BURMA RELATED NEWS – FEBRUARY 12-14, 2011
Feb 14th, 2011
26 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Monday that military-run Myanmar is “up to its old tricks” with its threats against democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Burma claims there is a new era, but it is up to its old tricks by threatening #AungSanSuuKyi,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Twitter, referring to Myanmar by its former name.
“New suits does not a new system make,” Crowley added.
State media in Myanmar warned in a commentary that Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic ends” if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions.
The remarks follow a recent statement by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.
It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release after seven years of house arrest in November, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.
Sat Feb 12, 1:21 pm ET NAYPYIDAW (AFP) – The Australian head of Myanmar’s only newspaper with foreign investment has been arrested in Yangon, officials and a business partner said Saturday, amid a power struggle at his group.
Ross Dunkley, co-founder of the Myanmar Times in a nation heavily criticised for its attacks on press freedoms, is being held in Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison, according to his business partner in Cambodia.
Dunkley, who divides his time between Myanmar and Cambodia, where he is a key shareholder in Phnom Penh Post publisher Post Media, was detained in Yangon on Thursday after returning from a business trip in Tokyo.
The arrest “has nothing to do with his company” a Myanmar source said.
But Post Media chairman David Armstrong, who said Dunkley was detained in Yangon on immigration charges, said “a key point about the arrest is timing”.
“It coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners,” he said.
Negotiations have centred on “the future direction” of the media group, “ownership issues and senior leadership roles — all this at a time of significant political and economic change in Myanmar”.
Dunkley’s arrest comes after mounting rumours of a major power struggle at Myanmar Consolidated Media (MCM), the group that owns the Myanmar Times.
Exile news website the Irrawaddy said in January that Dunkley, who controls 49 percent of MCM, was trying to rebut an attempted editorial takeover by Myanmar partner Tin Tun Oo, who owns 51 percent.
Its report said an item in the state-owned Mirror newspaper referring to Tin Tun Oo as editor-in-chief of MCM had “sent shockwaves around the newsroom at the Myanmar Times” earlier that month.
The Irrawaddy said its sources suggested Tin Tun Oo “may well be successful as the military junta can interfere in the issue at any time”.
Dunkley originally co-founded the Myanmar Times in 2000 with local partner Sonny Swe, the son of an influential member of the junta’s military intelligence service.
But Sonny Swe was jailed in 2005 and his stake was handed to Tin Tun Oo, who the article said was close to the military regime’s information minister.
MCM, which has offices in the capital Naypyidaw and Mandalay, as well as in Yangon, produces the Myanmar Times weekly in English and the country’s official language, Burmese.
Armstrong said Dunkley is due to appear in court on February 24.
“His lawyers in Yangon say Mr Dunkley is confident he can answer any charges or allegations made against him and is looking forward to returning to lead the Myanmar Times group in the exciting times ahead — for the publishers and the country,” he said.
Tin Tun Oo was a candidate for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) during controversial November polls, but was not elected to the country’s new parliament, which opened at the end of January.
Some have suggested political changes have created a glimmer of hope for a country ruled by the military for almost half a century, but critics see merely cosmetic alterations aimed at hiding the generals’ power behind a civilian facade.
Reporters Without Borders, which ranked Myanmar 174th out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index, reported in September that the regime increased censorship in the run-up to the first election in 20 years.
The media rights group said in December that the country was a “censors’ paradise”, where journalists and bloggers are subject to arrest and intimidation and those sending information to foreign news organisations face hefty prison sentences.
After the election, authorities suspended nine weekly news journals that gave prominent coverage to the release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Sat Feb 12, 2:40 am ET
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta chief told people to safeguard the country’s new “democracy,” a day after parliament approved a cabinet packed with retired military officers.
Senior general Than Shwe on Saturday called for people to “tackle any forms of disruptions to the new system” in a Union Day address delivered by newly-appointed vice president, Tin Aung Myint Oo.
“The democracy system introduced to the Union of Myanmar is still in its infancy,” the message said.
“Therefore, it is required of the entire national people to safeguard and build together the newly-introduced democracy system, which has been adopted with the combined efforts of the government, the people and the Tatmadaw (army).”
Former generals remain firmly in charge in Myanmar’s new political system, which has been criticised as a sham aimed at hiding army power behind a nominally civilian system.
A quarter of the parliamentary seats were kept aside for the military even before the country’s first poll in 20 years in November, which was marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has no voice in the new parliament after it was disbanded for opting to boycott the election.
Last week the country named retired general and key Than Shwe ally Thein Sein as its new president.
Thein Sein, along with a clutch of generals, shed his army uniform to contest last year’s election as head of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which claimed an overwhelming majority in the poll.
Officials said Friday that half of the 30 ministers that will make up Thein Sein’s cabinet served under the previous military regime and only four have no army background.
Than Shwe, who took control of the country in 1992, has yet to indicate his plans for the future, but observers believe he is likely to pull the strings behind the scenes.
The 64th Union Day anniversary ceremony was attended by legislators and government officials in the capital Naypyidaw.
Sat Feb 12, 3:11 am ET
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) – The leader of Myanmar’s junta warned against any “disruption” of the country’s new military-dominated government, urging people Saturday to protect what he called the country’s nascent “democracy system” a day after a Cabinet was approved.
Senior Gen. Than Shwe issued the call as the regime held a lavish national celebration at the isolated capital that will serve as headquarters for the new civilian government.
After decades of repressive military rule, critics say that Myanmar’s self-described transition to democracy is a charade and that last year’s election was orchestrated to perpetuate military rule. With one quarter of the seats in the new parliament filled by military appointees, and a lion’s share of the remaining seats won by a military backed party, the army effectively retains power.
The future role of the junta — officially known as the State Peace and Development Council — remains unclear, though it is certain that the military will continue to be the dominant force in government.
Than Shwe’s message on Saturday for Union Day called on the nation’s citizens to build and safeguard a “democracy system” that is “still in its infancy.”
He also urged people “to tackle any form of disruption to the new system.”
The new parliament on Friday unanimously approved all of President-elect Thein Sein’s Cabinet nominees, although they were not told which post each would take,
Thein Sein, who was elected by parliament last week, was prime minister and a top member of the military junta that is handing over power to the new government. It is not clear when he and his Cabinet will be sworn in.
Most of the Cabinet appointees are former military officers who retired in order to run in last November’s elections — the country’s first in 20 years — and about a dozen were ministers in the junta’s Cabinet. Only four of the appointees are strictly civilian.
Than Shwe’s speech was read out in an open space at the City Hall in Naypyitaw to celebrate Union Day, which marks the anniversary of a 1947 agreement among the country’s ethnic groups that paved the way to independence from Britain. The ceremony was attended by lawmakers and new and old Cabinet members.
The army has held power in Myanmar since 1962.
The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which won the last elections in 1990 but was blocked from taking power by the military, boycotted November’s vote, calling it unfair.
Much of the international community also dismissed the elections as rigged in favor of the junta.
Suu Kyi’s party was to hold its own separate ceremony to commemorate Union Day. It was Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San, the country’s independence hero, who met with ethnic minority leader to sign the agreement that the holiday commemorates.
In further celebration, the government opened a “Safari Park” in Naypyitaw Saturday morning.
The park, on nearly 300 acres (120 hectares) along the Yangon-Mandalay highway, holds animals from Asia, Australia and Africa, some of them brought to Myanmar on chartered flights.
By Aung Hla Tun – Sun Feb 13, 5:00 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic end” if they stick to their position including support for Western sanctions, state media said on Sunday.
In the first direct criticism of Suu Kyi since she was released from house arrest in November, days after a pro-military party swept elections widely dismissed as unfair, state media also invited Suu Kyi to cooperate “in building a democratic nation.”
“If Daw Suu Kyi and the NLD keep going to the wrong way ignoring the fact that today’s Myanmar is marching to a new era, new system and new political platforms paving the way for democracy, they will meet their tragic end,” state-run newspapers said in a commentary.
“Daw” is an honorific for women.
The state-run newspapers have long been mouthpieces of the military, which ruled the country, also known as Burma, after taking power in a 1962 coup.
Myanmar held its first elections in two decades last November, but the military shows no sign of loosening its grip on power even though a new civilian-led administration is officially taking over.
The warning to Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the previous election in 1990 but was never allowed to govern, comes days after the NLD said it supported Western sanctions but wanted talks on whether to modify them.
Suu Kyi, asked by Reuters at a party function on Saturday to elaborate, said she saw no reason to lift sanctions now.
The newspaper commentary, titled “Sanctions, Daw Suu Kyi and NLD,” was signed Yan Gyi Aung, which means Great Victor and was apparently a pseudonym. Commentaries frequently carry such pen-names in state-run newspapers.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country’s independence hero, has been excluded from politics since 1989, when she was first detained, a year after the military crushed a student-led uprising.
She has no stake in the new army-dominated system and authorities have ignored her calls for dialogue.
“BIG-HEADED”
Western countries including the United States and the European Union, have imposed sanctions because of Myanmar’s human rights record and its suppression of the democracy movement.
There have been hopes last year’s election, and Suu Kyi’s release, would lead to the end of sanctions on the resource-rich country. Analysts say Western governments will pay heed to Suu Kyi’s opinion when deciding whether to maintain sanctions.
Critics say sanctions have not worked and they leave others such as China, India, Thailand and Singapore free to do growing volumes of business with impoverished Myanmar.
The commentary author accused the 65-year-old Nobel laureate and her party of instigating the sanctions.
“Her stance on sanctions has become the policy of theirs,” he said, referring to Western governments.
“How big-headed the NLD is to stick to the weapon of sanctions until it gains power by demanding that any changes and modifications should be made in consultation with the party, let alone lifting the sanctions.”
But on a conciliatory note, the author did invite Suu Kyi and her party to participate in public life.
“I would like to invite them to cooperate with the people in building a democratic nation in the interests of the nation and the people,” Yan Gyi Aung said. He did not elaborate.
Reuters – 1 hour 15 mins ago
Myanmar’s threats against veteran pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi show the military-backed government has not changed despite elections in November that were widely dismissed as a fraud, the United States said on Monday.
“Burma claims there is a new era, but it is up to its old tricks by threatening Aung San Suu Kyi. New suits does not a new system make,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter.
Myanmar’s state media said on Sunday that Suu Kyi and her party would meet a “tragic end” if they stick to their position including support for Western sanctions.
U.S. President Barack Obama entered office hoping to improve ties with Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, but has expressed frustration over what it says is the government’s lack of willingness to engage in real reforms.
Political analysts have said the United States may nevertheless be reassessing its stance on sanctions, which critics say have failed and simply pushed the resource-rich country’s ruling generals closer to China.
Suu Kyi was released from house arrest on November 13, days after a pro-military party swept elections widely dismissed as unfair and aimed at providing a civilian front for continued military rule.
Suu Kyi has hinted she might try to work with the West to review sanctions, imposed over Myanmar’s human rights record and suppression of the democracy movement.
But both she and her National League for Democracy have subsequently said they see no reason to lift the sanctions now.
By ANI – Mon, Feb 14 12:20 PM IST
London, Feb 14 (ANI): To support the struggle for democracy in Burma, British aid to the Southeast Asian country is all set to be increased sharply while aid to India is likely to be scrapped.
A review carried out at the behest of International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has concluded the 32 million pounds currently spent in Burma should increase to a total of 185 million pounds over the next four years.
The ruling British coalition says the total budget for international aid budget is to be increased by 37 per cent in real terms, The Independent reports.
It is expected that the aid budgets to many countries will be sharply reduced or scrapped. India, whose economy is growing by more than eight per cent and where Britain currently annually spends 280 million pounds, is one of those places where some believe aid should be halted.
Officials say the money will target grass roots organisations and other partners working there and not to the military junta, the paper said.
“Britain has not forgotten the people of Burma, who have been silenced for too long. They have suffered under decades of dreadful economic mismanagement and human rights abuses as well as the ongoing threat of civil war and famine,” Mitchell said.
“The poorest in Burma must have a voice. We will build up civil society, local charities, village groups and their representatives to push for change,” he said.
The full review, which is expected to be announced later this month or in early March, found that in Burma at least 16 million people live in desperate hardship.
The junta, which recently oversaw controversial elections for a largely toothless parliament, spends just a meager amount on services healthcare and education.
Ron Corben | Bangkok February 14, 2011
The arrest in Burma of Ross Dunkley, the Australian publisher of the Myanmar Times, has raised fears of even tighter control over Burma’s media by the military.
Dunkly was was arrested in Rangoon shortly after returning from overseas last week. A pioneer in Southeast Asia news media, he founded the Times in 2000.
But there have been reports of a conflict over control of the paper.
Dunkley currently holds 49 percent of Myanmar Consolidated Media, which oversees the paper. The remaining shares are held by Tin Htun Oo.
A statement Monday from the Thailand-based Post Media, a sister company of Myanmar Consolidated, called for Dunkley’s immediate release after authorities failed to press charges. He reportedly was arrested for visa violations and drug possession.
His arrest may have more to do with control over the paper than crime, says Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine about Burma published in Thailand.
“What is clear is that there was conflict between Dr. Tin Htun Oo and Ross Dunkley; and now it is apparent they want to take over the whole Myanmar Times,” he says. “That’s why I think probably they will frame up the charges against him, which doesn’t surprise anyone.”
Dunkley’s initial partner in the pro-military paper was Sonny Swe, the son of former Brigadier General Thein Swe.
But Thein Swe fell from favor with the top leadership. Sonny Swe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison in 2005. His shares were passed to Tin Htun Oo.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been ruled by the military, which keeps tight control on the media and most aspects of the economy and public life. The country’s first parliament in 22 years was elected in November, but more than 80 percent of its members are either in the military or linked to it. And the parliament selected former Prime Minister Thein Sein to be the new president.
Aung Zaw says Dunkley had initially been hopeful that Burma’s tight media controls would ease. But he says those controls and the country’s politics meant the paper was always a risky investment.
“Ross … should realize Burma is a political graveyard for everyone,” he said. “Even he should realize how many journalists and reporters are being apprehended and spending time … in prison.”
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma says around 30 journalists and media activists are among Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Dunkley also publishes the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia. Some journalists familiar with the operation say there are fears that the loss of the Burma paper could hurt finances at the Post. But the Post on Monday said that although its management is concerned for Dunkley’s well-being, the paper is running as normal.
Dunkley has been viewed as a media maverick and risk taker, after investing in Vietnam’s fledgling news industry in the early 1990s.
Reporters Without Borders in 2010 ranked Burma as 174th out of 178 countries in its annual press freedom index. Several media analysts in Southeast Asia say with Dunkley’s arrest points to tighter control over the media by the military.
Paul Myers
From: The Australian
February 15, 2011 12:00AM AUSTRALIAN newspaper publisher Ross Dunkley, who is being held in jail in Burma for an alleged immigration breach, has been replaced as chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Myanmar Consolidated Media.
The company’s Burmese majority owner, Tin Tun Oo, was appointed chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Burmese-language edition of the Myanmar Times after a meeting on Sunday.
Mr Dunkley’s Australian business partner, Bill Clough, was appointed acting managing director and editor-in-chief of the English-language edition.
Dr Oo and his wife own 51 per cent of the shares in the company, and Mr Clough owns 49 per cent in partnership with his father, Harold, and Mr Dunkley.
Neither the Myanmar Times nor the junta-controlled New Light of Myanmar has reported Mr Dunkley’s arrest in print or online. Myanmar Times staff were ordered not to comment, but one employee, on condition of anonymity, told The Australian, “It isn’t hard to read between the lines” regarding the changes in senior management.
The employee suggested deportation would be the best outcome for Mr Dunkley. His lawyer, Michael Min Sein, said no charges had been laid against Mr Dunkley for the alleged immigration breach when he returned from Japan on a single-entry tourist visa last week. It was likely he would be deported if charges were not laid, the lawyer said. If convicted, he could be jailed for five years.
Mr Dunkley is due to appear in court on February 24.
Posted: 14 February 2011 1750 hrs
PHNOM PENH: A foreign press association expressed concern Monday about the arrest of an Australian newspaper publisher in Myanmar, calling for his release from prison while awaiting trial.
Ross Dunkley, co-founder of the Myanmar Times — the country’s only newspaper with foreign investment — was arrested in Yangon on Thursday.
He is being held in Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison, according to his business partner in Cambodia, where he is a key shareholder in Post Media, the publisher of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.
The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia (OPCC) said in a statement that it saw “no reason to imprison Dunkley ahead of his trial, and is concerned that his arrest is an abuse of the law in order to resolve a business dispute”.
It added: “The OPCC is further concerned that Dunkley’s arrest is in line with a trend of increasing authoritarianism in some countries in the region and efforts to circumscribe hard-won press freedoms.”
Post Media chairman David Armstrong has suggested Dunkley’s arrest is linked to a power struggle between foreign and domestic owners of the Myanmar Times, which publishes weekly editions in English and Burmese.
Dunkley co-founded the Myanmar Times in 2000 with local partner Sonny Swe, the son of an influential member of the junta’s military intelligence service.
But Sonny Swe was jailed in 2005 and his stake was passed to Tin Tun Oo, who is reportedly close to the military regime’s information minister.
Dunkley is due to appear in court on February 24, Armstrong said.
Written by Our Correspondent
Monday, 14 February 2011
Don’t mess with the junta The arrest and imprisonment of the editor and part-owner of the Myanmar Times, Australian Ross Dunkley, will do nothing to convince the outside world that Burma is reforming and welcoming foreign business.
Myanmar Consolidated Media, which publishes the Myanmar Times was founded in 2000 by Dunkley and his foreign partners with 49 percent, and a Burmese shareholder with 51 percent. The venture has regarded by many as a bridge between the regime and the wider world.
Appearing in print and on-line in English and Burmese, the paper’s content was tightly censored by the Ministry of Information but has at least been a more serious effort at journalism than the government owned English-language New Light of Myanmar, which rivals the Pyongyang Times in its focus on idolatry of the leaders rather than on information.
Dunkley has, according to official sources, been arrested for possessing marijuana and for being in the country illegally on a tourist visa. The latter charge seems particularly curious given that Dunkley has been living and working publicly in Burma for years. For many Burmese exiles he was regarded as adding ill-deserved respectability to the regime and the controlled local media.
There is some speculation that he was too encouraging of a bright, young reporting staff which, like the majority of Burmese, had little respect for the Than Shwe regime and went as far as they could to get real news through the censors, who read every word before publication. During the elections last year the paper ran some blank pages to denote censored copy.
A more likely, or at least primary explanation however is that Dunkley fell out with his local business partner in what is believed to be a successful commercial venture thriving on attracting advertising appealing to the country’s small but growing consumer class and foreign residents. Whether this simply involves a dispute with majority owner Tin Tun Oo is possible but there is speculation that powerful forces within the government have been wanting to muscle in on the venture. These may well include the one person best positioned to exercise his power behind the scenes – the information minister.
Tun Tin Oo himself got to his position through the jailing in 2005 of the co-founder Sonny Shwe, son of former high ranking intelligence officer who fell out of favor with dictator Than Shwe. Tun Tin Oo was a candidate for the ruling United Solidarity and Development Party in the elections but failed to get a seat.
The use of trumped-up charges backed by political muscle to gain business leverage is all too frequent in some jurisdictions. Many an overseas Chinese businessman has fallen foul of such tactics in dealings in China, particularly with lower level administrations where business and local government are almost inseparable. The Australian government currently has several cases of its ethnic Chinese nationals rotting behind bars in China on what look like trumped up charges.
But Dunkley’s arrest is particularly noteworthy given his record of engagement with the regime and the recent introduction of a new and supposedly more liberal, representative constitution in Burma. Dunkley is no novice at dealing with difficult regimes. Before starting the Myanmar Times he was in Cambodia and is a significant shareholder in the Pnomh Penh Post. But his arrest shows how easily the sands can shift in a Burma where reform is still just a hope and where change is brutal and arbitrary.
Malaysian Digest – Newly Appointed PKR VP Warns Leaders Against Corruption
KUCHING, 14 FEBRUARY, 2011: Newly-appointed PKR vice-president Datuk John Tenewi Nuek warns Malaysian leaders against abuse of power as, if they continue to do so, the country might end up like Myanmar or Ghana.
The former diplomat said the state of corruption in the country is now beyond redemption though it had existed during his 33 year tenure with the Foreign Ministry.
Referring to countries like Myanmar and Ghana, John said those countries have been economically declining over the years due to their leaders practicing bad politics.
Observing the same trend happening in Malaysia where allegations of corruption and abuse of powers were being hurled against government leaders, he said the level of corruption here is beyond redemption and something has to be done about it.
“If your politics is bad, your country will decline economically,” he Nuek.
Nuek, who served as ambassador to Venezuela from 2000 to 2004 before retiring, took countries such as Myanmar, the Philippines, Nigeria and Ghana as examples.
According to him, Myanmar was doing quite well in the 1950s and 1960s, and it, too, has declined economically and is now being ruled by a military junta.
He said that the Philippines was the most prosperous country in Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, but because of its corrupted leaders and their abuse of power to enrich themselves and their cronies, the country is now poor.
He also said that Nigeria and Ghana, which gained independence at the same time as Malaysia, are now more backward.
Nuek addressed the need for a reform in the country’s political system, not only to get rid of the bad politics, but to ensure that all communities were equal partners under the Malaysian sun.
He added that all communities fought against British rule and therefore there should not be any domestic colonialism now, pointing out that narrow-minded politics had no place in a multi-racial and multi-religious society.
Referring to pro-Bumiputra policies which have been in place since the beginning of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970, he said the people should co-exist as equal partners, not as groups which are out to dominate others.
“There is room for everybody in Malaysia, and if we work together very well, we will be able to turn Malaysia into a dynamic and progressive country,” he added.
Nuek said, when he was an ambassador, he was proud to tell his foreign counterparts about Malaysia’s achievements though not shying away from discussing the level of corruption in the country, and admitted that he had served the Barisan Nasional (BN) government with full conviction and was very proud of it.
Upon his recent appointment as PKR vice-president in charge of East Malaysia, he said his main priority is to prepare the party for the coming state election in Sarawak.
He believes that Pakatan Rakyat would be able to provide an alternative government as well as provide the checks and balances for BN.
By Zin Linn Feb 13, 2011 9:09PM UTC
Kachin churches in Burma’s northern Kachin State joined in prayer to strengthen their opposition to the huge dam construction at the Myitsone, the confluence of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, Kachin News Group said on February 10, 2011. Church leaders in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina gathered at the Myitsone village of Tang Hpre to join in a special prayer service with villagers seeking to halt dam construction at Myitsone, a significant site in the history of Kachin civilization, participants said.
On May 27, 2010, on behalf of the communities suffering from the Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State, Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao to immediately halt the forced relocation and destruction of the villages of those opposed to this project by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI).
KDNG said that the dam construction is against the choice of local people and violates China’s own dam construction guidelines as well as international standards. Burma’s military junta ordered over a thousand civilians from Myitkyina to forcibly relocate all the residents of Tang Hpre, the main village at the dam site, before the end of May 2010. If villagers refuse to leave, these civilians have been ordered to immediately pull down houses, schools and churches in Tang Hpre.
The CPI made a contract with the junta’s Electric Power Ministry in May 2007. The planned dam location is at the junction of May Kha and May Likha, 27 mile upstream from Myitkyina. This venture will generate 3,600 MW of electricity of a total of seven dams; five on May Kha and two on May Likha tributaries respectively.
The dam is being constructed by Burma’s Asia World Company, owned by former drug lord, Lo Hsing Han, and China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CIP). Security for the project is being provided by the Burmese military.
According to the Burma Rivers Network (BRN), the structure of the 152 meter-high Myitsone Dam, which will export electricity to China, formally begun late last year. Thousands of Chinese migrant labourers have been brought in to build the dam. This development will inundate the famous Myitsone confluence at the starting place of the Irrawaddy river in Kachin State and permanently displace 15,000 people.
The dam, the first in a series of seven on the Irrawaddy and its tributaries, will have disruptive impacts on millions living downstream. Water will be stored and released depending on power demands in China, causing unpredictable water shortages and surges. This, in addition to decreased fish populations and blockage of rich sediments will affect countless farmers, fisherfolk and boat-operators along the river.
Anti-dam activists estimate that about 20 villages between Myitsone and Myitkyina downstream from the site will be flooded if the dams collapse. Many Kachin people at home and abroad, Kachin Students Unions, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Kachins in exile are protesting against the huge and dangerous dam development.
Kachin people in exile signed a petition protesting against the dam project and appealing to halt it on 28 January and sent it to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao through Chinese embassies in Thailand, India, Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.
The Kachin people officially appealed to Burmese military chief, Senior-General Than Shwe, in 2007, asking him to stop the Myitsone dam project. However, their request was ignored, the Kachin News Group (KNG) said.
The Burma Rivers Network (BRN) has welcomed the January 17 statement by the National League for Democracy (NLD) that dams are being constructed in Burma without any consideration for the environment or for local residents, and that the Myitsone dam, the first on the Irrawaddy, will have negative impacts on the entire country.
Bernama TV
Monday, February 14th, 2011 21:43:00
GEORGE TOWN: Police are looking for a couple from Myanmar to help facilitate investigations into the murder of another man from Myanmar at Lebuh Victoria here last Friday.
North East police chief ACP Gan Kong Meng said the couple who had no travel documents were identified as Nar Phet (husband) in his 30s, and his wife known as As, in her 20s.
“Police have distributed photographs of the couple throughout the state in order to track them down,” he told reporters here today.
Last Friday, police found the body of Kanchut, a 30-year old, with four stab wounds in his chest and head injuries at his hostel in Lebuh Victoria.
Gan said the case was investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder, and urged the public with information on the couple to contact investigating officer ASP A. Sidambaram at 019-4137974 or contact any nearby police station.
The Economic Times – Sinopec JV finds large gas deposits in Myanmar – State media
YANGON: A Sinopec International Petroleum ( SIPC )) joint venture has discovered gas deposits in northwest Myanmar with a capacity of 2.1 million cubic feet per day, official Myanmar media reported on Monday.
The international trading arm of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), made the find in the country’s Mahutaung Region about 520 miles northwest of the country’s biggest city, Yangon.
A total of six test wells were drilled in inland Block D by the joint venture between Sinopec and the state-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, an official was quoted as saying in the Kyemon Daily, adding that tests on three more wells would be conducted.
08:55, February 14, 2011
Myanmar is expected to cancel profit tax and levy only income tax and commercial tax in the next fiscal year 2011-12 starting on April 1, the local weekly Messenger News reported Sunday.
The change will be effective from the date in line with the emergence of the new parliament which is being set up after the Nov. 7, 2010 general election, the report said.
Currently, income tax applies to state-owned enterprises, cooperative enterprises and public-invested enterprises, while profit tax applies to individual private businessmen.
Profit tax has been levied on individual businessmen since it was introduced in 1976, troubling the businessmen as 50 percent were taxed on a profit of just over 300,000 Kyats (about 352 U.S. dollars), the report said.
The taxation is to be changed in the interest of businessmen. Instead, income tax will be applied, which levies 40 percent on an income of 2 million Kyats (2,352 U.S. dollars) and a minimum of 5 percent and a maximum of 200 percent with the commercial tax.
Myanmar has five categories of tax — commercial tax, stale lottery tax, stamp duties, income tax and profit tax.
English.news.cn 2011-02-14 20:12:59 NAY PYI TAW, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) — The union parliament of Myanmar Monday agreed to the formation of a nine-member Union Constitutional Tribunal, chaired by U Soe Thein, the state radio and television reported.
The other members of the union constitutional tribunal were approved as Dr. Tin Aung Aye, Daw Khin Hla Myint, U Tun Kyi, U Soe Thein, U Khin Tun, U Hsan Myint, U Myint Kyaing and Daw Mi Mi Yi.
In last Saturday’s region or state parliament sessions, the assignment of 14 chief ministers for 14 respective regions and states was agreed to head nine each ministries or combined ministries with the regions or states.
The union parliament is constituted with two level of parliaments — house of representatives and house of nationalities which involves elected ones in the November 2010 general election and 25-percent military-nominated ones.
English.news.cn 2011-02-14 20:09:03
YANGON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua)– Myanmar hoteliers are making full preparation to accommodate expected increased number of visitors attending the coming annual gems emporium scheduled for mid-March in the new capital Nay Pyi Taw, according to gem trading circle Monday.
On the basis of competitive bidding, the 13-day gems show will take place at the Ani Yadana Jade hall in the capital’s Zaputhiri Township from March 10 to 22, the sources said.
In November last year, a 13-day record-breaking mid-year gems emporium was launched for the first time in Zabuthiri Township of the new capital, selling out a total of 9,157 lots of jade, 27 lots of gems and 237 lots of pearl as well as other jewelry and obtaining a proceeds of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars through sale of them.
The event was attended by 6,700 gem traders including 4,000 from abroad. The buyers were mostly from China, China’s Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.
Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964, introducing the mid-year one in 1992 and the special one in 2004.
The latest figures show that in the first five months (April- August) of 2010-11, Myanmar yielded 22,549 tons of jade and 4,995 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 66,861 mommis (250 kilograms) of pearl.
BBC News – Thailand ‘deported’ Burmese Rohingyas
By Subir Bhaumik BBC News, Bangkok
Thailand’s foreign ministry has said that it deported 91 Rohingya refugees who were found by police in India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands last week.
The refugees were deported to Burma near Ranong province, a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said.
He denied that the refugees had been set adrift with little food and water in an engine-less boat and said he had no idea how they travelled further.
Indian doctors and police said the refugees were starving and dehydrated.
They said 25 were admitted to hospital.
Thousands of Rohingyas – a Muslim minority group in Burma – have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution.
An estimated 200,000 Rohingyas live in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Many of them – especially those living in unofficial camps – attempt to escape poor conditions by trying to get to south-east Asia by sea.
The Rohingyas have said they were trying to enter Malaysia illegally through Thailand with the help of “agents” before they were caught by the Thai navy.
The refugees told police they had been set adrift with little food and water in a boat without an engine by the Thai navy.
‘No knowledge’
Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Thani Thongphakdi said in a statement that the group of 91 “illegal migrants” were found ashore in Trang province and were “handled according to the country’s immigration laws”.
“Since they were found to be [from Burma] they were later deported at a border crossing in Ranong province to Burma,” Mr Thongphakdi said, adding that the move was “in line with their wish”.
He said that Thailand’s authorities had “no knowledge how this group could have travelled further”.
The Rohingyas who are now in Andamans have told Indian police that they suffered beatings and torture at the hands of the Thai law enforcing agencies after their arrest in Trang province.
“Later we were taken to the sea and put on a boat which had no engine and with very little food and water in it,” one of the Rohingyas told the police in a recorded statement.
Thailand has denied these charges.
In December 2008, nearly 300 Rohingyas were rescued from the Andaman Sea after their boats were towed to the high seas by the Thai navy and their engines removed.
Reports of atrocities committed by Burmese soldiers against ‘convict porters’ destroy any slim hopes that the shift to a ‘civilian political system’ will somehow dilute the military’s absolute power
Published: 13/02/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum
Aung is a small man, barely out of his teens. He shifts his bruised body, unable to sit or to find comfort or peace of mind. He’s full of half-spoken questions. Aung’s scared he might be sent back to Burma, where he was forced to work for the army after being jailed.
“I got 12 months, but it’s a death sentence,” said Aung. He hurts from a soldier’s bullet that smashed his arm and dropped him into a coma. He’s worried the testimony of the pains the Burmese army inflicted on his body will harm the family he has not seen for more than a year.
Most of all, Aung’s haunted by the memory of the battlefield sounds of torn bodies and the terrifying treks he made carrying mortar shells up mountains and through minefields for 15 days.
Aung’s journey to the front line started on Dec 31, of last year, when the Burmese army came to the jail where he was serving a 12-month sentence for fighting with his neighbour over a fallen tree they both wanted to use to make charcoal.
“We exchanged punches. I hit him with a rock. The police came, he paid a bribe, I couldn’t. I went to jail, he went free.”
Aung drops his head and mutters that not being able to be with his wife when she gave birth to their son had added misery to his sentence.
“She was eight months pregnant when I was put in jail. Every day I thought about them. I miss them so much, I’ve never seen or held my baby son.”
Aung had a month of his sentence to finish when soldiers took him and some other prisoners.
“No one volunteered. The guards told us we were going to the front to serve as porters for the army. Our names were on a list, we had no choice.”
Aung was transported in a convoy of army trucks that wound its way from upper Burma to the jungles and mountains of Karen State in the east. Their confused journey lasted five days. By the time the convicts got to the battlefield, their estimates of their numbers varied from between 800 to 2,000.
“The truck was crowded and there were many trucks. Our legs were shackled, we had to squat on our haunches with our heads bowed. We couldn’t see out or talk to each other. At Pa-an we were given blue uniforms.”
HUMAN MINESWEEPERS
In Karen State, there are few all-weather roads capable of carrying heavy army trucks, weapons, munitions, rice and other food supplies to the ever-shifting front line.
International and regional humanitarian groups have compiled numerous reports on how the Burmese army creates its own operational support mechanisms to deal with this lack of infrastructure _ forcing civilian or convict porters to act as a human supply chain to the front lines.
In October 2007, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report that cited a “rare public statement” from the International Committee of the Red Cross, “condemning widespread violations of international humanitarian law”. Human Rights Watch said at the time that the Red Cross was concerned about the use of convict labour to support military operations. The report noted that ”thousands of prisoners have been forced to carry army supplies, undertake construction labour, and, in a practice called ‘atrocity demining’, forced to walk ahead of Burmese army soldiers to trigger potential landmines.”
Aung says his life was in constant danger from landmines and crossfire as he carried heavy panniers weighing as much as 60kg up the steep mountain paths.
”I was a porter for 15 days. I was scared. We carried [panniers of] rice, large shells. If we were slow, they hit us with their guns or kicked us.”
Aung explains he was put in the firing line, used as a human minesweeper and as a pack animal to carry munitions, artillery and food supplies to the soldiers.
”Porters were ordered to walk in front of the soldiers. We were never told we were going to the front line. I was scared. I was ordered to carry 81mm mortar shells, 15 to a basket, up a steep mountain to the artillery positions.”
Aung says he was also ordered to stretcher injured soldiers from the front to a monastery at Palu.
”When a mine exploded, I saw the body blown skywards, there was noise, screams and lots of blood. We were told to keep walking, but everyone dropped their packs and fell to the ground. They threatened to beat us for stopping, but we didn’t care, we just fell.”
For years the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) has been reporting, documenting and conducting in-depth interviews with escaped convict porters that show the practice is systematic, widespread and in common use.
The KHRG reports say prisoners’ testimonies tell of ‘’serious incidents of human rights abuses occurring as standard practice, including use of porters used to sweep for landmines, deprivation of adequate food and medical assistance to porters and the systematic extortion of civilians at every level of Burma’s police, judicial and prison infrastructure.”
Aung says he saw both porters and soldiers killed and wounded. ”We used hammocks to carry three wounded soldiers. I saw a porter blown up by a landmine. We never knew if he lived or died. The soldiers told us nothing, but each day we had to walk past the blood.”
Aung says after 15 days he had had enough of being a front-line porter.
”I thought I would die if I stayed, either the soldiers would kill me or I would be blown up by a mine. A sergeant thrashed me because another porter escaped. I was beaten for not telling the soldiers. I knew I had to escape.”
Aung said he saw other prisoners beaten and tortured by the soldiers. On Jan 15, Aung was told he would be carrying mortar shells to the front line the next day.
”I knew there would be many mines and lots of fighting, I didn’t want to die. I was desperate. We made a plan to escape into the jungle and get across the river to safety in Thailand.”
Aung said their escape plan relied on the soldiers getting drunk.
”Most of the time the soldiers were drunk and that night they had a party to celebrate taking a Karen position. At about 11pm, about 13 of us ran away. I was with my friend and we crashed through the trees and bamboo. I soon lost contact with the others.”
By the time Aung had reached the Moei River, which separates Thailand from Burma, the soldiers had almost caught up with him.
”We were splashing across the river, hoping to get to the safety of the cornfields on the Thai side. We were told if we got to Thailand, we would be safe. The soldiers kept shooting at us even though we were on the Thai side. I was hit and knocked off my feet. My friend helped me to the cover of the cornfield. I bled all through the night. Next day I could not stand and I had a fever.”
Early the next morning Aung’s friend made contact with a Karen farmer who told a Thai soldier of the escaped convict porters.
”The Thai soldier helped me and took me to a hospital. He reassured me that the Burmese army could not hurt me any more. I was shot, but I was lucky I got away. If I stayed, I knew I would die for sure.”
Interviews with five more prison porters and two Burmese army deserters for this article add weight to Aung’s testimony that the porters were beaten by soldiers, fed poorly, tortured and forced to sweep for land mines.
109 LABOUR CAMPS
Restaurant owner Win claims he was jailed on trumped-up charges of heroin trafficking and sentenced to 10 years. He spent two years in one of Burma’s notorious labour camps.
”We were chained at the ankles while we broke rocks for roads. We worked six days a week, even when we were sick. I saw prisoners badly injured, some with broken legs and still
not getting treatment. The food was little, rice and some swamp vegetable. If I didn’t work hard enough, the guards beat me. It was vicious. While I was there, three prisoners died, two under rock falls and one by sickness.”
One Burmese man, Bo Kyi, has made it his life’s work to make sure political prisoners are not forgotten. He is concerned about the abuse of convict porters. A founding member and now secretary of the Association Assisting Political Prisoners, Bo Kyi was jailed three times for a total of seven years and three months. ”In Burma there are 109 labour camps and 42 jails with more than 400,000 prisoners, and only 33 doctors and about 60 medics to treat them when they get sick. All prisoners, irrespective of their crimes, should be
treated as humans _ animals are treated better than prisoners in Burma,” said Bo Kyi.
His main focus is political prisoners, but he also lashes out against the abuse of convict porters.
”I accuse this regime of crimes against humanity. There’s enough solid documented evidence on current political prisoners, past political prisoners and the abuse of convict porters. Prisoners who escape are often beaten to death as a lesson to other prisoners. They do not get proper funeral rites and are often buried with their chains on.”
Outside the small bare room in a safe house on the Thai-Burmese border that Win now calls home, children kick a football against a wall and play at war with plastic guns.
Motorbikes roar pass and dogs bark after them _ normal weekend sounds.
Win studies his broken fingernails, calloused hands and scars before explaining how he was taken to the frontline.
”The army came for me at 4am on Jan 1 _ 75 of us were taken from our cells and put in two army trucks. We were told nothing but guessed we were going to the front line. I planned to escape.”
Win says that when they arrived at the front line it was chaos.
”There were about 400 prisoners going up and down the mountain in a continuous procession. The mortars were firing all the time. I was scared of the soldiers. They told us not to leave the paths and if we did get blown up by a mine, they would shoot us.”
Win says the soldiers kept the convicts under guard in Palu monastery for three nights.
”I helped carry their injured soldiers there. The monks had left. I ran away but they caught me after a couple of hours. I was beaten and my hands were tied behind my back. They rolled a thick bamboo pole up and down my shins, and told me if I ran away again, I would be killed.” Win lifts his trouser leg to show white scars, painful reminders of the beating he took from the soldiers.
”I was sent back to the front. We had to carry a 120mm mortar up to the top of the mountain. It took three porters to carry the barrel, two porters to carry the metal plate and two more for the legs.”
Win points to a plastic electric tea urn and says the mortar shells were about the same size.
”I could only manage to carry two at a time.”
Now 45, Win says he was not nearly the oldest convict porter.
”I saw some as old as 55 and others as young as 15.”
‘I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE’
Soe was given a 20-year jail sentence for murder.
”I was drunk and fighting. I knifed a man. I escaped but the police arrested my brother and said he would be charged instead. I turned myself in. I was sent to hard labour, breaking rocks.”
Soe, 28, worked at the quarry for five years before he was told he now belonged to the army.
”They said we were no longer convicts, but were now on ‘the dead list’ _ we no longer existed. I felt sad. I was owed 71,000 kyat [about 2,100 baht] for my five years working in the quarry, but our pay was taken by the soldiers.”
Soe says he was also forced to carry 120mm mortars and their shells up the mountain to an artillery battalion.
”Porters died, others lost legs. We carried them down the mountain. We buried the dead porters in 18-inch trenches, but you still see their faces. Dead soldiers were taken by truck to Pa-an. I heard that out of 800 porters, only 40 of us survived.”
The humanitarian organisation Free Burma Rangers (FBR) has 53 teams delivering emergency medical assistance to displaced communities in eastern Burma. In a report released in 2008, FBR documented a Burmese army operation in northern Karen State in which 2,200 convict porters were used.
FBR document that ”the Burma army used over 2,200 porters in this offensive and over 265 have been reported dead, many of whom were executed.”
FBR’s information was collected from, ”escaped porters, Burmese army deserters and villagers who have seen the bodies of dead porters”.
Win says the food was rotten and there were times the convict porters were not fed for two days.
”I had enough. I decided to escape. Two of us were sent unguarded to fix a generator. We ran and hid in the jungle until it was dark and then crossed the river. A monk told us the way. Once we got to Thailand, we hid in a cornfield for three days.”
Convicts interviewed for this story say they do not expect their plight is worthy of investigation. Most feel it is enough that they have escaped.
But abuses by the Burmese army have not gone unnoticed. Groups such as KHRG, FBR and HRW have built up an impressive amount of documentation _ eyewitness accounts, army orders and photographic evidence to support calls for a commission of inquiry into Burma’s human rights abuses.
WHAT CRIMES?
In March of last year in his report to the UN Human Rights Council, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur for Burma, outlined a ”pattern of gross and systematic violation of human rights which has been in place for many years”. Mr Quintana concluded that the ”UN institutions may consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact finding mandate to address the question of international crimes.”
The Human Rights Watch World Report for 2011 details the denials from Burmese ambassador U Wunna Maung Lwin to calls for an inquiry. U Wunna Maung said there were ”no crimes against humanity in Myanmar with regard to the issue of impunity, any member of the military who breached national law was subject to legal punishments there was no need to conduct investigations in Myanmar since there were no human rights violations there.”
In January this year, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva examined Burma’s human rights record as part of its first Universal Periodic Review. Burma’s delegation, led by deputy attorney-general Tun Shin, categorically denied state-orchestrated widespread, systematic and persistent human rights violations against the people of Burma.
During the three-hour review, many concerns, including the issue of political prisoners, treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, and impunity for perpetrators of gross human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity, were raised.
The Burmese delegation’s response was to claim, ”The armed forces have a zero tolerance policy towards serious human rights violations, including sexual violence,” and that ”There is no widespread occurrence of human rights violations with impunity.”
Monday, February 14, 2011
RANGOON — Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged the country’s armed forces to follow the example of Egypt’s army, which she praised for not using force against pro-democracy protesters who last week brought down President Hosni Mubarak’s thirty years of authoritarian rule.
“Even when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets, the Egyptian army didn’t shoot. Instead, it sided with the people,” said Suu Kyi in an interview with local reporters in Rangoon on Saturday.
“The Burmese Tatmadaw should follow their example,” she said, referring to the country’s military, which seized power from a democratic government in 1962 and is deeply unpopular for its brutal crackdowns on mass anti-government uprisings in 1988 and 2007.
The weeks-long protests in Egypt, which were led by Internet-savvy youths rather than by the mainstream political opposition, have also inspired Burmese young people to prepare for yet another uprising against military rule.
“We were so fascinated by how young people in Egypt organized their protests. If we can create a network, then we will not need to depend on a particular person for leadership,” said a young Rangoon news reporter.
Suu Kyi said that the Internet and modern communication tools—which ignited the Egyptian pro-democracy movement—could also help to create a network among democracy supporters in Burma and strengthen their struggle against military rule.
In a recent interview with the BBC, however, she said she did not wish the events in Egypt to occur in her country, making it clear again that she preferred dialogue with Burma’s military rulers over popular protests as a means to breaking the country’s political deadlock.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was disbanded last year after it refused to run in elections in November that were marred by widespread vote-rigging. The party has no presence in the country’s new military-dominated Parliament but continues to command strong popular support.
Earlier this month, the Parliament elected the junta’s former prime minister, ex-Gen Thein Sein, as the president of the new government and has chosen several incumbent junta ministers for ministerial positions in the new cabinet.
On Sunday, a commentary in the Burma’s state-run newspapers said that Suu Kyi and her party would “meet their tragic end” if they refused to change their continued support for Western economic sanctions against the regime.
By SAW YAN NAING Monday, February 14, 2011
It was on the evening of Feb. 14, 2008, that two men carrying a gift basket of fruit walked up to the home of Mahn Sha, a prominent and well-respected Karen leader, in the town of Mae Sot, Thailand, and gunned him down.
“Good evening, uncle,” one man said in Karen before firing the first shot. Then another gunman also shot him repeatedly as he fell from his chair.
They rushed back to a black Hilux Vigo pickup truck and drove away. By then, Mahn Sha was already dead from multiple bullet wounds.
He was killed on the balcony where he often rested after lunch, leaving behind a distraught family. His death was also a great loss for Karen people around the world, especially for those who belonged to the Karen National Union (KNU), one of Asia’s oldest armed resistance groups.
Mahn Sha, who had served as the KNU’s general secretary, was highly respected not only by the Karen, but also by Burmese opposition groups. He was considered a wise leader because he often spoke of the need for inclusiveness to bring all democratic forces and ethnic minority groups together in their struggle against military rule.
He died at the age of 64, survived by two daughters and two sons, including one adopted son.
“He was a good father not only for us but also for the Karen resistance,” said Say Say, Mahn Sha’s adopted son. “He always made his people’s well-being his first priority. His family came second.”
He said that although his adopted father spent most of his time with his soldiers, his family never felt neglected.
“It’s not that he didn’t love his family,” said Say Say. “We knew that he did, but we also knew that he loved his work because he did it for the sake of all his people.”
Mahn Sha graduated from Rangoon University in 1966 with a degree in history. During his time as a student, he was also an underground member of the KNU. He joined the movement full-time soon after leaving university.
From 1966 to 1974, he made several trips to Shan, Kachin, and Karenni states to meet with ethnic resistance groups. He also visited China twice to meet with leaders of the Burmese Communist Party and the Communist Party of China.
In November 1984, Mahn Sha became a KNU central committee member and moved to the KNU’s headquarter in Manerplaw, Karen State.
While serving as the KNU’s general secretary, Mahn Sha was seen as one of the group’s leading lights and was being groomed to take over its troubled leadership.
Many sources said he was on the Burmese junta’s hit list because he was seen as a strong leader who always called for genuine political dialogue. When the KNU sent a delegation led by the late Karen leader Gen Bo Mya to Rangoon in December 2005 for cease-fire talks, the regime requested his exclusion.
In an interview with The Irrawaddy shortly before his death, Mahn Sha said that he had experienced the plight of the Karen people since his childhood. He said the Burmese regime’s oppression of the Karen people was what made him get involved in the Karen fight for freedom.
Today, on the third anniversary of his assassination, Mahn Sha is remembered as a great leader of his people, and one whose name will remain a prominent one among those who have served the Burmese democracy movement.
To preserve his legacy of service to the Karen, his children established the Phan Foundation soon after his death. To commemorate the anniversary of his assassination, the foundation, which also honors Mahn Sha’s deceased wife, Nant Kyin Shwe, announced today that it had made grants of £8,000 (US $12,850) to Karen rights groups and individuals.
“We think this is one of the best ways we can pay tribute to our parents, and continue their work. The organizations we are supporting do fantastic work which deserves support,” said Mahn Sha’s daughter, Zoya Phan.
“He [Mahn Sha] stood bravely for his people. He sacrificed his life for his people. It was a big loss and sadness,” said Saw Hla Htun, an advisory board member of the Karen Youth Organization.
“While many people happily celebrate Valentine’s Day today, Feb. 14 is a sad day for the Karen people,” said Saw Hla Htun.
By KO HTWE Monday, February 14, 2011
Many Internet users in Burma commemorated the 96th birthday of Gen Aung San on Sunday by changing their photographs on social networking sites such as G-mail and Facebook to that of the country’s independence hero who was assassinated in 1947.
Affectionately known as “Bogyoke [General] Aung San, the father of contemporary pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi remains a beloved figure in Burma.
Born on Feb. 13, 1915, in Natmauk, Magwe Division, in central Burma, Aung San emerged in the 1930s as a leading figure in Burma’s struggle against British colonial rule. His political activities began as a student at Rangoon University; then at the age of 23 he abandoned his study of law to enter politics full-time. He was assassinated at the age of 32 after helping secure the country’s independence.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, a Rangoon-based journalist said he was surprised to see half of his contacts had posted a photo of Aung San on their sites on Sunday. He added that he had no less than 300 contacts in his address book.
“The generals are jealous of Suu Kyi, and have tried to downplay the role of Aung San in Burmese history by replacing him with Snr-Gen Than Shwe,” said Zarni who also posted a
picture of Aung San on his Internet profile. “But Aung San is always in my heart.”
Many social network users across the country distributed poems, songs, speeches, video clips and photos of Aung San over the weekend.
“Every February, I remember the birthday of my hero, Aung San,” said Khin Ma Ma who had replaced her own photo with that of Aung San at the weekend. “When I was studying in the 4th grade, I learned the poem, ‘Bogyoke’s Unforgettable Birthday,’ which I still remember very well to this day.”
After the death of Aung San, the Burmese government declared Feb. 13 “Children’s Day,” and celebrated the occasion with merrymaking and festivities. However, the date has become less and less significant during the military junta’s nearly 50 years of rule.
The National League for Democracy celebrated the ceremony at the party’s headquarters in Rangoon.
Although Aung San died 64 years ago, his name still reverberates among Burmese people and his influence has been seen at the heart of the democracy movement.
One of the iconic images of the 1988 demonstrations was that of blood-soaked 16-year-old student Win Maw Oo being carried by two doctors through the street in Rangoon to hospital after security forces had opened fire on the student-led demonstrators. She had been photographed earlier during the protest holding a portrait of Aung San above her head. Win Maw Oo later died in hospital.
Many observers have said that Aung San and his daughter have completely different approaches to the struggle for freedom.
“Aung San was a political realist in the sense that he accepted that this is a power struggle and that the nationalists have to be prepared to defend their interest [freedom for Burma] through any means,” said Dr. Susanne Prager, who researched the life of Aung San for her doctorate. “He did not expect that the British would give up their power easily and therefore he was ready to use military force.”
Suu Kyi is an idealist who follows Gandhian principles and wants to abide by high ideals. She hopes that these ideals will finally prevail and be successful, said Prager.
“She [Suu Kyi] wants to pressure the regime economically with sanctions. Unlike her father who was very pragmatic as a realist and changed his methods and positions, she does not want to adjust her strategy according to changing circumstances,” said Prager.
However, in a recent interview with the Financial Times, Suu Kyi denied that she was “less strategic” than her father, pointing out that while her approach might seem to differ from that of Aung San, it was largely because the nature of her struggle was also very different.
“You have to realize the situation is totally different,” she was reported as saying. “After all, my father was fighting against foreign enemies. We are trying to struggle against people of our own race. What we are trying to do is to change the political culture of Burma, which is a lot more difficult.”
Monday, 14 February 2011 21:32 Ko Wild
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The new Union Election Commission (UEC) will be formed with eight members, based on a proposal made by President Thein Sien during a joint session of the Burmese Parliament on Monday.
The Parliament is expected to approve the list of EC members on Tuesday.
In other Parliament business, lawmakers unanimously approved the appointment of nine members to form the Constitutional Tribunal.
The Parliament adjourned after a 13-minute session which started at 10 a.m. on Monday morning.
The names of the prospective UEC members were not announced. Their names and a vote on their appointment are scheduled to come up for approval at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
In accordance with the new Constitution, the President must form the UEC with at least five members including a chairman and secretary. Members of the UEC must be more than age 50.
Members of political parties and parliamentary representatives cannot be appointed to the UEC, which is charged with supervising elections, investigating charges of abuse and organising electoral tribunals to rule in disputes.
On Monday, three out of 659 lawmakers were absent: two lawmakers of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) from Mandalay Division and a lawmaker of the National Unity Party (NUP) from Kachin State.
All of the lawmakers were absent for medical reasons.
In accordance with parliamentary laws, if a lawmaker is absent from Parliament for 15 consecutive days without permission of the speaker of Parliament, the speaker has the right to declare their seat vacant and the UEC can take action against a lawmaker in accordance with the prescribed rules.
Sunday, 13 February 2011 17:34 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Ethnic unity and the rule of law are essential in moving Burma forward toward national reconciliation and peace, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy leader, said on Saturday, speaking at a Union Day ceremony.
During the 64th Union Day ceremony at the National League for Democracy office in Bahan Township in Rangoon, she said “Unity is badly needed in our country. We need to determine on this occasion of Union Day to build a genuine, united Union. All ethnic people must join hands together’, she said.
Suu Kyi said the country must achieve the rule of law in order for true unity to exist.
‘We must revive a Union spirit for in order for democracy and development of the country. In the meantime, we need the rule of law. All ethnic people must be equal before the law.
‘Sixty-four years ago, our national leaders and ethnic leaders determined to join hands together to build a Union which was a new idea at that time. They firmly grasped this new idea and bravely carried it out. We must continue this work, and we must face everything with a new ideology. We must work bravely for what we should to’, said Suu Kyi.
More than 400 persons attended the ceremonies, including ethnic members wearing traditional national dress, members of the Committee Representing People’s Parliament, veteran politicians and diplomats.
Poets Pyapon Nee Lone Oo and Monywa Aung Shi also took part in the ceremony. NLD Nyaungdone Township branch members performed a Karen traditional dance, the ‘Done Yane’, a Rangoon Division drum troupe performed and NLD members from Shan State performed a traditional dance.
Union Day observes the date of the signing of the Panglong Agreement on February 12, 1947, by Aung San, the father of Suu Kyi, and ethnic leaders of the Kachin, Chin and Shan, who agreed to fight for independence from Britain and to seek full ethnic rights.
Monday, 14 February 2011 12:57 Myo Thein
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese pro-democracy activists in India staged a protest demonstration in New Delhi on Friday, calling for the release of 34 ethnic (Arakan) Rakhine and Karen who have been detained in India for 13 years.
All the charges against them have been cleared since July 2010, but they are still being held in Presidency jail in Kolkata, West Bengal.
Pro-democracy activists staged the protest at Janta Manta near Parliament in downtown New Delhi.
‘The court has settled and compounded their cases, and also the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi has already issued temporary refugee certificates to them, but they are still being detained’, said Kim, a protest leader who works in the Burma Centre Delhi (BCD).
According to activists, Indian intelligence officials deceived the 34 members of the National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) and the Karen National Union (KNU) by telling them that they would be provided arms and base for their revolution against the Burmese military regime. They were then arrested on Landfall Island in Andaman and the Nicobar Archipelago in Indian maritime territory on February 11, 1998 by the Indian navy and army.
Kim said that similar demonstrations for the 34 (Arakan) Rakhine and Karen would be staged in Britain, the United States and Bangladesh simultaneously.
Dr. Tint Swe, a minister in the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB) has sent a memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, calling for their release and granting them residential status in India, and for UN to recognize them as refugees.
A leading human rights lawyer in India, Nandita Haksar, has written a book on the case titled ‘Rogue Agent’, published by Penguin. It has just been released in a Burmese edition, which can be ordered through Mizzima.
Monday, 14 February 2011 12:30 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese President Thein Sein has nominated 14 people, mostly former USDP members or retired military officers, to serve as chief ministers of regions and states.
The nominees are scheduled to be approved by the Union Parliament on Monday.
Most of the nominees are members of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which was led by Thein Sein prior to his being elected president.
Zaw Min, the former chairman of the Karen State Peace and Development Council, was nominated to be the chief minister of Karen State, according to Saw Tun Aung Myint of the Kyain People’s Party.
Hone Ngai, a former brigadier general and chairman of the Chin State Peace and Development Council, from Mindat Township, was nominated to be chief minister of Chin State.
Sao Aung Myat, a member of the USDP and a retired military officer, was nominated as chief minister of Shan State.
An unofficial list of nominees includes:
(1) Kachin State: La John Ngan Sai
(2) Karenni State: Khin Maung Oo
(3) Karen State: Zaw Min
(4) Chin State: Hone Ngai
(5) Mon State: Ohn Myint
(6) Arakan State: Hla Maung Tin
(7) Shan State: Sao Aung Myat
(8) Rangoon Division: Myint Swe
(9) Sagaing Division: Tha Aye
(10) Taninsarim Division: Khin Zaw
(11) Pegu Division: Nyan Win
(12) Magway Division: Phone Maw Shwe
(13) Mandalay Division: Ye Myint
(14) Irrawaddy Division: Thein Aung
By KHIN HNIN HTET
Published: 14 February 2011 Additional sentences of up to 10 years have been given to seven people accused of being behind a spate of bombings, and who are already serving decades in prison.
The five men and two women learnt of their fate on Friday last week following a hearing at Eastern Rangoon Divisional Court. Six of them will serve an additional seven years, while one man, Kyaw Zwa Lin, was handed a decade.
All were charged under the Explosives Act, one of the three charges originally used to imprison them in 2008 when police allegedly discovered them with gunpowder. For this they received sentences of between 20 and 38 years.
Then last year these were extended by a decade after all were found guilty of assisting in the 2004 bombing at Zawgyi House Restaurant in Rangoon and the bombing at the Panorama Hotel in Rangoon in 2005.
Last week’s sentencing for involvement in the Shwe Mann Thu bus terminal bombings in 2005 brings to more than 50 years the longest of the jail terms they will serve. Lawyer Kyaw Ho said however that there was no strong evidence to support the most recent sentencing.
“There was no witness, evidence or exhibit whatsoever to prove their connection with the bombing,” he said. “The only thing used against them in the trial was the confession they gave to police during interrogation, which does not qualify as evidence.”
Similar complaints had been levelled by the defence team last year, particularly over the explosives charge that Kyaw Ho said should require testimonies from “the police’s Criminal Investigation Department and chemical specialists”.
Whether any political motive was behind the sentencing is unclear, but the group is alleged to have held links to the banned All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), a prominent activist group born from the 1988 mass student uprising. That allegation earned them charges under the Unlawful Associations Act.
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 14 February 2011
India is refusing to release 34 detained Burmese ethnic resistance fighters because the state is trying to hide intelligence misdemeanours, Burmese activists have alleged.
The men from the Karen and Arakan states in Burma last week marked their thirteenth year behind bars in India. Although they accepted a plea bargain whereby they were charged with immigration offences, the 34 have had the initial charges of gun running and “waging war against the Indian state” thrown out by courts.
“They [Indian government] are trying to hide something behind this case,” Aung Marm Oo, chairperson of the All Arakan Students and Youth Congress (AAYSC), told DVB.
“It is fully related to government policy: if they release them the central government thinks that they will appear guilty of killing the leaders,” adds Aung Marm Oo.
The Burmese were lured to the Indian Andaman Islands on 11 February 1998 by an Indian intelligence officer named Colonel Grewhal, whom later was suspected by observers to have been a double agent, working for both the Indian and the Burmese governments. Upon arrest on the islands, six of the group’s leaders were taken away blindfolded and executed.
Advocate and human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar had DVB last year that that “the Indian intelligence community are on trial here”.
Indeed the allegations and the case brought to court was “full of discrepancies”, according to trial lawyer, Akshay Sharma. Moreover, an Indian intelligence officer told the Kolkata local newspaper, the Telegraph, that the government was “deliberately adopting dilatory tactics”.
Uncertainty still clouds the fate of the 34, despite the initial charges being dropped. “We strongly urge the UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] to grant them recognition as political refugees, so that they are eligible for resettlement in a third country, and in the interim we are appealing to the Indian government to release them from prison and guarantee that they will not be forcibly repatriated to Burma”, said Aung Marm Oo in a statement on 11 February.
This came as protests took place in cities from Britain to Bangladesh, with calls for their release and some semblance of justice for the 34 from the Karen National Union (KNU) and the now defunct National United Party of Arakan (NUPA). The latter had spent significant amounts of money trying to secure a base in the Andaman Islands through Grewhal, who took repeated trips to Bangkok where he pressured the Arakanese to afford him lavish accommodation and gifts.
By AFP
Published: 14 February 2011
Burma’s media in exile, long a thorn in the side of the ruling generals, are being squeezed by funding cuts that some blame on a change in policy by Western donors in a shifting political landscape.
Overseas-based media such as the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) are seen as an important source of news in the impoverished nation, where an authoritarian government keeps a stranglehold on domestic reporting.
As a new political system emerges in Burma with a new parliament, some believe donors have been tempted to divert funding into the country, despite evidence it is still dominated by the military hierarchy.
Within weeks of the first elections in 20 years, DVB – an Oslo-based television, radio and online news provider that is banned in Burma – cancelled several programmes after suffering big losses in subsidies.
DVB deputy manager Khin Maung Win said the cuts amounted to about $1 million in 2011, partly because the group had received roughly $US500,000 in extra funding last year to cover the November election.
He said it would result in job cuts among some of the group’s 150 journalists based in Norway, Thailand or Burma.
“As of now, we cannot conclude it is a policy change from the donors’ side… But it has a painful effect on us,” he said.
Another exiled news organisation, Thailand-based Irrawaddy, recently axed its monthly printed magazine to concentrate on its online edition.
The situation “weakens the influence of media that have an extremely positive role,” said Vincent Brossel of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Burma 174th out of 178 countries for press freedom.
He said the cuts were especially harsh because the organisations had become gradually more independent from opposition groups such as Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
Burma’s exiled media derives most of its financial support from European governments, mainly Scandinavian, and from public and private donations from the United States.
The DVB did not say which donors were behind the cuts, but it is believed to be mainly European governments.
Mikael Winther, the Danish ambassador to Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, said that his government for its part had not changed its policy toward the junta.
“Denmark is not supporting any government in Burma,” he said. “But since we now have more access inside than we had before, we do support poverty-oriented projects for people suffering inside Burma,” he said.
Some believe that the release of Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest just days after Burma’s controversial polls in November of last year, has heralded new thinking among many donors.
“Definitely there is concern that there is a major shift in donor policy toward exiled groups including cross-border aid assistance,” said Aung Zaw, founder and director of Irrawaddy.
He said some donors might want to channel money to projects inside the country, or be unhappy with exiled media’s coverage critical of the regime and the election.
Irrawaddy has lost around a third of its annual $US1 million in subsidies and has had to cut 20 of its 60 contributors.
Maung Zarni, a Burma researcher at the London School of Economics, argued that funding cuts were part of a “deliberate strategy”.
European policy strategists “have concluded that the only way towards change in Burma is through development of free market institutions and pragmatic collaboration with the generals in power”, he said.
Reporters working inside Burma for banned exile media organisations risk long jail sentences.
Earlier this month DVB video reporter Maung Maung Zeya, 58, was handed 13 years in prison after being caught filming at the scene of a bomb blast in April 2010.
His son Sithu Zeya has been given an eight-year jail term on similar charges, according to Aung Thein, a legal adviser for political prisoners.
DVB TV is watched almost as much as the state-funded channels in Burma, despite a ban on the sale of satellite dishes, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The DVB website is also a respected source of news for those outside the country.
Other established independent media sources covering the country include Radio Free Asia (RFA), financed by the United States, and the BBC’s Burmese service, which recently escaped being axed in severe cuts by the broadcaster.
Many Burmese rely on such radio broadcasts from outside Burma to keep up with world news. Suu Kyi herself regularly tuned into the BBC and other broadcasters during her years of detention.
While access to exiled media websites in Burma is restricted by the authorities, some people use proxy servers to bypass the blocks.
“We think the more sources for accurate, objective information in Burma, the better and the declining trends are troubling,” said RFA spokesman John Estrella.