AFP – Kachin rebels say three dead in Myanmar strike
The Financial Times – Myanmar violence fuels human trafficking
Asia News Network – Anti-China sentiment a challenge for Myanmar
The New York Times – Myanmar’s Fight With Armed Rebels Edges Toward China
New Kerala – Myanmar president calls for political stability, cessation of armed conflicts
Business Wire – Western Union Continues to Expand: Money Transfers Can Now Be Sent From Around the World to Myanmar
Tech in Asia – 6 HTC Phones Go in Sale Today in Myanmar
The Nation – Construction of first Laos-Myanmar bridge to start
PR Newswire – Pacific Council delegation talks democracy in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi
UPI – Myanmar criticized for protest laws
The Chosun Ilbo – Korea, Burma Agree on Rangoon Bombing Memorial
The Irrawaddy – Burma Military Not Responsible for Laiza Shelling: Govt Official
The Irrawaddy – Burma’s Junior Basketball Players Get Tips from NBA Stars
The Irrawaddy – Shelling Brings Horror of War to Laiza Civilians
Mizzima News – Thai oil company to work Burmese rigs
Mizzima News – Media Bill nears completion
Mizzima News – Singapore investors build hopes of entering Burma’s construction market
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AFP – Kachin rebels say three dead in Myanmar strike
Updated January 14, 2013, 11:44 pm

Photo taken on September 19, 2012 shows Kachin Independence Army soldiers praying at their camp outside Laiza in Myanmar. Kachin rebels on Monday said three civilians were killed and six wounded in the first direct attack by Myanmar forces on their stronghold.

AFP ©

Photo taken on September 19, 2012 shows Kachin Independence Army soldiers praying at their camp outside Laiza in Myanmar. Kachin rebels on Monday said three civilians were killed and six wounded in the first direct attack by Myanmar forces on their stronghold.

LAIZA, Myanmar (AFP) – Kachin rebels in Myanmar said three civilians were killed and six wounded Monday in the first government attack on their stronghold, as fighting escalated in the country’s last active civil war.

Three shells landed in the centre of Laiza, a town on the northern border with China that serves as headquarters for the Kachin Independence Army, said Colonel James Lum Dau, spokesman for the KIA’s political wing.

“This is the first time they have directly bombarded Laiza,” he told AFP.

The KIA said the victims of the early morning strike included a 15-year-old boy and a 76-year-old man.

A video contributor to AFP saw three bodies after the shells landed near one of the town’s main roads, in a densely-populated area of wooden and concrete homes and small shops with no obvious military targets.

People were going about their daily chores when the attack happened, causing panic and leaving residents fearful and weeping, he said, adding that two small children were among the wounded.

The shelling came after the US and UN condemned the army’s use of air strikes in an upsurge of fighting since December that has raised questions over the government’s commitment to reform after a transition from military rule.

Myanmar presidential spokesman Ye Htut told AFP that he had received no information about the attack and said the army did not “intentionally” target civilians.

“One thing for sure is we do not fire aiming to the civilian targets,” he said.

La Rip, from the Relief Action Network for IDP (internally displaced persons) and Refugees, said people from the affected areas were taking shelter close to the border.

“People are scared. At the moment it has stopped, but I’m afraid the shelling will continue, they are not targeting only military targets,” the Kachin aid worker told AFP.

Around 20,000 residents and 15,000 displaced people are thought to be in Laiza, he said, adding that there was “nowhere to go” except to China, which in August pushed several thousand refugees back into Myanmar.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Kachin state since June 2011 when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the KIA broke down. The total number of casualties is unknown.

Matthew Smith of Human Rights Watch said there was concern that further fighting could cause “a large outflow of refugees”, but that authorities in China’s Yunnan province could attempt to block them.

“There has been some indication that they are planning to do the right thing and provide temporary protection, but until we see some action on the ground, that remains a concern. It is potentially tens of thousands of asylum seekers,” he said.

An increase in fighting has cast doubt over a peace process seen as key to the country’s emergence from decades of junta rule.

Myanmar has struck tentative ceasefires with most of the other major ethnic rebel groups, but several rounds of talks with the Kachin have shown little tangible progress.

President Thein Sein defended the army’s response to the Kachin rebellion in comments reported in state media on Friday, saying the army had done everything possible “to make positive contributions to the peace process”.

Some experts have however raised questions over the level of control Thein Sein, a former general, exerts over army units in Kachin after an order to end military offensives in December 2011 was apparently ignored.

He since said that the military only acted in self defence.
The army and the rebels have traded claims over a helicopter crash last week which killed three army personnel. State media put the incident down to engine failure, rebutting KIA claims to have shot it down.
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January 14, 2013 2:00 pm
The Financial Times – Myanmar violence fuels human trafficking
By Gwen Robinson in Bangkok

UN relief agencies and Thai authorities say human traffickers are fuelling the growing wave of refugees fleeing western Myanmar’s continuing sectarian violence that has so far killed at least 200 people and displaced more than 120,000.

Thai immigration police rounded up more than 700 Rohingya Muslims in two separate raids in southern Thailand last week. In a third on Sunday, 140 people were detained, 74 of them children.

Human rights groups have urged the Thai government not to deport the Rohingya and instead allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to screen them.

The violence, between Rohingya and the local Buddhist community in Rakhine state, poses yet another challenge for the Myanmar government already facing criticism for its handling of a separate ethnic conflict with rebels in its northern Kachin state. The rebels said on Monday that the Myanmar military had killed three civilians when it fired on the town that hosts the main rebel headquarters.

For Thailand, the involvement of smugglers in helping the Rohingya escape also presents serious problems. The government faces US sanctions if it does not cut levels of human trafficking through its territory.

The Myanmar violence first flared last June after reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist Rakhine woman by Muslim youths. The Rohingya have faced discrimination for many years. An estimated 800,000-strong community has been living in western Rakhine state for generations, but the government has refused to recognise them as Myanmar citizens.

The refugees from Rakhine who arrived in south Thailand last week were found hiding in jungle warehouses near the southern border with Malaysia. The Thai government has said it intends to deport them, despite warnings from human rights groups that they could face persecution.

More than 2,000 people have fled Myanmar in the first week of 2013 alone, according to the UNHCR, adding to the 13,000 who escaped last year.

Most of those left on boats arranged by human trafficking networks, who help the Rohingya escape, but at a price and often in dangerous conditions.

For human traffickers, transporting refugees from Myanmar has become big business in recent years, said Surapong Kongchantuk of the Lawyers Council of Thailand, who works on cases involving smuggled Rohingya. Most want to reach Malaysia and Indonesia, both majority Muslim countries, say human rights lawyers.

But Thailand is the nearest – and cheapest – staging post.

Thai media at the weekend reported that the Rohingya “boat people” pay anything from $400 to nearly $3,000 each for passage to Thailand’s southern coast. Up to 80 people crowd on to often rickety vessels for transport to Thailand, where they wait sometimes for months, as others arrive. Some pay again for onward passage to other countries.

If they are arrested by Thai authorities, who are sometimes complicit with the traffickers, say lawyers and activists, they can buy their way out of detention into poorly paid jobs. Those who cannot afford pay-offs often end up working in Thailand as labourers or fishermen.

One Rohingya man, 28, known only as Yub, told the Bangkok Post he paid about $2,600 in Myanmar kyat to a smuggler for passage to a “safe house” in southern Thailand.

“I don’t know where we landed, but a group of people picked us up and took us to the deep jungle where there are hundreds of Rohingya people living,” he said. From there, a relative in Bangkok paid the trafficker for his release and found him a job.

UN officials and human rights groups on Monday warned that a growing stream of Rohingya families, fearing further violence, was likely to resort to human traffickers to flee Myanmar, and urged Thailand to reconsider its deportation plans.

“Thailand’s policy to deport the Rohingya into the hands of people smugglers contradicts its repeated vows to combat human trafficking and protect asylum seekers and refugees,” said Sunai Pasuk, of Human Rights Watch. “Thailand should scrap its inhumane policy of summarily deporting the Rohingya, who have been brutally persecuted in Burma…Until UNHCR is allowed to conduct refugee screening, the Thai government should halt forcible returns of the Rohingya.”
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Asia News Network – Anti-China sentiment a challenge for Myanmar
Nirmal Ghosh, The Straits Times
Publication Date : 14-01-2013

As major powers like the United States, Japan and India flock to Myanmar for a seat at the table of this newly opened up country, China’s economic and strategic footing there is slipping, analysts say.

And Beijing could lose even more ground, with anti-China sentiment surfacing among the grassroots in Myanmar.

This poses a challenge for the government in Naypyidaw: It has to find a middle ground in its foreign policy while simultaneously keeping a lid on the growing sentiment against China, the South- east Asian nation’s biggest investor and second-biggest trade partner.

Since Myanmar began rolling out economic and political reforms, the US has offered its officers observer status at the annual Cobra Gold exercises – the biggest and longest-standing US military exercise in the Asian-Pacific region. The exercise brings together thousands of US and Thai military personnel and participants from other Asian countries, including Singapore, for joint manoeuvres.

The US military will also soon restart its search for some 1,200 air crew and passengers still officially missing in action in Myanmar, then known as Burma, during World War II.

President Thein Sein’s decision in 2011 to bow to public opinion and halt the China-backed Myitsone dam in Kachin state, which was seen as a signal to Beijing on the limits of its clout, won praise from Myanmar civil society.

But more recently, a minister unwittingly stoked anti-China sentiment over a dispute involving a joint investment between the Myanmar army and a Chinese company. Locals at the site of the Letpadaung copper mine are demanding a better deal for their land, which they have to evacuate to make way for the mine’s expansion. They also want to save a historic monastery from being shifted.

In comments during a visit to the site, however, the Minister in the President’s office, U Aung Min, said Myanmar could not afford to anger China, and recalled that Beijing helped end the insurgency by the Communist Party of Burma in the 1980s.

His remarks were not welcomed. The newly freed Myanmar media has been printing cartoons of political leaders kowtowing to China.

A subsequent crackdown on the protesters at the mine on Nov 29 last year left several severely burnt. In a country where rumour is a potent force, it was said that the tear-gas or smoke-bomb canisters used were made in China.

Thus, anti-China sentiment, historically not far below the surface in Myanmar, is re-emerging in the new liberal environment.

In an e-mail, one Yangon- based political analyst wrote: “To say China’s position in Myanmar has slipped badly is an understatement.” Asking not to be identified because “this is very sensitive”, he added: “Remember that for long China was in the regime’s good books and not in that of the Myanmar people.”

Not surprisingly, China is concerned. A team from Yunnan and Xiamen universities is visiting Yangon and Naypyidaw this month to discuss Beijing’s foreign assistance and “international responsibility” to the people of Myanmar.

In a commentary in the Chinese Communist Party-owned Global Times this month, writer Yu Jincui said: “Some analysts hold that China’s backyard is on fire, and an anti-China front is gradually being shaped in Myanmar.”

The analyst in Yangon agreed, writing: “I would say an anti-China front is in the making. It’s mostly from some civil society organisations and grassroots movements.”

Government sources in Myanmar blame “communist” anti-China provocateurs for escalating the situation at the Letpadaung mines – and acknowledge that the police played into their hands.

Letpadaung is a good example of the complexities of dealing with exploitative deals with Chinese investors under the previous military regime.

The Yangon-based analyst warned: “Myanmar communists are anti-Chinese, and a home- grown communist underground appears to be re-emerging. With peasants getting further impoverished and workers’ protests mushrooming, it is an ominous moment.”

Still, China’s footprint in Myanmar remains significant. A United Nations report last September noted that China’s investment in Myanmar had “increased exponentially in recent years, reaching a peak and accounting for 34.5 per cent of total foreign direct investment inflow in 2011″.

The Global Times piece concluded that, given China’s deep investment and trade ties with Myanmar, the “geopolitics and economic exchanges” of the relationship were unlikely to be harmed.

In an interview, Dr Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said: “There’s always been anti-China sentiment in Myanmar; it has built up over the years and now that the government has relaxed media control it has more exposure.”

The Myanmar government would want to keep a cap on anti- Chinese sentiment in case it got out of hand, he said.

But the commentary was laced with caution, noting the added complication of the war in Kachin state, which borders China. It has displaced some 100,000 people. On December 30, when Myanmar jets attacked Kachin Independence Army units, three bombs landed across the border in China.

“Those Western countries keen on promoting democracy in Myanmar are not adjacent to Myanmar, and thus don’t have to worry about the consequences of Myanmar domestic chaos,” Yu wrote. “But if these problems are not properly handled, Myanmar’s democratic reforms will be affected”.
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The New York Times – Myanmar’s Fight With Armed Rebels Edges Toward China
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: January 14, 2013

BANGKOK — Fighting in Myanmar between an armed ethnic rebel group and the country’s military threatened to spill into Chinese territory on Monday, the insurgents said, with reports that shelling had killed three people in the border town of Laiza.

Myanmar’s military in recent weeks has been pushing toward Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army, a rebel group seeking a degree of autonomy from the central government.

Awng Jet, an officer with the Kachin Independence Army, said by telephone the shelling happened early Monday and killed three civilians, including a Christian missionary and a student. Other rebel sources circulated pictures of three bloodied bodies.

Ye Thut, a deputy information minister for the government, expressed skepticism about the attack on his Facebook page and said it needed to be “confirmed independently.”

Fighting between the Kachin rebels and government troops has sharply escalated since Myanmar recently admitted using aircraft to fight the rebels. Government troops have appeared to take at least one hilltop position previously held by the rebels, putting them one step closer to Laiza, which appeared to be the goal of their intensified campaign.

The breakdown of a longstanding cease-fire between the rebels and the military has been a major setback for the government of President Thein Sein, who is trying to guide Myanmar toward democracy after decades of military rule. The cease-fire, which had lasted 17 years, collapsed in June 2011, three months after Mr. Thein Sein came to power.

The army’s decision to pursue the Kachin rebels is risky in part because of the fighting’s proximity to China, which is acutely sensitive to any border problems. The decision also contradicts repeated statements by Mr. Thein Sein that the government is seeking peace with the rebels, as it has with other ethnic groups.

China sent an unspecified number of troops to the border last week to survey what the Chinese state news media called an “unstable area.” A photographer in the area on Monday said that about 200 members of the Chinese security forces had arrived at the border.

The fighting is taking place in the low-lying, jungle-clad mountains, the ancestral homeland of the Kachin and a terrain that they navigate comfortably. Myanmar’s army, although it fought battles in that part of the country in the decades after independence, does not know the area as well. Some analysts believe this is why the military has resorted to using aircraft. A helicopter used in the campaign crashed on Friday, killing the two pilots and an officer onboard. Kachin rebels said they had shot down the helicopter, but the government blamed engine failure.

The Chinese military and officials in Yunnan, the southern Chinese province that borders Myanmar, have been closely observing the deteriorating situation along the border, according to the Chinese state news media.

Global Times, a state-run newspaper, reported on Friday that Shang Haifeng, the deputy Communist Party chief of Nabang, a township by the border, said the Yunnan military command had established an office in Nabang.

Changjiang Daily, a newspaper in the Chinese city of Wuhan, reported on Friday that the conflict was intensifying and that projectiles had exploded on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons in Nabang, which sits across from Laiza. The report said that Chinese civilians had been evacuated to a nearby location.

China’s handling of the situation is made more complex because ethnic Kachin live on both sides of the border. In recent days, thousands of Kachin (who are called Jingpo in Mandarin) living in Nabang gathered at a border checkpoint to protest the attacks by Myanmar’s army, said Ryan Roco, a photographer who was working in the Laiza area. About 2,000 Kachin also gathered on the Myanmar side of the border to show solidarity with the Chinese protesters, he said.

Mr. Roco said Monday in an e-mail that about 200 Chinese security personnel had arrived at the border between Laiza and Nabang.

Reports from Kachin areas suggest that the fighting is hardening the attitudes of Kachin civilians against the central government, which is overwhelmingly made up of the majority ethnic Burmese. The anger and hatred expressed by many Kachin is deflating hopes for a reconciliation.

Moon Nay Li, a coordinator of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, an advocacy group, said she sensed “much less trust toward the government” since the army began pursuing the Kachin rebels. “How can we believe in the peace process and democracy in Burma?” she said.

The Kachin are also directing their anger toward Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the former dissident who is now the opposition leader in Parliament.

Ms. Moon Nay Li was among the signers of an open letter sent last year by 23 Kachin expatriate organizations to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who is ethnically Burmese and who has said little about the conflict.

In a follow-up to the letter sent last week, the Kachin groups lamented the “confusion and distrust that is being created by your failure to comment in depth on these matters.”

Edward Wong contributed reporting from Beijing, and Wai Moe from Yangon, Myanmar.
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New Kerala – Myanmar president calls for political stability, cessation of armed conflicts

Yangon, Dec.17 (Xinhua-ANI) Myanmar President U Thein Sein has called for political stability,cessation of armed conflicts and socio-economic development of the people in the country, official media reported Monday.

Addressing at the city hall in Dawei,in Myanmar’s southern Taninthayi Region on Sunday, Thein Sein expressed his hope that Taninthayi Region would achieve development though per capita income of the Dawei is currently lower than those of Kawthoung and Myeik, said the New Light of Myanmar.

He underscored the need of qualified human resources who could harness rich natural resources and the duty lies with the education sector.

Foreign investments with substantial capitals and technologies were invited but there is a lack of regulations in allowing foreign investments could beset more adverse consequences than favorable outcomes,he said.

The Foreign Investment Law, which is one of the integral parts of legislation, has been enacted, he said.

He said the officials have town plans and city plans ahead of entry of foreign investors, pointing out that local people are to take responsibilities for regional development.

According to the UN Millennium Development Goals, he stressed the need to reduce poverty rate from 26 per cent to 16 per cent by 2015.

There are over 1200 villages in Taninthayi Region and over 60000 across the nation.
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Business Wire – Western Union Continues to Expand: Money Transfers Can Now Be Sent From Around the World to Myanmar
Seven Banks Signed; Nearly 250 Myanmar Agent Locations Will Be Connected to Western Union’s Global Network of Over 500,000 Agent Locations
Business Wire Press Release: Western Union – 14 hours ago

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

The Western Union Company (WU), a leader in global payment services, today launched Western Union Money Transfer® services at six banks in Myanmar, for the first time allowing Myanmarese and residents to receive international money remittances from more than 200 countries and territories in minutes.

In addition to the six banks, Kanbawza Bank, the largest private bank in Myanmar with over 90 locations nation-wide, has signed with Western Union.

A combined network of more than 150 locations representing Co-operative Bank, First Private Bank, Myanma Apex Bank, Myanmar Livestock and Fisheries Development Bank, Myanmar Oriental Bank and United Amara Bank are now connected to Western Union’s global network of over 500,000 Agent locations.

Kanbawza’s agreement will further expand the Western Union Agent Network to nearly 250 locations in the coming month. Western Union is the first global money transfer operator to sign seven banks after sanctions were eased last year.

“We welcome our first six Bank Agents into the Western Union family. Together, we are delighted to move money into Myanmar, allowing its people to access remittances with speed, reliability and convenience,” said Drina Yue, Managing Director and Senior Vice President, Western Union, Asia Pacific.

“In connecting Myanmar with great swiftness, we have furthered our company vision of serving the under-served. For this, we thank the Myanmar government, regulators and our Bank Agents for showing great foresight in facilitating rapid service activation much needed by mostly Myanmar’s citizens living and working across the globe,” she said.

“International money transfer is an essential service for Myanmarese overseas and their families; it is a vital link to send money for regular financial support, education, medical, gifting on special occasions and other purposes,” she said.
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Tech in Asia – 6 HTC Phones Go in Sale Today in Myanmar
By Steven Millward | Tech in Asia – 9 hours ago

HTC Burmese HTC’s input method editor (keyboard) for Burmese.

The busily reforming nation of Myanmar has the lowest rate of mobile penetration in Asia, but HTC (TPE:2498.TW – News) hopes to be at the forefront of changing that, with local consumers now jumping on the smartphone bandwagon. HTC’s CEO Peter Chou is a Taiwanese national, but he was born and brought up in Myanmar when the country was largely closed. He told the WSJ (paywall) today that “Myanmar is opening up and opportunities are everywhere.”

Six HTC models – all Androids – go on sale in Myanmar today. At the lower end there’s the Desire X, Desire VC, and Desire V, plus the pricier One X+, One X, and Butterfly. The phones come complete with a new Burmese keyboard made by HTC. No prices have been revealed

The post 6 HTC Phones Go in Sale Today in Myanmar appeared first on Tech in Asia.
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The Nation – Construction of first Laos-Myanmar bridge to start
January 14, 2013 2:45 pm

Vientiane – Work on the first bridge across the Mekong River between landlocked Laos and Myanmar will begin next month, state media reported Monday.

Lao Transport Minister Sommad Pholsena visited Myanmar last week when the two sides agreed to break ground in February for the planned 660-metre bridge linking Xiengkok to Kainlap, Myanmar, the Vientiane Times reported.

The bridge will provide the first road link between the two neighbours.

Laos and Thailand have built three bridges joining their countries across the Mekong, which also defines their border. South-East Asia’s longest river flows from southern China through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam where it empties in to the South China Sea.
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PR Newswire – Pacific Council delegation talks democracy in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi
PR Newswire – 9 hrs ago

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A delegation from the Pacific Council on International Policy traveled to Myanmar last week for high level discussions with individuals central to the peace process in that country, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The group – led by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert H. Tuttle, and Pacific Council President and CEO Dr. Jerrold D. Green – also met with leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit sector.

The delegation included Dr. Irwin Jacobs, co-founder of Qualcomm, Inc.; Mr. William H. Neukom, former CEO of the San Francisco Giants and current President and CEO of the World Justice Project; and Mr. Scott Olivet, former Chairman of Oakley, Inc. During visits to Yangon and Naypyidaw, delegates sought to understand the pace and extent of current reforms and the effect of existing international sanctions. “We are deeply interested in Myanmar’s path as it transitions toward democracy,” said Dr. Green. “The challenges ahead are enormous, and international partners can play an important role in supporting the delicate process.”

President Barack Obama visited Myanmar in late November, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so, and delegation leaders called his trip a “significant good faith gesture.” Still, as violence continues in the northern state of Kachin, Suu Kyi cautioned delegates against overestimating the reforms initiated by Myanmar’s government thus far. The peace process will be gradual, she noted, and the country has a long way to go before the world should consider it a functioning democracy.

During the week-long visit, delegates also met with U “Thura” Shwe Mann, the speaker of the lower house of Parliament, and with U Than Nyein, the Governor of Myanmar’s Central Bank. Ambassador Derek Mitchell, the first U.S. ambassador to the country since 1990, hosted the group for a discussion of recent changes in the U.S. government’s level of engagement with Myanmar.

“The Pacific Council was pleased to be able to hear and share ideas with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Ambassador Mitchell, and others during our visit,” said Dr. Green. “We look forward to continuing our exchange and to serving as ongoing partners in this process.”

The Pacific Council on International Policy (www.pacificcouncil.org), headquartered in Los Angeles, is the leading international affairs organization on the west coast of the United States. The Council is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by the Honorable Mickey Kantor and Ambassador Robert H. Tuttle. Dr. Jerrold D. Green serves as President and CEO.
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Myanmar criticized for protest laws
Published: Jan. 14, 2013 at 11:39 AM

BANGKOK, Jan. 14 (UPI) — The government in Myanmar should amend its laws on public demonstrations to conform with international norms, Human Rights Watch said.

The rights organization complained when the government in Myanmar, known formerly as Burma, filed charges against nine activists for protesting in September without a government permit.

Phil Robertson, director of Asia programs at Human Rights Watch, said the government needs a “mental reset” in order to re-assess its stance on democracy given recent political reforms.

Myanmar began its evolution from a military-controlled government to a democratic state with general elections in 2010. The government, however, has been criticized for its response to rebellions in the country and for its human rights legacy.

Robertson, in a statement from Bangkok, said the government should amend laws on the books from 2011 so that charges stemming from demonstrations no longer carry a prison term for permit violations.

“The Burmese government evidently needs a mental reset to recognize that peaceful protests make for a vibrant democracy,” he said. “Burma should have laws that encourage peaceful assembly and authorities who understand and respect it.”
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January 15, 2013
The Chosun Ilbo – Korea, Burma Agree on Rangoon Bombing Memorial

South Korea and Burma have agreed to build a memorial for the victims of the 1983 Rangoon bombing by North Korean agents that claimed the lives of 17 South Koreans and wounded 14.

The monument will be set up at the Aung San National Cemetery in the former Burmese capital.

The government is dispatching a team led by a Foreign Ministry official to Burma early next month. The team includes architects and landscape architects.

Burma offered a 260 sq. m site near the police guard barracks at the cemetery, from where the actual bombing site can be seen, according to a diplomatic source. The memorial site is about 50 m from the monument to Burmese independence leader Aung San and close to the Shwedagon Pagoda.

Seoul plans to complete construction by Oct. 9 this year, the 30th anniversary of the bombing.

President Lee Myung-bak visited the Aung San cemetery in May last year to pay his respects to the South Korean victims. But there was no marker remembering them.

The Chosun Ilbo and other South Korean media called for a monument to be erected.

On Oct. 9, 1983, North Korean agents detonated a bomb at the cemetery timed with the arrival there of then president Chun Doo-hwan. The 17 dead included deputy prime minister Suh Suk-joon and foreign minister Lee Bum-suk.
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The Irrawaddy – Burma Military Not Responsible for Laiza Shelling: Govt Official
By PAUL VRIEZE / THE IRRAWADDY| January 14, 2013 |

Several hours after an artillery strike by the Burmese government killed three civilians and injured four in Laiza town, a government spokesperson has come out to deny that the military was involved in the attack in northern Burma.

Ye Thut, a deputy information minister and spokesperson for President Thein Sein, said in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon that the Burmese military had not been active near Laiza at the time of the artillery attack.

“On the morning of January 14, the Tatmadaw [Burmese military] did not undertake any attacks around the Lajayang area,” he claimed on his Facebook page, which is being followed by thousands of people. “There were no military flights at all in and around that area,” he added.

Lajayang is a strategically important mountain area around Laiza valley in Kachin State that has been the focus of much of the recent fighting between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Ye Thut claimed that it remained unclear who had fired the artillery rounds into the center of Laiza town. “The news of the explosion needs to be confirmed independently and why it happened,” he wrote.

There were no further government statements about the incident.

On Monday morning around 8 am, two artillery strikes with 105-mm howitzers canons hit the center of Laiza town within minutes of each other, striking a group of Kachin villagers around a fire and a house with several people inside.

The civilians were thrown through the air and hit by shrapnel, according to reporters of The Irrawaddy who were on the scene.

One man was instantly killed in the strike, while a teenager and one adult reportedly died later at the local hospital. Four other villagers, including a toddler, were seriously injured. For a while panic struck in the town and many Kachin villagers talked about fleeing Laiza and crossing into China.

Since last month, fighting in Burma’s northern Kachin State has intensified and the government has launched frequent airstrikes on KIA positions using fighter jets and helicopters in an effort to conquer the mountains around Laiza, a small town on the Burma-China border where the KIA headquarters is located.

Monday’s attack was the first time that Laiza was directly hit. The incident seems to indicate that the Burmese army is increasingly prepared to use heavy firepower in and around Laiza valley, despite the presence of thousands of civilians.

La Rip, coordinator of the Relief Action Network for IDPs and Refugees (RANIR), which coordinates aid for the displaced villagers, said an estimated 15,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are sheltering in camps in Laiza, while another 20,000 residents are hiding in their homes.

He said the civilians were caught between the Chinese border and the escalating fighting in the surrounding mountains.

“Continuing indiscriminate artillery shelling towards Laiza from Burmese government troop based area in Daw Phone Yang begun since December 14, 2012 and today’s [strikes] are the first ever that fell into Laiza residential area, killing and injuring civilians,” he wrote in an email.

“Laiza residents and IDPs are terrified and residents from the quarter where the shells fell are now being evacuated to areas closer to the border. They are sheltering along the Laiza river bank, which divides China and Burma,” La Rip said.

Authorities in neighboring Yunnan Province, in China, announced on Sunday that they were preparing for an influx of Kachin refugees due to an increase in the fighting and had prepared four camps with emergency supplies for 10,000 refugees, Chinese media reported.

An estimated 100,000 villagers have been displaced in the whole of Kachin State since fighting in the region began 18 months ago.
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The Irrawaddy – Burma’s Junior Basketball Players Get Tips from NBA Stars
By LALIT K JHA / THE IRRAWADDY| January 14, 2013 |

WASHINGTON—For Pone Min San, a grade 10 student from Rangoon, and an avid basketball player, any thought of visiting America and meeting top US basketball players was nothing but a day dream. Now, it’s not any longer.

“It is a dream come true. I still do not believe that I am meeting the top basketball players and getting tips from them,” Min San told The Irrawaddy this past weekend, moments after he met US basketball stars Bradley Emmanuel Beal and Kevin Seraphin, and retired basketball legend Dominique Wilkins.

“It is a big step for the future and building people-to-people relationships between Myanmar and the United States,” said Min San, another player of the 12-member junior Burmese basketball team that is visiting the US on the invitation of the State Department.

The team, comprising players of 15 to 17 years of age, were offered a chance to meet with players of the Washington Wizards, a National Basketball Association (NBA) club on Saturday.

Later this week, Burma’s young basketball talent will also visit North Carolina State to attend a Charlotte Bobcats game and to participate in a training clinic with the Bobcats’ players and their manager Cho, who himself was born in Burma.

“This is an opportunity to increase our relationships through sports diplomacy,” Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine told The Irrawaddy. “It is quite amazing to see these young people from Burma here in Washington at a Wizard’s game,” she said. “It is really a dramatic moment standing here with the future leaders of Burma.”

The first ever basketball exchange program with support from the NBA is a follow up to the US Sports Envoy program, which brought several American managers and former players to Burma for the first time in August 2012.

Rich Cho, the Charlotte Bobcats’ manager and Los Angeles Lakers’ assistant coach Darvin Ham visited Burma at the time, together with former NBA player Marty Conlon and Allison Feaster, a former Women’s National Basketball Association player.

“This is part of our effort to increase people-to-people contact,” said Than Swe, Burma’s Ambassador to the US. “It is very important to know each other. Sport is a uniting factor.”

With the improvement in relationships between the US and Burma, the ambassador hoped that there will be more such exchanges, which would help build relationships between the two countries.

Kyaw Kyaw Win, general secretary of Myanmar Basketball federation, said the recent warming of US-Burma relations and President Obama’s visit to Rangoon in November had paved the way for the sports exchange programs, adding that these initiatives would help raise sporting standards in Burma.

“We are here to basically learn the fundamentals of basketball in the country,” Kyaw Kyaw Win, said. “At the same time we are also getting an opportunity to look at the educational system of the US,” he added.
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The Irrawaddy – Shelling Brings Horror of War to Laiza Civilians
By THE IRRAWADDY| January 14, 2013 |

LAIZA, KACHIN STATE—Two artillery strikes by the Burmese government army on Monday hit a civilian area in Laiza where Kachin villagers were warming themselves around a fire. The Irrawaddy’s photographer Steve Tickner was on the scene several minutes after the attack to cover events.

Three people, including a teenager, were killed in the strike, while another four were injured.

Steve reports that the shelling in a central Laiza township at 8:10 am on Monday morning killed a 14-year-old boy named Hpau Yula, while a Chinese Kachin man in his fifties, named Bawk Naw also died. Bawk Naw and his wife were sitting in front of their house at the time of the attack.

The third person to die in the Burmese government strike was a church deacon named Malang Yaw. Doctors at Laiza Hospital were unable to save him. Malang Yaw had come to Laiza after fleeing his home village of Ja Ingyan to avoid the fighting.

He was one of more than 15,000 internally displaced persons to seek refuge in Laiza, a small town on the Burma-China border, where the Kachin Independence Army headquarters is located.

Heavy fighting between the Burmese government and Kachin rebels continues to rage in the strategically important mountains around Laiza valley. Injured rebels are sent to Laiza Hospital on a daily basis, while there are frequent funeral services for killed rebel soldiers.
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Mizzima News – Thai oil company to work Burmese rigs
Monday, 14 January 2013 00:00 Khin Myo Thwe

PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) will be allowed to work on offshore projects in the Tenasserim region following a meeting with the Union of Myanmar Investment Commission last week.

“PTTEP was granted permission to work on two offshore blocks, MD-7 and MD-8,” said a spokesperson after the second meeting held by the Commission this year.

In May, Thailand’s state oil company was also permitted to work an onshore oil and natural gas exploration project in Magwe Division, said an official from the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

The past 12 months have seen both local and foreign companies considered for onshore oil and gas exploration projects in Burma. There are currently seven foreign companies, including PTTEP, working on the project in Tenasserim, officially known as Tanintharyi Region.
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Media Bill nears completion
Monday, 14 January 2013 13:16 Mizzima News

A draft Media Law bill will soon be presented by the provisional Myanmar Press Council (MPC) to members of the Burmese press, Council Secretary Kyaw Min Swe said at a press briefing on Saturday.

“We shall invite all media to a workshop later this month to present the Print and Media Law bill being drafted by the MPC. We shall then deliberate on all feedback and suggestions given to us and then present our bill to Parliament through the Information Ministry,” Kyaw Min Swe told Mizzima.

Press council member Thiha Saw added that the main objectives in drafting this bill were to guarantee freedom of expression, and to protect not only media persons but also the public.

The previous Information Minister drafted a media bill but it was never presented publicly. New Information Minister Aung Kyi has now taken over the drafting process and has allowed several selected journalists and media-related persons to be included in the process.

Aung Kyi said in September that the Information Ministry would make necessary modifications on this “zero draft bill” and would present it to Burmese media both at home and abroad.

MPC Chairman Khin Maung Aye told reporters on Saturday that the Provisional Council comprised 28 members and had held 10 meetings to date. He said it was also dealing with the arbitration of cases filed by news media and related organizations.
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Mizzima News – Singapore investors build hopes of entering Burma’s construction market
Monday, 14 January 2013 13:10 Khin Myo Thwe

Several Singaporean companies have indicated an interest in investing in the high-end construction business and other industries in Burma, a notable advancement from previous Singapore firms which chose mostly to steer toward the construction of hotels.

That was the message conveyed when a group of the island state’s business representatives led by Wilmar Investment Holding Pte Vice- Chairman George Yeo met Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) Chairperson Soe Thein on January 11.

“The Singapore investors suggested that they would like to invest in world-standard hotel constructions in Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan-Nyaung Oo; palm oil refineries in the Thilawa industrial zone in Yangon Region; sugar refineries and high-tech industries in Sagaing Division; and rice and rice-product industries in Pegu and Irrawaddy Divisions,” said an MIC spokesperson.

He said they also showed an interest in constructing high-standard factories, refineries and plants to cater for the following industries: oil & oilseeds; animal feed; wheat; beans, lauric oil; and fertilizer.

In 2011, Singapore firms were involved in 10 of the 26 hotels that were passed for construction under agreements made with Burma’s Ministry of Hotels & Tourism.
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