YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s parliament is due to debate a keenly awaited foreign investment law next week and the president could sign it into law this month, sources close to the legislative process said on Friday.

One lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said the bill had been put on the agenda for the lower house to debate on Monday. Officials said it could proceed quickly to the upper house next week and then go to the president a few days after that.

A quasi-civilian government took office in March 2011 and has pushed through a series of political and economic reforms. In response, Western countries have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military regime and foreign companies are now lining up to assess business prospects in the country.

Many are waiting for clarification of investment regulations before firming up their plans.

The latest version of the foreign investment bill, seen by Reuters on Friday, contains some changes to the draft that circulated earlier in the year.

It was not clear if this was the final version to be put to parliament, and further change is also possible during the parliamentary discussion.

One article bars foreign investors from investing in “small and medium industries and enterprises; agricultural and livestock business being carried on by local business people; retail business; and small and medium service enterprises”.

Some domestic firms had complained that they were not yet strong enough to compete with big foreign investors.

One proposed article would allow 100 percent foreign investment only for enterprises that involve high-tech industries beyond the reach of domestic investors. Currently all firms can be 100 percent foreign-owned.

Otherwise the bill allows foreign investors to set up joint ventures with the government or citizens. “The foreign capital shall be at least 35 percent of the total capital if a joint-venture is formed,” it said.

Foreign investors can lease land for 50 years initially, and can extend that for two 10-year terms, depending on the nature of the business and the size of the investment.

A previous draft allowed for an initial lease of just 30 years and allowed two 15-year extensions. The practice until now has been 30-year leases renewable twice, by five years each time.

The new bill would also let the authorities grant longer leases exceptionally to foreign investors wanting to operate in underdeveloped, remote areas.

Foreign companies will benefit from a five-year tax holiday from when their operations start on a commercial scale, and that period can be extended if there is some benefit to the country.

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, Aug. 10 (UPI) — Religious conflict in Rakhine state shouldn’t serve to tarnish the emerging image of Myanmar, the country’s president told visiting Turkish diplomats.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu led a delegation of high-ranking officials to Myanmar. Ankara, he said, aims to expand its relationship with the country and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

His visit follows clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar that left at least 78 people dead in Rakhine.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, said at the conclusion of a 6-day visit to the country that the situation in the state was serious. He said he witnessed “widespread suffering” among members of the Muslim and Buddhists communities.

Myanmar President Thein Sein said issues in the region shouldn’t “tarnish the positive image of Myanmar,” reports state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

Myanmar’s government said Davutoglu agreed to contribute $50 million in humanitarian assistance to the state. The president added the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was invited to visit Rakhine to witness the situation firsthand.

“The government has maintained the situation in time and kept it under control,” the newspaper stated.

YANGON, Myanmar, Aug. 10 (UPI) — Hackers broke into the Web site of Myanmar’s Information Ministry and posted a threatening message telling the government to “stop the killing of Muslims.”

The message, posted in English, was a possible reference ongoing violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the state of Rakhine, also called Arakan state.

The hacker’s message said “those Muslims have a message of peace to the world but you are killing them. If you continue with the killing of Muslims, we will target all the worshipers of Buddha everywhere in the world … and your country will be a hell.”

The message included a photograph of charred bodies at an unidentified location, a report by the Myanmar news Web site Mizzima said.

The Myanmar government Web site also was down for several hours after the attack, Mizzima reported.

However, the state-run news Web site New Light of Myanmar didn’t mention the alleged attack.

Mizzima’s report of the hacking comes as the government and security authorities are struggling with increased tensions in Rakhine.

The violence started early June when 10 Muslims were killed by a mob who pulled them from a bus late one afternoon. By the end of July nearly 80 people had been killed in ethnic clashes.

Rakhine occupies most of Myanmar’s west coast on the Bay of Bengal and is mostly Muslim has a relatively large Muslim population. Within Myanmar, Buddhists make up 89 percent of the population while Muslims and Christians make up around 4 percent each, U.N. estimates state.

Many of the Rohingya have connections to neighboring Bangladesh and the violence has created a tide of refugees across the border as well as within Myanmar.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that around 80,000 people have been displaced in and around the Rakhine towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw where much of the violence took place.

“Most of them are living in camps for internally displaced people, with smaller numbers staying with host families in surrounding villages,” the statement said.

Last month the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for a “prompt, independent” investigation into alleged human rights violations in Rakhine.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights who returned this week from visiting Myanmar, said the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma, needs to tackle these challenges for the success of democratic transition and national reconciliation.

The human rights situation in Rakhine state is serious,” Quintana said in a statement at the end of his visit.

He called for an independent investigation into allegations of serious human rights violations, including alleged excessive use of force by security and police personnel.

“It is of fundamental importance to clearly establish what has happened in Rakhine state and to ensure accountability. Reconciliation will not be possible without this and exaggerations and distortions will fill the vacuum to further fuel distrust and tensions between communities,” he said.

The state nationality of the Rohingya lies at the root of the tensions. At issue is how many of the Rohingya are legal immigrants, illegal immigrants and Myanmar-born Muslims.

To prevent other ethnic flash points, the Myanmar government must set up a functioning immigration system, Benedict Rogers, Asia Team Leader at the international human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said.

The tensions are heightened by claims and counterclaims on all sides where the majority of alleged crimes aren’t verifiable, said Rogers, writing on the Web site of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a non-profit Myanmar media organization based in Oslo, Norway.

“There is no doubt that both communities have suffered and perpetrators of violence on both sides must be brought to justice,” he said.

“Without an independent, international inquiry and international monitors on the ground, it will be impossible to establish the truth and, as Mr. Quintana has said, hold the perpetrators accountable.”

YANGON, Aug 10 (Bernama) — Myanmar’s new government has formed a 20-member core press council aimed at protecting media persons, compiling journalism ethics and settling press disputes, the government announced Friday.

The core press council was set up with retired Supreme Court judge U Khin Maung Aye as chairman, retired principal of the United Nations System Staff College Dr. Aung Tun Thet and retired Myanmar Language Professor Dr. Khin Aye as vice chairmen, and U Ko Ko-Setmu Tekkutho as secretary.

The council is tasked to safeguard freedom of press under law, to supervise expression from the press field, to settle disputes from within and outside the press field, and to act as a bridge among the people, government and the press, Xinhua news agency reported.

The announcement said the council will, among others, establish ties with international organisations, handle disputes of newsmen in collecting and writing news, advise the government on press affairs and coordinate with the government over matters related to the press council.

The council is to discharge duties until handover to the Myanmar Press Council to be formed in line with the Press Media Law after it has been approved by the parliament.

The draft press media law is currently being compiled by the Ministry of Information.

The council will also compile the Press Council Bill and submit to the President’s Office after studying the international norms and advices of local and foreign experts, the announcement added.

The formation of the core press council came more than a week after the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department temporarily suspended the publication of two private news journals, Voice and Envoy, for two weeks for allegedly breaking a directive of the Central Supervisory Committee.

The two journals are expected to resume publication by next week.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday announced it has received a green light from Myanmar to assist Rohingya displaced by sectarian violence.

It said Myanmar gave its agreement to the OIC following talks in Rangoon on Friday between a delegation from the pan-Islamic body and President Thein Sein on the “deplorable humanitarian situation in Rakhine state.”

The delegation assured Thein Sein that Islamic humanitarian organisations were willing to provide aid to all residents of the strife-torn state.

Violence between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya has left scores dead, with official figures showing that 80 people died from both sides in initial fighting in June.

The entire state has been under emergency rule since early June with a heavy army and police presence.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused Myanmar forces of opening fire on Rohingya, as well as committing rape and standing by as rival mobs attacked each other.

Decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya stateless, and they are viewed by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.

The bloodshed has cast a shadow over widely praised reforms by the president, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.

Myanmar’s government has rejected accusations of abuse by security forces in Rakhine, after the United Nations raised fears of a crackdown on Muslims.

In a rare conciliatory move over the issue, Thein Sein welcomed the OIC delegation’s visit.

“The president said he hoped the OIC secretary could witness the reality (in Rakhine),” state mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar reported Friday, adding tens of thousands of displaced people from both sides were being given food and shelter.

OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had proposed sending a mission to probe “massacres… oppression and ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya in Rakhine.

AS POST-SANCTION Burma opens for business, Australian companies are eyeing investment opportunities in the country’s unexploited mineral reserves.

The sector is receiving a gold rush of interest from Australian miners wanting to unlock the country’s rich mineral wealth.

While the impoverished south-east Asian nation of Burma, also known as Myanmar, has a long history of gemstone mining, its rich reserves of precious and base metals have remained virtually untouched, due to the lack of capital, data, technology and essential infrastructure required to transform these virgin mineral resources into functional operations.

Enter Australia’s junior exploration companies.

”Australian entrepreneurial junior companies are often the first movers going into remote areas,” said Stephen Everett, chairman of Global Resources Corporation, one of many Australian miners that recently attended the Myanmar Mining Summit, held in the economic capital of Rangoon.

Decades of economic mismanagement and restrictive international sanctions during its years of military rule have crippled Burma’s economy.

But since its transition to a quasi-civilian government and the easing of various sanctions, the country has been seeing a flood of interest from Western investors. Nicholas Powrie, general manager (legal regulatory) of Mineral Commodities, a project of mining entrepreneur Mark Caruso, former chairman of Allied Gold, which recently merged with St Barbara to create the largest mid-tier gold producer in Australia, said his company was ready to take the plunge.

”We’ve looked at the geology of the region and we’re very excited about it,” he said. ”We think it’s the right time to come here, and the sooner the better.”

Mining veteran Owen Hegarty, of former Rio Tinto and Oxiana stock, said his company, Tigers Realm Group, was already looking at potential copper and gold deposits.

”Tigers is taking a preliminary look at opportunities in Myanmar,” he said. ”We know the region well, we’ve had a look at some properties and prospects previously and we think the prospectivity for copper and gold is attractive.”

The current lack of large multinational mining companies also makes it an ideal playground for small mining companies to flourish.

Gold is just what many juniors are looking for in Burma. One Canadian company is hoping to lead the way once it is granted an exploration permit.

”There have been no big gold discoveries in this country, ever,” said Jon North, chief executive and president of Canadian mining exploration company Northquest.

He pointed out that the country lacked any form of geophysical data, and the last geological surveys were completed about 50 years ago.

But while Burma at first glance may seem like the land of golden opportunities, new investors will have to negotiate a restrictive regulatory framework, an untested judicial system and layers of bureaucratic red tape.

”Many investors are surprised by how difficult it is to do business in Myanmar, and limited infrastructure and restrictive legal and economic conditions are the main hindrances to international investment,” said Jared Bissinger, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University studying Burma’s economy.

He said that despite rapid reforms, Transparency International ranked the country as one of the world’s most corrupt.

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The biggest barrier to investment in the mining industry was an inhibitive production sharing contract, with a 30-70 per cent profit-sharing ratio between the mining company and the Burma government, investors said. The government did not act as an equity partner, but took a hefty percentage of the total resource extracted, on top of royalties and tax.

”That means you risk all the money, you risk all the development, then you give the government a share of the production free of charge, on top of royalty,” Mr Everett said. ”People will not invest on that basis – not large-scale, anyway.”

Burma also has an export ban on raw ores, and certain commodities such as gold and coal, and the country’s lucrative gemstone sector, famous for its ruby, sapphire and jade production, is closed to foreign investment.

These barriers, combined with a lack of legal and physical infrastructure, means many interested companies will be adopting a wait-and-see approach.

Burmese President Thein Sein says the recent deadly communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma’s western Rakhine state “has nothing to do with race or religion.”

The president made his comments Thursday while hosting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is in the country to offer aid for the tens of thousands who have been displaced in the conflict. President Thein Sein says the unrest was ignited by the brutal murder of a girl and the desire for revenge against those who committed the crime.

Sectarian violence between ethnic Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists has killed dozens since late May, according to official figures. But some rights groups and media reports suggest the figure may be higher.

President Thein Sein dismissed such speculation in comments carried Friday by the state-controlled New Light of Myanmar, saying he was “disheartened by the hairsplitting of the media.” He insisted that only 77 people – 31 Rakhine and 46 Rohingya – have died.

Before leaving for Burma, Foreign Minister Davutoglu said he had received “conflicting information” regarding casualty figures in Rakhine state, telling reporters he has spoken with religious leaders who say thousands have died.

The violence broke out in late May after three Muslim men were accused of raping and murdering a young Buddhist woman and 10 Muslims were killed in an apparent revenge attack.

The issue has prompted a wave of criticism by Muslim-majority nations, some of whom view the conflict as a case of religious persecution against the Rohingya. The Saudi-based Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has also urged a probe into the violence.

Rights groups have also called for Burma to do more to protect the Rohingya, most of whom are denied citizenship. Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that Burmese security forces have committed killings, rape, and mass arrests against the group in the aftermath of the sectarian violence.

Burma has denied the accusations, saying its security forces acted with restraint after moving quickly to put an end to the riots. It says it is working to provide relief to the 60,000 people left homeless from the conflict.

President Thein Sein on Thursday welcomed the $50 million aid donation by Turkey. He also said he would welcome a visit by the OIC leaders so they can “witness the reality” in Rakhine.

The state has seen a heavy police presence since June, when a state of emergency rule was declared to end the violence. Some rights say the conflict threatens to put a damper on the recent political and economic reforms carried out by Burma’s nominally civilian government.

Yangon – The United Nations on Friday issued an appeal for 32.5 million dollars in humanitarian aid for people displaced by recent fighting between the government and ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar and sectarian strife in western Myanmar.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also appealed to the Myanmar government to allow aid agencies better access to the conflict areas.

“We hope that donors will respond quickly and that the government will quickly outline its medium-term plans to ensure that a situation of aid dependency is not created through isolation and separation of communities from each other and their livelihoods,” the agency’s director of operations, John Ging, said after concluding a four-day trip to Myanmar.

We meet on the roadside, my uncle and I – only he is not my uncle and this is no ordinary road.

Three hundred and twenty miles and seven hours ago it started off promisingly enough in Rangoon as a four-lane, sometimes even six-lane, express highway to Naypyidaw, the new capital of Burma, but from there on it has descended into a pot-holed, bumpy, one-lane B-road, occasionally even a dirt track, of the kind that requires the full attention of our taciturn driver, Zaw Win, to keep our mini bus from bursting a tyre or rolling into a ditch at any given moment.

My two children – Armand, 12, and Emmanuelle, 11 – are mildly jet-lagged, but there’s no chance of a nap for any of us: the array of kaleidoscopic colours flashing past; the decorative circles of pale yellow thanaka paste on children’s faces; the fluoro-pink of plastic chairs outside roadside teahouses; the blood red of betel juice spattered randomly; all this keeps us permanently in a state of mild excitement.

And now here, in Satthwa, this same road delivers us safely into the warm embrace of my ‘aunt’, Daw Kyi Kyi Win, and the gentle smile of my uncle, Hoke Hnit, who is not my uncle at all but my mother’s mother’s brother’s grandson, or possibly great-grandson, I’m not sure. Which is why I call him ‘uncle’.

‘It was while my father was on tour that he stopped at a cheroot factory and caught sight of my mother.’

Some 10 miles away from the village of Satthwa lies the small town of Taungdwingyi. Neither place is on the classic tourist trail of Rangoon-Bagan-Mandalay, but then not every tourist has as their guidebook A World Overturned, my mother’s autobiography about her childhood in Burma from 1933-1947. In 1931, or thereabouts, neither place was probably on the classic trail for the Burma Frontier Service either, but my grandfather Edward Wrixon Rossiter, an Irishman from a well-to-do family who was an assistant super-intendent, needed to stock up on cheroots, and so he made a pitstop in Taungdwyingi.

Able to speak several different Burmese dialects, Edward inquired after the beautiful young girl rolling them. Khyin Nyun was only 15 at the time and, frightened by his attention, she ran away but was coaxed by the elders to return and speak to this towering white-haired giant (he was prematurely grey) with the white horse and hairy arms (details I later gleaned from my great-aunt Daw Sein Shan).

They married – unusual even in these post-Burmese Days times – and had two daughters, who were named only when an Irish aunt, Aunt Anne, appalled to hear they had been given only pet-names that loosely translated as ‘Big Baby’ and ‘Little Baby’, sent over a couple of silver hairbrushes engraved with the names ‘Patricia’ and ‘Maureen’.

Maureen was my mother, and unlike Patricia, who was adopted at an early age by her grandmother in Dublin, she stayed with her parents until their marriage slowly disintegrated when she was about seven years old. (Edward tried to have her adopted, too, by an aunt in Canada who turned her down.) She was instead dispatched to a convent boarding school in the cooler climes of Kalaw, in the Shan states, along with other British and Anglo-Asian children and never saw her parents together again. When she did see her mother in the holidays it was back in the village of Satthwa, where Khyin Nyun had returned to live with her own parents.

And that’s why we are here today. This is my first visit to Burma since I came 18 years ago to try to find my mother’s relations. That trip was a great success, with my mother visiting within the year, and my sister Fiona following on three successive visits over the next few years. (Fiona even invited my uncle Hoke Hnit, his brother, U Min Hnit, now dead, and their wives back to England for a holiday in 1995. They attended a barn dance and Hoke Hnit ended up on the front page of the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, photographed wearing his Burmese longyi and standing next to my sister’s donkey, Moonshine.)

My mother died from cancer seven years ago; her sister had died a few years earlier. A World Overturned is especially dear to me as a result – and I keep telling my not remotely Burmese-looking children on this their first visit, ‘You’re one-eighth Burmese!’ (The rest of them is half-French; one eighth Irish, and a quarter Scottish from my father’s side.)

Satthwa is the first book-related stop on a tour that has me reading out loud each night from A World Overturned, as we visit each of the places where my mother spent time. We have something of an inauspicious start, though, as we have to hurry to make it to my uncle’s house in the village of Min Hla before darkness makes the pot-holed road too treacherous.

‘There’s not much to see here; we don’t need to stay long,’ says our guide and interpreter, Ye Htun, who calls himself the Wikipedia of Burma and is invaluable, as my uncle and aunt don’t speak much English.

My cousin Phyoe Wai Yar Zar (that’s the non-technical use of the word ‘cousin’ ) and his wife, Hnin Moe Aung, who live in Rangoon, have arranged everything for us – handily for me, they own a travel agency, All Asia Exclusive; they speak fluent English, have English-speaking children who get on well with my own children, and having visited London several times, Phyoe knows us well enough to second-guess what we will want to see and do.

On foot now, Hoke Hnit steers us to the site my grandmother’s house would have been on. It is rush hour; the bullock carts are rumbling down the lanes back from the fields; rubbish is piled high in the ditches; pigs wander in and out of yards; bare-bottomed toddlers run around, looked after by their elder siblings.

My mother wrote of her happiness in this village, of riding in a horse and cart to Taungdwyingi with her grandparents, of playing with the village children, all the while being aware she was different – unlike them, she was spared from chores because her father was a foreign official. Her mother never wanted to let her return to the convent school; aching for the child she’d already had to surrender to Dublin, she didn’t understand why she had to relinquish this one, too.

She once journeyed the 240 or so miles to the convent and waited at the gates until she could see her. It must have taken her days by train, cart, foot. My grandfather, meanwhile, visited once or twice a year, bringing expensive gifts.

‘It was here,’ the guide says, pointing to a well-maintained yard with the typical houses on stilts that are found in most Burmese villages. It is now a compound for the military police to live in. No pictures allowed. ‘Shall we go now?’

Not yet. I want to show my children something of the life here that my grandmother would have led. In the early days of her marriage she was spoilt by Edward and lavished with jewels. He even paid for her cousin to live with them, ostensibly to work as a housekeeper, but really to keep her from being lonely. After he left her, for a woman from the Shan states by whom he had two more children (John, who now lives in Western Australia, and Daw Nu Nu Khin, whom I meet later on this trip, in Rangoon), her return to the village in such reduced circumstances was humbling.

‘She had begun working for the cheroot factory again. Boxes of them would arrive at our house… People were giving us odd looks, they seemed less friendly, almost mocking, she whose social position had undoubtedly been the greatest in the village.’

‘Is there still a cheroot factory?’ I ask.

We walk hurriedly through another wide open space, a small group of curious children gathering to follow us. Another compound opens up, and we are ushered in to the home of a woman who must be about my age, and is slender like everyone is here.

We kick off our shoes and walk barefoot up to the first level of her house, open and airy, with bamboo walls, a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi tacked on to them.

The woman smiles, and in the amber rays of dusk, looks almost beatific as her hands move deftly between the baskets of chopped-up tobacco, and the leaves with which she binds them. I ask cheroot-based questions – has the process changed much since my grandmother’s day? The guide explains to her that my grandmother was Daw Khyin Nyuin from Satthwa, who once rolled cheroots in this village.

What happens next is electrifying. The woman jumps up excitedly and runs across to another house, returning with a laminated collection of 10 or so photographs – a one-page family album. It seems everyone except us knows what is going on, and they’re too animated to stop and explain.

‘You’re related!’ the guide says finally. ‘She is your grandmother’s brother’s granddaughter.’

Then I see why she went to get the pictures. There, second row down on the left, is a photograph of Fiona and her husband, James. ‘Your sister Fiona met her a few years ago – this picture shows her making a donation to the school,’ I am told.

I run back to the car and rummage around in a suitcase, pulling out one of several photograph albums I have made as a gift for my Burmese relations. Than Than Moe – as I now learn she is called – has three children roughly the same age as my two. I can tell she can’t possibly earn much doing this, and I wonder how she survives.

We stand now in the yard outside, her brothers gather round, a group photograph is arranged; a pig wanders into the picture, making everyone laugh. ‘My brother is single,’ Than Than Moe says laughing. ‘Find him a wife in England!’

There is a new Western-style loo in my uncle’s house, and I suspect it has been installed in honour of our visit.

Min Hla is a hamlet, close to the oil refinery where my uncle works as a manager. Kyi Kyi Win, his wife, is a nurse. She has won awards for her nursing, my uncle proudly tells me.

There are teak floors, high ceilings and neon strip lights; large family portraits flank the walls, and there’s an enormous television on which you can get Sky Movies, goodness knows how, but no internet. (Thinking about it, maybe the Sky Movies claim was a joke – I didn’t actually see any, and the Burmese like a joke.)

Kyi Kyi Win runs a small pharmacy from a comfortable-looking shed next door to the house. Besides the loo, my uncle and aunt have gone to a great deal of trouble and expense for us. We have brand new flip-flops in the bathroom, where we wash using tin bowls filled with fresh spring water – there’s no shower. No matter. Hair washing is surprisingly quick when there’s no hot water to lather up the shampoo, and my daughter in particular embraces this method wholeheartedly; my son prefers taking barefoot and helmet-less trips on the back of my uncle’s scooter into the village to buy velvet flip-flops in all sizes and colours.

My relations’ generosity knows no bounds; I have to tell my children not to comment out loud if they like something in the market, otherwise I turn my back for a second and Hoke Hnit has bought it for them.

We are served extensive meals – dish after dish is laid out on the table – hkuauq-sweh noodles, salads with the deliciously zingy marian fruit, which has a slightly sour taste; fried beans and peanuts, all made by my aunt and Hla Hla Tan, their adopted daughter. My uncle and aunt sit and watch us eat. ‘Won’t you have some?’ I ask. They shake their heads. ‘Later,’ my aunt says smiling. It is a custom here to let guests eat first, only eating when they have finished all they want.

Two days later we drive to the town of Chauk to visit Daw Sein Shan, my mother’s cousin and childhood playmate. In the car, this being pre-election, conversation turns to politics. To be able even to write this phrase, ‘conversation turns to politics,’ fills me with joy.

Eighteen years ago to have a harmless conversation about the government, to mention Aung San Suu Kyi’s name in public, was taboo. You just didn’t do it. Now, it’s as if an enormous weight has been lifted from everyone’s shoulders, there is a lightness of being, and an optimism in the air. You see it everywhere, from the splashy coloured front pages of news-papers to the calendars and T-shirts featuring Aung San Suu Kyi for sale in Rangoon market. Where once people were afraid to be associated with foreigners, now strangers ask to have their pictures taken next to my son because they think he looks like Justin Bieber (to his horror).

Yet it occurs to me, what does it feel like to be able to talk openly about politics if you haven’t grown up with that as an absolute right? ‘It’s new for us,’ says the guide, who is the only person I meet who isn’t a big Aung San Suu Kyi supporter – he thinks someone somewhere will be lining their pockets should she win, and besides, thanks to her request we boycott the country, tourism was severely affected and he’s still struggling to forgive her for that. ‘The Burmese don’t really understand democracy yet.’

To Chauk then, and here in an old teak house, my ‘great aunt’ (I hope you’re getting the hang of this now) is waiting with more ‘cousins’, to drink green tea with us. We met 18 years ago. Then, I was the first member of my family to make the trip back and was profoundly moved, my eyes welling up as my Western feet touched Burmese soil.

The emotion was surprising – we’d had such an English upbringing, my four siblings and I. My father was an officer in the Royal Navy who met my mother when his ship docked in Malta, where she was stationed as a young Wren, having left Dublin as soon as she was old enough. They were happily married for 40 years before he died aged only 60, six years before she did. We knew nothing of our Burmese heritage as we grew up, and it was only when we were well into our teens that we started asking questions, to which my mother responded by writing her book.

On my first visit to Chauk, my mother’s school friend Mary Grey and her husband, a retired army colonel, helped me track down my family. They greeted me in the streets, so astonished were they to see anyone connected to my mother, so sure that when she had left, aged 13, that would be the last that anyone would ever see or hear of her.

Not surprisingly, with my mother and my sister and me appearing from nowhere over the years, Daw Sein Shan, now 83, is a little confused at whom she is meeting today. She thought it was going to be my mother coming for tea this afternoon, and when she learns that my mother has passed away, she cries loudly, tears rolling down her cheeks, her tiny fist beating her chest.

My children don’t know where to put themselves and shuffle from foot to foot awkwardly, clinging to me like limpets and trying not to giggle. But soon we are calmly talking about my mother and grandmother, and via the guide, I ask her how my grandmother died. We thought it was beriberi that had killed Khin Nyun, aged only 35, and that because it was during the war, she had died through lack of available medication, but we have also heard it was ovarian cancer. Daw Sein Shan talks to the guide for what seems like ages (the children by now are more interested in playing with a pet rabbit).

Eventually the guide turns to me. ‘Magic,’ he says, looking very serious. ‘She says magic attacked your grandmother.’ And because this is Burma, because so far on this trip I have already learnt so many random, magical things: that monks learn to levitate after about 50 years of meditation, that 2,600 years ago life expectancy was 200 years, that the Buddha’s feet were so big that he left footprints 10ft long on the tops of mountains; because of all this, magic seems perfectly plausible.

I ask how Kyi Kyi Nyun’s family could have let her go, at only 15 years old, to live with Edward, someone they didn’t know at all. ‘But your grandfather was a good man,’ is the translated reply I eventually get back. Daw Sein Shan’s father, my grandmother’s brother, loved and respected him so much he even went with him on the infamous trek to India.

‘Even after he’d left my grandmother?’ I say, surprised. And yet, from what I’ve heard of Edward, it’s not so surprising. Something of a loner, by all accounts, he was evidently able to inspire great loyalty and respect from those he worked with. When the Japanese invaded, he led one of the last posses of British across the hazardous border into India, only to die from exhaustion and a burst appendix shortly after reaching Calcutta. His letters to his grandmother in Dublin are preserved in the British Library; his photographs feature in the authoritative Burmese book Lords of the Sunset by Maurice Collis.

‘Have you noticed something?’ Armand asks, after Hoke Hnit has accompanied us for hours, late into the night, to our next destination, without letting on that he has to continue his drive for another eight hours to be in Rangoon in time for an operation the next day. ‘People here do things for others, but they never seem to resent it.’

We are sad to leave; but sadder still to leave Hoke Hnit and Kyi Kyi Win as we fly to Heho and then drive on to Kalaw, where my mother spent so much time in St Agnes’s Convent. It was here, not having had any contact with either of her parents throughout the war, that she was told by a visiting army officer (following the retreat of the Japanese), first that her mother had died and then, five days later, that her father had died, too.

There was a further shock as they read out his will and she discovered that her father had a new wife and two other children; and perhaps more ominously, that aged 12, she was to stay under the care of the nuns until she was 21. Overnight, her status, such as it was, changed irrevocably.

When the Red Cross gave out presents of bars of soap to the girls, the nuns carved each child’s name in them – but for my mother, Sister Christine offered only to carve out the word orphan. She was saved a few weeks later when the Red Cross delivered a package of letters from the sister she had not known she had: Patricia and her grandmother wanted her to come and live in Dublin. A family friend, Mr Ogden, would escort her to Rangoon and the SS Cheshire, which would take her to Portsmouth, from where she would travel to Dublin with another chaperone, Mrs Ogden.

This decided for her, she later hid when her Burmese uncle U Tun Shein visited the nuns, anxious to take her back to Satthwa.

‘If my mother had still been alive, wild Irish horses would not have removed me from Burma. But she was not… So to my eternal shame my poor uncle was forced to leave without seeing me, and I was filled with remorse for having behaved so shabbily towards him.’

She wouldn’t return to Burma for another 48 years.

I visited St Agnes’s Convent on my last trip, but something feels different this time round, perhaps because we arrive at dusk. Two little girls, about five or six years old, with their hair cropped short, oddly dressed in an assortment of hand-me-downs – layered jumper upon tunic upon trousers – smile cheekily and run inside to get the grown-ups.

Two nuns then welcome us into a small reception room, painted bright green, with a picture of Our Lady on the wall flanked by framed pictures of former mother superiors. More children arrive bearing plates of cut oranges and offering bottles of water. I explain my mother’s connection to the nuns, but the generational gap is too far removed. I vow to send them copies of A World Overturned – after all, it’s the history of their convent during the war, but the war is far behind them now, they’ve had other traumas to contend with since.

Suddenly, all the children form a line and start singing and clapping, perfectly in tune, conducted by one of the nuns. Their faces beam with delight at their new audience. The mother superior explains that the 20 or so children here are mostly orphans, or else have parents who cannot afford to look after them or educate them, so they send them here. What do they need, I ask. She looks baffled, but talking later to others who have visited the convent, I gather that they are desperately short of funds and struggle to feed the girls a balanced diet.

The next day we head to the market and buy three large chickens, some fish, a tray of eggs, huge bunches of watercress, cabbages, pulses, cooking oil. My daughter suggests we buy toys, too, so we choose a few little dolls, a doctor’s kit, a couple of footballs and a bowling set. Mother Superior grins from ear to ear when she sees the chickens: ‘Praise the Lord!’

I’m about to leave but Emmanuelle begs me to wait until the children get a break from school so we can give them the toys in person. Eventually, they arrive, and before long the smallest girl spies the toys carefully stacked by the nuns in the corner of the kitchen. She tugs the little one next to her by her elbow and whispers to her. Their faces light up. She in turn alerts another. The nuns smile and dish out the toys, and my two join them in the yard for a game with the cheap plastic ball printed to look like a watermelon. Watching it all from the sidelines, I silently pray that whatever magic took away my grandmother and my mother, some other sort of magic is allowing them to see this now.

YANGON: Myanmar’s foreign trade hit $5.35 billion in the first four months (April-July) of the 2012-13 fiscal year. Of the total, export amounted to $2.61 billion, while import represented $2.74 billion, Xinhua reported.

Export items, including natural gas, rice and beans, accounted for over $1.4 billion, taking 55 per cent of total export. The country earned $859.72 million from gas exports.

Myanmar’s foreign trade stood at $18.15 billion in the 2011-12 fiscal year. Meanwhile, PepsiCo said it has signed a distribution agreement to sell some of its drinks in Myanmar with Diamond Star Co, which has been doing business in the Southeast Asian country for nearly 50 years.

Burma’s Lower House of Parliament on Wednesday voted down a motion that would require all members of the union, state and regional government to declare their movable and immovable assets and interests for the public record.

The proposal was first submitted to the legislature by, the MP representing Pathein Township in Irrawaddy Division for the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, on July 25.

He said the issue warranted further discussion as it would strengthen the emergence of good and clean governance and foster public trust in elected officials.

Only seven NLD MPs—including Kyaw Min from Latpantan Constituency in Pegu Division, Phyu Phyu Thin from Rangoon’s Mingala Taung Nyunt, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung from Mandalay’s Kyaukpadaung, Dr. Myo Aung from Rangoon’s New Dagon and Myint Myint San from Irrawaddy Division’s Wakema—were to be allowed to discuss the matter.

When the debate took place, however, military representatives including Col Khin Maung Htun and Col Aung Myint were also permitted to participate along with MPs from other parties.

The motion was supported by NLD MPs but opposed by the armed forces who claimed it went beyond the 2008 Constitution as asset declaration is already covered by Article 68 of that document.

Article 68 states: “The president and vice-president shall furnish a list of family assets under his direction; namely land, houses, buildings, businesses, savings and other valuables together with their values to the head of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw [Union Parliament].”

Two MPs from National Democratic Force, a splinter party of the NLD which contested the 2010 general election, echoed the army representatives. But they submitted an alternative proposal to investigate domestic and international assets belonging to members of Union Parliament committees.

The state-run The New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Thursday carried Attorney General Dr. Tun Shin’s response to the assets declaration proposal.

Other than Article 68 of the Constitution, he also quoted Article 100 of Union Government Law (UGL) which repeats the same provisions. In addition, he quoted UGL Article 101 which says that personnel who are assigned by the president with the approval of Parliament shall furnish a list of their businesses and assets together with the value of each.

Win Myint, however, said that even though the Constitution and UGL already had certain rules he made the new proposal to aid public awareness and, if necessary, the Lower House should vote for the motion.

Kyaw Min said that despite his NLD colleague’s proposal being voted down it was nevertheless effective as it allowed the matter to be discussed in Parliament in open view.

On Aug. 1, Thein Sein instructed those he assigned with the approval of Parliament to declare their assets in accordance with UGL Article 101. The Irrawaddy tried to contact the President’s Office to find out who has so far complied with this order but no response was available at the time of publication.

Burma’s Upper House of Parliament agreed on Thursday to discuss a proposal to share natural resource revenues with the states and divisions where the resources are located.

The proposal, made by Saw Maung Phyu, a member of the Upper House from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, calls on the central government to “allot a suitable rate or 25 percent” of wealth from resources with state and division governments.

According to the state-run New Light of Myanmar, the proposal was made “according to the matters prescribed in schedule one of the Union Legislative List of Section 96” of Burma’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

“I’m not asking the government to amend the Constitution. I just want them to share with the ethnic governments and recognize that we are all brothers,” Saw Maung Phyu told The Irrawaddy.

He added, however, that he wants Burma to have a federal system, and not the unitary party system prescribed by the Constitution.

Nai Bayar Aung Moe of the All Mon Region Democracy Party was among those who supported the proposal. “I agree with his idea and will back it in Parliament. Our ethnic people should not be asking for just a few pya,” he said, referring to the smallest units of the Burmese currency.

“It is time to build a federal union and demand equal rights,” he added.

The proposal won the support of more than 40 MPs, the minimum required to be accepted for further discussion. The next step is to get the approval of the Parliament’s drafting committee, said Phone Myint Aung, a New Democracy Party MP for Rangoon Division’s Constituency 3.

One issue that is likely to lead to resistance to the proposal is the fact that some states and divisions have far more resources than others. Most of Burma’s natural resources are concentrated in the country’s predominantly ethnic states.

“For instance, Kachin State has jade and Arakan State has gas. Rangoon doesn’t have such resources,” said Phone Myint Aung.

This division has played a major role in perpetuating conflicts between the central government and ethnic armed groups. Under Burma’s former military junta, much of the income generated from exploitation of natural resources was used to fund the army’s efforts to suppress ethnic rebels.

Some ethnic MPs who support the proposal say they are worried that the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party and military appointees in Parliament will shoot it down, just as they did with another recent proposal calling on government officials to declare their assets.

That proposal, put forth by National league for Democracy MP Dr. Myat Nyar Na Soe, was rejected earlier this week.

Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, on Friday morning to assess the needs of those displaced by communal violence between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims.

The Justice and Development Party member toured temporary shelters where victims have taken refuge and also helped distribute aid to those affected by the sectarian strife, according to residents in Sittwe.

Before flying to Arakan State, Davutoglu met with Burmese President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw on Thursday. He also met several government officials including Immigration Minister Khin Yi, Minister for Border Affairs Lt-Gen Thein Htay and his Burmese counterpart Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.

During his meeting with Thein Sein, the 53-year-old parliamentarian said that his country sees the unrest in Arakan State as a humanitarian situation in which both Muslim and Buddhist communities must be provided with aid, according to state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

“The Rakhine [Arakan] issue should not tarnish the positive image of Myanmar. The misunderstanding of Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] countries could be prevented by allowing international assistance,” Davutoglu was quoted as saying.

An OIC meeting is due to be held in Saudi Arabia next week and Davutoglu said he would attempt to explain the Arakan situation and what he witnessed in Burma and would also encourage the group secretary to visit the country. Turkey has donated US $50 million for affected families in Arakan State.

Due to communal violence in western Burma which first flared at the start of June, at least 77 people have been killed while more than 90,000 have been displaced.

Thein Sein told Davutoglu that he was disheartened by the fickle nature of the media with pictures of alleged genocide spreading through the internet which actually show unrelated incidents in faraway countries.

“Rakhine issues have nothing to do with religion or race,” Thein Sein told the state media. “The cause of the unrest is unlawful acts. It was ignited by the brutal murder of a girl. There was then revenge between the groups which later caused a lot of suffering.”

The recent bloodshed in Arakan State began with the rape and murder of a Buddhist Arakanese girl in late May, allegedly by three Rohingya Muslims. In response, a Buddhist mob killed 10 Muslims on a bus on June 3, leading to intense violence between the two groups.

Clashes escalated in Maungdaw Township in Arakan State on June 8 when a mob of 1,000 Muslims went on a rampage and had to be restrained by armed Burmese troops. A curfew and state of emergency were subsequently introduced.

Davutoglu also advised that sectarian propaganda could be minimized by allowing independent international organizations access to report from the ground, according to the government newspaper. He also invited Thein Sein to visit Turkey in the near future.

During his trip to Burma, Davutoglu was accompanied by his wife Sare Davutoglu as well as the Turkish Prime Minister’s wife Emine Erdogan and met with Thein Sein’s wife Khin Khin Win in Naypyidaw on Thursday. Burma and Turkey first established diplomatic relations in 1958.

As communal unrest in Arakan State draws international attention, several Muslim countries have condemned Burma’s attempts to quell the violence with state security forces accused of “ethnic cleansing” against Rohingyas.

The OIC wrote to Thein Sein this week to urge him to address the plight of the Rohingya minority and called on the government to end all oppression of Muslims. Davutoglu, however, said that transparency and the possible visit of the OIC secretary to Burma could help end misunderstandings with Islamic countries.

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Parliament Legal Affairs and Investigating Committee member Than Maung told a Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) meeting this week that people must understand that the police, courts, public administrators and government staff are all public servants who are bound to serve within the rule and regulations of the government.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been elected to chair the new “rule of law” committee in the Lower House, which has far reaching powers. Suu Kyi called for laws to protect the legal rights of ethnic minorities and businesses in her inaugural speech to the Parliament. Photo: AFP

It’s necessary for people “ to raise their voice over their grievances and dissatisfactions with the legal framework. Only then will there be rule of law and our country will keep up internationally as a democratic country,” Than Maung said.

For example, Than Maung said there is illegal logging and mining in the country, but little is done to prevent the abuses, including damage to the environment.

“We have laws to curb and control these illegal businesses, but they were present in the past and are still thriving in the country,” he said. “We need to tackle them with stern action.”

A positive sign, he said, is the formation in Parliament of the 15-member Rule of Law Committee, formed on Tuesday. A Union-level committee, it has the authority to summon union ministers and union-level officials to respond to public complaints.

National League for Democracy party chairman Aung San Suu Kyi was named chair the committee and NLD member Win Myint will serve as secretary.

The committee has a wide range of responsibility involving civil servants, judicial bodies, legislation and media. It can also propose amendments or legislation in the Lower House, he said.

During her by-election campaign, Suu Kyi made the rule of law a major campaign issue.

In June, Mizzima reported that Suu Kyi said Burma needed rule of law more than safeguards for investors at this time in the country’s transition to democracy.

Speaking at the 21st World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok on June 1, she warned businessmen that “even the best investment law would be of no use whatsoever if there is no court clean enough and independent enough to be able to administer these laws justly.”

“Good laws already exist in Burma, but we do not have a clean and independent judicial system. Unless we have such a system it is no use having the best laws in the world,” she said.

Suu Kyi and Burmese President Thein Sein have formed a reformist duo, each in their own way working to move a country long repressed by a brutal military regime into the ranks of the world community of democratic nations, a task that will take years if not decades.

(Feature) – In spite of Burma’s two-steps forward, one-step back approach towards free speech, nearly 20 books about Aung San Suu Kyi have been published in Burmese recently.

U Thein Aye, the author of From Aung San to Aung San Suu Kyi, published in July, said the previous government had maintained a near-total blackout of books about the pro-democracy leader.

“Now it’s the opposite situation,” he told the Myanmar Times, in an article published this week. “This year a number of writers have offered insight into the everyday life of Daw Suu Kyi and her political movement.” Daw is a courtesy title in Burmese.

Thein Aye’s book contains 31 previously published articles about Gen. Aung San, his wife, and Suu Kyi.

“She was so poor during the period when she was held in her house that she even sold the chair where she sat. Eventually, only the piano that her mother had left her remained,” Thein Aye told the Myanmar Times.

Another sign of the opening media space in Burma: Dr. Thant Myint-U’s River of Lost Footsteps wastranslated into Burmese in June.

The book is one of an expected flood of books popular in the West that had not been translated in Burmese and printed in Burma.

Currently, the English-language edition of Thant Myint-U’s newest book, Where China Meets India — which highlights Burma’s geopolitical role between China and India — is available in English at the Myanmar Book Centre in Ahlone Township.

One publisher told the Myanmar Times that he wanted to translate the works of Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama, which were banned in the past.

Friday, 10 August 2012 12:52 Theingi Tun

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The Ahlone Dockyard Port will significantly expand with the construction of three new wharfs valued at more than US$ 110 million.

Transport Minister Nyan Tun Aung said the work will be done in cooperation with Myanmar Annawar Swan Ah Shin Groups Company Limited, in a signing ceremony at Sedona Hotel in Rangoon.

Ko Ko Htoo, the managing director of the Myanmar Annawar Swan Ah Shin Groups Company Limited, said the three wharfs are designed to serve six [3,500-ton] vessels in simultaneous berths at the port, representing a total storage capacity of about 320,000 containers.

According to the Inland Water Transport website, the facility can now accommodate 16 vessels.

Earlier, the company built wharfs in the port facility, and it will operate the expanded facility under a long-term lease agreement, said Cho Than Maung, the managing director of Myanma Port Authority.

Transport Minister Nyan Tun Aung said in the signing ceremony that permitting private companies to run such facilities encourages private businesses and it is in line with other Asean countries’ economies.

Rangoon now has 18 wharfs, he said, and 14 more wharfs will be built.

Authorities are also planning new wharfs for the Thilawa Port in Thanlyin Township.

Civil society groups have urged the World Bank to exercise caution before pressing ahead with their plans to pump $85 million into community projects in Burma’s conflict-torn border regions or risk “exacerbating” local problems.

Campaigners have criticised the Bank for claiming that locals will be able to “decide whether to invest in schools, roads, water or other projects” without disclosing details of their consultation plans, transparency provisions and whether they have conducted a conflict-assessment.

“Burma’s ethnic conflicts are complex and the ongoing ceasefire negotiations are fragile, so if the World Bank is looking into providing assistance they need to publish this information,” said Khin Ohmar from Burma Partnership. “That kind of money can easily exacerbate problems or even create more different types of conflicts within the communities.”

The World Bank is one of several foreign donors that have pledged to support the Norwegian government’s peace initiative through a Peace Donor Support Group (PDSG) created in June. Much like the Norwegian initiative, the Bank’s grant is intended “to build confidence in the reform process” by “generating real economic benefits for people in fragile situations.”

But the Norwegian initiative has already courted serious controversy for a perceived lack of meaningful community participation and transparency provisions. Cross-border humanitarian and human rights groups have complained that they will not be eligible to access funding unless they register in Rangoon, thus facing exclusion.

A recent document seen by DVB, which clarifies the coordinating mechanisms of the PDSG and other peace efforts, places a strong emphasis on the role of international actors, including INGOs and governments, with direct support from the Burmese regime but a much smaller role for local civil society. This approach has fuelled concerns that global players rushing into Burma could end up supplanting community initiatives, which have been active on the ground for decades.

“If the World Bank goes through the government, there are many questions that we need to ask, for example will only registered groups get opportunities?” asked Paul Sein Twa from the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN).

“We would encourage them to see many of the unregistered and local groups working in the border regions as well. If the INGOs don’t understand the issues on the ground, there could be many problems.”

A coalition of NGOs from Shan, Karen and Kachin states say they approached the World Bank to discuss their concerns as soon as they learned of the initiative. While a number of workshops have been held since, precious little information has been made public.

“Once we heard about the project we immediately began expressing our concerns,” said Khin Ohmar. “We haven’t heard of any conflict assessment – at least there is no information made known to the public – and that’s something the World Bank has an obligation to do.”

“They also have to do a broader, meaningful consultation with local stakeholders. They can’t just impose their own strategy on the community.”

The Bank has announced plans to conduct economic research in Burma and emphasised the value of private sector investment and modernising the financial system.

“Actions in these areas will help the government attract responsible foreign investment, expand trade, manage its resources better and create more jobs and opportunities for people,” said Vice President for East Asia Pamela Cox at the opening of the World Bank’s Rangoon office last week.

But they have not released information about how they plan to engage with communities or tackle civil society concerns in the context of Burma’s ethnic conflicts. A spokesperson for the financial institution declined to be interviewed by DVB, responding only that they are “at a very early stage” in their re-engagement with Burma.

The World Bank has previously attracted virulent criticism in nearby Cambodia for its reckless investment in private sector and infrastructure development programmes.

A leaked internal 2006 report slated the organisation’s forestry management programme “for breaking internal safeguards, ignoring local communities and failing to reduce poverty”.

In August last year, the Bank was forced to suspend all lending to the south-east Asian nation after a controversial property development scheme prompted the forced evictions of thousands of local residents.

“We don’t want to become another Cambodia,” warned Khin Ohmar.

President Thein Sein and leaders from two major Arakanese parties met during informal talks on Wednesday and discussed the unrest in western Burma’s Arakan state that was rocked by sectarian rioting in June.

The president sat down with Rakhine Nationalities Development Party’s chairman Dr Aye Maung and the Arakan League for Democracy’s Aye Thar Aung on 8 August, where the leader stressed the importance of maintaining stability in the country and urged the group to cooperate with the government in helping restore peace.

“The [president] discussed the domestic unrest, the international community’s perspective on it and the importance of stability in the country,” said Dr Aye Maung.

“He said there needs to be a way to let go of animosity and to work with the government to bring peace to the country as well as to uphold stability between the two communities to prevent [unrest from breaking out] in peaceful areas in Arakan state,” said the head of the RNDP. “For a political party like us, we have to be on the same page with the people and their opinions in order to last.”

The Arakanese party leaders prior to meeting with Thein Sein held talks with Tin Aye, chairman of the Union Election Commission, and several senior ranking military officials to discuss sectarian tension in Burma’s western state.

The meeting comes after a searing report was published earlier this month by Human Rights Watch that accused the government of not acting quickly enough to prevent the spread of violence in the state and for later targeting the Rohingya.

In July, Burma’s president told the UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres that the government was not prepared to recognise the Rohingya and asked for the body’s assistance in placing them in refugee camps and later resettling the group in a third country.

The plan was later rejected by the UNHCR.

The RNDP, which landed the second largest amount of votes in Arakan state in the 2010 general elections, had two members briefly detained in July in Mrauk-U township after the duo urged local Arakanese nationals who owned rice mills to only sell their goods to Arakanese people.

Dr Aye Maung recently came under fire in the international press for saying Burma should “be like Israel” – a underhanded reference to placing oppressive controls on the Rohingya’s movement within the country – and asked locals to defend the region against the Muslim minority who have been “repeatedly trespassing on our territory.”

The ALP, which won several seats in the annulled 1990 election and was later barred from participating in the country’s political landscape, re-registered as political party last February.

Protesters stood in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ offices in Rangoon’s Sanchaung township to express their support for President Thein Sein’s plan to resettle the Rohingya minority out of Burma.

Burma’s president had told the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) chief Antonio Guterres that the government was not prepared to recognise the Rohingya and asked for the body’s assistance in placing them in refugee camps and later resettle them elsewhere.

The plan was promptly rejected by the UNHCR.