News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 13 July, 2011(uzl)

News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 13 July, 2011
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Bomb Blast in Shan State Injures Four
Prisoner Denied Visit for Sending Letter
Junta army’s road link outpost overrun by Shan rebels
Burma: War Crimes Against Convict Porters
MYANMAR: Military porters "worked to death"
Burmese Health Officials Issue E. Coli Warning
Wunna Maung Lwin: Military Commander to Foreign Minster
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Bomb Blast in Shan State Injures Four
By SAI ZOM HSENG Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Four people were injured, including three seriously, in a bomb blast in the northern Shan State town of Kyaukme at 9 pm on Tuesday, according to local sources.

A resident of Kyaukme told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday night that the bomb exploded at a military checkpoint in the town. Burmese army soldiers, police, and narcotics officers are stationed at the checkpoint, suggesting that the target of the blast was the Burmese authorities.

Police in Kyaukme declined requests for further information when contacted by The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. They did, however, confirm that the blast occurred and said that no one was killed in the incident.

The headquarters of the Burmese army's No.1 Military Operation Command is in Kyaukme.

This is the seventh bomb blast to hit an urban area in Burma since a new quasi-civilian government led by ex-general Thein Sein was formed at the end of March.

Several bombs have exploded since May in a number of major Burmese towns and cities, including the capital Naypyidaw, the country's second-largest city Mandalay, the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, the military-academy town of Pyin Oo Lwin, and Myawaddy, a town on Thai-Burmese border in Karen State.

There were also reports of a blast in Mohnyin Township, Kachin State, on Monday. Around 20 local people were reportedly injured by the explosion. The Kachin Independence Army, which resumed fighting with Burmese troops last month after a 16-year ceasefire, denied responsibility for the incident.

Burma's state-run media has blamed ethnic armed groups for several of the recent blasts. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21683
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Prisoner Denied Visit for Sending Letter
By KO HTWE Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Hnin May Aung (aka Nobel Aye), a prominent female political prisoner in Burma, has been denied visits by her family for calling on the Burmese government to withdraw a public statement claiming that the country has no political prisoners.

Relatives told The Irrawaddy that when they arrived at Monywa Prison in Sagaing Region on July 7, they were told that they could not see Nobel Aye because she had broken prison rules.

Hnin May Aung (aka Nobel Aye) (Photo: AAPP)
“Her father had no chance to give her the parcel we had prepared for her. When he asked a prison official why he couldn't see her, he was told that a superior official had instructed them to bar family visits, because if someone breaks the prison rules, they should be punished. But the official didn't say which rule my daughter broke,” said Nobel Aye's mother, Aye Myint Than.

Aye Myint Than said that while her husband was waiting to meet with the prison official, he could hear his daughter calling out for her mother, who usually came for prison visits, but was unable to do so on this occasion.

“I'm so worried about her because she is suffering from jaundice. I haven't been able to sleep well since I heard about her calling for me like that,” she added.

This episode occurred just one day after Nobel Aye submitted a letter to prison officials calling on Vice President Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and presidential adviser Ko Ko Hlaing to retract their recent reiteration of the government's position that the country has no political prisoners.

Nobel Aye is currently serving her second prison term. She was first imprisoned in 1998, when she received a 42-year sentence for engaging in non-violent political activities together with her mother. She was released under an amnesty in July 2005, following the ouster of Gen Khin Nyunt and the disbandment of his military intelligence apparatus.

She was arrested again on Aug 23, 2007 for taking part in a protest led by the 88 Generation Students group following a dramatic hike in fuel prices that later sparked monk-led demonstrations.

Nobel Aye is not the only political prisoner who has spoken out against the government's claims that there are no political detainees in Burma. Nay Phone Latt, a blogger who is serving a 12-year prison sentence in Pa-an Prison in Karen State, also opposed the government officials' statements.

“They [political prisoners] can't accept this because they have to serve their full prison terms even after other prisoners were granted a remission,” said Aye Aye Than, mother of Nay Phone Latt, who last visited her son in early July.

Meanwhile, five political prisoners in Meiktila Prison in Mandalay Region have also sent a letter to Burma's new president, ex-Gen Thein Sein, calling for their immediate release and a public examination of their cases.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there are 1,994 political prisoners currently serving sentences Burma's prisons, of whom 145 are women. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21685
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Junta army’s road link outpost overrun by Shan rebels
Wednesday, 13 July 2011 14:00 Khio Fah

Nampook, the Burma Army’s outpost, where the roads from Mongyai in the north, Kehsi in the southwest and Wanhai (the Shan State Army “North” HQ) in the southeast meet, was seized and destroyed by the SSA troops by ruse early yesterday, according to rebel sources.

Located roughly halfway between Kehsi and Mongyai (36 miles), the outmanned and outgunned camp was raided at 05:00 in force by the SSA’s Battalion 187, Brigade 27. The bulk of the Burmese troops, made up of infantry battions (IB) 286 and 287 were reported to be heavily engaged in the fighting at Loi Kong, 2 miles west, at the time.

“We had boobytrapped on 10 July some of the soldiers at Nampook on their way to the nearby stream to bathe, killing and wounding 5,” said an SSA officer. “They then attacked us at Loi Kong on the following day at 16:00 and later at 23:00”.

The SSA, taking advantage of the situation, dispatched Battalion 187 to storm Nampook, he explained. No casualty figures are available at the time of its reporting.

“The deception is not so subtle,” said a long time Burma watcher. “But the fact that it still works shows there are some green field officers leading the Burmese units.”

The ruse, during the earlier days of the Shan resistance, was known as “returning a courtesy visit.”

The SSA North, officially Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), until 13 March this year, has been one of the groups that had concluded ceasefire pacts with the Burma Army since 1989, leaving it to fight only against the Karen National Union (KNU) and the SSA “South”. But since November, it has opened new fronts against 3 of the main ceasefire groups: Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), SSA North and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3851:junta-armys-road-link-outpost-overrun-by-shan-rebels&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
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Burma: War Crimes Against Convict Porters
Rampant Abuse of Prison Labor Shows Need for UN Inquiry
July 12, 2011

Convict porters are the Burmese army's disposable human pack-mules, lugging supplies through heavily mined battlefields. Press-ganging prisoners into deadly front-line service raises the Burmese army's cruelty to new levels.
Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

(Bangkok) - The Burmese army's abusive treatment of convicts who are forced to serve as porters under dangerous front-line conditions constitutes war crimes, Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group said in a joint report released today.

The 70-page report, "Dead Men Walking: Convict Porters on the Front Lines in Eastern Burma," details abuses against convict porters including summary executions, torture, and the use of the convicts as "human shields." The military should stop forcibly recruiting prisoners as porters and mistreating them, and those responsible for ordering or participating in such treatment should be prosecuted, Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group said.

"Convict porters are the Burmese army's disposable human pack-mules, lugging supplies through heavily mined battlefields," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Press-ganging prisoners into deadly front-line service raises the Burmese army's cruelty to new levels."

The Burmese government's longtime failure to investigate abuses by its forces should prompt concerned governments to support a United Nations-led commission of inquiry into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Burma, the organizations said.

The report is based on 58 interviews with escaped convict porters used in military operations in Karen State and Pegu Region from 2010 to 2011. Convict porters described witnessing or enduring summary executions, torture and beatings, being used as "human shields" to trip landmines or shield soldiers from fire, and being denied medical attention and adequate food and shelter.

"We were carrying food up to the camp and one porter stepped on a mine and lost his leg," one escaped porter said. "The soldiers left him, he was screaming but no one helped. When we came down the mountain he was dead. I looked up and saw bits of his clothing in the trees, and parts of his leg in a tree."

The porters interviewed were men ranging in age from 20 to 57, including both petty and serious offenders. Prison authorities selected prisoners for portering duties in groups of 30 to 150 men per facility seemingly at random from prison facilities throughout Burma, including labor camps and maximum security and local prisons. The prisoners were transported to staging areas with between 500 and 700 prisoners, who were then assigned to individual Burmese army units. Once transferred to the front lines, they remained there indefinitely, working under inhumane and dangerous conditions without payment. None of the prisoners interviewed had volunteered for the service.

"The barbaric practice of using convict porters has been a feature of armed conflict in Burma for at least 20 years, exposing them to the hazards of armed conflict with complete disregard for their safety," said Poe Shan, director of the Karen Human Rights Group. "The army forces other civilians to work as porters as well, but since civilians often flee conflict areas, the use of prisoners continues."

Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group said that the use of convict porters is not an isolated, local, or rogue practice employed by some units or commanders, but has been credibly documented since as early as 1992. Burmese authorities have previously admitted the practice occurs, but claimed that prisoners are not exposed to hostilities.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has raised the issue of convict porters with the Burmese government since 1998, yet the problem persists, particularly during major offensive military operations. Despite commendable work by the ILO in reducing forced labor in central Burma, forced labor by the Burmese army in ethnic conflict areas against civilians and convict porters has not been reduced, Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group said.

"Recent accounts from former convict porters show that the Burmese army's abusive tactics have not changed since last year's sham elections," Poe Shan said. "The brutal treatment of porters is just one facet of army atrocities against civilians in ethnic conflict areas."

The Burmese government has used brutal counterinsurgency practices against ethnic minority populations since independence in 1948. These include deliberate attacks on civilian villages and towns, large-scale forced relocation, torture, extrajudicial executions, rape and other sexual violence against women and girls, and the use of child soldiers. Ethnic armed groups have also been involved in abuses such as indiscriminate use of landmines, using civilians as forced labor, and recruitment of child soldiers. These abuses have led to growing calls for the establishment of a UN commission of inquiry into longstanding allegations of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Burma.

Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group found that serious abuses that amount to war crimes are being committed with the involvement or knowledge of high-level civilian and military officials. Officers and soldiers commit atrocities with impunity. Credible, impartial, and independent investigations are needed into serious abuses committed by all parties to Burma's internal armed conflicts, the groups said.

Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group urged the 16 countries that have already voiced support for a UN-led commission of inquiry to include the establishment of such a commission in the upcoming UN General Assembly resolution on Burma.

"ASEAN and European Union governments should stop hoping for things to magically improve in Burma and instead strongly push for a UN commission of inquiry," Pearson said. "Every day that the international community does nothing is another day that the Burmese army will press more porters into deadly service."

Accounts from Escaped Convict Porters:
All names used are pseudonyms

"On December 20, 2010 they [prison authorities] called out people's names one by one [at Pya Prison, in Pegu Region]. They ordered us to line up and said that we were going to porter. I didn't know what ‘porter' is. I had never heard. [The police] carried 25 people in a truck. They covered the truck with tarps. We couldn't see anything outside. Sometime we couldn't breathe very well. We had to wear prisoner uniforms and they shackled our legs in pairs."

- Escaped convict porter "Kyaw Min," January 2011

"I ran away with two other prisoners at about 10 at night. On the way, we were caught by soldiers from another unit, at about 1 a.m. These four soldiers beat us with big sticks, all over our bodies. The soldiers tied my hands behind my back, and tied up my ankles and stretched my legs out straight. One of the soldiers took a thick bamboo pole and rolled it hard up and down my shins for an hour. There were five or seven soldiers at the time, they were very drunk. The soldiers wanted to know why we left, and we told them we were scared. They got angry and said, ‘Don't you love your country?' One sergeant came and yelled at me, ‘If you try to escape again, I will kill you!'"

- Escaped convict porter "Tun Mok," February 2011

"The young boy told them [Burmese soldiers], ‘If I run you will shoot me.' They said, ‘No, we won't kill you. You can run.' They ordered the guy to run. Just as he walked down to the gorge, they shot him in the back. And they told us, ‘You guys see what happens? If you can't climb up, we will kill you.' We were afraid."

- Escaped convict porter "Matthew," January 2011

"The soldiers told us at night that there was a lot of fighting on the mountain, and that if we were alive tomorrow night we would be lucky. We are all dead, I thought. Alive or dead, it's the same thing here. So 15 of us planned to escape. We walked through the river to the Thai side. We heard the sit-tha [Burmese soldiers] yell, ‘Don't run! Don't run!' I turned around to look and was hit with the first shot. They shot at us four times I think. The bullet hit my right shoulder and broke my arm. It knocked me down onto the ground. I first felt dizzy, everyone else just ran."

- Escaped convict porter Tun Tun Aung, February 2011
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/07/12/burma-war-crimes-against-convict-porters
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MYANMAR: Military porters "worked to death"
Photo: Courtesy of Free Burma Rangers
A porter with soldiers in Karen State

BANGKOK, 13 July 2011 (IRIN) - Convicts forced to serve as porters for the military are subject to torture, execution, and warfare, says a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG).

"The military uses the porters as human shields to draw fire from the opposition, to trip land mines, and to walk ahead to be shot first in an ambush," David Scott Mathieson, co-author of the report and HRW's senior Asia researcher, told IRIN.

Since January, up to 1,200 civilian convicts have been drawn from 12 prisons and labour camps throughout Myanmar to serve as porters for the army in conflict-ridden southern and northern Karen and eastern Pegu states, the report, Dead Men Walking, released on 13 July, stated.

"The horrendous conditions of portering are systematic, widespread, and constitute a war crime," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of HRW. "The Burmese government is unwilling to end abuses such as portering, and there is an urgent need for international investigations."

Civilians flee

While the military's use of civilian "human pack mules" has been going on for the past two decades as part of counter-insurgency tactics against ethnic militias, rounding up prisoners has only been widespread since 1999, and is mainly done before major military offensives in a "chillingly systematic practice by the army", according to HRW.

Prisoners are used because civilians run from villages when the military arrives. "Civilians flee the area to avoid being taken as porters," Pearson said.

When 20,000 refugees flooded into Thailand after the offensive launched in Karen state earlier this year, many cited fear of being forced into portering as a reason, according to the report.

"Porters are given little food and no medical care," said Poe Shan, director of the KHRG.

One porter's leg was blown off in a land mine and he was left to die, said an interviewee cited in the report. "The soldiers left him... when we came down the mountain he was dead," said one escaped convict.

Abuses increase after elections

While human rights groups hoped for fewer abuses against civilians after the November elections brutalities continue to be meted out by the military junta, activists say.

"It is scandalous that the human rights situations have gotten worse after the elections," said Debbie Stothard, coordinator for the political advocacy NGO Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.

"Now in 2011, after the elections, there are the same abuses as in the 1990s," said KHRG's Poe.

And until there is a change in the country's human rights situation, refugees will continue to flow into the surrounding countries, warned Stothard.

"War crimes in ethnic areas have always been a push factor for asylum seekers and refugees into Thailand. Portering is just one example of the whole range of war crimes being perpetuated by the military," she added.

Human rights groups, along with the UN Special Rapporteur, continue to call for a UN commission of inquiry into human rights violations, such as portering.

"There is an urgent need for an international investigation," said HRW's Pearson. "The brutal mistreatment of convict porters is just one among many systematic abuses," she said.

Burmese government officials were unavailable to comment on the report.

dm/ds/mw

Theme (s): Human Rights,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
EMAIL ALERTS http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=93220
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Burmese Health Officials Issue E. Coli Warning
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A month after an outbreak of deadly illness caused by a rare strain of E. coli killed 50 people in Germany and France, Burmese Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have announced that they have discovered evidence of the bacteria in Burma.

FDA officials said that they found E. coli during restaurant inspections in various parts of the country, but provided no details about where and when the discoveries were made.

They also hastened to add that the samples they found were not the same variety of enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) that created a major health emergency in Europe in June.

“It is not a kind of EHEC that can threaten people's lives, but people need to clean food and vegetables very carefully in order to prevent the bacteria. It is also necessary to educate workers from livestock farms and butchers about good hygienic practices,” Dr Kyaw Lin, the director of the FDA, told reporters recently in Rangoon.

A physician from Rangoon said that the health authorities should educate the public about E. coli, which can cause diarrhea, food poisoning and other diseases. The bacteria can be contracted by consuming raw vegetables, meat and milk.

On June 10, health officials in neighboring Thailand announced that they found E. coli in the country. The bacteria reportedly originated from avocados imported from the European Union.

Burmese authorities rarely announce detailed information about the spread of infectious diseases in the country, although state-run media did cover the outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza in 2007.

Caption: Burma’s FDA officials said that they found E. coli during restaurant inspections in various parts of the country. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21688
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Wunna Maung Lwin: Military Commander to Foreign Minster
By WAI MOE Wednesday, July 13, 2011

One of busiest cabinet members in Naypyidaw is Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, having greeted countless diplomats and important foreign guests since President ex-Gen Thein Sein’s new administration took office on March 30.

In his first days as foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin met Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, former US presidential candidate and senior Republican Senator John McCain, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Joseph Yun, high ranking guests from China and other senior officials from Southeast Asia, both in Napyidaw and abroad.

And Wunna Maung Lwin is not afraid to throw his weight around, reportedly chastising US diplomat Joseph Yun during his Burma trip in May.

Rangoon weekly The Myanmar Times reported on May 18 that there were complaints over the senior American diplomat using the term “Burma” rather than “Myanmar.”

“You might think this is a small matter, but the use of ‘Myanmar’ is an issue of national integrity. Using the correct name of the country shows equality and mutual respect,” Wunna Maung Lwin was quoted as rebuking Joseph Yun.

However, Wunna Maung Lwin is not a career diplomat who became foreign minister, but a former military operational commander turned Burma’s top emissary.

In his previous military role, he was involved in Burmese Army offensives in Karen State before joining the civilian department in the late 1990s.

He was born in 1952 and attended the famous Dagon -1 high school in Rangoon, also known as English Methodist, before joining the military academy.

His army background began in 1971 at the Defense Service Academy (DSA) Intake 16th, and he remained in Pyin Oo Lwin until 1974. There he won the best cadet award, best training award and best academic.

Wunna Maung Lwin was also an English tutor at the DSA under the rank of captain in the early 1980s. He then served as General Staff Officer grade-3 at the War Office’s research department.

As a military officer based at No. 24 Infantry Battalion in Thaton, Mon State, under the South-East Regional Military Command, in 1989 Wunna Maung Lwin became involved in a major offensive in Maethawar, Karen State.

And this military experience in Karen State was not his last. From 1994 to 1996 he was appointed colonel of the tactical operation command in Kyar Inn Seik Gyi, Karen State.

At the time, the Burmese Army—also known as the Tatmadaw-Kyi—was battling the ethnic armed group of the Karen National Union (KNU) in eastern Burma. During this conflict government troops launched a series of offensives against the rebels to take the KNU’s headquarters of Manerplaw, near the Thailand border.

After serving in Karen State, in 1996 he was set to be promoted to a regional military commander and ordered to attend the National Defense College. However, he missed out on the promotion after reportedly failing a medical examination there. Later he was transferred to the Ministry of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs as a director-general.

After joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), he attended the 1st Intake Diplomacy Course and became Burmese ambassador to Israel from 1999 until 2001. He was then posted to Paris as ambassador from 2001 until 2004, and assigned to Washington DC in 2005 but was rejected by the US authorities.

Instead he was reassigned as the Burmese permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, as well as an extraordinary ambassador to Switzerland.

In Geneva, he was favored by ruling generals in Naypyidaw for defending Burma against criticism of the junta's human rights records at UN meetings. Sources at the MoFA said this primed him for a ministerial position. Even human rights activists admit that he was able to argue the junta's position well in the Swiss city.

Drawing comparisons with predecessors which include Nyan Win, Win Aung and Ohn Gyaw, a diplomat source who met Wunna Maung Lwin said, “his personality was not as good as even his recent predecessor [ex-Maj-Gen Nyan Win who is now the chief minister of Pegu Region].”

However, a former military officer, who was a classmate of Wunna Maung Lwin at the MoFA’s diplomatic course, described him as “a good man.”

After 100 days serving as Burma’s top diplomat, Wunna Maung Lwin remains unimpressed by the diplomatic community of the country. This is in contrast with Minister for Education Dr. Mya Aye, Minister for Health Dr. Pe Thet Khin, former Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Htay Oo and former Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu.

A Rangoon-based diplomatic said, on condition of anonymity, that different ministries' treatment of foreigners depends on the respective ministry's interests regarding policy priorities.

Government departments approaching diplomats and aid agencies in the Southeast Asian nation can not be sure of their treatment, as foreign embassies were received very differently according to their standing.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21687