News &Articles on Burma-Tuesday, 28 February 2012-uzl

News &Articles on Burma Tuesday, 28 February 2012 ----------------------------------------------- Thein Sein: Reformist or Caretaker? E.U. delegation to meet Suu Kyi 88-generation students volunteer to help end Kachin conflict U.N. should consider commission of inquiry on Burma: AI Teenager ‘tortured, forced into sex trade’ Exiled media weigh up return to Burma Myanmar relaxes grip on media, vows end to censors Outside vote monitors to observe Burmese election Burmese army officers deny arrest of missing Kachin woman Hu Lost Burma ----------------------------------------------- Thein Sein: Reformist or Caretaker? By AUNG ZAW / THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, February 28, 2012 This is the final part of a three-part series. Part one is here, and part two is here. If meeting with Suu Kyi was the act that convinced many that Thein Sein was serious about at least some degree of reform, then his decision to suspend work on the China-funded Myitsone Dam project was what helped dispel the notion that he was weak and indecisive. The decision was a slap in the face to China, Burma’s giant neighbor and traditional ally that for years had shielded the Burmese regime from UN Security Council censure debates and international condemnation. But Thein Sein was rewarded for his audacity, because the move brought him domestic accolades, served as a signal to the West that Burma wanted to balance out its relationship with China and significantly increased the momentum for his reforms. “Despite his tender appearance outside, he is usually a man of determination,” said presidential adviser Ko Ko Hlaing. “After consideration, he keeps his decisions steadfastly.” However, some critics have noted that many other Chinese-funded and controlled mega-projects, including other Irrawaddy River dam projects and a gas pipeline and railway line to China’s Yunnan Province, remained untouched. There are also skeptics who continue to argue that all of the steps Thein Sein and his government have taken were a façade meant to gain the 2014 Asean chair and get Western sanctions lifted and international investment flowing into domestic businesses controlled by the ex-junta leaders and their cronies. From the very beginning of his administration, Thein Sein has made no secret of the fact that one of his main goals was to forge good relations with Burma’s most vocal international critic, the US. From that point of view, his Myitsone gambit worked brilliantly to convince Washington that not only was he capable of making a break with the past, but also that he had something to offer. In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Zaw Htay, the director of the president's office, made it clear that the Myitsone decision was not just about environmental concerns or the “will of the people,” as Thein Sein had said when he announced the suspension of the project. “My president’s cancellation of the Beijing-backed Myitsone Dam signaled to the world what he stands for,” wrote Zaw Htay. “If the United States neglects this opportunity, Washington will part ways with the new order in the Indochina region.” He added: “What the West must realize is that in today’s geopolitical situation, particularly given the rise of China, it needs Myanmar.” By playing the China card so effectively—and at the same time demonstrating to China that Burma couldn't be taken for granted—Thein Sein greatly strengthened his hand, albeit at considerable risk to a relationship that remains crucial to Burma's future and, possibly, his own hold on power. Even as he signaled a desire to move Burma away from its excessive dependence on Beijing, Thein Sein was careful to give China pride of place among the country's strategic partners. China was his first destination after coming into office, followed by India. He also moved to cement ties with the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), hoping to use the grouping to enhance the legitimacy of his government, which after all owed its existence to an election widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. In November, Thein Sein did in fact convince Asean to grant Burma its 2014 chair, and on the heels of that decision US President Barack Obama announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would become the first top US diplomat to visit Burma in over 50 years. But while her visit itself gave the new government another injection of legitimacy, Clinton held the line and said that sanctions would not be lifted until further reforms were made. That tough stance was later rewarded with the release of hundreds of political prisoners—a long-time demand of Washington and the West. On Jan. 13, some of Burma's most famous dissidents, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Gambira, were freed in yet another signal that Thein Sein was listening to his critics, both at home and overseas. But there have also been signs that he is now facing real opposition from other quarters. Despite his public call on the Burmese military to end its offensive in Kachin State, attacks on the Kachin Independence Army continue to this day. When asked recently about the discrepancy, Ko Ko Hlaing noted that the army's chief, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, is a member of the NDSC and added that “Our country is no longer an autocratic state as before.” These comments cryptically implied that Thein Sein has no personal power to tell the Burmese military to refrain from anything. But many foreign visitors who have met Thein Sein have described him as impressive, in his own quiet but commanding way. He has shown that he is a good listener, and in spite of hardline and moderate divisions in the government, insiders say he is still very much in control. One story goes that when he saw a news report published in both The Irrawaddy and the Bangkok Post suggesting that Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo was constantly undermining him and perhaps gearing up for a military coup, Thein Sein simply asked his staff to bring him extra copies of the news article. He then pinned a short note to the clippings and sent them over to the vice-president's office. No one knew what was written in the short note, but many in his office assumed that he politely asked the first vice president to read the article. According to officials in Naypyidaw, Thein Sein has since brought Tin Aung Myint Oo into his camp. But the question is whether the military is fully behind the president and his reform process. Several ministers are also sitting on the fence, waiting to see how the power struggle between the hardline and reform factions plays out. Informed sources said that some members of the NDSC do not support the president. In any event, Thein Sein remains an enigma. He is a man who has demonstrated some admirable qualities while acting as one of the leaders of a brutally immoral regime. He is also a man who has spent his adult life obeying the military chain-of-command in an authoritarian junta who now purports to head up a civilian government on the path towards democracy. Finally, he is the man who most believe represents the Burmese people’s best hope for internal government reform, while remaining closely connected to those who wish to remain in absolute power. Under these circumstances, the Burmese people should receive understanding for their continued insistence that it is the actions of Thein Sein’s government, rather than his personal words, that will convince them that he is the real deal when it comes to reforms. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23107 ------------------------------------------------ E.U. delegation to meet Suu Kyi Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:56 Mizzima News (Mizzima) – In another example of the West reaching out to Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi will receive her first European delegation of lawmakers on Wednesday in Rangoon. The European Parliament members said they welcomed recent positive developments in Burma, and they will invite Suu Kyi to address the European Parliament at a later date. The delegation, led by Werner Langen of Germany will visit the newly elected Burmese Parliament to establish formal inter-parliamentary relations, meet with President Thein Sein, various ministers, representatives of civil society and members of the opposition. The European Parliament is expected to vote on removing more E.U. sanctions against Burma sometime after the April 1 by-election, and also to consider implementing more humanitarian aid packages. E.U. Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced on February 13 the release of a US$ 200 million aid package to Burma, earmarked to benefit the health, education and infrastructure. Piebalgs said President Thein Sein had noted in their meeting that in spite of major reforms in Burma, the EU sanctions were still in place. Piebalgs said he told the president that if the April 1 by-elections were free and fair, “then everyone would expect the easing of sanctions to continue.” An end to E.U. sanctions would require the consensus of 27 EU countries, something that is “not such an easy thing to achieve,” Piebalgs said. Reports from Brussels said that on April 23, E.U. foreign ministers would explore the possibility of a substantial reduction of sanctions on Burma. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in early February on signed a partial waiver on restrictions that will allow the U.S. to support assessment missions and limited technical assistance by international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, in Burma. The assessments by international financial institutions will provide means to gain a greater understanding of Burma’s economic situation, particularly its severe poverty alleviation needs and capacity gaps. The waiver was important in light of Burma’s need to create a banking and foreign exchange system in line with international standards and to reform its economic structure. Currently, it is working with the IMF, which is assessing its economic structure. Burma’s relationship with the U.S. has evolved rapidly in the past several months to the point where the U.S. is now considering reinstating a modest aid program and not oppose moves by the International Monetary Fund and other key bodies to offer assistance to Burma as it attempts to emerge from two decades of isolation. Burma’s hope is that the U.S. and other countries will lift economic sanctions, which were put in place after the former military regime attacked and killed hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in 1988 and began a systematic imprisonment of pro-democracy activists. The Associated Press reported that during Clinton’s meeting with President Thein Sein he outlined his government's plans for reform in a 45-minute presentation in which he acknowledged that Burma lacked a recent tradition of democracy and openness. He asked for U.S. help in making the transition from military to full civilian rule. At the time, Clinton was quoted as saying: “We’re not at the point yet where we can consider lifting sanctions. But any steps that the government takes will be carefully considered and will be matched.” http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6667-eu-delegation-to-meet-suu-kyi.html --------------------------------------------- 88-generation students volunteer to help end Kachin conflict Tuesday, 28 February 2012 16:52 Ko Pauk New Delhi (Mizzima) – The 88-Generation students who arrived at Myitkyina in Kachin State on Thursday have offered to help broker a peace deal between ethnic groups and the government. The group issued a statement to the media titled “Myitkyina Echo for Peace in Kachin State.” The four-point statement said that greater cooperation is needed between all parties to allow humanitarian relief supplies to reach displaced refugees as quickly as possible. According to the statement, the 88-Generation students believe the country’s problems are two fold: ethnic issues that prevent nationwide peace and the lack of sufficient economic development throughout the country. Only with peace can economic development progress, it said. The statement acalled on both sides “to hold a political dialogue as soon as possible to end the civil war and to establish genuine peace.” Mya Aye, a member of the 88-Generation student group, said the group, which is comprised of many former political prisoners, is ready to mediate between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to achieve a cease-fire in Kachin State. National League for Democracy chairman Aung San Suu Kyi, who campaigned in Namti in Kachin State on Thursday, has also offered to mediate between the two sides. Fighting resumed in mid-summer and negotiations between the two sides has progressed slowly. Up to 50,000 war refugees are estimated to have been displaced by fighting in ethnic areas. So far, only a small amount of organized international aid has been allowed access to the refuges. The group’s leaders were invited to visit Myitkyina Township to attend a prayer ceremony to mark the suspension of the Myitsone Dam Project. An organizer told Mizzima that 88-generation students and Rangoon journalists were invited because the two groups were involved in activities urging the government to stop the dam project. “Their visit will mean that Kachin war refugees might receive their help. They were involved in activities urging [the government] to stop the dam. I hope that they can be involved in activities to try to establish peace in Kachin State,” an organizer said. Mya Aye told Mizzima that 16 leaders of the 88-Generation group, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeya and Jimmy have expressed support and sympathy for the war refugees. “Our objective is not just to attend the ceremony. Although we don’t have any money or materials to give to the war refugees, we can give them mental support,” Mya Aye said. http://www.mizzima.com/special/kachin-battle-report/6668-88-generation-students-volunteer-to-help-end-kachin-conflict.html ----------------------------------------------- U.N. should consider commission of inquiry on Burma: AI Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:38 Mizzima News (Mizzima) – Burma’s human rights situation has improved notably in some respects but it has significantly worsened in others, Amnesty International (AI) said this week. It called for the U.N. to seriously consider a commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes and systematic human rights abuses. amnesty-international-logoFreedoms of assembly and expression remain restricted, and hundreds of political prisoners and many prisoners of conscience remain in jail. In several ethnic minority areas, the army continues to commit violations of international human rights and humanitarian law against civilians, including acts that may constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes, AI said in a statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. “Many of these reported crimes are taking place despite cease-fire agreements between the Myanmar army and the relevant ethnic minority armed groups,” AI said in its statement. “In some cases, the cease-fire is not being obeyed, while in others serious human rights violations continue even when the fighting has stopped.” Civilians have been a target of the Burmese army, the statement said. It cited “credible accounts” of the army using prison convicts as porters, forcing them to act as human shields and minesweepers. In Kachin State, where at least 55,000 people have been internally displaced since fighting resumed in mid-2011, AI said sources reported extrajudicial executions, children killed by shelling and other indiscriminate attacks, forced labour, and unlawful confiscation of food and property. Human rights violations are not confined to the conflict zones, as evidenced by reports of forced labour on a large scale in Chin and Rakhine states (usually targeting the Rohingya ethnic minority in the latter), it said. It said that in May 2011, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma referred to evidence that the armed forces continue to commit serious and systematic violations with impunity. AI said Burma’s civilian government “has not taken any meaningful steps toward holding suspected perpetrators of human rights violations accountable.” The Investigation and prosecution of human rights violations and crimes against humanity are obstructed by Article 445 of the 2008 Constitution, which stipulates that “no proceeding” may be instituted against officials of the military governments since 1988 “in respect of any act done in the execution of their respective duties.” AI called for the U.N. to “seriously consider the establishment of an international commission of inquiry.” In an early February statement, Ojea Quintana stressed that moving forward on Burma cannot ignore or whitewash what happened in the past, and that acknowledging the violations suffered will be necessary to ensure national reconciliation and prevent future violations from occurring. AI noted that ethnic minorities make up approximately 35-40 per cent of Burma’s population, including people of Chinese and Indian ethnicities. According to the government, there are at least 135 different ethnic nationalities in Burma, but the exact number is difficult to determine conclusively. “There is clear evidence that Myanmar’s authorities often target members of ethnic minorities on discriminatory grounds, such as religion or ethnicity, or seek to crush their opposition to major development projects that adversely affect their lands and livelihoods,” the AI statement said. In addition, the government often suppresses social organizations, including groups focused around religion or ethnic identity that are outside its authority and control. Some minorities’ ethnic identity in Burma is closely related to their association with a religion other than the majority Buddhism; this generally means Islam for most Rohingya, and Christianity for many Chin, Kachin, and Karen. The Rohingya ethnic minority is particularly exposed to human rights violations, as they are singled out in practice and law, with discrimination against them codified. “Under the 1982 Citizenship Law, they are denied citizenship and thus are de facto and de jure stateless,” AI said. “The international community must improve its understanding of the aspirations of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities generally and give greater attention to addressing the needs of these minorities in discussions of the country’s human rights situation,” said the statement. Amnesty International urged the U.N. HRC to: – Support the establishment of an international commission of inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international crimes in Burma; – Renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma for a three-year term. – Call on the government of Burma to: – Immediately cease violations of international human rights and humanitarian law against ethnic minority civilians, both in conflict and ceasefire areas; – Hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable; – Release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience, including Khun Kawrio and Ko Aye Aung, and release political prisoners or charge them with an internationally recognizable criminal offence and try them in full conformity with international standards for fair trial; – Seek assistance from the United Nations in convening a panel to reconcile differences in numbers and definitions of political prisoners; – In full consultation with the UN and Burma civil society, amend or repeal laws used to stifle peaceful political expression, and reform the justice system; – End immediately torture and other ill-treatment and punishment during interrogation and in prisons; – Bring prison conditions in line with international standards; –Cooperate fully with U.N. human rights treaty bodies and Special Procedures, including the Special Rapporteur on Burma; –Ratify and effectively implement core U.N. human rights treaties and their optional protocols and the Rome Statute of the International Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6665-un-should-consider-commission-of-inquiry-on-burma-ai.html ----------------------------------------------- Teenager ‘tortured, forced into sex trade’ By NAW NOREEN Published: 28 February 2012 Location of Kyaunggon in Irrawaddy, where the teenager was forced into prostitution (DVB) A 17-year-old girl has filed a complaint with the International Labour Organisation in Rangoon in which she claims she was forced to become a sex worker by her aunt and uncle, who duped her parents into allowing them to care for the teenager. The girl, from the Irrawaddy division town of Kyaunggon, who has not been named, told DVB that the case was lodged with the ILO on Monday after she received assistance from the National League for Democracy party. “Basically she [aunt] was selling me for prostitution,” the girl said. “She took money from men and forced me go with them and I didn’t get a penny of it. I wasn’t even given time to rest – I was taken out [for prostitution work] every night.” She claims she was made to sleep with six to 10 clients each day on average. On two separate occasions she tried to escape. “I tried to run twice and they caught me and beat me up and threatened to stab me to death. They choked my neck and kicked me. In the end I ran and they have been harassing me since. I want action taken on them.” Thet Wai, ILO liaison officer at the NLD, said the girl was forced to endure this treatment for five months before escaping on 24 February. Included in the complaint are allegations that policemen from the local Kyaunggon stationed also paid the aunt for the girl’s services. The ILO’s mandate in Burma covers forced labour, although the majority of complaints it receives concern government recruitment of civilians to work on infrastructure projects or for portering in the army. The government last year gave the nod to form a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) tasked with dealing with complaints from civilians, although with a make-up that includes former government officials, its impartiality has been questioned. Asked why the girl did not approach the NHRC prior to the ILO, Thet Wai said that the body is “not really reliable”, and that it was formed to give the government a “political advantage” in its dealings with western nations. “They don’t have the authority or the will to help.” http://www.dvb.no/news/teenager-%E2%80%98tortured-forced-into-sex-trade%E2%80%99/20474 --------------------------------------------- Exiled media weigh up return to Burma By AFP Published: 28 February 2012 As censorship eases in Burma and the press tastes long-suppressed freedom, exiled media groups are weighing up the risks of a return to cover the dramatic changes in their country from within. Not long ago, working for one of them could result in a lengthy prison sentence if caught inside the army-dominated nation, but the past year’s political openings have turned recent pipe dreams into real ambitions. Exiled reporting groups want permission to return to Burma, also known as Myanmar — but only when they are sure there will be no turning back on the new regime’s radical steps towards reforms. “It is our dream to publish a publication or online magazine inside Burma. I hope it will happen soon,” said Aung Zaw, the founder of the Irrawaddy news Web site based in neighboring Thailand. The journalist has just completed his first trip to Burma since he escaped after a popular uprising in 1988 was brutally crushed by the junta. This time, he came back charmed. “I think the authorities will consider my proposal if we want to publish inside Burma,” he said. Over the past year the government of former general Thein Sein, which took over from the junta in March, has overseen dramatic political reforms, including in the media. Censorship, already softened, will supposedly disappear. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, released from house arrest in late 2010, has crept on to the front pages, while exiled media Web sites are no longer blocked. Even imprisoned journalists from the Democratic Voice of Burma, a broadcasting group based in Oslo, were all released in January in a mass amnesty for political prisoners. For the exiles, what remains is the strategic question of timing. According to Aung Zaw, senior journalists have suggested to the Irrawaddy to “remain here in Thailand until 2015” to ensure the reforms are well entrenched. “Laws that restrict press freedom are still there,” so “it is too risky” for them to go back now, said Maung Maung Myint, chairman of the Burma Media Association based in Oslo, whose members are mostly exiled journalists. In Burma’s capital of Naypyidaw, the Ministry of Information says that the way is clear. Ye Htut, the ministry’s director general, told AFP that there was “no restriction” on the media in exile. “We only ask for fair and balanced reporting,” he said. But the new press legislation under development is limited to print media. Even if the law enters into force, “pluralism and good practices will still be missing,” noted Benjamin Ismail, head of the Asia bureau at media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Paris. In terms of press freedom, Burma is still ranked just 169th among 179 countries, according to an index by RSF published in January. Exiled media therefore have no choice but to take things step by step. The editor of Mizzima, a news agency based in India, told the Burma Times that, similar to the Irrawaddy, it was “ready to set up our office in Yangon.” As for the DVB, the first step is “legalizing DVB’s operation in the country” and preventing further arrests, according to its deputy director Khin Maung Win. The government is closely linked to the previous military rulers, who “treated DVB as the enemy,” he said. Although the group is still considered illegal, the new regime has behaved differently, for example by accepting interview requests from DVB reporters. Ultimately, the exiles’ return seems inevitable if decades of military rule really are consigned to the history books. “The exiled Burmese media will simply fade away when Burma has become a truly democratic society,” said the Burma Media Association’s Maung Maung Myint. Meanwhile, international donors who are increasingly tempted to favor projects inside the country must continue to support them, he argued. DVB, which has already experienced financial problems linked to an embezzlement scandal, has only found 10 percent of its $3.5 million budget for 2012. “DVB donors are excited with the changes in Burma and like to switch their support to inside Burma, rather than outside,” said Khin Maung Win. Whatever their future role, the contributions of these experienced English speakers will be crucial for a country where the main newspaper, The New Light of Burma, remains a dogmatic mouthpiece of the regime. “They have said that they wanted us to do some training and introduce quality standards of journalism,” said Aung Zaw. “If they are serious, I’m ready.” http://www.dvb.no/news/exiled-media-weigh-up-return-to-burma/20483 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar relaxes grip on media, vows end to censors By TODD PITMAN Associated Press YANGON, Myanmar -- It was a newspaper article that just months ago, Myanmar's draconian state censors never would have approved. It told how prison authorities crudely attempted to cure a scabies outbreak by wiping down naked inmates with medicine-laden brooms - a demeaning act that revealed the poverty of the nation's prisons and the decrepit state of its health care system. "In the past it would've been a very dangerous thing to publish," said Zaw Thet Htwe, who wrote the story and was a political prisoner himself until last month. "It wasn't allowed." But in a sign of just how much is changing in this long-oppressed nation, it was allowed. The article was not only published this month in the Health Journal, a Yangon-based weekly, but it hit the streets without having to be reviewed first by the government's infamous censorship body, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Department. Journalists have been jailed, beaten and blacklisted for decades in Myanmar, and the government continues to censor reporting about politics and other subjects it deems sensitive. But since last year, when the nation's long-entrenched military junta stepped down, censorship has ended on subjects such as health, entertainment, fashion and sports, and reporters are testing the limited freedom that has begun to emerge. Today, images of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, once a highly taboo figure, routinely appear on the front pages of everything except state-controlled media. And the days of buying foreign publications, only to find sensitive stories cut out, are over. "It's much more relaxed," said Thiha Saw, chief editor of a news weekly called Open News, who said he's now able to write freely about fires, murders and natural disasters - all prohibited at various times in the past. The government has gone even further, promising to abolish censorship altogether once the parliament approves a new media law later this year. The legislation, currently being drafted, would effectively allow Myanmar's independent press to publish on a daily basis for the first time in decades. As recently as last fall, the future of journalism seemed grim in this Southeast Asian nation, which is also known as Burma. Reporters were still subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps and censorship so intense that many were forced to work anonymously, undercover. In January, Reporters Without Borders ranked the country a lowly 169 out of 179 nations in its annual press freedom survey. Few expected much change when the junta ceded power last March. The new government, dominated by a clique of retired officers, had risen to power in an election widely considered neither free nor fair. But in an inaugural speech, President Thein Sein promised sweeping democratic reform, and vowed to "respect the role of the media, the fourth estate." In June, the government quietly began removing blocks on once-banned foreign news websites. It also began allowing international newspapers and magazines to be sold without sensitive sections cut out. Exiled reporters, for decades among the country's most fervent critics, have been allowed to return and report freely, along with once-blacklisted correspondents from foreign news organizations, including The Associated Press. "Things are moving in the right direction," the Committee to Protect Journalist's Southeast Asia representative, Shawn W. Crispin, said Tuesday in Bangkok. But he added, "The reforms we've seen are just scratching the surface. By any objective measure, Burma's media is still among the most repressed in the world." Nine reporters have been freed this year, but three remain behind bars, he said. While "publications have been allowed to put Suu Kyi on the cover and report some of the things she says ... there are plenty of areas the press is not allowed to venture into, including any critical reporting of the ongoing conflict" between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the army in the north. Saw, the Open News editor, said a team of around 50 government censors still spikes about 10 percent of the content in his 30-page journal each week. But even that is progress. In the past, he said, censors were not averse to scrapping entire editions. "We don't really expect freedom of expression in a few months or a few years," the bespectacled journalist told the AP in an interview in his small Yangon office, where a poster of Suu Kyi hangs on the wall. Censorship has been in place in Myanmar one way or another since a 1962 military coup, he said, and "we still have a long, long way to go." Now, writing about peace talks between the government and ethnic rebels is OK, Saw said, but stories about fighting between them are not. Pictures of refugees aren't allowed, and neither are articles about past crimes or corruption allegedly committed by ruling party officials. Also taboo: stories about student activists (like the ones who rose up in 1988) and monks (like the ones who rose up in 2007). When dissident monk Shin Gambira was briefly detained by authorities earlier this month, "that story was killed, too," Saw said in an email Monday. "We just keep on pushing." U Tint Swe, Myanmar's censorship boss, told the AP that censorship had historically been needed to maintain stability. But he said such edicts will be a soon be a thing of the past. "Once the press law is out, there will be no need for the press scrutiny department at all," Swe said. Journalists here are looking forward to the freedom to write freely, but they worry, too. The end of censorship will remove government responsibility for the printed press, leaving reporters liable for prosecution. Some laws that have been used to sentence journalists to long jail terms will also remain on the books. Crispin said that as long as the recent, sweeping reforms are not enacted into law, reporters will remain "skeptical that the regime could yank the rug out from under them any time down the road." And indeed, progress could easily be reversed. Suu Kyi and other opposition politicians are running in parliamentary by-elections in April, but only a few dozen seats are up for grabs and the current government is assured of staying in power until national elections in 2015. Htwe said he wrote his article about the prison "in a very careful manner, very mildly, so the government would not be offended." He had special reason to be concerned. Htwe was one of hundreds of political prisoners released in a Jan. 13 amnesty, and the article was his first since going back to work. In 2008, he was sentenced to 19-year jail term, in part for distributing a video of local donors handing out aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis. The natural disaster killed about 140,000 people, but journalists were only allowed to report official state statistics about the devastation. Some journalists in Myanmar suspect the government is less interested in freedom for journalists than it is in ending Western economic sanctions. "They want the international community to think there is press freedom here," Htwe said. "But I feel that all these changes that are being made, they aren't coming from the heart. They aren't sincere." Posted on Tue, Feb. 28, 2012 01:45 AM Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/28/3456363/myanmar-relaxes-grip-on-media.html#storylink=cpy ---------------------------------------------- Outside vote monitors to observe Burmese election Tuesday, 28 February 2012 14:31 Mizzima News (Mizzima) – Burma has not requested United Nations monitors or assistance in the April 1 bi-elections, but the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is planning to send election observers to monitor the process from the outside, U.N. special envoy Vijay Nambiar told reporters in New York on Monday. He said Burma’s by-elections would be closely watched from the outside to get an idea of the impartiality and fairness of the process. The U.N. would likely be involved in assisting in the 2015 national elections, he told reporters at a U.N headquarters press conference after returning from a five-day visit to Burma. Responding to a question, Nambiar said he had not met with any military generals, but had discussed ethnic peace issues with relevant groups and academics. He said he talked with the government minister who dealt with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and he had met with the Union Peace Committee, which seemed confident that peace issues with the KIO would be addressed. He said the Burma’s commitment in the signing of key cease-fire agreements and meetings with stakeholder groups were among the key factors in his urging greater humanitarian and technical support by the West. The dramatic positive changes in Burma ove the past year had demonstrated “an unprecedented level of initiative”, he said. However, Burma was only at the beginning of its transition, he added, noting that this was his fourth visit in the past year. While international support was needed, the onus rested on the Burmese government to ensure further positive developments to bring about real improvements to the lives of its people, he said. The first test of that commitment would be the coming by-elections in April for 48 seats in Parliament, which would test the government’s ability to enhance the democratic process. He said a similar commitment was needed to further social and economic development, as well as peace and reconciliation efforts. But chances for continued progress meant that “the international community must respond robustly to people’s needs by lifting current restrictions” on the country, he said. “The people of Myanmar will expect the international community to step up,” he said, adding that the United Nations was currently intensifying its efforts, including helping with the first national census taken since 1983, and the United Nations Development Programme had suggested holding a donors’ conference later this year to better coordinate aid and assistance. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6666-outside-vote-monitors-to-observe-burmese-election.html --------------------------------------------- Burmese army officers deny arrest of missing Kachin woman Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:15 Phanida Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Two Burmese army officers have testified in the Burmese Supreme Court that soldiers in their units did not arrest and detain a Kachin woman who has been missing for more than four months. The proceedings were brought by Zawng Hkawng of Momauk Township, the husband of Sumlut Roi Ja, after he said his wife was arrested and taken away in October 2011 by troops from Light Infantry Unit No. 321. Captain Kyaw Kyaw Htay of Light Infantry Unit 321 and Major Zay Yar Aung of Infantry No. 37 appeared at the hearing as the representatives of the two battalions. “They testified that they knew about Roi Ja’s case only after it has been reported,” said Zawng Hkawng’s lawyer, Markhar. “They said no complaint was launched with them in the past. The Northern Command set up a tribunal to examine the charge. They said that in the Northern Command, there was no incident like Roi Ja’s case.” Lawyer Markhar told Mizzima, “We testified that…in fact, they really arrested her,” and asked the court to order her release or establish her whereabouts. Markhar said that on October 28, 2011, Sumlut Roi Ja was on her way to work on a farm with her husband and her father when government soldiers from Light Infantry Unit No. 321 arrested them, alleging that they worked in intelligence for the Kachin Independence Army. Sumlut Roi Ja’s husband and father escaped on the day of their arrest. In January 2011, a lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court in Naypyitaw and the first hearing was conducted on February 9. In a related lawsuit involving the unlawful arrest of two Kachin men, Brang Seng and Zau Seng of Tarlawgyi village by Infantry Unit No. 37, was also heard by the Supreme Court. The government testified that the men were arrested because of security violations, Markhar said. The two men have been were charged under the Unlawful Associations Act, he said. http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/6664-burmese-army-officers-deny-arrest-of-missing-kachin-woman.html -------------------------------------- Hu Lost Burma By Michael Moran | Posted Monday, Feb. 27, 2012, at 1:44 PM ET Myanmar President Thein Sein (left) iwith his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao last May. Apparently, Thein wanted to go the other way. Photograph by Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images We live in an era, according to many people I respect, in which tenets of capitalism that a decade ago seemed unshakably part of the 21st century are being challenged. Ian Bremmer’s upcoming book, “Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World,” builds on a theme we’re both fond of: that the competition between state capitalism and market economics is very real, but that it need not split the world into Cold War-like warring tribes if managed properly. Big “if” in there, of course, especially in the midst of a GOP presidential primary season. And, truth be told, good reasons exist for the free market side to be defensive these days, too. Capital flows now favor the Emerging Markets (EM), and in many cases demographics do, too (though not with respect to “one-child” obsessed China, but that’s another story). The ability of China and other EM powers to generate growth while still intervening furiously in their domestic markets has chipped away at the western dogma that argues such states will invariably be swamped by inefficiencies and poor bureaucratic choices and fall victim to a growth-and-jobs killing sclerosis. The irony that these same market purists led the world’s largest economy off an economic cliff in 2008 is interesting to point out but less important in the long-run. Crises happen, and intelligent societies emerge from them better equipped to avoid making the same mistakes. But the great, universal question hanging over global economy today is this: will a middle income EM country – a Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia or South Africa – or even a small, resource rich country aspiring to improve its lot - have a better chance moving up the economic food chain and avoiding cyclical catastrophe by emulating China’s state capitalist model, or the west’s liberal market democratic form of capitalism? Ian’s book and many others argue convincingly that many states – from “usual suspects” like Venezuela and Iran, to more surprising ones like South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Egypt – effectively already have adopted some form of China’s state capitalist model. But the slide goes both ways. I find it strange that few have remarked on the amazing flip-flop occurring in Myanmar (Burma) right now. This country, led by a paranoid, repressive pro-Beijing military junta since the late 1980s, has come of out its shell. Six months ago, Myanmar's President U Thein Sein visited Beijing, where Hu Jintao promised to "protect Myanmar's interests" and signed a treaty of friendship. But Myanmar has since moved in some very un-Chinese directions. Yet, upon emerging from the darkness chosen to release political prisoners, Myanmar appears poised to go West rather than stick with its patrons to the north. Over the next few months, it looks likely to elect a civilian-led government and set in motion sweeping economic and political reforms. After decades of stagnating as a resource-rich, repressive backwater under Beijing’s wing, the Burmese Spring, as some have inevitably called it, has led to calls in the US Congress for a lifting of US sanctions, and a high-profile visit from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December. More importantly, Myanmar has entered into serious talks with two institutions that will insist that it play by liberal market economic rules: the IMF and World Bank. The military junta, which appears to have gone out of business after last year’s elections, had stopped payment on previous debts. A recent visit by a joint delegation stressed that the arrears would have to be dealt with before new international financing became available – but Myanmar’s mining and energy revenues should make that academic. But the two multinational lenders already have started helping Myanmar’s government modernize its banking and regulatory sectors, and a World Bank vice president said if the arrears are cleared up and the April 1 elections are judged to be fair, the taps will open quickly. “If President Thein Sein maintains the trend of opening Myanmar economically and politically — and there is reason to believe he will — such bottlenecks could be removed, external finance could flow, and Myanmar could experience an economic boom as labor productivity and living standards catch up with its Southeast Asian neighbors,” writes Vikram Nehru of the Carnegie Endowment’s East Asia Forum. Other promising signs have emerged, too. Japan, which suspended aid to Myanmar when Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested in 1993, has just pledged to reengage there. The government late last year also suspended a Chinese-funded $3.6 dam construction project that had local residents and environmentalists alarmed – another sign that what the average person thinks may finally matter there. All this is progress, of course, for Myanmar’s long-suffering citizens. Free and fair elections are hardly a given, and the country continues to suffer from serious ethnic frictions. But viewed from the standpoint of global influence, this looks a bit like Sadat ejecting his Soviet advisors back in 1977. the decision of such a long-standing Chinese ally to essentially reject China’s most basic practice – buying off the middle class with economic reforms while insisting on complete control of political discourse. Ever since then, China’s fortunes have waned in the country it practically owned until recently, and relations – both locally and diplomatically – have suffered. Maybe it is better that Asia has not yet sunk into a zero-sum mindset – no headlines read, “Rangoon to Beijing: Drop Dead,” or maybe “Obama Sets Pick, Myanmar Rolls.” But beneath the happy headlines about Suu Kyi’s release and an apparent springtime for democracy there, the deeper story is of a brewing competition for influence between cash rich China and fickle Uncle Sam from the Atlantic Coast of Morocco right around to the 38th parallel in the Korean Peninsula. And from Algeria to Zambia, in that sense, a race of sorts has already begun. Michael Moran is Director and Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Insights, at Renaissance Capital, the emerging markets investment bank. Follow him on Twitter, subscribe to his Facebook feed, or preorder his book, "The Reckoning: Debt, Democracy and the Future of American Power," coming in April from Palgrave Macmillan. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/02/27/hu_lost_burma.html __._,_._

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