News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 10 January, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 10 January, 2011
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Burma to hold first parliamentary session in 22 years
Burma enacts military draft law
Mongla base shelled by Burma Army artillery
Thais Tighten Border Security Amid Clashes
Kachin Farmers Fight On
Unease Grows over Plans to Introduce Draft
Jailed DVB reporter in isolation cell
Burma parliament to meet January 31: state TV
Myanmar enacts 17 new laws under new state constitution
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Burma to hold first parliamentary session in 22 years

Burma's new parliament will hold its first session in 22 years on January 31, according to state radio, an event the country's military rulers hail as one of the final steps in its self-styled "road map to democracy".
AFP : 10:00AM GMT 10 Jan 2011

Burma's 1,154 lawmakers, dominated by the junta-linked party, will meet in a massive new building in the remote capital of Naypyitaw, the brief announcement said. It will be the first parliamentary session since a 1988 meeting in the old capital of Rangoon, which the junta renamed Yangon a year later.

The ruling junta's military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, garnered nearly 80 per cent of seats in the two-house Union Parliament in Nov. 7 polls, the country's first in two decades. The country's 14 regional parliaments will convene the same day in their respective areas, the announcement said.

"We have waited 20 years to be able to make our demands through the parliament," said Thein Nyunt, a member of the opposition National Democratic Force. "Now that the parliament is going to be convened, I hope I will be able to work for the betterment of the people and the country from within the system."

The opposition party, formed by a faction of Suu Kyi's party after it was disbanded for boycotting the polls, holds a mere 12 seats total in the national parliament.

Government opponents and outside observers have called the elections unfair and undemocratic, saying the results were manipulated to allow the military-backed party to win. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/8249936/Burma-to-hold-first-parliamentary-session-in-22-years.html
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Burma enacts military draft law
By AP News Jan 10, 2011 4:30AM UTC

YANGON, Burma (AP) — Military-ruled Burma has enacted a law that could draft men and women into the armed forces and mete out prison sentences of up to five years for draft dodgers. The country currently has a volunteer army.

According to an official document seen Monday the law will come into force when proclaimed by the ruling military council.

Burma’s 400,000-strong military ranks among the largest in the world. Its troops are engaged in a continuing conflict with several ethnic minority groups seeking autonomy from the central government.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.http://asiancorrespondent.com/45790/myanmar-enacts-military-draft-law/
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Mongla base shelled by Burma Army artillery
Monday, 10 January 2011 15:07 Hseng Khio Fah

Burma Army’s artillery force, which is based in Shan State East’s Mongyawng township, has reportedly targeted and tested their weapons against one of the groups that is at loggerheads. This group is the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), better known as Mongla group, according to sources from Mongla.

The incident took place on 7 January. The base that was attacked was located on Loi Parng Nao, which, at 5, 842 feet, is the second highest mountain in the Shan State. 15 155 mm artillery shells had fallen both inside and around the base. No injuries were reported on the Mongla side, an officer from the group said.

According to him, the Burma Army reportedly told the group [Mongla] a day earlier that they were going to test their weapons. The Mongla group says it did not expect the Burma Army to fire upon their base. They thought the Burma Army should not have targeted their base in the first place, if what they wanted was peace.

“It was like they intended to intimidate us,” the officer commented.

The recently used 155 mm artillery, which is said to be able to reach 24 kilometers, was reportedly brought from China, Mongla sources said.

Concerning the test, some border watchers on the Sino-Burma border commented the incident does not mean there would be a possible war; however, it could relate to some of the Mongla group’s speeches delivered on Burma Independence Day, January 4.

“The speech recalled that Burma Independence Day came from the Panglong Agreement, which was signed by different ethnic territories and Burma's representative General Aung San in order to demand Britain for independence and establish a genune federal union. But contrary to expectations, it was just artificial Independence aid an artificial union,” the source said.

Another factor that could have made the junta unhappy is that the Mongla is still said to be using the old national flag, not the new flag as stipulated in 2008 constitution.

Regarding the shooting, the Mongla made no response except to order all of its fighters to stay alert and keep an eye on the Burma Army movement.

The Loi Pangnao Mountain is an important strategic location that the two sides [Burma Army and Mongla] have been scrambling over each other for possession since September 2009. Each side is telling the other to stay off the mountain but neither is leaving. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3402:mongla-base-shelled-by-burma-army-artillery&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
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Thais Tighten Border Security Amid Clashes
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, January 10, 2011

Thai authorities have raised border security after some artillery shells fired by Burmese troops during two days of clashes with a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) exploded near a village in Thailand's Mae Sot District.

The incident will be investigated and if necessary the Thai government will issue a formal complaint to the Burmese regime through the the two countries' border committee, according to the commander of the Royal Thai Army's Mae Sot-based No. 4 Regional Command, speaking to reporters.

Around 100 heavy artillery shells were fired by Burmese troops during fighting that started at 7 o'clock this morning, with six of the shells exploding on the Thai side. Yesterday, 11 shells fired by government troops exploded near the village of Mae Koking in Mae Sot District.

A DKBA officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that two of their troops were injured by today’s artillery fire.

The regime troops started firing heavy artillery yesterday, mainly targeting DKBA troops near the villages of Waw Lay and Phaluu in Kawkareik Township, Karen State.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Nan Phaw Gay, the editor of the Karen Information Center in Mae Sot, said, “Government troops carried out heavy attacks yesterday. They fired heavy artillery the whole day. We can’t confirm how many have been injured or killed yet.”

Maj San Aung from DKBA Brigade 5 said that the regime's troops were responding to the DKBA's successful guerrilla tactics, which he said have been effective against Burmese forces in the area.

“The government wants to take the Waw Lay and Phaluu areas as soon as possible,” he added.

A local resident of Phaluu told The Irrawaddy that hundreds of people from the area have fled to Thailand since yesterday and are currently at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot.

DKBA Brigade 5, led by Col Saw Lah Pwe, is the first ethnic armed group to engage in hostilities with the regime over the issue of the junta's border guard force (BGF) plan, which would put armed cease-fire groups under Burmese military command. Clashes between the DKBA and Burmese troops began on Nov. 7, 2010, the day the regime held its first election in 20 years.

According to recent unconfirmed reports, a meeting was held last Friday between Maj-Gen Thet Naing Win, the commander of the Burmese army's Bureau of Special Operation 4 (BSO-4), and DKBA leaders to negotiate an end to the current situation.

A Burmese military source said that he couldn't confirm or deny the rumor, but added that it was unlikely. “Commanding officers from the Southeastern Military Command said they don’t need to negotiate with the DKBA,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Burmese army artillery unit based in Mong Yawn Township in eastern Shan State started firing artillery near a camp of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), another armed cease-fire group that has rejected the BGF scheme, on Friday.

The unit warned on Jan. 6 that it planned to start artillery firing training on Friday, but nobody expected the shells to land so close to the NDAA camp, said an NDAA officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They [the local artillery unit] can do their training somewhere else. We didn’t know that they were planning to fire shells near our camp. They fired 15 times with 155-mm shells, but they all exploded outside of our camp and no one was injured,” the NDAA officer said.

The NDAA has between 1,000 and 1,200 troops and is based in Mongla in eastern Shan State, according to exiled military observers.

The military junta has been pressuring the ethnic cease-fire groups to join the BGF scheme since April 2009. Most, however, have refused, including the United Wa Stated Army, the strongest ethnic army, with an estimated 30,000 troops, and the Kachin Independence Army, with an estimated 10,000 troops.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20499
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Kachin Farmers Fight On
By KO HTWE Monday, January 10, 2011

Farmers whose lands were confiscated by the Yuzana Company in Hpakant Township in Kachin State are to file an appeal to the High Court in Naypyidaw contesting the State Court decision to award them minimal compensation.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Kyaw Soe Lin, one of the lawyers for the farmers, said that the Myitkyina State Court on Friday ordered Yuzana to pay each farmer the sum of no more than 80,000 kyat (US $80) per acre for land seized or confiscated.

“The farmers are demanding compensation for the nearly three years that they have been unable to work on their lands,” he said. “However, they were not awarded the compensation they deserve and will file an appeal.”

The verdict affected two groups, one representing 46 farmers and the other 17 farmers. A third group of 20 farmers' lawsuit was rejected outright by the court in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital.

Some 600 farmers were evicted from their lands between 2006 and 2008 without full compensation, and were displaced to areas far from their original homes. Several of the farmers banded together to hire legal teams which filed lawsuits in August claiming the land seizures were illegal.

Yuzana, which plans to use the land to grow tapioca and sugarcane, persuaded them to drop the case in return for payments of 80,000 kyat ($80) per acre to a maximum of 500 evicted farmers. However, of the farmers who accepted the pay-off, many are still waiting for the compensation. Most rejected the offer and filed lawsuits in 2010.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, Pho Phyu, a lawyer who has previously represented Rangoon farmers in land seizure cases, said that the authorities were awarding lands “to wealthy persons” as part of a State policy to “industrialize agriculture.”

He added: “In fact, the authorities are helping the wealthy businessmen get richer and richer.”

There are no less than 343 land seizure cases in Rangoon Division alone where private companies have confiscated lands belonging to farmers with the help of local authorities, said Pho Phyu.

The 1963 Safeguarding Peasants' Rights Law, Section (3), states that “a Civil Court shall not make a decree or order for: a warrant of attachment for or confiscation of agricultural land; neither for employed livestock and implements, harrows and implements, other animate and inanimate implements, nor the produce of agricultural land; prohibition of work upon or entry into agricultural land; prohibition of movement or sale in whole or part or use of employed livestock and implements, harrows and implements, other animate and inanimate implements, or the produce of agricultural land.”

However, “the farmers had to vacate their land and were scolded harshly by the Company manager,” said Pho Phyu.

Recently, about 200 farmers demonstrated peacefully in front of the office of the General Administrative Department of Eastern Rangoon District against the land confiscations and demanded the return of their land by 11 private companies.

The Yuzana Company is owned by Htay Myint who is on the US sanctions blacklist because of his close ties to the junta generals. He won his Tenasserim Division constituency for the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party in November's general election.

His Yuzana Company was granted 200,000 acres in the Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve in 2006 to establish tapioca and sugar cane plantations, according to a report by the Kachin Development Networking Group. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20498
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Unease Grows over Plans to Introduce Draft
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, January 10, 2011

RANGOON — News of the recent enactment of a military conscription law that will force young Burmese to join the armed forces or face prison sentences of up to five years is causing serious concern among the general public, according to an informal survey by The Irrawaddy.

In interviews with more than 100 Rangoon residents from various walks of life, The Irrawaddy found that around 90 percent were opposed to the imposition of mandatory military service and did not want to participate in it or allow their children to do so.

According to The Associated Press, the law, dated Nov. 4, 2010, but still not made public, will require every man between the age of 18 and 45 and every woman between 18 and 35 to serve in the military for two years, which could be increased to five years in times of national emergencies.

Those who fail to report for military service could get three years in prison, a fine or both, and those who deliberately inflict injury upon themselves to avoid conscription could be imprisoned for up to five years, fined or both, the AP reported.

“This news has been spreading since the end of December,” said one Rangoon resident, speaking on condition of anonymity. “People have been talking about it on the Internet and Facebook and are getting worried because they don't want to serve in the military.”

One reason many people are opposed to the draft, he said, is public contempt for the armed forces, which for decades has been the key to keeping the country's deeply unpopular rulers in power.

“The army has violently suppressed Burmese citizens ever since it seized state power in 1962, so people's bitterness has grown from generation to generation. Young people today witnessed violent crackdowns on protests in 1988 and 2007, so they hate the generals and curse the soldiers,” said a gold shop owner in Rangoon.

One 50-year-old mother with two sons over the age of 18 said she would not allow them to be drafted.

“I don't care what the law says, I can't send my sons to the army, not for a short time or a long time,” she said. “I believe other parents think the same way as I do, so we will all oppose it together. If we can't stop it, we will have no choice but to protest against it until we die.”

A Rangoon-based reporter told The Irrawaddy that he could not confirm with regime officials that the conscription law had in fact been enacted. He added, however, that people were taking the reports very seriously, and suggested that the new law could lead to unrest.

“People are furious at the thought that their children could be forced to join the army, which they see as cruel and violent,” he said. “They are worried about the harm that will be inflicted on their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and will not accept this law.”

Some, however, saw the conscription law as an opportunity to forge closer ties between the army and civilians, possibly with the effect of making the armed forces more attuned to the needs of the public.

“I think we will be nearer our democratic goals when people understand military affairs. Because of the conscription law, people will become soldiers and the army will be viewed as the people's army and will no longer follow the orders of the dictators,” said an independent candidate who ran in Burma's first election in 20 years on Nov. 7, 2010.

The move to introduce conscription did not come as a complete surprise. Article 386, Chapter VIII of Burma's 2008 Constitution states that “Every citizen has the duty to undergo military training in accord with the provisions of the law and to serve in the Armed Forces to defend the Union.”

“Citizens will definitely have to serve in the armed forces in accordance with the Constitution, but we won't know how this will be implemented until after the Parliament is convened,” said a lawyer in Rangoon. “We don't know, for instance, what kind of exceptions there will be. So it's not something we need to worry about now. If it is applied too stringently, however, people will resist it.”

The regime claimed that 92.48 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in favor of the 2008 Constitution in a national referendum held on May 10, 2008.

Related articles: Conscription in Burma Following Election?
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20497
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Jailed DVB reporter in isolation cell
By KHIN HNIN HTET
Published: 10 January 2011


A young DVB reporter recently sentenced to eight years in prison has been placed in solitary confinement in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.

A source close to the prison said that it was Sithu Zeya’s lack of understanding about prison customs that meant he didn’t stand to attention when the institution’s director showed up.

The director, Win Naing, had visited his block after hearing reports that political prisoners, including Sithu Zeya, were assaulted by other inmates, and some left with serious injuries.

The 21-year-old was convicted in December last year by a Rangoon township court of illegal border crossing and holding ties to an unlawful organisation. He is facing a further charge under the Electronics Act, which can result in up to 20 years in prison.

He had been arrested after photographing the damage caused by the Rangoon bombings on 15 April, which left nine dead.

Sithu’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a DVB reporter, was arrested a day after his son and is still awaiting a verdict, but from a high-level court which could carry a more severe sentence.

Burma was last month ranked fourth in a list of global countries that imprison journalists. Nearly 20 DVB journalists are currently behind bars. http://www.dvb.no/news/jailed-dvb-reporter-in-isolation-cell/13658
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Burma parliament to meet January 31: state TV

* Published: 10/01/2011 at 03:30 PM
* Online news: Asia

Burma's new parliament is to convene for the first time on January 31, state media announced Monday, two months after the military-ruled country held a rare but widely criticised election.

A Myanmar soldier parades during Armed Forces Day in the country's administrative capital, Naypyidaw. The country's new parliament is to convene for the first time on January 31, state media announced Monday, two months after the military-ruled country held a rare but widely criticised election.

The two-chamber parliament will meet in the capital Naypyidaw, while new regional legislatures will convene at the same time, government-controlled television reported, quoting an order from junta chief Senior General Than Shwe.

The main army-backed party claimed an overwhelming victory in the November 7 poll -- Burma's first in 20 years -- with about 80 percent of available seats. An official final tally of results has not been announced.

Under Burma's 2008 constitution, parliament need not meet more than once a year.

One quarter of the places in parliament were already reserved for the military, which together with its political proxy will have a comfortable majority for passing laws and electing the president.

It is unclear what role Than Shwe plans for himself.

Burma, ruled by the military since 1962, has been condemned by the West for an election critics say was a sham designed to cloak ongoing army rule.

The vote was widely criticised by democracy activists and Western governments owing to allegations of fraud and intimidation as well as the exclusion of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party was forced to disband for boycotting the election in response to rules that seemed designed to bar the Nobel Peace Prize winner from taking part.

The democracy icon has spent most of the past 20 years locked up but was freed from her latest seven-year stretch of confinement just days after the poll.

Her party won a landslide election victory in 1990 but it was never recognised by the regime.

The boycott decision deeply split the opposition movement, with a group of former Suu Kyi colleagues who disagreed with her stance breaking away to form a new party -- the National Democratic Force -- to fight the poll.

It won 16 seats after fielding 161 candidates but has complained of widespread fraud by the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

More than 3,000 candidates took part in the election for about 1,160 seats available in the national and regional parliaments.

Two pro-junta parties together fielded about two-thirds of the candidates and the opposition was absent in many areas. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/215338/burma-parliament-to-meet-january-31-state-tv
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Myanmar enacts 17 new laws under new state constitution
20:33, January 10, 2011

Photo taken on March 26, 2010 shows the parliament building locates in Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar. Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on Monday announced the date of Jan. 31 for first parliamentary session at three levels, the state-run television reported. (Xinhua/Zhang Yunfei)

The ruling Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Monday enacted 17 new laws under the new state constitution which will come out in the form of books, the state radio and television reported Monday.

The promulgation of the laws came in a series with the announcement of the date of Jan. 31 for calling the first parliamentary sessions at three levels after the end of Nov 2010 general election.

These laws include those related to state seal, election of president and vice-presidents, union government, region or state government, self-administered region or zone government, Nay Pyi Taw Council, constitution-related tribunal, state flag, state anthem , union parliament, house of representatives, house of nationalities, region or state parliament, union judiciary, union attorney-general and union auditor-general, the report said.

The enactment of the 17 laws will provide reference for the holding of the coming first three-level parliamentary sessions in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.

The union parliament, made up of house of representatives, house of nationalities and region or state parliament, will elect the state's president and vice presidents.

Each level of the parliaments will consist of elected parliament representatives through Nov. 7, 2010 general election and non-elected military representatives, nominated by the commander-in-chief which account for 25 percent of the total parliamentary seats.

Source: Xinhua