UN envoy calls on Myanmar to release prisoners
AP – 1 hr 43 mins ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – The U.N. human rights envoy to Myanmar said Thursday at the end of his visit to the country its new government should release all political prisoners.
Myanmar installed a nominally civilian government in March but still holds more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Releasing them is a "central and necessary step toward national reconciliation," Tomas Ojea Quintana said in Yangon on conclusion of his five-day visit.
He also told reporters Myanmar needs an independent judiciary and should investigate alleged human rights violations.
He thanked the government for allowing his visit and access to government ministers and opposition leaders. He met with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time Wednesday.
His last visit to the country was in February 2010, while Suu Kyi was under house arrest. She was freed in November shortly after Myanmar's first election in 20 years.
Quintana and others have criticized that vote as undemocratic, and the new government is largely still dominated by the military.
He said President Thein Sein's new government has taken some positive steps on human rights, including recognizing the need for peace talks with armed ethnic groups and opening the door for exiles to return.
He called on the government to "intensify its efforts to implement its own commitments and to fulfill its international human rights obligations."
Quintana added many concerns remained, including reports of torture in prisons and the use of prisoners as porters for the military.
He met with seven people imprisoned in Yangon's notorious Insein Prison.
The international community must remain engaged and closely follow developments but should also "support and assist the government during this important time," he said.
He added he hopes to visit Myanmar again before his next report to the Human Rights Council in March 2012.
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UN launches campaign to end stateless 'limbo'
UN launches campaign to highlight plight of 12 million people caught in stateless 'limbo'
Frank Jordans, Associated Press, On Thursday August 25, 2011, 9:17 am EDT
GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N. refugee chief has called on countries to end the plight of some 12 million stateless people caught in what he described as "limbo," denied basic human rights because no country will grant them citizenship.
Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said governments had neglected a problem that was prominent after World War II due to the example of famous stateless people such as physicist Albert Einstein and Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel.
"It has been completely forgotten," Guterres told The Associated Press. "We need to make sure that people understand that this is a very serious problem."
The global refugee agency launched a campaign Thursday to highlight the discrimination suffered by stateless people, including being denied the right to employment, education, housing and health care. Many also suffer harassment at the hands of police when they are unable to prove their right to residency in a country.
The problem is particularly acute in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, the agency said.
In Myanmar, some 800,000 people from the predominantly Muslim ethnic group of Rohingya are denied citizenship, while Thailand has more than half a million stateless people, including members of small hill tribes.
Kuwait is home to about 93,000 descendants of wandering desert tribesmen known as bidoun -- Arabic for "without" -- who have recently become increasingly vocal in their demand for citizenship rights.
"These people are in desperate need of help because they live in a nightmarish legal limbo," Guterres said. "Apart from the misery caused to the people themselves, the effect of marginalizing whole groups of people across generations creates great stress in the societies they live in and is sometimes a source of conflict."
He cited the recent separation of north and south Sudan, which has left thousands of people in the north without citizenship and stoked ethnic tensions in the border state of South Kordofan.
Another reason for statelessness is the practice of some countries not to automatically grant women the right to confer citizenship to their children, said Guterres.
UNHCR is urging countries to join the U.N.'s Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. So far, few have done so. Since it was launched in 1961 only 38 of the world's 193 countries have ratified the treaty.
While the United States hasn't adopted the convention, its laws are sufficient to prevent new cases of statelessness occurring within U.S. borders, said Guterres. But he urged the U.S. government to improve its methods for counting stateless persons as no reliable figures exist for the number who have entered and are now living in the United States.
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UN sleuth tells Myanmar to free political prisoners
25 Aug 2011 17:48
Source: reuters // Reuters
* Says release essential to bring nation together
* Heard witness accounts of torture during visit
GENEVA, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar said on Thursday he had urged the country's military government to free what he called "large numbers" of political prisoners if they wanted to create a genuine democracy.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, an Argentine lawyer who was himself a prisoner under his nation's military dictatorship, was speaking in the capital, Yangon, at the end of a five-day visit to Myanmar and talks with government and opposition figures.
"Of key concern to me and the international community is the continuing detention of a large number of prisoners of conscience," he said in a statement released by the U.N.'s human rights office in Geneva.
He said he had told government leaders that the release of the prisoners "is a central and necessary step towards national reconciliation and would bring more benefit to Myanmar's efforts towards democracy."
Ojea Quintana, who reports to the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council in Geneva, said that during his visit -- which included interviews with political detainees in a major prison -- he heard disturbing testimonies of torture.
These included "the burning of body parts, including genital organs," as well as the confining of prisoners "in cells normally used for prison dogs" and their use as porters for the military.
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Myanmar wants foreign/local ventures for oil blocks
Thu Aug 25, 2011 8:12am GMT
YANGON Aug 25 (Reuters) - Foreign firms that win a tender in Myanmar to develop 18 new onshore oil and gas blocks will be required to set up joint ventures with local companies, a senior Energy Ministry official said on Thursday.
The closing date for sealed tenders from foreign firms to develop the 18 blocks was on Aug. 23, the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
"We are now assessing the bidders, which include companies from our immediate neighbours, from ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and also outside ASEAN," he said.
Shortlisted bidders will be given geological data and then asked to submit proposals.
"The shortlisted foreign bidders will have to sign a memorandum of understanding or agreement with registered local Myanmar companies about talking about shareholding ratios," the official said.
He said this was a new policy from the Energy Ministry, which aimed to help local private firms gain experience and expertise by working alongside international oil and gas companies.
"We invited local companies to register in order to jointly invest in the 18 onshore oil and gas blocks with foreign investors and the closing date for this is Sept. 9."
International investment in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, has been limited because of sanctions imposed for human rights abuses under the former military regime.
An election last November led to the formation of a nominally civilian government in March.
Although the poll was dismissed by many as a sham that left the military in power behind a veneer of democracy, there have been signs recently that the administration could be opening up and willing to engage more with the international community.
Myanmar has been exploring oil and gas in 49 onshore sites and 26 offshore blocks in Rakhine, Tanintharyi and Mon states after entering joint ventures with foreign companies since 1988.
Companies from neighbouring Thailand and China are the biggest investors in Myanmar's energy sector.
The country's proven gas reserves doubled in the past decade to 570 billion cubic metres, equivalent to almost a fifth of Australia's, according to the BP Statistical Review.
According to estimates by the Energy Ministry, there are 3.2 billion barrels of crude oil reserves in Myanmar.
Official data released by the government's Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) showed that over 6.791 million barrels of oil were produced in fiscal 2010/11 (April/March).
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Monsters and Critics - Myanmar human rights deficits remain, UN envoy says
Aug 25, 2011, 13:20 GMT
Yangon - The new Myanmar government's human rights challenges remain despite recent steps towards rapprochement with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations human rights envoy for the country said Thursday.
'The new government has made some positive steps but the challenges for human rights remain,' visiting UN human rights envoy for Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana said in Yangon after completing a five-day assessment tour of the country, long deemed a pariah state in the West for its poor human rights performance.
Quintana's visit came at a time of an apparent thaw in relations between oppostion leader Suu Kyi and the pro-military government.
On Friday, for the first time, Suu Kyi was invited to the capital in Naypyitaw for private talks with the new government's President Thein Sein, who came to power following last year's November 7 general election.
'This is a big moment in Myanmar history,' Quintana said in a press conference at Yangon Airport before his departure.
The special envoy, however, echoed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for the new government to make further steps towards national reconciliation.
Ban on Monday welcomed the meeting between Thein Sein and Suu Kyi as a positive step, but called on the government to release some 2,100 political prisoners jailed by the previous junta.
The government is also under scrutiny for its dealings with the ethnic minorities, several of whom have been the target of brutal military campaigns by the former junta.
In a letter to Quintana Wednesday, a coalition of eight ethnic rebel groups called on the UN envoy to urge that the government restrain its soldiers from rape, burning villages, looting and confiscating properties.
The letter also asked that the envoy 'request tripartite peace talks immediately,' between the ethnic groups, the government and Suu Kyi.
Quintana was only recently granted a visa after being denied entry to the country since March, 2010, when he angered the then-ruling junta by urging a UN inquiry into Myanmar's human rights record.
Myanmar has been the target of economic sanctions by Western democracies since 1988, when an army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that left an estimated 3,000 dead.
The junta that ran the country between 1988 to 2010 has notched up one of the world's worst human rights records.
Although the current government is an elected one, it is packed with former military men.
The UN and Western nations have demanded clear signs that the new regime is committed to change, such as opening a dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minority groups that have been the target of military offensives.
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Asian Correspondent - Burma’s president must keep his word on peace
By Zin Linn Aug 24, 2011 4:34PM UTC
The military-backed Burmese government announced its rejection of peace talks based on the principles of the 1947 Panglong Treaty to the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) on the weekend, Kachin News Group reported.
KIO officials in Laiza said the five-month old President Thein Sein government declared clearly that it will only agree to peace talks with the KIO in accordance with the 2008 constitution. However, the KIO countered the government’s stance on Monday, saying it cannot talk under the guidance of the 2008 constitution which KIO did not recognize.
A truce which lasted over 16 years between the two sides was broken on June 9 when government troops hit the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at Sang Gang, in Bhamo District, arguing it was defending the Taping (Dapein) hydropower Dam.
During the lengthy armistice phase, there were no political talks. However, the KIO and other ethnic ceasefire groups were pressured to transform their armed wings into the Burma Army-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) or militia groups, after the controversial 2008 constitution was put in place.
Meanwhile, on August 18, seven Burmese soldiers were killed during fighting with the KIA at Wawang Kumbang, in Manmaw (Bhamo) District, Kachin News Group said. According to KIA officials from the Laiza headquarters, the Burmese soldiers that died in action were from Infantry Battalion No. 47, based in Manmaw.
Lar Nan, Joint-General Secretary-2 of the KIO, said it will not talk bilaterally any more with the government since such negotiation failed in the past. Talks between the KIO and the Burmese government were also abortive in 1963, 1972, and 1980 respectively; they all failed to get to the bottom of the political standoff between the two sides.
Currently, KIO declared that it will talk through the ethnic alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), keeping on the spirit of the Panglong Agreement.
On August 15, in response to charges during August 12 press conference by information minister Kyaw Hsan, the Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) issued a statement urging all parties concerned to revitalize the 1947 Panglong Agreement signed by the Burmese leader Aung San and leaders of the (then known as) Frontier Areas, Shan Herald Agency for News said.
SSPP/SSA says in its statement, “Instead of regarding ethnic peoples as enemies and accusing them as subversive elements, it’s high time national reconciliation was being forget by the present authorities on the basis of equality, justice and the Panglong Agreement.”
The historic agreement basically guaranteed self-determination of the ethnic minorities and offered a large measure of autonomy, including independent legislature, judiciary and administrative powers. However, the dream of equality and a federal union is far from being realized some six decades after signing the Panglong Agreement.
According to some critics, the NLD led by Aung San Suu Kyi supports the Panglong Agreement and self-determination for every ethnic nationality while the Thein Sein government strongly opposes it. Thus, various ethnic leaders emphasized that they don’t have confidence in the new 2008 constitution which abandoned the Panglong values.
On August 18, the government proposed joining in peace talks to ethnic armed groups. But, it was rejected by the KIO and the UNFC, because the government uses divide-and rule policy towards ethnic groups without considering the Panglong Agreement.
The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) has been founded during a conference held from 12 to 16 February 2011 involved 15 ethnic groups. The UNFC has selected six Central Executive Committee members and 10 Central Committee members. Gen Mutu Saypo of the Karen National Union (KNU) becomes Chairman and Lt Gen Gauri Zau Seng of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) Vice Chairman-1, Maj Gen Abel Tweed of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) Vice Chairman-2, and Nai Hongsa of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) General Secretary) respectively.
In a statement issued on last 17 February, the UNFC said part of its basic principles and aims are to work for a better recognition of the ethnic armed groups, for ethnic equality, rights and self-determination, and for a genuine democratic federal Union of Burma.
Successive governments rejected the political dialogue with ethnic armed groups, which demand self-determination and a genuine federal union, for over six decades. If the President Thein Sein government stubbornly refused to honor the Panglong accord, the ongoing civil-war in Burma may not stop in a short period.
However, President Thein Sein told members of parliament on August 22, at the first Union Parliament second regular session, that his government will pay attention to oppositions’ suggestions. He said the government has already prepared for talks on peace with armed ethnic groups since the progress of the frontier areas is dependent on stability.
The whole nation is cautiously watching the current political disaster with the ethnic people, and whether the president will take responsibility follwoing his latest parliament speech.
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Asian Correspondent - Burma Needs to set up IDP camps, Shan MP advised
By Zin Linn Aug 25, 2011 5:49PM UTC
Sai Hsawng Hsi, elected representative from Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), said Wednesday he had raised the topic of setting up Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps near the warzone in central Shan State, during the meeting with UN Rights Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana, according to Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.).
Sai Hsawng His said that many inhabitants are either hiding in the jungles or fleeing to the border. It will be appropriate to establish IDP camps around the warzone, he advised.
More than 300 clashes have taken place in Hsipaw, Tangyan, Mongyai, Monghsu and Kehsi townships between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army (SSA) since March, according to resistance sources.
According to Burma Center Prague (BCP)’s studies on IDPs, the constant warfare and conflict in Burma has resulted in a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs). It mentioned that number of IDPs increased mainly in eastern Burma where Karen and Shan are living. It is estimated that between the years 1996 and 2006, over 1 million people became IDPs in Burma, most of who came from ethnic minorities.
According to a repost by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, dated 19 July 2011, titled “MYANMAR: Displacement continues in context of armed conflicts – A profile of the internal displacement situation” , people displaced due to conflict in Myanmar (Burma) lack access to food, clean water, health care, education and livelihoods. Their security is threatened by ongoing fighting, including where conflict parties reportedly target civilians directly.
UNHCR used an estimate of 451,000 IDPs in Myanmar as its planning figure for 2010, while the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) estimated that in July 2010 at least 446,000 IDPs were living in the 37 surveyed townships (administrative sub-districts) in southern Shan, Kayah/Karenni, Kayin/Karen and Mon States and Bago/Pegu and Tanintharyi/Tenasserim Regions.
Of those IDPs, it was believed that 125,000 were living in relocation villages in government-controlled areas, 115,000 dispersed in hiding areas in the jungle, and 206,000 living in areas administered by ceasefire non-state armed groups NSAGs. The TBBC also reported that an estimated 73,000 of the IDPs in south-eastern Myanmar were newly displaced between August 2009 and July 2010, including some 26,000 people in northern Karen areas and some 8,000 in southern Mon areas (UNHCR, January 2010; TBBC, 28 October 2010, p.20).
To date, the Burma Army side is still reportedly deploying more troops to SSA- HQ Wanhai, according to local eye witnesses from Kehsi Township, Shan Herald Agency News (SHAN) said. Fighting between the two sides have been three months long since 13 March and had killed dozens of civilians including at least 300 casualties on the Burma Army side in the conflict zones. Most of the civilians were reportedly killed and injured by the Burma Army’s heavy shells, claimed the SSA.
It seems that the government is going ahead with its military might to resolve the ethnic armed rebellious problems, rather than political talks. Several political analysts believe that the military-backed Thein Sein government will not revise its oppressive guiding principle which insistently goes against the self-determination of the ethnic people.
However, President Thein Sein told members of parliament on Monday, at the first Union Parliament second regular session, that his government has already prepared for talks on peace with armed ethnic groups since the growth of the ethnic regions reliant on stability.
Then, the president ought to accept the findings of UN Rights Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana and help the UN Envoy’s restoration of human rights values in the country. Besides, government must call for a nationwide ceasefire to all ethnic armed groups in order to start a meaningful political dialogue with all stakeholders.
At the same time, government should form respective missions to tackle the domestic war refugees and IDPs problems, in reference to goodwill advice of Sai Hsawng Hsi (MP of SNDP) who raised the IDP question during the meeting with UN Rights Rapporteur.
Without addressing and honoring the ethnic people’s political desire, the new parliament-based government will be unable to stop political and civil conflict throughout ethnic areas. If so, the country will continue producing more refugees and more IDPs in the years to come.
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Aug 26, 2011
ASIA HAND
Asia Times Online - Man with the plan in Myanmar
By Shawn W Crispin
CHIANG MAI - When Myanmar President Thein Sein made his ground-breaking March 30 inaugural address, where the former military general made an unprecedented call for good governance and counter-corruption reforms, the text of the speech was lifted from an op-ed published a month before in the local The Voice weekly newspaper.
The author of the piece, Nay Win Maung, a policy wonk, journalist and outspoken advocate for reform, is in many ways at the forefront of Myanmar's still uncertain transition from military to democratic rule. People familiar with the copy flow say he has ghostwritten much of Thein Sein's reform script, including cues for his pro-democracy speech to parliament this week, as well as his high-profile conciliatory meeting last week with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nay Win Maung's non-governmental organization (NGO), Egress, has submitted over 200 policy papers to the previous and current governments, including instructional blueprints on how to make the transition from military to civilian rule. Since last year's general election, he says he has sent policy advice through a secret police channel to Thein Sein's "West Wing" at Naypyidaw, Myanmar's newly built reclusive capital.
"Things are getting better," Nay Win Maung said in a recent interview in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where he was delivering a lecture to ethnic minorities about their rights under the 2008 constitution. "We have received a lot of requests for policy papers from the president. We're in a position to shape the new government's policy agenda," he said.
To his proponents, Nay Win Maung represents a hopeful "Third Force" to break the decades-old political impasse between Myanmar's military generals and the Aung San Suu Kyi-led political opposition. He has emerged as the darling of European diplomats, international aid groups and humanitarian dialogue outfits keen to work for change and reconciliation from inside Myanmar, one of Asia's poorest and most isolated countries.
To his critics, he is an apologist for military-led incremental change and front man for plans presented as economic reform to privatize and redistribute the country's riches among a narrow military-linked elite - of which, they say, Nay Win Maung is part and parcel. Others see his Egress as a military-built "Trojan Horse" among unsuspecting European donors who believe they are supporting organic democratic change from within, but in the process are being hoodwinked into abandoning their commitments to pro-democracy groups in exile.
"It's a conditional reform process that comes at the expense of people who should be involved," says David Mathieson, Human Rights Watch's Myanmar researcher, referring to the 2,100 political prisoners still held behind bars. "Myanmar needs more pluralism, more voices and more debate, but in large part Egress has a monopoly on the discussion ... Nay Win Maung is not pushing for more people to be involved, and it is one of his shortcomings."
To Nay Win Maung, Myanmar's malaise is more a problem of economic mismanagement than political participation. Several of his policy proposals, he says, emphasize the need to break from personalized official decision-making and move towards more institutionalized, technocratic policy-making, concepts he honed while studying as a visiting world fellow at Yale University in 2004. His Yale bio says, "Trained as a medical doctor, Maung now sees himself as a policy critic and leading advocate for economic and political reform in Myanmar."
He's also taken academic interest in the country's international affairs. In one recent paper, he claims to have proposed a way ahead for bilateral relations with the United States, which maintains punitive economic and financial sanctions against the military regime and its business associates. As a gesture of goodwill, he suggested that military leaders should have signaled to Washington a week in advance, rather than springing as a surprise, its plan to release Suu Kyi from house arrest after last year's elections.
Slow and gradual
Nay Win Maung's views on the need for gradual rather than big-bang change have won him proponents among certain Western governments. Many of them carp about the slow pace of reform, Suu Kyi's perceived abstinence to compromise, and the ineffectiveness of the opposition in exile. Egress has emerged as the primary channel for their redirected donations, and currently reportedly receives funding and support from the United Kingdom's DFID, Sweden's SIDA and Germany's Freidrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, among others.
Registered as a non-profit organization, Egress now operates on a US$1 million annual budget, according to Nay Win Maung. The organization is divided into training and research units that often invite foreign academics, including Westerners from the National Union of Singapore, to give (somewhat ironically) seminars and training on civil society. The outfit also specializes in journalist training, notably in one of the world's most censored and repressed media environments.
Others wonder whether Nay Win Maung is the free thinker he portrays, or rather a slick, foreign-friendly spokesman for the old military order and its desire to be removed from Western sanctions lists. Egress is backed by the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce (MCC), which helped to first initiate the organization. Until recently the MCC was led by Win Myint, a military-linked businessman blacklisted by the European Union, and is included on the US's sanctions list due to its association with the previous Than Shwe-led junta.
Exile media groups, meanwhile, point suspiciously to the preference and privilege Nay Win Maung and Egress appear to receive from authorities, noting that he is free to travel outside of the country without restriction and is often willingly quoted in the foreign media without fear of government reprisal while their in-country reporters operate from underground or are in prison.
"He's being used by both sides, diplomats and the government," says a Yangon-based journalist who claims to know him well. "He tells the government 'I'll convince the international community the elections were credible.' He tells the diplomats 'I am your connection to the new era opening in the country.' ... I think he's misrepresenting the story to both sides."
Nay Win Maung chalks up his special position - or "safety net", as he puts it - to his family's military pedigree. His father and mother both served as professors at Myanmar's equivalent of the US's West Point Academy and several of his father's students have risen to high military ranks. Nay Win Maung recalls many of them, including current President Thein Sein and Lower House speaker Thura Shwe Mann, visiting his family home when he was young.
Despite that top brass familiarity, Nay Win Maung claims to be walking on a razor's edge in his push for reform. Since 2004, government agents have twice searched his home over articles that appeared in his newspaper, including one that suggested the military should be under civilian government control. Between 2000-2004, he says he tried without success to get a proper newspaper publishing license because he was reportedly on a government "blacklist".
Before that, he helped to establish the Living Color news magazine with Ye Naing Win, son of former intelligence chief and prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt, who was overthrown in a 2004 intra-military purge. His The Voice newspaper has been suspended by government censors on at least 10 occasions, most recently last year for publishing an unsanctioned photo of Suu Kyi on its front page.
While such claims of personal repression give him street credibility with democracy-promoting Western donors, Nay Win Maung believes there is new space for constructive criticism only for those who uphold the 2008 constitution and the legitimacy of regime-led - rather than revolutionary - political change. He speaks openly about the corruption that plagued the outgoing junta, which he attributes to the unchecked discretionary powers of certain wayward military officials.
However, he saves his sharpest criticism for exile media and activists, who he readily portrays as increasingly irrelevant and out of touch with the country's new dynamic. He says those who believe that regime change through social upheaval, as attempted during the 2007 "Saffron" revolution, can instantly achieve democracy have an "overly simplistic" view of how such transitions have worked throughout history.
"They think if you just give power to the Lady [Suu Kyi], everything will be fine," he said. "I label them as naive. You need capacity-building before you can have democracy." Tongue in cheek, he suggests that those dissidents who favor regime change through upheaval could be held in an "air-conditioned prison hotel" on the outskirts of Yangon, where they would be free to meet with foreigners and others operating on the "periphery" of the change underway in Myanmar.
That said, Nay Win Maung is not naive enough to believe recent incremental changes are irreversible. He contends that Thein Sein's reform drive is already being challenged by military hardliners who are loathe to accept reforms that will narrow their past discretionary powers and special privileges. "Thein Sein means change," says Nay Win Maung, "but it's just as likely the situation ends in a military coup."
Shawn W Crispin is Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor.
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The Epoch Times - Can Western Optimism on Burma Bear Fruit?
By Nehginpao Kipgen Created: Aug 25, 2011 Last Updated: Aug 25, 2011
The past few weeks have given a new hope to Burma’s decades-old political imbroglio, as a number of positive developments have emerged. Some notable ones are: a couple of meetings between the Burmese labor minister Aung Kyi and Aung San Suu Kyi on July 25 and Aug. 12; President Thein Sein’s remarks on Aug. 17 reaching out to the Burmese in exiles to return home; and on Aug. 18 government’s open invitation to ethnic armed groups for peace talks.
To extend its conciliatory gesture to the international community, the Burmese government invited Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN human rights envoy, who began a five-day trip on Aug. 21.
Quintana has been denied a visa since his last visit to the country in February 2010. The special rapporteur apparently angered the then Burmese military regime when he suggested that human rights violations in Burma may constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the statutes of the International Criminal Court.
Among others, lawmakers and government officials from the United States and the European Union have expressed their cautious optimism over the conciliatory approach from Naypyidaw (Burma’s capital).
The most welcome political development for the Western democracies was Aung San Suu Kyi’s safe political tour outside of Rangoon (Bago and Thanatpin towns) on Aug. 14, and the subsequent meeting between Thein Sein and Suu Kyi on Aug. 19.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the Western nations in welcoming the development, while reiterating his call for the release of political prisoners. Since Naypyidaw does not release an official figure (and even denies the existence of political prisoners), the precise number of political prisoners is unknown, although it is believed to be over 2,000.
In one of my upcoming academic journal articles tentatively scheduled for publication in early 2012, I discuss the problem of cooperating on human rights within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in which Burma’s political prisoners are the major concern.
The issue of political prisoners is not only Burma’s internal problem, but has been a focal point of international criticism and a matter of disagreement among ASEAN member states.
Realists and Liberals
For Burma experts and observers, recent developments have been interesting to follow. However, differing interpretations can be drawn. Some analysts can argue that it is the government’s same strategic end-game policy to seek legitimacy and consolidate its power.
Realists may argue that it is the strategy of the government to maximize its gains both domestically and internationally. The liberals, however, may argue that cooperating with the Burmese government can lead toward a national reconciliation, yielding mutual benefits.
If one is to follow the realists approach, the strategy is either to strengthen the ethnic armed resistance groups to intensify their campaigns or to lobby the international community to support a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate possible crimes against humanity or war crimes committed by the Burmese military generals, some of whom now wear civilian clothes.
If the liberals were to prevail, the Burmese opposition and the international community should seize this opportunity as the new beginning for a national reconciliation process in this politically-shattered Southeast Asian nation.
Sincerity Needed
It is important that the Burmese government walk the walk, rather than talk the talk. If the government genuinely desires to see the Burmese in exile return to rebuild their abandoned homeland, the government must show its sincerity by releasing political prisoners.
Telling exiles to return while incarcerating others make the president’s statement unrealistic and untrustworthy. Moreover, it is something of a cajoling statement to invite the armed ethnic groups to come forward for peace talks when the Burmese military is pursuing them and endangering the lives of civilians.
Burma’s ethno-political problems had existed since before the country's independence in 1948, which was further fragmented by the non-implementation of the 1947 Panglong agreement. The ultimate goal of ethnic minorities is a federal state with political autonomy.
As leaders of ethnic minority groups and Aung San Suu Kyi have suggested, reconvening of a 1947-type Panglong conference should be encouraged. Even if a consensus cannot be reached, such a convention can pave the way for a long-term solution.
Reconciliation between Aung San Suu Kyi (and her National League for Democracy) and the ruling government is crucial in achieving political stability. While many ethnic minorities have lingering doubts about the sincerity of the central Burman leadership, majority of them have faith in Suu Kyi, partly because of her father’s legacy and her intention to build a unified Burma.
Both domestic reconciliation and diplomatic relations can be pursued simultaneously. Suu Kyi’s role is crucial in establishing cordial relations with other nations, especially the Western democracies. The Western sanctions are unlikely to be lifted in its entirety as long as Suu Kyi and her party supports the policy.
By releasing political prisoners and reaching amicable solutions with the country’s ethnic minorities, the Burmese government can be integrated into the international community. Such a major reform will give Burma the opportunity to chair ASEAN in 2014 without opposition.
The fructification of optimism over Burma’s national reconciliation program largely depends on the sincerity and actions of the Burmese government. It is also dependent on the extent of cooperation given by all ethnic groups and the international community.
Nehginpao Kipgen is a researcher on the rise of political conflicts in modern Burma/Myanmar and general secretary of the U.S.-based Kuki International Forum (www.kukiforum.com ). His works have been widely published in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America.
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Asia Sentinel - Than Shwe Consolidating Hold on Burma's Military?
Written by Sithu, The Irrawaddy
Thursday, 25 August 2011
New intelligence chief said to be the “retired” general’s spear carrier
A trusted disciple of Burmese Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the former dictator who is still believed to wield ultimate power over Burma's new government, has reportedly been appointed to lead the country's powerful military intelligence unit.
Maj-Gen Soe Shein, a personal assistant to Than Shwe, has recently taken the helm of Military Affairs Security, as the unit is known, replacing its former chief, Maj-Gen Kyaw Swe, according to security agency sources in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital.
“Before abolishing the former ruling military council, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Senior-Gen Than Shwe promoted Soe Shein from colonel to brigadier-general. Very recently Soe Shein was promoted to major general to take over as the director of the MAS,” a source told The Irrawaddy.
Many observers believe that Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) from 1992 to 2011, has retained his grip on Burma’s military, the country's most powerful institution, despite dissolving the SPDC and officially transferring his former position of commander-in-chief to Gen Min Aung Hlaing. Than Shwe continues to go to his office in the new capital of Naypyidaw on weekdays, working closely with a group of senior generals to keep an eye on the government’s operations. Defense Ministry sources told The Irrawaddy in April that reports from the War Office marked “Confidential” were still being sent to the 77-year-old former ruler, despite his official retirement as head of the military following last year's elections.
Soe Shein's promotion to the position of MAS chief reignites speculation about Than Shwe’s lingering grip on the Burmese military and the new administration led by former military general Thein Sein. For instance, Than Shwe is said to favor a hard line on the ethnic factions that have been fighting a low-level war with the central government for decades. Forces allied with President Thein Sein, the source said, favor negotiations
At least six top generals reportedly have been sacked and arrested since February on the pretext of an investigation into corruption. “Soe Shein is Senior Gen Than Shwe's most trusted man. His appointment as chief of the MAS means that the old man will be watching everyone through constant updates on the current situation,” a Military Affairs Security officer said.
The MAS was created following the dismantling of the former Military Intelligent Service, led by the once-powerful general and former prime minister, Khin Nyunt, who was purged in 2004 and later sentenced to 44 years imprisonment on charges of corruption and insubordination; he is now under house arrest. The MIS was notorious for keeping a watchful eye not only on the country’s ordinary citizens, but also on army officers and political exiles living in the West.
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Scoop.co.nz - MYANMAR: From blinkered to enlightened despotism
Thursday, 25 August 2011, 4:24 pm
Press Release: Asian Legal Resource Centre, August 25, 2011
MYANMAR: From blinkered to enlightened despotism: human rights in Myanmar under new government
Over a number of years, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has stressed to the Human Rights Council that the grave human rights problems in Myanmar need to be understood as problems arising from a profound disconnect between the member state and the human rights standards of the international community. These problems are not ones that can be addressed by tinkering at the edges, making some technical reforms, or through a process of incremental administrative change of the sort advocated by some experts. Although such activities will obviously effect some change, and perhaps result in successful outcomes in individual cases, unless they touch on the underlying problem of the gap between the norms-based language and activities of the global human rights movement and the norm-less reality of a member state, from a human rights perspective they will not amount to much.
This point, which the ALRC made explicitly in a submission on Myanmar to the Council at its 16th session (A/HRC/16/NGO/55), has been very clearly demonstrated since a new quasi-parliamentary government led by former army officers began work earlier this year. Some observers have argued that the government can bring about, albeit cautiously, reforms that will result in an overall improvement in conditions. In fact, the new government constitutes a shift from the blinkered despotism of its predecessors to a type of semi-enlightened despotism, under which intellectuals flattered at the opportunity to have some input into the affairs of state are encouraged to conjure up an image of progress that does not actually exist, or is progress not of the sort that they describe or to which they aspire. This type of political shift will not give meaning to the values of the global human rights movement, but it is resulting in changes to the dynamics of human rights abuse in Myanmar, and perhaps leading to a worsening of overall conditions compared to those which existed under successive military regimes.
One obvious short-term indicator of the worsening conditions in the country since the new government took power, which speaks to the continued hold that the military has on all affairs of any importance, is the resurgence of civil warfare in at least three states. Another is the failure to release most political detainees, including practically all of those imprisoned following the monk-led uprising of 2007. However, there are many other aspects of the current situation that while being represented as signs of improvement on closer examination are found to be exaggerated or false. These include the following:
Freedom of expression: Some government proponents have pointed to the relaxation of censorship since it took power as a sign of improvement. However, the extent to which censorship has in fact relaxed is questionable. It is true that publishers are able to cover more topics than previously. But most of what is published is vague and exhibits an extreme sensitivity not to overstep lines that have moved only slightly. And despite the formal relaxing of some requirements on submission of copy for censorship prior to going to press, the government has introduced a new oversight board under the information ministry to investigate alleged violations. The board has issued a series of notifications, among which No. 46 (7 June 2011) states that it is prohibited to publish and distribute material that is contrary to the Three National Causes (non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity, perpetuation of national sovereignty), the 2008 Constitution or the Official Secrets Act; that is damaging to relations among ethnic national races or religions; that upsets peace and tranquility or incites disturbances; that exhorts members of the armed services to commit traitorous acts or undermines the performance of public service duties, and so forth. The issuance of such blanket directives contradicts claims that the censorship regime is being relaxed and raises doubts that any real space is being opened up in Myanmar for free expression.
Economic rights: Much of the current discussion about reform has concerned changes to the banking system, foreign exchange, and investment laws. None of these go to the problems of massive poverty afflicting millions of people all across the country, or the ever-growing gap between the wealthy few and the many poor. Even in urban areas, they are not matters that have captured the attention of working people. They are reforms for the advantage of the new government's constituency: medium to large-size businessmen connected to the military, and others connected to them in turn. Experts involved in making reform proposals seem to assume that such changes will indirectly benefit the wider population; however, evidence from all around the world shows that very often this presumption is false. The evidence from Myanmar so far is that a tiny percentage of the population is becoming grossly enriched through those so-called reforms that have already been introduced, while millions grow poorer.
Criminal justice: Structural changes to the judiciary under the 2008 Constitution have not been accompanied by any changes, or any evidence of intended changes, in the judicial system's actual operations. On the contrary, it continues to be as closed and obscured from public view as before, perhaps even more so. For instance, at time of writing still no biographies or details have been made known publicly of the new Supreme Court justices, among whom three are believed to have come from the armed forces, two others from the civil administration. Legal professionals have doubts about the background and abilities of these persons, yet they too have no detailed knowledge about them, let alone the opportunity to discuss such matters. Meanwhile, legal professionals also say that the amount of corruption in the system is growing exponentially, as the costs of living rise and more and more judges and lawyers look to whatever opportunities they can to make as much money as they can. In some courts, lawyers estimate that up to 70 per cent of cases are decided in part or whole through the payment of money. This situation will continue to worsen. Simultaneously, no evidence exists to suggest plans for any meaningful reform to the highly abusive and corrupt police force.
Although the human rights situation in Myanmar is not improving, it is changing in ways that make understanding of conditions more difficult. One feature of this change to which the ALRC wishes to draw the attention of the Council is the convergence of military, business and administrative interests in new economic projects aimed at displacing ordinary people from land. Whereas seizure of land has long been practiced in Myanmar, in the past land seizure was mostly carried out directly by state officials or the military. Hence, contestation over land seizure in such cases was between the state and affected citizens. Increasingly, with the changes in government and economy in Myanmar, private companies with connections to military officers or retired military officers are seizing land. From a human rights perspective, these cases are much more difficult to narrate, since on the surface they may be presented as a dispute between private parties. Only through close study and patient analysis do all the characteristics of the case is the nexus between military, business and administrative interests made clear. Cases that the ALRC has been following and documenting in recent months along these lines include the following:
On 4 February 2011 four farmers in Kanma Township, Thayet District, Magway Region lodged a complaint that the Htoo Company, which is one of the biggest and most powerful companies in Myanmar, had illegally trespassed on and destroyed their land as part of a government-contracted project to make a caustic factory. The farmers alleged that a week earlier, two army majors, one serving and one retired, representing an army-owned company that commissioned Htoo to do the project threatened that the farmers had to give up the land and accept paltry compensation or else. The court summarily dismissed the farmers' complaint. When the farmers appealed, a group of men attacked a number of them adjacent to the land under dispute, and the police then lodged a case against the farmers rather than the attackers, for alleged theft. The local court convicted the farmers. On appeal they were released on reduced sentences for time served, rather than acquitted. The land dispute that gave rise to the legal action against the farmers remains unresolved.
Around 2am on 25 July 2011, three bulldozers entered a historic Muslim cemetery in Meikhtila, Mandalay Region, and began destroying gravesites. After the intervention of the local Muslim community, they left the cemetery at about 11am on the same day. However, extensive damage had already been done to some graves. The cemetery is on glebe land and is fully in compliance with domestic law. It has been situated there for over 150 years, and in accordance with a government order no new burials are being undertaken there but the cemetery is being maintained as a heritage site. Local Muslim leaders have alleged that a company wanting to take over the land for commercial activities carried out the nighttime bulldozer raid. Two company officials are former army officers, one a retired colonel, the other a captain, and the Muslim community fears that they will use their influence to force the cemetery to relocate so that the land can be used for business interests. At time of writing, the chairman of the committee maintaining the cemetery had submitted complaints to senior government officials requesting guarantees of protection against the attempts to demolish the cemetery and grab the land.
These cases are illustrative of the types of incidents now taking place by the hundreds, if not thousands, all across central Myanmar, and also in more remote areas where massive new dams and ports are under construction altogether out of view of the mainstream population and without any public scrutiny or independent oversight. They speak to the evolution of human rights abuses from the state-versus-people dynamic of the 1980s and 90s into a much more complicated array of phenomena that require more effort on the part of human rights organizations and defenders to accurately document and interpret. They represent a new type of challenge for the international human rights community in coming to terms with a type of devolved military authoritarian state of the sort now found in Myanmar, in which aspiring technocrats take on de facto spokesperson roles for military personnel in civilian garb, and businessmen are increasingly unconstrained by ineffectual and often deliberately marginalized or coopted state agencies.
In its submission to the Human Rights Council earlier this year, cited above, the Asian Legal Resource Centre concluded that, "The most important problem for the Human Rights Council regarding Myanmar is not a functional problem, but a problem of understanding." This statement is truer today than it was when it was made, since the challenges for proper understanding of the situation in Myanmar are greater today than they have been at any time in recent years. The country's shift from blinkered to partially enlightened despotism is no cause for celebration by anyone concerned with the human rights of its populace. Rather, it is cause for further research and deeper analysis of the true conditions in the country and their foundations. It is cause for further analysis of the divorce between the thinking and behaviour of the state in Myanmar and the standards to which the global human rights community subscribes. And it is cause for consideration of the implications of these both for the human rights of Myanmar's people and for the work of the Council in addressing the type of protracted human rights crisis as found in Myanmar today.
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Last updated: Thu. Aug. 25, 2011 - 11:01 am EDT
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel - Buddhist temple project to serve Burmese's Mon community
By Ellie Bogue of The News-Sentinel
Another Buddhist temple is being built to foster worship - and possibly cultural education and language classes - in the city's southeast quadrant.
The Mon community of the Burmese - Mon is one of the many ethic groups found in Burma - will build at 6505 Decatur Road, next to another temple.
Aung Tun, a member of the Mon temple, said the difference is simple: Chants in the Burmese temple are in Burmese, and their children speak Mon.
Aung Tun is a political refugee and has been in the United States since 2003. Strolling around the grounds of the site, he pointed out wooden tables under trees where Mon has been taught during the summer to children of the Mon community. Close to the tables is a small barn; inside are tables, chairs and large, white boards filled with delicate Mon script that are used for teaching.
Toward the back of the space, under a purple sequined cloth, are Mon traditional musical instruments. The new temple will provide a safer home for the instruments and a more pleasant environment for language lessons.
Aung Tun is working as a liaison between the temple and the architectural firm of Kelty Tappy Design Inc., which designed the new building. The project broke ground 10 days ago and could be finished by mid-October. The project's planning took two years, which included getting a $35,000 extension of a water main and getting a waiver on the size of the parking lot through city planning.
Matt Kelty, of Kelty Tappy Design, said, like many religious-based projects, the architects frequently start with a bigger plan and end up reducing the size to meet the funding that can be raised. The temple is now a third of the original size they planned, with 1,500 square feet for temple space and 700 square feet for the foyer, restrooms and mechanical rooms.
Kelty said dealing with another culture has been interesting. He remembers the day he brought five contractors dressed in scruffy blue jeans and flannel shirts to the site to look over the job; they were met by monks in flowing orange robes who greeted them with bowls of food.
Aung Tun said the congregation will have a special ceremony to bless the building once the project is finished. A religious ceremony was held to prepare the area before the project started, with various objects buried at the temple site.
Strebig Construction is the builder.
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Malay- Indians losing jobs due to foreign workers influx
ANI – 4 hours ago
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 25(ANI): Malaysian Human Rights Party Secretary-General P. Uthayakumar has said the influx of foreign workers in Cameron Highlands has reportedly resulted in about 20,000 Malay Indians losing job and business opportunities.
He said workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Myanmar employed in plantations at lower salaries had depressed salaries of Indian workers.
He said the Indian workers are paid Ringgit 13 a day or about Ringgit 350 per month, the Star reports.
He called on the Malaysian Government to prohibit foreign workers from being employed in the plantation sector.
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Malaysia Today - Refugee unrest in Malaysia after deportation bungle
Friday, 26 August 2011
By Kirsty Needham, The Sydney Morning Herald
THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia has admitted thousands of refugees have been incorrectly issued letters by the Malaysian government marked ''return to home country'', raising widespread fears of deportation.
The Refugee Convention principle of ''non-refoulement'', and Malaysia's commitment that 800 refugees from Australia would not be returned to the country from which they fled, underpin the federal government's defence to a High Court challenge to the Malaysia deal.
Up to 10,000 refugees descended on an immigration office in Putrajaya, a suburb of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday after the UNHCR was told, at late notice by the Malaysian government, that refugees must immediately register under a new biometric system designed to record illegal and legal migrant workers. Witnesses who spoke to the Herald said RELA - the vigilante force that was banished from Malaysian streets this year because of human rights concerns - was then called in by the immigration department as chaos erupted.
A co-ordinator of the Malaysian human rights group Suaram, Andika Wahab, told the Herald that the situation was shocking and he saw RELA members carrying sticks. ''I didn't see RELA beat individuals, but I saw RELA hit the wall and push people. The situation was very overcrowded,'' he said.
The refugees became alarmed at about 4pm when it was realised that, after having their fingerprints taken, some were being issued letters stamped: ''Return to home country''.
''They feared they would be deported to Burma,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Malaysia, Yante Ismail, said the document should have been given only to migrant workers, and not refugees.
''When the UNHCR learnt about this yesterday, we immediately raised this matter with the government, who will now rectify the document for all UNHCR-registered refugees and asylum seekers,'' she said.
''Understandably this has created confusion among refugees and asylum seekers, and this has created great anxiety among this population,'' Ms Ismail said.
She said the force used by Malaysian police was proportionate. She said the police had taken women, children and the elderly to the front of the line to avoid physical danger.
Because ''overwhelming numbers'' turned up on Tuesday, refugees would now be processed in batches instead, she said.
Refugee groups said yesterday they still had not received an explanation for the letters.
Dr Irene Fernandez, the executive director of the refugee group, Tenaganita, said it was ''problematic'' that refugees were given the wrong letters.
Dr Fernandez said RELA ''became quite abusive, started pushing them and not treating them well''.
The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, was kicked out of Federal Parliament yesterday after questioning the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, over a Malaysian website report that RELA had beaten ''children, mothers and the elderly'' in the queue. He later said, ''the beatings that have been reported and the fact that refugees have gone to be registered and received papers that say: 'Return to home country','' were serious issues for the Malaysia swap.
The Greens Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said: ''there is no guarantee people who are found by the UNHCR to be refugees in need of protection will not be returned to their home country at the whim of the Malaysian government.''
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AIPMC Message of Condolences for Jack Layton
Thu, 2011-08-25 01:43 — editor
Bangkok, 25 August, (Asiantribune.com): The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) has expressed its grief over the recent passing away of Jack Layton.
Mr. Layton was not only known as a remarkable Canadian political figure who led the New Democratic Party (NDP) to become the national opposition party but one of long time supporters for Burma democracy movement.
In a press release The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) has said that Layton was among the members of Canadian parliament who joined the Parliamentary Friends of Burma (PFOB), which is a similar group of the AIPMC, since it was founded in 2006.
It added that MP Charles Chong, the Chairman of AIPMC Singapore Caucus, was at the launch of the group and was very much impressed by its formation as it shares a major aspiration of the AIPMC, to promote democracy and human rights in Burma.
The (AIPMC) press release further adds as follows:
Although the AIPMC members have never met Mr. Layton in person, to our knowledge, he was an engaging and active member of PFOB. He was highly committed to Burma as he always pushed for democracy in Burma as well as occasionally criticized Canadian investment in Burma for causing human rights violation. We deeply acknowledge his dedication.
The AIPMC would like to express our sincere condolences to Parliamentary Friends of Burma for its loss of a valuable member like Mr. Layton. Our most sympathy also goes to Mr. Layton’s wife MP Olivia Chow, his children, his friends, and the New Democratic Party (NDP). For us, he will be remembered as a cheerful, well thought-of man with big heart and big achievement.
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Bangladesh News 24 hours - Dhaka backs claim at UN hearing
Thu, Aug 25th, 2011 12:09 am BdST
Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Dhaka, Aug 24 (bdnews24.com)—Bangladesh has backed its claim at a United Nations hearing on the limits of the continental shelf in the oil-rich Bay of Bengal.
"We had had an excellent hearing today," A K Abdul Momen, ambassador and permanent representative to UN, told bdnews24.com fom New York on Wednesday night.
India and Myanmar have also staked their claim on the shelf.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni attended the crucial hearing at the UN headquarters. She had left for New York on Aug 22.
"The foreign minister made the introductory and concluding presentation while legal and technical aspects of Bangladesh's claim were highlighted by additional foreign secretary Khurshed Alam," Momen said.
"The presentation was very informative."
Bangladesh on Feb 25 submitted information to the Commission on beyond 460 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
"The commission will give its verdict after hearing the other disputed parties," he said.
He said it is too early to say when the UN commission would give its verdict.
"The continental shelf of Bangladesh represents the submerged prolongation of the land territory of Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal that covers an area of ocean space in the order of 2,172,000 square kilometres," said the submission.
The convention entered into force for Bangladesh on Aug 26, 2001.
MYANMAR, INDIA CONTEST
Myanmar in its dispute on Mar 31 claimed that Bangladesh did not have continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.
"Myanmar wishes to inform the secretary general that, in its view, Bangladesh has no continental shelf extending beyond 200 nautical miles measured from base lines," the permanent mission of Myanmar informed the United Nations.
India on June 20 also submitted its dispute, saying that baseline drawn by Bangladesh did not conform to the UNCLOS provisions.
"In view of the above, the permanent mission of India notes that Bangladesh's submission for an extended continental shelf is without prejudice to the question of delimitation of relevant maritime boundaries between India and Bangladesh."
Bangladesh also submitted disputes against the claims of Myanmar and India.
BANGLADESH SUBMISSION
The submission will provide scientific and technical information with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in support of Bangladesh's rights to the continental shelf beyond 200 NM.
Bangladesh has held extensive consultations with Federal Institute of Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) of Germany, GRID– Arendal of Norway, Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping of University of New Hampshire, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA for preparation of Bangladesh's submission.
Economic and legal section of Commonwealth Secretariat has provided legal and technical assistance in the final documentation of Bangladesh's submission.
Bangladesh has also received advisory assistance from Herald Brekke, a member of the Commission on the Limits of the Continentals Shelf.
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European film festival to be held in Myanmar
English.news.cn 2011-08-25 19:27:21
YANGON, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- A European film festival will be launched in Myanmar's Yangon in late October, according to the film circle Thursday.
The eight-day film festival at the Nay Pyi Taw Cinema, which is the 20th of its kind, will last from Oct. 22 to 29.
British, French, Italian and German films will be screened during the film festival, organized by the British Embassy.
Last year, similar European film festival was launched by the Italian embassy in Yangon.
In 2009, French embassy organized the European film festival with a number of famous films from the European countries with English subtitles were screened which include "One day in Europe", "Emma's Bliss", "Zo Zo", and "One Hundred", from Germany, "Jean De la Fontaine" and "Love is in the air" from France, "The Early Bird Catches The Worm", from Italy and "Becoming Jane" from Britain.
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The Irrawaddy - Depayin Massacre, NLD's Status Highlighted in UN Envoy Meeting
By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, August 25, 2011
Leaders of Burma's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) urged UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to help them secure their party's existence, and addressed the Depayin Massacre of 2003 during their meeting in Rangoon on Thursday, said party spokesman Nyan Win.
Leading the NLD's legal team, Nyan Win said he submitted a proposal to the UN Special Rapporteur to Burma during their meeting, and that Quintana read all the documents before returning them.
The UN envoy reportedly told Nyan Win that he was not a legal expert but that he will try to find a lawyer at the UN who can offer guidance to the NLD.
“As soon as he [Quintana] arrived at the UN office, he said he will arrange a trip for a legal expert to come to Burma to discuss the case with us,” said Nyan Win.
The Depayin massacre, which left at least 50 people dead, took place in Kyee village, on the outskirts of Depayin Township in Sagaing Division, central Burma in May 2003. It was launched by pro-junta group thugs who blocked the road to attack a convoy of vehicles carrying NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters. Some women were allegedly raped by the attackers during the massacre.
The NLD leaders told Quintana that their party was faced with restrictions until it was dissolved in 2010.
On Thursday, Quintana met with several former political prisoners, including a recently released Zayar Thaw, a hip-hop singer and prominent leader of Generation Wave, at a UN branch office in Rangoon.
Myat Thu, a former political prisoner who also met with Quintana, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “I focused on speaking about the need for the release of political prisoners as soon as possible. At the very least, political prisoners who have been detained far from their families should be relocated and detained in prisons close to their family homes.”
After her meeting with the UN envoy on Wednesday, Suu Kyi told reporters that Quintana is a person who knows well the issues of human rights and one who is actively engaged in promoting human rights in Burma.
The envoy will hold a press conference at Rangoon International Airport before he rounds off his five-day trip on Thursday evening.
Quintana sat in on a parliamentary session in Naypyidaw, which was attended by MPs of both the Lower and Upper Houses. He listened to calls by ethnic politicians calling for the release of political prisoners, and for allegations of human rights abuses by the Burmese army in ethnic areas to be investigated.
Quintana has been a vocal critic of the Burmese government and has previously proposed a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity that have allegedly been committed by the Burmese army.
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The Irrawaddy - Deadly Clashes Continue in Northern Burma
By BA KAUNG Thursday, August 25, 2011
Despite Burmese President Thein Sein's recent call for peace talks, deadly clashes continue to flare between government forces and armed ethnic Kachin rebels in the country's troubled north.
On Wednesday, the 10,000-strong Kachin Independent Army (KIA) engaged the Burmese army in hostilities which left three government soldiers dead in an area called Namphatkar, between Kutkai and Muse townships in Shan State.
The KIA seized a number of small arms from the government troops, according to Col. Zau Raw, the Shan State regional commander of the KIA.
He said that the deadly confrontation flared following the government's deployment of troops in the area to protect convoys of military trucks—which Naypyidaw bought from China's Yunnan province in July—travelling from the Sino-Burmese border.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, low-intensity fighting broke out between the two sides in Hpakant Township in Kachin State, said a KIA official who said that further details were not yet known.
Armed clashes have been frequent between the KIA and the Burmese army since early June in Shan and Kachin states, many of the skirmishes erupting near the Tapaing
hydropower plant built by China on a tributary of the Irrawaddy River. The hostilities bring to an end a 17-year ceasefire and take the northern Burmese region to the verge of a civil war. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced due to the fighting, and the hydropower plant has been shut down.
In discussions with Naypyidaw, the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has demanded that the government open an inclusive political dialogue with all armed ethnic groups based on the pre-independence 1947 Panglong Agreement which guaranteed ethnic minorities basic autonomy in a federal state—a promise that never materialized.
But Naypyidaw has insisted that the KIA joins a border guard force under the central command of the Burmese army, and that the KIO participate in the national political process under the terms of the 2008 Constitution drafted by the previous military regime.
While a renewed ceasefire remains inconclusive, the Burmese president recently referred to the KIA as “a mere insurgent group,” which is not representative of people in Kachin State, a statement that infuriated the Kachin rebel leaders.
Earlier this week, the government asked many of the armed ethnic groups to conduct preliminary peace talks with regional and provincial governments, saying that only after such measures had been taken would further discussions with the central government in Naypyidaw be offered.
On Monday, Thein Sein told parliament that the government will strive to reduce conflicts with armed ethnic groups and opposition forces which have not accepted the Constitution.
The hostilities in northern Burma continue despite Thein Sein's meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi last Friday in Naypyidaw, which generated optimism among the opposition groups that the government was moving toward political and economic reforms.
Zau Raw said that ceasefire efforts have become increasingly difficult despite these apparent “olive branches” offered by the government which, in reality, continues to impose the Constitution upon the ethnic groups, including the KIA.
“We want to hold discussions based on the 1947 Panglong Agreement, but they want us to accept the 2008 Constitution,” he said. “Also, we want to hold discussions with the central government, not with a regional assembly.”
The US administration has said that the Burmese government must release all political prisoners in Burma, start a dialogue with opposition groups including Suu Kyi, and end human rights violations and military attacks against ethnic minorities before it considers lifting its punitive economic sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation.
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NEWS ANALYSIS
The Irrawaddy - Constitutional Amendment Becomes Key Issue Under New Govt in Burma
By BA KAUNG Thursday, August 25, 2011
Over the past couple of weeks, the Burmese government led by ex-general President Thein Sein has made a series of moves, including an invitation to Burmese exiles to return home and a one-on-one meeting with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, seen by many as positive signs for the country.
In a speech to the country's new bicameral Parliament on Monday, Thein Sein reiterated his desire to reduce tensions with “forces that have not accepted the Constitution yet,” including Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party and ethnic armed groups.
These gestures have generated a lot of speculation among the Burmese public and other observers as to whether Burma's nominally civilian administration has embarked on a genuine process of gradual reform.
Much of this speculation has centered on last Friday's meeting between Suu Kyi and Thein Sein. While neither side has released any details about the substance of the talks, on Tuesday a government official told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity that the two sides discussed how Suu Kyi could help in lifting Western economic sanctions, in exchange for government cooperation with her future political trips.
On Wednesday, Suu Kyi told reporters following a meeting with visiting UN human rights envoy Tomás Ojea Quintana that Thein Sein wants to achieve “real positive change”.
To skeptics, however, these developments are reminiscent of Suu Kyi's meetings with leaders of the previous military junta in early 2000. After a period of confidence-building talks, relations eventually soured as Suu Kyi's travels around the country attracted massive crowds, prompting a violent incident by pro-regime thugs that resulted in Suu Kyi's arrest in 2003.
But for now, the new government seems prepared to deal with Suu Kyi on friendly terms, as it seeks to win greater international recognition of its legitimacy, most notably through its efforts to assume the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2014.
The continuing detention of around 2,000 political prisoners will, however, make it difficult for Asean to accede to the Thein Sein government's ambitions for a regional leadership role, and also stands in the way of any bid to lift US sanctions.
Likewise, continuing clashes with ethnic armed groups and well-documented reports of human rights abuses by the Burmese military in conflict zones weaken any case the government may try to make that it is on a serious path to reform.
It is, however, conceivable that the government will make some concessions—releasing a few hundred prisoners and suspending its offensives in ethnic areas—that could suffice to at least win the Asean chairmanship, which would be a major step toward becoming a fully rehabilitated member of the international community.
But such moves would still fall far short of what Burma needs to achieve genuine reconciliation, because once the government has what it wants, there would be nothing to stop it from performing another about-face and turning on its opponents once again.
Only an irreversible commitment to reform on the part of the government will make any difference to Burma's prospects in the long term. And the only form such a commitment can take is a series of amendments to the military-drafted 2008 Constitution that reflect the will of the Burmese people.
“All recent actions taken by the government are merely cosmetic for us. Without the constitutional amendments, we cannot gain genuine political solutions in our country,” said Aye Thar Aung, a veteran opposition politician, voicing a view that is widely held among political players in Burma.
Thein Sein's pledge to ease tensions with “forces that have not accepted the Constitution yet” was an implicit recognition of the fact that this remains the key sticking point in his efforts to end the pariah status that has hung over the Burmese state for the past 23 years.
Thein Sein knows that before he can win international recognition for his government, he must first be able to demonstrate to the world that the Constitution—“approved” in a rigged referendum in May 2008, one week after Cyclone Nargis—is the real law of the land. But this will be impossible as long as the NLD and the ethnic armed groups continue to defy it with their very existence.
Under the Constitution, the ethnic militias have no right to exist except as “border guard forces” under Burmese military command.
No longer permitted to retain their status as armed ceasefire groups, they have renewed their calls for a “second Panglong” agreement, modeled on the 1947 pre-independence pact that guaranteed Burma's ethnic minorities a substantial degree of autonomy within a federal state.
Such calls are, however, radically at odds with the provisions of the current Constitution, which aims to consolidate the military's central role in Burmese politics.
The NLD is also living in limbo, officially disbanded because of its refusal to register for last year's election, but still stubbornly clinging to life as the country's de facto main opposition party. Despite government efforts to persuade the party to restore its legal status under existing laws, it continues to insist that it should never have been dissolved in the first place.
Central to this dispute is the party's rejection of undemocratic elements of the 2008 Constitution, such as a provision that sets aside 25 percent of seats in Parliament for the military, and another that allows the army to legally declare a coup in a state of emergency.
When it comes to political topics, the government has repeatedly called on the NLD and all ethnic armed groups to “come and work under the Constitution.” This is the major reason why attempts for a renewed ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army, Burma's second-largest ethnic armed group, have so far come to nothing.
Therefore, constitutional amendments are the key point of contention between the opposition groups and the new government.
Listening to Thein Sein, however, you would never know that such issues exist. “Today, democratization is in the process for flourishing democratic practices, so each of us are to have a strong sense of democratic spirit for the type of freedom that is in conformity with our culture and society,” he said on Monday.
This is not going to convince anyone in Burma, however, and it may not even do the trick with Asean, which has a history of giving the country's rulers more credit than they deserve.
According to the latest analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Thein Sein's efforts to “reach out” to Suu Kyi, without achieving any obvious results, may not be enough to persuade Burma's regional allies that Naypyidaw is sincere about engagement with the opposition.
Thus, despite some recent positive developments, real differences remain beneath the surface. Until they are addressed, superficial “signs” of change should be seen as nothing more than window dressing.
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Four Burmese political parties discuss political prisoners with UN envoy
Thursday, 25 August 2011 21:09 Mizzima News
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Four allied political parties including the Democratic Party (Myanmar) met with UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana on Thursday to discuss the release of all political prisoners.
Quintana told the politicians that the government had a fear of releasing political prisoners, said Democratic Party (Myanmar) (DPM) chairman Thu Wei.
“We hoped for the release of the political prisoners, but he said that the government told him that they had a fear that a release would lead to social unrest again, when he discussed the issue with officials in Naypyitaw,” Thu Wei said.
Thu Wei, Democracy and Peace Party chairman Aung Than, All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP) central committee member Khin Maung and National Democratic Force (NDF) chairman Dr. Than Nyien met the UN special envoy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Rangoon from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Opposition groups at home and abroad say that the release of almost 2,000 political prisoners is a key step in confidence building between the opposition and the new government. The issue has dominated Quintana’s current visit to Burma.
A member of the Democracy and Peace Party said, “The current situation has changed a little bit. They [the government] commuted one year from all prison terms first, and they recently invited opposition members in exile to come back home. The remaining issue is releasing the political prisoners.”
During his five-day visit to Burma to investigate the current human right situation, Quintana has met ministerial-level government officials, Parliament speakers and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He left Rangoon on Thursday evening.
NDF chairman Dr. Than Nyein said, “As I see him, Quintana understands the current situation. He understands some things are leading to change. Previously, he strongly criticized the human rights situation in Burma.”
In his meeting with the four allied parties, the recruitment of child soldiers and forced labour issues were also discussed. No details of the discussion were disclosed.
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Large demand for micro-credit in Burma
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 16:08 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Only about 10 per cent of the demand for small loans in Burma is being met, according to participants at a micro-finance workshop held recently in Rangoon.
The vast majority of those who do borrow are women.
The Microfinance Working Group in Burma held a best-practice workshop on August 16 to work out ways to provide more small loans to people, particularly in rural areas, according to a press statement recently released by the group.
About 70 participants attended the workshop including senior government officials, donors, UN staff, international and local NGOs and representatives from the private sector.
“In Myanmar [Burma], only 10 per cent of the total demand for micro-credit is met and the UNDP Microfinance Project is presently providing about 80 per cent of this micro-credit through PACT Myanmar, a non-profit organization,” said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Akbar Usmani. “Given the huge demand, the Microfinance Working Group is well placed to help further expand microfinance support services in Myanmar.”
Usmani said he welcomed the government’s latest initiative for rural development and poverty reduction under which micro-finance is one of the major components.
Micro-finance practitioners in Burma including the former deputy governor of the Central Bank, Than Lwin, PACT Myanmar, Groupe de Recherche et d'Echanges Technologiques (GRET), Save the Children, World Vision and UNDP shared their experiences on improving livelihoods through the creation of sustainable micro-finance services for poor rural communities.
As participants at the workshop made clear, the need for credit in the rural economy is substantial. Currently, the demand for micro‐credit in the rural segment of the Burmese economy is estimated at around US$ 470 million. Due to inadequate credit from the private and public banks, the rural poor rely on relatives or friends and money lenders as well as pawn shops for small loans, according to the press release.
Micro-finance loans and services provide a sustainable option for the poor by providing a diverse range of financial services, including savings, loans and some insurance products that support hundreds of thousands of micro-enterprises.
According to the Microfinance Working Group, offering loans with no collateral requirements and at interest rates well below those charged by informal moneylenders, affordable credit has been able to address the needs of more than 400,000 poor clients in a more economical manner.
From its infancy in July 1997, through the end of September 2010, the UNDP’s Microfinance Project has grown to become one of the 23 largest micro-finance projects in the world with more than 400,000 clients and with a loan portfolio of 36 billion kyat (approx. US$ 52 million). Its loan repayment rate has constantly attained a percentage of 98 per cent or higher. Women constitute 97 per cent of its clientele.
The Microfinance Working Group was formed in 2004, by local and international NGOs, in collaboration with the UNDP.
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NLD to work with lawyers to have their revoked licenses renewed
Thursday, 25 August 2011 22:36 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Pro-democracy lawyers whose licenses have been revoked are preparing to apply to renew their license with the help of the National League for Democracy.
NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo said, in addition, the NLD will help student activists who have been dismissed from schools to apply to continue their studies.
“We assume that President Thein Sein is good-natured, so we will take this opportunity to reapply. We spoke to Mr. Quintana on Wednesday [about it],” Tin Oo, whose lawyer’s license has been revoked, told Mizzima.
Following a suggestion by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and with the help of the NLD central law advisory group, doctors, teachers, artists and writers whose [relevant] licenses have been revoked will also apply to have their license renewed.
“At this time, we do it with the hope that our applications will be successful,” said Tin Oo, who is also the chairman of the NLD central law advisory group.
In the meeting between UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana and Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon on Wednesday, the issue was discussed. Originally, the NLD plan was to help lawyers get their professional licenses again. But after the meeting on Thursday, it was decided to help other kinds of professionals and the dismissed students.
Aung Thein, a member of the NLD central law advisory group, said the NLD would hold a press conference on the issue in early September.
“We think that the new government should seriously consider this issue,” he told Mizzima.
Under the former junta, Aung Thein spoke for political activists in court. He was sentenced to four years in prison for allegedly violating the “Contempt of Court Act.” He was released from prison on March 6, 2009. His lawyer license has been revoked.
According to information compiled by the NLD, the lawyer licenses of 24 NLD members have been revoked.
On Wednesday, Lower House MP Thein Nyunt submitted a proposal to revoke the “Contempt of Court Act, 1926” in the Lower House. The proposal was rejected on Thursday.
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DVB News - David Manne: ‘protect people not just borders’
By Joseph Allchin
Published: 25 August 2011
Lawyer David Manne has recently taken the Australian government to court over its plan to send detained asylum seekers who arrive by boat in Australia to Malaysia. Burmese nationals comprise one of the largest groups seeking asylum in Australia.
DVB spoke to him about what he sees as the major issues with the case. The hearings began on Monday.
Joseph Allchin: How’s the injunction going, and what do you think the outcome will be?
David Manne: Well, recently the High Court found that there are serious questions to be argued and determined in relation to our clients, these very vulnerable people, who have brought their case to the court, asking the court to decide whether the Australian Government’s proposal to expel them to Malaysia instead of allowing them to stay in Australia and apply for refugee protection here, whether that is in fact lawful, whether the Australian Government really has the power, under Australian law, to expel them to Malaysia where they fear for their safety.
There is another key question in this case and that is; there are six unaccompanied minors- that is, children that have come to Australia seeking protection from persecution- who don’t have any parents or other guardians with them. The Minister for Immigration in Australia is their legal guardian and has the duty to at all times to act in these childrens’ best interests: how can it be in their best interests, they ask- and we ask- the court to decide… How can it be in their best interests to be expelled to Malaysia instead of being allowed to stay in Australia and seek protection in Australia?
And one of the key issues in this case along those lines is; if the Australian Government, if the Minister for Immigration were to propose expelling these unaccompanied children to Malaysia, that we would say that that would constitute a fundamental-fundamental- abandonment of the Minister’s basic responsibilities to properly care for these children. So that will be another matter for the Court to determine.
JA: That brings me on to a few things, but firstly, how concerned would you be over Malaysian facilities?
DM: Well, one of the real issues in this case relates to the Australian Minister for Immigration’s declaration that he has made under Australian law which- to the effect- that Malaysia is a suitably safe place to expel asylum seekers to from Australia. And this declaration, as the Minister has made, essentially declares that Malaysia is a country that has adequate procedures for assessing refugees, it has adequate protection in place, and adequate human rights standards applied there.
Now, one of the key aspects of this challenge in the Court is over that declaration, particularly given what we know about Malaysia; and that is that it is not a signatory to the refugee treaty, as Australia is, it also has not signed other key Human Rights treaties. And also, there are serious concerns about the adequacy of protection, and the application of Human Rights standards in Malaysia. So these are going to be key questions in the case, related to the issue of this declaration, and whether that declaration can in fact be open to review by a court in this country.
JA: Now, more generally, why do you think Australia and the Gillard Government has sought this swap deal?
DM: Well, the first thing to say is that this case is not about an attack on the policy, it’s not attempt to criticise the policy which has been referred to as the ‘Malaysian Solution’, this refugee swap, it is about forty-two asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Pakistan, some of whom are unaccompanied children, doing something very normal and reasonable in Australia and that is; asking the court to check whether, what the Government proposes to do to them- which they fear- is, in fact, lawful: whether the Government really has the power to do this under Australian law. So that’s what this case is about, it’s not about why the Government has come up with this refugee swap policy, or whether that policy is correct, and I think that’s a very important matter to state.
What is clear, however, in relation to this policy- the refugee swap- and in relation to the question of asylum seekers coming by boat to Australia and seeking protection is that it has become a very politically controversial issue in Australia. There are lots of concerns within the community about people coming by boat to Australia , those concerns relate to a number of matters; some people believe that it’s not an appropriate way for people to seek protection, others are concerned about people risking their lives again by getting on boats and coming to Australia.
But what’s clear is that is a matter of great controversy in Australia and there are, certainly on both sides, both major political parties, both the Government and coalition- the opposition- both have essentially reached a partisanship on the question of how to deal with asylum seekers coming by boat to Australia. Both major parties have essentially the same philosophy, which in policy terms is to take very… energetic and robust measures to stop people coming by boat to Australia, seeking asylum and the tools for doing it are essentially the same too and this is to find other countries in the region to expel asylum seekers to for processing and warehousing.
So both are pursuing those policies, and really the only major difference with both is where those asylum seekers should be sent. Currently the Government has done a deal with Malaysia- a refugee swap- whereby Australia will take 4,000 refugees over four years from Malaysia in return for Malaysia agreeing to accept up to 800 asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat seeking asylum.
So essentially what we’ve got here is a situation where both major parties are proposing to do something which amounts to in many ways a serious aggregation of responsibility for a country that has signed up to the refugees convention by expelling people elsewhere rather than allowing them to stay in Australia and seek refugee protection here, as we have done so in the past.
JA: So, would you agree with Navi Pillay that it falls foul of the refoulement clause in the 51 refugee charter of the UN treaty?
DM: Look, there’s no doubt that under international law- and I should again make it clear that the current High Court case is a case involving the question of whether under Australian law, that it Australian domestic law, the proposal to expel these asylum seekers who we are assisting, the question here is whether under Australian law, in this case the government has the legal power to expel these people that we are assisting to Malaysia. The broad question that you’ve asked is in relation to whether Australia, having signed the refugees convention, is in violation of its obligations if it expels people elsewhere, for example to Malaysia, to Nauru or to Papua New Guinea.
And let’s take the situation of Malaysia: at the moment there’s no doubt that the proposal to expel the asylum seekers to Malaysia from Australia instead of allowing them to stay in Australia and seek refugee protection here, could constitute a violation of Australia’s obligations under the refugee’s convention, there is no doubt about that, because at bare minimum Australia’s core obligation having signed up for the refugee’s convention is to ensure that it does not expel a person that comes to Australia seeking refugee protection to a situation elsewhere where they could be exposed to serious harm. That is to, you know, human rights abuse on civil or political grounds and what we know, of course, is that in many countries of the world- potentially including Malaysia- there are real concerns about whether or not someone’s human rights would be respected.
And all you need to do is to look at the evidence for example in Malaysia of a long standing- a very poor track-record that Malaysia has in relation to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and the best example of that that I can give is a recent example; the UN refugee’s agency report, which is readily accessible on the internet, their report on Malaysia for 2011, which reports for example abuse to toward asylum seekers and refugees which includes arbitrary arrests, arbitrary detention, it also includes beatings, and whippings, and deportation. So, I think what’s clear is that the evidence indicates that there could well be real risks for asylum seekers or refugees in Malaysia, depending on the circumstances.
JA: We did an interview with a Rohingya asylum seeker who was detained indefinitely in Villawood having come by boat; the Australian immigration service were the first to comment on the story, saying that he was free to leave whenever he wanted is that irresponsible is that? Is that true, that a Villawood refugee can just leave and just go back to Malaysia at any point?
DB: Look, I couldn’t comment on the specific case, I don’t know the details so I wouldn’t want to comment on that particular case, but if someone comes to Australia seeking Asylum then the question of whether they can go to another place, you know depends upon their rights to reside in that country and you know it’s not clear to me for example that a non-citizen, that is a person who is not a citizen of Malaysia could readily enter into Malaysia, without a specific permission, without a specific form of residence or temporary permit so, I think it’s quite unclear.
I also think that is also stands to reason that most countries in the world are not, do not readily, permit people to enter if they know that they will try to enter and seek asylum in that country, so that seems to be a fairly obvious and common situation around the world and so I think many people that languish in detention in Australia and elsewhere who are seeking asylum, would often have great difficulties- and do in my experience- have great difficulties finding a safe third country to go to so that if they have a well founded fear of persecution in their own country it is commonly extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a safe third country where they could go to. And many countries that they’ve transited through are countries do not provide adequate protection and may well in fact present very clear and present dangers to them.
JA: Some people suggested that the ethnic profile of the refugees will be affected by this because for instance, in Malaysia certain ethnic groups allegedly get preferential treatment or that for instance more Burmese will get to Australia through Malaysia than Afghans or Iraqis for instance. Is that something you think is true?
DM: No, look, I don’t think that there’s any clear and consistent pattern of preferential treatment, I think that the real concern here about discriminatory treatment relates to the way that people are treated when they arrive in Australia seeking asylum and there are clearly different classes of people according to policy, and really if we can bring it back to the High Court challenge at the moment, one group of people that have, are now, facing quite differential treatment are those that have arrived by boat in Australia at excised parts of Australia that, after the signing of the deal between Australia and Malaysia on 25 July as we know, are those people who arrive in Australia seeking asylum on or after that date, have been told that they will be expelled to Malaysia and this High Court case is at its heart assisting a number of those people subject to that policy, it is assisting them to check whether that is lawful with the courts.
JA: Now, with the 4,000 who will be resettled to Australia, do you know –is that- above and beyond what Australia agreed to take, the number they’re already obliged to take? Or is that supplementary?
DM: Yes, the 4,000 that Australia has agreed to take, will be received over four years, so 1,000 per year for four years, and those refugees are in addition to the annual intake by Australia at a rate of 13,750 refugees, immature and infants so those people will be additional to those that we as a country take from around the world including people that arrive and apply for asylum in Australia and are granted protection.
JA: What do you think the Parliamentary enquiry will throw up? Besides to the High Court injunction?
DM: I’m never one to speculate on what Parliamentary Inquiries will in the end examine precisely or how they’ll do it, but I think one thing that’s very important at the moment is to note that there is a very profound concern within Parliament and within civil society about the proposal to expel asylum seekers from Australia to other countries without allowing them to remain and seek refugee protection. There’s no doubt a lot of concern and that concern is reflected in the announcement of this inquiry. I mean, for example, and one of the central issues in the High Court challenge is scrutiny of the extent to which the Immigration Minister’s declaration that Malaysia is a suitable country to expel asylum seekers to, whether that declaration is open to scrutiny and to challenge and if so, to what extent.
JA: But it is an odd coalition isn’t it, the Liberal party and the Greens, I mean do you think the Liberal Party share your concerns or Navi Pillay’s concerns about the situation?
DM: Look, I think I’ll let others judge the basis of their concern, but I think that certainly there’s a lot of concern around where it comes from and for what purpose I’ll let others speculate on.
JA: Sure. As you’ve mentioned the injunction focuses quite a lot on children which is obviously quite distressing, but how common is it for minors to find themselves unaccompanied in Australia? And briefly, how and why did your clients come to Australia as children?
DM: It’s not uncommon at the moment for unaccompanied minors to come to Australia seeking protection, there are a number of children in circumstances at the moment that essentially reflect the tragic reality around the world; that often children are separated from their parents and often there are situations where the family tries to accept the fact that essentially, not everyone will be able to flee at the same time, it’s just not practical, not possible, and that often it is young, particularly young, men or boys in fact, children, adolescents, that are targeted by persecutors.
Certainly we’re seeing that in Afghanistan there’s been a systematic pattern of targeting teenagers, you know, who are not adults- male teenagers- as part of a campaign by extremists to essentially decimate communities and their ability to oppose extremist elements or defend themselves, or indeed to regenerate.
Also I think that one of the key things here, and I’m not able to go into the particulars of the claims being made by our clients that are unaccompanied minors, but what’s clear is that over the years that unaccompanied minors in general have come- they have essentially been forced to flee- and have not been able to come with their parents due to force of circumstance, and have then been left in –really- a very vulnerable situation without proper guardians. And one of the real concerns is how Australia is to properly treat, and care for unaccompanied minors in this situation, you know, how does Australia look after children in this sort of situation? Again, to bring it back to the legal case, one of the key issues here is the- how the- law… what the law says about Minister’s duties to both on the one hand act in the best interests of these children and other hand at the same time with Minister being responsible for implementing a policy which may well be contrary to the best interests of the child, by expelling them to Malaysia.
JA: Chris Bowen (Australia’s immigration minister) seems to suggest that the swap deal was somehow also about attacking people smugglers, I mean, do you take that seriously? And also, do you think, is that responsible?
DM: There’s no doubt, I think we’ll start with the fact that, there’s no doubt people smuggling is a very cynical and dangerous trade and a criminal one. It’s a serious criminal trade, it’s a seriously cynical, criminal and obviously often endangers the lives of people in the way that it’s done. But the central focus here must always be, to first and foremost to focus on, how to properly protect people, rather than how do we, at all costs, protect borders.
So there has undoubtedly, in the public discourse, been a disproportionate emphasis on the protection of borders at the expense, often, of the public protection of people in accordance with the law. And so I think that that’s really where a lot of the flow of the discussion needs to turn; is to how do we ensure that people are properly protected, wherever they live in the region. We know that there are an enormous amount of people moving through the South-East Asian and Pacific region in search of protection, and we know that many of the situations they find themselves in within the region do not present a situation where they can be properly protected, or housed, or processed.
So I think here what the aim really is rather than focusing on the fundamental problem being the criminal and cynical trade of people smuggling, the key problem is actually how best to develop a framework in the region where all the key players, that is the states, the asylum seekers, the refugees and UN agencies and the like- how does international community respond to this problem, and develop a framework where, wherever people move in the region seeking protection, they can be humanely housed, fairly processed, and if recognised as refugees be resettled in a reasonable period rather than needing, rather than feeling the need, to engage the service of a people smuggler and put themselves in danger again by putting themselves on a boat and coming to Australia.
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DVBNews - Minimum wage and the migrant ‘bogeyman’
By DAN WAITES
Published: 25 August 2011
In the unmarked offices of Burma Lawyers’ Council in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, Saw Htun is laughing. The source of this 36-year-old labour rights advisor’s amusement is the idea that Burmese migrant workers might soon be earning 300 baht a day – set to become Thailand’s minimum wage if Yingluck Shinawatra’s newly elected government gets its way. “This won’t apply to Burmese workers,” he says. “They don’t have the ability to make Yingluck Shinawatra prime minister. Thai workers do.” Given that migrant workers in Mae Sot are lucky if they make even two-thirds of Tak province’s current minimum wage of 162 baht, you can forgive Saw Htun the cynicism.
The campaign to derail the Pheu Thai Party-led government’s plans to raise daily minimum wages has been determined and at times shrill. Since the party’s election victory on 3 July, groups representing vested interests like the Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Chamber of Commerce – not to mention Democrat Party politicians anxious to score points against the government following a humiliating electoral defeat – have been aided by large sections of the Thai media in waging what amounts to a propaganda war against the policy.
Perhaps inevitably, the Burmese bogeyman has featured heavily. In an editorial entitled “Pheu Thai’s wage hike doesn’t add up for Thailand”, The Nation claimed that boosting minimum wages could “open the floodgates for illegal migrant workers”. On the same day in Thailand’s largest tabloid, Thai Rath, columnist Lom Plianthit was making similar doom-laden predictions. “Burmese, Lao and Cambodian workers will flood in to dig for gold in Thailand… If one million more flood in, the security of Thailand will undoubtedly be shaken.” Given the vital role migrant workers play in so many of Thailand’s key industries, this was an unseemly display of hypocrisy meeting hyperbole. Was there any substance to the scare tactics?
The first observation to make is that few of the 3-4 million migrant workers in Thailand, 80% of whom are Burmese, are paid the minimum wage anyway. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Thai law links labour rights to a worker’s nationality or immigration status. In line with international standards, it doesn’t. That hasn’t prevented a depressing tendency to underpay migrants – not to mention worse abuses.
In Mae Sot district, home to some 300 textile and garment factories that operate in a kind of labour-law no man’s land, almost no migrant workers make the legal minimum of 162 baht per day. Moe Swe, head of Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association, which fights for workers’ rights in the border area and across Thailand, said workers in Mae Sot had to be satisfied with what employers were willing to pay – and that was never 162 baht.
“The employers keep their work permit and migrant registration card. So the workers cannot move. If they run away, they become illegal. The other problem is that it is quite difficult to change jobs,” he said. “These limitations make workers powerless.”
Moe Swe, who says Thai factory owners displeased with his work fighting exploitation once put a price on his head, said many companies paid just 60 baht for an 11-hour shift. The reward for compulsory overtime is frequently nothing more than a tub of instant noodles. The average wage, he said, is 65-80 baht per day. “In Mae Sot, nobody gets the minimum wage, this is quite sure,” he said. The idea that workers on the border might earn 300 baht for their daily toils, then, is clearly fanciful.
But for migrants, it can get much worse. Many are not merely exploited, but enslaved. During UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking Joy Ngozi Ezeilo’s recent mission to Thailand, she heard shocking tales of victims of the trade in human beings. The case of Ye, a Burmese man trafficked into Thailand with promises of a monthly salary of Bt4,200 a month, was one of them. Arriving, he was told he would have to work on a fishing boat for free to pay off debts incurred in bringing him here, according to The Nation. “Ye told of migrants who, exhausted and unable to continue working, were simply pushed into the sea. He said he felt hopeless and hated the captain of the boat, who took advantage of him and the other workers… Ye worked for eight months on one boat. He was never paid for his work and forbidden to keep any cash of his own.” This is an extreme case, but by no means isolated.
It would nevertheless be wrong to pretend that every migrant worker is underpaid or a victim of abuse. In the provinces that surround Bangkok, Thailand’s industrial heartlands, workers are more often treated in line with the law. Export-oriented businesses such as manufacturing and seafood processing plants are subject to inspections and have to pay minimum wages.
Frequently, though, they will have fully paid workers on the books and underpaid employees off them. Workers with many years’ experience and those in more senior positions – foremen in factories and on construction sites, for example – are the most likely to be rewarded. Still, Jackie Pollock, head of the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistance Programme, estimates that “no more than 10 percent” of migrant workers in Thailand are paid at the legal levels.
So can Thailand expect a “flood” of migrants across its borders? Such claims rest on a misconception of the factors and mechanisms that bring migrants to Thai workplaces. Assoc. Professor Sean Turnell of Australia’s Macquarie University, an expert on the economics of Burma, told DVB that the concerns of some Thai commentators “do not hold water”;
“Burmese workers are overwhelmingly motivated by ‘push’ factors (i.e. conditions in Burma, economic and otherwise) rather than ‘pull’ factors (the intrinsic attractiveness of Thailand’s labour market),” he said.
There is also a myopic assumption that people in Burma know about labour laws in Thailand. “If migrant workers knew that they were entitled to minimum wage and labour rights, then that would be a great thing,” said Pollock.
“But I don’t think they do – and certainly when they’re in Burma they don’t. It’s not a great pull factor because it’s unknown to migrants.”
Turnell agreed. “I would suggest that the average person fleeing Burma for Thailand would have no idea about Thailand’s labour laws, and these would have zero impact on their movement,” he said.
Still, the misconceptions didn’t stop news outlets claiming the policy had already led to illegal migrants setting foot on Thai soil. On July 10, The Nation reported that 113 Cambodian workers had entered Thailand “in the hope of getting paid a minimum wage of Bt300 per day as promised by the Pheu Thai-led government.” Not so much as a single quote was supplied to back the suggestion that the Cambodians would not have entered the country anyway, as they do every day.
“If you look at the statistics, there’s been no evidence at all that there’s been any substantial increase in people coming into the country since the policy of the Thai government was announced,” said Andy Hall of the Human Rights and Development Foundation.
This somewhat inconvenient, if spurious, story led to then-prime-minister-elect Yingluck coming out with a worrying denial. “Alien workers are not connected to the 300 baht minimum wage,” she declared, prompting labour organisations and NGOs to point out that migrants are legally entitled to the same wages as Thais. Is the new prime minister of Thailand ignorant of her own country’s laws? Or is this a sign that she is content with the status quo – where some workers are more equal than others?
Opposition to the 300-baht wage – which might have gone some way to correcting the widening gap between Thailand’s rich and poor – already seems to have forced the government to backtrack. According to the Bangkok Post, Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong recently told a major meeting on the wage hike policy that the government “would not try to force the private sector to comply with the wage hike policy” but would “take the lead by increasing the minimum wage for workers of state enterprises and employees of state agencies.” Perhaps migrant workers will not be the only ones left out in the cold.
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DVB News - Time not right for Thai push back
By MAHN SAIMON
Published: 25 August 2011
Surapong Kongchantuk, vice chairman of the Thai National Human Rights Commission’s sub-committee on ethnic minorities, the stateless, migrant workers and displaced persons, has said now is not yet the right time to repatriate refugees from Burma.
Kongchantuk was responding to a remark recently made by the governor of Thailand’s Tak province Samart Loifah. He had issued an order for refugee camps situated along the border in the region to make lists of their population to pre-empt a send back to Burma.
Kongchantuk however told DVB that we have yet to see tangible improvements;
“We sent a list of procedures for the concerned [Thai] government departments regarding the repatriation – that it should be voluntary and that their native country must be in a ready-state to accept them back,” Kongchantuk said.
“To decide whether the native country is ready or not should not be based on claims by the [Burmese government] alone but also needs to be inspected and approved by a UN organisation such as the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). So far, the UNHCR is yet to make any inspection about the real situation,” he added.
“This is not a case between just two countries but also concerns the international community. The Tak governor’s decision is irrelevantly premature and is causing a panic among the refugees.”
Samart Loifa made the orders after President Thein Sein’s remark on 17 August, that Burmese nationals living abroad in exile were allowed to go back to their home country.
He told the media that he was happy for Burmese refugees, who were forced to flee their homes, that they were allowed to go back to Burma and expressed a belief that this would bring peace to the Thai-Burma border region.
Saw Po Dan, chairman of Nupo refugee camp however said they had not received any order from Loifa as yet;
“There is no official order yet. [Loifa] came around our camp a couple of times in the past but he didn’t come in [the camp] – he just hung around outside and talked with camp officials. There was no clear order as yet,” said Saw Po Dan.
There are nearly 150,000 refugees living in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. Whilst commentators have welcomed what appears to be a relative softening of rhetoric from Naypyidaw, others have responded to invitations back and supposed offers of dialogue with some scepticism.
Far from a decrease in violence in the ethnic areas of Burma the past year has seen an escalation in fighting as the Burmese military has pursued greater incursions into Shan, Karen and Kachin areas.
The last of which has seen around 10,000 people internally displaced and the World Food Program commence delivering food aid to over 3,000 vulnerable people near Kachin state’s capital, Myitkina last week.
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Friday, 26 August 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - AUGUST 25, 2011
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