Reuters – US to let Myanmar import ban expire, at least temporarily
Bloomberg – Myanmar May Suffer If U.S. Extends Import Ban, Group Says
UN News Centre – UN envoy reaffirms commitment to assist Myanmar in reconciliation efforts
UPI – U.N. envoy assures help to Myanmar
The Japan Times – Myanmar’s budding miracle
The Japan Times – JETRO plans Yangon support center
Christian Science Monitor – People in Myanmar (Burma) must learn to ‘think freedom’
Deutsche Welle – Burmese filmmakers tell stories of a country in transition
Asian Correspondent – Burma’s relation with Thailand looks healthier
The Nation – Cases of 10 Thais held in Myanmar to be judged on July 30 : source
Asia Times Online – Ethnic peace key to Myanmar reform
Asia News Network – More singles in Myanmar due to rising cost of living
Asia News Network – Authorities seeking ways to assist 92 Thais jailed in Myanmar
New Kerala – Myanmar to host livestock technology fair
New Kerala – 80,000 displaced in Myanmar unrest
UPI – Violence in Myanmar worries Pillay
Bernama – Foreign Ministry Seeks Ways To Assist Thais Jailed In Myanmar
IRIN – MYANMAR: Opium farmers need alternative livelihood support
International Crisis Group – Myanmar: The Politics of Economic Reform
The Daily Star, Bangladesh – Suu Kyi eclipsing new Myanmar stars
TravelDailyNews Asia – Strand Hotels will renovate its hotels in Myanmar
The Irrawaddy – Laos to be Venue for Kachin Peace Talks
The Irrawaddy – Ex-NDAK Troops Bemoan BGF Role
Mizzima News – Burma to privatize declining oil refineries
Mizzima News – UN human rights leader calls for ‘independent’ Rakhine State investigation
Mizzima News – Suu Kyi speaks to international HIV/AIDS conference
DVB News – Three migrants gunned down in southern Thailand
DVB News – Teachers to be utilised in census; conflict areas may not be counted
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US to let Myanmar import ban expire, at least temporarily
WASHINGTON, July 26 | Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:05am IST

(Reuters) – A U.S. ban on imports from Myanmar was set to expire, at least temporarily, at the end of September because of a clash between lawmakers over funding for an African trade provision.

The two issues are tied together in a bill that has the backing of the Obama administration and that lawmakers hope to pass before their monthlong August recess.

The White House has eased some sanctions on Myanmar, also known by its colonial name of Burma, in response to economic and political reforms. It does not favor lifting the import ban yet.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed separating the two measures so the ban on imports from Myanmar could be renewed.

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, objected on the grounds that it would jeopardize approval of the African trade measure, which he said was vital to clothing industry jobs on the continent.

He rejected McConnell’s charge that Democrats were turning renewal of sanctions on Myanmar “into a partisan issue” after years of strong support from both parties.

Baucus said he hoped to worked with Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, in coming days to address his concerns about funding for the African trade provision.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act, first passed by Congress in 2000, allows eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa to ship thousands of goods to the United States without paying import duties.

A provision that expires Sept. 30 waives duties on clothing from most African Growth and Opportunity Act countries, even if the yarn or fabric is made in a “third country” like China, South Korea or Vietnam.

Coburn has objected to the use of U.S. Customs Service user fees spread out over 10 years to pay for the $200 million cost of the trade bill.

Those are the types of provisions that have created a huge mountain of U.S. government debt, he said.
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Bloomberg – Myanmar May Suffer If U.S. Extends Import Ban, Group Says
By Daniel Ten Kate – Jul 26, 2012 10:33 PM PT

U.S. lawmakers may hurt Myanmar’s ability to attract labor-intensive investments in manufacturing by extending an import ban in place since 2003, according to policy research organization International Crisis Group.

The Senate Finance Committee recommended extending the ban on imports from Myanmar for three years, according to legislation under consideration in the upper house. President Barack Obama, who this month authorized U.S. companies to invest in Myanmar for the first time in about 15 years, can issue a waiver at any time to overturn the measure, according to the group.

The extension “could have a serious impact on Myanmar’s economic recovery, by hindering the growth of job-creating manufacturing industries and further skewing the economy towards potentially problematic extractive industries,” the report said. “It is indeed hard to see how retention by the U.S. of its import ban could in any way serve the interests of the Myanmar people or assist the democratization process.”

Obama has eased sanctions against Myanmar after a shift to democracy, while maintaining the underlying legislation to penalize the former military regime if it backslides on rights. President Thein Sein has called for sanctions to be fully lifted to eliminate uncertainty that may deter investors.

Myanmar dismantled a fixed exchange rate in April and parliamentarians are revamping laws to attract investors to the country of 64 million people. The nation’s per capita gross domestic product is less than 10 percent that of neighboring Thailand, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

Senator Jim Webb earlier this month praised Obama’s decision to allow new investment in Myanmar and called for the suspension of the import ban.
Popular Expectations

“We are facing a critical window of time to push for continued reforms and political reconciliation within that country,” he said in a July 11 statement.

The import ban “would exert no obvious pressure on hardliners in Myanmar” because they don’t have economic interests in manufacturing, the International Crisis Group said. The government is taking steps to end monopolies and favored access to state contracts that benefitted crony business tycoons, military generals and political leaders, all of whom appear to be repositioning themselves instead of blocking reforms, it said.

“There is a risk that popular expectations rise faster than the government can meet them,” Crisis Group said in the report. “When expectations are not met, there can be political consequences — particularly when longstanding authoritarian controls on the population are being simultaneously removed, allowing frustrations to come into the open.”
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UN News Centre – UN envoy reaffirms commitment to assist Myanmar in reconciliation efforts
26 July 2012 –

The United Nations top envoy for Myanmar today reiterated his commitment to assist the country in its national reconciliation and reform efforts, in the wake of the deadly violence which took place in the state of Rakhine last month.

“The United Nations is committed to assisting Myanmar and its people in their reform and national reconciliation efforts, including overcoming imminent challenges,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, in a statement. “In this spirit, the United Nations has been working to help assist many of the victims of the recent violence in Rakhine state, regardless of their religion or ethnicity.”

Last month, serious disturbances in Rakhine state, located in the country’s west, led to the Government declaring a state of emergency there. According to reports, the violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims left at least a dozen civilians dead and hundreds of homes destroyed, while internally displacing some 30,000 people.

The UN also temporarily relocated, on a voluntary basis, some of its staff based in the towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, as well as Rakhine state’s capital, Sittwe. Mr. Nambiar visited a few days after the violence, leading a humanitarian team to some of the localities that were most affected and later calling for an investigation into the events that took place.

In his statement, Mr. Nambiar also said he had conveyed the personal concerns of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with the UN’s expectations, directly to President Thein Sein. He noted that the President’s statements on the issue recognize the risk that the situation in Rakhine state poses for the broader reform process underway in Myanmar.

“While the response by the Government thus far has been prompt and calibrated, and while the President has stressed the need to handle the matter with sensitivity, I have, during the past days, called on the authorities, publicly and privately, to make an independent and transparent investigation of these tragic events,” Mr. Nambiar said.

“Such action should establish accountability as well as the prevalence of the rule of law. It should also address the underlying causes of the violence, including with regard to the condition of the Muslim community in Rakhine as an integral part of the national reconciliation process,” he added.
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U.N. envoy assures help to Myanmar
Published: July 27, 2012 at 1:41 AM

NEW YORK, July 27 (UPI) — The United Nations would assist Myanmar in its reconciliation effort in Rakhine state, where violence has taken at least 12 lives, a top U.N. official said.

“The United Nations is committed to assisting Myanmar and its people in their reform and national reconciliation efforts, including overcoming imminent challenges,” said Vijay Nambiar in a statement carried by the U.N. News service.

Nambiar, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Myanmar, said the world body already has been working to help assist many of the victims of the recent violence in Rakhine state, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. Rakhine is another name for Arakan state in western Myanmar.

Violence erupted in the state last month between the majority Arakanese Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslims. There were reports that the rape and slaying of a woman set off the violence.

The U.N. report said the violence had claimed at least 12 lives and led to the destruction of hundreds of homes, and the government of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, has declared a state of emergency in the state. The report said 30,000 people were displaced.

Nambiar, who led a humanitarian team on a visit to the state, called for an investigation that would address the underlying causes of the violence, including the condition of the Muslim community. He said statements by Myanmar President Thein Sein subsequent to the incident recognized the risk that conditions in Rakhine pose for the broader reform process in the country.

Rakhine is estimated to have about 800,000 Rohingya.

Britain’s Guardian had quoted Rohingya members saying they are seen by the Myanmar government as Bangladeshi, but neighboring Bangladesh considers them to be illegal migrants. The newspaper said a 1982 law does not allow recognition of Rohingya as Myanmar citizens, and thousands of them have fled to Bangladesh since then.
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Saturday, July 28, 2012
The Japan Times – Myanmar’s budding miracle
By CURTIS S. CHIN

BANGKOK — More than three months ago, on April 21, amid great fanfare, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at a Japan-Mekong summit pledged $7.4 billion in development aid to five Southeast Asian nations in an effort to promote cooperation with countries in the Mekong region. The prime minister also said Japan would forgive $3.7 billion of Myanmar’s debt as a way to support the democratic and economic reforms in Myanmar (aka Burma).

Understandably, Japanese companies — from construction and engineering to consumer products — and development and aid agencies celebrated the news, and the opportunity to enter or expand efforts in Asia’s newest frontier market. Japanese support for a special economic zone near Yangon, also known as Rangoon, could well also give Japanese firms a head start in winning business.

For Japanese and now Western companies no longer constrained by economic sanctions or public sentiment against operating in the once pariah nation, the question remains, however: Is this a “Burma bubble” or the start of a “Myanmar miracle”?

Fifteen years ago, the world’s eyes turned to Southeast Asia as what would become known as the Asian Financial Crisis unfolded across the region, ending a period of business euphoria about the so-called Asian miracle. How soon we forget.

In Thailand, after a decade of economic growth averaging 9 percent per year — by some measures the highest rate for any nation in the world at that time — the bubble was bursting. Without sufficient foreign currency reserves to defend the Thai baht, the Thai government in July 1997 was forced to float its currency. From a peg of 25 Thai baht to the U.S. dollar, the Thai currency fell to 55 Thai baht.

A once booming economy was brought to its knees. Construction projects halted, businesses closed shop, and thousands lost jobs. The crisis spread, as the value of currencies and equities in Indonesia, South Korea and elsewhere plummeted, and companies reassessed investments and operations in the region. Japan too — including Japanese companies with operations throughout the region — did not escape the slowdown.

Today, Southeast Asia has mostly recovered. Yet, 1½ decades on, there is a new euphoria emerging, with again Bangkok at its heart. This time, though, the focus is west of the border in Myanmar.

With Thailand serving as a key gateway to Myanmar, more and more Japanese, and now Western, companies are clamoring to find their way to Yangon to talk business. They hope for the start of a new chapter in the tale of Asia’s economic growth, a “Myanmar miracle” so-to-speak — one to complement earlier chapters on Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. The opportunities that companies from China and other countries unconstrained by sanctions once dominated may well now be within reach.

Just recently, General Electric signed a medical equipment deal with two hospitals in Myanmar, becoming the first U.S. company to restart business in the nation since Washington eased sanctions.

Representatives from business and the development world are rushing in to scope out opportunities for involvement. International finance institutions and aid agencies are also rushing in, at times with little sense of cooperation or coordination.

One can understand why. In an initial assessment by staff of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the multilateral financial institution on whose Board of Directors I once sat, the message is clear: The infrastructure of a once rich nation was left to deteriorate through the decades. The 1962 adoption of a “Burmese Road to Socialism” was a road to ruin, with the economy coming to a virtual standstill.

According to the ADB staff assessment, significant opportunities exist today across the board to invest in and upgrade Myanmar’s energy, transport, urban development and water, agricultural and natural resources, and education sectors. Mining, hydropower development and forestry are also identified as priority sectors with a caveat.

In these areas, a compromise, the ADB assessment argues, will need to be reached between the country’s overall economic development and long-term conservation of its resources.

Much has been written about the extensive role of China in Myanmar and the rise of large emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India and China — the BRIC. Yet, as elsewhere, it is not just China or India that Japanese companies must contend with. Businesses also face what I have termed a new “bric” (lower-cased) that poses perhaps an even larger challenge — bureaucracy, regulation, interventionism and corruption.

New entrants in Myanmar face an uncertain bureaucracy, regulations that are unequally applied or enforced when they exist at all, interventionism by government at the expense of market forces, and crony capitalism, if not outright corruption. The reemergence of ethnic and religious tensions also suggests the added challenge of sectarianism. Yet, as the saying goes, without risk, there are no rewards.

Whether in infrastructure or financial services, how can Japanese or Western multinationals invest in a way that helps ensure the long-held dream of doing business in Myanmar doesn’t become a nightmare?

How also to invest responsibly, when there are so many gray areas, and so few rules and procedures in place?

While at the ADB, I spoke regularly on the importance of a focus on the “3 Ps of responsible development,” namely a focus on people — on results and on ensuring that development efforts and dollars ultimately reached the people most in need; on planet — on ensuring that development efforts did not short-change the future for the present, particularly when it came to natural resources extraction; and on partnership — on ensuring that development efforts were done in coordination not just with other development agencies but also increasingly with civil society and the private sector.

My view that the private sector played a critical role in a country’s emergence from poverty was not without its detractors. The pushback though was often less about the role of the private sector in theory, but the behavior of a few businesses in reality.

As the Asian economic crisis spread from Bangkok 15 years ago, new scrutiny came to bear on the roles of governments and of private sector players, including financial institutions and speculators, in building and bursting an economic bubble in Thailand.

Now with companies poised to descend in ever increasing numbers on Myanmar, it would serve them well to think through not just their business approach to, but also how best to manage their risks in, what remains very much a frontier state with weak institutions and governance.

At the end of the day, executives, shareholders and stakeholders in Japan and elsewhere must think through not just how much money is to be made in Myanmar, but also how that money is to be made.

Curtis S. Chin is a senior fellow and executive-in-residence at the Asian Institute of Technology, and a managing director with RiverPeak Group. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank (2007-2010). He is a commentator on Asia and development issues.
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Friday, July 27, 2012
The Japan Times – JETRO plans Yangon support center
Jiji

The Japan External Trade Organization said it will establish a business support center in Yangon on Sept. 3 to support Japanese firms planning to enter Myanmar.

As well as short-term office rentals, the center will provide local information and business consulting services with Japanese advisers, JETRO said Wednesday.

Three 10-sq.-meter rooms will be available for use as rental offices. Small and medium-size firms will be charged ¥31,500 to use an office for 70 days, the maximum for any one company. The fee for large firms will be ¥76,500.

JETRO has already established such support centers in Thailand, India and Vietnam.
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Christian Science Monitor – People in Myanmar (Burma) must learn to ‘think freedom’
Whatever military’s motivation for allowing reforms in Burma (Myanmar), the people – led by Aung San Suu Kyi – are cautiously beginning to exercise their newfound freedom. But transitional democracies are notoriously unstable. People must learn how to think and act democratically.
By William F. Schulz | Christian Science Monitor – 3 hrs ago

I recently returned from Burma, known officially as Myanmar. When I was executive director of Amnesty International USA (1994-2006), I would not have been granted a visa to enter Myanmar because of Amnesty’s criticism of the government. This time I received a visa upon arrival at the airport in Yangon.

Similarly, Aung San Suu Kyi, the revered leader of the country’s democracy movement, had chosen not to leave the country since 1989 for fear she would not be allowed back in. This time, having recently been elected to Parliament and assured of her right to return, she was in Thailand on her first travel outside the country in more than twenty-four years. I could finally get in at the same time she finally got out.

These are but two of the ways Myanmar has changed since March 2011, when general turned “civilian,” Thein Sein, became president. Whether these and other relaxations of authoritarianism will last is naturally the first question on the mind of every Myanmar citizen. Is all this change simply a reflection of one man’s (or one faction’s) strategic predilections, or does it signal a genuine opening?

What is pretty clear is that the sanctions, economic and diplomatic, that the West and some of Myanmar’s neighbors had brought to bear against the country had some effect. That’s not because the government cared about the impact of those sanctions on the welfare of the people. It’s because those who had made themselves rich with the government’s help (Transparency International rates Myanmar one of the most corrupt nations on earth) realized that, with the West closed off to them, they had few places to invest their ill-gotten gains.

Whatever the motivation of the powerful, the people are ever so cautiously beginning to exercise their newfound freedom. Transitional democracies are notoriously unstable – see Egypt – in part because no one knows exactly what the new rules are or who the ultimate decision-makers will be. The press is flexing its poorly toned muscles by covering some of the controversies like it never has before.

On the one hand, this means there is more civic space for organized dissent, at least at the local level. One village, for example, in Myanmar had been beleaguered for years by the military appropriating sand for its own uses that the villagers needed for theirs. With the new melody of “people power” playing in their ears, the villagers sent an anonymous protest letter to the military, which, astonishingly, stopped stealing the sand. This was not, of course, because the military had suddenly become enlightened. It was because it couldn’t know for sure that higher-ups might not heed the villagers’ wishes and punish the military’s excesses.

Of course, the usefulness of such uncertainty cannot last forever. The reason democracies are run by the rule of law is so that the people – and the military – know what the rules are and who will enforce them. Eventually the government will clarify the rules (written or unwritten), and at that point everyone will know whether the newfound intimations of democracy are fraudulent or serious.

In the meantime, the people must learn how to act democratically. I remember one Eastern European dissident saying to me after the 1989 upheavals that overthrew one communist government after another in that part of the world, “In the past, you could get fifteen years in prison for criticizing the government; ten years in prison for thinking about criticizing the government, and five years in prison for doing nothing at all. The biggest problem for me with freedom is not learning to speak freely; it is learning how to think like a free person.”

Among other things, that “thinking like a free person” means recognizing that people are all in this struggle together.

Such a new mind-set cannot come too quickly, as witness the recent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The new ceasefires in Shan State and elsewhere are still fragile, and fighting continues in Kachin State. As Aung San Suu Kyi said at her long-delayed acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, all factions are responsible for violence, and all factions will need to work together to stop it. The same is true of building a new democracy.

OPINION: Aung San Suu Kyi signals change in Burma, but investors should proceed with caution

Fortunately, Burma has great moral leadership not just in Ms. Suu Kyi but in the thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns who have already sacrificed enormously for the cause of freedom. If such leaders match their moral credibility with organizing power, the government will be hard-pressed to roll back its new initiatives. Stay tuned.

William F. Schulz, former executive director of Amnesty International USA, is president of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, an international human rights organization.
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Deutsche Welle – Burmese filmmakers tell stories of a country in transition
Author: Rodion Ebbighausen / act
Editor: Shamil Shams
Date 27.07.2012

As Myanmar undergoes a political transition, a film academy is supporting creative minds to tell stories through documentary.

Daw Ni Lang lives, works and laughs in Yangon, the biggest city in Myanmar (also known as Burma). Although nothing can apparently disturb the stoutly built woman, tears do well up in her eyes when she talks about her children. She has five but only one still lives in Myanmar.

She and her family are the protagonists of a documentary made by Zaw Naing Oo. The film tells the universal story of parents abandoned by their children who have to search for work elsewhere and the particular story of Myanmar where children have emigrated to finish their education. When the junta shut down schools and universities people were left with no choice but to go abroad.

The result is a moving film about everyday life in a military dictatorship.

Oo is one of a growing group of documentary filmmakers in Myanmar whose work has been made possible thanks to the Yangon Film School.

Lindsey Merrison, an Anglo-Burmese documentary filmmaker, founded the academy in 2005 after being made aware through making her own film in the southeast country in 2004 that although there was no shortage of stories, there was a lot to be learnt about the art and craft of filmmaking and the technical requirements.

Although, she does not believe film can change a society she thinks the artistic form can “change people’s opinions or raise awareness.”

She told DW that her aim is not to illustrate a particular thesis or to promote a particular political agenda but to tell stories. “The documentary filmmaker goes out on a hunt. Looking for traces without really knowing what for.”

When she was making her film, many young people came up to her to find out more about how documentaries were made.

This is what prompted her to set up the Yangon Film School. To do so she activated a network of filmmakers from across the world, searching for tutors and trainers who were willing to transmit their knowledge to Burmese students.

Before Myanmar’s opening up, it seemed at times that the bureaucratic hurdles would never be overcome but she persisted and achieved her goal. “It was unreal – for the participants as much as for the tutors. Nobody believed we would spend three weeks under one roof watching, discussing and films from dusk till dawn.”

“We are not cultural imperialists who turned up to show the Burmese how everything is done right,” she insists. Instead, she considers herself a kind of midwife who can help filmmakers to bring their own ideas into the world. “I would lie, however, if I said I didn’t want to leave a trace,” she said.

Merrison’s film school has become a major player in Burma’s budding film scene, thanks partly to the support of the Goethe Institute, the European Union and various foundations.

“We have created an understanding for documentary film in the country,” says Merrison. “It’s a springboard. Many things can grow out of a documentary. It can take the direction of journalism or of a feature.”

The first generation of YFS graduates now work themselves as trainers. Their documentaries have been shown at international film festivals, attracting awards and acclaim.

In future, Merrison hopes it will be possible to “see many films about Burma by Burmese filmmakers in Burma.”
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Asian Correspondent – Burma’s relation with Thailand looks healthier
By Zin Linn Jul 27, 2012 4:58PM UTC

President of Burma or Myanmar, Mr. Thein Sein met Thai Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra at Thai Koo Fah of State Guesthouse in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday (23 July), The New Light of Myanmar said Thursday. The Thai PM expressed her thanks for President Thein Sein’s visit to Thailand at the invitation of Thai government. She also said that the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two countries would be celebrated in Thailand on a grand scale next year.

The President thanked the Thai PM and government for invitation to visit Thailand, warm welcome and kind hospitality, expressing his belief that the visit would further cement the existing bond and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.

Thailand was the second largest investor in Burma in terms of trade, investment and economic cooperation, the President said.  Thailand had invested over 9 billion USD in Burma as of 30th April, 2012. As a result, Thailand’s investment is approximately 23.32 per cent of total foreign investment in Burma.The bilateral trade volume reached 4515.0 million USD in 2011-2012 fiscal year, 24.9 per cent up in comparison with last year, as a sign of increase in trade relations. Thein Sein revealed.

[Photo: Myanmar President Website] Myanmar President Mr. Thein Sein and Thai Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra held a press conference at Thai Koo Fah of State Guesthouse in Bangkok, Thailand on 23 July, 2012.

The President also stated that signing of MoU to set up ‘Dawei Special Economic Zone’ between the two countries would lead to closer bilateral economic cooperation. Besides, improved economic production and increased employment opportunities for the countries and peoples in Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Thus, the President urged pushing ahead for urgent implementation of Dawei Special Economic Zone’.  It is necessary to create jobs for people living along the border regions to assure their socio-economic life. Due to rising stability along Thai-Burma border, Thein Sein said that his government would open more border trade camps, more border industrial zones and establish commercial-scale cultivated areas and industrialized businesses along the border, revealed the President. He also proposed for formally opening of border trade camps in Htiki and other available places along the Thai-Burma border.

According to President Thein Sein, Burma has awareness of founding border industrial zone in Htiki and Myawady- Thingan Nyinaung, recommending additional supervision for buying of electricity from Thailand, along with Thai entrepreneurs’ investment in those projects.

The President called for Thai investments in rubber, oil palm and other commercial plantations.  Such investments may materialize development of job creation in the border regions sharing with Thailand, he said.

There were around two million Burmese workers working in Thailand and MoU on cooperation in labour affairs was signed in 2003. The President expressed his thanks toward the Thai government for extension of the expiring work-permits of Burmese workers till December this year.

On the other hand, there are still a large number of illegal Burmese workers in Thailand who were in danger of sending back to Burma after December.

The President put forward his point of view cooperate between the two neighbors along the lines of international measures for legalizing Burmese workers. The President expected to issue visas at one stop service at six temporary passport issuance offices and three offices at Burma border.

The President also negotiated with the Thai government to guarantee same rights of Burmese migrant-workers with Thai workers whose basic payment was increased in April, 2012.

The Thai Prime Minister suggested coordination between ministries concerned of the two countries for issuance of visas for Myanmar migrant workers without restrictions, allowing Myanmar migrant workers enter by air, and the issues of cross-border workers from the other side.

The Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra guaranteed the same salary for Burmese migrant workers equal to Thai workers. She expressed her thanks to the President of Burma and ministers for their goodwill visit to Thailand.

President Thein Sein showed appreciation for Thai government’s pledge to offer equal salary to Burmese migrant workers and procedure for occupational training courses. Thein Sein also expressed his pledge to put into service the facts in MoU and joint statement made during his Thailand tour.

Apart from the migrant-workers’ issue, the President pronounced the hosting of XXVII SEA Games in 2013 as the new challenge to the country, asking for Thailand’s experience and cooperation in news coverage and broadcast and material supplies.

In addition, at some point in the meeting, President Thein Sein suggested gradually implementation of Dawei special economic zone projects under sector-wise coordination. He confirmed to the reconstitute the existing ‘Myanmar-Thai Friendship Association’ for healthier role. He expressed his gratitude to Thai side for its readiness for economic partnership with Burma.
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Thai-Myanmar Ties
The Nation – Cases of 10 Thais held in Myanmar to be judged on July 30 : source
July 27, 2012 4:51 pm

A Myanmar court is expected to rule on the cases in which 10 Thais are charged with carrying war weapons and engaging in drug trafficking in Myanmar on July 30, an informed source said Friday.

“Myanmar military officials are now preparing the investigation report and gathering more evidence,” the source said.

According to the source, if the Thais are convicted of possessing war weapons, they will face up to 20 years in jail. If they are found guilty of resisting officials, they may face life imprisonment.

The 10 Thai defendants are among the 92 Thais who were convicted of illegal entry and encroaching on forestland in Myanmar on July 23. That guilty verdict came with a jail term of three years and six months for each of them.

Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Towichakchaikul said, “The Myanmar court has not yet issued the ruling on drug trafficking and war weaponpossession cases. We are closely monitoring the cases”.

According to him, the Thai embassy in Myanmar has been requesting permission to visit the 92 detained Thais but has not received approval.

“We will assist the Thai inmates with the appeal,” Surapong said.

Weeratham Yimwan, a resident of Surat Thani’s Khirirat Nikhom district, said he hoped the government would be able to retrieve tractors, pickups, motorcycles, saws, and all gardening equipment of the detained Thais too. All these tools had been seized since the 92 Thais were arrested, Weeratham pointed out.

The commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment Task Force, Colonel Pornsak Pulsawat, speaking as head of the Township Border Committee in Ranong, said officials would first focus on trying to secure the release and return of the 92, before dealing with the return of the seized equipment.

Pornsak was now pinning hope on Myanmar President General Thein Sein’s promise to look into these cases and provide assistance to the Thais. The Myanmar leader was quoted as giving the assurances to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

It is believed that Thein Sein might consider granting a pardon to the convicted Thais after the court issues the rulings.

“But there are many cases involved. The process may take time,” Pornsak said.
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Jul 28, 2012
Asia Times Online – Ethnic peace key to Myanmar reform
By Brian McCartan

In her first statement this week as an elected parliamentarian, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi chose to highlight the plight of ethnic minorities, underscoring the issue’s rising importance in domestic politics.

Her speech was delivered amid ongoing fighting between the government and ethnic insurgents in northern Shan and Kachin States and communal strife in western Rakhine State. It also underscored the need for the government to reach durable political solutions with ethnic minority groups or risk the unraveling of democratic and economic reforms.

Suu Kyi made her speech calling for new laws to protect minority rights to Myanmar’s Lower House of Parliament in the capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday. Her call came in support of a proposal to enact such laws introduced the previous day by Ti Khun Myat, a representative from Shan State of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Suu Kyi’s statement, however, broadened the issue, noting that protection of minority rights is a complex issue that goes beyond the preservation of languages and culture as called for in the original proposal. Invoking the “Panglong spirit” she implicitly connected it to the 1947 Panglong Agreement signed between her father, independence hero General Aung San, and ethnic Kachin, Shan and Chin representatives.

That agreement intended to provide for equality between the country’s ethnic Burman-dominated central regions and ethnic minority frontier regions by granting autonomy to peripheral areas. In exchange, the Shan, Kachin and Chin agreed to join what was then known as the Union of Burma.

For ethnic minority leaders, the Panglong Agreement was viewed positively as a step towards federalism, one that in historical retrospect was undermined by the military coup of 1962 and never properly implemented. Suu Kyi noted that the “spirit” of that agreement was “based on equality and mutual respect”.

“Keeping this in mind,” she said, “we, all of us parliamentarians, must work together to amend the laws as necessary to be able to protect ethnic rights as well as to develop a truly democratic nation”.

Other parliamentarians, particularly those from ethnic minority constituencies, have already criticized Ti Khun Myat’s legislative proposal for lacking provisions on the protection of human rights and issues of equality and regional autonomy.

Some hope Suu Kyi’s speech will help to break the logjam. Ethnic representatives have tried in vain to have their concerns addressed through participation in the 2008 constitution drafting process, during the 2010 general elections and in the early phases of this new era of parliamentary democracy.

During her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo last month, Suu Kyi said she and her party “stand ready and willing to play any role in the process of national reconciliation”.

That call has the potential to expand reforms that have so far concentrated mainly on economic issues and the relaxation of past civil liberty curbing restrictions that due to civil war and lack of central control in peripheral areas affected largely only the central region of the country.

Ethnic conflict resolution is crucial for stability and security, without which economic development and democratic processes will remain stunted. Insurgency and government counter-insurgency operations continue to wreak havoc in many border areas where much of the country’s trade passes and natural resource wealth lies.

In one sense, Suu Kyi’s speech echoed a statement made by President Thein Sein on July 10 to members of the Union Peacemaking Working Committee, a government created body seeking resolution to ethnic region conflicts.

During his earlier speech, Thein Sein said, “In implementing political and economic reforms, easing of ethnic conflicts needs be considered. Only when such reforms are carried out, will national reconciliation be achieved and ethnic conflicts ended.”

A notable difference, however, is that while Thein Sein’s speech indicated that reconciliation with the ethnic groups will stem from political and economic reforms, Suu Kyi’s statement emphasized the importance of achieving political solutions to ethnic problems as a step toward countrywide political and economic development.

While Thein Sein has made reconciliation with different ethnic groups through ceasefire agreements a policy priority, fighting still rages in the country’s northern Kachin State. A long-standing ceasefire between the government and Kachin Independence Organization broke down in 2011 over issues of ethnic and political rights.

The Kachins have also raised concern about the environmental and developmental impact of several government-backed dam projects in the area. The conflict has been attended by some of the heaviest fighting seen in the country in over a decade, resulting in hundreds of deaths on both sides and tens of thousands of new refugees.

Fighting has also continued between the Shan State Army-North in north-central Shan State, despite a ceasefire agreement signed with the government in January this year. Both struggles have cast a shadow over the government’s so far largely successful peace drive in other insurgency-hit areas of the country. Western countries, including the United States, have made it clear to the government that resolution of the conflicts is necessary for the complete lifting of their economic sanctions.

A flare up in communal conflict between ethnic Buddhist Rakhines against Muslim Rohingyas in western Rakhine State beginning in early June has left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless. While not an insurgency, the violence between one ethnic minority – allegedly backed by the security forces of the majority government – against another minority group points toward the potential for continued instability in ethnic relations.

Naypyidaw views the Rohingya as foreigners and many in Myanmar, including among other ethnic groups, view them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Federal discussion

Civil war between the Burman-dominated central government and the country’s ethnic minorities has raged since almost immediately after independence from Great Britain in 1948. Importantly, these struggles began under a democratic government system and continued under decades of military dictatorship.

Indeed, it was the fear of a breakup of the Union of Burma that was cited by the coup makers as a major reason behind their 1962 coup and suspension of democracy. Harsh counter-insurgency campaigns characterized by gross human-rights abuses together with subtler bans on ethnic cultural practices and language instruction has engendered deep distrust of central authorities among most ethnic minorities.

Recent statements by Aung Min, vice chairman of the Union Peacemaking Working Committee and Thein Sein’s point man for negotiating with ethnic political organizations, hint that the government may be willing to consider discussion of the creation of a federal system.

To date, Aung Min is believed to have stood firm on the government’s eight-point guidelines for Union-level ceasefire negotiations that have so far been used to structure discussions with armed ethnic organizations. The eight points require ethnic groups to renounce all claims to independence, agree to remain in the Union of Myanmar, and join in mainstream politics and state-led economic development.

During a June 22 meeting with representatives from some 14 political parties in the old capital Yangon, Aung Min said, “The guidelines are not carved in stone. We can discuss and amend them as necessary. Right now, we are working hard to hold a Panglong-like political dialogue before the end of 2014.”

His statement was interpreted by some as a reversal of the government’s previous refusals to discuss federalism, a new Panglong-style conference, or engage with more than one ethnic group at a time for discussions on politics, self-government or autonomy issues.

It also marked an apparent departure from the government’s earlier rigid position that all political settlements should be worked out in parliament, a body currently dominated by the military and Burman majority. This has given new hope to some ethnic leaders that while the creation of a federal union is not likely in the immediate term, it could be achievable in the long-term.

The Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC) was reorganized in May, making Thein Sein the head of its central committee and giving it more powers to negotiate directly with armed ethnic organizations. Aung Min, the UPWC’s vice chairman and who now reportedly refers to himself as the “minister without borders”, has in recent months made frequent trips to neighboring China and Thailand to hold closed door discussions with different ethnic group representatives.

The military, however, remains a key player in the national reconciliation efforts. While Thein Sein and his supporters rule from Naypyidaw, the military and its powerful regional commanders are still the driving central force in many ethnic minority areas. The UPWC appears to have little command over the military, whose operations, including in the Kachin and Shan States, have sometimes been at odds with the efforts of its peace negotiators.

Thein Sein has made several calls on military units to refrain from offensive actions, but these executive commands have been ignored in Kachin State as well as in other ethnic areas. Clashes continue with the Shan State Army-South, including a major skirmish on July 25, while rebels in the neighboring Karen State are worried military efforts underway to reinforce and resupply army forward bases signal a possible resumption of hostilities.

Thein Sein’s government may be genuinely keen to reach political settlements with ethnic-based insurgent organizations, but there are still many hardliners in the military who seek revenge for casualties in fighting against the Kachin and Shan and still believe they can crush their resistance through military means. Many of these officers rose through the ranks with indoctrination against ethnic armies and served on the front lines fighting insurgents.

For Myanmar’s reforms to take root they must soon move beyond emphasis on the country’s central region and begin to address the military’s supremacy over the civilian government’s in the border regions where most ethnic minorities reside. After decades of civil war, democracy and local autonomy represent the best hope for alleviating ethnic minority regions’ entrenched poverty and underdevelopment. Whether Thein Sein’s and Suu Kyi’s calls will result in real reconciliation, however, still depends on the military top brass.

Brian McCartan is a freelance journalist. He may be reached at bpmccartan1@gmail.com.
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Asia News Network – More singles in Myanmar due to rising cost of living
Ei Thinzar Kyaw and Htwe San Aung
Eleven Media Group
Publication Date : 27-07-2012

More people in Myanmar are choosing to remain single due to rising costs of living and changes in lifestyles, giving higher priority to education and economy, an official from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said.

The official commented that the fertility rate is also declining after marriage.

“I think one has to do a lot of calculations to get married these days than before,” said the official.

The Fertility and Reproductive Health Survey (FRHS) reveals that the proportion of never married and age of marriage have been increasing over the years.

The proportion of those that never married increased between 1973 and 2007, with the increase more prominent for the younger age groups.

In the age group 15-19, the proportion of never married rose from 78 per cent to 92.8 per cent for women and from 92.2 per cent to 95.9 per cent for men.

At age 20-24 years, 67.9 per cent of the females were single in 2007, compared to 35.5 per cent in 1973. For the males, 76.7 per cent were single in 2007, compared to 55.2 per cent in 1973.

The proportion of never married in the age group 45-49 is quite high among women and is more than twice that of men. It was 5.9 per cent in 1973 and increased to 14.8 per cent in 2007 for women. The increase in the case of men was from 3.5 to 7.5 per cent.

The survey also showed an increase in the age of marriage. For women, the increase was from around 21 years in 1973 to around 26 years in 2007. For the men, the increase was from around 23 years in 1973 to around 27 years in 2007.

The survey was conducted by the Ministry of Immigration and Population and UNFPA in 2007 and released in 2009. It is the latest survey on population and reproductive health in Myanmar.
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Asia News Network – Authorities seeking ways to assist 92 Thais jailed in Myanmar
Anapat Deechuay, Panya Thiewsangwal, and Boonleun Promprathankul
The Nation
Publication Date : 27-07-2012

Authorities are seeking ways to assist 92 Thais sentenced to jail terms for illegal entry and encroaching on forestland in Myanmar.

They however admitted the extent of any such aid would be up to the local authorities and would have to wait for the completion of initial legal procedures.

The 92 Thais were each sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said yesterday that the Thai Embassy had dispatched officials to Koh Song, where the 92 Thais are imprisoned, to monitor the situation.

He said the embassy would contact the Myanmar Foreign Affairs Ministry for information in preparation to provide aid once the case is submitted to the central administration.

The minister said assisting those Thais who were not involved in smuggling drugs or war weapons would be easier. Myanmar President Thein Sein had assured Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that he would look into this case after initial legal proceedings were complete, Surapong said.

Defence Minister ACM Sukampol Suwannathat yesterday admitted that the extent of any aid provided by the Thai side would be up to Myanmar, because the 92 Thais had encroached on forestland and some had reportedly used war weapons to fight off Myanmar soldiers and grow narcotic plants.

Relatives of the detainees urged Thai authorities to contact their Myanmar counterparts to seek the return of assets seized from the Thais.

Noy Wongdee, a resident of Ranong’s La Oon district, said many relatives of the 92 Thais accepted that their loved ones would have to serve time behind bars in Myanmar, as ordered by the court.

However, they hoped the two countries’ good relations would encourage Myanmar officials to reduce the punishment. She also urged Thai authorities to contact their Myanmar counterparts to seek the return of 50 seized pieces of equipment including backhoes, tractors, pick-up trucks and motorcycles, as well as some gardening tools, because the families on this side of the border could make use of the assets in farming.

Worried that the Myanmar authorities would destroy the seized vehicles and tools, relatives of the 92 Thais living in Surat Thani, Krabi, Ranong and Chumphon planned to gather to demand Thai authorities help retrieve the items.

The commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment Task Force, Colonel Pornsak Pulsawat, speaking as head of the Township Border Committee in Ranong, said officials would first focus on trying to secure the release and return of the 92, before dealing with the return of the seized equipment.

Pornsak insisted there was still hope for the Thais because President Thein Sein would look into the possibility of pardons for them, adding that he couldn’t confirm a rumour that Myanmar would release the first batch of Thais on August 12.

He said the court verdict so far covered only charges of illegal entry and forestland encroachment; investigation of other charges like those relating to war weapons and drugs was ongoing and no one knew how long that would take.

Thai Army officials from the Rattana Rangsan Camp in Ranong yesterday visited and provided some goods to Kra Buri district resident Da Waothong, whose husband Boonchuay and son Decha were arrested and jailed by Myanmar.

She said Boonchuay and Decha took goods via long-tailed boat to shops in the encroached-upon area in exchange for 2,000-3,000 baht (US$63 to $94) per trip, but were among the 92 Thais arrested on July 4. She said she was very worried about the men, who are the family’s breadwinners, and urged the government to push Myanmar to release them.
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New Kerala – Myanmar to host livestock technology fair
Yangon, July 27

An international fishery and livestock technology trade fair will be held in Myanmar, the government said Friday.

The fair, to be held Dec 7-8, will feature some of the latest technologies of the sector, Xinhua reported.

Myanmar’s marine exports reached USD 125 million in April-June period this year, up USD 12.59 million or 11 percent year-on-year.

The figure for 2011-12 fiscal year stood at USD 522 million.

There are over 70 fish cold storage facilities in Yangon, of which 23 are in operation. (IANS)
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New Kerala – 80,000 displaced in Myanmar unrest
Geneva, July 27

Some 80,000 people have been displaced in the recent inter-communal clashes in Myanmar, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters that over 30,000 people have received aid from the agency, Xinhua reported.

He also expressed concerns over three UNHCR staff members detained in Myanmar.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay called for prompt and independent investigation on the human rights abuses committed in the unrest.

Violence erupted May 28 in Rakhine state between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims after a Buddhist woman was raped and killed. Nearly 80 people have died in the clashes. (IANS)
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Violence in Myanmar worries Pillay
Published: July 27, 2012 at 12:32 PM

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 27 (UPI) — Reports reviewed by the United Nations suggest violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state may have taken on a religious tone, the U.N. human rights chief said.

Violence among rival ethnic and sectarian communities flared recently and 10 Muslims were killed by mobs. More deaths were reported in Rakhine when police fired on demonstrators.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday an independent investigation was needed into the violence in Rakhine.

“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” she said in a statement.

“Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims.”

Pillay’s office said at least 78 people have died as a result of regional conflict and more than 70,000 people were displaced. A special envoy for human rights is expected to visit the region next week.

Myanmar received sweeping praise from the international community following political reforms that culminated in opposition leader, former prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi taking a seat in Parliament.
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July 27, 2012 12:47 PM
Foreign Ministry Seeks Ways To Assist Thais Jailed In Myanmar

BANGKOK, July 27 (Bernama) – The Foreign Affairs Ministry is seeking ways to assist 92 Thai nationals who were sentenced to jail in Myanmar, Thai News Agency reported.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said the Thai Embassy in Myanmar had sent officials to assist the Thais who were sentenced to three years and six months’ in jail for illegal immigration and encroachment by the Kawthaung court.

Surapong told journalists that it would be easier to arrange for the return of the 92 detainees but not those involved in cases of narcotics and weapons.

The Myanmar court has yet to give its rulings on those charged with illegal possession of weapons and narcotics.
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MYANMAR: Opium farmers need alternative livelihood support

DAKAR, 27 July 2012 (IRIN) – Upwards of 90 percent of the opium poppies in Myanmar’s northern region are grown in Shan State, even though farmers are aware that if they grow an illicit crop, it may be eradicated and they could lose everything Alternative livelihood support is needed if growers are to be weaned off this double-edged source of income.

“Farmers grow opium poppy to buy food, pay off debt and have a cash income to pay school fees and health expenses,” Gary Lewis, regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told IRIN. “To be effective we need to give farming communities alternatives which can provide a sustainable basis for them to earn a livelihood.”

UNODC and NGOs have been working with local farmers for the past decade, trying to lure them away from poppy cultivation by providing alternative livelihood solutions, along with improved access to roads, waterways, irrigation, and community health services.

“Until recently, UNODC alternative development assistance, funded by the European Union and the governments of Germany and Japan, was limited to small development projects in just three south Shan townships – wholly inadequate to Shan State and Myanmar’s needs for improved infrastructure, markets, schools and sustainable livelihoods”, said Lewis.

More than half a century of internal conflict between government forces and various ethnic and political rebel groups tore the country apart, causing instability and poverty. Ceasefire treaties signed in early 2012 with groups in northern Myanmar, like the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), have allowed access to areas that were previously unreachable.

After the ceasefires, the government approved townships where the UN drug agency can work, including access to 25 additional townships in Shan State.

“We are encouraged by the recent ceasefire agreements and the fact that the national authorities have expanded the areas in Shan State in which UNODC is allowed to work,” Lewis said. “Solve the challenges of chronic poverty, decreasing rural food security, and armed conflict – and you can begin to draw farmers away from poppy.”

An opium survey by UNODC in 2011 points out that there has been a marked increase in the area under opium cultivation in Myanmar – from 38,100 hectares in 2010 to 43,600 hectares in 2011 – mostly in Shan State. Yet the government has significantly increased its eradication efforts and a total of 6,124 hectares of opium poppy were destroyed there in 2011, compared to 5,316 hectares eradicated in 2010, the survey noted.

“What happens in Myanmar’s Shan State affects the whole region’s security,” Lewis warned. “Now is the time for the international community to engage in alternative development in the poppy-growing regions… as a natural counterbalance to the increased enforcement being conducted.”

But political instability and poverty remain high in the area and there is a strong chance that farmers could return to poppy cultivation if there is no alternative. According to the annual opium survey, poppies can bring in nine to 15 times more money per hectare than rice. Crops like maize, tea and rice are more labour intensive than poppies, and require expensive inputs, such as fertilizers, to cultivate and transport to markets.

“Food shortages still exist and most households rely on purchasing food than on their own production,” said Ohnmar Khaing, coordinator of the Food Security Working group (FSWG) in Myanmar, an umbrella group of national and international NGOs.

“Today, poorest of the poor ex-poppy farmers need help to turn to other crops… The reality is that the internal push to reduce opium poppy is proceeding too quickly, and without adequate resources or examination of the implications for the forgotten, impoverished poppy farmers,” Khaing noted.

“The essential challenge is to create development initiatives and economic incentives that provide attractive and viable legal alternatives for farmers.”
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International Crisis Group – Myanmar: The Politics of Economic Reform
Asia Report N°231 27 Jul 2012
Jakarta/Brussels, 27 July 2012
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Myanmar has embarked on an ambitious program of sweeping reforms to end its isolation and integrate its economy with the global system. Closely entwined with its dramatic political transition, the end of longstanding Western sanctions is supporting this reconfiguration. If the reforms are done well, many across the country stand to benefit, but those who profited most from the old regime’s restrictions and privileges will lose access to windfall profits and guaranteed monopolies. The crony businessmen, military and party elite will still do well but will need to play by new rules, meet domestic and foreign competition and even pay taxes. Perhaps recognising the opportunities a more vibrant economy in a fast-growing region will bring for all, there is no major pushback to these changes, rather attempts to adapt to the new economy. The challenges and risks are numerous for a government with little experience juggling the many changes required, but it cannot resist the pent-up political pressure for change it has already unleashed.

If done with reasonable equity and some care, there could be many winners from these economic reforms. Any successful reform package must ensure that the bulk of the population recognises it is better off as a result. That means including quick-impact measures that produce a tangible effect on their lives, such as improved access to electricity, land law reform, better public transport, cheaper telecom­munications and lower informal fees of the kind that block access to health and education services. The three main losers would be the business cronies of the last regime, the military and politicians linked to the establishment Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The system of monopolies and access to licenses, permits and contracts is being dismantled. The two massive military holding companies must now pay tax. The USDP and those around it have been sidelined, losing political and economic power.

Despite this reversal of circumstances for key pillars of the old regime, there is no major effort to derail the reforms. There is a strong sense in all quarters that the political winds have changed, and dramatic economic reform is inevitable. Those who benefited most from an advantageous position under the last government also realise they are well placed to profit from a revitalised and growing economy. The military is aware that its sprawling business interests, if not competitive, may become a drain on its budget rather than a supplement to it. With support for opening up the economy building across the country, previously favoured businessmen and rich politicians appear to recognise that the political risks of challenging economic reform could outweigh the likely benefits. With limited options, the cronies are trying to distance themselves from their murky past and rebrand themselves as valuable contributors to the new economy. Along the way, they hope not to draw too much scrutiny about how they acquired their personal wealth and the capital that will now give them a head start.

In recent months, the resignation of Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo, which has been one of the most significant political events of the new administration so far, has had an economic impact. Widely regarded as a patron of the old business elite and an obstacle to key reforms, his departure may facilitate easier decision-making and smooth the way for President Thein Sein to push ahead with his economic agenda.

The economic reform process will not necessarily be without friction, and success is not guaranteed. The enormity of the task threatens to overwhelm the government’s limited policymaking capacity. Decision-making is ad hoc, not yet based on a carefully-devised master plan. It will be a challenge to maintain a balance between the speed of the reforms and their effectiveness, as decades of isolation have created a political urgency that will be hard to resist. Despite the best-laid plans, changes in one policy area often create a quick or unintended need for adjustments in another. There is limited ability in the bureaucracy to deal with the workload of regulations and management that each policy and new law will create.

Myanmar’s political transition and economic reconstruction are intimately entwined. Achieving either depends on achieving both. The ethnic peace processes are also closely bound up with the political economies of those border regions. As ceasefires are being secured, there will be new pressure to produce a peace dividend in these remote but resource-rich regions. It is hard to imagine a successful political transition unless the government can ensure macroeconomic stability and sustained improvement in the lives of ordinary people, just as it is hard to imagine successful economic reform without political stability and a continued shift away from the authoritarian past. Unanticipated economic shocks, social unrest or political uncertainty in the lead-up to the next general elections in 2015 all represent potential risks to the process. But with the potential benefits of reform after decades of isolation so huge, Myanmar should not be hesitant. It sits in the middle of a vibrant region and in integrating with it has the opportunity to catch-up to its neighbours, as well as learn from their successes and failures.
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Saturday, July 28, 2012
International
The Daily Star, Bangladesh – Suu Kyi eclipsing new Myanmar stars
Afp, Bangkok

Aung San Suu Kyi’s iconic allure has helped train the eyes of the world on Myanmar’s democracy struggle, but some experts say her star appeal could thwart the rise of a new generation of leaders.

The Nobel laureate, who has come to personify Myanmar’s efforts to shrug off the yoke of decades of dictatorship, made her first speech in parliamentary recently in the latest chapter in her transformation from renowned political prisoner to MP.

She has urged to protect the right of the minorities in Myanmar but yet again kept her mum on the Rohingya issue.

On the historic European tour, the 67-year-old has suggested she is willing to accept the mantle of president if, as expected, her party wins 2015 elections seen as the apex of recent reforms.

But many are already asking who could follow in the footsteps of “The Lady”.

Western governments showed great interest in finding “political alternatives” to Suu Kyi when she was under house arrest before controversial November 2010 elections, said Renaud Egreteau, a Myanmar expert at the University Hong Kong.

“Two years later, idolatry is back. Alternatives within the democratic opposition are again marginalised.”

Suu Kyi has said she has tried shunning the “icon” label since being propelled into Myanmar’s political scene during a failed student uprising against the junta in 1988.

But as the daughter of independence hero Aung San she has failed to escape cult status both at home and abroad.

In the European tour, she received the attention and honour which many state chief can only dream of, said Trevor Wilson, former Australian Ambassador to the country.

“I don’t think the international community fully appreciates the role of other parties and political actors in Myanmar,” he added.

Many smaller democracy parties — many of which have been eagerly pushing the country’s reforms from inside the legislature for over a year — have felt shunned by the NLD juggernaut.

Political parties representing Myanmar’s diverse minority groups — which hold some 75 seats among 10 parties — are also considered to be on the fringe of debate, despite their importance in a country that has been racked by sporadic civil war with various ethnic rebels since independence in 1948.

But reforming the NLD to allow younger stars to rise might be hard to achieve, with Suu Kyi’s democratic pedigree and strong charisma acting to shield her from negative comment.

Even the structure of the NLD itself is a cause for concern, experts said.

“Many people are in awe of Aung San Suu Kyi when they meet her and they don’t easily say things to her that she may not like, or that may imply a criticism of the NLD,” Wilson said. “There is a bit of an issue there.”
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TravelDailyNews Asia – Strand Hotels will renovate its hotels in Myanmar
Luc Citrinot – 27 July 2012, 05:03

Hong Kong-based company Strand Hotels International announced to upgrade and expand three properties in Myanmar as the country faces increasing difficulties to accommodate visitors’ demand.

BANGKOK- English-speaking weekly Myanmar Times announced that Strand Hotels International, a Hong Kong-based company, will start the renovation for three of its properties in Myanmar. Some of the renovations will involve two prestigious properties of the former capital Yangon. The Strand Hotel, one of the last colonial-style properties of Yangon, will have new rooms added to its capacity. According to Daw Yu Yu Win, Group financial Controller and administrative Manager of Myanmar Hotels International (Strand Hotels International subsidiary in Myanmar) the project is due to be completed before the coming peak-season. However, no exact figure has been provided on the total number of rooms being added. Same story for the Inya Lake Palace Hotel, an already 50-year old property which was built in teak wood and which stands majestically overlooking Inya Lake in Yangon city. According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the hotel main lobby and wedding hall will be redecorated while more rooms will be added.

Small renovations will also take place at a three/four stars property, the Thamada Hotel. Located near to the rail station, the hotel will also be ready before the end of the year. With these renovations, travellers will be able to find a limited number of new rooms but at higher prices.

Travellers to Myanmar are likely to face this winter a lack of beds in most major tourist destinations. The country has officially 691 properties offering 23,453 bed rooms. They are currently five hotels under construction which will add 1,415 new rooms until next year. Big projects include a new Shangri La hotel in Yangon, with a capacity of 700 rooms, the Rose Garden with 315 rooms and the soon to be completed Centre Point Towers with 270 rooms. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism encourages also the upgrade of existing guesthouses to be able to get a license to receive foreign travellers. Training is also provided to upgrade English skills for guesthouses’ staff.

A new investment law was recently adopted and is likely to speed up hotel construction while hotel zones are due to be established. In between, with skyrocketing prices for international hotels –average is now over US$ 200 per night compared to US$ 60/US$ 80 a year ago-, tour operators to Myanmar try to gear beds’ shortage and rising rates by limiting the visit of Yangon to only half a day. “We welcome tourists to Yangon in the morning, do a city tour and fly in the evening to another destination such as Mandalay or Inlay Lake,” explains Luzi Matzig, Asian Trails CEO.
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The Irrawaddy – Laos to be Venue for Kachin Peace Talks
By WAI MOE / THE IRRAWADDY| July 27, 2012 |

The Burmese government’s peace-negotiating delegation has selected Laos as a venue for the next round of ceasefire talks with ethnic Kachin rebels.

According to sources at the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the government delegation responded to the Kachins’ proposal that future peace talks be held in a third country other than China or Thailand by choosing Laos.

“It seems Laos is a more comfortable venue for them to have a meeting with us,” said a KIO official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The previous government negotiators, led by Aung Thaung, a powerful executive of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and a former Industry-1 minister, met with KIO officials in the Chinese border town of Ruili. If the government team—which will most likely include deputy commander-in-chief of the Burmese armed forces, Soe Win, meet with the Kachins in Laos, it will be the first time that Vientiane has been involved as a third party in Burma’s peace process.

Burmese President Thein Sein visited Laos in March, meeting his counterpart Choummaly Sayasone. The pair tried to boost bilateral relationships between the two nations, agreeing on increasing trade, and including plans to build a friendship bridge between Burma and Laos across the Mekong River, as well as discussing proposals for security cooperation.

After meeting in June in Kachin State’s Maijayang, ex Maj-Gen Aung Min, the key government negotiator and the country’s railways minister, and a KIO delegation led by Maj-Gen Samlut Gun Maw, agreed to aim toward more meaningful talks in the next round, including the presence of Soe Win.

But July went by without a scheduled meeting, with both sides deliberating a venue for the negotiations. The government proposed the town of Bhamo in southern Kachin State or the Sino-Burmese border town of Muse. However, the KIO suggested a third country host the next meeting.

At the Maijayang talks in June, Aung Min promised that government troops will withdraw from frontlines in KIO-controlled areas. However, the Kachins questioned how Aung Min or his delegation could influence the Tatmadaw (Burmese army) headed by Vice Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

Since the June meeting, hostilities between the sides have intensified in Kachin and Shan states.

“Withdrawing troops from posts at the frontlines is the most difficult proposition for the Tatmadaw as its key doctrine is to control land,” said Bo Htet Min, a former military official based in Thailand. He noted that the Burmese army elevated their frontline posts to infantry bases in Karen State in 1988.

Despite the absence of a ceasefire, Naypyidaw officials have recently attempted to persuade refugees and internally displaced persons to go back home by pressuring influential persons in the community, such as Christian missionaries and schoolteachers, and maintaining that the return home of refugees is an important step toward restoring peace and stability in the region.

Six international stakeholders including Norway, the UK and the EU granted millions dollars toward the peace process in Burma, following a visit to Norway in April by Aung Min.

There are many channels of brokers in the Kachin conflicts. According to Gun Maw of the KIO, even before holding an informal meeting with Aung Min, there are as many as 20 channels of communication between each side, cronies, INGO staffers and consultants.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has estimated that 75,000 villagers in the Kachin conflict zone have been displaced since the 17-year ceasefire agreement between the regime and the Kachin rebels broke down on June 9, 2011.
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The Irrawaddy – Ex-NDAK Troops Bemoan BGF Role
By SEAMUUS MARTOV/ THE IRRAWADDY| July 27, 2012 |

A Burmese government helicopter transports supplies to its frontline troops in northern Burma last year. (Photo: Kachin News Group)

Reports from the front-line between Burma’s military and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) suggest that many ethnic Kachin soldiers from the government-backed Border Guard Force (BGF) who were previously with the New Democratic Army–Kachin (NDAK), a now defunct ceasefire group, have been forced into considerably riskier positions than their Burmese army counterparts.

Although fighting between the KIO and government forces in the Pangwa area has lessened in recent weeks, clashes continue to occur on a regular basis. The former NDAK soldiers who are predominately from the Lachik ethnic Kachin subgroup are often put in the firing line ahead of Burmese military forces and have suffered accordingly, said a KIO official familiar with the fighting near Pangwa.

The situation is so precarious that several ex-NDAK troops have deserted and fled to KIO territory, while many more are said to want to escape, but are constantly under the scrutiny of Burmese military superiors. One Kachin activist described to The Irrawaddy how a family friend desperately wants to get out of the BGF, but can’t.

“He says they’re watched all the time and has no chance to escape,” said the activist who said she had a recent but very brief conversation with her friend via the Chinese cellular network which bleeds across much of the China-Kachin border.

A Kachin farmer who owns land near in the Pangwa area near where heavy fighting took place in recent months, told The Irrawaddy that he heard from army sources that as many as 200 men on the government side may have died during the army’s Pangwa campaign in May alone. The Irrawaddy cannot confirm these figures due to the nature of the warfare and the secrecy under which Burma’s armed forces operate.

A senior Kachin commander based in the Mai Ja Yang acknowledged that due to the nature of the hit-and-run tactics employed by the Kachin resistance they can only make very rough estimates as to how many army troops they have killed or injured.

“After we hit them our troops don’t wait to look … so usually we don’t know how many survive and how many die on their way to treatment. But we do know we’ve killed a lot more of them than they have killed of us,” said the veteran of more than 20 years of guerrilla combat.

The NDAK officially disbanded in November 2009 following an agreement reached earlier that year by its founder and chief Zahkung Ting Ying (also spelled in state media as Za Khun Ting Ring) and the central government that the NDAK and its force of approximately 1,000 troops be transformed into a BGF. The former NDAK troops were distributed among three BGF battalions listed as 1001, 1002 and 1003.

In March 2009, Ting Ying, his NDAK colleague Major Manchi Thein Saung, then Vice-Chairman of the KIO Dr. Tu Ja, and Major Phone Ram from a KIO splinter group led by Colonel Lasang Awng Wah tentatively agreed to form the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) with the aim of taking part in the 2010 elections. The party however was never allowed to register despite the fact that fledgling party’s chairman, Tu Ja, had formally stepped down from the KIO in preparation for his new electoral career.

While Tu Ja was barred from even registering as an independent candidate for the November 2010 election Ting Ying’s registration was approved. He was duly elected to the Upper House of Burma’s Parliament as an MP representing a constituency that covers much of his longtime fiefdom in northeastern Kachin state.

Though he officially ran as an independent, no candidate from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party ran against him and Ting Ying handily defeated his only rival from the National Unity Party. News reports from exile media organizations at the time of the election claimed that officials manning the polling booths in the Pangwa area openly called on voters to support Ting Ying as they prepared their ballots.

Ting Ying is reportedly one of the richest people in Kachin State, profiting immensely from the NDAK’s active role in facilitating the destruction of large swaths of forested areas in the east of the province. While Ting Ying made lucrative profits from checkpoints and timber operations in his territory he faced repeated challenges to his authority from his own NDAK colleagues, reportedly over squabbles about the spoils from the NDAK’s business deals and Ting Ying’s reliance on Chinese bodyguards.

In September 2005 while he was on a trip to Myitkyina where he has a large mansion, Ting Ying briefly lost his grip on the NDAK when his subordinate and longtime ally Layawk Zalum launched a mutiny and occupied the group’s headquarters. After about 10 days the mutineers were overpowered; Layawk Zalum was able to evade capture while his other supporters were eventually allowed to flee.

Although Ting Ying was able to quickly reassert his authority another insurrection against his command occurred shortly afterward in May 2006, but this also failed. In addition to the repeated attempts from within the NDAK to topple him, Ting Ying also survived a December 2004 bomb attack on his car, that injured his driver and his son.

Ting Ying and the NDAK’s business exploits, which included a casino in Pangwa, were extensively covered in a series of reports on the Kachin-China timber trade produced by the British NGO Global Witness. According to the report, the coup attempts against Ting Ying may have been fueled by a conflict he was having with his business partners and NDAK colleagues over the profits from the Htang Shanghkawng molybdenum mine, a mineral commonly used for making steel alloys that is in high demand in China.

Although regarded by many of his fellow Kachin as a notorious opportunist, Ting Ying has over the course of the decades of upheaval in Kachin State proven himself to be a skilled political survivor. In 1968 while serving as the head of a unit in the KIO’s armed wing, Ting Ying and troops under his command in the Kambaiti region defected to the Burma Communist Party (BCP), which was fighting with the KIO at the time. With communist support Tin Ying formed a BCP-affiliated unit known as War Zone 101.

In December 1989, shortly after the BCP—then Burma’s strongest rebel group—collapsed on itself following a rebellion by its predominately ethnic rank-and-file against its mostly Burman leadership, Ting Ying reached a ceasefire agreement with Burma’s military regime then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLOCR). The deal with SLORC that created the NDAK was similar to other agreements reached at the time by both Wa and Kokang ex communist factions.

Free from the constrains of Karl Marx and the BCP, Ting Ying used his troops and new-found friendship with SLORC’s generals to carve out lucrative timber deals with Chinese interests in his area of control between Kambaiti and Hpimaw passes, termed in official Burmese state press as Kachin Sate Special Region 1. Pangwa, which is located on the international boundary across from the Chinese town of Dian Tan, quickly became one of the main hubs in a massive timber extraction boom and for many years was the headquarters of the NDAK.

The NDAK’s zone of control proved particularly lucrative in 2007 following the completion of a Chinese-funded roadway built to connect the Kachin state capital Myitkyina with the Chinese city of Tengchong via the NDAK-controlled border town of Kambaiti. It was on this road that much of the machinery and other equipment sent to the site of the now stalled Myitsone dam was shipped.

Throughout the KIO’s 17-year ceasefire with the Burmese army, its relationship with the NDAK was usually civil but remained seriously strained at times culminating in the exchange of fire along a stretch of territory long contested by both groups. During the five-year period that preceded the NDAK’s official disbandment in 2009, a number of defectors from both the KIO and the NDAK ran to the other organization following internal power struggles.

The NDAK, like the KIO, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and other ethnic ceasefire groups in Shan State all had relatively cordial relations with long time Military Intelligence chief Khin Nyunt until his ouster. Immediately following Khin Nyunt’s official resignation in 2004 for “health reasons” the NDAK and the other groups were warned by his successors to cut all ties with with Khin Nyunt and his people, a request that may have been relatively easy to follow since most of the once powerful military intelligence apparatus was in jail or under house arrest.

Ting Ying and his colleagues attended the entire national convention process, a widely discredited series of national meetings held over the years by the Than Shwe regime to draft a pro-military national constitution, a document put into effect following the infamously rigged May 2008 national referendum, held in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

Although the KIO and UWSA also attended the national convention and, like the NDAK, regularly sent senior representatives to other regime-sponsored events designed to show national unity, neither of Burma’s two largest rebel groups obliged Than Shwe’s regime to quite same extent the NDAK did by taking part in various regime orchestrated anti Aung San Suu Kyi activities.

In late 2007, the NDAK and several other relatively small ceasefire groups including the KIO breakaway faction the Lahsan Aung Wah Peace Group issued a similar statement criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi for interfering in ethnic affairs.

An NDAK statement published in November 2007 in the New Light of Myanmar denounced Burma’s famed opposition leader for releasing her own statement relayed earlier in the week through UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari because it mentioned ethnic issues.

The NDAK statement said, “We do not believe it is proper for her to release such a statement at a time when talks on the future of the State are being held. Particularly, she should avoid releasing the statements that hamper the stability of the State.

“Our NDAK Group does not accept the point that she was responsible for the affairs of the national races as said in her statement because we have no contact with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at all,” the statement continued.

The NDAK also took part in similar coordinated pro-regime statement campaigns in October 2006 and January 2007 in which Ting Ying was quoted in state-controlled media denouncing attempts by the US and British governments to raise the issue of Burma at the UN Security Council with a draft resolution.

The NDAK’s October 2006 statement read the “NDAK hereby declares that the US administration’s interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs using the UN as a tool is unacceptable and it condemns and protests such acts of the US.” This position was repeated in near verbatim form in January 2007.

Since Ting Ying became an “independent” MP he has continued to toe Naypyidaw’s line. Last year he was one of 23 MPs who signed an August 8 2011 open letter to “Peace Proponents” published in the New Light of Myanmar which charged the KIO’s armed wing with being responsible for the Aug. 2 killing of “innocent service personnel” while they were returning from the Tarpain hydro-power plant in Momauk Township. According to the letter the incident was a “menace to peace process [sic].”

At a public meeting in Pangwa, in early May at a time when the town looked like it could fall to the KIO, the head of the Burmese army’s Northern Regional Military Command, Brig-Gen Zeyar Aung, told the assembled audience not to be concerned with the KIO because the army would soon wipe them out. Ting Ying who was also in attendance is reported to have vocally endorsed this prediction.
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Mizzima News – Burma to privatize declining oil refineries
Friday, 27 July 2012 12:18 Mizzima News

Burma’s aging three oil refineries, which produce only a meager number of barrels per daily, will be privatized, say government authorities.

The government will privatize all state-owned oil refineries in a bid to have them modernized and turned into effective operations, Biweekly Eleven News reported on Thursday.

The oil refinery in Thanlyin Township in Rangoon Region will be the first to be privatized, perhaps by late this year, said the report.

Burma’s three existing oil refineries are Thanlyin oil refinery, Mann Thanpayarkan oil refinery and Chauk oil refinery, which combined produce only around 7,500 barrels of oil a day. Of them, the Thanlyin oil refinery can produce 11,000 barrels of light oil per day.

In fiscal year 2012-13, the government has targeted to extract 7. 156 million barrels of crude oil. About 3.435 million is from inland blocks and 3.721 million from offshore blocks. Most of the oil is shipped abroad.

The government says more crude oil is projected to be extracted from the offshore block of Tanintharyi and more oil blocks will be developed in Magway, Bago and Ayeyawady regions this fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy is cooperating with the Asean Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) to share technologies and equipment for oil and gas exploration, production, refining and commercial sectors, the article said.

Burma is now preparing to accept tender offers on a number of new onshore and offshore blocks for exploration, and many foreign oil and gas firms are expected to offer bids. The country is recognized as having one of the region’s most extensive oil and gas reserves.

According to the Total oil company website, Burma is one of the world’s oldest oil producers, exporting its first barrel in 1853. Rangoon Oil Company, the first foreign oil company to drill in the country, was created in 1871. Between 1886 and 1963, the country’s oil industry was dominated by Burmah Oil Company which discovered the Yenangyaung field in 1887 and the Chauk field in 1902. Both are still in production.

The oil and gas industry was nationalized after a socialist-leaning military regime seized power in 1962. As in many other countries, the State assumed ownership of the resources, either operating them itself or delegating this task to private operators, who were paid for their outlay and work in oil or gas under production sharing contracts.

The linchpin of oil and gas industry in Burma is the Ministry of Energy, which has oversight for three state-owned enterprises:

Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), created in 1963, is responsible for oil and gas exploration and production, as well as domestic gas transmission through a 1,200-mile onshore pipeline network.

Myanma Petrochemical Enterprise (MPE) operates three small refineries, three fertilizer plants and a number of other processing plants.

Myanma Petroleum Products Enterprise (MPPE) is responsible for retail and wholesale distribution of petroleum products.
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Mizzima News – UN human rights leader calls for ‘independent’ Rakhine State investigation
Friday, 27 July 2012 17:00 Mizzima News

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday called for a “prompt, independent” investigation into ongoing human rights violations in Burma’s Arakan (Rakhine) State after ongoing violence between the Buddhist and Muslim communities.

“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” said Commissioner Navi Pillay said.

“Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community.”

Meanwhile, Tomas Quintana, the UN expert on human rights in Burma, will visit the country for four days starting on Tuesday, at the invitation of the government.

Quintana will visit Arakan State for one day said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a statement on Friday. Quintana will report his findings to the UN Human Rights Council, OHCHR said.

The violence in Arakan State in western Burma has claimed up to 78 lives and thousands of homes and businesses were burned during June.

High Commissioner Pillay said, “The government has a responsibility to prevent and punish violent acts, irrespective of which ethnic or religious group is responsible, without discrimination and in accordance with the rule of law.”

Pillay expressed dismay at the derogatory language used against the Rohingya by state-run media, some independent media, and social networking websites.

She noted earlier commitments by the government that said it would conduct an investigation and a recent fact-finding mission by the Myanmar Human Rights Commission.

“I also welcome the government’s decision to allow the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar access to Rakhine State during his planned mission to Myanmar next week. It is important that those affected from all communities in Rakhine are able to speak freely to the Special Rapporteur,” the High Commissioner said.

“But while he will be able to make an initial assessment during his one-day visit, this is no substitute for a fully-fledged independent investigation,” she said.

She also called on Burmese national leaders to speak out against discrimination, the exclusion of minorities and racist attitudes, and in support of equal rights for all, and stressed that the United Nations was making an effort to protect and assist all communities in Rakhine State.

“Prejudice and violence against members of ethnic and religious minorities run the risk of dividing the country in its commendable national reconciliation efforts, undermine national solidarity, and upset prospects of peace-building,” she said.

This week, the European Commission, the US, Asean, Islamic organizations and Quintana, the UN special human rights reporter, have called for access to western Burma by humanitarian groups and for a credible investigation.

Earlier this week, 58 civil society groups condemned what it said is a “wave of abuse launched by state authorities in Myanmar against the Rohingya community,” in a statement released on Tuesday.

It also charged Bangladesh with flouting international law in its attempts to prevent fleeing Rohingya from entering the country.

The coalition group – led by Refugees International, the Arakan Project, and the Equal Rights Trust – issued a series of recommendations that were delivered to the governments of Burma and Bangladesh on Tuesday.

“In Myanmar, what began as inter-communal violence has evolved into large scale state-sponsored violence against the Rohingya,” said the statement.

“Many Rohingya continue to be victims of violence and cannot leave their homes for fear of persecution, and are thus deprived of their livelihood and most basic needs,” said the advocacy groups. “The urgent humanitarian needs of those displaced (IDPs) – including those not in IDP camps – are not being adequately met and there is concern that those displaced will not be allowed to return to their homes as soon as it is safe to do so, thus creating a situation of protracted displacement.”
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Mizzima News – Suu Kyi speaks to international HIV/AIDS conference
Friday, 27 July 2012 14:13 Mizzima News

Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking via video to the International HIV/AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. on Thursday, said the stigma against HIV/AIDS patients found in many countries must end.

People need to understand HIV and know that this “is not something that we need to be afraid of, that people who have contracted HIV need not be discriminated against, that they’re not a danger to society at large.”

“Once this message has gotten through, we will be able to base activities on the natural compassion of human beings and of course as the great majority of people in Burma are Buddhist, there’s a special emphasis on the value of compassion,” she said.

Based on this, she said she hoped that Burma will be able “to become one of those innovative societies where we approach a problem as human beings –  as intelligent, caring human beings.

“In this way, we will be able to handle not just the issue of AIDS and new ideas, but issues related to those who are subjected to particular suffering and particular discrimination,” she said.

This year’s conference featured speakers such as Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Laura Bush and others.

Also on Thursday, former US first lady Laura Bush stressed that women continue to play a crucial role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

“When you look around the world, you see that women are in the forefront of life changing progress,” she said in her speech. “Women have been central in the fight against AIDS.”

The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said that he is confident that an end to the HIV epidemic is near.

“Ending the epidemic really means reducing the numbers of new infections which are occurring as well as protecting the lives of those who are infected,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

“The cure discussion is very exciting. I think we’re moving along and understanding what the elements of a cure are likely to be, but it will take some time to reach there. Ending the epidemic I think is within our grasp, and we must continue to push for a cure as well,” he said.

The last time the International AIDS Conference was held in the United States was in San Francisco in 1990. In 1987, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation banning the entrance of all HIV-infected persons into the country over the age of 14 years. The U.S. issued a waiver allowing HIV-positive delegates to attend the 1990 conference in San Francisco but refused to raise the ban outright.

As a result, every IAS meeting since has been held outside of the United States, until now. In 2010, President Barrack Obama overturned the 22-year-old travel and immigration ban, opening the doors for this week’s gathering.

A lot has changed since the 1980s, when the United States was a country with one of the greatest numbers of people infected with HIV.

In 2010, HIV claimed the lives of 1.8 million people in the world, yet that still leaves an estimated 34 million more to continue living with the disease; 17 million of those infected are women.
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DVB News – Three migrants gunned down in southern Thailand
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 27 July 2012

Three Burmese migrant workers in southern Thailand’s Phang-nga and Songkhla provinces were shot and killed by unknown gunmen in two separate incidents on 25 July.

Htoo Naing, a 27-year-old Burmese migrant worker at a rubber plantation Phang-nga’s town of Thai Mueang, was found dead at 10pm in the evening with six gunshot wounds, according to Foundation for Education and Development’s executive director Htoo Chit.

Htoo Naing came from Tenasserim division’s Mergui Archipelago in southern Burma.

In a similar incident, Sabei Phyu and Aung Aung, two Burmese migrants working at a shrimp factory owned by Charoen Pokphand Foods Company Limited in Songkhla province across the border from Malaysia, were also shot and killed earlier in the day by two masked gunmen.

The victims’ colleague told DVB that the two were having a chat in front of their living quarters after getting back from working a night shift.

“They were talking at the gates [of the living quarters] when they were shot by the assailants who came on a motorbike. It happened around 4am in the morning,” said the migrant who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

He said another employee, Khin Maung Htun, came out of the quarters when he heard the gunfire and was also shot. He was hospitalised after being wounded in the leg and back.

“He had a operation at the hospital and apparently is in good condition,” said his colleague.

A funeral for Sabei Phyu was held later in the day in accordance with Islamic rites, while Aung Aung’s body was kept at a monastery near the hospital, said his wife Aye Moe.

“We are devastated,” said Aye Moe. “This happened to those who didn’t do anything wrong.”

Htoo Chit said his organisation will work closely with the Burmese embassy in Thailand as well as Thai police as investigations proceed.
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DVB News – Teachers to be utilised in census; conflict areas may not be counted
By AFP
Published: 27 July 2012

Tens of thousands of teachers will carry out Burma’s first nationwide census since 1983, a minister said yesterday, but some areas may remain out of reach because of conflict with separatist groups.

The count, which will take place in 2014 ahead of general elections the following year, will survey 11m households in more than 300 townships across the country, immigration minister Khin Yi said.

“We will use about 100,000 primary school teachers to make the list of people and 20,000 middle school teachers to check the list,” he said at a lower house meeting at parliament in Naypyidaw, adding that they will conduct door-to-door surveys.

But Khin Yi admitted it will be tough to access around 2 percent of the country’s estimated 60 million people because of ongoing fighting in several areas.

The new government, which took power last year ending five decades of military rule, has signed peace deals with rebel groups in an effort to end civil conflicts that have gripped parts of Burma since independence in 1948.

But fighting continues in a number of areas including the northern Kachin state.

“We may have some difficulties… but we will try to overcome them,” Khin Yi said.

There was no mention of whether the stateless Muslim Rohingya who live in western Arakan state, which has been rocked by recent deadly communal violence, will fall under the census.

Burma’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya was described by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

The United Nations in April pledged to help Burma carry out the census, by offering technical support and mobilising financial support.

Updated population figures could help the government provide better services and lead to Burma’s myriad ethnic groups gaining greater recognition in the state.
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