News & Articles on Burma-Friday, 15 July, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Friday, 15 July, 2011
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Burma's Vice-President Implicated in Kachin Massacres
China Power Ignored Internal Report Calling for Dam Cancellation
At the mercy of Burmese ‘law’, Suu Kyi must play a wise game
NLD leader Win Tin allowed to republish his books after 33 years
Thailand Registers Over 828,000 Migrant Workers
Burma seeks onshore oil partners
Defections rattle Burmese embassy in US
Burma: Kachin people reject ceasefire without political talks
PTTEP taps Sembcorp for Myanmar production platform
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Burma's Vice-President Implicated in Kachin Massacres
By BA KAUNG Friday, July 15, 2011

Burma's Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo should be investigated by a United Nations' Commission of Inquiry for his role as regional commander during a series of brutal massacres in Shan State, says the leadership of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

In interviews conducted last week with The Irrawaddy at their military headquarters in Laiza, Kachin State, three of the influential leaders of the KIA—retired Col. James Lum Dung, Brig-Gen Gun Maw, and Col. Zau Raw—laid out detailed reports with maps and photographs that they said proves conclusively that the Burmese army committed atrocities against Kachin soldiers and civilians over the past 10 years.

The first and second of these massacres, according to the KIA, came in 2001 under the watch of Burma's new vice-president who was Northeast Regional Commander at that time.

Slide Show (View)
Asked why evidence of such atrocities had never before been reported, the KIA leaders said that they had not publicized the massacres to avoid destroying the fragile political process during the 17-year ceasefire and while the constitution was being drafted.

Collectively and individually, the KIA leaders said that now that the ceasefire has been broken by the Burmese army, and that all hope of political negotiation has broken down, the KIA wants to present its allegations to the UN, and claims that the four mass killings and three summary executions constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to the KIA's documentation, which is written in Kachin language, the first incident occurred in March 2001, in the countryside a few kilometers from Lau Jai village in Mung Si District, which is in Muse Township in northern Shan State.

The area was at the time openly under the control of the KIA. At 9 am on March 22, four KIA soldiers on patrol came across a unit of approximately 100 Burmese infantry troops of Division 242 led by Maj. Khin Maung Hla, the commander of Kutkai Military Command in Muse.

Initially, the Burmese patrol requested the KIA soldiers to guide them to the village of Shauk Haw. Before reaching the village, the four Kachin soldiers were attacked, disarmed and tied up. At around 2 pm, they were all shot dead. Their bodies were half-buried on top of each other in a shallow grave in the forest.

The KIA recovered the corpses one month later. They recorded the deceased as: Sergeant Zatau Dau Hawng, and private soldiers Laphai Zau Bawk, Dashi Nawng Hkum and Kareng Tu Lum. The KIA report says a formal funeral was held for the four on April 22, 2001.

On the same day, a harrowing scene was played out at a small agricultural farm in Mung Si District in Shan State. The KIA report lists the plot in the hamlet of Nawng Tau Si Sa Pa, and says the farm was run by the KIA's 2,000-strong Battalion 4, as part of a regional development program initiated after the ceasefire in 1994.

It is alleged that a column of 70 Burmese troops approached the farm and requested a meeting with Second Lieutenant Hpuwang Naw Seng of the KIA. However, as Naw Seng was otherwise engaged, the KIA's Warrant Officer Lt. Gam Seng went out to meet the Burmese unit which was led by Lt. Col. Nyo Win from Light Infantry Division 242—the very same unit accused of involvement in the executions in Muse.

As soon as Gam Seng came before the Burmese troops, he was allegedly grabbed and tied up. Simultaneously, Burmese government troops broke into the farmhouse and arrested four KIA soldiers, including Naw Seng, and two civilians.

According to the KIA records, the captives were taken to a nearby forest and physically tortured throughout the night. They were all dead by the following morning.

Some weeks later, the KIA recovered the seven bodies in a swamp. Each had multiple stab wounds, which the KIA said were inflicted by bayonets. Each of the bodies showed evidence of burning to the genitals. On some trees nearby, the KIA found samples of the victims' hair mixed with blood. They concluded the captives had been tied to the trees, tortured, stabbed and burned, before being killed.

“The soldiers were so severely beaten up that their bodies were just a pile of broken bones,” the report describes. “Their dead bodies were stamped on and crushed into the mud near a creek.”

The victims were named as: Second Lt. Naw Seng, Warrant Officer Gam Seng, Lance Corporal Aik Nyi, private soldiers Nhkum Ban Aung Mai and Ma Aik Nai. One civilian was a Kachin man, Zum Zang Hawng Lum, who was the nephew of Col. James Lum Dung, the then head commander of KIA Battalion 4 operating in northern Shan State. The other civilian was identified only as a Chinese man.

In his interview with The Irrawaddy in Laiza last week, Col. James Lum Dung­who took up arms against the Burmese troops in 1961 and retired as the KIA regional military commander in 2007­said the killings were a deliberate provocation by the Burmese troops under the supervision of Tin Aung Myint Oo.

“Their motive was to drive our troops out of Shan State,” said James Lum Dung. “Tin Aung Myint Oo was mainly responsible for these killings.”

In seeking an explanation for the killings, James Lum Dung said he went to Lashio in Shan State in 2001 to confront Tin Aung Myint Oo.

“He made no response whatsoever when I told him about the unprovoked massacres, “ James Lum Dung said. “Instead, he offered me 100,0000 kyat [US $1,000]. I did not accept it.

“We were furious about what had happened, but our leaders decided to wait for the completion of the constitution-drafting process,” he said, referring to the military-sponsored constitution that was not completed until 2008, and which was later rejected by the Kachin leadership for its exclusion of rights for ethnic minorities.

Documentation for a third incident alleged to have taken place in August 2005 in Hwak Kai village in the Kutkai district of Muse Township was presented by the KIA to The Irrawaddy. By this time, Tin Aung Myint Oo was no longer regional commander; Maj-Gen Myint Hlaing, the current minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, was overseeing operations.

Falsely accused of illegally collecting taxes from local traders, the KIA's administrative officer U Sang Lu, 50, was arrested and taken away by Col. San Shwe Thar of the Burmese army's Northeast Regional Command.

U Sang Lu was found dead the following day with three bullet wounds. His skull and two of his ribs were fractured, and the skin on his wrist had been torn away.

“It was a groundless murder,” the document said. “The KIO [the political wing of the KIA] has long collected tax from local businesses. U Sang Lu was performing a routine duty, but was ruthlessly killed.”

It is alleged that the following year, five KIA soldiers and one civilian were killed in cold blood by Burmese government troops, this time in the Bum Pri Bum area of Kutkai in southern Muse Township.

On Jan. 2, 2006, a Burmese army patrol of 12 soldiers led by Maj. Hla Moe from Infantry Division 68 allegedly arrived at a KIA administrative office in Bum Pri Bum.

“While our soldiers prepared to serve the Burmese troops with drinks, they were all shot dead in the office and in the kitchen,” the record states. The KIA document goes on to say that the Burmese unit immediately called in reinforcements, and prevented the KIA from entering the area and collecting the remains.

Led by Brig-Gen Gun Maw, who is the current KIA deputy military chief, a Kachin military delegation met with Burmese army officers and asked to recover the bodies of the murdered KIA soldiers. They were permitted to collect the bodies on Jan. 6 only to find the bodies had already been cremated. Gun Maw said they were presented with “bags of ashes.”

The victims were recorded in the KIA records as: administrative officer Laban Gam Hpang, Sergeant Brang Mai, office staffers Zahkwng Kawang Hkam, Maran Tu Shan and Brang Shawng, and a civilian from the village named as Aik Nyunt.

Col. Zau Raw, the current commander of KIA Battalion 4 operating in Shan State, told The Irrawaddy he clearly recalls the incident in 2006. He said the Burmese military officials later offered up an excuse that the KIA soldiers were mistaken for members of an armed militia which had not signed a ceasefire agreement with the government.

“We suppressed our emotions in those days, because we were waiting for some sort of political result from the constitution,” said Zau Raw, adding that he remembers crying as he led the funeral for the slaughtered men.

Zau Raw was one of the KIA's highest ranking officials who participated in the constitution-drafting process.
He said that despite the murders, the KIA has abided by a code of ethics, and has returned Burmese soldiers that they arrested during recent clashes to their units.

The KIA presented documentation for two other killings in October 2005 when two KIA administrators were murdered by Burmese soldiers in Shan State in separate incidents.

The KIA officials accuse former Gen. Myint Hlaing, who is the current minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, of responsibility for the killings in 2005 and 2006 as he was regional commander at the time.

Gen. Gun Maw said that KIA leaders did not previously attempt to draw international attention to those incidents because they did not want to impede the political process that they hoped would bring autonomy to Kachin State.

Gun Maw said that the Burmese army leadership has long exercised a systematic policy of extra-judicial killings against the KIA.

“Our soldiers did not die in vain,” he said, adding that the news that one of his soldiers, who was arrested by Burmese soldiers last month in a KIA liaison office and brutally killed, has received international attention which will add weight to the KIA's demands during negotiations with the Naypyidaw government.

As opposed to the 1994 ceasefire with the Burmese government, the KIA said it has made it clear that any future ceasefire talks with the government must include meaningful political dialogue­otherwise they will continue fighting.

Indeed, negotiations for a ceasefire may already be doomed. Many Kachins cannot forgive the Burmese army for the murders, and many find it galling that the KIA would sit down with a government delegation, especially if it includes Tin Aung Myint Oo.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, ex-Maj Aung Lynn Htut, who defected to the US in March 2005, described Tin Aung Myin Oo as “a butcher,” but also attributed the unprovoked massacres to a strategic policy of trying to inflict a stranglehold over the armed ethnic groups over the past decade.

According to Aung Lynn Htut, the incidents were partly related to Tin Aung Myint Oo's hostile attitude toward the ethnic armies. “He was well-known as 'The Butcher' in the army,” he said. “He was always quick to slap his subordinates in the face, and he constantly reiterated a mantra of 'Root out the enemy at all costs!'”

He said that another factor that contributed toward the massacres was that since early 2000, former military chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe had been ordering regional military commanders to tackle harshly the armed ethnic groups, including the KIA, and expand Burmese army presence in the ethnic areas­in preparation for a violation of the ceasefires and a resumption of hostilities.

The KIA officers presented the common view that Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo plays a critical role in the current armed conflicts. According to Col. Zau Raw and the other KIA officials, the massacres they described to The Irrawaddy should be investigated by the UN and international bodies responsible for deciding whether to proceed with the proposed Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“We call on the United Nations to investigate these incidents,” said Zau Raw. “We will never forget them.”

http://www.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=21705
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China Power Ignored Internal Report Calling for Dam Cancellation
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, July 15, 2011

After conducting an assessment, a group of Chinese and Burmese scientists working for the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) recommended in an internal report that the company cancel its Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River in northern Burma, but CPI has continued construction of the dam.

The 945 page assessment—which was obtained by the Burma Rivers Network, an environmental organization—was funded by CPI and conducted between January and May of 2009 (the CPI Report).

The CPI Report said that the Myitsone Dam will threaten bio-diverse ecosystems and impact millions of people that depend on the Irrawaddy River for their livelihoods: “The fragmentation of the Irrawaddy River by a series of dams will have serious social and environmental problems, not only upstream of dams but also very far downstream to the coastal area,” the CPI Report said.

The CPI report concluded that the Myitsone Dam project should not proceed.

“There is no need for such a big dam to be constructed at the confluence of the Irrawaddy River,” the CPI report said.

However, CPI ignored the recommendation by its own assessment team and will go ahead with the controversial dam project, said Sai Sai, the coordinator of the Burma Rivers Network.

“Chinese companies are increasing their investments in Burma, yet they are not following their own standards. While CPI is hiding its assessment from the people of Burma, construction of the dam is speeding ahead,” Sai Sai said.

CPI is planning to build and operate seven mega-dams on the Irrawaddy River and its tributaries.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Ah Nan, the assistant coordinator of the Burma Rivers Network, said, “We call on CPI and the Burmese government to immediately stop the Myitsone Dam, as it will have a huge negative impact on local people.”

She also called on the Chinese government not to invest in Burma, as armed conflicts are still active and instability prevails in the country.

In June, serious clashes between Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic Kachin armed group, broke out near the Chinese-run Taping Dam site in Kachin State, northern Burma. Due to the conflict, about 15,000 people have been displaced.

Mega-dams in Kachin State and across Burma are deeply unpopular in the country, but numerous appeals to Chinese companies and the Chinese and Burmese governments to stop the dams have gone unanswered, said the Burma Rivers Network.

The CPI Report warned that “the majority of local races oppose construction of the dams” and called for consultation with and the consent of affected people. The study also recommends a full social impact assessment be conducted along the length of the whole river, but this has not taken place.

Although completed in late 2009, the CPI Report was never made public. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21703
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At the mercy of Burmese ‘law’, Suu Kyi must play a wise game
By CLIVE PARKER
Published: 15 July 2011

When Burma’s opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest on 13 November last year, one of the first things she called for at her National League for Democracy party (NLD) headquarters was the “rule of law”.

For once, the government in Burma and main rival the NLD appear to be in agreement – at least on the surface – given the government and its mouthpiece the New Light of Myanmar has been full of allusions to “the law” in recent weeks. What remains however is the wildly different interpretation of what constitutes the rule of law in Burma these days. Having initiated a series of new laws under the sham 2008 constitution and its subsequent election last year, the Burmese government is suddenly all about playing by the book – which of course it wrote – in trying to contain the actions of Suu Kyi and her party. Meanwhile, the NLD continues to dismiss recently passed laws in relation to the new constitution, the election law and political party registration law, deeming them illegitimate and undemocratic.

However, as we are starting to see now, these new laws will almost certainly determine the parameters within which Suu Kyi is able to operate in Burma, whether just or not. The problem for the NLD is that by trying to tackle the issue of its very own legality through legal argument, it is fighting a battle the government has itself created and which it has bolstered through the very laws it has passed to attempt to draw a line under the NLD’s 1990 election win.

The NLD’s recent challenge over its legality at the Naypyidaw Supreme Court is a case in point: in making an appeal based on the Specific Relief Act, as it did at the end of last year and has repeatedly done for years, NLD lawyers effectively called on the court to abide by the 1990 election result and to stop the authorities from preventing the NLD from fulfilling its mandate as the winners of that election. “The objective is that if the Supreme Court asserted the right of NLD under the Specific Relief Act, it may proceed [with the] convening of parliament and it may also prevent the regime to not declare the NLD as illegal,” said Aung Htoo, director general of the Sweden-based Burma Lawyer’s Council.

The problem is that the authorities need only refer to the more recent March 2010 election law in dismissing the case, which retroactively annulled the 1990 election landslide by the NLD. So although Suu Kyi’s release in November came with no explicit limits on what ‘The Lady’ can or cannot do – despite reported discussions just beforehand in which a government representative is understood to have tried to impose restrictions on movement outside of Rangoon and political activity – in practice Burma’s new laws are hugely restrictive. And whether just or not, the NLD is entangled in a legal mess right now that only plays further into the hands of the government.

To become a legal party, the NLD would have to apply with the Union Election Commission in line with the Political Parties Registration Law under which it must agree to safeguard the new constitution, which in turn bars the spouse of a foreigner from becoming president or vice president. In addition, the party would have to follow the letter of the 2010 Election Law during future elections which retroactively annuls 1990 election results. In other words, the NLD would have to let go of its 1990 election win, accept a constitution which says the military automatically gets 25 percent of seats in parliament, among other undemocratic requirements, and party leader Suu Kyi would not be permitted as a national ruler in the unlikely event the NLD won a future ballot.

Given these unacceptable requirements, the NLD has therefore chosen the difficult path of illegality under current laws, which puts it at the mercy of the government’s supposed “rule of law”; or, in the words of Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK: “The dictatorship is trying to hide behind an illegitimate constitution to curtail the actions of the NLD, but they make up and interpret laws how they like.”

In recent weeks, the government has increasingly referenced these new laws to remind the NLD of what it can or cannot do, which unsurprisingly has coincided with Suu Kyi’s first trip outside of Rangoon since her release – this month’s four-day trip to Bagan and Mount Popa. Clearly Suu Kyi is treading carefully, given that she did not make a speech but referred to the trip as personal, and did not talk to journalists on the last day before heading back to Rangoon. Indeed, it has taken Suu Kyi nearly eight months since her release to leave Rangoon at all. In terms of “political” activities, the NLD is therefore being careful.

With respect to social and cultural activities, however, Suu Kyi and her party have been more aggressive in testing the parameters of what the authorities will allow in light of a recent government warning that the NLD would have to register as a social organisation to carry out social activities. Having carried out a number of social programs in Rangoon, including on HIV/AIDS, Suu Kyi took the provocative step of announcing the creation of a group called the ‘Friends of Bagan’ following her trip there this month, which would attempt to establish ties with UNESCO to help preserve the temples.

Aside from the government’s obvious dislike for UNESCO (it previously withdrew the possibility of support in the case of Bagan due to the junta’s gaudy plans for the temples), if there is one thing dictatorships despise it is political opponents seeking legitimacy through the UN – just ask China. Having been shunned by the UN for years after the Communist Party took power in 1949, China has actively stopped the UN from affording any recognition to Taiwan, realising that to do so increases the legitimacy of the island within the international community.

Similarly in Burma the government will likely despise the prospect of Suu Kyi liaising with UNESCO over the future of the country’s prized tourism asset. Expect a predictable government response. It will surely reference a law related to social or cultural registration and dictate that the NLD is not legally empowered to carry out such activities – if it feels sufficiently threatened.

And that’s the point. Given the Burmese government’s new fondness for the “rule of law” is anything but, in reality its use of new tailor-made legislation won’t be determined by the extent to which Suu Kyi violates these laws, but by the level of perceived political threat she poses in her actions.

As ever, the government will gauge Suu Kyi in terms of her perceived level of popularity and engagement with the general public, the international community, opponents of the regime and indeed anyone else the government considers a threat. So although the military may have altered the rules to its own advantage during Suu Kyi’s recent seven and a half years of unjust detention, ultimately the game is still the same in terms of ‘The Lady’ versus the dictatorship. The key issue, therefore, is how well Suu Kyi can play this increasingly difficult and one-sided game.
http://www.dvb.no/analysis/at-the-mercy-of-burmese-law-suu-kyi-must-play-a-wise-game/16585
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NLD leader Win Tin allowed to republish his books after 33 years
Thursday, 14 July 2011 20:56 Mizzima News

(Interview) – Writer and National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Win Tin, who has been banned from writing and publishing books for 33 years, will see his books in print again soon. Win Tin was imprisoned for more than 19 years from 1989 to 2008. Mizzima reporter Myo Thant interviewed him on his books, the lifting of the publishing ban, his views on censorship and other issues.

Writer and National League for Democracy party leader Win Tin reading his just released third edition of Queed, republished after being banned for many decades. Photo: Mizzma

Writer and National League for Democracy party leader Win Tin reading his just released third edition of Queed, republished after being banned for many decades. Photo: Mizzma

Question: How did the lifting of the ban come about?

Answer: I have been prevented from publishing these books for many years. They didn’t even allow me to use my pseudonym or my real name in the media. But now they have changed their mind.

Q: How far back do these books go?

A: I wrote these books 30 to 40 years ago.

Q: How many books are they allowing you to republish and what type of books are they?

A: A total of about 10 books. I didn’t write too many books. The books are poetry, travelogue, journalism, translations, etc. Some of the new publishers are Bagan, Nay Yi Yi, etc. They all came to me and I gave them my permission. The publishers heard this news and informed me. For instance, Bagan publishing house knew that my translation of ‘Queed’ could be republished. Some weekly journals came and asked my permission to reprint my books in serials.

The cover of the recently republished Queed.

The cover of the recently republished Queed.
Q: Do you have any plan to write new books?

A: I don’t; it’s difficult for me to write new books now. But I wrote new prefaces and prologues to my old books in the forthcoming new editions and imprints. I don’t know yet how much they (the censor board) will allow.

Q: How did the publishers and weekly journals come to know your old books could be republished?

A: I think they have connections with the censorship board. For instance, Bagan publishing house asked my permission to republish my book and then within an hour, a weekly journal asked my permission to reprint my old work in their journal in serials.

Q: Why were you banned from writing and publishing your books or even writing under your pseudonym?

A: I attacked the Burmese Socialist Party. Then the subsequent military regime also banned my books and writings too. But I could write articles until 1987. Both the BSPP and junta banned my books.

Q: How did you feel when the censorship board lifted the ban?

A: I didn’t feel much. Indeed I’m not a famous writer. It’s not too significant, but I must say it is a good thing to get permission to republish after about 50 years otherwise old copies of these books and manuscripts would be lost or disappear forever.

Q: As a journalist and author, how do you feel about government censorship?

A: The censor board and censorship policy must be abolished. In any country, censorship is not good. I can’t accept it in any form. I urge my fellow journalists and writers not to accept it. We must resist it; we must oppose it. We must demand censorship be abolished in Burma.

I am over 80 now. I focused on journalism in my career, and devoted my life to journalism. I’m not a writer; I’m a journalist. I didn’t write many books. I wrote books occasionally. Sometimes I wrote travelogues. I wrote some books on painting. Many publishers came to me and asked my permission to reprint all these books, and I have nothing more to give them to reprint. I must say I am happy about it, and it may be beneficial to new generations because these books would be lost and disappear entirely if they weren’t reprinted now. http://www.mizzima.com/edop/interview/5607-nld-leader-win-tin-allowed-to-republish-his-books-after-33-years.html
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July 15, 2011 16:37 PM

Thailand Registers Over 828,000 Migrant Workers

BANGKOK, July 15 (Bernama) -- Over 828,000 migrant workers, mostly Cambodian, Laotian and Myanmar nationals, have filed registrations with the Labor Ministry over the past month seeking amnesty.

The grace period since June 15, which ended Thursday this week, was part of the Thai government's latest efforts to tackle illegal employment of foreign labourers, according to Thai News Agency on Friday.

Employers who miss the deadline would face a maximum 100,000-baht fine and the detention and expulsion of their workers. However, those in the fishing industry would enjoy an extended grace period until next month. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=601493
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Burma seeks onshore oil partners
News wires 15 July 2011 07:58 GMT

Burma has invited bids for companies to operate 18 onshore oil blocks scattered in six provinces on a production-sharing contract basis, the biggest number made in a single offer in recent years.

Bidders are allowed to submit up to three proposals for three onshore blocks, the Ministry of Energy said in an announcement in the official English daily, New Light of Myanmar, Reuters reported.

Proposals should be submitted by 3 August.

Burma has been exploring oil and gas in 49 onshore sites and 26 offshore blocks in Rakhine, Tanintharyi and Mon states after entering joint ventures with foreign companies since 1988.

The country's proven gas reserves tripled in the past decade to around 800 billion cubic metres, equivalent to more than a quarter of Australia's, according to the BP Statistical Review. Proven oil reserves data are not immediately available.

Neighbouring Thailand and China are the biggest investors in Burma's energy sector.

Companies from Australia, Britain, Canada, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam have also reached energy deals with the government.

Reuters reported official data showed total foreign direct investment in the oil and gas sector had amounted to $13.5 billion since 1988. http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article267264.ece
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Defections rattle Burmese embassy in US
By AFP
Published: 15 July 2011

Burma’s embassy to Washington has been rattled by two defections of senior diplomats in an embarrassment for the military-backed regime which wants to show the world that it is evolving.

Kyaw Win, who had been the second-ranking diplomat at the embassy, told AFP in an interview that he had grown tired of waiting for change in his country and voiced admiration for pro-democracy opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Kyaw Win defected on July 4. The embassy’s number four, Soe Aung, applied for asylum in the United States the following week; according to several sources, he made the decision as he was about to be escorted home as part of an investigation into the first diplomat’s defection.

The chaos at the embassy comes despite efforts by leaders in Burma to show a stable political transition. A ruling junta held elections in November and afterward officially handed over to civilian rule.

Western governments and opposition leaders believe that the changes are only cosmetic — a view that Kyaw Win said he quietly shared while working at the embassy.

“We said that the election would bring change but the election is already six months ago and it’s even worse than before,” said Kyaw Win, 59, a career diplomat who previously served in Brazil, India and Switzerland.

“I have for a long time argued with my kids, who are already grown up, who used to argue that the government won’t change. But I still believed that I could change it within the system,” he said.

“After 30 years, I should try to change our country from the outside and Washington is a good place to give pressure,” he said.

Kyaw Win would have been on the verge of returning to Burma for retirement. State Department officials declined to comment on the validity of his asylum bid, citing privacy rules for cases involving immigration.

President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009 opened talks with Burma after concluding that the previous policy of engaging the regime has failed. State Department officials have insisted that dialogue remains the best option, even though they have voiced disappointment with the results.

Burma’s embassy is believed to have played a low-key role in the talks, with the United States reaching out directly to the leadership in the capital Naypyidaw or working through Burma’s UN mission in New York.

The embassy, on a leafy backstreet of northwest Washington next to upscale old homes and the popular Textile Museum, had 14 accredited diplomats as of the beginning of the year, according to the State Department.

But the two defectors were considered among the most urbane diplomats of the military-backed government. The United States and Burma do not exchange ambassadors, the result of Washington’s protests after the junta annulled 1990 elections won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

“My view is that Aung San Suu Kyi is the only leader who has the people’s trust,” Kyaw Win said.

But he said he was not convinced that the National League for Democracy was effective. It was officially disbanded for refusing to register in last year’s elections, which it feared would be marred by fraud.

Kyaw Win said that many people in Burma recalled that the country was one of the most prosperous in Asia before 1962, when the military seized power.

“We know that change won’t happen within days. We know that it will take time. But we have to get into the right direction,” he said.
http://www.dvb.no/news/defections-rattle-burmese-embassy-in-us/16580
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Burma: Kachin people reject ceasefire without political talks
By Zin Linn Jul 15, 2011 10:33PM UTC

A two-day meeting of Kachin delegates in Laiza, in Burma’s northern Kachin State, concluded with the denunciation of a truce without political reconciliation with the untrustworthy Burmese government, according to sources who were in audience on July 12-13, Kachin News Group [KNG] reported.

The July 12-13 meeting was held at the Alen Bum Military Base, in the KIO command center Laiza hearing the opinions from Kachin public leaders on restoration of ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the military-backed Burmese government. More than 120 delegates from Kachin State, Shan State and the rest of Burma participated in the meeting.

During the meeting, Maj-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng, Chief of Staff of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military-branch of the KIO, gave details about the KIO’s ceasefire plan to Kachin public leaders at the meeting.

Political analysts and observers have been deeply concerned about widespread of war in Kachin State. Now, people have been blaming Thein Sein government’s breaking of every promise with the ethnic ceasefire groups.

The regime’s miscalculation on handling the Kachin issue seems pushing the country into an abysmal gorge of tragedies. Burma’s new military offensives on the Kachin, Karen and Shan armed groups will lead the nation also into a severe poverty trap.

According to Maj-Gen Gam Shawng, the KIO will only seek out a transitory armistice with the Burmese government of up to six months. However, it can be called a halt at any time if there were no political word of honor. The KIO’s new ceasefire plan was rejected by delegates because of the failure to achieve a political solution over the last five decades, a Kachin News Group (KNG) reporter in Laiza said.

In hope of setting up political dialogue, the KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the central government on February 24, 1994 and supported the military-favored 2008 constitution.

No political dialogue happened in the 16-year ceasefire time and the KIO was intimidated to remove weapons and transform into the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) before the November 7 election.

The KIO cast off the BGF plan, saying it cannot accept transformation of its armed wing.

Talks between KIO and Burmese government were also abortive in 1963, 1972, and the1980 respectively. Though, they all failed to get to the bottom of the political standoff between the two sides.

The 22-year military rule of the country ended after November 2010 polls. The President Thein Sein government was sworn in as a new controversial civil government in March 2011. It has not publicly offered a new ceasefire agreement to the KIO, until now. Despite that, the KIO proposed a new ceasefire plan to the President Thein Sein government on July 8, according KIO officials in Laiza.

The public meeting in Laiza was called while the KIO is waiting for the government’s response to its new ceasefire proposal amid growing concern by the Kachin people over ceasefire talks.

As reported by the KNG, the KIO met with peace delegates from the Kachin State Government on June 17, June 30 and July 7. However, the state-level ceasefire effort was rejected by the KIO, Kumhtat La Nan, General Secretary-2 of the KIO said.

In such a situation, no one throughout Burma will trust President Thein Sein government’s propaganda of good governance policy, national unity program and poverty alleviation agenda. At the same time, it seems Thein Sein Government has no inspiration of going along a meaningful dialogue course seeking a peaceful and prosperous nation in the ASEAN family. http://asiancorrespondent.com/60135/burma-kachin-people-reject-ceasefire-without-political-talks/
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PTTEP taps Sembcorp for Myanmar production platform
Published: Jul 15, 2011

Offshore staff

SINGAPORE – PTTEP International Ltd. has awarded Sembcorp Marine Ltd. a contract to supply an offshore production platform for use offshore Myanmar.

The S$600 million ($492 million) contract covers engineering, procurement, construction, transportation, installation, and commissioning, according to Sembcorp.

07/15/2011 http://www.offshore-mag.com/index/article-display/8604466598/articles/offshore/equipment-engineering/asia-pacific/2011/july/pttep-taps_sembcorp.html
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