Myanmar urges millions of exiles to return
AFP – 12 hrs ago

Myanmar’s president has urged the nation’s millions-strong diaspora to return, state media reported Saturday, as the country seeks skilled workers to help smooth the passage of reform.

Several million people fled Myanmar’s corrupted economy and political repression under army rule, leaving the nation desperately short of professionals to help it manage massive economic and political change.

Pledging to help emigres establish businesses as resource-rich Myanmar braces for a surge of foreign investment and an expected economic boom, President Thein Sein asked migrants who left for “various reasons” to return.

“Offers are being constantly extended to Myanmar citizens who have been abroad for various reasons to come back home,” he was quoted as saying by English-language state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar

“Those who were abroad include technicians, experts, businessmen as well as those who are engaged in different careers.

“The state would render necessary assistance to them if they have any difficulties in doing business in the nation.”

Many exiles have been emboldened to return by a surprising series of political and economic reforms since Thein Sein took office last year.

The diaspora — a significant proportion of the roughly 60 million population — include skilled workers who have made successful lives overseas.

The new military-backed civilian government that took power last year has surprised observers with a series of conciliatory gestures to its opponents.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took a seat in parliament after her pro-democracy party swept April by-elections and hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, although many others remain behind bars.

The European Union has responded by suspending for one year a wide range of trade, economic and individual sanctions, although it left intact an arms embargo.

But the United States maintained its main sanctions on Myanmar, hoping to use them to press the regime to end ongoing ethnic violence, which has marred the regime’s reformist image.

US looks to broaden reform in Myanmar
AFP – 15 hours ago

As Myanmar takes steps toward democracy, the United States is hoping that a broader section of the population will feel the fruits of reform, including potential foreign investment.

In the back of policymakers’ minds is the lesson from China. Some experts believe Myanmar launched reforms out of concern of being too dependent on China — and worry that the United States could similarly fall out of favor.

The United States has been at the forefront of a three-year diplomatic drive to bring Myanmar out of its isolation. But unlike the European Union, Japan and Canada, the United States has retained most sanctions on the nation formerly known as Burma.

In a scene unthinkable until recently, opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi has entered parliament and Myanmar. But rights groups say that decades-long ethnic wars have festered in border areas, with troops carrying out abuses and at times defying ceasefires supported by reformist President Thein Sein.

“We are hearing from our friends in border areas that perhaps the reforms are a bit uneven and not reaching all parts of the country,” said W. Patrick Murphy, the US deputy policy coordinator on Myanmar.

“It’s important that distribution be even — and not only in the reforms, but in the foreign assistance and commercial activity if and when that renews,” he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank.

Murphy said that international humanitarian workers’ access to remote, violence-torn regions has improved but added: “We would like to see this regularized and become the norm, not the exception.”

Hoping to provide incentives to Myanmar, the United States said last month that it would restore full diplomatic relations. Murphy said he expected an announcement of a US ambassador “in the coming weeks.”

The Treasury Department has already ended a ban on financial transactions by US non-governmental organizations in Myanmar. But US policymakers are taking time to fine-tune the most far-reaching of the steps announced on April 4 — the easing of US restrictions on investment into Myanmar.

US business interests, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have pressed for a full lifting of investment sanctions, saying that US companies would lose out to European and Asian competitors already allowed to enter Myanmar.

But human rights groups have called on President Barack Obama’s administration to hold off on any sweeping end to investment restrictions without verifiable progress on areas such as ending ethnic violence.

Tom Malinowski, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch, said that the United States needed to ensure that its companies adhered to high standards. Many in Myanmar believed that Chinese investors damaged the environment and ignored local concerns through dams and other projects.

“We have a chance here to do it differently,” Malinowski said.

“But the danger is that there will be this gold rush into Burma before we have the kind of institutional reform (needed) and the resentment we saw generated by Chinese investment is going to be felt about all foreign investment.”

US officials and lawmakers have been adamant about maintaining sanctions on key exports from Myanmar, such as gems and timber, which are seen as cash cows for the military.

Georgetown University professor David Steinberg, an expert on Myanmar, said that a further risk was that investment would benefit a middle class that is largely of Chinese origin.

Myanmar was the scene of ethnic riots in the 20th century against both its Chinese and Indian communities. The Burman-dominated military seized control of Asia’s longtime rice bowl in 1962 in part to nationalize industries perceived as foreign-run.

“If the economy is once again seen to be in Chinese hands, there could be ethnic riots… and a return of some sort of state capitalism that will try and get the economy back under Burman control,” Steinberg said.

Myanmar: a goldmine with frontier risks
By Kyoko Hasegawa | AFP – Wed, May 9, 2012

As Myanmar prepares for an economic resurgence following the end of decades of military rule, wide-eyed firms from all over Asia are competing for a piece of the potentially lucrative pie.

With largely untapped natural resources, including minerals, metals and fossil fuels, and a tourism sector left in ruins by sanctions, Myanmar sparkles with opportunity.

But businessmen with experience inside the formerly military-ruled state say making money in a country where education levels are low, the rule of law is weakly enforced and electricity supplies are haphazard, can be a challenge.

Since one-time general Thein Sein came to power in early 2011 at the head of a nominally civilian government, Myanmar’s march in from the diplomatic cold has been rapid.
International sanctions aimed at punishing the repressive regime are being relaxed as political dissidents are given their freedom.

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the last two decades under house arrest, this month took her seat in parliament in an historic moment that cemented the astonishing reforms.

As the sanctions loosen, a rush of firms are looking to tap a potential 62 million consumers and a young workforce in an economy that the IMF says is set to grow 5.5 percent this year.

“The reality is that no one can afford to ignore Myanmar’s potential,” said Jeremy Kloiser-Jones, head of Hong Kong-based investment and advisory firm Bagan Capital.

“Japanese corporations are showing particularly strong interest,” he said.

Tokyo announced last month it would forgive about $3.7 billion of Myanmar’s debt and resume suspended aid.

“Now the government has waived debts and yen-denominated loans will resume, huge business chances are ahead for us,” said a spokeswoman for trading house Marubeni.

Marubeni, which has just opened an office in the capital Naypyidaw to add to the one it operates in the nation’s main city of Yangon, is looking at infrastructure projects involving electricity and transport, she said.

The firm’s rival, Itochu, is on the lookout for “information on mining rare metals such as molybdenum and tungsten,” a spokesman said, describing the country as the region’s “last frontier”.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited Myanmar in March, looking to boost a trade relationship that jumped by a third in 2011 to be worth an annual $792.7 million.

Khoo Kay Peng, a director of Malaysian marketing company GFW Urban Youth, said he and his partners are aiming to raise $2.0 million to open a business hotel in Yangon which he estimates has only around 3,000 usable rooms.

He warned many issues still need to be ironed out, such as property leases, which are currently available only for one year, and curbs on private ownership by foreigners, but that he remained optimistic.

“We are not going to rush into it,” he told AFP. “But it’s good to go in and build some capacity. It’s a country that can do very well.”

International Enterprise Singapore, the city-state’s trade promotion body, is running a business mission to Myanmar this week to build on $1.3 billion in annual trade.

Neighbouring Thailand and China are ahead of the pack, doing a combined $9.4 billion of business with Myanmar in 2010, according to EU figures.

Beijing, long immune to the international opprobrium of dealing with distasteful regimes, has bought up vast amounts of oil, gas and timber.

South Korean companies have also been active in Myanmar for many years, notably in the energy field, with Daewoo International and the Korea Gas Corporation inking deals while
Suu Kyi was still a prisoner in her own home.

“There had been news about democratisation for quite a long time but this time there is a rather visible change,” said Lee Hae-In, a manager at the state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

However, getting a return on investment is not always easy.

The IMF said this month that Myanmar’s complex exchange rate system remains a problem, increasing transaction costs, discouraging foreign direct investment and trade and putting appreciation pressure on the local currency.

Reforms to the currency market, which last month saw the nation begin moving towards a managed floating regime, may help ease some of those concerns, the world body said.
Yoshihiro Araki, research director at Japan External Trade Organization, said day-to-day issues were also a concern.

“I would say only companies that are capable of generating electricity in-house and who are ready to educate their workers should go ahead,” said Araki, who worked in Yangon for three years.

Shigeto Inami, the head of Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre in Yangon which is readying for the 2015 opening of Myanmar’s first official bourse, said business life in Myanmar can be challenging.

“The two biggest risks in Myanmar are its fiscal deficit and the issue of restive ethnic minorities” who live in resource-rich northern areas, he said.

“(Also) it’s frustrating to do business here… blackouts are common and making international calls can be difficult.”

Myanmar poll rigging charge ’sham’: state press
AFP – Wed, May 9, 2012

Myanmar state media on Wednesday said claims of ballot tampering made by Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party during landmark recent by-elections were found to be “groundless” by an official probe.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) had alleged that the check box for its candidates on ballot sheets in several towns had been covered in wax which could be rubbed off later to cancel the vote.

“It was a groundless complaint… such false accusation could harm the image of Myanmar’s by-election closely watched by the world; and legal action should be lodged against the false grumbler,” said a report in the New Light of Myanmar.

The English-language state mouthpiece said an investigation by teams from the country’s Union Election Commission found no evidence of ballot tampering in 10 townships under scrutiny.

“Waxed ballot complaint by NLD a sham, suggests UEC investigation,” it said in a prominent front page headline.

The NLD won 43 of the 44 constituencies where it fielded candidates in the April 1 by-elections, which propelled veteran democracy campaigner Suu Kyi into parliament.

It reported widespread electoral abuses and in the run-up to the vote complained about campaign irregularities, including alleged intimidation of candidates.

A 2010 general election, won by the military’s political proxies, was marred by complaints of cheating and the exclusion of Suu Kyi, who was released from seven straight years of house arrest shortly afterwards.

Suu Kyi was sworn in as a member of parliament last week, opening a new chapter after the Nobel laureate’s near quarter-century struggle against authoritarian rule.

Myanmar villagers want share of energy bonanza
AFP May 9, 2012, 2:46 pm

SHWERI CHAI, Myanmar (AFP) – For decades the islanders of Shweri Chai, a speck of land in the Bay of Bengal, have extracted oil using makeshift pulleys to draw the reddish liquid from the ground.

But with foreign investors salivating over the energy potential of their resource-rich but desperately poor nation, the locals fear the windfall they have relied upon for so long may soon disappear.

“Before, there were a lot of traditional drillers in the region but because of foreign companies, there are a lot fewer,” said islander San Kyaw, 60.

Myanmar is rich in oil and gas and currently France’s Total, in partnership with US energy giant Chevron, and Malaysia’s Petronas are among the overseas firms enjoying the fruits of a tie-up with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Meanwhile only 13 percent of the population has access to electricity, according to 2009 figures from the World Bank.

Critics say the rewards of the nation’s energy bounty are being shared among foreign investors and the regime, rather than its impoverished people.

There is hope that the new government “will be much more accountable and much more transparent with what it does with oil and gas revenues, but it is still to be seen,” said Sean
Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Locals fear the new government led by former general President Thein Sein, which replaced the junta in March 2011, will do little to share the spoils.

“We are victims of a kind of colonialism,” said Khaing Kuang San, an activist against the Shwe Gas project, showing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Our Gas, Our Future.”

On the tropical island of Shweri Chai, a six hour boat journey from Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, San Kyaw’s small oil well extracts about 35 litres (nine US gallons) a day.

Several men sleep in turn in a shack, which houses the pulley used to heave the precious liquid from about 200 metres (650 feet) below the surface.

“I prefer to drill it myself, rather than leaving it to foreigners,” he said, pulling at the cable while smoking a cigar.

“We’ve been doing this for 300 years.”

That may be an exaggeration, but Myanmar is indeed one of the world’s oldest oil producers, exporting its first barrel in the 1850s.

More than a century and a half later Shweri Chai is proud that it can power its generators from oil produced by its seven wells, providing energy for the small fishing village in a country where power cuts are otherwise routine.

But not all the inhabitants of the region, which borders Bangladesh, are as well off, explained Khaing Pyi Soe, party secretary for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), the dominant power in the regional parliament.

“We want some benefits of the Shwe Gas” in order to provide power for the wider state, he said, referring to a set of controversial projects to exploit gas reserves off the coast of Rakhine.

These include building an 800 kilometre (500 mile) pipeline to transport Myanmar gas to China, and a parallel line for oil shipped in from Africa and the Middle East.

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPN) is the major partner in the two pipelines, which will be able to carry 10-13 million cubic metres (350-450 million cubic feet) of gas and 22 million tonnes of oil a year from 2013, according to its website.

But opponents of the scheme are not convinced by a CNPN pledge to ensure Myanmar can use the pipeline through its territory “to meet local needs for natural gas”.

Shwe Gas will generate $29 billion over 30 years, according to a recent report by the Arakan Oil Watch (AOW) a local campaign group.

Oil and gas “generated huge revenues, but a lack of transparency and mismanagement have left Myanmar with one of the worst development indicators in the world, creating a resource curse,” it said.

According to experts, oil and — more significantly — gas will be the main focus of foreign investment over coming years, even though the extent of reserves is unknown in a country where exploration has barely begun.

According to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) figures, Myanmar could have 50 million barrels of oil and 283.2 million cubic metres of natural gas — much of it offshore.

The government has gradually assigned chunks of this untapped wealth to overseas firms including from South Korea, India, China and Thailand who, according to AOW, “refuse to publish what they paid the military regime”.

Far from these considerations, in Rakhine state many simply hope to avoid a similar fate to the farmers who have been evicted to make way for pipelines and oil and gas terminals on the island of Kyaukpiu.

“About 10,000 people were evicted just in Rakhine state,” said activist Khaing Kaung San.

As for the oil drillers of Shweri Chai, they are keen to play down the significance of the potential bonanza beneath their feet.

“In the past we drilled more than 100 gallons a day in the village,” recalled San Kyaw.

“But we closed wells so foreign companies would not come and drill.”

Myanmar reforms leave political prisoners behind
By TODD PITMAN | Associated Press – Wed, May 9, 2012

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — In a remote prison in northwest Myanmar, Aye Aung wakes up each day as he has for nearly 14 years — alone in a dark cell on a wooden plank, a prisoner of conscience all but forgotten by the world.

For hours, the former student activist meditates and reads the books his father brings from afar every other month. But mostly, he lives in the mind-numbing boredom of captivity. Now 36, he has never seen a cell phone, never surfed the Internet, never married or had children.

Although Myanmar’s military-backed government has released hundreds of well-known dissidents over the past year as part of a startling series of reforms that have earned it lavish praise and an easing of sanctions, rights advocates say hundreds more remain wrongfully locked away — their cases in danger of being forgotten amid rising hope for a more open, democratic nation.

“If this government is really changing, why have they not freed my son?” asked his mother, San Myint, as tears slid down her cheeks during an interview in Yangon.

“He’s done nothing wrong,” the visibly shaken 66-year-old told The Associated Press at her home, where one wall is adorned with a prominent picture of a youthful Aye Aung smiling broadly as he plays guitar beside a friend. “It’s cruel and unfair. We just want him to come home.”

Aye Aung’s troubles began in late 1998, when he was arrested and sentenced months later to a 59-year prison term for his role in a pro-democracy student movement. He had distributed pamphlets and participated in a rare public protest, both of which were deemed by authorities a threat to state security.

His sentence has since been halved, but he still must serve about 15 more years. Until then, he remains incarcerated in the Kalay prison of Myanmar’s distant northwest, a three-day bus ride from his family’s Yangon home. His parents say he suffers from stomach problems and sporadic bouts of malaria, and medical treatment in the prison is poor.
Myanmar, meanwhile, is moving on.

Global investors are lining up to do business. Tourists are arriving in droves. Foreign dignitaries jet in every few days to discuss a brighter future. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Western nations during a visit this month to ease sanctions further and boost aid.

Win Mra, who heads a government-appointed National Human Rights Commission appointed last year, said he has made some attempt to get remaining prisoners on the agenda, but acknowledged it’s not a government priority.

“If there are prisoners of conscience remaining, yes, they should be released,” Win Mra said. “But it’s a moot point right now because there are so many other things happening.”

According to a count by Human Rights Watch, President Thein Sein’s administration freed at least 659 political prisoners over the past year. They included well-known student activists, Buddhist monks who rose up in 1988 and 2007, journalists and ethnic minority leaders.

Since then, however, the issue has largely been dropped because, after the last amnesty on Jan. 13., “the Home Ministry stated clearly that they freed all of them,” Win Mra said.

That any political prisoners were released at all is significant because Myanmar’s leaders traditionally have denied they exist. The government argues that the accused broke laws threatening security or national stability; rights groups say many were wrongfully convicted and given extreme sentences for actions that would not even be considered crimes
elsewhere.

Getting more prisoners released is difficult because many of those remaining in jail are accused of “committing serious crimes — bombings, terrorist activities,” Win Mra added.
“It’s pretty complicated.”

In a rare joint statement last week, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a U.N.-backed panel to investigate remaining inmates believed jailed for political reasons. The government hasn’t responded.

“Without a proper legal review process, how can anybody be sure” those now in jail were not wrongfully convicted? said David Mathieson, a veteran researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“It’s obscene that many Western countries are blithely dropping sanctions when there is unfinished business on the political prisoner issue to attend to,” he said.

Like the plight of Aye Aung, another case crying out for review is that of Thant Zaw, a one-time youth activist imprisoned in 1989 for an alleged bomb attack.

Thant Zaw denied involvement, but was beaten and sentenced to death in what Mathieson called “one of the most brutally farcical legal proceedings” in Myanmar’s history. The actual bomber confessed to the crime, served time and already has been released, Mathieson said.

Min Ko Naing, a leader of a 1988 student movement who was himself released in January, said Thant Zaw and other inmates may still be in prison because authorities “just don’t want to admit they made a mistake.”

But he also said the government was using prisoners as “bargaining chips” — releasing some to prove progress, holding others to push the West to ease more sanctions.
Many also suffer from anonymity. Nobody knows the exact number.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners group has detailed 471 cases, and is trying to verify hundreds more. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton recently put the number between 200 and 600.

San Myint said she and her husband recently found an older list of prisoners of conscience drawn up by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party that was delivered to the government last year. Their son was left out — perhaps by error or ignorance — and many of those on it were freed.

They made sure their son appears on the opposition’s newly compiled list of 280 names.

The first entry: Aye Aung.

U.S. says “eyes wide open” in response to Myanmar changes
WASHINGTON | Fri May 11, 2012 6:07pm EDT

(Reuters) – The United States is matching Myanmar’s tentative steps toward democracy after decades of harsh military rule with a calibrated re-engagement, aware of the potential for setbacks, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Friday.

Patrick Murphy, the State Department’s deputy special representative for Myanmar, said Washington is deepening its engagement with the reformist government, looking at easing more sanctions and likely to appoint a U.S. ambassador “in coming weeks.”

“We embrace these changes that are taking place with eyes wide open,” he said in remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank.

Washington was pleased so far with dramatic developments over the past year that have seen the freeing of hundreds of political prisoners, a more liberal media environment and the seating in parliament of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her fellow National League for Democracy lawmakers, said Murphy.

But he said the nascent reform process in the former British colony also known as Burma remained a work in progress.

“What it’s not, however, is a change that is guaranteed. It’s fragile and it’s incomplete,” said Murphy.

Experts note that poverty is widespread in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country, hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail, the army that ruled the country for 50 years is still at war with some ethnic minority groups, notably in the Kachin state in the north.

“Anything less than stable, prosperous, freer spells trouble for the region and it spells trouble for the country’s population of roughly 60 million,” said Murphy.

Under an “action for action” policy, Washington has gradually peeled back some of the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar since 1990, allowing technical assistance by international financial institutions and authorizing financial transactions for selected non-profit projects.

The State Department is working with stakeholders, including the U.S. Congress, on revising U.S. sanctions, said Murphy, who noted the complexity of penalties covered by five federal laws and four presidential executive orders issued from 1990-2008.

“To really describe all of our sanctions and how they can be adjusted, I’d need a team of 20 lawyers and the rest of the day,” he said.

11 Mei, 2012 11:40 AM
Myanmar, Poland To Cooperate In Energy Sector

YANGON, May 11 (Bernama) — Myanmar and Poland will cooperate in the energy sector as part of an economic collaboration between the two countries, official media reported today.

During the talks between Myanmar Energy Minister U Than Htay and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Nay Pyi Taw, Poland offered to invest in Myanmar’s energy sector, machinery and technical services and training of experts from Myanmar.

Myanmar will sell machinery to Poland and hire technical services through a tender system, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

An economic seminar organised by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Polish Foreign Ministry was held here where a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Myanmar Geoscience Association and Polish AGH University of Science and Technology.

During Sikorski’s visit to Myanmar from Wednesday to Thursday, both he and Myanmar President U Thein Sein discussed economic development in Myanmar, suspension and lifting of sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU), targeted investment of Poland in factories, dockyards, rail transportation and energy sector, as well as aid in human resources development and technology sectors.

The Polish foreign minister also donated teaching aids to four schools in two townships in Yangon under the Polish Development Cooperation Initiative Programme.

N. Korea, Myanmar on different paths
By Song Sang-ho in Seoul/The Korea Herald |
Asia News Network – Thu, May 10, 2012

Seoul (The Korea Herald/ANN) – Until recently, both North Korea and Myanmar were labelled pariahs by the international community for their autocratic rule, human rights abuses and closed-door policy. But they are now on completely different paths.

Pyongyang remains isolated and sanctioned while sticking to its military adventurism despite criticism for undermining peace and security here and beyond, and failing to take due steps for its crumbling economy and starving people.

But the Southeast Asian state has recently made strides toward democracy, which the US, the EU and others have rewarded by relaxing long-standing economic sanctions.

Its government has freed hundreds of political prisoners, eased media control, reached truces with ethnic rebels and held by-elections that enabled iconic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to enter parliament.

Above all, the critical difference between them is the level of opposition activities. Pyongyang apparently has no such word as “dissent” in its political vocabulary, while there has long been the formidable opposition figure in Myanmar.

“The biggest difference is the existence of reformist figures in political circles,” said Jang Jun-young, senior research fellow at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

“On the surface, all reforms and openness policies are led by the Myanmarese government. But in actuality, it closely coordinates with Suu Kyi. That is why the reforms are moving forward without much resistance.”

While Myanmar has the Nobel peace laureate who has strengthened her political capital and international support while under house arrest for much of the last quarter-century, the North has no personality to speak out against its repressive regime.

“In the 1950s, its national founder Kim Il-sung purged all potential opposition forces, which made its society monolithic. But in Myanmar, the opposition heroine Suu Kyi has gained her foothold through electoral procedures,” said Park Eun-hong, a social science professor at Sungkonghoe University.

Jang of HUFS noted that whereas power is monopolised by a single leader in Pyongyang, top military leaders or retirees in Myanmar share administrative power, albeit unequally.

Another critical motivation for Myanmar’s reform was its public’s experience in democratic electoral procedures, which are inconceivable in the North that has recently seen a third power succession.

After Britain’s colonial rule from 1886 to 1948, people in Myanmar enjoyed electoral democracy until 1962 when the military took control of the country through a coup.

“In Myanmar, people had an experience of electoral democracy, which might stem from remnants of British colonial culture, and are now aware that political legitimacy is based on fair electoral procedures,” said Park of Sungkonghoe University.

“The popular uprising in 1988 in Myanmar brought back such memories of democracy and the military junta had also been aware that they were not free from such public sentiment.”

Pyongyang also holds elections to pick members of its rubber-stamp Supreme People’s Assembly. Defectors say voters who were brainwashed to worship the Kim dynasty are forced to pick a single candidate nominated by the ruling Workers’ Party.

Stressing the role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in bringing Myanmar out into the international community, Hong Hyun-ik, senior research fellow at Sejong Institute, said South Korea should do more to encourage Pyongyang to open up.

The 10-member Asean has continued economic cooperation with Myanmar despite international sanctions against the country, and used its leverage to persuade it to take the path of reform, he said.

“But in the case of North Korea, its neighbours including Seoul and Tokyo have joined sanctions against it, which shrank room for the North to open up to the outside world,” Hong said. “For Pyongyang to change, it is crucial whether South Korea takes the role Asean has played for Myanmar to make a shift.”

Myanmar joined the association in 1997 after it struggled for membership for nearly two decades amid criticism for its dictatorial rule and human rights violations. It failed to take its turn as the rotating chair of the association in 2006 under international pressure. But last year, Myanmar was chosen to chair the organisation in 2014.

Although skeptics say reforms taking place in Myanmar may be fragile, they can be sustained with efforts to diversify its diplomatic policy, which had focused heavily on China, analysts said.

For both Myanmar and the North, China has been the primary patron. Analysts said that for the Asian power, Pyongyang has been a buffer against American power while Myanmar, with untapped rich resources including oil and natural gas, is of a great strategic value.

In recent months, however, there has been talk of the North being a liability for China’s future as it continues to make provocative moves, such as the recent botched rocket launch, that damage Beijing’s national interests.

But Myanmar still remains a crucial strategic spot for China, which experts say is part of the reason why Beijing has supported Myanmar when the West tightened its sanctions for the country’s poor human rights conditions.

China has pushed for a project to build several pipelines through Myanmar to transport oil and natural gas. The pipelines will reduce the cost for transporting its oil imports from the Middle East or Africa by replacing routes through the Strait of Malacca. For China, Myanmar is also crucial to advance into the Indian Ocean.

Aware of such China-centred schemes, Myanmar has begun to seek a more balanced relationship with it and diversified its foreign policy.

“Myanmar does not want to be too dependent on China as it has been for the last two decades. What it really wants is to maintain a balanced position between big powers such as China, the US and India,” said Jang of HUFS.

A wave of ongoing changes in the communist bloc, including Vietnam, could serve as a lesson for Pyongyang, but in the country where outside information is tightly controlled with no social networking services, reform is still fanciful, experts said.

Bloomberg – Myanmar Junta’s Penguins Obscure 64 Million in Blackout
By Shamim Adam and Daniel Ten Kate – May 8, 2012 12:34 AM PT

Former Thai General Lertrat Ratanavanich remembers his regular meetings with Myanmar junta leader Than Shwe, who ran the country for 19 years. Like the time the dictator asked for some penguins.

“Than Shwe is very fond of animals, so I was requested by His Excellency to bring penguins,” said Lertrat, who retired from the army in 2007 and is now a director of PTT Exploration & Production Pcl, Thailand’s biggest oil explorer. “We also sent two giraffes.”

Putting penguins in climate-controlled pens while 64 million people suffer regular power blackouts shows the task facing Myanmar’s year-old government to undo half a century of military rule that kept Southeast Asia’s second-biggest country out of the region’s economic boom. Efforts by the generals to escape sanctions by slackening their grip on power may take years to translate into the development achieved by regional neighbors Thailand and Malaysia, said Hugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd. in Singapore.

“It’s more speculation than anything else at this stage,” said Young, who helps manage $70 billion in Asian equities. “The economic growth could be great but translating that into a good return on any equity investment, private equity or public, is another matter.”

The country had its most inclusive elections in two decades on April 1, lawmakers are revamping the financial system and President Thein Sein, who took over from Than Shwe in March 2011, signed a preliminary cease-fire with the country’s largest armed rebel force in a move to end the world’s longest civil war.

Sanctions Rollback

As a result, the U.S. agreed to lift some sanctions on investment, remove certain travel bans and name an ambassador to the country for the first time since 1990. The European Union and Canada suspended non-military sanctions and Australia eased travel restrictions for some Myanmar officials.

That may help boost economic growth to 7.7 percent a year in 2016-2020, from 4.8 percent last year, should the generals remain in control and continue with limited reforms, the Economist Intelligence Unit said in an April report.

“It’s the same people, but with a different mindset, and they are still in power and people start to like them,” said Luc de Waegh, who has been doing business in Myanmar since he helped set up British American Tobacco Plc (BATS)’s operations there in 1993. “The generals were smart enough to realize that the old way of running the country was not the way of the future; that if they wanted to stay in power they have to change.”

Mobius Cautious

Myanmar needs to develop its currency and banking system for the country to catch up with its neighbors, said Mark Mobius, who oversees about $50 billion as Singapore-based executive chairman of Franklin Templeton’s Emerging Markets Group. Better infrastructure and a proper legal structure are also needed, according to Franklin Templeton.

“It’s still too early,” Mobius told reporters in Bangkok in April. “We are talking about a few years from now. Myanmar will eventually do as well as Thailand.”

In 2011, Myanmar’s gross domestic product was $54.8 billion, while Thailand’s was $219 billion and Singapore, with a population of 5.2 million, had an output of $180 billion. In 1969 Myanmar’s GDP was about $6 billion, compared with $8.8 billion for Singapore and $19.3 billion for Thailand, according to World Bank and International Monetary Fund data.

About 75 percent of the population lacks access to electricity, the Asian Development Bank said in a report last month. One in 30 people have a mobile phone and less than one percent of the population has an Internet connection, Nomura Holdings Inc. said in a March 14 report.

‘Extravagant Projects’

“The previous military government had a penchant for extravagant, wasteful projects,” Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) said in an April 20 report, noting that construction of Naypyidaw, the new capital unveiled in 2005, may have cost 10 percent of gross domestic product. “Under a democratic government, taxpayers would probably prevent such wastage.”

Myanmar lawmakers debated the fiscal 2012-2013 budget that took effect April 1, shedding light on a process cloaked in secrecy during military rule. Authorities plan to reduce military spending to 14.5 percent of total expenditures, from 23.5 percent, with social spending increasing to 7.5 percent from 5.4 percent, the IMF said in a report today.

“It is certainly a very positive step forward but at the same time we see significantly more room for fiscal transparency,” Meral Karasulu, the IMF’s mission chief in Myanmar, told reporters on a conference call.

Prisoners Released

In the past year the Myanmar government released more than 20,000 prisoners including political adversaries, eased censorship and allowed public protests subject to permission.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the past 23 years under house arrest, entered parliament last week after her opposition party swept 43 of 44 seats it contested in the April by-elections.

Still, a transfer to full democracy is still a long way away. Thein Sein retains the backing of about 75 percent of the 664 members in the two houses of parliament, either through his Union Solidarity and Development Party or from the military, which holds 25 percent of both houses under the constitution.

A general election isn’t due until 2015, at which time Thein Sein, 67, may step down, according to Ko Ko Hlaing, his top political advisor. Even then, Oxford-educated Suu Kyi can’t become president because her children are British, and amending that article requires support from 75 percent of lawmakers followed by a referendum.

Currency Float

Meanwhile the government is encouraging a flood of investment from China, South Korea, Japan and its neighbors in Southeast Asia. The country has moved toward scrapping a multiple exchange-rate system by implementing a managed float of its currency and is revising laws to attract foreign capital.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak led a 100-member delegation in March, a month after executives from 74 Singapore- based companies made the trip. Malayan Banking Bhd. (MAY), Malaysia’s biggest lender, on March 20 agreed with four Myanmar banks to facilitate remittances. Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Malaysia’s state oil company, operates oil and gas fields in Myanmar including Yetagun, which supplies natural gas to Thailand.

Orchid Diplomacy

Singapore, which named orchids after Thein Sein and his wife, agreed in January to train Myanmar officials in economic planning, central banking, trade facilitation and legal reform.
Razali Ismail, a former UN special envoy who resigned in 2005 after Myanmar repeatedly refused him entry to the country, is back again, this time as executive chairman of Malaysia’s Cypark Resources Bhd. (CYP) On March 29, Razali was in Naypyidaw to sign a preliminary agreement for a waste management and renewable energy project, according to Cypark. Razali didn’t reply to an interview request.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on April 13 became the first Western leader since the by-elections to visit the country, where the British fought three wars and ruled for more than a century. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon arrived on April 29 and lauded the country’s transition to democracy.

“I have no doubt that Myanmar will quickly catch up with its Asian neighbors and our fast-changing world,” Ban said in the first address to the new parliament by a global leader. “Myanmar has within it a vast potential to become a 21st century model for peace, democracy and prosperity.”

False Dawn

This isn’t the first time Myanmar’s leadership has taken steps toward restoring a democracy only to backtrack. The junta released Suu Kyi from house arrest in May 2002, prompting the UN to call it a “major development” toward national reconciliation. By June 2003, Suu Kyi was back in detention.

“The building blocks to all the changes that have taken place over the past year really have been in place for a while,” said Thant Myint-U, an author of two books on Myanmar whose grandfather, U Thant, was the first Asian head of the UN. “It’s surprising only to people who had an incredibly narrow view of the way things were before — fixated on the relationship between Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta.”

Military leaders in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, drew up a seven-point “road map” in 2003 to restore democracy, unveiled by then-Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. Steps included a new constitution, which was announced in late 2007 after street protests led by Buddhist monks called the Saffron Revolution. To ease dissent, the military government promised a referendum on the new constitution the following year.

Saffron Revolution

“The process speeded up after the Saffron Revolution — that’s what scared the hell out of them,” said David Steinberg, distinguished professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

To survive sanctions, Southeast Asia’s second-largest country by land area depended on its neighbors, including the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Myanmar joined in 1997.

“Myanmar had three windows to the world — China, India and Asean,” said Ong Keng Yong, former secretary-general of Asean and Singapore’s High Commissioner to Malaysia. “They were instrumental in helping Myanmar survive its isolation.”

Part of the reason for increasing Asean partnerships may be concern about the influence of China, said Derek Tonkin, former British ambassador to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos and chairman of Network Myanmar, which promotes engagement with the country.

China accounts for about half the $26 billion in total foreign investment Myanmar has attracted since 2008, according to the Naypyidaw-based Central Statistical Organization.

China National Petroleum Corp., China’s biggest energy producer, is building pipelines in Myanmar, and China Nonferrous Metals Co. is developing a nickel mine.

China Sentiment

“The Burmese have had enough of China,” said Tonkin. “There is a strong nationalistic feeling that it’s time that they move away from the Chinese and encourage other investors.”

In September, Thein Sein halted work on the $3.6 billion Myitsone hydropower dam across the Irrawaddy being built with China Power Investment Corp., saying the project was against the “will of the people.” China Power called the decision “bewildering” and President Lu Qizhou said on March 10 it’s in talks with the government to resume the project.

Japan, Myanmar’s biggest creditor, is also stepping up efforts to engage a country it occupied from 1942 to 1945. After Thein Sein visited Tokyo last month, Japan forgave 303.5 billion yen ($3.7 billion) of debt and pledged aid and financing for ports, bridges and roads.

In a speech in March marking a year since he took office, Thein Sein said the country needed to “root out the evil legacies” in society. He urged reconciliation and said he wanted to see youths from ethnic groups using laptops instead of brandishing guns. Lertrat, the procurer of penguins, said the influence of the junta will remain.

“Myanmar is opening up and I don’t think they will go back,” he said. “Full democracy is still far away.”

Saturday May 12, 2012
The Star – Myanmar may let in foreign lenders by 2015

YANGON: Myanmar may allow foreign banks to set up operations through joint ventures with local partners by 2015 when South-East Asian countries are expected to formally integrate their economies, say bankers and industry officials familiar with the planned bank reforms.

Despite a year of wide-ranging political reforms, Myanmar’s government has been slow to revise laws on the growing number of foreign banks clamouring to tap the country of 60 million people, whose natural gas, minerals and other resources make it one of Asia’s most tantalising frontier markets.

As the United States and European Union lift economic sanctions, foreign banks remain limited to representative offices that can do little more than conduct research.

Some local media have reported they would be authorised to open full operational branches by 2014. But central bank officials said in interviews they doubted it would happen so soon.

“What I understand from the policy laid down earlier is local private banks will be opened first, then representative offices of foreign banks will be allowed, after that joint ventures between local private and foreign banks will come and finally foreign banks will be allowed,” said one central bank official, declining to be identified.

Myanmar borders might reopen
The Nation May 12, 2012 1:00 am

The border crossings ordered closed by the leader of an armed Karen minority group might be open again, judging from the fact that Thai and Myanmar vendors seem to be travelling back and forth. The closures were apparently put in effect last week.

Weerawong Suwannawong, a senior official in Tak province’s Phob Phra district, said it appeared the border closure had been lifted, though military officials were wondering whether the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) had been ordered to do so by Myanmar authorities.

Neither Myanmar government nor DKBA have issued any statements about the border closure.

Weerawong said he did not know whether the blockades had been completely or partially lifted, though most Thai vendors and tourists are not crossing over to Myanmar in droves like before because they know that the DKBA leader, General Na Kha Muay, still faces an arrest warrant.

“Relations between Thai and Karen locals have not returned to normal, so the trust [on the Thai side] has not fully been regained,” he added.

The socalled lifting of the blockade came one day after the DKBA leader issued a statement denying having anything to do with the production or trade in drugs, as implied in an arrest warrant issued nine years ago. Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung dredged up this warrant, since he is leading the Thai government crackdown on narcotics.

Chalerm renewed his attacks yesterday, saying the Karen leader was a wanted man and had to be arrested, though he seemed to have softened his stance from calling the DKBA chief “one of those blacklisted”.

The Buffalo News – Burmese refugee’s photos go on exhibit today
By Lou Michel, News Staff Reporter
Published:May 11, 2012, 12:00 AM
Updated: May 11, 2012, 8:07 AM

A photo exhibit featuring the acclaimed work of Law Eh Soe, a Burmese refugee living in Buffalo, is set to open at 5:30 p.m. today in the CEPA Gallery at the Market Arcade Building downtown.

Regarded as a hero in his native land for photographing the 2007 “Saffron Revolution” and helping expose the brutality of the military regime, Law works as an interpreter for the International Institute of Buffalo.

The exhibit will feature 50 images, half of them in color and the rest in black and white. There will also be a 6 p.m. showing of the documentary “Click in Fear,” which details Law’s photojournalistic coverage of the revolution that helped lay the groundwork for the recent loosening up of military control in Burma.

One of Law’s photographs was featured as the cover of a book by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, a leader of democracy efforts in Burma.

Other photos have been televised on CNN and printed in Time magazine, the International Herald Tribune and the Bangkok Post.

Lauren A. Tent, CEPA’s education director, assisted Law in printing his negatives, which he had hidden in Thailand after fleeing Burma after the revolution.

“Law’s photographs are beautiful and show us everyday life in Burma, and his love for his country really comes through in his photographs,” Tent said.

Eva M. Hassett, executive director of the International Institute, helped organize the exhibit after viewing Law’s work.

“We are all so proud of Law and proud to know him and all of the new Buffalonians,” Hassett said. “I hope everyone can get the chance to attend.”

The gallery at 617 Main St. will remain open until 8 tonight, and the exhibit continues through June 9 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Saturday.

Funds for the exhibit were provided by Stanford Lipsey, publisher of The Buffalo News; the Baird Foundation; and 116 contributors to a special “Kickstarter” campaign.

“We got $4,500 from that campaign, and people all over the world contributed,” Tent said. “It was phenomenal.”

New Kerala – Myanmar to host Asia-Pacific Junior Golf Championship

Yangon, May 11 : Myanmar will host the 33rd Asia-Pacific Junior Golf Championship at Pun Hlaing Golf Course here this month, according to the Myanmar Golf Federation Friday.

Organized by Myanmar Golf Federation, the four-day championship is scheduled to take place from May 15 to 18.

The championship will be categorized as 15-17 aged as group A, 13-14 aged as group B, 11-12 aged as group C and under-10 aged as group D.

The championship will be joined by the young golfers from the Philippines, Thailand, China’s Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and host Myanmar (ANI)

Unresolved Ethnic Issues Threaten Myanmar Reforms
By Carey L. Biron

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2012 (IPS) – Discussion of economic reforms in Myanmar (Burma) should not overshadow the critical need for a political solution to the longstanding grievances of the country’s ethnic minorities, observers in Washington warned on Friday.

In recent days, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that Myanmar is set for an “economic takeoff”, even while new reports state that ongoing violence in the ethnic minority Kachin state has claimed the lives of 31 more people.

“When you talk to government officials in Burma about the problems in the ethnic areas, their usual reaction is to say that the answer is economic development. I think that is absolutely not the case,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch, speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“If you begin with economic development in areas that are still experiencing conflict, where you have no political solution, you’re going to have the wrong kind of development – a continuation of the kinds of human rights abuses that we’ve seen for many years.”

Anger has festered in Myanmar’s ethnic-majority areas for decades, motivated particularly by the fact that the national government and economy has been dominated by the Burman majority since the country’s independence.

This alienation has sparked the creation of numerous armed ethnic groups as well as some of the longest-running conflicts in the world.

Over the past year, however, a series of political reforms have been enacted, and the government has put a clear priority on negotiating ceasefires with many of the armed ethnic groups. Yet critics warn that the talks have been focused solely on getting signed agreements – while the underlying grievances have been pushed aside.

As yet, there has been almost no official discussion on about moving towards a political solution to these issues.

Even the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy (NLD), only recently came around to prioritising the ethnic issue.

“The National League for Democracy has always said, ‘Solve the political problems first and then we will solve the economics problems and the minority problem,’” says David Steinberg, a long- time Myanmar expert currently with Georgetown University here in Washington. “I thought that was unsound from the beginning. These are parallel things that go together.”

The broader difficulty in moving forward is undoubtedly due to pushback from the military.

While Myanmar has been under military control for more than a half- century, in January 2011 a quasi-civilian government was created, albeit under a new military-written constitution.

Although the full extent of civilian rule in Myanmar today thus remains open to debate, in the ethnic areas there is no debate whatsoever.

“The civilian government has no sway over what happens in the ethnic areas,” says Malinowski. “On at least two occasions, President Thein Sein has asked the army to cease offensive operations in Kachin state, and the army has simply continued to do what it’s been doing.”

On Thursday, reports arose of a military commander in the north promising that his troops are preparing to “wipe out” the 8,000- strong Kachin Independence Army.

According to many analysts, one of the primary issues at stake is one of resources, with the minority-dominated areas being particularly rich in this regard.

Control of the ethnic areas could thus be a key factor in one of the most critical long-term issues for Myanmar: civilian control over the military.

“The more the military has access to its own sources of revenues, the less it needs to listen to a president like Thein Sein,” Malinowski says.

While it remains unclear how or when the civilian government will be able to turn greater focus on the issue of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, there could already be a potentially powerful tool available within the new constitution: provincial legislatures in the minority areas.

Although these bodies are yet to have any real power, Steinberg says that their real problem is a lack of capacity. “One of the things that the U.S. and ASEAN ought to do is try to build capacity within these bodies, so that minority communities can begin to represent their own people in the central government.”

In the eyes of some, issues of ethnicity and nationalism have played significant roles in bringing about the recent months of reforms, as well.

One of the arguments against Western-imposed economic sanctions over the past decade has been that such measures would drive Myanmar into the arms of the Chinese. Indeed, this is just what has happened, with China having for years been Myanmar’s strongest bilateral relationship, investing massive sums of money in the country.

Recent years, however, have seen growing anti-Chinese sentiment among many in Myanmar, at all levels of society.

“Chinese investment became associated with corruption,” says Malinowski. “It was seen by people with a sense of nationalism, both in the opposition and in the Burmese military – it was seen as bad for the country’s interests.”

In turn, that helped to foster a push on the part of a new generation of Burmese leaders to reach out to alternative partners, particularly the United States.

Still, such nationalism could yet prove dangerous for the fragile reforms process, particularly if the international community insists on claiming ownership for what is taking place in Myanmar today.

“The reforms themselves need to be seen as Burmese – they are not foreign,” Steinberg warns. “For foreigners to take credit for these would be a mistake given the highly nationalistic elements in that society.”

Friday, May 11, 2012
The Japan Times – Chance to improve public health in Myanmar
By CESAR CHELALA

NEW YORK — In 1998, the publication Burma Debate included my article “The Health of Burma’s Women and Children,” which was a critical assessment of the health situation in the country. It was a groundbreaking article in that as soon as it was published I received a midnight call from UNICEF’s representative in Myanmar warning of a possible backlash from the government. As things seem to be changing in Myanmar, I hope this article contributes positively to improvements in that punished country. — C.C.

The rapid changes now taking place in Myanmar (aka Burma) are creating the conditions for renewed support of the country’s precarious public health system, the right way to improve the Burmese people’s dismal health status. This could be one of the most helpful measures foreign governments and organizations can give to the Burmese people.

In recent years public spending on Burma’s public health system has been less than 0.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. In 2000, Myanmar ranked as the second worst country in overall health system performance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, there were wide inequities between urban and rural areas, and health services failed to cover the most peripheral regions in the country.

In 2008, the U.N. Development Program’s Human Development Index, which measures progress in terms of life expectancy, adjusted real income and educational achievement, ranked Myanmar 133 out of 177 countries.

New measures are badly needed by a population with a poor health status, reflected in tens of thousands of deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, cancer and respiratory infections. Every year, tens of thousands of Burmese travel to Thailand to seek medical care at the 120-bed Mae Tao Clinic, where services are free and nobody is turned away. Those reaching the clinic seek treatment for a host of diseases now common in Myanmar.

The best assessment of the health situation in the country has been provided by the WHO Country Cooperation Strategy, which presents the direction and priority areas for the organization’s work.

Malaria remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the country. What’s worse is that a majority of malaria infections have developed a high resistance to anti-malaria drugs. In addition, Myanmar is also one of 22 countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis. Increasingly, TB patients are showing multidrug resistance to available treatment.

Although some progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, international sanctions have hampered efforts to curb its spread. A quarter of a million people are infected with HIV, according to U.N. statistics. But only a small percentage has access to anti-retroviral therapy. Among those most likely to contract the virus are intravenous drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men.

Myanmar has one of the highest adult HIV prevalence rates, after Cambodia and Thailand. According to the Doctors Without Borders’ report “Preventable Fate,” 25,000 Burmese died of AIDS in 2007. These deaths could have been easily prevented with anti-retroviral therapy drugs and proper treatment.

Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are now seasonal epidemics in some parts of the country, and leprosy, although no longer a serious public health problem in Myanmar, still needs more control activities and improvements in services.

Noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases (including hypertension) and cancers are increasingly becoming public health problems due to widespread risk factors in the population such as smoking. At the same time, malnutrition, including several micronutrient deficiencies, continues to be a serious health concern in Myanmar.

The under-resourced public health care system has had negative effects on access to health services. It is estimated that the government in Myanmar spends a smaller percent of its GDP on health care than any other country in the world, and international donor organizations give less to Myanmar, per capita, than to any other country except for India.

This year, however, the government has quadrupled its health budget and has addressed the lack of supplies and poor hospital conditions. At the same time, the government intends to improve doctors’ education and increase technical exchange programs with other countries.

If political conditions continue to improve in the country, it will be an opportunity to re-assess the role of international aid.

To be effective, aid will have to be aligned with national programs and policies, be closely monitored and respond to the technical demands suggested by donor countries.
The Burmese people’s better health will be the best reward for these actions.

Cesar Chelala is a winner of the Overseas Press Club of America award.

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) – Barroso meets with Myanmar Parliament Speaker
Date : 5/12/2012

BRUSSELS, May 12 (KUNA) — President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso Saturday met the visiting Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament of Myanmar, U Shwe Mann.

During the meeting the Speaker explained at length the peaceful transition underway in Myanmar and the commitment of the authorities to national reconciliation and democratic values, according to a statement issued by Barroso’s office.

On his part, Barroso expressed the European Union’s support to the undergoing political and economic reforms and assured the Myanmar official of his personal and of the European Commission’s support to the democratic process in Myanmar.

He encouraged further action concerning the release of political prisoners, rule of law and inter-ethnic dialogue.

The EU recently suspended its sanctions on Myanmar and pledged a new package of EUR 150 million in development assistance for 2012/2013 and the opening of a diplomatic presence in Myanmar.

Asian Tribune – Can Burma’s President do well creating good and clean governance?
Sun, 2012-05-13 00:40 — editor
By: Zin Linn
13 May (Asiantribune.com):

President Thein Sein of Myanmar (Burma) made a speech at the work coordination meeting to carry out the national and regional development tasks held at the President Office on Friday, the New Light of Myanmar said today.

Vice- President Dr Sai Mauk Kham, Deputy Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Nanda Kyaw Swa, Union ministers, region and state chief ministers, chairmen of self-administered zones, and officials were also attended the meeting.

Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is said to be resigned from his position for health reasons, did not appear at the meeting. Other absentees were Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint, Deputy Speaker Mya Nyein, Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann who are on oversea trip to Japan and Europe respectively.

In his speech, President said that the new government has been undertaking a series of reforms covering national solidarity, prevalence of peace and stability, ensuring security of the people, enhancing the international cooperation and introduction of clean government and good governance in order to promote multiparty democratic system. In addition, he explained the importance of implementing the country-wise tasks that need reforms for improving the socio-economic status of the people as second-step strategic change.

Thein Sein also suggested the government officials to make use of the international financial aids in poverty reduction, human resource development and other development tasks in respective areas. The foreign supports have to put under the proper management of the central committee, the work committee and region/state governments, he noted.

In order to fulfill those tasks, the Myanmar Socio-Economy Advisory Council has to be created, he said. As a result, social organizations and private sectors can help each other and submit proposals to the government. And social and economic organizations plus private sectors have to challenge ensuring the active participation of the people in the reform course, the President said.

After the investments, human resource development plays an important role in reform process, he said. Thus, the country needs to have skilled works at different levels in banking, hotel and tourism industry and other investment sectors. With this objective, Burma’s president has urged the millions of Burmese exiles who have been abroad for various reasons to come back home. He advised the exiles that were abroad include technicians, experts, businessmen and other careers to return.

In conclusion, the President said while carrying out reforms, the respective local-wise administrators must be polished to avoid corruption, bribery and unfriendly relations with the public.

The President made his conclusion by saying: “When it comes to the efforts for national economic development, it is needed to do business and make investment in line with the laws, rules and procedures without irregularities and to mobilize public cooperation without putting reliance on a handful of people alone. Only then, will the country be able to do good practices on a par with the international community,” the New Light of Myanmar reported.

According to some analysts, the President’s policy of good governance is still on the paper and grassroots people could not enjoy as yet. The privileged authorities and the cronies are as always above the law while workers and farmers have less benefit of equal rights in front of the law. For instance, the government fails to take action on its cronies and the military those confiscate lands and properties of workers and farmers without following the existing laws.

U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre highlights the corruption in Burma (Myanmar) as follow: “After more than four decades of military rule, political violence and systematic repression of democratic opposition, the country’s political and economic environment has continued to deteriorate in recent years. Myanmar faces major challenges of endemic corruption, consistently ranking at the bottom of TI’S Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Little is known on the specific forms and patterns of corruption in the country, but the scale of the informal and illicit economy suggests strong links between the ruling elite and organized crime activities, such as drugs and human trafficking, and illegal logging. In the absence of sound democratic institutions and an effective system of checks and balances, the legal and institutional frameworks against corruption appear rudimentary and likely to be misused by the junta for political reasons.”

The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, released annually by Transparency International, shows Burma (Myanmar) tied with Afghanistan as the world’s second-most corrupt nation.
So, President Thein Sein has to work harder to materialize his speech especially on fighting against the corruption and abuses of power. Without fighting corruption and abuses of power, it will be a castle in the wind to introduce clean government and good governance with the intention of upholding multiparty democratic system.

Bangkok Post – Myanmar crossings reopened
REBEL LEADER BOWS TO PRESSURE
Published: 13/05/2012 at 02:29 AM
Newspaper section: News

The Thailand-Myanmar border returned to normal yesterday after Karen rebel leader Na Kham Mwe ended a blockade of goods through his rebel-controlled areas.

He had closed access to all 12 border crossings for about two weeks to retaliate against the Thai government’s warrant for his arrest on drug trafficking charges.

Border residents from Tak’s Phop Phra district to Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhla Buri district welcomed the reopening. Several Thai farmers were seen crossing the border on trucks.

Bo Toh, a close aide of the rebel leader, said the resumption of border trade was at the request of Thai business operators in Myanmar.

He said senior Myanmar officials had raised the matter with the rebel leader but had exerted no pressure.

“Myanmar has given us authority to oversee the areas. The border is reopened to avoid affecting Thai operators and farmers in Myanmar,” Bo Toh said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said Thai authorities had forwarded the warrant for the rebel leader’s arrest to Myanmar.

He said he would travel to Myanmar if necessary to discuss the warrant. Na Kham Mwe is wanted for having 920,000 methamphetamine pills in his possession, he said.

Mr Chalerm, who traded barbs with the Karen rebel leader this week, expressed confidence his move would help curb drug trafficking.

Col Therdsak Ngam-sanong, spokesman for the Third Army, said yesterday the force had no information about Na Kham Mwe’s alleged involvement in the drug trade.

He said the arrest warrant was probably based on old information related to the anti-narcotics campaign several years ago.

“The number of seized drugs in each operation is a few thousand. The western border is unlikely to be a drug production base. It is more a trafficking route,” Col Therdsak said.

He said the Karen rebel group’s main earnings are from land development and mining concession taxes.

In the area opposite Tak province, armed militants of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) have tightened security around the house of Na Kham Mwe, their supreme commander, to prevent a raid by Myanmar authorities to arrest him.

Meanwhile, army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has instructed the Third Army to tighten security in border areas.

Security will be reinforced in the Three Pagodas area in Kanchanaburi to prepare for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s cabinet meeting in the province on next Saturday and Sunday.

The Irrawaddy – Aung San Museum—Discover Burma’s Hero
By HPYO WAI THA / THE IRRAWADDY| May 12, 2012

RANGOON—After parking his car outside the hill-top villa in a leafy neighborhood just a few hundred meters from the Shwedagon Pagoda, Zaw Htet Aung tells his son, “this is where General Aung San used to live.” His wife nods in agreement.

The couple chaperoned their boy to this two-storied colonial-style wooden house, namely the Bogyoke (General) Aung San Museum, for their only child’s benefit.

“He has seen Bogyoke in pictures,” said eight-year-old Tet Htut Aung’s father. “That’s why we’ve brought him here to have some more ideas about Aung San.”

After being closed for five years for large-scale maintenance, the former home of Burma’s national hero and his family has now reopened to the public—providing a unique glimpse into his private life.

Thaung Win, the director of the Rangoon National Museum and administrator of the Bogyoke Aung San Museum, told The Irrawaddy that the 91-year-old building reopened to the public on March 24 after renovations to strengthen the retaining walls as well as repairs to the roof, walkways and stairs.

“We want it to be one of the main information centers on Bogyoke Aung San as well as providing a window for young people to understand who he was and how he lived,” he said.

Aung San, the father of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, is still highly respected as the hero of Burmese independence for his efforts in bringing about the end of British colonial rule.

“Bogyoke” and his family lived in the villa on lease from a Chinese couple from 1945 until he was gunned down in a 1947 conspiracy masterminded by his political rival U Saw. Aung San was just 32 years old.

After her husband’s assassination, Khin Kyi kept raising their three children—Aung San Oo, Aung San Lin and Aung San Suu Kyi—in the house until 1953 when Aung San Lin drowned in the compound’s pool.

Following the death of her second oldest son, Khin Kyi moved her family to the same colonial-era mansion by the shores of Inya Lake on University Avenue where Suu Kyi lives to this day.

The Burmese government bought the former residence for 30,000 kyats (US $37.5 at the time) in 1948 and it was converted into the Bogyoke Aung San Museum in 1962, according to an article published in The Monitor weekly journal.

But the museum was temporarily closed between 1999 and 2007 for refurbishment and only reopened each year on July 19, the commemorative day of Aung San’s assassination, during this period.

Until last week, according to official records, the museum has seen 1,419 visitors including 140 foreigners. “A museum is not a profit-making service,” said Thaung Win. “So we have fixed the entrance fee at a reasonable price [300 kyat] hoping to encourage everyone to visit.”

The museum boasts a host of Aung San’s personal belongings ranging from a British-built black Wolseley motor vehicle to an overcoat given to him by the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a trip to England in the early 1940s.

A collection of 240 books on a variety of subjects—from applied mechanics and air defense to political economy and selected short stories by D.H. Lawrence—may be a source of interest for literature fans.

Downstairs features pictures and paintings of Aung San and his family, while the special meeting room upstairs is decorated with extracts from some of his speeches—including the explanatory guideline relating to the 1947 constitutional law which states “no constitution in the world is perfect.”

This hero’s residence has an aura of simplicity and is devoid of any trace of ostentation—the only embellishments are basic requirements for anyone to enjoy a happy family life.

Being curious about the independence icon’s private quarters, Wai Zin, 23, visited the museum for the first time last week. “Now I believe the Bogyoke had a very simple lifestyle,” said the business management graduate after touring the museum.

The lack of luxuries demonstrates that, despite his power, Aung San never sought to use his position to feather his own nest—adding to the sense of reverence which accompanies his name all throughout Burma. “Some members of the government today should take him as a role-model,” said May Moe, 24, an English major graduate from Rangoon.

Even though Aung San remains highly regarded as the national hero who founded the modern Burmese Army, there was a time when his reputation was stifled by attempts to wipe him from people’s memories.

After the rise of his daughter’s influence in the Burmese pro-democracy movement following the 1988 students’ uprising, everything related to Aung San was pushed into the background by the then-military dictatorship. His portrait at government schools and offices were replaced with former junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

The Lion, the insignia of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Association, took the place of Aung San’s image on Burmese banknotes from the 1990s. July 19, known as Martyrs Day in the Burmese calendar, was a muted celebration until last year. Elementary school text books only provided a brief description of Aung San and a 10-stanza poem as his biography.

“Thanks to the former military government’s ban, Burma’s younger generation today has little or no idea who Aung San is,” said Zaw Htet Aung. “Thank God there are people who are selling Bogyoke’s pictures. Were it not for them, we wouldn’t have anything to show our children what Aung San looks like.”

Zaw Htet Aung is hopeful that the museum will help promote awareness amongst the next generation regarding Aung San and his message. “We need young people with ‘Aung San’s spirit’ who are honest, unselfish and work hard for the national interest—especially these days when our country is in a transitional period,” he said.

“I don’t want to be a soldier like Bogyoke. I’m afraid of guns,” said Tet Htut Aung after visiting the museum. “But I want to be a doctor, and I want to be an honest person like Bogyoke too.”

Bogyoke Aung San Museum is situated on a 2.5-acre plot of land in Bahan Township, near Kandawgyi Lake. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm, except on public holidays. Admission costs 300 kyats (US $0.40) for adults—both Burmese and foreigners—and 100 kyats ($0.10) for children under 12, but is free for students.

What Does the Future Hold for Aung Thaung & Sons?
By SEAMUS MARTOV / THE IRRAWADDY| May 11, 2012

Reports this week that Lower House MP Aung Thaung, a former general who served as Burma’s industry minister in the previous military junta, will no longer head efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) are just the latest twist in the long career of a man regarded as one of the country’s most corrupt officials.

According to an anonymous government official quoted by Agence France-Presse, Aung Thaung will not be included in a new Kachin negotiation team that will reportedly be led by President Thein Sein “because of a health condition.” Aung Thaung’s apparent ouster is similar to the fate of Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo, who reportedly resigned last week, also for health reasons.

The move to sideline Aung Thaung from his position as chief of the parliamentary negotiating team, the Union Level Peace Committee, leaves many questions unanswered, including how much influence he still yields and whether more allies of former junta supremo Than Shwe will also be purged from influential positions in the new government. It is also unclear if the shakeup in the negotiating team will actually lead to better relations between the government and the KIO.

Burma’s army under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing has twice over the past six months ignored Thein Sein’s public orders to halt the offensive against the KIO—a strong indication that Thein Sein and his allies have little control over the country’s armed forces.

Aung Thaung, who is widely believed to have profited immensely from corrupt business deals involving firms owned by his sons, is not known for his negotiating skills. A leaked September 2008 US diplomatic cable describe him as a “notorious hardliner” and noted his close relationship with Than Shwe.

Over the past six months Aung Thaung led a series of meetings with the KIO in the Chinese city of Ruili—talks that failed to reach any form of agreement to end the 11 month conflict between the army and Burma’s second-largest armed ethnic group.

Although Aung Thaung’s team successfully reached agreements with two relatively small groups, the Shan State Army—North and a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the parliamentary group’s failure to make a deal with the KIO stood in sharp contrast with the negotiating team led by Railways Minister Aung Min.

Aung Min’s team has concluded a flurry of high-profile ceasefire agreements with more than half a dozen groups since early January, when a deal was reached with the Shan State Army—South (SSA-South). The pact with the SSA-South was quickly followed by similar agreements with the Chin National Front, the Karen National Union (KNU) and the New Mon State Party. Aung Min’s tentative agreement with the KNU, which brought a pause to one of the world’s longest-running conflicts, gained international attention and praise from numerous Western governments.

While Aung Min recently traveled to Switzerland and Norway to discuss ways of ending Burma’s civil wars, Aung Thaung and his team continued to be largely shunned by Western governments. Although Aung Thaung, Aung Min and Thein Sein all served as senior figures in the notorious State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Aung Thaung has had far more difficulty rehabilitating his image.

A key figure in the leadership of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), the pro-military group that was later transformed into the similarly named political party currently in power, Aung Thaung is often cited by opposition activists as one of the key architects of the Depayin massacre. This was the infamous May 30, 2003, incident in which a mob of stick-wielding USDA cadres attacked supporters of National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi while she was on a speaking tour in Upper Burma. The coordinated attack left several dozen NLD activists dead, a fate which Suu Kyi herself only narrowly escaped.

Although Aung Thaung and the other alleged organizers of the Depayin attack will likely never face trial for their involvement in this horrendous event, his association with one of the more notorious episodes in recent Burmese history is one possible reason that he has met with few international visitors to Burma, in stark contrast with the showering of praise Aung Min has received. The Norwegian government will reportedly spend millions of dollars over the next five years funding ceasefire-related development programs backed by Aung Min in Karen State and other areas of eastern Burma.

Reports from Naypyidaw suggest a rivalry between Aung Min and Aung Thaung, though as with many reports from anonymous individuals speaking about the small clique who run Burma, it is difficult to tell how far these tensions actually run and whether this led to Aung Thaung’s removal. Nirmal Ghosh, a correspondent for Singapore’s Straits Times, wrote on May 3 that “Sources said Mr Aung Thaung has been privately critical of Mr Aung Min for making too many concessions to the ethnic groups.”

These and other reports that Aung Thaung took a tougher line are hardly surprising given Aung Thaung’s role in escalating tensions with the KIO prior to the end of the group’s 17-year ceasefire with the central government.

During negotiations in early 2010, Aung Thaung and then Communications, Post and Telegraph Minister Thein Zaw gave the KIO until July of that year to join a Border Guard Force under Burmese military command. The decision by the KIO to ignore this deadline led to the 50-year-old organization being declared a terrorist group in state media shortly afterward. Thein Zaw, who has also made the transition from the army to Parliament, currently serves as the second-ranked member of the Union Peace Committee.

How Aung Thaung helped his sons become millionaires

Aung Thaung served as Burma’s Industry Minister (1) from 1997 until the official end of the ruling SPDC last year, a 14-year period in which Burma’s industrial sector came to be dominated by a small group of businessman connected to the military leadership, including Aung Thaung’s own children.

Although they may have not made as much money as billionaire Tay Za, two of Aung Thaung sons, Pyi Aung (also spelled Pye Aung) and Nay Aung are thought to have become multimillionaires using their father’s position in Than Shwe’s junta to advance their business interests, which include timber, oil, gas, electricity, banking, hotels and construction.

The brothers’ business empire is based on a series of interconnected firms, most prominently IGE Co Ltd (also listed as International Group of Entrepreneurs and IGE Pte Ltd). According to a company brochure UNOG Pte Ltd, which deals in oil, gas and mining (also UNOG Co Ltd and United National Oil & Gas), is also under the IGE umbrella, as is another firm that deals in timber called MRT Co Ltd.

A 2008 diplomatic cable states that Win Aung, owner of the timber company United International, told US diplomats that “IGE is the second largest timber company in Burma, earning more than

USD 75 million in 2007.”

According to the pamphlet, other parts of the IGE group of companies include FCGC Co, which deals in “infrastructure development,” and the Hotel Amara in Naypyidaw, where many recent international conferences have been held. Aung Thaung’s family also owns United Amara Bank, formed in 2010.

During the great asset sell-off that took place at the end of the SPDC regime, IGE gained control of what was previously a state-owned 50 percent stake in three upscale hotels in Rangoon—the famed Strand, the Dusit Inya Lake and the Thammada. Another firm, Aung Yee Phyoe Co (also Aung Yee Phyo), which deals in agricultural products, is also part of the family empire.

A US diplomatic cable from 2008 reports that IGE was formed in 1994 and later registered in Singapore in 2001. UNOG, which is also registered in both Burma and Singapore, was created in 2000.

The 2008 cable states: “Nay Aung’s best friend, Win Kyaing, is the Managing Director of IGE Co. and UNOG Co.” Recent reports in Burmese state-controlled media suggest that four years later, Win Kyaing remains managing director with IGE while his friend Nay Aung continues to serve as the chairman of both IGE and UNOG. In January of this year, the New Light of Myanmar listed a woman named Thazin Aung as the managing director of UNOG.

The revealing US diplomatic cable goes on to describe both of Aung Thaung’s sons as being “close to Senior General Than Shwe, who allegedly regards them as family.” The cable quotes a Rangoon-based businessman as stating that both men “use their family connections and close ties to the regime to amass great wealth.”

In addition to being the son of Aung Thaung, Pyi Aung is married to Nandar Aye, the daughter of retired Ge Maung Aye, who for many years was the second-highest ranking member of the SPDC. A US diplomatic cable dated June 2009 suggested that Maung Aye preferred his son-in-law over Tay Za when handing out lucrative business deals.

The 2009 cable cites another Rangoon businessman who told US diplomats that the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Shwe Mann and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye were favoring Nay Aung, Zaw Zaw (head of Max Myanmar) and Aung Thet Mann (Shwe Mann’s son) “for new projects and licenses in return for their ‘assistance.’”

The leaked 2008 cable also reports that IGE “was one of eight companies to construct buildings in Nay Pyi Taw. In addition to building several government housing complexes in the capital, the company built IGE Hotel [now Hotel Amara], a four-star hotel with thirty bungalows. As with other construction companies, the GOB [Government of Burma] did not pay IGE for its services, instead providing it with 15 vehicle import licenses, worth USD 200,000 each.”

According to business sources in Burma who spoke to The Irrawaddy last year, in early January 2011, IGE received an official permit from the government’s Trade Policy Council (TPC) to import pipeline material to be used for the Shwe pipeline project which will send fuel from the Arakanese coast to China’s Yunnan Province, literally cutting Burma in half.

The billion-dollar project’s twin oil and gas pipelines will be operated by a consortium led by the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC).

The route of the pipelines goes through a lengthy strip of northern Shan State controlled by the KIO, where heavy fighting is reportedly continuing between the group’s armed wing and Burma’s military. It is unknown if IGE’s involvement in the pipeline was a topic of discussion during the KIO’s negotiations with Aung Thaung.

IGE and UNOG may not major be players in Burma’s oil industry, however the Aung Thaung family empire is in a good position to receive a percentage of the lucrative royalties that will flow if the oil and gas blocks UNOG co-owns become operational.

In April 2012, UNOG and Petronas Carigali, the exploration and production arm of Malaysia’s state-owned energy firm, obtained the rights for two onshore blocks, RSF-2 and RSF-3. In 2010, Petrnoas Carigali and UNOG reached a similar deal for the rights to offshore blocks in the Gulf of Martaban, MD-4, MD-5 and MD-6. UNOG also currently co-owns the rights to the M1 offshore block with another foreign firm.

Norwegian firm ignored sanctions targeting Thaung Aung’s kids

In May and June 2011 Norwegian firm Seadrill conducted drilling work in the M1 offshore block despite the fact that the block’s co-owners, Aung Thaung’s sons, were subject to EU sanctions. Though Norway is not in the EU, Oslo officially adopted the EU’s Burma sanctions, which were in effect until last month.

Despite the notorious reputation of Aung Thaung and his sons, Seadrill did not appear to be concerned about being associated with them. The New Light of Myanmar reported that Seadrill staff attended a June 1, 2011, ceremony that was held on Seadrill’s West Juno drilling rig to mark the beginning of drilling at the M1 block’s test well, Shwepyitan No. 1. Left unreported in state media was any mention of the fact that the M1 block is located in the ecologically sensitive Irrawaddy delta, home to the increasingly rare Irrawaddy dolphin.

In March 2007, the New Light of Myanmar reported that UNOG Pte Ltd had teamed up with Rimbunan Petrogas (also known as RH Petrogas), a British Virgin Islands-registered firm to sign a production-sharing agreement with MOGE.

According to Burma’s paper of record “MOGE and the two companies will explore, drill and produce oil and natural gas at M-1 block in Mottama offshore.” Leaked US diplomatic cables state that the agreement signed in 2007 gave UNOG and their partner firm the rights to M1 for thirty years.

An August 2011 report produced by MOGE continues to list UNOG as co-owner of the M1 offshore block with its partner, Rimbunan Petrogas.

Seadrill’s regulatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suggest that Rimbunan Petrogas was the lead operator in the venture between the Malaysian-owned firm and UNOG, a technicality that may have legally allowed Seadrill to circumvent restrictions on doing business with Aung Thang’s blacklisted progeny.

Seadrill’s 6 K filing dated August 2011 shows that West Juno was hired by Rimbunan Petrogas for a one-month contract beginning in May 11, 2011, at a day rate of US $124,500, a slight reduction from the $129,500 rate Seadrill received from Thailand’s PTTEP for a four-month drilling contract in Burmese waters from Jan. 11 to May 11, 2011.

The reputation of the Malaysian timber and media tycoon behind Rimbunan Petrogas is not much better than the family behind UNOG. While registered in the British Virgin Islands, Rimbunan Petrogas is part of Tiong Hiew King’s Rimbunan Hijau Group.

The ethnic Chinese billionaire has come under repeated scrutiny from international environmental groups concerned about his companies’ destructive timber practices in Malaysia and Papua New Guineau, both places where Tiong Hiew King uses his substantial ownership in the local media to advance his firm’s interests, a practice that has earned him comparisons with Rupert Murdoch.

Greenpeace has described the 75-year-old Tiong Hiew King as operating a “global logging empire” that is “responsible for the destruction of huge swathes of pristine rainforest in Southeast Asia.”

Offshore gas rules bent for Thaung Aung’s sons

Another US government cable dated June 5, 2009, describes how in late 2008 IGE was able to keep its partial ownership of potentially lucrative offshore gas exploration block A5 after the firm’s Malaysian partners Rimbunan Petrogas opted to pull out from the block.

According to the cable, under rules put in place by MOGE, when Rinmbunan Petrogas withdrew from the exploration block, MOGE should have made it available for auction again. Instead, it held on to the block and in early 2009 entered into an agreement with Indian’s Reliance Industries to develop it.

In April 2011 this block was taken over by Korea-Myanmar Development Co Ltd and Brilliant Oil Corporation Pte, a Singaporean firm controlled by Silver Wave Energy chief Minn Minn Oung, an individual described in a US cable as a front man for infamous regime crony Tay Za.

IGE involved in log export scam

Leaked US diplomatic cables from September 2008 reveal that IGE benefited from a blatantly corrupt practice in which the state-owned Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE) “pre-sells uncut timber to well-connected Burmese companies at below-market prices.” MTE has an official monopoly on the exporting of logs but the cronies, including IGE, were able to twist this to suit their own needs.

According to the US cable, IGE along with other crony-controlled firms, including Tay Za’s Htoo Trading, Win Aung’s Dagon Timber and Tin Win’s Tin Wun Tun Company, used “their connections to ensure they received the best quality timber, and often felled them in place of MTE.”

The cable said that IGE and the other firms “exported all logs under MTE’s name” and went on to report that firms in fact received the entire profit from the sale of the logs. According to the cable, the “companies, like others in the industry, exported all logs under MTE’s name, but in their case MTE did not take a percentage cut.”

In another cable from June 2009, a former senior official from the Ministry of Forestry told US embassy staff that although the government had given Htoo Trading and IGE Co Ltd permits to engage in reforestation programs, both firms were using the permits as an excuse to build plantations.

The cable noted that according to the official, “instead of promoting reforestation, these companies [Htoo Trading and IGE] are instead using the land for teak plantations, which he argues is not reforestation. The objective of these plantations, he noted, is to grow teak for future export.”

Mizzima News – A cabinet shuffle in Burma?
Friday, 11 May 2012 15:06 Larry Jagan

(Commentary) – Rumors of a reshuffle in Burma’s cabinet, fueled by hints from senior government advisers, have been circulating for months amid reports – strenuously denied by President Thein Sein himself – of a battle between the liberals and hardliners in the government.

Nevertheless, major changes to the cabinet and government policies are in the pipeline.

The massive victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the recent by-elections has made government changes inevitable, and has made the position of the hardliners in government even more untenable.

But first, Thein Sein has to announce the replacement for Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is seen by many as a hardliner though in recent months he had begun to swing in behind the president.

The Burmese government remains highly secretive, similar to the Chinese government, which  resists having internal disputes and divisions made public. But there is, no doubt, a lot of horse trading and private discussion going on behind the scenes.

The current speaker of the lower house, Shwe Mann, seems to be the hot favorite to take on the vice president’s role.

A calming move?

Shwe Mann has become a thorn in Thein Sein’s side as the Parliament battles with the president over legislation and the Constitution. So moving the speaker to vice president would help calm the personal feud between the two of them.

This would also give the ambitious politician a better springboard for the 2015 elections and for the presidency, as Thein Sein has repeatedly told government insiders he will not be seeking a second term.

The question then becomes who will fill the vacant role of speaker of the lower house, who in turn will become the main speaker in the middle of next year.

This has now become a very powerful position, as parliament has become a significant political institution and has not been shy of flexing its muscles under Shwe Mann’s leadership.

For months now, government insiders have hinted that the president favors giving that post to Aung San Suu Kyi, now that she is a parliamentarian.

Diplomats in Rangoon are skeptical, though, saying she has repeatedly told them that she would not take an administrative post in the government.

She is particularly keen to pursue the political role of an MP and be a watchdog on government action – or inaction – and policies.

An opportunity

In reality though, the speaker’s job would be ideal for her to prove her political weight and help deliver a democracy dividend to the people. That has been one of her and the NLD’s constant concerns. It would be an excellent opportunity for her to demand accountability and transparency from the ministers and the government bureaucracy.

She could also provide a role model and authority for the military MPs. There is no doubt that they respect her greatly, because of their high regard for her father, General Aung San. It would also put her in a pivotal position to push for constitutional reform.

But it is still unclear if the president will follow the counsel of his senior advisers, or even if the Lady would accept the offer. If not, then it may be a significant independent in Parliament – like Aye Maung – that Thein Sein calls upon.

Of course, whoever is nominated needs to be endorsed or elected by the Parliament. Then there is the more vexed question of the cabinet reshuffle.

Thein Sein, according to sources close to him, is wrestling with various options. The most critical is whether members of the NLD apart from Aung San Suu Kyi might be offered ministerial posts.

More civilians or civil servants are also being considered for less politically sensitive posts like the planned new minister for aid coordination in the president’s office.

Rumors

In light of the election results – hough it was on Thein Sein’s mind even before that – t seems likely that the liberals in the cabinet will be strengthened at the expense of the hardliners.

The rumor mills have been working overtime in recent months, with several names consistently being mooted for the chop.

These include the electricity minister Zaw Min, the fisheries minister Tin Naing Thein, the foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin, the information minister Kyaw Hsan, and the sports minister Tint San.

There has been mounting speculation that a cabinet shuffle was imminent after several trips abroad, including the electricity minister’s trip to Switzerland, were cancelled more than a week ago on the president’s orders.

But one change that seems certain is that Aung Min, the railways minister and lead negotiator with many of the cease-fire groups, will give up his current post and become a minister in the president’s office put in charge of a revamped peace negotiating team.

This is all in the pipeline and will be announced within the next few weeks, according to government advisers. Under the Constitution, the president has to announce to the Parliament—the Pyihtawnsu Hluttaw or Union Parliament—the vice president’s resignation within seven days. But if the Parliament is in recess, he has to ask for an emergency session within 21 days, according to a government adviser. Then the process of replacing will begin. And it is expected that the long-awaited cabinet shake-up will be announced at that time.

Larry Jagan is a former BBC regional correspondent who is based in Bangkok and has extensively covered Burma issues.

DKBA general defiant over drug charges
Friday, 11 May 2012 13:43 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – A colorful Democratic Karen Buddhist Army leader, Major General Na Kham Mwe, who is accused of drug running by Thai authorities, held a press conference at his headquarters on Thursday and blasted back, insisting he is not involved in drugs.

Thai authorities have asked Burma to assist in his arrest. A warrant for his arrest was issued by Thailand in 2003.

Surrounded by around 500 armed Karen soldiers, he said Thai authorities were welcome to inspect his camp opposite Tak’s Phop Phra District, and their safety would be guaranteed. About 100 reporters gathered to hear his remarks. The event was reportedly approved by the Burmese authorities.

The DKBA faction led by Na Kham Mwe broke away from the Karen National Union in 2010. It signed a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese government this year. Its troops are estimated to number around 1,500.

Defending himself, the general told reporters his income came
from business ventures, concessions and taxes from trade gates under DKBA control.

Also known as “Colonel Moustache,” the general is listed fifth on Thailand’s list of most-wanted drug dealers. He insisted he would never stand trial in a Thai court because he was a Karen with Burmese nationality, according to an article in The Bangkok Post.

Described as “furious” over the allegations, he retaliated by closing 12 border crossings in areas under DKBA control from Tak to Kanchanaburi Province.

He said he had done nothing wrong and wondered why the government brought up the drug case against him at the same time as he was preparing to hold peace talks with the Burmese government.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who head’s Thailand anti-drugs effort, leveled the charges against the general this week. He said the government is expecting a response soon to its request for help in securing his arrest.

Chalerm, who made his allegations and called for the general’s arrest on a television program, has been engaged in a running verbal duel with the general.

Continuing the exchange, Chalerm said, “Most minority groups have not sided with Na Kha Muay’s men, which are made up of hundreds of troops, who could not flex [sufficient] muscle against the might of the Thai military. I’m not giving them [DKBA] any credit.”

The Last Frontier: Burma’s Chinland
Friday, 11 May 2012 15:51 Mizzima News

(Analysis) – In mid-2012, with reforms taking hold in central Burma, war raging in the north, and a possible peace process in the east, little attention was being paid to Burma’s western regions, including the homelands of the indigenous peoples known as the Chins.

In remote “Chinland,” civil society organizations and institutions are emerging more slowly than elsewhere, says a new report by Project Maje.

The report says civil society organizations and international aid are desperately needed in the Chin regions; Chin State is said to be Burma’s poorest state, with severely undeveloped transportation and communications infrastructure.

Food insecurity remains a serious problem in Chinland. The lingering effects of the Mautam bamboo/rat famine continue to cause hunger and malnutrition in parts of the region.

It is very important to note that if Burma’s reforms bring economic development to Chinland, this may open the area up to environmentally disastrous projects for outside profit, the report said.

“Much of the formerly thickly forested state has already been logged for timber export. This deforestation may be made permanent by the introduction of commercial monoculture plantation crops to replace such natural vegetation as secondary-growth hardwood trees and bamboo,” the report said. “Oil palm plantations (which have already taken over some of Mizoram’s deforested hills) are a particular danger, as they obliterate the growth of other plants and deplete the soil, then leave desertification after short-term productivity.”

A number of large development projects pose a threat to Chinland, which lacks enough local NGO groups to raise questions and demand answers.

Among the potential threats to the environment is the area is the Kaladan Multimodal Transport project is an India-backed trade corridor under construction, stretching from a seaport in Arakan, north along the Kaladan River to Paletwa, and including a new highway to the India border. Another area of concern is the China-backed Lemro [aka Laymro, aka Phunglong] River hydropower project in southern Chin State, which reportedly may damage fish stocks, destroy forest and cause flooding.

The large-scale Manipur River multipurpose project, intended mainly to provide hydropower to central Burma, creates a flood risk in northern Chin State and Sagaing Division. In 2009, several villages of the Khumi (aka Khami) Chin-related indigenous people were forcibly relocated for the Sai Dan hydroelectric dam project in far northern Arakan.

The projects are not receiving as much international attention as environmental issues elsewhere in Burma, but they are of great importance for their effects on the watersheds and ecosystems of the western Burma.

“Chinland crucially needs its own environmental NGOs and sustainable development projects, including alternative energy such as solar and mini/microhydro,” said the report.

Even with democratic reforms, an end to Burmese military occupation, and regional autonomy, the people of Chinland will face the need to work towards common goals and forge an inclusive cultural identity.

“Chin” as an “umbrella” construct promoted by the CNF for the region’s people still meets with opposition, especially by Zo-identifying ethnic people. Language divisions form barriers, and stereotypes about people of various regional townships persist. Even in exile, organizations and projects have broken down into narrow regional classifications, which may date back to the times when tribes were isolated by mountains and raiding. The potential for lack of intra-ethnic cooperation in a free Chinland is very real.

The worst case scenario would follow the pattern of severe, chronic ethnic/tribal violence which has plagued Northeast Indian states such as Manipur and Assam, said the report.

While the Mizo people of Mizoram and the Chin/Zo people from across the border are strongly related culturally, there are language differences between them.

Refugees and migrants from the Chinland side of the border are currently estimated at as much as 10% of Mizoram’s 1,091,000 population. In recent years, efforts to improve communication and find common ground appear to be paying off with more tolerance for the Burma-origin residents.

Some analysts perceive a new spirit in Northeast India of abandoning ethnic tension and violence in favor of improving regional ties and economic development. If that is the case, and if Burma demilitarizes and continues democratic reform, the frontiers of Chinland and India’s Northeast may become important trade corridors.

In Mizoram, one can see maps of a “Greater Zoram” which includes Chinland along with Mizoram, as a vision of a pan-Chin/Zo nation, defying the borders of India and Burma. The term “Zomia” as used by academics such as the University of Amsterdam’s Willem van Schendel and Yale University’s James C. Scott, extends to an entire alternative swath of Asia, sometimes sweeping all the way from the Central Asian “‘Stans” to the Montagnard uplands of Vietnam. It is the egalitarian realm of “refusenik” populations, the “hill tribes” who have for millennia strived to remain independent of nation states and authoritarian, rice paddy, city cultures.

This profile certainly fits the Chin/Zo people (even if many of them actually live in valley towns and grow wet rice) as well as it fits the Mizos with their spectacular, isolated ridgetop capital, Aizawl.

But at present the vision of a free, autonomous and at least loosely unified Chinland faces many challenges before it even fits into a federal Burma, much less forming a keystone of a vast continental entity.

For the Chin/Zo refugees, life in kindred-spirit Mizoram tends to be less difficult than subsistence in urban India. They have nonetheless been drawn to Delhi because of the office of the United National High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR) which holds the possibility of registration and therefore legal status in India.

In 2004, there were an estimated 1,300 Chin refugees in Delhi (see Project Maje’s 2004 report, “Razor’s Edge: Survival Crisis for Refugees from Burma in Delhi, India”).

As of early 2012, this had increased to as many as 8,000 in Delhi’s western slums, although thousands have reportedly gone back to Mizoram since 2010. Employment for Chin/Zo refugees remains extremely difficult in Delhi, and what there is usually pays less than a living wage.

Housing in the lowest-rent sections of neighborhoods including Vikaspuri and Janakpuri is substandard and overcrowded, violent attacks are frequent, and the children of the refugee “baby boom” are bullied at school and on the streets. As Christians, the Chin/Zo families are acutely aware of their religious minority status in Hindu, Muslim and Sikh Delhi.

India also has thousand of other ethnic refugees from Burma, including Rohingyas and Rakhines from Arakan State. A number of Burmese (Burman) dissidents have been resettled overseas or have chosen to return to Burma in the new climate of reform. Additionally, India is host to refugees from Tibet, Afghanistan, Africa and other regions.

Projects started by exile NGOs, such as preschools, health clinics and women’s advocacy have become lifelines for the refugees from Chinland in India. They also provide working models for NGO activity back in Chinland.

The future of Chinland will be enhanced by returning exiles, with their awareness of environmental issues, sustainable development, indigenous rights and women’s rights, and their experience with international networking, constructive dialogue and ethnic inclusiveness.

Until Chinland is safe enough for mass returns, international funders should continue to provide financial backing and other support for NGOs in exile, while also encouraging the emerging growth of civil society inside Chinland, the report concluded.

To learn more about Project Maje, go to http://www.projectmaje.org/chinland_in_transition.htm

DVB News – Burmese lawmakers visit EU parliament
By AFP
Published: 11 May 2012

Burmese lawmakers paid the country’s first ever visit to the European parliament on Thursday in a new sign of growing warmth between the EU and the Southeast Asian nation.

Headed by lower house speaker U Shwe Mann, the delegation, including two other parliamentarians and a dozen officials, was to meet EU president Herman Van Rompuy and the bloc’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The president of the parliament, Martin Schulz, said the talks notably served to recognise reforms carried out so far in the long-isolated nation.

“The recent impressive democratic opening of the country gives us much hope and optimism,” Schulz said in a statement.

He said the parliament was ready to assist its partner institution in Naypyidaw and had reiterated a standing invitation to Aung San Suu Kyi to collect personally her 1990 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.

“I hope this will become possible in the nearest future,” he added.

The EU last month decided to suspend almost all sanctions against Burma — a move due to take effect on Friday — and sent Ashton to Rangoon to open an EU office in a first step towards establishing a full diplomatic mission.

After decades under a repressive junta, Burma has seen a thaw in its relations with the international community since President Thein Sein ushered in broad changes on coming to power last year, including welcoming Suu Kyi’s party into the political mainstream.