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| US citizen begins trial in Burma |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2009 |
(DVB)–The Burmese-born US citizen currently detained in a Rangoon prison has appeared in court on charges of fraud after allegedly using false identification to enter the country.
Lawyers for Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, said that the courtroom on Thursday heard accounts from two witnesses in the prosecution team, a police officer and an immigration official.
They claim that Kyaw Zaw Lwin intended to use a Burmese national’s identification card with his photo pasted onto it.
“He entered the country using his American passport, not by using the ID the officials had mentioned,” said lawyer Kyi Win. “They only found the ID in his possession after they searched him.”
Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested upon arrival at Rangoon airport on 3 September, and has since been held at Rangoon’s Insein prison.
Shortly after his arrest, state-run media in Burma appeared to link him to a series of bombings that hit Rangoon in mid-September, a fortnight after he was detained.
An article in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that he “had contact with” members of the All Burma Student Democratic Front (ABSDF) and Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), who in turn were allegedly close to “sabbateurs” involved in the bombing.
The leader of the ABSDF, Than Khe, told DVB however that the allegations were political smearing by the government.
Kyi Win also complained that his client had been held in handcuffs throughout the hearing, in violation of Burmese law.
“According to the police code of conduct, a defendant appearing before the court’s judge should be freed from handcuffs,” he said, adding that police cited security concerns as a reason to keep them on.
“This clearly violates Article 477 of the court manual and shows that no rule of law exists.” His next court hearing is scheduled for 30 October.
Su Su Kyi, the aunt of Kyaw Zaw Lwin, said that his family had received no response following requests to visit him in prison.
“A letter seeking permission to meet with Ko Nyi Nyi Aung has been sent to the authorities via the embassy but no response has been made yet. We will send another letter on Monday,” she said.
Su Su Kyi said that US embassy staff who visited Kyaw Zaw Lwin in prison in September said that he had shown signs of torture.
Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet |
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| Ten explosions hit Kokang capital |
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(DVB)–More than 10 simultaneous blasts hit Burma’s northeastern Shan state last week, the site of heavy fighting earlier this year between government troops and an ethnic army.
The explosions happened in Laogai, the capital of the Kokang special region in Shan state, sources located near to Burma’s border with China said.
Five government army battalions had been deployed there following heavy fighting in August that pushed some 37,000 civilians across the border into China.
The number of casualties from the blasts is so far unknown. One device exploded on Saturday close to a gold shop owned by the current leader of the ethnic Kokang army, Bai Xuoquan.
Government troops launched an offensive against the Kokang group, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), in August this year, breaking a 20-year ceasefire agreement.
The MNDAA had been resisting pressure from Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to transform into a border guard force prior to the 2010 elections.
The fighting sparked tension between Burma and China, with Beijing warning the Burmese junta to ensure peace along its shared border. Chinese premier, Win Jiabao, said on Sunday that he felt confident that Burma “could properly handle” problems with stability in the region.
Meanwhile, one man was killed and two women were injured last week when a hand-grenade accidentally exploded in Burma’s border town of Myawaddy, according to the Karen Information Centre (KIC).
The owner of the grenade was a member of the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), who was visiting a friend’s house at the time. He is now in hiding, while the two women are being treated in hospital. The identity of the victim is unknown.
Reporting by AKT and Thurein Soe |
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| Civilians warned not to leak tunnel information |
| Monday, 26 October 2009 |
(DVB)–Locals in a town in central Burma say they have been warned by government troops not to leak news about a tunnel being built by the military or their villages will be razed.
The 19-mile long tunnel is being built between the villages of Ywarmon and Phatthantaung in Magwe division, according to a local in the nearby town of Natmauk.
“Now even the village authorities are too scared to talk about it,” he said. “Security is really tight in the area and taking photos is also prohibited.”
Another local in Magwe division said that four years ago the army contacted his son, a graduate of the Government Technological College, and persuaded him to work in a weapons factory being built underground in Ngaphe town near to Magwe city.
The man said that an official from the army had offered his son 35,000 kyat ($US35) per month to work on the project. “The man said he would not be able to visit home after started working in the tunnel,” he said.
In June DVB released a series of reports compiled from leaked government documents that outlined the junta’s plans to develop a network of tunnels underneath Burma that would accommodate troop battalions and armoury in the event of an invasion.
Some 800 tunnels are thought to be under construction, with sections of the project dating back as far as 1996.
The project has been clouded in secrecy, but appears to be part of a longer-term strategy to bolster Burma’s defence capabilities.
The junta is using North Korean advisors for its tunnel system, after a senior government delegation visited Pyongyang in November 2008 and took a tour round military tunnels there.
The majority of tunneling and construction equipment for the project has been bought from North Korea in a series of deals over the last three years which total at least $US9 billion, according to two purchase orders received by DVB.
The Bangladesh-based Narinjara news agency last week quoted a military source as saying that a tunnel had been dug into a mountain in Burma’s western Arakan state to store fighter jets. The tunnel is thought to be connected to a nearby air base in Ann township.
Arakan state lies alongside Burma’s border with Bangladesh, which in recent weeks has become the site of a military build-up from both sides following a dispute over ownership of gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
Reporting by Aye Nai |
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| Eastern Burma facing ‘severe’ food crisis |
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(DVB)–Armed conflict has contributed to what could be the worst food security problem in Burma’s eastern Karen state in over a decade, a report by Karen rights group has warned.
Multiple factors, including recent conflict, abnormal rainfall and pest infestation, have hit Karen state in recent month and laid the groundwork for one of the lowest yielding seasons in recent memory.
The region was the scene of fierce fighting in June this year between government troops and the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) that forced some 4,000 refugees into Thailand.
A report by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), ‘Starving them out’, pointed to increased activity by the Burmese army as a major factor in the food shortage.
Since 2006 the government has pursued a policy aimed at eradicating the food production abilities of the Karen people in an attempt to “significantly undermine food security,” the report states. It is hoped this tactic will undercut local civilian support for the KNU.
An official at the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), Saw Steve, echoed the report’s findings.
“The target is to destroy the food supply of the villagers, not only paddy crops but long term crops like mangosteen, jackfruit, beetle nut and other fruits and vegetables from cultivation,” he said.
The tactic marks a departure from past strategies used by the Burmese army, who until 2006 only carried out sporadic offensives against the KNU, usually commencing during the cold and hot seasons and halting in the wet season.
This break in fighting traditionally allowed local farmers the chance to harvest their crops, ensuring a stable food supply for the following months.
According to Saw Steve, government troops often launch mortars and other artillery into paddy fields, meaning farmers “dare not work in the paddy fields full time.” He added that during the harvest season farmers now only work up to 20 days a month.
Inability to tend to fields has meant that crops are now more susceptible to pest infestations and disease, and the overrunning of crops by other animals.
But the surge of military activity in the area is not the only contributing factor to this season’s drastically low yield.
Abnormal weather patterns have led to higher than average rainfall, meaning important ‘slash and burn’ farming practices cannot be carried out.
The KHRG predicts that as the Burmese army continues to “consolidate control” in Karen state, the negative effects on the food supply will be cumulative.
The report asserts that the lower quantities of available land, paired with larger populations of internally displaced people (IDPs), disease, continually interrupted agricultural cycles and unpredictable weather, have left some villages in the region “on the brink of starvation.”
Reporting by Matthew Cunningham |
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| Activists rejected from ASEAN summit |
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(DVB)–Five activists from various Southeast Asian countries chosen to represent civil society groups today at a regional summit in Thailand have been rejected, one of the delegates said.
The decision to block entry to civil society delegates was a “very worrying” sign in the run-up to the launch of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, said Burmese activist Khin Ohmar, who was among the five.
The other four were from Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Singapore. Activists from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia were allowed entry, but under a strict gagging order.
According to Khin Ohmar, who is exiled in Thailand, those three have now left the summit in protest against the lack of civil society exposure there.
“The two remaining are a representative from Vietnam, who was not permitted by his government to leave, and another one from Brunei, who was appointed by the country’s government,” she said.
Speaking to DVB on Wednesday, Khin Ohmar had warned that the Burmese government wanted somebody from inside Burma “who is not able to have an independent voice to speak on the key problems that the Burmese people are facing.”
Instead of her, two police officials from the government’s narcotics taskforce had been appointed to represent Burmese civil society at the summit.
She added that 10 human rights commissioners, chosen from each member state, are to be present in the ASEAN charter.
“But only two countries, Thailand and Indonesia, allowed freedom and transparency for the civil society groups to choose the commissioners,” she said.
“For the rest of the countries, the commissioners were chosen by the governments. This is already a non-independent charter before it begins.”
The Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjavija, was due to meet with the banned delegates today but, according to Khin Ohmar, “interference” by the Thai foreign ministry thwarted the meeting.
Critics of the new ASEAN human rights charter have accused it of lacking punitive powers, and being able to only ‘promote’ human rights amongst its member states.
Reporting by Nay Htoo |
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| Water crisis in Leda refugee camp |
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Teknaf, Bangladesh: Unregistered Arakanese Rohingya refugees living in Leda (Tal) operated by Islamic Relief worldwide (IR) are facing acute water shortage.
The refugees, including women and girls, have to go to a stream to fetch water daily, but there is no security for women members because it is far from the camp near the forest, according to the camp committee.
The water is being supplied by the Islamic Relief once a day. The camp has over 13,000 refugees, but only four water supply stations are located in the camp, which is not sufficient for the refugees to get the water within the supply time, he added.
In such a situation, some local people who live near the camp and others take advantage of Rohingya women refugees, who fetch water from the stream near the camp in the mountainous area, said an elderly woman from the camp.
An Islamic Relief spokesman (water supply) said that they supply water once in the morning and again in the evening.
According to refugees, water is only supplied in the morning for an hour after that there is no supply. But if any delegation visits the camp, we get water the whole day till the delegation leaves.
“If we fetch water from the stream near our camp we could be molested or raped,” said a refugee woman.
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| Aung San Suu Kyi Reaches 14 Years in Detention – 24th October |
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The Burma Campaign UK today called on the United Nations and international community to renew efforts to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma.
On 24th October Aung San Suu Kyi reaches a total of 14 years in detention, most of it under house arrest. On 11th August 2009, after a sham trial, Aung San Suu Kyi was given a further 18 months under house arrest. Her current period of detention is not due to expire until February 2011. Despite an international outcry, no concrete action was taken to secure her release.
“UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon needs to mobilise the international community to secure the release of all political prisoners,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Aung San Suu Kyi has managed to use sanctions as leverage to persuade the Generals to resume dialogue, but so far all we have is low level officials talking about talks. Aung San Suu Kyi needs our support in pressuring the generals to start real dialogue.”
Burma’s generals are pressing ahead with fake elections in 2010, which will bring in a rubber stamp parliament and a new constitution designed to legalise dictatorship. Ahead of the elections the dictatorship has increased arrests and harassment of democracy activists, and ensured that Aung San Suu Kyi remains detained during the period of the elections. It is also escalating attacks on ethnic people, creating a human rights and humanitarian crisis which has already spread to its neighbours.
Despite the slaughter and increasing instability taking place in ethnic areas, and the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 political prisoners, much of the international community seems prepared to sit back and wait and see if any small change comes from ‘elections’ next year.
“There needs to be a sense of urgency about what is happening in Burma,” said Mark Farmaner. “Aung San Suu Kyi has spent yet another year in detention. The generals are defying the international community and pressing ahead with an election and constitution that could keep them in power for decades to come. It is a myth that they are not vulnerable to pressure, they are vulnerable, but the right pressure has never been applied. Fine words are not enough, we need action.”
The Burma Campaign UK is calling for all possible tools to be used to persuade Burma’s generals to enter into genuine dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic representatives. These should include diplomatic pressure, targeted economic sanctions, legal pressure such as a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the dictatorship, and a global arms embargo.
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| Another torture victim flees Burma |
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Irrawaddy News: Released after being incarcerated for 16 days in Burma’s notorious Aung Thapyay interrogation center in Rangoon last month, Toe Aung decided to leave the country, fearing he would be rearrested.
The 45-year-old activist was arrested on Sept. 11 on charges of connections with the monks’ organizations that are allegedly organizing a political movement inside the country. During his 16 days in detention, he said he was beaten and tortured.
“I was taken from my hostel in Kamayut Township [in western Rangoon] and put in a cell. For the first two days, the officers deprived me of sleep and food,” said Toe Aung from a safe house in Mae Sot, a Thai border town.
“The police officers were very violent,” he said. “Worse, I had to survive without water for three days.
“Without food and water, I became more and more exhausted. They came to my cell and interrogated me, but if they thought I was lying, they beat me up.”
Toe Aung said he was arrested like a common criminal by several police officers and members of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association civic group.
It was not the first time this had happened. He previously served nine years in Insein and Mandalay prisons for his political activities with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
When it comes to the election planned for next year, Toe Aung said he disagrees with the idea that the NLD should participate.
“I support the Shwegondaing Declaration,” he said, referring to the announcement by the NLD in April that offered to establish a dialogue with the military junta and take part in the 2010 election on the condition the regime release all political prisoners, review the Constitution and establish a true democracy.
“Ordinary Burmese people are afraid to become involved in political activities such as protests because the military government oppresses the people,” Toe Aung said.
He said that about 20 political activists were being interrogated in the center while he was there. Among them, he met Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese-born US citizen, who was arrested on Sept. 3 at Yangon International Airport when his flight landed.
Toe Aung said Nyi Nyi Aung seemed to be suffering from physical and psychological trauma due to torture.
In late September, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), an exiled rights group, issued a press statement titled “Torture is State Policy in Burma.” The statement said, “Nyi Nyi Aung was taken to various different interrogation centers where he was kicked and beaten, deprived of food for seven days, and questioned throughout the night.”
“Even though Burmese domestic law and international law forbids torture, no officials are ever held to account for their actions,” Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the AAPP, said in the statement. “There is no doubt about it: torture is state policy in Burma. We are deeply concerned for the safety of those activists recently arrested.”
Toe Aung also said that he met some monks in Aung Thaphay interrogation centre who had been arrested by Burmese intelligence on suspicion of planting bombs.
“It made me sad, because the authorities disrobed monks and beat them,” he said.
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| MYANMAR: Rohingya youth face bleak future |
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MAUNGDAW, (IRIN) - Hla Moe, 25, has a university degree but it is worthless in the eyes of Myanmar's military government. Thus, he and other Rohingya youth have no choice but to till the land just as their ancestors have done for generations in Northern Rakhine State.
"There is no difference between the educated and uneducated young men here," Hla Moe said, outside his parents' farm near the town of Maungdaw, not far from the Bangladeshi border.
"We [Rohingya youth] have two options: live a suffocating life or flee the country."
There are some 800,000 Rohingya in Rakhine today, most of whom live in abject poverty. Barred from civil service jobs, as well as from travelling freely to secure work elsewhere, most are casual labourers, farmers and fishermen.
Although the Rohingya comprise about 85 percent of Rakhine's population - this ethnic, linguistic and religious minority is de jure stateless, according to the laws of Myanmar.
A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says forced labour and expropriation of property are a daily reality.
"The state orchestrates violence either directly, to force the Rohingya to leave, or foments discriminatory attitudes and practices whose ultimate aim is to push the Rohingya out," the report states.
Restrictions
While many young people do try to leave - often via smugglers to Bangladesh, Thailand or elsewhere in the region - those who remain struggle to eke out a living under very challenging conditions.
In addition to arbitrary taxation, the Rohingya require permission for everything from travelling from one town to the next to carrying out simple home repairs and marriage.
Many couples attempt to flee the country, while others marry in secret, running the risk of prosecution and even imprisonment.
"We applied for permission three years ago, but we still haven't heard," one 24-year-old Rohingya in Maungdaw said.
Their children - they are only allowed two - may have even fewer opportunities in Myanmar.
"Young people don't see a future for themselves or for their children in this country," Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, an NGO involved in research-based advocacy in the country, said.
Education is possibly the greatest obstacle, as it is often poor or sub-standard, even though it is available at primary and secondary level, she said, and attendance is low due as additional school costs are often too high for many Rohingya families.
Many families spend between 80 and 100 percent of their income on food and other basic essentials. Others routinely keep their children at home to help with household chores, or to contribute to farm work or other activities to supplement the family's income.
As the Rohingya speak a dialect of Bengali with no written form, some 80 percent of the population is estimated to be illiterate - leaving them no choice but to learn the Burmese or Rakhine languages.
Travel restrictions
The ongoing travel restrictions imposed by the government have a particularly onerous impact on young people seeking education and employment opportunities outside the state.
One 19-year-old Rohingya girl was repeatedly denied permission by the authorities to register for university entrance exams - so she works in her parents' shop in Maungdaw instead.
Even if they gained admission as well as the necessary travel permits to attend classes, under Burmese law they are effectively barred from studying certain subjects, including engineering and medicine.
In 2008 alone, more than 400 Rohingya students were prevented from attending colleges and universities, according to the Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO).
"Lives have become unbearable and suffocating for the Rohingya," Nurul Islam, ARNO president told IRIN, citing instances of young people being arbitrarily detained or arrested, often on trumped-up charges for extortion purposes. |
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| Burma’s Plague of Rats |
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In the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy Delta, an exploding rat population is wreaking havoc.
BANGKOK—Areas of rural Burma worst-hit by last year's devastating Tropical Cyclone Nargis have been overrun with rats, which have destroyed up to half the rice crop in some areas, according to residents.
“The number of rice fields being destroyed has been increasing,” said a resident of Bogalay district, in the Irrawaddy Division, which was hardest hit by the disaster.
“Some have lost all of their crops. The rats destroyed all of the crops,” he said. “Some who had 10-15 acres of rice fields have lost all of their crops in the fields.”
The man, a farmer from the Kyun Thaya area of villages in southern Bogalay, said that around two-thirds of this year’s rice harvest near Kyein Chaung Gyi and Set San villages have been destroyed by rats.
Villagers in the worst-hit regions said they have been unable to rebuild their lives in the wake of the storm, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and left millions with no home or livelihood.
Local and overseas aid workers said Burma’s ruling military junta deliberately blocked aid to victims of Nargis, and failed to ensure that fields were ploughed in time for the harvest.
In Laputta township, also in the Irawaddy Delta, authorities launched a campaign to cut down the rat population in August—with farmers required to catch 10 rats per household, evidenced by 10 rat-tails, or face a steep fine.
But residents said it has done little to curb the booming rat population and rice paddies are suffering.
One farmer said his 10 acres of rice vanished almost overnight, leaving nothing to harvest.
Another farmer, who also asked not to be identified, blamed the explosion in the rat population on the authorities’ failure to properly dispose of animals and humans killed during Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath.
Breeding in tall grass
Now, farmers in Bogalay say that tall grass is growing where rice paddies once were, and that the rats are breeding in the unploughed fields.
“This year there are a lot of unfinished rice fields in our area,” one resident said.
“Although they have reported to the state authorities that their fields are complete, in actual fact those fields are not completed as yet.”
“In those incomplete fields, wild grass has started to grow and the rats have been building nests in that long grass. These rats then go and ravage and destroy the nearby rice fields.”
Experts say that the collapse of the ecological system in the cyclone-hit rural areas boosted the rat population, as many of the rats’ natural predators were wiped out in the storm and its aftermath.
Local officials say they are trying everything possible to crush the rat infestation.
Bamboo fruits
“Yes, we are crushing and destroying the rats,” an official who answered the phone at the Bogalay district agricultural department said.
“We have been eradicating them with chemicals.”
“We are also trying to get more chemicals to use to destroy the rats,” he added.
The head of the nongovernmental environmental protection group (FEDA) U Ohn said the rat population had boomed because of a ready supply of bamboo fruits, however.
But local farmers said they were close to despair.
“Nobody seems to be able to crush them,” the Bogalay farmer said.
“They don’t know what to do. They themselves are saying that they have given up since they don’t know what to do.”
“There are a lot of incomplete fields in our area, so tall and wild grass began to grow in those fields. They have grown so long that we cannot even walk through the long grass,” he added.
Original reporting in Burmese by Zaw Moe Kyaw and Moe Kyaw. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Translated from the Burmese by Soe Thinn. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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| Myanmar: Rescued from starvation |
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MYANMAR (formerly Burma) - For many residents of Western Myanmar, the decision was clear: let the children eat first.
Ripe harvests had been devoured by plagues of rats, causing a famine known as Mautam that occurs about every 50 years.
"When the rats suddenly flooded our land, we had to fight for our survival," said one villager. "We had to scavenge for any food we could find. At times, we even ate the rats that had eaten our crops just to survive."
For those families who couldn't find food, children were given preference to eat first.
"As parents, we let our children eat what they needed first while we fasted from at least one meal a day," said a father of six children.
To help meet the immediate needs of these desperate families, Operation Blessing sent relief teams to the affected areas.
After 3 days of travel and battling monsoon rains, landslides and broken bridges, teams arrived and were able to distribute over 32,000 pounds of rice to 927 hungry yet grateful villagers.
"I am amazed at their faith in God," said relief team leader Cheich Maung. "Despite their dire situation, they could still rejoice, and never uttered words of complaint. They faithfully believed that God would send them the help they needed."
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| Burma 'softens' Suu Kyi stance |
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Hua Hin - Burma's prime minister told Asian counterparts Saturday that the ruling junta could relax the conditions of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, a Japanese official said.
The Nobel Peace laureate had "softened" her attitude towards the military regime since her house arrest was extended in August for a further 18 months, the official quoted Burmese premier Thein Sein as saying.
But while Thein Sein announced at a regional summit in Thailand that Burma also wants elections next year to be "inclusive", he would not say if Suu Kyi would be allowed to participate, the official said.
"(The Burmese government) believes that Aung San Suu Kyi seems to have softened her attitude towards the authorities," Japanese delegation spokesman Kazuo Kodama quoted Thein Sein as telling leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China, Japan and South Korea.
Kodama said that the Burmese regime "thinks if Aung San Suu Kyi maintains a good attitude it is possible that Burmese authorities will relax the current measures.
"The (Burmese) government is... making preparations to make (next year's) election (an) inclusive election. The government would like to ensure all the stakeholders will take part in such a process."
The regime has faced huge pressure, especially from the West, for its detention of Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention.
The junta said after she was convicted in August over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home that her latest spell under house arrest could be cut "if she lives well in the suspended sentence."
The United States last month announced that it would seek to engage the reclusive junta, although stressing that it would not ease sanctions without progress on democracy, and is sending a rare "fact-finding" mission there soon.
Japan's Kodama said Thein Sein had told the meeting his country wanted good relations with the outside world.
"(The government) believes that the US government seems to have softened its position on (Burma)... which is welcomed by the government," Kodama said.
Asean nations have faced western criticism for their failure to take on fellow member Burma over its rights record, while China is the junta's closest ally and supplier of arms. (AFP)
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| Karen IDPs Face Food Crisis: KHRG |
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MAE SOT—Displaced villagers in Papun District in northern Karen State are facing the worst food shortage in over a decade as a result of the consistent Burmese government army presence in the area over the last four years.
According to a report titled “Starving Them Out,” released on Thursday by the Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), villagers in certain areas in Papun District report that they do not expect to survive for more than a few months on this year’s rice crop, which is due to be harvested this month.
In a recent report, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an umbrella group of humanitarian agencies, estimated there are currently more than 450,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in eastern Burma, with more than 100,000 IDPs in Karen State alone.
The humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated in recent years by continuous fighting in the region between the rebel Karen National Union (KNU) and a joint force of troops from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).
“This situation is so bad in the SPDC/ DKBA controlled areas that to escape the forced labor and violence, the villagers hide in the jungle,” Saw Poe Shan, the head researcher for the KHRG, told The Irrawaddy.
“Now the situation is dire for the villagers who are hiding and they are facing a serious food shortage in the coming months, but they refuse to go back to the SPDC-DKBA controlled areas. As a result, it is expected that we will see many villagers starving to death in the jungle,” he said
In November 2005, these villagers were forced into hiding when SPDC troops began trying to take control of the region and moving thousands of villagers into military-controlled areas.
Prior to 2006 the offensives were cyclical and government forces would retreat during the rainy season (June – Oct). In the past few years however, the SPDC battalions have been able to establish bases and supply routes in Karen State and remain in the jungle all year round.
The last time the villagers faced such a severe crisis was in 1997 when SPDC troops launched a major offensive, the report said, adding that the crisis is worse now as the army is not only attacking villagers but controlling more areas and patrolling near the IDPs’ makeshift camps.
As a result of the continual army presence, agricultural cycles have been severely disrupted as villagers are unable to tend to their farms during the rainy season causing them to miss crucial stages in the planting season and leave their crops vulnerable to destruction and disease.
“Many of us can’t get enough rice,” a 51-year-old villager told the KHRG. “Almost everyone has finished their store of rice. There are some who can only continue one month longer. There’s no way to get enough food for the whole year.”
Many of the villagers are scared to return to their farms because of abuse by the SPDC troops who have reportedly shot villagers on sight in the past.
“The places we stay now are not good for growing rice. We don’t dare go and look for food freely because of the SPDC. If we go somewhere and we meet with them [the SPDC], they shoot us,” a Karen villager said.
SPDC activity was reported to have decreased between December 2008 and May 2009, but villagers were said to be too afraid to return to their farms.
The situation is getting worse as the number of IDPs increases and the SPDC/ DKBA expand their control of the area, leaving less land per family and causing soil nutrients to deplete fast. On top of that, villagers report that the recent weather has been so bad it is unsuitable for paddy cultivation.
Villagers who remain in the SPDC-controlled areas are restricted to carrying around only one tin of rice each—a government-imposed measure to prevent IDPs in hiding from buying food from them.
“The Burma Army is, in other words, starving out villagers who remain in hiding,” the KHRG report claims.
The report highlights an increased vulnerability to sickness and disease as a direct result of the food shortage. In September, a flu-like illness swept through seven villages in the area, affecting children in particular.
For those who remain in the SPDC-controlled areas, abuses remain rampant.
Villagers report being placed under stringent travel restrictions and curfews, sometimes being banned from leaving their villages for weeks at a time, severely disrupting their ability to farm.
The report says that by breaking the curfew to cultivate land, villagers risk being labeled KNU supporters and punishments can be as severe as execution.
In one village, a 35-year-old man was reportedly accused of helping the KLNA (the KNU’s military wing) when he was found farming his betel nut plantation. He was shot dead by DKBA soldiers, the report says.
According to KHRG, arbitrary violence remains rampant and levels of taxing and looting are on the rise. DKBA soldiers regularly come to villages demanding food and “porter fees,” which villagers must pay to avoid being forced to work as porters.
The ongoing problem of landmines continues to worsen as DKBA soldiers are reportedly laying an increasing number of landmines in the region, especially in civilian areas. According to the report, the DKBA fail to inform the villagers where the landmines are, and as a result, civilians and animals are being killed and maimed.
Many areas in Papun District remain out of the reach of aid agencies based in Rangoon who are not permitted to travel to the region. In response to the situation, Refugee International said: “Cross-border assistance remains a vital tool in meeting the humanitarian needs of displaced Burmese who cannot safely reach Thailand.”
Over the last month, DKBA and SPDC forces have surged into the KNLA’s 5th and 6th brigades—in northern and southern Karen State respectively—reportedly in preparation for a strike in the coming dry season.
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| Children without Protection |
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Although children under the age of 18 make up approximately 40 percent of Burma’s population, they remain almost completely neglected by the country’s government. They are considered legally liable at the age of seven, yet there is no juvenile justice system and they are not taught their rights in school.
The military junta claims that it provides free public education for students up until the age of 16. However, students and their families are forced to subsidize schools—paying for uniforms, materials, buildings and teachers’ salaries. Costs vary from place to place, with affordability, accessibility, quality and capacity to pay worse in ethnic and rural areas. Under this system, 35 percent of children do not complete more than five years of schooling, and only 25 percent enroll in high school.
According to a 2005 UN Development Programme (UNDP) household survey, one-third of the Burmese population lives below the poverty line. Inflation is adding to the economic burden, with the price of rice, for example, up by 30 percent in 2008 alone. To help their families survive in this harsh economic environment, many children work in the informal economy, performing unskilled labor without any legal protection.
In the urban informal sector, children work in a variety of industries, including food processing and light manufacturing; many others work as street vendors, refuse collectors and as tea shop attendants. According to 2002 official statistics, 6 percent of urban children worked, but only 4 percent of working children earned wages; many were employed in family enterprises.
In early September, the photographer Aung Gyi witnessed and recorded children aged around 11-13 years old doing heavy physical labor under the scorching sun. They were unloading barges, carrying baskets of gravel weighing at least 5 kilograms on their heads along 10-meter-long wooden planks. According to people at the worksite, they were paid 2,500 kyat (US $2.50) per day or 16 kyat ($0.16) per basket of gravel.
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| Detained Min Ko Naing Turns 47 |
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A leading Burmese activist, Min Ko Naing (aka Paw Oo Tun), celebrated his 47th birthday in Shan State's Kengtung Prison on Sunday.
The former chairman of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and a leading member of the 88 Generation Students group, Min Ko Naing was arrested in 1989 for participating in the student-led uprising and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Although released in 2004, he was rearrested again on August 21, 2007, on charges of organizing a demonstration that led to the “Saffron Revolution.” He was handed down a 65-year sentence.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, a spokesman for the ABFSU, Zar Ni, said, “In Rangoon, we reorganized the Basic Education Student Union, or BESU, to commemorate Min Ko Naing’s birthday. Students have distributed pamphlets around markets and schools, which state that the BESU has already reorganized.”
Zar Ni said that student members on Sunday took part in a “white campaign,” which was originally started by Min Ko Naing and fellow activist Ko Ko Gyi, which involves students distributing and wearing white T-shirts and walking around town together.
In Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, students from seven schools organized a birthday party for Min Ko Naing. ABFSU Foreign affairs committee member Min Naing said the event included a recital of a biography detailing Min Ko Naing’s life.
Min Naing said, “The ABFSU has been a distinct organization from the times of the colonial era to the present political movement it has become in Burma. The ABFSU is a powerful students’ movement because it is organized under the flag of organization.”
Also commemorating Min Ko Naing’s birthday, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) published his novel “Naut Kyi Man” [“Back View Mirrors”].
Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the AAPP, said ““We respect his artistic creation. Young people should read this book. He is a good leader. When Min Ko Naing, Bo Bo and I were arrested in 1989, Min Ko Naing was only concerned about us, not himself. He faced down the soldiers and calmly persuaded them to lower their rifles and point them at the ground.”
“His leadership, courage and decisiveness are the distinct things I remember about him,” said Zar Ni. “But he is devoted to his country too, and he respects democracy and human rights.”
Min Ko Naing was born on October 18, 1962, the third son of the respective artist Thet Nyunt and Hla Kyi. From a young age, he was interested in politics. He studied zoology at the Rangoon Arts and Science University before reforming and leading the ABFSU.
Min Ko Naing won the John Humphrey Freedom Award in 1999, the Student Peace Prize in 2001, the Civil Courage Prize in 2005, the Homo Homini Award by People in Need Foundation, and the South Korean Gwangju Human Rights Award for 2009.
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| One Hundred DKBA Soldiers Defect to KNU |
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More than 100 Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers have defected to the Karen National Union (KNU) since June, following fighting and DKBA forced recruitment, according to Karen sources.
About a dozen DKBA defectors returned to areas controlled by KNU Brigade 6 and Brigade 7 last week, according to KNU and DKBA sources on the border.
Some villagers in DKBA-controlled areas have also fled to KNU-controlled areas to avoid forced recruitment by the DKBA, sources said.
Hsa Paw, a member of DKBA Battalion 5, said he was among a group of soldiers who defected to the KNU because they do not want to fight against fellow Karen in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
The DKBA, now estimated to have some 6,000 troops, began a recruitment campaign in June to increase the army to 9,000, prior to serving as a border guard force under the military government.
Despite the agreement by DKBA leaders to transform into a border guard force, some DKBA battalions have not yet agreed with the order, said Hsa Paw.
He said many DKBA soldiers are unhappy about their leaders’ decision to become a border guard force.
The DKBA is the largest ethnic cease-fire group to accept the regime’s order to become a border guard force. It signed a cease-fire agreement with the government in 1995.
The DKBA’s political wing, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization (DKBO), has not yet said if it will participate in the 2010 elections.
“Once the DKBA split and defected to the Burmese regime, Khin Nyunt [a former prime minister] told them not to become involved in politics. He said politics is complicated,” said a DKBA businessman. He said he believed the DKBA would focus on social development programs and business, while serving as a border guard force.
“They [DKBA soldiers] will not all defect to the KNU at the same time,” he said. “But there are many potential defectors.”
Meanwhile, the DKBA has increased its troops in Papun District where KNLA Brigade 5 is based. Skirmishes have occurred almost daily, according to Karen relief groups.
The Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) estimated that some 2,000 Karen villagers from six villages in Papun District have relocated to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan.
The DKBA has been recruiting at the camp, sources said, and it does not allow villagers to leave the camp area in an attempt to sever their connection with the KNU.
Many villagers want to escape from the camp, said Maw Law, a KORD relief worker.
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| Burma Ranks Next to Last on Most Corrupt Country List |
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Burma’s military government is still one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the Global Corruption Report 2009 released by Transparency International (TI) on Thursday.
The Berlin-based group said Burma ranks just ahead of Somalia and tied with Iraq for the second-lowest score.
The report ranked countries on a scale of 1 to 10. The highest 9.3 ranking went to Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden as the world’s least corrupt and most transparent countries, followed by Singapore, at 9.2.
Somalia ranked lowest at 1.0. Burma ranked 1.3, the same position as in 2008.
The TI report said Burma routinely violated human rights and had rampant corruption among government officials. The country’s score placed it just behind Haiti at 1.4 and Afghanistan at 1.5.
“These governments should embrace thorough and transparent reviews, which are the only way to ensure that each country’s anti-corruption efforts are judged equally and fairly,” said Huguette Labelle, the chair of TI’s board of directors, in a press release.
Abuse of power and corruption among Burmese officials is common, according to civil servants and businessmen in the country.
A recent example was the detention of three police officials by military authorities in Myawaddy Township on the Thai-Burmese border. Sources said the three officials accepted bribes of about 70,000 (US $2,100) baht from amphetamine trafficking gangs in Myawaddy.
Police are one of the most corrupt institutions in Burma, and they receive little respect from the people.
In early October, the Burmese’s junta dismissed the Rangoon Division police chief following misuse of power and corruption allegations, according to sources in Rangoon. Sources said he accepted bribes from massage parlors and karaoke shops, and that he also ran illegal businesses. His dismissal has not been reported in the state-run media.
“Corruption has become a custom here. They say it is paying respect instead of paying a bribe,” said a businessman familiar with Burmese culture.
A civil servant in Naypyidaw said, “If I want to get a higher position, or I want to move somewhere that I like in my job, I have no choice but to bribe them in order to get that chance.”
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| Irrawaddy Farmers Still Short of Buffaloes, Oxen |
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RANGOON — Nearly 18 months after Cyclone Nargis, farmers in the devastated Irrawaddy delta are still in great need of buffaloes and oxen to help them till their rice paddies.
The cyclone in May 2008 killed large numbers of draught animals, depriving farmers of an essential means of reestablishing their shattered livelihoods.
“Farmers are still in need of many more draught animals,” said an official from the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). “So far, what we've provided is just 2-3 percent of the total loss of draught animals."
According to the government's figures, nearly 300,000 buffaloes and cattle, or 50 percent of the total number of draught animals in the storm-hit area, were lost in Cyclone Nargis.
The category 4 storm that struck Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta left nearly 140,000 people dead and disrupted the lives of more than 2 million.
International agencies and the Burmese government have responded to the need for draught animals by also providing mechanical tillers, but most farmers prefer buffaloes and oxen to work their fields.
In an effort to provide more buffaloes, the government established two breeding centers six months ago in Labutta Township, one of the hardest-hit areas. Each center is expected to produce 500 buffaloes a year.
It will take two years before the centers are able to provide adult buffaloes for working the rice paddies, according to an official from the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department.
“These centers will not be able to solve immediate needs,” the official said, “But, they will be valuable in the long run.”
Many agriculturalists say most farmers are more accustomed to working with draught animals than with mechanical equipment, and for this reason preference should be given to providing them with buffaloes and oxen. Draught animals are also used for local transport and play an important role in village economies.
“Draught animals are also one of the sources of household income,” said an official from the Myanmar (Burma) Livestock Federation.
The animals have a cash value and cost far less to employ in the fields and to maintain than mechanical equipment
"While the cost of using draught animals is very low, mechanical tillers require fuel and regular maintenance,” said an official from the international aid organization ACTED.
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| Burmese PM: Electoral Law Coming Very Soon |
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CHA-AM, Thailand — Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein told his Thai counterpart yesterday that his country’s ruling military junta would soon announce an electoral law for next year’s planned election.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking after a meeting with Thein Sein on the sidelines of the 15th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) in the Thai resort town of Cha-am, said that the two had discussed the election and Burma’s national reconciliation process, among other topics.
“Gen Thein Sein said the electoral law will be announced very soon,” said Abhisit, adding that the Burmese prime minister provided no further details.
Thein Sein also told Abhisit that Burma would not allow anyone to use the country to attack neighboring Thailand, according the Thai News Agency.
Burma “upheld the principle of living in harmony and … would not allow anyone opposing Thailand [to use Burma] in attacking this country,” the agency reported Thein Sein as saying.
Thein Sein’s comment came soon after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that his country would not extradite Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister who was ousted in a coup in 2006, if requested to do so by Thailand.
Hun Sen also compared Thaksin to detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, suggesting that the billionaire businessman who went on to become Thailand’s most powerful politician was also a victim of political persecution.
The subject of Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in prison or under house arrest, also came up in Abhisit’s talks with Thein Sein. Abhisit said he wanted to meet with Suu Kyi when he visits Burma.
Although no dates have been confirmed for next year’s election, both Thein Sein and Foreign Minister ex-Maj-Gen Nyan Win said at the Asean summit that the electoral law would be announced soon.
However, observers noted that Burmese officials have often made similar comments during meetings with foreign officials since the regime declared in February 2008 that the election would be held in 2010.
Diplomats said that fellow Asean members have repeated their offers of assistance with the 2010 election at various meetings held over the past few days, but so far, the junta has remained tightlipped about whether it will allow international involvement in the nationwide vote.
On Thursday, Nyan Win assured his Asean counterparts that the coming election would meet the standards demanded by the international community.
“The Myanmar [Burmese] government says the election next year will be inclusive, free and fair,” said Thailand’s foreign minister, Kasit Piromya, at a press conference.
Others, however, expressed skepticism, saying that the regime has made such promises in the past without ever honoring them.
Kraisak Choonhavan, the president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar [Burma] Caucus, said the junta has often offered assurances that it would respect democratic principles, but has repeatedly refused to allow its opponents to participate freely in the political process.
On Friday, representatives of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly called on the international community to unite to deal with Burma more effectively.
“We have to have a common policy for Burma,” said Kraisak, adding that the policy should fall somewhere between that of the US and the EU on the one hand and Asian countries on the other.
Also on Friday, civic activists were shocked to learn that the Burmese regime had handpicked two former police officers, Win Myaing and Sitt Aung, to attend the Informal Meeting with Representatives from Asean’s Civil Society, after refusing to allow Khin Ohmar, a prominent exiled activist, to attend.
They also expressed surprise at the junta’s choice of Kyaw Tint Swe, a former military official and Burmese representative to the UN, as the Burmese human rights commissioner.
“Burmese civil society and human rights under the Asean Charter will be ‘improved’ by human rights oppressors,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network (Altsean), noting that Burmese security forces are the country’s worst perpetrators of human rights violations.
Asean has moved to approve the Asean Human Rights Body by forming the Asean Human Rights Commission during the 15th Summit. However, analysts say that the new rights body will be powerless to promote and protect human rights in countries in the region such as Burma.
“Asean’s Human Rights Commission is a great idea but is essentially of little practical benefit to the Burmese suffering from systematic abuses of their human rights because it is a toothless body with no enforcement mechanisms and no ability to levy penalties,” said Jeff Kingston, the director of Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.
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| Suu Kyi's House Arrest could be Relaxed: Burmese PM |
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CHA-AM, Thailand — The Burmese military government will consider relaxing Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest terms, if she “maintains a good attitude,” according to Japanese foreign ministry spokesperson Kazuo Kadama.
Kadama gave what he termed “a brief summation” of remarks made by Burmese Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein at meetings held between Asean leaders and their Chinese, Japanese and South Korean counterparts early on Saturday at the 15th Asean Summit.
When asked to clarify the specifics of the statement, the spokesman said “it is not for me to interpret the Myanmar [Burma] prime minister, but I am merely giving an account of his comments to us.”
This is believed to be the first time a Burmese junta leader has discussed Aung San Suu Kyi at an Asean summit. At previous meetings, any attempt to raise the issue resulted in a blank refusal by the Burmese representatives to discuss the matter.
On Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Thein Sein met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a separate bilateral meeting. This was the first meeting between the two since the Burmese junta's August offensive against an ethnic Chinese militia based in Burma's northern Shan State, which resulted in 37,000 refugees fleeing into China, and a bilateral war of words between the two authoritarian regimes. Details of that meeting have yet to be released.
The Japanese briefing took place simultaneously as a press conference given by Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who briefly mentioned Thein Sein's remarks, but in less detail than the Japanese representative.
According to Kadama, the Burmese prime minister said that “the US seems to have softened its position on Myanmar [Burma], and Aung San Suu Kyi has softened her attitude to the Myanmar authorities.”
Thein Sein told his counterparts that the regime is preparing for the 2010 election, and will make the process inclusive. He said the junta wants to maintain law and order in the interim period and to ensure that all stakeholders take part.
The spokesperson declined to speculate on whether that means all political prisoners could be freed in advance of the elections, or whether Asian countries would ask the junta to address other priority issues raised by countries that have imposed sanctions against Burma.
Kadama noted that Japan has consistently asked the Burmese regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi and make democratic reforms.
No mention was made of the junta's recent military offensives against Karen and Kokang militias in recent months, or of the possibility that attacks would be carried out on other militias in advance of the elections.
After his own bilateral meeting with Thein Sein on Saturday, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejijjiva was asked about the prospect of renewed civil war in Burma, and its negative implications for Thailand.
He did not confirm or dismiss the likelihood of violent conflict, but said, “Thailand stands ready to do its humanitarian duty, as always,” if more Burmese refugees flee to Thailand due to fighting.
Minutes after Kadama finished his briefing, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit gave a positive assessment of Asean’s Burma policy, saying that some progress had been made in recent months, with Aung San Suu Kyi meeting with a regime representative and with foreign diplomats. This analysis comes despite Aung San Suu Kyi being sentenced to an additional 18 months house arrest in August.
Kasit said that Asean will offer to assist the junta in holding its 2010 elections, but could not say whether an Asean electoral team would be approved by the regime, adding that “the Myanmar [Burma] government process is very slow.”
The Thai foreign minister noted progress elsewhere, in the case of the recent release of 127 political prisoners among just over 7,000 prisoners pardoned.
Kasit said that the number of political prisoners released was insufficient and that Asean retained its policy of calling for the release of all political prisoners and making the 2010 election a free and fair procedure that included all stakeholders.
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| Burma-Bangladesh tension escalates |
| Wednesday, 14 October 2009 |
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Even as tension escalates between Bangladesh and Burma, the Bangladeshi Army Chief Lt Gen Abdul Mubin visited Alikadam in Bandarban district, near the border with Burma, on Monday evening to review the latest situation, border sources said.
A source on the Burma-Bangladesh border said, the Army Chief made a surprise visit at about 3 p.m. and spoke to army officers.
“The Army Chief arrived in Alikadam yesterday and talked to army officers stationed here. Both Burma and Bangladesh have mobilized more troops and the situation is tense,” the source told Mizzima.
Another source on the border said at least 700 Bangladeshi soldiers have been positioned near the Burma-Bangladesh border since Monday.
A report by the Dhaka-based Daily Star, quoting defence sources on Monday said, tension between Burma and Bangladesh has escalated with the Burmese military regime bringing in tanks, artillery, 13 warships and a frigate on Sunday.
The Bangladesh Ministry of Defence as well as the army and the Bangladesh Military Intelligence (BMI) have all refused to comment on the situation saying “We are not authorized.”
Tin Soe, Assistant Editor of the Chittagong-based Burmese News Agency the Kaladan Press Network on Tuesday said, Bangladesh, which already has its border security forces the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) deployed in the region are bringing in at least four army battalions.
“Our sources in the military said Bangladesh is bringing in at least four army battalions and the Burmese are said to be reinforcing with about four to five battalions,” Tin Soe said.
He said a Bangladesh navy frigate, which is normally stationed in Chittagong is now patrolling the area.
The Daily Star on Tuesday, quoting a naval officer stationed in Chittagong, reported that a frigate of the Bangladesh Navy BNS Abu Bakar is patrolling the sea near the disputed area where Burma had tried to set up rigs last November for exploration.
Meanwhile, sources said Burmese soldiers have begun work on fencing the border in Maungdaw Township of Arakan State.
Sources said while the Burmese military government has suddenly increased military presence along the border in recent days, it is still not clear whether Burma is bringing in more troops for fencing the border or because of its maritime dispute with Bangladesh.
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| Burma, Bangladesh in Warship Standoff |
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Burmese and Bangladeshi warships faced off across the Bay of Bengal on Monday as both nations built up naval and military forces along the border, according to a report in the Dhaka-based The Daily Star on Monday.
Quoting sources within the Bangladeshi armed forces, The Daily Star reported that Burma had on Sunday brought in heavy tanks, artillery guns, 12 warships and a frigate “as part of its preparation for a large-scale conflict with Bangladesh.”
The Bangladeshi daily said that according to a Bangladeshi naval official, Dhaka had reinforced its maritime border “in a bid to repulse a Myanmarese incursion by preparing 30 warships in Chittagong and Khulna.”
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni reportedly rejected reports about the heavy military build-up on the border at a press conference on Sunday, saying it is a routine movement of security personnel.
However, the Bangladeshi daily cited several sources within the country’s defense services who suggested the Burmese regime was provoking a conflict.
The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the reports with the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday.
Meanwhile, news of the standoff has to date gone unreported in Burma’s state-run press.
Tensions between Burma and Bangladesh mounted last week after Burmese armed forces began erecting barbed wire fencing along its Bangladeshi border.
According to The Daily Star, the Burmese government had deployed nine light infantry battalions to the border region. However, Khaing Mrat Kyaw, an editor at the Dhaka-based Narinjara news agency, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that only five battalions had been moved into position by Oct 7.
Bangladesh and Burma share a 320-kilometer border, partly demarcated by the Naf River, a regular route for smuggling and illegal crossings.
Tin Soe, an editor for the Kaladan Press Network, based in Bangladesh, said that a border-based military officer told Bangladeshi journalists in Dhaka on Sunday: “We will solve this conflict through diplomatic channels. If we can’t solve it, we have to go to war, because we don’t want to lose an inch of land.”
Tin Soe said that the people living near the border are worried about the potential conflict because they fear the Burmese junta’s troops will bury a lot of landmines along the border.
Dipu Moni said the Burmese government is not violating international law by erecting wire fence along its border with Bangladesh.
However, a Bangladeshi naval officer was quoted by The Daily Star as saying: “The Burmese government has sent in 37/57mm artillery guns that will bring Chittagong under their firing range.”
The naval officer reportedly said that according to Bangladeshi information gathering, the Burmese government is preparing for a short-scale naval conflict. He also noted that the Burmese had positioned three fighter planes at Sittwe airfield, which is only 80 km (50 miles) from Chittagong International Airport.
A Burmese analyst suggested that the Burmese government’s troop reinforcements could be related to an official Bangladeshi request on Oct. 8 to the United Nations to resolve the maritime boundaries dispute in the Bay of Bengal.
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| Burmese Army Dispatches Troops To NDA-K For BGF Formation |
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To expedite and implement conversion to the Border Guard Force (BGF), the Burmese Army has dispatched troops to the headquarters of the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), a Kachin ceasefire group, which accepted the proposal in June, said a local source.
Early last week, half the number of Burmese troops in the Bhamo-based Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 236 were sent to Pangwa, the headquarters of NDA-K in eastern Kachin State close to the border with China's Yunnan province, said a local source close to the battalion.
The troops from IB No. 236 left for the NDA-K's capital Pangwa to form new army battalions under the BGF to be controlled by the Burmese Army, the source added.
Pangwa sources said, NDA-K is gearing up to accept the given percentage of Burmese soldiers to be inducted in the separate Kachin NDA-K battalions according to the agreement between the NDA-K and Burmese Army before Burmese soldiers from Bhamo departed for Pangwa.
It is mandatory for the Burmese Army-monitored BGF to have troops of the ethnic ceasefire groups. There will be a total of 326 soldiers in every BGF battalion but 27 officers of the total will be from the Burmese Army.
Since the group has agreed to transform its army into three battalions of the BGF under the Ministry of Defense of Burma's ruling junta, it is implementing the regime’s directive, NDA-K sources said.
The BGF proposal states that a total of 81 Burmese military officers have to be included in the three battalions of the BGF formed by the NDA-K.
The NDA-K supreme leader Zahkung Ting Ying split from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in 1968 and formed the 101st Division of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) before it split again from the CPB and formed the NDA-K in December 15, 1989.
There was an unsuccessful attempt to oust NDA-K leader Ting Ying on September 14, 2005, by the group's senior leaders’ led by General Secretary Layawk Ze Lum in Pangwa, while he was temporarily in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State.
During a fervent week-long power struggle between General Secretary Ze Lum and the pro-Ting Ying group in Pangwa, the latter was provided protection in Myitkyina by Maj-Gen Ohn Myint, the junta's former Northern Regional Command commander.
Ting Ying told villagers of Tang Hpre on the Irrawaddy River's confluence hydropower project, 27 miles north of Myitkyina on August 17 that he wanted the KIO to accept the BGF proposal, said local villagers.
The ruling junta is trying to mobilize all ethnic ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups in the country under a single command of the Military of Defense before the 2010 general elections in the country.
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| Burma's exiled Muslims |
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About 3,000 Rohingya families are awaiting deportation in Saudi prisons, but like the rest of their people, they have nowhere to go
They have been described as some of the world's most persecuted refugees, and among the most forgotten, too. During my imprisonment in Jeddah I saw and met hundreds of inmates from Burma.
Thousands of Burmese Muslims from Arakan – often called Rohingyas – were offered a safe haven in Saudi Arabia by the late King Faisal, but with the change in monarch the rules changed too. What was to have been a permanent abode of peace for these uprooted people has now turned into a chamber of horrors.
There are about 3,000 families of Burmese Muslims in Mecca and Jeddah prisons awaiting deportation. Women and children are held in separate prisons nearby. The only contact the men have with their wives and children is through mobile phones.
But the interesting question is: where will they be sent when they are eventually deported? Burma doesn't want them. Bangladesh, with a large population and poor economy, doesn't have the inclination or the ability to handle a refugee population of this size. The Rohingyan refugees in Bangladesh are having a rough time as it is. Other Muslim countries play silent spectators.
Pakistan's offer to accept some of the Rohingyas – those awaiting deportation in Saudi prisons – is seen as a mere diplomatic exercise. Against the background of Islamabad's shabby treatment of some 300,000 stranded Pakistanis living in camps in Bangladesh, Rohingya inmates look at the Pakistani overture with suspicion.
The people who call themselves Rohingyas are Muslims from what is known as the Mayu frontier area, the Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships of Arakan (Rakhine) state, a province isolated in the western part of the country across the Naaf river which forms the boundary between Burma and Bangladesh. After Burma gained independence from the UK in 1948, the ethnic and religious group first favoured joining Pakistan but later called for an autonomous region instead.
The Burmese government, however, has consistently refused to recognise the Rohingyas as citizens. According to Amnesty International, in 1978 more than 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the Burmese army's Operation Nagamin. Most – it is claimed – were eventually repatriated, but about 15,000 refused to return. In 1991, a second wave of about a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled Burma to Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, it is estimated that there are more than 200,000 Rohingyas, 28,000 of them in overcrowded camps. There are a further 13,600 registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia (although there are thousands yet unregistered), an estimated 3,000 in Thailand and unknown numbers in India and Japan.
Some Rohingyas have resided in Malaysia since the early 1990s, but continue to be rounded up in immigration operations and handed over to human traffickers at the Thai-Malaysia border. About 730,000 remain in Burma, most of whom live in Arakan state.
Conditions in Arakan state continue to deteriorate, increasing the likelihood of further outflows into neighbouring countries. It's an irony that countries in Asia and elsewhere – particularly Muslim countries – have shown little or no desire to help ease the situation.
The UNHCR spokeswoman in Asia, Kitty Mckinsey says: "No country has really taken up their cause. Look at the Palestinians, for example, they have a lot of countries on their side. The Rohingyans do not have any friends in the world."
The late King Faisal's decision to offer them a permanent abode in Saudi Arabia was a noble gesture. However, later Saudi rulers have found the Burmese Muslims a thorn in their side. With strict regulation on their employment and movement within the kingdom, they are easy targets for extortion and torture.
There are said to be about 250,000 Burmese Muslims in Saudi Arabia – the majority living in Mecca's slums (Naqqasha and Kudai). They sell vegetables, sweep streets and work as porters, carpenters and unskilled labour. The fortunate ones rise to become drivers.
In Saudi Arabia it is not uncommon for poor Rohingyas to marry off their young (sometimes underage) daughters to old and sick Saudis in the hope of getting "official favours". But this hasn't worked for many. Rohingyan wives of Saudi men, who have to survive as second class human beings on the periphery of society.
Those whom I met in Jeddah prisons seem to have accepted the situation as a fait accompli. But it is unfortunate that they are being made to suffer in a country considered to be the citadel of Islam.
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| Suu Kyi back in Myanmar's political arena |
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Although still under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi has returned to an active political role by initiating dialogue with both Myanmar’s junta and Western nations, analysts say. In the space of seven days, after a Yangon court rejected the pro-democracy leader’s appeal against her recently extended house arrest, her status appeared to shift rapidly from political prisoner to potential key negotiator. “She is politically active and significant. She still has a role in Burma,” said Win Min, an activist and scholar in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, using Myanmar’s former name. Events over the past week in the military-ruled nation have moved at a dizzying pace when compared with the stagnation of recent months. Suu Kyi, detained for around 14 of the past 20 years, had two meetings with Aung Kyi, the labour minister and official liaison between her and the junta, the first such talks since January 2008. The frail 64-year-old was subsequently granted permission by the ruling generals to discuss Western sanctions imposed on Myanmar with top United States, British and Australian diplomats in Yangon on Friday. “She was very very engaged in the subject, very interested in going into detail on what she wanted to talk about and she seemed as ever very eloquent,” said British ambassador Andrew Heyn in an interview with BBC. Suu Kyi wrote a letter to Senior General Than Shwe at the end of September offering her co-operation in getting Western sanctions lifted, after years of favouring harsh measures against the generals. Contrary to expectations, the junta chief seems to have accepted her proposal – at least for the time being. “She would like to see herself as a pivotal point in the relations between the junta and the US. They might be prepared to allow this to some extent,” said former British ambassador Derek Tonkin. The military regime has promised elections for 2010, the first in Myanmar since 1990, when Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide but was never allowed to take power. With the opposition leader set to remain out of the way next year thanks to the recent 18-month extension to her house arrest, many observers believe the polls are a sham that will only strengthen the junta’s power. The reclusive regime chief, according to some analysts, is likely to try to use his opponent – whom he loathes – to restore his image for the elections. “Than Shwe is the only one who took all these decisions,” said the activist Win Min, referring to the rejection of Suu Kyi’s appeal and her various subsequent meetings in recent days. “He decided not to release her but to give her a little bit of freedom so that he could appear somehow as someone flexible,” he added. But Suu Kyi’s lawyer Nyan Win was confident she could play an increasingly important part in developments over the coming months, especially following Washington’s recent decision to re-engage the junta. “We assume that her meeting with diplomats to lift sanctions is the start of her political role because sanctions themselves are a matter of politics,” Nyan Win told AFP.“Aung San Suu Kyi always has the right to participate in politics. It is not a concern whether or not she’s under house arrest,” he added. Yet scepticism remains that the iron-fisted regime could repeat past behaviour and offer goodwill gestures before violently closing all doors to dialogue again. One fundamental sign of progress would be a meeting between Suu Kyi and Than Shwe himself, as the pair has not met for years. Nyan Win raised the possibility of such talks on Friday. But “The Lady”, as she is widely known in Myanmar, would have to consult with other NLD members first and also see minister Aung Kyi again before a meeting with the junta leader would be possible, former ambassador Tonkin suggested. He acknowledged however that the two sides were at least finally communicating. “We don’t know where this conversation is going to go. But it is taking place. It’s the best game in town at the present time and we need to see where it goes,” he said. afp
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| Burmese Army Builds Outposts Along Border |
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Maungdaw: The Burmese army has secretly constructed many temporary outposts with bunkers in the deep forest and mountain ranges along the border with Bangladesh, report local sources.
Burmese army officials have also been renovating all the previous major outposts that were located along the border with Bangladesh. Two strategic outposts - Latpanwa outpost in Paletwa Township of Chin State and Kha Maung Wa outpost in Buthidaung Township in Arakan - have also been included in the renovation.
Latpanwa outpost is located opposite Boro Moduck, a Bangladesh village on the upper Sungu River in the southern Chittagong Hill Tract.
The major outposts along the border are being re-constructed for defensive action, the source said.
According to a source close to the army, the construction of the outposts in the border area is being carried out under instruction from Ka Ka Kyi, the defensive service, in the new Burmese capital Naypyidaw.
Local villagers in the border area confirmed the renovation of the army outposts as well as the construction of new temporary outposts along the border, and villagers say army officials have used local people as forced labor on the projects.
Colonel Tin Win Myint, a newly appointed army commander from Military Operation Planning Bureau No. 1 based in Paletwa, recently visited the construction sites for the outposts, said an army source.
The construction of the defensive outposts has come about after many army battalions were deployed to the border to aid in construction of a barbed wire border fence.
According to a local military source, at least nine Burmese battalions have been deployed by the junta to the western Burmese border and most of the soldiers are staying within five kilometers of the border demarcation line.
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| Suu Kyi Discusses Sanctions with Diplomats |
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Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi asked the three Western diplomats she met in Rangoon on Friday what the aims were of the economic sanctions their countries imposed on Burma, according to an NLD spokesman.
The three diplomats were Australia’s charge d’ affaires, Simon Starr, together with the Britain ambassador, Andrew Heyn, and the US deputy head of mission. They held talks with Suu Kyi at a state guesthouse near Suu Kyi’s home for one hour.
The meeting was the first opportunity for a substantive discussion between Australian officials and Suu Kyi since February 2003, said the Australian embassy in a statement.
A spokesman for Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), Nyan Win, said he was briefed by the diplomats in his office on Friday evening about the meeting.
He said the diplomats said that they had been asked by Suu Kyi to clarify what the aims of their economic sanctions were.
Suu Kyi also asked the diplomat when and how many sanction did their governments imposed on Burma and what the consequences of sanction are, he added.
“She [Suu Kyi] said that she wanted the data belonging to the sanctions,” Nyan Win recalled.
The diplomats said they replied that they would provide as much information as possible as soon as they could, he added.
Nyan Win said he and other central executive committee members of the NLD later held talks with the three diplomats for about 30 minutes. He said he viewed the meeting with optimism and was hopeful for positive results for the nation.
“We welcome the talks and see them optimistically,” he said.
“We can discuss and negotiate what we need. We will understand each other if we hold meetings like this. And we can do good things for our country,” he added.
In September, Suu Kyi sent a letter to Snr-Gen Than Shwe seeking permission to meet Western and Australian ambassadors to discuss a possible end to sanctions.
After the letter, the ruling junta twice allowed her to meet with Aung Kyi, the Burmese junta’s “Minister of Relations.”. The latest meeting was on Wednesday.
Rumors are spreading in Rangoon that Than Shwe might meet with Suu Kyi and many, including some NLD leaders, hoped the two would hold a meeting.
Asked, Nyan Win said, “It is best if Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi hold talks.”
The rest of NLD’s central committee members who met with the diplomats were Khin Maung Swe, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Lun Tin and Than Tun.
Some Burmese officials were also introduced during the meeting between Suu Kyi and the diplomats, according to the Australian embassy in Rangoon.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released a statement on Friday calling the talks a “constructive meeting” that may lay the groundwork for further contact.
The Australian government said it sees the move as a positive step by the both the Burmese authorities and Suu Kyi.
Australia is willing to contribute in ways that assist further dialogue and progress toward national reconciliation, democratic reform, and the long-term security and stability of Burma, according to the embassy statement.
During the meeting, Australia’s representative conveyed a message from his prime minister which expressed the support of his government and the people of Australia for Suu Kyi and her struggle for democracy in Burma.
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| Burmese concerned if Aung San Suu Kyi being exploited to lift sanctions |
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”With the sanctions hurting directly the military regime and the country’s financial system on the downtrend due to mismanagement, the junta’s chief has no other alternative but look for support to the Western Bloc.
Besides, Snr. Gen.Than Shwe is craving to create a good relation with western democracies so that that will fortify or shield his legality,” a Burmese journalist on condition of anonymity commented about the recent meeting of Burmese pro-democracy leader and the Western diplomats.
On October 9, head of Burma's junta has allowed the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet Western diplomats to talk about sanctions imposed against the military regime.
The Nobel Prize winner, who remains under house arrest, was driven to a government guesthouse to meet acting US Charge d'Affaires Thomas Vajda, British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who represented the European Union (EU) and Australian Deputy Head of Mission Simon Christopher Starr for an hour to discuss the possible lifting of sanctions on Burma.
US Embassy spokesman Drake Weisert, however, told the press, "The meeting follows Aung San Suu Kyi's request in a letter to Senior General Than Shwe to meet representatives of the US and other countries to discuss their relevant policies on sanctions."
The surprise meeting with diplomats followed two sessions of consultation this month between Suu Kyi and the junta's liaison and Labour Minister Aung Kyi, to discuss her September 25th proposal to help end sanctions against the regime.
Gen. Than Shwe:‘General elections as scheduled in 2010’
On the same day Aung San Suu Kyi met the western diplomats, Than Shwe, Burma's supreme military commander spoke in the capital, of launching a general election as scheduled in 2010.
Snr-Gen Than Shwe also indicated in his speech that he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s elections.
The Snr. Gen. said, “The new State constitution has been approved by the great majority,” the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on October 10. “Elections will be systematically held in 2010 … in accord with the constitution.”
The 2008 Constitution, the junta said, was “approved” by more than 90 per cent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008. The outcome of the referendum was widely dismissed as a sham. But, the regime has constantly ignored calls from the international community and Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to review the constitution.
Although there are 10 registered political parties in Burma, most of them are inactive. The most important thing to be done is to proclaim an electoral law allowing new parties to form and register to contest in the elections. The international community, led by the UN, has constantly stated that the election be all-inclusive, free and fair.
In its ‘Shwe-gon-dine declaration’ dated 29th April 2009, the NLD set conditions for its participation in the 2010 general election. It requested to make amendment of any provisions in the 2008 constitution which are not in harmony with democratic principles and an all-inclusive free and fair poll under international supervision.
UN Sec.Gen.: ‘free Aung San before elections’
Rights groups have also said that the regime must release all 2,100 political prisoners, including NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants the elections to be regarded as legitimate.
The election, which would be neither free nor fair in a country long condemned for human rights abuses, was planned following the 2008 constitution, which in effect reinforces the military-control over any democratically elected administration.
The Western democracies and the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have warned that the world community would not recognize the result of a general election next year unless the NLD participates in the polls and Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house incarceration, where she has been kept for 14 of the past 20 years.
The majority of Western nations have demanded that Than Shwe must release Suu Kyi and over 2,100 other political prisoners as a first step toward democratization in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.
International sanctions have been imposed on Burma since 1988 when the military mercilessly cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimation of 3,000 people dead. The US and the EU increased their sanctions after the junta refused to acknowledge the NLD's victory in 1990 elections and then arrested opponents and suppressed every type of opposition. Most of the sanctions target the top generals in particular.
With the exception of sanctions by the US and the European Union, the regime is presently suffering assorted sanctions from Australia, Canada and Japan. The regime has been left without development assistance from International financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asia Development Bank. If the regime ignored calls from the international community to promote a favorable setting for a free and fair election prior to 2010, international sanctions are probable to be greater than before in the post-election chapter.
Double talk
Than Shwe hinted this year that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate on the sanctions issue. However, in his speech to the War Veterans Organization, Than Shwe said that some powerful nations are playing many ways to force and influence Burma under various pretexts.
“However, the military government of Myanmar does not get scared whenever intimidated and will continue to work relentlessly for a better future of the State and the people by overcoming any difficulties,” Than Shwe said.
Thus, it is a contradiction between allowing the Lady meeting with western diplomats and the heartless tone of Than Shwe’s speech at the meeting with war veterans. People are concerned about the situation of the Lady being exploited by the crooked military chief. The main aim of allowing the Lady meeting with western diplomats seems to ease the sanction strategy and to persuade the world supporting the so-called discipline-flourishing democracy.
According to some analysts, there is no improvement at all. Looking at the truth on the ground, there is more aggression in this 2009, more restrictions toward media and civil societies, more control on Internet users, more arrests, more political prisoners, and more military attacks in the ethnic minority areas. So, dissident politicians warned each other to be very cautious and to put pressure on the regime until the said benchmarks are carried out.
As things go, sanctions may not be easily faded out unless the junta showed positive signs i.e. stop aggressive acts on the NLD and ethnic parties; allow freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
The best option is that the junta’s supreme commander should abandon his pessimism on dialogue with democracy icon in pursuit of national reconciliation. The 2008 Constitution and the junta's unyielding adherence to its seven-step roadmap toward the 2010 elections will create a highly unstable political climate. Without an agreement of national reconciliation, 2010 elections will go nowhere.
Zin Linn: The author, a freelance Burmese journalist, lives in exile. Now he's working at the NCGUB East Office as an information director and is vice-president of Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris- based Reporters Sans Frontiers
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| Aung San Suu Kyi meets ambassador for sanctions talks |
| Friday, 9 October 2009 |
Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Burmese democracy leader, held a rare meeting with Britain’s ambassador to Rangoon today amid growing hints that she might compromise on her support for sanctions against the country’s military junta.
Diplomats from the United States and Australia, as well as the British ambassador Andrew Heyn, representing the European Union, spent an hour with Ms Suu Kyi at a state guest house in Rangoon in what was described by her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), as an information-gathering exercise.
It comes after unprecedented overtures by Ms Suu Kyi to the military government that has ruled Burma for 47 years.
Two weeks ago she sent a letter to General Than Shwe, the leader of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), proposing co-operation with the SPDC on lifting sanctions imposed on Burma. She asked for permission to be temporarily released from her house arrest to meet members of her own party and Western diplomats.
Those present at today’s meeting did not go into detail about the discussions, but Mr Heyn said that, despite past bouts of ill health, Ms Suu Kyi appeared to be well. “She is in remarkable form for someone who has been through what she has,” he said after the meeting. “She was very, very engaged on the subject, very interested in going into details and she seemed, as ever, very eloquent.”
This week Ms Suu Kyi had two meetings with Aung Kyi, the junta representative responsible for liaising with her.
In today’s meeting with the diplomats, she asked them about the details of the sanctions imposed by their governments. There will be lengthy negotiations before Ms Suu Kyi, or Western governments, agree to drop their support for sanctions and they will no doubt require significant concessions from the junta. But the process appears to have begun.
“She wants to lift the sanctions but she also wants to know about them,” the NLD's spokesman, Nyan Win, said. “She wants to know about the consequences of the sanctions and the opinions of the countries that have imposed them. If she gets that information she can help to lift the sanctions.”
“The full position won’t become clear for a while,” Mr Heyn said after the meeting – the first between Ms Suu Kyi and a British ambassador since 2003. “But clearly this is something that will be discussed in Brussels as a matter of urgency.”
Since the junta’s crackdown on the “Saffron revolution” of Buddhist monks in 2007 and the arrest and trial of political prisoners which followed, more and more politicians around the world have come to the conclusion that sanctions against Burma have been ineffective.
In February, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said: “Clearly the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't influenced the Burmese junta [but] reaching out and trying to engage them has not influenced them either.” This week, her French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, put it even more bluntly. “Sanctions are useless and everyone recognises that,” he said. “Should we not then show a greater openness to this Government?”
The EU as a whole, as well as the US, takes a more cautious view. In unveiling a new Burma strategy last month, the Assistant Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, said that the US was prepared to talk directly to the regime but that sanctions would be lifted only in return for progress on democratisation and improved human rights.
“We intend to begin a direct dialogue with the Burmese authorities,” he said. “We are prepared to sit down, but also recognise that nothing has changed yet on the ground ... Lifting or easing sanctions at the outset of a dialogue without meaningful progress on our concerns would be a mistake and would send the wrong message.”
Mr Heyn said: “The fact is the regime makes a public point of complaining about sanctions which suggest to us that they are having an effect. We have also made clear that we will respond to substantive progress towards democratisation and respect for human rights, but we have to see concrete progress on the ground.”
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| Burmese PM says sanctions ‘hinder development’ |
| Friday, 2 October 2009 |
(DVB)–Sanctions on Burma are indiscriminate and impede social and economic development, the country’s prime minister told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
The aim of sanctions, Thein Sein said, “is to influence the political and economic systems of those countries without taking into account their historical and cultural backgrounds”.
“Sanctions have no moral basis as they not only hinder the economic and social development of the people but also interfere in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the country,” he said, adding that they were “unjust”.
The Burmese prime minister was speaking in New York yesterday after heading the most senior-level Burmese delegation to visit the General Assembly in 14 years.
His arrival coincided with an announcement by the US, which has held sanctions on Burma for over a decade, that it would look to increase dialogue with the regime.
Thein Sein’s comments were met with skepticism from Burma observers, who claim that the prime minister was acting in self-defence.
“I’m pretty sure that he wanted to cover up the junta’s own mismanagement of the economy,” said Nyo Ohn Myint, who heads the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National League for Democracy – Liberated Areas (NLD-LA).
“They wanted to blame the international community, those who imposed sanctions on the regime.”
The sanctions debate has been hotly contested since the US announced in February that it would be reviewing its policy to Burma in light of their failure.
Critics of sanctions argue that their impact has been dampened by ongoing trade between Burma and its regional allies, most notably Thailand and China.
“It’s very hard, or impossible, to make any sort of quantification of the impact of sanctions,” said Alison Vicary, Burma economics expert at Macquarie University, Australia.
“Certainly I’d say that having financial sanctions on basic money laundering from resources that have been stolen by the regime in itself is a positive thing for us because it stops the corruption of our local institutions.”
She added that there is “very little evidence” that sanctions are damaging in people of Burma, due to them being “extremely well targeted”.
Reporting by Francis Wade |
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04:27 |
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| Daewoo shares soar despite Burma criticism |
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(DVB)–The Korean company heading the construction of a controversial pipeline project in Burma has announced a rise in shares after acquisition interest from one of the world’s largest steel companies.
Daewoo International has attracted interest after nine financial institutions put their collective 68 percent stake in the company up for sale, Reuters reported.
The shares, worth $US1.8 billion, pushed the world’s sixth largest steel firm, POSCO, to express interest in the company.
The news comes despite heavy criticism of Daewoo’s role in the construction of a $US6.7 billion oil and gas pipeline project in Burma, known as the Shwe Gas Project.
Daewoo is heading a consortium of companies building pipelines to connect Burma’s Bay of Bengal gas fields to China’s southern Yunnan province. The pipelines will also transport Middle Eastern oil cargo across the breadth of Burma.
Daewoo’s surge in success has been attributed largely to its Burmese assets, stemming from a project that has received strong support from the Burmese government and Beijing.
Extraction costs in Burma are believed to be amongst the lowest in the world, with many complaining that this is partly due to a lack of environmental and labour regulations.
Campaigners have warned that the human and environmental costs could be huge, with intense militarisation along the length of the pipeline and damage to ecosystems likely.
The campaign group, Shwe Gas Movement, have quoted the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as estimating that “more than 800,000 Burmese are currently conscripted in slave-like conditions with little or no pay” in various projects across Burma that come under the banner of ‘development’.
The military junta has also been accused recently by EarthRights International of siphoning off up to $US4.83 billion in profits to Singaporean banks.
It was also accused of utilizing exchange rate irregularities to hide funds from the public accounts.
Reporting by Joseph Allchin |
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04:26 |
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