News & Articles on Burma

Monday 27 June, 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi's idea of freedom offers a radical message for the west

The Burmese heroine's Reith lectures expose our patronising attitudes to Buddhism, and injects fresh meaning into a concept we have abused

On the wall by my desk, there's a spread of photos of Aung San Suu Kyi which appeared in the Guardian a year ago. It's a kind of family photo album with snaps of engagement, babies, university, chilly British family picnics and travels. It's a strikingly poignant illustration of everything Aung San Suu Kyi has sacrificed over 15 years of imprisonment in her struggle for Burmese democracy. Every time it catches my eye, it is both humbling and gives me hope: a reminder of what the human spirit is capable of.
Krauze 27/06/2011 Illustration by Andrzej Krauze

Much has been made of her remarkable biography – catapulted by circumstance from family life in Oxford into the violent repressive politics of Burma in 1988; missing the illness and death of her husband and the raising of her children to pursue the cause. What makes her Reith lectures so fascinating is they represent a statement of the ideals and mindset which have steeled her resolve and inspired her courage. The first lecture addresses the universal human desire for freedom, the second considers her fight in Burma to achieve it. She is taking her stand on an ideal to which the west has a tendency to claim copyright in the Enlightenment. What's more, freedom is an ideal which has been bastardised in recent years by the rhetoric of two disastrous American wars. Deftly, she lays out an understanding of freedom which owes more to Buddhism than western philosophy and, in so doing, injects a radical new meaning into an abused ideal. She is simultaneously quietly challenging western hubris and offering her global audience a new interpretation.

She does this not by expounding on obscure Buddhist philosophy – there is only one explicit mention of Buddhism – but by translating her spiritual tradition into a wide range of western thinkers, poets and writers: Vaclav Havel, the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, Ratushinskaya, Henley, Kipling and Isaiah Berlin. What is far more important to her than a sales pitch for a much misunderstood religion/philosophy is that her global audience connect to what she is saying and she helps by giving plenty of familiar reference points, slipping the unfamiliar in alongside. She weaves in Christian metaphors and concepts with the Buddhism, Russian poetry and the eastern European dissident tradition. It is a unique synthesis of east and west, only possible in someone deeply versed in both.

Many of her western admirers will immediately grasp the language of human rights. It is the Buddhism which may be less comprehensible; for instance she recounts an anecdote in which people ask how it felt to be free after each period of house arrest, to which she replied "my mind had always been free". Or, in another passage, she says "Buddhism teaches that the ultimate liberation is liberation from all desire". Perhaps these are the points where western minds shift uncomfortably at the proximity of spiritual faith to politics. But the most crucial fact about Aung San Suu Kyi's politics is how it is rooted in her Buddhism.

For her, freedom is not only a set of institutions, laws and political processes, it is also a quest of the individual spirit, the struggle to free oneself from greed, fear and hatred and how they drive one's own behaviour. That is why she always talks of a "revolution of the spirit". You cannot have one without the other, both are part of transformational change; the individual and personal is inextricably bound up with the political, as she made clear in her interviews with the American Buddhist, Alan Clements, in Voice of Hope. Clements shared a Buddhist teacher with her and he told me that the meditational practices she is known to pursue are vital to cultivate the courage and insight for her political battles. When asked by Clements what her greatest struggle was, she replied: "It's always a matter of developing more and more awareness, not only day to day but moment to moment. It's a battle which will go on the whole of my life." Her greatest aim, she told him, was "purity of mind".

It is the awareness which enables her to perceive the fear that lies behind the violence of the Burmese junta and to insist on offering them dialogue. The practice of metta – "loving kindness" – is not passive, she says, and points to the Buddha himself, who went to stand between two warring parties to protect them both at the risk of his own safety.

This is a radical message for western politics steeped in a technocratic managerialism and obsession with presentation: that the personal spiritual struggle cannot be stripped out of politics. But perhaps what gets overlooked is how revolutionary her message also is to her own Buddhist tradition. Not only is she a woman, she is a lay woman in a faith tradition dominated by male monasticism. Across Asia, those monastic institutions have frequently become complicit in state structures – in Burma, spiritual preoccupations have often been an excuse for disengagement. In her Reith lecture she picks her words carefully. "There is certainly a danger that the acceptance of spiritual freedom as a satisfactory substitute for all other freedoms could lead to passivity and resignation.

But an inner sense of freedom can reinforce a practical drive for the more fundamental freedoms in the form of human rights and the rule of law." She points to the monks who led the 2007 saffron revolution as acting out of "loving kindness" for the people suffering from sharp rises in food prices. She is putting herself at the forefront of the reforming movements in Buddhism in Asia, gently insisting on the interrelationship between practical action and private spiritual discipline.

Lastly, Aung San Suu Kyi's Buddhism is challenging one of the most persistent orientalist myths. Just as Islam was characterised as violent by Christian imperialists, Buddhism was scorned for its quietism, and self-absorbed fatalism: both were treated with comparable contempt under colonialism. Theistic Christians found Buddhism incomprehensible. That legacy persists; the current pope has described Buddhism as "self-indulgent eroticism". Bizarrely, Buddha statuary end up as a staple of garden centres, the Buddha as the consumer's symbol of calm and detachment. In a television interview the Beckhams once appeared in their sitting room alongside a near-lifesize gilt Buddha. The popular perception is of Buddhism as a form of calming therapy, much like a massage oil.

That is to emasculate the force of a powerful philosophy with radical political implications. Aung San Suu Kyi knows all too well how Buddhism has played a major political role throughout Asia, both for good and bad. Its adherents are growing fast in both India and China, as well as in the west. Like the Dalai Lama and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, she is playing a vital role in communicating through her words and her life a Buddhism that speaks to the deepest human needs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jun/26/aungsansuukyi-spiritual-struggle-lesson
-------------------------------------------
Landslides Brings Border Trade to a Standstill
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, June 27, 2011

Trade and transportation across the Thai-Burmese border at Mae Sot-Myawaddy have come to a complete halt over the past three days due to a series of landslides that have closed the Myawaddy-Kawkareik road, the main route connecting eastern Karen State to Rangoon.

Continuous heavy rain has caused at least 10 landslides along the road since Friday, bringing traffic to a standstill and stranding around 400 vehicles, including transport trucks, according local sources.

Burmese traders who import fruits and other perishable goods from Thailand are facing losses due to the disruption. A fruit merchant said that apples, durians, oranges and other fruits destined for Rangoon had to be shipped back to Myawaddy, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

“If the road remains blocked, the fruit will become overripe and we will lose about 10 million kyat (US $12,500),” said the fruit merchant.

A motorbike taxi driver said that some people who couldn't get through by car were using motorcycles to reach their destinations.

“Just when they nearly finished clearing the road, it started raining again, triggering another mudslide. So motorcycles are the only way to get through now. The trip costs 10,000 kyat ($12.60) per person, or 15,000 kyats ($19) if the passenger has a lot of luggage,” said the motorbike taxi driver.

Seafood exported from Burma to Thailand is also in danger of spoiling, said a trader who sells crabs.

Although official trade at the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing has been suspended since last July for security reasons, the area still has a booming illegal trade between the two countries. Traders estimated that imports from Thailand are worth about 700 million baht ($22.7 million) per month, while Burmese exports are valued at around 400 million baht ($13 million).

A government worker in Myawaddy said that a lack of heavy machinery in Burma meant that it could take days to clear the road. “If this had happened in Mae Sot or anywhere else in Thailand, it would have taken just a few hours to reopen traffic. But this is Burma, so we have to be patient.”

This is the second time this month that the road has been closed due to landslides. On June 11, border trade stopped for two days because of a road closure. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21580
-------------------------------------------
Violence Erupts in Mandalay over Jade Deal
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, June 27, 2011

Police have surrounded an angry mob of dozens of Burmese residents who had gathered to launch an attack on five Chinese gems buyers in Mandalay on Monday after a dispute at a jewelry store.

The trouble started on Monday morning at around 9 am after the Chinese had allegedly agreed to buy a jade gemstone from a jewelry shop owned by a Burmese resident in Maha Aung Myay Township.

The buyers from China reportedly agreed a price of 4 million kyat (US $5,000) for the jade, but when they returned to collect the item, the vendor told them that he had sold it to another customer.

Infuriated, the Chinese allegedly swore at the jade dealer and physically assaulted him.

The Chinese then phoned the police station to lodge a complaint. Hearing about the disturbance, local Burmese residents gathered at the jewelry store and began singing the Burmese national anthem. Police arrived and surrounded the crowd, and a tense standoff ensued.

Police have taken the five Chinese into custody.

By 2 pm it was reported to The Irrawaddy that at least seven police trucks with an estimated 100 policemen have been deployed at the jewelry shop where the dispute began. The jade market has been ordered to close for three days for security reasons. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21575
---------------------------------------------
Press Censors Issue Warning to Rangoon Editors
By THE IRRAWADDY Monday, June 27, 2011

Burma’s notoriously draconian censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), has issued a warning to several Rangoon-based journals not to try to take advantage of the PSRD's new “post-publishing” censorship regulation.

Editors at several weekly journals have been ordered to sign statements promising not to violate press regulations either in print or in photography.

Several publications were sent warning letters last Wednesday, including Modern Times, Health Care, First Line Up, Soccer, and Mobile Guide.

“At least six journal signed the pledge the first day,” said a Rangoon-based sports journal editor. “The regulations vary from journal to journal, depending on their content.”

Beginning on June 10, publishers were permitted to run stories on sports, entertainment, technology, health and children's literature without PSRD approval. However, they were instructed that they still have to follow rules protecting the “Three National Causes”—the basic principles espoused by Burma's military rulers—and avoid any writing that damages “state instability.”

The news suddenly became that little bit fresher, said Win Nyein, the chief editor of The Ray of Light, an entertainment journal. “We need to be more careful, so now we don't dare to publish international news as we did before.”

“In July, the censorship board did not allow us to publish a photo of Aung San Suu Kyi offering robes to novices,” said Moe Tun, the editor in charge of Dhamma Yeik magazine. “But they didn't give any reason.”

Many Rangoon-based editors and publishers have expressed doubts about any improvements in the freedom of media following the swearing in of a new government in March.

“Things are quite different what they [the PSRD] said at the previous meeting,” said another editor. “They said that they will not take action if there are no complaints. We wee told we would be able to write what we want in accordance with the new regulations.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21579
--------------------------------------
Aung San Suu Kyi's revolution of the spirit
MADELEINE BUNTING
Jun 27 2011 06:18

On the wall by my desk, there's a spread of photos of Aung San Suu Kyi which appeared in the Guardian a year ago. It's a kind of family photo album with snaps of engagement, babies, university, chilly British family picnics and travels. It's a strikingly poignant illustration of everything Aung San Suu Kyi has sacrificed over 15 years of imprisonment in her struggle for Burmese democracy. Every time it catches my eye, it is both humbling and gives me hope: a reminder of what the human spirit is capable of.

Much has been made of her remarkable biography -- catapulted by circumstance from family life in Oxford into the violent repressive politics of Burma in 1988; missing the illness and death of her husband and the raising of her children to pursue the cause. What makes her Reith lectures so fascinating is they represent a statement of the ideals and mindset which have steeled her resolve and inspired her courage. The first lecture addresses the universal human desire for freedom, the second considers her fight in Burma to achieve it. She is taking her stand on an ideal to which the West has a tendency to claim copyright in the Enlightenment. What's more, freedom is an ideal which has been bastardised in recent years by the rhetoric of two disastrous American wars. Deftly, she lays out an understanding of freedom which owes more to Buddhism than Western philosophy and, in so doing, injects a radical new meaning into an abused ideal. She is simultaneously quietly challenging western hubris and offering her global audience a new interpretation.

She does this not by expounding on obscure Buddhist philosophy -- there is only one explicit mention of Buddhism -- but by translating her spiritual tradition into a wide range of Western thinkers, poets and writers: Vaclav Havel, the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, Ratushinskaya, Henley, Kipling and Isaiah Berlin. What is far more important to her than a sales pitch for a much misunderstood religion/philosophy is that her global audience connect to what she is saying and she helps by giving plenty of familiar reference points, slipping the unfamiliar in alongside. She weaves in Christian metaphors and concepts with the Buddhism, Russian poetry and the Eastern European dissident tradition. It is a unique synthesis of East and West, only possible in someone deeply versed in both.

Many of her Western admirers will immediately grasp the language of human rights. It is the Buddhism which may be less comprehensible; for instance she recounts an anecdote in which people ask how it felt to be free after each period of house arrest, to which she replied "my mind had always been free". Or, in another passage, she says "Buddhism teaches that the ultimate liberation is liberation from all desire". Perhaps these are the points where Western minds shift uncomfortably at the proximity of spiritual faith to politics. But the most crucial fact about Aung San Suu Kyi's politics is how it is rooted in her Buddhism.

Political battles
For her, freedom is not only a set of institutions, laws and political processes, it is also a quest of the individual spirit, the struggle to free oneself from greed, fear and hatred and how they drive one's own behaviour. That is why she always talks of a "revolution of the spirit". You cannot have one without the other, both are part of transformational change; the individual and personal is inextricably bound up with the political, as she made clear in her interviews with the American Buddhist, Alan Clements, in Voice of Hope. Clements shared a Buddhist teacher with her and he told me that the meditational practices she is known to pursue are vital to cultivate the courage and insight for her political battles. When asked by Clements what her greatest struggle was, she replied: "It's always a matter of developing more and more awareness, not only day to day but moment to moment. It's a battle which will go on the whole of my life." Her greatest aim, she told him, was "purity of mind".

It is the awareness which enables her to perceive the fear that lies behind the violence of the Burmese junta and to insist on offering them dialogue. The practice of metta -- "loving kindness" -- is not passive, she says, and points to the Buddha himself, who went to stand between two warring parties to protect them both at the risk of his own safety.

This is a radical message for Western politics steeped in a technocratic managerialism and obsession with presentation: that the personal spiritual struggle cannot be stripped out of politics. But perhaps what gets overlooked is how revolutionary her message also is to her own Buddhist tradition. Not only is she a woman, she is a lay woman in a faith tradition dominated by male monasticism. Across Asia, those monastic institutions have frequently become complicit in state structures -- in Burma, spiritual preoccupations have often been an excuse for disengagement. In her Reith lecture she picks her words carefully. "There is certainly a danger that the acceptance of spiritual freedom as a satisfactory substitute for all other freedoms could lead to passivity and resignation.

But an inner sense of freedom can reinforce a practical drive for the more fundamental freedoms in the form of human rights and the rule of law."

She points to the monks who led the 2007 saffron revolution as acting out of "loving kindness" for the people suffering from sharp rises in food prices. She is putting herself at the forefront of the reforming movements in Buddhism in Asia, gently insisting on the interrelationship between practical action and private spiritual discipline.
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-06-27-aung-san-suu-kyis-revolution-of-the-spirit/
---------------------------------------------
June 27, 2011 12:16 PM

Asean Foundation Spurs Human Resource Development

JAKARTA, June 27 (Bernama) -- The Jakarta-based Asean Foundation is working on the second phase of a scholarship programme for postgraduate studies in Laos Cambodia and Myanmar, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.

The first phase of the programme has been implemented in other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Dr Makarim Wibisono, the foundation's Managing Director, said the fund has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with UP Los Ba'os University (UPLB) of the Philippines and worked with Thabaya educational network of Thailand on the improvement of postgraduate education for Asean member countries.

The move is aimed at raising the programme's effectiveness, boosting human resources development in the region and contributing to the region's peace and security, he said.

Dr Wibisono stressed that the cooperation is completely in conformity with Asean Foundation missions - participating and partnering with the private sector to support the development of the Asean community by heightening public awareness of Asean identity, boosting exchanges among people in the bloc and further tightening the cooperation in business, civil society and institutes.

Established in 1909, UPLB is one of leading training centres in Southeast Asia in science, technology, agriculture, forestry, veterinary and other areas of research.

-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=596933
-----------------------------------------------
Russia ‘satisfied’ as Shwe Mann visits Moscow
By DVB
Published: 27 June 2011

A senior Burmese delegation led by the powerful House speaker Shwe Mann arrived in Moscow on Saturday for what state media billed a ‘fact finding’ mission to assess Russia’s parliamentary model.

The trip prompted the Medvedev administration’s first public acknowledgement of the new Burmese government, which came to power in March. A foreign ministry statement at the weekend noted that Russian officials “expressed satisfaction with the program for political reforms … and transition to civilian rule” in Burma.

Also in the delegation were Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint and Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo. Shwe Mann said on Friday that the visit was part of an attempt to build the capacity of Burmese government officials through “self-study, discussions and workshops”, that included a trip to Cambodia in April.

It is not the first time Shwe Mann has visited Moscow – in 2006, during his tenure as joint chief of staff of the Burmese army, he made a secretive trip there with then Vice-Senior General Maung Aye to bid for assistance in the development of a nuclear reactor and heavy weaponry.

Russia is known to have provided training programmes for Burmese military technicians and scientists, and is a leading arms supplier to Naypyidaw, having in the past provided surface-to-air missiles.

But it is also a leading proponent of the ‘disciplined democracy’ model that Burmese officials have occasionally used to clarify questions about their so-called transition to civilian rule.

The foreign ministry statement talked of “possibilities of intensifying the political dialogue” between the two countries with suggestions that Russia is looking to develop a stronger security presence in Southeast Asia.

“In the context of discussions on the international agenda special attention was paid to the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and coordination of positions on topical problems of the world, above all – to building there a new security architecture based on multilateral approaches to deepening cooperation between Russia and the Association of South-East Asian Nations,” it said.
http://www.dvb.no/news/russia-%E2%80%98satisfied%E2%80%99-as-shwe-mann-visits-moscow/16303
----------------------------------------------
US Urges Burma to Stop Violence in Kachin State
By LALIT K JHA Monday, June 27, 2011

WASHINGTON — Expressing strong concern at the ongoing violence in Kachin State, the US has urged the new Burmese government to immediately put an end to hostilities in the region.

“We're quite concerned about the ongoing violence in northern Kachin and other regions of the country. We are calling for halts to the hostilities,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.

“We urge all appropriate authorities to ensure, in line with international standards, adequate support, safety, and protection for those persons fleeing conflict along Burma’s borders,” Nuland said in a statement later.

This recent violence underscores the need for an inclusive dialogue between the government of Burma and opposition and ethnic minority groups to begin a process of genuine national reconciliation, she said.

Nuland said the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) began fighting on June 9 and have continued over the past three weeks.

The US is particularly concerned by the reports of human rights abuses in the area, including reports of casualties, rape and displacement of thousands of local residents. “There have also been reports of clashes in Karen and Shan states,” she said.

Last week, Chris Beyrer, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights, said at a congressional briefing that after the fighting broke out in the Kachin State after a 17-year ceasefire, some 10,000 civilians are reported to have fled. “Burmese military forces are reported to be using rape as a weapon of war,” he alleged.

“The Kachin Women's Association in Thailand has reported at least 18 Kachin women and girls have been raped by soldiers since June 9. Four were killed after being raped,” he said.

“The news of clashes in Burma's Kachin [State] between government troops and ethnic minorities, which has been the heaviest fighting in 17 years, adds further evidence to the argument that the situation in Burma has not changed,” said Congressman Donald Manzullo.

Meanwhile, the US is consulting its close allies and member countries of the United Nations on the issue of the UN establishing a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity by the Burmese military junta.

“The United States is committed to seeking accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry,” Nuland said.

“We are consulting closely with our friends, allies, and other partners at the United Nations,” Nuland said in response to a question over the weekend.

Last week, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a rare video testimony before a congressional committee, urged the US to support in the establishment of investigations by the United Nations into the alleged human rights violations in Burma.

“I would simply like to use this occasion to request that you do whatever you can to help us implement the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution, because that will open up the real road to democracy for all of us,” she said.

Testifying before the same congressional committee, Beyrer said he also supported calls for a CoI to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma. “The treatment of political prisoners in detention in Burma should be part of this Commission of Inquiry, for that, too, may represent crimes against humanity,” Beyrer said in his appearance before the committee last week.

“The UN Special Rapporteur Quintana has called for that; so has the US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, Eileen Donahoe, and so has Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton,” he said.

“But the US really needs to exercise vigorous leadership on this effort, and the State Department I think really, really needs to carry the water on this. And this effort could be led by recently appointed special representative and policy coordinator for Burma, Derek Mitchell, and we really look forward to his confirmation and leadership in this effort,” he said.

Mitchell will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing later this week.

It is understood that countries like China have been opposing the move to establish a CoI. The US and several other countries, besides human rights organizations and pro-democracy leaders from Burma, have been urging the world body to establish such a commission.

“I would like to request you to do whatever you can to ensure that the requests and demands of the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution are met as broadly, as sincerely and as quickly as possible by the present government of Burma,” Suu Kyi said in her video message. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21571
---------------------------------------------
MP bids for stronger anti-drugs policy
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 27 June 2011

A display of seized drugs shortly befire they are destroyed during the 2010 drugs' burning ceremony in Mandalay (DVB)

Recent findings by the UN that production of opium in Burma has increased by 20 percent should prompt the government into taking tougher action against the trade, an MP has said.

As well as a rise in opium, Burmese authorities hauled a record 15.8 tons of methamphetamine pills in 2009, the latest year for available figures, up by more than one third from 2008.

Dr Sai Kyaw Ohn, a parliamentary representative of Shan state’s Namhkam township, labelled it a ‘frontline issue’ for the new government, which has maintained the former junta’s pledge to eliminate Burma’s lucrative drugs industry by 2014. “We will have to discuss in parliament ways to eradicate or cut down [production],” he told DVB.

The government reacted to the UN report in state media by highlighting “concerted efforts” in driving eradication efforts. “Measures are being taken with added momentum to destroy poppy plantations and prevent drug trafficking. In 2010, opium, heroin, opium oil, low-grade opium, marijuana, stimulant pills and various kinds of chemicals were confiscated and legal action was taken against 3465 culprits in 2630 cases,” said an article in the New Light of Myanmar.

Promises of eradication have been met with doubt, however, not least due to evidence of the government’s hand in the trade – a report by the Thailand-based Shan Drug Watch in 2010 claimed that government-backed militias had taken over ethnic armies as Burma’s main drugs’ producers.

Reports emerged last month that army officials were also taking bribes of up to $US90 per acre from farmers in exchange for being allowed to grow poppies for opium. During peak season, a poppy farmer can earn $US12 a day, a huge incentive in a country where average annual wages hover at just over a dollar a day.

Crop substitution has also been an area of concern, with opium production vastly more lucrative, and suited to environmental conditions in the mountainous Shan state where the majority of drugs are growing, than the alternatives offered by the government.

“Business opportunities should be created for civilians, then we should be able to lower [drugs’ production],” said Dr Sai Kyaw Ohn. “But for now, the population in the mountains has nothing else worthwhile to grow.”

US State Department has consistently chastised the government’s anti-drugs efforts, claiming in a report last year that Burma had “failed demonstrably” to eradicate narcotics.

With a decline in Afghanistan’s output, Burma’s share of global opium production has risen from five percent in 2007 to 12 percent last year, the UN report said.
http://www.dvb.no/news/mp-bids-for-stronger-anti-drugs-policy/16307
------------------------------------------------
THE NATION
Australian foreign minister to visit Burma

Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd is scheduled to visit Burma from 30 June to 2 July.
He will travel to both Rangoon and Nay Phi Daw to meet members of the new Burmese Government and leaders across the political spectrum, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

During the meetings, he will reiterate Australia's long-standing calls for genuine progress towards national reconciliation and democratic reform. His trip will further assist Australia in making informed assessments on how it can best support reform and economic development in Burma.

Australian overseas development assistance to Burma has significantly increased in the past two years - from $29.1 million in 2009-10 to $47.6 million in 2011-12, and is on track to reach $50 million by 2012-13. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Australian-foreign-minister-to-visit-Burma-30158826.html
------------------------------------
PTT wary of Dawei
Incentives, security among concerns

Published: 27/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

PTT Plc, Thailand's energy flagship, remains reluctant to invest in Burma's Dawei project, citing unclear investment incentives and security concerns in the neighbouring country.

Chainoi Puankosoom, an adviser to PTT, said the Thai government needed to reassure businesses about security before they invest in Dawei.

Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD), the country's largest contractor, has a 10-year contract to develop infrastructure and an industrial complex in Dawei on the western coast of Burma. The Thai government is encouraging businesses to tap the potential of a new, shorter trade route that will emerge as the huge development progresses.

PTT is among the potential Thai partners ITD hopes to recruit for joint investments.

Mr Chainoi said PTT was still in the very early stages of studying potential investments in Dawei.

"So far Thailand's bilateral relations with Burma have been smooth, but we still have some concerns and remain cautious about the future," he said.

"Investment risks are normal but I think the private sector needs some kind of guarantee that their investments in Dawei are secure," said Mr Chainoi, who is also vice-chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries.

Border conflicts flare up from time to time and force Burmese refugees into Thailand, straining relations between the two countries.

PTT has looked at investing in refineries, petrochemicals and power plants, but there is no clear information about investment incentives, land ownership, labour regulations, and taxes for imported raw materials, he said.

Gas from Burma's Gulf of Martaban is not suitable for using as a feedstock for petrochemical plants, he added.

Mr Chainoi advised the government to look at ways to fully utilise the capacity of Map Ta Phut industrial complex in Rayong, which has been plagued by environmental concerns.

"The planned power plant in Dawei is going to supply Thailand. What will happen if the demand from industries here is not growing?" he asked.

The government should also look at the southern seaboard project, which has the potential to house light industries such as food processing, which are less harmful to the environment, said Mr Chainoi.

PTT recently held an investor roadshow in Los Angeles with other companies such as Siam Cement Group and Bangkok Bank. The executives faced questions about Thai politics and fuel price subsidies.

"Too much market distortion through subsidies is not good," said Mr Chainoi, a former CEO of PTT Aromatics and Refining.

Global oil prices could moderate because of Greek debt concerns, but will certainly rebound with strong demand from China and India, he noted.

Instead of fuel subsidies, he said, the government should focus on improving mass transit and logistics. http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/244142/ptt-wary-of-dawei
----------------------------------
Burmese, Chinese traders fight in Mandalay
By DVB
Published: 27 June 2011

A gem market in Burma’s second city of Mandalay was shut down this morning after fighting broke out between Chinese and Burmese merchants over a deal that turned sour.

Police arrived at the scene and detained five Chinese, one of whom punched a rival Burmese gem seller, an eye-witness told DVB. The argument was sparked by accusations from Chinese merchants that Burmese traders had broken a deal worth $US5,300.

“Other Burmese traders nearby got involved and they surrounded the Chinese merchants’ office for about one hour,” said a resident of Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay township, where the incident took place. “About 100 police and security forces arrived and took them to the police station.”

A police official at the local station however denied the men were being held there. “Our senior officials are currently informing higher level authorities. We don’t know what the situation is at the moment,” he said.

It mirrors an incident last month at the same market when a Burmese trader punched a Chinese man and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Mandalay is heavily populated with Chinese, who now dominate the town’s hotel and small business sector. Some estimates put the proportion of Chinese at half of the town’s population.
http://www.dvb.no/news/burmese-chinese-traders-fight-in-mandalay/16321