News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 16 May, 2011
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Myanmar announces limited cut to jail terms
Myanmar president announces clemency for prisoners
Quintana to Meet Burmese Exile Groups
Australia and Thailand Pressure Burma on Rights Record
Jailed MPs, monks lobby home minister
Imprisoned Shan army leader in need of urgent health treatment
Internet cafes ban CDs, USB drives
China to Be Thein Sein's First State Visit
Burma's Leadership Change to Nowhere
Thai FM says Burma unfit for ASEAN chair
True News Journal Suspended for Two Weeks
Flawed math behind Myanmar 'democracy'
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May 16, 2011
Myanmar announces limited cut to jail terms
YANGON - MYANMAR'S military-backed government announced a limited amnesty on Monday by reducing all current prisoners' sentences by one year.
The news will come as a disappointment to those calling for the release of political prisoners, after an official said earlier this month that the government was preparing to grant an amnesty to some people in jail.
A message by President Thein Sein, read out on state TV news on Monday, said those who faced the death penalty would have their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.
'Prisoners will get amnesty on humanitarian grounds and through sympathy for their families,' said the announcement.
There are more than 2,200 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights group Amnesty International, being held under vague laws frequently used to criminalise peaceful political activists.
Many of them face double-digit jail sentences. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_669277.html
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Myanmar president announces clemency for prisoners
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's new president has announced a clemency program for prisoners, but its terms are limited and its scope is unclear.
State television and radio announced Monday that President Thein Sein signed a "general amnesty" order commuting death sentences to life imprisonment and cutting one year from convicts' prison terms.
The announcement did not say how many prisoners are covered by the order or if any of the country's more than 2,000 political prisoners will be released.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political group, said the order would not help political prisoners because many are serving very long sentences.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MYANMAR_PRISONERS?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Quintana to Meet Burmese Exile Groups
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, May 16, 2011
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, arrives in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on Monday to meet Burmese NGOs and human rights groups in exile.
Aung Myo Min, the director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), said that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bangkok organized a meeting with the rights groups for May 19 when some 50 representatives of various organizations will meet Quintana.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Aung Myo Min said, “We are going to discuss five main issues at the meeting—political prisoners; environment; education; accountability to human rights violations; and the transition to democracy.”
The issues on the agenda are to be presented individually by different organizations. The political prisoners issue will be presented by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma; human rights by the Karen Human Rights Group; environment by the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network; the right to education by HREIB; and the transition to democracy by the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.
Burma's military regime has refused to issue a visa to Quintana since his trip to Burma in February 2010. During that visit, he met political prisoners and several leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD). Although he requested permission to meet Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest, he was refused access by the military junta.
During his last visit, the UN envoy asked the military regime: to review its domestic laws which limit basic human rights; to release all political prisoners and detainees before the election; to educate the armed forces about human rights; and to ensure an independent judicial system.
Quintana recently applied for a visa from Burma's new government, which is led by President Thein Sein, a former prime minister under the military regime. To date, Naypyidaw has not responded to the envoy's request.
Observers say the military junta's angst toward Quintana was fueled by the Argentine's recommendation that the UN General Assembly establish a commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations in Burma under the military junta.
Quintana submitted a report concerning the human rights situation in Burma at a conference in March. In the report, he urged the new government to open an inquiry into the charges and to initiate a policy of transparency. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21298
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Australia and Thailand Pressure Burma on Rights Record
Bangkok | Ron Corben May 15, 2011
Activists from the Free Burma Coalition holding masks of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at a rally in front of the Burmese Embassy in Manila in November 2010.
Australia and Thailand have called for Burma to raise its human rights record, including the release of all political prisoners, before taking up the chair of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations in 2014.
Earlier this month, Laos was reported to have agreed to “swap” with Burma the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014. Laos will chair in 2012.
The call came during weekend talks between Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and his Thai counterpart Kasit Piromya in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Burma had foregone its right to chair ASEAN in 2005 amid international pressure over its human rights record. Burma now points to political reforms since then, including general elections last year and the formation of a new parliament together with the release of opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest last year.
But human rights groups argue the parliament is largely controlled by the military and military backed parties, while more than 2,000 political prisoners remain in jails throughout the country and attacks on ethnic communities continue.
The move by Burma to host ASEAN in 2014 is opening divisions within the organization.
Australia’s Rudd says Burma needs to make more progress before considering the ASEAN chairmanship.
“Our view as Australia is that we would want to see continued and sustained improvements in human rights and democracy in Burma. We in the past have welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, we have deep concerns about the continued detention of some 2,000 political prisoners.”
Rudd also pointed to issues such as the 110,000 Burmese living in refugee camps in western Thailand with ‘thousands’ more internally displaced in Burma due to fighting between ethnic groups and Burma’s army.
Indonesia Foreign Minister Marty Natelagawa, the current chairman of ASEAN, is due to visit Burma to assess its readiness to host the ASEAN meeting in 2014.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit says an assessment has to include progress by Burma, also known as Myanmar, since the elections and Burma’s obligation under the ASEAN charter which includes recognition of human rights. Kasit says there remain outstanding issues.
“Especially the release of all the remaining political prisoners, the general overall freedom or liberalization of the whole political process as well as the long awaited dialogue between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on behalf of the opposition with the newly installed government of Myanmar as part of the whole national reconciliation process and national building.”
Human rights groups welcomed the calls by Australia and Thailand for political reforms in Burma. Debbie Stothard is spokeswoman for the rights group Alternative ASEAN Network.
“Burma should not be allowed to chair ASEAN until it has engaged in genuine reform and that means release of all political prisoners and a cessation of war against all ethnic nationality communities.”
Stothard says if Burma took up the chair of ASEAN in 2014 without further reforms, key dialogue partner countries, that include Australia, Canada, the European Union and Japan as well as the United States, may boycott the meetings. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/and-Thailand-Pressure-Burma-on-Rights-Record--121859134.html
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Jailed MPs, monks lobby home minister
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 16 May 2011
Four political prisoners in the remote Kale jail have addressed a letter to Burma’s home affairs minister, U Ko Ko, in which they claim they are being denied adequate healthcare, food and the freedom to communicate with their families.
Among the four is Ashin Gambira, who is serving a 63-year sentence for his pivotal role in the September 2007 uprising. His sister, Khin Thu Htay, who visited him on 14 May, said that the letter was sent on behalf of political prisoners and regular prisoners who “vowed to go on hunger strike if there is no response by 31 May”.
“There are over 16 other [political prisoners] in other wards [in Kale] and apparently they will also send out a letter today,” she added.
Nyi Pu, who was elected in 1990 to the People’s Parliament before being sentenced to 15 years, is also among the signatories. In September last year he was reported to be in poor health after not receiving help for a condition that lowers the level of potassium in the blood.
Among the other would-be recipients of the letter, which also asks for prisoners to be allowed reading books, radio and satellite television, will be President Thein Sein and the three vice-presidents, as well as the UN Human Rights Commission. Thein Sein has suggested that a prisoner amnesty is on the cards, but concrete details have not been given.
Ashin Gambira also reported that a Political Prisoners’ Union has been formed and will “work to form a regular Prisoners’ Union,” according to his sister. Previous demands he made for former junta chief Than Shwe to visit him in prison and begin dialogue were met with heavy treatment by authorities, who filled his mouth with a cloth, taped him up and repeatedly beat him.
Burma is estimated to have around 200,000 prisoners in 43 jails across the country. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPPB) claims there is only one doctor for every 8,000 prisoners. Demands for better healthcare are frequently made by rights groups but protests by inmates are rare, and can result in heavy-handed punishments.
http://www.dvb.no/news/jailed-mps-monks-lobby-home-minister/15676
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Imprisoned Shan army leader in need of urgent health treatment
Monday, 16 May 2011 16:14 Hseng Khio Fah
One of the most prominent Shan political prisoners Maj-Gen Hso Ten of Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’ that is fighting against the Burma Army since March, is in urgent need to receive medical treatment due to his failing health condition, according to Sai Leik, spokesperson of the defunct Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).
Sao Hso Ten (Photo: S.H.A.N.)
“We were informed that he is seriously suffering from high blood pressure with 180 up and 80 down when his family visited him,” said Sai Leik. “This time the authorities have reportedly made a medical checkup.”
Gen Hso Ten has been suffering from high blood pressure and an eye problem as he is almost losing his eyesight since 2008, three years after his arrest. But authorities have mentioned nothing about his health problems.
“We believe his eye problem will also be considered if his high blood pressure condition becomes normal,” Sai Leik added.
But he is expected to be treated only in Sittwe hospital while his family wants to bring him to Rangoon.
He had been serving a 106 year term since 2005 along with Khun Htun Oo, chairman of SNLD the second winning party in 1990 and 7 other Shan politicians for defamation of the state, association with illegal parties and conspiracy against the state.
But they were separately imprisoned. In August, Gen Hso had been transferred from Khamti prison in Kachin State to Rakhaing State’s Sittwe, western part of Burma and is also one of the remotest areas.
Among the said 8 leaders, two were also reportedly seriously in poor health. Khun Htun Oo is reported to have been suffering bladder distention, peptic ulcer and arthritis both hands and knees and legs swelling due to lack adequate exercise and regular medical treatment while another one Sai Myo Win Tun, who is serving 79 years imprison in proper Burma’s Myingyan prison, is reportedly suffering from mental illness.
The 9th detainee “Math” Than Myint died in prison in 2006. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3686:imprisoned-shan-army-leader-in-need-of-urgent-health-treatment&catid=93:general&Itemid=291
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Internet cafes ban CDs, USB drives
By SHWE AUNG and FRANCIS WADE
Published: 16 May 2011
Cyber café customers will no longer be allowed to use external drives in computers, according to a new regulation issued by Burma’s communications ministry that further tightens the clamp on the country’s growing population of internet users.
The ban on CDs, USB sticks and floppy drives comes two months after the government prohibited the use of services like Skype and VZOchat that allow internet users to make free or cheap international phone calls.
The justification then was that there had been a drop in income from overseas calls, although analysts claimed it more likely stemmed from the government’s inability to monitor VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services, as these are known.
The external drive ban adds to a long list of regulations that govern ownership of internet cafes and that threaten heavy penalties if they are ignored. Already foreigners are required to hand over passport details, address and phone number before using an internet café computer, while café owners must submit monthly records of users’ internet usage data to the Myanma Post and Telecommunications Ministry.
At around two percent of the country, Burma’s internet penetration ranks among the lowest in the world, but numbers appear to be on the increase. Despite draconian laws surrounding the transfer of information, it has developed a thriving underground blogging community.
The evolution of social media in Burma, which is described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as both an ‘enemy of the internet’ and one of the world’s ‘worst countries in which to be a blogger’, appears to have concerned the government, particularly in light the internet-driven Arab uprisings this year.
A so-called upgrade of the country’s internet service shortly after the elections last year is claimed by media watchdogs to be used to reinforce surveillance and repression of national web users.
A joint report by Reporters Without Borders and Burma Media Association said that the Hantharwaddy National Gateway, Burma’s main link to the global internet, will be controlled exclusively by the military. Additionally, the introduction of an additional ISP means that the government can now shut off the civilian service during times of political unrest whilst keeping its own system online.
http://www.dvb.no/news/internet-cafes-ban-cds-usb-drives/15659
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China to Be Thein Sein's First State Visit
By WAI MOE Monday, May 16, 2011
Burmese President Thein Sein (right) shakes hands with China's Xu Caihou in Naypyidaw on May 13. (Photo : Xinhua)
Burma's new president, Thein Sein, is scheduled to visit China in late May, according to intelligence sources in Naypyidaw. The official visit will be his second overseas trip this month and his first state visit since being sworn in on March 30.
The Burmese delegation led by Thein Sein is looking to boost the Sino-Burmese bilateral relationship, the sources said. Beijing and Naypyidaw are likely to discuss security and strategic matters, including the possibility of Chinese naval ships docking at Kyaukpyu deep seaport in western Burma.
“Both sides are preparing for U Thein Sein’s state visit to China,” said a source who spoke on conditional of anonymity. “The date should be May 26. Commander-in-Chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials, such as Defense Minister Maj-Gen Hla Min, Home Minister Lt-Gen Ko Ko and Border Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Thein Htay will join the trip.”
Earlier this month, Thein Sein visited Indonesia to attend a regional summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Thein Sein’s trip to China comes shortly after a high-level Chinese military visit to Burma led by Gen Xu Caihou, the vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, which visited Burma from May 12 to 15.
Xu met Thein Sein and other top officials, including both vice-presidents, Tin Aung Myint Oo and Sai Mauk Kham, in Naypyidaw on May 13, according to Burmese state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.
Before meeting with Thein Sein, the Chinese general met Min Aung Hlaing and other top Burmese generals in the capital. The Burmese state media reported that Min Aung Hlaing and Xu Caihou signed “[an] agreement and exchanged emblems of Armed Forces.”
China’s Xinhua reported that Xu “made a three-point proposal for the development of the two armed forces— 1. enhancement of mutual trust strategically and consolidation of the friendly overall situation. 2. Strengthening of link and coordination and safeguarding of the two countries' common benefit, and 3. Pushing forward of practical cooperation and exchange and deepening of the two armed forces' friendly ties.” [sic]
"My present visit is to further enhance the China-Myanmar traditional friendship, boost understanding, expand consent, deepen cooperation, push the friendly and cooperative ties between the two countries and the two armed forces ahead and strive for the maintenance of regional peace and stability," Xu was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Although neither national media reported it, officials sources in Naypyidaw said that the Chinese general also raised the prospect of the Chinese navy docking at Kyaukpyu to safeguard Chinese interests. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21301
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Burma's Leadership Change to Nowhere
The junta's new generation: Same as the old generation.
By BERTIL LINTNER
Some in Asia have looked to recent events in the Middle East for clues about whether similar uprisings against unpopular authoritarian regimes could happen in places like China or Burma. But that's not the only point to consider from Asia's perspective. Those stories also offer a warning about the nature of change within such regimes, a red flag that is particularly relevant for Burma right now: A younger set of leaders is not always as liberal as outsiders hope.
Burma's military junta is in the midst of a political transition to a new generation. Long-ruling general Than Shwe, 78, has stepped aside, replaced by Thein Sein, a "youthful" 66. Since his appointment, Thein Sein has made some seemingly conciliatory remarks regarding freedom of expression. The European Union in particular has greeted this change with cautious optimism, slightly easing its sanctions against the regime.
Diplomats hope that a new generation may be more liberal-minded—that the next round of elections will be freer and fairer than last November's rigged polling; that the release of pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from her long house arrest will be lasting; and that recent media opening and better access for international aid agencies are the start of a trend.
But if the Middle East teaches something for Asia, it's that the new generation isn't always what it's cracked up to be. In Libya, Moammar Qadaffi's son Saif al Islam was educated at the London School of Economics and was once hailed as a reformist influence. Syrian ruler Bashar Assad is a doctor once greeted as a reformer when he took over power from his father. Both are now leading bloody crackdowns in their countries.
Sure enough, Burma's new leaders follow this pattern. Gen. Thein Sein is no closet liberal. A former major general, he served as chief of the army's Golden Triangle command from 1997-2001. As prime minister he visited North Korea in August last year, heaping praise on Kim Jong Il and saying that Burma would "strive to strengthen and develop friendly relations" with the Pyongyang regime.
And despite recent signs of openness, other signs show the regime is busily entrenching itself for another generation. The Burmese military did not implement a new constitution and hold "elections" last year because the generals wanted to change the system that has kept them in power for half a century. Those "reforms" were meant to institutionalize the present order with the aim of perpetuating it.
For instance, the new constitution gives the commander in chief of the armed forces the power to directly select one-fourth of all parliamentary seats, and allows the president to hand over power to the army in the event of a "national crisis"—a term so vaguely defined it could mean a popular pro-democracy uprising. There is no indication Gen. Thein Sein has any intention to change this.
Likewise, recent openness in other areas should not be viewed as a sign that newer leaders are more liberal-minded. Rather, this suggests that the new generation is perpetuating the same cycle of repression, openness and then repression again that the older generation perfected.
Consider 1988, when a massive uprising started after years of repression and economic mismanagement. After gunning down thousands of demonstrators in a crackdown that would make Syria's rulers blush, the Burmese military encouragingly moved toward reform. It abolished the one-party system and announced that free elections wound he held. For almost a year, Burma experienced an unprecedented openness. Political rallies were tolerated across the country.
But in July 1989, the army moved in when democracy grew too popular. Hundreds were arrested and Ms. Suu Kyi placed under house arrest. A year later, elections were held, and they were surprisingly free and fair. Foreign journalists were allowed to cover the event. But the people made the mistake of voting for Ms. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, and another crackdown followed. The elected National Assembly was never convened. The international community was outraged—but mellowed when the military announced that a new constitution would be drafted and fresh elections held.
Since first being put under house arrest in 1989 around the time of the election, Ms. Suu Kyi's fate has tracked the junta's cycles. She was released in 1995 and allowed to hold political meetings and rallies. Then the military cracked down , and by 2000 she was under arrest again. And so on—released in 2002, re-arrested in 2003. Given this record, it would be premature to consider her latest release, in November last year, as a sign of permanent change for the better in the regime.
Nor is the international community's optimism itself a new phenomenon. When the original strongman, Ne Win, ruled from 1962 till 1981, Burma watchers used to say that things would change once he was gone from the scene. But the next generation turned out to be just as brutal, and perhaps even more so. Similarly, the new crop of military leaders under Gen. Thein Sein might turn out to be just as repressive as Gen. Than Shwe—or worse.
Burma is not immune to the democratic winds of change. Sooner or later, real change will come. But that will not be the type of "incremental improvements" some observers, especially in the European Union, think they're seeing now. Rather, it will be when those within the system turn against it—in other words, a crack within the ruling elite.
So far, there are no signs of such a crack in Burma. And by misreading current signals, outsiders could delay the arrival of that moment. Easing sanctions as a reward for false openness, for instance, removes a stress factor that could eventually cause some within the military to rethink the wisdom of the current regime.
Until the international community, and especially the EU, learns these bitter lessons of history, they will only encourage the junta to continue as it always has. That can only prolong the sufferings of the Burmese people.
Mr. Lintner is a Thailand-based correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet and author of several books on Burma.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509104576324563051987194.html
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Thai FM says Burma unfit for ASEAN chair
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 16 May 2011
Thai FM Kasit Piromya is accompanied by his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa after a meeting in Jakarta April 28 2011 (Reuters)
Thailand’s foreign minister has reportedly told his Australian counterpart that Burma must release all 2,100 political prisoners at the very least before ASEAN considers giving it the 2014 chair.
Kasit Piromya was speaking with Australian FM Kevin Rudd during a meeting in Bangkok last week. The Australian Associated Press quoted Kasit as saying that Burma has an “obligation to itself, to the ASEAN community in terms of the credibility, respectability and also the internal position of the ASEAN community”, all of which would need to be scrutinised before taking the chair.
It also said that both parties agreed on the need for Burma to improve its human rights record, of which the continued imprisonment of thousands of activists, politicians, monks and journalists is a cause célèbre.
Controversy erupted ten days ago after ASEAN appeared close to handing Burma the revolving chair for 2014, despite stern warnings from rights groups about both the rewarding of Burma’s maligned elections last year, and the effect it would have on the image of the bloc.
Observers quickly levelled sharp criticism at ASEAN, which has come under persistent international pressure to do more about Burma’s myriad domestic crises.
The latest reports suggest the decision has now been delayed. The US had reportedly sent a statement to the current chair, Indonesia, prior to the summit warning that it would sour relations between the bloc and the world’s largest economy if Burma was appointed.
Kasit’s comments are a rarity from a government that is increasingly attempting to court the Burmese leaders in return for furthering its economic reach in the country. It also marks a break from the recent past when Thailand, as chair of ASEAN, was reluctant to criticise the regime. According to the Rangoon-based Myanmar Times, however, ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan, a veteran Thai politician, supports Burma’s bid for the chair.
Australia has approached with caution pledges made by the new Burmese government that the country is transitioning to civilian rule. In a video message beamed to a parliamentary forum in Canberra last week, opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi said that there had been “no positive, definite move towards a truly democratic process” in Burma, and urged MPs to closely scrutinise the rhetoric of the government against signs of tangible progress in the country.
http://www.dvb.no/news/thai-fm-says-burma-unfit-for-asean-chair/15672
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True News Journal Suspended for Two Weeks
By KO HTWE Monday, May 16, 2011
Burma's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) has suspended Rangoon-based journal True News for two weeks after the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs (MCPT) complained about a front-page report concerning a deal on mobile phones.
The suspension of the news journal marks the first such ban on media since the new government was sworn in on March 30.
True News is accused by the MCPT of falsely reporting that any person in Burma who owns a GSM mobile phone—retail price being 1.5 million kyat [US $1,830]—can now pay an additional 50,000 kyat [$60] and receive a second cellphone. The report quoted Zaw Min Oo, a telecommunications chief engineer at the MCPT.
It is unclear why the government department objected to this report, nor has it been established whether True News is accused of misquoting Zaw Min Oo.
“The reason for the suspension is because the report went to press without the permission of the censorship board,” said a source close to True News.
The source speculated that other reasons for the suspension may exist. He said that in the same May 3 issue, True News carried a cartoon by well-known Burmese cartoonist Aw Pi Kye, depicting the government changing uniform. The journal also carried an article by Shwe Zee Kwat from the influential NGO, Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS).
“We had strong evidence to support the GSM mobile phone report,” said a reporter from True News who requested anonymity. “That same week, we were also denied permission to published news regarding Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to the FFSS, and were told to postpone an interview with FFSS founder Kyaw Thu.”
In an address to parliament on March 31, Burma's new president, Thein Sein, said that the government “must respect the role of the media.”
However, according to Nyan Tun Oo, a minister within the Rangoon regional government, the new government will continue the previous junta's policy of censoring media coverage which is sensitive to national security or critical of the state.
True News was founded in June 2008. It was previously suspended for two months in October 2009 over a photograph showing Burmese children working in Thailand.
“As far as I know,the duty of the censorship board is to prohibit news and articles that affect the state, religion and nationalism,” said Kyaw Thu. “The suspension [we received] is just the same as the former government used to impose.”
However, a Rangoon-based editor told The Irrawaddy on Monday that he feels there is a slight improvement in the PSRD's attitude toward the media since the new government was sworn in.
“If the editor [of a journal or newspaper] takes responsibility for the news coverage, then they can publish without going through the censors,” he said. “Previously, everything had to be sent to the PSRD for approval.”
The PSRD routinely censors books, journals and newspapers. Any media criticism of the military junta is strictly forbidden. Despite their strict rules and regulations, and draconian censorship practices, the PSRD currently licenses the publication of 326 newspapers, magazines and journals in Burma.
The Irrawaddy reporter Hset Linn also contributed this article. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21300
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May 17, 2011
Flawed math behind Myanmar 'democracy'
By David Scott Mathieson
MAE SOT - What if you held an election and you weren't sure how many people showed up at the polls? To establish voting patterns and trends, one needs to have an accurate estimate of the population, clearly demarcated electorates and the eligible voters contained therein, and a system of tallying votes. It is not clear how closely these prerequisites were observed ahead of the November 7, 2010, vote in Myanmar when population estimates in the country vary widely.
Myanmar has not had an effective nationwide census for decades. Previous ones took place during British colonial rule in 1931, under the post war social democratic government in 1953, and by the socialist government in 1983. The last official census in 1983 calculated the population to be 35.4 million, despite that count not being able to access considerable parts of the country due to civil war. But what is Myanmar's population now, and how did authorities count the votes on November 7, 2010?
Population estimates between 2008 and 2010 vary from 44.2 million in 2009 according to the United Nations, based on Ministry of Home Affairs figures, to 59.1 million in 2010 according to the government's Ministry of Immigration and Population estimates. The figures stem from a survey of some kind conducted from 2007 in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that estimated the population growth rate at 2.02% annually. From the lowest to highest figures over a two to three year period, there is a 15 million people differential in Myanmar government, UN and other international organizations' estimates.
Other estimates are as widely divergent. The Yangon-based UN agency, the Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU), released a map in 2009 with a breakdown of the population of all of Myanmar's 14 administrative units (states and divisions/regions) and the total population was 44.2 million based on ministry of home affairs figures. The 2009 Lonely Planet tourist guide claimed the population was 47.4 million. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates the population to be 48.1 million.
Many newspapers reporting on last year's elections in the past several months have variously estimated the population at 50, 51, 52, 54 or 57 million, all of the estimates likely based on Internet searches through the disparate figures on a variety of websites. According to data compiled by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in 2008, the 2010 figure for Myanmar was projected at 50,495,000. In the 2008 Statistical Yearbook of Myanmar's Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, the population figure was listed at 57,504,000.
So why the enormous fluctuation?
To understand the disparities in counting Myanmar's population, one has to know that estimating Myanmar's population is predominantly part of the system of authoritarian control. To monitor society, authorities have long employed a Draconian system of household registration.
Every house must have a list of inhabitants that are regularly reported to local authorities, at the suburb (or in Myanmar, the ward), or village level. Visitors are either denied permission to stay overnight or must be registered with the authorities. It is prohibited for foreigners to stay overnight in a private Myanmar home and all hotel registration lists are reported daily to local police and immigration authorities.
This system of control is vertically integrated. Regular population numbers of small communities are relayed up to the next stage of monitoring control: from village to village tract, next to township, then to state or region level, and ultimately to national authorities. This is not unique to authoritarian systems but in practice it grants latitude to local authorities to act in any way to ensure that good news flows up.
In a country such as Myanmar, where avoiding the attention of authorities is a basic survival strategy, compliance by officials and citizens to accord with expectations is often the norm - despite questions of veracity or efficiency of the gathered information. Supplying positive news is an essential measure of loyalty in repressive states.
For example, the swift counting of the vote at the 2008 constitutional referendum - not an arduous task in a simple yes or no vote but still a challenge considering Myanmar's lack of development and infrastructure - was reached within a couple of weeks and publicly announced down to the individual vote: a 92% approval of the constitution with a 98% voter turnout. It was clear that local authorities knew they must deliver positive, even if false, news to the next layer of control all the way up to central authorities in Naypyidaw.
Most observers agree that Myanmar's electoral process in 2010 was one gigantic fix to ensure continued military dominance: Electoral laws were rigged and interpreted by a pro-military Electoral Commission; 2,200 political prisoners, including many opposition party leaders, were barred from contesting the polls; and the military's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), with 18 million nominal members and a nationwide structure of offices and financial assets, ensured that smaller upstart parties were at a competitive disadvantage.
On voting day, November 7, widespread irregularities were reported, including the use of advance voting ballots to swing seats in favor of the USDP during the closing stages of counting ballots. The USDP won more than 77% of the seats in the two national level parliaments and a clear majority in the 14 regional and state based assemblies. The Electoral Commission announced that 22 million of 29 million eligible voters cast ballots, equating to a turn-out of around 75%-80%.
Inconvenient intervening variables
Few analyses of the Myanmar population include demographic factors that challenge the prevailing official assessment: displacement through conflict and development projects, migration to neighboring countries or urban areas inside the country, statelessness of the Rohingya Muslim minority, hinterland hill-tribes, and other marginalized populations, and haphazard or incomplete citizenship registration.
Myanmar is an extremely poor country sharing rugged and underdeveloped borderlands with Bangladesh, China, India, Laos and Thailand, simmering insurgent conflicts in its especially eastern borderlands, and a bewildering ethno-linguistic patchwork of peoples that official estimates put at 135 "national race groups". The following is a short list of inconvenient intervening variables that any accurate assessment of Myanmar's demographics must consider:
Internal displacement. For more than a decade, there has been a major problem of conflict and development induced displacement in eastern Myanmar. The annual survey of the Thailand-Burma [Myanmar] Border Consortium (TBBC), an aid group that works with refugees, estimated 460,000 civilians were internally displaced in Myanmar in 2010 in a mixture of nominally government controlled areas, ceasefire militia enclaves and free-fire zones contested by state and anti-state forces.
These populations are a mix of recognized citizens of Myanmar and those whose births were not officially registered but have spent most of their lives under insurgent administration. Voting on November 7 was not held in several townships in border areas, such as the Wa special region in the north, and parts of the country where conflict is still raging in the Karen and Shan states.
Add to this tens of thousands of hill-tribe minorities, including Lahu, Akha, Palaung and others, especially in the northern states, who live on the fringes of state control and have never been officially counted. Ongoing conflict, or tensions between state forces and insurgents in border areas, meant that voting did not take place in parts of northern Shan State and eastern Myanmar, affecting parts of 32 townships (constituencies) and an estimated 350,000 people in total.
Refugees. There are more than 140,000 documented refugees in nine (unofficially) recognized camps in Thailand. These numbers have stayed largely constant since 1984 when the first major waves of refugees started to cross. More than 60,000 refugees have been resettled to third countries from these camps since 2005.
The ethnic Shan have only one very small recognized camp because most who have fled across the Thai border enter the migrant worker population. They easily number in the tens of thousands. India has approximately 50,000 ethnic Chin refugees in Mizoram and several thousand more in Delhi. Refugees also travel to Malaysia where some estimate 30,000-50,000 have fled to either work or apply for refugee status. Some refugees, however, retain their citizenship.
The Rohingya Muslim minority. Myanmar's most persecuted ethno-religious minority, the estimated one million Rohingya, have been the target of both large scale brutal military expulsions into Bangladesh (in 1978 and 1991) and denied citizenship and basic rights for three decades. Many Rohingya were paradoxically granted voting rights in 2008 and 2010 through the issuance of temporary ID cards and Rohingya political parties were permitted to contest the election (they were trounced).
Military-aligned Rohingya businessmen were permitted to contest and win seats through the USDP. An estimated 250,000 Rohingya live as refugees or as undocumented migrants in Bangladesh, while tens of thousands more work as migrant laborers in the Middle East and Pakistan.
Chinese migration to northern Myanmar. Chinese migration to Myanmar has demonstrably increased since the early 1990s, especially to Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay.
Many Chinese migrants purchase citizenship, using business contacts with officials to secure it, while others are temporary laborers, such as the tens of thousands of road builders and dam construction workers now in Kachin State. There are no hard official figures on the size of this migration, but the presence of recent Chinese immigrants in northern Myanmar is clear to visitors and the source of periodic tension between ethnic Burmese and the new arrivals.
Migrant workers. Myanmar laborers leave their country in massive numbers, some for short-term work, others for many years. The standard estimate for Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand is two million. But in the absence of a fully functioning registration system, official Thai figures are much lower. In lesser numbers migrant workers from Myanmar also travel to Malaysia and Singapore, where working conditions are often marginally better.
Some of these workers were permitted to vote in last year's elections, if they were legally recognized as migrant workers, and cast advance ballots at Myanmar embassies. Some migrant workers refused to vote, fearing that officials would be able to extort money from them or their families back in Myanmar if they engaged with embassy officials.
Struck off household lists. Many people, especially Rohingya, who leave Myanmar because of persecution or for work are often struck off household registration lists because they have left the country illegally.
Many migrant workers leave their official ID cards inside Myanmar with their parents or family members because it is illegal to take the card outside of the country. Dissidents and others who have illegally left the country for clandestine training or work are regularly charged with breaches of the migration act and sentenced to long prison terms upon their return.
Internal labor migration. It became clear after 2008's Cyclone Nargis disaster that large numbers of landless laborers who had been working in the Irrawaddy Delta and may not have ever been counted either as temporary residents or as residents were amongst the official dead or missing count of 140,000.
The experience of the 2008 referendum, held soon after the disaster, is instructive in other ways. When Human Rights Watch interviewed survivors of the cyclone from 2008-2010, researchers encountered many who said they were not included in village household lists because of their isolated location.
Many said they were never given the opportunity to cast votes as local authorities completed their ballots for them. There are many other variables of transmigration not taken into account in official figures: how many people in Myanmar move within the country for work but fail to register with the authorities?
Authoritarian 'truth'. In his new book, Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, which details how governments and corporations bandy around deceitful figures, Charles Seife writes, “In skillful hands, phony data, bogus statistics, and bad mathematics can make the most fanciful idea, the most outrageous falsehood seem true. They can be used to bludgeon enemies, to destroy critics, and to squelch debate.”
The obsession with numerical detail by Myanmar's authoritarian system is a prime example of what Seife calls "disestimation": granting credibility to a figure that is derived with too much uncertainty. Accurately estimating Myanmar's population is not only crucial for conducting elections - and one hopes that a genuinely free and fair election will take place one day in the country - but it is also crucial for increasing development projects and the disbursal of humanitarian assistance.
What Myanmar's new parliament, a reshuffled version of the former ruling military council, needs to give priority to in 2011 are credible population statistics that serve the needs of local development in health, education, land management, and economic reforms, including urgently needed micro-financing projects. These fundamentals have been lost in the haze of a system of control and the various responses by communities to survive under continued military rule (with a thin civilian facade for now).
If the United Nations system bandies around widely divergent figures, how will they coordinate with the national authorities and local communities to reach those most in need? Any agenda for international engagement with Myanmar should include reconciling the variables of communities that are not included on official registers and give more consideration to people who are used by the state when it suits them, and ignored when it doesn't.
David Scott Mathieson is a senior researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/ME17Ae01.html
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 16 May, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Sunday, 15 May, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Sunday, 15 May, 2011
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Camp inmates suffer due to Thai policy
Myanmar tells UN envoy amnesty for prisoners "likely"
Chinese military leader concludes visit to Myanmar
Myanmar: UN Envoy Meets Government And Opposition Figures
'Political situation in Burma needs to improve'
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Camp inmates suffer due to Thai policy
By Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation on Sunday
Published on May 15, 2011
Thailand's policy of keeping refugees from Burma in nine camps along the border has caused untold suffering and shows that the government does not know how to handle refugees.
This was particularly the case for 60,000 refugees "not registered" by Thai officials, said Veerawit Tianchainan, executive director of Thai Committee for Refugees (TRC).
Most Thais were not aware that 140,000 refugees had been kept in camps along the border for 26 years, he said.
Veerawit, who spoke during the global launch of Amnesty International's annual Human Rights Report 2011, alleged that the Thai Army had "recently stop distributing food" to the unregistered refugees.
"The government has stopped screening them [for registration] since 2006," said Veerawit, and "had tried to force them back to their home country".
In Tak province, the governor wanted to conduct a head count of refugees in the camps, in order to evict unregistered refugees, Veerawit said. "This is not a good trend."
He urged Thais to be more sympathetic to refugees: "When the Thai media talks about refugees, they talk about 'problems' and not about ways to treat refugees better.
"The Thai media produces news based on information provided by the Thai government and they have their own agenda," he said, adding that refugee camps had become a sort of "Bermuda Triangle" where reporters could not enter. "What happens inside the camp, you don't know."
Veerawit admitted that Thai attitudes towards people from Burma were shaped by school education, which still treats Burma as "the national enemy". Many Thais also failed to make a distinction between migrant workers and refugees.
However, there was a glimmer of hope, he said, as the Thai government had been more receptive over the past six months and agreed to get high-level officials to meet with leaders of NGOs to discuss the issue.
Mohamad Nasim, chairman of Thailand's Rohingya Human Rights Association, was among the audience at the Foreign Correspondents Club on Friday and spoke about hardships faced by people detained at the Immigration Detention Centre at Bangkok's Soi Suan Plu.
He said 44 Rohingyas were now held there, and one had died in detention.
"I want to know how much longer they will be detained," said Mohamad, who himself is a stateless refugee living in Thailand for the past 23 years. He said two more Rohingyas have died elsewhere in Thailand while being detained.
"We have nowhere to go."
According to the just released AI annual global report, some refugees were "forced to return [to Burma] or prevented from crossing the border into Thailand" last November when clashes broke out.
"This was also true throughout the rest of the year in relation to smaller groups of refugees escaping sporadic fighting across the border," the report stated. "In Waw Lay village in Phop Phra district in Tak province, Thai authorities forcibly returned 166 Burmese refuges on 25 December, at least 360 on 8 December, roughly 650 on 17 November, and approximately 2,500 on 10 November."
The report also said that unregistered migrant workers are "forcibly removed" to Burma, and were "subject to trafficking and extortion by both Thai officials and a [Burma] government-backed ethnic minority militia", putting them "at risk of serious human rights abuses".
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/05/15/national/Camp-inmates-suffer-due-to-Thai-policy-30155437.html
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Myanmar tells UN envoy amnesty for prisoners "likely"
May 15, 2011, 4:56 GMT
Yangon - United Nations envoy Vijay Nambiar was told that a general amnesty for prisoners was 'likely' during his official visit to Myanmar last week, media reports said Sunday.
Nambiar visited from Wednesday to Friday, when he met with members of the newly elected government and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Although he was not granted an audience with President Thein Sein, Nambiar was briefed by an 'advisory committee' that told him to have patience with the country's reform process, the Myanmar Times reported, citing an official transcript of the meeting.
Myanmar held its first election in two decades on November 7, bringing to power the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, headed by former general Thein Sein.
Human rights groups and pro-democracy activists have urged the international community to continue to shun the elected government until it demonstrates a real commitment to political reform.
Human Rights Watch has called on the regime to release 2,000 political prisoners.
Chief advisor Ko Ko Hlaing told Nambiar that Thein Sein was 'likely' to declare a general amnesty at a 'time he sees fit,' although he refused to acknowledge that Myanmar has political prisoners, Myanmar Times reported.
Other members of the advisory committee stressed that the reform process will take time, as the country had been under military rule for five decades.
'The president has used the words 'good governance' and 'clean government.' These are expressions we have not heard for nearly half a century in Myanmar,' Nay Zin Latt, a member of the political affairs committee, told the visiting UN special envoy to Myanmar.
After meeting with Suu Kyi on Thursday, Nambiar described his visit as 'encouraging,' but cautioned that its outcome 'depends on the government's reaction.'
It was Nambiar's first face-to-face encounter with Suu Kyi, the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was released from six years of house detention on November 13. She has spent about 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest.
The UN special envoy last visited Myanmar five months ago, after the November polls.
The election was generally criticized by Western democracies since it excluded Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The NLD won an election in 1990 but was blocked from assuming power by the junta.
The NLD boycotted the November polls after the military passed regulations that would have forced them to expel Suu Kyi from their party in order to contest the elections.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1639207.php/Myanmar-tells-UN-envoy-amnesty-for-prisoners-likely
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Chinese military leader concludes visit to Myanmar
11:09, May 15, 2011
Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou wrapped up his four-day official goodwill to Myanmar and left Yangon Sunday.
During his trip in Nay Pyi Taw, Xu met with Myanmar President U Thein Sein and exchanged views with him on issues of common concern.
The two sides vowed to strengthen the friendly and cooperative ties between the two nations and make contribution to the development and stability of the regional countries.
Xu also met with speaker of the House of Parliament of Representative (Lower House) of Myanmar U Shwe Mann.
The two sides pledged to make joint efforts to consolidate the two countries' "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, further develop the cooperative and friendly ties and strengthen the multi-lateral cooperation in the international community.
In addition, Xu held talks with Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defense Service General Min Aung Hlaing with both side underlining that the exchange and cooperation between the two countries in various sectors continuously deepened and made rich achievements and appreciating the development of the two countries ' friendly and cooperative ties under the new situation.
Xu raised a three-point proposal for cooperation and development of the two armed forces which was agreed by Min Aung Hlaing, who hoped that the existing close relations and exchange should be maintained to well safeguard the peace and stability of the two countries and the region.
Xu arrived Nay Pyi Taw Thursday on a goodwill visit to Myanmar at the invitation of General Min Aung Hlaing representing the first visit by a foreign military delegation to the country after a new government was formed.
Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7380074.html
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Myanmar: UN Envoy Meets Government And Opposition Figures
Saturday, 14 May 2011, 2:03 pm
Press Release: United Nations
A top United Nations official today wrapped up a visit to Myanmar, where he met with senior members of the country’s newly installed Government and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).
Vijay Nambiar, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Myanmar, said that during the three-day visit he underlined the importance of the Government implementing its stated commitments on such issues as governance, human rights, the rule of law and sustainable development.
In a press statement issued in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, Mr. Nambiar noted that expectations are high both domestically and internationally that the Government will soon take “concrete steps” to meet those commitments.
“In all my meetings I stressed that this must include the release of all political prisoners and inclusive dialogue with all segments of society, as well as greater outreach to the international community to ensure that the proposed reforms enjoyed broad buy-in,” he said.
“Only then can there be greater confidence that the efforts undertaken will indeed serve to meet the long-standing needs and aspirations of the people of Myanmar. There is no time to waste if Myanmar is to move forward.”
Mr. Nambiar welcomed the themes and reforms outlined by President Thein Sein in his inaugural speeches on “some of the most pressing political and economic challenges facing Myanmar.”
The Special Adviser cited sustainable development and equitable growth; good governance, through greater inclusiveness, accountability and transparency; respect for fundamental human rights, the media and the rule of law; and continued engagement with those who do not accept the recently adopted constitution and the Government’s roadmap agenda.
During the visit Mr. Nambiar met with the ministers of foreign affairs, home affairs, social welfare, national planning and development, as well as newly appointed presidential advisers for political, legal and economic affairs.
He also held discussions with the Deputy Speaker of the People’s Assembly and the Secretary-General of the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
In addition, Mr. Nambiar met with Ms. Suu Kyi and members of the NLD’s central executive committee, and also with representatives of parliamentary political parties and civil society organizations.
During the visit he also reiterated the UN’s commitment to engage more with the people and Government of Myanmar on issues ranging from health and education to human rights and capacity building.
May 13 2011 3:10PM http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1105/S00306/myanmar-un-envoy-meets-government-and-opposition-figures.htm
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'Political situation in Burma needs to improve'
By Jim Pollard
The Nation on Sunday
Published on May 15, 2011
Kasit and Rudd spoke to reporters after having lunch at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok. The former Australian PM, now foreign minister, flew to Thailand early yesterday.
Kasit said Asean was obliged to consider the "totality" of Burma's bid to chair the regional body in 2014.
"The credibility and respectability of Asean has to be looked at," he said.
Other issues that had to be considered included the possible release of political prisoners, as well as the liberalisation of the political process, and dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Kasit said.
The request by Burma for the Asean chair was discussed at the Asean summit last weekend but no decision is expected till later in the year.
Rudd said: "Australia wants to see continued and sustained improvement in Burma. We have deep concerns about the 2,000-plus political prisoners in detention.
"We are very glad that our friend and colleague [Indonesian foreign minister] Marty Natalegawa will visit there soon [to assess developments since the election last November]."
The Australian foreign minister avoided comment on the recent clashes on the Thai-Cambodian border, saying the situation was "a matter between the two countries".
But he said they discussed the situation on the Thai-Burma border in detail and noted that Australia had given close to US$10 million (Bt300 million) over recent years to support the 140,000 refugees in nine camps along the border.
But there were challenges, he said, to provide support to a large number of people, which he put at several hundred thousand, "existing in a virtual no-man's land" - displaced in eastern Burma.
Rudd said he had an "open mind" about whether to drop sanctions against Burma's controversial military regime, but warned "we won't make that decision unless things are going in the right direction".
The pair also discussed changes to the East Asia Summit, which will be bolstered shortly by the presence of Russia and the US.
Rudd said trade between Thailand and Australia now totalled more than $20 billion and had enjoyed double-digit growth every year since the signing of a free-trade agreement in 2005.
"Our relationship has grown stronger over 60 years of diplomatic ties," he said. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/05/15/national/Political-situation-in-Burma-needs-to-improve-30155436.html
Saturday, May 14, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 13 May, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 13 May, 2011
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Burma Rethinks Censorship. A Bit.
UN ‘very encouraged’ by new Burma govt
Myanmar president meets Chinese military leader
Chinese, Myanmar military leaders hold talks in Nay Pyi Taw
Myanmar eyes 'fraternal' ties with China
Myanmar parliament speaker meets Chinese military leader
China to gauge Burma’s insurgency policy
Burma UN Special Envoy Meets Suu Kyi, NLD Executives
Burma's 100 days of parliament: More 'Nays' than 'Yeas'
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THE DIPLOMAT
Burma Rethinks Censorship. A Bit.
May 13, 2011By Steve Finch
On a winding street in a wealthy suburb of Rangoon, the Orwellian-sounding Press Scrutiny and Registration Division quietly alters and deletes words, paragraphs and sometimes entire articles prior to publication in Burma’s 350 privately-owned newspapers, journals and magazines. It’s been that way during nearly 50 years of military rule in what ranks as one of the world’s most heavily restricted press environments.
But after a landslide (and widely-criticised) election win for a ruling party filled with former military men, Burma’s new government has offered strong indications it may at last relax the rules.
‘In Myanmar (Burma) there will be more freedom of press…in line with (the new) constitution,’ Information Minister Kyaw Hsan said in a speech in Rangoon reported in the state mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar on May 2.
His comments came after the country’s new President Thein Sein reportedly told his Cabinet at the end of March: ‘We have to respect the role of the media…we are required to inform the people about what they should know.’
Questions remain though as to how far the regime will actually go in easing restrictions, how these would work and whether Burma’s long-suffering press industry will be any freer as a result, even if the right to ‘publish freely’ is enshrined in the country’s 2008 Constitution.
Under proposed changes, coverage on mostly benign subjects, including sport and entertainment, would no longer have to pass through the office of the censor before hitting newsstands.
However, copies would have to be submitted after publication, while coverage on news and business would still be subject to the same censorship, a process that requires editors to ferry large quantities of copy back and forth to the scrutiny board late into the night on deadline day.
According to the Burma Media Association, an organisation of Burmese journalists in exile, that means about 40 percent of the country’s publications would still be subject to censorship, all of which print articles deemed the most sensitive by the government.
‘To be able to bypass the current censorship process is a step in the right direction, but it can’t be considered as a step towards press freedom,’ says BMA President Maung Maung Myint.
While the new rules would reduce the workload for many publications, journalists in Burma warn that these proposed changes would also present a new set of problems. Whereas editors currently work in an environment where they can try to push against the censorship board—if they are prepared to deal with rejected articles that must be replaced quickly before going to press—the new rules would mean the buck stops with the publication itself. That would undoubtedly lead to more self-censorship and a higher chance editors end up flouting largely unspoken rules on what can and can’t be published, said one editor in Rangoon.
‘To get suspended, they would have deliberately ignored the censorship board, and editors would have known the risks they were running,’ the editor said on condition of anonymity. ‘Now they will have to be guessing what is acceptable and what is not.’
The government has repeatedly made it clear that under the new system being considered—and widely tipped to be passed given recent prominent media coverage—editors will increasingly be in the firing line as responsibility shifts away from the censors.
‘Publishers and editors will need to decide themselves whether they are breaking the law or not when they publish,’ said Burma’s chief censor Tint Swe in an interview in The Myanmar Times, a privately-owned weekly. ‘If they break the laws, there are two ways to charge them. Call and remind the publisher or editors not to do it again, or file a lawsuit if the case is serious.’
But what exactly are the rules? In the past, the censorship board has decided to reject photographs of Burmese football crowds, for instance, on the basis they have sometimes too closely resembled groups of demonstrators. And aside from overtly negative political coverage, one of the big no-nos in Burma remains images of women deemed a little too sexy in what is a traditional, predominantly Buddhist country. Entertainment editors note censors sometimes insist straps be airbrushed onto strapless tops, while the acceptable length of female hem lines is usually a guessing game.
‘Entertainment journals are likely to have the most difficult time,’ said the editor, adding many have been suspended in the past.
For Burmese journalists and their publications, the penalties can be severe. Reporters Without Borders notes only China holds more journalists behind bars, ranking Burma 171st out of 175 countries in its 2010 press freedom index. Currently, 14 journalists languish in Burmese jails. When the government released Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from seven and a half years of detention six days after last November’s election, nine journals were suspended for ‘excessive coverage.’ Hefty fines and editions pulled from newsstands means the costs can also be financial.
Still, many editors working within Burma’s media industry have said that after nearly half of century of rigid censorship, any relaxation of the strict rules would represent an improvement. The Rangoon-based editor estimated about 30 percent of a typical working week was taken up dealing with censorship, and with many weeklies seeking daily publishing licences, relaxed rules would make tighter deadlines more feasible. Only the New Light of Myanmar and its Burmese-language sister paper are currently permitted to print on a daily basis, but rumours in Rangoon suggest private journals may soon get the same opportunity.
On the spectrum of press freedom, these changes are all relative, says Benjamin Ismael on the Reporters Without Borders Asia Desk in Paris. Burma would move closer to a looser style of press restriction seen in other media industries in the region, he added, but in reality that means becoming more like China or Vietnam and less like the worst offenders such as North Korea.
‘China is in a way similar to Burma, but we could say that it is at a different stage, more advanced,’ says Ismael. ‘For now, we are looking at cosmetic reforms (in Burma).’
Steve Finch is a Phnom Penh-based freelance journalist. His articles have also appeared in The Washington Post, TIME.com, Foreign Policy, The Phnom Penh Post and The Bangkok Post.
http://the-diplomat.com/2011/05/13/burma-rethinks-censorship-a-bit/
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UN ‘very encouraged’ by new Burma govt
By AFP
A visiting top UN official said yesterday that recent signals from Burma’s new army-backed government were “very encouraging”, after talks with democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The government has made some very interesting statements… which are very encouraging,” Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters after meeting Suu Kyi.
But he added that it was important to watch whether there was real progress in areas such as human rights, notably whether the government will release Burma’s more than 2,200 political prisoners.
Rights campaigners warned Nambiar’s visit could be exploited by Burma’s leaders.
“It depends on the action of the government. We do hope that there will be a breakthrough,” said Nambiar, who met foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin on Wednesday in his first talks with Burma’s nominally civilian government since the dissolution of the junta at the end of March.
It was the second time the UN official has met Suu Kyi since her release from house arrest in November soon after an election that was marred by reports of intimidation and voter fraud.
Suu Kyi said she had discussed the issue of political prisoners with the UN official.
“We will have to wait and see… but we do not want to be negative,” she said.
Burma’s junta, the State Peace and Development Council, was disbanded at the end of March following the November polls.
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Nambiar not to allow his visit “to be misused by the government to shore up its credibility on human rights in the absence of meaningful progress.”
“Should Nambiar fail to speak clearly about the need for meaningful reforms, the government will simply spin his visit to justify their abusive practices,” said HRW deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson.
http://www.dvb.no/news/un-%E2%80%98very-encouraged%E2%80%99-by-new-burmagovt/15644
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Myanmar president meets Chinese military leader
(Xinhua) Updated: 2011-05-13 15:47
NAY PYI TAW - Myanmar president U Thein Sein met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou here Friday with the two sides exchanging views on issues of common concern.
U Thein Sein expressed delight to see major progress achieved in the two countries' cooperation in various sectors, including frequent reciprocal visits at high level.
The visit of Xu soon after Myanmar's formation of the new government has actively reflected the friendly relations between the two countries and the two armed forces, he said.
He added that strengthening of Myanmar-China unity and cooperation not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but also contributes to the development and stability of the region.
On the occasion, Xu said 61 years after the two countries established diplomatic relation, bilateral ties have always maintained a healthy and stable development.
Noting that China-Myanmar friendship has strong foundation, deep cooperation and broad prospects, he stressed safeguarding of the China-Myanmar relations to conform to two countries' basic and long-term benefit.
Xu expressed that China will support unshakably the development of China-Myanmar ties, support Myanmar's development on a path chosen in line with the country's own status, safeguard Myanmar's just right on the international arena and make good neighbors, good partners and good friends together with Myanmar.
U Thein Sein spoke highly of China's development and the role played by China in the international affairs.
He attached importance to the practical cooperation with China in various sectors including on military affairs, affirming that Myanmar will abide by the "one China" policy no matter how the international situation changes.
Xu stressed the needs to maintain stability and prosperity in the China-Myanmar border areas, saying that it conforms to the fundamental benefits of the two peoples which is also the common responsibility of the two countries.
Xu said Chinese always respect Myanmar's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and understand the efforts made by the Myanmar government in maintaining national unity and stability.
Xu believed that the Myanmar government could properly cope with challenges from home and abroad and manage related issues peacefully to create a stable environment for Myanmar's economic development.
Xu briefed Thein Sein on China's socio-economic development.
The meeting was also attended by Xu's entourage and Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Li Junhua.
Xu arrived in Nay Pyi Taw Thursday on a four-day official goodwill visit to Myanmar at the invitation of General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar Defense Services. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-05/13/content_12508012.htm
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Chinese, Myanmar military leaders hold talks in Nay Pyi Taw
English.news.cn 2011-05-13 00:21:30
NAY PYI TAW, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, held talks with Commander-in- Chief of the Myanmar Defense Service General Min Aung Hlaing here Thursday shortly after Xu's arrival in Myanmar's new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.
Xu said China and Myanmar have long closely exchanged and lived on good term, having forged deep paukphaw (fraternal) friendship and stood the test.
He said Chinese President Hu Jintao highly attached importance to the deepening of the two countries' friendly and cooperative ties and have for many occasions met and discussed with Myanmar leaders, reaching common consent on consolidation of such ties.
At present, the exchange and cooperation between the two countries in various sectors continuously deepened and have made rich achievements, he said, adding that the Chinese side highly appreciated the development of the two countries' friendly and cooperative ties under the new situation. "My present visit is to further enhance the China-Myanmar traditional friendship, boost understanding, expand consent, deepen cooperation, push the friendly and cooperative ties between the two countries and the two armed forces ahead and strive for the maintenance of regional peace and stability," he said.
Xu said that for a long time the two armed forces have maintained friendly exchange and launched outstanding practical achievements in reciprocal visits at high level, training of military personnel, border personnel exchange, not only boosting respective defense and armed forces construction but also making new contribution to the all-sided development of the two countries ' relations .
Xu made a three-point proposal for the development of the two armed forces -- 1. enhancement of mutual trust strategically and consolidation of the friendly overall situation. 2. Strengthening of link and coordination and safeguarding of the two countries' common benefit and 3. Pushing forward of practical cooperation and exchange and deepening of the two armed forces' friendly ties.
During the talks, Myanmar military leader General Min Aung Hlaing welcomed Xu, who is the first foreign military leader to visit Myanmar after the formation of the new government, saying that it is bound to further the two countries' "paukphaw" friendship as well as the traditional friendship existing between the peoples of two countries and the two armed forces.
He agreed with Xu's three-point proposals, saying that the development of the two countries relations meets new opportunity under the new historical era, hoping that the existing close relations and exchange should be maintained to well safeguard the peace and stability of the two countries and the region and continue to boost the relations between the two countries and the two armed forces to a new level.
Min Aung Hlaing reiterated Myanmar's stance to stick to the One China policy and support China's stances on the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang.
The two side exchanged views on the international and regional peace and security, and informed each other's development of their armed forces.
Xu arrived here Thursday for a goodwill visit to Myanmar at the invitation of General Min Aung Hlaing.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/13/c_13872225.htm
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Myanmar eyes 'fraternal' ties with China
(Xinhua) Updated: 2011-05-13 16:46
NAY PYI TAW - Speaker of the Parliament of Representative (Lower House) of Myanmar U Shwe Mann met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou here Friday and the two sides held discussions in a friendly atmosphere.
Related readings:
Myanmar eyes 'fraternal' ties with ChinaMyanmar president meets Chinese military leader
U Shwe Mann said ever since Myanmar and China forged ties, the two countries have as always respected each other and supported each other, especially in recent years, the two countries made frequent exchanges in various sectors, continuously raising the level of cooperation and making apparent achievements.
He underlined that armed forces of the two countries have maintained good relations and have played an important role in the development of bilateral ties.
He held that furthering and pushing of Myanmar-China neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties is Myanmar's designated policy which conforms to the fundamental benefit of the two peoples.
He expressed wishes to make joint efforts with the Chinese side to consolidate the two countries' "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, further develop the cooperative and friendly ties with China and strengthen the multi-lateral cooperation in the international community, hoping that the Chinese side could continue to render support in the course of Myanmar's national development.
At the discussions, Xu said China and Myanmar, both belonging to key countries in Asia, are linked by river and mountains with mutual benefits related and close friendship between the two peoples.
Over 61 years after China and Myanmar established diplomatic ties, the two countries' relations have as always maintained a trend of healthy and stable development no matter how the international situation as well as their domestic situation changed, bringing about tangible benefit to the two peoples, he said.
At present, when facing complicated international situation, he vowed that the Chinese side would continue to uphold a foreign policy of living in good term and making partners with surrounding neighboring countries, making joint efforts with Myanmar friends to ensure the friendship could be inherited generation by generation by supporting each other and deepening cooperation.
Xu also briefed U Shwe Mann over China's socio-economic development, stressing the need for the two countries to handle well the complicated and sensitive issues related to security and stability when the two countries are amid a critical period of social development in order to better maintain peace and stability of their respective countries.
The meeting was also attended by Xu's entourage and Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Li Junhua. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-05/13/content_12508668.htm
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Myanmar parliament speaker meets Chinese military leader
16:46, May 13, 2011
Speaker of the Parliament of Representative (Lower House) of Myanmar U Shwe Mann met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou in Nay Pyi Taw Friday and the two sides held discussions in a friendly atmosphere.
U Shwe Mann said ever since Myanmar and China forged ties, the two countries have as always respected each other and supported each other, especially in recent years, the two countries made frequent exchanges in various sectors, continuously raising the level of cooperation and making apparent achievements.
He underlined that armed forces of the two countries have maintained good relations and have played an important role in the development of bilateral ties.
He held that furthering and pushing of Myanmar-China neighborly, friendly and cooperative ties is Myanmar's designated policy which conforms to the fundamental benefit of the two peoples.
He expressed wishes to make joint efforts with the Chinese side to consolidate the two countries' "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship, further develop the cooperative and friendly ties with China and strengthen the multi-lateral cooperation in the international community, hoping that the Chinese side could continue to render support in the course of Myanmar's national development.
At the discussions, Xu said China and Myanmar, both belonging to key countries in Asia, are linked by river and mountains with mutual benefits related and close friendship between the two peoples.
Over 61 years after China and Myanmar established diplomatic ties, the two countries' relations have as always maintained a trend of healthy and stable development no matter how the international situation as well as their domestic situation changed, bringing about tangible benefit to the two peoples, he said.
At present, when facing complicated international situation, he vowed that the Chinese side would continue to uphold a foreign policy of living in good term and making partners with surrounding neighboring countries, making joint efforts with Myanmar friends to ensure the friendship could be inherited generation by generation by supporting each other and deepening cooperation.
Xu also briefed U Shwe Mann over China's socio-economic development, stressing the need for the two countries to handle well the complicated and sensitive issues related to security and stability when the two countries are amid a critical period of social development in order to better maintain peace and stability of their respective countries.
The meeting was also attended by Xu's entourage and Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Li Junhua.
Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7379680.html
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China to gauge Burma’s insurgency policy
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 13 May 2011
Security along the volatile border between China and Burma is expected to take centre stage during talks this weekend with senior Chinese military officials in Naypyidaw.
The vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, Xu Caihou, arrived in the Burmese capital yesterday evening for what analysts are billing as high level defence exchanges between the neighbouring states. Burma’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, is expected to return the gesture with a visit to Beijing next month.
The key areas for discussion will be the lengthy frontier region that plays host to a number of armed ethnic groups, as well as the security of the trans-Burma Shwe dual pipeline which, when it comes online in 2013, will become a key crutch for China’s soaring energy demands.
Military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw told DVB today that China would be looking to gauge the new Burmese government’s policy towards ethnic armies along the border. China remains concerned about stability there following clashes in 2009 that forced an exodus of Burmese refugees across the border and exposed the central government’s flimsy hold on the region.
There is also the added problem of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ethnic armed group located in northern Shan state, bordering China. Aung Kyaw Zaw said that the “Wa problem is very difficult to solve” for both governments, as China attempts to reconcile its historic support for the group with its strengthening ties to the Burmese government.
China has pumped significant capital into the Burmese economy in the past two years (some $US10 billion in 2010 alone) but has quietly reasserted its fears that political unrest in the country will jeopardise investments. This is nowhere more acute that the Shwe project, with the $US30 billion pipeline set to pass close to rebel territory before it enters Yunnan province.
The Times of India reported that as part of Beijing’s moves to strengthen its sea surveillance capabilities, more ships would be deployed to the Indian Ocean to monitor security around the Bay of Bengal, where the oil and gas pipelines begin.
Several bilateral agreements over maritime security are expected to be signed during talks with Xu Caihou this weekend, who becomes the first foreign military official to visit Burma since the nominally civilian government came to power in March.
Bar a sharp rebuke from China following the 2009 border clashes, the exchange of rhetoric between the governments has generally been one of mutual respect, with both declining to comment on their respective domestic controversies. This continued yesterday with Min Aung Hlaing reiterating Burma’s support “for the One China policy” and “China’s stances on the issues of Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang”, according to Xinhua.
http://www.dvb.no/news/china-to-gauge-burma%E2%80%99s-insurgency-policy/15650
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Burma UN Special Envoy Meets Suu Kyi, NLD Executives
By HTET AUNG Thursday, May 12, 2011
The UN secretary-general's acting special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, met on Thursday with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the second time since her release from house arrest last November. He is also scheduled to meet separately with the National League for Democracy's (NLD) executive committee.
“The UN special envoy arrived around 5 pm at the house of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Ohn Kyaing, a spokesperson for the NLD as well as one of the members of the NLD executive committee.
The meeting between the UN special envoy and Suu Kyi concluded at 7 pm, local time, in Rangoon, but no information regarding the discussions was immediately available.
Asked about the key issues that the NLD would raise in the meeting with the UN special envoy, Ohn Kyaing said on Thursday morning: “I think our stand will be in line with the party's recent letter to President U Thein Sein. The issues will first be our long-standing call for a political dialog. which should be conducted between the two leaders—Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Thein Sein.
“Second, we will request the UN to help cease the armed conflicts in the frontier area and to seek a peaceful settlement between the ethnic groups and the government. Third, the human rights violations in the ethnic areas should be addressed urgently. Fourth, as a prerequisite to show real democratic reform, the new government needs to release all the political prisoners who have long been detained for their political beliefs. Fifth, due to the long-term socio-economic deterioration of the country, millions of the poor Burmese people badly need large-scale humanitarian assistance. We will urge the UN special envoy to help address the humanitarian issue.”
On Tuesday, Suu Kyi spoke with Germany-based DW-TV regarding her assessment of the current political situation in Burma. “So far I haven't seen any meaningful change,” she said. “I know there have been elections, but the government that has taken over since the elections are the same as those who were in place before the elections ... We are still waiting to see whether there has been real change.”
Asked about the UN special envoy's major focus on this trip, Aye Win, the information officer for the Rangoon-based United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said: “So far, there has been no information available for the news media, but there will be a press statement after the conclusion of the special envoy's trip.”
Nambiar will stay three days in Burma and is scheduled to meet with both the new government and opposition leaders.
On Wednesday, the first day of the special envoy's visit, Nambiar met Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and Home Minister Lt.Gen Ko Ko in Naypyidaw, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar. The newspaper briefly reported about discussions on development issues and cooperation between Burma and the UN.
On Thursday, the special envoy met with Suu Kyi at her lakeside residence in Rangoon, and is scheduled to meet separately with the members of the NLD executive committee.
On Friday, the special envoy is scheduled to meet with representatives from the eleven democratic parties, including the ethnic parties, which contested in the Nov. 7 election and secured some seats in parliament.
“We are invited to meet Mr. Vijay Nambiar at the office of the UNDP tomorrow [on Friday],” said Dr. Than Nyein, chairman of the National Democratic Force (NDF), a breakaway group of the NLD. “We haven't prepared for the discussion because we don't know the intention of the special envoy's mission this time. Therefore, we will respond to him based on his questions.”
Meanwhile, the US-based Human Right Watch said it is concerned that the new Burmese government will seek badly needed credibility from the visit by the UN special envoy.
“The UN and Nambiar should not allow his visit to be misused by the government to shore up its credibility on human rights in the absence of meaningful progress,” Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said on Wednesday.
“Should Nambiar fail to speak clearly about the need for meaningful reforms, the government will simply spin his visit to justify their abusive practices,” said Pearson.
Lalit K Jha from Washington contributed to this story. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21284
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Burma's 100 days of parliament: More 'Nays' than 'Yeas'
Fri, 2011-05-13 00:09 — editor : News Comments
Canbera, 13 May, (Asiantribune.com):
Australia's Foreign Minister, MPs, senior government officials, and foreign diplomats were today warned that Burma's political, economic, and humanitarian crises persisted despite the convening of the Parliament.
A video message from Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and statements from a leading ASEAN legislator, an economist, and a female activist drove the message home at a conference to mark 100 days since the convening of Burma's Parliament.
The event was held at the Australian National Parliament and hosted by the Australian Parliamentarians for Democracy in Burma, a cross-party group of Australian MPs. The group is co-convened by MP Laurie Ferguson, Senator Scott Ludlam, Senator Marise Payne, and MP Janelle Saffin.
In a video message to the conference, Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi highlighted the urgent need for the release of political prisoners. She said that the release of political prisoners was an essential benchmark to measure the regime's progress toward democracy. "If political prisoners are not released, then I think we can say that we shall need many, many more hundreds of days before we will see the light of democracy," Daw Suu said.
[Burma has more than 2,000 political prisoners including several imprisoned after the November 2010 elections].
Indonesian MP and ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus President Mrs Eva Kusuma Sundari said that under current conditions, there was little hope that significant change in Burma would come through parliamentary channels. "Instead, as we experience in Indonesia, change is more likely to occur because people will be fed up with misrule and mismanagement."
Mrs Sundari warned that Burma's 2008 constitution that was modeled on Indonesia's discarded dwifungsi model was designed to secure the military's control of national politics. "It took the Indonesian democracy movement almost 30 years to convince the military to withdraw from politics.
Let us do better now and not condemn Burma to yet another generation of military rule," she urged.
Sean Turnell, Associate Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that there had been no change in Burma's economic situation despite the elections and the convening of the Parliament. He pointed out that the regime published the national budget for the next two financial years before the Parliament convened. Such a move deprived the Parliament of its prerogative to debate the budget. As a result, the current year's budget, which allocates 51% to military expenditure and only 3% to healthcare, was not subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.
"Surprisingly, the regime failed to send a signal to the world that 'we are open for business' by promoting reforms designed to give a semblance of normalcy and make foreign investment more attractive," said Mr Turnell. He pointed out that Burma's chronic economic woes would continue because of the regime’s irresponsible approach to the management of the economy.
Ms. K'Nyaw Paw, a female activist from Burma's Karen State, reminded the conference that despite the elections and the convening of the Parliament, Burma’s military regime continued to commit widespread and systematic abuses against the civilian population. "The regime has forced over 1,200 villagers in Eastern Burma to work as porters for the military," she said, "Rape as a weapon of war continues with impunity in ethnic areas." She urged Australia to increase its overall aid to Burma, and to channel it to vulnerable populations in Eastern Burma's conflict zones by financing cross-border relief programs.
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/05/12/burmas-100-days-parliament-more-nays-yeas
Thursday, May 12, 2011
AUNG SAN SUU KYI SPEECH TO PROVIDE POLITICAL PRISONERS FAMILIES-10-MAY-2011
COPY FROM http://luthuorthan.blogspot.com/
News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 11 May, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 11 May, 2011
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Sensitive News Barred: Rangoon Minister
NLD to Advise Farmers and Workers
Despite Improvements, Child Soldier Recruitment Continues
Jailed activists’ children get school aid
Top UN official visits Myanmar
Peace, political amnesty to be discussed with UN special envoy
NUP will try to amend the Constitution in next Parliament session
Will ASEAN give chair to Burma despite rights record?
Burma party to ‘robust’ bear trade
ASEAN in Quandary over Burma's Request to Head Bloc
Oil drilling to begin in Burma’s eco-sensitive Hukaung Valley
Civil Servants Killed in Northern Shan State
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Sensitive News Barred: Rangoon Minister
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, May 11, 2011
RANGOON—The government of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will not allow media coverage which is sensitive to national security or critical of the state, said a senior official of the Rangoon regional administration on Tuesday.
“Regarding freedom of press—journalists can write stories if they are not sensitive to the state. If media coverage endangers the state or our citizens’ security, nobody can cover it,” said Nyan Tun Oo, a minister of the Rangoon regional administration, speaking to reporters during a press conference at the city’s parliament building.
The press conference was the first held by the Rangoon administration since the USDP regime was sworn in on March 30.
Nyan Tun Oo (left) addresses reporters in Rangoon on May 10. (IRRAWADDY)
When the editor of Snap Shot Journal, Myat Khe, questioned the minister, he responded by saying that he would stop the press conference immediately if journalists cross-examined him or asked “colored” questions.
“I want to remind you that you can only write the news if it is not sensitive to the state,” he repeated.
Commenting on how the current regime plans to control corruption, Nyan Tun Oo, the co-host of the press conference, said that the government could not take action against corruption as it would result in “a shortage of experienced government staffers.”
Addressing reporters, he said, “We cannot take action at the moment on corruption issues. If we did, who would replace all those corrupt officials?”
Burma has been listed as one of the most corrupt countries in the world for decades. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Index 2010, Burma is the second most corrupt nation after Somalia out of 178 countries.
Even though President Thein Sein and other high-level ministers in Naypyidaw are yet to hold a press conference, local journalists said they had expected to be briefed by Rangoon's chief minister ex Lt-Gen Myint Swe at the press conference on Tuesday.
However, a minister of Rangoon's regional administration, Nyan Tun Oo, and another administrative officer, Khin Maung Tun, hosted the press conference.
“We thought Chief Minister U Myint Swe would hold the press conference. Then U Nyan Tun Oo came out at the event,” said an editor with a Rangoon journal who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Journalists attending the press conference said that Nyan Tun Oo briefed reporters on behalf of Rangoon’s administration on municipal issues such as the better distribution of electricity, and the selection of ward officials.
“Responding to a news report that local businessmen paid bribes to become ward heads, he said that the administration of Rangoon will select only respectable persons,” said a journalist who attended the press conference. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21280
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NLD to Advise Farmers and Workers
By SAI ZOM HSENG Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is offering consultations, advice, training and other types of support to farmers, workers and civil society groups in order to promote their rights and expand the NLD's civil society network.
Win Htein, one of the leaders of the NLD, said that Suu Kyi, after she was released from house arrest in Nov. 2010, advised party members to provide training and to promote and protect the rights of farmers and workers. She wants the effort to be run by associations and networks which are not influenced by politics, he added.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Win Htein said, “It is necessary to have a committee and associations which will support the farmers and workers. We will also consult with other societies to form such kinds of associations and networks.”
A farmer who has attempted to form a local farmers association, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that farmers' associations are necessary in Burma and all of the farmers have to try to form associations and expand the network.
“We are glad that the NLD supports our forming associations and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi thought deeply for us and for our wishes,” a farmer said.
Phyu Phyu Thin, a member of the Social Assistance Committee of the NLD, said that there is an NLD committee which assists farmers by educating them about their rights and providing agricultural training.
“In my point of view, this is a very good and useful program for the farmers, and I believe that they can realize their rights. The farmers are enjoying the training, they had patient and active discussions with the trainers,” Phyu Phyu Thin said.
The farmers’ network was formed in March 2011 at the NLD headquarters and had 33 members from 19 townships at the time of formation. Since that time, the party has been providing training to farmers, which is currently ongoing.
The NLD is also supporting the formation of a workers association. On May 1, the party issued a statement which urged the International Labor Organization to keep pressuring the new government to allow a workers’ union which guarantees the rights of the workers.
In addition, the NLD is currently working on campaigns to release political prisoners and to protect the environment.
The NLD was disbanded on May 6, 2010 because of its refusal to register for the Nov. 7, 2010 election. The party’s Central Executive Committee made the decision to protest the exclusion of its leader and the dissolution of the party was announced on September 14, 2010. However, the party still remains active.
Some political observers said that the NLD has turned to social activities rather than political activities, and party spokesperson Ohn Kyaing told The Irrawaddy recently that there has been no threats from authorities regarding the party’s social activities. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21277
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Despite Improvements, Child Soldier Recruitment Continues
By KO HTWE Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Burmese military is still recruiting underage children despite its policy against doing so, claim victims and activists.
Aye Myint, a lawyer and workers' rights activist in Pegu, told The Irrawaddy that the recruitment of children into the army is worse than last year.
“I received fifteen complaints from Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Mandalay and Pegu divisions. Three others are now collecting documents. Most of the persons that complained to the International Labor Organization (ILO) will be able to return to their home sooner or later,” said Aye Myint.
In January, 15-year-old Aung Ko and 12-year-old Thein Min Htike went missing on the way from Mawlamyinegyunn Township in the Irrawaddy Region to Rangoon while going to visit relatives, according to a family member.
The boys' mother, San Aye, said that three months later her sons informed the family that they had been recruited into the army and were receiving basic military training at Training Battalion No. 9 in Thaton Township, Mon State.
“One of my children is so young that he is not novitiate yet. I don’t wish to let them be conscripted into the army. I don’t want to live without them. My husband is now acting crazy and every day I have to shed tears,” said San Aye. “The children rang us and said they are okay and don’t want to come back, but it seems like someone is beside them.”
Pho Phyu, a legal advocate, said that he received three cases of child recruitment recently from the Irrawaddy region.
“The recruitment is still ongoing. We have some difficulties in this case. Although we can contact the child, the army transfers the child to another place and then loses the child. So we contact ILO,” said Pho Phyu.
Burmese child soldiers have been arrested and imprisoned as punishment for deserting when they tried to run away from their army bases.
The Burmese regime formed a committee to investigate child soldier issues in 2004 and it has since denied using child soldiers in the army.
According to the ILO's data, there were 261 underage recruitment complaints and 80 young men discharged or released as a result of the complaints from the beginning of 2010 until now. Of the remaining complaints, approximately 110 are in process, which means that the military is investigating, and 80 are being assessed by the ILO.
Steve Marshall, the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, said that when the issue of child soldier recruitment was raised back in 2007, the subject was very sensitive, but since that time the military response has been quite positive and there has been considerable improvements over the last few years.
“Every complaint we submit is received and acted on relatively efficiently, and if it is found that a person is under 18 then he is most definitely discharged and the perpetrator prosecuted,” said Marshall.
“It is important that we do not simply respond to complaints, that we are able to become more proactive working together to ensure the correct administrative policies are in place to stop the practice, and we look forward to working with the government to achieve that ideal position,” he added.
Rangoon-based 7 Day News journal, quoting a UNICEF official, reported that the number of underage soldiers recruited is decreasing and 402 child soldiers have been sent home since 2004.
“Children themselves come to the army to join. All of the child soldiers have no document such as identity and birth certificate. And its hard to differentiate who are 17-years old or 18-years old because of the same body structure. Some children want to join the army because they envy the officers they have seen,” Ramesh Shrestha, a UNICEF Representative in Burma, told the 7Day News journal. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21281
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Jailed activists’ children get school aid
By NAW NOREEN
Education for the children of more than 100 political prisoners in Burma yesterday received a small boost yesterday after the National League for Democracy (NLD) made its tenth schooling donation.
Speaking at an event at the NLD’s Rangoon headquarters yesterday, Aung San Suu Kyi said that the nearly 2,100 political prisoners in Burma were jailed “for their work in making the country freer for its 60 million people”, according to NLD spokesperson Ohn Khaing.
Suu Kyi reportedly added that “every citizen should have a right to self-determination and to take part in shaping the country the way they want it to be”.
Around 40,000 kyat ($US50) was given to the children of 123 activists, MPs, lawyers and doctors who languish in prisons across the country. The absence of an earning parent has meant children of political prisoners often struggle to pay for schooling.
A new government budget announced in March allocates less than one percent of annual spending to the education sector, and 1.3 percent on healthcare. Military spending meanwhile accounts for nearly a quarter of the budget.
Despite once boasting a strong education sector, Burma’s now lags behind most regional countries. Education resources are scarce, although various Thailand-based NGOs provide material to schools inside the country.
The Rangoon-based Blood Group, led by NLD member Nyi Nyi, is due to open a free education centre on 18 June for orphaned and homeless children, with a view to expanding the programme.
Around 100 children have so far signed up to courses that teach manual work, literature and citizenship, amongst others.
http://www.dvb.no/news/jailed-activists%E2%80%99-children-get-school-aid/15614
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May 11, 2011
Top UN official visits Myanmar
YANGON - A TOP aide to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has arrived in Myanmar on an official visit to meet members of the country's newly elected government and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The three-day visit by Vijay Nambiar is the first by a top UN diplomat since a nominally civilian government took over from the ruling junta in March.
Officials said Mr Nambiar was scheduled to meet high-ranking government officials on Wednesday in the remote capital of Naypyitaw.
He was expected to meet Suu Kyi on Thursday in Yangon. The Nobel laureate was released from house arrest after the elections, which her party boycotted.
Critics say Myanmar's election was a charade to ensure continued military domination. -- AP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_667331.html
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Peace, political amnesty to be discussed with UN special envoy
Tuesday, 10 May 2011 21:38 Tun Tun
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) said on Tuesday that peace and political amnesty are top priorities to be discussed with the UN special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar during his visit to Rangoon this week.
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and UN special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, at Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon in 2010. Nambiar will meet with Burmese opposition groups and others this week in Rangoon and Naypyitaw. Photo: Mizzima
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and UN special envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar, at Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon in 2010. Nambiar will meet with Burmese opposition groups and others this week in Rangoon and Naypyitaw. Photo: Mizzima
A handful of opposition political parties, including the SNDP, have been invited to meet with Nambiar at the UN office in Rangoon on Friday. During his visit, he is also likely to meet with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
‘Peace is the most important topic on our agenda. No. 2 is political amnesty’, Saw Than Myint, the party’s treasurer and diplomatic official, told Mizzima. ‘Presently, our country is not peaceful. So, peace is high in our agenda. We need to establish peace for the sake of the people’.
A central executive committee member and an MP from each of the invited parties will attend the meeting. Most of the parties are those that recently asked the European Union to renew Burma’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status, according to Saw Than Myint.
Agence France-Presse reported that Burma’s Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin would meet with Nambiar in Naypyitaw on Wednesday.
The National League for Democracy said that if Nambiar meets with the NLD, their leaders will again tell him to urge the government to grant an amnesty to all political prisoners.
‘We will ask him to urge the government to immediately release all political prisoners without exception. And we want the UN to help in establishing human rights in Burma. If so, we will be able to achieve political reconciliation’, said Ohn Kyaing, an NLD spokesman.
He added, however, that since the new government has not made any fundamental changes, the NLD would call on him to put the government under more pressure.
‘Political reconciliation will improve Burma’s economy. A healthy economy can resolve the people’s problems’, Ohn Kyaing said.
Nambiar is a veteran Indian diplomat who the UN recently appoint as special envoy to Burma, replacing Ibrahim Gambari. The Thai-based Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) said that the UN special envoy always urges the government to grant political amnesty and to implement an all-inclusive political dialogue.
This time it may offer something new. ‘The UN may offer cooperation in Burma’s developmental processes’, said FDB general secretary Dr. Naing Aung.
He said that UN officials’ interactions with the Burmese regime have not borne fruit and it should cooperate more with political groups in Burma.
‘Both the government and the opposition have demands. So, the UN should enthusiastically help in conducting negotiations between the two sides. In the past, the UN’s efforts have not fulfilled people’s hopes. To achieve effectiveness, it needs to talk with the main political groups frequently’, Naing Aung told Mizzima.
NLD spokesperson Ohn Kyaing noted: ‘The former UN special envoys also urged the Burmese government to grant political amnesty. Mr. Nambiar has visited Burma once, too. But, nothing was improved’.
Nambiar made his first visit to Burma in November 2010 and met with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD leaders and ethnic leaders from the Committee Representing the People's Parliament during a two-day visit. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5247-peace-political-amnesty-to-be-discussed-with-un-special-envoy.html
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NUP will try to amend the Constitution in next Parliament session
Wednesday, 11 May 2011 12:21 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – While providing no specific details about its proposals, the National Unity Party (NUP) has said it will introduce legislation to amend the 2008 Constitution through Parliament during the next session.
More than 140 central committee members from across the country met this week and agreed on the move. The next session of the Parliament may be held in early 2012, according to some observers. Presently, the party’s legal aid committee is studying what constitutional changes might be proposed.
During the party meeting, members discussed goals, policies, financial issues and public relations.
The NUP now has about 700,000 members, said party spokesman Han Shwe The party decided it will not organize a business to raise funds, as permitted under election laws, but instead it will collect 100 kyat (1 US $ 0.13 cents) from each party member and accept donations from supporters in Burma. Political parties are barred from accepting donations from outside Burma.
The NUP won 64 parliamentary seats in the recent election, the second highest number of parliamentary seats by a single party. The party’s members of Parliament did not submit any proposals or raise any objections in the first Parliament session, which met from February to March.
The NUP is the official successor of the former Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) led by dictator Ne Win, who ruled the country from 1962 to 1988. After the 1988 pro-democracy movement, the BSPP was removed from power. Following leadership changes, it was renamed the National Unity Party.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/election-2010-/5249-nup-will-try-to-amend-the-constitution-in-next-parliament-session.html
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Will ASEAN give chair to Burma despite rights record?
Wed, 2011-05-11 00:38 — editor
News Analysis
By - Zin Linn
In view of many international observers, the Association of South-East Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) negligence to take firm position on Burma (Myanmar) has become its Achilles’ heel. As usual, the association’s statement proves member-countries’ lack of collective will to take a strong position against Burma. Changing itself into a semi-civilian regime through vote-rigging, Burma makes a mockery of the ASEAN Charter, which states that the region must be more responsive to human rights issues.
The Charter was intended to transform ASEAN into an institution similar to the European Union and to entrust members with strengthening democracy, enhancing good governance and the rule of law, and protecting human rights and fundamental freedom.
A communiqué issued at the end of the two-day ASEAN leaders' summit in Jakarta said: "We considered the proposal of Myanmar (Burma) that it would host the ASEAN summits in 2014, in view of its firm commitment to the principles of ASEAN."
It also emphasized that ASEAN leaders supported the "steady progress and political developments in Myanmar" after it held general elections and formed a new government in March, calling the ballot "successful." But, ASEAN leaders overlook the true story about the 7-November election which unfairly allowed the junta-backed party to rig the votes.
The election, Burma's first in 20 years, was severely criticized by the oppositions and the Western Democracies, as undemocratic polls for not allowing watchdogs and media.
Human Rights Watch pointed out in its 6th May statement that Burma has failed to address concerns repeatedly raised by ASEAN leaders in past summits.
“Rewarding Burma with ASEAN’s chairmanship after it staged sham elections and still holds 2,000 political prisoners would be an embarrassment for the region,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“ASEAN leaders need to decide if they will let Burma demote ASEAN to the laughingstock of intergovernmental forums.”
The Asian Network For Free Elections (ANFREL) released a statement dated 9 November calling attention to ballot counting procedures that made by the Union Election Commission (UEC). It said the counting process was not made transparent to the public and the media beginning with the first advance voting period.
Moreover, ethnic nationalities in Burma that fight for self-determination were prevented from participating in the election. More than 3,000 villages in ethnic nationality areas have also been excluded from the electoral exercise because of continuing armed conflict.
Thus, calling the ballot "successful" means ASEAN supports an undemocratic vote-rigging election in Myanmar (Burma).
Southeast Asian leaders have no objection to Burma or Myanmar's request to chair the 10-member ASEAN bloc in 2014, as long as it continues making progress towards democracy, Indonesia's President said on Sunday after the group's latest summit.
"ASEAN leaders do not object in principle," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at his closing news conference. "But Myanmar, which is a focus of world attention, is expected to continue progress on democracy so when it becomes chair it does not generate negative views."
However, the Thein Sein government has been reinforcing its troops in several areas where ethnic armed groups that did not follow the border guard force (BGF) plan are based. Armed reinforcements have been reported in Karen State and Shan State in eastern Burma since early this year.
Sporadic armed clashes has been going on recently between the junta’s troops and armed ethnic groups such as the Karen National Union (KNU), the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Brigade 5, the Shan State Army–North (SSA-North) and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South).
Hence, Burma has been going on with war against the ethnic minorities who are defending their basic civil rights including self-determination. If ASEAN leaders consider offering the chair to Burma in 2014, they should pressure Thein Sein government to stop the unjust war on the ethnic people. They ought to push Burma to end the civil war.
In this ongoing civil war, Burmese soldiers have been committing lots of crimes – lootings, rapes, burnt down villages, destroying the crops, killing innocent ethnic villagers, forced-labor and forced conscription.
Moreover, Thein Sein government still detains over 2,000 political prisoners including important ethnic leaders. To take the ASEAN chair, Burma must not keep political prisoners who really are committing no crime but expose their political beliefs.
In addition, Thein Sein government must allow ‘Freedom of Expression’ and ‘Free Press’. Burma is one of the most autocratic and covered up countries in the world, due to both its restrictive press laws and its practice of punishing journalists. In recent elections, the Burmese junta did not allow press freedom for both Burmese and international news media.
It was a significant hindrance to Burma becoming a free society. So, the analysts state that in the absence of media freedom Burma (Myanmar) should not act as ASEAN chair since there will not be accountability and transparency.
Reporters Without Borders released in its annual press freedom report in October 2010, ranking Burma 174th out of 178 countries. On October 18, Burma announced that foreign journalists would not be granted access to Burma to cover the news on elections.
The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) also calls on ASEAN leaders attending the 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia on 7-8 May 2011 to reject the application by Myanmar (Burma) to chair ASEAN in 2014 unless real democratic and human rights reforms are made by the Myanmar government.
The AIPMC said in its statement that oppression in Myanmar makes up a black stain on the credibility of ASEAN. It will be an obstacle to efforts by ASEAN to build an ASEAN Community by 2015.
Looking at the fact on the ground in Burma, there is more belligerences in these days, more military attacks in the ethnic minority areas, more forced labors, more child soldiers, more political prisoners, more refugees, more restrictions toward media, more control on Internet users and civil societies.
So, ASEAN has to be very vigilant and to put more pressure on Burma until the essential benchmarks for chairmanship are fulfilled before 2014.
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/05/10/will-asean-give-chair-burma-despite-rights-record
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Burma party to ‘robust’ bear trade
By DVB
Published: 11 May 2011
The illegal trade in bear parts is continuing “unabated” across Asia, according to a report by wildlife monitoring group TRAFFIC that accuses Burma of indulging in the widespread sale of bear products.
Poaching of the endangered animal is driven largely by the demand for its bile which is used in traditional medicine and folk remedies, according to the report, ‘Pills, Powders, Vials & Flakes: The bear bile trade in Asia’. In Burma, along with China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Malaysia, these products were observed in half of all outlets surveyed.
While domestic trade of bear bile is legal in mainland China and Japan, it is illegal in Cambodia, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. All cross-border products found in Burma were sourced from neighbouring Laos, despite a strict ban on international trade.
According to Kaitlyn-Elizabeth Foley, lead author of the report and senior programme officer of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, both the Asiatic Black Bear and the Sun Bear are threatened by the trade. Both species are found in the region, and are native to Burma.
“The study makes a clear case for authorities to shut down businesses selling illegal bear products and prosecute individuals caught selling, buying, transporting or keeping bears illegally,” said Foley.
Under Burmese law, the hunting and sale of protected animals such as the two bear species is punishable by up to seven years imprisonment. But an investigation by the group of 42 stalls in the Shan state towns of Mong La and Tachilek found that 30 sold bear gall bladder. “All were openly displayed and sold in whole form with price dependent on weight,” it said. Prices for a single gall bladder in Burma hovered around $US50, while in Hong Kong one could reach $US2000.
The report continued that the high turnover in trade meant that sourcing bear products from wild, and not farmed, species “is almost a certainty”.
“It is likely therefore, that the trade of bear products in Myanmar [Burma] puts an unsustainable pressure on wild populations both in Myanmar and surrounding countries.”
Burma, the report added, “plays a critical role as a producer of bear bile products and a transit for illegal trade through wildlife trade hubs such as Mong La and Tachilek.
“It is also a concern that foreigners may continue to establish bear farms in Myanmar, especially in light of increasing pressure on China and Vietnam to stop bear farming.”
http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-party-to-%E2%80%98robust%E2%80%99-bear-trade/15606
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ASEAN in Quandary over Burma's Request to Head Bloc
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, May 11, 2011 (IPS) - The new Burmese government’s request to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2014 has given its neighbours a political headache they have decided to put off dealing with till later this year.
But the dilemma that the 10-member regional bloc faces with Burma, or Myanmar as it is also known, is not the same one that had dogged it in the past, when the country’s oppressive record was seen as undermining ASEAN's international credibility.
This time it is Burma’s slow and controlled transition towards democracy that puts ASEAN in a quandary.
The final statement read by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the end of the 18th ASEAN summit held May 7-8 in Jakarta reflected the new political realities Burma’s neighbours are grappling with. "We considered the proposal of Myanmar to host the ASEAN summit in 2014, in view of its firm commitment to the principles of ASEAN," the statement said.
"ASEAN leaders do not object in principle to the proposal," Yudhoyono added during the closing press conference in the Indonesian capital. "But Myanmar, which is the focus of world attention, is expected to continue progress on democracy so when it becomes chair it does not generate negative views."
Holding out such a diplomatic carrot exposes ASEAN, which Burma joined in 1997, as being more lenient towards member countries such as Vietnam, Laos and Brunei. The latter have chaired ASEAN before, despite lacking the fledgling plural political culture taking shape in Burma following its first general election in two decades last November, ending nearly 50 years of military rule.
That November poll, despite its flaws, paved the way for a small parliamentary opposition to emerge, complemented by the political freedom granted to pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after seven years under house arrest. The Nobel Peace laureate has resumed her role as a widely respected government critic.
"What differentiates Burma from other countries in ASEAN is not a lack of representative institutions," said Thant Myint-U, a Burmese historian and author of ‘The River of Lost Footsteps", an account of the country’s transformation during British colonialism.
"However flawed the elections, Burma now at least has a semi-elected legislature that includes opposition parties, and opposition figures including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speak openly to the international media," Thant said.
"This is far from ideal, but it’s certainly no worse, and arguably much better, than several other ASEAN countries," he explained to IPS. "What differentiates Burma are the continued detention of large number of political prisoners, something that will hopefully change soon; Western sanctions; its extreme poverty; and perhaps most importantly, the unfinished nature of its six decade-long armed conflicts."
Other Burma watchers also draw attention to the changing political landscape in the country, that hints at a shift away from the dominant grip of the military, headed since the early 1990s by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and military strongman Ne Win before him.
"There is a diffusion of state power, unlike before, where power was in the hands of one man, Than Shwe and before him Ne Win," asserts Richard Horsey, a former United Nations official who served in the country.
"Four power blocs are emerging—to balance each other and to compete with each other. They are the military, executive, parliament and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (the political arm of the former junta which triumphed at the polls)," Horsey, the author of a book on forced labour in Burma, told IPS. "Before the Nov. 7 polls, people had to impress Than Shwe to get things approved. But not any more."
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, has similarly argued for countries to move away from punishing Burma, calling for a policy that "provides much greater support for Myanmar’s people."
"It would be a mistake to conclude that nothing has changed," the Crisis Group noted in a March report, "Myanmar’s Post-Election Landscape". "These changes are unlikely to translate into dramatic reforms in the short term, but they provide a new governance context, improving the prospects for incremental reform."
By contrast, Vietnam and Laos, which have been under the iron grip of communist-ruled governments since the mid-1970s, and Brunei, an absolute monarchy, appear far from opening up to political change. Landlocked Laos had a tightly controlled election for its national assembly on the eve of ASEAN’s 18th summit, where there was no hint of an opposition. The same is expected to follow on May 22 for Vietnam’s national assembly election, say analysts.
Of ASEAN’s other members—Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand—only Indonesia and the Philippines win accolades for having an increasingly open democratic culture. While Cambodia and Singapore are largely one-party, authoritarian states, Thailand’s democracy has been hampered by military interference.
Consequently even trenchant critics of Burma, like Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based global rights lobby, note that the country’s new government has put ASEAN in a spot by making a push to host the 2014 ASEAN summit in its quest for international legitimacy.
"Burma’s new argument is that it is no worse than Vietnam, Laos, Brunei and arguably even Cambodia," says Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director. "The government will say they should not be singled out; don’t make us the whipping boy.
"It was easier for ASEAN when things used to be black and white, between the military and Suu Kyi. But now things have faded to grey, and Burma will try to use this ‘grey’ strategy," he told IPS. "But for us, nothing has changed in Burma." (END) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55578
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Oil drilling to begin in Burma’s eco-sensitive Hukaung Valley
Tuesday, 10 May 2011 17:24 Thomas Maung Shwe
(News Analysis) – Endangered tigers and local villagers are threatened by an oil-drilling venture due to start in a remote area of Burma’s northern Kachin State.
The Hukaung valley is home to rare tigers and other endangered species including leopards, Himalayan bears and elephants. Photo: Wildlife Conservation Society
The Hukaung valley is home to rare tigers and other endangered species including leopards, Himalayan bears and elephants. Photo: Wildlife Conservation Society
A Singapore-based joint venture firm Silver Wave Exploration & Production announced last week that it will soon begin drilling for oil on land that includes the ecologically sensitive Hukaung Valley in Kachin state.
Environmentalists and opposition activists worry Silver Wave’s exploitation of the 19,066-sq km block of land could wipe out endangered animals and kick people off their land.
The Hukaung valley, also spelt Hukawang, is home to rare tigers and other endangered species including leopards, Himalayan bears and elephants.
Activists have expressed concern that local villagers and farmers will be driven off their land and made homeless by Silver Wave’s operations.
In 2001, the Burmese military regime in collaboration with the American NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) established the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve. Local residents were given no opportunity for input and many critics from Burma’s democratic opposition worried that the reserve was a bogus ploy by the military regime to get foreign funds. The critics also charged that a key backer of the project WCS’s former director of science and exploration, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, was woefully naïve for working with the Burmese regime and praising the generals.
Tigers in the wild are said to number a mere 3,000 worldwide, according to WCS.
In 2004, the reserve’s total area expanded to include the entire valley of 21,890 square kilometers, creating what was heralded as the largest tiger reserve in the world. Since the reserve’s expansion, the Burmese regime has encouraged logging, gold mining, large scale farms and the building of factories inside what is supposed to be a tiger and nature reserve.
According to a report in the Business Times of Singapore, Silver Wave Exploration & Production was formed recently as a joint venture between Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd, another Singaporean firm, BFI Holding Pte Ltd, and two firms from Japan, Star Field Corporation and Star Holding Corporation.
A press release issued by BFI Holdings on April 18 stated that Silver Wave Exploration’s drilling programme in the Hukaung valley will begin this year and have a budget of US$ 100 million. The press release also indicated that Silver Wave exploration ‘has acquired all licence rights for exploration and production oil-prospecting acquisitions at Block B (B 2)’ which Silver Wave energy had previously received from state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).
The BFI press release said that Block B2 is located in the Hukaung Valley, although several previous MOGE reports including a detailed map made for an Asia Development Bank conference in 2008 placed B2 further south in an area of Northern Sagain Division called Zebyutaung-Nandaw (also spelt Zeebyutaung) in Pinlebu Township. The 2008 MOGE report listed the Hukaung block as PSC-A. The reason for the discrepancy remains unclear.
The red star marks the area of the Hukaung Valley wildlife reserve.
The red star marks the area of the Hukaung Valley wildlife reserve.
Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd while based in Singapore is owned by Burmese businessman Min Min Aung (also known as Minn Minn Oung) and is part of his Silver Wave Trading group, a conglomerate known for having close ties to Burma’s generals.
Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd has been active in both offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration in Burma since at least 2006. Min Min Aung previously joined forces with government officials from the Russian republic of Kalmykia to form Silver Wave Sputnik Petroleum Pte incorporated in Singapore.
Burmese state media reported in March 2007 that Silver Wave Sputnik and Silver Wave Energy signed an agreement with state-owned MOGE to explore for oil in the Hukaung Valley. Boris Chedyrov, the Kalmykia Republic’s Minister for Energy, attended a March 2007 ceremony with Min Min Aung and Burmese government officials.
In September 2008, The New Light of Myanmar reported that MOGE had signed a deal with Russian firm Nobel Oil of the Russian Federation to allow for oil and gas exploration in the Hukaung and U-ru regions. It appears that Nobel Oil let their licenses for these areas expire without renewing them.
Junta land grab in Hukaung Valley makes thousands homeless
According to a report produced by the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) in August of last year, since 2006 the Yuzana Corporation has with the support of central government authorities expropriated more than 809 square km (200,000 acres) of land in the Hukaung valley from local Kachin villagers.
KDNG reports that hundreds of families have been displaced by Yuzana’s land acquisition. As with many other such state approved land grabs in Burma, the displaced families were not adequately compensated and many were forced to say they were moved ‘willingly’.
Yuzana has planted large plantations of cassava root and sugar cane on the contested land. Instead of hiring local people for the massive plantation farms, Yuzana has imported workers belonging to the Burman majority from the south of the country.
Reports from the area indicate that the Yuzana’s operations have created intense resentment among the remaining Kachin residents of the Hukaung Valley. The Burmese military is reportedly giving the Yuzana employees military training to deal with unhappy local residents. Yuzana is headed by Htay Myint, a real estate tycoon said to be close to Burma’s generals. http://www.mizzima.com/edop/analysis/5246-oil-drilling-to-begin-in-burmas-eco-sensitive-hukaung-valley.html
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Civil Servants Killed in Northern Shan State
By THAN HTIKE OO Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Two civil servants from Burma's Ministry of Education and their spouses were killed in April while working in the area where ongoing conflicts between the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) and Burmese government troops are taking place, according to local residents.
A resident of Hsipaw told The Irrawaddy that 4 persons were killed in April in Kun Khike Village in Hsipaw Township, Shan State.
"Four people in total—a female teacher and her husband, and also a school sentry and his wife— got killed in Kon Khike village,” he said, adding that since the killings people in the village have been afraid to go out at night.
Saengjuen Sarawin, an editor at the Shan Herald News Agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said that similar killings of teachers and local villagers have occurred in Tong Yan Township.
The SSA-North officially denied on April 23 that the killings concerned their troops. The SSA-North has reportedly formed an investigative body to explore the real causes of the deaths.
According to Saengjuen Sarawin, 9 local people, including the school teacher, were killed in Hsipaw and Tong Yan townships.
It is not known who is responsible for the murders. Local people said the deaths could have been orchestrated by either the SSA-North or the government troops.
"If you have personal conflict with someone, and you charge him or her of being an informer or something like that, the accused will have consequence. People are always becoming scapegoats in war," a Hsipaw resident said.
The current armed conflict broke out between the SSA-North and government troops in early February.
The fighting then spread out into Mong Hsu, Mong Yawn, Tangyan, Kyethi, and Lashio, which are under control of Shan State Army (North), including Nansang, Mongmit, and Hsipaw.
The relationship between the SSA-North and the government has been strained since the regime began pressing the ethnic ceasefire groups to accept its Border Guard Force plan in April 2009. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21275
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