http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7834075.stm
The migrants tell of secretive, brutal treatment by Thai security services
A shocking story is unfolding in Thailand. Migrants and refugees who turn up on its shores have testified that they are being sent back to sea in boats without engines, their hands tied, left to their fate.
Hundreds are thought to have suffered this treatment - among them many Rohingya people of western Burma - and many have died. The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok has been investigating what has been happening.
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The 46 Rohingyas who arrived by boat at Phrathong Island on Friday morning may be lucky.
Like the hundreds of other asylum-seekers from this Burmese Muslim minority who have arrived on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast, they have been handed over to the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), a military authority set up under the Cold War and still given sweeping powers to protect national security.
That means they disappear into a black hole. No visits from lawyers or refugee advocates. The military can do what it likes with them.
But after the spotlight now being shone onto the treatment of previous Rohingya groups, this one may be handled more leniently.
Overboard
Harsh treatment of asylum-seekers is nothing new in Thailand. But the allegations made by Rohingyas who have drifted hundreds of kilometres to the Andaman Islands and Indonesia's Aceh province are shocking.
We were put on a desolate island for eight days, beaten [and then] put in a flat and open-bodied boat with no engine
Mohammed, survivor
Survivor's ordeal
According to a local civic group, the Arakan Project, whose staff have done extensive interviews with some of the survivors, they were detained by the Thai security forces in late November and December last year as they arrived by boat.
Instead of being handed over to the police or immigration for processing as illegal immigrants, they were instead taken by military units to an island called Koh Sai Daeng. They were detained there for several days, sleeping out in the open, their hands tied at night.
On 18 December one group of just over 400 was put on a navy boat, which was towing a barge behind it, says Chris Lewa from the Arakan Project.
Their hands were tied. Once out at sea they were ordered to move onto the barge at gunpoint. They refused. The Thai troops then tied the feet of four of them and threw them overboard.
The group then moved onto the barge, and the rope was cut, leaving them with food and water for two days.
They drifted for more than 10. According to the testimony she has obtained, Ms Lewa says they sighted land - the Andaman Islands - on around the 12th day.
Fearful that the current would sweep their barge away, many of the exhausted and dehydrated Rohingyas leapt into the sea to try to make it to land.
Fewer than 100 were found on board by the Indian coastguard, although an unknown number was also picked up from the sea or on beaches.
Briefer telephone interviews with survivors by the BBC have confirmed this account. Survivors who reached Aceh have told the local media the same thing.
In all, more than 800 Rohingyas were expelled in this way in December. Hundreds may have died.
Denial
The local commander of ISOC in Ranong, Col Manas Khongpan, has denied these allegations. He told the BBC that illegal immigrants are never held by his troops.
Some of the lucky survivors were picked up by the Indian coastguard
But that contradicts comments the BBC has been given by other military and police officials, who say all Rohingya boat-people are now being handled by ISOC.
Some of those officials, who did not want to be named, confirmed that Rohingyas had indeed been set adrift at sea, with little food and water.
They explained that Rohingyas are seen as a greater security threat than the tens of thousands of other illegal migrants, because they are Muslim, because they tend to arrive in large numbers at one time, and because they are almost exclusively men.
Immigration officials told us there is no evidence to support the allegation made by some in the military that Rohingyas have gone to Thailand's deep south to join the Islamic insurgency there.
The officials have told us that while most of the Rohingya want to go to Malaysia - where there is already a community 20,000 strong and the prospect of well-paid jobs - increasing numbers are staying in Thailand. The official figure last year was 4,886, and the unofficial figure may be much higher.
Military's power
The Thai government has now issued a statement saying it is investigating all the facts surrounding these allegations.
It has promised to re-assess the situation of all illegal immigrants in Thailand, numbering perhaps three or four million, most of them from Burma, and to treat them in accordance with humanitarian principles.
Whether it can truly hold the military to account though is open to doubt. In many areas of Thailand the army operates with little civilian oversight. It has huge secret budgets, and extensive business interests.
The current Democrat-led coalition was stitched together last month thanks to the intervention of the powerful army commander General Anupong Paochinda - he may well resist any calls for his men to be brought to justice over these allegations, as his predecessors have.
But it is also worth remembering that under the most recent constitution the most senior commander of ISOC is, in fact, the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
He has made the rule of law one of the core principles of his administration. Any crimes committed by ISOC personnel, whether against Thais or illegal migrants, will ultimately lie at his door.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thailand's deadly treatment of migrants
Singapore in Human Rights Watch's Report 2009
http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1763-singapore-in-human-rights-watchs-report-2009
Friday, 16 January 2009
Human Rights Watch
The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.
Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the governments demonstrating the clearest vision on international rights protections, sadly, are those seeking to undermine enforcement. In their foreign policies and in international fora, they invoke sovereignty, non-interference, and Southern solidarity to curb criticism of their human rights abuses and those of their allies and friends. Governments that champion human rights need urgently to wrest back the initiative from these human rights spoilers.
Singapore
Event of 2008
Singapore remains an authoritarian state with strict curbs on freedom of expression, assembly, and association; denial of due process rights; draconian defamation laws; and tight controls on independent political activity. Since 1959 the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) has won all elections.
Internal security and criminal laws permit prolonged detention of suspects without trial. Caning is obligatory for certain categories of crimes, as is the death penalty for others. Although reforms have improved employment conditions for some of the country's 180,000 migrant domestic workers, the government still fails to guarantee them basic rights.
Freedom of Expression and Assembly
Singapore's constitution guarantees freedom of assembly and expression, though parliament can and does limit both on security, public order, and morality grounds. Opposition politicians and their supporters are at constant risk of prison and substantial fines for simply expressing their views.
On October 13, 2008, Singapore's High Court ruled that opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Secretary General Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his sister, Chee Siok Chin, must pay Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, US$416,000 in damages for an article in the SDP's newsletter. The article had compared how the government is run to a scandal at a well-known charity. The ruling may bankrupt the SDP and permanently shut it down. Dr. Chee and Ms. Chee are already bankrupt because of previous defamation rulings against them.
In September 2008 the Lees also won a defamation suit against the Far Eastern Economic Review and its editor Hugo Restall for commentary on the same case. Damages had yet to be assessed at this writing. The government is also seeking contempt proceedings against the publisher and two editors of the Asian Wall Street Journal for editorial comments related to the case.
In May Dr. Chee and a colleague were fined for speaking in public without a permit during the 2006 election campaign. They were charged with trying to sell copies of the SDP newsletter on a Singapore street.
Movies, music, and video games are routinely censored in Singapore. The Media Development Authority controls website licensing. In May 2008 the authority interrupted a private screening, sponsored by the SDP, of the video One Nation Under Lee.
The Newspaper and Printing Presses Act requires that locally published newspapers renew their licenses each year, and empowers authorities to limit the circulation of foreign publications deemed to "be engaging in the domestic politics of Singapore."
How far Singapore's leadership will loosen curbs on assembly and expression, as Prime Minister Loong suggested in August 2008, remains to be seen. The only step taken in 2008 was the government's decision in September to rescind the need for police permission for gatherings and rallies of more than four people at a popular park site officially labeled the Speaker's Corner. Race and religion still may not be publicly discussed, police may still intervene on public order grounds, and a permit is still required elsewhere in the city.
In March, on World Consumer Rights Day, police stopped a protest against rising prices outside Parliament House. The organizers, among them Dr. Chee, had been refused a permit; 18 protesters have since been charged with illegal assembly and procession. A day after the attempted rally, the non-political Consumer Association of Singapore was able to hold a public event without incident.
Due Process
Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA), Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act (CLA), Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), and Undesirable Publications Act permit arrest and detention of suspects without a warrant or judicial review. Both the ISA and the CLA also authorize preventive detention. The MDA permits the Central Narcotics Bureau chief to send suspected drug users for rehabilitation without recourse to trial.
The ISA is used against suspected Islamist militants, many of whom have been detained for long periods without trial. There is no right to challenge detention on substantive grounds. As of April 2008 some 30 suspected Muslim militants were being held, almost all members of Jemaah Islamiah. Another 25-30 former detainees live under restriction orders.
Caning
Singapore's penal code mandates caning combined with imprisonment for some 30 offenses, including drug and immigration felonies. It is discretionary for other offenses. Courts reportedly sentenced 6,404 men and boys to caning in 2007, some 95 percent of whose sentences were carried out.
Death Penalty
Although death penalty statistics are secret in Singapore, available information indicates that it has one of the world's highest per capita execution rates. In December 2007 Singapore joined with 53 other states in voting against a nonbinding UN General Assembly resolution calling for "a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty." Earlier, Singapore's home affairs minister, referring to the law's deterrent effects, commented that "there is no room to go soft."
Migrant Domestic Workers
Singapore's labor laws exclude some 180,000 migrant domestic workers from key protections guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly day off, limits on working hours, annual leave, paid holidays, and caps on salary deductions. In May 2008 acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong said it was unnecessary to mandate a weekly rest day. He instead supported the current standard contract provision that provides for at least one day off a month or compensatory pay. However, many employers forbid domestic workers to take a rest day; their isolation and employers' power to have them deported at will make it difficult if not impossible for them to bargain effectively for their due.
The government has prosecuted some employers who physically abuse domestic workers and imposed penalties on labor recruitment agencies for unethical practices. However it has failed to regulate exploitative recruitment charges that can consume a third or more of workers' two-year wage total.
Privacy
In October 2007 Singapore's parliament rejected a proposal to repeal law 377A, which bans private and consensual sexual relations between men. Although prosecutions are rare, those found in violation can be jailed for up to two years on charges of "gross indecency."
In April 2008 the Media Development Authority fined a local television station for featuring a gay couple and their baby under regulations that prohibit promotion of gay lifestyles. It also fined a cable network for airing a commercial that showed two women kissing.
Human Rights Defenders
State laws and political repression effectively prevent the establishment of human rights organizations and deter individuals from speaking out publicly against government policies.
Unless they are registered as political parties, associations may not engage in any activities the government deems political. Trade unions are under the same restrictions and are banned from contributing to political parties or using their funds for political purposes. Most unions are affiliated with the umbrella National Trade Union Congress, which does not allow members supportive of opposition parties to hold office.
Key International Actors
Singapore is a key member of the Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism, along with the US, Malaysia, and others, and is an active participant in regional and sub-regional security issues. It is also an important financial and banking center for Southeast Asia.
In February 2008 Singapore Foreign Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo, then chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), expressed ASEAN's concern about the conditions under which Burma's constitutional referendum took place. Since July 2008, after Singapore's term as chair of ASEAN ended, the government has shown more support for Burma's government, even refusing to renew residency permits for Burmese citizens who appear to have taken part in peaceful activities critical of Burmese government policies.
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79247
Comments Search RSS
Robox - Sat, 17 Jan 2009 2:42 am
Re: "In their foreign policies and in international fora, they invoke sovereignty, non-interference, and Southern solidarity to curb criticism of their human rights abuses and those of their allies and friends."
They also invoke another argument: our pure and virginal culture/s which imbues us with ears so delicate, that we disintegrate when when we hear words like "human rights", "gay", and ...(gasp) ... "SEX!!!".
This ploy is used like a gun pointing at white people's heads: if you are a Westerner who criticizes human rights abuses in non-white countries, then you are culturally insensitive and indeed racist, something the non-white human wrongs thugs know that whites are terrified of being accused of.
According to the same wisdom, we, the non-white cultures, have a masochistic streak so entrenched in us that we cannot have enough of the government's abuse.
I believe that it was our very own Lee Skunk Yew who devised this most disingenuous of arguments, but it has now spread like a cancer to so many countries - China is particularly notorious for this, and when the ever belligerent China speaks, the entire world is cowed into silence lest they lose their share of the China market.
Well, if that is what my culture is, according to the holder of a doctorate in Cultural Studies (Area of specialization: India/n-bashing) Lee Skunk Yew, then I would be happy to dump my culture.
It is time for those of us who disagree with this ploy to stand up to our own human wrongs thugs and tell them in no uncertain terms that:
1. cultures have always evolved over time to adapt to changing realities; and,
2. there is internal diversity within cultures - many of us from the same pure and virginal culture as Lee Skunk Yew do not agree with him on human wrongs.
tan - Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:33 am
Singapore is like a garden without flowers.
maxchew - Caning for illegal assemblers? Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:05 pm
I predicted as much sometime ago in this blog as well as other blogs.
Read today's ST where dwarfman WKS told the media the PAP Govt will introduce very soon new legislation to tackle illegal assemblers like the SDP leaders and their followers have been doing several times. Apparently the short stints in prison and fines are not deterrent enough.....so what could be a deterrent but CANING? I just knew and smell it a mile away. I predict once more that the mandatory caning is only applicable for the 2nd time conviction onwds.
They did it for illegal immigrants as well as money-lenders. What's to stop them to include caning also for the likes of CSJ, JohnTan, Seelan Palay etc etc?
Hope GE will come this year so the citizens can tell the PAP Govt what they think of them and their cruel laws!They are just desperate to stay in power permanently......
Henry Windgates - Sat, 17 Jan 2009 5:37 pm
Quote:
In September 2008 the Lees also won a defamation suit against the Far Eastern Economic Review and its editor Hugo Restall for commentary on the same case. Damages had yet to be assessed at this writing. The government is also seeking contempt proceedings against the publisher and two editors of the Asian Wall Street Journal for editorial comments related to the case.
Quote:
Movies, music, and video games are routinely censored in Singapore. The Media Development Authority controls website licensing. In May 2008 the authority interrupted a private screening, sponsored by the SDP, of the video One Nation Under Lee.
Pure examples of how a country which has draconian censorship laws would be nothing but constant trouble for it's citizens, the state-owned media only portrays unbiased opinions of foreign news but what about local politics? Nay, I'm afraid not, because everything about the PAP and the ruling government are basically sugarcoated, especially films, political or otherwise.
I think kids and adults alike should be allowed exposure to the political world, starting with political films, rather than sugarcoating everything that has got to do with local politics and forcing us to watch Disney films all the time.
And this report also attests to the evils of social conservatism, hiding under the guise of being "clean" and "morally upright" which in fact, under the innocent mask lies a evil face of oppression and brutal stranglehold on dissenting opinions.
Seelan Palay - Sun, 18 Jan 2009 5:09 pm
"Singapore remains an authoritarian state" - that says enough.
AnnA - Singapore 2028 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 6:44 pm
By 2028, there won't be any respect left for people who claim themselves as Singaporean. 85% of us will have a either a police record, a prison record or a caning mark. Fuck PAP!!
AnnA
Henry Windgates - Mon, 19 Jan 2009 4:56 pm
And in Singapore, it's almost nigh impossible to avoid getting a police or prison record because everything you do is literally criminalized by the ruling PAP government! How much does it have to suck to have your life equated to that of a terrorist if you're a homosexual or just a non-conformist?
Quote:
By 2028, there won't be any respect left for people who claim themselves as Singaporean. 85% of us will have a either a police record, a prison record or a caning mark. Fuck PAP!!
AnnA
I doubt we, the human race, would even live to see 2028. December 2012 marks the end of the world, according to the Mayan calender, remember? Just a thought.
S.Africa assures China of political continuity
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ghGaIlmdPDWxAPKevGdDsJkp0obA
KLEINMOND, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Friday assured her Chinese counterpart that general elections were unlikely to change her country's political scene.
"New parties have emerged but still we think at the end of elections nothing will change much," Dlamini told Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi speaking of the general elections expected in the second quarter of the year.
The two ministers met outside Cape Town to strengthen ties between their two countries in their fourth encounter in the past 12 months.
Talks between the two nations were to focus on economics and changing global dynamics.
"Both China and South Africa are important developing countries when the international situation is undergoing profound changes and new problems and new challenges keep emerging," said Yang.
He said it was important the two nations meet regularly to deepen the partnership between them.
Yang said the two countries had built up political trust in recent years and thanked South Africa for its cooperation on tricky international issues.
"Our countries conducted close coordination and cooperation in the UN Security Council as regards major international and regional issues and hotspot issues," Yang said before the start of the closed-door meeting.
South Africa has often joined China in blocking the discussion and resolutions around sensitive international issues such as the Zimbabwe crisis and the situation in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"South Africa gave China valuable support on issues that concern China's core interests including Taiwan and Tibet-related issues."
The two countries also planned further cooperation in dealing with the international financial crisis.
Yang is on the last leg of a four-nation African trip which also took him to Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi.
His visit aims to strengthen relations with African countries, as China seeks to further extend its influence on the resource-rich continent in a relationship that has often drawn criticism from the West.
China has extended billions of dollars in loans towards infrastructure development amongst others to countries such as Sudan which have poor human rights records, obtaining huge oil and gas deals.
South Africa is China's key trading partner in Africa, accounting for 20.8 percent of the total volume of China-Africa trade in 2007 with total trade at some 88 billion rand (8.8 billion US dollars).
North Korean national dies in Meikhtila -DVB
(DVB)–A North Korean who was believed to be a weapon specialist working in a secret research facility in central Burma has died on the way to Meikhtila military hospital after suffering a serious headache.
According to a member of staff at the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, the unidentified North Korean was already dead when he arrived at the hospital on 9 January.
A Meikhtila resident said the man’s body was cremated at around 7am on 11 January with the assistance of a local charity called Yan Aung Myin funeral service.
An official from Yan Aung Myin funeral service said the funeral was attended by a group of North Koreans, assumed to be his family, and a few Burmese army officers in civilian clothing.
"We were informed of his death by Meikhtila military hospital who told us to arrange a funeral service for him," the official said.
"The funeral was held early in the morning and it was rumoured that the
authorities wanted to keep it a secret from the public as he was a foreigner who was involved with government work."
Sources close to the military in Meikhtila said the dead foreigner was working on a secret weapons project for the government.
Military analyst and researcher Htay Aung of the Thailand-based Burmese exile group Network for Democracy and Development said the group had received reports on secret facilities being built by the government around Meikhtila.
"We have obtained some information on the government building some secret facilities around Meikhtila, particularly on the one being built near Taung Thar township," said Htay Aung.
"No one from the outside world knows what they have been doing in that facility but foreigners have often been seen around the area," he said.
"I assume that if he was not just a regular tourist, then he must have been some sort of specialist working on a secret government project or in a research facility."
Htay Aung said residents of nearby Taungdwingyi and Myo Thit townships had often spotted foreigners, assumed to be North Koreans, in the area.
Last year there were reports on a Russian national who had gone missing in Shan state but that case was also given a low profile by the government.
Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat
Activists Welcome New Thai Government's Policy Stance on Burma
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at Foreign Press Club in Bangkok, 14 Jan 2009
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
16 January 2009
Burmese pro-democracy activists have welcomed the stated policy approach by the new Thai government and its call for political change in Burma ahead of Burma's general elections, scheduled for 2010. The Thai Government is also looking to other South East Asian nations to be more active in calling for reform in the military ruled country.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at Foreign Press Club in Bangkok, 14 Jan 2009
The new Thai Government's policy stance on Burma was set out in a key address by the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, this week and his warnings about the political situation in Burma have wider ramifications for the whole region.
Mr Abhisit, in an address to foreign correspondents this week, said the government would look to encourage reform in Burma, also known as Myanmar, through a process of "flexible engagement".
The flexible engagement policy, adopted by the then-foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan, now secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), called for more open dialogue on issues such as human rights.
"ASEAN to be strong it has to have the credibility and respect from the international community," he said. "So what's happening in Myanmar clearly affects the rest of the region - and I would just point out that it's time for change. As far as we are concerned we need to get ASEAN to become more proactive - it's not easy but I've seen changes and I've seen progress. "
Under the former Thai governments led by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, from 2001 until 2006, priority was given to Thailand's economic and business ties with Burma. Under a policy of "constructive engagement" Thailand and ASEAN had adopted a more low key diplomatic approach in its dealing with Burma.
Naing Aung, a former Burmese student leader and a civic group, the Network for Democracy and Development, welcomed the current Thai government's new move to place greater emphasis on human rights issues and political reform.
"Thailand's new government will be standing on the human rights and then more on the democratic principal," he said. "But in terms of making pressure if they are going through ASEAN it will still be difficult because ASEAN as a whole, they still have a policy of non-interference."
Debbie Stothardt
Debbie Stothardt, spokeswoman for the Alternative ASEAN network on Burma, said the Thai government policy also needed to be backed by calls for the release of political prisoners. Stothardt said Thailand, as the current chair of ASEAN, had a role to play to promote political reform. An ASEAN leaders summit is due to take place in late February in Thailand.
"What we need to see really from the other ASEAN governments - including the new Thai government - is sufficient political will to deal with this problem once and for all," she said. "ASEAN needs to realize that this regime has no respect for polite diplomacy - this regime will only respect ASEAN when ASEAN shows that it is determined."
Burma's military government has said its road map to democracy and general elections in 2010 needs the political steps the government is taking. But many analysts expect the military to still retain considerable influence in the new parliament, backed by a constitution seen as favoring the military.
Burma's military has been in power since 1962, with the current government ruling the country since 1988. It ignored the last election result in 1990, won in a landslide by the party spearheaded by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.
Indian Vice President to visit Burma to strengthen bilateral relations -MIZZIMA
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1567-indian-vice-president-to-visit-burma-to-strengthen-bilateral-relations.html
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 16 January 2009 21:33
New Delhi (Mizzima) - India's Vice President Hamid Ansari is set to visit neighbouring military-ruled Burma, in a bid to further strengthen bilateral cooperation between both countries, according to reports.
Ansari's trip will focus on consolidating India's energy interests in Burma and cooperation in infrastructure development, an official source was quoted as saying by the Indo-Asian News Service.
"Ansari will go on a goodwill visit to Myanmar [Burma] early next month. Preparations are under way," the report said.
Ansari's visit to Burma, which is a first for Indian leaders in 2009, is seen as a part of India's growing efforts to strengthen bilateral relationship with the gas-rich Southeast Asian nation.
Dr. Tint Swe, a minister of the Burmese government in exile – the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma – said Ansari's visit is part of India's efforts to appease the Burmese military government in order to gain wider foothold in the country.
However, he said, "It has been about 15 years now, but India's Look East Policy has still not been a success," adding that it was time for India to reconsider its policy on Burma.
India, which is Burma's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore, is competing with China, Thailand, South Korea and Japan to tap natural gas from offshore gas reserves on Burma's western coast.
However, in December 2008, Daewoo International Corporation along with it's four other partners - Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE), ONGC, GAIL and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) signed a deal with the China National Petroleum Corporation, to supply Burma's offshore gas to China for 30 years from 2012.
India's ONGC and GAIL both held 20 % and 10 % respectively in Burma's offshore A1 and A3 gas fields, and has been appeasing the junta so that it awards the right to import gas.
The Shwe gas fields on Burma's western coast are estimated to hold a reserve of 4.53 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of gas.
India, which lost out to China in its race to buy gas from Burma, however, is also looking for other energy cooperation options, with Burma including the building of hydro-electric projects.
The two countries recently signed a pact on the development of Tamanthi and Shwezay hydropower projects on the Chindwin River, in Burma's northwestern Sagaing division.
But Dr. Tint Swe, who is based in New Delhi and monitors Indo-Burmese relationship said, "The two countries' bilateral relations does not help the Burmese peoples' aspiration for democratic change."
"But it helps the junta in strengthening their rule," he added.
Indo-Burmese bilateral trade reached a record of 995 million US dollars in the fiscal year 2007-08, while Burma's exports to India accounted for 810 million US dollars and its imports from India touched 185 million US dollars, according to Burma's official statistics.
Dhaka wants to demarcate maritime boundaries in Bay of Bengal
http://story.chinanationalnews.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/454323/cs/1/
China National News
Friday 16th January, 2009
(IANS)
The new Bangladesh government wants to engage neighbours India and Myanmar to demarcate maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal to be able to file its claim before the United Nations by 2011, a media report said Friday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who convened a meeting of energy ministry officials Thursday, said she would coordinate with the foreign office in contacting Delhi and Yangon, but did not indicate when.
She would also confer with the Bangladesh Navy and Geological Survey of Bangladesh.
Hasina's deputy press secretary Sarwar Alam said that she raised the maritime boundary issue at her first meeting with the officials and wanted to know the latest situation and what surveys the ministry had conducted to demarcate the boundary.
Energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin told the prime minister that India and Myanmar were claiming maritime areas beyond their jurisdiction and often intruded into Bangladesh's territorial waters and that the foreign ministry was handling the issue, New Age newspaper said Friday quoting sources present at the meeting.
Mohsin also informed her that Bangladesh would have to lodge its claim over the maritime boundary with the United Nations by 2011 after completing necessary surveys for strengthening the claims.
Maritime boundaries' delineation became crucial after the finding of hydrocarbon reserves in the bay by India in recent years. Dhaka thinks it has missed the bus with poor response from international oil and gas companies.
Bangladesh is sandwiched between India and Myanmar in the upper reaches of the bay and says survey ships and even naval ships of the two countries cross into what it considers to be its own territory.
There had been stand-offs with the two neighbours in the bay in recent months and the erstwhile caretaker government had deployed naval ships and applied diplomatic pressures to get the neighbours' vessels out, pending resolution of the dispute.
Dhaka did not hold talks with India on the issue after 1982 and resumed it only last year. The parleys with both Delhi and Yangon have remained preliminary with each side insisting on its own standpoint.
US Senate Committee To Release Reports Of Myanmar Migrants
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=384195
January 16, 2009 17:43 PM
By Salmy Hashim
WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Bernama) -- The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee is working on two reports containing details of allegations by Myanmar migrants of extortions and threats of being turned over to human traffickers in southern Thailand, if ransom demands were not met.
A Committee staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Bernama here Thursday, that while the first report contained detailed allegations about the extortions and threats by Malaysian officials, the second report contained specific allegations by victims on who were paid and the recipients' bank account numbers.
Information from the second report would be conveyed to the United States law enforcement officials at the Treasury department and the Justice department who would determine what information would be shared with law enforcement officials in Southeast Asia, he added.
He said the timetable for release of the two reports had not been finalised.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in commenting on a foreign wire service report, wants the United States to pass on information pertaining to allegations that Malaysian officials extorted money from migrants in the country.
Stating that the government did not tolerate such practice, he said so far, the authorities had not received any report on the matter.
"If the US authority has it, we would be very thankful if they can pass the information to us, so that we can investigate and take appropriate action," he told reporters in Kuala Terengganu yesterday.
The Committee staffer told Bernama here that staffers had met with senior officials in Malaysia in August 2008 to make the Malaysian government aware of the allegations so that they could look into the matter.
The staffers also met with senior officials in southern Thailand (Sungai Golok). Last month, they went to Bangkok to meet with anti-trafficking police.
The staffer said the committee had received several signed statements by individuals (former Myanmar migrants) who typically alleged that once they reached Malaysian soil, they were arrested by Rela (People's Volunteer Corps) and then placed in government detention facilities.
They were then removed from these facilities and transported to the Malaysia-Thai border where they were later approached by agents of traffickers who demanded that they pay money to an established system, before they were allowed to return to Malaysia.
If these migrants refused to pay, they would often be turned over to human traffickers in southern Thailand.
"It's this same pattern of allegations that the committee received over the past year that caused us to investigate the matter," the staffer said.
There are more than 5,000 Myanmar refugees settled in Indiana where they had been giving first-person accounts of what had happened to them. About 40,000 Myanmar migrants have resettled in the United States since 1995.
-- BERNAMA
The war on Myanmar's border-Unequal struggle
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12941078
Jan 15th 2009 | MAE SOT
From The Economist print edition
Less for freedom than survival
ONE of Asia’s longest-running wars gets no less vicious as it gets older. For six decades the Karen National Union (KNU) has resisted the government in Yangon—inaptly known, these days, as the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC, a brutal junta. The biggest of Myanmar’s myriad insurgent groups not to have reached a truce with the SPDC, the KNU’s armed wing is now fighting desperately for survival in the mountainous Thai border region around the town of Umphang.
This month SPDC soldiers razed the base camp of one of its seven brigades: a newish settlement equipped with solar power, piped water, fish-holding tanks and medical facilities. Soldiers are now sleeping rough in dense jungle. Several hundred civilians, their homes in ashes, huddle under makeshift shelters.
Fighting alongside the SPDC are soldiers ostensibly belonging to a rival Karen militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)—a loose coalition of KNU defectors, drug-runners and freelance thugs. The armies often mount attacks from Thai soil. That side of the border is more navigable, and is not strewn with landmines. The KNU’s David Thackrabaw accuses the SPDC of pursuing a scorched-earth policy against both fighters and the civilian population. Another KNU commander, Nerdah Mya, his base in cinders, says his army has no “location” any more and is “always on the move”. But he denies the war is in a critical stage. The KNU has been coping with such hardships for years.
Umphang was once home to one of Thailand’s finest teak forests, logged by the KNU, in the days when Thailand tolerated it as a useful buffer to Myanmar. The region is also rich in antimony, gold, zinc and tin. The latest phase of the war began last June, with a concerted battle for control of the area. At times the Thai army has resorted to lobbing mortars at SPDC battalions, whose stray shells have forced the evacuation of Thai villages. Local farmers are “taxed” by both sides to get their produce to market.
Of some 140,000 refugees from Myanmar in camps in Thailand, more than 60% come from Karen state. They may be the lucky ones. Reports from western Karen state say that villages and crops there are often torched. The DKBA is much loathed, and many of its soldiers might join the KNU if it had any scent of victory. But at the moment, it has none.
Political Prisoners Dying in Labour Camps in Burma
http://burmadigest.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/political-prisoners-dying-in-labour-camps-in-burma/
Posted by burmadigest under News
- report from Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
15 January 2009
Political prisoner Zaw Naing Htwe is in danger of losing his life at Four Mile Labor Camp near Taungoo Town in Pegu Division, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). He is currently being held in iron shackles whilst being forced to perform hard labor by the authorities. He is not being given enough food and water.
On December 15 2008 he was sentenced to 9 years in prison, charged under sections 41/b and 42 of the prisons procedural code, related to exchanging correspondence in prison. He received a letter from his elder brother, 88 Generation Students Group member Kyaw Kyaw Htwe aka Marky, on 2 February 2008 during a prison visit.
In the first week of January 2009 Zaw Naing Htwe was transferred to Four Mile Labor Camp, 175 miles from Taungoo Town in Pegu Division.
Tate Naing, Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), said, “When the regime transfers political prisoners to labor camps, they are intentionally trying to kill them. There is little chance that political prisoners will return home after being in the labor camps.”
In 2008, at least 17 political prisoners were transferred to labor camps around Burma.
In October 1990, many monks participated in the boycott, pattam nikkujjana kamma or “overturning the bowl”, refusing to accept alms from members of the armed forces and their families. As punishment some were transferred to labor camps, and 19 monks died there.
UN agencies team up on family planning for refugees in Thailand
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR/ccabb97317d6e9588586df6ecd3e2a30.htm
15 Jan 2009 17:08:45 GMT
Source: UNHCR
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
BANGKOK, Thailand, January 15 (UNHCR) – Refugees along Thailand's border with Myanmar will be able to continue to plan their families thanks to cooperation between UNHCR and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The two UN agencies are collaborating to fill gaps in reproductive health care for the 111,000 refugees from Myanmar living in nine camps. A quarter of the refugees are women of reproductive age.
As an initial step, UNFPA on Wednesday handed over contraceptives to meet the needs of 8,500 current users and 400 new users for six months to one year. The UN refugee agency's private aid agency partners will distribute the supplies and provide related counselling, education and hospital referrals in four camps: Umpium, Mae La, Mae Ra Ma Luang and Mae La Oon.
"People's needs for voluntary family planning information and services do not end when they become refugees," said UNHCR Deputy Regional Representative Giuseppe de Vincentis. "We consider family planning and reproductive health a basic human right and UNHCR is committed to ensuring that all refugee needs are met."
The two agencies are also talking with the Thai government about long-term cooperation to address the needs of adolescents, whose access to information and services has been limited by cultural taboos.
"It is our hope that further collaboration with UNHCR will improve the predictability, timeliness and effectiveness of reproductive health information and service provision for refugees here in Thailand," said Garimella Giridhar, UNFPA's representative in Thailand.
By Kitty McKinsey
in Bangkok, Thailand
Myanmar Junta Jails Activist For 104 Years
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20090115/ACQDJON200901150022DOWJONESDJONLINE000006.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Myanmar%20Junta%20Jails%20Activist%20For%20104%20Years
YANGON (AFP)--A Myanmar court has jailed a student activist for 104 years, while the ruling junta freed six people who campaigned for the release of pro- democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said Thursday.
Student activist Bo Min Yu Ko, who is in his 20s, was sentenced at a court in the central city of Mandalay in the past week, the latest in a wave of stiff prison terms handed down in the military-ruled nation in recent months.
"He was sentenced for his political activities as he went to the border (with Thailand) to contact an exile group," a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
"He was also charged with some other cases related to his political movement," the official added, without giving further details on Bo Min Yu Ko or the cases against him.
Separately, authorities Wednesday freed six out of nine members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, or NLD, who were arrested last month near the people's parliament in Yangon during a march calling for her freedom.
Myanmar's military rulers have kept 63-year-old Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 19 years. She currently has an appeal pending against her detention.
"Six people out of nine were released from the detention center yesterday. But the only woman, Htet Htet Oo Wai, and two men are still in detention," said another official who did not want to be named.
Another official said the three might face legal charges for their activities.
Htet Htet Oo Wai, in her 40s, wrote a letter in December to junta leader Gen. Than Shwe and the home affairs minister asking for permission to march to Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside house to pay her respects.
She never received a reply but authorities have been watching her group's activities since then, NLD sources said.
"I have not met the released people yet, but I also heard the information. Htet Htet Oo Wai was not among those released," Nyan Win, an NLD spokesman, said.
About 270 activists including monks, student leaders and NLD members have been handed long jail terms in recent weeks for their roles in anti-junta protests last year and for helping victims of Cyclone Nargis in May.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the junta never allowed them to take office.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-15-090022ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
US slaps more sanctions on Myanmar regime backers
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7u1JEIhYotZELisAekEDanrbc9A
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States slapped additional sanctions against alleged key financial backers of the Myanmar military regime Thursday, citing the country's imprisonment of democracy advocates.
The US Treasury Department announced its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had added two people and 14 companies to its lists of sanctions targets for Myanmar, which the US government identifies by its pre-junta name of Burma.
"Congress and the administration have made clear the need to apply vigorous sanctions against the Burmese junta as long as it continues to suppress democratic dissent," said OFAC director Adam Szubin in a statement.
"The junta's imprisonment of prominent democracy advocates confirms Burma's unwillingness to abide by international commitments and underscores the need to maintain pressure against one of the world's worst violators of human rights."
OFAC has now imposed sanctions on 100 people and entities, "targeting key state-owned enterprises, senior junta officials, regime cronies and their business networks," the Treasury said.
The action freezes any assets the designees have under US jurisdiction and bars any US citizen from having any financial and commercial transactions with the sanction targets.
The latest move targets "regime cronies" Zaw Zaw and Win Aung and their business networks, as well as the business networks of two already-designated cronies of the Burmese junta, Tay Za and Steven Law, the department said.
Zaw Zaw was identified as the managing director of the Max Myanmar Group of Companies, a Burmese entity with interests in the gem, timber, construction, and tourism industries.
The Treasury targeted eight companies of the group and Zaw Zaw's Singapore-based company, Max Singapore International.
Win Aung allegedly made large financial donations to the Myanmar junta and has been a major support on construction projects. He was designated along with two of his companies, Dagon International Limited and Dagon Timber Limited.
The financial network of Tay Za, "a notorious regime henchman and arms dealer," was hit with a third round of sanctions.
Thursday's action targeted Espace Avenir, a Rangoon hotel owned or controlled by Tay Za, the Treasury said.
Also targeted were Sentosa Treasure Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean firm owned by Cecilia Ng, who was designated on February 25, 2008, along with her husband, Steven Law.
Nine firms that previously had been identified as being owned by Ng were also designated.
OFAC targeted Myanmar Ivanhoe Copper Company Limited (MICCL), a joint venture owned or controlled by the state-owned No. 1 Mining Enterprise, which was designated on July 29, 2008.
MICCL controls the Monywa copper project, the biggest of its kind in the country, located in Myanmar's northwestern Sagaing division, the department said.
The action came in the waning days of President George W. Bush's administration. President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn into office Tuesday as the 44th US president.
The military-ruled Myanmar has been under international fire for years over human rights abuses and many citizens had fled the impoverished nation to neighboring countries, where they mostly stay illegally or apply for refugee status and seek resettlement in the West.
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