be released only after the election—which can be expected in October, according to a recent unconfirmed report published in the influential Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun? Than Shwe appears to be testing the water again to manage his time.
Maung Oo, it will be recalled, played a role at the end of Suu Kyi’s trial last May, theatrically entering the courtroom to read a prepared statement from Than Shwe commuting Suu Kyi’s sentence from three years’ hard labor to 18 months under house arrest. That sentence expires this November. Did any political pundits predict Than Shwe’s letter beforehand? I recall no one.
It certainly appears that Than Shwe doesn’t want Suu Kyi to be released before the election. If she were to be freed even just one week before the election she and her National League for Democracy (NLD) could scoop up votes and hijack the regime’s seven-step road map.
Than Shwe surely won’t risk another 1990. Without Suu Kyi on the scene he is confident of victory even before the election is held.
His confidence is bolstered by the fact that the international community, the US, EU, UN and regional governments, while calling for a free and fair election, have stopped short of demanding a review of the constitution.
However, by calling for an inclusive and credible election, the US and UN have made clear they want detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners to be included in the electoral process.
Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa recently added his voice to calls for an inclusive election by saying he wants to see Suu Kyi given the possibility and opportunity to interact with her party colleagues on deciding how they will approach the election.
This week, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, P. J. Crowley, told reporters at a daily news briefing: “We have long demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. We think that should still be done and as quickly as possible. I think the idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate.”
Officials in the Obama administration, busy with a “direct engagement” policy with Burma, are showing signs of frustration after waiting in vain for any sign of meaningful enthusiasm on the part of the regime.
The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, who led a US delegation on a visit to Burma in November, told senators at a congressional briefing last week: “We are attempting to take that first step…but I do want to underscore that one can’t dance on the dance floor alone.”
Campbell also said the administration’s formal review of US policy towards Burma reaffirmed its fundamental goals: a democratic government that respects the rights of its people and is at peace with its neighbors.
He elaborated further: “A policy of pragmatic engagement with the Burmese authorities holds the best hope for advancing our goals. Under this approach, US sanctions will remain in place until Burmese authorities demonstrate that they are prepared to make meaningful progress on US core concerns.”
Campbell’s visit to Burma was “educational” in nature, encompassing meetings with the Burmese prime minister, Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders.
The US delegation was reportedly highly impressed with the meetings with Suu Kyi at Rangoon’s Inya Lake Hotel and with NLD leaders at the party headquarters. I have also learned that the discussions with Suu Kyi and party leaders were deep-reaching and covered a wide range of issues.
No time line emerged from the US delegation’s talks with regime officials, however. Than Shwe is keeping that to himself—probably because he doesn’t have one.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=17667
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Burmese Soldiers Still Recruit Underage Youth
By LAWI WENG Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Burmese army is still recruiting underage youth despite the government’s agreement with the UN that such practices would stop.
In the latest incident, Kyaw Min Tun, 14, was conscripted by a soldier in Light Infantry Battalion No. 83, based in Migaungye in Taungdwingyi Township in Magway Division.
His mother, San Thar Win, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that her son was taken to the battalion on Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. She said a soldier from the battalion persuaded him to join by saying he would receive a 60,000 kyat (US $60) monthly salary.
She has asked the battalion to release her son, she said, but the military has not complied.
Meanwhile, Aye Myint, a leading labor activist in Pegu Division, said that two other underage youths were taken to the same battalion this month. His group, Guiding Star, works on issues involving child recruitment and forced labor.
The group received 121 recruitment complaints last year, but only about one-third of the youth were released, he said.
He said that the Burmese government should punished soldiers who recruit underage youth. Government officials have signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization to stop such recruitment but soldiers in the field continue the practice, he said.
Meanwhile, the Burmese military government has extended an agreement allowing the UN to monitor complaints of underage recruitment for one more year.
Kari Tapiola, the executive director of the ILO in Geneva, told The Irrawaddy by e-mail that the overall number of underage recruitment complaints has increased.
The forced recruitment of children into the military is a problem which has been recognized at a high level. According to the “Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General to the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict” in March last year, the Burmese junta “continues to screen and release underage children found in its armed forces during the training process.”
The report said the ILO, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, was instrumental in the release of 12 underage recruits and had verified the release of 23 children “mostly from involuntary military enrollment.” It was waiting for a government response in 14 other cases.
The UN said in its latest report on the situation that the military is still recruiting child soldiers.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that 70,000 underage soldiers are serving in the Burmese armed forces.
Human rights groups say children are recruited at train stations, bus depots, teahouses, video halls and movie cinemas, and even while walking home at night. The groups say the youth are sometimes threatened and beaten if they refuse to agree to undergo military training. After their training, many are sent to areas where the military is in conflict with ethnic groups.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17672
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US Wants Burma to ‘Reach Out’
By LALIT K JHA Wednesday, January 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — As Burma gears up for its general election this year, the United States said on Tuesday it wants the military junta to open up its political process.
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P. J. Crowley told reporters at a daily news briefing: “It’s important for the Government of Burma to reach out not only to those who wish to be politically active, but also to the various ethnic communities within Burma.”
Members of the National League for Democracy, wear t-shirts bearing photo of Aung San Suu Kyi as they donate alms to Buddhist monks outside the party’s headquarters on Jan. 26, in Rangoon. Members of the NLD have started the movement to offer meals to Buddhist monks every Tuesday in honor of their Tuesday-born opposition leader. (Photo: AP)
When asked about a reported statement by the Burmese Home Minister that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi would be released from house arrest later this year, Crowley said the US wants her released as soon as possible.
“We have long demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said. “ We think that should still be done and as quickly as possible. I think the idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Sen. Jim Webb, the chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week to discuss the situation in Burma and the upcoming elections. The Obama administration had two rounds of direct talks with the military junta last year.
At the same time, the East West Center, a Washington-based think tank, has published an article that said the United States and Burma will make progress in negotiations when they can find a beneficial trade-off for each country.
“For Washington, this concerns the release of political prisoners and the unhindered participation of all Burmese political stakeholders—Ms. Suu Kyi included—in the forthcoming elections; for Naypyidaw, significantly enhanced U.S. market access for Burmese-origin light manufacturing and labor-intensive production so as to relieve pressures within its overcrowded farm sector and redirect the surplus labor towards an outward-oriented, and faster-growing small-and-medium scale enterprise sector,” wrote Sourabh Gupta, a senior research associate at Samuels International Associates.
Gupta said it is unlikely that a politician as charismatic as Suu Kyi would be allowed to participate in the prospective 2010 elections.
“The political space accorded to Ms. Suu Kyi (and perhaps her political party) in the run-up to the elections is also likely to be tied to her success in serving as the spokesperson for reducing the sanctions imposed on the junta now that she has reversed course and affirmed this intent in writing to Sen-General Than Shwe.”
“Given concerns over what is likely to be a tainted election as well as the timing, pace and scope of sanctions removal, the United States should perhaps place the fledgling engagement process and the electoral timetable on separate tracks that might loosely overlap but are not forced to coincide. If a graduated glide path to Western markets, conditioned on a release of political prisoners and sequential steps towards civil society opening, allows for participative politics to take hold, pragmatic engagement will serve a useful purpose,” Gupta said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17666
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UN Special Rapporteur to Visit Burma
By BA KAUNG Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The UN human rights special rapporteur for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, will visit the country from Feb. 14 to 20. When he made a number of requests last year to visit the country for the second time in one year, the regime said the timing was not right.
He will make a report on his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in March, according to the UN Human Rights office in Thailand.
Tomas Ojea Quintana. (Photo: AP)
Quintana has asked the authorities to meet with the detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and leaders of ethnic cease-fire groups during his visit, according to an interview he gave to a Burmese radio station on Tuesday. He has also asked to visit Arakan State to study the human rights situation there.
In his report to the UN last year, Quintana called for the release of all 2,156 political prisoners before the 2010 election in order to ensure national reconciliation and a transition to democracy.
Since his appointment by the Geneva-based UN human rights group in May 2008, Quintana has made two trips to Burma, the second in February 2009. His mandate comes from the UN Human Rights Council.
During his last visit, he had private meetings with political prisoners in Insein Prison. He also visited a prison in Karen State where he met with inmates who were imprisoned for trying to escape after they had been conscripted as porters by the regime’s army.
Quintana has urged the military regime to take four human rights steps before the 2010 election: the release of all political prisoners; review and reform laws that are not in compliance with international human rights standards; reform the judiciary to assure independence and impartiality; and reform the military to respect international humanitarian laws in conflict areas, as well as the rights of civilians.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17670
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Burmese Tycoon Takes Over Fuel Imports and Sales
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Burmese business tycoon Tay Za, a close associate of the junta generals, has reportedly co-founded an association to control the importation and sale of gasoline and diesel fuel.
An official at the regime-owned Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Rangoon-based business sources said the Fuel Oil Importers and Distributors Association (FOIDA) was formed on Jan. 23, with Tay Za as chairman and Aung Thet Mann as vice chairman. The association has 138 members.
Aung Thet Mann is the son of the regime’s No. 4, Gen. Thura Shwe Mann,
Both men are on the US sanctions list.
The Burmese junta’s privatization commission announced recently that it is selling more than 100 state-owned buildings and factories as part of the latest wave of privatizations. Petrol stations, which were formerly run by the Ministry of Energy, were not included in the list.
Business sources, however, said that Htoo Trading Co Ltd, owned by Tay Za, has already been awarded a contract to operate state-owned gas stations in Upper Burma.
Sources said that the FOIDA will oversee the operations of importing, pricing and distribution of gasoline and diesel.
According to the Ministry of Energy, Burma has 256 fuel filling stations. The military government has strictly controlled all fuel-related business, including filling stations, since 1962.
Due to the continued increase in global fuel prices in 2008, the Burmese military government has allowed trade by permitting two companies—Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd, a military generals’ syndicate, and Tay Za’s Htoo Trading Company—to import fuel.
In August 2008, the Ministry of Energy allowed petrol stations to sell large quantities of fuel to holders of dollar-denominated foreign exchange certificates (FECs), ending a system of buying fuel with ration books under a restricted quota. Consumers paying in the national currency, kyat, are still limited to two gallons per day.
The sources said the regime’s Trade Council, the country’s highest authority in the area of importing and exporting, announced a policy of allowing private companies to import diesel from December, 2009.
The new policy replaced that of the Diesel Import Provisional Committee, which was formed after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in 2008, to enable some private companies to import diesel to meet urgent demand in storm-hit areas.
Burma is essentially a diesel-powered economy. Buses, trains, trucks and portable generators that exist in nearly every home, factory and shop rely on diesel. According to a Xinhua Chinese news agency report, Burma planned to import more than 30,000 tons of diesel for the first time from Singapore in December.
According to the Ministry of Energy, Burma produces some 80 million gallons of diesel every year for domestic use. Over the last few years, however, the country has had to import about 330 million gallons of diesel every year from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
The Xinhua report also said Burma had imported fuel worth US $600 million over the past few years.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17671
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Two explosions slightly damage buildings in Kyaukkyi, Myanmar
13:59, January 27, 2010
Two series of explosions occurred in Kyaukkyi, Myanmar’s Bago division, Tuesday morning without casualties but slightly damaged some buildings, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar confirmed Wednesday.
The explosions five minutes apart took place in front of a building in Theindan ward and a house in Myitta ward around 4 a.m. (local times), slightly destroying the fences and windows of these buildings, the report said.
The authorities charged the anti-government ethnic armed group of Kayin National Union (KNU) brigade-3 with being responsible for the incident.
The authorities also blamed the KNU brigade-5 for killing seven people and injuring 11 others with a timed bomb in another incident in Papun, southeastern Kayin state, on Dec. 16 last year when a fun fair celebrating the ethnic Kayin new year day was underway.
That time-bomb exploded at some food stalls, clothing and toy selling shops provisionally erected in the market festival, then report said.
Moreover, the authorities also linked the KNU with killing three people and injuring two others in a terrorist attack on a passenger boat “Saw Ohmma” on the Thanlwin River in the same Kayin state on Nov. 10 last year.
KNU remains as the largest anti-government armed group in Myanmar having not made peace with the government yet.
The government claimed that a total of 17 anti-government armed groups have returned to the legal fold since it adopted a policy of national reconciliation since 1989.
Source: Xinhua
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6880339.html