BURMA RELATED NEWS – JANUARY 21, 2011
Jan 21st, 2011
Physicians for Human Rights Reveals Myanmar Government’s Crimes Against Humanity
Russ Mayes, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jan 20, 2011 ”
Myanmar’s junta government has long been known as one of the most repressive regimes in the world. A new report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals just how repressive the government is, particularly against the Chin people. As the PHR blog reports, PHR went door to door in the Chin state of Myanmar and documented numerous cases of human rights abuse, including forced labor, disappearances, rapes, and killings.
PHR interviewed 621 households across all nine townships of the Chin State in Myanmar. The report documented an astonishing rate of abuse. Over 90 percent of the households reported abuse of some sort, and a full 98 percent of those abuses were conducted by the military or other government officials. The Foreword to the report, written by Richard Goldstone and Bishop Desmond Tutu, notes “Chin family members [were] forced to porter military supplies, sweep for landmines, labor as unpaid servants, build roads, and do hard labor.”
The PHR report also documents hundreds of other abuses against ethnic Chins and Christians throughout western Myanmar. The abuses are an unfortunately common list used by repressive regimes: Torture, threats, intimidation, rape, unlawful detention, and murder are documented in the report. The authors believe that what is documented in the report may constitute crimes against humanity.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled to review Myanmar’s human rights record next week. The authors of the report hope that this document will show that Myanmar continues to systematically abuse the rights of its citizens–particularly ethnic and religious minorities.
Myanmar has made some progress on human rights. In November 2009, Myanmar held its first democratic elections in over 50 years. However, as Amnesty International notes, the polling took place “against a backdrop of political repression.” Also last year, the Myanmar government released Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from an illegal house arrest that had lasted 15 of the last 21 years.
Despite these glimmers of progress, this report from PHR shows that there is still widespread abuse by government and military officials in the country. As recently as Dec. 13, 2010, the United Nations Human Rights
Council’s Special Rapporteur on Myanmar urged the government to release over 2,200 prisoners of conscience. This report came after the report of the death of a prisoner of conscience in early December. The UN Human Rights Council’s report on Myanmar is expected later this year.
Sources:
“First Widespread Survey of Burma’s Chin State Shows Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity,” Physicians for Human Rights.
“Foreword to Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State,” Desmond Tutu & Richard Goldstone.
“Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State,” Physicians for Human Rights.
“Myanmar (Burma) Human Rights,” Amnesty International.
“Myanmar rights report says minority group killed, raped,” AFP.
“Myanmar: UN expert urges Government to release over 2,200 remaining prisoners of conscience,” United Nations Council on Human Rights.
“New Report Reveals ‘Life Under the Junta’,” PHR Blog.
By Zin Linn Jan 21, 2011 7:38PM UTC
Burma’s military junta has appointed 388 members of parliaments to fill the military share of the three chambers of parliament which will first assemble on January 31, junta’s media said today.
The junta has appointed 110 military officers for the people’s parliament (lower house), 56 for the national parliament (upper house), and 222 for regional-and-state parliaments, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Friday.
All appointed MPs are military officers in commission, including one brigadier general, 19 colonels; the other 368 officers are majors and captains in ranks.
Under country’s new constitution, the military can appoint 25 per cent of all lawmakers in three chambers of parliament. It is enough for the military to veto any legislation and to control the picking of a new president and cabinet.
Meanwhile, the controversial Conscription Law, dated November 4, 2010, which is to be ratified in Burma, has been criticized by the National League for Democracy (NLD) on 19 January. As said by the draft law, it will come into force on the day that the military regime endorses the law by an article in an official decree.
According to NLD, a draft law is related to the whole population in the country and it should be approved through lower and upper parliaments. Releasing the draft law ahead of the approaching parliament assemblies looks like a dishonest tactic. And it also shows the military is above the parliament which is really a fake. The military authorities will be misused the rights of grassroots people under this law in the name of ‘the State’, NLD pointed out in its statement.
Although the 1959 Public Military Service Act said the state had the authority to order any person who is qualified to serve in the armed forces, the current junta’s draft law prescribes that all male and female adults between selected ages should be subjects to serve in the military, the NLD statement pointed out.
“If the law comes into life, the authorities will misuse the law as the corruption is prevalent. The law will open the door of evildoings for the authorities and it will put heavy burdens on the people who are under poverty line due to junta’s bad-governance”’, said NLD’s statement dated 19 January.
Burma or Myanmar, under military absolute rule since 1962, held its first general election in two decades on November 7 last year. Parliament is to hold its first session on January 31 to commence the procedure of choosing a new president. The parliament meetings would likely to take at least 14 days and people may only allow perceiving who will be the first president around mid-February, as said by an observer.
Besides the 25-per-cent ratio of appointed military parliamentarians, the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) took 77 per cent of the seats in three chambers of parliament by vote-rigging. Whoever won the presidential throne, there may not be any amazement during the first parliamentary session which will be held under junta’s tightly control.
The 2008 constitution says that the president and two vice-presidents needn’t to be elected members of parliament except acquaintance with military affairs. Many observers deem that Senior General Than Shwe, 77, boss of the junta since 1992 and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is an expected candidate, while ex-Generals Maung Aye and Shwe Mann are likely to be the deputies under Than Shwe.
If Than Shwe decided to take the presidential office, he has to resign from his military position. The president will have the power to shape the new government. Most of the new cabinet members seem to be chosen primarily from the USDP MPs who also were once high-ranking military officers with the junta.
The over 1,000 representatives-elect and 388 appointed military representatives are preparing for the first parliament session on 31 January. All representatives have been cautiously instructed about dos and don’ts in the parliamentary compound including which costume they have to wear, and which kinds of thing they are not allowed not to bring.
The Members of Parliament will not be allowed to carry mobile phones, recorders and laptop computers into the Parliament, as said by Dr. Myat Nyar Na Soe, a representative-elect from the National Democratic Force (NDF) party.
An invitation letter delivered to the representatives-elect calls on Members of Parliament to inform to the fortified office of the parliament in capital Naypyidaw by 27 January.
Fri Jan 21, 6:12 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s ruling military has appointed one-fourth of the members of the new Parliament that will open this month under constitutional provisions that help perpetuate its control of the government.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a list Friday of the military appointees to the upper and lower houses and regional parliaments.
In November’s general elections, the first in 20 years, the main military-backed party won commanding majorities in all chambers. Opponents said the polls were unfair.
In addition, under the army-promoted 2008 constitution, one-fourth of the seats in both the 224-member upper house and the 440-member lower house are reserved for military appointees.
By KIM KWANG-TAE, Associated Press – 1 hr 10 mins ago SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – At dawn, South Korean special forces packed into a small boat approached a hijacked freighter in the Arabian Sea. Commandos scrambled up a ladder onto the ship, aboard which Somali pirates were armed with AK assault rifles and anti-tank missiles. A South Korean destroyer and hovering Lynx helicopter provided covering fire.
When Friday’s operation ended five hours later, 21 hostages had been rescued, eight Somali pirates killed and five assailants captured. Pockmarks from artillery fire blanketed the ship’s bridge. One of the hostages was wounded, but all were alive — a remarkable ending for a risky rescue. Only a handful of rescues in recent years have involved such peril to the crew.
A wife of one of the South Korean crew cried in gratitude as the weeklong hijacking came to an end.
“Family members couldn’t sleep or eat well and prayed for a safe return. I am very relieved,” she said, according to Yonhap news agency.
The daring and rare raid — what the South’s president called a “perfect operation” — handed South Korea a stunning success in the battle against pirates who have long tormented shipping in the waters between Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
It was also a triumph for President Lee Myung-bak, whose government suffered harsh criticism at home in the weeks following a North Korean attack in November on a South Korean island near disputed waters. Critics said Lee’s military was too slow and weak in its response to the attack, which killed two marines and two civilians.
Friday’s operation in waters between Oman and Africa came a week after the Somali attackers seized the Samho Jewelry, a 11,500-ton chemical carrier, as it was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka.
During the rescue, the South Korean captain was shot by a pirate. He was taken by a U.S. helicopter to a nearby country for treatment, but the wound is not life-threatening, Lt. Gen.
Lee Sung-ho told reporters. The 20 other crew members — seven South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 citizens from Myanmar — were rescued unharmed and were in good condition, he said. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the destroyer was accompanying the vessel to a safe area; it didn’t elaborate.
“We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future,” President Lee said in a brief televised statement.
Other countries’ special forces have launched several raids to rescue pirated ships in the past few months, but only once they were assured the crew was locked in a safe room, commonly referred to as a “citadel.” Those rescues happened just hours, not days, after capture; they were launched as soon as the crew’s safety was confirmed.
The raid on the South Korean Samho Jewelry was rare because it happened a week after the ship was seized; it was not clear if the crew was in a citadel on Friday, but at least the wounded captain was not. Militaries are usually reluctant to launch such raids because of the risk of harm to hostages. A French rescue in 2009 that came two days after a sailboat was taken left one hostage dead.
Friday’s raid marked the first rescue operation by a South Korean navy vessel that has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden to help fight piracy since 2009.
“This operation demonstrated our government’s strong will to never negotiate with pirates,” Gen. Lee said.
Countries have different criteria for deciding whether to launch raids, said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, which provides information about piracy to shipping companies. Some countries are aggressive, but others consider that the risk of hostages being caught in a crossfire was greater than the risk of waiting out the hijackers.
But he said it’s unlikely the pirates would try to retaliate by harming other crews.
That “would be spectacularly unwise. Somalis are known for being good business people and I think that that would lead to very a quick collapse of their business model,” he said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, during which time piracy has flourished off its coast, sometimes yielding multimillion-dollar ransoms. The ransoms the pirates get are among the few sources of income for small businesses that supply the pirates with food and other goods.
There are now 29 vessels and 703 hostages being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia. The country lies next to one of the world’s most important shipping routes, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea beyond.
The Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet referred all questions to South Korea, although it said the U.S. Navy was aware of the rescue. Samho Shipping did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Samho Jewelry was the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be hijacked in the past several months.
In November, Somali pirates freed the supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crew — five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos — after seven months of captivity. A company official said a ransom was paid that local media said was around $9 million.
In April 2009, a French navy commando team stormed the yacht Tanit. The shootout killed two pirates and one French hostage and freed four French citizens. The order for the rescue came after the pirates threatened to kill the hostages.
In the same year, U.S. navy snipers also shot three pirates who were holding an American captain hostage in a lifeboat after they had abandoned a larger ship, the Maersk Alabama.
2 hrs 3 mins ago
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has finally had Internet access installed at home after her years of isolation were brought to an end two months ago, an aide said Friday.
Her security chief Win Htein told AFP that the opposition leader was “glad” to be able to go online at her lakeside mansion in Yangon and would use the technology to contact her network of supporters.
“But she cannot use the Internet now as she is not feeling well and is coughing,” he said.
It is believed that the Nobel laureate has never before surfed the web.
Suu Kyi, who was locked up for seven straight years with no telephone or Internet until November, has expressed an interest in using the micro-blogging site Twitter or the social network Facebook to reach young people.
She applied to a private company for Internet access soon after she was released, but the request was transferred to Yatanarpon Teleport, a firm run by the country’s military authorities.
Citizens of Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, must obtain the authorities’ permission to be able to go online at home and there is a thriving black market for facilities under assumed identities.
Suu Kyi applied officially under her own name for web access because she wants to use email, Win Htein said.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders describes Myanmar’s legislation on Internet use, the Electronic Act, as among the world’s most repressive, with online dissidents facing lengthy prison terms.
In November the group described Yatanarpon Teleport’s email service, Ymail, and instant messaging, Ytalk, provided as alternatives to Google’s Gmail and Gtalk, as attempts “to make it even easier for the authorities to monitor online communications”.
Just one in every 455 of Myanmar’s inhabitants were Internet users in 2009, based on statistics from the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency in Geneva.
Some web users believed authorities intentionally slowed services ahead of the country’s first elections in two decades in November, while many fear online surveillance by the state.
Myanmar is poised to open a new parliament this month following the polls, which were decried in the West as a sham aimed at shoring up military power and boycotted by Suu Kyi’s party.
Her National League for Democracy won a 1990 election in a landslide but the result was never recognised by the regime and Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 20 years in detention.
BBC News – Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi gets internet access
Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has obtained internet access, two months after she was freed from years of house arrest.
Technicians set up wireless broadband at her home after the military government authorised an internet connection, her staff said.
However, her assistant told the BBC that Aung San Suu Kyi had not yet used it as the signal strength was too weak.
Ms Suu Kyi is believed never to have been online.
Her assistant added that she had also been feeling a little too unwell to try the internet.
Her security chief, Win Htein, said she was “glad” to be able to go online at her home in the former capital, Rangoon, and would use the technology to contact her network of supporters, the AFP news agency reported.
She has said she wants to use social networking to contact younger people.
Black market
Ms Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for seven years continuously until November, also had no telephone access during that time.
She first applied to a private company for internet access soon after she was released, but the request was transferred to a firm run by the country’s military authorities, AFP said.
People in Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, must obtain the authorities’ permission to go online at home and there is a thriving black market for facilities under assumed identities.
The security chief said Ms Suu Kyi had applied in her own name for access.
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders describes Burma’s legislation on internet use as among the world’s most repressive, with online dissidents facing lengthy prison terms.
Just one in every 455 people in Burma were internet users in 2009, according to statistics from the United Nations International Telecommunication Union, AFP says.
posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Burma’s junta leaders delivered what could probably be the political masterstroke of 2010 in the South-east Asia region: Obscure the continuing military dictatorship in the country by releasing from detention a global democracy icon and conducting nationwide polls.
Despite its new name (Republic of the Union of Burma) and the inauguration of a new republic with its elected parliament deputies, Burma is in reality still the same old Burma where democracy, freedom and human rights are rigidly defined in favour of the interests of the ruling junta.
But the old generals were wise to adorn the rebranded republic with some democratic trappings since they can use the image of a new Burma to convince the international community—especially the business sector—that substantive positive changes are finally taking place in the country.
Through this genius political maneuver, the generals and their favoured cronies could continue hoarding the nation’s wealth and silencing the organized opposition while proclaiming to the whole world that Western-style democracy is beginning to work again in Burma.
What happened in Burma in 2010—or, to be more precise, what appeared to have changed in Burma last year—was a smart repackaging of an old and discredited political order.
The ‘old’ was remodeled to become the ‘new old’. Aung San Suu Kyi was released from her house prison so that she could enter a bigger prison. Election results were pre-determined by the same people who stole Burma’s democracy more than 20 years ago. The elected parliament members were high-ranking members of the military.
It was as if Burma’s citizens were forced to choose between two bad options in 2010: Continue to suffer under the military-backed regime or elect the candidates appointed by the junta so that the people of Burma can at least suffer under a government with some semblance of democratic aspirations.
And the junta’s deception succeeded for two reasons: One, Suu Kyi’s decision to boycott the elections fragmented her party, which crippled the chances of the opposition. Second, the political strategy adopted by the junta is a popular tactic in the playbook of political parties and politicians, especially in South-east Asia.
If Western critics were to expose the sham democracy in Burma, the junta leaders could always claim that their brand of democracy is no different from the other democracies in the region. In Burma, there’s no freedom of the press; there’s no genuine opposition party; and there’s no accountability of public officials. But these democratic deficiencies could also apply in some degree or other to Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia. Singapore has, after all, been dominated by a single party in the past 50 years, censorship prevails in Cambodia and political accountability is weak in Malaysia.
In previous years, Burma couldn’t easily brush off accusations that it doesn’t uphold democracy because there was a clear military dictatorship in the country. But today, a military that continues to dominate the government can reason that democratic institutions are actually already in place. Furthermore, the elections that were held were monitored by foreign observers and diplomats. The country’s most famous political prisoner is now free. And even the flag of the republic is new.
So how should the international community deal with Burma? Should it welcome the new republic and christen it as the newest and youngest democracy in the world? Or should it support the pro-democracy movement both inside and outside Burma as it continues to struggle for real reforms?
These questions are not difficult to answer since it’s obvious that nothing fundamental has really changed in Burma other than the fact that the situation there has deteriorated because of the two strong typhoons that hit the country in 2008 and 2010.
But maybe what the consistent critics of Burma should also reflect upon is the valid objection raised by the junta about our eagerness to punish the country for betraying the democratic enterprise while pretending to be blind to the similar crimes of Burma’s neighbours. Maybe it’s time to stop designating the Burmese government as some kind of supreme evil that must be fought so that we can objectively redistribute our rage to other anti-democratic governments in the region.
That said, showing solidarity to battling Burmese citizens should remain an urgent political task for all pro-democracy advocates. And this means, first of all, unmasking the real power behind the newly elected government of the Republic of the Union of Burma.
Myanmar Publishes 383 Name Lists Of Parliament Representative Nominated By Military
YANGON, Jan 21 (Bernama) — The Union Election Commission of Myanmar Friday published 383 name lists of parliament representatives nominated by the military to the three-level parliaments as a follow-up of its announcement on Thursday night for taking part in the first parliamentary sessions set to take place simultaneously at the end of this month.
Directly nominated by the commander-in-chief of the defence services without going through election, 110 military personnel represent in the parliamentary house of representatives (lower house), while 56 represent in the parliamentary house of nationalities (upper house) and 217 in the region or state parliament shared among 14 regions and states, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
The 110 military personnel nominated as parliament representatives to the house of representatives include three with the rank of colonel, 59 with the rank of major, 39 with the rank of major officiating, three with the rank of captain and six with the rank of Lt-Cdr.
The three colonels are Htay Naing, Myint Ko Ko and Tint Hsan.
By SETH MYDANS
Published: January 21, 2011
BANGKOK — It is the most vilified army in Southeast Asia, known for crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar and for its brutal suppression of ethnic groups seeking self-rule in the region’s longest-running civil war.
The 400,000-strong army in the former Burma is remarkable for its cohesion, cemented by a system of rewards and punishments, and military analysts have found little sign of dissent in its ranks.
But in its lower levels, at least, it is made up of men who come from a society that widely fears and distrusts the military and who join for the steady employment and status it offers, according to Myo Myint, 48, a former soldier who joined the democratic opposition led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr. Myo Myint is the central figure in a new documentary called “Burma Soldier,” a film that traces his life from the battlefield, where he lost a leg and an arm, to his 15 years in prison after joining the opposition and then his departure through a Thai refugee camp to the United States in 2008.
“While the top ranks control and repress people, most soldiers are like me. They join the military because they need to earn money for their daily survival,” he said in a telephone interview from Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lives now.
In addition, he said, “There are so many soldiers serving in the military who secretly support the opposition but cannot expose their feelings. They will be sent to prison and a very heavy imprisonment.”
He added: “I hope that after watching the film, some soldiers will think about their actions and their treatment of civilians, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust.”
In quiet and measured tones in the film, broken at one point by tears, Mr. Myo Myint describes his journey, with interviews in the refugee camp interspersed with rare and sometimes horrifying footage of military maneuvers and attacks on ethnic minority villages. The film’s director, Nic Dunlop, an Irish writer and photographer, said the extraordinary images were taken at great risk by dissident groups.
Mr. Dunlop said he was attempting to deliver this message through what he called “reverse pirating.”
The film will be released next year on HBO, he said, but he and his producers have already made a Burmese-language version of the film and have begun smuggling it into Myanmar on DVDs and on the Internet.
“We are encouraging Burmese to make as many copies as they can and give people inside a chance to hear an alternative history, and hear it from a man who was part of the military,” Mr. Dunlop said.
“There’s an irony in this,” he said, referring to an earlier documentary, “Burma VJ.” “They were struggling to get information and images out, with a great deal of difficulty and an enormous amount of risk.”
That documentary, by Anders Ostergaard, told the story of the Buddhist monk-led uprising in September 2007 and the military’s harsh response, in part through the work of video journalists on the scene.
“What we are doing is the absolute reverse,” Mr. Dunlop said. “We are trying to get the film into the country illegally by pirating our own film in Burmese.”
Mr. Dunlop is sending a message, to audiences both inside and outside Myanmar, that was also at the heart of his book “The Lost Executioner” (Bloomsbury 2005), about the Khmer Rouge prison chief in Cambodia, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.
Mr. Dunlop was working as a photographer in 1999, when he discovered Duch in a remote area of Cambodia, a discovery that led to the first of the Khmer Rouge trials and the conviction of Duch last year. Duch was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Four other defendants are facing trial this year.
“I wanted to know what it was that had turned a seemingly ordinary man from one of the poorer parts of Cambodia into one of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century,” Mr. Dunlop wrote in the prologue to his book.
Myanmar presents a similar challenge, he said.
“One of the problems of Burma is that it reads better as a story when you have forces of evil pitted against the forces of good, symbolized by Aung San Suu Kyi,” Mr. Dunlop said.
“I think it’s not enough to condemn people or regimes but we have to look past that,” he said. “The world is not divided into good and evil, with us or against us, black and white, but is much more nuanced. If we stop looking at the world in this polarized way, we stand a greater chance of trying to prevent these crimes.”
In the cases of both the Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, and the army of Myanmar, he said, “It’s crucial to look at the world of the perpetrators, to contextualize the evidence and the people rather than seeing them as monsters, but see them as human beings, and that we are all capable of doing these kinds of things in given circumstances.”
For example, as Mr. Myo Myint said in the interview, the soldiers who shot down civilians in pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and 2007 in Myanmar were drawn from distant battlefields where they had been fighting separatist ethnic armies.
“The soldiers are uneducated and don’t understand politics,” he said. “They are told that everyone who supports the demonstrations and opposes the government are enemies of the people and we have the right to kill these people.”
For them, the killings are not only justified but necessary, he said. “It is our duty.”
English.news.cn 2011-01-21 01:45:34
KUNMING, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) — Over 100 rescuers in southwest China’s Yunnan Province ended the ordeal of 11 migrant workers on Thursday who had been trapped 60 hours in a mountain blizzard as they returned home from neighboring Myanmar.
Two lumbermen from Myanmar, also trapped in the snowstorm, were saved by the rescuers, too, said an official with the Lushui County authorities.
The migrant workers, who were returning from Myanmar to join their families for the Spring Festival, were hit by a snowstorm on Tuesday when they traveled through a pass in Gaoligong Mountain.
When their vehicle became trapped in the snow, the migrant workers decided to walk along the heavy snow and freezing cold.
However, after their food ran out, seven of the migrant workers were unable to continue.
More than 100 militiamen were sent by the Lushui government for the rescue attempt after authorities received calls from the migrant workers.
English.news.cn 2011-01-21 20:14:07
JAKARTA, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) — ASEAN Foreign Ministers will be embarking on Sunday, a road trip traversing Thailand, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and China, which will coincide with the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue partnership followed by an ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on January 25, a statement released by ASEAN Secretariat said here on Friday.
The three-day program will begin on January 23 in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The Foreign Ministers will cross the Mekong River on a barge to Houey Xay in Lao PDR, and then travel by coach to Luang Nam Tha, before driving to Jinghong and flying into Kunming in China.
The Thai Foreign Minister, H.E. Kasit Piromya, when inviting his counterparts, noted that the trip will demonstrate intra-ASEAN and ASEAN-China mainland, maritime and aviation connectivity. The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, adopted by ASEAN Leaders at the 17th ASEAN Summit in October last year, is ASEAN’s response to the region’s need to be better connected physically, institutionally and in terms of people-to-people contact.
Minister Kasit also expected the trip to “kick-off a good year in ASEAN-China relations” on the “auspicious” 20th anniversary.
The Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, who will also join the Ministers on this multi-mode travel said, “Multi-modal connectivity is extremely critical for ASEAN integration and community building.” “We are now embarking on land transport. Sea and air transports are also being developed with equal sense of urgency,” he added.
“This road trip is an attempt by ASEAN Foreign Ministers and their Chinese counterpart H.E. Yang Jiechi to demonstrate to the world that we are effectively connected and this connection will certainly improve by the time ASEAN becomes one Community by 2015, ” he confirmed.
The R3A is one of the new highways serving the North-South Economic Corridor, which stretches over 2,000 km. The highway links Thailand with Lao PDR and Yunnan Province, China.
The ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is expected to exchange views on advancing ASEAN-China relations, including connectivity, cultural exchanges, ASEAN-China Free Trade Area ( ACFTA), and the East Asia cooperation.
The ACFTA, realized on January 1 last year, opened up a combined market of 1.9 billion people, accounting for a combined GDP of close to 6 trillion U.S. dollars and a total trade volume of 4.5 trillion US Dollars.
Surin explained that China offers a huge and expanding market for all ASEAN Member States. “We are talking about an almost two billion people strong market combined between ASEAN and China. Our commodities, our tourism industry and our services sector will benefit a great deal from our connectivity with China,” he concluded.
The ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be preceded by a launching ceremony of the ASEAN-China Friendship and Exchange Year, also held in Kunming. Kunming is the capital city of the Southwestern province of Yunnan, which shares borders with three ASEAN Member States — Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Published on January 22, 2011
Burma has closed the Tha Khi Lek border checkpoint in Tak province and sealed off another border crossing in Phop Phra district citing security reasons involving clashes with minority groups.
The 18 gates at Tha Khi Lek border checkpoint were closed reportedly after gunfights between Burmese troops and two Karenaffiliated armed resistance groups around 45 km away.
Thai vendors have piled up goods at the Tha Khi Lek gates awaiting transport as soon as the border reopens.
The four Thai nationals arrested by Burmese soldiers in Phop Phra district for trespassing, and local residents have been barred from entering Burma until further notice.
Published Friday, Jan. 21, 2011
Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had an one-hour talk with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya at the Thai embassy in Rangoon on Friday morning, said officials of her party, the National League for Democracy. “The discussion was quite frank, but we still have no details from it,” said a party official. The personal meeting was the first between Suu Kyi and another country’s foreign minister since her release from house arrest in November.
By LA PYAE Friday, January 21, 2011
RANGOON — Rumors are rife in Rangoon media circles about a possible takeover of Myanmar Consolidate Media (MCM) group, the company that owns four major publications in Burma: leading weekly The Myanmar Times in both Burmese and English; lifestyle journal Now!; and a weekly tabloid called Crime.
A source close to MCM said the company is entrenched in an internal power struggle between between two major shareholders, co-founder Ross Dunkley who is Australian, and Tin Htun Oo who is the owner of Swezon media group and publisher of The Myanmar Times.
According to the source, Tin Htun Oo, who won a seat in Pazundaung Township in the November general election representing the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, has been duelling with Dunkley to take over the position of CEO and editor-in-chief of MCM. Dunkley reportedly rejected the move in the past, resulting in an unfriendly relationship between the two shareholders.
On Jan. 17, a report in the state-owned Mirror newspaper indicated that Tin Htun Oo has taken over as editor-in-chief of MCM.
“Myanmar Consolidate Media Group Editor-in-Chief Dr. Tin Htun Oo donated over 2.6 million Kyats worth of journals to the library,” the newspaper said.
The article reportedly sent shock waves around the newsroom at The Myanmar Times. According to sources at the newspaper, MCM sent a official letter to Mirror complaining that Tin Htun Oo is not in an editorial position.
Permission for the publication of The Myanmar Times was originally granted in 2000 to Sonny Swe, the son of former military intelligence officer Brig-Gen Thein Swe. Forty-nine percent of shares were owned by Dunkley while Sonny Swe held onto 51 percent. Following Sonny Swe’s imprisonment in 2005, his shares were handed to Tin Htun Oo, who is close to the military regime’s information minister, Kyaw Hsan.
Sources said that Tin Htun Oo’s efforts to take over The Myanmar Times may well be successful as the military junta can interfere in the issue at any time.
In 2008, The Myanmar Times was ordered to sack four of its Burmese editors after carrying a report that had not been authorized by the government’s censorship board.
Dunkley is also a key stockholder in The Phnom Penh Post, a Cambodian English-language newspaper.
Friday, 21 January 2011 20:27 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has lost its lawsuit filed against the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), or White Tiger party, alleging electoral fraud.
USDP candidate Dr. Sai Kham Hlaing from Kunhein constituency No. 1 in southern Shan State filed a lawsuit against elected MP Sai Mon, a.k.a. Sai Kyaw Tun, alleging electoral fraud and improper polling booth activities. The election tribunal in Naypyidaw dismissed the case on Thursday, citing a lack of evidence.
In the election, defendant Sai Mon won over plaintiff Dr. Sai Kham Hlaing with a clear margin of 4,378 to 2033 votes respectively.
The plaintiff was required to deposit 1 million kyat (US$ 1,814) for filing lawsuit and the deposit is non-refundable.
If the defendant is found guilty, he or she could be given a one-year prison term or fined up to 100,000 kyat or both. If the defendant is acquitted, the plaintiff could be given a 3-year prison term or fined up to 300,000 kyat or both.
Two other cases filed against White Tiger Party MPs by the USDP for electoral fraud are still pending.
In the cases, USDP candidate Yone Mu filed a lawsuit against the elected MP from Moemauk constituency and Daw Wine of the USDP filed a lawsuit against elected representative Sai Myo Aung of the Moemauk State assembly constituency. The election tribunal in Naypyidaw will hear the cases on January 24 and 27, respectively.
The USDP, which has been widely accused of rampant vote rigging and electoral fraud, has also filed lawsuits against winning candidates of the National Unity Party, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party and the National Democratic Force.
Friday, 21 January 2011 19:28 Myo Thein
Mizima News – A man, now 22 years old, has been arrested for desertion from the Burmese military when he was a 14-year-old child soldier and sentenced to three years in prison.
His parents in Taungsun village in Waw Township in Pegu Division say their son, Zin Aung, joined the army when he was 14 and returned back to his home after about seven months in the army to be with his parents.
His parents, Thaung Kyi and Kyi Win, said he was arrested in October 2010, about eight years after his desertion and is now in the Pegu jail.
His mother told Mizzima: “He told me that he worked at a poultry farm owned by an adjutant officer when I asked him what he did in the army. He came back home and lived with us for eight years. Then local Ward Peace and Development Council (WPDC) chairman Than Lwin came to our home with a police team and took my son away in handcuffs’.
Zin Aung’s grandfather Aung Pe, 78 died of a heart attack on October 5, 2010, when the police came to the home and arrested his grandson, she said.
The young man was sentenced to three and half year imprisonment for desertion on December 4, 2010.
‘He left home when he was 14 along with two friends. We couldn’t locate him. Then he came back home after about seven months. He told me that he left the army when I asked him where he had been’, said his mother.
When Zin Aung and his two friends visited Light Infantry Division 77 at Pegu, the army accepted Zin Aung because he was tall and sent him to Taungdwingyi in Magwe Division for basic army training.
He was reportedly sent back from training camp because he was underage and placed under the supervision of Captain Thurein of Light Infantry Battalion 105 in Indagaw in Pegu, where he began work on the poultry farm.
His parents informed the Pegu branch of the National League for Democracy (NLD) about their son’s imprisonment and asked for help.
NLD member Kyaw Win told Mizzima that they informed the battalion concerned and the International Labour Organization on December 20.
‘I wish he could come back to me’, his mother told Mizzima. ‘My health has grown worse because of this. I ask the authorities to release him.’
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 21 January 2011
Burma’s energy minister Brig. General Lun Thi is unhappy with the recent privatisation of petrol retailing in the country, business sources in Rangoon have told DVB.
His alleged dissatisfaction echoes critical analysts who state that the scheme is economically unsound and leading to problems with distribution. This has resulted in long queues and a thriving black market that the privatisation drive was designed to solve.
Lun Thi is now reportedly willingly waiting for the privatisation experiment with fuel retailing to fail, a Rangoon-based businessman close to the ruling junta has said. Failure would mean his Ministry of Energy (MOE) will have to intervene and reinstate its management of fuel retailing.
The main problem is seen as the strict controls on the price at which retailers can sell petrol. This only allows for a small profit margin and thus limits the incentive to distribute fuel widely throughout new stations in more remote areas of Burma.
As a result black marketeering has been occurring whereby third parties would hoard cheap fuel in order to sell it for profit in areas where there was no licensed retailer. The discrepancy in price, reportedly almost double in some areas, was meanwhile responsible for long queues at official retailers who resultantly placed a quota on the number of litres for sale per person, per visit.
The low prices are for domestically-refined petrol, which is of a lower quality than imported fuel.
Why Lun Thi is seemingly willing the project to fail is not fully known but some analysts, including Burma economics expert Sean Turnell, believe it is political; that the minister will be smarting from the loss of control over this vital area of the economy.
“This is why Burma is not a normal developing Southeast Asian nation” Turnell told DVB. “It’s why I think the whole notion of privatisation in Burma is highly questionable.”
The situation was being compared to a similar occurrence in the 1990s when the MOE transferred control over petrol pumps to the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEH), a military “company” run by the quartermaster general, only for their management of operations to fail. They were subsequently transferred back to the MOE.
Petrol retailing has now been transferred to a number of crony-run conglomerates, such as Htoo Trading and Max Myanmar. Some have alleged that the conglomerates themselves were involved in the black market in order to turn a profit from the operations.
With the privatisation drive in full swing, it was recently reported that as much as 90 percent of state-owned enterprises would be sold off.
The move to fix fuel prices however was also seen as an effort to prevent social unrest linked to fuel price rises, as was witnessed in September 2007 with the so-called Saffron Revolution and prior to the 1988 uprising. Turnell notes that “petrol prices are always very politically sensitive”.
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 21 January 2011
Burma’s biggest open-cast coal mine is polluting waterways and causing displacement of communities on an alarming scale, a new report warns.
The Tigyit mine close to Shan state’s Inle Lake produces some 2000 tonnes of lignite, often referred to as brown coal, each day. The Poison Clouds report by the Pa’O Youth Organisation (PYO) claims that it is damaging the health of locals there.
Problems with transporting lignite mean that it is often burned in power plants close to its source which produce much higher carbon dioxide emissions than black coal.
Images released by PYO show hazardous coal dumps forming veritable mountain ranges close to inhabited areas. The run-off from these can work its way into rivers that feed into Inle Lake, Burma’s second-largest, with knock-on effects for farmers and fisherman palpable.
“Dump piles from the mine are now towering above the homes of 3,000 people, blocking streams and contaminating fields,” a statement released with the report reads. “Dust and emissions, including from poisonous waste scattered on local roadways, is seriously degrading air quality. To date 50 percent of the local population is suffering from skin rashes.”
It adds that nearly 12,000 people living within a five-mile radius of Tigyit may be driven from their homes by pollution and expansion of the mine, which currently covers 500 acres.
Two nearby villages have already been relocated. The 321 inhabitants were paid compensation that amounted in total to $US6,280 – less than $US20 each.
Instead of the electricity being produced by the nearby plant going to local populations, the report claims it is channeled to another mining project run by Russian and Italian companies. “This follows the trend in Burma’s energy sector of exploiting natural resources not for the development of the country’s people but for sale to the highest bidders,” it says.
Burma currently has seven operational coal mines, although an additional 10 have been discovered. Only one coal plant processes the output at present, but six more are either planned or under construction.
By MOE AYE
Published: 20 January 2011
There appears to be no end in sight for the Burma sanctions debate: recent appeals by Southeast Asia’s regional bloc and ethnic parties inside Burma to end the blockade have been met with a sharp rebuke from the old guard of Burma’s pro-democracy movement, and observers are feeling a sense of deja vu. Why does the issue remain so divisive, and can the pro-sanctions lobby continue to promote the status quo when any tangible results are so obviously lacking?
Within the polarizing discourse, there is some consensus among both sides that targeted sanctions against key members of the regime should be strengthened – focusing on specific areas, rather than a blanket policy that critics argue is damaging the population. Even the National League for Democracy (NLD), the strongest proponents of a boycott, are conceding that certain areas of the package, such as the trade ban, may need to be reviewed if indeed they are hurting Burmese people.
Most scholars believe that sanctions require three factors in order to succeed: multilateral coordination, incentives (such as a lifting of the visa ban on the generals as a reward for releasing political prisoners), and some degree of domestic opposition to the targets as a means to supplement the pressure.
Their usage has increased dramatically since the Cold War – prior to this, the two prominent cases were Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and South Africa, the casue célèbre of sanctions, which became a key factor in the ending of apartheid. Since 1989, their use by the US in particular has been widespread – against political leaders, drug lords, and terrorists – but their impact limited. In cases like Sudan, Somalia, and of course Burma, they are deemed a failure.
Most Western governments imposed an arms embargo on Burma and suspended defense cooperation following the bloody 1988 uprising. Even Japan initially ceased providing aid. But countries such as China, Korea and the Burma’s regional neighbours in ASEAN rushed in to do business with the generals.
Fast-forward several years, and the junta’s refusal to recognize the NLD as the winners of the 1990 elections caused the US to widen its boycott. In July 1995, the Free Burma Act was introduced which included a ban on US companies doing business with the Burmese generals, as well as a prohibition on imports of Burmese goods and travel restrictions on the junta leaders to and from Burma. Some scholars believed that the act was sufficient to persuade the regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in July 1995.
The following year, the Danish consul to Burma, James Leander Nichols, was sentenced to three year in jail for the illegal possession of a printer. Two months into his sentence, he died. Despite insistence from family members and Danish authorities, the regime refused to carry out an independent autopsy. Soon after this, the European Council took its first Common Position on Burma, introducing a visa ban on members of the military regime and their families. It also suspended all high-level governmental visits to Burma.
After the 2003 Depayin massacre when pro-regime thugs ambushed Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, killing 70, the US imposed the Burma Freedom and Democracy Act banning imports such as teak and gems. The Act also limited financial transactions and extended visa restrictions on government officials.
Major crises in Burma have often preempted the toughening of sanctions: Washington did not pass the 2008 JADE Act that blocks imports of Burma’s precious stones until the September 2007 crackdown on peaceful demonstrations led by Buddhist monks. Such incidents have not however triggered policy decisions in the ASEAN neighbourhood, where continued investment in Burma provides an economic crutch for the regime in the face of a Western embargo.
ASEAN’s argument is that sanctions will further drive Burma towards isolation or into the hands of China at a time when economic engagement with the West will spur progress in one of the world’s least developed countries. Some have their doubts, however, claiming that ASEAN countries are concerned first and foremost with their own highly lucrative investments in the country, particularly in the energy sector. The regime uses the substantial capital gained from sales of natural gas ($US2.6 billion in sales to Thailand in 2007/08 alone) and electricity to fund its ever-expanding army, spending billions on building underground tunnels, buying Russian MiG-29 fighters jet and attempting to produce advanced missiles – all despite the sanctions from the U.S. and EU.
But, of course, there are detractors in every department, and a vocal school of thought asserts that trade will eventually be the main factor in spurring political reform and lessening the rich-poor divide, such as happened in Taiwan and South Korea. They also argue that the generals will be forced to improve the business environment before hoping to attract Western investment, something that could have a knock-on effect on the overall human rights situation for Burmese citizens.
This is perhaps unlikely, however – as long as the current regime stays in power and retains its myopic focus on itself and its military, then reform through trade remains a distant prospect. Sanctions aren’t responsible for endemic poverty in Burma; gross economic mismanagement is, and without any clear sign that the generals have the intention to improve the wellbeing of Burmese, then the lifting of the blockade may be fruitless.
But careful review of areas that are problematic for Burmese, as well as tightening restrictions that affect those in power, will be a welcome step. The banking sector, for example, is largely owned by businessmen close to the regime, and distrust of the financial system in Burma is so acute that citizens rarely use banks – this is one area where stronger sanctions could start to hurt the generals and not your average Burmese, and it’s this kind of fresh tactical thinking which is what the sanctions debate desperately needs.
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 21 January 2011
South Korean stock market operator Korea Exchange has confirmed that it is looking into the possibility of setting up a stock market in Burma.
Lee In-pyo, a project director at Korea Exchange, was quoted by Reuters as saying that they had “had a discussion [with Burma] before”, adding yesterday that “anything is possible, anything can happen” in regards to the possibility of setting up the bourse.
Korea Exchange has already created stock exchanges in Laos and Cambodia, regarded as the other two new frontiers in Southeast Asian economic development.
Burma economics expert Sean Turnell from Australia’s Macquarie University says that “Burma will need one – stock exchanges are the main source of long-term financing for companies”.
An anonymous official at the Seoul-based company told Reuters however that while the company had visited the pariah twice, “nothing has been decided”.
The move is a further sign of the Burmese military’s commitment to liberalising the economy and attracting foreign investment, a process that has been viewed critically for its management and lack of transparency.
A foreign businessman in Rangoon confirmed that business was hindered by the lack of security that investors possessed in front of the law, pointing out that licenses for business property were only given for one year and subsequently had to be renewed annually, with no guarantees.
Indeed Turnell told DVB that “Burma tried to establish one [a stock exchange] before about 10 years ago, but that went nowhere”.
“The big problem with stock exchanges, unlike banks and so on, is that they require very strict legal rights, like property rights and so on, because of course the key is the legal entitlement to ownership. So if you have a case like Burma where the legal ownership claims are often highly subjective to the actions of the state, then it can be quite difficult.”
Increased South Korean investment will also further highlight the military’s adept handling of rival nations. In this case they have seemingly played both bitter enemies from the Korean peninsula off against one another, as recent leaked cables corroborate fears of a military relationship between North Korea and Burma, whilst trade relations with the South continue to appear buoyant.