BURMA RELATED NEWS – SEPTEMBER 03-07, 2010
Sep 7th, 2010
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 7, 5:01 am ET
BEIJING (AP) – Military-run Myanmar’s top leader Gen. Than Shwe arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a state visit to his country’s closest ally ahead of contentious national elections this fall.
China strongly backs Myanmar internationally and provides it with key economic and diplomatic support. Myanmar’s ruling junta has been largely shunned by the West because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to the opposition party that won elections two decades ago.
Than Shwe is expected to seek China’s support for plans to hold nationwide elections in early November that the junta is portraying as a key step in shifting to civilian rule after five decades of military domination. Critics have called them a sham and say the military shows little sign of relinquishing control.
Than Shwe will meet President Hu Jintao along with Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior Chinese officials in Beijing. He is scheduled to visit the Shanghai Expo and the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province before he departs Saturday.
Though no details have been released about their agenda, experts expect talks to center on the upcoming elections as well as economic deals signed by Wen earlier this year.
“He needs to talk to China about how to further develop their mutual relations if he wins the election, and how China and Myanmar can go further in cooperating politically and economically,” said Zhao Haili, associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University.
The countries have generally enjoyed strong relations in recent years, though there was some friction when factional fighting sent tens of thousands of Burmese refugees across the Chinese border last summer.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference Tuesday that the election was Myanmar’s internal affair. “We hope the international community can provide constructive help to the upcoming election and refrain from making any negative impact on the domestic political process and the regional peace and stability,” she said.
Than Shwe’s visit comes three months after Wen went to Myanmar, the first trip by a Chinese leader since 2001. Wen signed 15 agreements on cooperation in areas including a natural gas pipeline, hydropower station and development assistance, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China is Myanmar’s third-largest trading partner and investor after Thailand and Singapore. In 2009, bilateral trade totaled $2.9 billion, Xinhua said. By January 2010, China’s investment in Myanmar amounted to $1.8 billion, accounting for 11.5 percent of Myanmar’s then total foreign investment.
But this May, China made huge investments in hydropower, oil and gas, totaling $8.17 billion, Xinhua said, quoting Myanmar government statistics.
By Dan Martin (AFP) – 4 hours ago
BEIJING (AFP) — China on Tuesday hailed Myanmar as a “friendly neighbour” and warned the world not to meddle in its upcoming election, as the head of the country’s military junta arrived for a state visit.
Than Shwe, whose regime has drawn international condemnation for its human rights record and political repression, is on a four-day visit that will include a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
While Myanmar is the subject of tough Western sanctions, China — the junta’s main trading partner and an eager investor in the isolated state’s sizeable natural resources — called for even closer ties with its neighbour.
“China and Myanmar are friendly neighbours and this year marks the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
“We are willing to take this opportunity to further consolidate our traditional friendship and make new contributions to regional peace and stability.”
Myanmar will hold its first election in 20 years in November but pro-democracy parties allege that restrictions imposed by the iron-fisted military regime will virtually ensure it wins the poll.
The election has been widely criticised by activists and the West as a sham.
Speaking at a regular press briefing, Jiang deflected questions about Myanmar’s human rights record and whether China’s support has helped keep the junta in power.
But she said China hopes “the international community can provide constructive help” for the polls and “refrain from any negative impact on the domestic political process of Myanmar and on regional peace and stability”.
She called the election an “important step in proceeding with democracy”.
The Myanmar general is due to meet Hu on Wednesday and Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday.
Jiang provided no specifics on what Than Shwe would discuss with Chinese leaders or on the reason for the visit. China had said earlier they would discuss bilateral relations and their respective “domestic developments”.
Besides meeting Hu and Wen in Beijing, Than Shwe will travel to Shanghai to see the World Expo and visit southern China’s booming export hub Shenzhen during his visit ending Saturday, China said previously.
China has long helped to keep Myanmar afloat through trade ties, arms sales, and by shielding it from UN sanctions over rights abuses as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.
In return, China is assured of a stable neighbour and access to raw materials such as teak and gems from Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Ties frayed last year when fighting between junta forces and rebel ethnic armies drove tens of thousands of refugees over the border into China, which issued a rare admonishment to Myanmar.
But in November, China’s top oil producer began construction of a pipeline across Myanmar.
And last week two Chinese warships made a rare visit to Myanmar, which Beijing’s state press said was aimed at promoting ties between the allies’ armed forces.
The issue of border stability was discussed when Wen Jiabao visited Myanmar in June — the first visit by a Chinese premier in 16 years.
He met Than Shwe and the two sides signed a series of agreements on trade, finance, energy, science and technology.
Ahead of Than Shwe’s visit, Human Rights Watch had called on Beijing to press Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to conduct open elections and be accountable for its rights record.
“China both wants to profit from Burma and distance itself from Burma’s unstable military rule,” the New York-based group’s acting Asia director Sophie Richardson said in a statement.
“If the Chinese government doesn’t fundamentally alter its approach to Burma, it risks burnishing its reputation as a patron of abusive regimes.”
Mon Sep 6, 2010 6:30am GMT
Sept 6 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s reclusive leader, General Than Shwe, arrives in China on Tuesday for a five-day state visit ahead of elections on Nov. 7, at which the ruling junta’s civilian proxies are expected to score a resounding victory.
Here are five facts about the complex relationship between China and Myanmar:
*In 1949, Burma, as Myanmar was then known, was one of the first countries to recognise the People’s Republic of China. But relations soured in the 1960s following anti-Chinese riots in Rangoon (now called Yangon).
* Following a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988, the West imposed broad sanctions on Myanmar. China stepped into the void, providing aid and weapons and ramping up trade.
Beijing has continued to provide broad diplomatic support for Myanmar’s military government, though the ruling generals remain wary of their powerful northern neighbour.
* China has pumped $8.17 billion into Myanmar in the current fiscal year, accounting for two-thirds of its total investment over the past two decades, Myanmar’s state media reported last month. [ID:nSGE67F0BL]
Energy projects formed the bulk of the investment, with $5 billion in hydropower and $2.15 billion in the oil and gas sector of the resource-rich nation. However, analysts say official investment data for Myanmar is notoriously unreliable.
Bilateral trade grew by more than one-quarter in 2008 to about $2.63 billion, according to Chinese figures. Chinese firms are also heavily involved in logging in Myanmar.
* Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports of oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts. Two Chinese warships made a port call in Myanmar last month, the Chinese navy’s first visit to the country.
In October, China’s state energy group CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait. [ID:nTOE60D08W] [ID:nTOE67P06B]
* The relationship has had rocky patches of late. In August 2009, refugees flooded across into China following fighting on the Myanmar side of the border between rebels and government troops, angering Beijing. Myanmar has since promised to maintain stability on the border. [ID:nTOE65206V]
In 2007, China’s Foreign Ministry published an unflattering account of Myanmar’s new jungle capital Naypyitaw, expressing surprise that the poor country would consider such an expensive move without first telling its supposed Chinese friends. (Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski)
BBC News – China urges support for Burma’s general election
China has urged the rest of the world to support the Burmese general election in November – an event which is widely seen by Western countries as a sham.
China’s foreign ministry said the poll was an “internal matter” for Burma, and China hoped other countries would provide it with “constructive help”.
Burma’s military leader, Gen Than Shwe, is visiting China, one of Burma’s main investors and trading partners.
He is to hold talks with President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders.
Speaking on the first day of Burma’s leader’s visit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Jiang Yu, clarified China’s position towards the elections in Burma:
“We hope that the international community will provide constructive help for Myanmar’s [Burma's] upcoming election and avoid bringing negative effect to bear on Myanmar’s political course and regional peace and stability.”
The poll is the first since pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 1990.
The military never allowed her party to take power, and it has been disbanded.
Critics say this election will be a sham, because of poll laws which favour the authorities.
Trading partners
Burma’s military government is shunned by many countries because of its human rights record.
But China and Burma have built up a strong relationship over recent decades, says the BBC’s Michael Bristow in Beijing.
The two countries are major training partners, and China invests millions of dollars in infrastructure projects in Burma.
Beijing is building two pipelines there – one for oil, the other for natural gas.
These will make it easier to get energy supplies into China.
To protect these investments, Chinese officials will be keen to see a stable Burma – whatever the developments inside the country, our correspondent says.
By John Vause, CNN
September 7, 2010 4:53 a.m. EDT
Beijing, China (CNN) — When a military dictator comes calling, Beijing doesn’t like to give too many details away.
So when China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked why Myanmar’s Sr. Gen. Than Shwe is here for a four-day visit, spokeswoman Jiang Yu replied, “China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors and this year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.”
As is customary with the superstitious and mysterious Than Shwe, there is a good deal of speculation and not a lot of hard facts about just why he is meeting with China’s President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. There are also plans for a trip to the Shanghai Expo; Shenzhen, the birthplace of China’s economic “miracle;” and industrial heart land of Guangzhou.
Analysts have suggested the visit has a lot to do with Myanmar’s elections, planned for November, the first in two decades. They say the general may want to shore up China’s support ahead of time.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in Myanmar in the last time around, in 1990, but the military junta refused to accept the results. Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, remains under house arrest.
Under the new rules outlined by the military, a party cannot run candidates in the upcoming elections if any members are under arrest — hence, Suu Kyi’s party is boycotting the vote.
“The regime in Burma are complete control freaks,” said Anna Roberts, executive director of the Burma Campaign, referring to Myanmar by its previous name. She described the upcoming elections as a total sham, with the military junta guaranteed 25 seats — a quarter of the seats in parliament.
“Even if the elections were free and fair, it wouldn’t make any difference because it brings in a constitution which legitimizes the dictatorship,” she told CNN.
When it comes to the looming election, China’s Foreign Ministry once again stuck to its standard line.
“Myanmar’s general elections are Myanmar’s internal affair,” the ministry said. “We also hope that the international community can provide constructive help … and avoid negatively impacting politics in Myanmar and the peace and stability of the region.”
Critics say China should be doing much more.
“China should be using its influence to make genuine reforms. The international community has been dancing to the regime’s tune,” says Roberts, of the Burma Campaign. “Every single effort has been rejected by the dictatorship.”
But with Beijing reportedly investing billions in Myanmar, especially for access to natural resources like timber, precious stones, and energy, as well as strategic access to its ports for the Chinese navy, it seems unlikely the Chinese are willing to push the regime.
After all, should the junta collapse, it would most likely be replaced with a Western-leaning democracy — not exactly what the Chinese leadership wants on their country’s doorstep.
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 09/07/2010 5:05 PM | Updated as of 09/07/2010 5:05 PM
THABEIKKYIN, Myanmar – The first election in 20 years is only weeks away, but for many people in isolated Myanmar, a chronic lack of information — and meaningful choice — has dulled enthusiasm for the vote.
“Could you please advise me who I should vote for?” 43-year-old Ko Aung asked AFP when questioned on the election.
The father-of-three said there were only two parties in his area, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUP). Both support the country’s feared military junta.
Ko Aung, who sells bamboo shoots from the forest in Mandalay’s Thabeikkyin township, has heard independent radio reports saying the USDP “is not good”, but he has no strong interest in politics.
“Our daily income is the important thing for us,” he said.
The election on November 7 has been dismissed by critics as a sham aimed at concealing military power behind a civilian facade.
Generals have stacked the cards in their favour to ensure there is no repeat of the 1990 vote that saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) storm to victory, only to be denied power by the junta.
Suu Kyi, the greatest challenge to the military, has spent much of the past two decades in detention and is barred from participating in this election because she is a serving prisoner. She is due for release days after the vote.
The NLD has boycotted the polls saying the rules are unfair and has subsequently been disbanded by the ruling generals.
The main democracy parties still in the running, the Democratic Party (Myanmar) and the National Democratic Force, an NLD offshoot, are fielding just a fraction of the number of candidates put up by the main pro-junta parties.
They have faced serious financial and campaigning constraints, alleged intimidation by security personnel and a tight timetable to register to stand.
With a weakened democracy movement and widespread hardship resulting from years of economic mismanagement, political apathy is rife.
Kyaw Kyaw, a 25-year-old university graduate in Yangon, said he had no interest in the election but would vote USDP if he had to participate as “they will win for sure” and “might continue giving us 24-hour electricity”.
“If Aung San Suu Kyi is released and competes in the election, I will vote for her. Otherwise, I will vote for the USDP as I do not know much about the new political parties,” he said.
Because it is two decades since the last general election, many people, particularly those in rural areas, do not understand the voting process.
People in Pakokku, in the northeast of Myanmar, told AFP they were afraid to take an interest in politics.
One 31-year-old woman, whose reluctance to be named is unsurprising in a country where political activity has long been associated with double-digit prison sentences, plans to consult monks before casting her vote.
Two years ago the woman, who cannot read or write, was told by her village chief to vote for a new constitution in a referendum, but defied him on the instructions of a monk.
“Although I’m afraid of the village chief and police, I have more faith in our Buddhist monks,” she said.
The new constitution, which comes into force with the election, ring-fences a quarter of the legislature for the army, while junta-friendly parties are seen as having a major advantage in the contest for the remaining seats.
The USDP has merged with the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) — a powerful pro-junta organisation with deep pockets and up to 27 million members, many of whom are civil servants anxious to keep their jobs.
A 55-year-old government worker in Pakokku said his job meant he had not learned much about the political parties.
“I want to vote for the people who can really work for our benefit. The government has repaired our roads and built many factories for us around our region lately,” he said.
But asked if he would like to vote for the USDP, he fell silent.
“I do not know much. I have to think it through very thoroughly,” he said. “Could you please advise me who to vote for?”
September 07, 2010
BANGKOK, Sept 7 — Private sector reforms have accelerated in Myanmar, but not without a heavy dose of cronyism, as the military junta strengthens control over major assets and the business elite before ceding power to a civilian government.
About 300 state assets — from real estate, gas stations and toll roads to ports, shipping companies and an airline — have been privatised, mostly this year, in highly opaque sales.
As top military brass swap fatigues for civilian clothes ahead of elections on November 7, the sales put valuable assets under their control through holding companies, or in the hands of their allies, turning the ex-military elite into the financial powerbrokers of a new era of civilian rule in the former Burma. “The military is broadening its base of supporters by creating economic opportunities for loyal figures,” said Jacob Ramsay, senior analyst for Southeast Asia and Pacific at British-based security consultants Control Risks.
“To keep some of these senior members of the military who aren’t quite in the top tier happy, they are offering the transition to civilian positions within the national legislature and sweetening it with access to money-making opportunities.”
Ramsay points to 1960s Indonesia as a model for the Myanmar regime, when the late autocratic ruler Suharto laid the foundations of what would become Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, while retaining his tight grip on power.
Myanmar, one of the poorest countries in Asia, was once the world’s largest rice exporter and is rich in resources timber, gems, oil and natural gas, but has suffered from decades of isolation and control by the military.
Crony capitalism
“Everybody’s sure one of a handful of cronies close to top leaders will be the winner (from the privatisations). Most of us just play supporting roles in the bidding,” said a Yangon-based businessman, who asked that his identity be withheld.
Experts say the fact that a regime with one of the world’s worst records of economic mismanagement oversaw the privatisation boom itself, rather than wait for post-election parliamentary checks and balances, was indicative of its real intentions.
“They’re just liquidating all state-owned assets by transferring them to their cronies with intent to make money and hand over an empty country to the next government if it fails to turn out in their favour,” said a university economist in Yangon, who declined to be identified so he could speak candidly.
But there is little chance the first elections in two decades will be unfavourable to the junta.
Two parties believed to be proxies for the regime are contesting most of the 1,163 seats up for grabs, compared with the biggest of the pro- democracy parties, which is fielding just 166 candidates. The military will also retain control of key ministries and will be granted 25 per cent of the seats in two national and 14 regional legislatures.
Critics say pro-junta parties will benefit from large donations from private companies run by the regime’s allies.
Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar’s economy at Sydney’s Macquarie University, sees little hope for competition in the business sector as the junta and its allies spread the wealth among themselves.
“Whatever the motivation, Burma’s current round of privatisations… are close to a textbook example of institutional expropriation by Burma’s existing political and economic elite,” he wrote in a recent study.
“(This) will likely be the real story of this latest unfortunate turn for Burma’s economy.”
22:16, September 07, 2010
Two senior Myanmar leaders, General Thura Shwe Mann, No. 3 state leader, and General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, No. 5 state leader, have quit their military titles ahead of election, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television confirmed Tuesday.
Thura U Shwe Mann, member of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and Chief of General Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo, SPDC First Secretary, appeared with their civilian names without the military titles when accompanying SPDC Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe on a state visit to China Tuesday.
The two leaders are expected to contest for parliament representatives in the coming multi-party general election set for Nov. 7.
In April, Prime Minister U Thein Sein, who is No. 4 state leader, along with government ministers, had quit their military titles but not government posts and formed the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) with 27 ministers as leading members to run the November election.
The USDP, transformed from the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), is claimed as the biggest political party in the country now.
As of Sept. 7, a total of 47 political parties have applied for formation or re-registration under the new political parties registration law. The election commission has approved 42 political parties for their set-up, of which 33 have been formally registered.
17:52, September 06, 2010
South Korea’s investment in Myanmar has risen 10 times in the first four months of the fiscal year 2010-11, hitting 2.658 billion U.S. dollars as of July 2010 since 1988, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Monday.
The sharp increase of South Korea’s investment has prompted the country to rise up to the position of 5th from 10th in Myanmar’s foreign investment line-up.
The Korean investment grew from 239.318 million dollars in March, at the end of 2009-10.
S. Korea poured its investment in the sectors of mining and oil and gas.
According to official statistics, Thailand, China, China’s Hong Kong, Britain, S. Korea and Singapore have topped Myanmar’s foreign investment.
As of July 2010 since 1988, Thailand has invested 9.568 billion dollars, China 6.415 billion dollars, China’s Hong Kong 5.904 billion dollars, Britain 2.659 billion dollars, S. Korea 2.658 billion dollars and Singapore 1.592 billion dollars, the statistics show.
Myanmar has absorbed 15.84 billion U.S. dollars’ huge contracted foreign investment in the first four months of the fiscal year of 2010-11, registering the highest annually throughout Myanmar’s foreign investment over the past 22 years.
The four-month investment has brought Myanmar’s total foreign investment to 31.895 billion dollars up to July 2010 since 1988 when the country opened to such investment.
The last total figure was registered as 16.05 billion dollars up to March, the end of 2009-2010.
Sectorally, the total investment as of July 2010 since 1988 has been registered as 13.447 billion dollars for the oil and gas, 11. 341 billion dollars for electric power, 2.395 billion dollars for mining, 1.662 billion dollars for manufacturing and 1.064 billion dollars for hotels and tourism.
The Straits Times – Myanmar sells state assets
BANGKOK – PRIVATE sector reforms have accelerated in Myanmar, but not without a heavy dose of cronyism, as the military junta strengthens control over major assets and the business elite before ceding power to a civilian government.
About 300 state assets – from real estate, gas stations and toll roads to ports, shipping companies and an airline – have been privatised, mostly this year, in highly opaque sales.
As top military brass swap fatigues for civilian clothes ahead of elections on Nov 7, the sales put valuable assets under their control through holding companies, or in the hands of their allies, turning the ex-military elite into the financial powerbrokers of a new era of civilian rule in the former Burma.
‘The military is broadening its base of supporters by creating economic opportunities for loyal figures,’ said Jacob Ramsay, senior analyst for South-east Asia and Pacific at British-based security consultants Control Risks.
‘To keep some of these senior members of the military who aren’t quite in the top tier happy, they are offering the transition to civilian positions within the national legislature and sweetening it with access to money-making opportunities’.
Mr Ramsay points to 1960s Indonesia as a model for the Myanmar regime, when the late autocratic ruler Suharto laid the foundations of what would become South-east Asia’s biggest economy, while retaining his tight grip on power.
The Straits Times – ‘Don’t meddle in Myanmar polls’
BEIJING – CHINA on Tuesday hailed Myanmar as a ‘friendly neighbour’ and warned the world not to meddle in its upcoming election, as the head of the country’s military junta was due to arrive for a state visit.
General Than Shwe, whose regime has drawn international condemnation for its human rights record, arrives on Tuesday for a four-day visit that will include a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
While Myanmar is the subject of tough Western sanctions, China – the junta’s main trading partner and an eager investor in the isolated state’s sizeable natural resources – called for even closer ties with its neighbour.
‘China and Myanmar are friendly neighbours and this year marks the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties,’ foreign ministry spokesman Jiang Yu told reporters. ‘We are willing to take this opportunity to further consolidate our traditional friendship and make new contributions to regional peace and stability.’
Myanmar will hold its first election in 20 years in Nov but pro-democracy parties allege that restrictions imposed by the iron-fisted military regime will virtually ensure it wins the poll.
Ms Jiang said China hopes ‘the international community can provide constructive help’ for the polls and ‘refrain from any negative impact on the domestic political process of Myanmar and on regional peace and stability’.
Zin Linn
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Sep. 07 2010 – 06:23 pm
Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she would like to advise the military regime to talk with ethnic cease-fire groups for an improved prospect in Burma, according to her spokesperson and lawyer Nyan Win who met her on September 4. Nyan Win is a senior executive in the National League for Democracy (NLD) which declined to reregister under the new election laws made by the junta.
Nyan Win, accompanied by two other lawyers, met with the Lady in her Rangoon residence, where she has been under house arrest for several years. Nyan Win informed that during the discussion they also talked about making a lawsuit against Senior-General Than Shwe and a plea on the Lady’s additional 18 months house arrest.
People, especially the ethnic nationalities, do not believe the upcoming elections are a solution to the long-lasting civil war of Burma. The 2010 election procedure allows free activities only for the junta-backed political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Existing Prime Minister ex-General Thein Sein and over a hundred retired military officers are the leading members of the USDP. The USDP has raised unlimited funds for itself and it has been allowed free political campaigns since last year. However, many ethnic political parties are still struggling to canvass in the elections because of lack of party funds.
Besides, the formation of the election commission is also a premeditated plot. None of the ethnic minority representatives are in the regime’s hand-picked election commissioners. Chairman of the Election Commission is Deputy Supreme Court Judge Thein Soe (a retired Brigadier-General) who is on the EU’s sanctions blacklist. The blacklist includes key members of Burma’s military regime including Dr. Tin Aung Aye, a fellow Supreme Court Judge, and also a member of the EC. Most of the Election Commission’s executive members are very close to the junta’s top brass.
Moreover, the completely unfair election laws already block Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party from taking part in the polls.
Results will be predictable in the upcoming 2010 elections. The USDP will be the winner in the elections and will form a new administration. Former generals will become cabinet members. People want real change. But, they have to watch the ex-generals’ show of changing civilian clothes. Their tyrannical behaviors will remain the same. They will arrest anyone who is against the namesake civilian government. Political prisoners or prisoners of conscience will have to stay in jail for more years. It seems Burma’s Human Rights violations will dishonor ASEAN as well as ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).
There seems little hope Aung San Suu Kyi’s advice to the military regime will be heeded to dialogue with ethnic cease-fire groups.
Posted by kanglaonline on September 7, 2010
Imphal, Sep 6: Regulatory permits will be introduced for Myanmarese nationals entering the country from the Moreh border from September 8 this year.
The official formulation of the regulatory permit system for the Myanmarese was finalised during the recent joint meeting attended by the CO 31 Assam Rifles and officials and administrators of Moreh sub-division led by the ADC of Moreh held on September 3 as per the instructions from Ministry of Home Affairs and State Home Department.
According to an official source, as per the newly adopted official regulations, there will be checking and identification of Myanmar nationals entering through both Moreh Gate No. 1 and Gate No. 2 by the personnel of 31 Assam Rifles and later the identified Myanmarese will be allowed to enter Moreh only after the issuance of permit for a fee of Rs.10 for the day. Their permit will be valid from 7 am till 4 pm. Myanmarese having official permits will be allowed to move within 16 kms from the border.
The official source further mentioned that the SDC/SDO Moreh, Addl SP Moreh, SDPO Moreh, OC of Moreh police station are the officers concerned for the authorization of permits to the Myanmar nationals entering Moreh town. The newly adopted official regulations also require production of valid identity cards by the foreign nationals while applying for the permit, the source added.
2010-09-07 13:25
By Kelly Macnamara
MAHACHAI, Tuesday 7 September 2010 (AFP) – Oo’s troubles with the local Thai police began with a request common across Asia — he asked them to remove their shoes before entering his room.
It cost him nearly a month’s wages.
The proud 26-year-old Myanmar migrant said the officers in Mahachai, an industrial area near Bangkok, asked him if he wanted to “make trouble”.
Oo claims he was falsely accused of illegal lending and threatened with deportation — despite having documents proving his legal status — until he handed over 4,000 baht (128 dollars), around 20 day’s pay.
Thailand has intensified its crackdown on unregistered migrants as part of attempts to legalise its huge population of overseas workers.
But rights groups are concerned that many people are swept up in the process despite having official documents, while there are fears that some police are using the operation to step up extortion.
Andy Hall, consultant to the Human Rights and Development Foundation, said police were extracting money from vulnerable migrants with “complete impunity”.
“I think that the fact they’re doing this so systematically all across Thailand shows just how much a culture of seeing the migrants as second class and as almost subhuman has now become entrenched,” he said.
The government recently told authorities to step up efforts to identify illegal migrants, following a February 2010 deadline to apply for the National Verification scheme aimed at normalising foreign workers’ status.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said authorities were keen to persuade migrants to join the system “so they can be protected”, but he added the government was aware of police extortion in some areas.
“If officers are committing fraud and are reported we will prosecute those officers… but the problem is many of (the migrants) don’t come forward,” he said.
Figures from the Mahachai police show a surge to more than 400 arrests in August, up from around 80 in March. But Hall said the real numbers are likely to be in the thousands as arrested migrants with money pay to be released.
The total number of migrants from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia could exceed two million, when an estimated one million unregistered workers are taken into account.
Hall stresses those from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, are not fleeing conflict. Rather they have left behind an economy “in ruins” and many send money home from Thailand.
“Maybe the conditions are better than in Burma, but they are caught between two hells,” he said.
One Samut Sakhon employer, who refused to be named, said authorities had arrested over 200 people in a single day without checking their papers.
The workers were taken to Bangkok, forcing employers to send documents to the capital to free them.
“In some factories 30 out of 40 workers were arrested, so they can’t run their businesses at all. Can you imagine how much we lose for not working for a few days? The police don’t seem to care,” she said.
Phyu Pwint Oo, a shy 19-year-old from southern Myanmar, described being caught up in a round-up as she returned home from her job in a Mahachai seafood factory.
She said it was only when she found herself in a cell in Bangkok with 50 other women that she realised she had been arrested by immigration forces.
“They gave me three meals a day, but I didn’t have a chance to take a shower and could not change my clothes for six days,” she told AFP a day after her employer secured her release.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the arrival of central immigration forces in an area meant “all bets are off”, with any deals between local police, employers and workers effectively cancelled.
But he said ordinarily the migrants were an “easy target” for local police, who arrest more than their quota and then release those with money for bribes.
Mahachai police commander Colonel Pongsak Chunak denied that there was any corruption in his force. “There have been no complaints about extortion in the area under my command,” he said.
The subject remains taboo in a country where even businesses fear the police.
“The truth is there but I cannot say anything, it could be dangerous for my life,” the Samut Sakhon employer said when questioned on corruption.
Myanmar Man Stabs Countryman To Death
BATU GAJAH, Sept 7 (Bernama) — A Myanmar national was stabbed to death by a countryman during a fight at a workers’ hostel in Bandar Seri Pengkalan, Pusing, near here last night, police said on Tuesday.
Batu Gajah police chief ACP Najib Mohamad said Saw San Na Yar, 28, who worked at a factory here, was stabbed 12 times and died on the spot in the 11.20pm incident.
The police picked up a 25-year-old suspect from a nearby house 45 minutes later, he told reporters.
Najib said the two men had quarrelled when they were with a group of 10 Myanmar nationals having a drink outside the hostel.
One of their countrymen helped to pacify them and they returned to the hostel, he said.
Later, both of them started fighting again and the suspect stabbed Na Yar, he added.
September 6, 2010: As planned, the generals who run the government have “retired” to run in the November 7 elections. But not before carefully selected subordinates were promoted to fill the empty commands. Fewer than a hundred senior officers, and their families, control the country, and have done so for over half a century. This ruling class sticks together, otherwise they would be killed by the millions of Burmese they have persecuted and exploited over the decades. The new organization appears to leave the former generals still in charge. If they get elected, as they expect (via a vigorous campaign, suppressing opposition parties and, if needed, rigging the vote) the “retired” generals will be the elected civilian leaders, which the military will be subordinate to.
Easier visa requirements has led to a sharp increase in tourism, which is up 37 percent this year. About a third of the 300,000 annual visitors are from neighboring China and Thailand. But this doesn’t really boost the economy much, since the ruling military families, and the military in general, have a stranglehold on commercial activity. There’s no economic opportunity unless you have a military “partner.” Staying in business means paying unofficial taxes to your military patron, as well as providing jobs to anyone your patron favors. It’s all very feudal, and inefficient. Sort of communism without all the dogma and slogans.
The government plan to turn tribal militias into border guards is working, although there is still some resistance. While many Karen tribal leaders have made deals with the government (to stop the army attacks and gain some cash), some tribal members still resist, even after joining the new border guard. There have been some shootings and other violence. The tribal leaders point out that with tribesmen acting as border guards, there will be fewer non-tribal officials and soldiers around. The soldiers are feared because they tend to do whatever they want, and get away with it. This starts with extorting money at checkpoints, and can escalate to rape and murder. Most Burmese troops in Karen territory are concentrating on the tribes that have not surrendered. The tactics remain as they have always been; burn villages and chase civilians into the jungle. Many trek to the Thai border and seek sanctuary. Meanwhile, the government, with economic and technical help from China, is building more railroads into the sparsely populated north. This is mainly for economic reasons, to make it profitable to extract raw materials. But it also makes it easier and cheaper to send soldiers north, and keep them supplied. This could spell the end of the tribal militias that are still holding out up there. The tribal rebels continue to fight a low level guerilla war, tossing grenades into government offices and setting off bombs in military and government installations in the tribal territories. There are not many of these attacks (a few a month), but it’s enough to remind the government that they are not welcome up north.
India is holding its nose and being nice to Burma, because tribal rebels in northeast India are shifting their bases from Bangladesh (where India convinced the government to seek out and expel the Indian tribal rebels) to Myanmar (where the territory is even more remote and thinly populated than in Bangladesh). India has a 1,600 kilometer border with Myanmar.
The UN is seeking to form a commission to investigate whether the generals running Burma were guilty of war crimes. China will oppose this, but that often is not enough when enough countries are behind it. More Western countries are not waiting for the UN, and are putting more economic sanctions on Burma. China is taking advantage of this by letting the Burmese know that Chinese manufacturers can supply just about anything they need, and are increasingly doing so.
August 29, 2010: For the first time, Chinese communist warships have visited a Burmese port (Yangon). The two Chinese ships are returning from service with the international anti-piracy patrol off Somalia. Yangon is the fifth foreign port the two warships have visited as they make their way back to China.
August 28, 2010: The government announced the retirement of senior generals, and who their replacements would be. The current bunch of senior generals have been in charge since 1992.
August 16, 2010: A major Western bank (Barclays) has agreed to pay a fine of $298 million to the United States, for helping countries under sanctions (Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Burma), avoid them. Burma, like Iran, has many government officials whose sole task is to find ways to get around sanctions, and get military equipment, or civilian gear that is embargoed.
August 14, 2010: In the south, an army captain was killed when a gunfight broke out between two groups of soldiers who were seeking to extort money from Thai fishing boats (who were illegally working in Burmese waters.) While extortion of Burmese is usually worked out ahead of time, foreigners are often up for grabs, and that sometimes leads to disputes.
August 13, 2010: The government announced general elections would be held November 7th, the first in two decades. The last ones were honest, and when the result went against the generals, the votes was overthrown and opposition candidates who won were jailed or driven into exile.
2010-09-05 21:20:00
Myanmar will build its first sculpture village to showcase the country’s craftsmanship to the world, Xinhua reported.
The village will cover 81 hectares of land in the Dagon-South area of Yangon. The project will complete by December end. Myanmar is known for its sculpture products.
Myanmarese craftsmen are skilled in making products from tree roots. A wood garden, created from roots and branches, was opened at the People’s Square in Yangon. The material was used from felled trees in cyclone Nargis of 2008.
In October last year, an expo featuring Myanmar’s wooden sculptures was held in Beijing.
2010-09-05 09:50:00
Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has advised her now defunct political party to sue the ruling junta for forcing its dissolution, opposition sources said Sunday.
Suu Kyi, who is serving an 18-month sentence under house arrest, gave her legal advice to her team of lawyers, Nyan Win, Kyi Win and Khin Htay Kywe, at a meeting Saturday.
‘Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi told us that we should sue the government for forcing the National League for Democracy (NLD) to be abolished, because it was unlawful,’ Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi, 65, says new electoral laws adopted by the junta were prejudiced against herself and her party.
The military government plans to stage a general election Nov 7, a week before Suu Kyi’s detention term expires.
The junta, which has ruled since 1988, last held an election in 1990 – which the NLD won by a landslide.
But the party was blocked from power, and Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
The regime made sure that NLD and Suu Kyi were barred from this year’s election by new laws covering party registration and membership regulations adopted in March.
The laws bar people currently serving prison terms from being party members, effectively forcing the NLD to choose between dropping their leader Suu Kyi or forfeiting its right to participate.
The party chose in April to boycott the polls and has since been decertified as a political party, although it still exists as an organisation.
Other regulations, such as a 500-dollar-per-candidate registration fee, in a country where per capita income is less than $600, have assured that only pro-junta parties will have sufficient candidates to fully contest the election.
September 07, 2010
Bangkok. Private-sector reforms have accelerated in Burma, but not without a heavy dose of cronyism, as the military junta strengthens control over major assets and the business elite before ceding power to a nominally civilian government.
About 300 state assets — from real estate, vehicle service stations and toll roads to ports, shipping companies and an airline — have been privatized, mostly this year, in highly opaque sales.
As top military brass swap fatigues for civilian clothes ahead of elections on Nov. 7, the sales put valuable assets under their control through holding companies, or in the hands of their allies, turning the ex-military elite into the financial power brokers of a new era of civilian rule in Burma.
“The military is broadening its base of supporters by creating economic opportunities for loyal figures,” said Jacob Ramsay, senior analyst at British-based security consultants Control Risks.
“To keep some of these senior members of the military who aren’t quite in the top tier happy, they are offering the transition to civilian positions within the national legislature and sweetening it with access to money-making opportunities.”
Ramsay points to 1960s Indonesia as a model for the Burma regime, when the late autocratic ruler Suharto laid the foundations of what would become Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, while retaining his tight grip on power.
People are fighting a plantation company threatening protected forests and a tiger reserve in northern Burma’s Hugawng Valley
Published: 5/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum
In defiance of Burma’s ruling military junta, farmers in the northern state of Kachin are fighting a plantation company they fear will destroy their land and livelihoods.
The farmers accuse the Yuzana Company of large-scale destruction of forest in the Hugawng Valley, an area that also happens to comprise the world’s largest tiger reserve.
The Yuzana Company conglomerate, whose chief Htay Myint is said to be close to Burma’s military rulers, was given the licence to operate plantations in the Hukawng Valley in 2007.
Since 2007, Yuzana has been relocating entire villages, destroying crops and confiscating farmland to prepare about 81,000 hectares of land – the valley has a total area of about 2.2 million hectares – for the planting of sugarcane, jatropha and cassava to produce agrofuels.
The project is given security by 200 soldiers from Infantry Battalion 297 based in the area as well as private militia. Despite threats and intimidation from the powerful interests behind the project, the seven villages in the project area have bravely resisted the loss of their land and homes to the company.
Villagers from Ban Kawk and Warazup have driven away the company bulldozers, pulled out tapioca seedlings and refused to relocate from their homes.
Farmers filed written complaints to authorities and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) after the removals started.
In June, 2007, the Hugawng Valley Farmer Social Committee sent a letter of appeal signed by about 800 farmers protesting against the land confiscation in Hugawng Valley to Senior General Than Shwe, urging him to stop the project.
As their demands continued to be ignored, the villagers then asked the National League for Democracy, Burma’s main opposition party, to file a court case against the Yuzana Company for abusing citizen’s rights.
After the farmers’ petition, the Kachin Supreme Court in Myitkina opened a case on behalf of 148 farmers in July.
The Kachin News Group reported last year that the company has built about 100,000 houses in the valley for men and women working on the plantations. Farmers state that Yuzana has confiscated land in seven villages in the region and compensated only 80,000 kyat (1,900 baht) for a 1/2 hectare of land normally valued at 300,000 kyat.
The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), a Kachin environmental group, recently released a report titled Tyrants, Tycoons and Tigers describing the operations of the Yuzana Company in the Hugawng Valley. The report states that the company has already forcibly moved more than 160 families. The company reportedly used herbicide to kill forest undergrowth and then cleared the ground with fleets of bulldozers and excavators, leaving large swathes of denuded land. Then it used excavators to dig out canals between the blocks. Local residents have reported a decrease in wild animals and livestock becoming trapped in the canals and dying.
Hugawng Valley is in the western part of Kachin State near the Indian border, between the Kumon Mountain range to the east and the Patkai Mountains to the west.
The Patkai range includes headwaters for the Chindwin and Brahmaputra rivers, while the Kumon Mountains contain the headwaters of Danai, Tawang and Tarung rivers, which together form the headstreams of the Chindwin.
The catchments flow into the plains of the Hugawng Valley where they combine to form the largest tributary of the Chindwin – the Danai River. The entire valley comes under the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve, created in 2001 with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
About 50 tigers are said to inhabit the valley that is also home to a number of other rare or endangered animals, including leopards, Himalayan bears and elephants.
Based in New York, the WCS in 1993 became the first conservation group to initiate a programme inside Burma with its primary aims to work closely with the Burmese military regime (specifically the Ministry of Forestry), increase the number of protected areas and engage in wildlife protection.
In 2001, the Burmese government designated 6,475 square kilometres of the Hukaung Valley as a wildlife sanctuary, based on the first biological expedition of the area in 1999 led by Alan Rabinowitz, now CEO of the wild cat conservation group Panthera, staff from the Myanmar Forest Department and the WCS’s Myanmar Programme.
In 2004, the area was expanded by a further 11,000 square kilometres leading to Panthera and the WCS announcing it as “the world’s largest tiger reserve”.
In August, 2010, in a WCS press release officially announcing the expansion, Mr Rabinowitz said: “I have dreamt of this day for many years. The strides we made in 2004 were groundbreaking, but protecting this entire valley to ensure tigers are able to live and roam freely is a game changer.”
The reserve now covers almost the entire Hugawng Valley, creating the world’s largest tiger conservation area and one of the world’s largest protected forest areas. The Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve adjoins other wildlife conservation parks in northwest Kachin State to form the huge Northern Forest Complex.
No responses were available from Mr Rabinowitz or staff of Panthera and WCS to emails concerning the threats to the valley tigers at the time of writing this article.
Burma’s regime recently outlined a National Tiger Plan to double the country’s tiger population by 2022. The plan is to be submitted at the Global Tiger Summit in Russia’s St Petersburg at the end of 2010.
In March, 2008, BirdLife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations, reported on Yuzana Company’s encroachment, stating that a strip of forest up to 1.5km wide and 90km long had been almost completely cleared and re-planted with sugar cane and jatropha plantations.
The authors of the report said: “As of February, 2010, [we] were unable to see any remaining forests in animal corridor areas [within the agricultural zone]. Only the signboards of the forest department and the Wildlife Conservation Society were left standing.”
The valley’s protected area is also being threatened by gold mining projects operated by Chinese and local businessmen who have links to the military.
The majority of the about 50,000 people now in the Hugawng Valley are Kachin, with other ethnic minorities also represented such as Naga and Shan. The ethnic peoples are closely dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and cultural practices.
In collaboration with international conservation groups such as the WCS, the authorities have forbidden hunting and rotational cultivation by local villagers living within the reserve, and have confiscated all guns. This has had serious impacts on local traditional livelihoods and food security.
In the making of the tiger reserve, the valley peoples were not allowed any rights to participate in the decision-making process regarding development and conservation occurring on their own land.
Now they are fighting not only to reclaim their confiscated farmland, paddy fields, forest and housing, but also to save the valley home of the tigers.
Amraapali N is an environmental journalist based in Bangkok.
Halting steps toward a semi-free market serve to entrench cronyism and privileges of existing elites.
Published: 6/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business RANGOON : The ancient-looking wooden paddle boats that swarm around the sole gleaming yacht at Rangoon Port serve as a reminder that Burma’s recent privatisation drive has brought both economic benefits and the entrenchment of what was already rampant cronyism.
While the road adjacent to Botataung Port is upgraded by private companies such as Asia World, which owns a stake in a section of Rangoon port, the luxury yacht signifies a gulf in wealth that privatisation looks set to perpetuate.
The vessel’s owner, Tay Za, head of Htoo Trading, is considered one of the biggest beneficiaries following a recent government sell-off of state assets that includes petrol stations, state buildings and even cinemas.
“Recent emphasis on privatisation appears intended to provide junta members and business associates with opportunities to gain control of formerly state-owned assets rather than to introduce genuine competition,” said the Economist Intelligence Unit in its September economic outlook for Burma.
It’s a symbiotic relationship between a military preparing for elections on Nov 7 and an elite group of businesspeople the government has both helped and hindered during two decades of haphazard free-market policy.
When the government-owned Myanmar Petroleum Products Enterprise sold off about 250 petrol stations in May to firms including Mr Htoo and Max Myanmar Group, the following month when they opened for business many Burmese expected pump prices to rise accordingly. However, they remain among the cheapest in the region at just 2,500 kyat (US$2.50) per gallon of petrol and 3,000 kyats ($3) for diesel, a sign the government has instructed the private sector not to risk demonstrations such as those sparked by sharp rises in the price of fuel in September 2007.
“It’s not transparent, it’s gone to the cronies,” said Sean Turnell, a member of Burma Economic Watch based at Macquarie University in Sydney.
Although the process under which Burma’s petrol stations went under the hammer was less opaque than privatisation in other sectors _ the government invited tenders in the state-run press in February _ still no one knows how much the assets were sold for and indeed where all the generated revenues have gone.
“The process just then disappeared _ it was all front and no back,” added Mr Turnell.
Not all economic engagement with the junta goes the way of these young group of 40-something tycoons, however. By association, Tay Za and Zaw Zaw, the head of Max Myanmar Group, remain banned from the European Union, while economic sanctions imposed by the West due to the military’s appalling human rights record causes added economic difficulties to those inflicted directly by the government, such as intermittent export bans designed to maintain low prices for key commodities. Tay Za and Zaw Zaw were repeatedly unavailable for comment.
The start of Burma’s fledgling professional football league in 2009 resulted in Tay Za founding Yangon United as he and other businessmen decided to play football managers, a trend seen among other Asian tycoons including former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra at Manchester City. But with tickets mostly selling for less than $1 in and an influx of players from South America and Africa that pushed up wages, club owners in Burma are understood to be haemorrhaging money, a loss offset by favour the league has gained with the junta.
Other sectors also remain loss-leaders. Just how profitable can Burma’s petroleum retail industry be when diesel is sold at $3 a gallon against a backdrop of creeping global crude prices? Most of Burma’s petroleum products are imported, particularly from Singapore.
Mr Turnell notes that Burma is following a well-trodden path in Asia whereby non-democratic regimes take slow steps toward political pluralism and private competition in tandem. But unlike the most successful examples in recent decades, such as South Korea, Burma is not guaranteeing skills transfer, meaningful foreign investment and innovation with the move toward private enterprise, say economic analysts.
“It’s different because of the governing apparatus in Burma,” Mr Turnell said of the junta, adding that privatisation in the country is “exclusively about rent seeking”.
With the election only two months away, analysts say privatisation has slowed but is expected to continue as firms consider less attractive assets. Many are considered risky.
An ice and freezer factory on the Thai border at Kawthoung in Tennaserim Division put up for sale at the end of last year, according to the Myanmar Times, was among the most expensive assets available at 712.53 million kyat ($7.13 million). However, the availability of labour for the factory will depend on the degree to which Thailand enforces a recent crackdown on migrant labour across the border over the long term. Essentially then, labour supply and costs will remain unstable and completely out of the hands of the factory owner.
In Rangoon, many of the more than 300 buildings that had been put up for auction by the end of March are simply not commercially viable, even if buyers need only pay a 25% deposit up front.
Although charming and part of the city’s turbulent history, the sprawling Ministers’ Building in downtown Rangoon _ the former seat of British colonial power and scene of Burmese independence hero Aung San’s assassination in 1947 _ remains unsold. Like many former administrative offices in the city, the building lies abandoned following the junta’s decision to relocate to its new, purpose-built capital Naypyidaw in November, 2005. Only armed guards remain.
Just when Burma’s long march toward a free market economy will end then remains unknown. Aung Myo, the director general of the country’s Privatisation Committee in Naypyidaw, declined to comment on future policy. Part of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Economic Development, he confirmed by telephone that his office was responsible for orchestrating the recent spate of government asset sales.
David Abel, the former economics minister who began Burma’s process of privatisation more than 20 years ago ahead of the last election in 1990, told the Bangkok Post the process was unlikely to end ahead of the Nov 7 vote.
“A lot of sectors will be privatised,” he said by telephone, without identifying state-owned assets to be put up for sale.
“It will continue, I think, because it takes a long process legally.”
Six months is typically required for the sale of a state asset to a private firm, he added.
The agricultural sector _ the largest part of Burma’s economy _ has seen monumental changes following a drawn out privatisation programme whereby previously state-owned rice mills had all been transferred to the private sector. “The government no longer mills rice,” said Abel.
For a government that has for so long considered it normal to control almost every facet of everyday life, giving so much economic say to civilians marks a major shakeup, even if the beneficiaries remain known quantities among the military hierarchy. Tay Za, for instance, reportedly often negotiates the purchase of military hardware from countries including North Korea.
In many ways the current economic reforms are therefore not dissimilar to the political change that is taking place in Burma _ it’s slow, non-transparent and mainly involves the usual suspects.
“All decisions are made within the framework of maintaining power,” said Mr Turnell.
But in the case of a country that often seems trapped in a time warp, at least it represents change.
Published on September 7, 2010
All 10 Asean leaders will have a working lunch with US President Barack Obama at the Waldorf Hotel in New York on 24 September, according to an informed source.
But Brunei, Burma and Indonesia would be represented by their foreign ministers. At first, the proposed second Asean-US leaders’ meeting held in the US was in limbo fearing that some of the Asean leaders might not be able to attend.
During the NY meeting, both sides are expected to set up an eminent person to study ways to promote bilateral relationship, the source said.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is scheduled to leaving for NY on 23 September for a series of meeting including an address at the UN General Assembly including a four-eye meeting with Pirme Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia.
By WAI MOE - Monday, September 6, 2010
Two young men were shot dead in a dispute with soldiers of the Southern Region Military Command in Pegu, some 50 km north of Rangoon.
Local sources identified the victims as Aung Thu Hein, 22, and Soe Paing Zaw, 18. The sources said they were shot dead execution-style by soldiers from the Command’s Infantry Battalion 59 on Saturday after a dispute between local young men and officers from the battalion near a local restaurant.
One Pegu eye-witness reported: “After arguing with local youngsters, about 10 soldiers, including officers, came back to the town with arms, looking for the young men they had had problems with. The soldiers found them near a local teashop and shot them after more arguing.”
A medical official at the Pegu General Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Aung Thu Hein had six gunshot wounds, while Soe Paing Zaw had four. Hundreds of angry residents gathered at the hospital.
A battalion general staff officer reportedly offered the families of the dead men 1 million kyat (US $1,000) compensation, provided they remained silent on the incident, which fueled further anger.
“My nephew was quite innocent. He was killed unjustly. So how can we calm down? We don’t want any money. We only want truth and justice,” said Aung Thu Hein’s aunt.
State-run radios such Myanmar Radio and Padaunt Myae FM reported the two young men had been shot at because they tried to wrest weapons from the soldiers.
“This is misinformation as well as an insult, not only to victims’ families, but also to all of us,” said a Pegu lawyer, Aye Myint.
The funerals of the two dead men are scheduled for Tuesday. Local authorities are very nervous at this time because of the anniversary of the Sept 2007 uprising and the approaching November election.
By KO HTWE – Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Family members have been refused permission to see the bodies of the two young men who were shot dead on Saturday by Burmese soldiers in Pegu, according to the victims’ relatives.
Aung Thu Hein, 23, and Soe Paing Zaw, 19, were shot dead execution-style by soldiers from Infantry Battalion 59 of the Southern Regional Military Command, which is based in Pegu, some 50 km north of Rangoon, after a dispute between local men and soldiers at a restaurant.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, a relative of Soe Paing Zaw said, “The authorities did not allow us to see his body.”
He said that half of the people attending Tuesday’s funeral were military authorities and that security was tight on the way to the cemetery. The cremation of the two men had been scheduled for noon on Tuesday but the authorities changed the time to 11 a.m., he added.
According to a medical officer at Pegu General Hospital, Aung Thu Hein had been shot six times while Soe Paing Zaw had been shot four times.
“I heard that no action had been taken against the offenders,” said Aung Thu Hein’s aunt.
State-run radio programs on Myanmar Radio and Padaunt Myae FM reported that the two men had been shot because they tried to wrest weapons from the soldiers.
“Pegu is like an army barracks, because there are so many soldiers, in and out of uniform,” said Myat Hla, the chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Pegu who is currently suspended from his post for demanding the resignation of aging NLD leaders.
A local in Pegu told The Irrawaddy: “I saw local police, firemen and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association on the way to the cemetery.”
The Union Democratic Party (UDP), whose chairman Thein Htay intends to run in the general election in Pegu Township for the Upper House, on Monday released a statement urging the authorities to take action against the killers.
Tuesday, 07 September 2010 19:14 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai/New Delhi (Mizzima) – Authorities in the city of Pegu, in a bid to pre-empt any potential unrest, made their presence felt at today’s funeral of two young men witnesses said were killed at the hands of soldiers.
Aung Thu Hein, 23, and Soe Paing Zaw, 18, were reportedly hunted down by troops from Infantry Battalion 59 late on September 4 after a traffic altercation and ensuing brawl left one of their officers injured. Witnesses said two officers shot the youths dead, “execution style”.
A doctor at the hospital where their bodies were taken reportedly said Aung Thu Hein had died of six gunshot wounds, while Soe Paing Zaw had been shot four times.
With the local population angered over the officers’ actions, authorities took a firm hold of the funeral proceedings.
“Authorities tightened security. Police, intelligence agents, Ward Peace and Development Council officials and firemen were camped across the area,” a resident said. “But, only plain-clothes police, firemen and members from the Red Cross Society were in the cemetery.”
Officials also cordoned off with barbed wire the streets leading to the hospital morgue where the bodies of the youths were being kept, a resident said.
Another onlooker reported: “I’m 28 years old. I have never seen a funeral with such a tight security plan in my life. There were officers from Special Branch police, Military Affairs Security, division and district police stations and all three of the township’s police stations.”
San Yi, a grandmother of Aung Thu Hein, told Mizzima that officials prevented the family from taking the lead in funeral arrangements.
“We were denied the right to arrange it [the funeral] but we asked to exercise the right to arrange the transport, and we bought the coffin,” she said.
The proceedings were attended by more than 2,000, witnesses estimated, and attendees were prevented from approaching the coffins, they said.
“Many people are on the road to watch the event. Currently, the number of people is much greater than an hour ago. At first, there were 300 to 400 people. Now, about 10 buses have arrived and there are many cars and motorcycles. It’s a crowded funeral,” a Pegu resident said.
“A bus can carry about 30 to 40 people, so there are about 400 people on the buses. If the people from cars and motorcycles are taken into account, there’ll be about another 500 to 1,000 people,” he added.
Twenty buses were said to have finally made their way to the cemetery.
Tension among those in attendance was palpable, as onlookers and relatives felt constrained by the large security detail.
“I’m worried that the authorities will be angry with us if something’s wrong,” San Yi said. “I’m 65 years old. We are poor and can’t do anything. I’m a peddler. I’m worried that my business will be disturbed. So, I can’t answer all of your questions. Please, don’t be angry.”
“Another thing is that there are many opportunists who want to exploit this case. So, I have to control the situation. That’s why I can’t disclose all. Please, understand me,” she said.
“It was an unusual funeral, so people were very interested in it. Many people were on the road to watch the event. They seemed very sad. Some of the attendees were strangers to the victims’ families. Some attendees cried,” another resident said. “But, they didn’t show anger on their faces. People dared not criticise the authorities because of the strict security. I think even the victims’ families had to be silent, though they feel extremely sad.”
Pegu Police Station No. 1, when contacted by Mizzima, refused to deny or confirm reports of some unrest during the proceedings.
Reports yesterday said a battalion general staff officer had offered the families one million kyat (US$1,000) in compensation, provided they remained silent over the shootings, further fuelling anger among the city’s population.
The incident was ignited after a trishaw in which the youths were riding and a bicycle carrying the officers collided at around midnight on Saturday. Both sides eventually parted ways after exchanging blows.
However, the officers, accompanied by eight soldiers, later returned to the city to locate the youths. Finding them at a local teashop, the youths were gunned down after another exchange of words. Both the youths and soldiers appeared intoxicated, witnesses said.