New York Times: Myanmar forces overwhelm rebels – Thomas Fuller
Mon 31 Aug 2009
Filed under: On The Border
BANGKOK — The Myanmar military has overwhelmed rebels from an ethnic Chinese minority in the northern reaches of the country, the junta’s second victory over armed opponents in three months.
The routing over the weekend of the forces of the small, Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group gives Myanmar’s governing generals momentum in their campaign to quell armed opposition before elections and the adoption of a new Constitution next year.
Several well-armed groups, notably the Wa and Kachin, still stand in the way of the junta’s goal of complete control over the country. But a recently announced agreement of solidarity among the rebel groups, which had the potential to slow the central government’s advance against the Kokang, may be fraying.
The Myanmar government’s strategy, analysts say, appears to be to challenge the groups one by one and to try to capitalize on the many factions within each group.
In June, the military defeated ethnic Karen insurgents along the border with Thailand, aided by a local militia of Karen Buddhists who led an attack on forces that were largely made up of Karen Christians.
To defeat the Kokang, the small ethnic group in the north, the junta allied itself with a defector and chased out troops loyal to the Kokang’s chairman, Peng Jiasheng.
A force of 2,000 Wa soldiers had initially come to the assistance of the Kokang, but they retreated Friday, according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former rebel based on the Chinese side of the border. This appeared to undercut a mutual-assistance agreement that the rebel groups reached several weeks ago.
Late on Sunday, Myanmar’s official media broke their silence on the fighting with a television broadcast announcing that clashes had ended and providing what appeared to be a preliminary death toll of 26 members of government security forces and 8 Kokang militiamen, The Associated Press reported. “The region has now regained peace,” the official announcement said.
Chinese state media said that two Chinese citizens had also been killed in the fighting.
News services reported from southern China that Kokang forces were continuing to flee across the border into China on Sunday on the heels of what United Nations and Chinese officials estimated were as many as 30,000 civilian refugees. Nearly half the estimated 1,500 members of the Kokang militia have crossed the border and handed their weapons to the Chinese authorities, according to Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw.
The central government’s assaults on the Kokang, which began last week, have put other ethnic groups on alert, according to Brang Lai, a local official in the Kachin headquarters in Laiza, along the Chinese border.
“People are very concerned,” Mr. Brang Lai said in a telephone interview. On the Chinese side of Laiza, residents have put Chinese flags on their roofs in the hope that they will be able to avoid any additional fighting. Officers from the Myanmar military’s Northern Division were in Laiza over the weekend to call for calm, Mr. Brang Lai said.
Followers of Mr. Peng, the Kokang’s chairman, were spotted by reporters on the Chinese side of the border buying civilian clothes to replace their militia uniforms.
“There was no way we would win,” Ri Chenchuan, a Kokang rebel, said as he shopped for new clothes, The A.P. reported.
The Myanmar government has signed more than a dozen cease-fire agreements with ethnic groups over the past two decades, but the fighting with the Kokang raised questions about the military’s intentions.
Aung Din, executive director of the United States Campaign for Burma, an advocacy group that opposes the junta, said the generals apparently had adopted a more aggressive posture, partly influenced by the Sri Lankan government’s military victory over Tamil rebels in May.
Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, met with Myanmar’s generals in June in what was his first overseas trip after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The visit might have inspired Myanmar’s senior general, Than Shwe, who has spent much of his military career battling ethnic groups, Mr. Aung Din said.
“It was an encouragement to the regime to do away with the insurgency once and for all,” Mr. Aung Din said. “Their thinking has changed.”
The motives and strategies of Myanmar’s leaders have long been difficult to divine. General Than Shwe is a very secretive man and the state-run media are highly selective in their reporting. The report on Sunday evening was the first time they had mentioned the campaign against the Kokang.
The fighting appears to have strained Myanmar’s relations with China, especially since the Kokang are ethnically Chinese. The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned Myanmar on Friday to “properly handle domestic problems and maintain stability in the China-Myanmar border region.”
Analysts said that the Chinese government had asked Myanmar’s generals to refrain from initiating military campaigns before the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Oct. 1.
In that light, China could view Myanmar’s campaign as provocative, especially since China is a large investor in Myanmar and plays the role of the junta’s protective big brother in the United Nations and other international forums.
Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said he suspected that the Myanmar generals wanted to demonstrate their independence to Chinese leaders. Their message, he said, is that “if we want to fight along the border, we can fight.”
“This is a political game,” he added.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
New York Times: Myanmar forces overwhelm rebels – Thomas Fuller
Myanmar ethnic offensive tests vital China ties
Myanmar ethnic offensive tests vital China ties
Source: Reuters - AlertNet
Date: 01 Sep 2009
- Myanmar prioritising domestic control over China ties
- China to press Myanmar but influence may be limited
- More fighting with rebels possible, could be bloody
By Martin Petty and Ben Blanchard
BANGKOK/BEIJING, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Myanmar's assault on rebel militias on its remote border appears aimed at herding them into next year's election process, even if it comes at the cost of vital ties with its powerful northern neighbour, China.
Myanmar's military incursion into northeastern Shan State shattered a 20-year ceasefire with rebel armies on its border with China and could trigger the protracted instability that Beijing, the junta's strongest friend, has long feared.
A prolonged conflict that forces more refugees to flee to China would show that the junta is intent on controlling the rebellious region, despite any fallout with China, analysts said.
"Seizing control is more important, because they will not accept private armies with their own local administration, " said Bertil Lintner, an author and specialist on Myanmar.
"They're not as subservient to the Chinese as many people think. They're certainly not their puppets. The generals are megalomaniacs and they know China won't cut the trade ties."
China has called on Myanmar to ensure stability in the region, and Myanmar has apologised to Beijing.
But Myanmar's aim clearly is to establish power in the region ahead of next year's election, said Mary Callahan, a Myanmar expert at the University of Washington.
"(Its) behaviour in situations like this, which aggravate China, are first and foremost about its domestic agenda," she said. "Eliminating perceived threats to its (democracy) road map is right at the top of that."
The military's successful offensive in Kokang against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the weakest of the local ethnic groups, was simply to test the waters before battling a more formidable force, analysts said.
The real target could be the heavily armed United Wa State Army, a 15,000-20,000- strong force led by drugs barons and warlords. The junta may use drugs suppression to justify an assault -- and perhaps get more than it bargained for.
Ceasefire agreements in place since 1989 between the government and the militias had given the insurgents a great deal of autonomy in Shan state.
BIG CASUALTIES
"If they go all out against the Wait will be very bloody, with big casualties on both sides," said Lintner.
Further fighting could risk either spilling into China, or sending a renewed flood of refugees across the border. Many ethnic Chinese live in the rebel enclaves and Chinese businesses are involved in trading gems and timber across the border.
Anthony Davis, a security analyst at IHS-Jane's, said the situation in Kokang was "extremely precarious" and may escalate, especially if Myanmar picked a fight with the Wa.
The stakes may be too high for Beijing to allow that.
Dealing with problems on a sensitive and strategic border is the last thing China wants after violent unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang in the past two years.
Energy-hungry China is also one of the few powers willing to do business with Myanmar and has invested more than $1 billion there to get access to natural resources such as oil and gas.
"China's not going to want to let things spiral out of control. On this one, they will probably get their way," said Ian Holliday, a Myanmar expert at the University of Hong Kong.
"I think they will pull out all the stops and make it clear to the Burmese leadership that if they don't start to minimise the disruption on the Chinese border, then there will be serious consequences. "
ELECTIONS UNDER THREAT?
The prospect of a lengthy conflict could delay next year's long-awaited elections. No date for them has been announced, suggesting the junta is waiting for rebels to disarm and join an army-run border force before entering the political process.
The Kokang clashes might be an attempt to scare them into submission, but that could backfire and push back the polls. (For an analysis on Myanmar's elections: for scenarios and a Q+A.
But after holding a constitutional referendum in the immediate aftermath of last year's devastating Cyclone Nargis to pave the way for polls, the junta is unlikely to put up with any roadblocks to its "road map to democracy".
The assault sparked speculation in Beijing as to what Myanmar's ruling generals were thinking when they ordered an offensive they knew would push refugees into China.
Some people with close ties to China's leadership wondered whether Myanmar was punishing Beijing's efforts to stop it from strengthening military ties with nuclear-armed North Korea.
Regardless, some Chinese analysts played down the influence Beijing has over the generals.
"They're not great friends. They don't listen to what China says," said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
"I think China will do everything it can to persuade Myanmar to peacefully resolve the problem but I fear that no country, not even China, can have much influence." (Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby in BEIJING; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Bill Tarrant)
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China Silent on Burmese Refugees
China Silent on Burmese Refugees
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: September 1, 2009
BEIJING — Chinese officials imposed an information blackout Tuesday on the situation along its border with Myanmar and began taking down tents that had sheltered some of the estimated 30,000 people who fled into China to escape the recent fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic rebels.
But news reports stated that many thousands of refugees remained in China, unwilling or unable to return to Myanmar, formerly called Burma, and it was not clear how the Chinese government intended to address their plight.
The Chinese authorities withheld comment on the border situation Tuesday, aside from saying, in a Foreign Ministry briefing, that “necessary humanitarian assistance” was being provided. And they began ordering foreign journalists to leave the area around Nansan and Genma, Chinese towns on the mountainous border where the refugees have been housed in seven separate camps.
While about 4,000 refugees had returned to Myanmar on Monday, the day after the fighting ended, the pace has since slowed dramatically. Only about 30 people crossed the border into Myanmar in a half-hour period on Tuesday morning, The Associated Press reported.
“It seems to be slowing down,” one foreigner near Nansan said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “There’s still a large number of refugees in and around Nansan, both in the camps and hanging around.” The foreigner, who refused to be identified, said Chinese Army troops had stepped up patrols in the area.
An unknown number of those who fled to China during the fighting are Chinese citizens who have been conducting business in Myanmar, where China is building dams and other projects and has extensive mining ventures. They are unlikely to return soon.
China has insisted that northern Myanmar’s Kokang region is safe and stable after the fighting last week, in which hundreds of government troops overwhelmed an armed ethnic group, breaking a cease-fire that had prevailed for two decades. Human rights groups and others have warned that the junta’s actions could ignite a wider conflict in the area, where other, better armed ethnic groups also are resisting government control.
Both Thai newspapers and The Irrawaddy, an independent magazine that focuses on Myanmar, have reported that the government is sending fresh troops into the northern state of Shan in an attempt to consolidate its control there. The army wants the rebels to disarm and join a government border patrol force, as required under a new constitution. Most of the rebels have resisted the order, which would effectively place them under government control.
Myanmar’s military junta apparently seeks to take control of the region before elections, the first in almost 20 years, that are scheduled for next year. Outside monitors accuse the military junta of brutal human rights violations as part of its effort to stay in power. The Myanmar government has said that 26 of its soldiers and at least 8 rebels died in three days of battles.
The Myanmar conflict has thrust the Chinese government, one of the government’s only staunch backers, into an awkward situation. China has provided diplomatic support to the junta in exchange for access to its considerable mineral wealth and cooperation in efforts to suppress a growing cross-border trade in heroin and other illicit drugs. The flood of refugees prompted the Chinese to issue muted criticism of the junta, calling on Friday for it to secure Myanmar’s borders.
China, Myanmar share responsibility to maintain border stability: FM
China, Myanmar share responsibility to maintain border stability: FM
www.chinaview. cn 2009-09-01 19:13:52 Print
BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Foreign Ministry Tuesday said it was the common responsibility of China and Myanmar to safeguard the stability of their common border.
"Safeguarding the stability of the China-Myanmar border is in line with the vital interests of both people and is the shared responsibility of both governments, " said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
Referring to recent unrest in Myanmar's Shan province, Jiang said: "We hope the situation will calm down as soon as possible and Myanmar border inhabitants who fled to China can return to their homeland at an early date," Jiang said. She said some of those who had crossed the border into China's Yunnan Province had already returned to their homes in Myanmar.
About 37,000 border inhabitants crossed the border into China after armed conflict broke out last week in Myanmar.
Jiang said China and Myanmar were friendly neighbors and China hoped Myanmar would maintain peace and stability.
"Based on humanitarian principles, China took active rescue and relief measures to help Myanmar border inhabitants settle down," Jiang said,
"We hope Myanmar can resolve its domestic issues and take all necessary measures to restore order and stability in the border area," she said.
The situation originated from a standoff between Myanmar army troops stationed in Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang region, and ethnic minority forces in the area, on Aug. 8. Armed conflicts triggered a large outflow of border inhabitants into neighboring Yunnan Province's Nansan area.
Editor: Li Xianzhi http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-09/01/ content_11979578 .htm
Rangoon Opinions Differ on Kokang Assault
Rangoon Opinions Differ on Kokang Assault
By LAWI WENG Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Rangoon residents are expressing different opinions on the reasons for the recent government attack on the Kokang militia known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Shan State, according to sources in Rangoon.
A Mandalay-based journalist said he believes the government troops attacked the MNDAA so that senior generals could postpone the planned 2010 election because they do not want to share power with civilians.
He believes the military will stage a coup in the future and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye will order his troops to attack before the election.
Many Journalists in Rangoon disagree with the attack, saying the government should negotiate instead of fight, according to sources.
However, a military retiree said he supported the attack because the MNDAA trafficked drugs and weapons.
“They broke the law and threatened peace and stability. This government has to fight them just as a new one would have to as well,” he said.
A law student in Rangoon University said the government would not postpone the election because of the conflict, saying they attacked the MNDAA as a warning to other ethnic armed ceasefire groups refusing to transform their troops into border guard forces.
“They attacked to make an example of them,” he said.
A Rangoon-based business analyst said continued fighting would damage Rangoon’s economy because many ethnic Kokang and Wa run businesses there.
“They will have to return home if the fighting continues. A lot of businesses would close,” he said.
Another Rangoon resident said many have mixed feelings. They worry about a civil war and wonder whether the Chinese government will change its policy toward the Burmese government after the recent influx of refugees from the Kokang area.
“China never supported sanctions against the junta at the UN, but they might act differently now,” he said.
Another Rangoon-based journalist said, “China might change its policy toward the Burmese government. They could even support the democracy movement in Burma, pressuring the junta to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and open dialogue with the opposition.”
Some Burmese democracy activists say the government took over the Kokang area to clear the way for the construction of an agreed gas pipeline starting in September.
Over 30,000 civilians fled to the Chinese border town of Nansan in Yunnan Province during the three days of clashes between junta troops and the Kokang militia.
Burma’s state-run media said government troops defeated the MNDAA forces, saying 26 Burmese policemen and at least eight rebels were killed.
Some civilians have said government troops looted their homes after they abandoned them.
The Burmese government recently announced the area is stable after about 700 MNDAA troops surrendered their arms to Chinese authorities.
The Burmese government is allowing Kokang residents to return, meanwhile. 4,000 have re-crossed the border, according to Chinese authorities, who said many others remain at the makeshift camp in Nansan.
Aung Thet Wine contributed to this article.
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Q+A- Will the conflict in northern Myanmar intensify?
Q+A-Will the conflict in northern Myanmar intensify?
Article layout: raw
BANGKOK, Sept 1 (Reuters) - An incursion by Myanmar's army into northeastern Shan State has raised fears of more clashes with ethnic minority rebels that could exacerbate a refugee crisis at its border with economic and political ally China.
Some analysts are predicting a protracted conflict will be ignited in the region, which could anger Beijing and derail plans for army-ruled Myanmar's first election in nearly two decades.
WHY HAVE MYANMAR TROOPS BEEN DEPLOYED IN SHAN STATE?
The Myanmar regime wants ethnic minorities to take part in the election and wants to recruit their fighters for an army-run border patrol force. The offensive could be an effort by Yangon to force the groups into submission.
The aim, analysts say, is to disarm and neutralise the insurgents, allowing the army to establish control over the rebellious region for the first time in its nearly five-decade rule.
However, the real target of the military is likely to be the United Wa State Army, a powerful force involved in the illicit drugs trade.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED AND WHO IS INVOLVED?
Myanmar's armed forces entered the Kokang area and last week broke a 20-year ceasefire with rebels in the region when it overwhelmed the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), widely seen as the weakest of the area's factions.
The junta kept silent about the incursion for several days and announced via state media that the clashes occurred after troops were attacked by rebels holding 39 policemen hostage.
A recently formed ethnic minority alliance known as the Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF) has called for dialogue and has issued statements to the regime, and to Beijing, urging an end to hostilities.
The alliance groups the MNDAA, the Kachin Independence Organisation and the United Wa State Party, the ethnic Wa armed faction's political wing. The groups are aware that a joint effort is necessary to counter the army.
IS THE SITUATION LIKELY TO ESCALATE?
There are concerns that if the fighting intensifies, other members of the alliance could enter the fray and provide a serious challenge to the Myanmar army, resulting in fighting and heightening the risk of a refugee crisis for China.
The Wa group is a formidable fighting force, with at least 15,000 members, and analysts say any clashes between the Wa and the army would be bloody.
A lot is at stake for all involved, China included, and neither side will want to engage in any kind of protracted conflict. However, any wrong moves by forces on the ground could trigger all-out war.
HOW HAS CHINA REACTED?
Beijing, one of Myanmar's few diplomatic backers, has called on Yangon to maintain stability at the border. It is likely much more is being said behind the scenes. China has long chosen not to comment on Myanmar's internal affairs.
China beefed up its border security and provided support for 37,000 refugees, most of whom are returning to Kokang.
HOW WILL THIS AFFECT THE JUNTA AND ITS ELECTIONS?
The junta wants full control over the region before the elections, even if it has to upset China to achieve this, analysts say.
It wants to bring the groups into the political fold to neutralise them and give the polls legitimacy, but its breach of the ceasefire will complicate matters.
Yangon has yet to announce a date for the election, or say who can take part. The delay is largely a result of its inability to convince, or force, ethnic minority groups to enter into the political process. (For an analysis on Myanmar's elections: for scenarios and a Q+A: )
WHAT IS AT STAKE FOR CHINA AND MYANMAR?
Energy-hungry China is building oil and gas pipelines through Myanmar that will supply Yunnan province, relieving pressure on its own oil industry to supply its southwest.
China's overriding concern is a stable Myanmar, and the Yangon regime would be loathe to upset its powerful neighbour because of the economic and diplomatic assistance it provides.
Floods of refugees entering China, shelling over the border and injuries to Chinese civilians are likely to anger Beijing, although not enough for a rare intervention or any move that would damage their close, if increasingly awkward, relationship.
Several Western academics say China will try to use its influence to halt the conflict, but Chinese-based analysts have played down that influence and say Yangon will do what it wants.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Compiled by Bangkok Newsroom; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel) Keywords: MYANMAR CHINA/ (Bangkok Newsroom; +66 2 637 5610)
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.iii. co.uk/news/ ?type=afxnews&articleid=7501484&subject=companies&action=article
The Yunnan Connection-By LARRY JAGAN
COVER STORY
The Yunnan Connection
By LARRY JAGAN SEPTEMBER, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.6
Closer ties between Burma and China’s southwestern province raise concerns in Beijing
Yunnan, China’s southwestern province bordering Burma, has always taken the lead in forging closer relations with its neighbor, usually with Beijing’s blessing. But in recent years, this special relationship has caused some irritation among China’s political leaders in the north.
In the past, China’s political supremos were happy to leave trade to those based in the southwestern region, while taking responsibility for all political issues. This relationship between Burma and China’s border areas has a long history.
The Joint Check Centre of Ruili on the northern Sino-Burmese border is an important economic zone where trade is increasing. (Photo: Kyaw Zwa Moe/The Irrawaddy)
Long before becoming chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization in 1975, Brang Seng moved thousands of Kachins into Yunnan for safety after declaring war on the Burmese government.
The Wa leaders, who formed a significant section of the Burma Communist Party, were all trained in the Yunnan capital, Kunming, and fondly remember those times.
At the start of Mao Zedong’s disastrous “Great Leap Forward” in 1958, more than 100,000 Chinese fled across the border into Burma for safety, according to a senior Chinese official. Most of them may never have returned, he added. In the past 10 years more than 200,000 Chinese have crossed into northern Shan State in search of work and financial opportunities. In Panghsan, the Wa capital, the local authorities run a casino school which trains young Chinese from across the border how to become croupiers.
Around 50 pupils at a time pay the school 300 yuan (US $45) for one month’s training; they qualify for jobs on graduation in the casinos along the border and some even find work in Cambodian casinos along the border with Thailand.
A quarter of Panghsan’s population are Chinese who have settled in the Wa area since 1997, according to a senior Wa leader. An entire Chinese Wa village even relocated in Burma six years ago to take advantage of the UN’s rice cultivation scheme—part of the organization’s support for alternative crop programs intended to replace opium production. In Mong La, further along the border, more than one in eight residents within the city limits are recent Chinese arrivals, according to the city’s mayor.
The business life of hundreds of small towns and villages along the Burmese border with China is dominated by Chinese immigrants who migrated to the area in the last 10 years.
Families often send their children across the border to China for education, and many of the Wa leaders’ sons and daughters study in Kunming. The daughter of the former Mong La mayor recently graduated from a university in Shanghai. Many others are receiving higher education in Chengdu, Guilin and Kunming.
While traditional links have helped fuel this close cross-border relationship, in the past 25 years it has been trade that has been the main locomotive.
Since 1993, according to local Chinese officials, cross-border trade has mushroomed. Trade between Yunnan and Burma represents around half of the total bilateral trade between the two countries. Official Burmese government figures put this at $2.4 billion in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, almost double the previous year’s.
This trade, however, has primarily benefited the Chinese—almost all the increase has been the result of the massive rise in the volume of Chinese imports, as the value of Burmese exports has remained relatively constant since 1988.
As part of plans to further promote trade between the two countries, special economic or free trade areas are also being set up. The border crossing between Muse and Ruili is the biggest trade route at present. The Yunnan provincial government has recently proposed setting up a Ruili cross-border economic cooperation zone, while the Dehong zone county government, in which the area falls, proposes to construct a Ruili-Muse free trade area. The Burmese government is also in favor of the plans, so the project is expected to move ahead in the near future.
Burma agreed more than three years ago in principal to establish a tax-free trade area near Muse. Nearly 300 square kilometers have been designated for the zone, known now as “Muse 105 Ma.” Chinese exports are free to enter Burma through Muse, Jiugu and Nankang, and are processed in the zone. Although yet to be officially announced, according to Chinese officials, this has already made Muse and Jiugu a very special economic zone, which offers Chinese goods extremely preferential treatment.
A border export processing base has also been established at Kunming, Honghe, Dali, Baoshan and Dehong, forming the main trade hubs in the zone. Many enterprises which produce export products have set up offices and factories near the border areas to directly benefit from the growing border trade.
The Yunnan authorities understand that protecting the growing trade with their neighbor is extremely important to the province’s long-term economic future. The provincial government recently drew up detailed plans to further promote border trade with Burma. This has included favorable customs and visa procedures, and streamlined bureaucracy. But there are fears that because of the low level of trade, there may be central government interference in the future.
“The preferential policies protecting cross-border trade [which had been approved by Beijing in 1996] are vitally important to Yunnan Province, although the trade is relatively small,” a senior Kunming customs official told The Irrawaddy.
“Yunnan would be seriously affected should the preferential policies be removed by the central government,” he said.
The central authorities are currently concerned that the system may contravene World Trade Organization rules. But local officials at the Yunnan commerce department reject this view, pointing out that the US and Mexico, adjacent to each other, have preferential policies.
While Beijing may not be concerned about the official trade between the province and Burma, the central government there is more concerned about the unofficial and illegal trade that is taking place, in the form of drugs, timber, wildlife and human trafficking.
Local Chinese merchants once benefited from the abundant supply of high grade timber imported from Burma. “We love Myanmar [Burmese] timber because it is good quality,” a businessman in Fujian province, on China’s southeastern coast, told a Chinese academic. “We can process it into furniture and then sell it on to Japan and the US.”
Between 2001 and 2005, imports of timber represented around one-fifth of the volume of Burma’s bilateral trade with Yunnan. But that ended abruptly when Chinese President Hu Jintao intervened after several Chinese loggers were arrested in Burma. If Chinese lives are at risk, national and political considerations overrule local economic business interests. Illegal logging has been effectively banned by the Chinese and very little now makes its way across the border, timber merchants in Kunming told The Irrawaddy.
Fears that unofficial cross-border trade—especially in arms, drugs and people—was getting out of hand a few years ago also prompted the central authorities to intervene. In late 2003, in a move to tighten border controls, Beijing assigned the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to replace the border police along the Sino-Burmese border. In December 2004, the Burmese junta’s No 3, Gen Thura Shwe Mann, and Gen Ge Zhenfeng, the PLA’s deputy chief of staff, signed a Memorandum of Understanding that established a mechanism of meetings, talks and contacts between the Chinese and Burmese armies to deal with border affairs.
This seems to be the new pattern. Yunnan and other border areas may be pushing for greater trade and contacts between Burma and China, but Beijing wants to limit anything that may be unintentionally promoting corruption and crime, including drugs smuggling and human trafficking.
The overall concern in Beijing is that Chinese policy in practice should not indirectly make the border areas unstable and insecure. The divergent interests of Kunming and Beijing may yet be put to the test if the Burmese military government’s attempts to disarm the ethnic rebel ceasefire groups, especially the United Wa State Army, and form a force of guards on the Burmese side of the border fail and the danger arises of renewed armed conflict.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org
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UN, West pressure Myanmar for change from within
By JOHN HEILPRIN (AP) – 17 hours ago
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that elections in Myanmar must be free and fair, amid mounting concerns that they won't be.
"We need to work more for the democratization of Myanmar," Ban told a press conference in Oslo, Norway, with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. "This election in 2010 must be a fair and credible and inclusive one."
Ban said he was working hard to keep the pressure on General Than Shwe and other of Myanmar's leaders to live up to their commitments to hold legitimate elections in 2010. At a minimum, the U.N. wants Suu Kyi and 2,000 other political prisoners released. A transcript of Ban's remarks were made available at the U.N. in New York.
Than Shwe has resisted U.N. demands to open up democratically, ignoring four Security Council statements and direct entreaties by Ban and a top envoy. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since her pro-democracy party won in the polls but was denied power.
Myanmar's government has given no indication it will release her or the 200 political prisoners that Ibrahim Gambari, Ban's top envoy, told The Associated Press he expected would be freed after Ban's most recent trip.
Western and U.N. diplomats increasingly view Myanmar as intent on holding staged elections to enshrine its military dictatorship next year, with few other than the government or neighboring China able to steer an alternate course.
"It's the Burmese leadership that have to take the decision to move forward, rather than to keep their country held back in a state of lack of freedom, military regime and an environment in which there's going to be very little international investment," British Ambassador John Sawers said in an AP interview.
China and Russia, two of Myanmar's main weapons suppliers and trading partners, oppose the idea of a U.N.-backed international arms embargo, and they also blocked the council from making anything more than a tepid protest of Suu Kyi's return to house arrest on Aug. 11.
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UN's Ban says has his own leadership style
Mon Aug 31, 2009 5:15pm IST
OSLO (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded to Norwegian criticism of his leadership on Monday by saying he had his own style and charisma.
Ban met Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to discuss climate change during a visit that followed the leak of a scathing memo in which Norway's deputy U.N. Ambassador Mona Juul said Ban suffered from "a lack of charisma"
Juul accused Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, of weak, ineffective and at times counterproductive leadership, Norwegian daily Aftenposten had reported.
Norway has stressed that the letter was an internal diplomatic memo and not a statement by the government.
"We all have a different background, leadership styles. We must respect each others'," Ban told a news conference. "I have my own leadership style, my own charisma."
Juul reportedly wrote that Ban was a mere "passive observer" after Myanmar's arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and that his visit there to meet the hardline generals was fruitless and could create problems for lower-level diplomats.
The secretary-general pointed to his diplomatic efforts last year, when he persuaded Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe to lift humanitarian aid restrictions after Cyclone Nargis. Ban said he was committed to work for democratization of Myanmar.
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved http://in.reuters. com/article/ worldNews/ idINIndia- 42110220090831
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/8/31
ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/8/31
People's Forum on Burma
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ＰＦＢ事務局 宮澤
http://www1.jca.apc.org/pfb/
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ビルマ情報ネットワークの「今週のビルマのニュース」をお送りします。
「今週のビルマのニュース」バックナンバー
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/this_week.php?mode=3
「きょうのビルマのニュース」もご利用ください。
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2
ビルマ情報ネットワーク （www.burmainfo.org）
秋元由紀
========================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年8月28日【0933号】
========================================
【コーカン地区で戦闘？ 難民1万人が中国に】
・中国に接するシャン州コーカン地区で、コーカン軍MNDAA
（1989年に軍政と停戦合意）が親軍政派と反軍政派に分裂した。
軍政も派兵し、同地区の首都ラオカイを制圧した。現地のメディア
によればMNDAAの反軍政派と国軍との間で散発的な衝突が
起きている。住民約1万人が中国側に難民として流入した
（26日ロイター、28日ブルームバーグほか）。
・ワ州連合軍（UWSA）やカチン独立機構（KIO）などの
停戦団体がMNDAA（反軍政側）と同盟関係にある。UWSAの
拠点を狙ったビルマ国軍の砲弾が国境を越えて中国側に落ち、
死傷者が出たとの情報もある（28日シャン・ヘラルド・ニュース）。
【背景】軍政は来年予定の選挙を前に、停戦協定を結んだ
武装勢力に対しそれぞれの軍部を国境警備隊に再編し、
国軍の指揮下に入れるよう要求している。MNDAAに対しては、
8月初旬に違法薬物捜索の名目で議長宅に兵士を送るなどし
圧力を強めていた。
【外務省、親軍政団体の幹部を日本に招待】
・軍政の農業灌漑大臣で、軍政の翼賛団体「連邦連帯開発
協会」（「連邦団結発展協会」とも。略称はUSDA）の総書記も
務めるテーウー少将らが、外務省の招きで20日から来日した。
24日には在日ビルマ人団体などが抗議デモを行った
（22日朝日ほか）。
・同協会は2003年5月のアウンサンスーチー氏襲撃事件への
関与が指摘されたほか、2007年9月のデモ行進の際にも会員
がデモ参加者を殴打、逮捕したと報告があった。協会幹部は
欧米の制裁対象者となっており、米国やEUに原則として入国できない。
・中曽根外相は25日の記者会見で、テーウー少将の訪問は
「偶然この時期になった」、また「連邦連帯開発協会における
地位とは、今回お呼びしたのと何ら関係のないこと」と述べた。
同日テーウー少将と会談し「来年の総選挙が国際社会から祝福
されるため…民主化がすべての関係者が含まれる形で進められ
ることを強く希望する」と伝えた（25日外務省）。
【イェトー氏「警備員は握手して入れてくれた」】
・5月にビルマの最大都市ラングーン（ヤンゴン）の湖を泳いで
湖畔のアウンサンスーチー氏宅を訪れた米国人男性ジョン・
イェトー氏が帰国した。ニューズウィークの質問に対し、スーチー氏
宅敷地に入ったとき「AK-47（ライフル）を持った警備員が握手して
入れてくれた」と語った。CNNテレビの番組では、スーチー氏は
彼の訪問を喜んでいたと述べた（22日ニューズウィーク、28日CNN）。
【アウンサンスーチー氏が来週にも控訴へ】
・イェトー氏を自宅に入れたことを理由に11日に有罪判決を受け、
自宅軟禁されているアウンサンスーチー氏は来週にも控訴する予定
（27日AP）。
【ビルマへの政府開発援助（ODA）約束状況など】
新たな発表はなし
【イベント情報】
・在日ビルマ人共同行動実行委員会ほか
ビルマ軍政に対しアウンサンスーチーさんと全ての
政治囚の釈放と民主化勢力との対話を要請するアピール行動
（在日ビルマ大使館前、24～28日15～16時）
・宇田有三 ビルマ プチ写真展
13点展示、写真など販売あり。
（京都市中京区堺町御池下ル丸木材木町675
フォルムズ烏丸御池102「森の小枝」、
8月25日～9月13日11時～19時）（月曜除く）
・日本ビルマ救援センター月例ビルマ問題学習会
特別講演会 梶藍子さん「メータオ・クリニック現地活動報告」
（阪南大学サテライト（中小企業ベンチャーセンタ－）、9月6日16時～）
・日本ビルマ救援センター「2009年夏 国境訪問報告会」
（クレオ大阪東 研修室2F、9月20日18時～）
報告内容：訪問地、各難民キャンプの現状、
メータオ・クリニックの活動、BRCJ支援状況、他
・第13回ビルマ市民フォーラム総会
最新のビルマ情勢報告（仮題）
報告者 根本敬氏・秋元由紀氏
（池袋・ECOとしま8階、9月12日18時～）
【もっと詳しい情報は】
「きょうのビルマのニュース」
http://www.burmainfo.org/news/today.php?mode=2
ビルマ情報ネットワーク
http://www.burmainfo.org/
【お問い合わせ】
ビルマ情報ネットワーク 秋元由紀
====================================
今週のビルマのニュース Eメール版
2009年8月28日【0933号】
作成： ビルマ情報ネットワーク
協力： ビルマ市民フォーラム
====================================
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以下のＵＲＬをご覧ください。
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