News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 24 May, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 24 May, 2011
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NLD Condemn Tourism in Burma
China should think over Myitsone dam in Burma’s Kachin State
Crackdown Begins on Prison Hunger Strikers
Factional Shan armies bid for unity
FACTBOX - Five facts about China-Myanmar relations
PREVIEW - Myanmar's new leader to reaffirm vital China ties
Banned UN envoy slams Burma on human rights
Political prisoners on hunger strike in Burma says pressure group
Myanmar prisoners on hunger strike
Police Vans Used to Smuggle Burmese to Thailand
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NLD Condemn Tourism in Burma
By KO HTWE Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Burma's main pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Friday issued a statement condemning tourism, saying it damages the environment.

The opposition slammed the policy of tourism in a five-page report, highlighting the impact on culture, society and environment.

The NLD statement said that the establishment of tourism projects frequently forced locals to relocate and often included programs of forced labor.

“If they [investors/ developers] take responsibility, respect ethics and preserve the ecology, we would readily embrace tourism,” said Soe Win, an environmental researcher.

In 1996, the NLD called for a boycott of “Visit Myanmar Year 1996,” claiming that projects were rife with both human rights violations and cronyism.

“The biggest challenge is to reduce the disadvantages from the tourism industry and create benefits that develop industry and improve the economy of the country,” the NLD wrote in Friday's statement.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, a Rangoon-based tour operator said some tourists “steal the culture of the country.”

With regard to Shan State's famed sightseeing spot, Inle Lake, she said that so many hotels were being built that “the lake is in danger of disappearing.”

Burma's tourism sector never recovered after the violence of the Saffron Revolution in 2007, she said.

“However, the income from tourism generally flows directly into the pockets of the public and the industry creates more jobs,” she said.

Burma's state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday urged all those engaging in tourism industry to provide their best service to lure in a greater number of tourists in the interests of the nation.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian government lifted its tourism boycott on Burma and encouraged their citizens to visit the country, according to Oslo-based Dagdladet.

There are nearly 600 hotels, guest houses or resorts across Burma, and some 6,000 licensed tour guides, according to government data.

However, observers say infrastructure remains a problem—the country has highly restricted Internet access, credit cards are all but unknown, and transportation is slow and unreliable.

According to Bangkok-based Pacific Travel Association, in 2010, some 300,000 foreign tourists visited Burma—a 30 percent increase from 2009. One reason for the increase was the stabilized political situation, it said.

However, Burma's tourist figures pale when compared to neighboring Thailand, which regularly receives some 14 million visitors a year. Vietnam receives about four million, while about two million visit Cambodia and Laos.

On Monday, in Rangoon, Burma's Forestry Minister Win Tun met with 15 representatives of environmental NGOs to discuss eco-tourism. It was the first environmental meeting called by the new government since it was sworn in on March 30.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, U Ohn, the general-secretary of the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association, said he welcomed open discussion on environmental issues. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21352
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China should think over Myitsone dam in Burma’s Kachin State
By Zin Linn May 24, 2011

The Chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Lanyaw Zawng Hra sent an official letter to Hu Jintao, the president of the People’s Republic of China on May 16 urging China to stop the controversial Myitsone dam construction on Irrawaddy River in Kachin State, Northern Burma, Kachin News Group [KNG] reported Monday.

In the open letter the KIO warned Myitsone and six other hydroelectric power plant projects could lead to civil war between the KIA, the armed wing of the KIO, and the Burmese military because Burmese troops will be deployed to the KIO control areas to provide security for the dam construction.

Construction at Myitsone began December 21, 2009, led by China’s state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in cooperation with Burma’s, Asia World Company (AWC) and the Burmese government’s No. 1 Ministry of Electric Power. Remarkably, AWC owner is former drug lord Lo Hsing Han. As a result, the KIO warned CPI employees not to enter its area in the dam construction sites north of the Mali-N’mai Rivers. The reason was that KIO has stopped cooperating with the Burmese government when the government discontinued the 1994 truce on September 1, 2010.

According to Kachin News Group (KNG), numerous complaint letters regarding construction of the Myitsone dam have been sent to the Burmese and Chinese governments by local people, the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA) and the KIO. However, no action has been taken to tackle the worries expressed by the Kachin community.

KIO’s official letter to Hu Jintao says, “Except the Dam Project in Mali-N’mai Confluence (Myitsone dam), we have no objections against the other six Hydro Power Plant Projects. However, we have also informed the Asia World Co Ltd to make a decision only after assessing the consequences of the Dam Construction”.

The letter also underscores, “We have replied that the Burma (Myanmar) Military troops will not be allowed to invade the KIO area in this current situation.”

The letter said the KIO would not be responsible if war broke out because of the hydro power plant projects and the dam construction.

More Burmese troops are trying to enter the KIO controlled-areas to provide security for a dam construction project, quoting KIO officials KNG said. KIA officials in the areas said fighting nearly broke out between the two armies in early March. However, Burmese troops withdrew when the KIA warned them they would be under attack if they penetrated into the KIO-controlled areas.

The KIO said the junta has not officially asked for permission to install electrical-power poles, transformers and cable from Chipwi hydropower plant to the Myitsone hydropower plant, through the KIO areas. The smaller hydropower plant in N’Mai Hka River, in Chipwi, is under construction and some of the electricity produced is to be delivered to the larger Myitsone hydropower project along Chipwi-Washawng-Myitkyina, according to local dam watchdogs.

The Kachin Development and Networking Group (KDNG) has warned publicly that the Myitsone dam construction is going to displace regarding 15,000 neighboring Kachin natives and millions of people living downstream of the dam construction location because of inundation.

According to the environmentalist group, thousands of people have been forced to displace from their home villages near the dam construction site. The displaced villagers have to struggle finding new livelihoods, adequate health care services and education for their children at new village, the watchdog group said.

In the past, Kachin people had made an official plea to junta’s boss Senior-General Than Shwe to stop the project due to environmental damages plus undesirable catastrophe. But, he always turns a deaf ear to the call. The junta boss regularly obeys the rules of the Chinese authorities over the dam projects.

Relations between Burma Army and KIO, following the end of the ceasefire, have been tense since last September after KIO publicly discarded junta’s offer to transform into the Border Guard Force (BGF) under Burmese Army control.

The junta labeled the KIO as an ‘insurgent group’ for the first time since the ceasefire agreement on 1994. KIA officials supposed the civil war will spread across Kachin and Shan states if the government starts a war with the KIO.

If this war broke out, China’s lots of business benefits including the gas pipeline investment will be severely hurt.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/55683/china-should-think-over-myitsone-dam-in-burma%E2%80%99s-kachin-state/#disqus_thread
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Crackdown Begins on Prison Hunger Strikers
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Prison authorities at Rangoon's Insein Prison have launched a crackdown on more than 20 political prisoners who have gone on a hunger strike to demand better conditions and to protest a recent amnesty that included only a handful of political detainees.

Some of the strikers were sent to punishment cells in the prison while the rest were transferred to other prisons outside Rangoon, according to a prison official who spoke to Irrawaddy sources. The prisoners were demanding reading materials, adequate food rations and better health care.

“There were no negotiations of any sort on the part of the authorities before the crackdown,” said a prison source. The incident, involving at least seven female political prisoners, took place less than a week after the new government announced an amnesty which resulted in the release of only 47 of more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma.

Insein Prison authorities were not available for comment, despite repeated attempts to contact them by phone. The sister of one of the political prisoners who took part in the hunger strike said that she was trying to find out if her brother was still in Insein Prison or has already been transferred to another location.

“I am so worried about him now. I am now going to the prison,” she said.

Former political prisoners in Rangoon said that when prison authorities crack down on hunger strikers, they usually take them to different prison wards and put them in shackles before beating them or transferring them to other prisons.

In 1998, a group of political prisoners who had served more than the full length of their sentences held a hunger strike at Tharawaddy Prison to demand their release. One of the hunger strikers, Aung Kyaw Moe, died after being tortured along with six other prisoners who joined his protest.

The former political prisoners said they visited the local office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rangoon today and urged officials there to negotiate with the government to seek permission to visit the prisons.

In 1999, the ruling military regime started giving the ICRC access to political prisoners, but this ended in 2006 after the authorities demanded that ICRC officials be accompanied by government-backed social organizations during their visits.

In the same year that the ICRC's prison visits were suspended, Thet Win Aung, a 35-year-old political prisoner who had held a number of hunger strikes, died in Mandalay Prison. At the time, the state-run media blamed his death on health problems and his “failure to eat regularly.”

On Monday, the ICRC representative in Burma, Georges Paclisanu, held talks with Soe Maung, the minister of the president's office, to discuss a number of issues, including the ICRC's request to regain permission to visit prisons, according to the ICRC's Southeast Asian media spokesperson Philippe Marc Stoll.

“We are now trying very hard to visit the prisons again,” said Stoll, who declined to provide further details of the discussions. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21350
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Factional Shan armies bid for unity
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 24 May 2011

Officials from the RCSS and SSPP join on the stage at Shan Revolution Day in Loi Taileng (Joseph Allchin)

Leaders of the two main Shan military factions at the weekend met on the Thai-Burma border and affirmed a new-found unity under one Shan State Army.

Officials from the formerly Shan State Army-North, now known as the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), travelled to Loi Taileng to attend the 53rd Shan Revolution Day. The annual ceremony was led by Yawd Serk, chairman of Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), whom alongside the SSPP’s Lt-Gen Sai Htoo, asserted that “there is only one Shan State Army”.

The SSPP came under attack in March as the Burmese army sought to assert control over the group, who had refused to sign the government’s Border Guard Force agreement. The attack prompted the SSPP to join the new United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC).

The fighting centred around Namlao, near Hsipaw in the north of Shan state. Sai Htoo confirmed that battles were still underway, with possible counter attacks likely in the area. He also confirmed that villagers were still fleeing in fear of being used as porters by the Burmese army.

The RCSS however are yet to join the UNFC. Its spokesperson, Sai Lao Hseng, told DVB that a decision was being considered, but that Shan unity was their precondition for joining. The resistance day event on 21 March was a “golden opportunity” to seek such unity, he said.

The spokesperson also asserted that the combined strength of the two armies greatly increased their power, with manpower close to that of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest armed ethnic group.

Yawd Serk confirmed to DVB that the RCSS was assisting the SSPP with supplies in the current conflict. Neither leader could confirm the presence of fresh reinforcements of Burmese troops, reportedly sent from Arakan state.

The Mong Tai Army (MTA), the previous incarnation of the Shan State Army, split in 1996 when former leader and drug baron Khun Sa surrendered to the Burmese. According to some, the surrender was to avoid being arrested on drugs charges. He was later given asylum by the Burmese.

The northern faction signed a ceasefire in 1996 instigated by then Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, whilst the southern faction under the command of Yawd Serk carried on the struggle.

The UNFC is made up of a number of ethnic armies who are seeking an alliance that will draw all parties into conflict should the Burmese attack any member. There is also potential to create a so-called Union Army to fight as one in the image of the desired federal system. This is the stated aim of the grouping.

The UNFC attempted to meet in the Thai town of Chiang Mai on 9 May, but Thai authorities blocked it. Instead the meeting was held in Loi Taileng.

The principal members of the UNFC are the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Union, the Chin National Front, the SSPP, the Karenni National Progressive Party and the New Mon State Party.
http://www.dvb.no/news/factional-shan-armies-bid-for-unity/15806
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FACTBOX - Five facts about China-Myanmar relations

REUTERS - Myanmar's new civilian president, Thein Sein, arrives in China on Thursday for a three-day state visit.

Here are five facts about the complex relationship between China and Myanmar:

*In 1949, Burma, as Myanmar was then known, was one of the first countries to recognise the People's Republic of China. But relations soured in the 1960s following anti-Chinese riots in Rangoon (now called Yangon).

* Following a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988, the West imposed broad sanctions on Myanmar. China stepped into the void, providing aid and weapons and ramping up trade.

Beijing has continued to provide broad diplomatic support for Myanmar's, though the powerful military remains wary of their enormous northern neighbour.

* Bilateral trade rose more than half last year to $4.4 billion, and China's investment in Myanmar reached $12.3 billion in 2010, according to Chinese figures, with a strong focus on natural resources and energy projects.

* Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports of oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts.

In October, China's state energy group CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait.

* The relationship has had rocky patches of late. In August 2009, refugees flooded across into China following fighting on the Myanmar side of the border between rebels and government troops, angering Beijing. Myanmar has since promised to maintain stability on the border.

In 2007, China's Foreign Ministry published an unflattering account of Myanmar's new purpose-built capital Naypyitaw, expressing surprise that the poor country would consider such an expensive move without first telling its supposed Chinese friends.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Copyright © 2011 Reuters http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/24/worldupdates/2011-05-24T163637Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-572370-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Tuesday May 24, 2011
PREVIEW - Myanmar's new leader to reaffirm vital China ties
By Ben Blanchard and Aung Hla Tun

BEIJING/YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's new civilian president, Thein Sein, visits China this week in a show of friendship to the former Burma's most important diplomatic ally, where he may sign deals to cement an already close economic relationship.

Thein Sein, a loyalist of the reclusive former paramount leader Than Shwe, is no stranger to China, having met top Chinese leaders in the past in his previous official capacities, including as prime minister.

"He's a known quantity to China having visited several times before," said Lin Xixing, a Myanmar expert at Guangzhou's Jinan University.

"He'll probably sign several agreements and maybe visit some industrial sites, as Myanmar's focus now is developing its economy," Lin added. "China is investing large sums in high-speed rail and road links, as well as pipelines, in Myanmar."

Bilateral trade rose more than half last year to $4.4 billion, and China's investment in Myanmar reached $12.3 billion in 2010, according to Chinese figures, with a strong focus on natural resources and energy projects.

Diplomatically, China provides Myanmar with cover at the United Nations, fending off calls for tougher action demanded by the West on Myanmar's human rights record.

Thein Sein's first major foreign visitor since taking up office in February under Myanmar's "road map" back to democracy and civilian rule was the Chinese Communist Party's fourth ranked leader, Jia Qinglin.

While Western nations slammed Myanmar's election last year as a sham, Beijing has shown no such concerns, promising instead to do even more to help the country, on which China will increasingly rely for its energy security.

"China supports the development path chosen by Myanmar in accordance with its own national condition, and will keep supplying what help it can for Myanmar's development," Xinhua news agency quoted Jia as telling Thein Sein last month.

INDIAN OCEAN ACCESS

Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports of oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts.

In October, China's state energy group CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait.

Myanmar's internal political issues could be on the agenda as well.

China has frequently expressed its concern at instability along their often mountainous and remote border, where rebel groups deeply involved in the narcotics trade have been fighting Myanmar's central government for decades.

In August 2009, refugees flooded across into China following fighting on the Myanmar side of the border between rebels and government troops, promoting an unusually public show of anger from Beijing towards its poor southern neighbour.

"I think the main purpose of Thein Sein's brief visit is to show a special gesture of goodwill to their mentor and to seek its advice on some sensitive domestic issues about ethnic armed groups along the Chinese border," said Thakhin Chan Tun, a former Myanmar ambassador to China.

As the number four in the previous ruling military junta, Thein Sein will be acutely aware of the situation with the rebels along the border.

One retired senior Myanmar Foreign Ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the short length of Thein Sein's visit likely underscored his worries about such problems.

"He is very eager to express the special importance his government attaches to their close ties with China but at the same time he seems very busy with some perennial problems including mounting tension with major ethnic armed groups along the Chinese border," he said.

"So he cannot afford to spend too much time away."

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson) http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/5/24/worldupdates/2011-05-24T152309Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-572369-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Banned UN envoy slams Burma on human rights
By Zin Linn May 24, 2011 12:21AM UTC

Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar (Burma), held a press conference Monday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) following the conclusion of his one-week mission to Thailand.

A United Nations commission of inquiry should be set up to address Burma’s human rights violence, which has not ended under the new government, Mr. Quintana said Monday.

Quintana said the Burma military has continued to commit widespread human rights abuses in ethnic minority areas where armed conflicts are still taking place along the border with Thailand, which he visited last week.

“These abuses include land confiscation, forced labour, internal displacement, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence,” Quintana said.

Tomas Ojea Quintana from Argentina, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma. Pic: AP.

Mr. Quintana has not been issued a visa to visit Burma since March 2010, when he suggested an inquiry.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution shortly after he presented a report this March that asked him: “to provide an assessment of any progress made by the government in relation to its stated intention to transition to a democracy to the General Assembly.”

In his statement, he said, “I am concerned that the Government is not finding a political solution to solve the ethnic conflicts. The authorities have now reached the final step of their 7-step road-map to democracy, but democracy requires much more. We also have to keep in mind that the electoral process excluded several significant ethnic and opposition groups, so their voices are not being heard in these fora.”

He also said the recently announced release of prisoners was insufficient as most of the prisoners of conscience remain in prison. National reconciliation requires the full participation of all key stakeholders including the prisoners of conscience, some of whom are ethnic leaders.

He also said that a commission of inquiry might be a way to address the problem. He discussed the issue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and she supports a commission of inquiry absolutely, he said.

“It should pursue the truth and facilitate reparations. It should also end and prevent ongoing human rights abuses,” Mr. Quintana said.

Burma President Thein Sein’s government is currently refusing to allow Mr. Quintana to visit the country. Thailand is home to nearly 150,000 Burmese refugees who have escaped from the country due to brutal repression by their own government. These abuses are common and remain essentially unaddressed by the authorities, Quintana said.

In state-run media, the junta regularly condemns the proposal of National Reconciliation forum raised by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and some prominent ethnic leaders as an unnecessary approach. The worst is that Burmese government stubbornly used to say there are no political prisoners in their prisons.

The nation risks a return of armed conflict due to denial of a true federal system in the 2008 Constitution drawn by the previous military junta. The military seems to be at the helm as usual. Although the governmental composition has been transformed, the military-first policy is the same as always. And most observers believe that civil war with the ethnic armed groups will not be stopped undoubtedly.

If the President Thein Sein government did not want to make real political change, Mr. Quintana will not be welcome into Burma in the near future. Quintana’s idea of ‘commission of inquiry’ seems threatening toward the current president and his cabinet members who have responsibilities with the human rights abuses under previous junta.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/55579/burma-blocks-the-un-special-rapporteur%E2%80%99s-visit/
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ABC News: 24 May, 2011, Tuesday
Political prisoners on hunger strike in Burma says pressure group

A pressure group says nearly 30 political prisoners in Burma are on a hunger strike to demand better treatment and to protest against a recent 'sham' amnesty.

The US Campaign for Burma says seven women in Rangoon's Insein jail began the strike a week ago.

It says it is in response to a clemency program that outraged critics for failing to include most political detainees.

On Monday, 22 male prisoners including three Buddhist monks reportedly joined the hunger strike.

Their list of demands include calls for better living conditions and improved family visiting rights.

Burma released thousands of prisoners last week in a so-called amnesty but most of them were common criminals.

This was despite repeated global calls for the release of political prisoners who are often held for lengthy jail terms. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201105/3225854.htm?desktop
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STRAITS TIMES: May 24, 2011
Myanmar prisoners on hunger strike

BANGKOK - NEARLY 30 political prisoners in Myanmar are on a hunger strike to demand better treatment and to protest against a recent 'sham amnesty', a pressure group said on Tuesday.

The US Campaign for Burma (USCB) said seven women in Yangon's Insein jail began the strike a week ago in response to a clemency programme that outraged critics for failing to include most political detainees.

On Monday, 22 male prisoners - including three Buddhist monks - joined the hunger strike, with a six-point list of demands such as better living conditions and improved family visiting rights.

'Prisons in Burma are a known living hell,' said Aung Din, executive director of the Washington-based USCB, who himself served over four years as a political prisoner in Myanmar - also known as Burma.

'There is no adequate or sufficient food supply, no clean water, no proper medical treatment and no liveable environment. Prison cells and halls are full of mosquitoes, bed bugs, flies, ants and other insects,' he said in a statement.

'Prison guards treat the prisoners like animals under their command.' -- AFP
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Police Vans Used to Smuggle Burmese to Thailand

By Chutima Sidasathian
Monday, May 23, 2011
PHUKET: Phuket police are likely to check government vehicles more closely after the arrest of a policeman who was using a police van to carry Burmese out of Thailand - then bring back illegal workers.

The system being used by errant police was discovered yesterday at an Army checkpoint not far from Mae Sot, on the border with Burma. Like the border port of Ranong, north of Phuket, Mae Sot is a point where illegal workers are deported to Burma.

Two police vans, carrying illegal Burmese workers scheduled for deportation, passed the army checkpoint not far from Mae Sot about 9am.

About 5pm, the first returning police van failed to stop at the checkpoint when waved down. By the time soldiers mounted a pursuit, the van had disappeared.

The second van also did not stop but soldiers managed to pull it to the side of the road about two kilometres away.

There, checkpoint superintendent Second Lieutenant Praturng Pangsungnern later told his superiors, soldiers encountered policeman Kirat Leeksawat at the wheel with 10 illegal Burmese in the back of the van.

The six young men and four young women, aged 17 to 20, told the soldiers they had each paid 16,000 baht to a broker to be able to live and work in Thailand.

They had been told to crouch in the van so they could not be seen through the wire mesh.

Later, four kilometres from the checkpoint, soldiers rounded up 28 Burmese - 15 men and 13 women - who had been on the first van, but were ordered off by the police officer who was driving the vehicle.

The Burmese told Second Lieutenant Praturng that the first policeman placed a telephone call to a broker after leaving the ''legal'' illegal Burmese in Mae Sot.

Soldiers found 34,200 baht in cash in the second police van. The hunt is now on for the driver of the first van.

The police were from the province of Tak. Provincial Governor Samas Loyfar said more thorough checks would be made on all government vehicles travelling to the border with Burma from now on. http://phuketwan.com/tourism/police-vans-used-smuggle-burmese-thailand-14147/