News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday, 12 April, 2011
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US urges Myanmar to free political prisoners
EU Should Support Commission of Inquiry on Burma
Myanmar Could Develop Nukes with N Korea's Help
Shan Farmers to Sue Govt over Land Seizures
Human Rights Abuses Reported in Shan State Clashes
Myanmar ATS drugs on rise, reveal UN report
Burma told to free prisoners
Burma military developing a secret weapon in north
Activists Fight to Stop Dam across Mekong
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US urges Myanmar to free political prisoners
MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press
Updated 05:11 a.m., Tuesday, April 12, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most important step Myanmar can take to improve its international relations is to free its more than 2,000 political prisoners, a U.S. official said Monday, as Washington prepares to appoint a special envoy to the country.
Joseph Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, described the November release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after years of house arrest as "very significant."
But Yun urged Myanmar to go further. He described the government recently installed after elections that were boycotted by Suu Kyi's party as "much the same people as before," which means they are dominated by the military.
Yun said the United States was continuing its two-track policy of retaining sanctions while seeking to engage Myanmar. That approach was adopted by the Obama administration about 18 months ago after two decades of efforts to isolate the military government failed to force positive change.
Speaking at a conference on Myanmar at Washington's Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Yun said the coming appointment of a U.S. envoy to the country, expected to be defense official Derek Mitchell, would give Washington a new interlocutor to speak with government and opposition, coordinate U.S. policy and work with the international community.
"We are looking for the release of political prisoners. I think that would be the single most concrete item Naypyidaw could do for the international community," Yun said, referring to Myanmar's administrative capital.
Yun said the U.S. also wants assurances the security of Suu Kyi and her supporters is not under threat, and the government to legitimize her party and bring it and other democratic and ethnic opposition parties into the political mainstream.
The U.S. offer of engagement was not sustainable forever "unless we get something for it," Yun said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is urging Western nations to lift sanctions against Myanmar, an ASEAN member. They have been imposed for its alleged rights abuses and suppression of democracy. The European Union is likely to ease sanctions slightly on Tuesday by lifting a visa ban for a year on certain civilian members of the military-led regime, an EU official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.
Any easing would open a gap between the EU and the U.S., which says it is too early to lift sanctions.
Suu Kyi's party won elections 1990 but was barred from taking power. The party was outlawed for refusing to participate in the November vote. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past two decades under house arrest.
Associated Press writer Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/US-urges-Myanmar-to-free-political-prisoners-1332490.php#ixzz1JJNzqX82
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EU Should Support Commission of Inquiry on Burma
Tuesday, 12 April 2011, 10:32 am
Press Release: ITUC
EU Should Support Commission of Inquiry on Burma
Brussels, 11 April 2011 (ITUC OnLine): The ITUC and the ETUC are calling on the European Union to support the holding of a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, when the EU renews its Burma policy on 12 April.
"The Burmese military junta is responsible for appalling crimes over many years. Europe, and the rest of the international community, should support international moves for a UN Inquiry, to ensure that justice is done on behalf of the victims of the regime's reign of oppression and violence," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
"There is already significant support within European governments for a UN Inquiry to be launched, and the EU as a whole now needs to fully support it. Europe needs to take a strong stand and show that the regime cannot continue to act with impunity," said ETUC General Secretary John Monks.
ENDS http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1104/S00306/eu-should-support-commission-of-inquiry-on-burma.htm
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Tuesday, 12 April 2011 13:55
Myanmar Could Develop Nukes with N Korea's Help
WASHINGTON, 12 APRIL, 2011: Myanmar has not yet developed the technology for nuclear weapons, but has a chance of succeeding with help from North Korea, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported a scholar as saying Monday.
Speaking to a seminar at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Robert Kelly, a nuclear engineer, said Myanmar has several factories capable of enriching uranium that were built with German technology.
"When the Germans are inspecting, the factories appear to be civilian," said Kelly, a fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
"But when they are gone, the same machine tools are being used by military personnel to make equipment for missiles and the nuclear fuel cycle," Yonhap quoted him as saying.
Citing testimony from several defectors from Myanmar (Burma), some of whom have worked at the factories, and satellite photos, Kelly said that the Southeast Asian nation has made "efforts to develop gas centrifuges."
He dismissed as "poor, especially for high-tech activities such as missile and nuclear facilities" the quality of workmanship at the Myanmar factories, but did not preclude the chance of Myanmar succeeding.
"All experts judge that many of these efforts will be unsuccessful and beyond Burma's reach," he said.
"So the programme is not an immediate military threat, unless there are big changes. These would include support from another country such as DPRK and a shift to more useful technologies such as gas centrifuges. And Burma has a chance of eventually succeeding, still probably only with outside help."
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
US officials have repeatedly warned of possible nuclear proliferation to Myanmar from North Korea.
In June last year, a North Korean cargo ship, possibly on its way to Myanmar, returned home after being closely tracked by US Navy vessels.
North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun visited Yangon, Myanmar, in July, prompting the US to issue a statement calling on Myanmar to abide by an arms embargo and other UN sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests in 2009.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also expressed concerns in July about North Korea's alleged proliferation of nuclear technology to Myanmar.
"I've also shared with the minister our concerns about the exporting by North Korea of military materiel and equipment to Burma," Clinton said at the time.
"We know that a ship from North Korea recently delivered military equipment to Burma and we continue to be concerned by the reports that Burma may be seeking assistance from North Korea with regard to a nuclear programme."
-- BERNAMA http://www.malaysiandigest.com/world/20861-myanmar-could-develop-nukes-with-n-koreas-help.html
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Shan Farmers to Sue Govt over Land Seizures
By KO HTWE Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Five farmers from the Tachilek and Kengtung townships in Shan State are planning to file a lawsuit against local authorities who confiscated their land, according to a lawyer representing the group.
Nearly 100 acres of local farmland was seized by township authorities over the past three years, much of which has been sold to Chinese businessmen who have converted the arable land into rubber plantations.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, lawyer Myint Thwin said that some of the land had been seized a long time ago, but farmers were unable to file a suit against the local government under the previous administration of the State Peace and Development Council.
“Now we can file a lawsuit by quoting articles from the new constitution,” he said. “The businessmen who took over the land have no legal documents.”
“The local authorities and businessmen have taken advantage of illiterate farmers,” he said.
Myint Thwin said he also received a letter of complaint from the farmers about land in Kachin State being confiscated due to the construction of a railway line.
Across the country, farmers have had land confiscated by Burma's military authorities and distributed to private companies. According to lawyers, who also provided documented evidence to The Irrawaddy, some 8,500 acres of farmland was seized in Rangoon Division, nearly 5,000 acres in Irrawaddy Division, 1,338 acres in Kachin State, and 600 acres in Mon State. Farmers in each of these regions have filed complaints and lawsuits, but no action has been taken.
The head of the Burmese military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, delivered a Peasants' Day message on March 2 assuring the nation that the government is taking measures to improve the agricultural sector.
According to the 2008 constitution, Chapter (VIII) Act 356 states that “the Union shall protect according to law movable and immovable properties of every citizen that are lawfully acquired.”
However, 10 villages in Zayar Thiri Township in Naypyidaw are to be relocated because of a shopping center construction project for the forthcoming 2013 SEA Games, according to local residents.
“The villages must be relocated, each dispossessed villager will receive 500,000 kyat (US $500) per acre and a plot of land,” said a representative of the construction company.
The date for the relocation has not yet been fixed, but nearly 1,000 households have been forced to be relocated.
“500,000 kyat per acre won't last long,” said a dispossessed villager from Popa Kone. “But we can maintain our standard of living with just one acre of land.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21117
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Human Rights Abuses Reported in Shan State Clashes
By SAI ZOM HSENG Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Large-scale human rights abuses occurred during recent fighting between Burmese government troops and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North), which has left hundreds of thousands of local people in fear for their lives, according to a Shan human rights organization.
The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), a Thailand-based organization, issued a statement on Tuesday regarding human rights abuses committed by the Tatmadaw (Burmese armed forces) during clashes between the Tatmadaw and the SSA-North.
According to the SHRF statement, villagers are being tortured and killed on suspicion of supporting the Shan resistance. In addition, women are being targeted for sexual violence—three women were gang-raped in separate incidents in the conflict area, the statement said.
SHRF spokesperson Kham Harn Fa said, “Northern Shan State is being plunged into war and new atrocities inflicted on our people. Now is definitely not the time to lift sanctions against the regime.”
The conflicts started on March 13, when the 22-year-old cease fire agreement between the SSA-North and the Tatmadaw was broken. The SHRF statement said that the Tatmadaw mobilized 3,500 troops from over 20 battalions to attack the headquarters of the SSA-North in Mong Hsu Township, which is near the border between northern and southern Shan State.
Namp Lao village, located in the northeastern part of Mong Hsu, is where the first clash broke out. According to the SHRF statement, four novices were killed and two villagers injured by the Tatmadaw in that clash, and fighting then spread to Tang Yan, Kesi, Mong Yai, Hsipaw, Lashio and Kyaukme townships, with 65 battles taking place in the last three weeks.
A source close to the SSA-North from Lashio, the capital of northern Shan State, told The Irrawaddy that the SSA-North is using guerrilla warfare tactics to fight the Tatmadaw.
“When the Burmese Army attacked the Namp Lao and Wan Hai bases, which are the strongest bases of the SSA-North, the troops were spread into different areas. But the SSA-North troops are fighting back against the Burmese troops,” a local source said.
On March 31, SSA-North troops launched a bomb attack on an army convoy from the No 291 Light Infantry Battallion based in Nam Paung village, which is about 25 miles from Lashio. A villager from Nam Poung said that no one was injured in the bomb attack, but the vehicles were destroyed.
Over 100 local people from five to seven villages near Nam Paung were then forced to relocate to an area which has been controlled by Burmese army troops since the end of March.
A villager who formerly lived in Nam Hma Mauk Tong village, where SSA-North troops are also based, said that they were ordered by the No 291 Light Infantry Battalion based in Nam Paung to move to the new location. If they refused to do so, they would be arrested and their village burned, he said.
“About 50 soldiers came into the village after several gun fights occurred. Then they told every villager to get outside of the house and started looking for SSA-North soldiers inside. When they saw a picture of someone in an olive green suit like an SSA uniform, they seized the whole family without asking anything and took the electronics. After that they destroyed the rest,” said a local source who has moved to a new village.
“At that time I just prayed to the Lord Buddha to escape from such a terrible moment,” he continued. “Everything was okay when the SSA-North troops were based in our village. They even solved some problems for us.”
A source close to the SSA-North said that Col Yang, the leader of the SSA-North troops based in Nam Hma Mauk Tong, has fled but is still ordering his troops to fight back against the Tatmadaw.
Military observers said that Tatmadaw attacked the SSA-North, which has at least 3,000 troops, because it refused to transform into a border guard force under Burmese military command. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21119
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Myanmar ATS drugs on rise, reveal UN report
12 April 2011
Political instability in Thailand's border areas is abetting Myanmar's infamous narcotics trade. A new UNODC report highlights a surge in the production of amphetamine-type stimulants and a new increase in its domestic demand.
drug-production-in-Myanmar.jpg
A police lab technician in Bangkok examines a shipment of siezed yaba/ Photo credit: Steve Sandford/IRIN
Chiang Rai: The young man sits on the railing of the long tail boat, explaining how he smuggles amphetamines into Thailand from Myanmar.
"When I transport 'Ya Ba' [crazy drug], I come down this way," says the ex-Wa army soldier, pointing across the River Kok on the Thai-Myanmar border, as the wooden vessel glides by a Thai checkpoint on the shoreline.
A sprawling border region, largely controlled by ethnic armies within Myanmar and corruption within the Thai security forces, has aided a thriving narcotics trade along the 1,800km border.
In 2009, seizures of pills in Myanmar and the countries immediately bordering Shan State tripled from the previous year, a trend that has continued in 2010, a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) states.
Between January and September 2010, more than 44 million pills were seized in Thailand alone, while over 22 million pills were confiscated in Lao PDR, it added.
Most amphetamines are produced in small, mobile labs near Myanmar's borders with China and Thailand, primarily in territories controlled by active or former ethnic insurgent groups, many of which now operate as criminal syndicates rather than politically motivated insurgents, according to the 2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy (INCS) report released in March.
"Burma's drug enforcement authorities have not suppressed drug production and trafficking from the ceasefire enclaves of certain ethnic minorities, primarily the region controlled by the United Wa State Army [UWSA]," it stated.
But while the UWSA is considered a prime player in the drug trade, there is also a surge in production - of both amphetamine tablets and heroin - by militia groups aligned with Myanmar's military-led government.
This is attributed to the army's reliance on taxation of opium, and its policy to allow proxy militia groups to deal in drugs in exchange for policing resistance activity, maintains Shan expert Kuen Sai.
Despite promises by the UWSA to eradicate poppy fields in its Northern Myanmar region, the policy has led to a rise in opium production in other areas of the country, he said.
"As the drug trade goes, it has a balloon effect. When it was suppressed in the Wa area it went to other areas. The production began to build up in other areas of Shan state," explains Kuen Sai.
"But not all of the drugs are produced by the Wa," he adds. "Along the Thai-Burma border there are many areas not under control of the Wa. They are mostly under the control of the Burma army and militia groups. These militia groups are the main competitors for the Wa right now."
Thai challenge
Drug eradication has been a constant challenge for Region 4 Special Forces Colonel Peeranate Ketthem, who overseas the northern borders of Thailand.
"The drug organizations have set up the factories in the ethnic groups' community, where they can control production.
"For example, in northern Shan state they've built up factories in four or five places and also built a factory in the area between Ko Kang ethnic group and Wa state."
The colonel estimates that less than 30 percent of the total amount of drugs being smuggled in is actually intercepted by Thai forces.
Indeed, the vast stretches of land between the two borders provide ample room for crossing undetected.
Smuggling experience
On the Kok River, the former Wa soldier tells of the smuggling he once undertook just to survive.
Often going without proper food and supplies, the former soldier would get just over US$300 for each delivery down the river. The parcels, containing 10,000-20,000 tablets, were usually wrapped in watertight packets.
"The people who would order me to do the deliveries were usually army commanders. We couldn't really refuse."
And with no signs of the conflict easing up, most observers expect the drug problem to continue.
According to the INCS report, in 2010, Myanmar was categorized by US President Barack Obama as one of three countries to have "failed demonstrably" to meet its international counter-narcotics obligations and all indications suggest the country's production of amphetamine type stimulants continued to rise.
Myanmar, Venezuela and Bolivia are among 20 countries - including Afghanistan, Colombia and Mexico - that have been identified as "major illicit drug producing and/or drug transit countries", according to the report sent to the US Congress.
Source : IRIN http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/myanmar-ats-drugs-on-rise-reveal-un-report
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Burma told to free prisoners
WalesOnline
Apr 12 2011
The most important step Burma could take to improve its international relations was to free its 2,000-plus political prisoners, a top US official said.
Joseph Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs, said the US also wanted Burma to legitimise the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, which was outlawed before November elections that were swept by pro-military parties.
Mr Yun said the US was continuing its two-track policy of retaining sanctions while engaging Burma, but said engagement was not sustainable forever “unless we get something for it”.
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/latest-world-news/2011/04/12/burma-told-to-free-prisoners-91466-28503912/#ixzz1JJJR237t
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Burma military developing a secret weapon in north
Tuesday, 12 April 2011 17:19 KNG
An unknown chemical weapon is being developed in highly-secured areas in the country’s north, by workers wearing protective suits and guarded by Burmese military personnel, according to witnesses.
The secret site where the weapon is being developed is situated in Mabein Township, in southern Shan State, close to the border with Kachin State, according to locals and timber loggers.
Sources at the weapon site told the Kachin News Group (KNG), workers at the site have to wear NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) protective suits and the guards have also been alerted that people who breathe the gas from the site will die.
However, the secret weapon has not been identified yet, the sources added.
mabein-burmaNo one except workers are authorized to approach or enter the secret weapon project site by Burmese soldiers, who have guarded the site since the project started early last year, locals said.
Since last year, Chinese timber loggers and trucks have been banned from entering logging sites in the Mabein area, where teak is logged and transported to the Chinese border.
The site is isolated from villages in the township and it is also not accessible by local ethnic armies like the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), local observers said.
The military-controlled Burmese government is cooperating with North Korea and Russia for the development of modern weapons and a nuclear bomb. http://www.kachinnews.com/news/1886-burma-military-developing-a-secret-weapon-in-north.html
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Activists Fight to Stop Dam across Mekong
By DENIS D. GRAY / AP WRITER Tuesday, April 12, 2011
BANGKOK — A plan for the first dam across the Mekong River anywhere in its meandering path through Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam has set off a major environmental battle in Southeast Asia.
The $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam is slated for the wilds of northern Laos and would generate power mostly for sale to Thailand. The project pits villagers, activists and the Vietnamese media against Thai interests and the Laotian government in its hopes of earning foreign exchange in one of the world's poorest countries.
In this 2010 photo released from the NGO International Rivers, a fisherman works near the site of the proposed Xayaburi Dam in Paksey, northern Laos. (Photo: AP)
A decision on whether the dam gets the green light, is axed or deferred for further studies is expected April 19 during a meeting in the Laotian capital among Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Opponents warn it could open the way for 10 more dams being considered along the lower Mekong.
"Our lives and livelihoods depend on the health of the Mekong River," said Kamol Konpin, mayor of the Thai riverside town of Chiang Khan.
"As local people have already suffered from dams built upstream in China and watched the ecosystem change, we are afraid that the Xayaburi dam will bring more suffering."
China has placed three dams across the upper reaches of the Mekong, but otherwise its 3,000-mile (4,900-kilometer) mainstream flows free.
The Xayaburi would cut across a stretch of the river flanked by forested hills, cliffs and hamlets where ethnic minority groups reside, forcing the resettlement of up 2,100 villagers and impacting tens of thousands of others.
Environmentalists say such a dam would disrupt fish migrations, block nutrients for downstream farming and even foul Vietnam's rice bowl by slowing the river's speed and allowing saltwater to creep into the Mekong River Delta.
A Thai firm would build the 1,260 megawatt hydroelectric project. However, Thai villagers along the river are staging protests and planning to deliver letters to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Lao Embassy in Bangkok, where the Thai government has maintained an official silence on the issue.
Pianporn Deetes, of the US-based International Rivers, said environmentalists are ready to take their case to court if Abhisit doesn't deliver a positive response.
Last month, 263 non-governmental organizations from 51 countries sent letters to the governments of Laos and Thailand urging that the project be shelved.
Laos said in February that the Xayaburi would be the "first environmentally friendly hydroelectric project on the Mekong" and that will "not have any significant impact on the Mekong mainstream."
"We are excited about this project," the statement said.
Vietnam's official media, in a rare disagreement with its communist neighbor, has blasted the dam, while scientists and environmental groups have called for its construction to be delayed for 10 years until more research is conducted.
"It seems that countries of the lower Mekong still haven't learned lessons from the impact of the Chinese dams," Pianporn said. "Xayaburi is so important because it could set off the destruction of the lower Mekong."
Since 2007, there have been proposals to put up 11 mainstream dams in Cambodia and Laos.
The Mekong River Commission, set up by the four Southeast Asian neighbors in 1995 to manage the river, has expressed serious reservations about Xayaburi. A study by the group recommended a 10-year moratorium on all mainstream dams, a stand supported by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a Southeast Asian trip earlier this year.
The commission cited feared damage to migrations of between 23 and 100 fish species, among a host of other environmental problems.
Another MRC document showed nobody spoke in favor of the dam during public consultations this year in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, while many officials, academics and residents cited problems or lack of information about the project. No consultation was held in Laos.
"If this project goes ahead it would be unimaginably irresponsible," said Ame Trandem of Rivers International.
Somkiat Khuengchiangsa, who has spent his life along the river and heads The Mekong-Lanna Natural Resources and Culture Conservation Network, said governments are more interested in the economics of the project than its effect on residents.
"Rivers are not the property of nations or groups of people.
They belong to all mankind," he said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21115
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 12 April, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Monday, 11 April, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Monday, 11 April, 2011
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US set to appoint envoy to revive Myanmar policy
Refugees fearful of Thai warning
Myanmar has lots to do on rights: US
US lawmakers demand probe into Burma-North Korea ties
Burma Has a 'Long Way to Go': US
Obama Urged to Report on Burma, N Korea Relationship
US envoy to Myanmar is expected to foster regional diplomacy
Thailand wants to close Myanmar refugee camps
Military Plays a Civilian-Looking Game
RNDP calls for decentralization in states, regions
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Apr 11, 2011
US set to appoint envoy to revive Myanmar policy
WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT Barack Obama plans to name a defence official as special envoy to Myanmar who is expected to seek more help from the repressive government's neighbours in pressing for democratic reform.
But building agreement on the best way to proceed will be tricky.
Southeast Asian nations have called for lifting sanctions, which the US still opposes, while regional powers India and China have their own strategic relationships with Myanmar and have shown little appetite for meddling in its internal affairs.
To be confirmed by the Senate, Derek Mitchell, who is now the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, will likely have to voice support for sanctions and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. That could make it tougher for the envoy to negotiate with Myanmar's dominant military once he is in the job, said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Washington's Georgetown University.
Mr Mitchell, a China scholar with long experience in Asia, declined to comment on his nomination, which is expected within a week and would require him to give up his current job.
But a 2007 article he co-authored in Foreign Policy magazine when he was director for Asia strategy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, offers clues on how he'd like to operate as envoy. -- AP http://www.dvb.no/news/refugees-fearful-of-thai-warning/15263
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Refugees fearful of Thai warning
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 11 April 2011
Refugees fearful of Thai warning thumbnail
A Thai soldier escorts Karen refugees who fled across the border in November last year (Reuters)
A Thai governor’s recent suggestion that thousands of refugees housed in camps along its northwestern border may have to return to Burma has sparked concern among the refugee community.
More than 145,000 men, women and children have lived in nine camps in Thailand for the past 30 years but that may soon end, Tak governor Samart Loifah told media last week, adding that the Thai government should consider asking them to return voluntarily.
He also reportedly said that foreign assistance to the camps should be cut to encourage them to leave, while Thailand had ditched plans to screen those without legal status to see if they qualified as genuine refugees, and not economic migrants.
Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down well among the refugees, the majority of whom have fled decades of conflict in Burma’s eastern Karen state.
“I won’t go back even if the government says so,” said Saw Tapeseh, who lives in Nobo camp in Phop Phra district. “I have no home to go back to – the villages I used to live as a child have disappeared. I don’t know where to return to. There is no security for me to return next year; the border area is currently littered with landmines and clashes.”
Fighting continues along the Karen state border as Burmese troops battle an ethnic alliance of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Karen National Union (KNU).
Saw Tun Tun, chairman of Mae La camp, the largest in Thailand with a population of nearly 46,000, said he had little optimism that things would change in Burma.
“I don’t think they [new Burmese government] will be able to solve armed conflicts in the border region. That’s why we harbour no hope of returning yet… The international organisations concerned must provide us with the minimum level [of assistance].”
Refugees have continued to move back and forth across the border since a fresh wave of fighting broke out in November last year. The border area remains heavily landmined, and civilians are often forced to porter for the Burmese army.
There have also been rumours that the Burmese army has threatened to confiscate property belonging to the refugees unless they return this month.
Saw Albert from the Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) said that the refugees could face problems obtaining food and accommodation if they are sent back soon, particularly those who fled years ago.
http://www.dvb.no/news/refugees-fearful-of-thai-warning/15263
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Myanmar has lots to do on rights: US
Monday, 11 April 2011 02:19
WASHINGTON: The United States has said that Myanmar had far more to do to improve human rights after freeing Aung San Suu Kyi, in a report that also aired concern over Vietnam, Cambodia and
the Philippines.
In an annual survey on human rights, the State Department pointed to “severe” abuses in Myanmar including frequent killings, rapes and forced labour of ethnic minorities at the hands of the country’s powerful army.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, freed pro-democracy icon Suu Kyi in November. The military leaders have officially ceded to civilians as part of a political transition, although outside observers consider the
step cosmetic.
“We continue to be very concerned about the situation in Burma, especially, I would say, the continued detention of more than 2,000 political prisoners,” US official Michael Posner said as he presented an annual human rights report.
“We continue to call for their release, but also (to end) the very harsh and unreasonable restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. So we have a long way to go,” said Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour.
President Barack Obama’s administration is expected shortly to name a special coordinator on Myanmar policy, an appointment which Posner said would help the United States engage on issues including human rights.
The report also pointed to human rights concerns elsewhere in Southeast Asia — particularly Vietnam, where it said that at least 25 political activists
were arrested.
“The government increased its suppression of dissent,” the report said. “Police commonly mistreated suspects during arrest or detention.”
The report said that historic discrimination persisted against ethnic minorities, although it also pointed to efforts by Vietnam to address grievances in the Central Highlands by improving education and infrastructure.
Human Rights Watch, a private US watchdog, in a recent report said Vietnam was stepping up repression of the Montagnard people, forcing hundreds to renounce their religion.
The State Department report also raised concerns about Cambodia, saying that security forces “committed arbitrary killings and acted with impunity,” often abusing detainees to extract confessions.
The survey said that Cambodia restricted freedom of speech and press and pointed to efforts seen as weakening non-governmental organizations, which have been active in the country since its recovery from war.
Posner said the push against NGOs was part of a worldwide trend by governments to make life difficult for critics.
“The law makes it very hard for NGOs to register, especially small ones, and I think it does not do a service to the Government of Cambodia to keep pursuing this law,” Posner told reporters.
In the Philippines, the State Department report said that extrajudicial killings were “serious problems” and also pointed to harassment of leftist and human rights activists and arbitrary arrests.
“Members of the security services physically and psychologically abused suspects and detainees, and there were instances of torture,” it said. On Laos, the State Department said that the one-party state restricted freedom of speech and at times freedom
of religion. AFP http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/148540-myanmar-has-lots-to-do-on-rights-us-.html
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US lawmakers demand probe into Burma-North Korea ties
Monday, 11 April 2011 15:51 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Citing reports that Burma’s military regime has obtained North Korean missile technology and nuclear programme assistance, three US Republican senators sponsored a resolution last Friday calling on President Obama’s administration to investigate the ‘growing relationship between the governments of Burma and North Korea’.
The April 8 resolution was sponsored by Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who is a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the most senior members of his party in Washington, and was cosponsored by Republican senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Inhofe.
It called on the Obama administration to make public ‘an unclassified report as to the volume of ships and planes from North Korea visiting Burma, via China and elsewhere, in 2009, 2010, and through March 2011’.
Reports of Burmese-North Korean cooperation gained credibility last year following the Burmese exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma’s special report featuring the testimony of an escaped Burmese military scientist, Major Sai Thein Win. The defector’s allegations were further strengthened by the disclosure of top secret US diplomatic cables which detailed American suspicions that Burma is working to develop both rocket and nuclear programs with the assistance of North Korea. The cables were disclosed by Wikileaks and the Guardian newspaper at the end of 2010.
Lugar’s Burma resolution calls on President Obama to ‘provide leadership by calling for an international investigation into allegations of international crimes against civilians in Burma, including ethnic minorities, by the Government of Burma’ and the release of all political prisoners.
While the US government has endorsed the idea of such an inquiry, the US State Department has not been very active in encouraging other nations around the world to do so. The commission of inquiry was first proposed in March last year by Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma.
Burma democracy activists have complained that lack of American interest in the commission of inquiry was one of the reasons that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon failed to mention the potential for an inquiry in his report on the situation of human rights in Burma issued to the UN General Assembly last September.
The Lugar resolution also noted that two years into his four year term, President Obama is still yet to appoint a Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma as mandated under the 2008 JADE Act. According to recent press reports, Obama will soon appoint the current principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs Derek Mitchell.
At a press conference on Friday afternoon in Washington, Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told reporters that the Obama administration is still concerned by the situation in Burma.
Posner said that Burmese democracy activist ‘Aung San Suu Kyi is now free, but it's a limited freedom, and she doesn't, certainly, have the ability or her party to operate in any sense in a way that allows her to really oppose what the government's doing’.
Posner also criticized Burma’s new military-dominated legislature saying, ‘We now have a new parliament in place, but it is not clear that it is going to make any difference in terms of opening up the space’. http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/5135-us-lawmakers-demand-probe-into-burma-north-korea-ties.html
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Burma Has a 'Long Way to Go': US
By LALIT K JHA Monday, April 11, 2011
WASHINGTON—Expressing concern over deteriorating human rights conditions, a top Obama administration official has said that Burma has a long way to go with regard to the rights situation in the country.
“We continue to be very concerned about the situation in Burma, especially, the continued detention of more than 2,000 political prisoners—we continue to call for their release—but also the very harsh and unreasonable restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and her party,” said the Assistant Secretary for State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner.
“So we have a long way to go there,” Posner told reporters on the occasion of the release of the 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
“Under the JADE Act, we are supposed to be appointing a special representative, and I think that’s about to happen, although it hasn’t been formally announced. But that, I think, will be a signal of a kind of renewed effort on our part to revisit some of these questions and figure out where to go from here,” he said.
Former US President George Bush in July 2008 signed into law the Burma Jade Act, restricting the import of precious Burmese gems and stones and extended existing import sanctions on Burma.
In his interaction with foreign journalists at the Washington Foreign Press Center, Posner said that even though Suu Kyi is now free, she doesn't have the ability to really oppose what the Burmese government is doing.
“That's a concern, but also the continued detention of over 2,000 political prisoners is something we continually raise, will continue to raise. We now have a new parliament in place [in Burma], but it is not clear that that's going to make any difference in terms of opening up the space,” Posner said.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused the junta of curtailing Internet freedom. “In Burma and in Cuba, government policies preempted online dissent by keeping most ordinary people from accessing the Internet at all,” she said.
In its report, the US State Department alleges that the Burmese regime continued to abridge the right of citizens to change their government and committed other severe human rights abuses in the year 2010. While the government security forces were responsible for extrajudicial killings, custodial deaths, disappearances, rape, and torture, it detained civic activists indefinitely and without charges.
“In addition, regime-sponsored mass-member organizations engaged in harassment and abuse of human rights and prodemocracy activists,” the report said. “The government abused prisoners and detainees, held persons in harsh and life-threatening conditions, routinely used incommunicado detention, and imprisoned citizens arbitrarily for political motives.”
The army continued its attacks on ethnic minority villagers, resulting in deaths, forced relocation, and other serious abuses, it said, adding that the government routinely infringed on citizens' privacy and restricted freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement.
“The [Burmese] government did not allow domestic human rights nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] to function independently, and international NGOs encountered a difficult environment. Violence and societal discrimination against women continued, as did recruitment of child soldiers, discrimination against ethnic minorities, and trafficking in persons, particularly of women and girls,” it said.
“Workers' rights remained restricted. Forced labor, including that of children, also persisted. The government took no significant actions to prosecute or punish those responsible for human rights abuses,” the report said, adding that ethnic armed groups and some cease-fire groups also allegedly committed human rights abuses, including forced labor and recruitment of child soldiers. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21109
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Obama Urged to Report on Burma, N Korea Relationship
By LALIT K JHA Monday, April 11, 2011
WASHINGTON—A top US senator has introduced a resolution in congress urging the country's president, Barack Obama, to report on the growing military relationship between North Korea and Burma.
“Greater attention should be focused on the details and scope of military equipment and technology transferred from North Korea to Burma,” said Senator Richard Lugar, ranking Republican in the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The resolution introduced by Lugar, and co-sponsored by senators Mitch McConnell and James Inhofe, also urges the US president to call for an international investigation into allegations of international crimes by the Burmese junta; and to encourage countries neighboring Burma to establish safe havens for children forced into military service by Burma’s government.
It also calls on the US president to actively work with other countries for a release of all remaining political prisoners. “Events in other parts of the world should not detract from obtaining a reality check regarding the elevated military and strategic collaboration between North Korea and Burma,” Lugar said.
Noting that the Burmese military junta continues to: coerce children, including ethnic minorities, into participating in combat and other military roles; and continues to coerce civilians, including ethnic minorities, to serve as human minesweepers, the resolution says the Burmese government continues to coerce civilians, including ethnic minorities, to serve as porters and assist military personnel.
Alleging that North Korea and Burma are expanding their bilateral military relationship, the resolution says military and other personnel from North Korea have reportedly been in Burma providing technical and other assistance toward the development of the military capabilities of the Burmese junta.
The congressional resolution says that North Korea has reportedly provided radar systems and capabilities, missiles and missile technology, underground tunneling technology, and multiple rocket launchers to Burma. The two countries are also collaborating on matters related to the development of Burma’s nuclear program, it said.
The resolution also refers to alleged collaboration between Russia and Burma on nuclear technology, noting that hundreds of persons from Burma have gone to Russia for specialized training, including in the area of nuclear technology. Burma is acquiring additional MIG aircraft from Russia, it says.
“Given the growing relationship between the Governments of Burma and North Korea, the President should provide the Congress with an unclassified report as to the volume of ships and planes from North Korea visiting Burma, via China and elsewhere, in 2009, 2010, and through March 2011,” the resolution demands.
“The President should provide leadership by calling for an international investigation into allegations of international crimes against civilians in Burma, including ethnic minorities, by the Government of Burma,” it says.
Stating that the US president should seek the assistance of friends and allies of the United States who actively engage with the government of Burma and have diplomatic missions in Burma, including Singapore, Japan and South Korea, to encourage the release of all remaining political prisoners, the resolution says the US president should encourage countries neighboring Burma to establish safe havens for Burmese child soldiers fleeing from forced military service by the junta.http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21108
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US envoy to Myanmar is expected to foster regional diplomacy
Likely new US envoy to Myanmar is expected to foster regional diplomacy to press for reforms
MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press
6:33 a.m. EDT, April 11, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to name a special envoy to Myanmar who is expected to seek more help from the repressive government's neighbors in pressing for democratic reform. Building agreement on the best way to proceed will be tricky.
Southeast Asian nations have called for lifting sanctions, which the U.S. still opposes, while regional powers India and China have their own strategic relationships with Myanmar and have shown little appetite for meddling in its internal affairs.
To be confirmed by the Senate, Derek Mitchell, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, probably will have to voice support for sanctions and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. That could make it tougher for the envoy to negotiate with Myanmar's dominant military once he is in the job, said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University.
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Mitchell, a China scholar with long experience in Asia, would not comment on his nomination, which is expected within a week and would require him to give up his job at the Pentagon.
An article he co-authored in Foreign Policy magazine in 2007, when he was director for Asia strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, offers clues on how he'd like to operate as envoy.
The article suggested bringing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, India, Japan and the United States together in developing a road map that would lay out benefits if Myanmar pursued true political reform and national reconciliation, and the costs it would suffer if it continued to be intransigent.
In the years since the article was written, Myanmar has launched another bloody crackdown on democracy protesters, continued brutal military campaigns against ethnic minorities and seen thousands flee across its borders. U.S. officials also suspect Myanmar has nuclear ambitions and imported some Scud missiles from North Korea, which Myanmar's neighbors would be worried about, too.
The Obama administration has retained sanctions but opened the door to dialogue. But in its foreign policy, Myanmar has been eclipsed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear program and turmoil in the Middle East, among other issues.
Lawmakers and human-rights advocates have long pressed for an envoy for Myanmar to give it greater attention. After abandoning America's two-decade-long policy of isolating Myanmar, the administration has periodically sent senior officials to meet with Suu Kyi and the government, without making headway. Washington says it remains open to dialogue.
Agreeing to talk has at least removed an obstacle to U.S. engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which has become a focus for deepening American trade and security ties in the region, countering the rising power of China. In a shift, ASEAN also has voiced some criticism of recalcitrant member Myanmar and urged reform.
T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said that regional diplomacy was the best way forward, although Myanmar has so far proved deft in balancing its ties with China and India and resisting international pressure.
Steinberg said Myanmar's chief ally China in particular would view U.S. involvement with suspicion and probably would only weigh in and ask for modest reform if Myanmar faced a mass uprising or border fighting that threatened stability.
"Working with ASEAN is the only route right now," he said.
There is a glimmer of an opening. After five decades of military rule, Myanmar recently has seen some political changes, albeit superficial ones. Having rejected an election victory by Suu Kyi's party in 1990, the military organized polls last year that were viewed by most of the international community as unfair. They ushered in what they called a civilian government, but it still is dominated by the military.
It has freed Suu Kyi from years of house arrest, although it outlawed her party.
Some European nations have now joined ASEAN in calling for lifting sanctions, even as rights groups, exiled Myanmar activists and some U.S. lawmakers seek to toughen them.
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-us-myanmar,0,2964498.story
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STARITS TIMES: Apr 11, 2011
Thailand wants to close Myanmar refugee camps
BANGKOK - THAILAND wants to close its Myanmar refugee camps and repatriate the more than 100,000 residents following their country's first election in 20 years, a government official said on Monday.
'They have been in Thailand for more than 20 years and it became our burden to take care of them,' National Security Council chief Tawin Pleansri said after a meeting of the government body chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
'I cannot say when we will close down the camps but we intend to do it,' he said. 'We are now in the process of discussion with the Myanmar government.'
Most of the refugees in the camps along the border fled civil war-torn villages in the east of Myanmar, where power was recently handed to a nominally civilian government after almost five decades of military rule. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_655524.html
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BURMA
Military Plays a Civilian-Looking Game
Analysis by Larry Jagan
BANGKOK, Apr 11, 2011 (IPS) - A new quasi-civilian government has taken over in Burma, but diplomats, analysts and pro-democracy activists are dismissing it as nothing more than "old wine in a new bottle".
Burma analysts believe that strongman Than Shwe has only retreated to the backroom. Than Shwe recently stepped down as commander-in-chief of the Burmese army and relinquished day-to-day control of the country after nearly two decades as head of the military junta.
"He is likely to be pulling the strings from behind the curtain," said the Burmese academic Win Min, now based in the U.S. "He will use his influence behind the scenes, relying on personal patronage and connections."
"If anyone thinks this new government is a step towards democracy they are sadly mistaken," said Maung Zarni, researcher at the London School of Economics.
Yet there are those who see change coming to Burma, though not the sort that most Burmese people are yearning for.
A new system of government has been unveiled, in which parliament will play a subsidiary part, and the executive, headed by newly elected president Thein Sein, will play the leading role.
The new government was formed after elections last November, in which the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won by a landslide. Most western countries, and the pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have rejected the results as a sham.
But there has been a clear transfer of power to a new generation. Although mainly military men or former soldiers, most of Burma’s new leaders are under the age of 60 and have a technocratic background. Even the military officers turned politicians, who occupy part of the 25 percent of parliament seats reserved for serving soldiers, have a different outlook.
The new army chief, 55-year-old General Min Aung Hlaing, is reported to be a professional soldier keen on restoring the prestigious image of the army tainted by the repression after the uprising of 1988, and the 22 years of authoritarian rule that followed.
There are other signs of change. On his recent visit, senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin, the fourth most important man in the Communist Party’s political bureau, did not meet Than Shwe. Jia was instead hosted by Thura Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House and vice-president of the ruling party USDP.
But there are other signs that those who have resigned or retired from the army no longer have their military stripes. Soldiers no longer guard the homes of former top military officers, including Than Shwe and the former No. 2 leader Maung Aye, either in the capital Naypyidaw or Rangoon, according to residents in these cities. The police have taken over that duty, as they do in most countries that are regarded as civilian democracies.
This is a sign that Burma is moving, albeit tentatively, towards becoming a civilian-governed society. Of course, what Burma is experiencing now is a transition; it is not yet democracy and it may not yet be significant change. It is something akin to Indonesia under Suharto’s Golkar-led government.
This may not be the sort of democracy that most Burmese people want, but it could be a significant step towards an Asian-style democracy. Even in Thailand the military continues to play a significant political role behind the scenes, and in the recent past shown it was not averse to intervening with force as it did in September 2006, the last time the military staged a coup.
This is the critical hope for Burma - a transition similar to what has happened in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand in the last 20 years.
Of course, worrying signs still remain that Burma’s form of "disciplined democracy" as the military prefer to call it, may not match the minimum standards of civilian-military regimes in the rest of Asia. Too many military men and former soldiers dominate the country’s emerging political scene. Change is impossible as the military mind remains entrenched even in the new political system which pretends to be a civilian administration, according to Maung Zarni of the London School of Economics.
Even if the top generals have retired to the back room, the new crop of officers are effectively clones. "The officer corps are a sub-class of society that has come to view themselves as the ruling class, feeling they are eternally entitled to rule," Zarni said in an interview with IPS.
"Whoever takes their places (Than Shwe and Maung Aye) will not be more enlightened or more progressive, simply because they have all been inculcated with thuggish, racist, sexist and neo-totalitarian leadership values, and only junior generals who are their mirror image have been promoted," said Zarni.
As yet there is still little room for discussion and dialogue - crucial elements of a democracy or an emerging civilian form of government. Parliament is yet to be a fully functioning legislature, though some questions that had been taboo before - ethnic education issues, land confiscation, the release of political prisoners - were put to the president.
The parliament is now in recess and may not meet again for another year, the minimum set by the constitution. But above all there is no role as yet for Burma’s real opposition - Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) - though the opposition leader has asked to meet the new president and government, according to senior sources in the NLD.
But there is good reason to remain skeptical. Change will not happen quickly. "The train has left the station, but we don’t know where it going or how long the journey will be," said a Burmese academic on condition of anonymity. (END) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55200
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RNDP calls for decentralization in states, regions
Saturday, 09 April 2011 16:18 Te Te
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Members of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) say more decentralisation of authority by the central government is needed to give regions more autonomy and control of their local affairs.
A meeting of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party. Photo : Narinjara
A meeting of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party. Photo : Narinjara
The RNDP was given three ministerial posts in state government, ‘but we still don’t know yet how much power and authority we will get. Fulfilling the election promises given to our people depends on this. If central government officials control all power despite the existence of state governments, there will be no difference’, RNDP general secretary Oo Oo Hla Saw told Mizzima.
The nine-minister Rakhine State Government is led by Rakhine Chief Minister Hla Maung Tin (a former colonel); three ministers are from the RNDP’ five ministers are from the USDP and one minister was a defence services appointment.
The RNDP party ministers are Kyaw Thein (fishery, livestock, mining and energy) from Mrauk-U No. 2 constituency; Thar Lu Chay (Industry, Labour, Sports) from Sittwe constituency 1; and Aung Than Tin (Culture, Social Welfare and Relief) from Ponnagyun constituency 1.
One of the biggest challenges facing the region is a regular supply of electricity in Rakhine State at an affordable price, said Oo Oo Hla Saw.
‘Rakhine State does not get electricity from the national power grid and it has to rely on fuel-fired turbines, distributing at the rate of 500 kyat (US $0.58 cents) per kilowatt hour (KWh) in comparison with normal rates of 25 kyat ($0.30 cents) from the national power grid. Building a hydropower plant is time consuming and needs heavy investment. A bran-fired power plant makes pollution. The state government has difficulty in supplying electricity because we don’t get cheap gas’, Oo Oo Hla Saw said.
He said that the central government should allow states full authority in the economy of the state and in production of livestock, fisheries and agriculture.
Since the formation of the new government, there has been some loosening of control transporting farm produce from state to state in the agriculture sector, he said. Also, the RNDP believes that pointing out corruption in governance is a sign of progress and a benefit to the state, he said.
He said that one area of corruption in Rakhine State involves the illegal sale of fishing rights in the sea by authorities with the collusion of businessmen.
The newly installed state government may stall one auction of fishing rights by amending some regulations, he said.
Rakhine State is the only state with three ministers from a single ethnic political party in the state government.
Region or state governments are made up of a chief minister, ministers and an advocate general. The central government has the authority to intervene and to make decisions in administrative disputes in the states.
The Rakhine Cabinet:
1. Colonel Htein Lin (appointed defence service legislator), Border Affairs
2. Kyaw Khin (USDA), Agriculture, Forest and Irrigation
3. Hla Han (USDA), Religion and Immigration
4. Dr. Aung Kyaw Min (USDA), Health and Education
5. Mya Aung (USDA). Economics
6. Soe Aye (USDA). Transport and Communication
7. Aung Than Tin (RNDP). Culture and Social Welfare, Relief
8. Kyaw Thein (RNDP), Fishery and Livestock, Mining, Energy
9. Thar Lu Chay (RNDP). Industry, Labour and Sports http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/5134-rndp-calls-for-decentralization-in-states-regions.html
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