Suu Kyi registers party, visits parliament
By Hla Hla Htay | AFP – 5 hrs ago

Myanmar’s democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi registered her opposition party and visited the national parliament for the first time on Friday, as she prepares to enter the mainstream political arena.

The visit in the capital Naypyidaw included a meeting with lower house speaker Shwe Mann, number three in the previous ruling junta and still one of the most powerful men in Myanmar, who said he was “glad” to hold the talks.

“We have to work together as unity is strength,” he told reporters.

Suu Kyi, 66, earlier went to the Union Election Commission office to register her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which must now wait at least a week to be officially endorsed.

“They have signed for their party registration already,” a commission official told AFP, referring to Suu Kyi and other senior party members.

The NLD was given the green light from authorities this month to rejoin mainstream politics, paving the way for the Nobel laureate to run for a seat in the new parliament.

“If she reaches parliament, we will see her continually,” Shwe Mann said after their meeting, at which they mainly discussed the functions of the political body.

A quarter of parliament’s seats are taken up by the army while the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is packed with former military men, holds about 80 percent of the remainder.

Upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint, who also met Suu Kyi on Friday, described her visit as “auspicious”.

“We wanted this to happen a long time ago and we welcome her.”

The NLD was stripped of its status as a legal political party by the junta last year after it chose to boycott a rare and controversial election, saying the rules were unfair.

Suu Kyi was released a few days after the November poll, having spent much of the past two decades in detention, and she is now planning to take part in by-elections expected early next year. No polling date has been set.

Since coming to power in March, the new military-backed government dominated by former generals has made a series of reformist moves in an apparent attempt to reach out to political opponents and the West.

These included releasing some of its many political prisoners, suspending construction of an unpopular mega-dam and holding peace talks with the country’s main armed ethnic groups.

Suu Kyi expressed cautious hope earlier this month that democracy would come to Myanmar, as she welcomed Hillary Clinton to the home in Yangon that was her prison for years during a landmark visit by the US Secretary of State.

“I am very confident that if we work together… there will be no turning back from the road to democracy,” Suu Kyi said at the time.

The NLD won an election in 1990 by a landslide, while Suu Kyi remained under house arrest, but the ruling generals never allowed the party to take power.

Last week, the party said it had chosen the image of a fighting peacock gazing at a white star as its new symbol, replacing its trademark bamboo hat, which was used by a breakaway group that participated in the 2010 election.

The NLD refused to participate in that vote — the first in two decades — mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members.

An amendment to a law on political parties has since removed the contentious clause that said prisoners could not be party members, as well as a condition that all parties must agree to “preserve” a controversial 2008 constitution.

Suu Kyi’s party registers to run in Myanmar polls
AP – 7 hrs ago

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) — Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi formally registered her party Friday for any upcoming elections, returning the Nobel laureate to the political arena and winning plaudits from her political rivals in Myanmar’s military-dominated parliament.

Suu Kyi decided last month to formally rejoin politics after recent reforms by the nominally civilian administration that took power this year. Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy leader Tin Oo and other party members registered the party at the Union Election Commission in the capital, Naypyitaw.

The party boycotted last year’s general elections because of restrictive rules that among other things prevented Suu Kyi from being a candidate. The government has since lifted many of those restrictions.

The government had taken the NLD off the list of legally recognized political parties because of the boycott.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win said that the party would contest all vacant seats in an upcoming by-election and that Suu Kyi would soon announce in which constituency she will run.

No date has been set for that election, but Election Commission Chairman Tin Aye said last week that the government would announce it three months before the by-election, giving candidates time to campaign.

After registering, Suu Kyi met separately with Khin Aung Myint and Thura Shwe Mann, the speakers of the upper and lower houses of parliament, who both said they welcomed her action. Both had served under the previous military-led government, which kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for much of the past two decades.

“All parties should join hands and work together” at a time when Myanmar is promoting the spirit of democracy, Khin Aung Myint told reporters.

Allowing Suu Kyi’s party back into the political fold will likely give the government greater legitimacy at home and abroad. It has already won cautious praise from international observers and critics, including the United States, for introducing reforms.

During her visit to Myanmar early this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wants to ensure that future elections are “free, fair and credible in the eyes of the people.”

The polls in November 2010 were Myanmar’s first since the NLD overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. The military junta at that time refused to honor the results.

The regime kept Suu Kyi under house arrest during different periods for a total of 15 years. She was released just after last year’s elections and is now free to move about and meet people.

The government continues to hold hundreds of other political prisoners, and Suu Kyi has said the NLD will continue to work for their release.

Asian Correspondent – After meeting with Zarganar, AIPMC call again release of all political prisoners in Burma
By Zin Linn Dec 23, 2011 10:27PM UTC

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) made a press release today reiterating its call for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Myanmar (Burma)as a precondition for genuine democratic change in the Southeast Asian country.

The call came as AIPMC Vice-President, Cambodian MP and Chair of the AIPMC Cambodia Caucus, Son Chhay, met with comedian Maung Thura, known as Zarganar on 21 December in Phnom Penh.

Zarganar, on his first trip outside of Burma since being granted a passport, met with Son Chhay and other MPs from the Sam Rainsy Party in Phnom Penh on Wednesday evening.
Son Chhay said that Zarganar shared his experience of Burma’s prisons, where he and other political prisoners have suffered countless abuses.

“It is crucial to free all political prisoners immediately, if President Thein Sein’s move toward democracy is to be seen as genuine and fully inclusive,” he said.

Son Chhay highlights that despite oppression under a military regime, Zarganar’s strength and determination is well-built and it is a good example for people to learn. His ability to remain positive and committed to standing up against injustice despite the very real threat to his life and security is very admirable, he added.

“I only hope all of us in other ASEAN countries can learn from his example and help establish human rights standards and genuine democracy as pillars in Myanmar and our own countries,” he also emphasizes.

Zarganar expressed his gratitude to AIPMC for its years of hard work to help end human rights violations in Burma and facilitate convincingly for a return to democracy. He also expressed his full support for AIPMC’s plan to visit Myanmar (Burma) in February 2012, saying it could help to ensure genuine reform and reduce human rights violations in an ASEAN-member country.

Burma will likely become chairman of ASEAN in 2014. As part of AIPMC’s long-standing goals to secure democracy and an end to human rights violations, and in light of recent developments within Burma, AIPMC intends to make an official visit to Myanmar in early 2012.

The press release says that a delegation of AIPMC member MPs and staff from the Executive Secretariat plan to travel to Yangon and Naypyidaw to meet with various actors,
including members of the political opposition, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the National League of Democracy, as well as members of civil society, ethnic representatives and representatives of the government, parliamentarians, and members of the National Human Rights Commission.

“Reforms are taking place in Myanmar and we hope to be able to support these changes,” said AIPMC President and member of Indonesian Parliament Eva Kusuma Sundari.
“We want to see the Myanmar government take concrete steps towards ensuring all political prisoners are released; we want to see real efforts made by the government and military to cease all state violence and human rights violations against its own civilians, especially ethnic minorities and other vulnerable peoples; and we would like to see inclusive dialog between the government, ethnic leaders and the political opposition held soon as a step towards national reconciliation and peace,” she said.

Popular for his political jokes and satire on military rule, regardless of dictatorship, 50-year-old Zarganar was thrown into jail four times by Burma’s previous military junta.He has been spent a total of eight years behind bars. He was released from his latest prison term in October under a government amnesty together with other 200 political prisoners.

Since his release, Zarganar has been working to assess the changes taking place in his country, meeting regularly with Aung San Suu Kyi and working for the release of the hundreds of political prisoners still languishing in jails.

“Education is very important if you want people to fully understand what democracy and human rights actually are and mean,” Zarganar said while meeting with members of AIPMC.  He said Burmese youths need to travel abroad to learn real democracy and human rights.

Zarganar also said that he would travel to the United States for three-month study tour at the William J. Clinton Foundation around end of January 2012.

MYANMAR: Displaced Kachin face grim Christmas

MAI JA YANG, 23 December 2011 (IRIN) – As the winter winds sweep across Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, there is little to celebrate this Christmas for the estimated 45,000 civilians in some 30 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) along the Burmese-Chinese border.

A 17-year ceasefire between Myanmar government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was broken in June, and the number of IDPs is rising.

Biting winds, low temperatures and depleted food resources are taking their toll on the young and elderly in this rugged mountainous terrain.

Just this week, in central Kachin’s Bhamo District, two village women, aged 64 and 63, died from respiratory infections brought on by the cold. A one-year-old baby in the same camp died from exposure, local aid workers say.

The normally bustling border town of Mai Ja Yang, controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political arm of the KIA, is eerily quiet: Many of the Chinese businesses have shut up shop and crossed back over the border, worried the conflict will escalate.

However, in one corner of the city, a group of volunteers is busy loading food parcels onto motorcycles for delivery to IDPs outside the city in KIO-controlled areas of Kachin State. The parcels contain rice, corn and cooking oil as well as cough medicines and antibiotics.

“The cold weather is taking its toll on the people and there is a need for more nutritional food,” said May Li Aung, director of WunPawng Ninghtoi (WPN – “Light of Kachin”), a volunteer group.

For residents in the camps, bamboo structures with plastic sheeting for a roof provide only limited protection; straw is spread over the cold hard ground.

“As soon as a child gets sick, it spreads quickly. because there are so many people in small cramped quarters and the ground is getting very cold.”

May Li Aung, 40, heads a collective of eight humanitarian organizations set up on 14 June, just five days after the ceasefire collapsed.

Currently more than 50 WPN volunteers are delivering aid to the camps.

More than 3,000 displaced have turned up at government-run camps in eastern Kachin State over the past two weeks, putting a strain on limited food supplies, mostly from local donors.

UN efforts

According to the Office of the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, a UN inter-agency mission to Laiza – comprised of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – managed to bring in about six truckloads of essential household items to IDPs from 12 to 14 December, as well as carry out an initial assessment.

More help is needed. It is hoped this initial visit will lead to greater access and assistance.

“The UN and its humanitarian partners look forward to being able to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to all those in need,” said a UN statement on 15 December.

One KIA soldier’s family, which recently arrived in Warabung IDP camp in Kachin State’s Bhamo District, has a new mouth to feed – a baby boy – but the father, KIA doctor Seng Myu, is worried: “It’s difficult trying to find a balance between a new mouth to feed and returning to the front lines where the wounded need to be treated.”

In the past month Seng Myu has treated three amputees for landmine injuries.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is currently assisting 10,000 IDPs in Burmese government-controlled areas.

“For further distributions we will need to complete an assessment to independently evaluate food needs and prepare the most appropriate response,” said spokesman Marcus Prior.

On 21 December, Human Rights Watch (HRW) commended the Myanmar government’s decision to allow initial access, but says more is needed.

“That Burmese authorities granted UN aid agencies access to displaced people in Kachin State is an important step, but it demands a long-term commitment from the government and foreign donors alike,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, adding: “The government and Kachin forces should ensure that the tens of thousands of displaced people in remote camps get the food and shelter they need.”

Aljazeera – Myanmar’s monks remain a political force
Despite the government saying that it wants to become more democratic, monks continue to be silenced in Myanmar.
Last Modified: 23 Dec 2011 12:22

The pace of change in Myanmar that has excited certain schools of observers over the past six months evidently isn’t enough for some: In November, five monks barricaded themselves on the balcony of a monastery in Mandalay, demanding that the government carry through on its pledge to release the country’s 1,700 political prisoners – seen as the key litmus test for determining the genuineness of Myanmar’s reformists. With the image of thousands of monks marching, elegant but stoic, towards the armies of men that awaited them in 2007 still fresh in the minds of many, the November protest and the apparent resurgence of monastic activism attracted immediate attention.

A day after the protest began, the group was asked to move on by the monastery’s chief abbot; trailed by up to 1,000 people, they walked to the nearby Masoyein Monastery, where they felt safer. At the same time, parliament was busy deliberating a new protest bill that could dramatically shift international perceptions of Myanmar, long read by outsiders as a tragic story of tyrannical rule, but where several bursts of mass defiance have pierced the veil to capture the attention of millions. The law, now passed, allows Burmese to demonstrate publicly for the first time in nearly half a century. Symbolically at least, it marks a radical break with the policies of the former junta.

The November protest died out within days, and the lack of police retaliation was another coup for the democratic credentials of the new government. But hundreds of miles from Mandalay in the remote village of Thaphyay Aye, in northern Myanmar’s Sagaing division, four of the monks say they are effectively being held under “village arrest”; plainclothes police are monitoring them round-the-clock, according to the leader of the protest, Ashin Sopaka, and he is unable to travel.

His situation points to the Jekyll and Hyde nature of a lot of the new laws unveiled in recent months, particularly the protest bill which has become something of a cause célèbre among observers. Many see it as a watershed for freedom of expression in Myanmar, and to an extent, it is, but tight restrictions governing the law signal an ongoing close-circuit monitoring of dissent: Personal details of demonstrators need to be handed over to police in advance, and the penalties for those who ignore the small print are severe, meaning the potential for spontaneous protest has diminished.

The treatment of the four monks also points to a continued anxiety within the Burmese government over the huge influence the country’s revered monastic community wields. Moreover, it is a reminder that an ostensibly apolitical body can and will challenge the limitations of political reform.

Boycotting religious duties

Several years ago, I interviewed Ashin Sopaka when he was in Thailand, having left Myanmar in 2003. The premise for his political activism, he said, lies in Buddhist doctrine that explicitly calls for the alleviation of human suffering: “If the people are suffering, then we have a responsibility – of course it [the suffering] is because of the political situation… [and] the political situation is connected to everything.” While the government then attempted to slander protesting monks as heretics, many among the clergy consider activism as a natural obligation borne of Buddhist doctrine.

This was manifested in 2007 when monks organised to boycott religious duties for the generals, symbolised by the thousands who marched with their alms’ bowls upturned. The act deeply unsettled the country’s rulers, who are known for their almost paranoiac devotion to higher powers – the refusal to grant them and their colleagues merit, a cornerstone of Buddhist practice, had a tangible effect, with numbers of government workers who were effectively excommunicated during the uprising choosing to resign rather than continue to carry the stigma of being associated with the junta at that time.

With this in mind, one could assume the new government would change its attitude towards dissent among the clergy. But among the country’s 1,600 political prisoners are nearly 200 monks who continue to languish in woeful conditions – this includes Ashin Gambira, who played a pivotal role in the 2007 uprising before being sentenced to 65 years in jail. His family has spoken of its concern at his physical and mental decline after lengthy bouts of torture, but despite sporadic rumours of his release, he remains behind bars.

And just last week, authorities turned on Ashin Pyinna Thiha, a prominent Rangoon monk who met with Hillary Clinton when she visited Myanmar last month. His monastery, which hosted a recent event to mark 20 years since Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize, has evolved into something of a hub for political organising, so much so that an order to shut it down was met with loud protests. The Thailand-based exiled news outlet, The Irrawaddy, wrote of the incident: “Burmese blogs have responded actively, and much resentment seems to rest on the premises that there was a growing acceptance at home and abroad that the days of repression were starting to fade under the country’s quasi-civilian government, which had relaxed control over the society in a number of areas.”

But pulling many of the strings within and around the monastic community is the State Sangha Committee, a government-appointed body of Buddhist elders that last week accused Ashin Pyinna Thiha of “disobedience”. The same group last year said it would restrict the freedom of monks in a bid to tighten monastic discipline and “safeguard Buddhism”. This sort of double-speak has found its target in the dozens of families who have disowned their robed relatives after they used their revered status to demand change in the country.
The Dalai’s visit

Perhaps the ultimate test of the government’s newfound quest to reconcile its own interests with those of its critics will be a decision over whether to let the Dalai Lama visit, as has been mooted. Accepting the Tibetan spiritual leader into the country would set Myanmar’s rulers on a collision course with China. This was acknowledged by the Dalai Lama’s spokesperson Tenzin Taklha, who recently told the Wall Street Journal that “the big neighbour in Asia” had interfered in his past attempts to visit regional countries.

Making an explicit reference to how the political and religious discourses are intertwined in Myanmar, chief government adviser Ko Ko Hlaing further told the newspaper that the Dalai Lama’s visit “is no problem from religious aspect, but very controversial from political point of view”.

The reluctance to admit the Dalai Lama also spotlights the inevitable limitations of the country’s evolving political landscape, and how this will affect communities, like the clergy, that are perceived to operate outside of the political sphere. Were it not for China, Myanmar’s leaders would welcome the world’s most influential Buddhist leader; similarly, a clergy that respects, rather than challenges, the government would be embraced. But developments in Myanmar since the dawn of military rule have placed the country’s rulers in a bind, and to maintain a vice-like grip on power they have sacrificed a pillar of society that many would consider crucial to sustainable rule.

The obvious shortcomings of the reform programme, exemplified by the restrictions surrounding the protest bill, shows then that the same anxieties that have characterised nearly half a century of military rule persist. The fallout from this style of governance, that as the crackdown on the 2007 protests demonstrated was once so raw and visible, is now being institutionalised and hidden from view – the November protest was allowed to run as long as public scrutiny was trained on it, but once it fell off the radar quiet retribution began. That hefty punishment is once again being meted out on monks is perhaps not surprising – they remain a potent political force that can both galvanise Burmese and correct popular perceptions that a more benevolent regime is in power. Therefore they must be silenced.

Francis Wade is a journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma, and has written this article from a personal capacity.

December 24, 2011
Mainichi Daily News – Japan business missions visit Myanmar in hope reforms continue

YANGON (Kyodo) — Japanese business missions are increasingly visiting Myanmar to scout business opportunities there if democratic reforms continue under the government which in March replaced a military government.

On Dec. 12, a mission of about 30 members from the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry visited the Mingaladon Industrial Park in Yangon and inspected a Japanese-affiliated sewing plant which has been operating since 2002.

The plant’s Japanese president told the mission that monthly labor costs at the plant averaged $100 (about 7,800 yen), including the company-paid portion of social security expenses and income taxes.

A member of the mission said such cheap labor costs are attractive as the plant’s 1,100 workers, almost all women, produce dress shirts for the Japanese market.

The mission was the third sent by Japanese business organizations to Myanmar since this autumn.

The largest business lobby Japan Business Federation and the Japan Association of Corporate Executives sent missions to Myanmar in September and November, respectively, to meet Myanmar government officials and Japanese business officials in Yangon and the capital Naypyitaw.

According to Toshihiro Mizutani, head of the Yangon office of the Japan External Trade Organization, an average of five to six Japanese companies and industry groups have called on the office per day.

Yoshiyuki Morii, head of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.’s representative office in Yangon, said Myanmar is expected to become an emerging economy comparable to Thailand if the high-potential country with a large domestic market of 60 million people is opened.

Kohei Watanabe, Itochu Corp. adviser who headed the Japan Chamber mission, said he hoped for progress in Japanese companies’ efforts to begin doing business in Myanmar as the country must open its market by 2015 when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is set to liberalize trade among its members.

VIVAnews – 14 Myanmar Immigrants Arrested in Indonesia
“We’d like to call for asylum from [the Australian government]”
Jum’at, 23 Desember 2011, 12:07 WIB

VIVAnews – Gowa Police, South Sulawesi picked up 14 Myanmar citizens from a house belonging to Ariyanti, in Anti Tonro Permai housing complex, Somba Opu subdistrict on Thursday, Dec 22.

When police raided the house, the 14 immigrants failed to show any of their identity cards.

One of the immigrants, Jamal, said that they have been in Makassar for four days. They were planning to gain entrance to Australia through Bau-bau, Southeast Sulawesi.

“We’d like to call for asylum from [the Australian government],” Jamal said.

However, the immigrants were intercepted by the local authorities before they could reach Bau-bau.

“We were getting ready to depart to Kendari before continuing our trip to Australia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief of Police Crime Investigator in Gowa, Adj. Comm. Syamsul Yusuf, said the apprehension was led by reports filed by the locals living near Ariyanti’s residence.

When police hit the scene, they spotted the immigrants without having revealed anything suspicious in their bags.

After going through questioning, the immigrants were brought to a detention house in Bolangi village, Gowa regency.

Arianti was also questioned by the police.  She was charged with Law No. 6/2011 on immigration with possible maximum penalty of five years in jail.

Friday December 23, 2011
Malaysia Star – Tan Chong to start motor workshop in Myanmar

PETALING JAYA: Tan Chong Motor Holdings Bhd will start motor workshop services in Myanmar next year, via E-Garage Auto Services and Spare Parts (Myanmar) Co Ltd.

E-Garage Myanmar will start operations with one workshop in Yangon in the second half of 2012.

Tan Chong told Bursa Malaysia that it had a 90% stake in E-Garage Myanmar, with the balance owned by Myanmar businessman U Khin Maung Lwin.

E-Garage Myanmar will have an issued and paid-up capital of US$300,000 (RM949,500).

Tan Chong’s US$270,000 (RM854,550) capital contribution in E-Garage Myanmar will be funded with internal sources.

Tan Chong said the move was a further expansion of the group’s after-sales service business into the Indochina and Asean regions, following similar earlier ventures into Cambodia and Thailand since 2006 and 2008 respectively.

In December 2010, the group also set up Tan Chong Motorcycles (Laos) Co Ltd in Laos to assemble, sell and distribute motorcycles.

The group is the franchise holder and exclusive distributor of Nissan passenger and light commercial vehicles and Renault vehicles in Malaysia.

The Irrawaddy – Reward Offered for Remaining Bomber
Friday, December 23, 2011

Burmese authorities are offering 500,000 kyat [US $670] to anyone who can provide the whereabouts of the remaining bomber behind a blast that killed a woman in Rangoon on Wednesday.

Three people suspected of involvement in the bombing have already been arrested while one suspect remains at large, according to a police source in Rangoon who spoke to The Irrawaddy on Friday.

The blast killed a woman civilian and seriously injured another on Wednesday morning in an incident that authorities are blaming on an unspecified Thailand-based dissident group.

“According to our investigation, we learned that the suspects entered the country after attending explosion training at the Thai-Burmese border,” said the police source.

“We believe that the bomber is still in Rangoon. We have distributed his photograph to all respective police stations,” he said, adding that the remaining suspect is a 23-year-old man.

Local authorities have beefed up security around major locations such as railway and bus stations, and checkpoints at the outskirts of towns.

The arrested suspects are to be tried on several charges, including murder and threatening the stability of the state, said the source.

The homemade bomb exploded in a public toilet at the old campus of Rangoon University at 11 am on Wednesday, killing 30-year-old Mya San Yi and seriously injuring 24-year-old Khin Myat Nwe who is now being treated at Rangoon General Hospital.

Local authorities said that they will hold a press conference after they arrest the remaining suspect.

The Irrawaddy – Election Commission Promises Suu Kyi Free and Fair Election
By WAI MOE Friday, December 23, 2011

The chairman of Burma’s Union Election Commission (EC), Tin Aye, has promised pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that he will ensure the forthcoming by-elections are free and fair, and that the government was committed to cooperating with the opposition for the welfare of the country.

According to Nyan Win, the main spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for democracy (NLD), the former lieutenant-general made the pledges when the pair spoke on Friday at his office in Naypyidaw following the NLD’s registration at the election office.

“U Tin Aye told Daw Aung San Suu Kyi that he will do his best to ensure the legitimacy of the upcoming elections, and he proposed that both the government and the opposition work together for the betterment of the country,” Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy on Friday afternoon.

“He also proposed that both sides cooperate to improve the economy,” he said.

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi thanked U Tin Aye for his pledge to cooperate and to ensure free and fair elections,” Nyan Win said, adding that they also discussed a few technical details with regard to the by-elections during their two-hour meeting.

Tin Aye did not disclose when the by-elections would be held, the NLD spokesman said. However, the EC chairman estimated that the bureaucratic process for giving the green light to the NLD application could take three or four weeks.

“During the meeting, U Tin Aye appeared reassuring and friendly, and he offered his opinions frankly and openly,” Nyan Win said when asked about his impression of the man who used to be No.6 in the military junta hierarchy.

According to reports from Naypyidaw, Suu Kyi also met Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint and then Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann, formerly No. 3 in the military hierarchy, at their offices in the capital on Friday afternoon.

Correspondents from local journals said Suu Kyi discussed matters of democracy and parliamentary issues with both house speakers.

“As a democratic system is based on justice, liberty and equality, we are serious on the issue of all-inclusiveness,” Khin Aung Myint was quoted by Weekly Eleven News as saying.
Neither Suu Kyi nor any other NLD representative is scheduled to meet President Thein Sein on this visit as he has a prior engagement outside the capital.

Tin Aye is not only the EC chairman, but is also the former chairman of the military’s Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, and a close aide to former junta supremo Than Shwe. Military sources describe him as Than Shwe’s “revenue keeper.” He previously attended the same Intake 9 of the Defense Services Academy along with Thein Sein.

NLD party leaders Tin Oo and Suu Kyi formally registered the party on Friday morning at Naypyidaw’s Union Election Commission office.

On Suu Kyi’s second visit to the capital since her release from house arrest in November, she was accompanied by NLD colleagues, including former general Tin Oo, spokesman Nyan Win and Win Myint.

Suu Kyi’s first trip to Naypyidaw was in August when she was invited to attend a government economic workshop. She met and held her first talks with Thein Sein at the presidential palace where they reportedly discussed the political situation in Burma and national reconciliation.

After meetings with Thein Sein and other ministers in Naypyidaw on August 19-20, Suu Kyi said she was “satisfied” with the outcome.

Following those positive first steps between the government and the country’s main opposition leader, Parliament amended the Political Party Registration Law, effectively allowing the NLD to register again as a legal party and opening the way for it to contest by-elections next year.

On Monday, the NLD leadership elected Suu Kyi as the deputy leader of the NLD, and her close aide, Tin Oo, as the leader for formal registration purposes.

The NLD said it intends to contest 48 constituencies in the coming by-elections, and that Suu Kyi herself will be a candidate.

Even if the NLD secures all 48 seats in the polls, it will be still be in a minority until the next general election in 2015. Meanwhile, the military-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will continue to dominate the majority of both houses.

One-quarter of seats in both houses are appointed by the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The USDP, led by Thein Sein, won a majority in the elections on Nov. 7, 2010. But critics and observers collectively described polling as rigged and unfair.

The Irrawaddy – Christmas Eve to be a Silent Night in Kachin State
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, December 23, 2011

Burma’s ethnic Kachin community, which is 90 percent Christian, traditionally celebrates Christmas complete with decorations, caroling and church worship. But due to the ongoing armed hostilities in their region of northern Burma, this year’s holiday celebrations will range from low-key to non-existent.

“Last year, we went out caroling with friends on Christmas Eve, but I don’t think anyone is interested in singing carols at this time,” said Shawng San, adding that security concerns will be another factor keeping them off the streets at Christmas.

The Kachin people also normally gather at churches on Christmas Eve to worship, pray and exchange gifts.

“As we are Christians, Christmas Eve is normally the happiest time for us. But this year, it’s a nightmare,” said Mai Li Awng, a former church minister, in a shaky voice before breaking into tears.

“We can’t talk about celebrating Christmas like last year due to security reasons. Even if we wanted to exchange gifts, we couldn’t because now we have to rely on aid, supplies and medicine from supporters and donors.”

Mai Li Awng, who lives in the war-torn area of Maija Yang, said that beginning on Dec. 1, Kachin people traditionally decorate their houses with flowers, balloons, colorful lights and,
of course, Christmas trees. This year, however, holiday trimmings are sparse, as due to the fighting many people have lost everything and others have moved their belongings away from home.

The armed conflict between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese government troops that began in June shows no signs of stopping in the near future. Caught in the crossfire, thousands of Kachin civilians have become war refugees seeking shelter either in camps or in the jungle.

Sum Lut Pan Htoi, a 23-year-old ethnic Kachin woman who lives in a conflict area of Sein Lum, is one of the more than 45,000 Kachin who have become refugees since June.
She said that last year she was very happy because she celebrated Christmas Eve together with her parents. But this year, due to armed hostilities along the route, she can’t travel to Laiza where her parents are staying in a temporary shelter.

“I first thought to make a pair of hand-made clothes for my parents and celebrate Christmas Eve together with them. But now I can’t do either,” Sum Lut Pan Htoi said.

Hkaw Lwi, a volunteer relief worker with a local Kachin group called Wun Tawng Ningtwey (Light for the Kachin People), said that the displaced Kachin are suffering from food shortages and disease as Christmas approaches.

To make matters worse, Kachin State in December is one of the coldest places in Burma, with snowfall and iced-over mountains. Hkaw said that at Maija Yang, temporary home to about 1,000 refugees, a woman and her newborn baby both died after the delivery due to heart failure and hypothermia.

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, a Burmese government body, reported that there are 59 temporary camps in 11 townships where 14,113 people are cared for by the local authorities. There are 51 schools in 10 townships with a student population of 7,872 that have temporarily closed due to the instability caused by armed conflicts.

Most of the displaced Kachin people are vulnerable children, women and the elderly. After visiting war-torn areas in Kachin State, the National Human Rights Commission stated on Dec. 14 that children in Kachin State appear to suffer from psychological trauma, while adults experience a sense of insecurity and diminished confidence.

Strictly limited by the government, outside aid by international nongovernmental organizations also has not reached Kachin refugees as much as needed.

On Dec. 13, the United Nations Children’s Fund provided 300 family kits to displaced families in Laiza—where more than 34,000 refugees stay. The kits contained blankets, clothes and essential household items for basic domestic needs such as cooking, personal hygiene and shelter.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which recently conducted an investigation into allegations of rights abuses and atrocities by the Burmese military in Kachin State, found that between June and September 2011, the army looted food from civilians, fired indiscriminately at villagers, threatened them with attacks and forcibly used them as porters and minesweepers.

The KIA has an estimated 10,000 armed troops and has been fighting for increased autonomy for years. It agreed to a ceasefire with the Burmese government in 1994, but the bilateral agreement broke down in June this year due to mounting tensions.

La Nan, the spokesperson for the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said that military activities will continue for a long time if the government doesn’t make real peace with ethnic minorities.

There will clearly not be peace of any kind before this year’s Christmas holiday, and Shawng San said she would celebrate a low-key Christmas Eve with other displaced people in Maija Yang.

“Some people are not in the mood to celebrate Christmas due to frustration and exhaustion,” she said.

“It is sadness if talking about Christmas. We miss our homes and villages,” said Mai Li Awng. “The dreams of thousands of Kachin people for a happy Christmas have now been shattered.”

Hope rises for political prisoners release
Friday, 23 December 2011 14:11 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The news of a probable release of Burmese prisoners including political prisoners on either January 4 or February 12 has given people hope for a brighter new year.

The families of political prisoners are anticipating their release after Rail Minister Aung Min told ethnic armed groups and Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mahn told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of a possible release.

The families of the political prisoners “are expecting the release of their loved ones,” said Aung Zaw Tun of the Families of Political Prisoners Network.

At informal peace talks with New Mon State Party (NMSP) on Thursday, team leader and Rail Minister Aung Min told them to expect a release on Independence Day (January 4) and Union Day (February 12), NMSP General-Secretary Nai Han Thar told reporters.

Also, at peace talk with the Karen National Union (KNU) on Wednesday, Aung Min said prisoners including political prisoners would be released  early next year.

“They [the government] also want to release these prisoners so they will be released on January 4 and political prisoners will be among them. Also more prisoners will be released on February 12 and more political prisoners will be released among them too,” said KNU central executive committee member Pado David Taw, who attended the meeting.

On Wednesday, Aung San Suu Kyi also told a meeting of 88-generation student leadeers that political prisoners would be released, said 88-generation student leader Tun Myint Aung, who attended the meeting.

At a press conference held after the visit of the U.S. secretary of state in November, Shwe Mahn said, “We promised her to fulfill her request of allowing the participation of all nationals in state building and for the unity of all ethnic nationalities in state affairs,” which referred to political prisoners.

Aung Tun, the younger brother of 88-generation student leader Ko Ko Gyi, who is serving a 65-year prison term in Mong Hsat Prison, said he hopes for the release of his elder brother, but he’s cautious.

“We have heard similar news many times before. We have waited for many years. This is not new to us. We will be happy if they are released. We hope for this, but according to the teaching of Lord Buddha, his divine retribution has not yet finished for the sin in his past life.”

President Thein Sein has granted amnesty to 6,356 prisoners this year, but only 220 political prisoners were among them, the exile-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP-B) said in a press release.

88-generation leader Phyo Min Thein said all political prisoners should be released now, and if no release occurs, the families of political prisoners will suffer even more.

“The families of these prisoners must be cautious about believing the rumours. If the rumours do not come true, the families will suffer even greater despair,” he told Mizzima.

There are currently about 600 political prisoners in prisons across Burma, according to Nai Nai, a member of the National League for Democracy Social Aid group that works with political prisoners. According to a AAPP-B list compiled on December 14, there are 1,546 political prisoners.

Minister hints political prisoners released on Jan. 4 and Feb. 12
Thursday, 22 December 2011 21:39 Kun Chan

(Mizzima) – A top Burmese peacemaking official has told a Mon peace delegation that political prisoners could be released in January and February.

Nai Hong Sar, the leader of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), said on Thursday he told the Burmese government peace delegation a nationwide cease-fire and the release all political prisoners was needed to help solve ethnic issues.

President Thein Sein’s special peacemaking representative Minister Aung Min told Mon delegates the government had a plan to release political prisoners and asked them to wait until Independence Day on January 4 and Union Day on February 12, said Nai Hong Sar.

The Mon peace delegation met the government’s Union-level peacemaking delegation for preliminary talks in Sangkhlaburi District in Kanchanapuri on Thursday.

In the meeting, the Mon urged the government to stop all military offensives in Kachin State, to allow people to study the Mon language and literature, and to make the Mon language the official language of the state.

After the meeting, Aung Min said, “I’m 100 percent satisfied with the meeting because the ethnic people trust us like we trust the ethnic people.”

The government delegation said there were three stages to a lasting peace: first, to stop fighting; second, to hold a political dialogue with all ethnic groups; and third, to put forward the agreements [reached in the peace talks] to the Parliament, and finally to amend the Constitution.

Delegates also discussed opening liaison offices and cooperating in undertaking business and development projects in Mon state. The talks included an agreement that each side would inform the other side in advance if one side wanted to enter the other’s control area with weapons.

The government delegation offered to continue peace talks in January. The Mon said they would take the offer to the NMSP’s ongoing party conference now underway and reply later. The eighth party conference of NMSP started on Wednesday at Ye Chaung Phya in Mon State. It will last three months.

The government’s eight-member delegation was led by Rail Transportation Minister Aung Min. Nai Hong Sar led the nine-member NMSP delegation. The meeting lasted two hours.

On October 6, the NMSP met with a government delegation led by the Mon State Minister for Security and Border Affairs, Colonel Htay Myint Aung, at the compound of government Infantry Unit No. 61 in Ye Township. On November 13 and 14, it met with a peace delegation led by influential Buddhist Abbot Sayadaw Bhaddanta Kaytumarlar of Kawpalai village in Kyaikmayaw Township at NMSP headquarters.

A flurry of meetings with ethnic armed groups has unfolded in the past two months. The government has signed cease-fire agreements with four groups: United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), the Kloh Htoo Hpaw armed group, and the SSA-South.

According to information minister Kyaw Hsan, five other groups have agreed in principle to conclude cease-fire agreements: Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Chin National Front (CNF), New Mon State Party (NMSP) and SSA-North.

The government has also asked the Kachin Independence Army to participate in another round of peace talks.

DVB News – India to dispatch army chief to Burma
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 23 December 2011

Ongoing anxiety in the Indian government over security along its porous shared border with Burma has prompted New Delhi to line up a visit by army chief General VK Singh to Naypyidaw next month.

The five-day trip beginning 5 January is the first time Singh will visit Burma, and points to continued concerns at Burma’s apparent reluctance to tackle Indian separatist groups believed to shelter in camps inside the Burmese border.

New Delhi has taken steps over the past year to bolster its defence in the troubled northeastern states, including the development of infrastructure such as roads and helipads that will allow quicker deployment of paramilitary groups like the Assam Rifles to battle separatists.

But despite a number of joint military agreements being signed by both governments aimed at closer cooperation in the region, Naypyidaw for its part has made little progress in clearing groups like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) from its territory.

Analyst Bertil Lintner says that India’s frustration with Burma stems from the differing priorities of both governments. “[The separatist groups] are not a major concern in Burma – they have other [military] priorities that are more important, such as tackling the Karen, Shan and Kachin rebel groups”.

Deploying army units to the Indian border is also a tricky task. “These regions are remote and isolated, and for Burma’s army to move around is a major operation logistically – there’s no infrastructure,” Lintner said.

The ULFA, which is fighting for an independent Assam, has long been alleged to have bases in Burma’s northern Kachin state. India’s Maoist rebels are also believed to have trained over the border.

While the Burmese drag their feet over the issue, Lintner says there is “no possibility” that Burma would allow small-scale Indian army operations on its soil in the near future. “They don’t want any foreign troops across their border – they’re too sensitive about that.”

According to the Hindustan Times, Burma recently rejected offers of weaponry from India, which is one of only eight countries believed to supply arms to Naypyidaw. Instead, the paper reported, Burma requested only maintenance of existing purchases. Weapons’ supplies from India are thought to comprise mostly artillery, and destined mainly for Burmese army camps in its northwest.

The visit by Singh may also be an attempt to draw Burma’s military away from China, which supplies most of its arms. India has made no secret of its attempt to entice its neighbour away from the clutches of Beijing, and may be looking to exploit an apparent unease within the Burmese government over its dependence on China, as signalled by the cancellation of the Myitsone dam in October.

Burma has however sought to play India and China off against one another, likely in a bid to maintain a degree of independence from the region’s main powerhouses. Burma’s powerful parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann was in India last week, ostensibly to study the development of India’s own political arena since independence but the visit offered a clear indication of Burma’s attempt to wriggle out of Beijing’s orbit.

India’s once frosty relations with the Burmese regime have warmed since the early 1990s when it sought to develop stronger business relations with its neighbour, which acts as its only geographical gateway to Southeast Asian economies and a coveted source of natural energy.