Enslaved on 'ghost ships'
From a thriving industry in southeast Asia, the catch might end up on dinner plates almost anywhere in the world.
But you might be shocked to know how these fish are caught. Sometimes the boats are floating prisons crewed by slaves.
In this video report above, CNN's Dan Rivers explores the story of brothers Pheum Dina and Pheum Bolin, who were lured from Cambodia to work on the fishing boats three years ago. They say they were imprisoned on a Thai trawler for 3 months – with no pay and no chance to escape. They were slaves at sea.
The National Fisheries Association of Thailand, which works closely with the government on fishing-related issues, says it has not received reports of abuse or torture of crew in the past couple of years on Thai boats.
The chairman of the group says most crews are there of their free will. But he acknowledged some recruiters may have made false promises about pay and working conditions to some Burmese or Cambodian workers.
The association's Mana Sripitak also says it educates Thai fishermen about anti-human trafficking laws, warning that there, "could be fine(s) or jail term(s), and their boats could be confiscated if they are found guilty."
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Enslaved on 'ghost ships'
Japan nuke plant dumps radioactive water into sea
AP – A Buddhist monk, offering prayer, walks through the area destroyed by a tsunami in Yamada, Iwate prefecture, … By MARI YAMAGUCHI and YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press Mari Yamaguchi And Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press – 18 mins ago
TOKYO – Workers began pumping more than 3 million gallons of contaminated water from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, freeing storage space for even more highly radioactive water that has hampered efforts to stabilize the reactors.
It will take about two days to pump most of the less-radioactive water out of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, whose cooling systems were knocked out by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
Radioactivity is quickly diluted in the ocean, and government officials said the dump should not affect the safety of seafood in the area.
Since the disaster, water with different levels of radioactivity has been pooling throughout the plant. People who live within 12 miles (20 kilometers) have been evacuated and have not been allowed to return.
The pooling water has damaged systems and the radiation hazard has prevented workers from getting close enough to power up cooling systems needed to stabilize dangerously vulnerable fuel rods.
On Saturday, they discovered that some radioactive water was pouring into the ocean.
The less-radioactive water that officials are purposely dumping into the sea is up to 500 times the legal limit for radiation.
"We think releasing water with low levels of radiation is preferable to allowing water with high levels of radiation to be released into the environment," said Junichi Matsumoto, an official with plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Workers need to get rid of the highly radioactive water, but first they need somewhere safe to put it. Much of the less-radioactive water being dumped into the sea is from the tsunami and had accumulated in a nuclear waste storage building.
The building is not meant to hold water, but it's also not leaking, so engineers decided to empty it so they can pump in the more-radioactive water. The rest of the water going into the sea is coming from a trench beneath two of the plant's six reactors.
More water keeps pooling because TEPCO has been forced to rely on makeshift methods of bringing down temperatures and pressure by pumping water into the reactors and allowing it to gush out wherever it can. It is a messy process, but it is preventing a full meltdown of the fuel rods that would release even more radioactivity into the environment.
"We must keep putting water into the reactors to cool to prevent further fuel damage, even though we know that there is a side effect, which is the leakage," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency. "We want to get rid of the stagnant water and decontaminate the place so that we can return to our primary task to restore the sustainable cooling capacity as quickly as possible."
Engineers have been using unusual methods to try to stop the more highly radioactive water leaking into the sea.
They thought it was coming from a crack in a maintenance pit they discovered Saturday, but an attempt to seal the crack with concrete failed, and clogging it with a special polymer mixed with sawdust and shredded newspapers didn't work, either.
They dumped milky white bath salts into the system around the pit Monday to try to figure out the source of the leak, but it never splashed out into the ocean.
In the meantime, workers plan to install screens made of polyester fabric to try to stop some of the contamination in the ocean from spreading.
Although the government eventually authorized the dumping of the less-radioactive water, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said officials were growing concerned about the sheer volume of radioactive materials spilling into the Pacific. It is not clear how much water has leaked in addition to what is being dumped purposely.
"Even if they say the contamination will be diluted in the ocean, the longer this continues, the more radioactive particles will be released and the greater the impact on the ocean," Edano said. "We are strongly urging TEPCO that they have to take immediate action to deal with this."
Experts said Monday that at this point, they don't expect the discharges to pose widespread danger to sea animals or people who might eat them.
"It's a very large ocean" with considerable powers of dilution, noted William Burnett of Florida State University.
Very close to the nuclear plant — less than half a mile (800 meters) or so — sea creatures might be in danger of problems like genetic mutations if the dumping goes on a long time, he said. But there shouldn't be any serious hazard farther away "unless this escalates into something much, much larger than it has so far," he said.
Also Monday, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom, Sergei Novikov, told reporters that Japan has requested Russia send it a vessel used to decommission nuclear submarines, and that Moscow was considering the request.
"If the Japanese side arranges answers to the questions we sent them, it can be transferred ... within a very short period," Novikov said, according to a statement on Rosatom's website. The nature of the questions wasn't specified.
Novikov said the vessel, called the Landysh, was built with Japanese funds under the "Global Partnership" program to help dispose of liquid nuclear waste from decommissioned submarines.
The crisis has unfolded as Japan deals with the aftermath of twin natural disasters that devastated much of its northeastern coast. Up to 25,000 people are believed to have died and tens of thousands lost their homes.
The situation at the Fukushima plant has brought protests in Japan and raised questions around the world about the safety of nuclear power. Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told delegates at a nuclear safety conference Monday that the industry cannot afford to ignore these concerns.
"We cannot take a business-as-usual approach," Amano said.
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, who was in Tokyo this week to meet with TEPCO's chairman, defended the industry when asked by a reporter if the Fukushima incident would cause global concern about nuclear safety.
"This is an industry that's had an extremely safe track record for more than 40 years," Immelt said. "We have had more than 1,000 engineers working around the clock since the incident began and we will continue in the short, medium and long term working with TEPCO due to this horrific natural disaster."
All of the plant's reactors were designed by GE, and Immelt offered assistance in dealing with the electricity shortage brought on by damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility and other power plants. Japan is expecting a shortfall of at least 10 million kilowatts in summer, and Immelt said gas turbines with both short- and long-term capabilities are on their way from the U.S.
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Associated Press writers Ryan Nakashima and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo and Jim Heintz in Moscow and science writer Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.
Democratic Party of Japan is standing up well to the tragic earthquake and tsunami
Democratic Party of Japan is standing up well to the tragic earthquake and tsunami
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is standing up well to the tragic earthquake and tsunami and the Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, is gaining in stature. Despite this, the media in Japan is often too critical and people should remember the shortcomings of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) during the Kobe earthquake which struck in 1995.
Factionalism is a huge problem in Japan and this applies to the main political parties and back stabbing, power constraints, no focused hierarchy which is united, and other factors, is hindering the political system in Japan.
Therefore, prime ministers resign quickly and factions once more start to focus on their respective power concentrations. This leads to a cycle of “nothingness” and shortsightedness and it is refreshing to hear Naoto Kan stating that he will serve out his term and not resign.
Irrespective if people support the current DPJ led government or if they are loyal to the LDP or other minor political parties; it is instrumental for the political system to have stability and people in Japan and the media need to take the rough with the smooth.
Karel van Wolferen, the author of The Enigma of Japanese Power, states “Amid the horrifying news from Japan, the establishment of new standards of political leadership there is easy to miss – in part because the Japanese media follow old habits of automatically criticizing how officials are dealing with the calamity, and many foreign reporters who lack perspective simply copy that critical tone. But, compared to the aftermath of the catastrophic Kobe earthquake of 1995, when the authorities appeared to wash their hands of the victims’ miseries, the difference could hardly be greater.”
This is a fair point and the current crisis in Japan is much more devastating than Kobe in terms of the numbers of people killed, the fact that the 2011 earthquake also led to a destructive and deadly tsunami and added to this you have the nuclear factor and the fear of radiation.
This is not to understate the Kobe earthquake because this earthquake also killed many people and over 6,000 people died and this earthquake was truly devastating.
However, the earthquake which struck on March 11, 2011, is the first earthquake in the world to compose of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Therefore, the DPJ, which is beset with factionalism, just like the LDP, is doing a good job given the circumstances.
Karel van Wolferen, referring to the Kobe earthquake, states that “This time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) government is making an all-out effort, with unprecedented intensive involvement of his Cabinet and newly formed specialized task forces. The prime minister himself is regularly televised with relevant officials wearing the work fatigues common among Japanese engineers.”
The Kobe earthquake in 1995 epitomized the aloofness of the LDP and appeared to be based on consensus thinking and bureaucratic mindsets which were ill prepared to act promptly. Also, the earthquake appeared to be based on stratification because according to Karel van Wolferen many people were left to look after themselves because the main priority was to focus on people who “belonged to corporations or religious groups.”
The DPJ ended the monopoly of rule under the LDP and for bureaucratic mandarins the consensus faced a new approach because the philosophy of the DPJ is that elected officials should rule and be made accountable for their actions.
Since the DPJ took power it is clear that career officials, the judiciary, and all the mechanisms under the tight bureaucratic ship have faced power concentration issues and it is not easy for the DPJ to alter the status quo and mechanisms of power in Japan.
The American government under President Obama undermined the first DPJ leader, Yukio Hatoyama, because the Obama administration appears to look down on Japan and instead of a genuine discussion about Okinawa; it was a case of dictate and enforcing an American objective and ultimately this led to the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama.
This was an auspicious start for the new DPJ government and added to this initial setback the Ichiro Ozawa “shadow” continues to linger and he is not helping the cause of the Naoto Kan government.
Karel van Wolferen also lambasts the media in Japan because he states that “Japan’s main newspapers have mostly backed the status quo as well. Indeed, they now appear to have forgotten their role in hampering the DPJ’s effort to create an effective political coordinating body for the country. A half-century of reporting on internal LDP rivalries unrelated to actual policy has turned Japan’s reporters into the world’s greatest connoisseurs of political factionalism. It has also left them almost incapable of recognizing actual policy initiatives when they see them.”
However, despite everything the DPJ is focused under Naoto Kan and the government is being very transparent and daily briefings can be seen on television. It is obvious that some mistakes will be made during the current crisis because all governments would struggle under such an enormous crisis.
Despite this, the Kan government is thinking on its feet and the government is part of the people and if we think about the Kobe earthquake; then clearly the LDP government at the time was aloof and rigid.
The future of the current Kan administration is still uncertain because of factional politics in Japan, the Ozawa “shadow,” major economic issues which have been created by the LDP, and power concentration mechanisms are still potent within the body politic of Japan.
Yet the current leader of Japan is holding up well and decisions are being made promptly and transparency is part and parcel of the Kan administration.
leejay@moderntokyotimes.com
http://www.moderntokyotimes.com
Japan’s Political Tremors
Japan’s Political Tremors
East Asia | Politics | Japan March 30, 2011By Karel van Wolferen
The earthquake and tsunami were preceded by tremors in the country’s political system. Their continuation will help shape post-disaster Japan.
Image credit:US Navy
In September 2009, the relatively new Democratic Party of Japan ended a virtual one-party system that had been in existence for over half a century. But the election of the DPJ was significant for another reason—it raised the still unsettled question of who has the right to rule?
The Japanese Constitution undoubtedly gives that right to elected officials representing Japanese citizens. But tradition, rooted in pre-Meiji restoration times, has always favoured career officials in the mighty bureaucracy. The post-World War II ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party formed in 1955, didn’t actually do much actual ruling once postwar reconstruction had been completed by politicians who had emerged from the bureaucratic elite. That reconstruction of a war-devastated country was never halted by a political debate about what to do next; it automatically evolved into an unofficial but very real national policy of seemingly limitless expansion of industrial production capacity, with little regard for other possible economic and social priorities. Alternatives hardly registered in general discussion.
But the earlier successes of an extraordinary, finely-tuned system of industrial, financial, and political entities operating in concert—which all combined to produce the so-called Japanese economic miracle—turned into a political burden. Overcapacity, neglected prefectural development, huge dollar profits that had to stay in the US economy, and dwindling demand from world markets befuddled incumbent authorities. Officials in the economic ministries and their always cooperating counterparts in the higher echelons of industrial federations, the corporate clusters, and financial circles frequently produced miracles of adjustment, but they couldn’t replace or even question Japan’s basic set of priorities. The necessary political decisions for such an overhaul were forever postponed because those weren’t part of how the LDP exercised its power.
What was needed, a widening circle of politically concerned Japanese were concluding, was a political steering wheel with which to deviate from the course set in the early post-occupation years. When in 1993 two major political figures bolted from the LDP with their followers (beginning a reformist political movement in the process) the well-established structures and bureaucratic vested interests were finally questioned.
A first attempt to replace the LDP with a couple of coalition governments ran aground because elected politicians were no match for the bureaucrats controlling their own lines of communication with the administrative apparatus. It took five years for the reformists to come together in the DPJ, the first credible opposition party that was prepared actually to win elections, and replace the façade of government that had become the norm under the LDP with genuine cabinet-centred government intent on actually governing. (The Socialists had only been interested in mere ritualistic opposition.)
But to really understand Japan’s political situation, it’s also important to be aware of the hugely important role played by the country’s major newspapers in creating what is understood to be political reality. Whenever significant changes are afoot, the papers tend to speak with one voice—one that’s usually critical of anything that threatens the established order. Indeed, some senior editors share what’s nothing less than an obsession of the senior bureaucrats, namely social tranquillity and harmony.
Why do I mention this now? Because it matters when trying to judge, based on media evaluations, how Japan’s current government has been dealing with the recent calamity. Japan’s newspapers indulge in routine criticism of politicians in government, no matter what. Unfortunately, foreign reporters and commentators, including at venerable newspapers like The Financial Times and The New York Times, tend to rely on their Japanese counterparts’ tone and opinion for lack of independent knowledge.
The Japanese business newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, to take just one example, lamented the shortcomings of current government action, emphasizing the poor lines of command running from responsible politicians to the officials carrying out rescue and supply operations. This was perfectly true. But the paper failed to mention that the feebleness of such coordination was precisely the number one weakness of Japan’s political system that the founders of the DPJ had focused on as something needing repair. The party is genuinely trying hard to overcome bureaucratic rigidity and untested chains of command and lines of communication.
Those who have impatiently decided that the DPJ taking over from LDP has been Tweedledee replacing Tweedledum ought to pause and remember how after the previous catastrophic earthquake, which struck Kobe in 1995, the central government appeared to be washing its hands of the miseries of the victims. The contrast could hardly be greater with what’s happening now.
Citizens of Kobe who were extricated from the rubble of their collapsed homes, and survived the fire that eliminated an entire city district, were treated as if they belonged to corporations or religious groups. Those who weren’t so lucky were expected mostly to fend for themselves. This reflected a feudal approach that comes with Japan’s peculiar form of corporatist political structure, in which the link between the citizen and the state plays significantly less of a role than it’s expected to do in modern democracies. The government neglect of the Kobe earthquake victims was widely decried, and it became one of the major sources of public indignation that gave significant impetus to the reformist movement from which Prime Minister Naoto Kan emerged.
This time around, things haven’t been left to local authorities. The Kan government has demonstrated that it really wants to be in charge of rescue and support operations, with frequent cabinet meetings and newly formed task forces. Kan himself has been on TV with relevant officials, all wearing the uniform work fatigues typical for Japanese engineers. Admittedly, Kan shows no particular knack for projecting a grand image of leadership, leaving it to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, who holds daily press conferences, to be the face of the government. But under the current situation of multiple crises, DPJ politicians have already set a standard of political command unprecedented in post-Meiji Japan.
The fact is that rather than dealing with a single emergency, as was the case with the Kobe earthquake, the DPJ government is being expected to deal with three crises simultaneously, and is hampered by huge logistical problems that since the end of World War II no cabinet has had to face. Aside from the early breakdown of communication and transportation networks, it must cope with an administrative system over which the LDP had neglected to establish control. Important parts of it are, as it were, out of effective reach of the cabinet ministers supposedly in charge of them. The confusion over information about the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear reactors underscores this. Their owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, along with its ‘regulators’ in the bureaucracy, exist in a political twilight zone that is in effect neither public nor private, with discretionary power outside the purview of the elected officials. As is the case with many other industrial–government interfaces, responsible officials just aren’t used to being held to account by Japan’s politicians.
All this meant that the DPJ hadn’t found its footing when disaster struck. As was entirely predictable, what it wanted to accomplish has required a major struggle with career officials in many parts of the bureaucracy, including the judiciary, who have been battling to preserve the world they’ve always known. The attempt to alter a political status quo that has had half a century to form and consolidate is no joke, and the world could learn much about the mutual frustrations of preservers and reformers.
The latter, inexperienced, may wield hatchets in a counterproductive manner. The former are, of course, better equipped, and in Japan’s case well experienced in cutting down to size politicians whose ambitions include major changes to the ministries. They are helped in this by what I think of as a built-in systemic immune system, one which is activated by the combined efforts of the public prosecutor and the major newspapers. These manage to create political scandals almost at will, with overhyped ‘violations’ of political funding laws (that were purposely vague when designed) for forcing difficult politicians to step aside or down.
This tendency was in evidence in the treatment of Japan’s most formidable politician, Ichiro Ozawa. Ozawa was expected to become the DPJ’s first prime minister, engineering its astonishing electoral success in 2009. But as the talented giant on Japan’s political scene, he has been highly controversial, and has long faced a campaign of character assassination of varying degrees of intensity over the years.
In the face of DPJ victory at the polls, the defenders of Japan’s political status quo, as well as influential newspaper editors and those fearing the opening of bureaucratic skeleton-filled closets, decided that Ozawa shouldn’t be allowed to manage a government. The ‘discovery’ of supposed financial misdoings by his secretaries forced Ozawa to withdraw to a position behind the scenes. If the DPJ has since 2009 been the single biggest threat in half a century to Japan’s bureaucracy-dominated status quo, Ozawa is its single biggest threat within the party. He made political history shortly after the DPJ came to power by arranging for China’s visiting vice president to meet with the Emperor. When this seemed to give the ultraconservative Imperial Household Agency a collective heart attack, he reminded these career officials that they had to begin reckoning with the fact that the elected officials in the cabinet, and the elected politicians in the Diet, would now be making the major decisions.
However, the DPJ was almost immediately scarred by the demise of its first cabinet, formed by Yukio Hatoyama. The cause has been mostly overlooked outside Japan—the reality is that Washington administered that major blow to the reformists. For decades, US officials dealing with Japan had been critical of its low profile in international affairs, and of the difficulty of negotiating with a country whose political centre couldn’t be found. (Few ever understood the connection between that peculiar political structure and the odd reliance of Japan’s bureaucrats on Washington of not having to submit themselves to a made-in-Japan political steering wheel).
But when Ozawa made clear that improved relations with China would be a good idea, and Hatoyama announced that he was interested in helping to bring about a ‘more equal’ relationship with the United States, Washington got cold feet. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Tokyo before the elections that were expected to bring the DPJ to power, followed by Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Both came with the message that no matter who was going to actually run Japan, the country’s position in the world, and especially what it is expected to do for the United States, couldn’t possibly be changed.
The centre of gravity among US officialdom overseeing and managing US-Japan relations has in recent years shifted from the State and Treasury Departments to the Pentagon, while the diplomats dealing directly with Japan have tended to be Pentagon alumni. Unfortunately for this point of Japan’s political overhaul, and with a new government composed of a new political party announcing its intention to actually do some governing (for instance, by playing a more positive role vis-à-vis its Asian neighbours), Washington decided to test its loyalty with a plan to build a new Marine base on the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, in an aquatically vulnerable environment.
The LDP had earlier buckled under then-Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s intimidation, but in venerable LDP style had proceeded to do nothing, and had been happy to dump the agreement into the lap of the new government. Yet the base building plans aren’t feasible. Forcing the issue would almost certainly create an uproar in Okinawa that no government in Tokyo is likely to survive. But Hatoyama miscalculated. Insufficiently aware of the sacred status of the United States Marine Corps, and of the extent to which US decision-making with regards to Japan is now directed by the Pentagon, he believed that in a face-to-face meeting with the new US president, in which he hoped to discuss long-term matters affecting the East Asia region, the conflict could be settled. It was an entirely reasonable idea if the constant avowals by Washington of Japan being America’s most important ally in the Pacific region are to be taken seriously. But at least three attempts to achieve such a meeting were rebuffed by Washington, and Barack Obama was reportedly told by his advisers not to give Hatoyama more than 10 minutes of his time in case they ran into each other at some international event.
In the meantime, the US media—particularly the Washington Post, which no longer had a regular correspondent in Tokyo—contributed to the denigrating of the prestige of Japan’s new governing party, including by referring to Hatoyama as a ‘loopy’ prime minister. The clear indications that the DPJ cabinet wanted to improve relations with Beijing, as well as its interest in the idea of ASEAN+3 (China, Korea and Japan), meant it was clear by December of 2009 that Washington wanted to be rid of the Hatoyama administration.
The following May, the United States got its wish after Hatoyama, misinformed and misled by an adviser operating on the US-Japan interface, couldn’t keep his promise of safeguarding the interests of the Okinawan people, and offered a customary resignation.
The easily intimidated career officials in Japan’s foreign and defence ministries, along with a bunch of supposedly wise men, have long been oblivious to the fact that the United States needs Japan more than the other way round. In this case, they won an early major confrontation with the DPJ. But all this has meant that the United States missed a valuable opportunity to plan new policy with a genuine ally, rather than the reluctant vassal that Japan has always been. And Japan’s reformist movement was thrown off course.
Meanwhile, Japan’s newspaper editors, ill-equipped to handle the confusing details of an entirely new situation, were effectively playing on Washington’s side against the DPJ before they began to understand what was happening. It was under those circumstances that Kan, a prominent member of the first group of reformist politicians, took his turn as prime minister.
Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that 17 months of struggling against external enemies has prompted an inner turmoil in the DPJ that has provided an additional obstacle for Japan’s reformist movement to show its worth in the current crisis. Kan’s government and his own position in it was anything but stable before the Tohoku earthquake shook the country. A number of political analysts, and a considerable number of politicians in his own party, had been predicting the imminent end of his prime ministership. Rumours had begun to spread of the possibility of an irreparable split within the DPJ, with as many as half the party considering joining Ozawa in an attempt to forge a new reformist coalition with parts of the disintegrating LDP and other opposition groups.
How all of this will play out now, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami, logistical problems, the energy crisis, and the nuclear radiation scare will, without question, play a major role in determining how Japan emerges from its greatest catastrophe since World War II.
For the moment, it seems the Kan cabinet will have a longer lease of life than had been anticipated. But Kan’s mistake of allowing himself to be intimidated by Ministry of Finance bureaucrats who, influenced by neoliberal dogma, had turned reduction of government debt into a misplaced priority, could yet dash the potential for the economic and socio-political rejuvenation that hopeful Japanese believe may still come out of the disaster.
Karel van Wolferen is Emeritus University Professor of Comparative Political and Economic Institutions at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of numerous books, including ‘The Enigma of Japanese Power’. His website in English is karelvanwolferen.com
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/03/30/japan%e2%80%99s-political-tremors/For inquiries, please contact The Diplomat at info@the-diplomat.com
700 fishermen missing in Myanmar after storms
ShareretweetEmailPrint– Mon Apr 4, 6:12 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar – Nearly 700 fishermen from Myanmar are missing after a three-day burst of unseasonable storms that ripped apart rickety fishing boats in the Andaman Sea, news reports said Monday.
Rescued fishermen gave harrowing accounts. Some told local media they held on for days to broken bamboo rafts before being rescued by offshore oil companies, Thai fishing boats or Myanmar naval boats.
The Weekly Eleven news journal reported that 15,583 fisherman were rescued after the March 14-17 storms whipped up 70 mph (112 kph) winds, battering fishing rafts and trawlers, and sweeping thousands of fisherman into the open seas. It said 682 fisherman were missing.
The storms hit ahead of the typical rainy period and came during the shrimp fishing season, when thousands of fisherman ply the waters on bamboo rafts.
Authorities in the tightly ruled country tend to not immediately report the effects of natural disasters and have been criticized in the past for being slow to send help and humanitarian aid.
The Myanmar government has not yet announced an official death toll. The Weekly Eleven journal said three people died, while another weekly, The Voice, reported over the weekend that 14 fishermen had died in the storms. The actual number is expected to be higher.
The storms hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta, which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. The cyclone left 130,000 people dead.
"At least during Nargis we had enough time, because there was a light drizzle before the strong winds," fisherman Kyaw Lwin, 42, told The Voice news weekly. "But this time, in the middle of summer, it happened so abruptly we had no time."
He said he was rescued by a Thai fishing boat after drifting at sea for three days.
News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 04 April, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 04 April, 2011
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Myanmar's new president meets Chinese delegate first
Burma's Democratic Parties Welcome US Special Envoy
Burma Arrests ex-army officer who supports opposition
Than Shwe Acquires State Properties
Burmese Blood Donation Volunteer Arrested
Pentagon man tipped for Burma post
Myanmar new vice president meets Chinese official
Head of Burma military retires
Bad Business for Burma
Work begins on $255mn rail line project
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Myanmar's new president meets Chinese delegate first
Apr 4, 2011, 12:14 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's new President Thein Sein on Monday received a senior official from the Chinese communist party in his first official meeting with a foreign delegation, sources said.
The president met with Jia Qinglin, chairman of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in the capital Naypyitaw, a government source who asked to remain anonymous said.
'The visiting Chinese official also signed a memorandum of understanding with Vice President Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo related to the social and economic co-operation between the two countries,' the source said.
Jia's delegation arrived in Mandalay on Saturday where they were feted by the mayor, Minister for Development Affairs Phone Zaw Han and other ministers, according to state media reports.
The group arrived in Naypyitaw Sunday morning.
China is Myanmar's closest ally, and recently became the South-East Asian nation's largest private investor.
Thein Sein last week replaced Senior General Than Shwe, junta chief since 1992, as the new head of state.
In his inaugural speech, he urged the international community to 'immediately stop bullying Myanmar, drop sanctions and to work together with the government.'
Myanmar has been subject to economic sanctions by Western democracies since September 1988, when the army cracked down on a pro-democracy movement and reportedly killed up to 3,000 people.
The country been been ruled by military juntas since 1988, and before that by a military-socialist regime since 1962.
Some 82 per cent of the new ministers, who came to power after the military-managed November 7 election, are either former or active military men.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1630608.php/Myanmar-s-new-president-meets-Chinese-delegate-first
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Burma's Democratic Parties Welcome US Special Envoy
By HTET AUNG Monday, April 4, 2011
Burma's democratic parties have welcomed the news that the United States is preparing to appoint a special envoy to Burma to engage with both the new Burmese government and opposition groups.
Derek Mitchell, the principal assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, was nominated as a special envoy to Burma just days after the country carried out a power transfer from the military regime to a new civilian government composed of the junta's leaders.
“The NLD [National League for Democracy] welcomes the news that the US government will appoint a special envoy to Burma,” said Ohn Kyaing, a spokesperson for the NLD which is led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
Derek Michell, new US special envoy to Burma, speaks at a meeting in Seoul.
“It is encouraging to hear this news and it is the right move at the right time,” he added. “Since the first visit of Mr Kurt Campbell [assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs] to Burma, we [the NLD] suggested the US should appoint such a special envoy to Burma.”
The NLD also saw new President Thein Sein's first public speech as positive, and recognized that Burma's politics is now at a critical juncture between the end of military rule and the start of a new government formed by an election of sorts. The party considers that this is the right time for dialogue with the new government aiming toward national reconciliation, said Ohn Kyaing.
Talking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Ohn Kyaing said: “Our leader [Suu Kyi] said that it is in the best interests of the country if we can discuss things face to face, and that there will be no political problems that we can't solve.”
Ohn Kyaing added that Suu Kyi recently stressed in a meeting with other party leaders that in any political dialogue it was impossible for participants to get everything that they desire.
While the NLD expects that the presence of a US special envoy will help facilitate political dialogue with the new government led by Thein Sein, other political parties have different expectations from the role.
The National Democratic Force (NDF) and the Democratic Party (Myanmar)—which both contested the Nov. 7 election—also welcomed the news that the US will appoint a special envoy to Burma. And both parties desire the lifting of economic sanctions.
Asked what the NDF wants the special envoy to specifically focus on, NDF founder and leader Khin Maung Swe said, “What we see now is that there is an assumption that the poverty of this country is because of economic sanctions. But likewise, we can't deny that the poverty has also long been endured due to economic mismanagement.
“However, he [the US special envoy] needs to think about whether it would be better to impose more economic sanctions to the country which already has shouldered the burden of this economic mismanagement.”
Khin Maung Swe, along with other political parties leaders, met the US chargé d'affaires Larry Dinger, on March 28. He also raised the issue of US economic sanctions on Burma during the meeting.
Khin Maung Swe said that he asked Dinger about the perceived double standards in his country's international relations. He pointed out that China has a good relationship with the US despite having a poor human rights record, and that the US supported the Egypt government led by former president Hosni Mubarak, despite his having ruled Egypt dictatorially for 30 years.
Asked how the diplomat responded to these questions, Khin Maung Swe said, “He [Larry Dinger] recognized the ineffectiveness of the economic sanctions and sympathized with people living in poverty, but the US lawmakers will not change their policy any time soon without any tangible progress.”
Thu Wai, the leader of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), who also talked with Dinger in the same meeting, said, “His [Larry Dinger] term is going to end, and so he arranged this meeting before leaving Burma. He mostly explained US policies on Burma.”
Thu Wai said that Dinger explained that the aim of the US economic sanctions is to improve the political environment in Burma and change the junta, not to violate human and democratic rights. But whether this is effective or not remains another matter.
Mitchell was special assistant for Asian and Pacific affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1997 to 2001, when he served in turn as senior country director for China, Taiwan, Mongolia and Hong Kong. He also co-authored the book “China’s Rise: Challenges and Opportunities” in 2008.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21072
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Burma Arrests ex-army officer who supports opposition
By Zin Linn Apr 04, 2011 10:19PM UTC
On 30 March, President Thein Sein addressed the first regular session of Union Parliament.
In his speech, he said, “To safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens in line with the provisions of the constitution in the new democratic nation is high on our government’s list of priorities. We guarantee that all citizens will enjoy equal rights in terms of law, and we will reinforce the judicial pillar.”
But, now, people are suspicious with his words. The case is that Nay Myo Zin, 36, a retired Burmese military officer who works as a volunteer of ‘Blood Donation Network’ affiliated with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), has been arrested on Saturday by the Special Branch Police in South-Dagon in Rangoon.
According to his family, the ex-army captain did not commit any crime except helping poor patients who need emergency blood transfusion. Nay Myo Zin was taken off in the middle of a street by the police but they did not give any reason of his detention.
Zin Myo Maw, wife of the detainee, said she heard that her husband was taken to Aung Thapyay detention centre in Mayangone Township in Rangoon. She could not have a message or a call by her husband since he was taken away to detention center. She said that her husband’s mobile phone had been turn off.
Nay Myo Zin was from Intake 39 of the Defence Services Academy (DSA). In 1998, he became a platoon leader in Infantry Battalion (19) in Swar township in Pegu Division. In 2003, he served as second in command of the No. 262 Military Provost Unit (Military Police) in Taung-gyi in Shan State. In 2005, he decided to quit from the service and retired in May 2005.
In 2009, he started helping some activities of the NLD youth wing. After Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s released from house arrest in last November, he involved in the NLD’s movement to some extent. He is an active member of the youth wing’s Blood Donation Network group.
According to The Irrawaddy, Nyi Nyi, one of the core members of the NLD Youth Blood-Group, said he had earlier hoped that their group would have more opportunities since a new government had been sworn in. However, now his hopes “had quickly disappeared” following the arrest of Nay Myo Zin.
“We feel very depressed about Nay Myo Zin’s arrest,” he said. “He supported us and brought his own car to work. Without him, our group faces difficulties ahead.”
The NLD’s youth blood donors’ network was established in 2009 in Rangoon. As a result of core members’ hard works, it has already organized branches in Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing. Now, Blood-Group Network has not less than 10,000 members, as said by Nyi Nyi.
Burmese people are eagerly watching the to-do list of the Thein Sein Government due to his rhetoric inaugural speech. People are also waiting for the release of over 2,000 political prisoners as a gesture of reconciliation. But, it seems in vain because apart from releasing the old political dissidents, it starts arresting fresh political dissenters.
President Thein Sein said in his speech, “In conclusion, respecting the people’s decision to elect our government, we will try our best for Myanmar (Burma) to be able to stand as a democratic nation in the long run with justice, freedom and equality while steadfastly shouldering the State duties. At the same time I would like to urge and invite all the people to work together with the government in the interests of the nation.”
On the contrary, a blood donor’s arrest would appear to disagree with the essence of President Thein Sein’s inaugural speech. It shows there is no freedom, justice and equality. So, the capture of ex-army captain Nay Myo Zin proves clearly that Thein Sein government will not become a democratic version.
The military faction has still jealousy toward the NLD led by Aung San Suu Kyi and even did not want to recognize the basic principle of democracy – to respect each other. They think themselves so high, while they think others of no value.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/51814/burma-arrests-ex-army-officer-who-supports-opposition/
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Than Shwe Acquires State Properties
By YAN PAI Monday, April 4, 2011
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his family members at Uppatasanti Pogoda in Naypyidaw on March 8,2009 (Photo:MNA)
Burma's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military junta that ruled the country since September 1988 under different names, reportedly transferred ownership of over 1,000 acres of rubber plantations, jade mines and gold mines to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his family, according to business sources in Rangoon.
The rubber plantations are located in the areas controlled by the Burmese army's Southeast Region Command and Coastal Region Command, and the jade and gold mining sites are in the country's northern Kachin State.
A businessman close to the regime told The Irrawaddy that the transfer had to be completed before the SPDC was dissolved on March 30 and the new government lead by former prime minister Thein Sein was sworn in. He said the rubber plantations were placed in Than Shwe's name and the jade and gold mines, which were under care of the regime's Ministry of Mines, were transferred to his daughters.
A source from the regime's Ministry of Finance and Revenue (MFR) said the ownership of certain premises in Rangoon, Naypyidaw and Maymyo, as well as over 30 vehicles, were put in the names of Than Shwe's children and grandchildren. The transfer of those premises and cars, which were provided to the junta leader by the SPDC, was done without paying any tax to the state, the source said.
The MFR source also said Nay Shwe Thway Aung, Than Shwe's most beloved grandson, has acquired many major properties in Rangoon. One of the properties he has taken over, located on Kabaraye Pagoda Road, used to belong to the Ministry of Industry 1. Others belonged to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Ministry of Industry 2 located in Yankin Township. He has taken over the land of the duty-free market in Yankin as well, the source said.
Since late 2009, with a pretext of privatization, the SPDC transferred the ownership of state-owned ministry buildings and enterprises in Rangoon and Mandalay to private companies run by leading military figures or regime cronies. Most of the transferred businesses were reportedly acquired by private companies such as Asia World, Max Myanmar, Htoo and IGE.
In addition to the dissolution of the SPDC, Than Shwe handed over his position as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to Gen Min Aung Hlaing.
Than Shwe's future role under the new government is not known, but military sources in Naypyidaw said he heads the soon-to-be officially formed State Supreme Council, the highest decision making body in the country that will directly control the armed forces.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21071
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Burmese Blood Donation Volunteer Arrested
By KO HTWE Monday, April 4, 2011
A police truck patrols in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)
Nay Myo Zin, a former Burmese military officer who works as a volunteer for a blood donation group affiliated with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), has been arrested by the Special Branch of Rangoon's police for no apparent reason, according to family members.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, his wife, Zin Myo Maw, said that her husband was taken off the street by the police on Saturday evening and that no reason was given.
“The Special Branch didn’t tell us what they were doing,” she said. “They just took him away.”
Zin Myo Maw said she heard that her husband was taken to Aung Thapyay detention centre in Mayangone Township in Rangoon, and that she had not been contacted by her husband since he was arrested. She said that his mobile phone had been switched off.
“He was simply working as a volunteer by helping collect donations of blood,” she said.
The authorities arrived at Nay Myo Zin's home on Sunday and seized some of his documents,” she added.
Nay Myo Zin, 36, had served as a captain with the military police within the Burmese army until he was forced to retired in 2005 because he was involved with a political movement, said sources close to him.
His arrest would appear to contradict the substance of President Thein Sein's inaugural speech last Wednesday when he called for the new government to cooperate with international organizations such as the United Nations, as well as international nongovernmental organizations and local nongovernmental organizations, said a Burma observer.
Nyi Nyi, one of the leaders of the NLD youth blood donation group, said he had previously hoped that their organization would have more opportunities now that a new government had been sworn in, but now his hopes “had quickly disappeared” following the arrest of Nay Myo Zin.
“We feel very depressed about Nay Myo Zin's arrest,” he said. “He supported us and brought his own car to work. Without him, our group faces difficulties ahead.”
The NLD's youth blood donor group was established in 2009 in Rangoon, and now has operations in Mandalay, Magwe and Sagaing. It has at least 10,000 members, said Nyi Nyi.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma, there are currently 2,076 political prisoners in Burma. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21070
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Pentagon man tipped for Burma post
By AFP
Published: 4 April 2011
President Barack Obama will soon appoint the first US special envoy on Burma, officials said, signalling a renewed effort to pry open the nation after its much criticised political transition.
People involved in the process said Obama would name Derek Mitchell, a veteran policymaker on Asia who now serves at the Pentagon, as the coordinator for US efforts for the country.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that the administration would announce the nomination “very soon” and likely roll out Mitchell with an appearance before Congress, a hotbed of criticism of Burma.
The nomination was first reported by Foreign Policy magazine’s blog The Cable.
After Obama took office in January 2009, his administration concluded that Western efforts to isolate the military-led nation had been ineffective and initiated a dialogue with the junta.
The United States has voiced disappointment over developments in Burma, including an election in November widely denounced as a sham, but has said that it sees no alternative to engagement at such a fluid time.
Kurt Campbell, the top state department official for East Asia, had personally spearheaded the Obama administration’s efforts on Burma and travelled twice to the isolated country.
Congress approved a wide-ranging law on Burma in 2008 that tightened sanctions and created the special envoy position. Then-president George W. Bush named Michael Green, formerly one of his top aides, but the nomination died in the Senate due to an unrelated political dispute.
Green, now a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Georgetown University, said Mitchell’s expected appointment would give momentum to Burma policy – provided that the administration gives him enough space to manoeuvre.
“Kurt Campbell wanted to make a serious run at this. He did as well as could be expected but it yielded no positive change, so now they want to invest this with someone who has a full-time commitment,” Green told AFP.
In naming an envoy, Campbell could escape the criticism levelled against his predecessor in the Bush administration, Christopher Hill, who was accused in some quarters of neglecting most of the dynamic Asia region because he was personally engrossed in denuclearisation negotiations with North Korea.
Burma’s ruling junta officially disbanded on Wednesday, giving the country a nominally civilian government for the first time in nearly a century. But many analysts called the move a masquerade, as top junta figures remain firmly in leadership positions, albeit without their uniforms.
In one development welcomed overseas, Burmese authorities last year freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel laureate had spent most of the last two decades under house arrest after her party won previous elections.
Suu Kyi has no voice in Burma’s new parliament. Her National League for Democracy was disbanded after it chose to boycott the elections, which it suspected were designed to marginalise the opposition and ethnic minorities.
In an address Saturday to activists gathered in Washington, Suu Kyi appealed for sustained world attention on her country – which human rights groups say experiences some of the world’s most severe abuses.
“At this moment, Burma is at a crossroads,” Suu Kyi told the meeting of the US Campaign for Burma in a video message.
“There are those who say that we have come to a place where there is change visible, but there are those of us who believe that change has not yet come – no visible change, just superficial change, not real change.
“May I say to renew your efforts once again to make sure that the Burma cause is kept alive at all the important places where it should be kept alive – in the minds of governments, in the minds of the United Nations, in the minds of peoples all over the world,” she added.
Suu Kyi enjoys wide support in the US Congress. Four senators – Republicans Mitch McConnell and Mark Kirk and Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer – urged the administration not to lift sanctions over Burma’s transition.
Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat active on Burma, said separately: “One thing is certain – when it comes to Burma’s military regime, the more things change, the more they stay the same.” http://www.dvb.no/news/pentagon-man-tipped-for-burma-post/15142
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Myanmar new vice president meets Chinese official
English.news.cn 2011-04-03 23:08:04
NAY PYI TAW, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar new Vice President U Tin Aung Myint Oo met with visiting Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Chen Jian in Nay Pyi Taw Sunday.
The two sides discussed matters of mutually beneficial economic cooperation.
Chen is accompanying China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin on a friendly visit to Myanmar.
Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, arrived at central Myanmar's Mandalay on Saturday and had met with U Ye Myint, Chief Minister of Mandalay region, agreeing to boost regional cooperation between the two neighboring countries.
Trade between China and Myanmar has been on a sharp rise in recent years. In 2010, bilateral trade totaled 4.444 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 53.2 percent over the year before.
Myanmar is the first stop of Jia's three nation tour, which will also take him to Australia and Samoa.
Editor: yan http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/03/c_13812002.htm
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Head of Burma military retires
04 April 2011 | 02:15:36 PM | Source: AAP
Burma's strongman Than Shwe, who ruled with an iron fist for almost two decades, has retired as head of the military after handing power to a nominally civilian government, officials said.
Than Shwe, previously known as the "senior general", last week disbanded the ruling junta following a November election marred by the absence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.
"The senior general and vice-senior general (Maung Aye) have retired already," a Burmese official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They are going to have a rest now."
A second official said: "Although they are retired, they will give some advice when the government asks for it."
The army hierarchy retains a firm grip on power in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country, and many analysts believe Than Shwe will retain a significant role behind the scenes.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1513016/Head-of-Burma-military-retires
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I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor
Bad Business for Burma
By MATTHEW F. SMITH
Published: April 3, 2011
The Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi recently urged Western nations to maintain economic sanctions against Myanmar, where the world’s longest-running military dictatorship is tightening its repressive ways: Over 2,000 prisoners of conscience languish behind bars in squalid conditions, while arbitrary arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings, torture and other abuses continue to be widespread and systematic, particularly in ethnic areas.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s message is not without controversy. It comes just weeks before the European Union will revisit its hotly debated sanctions policy, and a few disquieted Western policymakers, corporate executives and think tanks are advocating for economic engagement with the reclusive generals and their cronies. Sanctions policy is not only antiquated, ineffective, and hurtful to the Burmese people, they argue, it also gives the upper hand to China, which is sending companies to Burma with abandon, especially for big-ticket energy projects tapping natural gas reserves.
Beijing has at least 16 oil and gas companies invested in 21 onshore and offshore projects in Burma, far more than any other country. Until now, there’s been very little information available about these projects, the largest of which are dual gas and oil pipelines under construction from western Burma to the Chinese border, led by the state-controlled China National Petroleum Corporation and Korea’s Daewoo International.
Passing rugged mountains, dense jungles, arid plains, important rivers and a number of contested territories and population densities in Burma, the 500-mile-long pipelines will enable Beijing to bypass the vulnerable Strait of Malacca and supply gas and oil directly to landlocked Yunnan Province.
Leaked documents and clandestine interviews with affected populations along the project route in Burma confirm that the Burmese military is responsible for guarding the pipelines and related infrastructure, and for committing serious human rights violations in connection to the projects.
The most common violation so far is land confiscation and forced or coerced evictions. Families have been stripped of their means of subsistence — their land — with little or no compensation, making them instantly more vulnerable to the trappings of poverty and abuse in the militarized state.
“I don’t have enough rice for my family,” said one farmer who lost the land his family cultivated for generations. “I worry for my family.”
Violent abuses are also happening. “They blindfolded me and put me in a car,” an Arakanese man reported, referring to Burma’s Military Intelligence, “I’m not sure where they drove.” This man was tortured brutally for four days in a windowless room before standing trial on trumped-up charges with no defense lawyer.
Not that legal representation would have mattered. In proceedings that he says lasted five minutes, a Burmese judge sentenced him to six months in the notorious Insein Prison, where he survived appalling conditions before going into hiding. His crime: leading two community-level training sessions to raise awareness about the pipelines.
Unsurprisingly, in a multitude of interviews, not one villager expressed support for the pipelines.
Perhaps of greatest concern for Burma’s development is that the projects will generate billions of dollars annually through gas sales, taxes, fees, royalties and production bonuses. If the past is any judge, those revenues will accrue to the military rulers and serve to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Burma already ranks as the world’s second most corrupt country, beating only Somalia, according to Transparency International, which publishes a widely cited corruption perception index.
Barring targeted action from the international community, revenues from these pipelines will likely remain outside the national budget and tucked away in offshore bank accounts held in trust for the military rulers and their closed network of political and economic elite. Despite billions of dollars in export gas sales already coming in, new schools and hospitals are few and far between in resource-rich Burma, but luxury homes and expensive cars for the ruling elite and their families abound.
As sanctions policies are revisited, Western oil and mining companies shouldn’t assume they have the answers for Burma’s development or that they can do better than China. No matter how well intentioned a company may be, no matter how responsible, constructing new energy projects in Burma’s contested ethnic territories with the backing of the Burmese Army is bound to be violent, and enormous revenue flows into military coffers will do more to perpetuate authoritarianism than to promote positive change, regardless of where those revenues come from.
Barring meaningful political changes, new energy projects in today’s Burma are simply not good business — for China, the West, or the people of Burma, regardless of any sanctions policy.
Matthew F. Smith is a senior consultant with EarthRights International, which represented Burmese plaintiffs in Doe v. Unocal Corporation. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/opinion/04iht-edsmith04.html?ref=global-home
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Work begins on $255mn rail line project
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday opened construction work on a rail line that will connect Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh’s southeastern beach resort to neighbouring Myanmar.
The $255mn project of 2-meter gauge lines will connect Jhilongjha with Chittagong, the principal port city on one side and on the other side, it will connect Ramu with Gundum near the Myanmarese border by December 2013, Star Online, website of The Daily Star reported. The first survey for the railway line was conducted in 1890 during the British era. But due to the two World Wars the construction works could not start. The first feasibility study on the rail line was conducted in 2001 during Hasina’s previous tenure. Bangladesh has a 300km border with Myanmar. It hopes to connect by road and rail through Myanmar with Kunmin in China.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=426167&version=1&template_id=44&parent_id=24
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