The Economist – The 15-minute parliament
Mar 2nd 2011, 10:10 by R.C. | CHIANG MAI

I WAS in Chiang Mai in Thailand to catch up with the latest news coming out of  Myanmar—or Burma, as its dissidents tend to call it still. I was keen to hear about the progress of its new parliament, which opened amid considerable publicity on January 31st. This was the first time the country convened a parliament in 22 years. Apparently it ushers in a new age of democracy under civilian rule…

As Chiang Mai is so close to the Burmese border, it has become the capital of the international dissidents’ Burma. Here are hundreds of Burmese former political prisoners, exiled politicians and activists, as well as international NGO workers, academics and policy wonks, all deeply involved in the country’s affairs. I found that there are almost as many views on the current situation in Burma as there are people to express them.

Some, such as the Burmese journalists who staff the online newspaper the Irrawaddy, are last-ditchers—they refuse to be reconciled to the new civilian façade of the regime in Yangon. Others argue that the army is the only game in town; anyone trying to do any good in Burma has to work with them. These are the pragmatists. They tend to have some faith in the regime’s apparent attempts to move towards a more democratic, less authoritarian system. Many (including the idealists) also argue for the lifting of Western sanctions. The argument goes that sanctions have achieved nothing more than to hand over Burma’s vast oil and mineral wealth to the unscrupulous Chinese (and Thais).

However there was one subject that everybody seemed to agree on—how little Burma’s new parliament actually seems to be working. Apparently, in the month since it opened the lower house has met for a total of just nine hours or so. Sessions of the new parliament have lasted 20 minutes at most—barely enough time for any self-respecting British MP to clear his throat. On average, sessions last only 15 minutes—hence the joke doing the rounds that it is the “15-minute hluttaw” (Burmese for parliament).

Not surprisingly, 15 minutes does not allow much time for getting legislative work done. This is what many critics feared; the regime’s cronies control all the work of the parliament and will thus toil vigorously to limit any opportunity for proper debate or the airing of the opposition’s views. So far, the hluttaw’s massive pro-regime majority has dutifully nominated a new president and vice-presidents, but has yet to form a government.

According to one foreign interlocutor I spoke to, it is the MPs of the largest official opposition party, the National Democratic Front (NDF), who are “the most disappointed right now”. These were the opposition activists who broke with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy over their participation in last November’s elections. They invested a lot of hope in the efficacy of the new parliamentary process when it came to justifying their participation in the elections. Their support will surely wane if parliament proves to be as toothless as it has been over the past month.

And it’s not only the lack of opportunities to speak that worries the NDF. One of their MPs, who refused to give his name quite understandably, was quoted in the Irrawaddy as saying: “We were warned when we arrived here [the new parliament in the capital Naypyidaw] that we couldn’t move around freely. Even though we receive stipends, we feel like prisoners. When we are in session, we are only allowed to go to the dining hall or tearoom or return to our hostels.” Oh for Western freedoms, and for taxpayer-funded duck houses.

DATE:02/03/11
SOURCE:Flight International
Flightglobal – Myanmar to receive new batch of MiG-29s from March

Myanmar will in March receive the first of 20 RSK MiG-29s ordered under a roughly €400 million ($553 million) deal, with their introduction to more than double the country’s MiG-29 fleet.

Ordered in November 2009, the aircraft will be delivered in three configurations, comprising 10 MiG-29B and six MiG-29SE single-seat fighters and four MiG-29UB twin-seat operational trainers.

The acquisition effectively clears the remaining MiG-29B/SE stock at RSK MiG’s Lukhovitsy plant, with the airframe parts having been manufactured in the Soviet and Perestroika eras. Myanmar’s aircraft will be delivered in an original export configuration, with analogue instruments and Phazotron N-019 radars.

Myanmar previously bought used MiG-29s from Belarus, but approached the type’s manufacturer and Russian arms export company Rosoboronexport for help after encountering a high attrition rate. Moscow responded with help on weapons, spare parts and training, including the installation of a simulator at one of its air bases.

Acquiring an additional batch of fighters directly from RSK MiG should radically improve the combat readiness and effectiveness of Myanmar’s fleet, sources say. Its air force now has 12 MiG-29s, says Flightglobal’s MiliCAS database.

Meanwhile, RSK MiG says a new logistics support system to be established in co-operation with Indian companies will enable it to provide increased customer support for the nation’s MiG-29s, plus those flown by the air forces of Malaysia and Myanmar.

Philadelphia Weekly – End of the Road for Refugees?
Congress looks to all but cripple funding for refugee-assistance programs.
By Aaron Kase
Posted Mar. 2, 2011

Min Oo spent the first 14 years of his life in a refugee camp. His Burmese family had fled to Thailand from the repressive military junta ruling their native Myanmar before he was born. During the years they were in the camp, they slept in a wooden tent and received scant rations of oil, salt and rice every month to live on. To get meat or earn some money, his dad would risk his life by sneaking outside camp to hunt wildlife and cut firewood. “If the guards caught you, they’d bash your face with their gun,” Oo recalls.

Little did Oo know that his past would make for a classic Amerian success story. Three years ago, Oo, his parents and little brother arrived in Philadelphia as part of the U.S.
Refugee Resettlement Program. One of the first Burmese families to arrive in the city, they settled in South Philly.

But they didn’t do it alone. When the family first arrived in the U.S., they were met by representatives from the Nationalities Services Center, one of three refugee resettlement agencies in Philadelphia. Using federal funds for assistance to new refugees, NSC provided the family with a furnished apartment, some pocket money and help navigating paperwork and bureaucracy to gain access to employment, health care and education. “They help us to get everything,” Oo says.

Now, resettlement agencies like NSC are suddenly in danger of losing their cash flow, as a savings-conscious Congress eyes cuts of up to 45 percent to the Migration and Refugee Assistance budget, currently at more than $1 billion. “It’s looking bad,” says Danielle Bolks, special projects manager for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, an advocacy group based in Arlington, Va. “[Budget cuts] could affect people’s abilities to serve clients when they first arrive, and people’s jobs at the local level as well.” Currently, the Department of State provides agencies $1,800 per refugee to cover initial housing and administrative and job-hunting tasks.

“We understand the economic climate is very contentious,” Bolks adds, “but we feel like this program is imperative.”

It was only last Wednesday that the agencies learned how dire their position was, so rather than sit back and wait for the cuts to come rolling in, the NSC sprang into action. On Friday, staff members, volunteers and refugees holed up in the group’s Arch Street headquarters to let Pennsylvania’s legislators know they weren’t going down without a fight.

About 30 people gathered for an afternoon shift, crowded in a small conference room writing, typing and licking envelopes to send off to legislators in Washington about the importance of resettlement programs. In another room, some more volunteers worked the phones to convey a similar message. A rudimentary English as a Second Language class of recent arrivals even spent a lesson laboring to craft their own personal letters asking lawmakers to preserve funding.

Akberom Mehretab was one of them. Mehretab, 55, is a refugee from Eritrea who fled the country in the 1980s during its war for independence from Ethiopia. He spent years living in a camp on the border between Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, finding work teaching life skills to his peers. “They came by drought, famine and war,” he recalls. In 1997, he was admitted to Germany as a refugee, and in 2009, he came to America to marry his long-time Eritrean girlfriend, who had resettled in Philadelphia. Fresh off the plane, he went to NSC to work on his English and soon began volunteering to translate and help other Eritreans navigate American culture. “For an Eritrean family who comes from a rural area, it is too difficult,” he says. “It is ridiculous for them.” He shudders to think how families could adapt if agencies like NSC weren’t there to help. “If they’re not here?” he wonders. “It is too difficult.”

The Nationalities Service Center is diversified enough in funding and programming that it wouldn’t be in danger of closing, says Executive Director Dennis Mulligan, but services for refugees would be sharply curtailed, most likely by admitting fewer in the first place. Of the some 80,000 refugees admitted to the U.S. in 2010, about 450 were placed in Philadelphia by NSC; the other local agencies, HIAS and Council and the Lutheran Children and Family Service, helped out with a few hundred more. About 35,000 refugees have established themselves in the city since resettlement programs were formalized in the early 1980s.

“My view is it’s pretty short-sighted to propose cuts of this kind,” Mulligan says, noting that refugees are part of a larger wave of immigration responsible for upcoming Census results, expected to show that Philadelphia has gained population over the last decade for the first time since the 1950s. And, he says, refugees in particular are renowned for their entrepreneurship and knack for turning around troubled areas of cities. “Philadelphia has continued to be re-energized by refugees,” Mulligan says, citing the Vietnamese shops and restaurants on Washington Avenue, African commercial corridors in West and Southwest Philly and the burgeoning “Little Baghdad” of newly arrived Iraqis in the Northeast as three areas of the city where refugees have contributed to revitalization.

Big cuts to these agencies, Mulligan continues, would signal that the U.S. is backing away from its commitment to help the less fortunate. “It’s a retreat from a very important part of American policy and values if we pull back from offering refuge to people who have been persecuted,” he says.

Washington has yet to respond, but NSC is hoping that local representatives here will be sympathetic to their plight. For recent arrivals like Oo, now 17 and a senior at South Philly High, it’s hard to imagine a nation unwelcoming to his countrymen. “On the plane, I thought my dream would become truth,” he says, decked out in gauged earrings and a wispy mustache. “I’m very, very lucky to come to the U.S. Later on, I get out of college and I help people,” says Oo, who hopes to go to community college next year to improve his English before transferring to a four-year college and pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. “My dream is to make a community of Burmese people to live together.”

MorungExpress – Boost to Naga-Myanmar trade

Avangkhu | March 1 : India (Nagaland) and Myanmar will mark an important milestone by way of cementing a  strong relationship through commercial activities once the mission to open International Trade centre (ITC) come alive. It will be like a dream come true for both the countries (India -Myanmar) once ITC is established. Located at India- Myanmar border, efforts are at its peak to make the vision turn into reality with commercial activities and strong expectation to build better relationship and understanding between India and Myanmar.

It lies around 70 km away from Wazeho to Avangkhu (under Meluri sub division), and around 6 kms of road connectivity is left to get through ITC Avangkhu. The six kms road is being blocked by huge grayed stone (rock) which is said to be in need of explosive bombs to clear the roads. However it is intended to be complete by this year end.

However, besides the barriers lying in between, Nagaland is all set to begin its first step by constructing a helipad at the ITC proposed land which is reported to be not less than 1000 acres. Already four small marketing sheds has been constructed by the villagers of Avangkhu through headlocks.

It is said that more than 1 lakh Naga people are settled in Myanmar.

Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, Law & Justice, Yitachu along with a team of villagers and media persons visited the site (ITC proposed land) on 21st February on foot, where after visiting the land; he expressed his willingness to construct helipad within two to three months time starting from the day of his visit.

He was confident to complete the helipad at the earliest stating that there was enough manpower to construct the helipad. He also disclosed that in between ITC, commercial centre in Nagaland will be Dimapur while Layshe will be the trade hub at Myanmar.

“There will be immense opening for the youth in trading on completion of ITC”, said Yitachu positively adding that road condition will not be a barricade though the present condition of the road may not appear smooth.

He also appealed to the contractors, concerned departments and all right thinking citizens that whenever or wherever any infrastructural development is taken up, this is for the future well being of the Naga people and should be taken up with all sincerity.

With the opening of border trade with Myanmar, it is reported that a total of 34 villages on the Indian (Naga) side will be benefited immediately while agricultural products, valuable timber, precious stones and ayurvedic medicines will be traded by Myanmar, while, coal, fertilizer, tea, finished wood products, electronic goods, clothes, cement, steel and iron products, medicines and processed foods will be exported by India. The distance from Myanmar side to reach ITC stands at around 12 kms.

The people of the Mae Sot dump site
Mar 1, 2011 06:07 EST

LONDON (AlertNet) – The poignant story of Myanmar’s refugees living in and around a putrid rubbish dump on the Thai border town of Mae Sot speaks volumes about the resilience of human nature.

Despite the poverty, health risks and harassment they face from the Thai authorities on a constant basis, many refugee families have lived at the site for years, struggling to earn minuscule wages for the plastic they collect for recycling.

“Every human rights violation on the planet is there in its worse element,” Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj told me in a phone interview.

“However, these people on the dump site are actually happy because they know what they have left behind in Burma (Myanmar) is much worse,” he added.

For more than five decades, Myanmar has suffered conflict between the repressive ruling military regime, political opponents and ethnic groups, resulting in the displacement of over 3.5 million Burmese.

The exact number of Burmese living in and around the town of Mae Sot ( known locally as “little Burma”) is unclear but aid groups estimate the number could be some 200,000, most of them are illegal refugees.

There are three main camps around Mae Sot – Mae La, Noe Po and Umpium with Mae La being the biggest refugee camp in Southeast Asia.

According to Sagolj, who frequently returns to Mae Sot to document life there, the situation on the dump site has improved quite a lot recently. It’s mostly thanks to the work of an organisation founded by Buddhist monks called “The Best Friend”, which has succeeded in moving families from the site to land it has rented for them in the surrounding area.

“Every time I go there (Mae Sot dump), I see people smiling. At night, they light candles and sing, they eat and socialise and basically look the fun side of life,” Sagolj said.

“Nobody forced them to live there but they don’t want to go home.”

Bangkok Post – Burma halts rice exports
Published: 2/03/2011 at 10:08 PM
Online news:

Burma has halted rice exports to stockpile the staple, aiming to shield food costs at home from the possible impact of rising oil prices caused by Middle East unrest, an official said Wednesday.

“I think the authorities are just concerned about local consumption because of what has happened in Libya,” an official of the Union of Burma Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He explained that an increase in oil prices might push up transportation costs and subsequently food prices.

“All commodity prices depend on transportation charges, not only rice,” he added.

Firms were told last week to suspend shipments of rice and cancel all contracts for overseas supply, he said.

Burma may be particularly sensitive to the issue as protests against the rising cost of living in 2007 escalated into huge anti-government rallies that posed the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly two decades.

The country, army dominated for nearly 50 years, may wait until its new parliamentary system is established before restarting exports, the official said _ a sign its rulers may also be worried about political implications of the Middle East unrest.

“We hope to resume rice export again at the end of July after the political situation is stabilised with the formation of a new government,” he said.

Anger at authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East and North Africa has raged from Algeria to Yemen and has spread to the previously unaffected Gulf states of Kuwait and Oman.

Protesters against Moamer Kadhafi’s four-decade rule in Libya have seized control of most of the country despite a bloody fightback by his forces. Tripoli remains under his control, but key oil fields in the east have fallen to the opposition.

New York crude prices again breached $100 a barrel in Asian trade Wednesday and economists are concerned about the potential inflation risks.

Burma’s 2007 demonstrations, led by crowds of monks whose striking attire saw the movement dubbed the “Saffron Revolution”, were put down by security forces who killed at least 31 people and beat and detained hundreds.

The country has a new political system after holding elections last November, but opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi was locked up and excluded from the vote and retired generals now dominate the parliament.

Top military leader Senior General Than Shwe has said rice production in Burma has more than doubled since 1988, in a message published in the country’s newspapers on Wednesday to mark a national Peasants’ Day.

Burma was once one of the world’s biggest rice exporters, but mismanagement by its leaders saw it fall far behind.

It now only has customers for its rice in North Korea and West African countries, where people are too poor to be choosy about the low quality of the product, the business official said.

“We cannot compete with rice exports from Vietnam and Thailand as their rice quality is better,” he said.

China Daily – China, Myanmar companies jointly to produce heavy duty trucks
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-02 14:51

YANGON – China and Myanmar companies have reached an agreement on production of 10-15 ton heavy duty trucks in Myanmar, the State-run paper the New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

China National Heavy Duty Truck Group Co Ltd (CNHTC) and General Heavy Machinery Industry signed the contract on the above project in Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday.

The contract signing ceremony was the handover of technology for manufacturing of 10-15 ton TE-31 Utility Truck (Medium) at No 11 General Heavy Machinery Factory (Yangon) under No 1 General Heavy Machinery to be implemented with the loan of $20 million granted by Preferential Buyer Credit Loan of the People’s Republic of China, the report said.

The project will be completed during this year, mainly producing machineries such as 10-15 ton (6×4) trucks, water tankers, oil tankers and concrete mixers, and fire engines etc.

The 90 percent of machine parts used in the production will be from the factories of the Ministry of Industry-2, it said.

According to other report, altogether 82,785 motor vehicles have been produced by Myanmar’s 18 industrial zones up to June, 2010.

Of the total foreign investment injected in over two decades, China’s investment has now topped with $9.603 billion, overtaking Thailand which once stood at $9.568 billion in the foreign investment line-up previously.

According to Chinese official statistics, bilateral trade between China and Myanmar totaled $4.444 billion in 2010, an increase of 53.2 percent correspondingly.

There are 170 Chinese companies investing in Myanmar according to the figures.

The Irrawaddy – Burmese Attempt Own ‘Facebook Revolution’
By BA KAUNG Wednesday, March 2, 2011

In an attempt to emulate the democratic revolution in Egypt that was sparked by a Facebook campaign, a group of Burmese activists operating inside the country have set up a Facebook page dubbed “Just Do It Against Military Dictatorship.”

The social networking campaign denounces the country’s military dictatorship, calls for Burmese military chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his family to leave the country and urges the army to join with the people.

The campaign began on Feb. 13—just two days after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned from office under pressure from protesters.

The Facebook page, now known simply as “JD,” has prompted the distribution of anti-government material in a number of places across Burma and raised security levels in Rangoon.

“We are not daydreaming,” said an activist in Rangoon who said he was a JD supporter. “No dictator can resist a popular movement, we know.”

The campaign has now received the support of over 1,000 activists in Burma, according to one of the organizers who declined to be named due to personal safety concerns.

The organizer told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that JD supporters have distributed anti-government pamphlets in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city, and in Taunggyi Township in Shan State.

He said that a poster dropped at the main railway station in Mandalay reads: “Get Out! Than Shwe.”

On Wednesday, JD supporters distributing pamphlets in Zay Cho market—the largest in Mandalay—had to flee when police arrived.

In addition, a professor from Taunggyi University reportedly informed the authorities about the distribution of anti-government pamphlets in Shan State, but no one was arrested.

Facebook is the second most popular site after Gmail among the estimated 400,000 Internet users inside Burma. Twitter, the micro-blogging website, is banned in the country.

Due to the limited access to the Internet for many people inside Burma, it remains uncertain how much further the Facebook campaign can go. But the Burmese authorities, notorious for brutal repression against any form of dissent, have apparently heightened security in Rangoon.

Rangoon residents said they saw anti-riot police trucks driving around the city center on Wednesday morning, although this is not unusual and there is no confirmed link between the security measures and the Facebook campaign.

The Burmese state-run media made no mention of the protests in North Africa and private journals were restricted in reporting the news.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that the Burmese people were closely following the protests in Libya. In comparing Libya and Burma, Suu Kyi told the Voice of America that past protests in Burma faced brutal crackdowns from the army, whereas some army units in Libya split and joined with protesters.

“In Burma, I don’t think there was any noticeable divisions with regards to the policies of the military,” Suu Kyi said.

The Irrawaddy – Cease-fire Groups Wary as Burmese Army Buildup Continues
By SAI ZOM HSENG Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the strongest ethnic armed group to reject the Burmese junta’s Border Guard Force (BGF) plan, is watching recent moves by the regime to increase its troop strength in northern Shan state with concern.

A UWSA officer speaking on condition of anonymity said that the group has been on the alert since the regime recently started sending several battalions and tanks to areas bordering Wa-controlled territory.

“We have been watching closely since they started sending tanks and troops to Mong Naung through Tangyan at the end of February because Tangyan is not very far from our headquarters,” he said, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

However, the troop buildup in the area is not directed at the UWSA, but at Brigade 1 of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North), according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military observer based on the Sino-Burma border.

The SSA-North has also been pressured to join the BGF plan, but the group’s Brigade 1 has refused and engaged in several skirmishes with regime troops since last September.
Brigade 1, led by Col Pang Fa, is the strongest of the SSA-North’s three brigades, with an estimated 3,000 troops. Brigades 3 and 7 have already joined the BGF and are now standing as local militia groups.

According to Aung Kyaw Zaw, the regime’s reinforcements in the area are mostly just part of an effort to increase pressure on SSA-North Brigade 1.

“If they really wanted to defeat the SSA-North, they would need to send several infantry divisions, as they did when they seized control of Manerplaw,” he said, referring to the former headquarters of the non-cease-fire Karen National Union (KNU).

One reason the junta is not likely to attack the SSA-North breakaway faction is the proximity of the UWSA and another group, the Shan State Army-South (SSA-South), which continues to fight the regime.

At the end of February, the SSA-South captured three military outposts controlled by Pa-O Phyu militia groups in southern Shan State, killing six and seizing over 100 kg of opium and chemicals used to process heroin.

Both the UWSA and the SSA-South have offered support to SSA-North Brigade 1 since it resumed hostilities with the Burmese army. The UWSA source confirmed that his group has provided ammunition and food to the SSA-North, but declined to say if it took part in skirmishes with Burmese troops.

The UWSA and the SSA-North are both members of the recently formed Committee for the Emergence of a Federal Union, an umbrella group of anti-regime forces that also includes the KNU, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and several other ethnic armed groups. The SSA-South is not a member, but has reportedly considered joining.

Meanwhile, relations between the Burmese junta and the KIO have worsened since the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the KIO’s armed wing, clashed with regime troops in early February.

According to a KIO source, the KIA had planned to destroy thousands of acres of poppies in the Satone area of Kachin State, but is wary of engaging a BGF formed by another ethnic Kachin armed group.

“The regime has been putting pressure on us at our liaison office in Myitkyina. We planned to destroy the poppy fields in Satone, but if we did, it would start big trouble between us and the Kachin BGF,” the source said, adding that the Burmese army’s Northern Regional Command also has several battalions in the area.

The junta has called on ethnic cease-fire groups to transform themselves into BGFs under Burmese military command. However, most armed groups, including the KIA, UWSA and the SSA-North, have refused and called for political dialogue.

The Irrawaddy – Burma’s Commodity Price Hike Continues
By WAI MOE Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Amid rising fuel prices and rumors that civil servants in Naypyidaw will receive a massive salary hike, residents of Burma’s largest cities are feeling the burden of increased commodity prices, which have risen steadily since mid-February.

“On Tuesday, one gallon of petrol cost 3,400 kyat (US $ 3.86) on the black market, but on Wednesday morning the price went up to 4,100 kyat ($ 4.65) and later in the day to 5,000 kyat ($5.67),” said a 35-year-old man who runs a mini-store in Rangoon’s Northern Dagon Myothit Township.

“The rice price hike is worse for us. The price of good quality rice increased about 6,000 kyat ($6.80) per pack within a day,” he added.

According to rice traders at Bayinnaung Market in Rangoon, a 49-kg broken-rice pack has increased to 12,500 kyat ($14.20) from the previous price of 11,000 kyat ($12.50), while good quality rice per pack is now 36,500 kyat ($ 41.47), up from 31,000 kyat ($ 35.22).

In Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city, the price of gasoline has risen to 5,200 kyat ($5.90) per gallon, while the official price is 2,500 kyat ($2.83) per gallon for normal petrol and 3,600 kyat ($4.08) per gallon for high octane petrol.

“The government transferred distribution of gasoline to companies such as the Htoo Group of Companies and the IGE Group of Companies, which are run by junta cronies, in 2010,” said a Mandalay resident who runs a bus service.

“But buying petrol at gas stations owned by these companies means waiting in queue and takes a long time. The company gas stations also sell petrol to the black market, so most customers still have to depend on the black market,” he said.

Since gasoline price have increased, transportation fees from Mandalay to other cities have also risen. The cost of a bus ticket increased this week from 1,700 kyat ($1.93) to 2,500 kyat ($2.83).

To control rising rice prices, the military junta’s Trade Policy Council temporarily suspended rice exports last week. In addition, the junta also suspended rice exports through border trade routes with neighboring countries.

The Trade Policy Council, which is chaired by the junta Secretary 1 Tin Aung Myint Oo, issued an order stating: “If rice merchants attempt to export rice illegally via border checkpoints, the confiscated rice will be auctioned by law.”

“Any rice currently in transport must make a u-turn unless the merchant has a proper document for rice transport from authorities,” said an information official with the Burmese Rice Merchants Association. “Tightened checks are being made at border trade gates.”

However, a Burmese economic researcher who contributes to private journals in Rangoon said that controlling rice prices by force may backfire because it could produce a growing black market, skyrocketing commodity prices and overall inflation.

Burmese businessmen said that in addition to the potential civil servant salary increase, minor instability among the ruling generals is contributing to the commodity price hikes.

Irrawaddy correspondents in Rangoon and Mandalay contributed to this story.

UK now largest bilateral aid donor to Burma
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 18:54 Thea Forbes

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The UK Department for International Development (DFID) disclosed its funding plans for Burma on Monday, making the UK the largest bilateral aid donor.

Aid to be supplied by the UK over the next four years will total approximately £180 million (US$ 300 million), making it the No. 1 bilateral aid donor to Burma.

Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell presented the plan to Parliament on Monday.

‘The UK will spend an average of £46 million (US$ 75 million) per year in Burma until 2015. This support is delivered through the United Nations, international and local NGOs and community groups’, he said.

A statement gave a breakdown of the primary goals of the next four years of assistance including to, ‘Make sure that more than 127,000 mothers give birth more safely and prevent more than 150,000 unintended pregnancies.’

The aid also aims to aid more than 1.8 million people at risk of Malaria, to support 277,000 children through primary school, to provide 110,000 women with more access to affordable credit, help 92,000 women and men increase their food production and to ‘help community groups that are giving people greater choice and control over their lives’.

Paul Whittingham, the head of the Office of DFID in Burma, told Mizzima that aside from large funding being channelled through UN agencies to government-approved areas, the new funding program will include target some conflict zones and displaced Burmese people.

‘It’s a major priority of Andrew Mitchell for Burma, and has consistently been a priority for us in the UK to support the victims of conflict in Burma’, he said.

‘We do that in a number of ways. We do that by providing support to refugees in camps on the Thai border…we do that by providing support to groups who can get into the country from the other side of the border, where this is appropriate and where they are able to, and we do this by providing support to the organisations that are inside Burma who can reach internally displaced people living in conflict areas, and that will continue to be a priority for us’.

Asked about cooperation between the UK and the Burmese authorities, Whittingam told Mizzima, ‘We in the EU have set ourselves very strict rules on how we deliver aid inside the country, and the UK has been at the forefront of those rules. We require ourselves to consult widely on how this aid is spent, principally with civil society organisations and the NLD. We have had discussions with a range of groups both inside the country and outside the country’.

He said that the doubling of UK aid to Burma in 2011 was not a result of a change of attitude towards the government in Burma.

‘This scaling up is in no way related to the elections that have recently taken place, it in no way signals any kind of changed approach to how we engage with the regime here. The UK position on the elections has always been very clear, namely that they were not free, fair or inclusive and they don’t represent progress…we want to see a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Burma where human rights are fully respected’, he said.

Mark Farmener, the director of London-based Burma Campaign UK, said the activist group warmly welcomed the increase in aid from the UK, but encouraged DFID to ‘significantly expand democracy promotion work via groups in exile which manage underground networks, as well as civil society in-country, as there are strict limitations on what can be done in country.’

Deputy chairman of the National League for Democracy U Tin Oo told Mizzima, ‘We just ask that those who are giving aid to the humanitarian area, that they have true, real transparency, accountability and a good monitoring system.’

Last year the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria signed contracts to return to Burma giving grants of up to US$ 112 million over a two-year period. The Global Fund had unilaterally pulled out of Burma in 2005 due to restrictions placed on their aid workers’ movements. It was the first time the Fund had ever withdrawn from a member country.

Marcela Rojo, a spokesperson for the Global Fund, told Mizzima that to qualify for a fund grant a country must establish a ‘Country Coordinating Mechanism’ comprising a broad range of members, selected through a transparent process.

‘It has been the Global Fund’s experience around the world that such measures go a considerable way in fostering greater dialogue between government, civil society, people directly affected by disease and other stakeholders’, she told Mizzima via email.

‘We would hesitate to call this “sparking a reform of the health sector”; however, it creates a multi-stakeholder approach to the management of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria that is unique in Burma’, she said.

NLD women’s organisation increases work projects
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 19:48 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Two members were added to the National League for Democracy (NLD) Rangoon Division Women Affairs Works Implementation Committee on Tuesday, expanding from three to five members to meet an increased work load, officials said.

The women’s implementation work group was reorganized after NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest late last year.

The new committee members are Than Than Sew (Baan) and Aye Mi (Thicket), who join Mint Seen, Tin May and May Win Mint on the committee.

‘Our activities have gained momentum. So we’re reinforcing our committee for better performance and efficiency’, committee leader May Win Mint told Misaim.

The NLD Rangoon Division women’s committee is currently lending small microfinance loans of 20,000 kyat (US$ 23) each to 50 roadside vendors from the Barbie Market in Tame Township.

‘We  started this project at the market last month. If it is successful, we’ll expand the loans without interest in other townships’, said May Win Mint.

In other NLD news, office administration team member Win Hein said that Sue Kyiv has prohibited NLD members from working with the ‘Sun’ free funeral service association, which opened last month in Thingangyun Township.

May Win Myint said the service conflicted with other NLD projects.

KIO says junta threatening to launch offensive
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 18:31 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Lieutenant Colonel Thet Pone of the Burmese regime’s Northern Military Command Military Affairs Security (MAS) unit has repeatedly threatened the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), saying the junta would launch military offensive against the KIO, say KIO officials.

Lieutenant Colonel Thet Pone and Colonel Ji Nawng, who is in charge of the KIO liaison office in Myitkyina, met at the MAS unit office in Myitkyina on February 28.

Recently, 10 remote-controlled mines, made of TNT gunpowder, were discovered outside the customs office in Loi Je Township in Bhamo District in Kachin State.

A KIO officer said Lieutenant Colonel Thet Pone charged that the mines were planted by KIO Brigade 3 of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed wing of the KIO.

‘Lieutenant Colonel Thet Pone repeatedly said that if the KIO continued to commit hostile acts, the government would use military force and attack us. He said the mines were made by the KIO and the KIO was challenging the government’, said the officer.

After the meeting, the KIO held a meeting of the central committee on Tuesday and Wednesday at the KIO headquarters in Laiza, according to sources at the headquarters. The results of the meeting were not available.

A KIO officer said that although the mines were found in the area controlled by Brigade 3, they were not planted by the KIA and the accusation was a plot created by the junta.

‘The mines are not ours’, said the officer. We know nothing about it. That is a lie created to destroy our reputation’.

He said Thet Pone showed photographs of the mines and other related material during the meeting and claimed the mines were similar to others used by the KIA.

Thet Pone also cited an incident on February 7 in which KIA Battalion 17 fired on junta troops in Mansi Township in Kachin State.

Meanwhile, on February 17, 12 ethnic armed groups including the KIO formed the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) to cooperate in defending against any attack by junta troops against the ethnic groups

The joint defence agreement has made the junta uneasy, the KIO officer said.

DVB News – Heavy fire, landmines rock eastern Burma
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 2 March 2011

Landmine explosions on three consecutive days in Pegu division claimed one life and injured more as ongoing fighting in Burma’s east continues to displace thousands.

Locals in Pegu’s Shwekyin township, where Burmese troops are fighting the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), said that regular explosions rocked the surrounding area every day between 25 and 28 February, leaving one man dead and two with severe injuries to their legs.

Shwekyin residents also say that no warning was given to civilians about the location of the ordinance. While no one has claimed responsibility for the landmines, the Burmese army was recently named the world’s only remaining active user of the maligned weapon.

Heavy fighting meanwhile continues to rage in Karen state, which is sandwiched between Pegu division and Burma’s border with Thailand. Burmese troops have been battling a coalition of nearly four months, with little sign that fighting is easing.

Burmese troops last week pounded nine villages in the Hpa-pun district with heavy artillery fire, forcing around one thousand people to flee into the surrounding jungle.

“Some of their houses have been burnt down,” said Major Kaleh Doh of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), which is fighting alongside the DKBA. “The villagers were afraid to go back to their homes because of worries that Burmese troops might lay mines around there.”

The fighting has forced thousands of Karen refugees into neighbouring Thailand, but conditions there are said to be difficult. Around 10,000 currently sheltering in tents along the banks of the Moei river, which separates the two countries, are suffering food shortages, with many forced to live on plain rice and, unable to work in Thailand, struggling to make money.

DVB News – Military prioritised as Burma expands airforce
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 2 March 2011

A new Burmese annual budget has been revealed that prioritises inordinate military expenditure over healthcare, and which received no oversight by the country’s new parliament.

Some 1.8 trillion kyat ($US2.04 billion), or 23 percent of annual spending, will be channelled to Burma’s nearly 500,000-strong military. A breakdown of the budget received by DVB shows that this includes an 848 billion kyat ($US9.6 million) capital account dedicated to new investment or purchases.

The healthcare sector will meanwhile receive only 9.5 billion kyat ($US110 million), or 1.3 percent of the total budget. This equates to around $US2 per person per year.

The leader of the opposition National Democratic Force (NDF) party, Khin Maung Swe, told DVB that his party was seeking a significant increase in health and education spending.

“Our party policy is asking for an increase in allocation to health. As far as we know the military is spending two percent on education and health and we want to raise it to nine to 10 percent.” He added that a parliament representative would bring up the issue, but noted that MPs were not permitted to “disclose parliamentary affairs”.

The significant money being directed towards the military coincides with the purchase of 20 Russian MiG-29 fighter jets, thought to worth $US553 million and whicy will reportedly double the fleet of the fighter planes.

The deal was signed in 2009 and follows the purchase of used MiG-29s from Belarus which had a high attrition rate and broke down often.

The additional 20 MiGs, purchased directly from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, should drastically improve the Burmese military’s aerial capabilities, but remains somewhat short of neighbouring Thailand’s capabilities, with the recent arrival of Swedish JAS 39 Gripens and the US F-16s already in their arsenal.

Accompanying the new budget were fresh laws enacted in order “to carry out tasked duties when the parliaments are convened, and to carry out advance preparations with accordance of the law, it is necessary to commission respective laws.”

This will draw serious questions about the intentions, or indeed ineffectiveness, of the new parliament, with elected representatives unable to determine budget allocations and a sense that the budget is ‘for’ parliament, and not ‘by’ parliament.

Analysts however note however that much of the allocation for military expenditure and military wages would not even show up on documents seen by DVB because they would be intentionally kept off-record.