News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 15 February, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 15 February, 2011
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic
Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma
Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
Burmese junta continues to crush free press
Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper
Burma Arrests Publisher
Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic

The European Burma Network (EBN), a coalition of organizations promoting human rights and democracy in Burma, met for two days in Prague on Feb. 12-13. Members of the EBN said they remain deeply concerned about the lack of any improvement in Burma's human rights situation and the failure of the ruling regime to make any progress toward achieving genuine democratization.

Elections held in the country last November had no credibility, the EBN said, citing the fact that the vote did not meet any internationally accepted standards of being free and fair. Vote-rigging on behalf of the Burmese junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, was widespread. Published Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 >>> Irrawaddy
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Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma

published: 15.02.2011, 12:47 | updated: 15.02.2011 12:49:41

Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has called on the international community to step up the pressure on Burma to respect human rights, he said at a conference on Burma in Prague.

Human rights are a universal value and their respect should be demanded more strictly in the globalisation era, Havel said.

"The process of economic integration has not yet been accompanied by sufficient integration in the issue of human freedoms and fundamental human rights," he said.

Countries still seem to prefer economic and technological affairs to human rights, Havel complained.

The recent events in the Arab world show that the longing for freedom and democracy is universal, Havel noted.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg supported the effort at making Burma democratic.

The Czech Republic will further demand that human rights be not violated in Burma, Schwarzenberg said.

He said the European Union should take a clear stance to the situation in Burma.

The Czech Republic criticises the military dictatorship, introduced in Burma in 1962, and it supports members of the Burmese opposition.

Schwarzenberg pointed out earlier that although Aung San Suu Kyi, a Peace Nobel Prize laureate, was released from house arrest, roughly 2,000 dissidents were still being jailed. He was also highly critical of the last year´s parliamentary elections, which most observers say were manipulated by the military junta.

The previous elections, held in 1990, were clearly won by the National League for Democracy lead by Suu Kyi but the junta refused to hand power to the winning group and it kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years.

Author: C(TK
www.ctk.cz http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/vaclav-havel-calls-for-more-pressure-on-burma/596551?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed
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Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A group of civil society organizations, which included Thai and Burmese organizations, sent an open letter to the Thai Ministry of Labor calling for safer and better working conditions for migrant workers in Thailand—most of whom are Burmese—who are often mistreated and exploited by local authorities and their employers.

The letter was signed by a group of 14 human rights organizations and delivered to Singhadet Chuumnart, the director of the Bureau of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Labor. The organizations asked him to take the lead in ensuring that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (the Asean Declaration) is enforced as a legal binding document in Thailand which protects undocumented as well as documented migrants in the country.

The group also called for access to appropriate education and training for the children of migrant workers and improvement in the enforcement of legal protections for women workers. In addition, they asked the Thai government to make information on laws and policies regarding and impacting migrants—including working conditions, types of jobs and existing health education and social services—accessible to migrant communities in their own language.

Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Program for the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), said, “We just try to push Thailand to ensure they act in accordance with the Asean Declaration with respect to the rights of migrant workers.”

The move came as representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines prepare to meet to draft an instrument designed to enable countries to effectively implement the Asean Declaration.

In their joint letter, the rights groups strongly urged the Thai government to take the lead in the Asean Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

Specifically, it urged the Thai government to work to ensure that the Asean Instrument to Protect and Promote the Rights of Migrant Workers is treated as a legally binding document, covers all migrant workers regardless of legal status and includes the families of migrant workers.

The HRDF told The Irrawaddy that the recent case of Chalee Diyo provides a prime example of migrant worker abuse in Thailand.

According the HRDF, Diyo is a 33-year-old Burmese migrant worker who is currently hospitalized in Bangkok due to a work related accident that broke his pelvis and caused severe damage to his intestines. Despite the fact that Diyo holds a legal work permit, the hospital in Pathum Thani Province where Diyo was first admitted asked the police to arrest him. The police complied, and the Burmese migrant was transferred first to Bangkok's Immigration Detention Centre and then to the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, where he was chained to the bed for four days until rights groups started a campaign against his unlawful detention.

“Chalee’s case is really symbolic,” Hall said, explaining that he is a work-related accident victim with a legal work permit who was detained for 16 days by Thai authorities.

The HRDF said in a statement that such cases as Chalee's should not happen in Thailand because it is shameful, inhumane and tantamount to an attempt to shield exploitative employers from responsibility. Every worker, regardless of his or her nationality, must be entitled to equal protection under the law and the concerned authorities must strictly enforce the law to hold negligent employers to account, the statement said.

With Chalee being threatened with deportation and incurring medical expenses totalling about 70,000 Baht (US $2,400) which his employer refused to cover, the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyer’s Council of Thailand (LCT) helped bring his case in front of the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court.

After reviewing Chalee's case, the court ordered on Tuesday that Chalee be released from custody immediately and that the Immigration Bureau pay him 3,000 Baht ($100) in damages. In addition, the court order stated that Chalee could not be deported to Burma and his employer must pay for his medical expenses.

After the court decision, Vasant Panich, the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the LTC and the lawyer who represented Chalee in court, said, “Chalee’s case highlights how law enforcement officials in Thailand continue to systematically abuse powers of arrest and detention, particular with migrant workers.”

HRDF Secretary General Somchai Homlaor said, “Chalee's case has exposed systemic failures in Thailand's systems of migration management and in particular systems for ensuring protection, treatment and compensation of migrant work accident victims.”

“Migrant work accident victims continue to be unprotected, falling outside work accident protection systems created by the Government for all workers in Thailand,” he added.

There are about 2 million documented and undocumented Burmese migrants in Thailand.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20762
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Burmese junta continues to crush free press
By Zin Linn Feb 15, 2011 4:04PM UTC

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a press release on February 11 stating, “Burma’s new government under Prime Minister Thein Sein must put an end to the former military junta’s despicable policy of imprisoning independent journalists. The most recent case to come to light is the 13-year sentencing of Maung Maung Zeya in a trial held within Insein Prison on February 4.”

The court’s verdict came on the same day the junta-backed president Thein Sein was sworn into office.

Photojournalist Sithu Zeya was sentenced to eight years in jail on December 23. Zeya was sentenced by the military kangaroo-court for his photos of the scene of an explosion at a traditional water festival pavilion near Rangoon’s Royal lake in April last year according to his lawyers.

Sithu Zeya’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a video reporter, was sentenced on February 4, 2011 to a total of 13 years in prison by an arbitrary court in Rangoon. CPJ counted 13 journalists in jail in Burma as of December 1, 2010, making it one of the five worst jailers of journalists in the world.

Journalists based in Rangoon say the detentions were part of a continued crackdown by the military authorities on those involved in the anti-junta activities, including covering news in the exile media.

Burma is trapped in a dark age where freedom of expression has totally vanished. The junta is using the domestic media as a propaganda machine.

It is sad that this country sees no sign of freedom even in this Global Information Age. The junta controls all media access now. Since the monk-led protests known as the Saffron Revolution of September 2007, all news media in Burma is tightly restricted by the military junta. All daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under the junta’s command.

All articles for publication in Burma must be approved by the notorious Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, run by military officers. The military junta has determined that the prior censorship system will be continued regardless of the parliamentarian system started on 31 January, 2011.

Paris based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) ranks Burma 174 out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index. The country is one of the few in the world to operate such a strictly censored system. Burma’s ranking was expected and well deserved. In fact, there is no press freedom at all in Burma.

Even obituaries are subject to censorship. If someone wants to put one of his or her family members’ obituaries in the newspaper, it needs to pass the censor. Obituaries of political dissidents and their relatives had been refused permission by the board.

Journalists in Burma have received draconian jail sentences for reporting information challenging to the regime. In January 2010, DVB reporter Ms. Hla Hla Win received a 20-year sentence for violating the Electronic Act, and now in jail serving 27 years; her helper, Myint Naing got seven years.

Burma was at the forefront of press freedom in Southeast Asia before the 1962 military coup. The country then enjoyed a free press; censorship was something unheard of. As many as three dozen newspapers, including English, Chinese and Hindi dailies, existed between 1948 and 1962.

On the contrary, Burma stands downgraded from a free state to a prison state. All news media in Burma is strictly censored and tightly controlled by the military – all daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under control of the junta.

Some journalists and politicians had a dream prior of the recently held November 7 election that there may be a space for them in the new parliament. But freedom of speech for fresh members of parliament in Burma has been restricted under laws made by the sitting military junta. The emergence of a new nominated pro-junta USDP government seems to follow the former regime’s stance towards the press.

There is also a two-year prison term for any complaint staged within the parliament compound. The laws, signed by junta Chief Senior-General Than Shwe, claim that parliamentarians will not be allowed freedom of expression even in their relevant chambers.

Thus, there is no space for parliamentarians as well as journalists to practice freedom of expression under the so-called civilian government.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/48481/the-junta-refuses-allowing-press-freedom-in-burma/
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Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, February 15, 2011

BANGKOK—The anniversary of the Feb. 12, 1947 Panglong Agreement is focusing some minds on the prospects of reform in Burma, days after the meeting of the new Parliament and the emergence of Thein Sein as the new President.

While the National Democratic Front (NDF) and other small, like-minded parties in Burma's new government may try to discuss issues such as political prisoners and press freedom, it remains to be seen how far they will be able to push these measures.

With the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) dominant in the legislature—backed by a 25 percent bloc representation from the country's army—it will be numerically impossible to pass any laws that the USDP and its allies do not agree with.

However the challenge facing Burma's reform-minded parliamentarians is not just to try to get legislation passed, but to get motions discussed in Parliament in the first place. According to Moe Zaw Oo, from the National League for Democracy, the new parliament's rules and procedures will make it difficult for opposition groups or anyone else to introduce any motions that might be anathema to the USDP, which won 76 percent of the vote in the November 7 elections last year. The USDP functions as the party front for the military junta, which is set to formally relinquish power in the coming weeks.

Irrespective of what transpires in the new Upper and Lower Houses, real power in the parliamentary system in Burma will lie with the president, who is not answerable to Parliament in any case. The new president, Thein Sein, will chair the new National Defence and Security Council, an 11-member committee that has been compared with the politburos of countries such as China and Vietnam.

It is not clear how the new structures will alter the existing relationship between the government and the country's ethnic minorities, many of which have been at war with the Burmese army, off and on, since the country became independent from British rule in the late 1940s. Improving relations between the Burmese rulers and the ethnic groups is key to longterm peace and stability in Burma, says Kheunsai Jaiyen, who heads a news agency focusing on Burma's largest ethnic minority, the Shan, which number around 6 million people.

“Today, unlike in the past, leaders from all the main ethnic parties agree with Aung San Suu Kyi that a new Panglong deal is needed to pacify the country,” he said.

He added that Suu Kyi was the only figure capable of overcoming the historic distrust between the majority Burmans and the ethnic minorities that make up almost 40 percent of the country's population and whose territories constitute around half of area of Burma.

“The main ethnic opposition parties followed Daw Suu’s lead in boycotting the election,” he said. “After their submissions to the National Convention that led to the 2008 Constitution and the new political system were completely ignored by the junta”.

Suu Kyi has called for a “21st Century Panglong Agreement,” along the lines of the 1947 deal between her father, Aung San, who emerged from World War II as the leading Burmese political figure, and representatives from some of Burma's main ethnic minority groups.

However, Khin Maung, an Arakanese activist speaking as representative of one of the groups who did not participate in the original Panglong deal, said that the idea of federalism and decentralized power is anathema to the Burmese military, which took control of the country in 1962 after the 1961 Taunggyi Conference, which he described as “a Second Panglong.”

“Almost all the main ethnic groups were at Taunggyi,” he said. “But the federal principles that emerged surely alarmed the military and led to the coup the following year.”

Suu Kyi's call for a 21st-century Panglong was criticized by the military government, and it remains to be seen if the NDF or others will or even can promote the concept in Parliament. The United States and some European countries have called for a loosely defined “national reconciliation” dialogue in Burma, as a prelude to any relaxing of sanctions on the Burmese rulers, and it is conceivable that the a Panglong-style process could play a major role in implementing such a dialogue.

However, the junta has taken a number of steps, dismissed by many as window-dressing, which could be used to undermine requests for any such reconciliation gathering. The appointment of a Shan vice-president, Sai Mauk Kham, and the creation of 14 regional legislatures means that the Burmese government can say it has worked to alleviate the concerns of ethnic minorities.

However, the ongoing stand-off between the Burmese army and the ethnic militias, who have been told to stand down and merge with the army, simmers on in the borderlands, with the Kachin Independence Organisation and the New Mon State Party labeled as “insurgents” by the government, signaling a deterioration of relations.

In the days after the Nov. 7 elections, armed clashes forced thousands of mainly ethnic Karen refugees into Thailand, and armed skirmishes and stand-offs have continued in border areas since then.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20761
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Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, February 15, 2011

RANGOON—Many Rangoon residents who spoke to The Irrawaddy as part of a recent survey said that Burma's military regime has used the debate over economic sanctions to disunite opposition groups, while most said that the junta's misrule was responsible for the country's economic troubles.

The survey showed that the disagreement between Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and other political parties over economic sanctions has grown and that people are disappointed with the regime's attacks via state-controlled newspapers on Suu Kyi and her party regarding this issue.

The Irrawaddy interviewed 100 people from different walks of life, including 10 low-income laborers, 20 university students, 12 company employees, 10 reporters, two retired government servants, one economist, five politicians not affiliated with any political party, two retired army personnel and a senior government official, about whether the current economic sanctions imposed on Burma should be lifted. Most of the interviewees said that getting rid of the existing administrative structure dominated by former generals was more important than lifting sanctions.

“Before the election, opposition groups were split into two factions. One faction wanted to contest the election but the other didn't. Now they are split into two factions again over the sanctions issue. We can say that the junta's divide-and-rule policy has been successful,” said one senior journalist, who added: “I don't think it is important now to debate whether to keep sanctions or lift them. It is time to topple the dictatorial system and get rid of a sham democracy.”

The economist who participated in The Irrawaddy survey said that while it is generally true that economic sanctions can hinder foreign investment, in Burma this is not the case. Other issues, such as the absence of rule of law, rampant cronyism and the lack of guarantees for foreign investments, are the main reasons that most foreign investors do not want to enter the country, he said.

“Economic sanctions are not the only thing blocking foreign investment. The existence of the rule of law and guarantees for those investments are important. No matter what sanctions are imposed on a country, foreign investors will still come as long as that country is stable, peaceful and has conditions conducive to doing business. From an economic point of view, it is more important to create such conditions than to remove sanctions,” said the economist.

Not everyone agrees with this point of view, however. In a joint statement issued on Feb. 12, Burma's Union Day, 11 of the country's political parties said that US economic sanctions on Burma were having a negative impact on both countries. According to the statement, the United States is losing US $15-19 billion annually because of the sanctions, including more than $1 billion in wages for its workers. The statement also claimed that Burma loses billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of job opportunities because of the sanctions.

The political parties that are calling for economic sanctions on Burma to be dropped include the National Democratic Front, the Democratic Party (Myanmar), the Union Democratic Party, the Union Kayin League, the Chin National Party, the Peace and Democracy Party, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, the Wonthanu NLD (Union of Myanmar), the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics and the Phalon Sawaw Democratic Party.

One respondent to The Irrawaddy's survey—a deputy director from the regime's Ministry of Commerce (MOC)—concurred that US and EU sanctions are having a significant impact on the country's economy, at least from the standpoint of government planning.

“Economic sanctions have really affected the country's economy. Whenever we discuss ways to improve the economy, we have to take sanctions into consideration. We have to think of ways to get our exports to Western markets by hiding the name of our country. We have to find ways to bypass barriers to our exports,” said the MOC deputy director.

However, an independent candidate in last year's November election denied that economic sanctions were seriously affecting the lives of ordinary citizens.

He noted that when companies like Eddie Bauer and Pepsi left the country some years ago as a result of the sanctions, products made in Burma or Thailand soon replaced them. He said that the regime is also not seriously concerned about sanctions because it has income from selling the country's natural resources and economic cooperation with China and India.
For the regime, he said, the sanctions issue was just something to be used to attack opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But one former major currently working as the manager of government-owned sugar factory said that members of the military are far from indifferent to the issue of Burma's persistent economic weakness, which he said was largely responsible for widespread corruption.

“Let's put the issue of economic sanctions aside. If you look at how officers in active service live, you'll find that most will do anything for their survival and their children's health and education. To be perfectly frank, they have to steal. Family comes first and they can't think of other things. And they are not alone­all the top-ranking officers are doing the same thing.”

Most of the students from Rangoon's Dagon University who spoke with The Irrawaddy took the view that this corrupt, military-dominated system is itself the chief cause of the many hardships that ordinary Burmese faced in their day-to-day lives. They said that
people needed to unite to change the current system, instead of arguing over the issue of sanctions.

“I don't think it was economic sanctions that made the country's education and health sectors so poor. Where does the regime spend the money it earns from selling natural gas and other resources? Who are the wealthiest people even when the country is under sanctions? Everything is caused because of this military system, so we have to fight against it,” said one third-year student.

Most of those who barely subsist on their daily wages said they don't really understand the issue of economic sanctions and are only interested in earning enough money to support their families.

One 30-year-old reporter from a Rangoon-based journal said that the Burmese regime is just using the sanctions issue as an excuse for its failure to improve the lives of ordinary Burmese.

“This regime doesn't care about economic sanctions at all. They are satisfied with the way things are right now. They are happy as long as they are in power and their families enjoy comfortable lives. They even killed monks to cling on power. Blaming the country's economic situation on sanctions is just an excuse,” said the reporter.

In a statement issued on Feb. 8, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) rejected the argument that sanctions have adversely affected the lives of ordinary citizens. It noted that the regime has never paid serious attention to the health and education needs of the country's people, despite earning billions of dollars from selling natural gas and other resources.

It is this neglect, and not the policies of Western governments towards Burma, that put the country at the bottom of the United Nations Development Program's 2011 human development index, below Cambodia and Laos.

On Feb. 13, Burma's state-run newspapers ran an article titled “Sanctions, Suu Kyi and the NLD,” which criticized Suu Kyi and her party for continuing to call for sanctions.

Since 1993, the US, the EU and other Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Burma for the regime's widespread human rights violations, including rape and the use of child soldiers.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20760
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Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
14:00, February 15, 2011

The ongoing union parliament session will touch on setting up of a new union election commission Tuesday, which is believed to function for the next general election after five years, according to Tuesday's official daily New Light of Myanmar..

A number of seven members for forming the new union election commission, proposed by president-elect U Thein Sein, was submitted to the union parliament session on Monday for discussion on Tuesday by the union parliament representatives.

The last union election commission chaired by U Thein Soe for the 2010 general election was formed by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

In Myanmar's presidential election on Feb. 4 after the general election on Nov. 7, 2010, Prime Minister U Thein Sein won the presidency, while U Tin Aung Myint Oo and Dr. Sai Mauk Kham were elected as the vice presidents.

The terms of office of the president and the vice presidents are five years, according to the new state constitution.

The union parliament is constituted with two level of parliaments -- house of representatives and house of nationalities which involves elected ones in the November 2010 general election and 25-percent military-nominated ones.

Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7288393.html
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US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
By AFP
Published: 15 February 2011

The United States said Monday that military-run Burma is “up to its old tricks” with its threats against democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Burma claims there is a new era, but it is up to its old tricks by threatening #AungSanSuuKyi,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Twitter. “New suits does not a new system make,” Crowley added.

State media in Burma warned in a commentary that Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic ends” if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions.

The remarks follow a recent statement by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.

It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release in November after seven years of house arrest, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.

The NLD reacted cautiously to the commentary, saying it had not received any official response from the authorities to its statement on sanctions.

In its statement issued last week, the NLD stressed that any end to sanctions on Burma should be linked to an improvement in the junta’s human rights record, notably the release of political prisoners.

The remarks came days after Washington said it was premature to ease sanctions on Burma and urged the regime to take more concrete steps.

Suu Kyi’s release reignited debate over the effectiveness of the financial and trade measures, enforced notably by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.

Two pro-democracy parties that took part in the November polls have called for an end to sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.

Suu Kyi’s party has no voice in a newly opened parliament dominated by the military and its proxies.

Some observers see the sanctions issue as her only leverage with the authorities because Western nations are considered unlikely to scrap the measures without her support.
http://www.dvb.no/news/us-blasts-junta%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98old-tricks%E2%80%99/14270
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New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper

Former Myanmar Times newspaper chief, Ross Dunkley, as identified in the Phnom Penh Post. He is being held in Burma on immigration charges. [AFP/Phnom Penh Post]

Zoe Daniel, South-East Asia correspondent

Last Updated: 6 hours 48 minutes ago

A new editor-in-chief has been appointed to Rangoon's Myanmar Times, replacing the newspaper's former boss who is being held in a Burmese prison.

The Australian founder of the the Myanmar Times, Ross Dunkley, was arrested last Thursday and is being held on immigration charges, although it is unclear exactly what they are.

Before his arrest he had been engaged in negotiations over the management of the paper with its Burmese co-owner, Tin Tan Oo.

He was appointed to the position by the military government after the previous co-owner was jailed for 14 years for publishing the paper without the correct permits.

Australian mining executive Bill Clough, who is also a co-owner, has now agreed to Tin Tan Oo taking over as editor.

Mr Clough is in Burma negotiating with authorities for Ross Dunkley's release.
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3139390.htm?desktop
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Burma Arrests Publisher
By Luke Hunt
February 15, 2011

It had to happen. Nobody expected the Burmese junta to let the good times roll unimpeded once the rigged elections of last November were out of the way. But I’d thought the focus of their institutionalized paranoia would again be pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. I was wrong.

Instead, the authorities have arrested Australian publisher Ross Dunkley, who is anything but The Lady, and have thrown him behind bars in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, notorious among human rights activists for its atrocious conditions.

His February 10 arrest followed a story published by The Irrawaddy about an internal power struggle at the Myanmar Consolidate Media, which publishes the weekly Myanmar Times, a solid newspaper that trains journalists and focuses on news and current affairs outside of Burma. Local news is censored.

Dunkley is co-founder and one of two major publishers (the other is the owner of Swezon Media Group, Tin Htun Oo, a member of the ruling party who won a seat in the November general election representing the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party).

According to The Irrawaddy, Tin Htun Oo covets the position of chief executive officer and editor-in-chief, a move rejected by Dunkley and which has resulted in an acrimonious split between the pair. Further reports suggest that Tin Htun Oo has simply seized control of the newspaper.

Dunkley is also publisher of the Phnom Penh Post and has extensive media experience in Southeast Asia and Australia. I chatted with Dunkley last week, and he mentioned The Irrawaddy article and that he was returning to Burma, where he intended to state his case.

Silence followed.

David Armstrong, Chairman of Post Media, which publishes the Post, said he was deeply concerned, and noted the arrest was linked to the dispute at the Myanmar Times. He added that some reports surrounding the reasons have been inaccurate. The arrest, he said, ‘coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles—all this at a time of significant political and economic change in Myanmar.’

In Cambodia, the Overseas Press Club (OPCC) was equally concerned about the arrest, and fears it could be part of increased authoritarianism—a growing trend in many countries around the region—while free press advocates from across Southeast Asia and further afield are also worried.

Dunkley’s a tough bloke and will hopefully pull through this ordeal. He’s also a free trade advocate, and his arrest speaks volumes about the bullying of a junta that believes its November elections were grounds for the dropping of sanctions and its re-emergence into the wider world.The bicameral national Parliament has sat for the first time, which brought the new Constitution into effect and officially ended 50 years of military rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed the lifting of punitive measures, prompting Burma's state media to warn that Suu Kyi and her party will meet ‘tragic ends’ if they keep up their support of Western sanctions. By locking up Dunkley, the junta has hardly helped its cause. So it’s business as usual.
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/02/15/burma-holds-australian-publisher/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29
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Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
Ron Corben | Bangkok February 14, 2011

In this June 26, 2007 photo, Ross Dunkley, the editor-in-chief of the Australian publisher of an English-language Myanmar Times' poses for photo with packs of heroin during a ceremony to destroy seized narcotic drugs in Lashio, northeast of Yangon, Myanm

The arrest in Burma of Ross Dunkley, the Australian publisher of the Myanmar Times, has raised fears of even tighter control over Burma’s media by the military.

Dunkly was was arrested in Rangoon shortly after returning from overseas last week. A pioneer in Southeast Asia news media, he founded the Times in 2000.

But there have been reports of a conflict over control of the paper.

Dunkley currently holds 49 percent of Myanmar Consolidated Media, which oversees the paper. The remaining shares are held by Tin Htun Oo.

A statement Monday from the Thailand-based Post Media, a sister company of Myanmar Consolidated, called for Dunkley’s immediate release after authorities failed to press charges. He reportedly was arrested for visa violations and drug possession.

His arrest may have more to do with control over the paper than crime, says Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine about Burma published in Thailand.

"What is clear is that there was conflict between Dr. Tin Htun Oo and Ross Dunkley; and now it is apparent they want to take over the whole Myanmar Times," he says. "That’s why I think probably they will frame up the charges against him, which doesn’t surprise anyone."

Dunkley’s initial partner in the pro-military paper was Sonny Swe, the son of former Brigadier General Thein Swe.

But Thein Swe fell from favor with the top leadership. Sonny Swe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison in 2005. His shares were passed to Tin Htun Oo.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been ruled by the military, which keeps tight control on the media and most aspects of the economy and public life. The country’s first parliament in 22 years was elected in November, but more than 80 percent of its members are either in the military or linked to it. And the parliament selected former Prime Minister Thein Sein to be the new president.

Aung Zaw says Dunkley had initially been hopeful that Burma’s tight media controls would ease. But he says those controls and the country’s politics meant the paper was always a risky investment.

"Ross ... should realize Burma is a political graveyard for everyone," he said. "Even he should realize how many journalists and reporters are being apprehended and spending time ... in prison."

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma says around 30 journalists and media activists are among Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners.

Dunkley also publishes the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia. Some journalists familiar with the operation say there are fears that the loss of the Burma paper could hurt finances at the Post. But the Post on Monday said that although its management is concerned for Dunkley’s well-being, the paper is running as normal.

Dunkley has been viewed as a media maverick and risk taker, after investing in Vietnam’s fledgling news industry in the early 1990s.

Reporters Without Borders in 2010 ranked Burma as 174th out of 178 countries in its annual press freedom index. Several media analysts in Southeast Asia say with Dunkley’s arrest points to tighter control over the media by the military. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Burma-Appears-to-Tighten-Grip-on-Media-with-Arrest-of-Australian-Publisher-116152119.html