BURMA RELATED NEWS – MARCH 15, 2011
Mar 15th, 2011
15 March 2011, 13:50 CET
(YANGON) – European diplomats held talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other Myanmar activists on Tuesday about the possible lifting of Western sanctions, an opposition party leader said.
About 25 European Union diplomats from Bangkok, including nine ambassadors, as well as locally based diplomats attended the meeting in Yangon, according to Khin Maung Swe, leader of the National Democratic Force (NDF).
He was present at the talks along with Suu Kyi, the opposition Democratic Party chairman Thu Wai and three ethnic minority party representatives.
“We mainly discussed lifting sanctions. They (the diplomats) asked whether the government would get more benefits if they lifted sanctions,” he told AFP.
“They did not argue anything but noted it down. They seemed to reconsider.”
The release of Suu Kyi from house arrest in November after a widely criticised election has reignited debate over the sanctions, enforced notably by the EU and the United States in response to human rights abuses.
Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), “didn’t commit much” to Tuesday’s discussion, according to Khin Maung Swe, whose party is a breakaway group from the NLD.
“But sometimes she asked to ‘wait and see’ when she replied to some questions,” he said.
An NLD spokesman, Ohn Kyaing, said the party had no details to release about the meeting, but a European diplomat in Yangon said the talks were aimed at “creating interactions” between Myanmar’s opposition parties.
“Everyone kept to their positions,” the diplomat told AFP, declining to be named. “They are not used to discussing and negotiating among themselves so the dialogue was not easy.
This is not in their culture.”
Khin Maung Swe said he told the diplomats that people had been suffering because of sanctions.
“They asked which kind of sanctions we would like to be lifted. I said especially those on trade and investment as they really affect the people.”
Global think-tank International Crisis Group said this month that two decades of Western sanctions against Myanmar had been “highly counterproductive” and needed an urgent overhaul.
Supporters of the trade and financial sanctions say they are the only way to pressure the military rulers of Myanmar, where there are about 2,200 political prisoners.
Suu Kyi’s party appealed in February for talks with the West about sanctions, but suggested they were not hurting the economy and said any changes should be linked to an improvement in human rights.
Her party has no voice in a newly opened parliament dominated by the military and its proxies. It was disbanded for opting to boycott the November vote because the rules seemed designed to bar Suu Kyi from participating.
The United States said last month that calls to ease sanctions on Myanmar were premature.
Tue, 15 March 2011 The UN expert on Myanmar called Monday on the country’s authorities to carry out credible probes of human rights violations, otherwise the international community would have to intervene.
“We need to see strong signals that this government intends to change the policies and practices of the old government,” said Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.
“This new government must sooner rather than later confront the need for truth, justice and accountability,” he told the UN Human Rights Council, making reference to newly elected authorities in January polls.
It is therefore “essential for investigations of human rights to be conducted in an independent, impartial and credible manner, without delay,” he stressed.
“The responsibility to take action falls to the international community if the government fails to do so,” added Quintana.
The special rapporteur also urged the authorities to free all political prisoners without delay, adding that the new government should reform its legislation to end persecution of the opposition.
Myanmar ambassador Thant Kyaw meanwhile rejected the UN expert’s calls, saying that the country’s human rights body has undertaken “thorough investigations” into rights abuses, and that “punitive measures were taken against perpetrators, either civilian or military.”
However, he said that the new government planned to continue cooperation with the Human Rights Council.
Quintana saw this as an assurance that he would be granted permission to visit the country to assess the situation on the ground, and to get an idea if the new government would be more inclined to take human rights into account.
“I take this as an official declaration that they will accept my next request for the first part of this year,” he told journalists.
Quintana last visited Myanmar in February 2010. His requests to visit the country since had been rejected by authorities.
Lisa Schlein | Geneva March 14, 2011
A U.N. Human Rights Expert is calling for an independent commission to investigate gross violations of human rights in Burma, also known as Myanmar. In a report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council, the U.N. Special Investigator describes increasing repression in Burma.
U.N. Special Investigator Tomas Ojea Quintana says the hoped for transition to democracy resulting from last year’s general parliamentary elections has not materialized.
He says political opposition parties and ethnic minorities were excluded from the process, and warns a democratic transition that is incomplete cannot bring stability to Burma.
He says basic freedoms of speech, association and assembly are lacking. He says Burma’s rulers must urgently address the widespread and systematic abuse of human rights.
He says the government must back up its claims of moving toward a more democratic society by sending strong signals it intends to change the policies and practices of the old government. “One of the strongest signals the Government could send would be the release of all prisoners of conscience. The positive decision to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in November 2010 should be followed by the immediate and unconditional release of all those individuals who have been imprisoned for exercising their fundamental human rights,” Quintana said.
Special Investigator Quintana says the new government must sooner, rather than later, confront the need for truth, justice and accountability. Therefore, he says he is renewing his call for an independent, impartial and credible investigation of grave human rights violations to be conducted without delay.
In his recent mission to the region, he says he met with refugees and asylum seekers from all parts of the country. He says their stories reflect many tragedies resulting from government action.
“The abuses most of them suffered were multiple, and reflect the information the international community has been receiving for many years about the widespread violations that occur inside the country. They include: forced labor, extrajudicial execution, sexual and gender-based violence, land and property confiscation, arbitrary taxation, religious and ethnic discrimination, arbitrary detention as well as the deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights,” he said.
The Burmese representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council scorns the report. He says it does not reflect the true situation in Burma. He disputes the special investigator’s characterization of last year’s elections and says the electoral process was free and the transition to democracy in his country is intact.
By Jon Russell Mar 15, 2011 11:30AM UTC
Exiled Burmese news group The Irrawaddy has reported that its website was the victim of a cyber attack last week which saw two fake articles published.
From The Irrawaddy:
The hacker or hackers, whose identify is so far unknown, hijacked the…website on Friday night and posted two false stories, both controversial articles, one intended to sow a misunderstanding between The Irrawaddy and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and another falsely proclaiming that well-known Burmese pop singer May Sweet had died.
Although little is known of the origin of the attack or attackers, the site’s editor, Aung Zaw, suspects that the Burmese pro-military junta group were behind the hack.
“The intension of the attack is to damage the credibility of The Irrawaddy,” he said.
Over the past year, The Irrawaddy has exposed many illegal activities of the Burmese junta, including the fixing of November’s general election, high-level corruption, nepotism, and the release of exclusive photos of secret military missions from Burma to North Korea.
“This is most likely why the junta has assigned technicians to attack our website,” Aung Zaw said.
As one of the leading independent Burmese news groups, the attack will concern The Irrawaddy, whose reputation took a hit when singer Sweet criticised the news group via Facebook after learning of the article about her, still unaware of the circumstances behind it.
As The Irrawaddy article points out, this is not the first time that the group’s site has suffered an attack – having suffered DDos attacks in 2008 and 2010 – nor is the website the sole target of cyber attackers.
Many exile Burmese websites are hacked and defaced by hackers, said an IT expert, though this latest incident indicates that the people hired to do the job are getting more sophisticated in their approach.
“Rather than merely attacking the technical infrastructure of the site, as they have in the past with DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service] attacks, or infecting the servers that host the site with a virus, they may be targeting something more valuable—the news agency’s reputation,” he said.
It seems likely that The Irrawaddy and other exiled organisations which publish material critical of the Burmese regime – Asian Correspondent included – need to increase their defences against new, more dangerous threats in 2011.
Written by Our Correspondent
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Burmese junta suspected
Unknown hackers hijacked the English-language edition of the exile Burmese news website The Irrawaddy last Friday in an apparent attempt to discredit the publication, according to the editor, Aung Zaw.
One of the articles stated that Aung San Suu Kyi and her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were responsible for the recent reduction in funding from international donors to The Irrawaddy and fellow exile news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB). The other was a spurious story saying popular Burmese singer May Sweet had died.
Aung Zaw on Monday said he believed the cyber attack was launched by a pro-military junta group or Naypyidaw’s cyber warfare department.
“The intent of the attack is to damage the credibility of The Irrawaddy,” he said.
Last September, The Irrawaddy’s English and Burmese language websites came under attack by a two-gigabyte DDoS or distributed denial of service attack, which shut down both online editions. DDOS attacks consist of using computers to generate massive numbers of hits that overwhelm websites and make them inaccessible for days. The Irrawaddy’s sites were also temporarily disabled earlier in September by a one-gigabyte DDoS attack.
The Irrawaddy remains arguably the Burmese diaspora’s most important news site, exposing illegal activities of the Burmese junta, including the fixing of November’s general election, high-level corruption, nepotism, and the release of exclusive photos of secret military missions from Burma to North Korea.
“This is most likely why the junta has assigned technicians to attack our website,” Aung Zaw said.
Win Thu, the office manager of The Irrawaddy, acknowledged that there is a security weakness on the website and said he was trying to find the best solution to overcome the weakness.
“From the Web Content Management System (WCMS), the intruder posted two stories,” said Win Thu. “It is important to protect ourselves against such an intrusion. We are investigating who the culprits could be. According to the style of the writing, the culprits may be regular readers who know well the style and layout of The Irrawaddy.”
A WCMS is a system designed to simplify the publication of web content to websites and mobile devices—in particular, allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.
Many exile Burmese websites are hacked and defaced by hackers, said an IT expert, though this latest incident indicates that the people hired to do the job are getting more sophisticated in their approach.
“Rather than merely attacking the technical infrastructure of the site, as they have in the past with DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service] attacks, or infecting the servers that host the site with a virus, they may be targeting something more valuable—the news agency’s reputation,” he said.
The second false article that was posted on the site carried the byline of Violet Cho, a former reporter for The Irrawaddy who left the company in 2009.
The article, that claimed that Burmese celebrity May Sweet had died, infuriated the singer who, not knowing the site had been hacked, launched an attack against The Irrawaddy on her Facebook account.
“I feel sorry for the persons who were mentioned in the fake articles, including May Sweet,” said Win Thu.
Port Blair, Mar 14 : The Joint Defence Command in Andaman and Nicobar islands has managed to nab more that 500 Myanmarese nationals for poaching in the sea since January 2010.
”In 2011, 116 Myanmarese nationals had been apprehended so far.
In the previous year, such number was 486,” Commander Abhinav Barve, the Public Relations officer of Andaman Nicobar Command, told mediapersons at Port Blair.
”The Command has also intensified its routine ‘Jaan Pehchan’ patrols. For the first time an extended patrolling, involving personnel from the Marine Police and the Forest Dept, had been undertaken for a prolonged period of 10 days covering Outram Island, Henry Lawrence Island and John Lawrence Island,” Commander Barve said.
He informed that the Command had urged the Civil Administration to take up the issue of poaching with the Centre.
15:09, March 15, 2011
A total of 8 members from an anti- government ethnic armed group in Myanmar — Kayin National Union ( KNU) laid down their arms to the government forces in the first three months of this year, the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.
These members, who “exchanged arms for peace” with the government, brought along a total of three pistols, 68 rounds of ammunition and one automatic rifle.
The turn-in of the eight armed group members has brought the total number to 51 to date since December 2010.
KNU, which fought with the government for more than six decades since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, remains as the largest anti- government ethnic armed group still operating on the Myanmar-Thai border.
Since the government adopted a policy of national reconciliation in 1989, 17 main anti-government armed groups have made peace with the government, returning to the legal fold under respective cease-fire agreements.
13:10, March 15, 2011
A business meeting of visiting entrepreneurs of China’s Anhui province and Myanmar’s was held at the Sedona Hotel on Monday to seek business cooperation between the Chinese province and Myanmar.
Sponsored by the Bureau of Commerce of Anhui Province of China and co-organized by Economic and Commercial Counselor’s Office of the Chinese Embassy and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the business meeting was attended by about 40 enterprises from the Chinese province and about 50 enterprises from the Myanmar side.
The two sides had discussions on cooperation in automobile manufacturing, agricultural and garment production, transportation, real estate, fire fighting and construction as well as trading of medicine, handicraft and furniture.
Introducing about Anhui province and its economic situation, Yu Yong, Director General of the Bureau of Commerce of Anhui Province said bilateral trade between China and Myanmar is very encouraging and steadfastly growing.
On the occasion, U Win Aung, UMFCCI Vice President, invited the Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Myanmar’s emerging special economic zones.
According to statistics, of Myanmar’s total foreign investment brought in since two decades ago, China’s investment has now topped with 9.603 billion USD.
Chinese official statistics also shows, bilateral trade between China and Myanmar totaled 4.444 billion USD in 2010, an increase of 53.2 percent correspondingly.
There are 170 Chinese companies investing in Myanmar according to the figures.
Report by James Franklin , Reporter Tuesday, March 15, 2011 12:30 PM
THE oppression of one of Burma’s indigenous peoples was the topic for conversation at a special meeting of the Weston group of Amnesty UK on March 9.
Nant Bwa Bwa Phan spoke about the plight of the Karen people, many of whom are forced to live in camps in the country, after she was forced to leave her home country at the age of 17.
Mrs Phan, who is a member of the Karen National Union, recently travelled back to the temporary camps on the country’s border with Thailand, and described the hardship of her people, may of whom are forced to live in the camps for 15 or more years.
ABC News – Darwin asylum seekers stage rooftop protest
Posted 4 hours 34 minutes ago
About six asylum seekers are on the roof of the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin.
The ABC has received reports that there has been an altercation between Burmese asylum seekers and security staff at the centre.
The Burmese then got onto the roof after the altercation.
The Immigration Department has been asked to explain what is happening.
The protest comes after about 200 asylum seekers yesterday damaged the Christmas Island detention facility, destroyed closed-circuit television cameras and lighting a fire.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said there was no direct confrontation and federal police officers were able to regain control without the use of tear gas, which was used to quell a larger riot on Sunday night.
“Clearly we have a difficult situation with ongoing tension – but it is being managed. I don’t underplay the seriousness of this event or the difficulties of this event,” he said.
The Christmas Island riots followed a break-out of the facility last week of 170 detainees, who staged a demonstration at the airport complaining of slow processing of their visa applications.
After the Myawaddy authorities banned the import of Thai goods to Myanmar at piers along the Moei River, Mr Pongthep said the impact became extensive.
The cause of the strict measure to ban the import of Thai goods is unclear, but it is believed that it was in response to Thai government measures on sugar smuggling, he said.
The Thai military and border patrol police are stationed at piers along the Moei River in Mae Sot district. Meanwhile, despite the ban of Thai goods to cross border for six days, Myanmar people are allowed to cross the river by long-tailed boats to the Thai side to buy consumer goods.
Some buy commodities for hoarding for fear of sabotage in Myawaddy after rumours of a possible attack by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) on Friday and Saturday.
Myanmar has closed goods transport across the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge since July 12 last year, but had allowed Thai goods to be transported through temporarily permitted areas at piers along the Moei River.
The ban of Thai goods transportation by boat at this time causes consumers goods in Myawaddy to start to be in short supply. (MCOT online news)
Posted on Mar 15th, 2011 Myanmar Port Authority (MPA) and a Chinese company will collaborate on a one-year project to dredge the Yangon River that will lead to vessels of up to 35,000 tonnes being able to dock at Yangon Port.
U Sai Aik Aung, managing director of Pacific Rehouse, one of two local representatives of the Chinese firm involved in the project, said dredging would start this month on a 48-kilometre stretch of the river, between where the Yangon River meets the Andaman Sea and Shwe Pyi Thar bridge.
MPA and CCCC TDC Tainjin Dredging completed discussions for the implementation of the Yangon Port Improvement Project in the first week of February, he said, and company representatives met Minister for Transport U Thein Swe on February 21. U Sai Aik Aung declined to give the value of the contract and the exact start date for the project.
“This is a collaborative project between the [governments of] Myanmar and China and we expect it will assist the development of our country. If the river access channel is better, our economy will be better,” said U Sai Aik Aung.
The dredging will make it possible for vessels of up to 35,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT) to dock at Yangon Port, up from 15,000 DWT.
Mr Fu Jingchang, general manager of CCCC TDC Tainjin Dredging, said his company was also hopeful of winning a contract to dredge the Ayeyarwady River.
“This project will help the development of many business sectors. About 300 to 400 Chinese technicians are surveying the river as a pre-feasibility study and we expect the project will take eight months to one year to complete,” he said.
It is the first time a foreign company has won a dredging contract here, said Mr Phan, general manager of China Ming Hua (HK) Sai Group, another local representative of CCCC
TDC Tainjin Dredging.
“If it’s successful I think we’ll see more projects like this in the future,” he said.
He said the Chinese firm had a great deal of experience in carrying out dredging projects and was also involved in road, airport, railway, tunnel and dam construction.
By Nay Nwe Moe Aung (mmtimes)
By WAI MOETuesday, March 15, 2011
FIFA President Sepp Blatter kicked off his two-day visit to military-ruled Burma, with the football-crazy first family of Snr-Gen Than Shwe delighted to roll out the red carpet to welcome him.
Regime officials said Blatter was scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of a FIFA-funded football academy in Burma’s second largest city of Mandalay, shortly after landing in the city on Tuesday afternoon.
He will also meet the outgoing prime minster and President-in-waiting ex-Gen Thein Sein in Naypyidaw on Wednesday before flying to Laos. Blatter will spend Tuesday evening in Rangoon, according to the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF).
Even though ruling junta propaganda vowed after the 1988 coup that Burma’s sporting prowess—including football—would soon dazzle the world, the nation ranks 161th out of 202 in the 2011 FIFA rankings. Burma was thrashed 7-1 by Vietnam in the Asian Football Federation’s Suzuki Cup in December.
For Blatter, however, Burma’s deplorable sporting and human rights record was not important. Indeed, this is not his first visit to tyrannical states this year following February’s trip to Sudan for the African Nation Championship in Khartoum. The Sudanese government is currently accused of gross human rights abuses in its Darfur region.
“The first family is football crazy,” said a senior official in Naypyidaw who spoke on condition of anonymity. “And the FIFA chairman does not mind a free ticket with red carpet treatment.”
The Naypyidaw official added that whether or not Blatter is just focusing on football in Burma, the regime will not forget the political benefits of such a high profile foreign visitor. He said, “meeting FIFA means we get international recognition.”
Despite Burma’s Nov. 7 sham election and its new Parliament facing international condemnation, regional allies China, Vietnam and Brunei plus UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have cheered Thein Sein as ‘President-elect’, according to reports in The New Light of Myanmar. But the state-run newspaper neglected to mention another nation which offered congratulations, East Asia’s rogue state of North Korea.
Though FIFA officials said Blatter’s visit will not be political one, diplomatic sources in Bangkok said some European ambassadors urged him to meet Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the trip.
Blatter came to the country by invitation of association President Zaw Zaw who runs the Max Myanmar Group of Companies.
Zaw Zaw has been the favorite crony of Than Shwe since 2010, when he was the first local businessman to be granted the Dawei Industrial Zone project worth billions of dollars.
Rangoon businessmen said the principle connection between Than Shwe’s family and the tycoon is the junta head’s grandson, Nay Shwe Thway Aung, also known as Phoe La Pyi. Like most Burmese football supporters, both Than Shwe and Nay Shwe Thway Aung are fans of English Premier League leaders Manchester United.
The interest of psychological warfare expert Than Shwe in football seems to be more than simply sport, but also a propaganda attempt to win legitimacy in the country. In May 2009, the first Myanmar League matches began with eight clubs each run by different tycoons, including US-sanctioned Tay Za of Htoo Group of Companies, and Tun Myint Naing of AsiaWorld. Remarkably, it was only a year after deadly Cyclone Nargis hit Burma and killed as many as 134,000 people while the junta failed to launch relief missions quickly enough.
However, the creation of a football league is still unlikely to win people’s minds, and the development of the nation’s sporting infrastructure is uncertain amid such false propaganda and mismanagement.
“People go to watch football matches, it does not mean they love and support ruling generals and their cronies. While people are fans of a tycoon’s club, they remain supporters of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said an editor with a Rangoon-based sport journal.
“On the other hand, Burmese football will still struggle not to be one of the worst teams in Southeast Asia while it is dominated by VIP culture like other sectors of the country,” he added.
By KO HTWE Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Thet Thet Aung, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, who is serving a 65-year prison term, has been refused medical treatment despite suffering for over a month with stomach cramps and hypertension, according to her mother.
After visiting her daughter in Myingyan Prison, 396 miles from Rangoon, on Thursday, Su Su Kyi said that the prison doctor checks Thet Thet Aung once a week, but that she needs additional medical treatment.
“She [Thet Thet Aung] said she was not well over a month ago,” said Su Su Kyi. “She takes an injection every day but is not getting better. I took some medicine to her because the provisions in prison are poor quality. The food she is fed is also bad.”
Su Su Kyi said she tried to inform the prison officials, but they did not meet with her.
According to official data, Burma’s prison system has 34 doctors, 19 medical attendants and 22 nurses catering to a total of 248,664 prisoners and detainees in 44 prisons and 109 labor camps across the country.
The figures suggest that there is one doctor for every 7,314 prisoners.
“My daughter is losing weight and her face is full of blemishes,” said Su Su Kyi. “I can see she is pretending to smile when I visit her. I feel so worried. I only have one daughter.”
Thet Thet Aung is the mother of three boys, aged 11, nine and six. The youngest was still being breastfed when his mother was arrested in 2007.
Thet Thet Aung’s husband, Chit Ko Lay, who is also a member of the pro-democracy group, was sentenced to 11 years and is serving his term in Pakokku Prison in Magwe
Division. Thet Thet Aung’s aunt, San San Tin, and her cousin, Noe Noe, also both members of the 88 Generation Students group, were sentenced to a minimum of six years imprisonment.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), based in Mae Sot, Thailand, there are 2,076 political prisoners across Burma, 157 of whom are women. AAPP said 152 political prisoners are in bad health, and 146 have died in custody since 1987.
The Irrawaddy – Junta’s Human Rights Body Simply a Smokescreen
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, March 15, 2011
BANGKOK — In 2007, just weeks after the Saffron Revolution against military rule in Burma and in the midst of an army crackdown on monks and other protesters, the Burmese regime established the Myanmar Human Rights Body (MHRB). The MHRB accepts “complaints and communications from those whose human rights are reportedly being violated, carrying out necessary investigations and taking proper actions although they are not included in the mandate of the Body,” according to the Burmese government’s submission to the January Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Asked about the body, National Democratic Front (NDF) Chairman Dr Than Nyein said that “the human rights organizations set up by the old government have not done anything.” Than Nyein—whose party hopes to push an amnesty in the new Parliament for Burma’s 2,189 political prisoners as well as Burmese exiles—added that “we have not considered raising the issue of human rights institutions in Parliament just now.”
Established by a group of former members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the NDF won a total of 16 seats in the Nov 7, 2010, general election and hopes to function as a minority opposition in the country’s new Parliament, which opened on January 31. However, during the Jan 27 UPR proceedings in Geneva—the first time that Burma has been subject to the review—the Burmese delegation reiterated the government’s claim that there are no political prisoners in Burma, saying that all are imprisoned for violating “prevailing laws, not because of their political beliefs.”
The MHRB is apparently a revived version of an agency first established in 2000, but was set up under its current format on Nov 14, 2007, during a visit to Burma by former UN human rights envoy Paolo Sergio Pinheiro. This in turn came just after the arrest of Buddhist monk U Gambira, who was at the forefront of the monk-led protests during September 2007, and amid the rounding-up of hundreds of other protesters after unknown numbers died during the eventual army crackdown on demonstrations.
In his latest report on the human rights situation in Burma published on March 7, current UN human rights envoy Tomás Ojea Quintana said that he contacted the Burmese authorities about the workings of the MHRB. Quintana asked specifically about the legislative framework for the body, including how citizens could file complaints and how the government made citizens aware of the MHRB’s existence. But he has not yet received a response.
In its submission to the UPR, the Burmese delegation said that a notice about the body had been published in newspapers in 2006. According to the government, from January to August 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs received 503 submissions and action was taken on 199 complaints, while 203 complaints were under investigation and another 101 were found to be false. According to Quintana, “these figures, and the mechanism itself, raise many questions that remain unanswered.”
The MHRB includes in its mandate the scope to “review and submit to the United Nations and international human rights activities,” meaning that it was likely to have been the lead agency in compiling and presenting the Burmese regime’s recent statement to the UPR. The MHRB seems to be working alongside UN agencies in Burma, at least on an ad hoc basis. According to the Burmese government report to the UPR, “the Workshop on the Universal Periodic Review Preparation for the National Report was successfully held in Nay Pyi Taw on May 10–11, 2010. The workshop was a very significant step which represented the first ever joint initiative between the government of Myanmar and the [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights] regarding the UPR process.”
The Burmese delegation to the UPR was headed by Attorney-General Tun Shin, who is also head of the MHRB. Tun Shin is on the European Union visa ban list, part of the bloc’s sanctions against the Burmese regime.
Thailand currently holds the Presidency of the UN Human Rights Council. But this is a much-derided body which recently suspended the Libyan government from its elected position on the council due to ongoing violence as the Gaddhafi regime attempts to quash a rebellion in the country’s east. Libya, along with the United States and South Korea, was one of the three countries nominated to oversee the Burma review, which culminated in the Burmese delegation’s presentation over one month ago.
According to Tun Shin, the MHRB will eventually be reformed into a National Human Rights Commission even though no timetable has been given for this. As far back as 1999, the Burmese government hinted that it would consider setting up an independent human rights commission after suggestions by then Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer.
As things stand, however, “the body is nowhere near the independence it should have in line with the Paris Principles on National Human Rights Institutions,” according to David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch. The Paris Principles say that such human rights commissions should be independent of government and feature representation from the country’s civil society, among other criteria.
At the recent Geneva review, several countries—including India, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Thailand—advocated to the Burmese delegation that they reform the MHRB into an independent agency. While the Burmese government was happy to take these recommendations on board, the delegation in Geneva refuted criticisms made by Western countries about Burma’s human rights record. The delegation said that Burma has a free press, that allegations of army rape in ethnic minority areas are false, and that human rights violations do not take place in Burma.
Last week, Denmark and Latvia joined a list of 16 Western countries backing the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. Quintana, who initiated the call for a CoI in early 2010, reiterated the suggestion in his latest report on Burma. The UN Special Rapporteur said that such an inquiry is necessary as there is no accountability for human rights abuses in Burma, the majority of which are attributable to state policy.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 18:01 Myo Thant
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on Tuesday that 20 candidates have been disqualified and barred from standing for election after they failed to file their required election expenses within the stipulated time.
Eight candidates from the National Unity Party, four from the National Democratic Force (NDF), one independent candidate and seven other candidates were barred from contesting in the current term and in the next term of Parliament, according to an UEC announcement in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
All candidates were required to submit their election expenses within 60 days from the date the election results were announced.
Disqualified candidates can remain as party members, said NDF party information chief Toe Toe.
‘This is their electoral laws, and we have our own party rules’, he said. ‘These candidates will remain as our party members as long as they do not breach our party rules and constitution’.
According to the electoral laws, a candidate was required to deposit 500,000 kyat (US$ 570) with the UEC, and he was allowed to spend a maximum of 10 million kyat (US$ 11,400) on his campaign.
Retired Lieutenant General Tin Aye is the chair of the six-member UEC, which was reformed on February 25 by the new Parliament.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 11:48 Mizzima News
Myitkyina (Mizzima) – About 500 Burmese regime soldiers have been dispatched to the Putao area in northern Kachin State as reinforcements, according to local residents.
Residents said the troops belonged to Light Infantry Battalions No. 46 and 137 under the junta’s Northern Command.
Meanwhile, sources said local residents were forced to provide labour to build new structures for military bases and to dig bunkers for the troops, stationed about 18 miles south of Putao. One family member per home was forced to work, sources said.
‘In this season, young people want to work in the gold mines. But, they were forced to work for the military’, said a resident in Washayang village.
Similarly, in late February, more than 200 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion No. 58 were sent to Waimaw in Kachin State.
Kachin sources said the junta reinforcements are designed to control the area and to pressure the Kachin Independence Organization, which has rejected the junta’s order to become a part of its Border Guard Force plan.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 16:58 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department warned that gales, with winds of up to 63 miles per hour, are likely to hit Burma accompanied by heavy rainfall during March.
A gale force wind is rated seven to 10 on the Beaufort scale or 32 to 63 miles per hour (28-55 knots).
As daytime temperatures rise before the southwest monsoon season, cumulonimbus clouds will form during the afternoon or evening across Burma and gales with thunder, lighting, hail and isolated rain or thunderstorms are likely to occur, the weather department said. A cumulonimbus cloud forms a towering mass with a flat base at fairly low altitude.
A state-run newspaper said that a lighting strike killed a woman in Kalawea village in Thanlyin Township in Rangoon on March 11.
The woman was the third lighting-strike victim within a month, according to Tun Lwin, a meteorologist with the Myanmar Climate Change Watch Group.
Tun Lwin said a La Nina weather pattern in the Bay of Bengal will add to the high winds and thundershowers. People who use sea routes should be extra aware of the developing weather conditions, he said.
On March 11, 150 houses were destroyed and more than 760 people were displaced in Rangoon Division because of a storm with high winds and rain, according to data compiled by authorities. About 20 houses were destroyed due to a storm in Bogalay Township in Irrawaddy Division on the same day.
Tun Lwin, a former official in Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department, currently publishes weather reports via his website.
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 15 March 2011 Newly leaked US cables reveal Washington’s fears over Indian relations with Burma, with US embassy staff questioning Delhi’s policy on arms and energy.
The cables, dating from 30 May 2007, allege that a “hesitance to be forthcoming on Burma is consistent with the GOI [Government of India] approach to discussing Burma”.
They also claim that the director of India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied selling arms to Burma, despite an assertion by a US embassy official that “numerous sources continued to report ongoing sales of military equipment”, including the Soviet-designed T-55 tank, 155mm howitzers, assault rifles and munitions.
The Indians “denied that the GOI had sold any lethal equipment to the Burmese.”
Several months after the May 2007 cable date, Burma erupted in the monk-led uprising known as the Saffron Revolution, when there was intense pressure on India not to sell arms to its eastern neighbour.
Despite this, on 11 December 2008, Jane’s Information Group quoted an unnamed “senior” Indian official as saying that “It would be incorrect to assume that military supplies to Myanmar [Burma] have been summarily halted for all time.”
The 2007 cable also spoke of Indian satisfaction with Burma’s co-operation in anti-insurgency activities, unlike their Bangladeshi counterparts, whilst denying that any joint military operations had occurred.
The US followed this by saying that the Indian government “should consider that any arms transferred to the Burmese junta could be used against innocent civilians”
Meanwhile a second cable, dated 30 January 2006, cheers the axing of Indian Minister of Energy Mani Shankar Aiyar because “Aiyar’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MPNG) continued to interfere with MEA attempts to craft policy”. His dismissal, the cable said, would “put MEA back in charge of policy toward these energy suppliers, including the ‘problem children’ of Sudan, BURMA and Iran.”
Aiyar was India’s energy minister from May 2004 until January 2006. He was seen as an active proponent of India’s policy of engaging key fuel-rich nations who are opposed to the Washington consensus; in a sense, a man who personified India’s inferiority complex when compared to China’s voracious acquisition of foreign assets.
Amongst his more ambitious plans was a pipeline from Iran to India to tap that country’s vast oil reserves.
Most indications suggest that Indian military sales to Burma have indeed remained of a very limited scope. Regional analyst Bertil Lintner saw the sale of T-55 tanks as particularly impossible, but suspected that the lack of joint operations between the Indians and the Burmese along their troubled border was more down to Burmese than Indian reticence.
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 15 March 2011
Foreign investment in Burma’s multiple military-backed dam projects is contributing to environmental degradation and human rights abuses such as forced displacement, a Thailand-based watchdog has warned.
Companies should cease their involvement in ongoing hydropower projects, the Burma Rivers Network (BRN) said yesterday to mark International Rivers Day. Some 25 dams are either mid-construction or being planned along Burma’s waterways, the majority catalysed by substantial Chinese investment and demand.
“The investing companies and the military junta, despite protests from local residents, are going ahead with the dam project,” said BRN’s Ah Nan. “The dams will affect millions of people living both up and downstream on the rivers.”
She said some 200 locals on two sides of Salween river, which runs through eastern Burma, yesterday held ceremonies praying for protection of the river as concerns mount about the possible impact of the Weigyi and Hatgyi dams, two of five projects planned for the Salween.
“Despite the highly controversial nature of the Hatgyi dam, which is located in a contested war-zone, Thailand is pushing ahead for it to be the first of the dams built on the Salween River,” says the BRN website. “Although it is the smallest of the five planned dams, there are fears that once built, it will pave the way for the building of the other larger dams.”
Despite the aggressive damming of Burma’s rivers and the subsequent impact on local communities, BRN says that most of the power will be exported, despite only 20 percent of Burma’s population having regular access to electricity.
There is also the potential for energy projects to exacerbate armed conflict in Burma, with the majority of the dams located in volatile ethnic border regions.
“Areas around the planned dam sites, particularly along the Salween, are heavily militarized by the junta’s troops, who have forcibly relocated hundreds of thousands of local civilians, and commit ongoing systematic human rights abuses, including torture, killing and rape,” said a statement released by BRN yesterday.
“Foreign engineers currently surveying for the dams are being escorted by the very same troops committing these abuses.”
A report released last week by the Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG) warned that more than 37,000 people could be displaced by a series of hydropower projects in Karenni state, which borders Thailand. Surveying for the projects is underway and, according to KDRG, there is a real threat that the Yintale, a Karenni sub-group, could be wiped out.
BRN said that foreign investors should consider that their input risks both reputation and lives “as it is impossible to adhere to meaningful dam-building standards when affected communities are silenced with violence”.