BURMA RELATED NEWS – DECEMBER 30-31, 2010
Jan 1st, 2011
Thu Dec 30, 10:28 am ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States called Thursday on Myanmar to free prisoners and engage in dialogue to promote democracy, as the military-led country prepared to mark its independence on January 4.
The State Department congratulated Myanmar, also known as Burma, on its 63rd independence anniversary but hoped for “the day when Burma’s citizens will succeed in their peaceful efforts to exercise freely their universal human rights.”
“We are unwavering in our support for an independent, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Burma,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
“The United States remains prepared to improve bilateral relations, but looks to the Burmese government to meet the aspirations of its diverse peoples by freeing all political prisoners and engaging in an inclusive and meaningful dialogue with all its citizens in pursuit of genuine national reconciliation.”
The junta in November freed the leader of the democratic opposition, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who had spent most of the past two decades under house arrest after her party won elections but was not allowed to take power.
But her release came only after the junta held new elections, which were widely denounced by Western nations and by opposition groups as a sham.
Human rights groups say that Myanmar is still holding more than 2,100 political prisoners who are less prominent than Suu Kyi.
President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009 launched a dialogue with the regime aimed at ending Myanmar’s isolation. US officials have voiced disappointment at the results but said engagement is the best way forward.
Fri Dec 31, 12:01 pm ET YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi called for citizens of her country to rejuvenate their struggle for national reconciliation in 2011 in a New Year’s message released on Friday.
She asked the people of Myanmar “to struggle together with new strengths, new force and new words in the auspicious new year”, in the message released by her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
“We must struggle by establishing people’s political and social networks to get national reconciliation as well as a truly united spirit,” she added.
The 65-year-old was released from more than seven years’ house arrest on November 13, days after Myanmar’s widely criticised first election in 20 years, in which the junta-backed party has claimed overwhelming victory.
Suu Kyi was locked up for the poll, which her party boycotted. This led to a split in the opposition movement, with some NLD members leaving to form a new party to contest the election.
On Thursday the United States called again on Myanmar to free political prisoners and engage in dialogue to promote democracy, as the military-led country prepares for its 63rd independence anniversary on January 4.
Thu Dec 30, 10:22 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Thursday with former colleagues who disagreed with her election boycott and formed a new party to fight the controversial poll, the breakaway group said.
The one-hour meeting between Suu Kyi and three leaders of the National Democratic Force (NDF) was her first with the group since her release from house arrest just days after the November vote.
“It was just a personal meeting. We didn’t talk about politics. We will meet again,” NDF leader Khin Maung Swe said. Two youth leaders from the group also met Suu Kyi separately for about an hour.
The NDF was formed by senior members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which was disbanded for boycotting the poll — a decision that deeply split the opposition movement.
The breakaway group, which saw the vote as a chance for gradual change — albeit through a deeply flawed election — won 16 seats after fielding 161 candidates but has complained of widespread fraud by the junta-backed party.
Suu Kyi, who spent much of the last two decades in detention and was locked up and marginalised during Myanmar’s first poll in 20 years, has called for unity since her release and said she will work with all democratic forces.
Khin Maung Swe said last week he had not seen Suu Kyi for about two decades, and that he and his colleagues planned to tell her the NDF was formed “for national reconciliation, as confrontation is not the way to achieve democracy”.
NDF chairman Than Nyein said after Thursday’s meeting, which he also attended, that he hoped Suu Kyi would understand their position even though they did not discuss party politics.
“If she didn’t understand us, she would not meet us like this,” he told AFP.
“We didn’t talk about the NDF and she did not ask.”
Mark C. Toner
Acting Department Spokesman
Washington, DC
December 30, 2010
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 marks the 63rd anniversary of Burma’s independence. We offer our congratulations to the people of Burma on this occasion.
We are unwavering in our support for an independent, peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Burma. The United States remains prepared to improve bilateral relations, but looks to the Burmese Government to meet the aspirations of its diverse peoples by freeing all political prisoners and engaging in an inclusive and meaningful dialogue with all its citizens in pursuit of genuine national reconciliation.
We join the international community in anticipating the day when Burma’s citizens will succeed in their peaceful efforts to exercise freely their universal human rights.
VOA News 30 December 2010
The United States is calling on Burma’s military rulers to free all political prisoners and engage in dialogue with opposition groups as the country prepares to mark its 63rd independence anniversary.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner issued a statement Thursday saying the Burmese government must take action to meet the aspirations of its diverse peoples and improve relations with the Obama administration. He also congratulated the people of Burma ahead of their independence day on January 4.
The Burmese military released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from years of house arrest last month, but only after holding a rare general election denounced by Western nations and opposition groups as a sham. Rights groups also say the Burmese military continues to detain more than 2,100 political prisoners.
Toner reiterated U.S. calls for the release of those prisoners and said the Burmese military must engage in an “inclusive and meaningful dialogue” with all citizens in pursuit of “genuine national reconciliation.”
He said the United States is “unwavering” in its support of an independent, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Burma. He also said Washington looks forward to the day when the Burmese people will succeed in “peaceful efforts” to freely exercise what he called “their universal human rights.”
Martin reaffirms Ireland’s support for Burma’s pro-democracy groups
MARY FITZGERALD, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
MINISTER FOR Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has restated Ireland’s support for the struggle of pro-democracy groups inside Burma during a telephone conversation with recently released Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“We wanted to articulate our delight at her release and convey our respect for the iconic nature of her position now in terms of democracy,” Mr Martin said last night. “She sounded relaxed and in good form. She came across as strong and very clear-minded.”
During the 25-minute conversation, which had been arranged through UN channels, Mr Martin praised the Nobel laureate’s peaceful campaign for democratic reform.
“She was very anxious that we would continue to support that aspect of her work,” he said. “She was anxious to develop closer links with Ireland, particularly on the diplomatic side, in terms of getting easier mechanisms for contact.”
He assured Ms Suu Kyi of the importance both Ireland and the EU attach to her continued freedom and personal safety following her years of arbitrary detention by the Burmese junta.
“She wanted to convey her deep thanks and appreciation to the people of Ireland for their support,” Mr Martin said.
During the conversation, Ms Suu Kyi made reference to the Burmese being referred to as “the Irish of the east” during colonial times.
Mr Martin told her of the Northern Ireland peace process. “She was anxious for good reading material on that,” he said.
Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the freedom of Dublin City in 2000. The Minister said the subject of a possible visit to Ireland was not broached in a “substantive” way during the phone call.
“We would be delighted to invite her to Ireland but obviously that would depend on her own schedule,” he added.
They also discussed recent events in Burma including the deeply flawed parliamentary elections which took place in November.
Mr Martin stressed the need for all political prisoners to be released as the first step in a process of political dialogue involving all groups in Burma.
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Dec 31, 2010 (IPS) – As military-ruled Burma prepares to unveil its new political cast, an enduring link between the junta and the country’s notorious drug lords is poised to come under the spotlight.
Among the candidates who won in the South-east Asian nation’s first election in 20 years on Nov. 7 are six well- known drug barons. They represented the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the junta’s political front, which triumphed comfortably in the poll.
The bespectacled Kyaw Myint is among this gang of six who emerged victorious in a poll clouded with questions of fraud for the estimated 1,163 seats in the national parliament and regional assemblies that were up for grabs.
The elected national and regional legislators are to begin their new role in Burma by the first week in February. The opening of the new parliament 90 days after the November poll is the sixth step in the junta’s seven-step political roadmap to create a “discipline-flourishing democracy” in Burma, or Myanmar as it is also known.
Prior to slipping into his role as a legislator, the 51- year-old Kyaw Myint was better known as a junta-backed militia chief “notorious among local people as (a) drug dealer in the Shan State North’s Namkham township,” reveals the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), a media organisation run by journalists from Burma’s Shan ethnic minority.
“Many ferry crossings on the Mao-Ruli river that serves as a boundary between China and Burma are guarded by Kyaw Htwe aka (also known as) Li Yonping, younger brother of Kyaw Myint,” adds SHAN.
Yet this political identity for Kyaw Myint, with the junta’s blessings, will test the growing economic bonds between Burma and its giant north-eastern neighbour China. According to official figures released by Burmese officials, China has pumped in over eight billion U.S. dollars in foreign direct investment this year to tap Burma’s resource- rich environment.
The investments by Chinese state-run companies in the oil and gas, hydropower and mining sectors mark a dramatic increase from what Chinese investments were five years ago – some 194 million dollars.
“Myanmar and China have grown closer over the past four years and Beijing is on the verge of displacing Thailand as the country that tops investment in Myanmar,” says a South- east Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But one Burmese “export” to China has Beijing concerned, the diplomat added. “Beijing is worried at the increase in drugs flowing from Burma to its south-western Yunnan province.”
U.N. officials confirm this. “Yes they (Beijing) are concerned not only with ATS (amphetamine-type stimulus) but also with heroin,” says Gary Lewis, East Asia and Pacific regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The spike in the number of methamphetamine pills seized in China in 2009 underscores such worries. “In 2009, China reported total seizures of more than 40 million pills. This represented as almost six-fold increase from 6.25 million pills seized in 2008,” UNODC says in a December 2010 report on the ATS trade in Burma, whose north-eastern part comes within the narcotics producing Golden Triangle region.
“The Chinese government has been reporting a sharp increase of drug trafficking into China from the Golden Triangle region by means of constantly changing drug trafficking routes and methods,” states the 45-page report, ‘Myanmar – Situation Assessment on Amphetamine-Type Stimulants’. “Reports have pointed to transnational drug syndicates attempting to sell stored drugs, with a resulting sharp increase of drug smuggled into China.”
“The seizure of 3.2 tonnes of heroine and approximately the same quantity of methamphetamine in Yunnan province accounted for half of the total quantity of illicit drugs seized in China in 2009,” the report adds. “Three of the self-administered regions in Myanmar are located on the border with Yunnan province. Methamphetamine pills seized in Yunnan province are – at the very least – trafficked through these Special Regions.”
Burma’s rise as a major production centre of methamphetamine pills, with the drug factories located in the north-eastern Shan State, adds to its previous notoriety as a supplier of opium and heroin.
Burma’s emergence as an ATS producer followed a decision by the junta to launch a 15-year drug elimination programme in 1999. The Drug Elimination Plan (DEP) targeted the poppy fields in the north and eastern regions of the country, which accounted for 163,000 hectares under opium cultivation in the mid-1990s.
Before the DEP, Burma was known as the world’s largest producer of illicit opium, “accounting for approximately 700 metric tonnes annually between 1981 and 1987,” according to UNODC. “(That dropped) to 21,600 hectares in 2006, the lowest ever recorded.”
However, this 83 percent decline in poppy cultivation under the DEP has not seen a change in the cross-border trade of ATS, which follows the routes once frequented by drug caravans that moved heroin from Burma into China.
“The border is very porous and there are no markers to say where the Burmese border ends and the Chinese border begins,” says an official from Thailand’s Central Narcotics Control Agency. “It is easy to move drugs from Burma’s Shan State into China’s Yunnan province in remote areas where there are no checkpoints.”
“The caravans move at night. They take the drugs in backpacks,” the official tells IPS on condition of anonymity. “The Chinese government is faced with a problem because the domestic market is large.”
DALA THAYA, 31 December 2010 (IRIN) – Remittances to Myanmar continue to be a lifeline for communities strapped for cash and short of food throughout the country, according to researchers and migration experts.
While officially recorded remittances to Myanmar accounted for only 0.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, a 2008 university study calculated remittances were at least four times higher than the official figures.
Australia-based Macquarie University estimated average annual remittances to Myanmar from Thailand alone – US$300 million – amounted to five times the level of overall foreign direct investment in Myanmar.
“Some 96 percent of respondents [Burmese workers in Thailand] nominated [their family’s] survival as their first order priority,” said Claudia Natali, labour migration programme manager for the International Organization for Migration in Thailand, referring to the university survey.
According to the World Bank, $150 million in remittances was sent to Myanmar in 2008 through formal channels – the most recorded in over a decade.
But most migrants use an informal system called `hondi’ to transfer remittances to Myanmar, bypassing official recordkeeping.
“Persons moving irregularly across the border are entrusted to deliver agreed amounts of money from migrants in Thailand to family members in the migrants’ source community,” said Natali.
Migration
The number of Burmese migrants who entered Thailand “regularly” – with legal permission – between July 2010 and November 2010 was 702, according to the Thai government. But most Burmese migrants working in Malaysia or Thailand enter without documentation.
A memorandum of understanding between Thailand and Myanmar, which foresees mechanisms for migrants to enter and stay legally in Thailand for employment, was only implemented in July 2010.
In the Thai border town of Mae Sot, many Burmese migrants work in garment factories, while in southern Thailand they work on palm oil plantations or as fishermen.
“Those seeking work in Malaysia are usually village residents or lower middle class young men recruited formally by overseas employment agencies in Myanmar,” said Natali.
“It cost $1,300 to send my son to Malaysia,” said U Kyaw, a retired army sergeant in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon, whose pension, equivalent to 40 US cents a day, is barely enough to cover his expenses.
“I borrowed $600 from a rich relative, the agent gave us a loan of $400 and the family put the rest up,” said the 63-year-old father of three.
His youngest son Mya, who left for Malaysia to work as a day labourer in March 2010, now sends back $150-$200 a month. By contrast Thein, the eldest son, earns some $80 a month driving a bus in Yangon.
Poverty line
Once known as the “rice bowl of Asia”, Myanmar’s per capita GDP in 2009 was just over $1 a day.
Maung, the youngest of three brothers, exchanges the highly volatile Burmese currency into US dollars on the black market, where 10,000 Burmese kyats equalled $10 in December, versus the official bank exchange rate of $1,560. Over the course of a year, each brother earns on average $5 a day. “Luckily, my sister works in Malaysia. Last year she sent back $2,000,” said the 16-year-old.
After nearly 20 years of various trade and aid sanctions, the vast majority of people in Myanmar survive thanks to small-scale local businesses, according to US-based research group Asia Society.
The average citizen spends more than 70 percent of his or her income on food, according to a March 2010 Asia Society report.
The researchers calculated this was the highest proportion in Southeast Asia.
Friday 31st December, 2010 (ANI) Expressing concern on the activities of the insurgent group operating along the India-Myanmar border, India has asked the Myanmar Government to take strict action against them.
Union Home Secretray G K Pillai raised the issue during his talks with the visiting Myanmar Deputy Minister for Home Affairs U. Phone Swi at the sixteenth ‘Home Secretary Level’ talks between the two nations, which concluded last evening.
The leaders of two delegations exchanged the instrument of ‘Ratification of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty’ on criminal matters by signing the Protocol of Exchange.
Issues relating to strengthening of intelligence sharing mechanism between the two countries, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, border management, border trade etc. were also discussed at the meeting.
New Delhi, Dec 31 : India and Myanmar have concluded mutual legal assistance treaty on criminal matters.
The 16th National Level Meeting at Home Secretary Level between India and Myanmar concluded here Thursday evening.
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai led the Indian delegation and the Myanmar delegation was led by U. Phone Swe, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Government of the Union of Myanmar.
The leaders of two delegations exchanged the instrument of Ratification of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Criminal Matters by signing the Protocol of Exchange.
At the meeting, Pillai raised concern on activities of Indian Insurgent Group operating along the India-Myanmar border and requested action against them by Government of Union of Myanmar.
Issues relating to strengthening of intelligence sharing mechanism between the two countries, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, border management, border trade etc. were also discussed at the meeting.
Hanover, Dec 30 : An 18th century Burmese letter, made of almost pure gold and decorated with rubies, has been deciphered by researchers in Germany, a Hanover library head announced Thursday.
The “golden letter”, written by Burmese King Alaungphaya in the year 1756 to England’s King George II, lay in the vaults of Hanover’s Leibniz library for 250 years, as nobody could read its contents.
The letter, which took three years to decipher, relates to an offer of trading cooperation between Burma (current day Myanmar) and England, the research team found.
“As far as we know, the golden letter is a one-off,” library chief Georg Ruppelt said.
The letter, engraved on a gold sheet measuring 55 by 12 centimetres and inlaid with 24 rubies, was intended to demonstrate King Alaungphaya’s respect for the English king – who promptly sent the document to the royal library in his home city of Hanover, in northern Germany.
Danish King Christian VII damaged the letter, contained in an elephant tusk, during a visit in 1768.
“This made the document even harder to decipher,” Ruppelt said.
Luxembourg historian and Burma-expert Jacques Leider, who led the research, has not yet finished examining the letter, which is to be the object of an international congress next year.
The golden letter is to be formally presented Jan 18 at the Leibniz library, which also houses the letters and belongings of 18th-Century mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Andrew Buncombe ventures across the border to meet the youngest victims of the junta’s policy of ethnic repression
Friday, 31 December 2010 The Salween river runs free and fast but despite the surging current, this final safe haven is less than two hours upstream from the last outpost of the hated Burmese army. Here, forced to the very edge of their territory, hundreds of families of a persecuted minority cling to the hillsides – and to their lives. They are the Karen, one of Burma’s many ethnic groups, and for the past six decades their fighters have battled, on and off, against the encroachment of the Burmese troops and their increasing abuses.
Scores of thousands of Karen have fled across the Salween, or its tributary, the Moei, into neighbouring Thailand. For those who remain, life is fraught. “When the Burmese army built its new capital [at Naypyidaw], they destroyed our villages. Now there is no other place,” says Wah Eh Htoo, the camp leader who oversees some 4,000 people at Ei Htu Hta.
“Even here we are in danger. We feel afraid.” The situation inside Burma, ruled by a repressive military junta since 1962, creates a turbulence that reverberates across the region.
Burma is responsible for the creation of more refugees and migrants than any other country and a human tragedy that includes not only the countless thousands cooling their heels in UN-administered camps dotted along the border, but a trafficking network that sees terrified Burmese traded as labourers, domestic staff and sex workers. Officials on both sides are said to take a cut.
Up to 145,000 refugees are estimated to live in camps inside Thailand, of which around 80 per cent are Karen and another two million undocumented migrant workers. Inside eastern Burma, where there are thought to be 465,000 internally displaced people, it is unclear how much territory is still held by Karen forces. The Karen National Union (KNU), a political coalition, insists the Karen National Army (KNA) controls swathes of land, though observers say that in recent years it has lost control of most towns and larger villages.
It is perhaps telling that the Ei Htu Hta camp is located directly on the border; the civilians here could be no closer to Thailand while still remaining inside Burma. That short distance across the Salween river makes a world of difference. For those Karen registered at the nine camps inside Thailand, there is healthcare, education and food provided by the Thai authorities and international donors. Inside Burma the flow of aid comes almost entirely from community-based organisations. Very little is official.
One of the organisations trying to help the people at Ei Htu Hta is Children on the Edge (Cote), one of the beneficiaries of The Independent’s Christmas appeal. Working with a local partner, the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO), the charity provides educational and nutritional support, specifically for children under the age of five. It is they who are the most in need. “Numerous studies show that these years are critical in children’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development,” said the charity’s John Littleton. “By having programmes which provide nutritional and social support, we are working to ensure the next generation of Burmese children are given every opportunity to be healthy and whole.”
One morning, The Independent left a small Thai riverside town south of Mae Sariang and headed up the Salween in a wooden boat, passing several checkpoints operated by the
Thai military. The river was quiet, apart from a few fishing boats, and the noise of the outboard motor. The entry to Ei Htu Hta involves a climb up a steep sandbank which then flattens out and the camp begins.
The atmosphere is slow and lethargic. Many younger men sit around. While women collect water and wash clothes, some of the men busy themselves with small maintenance tasks. Is it clear there is little work for people to do. The nurseries funded by Cote are inside several large bamboo buildings, raised on stilts. Inside one, dozens of children are laid out on mats, having their morning nap, beneath pretty paper ribbons decorating the ceiling. Most of the Karen in this camp are Christian and marked Christmas.
“The children will come to the nursery, they will sing a song and they will have a story. And the teacher leads them to repeat a poem,” says 28-year-old Hseedah, the nursery manager. “They also do dancing, and play.” One of the most pressing challenges for the families at Ei Htu Hta is getting enough to eat. The money provided by Cote amounts to just three Thai baht (seven pence) per child a day. The children are fed rice with an egg, and curried vegetables. Occasionally there is a little meat. Once a week the children receive milk. “It’s very hard to provide sufficient food for the children,” says Hseedah. “But outside the camp in Karen state the problem is bigger. There, there is malnutrition, children with distended stomachs.”
Sobradi is a sweet-faced boy of five. He and his sister came to the camp with their parents. His father was an agricultural labourer but since arriving at Ei Htu Hta there has been nothing for him to do. Sobradi says his favourite things to eat are eggs. “I also like singing,” he declares happily. Not all the children who arrive at the camp are so content.
“There was one child here who would not dare to play with the other children,” says one of the teachers. “His family had been living alone in the jungle. He would not even eat with them at lunchtime. The teachers were eventually able to talk with him and calm him. Now he has gone to the school for older children.”
One wonders why the people here do not leave for Thailand. The camp leaders insist it is not possible to do so, and say the two-year-old camp is just temporary. It may also be that they cannot bring themselves to leave their homeland, uncertain if they will ever be able to return. The plight of the Karen is inextricably linked to their support for Britain during the Second World War. Many in Burma – among them the father of opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi, national hero General Aung San – initially threw their support behind the invading Japanese forces as a means to secure independence. But the Karen, enticed by a promise of post-war autonomy, remained loyal to the colonial power, at great cost.
When Burma gained independence in 1948, Britain forgot the undertakings its officers had made to the Karen. Karen patriots fought a failed war for independence between 1948 and 1950 and since then have continued an insurgent campaign against Burmese rule. The authorities have responded with repression and violence. Since the late 1980s, the number of troops inside eastern Burma has doubled to more than 400,000. Observers say troops target civilians as a means of undermining the armed opposition. There are many reports of troops committing rape, torture, murder and seizing land.
Even for the Karen who cross into Thailand, the situation is unsatisfactory. While the Thai authorities tolerate the refugee camps, they have no desire to encourage streams of poor, homeless people to enter the country. However, becoming registered does bring with it access to opportunities and facilities unavailable to those still inside Burma. In the border town of Mae Sot, long an entry point for Burmese migrants and today a hub for trafficking, Cote helps support several schools and drop-in centres for Burmese children. At one of the centres, 15-year-old Nay Ray explains how his uncle brought him to Mae Sot. “There was fighting in our village. It was hard to get educated. I could hear the gunfire from my classroom,” he says. “The villagers had to keep moving because of the fighting. Three times we had to move. I like studying here because I feel safe.”
There is a network of 45 charitable schools inside Thailand catering to 9,000 Burmese children living on the border, independently of the camps. Daw Ray is the headteacher at one the newest schools, which recently shifted from battered premises near the rubbish dump in Mae Sot to a new, brightly painted building. Every child here has a story that could warrant its own chapter. One girl was found alone by the river, her parents nowhere to be seen. Another young girl’s parents work as rubbish collectors. She loves to study history and Burma’s traditional culture.
“Every year we get a 20 per cent increase in student numbers but the funding remains the same,” sighs Daw Ray, as children chase a football on the school’s dusty pitch. “If we provide lunch for the students, then we cannot pay the teachers. If we pay the teachers we cannot give the children lunch.”
The charities in this year’s Independent Christmas Appeal
Children around the world cope daily with problems that are difficult for most of us to comprehend. For our Christmas Appeal this year we have chosen three charities which support vulnerable children everywhere.
* Children on the Edge was founded by Anita Roddick 20 years ago to help children institutionalised in Romanian orphanages. It specialises in traumatised children. It still works in eastern Europe, supporting children with disabilities and girls at risk of sex trafficking. But it now works with children in extreme situations in a dozen countries – children orphaned by AIDS in South Africa, post-tsunami trauma in Indonesia, long-term post-conflict disturbance in East Timor, and with Burmese refugee children in Bangladesh and Thailand.
* ChildHope works to bring hope and justice, colour and fun into the lives of extremely vulnerable children experiencing different forms of violence in 11 countries in Africa, Asia and South America. www.childhope.org.uk
* Barnardo’s works with more than 100,000 of the most disadvantaged children in 415 specialised projects in communities across the UK. It works with children in poverty, homeless runaways, children caring for an ill parent, pupils at risk of being excluded from school, children with disabilities, teenagers leaving care, children who have been sexually abused and those with inappropriate sexual behaviour. It runs parenting programmes.
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:20:00 12/31/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is “divided over how to address Burma,” with older member-states Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore favoring a hard-line approach toward its military rulers, noted a 2008 confidential memo from the US Embassy in Beijing released by Wikileaks, the online whistle-blower.
The cable, which quoted, among others, Counselor Yang Jian of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Asia department, however, failed to mention the Philippines, which claimed to be the most vocal among Asean members in the campaign for the release of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the democratization in Burma, also called Myanmar.
Moderate stance
Last month, the 65-year-old Suu Kyi, the dominant figure of Burma’s pro-democracy movement, was released from seven years of detention by Burmese military dictators.
In the same memo, filed on Jan. 11, 2008, by then US Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt Jr., Yang was also quoted as saying, “newer Asean members, such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, support a more moderate stance towards Burma.”
Randt was the longest-serving American envoy to Beijing. He served from July 17, 2001, to Jan. 20, 2009.
Yang also said that “while China is open to multilateral means to address the situation in Burma, China believes Burma’s acceptance of these means is the key to success.”
Best route to democracy
In his memo, Randt quoted Yang as saying, “The Chinese accept the Burmese regime’s so-called road map to democracy as the best route to democracy and national reconciliation in Burma.”
“Yang reiterated that China remains opposed to additional sanctions (against Burma), which she said will not spur further dialogue, but instead would make the regime look further inward and give it an excuse for hard-line policies.
“Despite China’s opposition to sanctions, Yang stressed that the US and China had similar goals for Burma, including stability, democracy and development. Therefore, China and
the US should show unity, particularly in the UN, in addressing the situation in Burma,” said Randt.
More sanctions bring further unrest
The diplomat also quoted Zhai Kun, a scholar of the Chinese Ministry of State Security-affiliated China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), as saying that China “does not wish to see a sudden change in the Burmese regime.”
Matrade Mission To Myanmar Identifies RM22.32 Million In Potential Businesses
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (BERNAMA) — Malaysia External Trade Development Corp’s (Matrade) recent specialised marketing mission to Myanmar has identified RM22.32 million in potential businesses in the oil and gas sector.
In a statement here Thursday, Matrade said the 34-member mission was in Yangon, Myanmar from Dec 13-16, 2010.
“The business opportunities identified include the development of existing oil and infrastructure, charter of offshore vessels, rental of offshore tanks, engineering, fabrication, automation, instrumentation and control, logistics and marine services.
“Others include mercury solution, support services and liquefied logistic services and supply of wellheads and ‘chrismas trees’,” it said.
Its chief executive officer, Datuk Noharuddin Nordin, said Myanmar’s rapidly developing oil and gas sector represented numerous long-term business opportunities for Malaysian companies.
“The high level of foreign investment in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar and the subsequent discovery of new off-shore gas fields represented significant potential for Malaysian companies to demonstrate their technical expertise to participate in Myanmar’s downstream and related industries,” he said.
Matrade arranged over 80 one-on-one business meetings between Malaysian business delegates and their Myanmar counterparts.
Published on December 31, 2010 by NewsDesk – iWireNews ™
(iWireNews ™ and OfficialWire)
WASHINGTON, DC Washington aims to engage the military junta in Myanmar with the aim of advancing democracy and freeing political prisoners, a spokesman said.
Myanmar had general elections in November in what the military junta said was a step toward a democratic government. International observers doubted the claims as the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party handily won the contest.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest shortly after the election.
Mark Toner, a deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Washington hopes to engage Suu Kyi and the junta leaders in 2011.
“We’ve sought a path of principled engagement with the Myanmar government,” he told reporters during a press briefing in Washington. “We haven’t had a great deal of success.”
The international community following Suu Kyi’s release said Myanmar could do more to address concerns about the 2,000 political prisoners behind bars in the country.
“(C)ertainly we call on the release of all of Myanmar’s political prisoners and hope to work more closely with Aung San Suu Kyi and the opposition there,” added Toner.
The opposition leader in a mid-December interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle said “it would help a great deal” if Europe, for its part, did more to help usher in reforms in Myanmar.
VOL 18 NO -45 REGD NO DA 1589 | Dhaka, Saturday January 1 2011
M Azizur Rahman
Myanmar has objected to Petrobangla’s planned signing of a production-sharing deal with US oil giant ConocoPhillips, according to sources.
Myanmar in a recent letter to the foreign ministry requested Bangladesh government to refrain from signing production sharing contract (PSC) with the US firm until the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries was resolved, a senior foreign ministry official said.
Myanmar claimed that both the deep-water offshore gas blocks DS-08-10 and DS-08-11, for which ConocoPhillips was selected to conduct exploration, lay within the boundary of its territorial waters.
The objection from the neighbouring country came at a time when the government completed all necessary formalities with ConocoPhillips before signing the PSC for oil and gas exploration in deep-water offshore gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
Petrobangla already inked an initial agreement with ConocoPhillips in October last prior to signing of the PSC on completion of its over two years’ negotiation with the US firm.
Under the agreement ConocoPhillips has agreed to start exploration works in two said offshore gas blocks immediately after signing of the PSC.
It also agreed to avoid exploration activities in disputed areas in the blocks as claimed by neighbouring India and Myanmar.
ConocoPhillips has already been kept waiting to sign the PSC for over two years since launching of the 2008 offshore bidding round.
The latest objection from Myanmar over signing of PSC might further delay the signing of PSC with the US firm, said officials.
In its bid in 2008 the ConocoPhillips pledged to invest $110.66 million in total and offered bank guarantee of the same amount for the two blocks it got approval for.
The ConocoPhillips has committed to conduct 2D seismic survey covering 1200 line kilometres (LKM) during its initial five years of exploration period with an investment commitment of $ 2.496 million offering bank guarantee of the same amount.
It has also committed to conduct 3D seismic survey in 500 square kilometres and drill a well during the first extension period of two years investing $58.1665 million and offering bank guarantee of the same amount.
The company has pledged to drill one well in its second extension period of two years with an investment commitment of $50 million.
Officials said Myanmar also had raised objection during Bangladesh’s offshore bidding round in 2008 too and had wrote letters to different international oil and gas firms asking them not to take part in the offshore bidding round.
Neighbouring India also raised objection over the bidding that time claiming part ownership over the offshore blocks as delineated by Petrobangla.
Protest from the neighbouring countries resulted in lukewarm response during the country’s 2008 offshore bidding when only seven foreign firms submitted bids for 15 gas blocks out of 28 offered blocks.
The government is now in talks with the neighbours to settle the maritime boundary disputes for kicking off exploration in the prospective offshore structures and shrug off the country’s perennial energy crisis.
It has also lodged suit with the United Nations tribunal to settle the maritime boundary disputes with neighbours.
At present Australian Santos operates Sangu gas field is the country’s lone operational offshore gas field.
The government has so far awarded only 12 hydrocarbon blocks — both onshore and offshore — since gas exploration began in Bangladesh in late 1960s.
But the international companies are now active in only six blocks having given up the rest.
Ministry of Home Affairs
Press Information Bureau – India Myanmar Home Secretary Level Meeting Concludes
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Criminal Matters Ratified
The 16th National Level Meeting at Home Secretary Level between India and Myanmar concluded here last evening. Home Secretary Shri G.K. Pillai led the Indian delegation and the Myanmar delegation was led by U. Phone Swe, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Government of the Union of Myanmar. The leaders of two delegations exchanged the instrument of Ratification of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Criminal Matters by signing the Protocol of Exchange.
At this meeting Shri Pillai raised concern on activities of Indian Insurgent Group operating along the India-Myanmar border and requested action against them by Government of Union of Myanmar. Issues relating to strengthening of intelligence sharing mechanism between the two countries, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, border management, border trade etc. were also discussed at the meeting.
THe New York Times – End Sanctions on Myanmar
By PHILIP BOWRING
Published: December 30, 2010 YANGON — It is time the West ended it sanctions against Myanmar, whether or not the opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese exile groups agree. This is not to imply that the recent elections were anything other than rigged, or deny that the regime remains ruthless, corrupt and incompetent. But sanctions are neither in the interests of the West nor of the majority of Burmese for whom livelihood issues are the dominant concern.
Short of an attempt at a people power revolution, which most likely would be greeted by the military with the same brutality as in 1988 and 2007, a strategy of persistence and patience is the only way forward.
It is clear that sanctions have not only failed to achieve their aims, they could well have made the situation worse by increasing the anti-Western paranoia of the military leader Than Shwe, providing the regime with a useful enemy, and increasing the influence of neighboring states, notably China, which have scant regard for democracy or are driven entirely by commercial interests.
The failure of sanctions has underscored the decline of Western influence in this region. Travel sanctions against the families of Burmese generals have deprived them of Western education and contacts. Trade sanctions, which may have had some initial impact, are now easily avoided. The lack of foreign investment — other than in resources — is more the result of economic mismanagement than of sanctions.
There are a number of additional reasons that sanctions should be ended now. Cracks are appearing in the authoritarian structure. The elections, however fraudulent, gave an opportunity for opposition voices to be heard. The boycott by Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy may have made sense. But it is clear that respect for her courage and principles is tempered by widespread criticism of her stubbornness and apparent concern more for constitutional issues than social and economic ones. That she would easily win a free and fair election is barely relevant to the actual situation here.
The new constitution, which takes effect next year, devolves very little power away from the executive to the legislative branch. But at least there may be some debate and slightly more transparency. Optimists also believe that once some generals take off their uniforms and become ministers they will be freer to make policies than they are in the current system, under which almost nothing happens without approval by the 10 generals in charge. Civil society organizations have also emerged partly as a result of government failings at the time of the 2008 Nargis cyclone catastrophe.
Optimists see positive developments in the inclusion of some businessmen in the legislative assemblies . Although they are seen as regime proxies — no substantial business can exist without connections to the generals — some of them understand why the current system is incapable of generating wealth for the people. Economic reforms like ending a multi-tier exchange rate and making private investment less subject to official whims, are a possibility.
Reform would be promoted if institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank were able to lend here. This country currently lacks even an official government budget. The proceeds of booming gas and other resource exports have gone into building the extravagant new capital, Naypyidaw, and into the dozens of gaudy mansions that have sprouted in the posher suburbs of Yangon while the densely populated downtown deteriorates.
Involvement by international organizations might also help divert money from dams designed to sell power to China to irrigation and electrification for the nation’s rural majority. The Burmese could also use help combating malnutrition, in a country that was once the world’s largest rice exporter.
It is important to try to engage now with the less obstinate members of the ruling elite. The regime is gaining added confidence from the prospect of additional revenue from new offshore gas developments. Meanwhile, Than Shwe is 77 and a succession of some sort is likely within a decade. There is at least the chance that the sons and daughters of generals, and middle-ranking officers, see their own survival and prosperity linked to a gradual shift to civilian rule and a more open market economy.
It is hard for those who claim to carry the flag of Burmese nationalism not to know just how far their country has fallen behind not just Thailand but now China, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Do not imagine that engagement will be anything other than a slow and frustrating process. Significant progress on the constitutional front is unlikely until social and economic issues have been addressed. But Myanmar is just as capable of fundamental reform as were Indonesia and Vietnam.
Engagement does not mean keeping quiet about human rights abuses. The more contact Myanmar has with the outside world — the more businessmen, academics, artists, politicians, journalists and tourists who visit — the stronger will be the impetus for change.
By WILLIAM BOOT Thursday, December 30, 2010
BANGKOK — The New Year seems likely to bring more foreign trade, more tourists and more lopsided development for Burma, with much of the financial benefits filling the bank accounts of junta leaders and their business cronies.
These are the predictions of a number of expert observers who have been looking into their crystal balls at what 2011 offers the military run country.
The first quarter of 2011 will see continuing hesitation from both the United States and the European Union on the future of economic sanctions following the November elections and freeing from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, while Asian neighbors will step up a business-as-usual policy.
China and Thailand will remain the biggest foreign investors, with an intensification of gas, oil and hydroelectric dam projects.
Probably the biggest single new business development will be the start of a major port-industrial complex in and around Tavoy (Dawei) on Burma’s deep southeast coast. The Thai-led multibillion dollar project will likely see additional investment commitments from South Korean and Japanese firms.
“The new political facade of an elected parliament and the privatization of some state-owned enterprises to military-friendly business tycoons will bring a veneer of change for the better, but the wealth will remain largely in the same hands,” said a trade official at a Western embassy in Bangkok, speaking on condition of anonymity.
This view is supported by long-time Burma analyst Sean Turnell, a professor of economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and editor of Burma Economics Watch.
“There will be the same old carve up of the gas revenues, and other ‘rents’ to be distributed to the regime and its cronies, whatever the political hats they may be wearing these days,” Turnell predicted for The Irrawaddy.
“I expect more Chinese dominance of the economy, some upswing in tourism, but overall, and in the absence of great change, more slippage of Burma into the economic backwater it has become this past 50 years,” he said.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) January assessment of Burma in 2011 is: “Recent political developments are not expected to have any immediate impact on the economy.”
The latest EIU report predicts that the new government is likely to continue to run a substantial fiscal deficit in 2011-12 and maintain a highly overvalued official exchange rate, with the central bank too ready to print money to finance the government deficit.
“Although it is possible that technocrats may be appointed to important positions in a new cabinet, there is unlikely to be any immediate improvement” in government, said the EIU.
While policy toward the Burmese regime in Washington, most European capitals and Australia will remain primarily hostile, the Naypyidaw government will get the support of “important allies” in Asia, notably China, India and Asean, said the EIU assessment.
China will continue with its construction of oil and gas pipelines from the Bay of Bengal into its southwest Yunnan province, as well as completion of a deep-draft port on Burma’s central coast specifically to transship crude oil from Africa and the Middle East.
Thailand’s state-owned PTTEP oil and gas explorer will invest further in its major new gas find at Block M-9 in the Gulf of Martaban, assessed as holding at least 50 billion cubic meters. Most of the gas will be piped to Thailand when production starts after 2013.
Thai state funds will also be invested in a new 160 kilometer road planned to begin in the first half of 2011, connecting Thailand’s border town of Kanchanaburi with the Burmese coast town of Tavoy.
The Thai construction giant Italian-Thai Development Company reached an agreement in November with the state Myanmar Port Authority to build a large port at Tavoy.
Thai, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean firms have expressed interest in developing an industrial estate there with refining, petrochemicals manufacture and steel making backed by a 600 megawatt power station.
“Tavoy could become a major development in the coming years if Thailand can maintain good relations with the Burmese authorities, but I doubt if much will happen in 2011 beyond work on the connecting road,” forecast Collin Reynolds, an energy industries consultant in Bangkok.
Turnell thinks there is a possibility of discontent in 2011 among some senior army officers following the political-economic carve up connected with the November elections.
“One issue will be the potential discontent within the ruling clique: the ‘new’ military officers without the revenues supplied to their predecessors by the now privatized assets and enterprises. And on the flip side the disappointed former officers now without their uniforms, in parliament or elsewhere, but who were not compensated for their loss of the economic privileges an officer’s cap bestowed.”
By WAI MOE Thursday, December 30, 2010
The state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar warned about the “danger of neo-colonialists” on its front page on Thursday, referring to junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s 2010 Independence Day message ahead of the 63rd anniversary of Burma’s independence on Jan. 4. 2011.
“Today, neo-colonialists are practicing various forms of neo-colonialism such as interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, putting pressure on and coercing other countries to serve as their minions,” Than Shwe said.
He added that neo-colonialists are “resorting to all possible ways of forcing a government to serve as a puppet that will dance to their tune with the intention of harming the sovereignty of their targeted countries.”
The newspaper did not make it clear to which neocolonialists Than Shwe was referring.
Hailing the upcoming anniversary of Burma’s Independence Day on Jan. 4, Burma’s newspapers carried an article on Thursday calling for a strong military.
Titled “Safeguard independence at risk to life,” the article appeared with a picture of the statues of Burma’s three warrior kings at Naypyidaw. The article said the three kings were founders of the first, second and third “Myanmar Empires.”
The state media said Burma occupies a politically strategic position on mainland Asia, having a long coastline as well as shared borders with the most populous nations of China and India.
“Today’s colonial policy is that if a targeted nation does not collapse itself, it is broken up through a wedge driven among its people,” the state media said, adding that neo-colonialists will not hesitate to make military threats.
“So, a nation can safeguard its independence only if it is militarily strong,” the state media vowed.
The state newspapers’ call for a strong military to safeguard independence came after military sources in Naypyidaw suggested forming new military regional commands at the end of 2010.
Meanwhile Rangoon residents said city authorities forced them to buy the new flag, which was raised across the country on Oct.21.
“They told us to pay 500 kyat [US 60 cents] for a small A4-sized flag, urging every household in our ward to buy one,” said a housewife in Rangoon who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Thursday, 30 December 2010 22:51 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s main junta-backed party and purported winner of last month’s national elections is to hold a summit in Naypyidaw from Sunday, attended exclusively by top party leaders, in preparation for the upcoming first session of parliament, party sources say.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party’s central executive committee and central committee members, mostly “former” junta officials and military officers, would discuss the agenda of issues it would table in the parliaments, the party sources said.
States’ and divisions’ civil servants would also be selected, they said.
Military sources in Naypyidaw said the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (upper house), the joint sitting of the Pyithu Hluttaw (People’s Assembly) and the Amyotha Hluttaw (nationalities assembly), would all be convened mid-January.
The summit follows the USDP’s first meeting since the November 7 elections on December 21 and 22, attended by lawmakers-elect from across the country. There, party chairman and current Prime Minister Thein Sein and party general secretary Htay Oo outlined the party’s legislative programme, real estate mogul Khin Shwe, who attended the meeting, told Mizzima.
Since late 2007, the United States Treasury has kept junta crony Khin Shwe and his Zaygabar company on its blacklist of individuals and businesses targeted by sanctions.
The party chairman also instructed the MPs-elect to complete any unfinished roadworks, buildings, water supplies or electricity distribution projects to “save” the party’s public image.
The order may have in part been inspired by the most high-profile case of a member failing to follow through on election promises. USDP lawmaker-elect and Rangoon Mayor Aung Thein Lin is a former brigadier-general who as mayor oversees development works in the city.
Rangoon residents said that during campaigning ahead of the polls he used promises of new roads and improved services “to buy their votes”. Those promises have fallen flat as many of the avenues are half-finished, and have even been labelled “Aung Thein Lin Roads”.
The USDP won 882 seats out of total 1,154 seats in three legislatures, 76.5 per cent of total seats, in the widely condemned polls last month.
Local and international political observers, contending parties and opposition groups have widely criticised the conduct of the party and the junta’s electoral “watchdog”, the Union Election Commission, in the run-up to and during polling over well-documented electoral abuses that have included rampant vote rigging and fraud. When Mizzima raised the question on such criticisms, a division-level party leader replied that the party “didn’t care about it”.
“The people who oppose us and who dislike us will say that. We’ve heard these claims too but we don’t care about them. We shall continue in our work by implementing the resolutions passed in these party meetings,” he told Mizzima.
Khin Shwe however offered that the next government would be better than the existing one.
“Previously, the military regime was run by one control, one command. The next government will be run according to the constitution, and under the doctrine of the separation of powers of the executive, legislature and the judiciary,” according to Khin Shwe.
However, Shan Nationals League for Democracy spokesman Sai Lake disagreed entirely, saying the junta-backed USDP, led by generals turned civilian politicians, would draft legislation to suit whatever agenda the existing junta planned.
“The USDP is the incumbent government and has already been allowed to infringe on the laws, so [in parliament] they will be able to bend the rules to legitimise all kinds of unlawful acts,” Sai Lake said.
The party had its roots in the nationalist social organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, founded in 1993. Likened to Hitler’s SA “brownshirts”, its often violent members have helped the junta suppress democratic movements, free expression and protests including the 2007 nationwide march against fuel-price increases led by monks known as the “saffron revolution”.
The association dissolved to become the USDP in the months leading to the election.
With extensive documentation through witness interviews, rights groups hold the USDA responsible for the “Depayin massacre”. At least 5,000 USDA thugs attacked a convoy carrying Aung San Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy leaders in Depayin on May 30, 2003. According to witnesses, up to 70 people were killed, either cut with machetes, beaten with clubs or stabbed with sharpened iron bars. The junta claims only four people died in what it characterised as fighting between “two sides”.
At least 80 police were witnessed as being involved in both the killings and the positioning of convoy cars for photographing to appear as though the vehicles had been involved in accidents.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) later in 2003 agreed with the preliminary findings of the Ad Hoc Commission on the Depayin Massacre, which had said in its conclusion summary that the attack was clearly premeditated and well organised.
The commission, citing witness accounts, concluded that, as many as 5,000 USDA members “were brought to the remote rural location for the purpose of attacking the convoy; the attackers were all well-armed and located strategically at two killing sites; before the motorcade arrived, local authorities threatened people living in nearby villages to stay indoors; [and that] the authorities systematically searched for and arrested survivors of the attack”.
The ALRC said the massacre clearly amounted to a “widespread or systematic attack directed against [a] civilian population, with a knowledge [intent] of the attack”, (from article 7.1 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court), and was therefore a crime against humanity.
Unsurprisingly, there has been no serious action taken to bring the USDA to justice.