News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 11 January, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 11 January, 2011
-------------------------------------------------
Following Suu Kyi's Advice, Youth Network Takes Shape
Stilwell Rd to be reborn
Thais Call on Burma to Cease Artillery Fire
Parliamentary Books Sell Out on First Day
Battle continues near the Thai-Myanmar border
CNPC, Qingdao Port ink deal for Myanmar pipeline
Burma’s New Parliament Set to Meet
Burma Enacts Military Draft Law
Student army taken off US terror list
60 Rangoon Monasteries to be Relocated
--------------------------------------------------




Following Suu Kyi's Advice, Youth Network Takes Shape
By KO HTWE Tuesday, January 11, 2011

When Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi played host to a large gathering of young people on Dec. 28, she urged them to listen not only to her, but also to each other.

They seem to have got the message.

Since that meeting two weeks ago, many of the attendees have begun sharing information, using email addresses and telephone numbers they exchanged after their meeting with Suu Kyi.

Now a wide cross-section of socially engaged young people—from political parties, civil society organizations and groups representing ethnic minorities—have formed a National Youth Network that continues to grow with each passing day.

“The participants who attended the conference stayed in touch through e-mail and telephone. That's how the network got started. Now we have political parties and social groups contacting us every day,” said Myo Yan Naung Thein, the leader of a team coordinating the network's activities.

Than Min Soe, a youth member from the Union Democratic Party who joined the network along with 32 other members of the party, said the network is open to anyone who wants to join and cooperate with people who share their goals.

“We can explain the policies and opinions of our party to other network members, and they can also share information with us. We can also do social work together,” said Than Min Soe.

He added that another advantage of the network is that members need only take part in discussions that reflect their own concerns.

“We can stay away if the issues others are involved in are different from our own interests,” he said.

Than Zaw Aung, a youth member of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), said he joined the network with 16 other young lawyers because he wants to work together with them to fight injustices such as illegal land confiscation.

“We intend to increase our capacity-building so that other young people can work together for the good of the country in the post-election period. We will also try to expose injustices through the network,” he said.

Kyaw Min Hlaing, who competed in last year's Nov. 7 election as a candidate for the National Democratic Front, said that the network would benefit everybody by enabling them to share their points of view.

“We can extend our social work through the network. And since I belong to a legally registered party, I also look forward to doing political activities through the network,” said Kyaw Min Hlaing, who also belongs to a volunteer group that teaches orphans and students in Rangoon's Thanlyin Township.

“We can contact groups that are scattered all over the place,” said Wai Phyo Aung, a leading member of Mizzima Alin, a civil society organization whose members include doctors and university and technical students engaged in social work.

“We can do more social work and get to know each other better because of the network,” said Thiri, a member of the Development Association for Youth, a group that focuses on teaching orphans, the children of HIV/AIDS patients and the poor. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20505
------------------------------------------------------
ASIA TIMES: Jan 12, 2011
Stilwell Rd to be reborn
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Myanmar seems to have finally overcome its longstanding reluctance to reopening the historic Stilwell Road, which crosses the northwest of the country to link India with China.

Mahesh Saharia, chairperson of the Northeastern Initiative of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, describes the gains from the reopening of the Stilwell Road as "unimaginable".

The Myanmar government awarded a contract to rebuild a 312-kilometer stretch of the road running from Myitkyina in Myanmar to Pangsau Pass on the India-Myanmar border to China's Yunnan Construction Engineering Group.

The award of the contract to a Chinese company is a setback to India in its battle with China for influence in Myanmar, but the renovation of the Myitkyina-Tanai-Pangsau Pass section of the road will benefit all three countries, indeed the wider region, immensely.

The reopening of the Stilwell road could cut by 30% the cost of transporting goods between India and China, providing a boost to Sino-Indian overland trade in a few years.

Originally termed the Ledo Road, the 1,736 km Stilwell Road was built during World War II from Ledo in Assam to Kunming so that the Western Allies could supply Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang forces after another route had been cut by the Japanese in 1942. It was renamed after General Vinegar Joe Stilwell of the US Army in 1945.

It winds its way from Ledo in Assam through Jairampur and Nampong in Arunachal Pradesh until it reaches the Pangsau Pass (aka the "Hell Pass") where it crosses into Myanmar. The road then weaves through upper Myanmar to reach Myitkyina before turning eastward to China where it culminates at Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. Roughly 61 km runs through India, 1,035 km through Myanmar and 640 km in China.

After the war, the road fell into disuse. The Indian northeast and much of the road's route through Myanmar were wracked by insurgencies. Myanmar's inward-looking policy and avoidance of contact with the outside world, as well as poor relations between India, Myanmar and China, meant that none of these countries used the road.

That has now changed. Relations between the three countries have improved significantly, resulting in a revival of interest in reopening the road. However, stretches of the road, especially in Myanmar, were in poor condition or simply no longer exist.

Agreement for the renovation of the Myitkyina-Tanai-Pangsau Pass was signed in November, according to the Indian Express. The project will be undertaken as a joint venture by Yunnan Construction and Myanmar's military-backed Yuzana Group.

Of the three countries, China has been most enthusiastic about reopening the road and Myanmar the least keen. Beijing has already renovated the stretch running through China and linked it the country's superhighway network. It has also been developing other infrastructure in Yunnan, where Kunming is an increasingly important industrial center, in order to maximize gains from trade once the Stilwell Road is reopened.

Since the road runs through the insurgency-wracked Kachin region over which Myanmar's military rulers have limited control, they have been reluctant to allow the road's opening, seeing it as likely to facilitate movement of insurgents.

With the award of the contract for repairing the Myitkyina-Pangsau Pass stretch, the last obstacle on the way to reopening the Stilwell road has been removed.

India was hoping to land the renovation project, particularly as Myanmar's rulers had raised the issue with New Delhi in 2008. The loss of the contract to China has evoked disappointment in Delhi, but India too will reap the benefits of the reopened road.

The two areas that the road will link - India's northeast and China's Yunnan - are both isolated, economically backward and landlocked and the trade the Stilwell road will encourage is likely to bring in its wake economic development to these regions.

Partition of the sub-continent in 1947, severing what is now Bangladesh from India, deprived the northeast of access to its nearest port, Chittagong. Sixty years on, the region's access to the sea is about 1,600 km away - overland via a poor road and rail network and through the narrow Siliguri Corridor to Kolkata port. Goods from India's northeast headed for China or Southeast Asian countries are at present shipped via Kolkata through the Strait of Malacca and on to China.

"It takes seven days for cargo to move by road from the northeast to Kolkata, then around three to four weeks to move by sea to China," said Saharia. Cargo from the northeast transported along the Stilwell Road could reach Yunnan in less than two days.

The Stilwell Road could emerge as a preferred route for transporting goods to China from other parts of India too, given the short distance to Yunnan.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a visit to India in December said "The world is undergoing major development and changes, we should seize the opportunity and lose no time in deepening our ties."

During his visit, the countries set a new bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015 from the 2009-10 level of around $60 billion. At present there is a $19 billion balance in China's favor. Even if a fraction of this trade were to take place through the Stilwell Road it has the potential to improve the economies of regions en route.

Other routes run from the northeast India through Myanmar to Southeast Asia, including the Moreh-Tamu road, which links Manipur with Myanmar. India's National Highway 39, which runs from Numaligarh in Assam through Nagaland links up with this road at Moreh. The expectations of the Moreh-Tamu road have, however, not been realized as this road is closed for at least a third of the year due to strikes and civil unrest.

Construction on the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project is reported to have begun late last month. The project envisages connecting the northeastern state of Mizoram with the Bay of Bengal and is expected to be completed by 2013, giving goods from India's landlocked northeast access to the sea.

The project involves constructing roads linking Mizoram with Kaletwa in Myanmar, development of the Kaladan River as a waterway and improving the infrastructure of the port at Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's Arakan province and the point where the Kaladan River empties into the Bay of Bengal.

Thus goods from the northeast can be transported by road and river to Sittwe port from where it can be moved by sea to other Southeast Asian countries. Sittwe's importance as a port will also grow as it serves as a center for development of offshore gas fields in the area and terminal for a gas pipeline planned to run north to China.

India had been eyeing Sittwe port for several reasons, sea access for cargo from the northeast being one. Indian interest in Sittwe was also particularly high as relations with Bangladesh have at times been poor and Dhaka was reluctant to give Indian goods access to its Chittagong port.

Relations with Bangladesh have improved substantially over the past two years and Dhaka has expressed interest in allowing India to use Chittagong port as another outlet for its goods.

Access to Chittagong will no doubt reduce the commercial importance of Sittwe to India. But Sittwe has strategic importance for India as well. Besides, access to road, rail and other outlets in more countries is good for trade, Saharia said, pointing out that this “will reduce India's dependence on one country.”

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MA12Df03.html
------------------------------------------------------
Thais Call on Burma to Cease Artillery Fire
By SAI ZOM HSENG Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Thai authorities have sent a letter to the Burmese government through the Thai-Burmese Border Committee calling on Burma to control the firing of heavy artillery after several shells landed and exploded on the Thai side of the two countries' mutual border during clashes between Burmese government forces and a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), according to Manager, an online news service belonging to the Thai News Group.

It reported that the commander of the Royal Thai Army's Mae Sot-based No. 4 Regional Command confirmed that during the battles between the Burmese army and the DKBA Brigade 5 troops on Sunday and Monday, “many” artillery shells exploded near Mae Koking village in Thailand's Mae Sot District.

The two-day series of skirmishes involved, on one side, Burmese government forces and their allies, the DKBA, which is now incorporated into a border guard force unit under Burmese command, while on the other side, a coordinated resistance by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), which is the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), is fighting alongside the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) and the splinter group Brigade 5 of the DKBA, according to Khin Kyaw, the secretary of the ABSDF military commission.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Khin Kyaw said, “This two-day battle was the most serious fighting in the past couple of months. They [government] attacked us powerfully with a view to decimating us if they could.”

With regard to the timing of the military operation, Khin Kyaw said, “The government announced that they will convene Parliament on Jan. 31. Before that day, they want to totally secure the situation [at the border]. They don’t want to let the DKBA [Brigade 5] attack them again as they did on Nov. 7 in the middle of the general election.”

According to an officer from DKBA Brigade 5, the two-day clash left more than 50 government troops injured while two Brigade 5 soldiers died last night at Mae Sot hospital. About 200 artillery shells were fired by the Burmese military on Sunday and Monday.

However, artillery fire ceased on Tuesday, with the exception of 11 artillery shells fired by Burmese government forces that morning, the officer said.

The regime’s soldiers carried their seriously injured troops, including one major, to Myawaddy through Mae Sot, a Thai Border Guard officer confirmed.

Clashes broke out in the areas of Waw Lay and Phaluu, forcing hundreds of local people to flee across the border to Thailand. Some of them were housed at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot while others returned to their villages on Tuesday afternoon, according to a resident from Phaluu in Kawkareik Township, Karen State.

Thousands of local people from Waw Lay and Phaluu were also forced to take refuge in Thailand on Nov. 7 when fighting erupted between Brigade 5 and Burmese government troops.

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Monday saying that the Thai authorities had not put pressure on the refugees to return home. Those who returned did so by their own choice, wish and desire, it said.

Meanwhile, Khin Kyaw said, the military government has expanded its troop strength in the Manerplaw area, which is the former headquarters of the KNU.

“If the government thinks that they are strong enough to defeat us, they will try to do it, for sure,” he said. “The battle continues because they are unhappy that we [ABSDF, KNLA and DKBA] have cooperated with each other.”

According to DKBA Brigade 5 claims, the Burmese army used prisoners to clear mine fields during the two-day clash.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20504
---------------------------------------------------
Parliamentary Books Sell Out on First Day
By WAI MOE Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The main government bookstore in Rangoon sold out on Tuesday of a set of 17 legal books detailing new parliamentary laws and bylaws on the first day they were for sale.

The set of books was launched a day following the military government's announcement that it will convene the new Parliament on Jan. 31. Several government bookstores, information offices and the Public Relations Department also put the set of legal books for sale on Tuesday.

The state media announced on Monday that the 17 books detailing new laws and bylaws would be published as a matter of public information. The announcement was made alongside junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s declaration that the opening sessions of the new parliaments were to take place at 8:55 am on Jan. 31.

An official with the Sarpay Beikman Book House, belonging to the Ministry of Information, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that one set of 16 law books costs 2,900 kyat (approx. US $3), and that every set was sold out by early that afternoon. He said that one book was yet to hit the bookstands, but that it would do so later that day.

A Rangoon-based journalist who bought the legal books at Sarpay Beikman Book House in downtown Rangoon on Tuesday morning said she witnessed a crowd of people buying the books. “But the bookstore would only sell one set of books per customer,” she said.

Even though Burma's military junta has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962—particularly over issues such as press freedom—many Burmese citizens have continued to show their desire for knowledge and awareness of contemporary political, economic and social issues by reading and through foreign broadcasts on shortwave radios.

In additional to the pre-parliamentary opening session, the talk of the town on Tuesday was a report stating that every citizen of Burma should do military service.

International media reported on Monday that all men between 18 and 45 and all women between 18 and 35 will be drafted under a new military conscription law.

Commenting on publishing, Nyan Win, a lawyer and spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), said that he had learned that new laws and bylaws had been issued by the junta in October though they were not publicly announced. He said that the NLD will soon respond to the new laws and bylaws.

Ahead of the Upper and Lower House openings in Naypyidaw on Jan. 31, officials at the administrative capital are busy preparing a reduction in government ministries, cooperating and assimilating similar ministries into one.

“Currently there are 32 ministries in the Cabinet,” said an official source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Under the coming government, they will be reduced by up to 50 percent.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20503
-----------------------------------------------
Battle continues near the Thai-Myanmar border
Jan 11, 2011 |

Battle between Myanmar government soldiers and ethnic karen forces have continued along the Thai-Myanmar border near Mae Sot District of Thailand's northwestern Tak Province.

The fight between the Myanmar government troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) forces began in Monday, as the DKBA forces were laying siege to and firing shells at a base of the Myanmar government soldiers near Koh Manao area in Mae Sot; while the Myanmar soldiers heavily fired at the DKBA forces for self-defence and could block the DKBA from advancing.

As 11 shells have hit the Thai side, the Thai head of the Thai-Myanmar Border Committee (TBC) in Mae Sot has sent a letter to the TBC office in Myanmar's Myawaddy Province, urging the Myanmar soldiers to carefully aim their targets and not fire into Thailand. Innocent Thai villagers living near the border have asked Thai troops to dispose unexploded shells in their corn and bean plantations in Koh Manao for fear of possible dangers from the shells.
http://www.asianage.com/international/battle-continues-near-thai-myanmar-border-823
-------------------------------------------------
CNPC, Qingdao Port ink deal for Myanmar pipeline
Reuters
Reuters - Wednesday, January 12

BEIJING, Jan 11 - China's top oil and gas firm CNPC and Qingdao Port Group have signed a framework agreement on operating a wharf for the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline, media said on Tuesday.

The China Petroleum Daily gave no details on the deal, though it said part of the work on the wharf in Myanmar where the oil will be unloaded had been finished in November.

The pipeline was another important energy import means for China, the report said, adding it was a "golden bridge of friendship between China and Myanmar."

The crude oil pipeline will have a total capacity of 22 million tonnes a year, while an accompanying gas pipeline will have a capacity of 12 billion cubic metre , said the newspaper, which is run by CNPC.

Both pipelines will start from the Myanmar port of Kyauk Phyu in the western state of Rakhine , then head in a northeasterly direction towards the city of Mandalay before arriving in the Chinese border town of Ruili in southwestern Yunnan province.

From there the pipelines go to Yunnan provincial capital Kunming and eventually on to the cities of Chongqing and Nanning.

CNPC, the parent of PetroChina , said in September it planned to complete the China section of pipelines from the former Burma and a related refinery by 2013, putting the pipeline a year behind schedule. [ID:nTOE68903P]

The projects will help diversify China's energy import routes, cutting its dependence on shipments via the potentially risky Malacca Strait, through which some 80 percent of the country's oil imports now pass. [ID:nTOE60D08W]

China calls this the "Malacca Strait dilemma", fearing that during a conflict, a hostile power could choke off energy supplies that are taken on supertankers through the narrow strait between Malaysia and Indonesia.

For a factbox on the pipelines, click [ID:nTOE60S06Z]

(Reporting by Judy Hua and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ed Lane)
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20110111/tbs-china-myanmar-pipeline-21231dd.html
--------------------------------------------
Burma’s New Parliament Set to Meet
Ron Corben | Bangkok 10 January 2011

Burma’s new parliament, elected last November, will hold its first session on January 31, according to an announcement by state media made on Monday. The meeting will mark the first time a legislative body has met in the country since 1988.

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won about 80 percent of the elected parliamentary seats. The 2008 constitution allots 25 percent of the seats automatically to the military.

The military says the election is part of its plan to move to democracy and civilian rule.

But Burma’s opposition groups and the international community denounced the election as unfair because it limited the ability of opposition candidates to campaign. Many, including democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, were barred from running.

Sunai Pasuk, the representative for Human Rights Watch in Bangkok, questions whether these steps by the military will bring any significant change to Burma.

"Will this bring serious improvement to a so-called opening up of the country, more democratic? It is not at all, it is not all; it’s simply formalizing the consolidation of power. It’s just a procedural formalization of the military’s domination in Burma and that’s it," Pasuk said.

Also Monday, the military said it will enact a law to allow for the draft of men and women into the armed forces.

Carl Thayer, a political scientist at Australia’s University of New South Wales, says that could see the armed forces competing for people currently working in the private sector in Burma.

"It gives the government the ability to conscript of appropriate educational or technical background, that are better needed, and women as well, for technical services. Under a volunteer army, private enterprise competes for the best talent in the country," said Thayer.

Rights groups accuse Burma’s army of using child soldiers and forcing civilians to work as human mine sweepers and porters. The army is reported to have trouble maintaining force numbers due to desertions. Under the new law, draft dodgers face prison sentences of up to five years.

The new law would also enable the army to draw conscripts from universities, often seen as a major source of dissent.

Regional analysts say the conscripted army is another method of re-enforcing military power. The military has controlled Burma since 1962. In 1990, the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi won elections, but the military refused to hand over power.

Aung San Suu Kyi was freed a week after last year’s election, after spending most of the past two decades under house arrest. Her opposition party, the National League for Democracy was disbanded before the November vote and has no seats in the new parliament. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Burmas-New-Parliament-Set-to-Meet-on-Jan-31-113195564.html
---------------------------------------------
Burma Enacts Military Draft Law
By AP Monday, Jan. 10, 2011

(Rangoon, Burma) — 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, according to an official document seen Monday. The country currently has a volunteer army.

The law, dated Nov. 4, 2010, but yet to be made public, will come into force when proclaimed by the ruling military council, said an official gazette with limited circulation. (See pictures of the next generation of military in Burma.)

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

Some analysts say conflicts could escalate as more ethnic groups refuse to adhere to a Constitution and government they say will deprive them of even more rights than they currently enjoy. The government is set to replace the junta, possibly toward the end of this month.

The law states every male between the age of 18 and 45 and females between 18 and 35 may be drafted to serve for two years, which could be increased to five years in times of national emergencies. Both sexes are required to register at 18.

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 oneself to avoid conscription could be imprisoned for up to five years, fined or both. (See pictures of how young Burmese are trying to change their country.)

In times of national crisis the government can recruit all or some of those eligible for military service.

Civil servants, students, persons serving prison terms or those taking care of elderly parents will enjoy temporary postponement of military service but could be later called to serve. Totally exempt are members of religious orders, married women or divorcees with children and disabled persons.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2041470,00.html#ixzz1AjJC8ZlX

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2041470,00.html#ixzz1AjJ3jSMH
------------------------------------
Student army taken off US terror list
By HTET AUNG KYAW
Published: 10 January 2011

A Burmese student army that rose to prominence following the 1988 uprising has been removed from a list of organisations deemed terrorists by the US government in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

The All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) had been classed as a terrorist organisation despite the US having granted asylum to some of its members in the 1990s. Its former chairman, Htun Aung Kyaw, resides in the US, while other senior members were granted scholarships at prominent American universities.

Htun Aung Kyaw told DVB that some members, unaware they were being classed as terrorists, had asylum bids turned down, while others who already had green cards were denied citizenship.

He said the group’s name was removed from the list after former ABSDF members in the US petitioned the government.

“About 60 or 70 [former ABSDF members] signed the petition [in December] and we sent it to Human Rights First, an organisation based in Washington who had been providing us with assistance.

A meeting was held on 20 December between HRF and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the group was removed from the list. Htun Aung Kyaw said that an official announcement will be made shortly by the DHS.

“This will give a moral support for our ABSDF comrades who are currently [fighting] as they are no longer seen by the world as terrorists but as freedom fighters making an effort to bring democracy to Burma.”

He added that the petition was pushed as testament to the many ABSDF members residing in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border whose asylum requests were left pending following 9/11. “Now they will once again be given opportunities to come here to the US.”

The ABSDF has recently been engaged in fighting in eastern Karen state after joining forces with a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which has been battling the Burmese army.

At its peak the student army had some 10,000 troops. It has been linked with the Karen struggle ever since its formation in the late 1980s, when thousands of students fled to the jungle and were sheltered by the Karen National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

The US has nerarly 50 groups on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, the vast majority of which are based in the Middle East. Only six hail from Asia.
http://www.dvb.no/news/student-army-taken-off-us-terror-list/13645
------------------------------------------
60 Rangoon Monasteries to be Relocated
By HSET LINN Tuesday, January 11, 2011

RANGOON — More than 60 Buddhist monasteries situated along the banks of the Pegu River in Thaketa Township in Rangoon are to be relocated to Shwepyithar Township in the northern suburbs of the city, according to several affected monks.

Local residents speculate that the monasteries may have been targeted by the military regime because of the active involvement of many of their monks in the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

Several monks said they believe the monasteries will be destroyed to make way for a port project and road extension financed by the Htoo company owned by Tay Za and the Yuzana company owned by Htay Myint. Both businessmen are known to be close to several military leaders and are blacklisted by Western sanctions.

The monasteries affected are situated on or close to Shukhinthar Road, which runs along the Pegu River just east of central Rangoon. Also due for relocation, according to the monks, are several highly respected religious centers, including Aung Thida, Zaytawun, Myo Ukin, Mingalayama, Thae Inngu Dharma Center and Mogok Aung Nyeinchan Monastery which run a free community clinic, and Kan Zayon Monastery, which runs free English classes.

All the Buddhist monasteries and learning centers have already been informed that they are to relocate to Wahtayar in Shwepyithar Township, according to the monks.

“Ten Buddhist learning centers and around 60 monasteries are on the relocation list,” said affected monk U Agga. “Approximately 1,500 monks reside in those monasteries.”

“Speculation about a relocation began last year, but the first proof we saw was on Dec. 27 when municipal workers, military officials and the Htoo Trading Company staff came here and took photographs and surveyed the area,” said the monk.

“The naval port, the park and the Shwe Hin Thar Hotel will be in the firing line if the project goes ahead,” said a monk from Zaytawun Monastery. “However, I have heard nothing about their relocating. Only monks have been instructed to move out.”

At Aung Thida Monastery, a representative of the more than 200 monks studying Buddhist literature there said the monks are worried about their relocating to the new site as they depend solely on alms offered by members of the public.

“All monasteries rely on donations,” a senior monk said. “But the place where we are being asked to relocate to is practically empty.”

The monks who spoke to The Irrawaddy said they do not know the exact date of the relocation, but said they will defend their religious property as new monasteries are normally devoid of furnishings and any religious paraphernalia.

“The State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee [the state-sponsored Buddhist monks’ organization] has not called us in yet,” a monk said. “If we are told to relocate, we will contest the decision.”

The monks said they have been informed that each Buddhist learning center will be allocated a 200-foot-wide plot in Wahtayar, while each monastery will be alloted a 90-foot-wide plot at the new site.

The monks told The Irrawaddy that the authorities will not pay any compensation nor pay for any building construction or other costs.

During the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when the military attempted to raid the monasteries on Shukhinthar Road, they were confronted by Thaketa residents, resulting in the death of one local man. Ultimately, the military staged a raid against the monks with the assistance of local navy from the nearby port on the Pegu River.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20502