BURMA RELATED NEWS – OCTOBER 11, 2011
Oct 12th, 2011
AFP News – 9 hours ago
Myanmar will grant an amnesty to more than 6,300 prisoners, state media announced on Tuesday, without saying whether political detainees would be included.
The news came just hours after a government-appointed human rights panel called for a pardon for the country’s “prisoners of conscience”, who are estimated by rights groups to number about 2,000.
The National Human Rights Commission said freeing prisoners “who do not pose a threat to the stability of state” would allow them to participate in “nation-building”, according to an official English-language newspaper.
According to state television, 6,359 prisoners will receive an amnesty starting from Wednesday.
On Monday a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that political prisoners were expected to be released within days.
The release of the country’s estimated 2,000 political detainees, who include pro-democracy campaigners, journalists and lawyers, has long been a top demand of Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Myanmar.
Their release would be one of the clearest yet signs of reform by a new leadership that has reached out to critics including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, freed in November after seven straight years of detention.
A top US official, Kurt Campbell, on Monday hailed recent developments in Myanmar, including what he described as “very consequential dialogue” between Suu Kyi and the leadership.
He hinted that concrete moves towards democracy by Myanmar could lead to an easing of sanctions.
“We will match their steps with comparable steps,” he added.
The new regime, which came to power after controversial elections held a few days before Suu Kyi’s release, appears keen to improve its image and in August held the first talks between her and Thein Sein, a former general.
By Shaun Tandon (AFP) – 16 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is hoping it is on the verge of scoring a breakthrough in Myanmar two years after opening talks, as it considers whether to ease sanctions on the long-closed country.
Officials in the nation formerly known as Burma have spoken of freeing political prisoners and curbing censorship and recently defied ally China by freezing work on an unpopular dam — moves few would have imagined a year ago.
President Barack Obama has made dialogue with hostile regimes a hallmark of his foreign policy. He faced heated criticism from his Republican rivals after two such governments, Iran and Syria, launched bloody crackdowns on their own people.
But the administration has sensed an opening with Myanmar, whose military junta handed over to a nominally civilian government in March. Senior US officials met three times in September alone with Myanmar’s foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin.
While officials say it is premature to announce any gestures from the US side, the administration has repeatedly said it is willing to ease some of the sweeping sanctions against Myanmar in return for steps toward democracy.
Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat for East Asia who initially spearheaded the engagement policy, said that the developments in Myanmar were “dramatic” and that the United States wanted “continued progress.”
“We will match their steps with comparable steps,” Campbell said in Bangkok.
Obama heads next month to Bali for an East Asia Summit, part of what aides call a commitment to strengthening relations with economically dynamic Southeast Asia.
Ernie Bower, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that a resolution on Myanmar would “remove a ball and chain” that has held back the 10-nation regional ASEAN bloc.
Bower said a stronger ASEAN was “absolutely core to American strategic vision” as a unified bloc could speak with one voice when dealing with a rising China, which has growing friction with several Southeast Asian nations.
“I don’t think anyone in US political circles is ready to take credit yet on Burma — that’s years away. But let’s be honest — from a strategic level, this looks good. It looks like payoff for opening the aperture a bit and encouraging change,” Bower said.
Aung Din, a former political prisoner who runs the US Campaign for Burma advocacy group, also saw signs of change within the country’s leadership.
“I believe that the military generals have always wanted to have a positive and good relationship with the United States, but before they did not want to make concessions,” he said.
“But now they have changed sentiment. They would like to have a positive relationship and understand that they have to make some concessions,” he said.
Aung Din and other activists have urged the United States to step up the pressure by working to create a UN commission that would investigate potential crimes against humanity in Myanmar.
The State Department’s last human rights report said that Myanmar’s military engaged in abuses against ethnic minority fighters including forcing villagers into labor and using rape as a weapon of war.
The administration has publicly supported the probe but done little to make it a reality. Several experts and the International Crisis Group, which studies ways to resolve conflicts, argue that a UN commission at this time would be negative reinforcement that would set back reformers in Myanmar.
But Walter Lohman, director of the Asian studies center at the conservative Heritage Foundation, cautioned that change so far from Myanmar has been “superficial” and said that a UN probe would send a powerful signal of US commitment to human rights.
Lohman suspected that Myanmar’s opening of talks with opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi was meant for show as the regime believes it marginalized her with last year’s election, which were seen by the opposition and the United States as unfair.
Lohman called for a careful review if Myanmar frees prisoners to make sure it is not releasing common criminals or the people rounded up after the regime violently suppressed protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007.
“There has been a lot of back and forth over the the past 20 years in Burma and we don’t know if we’re even going back to 2007. So it’s really premature to start talking about lifting sanctions or any ‘new dawn,’” he said.
By Matthias Williams
NEW DELHI | Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:44am EDT
Oct 10 (Reuters) – India hosts the leaders of Myanmar and Vietnam this week, giving New Delhi the opportunity to forge closer economic and security ties with two countries encountering testy relations with India’s giant regional rival, China.
Hungry for reclusive Myanmar’s natural gas reserves, timber and farm exports to feed its rapidly expanding economy, India wants to ramp up its engagement with a neighbour traditionally seen as lying within Beijing’s sphere of influence.
To that end, officials in India are closely watching steps by Myanmar’s fledging civilian government to introduce democratic and economic reforms after years of rule by a military dictatorship allied to and funded by China.
One of the first countries to condemn Myanmar for repression of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, India has since the early 1990s put aside such criticism for fear of pushing its neighbour into China’s fold and losing access to resources.
Despite criticism from activists, Myanmar’s junta leader visited India last year.
President Thein Sein will visit India from Oct. 12 to 15. His government is looking to douse a row with Beijing about the suspension of a dam built and financed by Chinese firms to help plug China’s bulging electricity needs, potentially opening a door to closer ties to India.
For Myanmar, under sanctions by Western countries for its human rights record, China is its most important ally, but the two have deep suspicions. China’s growing economic role in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has caused considerable popular resentment, while China fears Myanmar’s civilian government could move closer to the United States.
“It is in both India and America’s interests for Burma to be able to wean itself off dependence on China,” said Maung Zarni, a Myanmar expert at the London School of Economics.
“We are being penetrated by China, commercially, demographically, geo-strategically. India is a major loser in this battle but ultimately the biggest loss will be born by the Burmese public,” he said.
India will also host Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang for three days starting on Tuesday, offering New Delhi scope to deepen trade and defence ties that came under scrutiny after a mysterious navy incident on the South China Sea in July.
China has looked on with a wary eye as ties between India and Vietnam blossomed. A joint oil and gas exploration project between state-owned firms in disputed islands on the South China Sea has raised hackles in Beijing, and was slammed as a violation of Chinese sovereignty by China’s state media.
Reports of a standoff between an Indian vessel sailing away from a Vietnamese port and the Chinese navy also stoked fears the two giants may be on a collision course for resources, although both sides subsequently played down the incident.
With its major economic partners the United States and Europe facing financial turmoil, India wants to foster commercial partnerships with other emerging markets, including a big trade deal with the Southeast Asian bloc, ASEAN, that includes both Vietnam and Myanmar.
On a September visit by a Myanmar trade delegation to New Delhi, the two sides pledged to double trade within four years.
“It’s tempting to see everything through the prism of the India-China rivalry, whereas there’s a lot more happening in our relationships with these two countries and quite frankly there’s a lot more happening in our relationship with China too,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of the Hindu newspaper and a foreign-policy expert.
By Asia Desk, Singapore | Reuters – 11 hours ago
(Reuters) – A new official human rights body in Myanmar urged the president on Tuesday to release “prisoners of conscience” in an open letter in state media, the clearest sign yet that the reclusive state may free political prisoners within days.
The United States, Europe and Australia have made the release of an estimated 2,100 political prisoners a key condition before they would consider lifting sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses.
Washington’s demands go beyond prisoners, making it unclear whether it would lift sanctions if the prisoners are released and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi withdraws her support for punitive measures.
Here is an overview of existing sanctions on the former Burma and its rulers:
EU SANCTIONS:
– The European Union adopted a Common Position on Myanmar in 1996, including a ban on the sale or transfer from the EU of arms or weapons expertise to Myanmar, or of any equipment that might be used for internal repression.
– EU governments tightened sanctions after a crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, targeting 1,207 firms with measures including visa bans and asset freezes.
In April 2009, the EU extended for another year a visa ban and asset freezes on members of the Myanmar military government and its backers. It has long called for the release of political prisoners.
– France said last year there should be a global embargo on arms sales to Myanmar and economic sanctions focussed on its key exports, timber and rubies. Britain called for the
U.N. Security Council to impose a global arms embargo.
– The EU has added members of the judiciary responsible for Suu Kyi’s extension of house arrest in 2009 to its list of military officials subject to asset freezes and bans on travel.
U.S. SANCTIONS:
– The United States first imposed broad sanctions in 1988 after the junta’s crackdown on student-led protests. It banned new investment in Myanmar by U.S. nationals or entities in 1997.
– Washington has gradually tightened sanctions to try to force Myanmar’s generals into political rapprochement with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was kept out of power.
– President Barack Obama renewed the U.S. sanctions in May last year. Washington has said sanctions will be reassessed if the government formed after last year’s election made major efforts to improve the country’s human rights record.
– In July 2008, the Treasury moved to block the assets and transactions of Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd and the Myanmar Economic Corp and their subsidiaries.
– The moves banned American individuals and businesses from transactions with the firms and froze any assets they had under U.S. jurisdiction.
– The Burma Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 banned all imports from Myanmar, restricted financial transactions, froze the assets of certain Myanmar financial institutions and extended visa restrictions on junta officials.
OTHER SANCTIONS:
AUSTRALIA – Since October 2007, Australia has implemented sanctions against members of Myanmar’s leadership and their associates and supporters.
Sanctions currently cover: targeted financial sanctions (implemented by the Reserve Bank of Australia), restrictions on financial transactions involving Myanmar’s leadership and its associates and restrictions on visas and travel to Australia.
CANADA — Imposed sanctions in November 2007 banning exports to Myanmar, except for humanitarian goods, and barring imports. It froze the Canadian assets of Myanmar citizens connected with the junta. Canada also prohibited the provision of financial services and the export of technical data to Myanmar and banned new investment by Canadians.
NEW ZEALAND — Has a long-standing ban on visas for military leaders and their families.
JAPAN — Japan froze new development assistance to Myanmar in 2003, while continuing humanitarian aid. It restored development help in June and the Foreign Ministry said it may make further moves if political prisoners are released.
ASIA — Most Asian governments have favoured a policy of engagement towards Myanmar and southeast Asian countries have called for Western sanctions to be lifted.
By Tom Bergin
LONDON | Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:00am EDT
Oct 11 (Reuters) – International energy groups say recent signs of political change in autocratic Myanmar are unlikely to lead to a rapid expansion of their activities in the country, which holds valuable reserves of oil and gas.
Christophe de Margerie, Chief Executive of France’s Total SA , said his company, which has a project in the former British colony, would like to play a bigger role in the country, formerly known as Burma, but had to see concrete signs of increased democratisation before this was possible.
Western trade sanctions have been in place since the military crushed a 1988 student uprising isolating Myanmar’s army dictatorships but in March, the army nominally handed over power to civilians after elections in November. The process was ridiculed at the time as a sham to cement authoritarian rule behind a democratic facade.
It was followed by other overtures such as calls for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups, some tolerance of criticism and more communication with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released last year from 15 years of house arrest.
On Tuesday, state television said 6,359 prisoners would be freed on Wednesday and political detainees are expected to included.
“We decided that… it was important to be in Myanmar but that we will not invest until things are getting better… I do hope that will happen,” Total’s de Margerie told reporters on the sidelines of the Oil and Money conference in London.
Total leads the $1 billion Yadana gas project in the Andaman Sea, and the CEO said he would like to back additional exploration and production investments.
U.S. oil major Chevron is a partner in Yadana but Washington banned new investments in Myanmar by U.S. companies in 1997 and barred imports.
New investments by western oil companies could be a boon for the companies which build and supply their facilities but Andrew Gould, chief executive of the world’s largest oil services company, Schlumberger , said it was too soon to tell the implications from the recent political easing.
Myanmar’s crude oil reserves are estimated at 3.2 billion barrels, the energy ministry has said. This compares with China’s proven oil reserves of 14.8 billion barrels, Malaysia’s 5.8 billion, Vietnam’s 4.4 billion and Indonesia’s 4.2 billion barrels, at the end of 2010, according to the BP Statistical Review.
The country’s proven gas reserves tripled in the past decade to around 800 billion cubic metres, equivalent to more than a quarter of Australia’s, BP Statistical Review figures show.
Malcolm Brinded, Executive Director for Upstream International, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Ali Moshiri, President, Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company all declined to talk about possible new investments in Myanmar.
By Zin Linn Oct 11, 2011 8:54PM UTC
Burma or Myanmar government’s appointed human rights body – Myanmar National Human Rights Commission – has submitted a request in open letter to President Thein Sein of Burma (Myanmar) today. The MNHRC ‘s chairman Win Mra has urged Burma’s President to release prisoners of conscience in the open letter which appeared in the state-owned media today.
The Rights Commission says in its letter that the establishment of the organization is meant to promote and protect the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined in the Constitution. It can also be regarded as fulfilling the hope and aspiration of the international community.
The letter also says: “The release of those prisoner, convicted for breach of the existing laws, who do not pose a threat to the stability of state and public tranquility in the interest of national races will enable them to participate in whatever way they can in the nation-building tasks.”
The open letter marks an important swing in a country where military-dominated government accustomed to say no to the existence of political prisoners.
Many people notice the letter that published in the state-owned newspapers as a significant sign. Because the government controlled newspapers have a habit of revealing government attitude.
Concurrently, at 1 pm today, Burma’s state-owned MRTV television has broadcast 6,359 prisoners will be freed tomorrow the full moon day of Tha-din-gyut in Burmese calendar as an amnesty given by the new president.
The announcement came out following the chairman of the national human rights body urged President Thein Sein to release “prisoners of conscience” in an open letter in state media.
However, the MRTV did not mention about the numbers of convicts considered to be political prisoner would be among those released.
According to earlier news, Shwe Mann, speaker of Burma’s lower house of parliament, told Norway’s visiting deputy foreign minister Espen Barth Eide that the government has a plan to release more than 1200 political prisoners “within days” at a meeting on 7 October.
Shwe Mann’s assertion was supported by an anonymous government official who confirmed prisoners would be released before the country’s president Thein Sein leaves for an official visit to India on Wednesday (12 October).
Ahead of the government’s today announcement on amnesty, a movement of letter-campaigns has been taking place across the country urging President Thein Sein to release all political prisoners for the sake of national reconciliation. Several famous writers, poets, musicians, artists and intellectuals have signed the petition letter in order to initiate national reconciliation in Burma.
On last May 17, the new Burmese government released more than 14,600 prisoners who had less than one year left on their terms. However, under that clemency line-up, very few political prisoners released because most of political prisoners are serving long-terms imprisonments at least 10 years, 65 years and up to 104 years.
Together with its 2,000 political prisoners, Burma has more than 60,000 prisoners in 42 prisons and 109 labor camps.
Human rights watchdogs and the U.S. State Department have stated the government must go further and immediately release Burma’s estimated 2,100 political prisoners. U.S. President Barack Obama renewed American economic sanctions on Burma for another year in May, saying the large-scale repression of the democratic opposition in that country has not been resolved.
By Francis Wade Oct 11, 2011 9:03PM UTC
This time tomorrow we’ll have our strongest inkling to date of whether Burma is on real course for change, or whether we’ve been masterfully duped over the past six months by a cunning and far-reaching PR strategy. Prisons across the country are expected to open their gates, and 6,359 inmates will pour out, but that vast figure will mean little unless at least a sizeable proportion are political prisoners.
The same fanfare preempted an amnesty in May this year, the first major gesture of appeasement by President Thein Sein after he came to office. That was short-lived, however, when it emerged that only around 55 of the nearly 15,000 inmates released were the jailed activists, MP, journalists, lawyers and doctors that have long been the focus of rallying cries from Washington to Rangoon. That pattern is consistent across the years – from October 2004 to 2011, only 607 political prisoners have been freed, of a total 60,078 granted amnesty.
That could all change tomorrow, and the feeling among Burmese exile and pressure groups is one of optimism, largely due to the events of the last two months. As the Financial Times reported today, Norway’s deputy foreign minister “almost left the country [following a visit last week] thinking they’re moving a little too fast”. He added of the many pledges of reform: “The danger is not that it’s not sincere, but that the counter forces will set in.”
Even the most hardened critics are grudgingly acknowledging that President Thein Sein is pushing an openness that Burma hasn’t witnessed since the days before the Ne Win coup of 1962. The recent actions of the former prime minister, who was chief architect of many of the military junta’s most maligned policies, still puzzle observers, who see a moderate in power but whom rightly remain sceptical of his intentions.
With the avalanche of developments inside the country, the past fortnight has been a busy scramble to take stock of, and closely scrutninse, what really is happening: mouths dropped at the announcement that the Myitsone Dam in northern Burma, one of China’s largest overseas projects, would be scrapped, before the country’s censor chief began digging his own grave with the suggestion that media restrictions should be done away with (as The Economist chirped, “Bureaucrats rarely suggest their own voluntary-redundancy programmes, but that is exactly what Myanmar’s chief censor did on October 8th”).
Finger-wagging at the masterful spin doctors in Naypyidaw remains, but with less vigour: instead that is being replaced by raised eyebrows and cautious hope that after decades of double-speak and agony, something is actually happening. The Myitsone decision has, to no one’s surprise, been applauded by the West, with the US in particular looking to boot China out of Burma and assert its own brand of values on the country (Washington’s Asia-Pacific man, Kurt Campbell, said casually that the US will look to “shift resources and capability from the Middle East and South Asia to the Asia-Pacific region” as the decade progresses).
Tomorrow then could be the first real step Burma takes to acceding to demands made by the pro-democracy movement and the US, which will drop sanctions in return for measures such as a comprehensive amnesty of political prisoners. Burma perhaps now feels that embracing the US and EU is a more sustainable alternative to the hefty demands on its environment and social fabric that a close relationship with China carries, although one should certainly not jump the gun on this, nor ignore the self-seeking intentions of the US. We’re at a very early stage, but tomorrow could at least give an idea of things to come.
October 11, 2011, 1:52 PM EDT
By Daniel Ten Kate
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — Myanmar granted amnesty to more than 6,300 prisoners in a move that may signal even more significant policy changes ahead, said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy.
The announcement yesterday came a day after Kurt Campbell, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Asia, said that Myanmar is witnessing “dramatic developments” and the U.S. stands ready to revamp ties with the Southeast Asian nation. It was unclear how many of the country’s 2,100 political prisoners would be freed, Nyan Win said.
“We are optimistic,” he said by phone from Yangon, the former capital. “We hope real changes will be coming soon.”
The amnesty builds on steps taken by Myanmar President Thein Sein to loosen state controls on public discourse since taking power in an election last year that ended five decades of military rule. Western governments are hoping for the release of about 500 political prisoners, said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia director for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels- based policy research organization.
Freeing dissidents is “a key benchmark that many in the West have been insisting on,” he said by phone. “If it’s reached, it will put pressure on Western governments who impose sanctions to reconsider those policies and acknowledge that there has been internal progress on political, human rights and economic reforms in Myanmar.”
The U.S. maintains trade and financial sanctions against Myanmar that are reviewed annually. Europe has less stringent restrictions in place.
‘Beginning of Change’
The release of 6,359 prisoners is scheduled to start today, the Associated Press reported, citing a statement on state television and radio stations. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Sept. 21 she was “cautiously optimistic” of progress in her native land, where she has spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest.
“We are beginning to see the beginning of change,” she said via satellite during a seminar in New York organized by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Thein Sein held talks in August with Suu Kyi, who was released from detention 11 months ago, and in September suspended the construction of a $3.6 billion dam being built with China. The government has also stopped censoring news websites and dissident publications, Crisis Group said.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar on Oct. 10 printed an open letter from the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission urging the release of “prisoners of conscience” that pose no threat to “public tranquility.”
‘New Chapter’
The U.S. has concerns about Myanmar’s detention of political prisoners, a lack of dialogue with ethnic groups and past relations with North Korea, said Campbell, who spoke in Bangkok on Oct. 10. Still, recent developments “demand greater attention and focus,” he said.
“We are prepared for a new chapter in our relations,” Campbell said. “We are watching carefully developments on the ground and I think it would be fair to say that we will match their steps with comparable steps.”
Myanmar’s 60 million people are the poorest in Asia, earning about $1.15 per day on average, about a tenth of per capita income in neighboring Thailand, according to Association of Southeast Asian Nations statistics. In recent years, China, India and Thailand have invested in Myanmar’s ports, railways and oil and gas pipelines to gain access to natural resources.
Myanmar recently sought advice from the International Monetary Fund to end its multiple exchange rate system and is modernizing its banking system, U Hla Tun, governor of the Bank for Myanmar, said in a Sept. 23 speech at the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington D.C.
‘Transparency and Accountability’
“The government aims at achieving sustainable developments on all fronts through a number of reform measures,” he said. “The major thrust of these measures is to establish transparency and accountability at all levels of government.”
The military retains a quarter of seats in the two houses of Parliament, according to the constitution. Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party, backed by the former ruling junta, won about 80 percent of seats in last year’s election, which was boycotted by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
Published: Oct. 11, 2011 at 2:01 AM BEIJING, Oct. 11 (UPI) — Myanmar has agreed to reconsider the recent suspension of the China-led $3.6 billion Myitsone hydroelectric project, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Construction of the $3.6 billion joint project was ordered suspended by Myanmar President Thein Sein last month. China Daily reported the two sides agreed to reconsider the suspension during talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his visiting Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin.
However, it was not clear whether the Myanmar side would agree to lift the suspension.
The Myanmar foreign minister was quoted as saying his government highly valued its friendly relations with China.
Work on the Myitsone hydropower plant on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, which has been in progress since December 2009, was suspended on Thein Sein’s orders. The project had been estimated to produce 29,400 million kilowatt-hours of electricity when completed in 2019.
At the time of the announcement of the suspension, the BBC quoted President Thein Sein’s letter to parliament as saying the dam was contrary to the will of the people.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, also opposes the dam project as do the Kachin rebels, who have been fighting government troops for years.
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, was under military rule for decades but is now under civilian authority.
China Daily quoted the foreign ministry as saying the legitimate rights and interests of the companies involved in the project should be protected.
Lu Qizhou, president of China Power Investment, Myitsone’s largest investor, was quoted by China’s official Xinhua news agency as saying he was “totally astonished” by the move and refuted claims by green NGOs that the dam poses a serious threat to the environment.
A Chinese expert on Myanmar told China Daily China should learn from the issue for potential risks involved in foreign investments.
It was not clear whether the Chinese government had demanded financial compensation for work already done on the project, The New York Times reported.
By AMELIE BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS
October 12, 2011, 12:39am BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Myanmar’s suspension of a controversial mega-dam project is the latest glimmer of change from a regime reaching out to the West at the expense of ties with traditional ally China, experts say.
The surprise decision to halt construction of the Chinese-backed hydropower project for several years at least — risking the anger of Beijing — was a rare concession to public opinion in the authoritarian nation.
It was also the latest conciliatory gesture by the new nominally civilian government towards its critics, including Western nations who impose sanctions on the regime, the suppressed pro-democracy movement and armed ethnic rebels.
”In recent years, Burma has been seen as a client state of China,” said Gareth Price, senior research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank in London, using the country’s former name.
”Maybe they feel after this political process that they have gone through that there’s a need to distance themselves from China,” he added. ”So they think they are going to get some new friends and sanctions will be lifted.”
In March, Myanmar’s junta announced it was disbanding following the first election in two decades, held in November, which handed power to President Barack Obama’s
administration, which has pursued both diplomatic engagement and continued sanctions against Myanmar, has welcomed signs of political change in the Southeast Asian nation.
Myanmar appears eager to engage with Washington and see sanctions lifted, even if its relations with China suffer as a result.
”There is absolutely no love lost between Naypyidaw and Beijing and many in Naypyidaw believe that it is only Western sanctions that have pushed them into an unnatural dependence on China,” said Thant Myint-U, author of ”Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia”.
The US administration has in particular welcomed the Myanmar leadership’s dialogue with democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who met the president for the first time in August.
Suu Kyi for her part has said she believes Thein Sein genuinely wants to push through reforms, but cautioned it was too soon to say whether he would succeed.
Thein Sein is widely thought to face resistance from regime hardliners, while Western governments are calling for Myanmar to release its estimated 2,000 political prisoners to show it is genuine about wanting to reform.
Local activists have also called for the suspension of another controversial project to transport gas by pipeline from Myanmar’s western coast to China, which appears to have been taken by surprise by the halting of the dam project.
China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Lu Qizhou, president of China Power Investment Corp, the energy giant behind the dam project, as saying he was ”totally astonished” by the move, which he learned of through media reports.
Sean Turnell, an expert at Australia’s Macquarie University, said Beijing was also likely to have been surprised by the suspension.
”They have got used to a compliant leadership in Burma that has allowed more or less unfettered Chinese access to energy and resource extraction — regardless of the environmental and human costs of it,” he said.
The Star – Official Myanmar body urges release of “prisoners of conscience”
By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) – A new official human rights body in Myanmar urged the president on Tuesday to release “prisoners of conscience” in an open letter in state media, the clearest sign yet that the reclusive state may free political prisoners within days.
The United States, Europe and Australia have made the release of an estimated 2,100 political prisoners a key condition before they would consider lifting sanctions imposed in response to human rights abuses.
One lawmaker, who attended a meeting on Friday in the capital, Naypyitaw, told Reuters the release of political prisoners could come “in a few days”. He said that was the message given by Shwe Mann, the Lower House speaker.
State television said 6,359 prisoners would be freed on Wednesday, but it did not say if any people deemed to be political detainees would be among them. General amnesties are fairly common in Myanmar.
In the open letter published on Tuesday, Win Mra, chairman of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, wrote that prisoners who did not pose “a threat to the stability of state and public tranquility” should be released.
“The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission humbly requests the president, as a reflection of his magnanimity, to grant amnesty to those prisoners and release them from the prison,” the letter ended.
The commission was formed last month by the president.
The statement comes after other signs of change since the army nominally handed over power in March to civilians after elections in November, a process ridiculed at the time as a sham to cement authoritarian rule behind a democratic facade.
Recent overtures by the government hint at deeper changes at work — from calls for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups to some tolerance of criticism and more communication with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released last year from 15 years of house arrest.
“It raises the question of whether the government is indeed moving towards some serious relaxation of its control of the population and of the way politics works in Myanmar,” said Milton Osbourne, Southeast Asia analyst at Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy.
Last week, the government suspended a controversial $3.6 billion, Chinese-led dam project, a victory for supporters of Suu Kyi and a sign the country was willing to yield to popular resentment over China’s growing influence.
These moves have stoked hopes the new parliament will slowly prise open the country of 50 million people that just over 50 years ago was one of Southeast Asia’s wealthiest as the world’s biggest rice exporter and a major energy producer.
The open letter marks a significant shift in the former British colony, also known as Burma, where authorities have long refused to recognise the existence of political prisoners, usually dismissing such detainees as common criminals.
PHASED PRISONER RELEASE?
Nestled strategically between economic powerhouses India and China, Myanmar has been one of the world’s most difficult for foreign investors, restricted by sanctions, blighted by 49 years of oppressive military rule and starved of capital despite rich natural resources, from gemstones to timber to oil.
In November 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including opposition leader Suu Kyi.
But Washington’s demands go beyond prisoners, making it unclear whether it would lift sanctions if the prisoners are released and Suu Kyi withdraws her support for sanctions.
The United States has also demanded more transparency in Myanmar’s relationship with North Korea and an end to human-rights abuses involving ethnic minorities in remote regions bordering Thailand and China.
A European diplomat in Bangkok said many European countries had privately urged the European Union to ease sanctions and that the EU could face strong internal pressure to do so if prisoners were released and Suu Kyi changed her stance.
“All it would take is for Suu Kyi to urge sanctions to come down,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.
In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said Japan had resumed some aid to Myanmar in June after the release of Suu Kyi and other signs of reform.
“We may continue with this stance if there are more releases of political prisoners,” the official said. “Work still needs to be done in terms of democracy but we think they are moving in the right direction.”
Myanmar also appears to be trying to convince the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to allow it to take its rotating presidency in 2014, two years ahead of schedule and a year before the next general election.
Hosting ASEAN could give Myanmar a degree of international recognition and help convince the World Bank and other multilateral institutions to return to the impoverished country.
Some speculate the release could come on Wednesday, the Thadingyut Full Moon, an auspicious day in the Buddhist-majority country. But President Thein Sein is leaving for India on that day, so the announcement may wait until his return.
It is unclear whether all political prisoners would be released at once.
“The government is in a dilemma,” said a Southeast Asian diplomat in Yangon. “They know the release of political prisoners will definitely help improve their image, which they desperately need to secure the alternate seat of the ASEAN chair. However, they are very much worried that some released prisoners can make their situation difficult.
“I think they will take a calculated risk and release some prominent ones but only the less active ones in the first batch and then the rest some time later.”
He expected the release to start before Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa arrives in Myanmar next week.
According to the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), there were over 2,100 prisoners of conscience as of last month.
“That data is quite reasonable since they have secret access to reliable sources,” said Aung Thein, a legal expert and prominent Burmese human rights activist.
“There are a number of forgotten political prisoners, especially of ethnic minorities, who have been behind bars since 1988. Some have not seen any visitors at all.”
Among the most prominent are Shan State ethnic leader Khun Tun Oo plus political activists Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, both members of the so-called “88 Generation Students Group”, leaders of an uprising against Myanmar’s former military rulers in 1988.
Last updated on Tuesday, 11 October 2011 12:52
Malaysian Digest – 150 Refugees Protest Against Myanmar Govt for Its Ethnic Cleansing Conflicts
by Dajmarizal Zolkipli
KUALA LUMPUR, 11 OCTOBER, 2011: Some 150 ethnic refugees from Myanmar gathered today in front of their Embassy to send a letter of condemnation against the Myanmar government for its ongoing ethnic cleansing conflicts.
The protesters demand for the government to have a political dialogue with ethnic leaders in order to sign the cease-fire agreement. They also demand for all the political prisoners detained all over Myanmar to be released unconditionally.
Seven representatives were allowed by the police to enter the embassy to hand the letter while the rest been told to wait outside the embassy that has already been heavily guarded by the police.
The protesters condemn the assaults, systematic persecution, torture and intimidation launched by the Burmese army against ethnic minority’s freedom fighters, armed groups and civilians in several states, in particular, the Kachin, Shan, Karen and other minority territories.
The protesters bring along with them banners and placards that read; ‘Stop Etchnic Cleansing!’, ‘We Want Democracy!’ ‘Go Back Burmese Army, ‘Stop Ethnic War!’ among others.
According to the representative of Coalition of Burma Ethnic Group, Sam Kham Noon, the situation in Burma is getting worst under the new elected government, led by president, Thein Sein.
“Right now, we cannot practice our culture, cannot speak our language and being forced to stop teaching our language and literature in schools,” said Sam Kham.
“The government policy now is a cleansing policy, where they are destroying each and every minority ethnic in Burma,” he added.
Dubbed as the ‘Burmese Darfur’, the conflict has been going on for decades. The military junta of Myanmar continues to wage war on the country’s ethnic minorities.
The refugee crisis also continues to worsen as horrific violence spreads through the jungle.
One of the protesters, Paul Nono said that the government suppressions in ethnic territories have resulted thousands of civilians including children and women to flee and refuge in hand made bamboo shelters in the deep forest and border areas without sufficient foods and healthcare.
“The number of refugees is escalating, and not only that, those who still live in the conflict zone are being raped and brutally murdered,” said Paul
“Therefore, today, we are here to condemn such action and seek international assistance to stop all this ethnic cleansing crime,” Paul added.
According to Katrina from Tenaganita, the protest today also urges intervention from the Malaysian government to act accordingly to end the conflict.
“The conflict is happening near to our country, we cannot just act like nothing wrong is happening,” she said.
“Also as an ASEAN member, the government of Malaysia has a role to play to end this conflict,” she added.
Observers of Burma (Myanmar) say that political prisoners may be among those included in the Burmese government’s announcement of amnesty for more than 6,300 people.
By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer / October 11, 2011
The Burmese government today announced it would release more than 6,300 prisoners, a major development for Burma (Myanmar), which ranks among the world’s most repressive states.
After decades of military rule, the country formally transitioned to a civilian government in March, but many observers were skeptical of liberalization. The prisoner release, scheduled to begin tomorrow, may be the most important signal out of the government yet. But it’s unclear whether the country’s roughly 2,000 political prisoners will be part of that group.
Three state newspapers carried a letter calling for a political amnesty. Because the newspapers typically align with government opinion, the fact that they carried the letter is a strong indication that political prisoners – ranging from student leaders to military officers – will be among the 6,359 soon-to-be released, Associated Press reports.
RECOMMENDED: Worst countries for press freedom
The US, which has sanctioned Burma, “has been encouraged by its liberalizing trend since the civilian administration took power,” the highest-ranking US diplomat for Asia said Monday, according to AP.
However, lifting sanctions will not even be considered by the US, Europe, or Australia until political prisoners are released, Reuters reports.
While amnesties are “fairly common,” one in May 2011 for some 14,000 prisoners only included 47 jailed on political grounds and was criticized.
In an open letter published on Tuesday, Win Mra, chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, wrote that prisoners who did not pose “a threat to the stability of state and public tranquility” should be released.
…
The open letter marks a significant shift in the former British colony … where authorities have long refused to recognize the existence of political prisoners, usually dismissing such detainees as common criminals.
Burma’s recent concessions – last week it shelved a $3.6 billion dam project led by China that many Burmese oppose – were partially spurred by a need for assistance from the World Bank and other international institutions that cut ties years ago because of human rights abuses. The country’s economy is in shambles as a result of international sanctions and obstacles to foreign investment, according to Reuters.
It is also under pressure from the rest of Southeast Asia to take steps to lessen its isolation because the region is moving toward an economic union similar to the European Union.
The amnesty, dam decision, and a number of other more minor liberalization actions – such as allowing a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s main opposition leader, to appear in government-censored publications – together seem like a signal that reform is more than just surface-level this time.
Taken together, the recent reforms “have gone too far to be just window dressing,” said Steven Marshall, the International Labor Organization’s liaison officer in Rangoon. “The political environment now is very different than what it was before.”
Asia Times Online – Partial peace in Myanmar
By Brian McCartan
A series of peace talks in Myanmar between the rebel United Wa State Army (UWSA), the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and President Thein Sein’s government has resulted in a tentative resumption of ceasefires with both armed groups.
Achieving a lasting peace, however, will require genuine and sustained efforts that address long-held ethnic grievances and mitigate fears of over centralized government control in the territories they hold.
On September 6, preliminary meetings took place between the UWSA and a government delegation led by two ex-officers, Colonel Aung Than, now chairman of the Lower House’s Banking and Financial Development subcommittee, and Brigadier General Thein Zaw, chairman of the Lower House’s Ethnic Affairs and Peace subcommittee.
The UWSA were led by Bao You Liang, younger brother of Wa leader Bao Youxiang, and the head of UWSA financial and economic affairs. A separate meeting was held with the NDAA at the same time. The NDAA delegation was led by Htain Linn, son of NDAA leader Sai Linn. This marked the first time that either group has met with a delegation from the new government.
The UWSA and NDAA agreed to government proposals to refrain from hostilities, reopen liaison offices, report troop movements, and form a joint liaison committee as soon as possible. Official state media announced that initial peace agreements were signed on September 9 aimed at “ensuring peace and stability and development” and that both sides agreed to hold further peace talks. Further talks were held earlier this month where each side’s positions were further delineated.
As reported by the exile media group Shan Herald Agency for News, the NDAA agreement includes vows not to secede from the country, cooperation on health, transportation, mining and power generation, joint efforts on drug eradication, and the reopening of government offices in NDAA-held territory and NDAA liaison offices in government areas.
Since September 11, the NDAA has been allowed to resume vehicular traffic between its headquarters in Mongla on the border with China through the government-controlled town of Kengtung through to the Thai border at Tachilek.
The Wa, meanwhile, hope to secure more economic concessions and the reopening of trade routes between Pangshang and the rest of Shan State at future talks. Among the proposals put forth by Wa negotiators at the latest meeting on October 1 were the provision of identity cards, driver’s licenses and vehicle licenses, as well as permits for mining and timber concessions outside Wa territory.
The Wa also apparently want access to the business operations of the Hong Pang Group, a company involved in gems, agro-business, transportation and construction, among other activities, and traditionally a major money-earner for the UWSA. The company’s owner, Wei Hsueh-kang, a prominent ethnic Chinese seen by many as the Wa’s chief financier, is wanted by both Thai and American narcotics officials for alleged involvement in international drug trafficking.
Thein Sein’s government has already offered at least one economic carrot. Nearly a year after refusing to grant a new license to domestic carrier Yangon Airways, flights are expected to resume in mid-October. The airline – founded in 1996 and owned by Aik Hauk, son of Bao Youxiang – was denied the license ostensibly over the airworthiness of its aircraft, although many saw the refusal at the time as a sign of rising tensions between the UWSA and government.
Observers also expect the government to allow soon for health care and education officials to return to UWSA and NDAA territories. Additionally, the United Nations and other international organizations are expected to be permitted to resume their operations in the areas. Outside organizations had earlier run development projects aimed largely at health care, education and poppy substitution efforts. The military regime ordered all government staff to leave the area in April 2010 and closed UWSA and NDAA liaison offices in September 2010.
On the sidelines
The UWSA and NDAA agreed to ceasefires with the former military junta in 1989 but these were allowed to lapse after both insurgent groups refused to join the government-sponsored Border Guard Force (BGF). The BGF would have placed their armed wings under the command of the Myanmar army and eroded the leverage of ethnic leaders to negotiate for autonomy over the territories they control.
Tensions remained high after a Myanmar army offensive in August 2009 routed the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). The group was close to both the UWSA and NDAA and the move was interpreted by some as both a test of their resolve and a warning. When fighting flared with the ethnic Kachin in northern Myanmar in June, there was speculation that the UWSA and NDAA would be next to resume hostilities.
A fight with the UWSA, however, would require substantial troops and the government appeared eager to avoid the scenario. The group is estimated to have between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters backed by artillery and man-portable surface to air missiles. Nevertheless, both sides continued to reinforce their frontline positions and the rhetoric from Naypyidaw became increasingly aggressive. The government had branded both the UWSA and NDAA as illegal organizations.
Since its formal assumption of power in March, Thein Sein’s government has sent mixed signals regarding peace with armed ethnic groups. In March, the army launched offensive operations in central Shan State against the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) after the majority of the group refused to join the BGF. Part of the operations aimed at cutting the group off from territory controlled by the UWSA.
In June, fighting broke out with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) near two Chinese-built dams in southern Kachin State after government troops moved into KIA-controlled territory. That fighting soon escalated to include other parts of Kachin State and northern Shan State. Insurgencies are also ongoing in southern Shan State, Karenni State, Karen State Mon State, isolated pockets of western Myanmar as well as Bago and Tenasserim divisions.
In August, Thein Sein gave two speeches in which he invited armed ethnic organizations to enter into peace talks with their respective regional or state governments on a case-by-case basis. However, the government did not simultaneously pull back its troops engaged in offensive operations against the Kachin and other ethnic groups. The offer also created a new stumbling block since many of the armed groups feel that the new state governments lack the authority to negotiate.
A National Race Affairs and Internal Peace-making Committee was formed by the government during the second session of parliament in September. Observers argue that the committee, which is made up mainly of the ruling United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is unrepresentative of ethnic interests. The USDP won the most votes in last year’s elections and with its large number of former military officers is widely viewed as a proxy of the former ruling military junta.
To achieve peace, the government may have to abandon its earlier stance to negotiate with insurgents only on a group-by-group basis. In February the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Karen National Union (KNU), New Mon State Party (NMSP), Shan State Army-North and several other groups formed the Union Nationalities Federation Council (UNFC). One of the key demands of the umbrella organization is that the groups are only willing to negotiate as an alliance to guard against the government’s divide and rule tactics.
In mid-September, members of the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), met with Shan State government representatives in Taunggyi, the state capital. The group is not a member of the UNFC and an SSA-S spokesman said on October 6 that the group had agreed to engage in talks with the government and was only waiting to confirm the date and location.
It is notable that during recent negotiations the government has dropped its previous demand that armed groups must join the BGF. Negotiators have claimed this was a demand of the former military regime, making a distinction of their status as representatives of the new Thein Sein government.
Ethnic sources say the government’s new approach is similar to the one used in 1989 by military intelligence negotiators under former intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt. Those negotiations resulted in several ceasefire deals. After becoming prime minister, Khin Nyunt was put under house arrest in 2004 on corruption charges, though many observers believed his demise was the result of an intra-government power struggle for control over the military’s intelligence apparatus.
Chinese double game
Neighboring China looms over the government’s new negotiations with armed ethnic groups situated in northern Myanmar. Both the UWSA and NDAA are descendants of the Burmese Communist Party (BCP), which received substantial support from Beijing when its foreign policy was driven by supporting revolutionary movements. Both armed groups grew out of the 1989 mutiny that resulted in the collapse of the BCP.
Beijing has continued to support both groups, as well as the KIO, as a way of preserving leverage with Naypyidaw. The groups also provide a convenient buffer against possible unrest in Myanmar spilling over into China’s remote southwestern regions. That supposition was challenged in 2009 when 30,000 refugees fled into China following the Myanmar army’s attack on the Kokang. Currently, some 20,000 internally displaced Kachin refugees are seeking shelter near the Chinese border as a result of renewed fighting between Kachin and government forces.
China has repeatedly raised its concerns about fighting along their mutual border, most recently during Thein Sein’s trip to Beijing in May, when President Hu Jintao requested that ethnic issues be settled peacefully. That request is complicated by China’s extensive interests in Myanmar’s natural resources and Beijing’s view of the country as a crucial trade conduit for its landlocked southwestern region. China is Myanmar’s second-biggest trading partner and its largest foreign investor.
An oil and gas pipeline currently under construction by Chinese companies will provide a strategic shortcut for Chinese oil and gas shipments from the Middle East that avoids the congested strategic bottleneck of the Straits of Malacca. It is probably no coincidence that the Myanmar army launched a strong offensive against Kachin positions on September 23 in northern Shan State near the pipeline’s route.
China and Myanmar are at odds over Thein Sein’s decision to suspend construction of the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State. The $3.6 billion project is being developed jointly by the Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power, the Asia World Company and the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation. The dam sparked popular protests in Myanmar due to its adverse effects on the environment and a growing sense of Chinese economic domination. Under the agreement, 90% of the energy produced by the dam was to be exported to China.
Naypyidaw will likely need Beijing’s support if it is to solve the ethnic issues along its northern border. China exerts considerable influence over the UWSA, NDAA and KIO in their dealings with the government. Each of these groups is heavily dependent on Chinese goodwill for trade, communications and supplies, including weapons. The UWSA and NDAA were reported to have met with Chinese officials before their recent talks with the government.
Apart from burnishing its reform credentials, Naypyidaw’s peace moves are likely also aimed at keeping the UWSA and the NDAA out of the current fighting. Both groups had a previous agreement with the KIO to assist each other in the advent of fighting with the government, though to date both groups have not entered the fray. They have also declined to join the UNFC, reportedly because of Chinese concerns over the alliance’s perceived pro-Western stance.
So far Naypyidaw seems keen to work on issues that can be agreed on while leaving more contentious ones for future negotiations. While the government’s willingness to talk to ethnic groups is progress, the shelving of political issues for a later date is problematic. Earlier ceasefires focused on economic issues that left political ones to fester. For instance, two major unresolved issues for the Wa are the status of three Wa townships not included in the 2008 constitution and the future of its soldiers in any peace deal.
The government, meanwhile, must find a way to convince armed ethnic groups to hand over their weapons and join the mainstream political process. This is a tall order in a country where civil war has raged for over 60 years and past government promises have frequently been broken. If Thein Sein’s government genuinely wants to reform, the ethnic question remains his most formidable challenge.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
By Moni Basu, CNN
updated 1:48 PM EST, Tue October 11, 2011 (CNN) — Myanmar announced Tuesday it will grant amnesty to 6,300 prisoners on Wednesday, one in a series of recent moves that could help the isolated nation normalize relations with Western nations including the United States.
But is it really an authentic step toward greater freedoms in one of the world’s most repressive states? Or is it another gesture by the nominally civilian government to appease critics?
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell called it a “dramatic development” that could prompt Washington to consider improving ties. The United States imposes an embargo on arms and investment in Myanmar, once known as Burma before a military junta took over.
But if you ask Mark Farmaner, director of the London-based human rights group Burma Campaign UK, the prisoner amnesty is part of the “mood music” created to soothe the world. Obviously, he said, the amnesty was welcome, but it was hardly signaling the government’s wish for democracy.
“What’s very clear is that (President) Thein Sein is willing to make more concessions in order to get sanctions lifted and get more international legitimacy,” Farmaner said.
The amnesty announcement in state-run media did not make it clear how many political detainees would be included.
Amnesty International has reported that more than 2,200 political prisoners are detained in poor conditions and subjected to torture and cruel treatment.
Their release remains a key demand of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and a priority for lifting of Western sanctions.
There was cause for optimism after a letter to Thein Sein from a new state-appointed human rights panel called for the pardon of “prisoners of conscience who do not pose a threat to the stability of state and public tranquility.”
Myanmar, ruled by generals since 1962, denied for decades that political prisoners even existed.
Since Myanmar’s elections in November 2010 — the first in two decades — its leaders have been gingerly reaching out to critics.
“Now I think it would be fair to say the elections themselves were flawed in many critical ways, and we have continuing concerns about a number of developments inside the country,” Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Monday in a lecture in Bangkok, Thailand.
“But it is also undeniably the case that there are dramatic developments under way,” he said. “We have stated clearly that we are prepared for a new chapter in our relations, and we are watching carefully developments on the ground. And I think it would be fair to say we will match their steps with comparable steps, and we are looking forward over the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months.”
Tint Swe, the head of Myanmar’s state censorship, called Friday for greater press freedoms, saying his own office should be shuttered as part of government reforms, reported Radio Free Asia.
Last week, the government suspended the Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River — annoying the Chinese but pleasing Suu Kyi and environmental activists, who had been vocal opponents.
In September, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin held a rare, historic meeting with U.S. officials in Washington following what a U.S. State Department spokesman characterized as positive developments after years of discord over human rights and other issues.
A month earlier, Suu Kyi met with Thein Sein at the presidential residence in Naypyitaw and the two vowed to work together in the nation’s interest, state media reported. Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, said then that he thought the meeting “may be the first step towards reconciliation.”
The NLD was banned from the 2010 election, but Suu Kyi is fighting to restore her party’s legitimacy.
Myanmar and Western nations have been at odds for years because of Myanmar rulers’ ongoing clampdown on their political foes, most notably Suu Kyi. She spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention before being released a week after last year’s elections.
Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK said the government’s talks with Suu Kyi are also about self-preservation. As long as there are popular protests, the government runs the risk of having to crack down on a growing movement as it did in 2007, when outrage over rising fuel prices escalated to Buddhist monks leading 100,000 people in the largest anti-government demonstrations since 1988.
“He wants to take politics off the streets of Burma and bring it under the parliament’s wing,” Farmaner said about Thein Sein. “He is scared of it being on the streets.”‘
The other issue, said Farmaner, that is not being addressed is rights for ethnic minorities, some of whom have waged armed insurgencies against the government. Until they are included in dialogue, he said, Myanmar cannot progress toward democracy.
Ultimately, Farmaner has a warning for Western nations: Don’t get carried away. Lift some sanctions if you want to send a message of encouragement, he said. “But don’t give away too much, too soon.”
By Peter Janssen Oct 11, 2011, 3:07 GMT Yangon – Myanmar’s tourism industry has hit some snags in its efforts to attract international guests.
For one, the nation was called ‘a pariah state’ from 1988 to 2010, during military junta rule.
Added to this, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party encouraged tourists to boycott state-owned businesses.
The NLD even considered issuing a list of junta-connected hotels, airlines, shops, and restaurants to help tourists enjoy their holiday guiltlessly, diplomats said.
But before the list debuted, the political situation improved.
Myanmar staged its first general election in 20 years on November 7, bringing to power a pro-military government led by ex-General President Thein Sein.
On August 19, Thein Sein invited Suu Kyi to the capital Naypyitaw for private talks, a significant reconciliatory step between the government/military and opponents.
Suu Kyi’s recent, guardedly optimistic statements have benefited Myanmar’s languishing tourism industry.
‘She does not say, ‘don’t come to visit Myanmar, anymore,’ which is very positive,’ said Didier Belmonte, general manager of The Strand Hotel. ‘She obviously has a certain influence over the European and American markets.’
According to government figures, 197,678 tourists visited Myanmar between January to July this year, of whom 40,174 were from Western Europe, and 12,990 from North America.
Last year, some 295,147 tourists – mostly business people in search of new markets – visited the country.
‘The potential for Myanmar is looking good, that’s why all the hotels here are filled with corporate business,’ said Aung Myat Kyaw, chairman of the privately run Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board.
High corporate occupancy rates are a statistical anomaly, experts said. Hotels transformed parts of their hotel real estate portfolios into office space during the tourism drought, which makes the occupancy rates look inflated.
For example, in Yangon, Traders Hotel and Inya Lake Hotel turned entire floors into offices after occupancy rates plummeted in 2007-08, due to government arrests of monks and natural disasters that kept tourists away.
In 2007, troops cracked down on barefooted monks in Yangon – the so-called ‘Saffron Revolution.’ A year later, cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta, claiming 138,000 lives.
The hotel industry is only now beginning to recover from the twin disasters.
‘The rates in 2006 were higher than what they are today,’ Belmonte said, though merchants anticipate growth this year.
The century-old Strand, an iconic hotel built by the Sarkies brothers who also built the Raffles of Singapore, is now asking 190 dollars a night for a standard room. That rate jumps to 280 dollars during the October to February high season.
With a mere 30 rooms on offer, and scant competition – the Governor’s Residence is the town’s only other deluxe hotel – The Strand is looking forward to a good year.
‘I’m happy for them because the hoteliers haven’t really done well since they invested,’ Aung Myat Kyaw said.
The Strand, 50-per-cent government owned, underwent a major renovation in 1992.
Myanmar’s first hotel construction boom occurred in the early 1990s, after the socialist system was abandoned and foreign investors were invited into to the country.
But the boom didn’t last long: growth slowed after the military refused to cede power to a civilian government comprised of 1990s election winners, the NLD party.
The country’s hotel stock numbers 22,000 rooms, nearly all geared towards businessmen.
‘In Mandalay, there are only two to three international standard hotels, and half of their rooms are rented out to Chinese companies,’ Aung Myat Kyaw said.
Yet, Myanmar remains, largely, a destination for cultural tourism.
Most tourists spend one or two nights in Yangon, and take side trips to Bagan, the old capital; to Mandalay, the previous capital; and to Inle Lake.
Hoteliers, though sanguine about their recent revival, remain reluctant to raise rates for fear that doing so will choke the current expansion.
‘Myanmar is already an expensive destination,’ Belmonte said. ‘You have to travel within the country, and transport isn’t cheap – the dollar has weakened the kyat. So, if you also increase hotel prices, the whole package becomes too expensive.’
Daily Star Online – Myanmar to stop road construction
Assures it will remove barbed wire fencing from zero line Myanmar yesterday assured Bangladesh of postponing the construction of a road close to the zero line of Tambru frontier under Ghumdhum union of Naikkhongchhari upazila in Bandarban.
The neighbouring country has also pledged to relocate the barbed wire fence from two places along the zero line of this frontier.
The assurance came from Myanmar border force Nasaka at a battalion level flag meeting with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Dakhhin Ghumdhum Govt Primary School.
Local sources said tension was growing between the two border forces when Nasaka was constructing the road, but it defused after they stopped the construction last week following protest by BGB.
A joint border survey by the two countries this year detected around 150 feet long barbed wire fence within 40 feet from the zero line at one place. It also found around 300 feet fence within 140 feet from the zero line, according to BGB.
As per international border law, erecting barbed wire fence or any structure within 150 yards of the zero line is prohibited.
Nasaka joined yesterday’s meeting in response to BGB’s October 4 letter requesting them for holding a flag meeting.
Commander of 17 BGB Battalion of Cox’s Bazar Lt Col Md Khalequzzaman led the BGB delegation, while the Nasaka side was led by its sector 3 commander.
The BGB official said Myanmar did not erect the fence intentionally. It happened as the Tambru canal, which determines the zero line, moved into Bangladesh territory due to a landslide in 2009. Myanmar erected the fence assuming the canal as the zero line.
During border patrol BGB noticed the road construction within the said distance from the zero line, but Myanmar stopped the work after BGB protested it a few days back.
“Nasaka said they were constructing the road temporarily to carry materials for barbed wire fencing and asked Bangladesh to allow them, but we didn’t agree,” mentioned Khalequzzaman.
Earlier, the district judge of Cox’s Bazar sent a letter to BGB informing that 60 Myanmar nationals have been languishing in jail despite their jail terms are over.
Nasaka agreed to take back 19 of the Myanmarese, who have been identified by the Myanmar embassy in Dhaka, said the BGB commander. The border force has handed over the corrected list and photographs of 41 others.
The Myanmar team chief assured BGB of taking necessary steps if the list is sent through their embassy in Dhaka.
The BGB official also pointed out smuggling of huge amount of Yaba tablets and narcotics from Myanmar into Bangladesh.
The Nasaka commander said they are sincere about stopping the smuggling.
Shyam Saran, Hindustan Times
October 11, 2011
President Thein Sein of Myanmar is on a three-day official visit to India. Since assuming office, the Thein Sein government has tried to win domestic and international legitimacy through a series of political initiatives. These include the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the initiation of regular conciliatory dialogue with her, a commitment to release political prisoners languishing in jail and a pledge to be more responsive to public sentiment and opinion.
These moves were, until recently, met with a degree of scepticism. After all, Sein has been a general in the powerful Myanmar Army, which, despite the recent political changes, retains overwhelming authority. Now there is grudging acknowledgement that he appears committed to reform, incremental as it must be.
The most important driver of this perceptional change is Sein’s ‘postponement’ on September 30 of the $3.6 billion Chinese-financed Myitsone hydro-electric power project, the first in a series of dams on the upper reaches of the country’s main river system, the Irrawaddy, in response to strong public opposition. Chinese reaction has been one of
“astonishment”. By taking this somewhat risky political decision, Sein achieved two things at a stroke: one, he successfully portrayed his government as being responsive to public opinion; two, he sent out a powerful signal that Myanmar was no docile, client State of China. Suu Kyi has welcomed the decision and has said that she is convinced that Sein is genuinely committed to a more democratic form of government.
India has found itself somewhat defensive in developing closer relations with a military and authoritarian government. In reaching out to Sein, India will no longer face such political inhibitions. The changed relationship between the government and Suu Kyi also opens the door for India to engage with the latter and support her measured steps to expand the political space for civilian, democratic political forces.
India has been worried about the expanding presence of China in Myanmar. This is not surprising given the sensitive nature of our 1,400 km-long land border with Myanmar, encompassing the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. Myanmar and India also share the strategic waters of the Bay of Bengal.The good news is that even the generals who directly ruled Myanmar over the past two decades were always uncomfortable with China’s dominating presence and looked to India, on the one hand, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on the other, to counter-balance Chinese influence.
In 2001, the year I left Myanmar after a four-year tenure, Senior General Than Shwe conveyed to me his decision to allow India to open a consulate in Mandalay, where only China had such a privilege. Our request had been pending since 1998 and we knew that the Chinese had strongly opposed this. With Sein, India may find Myanmar even more responsive to Indian initiatives.
The weak point in India’s Myanmar policy lies in our inability to deliver quickly on projects that we have committed ourselves to. These include the Tamanthi hydropower project on the Chindwin river, the cross-border highways linking Mizoram with the towns of Tiddim and Fallam in Myanmar’s adjoining Chin state, and the ambitious Kaladan multi-modal transport project, which would provide access to India’s Mizoram. The project would allow both water transport along the Kaladan river as well as a highway linking the old port of Sittwe with the southern road system in Mizoram. We need to address this quickly and one hopes that the proposed aid agency being set up by India’s foreign ministry will help in this regard.
For Sein, the world’s largest democracy playing host will strengthen his credentials as a leader committed to reform. India could play a role in encouraging the US and Europe to begin dismantling their long-standing policy of isolating and sanctioning Myanmar. India, therefore, has some additional leverage in pursuing its interests in Myanmar that include the elimination of the remaining sanctuaries of North-east insurgent groups across the border.
On the economic side, much more can be done to establish mutually beneficial long-term economic ties. Myanmar still possesses large unexploited oil and gas reserves whose development would contribute to our energy security. It has vast tracts of vacant arable land, which could produce both cereals well as pulses for India’s growing market as also to contribute to regional food security. And Myanmar could become the most convenient transit for India’s rapidly growing trade and investment relations with both South-east Asia and southern China.
That will, of course, require a major connectivity project that will span several years of effort. Thein Sein’s visit offers a most timely opportunity to explore these initiatives in earnest.
Shyam Saran was Indian ambassador to Myanmar, 1997-2001. The views expressed by the author are personal.
Uncertainty hangs over how many political activists will be freed in amnesty of more than 6,000 prisoners
Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 October 2011 13.46 EDT Burma’s president Thein Sein (centre) with vice president Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo (left) and vice president Sai Mauk Kham. Photograph: Myanmar News Agency/EPA
Burma’s rulers have always cynically refused to acknowledge holding any political prisoners at all. Despite swapping military uniforms earlier this year for suits and ties in a bid to brush up their international image, they still maintain this fiction.
But few outside the regime’s inner circles and the state media credit the illusion. Most estimates put the number of political detainees at about 2,100, many of them incarcerated for years in appalling, life-threatening conditions.
How many of these unsung heroes of the Burmese people’s struggle for freedom and democracy will be among the more than 6,000 prisoners expected to be released from jail on Wednesday is anybody’s guess. Previous amnesties granted by the regime have included disappointingly few activists from the much-proscribed National League for Democracy (NLD), whose landslide election victory in 1990 – Burma’s last credible national poll – triggered the military takeover.
Little more than one year ago, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN human rights council’s special rapporteur on Burma, drew attention to what he called “a pattern of gross and systematic violations of human rights” that he said had been in place for many years, particularly in Burma’s hidden prison camps.
“The possibility exists that some of these [violations] may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes, under the statute of the international criminal court,” he said.
The prospect of its leading lights being hauled off to The Hague, however remote, could be one reason why the remodelled junta now led by President Thein Sein is ostensibly relaxing its grip on dissent.
The mooted prisoner release follows recent moves to ease censorship, open up a dialogue with the NLD’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and cancel an unpopular, Chinese-run dam project.
These developments have been hailed by outside organisations, such as the International Crisis Group, as evidence of a welcome change of political direction, partly in response to western pressure.
An open letter published this week by Win Mra, chairman of the newly-formed Myanmar [Burma] national human rights commission (sponsored by Thein Sein), seemed to back up
this analysis. Win Mra wrote that prisoners who did not pose “a threat to the stability of state and public tranquillity” should be released.
“The commission humbly requests the president, as a reflection of his magnanimity, to grant amnesty to those prisoners and release them from the prison.”
But decades of repression and abuse cannot be wished away with a few flicks of an autocrat’s fountain pen, no more than can the habit of mind that sustained and justified such egregious behaviour for so long.
It seems unlikely that Thein Sein and his cronies have suddenly seen the moral light, or that they have finally bowed under the weight of western disapproval. If substantial numbers of political prisoners are released on Wednesday, it will be the result of some very hard-headed, unsentimental calculations.
One is that Burma’s resource-rich economy, hobbled for years by dictatorship, isolation and under-investment, is set to take off, if western sanctions and restrictions are lifted.
The release of political prisoners has always been the foremost demand of the US, Britain and others. If this demand is fulfilled, even partially, then pressure will grow on the EU and the US to ease back.
That pressure will come in part from countries such as Germany that, in the case of Burma, have consistently prioritised commerce and trade over reform.
Another junta consideration is China’s increasingly overbearing behaviour, which contrasts unfavourably with the attractive blandishments, real and potential, attendant on improved relations with India, Japan and others intent on curbing Beijing’s ambitions. China reacted with imperious displeasure to the postponement of the Irrawaddy dam project.
India’s non-judgmental handling of Burma over the years has been much less threatening. No coincidence then that Thein Sein will be visiting Delhi this week. For its part, Japan is quietly rebuilding its bridges to Burma.
Burma’s rulers are also motivated by a desire for rehabilitation in the premier regional forum, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), whose rotating chairmanship they hope to hold in 2014.
The appearance of reform in Burma, even if only superficial, would greatly assist this aim. And it would be heartily welcomed by businesslikecountries such as Thailand and Malaysia that have their own human rights challenges and have never been entirely comfortable with Burma’s continued ostracism.
Although genuine human rights concerns will continue to influence its policy, the US, too, has a clear interest in improved relations, for similarly persuasive commercial and geostrategic reasons.
So overall, a self-serving consensus is emerging among interested states rendering them increasingly ready to accept the junta-inspired reform narrative now emanating from Burma.
Never mind what the Burmese people or the NLD activists held in solitary confinement may say. Never mind how hollow the promises of change could prove to be.
In this developing storyline, Burma is coming in from the cold – and all may share in the resulting benefits with a good conscience. Trouble is, the story is almost certainly untrue.
Missing the boat to Myanmar
By KEVIN RAFFERTY
Special to The Japan Times
HONG KONG — Where is Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s foreign policy? A neighboring country that has suffered years of isolation and plunder by the misruling junta may be signaling that it wants to come in from the cold. Japan, which could offer the greatest help, seems to be asleep to the opportunity.
Myanmar (aka Burma) President Thein Sein’s announcement suspending the development of the controversial Chinese-built $3.6 billion Myitsone hydropower dam on the Irrawaddy River because it was “contrary to the will of the people” caught everyone by surprise and raises important questions.
Was this a gimmick or an important gesture towards democracy? Was it done on a passing whim or as part of a considered step in Myanmar’s efforts to abandon isolation and rejoin the 21st century world? Will leaders in the country, in China, India, Japan and the West have the imagination and courage to respond to the overtures from the new “civilian” president?
There is a lot of unfinished business. Thein Sein did not cancel or damn the dam (as newspapers said): he suspended work until at least the end of his term in office in 2015. That he made his announcement in parliament and cited the will of the people suggests that he is serious. On the other hand, loans have been signed and preparatory work started; China has protested that Myanmar will face legal consequences if it drops the plan; and this dam is merely the biggest of seven in a massive $20 billion scheme, so there is a lot of negotiating still to do.
Thein Sein has been more active than critics imagined since taking off his general’s uniform and becoming civilian president in March. In his opening speech to parliament, he called for political reconciliation, a fight against corruption and poverty and ending of the armed conflicts that have long bedeviled the country.
Mere words come cheaply, but the government has taken welcome economic relief measures, such as raising pensions, reducing taxes and revising the ludicrous foreign exchange rate system. It lifted some restrictions on the Internet, allowed independent newspapers, which have been permitted to feature opposition heroine Aung San Suu Kyi on their front pages, unheard of a year ago. Thein Sein invited Suu Kyi to the annual Martyrs’ Day ceremony in July commemorating the assassination of her father and Burma’s founding father Aung San.
In August, the president met independent civic groups and called for peace talks with Myanmar’s ethnic rebels. The next day he spent two hours alone with Aung Sang Suu Kyi. He has met her again subsequently. She said, appropriately, that she would like to judge the government by its results and, “I think I’d like to see a few more turns before I believe that the wheels are turning.” As another symbol, Aung San’s picture has been restored to pride of place in the president’s office.
Questions remain as to whether Thein Sein knows where he is going or whether he has considered the rocky road ahead. It could be that out of military uniform, he has a different perspective, or has been cut out of lucrative deals cut by the generals. It might be that he is playing a game with Suu Kyi to get her to lift Western sanctions. After my first visit to Burma in 1973, I wrote that a country keeping a lion for a pet — the military — must expect a heavy bill for its food. The expression, “the lion’s share” does not mean the odd 20 or even 40 percent, but all except what is left for the jackals.
As Thein Sein knows, the generals have done well as Burma has traveled a wretched road from being the most prosperous country of pre-war Asia to the most isolated and impoverished. So too has China and well-connected Thais. Persuading these beneficiaries that a smaller share each in a bigger more prosperous cake would be best for everyone will not be easy.
China’s investment in Myanmar is more than $12 billion and trade last year was $4.4 billion. Some officials in Myanmar fear that, as a former chief of mission at the country’s embassy in Washington put it, Myanmar has become “a semi-colony” of China. There is increasing resentment inside Myanmar at the growing army of Chinese, numbering up to two million, who have come to work on Chinese investment projects in the country. Besides the dams, China is involved in mining and timber, building oil and gas pipelines and a railway from Yunnan through Myanmar to a new deep-sea port.
Deals like the massive dams are clearly good for China, which takes 90 percent of the energy produced and gets to control the water flow, but less good for the farmers of Myanmar who have to wait for China to turn on the taps. Works threatening the Irrawaddy waters are especially sensitive because the river has been the source of most of the historic civilizations of Burma. They have also angered the Kachin people, often a fierce thorn in the side of the military rulers.
After Thein Sein’s announcement Beijing huffed and puffed like Big Brother. Lu Qizhou, president of China Power Investment, the main Chinese partner in the Myitsone project, told the China Daily that he found the decision “totally astonishing” and “very bewildering” and that a halt to construction would “lead to a series of legal issues” between the two countries. Beijing itself called on the Myanmar government to protect the legal and legitimate rights of the Chinese companies involved in the project, and warned about “damaging bilateral ties and friendship.”
China is Myanmar’s big neighbor as well as its biggest investor and cannot, nor should it be, wished away. When he visited Beijing in May, Thein Sein praised China as a trustworthy, selfless ally.
What is required is to broaden the basis of investment and make it more inclusive of the people. That means investing in education, manufacturing and tourism and opening up the country to other investors. Domestically, the president should release 2,000 political prisoners and try to involve Suu Kyi in re-creating her father’s “big tent” dream for the country.
But outside Myanmar is anyone listening, apart from aggrieved China? The United States and Europe are preoccupied with their own economic mess and Myanmar is faraway. Where is India, which before Oxford University offered Suu Kyi an education?
Where is Japan, which played a formative role in Aung San’s rise? The main foreign policy announcement from Tokyo was the resumption of whaling in the Antarctic with greater security protection, irrelevant to the economic and political problems that Japan faces.
Japan, especially if Suu Kyi gives her green light that Thein Sein has had a Damascene conversion and is serious about fulfilling his promises to his people, could play a vital part in rescuing Burma from its unnecessary isolation and poverty.
There is no point in opposing China directly, but a more people-centered aid, economic and investment policy would highlight China’s plundering. If Japan can help unlock the rich human and natural potential of what was once Asia’s richest country, it would be a win-win for all, especially Japan.
Kevin Rafferty first reported from Burma in 1973. His reports for the Financial Times were quoted in Burma’s official documents before the army got its teeth into the country’s resources.
VOA News – Skepticism Meets Burma’s Prisoner-Release Plan
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok, Thailand
Burma has announced it will release thousands of prisoners as part of a general amnesty amid indications that political prisoners could be among those set free. A leading rights group has dismissed the news, though, as a ploy that shows no real change in policy.
Burma’s state TV announced Tuesday that authorities would release more than 6,300 prisoners as part of an amnesty plan.
Myanmar Radio and Television 4 said officials have prepared a list of the prisoners who will be set free, but did not name anyone.
The news reader said prisoners who already have served parts of their sentences with good behavior will be released under a humanitarian amnesty by President Thein Sein. He said 6,359 inmates will be set free beginning Wednesday in accordance with the constitution.
There was no confirmation, however, that any of Burma’s estimated 2,000 political prisoners will be among those given amnesty.
On-screen text during the announcement repeated the official line that Burma has no political prisoners, only criminals. But there have been other indications that some political prisoners are about to be released.
Tuesday’s edition of the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a plea from Burma’s Human Rights Commission urging Sein to release “prisoners of conscience.” On Monday, a Norwegian deputy foreign affairs minister told VOA’s Burmese service that parliament speaker Thura Shwe Mann assured him political prisoners will be released beginning within days.
Critics of Burma’s government say that even if the political prisoners are freed, that does not indicate a change of policy by authorities.
Bo Kyi, a spokesman for the Thailand-based Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, said authorities’ refusal to recognize the existence of political prisoners means they would still have criminal records.
Lawyers arrested for defending democracy activists would be unable to practice law, he said, and students sentenced for protesting would not be allowed to continue their studies.
“The European Union or the United States should consider what they are saying and should maybe carefully interpret what they are saying. Right now, I don’t see any policy changes. So, what we need is first like policy changes to recognize them as political prisoners to release them as political prisoners,” he said.
Bo Kyi also said the amnesty is a ploy to get economic sanctions against Burma lifted and to increase support for the country to host the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in 2014.
He notes even as the amnesty was announced, recently arrested political activists are on trial and a journalist imprisoned for photographing a bombing had his sentence increased.
On Monday, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told an audience in Bangkok that there have been dramatic developments in Burma, but Washington is waiting for more substantial moves.
“We are prepared for a new chapter in our relations and we are watching carefully developments on the ground. And, I think it would be fair to say that we will match their steps with comparable steps,” said Campbell.
Campbell listed the release of political prisoners among several steps the United States wants to see Burma take.
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Burma and China have resolved a dispute over the recent suspension of the Chinese-backed Myitsone hydro-power dam project in Kachin State, according to a Burmese presidential adviser who said that Burma may have to compensate China for the move.
The sudden suspension of the US $3.6 billion project earlier this month angered Beijing and the state-owned China Power Investment (CPI) corporation, the main investor in the scheme. In an interview with Chinese state media, CPI president Lu Qizhou warned the Burmese government of possible legal repercussions and said the suspension of the project would cause immeasurable losses to both countries.
A week after Beijing called for talks to address the issue, Burmese President Thein Sein held a rare meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Burma, Li Junhua, in Naypyidaw on Saturday and briefly explained his reasons for making the decision, according to presidential adviser Dr Nay Zin Latt.
At the same time, Thein Sein sent his foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, to Beijing for talks with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi over the dam suspension issue.
In its coverage of the meetings, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that the two sides had agreed to properly settle the matter while reaffirming commitments aimed at achieving joint development.
The meetings clearly highlighted the magnitude of Thein Sein’s decision, which has been widely seen as a demonstration of his new, quasi-civilian government’s eagerness to demonstrate that it is not a client of China and is ready to re-balance its international relations.
“It is not good for Burma or any other nation to rely too much on relations with just one country. We must forge friendly ties with all nations,” said Nay Zin Latt in an interview with The Irrawaddy on Monday, describing the president’s decision as an extraordinarily bold step taken in the national and public interest.
He added that the Myitsone dam issue has been thoroughly settled by both sides, but Burma might have to compensate China, probably in the form of granting economic concessions to its giant resource-hungry neighbor.
“I don’t think we have to pay them back in the form of billions of dollars,” he said, without specifying what kind of economic concessions Burmese leaders agreed to offer to make up for the suspension of the Myitsone project, which was expected to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity, mostly for export to China.
It also remains unclear if the project has been canceled completely, because in his original announcement, Thein Sein only said it had been suspended for the remainder of his term in office, which expires in 2016. Meanwhile, it is believed that work is still continuing on six other hydro-power dams in Kachin State connected to the Myitsone dam project.
In response to a comment by the CPI president that suspension of the project would make it impossible for Burma to implement a loan agreement between China and Burma’s former military junta, Nay Zin Latt said Burma will find other means of repaying the loan.
“Using revenues from other sources, not only from Myitsone, we can repay the loan. For example, we can pay back using revenues from the gas pipeline to China,” he said, referring to the $2.5 billion oil and natural gas pipelines being constructed by China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corp from the Bay of Bengal to China’s Yunnan Province through central and northeastern Burma.
The pipelines are seen as China’s most geopolitically and economically important investment in Burma. Last week, Burmese activists called for a suspension of the pipeline project, citing human rights violations, but both the Chinese and Burmese governments have expressed optimism that it will continue smoothly.
By KO HTWE Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has denied government allegations that it is involved with drug trafficking by saying the reports are merely an attempt to discredit the armed group.
State-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on Tuesday that government troops confiscated 521,340 amphetamine pills, one machine for producing tablets, four tablet moulds and related equipment in a KIA Battalion 1-controlled area near Muse Township, in northern Shan State. Another 1,020 tablets of the stimulant were also reported found nearby.
“The incidents obviously prove that despite offering alternative reasons, the KIA group is producing and selling narcotic drugs that menace mankind,” said the report.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, La Nan, the joint-secretary of the KIA’s political wing the Kachin Independence Organization, denied the area was under KIA control and said that the government knows that narcotics have been distributed by militias there for a long time.
“There are many incidents when [the government] has made narcotics arrests in the area but after receiving bribes they release the trafficker and it never gets published in the newspapers. But now they want to accuse Kachin groups of having links with narcotics,” said La Nan.
In August 2009, government troops defeated the Kokang ethnic armed group—otherwise known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army—and seized its capital of Laogai, in northeastern Shan State.
Burmese authorities said that they raided the city to search for drugs, and hundreds of refugees fled into China as a result of the fighting.
The city had long benefited from booming border trade with China and substantial Chinese investment, but it has come almost to a standstill since junta troops seized control on August 24.
La Nan also said that the area of Muse Township where this week’s narcotics seizure took place was three miles away from KIA Battalion 9 and notorious for drugs despite being under the administration of the government.
“In 2006, the KIA also performed a drugs raid in the area and the government accused us of collecting bribes to stop our operation,” said La Nan.
The report also said that the Burmese government column seized one AK-47, 60 rounds of ammunition, two 60 mm mortars, one M-21, 12 assorted small arms, 16 assorted mines and 45 bags of gunpowder.
“We have no reason to keep weapons in that area. We do not have enough ammunition to distribute to the village,” said La Nan.
In 2010, the Burmese junta accused the KIA of being “insurgents” and blamed the group for a mine blast which killed two and injured one in Kachin State.
Loikang, near Kutakai Township, was the headquarters of KIA Brigade 4 but fell into government hands in September. The Brigade was based across northern Shan State but KIA Battalions 2 and 9, under Brigade 4, already lost their bases to advancing government soldiers.
Government newspapers also accused the KIA of opening fire at a work camp in Tima, near Muse Township of Muse District in Shan State, on September 21. Reports allege that three members of the Myanmar Police Force, three staff of the Myanmar Correctional Department, eight small arms and 55 prisoners were seized.
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, October 11, 2011
BANGKOK—Discussing what he described as early stages of change in Burma, a senior US diplomat on Monday promised his country “will match their steps with comparable steps,” as expectations grow that Burma will release some of the country’s almost-2,000 political prisoners in the coming days.
Burma’s new National Human Rights Commission published an open letter on Tuesday, in which it “humbly requests the President, as a reflection of his magnanimity, to grant amnesty to those prisoners and release them from the prison.”
If the release happens, the US is likely to relax or end some of the economic sanctions levied against senior Burmese officials and business cronies.
Commenting on Burma’s recent decision to suspend operations at the US $3.6 billion Chinese-built Myitsone Dam in war-wracked Kachin State, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said this development is one of several that “demand closer attention,” confirming that the US is “looking forward in the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months.”
Campbell termed the recent discussions between Burmese President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as “very consequential,” and described the president as “a serious interlocutor.”
Campbell spoke at a lecture at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, where he discussed US policy in East and Southeast Asia, saying that his country hopes to “shift resources and capability from the Middle East and South Asia to the Asia-Pacific region” over the coming years.
Campbell departed for China on Monday night after acknowledging that “it will take a remarkable effort” for the world’s two biggest economies and growing strategic rivals to deal with the range of issues confronting them.
He said that “Asians and Chinese need to invest more and purchase more products from the US” to help stabilize the global economy, which is under pressure due to debt problems and sluggish growth in Europe, Japan and the US.
China holds an estimated $1.1 trillion in US debt, saying via state media in August that the US needs to “cure its addiction to debts” and “live within its means,” a missive that came just after credit “rating agency” Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US debt rating.
In turn, the US argues that China deliberately undervalues its currency, giving Chinese exporters an advantage over American rivals.
US senators last week voted through a bill allowing Washington to impose additional duties on products from countries that allegedly subsidize exports by undervaluing their currencies.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai warned the US against the measure on Monday, saying “should the proposed legislation become law, the only result would be a trade war between China and the United States, and that would be a lose-lose situation for both sides.”
Burma is likely to be discussed during Campbell’s visit to China, with the diplomat saying that “it is in China’s interests to have a stable and reformed Burma.”
With India hosting Thein Sein on Wednesday, after Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang arrives the day before, China’s head-start in building new commercial and diplomatic links around Southeast Asia seems to be under challenge.
Campbell spoke approvingly of India’s “Look East” policy yesterday, hinting that the US is involved in discussions about New Delhi’s attempts to forge closer relations with countries in East and Southeast Asia.
Japan and India have joined the US in getting involved in the dispute over the South China Sea, where six countries have claims on maritime domain as well as on several islands said to sit near oil and gas reserves. China claims most of the sea for itself, but the US regards it as an international waterway, through which allies such as South Korea and Japan must ship oil and gas imports from Africa and the Middle East.
One potential U.S-China flashpoint—where the US appears less-ready to confront China—is over Taiwan. Asked about the recent US refusal to sell Taipei advanced F-16 fighter jets, instead agreeing to hand over older versions of the aircraft, Campbell emphasized the need for “preservation of peace” between China and Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of China but which has a defense treaty with the US.
Despite refusing to sell the new model F-16s to its ally, last month’s announcement of a $5.85 billion arms package for Taiwan angered China, and Cui said on Monday that the sale would be discussed with Campbell in Beijing.
“By putting these issues on the table tomorrow, we hope to better address these issues and prevent them from excessively interfering in the normal development of China-US relations,” he said.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011 14:29 Te Te
(Mizzima) – More than 300 political prisoners are reportedly included in the 6,359 prisoners that are scheduled to be released from prisons throughout Burma starting Wednesday, according to a source close to the Burmese prison department.
High-profile political prisoners including Zarganar, who is currently serving a 35-year sentence at Myitkyina Prison; the labour activist Su Su Nwe, who is serving eight years at Kanti Prison in Sagaing Region; and General Say Htin, 75, a patron of the Shan State Army-North who is currently serving a 106-year sentence in Sittwe Prison in Arakan State are among the list of political prisoners to be released, the source said.
Mizzima was unable to verify the information, which said that prisoners would be released in three batches, according to the source, under an amnesty by President Thein Sein. The exiled Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma) estimates that there are about 2,000 political prisoners in Burmese jails.
State-run television MRTV announced on Tuesday that the prisoners include the elderly, prisoners in ill health, and prisoners who are handicapped.
The amnesty will be granted under section 204 (b) of the Constitution, which states: “The President has the power to grant amnesty in accord with the recommendation of the National Defence and Security Council.”
After President Thein Sein entered office earlier this year, he announced a one-year presidential commutation on May 16. About 20,000 prisoners were released, but only a few were political prisoners.
In September, the opposition National Democratic Force (NDF) party said that an amnesty would be effective only if political prisoners are included. Observers said the issue is related to the government’s demand that Western countries lift the economic sanctions imposed on Burma, and other issues such as its campaign to be named chairman of Asean in 2014.
NDF leader Khin Maung Swe, who is a former political prisoner, said: “Now, we need to attempt national reconciliation. If political prisoners are not included in the amnesty, it will not be effective. The authorities know it. The amnesty was delayed because they seem to be pondering whether an uprising could be sparked off again.”
According to figures compiled by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, there are 1,998 political prisoners in 42 prisons and 109 labour camps across Burma.
Daw Shu, a caretaker of political prisoners, said rumours went around that prisoners would be released in two batches. “It’s likely that the prisoners who are serving long prison terms will also be released,” he said.
On September 28, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin told the UN General Assembly that prisoners would be released soon.
Many high profile political prisoners are held in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. One of the prison’s most famous inmates was Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was confined there on three separate occasions in 2003, 2007 and 2010, before she was released from house arrest in late 2010.
Suu Kyi told Voice of America in September: “‘It’s not enough to have a transition to a democratic government, what we need are for democratic institutions to take firm root in this country, and I would like to be able to help in this process.”
In the interview, Suu Kyi said that freeing political prisoners in Burma and the fight for a real democracy were inextricable. “I don’t think you can separate different elements of the process towards democracy…the release of political prisoners is one of the aims of trying to democratize our country – that there may be no political prisoners.”
Asked when she thought would be the appropriate time for Western sanctions to be lifted from the country, Suu Kyi said, “I think when the reasons for which sanctions were instituted in the first place indicate that real change has taken place and that it is time for a new approach.”
The New York Times reported on Monday that United States Assistant Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell said in a lecture in Bangkok that Washington might soon take steps to improve relations with Burma in light of “dramatic developments under way” in the new government.
Campbell said, “I think it would be fair to say that we will match their steps with comparable steps, and we are looking forward in the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months.”
Tuesday, 11 October 2011 22:02 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party says that financial constraints have prevented it from providing assistance to flood victims during this monsoon season.
Heavy rain has flooded many states and regions in the country including Mandalay, Magwe, Bago, Irrawaddy, Sagaing, Karen, Mon, Kayah, Chin and Rakhine states and regions. Many flood victims have sustained damage to their farmland and crops, and faced food shortages.
NLD spokesman Ohn Kyaing said that the NLD could not provide much assistance to the victims because it was providing education assistance in suburban townships in Rangoon.
“There are many natural disaster areas in the country this year. We have had difficulty in finding sufficient financial resources and communication with these areas. But we plan to provide these disaster victims with as much as we can,” Ohn Kyaing told Mizzima.
Local social networks and organizations are providing assistance to the flood victims, but it has been inadequate in most areas.
Ohn Kyaing said the NLD has not changed its social assistance policy, and it has assigned local NLD offices to provide as much assistance as they can. “We also have a plan to visit the disaster-hit areas and provide assistance to the victims,” he said.
Myothit Township NLD branch Youth in-charge Aung Kyaw Kyaw said that there were cases of deaths and loss of homes in Kyauk Hta Yan, Htonebo, Myo Lulin and Tatkone villages in Myothit Township, Magwe Region, when the Soonchaung dam opened its floodgates after heavy rain.
“We could not provide enough assistance to these flood victims,” he told Mizzima. “And also the local authorities and parties have not provided assistance. These local authorities even harassed us by questioning us and prohibited us to give assistance.”
Also, a number of homes were flooded in Loikaw and Demoso townships, and local residents said that sufficient aid has not reached many residents.
The NLD provided relief assistance of food, clothing and medicine to homeless victims in South Dagon and Dagon Seikkan townships in March 2011 after gusts of wind damaged many homes. The party also provided financial assistance to residents in Chin State who were without sufficient food after a rodent infestation severely damaged crops. The party also provided assistance to victims in Rakhine State and Irrawaddy Region after Cyclone Giri hit Rakhine in 2010 and Cyclone Nargis hit Irrawaddy region.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011 15:26 Thea Forbes
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Three Chinese women were gang-raped last week by Burmese government troops in northern Kachin State, the Kachin News Group (KNG) reported on Monday.
According to witnesses, the women were raped on October 7 by about 10 Burmese soldiers in Shadan Pa, located between the Namsan Hka River and Munglai Hka River, west of the Myitkyina-Manmaw (Bhamo) Road.
One of the three women was unconscious for hours at a public hospital in Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization, hospital sources told the KNG.
The gang-rape was committed by Burmese troops under the Mogaung (Mugang)-based Military Operation Command-3 (MOC-3) led by Brig-Gen Myat Kyaw under the Northern Regional Command (NRC) based in Myitkyina, local residents and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) officials said.
Sources said that under MOC-3, 10 battalions are combined in the command: Mogaung-based Infantry Battalion No. 74, Namti-based Light Infantry Battalions No. 381, 382 and 390, Kawa Yang (Mogaung)-based LIB No. 383 and 384, Nammar-based LIB 385 and 386 and Mali Zup (Hopin)-based LIB No. 388 and 389.
There are more than 30,000 acres of banana fields in Shadan Pa on land that has been rented from the KIO by a Chinese businessman, Lau Ying, since 2008, the KNG reported. Burmese troops have been deployed to the banana plantation since September, in a move to seize Kachin Independence Army (KIA) strongholds near the China border.
There are more than 20,000 Chinese and Burmese workers on the plantations. Sources said the KIA had told all workers to return to their homes several times since renewed fighting started on June 9 this year, when the Burmese government broke a cease-fire with the KIA, according to the KNG.
The KIA’s last warning to plantation workers was issued on September 15. However, some workers remained in the area, KIA officials told KNG.
Sources said the latest rape of the three Chinese women is part of a history of Burmese troops using rape as a systematic weapon of war. Women in ethnic states in Burma, particularly in areas of conflict, are subject to extreme brutality and sexual violence at the hands of the Tatmadaw, according to reports issued by human rights groups and NGOs.
In a report released on October 7 by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (Kwat), the NGO reported that in the first two months since war broke out in Kachin and northern Shan states this year, 37 women and girls have been raped, and 13 of them were killed.
“Our documentation team was deeply shocked at the details of these crimes. Some women were gang-raped in front of their families. In one case, soldiers slaughtered a woman’s grandchild in front of her before raping and killing her also,” Shirley Seng, a Kwat spokesperson, said in a press release.
The report also contained details of disappearances of women and men. In one case, it reported that on July 12, 20 women from Mung Yin village in Namatu Township in northern Shan State were taken by Burmese army soldiers from Battalion 324. No one currently knows their whereabouts.
The culture of impunity that shrouds the military in Burma protects the perpetrators of human rights abuses from facing justice, say observers. The Burmese army repeatedly denies any instances of rape by its soldiers. According to Kwat, attempts to report cases of rape and other human rights abuses, such as forced labour and serving as porters, receives no attention from government authorities.
Women who have survived rape attacks have said that Burmese soldiers told them that they had been ordered to carry out the rapes.
Rape: a weapon of mass destruction in slow-motion
Rape as a weapon of war has been a growing subject of concern. Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams said in an International Gender Justice Dialogue held by the Nobel Women’s Initiative in April 2010: “We also talked about landmines as being a weapon of mass destruction in slow-motion; I would think about rape that way now. It is destroying far many more lives I think than landmines have done, and it’s going to be a damn sight harder to ban that weapon of war than it has to ban landmines, but I think it’s something we have to try to do.”
“It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in armed conflict,” said Major-General Patrick Cammaert, former commander of UN peacekeeping forces in the eastern Congo. Tens of thousands of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo suffer sexual violence in conflict every year.
Kwat has urged United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to condemn the atrocities being committed by the Burmese army in northern Burma in the ongoing conflict there. Many human rights groups deem Thein Sein’s government’s ‘token gestures’ to human rights and democracy as public relations rhetoric designed to deflect the abuses committed by the army.
Kwat spokesperson Hkawng Seng Pan told Mizzima recently, “You can see clearly how the Burmese government is working; the Army is fighting and killing ethnic people while Thein Sein is speaking about human rights to a Parliament full of generals and former military officers.”
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 11 October 2011
Claims by the Burmese government that it has seized a large quantity of methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia during fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been dismissed by critics and Kachin personnel as propaganda.
The claim surfaced in a New Light of Myanmar article today, which said that KIA forces had attacked a “work camp” at Tima, in Shan state’s Muse township, on 21 September. Troops captured three police officers, three Myanmar Correctional Department staff and 55 others.
During a subsequent 11-day effort to rescue the captives, the Burmese army claimed to have seized small arms, bags of gunpowder and “46 buildings”, the article said. It added that it had “rescued 37 prisoners” whom the KIA claimed it had freed from the Tima work camp.
The operation continued, and on 8 October the Burmese army allegedly seized over half a million “stimulant tablets”, tablet moulds and a machine for making pills, along with precursor chemical for methamphetamine, sulphuric acid.
This “obviously proved that despite showing various reasons, KIA group is producing and selling narcotic drugs menacing the mankind,” the newspaper said.
Author Bertil Lintner, who has written extensively on Burma’s narcotics industry, however questioned why accusations of KIA involvement in the drugs trade had not surfaced during the KIA’s 17-year ceasefire with the Burmese government, which ended in June. He told DVB that Naypyidaw “uses the drugs as a political tool”, and once ceasefires breakdown,
“all these groups are involved with narcotics”.
“As soon as the groups have a ceasefire agreement with the government, you never hear anything about drugs; on the contrary they [government] defend them and claim they are not involved. With the Kokang [ethnic army], for instance, they never said anything about them and the drugs trade, and they were involved.”
Fighting between the two sides has displaced some 25,000 civilians already, whilst a report last week by the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand (KWAT) claimed that 37 women and girls, some as young as nine, had been raped by Burmese troops, 13 of whom subsequently died. The Kachin News Group alleged that three women were gang-raped by Burmese forces on 7 October in Shadan Pa, west of the Bhamo-to-Myitkina road.
James Lung Dao, spokesperson of the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation, told DVB that the drugs accusation was “false information”, and added that it is “impossible” to trade in narcotics without Burmese government consent. Lintner corroborated that “to my knowledge they [KIA] have never been involved in the drugs trade”.
Lung Dao added: “President Thein Sein is talking about peace in Naypyidaw… and at the same time the army is busy attacking Kachin.” He also claimed that KWAT’s numbers for rape cases were conservative estimates.
Lintner described this as a two-pronged strategy, trying to “tame” the ethnic groups after the major armies refused to sign up to the government’s Border Guard Force plan.
Along with the Kachin accusation, the New Light of Myanmar said the Karen army splinter group, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, had handed over “arms for peace”, while a little known group from Mongla in Shan state signed a peace deal with the Burmese.
The offensive against the KIA has been a tough sell for President Thein Sein, who has been successfully improving the image of the regime, notably an apparent turnaround on the massive Myitsone hydropower project in Kachin state, and promise that 6,300 prisoners will be released tomorrow.
Published: 11 October 2011
Health workers in Thailand say the decision by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to close operations in Thailand will hit one of the country’s most vulnerable communities, namely the millions of unofficial Burmese who struggle to access government healthcare.
The Paris-based medical group announced the termination of its Thailand operations last week, citing government interference in its programmes for migrants and refugees. Two projects that treated some 55,000 Burmese were closed, one after being forced to by the government.
Saw Haray Mu, a Karen health professional who has worked with MSF, said the closure of a clinic on the Thai-Burma border between Phayathonsu and Sangkhlaburi would have far-reaching consequences.
“The MSF pull-out has left patients with HIV, for example, unable to receive ARV medication as they can no longer get approval from the group. We pity and are very much worried for them,” he said.
The murky legal status of many migrants in Thailand means that even those requiring ARV treatment struggle to receive help from Thai hospitals. Despite a recent registration drive by Bangkok, around one million Burmese in Thailand are thought to be without legal papers.
The Thai government was thought to be resistant to MSF’s offering of treatment to unregistered migrants, fearing that it would encourage a greater influx from Burma.
The Mon National Health Committee (MNHC), which has been operating with assistance from MSF for more than two years, also expressed its concern for the population along the border, and is now looking for a new donor.
“A lot of the population here just live in the jungle and previously we provided medical assistance for them through our trained health workers as they can’t get healthcare from Thai clinics,” said Nai Kye Mon, from the MNHC.
“Now that we have stopped receiving medicine [from MSF], there is a lot of difficulty for us looking after them. We are requesting that the international community assists us to provide necessary healthcare.”
He said about 50,000 people at the border are likely to be effected from the withdrawal of MSF, which had also provided medical care, water supply and sanitation to Lao Hmong
refugees in northern Thailand prior to their forced return last year.
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 11 October 2011
President Thein Sein will arrive in New Delhi tomorrow on a four-day visit that marks his administration’s strongest overtures to India to date, and which will strike a nerve in Beijing, whose once-watertight relationship with Burma now appears up in the air.
Security and economic cooperation are expected to top the agenda as Thein Sein makes his first journey west since taking office in March this year. Burma is looking to develop stronger relations with an acquiescent India, in part in a bid to reduce its current economic and political dependence on China.
In the wake of a decision by Thein Sein to scrap a major Chinese hydropower project in Burma’s north, Beijing will be watching his India trip with some concern. Over the past decade China’s growing global clout and seemingly bottomless pit of investment capital has won it favour with Naypyidaw over that of India, but the Burmese government has grown
increasingly wary of being drawn too deep into China’s orbit.
Relations with India, which is willing to invest heavily in Burma’s natural resource and infrastructure sectors, would counter this dependence: Thein Sein will hold top-level talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who controversially hosted former junta leader Than Shwe last year, and New Delhi will seek to mould Burma into an ally which it can use for the dual purpose of tapping the country’s resources, and exploiting its position as a geographical gateway to ASEAN economies.
It may be of little coincidence that Thein Sein’s visit coincides with that of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, who will arrive today. Both countries are strategically vital if India is to impose itself further on Beijing’s regional sphere of influence, and both are growing increasingly uneasy about succumbing to the baggage that China’s thirst for energy carries: Burma made this clear with the cancellation of the Myitsone Dam, while naval face-offs in the South China Sea have seen Vietnam become, in Beijing’s eyes, a potential saboteur of its oil cargoes arriving via the eastern seaboard.
India will use these two issues as a launch pad to assert claims that it can offer a more stable, benevolent alternative to Beijing, whose growing presence in Burma has reawakened historic anti-Chinese sentiment among locals there, fuelled further by the costly by-products of the dam project, which has already displaced more than 2,000 people.
But not all see these developments as solely a tussle between the world’s two largest countries, both of whom are vying for superpower status as America’s global reach wanes.
“It’s tempting to see everything through the prism of the India-China rivalry, whereas there’s a lot more happening in our relationships with these two countries and quite frankly there’s a lot more happening in our relationship with China too,” Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of the Hindu newspaper and a foreign-policy expert, told Reuters.
While China’s myriad hydropower and gas projects in Burma now appear vulnerable, in India its horizon is perhaps more promising, and offers a counterweight to claims their relationship is solely competative. Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh last year urged the government to drop its “alarmist” approach to growing Chinese investment, while trade between the two reached $US60 billion last year, with a target of $US100 billion agreed for 2015.
That however has done little to ease military tension, both with regards to the long-running dispute over their shared border and an agreement with Burma that Beijing can use its ports in the Bay of Bengal, potentially allowing it permanent access to the Indian Ocean.
China also claims the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, and is reportedly arming anti-New Delhi separatist groups in a possible attempt to aid their struggle against the Indian state, thus allowing that region to be drawn closer to Beijing.