News & Articles on Burma-Thursday, 17 February, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Thursday, 17 February, 2011
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Than Shwe Skirts the Issue
Leaked 'Statement' Adds to Dunkley Intrigue
Politics taking side seat to military in new alliance
Myanmar junta figure to chair election body
Burma names new chief justice
Burma army ‘masquerading as civilians’
Tin Aye to Become Chairman of Election Commission
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Than Shwe Skirts the Issue
By WAI MOE Thursday, February 17, 2011

The sight of junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his close aides on national TV dressed in women's longyis at a state dinner in Naypyidaw has become the talk of the town in Burma and the brunt of many an unkind joke.

Marking the 64th anniversary of Union Day on Feb. 12 in Naypyidaw, 78-year-old Than Shwe appeared at the event accompanied by other top military brass, including: junta No.2 Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye; No.3, the new Lower House speaker ex-Gen Shwe Mann; Prime Minister and President-in-waiting ex Gen Thein Sein; No. 4 ex-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo who is vice-president-in-waiting; and No. 5 ex Lt-Gen Tin Aye.

All appeared on state TV on Feb. 12 wearing gongbong (traditional Burman headscarves), and acheik (colorful sarongs worn by women at weddings and formal occasions).

“When I saw the ruling generals in acheik on the news and in the papers, I was somewhat intrigued as to why they were dressed as women,” said a 22-year-old female engineering student in Rangoon. “I have one—the same style and colors as the longyi worn by Than Shwe.”

In footage of the ceremony, Than Shwe greeted women members of parliament. All the officials in the scene wore the same ceremonial dress, although in a variety of colors. However, one general staff officer from the War Office, Brig-Gen Soe Shein, several male MPs and the retinue's bodyguards are shown in traditional male attire.

A 57-year-old acheik manufacturer in Mandalay told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that longyis for women and for men are quite different and can be easily identified.

“The acheik that the senior general and other top officials are wearing on Union Day is definitely women's acheik,” he said.

It was the first time this year that Than Shwe has appeared without his uniform at a state dinner.

The cross-dressing fashion seems to have initiated when cabinet members, including Thein Sein, wore pink, yellow and white longyis to meet Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh in June.

But many political observers, astrologists and ordinary people in teashops around the country said they believe the generals' cross-dressing is an intentional act of superstition, known locally as yadaya.

“They [the generals] know and must know that these acheik were designed for women,” said a senior journalist in Rangoon. “But they wore them nevertheless. We all know this is yadaya to counter the influence of The Lady [Aung San Suu Kyi] and to reverse her karma.”

Many fortunetellers have predicted that a woman will rule Burma one day, and so the generals’ fortune-tellers have advised them to dress as women, he added. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20782
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Leaked 'Statement' Adds to Dunkley Intrigue
Thursday, February 17, 2011

While Ross Dunkley—who up until this week was the CEO and editor-in-chief of The Myanmar Times newspaper—sits somewhere inside Insein Prison, unverified reports and rumors about the reasons for his incarceration swirl around Rangoon.

Although Dunkley was arrested on February 10 upon his return to Rangoon from a business trip to Japan, thus far the Burmese authorities have remained silent and refused any comment on the charges brought against him.

On Wednesday, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported that Dunkley was being held for violations of Burma's immigration and visa laws. The AAP also interviewed Dunkley's business partner David Armstrong, who said: "(Dunkley's) fate is in the hands of the Myanmar legal system and Myanmar government, so we can only speculate."

But a Burmese langage news journal and a blog of Burma's Information Ministry have reported the alternative story that Dunkley was arrested for assaulting a woman he met in a bar in January before he left for Japan.

On Tuesday, the journal Myanmar Newsweek reported that the Australian businessman faced criminal charges in connection with breaking immigration laws and an alleged attack on a sex worker he met in Rangoon last month.

While Myanmar Newsweek is heavily censored by Burmese authorities and therefore not critical of the regime, the journal is not known to be a junta mouthpiece like The New Light of Myanmar. Sometimes, however, the regime orders local journals to run pieces on its behalf—with the implied or overt threat of retaliation if the publication doesn't cooperate.

A blog on the web-site of the Burmese Information Ministry also reported that Dunkley was being held on assault charges and carried a graphic account of the government's alleged case.

Commenting on the assault rumors and news reports, Ko Ko, the chairman of the Rangoon-based Committee for Professional Conduct, a Burmese-government affiliated journalistic organization, said that the group would not seek the release of Dunkley because he was implicated in a criminal case.

“This is a very simple case. Because the girl who Dunkley beat up complained to the police, he was arrested,” Ko Ko told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. “I don't believe that this is a set-up by the government to arrest him. We all know his history with the girls.”

Also on Tuesday, a member of The Myanmar Times' editorial staff leaked to The Irrawaddy a “statement” that the editor said was given by Dunkley pertaining to the assault claim. Dunkley allegedly gave the “statement” on January 20 before leaving for Japan.

The document received by The Irrawaddy was written in poor English in the first person and went into page-length detail about an encounter between Dunkley and a female sex worker, who according to the statement he met in a Rangoon bar around midnight on Janaury 18 and agreed to take home. It went on to say that she was injured when Dunkley swerved his car to avoid a traffic accident.

The last line of the statement read: “The Myanmar version statement was translated in English to Mr. Ross Dunkley and he agreed the statement above and signed under.” Then Dunkley's name—but not his signature—appears along with the date January 20, 2011.

Sources inside The Myanmar Times said the document was given to them and other members of the editorial staff to provide an explanation of why Dunkley had been arrested and give the Australian editor's side of the story. One source explained that the document was originally produced in Burmese, with the intention of delivering it to the authorities as Dunkley's version of events (although it is not known whether this ever occurred), and then translated back into English.

However, The Irrawaddy has not been able to verify the authenticity of the document it received, the accuracy of the document's details or the circumstances under which it was produced.

No matter what the charges against Dunkley are ultimately revealed to be, many observers believe that his arrest, imprisonment and possible deportation stem from a dispute between him and his Burmese business partner, Tin Htun Oo, who is close to the regime's information minister Kyaw Hsan and who recently ran an unsuccessful campaign for parliament as a representative of the regime's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Tin Htun Oo holds 51 percent of the shares in The Myanmar Times and Dunkley and his fellow investors hold the remaining 49 percent stake. Relative to other publications in Burma, the newspaper has a modern and impressive facility and infrastructure.

But the AAP also reported on Wednesday that Bill Clough, an Australian mining magnate who is one of Dunkley's business partners, had been named acting managing director and editor-in-chief of the English language version of The Myanmar Times, while Tin Htun Oo had been named CEO and editor-in-chief of the Burmese language arm of the newspaper.

Dunkley founded The Myanmar Times in 2000 with the backing Clough. In Burma, however, foreigners are only allowed to own a minority stake in media organizations, so Dunkley needed to find a local partner with enough connections to land the appropriate publishing licenses and permissions.

That person was Sonny Swe, the son of Brig-Gen Thein Swe, a former military attaché to the Burmese embassy in Bangkok who in 2000 was a high-ranking official in the intelligence department and one of former prime minster Gen Khin Nyunt's right hand men.

In 2004, the publishing landscape changed dramatically for The Myanmar Times when junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe purged Khin Nyunt's entire intelligence service and placed the spy chief under house arrest.

Thein Swe was also arrested and received a sentence of more than 100 years in prison. And Sonny Swe, then the majority shareholder and the deputy chief executive officer of The Myanmar Times, was arrested on the charge of committing “economic crimes” (i.e. corruption), given a 14-year sentence and sent to prison in Lashio, Shan State.

The regime then hand-picked Tin Htun Oo as Dunkley's new business partner and handed him Sonny Swe's 51 percent interest in The Myanmar Times.

Reports soon emerged that Dunkley and Tin Htun Oo did not get along well and the friction between the two reportedly flared up in January.

The AAP reported on Wednesday that Dunkley is next scheduled to appear in court on February 24 and his Burmese visa expires on February 27.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20780
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Politics taking side seat to military in new alliance
Thursday, 17 February 2011 15:32 S.H.A.N.
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By choosing a bona fide military man, General Mutu Saypo of the embattled Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), to head the Central Executive Committee of the newest alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) yesterday, it seems abundantly clear the main concern of Burma’s non-Burman ethnic armed movements is the countrywide offensive expected to be launched by Naypyitaw, following the setting up of a “civilianized” government there.

[Gen Mutu Saypo, Commander in Chief, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)(Photo: burmalibrary.org)]

Gen Mutu Saypo, Commander in Chief, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)(Photo: burmalibrary.org)
More powerful than the UNFC-CEC is the Political Leading Body headed by the leathery Kachin Lt-Gen Nban La Awng, among others, assuring that the military wing will have more say.

However, the UNFC, whose 16 page-9 chapter-32 article constitution was ratified yesterday in a 5-day conference at an undisclosed venue along the Thai-Burma border, also provided for a political department with sub-divisions such as Legal Affairs, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs, which is expected to serve as a political anchor for the grouping.

Though details are yet to be worked out, the 12 member alliance’s constitution envisages a 4 military region Burma:

* Northern Military Region - Sino-Burma border areas
* Eastern Military Region - Thai-Burma border areas
* Western Military Region - Indo-Burma border areas
* Special Military Region - to be named later


The Union Army, as the combined armed movements are to be collectively named, “is ready to admit any group that supports the alliance’s common aim to establish a genuine union and its newly approved constitution”, Nai Hongsa aka Nai Hantha, chairman of the conference organizing committee, who will also be serving as the UNFC General Secretary, declared.

Burma’s non-Burman ethnic opposition has already formed several coalitions, most notable of which include:
The organization-based National Democratic Front (NDF) formed in 1976
The state-based Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) formed in 2001

In contrast, the new coalition’s membership will be opened to all groupings whether they be state-based, organization-based or ethnic-based, according to its constitution.

It also welcomes movements like the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ that are still taking up a wait-and-see stance to become associate partners.

The conference was jointly organized by Committee for the Emergence of Federal Union (CEFU), National Democratic Front (NDF) and United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD). It was participated by 15 groupings.

Member organizations
Chin National Front (CNF

Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)

Kachin National Organization (KNO)

Karen National Union (KNU)

Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)

Lahu Democratic Union (LDU)

National Unity Party of Arakan (UNPA)

New Mon State Party (NMSP)

Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF)

PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO)

Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP / SSA)

Wa National Organization (WNO)

Central Executive Committee
Gen Mutu Saypo – Chairman

Lt Gen Gauri Zau Seng – Vice Chairman #1

Maj Gen Abel Tweed – Vice Chairman #2

Nai Hongsa – General Secretary

Col Hkun Okker – Deputy General Secretary #1

Shwe Myo Thant – Deputy General Secretary #2

Note: There are 10 Central Committee members, including 6 Central Executive Committee members.
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3470:politics-taking-side-seat-to-military-in-new-alliance&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266
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Feb 17, 4:22 AM EST
Myanmar junta figure to chair election body

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- A top member of Myanmar's junta has been appointed head of the country's new Election Commission, a day after unexpectedly resigning his seat in parliament.

Tin Aye was the sixth-ranking member of Myanmar's junta until he retired his military post to make a successful run for the lower house in November elections.

He gave no reason for resigning his parliamentary seat Wednesday, just three weeks after being sworn in.

But the reason became clear Thursday when the house speaker announced he would head the seven-member Union Election Commission, said lawmaker Khin Shwe.

Since widely criticized elections in November, the parliament has appointed the junta's allies to top positions in the government and related agencies.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MYANMAR_ELECTION_COMMISSION?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Burma names new chief justice
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 17 February 2011

Top Burmese judge Tun Tun Oo has been appointed the country’s new chief justice, while former Lieutenant-General Tin Aye, who yesterday resigned his parliamentary post, is strongly tipped to head the Union Election Commission.

State media said yesterday that Tun Tun Oo, who had held the position of deputy chief justice of the country’s top court in Naypyidaw, had been personally nominated by President Thein Sein.

The 53-year-old will head the revamped Supreme Court of the Union, described in the 2008 constitution as the “court of final appeal” – effectively the country’s top judicial authority.

Khin Shwe, an MP for the election-winning Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), told DVB today that Tun Tun Oo “was approved by the Union Parliament this morning with no objection.”

The influence that Thein Sein’s personal endorsement of Tun Tun Oo likely played on the decision will not be lost on Burma observers who have long criticised the lack of independence of the country’s legal system.

The appointment comes amidst a shake-up of Burma’s administrative and judicial departments, as well as the creation of a Constitutional Tribunal of the Union.

The sudden resignation from parliament yesterday of Tin Aye, who had been the Burmese junta’s sixth-in-command before running in the elections, was met with surprise by observers, some of whom alleged that there had been a rift in the senior ranks of the government

But Khin Shwe said that the departure was likely a prelude to his appointed as head of the Union Election Commission. He is known to be close to the top generals, but is legally banned from taking that position whilst holding a seat in parliament.

He had also been personally nominated by Thein Sein, who was Burma’s former prime minister before quitting his military position in order to run in the polls.

Rather than being a total remake of extra-governmental departments however, it appears that the same key players will continue to pull the strings, with former UEC chief Thein Soe also appointed to head the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union.
http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-names-new-chief-justice/14312
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Burma army ‘masquerading as civilians’
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 16 February 2011


Civilians have been warned against travelling between three towns in eastern Burma by Karen rebels who claim Burmese troops are donning plain clothes to avoid being ambushed.

Major San Aung from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which is engaged in battle against the ruling Burmese junta, told DVB that troops were “blending themselves in among civilians and we worry that we will hit the real civilians by accident”.

It follows rumours that a Karen force opened fire on a convoy of plain-clothed men whom it suspected were Burmese army, killing three. This has not however been confirmed.

San Aung said that civilians were being warned not to travel on roads connecting the Karen state towns of Myawaddy, Kawkareit and Hpa-an, which lie close to the Thai border.

Fighitng began in the region in November last year and has fluctuated in intensity. The initial flux of refugees into Thailand has slowed, but stability along the Thai-Burma border remains fragile.

Brig-Gen Na Kham Mwe, leader of the DKBA, said that Burmese troops had also been using civilian vehicles to transport injured troops back to Kawkareit.

If true, the practice would be in breach of international law, said Aung Myo Min, director of the Thailand-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB)

“According to the Geneva Convention, soldiers are not to blend in with civilians to prevent unwanted collateral damage,” he said.

“The rules of engagement prohibit shooting at ambulances that are marked [as such]. Disguising as civilians while not using these markings is a violation of the basics of the Geneva Convention designed to protect civilians in conflict.”

Calls for the Burmese junta to be investigated by the UN for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity have increased in the past year. Much the emphasis has been placed on human rights violations in the volatile border regions, where the military government has fought decades-long conflict with multiple armed ethnic groups.
http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-army-%E2%80%98masquerading-as-civilians%E2%80%99/14308
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Tin Aye to Become Chairman of Election Commission
By THE IRRAWADDY Thursday, February 17, 2011

Ex-Lt-Gen Tin Aye, who resigned from Burma's Lower House of Parliament yesterday, has been nominated chairman of the Union Election Commission (EC), according to sources in Napyidaw.

Ex-Gen Thein Sein, the Parliament's president-elect, nominated Tin Aye, the former chief of Military Ordnance Chief and a protegé of Burmese junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, for the position during today's session of Parliament.

In this photo taken on Feb. 12, 2011, Tin Aye, the ex-lieutenant general and the sixth-ranking member of Burma's junta, to mark in commemoration of the 64th Anniversary Union day in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP)
Last week, Thein Soe, the former EC chairman, was appointed chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal along with nine judges.

“According to the Constitution, the EC chairman must not be a member of a political party or a Parliamentary representative. That's why Tin Aye sent a letter requesting permission to resign from his seat,” said an army official at the Naypyidaw Regional Military Command.

Tin Aye, who won a seat in Mandalay Division's Tada-U Township as a member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is currently a member of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, which is due to be dissolved once a new government is formed.

Political observers in Rangoon noted that the president, according to the Constitution, must have responsibility to form the most important branches of government, such as the National Defense and Security Council, the Financial Commission, the Union Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal, the Union Election Commission and the Union Civil Services Board.

The Constitutional Tribunal was formed on Friday on the basis of three judges selected by Thein Sein, three judges selected by the Speaker of the Lower House, Thura Shwe Mann, and three judges selected by the Speaker of the Upper House, Khin Aung Myint. Most of the judges are academics or legal experts.

On Wednesday, Parliament agreed to form a new Union Supreme Court with seven members, the state-run media reported.

Of the seven supreme court judges, Tun Tun Oo was nominated by the president as the chief justice. The nomination is expected to be discussed in Parliament today.

The Burmese Parliament opened its first session in more than 20 years on Jan. 31, following elections in November. The Parliament is controlled by military appointees and the USDP, which holds more than 80 percent of the seats in the legislature.

Tin Aye's sudden, unexplained resignation yesterday following recent reports of the arrest and dismissal of Lt-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who was reportedly in line to succeed Than Shwe as commander-in-chief of Burma's armed forces, added to speculation that several top generals are unhappy with their new positions within the country's post-election political order.

Meanwhile, military sources in Napyidaw said that Maj Pyi Aung, the son-in-law of Burma's No 2 general, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, and son of former Minister for Industry 1 Aung Thaung, has reportedly been dismissed from the army for lack of discipline.

Sources said that Pyi Aung, who has also managed two successful business companies—IGE Co Ltd, also known as IGE Pte Ltd, and Aung Yee Phyoe Co Ltd—was sacked by junta head Than Shwe for failing to attend the military training of battalion commanders.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20779