News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 09 August, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 09 August, 2011
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Burma's Largest Dam Project Will Have No Negative Impact: State Media
Mon State CM Takes His Ministers to Task
Ethnic Doubt Over Govt. Peace Offer
Another Military General Gets the Sack
Burma Army fast closing the gap with Mongla
Burma: CSW Renews Call For Inquiry Into Crimes Against Humanity
Kyat on a hot tin roof
Systematic torture in Burma as EU seeks closer ties
Thailand holds 55 Myanmar migrants
Parliament Members In Myanmar Voice Support For Gov't Peace Efforts
IMF to help Myanmar unify multiple exchange rates
Burma Army requests return of seized supplies
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Burma's Largest Dam Project Will Have No Negative Impact: State Media
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The construction of the Myitsone dam by a Chinese company in Kachin State in northern Burma will have no negative impact on the flow of the Burma's largest river, the Irrawaddy, nor on the lives and livelihoods of the local population, Burma's state-run claimed on Tuesday.
The comment came amid mounting criticism by environmental rights groups that the dam project located at the source of the Irrawaddy River will cause serious social and environmental problems for local people living both upstream and also far downstream, even as far away as the coastal areas of Burma.
Started in 2009, the 6,000 megawatt Irrawaddy Myitsone dam will only utilize 7.6 percent of the flow waters of the Irrawaddy; hence the dam project will have “no adverse effects whatever on the agriculture, businesses and social work,”a commentary in Myanma Alin newspaper claimed, adding that the project will create job opportunities for locals.
Environmental groups say the project will not only disrupt transportation of nutrients to the Irrawaddy delta, the provider of nearly 60 percent of Burma’s rice, but will also submerge historical churches, temples and cultural heritage sites that are central to Kachin identity and history.
But the state media countered that the river's water flow would not be significantly affected, and that the water storage by the dam will only cause the water level to increase “1.5 feet higher than normal downstream the river in the dry season.”
Under contract to China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in partnership with Burma's Electricity Ministry of Electric Power-1 and private firm AsiaWorld, the dam will create a reservoir the size of New York and is expected to be completed by 2019. It has already displaced thousands of people in Kachin State.
The dam site is located within the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rainforest region, which is recognized as one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots and a global conservation priority. If completed, the project is expected to inundate approximately 766 square kilometers of this pristine rainforest.
According to Burma Rivers Network, CPI has ignored its own environmental assessment, conducted in 2009 by Burmese and Chinese scientists who warned that the majority of local people oppose construction of the dams and have called for the consultation and consent of affected peoples. The findings of the environmental assessment were never made public.
The armed ethnic minority group Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has expressed its objection to the project to both the Burmese and Chinese governments. The KIA is currently engaged in armed clashes with Burmese government forces, which started in June near another Chinese-built hydropower plant in Kachin State.
The power plant—which generates electricity for China's Yunnan Province—has ceased to operate since the armed clashes. In an interview with The Irrawaddy, the KIA's deputy military chief Gun Maw said that the KIA is completely against the Myitsone dam project although it is open to negotiations with Chinese and Burmese governments over other dam projects in Kachin State.
Asked if the KIA will attack the ongoing dam project in the future, Gun Maw said, “We will not attack it. But just as China's hydropower plants near the fighting have been forced to a halt, so also will the same happen to the Myitsone dam project.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21864
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Mon State CM Takes His Ministers to Task
By LAWI WENG Tuesday, August 9, 2011
At every weekly Sunday meeting of the new Mon State ministers, Chief Minister Ohn Myint scolds his team for not implementing their assigned state development projects, according to sources close the state ministers.
“Ohn Myint is very disappointed in his ministers for not carrying out their projects,” said one source. “He still acts like a military general at the meeting. He blames them for not being active.”
Ohn Myint promised the Mon people that after he was elected chief minister, he would bring development to the people.
However, observers say that many Mon State residents now question this promise because they have not seen any development in their area even though the new government has been in place for five months. The observers said that the new government is not active because Ohn Myint did not appoint the right people to important positions.
For example, he only appointed two Mon ministers, Min Nwe Soe and Nai Lawi Oung, among his 9 ministers. Min Nwe Soe is a doctor, but he was appointed minister of social affairs and culture. And Nai Lawi Oung is a veterinarian, but he is serving as minister of energy and electronic power.
Meanwhile, members of the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) alleged that Ohn Myint attempted to influence the AMDP, pressuring the two Mon ministries to stop the chairman of AMDP, Nai Ngwe Thein, from talking to the Burmese exile media, which has criticized the new government.
Ohn Myint also put pressure on the two ministers to force the AMDP to resign from the five member ethnic alliance because the chief minister did not like the ethnic parties talking about the release of political prisoners.
“If you guys cannot persuade him [Nai Ngwe Thein] to stop talking to the media, take him and throw him in the river,” Ohn Myin reportedly told the two Mon ministers.
According to members of the AMDP, party secretary Min Nwe Soe and party chairman Nai Ngwe Thein fought each other at a meeting held in early July during a disagreement about the pressure from Ohn Myint.
Min Nwe Soe told Nai Ngwe Then to stop talking to the exile media and resign from the ethnic alliance, and when Nai Ngwe Thein refused, the two leaders fought.
“It was a shame to see elder persons fight each other,” said a participant at the meeting.
The Mon State ministers meet every Sunday at Mawyawatty Garden in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21860
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Ethnic Doubt Over Govt. Peace Offer
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Leaders of ethnic armed groups remain doubtful after Burma Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo claimed Naypyidaw would welcome peace talks with minorities fighting the government.
During his visit to see flood victims in Mon State capital Moulmein, southern Burma, Tin Aung Myint Oo—one of two vice-presidents of Burma—said the government would always try to make peace with ethnic armed groups who were willing to cooperate, according to state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar on Monday.
But ethnic armed leaders claim that fighting in the countryside between government troops and minority groups happens almost every day, especially in Karen, Kachin and Shan states despite Naypyidaw’s statement.
Zipporah Sein, general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), said, “If the government really offers talks to solve the political deadlock, it is the right thing. And it is what we always wanted.”
“But if the talks do not aim to solve political problems, it is not going to happen,” she added.
However, ethnic armed groups will currently talk with the government under the leadership of an ethnic armed alliance, the United Nationalities Federation Council, rather than group-by-group as in the past.
The remaining ethnic armed groups that have not reached a peace agreement with the government are the KNU, Shan State Army (SSA), Karenni National Progressive Party and New Mon State Party.
The two ethnic groups of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army recently broke their ceasefire agreement with the government and are currently involved in violent clashes.
Tensions between the government and KIO’s military wing, the Kachin Independence Army, remain ever since serious battles broke down its ceasefire agreement on June 9.
La Nan, joint-secretary of the KIO, said that he thinks Tin Aung Myint Oo’s comment is just a propaganda statement which has arisen due to international pressure on Burma.
“[The Burmese government] wants to show that they are trying to hold peace talks with ethnic armed groups. They want to show that they are in the process [of getting a ceasefire],“ said La Nan.
Burma is currently being urged by opposition groups and the international community to make tangible progress countering human rights abuses and ethnic violence.
Some 23 Burmese parliament representatives have voiced support for the government's peace efforts, calling on people who want a ceasefire to work with goodwill in the interest of the nation and stay away from actions that may break up the nation.
In June, the US raised concerns over Burma's bid to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc, citing the renewed violence in Kachin State and other regions of the country. The US State Department called on Naypyidaw to bring an end to hostilities.
Maj Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesperson for the SSA, said that he welcomed the statement made by Tin Aung Myint Oo, but still maintained deep doubts.
“The government should contact ethnic armed groups officially if it really wants to open peace talks,” added Sai Lao Hseng.
The KNU also said that members of Asean, especially Thailand, should persuade Burma to talk with minority groups to solve political problems and maintain a nationwide peace.
Since 1989, under an initiative by former junta spy chief Gen Khin Nyunt, the regime held separate talks with many ethnic armed groups and signed individual ceasefire agreements with 17 of them. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21863
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Another Military General Gets the Sack
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Military sources in Burma have told The Irrawaddy that the inspector and auditor-general of the country's armed forces, Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyo, has been forced to retire following an investigation into allegations of corruption aimed at several high-ranking military officers.
If confirmed, Kyaw Phyo becomes the fourth general to be sacked since February, following the removal of Lt-Gen “Thura” Myint Aung who was adjutant-general, Brig-Gen Tun Than, the former commander of Rangoon Regional Military Command, and Maj-Gen Tin Ngwe, the former chief of the Bureau of Special Operations-5.
Kyaw Phyo, formerly the commander of the Triangle Regional Military Command, is believed to have been accused of smuggling cars via Burma's porous border with Thailand.
Kyaw Phyo was promoted to the position of “Inspector and Auditor-General of the Armed Forces” in late August 2010 during a massive military reshuffle. He was previously commander-in-chief of the Triangle Regional Military Command based in Kengtung in eastern Shan State, an area known for trade routes and smuggling syndicates.
In late July, media reports suggested five generals were being investigated for corruption: Kyaw Phyo; Maj-Gen Myint Soe, the chief of BSO-1; Maj-Gen Khin Zaw Oo, the adjutant general and chair of the military-run Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd; Brig-Gen Thein Tun Oo, the commander of the Triangle RMC; and Brig-Gen Khin Maung Htay, the commander of the Coastal RMC.
Meanwhile, rumors abound in Naypyidaw that further forced retirements are on the cards. Some military families have voiced the opinion that the investigation focuses on certain military officers because they had been outspoken in calling for better conditions for soldiers. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21861
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Burma Army fast closing the gap with Mongla
Tuesday, 09 August 2011 11:40 S.H.A.N.
5 days after withdrawing from the No Man’s Land between it and Mongla-based National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA)’s frontline outposts, the Burma Army is returning with a likelihood of remaining there for a long haul, according to local and Mongla sources.
The sudden return of Infantry Battalion 279, based in Mongyang, the township seat to Monglwe, lying southwest of it on 6 August, was somewhat a surprise. “Troops from Hsaleu-based Brigade 369 (of NDAA) had already decided to return to their main base when the Burmese soldiers turned up,” an informed local told SHAN.
The 50-strong advance force told the local people in 5 villages: Hwe Mu, Hwe Pon, Mark Lawd Kao, Mark Lawd Mai and Ma Nai, all in Monglwe tract, Mongyang township, they were there to assist the villagers in obtaining their long awaited citizenship papers. “Uncharacteristically, they were also throwing money around, from K 50,000-K 100,000 ($62.5-125) each village,” he said. “It caused sort of a pleasant astonishment to the people. In the past, the appearance of a Burmese force in the village meant it was going to ask for something, not giving it.”
The same reaction by the populace was reported recently in Kehsi township, where the Burma Army is launching an operation against the Shan State Army. When villagers received bags of rice from the Burma Army that had been looting them for as long as they could remember, “we couldn’t believe what was happening,” according to a local source.
It was also apparent that a pure silver lode has been discovered between Hwe Mu and Hwe Pon, contrary to the report that came out after a week’s exploration late last month. “The Burmese troops went back after floating around the news of their failure to find anything,” said an NDAA officer. “It was in fact designed to keep us off our vigil.”
The next obvious step is for the Burma Army to employ the local villagers as People’s Militia Force, otherwise becoming their eyes and ears against the NDAA and its closest ally, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), he predicted.
It is not known which company the Burma Army is going to contract for silver extraction. “Without share and share alike, it is going to become another bone of contention, adding fuel to the fire,” the informed local said.
The Burma Army’s relationship with armed groups that had concluded ceasefire pacts with it since 1989 had taken a downswing since 2009 when Naypyitaw demanded they become part of its armed forces. It is already fighting against 3 former ceasefire groups: Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Shan State Army (SSA) North and Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
Further information
15:00 A source close to the NDAA leadership quoted one of the senior officers saying: We wanted peace, that’s why we had made peace. We withdrew from Wankho, Pong Hiet and Kiang Kok (on the Mekong) in May, because we wanted peace. But for the Burmese military, they keep asking for more land from us. So we would like to ask: Is land more important than peace?” According to him, the NDAA had lost not just 5 villages, but 7 including Mwe Nawng and Wankay, all south of the Lwe, a tributary of the Mekong. (SHAN) http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3926:burma-army-fast-closing-the-gap-with-mongla&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
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Burma: CSW Renews Call For Inquiry Into Crimes Against Humanity On 23rd Anniversary Of 1988 Massacre
Tue, 2011-08-09 00:41 — editor/ News
London, 09 August, (Asiantribune.com):
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today renews its call for the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, as the people of Burma mark the twenty-third anniversary of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protestors on 8 August, 1988 in which at least 3,000 people were killed.
CSW has written to European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers, urging them to work to secure the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry in this year’s UN General Assembly resolution on Burma, as recommended by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana. In particular, CSW joins other campaign groups in calling on Germany not to oppose this initiative. A protest will be taking place at the German Embassy in London today.
In 1988 a major movement for democracy developed in which Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as the leader, although thousands were killed in several massacres unleashed by Ne Win’s military regime. Since 1988, the situation in Burma has deteriorated further.

In 1990, elections were overwhelmingly won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), but the junta refused to recognise the results, and most of those elected were imprisoned or exiled.
Twenty years later, in November, 2010, the regime held a new round of heavily rigged sham elections, and in the past nine months the human rights and humanitarian crisis has continued.
On 9 June the regime ended a 17-year cease-fire agreement with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), resulting in the displacement of over 20,000 civilians, and the rape of at least 32 women and girls. Of the cases of rape, at least 13 victims were then killed.
At least 16 countries have expressed support for a Commission of Inquiry, including 12 EU member states as well as the United States, Canada and Australia. Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly expressed her support, particularly when she addressed the US Congress by video link in June, and it has been recommended by the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma.
In its letter to EU Foreign Ministers, CSW writes, “Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has been calling on the regime in Burma to respect the Geneva Conventions. Since 1997, the UN General Assembly has made 18 calls for inquiries. In its 20 resolutions, the General Assembly has detailed at least 15 possible categories of war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the regime in Burma. Recent resolutions have described the regime’s human rights abuses as “major and repeated violations of international humanitarian law … As the UN Special Rapporteur has concluded, ‘failing to act on accountability in Myanmar will embolden the perpetrators of international crimes and further postpone long-overdue justice.’ A Commission of Inquiry is not only necessary if the UN General Assembly’s authority and credibility are to be upheld, it may also serve to prevent future human rights violations in Burma, and may well contribute towards establishing a meaningful dialogue between the regime, the democracy movement, the ethnic nationalities and the international community. It is a vital step towards national reconciliation.”
CSW’s East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said, “For over half a century Burma has been ruled by brutal military regimes, and for the past twenty-three years the suffering of the people of Burma has intensified further. The UN General Assembly has called for an end to the culture of impunity in Burma on numerous occasions. If the regime is allowed to continue violating international law with no consequence, what message does that send to dictators around the world? The European Union has a responsibility to abide by its own principles and ensure that an inquiry is carried out. As an influential member of the EU, Germany has a special responsibility to ensure that war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out by a brutal military dictatorship are not allowed to go unchecked. Today’s focus on Germany in particular, and our call for EU member states to support a Commission of Inquiry, is particularly appropriate as we remember the massacre of 3,000 civilians twenty-three years ago. It is surely now time to investigate the regime’s crimes.”
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/08/08/burma-csw-renews-call-inquiry-crimes-against-humanity-23rd-anniversary-1988-massacre
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The Economist
Myanmar's currency
Kyat on a hot tin roof
Aug 9th 2011, 11:38 by S.M. | BANGKOK
IN MOST global indices, Myanmar languishes near the bottom. Not so its currency: the kyat (pronounced “chat”) is Asia’s best-performing currency, up 20% over the past year. A flood of hot money chasing property, gems and state assets, coupled with buoyant oil and gas prices, has seen the once-lowly kyat rocket. On the streets of Yangon a dollar now fetches 790 kyat, down from 1,000 or so a year ago.
A weak dollar is partly to blame. But that is scant consolation to traders priced out of overseas markets. They have been reduced to dumping products on the local market. As a result, agricultural prices have nosedived, forcing farmers to take on more debt, while Myanmar’s tiny industrial sector slashes jobs as fast as it can. Tour agencies are struggling to stay afloat. Even some military cronies are complaining about their bottom line. “Everybody is getting hammered,” says an aid worker.
For Myanmar’s semi-civilian government, which formally succeeded a military junta in April, the mighty kyat has become a major test. So far, it appears to be failing. A recent cut in export tariffs from 10% to 7% is merely palliative. Business lobbies have called for more aggressive action by Myanmar’s central bank to manage the kyat. But the bank is hamstrung by a dual-currency system in which the kyat’s official exchange rate is fixed at six to the dollar. Other exchange rates apply for government and state-enterprise financing. Private companies, and everyone else, rely on the black market. Reformers argue that doing away with this convoluted system would make it easier to manage the currency.
Economic advisers to the new general-turned-president, Thein Sein, have made the case for currency reform. But the president appears increasingly consumed by a turf war in Nyapyidaw, the capital, with the vice-president, Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is widely seen as a spoiler for political and economic reforms. In recent months, Thein Sein has raised state pensions and brainstormed ways to tackle poverty. Pushing for bold action on the currency, however, is likely to run afoul of “conservative interests”, says Thant Myint-U, a historian. Some generals may even be smitten by the idea of a strong currency.
The price of inaction on the exchange rate could be high, if economic hardship leads to unrest. But a dash to fix a sclerotic monetary system carries its own risks, made worse by an opaque economy with iffy banks. Central banks frequently turn to the IMF and other multilateral lenders for help with such technical tasks and for standby liquidity support. But Western sanctions on Myanmar rule out that option. So the speculators may reckon that the kyat’s bull run has further to go. And then, warns a foreign businessman, “it could all collapse.” http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/08/myanmars-currency
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Systematic torture in Burma as EU seeks closer ties
08.08.11 @ 09:22
By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Burmese dissidents say authorities are routinely torturing political prisoners at a time when EU diplomats and companies are exploring ways to build closer relations with the regime.
Buddhist statues in Burma. Many 8888 activists are serving lengthy prison sentences (Zero-X)
Bo Kyi, who now lives in neighbouring Thailand and who runs an NGO called Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, told EUobserver that people fleeing the country continue to tell stories of atrocities in the country's detention centres.
Methods employed by Burmese security to extract information include: sexual abuse of men, such as inserting rubber batons into their anus; rape of women; electric shocks; burning with cigarettes; withholding medication; sleep deprivation; and prolonged solitary confinement in tiny cells.

"This is happening now," Kyi said. "Such things are getting worse - this is the kind of 'progress' we have with the new regime. I do not see any positive changes in the future."
Kyi spoke out on the 23rd anniversary of the so-called 8888 revolution in 8 August 1988. Authorities killed "at least" 3,000 people in the failed uprising, he noted. Some of its leaders are still serving 30-to-60-year-long sentences. Authorities killed "more than" 100 people in the failed so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007. He said there are currently 1,194 prisoners of conscience in Burma.
Kyi himself took part in the 1988 events and spent seven years and three months in a Burmese prison.
The Burmese junta in recent months transferred power to a group of retired military officers and gave limited new freedoms to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (no relation to Bo Kyi).
The EU reacted in April by lifting a visa ban and asset freeze on Burmese foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin and by ending its embargo on high-level visits. But it renewed for a year its sanctions on more than 500 Burmese officials and family members, as well as over 1,000 government-linked firms.
A delegation led by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's special advisor Robert Cooper met with regime officials and Suu Kyi in Burma in June.
"The message of our visit was that we are also open to change ourselves in the relationship in response to developments here. We are also ready to change ... We see that something is happening in this country," Cooper said at the time.
Bo Kyi believes the authorities are making cosmetic changes in order to gain international support for their bid to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2014.
He said that until they release political prisoners the EU should harden its line by stopping Singaporean banks from acting as middlemen for Burmese interests in Europe and by supporting the creation of a UN commission of enquiry into crimes against humanity. He also alleged the EU is not honouring its existing sanctions.
"After coming in, the new administration, they want to help their pride. They want to be respected by the international community," he said. "The sanctions don't work because they are not being implemented. Severeal EU countries do not implement them. Especially with Germany, it is very clear Germany dislikes the sanctions," he added.
Igor Blazevic, a director in the Czech NGO People in Need who is currently in Thailand, corroborated Kyi's statement.
"When I was talking with one east European businessmen who is based in Burma, he was telling me how sanctions do not stop anything because sanctioned timber gets papers and stamps from Malaysia and then can easy go to Europe," he told this website.
Independent reports say German arms firm Fritz Werner sent a delegation to Burma in July. German engineering and insurance companies Deckel Maho Gildemeister, FOSCE-Lorentzenstr and Hannover Re are also active in the country.
Austria's ambassador to Thailand and Burma in March led a delegation of some 20 Austrian firms to meet top officials. The group included Bank Austria, Die Oesterreichische Kontrollbank, forestry company Roxel and gemstone buyer Swarowski. French energy firm Total is helping the regime to exploit the Yadana gas field.
Norway's Statoil is not active in Burma. But a Statoil executive shed light on industry thinking when asked if there is any country in the world where it would not invest for ethical reasons if there was a major oil find. "Maybe Burma. But then, that just means the Chinese would get the oil," the contact, who did want to be named, said. http://euobserver.com/9/32690
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August 09, 2011 11:29 AM
Parliament Members In Myanmar Voice Support For Gov't Peace Efforts
YANGON, Aug 9 (Bernama) -- Some 23 parliament representatives in Myanmar have voiced support for the government's peace efforts, calling on the people who want peace to work with goodwill in the interest of the nation and stay away from acts that may break up the nation.
In their open letter for peace proposal published in all official media Tuesday, the 23 representatives of the House of Representatives and ethnic minorities expressed acknowledgment of the endeavors of President U Thein Sein's government, Xinhua news agency reported.
The letter also expressed shock over a recent gunfire incident in Kachin state in which the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) killed seven people, condemning the act as a menace to the peace process.
However, the letter said the government on its part continues to work in the interest of the people and peace with great benevolence.
-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=606905
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IMF to help Myanmar unify multiple exchange rates
WASHINGTON | Mon Aug 8, 2011 1:09pm EDT
Aug 8 (Reuters) - IMF officials will travel to Myanmar in the second half of October to help unify its foreign exchange system and lift restrictions on international transactions, an IMF spokeswoman said on Monday.
"We have received a request from the authorities to help them prepare to modernize their exchange rate system and lift restrictions on the making of payments and transfers for current international transactions," IMF spokeswoman Gita Bhatt said.
The country's new civilian government has promised economic development and pro-business reforms. Dollars are pouring into Myanmar's largely opaque economy as foreign investors try to tap its vast resources, with gas by far its most lucrative export commodity.
The country has a multiple exchange rate system, which consists of an official exchange rate and several informal parallel rates. Different rates are used for different types of transactions.
A paper by IMF economists in 2008 said the system created distortions, was opaque and costly. It argued that unifying the different rates would help Myanmar benefit from a more efficient allocation of resources. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Andrew Hay) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/08/imf-myanmar-idUSN1E7770QZ20110808?rpc=401
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Thailand holds 55 Myanmar migrants
Posted: 09 August 2011 1907 hrs
BANGKOK: Thai authorities on Tuesday said over 50 Myanmar nationals were arrested on suspicion of illegal entry after they were picked up on a boat in waters off the country's south coast.
Two children and nine women were among 55 people intercepted in the Andaman Sea near Ranong province, around 600 kilometers (375 miles) south of Bangkok, a Ranong immigration police official said.
All 53 adults would be charged with illegal entry, he said.
The driver of the boat escaped and is being sought on trafficking charges.
"They were in a large longtail boat from Myanmar and are already in the custody of immigration police in Ranong," a navy official said. There are an estimated two million migrant workers in Thailand from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
- AFP/ck http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1146014/1/.html
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Burma Army requests return of seized supplies
Monday, 08 August 2011 17:13 S.H.A.N.
Due to continual attacks by the Shan State Army (SSA), Burma Army units on the frontline are facing morale and disciplinary problems rising out of the shortage of rations, according to local and SSA sources.

Among those seized by the SSA included rice, onions, eggplants, fish paste, partially rotted fish, dry fish and condensed milk.
The Burmese units dispatched a village headman to ask for the supplies back, saying they had nothing to eat. “We asked the village headman to tell them we were sorry, but we were also facing the same trouble because of their offensive,” an SSA officer wrote to SHAN. “We had nothing to return even if we wanted to, because they were already eaten by our fighters.”
According to the latest information, 6 infantry battalions have been deployed at 2 junctions around Wanhai, the SSA HQ in Kehsi township:
Light Infantry Battalion 513 and another infantry battalion, together 179 strong at the Pakhee junction, southeast of Wanhai
Light Infantry Battalion (108 strong), Infantry Battalion 287 (83 strong) and two unidentified battalions (105 and 122 strong respectively), totaling 418 strong, at Nampook junction, northwest of Wanhai .


Pakhee can be reached from Monghsu in the east and Mongnawng from the south, while Nampook from Mongyai in the north and Kehsi from the south.
The Burma Army has been deploying several units to provide security for the roads. But so far, they have been producing mixed results, as the SSA, both North and South, have been carrying out typical guerrilla tactics: ambushes, raids, snipings and interdictions. http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3923:burma-army-requests-return-of-seized-supplies&catid=86:war&Itemid=284