One of the world’s best known political activists, Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, will come to the Bay Area next month during her first visit to the United States in decades.

The Sept. 29 visit by the 67-year-old Suu Kyi is expected to attract thousands of people, many of them Burmese exiles who consider the former political prisoner a hero for her long refusal to bend to an oppressive military regime.

“She’s encouraging, acknowledging, supporting us,” said Nyunt Than, an Albany resident who heads the Burmese American Democratic Alliance. “This is her way to show her appreciation for what the community has done for her.”

Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years under house arrest before she was freed in 2010 and in April won election to the Myanmar Parliament. Her election has symbolized Myanmar’s shift from military rule to more democratic governance, but Than said “she will need much more support to make democratic reform in Myanmar a reality.”

Myanmar’s military rulers changed the country’s name from Burma in 1989 but many exiles still use the old name.

The Bay Area has the nation’s largest Burmese population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, which counted more than 8,500 residents who describe themselves as Burmese. Some came as economic migrants decades ago, others fled as student dissidents in the 1980s and 1990s or are refugees escaping more recent turmoil.

Suu Kyi’s visit unexpectedly answered a plea made by Santa Clara software engineer Yasmin Vanya when she visited her homeland this spring and met with the Burmese leader.

“I said ‘please come to America, and please come to the Bay Area. She said, not now, but maybe sometime in the future,’” Vanya said.

Turns out sometime is happening sooner than the Santa Clara resident expected.

Suu Kyi had not left her country for 24 years until this spring, when she met with refugees in neighboring Thailand and attended an economic summit in Europe.

The U.S. State Department is sponsoring Suu Kyi’s travel to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19 to pick up the Congressional Gold Medal lawmakers awarded her in 2008 while she was still under house arrest.

Than said Suu Kyi might also visit other Burmese hubs including Fort Wayne, Ind., Los Angeles and New York City, where she lived in her 20s while working for the United Nations.

Her local hosts expect to set a place where Suu Kyi can give a talk.

Suu Kyi knows of the support she has had in the activist region, said Vanya, secretary of the Burmese American Women’s Alliance. Area activists organized 1990s Berkeley and San Francisco boycott movements against the Myanmar regime and a Palo Alto birthday celebration held in her honor in June.

BEIJING (AP) — A rights group says China has forced at least 1,000 ethnic Kachin refugees to return to a combat zone in northern Myanmar this past week and has plans to deport 4,000 more soon.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the Chinese government to stop repatriating the refugees to Myanmar and instead provide temporary protection for them in Yunnan province. The province lies along Myanmar’s northern border.

The Kachin minority in northern Myanmar has been fighting government forces since last June, when authorities sought to shut down a Kachin militia base near a hydropower dam construction project. The hostilities ended a 17-year cease-fire and displaced about 75,000 people.

The rights group says the refugees who were deported this week had been living in makeshift camps in China since June 2011.

KATMANDU, Nepal — The authorities in southwestern China are forcibly evicting thousands of encamped ethnic Kachin refugees who fled a renewed civil war in neighboring Myanmar, pushing them back into the conflict zone in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, according to foreign human rights researchers and some residents in Kachin State.

The forced repatriation appears to be happening in large waves this week. The refugees fled to China after a 17-year cease-fire agreement between the Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar’s government broke down in June 2011. The civil war with the Kachin is one of many occurring in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and the renewal of the Kachin conflict has cast doubts on the sincerity or ability of President Thein Sein to carry out deep political reforms.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch said the repatriations appeared to have begun en masse on Tuesday. He estimated that 1,000 refugees had returned to Kachin State and that a total of 4,000 were projected to return by the end of the week.

In June, Human Rights Watch reported that 7,000 to 10,000 Kachin refugees were in China and subjected to squalid conditions and harsh treatment by officials. It also said there had been some instances of forced repatriation by Chinese officials, though apparently not as systematic or widespread as now.

“All the refugees in China now are being pushed back,” said one resident of Laiza, the capital of the rebel-held part of Kachin State. “Many of them are back already.”

On Wednesday, he added, Chinese border guards expelled a group of refugees from an area called Nong Tau and destroyed refugee huts even before the refugees had left the site.

Ryan Roco, a human rights researcher who has documented the plight of the displaced in the war, said he had learned that at least 4,200 Kachin were being forced out of six camps in Yunnan Province, China, and back into Myanmar. He said the process, begun last week, appeared to have intensified since Tuesday. A further 700 were living with family or friends in Yunnan after being forced from the camps, he said. Those who have returned to Kachin State are living on both sides of the conflict zone. Part of Kachin State is controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, though the rebel group has lost significant territory since the civil war restarted.

“The actions of the Chinese against vulnerable Kachin demonstrate a wanton disregard for human dignity and international humanitarian law,” Mr. Roco said.

Officials in Yunnan and Beijing had been tolerating the presence of the Kachin refugees for more than a year, although Yunnan officials had threatened to evict them.

It is not clear why the refugees are being expelled now. An employee at the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the ministry had no immediate comment after it was sent a list of questions on Thursday. Calls to the Yunnan propaganda office went unanswered, as did calls to the propaganda office of Dehong Autonomous Prefecture, the location of the camps.

The Kachin are Christians, and Chinese religious organizations and some other aid groups have been allowed by local Chinese officials to help refugees and internally displaced Kachin.

China has not taken an official position on the Kachin conflict. Kachin State is rich in jade, timber, mineral wealth and water resources, all coveted by the Chinese. Several large Chinese dam projects are in the region, including the Myitsone Dam, which aroused local protests.

China is also a major patron of the Burmese government, though many Myanmar citizens are wary of or hostile toward growing Chinese influence.

On Monday, The Irrawaddy, a newspaper based in Thailand that reports on Myanmar, said Chinese officials had pressed the Kachin Independence Organization, the civilian counterpart to the Kachin Independence Army, to accept 4,000 refugees back in Kachin State.

Patrick Zuo contributed research from Beijing.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire -08/23/12)- Centurion Minerals Ltd. (CTN.V) (”Centurion”, “the Company”) announces that pursuant to its news release dated April 2, 2012, Centurion management has been reviewing and evaluating mineral exploration projects available for acquisition outside Indonesia. The Company has entered into two preliminary agreements with mining groups in Myanmar and is completing due diligence on these and several other prospective gold exploration prospects currently.

Subsequent to the recent Canadian government’s suspension of economic sanctions with Myanmar, Centurion’s principals have renewed business relationships which have enabled the Company to quickly identify prospective projects and potential mining partners in this mineral-rich country. The Company is proceeding to open a representative office in Yangon in order to advance these opportunities. “Now that economic sanctions have been lifted, we are very pleased to be able to return to Myanmar which has such potential for discovering world class mining projects,” stated Mr. Alfred Lenarciak, Centurion Chairman.

Myanmar Gold Opportunities

The gold prospects under Centurion’s consideration lie within two of the major gold and associated mineral belts that span the N-S axis of Myanmar for hundreds of kilometres. Over 340 gold occurrences of varying stages of exploration have been noted along the belts, but only a small number of them have been explored systematically using modern methodology. Most of the occurrences are of epithermal and intrusion-related style of mineralization. Historical exploration by international and local companies has enabled development of a few of these gold prospects into currently producing gold mines with grades reportedly varying from 3 to 15 g/t Au. Centurion has been invited by several local mining companies to consider partnering with them to further develop their gold projects.

Indonesian Properties

Due to this year’s enactment of Indonesian mining regulation (#24-12) whereby international mining companies have become subject to regulations requiring divestment of a minimum 51% of their interests in mining projects by the tenth year of production, Centurion management has decided to maintain only its (core) Banda Raya project in Aceh, Indonesia. Initial sampling and a short hole drilling program had identified several promising epithermal gold and porphyry Cu-Au prospects on this project, which is adjacent to the Miwah gold property. The company will also maintain an interest in the Miwah gold deposit through its financial partnership agreement with Indonesian (IUP) permit holder, PT Bayu Kamona Karya. Centurion will relinquish its interests in its other Indonesian properties.

Mr. Lenarciak, Chairman commented, “We are confident that the newly elected Aceh government will succeed in improving the provincial investment climate to enable full development of its mining resource potential.”

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia International Institute of Islamic Cooperation (IKIAM) and Council of Islamic Non-Governmental Movement Asean yesterday lauded the move by the Myanmar government to form an Investigation Commission to bail out the Rohingya there.

IKIAM president Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin said the move, announced by Myanmar President Thein Sein recently, was timely and in line with the proposal made during the Islamic NGO Movement Asean Revolution Conference on Aug 14 to stop any kind of violence against the minority group.

“We believe with the setting up of the commission, ethnic conflict between the Buddhist extremist groups and Muslims can be stopped.

“We also ask the Myanmar government to investigate and prosecute all those who have ill-treated, killed and violated the basic rights of the Rohingya Muslims over the years. They should be brought to book according to international law.”

Zahidi said one of the eight resolutions discussed at the conference was to demand the government to abide by and respect the human rights as listed in the Asean Human Rights Body signed in 2008.

While foreign investments are flowing into Myanmar creating more job opportunities for locals, businesses are facing shortage of skilled workers.

After political changes occurred in the country between 2011 and 2012, the international community has taken more interest in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country.

With more businesses setting up here, the demand for skilled workers has also increased.

“Scarcity of human resource is a hurdle for foreign investments. There are not enough skilled engineers, geologists and architects in the country,” said Evelin Petkov, director of Hong Kong- based Bagan Capital Company, a consultant firm for investment in Myanmar.

Foreign businesses are investing in oil and natural gas exploration, electricity, mining, manufacturing, hotel and tourism, real estate, livestock and fisheries, transportation, communication, industrial zone and construction, among others.

They include firms from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China, Russia and Hong Kong.

“At least five foreign business groups every week come to discuss with their local counterparts mainly about employment affairs. They already have technical knowledge. They demand experienced workers,” said managing director U Tin Kyaw Zan of Device Services Co.Ltd.

Analysts said there are few skilled workers because many of them have moved overseas while the rest are not qualified.

“Young people have left for foreign countries due to lack of employment opportunities in the country and some experienced workers went outside because of unreasonable salary, resulting in the shortage of skilled workers in the country,” said managing director U Aung Din of Nature Lovers Tourism Company.

More Myanmar youths have migrated to foreign countries since 2000. The brain drain widely occurred after 2005. Engineers, dentists, accountants, IT technicians and office clerks are majority of those who have left and sought job opportunities elsewhere.

Scarcity of job opportunities has become noticeable before 2010 and the ratio of job vacancies and unemployment became high.

U Tin Zan Kyaw said: “The number of job seekers to increasing demand is still high. It is easy for candidates to get basic jobs, but the most experienced and skilled employees are rare. Most of the experienced employees do not want to move to other companies. Their bosses also do not want their employees to quit their jobs”.

Among foreign countries, Japan is very keen to invest especially in the service sector.

The director of Japan business group Keidanren said: “We know on-the-job training is very important.” He expressed his concern that Myanmar citizens might not be able to get job opportunities if lack of skills continues to be a problem.

According to the Japanese foreign ministry, Japan plans to help Myanmar develop its human resources for long-term economic and social progress.

In addition, during President U Thein Sein’s visit to Singapore earlier this year, a memorandum of understanding was signed to help improve Myanmar’s economic, human resource and public administration sectors.

Phayul – [Thursday, August 23, 2012 20:20]

DHARAMSHALA, August 23: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written a letter to Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, expressing his concerns over the outbreak of communal violence in Burma.

In the letter, the Dalai Lama said that he was “deeply saddened” and remains “very concerned” with the violence inflicted on the Rohingya Muslims.

The two Nobel laureates had recently met in London, England on July 19, for the first time.

The Tibetan spiritual leader also directed his representative in the Indian capital, Tempa Tsering, to meet the Ambassador of Myanmar. The Embassy, however, is yet to schedule the meeting.

Details of the letter were made public by Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay during his meeting with Syed Yahya Bukhari, President, Jama Masjid United Forum on Wednesday at the latter’s residence on the auspicious occasion of Eid.

Two mainstream Urdu print media, the Daily Sahafat and The Inquilab, were also present at the hour-long discussions during which Dr Sangay expressed his heartfelt Eid greetings to Bukhari and the Muslim community.

The elected Tibetan leader also sought to clear misunderstandings within certain sections of the Muslim community on Tibetans by presenting a copy of the 2010 Kyegudo earthquake photo which has been “mistakenly or deliberately” used by some websites to create negative perceptions.

The picture was actually of Tibetan monks performing a mass funeral for the earthquake victims in Tibet.

According to a report carried by the Central Tibetan Administration, the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi conveyed a message of peace and urged the “hundreds and thousands of Muslims gathered not to be swayed by photographs of dubious sources and urged them to remain calm.”

“Mr Bukhari shared that His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited the Jama Masjid in 2010 and that the Imam personally received Him and that he had a lot of respect for His Holiness,” CTA said.

Last week, the Kashag directed Tibetan Settlement Officers to meet prominent Muslim leaders including religious leaders and members of state assembly to apprise them with the real information.

Speaking to reporters recently, the Dalai Lama condemned the ethnic violence in Assam and urged everyone to practice religious harmony and non-violence.

“It is very sad. Almost my whole life has been dedicated to promotion of harmony. India, overall, thousand years, you have culture of ‘Ahimsa’ (non-violence) and also, culture of harmony among different religious believers,” the Tibetan spiritual leader was quoted as saying by ANI. “So, every Indian, irrespective of what religious follower and even non- believers, I think we should realise the thousand year old India’s traditional Ahimsa and traditional religious harmony, this must be retained.”

YANGON, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) — Myanmar entrepreneurs are making a preparatory move to set up a new satellite town in the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, local media reported Thursday.

The Mandalay new satellite town to be set up on a land plot of 22,000 acres ( 8,910 hectares), is being projected by a public company for developing the satellite town, headed by President of the Cooperative Bank U Khin Maung Aye, the Biweekly Eleven News was quoted as saying.

So far, the public company has seen 3,000 prospective shareholders to join the project.

The project lying in Mandalay’s Tada Oo township, 8.8 kilometers from the Mandalay International Airport, is seeking support of local residents who inhabit on the project area.

The project has prompted the rise of land prices in Tada Oo to 3.5 million to 30 million Kyats (4,022-34,482 U.S. dollars) per acre (0.405 hectare), the report added.

Rich with cultural heritage, Mandalay stands as the last royal capital of Myanmar.

With an area covering 113 square-kilometers, Mandalay has now become the country’s economic and cultural hub in the northern part.

The city, located 716 km north of Yangon on the east bank of the Ayeyawaddy River, has a population of nearly 1 million and is also the capital of Mandalay Division.

Mandalay is the major trading and communications center for northern and central Myanmar.

Most of Myanmar’s external trade to China and India goes through Mandalay.

Ko Nay, Eleven Media Group

Almost 18,000 tourists have visited Bago, an ancient city about 50 miles from Yangon, from January to July, latest statistics show.

This number is more than half of last year’s 27,601 visitors and is expected to increase further by end-2012.

Bago is the former capital of the Hanthawaddy dynasty and an important seaport during that period. Most tourists go there on day tours.

U Kyaw Aye, head of Shwemawdaw Pagoda’s board of trustees, said most of the tourists travel in groups rather than as individuals and majority of them are Thais.

He also said Shwemawdaw Pagoda has received more donations from Thais than from any other tourists. Tourists have donated around US$2,000 and over 270,000 baht (around $8,600) to the pagoda over the past seven months.

Shwemawdaw Pagoda, Mahar Pagoda, Kyaik Pun Pagoda and the Kanbawzathardi Palace are popular tourist destinations in the Bago zone, where authorities have set up booths to collect a $10 entrance fee.

YANGON—Intolerance toward Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar has dented some Americans’ perceptions of the country, but hasn’t significantly altered Washington’s views on easing sanctions, the U.S.’s new ambassador in Yangon said.

Like other Western nations, the U.S. has eased some sanctions against Myanmar in recent months, and has signaled it could take further steps to reward Myanmar if its recent round of political and economic reforms continues. But even as relations between the two countries warm, sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas that left at least 88 people dead and displaced thousands of others has added a new strain.

“I have to say it did surprise us to the degree that there would be violence so quickly, that it would spread so terribly,” said U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t think it affects our view on sanctions,” he went on. “It just means we have an even more complex challenge ahead of us in the country.”

Mr. Mitchell said the Rohingya conflicts were particularly troubling because they revealed deeper issues of injustice in the country than those usually considered by the international community. In the past, international leaders focused much of their attention on alleged human-rights abuses by the Myanmar military and government. But in the case of the Rohingyas, much of the discrimination comes from everyday citizens, some questioning the right of the Rohingyas merely to live in the country.

“It’s unfortunate when you see the depths of intolerance and discrimination….among citizens,” Mr. Mitchell said—including “people who otherwise you would think of as progressive and who have fought so long for civil rights,” such as Buddhist monks.

As a result, the concerns raised by the recent violence are “broader than what our traditional concern is, which is the system, or the government, or the military,” he said. “This had to do with the deep-seated intolerance that seemed to be within the society writ large. So I think that’s where the deep disappointment came. And it creates a division between them and us to a degree.”

In a statement issued Tuesday and circulated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Thursday, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted what it called “false and fabricated news reporting” on the Rohingya clashes, which it described as “purely internal affairs of a sovereign state.” The violence was “not relating to any kind of religious persecution or religious discrimination,” it said, but rather related to a conflict between two communities following a criminal act, widely reported as a rape of a Buddhist woman.

“Therefore,” the statement said, “we will not accept any attempt to politically regionalize or internationalize this conflict as a religious issue.”

Mr. Mitchell said U.S. officials were sensitive to the feelings among Buddhists in Western Myanmar that they, too, have suffered in recent years, and that international organizations focus too heavily on Rohingya concerns.

But he said that doesn’t mitigate the need to aid the Rohingyas, who have struggled for many years to find a home in a region where no government seems to want them. Myanmar excludes them from citizenship laws and restricts their movements and activities, including marriage. Myanmar officials argue that many Rohingyas are living illegally in the country, and say they have done their best to protect them.

The “Rohingya are oppressed by everybody,” Mr. Mitchell said. “These people are stateless. They have nowhere to turn. And it is not going to be lost on the international community.”

Even so, it’s unclear how much leverage U.S. officials will have to pressure the Myanmar government to expand rights for Rohingyas so long as momentum builds to keep easing sanctions. Although the U.S. continues to ban Myanmar imports and maintains some other restrictions, it recently suspended sanctions blocking U.S. investment, and U.S. companies are moving quickly to step up their involvement there.

To investigate the latest violence, Myanmar officials have established a commission whose 27 members include former student activists, representatives from political parties and even some government critics who spent time in jail as political prisoners. The well-known comedian known as Zarganar is a member, as is activist Ko Ko Gyi, who helped lead student protests against the old military regime in 1988. The commission is supposed to submit its findings by Sept. 17.

Although some international organizations applauded the creation of the commission, others remain skeptical. In a joint statement issued last week, a group of international Rohingya associations including the Burmese Rohingya Organisation U.K. said they believe the commission “will not be credible and truly independent” unless Rohingya representatives are added to its membership, which it said included people who had “directly or indirectly” fueled the violence. The groups called for a U.N. commission of inquiry.

In its latest statement on the violence, Myanmar’s government said it had created the 27-member commission “with a view to exposing the real cause of the incident and to give advice for the national interest.” It added that the government is “working closely” with the international community to bring relief to areas affected by the violence.

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 23, 2012 |

Tensions rise among protestors at the Letpadaung mountain range copper mine, in Sagaing Division, after their demands to be adequately compensated for confiscated land were rejected by the local authorities.

More than 500 residents from 12 villages, who fear forced relocation and the destruction of their crops due to excavation work, marched towards the Salingyi Township administrative office on Wednesday but were turned back en route by security forces.

Around 7,800 acres of farmlands from 26 villages surrounding Letpadaung mountain range in Salingyi Township near Monywa in Sagaing Division, were confiscated for the copper mine in 2011. The project is a joint venture between the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd (UMEH) and Wan Bao Company, a subsidiary of China North Industries Corporation.

Myint Htay, a 49-year-old farmer from Taw Kyaung Village, told The Irrawaddy, “We were on our way to the township administrative office but were stopped by the authorities at Ohn Ship Pyar Village, which is around three miles from Salingyi.”

The march took place after skirmishes broke out between villagers and the mining company at the project area on Tuesday evening. Wan Bao Company brought security forces to their compound in order to resume work and so broke an agreement they made two months ago, claim villagers.

After protests in June, the villagers demanded that the company stopped forced relocations, refrained from dumping waste from the project which damages crops, reopens locked monasteries and stops the construction of project buildings.

“The UMEH Company agreed not to pile waste and not to continue building, but they said the other two demands must be taken to higher authorities for consultation,” said U Nandasara, a monk from Hse Te Village.

Although residents were told by the local authorities that the dispute will be settled at the township office, their representatives were turned away from a meeting on Wednesday. Instead, journalists present were told that compensation had already been given to the villagers.

Four villages at the base of the mountain were already forced to relocate in May and residents in those that remain are due to move soon. One of these, Kan Taw, has already been completely moved while the others are only partially transferred as some residents have insisted on staying on their ancestral lands, according to local sources from Hse Te and Wat Hmay.

“We have lost our farmlands already and now have to move our villages too,” said Myint Myint, a resident of Myo Joe Pyin.

The villagers were paid 52,000 kyat (US $60)per acre of farmland in April 2011. They cultivate sesame, wheat, sunflowers, various beans and onions as the region generally experiences low rainfall. Initially, villagers were told the cash was reimbursement for the destruction of their crops, but allege that one year later this was changed to compensation for the loss of their land.

“Due to the loss of our farmland, we are facing economic hardship,” said Myint Htay. “I cannot even send my children to school. I have teenage children who just passed high school and there is no way for them to continue studying.”

Zaw Oo, a villager from Wat Hmay, told The Irrawaddy, “As the company resumes building, which they agreed not to continue without informing the authorities’ decisions to the residents, we told them to stop.”

But he said the company brought security personnel to prevent the villagers from interfering. Then a curfew was imposed in the vicinity from the last week of July.

“There are many policemen—hundreds arrived in their area and it is like a threat to us,” said Zaw Oo.

Since the first week of August, the villagers submitted multiple applications to the local authorities for the right to gather and protest, but seven out of 10 of these have been rejected. Nevertheless, the villagers are planning to protest in front of the Wan Bao Company office located between Moe Joe Pyin and Phaung Kar villages this week.

The Letpadaung mountain project is an expansion of the Monywa Copper Mine, which is one of the largest in Burma. The Monywa project was initiated by the Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company Ltd—a joint venture between the former Burmese Ministry of Mines-1 and Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines.

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 23, 2012 |

A day after holding talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s President Thein Sein met on Thursday with the speakers of both house of Parliament amid a growing dispute over a controversial decision by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal.

Although no details have been released about either meeting, it is widely believed that the president discussed recent moves by Parliament to force the tribunal from office. Today’s talks took place as both chambers of the national legislature were ordered to suspend the day’s proceedings.

Thein Sein’s meeting with Suu Kyi was his second in less than two weeks. The two leaders have met four times since since Thein Sein took office a year and a half ago. The last time was 10 days ago, when Suu Kyi was appointed chairperson of the newly formed Rule of Law and Stability Committee by Parliament.

Observers in Naypyidaw noted that the meetings follow Thein Sein’s decision earlier this week to reject demands to overturn a tribunal decision that denies parliamentary committees the status of “Union-level organizations.”

In response to the demands, the president said that lawmakers should move to amend the Constitution if they are not happy with the decision, instead of simply calling for the members of the tribunal to step down.

Under Burma’s military-back Constitution, amendments require the approval of 75 percent of MPs.

Meanwhile, MPs said they will initiate impeachment proceedings against the tribunal in accordance with the Constitution. “The Upper House parliamentarians will start a proposal for the impeachment on Friday,” said Phone Myint Aung, an Upper House MP from the New National Democracy Party.

To propose impeachment, the MPs need the backing of two-thirds of MPs. If the Upper House approves the proposal, it will pass to the Lower House, which can then form an inquiry committee to examine the Constitutional Tribunal.

However, Lower House MPs, who last week submitted a petition calling on the tribunal to voluntarily resign, say they don’t expect to get the support of the 25 percent of lawmakers appointed by the military, or from former generals who resigned from the armed forces to become civilian MPs.

Phay Than, a Lower House MP from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, told The Irrawaddy that they have already lost the votes of the military appointees “because they are not on our side.”

The petition was signed by 301 of the Lower House’s 440 members, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

By ZARNI MANN / THE IRRAWADDY| August 23, 2012 |

A week-long human rights training program to empower local people in Yay Nan Chaung, Magwe Division, was forced to close down by the township Election Commission for operating without permission.

Organized by members of the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the course sought to teach the community about their rights and responsibilities as Burma moves towards democracy under President’s Thein Sein’s reformist administration.

“It is my family who organized the training,” said Khin Saw Htay, a member of the local NLD party. “Since it is not organized by the party, we do not need to request permission from the Election Commission and they do not have the authority to force us to shut down.”

Because of the order to cease teaching, only the course’s opening ceremony could be held at the township hall on Aug. 21.

“The training is now carrying on at my home although it is too little space,” added Khin Saw Htay. “However, we will eventually move back to the township hall no matter what happens.”

The course involves studying the widely-condemned 2008 Constitution while educating participants about human rights, children’s rights, women’s right and political science. Around 60 local people signed up for the course.

“Since the president and his new government are moving forward for the development of education in the country, this training is just help from the private sector and that is a right of citizens which is mentioned in the Constitution,” said Than Aung, one of the organizers.

Course leaders submitted a complaint letter condemning the action of the township Election Commission to Thein Sein, the chairmen of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, the chairman of the Union Election Commission and the National Human Rights Commission.

“We cannot accept this action of the township Election Commission as it contradicts the basic rights of citizens,” added Than Aung. “We see it as a withdrawal action despite the president and the government’s vow to move on and not turn back.”

Thursday, 23 August 2012 16:48 Myo Thant

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Sessions of the Lower House and Upper House of the Burmese Parliament were cancelled on Thursday to allow the country’s three top leaders to discuss the Constitutional Tribunal issue, according to parliamentary sources.

The three top leaders met for about one hour in the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw.

Lower House MP Ye Tun told Mizzima that he believed President Thein Sein discussed the issue with Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann and Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint, following discussions in Parliament recently to try to impeach the tribunal members.

Earlier, the Constitutional Tribunal issued an opinion that the committees and commissions formed by the Parliament are not “union-level” bodies, prompting talk of impeachment proceedings against the nine-member tribunal in the Lower House.

Upper House MP Phone Myint Aung told Mizzima that Upper House MPs would submit a proposal on Friday to impeach the tribunal members.

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann has urged Thein Sein to put the tribunal members under pressure in order that they should resign voluntarily, but he rejected the request. The Constitutional Tribunal in a press conference last week said that they did not commit any wrong doing, and they would continue to carry out their duties under the Constitution.

Meanwhile, President Thein Sein advised MPs that the tribunal ruling was carried out under the law and it would stand. If MPs were dissatisfied with the tribunal, they could try to amend the Constitution, he said.

Observers said the 2008 Constitution does not say whether the committees formed by the Parliament are “union-level” bodies or not, but according to the legal provisions relating to the two parliamentary houses, they are defined as “union-level” bodies.

Last week, Mizzima reported that the dispute began the third week of March when the tribunal ruling was met with disbelief by many members of Parliament.

The tribunal is made up of nine judges, most of whom are academics or legal experts.

Three of the judges were selected by Thein Sein, three by Shwe Mann, and three by the speaker of the Upper House, Khin Aung Myint.

The executive director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will arrive in Burma for three days of talks starting on Monday.

UNFPA works with the Burmese government and others in improving reproductive health, development and the empowerment of women and young people.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is scheduled to meet with President Thein Sein and the ministers of Health, Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Planning, Foreign Affairs and Immigration and Population, in addition to the Speaker of Parliament and other lawmakers, and with National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

He will also meet with representatives of UN agencies, civil society and the business community.

Topics to be discussed include

UNFPA’s new four-year (2012-2015) Programme of Assistance to support of the National Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Plan.

Efforts to improve maternal health and birth spacing services, designed to save the lives of mothers and infants and support reproductive rights.

The planned 2014 population and housing census, the country’s first in 31 years, which will provide data essential to national development efforts.

The need for a comprehensive programme to empower the 30 per cent of Burma’s population aged 10-24.

He will also meet with members of Myanmar’s newly formed Parliamentary Committee on Population and Social Development.

Osotimehin, a former Nigerian minister of health, has headed UNFPA since January 2011.

Sean Turnell, a leading Burma watcher, says Burma’s proposed foreign investment law has run up against strong local opposition in the Parliament, and may go through significant revisions.

The proposed law has undergone ups and down in recent months, and he said it appears full foreign ownership of companies could be restricted in certain sensitive sectors, according to a report on the Voice of America (VOA) website on Wednesday.

Newer drafts of the law reportedly restrict full foreign ownership in certain sectors or ban their investment completely. At the beginning of this legislative session, which ends in late August, officials said the law would be passed this session, but that appears less and less likely, based on recent reports.

The new US ambassador to Burma, Derek Mitchell, said this week that more time should be taken to craft an effective, long-term law rather than rush a flawed law into passage.

An economist at Australia’s Macquarie University, Turnell, speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, said a working draft of the law was now facing a local backlash of businessmen who are not yet prepared to face foreign competition.

“There’s been a bit of a push back against some of the concessions granted to foreign investors,” Turnell said. “In particular, there seems to be a walling off of some of the sectors from foreign investors. Now, that’s a bit unfortunate because in a sense a much more open approach, particularly in sectors that are dominated by local conglomerates that you know dominate the economy [is needed]; we really need an injection of competition on that front.”

Turnell noted that Burma’s biggest problems, which will directly affect foreign investment, are the lack of electricity, a weak financial and banking system and poor infrastructure.

As a short-term enticement, the government was considering offering up to five years free of taxes, according to earlier drafts of the law.

But Turnell said tax holidays are not at the top of the list of companies’ concerns.

“Not a single businessperson internationally I’ve spoken to has ever mentioned taxation,” as a major concern, he said.

Turnell said the tax breaks could also allows a loophole for Burmese conglomerates, which could use their foreign subsidiaries to evade taxes that smaller businesses would still have to pay.

Khin Maung Nyo, a Rangoon-based economist at the Center for Economic and Social Development, told VOA that 94 changes were made to the draft law so far, indicating a growing lack of confidence that smaller, local businesses can compete.

One of the bigger challenges for Burmese businesspeople is getting access to credit to build a business. Some farmers turn to loan sharks, paying as much as 10 per cent a month, and fall into deep debt.

On the other hand, the long-term opportunities are real, Turnell said. “The country has been walled away for fifty years. There are incredible opportunities. That’s why the planes are full, that’s why the hotels are full,” he said.

But foreign investors are concerned with the big picture issues of stability and the ease of doing business, say observers. And if you don’t have enough electricity, or financial flexibility, or a functioning road or rail system, then you give it all a second thought, at least in the short-term.