News & Articles on Burma
Friday 17 June, 2011
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KIO Reject Govt Ceasefire Plan as 'Insincere'
AIPMC calls for urgent peace talks in Myanmar and real action by ASEAN
China should be peacemaker to address armed-conflict in Burma
Refugees sheltered in Buddhist monastery
Prisoners from Insein Prison are taken to unknown location
EU team heads to Myanmar to test political waters
US urges Burma to end hostilities
US Vows to Continue Pressing for Burma CoI
Indian FM to visit Burma on Monday
Burma, from a German Perspective
Fall in Gold Price Fails to Spur Demand
KIO destroys 10 bridges and capture and arrest six
New Tax Law to Increase Burden on Private Sector
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KIO Reject Govt Ceasefire Plan as 'Insincere'
By SAW YAN NAING Friday, June 17, 2011
Representatives of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) held talks in Laiza on Friday with a government delegation, but rejected Naypyidaw's plan for a ceasefire agreement, said La Nan, the Kachin rebels' joint-secretary.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday following the negotiations, La Nan said that former Minister of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs Thein Zaw flew from Naypyidaw to Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, on Wednesday and held talks two days ago and held a meeting with members of the “Kachin Consultative Committee,” which is a steering committee of ethnic Kachins with loyalties to the former military junta.
After Wednesday's meeting, La Nan said, Thein Zaw sent four delegates led by Sin Wa to Laiza, the headquarters of the KIO, for ceasefire negotiations.
La Nan said that the delegates told the KIA that Naypyidaw wanted to call a ceasefire and end hostilities against the KIO's military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). They also said the government had ordered its front-line troops to stop firing on Kachin rebels two days ago.
However, according to La Nan, the KIO leaders refused to agree to the ceasefire after the delegates failed to produce any form of documentation, such as a letter from Naypyidaw, to confirm the government's intentions.
“We asked them for documents or letters with the signatures of officials in Naypyidaw. But, they had none,” said the KIO joint-secretary. “We told them that we would only consider a ceasefire if they could produce evidence of their sincerity.”
Despite the government delegation's claims, sources in Kachin State have told The Irrawaddy that intense clashes and exchanges of gunfire have been ongoing between government forces and the KIA.
On Friday, fighting broke out in Mohnyin Township, according to KIA sources who said that the KIA's Battalion 5 engaged government forces, killing five soldiers and wounding two. They did not report any casualties on the KIA side.
Hostilities were also reported in Tanai (also known as Danai) in northwestern Kachin State on Thursday night.
The Burmese authorities have deployed tight security at government offices in Myitkyina while passengers travelling on the Myitkyina-Bhamo road were strictly questioned and thoroughly searched at government checkpoints, local sources said.
Local government officials in the state capital summoned members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and told them to be on standby for army recruitment if the conflict escalates, Kachin sources said.
Meanwhile, local residents have reported that government troops have used villagers as human shields on maneuvers in Namh Kam Township in northern Shan State.
Government troops sealed two villages—Nam Lim Pa in Min Khawng Township and Tung Hung in Taw Htum Yang Township—and banned the villagers from leaving. According to Seng Aung, a KIA source in Laiza, near the China-Burma border, the government forces are employing this tactic as they intend to systematically use the villagers as human shields.
Residents of the two villages have dug tunnels and bunkers as hiding places in case major hostilities break out, he added.
Seng Aung told The Irrawaddy that some villagers who fled to Laiza said that others who tried to flee were prevented from doing so by government soldiers. Some made it by road to Laiza after lying to soldiers at checkpoints, telling them that they were farmers on their way to their fields, but headed instead to the relative safety of Laiza.
On Friday, four Kachin villagers in Man Kang village in Nam Kham Township were arrested and tortured by government troops after being suspected of having KIA loyalties, said Seng Aung.
Residents of Maijayang village in Momauk Township also reported that schools, markets and NGO training centers were closed, and that the village was on high alert fearing further attacks. Some villagers had reportedly sold off their livestock cheaply and fled to the Chinese border to seek sanctuary.
“The village is very quiet. Everyone has packed a bag and are ready to flee by day or by night,” said La Aung, a Maijayang resident.
The KIO claims that some 10,000 Kachins have become war refugees in the nine days since conflict broke out on June 9. Some have taken refuge emergency shelters in Laiza and other locations near the Sino-Burmese border, while others have gone to other areas to stay with relatives.
Some 200 have crossed into China, the KIO says. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21516
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ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus Press Statement
AIPMC calls for urgent peace talks in Myanmar and real action by ASEAN
Jakarta (June 17, 2011) – The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus – AIPMC
strongly condemns the decision by the Myanmar government to dispatch heavily armed
troops into Kachin State and the concomitant outbreak of fighting, which brings an end to
seventeen years of ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army
(KIA).
- We are deeply concerned about a return to war between the Myanmar army and the
KIA, says Eva Kusuma Sundari, president of the AIPMC. We call for an immediate end
to sending troops into Kachin areas and urgent peace talks between the parties.
The war in Kachin State demonstrates that the new Myanmar government, elected in a
sham election in November 2010, has not changed its ways and will continue to rule by
force rather than seek a power-sharing agreement with ethnic nationalities. There is no
progress towards democracy in the country as long as the new parliament remains unable
to act on behalf of the population, and the new government is already failing in its
responsibility to protect the people.
Recent fighting has caused internal displacement and a wave of refugees across the
border to China. Almost one thousand people have already reached the Kachin town of
Mai Jay Yang along the Kachin-China border, while another 150 people who moved into
China were forced to return. Many others had their cell phones confiscated by Chinese
police.
AIPMC calls on China to stop these forced repatriations and to provide protection to
Kachin refugees fleeing fighting. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees-UNHCR
and other international bodies must be granted access to the border areas of China and
Myanmar for the protection of civilians AND HUMANTIARIAN RELIEF.
The outbreak of fighting in Kachin State comes in addition to ongoing conflicts in Karen
and Mon areas in eastern and southern border areas with Thailand and represents an
expansion of the conflict area in Myanmar up to Kachin State and the Myanmar-China
border. Recent events are also a warning to Myanmar’s neighbours, including Thailand,
to reconsider any plans to repatriate refugees from Myanmar.
ASEAN leaders urgently need to put the border crisis in Myanmar on top of the ASEAN
agenda in order to seek an end to the conflicts in the region, and dialogue and national
reconciliation between the government, ethnic nationalities and other opposition groups.
Most importantly, Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, in his capacity as
chairman of ASEAN, and other ASEAN leaders must now reject Myanmar’s request to
chair ASEAN in 2014.
For further comment/ media interviews with AIPMC Parliamentarians do contact Aticha
Wongwian at +66 838863494 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +66 838863494 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Thailand), Edmund Teoh +60123750974 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +60123750974 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Malaysia), Agung Putri
Astrid +62 81514006416 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +62 81514006416 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines)
END.
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China should be peacemaker to address armed-conflict in Burma
Fri, 2011-06-17 01:25 — editor
Article
By - Zin Linn
The armed conflicts in Kachin State could cause greater insecurity along Sino-Burma border unless the President Thein Sein government takes accountability to find out a peaceful settlement. According to some analyst, agreement among pro-democracy ethnic armed groups has strengthened since Thein Sein government troops showed aggression last week.
According to Kachin News Group (KNG), the Kachin Independence Army’s 8th Battalion of Brigade 4, led by Major Lashi Naw Din hit back to the Burmese Army offensive by capturing six Burmese soldiers including a captain in Northern Shan State this afternoon. The government soldiers were encircled and under arrest without a single shot being fired by the KIA soldiers.
On the other hand, the aggressive war launched by the Burmese government causes tragic consequences for the Kachin people along the Sino-Burma border. Over 10,000 Kachin refugees run off to the China border since the beginning of civil war last three days between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese government soldiers in Kachin State, the Kachin News Group said.
KIO’s civil administration officer Salang Doi Pyi Sa said, “According to yesterday’s list, there are 2,291 refugees who arrived from Burmese government’s territories. There are over 300 in Ura Bum, 4,238 in Loije, over 2,000 in Man Win and over 300 in Maijayang.”
As soon as the conflict broke out this week, KIO opened six temporary refugee-camps in Laiza headquarters. China has not allowed the refugees to cross into its area. Most refugees are inhabitants of villages under government-controlled areas along Myitkyina-Manmaw (Bhamo) road, Manmaw-Loije road and Manmaw-Kai Htik-Nam Hkam-Muse road, said Doi Pyi Sa.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told at a regular news conference in Beijing that China was giving humanitarian help to residents from Myanmar (Burma) who had fled, but he gave no details on their number or condition, Reuters News said.
"We are paying attention to the situation in Myanmar near the border area. We urge the two parties to exercise restraint and prevent the escalation of the situation, and resolve the relevant disputes through peaceful negotiations," Hong Lei said.
In the two KIO towns of Laiza and Maijayang, refugees are being provided food, sanitation and health facilities by KIO. No local and international refugee agency has arrived in the border so far, KNG reported. As said by the refugees, they escaped to the Sino-Burma border fearing of being recruited as porters by Burmese soldiers rather than the fighting.
This armed conflict between KIA and government troops is not a misunderstanding. KIA has expected the government offensive since it turned down the Border Guard Force plan of the Burmese government last year. Besides, China is building two major dams as part of a hydroelectric power plant in the armed conflict zone. As China is the key protector of Burma in the UN Security Council’s meeting, Burmese government has decided to defend the China’s investment in the Kachin region.
There have been reports that hundreds of Burmese government troops have been deploying throughout the northern Kachin State in order to protect major dams as part of a hydroelectric power plant run by the state-owned China Datang Corporation. Government has also a plan to drive out KIA forces after they refused to leave a strategic post near the hydro-power project.
Warfare started after the KIA turned down a deadline claimed by the Burmese Army to follow a complete withdrawal from the KIA’s Bum Sen stronghold in Sang Gang by Saturday, June 11th, at 12 p.m.
And a remarkable fact is that the Burmese army's well-planned offensive comes just weeks after the new President Thein Sein’s visit to China. It was also his first official state visit to reinforce his namesake civilian government's close tie with Beijing.
As a result, there is an interesting question for some observers. The question: “Did Burmese government receive a green light from neighboring China to attack Kachin Independence Army? “
If not, China must take responsibility as peacemaker addressing the armed conflict at its doorstep.
- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/06/16/china-should-be-peacemaker-address-armed-conflict-burma-0
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Refugees sheltered in Buddhist monastery
Friday, 17 June 2011 09:37 KNG
Refugees by the hundreds from Katsu Yang village located between Waingmaw Township and Laiza headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have sought refuge in a Buddhist monastery in Waingmaw Township, said residents.
Skirmishes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese troops occurred from 3 a.m. till 5 a.m. Over 300 refugees from Ga Ra Yang, Gangdau Yang near the battle field fled to Waingmaw Township.
“A lot of war refugees have been sheltered in Waingmaw Monastery,” said a resident of Waingmaw.
Refugees who recently arrived in one of six camps in the KIO capital Laiza.
Earlier the KIO said there are more than 10,000 refugees who fled to the China border in the eight-day civil war between the KIA and Burmese troops.
The KIA’s list compiled yesterday night stated that there are 2,291 refugees in Laiza, more than 300 at KIA brigade 3 based Ura Bum-Hpyin Shan village, 4,238 refugees in Loije, over 2,000 in Manwin village and over 300 refugees in Maijayang, according to Salang Kaba Doi Pyi Sa KIO civil administration department officer.
The Burmese Army tightened security in all cities in Kachin State after the war started.
“At this moment all traffic police are carrying guns, all road, gates and bridges are manned by soldiers” said residents of Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State.
Residents are not going out after 6 p.m. because the areas are teeming with Burmese soldiers carrying guns. They are patrolling around the quarter. The whole city is enveloped in silence.
The Border Guard Force (BGF) transformed from the former New Democratic Army-Kachin NDA-K led by Zahkung Ting Ying is forcing local youths to join the army in Waingmaw Township. Ten persons from each quarter are to be enlisted after the civil war started between KIA and Burmese troops, said quarter chief from the township.
Burmese troops are recruiting young people for the people’s militia, said the source. http://www.kachinnews.com/news/1968-refugees-sheltered-in-buddhist-monastery.html
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Prisoners from Insein Prison are taken to unknown location
Friday, 17 June 2011 18:39 Kyaw Kha
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – More than 150 prisoners in Insein Prison in Rangoon were transported to an unknown location by authorities on Thursday.
Burmese prisoners walk out from the main gate of Insein Prison in Rangoon in this file photo. Photo: AFP
Burmese prisoners walk out from the main gate of Insein Prison in Rangoon in this file photo. Photo: AFP
Some observers said the government might be planning to use the prisoners as porters in its offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State.
Prison authorities selected the prisoners during a line-up on Thursday morning. Most of those selected were long-term prisoners. They were taken away by two trucks and guarded by armed police guards.
‘The trucks were heading east of Insein Township. There were no prison staff on the trucks, and the trucks were not prison vehicles’, said a source.
An analyst who is also an opposition political activist said, ‘According to my experience, if the authorities want them to go to work camps outside the prison, they take their bags and food. But, if they are to be used as porters, they don’t take anything. They go empty-handed’.
Normally, when prisoners are sent to work camps, prison authorities use vehicles owned by the Directorate of Prison Administration.
A person who recently visited a political prisoner in Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State said that on June 9, an estimated 100 prisoners were taken from the prison. A former official in the New Democratic Army-Kachin who lives in Myitkyina said that the Burmese government is using prisoners in its offensive against the KIA. http://www.mizzima.com/news/prisoner-watch/5441-prisoners-from-insein-prison-are-taken-to-unknown-location.html
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Jun 17, 2011
EU team heads to Myanmar to test political waters
BRUSSELS - A HIGH-LEVEL European Union team is heading to Myanmar for exploratory talks with the country's new authorities, a senior EU diplomat said on Friday.
'This is a first stage aimed at listening to the new Myanmar authorities to gauge their mindset,' the diplomat said. 'All partners concerned by Myanmar have sent, or will be sending, missions to test the new authorities.'
Robert Cooper, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and EU special envoy for Burma-Myanmar Piero Fassino, could be in Myanmar as early as this weekend, another EU source said.
Myanmar's military junta handed over power in March to a nominally civilian government. That and the release last year of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after the first election in 20 years sparked cautious hopes of gradual reform in Myanmar, ruled by the military for nearly half a century.
In April, European governments extended by a year a set of trade and financial sanctions on Myanmar - but opened the door to the Myanmar foreign minister as an inducement to accelerate change.
The United Nations this week announced that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would soon name a full-time special envoy to Myanmar to encourage the government on the reform path. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_680898.html
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US urges Burma to end hostilities
The United States has urged Burma to cease hostilities in northern ethnic minority regions after deadly clashes triggered an exodus of refugees into neighboring China.
State Department spokeswoman Kelly McKellogg says the United States is "monitoring the situation carefully" in Burma.
"We call on the Burmese authorities to cease any such hostilities and begin a dialogue with opposition and ethnic minority groups towards national reconciliation," she told reporters.
Fierce fighting began a week ago near a large hydropower project being built in northern Kachin State to provide power to China, and has since spread to northern areas of neighboring Shan State.
The rebel Kachin Independence Army says thousands of people crossed into China during the fighting. It has appealed for mediation from Beijing, one of the closest allies of Burma's military-backed government.
President Barack Obama's administration in 2009 opened a dialogue with Burma , concluding that efforts to isolate the regime had failed. But the United States has repeatedly voiced disappointment with progress on democracy, human rights and other key concerns.
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201106/3246416.htm?desktop
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US Vows to Continue Pressing for Burma CoI
By HTET AUNG Friday, June 17, 2011
The US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) said that the US will continue working with its allies at the UN to seek the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Burma, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the US Mission to Geneva.
“Burma holds over 2,000 political prisoners and routinely violates the rights of its citizens, including ethnic minority populations,” said Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, in her speech to the 17th Session of the HRC.
“The United States remains committed to seeking accountability for human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry through close consultations with our friends, allies, and other partners at the United Nations,” she said.
A Burmese exile human rights group viewed the US ambassador's statement as an encouraging sign in their efforts to achieve the CoI on Burma. However, Burma’s new government rejected the recommendation for a CoI, which was first made during previous HRC sessions by the UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur to Burma, Tomas Ojea Qunitana, for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The Burmese government's representative rejected the establishment of the CoI in the sessions of the HRC,” said Aung Myo Min, director of Thailand-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), who attended the Universal Periodic Review session in Geneva in June. “Also, unlike the bloc's previous policy stands on Burma, the EU countries are not united in their supports for the CoI.”
“Therefore, the US's role to initiate the CoI establishment within the UN is very important because we are now targeting to get a resolution for the CoI in the upcoming UN General Assembly,” he said.
The HREIB also saw the US commitment to a CoI as progress on the part of the Obama Administration, which first endorsed the establishment of the CoI in August 2010, but didn't have any specific plan on how to realize the commission, said Aung Myo Min.
Tun Shin, the new government's Attorney General, who attended the UPR session in Geneva, said to the council: “There were 190 recommendations on Myanmar [Burma], out of which 74 were supported, with 46 recommendations taken back to the capital for consideration and 70 recommendations which it was felt infringed on the sovereign rights of Myanmar.”
The 70 recommendations that the new government rejected included the establishment of the CoI for Burma, said Aung Myo Min.
He said that there are three possible channels to form the CoI for Burma—the HRC, the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council (UNSC). The UNSC was able to pass a resolution to form a CoI for the human rights violations in Darfur, Sudan in 2004, and the HRC took a historic step in passing a recent resolution for a CoI on Libya.
Burmese exile activists believe that a resolution for the establishment of the CoI on Burma at the UN General Assembly is a possible option, while they believe that China will definitely block such an action in the UNSC against the new Burmese government, which is now its “strategic ally” in the region.
There have so far been 16 countries which officially supported the establishment of the CoI on Burma. They are: The Czech Republic, Australia, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Canada, the US, Hungary, New Zealand, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium and Denmark. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21510
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Indian FM to visit Burma on Monday
Friday, 17 June 2011 19:46 Ko Pauk
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna will visit Burma on Monday, according to the Indian Embassy in Rangoon. A senior official from the embassy said that details of the visit were not yet known.
News circulating in Burma also speculated that Burmese President Thein Sein will visit India soon.
National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB) Information Minister Dr. Tint Swe said that the visit may be in preparation of the Burmese president’s visit.
‘Not visiting India after paying a visit to China would be unforgivable from the point of view of India’, he said.
‘The Voice’ weekly journal quoted the president’s adviser, Dr. Nay Zin Latt, as saying Thein Sein would visit India soon.
Dr. Tint Swe said that India was working on its ‘Look East’ foreign policy and its main objectives in Burma was the border issue, trade and the insurgency on the border.
‘This matter became more complicated recently’, he said. ‘War broke out in Kachin State and it could have an impact on Indian insurgents operating in Naga Hills and Sagaing Division in Burma which are adjacent to Kachin State. So this matter will be a headache for the Indian government. I assume that the Indian FM would certainly try hard to resolve this issue by alternative ways’, he said.
Minister Krishna visited Naypyitaw in December 2009; the Indian international spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), chief S.K. Tripathi visited Naypyitaw on April 2011.
Relations between Indo-Burma top level leaders since 2006
- Indian President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited Burma in March 2006.
- SPDC Vice Chairman General Maung Aye visited India in April 2008.
- Prime Minister General Thein Sein visited India in November 2008.
- Indian Vice President Shri Hermit Ansari visited Burma in February 2009.
- SPDC Chairman Senior-General Than Shwe visited India in July 2010.
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Burma, from a German Perspective
Friday, June 17, 2011
As a leading member of the European Union, Germany is known among Burmese opposition groups for its soft stance towards the Burmese government and is assumed to have played a key role in relaxing EU sanctions against Burma last April. Since Burma installed a civilian government in March, there have been increasing exchanges between Germany and the new administration in Naypyidaw. Recently, Burma's state-run newspapers gave extensive coverage to meetings between Burmese senior government officials and German delegations, most of which were headed by Germany's ambassador to Burma, Julius Georg Luy.
In this exclusive interview with Irrawaddy reporter Ba Kaung, Ambassador Luy, who has been posted in Rangoon since September 2008, discusses EU sanctions on Burma, as well as the role of German companies alleged to be indirectly involved in Burma's suspicious weapon programs. He also offers his opinion of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Question: How would you describe your diplomatic experience in Burma and your relationship with government officials there?
Answer: For a diplomat present-day Myanmar is an interesting and professionally challenging post. The historical, political, social and economic complexities of this multiethnic country are extraordinary and hard to decipher and understand. In the last few weeks we took up the first contacts with the new government.
Q: How has the bilateral relationship evolved since Dr. Richard von Weizsacker, the former acting president of the Federal Republic of Germany, visited Burma in February of 1986?
A: Since 1986 there has not been much of an evolution. As a reaction to the political events in Myanmar unfolding from 1988 on, EU member states reduced their relations with Myanmar considerably and introduced sanctions. It is in the hand of Myanmar’s Government to improve relations through substantial reforms.
Q: What is Germany's position on last year's election and the new government in Naypyidaw?
A: Elections in Myanmar took place under very difficult conditions. The democratic opposition and parties representing ethnic minorities were massively discriminated against. The whole process was neither free, fair nor inclusive.
However, the President’s inaugural speech of March 30 contained a number of positive statements and perspectives. Yet, at the end of the day, the government will be judged by its deeds, not its words.
Q: When Burma went to the polls on Nov. 7, there were major clashes on the Thai-Burmese border between the Burmese army and a faction of a former cease-fire group. A similar situation also occurred in Shan State more recently, and fears of renewed conflict are rising in other areas. What can the outside world do to help Burma resolve its ethnic tensions?
A: There is no simple recipe to solve the ethnic conflicts which persisted from historical Burma into present-day Myanmar. They are a challenge which at least equals and is connected to the democratic challenge. Ethnic minorities need a proper and adequate participation in the political decision-making of Myanmar. Some hopes rely on the new regional and state structures, which still have to prove their actual political impact. The clue for a solution lies within Myanmar herself, and a proper process of national reconciliation would—for all sides involved—be a good and wise way to go.
Q: On May 30, you led a delegation of German foundations meeting with Burmese government ministers and the Speaker of the Union Parliament in Naypyidaw. Burma's state-run newspapers subsequently reported that Germany agreed to assist the country's social welfare programs. Does this mean that Germany is going to resume official development cooperation with the new government in Burma?
A: It is the common position upheld by all EU member states, including Germany, that the time to resume fully fledged official development cooperation has not come yet. This is very costly for Myanmar and has tangible effects: According to UN statistics, Myanmar annually receives US $6 of economic assistance per capita, whereas neighboring Laos receives $60!
Q: In a phone call with Aung San Suu Kyi in March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the release of political prisoners in Burma and on June 2, she urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to openly discuss Burma's human rights issues before allowing the country to take the bloc's chairmanship. Have you ever raised these issues with Burmese government officials in the country or made any public statement about them?
A: The release of political prisoners is an important political priority of the European Union and the German government. It has been and is being raised in our meetings with all our partners in Myanmar. These and other human rights questions are central issues taken up by the German government’s Human Rights Commissioner during his talks in Myanmar last week.
Q: There have been reports that you have actively argued in closed meetings that the EU should lift its sanctions against Burma. At the same time, Chancellor Merkel is urging the Burmese government to release political prisoners. Which do you think should occur first—the release of prisoners, or the withdrawal of sanctions?
A: As I said before, the release of political prisoners is an important political priority of the German government. With regard to the second part of your question, I would like to state once more: the time to lift more sanctions has not come yet. I regret however that public discussions about how to support the Myanmar people often underestimate the wide range of instruments available in the diplomatic and foreign policy toolbox. If you read the EU’s common position you will find that it does not only contain restrictions, but also encouragement, too.
Q: Leaked US diplomatic cables show that German officials, along with those of Spain and Italy, have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of EU sanctions against Burma. What role did Germany play in the EU's decision to ease sanctions in April?
A: As a matter of principle I don’t comment on leaked confidential cables. However, Germany has substantially supported the work on the most recent decision of the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU on the common position. It is a position supported unequivocally by all EU member states.
Q: The EU has imposed an arms embargo on Burma, as well as a limited ban on trade and investment, but this hasn't prevented German weapons manufacturer Fritz Werner from continuing to do business with the Burmese military. How does this work within the framework of EU sanctions? Can you tell us more about the nature and extent of these sanctions, and why you think they are too stringent?
A: To my best knowledge, the company Fritz Werner has no arms-related business in Myanmar. Anything else would not only violate the EU’s common position and be punishable accordingly, but harm as well the business and reputation of any European company considerably.
Q: Last year Al Jazeera reported that the German firm Deckel Maho Gildemeister (DMG) sent engineers to Burma to assist with the installation of specialized imported machinery in Burmese military-owned factories. Is it true, as the report claims, that German diplomats in Rangoon visited two of those factories in 2008 and 2009?
A: DMG has delivered education-related turning machines to Myanmar. The repeated visits of experts and officials give us no indication that these machines are not being used in accordance with their assigned purpose.
Q: During President Thein Sein's recent visit to China, Burma and China said that they had established a strategic relationship. What are Germany's views on the regional and international implications of China's growing influence in Burma?
A: Myanmar seems to strive for balanced relations with the region. This includes her relations with China as well. However, trade and economic relations between Myanmar and China have increased considerably over the last few years.
Q: What do you think about Burma's relationship with North Korea, and reports that Naypyidaw has nuclear ambitions?
A: Any report on developments anywhere in the world not in line with the international obligations arising out of the Non Proliferation Treaty is taken very seriously by the international community.
Q: We have heard that the German embassy in Rangoon believes that Aung San Suu Kyi should not be singled out for meetings with EU diplomats, since such an action might offend representatives of other opposition parties. What are your views on Suu Kyi's status in relation to that of leaders of parties represented in the Parliament in Naypyidaw?
A: Germany—as like other EU member states—respects the decision of political parties to participate in last year’s elections as well as the decision of other political parties not to take part. We maintain contacts with a wide range of political actors, as well as with members of the opposition, be they inside or outside Myanmar’s new institutions. Amongst them Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is an outstanding personality giving an impressive example of self-discipline, modesty, sacrifice and an untiring search for peaceful solutions. She is and will be an inspiration for many people and has her important place in Myanmar’s political development.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21512
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Fall in Gold Price Fails to Spur Demand
By NAYEE LIN LATT Friday, June 17, 2011
Despite a recent decline in the price of gold, demand for the precious metal remains weak in Burma, while the number of those seeking to sell has increased, according to sources.
One kyat-thar (16 g) of solid gold cost 675,100 kyat (US $865) in Rangoon last month. On Thursday, the price was 656,000 kyat ($841)—a drop of 19,000 kyat ($24), or nearly three percent.
“Currently, we don't have many customers in our shop, despite the fact that gold prices have gone down,” said the owner of a gold shop on Rangoon's Shwebontha Street. “Right now, there are more people looking to sell than to buy. This is unusual, because normally people would try to avoid selling at a loss.”
A sales manager from another shop said that one reason for this recent trend could be that many people are selling off their gold because they are in need of cash in hand due to a shortage of money in circulation.
An official from the Myanmar Gold Entrepreneurs Association (MGEA) suggested that this could also be the reason for sluggish sales, saying that demand for gold has not recovered despite falling prices because many potential customers are more interested in holding onto their cash than in buying gold.
The official also denied that the MGEA, which was founded in 2002 by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and authorities from the then military regime to maintain gold-price stability, has had any role in directing recent trends.
“The MGEA neither adjusts nor manipulates gold prices in the market. There is just no demand,” said the official.
A gold dealer told The Irrawaddy that he thought lower prices would bring back buyers, but so far that hasn't happened.
“Usually, whenever prices go up, customers will sell off their gold and the market will function. Likewise, when the price goes down, demand rises and the market becomes normal. But that is not the case now,” explained the dealer.
A retired professor from the Rangoon Institute of Economics said that besides the shortage of Burmese banknotes in circulation, another factor fueling the sale of gold could be the recent weakness of the US dollar. He said that some dollar-holders may be selling off their gold because they don't want to exchange their dollars to kyat at an unfavorable rate.
“A market needs to function continuously. If selling or buying stops for any reason, there will definitely be a problem. The kyat, the main currency used inside Burma, is now going up in value, while foreign currencies are falling. So it is like people are exchanging their goods for money in order to meet their day-to-day needs,” said the professor.
Currently, one US dollar is equivalent to 805 kyat in Burma's domestic currency exchange market.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21513
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KIO destroys 10 bridges and capture and arrest six
Thursday, 16 June 2011 21:30 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) said that they have destroyed 10 bridges so far to prevent heavy weapons moving closer to their front lines, captured three government soldiers including a lieutenant and arrested three civilians.
‘We have destroyed about 10 bridges but we destroyed only the bridges which were used by government troops in their offensives. This is a normal military tactic’, KIO Lieutenant Colonel Yaw Htone told Mizzima.
The KIO has destroyed wooden bridges, concrete bridges and suspension bridges in Phakant, Moemouk and Waimaw townships in Kachin State.
KIO central committee member La Nan said that the KIO arrested Lieutenant Thiha Naing a.k.a. Thet Naing Aung; Private Tun Zaw and Private Phyo Wei Aung of the Light Infantry Battalion No. 342 at near Pan Wah village in Namtu Township, Shan State, on Thursday.
Three civilians found with the soldiers were also arrested and detained, he said.
The bridges destroyed are the Nam Phat Kha stream suspension bridge connecting the Tapein hydroelectric dam in Moemauk Township; Mayanchaung bridge in Waimaw; Mali stream bridge on Waimaw-Laiza highway; Lanna stream bridge on Waimaw-Kampaiti highway; Namsar stream bridge on Tamoenye-Monsi highway in Shan State’ bridge on Phankant-Karmine-Lonekhinhighway; a bridge connecting Hopin and Namma villages on the Phakant-Gyikha highway; Namsam stream concrete bridge connecting Warazwap-Bangkok villages; the Namsamkha wooden bridge near Namsam village between Warazwap and Bangkok villages; and the Maykha River suspension bridge, 59 miles south of Chibwe Township.
Military analysts said that some earlier destruction of bridges had only limited results.
KIO and local residents said that there was a small clash between KIA and government troops about two miles from Manhsi village in Moemauk Township on Wednesday night.
Local residents said that the Burmese authorities are giving military training to convicts in Bhamo Township where minor clashes have occured. Also firefighters, policemen and people’s militia members are being provided military training in Myitkyina, the capital city of Kachin State.
Bridges destroyed
1 Nam Phat Kha suspension bridge connecting Tapein hydroelectric dams in Moemauk Township
2 Mayan Stream bridge in Waimaw Township
3 Mali stream bridge on Waimaw-Laiza highway
4 Lanna stream bridge on Waimaw-Kampaiti highway
5 Namsar stream bridge on Tarmonye-Monsi road in Shan State
6 Bridge connecting Karmi and Lonekhin in Phakant Township
7 Bridge between Hopin and Nammon village on Phakant-Gwikhar road
8 Namsan stream concrete bridge between Warazwap and Bangkok villages
9 Namsankha stream wooden bridge near Namsan village between Warazwap and Bangkok villages
10 Maykha River suspension bridge, 59 miles south of Chibwe Town
http://www.mizzima.com/special/kachin-battle-report/5435-kio-destroys-ten-bridges-and-arrest-six.html
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New Tax Law to Increase Burden on Private Sector
By KO HTWE Friday, June 17, 2011
Changes in Burma's tax laws will add to the burden on private-sector companies and their employees while sparing state-run and military-owned corporations, creating conditions that will increase the risk of future economic problems, according to experts and private entrepreneurs.
The changes, which come into effect next month, are part of an overhaul of tax policy designed to put it in line with Burma's 2008 Constitution, which abolished the Profit Tax Law that previously applied to private-sector companies.
Under the new rules, private companies and their employees who earn more than 30,001 kyat (US $38) annually will now have to pay the same income taxes as public companies. In practice, however, few state- or military-owned companies actually pay these taxes.
Privately owned companies, on the other hand, will be required to file tax returns and provide annual salary statements for each of their employees to local township revenue offices, as part of an effort to improve enforcement of tax laws.
The rate of taxation will also be higher. For example, a company or individual earning 300,000 kyat ($384) a year must now pay 30 percent in income tax, whereas under the Profit Tax Law, they only paid 20 percent.
“It is hard to call this a tax reform,” said Han Tun, a writer who focuses on tax-related issues. He said that it will be especially difficult for small enterprise to meet the new requirements.
Not only the State run newspaper New Light of Myanmar announced the procedure but also respective Township internal revenue department call meeting and urged all taxpayer to filled-in and signed in the file the return of income form and sent it to respective revenue department before June 30.
Observer said taxpayer potentially to pay more tax to the government to cover their loss because Thein Sein center government transferred 19 categories of tax to collect Region and State government.
Entrepreneurs looking forward government to enact appropriate tax for them and thought that they have to pay for tax more than previous year according to restaurant owner from Sagaing.
“I have to pay 40,000 kyats for tax. But this year I have to attach details of my income. Everybody have to pay tax because one year income is exceed than 300,000 kyats ($38.68). So it is likely that government will receive more tax and taxpayer have to pay more income tax,” said Photographer from Kyonpyaw Township from Irrawaddy division.
In the military regime tax have been collect without proper monitoring but now authorities will more concentrate on the tax and strictly enforce tax laws because of changing to democracy said official from Ministry of Finance and Revenue.
“How government arrange our health and education after taxpayer paid their tax? The collect the tax in accordance with democracy and should take responsible in accordance with democracy. So what they said democracy will be in shape,” said Tun Tun, IT shop owner from Rangoon.
“Paying the tax to our country is our duties. But government should decide appropriate tax for taxpayer,” he added.
In 1972, due to government new administration Internal Revenue Department was formed and Income Tax law has been introduce in 1974. In 1976 tax from Company, Co-operative society and state own enterprise are supervise by Income Tax law and the rest have been collect under the Profit Tax Law.
“The form from the internal revenue is very detail not like previous. It seems like they[government] don't got tax from company and more restriction on collection tax. Entrepreneur, who wish to reinvest their profit, reluctant to give their profit as a tax,” said owner of Travel and Tour agency from Bahan Township in Rangoon.
Some entrepreneur negotiated with the official from revenue department to pay the profit tax lower than actually cost are also watching the situation how to deal with the process said business man.
Rangoon based The Voice weekly journal reported top ten tax payer business group that Kanbawza Bank business group paid the highest tax in the financial year 2010- 2011. The other leading groups run by regime's back Tayza of Htoo and Zaw Zaw of Max Myanmar are not listed in the list.
One of the company, who paid tax with foreign currency which is twice than KBZ complain about the news to the official from revenue department replied that the tax they paid in dollar have been change with 6 kyats per dollar.
Burma’s Internal Revenue Department has announced a new law targeting companies for tax on Jan, however, the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL) and several other government enterprises are still exempt from the regulation. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21517
Saturday, June 18, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Friday 17 June, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Thursday 16 June, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Thursday 16 June, 2011
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Ethnic MPs Call for Peace
KIA Captures Six Govt Soldiers, as KIO Asks Beijing to Mediate
Q+A - What is behind clashes in Myanmar's Kachin hills?
Refugees flee Myanmar towns as fighting rages
Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar claim fighting forces 10K to flee
China urges talks as refugees flee Myanmar fighting
China urges restraint, KIA seeks mediation
China's Hand in the Renewed Civil War in Burma
Schools in Three Pagodas Pass Closed in Fear of Attacks
Myanmar To Expand GSM Phone Coverage To Asian Countries
Thai police free 54 illegal Myanmar migrants
Big step forward for Burmese migrant domestic workers
Lower US Dollar Value Hits Rice Business and Farmers
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Ethnic MPs Call for Peace
By KHIN OO THAR Thursday, June 16, 2011
Several ethnic and opposition leaders in Burma have urged the new government to hold peace talks as soon as possible aimed at stopping the armed conflicts that are ongoing in Kachin State, Shan State and other ethnic areas.
Dr. Aye Maung, the chairman of the Rakhine National Development Party and an elected MP in the Nationalities Parliament, said Naypyidaw should form an emergency committee to intermediate in the armed conflicts.
He said that MPs must get involved in helping because they were elected by the people.
“The government should cooperate with the ethnic leaders,” he said.
Sai Hsaung Si, the vice-chairman of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), said, “Even though we are parliamentarians, we can do nothing without the cooperation of the government and the ethnic armed groups.”
“Civilians have become the real victims of the conflict. We don't want war. We want peace,” he said.
Independent MP Thein Nyunt urged the government to solve the six-decade-long armed conflicts by political means. President Thein Sein must prioritize the issue of the armed conflicts, he added.
Lawmakers in Naypyidaw, however, said that the issue of the conflicts had not been raised in parliament. Several noted specifically that no mention had been made in either the Upper or the Lower House about last week's escalation of hostilities between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
A parliamentarian who requested anonymity said, “We are unable to raise the issue of ethnic strife in parliament as there are so few opposition parties represented. We are expected to attend parliamentary sessions just to listen.”
Tu Raw, the general secretary of the dissolved Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP), said, “The new government should begin sincere peace negotiations. If things go on this, civil war will break out.”
The KSPP was founded and led by Manam Tuja, the former vice-chairman of the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), in March 2009. He officially launched the party in July the same year, but Burma's Election Commission did not approve its registration for the 2010 election because authorities believed the KSPP was tied to the KIO.
Tu Raw said that when the KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the former military junta in 1994, the regime pledged that when a civilian government was elected it would hold political dialogue with the KIO. However, 17 years later, and no dialogue has been initiated, he said. Instead, the government continues to send its army on military offensives against the KIO.
Seventeen armed ethnic groups, including the KIO, have entered ceasefire agreements since 1989 with the Burmese government. Tensions rose, however, in April 2009 when the junta ordered the ceasefire groups to join border guard force units under Burmese army command.
Three major ceasefire groups—the United Wa State Army, the Shan State Army–North and the KIA—refused the BGF order.
Earlier this month, the five ethnic parties that contested the election issued a joint-statement calling on the Thein Sein government to resolve the armed conflicts through peace talks.
“Religious and social organizations, as well as civilians, are all calling for peace,” said Naing Ngwe Thein, the chairman of the All Mon Region Democracy Party. “If the government intends paying serous attention to its own citizens, it needs to practice peaceful means in settling disputes.”
Chapter 7 of the 2008 constitution, which was written under the former military junta, states that all the armed forces in the Union shall be under the command of the Defence Services. The armed forces also has sole authority over border affairs, according to the constitution.
Ethnic leaders from the opposition camp have reportedly said that although they agree with the fact that an army must exist in a country, they do not accept the 2008 constitution because it does not guarantee ethnic rights.
Despite their chorus of calls for dialogue, many of the ethnic and opposition MPs said the new government is not paying attention to the conflict in Kachin State where thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes this week. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21504
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KIA Captures Six Govt Soldiers, as KIO Asks Beijing to Mediate
By WAI MOE Thursday, June 16, 2011
Six government soldiers were captured by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) during armed conflict in Shan State on Thursday, while two days ago the armed group's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), sent a letter to Beijing requesting it to act as a “mediator” between the Burmese regime and ethnic groups, a Kachin commander said.
The KIA's vice chief-of-staff, Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “Kachin troops under KIA Brigade 4 in northern Shan State captured six [government] soldiers, including one officer, during today's skirmish.”
“Regarding the letter to Beijing, I want to say that we attempted to achieve peace with the government bilaterally. However, it achieved no solid result, even after a 16-year ceasefire, so this time we want [Beijing] to be involved in the peace process as a mediator. That's why we sent the letter two days ago,” he said.
The KIA official said that conflicts in Kachin State could create greater instability in northern Burma unless the regime in Naypyidaw commits itself to finding a peaceful resolution. He added that unity among ethnic armed groups along the Sino-Burmese border has strengthened since government troops attacked last week.
“Since June 9, fighting between the KIA and [government troops] has been ongoing. We have talked with other ethnic groups and have an agreement,” said Sumlut Gun Maw. “We don’t want the war to become bigger, but if we have no alternative, we will do what we have to to defend ourselves.”
“We will defend our land using guerrilla warfare tactics until the very end,” he added.
He said that since the government army’s “strategic attack” against Kachin troops near Ta Ping Hydropower sites in Momauk, Bhamo District, the KIA has discussed military cooperation with five other ethnic armed groups allied with them. However, he declined to provide further details about the alliance agreement during the ongoing conflict.
Commenting on the government army’s operation plan against the KIA on June 9, he said the area is in a strategic location militarily and geographically, since it is just 30 miles from the Chinese border.
“Their plan is to carry out a big offensive against the KIA under the pretext of providing 'dam security'. Their plan is to totally destroy our troops,” said Sumlut Gun Maw.
According to the Kachin commander, the conflict could escalate, as there are estimated to be at least six government army battalions around the conflict area near the hydropower site and more reinforcements from other light infantry divisions are reported to be on their way.
“We have good relations with the Chinese authorities and Chinese companies. Why do they need to call for further security?” asked Sumlut Gun Maw.
Asked if Kachin and Chinese officials have discussed the recent conflict, Sumlut Gun Maw said that there have been no official talks yet, although KIA leaders have reported the situation to their Chinese counterparts.
Concerning reports that the Burmese air force has sent combat planes to Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, and rumors that the defense forces of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been ordered to shoot down any aircraft that crosses into Chinese air space, Sumlut Gun Maw said: “Some local PLA commanders might say something like that, but I'm not sure about the commander in Beijing.”
Another likely concern of Beijing is the safety of Chinese nationals living in Kachin State. There are believed to be several hundred thousand Chinese businessmen, workers and technicians in the state, which has attracted growing numbers of investors from China in recent years.
“Regarding the security of Chinese citizens, if instability occurs, it could affect everyone. But I have ordered KIA troops to be concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens,” said Sumlut Gun Maw.
On Thursday, Chinese authorities made their first public statement on the Kachin conflict.
“We are paying attention to the situation in Myanmar [Burma] near the border area. We urge the two parties to exercise restraint and prevent the escalation of the situation, and resolve the relevant disputes through peaceful negotiations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news conference in Beijing.
Hong said China was giving humanitarian help to residents from Burma who had fled, but he gave no details on their number or condition.
So far, it appears that most civilians fleeing the conflict have remained inside Burma, although that could change, according to the KIO's joint-secretary, La Nan.
“Our statistics show that more than 10,000 refugees have come here to flee the fighting.
Some could cross into China,” he said, speaking to The Irrawaddy from the KIO's headquarters in Laiza on Thursday.
Residents of Myitkyina have also been uneasy, amid rumors that fighting could spread to the town.
“People here are worried that there could be fighting here,” said Soe, a student in her early 20s who lives in Myitkyina. “I hope the situation will be resolved peacefully.”
As of Thursday, Burmese state-run media have been silent on the conflict. Journalists for privately owned publications based in Rangoon have also not begun to report on the situation in Kachin State.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21505&page=1
----------------------------------------
Q+A - What is behind clashes in Myanmar's Kachin hills?
ReutersBy Beijing Newsroom and Martin Petty in Bangkok | Reuters – 3 hours ago
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar troops have clashed with ethnic Kachin rebels near Chinese-built dams this week, threatening Chinese energy interests in the country.
Here are some questions and answers about the conflict and the implications for China.
WHO ARE THE KACHIN REBELS?
They are guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the larger ethnic minority forces in northern Myanmar. The Kachin are a hill people and many of them are Christian.
The KIA group was formed in the early 1960s and for years battled the military government for greater autonomy for the Kachin hills along the border with China, which are rich in jade and timber.
The group agreed to a cease-fire in 1994 but that fell through last year when the government tried to force all ethnic minority forces to merge with its military-run Border Guard Force.
The Kachin were among those who refused on the grounds that a merger with the government force would erode their autonomy. The Kachin force numbers at least 10,000 well-armed and experienced fighters.
Ethnic minority rebel armies like the KIA have fought Myanmar's military for decades. Low-level fighting has taken place in the past year; these latest clashes are the most intense.
The Kachin, like most of Myanmar's ethnic minority factions, are not fighting to break away from Myanmar but want a federal system with a high degree of autonomy for their regions.
WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON RECENTLY?
Beginning last Thursday, Myanmar troops clashed with the KIA. The clashes are near at least two Chinese-built hydroelectric dams and there area fears that fighting could spread to other areas on the border.
At least four people have been killed and Kachin sources estimate 10,000 people have fled into the jungles towards the Myanmar-China border.
Some analysts say the conflict has arisen mainly out of business interests. The KIA was ignored when Myanmar and China agreed a lucrative energy deal, and now the group could be demanding financial incentives, such as protection money.
WHY DOES THIS CONFLICT MATTER TO CHINA?
China has interests in resource-rich Myanmar, particularly in energy. Bilateral trade rose by more than half last year to $4.4 billion (2.72 billion pounds), and China's investment in Myanmar reached $12.3 billion in 2010, according to Chinese figures, with a strong focus on natural resources and energy projects.
In October, Chinese state energy group CNPC started building a crude oil port in Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at streamlining oil cargo paths.
In addition, Myanmar gives China access to the Indian Ocean, not only for imports of oil and gas and exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts.
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT?
Myanmar's government is only 10 weeks old and has little appetite for war with the ethnic minority forces at this stage, although it is unlikely to tolerate them in the long term.
Still, it faces pressure to protect the dams and other pipeline construction sites to appease China. Since China has significant energy interests in the area, it may use its influence to try to stop the fighting.
(Compiled by Beijing Newsroom and Martin Petty in Bangkok; Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/q-behind-clashes-myanmars-kachin-hills-081524566.html
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Kachin rebels in northern Myanmar claim fighting forces 10K to flee to camps near China border
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, June 16, 7:46 PM
BANGKOK — As many as 10,000 people have reportedly become refugees from fighting in northern Myanmar between government troops and a militia of the Kachin ethnic minority.
The website of the Kachin News Group, associated with anti-government Kachin exiles, quoted one of the group’s leaders saying that more than 10,000 refugees had fled territory under government control to six temporary camps near the Chinese border. The report said China had closed the border to refugees, but Beijing has denied doing so.
The fighting began June 9 when government troops allegedly shelled a Kachin base in a bid to force the rebel fighters from a strategic region where China is constructing major hydropower plants. The total number of casualties so far remains unclear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/kachin-rebels-in-northern-myanmar-claim-fighting-forces-10k-to-flee-to-camps-near-china-border/2011/06/16/AGHnwDXH_story.html
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Refugees flee Myanmar towns as fighting rages
ReutersBy Martin Petty | Reuters – Thu, Jun 16, 2011
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's army and ethnic Kachin rebels clashed for an eighth day on Thursday in mountains near the border with China and hundreds of people fled in anticipation of a heavy offensive by government troops, Kachin sources said.
Townships close to two Chinese-built hydroelectric dams held by Kachin separatists were emptying fast, with an estimated 2,000 people sheltering in a camp run by the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the rebels' political arm.
Some 7,000 more had set up tents and shelters in the jungle along the troubled frontier and others had crossed into China, said Lahpai Naw Din, head of the Thai-based Kachin News Group, citing sources on the ground.
"Many have fled their homes after reports of reinforcements being sent by the government. Everyone fears the clashes will escalate into heavy fighting and that they will be targeted by troops," he said, adding the number of casualties was not known.
The fighting, which began last Thursday, has killed at least four people according to the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma.
A spokesman for the KIO's War Office in Kachin State confirmed there had been no let-up in the fighting.
The KIO battled the central government for decades but agreed to a ceasefire in 1994 under which their fighters were allowed to keep their arms.
But tension has been rising since last year, largely because the Kachin have been resisting government pressure to fold their men into a state-run border security force.
Information is difficult to obtain from the remote northern Myanmar states of Kachin and Shan and the country's military-backed government has made no mention of the conflict in any of the newspapers or television channels it controls.
DIVISIVE DAMS
Analysts say the 10-week old government, Myanmar's first civilian-led administration in five decades, is intent on seizing control of the rebellious states but is reluctant to engage in conflict with numerous factions at this point.
They say the government is probably under pressure from China, its biggest economic ally, to secure the two hydroelectric plants on the Taping River owned by Datang Corporation, a Chinese state company, which says 90 percent of the power generated will flow into China's power grid.
Chinese-built dams have been divisive projects, with ethnic minorities in Myanmar seeing the construction as expanding military presence into their territory. Some analysts say Kachin rebels may be trying to hold the dams hostage in return for a share of the revenue from the projects.
The unrest has raised fears the fighting could spread and intensify a wider, decades-old conflict between ethnic minority factions and Myanmar's army, which has repeatedly ordered rebels to disarm and join the state-run Border Guard Force.
Some small groups have complied, but the larger Shan State Army, Kachin Independence Army and the powerful United Wa State Army, among others, have resisted and vowed to protect the enclaves they have ruled for decades.
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has sought to revive a plan devised by her late father, independence hero Aung San, to grant a degree of self-determination to ethnic minorities but her efforts have been rejected as interference by the country's uncompromising rulers.
Many Kachin are Christian and their fighters helped British and other allied troops fighting against Japanese forces in what was then known as Burma in World War Two.
(Editing by Alan Raybould and Robert Birsel) http://in.news.yahoo.com/refugees-flee-myanmar-towns-fighting-rages-072613042.html
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China urges talks as refugees flee Myanmar fighting
By Martin Petty – 2 hrs 19 mins ago
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Myanmar's army and ethnic Kachin rebels clashed for an eighth day on Thursday in mountains near the border with China and hundreds of people fled, Kachin sources said, while Beijing urged the warring sides to defuse the volatile outbreak.
The risk of fighting spreading in the heavily militarized border region is a particular worry for China, which is building oil and gas pipelines that will span its Southeast Asian neighbor to improve energy security.
Townships close to two Chinese-built hydroelectric dams held by Kachin separatists were emptying fast, with an estimated 2,000 people sheltering in a camp run by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the rebels' political arm.
Some 7,000 more had set up tents and shelters in the jungle along the troubled frontier and others had crossed into China, said Lahpai Naw Din, head of the Thai-based Kachin News Group, citing sources on the ground.
"Many have fled their homes after reports of reinforcements being sent by the government. Everyone fears the clashes will escalate into heavy fighting and that they will be targeted by troops," he said, adding the number of casualties was not known.
The fighting, which began last Thursday, has killed at least four people according to the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma.
"We are paying attention to the situation in Myanmar near the border area. We urge the two parties to exercise restraint and prevent the escalation of the situation, and resolve the relevant disputes through peaceful negotiations," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news conference in Beijing.
Hong said China was giving humanitarian help to residents from Myanmar who had fled, but he gave no details on their number or condition.
A spokesman for the KIO's War Office in Kachin State confirmed there had been no let-up in the fighting.
The KIO battled the central government for decades but agreed to a ceasefire in 1994 under which their fighters were allowed to keep their arms.
But tension has been rising since last year, largely because the Kachin have been resisting government pressure to fold their men into a state-run border security force.
Information is difficult to obtain from the remote northern Myanmar states of Kachin and Shan and the country's military-backed government has made no mention of the conflict in any of the newspapers or television channels it controls.
DIVISIVE DAMS
Analysts say the 10-week old government, Myanmar's first civilian-led administration in five decades, is intent on seizing control of the rebellious states but is reluctant to engage in conflict with numerous factions at this point.
They say the government is probably under pressure from China, its biggest economic ally, to secure the two hydroelectric plants on the Taping River owned by Datang Corporation, a Chinese state company, which says 90 percent of the power generated will flow into China's power grid.
Chinese-built dams have been divisive projects, with ethnic minorities in Myanmar seeing the construction as expanding military presence into their territory. Some analysts say Kachin rebels may be trying to hold the dams hostage in return for a share of the revenue from the projects.
The unrest has raised fears the fighting could spread and intensify a wider, decades-old conflict between ethnic minority factions and Myanmar's army, which has repeatedly ordered rebels to disarm and join the state-run Border Guard Force.
Some small groups have complied, but the larger Shan State Army, Kachin Independence Army and the powerful United Wa State Army, among others, have resisted and vowed to protect the enclaves they have ruled for decades.
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has sought to revive a plan devised by her late father, independence hero Aung San, to grant a degree of self-determination to ethnic minorities but her efforts have been rejected as interference by the country's uncompromising rulers.
Many Kachin are Christian and their fighters helped British and other allied troops fighting against Japanese forces in what was then known as Burma in World War Two.
(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Alan Raybould and Sanjeev Miglani)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110616/wl_nm/us_myanmar_china
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China urges restraint, KIA seeks mediation
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 16 June 2011
China has called for “restraint” in its first official acknowledgement of the escalating conflict over the border with Burma, following requests from the Kachin Independence Army that Beijing plays an intermediary role between it and the Burmese government.
Hong Lei, China’s foreign affairs spokesperson, told a press conference in Beijing today that the government was “paying attention to the situation in Myanmar [Burma] near the border area. We urge the two parties to exercise restraint and prevent the escalation of the situation, and resolve the relevant disputes through peaceful negotiations.”
The spokesperson of the Kachin Independence Organisation, the political wing of the KIA, James Lundau, told DVB today that China was the only foreign power capable of negotiating between the two sides to bring about an end to the fighting.
China is also a stakeholder in the conflict: Lundau told DVB that 7,000 refugees had now fled to China, which will be monitoring the conflict in fear of its infrastructure projects in the region, including the controversial Myitsone Dam near the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.
Fighting began on Thursday last week but quietened on Monday, with little indication of any major successes for either side. A spokesperson for the KIO in Laiza near the China border told AFP that, “Without the involvement of another country as a witness, as a facilitator… there is no solution.”
Casualty figures are hard to ascertain, not least because the Burmese government has made no public statement on the fighting. The conflict however seems part of a wider concerted effort to rein in key ethnic areas that, like Kachin state, have huge strategic and economic potential for Burma.
China has been a key ally to Naypyidaw but is ever wary of the instability that Burma’s ethnic politics seemingly creates. In August 2009 the Chinese chastised Naypyidaw for creating a similar influx of refugees, this time from the Kokang region in Shan state where fighting broke out.
The KIO’s 17-year ceasefire deal with the Burmese in 1994 allowed its to maintain arms in exchange for Burmese control of the crucial jade mines in areas such as Hpakant.
But the advent of the government’s Border Guard Force plan, which groups like the KIO refused to sign on account that it would effectively end their autonomy, has pushed the Burmese to aggressively attempt to bring the areas under their control.
http://www.dvb.no/news/china-urges-restraint-kia-seeks-mediation/16168
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NEWS ANALYSIS
China's Hand in the Renewed Civil War in Burma
By BA KAUNG Thursday, June 16, 2011
The current armed conflict in Burma's northern Kachin State has effectively ended nearly two decades of ceasefire between the country's second largest ethnic army, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and the newly sworn-in Naypyidaw government, bringing a strategic region near the Chinese border to the verge of a civil war.
The gunfire that was exchanged between the KIA and the Burmese army over the past seven days has claimed only a few casualties on both sides. But, despite concerns that the fighting will spread to other areas, no other clashes have been reported in the region since midday on Monday.
The past week's conflict is extraordinarily significant because for the first time it has reignited a civil war in northern Burma which has been in hibernation mode since a fragile “gentlemen's� agreement was reached in 1994.
The clashes that broke out last Thursday presented a new challenge in the armed struggle of Kachin rebels who initially demanded independence in 1961 but later called for a federal union.
The new and daunting challenge for the KIA today is its neighbor China. Across Kachin State, Chinese state-owned mega-corporations such as China Power Investment and China Datang are constructing a number of large-scale hydropower dams. And the electricity from those dams will be exported to China.
KIA spokesperson La Na told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the immediate cause of the latest fighting stemmed from the Burmese army's aggressive attempts to control areas surrounding the hydropower dams, which are located near the Chinese border—areas which have long been under the control of KIA forces, and just a few kilometers away from China's strategic oil pipeline from the Bay of Bengal to Yunnan Province which passes through central Burma.
La Na said that these massive investments were implemented without the consent of the local public or stakeholders such as the KIA, and these economic interests have already pushed Beijing into becoming an ally of the Burmese army.
“When we approached the Chinese company officials working at these dams, their response is that they already have agreements with Naypyidaw,� he said. “China wants to get resources from Burma. So it seems that their policy is to secure our country's resources by any means necessary and, in this case, with the connivance of the Burmese authorities.�
According to Burma Rivers Network, an independent environmental group, these dams have severe social, economic and environmental impacts. In addition, the majority of the power is to be exported to neighboring countries, necessitating the expansion of Burmese army control in the areas where these dams are being built.
The NGO said in a statement on Wednesday that the latest fighting near the Dapein and Shweli hydropower dams in northern Burma shows how the build-up of Burmese government troops in the region fuels the conflict and adds to the deep resentment against the widely unpopular dam projects.
Given China's huge investment in the region, it is interesting to question whether the Burmese armed forces tried to dispel the KIA battalions from the areas near these projects only after it received explicit approval from Beijing.
The ongoing armed clashes in Kachin State come just a few weeks after Burmese President Thein Sein visited Beijing and the two countries announced the establishment of a strategic relationship. During the visit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo appealed to Thein Sein “for the smooth implementation of infrastructure projects, including oil and gas pipelines, hydroelectric power and transportation,� according to state news agency Xinhua.
China kept mum on the latest crisis near its border—unlike during the Burmese government's surprise offensive in 2009 against the small Kokang ethnic militia group in northeastern Shan State. At that time, China reprimanded Naypyidaw for creating “border instability.�
On Thursday, only a week later after the fightings, China has called for restraint on both parties and de-escalation of the tension.
Despite repeated stress on the importance of border stability from both Chinese and Burmese governments, the KIA official said the words lacked sincerity, describing it as “stability forced on the ethnic people by military means.�
Asked if China had possibly given a green light to the Burmese army to clear the KIA-controlled areas, Jim Della-Giacoma, the Southeast Asian Director of International Crisis Group, said, “We don't think Beijing would have been caught off-guard by this [the latest clashes] as they were by the Kokang fighting of August 2009, but their larger interests remain.�
The ICG report last year said that the Kokang conflict and the rise in tensions along the border prompted Beijing to increasingly view Burma's ethnic groups as a liability rather than a means of strategic leverage. It also said that the ethnic groups' view China’s support for them as provisional and driven by its own economic and security interests.
According to Dr. Zarni, a Burmese research fellow at the London School of Economics, the Burmese generals' insensitivity to the survival needs of local communities has resulted in the rise in military tensions with respective armed organizations.
“The ruling military class in Naypyidaw has condemned the Burmese people to slavery, and has colonized the ethnic groups with their other hand,� he said. “Now this ruling class is fulfilling the wishes of the Chinese government, and what they want in return is China's political protection on the international stage.�
Della-Giacoma described the current break in hostilities in Kachin State as “the lull before the storm.�
“We are not yet at a point of full resumption of conflict in Kachin, but if the Myanmar government doesn't move quickly to create space for a de-escalation, that's where this is headed,� he said.
Despite the presumed incentive of economic interests and the China factor, the core major cause of this conflict, the KIA official said, is the Burmese army's attempt to subjugate the KIA under central command—a move the KIA has rejected, just as many other armed ethnic groups have done.
Added to the Kachins' resentment toward Naypyidaw is that three Kachin political parties that tried to run in the parliamentary elections last year were banned from doing so on the grounds that their leaders were linked with the Kachin Independence Organization, the KIA's political wing.
La Na said the KIA had lost trust in the Burmese government and will not accept any peace talks inside the country. He said that KIA wants a neighboring country to host a dialogue between it and the Burmese government, so that Naypyidaw can be held accountable.
“Our major goal is for a genuine federal union. We don't seek independence,� he said.
Regarding the Chinese hydropower projects in Kachin State being included in any peace talks, the official said that although the KIA clearly rejects the Myitsone Dam project, which is not near KIA military bases, it is not in opposition to other dam projects in Kachin State.
“We wanted to have a say in these projects and make sure that the revenue from these dams benefits Kachin people too,� he said, adding that the apparent immediate objective of the Burmese army attack is to completely control full and direct access to China.
He said he does not rule out a large-scale major offensive by the Burmese army in the coming days.
“It depends only on the Burmese government,� La Na said. “We have prepared a broad defensive military position, just in case.
“But we know that real victims of war will be the people of the region,� he added. “That's why we are not conducting military attacks in any other area except to destroy bridges to deter the Burmese army tanks coming in.�
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21506
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Schools in Three Pagodas Pass Closed in Fear of Attacks
By LAWI WENG Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Burmese authorities in Three Pagodas Pass ordered all students attending public schools in town to go home in the afternoon after receiving information that armed men would once again attack the town.
“The Burmese authorities told school teachers at 1:30 pm that the situation is getting worse, so they should let all the students go home,” said Tun Oo, a resident in the town.
“Karen Buddhists monks are transporting students, which is helping the students’ families,” he said.
There are three primary schools, one high school and one middle school in Three Pagodas Pass. All the schools were only open for a half-day due to the unstable situation.
The Burmese army has recently deployed three battalions to Three Pagodas Pass: Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) No. 566 and 563 and Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 284, which are under the control of the Regional Southeast Command in Moulmein.
Resident sources said that LIB No.566 and IB No. 284 have deployed about 200 troops at Ott Taung Kam (the name of a pool in Burmese) in the Taung Wine quarter 4 of Three Pagodas Pass.
“They (the government troops) told all people who stay near Ott Taung Kam to move away,” said Nai Lyi Mon.
“There are about 1,500 people who live near Ott Taung Kam. Many of them have already moved to other quarters of the town. The people who have money have already moved to the Thai side of the border,” he said.
Many of the government troops who have deployed at Ott Taung Kam wore civilian clothes, according to sources.
“They are cowards, as they are wearing civilian dress. If they dare to fight, why do not they wear uniform,” said a resident.
When armed men attacked the town on June 5 and June 14, they used the route at Taung Wine from quarter 4, where the government troops have currently deployed.
“We have seen many strangers this morning in the town. We have not seen these faces before. Maybe they (the armed men) are already in the town,” he said.
The situation in Three Pagodas Pass has been unstable amid rising ethnic tensions between Karen armed groups and government forces in the area.
In hopes of achieving peace, the Burmese authorities let Buddhist monks chant in Three Pagodas Pass for a week after the attack on June 5, which killed one officer from Military Affairs Security (MAS) and a girl, and wounded four people.
Despite the monks’ chanting, there was another attack on June 14, during which the assailants burned a shop owned by Ma Nyo, who was allegedly an agent who purchased weapons used by government troops to attack the Karen armed groups at Three Pagodas Pass.
The Burmese authorities have defused three bombs this morning at the power transformer station in town, according to sources. The armed men also attached three bombs to power poles during the June 14 attack.
Meanwhile, the residents in Three Pagodas Pass have said that the armed men who attacked the town were not only from Karen armed groups—other ethnic armed groups were also involved in the attacks.
The Burmese authorities at Three Pagodas Pass have accused members the New Mon State Party (NMSP) of being involved in the attacks.
IB No. 284 shot three mortars into the area controlled by the NMSP during the attack on June 14, which members of the NMSP believe was intentional, but there were no causalities.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the NMSP, said, “We should make them afraid of us. Before they sleep, let them consider that our troops are coming to attack them.”
But he denied his troops were involved in the attacks at Three Pagodas Pass. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21502
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June 16, 2011 13:07 PM
Myanmar To Expand GSM Phone Coverage To Asian Countries
YANGON, June 16 (Bernama) -- The Myanmar telecommunication authorities will expand GSM phone coverage to Asean members and other Asian countries, aimed at providing better phone line services to link the region, a local weekly reported in this week issue.
The project to link such Asian countries as China, India, South Korea and Japan in addition to ASEAN members is to be initially implemented this year, China's Xinhua news agency quoted the Popular News on Thursday.
The authorities has also planned to add 30 million more lines of GSM mobile phone phase by phase through a five-year plan in cooperation with private companies.
According to the official statistics, there are over 1.09 million auto-telephones and 2.1 million mobile phones in Myanmar totaling 3.19 million at present compared with 74,855 in 1988, adding that telephone density hit 5.4 percent in the entire nation with 30 percent in Yangon and 20 percent in Mandalay.
There remains lesser density in rural areas and efforts are being made for installation of cellular, CDMA-450, CDMA-800 and GSM phones for the increase of the telephone density, better facility and wider coverage of telephone in the rural areas.
Internet users reached 380,000 in Myanmar in March 2011, up 28, 610 compared with the same period of 2010.
-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=594327
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Thai police free 54 illegal Myanmar migrants
Jun 16, 2011 | AFP
Authorities in Thailand have freed 54 illegal migrants from Myanmar who were held for ransom by traffickers, police said on Thursday.
Six suspects, including two Myanmar men and four Thai men, have been arrested on various charges including illegal detention and extortion after the migrants were rescued from three houses in central Suphan Buri province.
“They were kept in those houses for a few days,” Col. Vorapong Thongpaibul, division commander of the anti-human trafficking police, told AFP.
“This case become known after a relative of one of the extortion victims asked us for help,” he said.
The migrants, who were freed on Tuesday, would be prosecuted for illegal entry and deported, Vorapong said.
Meanwhile 76 illegal migrants from Myanmar travelling in pick-up trucks were arrested near the border in western Tak province, while about 100 more were detained near the capital Bangkok.
There are an estimated two million migrant workers in Thailand from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
The police said there had been an influx of migrants trying to slip into the country to take advantage of a window during which employer can register illegal workers with the authorities, enabling them to stay.
http://www.asianage.com/international/thai-police-free-54-illegal-myanmar-migrants-984
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Big step forward for Burmese migrant domestic workers
Thursday, 16 June 2011 19:21 Thea Forbes
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burmese domestic workers living in Chiang Mai celebrated the International Labour Organization's (ILO) adoption of Convention 189 titled 'Decent Work for Domestic Workers' on Thursday, a press release from the MAP Foundation reported. The MAP Foundation is an NGO that advocates for Burmese workers in Thailand.
The ILO is a UN organization that works to improve workers' rights around the world.
The ILO is a UN organization that works to improve workers' rights around the world.
According to MAP, the ILO adopted the convention with 396 votes in favour, 16 against and 63 abstentions. The draft convention will set standards for working and living conditions for domestic workers and guarantee domestic workers the right to collective bargaining.
'If Thailand adjusts its laws to comply with this convention it will make a huge difference to the lives of domestic workers who currently face daily exploitation and abuse at work', said MAP.
Article 9 of convention 189 calls on members to ensure that domestic workers are entitled to keep possession of their travel and identity documents, which will have significant importance, as many migrant workers in Thailand are effectively held in limbo when their employers confiscate their paperwork.
In October 2010, Mizzima reported a case in which more than one thousand migrant Burmese workers went on strike in a fishing net factory in Khon Kaen because their employer had seized their legal documents and refused to pay their salaries, keeping them in virtual slavery.
There have been numerous cases of Burmese domestic workers experiencing ill treatment in Thailand.
Observers hope that the adoption of ILO convention 189 will propel the Thai government into adopting similar laws and policies in order to protect the rights of migrant domestic workers in Thailand.
MAP called the adoption of the convention an 'important, ground breaking piece of international legislation' and declared that it has 'the potential to bring an end to the exploitation and abuse that domestic workers have faced for so long’.
'The convention and recommendation alone will not put a halt to the abuses that continue to impact domestic workers and migrant domestic workers, but the standards it sets represent a significant step forward in acknowledging that domestic workers are workers, domestic work is work, and domestic work is not slavery’, the Migrant Forum in Asia said on Friday on its Web site. http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/5433-big-step-forward-for-burmese-migrant-domestic-workers.html
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Lower US Dollar Value Hits Rice Business and Farmers
By YAN PAI Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sales of rice have declined in Burma as exporters, including the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL), have stopped buying from domestic traders following a drop in the value of their overseas earnings, according to business sources.
With the US dollar recently reaching as low as 750 kyat, down from around 1,000 kyat last year, exporters have been reluctant to convert their earnings back into the Burmese currency.
Although licensed trading companies in Burma enjoy a preferential exchange rate, currently around 800 kyat to the dollar, this has done little to offset the overall decline of the dollar against the kyat, the currency used for purchasing rice and other domestic products.
Further complicating matters is the fact that foreign currency transactions are illegal in Burma, although trading companies sometimes informally use dollars, euros and Japanese yen when doing business with each other.
“Exporters are suffering great losses right now, so they're just holding on to their earnings and watching the situation. This means that domestic rice traders are also in a bind, as they usually rely on exporters to buy much of their rice,” a rice dealer from Rangoon's Bayintnaung rice market told The Irrawaddy.
To make up for the loss of sales to exporters, some rice traders are trying to sell off some of their stock domestically. However, with few buyers around with cash in hand, this hasn't been easy.
Sluggish sales have had the effect of driving down prices. According to dealers in Rangoon, a sack of export-quality rice now sells for 12,500 kyat (US $16), down from 13,500 kyat ($17).
Falling rice prices will add to the burden of already struggling farmers, who say that they may be unable to repay government agricultural loans and other debts if the dollar continues to fall, putting further pressure on overseas demand.
“Everything depends on the exchange rate, so it will be difficult in the long run it things continue the way they're going. At the end of the day, it will be farmers who have to shoulder the burden,” said a farmer from Thayawaddy District in northern Pegu Division.
He added that while the price of rice has gone down, the cost of producing it hasn't. Fertilizer and fuel remain expensive, and wages for farm laborers are rising all the time, he said, warning that unless these trends change, there could be a disruption in rice production.
Khin Maung Nyo, a Rangoon-based economist, also suggested that the rising value of the kyat could cause lasting damage to the Burmese economy. If the currency makes prices for Burma's goods too uncompetitive, exports will suffer, domestic producers will lose out and job opportunities will be affected, he said. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21503
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
News & Articles on Burma-Tuesday 14 June, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Tuesday 14 June, 2011
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Three Pagodas Pass Under Attack
Chinese Dam Workers Allowed to Return
More Burma Army troops deployed to SSA HQ
Myanmar government battles rebels near Chinese border
Myanmar Soldiers, Ethnic Karen Forces Clash Near Thai Border
Can We Believe Burma?
Refugees flee Myanmar clashes near Chinese border
Report: U.S. Navy intercepted North Korean ship
Myanmar army, militia fight in strategic region
A Grim Trade: Trafficking Palaung Women to China
As Dollar Falls, FECs Plummet
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Three Pagodas Pass Under Attack
By LAWI WENG Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Undisclosed or unknown militants launched an attack on the Burmese border town of Three Pagodas Pass on Tuesday amid rising ethnic tensions between Karen armed groups and government forces in the area.
According to sources at the Thai-Burmese border town, armed men entered the town and fired into the air shortly after 12 noon following the expiry of a Karen rebel deadline on Monday for government troops to withdraw from its base nearby.
The Burmese army engaged the militants, and gunfire was exchanged in the town center and near the market where a local store was burned down by the armed men, witnesses said.
“They set Ma Nyo's shop on fire because she allowed the Burmese authorities to have a meeting there yesterday [Monday],” said Lawi Mon, a Three Pagodas resident.
Local residents said at least seven mortars exploded during Tuesday's hostilities.
Meanwhile, a joint force of rebels from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) reportedly surrounded Three Pagodas Pass even before the Monday deadline for government troops to withdraw from their base at the village of Mae Ka Thar.
“The authorities in Three Pagodas Pass told the Karens on June 11 to await an answer from Regional Southeast Command with regard to a withdrawal from the base,” said a source close to the Burmese authorities in the town. “But they did not issue an official response.”
Thai border authorities negotiated between Burmese government troops and the joint Karen force last week, but talks broke down after the Karen rebels told government officers to withdrawal from their base in Mae Ka Thar.
Several residents in Three Pagodas Pass expressed safety concerns. Since the weekend, more than 200 villagers have fled to Thailand to escape the fighting in the town.
Tuesdays' attack was the first clash in Three Pagodas since June 5 when a military intelligence officer and a young girl were killed, and four soldiers and civilians were wounded.
However, the town had enjoyed a period of relative peace since hostilities flared on Nov. 7 to 8 when the DKBA launched an attack on government troops causing as many as 30,000 refugees to flee to Thailand. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21484
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Chinese Dam Workers Allowed to Return
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Burmese Army has allowed the final 30 Chinese engineers at Tapai hydropower station to return home as fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) intensifies.
Seventy Chinese workers and engineers fled the area as soon as hostilities commenced, but the last 30 have only just received permission to return to China on Tuesday as KIA troops surround the site.
The return was negotiated between Kachin leaders, the Burmese government and Chinese authorities as the route over the Sino-Burmese border passes through KIA-held territory.
The Burmese government has brought in additional troops to Bhamo District in Kachin State, northern Burma, as serious fighting continues with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), claim local sources.
More than 20 government trucks have arrived in the area carrying soldiers and prisoners—the latter to be used as forced labour porters or human minesweepers in the battlefield, according KIA spokesperson La Na.
He added that the Burmese government has also reinforced its troop placements along another route near Laiza—headquarters of the KIA—by the Sino-Burmese border.
Residents including government staff in Lwaigyai, also on the same frontier, have fled into China fearing a major armed conflict. Government troops have set up camp in the area complete with artillery launchers.
The KIA has also strengthened its frontline positions after the government ignored demands to withdraw troops from ethnic Kachin-controlled areas, said La Na.
All KIA troops have been ordered on alert and to prepare the battleground with the destruction of Nam Hpak Hka Bridge a possible tactic, he added.
To hinder government reinforcements, KIA soldiers destroyed a strategic bridge at around 3a.m. On Tuesday. The bridge was located over Nam Hpak Hka river and was used by government supply trucks.
“Our troops destroyed it because they [government troops] carry ammunition and weapons over this bridge. It stopped them from coming to reinforce their troops,” explained La Na.
The bridge leads to Taping River where Burmese and Chinese engineers are constructing the hydropower dam. All Chinese engineers except the current hostages have been sent home for their own safety.
KIA soldiers also destroyed a government weapon store in Momauk, Bhamo District, while shelling also decimated a Burmese Army battalion in the area.
Residents in Bhamo report than dozens of injured Burmese soldiers are being treated at the town hospital. Around 30 doctors from Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, were reportedly asked to transfer to Bhamo, according to KIA sources.
“We heard this morning that some 16 Burmese government soldiers were injured during Monday's fighting in Momauk,” said La Na. He added that two KIA soldiers have been killed and one injured since June 10.
Fighting first erupted on Thursday after negotiations broke down over a hostage situation. The clashes then escalated on June 11 after government troops returned the dead body of the hostage, a captured KIA soldier, to the Kachin army, said La Na.
Seng Aung, a Kachin living in Laiza, headquarters of the KIA, said the tensions finally turned into violence because that the government wants to gain full control of areas near Tapai hydropower dam for security reasons.
The KIA in turn demanded that the government ceased attacking Kachin forces, stopped its military operations and withdraws its troops from KIA-controlled areas. However, there has so far been no response from Naypyidaw, said La Na.
“If they offer us an alternative, we will cooperate with them in order to achieve peace. We always keep the door open for peace,” he said.
The KIA signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in 1994. However, the agreement informally broke down last year after sporadic fighting broke out. The KIA also refused to transform its battalions into a state militia “border guard force” under Burmese Army command. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21485
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More Burma Army troops deployed to SSA HQ
Tuesday, 14 June 2011 17:39 Hseng Khio Fah
Latest information today says about 5 battalions of Burma Army troops were sent to Wanhai, new headquarters of Shan State Army (SSA), the armed wing of Shan State Progress Party that refused to transform into Naypyitaw’s Border Guard Force (BGF) program and returned to the armed struggle after being attacked in March.
Hundreds of soldiers were reported to have deployed from every side, said local eye witnesses. Some were seen coming from Shan State South’s Kehsi Township and some from battalions under Northeastern Region Command (NERC) based in Lashio, Shan State North.
“Many Burma Army patrols are seen heading to Wanhai this morning from Monghsu. Villagers from Mong Awt village tract, Monghsu township are ordered to go for portering whenever the soldiers arrived. Every 20 villager are assigned to take in turn for the service,” said a local source from Monghsu.
Regarding to the immediate reinforcement of the Burma Army, sources close to Hsengkaew militia comment that the action is likely to be related to an emergency meeting held in Lashio HQ by Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut who oversees operations in Shan State on 13 June.
“It was about 16:30 local time; Aung Than Htut arrived at the HQ and called a meeting with commanders in the NERC. No details are known. But most of the people speculate that it may partly concern the SSA issue,” said a source.
Today, Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut and Brig-Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, Commander of NERC, are reported to have headed to Hoparng and Kunlong, west of United Wa State Army (UWSA) controlled area. They are expected to inspect the area as well.
Although speculations are that the Burma Army is planning to raid the SSA HQ, the SSA said there has been no significant sign yet.
The Burma Army troops are active just 2 miles away from Wanhai HQ.
Yesterday fighting between the two groups [Burma Army and SSA] were reported in Ho Nga village tract and Loi Khio Mountain, both in Monghsu township. The SSA side was reported to have launched a swift attack, leaving five Burma army soldier dead.
“A dozen Burma Army soldiers were brought to Monghsu hospital in the morning from Ho Nga fighting field. And more were carried in again in the evening. But they were said to be from Loi Khio fighting,” a source said.
Burma Army troops are now believed to have around 25 battalions including 20 battalions deployed earlier.
The Burma Army, besides attacking the SSA, has also been launching operations against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Bhamo district, Kachin State on the Sino-Burma border since 9 June forcing hundreds of civilians seeking asylum in neighboring townships. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3771:more-burma-army-troops-deployed-to-ssa-hq&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
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Jun 14, 2011
Myanmar government battles rebels near Chinese border
BANGKOK - GOVERNMENT troops in Myanmar have attacked one of the country's powerful northern militias with artillery in a bid to force rebel fighters from a strategic region where China is constructing major hydropower plants.
The fighting has killed at least four people and forced 2,000 more to flee since it started on Thursday, according to the US Campaign for Burma.
The violence is some of the most serious in Myanmar since the country's military junta handed power to a civilian government in March, a move critics say is a simply a proxy for continued military rule. The new government has said it wants to improve ties with ethnic minorities that have waged rebellions along the border, but the latest fighting underscores the deep tension that remains.
The rebels involved in the most recent clashes belong to the Kachin, one of Myanmar's sizable ethnic minorities. Those groups have struggled for decades to win more autonomy, but their efforts have routinely been met by military suppression.
Kachin military commander Gwan Maw told US-funded Radio Free Asia on Monday that the fighting in northern Myanmar's Momauk region, near the Chinese border, could spread and possibly escalate into civil war if the government refused to negotiate an end to it with the Kachin Independence Organisation.
Though the fighting could worsen, it is unlikely to engulf the repressive nation. -- AP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_679729.html
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June 14, 2011 20:14 PM
Myanmar Soldiers, Ethnic Karen Forces Clash Near Thai Border
KANCHANABURI, June 14 (Bernama) -- The Myanmar government soldiers and ethnic Karen forces clashed in Phaya Tongsu town opposite Sangkhla Buri District of Thailand's western Kanchanaburi Province Tuesday, injuring a Myanmar villager and causing damage to the market of Phaya Tongsu town.
Sangkhla Buri district chief Jamras Kangnoi said that the clash started at around 12:30pm, using pistols and M79 grenade launchers at times, according to Thai News Agency.
Jamras affirmed that about 200 Thai soldiers, police and defence volunteers have conducted border patrols to prevent any trespass and Thai authorities from all concerned agencies have called a meeting to discuss the situation.
The Thai authorities have prepared, as a precaution, the compound of Baan Phra Jedi School as a refugee camp.
The school is about 200 meters away from Kanchanaburi's Three Pagodas Pass.
So far, Myanmar people and ethnic karens have not been allowed to enter Thailand and the Thai authorities are monitoring the border situation closely.
-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=593907
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Can We Believe Burma?
By Luke Hunt
June 14, 2011
The Burmese and North Koreans are getting a little tongue-tied over their nuclear ambitions.
As I’ve mentioned recently, Burma's government insists it can’t afford the atomic ambitions that officials in the West fear Naypyidaw harbours, despite the enormous personal wealth generated by circles around the junta in recent decades.
Their wealth, combined with their unique relations with countries like North Korea and China, would be more than enough to at least kick-start the early stages of such a programme, and the noises out of Pyongyang have done nothing to dispel such suggestions.
This was highlighted by revelations in the United States of a stand-off between a North Korean ship suspected of containing banned weapons, and en-route to Burma, and a US Navy destroyer.
US officials sought and received approval from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and maritime authorities in Belize to engage the M/V Light, a Belize-flagged vessel known to have been previously used for weapons exports to Burma and the Middle East.
The ship was intercepted by the USS McCampbell in late May, however, the North Korean crew refused to let the M/V Light be boarded, insisting the boat was carrying industrial chemicals destined for Bangladesh.
The United States didn’t force the issue, nor did it want to risk a military confrontation as officials couldn’t be completely sure what cargo the ship contained. The standoff continued for several days before the vessel turned back and sailed for home.
Ties between Burma and North Korea have improved dramatically in recent years, a far cry from 1983, when North Korean agents detonated a bomb in Rangoon, killing several South Korean cabinet ministers and resulting in a severing of diplomatic relations.
The warming of ties is timely. Concerns persist over nuclear proliferation among questionable states like Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Burma, and the issue is consistently at the top of the international diplomatic agenda.
Two weeks ago, the junta, which has run Burma for almost 50 years, told US Sen. John McCain that their country isn’t wealthy enough to acquire nuclear weapons. Burma would certainly like to convince the world it’s evolving from a military run junta to a government controlled by civilians. At the same time, about 2,000 political prisoners remain behind bars, and there has been no shift in international opinion, which widely regards last year’s elections as a sham.
If proven, Burma’s suspected trading links with North Korea would be in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1874 and 1718 barring Pyongyang from engaging in the arms trade. Resolution 1874 followed North Korea’s second nuclear test.
Burma deserves full marks for trying, but its attempts at persuading the wider world of its emergence as a regular country worthy of normal relations with everyone else are falling a little flat.
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/06/14/can-we-believe-burma/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29
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Refugees flee Myanmar clashes near Chinese border
By REUTERS 06/14/2011 12:43
BEIJING - Myanmar's military has clashed for several days with a militia controlled by the country's ethnic Kachin minority in a remote but strategic region where China is building hydropower plants, various sources said on Tuesday.
The fighting, which began last Thursday, has killed at least four people and forced hundreds, if not thousands, to flee toward the Myanmar-China border, the sources, including a Washington-based advocacy group and Chinese media, said.
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Report: U.S. Navy intercepted North Korean ship
REUTERS
2011/06/14
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying an illegal shipment of missile parts to Myanmar two weeks ago, the New York Times reported on late on June 12, citing senior American officials.
The North Korean cargo ship was forced to return home after a standoff at sea and several days of diplomatic pressure from Washington and Asian nations, the newspaper reported.
Officials for the U.S. Navy and the State Department were not immediately available for comment late on June 12.
U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea after it conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 include a ban on trade in nuclear and missile technology with North Korea. A U.N. resolution adopted last year authorized U.N. member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo.
According to the Times, the destroyer USS McCampbell caught up with the cargo ship M/V Light south of Shanghai on May 26 after American officials began tracking the vessel, which was believed to have been involved in previous illegal shipments.
The destroyer asked to board the vessel under authority given by Belize, but the North Koreans refused, the Times said.
An American official told the newspaper the ship was North Korean but flagged in Belize. Authorities in Belize gave the United States permission to inspect the ship, the newspaper said, citing American officials.
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106130058.html
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Myanmar army, militia fight in strategic region
AFP – Tue Jun 14, 3:28 am ET
BANGKOK (AFP) – Clashes have broken out between the Myanmar army and northern ethnic rebels in a strategic region near the Chinese border, with at least seven people killed, a militia spokesman said Tuesday.
Myanmar troops pushed Kachin Independence Army (KIA) fighters from a key mountain position during fighting which has left three rebels and four state soldiers dead, according to KIA spokesman James Lum Dau in Thailand.
"This will spread to many areas," he said, accusing the government of moving into regions held by the armed ethnic group. He said the casualties included one KIA soldier allegedly tortured to death.
It was not possible to verify the claims and there was no information from the Myanmar authorities about the reported fighting.
The KIA, thought to have at least several thousand fighters, used to be one of the most powerful armed rebel groups and continues to hold large areas of northern Kachin state despite signing a ceasefire with the junta in 1994.
Hydropower projects to provide energy for China in the north of the state have raised the stakes in the struggle for control of the area, according to Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma, which uses Myanmar's former name.
He said the KIA had refused to remove fighters from the Taping river where two dams are being built by China Datang Corporation, prompting tensions to escalate into an attack by government troops.
Hundreds of government soldiers opened fire on a KIA outpost last Thursday sparking several hours of fighting.
The rebel group has now "issued an order to all of its forces to launch full-scale resistance war against the attack made by the Burmese military regime's troops" after a deadline for negotiations passed, Aung Din said, quoting another senior KIA figure.
The predominantly Baptist and Catholic Kachin account for about seven percent of the country's population and are one of many ethnic minorities that have conducted armed insurgencies.
After Myanmar gained independence in 1948, civil war broke out between the regime and ethnic rebels seeking more autonomy and rights, including an uprising in Kachin that gathered momentum from the early 1960s.
Decades of violence, entailing alleged grave human rights abuses and the displacement of tens of thousands of people, ended with fragile ceasefires.
But government attempts to make former rebel groups give up their weapons or come under state control ahead of a November 2010 election increased fears over renewed conflict last year. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110614/wl_sthasia_afp/myanmarchinaethnicunrest
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A Grim Trade: Trafficking Palaung Women to China
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Tuesday, June 14, 2011
BANGKOKUnscrupulous traffickers, Burma's economic decline and militarization, and a shortage of males caused by China's “One Child Policy” have all combined to contribute to the trafficking of women from the Palaung region of Burma into China, says a locally based activist group.
“Since 2007, we have documented 72 cases of actual and suspected trafficking involving 110 people,” said Lway Moe Kam of the Palaung Women's Organisation (PWO). The caseload includes 11 children under 10 years of age.
Twenty-five percent of the women trafficked were forced to marry Chinese men and 10 percent of the caseload were coerced into the sex trade, according to the PWO, which grimly concluded that nine out of 10 trafficking victims do not escape.
According to a particularly gruesome account given by one victim of trafficking, she was taken to a building in Shandong, eastern China, where people were kept as live feed for leeches, used in Chinese medicine. “I saw some people in that room lying in pools of water. They were all fat, but looked lifeless and were not moving. Then I saw that there were leeches sucking those people's blood,” said the unnamed woman.
The PWO concedes that the number of trafficking victims is likely to be higher than reported, with real figures difficult to determine due to local cultural constraints, further hampered by the logistical and security challenges confronting researchers working in the area. In 60 percent of the cases analysed, it remained unclear exactly what kind of situation the victim was trafficked into.
“Traffickers work in secret, and the presence of the army means that we have to be careful when doing research and talking to people,” said Lway Aye Nang, another PWO representative.
Palaung culture frowns upon extramarital sex, meaning that trafficked women who suffer sexual crimes “are often reluctant to admit they have been trafficked,” said Lway Moe Kah, the lead author of the PWO report, “Stolen LivesHuman Trafficking from Palaung Areas of Burma into China.”
In perhaps a surprising finding, 65 percent of the trafficking perpetrators were female, a factor that Lway Moe Kam puts down to the greater trust placed in women by the eventual victim of trafficking. "It sounds better if the job offer is made by a woman," she said, though Khin Ohmar, a Burmese exile activist based in Chiang Mai, cautioned that the female perpetrators might themselves be coerced into recruitment by other traffickers, likely male, who dominate the trade.
The investigation focused on the townships of Namkahn, Namhsan and Mantong in the Palaung region of Shan State, which sits on the Burma-China frontier. In the absence of recent census date, the Palaung are thought to number around one million people, mostly mountain-dwellers in an area laden with gold, silver, zinc and aluminum.
China's one Child Policy has contributed to a relative scarcity of women in the country, with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently predicting that 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could be unable to find a wife by 2020. While the laws are not as aggressively imposed in rural areas close to Burma as they are in China's eastern seaboard cities, they contribute to a growing gender imbalance, with sex selection abortions “extremely common,” according to the Academy.
With families restricted by law to one, or perhaps two children, a cultural preference for male offspring has been exacerbated, said the Chinese researchers, resulting in 119 boys born for every 100 girls, a disparity that rises to 130-100 in some rural areas.
According to US government in its 2010 report on global human trafficking trends, Burma's government has been working to combat some aspects of trafficking, such as the international sex trade. Burma prohibits sex and labor trafficking through its 2005 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law, in which traffickers are classed in the same category as rapists.
However the US report said that Burma's internal trafficking situation had worsened, mentioning the use of child soldiers and forced labor by the army, abuses that are particularly common in ethnic minority areas.
However, the law is not applied on the ground, according to Palaung and Kachin researchers, and Burma's policy in other areas directly or indirectly contributes to the trafficking of women and children, they say, with conflict and economic decline forcing people to migrate, making them vulnerable to traffickers and criminal gangs.
Within Burma, the Palaung are perhaps best known for the local tea industry, which in recent years has been commandeered by the Burmese army, a factor that the PWO say has contributed to the human trafficking problem in the region.
The PWO accuses the Burmese army of monopolising the tea industry, and of “forcing local people to sell their tea to military-supported companies at very low prices.” The ensuing income drop contributes to increased economic migration within Shan State and across the border to China, which renders local women vulnerable to traffickers.
Describing a similar scenario in Burma's now conflict-wracked Kachin State, Khaung Seng Pan of the Kachin Women's Association–Thailand (KWAT) says that “a lack of jobs and the army's presence has pushed people out.”
Her organisation says that it is aware of 130 cases of human trafficking into China from Burma since 2010, involving women and children from Kachin State.
Kachin State sits north of the Palaung region in Shan State, similarly sharing a border with China. Since June 9, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese army have fought on-off battles, with the KIA accusing the government of breaching a long-standing ceasefire agreement and of encroaching into KIA-held areas.
Naypyidaw is demanding that the KIA and other ethnic militias become part of the country's border guard, a proposal which most of the militias have rejected.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21486
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As Dollar Falls, FECs Plummet
By THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, June 14, 2011
RANGOON — The US dollar has been falling steadily in Burma's unofficial foreign exchange market since the beginning of this year, but its decline has been outpaced by that of another currency that is technically its equal—the Foreign Exchange Certificate, or FEC.
While the dollar's drop has been attributed to a variety of factors—from an influx of aid money and a flood of drug profits to surges in domestic and foreign investment—the fate of the FEC has been tied to just one: the fact that nobody wants it.
“Many travel agencies, airline offices and hotels simply refuse to accept FECs now,” said a Rangoon-based tour guide, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It's illegal, but that hasn't stopped businesses from saying they won't take them. At most, they will accept only half payment in FECs, and the other half has to be paid in dollars.”
Initially introduced to ensure that tourist dollars flowed into government hands (in the past, foreigners were required to buy a fixed number of FECs on arrival in the country), the FEC continues to serve as mechanism of government control over international transactions, from trade to aid.
In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, for instance, there was a controversy over how much of the money intended for victims of that disaster was actually being siphoned off by the ruling regime, which required that aid dollars be deposited in a state-run bank and withdrawn in FECs—effectively imposing a “tax” of several percentage points on all aid money that came into the country.
Since then, the gap between the dollar and the FEC has continued to widen. At present, the FEC is worth just 680 kyat on the unofficial market, while the dollar is at a multi-year low of 755 kyat.
The fact that the FEC is now worth a full 10 percent less than the dollar means that more and more companies are reluctant to accept them, putting further pressure on the unloved unit.
Rangoon’s well-known Park Royal Hotel confirmed that it is now accepting only US dollars. Traders Hotel, a Rangoon landmark, said that it is still accepting FECs—for now.
“Today we accept FECs, but we are not so sure if we will continue to do so if the value of the FEC continues to drop,” said a hotel employee.
Among those most affected by the fall of the FEC are employees of foreign-owned businesses or international nongovernmental organizations. Many are paid in FECs, resulting in a dramatic loss of income at a time when consumer prices continue to rise.
“Last year, someone making 250 FEC a month took home about 250,000 kyat. Now they're only getting about 160,000 kyat,” said a worker at the Chatrium Hotel in Rangoon. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21487
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