BURMA RELATED NEWS – JULY 10-12, 2010
Jul 12th, 2010
by Rachel O’Brien – Mon Jul 12, 2:37 am ET
MAE SOT, Thailand (AFP) – The spiky-haired teenager said he clearly recalls the day when Myanmar state troops whisked him from the streets of Mandalay, accused him of stealing and forced him to become a child soldier.
“They said if you don’t want to go to jail, you must join the army. I said I didn’t want to join but whenever I said it they beat me again and again. When I agreed to join they stopped beating me,” Win Sein told AFP.
He said he was homeless and aged about 15 — although he doesn’t know his birthday — when he was recruited less than two years ago, joining thousands of under-18s believed to be in Myanmar’s state army and ethnic armed groups.
After four months of boot camp, involving a gruelling fitness regime, weapons training and corporal punishment, the youngster said he was sent to the frontline of civil war against ethnic rebels in remote jungle regions.
A year later, Win Sein fled his post and eventually escaped from the military-ruled country, arriving in the Thai border town Mae Sot in March.
“The main reason was not the fighting, but because the sergeants were really, really brutal. They always insulted and beat the child soldiers,” he said. “So I decided to run away, whatever happened to me.”
While it is difficult to verify former child soldiers’ backgrounds, Myanmar analyst David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch said Win Sein’s story was “sadly typical, in terms of training times, locations and the workload”.
Win Sein, whose name AFP has changed to protect him and his family, is now in the care of Mae Sot-based aid group Social Action for Women (SAW), where he was initially reluctant to discuss his harrowing experience.
“After he arrived, he would lose control. He broke bottles and used the glass to cut his arm,” said SAW’s director Aye Aye Mar. “He didn’t talk. He didn’t answer any questions we asked. He didn’t trust anyone.”
Such psychological damage is typical in youngsters who have spent time in the army, added the director, who has looked after around 20 former child soldiers from Myanmar.
Win Sein said the children at his boot camp were forced to tell the lieutenant they had signed up voluntarily, and “because they were afraid of the sergeants who recruited them, they lied about their age”.
Such underage enlistment, which is banned by law in Myanmar, is a result of regimental efforts to keep numbers up in the vast army rather than a central junta directive, according to Mathieson of Human Rights Watch.
“It’s basically free market recruitment, ” he said.
“It’s certainly not official — there’s no paper trail saying it’s coming from the war office in (the capital city) Naypyidaw.”
Mathieson said there are likely to be thousands of child soldiers in the state military, which is thought to be up to 400,000 strong.
And the problem is not confined to the official force in Myanmar, a nation ruled by the military since 1962 and embroiled in civil war in ethnic minority areas since gaining independence in 1948.
A United Nations report released in May named nine of the country’s ethnic armed groups, as well as the government army, for recruiting and using children in conflict, noting “extremely limited access” to monitor such forces.
Win Sein, who before his recruitment had run away from home to escape abuse by his step-father, said street children were a particularly easy target for state troops who get paid or rewarded for filling military personnel quotas.
He said he met numerous fellow child soldiers with a similarly penurious background to his own.
“Soldiers dressed in plain clothes go to children who live on the street and say, ‘Hey little brother, do you want a snack? I will get you one’.
“These street children are hungry and have no food, so they are happy someone is buying something for them and they follow the men,” Win Sein said.
Steve Marshall, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) liaison officer in Myanmar, agreed the children preyed upon “tend to be those in a vulnerable situation”, such as boys on their own at railway stations and markets.
He said the youngest boy known to be signed up was aged just 11.
With the junta’s agreement, the ILO has a process for families to complain about underage recruitment cases, which if verified are submitted to the government to get the children released and their recruiters disciplined.
Since 2007 more than 100 victims have been discharged and numerous army personnel reprimanded for their part in such cases, including three who were jailed, and there has been training by the military to raise awareness of recruitment law.
But “there is no firm evidence suggesting that the situation has markedly improved,” Marshall said.
The youngsters roped into battle can face destroyed childhoods, uncertain futures and — for deserters such as Win Sein — a lingering fear of retribution.
“I would like to see my mother and sister again but I dare not contact them because I don’t want to get them in trouble,” he said. “I also don’t want them to know what I have been through.”
by Kelly Macnamara – Sun Jul 11, 1:50 am ET
BANGKOK (AFP) – A reborn opposition is gearing up to contest Myanmar’s elections without democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but analysts warn the military junta is unlikely to loosen its grip on power anytime soon.
Experts welcomed the decision by Myanmar’s ruling generals to allow the registration of the new National Democratic Force (NDF), which is made up of former members of Suu Kyi’s disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD).
But they said the splinter group could struggle to fill the NLD’s shoes ahead of this year’s election, Myanmar’s first in 20 years, which is widely feared to be a sham aimed at shoring up the junta’s half-century grip on power.
Former Australian ambassador Trevor Wilson said it could be “some years” before the military loosen their stranglehold on Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — by implanting trusted figures into a civilian government.
“I have heard them say for years that they are a temporary government,” he said. “Now it looks as if they are going to hand power to someone who looks awfully like them, but who is just wearing different coloured clothing.”
He said that he is “not optimistic about non-government parties”, including the newly registered NDF, adding that the best outcome would be some smaller parties forming a coalition.
Nearly 40 parties have so far been allowed to register for the election, rumoured to be held in October or November. But the NLD — the country’s most powerful opposition party — will not appear on ballot papers.
It opted to boycott the vote because of rules that would have forced it to expel Suu Kyi, who — quoted by her lawyer — said she would “never accept” her party registering because the elections laws were “unjust”.
But the breakaway NDF has put itself at odds with this decision, urging people to vote and saying the poll could herald change in the country.
Discord between the two camps surfaced recently when former top NLD members accused the NDF of copying their party symbol — a bamboo hat.
But in an interview with AFP, NDF chairman Dr Than Nyein said the party would welcome any former NLD members who wanted to participate in the election and vowed to continue Suu Kyi’s struggle for democracy.
Political analyst Aung Naing Oo said the group could slowly gain a foothold, but stressed the elections were a “very small step in a long road to democracy”.
He said some former NLD members were actively campaigning against the new party by branding them “undemocratic” and urging people not to vote.
But he believes participation was the right choice and forecast that the poll will allow “some sort of civilian participation in politics,” allowing people to look at subjects such as health and policy.
“The military has neglected all these issues, they have worked for their own survival,” Aung Naing Oo said.
The NDF was welcomed by other opposition groups such as the Democratic Party (Myanmar), whose general secretary Than Than Nu — daughter of the country’s first prime minister, U Nu — said it added strength to the democracy movement.
But few think the NDF — or any other opposition group — could repeat the landslide victory won by Suu Kyi’s NLD in 1990, two years after it was formed in response to a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead.
The military never allowed the party to take power and Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest.
Former ambassador Wilson said the NLD had “left a great vacuum” that no other party could hope to fill.
“They were the only ones able to pose a serious challenge to the military and I think the military regarded them as that,” he said. “I think they were really running away from a challenge.”
On the streets of Yangon, one taxi driver said he would vote for the NDF despite confusion about the connections between the parties, but he added that the polls were part of a broader reality in this desperately poor country.
“Whoever comes and governs the country, we do not care, we just need a better standard of living,” the 45-year-old said.
Sat Jul 10, 7:16 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – The chairman of an opposition party that split from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) said Saturday that elections expected to be held later this year could bring change to Myanmar.
Dr Than Nyein, whose National Democratic Force (NDF) is made up of former members of Suu Kyi’s disbanded NLD, urged people to vote in the first polls Myanmar will see in two decades — amid signs of a spat within the opposition.
“People should assume that this election could possibly bring change,” he said in an interview with AFP.
“They should vote at this election to do their duty by choosing the party or the person who can really work for the people and the country.”
The NDF’s willingness to run in the election has put it at odds with other former members of the NLD, who opted to boycott the poll that critics dismiss as a sham designed to legitimise the junta’s half-century grip on power.
“We formed our party with the aim to continue the democracy struggle under the law,” Dr Than said. “Meantime, we are also trying to solve the social and economic problems that are happening at the moment in the country.”
The ruling junta has yet to announce a date for the election which, it is rumoured, will be held in October or November.
Suu Kyi, quoted by her lawyer, said in March that she would “never accept” her party registering for the election — a move that would have required the NLD to expel her — because the elections laws were “unjust”.
Meanwhile, there have been signs of friction between hardline opposition figures and more moderate activists who opposed the call for a boycott.
Discord between the two camps surfaced recently when former top NLD members accused the NDF of copying their party symbol — a bamboo hat — and lodged a complaint with the election commission about its use of the image.
But Dr Than said there was a chance of common ground.
“There could be many NLD members who believe and accept our policy as we have worked together for the past 20 years,” he said. “We will always welcome them to join us.”
Dr Than added that the party remained devoted to Suu Kyi.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is a real idol of democracy,” he said. “We will always respect and admire her courage, her belief and sacrifice.”
Myanmar’s military government opened the door on Friday for the NDF to contest the poll when it granted the group permission to register as a party.
The NDF still needs to prove it has 1,000 members to be eligible to run in the election, although it is thought this will be a formality for the group.
Dr Than said the NDF expected “restrictions” in the campaign, but said this was natural for a country in transition.
“We have to face this situation while transforming one system to another,” he said.
Parties contesting the election have been banned from marching, waving flags and chanting to garner support, as the army keeps a tightening grip on opposition campaigning.
The NLD, which was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military rulers never allowed it to take office.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest.
Her incarceration was lengthened by 18 months in August last year after she was convicted over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home, and there are fears her detention may be extended again.
Under election legislation unveiled in March, anyone serving a prison term is banned from being a member of a political party and parties that fail to obey the rule will be abolished.
Sat Jul 10, 4:45 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A new Myanmar opposition party that split from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) vowed Saturday to keep up their idol’s fight for democracy in rare elections, despite signs of a spat.
The National Democratic Force (NDF), which is made up of former members of Suu Kyi’s disbanded NLD, said it would “continue the democracy struggle” after being given permission to register as a party on Friday.
Brushing aside recent signs of a row within the opposition, NDF chairman Dr Than Nyein said activists were still devoted to Suu Kyi.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is a real idol of democracy,” he said. “We will always respect and admire her courage, her belief and sacrifice.”
The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register — a move that would have forced it to expel Suu Kyi — and opted to boycott the vote, which critics say is a sham designed to legitimise the junta’s half-century grip on power.
There have been signs of friction between older hardline opposition figures and more moderate figures who opposed the decision.
“We formed our party with the aim to continue the democracy struggle under the law,” Dr Than said.
“Meantime, we are also trying to solve the social and economic problems that are happening at the moment in the country.”
The NDF still needs to prove it has 1,000 members to be eligible to run in the election, but it is thought this will just be a formality for the group.
The NLD, which was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military rulers never allowed it to take office.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest.
Mon Jul 12, 5:44 am ET
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) – Representatives from 13 “tiger-range countries” met in Indonesia on Monday to draft a global recovery plan ahead of a summit in Russia in September.
“We’re gathering here because we share concerns about the sustainability of tigers,” Indonesian Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said in an opening address to delegates on the resort island of Bali.
“It is alarming that out of the nine tiger subspecies in the world, only six are remaining.”
The plan to be drafted in Bali will be used as the basis for discussion at a “tiger summit” in St. Petersburg from September 15 to 18.
“In Indonesia alone, only the Sumatran tiger still exists, while the other two subspecies have become extinct,” the minister said, referring to Javan and Balinese tigers which were wiped out in the 1980s and 1940s respectively.
He blamed a “lack of law enforcement” for the continuing losses of Sumatran tigers, which number only about 400 in the wild.
Several are killed every year by poachers and villagers who compete with them for dwindling forest resources.
WWF says the global, wild population of tigers of all species has fallen from about 100,000 to an estimated 3,200 over the past century.
Countries invited to attend the St. Petersburg summit are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The pre-summit talks in Bali from Monday to Wednesday will hear details of each country’s tiger protection plans and funding proposals.
Indonesian conservation official Harry Santoso said ahead of the talks that Jakarta would ask for more than 175 million dollars in foreign aid to implement its plan to double the Sumatran tiger population by 2022.
The plan focuses on mitigation of human-animal conflict and better law enforcement, including stiffer penalties, to stop poaching and forest destruction.
Human-animal conflicts are a rising problem in the massive archipelago as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for palm oil, forcing animals such as elephants and tigers into closer contact with people.
World Bank tiger initiative director Keshav Varma said the trade in tigers and tiger products is growing despite an increasing awareness among governments that the species was on the brink of extinction.
He said poachers and illegal traders were “better equipped” than ever before with weapons and communications technology.
“They have become more sophisticated and there is a bigger market, not only for traditional medicine but now people want more tiger product for fashion,” he told reporters.
“Unfortunately countries have not done enough to stop these people.”
Sat Jul 10, 4:58 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A new party formed by renegade members of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s disbanded party has received a permit to participate in Myanmar’s first elections in two decades, state media reported Saturday.
The National Democratic Force will join 37 other new political parties and five existing groups in contesting the elections later this year, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won Myanmar’s last elections in 1990 by a landslide, but the military government has refused to hand over power.
The junta has been under heavy international pressure to introduce democratic reforms and has announced new elections will be held later this year on a still-unspecified date.
Critics dismiss the elections as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule.
New election laws prevent Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from participating in the polls, and her party decided to boycott the balloting. It was automatically disbanded for failing to register for the polls by a May 6 deadline as a result. There is no registration deadline for new political parties.
Suu Kyi has expressed dissatisfaction through her lawyer over the formation of the new breakaway party, led by Khin Maung Swe.
Members of her disbanded party have accused the National Democratic Force of stealing their party symbol, a bamboo hat, in order to win votes.
Khin Maung Swe said the NDF’s symbol is not the same because it has two stars above the hat. He said the party will continue the “struggle for democracy,” but gave no further policy details.
A separate party named the Democratic Party (Myanmar) also opened its headquarters Friday. It was founded by the daughters of former politicians from the parliamentary period between independence in 1948 and 1962, when the military seized power.
They include Than Than Nu whose father, U Nu, was Myanmar’s last elected prime minister.
14:13, July 12, 2010 One person has been confirmed killed by tornado which swept Myanmar’s Kawmu in Yangon division near last weekend, according to Monday’s local Weekly Eleven News.
The person died of being hit by thunder lightning.
A total of 60 wooden and bamboo houses were destroyed by the tornado which hit the area for minutes on last Thursday.
In July last year, similar tornado struck two townships — Hainggyingyun and Einme in Ayeyawaddy division, killing a woman who was rushing on the way to the hospital.
That tornado blew off roofs and walls of some houses and buildings.
21:16, July 12, 2010
Myanmar is making preparations to take part in the 7th Expo of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in a bid to boost foreign trade and investment, the traders circle said on Monday.
Guests attending the China-ASEAN expo, which is scheduled for Oct.20 to 24 in Nanning, capital of southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, will include senior government officials, businessmen from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and manufacturers from Myanmar industrial zones, the source said.
The Myanmar delegation will strive for enhancement of foreign investments, boosting foreign trade and tourism sector through the expo which also coincides with the opening of China-ASEAN free trade area, it said.
At the previous 6th China-ASEAN expo, a total of 242 entrepreneurs from agriculture, fishery, industry, manufacturing, gems, traditional handicrafts, forestry and hotel and tourism sectors took part in the event.
During the expo, Myanmar won some investment memorandums of understanding from Chinese companies which include those in the sectors of mining, hydropower, agriculture, value-added wood processing and gem production.
China’s Nanning and Myanmar’s Yangon established friendship city relationship in July 2009.
According to official statistics, bilateral trade between China and Myanmar hit 2.907 billion U.S. dollars in 2009. China’s investment in Myanmar amounted to 1.848 billion dollars up to January 2010, accounting for 11.5 percent of Myanmar’s total foreign investment.
China stands as Myanmar’s third largest trading partner and investor.
16:21, July 11, 2010
South Korea will provide more information and technology assistance to Myanmar to help the country manage agricultural production, the official daily New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.
It was discussed between officials of the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) and the visiting S. Korean delegation, led by Lee Ileui Tae, Secretary of the National Agricultural Production Management Division of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries recently, the report said.
Myanmar and South Korea have been launching extensive cooperation this year, especially in the fields of technology, trade and investment, and education, bringing its bilateral cooperation to a new high.
Among the cooperation projects was also one by the KOICA, which is South Korean government’s overseas aid agency. It has been providing training to Myanmar government staff in information and technology (IT), industrial and forestry sectors as well as technical expertise and equipment needed for social service organizations’ training in related fields.
In April, businessmen from South Korea’s Chungbuk province visited Myanmar to seek joint investment in the food production industry with its Myanmar counterparts.
A series of business meetings, held at the UMFCCI office, discussed matters related to the production industry with instant noodles, Korea Ginceng tea, Korean traditional food, fruit-related food and sea weeds.
Moreover, a total of seven Myanmar companies and 70 Korean companies have sought investment and trade worth of 31 million U.S. dollars, according to earlier reports.
14:00, July 12, 2010
Top leaders of Myanmar and Laos Monday exchanged messages of felicitations to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council ( SPDC) Senior-General Than Shwe said in his message to Lao President Choummaly Sayasone that over the past 55 years, Myanmar and Laos have been able to nurture the brotherly and neighborly relationship based on equality, mutual respect and trust, friendship and cooperation in good faith.
“The exceptional relationship between our two neighboring countries was founded upon similar religious, cultural and historical backgrounds that we share between our two peoples,” he said.
He underlined that the recent visit of Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh to Myanmar had added a strong impetus to further enhance the existing friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries and the two peoples.
In exchange for the message sent by Than Shwe, Lao President Choummaly Sayasone said the two countries’ traditional good friendly relations and neighborly and sincere cooperation have been enhanced in various fields, bringing concrete benefit to the two peoples.
He expressed strong belief that with their bilateral joint efforts, the friendly relations and the close and trustful cooperation will be continuously strengthened and enhanced for mutual benefit of the two countries, thus contributing to the cause of peace, stability and cooperation for development in the region and the world at large.
On the occasion, Myanmar SPDC Vice-Chairman Vice Senior-General Maung Aye and Prime Minister U Thein Sein also exchanged similar messages of feliciattions respectively with Lao Vice-President Bounnhang Vorachith and Laos Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh.
Both Myanmar and Laos are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
16:14, July 11, 2010
Myanmar is striving for the realization of Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, calling on its people to work together with the government in the move.
With the theme “Everyone Counts”, Myanmar observed the World Population Day Sunday like every year, reflecting its active participation in realizing the UN aims and objectives as a member of the global family.
Sunday’s official daily New Light of Myanmar said in its editorial that the government is realizing the goals adopted by an international conference on population and development held in Cairo in 1994 in cooperation with such United Nations organizations as the WHO (World Health Organization) , UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities).
In its strive for reproductive health for all, Myanmar is earnestly working together with world nations for enabling everyone to receive information about reproductive health and services, the editorial said.
The editorial also stressed the importance to cooperate with local and international non-governmental organizations such as the UNFPA, WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, WFP, Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, Myanmar Material and Child Welfare Association and Myanmar Medical Association.
Co-organized by the Ministry of Immigration and Population and UNFPA, World Population Day commemorative poster, essay, color photo and article contests are held every year in Myanmar with winners awarded.
According to the ministry, the population of Myanmar grew 2.02 percent annually, hitting 59.12 million as of the end of 2009, up from 57.37 million in May 2008 and 39.3 million in 1988.
Of the total, population attaining the age of 18 or adults stood over 30 million.
The male population went to 29.39 million, while the female’s, 29.73 million, the figures show.
Myanmar conducted its last population census in 2007, the two prior censuses being in 1973 and 1983.
The 2007 population census was carried out with the technical aid of the UNFPA.
With the UNFPA assistance, the country had also carried out a population changes and fertility survey in 1991 and two fertility survey and reproductive health surveys in 1997 and 2001 respectively.
Meanwhile, an agricultural census for 2010 has been underway in Myanmar since March this year with the cooperation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The one-and-a-half- year project, which lasts until August 2011, is being carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Settlement and Land Record and the census will be presented in the year 2013.
In the fourth Myanmar agricultural census, the FAO is providing over 410,000 U.S. dollars’ fund, sending technical experts from countries such as Thailand and the Philippines to work together with the local experts.
Moreover, the FAO is also helping Myanmar find international donors for 3.1 million dollars needed in implementing the project.
Myanmar had received 2.19 million dollars from international donors in 1993 and 297,000 dollars from FAO in 2003 for the agricultural census projects.
Myanmar stands as a country with agriculture as the mainstay of its economy. With over 70 percent of Myanmar’s population being engaged in agricultural undertakings, the sector contributes 40 percent to the country’s gross domestic product.
By Nalin Viboonchart
Published on July 12, 2010 Investors from many Thai sectors are looking to Burma, with its low operating costs, abundant natural resources and large market, according to the Thai-Myanmar Business Council.
Representatives of Burma’s private sector visited the council in recent weeks to lobby Thai industries to establish manufacturing plants in the country, whose official name is Myanmar, said Thai-Myanmar Business Council Santi Vilassakdanont. Promising sectors in Burma include food processing, agriculture- related industries, consumer products and garments, he said.
Burma will hold a general election at the end of this year. It is expected that the new Burmese government will establish investment incentives aimed at foreign businesses.
“Burma has been opening its country to foreign investment since member nations agreed to implement the Asean Economic Community by 2015. Asean will become a single market under this agreement, and Burma does not want to be left behind. We’re cooperating closely with the private sector in Burma,” Santi said.
Moreover, Burmese authorities want to create jobs. At present, many Burmese labourers work in Thai manufacturing plants on the countries’ border. It makes sense for the Burmese to encourage these people to work in their home country, he said.
The Thai-Myanmar Business Council plans to take a delegation, including about 20 Thai businesspeople, to Burma next month, Santi said. During the visit, the two countries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) securing the supply of certain Burmese agricultural products to the Thai food-processing industry, as well as garment exports from Thailand to Burma.
Thai manufacturers will also be given opportunities to meet and establish relationships with Burmese businesspeople.
Santi said he had also received expressions of interest from representatives of firms in such heavy-industry sectors such as steel and cement, as well as from the energy industry, about investing in Burma.
Other countries, including China and Singapore, are also looking for investment opportunities in Burma. Santi said Thailand needs to take advantage of its geographical proximity to Burma and its historical ties with the country’s people.
“Thai industries should pay more attention to investing in Burma as the operating costs in that country, such as labour and land costs, are lower than in Thailand. Besides, the investment regulations in Burma are less stringent than in our country right now. We don’t know yet when the Southern Seaboard project will be ready for new investment,” he said.
The Thai-Myanmar Business Council was set up in February this year as collaboration between the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Thai Bankers Association. Santi, who is a former chairman of the FTI, is the first chairman of the council.
By Nalin Viboonchart
Published on July 12, 2010
The Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand’s largest industrial conglomerate, is exploring business opportunities in Burma to tap the neighbour’s potential, particularly in building materials and cement.
Entering the Burma market is part of SCG’s drive to become the industrial leader in Asean countries by 2015, said president and CEO Kan Trakulhoon.
The political situation in Burma is expected to be more stable after the general election scheduled for the end of this year. As Burma opens up more to foreign investment, Thai industry and business will have more opportunity to tap this big market, Kan said.
SCG is one of many Thai companies that are exploring investment opportunities in Burma.
Besides, Burma’s border is close to southern China, while the transportation system between the two countries has been improved sharply as part of the Greater mekong Sub-region development process. So, if SCG can enter this country, it can also enlarge its market to include China, Kan said.
He said SCG’s management development committee – the general meeting of the company’s management team – will hold a meeting in Burma this month. The company will survey the Burmese market feasibility.
“Burma has a lot of potential for SCG investment, particularly in the cement and building material businesses,” he said.
SCG has set itself the goal of becoming the industrial leader within Asean by 2015. At present, about 8 per cent of its revenue is contributed from operations in four Asean countries – Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos. The company’s strategy to expand its business in the region is either through its own investment or by merger & acquisition.
Kan said the company is the market leader in the paper and building-material businesses in the region, while the cement business is second-ranked behind the Holcim Group.
Roongrote Rangsiyopash, vice president and chief financial officer, said in order to achieve SCG’s goal, it has to put in more efforts to invest in Asean. It means the investment budget for businesses outside Thailand will exceed that in the home country.
SCG has already created a rough budget for investment within Asean, but Roongrote declined to disclose the figure.
He said it was not necessary for SCG to enter every Asean market. The possible targets for the company are Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos and Burma.
“We would like other Asean members to recognise SCG as the largest industrial conglomerate in this region that operates its business sustainably, ” he said.
There are strong fears among ethnic groups in particular that the junta’s exercise in participatory democracy is nothing but a sham
Published: 11/07/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum
Authorities in Thailand, Malaysia and as far away as Australia are bracing themselves for a wave of refugees from Burma, where pre-election bullying of ethnic groups by the ruling junta has prompted thousands to vote with their feet.
Hardest hit is the country’s Muslim population, and Temme Lee, refugee co-ordinator at the Malaysian human rights organisation Suaram, said Kachin, Karen and Chin had also joined the cross-border march.
“There have also been reports of people heading across the border and into China,” she told Spectrum. “There is a lot of pressure on the communities. ”
Among those who fled Burma is Hamid bin Hatin, a 17-year-old Burmese Muslim. Bin Hatin was being press-ganged into the Burmese military, where he would be forced to perform menial labour and spend years away from his home and parents in Rakhine, on the country’s west coast.
He spent almost $US1,000 (32,380 baht) on agent fees getting to Thailand and then Malaysia, where he spent two months sleeping on a cement floor in a detention camp and was beaten by fellow inmates.
In Malaysia – a favourite transit destination for Burmese Muslims alongside Bangladesh – bin Hatin was rescued by Hla Thant of the Myanmar Muslim Welfare Committee, which tends to the needs of refugees and migrants from the 20-odd Muslim groups in Burma. These include the Rohingya, whose attempts to leave Burma by boat via Thai waters led to criticism of Thai authorities’ alleged inhumane handling of the refugees.
“Nothing is changing,” Hla Thant said. “Things really will get worse after the election. People are being forced to vote.”
About 40 parties have registered for the upcoming poll, substantially less than the 235 parties that registered for national elections 20 years ago. All political parties are required to field candidates for a national legislature, which will have an upper and lower house – and for a regional/state legislature.
A quarter of the seats have been reserved for the military.
“Everybody must vote for the military or they will be arrested. A lot of violence will happen,” Hla Thant told Spectrum from his small office in the outer suburbs of Kuala Lumpur.
With thousands of refugees filling camps in Malaysia and Thailand, and a tightening of Australia’s immigration policy, there are fewer avenues for Burmese looking for an exit.
Australia’s crackdown on illegal immigration has added substantially to a build-up of asylum seekers in detention camps in Malaysia and Indonesia. Refugee advocates are calling for a reassessment on how to care for migrants.
The streets of Chow Kit, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur – with cheap hotels, Afghan food stalls and a Pakistan-affiliated mosque – were once popular for human smugglers and migrants seeking illegal passage to Australia.
According to human rights groups, diplomats and the imam of the Pakistan Mosque, the number of smugglers and passengers has fallen dramatically since April. That is when the Australian government suspended the processing of visa applications for asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, forcing human smugglers to point their Australia-bound cargo elsewhere.
Canberra recently lifted the ban on Sri Lankans, but the Burmese could be among the first candidates for a proposed regional approach put forward by Australia’s new Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who reportedly has been considering the construction of new centres outside Australia for processing refugees and asylum seekers.
Ms Gillard says she does not want a return to the previous hardline immigration programme, in particular that of her conservative predecessor John Howard, although she also says she is sympathetic to those who worry about Australia’s crowded suburbs being overrun by new arrivals.
“For people to say they are anxious about border security doesn’t make them intolerant. It certainly doesn’t make them a racist,” she said recently. “By the same token, people who express concern about children being in detention, that doesn’t mean they’re soft on border protection, that just means that they’re expressing a real human concern.”
Still, Ms Gillard’s comments have refugee advocates concerned.
While improved co-operation between Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia has been cited as a significant factor in curbing people smuggling and illegal immigration, this is cold comfort for the likes of bin Hatin and others seeking refuge from the belligerent junta.
“Asylum seekers usually end up in detention centres for month and months,” said Ms Lee of Suaram.
“For us it’s quite irresponsible of the Australian government to only emphasise the security measures taken by the Malaysian government, but seemingly not to address at all protection issues for these asylum seekers and refugees. And that is definitely problematic. ”
A problem that could worsen significantly in the lead-up to and after the Burmese election.
No official date has been set, but most observers believe the junta will hold its first elections in 20 years on Oct 10, as it is considered an auspicious date among the country’s leaders.
Critics argue the elections will be a sham, while optimists are hoping the poll will signal a return to civilian rule and perhaps a slight opening of the country to the outside world.
Opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NDL) easily won the 1990 election – a result that proved unacceptable for the military – but neither will be contesting this poll.
A larger uncertainty, however, is the role of the ethnic communities.
More than 30 ethnic armed groups have launched insurgencies against the central government in Rangoon over the past 60 years, and more recently the junta has managed to reach a ceasefire of sorts among some with mixed results.
Agreements were sought in the run-up to the poll through a shrewd combination of co-opting ethnic leaders through offers of economic concessions and outright thuggery.
The military has told these groups to join the armed Border Guard Force (BGF), which will come under its control.
In doing this, the political wing of a ceasefire group would then be allowed to contest the elections.
The largest ethnic group not on the ceasefire list is the Karen National Union, with whom the Burmese army continues to clash. Other non-ceasefire armies include the Shan State Army-South and the Karenni National Progressive Party.
Negotiations to persuade the most powerful and feared ceasefire force, the 20,000 strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), to join the BGF have stalled.
Many civilians who fled areas controlled by the UWSA in Shan state earlier this year in the expectation of a major Burmese army campaign have since returned, said Gavin Greenwood, a regional security analyst with Hong Kong-based Allan & Associates.
He also said military campaigns against the Shan and Kachin guerrillas who refused to accept the ceasefire with the junta have been scaled back.
The government appears to prioritise gaining a high degree of electoral support for its candidates as its principal strategic objective for 2010, Mr Greenwood said.
However, the number of people leaving the country continues to rise.
Human rights advocates say Burmese migrants are now the third largest ethnic group occupying the cramped detention centre on Australia’s Christmas Island, after Afghans and Sri Lankans.
Senior-General Than Shwe is giving his regime a makeover as he calculates the safest way to step down. Peter Popham reports
Monday, 12 July 2010
In the run-up to a long promised but still unscheduled general election, the first for 20 years, Burma’s military dictator, Senior-General Than Shwe, has taken a step full of peril: he has ordered his uniformed cabinet ministers to resign from the army.
Those faceless generals who adorn the front page of the New Light of Myanmar, the regime’s daily paper, inspecting fish-packing factories and barrages, will still be running the country, and anything resembling democratic governance will be as far away as ever.
But the look of things will have changed. The ministers will wear longyi, the traditional Burmese sarong-like garment. And crucially for them, they will no longer enjoy the status and respect which, in a country ruled with an iron fist by the military for half a century, is the army’s prerogative.
Irrawaddy, the expatriate Burmese news website, predicts trouble. “Senior-General Than Shwe is facing a mutiny among his subordinates, ” it claimed last week. “There are growing signs of discontent among his cabinet ministers… They have been betrayed by their boss.
“Like it or not, army uniforms are a symbol of authority in Burma,” it went on. “Those who wear them always get priority over those who don’t. They are respected and can expect easy co-operation from others. Suddenly they will lose that privilege.”
Leaving the army also means that those ministers will not be included in the 25 per cent quota that the army has reserved for itself in the planned new parliament. “Now they are on their own,” Irrawaddy columnist Bamargyi pointed out. “Unless Than Shwe supports them with some dirty deals from behind the scenes, they are sure to lose. Once this happens, they are down the drain.”
In trying to rebrand his military dictatorship as a civilian administration, the 77-year-old soldier who has been the boss of his nation of 50 million people for the past 18 years, and who was recently named by the journal Foreign Affairs as the world’s third-worst dictator after Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe, thus faces a major challenge.
And in trying to withdraw from the scene while remaining in control, he faces an even tougher test: how, as King Lear deludedly put it, to “shake all cares and business from our age,/ Conferring them on younger strengths, while we/ Unburden’d crawl towards death”? How to do that without getting the Goneril and Regan treatment – or much worse?
How, in other words, to live out the rest of his days enjoying the billions he has plundered from the state, without ending up like his late boss Ne Win, Burma’s dictator from 1962 to 1988, who, on Than Shwe’s orders, ended his life locked in his lakeside villa in Rangoon under house arrest while his sons languished in jail under sentence of death?
How to avoid the fate of Khin Nyunt, the military intelligence chief and for many years Than Shwe’s number two, who is also under house arrest with no prospect of release (while some of his underlings were tortured to death) after China hailed him as “Burma’s Deng Xiaoping”?
According to Ben Rogers, author of the first-ever biography, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant, which is launched in London next week, acute anxiety about his security is behind the fact that, two years after announcing elections, the senior general has yet to say when they will be held.
“He wants to make sure that everything is sewn up perfectly and that he can continue to govern from behind the scenes,” said Rogers, a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “He will hold off naming the date until he’s certain he’s got all his ducks in a row. He doesn’t want to give the candidates any room for campaigning. ”
A similarly secretive, paranoid approach dictated the most extraordinary decision of Than Shwe’s career, and the one which, for good or ill, will assure him immortality of a sort: the removal of Burma’s capital from Rangoon to a hot, malaria-infested, seismically sensitive wasteland in the centre of the country.
The idea of moving the army’s HQ out of Rangoon had been in the air for a number of years, and may have been mentioned by Than Shwe to Aung San Suu Kyi in one of the fruitless meetings they held in 1994, while the opposition leader was under her first spell of house arrest. Rangoon is in the far south; for an army engaged in multiple counter-insurgency operations in the north and east, a base in the centre made strategic sense.
But unbeknownst to the outside world, Than Shwe nursed a far more drastic plan. “At precisely 6.37 am on 6 November 2005,” writes Rogers, “hundreds of government servants left Rangoon in trucks shouting, “We are leaving! We are leaving!” … Five days later, a second convoy of 1,100 military trucks carrying 11 military battalions and 11 ministries left Rangoon. Perhaps influenced by astrologers, Than Shwe had decided to move the country’s capital. He had given government officials just two days’ notice.”
So Naypyitaw, which translates as “Seat of Kings” and is dominated by oversize statues of Than Shwe’s favourite royal forerunners, will be this man’s monument. “It’s the most awful place you’ve ever been to,” said Mark Canning, a former British ambassador to Burma. “It’s a collection of buildings scattered over scrubland. But they are all just dispersed, and there are two or three kilometres between each building. One can only presume it’s so they don’t get bombed or something, to spread out the targets.” As a resident of Naypyitaw told one foreign journalist, “Although [Than Shwe] is a king, he is afraid of many things. He thinks that here he will be safe.”
Naypyitaw thus incarnates what Suu Kyi once said about fear. “It is not power that corrupts, but fear,” she noted in 1990 when she was already under house arrest. “Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it… Fear slowly stifles and destroys all sense of right and wrong.”
Only in a system dominated by fear could a man like Than Shwe rise to the top and stay there, because throughout his career he has given the impression of being so unimpeachably mediocre as to be without ambition or hope of success. He was a man incapable of provoking fear until suddenly he was at the top of the tree, and now he has held his nation in thrall for nearly two decades.
The comments of those who have had dealings with him are uniformly unflattering. “Short and fat with not a strong voice,” says one. “Relatively boring,” says another. “No evident personality. ” “Our leader is a very uneducated man.” “There were many intelligent soldiers but he was not one of them…a bit of a thug.” “You feel that he’s got there by accident…” The closest Than Shwe gets to being complimented is in the description of a former World Bank official: “He is such an old fox!”
Born in 1933 in the central Burmese town of Kyaukse, Than Shwe quietly rose through the ranks despite having no striking military successes, until he was appointed deputy defence minister in July 1988 in the midst of the biggest revolt since the military takeover, the regime’s moment of greatest danger.
In 1990 he was there alongside the erratic, sometimes deranged General Saw Maung, head of the new State Law and Order Restoration Council, who once drew his pistol on fellow generals during a game of golf and was eventually deposed. Then it was a contest between Than Shwe and military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt – who crucially had no experience as a commander in the field, and thus no chance of being accepted as chief by the army. Eventually Khin Nyunt, too, was flung from the battlements, a denouement waiting to happen. “Every single chief of military intelligence in Burma has been disgraced,” said a former ambassador. “It’s rather like being the drummer in Spinal Tap – you end up disappearing. ”
Than Shwe’s mediocrity may have had its effect on Western attitudes towards him: he is easily under- estimated. As Rogers points out, he “has demonstrated time and again his skill at offering just enough of a concession to hold the international community at bay whenever pressure intensifies. ..Each time the pressure eases, Than Shwe quietly abandons his promises.”
Meanwhile at home he has continued on the path set by his former superior Ne Win decades back: hugely expanding the size of the army, which now includes tens of thousands of children in its ranks, and continuing the campaigns of quasi-genocidal terrorism against the Karen and other ethnic minorities.
According to Sergio Pinheiro, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, writing in 2009, “Over the past 15 years the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups.” At the same time he has kept Burma’s civilian population in poverty and hopelessness. The only “reforms” he has pushed for have had the aim of perpetuating military rule under a disguise that fools nobody.
It is safe to predict that sooner or later Than Shwe will get his come-uppance. It may come from his immediate subordinates, furious at being kicked out, and an army that has never held him in esteem. The civil servants of Naypyitaw, incandescent at being exiled from the civilised comforts of Rangoon, may play their part. The monks, whom he arrogantly and foolishly refused to appease in 2007, could have a role.
But however certain his eventual downfall, you would have to be a very brave optimist to predict that he will be replaced by someone significantly better.
The general in brief
Born in 1933, Than Shwe joined the army at 20. He became Burma’s top military leader in 1992 – four years after thousands of protesters had been massacred in Rangoon. The reclusive 77-year-old is thought to be superstitious, often consulting astrologers. In 2007, his new Burmese constitution effectively barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from office. Some credit the general with negotiating ceasefires with ethnic rebel armies, although he has also been accused of brutally suppressing minorities. He has been linked with high-level government purges, including that of Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt in 2004.
The Straits Times – 2 hurt in S’pore tanker fire
KUALA LUMPUR – TWO Myanmar nationals suffered severe burns and one of their countrymen is missing after a Singapore-flagged chemical tanker they were on caught fire on Monday, maritime officials said.
The accident happened in waters off Malaysia’s eastern Pahang state in the South China Sea, the eastern region head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Syed Mohamad Fuzi Syed Hassan, told state news agency Bernama.
‘The incident occurred as the Singapore-flagged ship was travelling from Vietnam to the Kuantan port with the fire breaking out when the crew were carrying out cleaning operations,’ he told Bernama.
Although the fire was put out quickly on the ship with 22 crew members, Syed Mohamad Fuzi said two were badly burnt while a third was believed to have fallen overboard.
He said three search-and-rescue ships were patrolling the vicinity in an attempt to find the missing seaman while a helicopter was sent to bring the injured crew members ashore.
By Christopher Shay Friday, Jul. 09, 2010
Updated on July 10, 2010.
It may seem counterintuitive, but Burma has a lot going for it. Blessed with abundant natural resources, the nation is home to the last of the world’s ancient teak forests; it produces tens of thousands of tons of jade every year; it’s at the center of the global ruby trade; and most important, it has natural gas. Lots of it. Burmese gas already powers half of Bangkok, and it will soon start flowing to China, making billions of dollars of profit. For many though, it’s how the money is being spent that’s worrying.
Up until a few years ago, Burma’s military government, cut off from trade with the West, led a “hand-to-mouth existence,” says Sean Turnell, an economics professor at Macquarie University in Australia. Now, thanks in no small part to its resource-hungry neighbors, the pariah state has $6 billion in cash reserves, according to Turnell. As cash is flowing in, the military junta that has run the country since 1962 is spending lavishly. With about a third of the country in poverty, the junta could invest in health, education or job creation, but instead, new evidence suggests Burma is spending billions on outlandish military projects, including, perhaps, a secretive nuclear weapons program. Turnell says the junta is “absolutely paranoid about international interference in the country.”(See pictures of Burma’s slowly shifting landscape. http://www.time. com/time/ photogallery/ 0,29307,1902296, 00.html )
A documentary released last month by the Norway-based NGO Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) purports to detail the beginnings of a Burmese nuclear program. Though much of the documentary’ s evidence comes from a single defector living in hiding, the NGO contends that hundreds of color photographs lend support to the rumors swirling for the past few years that Burma has been pursuing the bomb. The Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls DVB’s accusations “baseless,” but Robert Kelley, a former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and weapons scientist at Los Alamos National Lab, concluded from the DVB evidence that the technology in the photos “is only for nuclear weapons and not civilian use or nuclear power.”
The documentary’ s primary source, a former Burmese army major named Sai Thein Win, is a Russian-trained missile expert — not a nuclear engineer —who says he was second in command at a top-secret military factory that made parts for Burma’s nuclear weapons program. The photographs that Sai Thein Win supplied to DVB dovetail with other evidence that suggests Burma is undertaking a massive nuclear project. Dictator Watch, a U.S.-based opposition watchdog group, provided TIME with a list of some 660 Burmese students studying engineering and military-related fields in Russia, more than 65 of whom are studying nuclear-related subjects. According to Roland Watson of Dictator Watch, the list is just a batch from 2009; he claims he has heard from multiple independent sources that there are more than 3,000 Burmese military researchers who have studied in Russia over the past decade. In the film, Sai Thein Win estimates that the number could be as high as 10,000. In fact, Sai Thein Win says he was in the first group of Burmese students sent to Russia, in 2001, where he studied missile technology at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, once the primary training ground for Soviet nuclear weapons experts. (See pictures of Burma’s decades-long battle for democracy. http://www.time. com/time/ photogallery/ 0,29307,1665535, 00.html )
Even if DVB is right about Burma’s nuclear ambitions, the country is likely years away from any kind of bomb. Kelley told TIME that Burma’s apparent attempt to enrich uranium using laser isotope separation — a complex and expensive method that has stumped many richer nations — was “kind of dumb.” That may be news to the junta leader Than Shwe, according to the Irrawaddy, a Burmese newsmagazine in exile based in Thailand, which reported that Than Shwe was furious at his officials after learning that Kelley’s report for the DVB said a nuclear weapon “may be beyond Burma’s reach” at this time.
Meanwhile, the people in Burma continue to suffer. In a 2000 World Health Organization ranking, Burma had the second worst health system in the world, sandwiched between the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone. This shouldn’t be a surprise, given that only 1.8% of Burma’s total public expenditure is on health, also the second lowest in the world, according to the United Nations Development Program. “This is not a modern, developmentally focused government like China or Vietnam,” Turnell says, adding that the country’s irrational military spending “is the great scandal. Its poor have so many needs.” (See TIME’s special on the battle for global health. http://www.time. com/time/ specials/ packages/ 0,28757,1995199, 00.html )
If this sounds similar to another Asian pariah state, it should; Burma is trying to follow the North Korean model, according to Khin Maung Win. Than Shwe reportedly admires Kim Jong Il for standing up to the international community, and ever since the countries formalized relations in 2007, the two states have deepened their military connections, say DVB sources. Relations between the two countries, however, have not always been so amicable. In 1983, North Korean operatives attempted to assassinate the South Korean President in a Rangoon bomb attack that killed 21, and Burma severed official diplomatic relations for more than two decades. Recently, though, the countries seem to have bonded as joint pariah states, with the junta’s No. 3 general, Shwe Mann, visiting North Korea in 2008. Nowadays, Khin Maung Win says there are North Korean military experts who sneak into Burma through China and act as advisers to key parts of Burma’s defense industry.
There is no evidence that the North Koreans are directly helping with Burma’s alleged nuclear weapons program, but analysts worry this might not always be the case. Burma has cash, and North Korea needs it — desperately. Defectors say Burma wants a bomb; U.S. intelligence says North Korea already tried helping build a nuclear reactor for Syria before Israel bombed it. “A couple years ago, I would’ve pooh-poohed the whole thing,” says Turnell of Burma’s nuclear weapons program. But now, he says, “The whole story is a perfect fit.”
Asia Times Online – Holes in Thailand’s drug fences
By Brian McCartan
CHIANG MAI – Thailand is losing its latest war on drugs as methamphetamine, heroin, opium, ketamine, cocaine and ecstasy continue to flood across its porous borders. A rise in production and trafficking related to tensions between Myanmar’s military government and narco-trafficking ethnic insurgent groups based near the Thai border have undermined Bangkok’s efforts, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) annual world report.
Large narcotics seizures have increased in Thailand over the past year. The English-language daily Bangkok Post reported the seizure of over 300,000 methamphetamine pills in Bangkok on May 29. On June 22, police in the northern province of Chiang Mai intercepted a six-wheel truck en route to Bangkok with 1.2 million methamphetamine tablets on board.
Thailand in April 2009 embarked on its so-called “Five Fences” counter-narcotics campaign, aimed at curbing trafficking and abuse at the national, district and village levels. The strategy states: “Each fence is aimed at controlling drug abusers, drug traffickers and groups of people who are sensitive to drug abuse (potential drug demand) in order to build up the front line to prevent drugs and control drug problems effectively. ”
A so-called “border fence” aims to monitor and interdict cross-border narcotics trafficking, mainly from Myanmar and Laos. Through a “community fence”, people and civil society are encouraged to participate in anti-drugs activities. The “society fence” aims to combine social order with efforts to control entertainment venues, dormitories and other places where drugs are purchased and used. The “school fence” aims to integrate an anti-drugs message into the Ministry of Education’s outreach program. The “family fence” promotes participation of families to prevent drug use.
The initial phase of the strategy lasted from April to September 2009. A second phase inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban on November 12, 2009, is slated to run through December this year. The phase underway is intended to have a more proactive role in monitoring the drug situation.
The government’s drug fight has been comparatively low key and less violent than the notorious 2003 “war on drugs” initiated by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. At the time, Thaksin’s campaign was heavily criticized by rights groups and the international community for its heavy-handedness and lack of accountability among security forces.
According to a 2004 Human Rights Watch report, Thaksin’s campaign resulted in 2,275 extrajudicial killings, with most of the deaths believed to have executed by the police. Despite international criticism and the orgy of violence, Thaksin’s campaign was well received by many Thais polled at the time. Nonetheless, the campaign has been the subject of two government investigations since Thaksin’s ouster in a 2006 military coup.
The latest investigation comes after a crackdown against a two-month protest by anti-government demonstrators loyal to Thaksin that resulted in 90 deaths and more than 1,800 injuries. The previous investigation found that while shoot-to-kill orders came from above, there was insufficient evidence to charge Thaksin with the extrajudicial killings.
A gentler war
While largely devoid of the deaths that marked Thaksin’s campaign, numerous shootouts between security forces and cross-border narcotics traffickers as well as drug dealers in central Thailand have occurred.
One incident of possible abuse was highlighted in the local media in June when a drug suspect was arrested after a shootout that resulted in the death of a police official and the suspect’s girlfriend. Police said the suspect was shot and killed while making a grab for a gun, despite his hands being handcuffed behind his back at the time.
Thai anti-narcotics officials have become increasingly concerned about the growing amounts of methamphetamine, known locally as yaba, being produced and smuggled across the border from Myanmar. Increasingly, yaba produced in Myanmar is being transshipped via a growing road network in Laos with crossings into Thailand’s northeastern region.
Anti-narcotic efforts have been complicated by renewed tensions between the Myanmar government and various ethnic insurgent groups in northern Myanmar, many of which are also heavily involved in the production and trafficking of narcotics.
Groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA) have expanded production to purchase more weapons for what many observers believe is a coming showdown with the Myanmar army.
At issue is the regime’s plan for ethnic insurgent groups to join centrally-controlle d Border Guard Forces. The UWSA and other ethnic groups are uneasy about joining the force out of fear of losing any negotiating leverage they currently have once their armed wings are absorbed into the military. Several government deadlines have passed – the most recent on April 29 – and it currently appears that the regime may wait to force the issue until after general elections slated for later this year.
UNODC representative Gary Lewis recently told reporters that 23 million methamphetamine pills had been seized in Myanmar last year, a substantial increase from the one million seized in 2008. He said the greater seizures reflected a rise in production rather than improved interdiction efforts. Echoing statements made by Thai military, police and counter-narcotics officials, Lewis said pressure for ethnic groups to join Border Guard Forces had contributed to rising production.
The UNODC also noted a “steep and dramatic” increase in opium cultivation in its yearly opium survey and recent world report. While production is still well below levels of the 1990s, and far behind that in the world’s largest producer, Afghanistan, the UNODC says there is a risk of the situation “unraveling” .
Lewis’ statements may also reflect a rising awareness in the UN that the drug trade in Myanmar is intertwined with the country’s decades-long ethnic and political problems. Until recently, the UN had praised many of the ethnic organizations in northern Myanmar for their counter-narcotics and crop substitution efforts. Most previous UN narcotics reports focused on the drastic reduction in opium cultivation and heroin production, while almost ignoring the rising manufacture of synthetic drugs, including yaba.
Those assessments had dovetailed with the regime’s interests. By separating narcotics and politics, the UN has ignored the junta’s role in allowing groups – which had predominately been former members of the Burmese Communist Party until a 1989 mutiny – to trade in narcotics in exchange for ceasefires with the government. The ceasefires benefited the military politically by allowing it to focus on suppressing other armed ethnic groups and the pro-democracy movement, and economically through the creation of large business conglomerates and banks by narco-traffickers turned businessmen with ties to the regime.
Now in stronger administrative control of the country and with democratic elections on the horizon, the junta is aiming to fold the ceasefire groups’ military wings into the army while encouraging their political wings to contest the elections. The larger ceasefire groups have resisted these efforts and in turn the regime has started to vilify their former allies-of-convenien ce for their roles in the drug trade.
Myanmar’s military offensive against the Kokang group in August 2009 is the most glaring example of the regime’s shifting attitude. Narcotics was cited as one of the pretexts for the attack against the Kokang, which the regime had previously praised for its drug eradication efforts. Indeed, production facilities and large amounts of narcotics were seized in the aftermath of the attack which sent thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into China.
Several large shipments, many believed to be tied to the UWSA, have recently been seized along the border with Thailand, particularly near the Myanmar town of Tachilek. Observers say these types of seizures would have never happened in the recent past because of government complicity in the trade.
Much of the amphetamines seized in 2009 came from the Kokang attack and other large UWSA shipments, and were designed to pressure the groups for political purposes; namely to get them to conform to the junta’s 2010 election plans. That hasn’t happened so far and until it does Thailand will be hard-pressed to win its latest war on drugs.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast. net.
TAK, July 12 – Thailand is seeking to end a new disagreement with Myanmar through the Thai-Myanmar Township Border Committee (TBC) after the neighbouring country closed the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge and more than 20 ports along the Moei River apparently to protest Thai river bank protection construction, according to a senior Thai military officer.
Col Phadung Yingpaiboonsuk, a task force commander of the Thai Army’s 4th Infantry Division, also heads the local coordination centre of the Thailand-Myanmar Township Border Committee (TBC) in Tak province, bordering Myanmar’s Myawaddy township, inspected the construction site after that country’s authorities closed the bridge and port without giving a reason.
He said the Thai authorities believed that Myanmar’s action was to protest Thailand’s building river bank protection on its side of the river.
The construction project is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, he said, adding that the workers had built a staircase to the river and used heavy duty construction equipment to scoop the soil on the river bank.
He added that all the construction works had been carried out on the Thailand’s bank of the river.
However, senior Tak provincial authorities suspended the construction work, and moved heavy machinery from the site and are waiting for talks via the TBC to find a joint solution.
According to local reporters, Myanmar authorities were unhappy that the construction had caused soil and rocks to fall into the river.
Consequently Myanmar ordered the closure of the bridge and ports halting traffic on both sides of the border. (MCOT online news)
Malaysia’s Never Ending Woes With Refugees
By Melati Mohd Ariff
Bernama recently interviewed Alan Vernon, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia where he spoke on several issues relating to refugees and asylum seekers. This is the first of the two series
KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (Bernama) — Malaysia has been a heaven for refugees starting with the Vietnamese boat people who landed in droves on her shores following the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975.
At the height of the refugee crises about 250,000 Vietnamese people took shelter in Pulau Bidong (a small island off Terengganu’s coast) before most of them resettled in third countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
Also, about 9,000 of the refugees returned to Vietnam.
Even after the Pulau Bidong camp was finally closed in October 1991, Malaysia till today remains a heaven for refugees from other countries.
Refugees are actually a global problem and there are 50 million refugees world wide, said Alan Vernon, 56, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia.
UNHCR commenced operations in Malaysia in 1975 initially to deal with the Vietnamese boat people. UNHCR also helped the Malaysian Government in receiving and resettling over 50,000 Filipino Muslims who fled Mindanao to Sabah during the 1970s and 1980s.
UNHCR also supported the Malaysian Government in resettling several thousand Muslim Chams from Cambodia in the 1980s and several hundred Bosnian refugees in the 1990s.
REFUGEE STATISTICS
In Malaysia, at the end of May 2010 there were some 88,100 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR’s office where they were given the UNHCR identification document.
At present, Myanmar is seen as the biggest contributor of refugees to Malaysia with out of the total, 81,600 are from that ASEAN nation.
The Myanmar refugees consist of some 38,900 Chins, 18,900 Rohingyas, 6,400 Muslims, 3,800 Mon, 3,600 Kachins and the remaining being other ethnic minorities from Myanmar.
“Many more are in Thailand and that country has possibly four to five million refugees from Myanmar because they share the common border.
“For them to come to Malaysia, it is more difficult. They also come here because they know they can survive here. If they cannot survive, they will not come.
“So I think Malaysia is a victim of its own success. If your economy is worst, you will have your own refugees,” said Vernon.
Other 6,600 refugees and asylum-seekers are from other countries including some 3,500 Sri Lankans, 930 Somalis, 580 Iraqis, 530 Afghans and 200 Palestinians.
In terms of gender, 70 per cent of refugees and asylum-seekers are men while 30 per cent are women.
There are also a large number of unregistered refugees and asylum-seekers with their number estimated at 10,000 persons.
NOT IN CAMPS
One of the good things about refugees in Malaysia, as pointed out by Vernon is that they do not stay in camps.
The refugee communities live in decent low cost housings across the country, often sharing these spaces with large groups.
“Sometimes the people think camps are a good solution for refugees but generally what happened in camps is that the people suffer much, much more.
“You would also have a situation of forced dependency, people on welfare, people have to be taken care of in the camps.
“Very often when camps are created they tend to last longer than other kind of situations because the camps take on a life of their own,” explained Vernon who has been the UNHCR Representative in Malaysia since November 2008.
His association with refugees goes a long way starting with the Vietnamese refugees while he was teaching in the United States in 1978.
He joined UNHCR in 1987 and held the position of Associate Resettlement Officer in UNHCR Field Office in Kuala Terengganu (1987-1991). His other postings with UNHCR took him to Sri Lanka and Geneva.
Vernon noted it was a very positive move that the Malaysian government allows the refugees to move about, which means they could find ways to take care of themselves and to fulfill their own requirements.
REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
However, there is one important thing that Vernon will like Malaysians to understand, that is, a refugee is not a migrant.
UNHCR’s definition of a refugee is a person who is forced to leave home based on a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of political opinion, ethnicity, religion or membership in a particular group.
“Luckily Malaysia has never had a situation like that. Malaysia has never produced refugees. We are very happy about that but are hopeful that Malaysians will be tolerant of the fact that refugees did not choose to come to Malaysia.
“They were forced to leave their homes and they cannot go back until the condition back home improves so that they are no longer at risk because of the fear that they face – imprisonment and possibly death.
“This is in contrast to migrants who made a choice to leave their countries for better economic opportunities or better education,” stressed Vernon.
It is estimated that Malaysia has in the region of three to four million migrants with 50 per cent of those being here legally.
COMMON CHALLENGE
With no short term solution for the refugee problem, the common challenge is to find a way to fulfill the needs of the refugees and at the same time protect the interest of the host country as a whole.
For the record, Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 Convention and its Protocol relating to the status of refugees.
Becoming a signatory to the Refugee Convention is an important thing to do otherwise everything has to be done on goodwill. However, this is not predictable and it does not provide guidance to all levels of government.
“So there is a need to put in a legal framework. This is very crucial. This is to make sure they are protected, they are safe, secure until such time when they can go home. Some of them can be resettled but this can never be a solution for every refugee,” he added.
Vernon told Bernama that there are fewer resettlement places than there are refugees in Malaysia.
He said his side submitted more than 10,000 refugees for resettlement last year but reiterated the best solution for refugees was to go home.
MANAGING THE ISSUE
Where refugees are concerned, Vernon expresses his optimism that the success stories achieved with the Vietnamese boat people and the Achenese shows there is a solution for the refugee problem.
“When the Vietnamese boats started arriving in Malaysia in 1975 and increased in 1979, it felt like it would go on forever. But it was all over by 1991. The Achenese is another good example, they came and after tsunami they went home,” he said.
According to him, Myanmar is a country that is likely to continue producing refugees for sometime to come.
“There is an election this year and despite the problems in the country we are hopeful that things would get better there,” he added.
The practical reality is that, he said, Malaysia would need to think about how to deal with the situation in Myanmar. Malaysia being part of Asean should to take into account of the Myanmar refugee problem in its foreign policy and find ways to deal with the situation at the source.
“One of the challenges for Malaysia as it aspires to be a fully developed country by 2020 is that it will need to assume its global responsibility and one of those is to help the situation of refugees.
“The way it works has to be through partnership. UNHCR is here. Other NGOs and international communities can also help and I think there is plenty of space to manage this issue in a better way.
Posted : Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:05:47 GMT
By : Peter Janssen
Mae Sot, Thailand – When Cynthia Maung stumbled across the Thai-Myanmar border into Mae Sot in 1988 after a 10-day jungle trek to flee a military crackdown in Yangon, she planned to stay a few months at most.
Twenty-two years later, Dr Maung’s Mae Tao clinic is a border institution, employing a staff of 634 who provide treatment to more than 2,000 patients a day suffering from malaria to amputated limbs.
Maung’s pioneering health work for Burmese refugees and migrant workers has not gone unnoticed. She has won a dozen international awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay award in 2003, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2005.
The clinic, founded by Maung in 1989, has grown from a makeshift shack where she sterilized thermometers in a rice cooker to a sprawling, albeit still makeshift, community hospital with 150 beds, a laboratory, pharmacy, prosthetics centre, first-aid training programmes and a school.
Nearly half the patients are migrant workers and their families living in around Mae Sot, where an estimated 200,000 Burmese survive in a semi-legal limbo.
The rest of her patients come from across the border.
“Every day we see more and more people seeking help,” Maung said. “Our most severe cases come from inside Burma.”
Not all are fleeing fighting and landmines. Some are simply escaping Myanmar’s notoriously poor medical system.
War Yar Htuu, a 15-year-old from Myawadi, across the Moei River from Mae Sot, came to get treatment for a leg infection.
“I had no money to go to a Myanmar hospital,” said Htuu. “The hospitals in Myanmar are okay but they only accept you if you have money.”
After 48 years of military rule, Myanmar has gone from being one of the richest countries in South-East Asia to one of the poorest, with among the worst health and education systems in the region.
“The system itself does not work, not even in central Burma,” Maung said. “Only people with money can use the health service.”
Because of Myanmar’s pariah status as a brutally run military state, it ranks among the world’s lowest recipients of foreign aid, receiving less than 2 dollars per person each year.
Operations such as Mae Tao clinic, on the other hand, survive on foreign largesse. Maung estimates that 95 per cent of her annual operating budget of about 3 million dollars comes from foreign donors, the rest is met by a token 1-dollar registration fee per patient.
With her patient load increasing 5-10 per cent annually, the clinic is facing a budget shortfall this year, which is managed by cutbacks on free food and postponing improvements.
The long term, especially with an election promised by Myanmar’s junta some time this year, is more worrying. Although few expect the polls to be free or fair, the outcome is likely to increase aid going into Myanmar, and less to cross-border operations.
“Definitely, most donors want to do more inside and less cross-border, and I think that trend will continue after the election,” said one Bangkok-based European diplomat.
Donations to political groups in exile, based along the border, are already drying up, and are expected to end after the polls as these groups look increasingly ineffective, sources said.
More worrisome is the potential impact on cross-border operations such as health services, the more than 60 schools catering to Burmese migrant children and labour protection groups. There are some 130 Myanmar-related non-governmental organizations in Mae Sot alone.
“That’s the big concern,” said David Mathieson, Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch. “Because after the election it’s not like the root problems are going to change. It’s not as if all the Burmese refugees and migrant workers are going to go home after the polls, even if that’s what the Thai government wants to happen.”
Thailand has yet to clarify its post-election policy towards the estimated 2 million Burmese refugees and migrant workers on its soil.
Like most governments, Bangkok is waiting to see what the polls bring, but most observers anticipate a sham election that will install a pro-military government.
“After the election things will become clearer for the international community,” said Mahn Mahn, executive director of the Back Pack Health Workers Team, that works with the Mae Tao clinic totrain health workers inside Myanmar. “It will be clear what the election hasn’t achieved.”
By LAWI WENG - Monday, July 12, 2010
The European Union (EU) is not anticipating a quick return of Burmese refugees from Thailand following Burma’s planned election this year, said an EU official in a written response to a request by The Irrawaddy for clarification on the EU position towards Burmese refugees and migrants in Thailand.
The request for clarification was sent by email following a news report by the Bangkok Post on June 24 that quoted Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya as saying: “As the Burmese government is holding elections later this year, we should help those who live outside their country to return home and resume their lives in Burma.”
“The EU does not expect that the elections in Myanmar [Burma] in 2010 will create conditions conducive to an immediate return of the predominantly Karen to eastern Burma, particularly since a ceasefire between SPDC [the Burmese government] and the Karen leadership seems unlikely to materialize and armed conflict persists to this day,” the EU official said.
He said the EU welcomes steps taken by the Royal Thai Government since 2005 to provide the Burmese refugees “improved access to education and training and the recognition of the right of children born in Thailand to be granted a regular birth certificate.”
While noting that resettlement to third countries will only be a solution for a fraction of the Burmese refugee population in Thailand, he said: “Any forcible repatriation without a proper and transparent screening would constitute a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulement,” referring to an international refugee law concerning the protection of refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.
The EU offical noted that though the Thai government is not a member to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has in the past “upheld high humanitarian and legal standards.”
An estimated 140,000 Burmese refugees live at nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, where many of them have been confined for many years before getting a chance to resettle to third countries with the help of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Most of the refugees are ethnic Karen who fled their villages in the conflict zones of Karen State.
The refugees become totally dependent on aid as they are confined in the camps, and they are in need of work opportunities and should be allowed employment opportunities outside as well as inside the camps, said Sally Thompson, the deputy director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an organization which works closely with Burmese refugees.
“There needs to be a shift in policy on refugees so they can actually do more to contribute to the local economy here in Thailand,” she said. “It is recognized that it could be some time before they can return to Burma. They want to go back only if there is peace in their homeland following a solution to the political problems.
“We hope the refugees will be able to return in the future, but we can’t predict the outcome of the election. There is ongoing conflict in eastern Burma and the election is unlikely to solve the ethnic issue. Therefore, a return in the near future is unlikely,” she said.
The EU is the largest donor to the Burmese refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border and the EU Commission’s support to the refugee camps is gradually shifting towards activities of a more developmental nature in the coming years, acording to the EU official.
“We feel responsible to help addressing the protracted refugee situation and to develop a long-term strategy,” he said. “The refugees need to be enabled to support themselves and given the chance to actively contribute to Thailand’s growing economy through their skills and labour. As everybody else, they are entitled to a self-determined future and to realising their human potential.”
Eric Schwartz, the US assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, visited refugee camps along Thai-Burmese border in June and raised US concerns about the plight of Burmese refugees in camps in the light of Burma’s upcoming polls, but he noted that
the third-country resettlement for the majority of the refugees is unrealistic.
The Burmese regime has not announced the date of the election planned to be held this year.
Critics say that without the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2000 political prisoners in Burma, the election lacks credibility and legitimacy.
Friday, 09 July 2010 23:52 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Outbreaks of plague and dengue fever are spreading through military units in Naypyidaw, the Burmese military regime’s seat of government, according to a military hospital source.
Infected soldiers were admitted to the new 1,000-bed military hospital in Naypyidaw for treatment. Moreover diarrhoea and dengue fever is spreading among residents in the capital’s neighbouring township of Pyinmana, home to 100,000 people.
“Children under-12 [of soldiers] in these Naypyidaw military units infected with dengue fever and plague were admitted to the children’s hospital and the troops infected with dengue and plague and their children over 12 were admitted here,” an officer from the military hospital, who requested anonymity, told Mizzima.
He declined to give further details on the scale of the epidemic.
According to official government figures released last year, Naypyidaw, meaning Royal City, is the third largest city in Burma, with a population of 925,000.
The outbreaks emerge after hundreds of thousands of rodents were reported late last month migrating from their current habitats.
“Mice are moving ‘in their thousands’ away from lakes and reservoirs in central Burma’s Bago and Mandalay divisions and towards urban areas. One man reported seeing fleets of mice on the Mandalay-to- Naypyidaw highway,” an exile media outlet reported on June 30.
In a sign of unusual openness by the junta, Ministry of Health plague warnings were seen in state-run papers on July 1 and 2.
The warning said: “Sudden death of mice may be because of plague. The people are advised to report and send the dead mice suspected of being infected with plague to the nearest health department”.
However, Dr. Khin Aye Myint from the Social Welfare dispensary in Pyinmana disagreed with any contact with the mice and offered a safer solution.
“The Health Department should instigate a public awareness campaign on plague and dead mice. If suspected, the dead mice should be poured with petrol and burned or should be reported to health department,” Dr. Khin Aye Myint said.
Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the Burmese Ministry of Health had also circulated a warning among government departments about rat-borne plague after finding infected dead rodents near a government office in Naypyidaw, an official said.
Moreover residents of Yauktharinn, Kanoo, Yanaung (2) and Shwechi wards in Pyinmana said that diarrhoea and dengue fever were spreading in their locality.
Previously it infected children aged between 5 and 12 but elderly people were now also being infected.
“Some dengue fever patients visited nearby clinics and could recover within one or two days. Some of them were referred to hospitals. There are also many patients suffering from diarrhoea,” a brokerage owner in Yaukthuarinn Ward told Mizzima.
The virus that causes dengue fever is carried by mosquitoes.
Wet, humid weather during the monsoon has encouraged breeding of mosquito larvae in drains, ponds and garbage dumps, which encouraged the breeding of flies and mosquitos and the subsequent spreading of the bacterias that cause diarrhoea through contaminated foods and the virus that causes dengue, Dr. Khin Myint Aye said.
Dengue spreads because of our inability to fight the mosquito menace, he said.
Dengue outbreaks are not rare in Burma. Ministry of Health announced that 910 people were infected with dengue during the January-May period and six those died from this disease that is also known as break-bone fever because of severe pain in the bones and joints that often characterises infection.
At least 80 people were infected in Rangoon in the last week of June, Mizzima reported on July 1.
According to official statistics, 3,129 Burmese people were infected with dengue last year and 37 died.
By AYE NAI
Published: 12 July 2010
The party led by Burmese prime minister Thein Sein is attempting to entice new supporters by offering financial loans with low rates of interest.
The loans are only available to those who join the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is widely tipped to win controversial elections later this year. Competing candidates have already complained that the party is being given preferential treatment by the Burmese government.
New supporters have even said that they are joining the party entirely ignorant of what its policies are: the average wage in Burma is around US$220 per year and the interest rates on these loans are attractively low.
A Rangoon resident told DVB that the local USDP coordinator for her area asserted that the loans were “for campaigning purposes” and only available to members of the party.
“She said one has to join the party in order to get the loan. The interest is only three percent – the kind of deal you would normally only get from a pawn shop – so a lot of roadside vendors were [joining the party] so they can get the loan for investments.”
Street vendors will receive 60,000 kyat (US$60), while shop owners who rent property from the local municipal will get 500,000 kyat (US$500). A beetle-nut shop owner in Alone township in Rangoon said that he had joined the party and was given a loan.
“I filled in forms for the membership registration and the loan,” he said. “After filling in the forms, I was given 60,000 kyat. They said photos will be taken [for membership purposes] at their office and we have to pay for the photograph and document fees.
A noodle salad shop owner said that, despite not knowing the USDP’s policies, she joined nonetheless in order to receive a loan for her shop.
“I didn’t even read, let alone understand, the party’s policy and directives. I had to answer a question in the registration form about whether I believed in the party, and I answered yes. But I don’t really understand or acknowledge what the group’s policy is.”
The vendors who took the 60,000 kyat loan are to return 2000 kyat (US$2) each day and those who got the 500,000 kyat loan will have to return 103,000 kyat (US$103) per month for five months.
The registration and photography fee for new members is 1500 kyat (US$1.50) plus interest, meaning that the USDP will make 3300 kyat (US$3.30) from the vendors. It is not clear whether they will be given more loans after their debt is paid off.
A number of parties have said that the hefty fees required to run in the elections might prevent them from running effective campaigns: each candidate has to pay 500,000 kyat, on top of an overall 500,000 kyat charge for each competing party.