News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday, 15 February, 2011
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Tin Aye, Protegé of Burmese Junta Leader, Resigns
Music helps police discover Myanmar bride's nationality
129 Myanmar migrants found off Indonesia: Police
Nominees for region and state ministers approved by Parliament
Aussie publisher's fate with Burma govt
Land grab for new regional command triggers mass exodus
Top US senator 'deeply concerned' for Suu Kyi safety
THE ABSENT NEIGHBOUR
$3.2m lawsuit for defending Burmese migrants
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Tin Aye, Protegé of Burmese Junta Leader, Resigns
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tin Aye, a former top general and a member of the Lower House of Burma's military-dominated Parliament, resigned from the country's main legislature today in a move seen as a sign of growing dissatisfaction among senior military figures with the country's new power-sharing arrangement.
In this photo taken on Aug. 25, 2008, Tin Aye meets Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in Beijing. (Photo: Xinhua)
According to opposition MPs, Tin Aye, a protege of Burmese junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe and the former chief of Defense Industries, did not appear at today's session of Parliament.
“Tin Aye’s letter requesting permission to resign was read out by Khin Aung Myint, the speaker of the Upper House, today. All of the MP were surprised,” an opposition MP told The Irrawaddy.
His resignation follows recent reports of the arrest and dismissal of Lt-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who was reportedly in line to succeed Than Shwe as commander-in-chief of Burma's armed forces, and adds to speculation that top generals are unhappy with their new positions within the country's post-election political order.
Tin Aye, who won a seat in Mandalay Division's Tada-U Township as a member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, is currently a member of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, which is due to be dissolved once a new government is formed.
A graduate of Intake 9 of the elite Defense Services Academy, Tin Aye has made numerous official visits to various countries, including China, North Korea, Russia and Ukraine to procure arms and military equipment.
When Gen Shwe Mann, the regime's No 3, made a secret visit to Pyongyang in November 2008, Tin Aye was among the senior military officials who accompanied him.
Tin Aye also served as the chief of Defense Industries, which makes munitions for Burma's armed forces, and took over as chairman of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, a military-owned conglomerate, when Lt-Gen Win Myint, a former adjutant-general, was removed in 2002. http://irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20770
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Music helps police discover Myanmar bride's nationality
By Pan Zheng | 2011-2-16 | ONLINE EDITION
A 22-year-old Myanmar woman who was abducted to Jiangsu Province has been rescued by police. Yangtze Evening News said local police figured out her nationality by playing national songs of different countries.
The woman by the name of Wenma came to Yiling Town of Jiangdu City last August with a middle-aged woman who told locals that Wenma was her poor relative from Yunnan Province and wanted to marry a man who would pay her parents the bride price.
Wenma eventually got "married" with a 28-year-old man surnamed She after She's parents paid that woman about 30,000 yuan. Wenma could not speak Chinese but she was diligent in doing housework. Her "husband" and his parents were all satisfied with her.
She's mother talked happily about her "daughter-in-law" with local villagers. But one neighbor did not believe in her story about Wenma and called the police.
Huang Bin, deputy director of the Exit and Entry Department of Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Bureau, came to check and found Wenma was not a Chinese citizen, but Huang could not determine her nationality due to language barrier.
Judging her appearance, Huang guessed Wenma was from Southeast Asia, so he played the national songs of Southeast Asian nations one by one and watched her reaction. When the 12th song, from Myanmar, was played, Wenma suddenly brightened up. The answer was obvious.
With help from the Myanmar embassy in Beijing, Jiangdu police accompanied Wenma to her country early this month and reported her abduction to Myanmar police. Wenma's abductor, a Yunnan woman surnamed Lei is now on police's wanted list.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=463946&type=National
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129 Myanmar migrants found off Indonesia: Police
Feb 16, 2011 | * AFP
A wooden boat carrying more than one hundred migrants from Myanmar's Rohingya minority has been found drifting off Indonesia's Sumatra island, local police said on Wednesday.
The 129 male migrants from the Muslim community had been at sea for about three weeks when their boat experienced engine trouble, Aceh provincial maritime police chief Mohammed Zaini told AFP.
"The 129 Muslim Rohingyas were rescued by Indonesian fishermen after their boat's engine malfunctioned. We have given them food and are now carrying out medical check-ups," he added.
"We're coordinating with the immigration office, Jakarta Government and the International Organisation for Migration for follow-up action," Zaini said.
The men, many looking pale and tired, were being temporarily housed near the provincial capital Banda Aceh at the Northern tip of Sumatra island after being rescued on Tuesday.
Seven of them were receiving medical attention, Zaini said.
One of them, 27-year-old Nur Alam, said they had left their homes in Myanmar's Western Arakan state because they were being abused by the military.
"We've been drifting for 20 days. We left Myanmar because we had been cruelly treated by the military. Muslims there were killed and tortured," he told AFP.
"We want to go to Indonesia, Malaysia or any other country which is willing to take us in," he added.
Myanmar effectively denies citizenship rights to the Rohingya, leading to discrimination and abuse and contributing to a regional humanitarian crisis as hundreds try to flee the country by boat every year.
http://www.asianage.com/international/129-myanmar-migrants-found-indonesia-police-872
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Nominees for region and state ministers approved by Parliament
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 14:11 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Continung his business of forming a new government, Burmese President Thein Sein submitted a list of approved ministers for region and state assemblies during a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday.
One candidate minister’s name was removed from the list after opposition lawmakers submitted a petition objecting to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmaker Kwi Thang’s nomination as a minister, because he is under age 35, said Chin National Party (CNP) chairman Zo Zam.
The chief minister of Chin State, Hong Ngai, nominated Kwi Thang as a minister on Monday, but Zo Zam said Kwi Thang, 34, does not meet the criteria to be appointed according to the Constitution. Eleven CNP lawmakers and the Chin Progressive Party (CPP) signed the petition and submitted it to President Thein Sein.
Zo Zam said the letter was submitted on Tuesday and when President Thein Sein read the list of ministers, Kwi Thang’s name was not included.
State-run newspapers on Tuesday had included Kwi Thang’s name on a list of approved ministers of Chin State.
Three women have received approval as region or state ministers. They are Bauk Ja of Sumprabum Township Constituency No. 1; Shan race representative and Minister of Kachin State Khin Pyone Yi; and Region Minister of Rangoon Division, San San Nwe.
Karen People’s Party (KPP) chairman Saw Tun Aung Myint said that the number of female ministers was small and more women were needed. He said he believed that the nominations were based on the lawmakers’ level of education.
In the national cabinet, only three women out of a total of 155 ministers (126 ministers of regions or states and 29 race representative) are women.
‘I think the chief minister appointed the ministers based on his personal preference, whether man or woman. The ministers should be educated persons. But in our Chin State, the highest education of some ministers is grade eight or nine’, Zo Zam said.
At the union level, none of the 22 female lawmakers in Parliament were appointed as cabinet ministers. In the recent election, more than 30 wome won their races.
Most of the region or state ministers nominated are from representatives of the USDP or the armed forces.
Among nine nominees from each region or state, at least six are USDP representatives and one is a military representative. At most, there are two nominees from ethnic political parties, including Shan, Mon, Arakan, Karen and Phalon-Sawaw in each region or state.
Approved region and state minister nominees include:
Kachin State
Approved ministers of Kachin State are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Than Aung, Nyunt Aung, B. Htaw Zaung, Alay Par, Kaman Du Naw, Aung Naing, Sai Maung Shwe, Khin Maung Tun, and Bauk Ja. Women include Burmese national race representative Pa (aka) Khin Maung Swe, Shan national race representative Khin Pyone Yi, Lihsu national race representative Ar Hsi and Rawan national race representative Gwam Ring Dee were nominated as ministers for National Race Affairs.
Kareenni State
Approved ministers of Karenni State are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Tin Soe, Tau Yei, Chit Hla,Ye Win, Saw Hu Hu, Koe Yei, Than Kyaw Soe, Poe Yei (aka) Poe Yei Yan Aung, and Aung Naing Oo. Burmese national race representative Sein Oo has been nominated as the minister for National Race Affairs.
Karen State
Approved ministers of Karen State are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Aung Lwin, Chit Hlaing, Saw Khin Maung Myint, Min Soe Thein (aka) Naing Min Soe Thein, Saw Christopher, Saw Hsa Law La, Than Daing, Saw Win Htein and Saw Kyi Lin. Burmese national race representative Khin Kyu, Pa-O national race representative Khun Than Myint and Mon national race representative Naing Chit Oo were nominated as ministers for National Race Affairs.
Mon State
Approved ministers of Mon State are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Htay Myint Aung, Dr Khin Maung Thwin, Dr Toe Toe Aung, Dr Hla Oo, Myo Nyunt, Win Maw Oo, Tun Hlaing, Naing Lawei Aung and Dr Min Nwe Soe. Karen national race representative Aung Kyaw Thein, Pa-O national race representative Pe Mya (aka) Kun Pe Mya and Burmese national representative Thet Win were nominated as ministers for National Race Affairs.
Arakan State
Approved State Ministers are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Htein Lin, Kyaw Khin, Kyaw Thein, Soe Aye, Mya Aung, Tha Luche, Dr Aung Kyaw Min, Aung Than Tin and Hla Han. Chin national race representative Ko Ko Naing was nominated as minister for National Race Affairs.
Shan State
Approved ministers are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Aung Thu, Kun Thein Maung, Thaung Shwe, Dr Myo Tun, Tu Maung, Sai Aik Paung, Sai Hsalu, Sai Naw Khan, Tin Tun Aung, and Sai Tun Yin. Sai Aik Paung is the chairman of Shan nationalities Democratic Party.
Kachin national representative Duwa Zok Dong, Kayan (Padaung) national race representative Laurent, Burmese national representative Naing Win, Lahu national representative Sha Mwe Lashang, Lishu national representative Whan Hsan (aka) Yaw Wi, Akha national representative Peter Thaung Sein and Inntha national representative Win Myint were nominated for ministers for National Race Affairs.
Sagaing Division
Approved ministers of Sagaing Region are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Kyi Naing, Sein Win, Saw Myint Oo, Sein Moung, Than Htaik, Tin Ngwe, Dr Myint Thein, Tin Win and Kyaw Win. Chin national race representative Noh Thang Bell (aka) Noh Thang Kat and Shan national race representative San Shwe were nominated as the ministers for National Race Affairs.
Taninsarim Division
Approved ministers of Taninsarim Region are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Zaw Lwin, Myat Ko, Dr Win Aung, Dr Win Aung, Than Aung, Dr Kyaw Hsan, Win Swe, Thein Lwin, and Aung Kyaw Kyaw Oo. Karen national representative Saw Harvey was nominated minister for National Race Affairs.
Pegu Division
Approved ministers of Pegu Division are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Thet Tun, Ye Myint Tun, Myint Lwin Oo, Dr Kyaw Oo, Kyaw Myint, Tun, Tin Soe, Kyaw Htay, and Baby Ohn. Karen national representative Saw Jubilee San Hla was nominated as minister for National Race Affairs.
Magway Division
Approved ministers are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Arnt Zaw, Win Myint Maung, Win Pe, Nay Shin, Aung Kyaw Min, Aung Naing, Kyi Min, Thein Tun, and Myint Naing.
Chin national representative Salai Hla Tun was nominated as minister for National Race Affairs.
Mandalay Division
Approved ministers of Mandalay Division are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Aung Kyaw Moe, Aung Zan, Myint Than, Dr Win Hlaing, Phone Zaw Han, Kyaw Hsan, Than Soe Myint, Dr Myint Kyu and Aung Moung. Phone Zaw Han is the mayor of Mandalay. Shan national representative Sai Maung Hla was nominated as minister for National Race Affairs.
Rangoon Division
Approved ministers of Rangoon Division are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Tin Win, Retired ambassador Hla Myint, retired Colonel Nyan Tun Oo, Soe Min, Kyaw Soe, Than Myint, Aung Khin, San San Nwe and Dr Myint Thein. Retired Colonel Nyan Tun Oo is a brother-in-law of Nanda Kyaw Swar, who is the deputy speaker of the Upper House. Karen national representative Saw Tun Aung Myint and Arakanese national representative Zaw Aye Maung were nominated as ministers for National Race Affairs.
Irrawaddy Division
Approved ministers of Irrawaddy Division are Defence Services Personnel Representative Colonel Maung Maung Win, Tin Soe, Win Ko Ko, Hla Khaing, Soe Myint, San Maung, Than Tun, Saw Mya Thein and Kyaw Win Naing. Karen national representative Mahn Than Shwe and Arakanese national representative Ba Kyuu were nominated as ministers for National Race Affairs. http://asiancorrespondent.com/48481/the-junta-refuses-allowing-press-freedom-in-burma/
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Aussie publisher's fate with Burma govt
Ron Corben
February 16, 2011 - 6:09PM
AAP
The fate of imprisoned Australian publisher Ross Dunkley lies with the Burmese legal system and government after investors settled over management control of the Myanmar Times newspaper, according to a senior investor representative.
Dunkley, chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of the weekly Myanmar Times, was detained last week after returning from overseas. He faces charges of breaching Burma's immigration and visa laws.
His arrest came against a backdrop of a struggle for control over the Myanmar Times publishing company, Myanmar Consolidated Media Group (MCM), the only publishing house in Burma with foreign investors.
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David Armstrong, chairman of Post Media, an investor in MCM, said Australian mining magnate Bill Clough, also an investor in MCM, held talks on Monday with the Burmese shareholders.
Armstrong said it had been agreed to appoint Dr Tin Tun Oo chief executive officer and editor of the Burmese language Myanmar Times.
Armstrong said Clough would be acting managing director and editor-in-chief of the English language Myanmar Times. He said this marked a compromise over the management of the paper.
Clough is also the CEO of Twinza Oil, which in 2006 signed a $30 million deal to explore oil reserves off Burma's southern coastline.
"(Dunkley's) fate is in the hands of the Myanmar legal system and Myanmar government, so we can only speculate," Armstrong told AAP.
Post Media is also a key shareholder in the Cambodia-based Phnom Penh Post.
The Myanmar Times began operations in 2000. Parent company MCM besides publishing The Myanmar Times weekly in both English and Burmese languages, also publishes two Burmese language magazines and employs over 350 people.
In 2000 the main Burmese shareholder, was Sonny Swe, who had close ties with the former military intelligence chief, Khin Nyunt. But Khin Nyunt was deposed as prime minister in 2005 after falling out with more hard-line members of the military government.
In 2006 Sonny Swe was also held on corruption charges and his shares were eventually transferred to Dr Tin Tun Oo.
Tin Tun Oo, an unsuccessful candidate during Burma's November general elections under the pro-military party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), also publishes local magazines and journals.
In a statement, Post Media said the management change was announced to staff. The appointment was not expected to affect the newspaper's publishing schedule or operations.
Armstrong said concerns remained for Dunkley's wellbeing ahead of his court appearance.
"If they follow the normal procedures, the next step for Ross is to appear in court on February 24," Armstrong told AAP.
"The last we heard he was okay but just what happens is really completely out of our hands (and it) would be pointless to even speculate. We just hope he gets out soon," he said.
An independent news agency, Mizzima, said Aung Thein, Dunkley's lawyer, had said the Australian was likely to face deportation in the case. Dunkley's current visa expires on February 27.
An Australian embassy official in Burma visited Dunkley on Saturday. The official said Dunkley was in good health and was looking forward to his release.
© 2011 AAP http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/aussie-publishers-fate-with-burma-govt-20110216-1awgy.html
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Land grab for new regional command triggers mass exodus
Tuesday, 15 February 2011 18:53 S.H.A.N.
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Confiscation of land without compensation in Namzang and Kunhing townships, where the latest regional command “Middle East” is being set up since last month, has led to thousands of people fleeing to the Thai-Burma border, according to social workers on the border and sources inside.
The military has already seized some 6 square mile cultivated land north of Kholam, Namzang township alone, where farmers had been growing corn, peanuts and sesame. More than 20 paddy rice fields have also been impounded northwest of the town.
“They promised to pay compensations”, said a local source. “But so far we have yet to receive a single kyat.”
The Burma Army has also brought in more than 100 people from lower Burma both for cheap labor and for resettlement, “These plus reports that a recruitment drive for the Army is due to begin soon have driven hundreds of people, both old and young, to the border.”
A social worker in Chiangmai confirmed the report adding, “Last month there were only about 500 people coming from the area. Now February is just halfway through but more than 1,000 have arrived.”
The new regional command, 4th in Shan State and 14th in the whole country, is reportedly commanded by Brig Gen Myat Tun Oo. “It is the Burma Army’s answer to the Wa and Shan refusal to accept Naypyitaw’s Border Guard Force (BGF) program,” said a Shan State Army officer. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3466:land-grab-for-new-regional-command-triggers-mass-exodus&catid=87:human-rights&Itemid=285
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Top US senator 'deeply concerned' for Suu Kyi safety
– Tue Feb 15, 6:35 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The top US Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, said Tuesday he had spoken by telephone with Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi and was "deeply concerned" about her safety.
"I am deeply concerned about the junta's recent threats to her wellbeing and those of her National League for Democracy colleagues," McConnell, a fierce and frequent critic of Myanmar's military rulers, said in a statement.
"Such efforts at intimidation are an outrage and should be universally condemned by those around the world who value freedom and democracy. Along with my colleagues in the Senate, I will continue to closely monitor Suu Kyi's safety and the situation in Burma," said the senator.
State media in Myanmar warned in a recent commentary that Suu Kyi and her party will "meet their tragic ends" if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions.
The remarks follow a recent statement by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]
It was the first explicit criticism of her by state media since her release in November after seven years of house arrest, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.
The NLD reacted cautiously to the commentary, saying it had not received any official response from the authorities to its statement on sanctions.
Still, McConnell said Suu Kyi was "in good spirits and remains a vigorous champion for the people of Burma."
His office said it was the senator's first time speaking to her directly, and that they discussed US policy towards Myanmar, prospects for the country's future, and her personal safety. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110215/pl_afp/myanmarpoliticsoppositionus
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The Telegraph, Calcutta, India
Wednesday , November 5 , 2008
THE ABSENT NEIGHBOUR
- China looms large in every aspect of India’s Myanmar policy
Krishnan Srinivasan
In the vast number of publications on India’s foreign relations, Myanmar is a neighbour that has remained mainly absent. In part, this is is because of the reclusive nature of that regime, and partly because Myanmar is not regarded as an important international player; but mainly because relations between the two countries were virtually non-existent in the three decades between the military coup that deposed U Nu in 1962 and the mid-Nineties.
Burma was the largest province in British India, and only in 1937 was it acknowledged as an independent entity within the British Empire. Indians were drafted in large numbers into the colonial army during the three Anglo-Burma wars of the 19th century, and about 4 lakh Indians were sent there to run several public services. Added to these were the immigrant, Tamil-speaking Chettiars and agricultural workers. The persons of Indian origin on the eve of the Japanese invasion numbered 1.1 million, mainly in urban centres. These people became a bone of contention, being treated as resident aliens and discriminated against, though they had lived in Burma for generations. Despite these privations, the Indian government estimates — mainly guesswork — that there are nearly three million persons of Indian origin in Myanmar today, and in contrast with most such communities living abroad, this one is neither well-off nor well regarded.
In the late Eighties, India supported the pro-democracy uprising and offered sanctuary to Burmese dissidents. But a few years later, New Delhi switched to constructive engagement with the military regime in Yangon as part of its ‘look east’ policy, to counter growing Chinese influence, and the desire for closer ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The need for new sources of energy played its part, and a powerful ingredient in India’s thinking was the imperative to develop the Northeast without the disruption of insurgencies.
The first border trade agreement was signed with Myanmar in 1994, involving points in Manipur and Mizoram and, the next year, a joint military operation against insurgents took place. High-level military-to-military contacts began in 2000. Heads of state visited each other, and accords were concluded on security, culture, hydro-electricity, petroleum, remote-sensing, and Buddhist studies. Indian loans of $40 million were offered to Yangon.
The rationale for India’s policy to befriend Myanmar despite that regime’s ill-treatment of people of Indian origin and repression of its own citizens is understandable, but the lack of beneficial results from the new orientation is harder to comprehend. The new strategy has failed even partially to open a closed polity, and insurgency in the Indian Northeast has not diminished because India and Myanmar have varying types of problems with different sets of insurgents and do not share the same priorities in addressing them. Cooperation against the cross-border militants has tailed off. It was hoped that greater border trade with Myanmar would introduce regeneration in our Northeast and help to quell narcotic and arms trafficking and AIDS. But only one of the two proposed border posts is open, for which India blames Myanmar, the road on the Indian side to Moreh is sub-standard, two-way trade is constrained by the small list of tradable goods, excessive regulation and restrictions, and is negligible compared to trade across the Myanmar borders with China and Thailand. Our Northeast is swamped by goods of Chinese origin, but there is hardly any movement of Indian exports in the opposite direction. The benefits of economic prosperity seen in other parts of India have not yet touched the region.
India interacts with Myanmar in several economic fora — the Bay of Bengal Initiative, the Kunming Initiative, and the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation Initiative. Apart from China, Myanmar is the only one of India’s neighbours that exports more to India than it imports, and India does not even rank among Myanmar’s top five import sources. Trade is hampered by both countries not accepting direct payment methods such as telegraphic transfers or letters of credit, forcing the involvement of third parties, such as Singapore. Transaction costs are high and the disparity between the real and official rates of exchange is another disincentive, as is the difficulty in obtaining export credit and insurance. Many Indian companies are even disinclined to reveal they are operating in Myanmar.
India has given $100 million credit for Myanmar infrastructure, while $ 57 million has been offered to upgrade Burmese railways. A further $27 million in grants has been pledged for road and rail projects, but there is little yet to show for this approach in terms of concrete benefit. The Tamu-Kalemayo 160 kilometre road in Myanmar has been built by India, and India and China are planning to rebuild the Stillwell Road, on which the Chinese work has already started. The Kaladan river project to link a newly constructed Sittwe port to the Indian Northeast involves dredging the river to create a trans-shipment terminal and will take several years. A proposed railway from Hanoi to Imphal and a 1,500 km Trans-Asian highway from India to Bangkok are still being talked about. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is working three offshore blocks off the Rakhine coast, but the debate continues on whether the energy extracted would be transported to India by pipeline or as liquefied natural gas, while Bangladesh blows hot and cold on the use of its territory for transit. Meanwhile, China has predictably moved faster. It is building pipelines to Yunnan, a deep-sea port at Kyaw Phuy, and a road linking that port with Kunming.
China looms large in every aspect of India’s Myanmar policy, but after the barren years since the Sixties, India has to play catch-up with a weak hand. India’s desire to regenerate the Northeast is matched by China’s wish to develop Yunnan and Sichuan and to integrate the economies of autonomous Burmese border regions with southern China’s economy. Large numbers of Chinese investors and traders and the large Chinese diaspora in Myanmar, estimated at 2 million, are assisting actively in this process.
New Delhi takes some comfort from the view that Myanmar wishes to balance the preponderance of China with relations with India and the Asean, but in the jostling for influence in the spaces along India’s frontiers, India is faltering in Myanmar with adverse consequences for the ‘look east’ and Northeast strategies. Departments in our capital blame one another for the loss of momentum, and no one is prepared to drive forward the agenda without a clearer directive of priority from the political leadership,
India’s maritime strategy focuses on threats in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi is not reassured by Burmese promises that its territory would not be used for military purposes against any third party, and the Indian military is concerned about China modernizing naval bases at Hanggyi, Cocos, Akyab, Mergui and the port at Kyauk Phuy. This has become an unequal triangular relationship where one party seems to be reaping all the benefits. New Delhi was reluctant to condemn Myanmar during the monk-led fuel-and-food protests of 2007 and quick to send relief after the recent cyclone. But while this was noted positively in the new capital of Naypyitaw, a realistic assessment is that if India had not responded in the way it did, there would have been a negative fall-out. The outcomes of the energies expended by India over the past two decades have been negligible. The situation calls for a re-appraisal designed to turn the tide more in our favour.
The author is former foreign secretary of India
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081105/jsp/opinion/story_10057616.jsp
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$3.2m lawsuit for defending Burmese migrants
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 16 February 2011
A Malaysia-based Japanese multinational is lining up a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit against a lawyer who is defending a group of Burmese workers threatened with deportation.
Electrical components’ company Asahi Kosei has denied allegations lodged by lawyer Charles Hector that it attempted to deport two workers back to Burma. The two men are among 31 who complained that their employers at the company had broken contractual obligations, including a refusal to pay the agreed salary.
Hector, who is defending the 31, went public with the allegations after receiving no response to a letter sent to Asahi Kosehi on behalf of the workers. He mustered the support of some 77 organisations in multiple countries who composed a media statement on the 11 February, as well as writing a post on his blog. It was after this that Asahi Kosei responded with their MYR10 million ($US3.27 million) legal threat.
“The attempt to go against human rights defenders personally is an attempt to suppress the public interest function that human rights activists play in highlighting violations of human rights visited on marginalised people by the bigger, more powerful employer companies,” said Pranom Somwong of the Workers Hub for Change (WH4C).
According to Malaysian government statistics, there are close to 100,000 registered Burmese workers in the country, comprising some five percent of the total registered workers. Rights group say however that hundreds of thousands additional migrants from Burma are unregistered. Given the sketchy legal status of many, violations of labour rights are believed to be common.
The situation between the 31 Burmese and their employers turned nasty on 7 February, a week after they filed their complaints, when a mob escorted by police arrived at their hostel in the Balakong township of Selangor, Malaysia, and threatened them. The mob then cut the electrics and walked off with household appliances, such as the hostel’s television and cooking utensils.
Mirroring a recent incident in Johor in Malaysia, the police allegedly nabbed two of the workers’ leaders, Thiha Soe and Aung San. They believed they were being taken to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, WH4C says, but managed to escape.
The following day the workers submitted a complaint to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and were preparing a complaint for the labour ministry when on 9 February they were given a new contract to sign. Accompanying the contract however was an ultimatum that if they refused to sign, they would be deported to Burma immediately.
Twenty-nine of the workers signed under pressure but Thiha Soe and Aung San refused. They were then separated and handed over to the recruitment agents who took them to unknown locations, possibly with a view to sending them back to Burma.
Asahi Kosei makes parts for a number of international brands, such as JVC, Seiko, Hitachi, Mitsubiushi, Philips and Sharp. It has denied all allegations, and told Hector that it had made all payments to the recruitment agents, thereby passing the blame onto them. But a subsequent letter sent by the veteran lawyer to the company was ignored, prompting him to go public with the case.
“The fact of the matter is that workers in a company should be the responsibility of the said company, and they cannot just avoid responsibility by saying that these are not their own workers but workers of some other company,” said Pranom.
http://www.dvb.no/news/3-2m-lawsuit-for-defending-burmese-migrants/14293
Thursday, February 17, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday, 15 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 15 February, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 15 February, 2011
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic
Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma
Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
Burmese junta continues to crush free press
Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper
Burma Arrests Publisher
Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
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Burma Affairs Discussed in the Czech Republic
The European Burma Network (EBN), a coalition of organizations promoting human rights and democracy in Burma, met for two days in Prague on Feb. 12-13. Members of the EBN said they remain deeply concerned about the lack of any improvement in Burma's human rights situation and the failure of the ruling regime to make any progress toward achieving genuine democratization.
Elections held in the country last November had no credibility, the EBN said, citing the fact that the vote did not meet any internationally accepted standards of being free and fair. Vote-rigging on behalf of the Burmese junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, was widespread. Published Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011 >>> Irrawaddy
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Vaclav Havel calls for more pressure on Burma
published: 15.02.2011, 12:47 | updated: 15.02.2011 12:49:41
Prague - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has called on the international community to step up the pressure on Burma to respect human rights, he said at a conference on Burma in Prague.
Human rights are a universal value and their respect should be demanded more strictly in the globalisation era, Havel said.
"The process of economic integration has not yet been accompanied by sufficient integration in the issue of human freedoms and fundamental human rights," he said.
Countries still seem to prefer economic and technological affairs to human rights, Havel complained.
The recent events in the Arab world show that the longing for freedom and democracy is universal, Havel noted.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg supported the effort at making Burma democratic.
The Czech Republic will further demand that human rights be not violated in Burma, Schwarzenberg said.
He said the European Union should take a clear stance to the situation in Burma.
The Czech Republic criticises the military dictatorship, introduced in Burma in 1962, and it supports members of the Burmese opposition.
Schwarzenberg pointed out earlier that although Aung San Suu Kyi, a Peace Nobel Prize laureate, was released from house arrest, roughly 2,000 dissidents were still being jailed. He was also highly critical of the last year´s parliamentary elections, which most observers say were manipulated by the military junta.
The previous elections, held in 1990, were clearly won by the National League for Democracy lead by Suu Kyi but the junta refused to hand power to the winning group and it kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years.
Author: C(TK
www.ctk.cz http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/vaclav-havel-calls-for-more-pressure-on-burma/596551?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed
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Rights Groups Call for Improved Migrant Rights
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A group of civil society organizations, which included Thai and Burmese organizations, sent an open letter to the Thai Ministry of Labor calling for safer and better working conditions for migrant workers in Thailand—most of whom are Burmese—who are often mistreated and exploited by local authorities and their employers.
The letter was signed by a group of 14 human rights organizations and delivered to Singhadet Chuumnart, the director of the Bureau of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Labor. The organizations asked him to take the lead in ensuring that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (the Asean Declaration) is enforced as a legal binding document in Thailand which protects undocumented as well as documented migrants in the country.
The group also called for access to appropriate education and training for the children of migrant workers and improvement in the enforcement of legal protections for women workers. In addition, they asked the Thai government to make information on laws and policies regarding and impacting migrants—including working conditions, types of jobs and existing health education and social services—accessible to migrant communities in their own language.
Andy Hall, the director of the Migrant Justice Program for the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), said, “We just try to push Thailand to ensure they act in accordance with the Asean Declaration with respect to the rights of migrant workers.”
The move came as representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines prepare to meet to draft an instrument designed to enable countries to effectively implement the Asean Declaration.
In their joint letter, the rights groups strongly urged the Thai government to take the lead in the Asean Committee on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.
Specifically, it urged the Thai government to work to ensure that the Asean Instrument to Protect and Promote the Rights of Migrant Workers is treated as a legally binding document, covers all migrant workers regardless of legal status and includes the families of migrant workers.
The HRDF told The Irrawaddy that the recent case of Chalee Diyo provides a prime example of migrant worker abuse in Thailand.
According the HRDF, Diyo is a 33-year-old Burmese migrant worker who is currently hospitalized in Bangkok due to a work related accident that broke his pelvis and caused severe damage to his intestines. Despite the fact that Diyo holds a legal work permit, the hospital in Pathum Thani Province where Diyo was first admitted asked the police to arrest him. The police complied, and the Burmese migrant was transferred first to Bangkok's Immigration Detention Centre and then to the Police General Hospital in Bangkok, where he was chained to the bed for four days until rights groups started a campaign against his unlawful detention.
“Chalee’s case is really symbolic,” Hall said, explaining that he is a work-related accident victim with a legal work permit who was detained for 16 days by Thai authorities.
The HRDF said in a statement that such cases as Chalee's should not happen in Thailand because it is shameful, inhumane and tantamount to an attempt to shield exploitative employers from responsibility. Every worker, regardless of his or her nationality, must be entitled to equal protection under the law and the concerned authorities must strictly enforce the law to hold negligent employers to account, the statement said.
With Chalee being threatened with deportation and incurring medical expenses totalling about 70,000 Baht (US $2,400) which his employer refused to cover, the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyer’s Council of Thailand (LCT) helped bring his case in front of the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court.
After reviewing Chalee's case, the court ordered on Tuesday that Chalee be released from custody immediately and that the Immigration Bureau pay him 3,000 Baht ($100) in damages. In addition, the court order stated that Chalee could not be deported to Burma and his employer must pay for his medical expenses.
After the court decision, Vasant Panich, the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the LTC and the lawyer who represented Chalee in court, said, “Chalee’s case highlights how law enforcement officials in Thailand continue to systematically abuse powers of arrest and detention, particular with migrant workers.”
HRDF Secretary General Somchai Homlaor said, “Chalee's case has exposed systemic failures in Thailand's systems of migration management and in particular systems for ensuring protection, treatment and compensation of migrant work accident victims.”
“Migrant work accident victims continue to be unprotected, falling outside work accident protection systems created by the Government for all workers in Thailand,” he added.
There are about 2 million documented and undocumented Burmese migrants in Thailand.
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20762
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Burmese junta continues to crush free press
By Zin Linn Feb 15, 2011 4:04PM UTC
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a press release on February 11 stating, “Burma’s new government under Prime Minister Thein Sein must put an end to the former military junta’s despicable policy of imprisoning independent journalists. The most recent case to come to light is the 13-year sentencing of Maung Maung Zeya in a trial held within Insein Prison on February 4.”
The court’s verdict came on the same day the junta-backed president Thein Sein was sworn into office.
Photojournalist Sithu Zeya was sentenced to eight years in jail on December 23. Zeya was sentenced by the military kangaroo-court for his photos of the scene of an explosion at a traditional water festival pavilion near Rangoon’s Royal lake in April last year according to his lawyers.
Sithu Zeya’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a video reporter, was sentenced on February 4, 2011 to a total of 13 years in prison by an arbitrary court in Rangoon. CPJ counted 13 journalists in jail in Burma as of December 1, 2010, making it one of the five worst jailers of journalists in the world.
Journalists based in Rangoon say the detentions were part of a continued crackdown by the military authorities on those involved in the anti-junta activities, including covering news in the exile media.
Burma is trapped in a dark age where freedom of expression has totally vanished. The junta is using the domestic media as a propaganda machine.
It is sad that this country sees no sign of freedom even in this Global Information Age. The junta controls all media access now. Since the monk-led protests known as the Saffron Revolution of September 2007, all news media in Burma is tightly restricted by the military junta. All daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under the junta’s command.
All articles for publication in Burma must be approved by the notorious Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, run by military officers. The military junta has determined that the prior censorship system will be continued regardless of the parliamentarian system started on 31 January, 2011.
Paris based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) ranks Burma 174 out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index. The country is one of the few in the world to operate such a strictly censored system. Burma’s ranking was expected and well deserved. In fact, there is no press freedom at all in Burma.
Even obituaries are subject to censorship. If someone wants to put one of his or her family members’ obituaries in the newspaper, it needs to pass the censor. Obituaries of political dissidents and their relatives had been refused permission by the board.
Journalists in Burma have received draconian jail sentences for reporting information challenging to the regime. In January 2010, DVB reporter Ms. Hla Hla Win received a 20-year sentence for violating the Electronic Act, and now in jail serving 27 years; her helper, Myint Naing got seven years.
Burma was at the forefront of press freedom in Southeast Asia before the 1962 military coup. The country then enjoyed a free press; censorship was something unheard of. As many as three dozen newspapers, including English, Chinese and Hindi dailies, existed between 1948 and 1962.
On the contrary, Burma stands downgraded from a free state to a prison state. All news media in Burma is strictly censored and tightly controlled by the military – all daily newspapers, radio and television stations are under control of the junta.
Some journalists and politicians had a dream prior of the recently held November 7 election that there may be a space for them in the new parliament. But freedom of speech for fresh members of parliament in Burma has been restricted under laws made by the sitting military junta. The emergence of a new nominated pro-junta USDP government seems to follow the former regime’s stance towards the press.
There is also a two-year prison term for any complaint staged within the parliament compound. The laws, signed by junta Chief Senior-General Than Shwe, claim that parliamentarians will not be allowed freedom of expression even in their relevant chambers.
Thus, there is no space for parliamentarians as well as journalists to practice freedom of expression under the so-called civilian government.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/48481/the-junta-refuses-allowing-press-freedom-in-burma/
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Ghosts of Panglong May Haunt Parliament
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, February 15, 2011
BANGKOK—The anniversary of the Feb. 12, 1947 Panglong Agreement is focusing some minds on the prospects of reform in Burma, days after the meeting of the new Parliament and the emergence of Thein Sein as the new President.
While the National Democratic Front (NDF) and other small, like-minded parties in Burma's new government may try to discuss issues such as political prisoners and press freedom, it remains to be seen how far they will be able to push these measures.
With the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) dominant in the legislature—backed by a 25 percent bloc representation from the country's army—it will be numerically impossible to pass any laws that the USDP and its allies do not agree with.
However the challenge facing Burma's reform-minded parliamentarians is not just to try to get legislation passed, but to get motions discussed in Parliament in the first place. According to Moe Zaw Oo, from the National League for Democracy, the new parliament's rules and procedures will make it difficult for opposition groups or anyone else to introduce any motions that might be anathema to the USDP, which won 76 percent of the vote in the November 7 elections last year. The USDP functions as the party front for the military junta, which is set to formally relinquish power in the coming weeks.
Irrespective of what transpires in the new Upper and Lower Houses, real power in the parliamentary system in Burma will lie with the president, who is not answerable to Parliament in any case. The new president, Thein Sein, will chair the new National Defence and Security Council, an 11-member committee that has been compared with the politburos of countries such as China and Vietnam.
It is not clear how the new structures will alter the existing relationship between the government and the country's ethnic minorities, many of which have been at war with the Burmese army, off and on, since the country became independent from British rule in the late 1940s. Improving relations between the Burmese rulers and the ethnic groups is key to longterm peace and stability in Burma, says Kheunsai Jaiyen, who heads a news agency focusing on Burma's largest ethnic minority, the Shan, which number around 6 million people.
“Today, unlike in the past, leaders from all the main ethnic parties agree with Aung San Suu Kyi that a new Panglong deal is needed to pacify the country,” he said.
He added that Suu Kyi was the only figure capable of overcoming the historic distrust between the majority Burmans and the ethnic minorities that make up almost 40 percent of the country's population and whose territories constitute around half of area of Burma.
“The main ethnic opposition parties followed Daw Suu’s lead in boycotting the election,” he said. “After their submissions to the National Convention that led to the 2008 Constitution and the new political system were completely ignored by the junta”.
Suu Kyi has called for a “21st Century Panglong Agreement,” along the lines of the 1947 deal between her father, Aung San, who emerged from World War II as the leading Burmese political figure, and representatives from some of Burma's main ethnic minority groups.
However, Khin Maung, an Arakanese activist speaking as representative of one of the groups who did not participate in the original Panglong deal, said that the idea of federalism and decentralized power is anathema to the Burmese military, which took control of the country in 1962 after the 1961 Taunggyi Conference, which he described as “a Second Panglong.”
“Almost all the main ethnic groups were at Taunggyi,” he said. “But the federal principles that emerged surely alarmed the military and led to the coup the following year.”
Suu Kyi's call for a 21st-century Panglong was criticized by the military government, and it remains to be seen if the NDF or others will or even can promote the concept in Parliament. The United States and some European countries have called for a loosely defined “national reconciliation” dialogue in Burma, as a prelude to any relaxing of sanctions on the Burmese rulers, and it is conceivable that the a Panglong-style process could play a major role in implementing such a dialogue.
However, the junta has taken a number of steps, dismissed by many as window-dressing, which could be used to undermine requests for any such reconciliation gathering. The appointment of a Shan vice-president, Sai Mauk Kham, and the creation of 14 regional legislatures means that the Burmese government can say it has worked to alleviate the concerns of ethnic minorities.
However, the ongoing stand-off between the Burmese army and the ethnic militias, who have been told to stand down and merge with the army, simmers on in the borderlands, with the Kachin Independence Organisation and the New Mon State Party labeled as “insurgents” by the government, signaling a deterioration of relations.
In the days after the Nov. 7 elections, armed clashes forced thousands of mainly ethnic Karen refugees into Thailand, and armed skirmishes and stand-offs have continued in border areas since then.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20761
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Military Rule, Not Sanctions, Cause of Hardship: Survey
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, February 15, 2011
RANGOON—Many Rangoon residents who spoke to The Irrawaddy as part of a recent survey said that Burma's military regime has used the debate over economic sanctions to disunite opposition groups, while most said that the junta's misrule was responsible for the country's economic troubles.
The survey showed that the disagreement between Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and other political parties over economic sanctions has grown and that people are disappointed with the regime's attacks via state-controlled newspapers on Suu Kyi and her party regarding this issue.
The Irrawaddy interviewed 100 people from different walks of life, including 10 low-income laborers, 20 university students, 12 company employees, 10 reporters, two retired government servants, one economist, five politicians not affiliated with any political party, two retired army personnel and a senior government official, about whether the current economic sanctions imposed on Burma should be lifted. Most of the interviewees said that getting rid of the existing administrative structure dominated by former generals was more important than lifting sanctions.
“Before the election, opposition groups were split into two factions. One faction wanted to contest the election but the other didn't. Now they are split into two factions again over the sanctions issue. We can say that the junta's divide-and-rule policy has been successful,” said one senior journalist, who added: “I don't think it is important now to debate whether to keep sanctions or lift them. It is time to topple the dictatorial system and get rid of a sham democracy.”
The economist who participated in The Irrawaddy survey said that while it is generally true that economic sanctions can hinder foreign investment, in Burma this is not the case. Other issues, such as the absence of rule of law, rampant cronyism and the lack of guarantees for foreign investments, are the main reasons that most foreign investors do not want to enter the country, he said.
“Economic sanctions are not the only thing blocking foreign investment. The existence of the rule of law and guarantees for those investments are important. No matter what sanctions are imposed on a country, foreign investors will still come as long as that country is stable, peaceful and has conditions conducive to doing business. From an economic point of view, it is more important to create such conditions than to remove sanctions,” said the economist.
Not everyone agrees with this point of view, however. In a joint statement issued on Feb. 12, Burma's Union Day, 11 of the country's political parties said that US economic sanctions on Burma were having a negative impact on both countries. According to the statement, the United States is losing US $15-19 billion annually because of the sanctions, including more than $1 billion in wages for its workers. The statement also claimed that Burma loses billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of job opportunities because of the sanctions.
The political parties that are calling for economic sanctions on Burma to be dropped include the National Democratic Front, the Democratic Party (Myanmar), the Union Democratic Party, the Union Kayin League, the Chin National Party, the Peace and Democracy Party, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, the Wonthanu NLD (Union of Myanmar), the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics and the Phalon Sawaw Democratic Party.
One respondent to The Irrawaddy's survey—a deputy director from the regime's Ministry of Commerce (MOC)—concurred that US and EU sanctions are having a significant impact on the country's economy, at least from the standpoint of government planning.
“Economic sanctions have really affected the country's economy. Whenever we discuss ways to improve the economy, we have to take sanctions into consideration. We have to think of ways to get our exports to Western markets by hiding the name of our country. We have to find ways to bypass barriers to our exports,” said the MOC deputy director.
However, an independent candidate in last year's November election denied that economic sanctions were seriously affecting the lives of ordinary citizens.
He noted that when companies like Eddie Bauer and Pepsi left the country some years ago as a result of the sanctions, products made in Burma or Thailand soon replaced them. He said that the regime is also not seriously concerned about sanctions because it has income from selling the country's natural resources and economic cooperation with China and India.
For the regime, he said, the sanctions issue was just something to be used to attack opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But one former major currently working as the manager of government-owned sugar factory said that members of the military are far from indifferent to the issue of Burma's persistent economic weakness, which he said was largely responsible for widespread corruption.
“Let's put the issue of economic sanctions aside. If you look at how officers in active service live, you'll find that most will do anything for their survival and their children's health and education. To be perfectly frank, they have to steal. Family comes first and they can't think of other things. And they are not aloneall the top-ranking officers are doing the same thing.”
Most of the students from Rangoon's Dagon University who spoke with The Irrawaddy took the view that this corrupt, military-dominated system is itself the chief cause of the many hardships that ordinary Burmese faced in their day-to-day lives. They said that
people needed to unite to change the current system, instead of arguing over the issue of sanctions.
“I don't think it was economic sanctions that made the country's education and health sectors so poor. Where does the regime spend the money it earns from selling natural gas and other resources? Who are the wealthiest people even when the country is under sanctions? Everything is caused because of this military system, so we have to fight against it,” said one third-year student.
Most of those who barely subsist on their daily wages said they don't really understand the issue of economic sanctions and are only interested in earning enough money to support their families.
One 30-year-old reporter from a Rangoon-based journal said that the Burmese regime is just using the sanctions issue as an excuse for its failure to improve the lives of ordinary Burmese.
“This regime doesn't care about economic sanctions at all. They are satisfied with the way things are right now. They are happy as long as they are in power and their families enjoy comfortable lives. They even killed monks to cling on power. Blaming the country's economic situation on sanctions is just an excuse,” said the reporter.
In a statement issued on Feb. 8, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) rejected the argument that sanctions have adversely affected the lives of ordinary citizens. It noted that the regime has never paid serious attention to the health and education needs of the country's people, despite earning billions of dollars from selling natural gas and other resources.
It is this neglect, and not the policies of Western governments towards Burma, that put the country at the bottom of the United Nations Development Program's 2011 human development index, below Cambodia and Laos.
On Feb. 13, Burma's state-run newspapers ran an article titled “Sanctions, Suu Kyi and the NLD,” which criticized Suu Kyi and her party for continuing to call for sanctions.
Since 1993, the US, the EU and other Western countries have imposed economic sanctions on Burma for the regime's widespread human rights violations, including rape and the use of child soldiers.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20760
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Myanmar parliament to touch on setting up of new union election commission
14:00, February 15, 2011
The ongoing union parliament session will touch on setting up of a new union election commission Tuesday, which is believed to function for the next general election after five years, according to Tuesday's official daily New Light of Myanmar..
A number of seven members for forming the new union election commission, proposed by president-elect U Thein Sein, was submitted to the union parliament session on Monday for discussion on Tuesday by the union parliament representatives.
The last union election commission chaired by U Thein Soe for the 2010 general election was formed by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.
In Myanmar's presidential election on Feb. 4 after the general election on Nov. 7, 2010, Prime Minister U Thein Sein won the presidency, while U Tin Aung Myint Oo and Dr. Sai Mauk Kham were elected as the vice presidents.
The terms of office of the president and the vice presidents are five years, according to the new state constitution.
The union parliament is constituted with two level of parliaments -- house of representatives and house of nationalities which involves elected ones in the November 2010 general election and 25-percent military-nominated ones.
Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7288393.html
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US blasts junta’s ‘old tricks’
By AFP
Published: 15 February 2011
The United States said Monday that military-run Burma is “up to its old tricks” with its threats against democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Burma claims there is a new era, but it is up to its old tricks by threatening #AungSanSuuKyi,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Twitter. “New suits does not a new system make,” Crowley added.
State media in Burma warned in a commentary that Suu Kyi and her party will “meet their tragic ends” if they keep up their opposition to an end to Western sanctions.
The remarks follow a recent statement by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) that argued that the punitive measures were helping to pressure the authorities and had not affected the economy significantly.
It was the first explicit criticism of the Nobel Peace Prize winner by state media since her release in November after seven years of house arrest, days after an election that was denounced by democracy activists and the West.
The NLD reacted cautiously to the commentary, saying it had not received any official response from the authorities to its statement on sanctions.
In its statement issued last week, the NLD stressed that any end to sanctions on Burma should be linked to an improvement in the junta’s human rights record, notably the release of political prisoners.
The remarks came days after Washington said it was premature to ease sanctions on Burma and urged the regime to take more concrete steps.
Suu Kyi’s release reignited debate over the effectiveness of the financial and trade measures, enforced notably by the United States and the European Union in response to the junta’s human rights abuses.
Two pro-democracy parties that took part in the November polls have called for an end to sanctions on the grounds that they do not benefit the wider population.
Suu Kyi’s party has no voice in a newly opened parliament dominated by the military and its proxies.
Some observers see the sanctions issue as her only leverage with the authorities because Western nations are considered unlikely to scrap the measures without her support.
http://www.dvb.no/news/us-blasts-junta%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98old-tricks%E2%80%99/14270
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New editor-in-chief for Burmese newspaper
Former Myanmar Times newspaper chief, Ross Dunkley, as identified in the Phnom Penh Post. He is being held in Burma on immigration charges. [AFP/Phnom Penh Post]
Zoe Daniel, South-East Asia correspondent
Last Updated: 6 hours 48 minutes ago
A new editor-in-chief has been appointed to Rangoon's Myanmar Times, replacing the newspaper's former boss who is being held in a Burmese prison.
The Australian founder of the the Myanmar Times, Ross Dunkley, was arrested last Thursday and is being held on immigration charges, although it is unclear exactly what they are.
Before his arrest he had been engaged in negotiations over the management of the paper with its Burmese co-owner, Tin Tan Oo.
He was appointed to the position by the military government after the previous co-owner was jailed for 14 years for publishing the paper without the correct permits.
Australian mining executive Bill Clough, who is also a co-owner, has now agreed to Tin Tan Oo taking over as editor.
Mr Clough is in Burma negotiating with authorities for Ross Dunkley's release.
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201102/3139390.htm?desktop
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Burma Arrests Publisher
By Luke Hunt
February 15, 2011
It had to happen. Nobody expected the Burmese junta to let the good times roll unimpeded once the rigged elections of last November were out of the way. But I’d thought the focus of their institutionalized paranoia would again be pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. I was wrong.
Instead, the authorities have arrested Australian publisher Ross Dunkley, who is anything but The Lady, and have thrown him behind bars in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, notorious among human rights activists for its atrocious conditions.
His February 10 arrest followed a story published by The Irrawaddy about an internal power struggle at the Myanmar Consolidate Media, which publishes the weekly Myanmar Times, a solid newspaper that trains journalists and focuses on news and current affairs outside of Burma. Local news is censored.
Dunkley is co-founder and one of two major publishers (the other is the owner of Swezon Media Group, Tin Htun Oo, a member of the ruling party who won a seat in the November general election representing the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party).
According to The Irrawaddy, Tin Htun Oo covets the position of chief executive officer and editor-in-chief, a move rejected by Dunkley and which has resulted in an acrimonious split between the pair. Further reports suggest that Tin Htun Oo has simply seized control of the newspaper.
Dunkley is also publisher of the Phnom Penh Post and has extensive media experience in Southeast Asia and Australia. I chatted with Dunkley last week, and he mentioned The Irrawaddy article and that he was returning to Burma, where he intended to state his case.
Silence followed.
David Armstrong, Chairman of Post Media, which publishes the Post, said he was deeply concerned, and noted the arrest was linked to the dispute at the Myanmar Times. He added that some reports surrounding the reasons have been inaccurate. The arrest, he said, ‘coincides with tense and protracted discussions Mr Dunkley and the foreign ownership partners in the Myanmar Times have been conducting with local partners about the future direction of the publishing group, ownership issues and senior leadership roles—all this at a time of significant political and economic change in Myanmar.’
In Cambodia, the Overseas Press Club (OPCC) was equally concerned about the arrest, and fears it could be part of increased authoritarianism—a growing trend in many countries around the region—while free press advocates from across Southeast Asia and further afield are also worried.
Dunkley’s a tough bloke and will hopefully pull through this ordeal. He’s also a free trade advocate, and his arrest speaks volumes about the bullying of a junta that believes its November elections were grounds for the dropping of sanctions and its re-emergence into the wider world.The bicameral national Parliament has sat for the first time, which brought the new Constitution into effect and officially ended 50 years of military rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed the lifting of punitive measures, prompting Burma's state media to warn that Suu Kyi and her party will meet ‘tragic ends’ if they keep up their support of Western sanctions. By locking up Dunkley, the junta has hardly helped its cause. So it’s business as usual.
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/02/15/burma-holds-australian-publisher/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29
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Burma Appears to Tighten Grip on Media
Ron Corben | Bangkok February 14, 2011
In this June 26, 2007 photo, Ross Dunkley, the editor-in-chief of the Australian publisher of an English-language Myanmar Times' poses for photo with packs of heroin during a ceremony to destroy seized narcotic drugs in Lashio, northeast of Yangon, Myanm
The arrest in Burma of Ross Dunkley, the Australian publisher of the Myanmar Times, has raised fears of even tighter control over Burma’s media by the military.
Dunkly was was arrested in Rangoon shortly after returning from overseas last week. A pioneer in Southeast Asia news media, he founded the Times in 2000.
But there have been reports of a conflict over control of the paper.
Dunkley currently holds 49 percent of Myanmar Consolidated Media, which oversees the paper. The remaining shares are held by Tin Htun Oo.
A statement Monday from the Thailand-based Post Media, a sister company of Myanmar Consolidated, called for Dunkley’s immediate release after authorities failed to press charges. He reportedly was arrested for visa violations and drug possession.
His arrest may have more to do with control over the paper than crime, says Aung Zaw, the editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine about Burma published in Thailand.
"What is clear is that there was conflict between Dr. Tin Htun Oo and Ross Dunkley; and now it is apparent they want to take over the whole Myanmar Times," he says. "That’s why I think probably they will frame up the charges against him, which doesn’t surprise anyone."
Dunkley’s initial partner in the pro-military paper was Sonny Swe, the son of former Brigadier General Thein Swe.
But Thein Swe fell from favor with the top leadership. Sonny Swe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison in 2005. His shares were passed to Tin Htun Oo.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, has long been ruled by the military, which keeps tight control on the media and most aspects of the economy and public life. The country’s first parliament in 22 years was elected in November, but more than 80 percent of its members are either in the military or linked to it. And the parliament selected former Prime Minister Thein Sein to be the new president.
Aung Zaw says Dunkley had initially been hopeful that Burma’s tight media controls would ease. But he says those controls and the country’s politics meant the paper was always a risky investment.
"Ross ... should realize Burma is a political graveyard for everyone," he said. "Even he should realize how many journalists and reporters are being apprehended and spending time ... in prison."
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma says around 30 journalists and media activists are among Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Dunkley also publishes the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia. Some journalists familiar with the operation say there are fears that the loss of the Burma paper could hurt finances at the Post. But the Post on Monday said that although its management is concerned for Dunkley’s well-being, the paper is running as normal.
Dunkley has been viewed as a media maverick and risk taker, after investing in Vietnam’s fledgling news industry in the early 1990s.
Reporters Without Borders in 2010 ranked Burma as 174th out of 178 countries in its annual press freedom index. Several media analysts in Southeast Asia say with Dunkley’s arrest points to tighter control over the media by the military. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Burma-Appears-to-Tighten-Grip-on-Media-with-Arrest-of-Australian-Publisher-116152119.html
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