BURMA RELATED NEWS - AUGUST 04, 2011

Asian Correspondent - War crimes continue in Kachin state as ceasefire urged
By Zin Linn Aug 04, 2011 2:10PM UTC

Five ethnic parties called on the Burmese government to form a peacemaking committee on Wednesday to stop the widespread war in ethnic areas, according to Mizzima News.

“We urged the government to shoulder responsibility to form a peacemaking committee in the form of a workshop to bring about peace,” RNDP vice chairman Ohn Tin, an Upper House MP representing the Man-aung constituency, told Mizzima.

On 3 August, the last day of a two-day inter-party meeting, the Chin National Party, All Mon Region Democracy Party, Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party, Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) urged the government and ethnic armed groups to stop warfare and to declare an end to hostilities. In addition to the 31 representatives of the five political parties, the Kayan National Party also attended the meeting as an observer.

The group also asked the government, local and foreign charitable organizations and other donors to help war refugees who have fled their homes due to the fighting.

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) wants to sign a meaningful and strong ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government this time, unlike the agreement in 1994, which deprived a lot of rights and benefits for the Kachin people and the armed group itself, the Kachin News Group quoted a KIO official saying.

“The 1994 ceasefire agreement made us suffer for 17 years. We knew it was politically fruitless and the wrong agreement but we had to follow it. As a result, we have been highly criticized by Kachin people.”

This is in spite of the fact that the KIO had no satisfactory option to review the condition and it signed the ceasefire agreement with the then-Burmese junta devoid of any political discussion.

Recently, the KIO has proposed an end to the merciless fighting if the government will inaugurate talks for a countrywide ceasefire. But Burmese government authorities did not reveal any obvious positive sign, according to La Nang, a spokesman for the KIO.

The KIO has met Burmese mission three times within last two months in an effort to sign a new armistice. Even though, preliminary talks are starting, Burma armed forces do not stop their military movements and the government soldiers are committing various war crimes.

A Kachin villager was brutally killed by Burmese soldiers in Kahtan-Yang village, in Kamaing Township, Burma’s northern Kachin State, said local witnesses, according to the Kachin News Group . Hpukjawng Seng Du, 30, was arrested and buried alive on 31 July in the forest near the village by government soldiers, said the villagers. According to Mizzima News, Seng Du was identified as a telecommunications operator for the KIO.

KIO joint secretary and spokesman, La Nang, confirmed the death of Seng Du and it is under investigation whether he was a KIO member.

According to villagers, the above war crime was committed by the Waingmaw-based Infantry Battalion No. 58, under Northern Regional Military Command (NC), in Myitkyina, and Hlaingbwe-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 338, under Mawlamyine-based South Eastern Regional Military Command (SEC).

The same day about 7 a.m. Burmese government soldiers from the same military columns murdered 17 year old Marip Tang at his home, another war crime in the same village, added villagers.

Kahtan-Yang villagers are fleeing to the town of Kamaing after they learnt brutal murders at their village, fearing more atrocious killings, villagers said. Burmese soldiers from the same unit arrested eight villagers in Kawng Ra, in Kamaing, as porters on 30 July, to bury corpses, quoting local witnesses Kachin News Group said.

On 24 July, KIA ambushed Burmese convoy from Infantry Battalion No. 105 at Nga Pauk Kone in Kamaing. Four soldiers were killed and roughly 10 wounded. The areas around Kamaing on Namti-Hpakant route has become a war zone between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese troops since the renewed skirmishing started on 9 June.

On 2 August, the KIA launched another ambush-attack on a Burmese military truck at around 5 pm (local time) in N’mawk Township, Manmaw District, Northern Kachin State.
The attack took place during two days of talks negotiating a new ceasefire between delegates from the Kachin Independence Organization and the Burmese government at the KIO’s Laja Yang Liaison Office.

The truck carried military personnel, policemen and intelligence agents from the Military Affairs Security (MAS). The ambush took place on the road connecting N’mawk (Momauk) and two Taping (Dapein) dams near the Sino-Burma border. It occurred in the KIA’s Battalion 15 area, quoting local sources at the scene the Kachin News Group said. As revealed by witnesses, there were casualties in the attack but the accurate number is unknown.

Recently, Burma’s Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, released an open letter addressed to President Thein Sein and ethnic armed groups. Suu Kyi made an appeal for political talk and an urgent ceasefire between major ethnic rebel groups – Kachin Independence Organization, Karen National Union, New Mon State Party, Shan State Army – and government troops.

She said that she was ready to contribute all her might to end the armed conflicts and to reconstruct Burma as a peaceful developed nation.
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Asia Sentinel - Killing the Irrawaddy
Written by Aung Din, The Irrawaddy
Chinese thirst for power drains Burma’s rivers
Thursday, 04 August 2011

Being neighbors with China is not something the people of Burma chose for themselves, but they have to heavily bear the repercussions. For many decades, China’s influence has intruded on their daily lives politically, economically, socially and culturally.

However, the relationship has now reached a tipping point, as this dominant neighbor is not only supporting the country’s ruling dictators and stealing the country’s vast natural resources, but also directly destroying the lives of the people of Burma.

In this land of pagodas, paddy fields and smiles, for centuries the people of Burma have proudly owned seven natural treasures gifted by Mother Nature. They are the three parallel chains of mountain ranges, called the Western Yoma (Rakhine Yoma), the Bago Yoma and the Eastern Yoma (the Shan Yoma), and the four major rivers, called the Irrawaddy (Ayeyawady), the Chindwin, the Sittaung and the Thanlwin. All are national landmarks of the country, and they have grown together with its people for countless generations. The Irrawaddy is the most important river among the four, and it is now under attack by the greedy autocrats, the Burmese regime and the Chinese government. If no efforts are made right now, the Irrawaddy will disappear from the map of Burma in coming decades. It will become a tragic memory of history for future generations in Burma.

The Irrawaddy was born at the confluence of the N’mai (Mayhka) and Mali (Malihka) rivers in Kachin State, northern Burma, where snow-capped mountains stand high guarding the country’s border with China. According to Kachin legend, the confluence is where the Father Dragon and his two sons Hkrai Nawng and Hkrai Gam were born and are settled.

Traditionally, the Kachin people believe that if the waterway is broken and the dragons are disturbed, they will be angry and create a natural disaster. A famous present-day author created another symbolic metaphor, writing that a young man (N’mai River with strong current) and a young woman (Mali River with steady flow of water) met here secretly, made love, and as a consequence a girl was born. This girl became the mother river of Burma.

Her finest waterways, and long journey of 1,348 miles (2,170 Km) from the mountains in the north to the Andaman Sea in the south, effectively and consistently help the livelihoods of millions of people in Burma. Many cities, townships, villages and ports are situated on the riverbanks of the Irrawaddy. It is an essential and vital factor in the nation’s transportation, fishing, weather and, importantly, agriculture, especially rice production.

In May 2007, the Burmese military regime and China’s state-owned “Chinese Power Investment Corporation” (CPI) signed an agreement to build seven large dams in Kachin State within 10 years, with the expected date of completion in 2017. One dam will be built on the Mali River, five dams on the N’Mai River and one at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai, called “Myitsone” (junction of two rivers in Burmese). After completion of the seven dams, about 13,360 Megawatts (MW) of electricity will be produced annually and transported to Yunnan Province to feed China’s expanding energy need.

The Myitsone Dam at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai is the largest among the seven dams, and is expected to produce 3,600 to 6,000 MW of electricity annually. It will become the fifteenth largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

The Myitsone Dam site is located just 2 miles below the confluence and about 24 miles away from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. The length of the dam is about 499 ft (152 m) and the height is about 499 ft, equivalent to the height of a 50-story building. The surface area of the reservoir is about 295.8 sq mi (766 sq km), about the size of New York City (301 sq mi). A maximum water depth of the reservoir will be about 950 ft (290 m), approximately the height of a 66-story building.

The estimated cost of the Myitsone Dam construction project is about US $3.6 billion. The total cost for construction of the seven dams and hydroelectric development projects is about US $20 billion. The major construction contractor from the Chinese side is the China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CCGC), and from the Burmese regime side is Asia World Company. Asia World Company is run by the notorious drug-lord Lo Hsing Han and his son, Tun Myint Naing (aka Steven Law), who are under the targeted sanctions imposed by the US and very close to the regime’s powerful Vice-President Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo.

From the beginning, the people in Kachin State have known that the building of such a mega dam at the origin of the Irrawaddy River will effectively kill the river itself and drastically affect the lives of millions of people. The Kachin people and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), an ethnic armed group representing the Kachin people, have appealed several times to both the Chinese and Burmese authorities to abandon the dam project at Myitsone.

Also, a team of scientists from China and Burma, hired and funded by CPI, submitted its “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (Special Investigation)” to both Chinese and Burmese authorities in October 2009, in which they recommended the abandonment of the Myitsone Project. However, the appeals of the Kachin people and suggestion of scientists fell on the deaf ears of greedy and inhumane regimes. As such, construction of the Myitsone Dam has been active and ongoing.

After receiving complaints from the Kachin people, CPI hired a team of experts and scientists from the Chanjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research (CISPDR) of China and the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) of Burma to conduct the EIA on Hydropower Development of the Irrawaddy River Basin above Myitkyina, Kachin State. CISPDR was in charge of technology and quality of the whole environmental assessment of the project outside China. BANCA was responsible for the environmental baseline study and Biological Impact Assessment (BIA).

The agreement for conducting EIA special investigation was signed between BANCA and CPI (Southwest Hydro Division) on December 24, 2008. BANCA started its investigation on January 7, 2009 with 84 team members. Chinese scientists joined the Burmese team on January 14, 2009. They worked together for five months in Myitsone and other areas around the dam sites. BANCA submitted the EIA report to CPI in October 2009.

In its report, BANCA identified Myitsone as “nationally important, regionally significant and globally outstanding.” It also identified the Irrawaddy River as “the most important lifeblood in Burma. Millions of people are depending on the Irrawaddy for their livelihoods. It acts as a conduit of communication to over fifty million people.” The report claimed that, “The hydropower development in Kachin State by constructing a series of large and medium dams may definitely impact on the people of Myanmar [Burma] as a whole, in addition to adverse impacts on riverine, aquatic, terrestrial and wetlands ecosystems .”

The report further warned that, “The fragmentation of the Irrawaddy River by a series of dams will have very serious social and environmental problems not only at upstream of dams but also to very far downstream until the coastal delta.” The report also warned that “Loss of Myitsone will be a terrible tragedy for all of Myanmar people, especially the Kachins.”

The report also highlighted the danger of strong earthquakes: “The dam site is located less than 100 kilometers from Myanmar’s earthquake-prone Sagaing fault line. The highly sensitive Sagaing fault line runs north-south through Myanmar (Burma). Earthquakes have been experienced at places along the fault line. Dam breakage would be disastrous for Myitkyina, the capacity of Kachin State, which lies only 40 kilometers (24 miles) downstream.”

And the report made the following recommendation. “The best option would be to develop two smaller hydropower dams substituting the already proposed Myitsone Dam and its location at two appropriate locations above the confluence of the Malihka and Mayhka rivers.”

The authors of the report also requested that their report be made available to the public and said that public opinions and discussions should be invited. In addition, they requested that CPI make a full-scale EIA by conducting nine other assessments on effects of the dam, a procedure set up by the Mekong River Commission. However, Chinese and Burmese authorities have never made the report public, and have ignored the call to conduct the remaining assessments. As of today, they continue to kill the Irrawaddy by force.

The Chinese government has been a staunch supporter of the Burmese regime since 1989. China supplies weapons to strengthen the Burmese military, provides loans and financial assistance to the regime to run its governing machine, protects the regime in the United Nations and other international forums, and tries to kill or water down any UN resolution that will take effective action against the regime for its human rights violations.

Largely because of China’s strong protection and support, the Burmese military regime has survived to this day, under the disguise of a so-called civilian government, successfully weathering international criticisms and pressure. But the price the whole country has to pay back for Chinese protection of the military regime is enormous.

There have been many countries rushing to Burma to exploit its vast natural resources ever since the military regime opened its doors to a market economy. The reality, however, is that it is not real capitalism, but crony-capitalism. China is the most aggressive investor among them, and is sucking the country’s blood everywhere it can set foot. Centuries-old evergreen forests in Kachin and Shan States were rooted out by Chinese logging companies. Many mountains are being destroyed by Chinese mine companies to search for gold, copper, sapphire and jade.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of villages have been destroyed along the route of construction of two pipelines that transport natural gas and oil to China from Burma’s Rakhine (Arakan) State. Some major cities of Burma are now becoming like Chinese cities, as Chinese populations and their properties grow and expand dramatically. Actually, China has colonized Burma without shooting a gun and has sucked the life of the people of Burma with the help of the Burmese regime and its cronies. Now, they are killing the Irrawaddy River as well.

Tens of thousands of Chinese workers have been in Kachin State, using heavy machinery and building infrastructure for the Myitsone Dam project. Forests are being cut down. Valleys and plains are being dug up. Nearly 20,000 ethnic people are being forced to relocate. The Myitsone confluence will be destroyed and most of the major cities in Kachin State will be flooded and submerged when the dams are completed. But the harsh repercussions will be felt not just in Kachin state, but also downstream, as 60 percent of the people of Burma rely on the Irrawaddy’s watershed.

After completion of the dam, the water flow from the N’Mai and Mali Rivers will be stopped by the dam and saved in the reservoir to generate electricity. The N’Mai and Mali Rivers will not be the origin of the Irrawaddy anymore, but rather the dam will be. The amount of water to be kept at all the times in the reservoir will drastically decrease the amount of water the Irrawaddy receives, and the flow of water in the river will be much weaker.

It will create huge damage for the people living along the river, beginning with ships and vessels unable to sail in the shallow waters; fishermen unable to catch fish which can’t survive in the polluted waters; farmers unable to grow rice and vegetables due to frequent draughts and lack of sufficient and steady water supplies; the spread and epidemic of infectious diseases from using and drinking contaminated water and lack of clean water; permanent losses of vulnerable and endangered species of birds, flowers, plants and fresh water animals; significant changes of ecosystem and climate; destruction of mangroves; in addition to other extensive damages.

During the dry season, which lasts four months from February to May, due to the low volume of water coming from the upstream of the river, sea water from the Andaman Sea will flow back to the Delta region with high tidal water volume, and Burma’s major rice production area will be flooded with salt-water. The Irrawaddy River may disappear in ten years, like the Yellow River in China.

This will be a major catastrophe for the people of Burma in terms of food security, health, society, the economy, poverty levels and politics.

The Burmese regime will receive about US$500 million per year, 20 percent of the total revenue, when the project begins to generate and transport electricity to China. But this will amount to a tiny fraction of the losses the people of Burma will have to bear for generations.

The Chinese government has been aiding the Burmese regime in its crimes against humanity for many years. For decades, Burma’s military regime has been carrying out scorched-earth campaigns against its own civilian population, destroying over 3,700 ethnic villages, using rape as a weapon of war, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Burmese people as forced laborers, recruiting tens of thousands of child soldiers into its army, killing innocent civilians, and forcing over 2 million people to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced persons.

Such flagrant crimes are not simply human rights abuses—they are mass atrocities, amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Compounding the brutality and magnitude of such international crimes is the system of impunity, which protects perpetrators and punishes victims.

Now the Chinese government has crossed the line, stepped up further to commit its own human rights abuses in Burma by attempting to kill the Irrawaddy. Killing the Irrawaddy is destroying the lives of the people of Burma—both in the present and in the future—physically and mentally.

The Irrawaddy River is the past, present and future of Burma and major bloodline of the country. It has many names, “Mother of Burma; Bride of Histories; the Great Magic of the Nature,” and so on, that symbolize the people of Burma’s great love for the river. Its water flow touches everybody’s life. Many wars and national affairs have happened on its shoulders. Many historic events have passed with its current. No artists can draw a picture well enough to show the beauty of it.

No composer can write a song sufficient to feel the magnificence of it. No poet can write a poem that demonstrates the sacrifice it made. No one will feel their lives valuable if there is no Irrawaddy in Burma. The people of Burma will stand up to protect their most beloved one. The Chinese government should stop building the Myitsone Dam and destroying the Irrawaddy before the growing anti-Chinese sentiment among the people of Burma dangerously explodes.

(Aung Din was a student leader during the 1988 popular democracy uprising in Burma and he served over four years in prison as a political prisoner. He is now the Executive Director of Washington, DC-based US Campaign for Burma.)
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US confirms key diplomats for Myanmar, Vietnam
(AFP) – 19 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Veteran Asia hand Derek Mitchell has been confirmed as the first US special envoy to Myanmar, who will pursue President Barack Obama's policy of engaging the military-backed regime.

In addition to endorsing Mitchell, the Senate late Tuesday confirmed the appointment of career foreign service officer David Bruce Shear as the new ambassador to Vietnam, who succeeds Michael Michalak.

Mitchell fills a post that was created when Congress, under then-president George W. Bush, approved a wide-ranging law on Myanmar in 2008 that tightened sanctions.
The position was not filled at the time due to a political dispute.

After Obama took office in January 2009, his administration concluded that the sanctions aimed at isolating Myanmar had been ineffective and initiated a dialogue with the junta while maintaining the sanctions.

The United States has voiced disappointment over developments in Myanmar, including an election in November widely denounced as a sham, but has said that it sees no alternative to engagement at such a fluid time.

In his Senate confirmation hearing in June, Mitchell said he would seek "direct and candid" dialogue with Myanmar's leaders and that the United States should "respond flexibly and with agility to opportunities as they arise."

Mitchell had served until now as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs.

Shear, the new ambassador to Vietnam, served as the deputy assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific Affairs.

During a 30-year career in the foreign service, he has also served in Sapporo, Beijing, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur.

The Senate also confirmed Earl Anthony Wayne as the US ambassador to Mexico, replacing Carlos Pascual who resigned in March after Mexican President Felipe Calderon said leaked diplomatic cables written by him damaged bilateral ties.

The Senate was still mulling the nominations of Robert Ford to Syria and Francis Ricciardone to Turkey.

Obama temporarily appointed them to their positions in January during a recess of the Senate where their nominations had been blocked.

Ford's appointment came almost six years after Washington withdrew ambassador Margaret Scobey following the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in a massive car bomb.
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S'WAK STUDYING FOREIGN LABOUR SUITABILITY IN OIL PALM, TIMBER SECTORS
Bernama – 8 hours ago

KUCHING, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak government is studying the suitability of foreign workers to fill in the vacuum caused by acute labour shortage especially in the oil palm and timber industries, State Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing said today.

He said his ministry was aware of the problem following calls by the affected industries to liberalise the current system of hiring foreign workers to include those from Myanmar and Vietnam, as locals tended to shy away due to the comparatively low wages.

"Some of the foreign workers like the Indonesians are good in the construction sector so far," he told a news conference after chairing a discussion on the theft and unauthorised harvesting of the fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) in oil palm plantations managed by the Sarawak Land Custody and Development Authority in Sarawak here.

Recently the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sarawak had also said the rigid procedures imposed by the Immigration Department caused a massive labour shortage, particularly in the oil palm industry, which resulted in FFBs being unharvested.
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Jakarta Globe - Burmese Politics Put Indonesia in a Bind
Aung Zaw | August 04, 2011

Despite mounting criticism of the new Burmese government’s do-nothing approach to political reform (and growing evidence that it is merely a front for the brutal military junta that preceded it), Burma’s rulers continue to covet the right to assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014.

This has put the regional grouping in a bit of a bind. Strictly speaking, after 14 years as a member of Asean, Burma is entitled to its turn at the helm. After all, it has already been forced to forgo the chairmanship once, in 2006.

“Myanmar [Burma] has to focus on the national reconciliation process, and has requested its Asean colleagues to postpone its chairmanship for another occasion,” Laos’s then Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat said in 2005, the year the decision was made to leave Burma out in the cold.

A great deal has happened since then — massive monk-led protests in 2007, Cyclone Nargis, a sham referendum in 2008. Then there were last year’s dubious elections and the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. But “national reconciliation” hasn’t happened or even begun.

Last week, however, the new government made a familiar gambit clearly aimed at placating its critics: it invited Suu Kyi to meet with its “liaison minister,” Aung Kyi, a former junta functionary who held the same position under the old regime. But this token gesture isn’t going to make it any easier for Asean to decide how to proceed with Burma’s request for the chairmanship. Besides continuing allegations of war crimes in ethnic minority areas and the fact that there are still around 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, the new government’s leaders remain subject to sanctions in the United States and the European Union, which are major Asean trading partners.

Two weeks ago in Indonesia, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dashed any hopes that Naypyidaw might have had that merely playing the Suu Kyi card would suffice to convince anyone that the country is, at long last, moving in the right direction.

“We look to the government to unconditionally release the more than 2,000 political prisoners who continue to languish in prison,” she said, adding that the country’s rulers should also conduct meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the political opposition and ethnic minorities.

“The choice is clear,” she said. “They can take these steps and gain back the confidence of their people and the trust of the international community. Or they can continue down the path they’ve been on.”

Clinton also called on the military-backed civilian regime to address growing concerns about weapons proliferation. Washington has repeatedly expressed concern over Burma’s military ties with North Korea.

However, Clinton’s Indonesian counterpart, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, was much less forthright in stating what it would take for Burma to earn the trust and respect of the rest of Asean. And with Indonesia the current chair of Asean, his views are certainly pertinent. When asked about human rights and democratization in Burma, he was barely coherent: “Myanmar is obviously a work in process, in terms of democratization. To put it more — in a more — I guess — yes, I don’t want to use, describe it as a work in progress.”

Evidently, putting a positive spin on Burma’s current political situation has become such an enormous challenge that it leaves even senior regional leaders completely tongue-tied.

On the question at hand — whether Burma is fit to lead Asean — Natalegawa didn’t get himself quite so twisted out of shape, if only because he was able to resort to vaguer language: “We have to see and have a sense of comfort level whether Myanmar is actually prepared and ready to assume chairmanship of Asean in 2014. I am aware — we are aware — of the responsibilities and the expectations that are inherent in a particular country chairing Asean.”

To test their “comfort level,” Natalegawa has long insisted he will have to lead an Asean delegation to Burma to assess the country’s readiness before the grouping makes a firm decision. When this will happen has not yet been decided, but Asean can’t afford to leave the question of its future leadership open for too long. That means that Burma will have to act soon to prove that it is ready to respond to the demands of the Burmese people and the international community.

At this stage, however, the Burmese regime probably feels that it has done all that it is going to do. At the same time, it will be harder to drop its bid for the chairmanship this time, since it won’t have the same face-saving excuses to rely on.

In other words, things are about to become very uncomfortable, for Asean, for Burma and for Indonesia because it is in the chair. But that is the price they will have to pay if they want to achieve their goal of moving forward.
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Assam Rifles to continue to guard Myanmar border
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – 40 minutes ago

Nongkrem (Meghalaya), Aug 4 (IANS) Troopers of the Border Security Force (BSF) will not replace the Assam Rifles to guard the unfenced India-Myanmar border, Assam Rifles chief Lt. Gen. Rameshwar Roy said Thursday.

The central government earlier had plans to relieve the Assam Rifles to guard the 1,643-km long border with Myanmar due to shortage of officers for further raising of more Assam Rifles battalions.

'Initially, there was a proposal to move us out from the (India-Myanmar) border due to certain difficulties (shortage of officers), but those difficulties have been resolved now, and therefore, we will remain there,' Roy told journalists.

'It will be difficult to replace us because Assam Rifles have the domain knowledge about the people, terrain of the border areas and a complete knowledge on the operational areas,' he said.

Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force in the country, has the twin responsibility of guarding the treacherous India-Myanmar border and also conducting counter-insurgency operations in Manipur and Nagaland.

Asked on the non-deployment of troops along the India-Myanmar border, the Assam Rifles chief said: 'The troops will move in closer to the border once infrastructures are being developed. Our troops cannot simple sleep in the jungle and you need infrastructure.'

The Assam Rifles has 46 battalions, 15 of which are deployed along the 1,643-km long unfenced India-Myanmar border. The porous border with its rugged terrain is used by Indian insurgent groups to slip in and out of the country. Forest and animal products are also smuggled through this route in and out of India.
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Last updated: August 4, 2011 11:25 a.m.
2010 census: Dissecting the data
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - 3,800 Burmese live in Allen County
Census figure for county refugees called too low by some
Angela Mapes Turner | The Journal Gazette

Allen County’s Burmese population includes about 3,800 people, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

That’s a simple sentence with the potential to cap several years of uncertainty for local refugee advocates and social service agencies, who have estimated the total to be thousands higher. Reaction to the figure was mixed amid those who work with the area’s Burmese refugee community.

Catholic Charities of the Fort Wayne–South Bend Diocese can say in no uncertain terms that it resettled the vast majority of Burmese refugees brought to northeast Indiana since 1991. That influx, overseen by the U.S. Department of State, brought 2,602 Burmese refugees to Allen County over those two decades, said Nyein Chan, Catholic Charities refugee coordinator.

More than 70 percent of those refugees were sent to Fort Wayne in the latter half of the last decade, beginning in 2006. And that’s where the uncertainty about the size of the local population began.

With that influx came another wave of immigration not directed by a government agency.

Drawn by the booming community, the opportunity to reunite with friends and relatives and a relatively healthy local economy, Fort Wayne saw a large number of “secondary migrants” – refugees who came to Fort Wayne after being placed elsewhere in the U.S. by the State Department, Chan said.

Chan was part of Fort Wayne’s Complete Count Committee, a volunteer team appointed by elected officials to ensure undercounted populations were reached for the census.
The committee put forth a mighty effort, he said. That, combined with his agency’s careful study of the issue, have him convinced the census numbers are accurate.

“It pretty much makes sense to me,” he said. “We worked so hard to count the people in Allen County.”

Catholic Charities offers some services to refugees who come to Fort Wayne from other cities, such as job development services, Chan said. The people who use those services are tracked by the agency, and through that method, Catholic Charities estimates the secondary migrant community at 2,000, he said.

The recession caused the secondary migration to slow down and some refugee families to leave. So while Catholic Charities in the recent past has estimated the Burmese community in Fort Wayne between 5,000 to 6,000 people, Chan said he believes the census total is a more accurate current count.

St. Joseph Community Health Foundation Executive Director Meg Distler was surprised by the census number and said she thinks it’s low. The foundation’s Catherine Kasper Place on South Calhoun Street houses the Burmese Advocacy Center, an organization created several years ago in response to the growing community’s need.

Distler said leaders within the Burmese community she spoke to still believe the number could be as high as 7,000; she’s not convinced census workers were able to overcome some hurdles – specifically a fear of government authority, minority pride and illiteracy.

What many Americans loosely call “Burmese refugees and immigrants” actually refer to people from different ethnic regions within the country of Myanmar, as it is called by its ruling military junta. Those people have for thousands of years identified with their minority groups – Karen, Mon, Chin, for example – and not Burmese, Distler said.

The census does have a category for “other Asian” minorities; in Allen County, 750 people checked those boxes. If most of those people are from Myanmar, they could bring the county’s total closer to 4,500.

Burma’s oppressive military rule leads to another challenge. Distler said many Burmese who fled the country were active in pro-democracy movements and may not feel comfortable sharing revealing personal information with the government if given a choice.

The 2000 census recorded the U.S. Burmese population at about 17,000; the national data for 2010 has not been released.

In any case, Fort Wayne, for a few years thought to have the largest concentration of Burmese refugees, may find that designation in jeopardy.

Indianapolis saw its own influx of refugees even as Fort Wayne’s slowed; the 2010 census places Marion County’s Burmese population just behind Allen County’s at 3,671 people.
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The Christian Science Monitor - Australia refugee swap with Malaysia faces key test
Australia plans to airlift refugees from an intercepted boat to Malaysia next week. It will film their forced return and post it on YouTube to deter future refugees from trying to reach its shores.
By Simon Montlake, Correspondent / August 4, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand

A controversial refugee-swap agreement between Australia and Malaysia could be put to the test next week following the interception of a boatload of 54 asylum seekers on the way to Australia.

The group was redirected to an offshore detention center on Thursday. Now, the detainees are due to be airlifted to Malaysia, which has agreed to take in 800 asylum seekers from Australia, which is a magnet for Asians fleeing war and poverty. In return, Australia will resettle 4,000 refugees registered in Malaysia over the next four years. The agreement, signed July 25, is seen as an attempt by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to shore up her minority government by acting tough on illegal migration, a hot-button issue.

In a new-media twist, Australia plans to film the forced return of the detainees and post videos on Youtube and Facebook, with faces pixilated to hide their identities. The government has produced online videos in several languages aimed at convincing refugees not to attempt the hazardous sea crossing to Australia.

But new media or not, critics don't seem so impressed. Some say the deal, dubbed the "Malaysia Solution," runs roughshod over Australia’s obligations to protect asylum seekers and may encourage other countries to follow suit. “We’re concerned it could start a wider erosion of protection for refugees throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The talk in the neighborhood will be ‘hey, if Australia can do it, why can’t we?’ ” says Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia for Human Rights Watch.

Human rights groups say Australia is acting unlawfully by sending asylum seekers to Malaysia, which hasn’t signed the UN Convention on Refugees and has a poor record for treating refugees, who aren’t allowed to work and whose children can't attend school. In response, Malaysia has agreed to make an exception for those transferred from Australia, who will be resettled “in accordance with human rights standards,” it said in a statement.

Australian officials claim that the expulsions will undercut demand for the services of human traffickers, who profit from the seaborne trade. Migrants pay tens of thousands of dollars to travel via Malaysia to Indonesia, from where rickety vessels set sail for Australia. More than 6,500 people arrived last year by this route, mostly Afghans, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Iraqis, and Burmese.

Officials are quick to admit it isn't likely to completely end the risky practice, as Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told Australian radio: “We know that people smugglers will be out there saying, Look this won’t apply to you’, because they’re desperate to make money off desperate people.”

In the past, Australia has diverted boat people to Pacific Islands to process asylum claims. Ms. Gillard has said Papua New Guinea may revive that role after Malaysia takes in its quota. Australia also uses Christmas Island, a territory off its northwest shore, to detain refugees, a practice that has been criticized by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The 54 asylum seekers intercepted last week were offloaded there Thursday as a first step toward their expulsion.

Australia’s conservative opposition accuses Gillard and her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, of weakening border controls that had previously kept out illegal migrants. Australians argue that people smugglers are exploiting their generosity toward refugees who apply via official channels, though rights groups point out that Australia is far less accommodating than most European countries on a per capita basis.

Meanwhile in Malaysia

For refugees in Malaysia, the deal holds out the hope of resettlement to Australia via legal channels. UNHCR has registered 94,400 asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia, mostly from Burma’s ethnic minorities, as well as Sri Lankans, Somalis, Iraqis and Afghans. Around 19,000 are minors. Many refugees have waited several years for resettlement, and the prospect of an additional 4,000 places has raised their expectations.

Sri Ranjini Baskaran, a Sri Lankan Tamil who fled to Malaysia in 2006 and runs an advocacy group, says Sri Lankans are worried that they could miss out. She complained that UNHCR hadn’t explained who would be eligible for the Australian program. But staying in Malaysia, where refugees often live in fear of being arrested and detained as illegal migrants, wasn’t a long-term option, she says.

“It’s very difficult for refugees to live in a country where they have no basic rights and no guarantee for the future. They may feel they have no choice but to risk leaving [by boat],” she says.

Yante Ismail, a spokeswoman for UNHCR in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, said that the right to work and education granted to refugees expelled from Australia didn’t apply to those already in Malaysia. But she said it could lead to changes in the treatment of the larger refugee population.

"While the explicit protections … only apply to those transferred from Australia, UNHCR hopes that over time we will see a continued improvement in conditions for all refugees in Malaysia,” she says.
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Thai-ASEAN News Network
Phayao: Shan-Style Structure Captivates The Crowds
UPDATE : 4 August 2011
Panjamal

The splendid multi-tiered roof on the vihara (preaching hall) at the temple of Wat Nantaram in Phayao's Chiang Kham district represents a significant artistic and cultural attraction in the northern province and is one of the most popular destinations among visitors.

The wooden vihara, which is located about 800 kilometers north of Bangkok, was built around 1925 (there is no official record referring to the date of the temple's construction). It's easy to spot architectural influences here relating to the Tai Yai (Shan) ethnic group. This style thrived during the 1800s in northern Thailand, a period during which Tai Yai people (from what is currently Shan state in Myanmar) played a major role in assisting the Siamese government in its logging operations in the region.

Tai Yai Influences
Construction of the vihara was ordered by Nanta (Ou) Wong-anant, a Tai Yai merchant who was later involved in the logging business and permanently settled in the district. He recruited a large number of laborers, including members of the Tai Yai ethnic group, to work within the logging operations. Many of these Tai Yai people eventually decided to settle in the area and their descendents maintain a presence there right up to the present day.

The architectural plan of the vihara was based on a draft from the vihara at Wat Baanhuad in Lampang's Ngaw district. The vihara’s superstructure includes several smaller structures that lie along the top of the main roof. Each smaller structure has its own tiered roof. The uppermost tiered roof in the center signifies that the main Buddha image is housed inside, while those on the east and west sides refer to rest areas for the monks.

Ornate Attributes
The interior features a high ceiling that has been elaborately decorated with mosaics featuring colored glass in floral patterns. The floor features a large platform made of planks of teak wood, which serves as an altar for images of the Buddha.

The principle Buddha image, located in the center, is made from teak and is cross-legged in the Subduing Mara posture. There's a large carved, wooden panel behind the image, which includes designs based on foliage, celestial beings and animals referred to in Buddhist mythology.

The vihara also houses several other important Buddha images, including Phra Chao Thunjai, an image that takes the form of the Subduing Mara posture that's made from lime and mortar and is said to have been made within a single day. Phra Kasorndokmai is another image that takes the form of the Subduing Mara posture, which was created from a combination of dried flowers, plant wax, ashes produced from plants, termite soil and bricks. Phra Hinkhao again takes the form of the Subduing Mara posture and is made from white stone.

Learning Destination
There's an annex at the back of the vihara that hosts a museum featuring an extensive collection of Buddhist-related paraphernalia, including scriptures in the Tai Yai language, along with Buddha images and tablets. The collection also includes antique exhibits that were once widely used in the daily lives of the local people, including ceramics, lacquerware, lanterns and coins.

The temple opens daily from 8 am to 4 pm. For further information, call the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)’s Chiang Rai – Phayao Office on Tel: +66 (0)53 717 433.

Transport Connections:
Bus: Air-conditioned and regular buses, operated by various private companies, depart Bangkok's Northern Bus Terminal (Morchit) for Phayao during the evening (from about 7-10 pm). The journey takes 10 hours and the fare (one way) is 400-800 baht (US$13-26), depending on the class of bus you select. On arrival at Phayao’s Bus Station, you can hire a songthaew (converted pick-up with bench seats) to take you to Chiang Kham district, which is 80 kilometers east of Muang district.

For further information regarding the bus schedule, call Tel: +66 (0)2 936 2841-48 (ext 311 or 442).
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Philippine Star - Myanmar works for environmental conservation
(philstar.com) Updated August 04, 2011 12:04 PM

YANGON (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is drafting a new law for environmental conservation for proportionate development of the economic, social and environmental development.

A meeting of the Committee for Environmental Conservation involving forestry officials and experts was held in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday to make amendment to a bill for enacting the law. The committee is headed by Union Minister of Forestry U Win Tun.

Myanmar Vice President Dr. Sai Mauk Kham has stressed the need for environment conservation in terms of trees and forest so as to hand down the existing good condition of natural environment of the country to new generations.

"The government has established not only teak plantations, the forests on commercial scale, village plantations, industrial raw plantations and forests in watershed areas but also private forest plantation," Sai told a forestry-related function recently.

As a traditional mass campaign to plant trees annually, a plan to grow 78 million plants of 30 million species has started this year giving priority to establishing forest plantations, conservation of natural forest reserves, use of alternative fuel in place of firewood and supply of water in northern Myanmar's arid regions.

Although Myanmar has started forestation for successive eras, forests and forest lands are depleting as measures have to be taken to ensure food security to feed the increasing population, " Sai noted.

Myanmar's forest coverage declined from 61 percent in 1975 to 59 percent in 1989, to 52 percent in 1998 and to 47 percent in 2010.

According to Sai, gradual depletion of forest resources has harmed the food security and livelihood of the people living in that region, thereby causing more poverty.

He stressed need to take various educative measures in conserving the natural environment including forests to make sure that the people reduce their excessive exploitation of and reliance on the natural environment.

Earlier, Myanmar government and non-governmental organizations had met in Yangon to seek ways of bettering the country's environmental conservation work.

Positive advice and suggestions on environmental conservation tasks to be carried out at national level were invited by the the government's Committee for Environmental Conservation.

Myanmar has adopted policies on environmental conservation since 1994 along with programs not to sacrifice the environment in implementing nation-building tasks.

Besides, the government is working in cooperation with the international community as well as with the eight work groups of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in conserving environment.

Moreover, Myanmar is also implementing afforestation plan yearly around the region for sustainable development of the woodland.

Environment-related local Myanmar and international organizations are also discussing designation of more wetlands in Myanmar.

Moeyungyi Wetlands in Bago region, Indawgyi lake in Kachin state and Inlay lake in Shan state are known as precious wetlands in the country.
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The Irrawaddy - '88 Generation Students' Leaders Welcome Suu Kyi, Aung Kyi Talks
Thursday, August 4, 2011

Imprisoned dissidents who are leaders of the 88 Generation Students group reportedly welcomed the recent meeting between pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi, Burma's minister of labor as well as minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, and urged more pro-active dialogue aimed at national reconciliation.

Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe, all of whom are serving 65-year priosn sentences, managed to get their comments to the public one week after the first meeting between Suu Kyi and a member of Burma's new government took office in late March.

Min Ko Naing, who is being held in Keng Tung Prison in eastern Shan State, said through an information channel that he thinks the meeting between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi was “a good step.”

A message from Ko Ko Gyi, who is in Mong Set Prison in Shan State, said he supports the meeting and calls for more meaningful dialogue. Ko Ko Kyi, who is described by colleagues as a “strategist,” said that the pro-democracy leader should take a wider leading role in the development of democracy and peace in Burma.

Htay Kywe’s brother-in-law, Pyo Min Thein, who is also member of the 88 Generation Students group, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that Htay Kywe said the meeting between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi was a positive step. Htay Kywe is serving his sentence in Buthitaung Prison, Arakan State.

“Even though the 88 Generation Students leaders have sacrificed a lot for the country, they are always optimistic. Therefore our party take their concerns seriously,” said Win Htain, one of Suu Kyi’s close aides at the National League for Democracy(NLD), in response to the 88 Generation Students leaders’ messages.

The 88 Generation Students group was formed by former student leaders who led the mass uprising against dictator Ne Win’s Burmese Socialist Programme Party in the summer of 1988, during which at least 3,000 people were killed by government security forces.

Throughout 1988-1991, most of the student leaders were arrested and given long prison sentences. Min Ko Naing was arrested in 1989 and spent 15 years in prison. Ko Ko Gyi was arrested in 1991 and imprisoned and released in 2005.

After their release, the former student leaders formed the 88 Generation Students group, which became a prominent dissident movement while Suu Kyi was under house arrest. The group undertook various political activities until its leaders were once again arrested on August 21, 2007 for their involvement in a protest march against fuel price hikes and given matching 65-year sentences.

The former student leaders reportedly take the same position—that they will not make an appeal to get individual sympathy from the government.
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The Irrawaddy - Why the Hurry to Reach a Ceasefire?
By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, August 4, 2011

Two months after fighting broke out between Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), ending a 16-year ceasefire, Naypyidaw is redoubling its efforts to end hostilities in Kachin State, even suggesting that it might be open to nationwide talks aimed at easing ethnic tensions elsewhere in the country.

La Nan, the joint-secretary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA, said that an agreement has not yet been reached, but noted that in the latest round of negotiations, held earlier this week in Lajayang, Kachin State, the government delegation, led by Col Than Aung, seemed uncharacteristically ready to compromise.

Naypyidaw still hasn't agreed to announce a nationwide political dialogue within 15 days of the ceasefire coming into effect, as demanded by the leaders of the KIO, but there has been a notable change in the government's willingness to at least discuss the idea.

In one recent letter, the Burmese government said that it agreed to attempt to reach a temporary ceasefire, to be followed by further dialogue aimed at achieving long-term peace in the country.

“We've never heard this tone from the government before. They've always avoided this sort of thing in the past. But this time, they're not just talking about a ceasefire, but also long-term peace and political dialogue,” said La Nan.

However, it remained unclear why Naypyidaw is suddenly pushing for an early ceasefire with the KIO.

“They seem to be trying to come closer to our position. The way they are speaking now makes us more inclined to accept their call for a ceasefire. But we want to proceed slowly, and they seem to be in a hurry to sign a deal and continue further talks in the future,” said La Nan.

To further encourage the KIO to agree to a ceasefire, Naypyidaw said it would bring 58 witnesses, including Kachin elders from social and religious organizations, to attend the signing of an agreement between the government and the KIO leaders.

However, the sticking point remains the KIO's insistence on a nationwide dialogue that includes other ethnic armies. Under the current agreement proposed by the government, both sides would stop fighting within 48 hours of signing a deal.

Clashes between government and KIA troops first broke out on June 9, after months of tensions over the KIA's refusal to join a proposed Border Guard Force (BGF) established by the Burmese Army.

Almost every other ceasefire ethnic army similarly balked at the BGF proposal, setting the stage for a showdown with the newly installed government formed in March by the winners of last year's heavily rigged election.

Some observers said that Naypyidaw's efforts to avert any worsening of the situation in Kachin State could be related to its bid to assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2014—a move that would go far toward legitimizing the outcome of the Nov 7 election.

The biggest obstacle to winning the chairmanship is opposition by the regional grouping's Western trade and strategic partners, particularly the US.

In June, the US raised concerns over the renewed violence in Kachin State and other regions of the country and called on Naypyidaw to halt hostilities with ethnic armed groups. It also said the conflicts underscore the need for an inclusive dialogue between the Burmese government and opposition and ethnic minority groups to begin a process of genuine national reconciliation.

Other observers have suggested that the government's sudden eagerness to end the conflict could be a result of its desire to preempt any attempt by the democratic opposition, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, to get involved.

On July 28, three days after a rare meeting with a senior government minister, Suu Kyi sent an open letter to President Thein Sein and leaders of ethnic armed groups calling for a ceasefire and offering to play a role in efforts to achieve a lasting political solution to the country's ethnic divisions.

It was not clear if Suu Kyi and minister Aung Kyi, discussed the situation in Kachin State, but some have suggested that they may have agreed to cooperate on the issue during their talks, adding that Naypyidaw may be prepared to allow Suu Kyi to participate in ceasefire efforts in order to improve its international image.

It seems far more likely, however, that the government is hoping to head off any talk of Suu Kyi's involvement in this highly sensitive matter by resolving it before her offer wins any further support from ethnic armed groups, many of whom say they would welcome her participation.

Zipporah Sein, the general-secretary of the Karen National Union, said that if the government really wanted to achieve ethnic reconciliation with Suu Kyi's help, it would probably succeed.

However, she said she doubted that Naypyidaw is interested in achieving genuine peace.

“If they want a ceasefire, all they have to do is stop attacking ethnic people. Ethnic armed groups don't go into the cities to attack them; they come into the ethnic areas to attack us. If they stopped, there would be peace across the country,” she said.

Some, however, believe that Thein Sein's government is sincere about wanting to bring peace to Burma. Nay Zin Latt, a member of the Burmese president’s political advisory board, told The Irrawaddy that Thein Sein has a plan to end conflict with ethnic armed groups, but it would take a long time to achieve lasting results.

Meanwhile, in Kachin State, the government appears to be keen not to waste any more time.

“I don’t know what they will do if we sign the agreement. But they seem to really want it soon,” said La Nan.
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The Irrawaddy - Dissident Hip-Hop Singer Barred from Live Concert
Thursday, August 4, 2011

A well-known Burmese hip-hop singer, Zayar Thaw—who was released from prison in May after serving three and a half years of a five-year sentence for his political activities—has been barred by Mingla Taung Nyunt township authorities from singing at a live concert in Rangoon.

Zayar Thaw told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the authorities had applied pressure on the concert organizers by saying that if he were on the bill, permission for the concert would be denied.

The live concert, which will include various well-known pop stars, is scheduled to be held on Aug. 6 at Kandawgyi Lake.

The concert has been arranged for the purpose of raising funds for the elderly residents of Seesar Ahla, a charitable home in North Dagon Myothit Township in northern Rangoon, which was founded by social activist Than Myint Aung, a leading member of the Free Funeral Service Society, a n NGO that has reportedly been under government surveillance since 2007.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Zayar Thaw said, “It is simply unreasonable to ban me for my political views.”

He said that he has not been informed by the authorities under the new administration of President Thein Sein whether he is currently banned from performing.

“If the current government is a democratic one, it needs to accept diversity,” Zayar Thaw said. “Even if our beliefs are different from the current government’s stance, it does not
mean that we are outlaws.”

The hip-hop star is a co-founder of Generation Wave, a pro-democracy civic group which rose to prominence shortly after the September 2007 mass demonstrations. He was arrested in February 2008 and sentenced to five years imprisonment in November 2008.

He served his jail time in Kawthaung Prison in the far south of Burma.

Zayar Thaw followed an illustrious list of artists, writers, poets, pop stars and other celebrities who have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms for airing their dissent against Burma's government. Controversial comedian Zarganar was sentenced to 59 years in prison, while late poet Tin Moe was sentenced to five years for publishing a poem satirizing the military generals.
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NLD ready to appeal status to UN Human Rights Council
Thursday, 04 August 2011 13:28 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s most influential pro-democracy group will take its case to the international community this week, asking for help from the UN Human Rights Council following the government’s dissolving its status as a legal political party.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi said earlier that a complaint letter would be filed within the first week of August.

“We will submit it this week. Until we send it, we cannot disclose the details of the complaint,” Nyan Win, a legal adviser and NLD central executive committee member, told Mizzima.

The complaint letter will cite examples of government oppression of human rights, violations of the rights of political parties and organizations and the “Depayin Massacre,” in which a government-supported mob killed many NLD members and tried to kill Aung San Suu Kyi. It will also cite examples of manipulation in the 2010 election, according to the NLD.

The Union Election Commission (UEC) officially dissolved the NLD on September 14, 2010, citing its failure to re-register as a political party. The NLD filed appeals signed by Suu Kyi, but they were rejected by various courts, prompting the appeal to the UN Human Rights Council, said Nyan Win. He said that the NLD did not plan to cooperate with other political parties that were also dissolved.

The NLD won the 1990 general election in a landslide with about 82 percent of the seats, but the former junta refused to convene Parliament. The NLD boycotted the 2010 general election, the first since 1990, on the grounds that the 2008 Constitution was undemocratic and drawn up in favour of the then-military government.

Meanwhile, Pu Chin Sian Thang, the spokesman of the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) and chairman of the Zomi National Congress, said he was watching the NLD action, but did not believe that the UN Human Rights Council could influence the Burmese government. The UNA is a coalition of ethnic political parties that contested in the 1990-general elections.

“There is no office of the UN Human Rights Council in Burma. I don’t think the UN can influence this government,” Pu Chin Sian Thang told Mizzima.

During the previous two decades, the UN General Assembly has passed many resolutions urging the former Burmese junta to recognize the results of the 1990-general election, but the junta ignored them all.

In late March, the military junta transferred power to a government led by President Thein Sein, a former general.
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Men arrested in Burmese counterfeit currency case
Thursday, 04 August 2011 20:30 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Six men have been arrested in connection with distributing 5,000 kyat denomination counterfeit notes in three cities in Burma, according to police.

Police said that fake notes in gunny bags were found in a warehouse in Myawaddy, a border town opposite Mae Sot, Thailand. A district court in Hpa-an in Karen State conducted a hearing on the case on Wednesday.

The men were arrested with 5,000 kyat denomination counterfeit notes in Mandalay, Myawaddy and Thaton, according to police. They were charged with distributing, using and found to be in possession of counterfeit notes.

A source close to Hpa-an judicial circles said that one of the accused in the case is a protégé of Myawaddy Chamber of Commerce member Thin Thin Myat. The Myawaddy Chamber of Commerce vice chairman, Dr. Maung Maung Lay, told Mizzima that Thin Thin Myat had not attended their weekly meetings for three weeks.

The 5,000 kyat note is the highest denomination currency in circulation in Burma, and the Central Bank of Myanmar first issued it on October 1, 2009.

Seizures of counterfeit 5,000 kyat denomination notes were reported frequently this year. Fake notes were seized in the Myanmar Citizens Bank head office in Kyauktada Township, Rangoon Region, in July. Counterfeit notes worth 3 million kyat (US$ 3,871) were also seized in Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

Police said the fake notes were seized along with machines and equipment used in counterfeiting in Yuzana garden city, Dagon Seikkan Township in Rangoon Region in early April. Local media also reported that counterfeit notes were seized in Deze Township in Sagaing Division in May.

One person identified as “police personnel” was arrested with a counterfeit note of 5,000 kyat denomination while he was shopping in Myoma market in Bago city in January.

Officials said there is no embossed printing on the counterfeit note. In genuine notes, the numeral 5,000 is printed in an embossed design and it can be easily tested by rubbing on it. Moreover the security thread in a genuine note of this denomination is large. It is smaller in fake notes.

Counterfeiting is punishable by up to life imprisonment and those who knowingly keep counterfeit notes in their possession with intention of using them can be sentenced to up to 7 years imprisonment, according to the Central Bank of Myanmar.
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CRPP to discuss meeting between Suu Kyi and Minister Aung Kyi
Thursday, 04 August 2011 21:28 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Members of the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP) will meet on Friday to discuss the recent talks between pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese Minister Aung Kyi.

The CRPP was established in 1998 by political parties that contested in the 1990 general election with the aim of convening Parliament based on the 1990 general election results and working as a virtual parliament. The then-junta did not honour the election results and never convened Parliament.

CRPP office holders are NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo, NLD General-Secretary Suu Kyi, NLD central executive committee member Nyunt Wei, ethnic leaders Pu Cing Sing Thang, Thaung Ko Thang, Nai Tun Thein and Aye Thar Aung.

The meeting will be held at National League for Democracy party headquarters in Bahan Township in Rangoon.

Minister Aung Kyi was appointed as relations minister to meet with Suu Kyi by then-dictator and now retired Senior-General Than Shwe in 2007, and they have met seven times between 2007 and 2009.

On July 25, they met again and at a press briefing, Aung Kyi said that he and Suu Kyi had held a “productive” meeting and would meet again at an appropriate time for mutual cooperation and for the benefit of the people.

CRPP Secretary Aye Thar Aung said it was important for national reconciliation for the two parties to hold frank and wide-ranging talks.

He said the CRPP would also discuss Suu Kyi’s proposed domestic tour, which is scheduled to kick off on August 12.
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DVB News - Child abuse rife in Burma, despite laws
By NAW NOREEN
Published: 4 August 2011

Forced recruitment of child soldiers and sexual assault against minors is commonplace in Burma and must be tackled by the government, a domestic rights group has said.

The Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP), a nationwide network of rights monitors, said that in June and July it received 10 complaints of rape of underage girls and 18 cases of child soldier recruitment by the Burmese army.

“Society is not doing much to protect children from sexual abuses and courts are dropping these cases without following legal procedures,” said Maung Maung Lay, who called for tougher laws to protect children.

He claimed some of the cases over rape he had seen appeared to be planned. “Often the girls are left with unwanted pregnancies and they are isolated from their families and kept under detention.

“They are also given abortions by illegal practitioners. And so often, these crimes are settled with punishments as light as a year prison term.”

The group released a statement this week calling on the government, UN and civil society organisations in Burma to step up their enforcement efforts, and claimed that despite the presence of groups such as UNICEF and Save the Children in Burma, abuses continue.

“They are international and both financially and figuratively strong,” said Maung Maung Lay. “However, there is little effort being put into raising public awareness on how victims can contact them or to seek help from them.”

A number of groups, including the two mentioned above and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), go to considerable effort publishing leaflets aimed at engendering knowledge among Burmese of their rights, and what measures to take if they feel these are being exploited.

Pressure from the Burmese government, which is notoriously suspicious of foreign-financed groups working in Burma, means however that these methods often fail to reach their intended target.

“We’ve never seen those leaflets being distributed to the public,” Maung Maung Lay said. “They actually do provide legal help for the children but it is hard for them to take preventative measures when the government doesn’t like them doing those things.”

Burma is considered among the world’s leading recruiters of child soldiers, despite groups like the ILO having a mandate in the country to monitor and investigate the problem.
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DVB News - Thieving spree as Naypyidaw building halts
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 4 August 2011

Unemployed construction workers in Burma’s capital have reportedly gone on a thieving spree, selling off equipment and tools as building projects grind to a halt.

Thousands of labourers have been employed since 2002 to build Naypyidaw, which was chosen in a shock decision by then ruler Than Shwe, supposedly aided by fortune tellers, to become the new administrative capital of Burma.

The bulk of the relocation from Rangoon took place in 2006 while the city was still in its skeletal form. Work on the new parliament building finished late last year, and accommodation for civil servants soon after. Many buildings however remain inhabitable.

One resident told DVB that the thieving spree began after labourers got wind of the fact that work was ending. He claims the workers were told by government officials that they could sell off the equipment.

“Right now all the government constructions have stopped but private ones are still continuing,” he said. “The workers were arrested when they stole material from the private construction site.”

The suspension of construction was announced in late July by government officials, who cited a slash in the budget for work on the capital. Many of the companies, such as Max Myanmar, that are running the show there are headed by government-friendly business tycoons who often need little bidding for contracts.

Police in Naypyidaw have suggested that thefts increased after officials cracked down on gambling, which is illegal in the capital.
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Russia closing deal over 20 fighter jets
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 4 August 2011

Russia is believed to be close to finalising a deal over the sale of 20 advanced fighter jets to the Burmese military, which has sought to expand its air power in tandem with ground forces.

The MiG-29 planes have been purchased directly from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, in a deal estimated at more than $US570 million.

The additional planes, due to shipped before the end of next year, will double Burma’s fighter jet fleet, and becomes one of the biggest sales of its kind by Moscow.

Although Burma already has used MiG-29 in its arsenal, bought years ago from Russia and Belarus, the adapted versions are more suited to the country’s rough terrain and are noted for their aerial maneuverability.

At the time the deal was first struck in late 2009, a source close to Rosoboronexport said that the Russian offer had beaten one by China for “ultra-modern” J-10 and FC-1 fighters to be shipped to Burma “on very advantageous conditions”.

This week Russia delivered 11 MiGs to India as part of a 16-plane package to equip an aircraft carrier due to be delivered next year. The two countries then signed a deal in March 2010 for the sale of an additional 29 jets, priced at around $US1.5 billion.

Although a longtime supplier of India’s military, Russia has made no secret of its wish to expand its security presence into South and Southeast Asia and draw closer to strategically placed countries like Burma and India.

Reports emerged last month that Russia had also been awarded a tender to develop Burma’s first metro in its remote capital, Naypyidaw.

Military relations between the two countries have a solid history, with Russia a chief supplier of hardware to the Burmese army and promising young military personnel from Burma regularly sent for training in elite Moscow academies.

The Burmese government is also known to be wary of an overdependence on China as its chief foreign ally and security partner, and has been courting other powerhouses like Russia and India as possible alternatives.

Naypyidaw is also embarking on an aggressive expansion of its military that includes the purchase of fighter jets, as well as orders to battalion commanders to recruit extra manpower. This is despite Burma having no external enemy.

Whether aerial power is necessary in its perennial conflicts against ethnic armies is debated, although the MiG-29 would suit the poor ground-level infrastructure in the country’s remote border regions.

Reports from Shan state last month suggested that air strikes had been targeted at the opposition Shan State Army, although this has not been independently confirmed.
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