News & Articles on Burma
Saturday, 29 July, 2011
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The Burmese regime "use" Aung San Suu Kyi to cover
Most dangerous country online - Myanmar?
Need To Release All Remaining Political Prisoners
UN: Burma Must Release Remaining Political Prisoners
Myanmar: Cyber war: Myanmar leader in attacks in 2011
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» 07/30/2011 12:29
INDIA - MYANMAR
The Burmese regime "use" Aung San Suu Kyi to cover the violence against Kachin
by Nirmala Carvalho
Waves of refugees fleeing across the border to China. But the government blocks the borders and prevents the entry of aid to war zones. The Nobel Laureate is open to mediate for peace. Activist: the meeting between Suu Kyi and the Myanmar Minister is window-dressing, to gain international credibility.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) - The civil war between Burmese army and Kachin ethnic militias, to the north of Myanmar, along the border with China, continues to cause waves of refugees fleeing across the border. Soldiers threaten the civilian population, killing and raping women and girls, the situation is serious and the war front covers a variety of areas. So says Raw Zau, coordinator of the Kachin Refugee Committee (KRC), a humanitarian organization based in New Delhi, India, and active in bringing aid to the Burmese minority. Speaking to AsiaNews he also accuses the Burmese leadership of exploiting the image of Aung San Suu Kyi to cover the crimes committed by the regime and gain credibility within the international community.
From 9 June the northern Kachin State has been the scene of a bloody conflict that has sowed death and terror among the population. So far there have been 32 confirmed cases of sexual violence against women by the Kachin soldiers, 13 of which ended with the murder of the victim. On 26 July in a gun battle between the two sides four Burmese soldiers were killed and 12 others were wounded in an ambush by the Kachin Independence Army militia (Kia).
In order to suppress the resistance, says the activist Zau Raw, "the central government continues to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid to the war zone, in the areas controlled by the Kachin and along the border with China." Only in the last two weeks about two thousand families living in seven villages located near Bhamo, have fled their homes. Thousand others have fled from Kala Yang, Tapant and Kazue, by order of the authorities.
The coordinator of Kachin Refugee Committee (KRC) has criticized Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition leader, for not taking a long position on the conflict. But recently the Nobel Laureate said she was ready to mediate between the government and ethnic groups, to achieve a ceasefire. In an open letter sent to the president Thein Sein and Kachin leaders, the activist calls for a "peaceful solution" in the interests of "all ethnic minorities in the Union of Myanmar."
Raw Zau then accused the Burmese government - which took office last April and is an emanation of the military regime - of "exploiting" the image of the "Lady" to ease international pressure. He recalls that the woman was released after the "farce" elections of November 2010 to cover allegations of fraud and early voting. And now that the army is engaged in a civil war against a minority, it is organizing "a meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and a government minister for the sole purpose of diverting attention" from its atrocities and war crimes and crimes against 'humanity' in the ethnic areas.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-Burmese-regime-use-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-to-cover-the-violence-against-Kachin-22242.html
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Most dangerous country online - Myanmar?
Myanmar has become the No. 1 source of Web attack traffic worldwide as the Asian country makes its debut in a cyberthreat index covering the first quarter of 2011, according to new report (registration required).
Released Wednesday, the latest edition of Akamai's quarterly "State of the Internet report" noted that Myanmar's sudden appearance at the top of the chart was "certainly unusual". This was the first time the country placed in the ranking, which has a four-year history, noted the content network delivery provider. It added that the attacks from Myanmar seemed related to attack traffic in late-February and early-March which targeted port 80.
According to Akamai, Myanmar accounted for 13 percent of the observed attack traffic despite only targeting 25 unique ports, among which 45 percent of the attack were targeted at port 80. In contrast, the United States--ranked No. 2--accounted for 10 percent of attack traffic with tens of thousands of targeted ports. Attack activities from the U.S. were strongly indicative of general port scanning and not specifically-targeted attacks, said the company.
To round out the top 5 on the list: Taiwan ranked third, Russia fourth, and China fifth.
For more on this story, read Myanmar No. 1 source of Web attacks on ZDNet Asia.
http://www.zdnet.com/news/most-dangerous-country-online-myanmar/6268280
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Need To Release All Remaining Political Prisoners
Saturday, 30 July 2011, 3:06 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Myanmar: Ban Underlines Need To Release All Remaining Political Prisoners
New York, Jul 29 2011 2:10PM
Releasing all remaining political prisoners is the single most important step that authorities in Myanmar can take, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, expressing hope that the Government of the Asian nation will soon take steps towards greater democracy.
Mr. Ban <" http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=1894">spoke by telephone earlier today with U Wunna Maung Lwin, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister, just days after he welcomed a meeting between a Government minister and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and prominent opposition figure.
Ms. Suu Kyi, who spent almost 15 years under house arrest during the past two decades, was released in November last year.
In his conversation with the Foreign Minister, the Secretary-General “underlined that he had publicly welcomed the reform measures announced by the new Government,” according to information released by his spokesperson.
“He hoped that the Government would now move toward concrete action and take the country forward towards peace, democracy and prosperity.”
Mr. Ban also pressed for “early action” on releasing Myanmar’s remaining political prisoners, describing their release as the “single most important step the international community expected to take.”
The Secretary-General also voiced his concern to the Foreign Minister about the ongoing violence involving some armed groups and the impact of that on civilians, saying the Government must resolve the situation peacefully.
Jul 29 2011 2:10PM http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1107/S00601/need-to-release-all-remaining-political-prisoners.htm
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VOANews.com:
UN: Burma Must Release Remaining Political Prisoners
Friday, July 29th, 2011 at 8:50 pm UTC
The United Nations Secretary General says Burma's government must release all remaining political prisoners as its first priority in improving its relations with the international community.
According to a U.N. statement, Ban Ki-moon said Friday it was the “single most important step” the government should take. He welcomed the government's recent reform measures, and said he hoped they would lead soon to “concrete action” that will bring progress towards peace, democracy, and prosperity.
The statement said Mr. Ban also voiced his approval of the Burmese government's meeting this week with democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi met with Labor Minister Aung Kyi Monday at a government house in Rangoon, her first high-level government meeting since her release from house arrest in November.
The Secretary General made the comments to Burma Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin in a phone call.
Burma elected a civilian government last year to take over from the long-standing military rulers.
But the opposition and human rights officials say the military is still in charge under the guise of an elected civilian administration.
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/07/29/un-burma-must-release-remaining-political-prisoners/
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Myanmar: Cyber war: Myanmar leader in attacks in 2011
In the first quarter of 2011, 13 per cent of all cyber attacks in the world came from the country formerly known as Burma, ahead of the United States, Taiwan and China; in 2010, it did not even make the top ten list. Only 2 per cent of the population has access to a heavily censored internet. Egypt ...
Friday, July 29, 2011
By Asia News See all articles by this author
Yangon – In the first three months of 2011, Myanmar was the largest source of cyber attacks in the world, a far cry from last year when it did not appear in the top ten list, this according to a report issued by the leading US tracking company Akamai.
The survey also found that Egypt and Libya experienced major Internet outages in the first quarter of this year when their governments sought to cut off access in response to widespread protests.
In that same period, Myanmar accounted for 13 per cent of total global attack traffic. Thus, a country where only 2 per cent of the population has access to the internet pulled ahead of the Unite States (10 per cent), Taiwan (9 per cent), Russia and China.
What is not clear is whether the attacks are the work of individuals or organised local groups, or whether the country is used as a proxy to strike at sensitive targets.
Cyber attackers are in fact known to use countries like Myanmar, China and Russia, even Israel and Kazakhstan, because of their malleable internet security laws, or take advantage of local policies that promote web wars.
Last year, the Burmese government announced plans to boost access to the web, something activists and experts dismiss as a smokescreen since it continues to enforce heavy-handed censorship and controls. http://www.speroforum.com/a/57871/Myanmar---Cyber-war-Myanmar-leader-in-attacks-in-2011
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Sunday, July 31, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Saturday, 29 July, 2011-UZL
Saturday, July 30, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 29 July, 2011-UZL
News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 29 July, 2011
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Armed groups urge Suu Kyi mediation
Tay Za’s Bank Launches e-Banking
Italian-Thai Co Workers Flee Burma Conflict
EC chairman urges all political parties to oppose Western sanctions
Highest US diplomat in Burma to retire
Activists Condemn India's Arm Deal with Burma
Burma: President Thein Sein ought to accept Suu Kyi’s call for peace talk
EC Chief Says NLD Threatened Junta with 'Nuremburg-style' Trial
Gunmen Kill Three in Kyaukme Attack
At a critical juncture, Burma’s government needs a Plan B
Crowd trouble ends Burma-Oman game
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Armed groups urge Suu Kyi mediation
By DVB
Published: 29 July 2011
A number of the targets of a letter sent yesterday by Aung San Suu Kyi that urged a nationwide ceasefire after months of heavy fighting in Burma say the calls are timely and welcome.
The opposition leader also offered to play a negotiating role between the Burmese government and multiple ethnic armies currently engaged in conflict in the country’s border regions.
La Nan, joint-secretary of Kachin Independence Organisation, whose armed wing the Kachin Independence Army, has been battling Burmese forces in the country’s north since early June, said that Suu Kyi’s message carried “great potential”.
“We have redistributed the letter to our leaders and are to hold a discussion prior to responding after everyone has read it,” he said.
Also included in the letter was the Karen National Union (KNU), the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Shan State Army (SSA), as well as Burmese President Thein Sein. As of today, no mention has been made of it in state media, the normal means by which the government communicates with the public.
The KNU’s deputy chairman, David Thackrabaw, was also enthusiastic about the letter. “We are mutual here and we accept [Suu Kyi’s call for] peaceful resolution to the conflicts – our door is always open.”
He added that the Nobel laureate should also urge support from the UN and ASEAN, given that various meetings and negotiations with the government towards an end to the fighting had so far failed. “So [this time] we might have to meet in a third party country.”
Suu Kyi’s offer of mediation is the first time she has mooted her possible role in bringing an end to the fighting, which has resulted in tens of thousands of people being displaced.
Nai Hongsa, general secretary of New Mon State Party, said a mediating role for the opposition icon could prove very beneficial. While the group “wants to have peace in the country” he said, “there are difficulties for us to meet and negotiate with each other so we actually need a middle person”.
Khin Maung Swe, leader of the National Democratic Force party, questioned whether Suu Kyi had discussed the matter during talks last week with the government’s labour minister, Aung Kyi, of which details have been vague.
Refusals from a multitude of armed ethnic groups to become government-controlled Border Guard Forces have led to parts of Burma’s northern and eastern border regions being engulfed in violence.
http://www.dvb.no/news/armed-groups-urge-suu-kyi-mediation/16783
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Tay Za’s Bank Launches e-Banking
By WAI MOE Friday, July 29, 2011
Tycoon Tay Za’s Asia Green Development Bank (AGD) has launched on Wednesday an online telephone bill payment service on behalf of the Ministry of Telecommunications, Post & Telegraphs, according to sources at the bank in Rangoon.
In doing so, AGD becomes the first firm in Burma to offer online banking, also known as “e-banking.”
An official who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, said the service charge for an online transaction to pay a telephone bill is 500 kyat [US $0.60], and added that the bank is working to extend its e-banking service to ATM machines and debit cards in the near future.
“We are still working on providing various other services in e-banking, but the telephone bill payment service is a start, and it allows a for an online service that is faster than before,” he said.
The official launch of the online service was marked by a sponsored event held at the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Park in Rangoon on Wednesday.
AGD's e-banking service narrowly pips state-run bank Myanma Economic Bank, which also launched its own online telephone payment service in this week.
Since Burma has less Internet users than almost every other country in the region, the e-banking system has no guarantee of success.
According to a report by Freedom House, Burma’s Internet penetration is just one percent of the 53.4 million population while Burmese authorities still block many blogs, political websites and exile media websites.
In May, certain tycoons with close connections to the ruling elite were given permission to set up private banks. Tay Za formed the Asia Green Development Bank, and Zaw Zaw of the Max Myanmar group founded the Ayeyarwady Bank.
The IGE Group of Companies, run by Nay Aung and Pyi Aung, the sons of former minister Aung Thaung, who is now a leading light in the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, founded the Amara United Bank; Chit Khaing of Eden Group formed the Myanma Leading Bank.
According to businessmen in Rangoon, the Myanma Leading Bank is currently popular among customers for good service. It has hired former staffers of the Asia Wealth Bank which was closed down by the authorities after a money laundering scandal in 2003.
Burma's financial authorities have recently introduced an online banking network system in six banks: Yoma Bank, Myanmar Citizen Bank, Tun Foundation Bank, Myawaddy Bank, Myanmar Industrial Development Bank and Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank.
The banking network is under the operational supervision of two national IT companies: the Myanmar Information Technology Co, owned by Aung Soe Tha, the son of former minister Soe Tha; and Global Net, run by Toe Naing Mann, a son of Lower House Speaker ex-Gen Shwe Mann.
Four years after a 1988 military coup, Burma's rulers vowed to introduce a “free market economy” in the country, including permission to establish private banks.
From 1992 to 1997, at least 20 banks were founded, according to data from the Central Bank of Myanmar. Among them, the Asia Wealth Bank, Myanmar May Flowers Bank and Kanbawza Bank are arguably the best known.
However, Burma’s private banks were hit by a crisis in 2003 when Finance and Revenue Minister Khin Maung Thein was forced to retire, and rumors spread that certain notes were to be demonetized.
The bank crisis led to the US Department of Treasury to announce a blacklist of the Myanmar May Flower Bank and the Asia Wealth Bank on Nov. 19, 2003, citing “primary money laundering concerns.”
Irrawaddy reporter Yan Pai contributed reporting to this story. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21800
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Italian-Thai Co Workers Flee Burma Conflict
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, July 29, 2011
Some 50 workers of the Italian-Thai Development Company (ITD) have fled from Burma to the Thai side of the border to escape fighting between Burmese government troops and Karen rebels that broke out near their work site on Thursday, according to various sources.
ITD, Thailand’s largest construction firm, is contracted to build the Kanchanaburi-Tavoy Highway, linking the western Thai town of Kanchanaburi with the Burmese coastal town of Tavoy [Dawei] as part of the multi-billion-dollar Dawei Development Project.
Local residents in Kanchanaburi said that the workers, most of whom are Thai and Karen, are now sheltering in a makeshift camp on the Thai side of the border in Kanchanaburi Province. They left all their equipment and many personal effects behind as they abandoned the site in haste.
No company workers have been reported killed or wounded in the crossfire, but sources said the construction camp was hit by artillery shells.
At least six Burmese government soldiers were killed during the fighting, said Karen villagers who had also fled to the Thai-Burmese border for safety.
Hostilities broke out close to the worker's accommodations and the construction site known as Base 1, as Burmese government forces came under surprise attack from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 4, according to a report by the Thailand-based Karen News.
The construction camp is located near a government military base at Ah Leh Satone on the Thai-Burmese border.
An official from KNLA Brigade 4 told The Irrawaddy on Friday that a unit of KNLA soldiers from Battalion 10 ambushed government troops on patrol. The Karen guerrillas also burned down a temporary Burmese outpost along the Kanchanaburi-Tavoy highway.
ITD's construction project at the Dawei Development Project was approved in March last year by the Burmese military government. The US $60 billion project includes a deep-sea port, a giant industrial zone, roads, railways, transmission lines, and oil and gas pipelines.
In early July, ITD workers on the Kanchanaburi-Tavoy Highway project were prevented from working by KNLA troops.
The KNLA has warned that construction should be stopped after local villagers complained that the mega-project would have a severe negative impact on the local population and the environment. Displaced villagers also said that they have not been compensated for the loss of their land. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21799
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EC chairman urges all political parties to oppose Western sanctions
Wednesday, 27 July 2011 21:21 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Union Election Commission (UEC) chairman Tin Aye urged all 37 registered political parties to take part in working for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Burma by foreign countries at a meeting held in Naypyitaw on Wednesday.
He said that the sanctions did not have an impact on the government and its business associates but they harmed common people, said Democratic Party (Myanmar) (DPM) chairman Thu Wei.
According to Thu Wei, Tin Aye said these sanctions are hurdles and obstacles to the economic development of the country. Tin Aye said Western countries imposed these sanctions, noting that while some said that it affected government and businessmen only, this was not true.
Union Election Commission chairman Tin Aye
Union Election Commission chairman Tin Aye. Photo: Mizzima
The UEC chairman told the political parties to follow the electoral laws and rules enacted in early March 2010. He said political parties would be dissolved if they accept members of exile-based unlawful associations.
Each political party delegate was allowed two minutes to comment during the meeting. In the presentations, a Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) delegate proposed that ethnic party representatives be involved in peace talks with armed ethnic groups that are fighting government troops, Rakhine Nationality Development Party (RNDP) Chairman Dr. Aye Maung said.
"The delegate proposed the inclusion of all ethnic parties in these peace talks but the UEC chairman said that the election commission could not do it and told them to present the issue to Parliament,” Aye Maung said. The proposal was endorsed by ethnic parties of the Chin, Inn, Phalon Sawaw and Rakhine.
Aye Maung said the commission chairman told the delegates about his military career, joining the army when he was 18, and he told them not to drive wedges and sow dissension in the armed forces.
“Tin Aye said in general that the armed conflicts were being handled in accordance with the Constitution, but they want peace too. They have the will to restore peace but only in negotiations, and the 2008 Constitution clearly stipulates there must be a sole army in the country,” Aye Maung said.
Former Lieutenant General Tin Aye served as chairman of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (MEHL), whose resources went toward funding the army during the rule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). He is also a member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). He became chairman of the UEC on February 17 after being nominated by President Thein Sein.
Aye Maung suggested that more meetings be held and delegates should have more time to present their views.
The 10-party Friends of Democracy presented a paper to the UEC which discussed weaknesses and rampant vote rigging in the past election. This group includes the NDF, Democracy and Peace Party, Union Democracy Party and ethnic political parties representing Karen, Shan, Mon, Chin and Rakhine.
“In our joint paper we said the electoral laws and rules in the last general election were violated. We urged them to avoid these malpractices and to remedy them. And we urged them not to take absentee votes and to conduct vote counting only in the presence of the vote observers. He said that he had already read the paper and promised to make changes,” Aye Maung said.
Domestic private media were not allowed to cover the meeting, but state-run media were present. Delegates said that private media should also be allowed to attend.
The UEC said nothing about the date of the upcoming by-election and constituencies, Thu Wei said.
Delegates from 36 parties attended the meeting. The Union Democracy Party led by Thein Tin Aung was not present. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5686-ec-chairman-urges-all-political-parties-to-oppose-western-sanctions.html
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Highest US diplomat in Burma to retire
Wednesday, 27 July 2011 20:04 Aye Lae
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The highest US diplomat in Burma, Charge d'Affaires Ad Interim Larry Dinger, will retire in August after completing a three-year tenure, the US embassy in Rangoon said.
Dinger, 65, is a strong supporter of US sanctions, and he is known for closely following the affairs of the Burmese pro-democracy opposition parties.
Highest US diplomat in Rangoon, Larry Dinger, left, with US Senator John McCain to retire in August. Photo: Mizzima
Highest US diplomat in Rangoon, Larry Dinger, left, with US Senator John McCain to retire in August. Photo: Mizzima
“Since he will be 65 years old in August, he will retire in accord with Foreign Service regulations.” a Rangoon embassy spokesman told Mizzima.
The United States downgraded its ambassador in Burma to a charge d'affaires in response to the human rights violations of the Burmese military, which governed the country until early this year when an elected Parliament took office.
Dinger is an expert on the Burmese democracy struggle and is well known by opposition groups.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, said Dinger was “friendly and frank with us.”
National Democratic Force (NDF) leader Khin Maung Swe said, “I met him as soon as I was released from prison.” Dinger was tough on imposing US sanctions against Burma, he said.
“His opinion is that it will not be easy to lift these US sanctions because they cannot do anything as long as the political prisoners are behind bars,” he said.
US diplomatic cables published on the Wikileaks web site included an e-mail by Dinger called “Commencing talks with Burmese generals.” The e-mail said the military establishment is a xenophobic, top-down bureaucracy with a goal of maintaining national unity. Dinger said the top brass want to be respected in the international community and among their people.
During his tenure, Dinger hosted high-level US political leaders including senators Jim Webb and John McCain and US Deputy Undersecretary of State Joseph Yung. Dinger graduated from Macalester College, Harvard Law School and the National War College. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5685-highest-us-diplomat-in-burma-to-retire.html
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Activists Condemn India's Arm Deal with Burma
by Nava Thakuria
July 28, 2011
The Burmese exiles living in India and their sympathizers had recently came to the street of India's national capital to lodge a stronger protest against the government for supplying arms and ammunitions to the semi-military Burmese government at Naypyidaw.
Expressing resentment at New Delhi's continued military relationship with Naypyidaw, hundreds of pro-democracy activists and various Indian civil society groups demonstrated in New Delhi on July 22, 2011 arguing that 'supplying arms to the most brutal military dictatorship may have grave consequences to millions of innocent lives'. It may be mentioned that the Indian government had recently supplied 52 military trucks load of arms and ammunition to the Burmese government. India maintained its strategic and military relationship with the Burmese regime even after receiving brickbats from the international
community.
"It is hurting and awful that the Government of India has breached its democratic principles by supplying arms and ammunitions to the Burmese military rulers, which are identified as the world's most notorious military regime. The consequence will be the victimization of innocent Burmese citizens who have been yearning for justice, peace and democracy for many decades," said M Kim, a young Burmese exile living
in India.
"Systematic human rights abuses and criminal hostilities against the ethnic groups, political activists, journalists and civilians have been committed without a halt by Burma's Army even after the installation of a so-called civilian type government. It is a fact that over 2,200 political prisoners in Burma are still detained in
jails," he added.
The demonstrators also sent a memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh urging him to renew New Delhi's support the Burmese people's movement for restoration of peace and democracy in Burma. Till the early nineties, Indian government supported the democratic movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But later it changed the course and started engaging the then military regime named State Peace and Development Council for various bi-lateral relationships.
"We believe that India is a nation founded on sound democratic principles and time and again India has proven to uphold the principles of constitutionally elected governments. Further as a nation committed to playing an important, if not pivotal role in maintaining peace in the region, it is unbecoming of a responsible nation to supply arms to countries known for abusing military power," states the memorandum, which was signed by nearly hundred Indian civil society groups and individuals with many Burmese organizations.
"While other big neighbours (of Burma) are silently urging for negotiation between the authorities and ethnic groups, New Delhi has continued its arm supply to the infamous regime," said Dr Tint Swe, the chairman of Burma Centre Delhi, a pro-democracy forum. Speaking to the author from New Delhi, Dr Swe asserted that "democracy and human rights activists in Burma have been imprisoned, intimidated, tortured and many of them are put to death and it is observed by none other
than the United Nations and the international community that the advocators for democracy, justice, peace and human rights in Burma have been regularly castigated". So we are apprehensive that those arms will only be used against the pro-democracy activities and ethnic minorities like Kachin, Shan and Karen in eastern Burma, added Dr Swe. In a separate memorandum to the Indian Premier, the Burmese pro-democracy groups urged New Delhi 'to immediately halt the supply
of military aids to Burma's dictatorship' and 'to review India's foreign policy on Burma by focusing on long-term interests, development and stability, prosperity and peace in the region'.
'Systematic human rights abuses and criminal hostilities against ethnic groups, political activists, journalists and civilians have been committed by Burmese Army even after the installation of a so-called civilian government at Naypyidaw,' the memorandum pointed out.
'India's national interest will be served only if a real democratic regime is established in its eastern neighbour,' argued the memorandum which was endorsed by the Women League of Burma, All Burma Students Democratic Front, Arakan Liberation Party, All Burma Democratic Lusei Women Organization, Chin Human Rights Organization, Chin Student Union, Kuki Women Human Rights Organization, Kachin National Organization, Matu Youth Organization, Zomi Women Union and others,
adding that 'supporting the democratic movement in Burma will thus be beneficial for the largest democracy in the globe as well.' http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1607/activists-condemn-india-arm-deal-with-burma
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Burma: President Thein Sein ought to accept Suu Kyi’s call for peace talk
Fri, 2011-07-29 02:05 — editor
Article
By - Zin Linn
Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi made an appeal on Thursday for political talk and an urgent ceasefire between major ethnic rebel groups – Kachin Independence Organization, Karen National Union, New Mon State Party, Shan State Army – and government troops. She highlights the nation as ‘Republic of Union of Burma’ since the country was made up of various ethnicities on the same soil.
In her open letter dispatched to the country’s military-backed new President Thein Sein, Suu Kyi offered to act as a mediator between the government and the ethnic rebels, and said the constant fighting has been damaging the national reconciliation which is so important for the nation that composed mainly of ethnic population.
The open letter pointed out that the prevailing ethnic hostility can spread out into the neighboring counties. It said that currently there are armed conflicts between Burma Army and the ethnic armed groups especially in Kachin, Shan, Karen and Mon states.
“National reconciliation cannot be accomplished by using military might. If stakeholders used the gun to solve out the disagreement, it will make disadvantage for all sides. To establish an authentic national unity, that will make safe the future of the Union, can only be accomplished through political dialogue,” the open letter says.
Burma Army continues to attack the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on irregular intervals since 9 June. The 9-June armed conflict at Sang Gang lasted for three days and nights. The attack prompted the KIO to declare war against the Burmese government since its troops invaded Kachin controlled areas.
The KIO has offered to end warfare if the government will initiate talks for a nationwide ceasefire. Unfortunately, Burmese government authorities did not positively respond to a recent e-mail regarding this subject, according to La Nang, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
Burma’s 64-year-old Panglong Agreement has been ignored by the successive Burmese regimes. The said agreement has also been ignored by the current President Thein Sein government. The Panglong Agreement was signed on Feb. 12, 1947, between General Aung San and leaders of the Chin, Kachin and Shan ethnic groups guaranteeing a genuine federal union of Burma.
This is not the first time Aung San Suu Kyi calls for peace. Last month, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi released a statement dated June 20 calling both government and KIO to stop heavy fighting immediately in order to protect people’s lives and properties. It also called for peaceful talks between stakeholders to settle down the decade-long political crisis of the country.
The NLD led by Suu Kyi has long been in opposition with the existing authorities who have run the country since a 1962 coup. Her latest comments are likely to enrage the new nominally civilian government, despite signs of a thawing of ties.
Suu Kyi has called for a “Second Pinlong Agreement”, between the government and ethnic groups. The said agreement is still standing as a key question for over 60 years.
In last December, Burmese junta’s two mouthpiece newspapers criticized dissident politicians who believe genuine national reconciliation and support Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma’s military rulers dismissed the actions of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who tries to revive the spirit of Panglong Agreement providing self-reliance to ethnic nationalities, as a “cheap political stunt”.
“If someone truly wants to engage in politics with the aim of supporting the state’s interest, one should proceed plainly, officially and candidly within the structure of the constitution,” the article said.
On the contrary, Suu Kyi and her party NLD, which has been officially shut down by the authorities, have pushed for a “second Panlong Agreement,” with the backing of some key ethnic groups that oppose the regime’s 2008 constitution.
The idea of Panglong Agreement is no longer suitable to the current country’s situation and is even a threat to peace and stability, the commentaries in the state-owned papers said. It even mocked people suggesting an online conference using the Internet.
Burma’s military-backed government has optimism with 7 Nov. election last year that it will bring all ethnicities together as a union. However it has produced the opposite consequence. Key ethnic armed organizations opposed the 2008 constitution and November’s ballot results as sham and farce.
Some political analysts believe releasing over 2,000 political prisoners and stopping the aggressive wars on ethnic people are the most important topics to be addressed by the new ‘Thein Sein government’.
Releasing political prisoners and calling peace to armed ethnic groups would provide evidence to the international community that government is genuine on bringing about political change and embracing real democratic values.
If President Thein Sein is sincere and clever enough, he should start a bold step to accept Aung San Suu Kyi’s call for nationwide peace talk that alone will not only lift the economic sanctions, but also catapult his government toward the ASEAN chair. Refusal of this excellent opportunity may lead the government and the nation into another political crisis similar to the Arab Spring-like protest.
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/07/28/burma-president-thein-sein-ought-accept-suu-kyi%E2%80%99s-call-peace-talk
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EC Chief Says NLD Threatened Junta with 'Nuremburg-style' Trial
By BA KAUNG Friday, July 29, 2011
Power was not transferred to Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), when it won a landslide victory in an election two decades ago because the party allegedly threatened the country's military leaders with a Nuremberg-style war tribunal, according to the head of the Union Election Commission (EC).
On Wednesday, EC chief ex-Gen Tin Aye told officials of political parties that took part in last year's election that the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, was not given power following the 1990 election because the party had threatened to bring the then military leaders before a war tribunal.
Tin Aye was apparently referring to a comment by late NLD leader Kyi Maung, who said in early July 1990, about a month after the 1990 election that “here in Burma, we do not need any Nuremberg-style tribunal” when he was asked by a foreign journalist if the NLD would require putting the military on trial for past crimes.
A Buddhist monk looks at a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi at the NLD's Rangoon headquarters on June 18, 2011, a day before her 66th birthday. (Photo: AP)
Although Kyi Maung did not say that the military leaders would be tried if NLD party was allowed to form a government, the mere mention of a war tribunal angered the ruling generals, who had Kyi Maung arrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The official reason the military leaders did not hand over power in 1990 was that the regime said the election was only intended to chose representatives to a committee to draft a new national constitution.
Just before last year's parliamentary election, which the NLD boycotted, the former military regime officially nullified the 1990 election results.
In response to Tin Aye's remarks, NLD spokesman Nyan Win said on Friday that the late NLD leader Kyi Maung never said that there would be a war tribunal.
More recently, however, the NLD has expressed support for a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma proposed by the UN human rights special rapporteur on Burma, Thomas Quintana.
The NLD was officially dissolved last year for refusing to take part in the election. Suu Kyi reportedly discussed the legal status of the party during her meeting with a senior Burmese minister on Monday. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21796
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Gunmen Kill Three in Kyaukme Attack
By SAI ZOM HSENG Friday, July 29, 2011
Three people were killed and three others injured during an attack by unknown gunmen at a customs checkpoint in Kyaukme, northern Shan State, early Friday morning.
According to local residents, the incident occurred at 4:45 am, when around 10 armed men opened fire at the checkpoint. Two men and one woman were killed immediately, sources said.
One of the two male victims was a retired soldier working as a motorbike taxi driver. A local source said that the gunmen appeared to to be deliberately targeting the civilians.
The three who were wounded in the attack were said to be in serious condition at Kyaukme hospital.
The Shan State Army, an ethnic armed group operating in the area, denied responsibility for the attack, saying it has a policy of not harming civilians.
Police in Kyaukme declined to provide any information when contacted by The Irrawaddy.
Meanwhile, a small clash broke out between the Burmese Army and SSA in Nong Amm, a village in Kyaukme Township. Five Burmese Army soldiers were injured in the clash and taken to the military hospital in Pyin Oo Lwin.
Kyaukme was the scene of another incident on July 12, when four local people were injured by a bomb blast.
The Burmese Army's Military Operations Command No 1 is based in Kyaukme, which is located near Seinkyaw, the previous headquarters of the SSA. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21797
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At a critical juncture, Burma’s government needs a Plan B
By ANDREW MCKENNA
Published: 29 July 2011
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated last week in Denpasar, Indonesia, that “[Burma] has reached a critical juncture.” While Clinton was referring to releasing political prisoners and opening up dialogue with pro-democracy activists and ethnic minorities, her statement was also unintentionally applicable to another, equally pressing matter: the Burmese military’s relations with China.
Despite all official communiques to the contrary, the People’s Republic of China and the military government of Burma are chafing under their mutual tight embrace. American cables from WikiLeaks revealed Chinese exasperation with Burmese foot-dragging in opening up to the rest of the world. Former US Chargé d’Affaires Shari Villarosa, after dining with Chinese ambassador Guan Mu, revealed in a January 2008 cable entitled “China Fed Up”, that Beijing had been pushing the regime for talks with the pro-democracy movement but had received push-back from its senior generals.
Villarosa also reported, as a consequence of the Burmese military’s unwillingness to improve living standards for the masses, that the Chinese were concerned about a potential mass uprising that could imperil its business interests in Burma. “The Chinese [stated they] can no longer rely on the generals to protect their interests here,” wrote Villarosa, “and recognise the need to broker some solution that keeps the peace.”
An article last month in The Economist entitled “Myanmar: Chinese takeaway kitchen” also stated that China harshly criticised the Burmese junta for not properly protecting the Kokang, an ethnically Han Chinese minority in Burma, after 37,000 people fled to China during an ethnic insurgency.
The weariness is not limited to Beijing: Naypyidaw and the rest of Burma has been equally irritated with the results of close Chinese-Burmese relations. According to The Economist, while massive Chinese immigration into the northern provinces and China’s ostentatious display of wealth in an impoverished country has been met with the chagrin of Burmese people, Burmese military leaders are equally annoyed with China’s cavalier policies of coercing military officials into granting it access to Burma’s infrastructure.
Along with the WikiLeaks revelations of the Chinese pressuring Burmese officials to include the pro-democracy movement in democratisation talks, Burmese military officials would have, as The Economist stated, “a deep-seated suspicion of its powerful northern neighbour” over these outstanding “neuralgic” issues.
In the light of this simmering animus, why hasn’t there been a more definitive split? Chinese Ambassador Guan Mu, in his meeting with Shari Villarosa, cited two hindrances to restarting dialogue with the pro-democracy movement: the ruling clique’s anxiety over “losing power and [losing its] economic interests.”
Guan further speculated that if “the senior generals could be offered assurances that they would not ‘lose their lives’ and could keep their economic interests, they might be more amenable to ceding power gradually.”
His conclusion is revealing as it delineates the top two concerns of the Burmese ruling clique. But the question is, if the Burmese military continues to cede power to the Chinese, will the army’s clout and its ability to keep hold of the lifestyle to which it is accustomed disappear? The Burmese government is divided primarily on how it answers this question.
Ultimately, in the Burmese government, there are those who view power as the primary vehicle to a continuation of their lifestyle, and those who feel money will do a better job at this. The deciding factors of where government officials and other people of influence would fall is not apparent. A government official with extensive business connections in China may be willing to sacrifice his side business in the name of protecting his influence in Burma, while those without any connection to China may see Chinese opportunities as the only way to financially advance expeditiously.
There are three scenarios, the first being that factions would struggle in a figurative bloodbath until one triumphs. A second, that would see slow series’ of movements away from China (two steps forward, one step back), is far more likely of the two scenarios that differ from the status quo. The last scenario, which is the received wisdom of Burma observers, is the continuation of the special relationship between Naypyidaw and Beijing, despite mutual irritation.
The dance between those in the military who covet money above all and those who covet power above all, not the struggle between the military and the moribund pro-democracy movement or the terminally weak ethnic separatists, will be what dictates Burma’s path in the near future. While Burma is not looking to remove itself from its special relationship with Beijing quite yet, the option to leave its Chinese alliance has been explored in the case if China should ever become too demanding, too meddlesome or too cavalier. There are no good options. A suitable partner needs to be willing to listen to the military government, willing to trade on a massive scale with a Burmese establishment rife with conflict of interest, and not a pariah state.
The main problem with a Burmese exit from its alliance with China is the lack of a way forward without China keeping the military-backed government afloat. A clear path that doesn’t rely on the extensive Chinese support that the Burmese military now enjoys must replace all that would be lost.
Burma may then need to explore alternatives to China, and the one country, whose potential will be explored in the next article, that it has shown willingness to do this with lies well outside of Burma’s immediate neighbourhood.
http://www.dvb.no/analysis/at-a-critical-juncture-burmas-government-needs-a-plan-b/16787
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BANGKOK POST
Crowd trouble ends Burma-Oman game
Published: 29/07/2011 at 12:32 PM
Online news: Asia
A 2014 World Cup qualifier between Burma and Oman was abandoned after home fans in the Rangoon stadium pelted the pitch with rocks, shoes and water bottles, according to a government official.
This file photo shows Myanmar football fans watching a match at a National Stadium in Yangon. A 2014 World Cup qualifier between Myanmar and Oman was abandoned on Thursday after home fans in the Yangon stadium pelted the pitch with rocks, shoes and water bottles, according to a government official.
A member of the Oman coaching team suffered a head injury as the Burma fans went on the rampage after Oman took a 2-0 lead in the game on Thursday, the Burma official told AFP.
"The match was stopped after the first 39 minutes because security forces lost control of the Burma football fans," he said, adding that about 30,000 supporters were at the ground in total.
The identity of the injured man could not immediately be confirmed.
A statement on the website of world footballing body FIFA confirmed the match was "brought to a sudden close" after "local supporters hurled objects repeatedly onto the field".
"The final status of the match will be confirmed by the relevant body in due course," FIFA said.
Oman won the previous round 2-0.
The Burma official said some of the fans sang the national anthem as they threw objects onto the pitch. "The Oman goal keeper dared not to stay on the ground."
A witness to the violence said some players may also have been hit.
Trouble started at the Tuwana stadium after Oman went 2-0 up with a penalty.
Burma Football Federation (MFF) chief Zaw Zaw and members of the Oman team tried to negotiate a way for the match to continue, a second Burma government official said.
"FIFA didn't accept the situation and decided to stop the game completely," he told AFP.
The MFF could not be reached for comment.
Football is the most popular sport by far in Burma.
The country, which has a new nominally civilian government after nearly 50 years of army rule, has made efforts to become more internationally active.
It is set to host the SEA Games, a Southeast Asian sporting tournament, in 2013. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/249371/crowd-trouble-ends-burma-oman-game
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Friday, July 29, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Thursday, 28 July, 2011-UZL
News & Articles on Burma
Thursday, 28 July, 2011
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Suu Kyi calls for nationwide ceasefire through an open letter
Five Military Generals under Investigation in Naypyidaw
Suu Kyi: Ready to Help Resolve Ethnic Conflicts
Burma Democracy Leader Urges Talks to End Ethnic Conflicts
Myanmar's Suu Kyi seeks end to ethnic fighting
Aung Suu Kyi urges ceasefire in ethnic conflicts
Dissent in Burma army ranks sparks disunity in new govt
Better Monitoring of US Aid to Burma Required: Govt Report
Mon IDPs Face Food Shortages
Myanmar-Oman World Cup Qualifier Stopped By Fan Violence
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Suu Kyi calls for nationwide ceasefire through an open letter
By Zin Linn Jul 29, 2011 12:08AM UTC
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Burma’s democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi made an appeal on Thursday for political talk and an urgent ceasefire between major ethnic rebel groups – Kachin Independence Organization, Karen National Union, New Mon State Party, Shan State Army – and government troops. She highlights the nation as ‘Republic of Union of Burma’ since the country was made up of various ethnicities on the same soil.
In her open letter dispatched to the country’s military-backed new PresidentThein Sein, Suu Kyi offered to act as a go-between between the government and the ethnic rebels, and said the constant fighting has been damaging the national reconciliation which is so important for the nation that composed mainly of ethnic population.
The open letter pointed out the jeopardy that can be spread out into the neighbouring counties. It said that currently there are armed conflicts between Burma Army and the ethnic armed groups especially in Kachin, Shan, Karen and Mon states.
“National reconciliation cannot be accomplished by using military might. If stakeholders used the gun to solve out the disagreement, it will make disadvantage for all sides. To establish an authentic national unity, that will make safe the future of the Union, can only be accomplished through political dialogue,” the open letter says.
Government’s Burma Army has attacked the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since 9 June. The 9-June armed conflict at Sang Gang lasted for three days and nights. The attack prompted the KIO to declare war against government since its troops invaded Kachin controlled areas.
The KIO has offered to end warfare if the government will initiate talks for a nationwide ceasefire. But Burmese government authorities did not show any consent in a recent e-mail, according to La Nang, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
Burma’s 64-year-old Panglong Agreement has been ignored by the successive Burmese regimes. The said agreement has also been ignored by the current President Thein Sein government. The Panglong Agreement was signed on Feb. 12, 1947, between General Aung San and leaders of the Chin, Kachin and Shan ethnic groups guaranteeing a genuine federal union of Burma.
This is not the first time Suu Kyi calls for peace. Last month, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi released a statement dated June 20 calling both government and KIO to stop heavy fighting immediately in order to protect people’s lives and properties. It also called for peaceful talks between stakeholders to settle down the decade-long political crisis of the country.
The NLD led by Suu Kyi has long been in opposition with the existing authorities who have run the country since a 1962 coup. Her latest comments are likely to enrage the new nominally civilian government, despite signs of a thawing of ties.
Suu Kyi has called for a “Second Pinlong Agreement”, between the government and ethnic groups. The said agreement is still standing as a key question for over 60 years.
In last December, the Burmese junta’s two mouthpiece newspapers criticized dissident politicians who believe genuine national reconciliation and support Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma’s military rulers dismissed the actions of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who tries to revive the spirit of Panglong Agreement providing self-reliance to ethnic nationalities, as a “cheap political stunt”.
“If someone truly wants to engage in politics with the aim of supporting the state’s interest, one should proceed plainly, officially and candidly within the structure of the constitution,” the article said.
On the contrary, Suu Kyi and her party NLD, which has been officially shut down by the authorities, have pushed for a “second Panlong Agreement,” with the backing of some key ethnic groups that oppose the regime’s 2008 constitution.
The idea of Panglong Agreement is no longer suitable to the current country’s situation and is even a threat to peace and stability, the commentaries in the state-owned papers said. It even mocked people suggesting an online conference using the Internet.
Burma’s military-backed government has optimism with 7 Nov. election last year that it will bring all ethnicities together as a union. However it has produced the opposite consequence. Key ethnic armed organizations opposed the 2008 constitution and November’s ballot results as sham and farce. http://asiancorrespondent.com/61224/suu-kyi-calls-for-nationwide-ceasefire-through-an-open-letter/
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Five Military Generals under Investigation in Naypyidaw
By THE IRRAWADDY Thursday, July 28, 2011
Five top military generals from the Burmese army, suspected of corruption and exploiting their positions, are currently being questioned by Commander-in-Chief Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw.
According to the military sources in the capital, those under investigation are: Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyo, the adjutant general of the army; Maj-Gen Khin Zaw Oo, the chairman of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd; Maj-Gen Myint Soe, one of the commanders of the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO); Brig-Gen Than Tun Oo, the commander of the Triangle Regional Military Command; and Brig-Gen Khin Maung Htay, the commander of the Coastal Regional Military Command.
“Myint Soe was involved in corruption regarding the sale of land when he was commander of Northwest Regional Military Command. At that time, Thar Aye, the current prime minister of Sagaing Division, complained about the matter in a letter to the president,” said a military source.
"I heard that complaints had been received about commanders—both former and current—for the coastal and triangle regional commands,” he added.
The generals under investigation are still in active duty, however. A second military source said that if no strong evidence emerges, he expects the generals will get away with just a warning.
On 22 July, Maj-Gen Tin Ngwe of the BSO was dismissed from duty accused of involvement in a multi-million-dollar land deal in Mandalay. The current prime minister of Mandalay Division, Ye Myint, who is the former central regional military commander, reportedly produced strong evidence against Tin Ngwe.
Following Min Aung Hlaing's appointment as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the first military general to be dismissed was Maj-Gen Tun Than, the commander of Rangoon Division Military Command.
Military observers said that, if the accused generals are dismissed, Min Aung Hlaing will probably hand their positions to generals close to him.
“As commander-in-chief, it is expected that he will offer important positions to those he trusts,” an observer said. “Building power and mandate is a tradition within the Tatmadaw [Burmese armed forces].”
According to the military sources who spoke to The Irrawaddy, Min Aung Hlaing is working under the direct instruction of Snr-Gen Than Shwe. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21789
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Suu Kyi: Ready to Help Resolve Ethnic Conflicts
By WAI MOE Thursday, July 28, 2011
Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday that she is ready to become involved in efforts to resolve ongoing armed conflicts between Naypyidaw and ethnic armed groups.
“I am ready to get involved and try to support ceasefire and peace processes with all of my efforts,” Suu Kyi wrote in an open letter to President Thein Sein and leaders of the ethnic armed groups the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Karen National Union (KNU), the New Mon State Army (NMSA) and the Shan State Army (SSA).
In the letter, she called for a ceasefire and peaceful solution in the near future to the ongoing conflicts in the interest of “all ethnic people living in the Union of Burma.”
She also said that using force in conflicts only has a bad impact on both sides. She said the military way could not achieve national reconciliation, which could only be reached through political dialogue.
“If we resolve conflict political through dialogue, we will get real national solidarity, which can guarantee the peace of the Union,” the pro-democracy leader said. “We can develop the nation only when the Union is peaceful and stable.”
Suu Kyi said in the letter that the ongoing armed conflicts in Kachin, Shan, Karen and Mon states between the government army and ethnic armed groups have caused local ethnic populations to suffer and also affected neighboring countries.
The new administration led by President Thein Sein came into office on March 30. However, since then, tensions between Naypyidaw and armed groups in ethnic areas in northern and eastern Burma have intensified, with fresh conflicts breaking out with the KIO and the SSA, two former ceasefire groups.
The ethnic groups mentioned in Suu Kyi’s open letter said they would welcome her involvement in efforts to resolve Burma's ethnic tensions as a positive step toward national reconciliation.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s efforts for peace are a really good move. Not only ethnic armed groups but also all pro-democracy forces in the country want and have long called for a political dialogue to resolve ongoing conflicts,” La Nan, joint-secretary of the KIO, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, shortly after reading the letter.
Since Suu Kyi is a key political figure in Burma and the country's most internationally recognized figure, her involvement is ceasefire efforts would be good for all ethnic people, La Nan said, adding the KIO leadership is scheduled to discuss the letter.
Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the KNU, said the group welcomes Suu Kyi’s efforts and concern about the conflicts in ethnic areas, adding that “the KNU takes the same stand that conflicts have to be resolved politically through dialogue.”
“We need peace for the Union. But the prolonged conflicts are caused by dictatorships, not ethnic minorities,” she said.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of New Mon State Party, said, “We welcome anyone who wants to work for peace, because that is what we need in this country. If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is going to work on it, so much the better.”
In responding to Suu Kyi’s readiness to help resolve conflicts in ethnic area, Col Sai Htoo, the assistant secretary general of the Shan State Army, said he would like to thank the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her efforts.
“However, real peace and stability in the nation depends on the regime’s willingness to achieve them,” Sai Htoo added.
Possible Ceasefire?
Meanwhile, KIO sources have said that the group appears to be moving closer to a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government.
“According to recent letters from a key government negotiator, including one received today, they [the government] seem to want a ceasefire with Kachin troops as soon as possible,” said La Nan, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
“We do not know what kind of dilemmas they are facing, but they seem quite urgent about signing a treaty. But we want a more solid and long-term ceasefire agreement,” he said, adding that the two sides have held talks and exchanged a number of letters in recent days.
He added that Col Than Aung, Kachin State’s minister for security and border affairs, sent a draft ceasefire agreement that now includes a post-ceasefire political dialogue—something that Naypyidaw refused to agree to in the past.
“Previously the government side repeatedly rejected our calls for a nationwide ceasefire, but in the draft agreement we received, the government side acknowledged that a ceasefire in the whole country was needed to achieve a genuine peace,” he added.
He said the KIO wants the government to announce a nationwide ceasefire within 15 days of signing the agreement, and for the ceasefire to come into effect within 48 hours.So far, the government has not responded to these demands.
The government negotiators and KIO officials are scheduled to meet on Friday in Lajayang, a village on the Myitkyina-Bhamo road, near the KIO headquarters of Laiza.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21791
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July 28, 2011
Burma Democracy Leader Urges Talks to End Ethnic Conflicts
VOA News
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to reporters about her trip to Bagan, at her home in Yangon, July 11, 2011
Photo: Reuters
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to reporters about her trip to Bagan, at her home in Yangon (File Photo - July 11, 2011)
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has issued what she calls an "earnest appeal" for the government and ethnic groups to begin immediate peace talks.
In an open letter made available to VOA's Burmese service Thursday, Aung San Suu Kyi also says she is prepared to assist the peace process to the best of her ability.
The letter is addressed to President Thein Sein and organizations representing the Kachin, Karen, Mon and Shan ethnic minorities. Government forces have been waging a military offensive against strongholds of the ethnic armies for the last several weeks.
Aung San Suu Kyi says in her letter that ethnic harmony is of "utmost importance" to Burma, and that all sides will suffer if force is used to settle the conflicts. She says that only when peace is achieved on the basis of mutual understanding and respect can the country successfully strive for development. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/southeast/Suu-Kyi-Urges-Talks-to-End-Burmas-Ethnic-Conflicts-126324713.html
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi seeks end to ethnic fighting
(July 28th, 2011 @ 5:39am)
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called upon Myanmar's new president to implement a cease-fire and open peace talks to end fighting with ethnic guerrilla groups.
Suu Kyi's open letter sent Thursday to President Thein Sein and four rebellious ethnic groups warns that their conflict can expand if not addressed through genuine negotiations.
She offered to assist in any way she could to help achieve a cease-fire. Ethnic minority groups have been fighting for decades for more autonomy.
Fighting erupted last month near the Chinese border after the army demanded that ethnic Kachin guerrillas withdraw from positions near a Myanmar-Chinese joint venture hydropower project.
The Shan, Mon and Karen are the other ethnic groups to whom Suu Kyi appealed. http://www.620ktar.com/category/world-news-articles/20110728/Myanmar
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Aung Suu Kyi urges ceasefire in ethnic conflicts
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, July 28 | Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:27pm IST
(Reuters) - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi appealed on Thursday for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire between major ethnic rebel groups and government troops believed to be fighting on four different fronts.
In an open letter sent to the country's army-backed president, Thein Sein, Suu Kyi offered to mediate between the government and the rebels, and said national reconciliation was impossible as long as the fighting continued.
"There is a danger that it will spread to neighbouring counties," the letter said.
"National reconciliation cannot be achieved by military means. Genuine national solidarity, that can guarantee the future of the Union, can only be achieved through political negotiation."
The country, which was formally called Burma, is now officially known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has long been at odds with the powerful generals who have controlled Myanmar since a 1962 coup and her latest comments are likely to rile the new nominally civilian government, despite signs of a thawing of ties. [ID:nL3E7IP28M]
Suu Kyi was released from a seven-year stint of house arrest in November last year and has been a staunch advocate of autonomy under a federal republic for at least three of Myanmar's ethnic groups.
Suu Kyi has called for a "Second Pinlong Agreement", between the government and ethnic groups that have spent most of the past six decades engaged in on-off conflict.
ETHNIC TENSIONS
The Pinlong Agreement was drafted in 1947 and backed by Suu Kyi's late father, General Aung San, who was instrumental in securing independence from Britain. Aung San was assassinated in July 1947 and the Pinlong deal was never put into effect.
Myanmar's army, known as the "Tatmadaw", has battled since June with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and exiled media Burmese outlets have reported fighting this week between government troops and the Shan State Army (SSA). Both Shan and Kachin states border China.
Separate clashes have also been reported along the eastern border involving the Tatmadaw forces, ethnic Mon rebels and the Karen National Union (KNU).
Independent information about fighting in Myanmar's remote, mountainous border regions is difficult to obtain and the government rarely acknowledges its troops are engaged in conflict with ethnic militias.
Myanmar's former military rulers had hoped an election held on Nov. 7 last year would unite one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries, but it had the opposite effect.
Ballots were cancelled in many areas under the control of militias, whose applications to form their own political parties were rejected because their fighters refused to disarm in accordance with the government's demands.
The government did not respond kindly to Suu Kyi's last calls in December for negotiations to end the border conflicts, accusing her of carrying out a "cheap political stunt" that threatened peace and unity. [ID:nSGE6B704E]
(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Sugita Katyal) http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/28/idINIndia-58503520110728?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=southAsiaNews&rpc=401
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Dissent in Burma army ranks sparks disunity in new govt
By Zin Linn Jul 28, 2011 2:00PM UTC
Harsh conditions are being faced by the Burma Army’s ordinary soldiers and junior officers, especially after the recent decrease of supplies to their family members. The problem has caused several responsible commanding officers to tend resignations, the Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.) said.
Among those commanding officers, Lt-Gen Myint Soe, Chief of the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO) ‘1’ also takes part. BSO ‘1’ which composed of more than 200 brigadier-generals and colonels, oversees security in Kachin, Chin and Sagaing regions.
The indirect protest from those military officers has brought “reformist” President Thein Sein and “hardliner” Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo to meet head-on.
Thein Sein had reportedly asked “Naypyitaw”, believed to be the retired Senior General Than Shwe, to suspend all the military campaigns currently being waged in Karen, Shan and Kachin states, to relieve of the pressure before dealing with the problems of the rank and file, according to Shan Herald Agency for News.
According to President Thein Sein, Burma Army troops must be withdrawn away from the headquarters of the ethnic groups. But, Tin Aung Myint Oo thought the military operations, particularly against the Shan State Army (SSA) North, ought to continue and that the problems inside the Army could be resolved after receiving a loan from China.
“We must destroy the groups one after another,” one of the generals supporting Tin Aung Myint Oo’s view was quoted as saying. “And the total control of the SSA areas (west of the Salween) will enable us to defeat the Wa (east of the Salween).”
The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has reportedly ordered all of its frontline units on 24-hour alert along the Salween river, a shared border with its ally the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’. The UWSA have alerted all of its troops to be ready to defend Wa State, although they do not want war. They will not fire the first shot, said a senior Wa officer.
Throughout these days, several soldiers from Burma Army troops warring with the Shan State Progress Party/ Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) in Shan State South have reportedly been deserting from the battlefields, local sources reported.
The disagreement between “reformist” President Thein Sein and “hardliner” Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo were so bitter it seemed ‘Naypyitaw’ had become “too small for the two men to live together,” according to the source. “Both sides looked to Than Shwe to stick his oar in, which he did,” source said. Thein Sein and Tin Aung Myint Oo have to stay in status quo helping unity of the armed forces. By doing so, Than Shwe advised, the unity of the Burma Army, should be maintained at all costs, the source said. The source said it has a document in possession to support his report, According to (S.H.A.N.).
Lt-Gen Yawdserk, leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), better known as the SSA South, said the report corresponded to the situation on the ground. “Wanhai (the SSA North HQ) was supposed to have been taken last week,” he said. “But so far Burmese troops around Wanhai have not made any significant move.”
At the same time, troops from neighboring townships are being ordered to march toward Kehsi Township in Shan State South. Kehsi is 25 miles southwest of Wanhai.
The SSA South leader said his units had been engaged in ambushes against Burma Army convoys moving to Mongnawng, some 30 miles south of Kehsi, yesterday.
However, this war upon the ethnic population launched by Burma Army generates not only deserters from Burmese military but also victims from Shan villages.
Currently, political activists in Burma have been taking historic risks with a signature-campaign to release political prisoners and to stop the aggressive wars on ethnic people what they say is discrimination by the President Thein Sein government.
Currently, the military-dominated Burmese government and the Kachin rebels are in the process of signing a ceasefire agreement. KIO, a member of the ethnic alliance United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), has offered to stop fighting as a nationwide ceasefire. But Burmese authorities said they would negotiate cease-fire in Kachin State first. Then in accordance with the example of Kachin State, they would try to achieve a cease-fire in other states, La Nang a spokesman for KIO said.
Some political analysts believe releasing over 2,000 political prisoners and stopping the aggressive wars on ethnic people are the most important topics to be addressed by the new ‘Thein Sein government’.
Releasing political prisoners and calling peace to armed ethnic groups would provide evidence to the international community that government is genuine about bringing about political change and embracing real democratic values. http://asiancorrespondent.com/61170/does-burma%E2%80%99s-war-against-ethnicities-cause-disunity-in-the-new-government/
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Better Monitoring of US Aid to Burma Required: Govt Report
By LALIT K JHA Thursday, July 28, 2011
WASHINGTON — A US governmental report on the effectiveness of US aid to Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis said there is a need for better monitoring of American aid money to this impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
The report, released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Wednesday, said that the US provided around US $85 million to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and affected some 2.4 million others when it struck in May 2008.
Around $38 million of this was provided as part of the $335 million spent by various UN agencies involved in the relief and recovery efforts. According to the report, of the $85 million US response, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which led US efforts, provided about $72 million, while another $13 million from the Department of Defense was used to procure and deliver emergency relief supplies.
According to the report, responders found it difficult to reach affected areas because the Burmese government limited their travel and the infrastructure was poor.
“Responders also had difficulty coordinating between headquarters and field offices for several reasons, including limited telecommunication services,” the report said, adding that a US report highlighted coordination challenges amongst US agencies, stating that agencies’ conflicting agendas resulted in difficulties related to the appropriateness, timing, procurement and distribution of aid.
Implementation challenges include supplies that were incompatible with local conditions, such as medicines with instructions printed in non-Burmese languages and difficulties monitoring aid.
“Capacity challenges included a lack of experienced disaster specialists in Burma, which resulted in non-qualified individuals being placed in positions out of necessity,” the GAO report said.
In its report, the GAO recommended enhancing financial monitoring of agreements by including periodic reviews of grantee internal controls, transactions, and disbursement records. It also suggested providing grantees with specific guidance on the approval process for international travel requests, and ensuring that USAID staff monitor grantees’ expenditures for compliance with related laws, regulations, and grant agreements.
In the weeks following the cyclone, the Burmese government said it would accept international aid but refused to allow international aid workers into the country, insisting that the disaster could be handled internally and that foreign experts were not needed.
Despite the inability of international aid workers to get into Burma for the first few weeks after the disaster and government restrictions on their movement within the country when they were allowed in, some aid was delivered, the report said. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21786
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Mon IDPs Face Food Shortages
By LAWI WENG Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thousands of Mon internally displaced persons (IDPs) living near Burma's Three Pagodas Pass are facing food shortages because Thai border authorities have denied aid agencies permission to transport rice to the area, according to border sources.
The Thai authorities have reportedly taken this action because of security concerns in the area, where tensions between Mon ethnic rebels and Burmese government troops have raised fears of a return to open hostilities.
Nai Khine, the secretary of the IDP camp in Halockhani, on the Thai-Burmese border, said that 3,603 people from four villages lack adequate supplies of rice, making it difficult for them to sustain their livelihoods.
The Halockhani camp includes residents of four villages: Baleh-hani, Kyaik-soi-mon, Baleh-Donephai and Hteewadoh.
“There are about 10 families from Baleh-Donephai who are eating rice soup because they don't have enough rice to cook,” said Nai Khine.
“Many of them come to me every day and ask me when they will get more rice. I told them that senior leaders are still working on it,” he added.
The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which provides rice to IDPs from Mon State, was not available for comment when contacted by The Irrawaddy.
A source from the Mon Relief and Development Committee (MRDC), which helps Mon IDPs along the border, said that the TBBC requested permission from the Thai authorities early in May to transport rice to the resettlement site in Halockhani.
The Thai authorities did not give permission, however, saying that the border situation is unstable due to frequent fighting around Three Pagodas Pass, which is about 16 km from Halockhani.
Earlier this month, leaders of the New Mon State Party, an ethnic armed group that has had increasingly tense relations with the Burmese army since last year, asked the Thai authorities for permission to transport rice to the border after the TBBC's request was rejected.
However, the NMSP's request came as Thailand was dealing with three separate Thai military helicopter crashes along the border, killing a total of 17 soldiers.
“We hope to get permission after the Thais have taken care of their problems on the border,” said the MRDC source.
Normally, the MRDC would have distributed rice to the IDPs at Halockhani twice by this time of year, but so far this year, they have received none. The rice is usually purchased in Sangkhlaburi, in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province.
Burmese troops are stationed at Three Pagodas Pass, the nearest town to Halockhani, making it unsafe as a source of rice for the IDPs.
At present, the only source of rice is the Ban Ton Yang refugee camp, where rice is available for 250 baht (US $8.35) per 15 kg basket.
“If not for the Ban Tong Yan camp, we couldn't buy rice even if we had money,” said Nai Hlai, an IDP from Halockhani.
The TBBC, which normally provides 16 kg of rice per month to every person living in three resettlement sites in Mon areas, including Halockhani, Bee Ree and Tavoy, which have a total of 9,493 IDPs, will provide only 13.5 kg this year.
The disruption in the supply of rice has forced IDPs to struggle to find other ways to support themselves, including seasonal work such as cutting bamboo shoot, selling vegetables and hunting.
“We only earn 50 to 60 baht ($1.65-2.00) a day from these jobs, which are not regularly available. This is how we get rice to cook,” said Nai Hlai. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21787
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Myanmar-Oman World Cup Qualifier Stopped By Fan Violence
Myanmar Oman World Cup Qualifier
07/28/11 10:54 AM ET AP
YANGON, Myanmar — A World Cup qualifier between Myanmar and Oman was abandoned Thursday after home fans threw water bottles and stones onto the field, hitting some players.
Oman was leading 2-0, and 4-0 on total goals, when the violence broke out in the first half. Players ran for safety to the locker room. Myanmar soccer chief Zaw Zaw appealed for calm but was also forced to leave the field.
The unrest came after Oman was awarded a penalty kick that Ismail converted in the 39th minute to make it 2-0.
It wasn't immediately clear if the game would be replayed or whether Oman would be declared the winner by forfeit. Oman will almost certainly reach the third round of group play. Myanmar is likely to face disciplinary action from FIFA. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/28/myanmar-oman-world-cup-qu_n_912024.html
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Suu Kyi’s ‘Open Letter’ calls for immediate cease-fire in ethnic areas
Thursday, 28 July 2011 20:03 Tun Tun
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday made her first open entreaty, urging Burmese government troops and ethnic armed groups to stop fighting as soon as possible and to solve problems by using peaceful ways.
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at the National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon. Photo: Mizzima
The open letter, signed by Suu Kyi and addressed to President Thein Sein, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Karen National Union (KNU), the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Shan State Army (SSA), said, “With the sole purpose of promoting the well-being of all nationalities in the land, I call for immediate cease-fires and the peaceful resolution of the conflicts.
“These conflicts are resulting in tragic outcomes such as loss of life, destruction of costly physical infrastructures and economic projects and a condition of general deterioration. Besides causing enormous suffering among local communities, these conflicts come with a potential risk of spilling over and spreading across Burma’s immediate neighbourhoods,” the statement continued.
“The (post-independence) Union of Burma was co-founded by different nationalities. Like siblings from a single family, all these nationalities had cohabited this land since time immemorial. Therefore, forging peaceful ties and unity among the nationalities is of paramount importance.”
A day after the general elections in November 2010, fighting began in Karen State followed by fighting in Kachin, Shan and Mon states.
Among the issues was an order by the former junta forcing ethnic cease-fire groups to transform their armies into a Union Border Guard Force under the control of the central government. Most ethnic groups opposed the order.
Meanwhile, the Naypyitaw government has pursued a policy that calls for the country to have only one army. So far, senior government officials in Naypyitaw have not publicly discussed the recent fighting in ethnic areas, according to sources close to officials. Political parties have had little success in trying to discuss the issue in Parliament.
Some political parties, such as Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, have repeatedly called for dialogue and national reconciliation.
In her letter, Suu Kyi said, “On my part I am prepared, and pledge, to do everything in my power towards the cessation of armed conflicts and building peace in the Union. ”
Win Tin, a NLD central executive committee member, said, “Now, the country is in the horrors of a civil war. Discussions and negotiations with regard to these affairs are always essential.”
Major Sai Lao Hseng of the Shan State Army (SSA) said, “On behalf of all ethnic people, if Aung San Suu Kyi calls for a nationwide cease-fire from the government and mediates, we will welcome it. We hope for that too.”
Fighting has continued in Shan and Kachin states until Tuesday. Many schools have been closed. Earlier, the SSA said Burmese government military aircraft dropped bombs on its troops. The reports could not be confirmed by outside sources.
Despite negotiations to reach a cease-fire agreement between the KIO and the Burmese government, often via mail or e-mail, there has been no significant let up in the fighting. More than 16,000 war refugees are in need of aid and medicine, according to a KIO health department official.
Similarly, in Karen State, continuing clashes have taken place until this week, with both sides firing heavy artillery. Government troops ordered villagers in Myawaddy Township not to go outside the village after it learned that DKBA Major General Bo Moustache’s troops were active near Myawaddy.
The All Mon Region Democracy Party chairman, Nai Ngwe Thein, said, “We want peace via any means. We don’t want fighting against each other…”
On Thursday, in a meeting between the Union Election Commission and 37 political parties, the Mon, Arakanese, Phalon-Sawaw, Shan and Chin ethnic parties all urged the authorities to set up a peace-making commission. In response to their call, the EU commission chairman Tin Aye said the parties should introduce the issue in Parliament.
Saw Bi Kyin Oo, the secretary of the Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party, said, “Peace has not been established in Karen State. Fighting has broken out frequently. People cannot live peacefully. The fighting enters the villages. Under the circumstances, the most important thing we need is peace.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s ‘Open Letter’ to President Thein Sein
The following is an unofficial translation of a letter Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi sent to the president of Burma and others on Thursday.
To:
1) U Thein Sein, President, Union of Myanmar
2) Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)
3) Karen National Union (KNU)
4) New Mon State Party (NMSP)
5) Shan State Army (SSA)
28 July 2011
The (post-independence) Union of Burma was cofounded by different nationalities. Like siblings from a single family, all these nationalities had cohabited this land since time immemorial. Therefore, forging peaceful ties and unity among the nationalities is of paramount importance.
Of late, there have been news stories about military conflicts between the country’s Armed Forces and the armed nationalities groups in various regions such as the Kachin, the Shan, the Karen, the Mon and so on. These conflicts are resulting in tragic outcomes such as loss of life, destruction of costly physical infrastructures and economic projects and a condition of general deterioration. Besides causing enormous suffering among local communities, these conflicts come with a potential risk of spilling over and spreading across Burma’s immediate neighbourhoods.
The use of force to resolve the conflicts is only going to be mutually harmful to all parties concerned. National reconciliation and unity cannot be built on might. It can only be pursued through political negotiations. Only through political negotiations can genuine national unity be established. Only such unity among nationalities can guarantee the country’s (peaceful) future. In the absence of genuine peace and reconciliation the potential spread of civil war always lurks beneath.
Conflicts among nationalities can surely be resolved on the basis of mutual respect and mutual understanding, leading ultimately to the Union’s peace and stability. Only when the Union is genuinely peaceful and stable can nation-building programmes be implemented successfully. Therefore, with the sole purpose of promoting the well being of all nationalities in the land I call for immediate cease-fires and the peaceful resolution of the conflicts.
On my part, I am prepared, and pledge, to do everything in my power towards the cessation of armed conflicts and building peace in the Union.
Signed
Aung San Suu Kyi
54/56 University Avenue, Rangoon
0digg
Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 July 2011 21:34 )
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http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5691-suu-kyis-open-letter-calls-for-immediate-cease-fire-in-ethnic-areas.html
Thursday, July 28, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 27 July, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 27 July, 2011
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Suu Kyi Pressured to Register Party During Talks
Shan Vice-President Powerless to Stop Abuse
A Top Govt. Official Downplays Peace Proposal
Burmese-Kachin fighting takes place at three locations
Burmese Crossroads: Oil & Gas Rush Stokes Civil War
Landmine Victims on Both Sides of Burma Civil War Escape to Medical Mecca in Thailand
Myanmar is No.1 in Attack Traffic
Burma tells Thailand to ‘clear out’ rebels
Suu Kyi photos make Burma’s front pages
Strike Leaders Sacked as Warning to Others
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Suu Kyi Pressured to Register Party During Talks
By YENI Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Burmese Labor Minister Aung Kyi urged pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to legally register her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), when they met on Monday for the first talks between the two sides since a new government was formed earlier this year, according to sources.
Sources close to the NLD said that Suu Kyi rejected the suggestion, however, because the party doesn't accept the 2008 Constitution, which set down the new registration regulations.
The NLD lost its legal status last year on May 6 because it failed to re-register in order to take part in November general election. The party boycotted the polls, which it considered unfair and undemocratic.
Among the various restrictions imposed under the election laws, the NLD would have been required to expel Suu Kyi from the party she founded more than 20 years ago because of her marriage to a foreigner. The military-backed constitution also contains clauses that would bar her from holding political office.
Following Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last year, less than a week after the Nov. 7 election, the NLD took the case concerning its legal standing to court four times. However, Naypyidaw’s Supreme Court dismissed the NLD’s special appeal against dissolution early this year.
Since then, the NLD has decided to submit a letter of appeal to the UN Human Rights Council to challenge the government's efforts to eliminate Burma’s most influential political party.
“We feel that there is no way to win legal recognition of the NLD under domestic law, so we are preparing to submit a letter to the UN Human Rights Council,” NLD vice chairman Tin Oo told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
Aung Kyi reportedly called such a move “inappropriate” during his talks with Suu Kyi, according to sources.
Last month, the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported that the Home Ministry sent a letter to Suu Kyi and NLD Chairman Aung Shwe informing them that the party was breaking the law by maintaining party offices, holding meetings and issuing statements.
The government also told Suu Kyi ahead of her trip to Pagan earlier this month to halt all political activities and warned that her tour could spark riots and chaos. Although the trip was billed as a private visit to Burma's ancient capital, hundreds of emotional supporters flocked to see her.
Despite signs of tension between Suu Kyi and the government, however, on July 19 she was permitted to attend a ceremony commemorating the 1947 assassination of her father, independence leader Aung San. More than 3,000 people followed her on a march to the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Rangoon, but no incidents were reported.
Some observers said that Suu Kyi would likely continue to seek opportunities to demonstrate that her actions are not intended to lead to confrontation. Others suggested that both sides needed to do more to ease tensions.
“They should seek to build trust between them by holding a series of meetings aimed at cooperating and fulfilling the needs of the country,” said Khin Maung Swe, a former member of the NLD and founding member of the National Democratic Force, a party formed to run in last year's election. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21782
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Shan Vice-President Powerless to Stop Abuse
By KO HTWE Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Burma Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham, an ethnic Shan, lacks the influence to halt human rights abuses by government troops in ethnic areas, according to observers in his home state.
The conflict between the Shan State Army (SSA)—a former ceasefire group known until recently as SSA-North—and government troops began on March 13 when a 22-year-old ceasefire agreement was broken.
In this photo taken on Feb. 12, 2011, Vice President Sai Mauk Kham, left, and President Thein Sein walk for a reception to mark the 64th anniversary of Union Day in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP)
Hundreds of thousands of local people live in fear for their lives with villagers routinely raped, tortured and killed.
But it is unclear what political power is held by Sai Mauk Kham regarding government policies on ethnic conflicts in Shan and Kachin states, said 61-year-old Sai Mauk Kham who grew up in the Sino-Burmese border town of Muse.
The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand claims that at least 18 female Kachins—aged between 15 and 50 years old—were gang-raped by five different Burmese Army battalions in four different townships of Bhamo District from June 10-18.
According to accounts documented by Thailand-based Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation in mid-July, government troop authorized rape as a terror tactic in its offensive against the SSA with four women and girls raped by soldiers in separate incidents.
“Everyone should talk and confirm these rape cases because things are deteriorating. We do not only want discussion inside Burma and the cabinet but also ASEAN and the international community to talk about these things and make change,” said Charm Tong, a leading member of SWAN.
According to local residents living near to the conflict zone, men are afraid to leave their homes as they might be forced to act as porters for the Burmese Army and women are hearing reports of rape every day. Truck drivers operating near the region fear being commandeered by government troops and forced to help operations against the SSA.
“What I know is that [Sai Mauk Kham] is responsible for culture, religion, education and health. So it is very hard for him to talk about the affairs of Shan State,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor of Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News.
He added that while Sai Mauk Kham has had a hard time raising the issue of ethnic conflicts so far, he can still provide advice to the government when they put the issue on the table.
While fighting was underway in Shan and Kachin State, Sai Mauk Kham attended the opening of the newly-built children's hospital in Chanayethazan Township of Mandalay Region, according to state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.
“I don't think [Sai Mauk Kham] will raise the issue in the cabinet,” said Sai Leik, spokesman for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy. He added that Sai Mauk Kham's authority within the government is limited.
Some residents who have tried to complain about human rights abuses to candidates of the Shan Nationalities Development Party (SNDP) have been threatened by government troops.
SNDP members are documenting incidents of abuse in the affected area to present to Parliament, but it is unclear when the next sitting will be, claims Sai Leik.
“But some leading members of the party are reluctant to discuss these problems and keep silent rather than focusing on what is happening,” said an SNDP member from Taunggyi on condition of anonymity. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21780
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A Top Govt. Official Downplays Peace Proposal
By WAI MOE Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Burma’s Election Commission Chairman ex-Lt-Gen Tin Aye downplayed ethnic minority parties’ calls for “peace talks” over ongoing conflicts during a meeting in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.
According to leaders of ethnic parties who attended the meeting, Tin Aye was asked about the possibility of peace talks to stop fighting between government troops and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and Shan states. However, the leading government official apparently replied “no,” saying that the Election Commission did not have any authority on the issue.
“The Shan Party [Shan Nationalities Development Party] and other ethnic parties representing Chin, Karen and Inn people proposed a serious discussion on ‘peace.’ And then other ethnic parties plus pro-democracy representatives at the meeting supported the proposal for peace talks,” said Aye Maung, chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.
Burma’s Election Commission Chairman ex-Lt-Gen Tin Aye downplayed ethnic minority calls for peace talks. (Photo: AP)
“Then U Tin Aye replied that the issue has to be discussed at the Hluttaw [Parliament],” said Aye Maung. “U Tin Aye said he also wants peace,” he added.
The meeting’s main agenda was regarding by-elections for more than 40 constituencies which are expected to be held late this year. The Election Commission called 37 political parties to the meeting in Naypyidaw.
In past three months of President Thein Sein’s new administration, fresh armed conflicts have occurred in Kachin and Shan states where there were previously ceasefire agreements for 16 and 22 years respectively.
While the Burmese Army's presence have been increased in conflict zones, both the government and the ethnic armed groups of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Shan State Army (SSA) have discussed ceasefire talks.
However, negotiations have not been successful.
Ethnic groups complained that the government only sent low profile negotiators for the discussions saying that they could not guarantee “genuine ceasefire agreements and peace” in the union.
La Nan, joint-secretary of the KIA's political wing the Karen Independence Organisation, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the government’s negotiator, Col Than Aung—Kachin State’s minister for security and border affairs—contacted him frequently over the weekend regarding a ceasefire agreement.
“The government last called about a ceasefire on Sunday. But they have to offer more guarantees for a long-term ceasefire for peace and stability in the state,” he said. “Our troops report that the government’s militarization has not been decreased.”
He added that, whether it is connected or not, Naypyidaw’s fresh calls for a ceasefire and Minister Aung Kyi’s talk with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi came shortly after the Asean Regional Forum in Bali, Indonesia.
Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin faced pressure from the US and Asean members for “concrete, measurable progress” regarding political reforms such as release of more than 2,000 political prisoners and “meaningful and inclusive dialogue” with the opposition and ethnic groups.
Meanwhile, two secretaries of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party—former ministers Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw—are scheduled to visit Kachin State capital Myitkyina again in coming days. They are expected to hold another round-up meeting on the conflict with respected Kachin representatives in the town. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21781
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Burmese-Kachin fighting takes place at three locations
Created on Monday, 25 July 2011 07:00
Published on Monday, 25 July 2011 07:00
Written by KNG
Short battles between the Burmese and Kachin armies took place today, July 25, at three different locations in Kachin State, northern Burma, local sources said.
Around 11 a.m. local time, a gun battle took place between Nam San Yang and Ban Dawng, about 20 miles northeast of the KIA Laiza headquarters.
Two government battalions, with over 50 troops from Infantry Battalions No. 21 and 37, based in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina, were involved in the fighting with KIA troops protecting Laiza, according to a KIA officer at the frontline around Laiza.
A second battle occurred at Chipwi Township between Burmese troops from the Nga Oo-based Infantry Battalion No. 121 and KIA troops of Battalion 10, under Brigade 1, a KIA officer confirmed to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.
Government troops were attacked on the road near Chipwi while returning to their base in Nga Oo, in southern Kachin State, a KIA officer added.
At the same time, more fighting took place in the Sinbo area in Mohnyin Township, central Kachin State, where the KIA’s Battalion 5, under Brigade 2, is based.
This third battle was between the KIA’s Battalion 5 and government troops from the Sinbo-based Infantry Battalion No. 141 and Infantry Battalion 142, based at Dawhpumyang, sources from the frontlines said.
Both sides suffered casualties in the three battles, however, the exact number is not known at this time.
Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of KIA, is hoping for a message from Burmese President, U Thein Sein, concerning a renewed ceasefire which the two sides discussed three times in June, said KIO officials in Laiza. http://kachinnews.com/news/1995-burmese-kachin-fighting-takes-place-at-three-locations.html
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Burmese Crossroads: Oil & Gas Rush Stokes Civil War
by Matthew F Smith, Special to CorpWatch
July 26th, 2011
On a typical sunny day in 2010, Burmese authorities and their corporate partners from China confiscated Khaing Khaing’s small family plot on Maday island in the Bay of Bengal. The remote and mountainous Southeast Asian island, scorched during equatorial hot seasons and drenched in tropical monsoons, sits in the path of proposed oil and gas pipelines to China.
In 1980, “when we were married,” said Khaing Khaing, a resolute 52-year old farmer in Burma’s Arakan state, “we inherited about four acres of paddy field and two oxen from both sides of our families,” in accordance with Arakanese custom. The plot, with its rich and fertile soil, supported her and her husband’s family of two children for three decades.
Unfortunately, their traditional values and small farm were no match for the $2.5 billion mega-projects. The military rulers of Burma – also called Myanmar – cut deals in 2009 with South Korean and Chinese companies for the lucrative cross-country pipelines, which will stretch from Burma’s western shore to the restive border with Yunnan province, China.
The dictatorship has since been replaced by a military-dominated parliament, but for the pipelines it is still business as usual: the companies and the military are forging through allegations of human rights abuses on one hand and a civil war on the other.
New Oil and Gas Investments
The energy mega-deal actually involves several separate projects: offshore gas development, a deep-sea port, gas and oil terminals, roads, and other infrastructure.
The pipelines, however, are the vital element. Operated by the state-owned Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), in collaboration with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the oil pipeline will enable China’s crude shipments from the Middle East to circumvent the vulnerable Strait of Malacca, a narrow shipping chokepoint controlled by the U.S. It will also conveniently avoid the South China Sea, where China and its neighbor Vietnam are feuding over oil-rich territories claimed by both countries. The gas line will likewise follow the same overland route as the oil pipeline, under the control of CNPC and South Korea’s Daweoo International, together with the Gas Authority of India, Korea Gas Corporation and ONGC Videsh (India).
All told, more than $10 billion in new oil and gas investments poured into Burma last year alone, according to the country’s official figures. EarthRights International (ERI), a human rights and environmental watchdog with offices in Washington D.C. and northern Thailand, estimates that Burma’s controversial Yadana pipeline to Thailand generated over U.S. $5 billion in profits for the previous junta, from 1999-2010. These figures will increase considerably when the China pipelines come online.
Yet the military rulers have invested little in raising the living standards of people like Khaing Khaing and her family. The United Nations Development Programme continues to rank Burma last in the region according to nearly every indicator in its annual Human Development Index, measuring poverty, health, and education; and it ranks Burma 132 out of 169 globally.
Big Business in a War Zone
The controversial oil and gas pipelines are set to span 500 miles of rugged mountains and dense jungle in Burma, passing rushing rivers, expansive rice paddies, and several population centers, including areas of escalating armed conflict in the country’s mountainous northern Shan state. It is there that scores of non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, Harvard Law School, and others have reported some of Burma’s most urgent human rights violations.
According to Sai Kheunsai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, the Burmese army has attacked the ethnic Shan State Army (SSA) every day for the last two months. The epicenter of the attacks has been near Hsipaw, a remote valley town and a key location on the proposed pipeline route.
The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation have in recent months documented rape as a weapon of war in the conflict areas of Shan state, committed by Burmese soldiers against ethnic women and girls. Survivors were aged 12-50, the groups say, and at least one girl was raped in front of her parents.
“Business as usual means ongoing rape for women and girls in our communities,” SWAN’s Charm Tong told the Bangkok Post on July 24. “[Investors and Governments] can’t hide behind ‘We didn't know’.”
Intense fighting has also recently erupted between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the country’s second largest ethnic force, ending a 17-year-long ceasefire agreement. Like the SSA, the KIA has a key battalion stationed in the proposed path of the pipelines in northern Shan state.
Dr. La Ja, a senior representative of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the KIA, told CorpWatch on June 26 that that the pipelines are not yet under construction in the northernmost reaches of Shan state, but that the war in the region is intensifying. “We want stable peace along the border [with China],” he said, “but the fighting is escalating.”
The Kachin were “very surprised” by the renewed conflict when it began on June 9, and had “no option” but to take a defensive posture after a series of advances by the Burmese army, according to Dr. La Ja. State media reported that the Burmese army advanced on the Kachin to protect the central government’s interests in Kachin state, including two Chinese-led hydropower dams, but Dr. La Ja claims the projects in question were never under threat.
Since the fighting began in June, the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand has documented 32 cases of rape; thirteen ended in death, according to the organization.
China’s foreign ministry has called for the conflict to stop, but has not elaborated on its plans for the pipelines or China’s other energy projects in Burma.
CorpWatch spoke to a Daewoo International company vice president in charge of the company’s energy investments in Burma, and asked him about the risks of running multi-billion dollar pipelines through a war zone and how the company would deal with imminent human rights problems. “That’s a very difficult question,” he said, requesting anonymity because he is unauthorized to speak to the media. “We are not quite sure what could happen in that area [in northern Shan state].”
“The issue is whether foreign companies doing business in that country can advance democracy or not,” the Daewoo vice president said. “If Daewoo in Myanmar eventually helps democracy in Myanmar [by strengthening the economy], then we should not be blamed [for being in Myanmar now].”
What if instead Daewoo’s presence is contributing to human rights abuses and authoritarianism? “I have no idea,” he replied.
Local Discontent and Opposition
Back on the western front of the projects, Khaing Khaing is less ambivalent. In January 2010, she and others from her Maday island community were given an ominous summons to attend a mandatory meeting with oil workers.
“There were about seven Burman men from the Asia World company and about five Chinese men from CNPC,” said Khaing Khaing.
Asia World is an influential Burmese company hired by CNPC to work on project-related construction and, evidently, land acquisition. The Daewoo vice president told CorpWatch that his company had not signed a contract with Asia World, but confirmed that Asia World is involved in the pipeline projects through CNPC.
Villagers in Arakan state said Asia World and CNPC handed down a non-negotiable demand for land to accommodate the pipelines, but promised fair financial compensation.
A year later, some of the dispossessed have still not been paid, according to ERI, which released a 24-page report on the issue in March 2011. Others received compensation from the companies above market value, according to ERI, but the villagers remained worried as to how they would survive given that farming was their sole skill set as well as the cultural and economic foundation of their lives.
“Now we have no paddy fields to survive,” Khaing Khaing said. “We value our traditions very much,” she said, including the vital custom of bequeathing land from one generation to the next.
EarthRights International’s Paul Donowitz told CorpWatch that he met with Daewoo’s senior executives in April and explained to the company that it shared responsibility for any abuses connected to the gas pipeline. “The company said they are advising their partner CNPC to observe human rights,” said Donowitz. “We’re watching the situation on the ground very closely and still see many troubling project impacts.”
Villagers in the pipeline’s westernmost path say that they are very worried. “If the companies and the authorities order us to move, we can’t deny their orders,” said one dispossessed villager in Arakan state. The oil companies and the authorities “can do whatever they want,” added another young farmer. Both, fearing reprisals by the state, requested anonymity.
After the ERI report was released, CNPC posted a Chinese-language statement on its website saying it spent $810,000 to compensate all affected Maday islanders. The company also said it is contributing positively to local employment and local livelihoods: “CNPC staff have brought loving care to Myanmar people.”
CorpWatch’s repeated emails requesting comments from CNPC either bounced or went unanswered. Several calls to its local contractor Asia World Ltd. were disconnected after CorpWatch raised questions about the pipelines.
Daewoo was more forthcoming. Its vice president told CorpWatch that his company had devoted scrupulous attention to land and crop compensation on Kyauk Phu island in Arakan state, a small corner of the project route where Daewoo is the sole operator. CorpWatch asked the Daewoo representative about villagers beyond Kyauk Phu who say they have still not received compensation for confiscated land. “We’re not quite sure if that instance is linked to our company,” the representative said.
In an official June 28 email to CorpWatch, the company’s communications team said it “is not relevant for Daewoo to make a comment over [non-governmental organizations’] views or objectives.”
Histories of Controversy
All three companies - Asia World Ltd., CNPC, and Daewoo – are politically and economically powerful and each has been linked to wrongdoing in recent years.
Asia World Ltd. is one of Burma’s largest conglomerates with numerous ventures in construction, hydropower, ports, retail and other businesses. Asia World CEO Lo Hsing-han and his son Steven Law are ethnic Kokang of Chinese ancestry, hailing from the general region where the pipelines will pass into China.
“Asia World is the best-connected and best suited to do that work,” says to Bertil Lintner, a noted author who has written widely on Burma, referring to the company’s involvement in the pipeline projects in Shan state. “They’d know the terrain up there,” he added.
Lo is one of the world’s best-known opium smugglers, according to the U.S. government, which has put both him and his son on a U.S. government blacklist. The duo’s company has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2008 on suspicion of money laundering and drug trafficking, as well as for its close links to Burma’s ruling elite.
CNPC is China’s largest oil company with assets and interests in 27 countries worldwide, according to its website.
A 580-page report in 2003 by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog group, exposed CNPC’s large interests in Sudan’s oil sector, where the state and its militias violently displaced whole communities from their homelands around CNPC-controlled oil fields.
Human rights groups also allege that revenues from CNPC’s oil payments to Khartoum financed widespread human rights violations in the country. In 2009, Global Witness, a London-based human rights group, released a report claiming much of CNPC’s payments were not reflected in the Sudanese government’s published figures, implying massive corruption of monies that should have otherwise been shared with the recently independent South Sudan.
Daewoo (the company name means “Great Universe” in Korean) describes itself on its website as a “world top class trader investor, developer [whose] pioneering spirit guarantees plenty of progress for everyone.” With 1,767 staff and 6,000 clients in 180 nations around the world, according to the site, Daewoo “plays the roles [sic] as the driving force for the trade and overseas investment of Korea.”
The Axle Project: Guns for Gas?
From 2002-2006, executives from Daewoo International and other companies sold military equipment as well as blueprints for weapons technology to Burma in violation of Korean trade law, which restricts the export of strategic materials to countries deemed a potential obstruction “to world peace and regional security.” In 2004, the law was amended to label Burma a “limited export area.”
Senior Daewoo executives and their associates code-named their weapons supply scheme the “Axle Project” because they considered it the key lever to keep the gas wheel turning with Burma’s notorious difficult military leaders, according to prosecutors in the case.
Fourteen Korean executives, including six from Daewoo, were ultimately convicted in trial court, appellate court, and then again at the Supreme Court on charges of conspiracy and failure to obtain government approval for exporting strategic materials.
The prosecution argued that the company used various ploys to obscure the initiative: The Burmese Directorate of Defense Industries was code-named the “landlord’s house”; a weapons factory constructed by the group in Burma was the “rice bowl”; and financial exchanges between the parties were conducted through personal bank accounts.
Daewoo’s Executive Director Lee Tae-yong was alleged to have personally overseen the export of 480 different types of military equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
One 55-year old employee of the Korean government-affiliated Agency for Defense Development was charged with stealing more than 850 pages of blueprints for weapons technologies, and providing them for use in Axle. A Daewoo-led secret team also quietly trained Burmese officials in weapons manufacturing in Burma and Korea, court documents show.
The ultimate goal of the Axle Project was to help the military junta construct a fully functioning weapons factory in central Burma, according to facts recognized by the trial court. The now complete factory was designed to produce tens of thousands of six different artillery shells annually, including 120mm artillery shells and 105mm howitzer high-explosive shells.
“The 120mm mortar is the standard heavy mortar shell that the Burma army has used for years in attacking the resistance and villagers,” wrote David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers in an email to CorpWatch. Eubank is a former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces officer. “The 105 is also used against some ethnic groups,” Eubank added.
According to Inhong Kim, a member of the Korea University international human rights clinic, sentences for the 14 executives varied from suspended jail time to fines. Daewoo’s Executive Director Lee Tae-yong was fined just $54,550.
In an email response to CorpWatch dated June 28, Daewoo noted that “only certain individual employees of the Company were sentenced to punishment…for violation of Korea laws” and that “the violation of the individuals was irrelevant to the Company.”
That “force” has been less than subtle at times. In 2009, the company was implicated in a military-backed coup in Madagascar after acquiring a 99-year lease from the government there for more than one million hectares, nearly half the country’s arable land. “We want to plant corn there to ensure our food security,” Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo, told the Financial Times in 2008. “Food can be a weapon in this world,” he added.
In March the following year, a military-backed coup ousted Madagascar’s democratically elected president, Marc Ravalomanana. Scrapping the widely unpopular deal with Daewoo was a primary reason for the coup, according to public statements by the self-appointed transitional president, 33-year old Andy Rajoelina, who abruptly cancelled Daewoo’s contract.
Moreover, in 2006, 14 executives from six companies, including the former executive director of Daewoo, were indicted in Seoul central district court for illegally and secretly exporting military technology and hardware to Burma’s military rulers. (See box)
Given the increased attacks along the northern pipeline route, those weapons may prove as useful as bulldozers in assuring that energy and profits flow as planned --with gas sales slated to begin in 2013.
Military Controls Profits
European governments, the U.S. and other nations have long-restricted trade and investment in Burma because of persistent human rights violations and political repression. Just last week, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a resolution to extend sanctions against Burma for another year, citing a lack of progress in democracy and human rights.
While the sanctions are a considerable economic thorn in the regime’s side, they have not stopped private and state-owned companies from Asia from descending on the country’s natural resources.
The investors in the new gas pipeline to China are hoping to cash in on some $29 billion in potential natural gas exports alone, according to estimates by the Shwe Gas Movement (SGM), an underground coalition of democracy and human rights activists who are documenting the impacts of the pipelines in Burma. Wong Aung, coordinator of SGM, doubts that people like Khaing Khaing will ever share in the prosperity and progress the pipeline is supposed to bring.
“The gas revenues need to fuel economic growth to combat poverty and improve the well-being of local communities,” he said, “but the industry’s revenues are still entirely controlled by the military.”
In 2011, prior to Burma’s first national elections in over 20 years, a “Special Funds” law was passed, authorizing the military commander-in-chief to use public money “to safeguard national sovereignty and protect the disintegration of the union.” The law says the military chief “shall not be subject to questioning, explanation, or auditing by any individual or organization” regarding use of the funds.
With a legal basis for impunity in revenue mismanagement and the prospect of multi-billion dollar profits from gas sales, it is no wonder why the military rulers fail to seek lasting peace or a more genuinely democratic federal union with the country’s ethnic nationalities.
“We call for political dialogue and negotiated settlement,” wrote Dr. Lian Sakhong, an ethnic leader who recently compiled his writings on Burma’s community struggles in a new book titled In Defence of Identity, “but the responses are always violent confrontations.”
Matthew F. Smith is an independent human rights and environmental researcher and former senior consultant with EarthRights International ( www.earthrights.org) based in Southeast Asia. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15651
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HUFINGTON POST
Olivia Katrandjian
Journalist and Travel Writer
Landmine Victims on Both Sides of Burma Civil War Escape to Medical Mecca in Thailand
Posted: 7/26/11 03:08 PM ET
When Maw Keh was 34 years old, he asked the question so many of us ask ourselves: What am I going to do with the rest of my life?
A lieutenant for the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group in Burma, Keh had his leg blown off by a landmine while rushing a Burmese Army camp in 1986. He had been fighting the Burmese for 11 years. The Karen, an ethnic minority living in Burma's much-contested Karen State along the Thai border, have been fighting for their independence from the Burmese government, a military dictatorship, for over 60 years.
Since no medical care was available in Karen State, Karen soldiers carried Keh to the Nam Ruak River that forms the border between Burma and Thailand, and from there Keh crossed the river by boat. Left in the Mae Sot Hospital in Thailand, Keh met a Frenchman named Arnold Thierry from Handicap International (HI) who was visiting patients. The two began talking, and after a few visits, Thierry invited Keh to work for the NGO. Still plagued with the question of what he would do now as an amputee, Keh decided to take the job and help people similarly affected. With funding and supplies from HI, Keh opened a prosthetic clinic in 1987 inside the Burma border in Karen State, where its services were badly needed.
Since Keh was technically still a Karen rebel, operating in Karen territory, the clinic had to function under the authority of the KNU administration. But when the KNU headquarters fell to the Burmese army in 1994, the clinic was forced to shut down as well. Its patients escaped across the border into Thailand, where they entered the bamboo huts serving as refugee camps along the border.
Keh tried to reopen the clinic at different sites in Karen State, but the Burmese army found and destroyed each location. In 2000, Keh opened the clinic in a internally displaced persons camp inside Burma. When the Burmese military found it, they burned down the entire refugee camp. Keh finally decided that it was not safe to continue working in Burma.
It wasn't until 2000 that Keh was able to re-open his clinic at the Mae Tao Clinic, a complex of medical units in Thailand serving primarily Burmese refugees. Keh became the director of the prosthetics unit, a position he still holds today. Keh not only treats patients, but also trains some to become technicians at the clinic. As a result, approximately 75 percent of the technicians who work at the clinic are landmine victims and amputees themselves, giving them a special understanding of how to make prosthetic limbs that are comfortable in practice, not just in theory. Most importantly, they realize that their patients still need to work, and often the only available jobs involve doing physical labor on farms, so they must have prosthetic parts that will allow them to do so.
Karen State is a hilly, remote jungle, making landmines a particularly effective weapon in this guerrilla conflict. Karen rebels use bamboo-encased landmines to keep the Burmese military from entering their territory, while the Burmese military uses more expensive Chinese landmines both defensively and offensively, planting them in both rebel and civilian areas. These landmines last for decades and require special equipment to detect, which the Burmese do not have. As a result, large swaths of land in Burma are littered with them.
Many people from Karen state escape from the heavy fighting by crossing into Thailand on foot or by boat, legally or illegally. UN-sanction refugee camps, refugee-run schools and 'underground' clinics line the border. The Mae Tao Clinic, where Keh works, is one of these clinics.
The Mae Tao Clinic offers free medical care, from malaria treatment to surgery to trauma counseling, to anyone who steps through its concrete walls. A patient is not asked which armed faction he is with. Most initially claim to be civilians, but even if the technicians are aware of a patient's affiliation, it doesn't make a difference. Both Burmese soldiers and Karen rebels are treated the same way, and often lie in adjacent beds.
2011-07-26-_MG_0750.jpg
"When a patient confesses he is actually a Burmese soldier, it's not a problem. We still provide everything they need," Keh said.
Keh's outlook on the conflict has changed since he began working at the clinic. "We are all human. We are not on the battlefield anymore. On the battlefield, we didn't know each other. We had to shoot -- if you don't shoot, they're going to shoot you. But at the clinic they become visible, and we are visible too." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-katrandjian/landmine-victims-on-both-_b_909939.html
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Myanmar is No.1 in Attack Traffic
July 26, 2011
By Sean Michael Kerner
Internet attacks can come from any country in the world at any given point in time. Over the course of the first quarter of 2011, Akamai's latest State of the Internet report found one country to be the source of more attack traffic than any other.
Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, now tops the list, representing 13 percent of all attack traffic observed by Akamai. Myanmar's top billing is particularly suprising given that the small south Asian country did not rank in the top 10 originating countries for attack traffic at the end of 2010.
The U.S. came in second at 10 percent up from 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Taiwan was third at 9.1 percent, Russia fourth at 7.7 percent and China rounds out the top five at 6.4 percent. At the end of 2010, Russia was reported to be in the top spot for attack traffic accounting for 10 percent of all observed global attack traffic.
"It's not clear if that attacks from Myanmar are coming from a specific group or if its some kind of botnet that happened to find some unprotected hosts," David Belson, editor of the Akamai State of the Internet report told InternetNews.com.
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Belson noted that it will be interesting to see if the trend on Myanmar leading the list will continue into the second quarter and beyond.
Akamai's data comes from its own points of presence and only looks at the last networking hop before a connection comes in. As such, it is possible that Myanmar is being used as a proxy for attacks as opposed to being the origination point itself.
"It could be the case that someone was bouncing attacks through Myanmar," Belson said. "That would align with some of what we saw with attacks on port 9050."
Port 9050 is often used for the open source Tor onion router, which is an anonymous proxy networking service. Belson noted that Myanmar's top billing could be a case of the attack community doing a better job at hiding their tracks.
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In terms of ports that are being targeted, Akamai once again reported that port 445 used for Microsoft directory services was the most attacked port, representing 34 percent of attack traffic. Attacks targeting Port 80 and Port 443, for HTTP and HTTPS were up significantly during the quarter. Port 80 attacks accounted for 11 percent of all attack traffic up from 1.5 percent at the end of 2010. Port 443 attacks were reported at 4.7 percent up from 0.2 percent.
Belson wasn't sure if the Port 443 attacks were directly related to the SSL certificate attack against security vendor Commodo earlier this year.
"I don't know if it was people trying to exploit those certificates or if it was a broader SQL Injection type attack or something else," Belson said.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. http://www.esecurityplanet.com/features/article.php/3937751/article.htm
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Burma tells Thailand to ‘clear out’ rebels
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 27 July 2011
The reopening of a prized trade point along the Thai-Burma border will rest on Thailand’s ability to effectively clear border towns of anti-Napyidaw armed groups, Burmese officials have reportedly said.
The remarks were made by Samart Loifah, the governor of Thailand’s western Tak province, during a recent press conference. He told reporters that the Burmese government has been pressuring authorities in the border town of Mae Sot to evict rebels believed to shelter there, and in return Burma would drop its blockade of the Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge, which has been closed for a year.
Samart said that three demands were made of the Tak provincial government, including that it “clear out” refugee camps along the border where Naypyidaw also believes rebels hide.
The issue of Thailand’s attitude towards the nine camps has triggered concern over the past year, with senior authorities making public their desire to see the inhabitants returned to Burma.
Samart also claimed the Burmese wanted Thai officials to locate the men suspected of a Rangoon bomb attack three years ago, whom it also claims are in Mae Sot. Added to this is Naypyidaw’s perennial wish to see senior members of the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), arrested.
He said that “there are no less than 10 KNU leaders living in Tak province and Burma demanded their arrest”.
It echoes similar remarks made by the Tak governor in March this year, when he relayed concerns of the Burmese government that towns along the Thai border had become KNLA “enclaves”.
David Thackrabaw, deputy chairman of the KNU, claimed however that the group was not using Thai soil to launch attacks on Burmese forces. “We are based and operating in our own territory [in Burma],” he said, adding that no KNLA were hiding among refugees in the camps.
“According to international standards, peace should be fully guaranteed in the refugee’s native land before they are repatriated, and any return should be voluntary.”
The reason given by Burma for the closure of the bridge centred on complaints that Thailand was attempting to reroute the Moei river, although speculatio
n about Thailand’s perceived sheltering of the armed opposition quickly arose.
The KNLA has been fighting against the Burmese government for nearly six decades in what is perhaps the world’s most protracted civil war. A number of KNLA bases lie in the mountainous region along the porous frontier with Thailand where cross-border movement is easy.
Thailand’s countrywide border trade generates around $US4.3 billion each year for the developing economy, nearly a quarter of which goes through Mae Sot. The closure of the crossing is thought to have cost the country around $US2.7 million each day.
http://www.dvb.no/news/burma-tells-thailand-to-%E2%80%98clear-out%E2%80%99-rebels/16751
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Suu Kyi photos make Burma’s front pages
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 27 July 2011
A image of Suu Kyi with Labour Minister Aung Kyi printed on the front page of the People’s Age
Two batches of photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi taken in the last week have made it to the front page of various news journals, the first time in years that the opposition leader’s face has been allowed to take centre stage in domestic news.
Images released after Monday’s talks with Burmese Labour Minister Aung Kyi appeared on several high-profile publications, including People’s Age, Pyi Myanmar and Yangon Times.
A separate photo taken of the Nobel laureate during the Martyrs’ Day ceremony in Rangoon last week was published on the front page of the Popular News Journal
It marks something of a change from the military-controlled government’s historic attempts to sideline Suu Kyi, whom it has keep under house arrest for more than 15 of the past 20 years.
Following her release in November last year, nine news journals were suspended for publishing photos of her on their front pages, although several others carried the images in supplements.
Various analysts have claimed the media environment in Burma, which has historically been one of the world’s most repressive, is beginning to open up. The new government appears to have loosened a watertight grip on material considered critical of its policies, although heavy penalties remain for those who attempt to bypass the censor board before going to print.
Kyaw Yin Myint, a prominent Burmese writer, said that the appearance of Suu Kyi’s image on front pages was “delightful”, but to be considered noteworthy must be a permanent policy of the government.
http://www.dvb.no/news/suu-kyi-photos-make-burma%E2%80%99s-front-pages/16747
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Strike Leaders Sacked as Warning to Others
By LAWI WENG Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Around 40 Burmese workers who led strikes earlier this month to demand an extra 15 baht a day wages have been sacked from their factory near to the Thai-Burmese border in Three Pagodas Pass.
Wai Phyo, a Burmese worker for Watana Footwear Factory, said that his Thai bosses distributed a list of around 40 names to factories in the area to warn other people from employing the men.
Local sources say the workers were from Thai-owned Watana Footwear Company and Sakar War Company, both of which produces shoes and other related items.
Nai Seik Lyi, father of one of the workers, said, “My two children have had no job for two weeks already as they were leading the factory workers demanding extra pay.”
He explained that his two children did not get any extra pay after the strike while other workers did.
“This is how they oppress workers who lead strikes around here,” he added. “I told my children not to go to work unless they give them extra pay. We will just have to eat what we can find.”
There are some 5,000 Burmese migrants in Three Pagodas Pass who work at around 30 factories.
Local people say the 40 black-listed workers are unable to find alternative employment and have been forced to borrow money from friends to pay for food and accommodation.
“There are many people scattered along the street here who have no job. They have no money to pay rent for accommodation at the end of this month, and so they are depressed and get drunk from early in the morning in front of my house,” said Tun Oo, a resident in Three Pagodas Pass.
“I feel sad to see them as they are helpless around here and many of them are just teenagers,” he added.
Workers told The Irrawaddy that they want to find a labor organization which helps workers in Thailand in order to solve their problems, as nothing currently exists in Three Pagodas Pass.
“There is no organization here who can solve our problems. We want to find one as there are many cases of exploitation here,” said Wai Phyo.
Burmese workers in Three Pagodas Pass earn between 65 and 115 baht for a 10-hour workday, depending on experience. This is much less than average for Thailand, causing many workers to feel exploited.
The workers went on strike to demand an extra 15 baht a day earlier this month as they claim the cost of essential commodities in Thailand had risen while their wages had remained the same.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21773
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