U.S. lifts restrictions to support IFIs work in Myanmar
Reuters – 9 hrs ago

(Reuters) – The United States has eased some restrictions on Myanmar to support ongoing work by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the Asian Development Bank carrying out economic assessments and technical assistance to its new civilian government.

The partial waiver was signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday in the latest sign of a step-up in U.S. engagement with an impoverished country squeezed by Western sanctions and run for 49 years by military juntas until 10 months ago.

The nominally civilian government has since overseen a series of surprise reforms that have thrust into the spotlight the issue of Western sanctions imposed on past regimes for their human right violations.

The move in support of IFI involvement is seen as small but symbolic, a quid-pro-quo to acknowledge the reforms while still maintaining tight sanctions that were first introduced in 1988. Officials in Washington say the process of ending the embargoes on the former Burma would be complex and lengthy.

“Assessments by international financial institutions will provide critical means to gain a greater understanding of Burma’s economic situation, particularly its severe poverty alleviation needs and capacity gaps,” the state department said in a statement.

The International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have been sending technical support teams to Myanmar in the past few months to compile assessments of the country’s long-stagnant and murky economy and give advice on ways to unify its complex official and unofficial currency exchange systems.

CLOSER TIES

Those missions come as the government continues to introduce reforms not seen in decades. They include the release of more than 600 political prisoners in a series of amnesties since last May, ceasefire talks with ethnic rebel groups and the loosening of tight media censorship and bans on protests.

Clinton welcomed the changes so far during a landmark visit in December and pledged to forge closer ties with Myanmar. Washington has since agreed to upgrade diplomatic relations by exchanging full ambassadors after a two-decade absence.

It also comes after the European Union temporarily suspended travel bans on top government officials and the president.

U.S. sanctions preclude U.S. aid and rule out financial help from IFIs such as the World Bank, in which the United States is a big shareholder and has veto rights.

The World Bank and ADB ceased operations in the country in the mid-1980s and are still owed arrears, which have to be repaid before they can come back. Any aid would require the government to respect governance standards that have eluded its leaders for decades, including budget transparency.

Up to 10,000 Myanmar refugees seek refuge in China
By Sui-Lee Wee | Reuters – 28 mins ago

BEIJING (Reuters) – Thousands of refugees from fighting in remote northern Myanmar have flooded into makeshift tent cities erected on the other side of the long border with China, creating a humanitarian crisis and a complex diplomatic dilemma for Beijing.

Up to 10,000 refugees have fled to an area in southwestern Yunnan province, driven by fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the country’s most powerful rebel groups, five aid groups told Reuters. Many of the refugees are women, children and elderly people.

Fighting erupted after a 17-year-old ceasefire broke down last June, sending ethnic Kachins fleeing to the border area.

The conflict could jeopardize the former Burma’s efforts to convince the European Union and the United States to lift wide-ranging sanctions against the country, which is slowing efforts to open up and democratize after decades of army rule.

The EU and the United States have made peace deals with ethnic militias one of the pre-requisites for lifting the sanctions. Some groups have fought the government since independence from Britain in 1947.

Although the intensity of the fighting has eased, aid groups fear that more people will flee and exacerbate dire conditions. The Chinese government tolerates the camps, but does not officially recognize their existence.

“All of them don’t have pure drinking water,” La Rip, the coordinator of local aid group Relief Action Network for IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) and Refugees (RANIR), said by telephone from Myanmar.

“In some camps, outbreaks of dysentery are taking place. We do not have enough food items to provide for them. We have a very limited budget for them. And they do not have regular incomes, nowhere to work and nowhere to earn money.”

WORRY FOR CHINA

The risk of fighting spreading across the highly militarized border region and of the arrival of new waves of refugees are particular worries for China’s stability-obsessed rulers.

Although long wary of poor, unstable Myanmar, China has invested heavily in the country. It has brushed off Western sanctions to build infrastructure, hydropower dams and twin oil-and-gas pipelines to help feed southern China’s growing energy needs and avoid the Malacca Strait shipping bottleneck.

Yunnan provincial authorities have told the refugees to leave, but have not threatened force or sealed the border, aid groups said.

“It poses a dilemma for the Chinese; it could cause strained relations with the Burmese government if they are seen as being supportive of the Kachin Independence Army, KIA, and by extension the refugees,” Bertil Lintner, a Myanmar expert, said in emailed comments.

“On the other hand, they can’t be too hostile to the Kachins, and the Kachin refugees, either.”

China’s Foreign Ministry last summer called for restraint from both sides in the conflict and said the government was providing humanitarian help, though aid groups deny this.

The Yunnan government denies the very existence of an influx of refugees — aid agencies say the biggest camps are in the towns of Nongdao and La Ying.

“At the moment, what we know is that there is no such situation,” Li Hui, director of the Yunnan information office, told Reuters. “Everything is normal on the China-Myanmar border.”

Fighting has continued despite an order in December by President Thein Sein to end operations. That cast doubt on whether the former general leading the country has full control over the military.

In the past eight months, the refugee population inside China has grown dramatically, said Moon Nay Li, coordinator for the Kachin Women’s Association in Thailand. She says more than 10,000 Kachin refugees are in Yunnan, most of them women.

Maersili, a local activist, said there is no longer space in the camps for refugees to sleep. Four to five families have to squeeze into a room, without sufficient bedding, he said.
International aid organizations such as U.N. agencies have not been able to provide sustained assistance, aid groups said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) can only provide aid “when it’s requested by the government to do so,” Giuseppe de Vincentis, regional representative for China and Mongolia, said, adding that “there is not such a request.”

Brisbane Times – Suu Kyi campaign leaves Burmese leaders on edge
Hamish McDonald
February 8, 2012

RANGOON: Burma’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has resumed the campaign trail for a slew of parliamentary byelections, with her popularity causing evident nervousness in the new government dominated by former army generals.

Before her mass meeting in Pathein, a port city in the Irrawaddy delta, local authorities suddenly announced an unusual ”pre-entrance test” exam for local students seeking to enrol in universities, ensuring that large numbers of students would be otherwise engaged while she was in town.

Last weekend, Ms Suu Kyi called off a planned rally in the second-biggest city, Mandalay, after authorities refused to let her National League for Democracy use a large football stadium, instead offering a smaller field.

Her party is running candidates for all the 40 seats vacated in the 440-seat lower house of parliament in the capital Naypyidaw by members elevated to ministerial and other executive positions.

The seats are scattered across the country, mostly in the central plains dominated by the ethnic Burman majority and the result will be a pointer to elections due in 2015.

The military has 25 per cent of the seats, voted ”according to discipline”, and the constitution can be amended only by a 75 per cent vote, but the prospect of a sweep by Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD, and formation of a government, is a nightmare for the military’s old guard.

Yet Ms Suu Kyi’s decision to enter the race – after previously boycotting the November 2010 elections and swearing not to accept the 2008 constitution engineered by the former military regime – is also seen as a reflection of consideration by the NLD that the new President, former general Thein Sein, might be building a popular political persona himself.

As well as meeting Ms Suu Kyi and drawing her into the political system, the President has begun releasing political prisoners, suspended a much-criticised Chinese dam on the upper Irrawaddy and signalled intentions to open Burma’s moribund economy.

”Daw Suu [or ''Aunty Suu'' as Ms Suu Kyi is often called here] is the conscience of our nation and icon of freedom, but to be honest the action on reform has to be attributed to this government,” a prominent local business figure said. ”The credit should fairly go to our current leadership.”

A former senior army staff officer who is now a political adviser to Thein Sein, Ko Ko Hlaing, said critics had previously dismissed the new government as ”old wine in a new bottle” but were now realising the political climate was completely different to that under the former regime of Senior General Than Shwe, now formally retired.

”In this byelection the environment has changed because relations between the newly elected President and Daw Suu are very different from the previous relations between Senior General Than Shwe and Daw Suu,” Ko Ko Hlaing said. ”We have to remember there is a new government and a new atmosphere. So the political culture and the mood among political forces are not so similar to the previous time.”

Previously a prime minister appointed by the State Peace and Development Council, the military’s ruling body, Thein Sein emerged as a conciliatory figure, meeting a stream of foreign leaders as his prisoner releases and registration of the NLD as eligible to contest the byelections earned recognition.

”As a military man everyone has to obey the order of his superior,” Ko Ko Hlaing said. ”That’s why under Senior General Than Shwe he acted like a good staff … When he takes the responsibility of state power and he is the most senior person in the country he has to make decisions by himself. So he can do everything that he thinks is correct.

”The situation of the country is not the same … We have to play according to the rules of the new game. According to the new constitution, as a democratic government, so there will be very significant differences between the activities of the present government and the previous government.”

The Herald’s Asia-Pacific editor, Hamish McDonald, is in Burma as a guest of Melbourne University’s Asialink for a dialogue with Burmese and other south-east Asian officials, businessmen, and opinion leaders.

GlobalPost – Burma: regime critic Aung Zaw allowed inside after two decades in exile
Regime allows one of its most high-profile detractors to visit
Patrick Winn February 7, 2012 02:47

Aung Zaw, a Burmese exile who founded and continues to operate The Irrawaddy. The news outlet is known for its strong critiques of Burma’s army-managed regime. (Screengrab)
Journalist-in-exile Aung Zaw, one of the most prominent critics of Burma’s government abuses, has been allowed to visit his homeland after two decades living abroad.

This is surprising even to those growing numb to the flurry of recent changes in Burma, officially titled Myanmar.

Aung Zaw runs The Irrawaddy, an online magazine known for detailing the misdeeds of Burma’s goverment. He’s also published in the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Bangkok Post in Thailand, where his operation is based. (Sample Aung Zaw headline: “Junta’s dream is the world’s nightmare.”)

Until recently, information from inside the authoritarian state has been a precious commodity. Burmese who gather news in their own country have traditionally done so at the risk of detainment or worse.

“I have always wanted to return to Burma as a journalist,” he said, according to The Irrawaddy. “I expect to be very busy meeting with fellow journalists and possibly with government officials.”

Aung Zaw has been granted a five-day journalist visa.

Now that the government has allowed one of its best-known detractors to visit, is there any journalist that’s still forbidden from entering Burma?

People’s Daily Online – Myanmar proposes holding ethnic groups conference
(Xinhua) 15:30, February 07, 2012

YANGON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — A conference, similar to the historical Panlong Conference and participated by all ethnic groups in Myanmar, will be held in Nay Phi Taw to strive for peace in the country, local media reported Tuesday.

U Aung Thaung, leader of the central government’s peace-making group, made the disclosure in Taunggyi, Shan state over the weekend, said the Myanmar Newsweek.

On Feb.12, 1947, ethnic leaders met at the Panlong Conference in northeastern Shan state, sponsored under the leadership of late independence hero General Aung San, and signed the Panlong Agreement to strive in unity for the country’s independence from the British colonial rule.

According to the report, eight out of 11 ethnic armed groups have reached preliminary peace pacts with the government at respective levels.

Meanwhile, peace talks between Myanmar’s central government and Kachin ethnic armed group — Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) had been held in Ruili, southwest China’s border town in Yunnan Province, for two times over the past two months without reaching agreement.

However, the two sides agreed that the peace talks will continue to build trust andrealize eternal peace.

President U Thein Sein made a peace offer on Aug. 18, 2011, calling on anti-government ethnic armed groups to hold peace talks to end insurgency and build internal peace in the country.

New York Times – C.I.A. Chief Signals Possible Visit to Myanmar
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: February 7, 2012

BANGKOK — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus, may visit Myanmar later this year, officials said on Tuesday, in what would be the latest signal of warming relations with the United States as Myanmar emerges from years of military rule and diplomatic isolation.

Mr. Petraeus discussed the possibility of a visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, during a meeting in Bangkok on Monday with the Thai foreign minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul. Mr. Surapong told Thai news media that Mr. Petraeus said he would “definitely” go to Myanmar.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Myanmar in December in what was widely seen as an effort by the United States to check the rising power of China — for years Myanmar’s main benefactor — and to encourage political change in Myanmar.

An American official in Bangkok, who requested anonymity while discussing intelligence matters, confirmed on Tuesday that Mr. Petraeus had told Thai officials that “Secretary Clinton asked him to travel to Burma later this year.”

At least three separate delegations of American officials have visited Myanmar during the past two months, but a trip by Mr. Petraeus would allow for more detailed discussions and deeper cooperation between the two countries, said Robert Fitts, director of the American studies program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “They can set up channels that wouldn’t have been possible for Secretary Clinton,” he said.

The United States and Myanmar had relatively close military and intelligence cooperation until the late 1980s, when the Burmese military crushed a popular uprising, leading to two decades of degraded relations between Myanmar and Western countries.

Washington announced last month that it would upgrade diplomatic ties and appoint an ambassador to Myanmar after more than a decade without one.

“What the U.S. is trying to do,” Mr. Fitts said, “is send every signal of support to the forces pushing for liberalization in Burma.”

London committed to Myanmar
Published: Feb. 7, 2012 at 9:07 AM

LONDON, Feb. 7 (UPI) — A meeting between Myanmar’s ambassador to London and a British foreign minister shows the British government is serious about engagement, an official said.

British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne met Ambassador U Kyaw Myo Htut for the first time in London.

“My meeting with Mr. U Kyaw Myo Htut is a mark of the U.K.’s willingness to engage with Myanmar’s government in light of the reforms that they have recently undertaken,” Browne said. “I encouraged the ambassador and his government to maintain the momentum for change.”

Myanmar’s government has embraced political reform since having the first general election in years in 2010. Thousands of political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have been released from custody.

Suu Kyi this week entered a race by by-elections for seats in Myanmar’s Parliament. Her National League for Democracy Party won elections in the 1990s though the military junta refused to recognize the results.

“I reiterated that the U.K. government stood ready to respond to future positive actions, and that the world would be watching the upcoming by-elections, expecting them to be free and fair,” Browne said.

U.N. human rights officials said Myanmar still has more work to do to meet international expectations.

Washington Post – Obama authorizes US sanctions waiver for Myanmar to ease restrictions on multilateral aid
By Associated Press, Published: February 6

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday eased one of its many sanctions against Myanmar as a reward for political reforms after five decades of direct military rule.

The step is very limited, and most of the tough U.S. economic, trade and political restrictions will remain in place.

But it should make it easier for Myanmar, also known as Burma, to secure help from the World Bank and other international financial institutions by lifting U.S. opposition to them conducting assessments.

Under anti-human trafficking legislation, the U.S. had to oppose these bodies using their funds to help Myanmar. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed the waiver Monday.

President Barack Obama authorized the move Friday.

Other U.S. sanctions, including the 2003 Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, still require the U.S. to prevent the institutions from giving loans or technical assistance to the country. Years of mismanagement, isolation and internal conflict have turned what was once one of Southeast Asia’s most prosperous countries into its least-developed.

The waiver follows Clinton’s landmark visit to Myanmar in December, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in 56 years, when she expressed willingness to allow World Bank assessment missions. She said that was supported by Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A State Department statement Monday said such assessments would enable greater understanding of Myanmar’s economic situation, particularly its “severe poverty alleviation needs.”

“The United States remains committed to supporting and partnering with the Burmese government along the path of reform,” it said.

But administration officials and U.S. lawmakers, who have been instrumental in imposing myriad and overlapping sanctions on Myanmar since 1988, say more progress on democracy and human rights is needed before other sanctions can be lifted.

Conducting free and fair by-elections that Suu Kyi and her party will contest April 1 are seen as a key test of that. There is also concern over ethnic violence and Myanmar’s ties to North Korea.

The waiver, effective through September, applies to some but not all of the restrictions that apply to Myanmar under the 2000 Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act.

Myanmar received a “Tier 3” rating under its annual State Department assessment, meaning it has failed to comply with minimum standards for elimination of human trafficking.

The ambassador-at-large on human trafficking issues, Luis CdeBaca, who visited Myanmar in January, said Monday the waiver was rewarding Myanmar for its political reforms, including prisoner releases, the dialogue it has begun with Suu Kyi and cease-fires with ethnic minority armed groups.

But he said it also reflected the government’s encouraging steps in improving its treatment of human trafficking victims, particularly those repatriated from other countries, although the U.S. remains concerned over authorities’ use of forced labor and child soldiers.

“We have seen several decent things happen on the human trafficking front,” CdeBaca said in an interview. “They (Myanmar) are not out of the woods by any means. But just as with democracy and electoral reforms, we also see the beginning of a positive trend.”

The Obama administration has reversed a longstanding U.S. policy of isolating Myanmar, and in January announced it would restore full diplomatic relations after 20 years without an ambassador in Myanmar.

That step was supported by key Republican senators, but the administration still must tread cautiously in lifting other restrictions or face criticism for moving too fast to win friends in the country, where the strings of power largely remain in military hands.

The Age  – Officials seek to thwart Suu Kyi
Hamish McDonald, Rangoon
February 8, 2012

BURMA’S opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, resumed her parliamentary byelection campaign yesterday as nervous officials moved to ensure that many of her younger supporters would be unable to attend her rallies.

Before her mass meeting in Pathein, a port city in the Irrawaddy delta, local authorities suddenly announced an unusual ”pre-entrance test” exam for local students seeking to enrol in universities – ensuring that large numbers of students would be otherwise engaged while she was in town.

Last weekend, Ms Suu Kyi called off a planned rally in Burma’s second biggest city, Mandalay, after authorities refused to let her National League for Democracy party use a large football stadium, instead offering a smaller field.

Her party is running candidates for all the 40 seats vacated in the 440-seat lower house of Parliament by members elevated to ministerial and other executive positions.

The seats are scattered across the country, mostly in the central plains dominated by the ethnic Burman majority, and the result will be a pointer to the next elections due in 2015.

Although the military has 25 per cent of the seats and the constitution can only be amended by a 75 per cent vote, the prospect of a sweep by Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD, and formation of a government, is a nightmare for the military’s old guard. The nominally civilian government came to power in Burma last year after controversial November 2010 elections and has since surprised observers with a number of positive moves including a major release of political prisoners.

Yet Ms Suu Kyi’s decision to enter this year’s byelection race, after previously boycotting the 2010 elections and vowing not to accept the 2008 constitution engineered by the former military regime, is also seen to reflect thinking that the new President, former general Thein Sein, might be building a popular political persona himself.

As well as meeting Ms Suu Kyi and drawing her into the political system, President Thein Sein began releasing political prisoners, suspended a much criticised Chinese dam on the upper Irrawaddy, and signalled intentions to open up Burma’s moribund economy.

The political situation in Burma, however, remains tense, with top United Nations human rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana stating the byelections would be a ”key test” of the army-backed regime’s commitment to reform.

The Irrawaddy – Workers Strike over Chinese New Year Wage Dispute
By KHIN OO THAR / THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, February 7, 2012

More than a thousand workers at a Chinese-owned shoe factory in Rangoon went on strike on Monday after they discovered that they would not be paid for an enforced five-day break to mark the Chinese New Year.

The strike, by workers of the Tai Yi Slipper factory in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone (3), continued into a second day on Tuesday, according to lawyer and worker’s rights activist Pho Phyu.

“We are trying to find the best solution for both sides,” Myat Thin Aung, the chairman of the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zones, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, adding that officials from the Ministry of Labor are also involved in negotiations.

The workers, who say they should be paid for the five days of work they missed because it was the company’s decision to close for the holiday, were forced to disperse this afternoon without achieving their aims.

According to Pho Phyu, the workers are also angry over wages deducted for lateness caused by ferry service delays.

In the past two years, workers in Rangoon’s industrial zones have gone on strike on a number of occasions to protest wage deductions and poor working conditions.

According to Myat Thin Aung, there are more than 40,000 workers employed by a wide range of factories at six industrial zones in Hlaing Tharyar.

Mizzima News – NLD AIDS activist to run for Parliament
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 12:55 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – Phyu Phy Thin, who has worked in an HIV/AIDS  shelter programme in Rangoon for 10 years, knows what it’s like to be at the bottom end of Burma’s limited health care system.

As the leader of one of the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) social-aid outreach programmes, she has worked with limited funds, struggling to provide up to 100 infected patients with medicine, food and shelter.

Soon, if she is elected to the Burmese Parliament as one of the NLD candidates, she can speak out through the voice of experience in calling attention to the needs of the have-nots in Burmese society, particularly AIDS patients who are often shunned and misunderstood. Last year, authorities in Burma threatened to shut down Phyu Phyu Thin’s clinic in a suburb of Rangoon.

That Phyu Phyu Thin is dedicated is clear. In mid-January, Aung San Suu Kyi singled her out in a crowd while she was speaking in Rangoon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township.

“As you all know, Phyu Phyu not only possesses a desire to serve the people but also a proven capacity to do so,” said Suu Kyi. “I may not guarantee that all our candidates have such qualities. But I can guarantee that about Phyu Phyu.”

A story on the Voice of America (VOA) website on Monday, quoted Phyu Phyu Tin: “The most important issue now is that many children are infected with HIV, and we need to do provide them with support. Infection rates are rising among youths, so we need to increase social awareness.”

Phyu Phyu Thin is in the process of opening a second clinic to meet the growing need for care.

“Being a Myanmar [Burma] citizen, as well as an NLD member, I really do feel happy that Daw Suu is running. It’s what we really need right now. I hope that we can all work together to build a modern, developed nation in the near future,” she told the VOA. “Since we have been under military dictatorship for such a long time, issues including education, health care need to be seriously addressed as soon as possible.”

It’s hard to grasp the significance of the recent changes in Burma, in which Phyu Phyu Thin, once harassed by the Burmese authorities, is now stepping up to run for Parliament.

In November last year, a Mizzima reporter accompanied Aung San Suu Kyi when she visited Phyu Phyu Thin’s shelter programme. The reporter heard Suu Kyi speaking to someone on the telephone: “Everybody has their own values so you don’t need to be discouraged. You must uplift your spirits and strength. I say these words not only to the patients but also to everybody … high and low status depends only on each person. Everybody needs to know that they can consider themselves a dignified person.”

Burma’s most prominent democracy leader gave each AIDS resident a rose, which they greatly appreciated.

“Ahmay [mother] Suu … told us not to be in low morale and said she would supply us with medicine. We are encouraged. All of the patients were very encouraged to see that another person, Daw Suu, is with us besides Ma Phyu [Phyu Phyu Thin] before … We hold these roses in very high esteem and shall keep them forever, even after they’ve dried up,” a 31-year old resident told Mizzima.

Phyu Phyu Thin said that new patients were always arriving at the centre.

“We can’t give medicine to new patients. NGOs first gave medicines to the patients and then stopped … when they didn’t have enough funding. So the availability of medicines for these patients is on and off. We still face medicine shortages,” Phyu Phyu Thin said in November.

There are more than 360,000 HIV patients in Burma. According to UN AIDS statistics, the junta’s Health Ministry spends about US$ 100,000 annually on its AIDS eradication campaign.

By contrast, neighbouring Thailand spent 4.9 billion baht (US$ 122.90 million) on HIV/AIDS treatment and programmes in 2004 (six years ago), a UN AIDS report said.

KIO, gov’t can’t agree on meeting location
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 17:15 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Serious issues need to be discussed regarding political problems preventing peace between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Burmese government, but the two sides can’t agree on where to hold the next round of talks, KIO officials told Mizzima.

The two sides were scheduled to meet on Friday and Saturday, but unless an agreement is reached soon, the meeting could be postponed.

The KIO proposed meeting in an area controlled by KIO Battalion 16 on the outskirts of Lweje in Momauk Township on the Sino-Burmese border, but the government delegation rejected the location, according to the source

The government on Monday offered to meet at Muse in Shan State, but that location was rejected by the KIO.

The next round of talks are expected to focus on three points discussed in the January meeting between the two sides relating to national equality, regional autonomy and principles in the Panglong Agreement. The government has objected to using the term “Panglong pledge.”

“They said that they thought another phrase should be used, which has the same meaning as ‘Panglong pledge’ instead of using the phrase,” a KIO official told Mizzima. On January 18 and January 19, the two sides held talks in Ruili, China.

The KIO has called on the government to hold an all-inclusive ethnic conference similar to the Panglong conference where a wide range of ethnic issues and political problems could be discussed, including the release of prisoners on both sides and the rebuilding of villages affected by the long-running war.

The KIO officials said that he thought the next talks would be narrowly focused on those issues. “Anything else may not be discussed in our meeting,” he said. Since November 2011, the KIO and government delegations have met three times.

Despite the peace talks with the government, fighting still breaks out in KIO areas in northern Shan State, said Colonel Zaw Yaw of KIO Brigade No. 4.

“The government troops are still active in our area,” he said. “Earlier, they had about 1,000 soldiers. Fighting still breaks out on alternate days,” he told Mizzima.

Meanwhile, Burmese government union-level peace delegation leaders have said that it could take up to three years to establish a lasting peace in ethnic areas where fighting has broken out. The KIO signed a cease-fire with the former junta in 1994, but fighting restarted in June 2011.

Supreme Court to hear army unlawful arrest case
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 12:04 Zaw Shan

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The case of a Kachin woman who went missing after her arrest by government troops will be heard by the Burmese Supreme Court on Thursday.

The proceedings were brought by Zawng Hkawng of Momauk Township, the husband of Sumlut Roi Ja, after she was arrested by troops from Light Infantry Unit No. 321 on October 28, 2011. She has been missing since her arrest.

The lawsuit was filed on January 28, said attorney Markhar, who represents Zwang Hkawng.

“The Light Infantry No. 321 is based in Loi Je. We filed the lawsuit in order to obtain the release of the woman who was arrested illegally. Both sides will testify,” Markhar told Mizzima. He said the husband is now in hiding for his security, but he will appear at the Supreme Court on the day of the hearing.

He said Sumlut Roi Ja, a resident of Hkai Bang village, Momauk Township, was on her way to work on a farm with her husband and her father when government soldiers from Light Infantry Unit No. 321 arrested them, alleging that they worked in intelligence for the Kachin Independence Army. Sumlut Roi Ja’s husband and father were able to escape on the day of their arrest.

The Supreme Court has summoned members of Light Infantry No. 321 to appear to testify.

“On that day, they will have to explain why they arrested her. If they say she is dead, they will be prosecuted for murder,” lawyer Markhar said.

A related lawsuit involving the unlawful arrest of Brang Seng and Zau Seng from Tarlawgyi village by Infantry Unit No. 37 will be heard by the Supreme Court on the same day.

DVB News – Four Karen armies in talks over alliance
By NANG MYA NADI
Published: 7 February 2012

Officials from four ethnic armies in Karen state held talks last week over the possibility of developing an alliance, following ceasefire talks between the government and one of Burma’s most prominent armed opposition groups, the Karen National Union (KNU).

The discussions brought together groups whose past relations exemplify the dynamic history of the war-torn eastern state, where six decades of conflict have caused changing allegiances: the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Karen Peace Force (KPF) and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council all formed after a split in the KNU in the mid-1990s, and allied themselves to the former junta.

Now however they are in talks to rekindle an alliance, prompted largely by a decision by the KNU to meet with government officials in early January to negotiate a truce. The KPF and the Peace Council had maintained ceasefires with the government, while the DKBA’s was broken in November 2010 after it refused to become a government-aligned Border Guard Force. In December last year however that was rekindled.

“We, all armed Karen associations, need to unite together in the future,” said Saw Lont Lon, foreign affairs coordinator of the DKBA. “We discussed how to unite ourselves, to solve political problems and to build an understanding among the armed groups, all of whom are looking to future … development and peace in the region.”

The issue of designating economic zones in Karen state featured in the talks, Saw Lont Lon added. While the finer details of the ceasefire offers have not been revealed, it is likely the KNU, and indeed the DKBA last year, were offered business concessions along the border with Thailand, where trade in timber can be lucrative.

Saw Lont Lon said however that it was only an informal meeting, but that more official negotiations would take place soon. The hope is to launch a state-wide Karen conference that would include religious, political and social organisations, as well as the armed groups.

Government efforts to negotiate with rebel groups have been largely successful, although fighting continues in Kachin state and several clashes have occurred in Karen state since the ministers met with the KNU on 12 January. The KNU’s General Secretary, Zipporah Sein, told the New York Times however that no official agreement had been signed.
In Karenni state, north of Karen state, rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) say they have also agreed among themselves to hold ceasefire talks with Naypyidaw, although details of future meetings with the government’s so-called ‘peace delegation’ are vague.

DVB News – Western companies ‘still wary’ of Burma
By NAY THWIN
Published: 7 February 2012

Japanese and Korean companies are leading the way in terms of recent interest in Burma but western investors continue to tread with caution, awaiting signs of concrete reforms in the business environment before launching ventures, according to a leading business figure in Burma.

Myo Thet has been meeting with companies “every day for a year”, he tells DVB. The secretary of Burma’s largest business federation, the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), is well placed to assess the current developments and says that “there is still rather low interest from the west”.

“There have been some bank owners from the west and also Australia but it’s still low compared to Asian countries. We wish to see more [investment] not only from the east but also the west … because the west, in terms of technology and finance, is stronger.”

Sanctions have been largely to blame for lack of interest from European countries, as well as Australia, Canada and the US, but that could be about to change: the EU has already dropped a longstanding visa ban on President Thein Sein and other ministers, while the US yesterday relaxed restrictions on the World Bank and IMF entering Burma.

But according to industry minister U Soe Thein, who was at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, companies are “rushing” to Burma, and claimed his maiden appearance at the Forum was proof of the country’s growing status as a strategically key market for the west.

Economic reforms underway are aimed at making the business environment more attractive to western investors, many of whom fear the effects of widespread corruption and conflict in the resource-rich border regions.

Investment figures suggest Asian companies are less nervous about those two factors, with China leading the way in FDI, followed by Thailand and Singapore. Japan is also fronting around a quarter of the capital for the massive Tavoy industrial project in southern Burma, which will eventually cost some $US50 billion.

While much of this is concentrated in the energy sector, with Burma hosting significant gas and hydropower resources, Myo Thet thinks outside interest in the agriculture and service sectors will grow.

“Malaysia is keen to invest in rubber plantations and other forestry and agricultural projects, which can bring outstanding business development,” he said. Later this month around 120 delegates from Singapore will arrive, and Myo Thet they will bring with them a proposal for greater Singaporean investment in the tourism and electricity sectors.

He suggested that Burma was trying to lessen its dependence on China, which has become “the sole monopolist” over the country’s economy, by seeking a greater variety of countries keen to invest in Burma.

In a bid to attract more business interest, the government announced last month that it would offer eight-year tax exemptions to companies newly investing there. The government has also claimed it is revising restrictive investment laws enforced by the former junta.

Myanmar panel says Suu Kyi can run for Parliament
By AYE AYE WIN | Associated Press – 50 mins ago

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — An elections panel Monday affirmed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s candidacy for Myanmar’s Parliament in another step toward political openness in a country emerging from nearly a half-century of iron-fisted military rule.

A victory in the April 1 by-elections would be historic. Suu Kyi could have a voice in Parliament for the first time after spending most of the last two decades under house arrest.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate announced her intention last month to run in the April elections but was waiting for official approval from the Elections Commission, which said it had to scrutinize her eligibility.

A National League for Democracy spokesman confirmed the commission had approved her candidacy. “There is no objection to her nomination and we can say that her candidacy is officially accepted,” Nyan Win said.

Government agencies in Myanmar normally don’t announce their actions directly, but the government gazette is expected to disclose the official decision later.

Myanmar’s nominally civilian government took office last March and has surprised even some of the country’s toughest critics by releasing hundreds of political prisoners, signing cease-fire deals with ethnic rebels, increasing media freedoms and easing censorship laws.

Myanmar’s government hopes the rapid changes will prompt the lifting of economic sanctions imposed under the junta’s rule. Western governments and the United Nations have said they will review the sanctions only after gauging whether the April polls are carried out freely and fairly.

Suu Kyi’s party won a sweeping victory in the 1990 general election but the junta refused to honor the results.

Even if the National League for Democracy party wins all 48 seats being contested, it will have minimal power. The 440-seat lower house of Parliament is heavily weighted with military appointees and allies of the former junta.

Suu Kyi will run for a seat representing Kawhmu, a poor district south of Yangon where villagers’ livelihoods were devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Myanmar’s HR situation improving but ’serious challenges’ remain: UN official
By ANI | ANI – 6 hours ago

Rangoon, Feb 6 (ANI): United Nations Human Rights Envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana has said he has witnessed a positive impact in Myanmar’s recent human rights situation, but added that serious challenges still remain and need to be addressed.

Quintana made this remark after completing his six-day Myanmar mission.

“There is also a risk of backtracking on the progress achieved thus far. Therefore, at this crucial moment in the country’s history, further and sustained action should be taken to bring about further change. Prior to its assumption of the Chairpersonship of ASEAN in 2014, I would encourage Myanmar to demonstrate concrete progress in improving its human rights situation,” Xinhua quoted him, as saying.

He insisted that the international community should keep supporting and assisting the government during this crucial time, adding that steps taken by the government had the potential to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Myanmar and deepen its transition to democracy.

He stressed the importance to assess the human rights situation in Myanmar in light of some developments and at this key moment in Myanmar history, citing a continuing wave of reforms in the country since his last visit in August 2011 and saying that the speed and breadth of the reform has surprised many international observers and many in the country.

“The impact of these reforms on the country and on its people is immediately perceptible,” he said.

He witnessed that significant legislative reforms were undertaken or are underway, including a new draft media law, which he was told would abolish censorship and provides some guarantees for the freedom of opinion and expression.

Feb 7, 2012
Asia Times Online – China presses Myanmar on stalled dam
By Melody Kemp

One of the first indications that change was afoot in Myanmar came when President Thein Sein announced last year the suspension of the China-backed, US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam slated for the country’s remote Kachin state. Now, signs are that the fight is not over as Chinese hydro-power lobbyists go on the offensive to have the mega-project restarted despite extreme environmental risks.

A PowerPoint presentation made by a delegate to the recent Mekong Energy and Ecology meeting in Bangkok indicates that China’s hydro-power industry is working hard to resurrect the shelved project. The presentation along with other Chinese-language documents indicate that China wants to resurrect the project as a symbol of its still strong clout in Myanmar at a time the United States and European Union bid to make diplomatic and commercial inroads.

The Myitsone dam is also apparently viewed by Beijing as a bellwether on Myanmar’s stance on other major Chinese investments, including the $17.5 billion oil and gas pipelines designed to transport fuel from Myanmar’s southern coast to China’s southwestern, land-locked Yunnan province.

The Chinese press have reported the pipelines create 50,000 new jobs and yield Yunnan economic returns estimated at 33 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion) in refined products per year. The pipelines will also allow China to avoid sending its energy imports through the congested and, in case of a future conflict with the United States, easily blocked Malacca Straits.

The Chinese Hydropower Association, government officials and Chinese media have all accused Myanmar’s government of breach of contract and of being in the thrall of foreign, read Western, non-governmental organizations that have campaigned steadily against the mega-project’s potential negative environmental and social impacts.

Chinese officials have asserted that Myanmar needs China’s foreign investment, which currently amounts to over 44% of the country’s foreign direct investment, to fuel economic development. However, 90% of the estimated 3,600-6,000 megawatts of electricity that would have been generated by the dam was slated for export to China.

Chinese hydropower interests, meanwhile, continue to assert that the environmental impacts of the dam would be minimal. That is the portrait painted by the upstream Ayeyawady Confluence Basin Hydropower Corporation, a local subsidiary of the China Power Investment Corporation, one of China’s top five electricity producers, in their latest publication “A Better Tomorrow on the Ayeyawady River.”

Zhang Boting, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Society for Hydropower Engineering and who writes for the government’s mouthpiece People’s Daily newspaper, has led the propaganda offensive against Myitsone’s suspension. In a recent newspaper column he referred to Thein Sein’s safety concerns over the project as ““illogical”.

“Will the natural beauty of Kachin and Myanmar be destroyed by the project? Absolutely NOT – dams and even earthquakes have been proven to create new beautiful scenery. This is the case with [China's] Three River Gorges Dam, which is now more beautiful than before. Don’t listen to the extreme statements of environmentalists,” he urged Thein Sein in a newspaper column.

Striking a more assertive pose, he also recently wrote: “It is impossible that the investor move the hydropower projects out of Myanmar … If the Myanmar people are at risk, the investment by the investor is at risk as well. The investor and the Myanmar people are both stakeholders in dam construction.”

“Will the reservoir cause people upstream to lose livelihoods? … As a World Bank official once learned in China, many people hope that they will be lucky enough to be resettled as a result of a dam project … as this is a way out of poverty,” Zhang’s China Society for Hydropower recently said in a statement.

“The people who designed the Myitsone are the same that designed the Three River Gorges Dam – for them resolving resettlement issues are very simple. The people living in the [Myitsone] resettlement area now live like people in upscale villas in China,” the statement said.

World Bank officials could not confirm the anonymous quote attributed to it in Zhang’s statement. Nor have those resettled from the Myitsone dam site been resettled into “upscale villas”, as he claimed. Photographs and reports received by this correspondent indicate that most of the resettled villagers – estimated by the opposition National League for Democracy to number 12,000 – have been forced off their fertile ancestral lands and lucrative orchards into tiny houses on clay beds incapable of producing basic crops.

Dam high risks
The environmental risks of Myitsone, meanwhile, are enormous by threatening the flow of the Irrawaddy River, Myanmar’s main and most culturally significant waterway. The proposed 152-meter high dam, which if built will create a reservoir the size of Singapore, would be situated between the Yunnan and Sagaing Faults.

A recent geological study jointly conducted by Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Japan’s International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering indicates that a major shift in the Sagaing fault, situated only 100 kilometers west of the dam site, could soon occur and might affect the new capital Naypyidaw. Their analysis and maps showing the fault extending south into the Andaman Sea and north into Kachin State is thought to have influenced Thein Sein’s decision on the dam.

Independent geologist and blogger Ole Nielsen noted in a blog entry that previous dams built in Myanmar have collapsed and suggested that the Kachin state capital Myitkyina would be wiped out in the event of a Myitsone dam collapse. He added that the Ching Hkrang dam 16 kilometers north of Myitkyina and the agricultural Washawng dam in Wiangmaw district collapsed in 2006 after incessant rains.

Experts say a dam as large as Myitsone, in combination with its seismic location, could also trigger earthquakes though so-called reservoir induced seismicity, a geological phenomenon where water in large reservoirs shifts land masses and through infiltration weakens underlying fault lines. There have been over 90 identified incidences of earthquakes triggered by water reservoirs worldwide, including in China’s Sichuan province in 2008.

Meanwhile, a United States Geological Survey team indicated in a recent report that the Himalayan glaciers, some of which feed the Irrawaddy River, are retreating at an alarming rate. (If so, in a few years the Myitsone dam could become a giant sandpit.) The survey warned that the glacial retreat brings a greater risk of so-called Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, which occur when melt water inside a glacier breaks out with extreme force and sends a tsunami of silt carrying water down stream slamming into dam walls. This has already had devastating effects in nearby Nepal.

The controversy over Myitsone runs deeper, however. Myanmar’s military junta first proposed the dam’s construction in 2006 and three years later contracted the local Asia World Company and China Power Investment Corp (CPI) to build it. Asia World was established by Lo Hsing Han, a Kokang Chinese from the opium-producing region of Myanmar ’s Golden Triangle who has been identified by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency for involvement in narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

Asia World is now controlled by his son Stephen Law (Tun Myint Naing) and close to Myanmar Vice President Aung Myint Oo who in turn is a close ally of former junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.

The now stalled joint venture agreement between the CPI and Asia World involves many powerful interests. The deal enabled CPI to build and operate Myitsone in partnership with Myanmar Electric Power Enterprises and a consortium of Chinese companies, including the China Gezhouba Group Corporation, whose contract is worth $153 million, China Power Investment Corporation Materials and Equipment Company, whose concrete work had been priced at $75 million and the politically connected Sinohydro Corp, which was responsible for road building and civil engineering.

Despite those big commercial interests, Thein Sein said he was responding to the “will of the people” in suspending the dam. The decision has raised bilateral tensions, with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei saying in October soon after the announcement that Myanmar must “protect the legal and legitimate rights of Chinese companies”. It’s unclear if Myanmar has paid any compensation since the mega-project was stalled.

CPI president and Communist Party secretary Lu Qizhou said in interviews soon after the September 30 suspension was announced that he was “shocked” by the decision and insisted that his company had followed all legal procedures in winning the contract.

The various interested parties in the dam maintain that hundreds of scientists had agreed that the environmental impacts would be minimal despite the size of the reservoir and the biodiversity significance of the dam site. (Some Yangon-based cynics say that this is because Chinese poachers have already cut or mined everything of value around the dam site.)
Myanmar has yet to formulate comprehensive laws supporting regulations or even research teams capable of completing the rigorous testing and reporting necessary to properly assess such a massive project. However, it is clear from Thein Sein’s “will of the people” statement that his government takes environmental concerns more seriously than the previous ruling military junta.

While the dam has been deferred until 2015, coinciding with the end of Thein Sein’s term, wrangling over the multi-billion dollar mega-project is expected to animate China-Myanmar relations in the years ahead. Taking into account the cultural significance of the Irrawaddy River and the ongoing conflict in Kachin state, it is possible that Thein Sein’s suspension will eventually lead to an outright cancellation. (Already some of the resettled families have returned to their home villages, according to on-the-ground sources.)

In a survey published in Myanmar Affairs, a website maintained by Myanmar academics, 58% of respondents surveyed approved of Thein Sein’s environmental initiatives. The survey found that 90% of the 1,000 people interviewed opposed the Myitsone dam for environmental, socioeconomic and cultural reasons. While China continues to propagandize that the Myitsone dam is Myanmar’s national interest, Myanmar’s people and leadership view it differently.

Melody Kemp is an environmental journalist currently living in Indonesia.

ABC Radio Australia – Rights abuses increasing in Burma, says campaigner
Updated February 6, 2012 21:55:20

The group, Burma Campaign Australia says the changes in Burma under President Thein Sein, are not as dramatic as reported in foreign media.

The head of World Vision Australia,Tim Costello, last month described the changes in Burma as a “miracle”.

Speaking to Radio Australia’s Connect Asia program, Reverend Costello said Burma was at a “tipping point” towards meaningful reform under President Thein Sein .

Zetty Brake from the group Burma Campaign Australia says Mr Costello made factual inaccuracies in that interview.

Reporter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Tim Costello, head of World Vision Australia; Zetty Brake, Burma Campaign Australia

ZETTY: Well, I think we’ve got to remember just to get the facts correct. On the day that Mr Costello referred to there weren’t 600 political prisoners released, there was only 300 and in total there still remains about 1,000 political prisoners in jail in Burma. We also need to remember that none of the laws that have allowed these people to be imprisoned and treated so inhumanely in jail have been removed, so there still remains a very big risk that people can be rearrested and that that threat of engaging in political activities and being too outspoken still exists in Burma.

COCHRANE: One of the other points Mr Costello made was that of trade unions being formed again and that being a positive sign for the country. Can you tell us your view of where that process is at?

ZETTY: Well, there definitely was a law that did say trade unions could be formed, that was passed by the parliament. However, what’s happened is it got passed and then it’s gone nowhere. It’s not been inacted upon, the president has not signed it into power. So even when there’s been trade unions that have tried to go and register, they’ve been denied and said you can’t register, we don’t allow trade unions still. So they have this law on paper but it’s not being inacted, so it doesn’t mean anything. Trade unions still cannot form in Burma.

COCHRANE: The organisation, World Vision has worked in Burma for many years, but you’ve pointed out to us the limitations in access to the country. Can you tell us about those restrictions and whether they’re still in place?

ZETTY: There is a very heavy restriction on aid workers in Burma and what happens is a lot of people who are most in need and most extremely vulnerable, particularly those communities in Burma’s ethnic areas along the country’s borders are denied aid. At the moment, in Kachin State to Burma’s north, in the last seven months 60,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of military attacks and human rights abuses. They’ve been denied consistently aid. International aid organisations have not been able to access these populations except on very rare occasions. So these communities are living, existing in desperate need of aid and not getting anything because of the restrictions imposed upon them by the government.

If there had been real change in Burma, why are they consistently denying aid organisations access to extremely vulnerable and extremely needy communities.

COCHRANE: Tim Costello described what he saw happening in Burma as what looks like a miracle and the corrections that you’ve made to some of the figures and facts that he mentioned, notwithstanding, how would you describe the reforms taking place in Burma?

ZETTY: Well, it depends where you go. If you go to Naypyidaw and Rangoon, and you talk to some of the political elite, yes there is a lot of changes. I myself have just come back from a visit to Thailand and met with community-based groups there who are working with ethnic communities in Burma and what they are seeing is a very, very different story. They’re particularly seeing an increase in conflict, an increase in human rights abuses and an increase in people being forced from their homes. So for those communities, since the new government has taken power and all these positive changes there, they’re in a much worse situation than they were prior to this government taking shape. So for them to hear the situation being described as a miracle, and being described as positive is very disheartening because it does not reflect the reality that they are facing and the extreme hardships that they’re having to endure.

Channel NewsAsia – Myanmar opening up to tourists
By Anasuya Sanyal, Channel NewsAsia’s IndoChina bureau chief
Posted: 06 February 2012 1851 hrs

BANGKOK: Myanmar looks poised to become the newest hot spot for travellers to Southeast Asia, after decades of isolation.

But amid optimism at the recent changes in the country, there are concerns that existing infrastructure may prove inadequate.

Jetting around the country in a private six-seater plane may sound a bit strange, but it is now for one’s taking.

This luxury 3-night-4-day tour through Myanmar emphasises the cultural heritage of the nation – its unspoiled landscapes and ancient temples.

A little under US$6,000 per person for a group of six, the tour package comes at a time when the country is opening itself up politically and economically.

Willem Niemeijer, CEO of Khiri Travel, said: “There are enormous changes in Myanmar right now. The perception of Myanmar right now… is that you are able to visit Myanmar freely – a lot of difference from when Myanmar was a repressive… and not a free country.”

Despite the changes, there is concern about a luxury tour to one of the world’s least developed countries and one with 30 percent of its 60 million people under the poverty line.

Last year, Myanmar has just 400,000 tourism arrivals, in contrast to neighbouring Thailand’s 17 million.

Industry watchers see enormous potential in the tourism sector, but also potential issues.

There are not enough domestic flight connections, nor enough hotel rooms and trained staff.

Another worry is that growing too fast too soon will have negative social and environmental effects.

Kyi Kyi Aye, tourism consultant to the Myanmar government, said: “We must develop tourism in a fruitful… manner, which is responsible not for only people who are coming into the country but also the people who are hosting and providing services to tourists.”

But for now, glimpses of what Myanmar has to offer – from snow-capped mountains to tropical beaches – could be the next big tourist draw.

Battle Creek Enquirer – Burmese locals consider returning to Myanmar
Most still want to see more political improvements in home country
11:58 PM, Feb. 5, 2012  |

Democracy in Burma has been a moot issue for years, and that’s why thousands of refugees flee the country each year, some even settling in the Battle Creek area.

But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last month announced that the United States and Myanmar, also known as Burma, will start exchanging ambassadors for the first time since 1990. The Obama administration, however, stopped short of lifting economic sanctions.

Recently, Myanmar’s military-backed, civilian-led government has tried to improve relations with the U.S. by agreeing to key Western demands, including an amnesty for hundreds of prisoners of conscience and signing cease-fires with ethnic rebels.

“I see a lot of improvement,” David Cungsang of Battle Creek said of the conditions in Myanmar. “But I cannot believe completely about any restored democracy.”

In 2011, more than 200 refugees made their way to Battle Creek with the help of Lutheran Social Services, an organization that helps get refugees settled their first 90 days here.

And more than 1,000 refugees are living in the Battle Creek area.

The Burmese left the country as refugees starting as early as about 30 years ago, many because they could not practice their religion freely and also to have a better life for their families.

Cungsung, 37, is one of those refugees who left Burma in September 2000, with his heart set on living in a free country.

Cungsang came to Battle Creek by himself, but now has two daughters he’s raising and is employed by Clyde Union Pump.

Family on his father’s side still remains in Burma, he said. He said he’s not certain the local population of refugees will decrease because of the seemingly improving conditions in Burma.

“It may slow, I think,” Cungsang said. “It depends on the politics. That will determine if people will continue to flee the country.”

If refugees did return to Myanmar, most would be returning to border regions of razed villages, minefields, traumatized people and almost nonexistent support systems in a country that is already among the world’s poorest. Many fear that with the world quick to applaud Myanmar’s reforms, pressure will mount to force them back before conditions are right.

“The Burma government is better than before,” said Burmese Battle Creek resident Joseph Runneisum. “The government is still run by the military, but it is trying to be better.”

Runneisum, 37, has been in Battle Creek for 11 years. He came here alone, but is now married and is a bilingual tutor to Burmese children at Valley View Elementary School. He has a sister still living in Myanmar, but his parents are deceased.

“If she can get a visa, she’ll come here, too,” he said, despite the improving conditions in their native land.

The U.S. government intends to continue supporting both the refugees and increased aid to Myanmar if reforms continue. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who visited Myanmar in December, said Washington was committed to “helping the refugees for the future in their homeland, so they can become self-reliant after two decades of just being dependent on aid in the camps.”

“I want to go back to my country, but not now. There may be changes in the big cities, but not in the countryside,” said May Soe, who fled to Thailand after Burmese soldiers killed her father and raped women in her village.

Aram Derbandi, office director for Lutheran Social Services, said changes are coming in Burma, but that likely won’t change the number of refugees leaving the country and coming to the Battle Creek area.

“Most of the refugees coming to Battle Creek have already left Burma and are coming here from Malaysia and Thailand,” Derbandi said. “I do not think there will be any change in the number of people coming here.”

Derbandi said Lutheran Social Services will continue assisting refugees from Mayanmar, an effort dear to his heart. Derbandi himself was a refugee from Burma 15 years ago.

“I love helping people,” Derbandi said. “I know how great it is to help them get the services they need to help them become a part of this society.”

GlobalPost – Banned in Burma: The Simpsons?
And have Burma’s superstitious rulings slowed to a halt?
Patrick Winn February 6, 2012 01:21

Joining the ranks of Skype, the band U2 and Rambo IV, The Simpsons Movie is allegedly banned in Burma.

Though news to me — I just learned this via a Thailand-based movie reviewer’s Tweet — this is actually old news. This tidbit made the rounds on film review sites years ago and was repeated recently on Flavorwire’s “Movies Banned in Foreign Countries for Weird Reasons” rundown. The cited reason for the ban — which can’t be verified — is that the cartoon’s prominent yellow-and-red color scheme offended censors.

Burma has been notorious for its edicts based on superstition. Perhaps the best-known example is the late 1980s ruling that all currency must be divisible by nine. Burmese who’d stockpiled bills lost their savings overnight.

What I’m now wondering is this: will Burma’s rapid reforms and newfound sensitivity to its pariah status bring an end to these superstition-derived rulings?

I haven’t seen one in some time.

The most recent example I can come up with is former ruler Than Shwe’s call for the population to start growing a nut called Jatropha Curcas. The nut, so the story goes, was said by his astrologer to mute the powers of influential dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

Banning The Simpsons is a near-meaningless gesture in a country where only the fortunate have TVs, DVD/VCD players and an appetite for American cartoons. I bet you could score a copy in Yangon’s pirated-movie stalls.

But it could be that, as Burma adjusts to rule under an army-supervised parliament, officials will have less authority to draft law based on superstitious whims.

Dekalb Daily Chronicle – Bishop shares Myanmar ministries at Sycamore church
By NICOLE WESKERNA - nweskerna@shawmedia.com
Created: Monday, February 6, 2012 5:30 a.m. CST

SYCAMORE – The Sycamore community got a glimpse Saturday of a ministry from across the globe.

Bishop Zothan Mawia spoke at the Sycamore United Methodist Church with his family to share ministries from his home of Myanmar, a country in southeast Asia formerly known as Burma.

His sermon, “Making Disciples of all the Nations,” centered around the book of Matthew, chapter 28, which is about the responsibility of sharing Christ with people all over the world.

Pastor Harlene Harden said Zothan’s visit is part of the church’s multicultural celebration during the month of February. She said the church for the past four years has organized a series of special events to celebrate Black History Month, and this year morphed into a multicultural celebration.

Saturday’s presentation by Zothan kicked off the monthlong celebrations, Harden said, which also include tastes of the Philippines, China and India.

“We are a global community,” Harden said. “We’re not necessarily into our neighbors. There are all kinds of people living among us, but we don’t know about each other.”

Zothan is in the country studying for his Doctor of Ministry at Gerrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. His wife, Caroline Mawia, gave those who attended Saturday’s sermon some background about Myanmar, which has 135 ethnic minorities. She also showed photos of some of the Methodist churches that were built using money raised by missionaries in the United States.

Money raised by missionaries goes beyond building churches, she said, and is put toward helping children who can’t afford an education or are in need of school supplies. The Grace United Methodist Church in Myanmar was also one of the first to respond to the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008 that killed at least 120,000 people, she said.

The church includes a medical ministry that helps children with cleft palates and assists people with eye care they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.

Though the church has done a lot of good, Zothan told the audience about a time when spreading the word of God had its challenges. He shared a story about an incident where he and five of his friends were jailed after sharing the gospel with people on the streets and in supermarkets.

Their spirits were still high, even though they were locked in jail cells.

“Instead of crying, we started singing and praising the Lord,” he said.

After about an hour, officers in the country’s military regime asked them to each write down everything they were preaching. Zothan said he and his friends were elated to share the message with military officers. They were released after the officers realized that they were preaching purely gospel, not politics.

“We have been struggling too many times in the midst of difficulties,” he said. “We have been praying to God. It seems like God is far away somewhere. … Actually, he is here. He is in us. He will never leaves us, nor forsake us. That’s the God that lives in each one of us.”

Harden said the message she hopes to spread is all Christians worship the same God, no matter how near or far they may live, or what their cultural background is. SUMC has several other multicultural events planned this month, including a visit by a preacher from India.

“I hope it’s the beginning of something exciting in the community,” Harden said. “I put this on my heart to have a broader reach, more understanding and better relationships, perhaps rethinking how we feel about people and understand a little better what’s happening in other countries and why they’re happening.”

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Daily Star, Bangladesh – Burma’s reform process in the balance
Larry Jagan

Burma’s reform process is in the balance as the hardliners and liberals in government are locked in a bitter power struggle. Change in Burma remains fragile, despite encouraging signs and growing goodwill towards President Thein Sein internationally. So far there has been a lot of good intentions, but thus has only produced limited practical change, according to analysts.

The reason for that is that the liberal-minded ministers who support Thein Sein and the reform agenda are being cramped by the persistent pressure from the hardliners, led by the vice president Tin Aung Myint Oo, who are intent on de-railing the reform process.

The case of the release of political prisoners highlights the bitter battle being waged behind the scenes. Government ministers, advisers and even the president himself had promised the international community that the political prisoners would be freed as soon as possible. The speaker of the lower house U Shwe Mann hinted to the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on her visit to Burma last December that they should all be free before the end of the year.

Now many have been freed, including the high-profile activists from the 88 students group — Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi — the Shan political leader Khun Htun Oo, the Buddhist monk Gambira and the former prime minister and intelligence chief Khin Nyunt. But many still remain in prison as the power struggle at the top of the regime intensifies in the lead up to the forthcoming by-elections in April.

Before their release on January 13, there had been hints that most of the political prisoners would be on January 4 — Independence Day — and February 12 — Union Day. But when only a handful of political prisoners were let out and the sentences of other prisoners reduced — there was widespread dismay amongst the liberal circles in Burma. President Thein Sein appeared to have been cowed again by the hardliners.

Aung Min — the railways minister who has been leading the peace process and ceasefire talks with many of the rebel ethnic groups — was visibly depressed by the fresh hold-up, according to one of his close personnel friends. The speaker Shwe Mann virtually made a public apology.

The fate of the political prisoners is a microcosm of the broader power struggle that continues to dog the reform process. Although the president is the one who finally decides who will be released and when, he is constantly walking a tight-rope, trying to build a consensus around his “gentleman’s agenda” and not provoke the hardliners in his Cabinet.

Now news of what happened has emerged. At the December 30 meeting of the powerful National Defense and Security Council — the eleven member body chaired by Thein Sein and commander-in-chief of the military General Min Aung Hlaing discusses security and other major issues of national concern — the topic of the political prisoners was heatedly debated.

The country’s leading hardliner, Vice-president Tin Aung Myint Oo strongly disagreed with releasing political prisoners before the by-elections [to be held on April 1] as they could disrupt them. Apparently the former second most powerful general, Maung Aye has been constantly campaigning behind the scenes to prevent the political activists, including Khin Nyunt and his military intelligence officers, being freed.

U Shwe Mann — the third top military man in the old regime — has been at the forefront of trying to get the political prisoners released as soon as possible. At the meeting he argued that if the government did not keep it’s promise to free them, Aung San Suu Kyi and the National league for Democracy (NLD) might decide not to contest the elections. The interior minister Ko Ko — another former general — supported the immediate release of the prisoners. Some of the others suggested it was important not to release political prisoners, especially Min Ko Naing and the other 88 Generation leaders, until at least after all the candidates for the by-elections had officially registered.

The hardliners’ greatest fear was that the 88 group would form a party and run in the elections. So in the face of this strident opposition, the president dithered. In the end only a handful of activists were released for Independence Day; though two weeks later a significant batch of high-profile detainees including the hardliners bet noir, the 88 student leaders and Khin Nyunt.

President’s apparent volte-face was brought about by the reformers’ successful peace talks with the ethnic minorities, especially the Karen National Union (KNU). This emboldened Thein Sein and gave him the room to maneuver. Immediately after the KNU signed the truce and an end to hostilities with the Burmese government delegation — led by the railways minister Aung Min — on the January 12 the railways minister rang Thein Sein, according to sources at the meeting. This was what the President was waiting for; four hours later he announced the major prisoner release and signed off on freeing most of the high-profile prisoners.

That’s how fragile the situation is, stressed sources in the Burmese government. The hardliners have been dogging the president and the liberals all along the way, making it as hard as possible for the reform process to proceed unhindered. They have been pushing for the prisoner release to be delayed until after the by-elections — or at least to keep the 88 generation student leaders and Khin Nyunt detained until after the registration of candidates. They were in fact freed shortly before that.

The favourite method of the hardliners is to quote the former military supremo Than Shwe — who has officially retired by living in a mansion not far from the president’s palace. The hardliners — especially Aung Thaung, the former industry minister and now a leading member of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP) — continuously claim that old man would be upset by a massive prisoner release in order to dissuade the president from speeding up the process. These old reactionaries from the former regime, who were close the old man before and still see him occasionally, are at the forefront of the battle to limit reform.

Everything is being tossed into the arena in this silent, dirty war. The hardliners are using every hiccup and problem to hound the liberals. The failure of the peace talks with the Kachin is strengthening the hardliners’ hands. Now they are waiting for social unrest and possible political demonstrations to use against Thein Sein and his liberal supporters as a pretext to attack the government’s recent release of political prisoners — behind the scenes of course.

For the moment there is something of an impasse, at least until the by-elections are over. The result of these elections may then determine the pace and extent of reform in the future. Some 20% of ministers are liberals and 20% are hardliners, with 60% sitting on the fence waiting to see who wins, the railways minister told foreign diplomats recently. It is a precarious game the liberals are playing according to Burmese officials close to them. “If we lose we’ll end up in jail” one of them confided.

The writer is a former Current Affairs Editor, Asia, BBC World Service.

The Irrawaddy – Govt Peace Delegation Meets Ethnic Rebels in Thailand
By SAW YAN NAING / THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 6, 2012

A Naypyidaw peace delegation led by Burma’s Railways Minister Aung Min held talks with several ethnic armed groups and Burmese dissident organizations in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on Sunday and Monday.

Aung Min met the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) on Monday. Four points were discussed, including a bilateral ceasefire, opening the KNPP’s liaison offices plus free movement and rehabilitation for internally displaced persons in Karenni State.

Although no agreement was signed at the Monday meeting, the KNPP agreed to hold further peace talks with the Naypyidaw delegation—most likely in Karenni State capital Loikaw early next month.

Khu Oo Reh, secretary 1 of the KNPP, told The Irrawaddy after the meeting, “It is a good first step. U Aung Min talked openly with us. We think we can trust him, and we believe that we can hold another meeting.”

Four leaders from the KNPP, including military chief Gen Bee Htoo, were also involved in the discussions.

The KNPP will focus on achieving a ceasefire when it holds further negotiations with the Naypyidaw peace delegation, said Khu Oo Reh. However, the repositioning of government military forces and rebel troops in Karenni State will also be on the agenda, he added.

The KNPP wishes to sign an agreement with Naypyidaw but it will depend on how productive their future discussions are, Khu Oo Reh explained.

Other than the KNPP, Aung Min also met representatives of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization and Thailand-based opposition groups such as the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), the Forum for Democracy in Burma and the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area.

Aung Moe Zaw, the chairman of the DPNS, told The Irrawaddy that his meeting with Aung Min on Sunday was an informal discussion just to serve as an introduction before further talks. During the meeting, Aung Moe Zaw raised the issue of the return of exiled Burmese dissidents. He told Aung Min that the DPNS wants to return to Burma and continue its campaign work if it is allowed to register as a political party.

“He [Aung Min] told us about his meeting with the ethnic armed groups, and how he tried to arrange a ceasefire. His mandate is to deal with ethnic groups. But it is also necessary to meet opposition organizations. So, he also met us,” said Aung Moe Zaw.

“It was just to build a relationship. I hope further meetings will continue [in the future],” he added.

Aung Min has been meeting different rebel organizations and signed ceasefire agreements with several ethnic armed groups including the powerful Shan State Army–South and Karen National Union.

The Irrawaddy – Monks Evicted as Monastery Resealed
By HPYO WAI THA / THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 6, 2012

RANGOON — When officials came to seal off Maggin Monastery in Thingangyun Township on Saturday afternoon, U Gambira, one of the leading monks of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, turned on them, asking angrily why they they were locking up a monastery that had sheltered a number of activist monks since their release from prison last month.

“You are creating dissension in the Sangha, between the All-Burma Monks Alliance and the senior monks from the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council. You are committing a cardinal sin!” he shouted at the sheepish-looking officials in the presence of fellow monks, political activists and journalists.

The two groups he referred to—the first an alliance of activist monks, the second the state-controlled  council of senior monks that manages monastic affairs in Burma—are key centers of power in the Burmese Sangha, or Buddhist monastic community. Causing discord among clerics is considered one of the greatest wrongdoings in Buddhism.

“Be tolerant, U Gambira. It is the means to success,” said the monastery’s abbot, U Indaka, 52, who until last month’s amnesty for jailed dissidents was serving a long sentence in Lashio Prison for his own role in the massive monk-led protests of September 2007.

Another monk also tried to cool off his raging colleague by hugging him.

It all happened less than 24 hours after the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council decided on Friday to lock up the monastery again, three weeks after it had been forced open on the evening of Jan. 13 by some monks who had just been released from prison.

“They had no place to spend the night, so they just did it,” said U Issariya, 52, a Maggin resident who was released from Hsipaw Prison in Shan State last month, referring to the monks who broke a lock to enter the monastery.

Even though he is not a permanent resident of the monastery, U Gambira, 33, had been staying there for much of the time since his release from Myaungmya Prison in Irrawaddy Division last month.

Due to appear before the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council on Feb. 9 to apply for a residency permit and the restoration of his status as a monk, he said he hadn’t received any notification from the council. “But I will see them if they ask me,” he said on Saturday, shortly after his return from a trip upcountry to visit his mother.

According to an official release signed by the township administrator, the monastery had been padlocked on Sept. 29, 2007—immediately after a night raid by the army to round up monks who participated in the Saffron Revolution.

The decision to close the monastery again was made at a meeting between its abbot, U Indika, and senior monks from the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council, as well as officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Under the decision, the monastery would be closed again pending the council’s approval of a residency request submitted by the abbot. Formerly imprisoned monks who wished to stay there would also have to be officially re-ordained. And until the monastery is reopened and their residency permits are approved, the monks have to find somewhere else to stay.

The abbot explained he reluctantly agreed to these conditions because he felt he had no other choice.

“But the council officially promised me that the monastery would be reopened within 15 days of submitting the residency request,” he said.

“It’s true that those monks have been officially set free. But they still need to restore their status and receive residency permits from the authorities before they can enter a monastery that has been closed by the government. That’s why we are urging them to do so,” said Dr Myint Thein, an official from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday. “We are just following the law.”

He said the authorities would also provide a temporary residence for the displaced monks. The monastery gave shelter to six monks and four laymen who did chores for the Buddhist clerics.

“I’m against the decision to seal off the monastery. It’s their fault. Our monasteries should have been opened by the relevant authorities before our release from prison.

Now they are making a pretext to hide their mismanagement,” said U Issariya, who has also been told that he must restore his status as a monk.

The decision to temporarily shut down the monastery has revived resentment of the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council among some Buddhist clerics, who see the body as just a group of old monks handpicked by the government to keep younger monks in line.

It was also criticized in the wake of the Saffron Revolution for turning a blind eye on the then military government’s bloody crackdown on protesting monks.

“The monastic council should work for the good of monks, not for the government,” said a 52-year-old Buddhist monk who lives a few meters away from Maggin Monastery.

But the blame for Friday’s decision was laid squarely at the feet of Ministry of Religious Affairs officials.

U Indaka, the abbot, said he had noticed at the meeting that some laymen from the ministry repeatedly called for the monastery to be resealed. “The senior monks said very little about it,” he said.

U Issariya, who also attended the meeting, said that the government officials wanted to take serious measures against the monks, but the council intervened on their behalf.

“The council stands on our side. The hardliners are the people from the ministry,” he said.

A few seconds after U Indika and his fellow monks left for their new temporary residence, Maggin Monastery was locked up again. An official thoroughly inspected the padlock before he left to make sure that the sealing wax on it was well in place.

And then, Maggin Monastery became as lifeless as it was until three weeks ago.

The Irrawaddy – NLD Looks to Youth Before April By-election
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN / THE IRRAWADDY Monday, February 6, 2012

RANGOON – Criticized in the past for an apparent reluctance to promote younger members, Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has lined up some youthful candidates for the country’s April 1 by-elections.

At the party’s Rangoon headquarters, amid the din of volunteers packing party literature and selling paraphernalia, such as newly cast mugs and still sticky NLD t-shirts, sits Phyu Phyu Thin, a well-known HIV/AIDS activist and former student protester. She says that her experience assisting some of Burma’s HIV and AIDS afflicted motivated her to get involved in politics.

“Before, the government tried to stop us from educating people about HIV/AIDS, and the local authorities still sometimes interrupt our work,” said the 39 year old.

In response, if elected to the Rangoon constituency in which she will run, she says she will work on legislation to help people affected by HIV and AIDS in Burma. “Lots of volunteers and medical staff work at our centers, and I will continue this work if elected,” she said.

However, Phyu Phyu Thin says she is not solely motivated by the issue she is best known for. “Like almost all Burmese, I hope for democratization and want to work with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD,” she said.

After recent reforms undertaken by Burma’s government, it seems that country has its best shot at democracy since a 1962 military coup. Street-side shops across the city now sell NLD t-shirts and other souvenirs featuring the image of Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, Gen Aung San, revered by many Burmese as the man who brought Burma out of colonial rule after World War II.

Could the rising groundswell of support see NLD candidates score some seemingly improbable wins?

At 35, Naing Ngan Lin is the second youngest of the 48 NLD candidates running in the April 1 by-elections. A private tutor living in Rangoon, he will run against Burma’s army-backed ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), in its backyard in Naypyidaw, the country’s austere, Ozymandian capital.

“If it is a free and fair election, we will win,” he said, confident that even government officials working in the purpose-built capital will support the NLD. “Government staff know what is happening in our country, too, and they can hopefully vote as they wish,” he added.

He acknowledges that as a new and inexperienced politician, however, he will have to work hard to promote himself, and says that both he and the NLD have to hone their policy positions on a range of issues before campaigning starts on Feb. 10. “I am interested in developing our education system,  as this is the area of policy I know best,” he said.

He says it will be difficult for him as a candidate to compete with the well-financed USDP. “I don’t have much money for posters or such material,” he said. “But I ask my friends to contribute as much as they can.”

Party staff acknowledge that the NLD is in the process of “getting back on its feet,” and that they will have to work hard to make the most of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s popularity among ordinary Burmese.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy in the party’s relatively pacific upstairs offices, party elders such as Tin Oo, now 85, agree that the NLD should give youth its shot. “Our NLD youth are clever and passionate people, and they will greatly add to our party.”

Downstairs, however, the focus is not just on the upcoming by-elections. Young volunteers run through a list of Burma’s remaining 270 political prisoners, according to numbers put together by the party.

“We give each one 5,000 kyat per month and if they are ill, we send medical supplies, if we can,” said Thuzar Lwin, 25.

Asean secretary-general to visit Burma
Monday, 06 February 2012 20:28 Nyi Thit

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the Asean secretary-general, will pay a two-day visit to Burma on February 20 to observe the changes that have taken place over the past year.

Surin, who supported giving the Asean chairmanship to Burma in 2014, will meet Burmese government senior officials to learn about current reforms being implemented, said an Asean statement.

The discussions will also involve the duties of the Asean chairmanship to be performed in 2014. He will also tour rehabilitation projects that followed the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis when it tore through the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008, leading to a major humanitarian effort by Asean and other groups to aid victims.

Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said Asean has been helpful in promoting international assistance in areas of peacemaking, economics and democratic principles.

In accepting the invitation, Surin told the foreign minister that the positive changes in Burma “have been welcomed enthusiastically throughout Asean and the world,” and said he hoped to identify how Asean can continue to play a role in the country’s development going forward.

Real estate value increasing in Rangoon
Monday, 06 February 2012 15:04 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – Prices continue to rise in selected Rangoon suburbs with speculators snapping up property in anticipation of international civic and business groups moving into Burma.

“Land prices have tripled or even quadrupled over the past six months,” Tin Moe, a freelance business journalist who has lived in East Dagon for the past eight years, told The Diplomat website. The locals are selling up and moving somewhere farther out of the city, where prices are still quite low.”

Prices have also risen in Dawei, Kyaukpyu and Sittwe, the sites of major industrial expansion.

In East Dagon, 2,400 square-foot plots along a major access road that’s being upgraded have reportedly sold for as much as 130 million (about US$ 162,000) in recent weeks. When he moved into the area, Tin Moe said it was freshly reclaimed paddy fields with an irregular electricity supply and only “a handful of residents…it was very quiet.”

Abbot ready to speak out
Monday, 06 February 2012 12:45 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The abbot in Rangoon who was evicted from his monastery in December says he is looking forward to Saturday when his ban on public speaking will end.

Shwe Nya Wah, the abbot of Sadu monastery, who is considered to have close ties with opposition groups, said the ban on his sermons by the state sangha authorities will soon be over this week, and he has scheduled sermons in several cities around the country.

The popular abbot was banned from preaching sermons for one year starting on February 11, 2011. He told Mizzima that the first words he would say from his seat are, “My mouth has got freedom at last.”

The abbot, who has been a thorn in the side of state religious authorities, said he would preach his first sermon in 2012 in Tachileik on February 11 and 12 and in Khin-U, Sagaing Region, on February 13 to 15. He will preach sermons in other cities including Rangoon.

The Sangha Maha Nayaka, the highest sangha monk body in Burma, said it banned him from preaching sermons because he spoke out on topics unrelated to religion. On December 12, he was ordered to leave the Sadu Pariyatti monastery and barred from conducting any training and classes in the monastery as penalty for preaching a sermon on International Democracy Day held in Mandalay at the National League for Democracy office in September 2011.

The abbot disagrees with the authority’s view of his sermons. “In my sermons, I preach the Pali texts of Buddhist scriptures and commentaries from Buddhist Pali text. I preach based on these Buddhist scriptures,” he told Mizzima.

Earlier, the religious authority also issued an order banning sermons by Abbot Thu Mingala (the Frying Pan abbot) of Mingala Monastery in Hmawbi, Rangoon Region, in December 2011.

On Thursday, it banned the Pauk Zedi Monastery in Mayangon Township, Rangoon Region, from holding a planned re-ordination and donation ceremony for 38 monks who were political prisoner and who were released in January, former political prisoner, Ko Ko Lay, told Mizzima.

The former political prisoners included Ashin Gambira, a monk leader in the “Saffron Revolution,” and abbots from Maggin, Ngwe Kyar Yan and Mingaladon monasteries in Rangoon.

Ko Ko Lay said the authorities actions are designed to restrict monks from playing any role in the reform and reconciliation process.

“The path they allow us to walk is just a dilapidated bamboo bridge made of a single bamboo,” he said. “We have to walk very slowly on it.”

New Burmese media law postponed
Monday, 06 February 2012 14:52 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – A new Burmese press law to cover the print media is unlikely to be submitted to Parliament during the current session.

Tint Swe, the deputy director general of the Ministry of Information’s Press Scrutinization and Registration Department (PSRD), told the Myanmar Times on Monday, “This session is mainly focused on the budget and it probably won’t be possible to submit the draft for approval before it ends.”

However, because of the extra time, he said the ministry could also update the law to address points raised at a January workshop and also a “ministry-level workshop” planned for March, which will be held with support from international organizations including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“When we met with international organizations, they asked whether the law has been finalized because it had been sent to the Attorney General’s Office already,” he told the newspaper. “It’s still a draft. We need to take into account the outcomes from the workshops and discuss [the draft] widely. And representatives in the Parliament will also discuss it.

“But while we need to discuss the content and take advice from the workshops it is definite that the law will come out in 2012. After that there won’t be any more censorship,” of print media, he said.

The draft law does not include any changes to electronic media laws, he said.

Earlier, Tint Swe told the media that the draft law was drafted by PSRD officials and included 11 chapters, addressing rights, duties and ethical codes for writers and journalists; principles to be observed by publications; a committee for press freedom and ethical standards; registration of printers, publishers and distributors; and legal penalties.

Though the draft was adapted from the 1962 Law for Registration of Printing and Publishing, Tint Swe said the committee made “many changes,” adopting sections of media laws used by Asian countries as well as Western countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary.

“There are many changes [to the 1962 law] in the draft,” he said. “We took the table of contents from the 1962 law but not the content. So while it includes regulations on registration [of publications], it is much more flexible. You don’t need to go through as many steps like in the past. For example, at the moment, you can publish a publication only when the ministry gives a licence. According to the draft, you can easily get a licence and anyone can get one.”

The chief of the VOA’s Burmese Service, Than Lwin Htun, who participated in a media workshop held last week at the Inya Lake Hotel, said the law shouldn’t be used to restrict journalists.

“Some people say that the…censorship board will be abolished but we will have to wait and see. A media law should protect journalists, not restrict them,” he said.

Burmese censorship rules have been modified in recent months and are now divided into two general categories: Group 1 includes nearly 200 publications focusing on sports, health, arts, children’s literature, crime, business and technology, which are not required to pass articles through censors prior to publication, but must submit copies after publication. Group 2 includes around 100 publications focusing on news, economics, and religion, which must pass articles through censors prior to publication.

Myanmar poll a ‘key test’ of reform: UN envoy
By Hla Hla Htay | AFP – 49 mins ago

A top United Nations envoy on Sunday hailed dramatic changes in Myanmar but said by-elections would be a “key test” of the army-backed regime’s commitment to reform.

UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, welcomed a “continuing wave of reforms” since his last visit in August, but said “serious challenges remain”.

“The upcoming by-elections on 1 April will be a key test of how far the government has progressed in its process of reform,” he told reporters at a press conference to outline his preliminary observations.

“It is therefore essential that they are truly free, fair, inclusive and transparent.”

He said he had been told that the use of international observers was “under consideration” for the poll, which is likely to see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi swept into parliament.

The democracy icon’s decision to stand in the poll is seen as a key sign of progress in the country, which was dominated by the military for nearly half a century.

A nominally-civilian government came to power last year following controversial November 2010 elections and has since surprised observers with a number of positive moves including a major release of political prisoners.

Quintana said the country must learn lessons from that poll, which was marred by widespread complaints of cheating and the absence of Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest at the time.

He said reports of “irregularities” and restrictions on political party campaign activities “should be addressed seriously” ahead of the April by-election.

Last week, Suu Kyi was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters during her first trip outside Yangon since declaring her intention to contest the polls.

But the pro-democracy campaigner decided to postpone a major political rally in the central city of Mandalay, due to start on Saturday, because the venue offered by the authorities was too small.

Quintana, whose six-day trip included talks with the government and Suu Kyi, will produce a full report on the visit to be presented to the 19th session of the Human Rights Council in March.

The envoy, who visited three prisoners of conscience in the notorious Insein prison in Yangon, said he was told that conditions had improved, although allegations of ill-treatment continue.

“The government should release all remaining prisoners of conscience without conditions and without delay,” he said.

“This is a central and necessary step towards national reconciliation and would greatly benefit Myanmar?s efforts towards democracy.”

Western nations are currently mulling easing sanctions, further raising hopes of an end to decades of isolation for Myanmar, but are likely to keep a close eye on progress in the ethnic areas and the upcoming by-election.

UNDP(Myanmar) – Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar
By Tomas Ojea Quintana, 5 February 2012, Yangon International Airport, Myanmar

I have just concluded my six-day mission to Myanmar – my fifth visit to the country since I was appointed Special Rapporteur in March 2008.  I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and hospitality, and for the cooperation and flexibility shown during my visit.

During the mission, I met with the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Border Affairs, the Attorney-General, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Union Election Commission, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Information, the Deputy Minister of Education, the Deputy Minister of Labour, as well as the Speaker and several members of the Pyi Thu Hluttaw.  During my meetings in Nay Pyi Taw, I also met with some of the Presidential Advisors and representatives of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, as well as with members of the various Government and Parliamentary peacemaking groups, including the Minister of Rail Transportation.

In Yangon, I had another fruitful exchange of views with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.  I met with members of the recently-established National Human Rights Commission and discussed a range of human rights issues.  Additionally, I met with three prisoners of conscience in Insein Prison, as well as with released prisoners of conscience,  including members of the 88 Generation Students Group, some of whom I had previously addressed in my reports or had visited in prison.  Also in Yangon, I met with representatives of civil society organizations and ethnic parties, as well as members of the United Nations Country Team.  I thank the Resident Coordinator and the Country Team for the support provided to me during my mission.  I also travelled to Kayin and Mon States where I met with the respective Chief Ministers and representatives of state government, as well as ethnic parties in state parliaments.  At the conclusion of my mission, I briefed the diplomatic community.

Since my last visit in August 2011, there has been a continuing wave of reforms in Myanmar, the speed and breadth of which has surprised many international observers and many in the country.  The impact of these reforms on the country and on its people is immediately perceptible.  During my mission, Parliament was meeting in its third regular session and was discussing a number of important issues, including, for the first time, the country’s budget.  Legislative reforms were underway, including a new draft media law which I was told would abolish censorship and provide some guarantees for the freedom of opinion and expression.  Campaigning for the by-elections scheduled on 1 April had begun in earnest and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s activities and statements were covered in the national media.  An initial agreement was reached with another armed ethnic group and negotiations continued with others.  It was therefore important to assess the human rights situation in light of these developments and at this key moment in Myanmar’s history.  My report containing my assessment will be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2012.

Of great importance is the release of many prisoners of conscience, including a significant number in January this year, as well as many prominent figures over the past few months.   I welcomed their release in all my meetings and commended the Government for taking this bold step.  I stressed that they, and all people of Myanmar, should be allowed to play an active role in political and public life.  In my meeting with released prisoners of conscience, I received a clear signal of their intention to engage constructively in the political process and their commitment to further democratic transition.  Our discussion also addressed ongoing human rights concerns, including continuing limitations on the freedoms of association and assembly, and of opinion and expression, the continuing conflict in ethnic border areas, particularly in Kachin State, and the need to address longstanding social and economic development challenges.  I am, however, concerned by information received that some of those released were being monitored or followed.  I therefore urge that any restrictions on their exercise and full enjoyment of human rights should immediately be removed.

I also met with three prisoners of conscience at Insein Prison, one of whom I had previously met during my mission last year.  While I was informed that prison conditions had generally improved, I also received allegations of continuing ill-treatment by prison officials and the continuing transfers of prisoners to prisons in remote areas, often without their prior notification and without proper notification of family members.

Of particular concern is the information I received of remaining prisoners of conscience being held not only in Insein but also in other prisons; information which was also conveyed during my meeting with released prisoners.  I therefore reiterate that the Government should release all remaining prisoners of conscience without conditions and without delay. This is a central and necessary step towards national reconciliation and would greatly benefit Myanmar’s efforts towards democracy.   I am keenly aware that there are continuing discrepancies in the numbers of remaining prisoners of conscience from different sources.   A comprehensive and thorough investigation is needed to clarify records and determine accurate numbers.  I therefore encourage the Government to consider this issue urgently, including with the assistance of the international community as necessary.

Also of significance are the many legislative reforms that have been undertaken or are underway, including the adoption of the Labour Organizations Law and the Peaceful Demonstration and Gathering Law, as well as the amendment to the Political Party Registration Law.  In this respect, I am encouraged that the Parliament has been active in this legislative reform process.  During my mission, I was informed that the process of drafting a revised Prisons Act, a new media law – the Printing Press and Publications Law, and a new social security law, among others, were currently underway.  At the same time, I note concerns regarding some of the provisions in the newly-adopted legislation, particularly the Peaceful Demonstration and Gathering Law, and in draft laws, particularly the Printing Press and Publications Law, which I will elaborate upon more fully in my upcoming report.  I also note concerns regarding the lack of adequate consultation with relevant stakeholders, including civil society, on some of the draft laws being prepared.  Another concern is the insufficient attention being paid to ensure the effective implementation of the newly-promulgated and reformed laws.  This can be attributed to, among other factors, the slow pace in establishing the necessary implementing regulations and procedures, and the lack of corresponding capacity of institutions to implement.

There is also a lack of clarity and progress on reviewing and reforming the laws that I have previously identified as not in full compliance with international human rights standards, such as the State Protection Law, the Electronic Transactions Law and the Unlawful Associations Act.  These laws impinge upon a broad range of human rights and have been used to convict prisoners of conscience.  During my mission, I addressed this issue with the Attorney General.  While I welcome the assurances given that the Government is taking serious and gradual steps to reform these laws, I reiterate that this process should be accelerated.

Regardless of efforts made to reform legislation, an independent, impartial and effective judiciary within the powers of the Constitution is needed to uphold the rule of law and act as a last guarantor for safeguarding fundamental freedoms and human rights in Myanmar.  The judiciary is also essential for Myanmar’s transition to democracy and should play an important role in ensuring checks and balances on the executive and the legislative.   I have previously expressed concerns regarding the judiciary, and I remain concerned with its lack of independence and impartiality. In my meeting with the Chief Justice and other justices of the Supreme Court, there was little acknowledgement of any challenges and gaps, and a lack of willingness to address my previous recommendations.  I therefore strongly call on the judiciary to take a proactive approach to apply laws in a way that would safeguard and guarantee fundamental freedoms and human rights in line with the Constitution and with international human rights standards. In this regard, I urge the judiciary to seek technical assistance from the international community, particularly the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other organizations.

During the mission, I also had the opportunity to engage with members of the National Human Rights Commission for the first time since its establishment by Presidential Decree in September last year.  I was informed of some actions undertaken by the Commission, including prison visits, visits to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachin State, and the receipt and review of complaints from citizens.  I was encouraged to hear that the resources available to the Commission may be increased significantly, including an increase in the number of staff supporting its work.

Despite these positive developments, I am concerned that there are no indications as yet that the Commission is fully independent and effective in compliance with the Paris Principles.  At present, it seems that the Commission cannot fully guarantee human rights protection for all in Myanmar.  I was informed that the Commission’s draft rules of procedure were being examined by the judiciary, and were awaiting the approval of the Council of Ministers.  This sends the wrong signal that the Commission is not fully independent from the Government.  Also, I was informed that its prison visits were dependent on presidential authorization.   Moreover, while the President appointed Commission members representing different ethnic minority groups, the vast majority of the Commissioners are retired government civil servants.  And some informed me that they were neither consulted nor informed in advance of their appointment.  There also doesn’t seem to be clarity on its procedures, including for handling complaints and conducting prison visits. In this respect, I was informed that interviews were conducted in the presence of prison officials.

There is clearly a strong need to enhance the technical and substantive capacity of the Commissioners and its staff on human rights issues.  I welcome the willingness of the Commission to seek training and technical assistance from OHCHR and the international community as a whole on the Paris Principles and other important substantive areas, such as handling human rights complaints and prison monitoring.

I have stated previously and continue to believe that the upcoming by-elections on 1 April will be a key test of how far the Government has progressed in its process of reform.  It is therefore essential that they are truly free, fair, inclusive and transparent. During my meeting with the Union Election Commission, I noted that developments, such as the easing of media restrictions and the revision of the Political Party Registration Law, resulting in the re-registration of a number of political parties, including the National League for Democracy, and the decision of some to contest the by-elections, may allow for the organization of more credible elections.  And I was informed that the use of international observers was under consideration.

While I was given assurances by the Chair of the Union Election Commission that the by-elections will be free and fair, I must stress that the credibility of the elections will not be determined solely on the day of the vote, but on the basis of the entire process leading up to and following election day.  Thus, reports I received of campaign irregularities and restrictions on the ability of political parties to carry out campaign activities should be addressed seriously by the Union Election Commission.  Additionally, lessons should be learned from the 2010 elections, and problems such as the high cost of registration, the use of advance votes, and the procedures and costs for filing a complaint should be addressed as a matter of priority.  Further, respect for the freedoms of expression, assembly and association should be ensured.
Also during my mission, I was informed about the various measures undertaken to address Myanmar’s longstanding development challenges, including economic and financial reforms, and initiatives such as the conference on development policy options organized by the Government and the United Nations Country Team.  Parliament was also discussing the budget, which proposes to increase spending in health and education. While I welcome the Government’s commitment to socio-economic development and poverty reduction, many challenges remain and the situation is still dire.  Concerns regarding the availability and accessibility of education and health care were specifically highlighted, as well as the need for the teaching of ethnic minority languages in schools in minority areas.  Concerns regarding land confiscations and land grabbing, often without meaningful consultation of affected communities and any or adequate compensation, as well as the granting of economic concessions for energy or infrastructure projects without adequate environmental assessments done, were also brought to my attention.  In this regard, I renew my call on the Government to ensure not only the realization, but also the protection of basic economic, social and cultural rights.  These are fundamental rights that are equally essential to Myanmar’s democratic transition, national reconciliation and its long-term stability.

Concerns regarding the ongoing tensions and conflict with armed ethnic groups in border areas, particularly in Kachin State, were consistently raised during my mission.  I received continuing allegations of serious human rights violations committed during conflict, including attacks against civilian populations, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, internal displacement, land confiscations, the use of human shields, the recruitment of child soldiers, as well as forced labour and portering.  And I must emphasize that I received reports of violations being committed by all parties to the conflict.  While I welcome the Government’s commitment to peace talks and the progress made in this regard, such as the agreements reached with various groups, including most recently, the Mon, it is vital that these allegations and reports be urgently addressed.  I was informed that action had been taken on some cases involving military personnel, but much more needs to be done.  It is also vital that the authorities and all armed groups ensure the protection of civilians in conflict-affected areas.

I must also emphasize that the needs of those displaced and affected by the conflict must be addressed as a matter of priority.  In this regard, it is important that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have regular, independent and predictable access to all individuals, in particular IDPs, in need of humanitarian assistance, regardless of whether they are in Government or non-Government controlled areas.   Further, delivery of humanitarian assistance under the United Nations umbrella cannot be linked to ongoing negotiations between the Government and armed groups or be made conditional to the Government’s assistance to people in non-Government controlled areas.

More broadly, efforts towards finding a durable political solution to the conflict must be accelerated and are essential for broader national reconciliation.  These must address the root causes of the conflict, including systematic discrimination, displacement and economic deprivation affecting ethnic minorities. I therefore renew my call to the Government to develop a comprehensive plan to officially engage ethnic minority groups in serious and inclusive dialogue to resolve long-standing grievances and deep-rooted concerns.  The Government should ensure that ethnic minorities are granted fundamental rights.  This includes the Rohingya community.

Finally, I remain of the firm conviction that justice and accountability measures, as well as measures to ensure access to the truth, are fundamental for Myanmar to move forward towards national reconciliation.  During my mission, I made a careful assessment as to whether the National Human Rights Commission could play a role in this regard.  However, considering the lack of independence and the limited capacity of the Commission, it is crucially important that the Government of Myanmar involve stakeholders, including victims of human rights violations, in order to get their advice and views on how and when to establish truth, justice and accountability measures.  It is also important to learn lessons from other countries that have experience in these processes.

I heard from many interlocutors about the importance of moving forward.  But I must stress that moving forward cannot ignore or whitewash what happened in the past.  Thus, facing Myanmar’s own recent history and acknowledging the violations that people have suffered, will be necessary to ensure national reconciliation and to prevent future violations from occurring.

To conclude, I have previously stated that the steps taken by the Government had the potential to bring about an improvement in the human rights situation in Myanmar and deepen its transition to democracy.  My mission confirmed that a positive impact has been made; however serious challenges remain and must be addressed.  There is also a risk of backtracking on the progress achieved thus far.  Therefore, at this crucial moment in the country’s history, further and sustained action should be taken to bring about further change.   Prior to its assumption of the Chairpersonship of ASEAN in 2014,  I would encourage Myanmar to demonstrate concrete progress in improving its human rights situation.  The international community should remain engaged and should support and assist the Government during this important time.

I want to again thank the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and cooperation.  I look forward to another visit to the country before my next report to the General Assembly in October 2012.  I reaffirm my willingness to work constructively and cooperatively with Myanmar to improve the human rights situation of its people.

ENDS

Sydney Morning Herald – US scrambles back into Burma in a race for influence
February 6, 2012

THE Americans are returning to Burma. Jostling in hotel lifts with Chinese engineers who are here to build pipelines across Burma are new faces: US senators, business leaders and academics.

Hotels in the capital Rangoon that were largely empty six months ago are at capacity, as the outside world sees a once-rigid, secretive regime opening up politics and promising an end to economic isolationism and state controls.

The decision by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest a byelection in April for the new parliament is taken as a signal it’s now OK to deal with a government that has put on civilian clothes following tightly controlled elections in November 2010.

The release of about 2000 political prisoners has prompted the return of Washington’s ambassador and expectation that US trade and financial sanctions will soon be lifted. In the rush are US conservatives, anxious to counter Chinese influence in Burma. Republican John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman were among five US senators who came last month. They were followed by a group called US Executives for National Security, sometimes described as a ”voice of the military-industrial complex”.

A ‘’softer” anti-sanctions lobby is more concerned with fostering a Burmese middle class, seen as a force for more liberal politics. Among this group is George Soros, who came at the end of December to meet President Thein Sein, the former army general leading Burma’s transition, and to set up an office of his Open Society Foundation. A Bill Gates visit is rumoured to be in the offing.

”Washington is actually itching to get back,” Dr Sean Turnell, an economist at Macquarie University who closely studies Burma, said in Rangoon yesterday. ”They have a very idealistic concept of what Myanmar could be.”

On a recent visit to Washington, Turnell found officials and non-government agencies dusting off old plans and projects for involvement, some dating back to the 1950s when then civilian-ruled Burma was seen as one of Asia’s great hopes. The Obama administration’s special envoy on Burma, former Pentagon official Derek Mitchell, ”has a lot of credibility on all sides,” Turnell said.

A senior businessman in Rangoon adds that local sentiment sees relations with China and India, the two great Asian powers on either side, as mainly about money. ”The real relationship is with the West, through education and family members living in Western countries.”

The influx from America includes influential Burmese exiles, among them the eminent economist Hla Myint who quit as rector of Rangoon University 50 years ago and left his native land, vowing never to return.

A pioneer of the export-led growth model for developing countries, Professor Hla had despaired at how a new military leader, General Ne Win, was turning to economic isolation and state controls, expelling foreign advisers.

Hla went on to an eminent career at leading American universities, advising other Asian nations while Burma stagnated to become south-east Asia’s basket case. At the end of this week, Hla, now 91, returns to Rangoon, for the first time – a homecoming seen as a symbolic recognition that Burma has finally embarked on fundamental political and economic change after its lost decades.

A component of the stampede is lured by commercial, not strategic opportunity. ”We have been inundated with visitors, to the extent we have double or triple appointments, people asking to come and talk about investment,” says Serge Pun, a Burmese tycoon whose SPA Group is active in real estate, banking, agribusiness and car assembly. ”The low-hanging fruit is, of course, the tourism industry where the need for hotel rooms is very obvious.”

One focus is the tenders now floated by the Myanmar Investment Commission for refurbishment of the grand British colonial buildings – banks and law courts – in the old city centre of Rangoon, which is now subject to a heritage order. Australia has dropped 71 names from its list of military figures and business ”cronies” targeted for individual sanctions, leaving 392 names.

Hamish McDonald is in Burma as guest of Melbourne University’s Asialink for a dialogue with Burma and other south-east Asian officials, businessmen, and opinion leaders.

The Nation – Burma to introduce electronic visa applications
February 5, 2012 2:33 pm

Rangoon – Burma will introduce an electronic visa application system next month to facilitate visits to the once isolated state, news reports said Sunday.

“We are trying to introduce an e-visa system from March that would allow international visitors to apply for a visa from anywhere via the internet before visiting Myanmar,” Tourism Minister Tint San told the Myanmar Times.

The liberalization of visa procedures is likely to facilitate another jump in tourist arrivals in 2012.

Total arrivals to Burma last year were 816,369, up 26 per cent from 791,505 tourist in 2010, according to government sources.

Tourism revenues amounted to 319 million dollars last year, compared with 254 million in 2010, she said.

Burma has introduced a series of reforms since March.

The Nation – Exile-run news agency plans to open office in Burma
February 5, 2012 11:58 am

Rangoon- The Burmese exile-run Mizzima News Agency is preparing to open a branch office in Rangoon, reports said Sunday.

“If the government allowed us we could open it straight away and we have a strong belief that the government will allow us to do it,” Mizzama editor-in-chief Soe Myint told the Myanmar Times.

Soe Myint and his brother, managing editor Sein Win, visited Burma twice last month, on their first authorized trips since they fled the country in 1998.

The New Delhi-based news agency has been covering the country’s political and economic developments for more than a decade, without being subject to the heavy censorship exercised inside Burma.

Soe Myint said that if allowed to open a Rangoon office, the group would seek to diversify into broadcast media.

“If we have a chance, we want to open our head office here,” he said.”Our intention is to set up our own media group but if we have the chance to work with others, we may also do that.”

The government of President Thein Sein has relaxed restrictions on the local press and internet since coming to office in March.

But it is doubtful that a bill to officially end censorship will be approved during the current legislative session that started on January26.

“This parliamentary session is mainly focused on budgets and it probably won’t be possible to (submit the draft for approval) before it ends,” Tint Swe, deputy director of the Ministry of Information’s media registration department, told the Myanmar Times.

“The draft is only for print media and electronic media is not included.”

Bangkok Post – Surapong plans Myanmar talks to stop checkpoint closures in Tak
Published: 5/02/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

TAK : Thailand will hold talks with senior officials from Myanmar later this month on the Moei River embankment to try to prevent important trade checkpoints being closed again.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul and Thai officials have inspected one of the three checkpoints at Ban Huay Maha Wong in Mae Sot district. The Public Works Department built an embankment along the river which was opposed by Myanmar and resulted in the Mae Sot-Myawaddy checkpoint being closed since July 2010.

The checkpoint was reopened on Dec5. After just two months, trade volume between the two countries has increased from two billion baht to 2.4 billion baht per month.
Mr Surapong said he was confident the volume could hit 100 billion baht a year in the future.

The Public Works Department built the embankment to prevent further erosion caused by a change in the river’s current flow.

But as a result, Myanmar has taken the attitude that the embankment requires the border demarcation between the two countries to be revised.

“I will bring the facts and discuss them with Myanmar officials on Feb 13 when both countries meet on the sidelines of Asean-India Dialogue in New Delhi,” Mr Surapong said.
Thailand will explain that the embankment helps to prevent drastic erosion, he said, adding it should be acceptable to Myanmar.

A government source said Myanmar has always disagreed with Thailand building the embankment even though it could slow any change in the course of the river. Thailand has asked Myanmar many times to start negotiations on border demarcation but there has been no response, the source said.

In regards to labourers from Myanmar working in Thailand, Mr Surapong said he would also discuss discrepancies in the number. Thai records show there are about 900,000 workers, but the Myanmar government claims the number is closer to two million.

Hindustan Times – MNCs enter Myanmar’s door
Jason Burke, GNS
February 05, 2012

In the single street of Yangon’s crowded Bothun San neighbourhood, attention is focused on the daily afternoon lottery. Hugely popular among the near-destitute labourers and their families, and played between neighbours on the flattened earth, it offers the prospect of a square meal rather than immediate life-changing wealth.

Stakes are small but wins are big, enough to feed a family for a day or so.

“If I win then we get fish or even chicken,” said Myat Soe, a 50-year-old labourer who lives with seven relatives in a makeshift bamboo house without power or sanitation. “If I win 100 times maybe I’ll get rich.”

Myat Soe is not the only one thinking about making large amounts of money in Myanmar, the new name of Burma. Hundreds of the world’s biggest companies are making plans to move into the country if political progress towards democracy continues. They hope to make millions as the repressive regime seeks to reintegrate in the international community.

The European Union (EU), the United States and Canada are considering how and when they will ease sanctions imposed over the past 20 years on the brutal military authorities that ruled — and some say still rule — the country. Any change will send a signal to potential investors that Myanmar is no longer considered a pariah state.

A week ago, travel restrictions on senior Burmese officials were lifted by the EU. A full review of the sanctions is scheduled for April.

One businessman staying at a five-star hotel in Yangon spoke this month of a “gold rush” in Asia’s second-poorest country. “It is when, not if, for most of us. I think there’s a bit of a Klondike feel,” said the businessman, who did not want to be named.

Prompting the change has been a series of reforms implemented by the nominally civilian government that took power last year. President Thein Sein has met key opposition leaders including the democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, eased censorship, legalised trade unions and released hundreds of political prisoners.

European politicians ranging from the British foreign secretary to the Norwegian foreign minister have visited Myanmar in recent months to “encourage” the changes. Hillary Clinton came late last year, the first US secretary of state to travel to Myanmar for more than 50 years.

All the visitors have made clear that further reforms will be rewarded. Since the sanctions were imposed after the bloody repression of protests in the late 1980s and a cancelled election in 1990, Yangon has been isolated economically.

In recent years, Chinese companies, many state-backed, have established a large presence, investing in infrastructure and natural gas to timber and precious gems. One reason for the authorities’ attempt to “democratise” may be a fear of over-dependence on Beijing. Another may be a simple desire to catch up with countries such as Thailand or Singapore.

There is no shortage of interest from global and regional businesses.

Myanmar has more than 60 million inhabitants and a key coastal location between India, China and the “tiger” economies of south-east Asia, making it an attractive market. It also has vast mineral, metal and other resources.

The longest queue at Yangon airport these days is not for check-in, taxis or cappuccinos costing $4 each but for mobile phone connections. As things stand, no overseas network can be used here. Hotels are full as business delegations arrive.

Shipra Tripathi, vice-president of Indian pump-makers Kirloskar, travelled from Delhi to Myanmar with a trade delegation.

“I wanted to see the opportunities that are opening up. I was pleasantly surprised by the pro-activeness of the government. We have already got teams in the country and are looking at a pilot project,” Tripathi said.

Asian Tribune – Burmese Diplomacy and Repression – Why the West should not Invest or Lift Sanctions on Burma
Mon, 2012-02-06 01:12 — editor
By Kanbawza Win

Even though man is essentially an economic animal and greed always supersedes the need, great caution should be taken by the Western world regarding Burma. They should not to be too excited or hysteria about the opening of Burma as Dr Zarni describes it as hyper ballistic characterization that the country is “on the verge of great transformation.”

One should think twice about the investment and commercial dealing with the Junta orchestrated puppet Thein Sein administration and will have to watch it very closely the developments after the elections.

Currently the ruling hierarchy are the same butchers of 1988, except that they have discarded their uniforms for longyi a Burmese sarong, and wear

Goungbaung the Burmese headdress, instead of the military caps. Their de facto leader Than Shwe staying in the side lines is the same person that placed old man, Ne Win in his dotage stage, is the real architect of seizing power from the civilian administration and replaced his senior Saw Maung, the Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council and later SPDC.

One may have fancies that there can be a change of hearts, as belligerent generals can become reconcilers and peace-makers and noble dissidents become realist politicians. But their actions, which speaks louder than words is an unmistakable proof of their evil mentality or techniques not to mention their strategy have not change, just like the leopard that cannot change its spots .The only aspect of change is that they are in silk attire. This is the perspective which happens to be the major dividing line between a native born Burmese and a foreign experts, as the Burmese saying goes, “A snake sees the legs of the other snake”

A classic example is that one can witness that these ex brass continue to adhere to the concept of “Lying the very concept of Truth” e.g. at first they deny that there were political prisoners, then they release the first batch of few political prisoners but being pressured they are forced to release the 2nd batch in substantial numbers but the world knows that there were more than 900 political prisoners remain detained in jails across Burma. Even though UN Special Rapporteur on Human rights in Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana urged the regime to release all remaining political prisoners, they refused to do so. Beside the current political prisoners released were under Section 401(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code which explicitly means can be rearrested and forced to serve the remainder of their original sentences any time the regime chose to do. Of course these can be construed as the internal affairs of Burma and has nothing to do with the business community. But the logical question is can you trust to do business and invest in this regime when lying the truth is their standard norms?

In January, the regime continued to promote the appearance of a reform agenda by pursuing ‘peace agreements’ with ethnic nationalities freedom fighters and armed groups. The regime’s apparent haste to produce ‘initial’ agreements is clearly aimed at removing economic sanctions and other barriers to foreign investment because this is but one of the conditions placed by the Western powers after the release of the Lady. The simple logic is that if they do not meet this condition, than there is little hope of lifting sanctions not to mention investment. So the Regime representatives signed agreements with the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), the Chin National Front (CNF), the Karen National Union (KNU), and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N). However, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) sees the writings on the wall and the regime failed to reach an agreement with them.

So the Burmese army, the notorious Tatmadaw continued to launch an all out war against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State and Northern Shan State with their scorch earth policies. There was such amount of human casualties and the hue and cry of the international community was so loud that on Jan 13th President Thein Sein issued an order for Tatmadaw forces to cease hostilities against all ethnic armed groups in Burma. However, the Burmese army indirectly control by Than Shwe refused to listen and continued to mobilize troop’s reinforcements and supplies to conflict areas estimated to be over 20,000 Tatmadaw soldiers. The Kachin have adhere to the real Pyidoungsu the Genuine Union of Burma which makes the generals and the ex generals on the defensive and one can ask the Kachin of what is the raw deal put on their table is that Naypyidaw estimated that it will take three years to bring the Kachin to its knees before they launched another major war against the WA of Shan State who is much stronger.

It was in this aspect the question rises to the conscience of the Western business circles, “Is the regime genuinely seeking peace with their ethnic nationalities or just a superficial way of covering the hole with the paper and if so how can one do business with the regime who can destabilize the country at any moment and their business and investment can disappear within a moment?”

“Some people in the international community together with some political groups are crowing that they have press freedom now.” How far is it true when it prohibit not to publish any of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s call for the release of remaining political prisoners, comments made by 88 Generation Students concerning the need for the creation of student unions and the regime’s flawed policies vis-à-vis ethnic groups and News about the eviction of abbot U Pyinnya Thiha from his Rangoon monastery.

On 19th January, Freedom House released its annual “Freedom in the World 2012” reported Burma as “Not Free” and Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) released its “Press Freedom Index 2011/201 2.” rated Burma as 169th out of 179 countries of the world. How can one do business with the country when reliable news including economic and statistics are absent or figures lied? And yet the Western Business community is bent on going to Burma. Why?

The regime’s plan was –: through the soft-spoken President Thein Sein termed by those who see him as a sincere gentleman bent on genuine change – which Dr Zarni term it as Kyaung Ché meaning soft excreta of a cat that looks and feels soft, but equally stinky and potent. No doubt that he is successful in attempting to convince Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to adopt the evolutionary way of changing things rather than the revolutionary way which the mass desired and has used her something like a tool to get US sanctions that block any type of World Bank/ADB and IMF ‘assistance’ to Burma. But the underlying cause is that the Generals want to stock their ill gotten millions, if not billions of dollars in Western banks for their near and dear ones, as they have learnt a lesson of what the Chinese do to Milosevic’s money after his downfall.

When it is clear that without any serious and genuine change, the Lady will not give them a blank check as she starts talking about the changing of the Constitution and settling the ethnic nationality grievances by calling the Second Panglong Conferenc that tends to reveal the true picture that the Tatmadaw generals are the real culprit of the Genuine Union of Burma (Pyidaugsu) as well as against Democracy will definitely rouse up the peoples’ emotions and send cold shivers through the spines of these men is silk skirts and headdress.. Even now she is attracting thousands and thousands of people whenever she appears. Hence they said a big “No” and regime in future is going to be less inclined to continue playing ‘nice nice’ with the Lady.

Will the West invest in such a climate?

What more proof is wanted when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has to postpone her political trip to Mandalay, the second capital of Burma because she could not obtain permission to hold a political gathering at a football stadium , a lame excuse, if not a sour note just to show who is the real boss, Thein Sein or Than Shwe. It can be pressured by the big Chinese community in Mandalay via Beijing to rein in the lady through the puppet regime of Thein Sein. For business community of the West this episode clearly paints the picture that the regime can go back to its Orwellian rule at any moment not conducive to business dealings and investment and will have to think twice before investing.

The Western response to these developments should be somewhat similar way it responded to Yeltsin’s Russia with caution. George Soros invested $500 million in Russian gas and oil sector and lost all. However if one construe: “Free Market, that benefits Western investors and corporations, is good. Anything, idea, any institution that stands in the way is bad, for instance, state subsidies for basic survival necessities, public provisions of health, education, social security, electricity and other necessities.

Private good, public bad. Egalitarianism bad, ’survival of the fittest is good” then they should join the band wagon like TOTAL of France, Chinese, Thai and Singapore companies, Narco barons, cronies or may come up under the humanitarian associations funded by the Nazis ancestors, the Myanmar Egress and so on.

The Junta’s love affairs with the Kachin lasted for nearly one and half decades and even then there is still no happy ending as it ends in divorce. Now the romance with another new lover Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has just began and is not even one year yet when there are several indicators that the honeymoon is not going well as the Mandalay episode reveals . The Western business circles bent on entering Burma may knew that it is neither holistic nor conducive to wholesome morality to do business with the regime but can their obsession of profit motive and rationale be cautioned that it is still not subservience to business dealings and investment either?

Shelter for unwanted Fla. Burmese Pythons opens
Published: Feb. 3, 2012 at 3:34 PM

JUPITER, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) — Reptile dealers and hobbyists in Florida say they’ve set up a “retirement home” for Burmese Pythons following a U.S. ban on imports and sales of the snakes.

The Burmese Python Initiative has been set up in Palm Beach County out of concern owners may abandon their snakes if they have to move out of state for any reason, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Friday.

The organization said its facility will serve as a temporary shelter and adoption service for pythons and two other species, the African rock python and yellow anaconda, subject to the recently enacted federal ban.

“We’re really trying to take care of these animals,” said Billy Leonard of Ben Siegel Reptiles of Deerfield Beach, which helped sponsor the organization and donated $150 worth of frozen rodents as food for the snake.

“Our concern is with all these pets in households all over the country. We want to give options to people to not dump them in a wooded area or in the Everglades or euthanize them.”

Kenan Harkin, a former bicycle motocross competitor, television sports commentator and reptile enthusiast, operates the facility in Jupiter that is licensed to keep pythons and other reptiles.

Unesco to help draft Myanmar media law
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private Limited – 7 hours ago

Yangon, Feb 4 (IANS) Myanmar will draft a media law with help from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the official media reported Saturday.

The information ministry is drafting the law in accordance with international and regional norms, Xinhua quoted the daily New Light of Myanmar as saying.

Both sides will hold a discussion on the proposed law that guarantee press freedom, responsibility and accountability in promoting democracy.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association (MWJA) and Singapore’s Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Monday jointly organised a workshop here on media development in democratic society. Representatives from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the US took part.

The workshop discussed media-related laws and publication.

February 04, 2012 20:19 PM
Asia Society’s Experts Believe Asean Members Can Prod Myanmar Towards Democracy
By Manik Mehta

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Bernama) — Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member countries can influence fellow member Myanmar to follow the path of reform and democracy.

Its “core members”, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, can play a constructive role in this endeavor, according to a task force set up by the Asia Society in New York on United States policy towards Myanmar.

The task force, which comprises diplomats, academics and other experts, held discussions at the Asia Society on Wednesday, on Myanmar’s political transition, with two of its key members.

The members were Priscilla Clapp, a former chief of mission at the US Embassy in Yangon from 1999-2002, and a principal advisor of the task force; and, Suzanne DiMaggio, vice-president of Global Policy Programmes at the Asia Society and a project director, returning from a visit to Myanmar.

Speaking to Bernama on the sidelines of the discussions, Clapp said Asean could be very effective in moving Myanmar towards the path of democracy.

Myanmar, which wants to chair the Asean group in 2014, will be more open to listening to the Asean group.

Both Clapp and DiMaggio visited Myanmar to engage in what is being called the ‘Track-II Dialogue’, an informal channel of communication between experts from both countries, to explore opportunities for cooperation and elevate the hitherto downgraded US-Myanmar relations.

The discussions had been focused on a range of issues, including political and economic development, environmental sustainability, rule of law, democracy building, and people-to-people exchanges.

They met government officials, civil society and private sector leaders, besides opposition representatives, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

DiMaggio spoke of the “remarkable changes” taking place in Myanmar, particularly the return of opposition parties to Myanmar’s political scene.

Forty-seven political parties, she said, had registered for a parliamentary by-election on April 1.

The National League for Democracy has registered nearly two dozen candidates to run in the election, including Suu Kyi.

Bangkok Post – Heeding the call of history
Michelle Yeoh on playing political icon Aung San Suu Kyi MAIN PHOTO: YINGYONG UN-ANONGRAK
Published: 4/02/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Muse

It is one of those sensational, semi-stupid questions that a journalist sometimes cannot summon his wit and restraint from asking: Would she, Michelle Yeoh, have made the same decision as the character she plays, Aung San Suu Kyi?

“I don’t know,” replies Yeoh, her eyes probing from under her glasses. “I wasn’t brought up like her, so that’s a hard question.” She pauses. “I could’ve told you ‘Yes, I would!’ But no. I really don’t know.

“Because with that kind of commitment over so many years, it must be very, very tough,” Yeoh continues. “Aung San said that during her first year of house arrest, she learned to meditate, and the idea of what she had to do became clearer in her mind.

“I think at the most difficult moment in life, you find yourself.”

Yeoh’s reply outwits the impossibility of the question. The decision that Aung San Suu Kyi made, as currently retold in The Lady, her biopic directed by French director Luc Besson, is too formidable, too historic to impose as generality: She decided to choose her country over her family – to heed the call of history and leave the warmth of normalcy behind, maybe forever.

In 1988 Suu Kyi, who had been living with her husband and two sons in Oxford, returned to Myanmar to visit her ailing mother. In Yangon, demonstrations broke out against the military junta and Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, a soldier who fought for Burmese independence from the British, was thrust into the frontline of the pro-democracy movement that lasts until this minute. The junta soon realised how dangerous this small woman with an air of calm authority was, and put her under house arrest. Suu Kyi didn’t return to England since and hardly saw her family again. Not even when her husband, Michael Aris, was dying of cancer in 1997.

It was a different kind of commitment that has brought Yeoh, a Malaysian-born actress, to portray the Burmese Nobel laureate. Yeoh had heard of a script being written about the life of Suu Kyi, and she was so inspired by it that she put all her efforts and influences to make sure the project took off. It was she who approached Luc Besson to direct (”She cast me, I didn’t cast her,” Besson says). And since the first image of the film was released last year, Yeoh’s striking resemblance to Suu Kyi – the narrow face, the serene conviction, the steadfast eyes, even the flowers in her hair – aroused much expectation from the first feature film of this iconic figure who’s still active and whose struggle seems to have recently gained a sliver of hope.

“It’s a great compliment to think that I can look even half like Daw Suu,” Yeoh says, using a respected nickname of Aung San Suu Kyi. “Physically she’s one of the most beautiful women, and internally she is like that, too.

“Daw Suu is such a recognisable figure, so to try to look like her is the least thing we have to do in our profession. But when we sat down with the hair and the makeup people and went through the period of 10 years that we wanted to show her life, from the beginning we realised quickly that it wasn’t just the angle, or the lighting or the way I looked. It’s what she has in her eyes that tells us what’s happening inside her, and that’s the most challenging task.”

The Lady, which is showing in Thai cinemas now and which has received mixed reviews internationally, opts to give an equal weight to Aung San Suu Kyi’s political ordeal and her domestic dilemma. In the film, Yeoh gets to do a big rallying speech, in Burmese, in front of the Shwedagon (digitally matted in, since 80% of the film was shot in Thailand), and she also gets to do crunching scenes of longing and heartache with David Thewlis, who plays the British husband of Suu Kyi.

“For us, this isn’t just a political story. It’s also a love story,” says Yeoh. “We always see Aung San as a strong, tough woman. There are two stories running in parallel. You see the contradictions between the East and the West, and you see someone who does mundane and normal things – someone who’s supposed to be a housewife – and then someone who’s become important and imprisoned. This is a story of a commitment of a family that has to sacrifice and go through a lot of pain.”

“Our mission is to show how she became Aung San Suu Kyi,” adds Besson. “What we know when we read articles about her is just a facade. But how would you go from a woman in Oxford with two kids straight to 30 years of fighting? What makes you that person?”

The Lady is one of the two recent biopics of strong women who walk unblinking into the eye of a political hurricane – the other is the somewhat differently titled The Iron Lady, in which Meryl Streep brays and blusters through the swamps of Westminster as Margaret Thatcher. The discussion has been prevalent about the kind of acting as impersonation, when high-powered actresses calibrate every tic and mannerism to match the actual figures they portray, or at least the public image of those figures. We can also add Michelle Williams playing Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn to this roll call of contemporary performers in the shoes of historical women.

Yeoh has a different idea; she finds the term “impersonation” rather undignified, especially when it comes to a person she has such great love and respect for. It was impossible for her to meet Aung San Suu Kyi before filming – Daw Suu was under house arrest until November 2010, and Yeoh only went through Bangkok to see her in Yangon last year. So to prepare for the role, the actress dug into a long and laborious research. She read all the articles and she watched all the footage of Suu Kyi in the process of inhabiting the inner self of the personality most people know only from a newspaper. “I watched and watched and watched, and I tried to put inside myself who her hero was, how she’s become who she is, the story of her father and mother, even what kind of books she read when she was young,” says Yeoh.

“So I sat there and pieced together everything, because I knew it’s up to me to bring her to the big screen. However, the big issue is her private life, and you get to the point where you realise that the only person who knows the exact truth about Daw Suu is Michael Aris [her late husband]. It’s really hard, but then you have to trust your own instinct [going into the role]. I hope that when you’re watching the movie, you don’t see me and you see a three-dimensional Aung San Suu Kyi.”

We’ll see her, but it’s not easy for the people in Myanmar to do the same. Despite the recent signs that the military government has relaxed its iron grip, and that Suu Kyi will run for a seat in parliament in a few months, it’s unlikely that The Lady will find an official channel to be shown in Myanmar. The story of Aung San Suu Kyi – the real Suu Kyi – is far from over; in fact, it’s only getting more interesting with the unexpected developments of the past year.

“We hope we could show the film in Myanmar, of course we’d love to do that,” says Yeoh. “We’re storytellers who wish to remind that this is what happens. We’re not trying to demonise or make anybody ashamed. We’re telling the story as it is. What happened is bad history, and let’s hope that the future is going for the better. We wish them the very best,
and we’d love to see Aung San Suu Kyi as the president one day.”

The Irrawaddy – Mon to Mark National Day in Rangoon
By LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY Friday, February 3, 2012

For the first time in 17 years, Rangoon’s ethnic Mon community will be allowed to hold public celebrations of their national day, in the latest sign that the Burmese government is trying to ease ethnic hostilities as it tries to win support for reforms.

“We are very happy. Not only me, but all Mon here are very happy about it,” said Nai Soe Kyi, the secretary of the Mon National Day Committee in Rangoon, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday.

The move comes just days after the New Mon State Party, the main Mon ethnic armed group, reached a tentative five-point agreement with the Burmese government during peace talks in the Mon State capital of Moulmein on Feb. 1. The group said it may sign a peace agreement later this month.

Until this year, Mon National Day celebrations have only been permitted in Mon State. However, Rangoon also has a sizable Mon population, estimated at around 10,000, while there are also more than 40 Mon Buddhist monasteries in the country’s largest city.

In recent years, only small gatherings have been permitted. Most Mon usually donate food to monks at low-key merit-making ceremonies to avoid having problem with the authorities.
This year, however, the Mon National Day Committee in Rangoon plans to invite all of the city’s Mon, as well as people of other ethnic nationalities, said Nai Soe Kyi.

“In the past when we sought permission to hold our national day ceremony, we were always rejected. So we need to thank this new government for giving us permission,” said Nai Soe Kyi.

Many Mon living elsewhere in the country and overseas also welcomed the news.

Ramanya Ravika, a Mon Buddhist monk living in the US, wrote on his Facebook page that he and other Mon were “glad to know our fellow Mon in Rangoon will have a chance to celebrate legally for the first time in 17 years.”

According to Nai Soe Kyi, the permission came from the Rangoon Division’s Chief Minister’s Office.

The Mon, who are one of Burma’s major ethnic groups, will celebrate Mon National Day on Feb. 8 this year. The event commemorates the day when the first Mon kingdom, Hongsawadee, was established in 1116 of the Buddhist Era, or 573 CE.

Major celebrations are held every year in Moulmein, Mudon, Thanbyuzayat, Ye and other townships in Mon State.

The Mon have kept their national day alive for more than 60 years, despite efforts by the Burmese authorities to discourage overt displays of Mon nationalism because of fears it could fuel anti-regime sentiment.

Suu Kyi biopic big hit in pirated copies
Friday, 03 February 2012 17:47 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) – They’re scratchy and poor pirated copies, but DVDs of “The Lady” are the rage in Rangoon now, perhaps because Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged in a more public way in the past several months.

Whole stalls are devoted to selling copies of the movies, and so far the authorities have done nothing to prevent vendors from selling cheap versions of the movie, according to an article in The Guardian newspaper published on Thursday.

A dramatic narrative of Suu Kyi’s life, “The Lady,” a film by director Luc Besson, isn’t likely to be released in Burma, but it’s scheduled for release in the U.S. next month.

Whether “The Lady” will ever be released in Burma may be the next great test of a democracy yet to come, said The Guardian.

Actress Michelle Yeoh said playing  Suu Kyi was the role of a lifetime. The Malaysian-born star said she remembers her pride when Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

“She was fighting for democracy in a nonviolent way, where passion was the armor and love for liberty was the weapon,” Yeoh told The Associated Press as she promoted the movie in Thailand this week.

Yeoh is internationally known for her roles in the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

Yeoh met Suu Kyi in Rangoon in December 2010 when the film was in production, but the government deported her in June 2011, when she again visited the country.

She told the AP, “She’s one of those people that you meet and you’ll never forget.” She said she was awe struck, but  Suu Kyi quickly put her at ease.

Suu Kyi told reporters in Rangoon in January that she has not watched the film. “I don’t really like seeing films which are supposed to be about me,” she said.