News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 24 January, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 24 January, 2011
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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Feeling Better, Says NLD Official
Than Shwe Threatens Coup d'Etat
Free all political prisoners first, to lift sanctions in Burma
Watchdog spotlights Myanmar rights abuse
Porters treated as cannon fodder
Dipping Dollar Hits Burmese Refugees
Farce follows tragedy in Myanmar
Thai police to deport 91 Rohingya to Myanmar
Burma's migrant workers: caught between a tyrant and a tiger
Myanmar's tourism industry at a crossroads (Feature)
Burma sanctions stay - for now
Experts differ on sanctions debate
Pressure mounts on West to end Myanmar sanctions
Political prisoners ‘given amphetamine’
Burmese Army Casualties Reported After Artillery Gun Misfires



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Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Feeling Better, Says NLD Official
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, January 24, 2011

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is recovering well from a slight illness after taking a short break from her regular activities over the weekend, according to a senior member of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

“She has had a cough since last Friday, but she is feeling better today,” said Ohn Kyaing, an NLD official, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Since her release from house arrest on Nov. 13 of last year, the 65-year-old Suu Kyi has kept a busy schedule, meeting with members of her party and other political opposition groups, as well as foreign diplomats.

On Friday, she had a one-hour meeting in Rangoon with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who pledged Thai government support for her efforts to promote democracy and national reconciliation in Burma.

According to sources cited in a report by Thailand's official MCOT news agency on Sunday, Suu Kyi said she was prepared to discuss Burma's political situation with the country's military rulers, but would have to wait until a new government is formed before talks could proceed.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi's lawyers proceeded with a legal appeal against last year's dissolution of the NLD following its decision not to run in parliamentary elections held on Nov. 7.

According to Ohn Kyaing, the lawyers presented their arguments to the Supreme Court in Naypyidaw on Monday, but no decision was made by the court about whether it would hear Suu Kyi's latest appeal against the disbanding of the party.

Although the party is no longer legally recognized, its head office in Rangoon remains open and has been a center of party of activity since Suu Kyi's release after seven years of house arrest.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20596
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Than Shwe Threatens Coup d'Etat
By WAI MOE Monday, January 24, 2011

Snr-Gen Than Shwe reportedly reminded military commanders that they must be prepared to launch a coup d'etat if the incoming Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) fails to meet the country's needs.

Military sources told The Irrawaddy that the junta strongman made the remark while chairing the last of his four-monthly meetings with military commanders and government ministers ahead of the opening of Burma's parliament.

The sources said that the series of meetings began last week and are continuing. Like previous meetings, Than Shwe and the leading generals from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) were scheduled to sit with members of the military council and key military commanders of the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) before a separate meeting with government ministers.

Sources speculate that since these four-monthly meetings are used by Than Shwe to define the power structure within Burma's military hierarchy, he is expected to take this opportunity to outline the division of power between the two “backbones” of future military rule—the Tatmadaw and the incoming USDP, a proxy political party backed by the junta.

During the meeting with military commanders, Than Shwe reportedly talked about imminent issues such as the new government and parliament, security, state development projects, the responsibilities of the new commanders, tensions with ethnic armed groups, as well as the status of the dissident movement in the wake of the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A notable comment by Than Shwe at the meeting was to define the Tatmadaw’s role in the coming years within the new parliament, military sources said.

Than Shwe reportedly told his commanders that the Tatmadaw must only work for “the sake of the nation and people,” and not for a particular political party. He reportedly added that the Tatmadaw must be ready to launch a coup d'etat if the USDP “fails to fulfill the nation and the people's needs.”

“He [Than Shwe] is playing at divide and rule between the lion and the army,” said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, referring to the USDP as the lion due to its logo.

Although not represented in such high numbers in parliament as the military and the USDP, the other factor that Than Shwe is counting on is his network of business cronies who have secured and will continue to dominate the country's economic resources.

Observers said that through the three arms of his power— the military, the USDP and business cronies—Than Shwe believes he can reign indefinitely.

The sources said that ahead of the opening session of parliament on Jan. 31, the talk of the town in the military-ruled nation is who will be chosen as president.

“Some businessmen are betting each other on who will be the president,” said a Rangoon-based businessman. “The money is on either Than Shwe or his close aide, Shwe Mann.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20595
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Free all political prisoners first, to lift sanctions in Burma
By Zin Linn Jan 24, 2011 9:30PM UTC

Political prisoners in Burma are being given amphetamine during cross-examination in order to dig out more confession, according to a Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPP). The watch-group had received several complaints of prisoners that the military police use drugs during questioning in torture centers in Rangoon.

One of those believed to have been given amphetamine is Sithu Zeya, the DVB reporter recently sentenced to eight years in prison after being caught photographing the aftermath of the Rangoon bombings in April last year, as broadcast by the Democratic Voice of Burma.

There are a total of 2189 political prisoners in Burma, a decrease in comparison to last month’s figure of 2203. In December, 16 political prisoners were released, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) says in its latest January report.

December brought the continued mistreatment of numerous political prisoners across Burma, with at least 142 in poor health due to the harsh prison conditions, transfers to remote prisons where there are no doctors, and the denial of proper medical care.

For instance, a member of Labor Union, Naing Lin, was transferred from Insein prison to Kale prison in Sagaing Division, 680 Miles from his home. He suffers from Leukemia and requires a monthly blood transfusion; yet there are no doctors in Kale prison. Without monthly blood transfusions he could die.

The human rights watch groups urge the United Nation to launch a probe into whether war crimes and crimes against humanity are going on in Burma, mainly in the ethnic regions along the border where decades-long civil-conflicts have been taking place.

But the issue of Burma’s political prisoners languishing in jails and labour camps across the country has become a focus for rights campaigners, particularly prior to November last year when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest.

Torture is widespread purposely in common with political prisoners. Most political prisoners spend several years in solitary confinement or are sent to remote jails where a chance for family members’ visiting is difficult.

Present sorrowful affairs in Burma confirm that the military junta is firmly going along its anti-democracy route. The junta continues to detain and incarcerate approximately 2,200 political prisoners, including Ethnic Shan political leader Hkun Htun Oo, 12 members of parliament from 1990 election and prominent comedian Zarganar are still in prison despite their medical conditions.

Many leaders of the ’88 Generation Students, who led a pro-democracy movement in 1988, remain imprisoned with sentences up to 65 years.

Su Su Nway, a member of the National League for Democracy, has been in custody in the notorious Insein Jail since November 2007, following a peaceful demonstration. She received the 2006 Humphrey Freedom Award from the Canada-based group Rights and Democracy for her human rights activities. She was arrested in 2005 and 2007.

Many political prisoners are reportedly seriously ailing and receiving no regular healthcare. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied free access to conduct confidential prison visits since December 2005. Arrests and intimidation of political activists and journalists in Burma have been going on for two decades.

Peoples from all walks of life in Burma have suffered for five decades under various repressions by the military regime. The consequences of this reign of violence are producing spillover effects in neighboring countries as well.

Most of Burma’s 2,200 political prisoners were intentionally transferred to remote prisons with deplorable healthcare. Most prisoners of conscience have to face terrible torture and a lack of nutritious food and medicine. The outcome is that more than 100 political prisoners, including members of Parliament, writers and journalists, have passed away in the regime’s jails.

All political prisoners were detained for their activities related to democracy and human rights. Unless the generals release these prisoners of conscience, there can be no real hope for democracy and national reconciliation in Burma.

In such a situation with human rights record, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in which Burma/Myanmar is a member, and a group of the country’s key ethnic political parties have also urged an end to the economic sanctions, ahead of the introduction of the new parliament on January 31.

Nonetheless, professionals say a swing in guiding principle on sanction is implausible. Unless the military regime has made progress on human rights as well as cooperation with Nobel laureate and Democracy Icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

So, to lift sanctions, the junta must first free all political prisoners to show sincerity and then should go straight toward the dialogue table.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/46894/free-all-political-prisoners-first-to-lift-sanctions-in-burma/
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Watchdog spotlights Myanmar rights abuse
Posted: 24 January 2011 2101 hrs

BANGKOK: About half a million people are internally displaced by conflict in eastern Myanmar, where both the state army and rebels continue to recruit child soldiers, a top rights group said Monday.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its annual report, said the state army was responsible for direct attacks and abuses against civilians in conflict areas, some of which have been wracked by civil war since independence in 1948.

Among the abuses listed were widespread forced labour, extrajudicial killings, forced expulsion of the population, the widespread use of anti-personnel landmines and sexual violence against women and girls.

The group also listed torture, beatings and the targeting of food production as well as confiscation of land and property in the ethnic areas where fighting continues.

The report comes as Myanmar, military ruled since 1962, prepares to open a new parliament this month following an election in November, which was slammed by the West as a sham aimed at shoring up military power.

"The Burmese military continues to direct attacks on civilians in ethnic areas, particularly in Karen, Karenni, and Shan states of eastern Burma, and parts of western Burma in China and Arakan states," the report said.

It said about 500,000 were internally displaced owing to conflict in the east, while more than 140,000 refugees are in camps in Thailand.

While 28,000 minority Rohingya are in official refugee camps in Bangladesh, another 200,000 live in border areas, the report added. Millions more migrant workers from Myanmar live in neighbouring Asian countries.

"All parties" in the country's conflicts continue to actively recruit and use child solders, even though the government has been co-operating with the International Labour Organisation to demobilize these youngsters.

"Non-state armed ethnic groups have also been implicated in serious abuses such as recruitment of child soldiers, execution of Burmese prisoners of war, and indiscriminate use of anti-personnel landmines around civilian areas," said the report.

Most insurgent groups -- who seek more autonomy and rights -- have agreed to truces with the junta, but HRW said tensions had increased owing to the regime's plans to transform ceasefire groups into "border guard forces".

Ahead of the election -- the country's first in 20 years -- the government pressured these armed movements to give up their weapons or come under state control -- a move most resisted, sparking fears of renewed conflict.

-AFP/jl http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1106631/1/.html
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Porters treated as cannon fodder
By MAUNG TOO
Published: 24 January 2011

Civilian porters are being made to sweep for mines and several have been executed by the Burmese army as they attempted to flee during fighting in the Karen border region.

Army officials are alleged to have recruited porters from prisons in southern Burma and taken them to the frontline in Karen state, where fighting against the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) continues.

“They ordered us porters to take the middle of the road while soldiers walk along the side of the road,” said Pho Aye, who managed to escape after being sent to Karen state from Pathein prison in Irrawaddy division. “A porter named Pho Thar Aung died when he stepped on a landmine and two soldiers were slightly injured from shrapnel.”

He added that porters were being forced to carry equipment and food weighing up to 65 kilograms and risked being shot if they were unable to take the load.

“We get exhausted after carrying [equipment] for days and night and get beaten by soldiers with their rifles when we’re tired. They said we will die if we can’t follow them anymore. I saw them shoot someone in front of us for trying to escape,” said Pho Aye.

A group of porters who managed to escape to Thailand told DVB two weeks ago that around 800 inmates from across southern and eastern Burma had been sent to Karen state.

Reports that firefighters in Karenni state had been given weapons and told to look after security in villages while troops went to the frontline have also emerged.

The already volatile situation in eastern Karen state has worsened in recent weeks as fighting between the DKBA and the Burmese army intensifies. Numbers of stray artillery shells have landed across the border close to the Thai town of Mae Sot, while one Thai civilian has been taken hostage by the DKBA.

Fighting first began on 8 November last year after DKBA troops, led by renegade commander Na Kham Mwe, took key government positions in Myawaddy, across the border from Mae Sot. Clashes have since continued to occur on a regular basis.
http://www.dvb.no/news/porters-treated-as-cannon-fodder/13853
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Dipping Dollar Hits Burmese Refugees
By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 24, 2011 (IPS) - Tracking gun battles along the Thai-Burma border and preparing for another wave of refugees are not the only things that concern British humanitarian Sally Thompson.

She also spends her days immersed in the fluid world of global currencies, worried about the steadily weakening U.S. dollar.

"We monitor the currency all the time. We have to constantly adjust our budgets," says 52-year-old Thompson in her office in Bangkok’s busy financial district. "It comes down to our buying power with the baht."

Thompson and her colleagues at the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) are trying to come to grips with the downward slide of the dollar against the Thai baht, which has appreciated in recent days by 10 percent, emerging as the strongest currency in Southeast Asia.

A strong baht means huge losses for aid groups like TBBC whose funds are dollar-denominated. Its annual budget for 2011 is 40 million dollars, and a drop from 30 to 29 baht to a dollar, which is where the exchange rate stood when the year began, could mean a shortfall of 14 million baht, equivalent to nearly one million kilos of rice.

And TBBC, which has been caring for Burmese refugees for the past 25 years, is unlikely to get more baht for its dollars this year, given the direction foreign and local speculators are driving the bond market here.

It is a similar reality that haunts much smaller organizations doing humanitarian and political work along the border Thailand shares with Burma, or Myanmar.

The border is home to over 500,000 internally displaced Burmese who have fled military oppression as well as the conflict between government troops and separatist rebels that has been raging since the early 1980s. The majority of these refugees are in eastern Burma, near the Thai border.

Since last year, foreign currency speculators have eyed Thailand’s bond market as fertile ground for quick profits, helping to push the short-term bond market to 320 billion baht (10.4 billion U.S. dollars), up from the 270 billion baht (8.8 billion baht) at the same time last year.

"In the first week (of 2011), we have seen net foreign buying of 50 billion baht, about 80 percent of which was for short-term investment in debt- instruments of less than one year in maturity," Ariya Tiranaprakij, vice- president of the Thai Bond Market Association, was recently quoted as saying in a local daily.

But such capital flows coming into this region are taking a bite from the vulnerable, among them humanitarian workers at TBBC.

Nagesh Kumar, chief economist of the Bangkok-based United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), observes that the situation will cause a lot of problems. "The weakening of the U.S. dollar and exchange volatility will continue," Kumar said.

The impact a weakening dollar has on humanitarian programs is also felt in other parts of Asia, where the U.N. food relief agency World Food Programme (WFP) supplies emergency needs.

"WFP buys most of its food in U.S. dollars, so any depreciation in its value is likely to have an impact on our ability to provide food assistance to the world’s hungry poor," Marcus Prior, WFP spokesman for its Asia office, told IPS.

For the likes of TBBC, which currently cares for some 145,000 refugees in camps along the 2,000-km Thai-Burma border, the prolonged downward spiral of the dollar comes at a trying time: it is expecting to feed more mouths.

A new round of fighting between Burmese troops and ethnic Karen rebels had erupted along the border in early November, forcing tens of thousands of Karen civilians to flee to Thailand for safety.

"This instability along the border will continue. We expect more new arrivals to come because of this uncertain political situation," says Thompson, the deputy director of TBBC.

It is a view echoed by other Burmese activists operating in Mae Sot, a Thai town close to the Burma border. They, like TBBC, are also grappling with a weakening dollar.

"We have been forced to downsize all our democracy and empowerment training programmes for people from Burma," says Naing Aung, the secretary general of the Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), a coalition of Burmese political exiles.

In 2009, the FDB budgeted its 2010 costs at one dollar to nearly 35 baht. By the end of last year the exchange rate saw a dollar valued at only 29 baht. "Nearly 20 percent of our budget was affected," he said in an interview from the Burmese border.

"This trend began with the financial crisis and has worsened since," says Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a South-east Asian human rights lobby. "Pro- democracy and humanitarian work has been affected."

For now, the ripples of the global financial crisis that began in the U.S. in late 2008 and still impacting remote corners of western Thailand has not prompted a change of heart among the western donor countries.

"We are giving the same amount as we gave before to the Thai-Burma border," a diplomat from a donor country told IPS. "There is no talk in policy circles to change that because of the financial crisis." (END) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54208
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Farce follows tragedy in Myanmar
By Bertil Lintner

BANGKOK - If Karl Marx was right that history repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce, Myanmar may have just entered the farcical phase of its long-running military rule. The first general election held in over 20 years last November and announcement that a new elected National Assembly will be convened on January 31 have not excited many ordinary Myanmar citizens, but have led to wild speculation among foreign pundits about what it all means for the country's political future.

Many seem to have forgotten that a similar "transition" to "civilian rule" occurred in 1974, following a rigged referendum on a new constitution in 1973. The then ruling junta, the Revolutionary Council, gave way to the military-controlled Burma Socialist Program Party, which formed a government made up of retired army officers. The transition in retrospect was a tragedy as it solidified the one-party system that Myanmar, then known as Burma, already had in place and precipitated economic decline in what was previously one of Southeast Asia's most prosperous countries.

The 1974 constitution guaranteed the military's grip on power and made its original 1962 military putsch legal. That military-dominated political arrangement lasted until a nationwide uprising for democracy erupted in 1988, which the military crushed through lethal force and in the aftermath reintroduced direct military rule through the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta. The SLORC later changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar and rebranded itself as the State Peace and Development Council in 1997.

Now under a new constitution that was adopted after a similarly well-orchestrated referendum in 2008, more than one political party is officially allowed in Myanmar. But the dominance of the military's new Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) proxy, which swept over 80% of the seats in last November's rigged polls, is complete. The new charter also reserves 25% of the National Assembly's seats for the military.

The military is nonetheless taking no chances. On the campaign trail and after the election, candidates and MPs elect have had their freedom of speech severely restricted. Any speech deemed by authorities as a threat to "national security, the unity of the country and the constitution" threaten to land the speaker in prison for up to two years.

In late December, the state-run daily New Light of Myanmar newspaper spelled out the military's intentions more clearly: the opposition should stop calling for "national reconciliation" and instead support the government to achieve "national reconsolidation". "Indirect and direct approaches designed to control the ruling government will never come to fruition," the paper stated.

Despite these restrictions, some foreign analysts are holding out hope for democratic change. Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, suggested farcically in his newsletter that "the elections, flawed as they are, could provide a catalyst." For exactly what, however, the former envoy did not make clear.

Priscilla Clapp, a senior American analyst and former Yangon-based US diplomat, seems convinced that an army reshuffle a few months before the election, in which more than 70 senior and many more junior officers retired to have the constitutional right to "contest" the polls will pave the way for a new, presumably more reform-minded, generation of army officers. And with new "civilians" in government, she suggests, change is in the air.

Whether military officers were in or out of uniform made no difference in 1974 - and is even less likely to do so today considering the military's ironclad grip on power. Nor will a few muted opposition voices in the National Assembly be of any democratic significance. In the old, pre-1988 National Assembly, the official media routinely reported that delegates always "discussed in support of proposals" submitted by the real military rulers of the country.

If any of the handful of non-USDP assemblymen dare to challenge military orders, the authorities have constitutional means to deal with such dissent, including through legal military takeovers. In case of a "national emergency", clause 413 of the new charter gives the president the right to hand executive as well as judicial power to the commander-in-chief of the defense services, who "may exercise the said powers and duties himself or empower on any suitable military authority" to do the job for him.

The new National Assembly will consist of an Upper House with 168 elected seats and 56 reserved for the military, and a Lower House with 330 elected and 110 military seats. With solid majorities of 129 seats in the Upper House and 259 in the Lower House that the USDP achieved through the rigged November elections, plus the 25% of seats reserved for the military, the new system will ensure in a new legal way the continuation of the old military-ruled order.

Negligent neighbors
Myanmar's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have hailed the election as progress and called on Western nations, including the US, to drop their economic and financial sanctions. At an ASEAN meeting on the Indonesian island of Lombok on January 17, the host country's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa described the elections as "conducive and transparent" and said that the 10-member bloc would like to see "the immediate or early removal or easing of sanctions that have been applied against Myanmar by some countries."

Many ASEAN countries have vested economic interests in Myanmar and through economic engagement policies have over the years undermined the West's sanctions regime.

Meanwhile, there is little indication that Myanmar's military leadership is in much of a democratic mood. At a passing out parade at the Defense Services Technological Academy on December 17, military chief General Than Shwe told the graduates that "you can confront anything and win if you avoid the opponents' strong points, exploit their shortcomings and strike at their weaknesses."

The military rank and file has clearly taken that advice to heart. The opposition's strong point is pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained and barred from participating in the election and released a week after the polls. The weakness of the opposition was its lack of unity: Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, split in half over whether or not it should take part in the election.

Those who favored participation probably now regret it; the new National Democratic Front, set up by former NLD members, won a paltry 16 seats in both houses. Predictably, NDF candidates competed on an unequal playing field. According to several eyewitness reports in several constituencies in Yangon and elsewhere, where a candidate other than the one from the USDP appeared to be winning, boxes of "advance votes" were brought in to prevent such a result. In other places where the USDP seemed to be faring poorly, the vote counting was conducted in secret.

Opinion is also divided in countries traditionally critical of Myanmar's rights-abusing regime. In the US, Virginia Senator Jim Webb, once one of Myanmar's staunchest critics, has flip-flopped to become a staunch advocate of lifting sanctions and engaging the regime. In the European Union, several countries are already doing business with Myanmar despite the sanctions. In its December 14 edition, The Myanmar Times quoted Myint Soe from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry as saying: "Among the European nations, Germany is one of our largest trading partners, even considering the sanctions." And sanctions do not cover pre-existing investments in the lucrative oil and gas industry, where France's Total is a major investor.

Voices are now being heard in other EU countries, especially among their Bangkok-based envoys, advocating for engagement with the regime based on perceptions that decades of sanctions have failed to achieve democratic change. This argument, or course, fails to take into account that other countries' engagement policies have similarly failed to achieve positive political change.

ASEAN has long engaged Myanmar through trade and investment initiatives. However, in a confidential US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks in December, Singapore's senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew described Myanmar's generals as "stupid" and "difficult to deal with". Dealing with the regime, Lee said, was like "talking to dead people" - a damning assessment of ASEAN's "constructive engagement" policy from one of the region's most business-minded leaders.

Viewed in this light, Myanmar's initial tragedy of 1974 has turned into the farce of 2010. In effect, the old repressive one-party system has been reintroduced in everything but name. As the new rules guarantee, a few opposition voices will make little difference under the new military dominated dispensation. Even authoritarian-run China and North Korea are formally multi-party states under the leadership of their de facto ruling communists - China has eight parties other than the dominant Communist Party while North Korea allows for three. Such comparisons are more apt than hopeful speculation that Myanmar's elections and new parliament represent genuine democratic change.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review and the author of several books on Myanmar. He is currently a writer with Asia Pacific Media Services. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MA25Ae02.html
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Thai police to deport 91 Rohingya to Myanmar
AFP

Thai police to deport 91 Rohingya to Myanmar AFP/File – File photo shows a Rohingya refugee child standing in the doorway of a shelter in Bangladesh. Police …
– 32 mins ago

BANGKOK (AFP) – Police in Thailand have arrested 91 Rohingya boat people after they landed on the country's southern coast and are planning to deport them to Myanmar, they said Monday.

The Muslim, Bengali-speaking Rohingya of Myanmar are described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

The group, all men of different ages, were detained after coming to shore on Saturday evening with boat engine problems, according to Visit Tangpong, police chief in Trang province's Kantang district.

He said he thought the group were on their way from Myanmar to Malaysia.

"We are providing basic humanitarian assistance with food and water, but they were illegal immigrants. We have to follow our laws," he said.

Police Colonel Putthipong Musikul, of the immigration office in Songkhla province where the group are being held, said they would be sent back, probably within one or two days.

Mainly Buddhist Myanmar effectively denies citizenship and property rights to the Rohingya, leading to their abuse and exploitation and prompting many to flee the country, often to refugee camps in Bangladesh.

In the past the Thai navy has been accused of sending desperate asylum-seekers back to sea and casting them adrift, drawing fire from human rights activists. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110124/wl_asia_afp/thailandmyanmarrohingyaimmigrationrights
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guardian.co.uk
Burma's migrant workers: caught between a tyrant and a tiger

Malaysia's economic boom has been driven by the exploitation of cheap migrant labour, from Burma and Thailand. Underpaid and with no rights, this is their story

MDG : Foreign workers in Malaysia Malaysia's economic boom has been fuelled by cheap foreign labour. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

They were not illegal, nor criminals, not protesting nor agitating. For 900 Malaysian ringgits (around $290) a month they had travelled, through a broker, to the southern Malaysian town of Johor. There to bend the metal, mould the bars and solder the nuts that will bolt together the terrific rise in Asia's economies.

However the 35 Burmese workers found that, after two months, instead of the promised amount, they were to receive 640 a month, with no overtime pay, as promised.

So the workers organised, led by five individuals. They initially complained to their employers.

The employers immediately called the police, all 35 were detained on 12 January. No charges were brought, and 30 were released that day.

"Whenever workers do actually complain to their employers or against [them], employers tend to discriminate against them or even terminate [their contracts]," says pioneering Malaysian human rights lawyer, Charles Hector.

Before any legal rationale could be brought, or advocates or government bodies mobilised, the five leaders were whisked away to the airport for deportation, because, as Hector notes, "the employer wins by default if they are deported", they cannot compete in a labour dispute, and migrant workers are not allowed to be members of a union or stay in Malaysia without employment.

Out of the five leaders who complained, three have been forced back to Burma despite signing a three-year contract, two, however are missing.

Malaysia's growing "tiger economy", is driven by a workforce of around 20% migrant labour, with an estimated 500,000 from Burma, many of them illegal, taking their place at the bottom of Malaysia's semi-apartheid ethnic mix.

With GDP per capita hard to record in Burma, the IMF estimated in January 2009 that it was around $250. This compares with the IMF's 2010 estimate for Malaysia of $7,775.

Despite a constitution and laws pertaining to universal rights in Malaysia, law enforcement and other political precedence places migrant workers at immediate disadvantage. All companies in Malaysia that hire foreign labour are required to pay a levy. This is very often deducted from workers' pay, even though the practice was made illegal in April 2009.

Tun Tun, head of Burma Campaign Malaysia, notes that the overwhelming ethos is for employers to take responsibility for their workers as opposed to the workers having rights as individuals. He points out that when you arrive in Malaysia as a tourist, you need no visa and can rapidly leave the airport. However, migrant workers have to wait for their employer to pick them up and take them, in custodial fashion, to wherever they please.

Not all Burmese are just economic migrants. Many of those who eke out a living between the concrete apartment buildings and highways of Kuala Lumpur have fled political oppression in their homeland.

Kyaw Hsan was jailed in Burma at the age of 15. His "crime" was distributing pamphlets about democracy, with news and information that circumvented Burma's draconian military censors. He would leave pamphlets on the roof of a bus, so as it drove through the streets of Rangoon they would flutter down, as innocently as freshly falling rain. He was picked up outside a meeting of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy on 16 September 2000.

His confinement was marked with weeks of torture, including night-long beatings by teams of guards. This was followed, in 2003, by periods of up to 32 days chained to a wet floor with dozens of other prisoners for protesting the rearrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

He contracted tuberculosis, which quarantined him for a further year after his release from Rangoon's colonial-era Insein jail.

Beyond the scars marking his body, and despite his affable nature, the psychological toll is unmistakable. At the time of writing, a combination of dislocation, alcohol and the breakdown of a relationship had led to angry outbursts, which saw him lose his job as a waiter.

In exile

The isolation is palpable in divided Kuala Lumpur. On a busy rush hour Kyaw Hsan intervenes to protect a young Burmese who has been set upon by up to a dozen Malays. They beat him and take his phone, but he mistrusts the police so much that a foreign escort to the station to report it is deemed necessary.

Ko Harun, meanwhile, has weathered exile for longer. He fled his native Burma because of thediscrimination faced by the Rohingya minority. The Rohingya, he estimates along with many observers, are the most oppressed minority in Burma; despite having been in the country for about 1,000 years, they are denied citizenship rights.

Since he left Burma he has been arrested four times in Thailand and five times in Malaysia. In Thailand he says he was caged up with gang members who would violently steal his rations.

He has been "sold" to traffickers by Thai officials, after being handed over by Malaysian authorities. He was lucky enough to be able to borrow the fee to remove himself from bondage.

Conditions in Malaysian jails are horrendous, causing what the Malaysian press call riots but are actually hunger strikes or peaceful protests, complaining about the overcrowding, the constant outbreaks of leptospirosis, a disease caused spread through urine-contaminated water, or simply the length of detention.

The two missing worker leaders have not been heard from. Like an estimated 190,000 other Burmese in Malaysia, they are at the mercy of a divided, hungry nation.

• Joseph Allchin is a journalist with the exiled Burmese news network the Democratic Voice of Burma.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/24/burma-migrant-workers-malaysia-exploitation
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Myanmar's tourism industry at a crossroads (Feature)

By Ko Ko and Peter Janssen Jan 24, 2011, 4:23 GMT

Yangon - By Myanmar standards, 2010 was a golden year for tourism. Those working in the sector said they hoped recent political developments might make it easier to attract still more foreigners although there was not much faith in the military regime's appetite for change.

An estimated 300,000 foreign tourists visited the country last year, government sources said, a 30-per-cent increase over 2009 and better than the previous record from 2006, the official Visit Myanmar Year.

But even the recent increase does not do justice to the potential of the country, whose abundant natural and cultural charms should make it one of the top tourist destinations in South-East Asia.

'The amount of 300,000 tourists is not too big compared with neighbouring countries like Thailand, Malaysia, even Laos,' said Tin Tun Aung, general secretary of the Myanmar Travel Association.

Last year, an estimated 15 million tourists visited Thailand, 17 million went to Malaysia and 1 million travelled to Laos.

Myanmar's tourism sector has had its fair share of hard knocks in recent years.

It has been hit by the same phenomena as the rest of the world: the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003; the tsunami of 2004; high oil prices in 2008; and the global financial meltdown in 2009.

But Myanmar, also called Burma, has also had its own special hiccups.

There was the brutal military crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, and then in May 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed an estimated 138,000 people and left much of the Irrawaddy Delta in shambles.

A political stigma is also attached to visiting Myanmar, which has been under military dictatorships since 1962.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's democracy icon, previously opposed foreign tourists visiting her country as she threw support behind economic sanctions imposed on her country by Western democracies.

She has since mellowed her stance on sanctions, saying they should be limited to those that have a minimal negative impact on Myanmar's people.

Suu Kyi was freed from seven years of house detention November 13, six days after Myanmar held its first general election in two decades, but it remained unclear how the recent political developments would impact tourism.

'I don't think that tourist movements have much to do with politics, really,' said Luzi Matzig, director of the Bangkok-based Asian Trails company, which specializes in tours to Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

'If a tourist wants to go to Mandalay or Pagan, it's good to hear that 'The Lady' [Suu Kyi] has been freed, but will that influence his decision to visit Myanmar? I don't think so,' Matzig said.

Myanmar tour operators attributed last year's good performance more to a relaxation in visa regulations than political developments.

'One of the reasons why the tourism industry had a good year in 2010 was because of the introducing of arrival visas,' said Nay Zin Latt, vice chairman of the Myanmar Hoteliers Association.

The visa on arrival was introduced early last year but suspended in September, apparently in preparation for the military's well-staged general election on November 7.

Reintroducing the measure would make the country a more appealing travel destination.

Another welcome change would be to stop requiring tourists to buy foreign exchange certificates, which force visitors and tour operators to buy the local currency, the kyat, at an inflated exchange rate.

'We did not get profits as expected last year,' Lin Oo, a Myanmar tour operator, said, citing a weak dollar and the gap between the official and actual exchange rate between the kyat and dollar.

The tourism industry is awaiting the establishment of a new government, perhaps by late February, to see if it could look forward to any positive changes.

'Overall, there should be much relaxation of regulations for the development of this sector,' Lin Oo said. 'We also need good infrastructure, better road transport, telecommunications, internet facilities and easy access to the country.'

Most were skeptical that Myanmar's incoming government, packed as it is with ex-military men, would share the tourism sector's priorities.

'The members of the warrior feudal class that rules the country have never been tourists in their entire lives,' said Maung Zarni, a Britain-based Burmese political activist and academic.

The country's leaders 'have absolutely no clue as to what tourism is all about,' said Zarni, who once worked for the state-run agency Tourist Burma.

'The country does need regulated mass tourism if it is going to bring substantial revenues, create jobs and have a liberalizing impact,' he said.

'All this needs serious vision, planning and an attitude change on the part of the state's leaders, but that's not on the horizon,' Zarni said.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/features/article_1613952.php/Myanmar-s-tourism-industry-at-a-crossroads-Feature
--------------------------------------------------
Burma sanctions stay - for now

* Published: 23/01/2011 at 01:58 PM
* Online news:

Calls are growing for an end to Western sanctions against Burma, but experts say a shift in policy is unlikely without progress on human rights and the support of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi's release in November following Burma's first election in 20 years has reignited debate over the effectiveness of the punitive measures, enforced by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta's human rights abuses.

"There's a lot of internal debate going on among policymakers and a previously established and longstanding consensus is increasingly seeming brittle," a Bangkok-based Western diplomat said.

Critics of the policy say sanctions, which have largely kept Western companies out of a resource-rich corner of Asia, are hindering development in what is one of the world's poorest nations.

But the iron-fisted regime must still provide "something that is considered substantial, a step in the right direction", before the West -- highly critical of the election -- will remove them, said Burma analyst Aung Naing Oo.

Two of the main pro-democracy parties which took part in the November election have called for the lifting of all sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Burma, and a group of the country's main ethnic political parties have also urged an end to the measures, ahead of the new parliament's opening on January 31.

"It will be difficult to ignore all these calls for a change of policy," said the diplomat, who did not want to be named.

Even Suu Kyi appears to have softened her stance and her party is reviewing its position on sanctions after years of firmly supporting them.

Suu Kyi told AFP in an interview last month that she wanted dialogue with the junta on sanctions.

"I don't look at sanctions as a bargaining chip but as a way of trying to improve the situation," she said.

Experts say the backing of Suu Kyi, easily Burma's most influential figure in the West, would probably be crucial for an end to the measures.

"I am not sure if the EU and United States will be able to lift the sanctions without the input from Aung San Suu Kyi," said Maung Zarni, a Burma research fellow at the London School of Economics.

"Her views are considered reflective of public opinion."

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on November 13 after spending 15 of the past 21 years in detention.

Sanctions advocates say that five decades of economic mismanagement under military rule are to blame for the hardships in Burma -- also known as Burma -- rather than the measures themselves, which are designed to weaken the regime and its cronies.

The United States bans trade with companies tied to the junta in Burma and also freezes such firms' assets and blocks international loans to the state.

The European Union also has sanctions freezing assets and businesses of junta figures as well as blacklisting their travel, but it has continued some trade and investment such as oil.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union was "following the situation in Burma very closely...(but) wants to see what the government will do," notably in terms of human rights.

Despite the restrictions on Western businesses, Asian companies, especially from China, India, Thailand and South Korea, have overlooked the political situation and human rights abuses to invest in Burma's ample natural treasures.

Zarni said the real push for lifting sanctions was coming from Western investors who "feel sanctions have deprived them", and whose arguments are "couched in the language of (the) public well-being of Burmese people".

"Many investors, especially in natural resource exploitation such as oil, gas, mining, and timber, know that they will make fortunes once they are able to rush in and compete," he said.

Critics of the measures say the willingness of other Asian countries to invest without conditions is precisely why sanctions are not working.

Burma economics expert Sean Turnell said the West was likely to face pressure to reduce broad economic sanctions -- the import and investment bans -- while maintaining targeted financial restrictions.

He said the United States, which launched a dialogue with Burma's rulers in 2009, would want progress on human rights, particularly the release of Burma's 2,200 political prisoners.

The West would also want to see more concrete reform on both political and economic fronts, suggested Turnell, of Macquarie University in Australia.

"Many people did seriously expect a raft of more liberal economic policies right after the election but that hasn't happened yet," he said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/217743/pressure-grows-for-end-to-burma-sanctions
-----------------------------------------------
Experts differ on sanctions debate
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 24 January 2011
Calls are growing for an end to Western sanctions against Burma, but experts say a shift in policy is unlikely without progress on human rights and the support of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s release in November following Burma’s first election in 20 years has reignited debate over the effectiveness of the punitive measures, enforced by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.

“There’s a lot of internal debate going on among policymakers and a previously established and longstanding consensus is increasingly seeming brittle,” a Bangkok-based Western diplomat said.

Critics of the policy say sanctions, which have largely kept Western companies out of a resource-rich corner of Asia, are hindering development in what is one of the world’s poorest nations.

But the iron-fisted regime must still provide “something that is considered substantial, a step in the right direction”, before the West – highly critical of the election – will remove them, said Burmese analyst Aung Naing Oo.

Two of the main pro-democracy parties which took part in the November election have called for the lifting of all sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Burma, and a group of the country’s main ethnic political parties have also urged an end to the measures, ahead of the new parliament’s opening on 31 January.

“It will be difficult to ignore all these calls for a change of policy,” said the diplomat, who did not want to be named.

Even Suu Kyi appears to have softened her stance and her party is reviewing its position on sanctions after years of firmly supporting them.

Suu Kyi said in an interview last month that she wanted dialogue with the junta on sanctions. “I don’t look at sanctions as a bargaining chip but as a way of trying to improve the situation,” she said.

Experts say the backing of Suu Kyi, easily Burma’s most influential figure in the West, would probably be crucial for an end to the measures.

“I am not sure if the EU and United States will be able to lift the sanctions without the input from Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Maung Zarni, a Burma research fellow at the London School of Economics. “Her views are considered reflective of public opinion.”

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on 13 November after spending 15 of the past 21 years in detention.

Sanctions advocates say that five decades of economic mismanagement under military rule are to blame for the hardships in Burma rather than the measures themselves, which are designed to weaken the regime and its cronies.

The United States bans trade with companies tied to the junta in Burma and also freezes such firms’ assets and blocks international loans to the state. The European Union also has sanctions freezing assets and businesses of junta figures as well as blacklisting their travel, but it has continued some trade and investment such as oil.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union was “following the situation in Myanmar [Burma] very closely…(but) wants to see what the government will do,” notably in terms of human rights.

Despite the restrictions on Western businesses, Asian companies, especially from China, India, Thailand and South Korea, have overlooked the political situation and human rights abuses to invest in Burma’s ample natural treasures. Zarni said the real push for lifting sanctions was coming from Western investors who “feel sanctions have deprived them”, and whose arguments are “couched in the language of [the] public well-being of Burmese people”.

“Many investors, especially in natural resource exploitation such as oil, gas, mining, and timber, know that they will make fortunes once they are able to rush in and compete,” he said.

Critics of the measures say the willingness of other Asian countries to invest without conditions is precisely why sanctions are not working
http://www.dvb.no/news/experts-differ-on-sanctions-debate/13843
-------------------------------------------------
Pressure mounts on West to end Myanmar sanctions
Monday, 24 January 2011 02:35

BANGKOK: Calls are growing for an end to Western sanctions against Myanmar, but experts say a shift in policy is unlikely without progress on human rights and the support of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s release in November following Myanmar’s first election in 20 years has re-ignited debate over the effectiveness of the punitive measures, enforced by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.

“There’s a lot of internal debate going on among policymakers and a previously established and longstanding consensus is increasingly seeming brittle,” a Bangkok-based Western diplomat said. Critics of the policy say sanctions, which have largely kept Western companies out of a resource-rich corner of Asia, are hindering development in what is one of the world’s poorest nations.

But the iron-fisted regime must still provide “something that is considered substantial, a step in the right direction”, before the West — highly critical of the election — will remove them, said Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo.

Two of the main pro-democracy parties which took part in the November election have called for the lifting of all sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, and a group of the country’s main ethnic political parties have also urged an end to the measures, ahead of the new parliament’s opening on January 31.

“It will be difficult to ignore all these calls for a change of policy,” said the diplomat, who did not want to be named.

Even Suu Kyi appears to have softened her stance and her party is reviewing its position on sanctions after years of firmly supporting them.

Suu Kyi said in an interview last month that she wanted dialogue with the junta on sanctions.

“I don’t look at sanctions as a bargaining chip but as a way of trying to improve the situation,” she said.

Experts say the backing of Suu Kyi, easily Myanmar’s most influential figure in the West, would probably be crucial for an end to the measures.

“I am not sure if the EU and United States will be able to lift the sanctions without the input from Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Maung Zarni, a Myanmar research fellow at the London School of Economics.

“Her views are considered reflective of public opinion.”

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on November 13 after spending 15 of the past 21 years in detention.

Sanctions advocates say that five decades of economic mismanagement under military rule are to blame for the hardships in Myanmar — also known as Burma — rather than the measures themselves, which are designed to weaken the regime and its cronies.

The United States bans trade with companies tied to the junta in Myanmar and also freezes such firms’ assets and blocks international loans to the state.

The European Union also has sanctions freezing assets and businesses of junta figures as well as blacklisting their travel, but it has continued some trade and investment such as oil.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union was “following the situation in Myanmar very closely...(but) wants to see what the government will do,” notably in terms of human rights.

Despite the restrictions on Western businesses, Asian companies, especially from China, India, Thailand and South Korea, have overlooked the political situation and human rights abuses to invest in Myanmar’s ample natural treasures.

Zarni said the real push for lifting sanctions was coming from Western investors who “feel sanctions have deprived them”, and whose arguments are “couched in the language of (the) public well-being of Burmese people”. AFP http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/140143-pressure-mounts-on-west-to-end-myanmar-sanctions.html
----------------------------------------------
Political prisoners ‘given amphetamine’
By MAUNG TOO
Published: 24 January 2011

Political prisoners in Burma are being given amphetamine during interrogation in an effort to extract more information, according to a Thailand-based campaigning group.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPP) had received several complaints of prisoners being drugged by military intelligence in interrogation centres in Rangoon.

Aung Khaing Min from AAPP said that it was likely they were given the stimulant mixed in with their food to avoid detection, but had complained later to visiting family members that believed they had been drugged.

“They [prisoners] are being given it during interrogation to disorientate them so that intelligence can get more details,” Aung Khaing Min said.

The group’s head, Tate Naing, told DVB that if the accusations turned out to be true, Burmese intelligence would be guilty of “committing a serious crime…and they can get serious punishments if they continue to do this”.

The government’s Prison Administration Department was unavailable for comment.

One of those believed to have been given amphetamine is Sithu Zeya, the DVB reporter recently sentenced to eight years in prison after being caught photographing the aftermath of the Rangoon bombings in April last year.

According to AAPP, there are currently 2,189 political prisoners in jails across the country, down from 2203 in December last year after 16 were released.

“We have a plan to bring the matter of human rights violations in Burma to international rights groups, including the United Nations,” said Tate Naing. “If the situation gets seriously bad, then there must be an investigation in any way possible.”

The UN has been under pressure to launch a probe into whether war crimes and crimes against humanity are occurring in Burma, particular in the ethnic border regions which have hosted decades-long conflicts.

But the issue of Burma’s political prisoners languishing in jails and labour camps across the country has become a focus for rights campaigners, particularly prior to November last year when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest.

Torture is common among political prisoners, many of whom spend periods in solitary confinement or are sent to remote jails where access for visiting family members is difficult.
http://www.dvb.no/news/political-prisoners-%E2%80%98given-amphetamine%E2%80%99/13864
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Burmese Army Casualties Reported After Artillery Gun Misfires
By SAI ZOM HSENG Monday, January 24, 2011

Burmese troops attempting to fire heavy artillery at a breakaway group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) this morning miscalculated their shot and killed at least one of their own soldiers and injured several others, according to DKBA sources.

“Around 9 am, we saw with our binoculars that four or five shells exploded in their camp. We saw five or six soldiers fall, and later heard by radio that a lieutenant was injured, one private was killed, and several others were also injured,” said Maj Saw San Aung, an operational commander for DKBA Brigade 5.

The incident occurred in one of the Burmese army camps in the Kyauk Khet area of Karen State's Myawaddy Township, near the Moei (Thaungyin) River separating Burma and Thailand.

Burmese troops in the area have been using heavy artillery against DKBA Brigade 5 since fighting started more than two months ago, said Saw San Aung. Military observers said that the 120-mm cannons used by Burmese artillery battalions were made by the ruling regime's own munitions factories and require very careful calibration.

A Burmese army officer currently studying in Russia said that similar accidents have happened in the past, sometimes during military training.

“In 2002, a training officer was killed and some cadets from the Defense Services Academy were injured when some artillery shells were fired inaccurately,” he said.

Saw San Aung said that the use of heavy artillery in the conflict was overkill.

“I don’t know why the Burmese army needs to use 120-mm cannons to attack us. These are weapons for fighting against foreign invaders, not minority groups,” he said, adding that he also opposed the Burmese troops' use of prisoners as army porters and human minesweepers.

According to recent reports, hundreds of inmates from prisons around Burma have been sent to the front lines to act as army porters. Several who escaped and fled to Thailand over the past two weeks said that they were also forced to walk across minefields ahead of advancing Burmese troops.

Saw San Aung confirmed reports from a source close to the Burmese army's Southeastern Regional Command that the DKBA is using mortars to fire back at Burmese troops.

“We're using mortars, but we can't fire as many times as the Burmese side because we can't carry a lot of shells. We're not using porters, so there's a limit to how much we can carry,” he said.

According to another DKBA source, there was also face-to-face fighting in the Kyauk Khet area yesterday. The source said that there were no DKBA casualties in the fighting, but couldn't confirm if there were any dead or injured among the Burmese.

Fighting between DKBA Brigade 5 and the Burmese army began on Nov. 7 of last year. DKBA Brigade 5 is a breakaway faction of a group that was long allied to the Burmese junta.

On Jan. 11, Thai authorities formally complained to their Burmese counterparts about artillery shells that exploded on the Thai side of the border two days earlier.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20593

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