News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 19 January, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 19 January, 2011
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Fighting Spreads in Karen State
Trade unions may be allowed back into Burma
Conditions Set for MPs to Attend Parliament
Now is Not the Time to Lift Sanctions
Burma rights report says minority group killed, raped
Human rights group says Myanmar survey offers evidence of crimes against humanity
Army abuse in Chin state ‘extraordinary’
MYANMAR: Chin State abuses "crime against humanity" - NGO
Disturbing Burma
Direct flights agreed between Cambodia and Myanmar
Burmese soldiers arrest eight Thais
ILO Welcomes Burma's Proposed New Labor Laws
Buildings Collapse as Heavy Snow Hits Burma's Far North
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Fighting Spreads in Karen State
By SAW YAN NAING Wednesday, January 19, 2011

MAE LA OON, Thailand--Although more than 16,000 Karen people were sheltering at close quarters in Mae La Oon refugee camp, the night was silent. Among the shadows of the banana trees, the moonlight flickered across the river.

Suddenly, the whiz of a mortar shell arcs across the sky like a shooting star. For a second there is a vacuum of silence, then the resounding boom of an explosion rocks the northern Thai jungle. The heavens are instantly illuminated as gunfire and artillery consume the area.

It was 9:30 pm on Jan. 17. The fighting between Burmese government forces and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) was taking place about 30 km from the camp, on Kasaw Wah Lay Mountain, opposite Thailand's Sop Moei District.

We heard the echo of artillery shells thundering across the valley until 10:30 pm. Some households in the camp had already packed their belongings in case the shelling came any closer and they had to flee.
I rushed to a hut where the camp security guards were based. Through their walkie-talkies and satellite phones, we found out that the fighting was going on around Noh Day, Kasaw Wah Lay and the former Karen National Union (KNU) headquarters, Manerplaw.

Several refugees told me they have had to endure this every night since mid-December. Now I was experiencing it for myself. I could barely fathom what it must be like to get woken up by these thunderous explosions on a nightly basis.

The camp authorities announced on loudspeakers that everyone should be alert and to pack their valuables. People lingered near the underground bunkers that had been dug in case of such an emergency.
A few days earlier, three Burmese soldiers were arrested inside Mae La Oon refugee camp and later expelled. Rumors were spreading that spies for the Burmese military regime had been deployed in Mae La Oon and at Mae Ra Ma Luang, another refugee camp close by.

Karen sources on the border said that an estimated eight battalions around Kasaw Wah Lay Mountain had been recently reinforced; meanwhile, KNU Brigade 5 was recruiting in the local area.

KNU sources said a small group of Burmese troops at Kasaw Wah Lay had been cut off from their unit and were unable to receive rations and supplies. The Thai border authorities have reportedly provided rations in recent weeks to other Burmese troops.

The fighting is expected to escalate as both the KNU and the Burmese army beef up their forces in the combat zone.

Thailand has also deployed a unit of soldiers to Sop Moei District after mortar shells landed in a Thai village on the night of Nov. 17.

Several refugees said they fear that the Burmese army can fire down on the camp from Kasaw Wah Lay Mountain. Many said they are praying for a cease-fire.

“We fed up with the fighting. We want to live in peace,” said Si Mon, a housewife in Mae La Oon refugee camp.
“We don’t go to big cities like Rangoon and attack them [the Burmese] and try to take over their land,” said Saw Htee, a former KNU fighter. “We don’t want their land. We don’t want armed conflict. We fight them because they come here and attack us. They come to our land and try to oppress our people.”

The KNU's war with the Burmese army is one of the world's longest running conflicts. The insurgent group was formed in 1947 and took up arms against the central Burmese government in 1949, just one year after Burma had gained independence from British colonial rule.
Decades of repression by the Burmese regime has resulted in more than 150,000 Burmese refugees, mostly Karen, displaced to refugee camps in Thailand.

Many refugees ultimately decide to resettle in third countries. Some 60,000 Karen refugees have been resettled in the West, according to a humanitarian aid agency, Thailand Burma Border Consortium.

Having lived in a refugee camp for more than a decade, Si Mon said that she always expected to return to her village in Karen State. However, she is now on the UNHCR list as waiting to resettle in the US as she has given up all hope of ever seeing her hometown ever again.

On Nov. 8, one day after Burma's general election, serious fighting erupted between Burmese troops and a renegade faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Brigade 5. The conflict has since spread north.

With an estimated 1,000 troops, Brigade 5 is led by Brig-Gen Saw Lah Pwe, and is the only DKBA battalion to reject the Burmese junta’s border guard force plan. It has since allied with the KNU. On Nov. 17, a group of about 40 soldiers belong to a Karen breakaway group called Klow Htoo Baw also returned to KNU Brigade 6 areas.

Local residents in Kyaukkyi Township in Pegu Division said that fighting between the KNU and Burmese government forces broke out near the town on Jan. 11.

Skirmishes between DKBA Brigade 5 and Burmese regime troops have been reported on a near-daily basis in Waw Lay and Phaluu in southern Karen State.

The Burmese army is also reported to be reinforcing its forces and supplies west of the Salween River in northern Karen State, and near the border with Karenni State. KNU Brigade 5 troops in Papun District in northern Karen are reported to be on high alert.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20562
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RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS
Trade unions may be allowed back into Burma
Girish Sawlani

The Burmese government is set to table new legislation that could allow workers to establish trade unions.

The proposal has been welcomed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which says it's working with the Burmese government to improve workers' rights in the impoverished nation.

The ILO's representative in Burma, Steve Marshall, says it's a significant move by the government.

"It is obviously extremely significant, the situation has arisen that the constitution that was adopted in 2008 has a provision that makes allowance for the right of persons, particularly workers to be represented, which would lead them to the situation of collective bargaining."

Since the Burmese military's crackdown on the country's trade union movement, many groups have been driven from the country or reduced to underground associations.

Recently, suspected trade unionists were still being arrested and imprisoned despite the government having already ratified the ILO convention on the Freedom of Association.

But international pressure has seen the government adopt a lighter approach to workers' dissent.

Since November 2009, there have been a series of strikes in Rangoon, with workers protesting and demanding higher wages - with little or no interference from armed forces.

And as far as the new legislation is concerned, Mr Marshall says the initiative is driven by the government.

"It was brought to our attention by senior government representatives that with the adoption of the new constitution, it was the intention to put those principles into practice."

'It is being driven from inside the government at a very senior level, which is excellent."

The latest developments come amid calls from Southeast Asian neighbours for Western nations to either lift or ease their crippling sanctions against Burma.

Moves to permit the establishment of trade unions could vindicate ASEAN's stance that Burma has made significant progress towards democracy, especially since the release of opposition figurehead, Aung San Suu Kyi.

But many, including Dr Myint Cho, an exiled Burmese national who now heads the Burma Office in Sydney, say they are still sceptical about the government's motives.

Dr Cho says he has seen such gestures before.

"I have seen it so many times before, when the previous regime formed a non-independent trade union under the control of the government. So they controlled totally the movement of the trade union in the past."

"Right now, because of international pressure for the workers' rights in Burma, the regime is trying to use this kind of initiative as a public relations move to relax international pressures."

Even if legislation gets passed through parliament, Dr Myint Cho doesn't expect the new trade unions to be genuinely independent.

"Under the current military controlled government, that kind of parliament is just a sham and it cannot operate freely,"

"So of course the pressure from the current military regime, the parliament will adopt some kind of policies in dealing with the trade unions around the world, as well as the International Labour Organisation. So I don't expect the newly formed trade union organisations will be independent and genuine."

Steve Marshall, from the International Labour Organisation, says while there will be scepticism his organisation is adopting a wait and see approach.

"We do need to put into consideration that this is a very major step and we don't know at this stage what structure will be put into place,

Whether it will be a full liberal trade union type structure or whether it will be one of the other models that exist elsewhere in the world which are slightly more constrained."

"That is something that we will be continuing to discuss with the government in terms of the structures concerned."

The bill is set to be tabled before the country's new parliament, which holds its first session later this month. http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201101/3116835.htm?=
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Conditions Set for MPs to Attend Parliament
By BA KAUNG Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Burma's newly elected lawmakers say they have been notified of several conditions that have been imposed on their attendance at the opening session of Parliament due to be convened at the end of this month.

The MPs elected in the controversial November elections will not be allowed to bring into the Parliament mobile phones, recorders and laptop computers, according to Dr. Myat Nyar Na Soe, an elected representative of the National Democratic Force (NDF) party.

“We can't complain about these conditions because they are in line with the State Secrets Act in the constitution,” said Myat Nyar Na Soe, adding that the MPs had been told that they would be provided with telephone service while within the Parliament building in Naypyidaw and that their traveling costs would be covered.

A dress code has also been set for the lawmakers, according to the invitations that were sent to MPs to attend Parliament. While Burmese MPs were told to dress in traditional Burmese attire, those representing ethnic parties were told to wear representative ethnic costume.

On Jan.31, the representatives will meet in Naypyidaw to elect the heads and deputy heads of the two-chamber Parliament and also to nominate vice-presidents. On the same day, new regional legislatures will convene, according to reports in the state media.

One of the three vice-presidents will be nominated by the army while two others will be appointed by a majority of civilian representatives in the Upper and Lower Houses.

Last week, six ethnic political parties, including the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, discussed a proposal to nominate an ethnic representative as a vice-president in the new government.

Myat Nyar Na Soe said that the NDF, which broke away from the main opposition party National League for Democracy to contest the election, supports the idea of an ethnic representative becoming a vice-president.

“As far as I know, Dr. Aye Maung, the chairman of the RNDP, is tipped for that position,” he said. “I believe other non-ethnic opposition parties will back him.”

Aye Maung declined to comment on the possibility, but said that unity between ethnic and opposition parties will be an important issue toward any successful negotiations in the new government.

Other sources said that Khin Aung Myint, Burma's Minister for Culture, and businessman Khin Shwe—both elected lawmakers representing the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party—are possible nominees for the vice-presidential post.

One of the three vice-presidents who is required to be “acquainted with political, administrative, economic and military affairs” will be selected as president.

According to recent unconfirmed reports obtained by The Irrawaddy, junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe has already appointed himself as the President of the new government.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20561
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CONTRIBUTOR
Now is Not the Time to Lift Sanctions
By SINA SHUESSLER Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the holding of an election in November 2010 constitute new reasons to consider lifting international sanctions against Burma, according to opponents of the sanctions policy, who argue that these recent moves show that the ruling military regime is now more open and the country is taking small steps towards democracy.

Such arguments are nothing new. So-called experts have been saying for several years that the sanctions strategy has failed and that the European Union should revise its policy toward Burma. For example, Michael von Hauff, an economist at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, told Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, that sanctions were counterproductive and that the EU should try to engage in a dialogue with the regime.

Christian Hauswedell, the Asia commissioner of the German Federal Foreign Office, echoed this sentiment, writing in the preface of a publication by the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation in 2008 that the sanctions policy had failed. According to Hauswedell, the EU should be led by geostrategic factors rather than by emotions.

However, what this debate reveals is not so much the failure of the sanctions themselves, but rather, how little is known about the European sanctions regime and the theory of international sanctions.

Initially, sanctions were introduced as an instrument to change state behavior by putting international pressure on a regime that was threatening peace or violating norms like human rights. Thus, in order for international sanctions to be effective, they had to impact on different groups within the state in different ways. Economic sanctions have to focus on the loss of income of groups benefiting from the targets of the government’s policy and therefore create incentives for these groups to undertake political reforms.

International sanctions also serve to provide moral support to opposition groups. This can result in a regime change directly—by persuading the government that the sanctioned policy is not worth the price—or indirectly—by inducing popular pressure and finally the demise of the government.

In addition, sanctions are also an instrument to uphold international norms and to demonstrate solidarity with internal opposition groups. Sanctions send a signal not only to the target state, but also to other potential violators of international norms, showing that this behavior will lead to consequences. Therefore, even if sanctions have no real economic impact and cannot change state behavior directly or indirectly, they send a positive signal regarding the importance of international norms.

When taking a closer look at the European sanctions towards Burma, it becomes obvious that they have never had an economic impact. The EU implemented an investment ban on Burma but made exceptions for the oil and gas industries, which constitute Burma’s most important sector for international investment. Therefore, companies like the French oil giant TOTAL can do their business as usual even under European sanctions.

Other European companies are also active in Burma, some in quite sensitive areas. A report by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) on the Burmese regime’s nuclear ambitions showed the involvement of the German companies Trumpf and Deckel Maho Gildemeister (DMG) despite the European arms embargo, which extends to providing technical assistance and advice with regard to military activities.

In October 2010, another German company, Ferrostaal, celebrated its 25th year of activities in Burma as part of the Burmese-German joint venture Myanmar Fritz Werner.

Now more German companies are looking at opportunities in Burma. As early as December 2009, the German-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry inspected the Burmese market’s potential for investment and trade.

“Among the European nations, Germany is one of our larger trading partners, even considering the sanctions,” Myint Soe, the joint secretary of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told The Myanmar Times after the visit.

Trade sanctions against Burma have always had their critics, who say that banning trade has a greater negative impact on ordinary Burmese than on the regime. But even the EU's so-called “smart sanctions” have loopholes or have been poorly implemented. When the EU identified 176 individuals as targets of the sanctions back in 2003, it also wanted to include their families, including their partners, children and grandchildren. However, in the end, the list included the names of just six grandchildren.

One may ask, then, whether the EU ever had any real plan for implementing the sanctions. If there is a problem with the sanctions, it is not with the policy itself, but with the way it has been carried out. Critics should therefore be pressuring the EU to devise a more feasible sanctions policy, rather than calling for the sanctions to be dropped altogether.

It is also important to remember that even if the European sanctions are not particularly well designed to change state behavior by putting economic pressure on the Burmese regime, they still have a symbolic function: providing moral support to the political opposition and highlighting the importance of human rights and democracy.

The Burmese regime has still not fulfilled any of the European benchmarks that must be met before sanctions can be lifted, including a tangible dialogue between the government, the democratic opposition and the ethnic parties, the release of all political prisoners and an end to human rights violations in the ethnic states. If the EU lifts the sanctions at this point, it would only demonstrate to the whole international community that human rights and democracy have lost their importance for European politics.

Sina Schuessler is a researcher at the Center for Conflict Studies at Philipps University Marburg in Germany.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=20553
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Bangkok Post
Burma rights report says minority group killed, raped

* Published: 19/01/2011 at 01:30 PM
* Online news: Asia

The Burma junta has been commiting abuses in a remote state that need a crimes against humanity investigation, an international rights group said Wednesday.

An ethnic Chin refugee child (C) from Myanmar sits with his mother and sister at their living quarters in New Delhi. The Myanmar junta has been commiting abuses in a remote state that need a crimes against humanity investigation, an international rights group said Wednesday.

The Physicians for Human Rights group trained volunteers to survey hundreds of families in Chin state, many of whom said relatives had been killed, raped or forced into slave labor.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid campaigner, and former International Criminal Court prosecutor Richard Goldstone called the results of the survey "devastating" as they joined a call made in the report for an international inquiry into alleged crimes of humanity across Burma.

Physicians for Human Rights issued its report ahead of a review of Burma's record by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week.

Demands for an international commission of inquiry have eased since Burma's election in November, which was dominated by pro-junta parties, and the later release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the US-based group, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in the international campaign to ban landmines, said the election had not "addressed the suffering" of the Burma people.

Its "Life Under The Junta" report said that Burma's "authoritarian system, with all the harm it has generated remains intact" and ethnic minorities like the Chin have faced "particularly brutal treatment under military rule."

The survey, carried out between October 2009 and November 2010, interviewed 621 families across Chin state, which is on the border with India. Physicians for Human Rights said it was the first detailed study of its kind.

Crimes committed in Chin state "include murder, rape, torture, group persecution and other inhumane acts," said the report.

The group said more than 90 percent of the families had reported that at least one member of the family had been forced into unpaid labor for the military or government.

Six families said a relative had been killed by soldiers, another 29 reported relatives had disappeared, 23 said a family member had been tortured, 17 that one person in the group had been raped or sexually violated by the military.

The report said that nearly a third of rape victims and nearly 20 percent of torture victims were aged under 15. Seventeen families said a child from the group had been forcibly conscripted into the Burma army. Some of the child soldiers were as young as 11, the report said.

"Forced labor is often performed at gunpoint under military oversight," said Physicians for Human Rights.

"Government soldiers reportedly beat and even shoot to death civilians while they labor under duress." The "military have also made civilian laborers serve as minesweepers and human shields to protect the soldiers while marching on dirt roads."

The Burma government has tried to turn remote Chin state into a major producer of tea and jatropha, also known as the physic nut.

To do this many families have been forced to stop growing their own food, the report said, and many have been displaced. There are an estimated 75,000 displaced Chin in India and 50,000 in Malaysia.

"Decades of neglect and widespread abuses have, moreover, devastated the Chin who have remained in (Burma) and rendered them highly food insecure and vulnerable to natural disaster." It said 114 villages in the southern township of Kanpalet face food shortages because of rat infestation. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/217148/burma-rights-report-says-minority-group-killed-raped
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Human rights group says Myanmar survey offers evidence of crimes against humanity
GRANT PECK Associated Press
1:34 a.m. EST, January 19, 2011

BANGKOK (AP) — A human rights group says a survey it conducted reveals flagrant and widespread abuses by Myanmar's army, and could be used as evidence to prosecute the country's military rulers for crimes against humanity.

Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for campaigning against land mines, says in a report issued Wednesday that it has documented abuses against Myanmar's Chin minority including killings, beatings, forced labor, religious persecution, disappearances, torture, rape and widespread pillaging.

It describes its survey as the first to assess the scale and scope of alleged crimes against humanity in Myanmar, supporting a barrage of earlier published material.

"The data don't lie and this report puts in stark light the horrors that the Chin people are enduring," Physicians for Human Rights chief executive Frank Donaghue said in a statement.

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Myanmar's government had no immediate comment. In the past, it has denied allegations of widespread abuses.

The U.S.-based group says its 64-page report — "Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma's Chin State" — provides evidence of at least eight human rights violations that could be taken to the International Criminal Court.

It also urges the United Nations to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate reports of human rights violations in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"The approach used by the investigators lets us see the widespread and systematic nature of these abuses and the results are devastating," South African religious leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu said in a statement released by the group.

In the past year, pro-democracy and human rights groups have stepped up a campaign urging that the alleged abuses of the junta be heard by the International Criminal Court and that the U.N. Security Council set up a commission of inquiry.

Their pressure comes as the junta makes a self-proclaimed transition to democracy, with the country's first parliament in more than two decades due to convene this month following November elections. Critics allege that the process is a charade, meant to provide a fig leaf of respectability for continued rule by the military.

Myanmar's ethnic minorities, comprising 30-40 percent of the country's 56 million people and clustered mostly in border regions, have for decades sought autonomy from the central government, often resorting to armed struggle and triggering fierce repression by the army.

While the plights of more populous groups along the Thai border, such as the Karen and the Shan, are fairly well publicized, the Chin — Christians living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar — are often neglected.

For the new report, 621 randomly selected households throughout Chin State's nine townships responded to an 87-question survey in January to March 2010 about their life during the previous 12 months.

Nearly 92 percent of the respondents reported at least one episode of forced labor, such as hauling military supplies or building roads. Government authorities, primarily soldiers, committed more than 98 percent of the overall abuses, including killings, rapes, torture and abductions, according to the responses. Fifteen percent of the households reported members being tortured or beaten by soldiers.

Physicians for Human Rights says its findings constitute evidence of activities that are regarded under international law as crimes against humanity.

It also says the case against the junta qualifies to be brought before the International Criminal Court because the abuses were carried out after the court began operating in 2002 and were committed by government authorities as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

The International Criminal Court, headquartered in the Netherlands, is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. Under the Rome treaty that established the tribunal, the court can step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-myanmar-human-rights,0,1738951.story
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Army abuse in Chin state ‘extraordinary’
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 19 January 2011

State-sanctioned abuses in Chin state are widespread and in many cases may qualify as crimes against humanity, the authors of a comprehensive survey-based report claim.

The situation in Burma’s remote northwestern ethnic state has to date been left out of much of the debate on whether crimes against humanity and war crimes are occurring in Burma.

The UN is under pressure to launch an investigation into what legal experts claim is a mountain of evidence that suggests such crimes may have been committed by the Burmese military, particularly in the country’s ethnic border regions, such as Karen state.

A new report by the US-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, adds fuel to that fire, alleging that it found “widespread reports of human rights violations among 621 randomly selected households” in Chin state. At least eight of those types of violations “fall within the purview of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and may constitute crimes against humanity”.

One in seven of these houses reported that at least one family member had been tortured or subjected to “inhumane treatment” by Burmese troops, who committed 98 percent of the recorded abuses, while 570 households were subjected to what qualifies under international law as a crime against humanity.

One third of all forcible conscriptions into the army were of children under the age of 15, which is illegal under both international law and Burmese domestic law. One in eight of the Chin households had at one point been forcibly displaced.

“The data don’t lie and this report puts in stark light the horrors that the Chin people are enduring,” said Frank Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights, in a statement released with the report. “No nation has the right to oppress its people, but to the extent that we abandon those people, we allow the crimes to continue.” PHR’s deputy director, Richard Sollom, said that the levels of violence against civilians there was “extraordinary”.

The report includes a forward by former UN Chief Prosecutor Richard J. Goldstone and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, who said that “the results are devastating”. Goldstone said that it should give further impetus to the UN to establish a Commission of Inquiry into whether crimes against humanity are being committed.

The survey comprised 87 questions asked by surveyors between February and March last year. Similar findings were recorded in a 2009 report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, who called on the government in neighbouring Mizoram state in India to extend protection to Chin who have fled across the border.

Chin state has also been struck by a severe famine in recent years that stems from mass infestation of rats in farmland who devour crops and grain. The rats are attracted to the flowering of the bamboo plant, a phenomenon that occurs only twice a century.
http://www.dvb.no/news/army-abuse-in-chin-state-%E2%80%98extraordinary%E2%80%99/13751
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MYANMAR: Chin State abuses "crime against humanity" - NGO

BANGKOK, 19 January 2011 (IRIN) - Myanmar's military government is guilty of crimes against humanity in Chin State, targeting minority Christians, says the US-based NGO, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) in a new report.

"There is little humanitarian information on Chin State because it is remote with no infrastructure or easy access from neighbouring India. It is a neglected region," said Richard Sollom, a PHR deputy director and principal author of Life Under the Junta, released on 19 January.

PHR surveyors documented almost 3,000 separate incidents of abuse among 621 households (3,281 people) from 2009-2010, including forced labour, rape, torture, abduction, arbitrary execution, arrest, and forced conscription of children.

Almost 92 percent of all surveyed households reported at least one family member subjected to forced labour. More than 62 percent of those surveyed reported working under the threat of physical harm, death or at gunpoint, according to PHR.

Steve Marshall, the UN International Labour Organization Liaison Officer for Myanmar, told IRIN that in certain areas, "villagers are literally corralled into labour under major physical threat".

"Forced labour is just two words but a lot happens when people are taken to a job site, and marched hundreds of kilometres away from their villages. Young girls are taken away from the protection of fathers, uncles, and brothers, making them much more vulnerable to sexual assault and rape," Sollom said.

Sexual violence is used by the Burmese military as a tool to "persecute and demoralize" the Chins, according to the report. Men, women, and children reported sexual violations by government soldiers, with almost 30 percent of rape victims under the age of 15.

UN report

With an eye to the first UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the human rights situation in Burma on 27 January, PHR and Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, are calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into Myanmar's human rights situation.

"The quantitative data poses questions the Myanmar government has to respond to. The condemning evidence aims to bring justice and accountability to Chin State," said Sollom.

Abductions

Two southern townships in Chin State, Paletwa and Mindat, are home to 97 percent of all reported abductions and disappearances allegedly carried out by government and local police in Chin State, according to the report.

Almost 15 percent of households reported at least one incidence of torture - defined by PHR as "the infliction of severe suffering or pain lasting over 10 minutes" - by the Burmese military. Seventeen out of every 100 reports came from children younger than 15.

More than 10 percent of households reported family members suffering from either fatal weapon injuries or extrajudicial killings.

"The army thinks they can do anything they want with the Chin people because we are an ethnic and religious minority. They have the power to kill with impunity," said Salai Ling, who escaped from Chin State and sought exile in Thailand in 1996.

dm/pt/mw http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91659
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Disturbing Burma

Editorial Desk
The Jakarta Post
Publication Date : 19-01-2011

Few were expecting any surprises from the Asean Ministerial Retreat in Lombok, Indonesia over the weekend. So when news emerged that the 10-member group was urging an easing of sanctions against Burma (Myanmar), we found it rather shocking, if not altogether disturbing.

The introduction of a regime sanctioned constitution, general elections and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi are grounds for Indonesia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to be cautiously optimistic, but nothing more than that. They are certainly not worth betting Indonesia’s international credibility on.

The argument put forward using the election and Suu Kyi’s release as rationale was flawed and premature.

The elections were held under extremely restrictive conditions, to the point that even Indonesian foreign policy analysts here criticised the limitations being placed on international poll watchers. In other words, the process was not open to the kind of scrutiny and critique common in standard elections around the world.

The right to free expression - whether through public rallies criticizing the government or a free press - remains void.

We dare Asean ministers and leaders to publicly avow that the citizens of Burma have the right to express and channel their aspirations towards a viable political opposition that has the same rights as the ruling regime.

And while the release of Suu Kyi is a nudge in the right direction, are there any assurances of a cessation of political or ethnic persecution when the authority of the regime is under threat? The answer remains no.

When a regime so unabashedly engaged in open political suppression with military force, such as was the case during the saffron revolution just three years ago, we should keep our suspicions on alert.

Nor do we find it difficult to shake off our incongruity when, in 2008, a constitutional referendum was passed with an almost unanimous 92 percent of the ballots, a number which Joseph Stalin would have been proud of.

We are sad Asean would feel it necessary to risk its credentials - yet again - when a cloud of uncertainty still hangs over Burma. Indonesia should encourage the process of opening up in Myanmar, but it should not put its reputation on the line for a regime that only has itself to blame for its predicament. http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=16861&sec=3
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Direct flights agreed between Cambodia and Myanmar

Jan 18, 2011, 3:43 GMT

Phnom Penh - Cambodia and Myanmar have agreed to begin direct flights in a bid to boost tourism, local media reported Wednesday.

Cambodia's Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said the twice-weekly flights would link Myanmar's capital Yangon and Cambodia's tourist centre of Siem Reap, home to the Angkor Wat temple complex.

He said Myanmar Airways International would operate the flights, with the first scheduled for February 23.

Thong Khon announced the deal at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF), a week-long gathering of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Phnom Penh to boost tourism to the region and between the group's 10 member states.

He said Cambodia was also using the opportunity of hosting the ATF to try and negotiate improved flight connections with other countries.

'We are hopeful that if we have direct flights with Russia and Japan, their tourists will increasingly come to our country,' he told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Around 2.5 million people visited Cambodia last year, of whom just 2,600 were from Myanmar. Tourism is one of Cambodia's key economic pillars. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1612801.php/Direct-flights-agreed-between-Cambodia-and-Myanmar
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Bangkok Post
Burmese soldiers arrest eight Thais

* Published: 19/01/2011 at 12:00 PM
* Online news: Local News

Eight Thais from Tak's Phop Phra district were arrested by Burmese soldiers after the villagers crossed the border on Wednesday morning.

Reports said the eight people had crossed the border to fish and harvest a crop of corn.

They were named as Mr Methee Khiritassanai, Mr Paetoo Khiriklaiwan, Tanu Khiriklaiwan, Mrs Mamee Khiriklaiwan, Mr Morshi, Mrs Tala, Mrs Palamo and Mr Pakue.

They are being held at the Third Tactical Command in Burma, the reports said.

A group of Thai villagers were seeking their release by negotiating with the Burmese soldiers, but it was difficult as the soldiers were from other areas and were assigned to deal with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) troops in the area.

According to reports from Burma, five of the detained Thais were caught planting corn and the three others were fishing.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/217137/burma-soldiers-arrest-eight-thais
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ILO Welcomes Burma's Proposed New Labor Laws
Ron Corben | Bangkok 18 January 2011

The International Labor Organization (ILO) says it is encouraged by proposed legislation in Burma to allow greater freedom for labor unions, but remains concerned about the use of forced child labor in the military and private sector.

The ILO representative in Burma, Steve Marshall, speaking to reporters Tuesday, said Burma’s military is preparing legislation that will allow for legal trade unions, with rights to strike. Marshall said this is a further step in signs of economic reform.

The legislation is set to be presented before a new parliament elected last November and due to hold its first session in late January. Marshall said the legislation marks a major step in the country’s labor rights.

"Obviously, the issue of freedom of association, which is effectively the right of workers and people to be represented which includes the issues of, for example, collective bargaining, it would include the issues of the right to strike ... they are critical and if passed into law make a big change in terms of the way in which the society is able to develop," said Marshall.

The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, already has ratified the internationally recognized Freedom of Association Convention, which is the standard set by the ILO.

Marshall says, though, that while the introduction of the legislation is a step towards an improved labor market in Burma, the overall reform program remains in its early days.

Human rights groups say while unions and associations have been a feature of Burma’s economic and political life, they have been tightly regulated by the military.

Trade unionists also have been jailed for activities "not sanctioned’ by the military." Thailand-based rights group, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), says of the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently detained, 44 are labor activists.

The ILO’s chief goal in Burma has been to assist in ending forced labor and it has an agreement with the military government that enables complaints to be lodged with the organization’s country offices. Last year the ILO received 370 complaints, marking a sharp increase over recent years.

Marshall said the ILO remains concerned over ongoing issues of child labor and recruitment of child soldiers into Burma’s armed forces. He said there have been signs of progress in dealings with the armed forces.

"In the area of child soldiers - yes - there is a general positive move," said Marshall. "In the last year, for example, 73 children - as a result of complaints made to the ILO - were released and discharged from the military."

The military government recently announced a program of national military service for both men and women that may come into effect beginning in 2012.

Burma’s army, faced with problems of recruitment and desertion, has looked to underage recruitment using labor brokers. Marshall said the proposed national service is expected to have a direct impact on child recruits.

Marshall added that many children often are lured into forced labor due to poverty when families are unable to pay for the child’s education.

But forced labor remains a major problem across Burma, with rights groups citing villages forced to construct roads and other work for the military, while jailed prisoners also are recruited for local industries.

A further assessment of Burma’s labor practices is expected to take place in February, when an ILO mission, including labor specialists, will appraise the reforms and new labor legislation. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/southeast/ILO-Welcomes-Burmas-Proposed-New-Labor-Laws-114145209.html
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Buildings Collapse as Heavy Snow Hits Burma's Far North
By KO HTWE Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Heavy snowfall in northern Kachin State on Sunday caused the collapse of several buildings belonging to a customs office in the Panwa Valley, near the border with China, according to local residents.

“I've never experienced anything like it,” said one resident of the area. “The snow came down like heavy rain, causing a number of buildings to collapse. No one was injured, but travel in and out of the area has been blocked for days.”

Meanwhile, in nearby Chipwe Township, local residents said that transportation was slowed by snow and hail.

A customs building that has collapsed under the weight of heavy snow in the Panwa Valley of Kachin State, near the border with China. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
“People are having trouble getting around because of all the snow and hail on the road,” said an employee of Asia Wall, a local company, adding that poor travel conditions have prevented outside aid groups from reaching the remote area.

According to a resident of Bamaw Township, several older people in the area have reportedly gone into shock due to the extremely cold weather.
Earlier this month, Tun Lwin, a retired director-general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology in Rangoon, predicted that a cold wave would hit the region four times between January and March.

Temperatures in the region would rise and fall depending on the speed and direction of winds from high-altitude areas of China, he added on his website.

Freezing conditions in high-altitude areas of western, eastern and northern Burma at the end of December have continued into the new year, with Hakha and Mindat townships in Chin State and Loilem and Pinlaung townships in southern Shan State experiencing below-zero temperatures at night.

According to the state-run New Light of Myanmar, recent nighttime temperatures in Kachin and Chin states have been 3-4°C below January averages.

Temperatures are also falling in parts of Shan State, where local residents reported cold winds and light rain.

“The temperature has been falling since Sunday. The wind is significantly colder these days than usual in Loilem Township,” said Moe Moe, a resident of the area.

The cold wave has also hit northern Vietnam, killing around 9,200 cows and buffaloes and closing schools, according to reports in the country's state-run media. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20566

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