BURMA RELATED NEWS – SEPTEMBER 06, 2011
Sep 6th, 2011
Posted: 06 September 2011 1838 hrs YANGON: Myanmar has formed a National Human Rights Commission in response to an appeal by a UN envoy for the new government to investigate alleged abuses, an official said Tuesday.
State media reported that the panel would be made up of 15 former ambassadors, government officials and academics.
It comes less than two weeks after the visiting UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said that “serious human rights issues remain” under the country’s new nominally civilian government.
“The commission was formed to focus on Mr Quintana’s report,” said a government official who did not want to be named, without providing further details about its mandate.
Quintana called for the release of Myanmar’s more than 2,000 political prisoners and voiced concern about the situation in ethnic conflict zones, including attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings and sexual assault.
The Myanmar regime has shown signs recently that it is seeking to improve its image by reaching out to critics such as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who met President Thein Sein for the first time last month.
Suu Kyi was released by the junta in November after seven straight years of house arrest, just days after an election that was marred by allegations of cheating and which was won by the military’s political proxies.
The new civilian administration is dominated by former generals.
By Zin Linn Sep 06, 2011 10:08PM UTC
The Shwe Gas Movement and The Palaung Women’s Organization held a press conference today at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok. During the press conference, a new report entitled “SOLD OUT” was also released by the Shwe Gas Movement.
The report details the expending construction of a deep seaport, gas terminal and oil transfer point in Burma’s Arakan State as well as placing of nearly 800-kilometer pipe-line.
Allowing freely of China pipeline project has become the cause of human rights abuses across the country. Dual pipelines across the country will become major structure pumping Burma’s natural-gas reserves as well as oil from middle-east and Africa to feed energy greedy China.
The 6,600 government soldiers to guard a corridor for the pipelines deployed from western coastline of Burma to north-eastern Sino-Burma border. The deployment risks growing abuses and ethnic instability, according to the report – Sold Out – by the Shwe Gas Movement.
Wong Aung of the Shwe Gas Movement explained the situation on the ground during the press panel that thousands of acres of farm lands have been confiscated in Arakan and Shan states as well as Magwe and Mandalay divisions to clear areas for the pipeline and associated infrastructure.
Fields have also been made unreachable; on Ramree Island the amount of land classified as “restricted access” by local authorities has recently increased in the areas around Sichoun, Sittaw and Ngagamaw villages. Construction equipment and trucks have ridden roughshod over fields, destroying crops and damaging soils. Some farmers have been prevented from harvesting crops in fields adjacent to construction areas. Companies have also dumped waste materials on paddy lands, the report says.
“Companies are ignoring widespread abuses and worsening civil war,” said Wong Aung.
Lway Aye Nang of the Palaung Women’s Organization highlighted the evil impacts of the civil war along the Chinese pipeline areas where Burmese soldiers committed rapes, murders, lootings and forced-laboring.
“The investors should pull out now before the project blows up in their faces,” Wong Aung added.
According to the Shwe Gas Movement group, the natural gas should be used domestically to transform deteriorating economy of the country. Due to fuel shortage and transportation prices increasing, a protest grew into the saffron revolution in 2007, the report said.
Burma’s Special Economic Zone Law was enacted in 2011 with the aim of encouraging more foreign direct investment and offers special concessions and tax incentives to companies investing in these zones. The law specifies that investors have a duty to increase the number of skilled “locals” to 25% ten years into the project, the report points out.
However “local” is defined as “national,” as a result there is no guarantee for local people to enjoy job opportunities. Land speculation and confiscation pushes out locals.
As corrupt officials and businessmen rival for major real-estate near special economic zones and land prices skyrocket, local people are forced off their lands by a “market-based forced relocation.” At the same time outright confiscation of lands in the zone by military authorities is ongoing in the Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone.
The report urged corporations such as China National Petroleum Corp and South Korea’s Daewoo International to withdraw from the projects, which will ship natural gas from Burma and oil from the Middle East and Africa to China.
As a final point, the Shwe gas movement accused the Burmese government of selling out the country’s economic future to China. The use of country’s natural gas domestically could change Burma into an economically healthy nation, it gave a positive message.
Tue Sep 6, 2011 7:28am GMT BANGKOK, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Controversial oil and gas pipelines spanning Myanmar will deprive its people of billions of dollars worth of their own resources and risk sparking armed conflict that threatens energy security for neighboring China, activists said on Tuesday.
Chinese-led construction of a combined 3,900 km (2,420 miles) of pipelines has displaced thousands of people and damaged livelihoods of farmers and fishermen, prioritising China’s growing energy needs before those of the Burmese people, the Thailand-based Shwe Gas Movement said.
The project involves the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation , India’s ONGC Videsh and South Korea’s Daewoo International .
Its construction, which began in June, has led to human rights violations from beatings, forced labour and rape to unlawful imprisonment and forced eviction, the non-governmental organisation said in a report entitled “Sold Out”.
The Shwe project, it said, would earn Myanmar’s government just $1 billion a year for the next 30 years and was doing nothing to address the acute domestic power shortages.
“The ‘Shwe’ offshore fields will produce trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that could be used to spur economic and social development in one of the world’s least developed nations,” it said.
“Instead it will be piped across the country to China, fuelling abuses and conflict in its path.”
RISKY INVESTMENT
The pipelines, due for completion in 2013, are a major factor behind Myanmar’s close ties with economic heavyweight China.
China enjoys easy access to its neighbour’s abundant and cheap resources, with barely any competition from Western firms, most of which have stayed on the sidelines due to sanctions on Myanmar.
The relationship covers opaque deals worth billions of dollars in energy, mining, transport, telecommunications and construction that critics say will have only limited benefits for Myanmar’s 50 million people. Many in Myanmar live below the poverty line and have watched their country wilt under five decades authoritarian military rule.
An estimated 12 million cubic metres of Burmese natural gas will be transported annually through a 2,800-km pipeline running deep into southwest China to generate electricity. A further 22 million tonnes of oil originating from the Middle East and Africa will flow into China through another 1,100-km pipeline.
The group warned firms to think twice about investing in Myanmar’s energy sector because of festering political conflicts with the country’s armed ethnic groups. It cited attacks by separatists in May that temporarily halted operations on a hydropower plant, leaving 30 Chinese engineers trapped.
More than 6,000 Burmese troops had been deployed to provide security, and the decision to build the pipelines close to the rebellious border states of Kachin and Shan presented a high risk of protracted conflict and severing of energy supplies.
“Armed conflict can break out at any time, posing enormous risks to foreign investments,” the group said.
“Projects may be delayed and or temporarily or permanently halted due to conflict and the safety of project personnel suddenly brought into question.”
Tuesday 6th September, 2011 (IANS) More than 100 Indian MPs have urged the Myanmar president to free more than 2,000 political prisoners.
The appeal has been made by Ram Jethmalani, convener of the Indian Parliamentarians’ Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), and members of the group.
They are backing a call from Myanmar democratic leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the release of political prisoners.
There are still more than 2,000 political prisoners in prisons in Myanmar, and many are in deplorable conditions, the group said.
Most of them have been sentenced to 65 years and more, it said.
‘We, Indian parliamentarians, hope to see a genuine democratic system in Burma and … call upon the government to release all political prisoners in the country.
‘Their release will be a positive step in the spirit of conciliation and dialogue that Burma now needs.’
The Star – Somalia pirates free MV Panama after $7 mln ransom paid
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali pirates freed the Liberian-flagged container ship MV PANAMA seized last December after receiving a $7 million ransom on Tuesday, pirates holding the ship told Reuters.
The vessel was hijacked on Dec. 10 en route from Tanzania to Mozambique with a crew of 23 from Myanmar.
“We received the agreed ransom of $7 million early in the morning after long negotiations. Now we have abandoned the ship and it is sailing away safely,” a pirate who gave his name as Abdi told Reuters.
Somali piracy is estimated to cost the world economy billions of dollars a year and international navies struggle to combat the menace, especially in the Indian Ocean due to the vast distances involved. The shipping industry has warned that seaborne gangs pose an increasing threat to vital sea lanes.
The pirates are becoming increasingly violent and are able to stay out at sea for long periods using captured merchant vessels as mother ships.
Al Jazeera correspondent Barnaby Phillips tells a story of friendship, bravery and sometimes uncomfortable truths.
Last Modified: 29 Aug 2011 12:05
By Barnaby Phillips
I am standing under a pagoda, deep in the jungles of Myanmar. The monsoon rains are relentless, and water comes cascading down through the trees. A troop of monkeys huddles for shelter above me. I am waiting for a family I have never met to arrive. This is the culmination of a journey that has taken me across three continents and eight decades, and into the horrors of an almost forgotten chapter of the Second World War. It is a story about the collapse of the British Empire, but also about heroism and courage I could never have imagined. Now, I need to repay a debt of gratitude, still strong after 67 years.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the story of the ‘Burma Boys’. These are the 100,000 or so African troops whom the British shipped to Asia in 1943-44, as part of a desperate effort to stop the all-conquering Japanese army. My interest comes from spending much of my life in Africa (I grew up in Kenya and spent many years as a BBC correspondent in Southern and West Africa) and my love of history, which I studied at Oxford University. But it was fuelled further by a sense that the story of the Burma Boys is so neglected, almost forgotten, not only here in Britain, but also in many of the African countries from where they came – Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and so on.
For many years, I had been looking for an opportunity to tell their story. I read lots of articles and books, and spoke to experts. Several British officers, who commanded African troops, wrote memoirs of their experiences. These are interesting, but they tell the story from only one perspective. I was looking for an authentic African voice. Often, I worried that I had left things too late. Even the youngest veterans of the Second World War are now in their late 80s. Realistically, I thought, very few of the Burma Boys would still be alive in the villages of Nigeria or Ghana.
Forgotten heroes
In December 2009, I took a few days off from work to do some research in the library of London’s Imperial War Museum. There, to my delight, I came across a memoir written by a Nigerian soldier who was in Burma. Sixty pages long and beautifully written, it told a dramatic tale. The author was called Isaac Fadoyebo.
In 1942, as the Second World War raged, the Japanese swept through Asia, and the British retreated in chaos. Singapore, Malaya, and then Burma fell, and the jewel of the Empire – India – was under threat. Britain, already stretched, desperately needed manpower. It turned to its African colonies for help and Isaac, looking for adventure, was one who volunteered to go.
His story was dramatic. He was attacked by the Japanese in the jungle, shot in the leg and stomach, and left for dead. He could not crawl, let alone walk. Fortunately, nearby Bengali-speaking villagers who supported the British, took pity on him, and brought him food and water. One family took the courageous decision to hide him in their hut, risking execution by the Japanese if their generosity had been discovered. After nine months in hiding, Isaac was rescued by British troops. He returned to Nigeria as a hero, but his exploits were soon forgotten. He became a civil servant, troubled by injuries for the rest of his life.
Finding Isaac’s memoir was the breakthrough I was looking for, and I knew straight away that I had to try and discover if he was still alive. The British academic who had edited the memoir had not heard from Isaac in more than 10 years. That was discouraging. Eventually, I managed to find a phone number in Lagos, and received information that Isaac was in fact alive and well. I called Lagos from my home in Athens with my heart in my mouth. The line was faint, but the voice that answered was strong. “Mr Phillips,” it boomed, “when are you coming?”
The ‘green hell’
I travelled to Nigeria in April of this year, to meet Isaac. Nigeria has a daunting reputation, but it is a country that is close to my heart. I lived in Lagos for three years as a young reporter, and although I often found it frustrating, it was always stimulating and exciting. Nigerians can be brash and loud, but I also found them to be generous and gracious, and full of good-humour, and I will always look back on my time there with deep affection.
Isaac and I became friends. I wanted to know what motivated him to fight for “King Georgie” and Empire. Did he and other Africans choose to do so? Often, in the “green hell” of the Burmese jungles, Africans discovered first-hand that the British were not infallible. The myth of racial supremacy was shattered and survivors were emboldened to think in new ways.
He told me how, in dense vegetation, and on steep mountainsides, combat was up-close, and prisoners were often executed. Monsoon rains lasted for months, drenching men and their equipment, making sleep impossible, and turning streams into frothing, brown torrents. Malaria and typhus decimated the ranks. African soldiers marched for days behind enemy lines, carrying heavy loads and relying on air-supplies for food and ammunition.
Senior British officers were often dismissive and condescending about the Africans who fought for them (although the heroic role of Indian, and especially Gurkha soldiers, has received plenty of publicity). Back in Britain, I sought out the handful of junior officers – the sergeants, lieutenants and captains – who are still alive, and who were in direct command of African troops in the jungle. I found a remarkable collection of men; one aged 102, and many in their 90s.
They were almost unanimous in their praise for the courage, skill and stamina of their men. Some of the more thoughtful wondered what motivated Africans to fight so bravely for a cause that must have meant little to them. One officer reflected: “We imposed greatly upon their generosity.” But some are still tortured by terrible regrets and guilt.
Isaac, though, was my most important source of information. He told me of the brutality of the Japanese, who killed his friends and left him to die in a remote jungle. So I also travelled to Japan, to meet veterans who fought Africans in Burma. This journey gave me a different perspective on the war, as I learnt about the appalling deprivations suffered by Japanese soldiers.
A letter of gratitude
Isaac spoke, above all, of his enduring debt of friendship to the family of poor Bengali rice farmers in Burma who kept him hidden and fed for months. He thinks of them every day, but has had no contact in 67 years.
I decided to go to Burma (today known as Myanmar), and look for them. This journey presented many obstacles, but I eventually arrived in a remote and inhospitable region, in the height of the monsoon season. I was carrying a letter of gratitude from Isaac, and photographs, but I did not have precise information on how to find the village or if it was even still there.
Miraculously, I found the family who saved Isaac. We met in a remote jungle pagoda. I discovered that they still treasure Isaac’s memory. They were overcome to hear that he is still alive, just as I was overcome by their selflessness, and the depth of their humanity.
In 20 years in journalism, I am not sure that I have been involved in a project so satisfying and moving as the making of The Burma Boy. It taught me about friendship and bravery. It helped me uncover new and sometimes uncomfortable truths about my own country, Britain. And it ended in an extraordinary and emotional climax, one I could never have foreseen.
I am now trying to write a book on the story, with more context and background. I hope you enjoy the film, wherever in the world you might be watching, and would appreciate your views and comments.
Published on September 6, 2011
The Cabinet today approved the Finance Ministry’s negotiation framework for the establishment of Asean Infrastructure Fund (AIF).
Under the initiative, AIF will finance infrastructure development in the region with funds raised in the region. Bonds will be issued, to make the full use of regional savings, and they can be held as foreign reserves.
All Asean members except Burma will join the AIF, which also wins support by the Asian Development Bank. The initial funding is US$485.2 million, including $15 million seed money from Thailand. ADB, which will manage the fund, will lend 70 per cent to all approved infrastructure projects while the fund will loan the remaining 30 per cent.
The fund’s size will be raised through hybrid bonds and bonds as well as additional injection from members.
By WAI MOE Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sein Kyaw Hlaing, a veteran Burmese journalist working in exile for the BBC Burmese Service (BBC Burmese) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), was reportedly detained and interrogated in Rangoon after accepting President Thein Sein’s offer to exiles to return home.
Sein Kyaw Hlaing, who became well-known by Burmese audiences while working as a broadcaster for the BBC Burmese in the1990s, was reportedly detained by Burmese secret service officers shortly after he arrived at the Rangoon International Airport in late August, one of his friends told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
“I heard he [Sein Kyaw Hlaing] negotiated his return home with Burmese officials in Mae Sot after Thein Sein made his comments about exiles,” she said. “He was reportedly detained shortly after he landed at the Rangoon airport. He is now believed to be at the Aung Tha Pyay interrogation center of the Special Branch.”
It has not been disclosed whether Sein Kyaw Hlaing would be charged or just detained for interrogation.
On August 17, Thein Sein told Burmese businessmen and civic group officials: “We will conduct a review to make sure that Myanmar [Burmese] citizens living abroad can return home if they have not committed any crime.” However, the president did not clarify what the regime’s definition of a “crime” was.
An official of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although President Thein Sein invited exiles to return home, old laws still remain and the ability of exiles to go home without fear still yet unkown.
While he worked with BBC, Sein Kyaw Hlaing was notable for his business reporting. With the Washington-based RFA, he covered the affairs of the ruling generals and ministers.
One minister he reported on was Aung Thaung, a leader of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and former minister of Industry-1.
After working with the RFA, Sein Kyaw Hlaing became the editor of the New Era Journal based in Thailand. Currently, he is an outside contributor for RFA.
By KO HTWE Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Burmese human rights groups have greeted news of the creation of a “Myanmar National Human Rights Commission” (MNHRC) with doubts about how independent the new body will be and questions about key members, who include past defenders of the country’s human rights record.
The MNHRC was officially formed on Monday to promote and safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens in accordance with the 2008 Constitution, Burma’s state-run media reported on Tuesday. The 15-member body includes retired senior officials, diplomats, academics, doctors and lawyers.
The chairman and vice chairman of the commission are retired ambassadors Win Mra and Kyaw Tint Swe, while its secretary is Sit Myaing, the retired director general of the Social Welfare Department.
“I am skeptical about whether the commission will speak based on the truth and take action against human rights violations in accordance with the law,” said Aung Myo Min, the director of the Thailand-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma.
Aung Myo Min said it was doubtful that a human rights body led by former officials who have defended the country against criticism of its human rights record in the past would act independently of the government.
Win Mra once told a UN gathering that there was no religious discrimination in Burma, and also insisted that there was no such racial group as the Rohingya—a Muslim minority living in Arakan State—in the country.
As the Burmese representative of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Human Rights Commission, Kyaw Tint Swe was often unwilling to discuss rights restrictions in Burma, added Aung Myo Min.
At a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Burma’s human rights situation by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Burmese representatives continued to deny reports of forced labor, sexual violence against women and other abuses perpetrated by the country’s military.
At the UPR meeting in January, the Burmese delegation said that accusations of widespread rights violations, especially in ethnic areas, were “baseless and merely aimed at discrediting the Burmese armed forces.”
Despite these denials, however, there are many well-documented cases of human rights abuses in Burma, including land confiscation, forcible recruitment of child soldiers, forced labor and rape and murder of ethnic civilians in conflict zones.
Maung Maung Lay, of the Rangoon-based Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group, said he welcomed the creation any organization seeking to promote human rights, but would have to wait and see whether the new commission acted in an independent manner.
In the 1990s, Burma’s ruling junta formed a human rights committee led by Home Affairs Minister Col Tin Hlaing, and later by Maj-Gen Maung Oo.
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Burmese state media alleged that a deadly shoot-out took place during a recent meeting of top Kachin rebel leaders due to differing views on ceasefire negotiations with the government, but the report was rejected as propaganda by the rebel leaders.
According to reports in the state-run newspapers on Tuesday, the deadly shoot-out occurred at a meeting of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) leaders held on Thursday in Laiza, Kachin State, where the 10,000-strong ethnic armed group has its military headquarters.
The reports said that the incident left one KIA leader dead and one wounded. It was alleged to have occurred due to different views among KIA leaders over renewing the group’s ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government. The reports also said that KIA military chief Gun Shawng and his deputy, Gun Maw, were present at the meeting.
The reports came amidst growing obstacles in the efforts by the KIA and the Burmese government to renew the ceasefire agreement, which collapsed following armed clashes between the two sides in June near the Chinese border.
Col. Zau Raw, a top KIA official who along with Gun Maw participated in previous discussions with the Burmese government, rejected the report of violence at the meeting as a sheer propaganda effort aimed at misleading the people about the KIA leadership.
“The report is really outrageous. Nothing of that sort happened,” he said, adding that he and Gun Maw were on a trip together on the day when the alleged incident took place, and that the daily meeting of top KIA leaders, including Gun Maw, was held in Laiza today.
“The government wants to create confusion among our troops about their leaders. This is totally baseless,” he said.
During the past few days, several posters were put up by unknown people in Kachin State alleging that Gun Maw had been killed during internecine fighting among the KIA leadership. It is suspected that the posters were made and distributed upon the instruction of local government officials.
In discussions with Naypyidaw, the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), has demanded that the government open an inclusive political dialogue with all ethnic armed groups based on the pre-independence 1947 Panglong Agreement, which guaranteed ethnic minorities basic autonomy in a federal state—a promise that never materialized.
But Naypyidaw has insisted that the KIA join its border guard force under the central command of the Burmese army, and that the KIO participate in the national political process under the terms of the 2008 Constitution, which was drafted by the previous military regime.
While a renewed ceasefire remains uncertain, sporadic armed clashes between the government and the KIA continue to take place in the strategic region along the China-Burma border.
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 18:17 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and NGO groups plan to discuss the call for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into war crimes in Burma with European Union (EU) diplomats ahead of a European Council meeting on human rights in Brussels on Monday.
The institute has arranged the meeting for diplomats on Tuesday with the aim to discuss the urgent need for the establishment of a United Nations COI into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, according to a press release.
To this end, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, together with a representatives from Burma Campaign UK; the Burma Lawyers’ Council and the International Federation of Human Rights and Human Rights Watch will brief EU diplomats.
The meeting is scheduled ahead of a EU representatives gathering at the Meeting of the Human Rights Working Group of the European Council to discuss, among other human rights issues, the UN General Assembly resolution on Burma for 2011, which must include a provision for a COI if its establishment is to be realized in the near future, according to the press release.
The experts will summarize the current human rights situation in Burma, taking into account recent political developments there, and explain why a COI is the best way forward for deterring the commission of further crimes––reported as murder, systematic rape, sexual violence, torture, the recruitment of children as soldiers, warrantless detention, widespread forced relocations and forced labour ––and ensuring justice for victims. The technicalities of such a COI, including the terms of reference, will also be discussed, according to the institute.
In comments provided before the meeting, Dr. Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, said: “The Burmese people have suffered grave human rights violations for more than 20 years. The perpetrators act with immunity in an environment absent of action by the international community. The United Nations General Assembly should act promptly and decisively to establish a UN COI into human rights abuses in Burma.
“A transparent, impartial and independent UN commission of inquiry is an established tool for investigating allegations of international crimes committed by all parties to a conflict,” he said. “Establishing a commission for Burma would be a crucial and long overdue step in bringing accountability to Burma.”
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 21:03 Ko Wild Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – More than 300 workers at the Esquire shoe factory in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 in Rangoon stopped work and staged a protest on Tuesday, urging factory authorities to pay wages.
The factory owner failed to pay a regular money award to workers who were not absent from work for the past month, according to workers.
The Korean owner of the factory normally paid workers an extra 3,000 kyat (about US$ 3.50) for good work attendance each month. Starting at 8 a.m., the workers staged a six-hour protest outside the factory compound.
“Workers weren’t really absent from work. The employer closed the factory for a day because it didn’t have much work to do. The factory failed to pay the regular award money, and the workers protested,” said a worker.
After mediation by officials from the workers’ law analysis department in Hlaing Tharyar Township, the factory managers agreed to pay the extra award money, and the workers said they would return to work on Wednesday.
“They urged the factory to increase salaries,” a policeman at the Hlaing Tharyar Township Police Station told Mizzima.
Thirteen worker representatives had to sign a pledge at the Directorate of Workers that workers would not stage another protest in the future. Worker representatives said they considered that a threat to their human rights.
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 12:01 Ko Wild
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Shwe Gas Campaign group and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) said that the gas and oil pipeline which will be constructed from Rakhine State to Yunnan Province in China could be disrupted by clashes between armed ethnic groups and the Burmese government.
Gas from the offshore Rakhine Shwe Gas Project and crude oil imported from the Middle East and Africa will be sent to Yunnan by two pipelines that will be built at an estimated cost of US$ 3.5 billion.
In a report released on Monday, the groups pointed out the danger to the pipelines that will cross Kyaukme, Hsipaw and Mansi townships where fighting among the SSA-N, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and government troops has taken place.
“There are about 70 villages on the route of this pipeline where the SSA-N is operating. The fighting is in the Kutkai and Mansi areas too, where the KIO is operating. So the fighting takes place on both sides of the pipelines,” said Shwe Gas movement campaign spokesman Wong Aung.
The Shwe Gas project is a joint effort by the Chinese government-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), South Korea Daewoo Company, the Indian ONGC Videsh Company and Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). Sub-contractors include the Burmese companies Thandar Nagar, Pyidawsi, Asia World and Myanmar Shwe Tharaphu, according to the report titled “Sold Out.”
Gas reserves in the Shwe Gas project A 1 and A 3 blocks are estimated at 4.5 to 7.7 trillion cubic feet. Burma will earn US$ 29 billion from the sale of gas to China over a 30-year, period starting in 2013, according to a Shwe Gas campaign statement.
A deep-sea port under construction at Madey Island will be used by Chinese tankers to carry crude oil from the Middle East and Africa. It is about 80 per cent completed. An underwater gas pipeline that will carry offshore gas to Kyaukphyu is about 40 per cent completed, Wong Aung said. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a special economic zone had been signed, but the details have not been made available, he said.
The Madey deep-sea port that will be completed by 2013 can be used by 300,000 DWT tankers and can handle 22 million tons of crude oil per annum, according to an official statement of Burmese government.
According to the Shwe Gas group’s report, in the project areas Burmese military and police personnel used local Rakhine people as forced labour, Chinese employees harassed local women, and farmlands were seized by companies in connivance with local authorities in return for meager compensation. The report included photographs and documentary evidence.
The two pipelines which will run about 800 km in Burma will connect Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State and Wanting in China by a route through Minbu, Mandalay, Gokehteik, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Lashio, Kutkai, 105-mile junction in Muse, Kyukok and end at the Sino-Burma border town Wanting, 12 km southeast of Ruili in China.
From the border town, it will connect to a pipeline that will carry crude oil to a refinery at Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province.
Fighting has erupted between SSA-N and government troops since March 2011 in the areas crossed by the pipelines, which have been under construction since June 2010.
The SSA-N refused to accept government’s offer to transform its army into a government-controlled people’s militia. The SSA-N reached a ceasefire agreement with the government in 1989. At that time, SSA-N had three brigades: No. 1, 3 and 7. Brigades No. 3 and 7 have since been transformed into the people’s militia and only Brigade No. 1 opposes government troops.
Northeast Command commander Major General Myint Hlaing ordered SSA-N to relocate Brigade No. 3 headquarters from Namsan to Mongkhay in Hsipaw Township in 2006. Namsan is north of the Mandalay-Lashio highway where the pipelines will cross. Shan State Army (South) (SSA-S) and SSA-N troops are jointly operating in these areas now, SSA-N spokesman Major Sai Hla said. They are reportedly conducting joint military operations with KIA Brigade No. 4 in the Kutkai-Hseni area.
“Our troops moved to the Brigade No. 3 area to establish a base area at the end of February and now they have reached Muse and Nanhkan,” he said. “If they do not have peace with the with armed ethnic groups, I think, they have to be concerned with the security of these pipelines. No armed groups will accept upper-handed negotiations within the framework of 2008 Constitution.”
The Shan Herald Agency News reported that a 15-day geological survey had been conducted in the project areas of Mandalay, Madaya, Nawnghkio, Kyaukme and Nankhan.
The “Sold Out” report suggested suspending the Shwe Gas project until political stability is restored and Burma has a government that can protect the people.
Shwe Gas movement spokesman Wong Aung noted that losses have been incurred by CNPC in their investments in the politically volatile African countries of Niger and Libya. He said China could face a similar fate in Burma.
Six oil exploration projects in the two countries by the CNPC sub-contractor Great Wall Drilling Co. (GWDC) were suspended and China incurred a loss of US$ 186 million, said Chinese energy researcher Zhou Xiujie, according to a report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua on August 22.
A China-based military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw noted that the pipelines have to cross a conflict zone where KIA Brigade No. 4 and a Border Guard Force (BGF) led by Mahtu Nau are operating. Mahtu Nau split from the KIO in 1990 and accepted the government’s offer to become a BGF in June 2009.
“Mahtu Nau is in the Kutkai area and the pipeline must cross the KIA 4th Brigade and 9th Battalion-controlled area. But they won’t fight each other. The Burmese government will ask the Chinese government not to support these armies,” he said.
Ruili-based sources said that 12-wheel heavy-duty trucks have been carrying pipe at the rate of 5 pipes per truck for about six months. A factory in the border town of Jiegao produces the pipes.
In addition, a Kyaukphyu-Muse rail project will be built along the route of the oil and gas pipelines at an estimated cost of US$ 20 billion. It is scheduled to start in December in the Muse-Lashio sector, The Mirror reported on September 5. Chinese experts conducted feasibility studies for the rail project in 2005, and the survey work of the route was completed in 2010.
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 6 September 2011
Burmese political exiles in Thailand, including members of the National League for Democracy, had regular communication with Chinese officials, including one close to the Prime Minister’s office, according to a leaked US cable from 2007.
The Chinese used these lines of communication with exiles to “[solicit] their views on the situation inside Burma and [offer] advice”, the cable says, noting regular interaction with Nyo Ohn Myint, from the National League for Democracy – Liberated Area (NLD-LA), as well as members of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB).
The cable also quotes Nyo Ohn Myint as saying that the more hardline element of Burma’s opposition, such as student leaders Mya Aye and Min Ko Naing, “went knocking on the Russian and Chinese embassy doors”, likely in an effort to engage officials.
To date China’s rapport with the Burmese opposition has garnered little publicity. Beijing is seen as a strong ally of the government and a key investor in the country, although it is known to be concerned about political stability and the security of its energy projects there.
“According to Nyo Myint, the Chinese are concerned about Burma’s aging leaders, the student movement, and their own survey research inside Burma that reportedly showed 87% of respondents expressing a need for change in the political system,”
The cable is dated 8 June 2007 and was sent from the US consulate in Chiang Mai, which keeps regular communication with the Burmese exile community in Thailand.
Nyo Ohn Myint told US officials that he had traveled to China 16 times between 2003 and 2007, mostly to Kunming in Yunnan province, and met with Chinese officials during their visits to Thailand.
During a May 2007 visit to Kunming, “Chinese officials told him [Nyo Ohn Myint] that China’s policy ‘can’t be changed’ for at least the next three years”, whilst telling the National League for Democracy, the main opposition force in Burma, that it “needs to work more with the ethnic groups”. Officials also reportedly said that “the regime’s intention to disarm the ethnics is beneficial for the NLD” but no elaboration was given in the cable on how.
The revelation that Chinese officials kept channels of communication open with the Burmese exiled community may come as some surprise, given the traditional positioning of China as an opponent to democratic reform in Burma.
But the cable shows at least an eagerness at the time by certain players in the Chinese government to engage both sides in lieu of a possible shift in Burma’s political landscape. How far China would go to push relations with the opposition however was brought into question three months after the cable is dated, when it refused to condemn the bloody crackdown by Burmese troops on the September 2007 monk-led uprising.
Of the attempts by Min Ko Naing to engage the Russians and Chinese, it says however: “Shut out by the Russians, the pair nevertheless talked with Burmese-speaking officers at the Chinese embassy who used Burmese names and accused them of being troublemakers.”
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 6 September 2011
Parliament is set to drop its use of a computerized system that had kept an air of anonymity surrounding voting for parliamentary proposals, in favour of an open head-count.
The purported reason given by People’s Parliament speaker Shwe Mann for the change centered on concerns from some ministers that the computerised system was vulnerable to manipulation.
But opposition politicians have criticized the move, claiming that knowledge of who voted for certain measures could push MPs into vetoing proposals on the basis of which party made them, and not the substance of the proposals themselves.
“Some representatives said vote results could be manipulated from the computer control room and maybe the Speaker heard them saying it,” according to Pe Than, an MP in the People’s Parliament and member of the Rakhine National Development Party. “He [Shwe Mann] announced that parliament will abandon the computerised system and instead to use an open head-count for voting.
“We pro-democratic representatives prefer the anonymous system, however – currently no one from [the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party] would dare to support our proposals in the open vote system.”
He added that Shwe Mann, who had been the former Burmese junta’s third-ranking official, also assured the representatives that no one would be punished for the decision they made under the open system, and are “free to stand up either in favour or against a proposal as they feel”.
The first open head-count came last week after officials said there had been a malfunction with the computerized system over voting for a proposal to abolish the 1926 Contempt of Court Act.
The proposal, submitted by former National Democratic Force leader Thein Nyunt, who has set up a new party, was reportedly rejected via the head count by 359 MPs, against three in favour.
The subsequent results of the computerized count however showed a narrower margin, but that was reportedly dismissed as illegitimate given the alleged malfunction.
By AFP
Published: 6 September 2011 Huge energy projects to transport oil and gas across Burma to China are fuelling human rights abuses, including forced labour, violence, evictions and land confiscation, activists warned Tuesday.
The deployment of 6,600 government troops to guard a corridor for the pipelines, being laid from Burma’s western coast to its north-eastern border with China, risks increasing abuses and ethnic unrest, according to a report by the Shwe Gas Movement.
The community-based campaign organisation said that pipeline-related infrastructure is being built with forced labour and land has been confiscated to make way for project roads and military camps.
It urged firms such as China National Petroleum Corp and South Korea’s Daewoo International to withdraw from the projects, which will transport natural gas from Burma and oil from the Middle East and Africa to China.