News & Articles on Burma

Friday, 26 August, 2011
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Analysis: Survival steers Myanmar generals towards reform
By Martin Petty
BANGKOK | Fri Aug 26, 2011 12:58pm IST
(Reuters) - Rare overtures by Myanmar's reclusive, authoritarian rulers toward liberalization and reform suggest change could be afoot in the isolated nation.

The sudden stream of conciliatory gestures by Myanmar's new civilian government has raised questions about the motives of the generals who only five months ago controlled one of the world's most secretive, corrupt and oppressive regimes.

Diplomats, political analysts and many Burmese interviewed inside Myanmar say the retired generals brought back to power after a controversial election last year now appear to realize some moves toward reform could be the key to their survival.

Last week, President Thein Sein held an official meeting with and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning democracy advocate who was detained for 15 years until released from house arrest last year.

The meeting was welcomed by the international community, but widely regarded as theater.

Western sanctions in place since the military crushed a 1988 student uprising have isolated Myanmar's army dictatorships and continue to frustrate the new government, but there are no signs these will be lifted until there are concrete reforms, in particular, the release of an estimated 2,100 political prisoners.

"What seems to be happening is that the regime is seeking to make itself appear legitimate, a genuine and emerging democracy," said Michael Charney, a Myanmar expert at London's School of Oriental and Africa Studies.

"I don't see any of this as a positive step forward for democracy, but instead as a means of cementing in place the positions of the families who currently hold power over the country with a view toward long-term control."

The process of consolidating political power began long ago but accelerated in late 2009 when hundreds of state assets were auctioned off as part of an opaque privatization boom in which cronies of the then-military junta snapped up lucrative contracts, business monopolies and property.

The sell-off preceded a carefully choreographed election in November that was won by a military-backed party. Thein Sein, the fourth in command of the former ruling military body, was chosen by parliament to become head of state. He hand-picked his own ministers.

PARIAH STATUS

The election and privatization created a veneer of democracy and liberalization in the former British colony also known as Burma, ensuring power, wealth and patronage was concentrated in the hands of a military-linked establishment, as previously seen in Indonesia and as now entrenched in neighboring Thailand, where politics, business and the army are closely intertwined.

But despite those changes, Myanmar remains an international pariah, entangled in Western sanctions that restrict and stigmatize the country's elite.

Experts suggest those tycoons may have leaned on the government to talk up reforms, engage with Suu Kyi and to try to appear more transparent and tolerant.

Western governments are watching, along with multinational companies, some of which have privately lobbied for an end to sanctions on the impoverished country of 50 million people, which is rich in natural gas, timber and gemstones and nestled strategically between economic powerhouses India and China.

Recent overtures include calls for peace with armed ethnic separatists, presidential meetings with technocrats and foreign delegations, some tolerance of criticism, and the involvement of Suu Kyi in consultations about reconciliation and reform.

In one gesture, Myanmar's state-run newspapers last week dropped back-page banners attacking Western media. Three official newspapers dropped half-page slogans that had been running daily accusing the Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC) of "sowing hatred among the people," and other Western media of "generating public outrage."

Yangon-based diplomats have expressed surprise at the government's apparent change in tone but want to see more substantial progress.

"So far, so good," said one Western diplomat. "I'm guardedly optimistic about further progress, but let's wait and see."

The mood is similar among parliamentarians. "Lawmakers, regardless of their party or background, have become more optimistic about the situation than before," said Aye Maung, a senator and leader of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party.

It is unclear whether Thein Sein is making the changes on his own or doing so at the request of Than Shwe, his political master and the country's much-feared former strongman, whose orders are rarely defied.

Britain's Foreign Office praised the meeting with Suu Kyi as encouraging. Washington said it supported Suu Kyi's decision to engage in "open and transparent dialogue."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went further, saying: "it is in the national interest that they seize the opportunity to extend and accept conciliatory gestures."

PUSH FOR ACCEPTANCE

Win Min, a Burmese political scientist at Harvard University, said he believed Myanmar's new government was trying to convince the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to allow it to take its rotating presidency in 2014, two years ahead of schedule and a year before a general election the government does not want to lose.

The government, he said, saw hosting ASEAN as "crucial" because it would represent a degree of international acceptance that could lead to A reduction of sanctions and the possibility of aid from international financial organizations.

Myanmar has invited a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to visit in October to advise policymakers on how to tackle problems with the kyat currency, which has appreciated 20 percent in a year, hurting farmers and exporters and bankrupting businesses.

After months of inaction and simmering anger, the government last month cut taxes for exporters and has promised agriculture loans and price guarantees for millions of farmers, suggesting it may be concerned that any mishandling of bread and butter issues could see a repeat of bloody uprisings in 1988 and 2007 that were sparked by soaring inflation and fuel prices.

David Steinberg, a veteran Myanmar analyst at Georgetown University in Washington said the lack of substantive concessions, especially political prisoners, meant real reforms or any undoing of sanctions would not come soon.

But he said the gestures were important indicators, and the government should be given the chance to prove itself.

"We're seeing the possibility of change, things we've not seen before," he said. "There's a lot of disagreement from those who think this is phony change. It might be phony, but we should at least be open to the possibility some of it could be real."

(Additional reporting Aung Hla Tun in Naypyitaw; Editing by Jason Szep and Miral Fahmy) http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/08/26/us-myanmar-politics-idINTRE77P1DM20110826?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=lifestyleMolt&rpc=401
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: AUGUST 26, 2011
Change Burma Can't Quite Believe In
The country's democrats have higher aspirations than the junta's small moves at poverty alleviation.
By KELLEY CURRIE

"I think the president wants to achieve real positive change." So said Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the days after she met President Thein Sein. The event itself was a surprise, her first meeting with a senior regime official since 2002. For his part, Thein Sein has recently called on political exiles to return home, announced a "peace overture" to ethnic nationalities, and supported key macro-economic policy reforms.

These and other hints of change have Burmese and outside observers wondering whether the regime's superficial transition from military junta to civilian dictatorship over the past year might presage something more meaningful. While the history of the Burmese regime warrants skepticism, the excitement this has aroused shows that even an unserious reform effort could pose a serious challenge for Burma's democratic movement.

One plausible explanation for the overtures is that the regime, or at least significant segments of it, has realized that if it opens up and rationalizes the Burmese economy, including creating a more stable regulatory environment, it can make an end run around Ms. Suu Kyi while turning its Western critics into willing investors in Burma's economy. For years the Burmese junta's generals have complained that the West subjects them to a double standard. They look at China, Vietnam and other non-democratic neighbors, and conclude that the West is punishing them for being a dictatorship while virtually ignoring a lack of democracy in other contexts where there is business to be done.

At the same time, Burma's neighbors have expended considerable effort to encourage the regime to open up its economy and adopt less draconian tactics. Even U.S. diplomats occasionally comment that they would like to see a Burma that looked more like China. Having decided that they want Burma to chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014, the generals' cosmetic political reforms and newfound interest in poverty alleviation initiatives suggest they are experimenting with this strategy.

There should be no illusions that the regime as a whole is either willing or able to launch serious political and economic reforms of the type that are needed to rebuild Burma. The generals have talked about political and economic reforms before, and launched some during the Khin Nyunt era, only to retreat when senior leaders would not relinquish control.

Thein Sein's overtures come against a backdrop of continued detention of thousands of political prisoners, and fresh reports of Burmese army attacks on civilians in the Kachin, Shan, Mon and Chin states. Rumors of an increasingly bitter power struggle with Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo raise serious questions about the degree to which Thein Sein can deliver on even preliminary reform plans.

Burma's dictators also face a challenge that their counterparts in other countries generally do not: a well-established democratic opposition in the National League for Democracy, whose 1990 election victory and charismatic leader endow it with high levels of legitimacy at home and abroad. Regime outreach to the NLD and ethnic nationalities is couched in terms of getting the holdouts to come to terms with the deeply flawed 2008 constitution. Doing so would necessitate the NLD disavowing its election victory and the ethnics relinquishing their means of preserving autonomy—clearly non-starters.

Beyond Ms. Suu Kyi's easily revocable freedom and some initial meetings with the regime, the changes to date amount to little more than a new tone. With the regime's credibility starting from such a low base, convincing its most persistent domestic and international critics ultimately will require irreversible steps toward reform. The NLD remains focused on the emergence of a genuine dialogue on national reconciliation. Such a dialogue would necessarily involve significant releases of political prisoners, substantial changes to the 2008 constitution, and a real peace process with ethnic nationalities to be taken seriously.

These would be big challenges for any government, and seem insurmountable for one as insecure and brittle as Burma's regime. If the regime instead began to implement some economic reforms that could benefit Burma's longsuffering citizens even as it failed to engage in serious national reconciliation, there likely would be tremendous pressure on the democratic movement to get on board "for the good of the Burmese people." While Ms. Suu Kyi has always expressed a willingness to work with the regime toward those ends, the democratic movement has insisted that political issues are at the root of Burma's economic problems and must be addressed in order for sustainable economic development to take root.

After years of abysmal economic policy and severe political repression, it is tempting to believe it is sufficient that the Burmese regime is moving toward slightly greater political and economic openness. But Burma's democrats have higher aspirations for their country, and their supporters should too. Those who support human rights and democracy in Burma should avoid pressuring Burma's democrats to pursue well-intentioned poverty alleviation schemes as a substitute for changing political structures designed to enrich and preserve the ruling clique. Instead the pressure should stay focused on political reform.

Ms. Currie is a senior fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington-based think tank. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904875404576529901338368160.html?
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Nay Myo Zin Sentenced to 10 Years
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, August 26, 2011

Nay Myo Zin, who worked as a volunteer for a blood donor group affiliated with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday by Insein Prison Court in Rangoon, accused of breaking the electronic transactions act, Article 33(a).

Hla Myo Myint, a lawyer for Nay Myo Zin, said that he was arrested by the Special Branch on April 2 for no reason, and that his back was injured during interrogation. Nay Myo Zin was brought to court in a wheel chair, and recently received hospital treatment, his lawyer said.

The imprisonment of the former military officer comes just a day after United Nations Special Envoy Tomás Ojea Quintana discussed the release of prisoners with the Burmese authorities in Naypyidaw.

During Quintana's five-day visit to Burma he discussed with various ministers the torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners in Insein Prison, he said at a press conference to conclude his trip on Thursday.

In a UN statement, Quintana said, “In Insein prison, I heard disturbing testimonies of prolonged sleep and food deprivation during interrogation, beatings, and the burning of bodily parts, including genital organs. I also heard accounts of prisoners being confined in cells normally used for prison dogs as means of punishment.”

Nay Myo Zin graduated from Intake 30 of Defence Services Academy. He retired in 2005, and was arrested two days after the new civilian government led by President Thein Sein was formed in March this year.

Meanwhile, a court in Meikthila Township in Mandalay Division sentenced NLD member Aung Hla Myint to 16 months in prison for breaking a travel restriction that forbids him from leaving his home town of Tatkon. He was arrested after he went to Meikthila to attend a Martyrs’ Day Ceremony at the local NLD office. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21970
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Naypyitaw launches “peace” blitz
Friday, 26 August 2011 12:35 S.H.A.N.

The embattled Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), for the third time since the military campaign against it began in March, has been contacted by Burmese authorities to negotiate for peace, according to SSA sources.

“One thing that sets it apart from previous approaches is that this time the offer comes from the Shan State Government, and not Naypyitaw or the Burma Army,” and said Maj Sai La, the SSA spokesman, who added that he was still waiting for further details.

According to other reports, Mon, Karen and Kayah (Karenni) state governments have also sent members of the religious order to get in touch with armed resistance movements in each state.

The latest move followed the 18 August announcement by Naypyitaw inviting “national race armed groups wishing to make peace” to peace talks.

According to Myanmar News Agency, the People’s Assembly has also appointed U Thein Zaw, a former general and a Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) MP, as chairman of the National Race and Internal Peacemaking Committee. His counterpart in the National Assembly is U San Tun, another USDP member.

However, according to Khonumthung News, no other committee members have been appointed so far.

Col Sai Htoo, the SSPP’s Assistant Secretary General #2, maintained that the group, as a key member of the newly formed United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), is against Naypyitaw’s policy to hold “group-wise” peace parleys. “It is time President Thein Sein talked to the UNFC directly,” he said.

Others pointed out that throughout the 63 years after Independence, successive governments had employed the strategy of negotiating with individual groups instead of their alliance. “If it had worked, we wouldn’t be fighting today,” said a politician, who requested anonymity. “It’s time we gave their alliance a chance.”

One stumbling block to the expected talks however is that while Naypyitaw insists on holding talks on the basis of 2008 constitution, the alliances particularly the UNFC says the basis must be the 1947 Panglong Agreement that had guaranteed autonomy, democracy and human rights for the non-Burman states.

Another snag is the vague wording of the 18 August announcement which urges armed groups “wishing to make peace” to contact State or Region government concerned in order “to launch preliminary programmes” upon completion of which, the government will form a team for peace talks.

So far, no group has been able to explain what the “preliminary programmes” entail. “The regime needs to make itself clear about this,” commented Col Okker, leader of the PaO National Liberation Organization, another UNFC member.
http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3984:naypyitaw-launches-peace-blitz&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266
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Political Prisoners' Release Remains Uncertain
By SAI ZOM HSENG Saturday, August 27, 2011

Despite growing expectations that a breakthrough on the issue of political prisoners was imminent, UN envoy to Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana leaves the country with no guarantees for their release.

According to state-run The New Light of Myanmar (NLM), officials in Naypyidaw told the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Thursday that “political prisoners will be released when they are certain not to disrupt the nation's stability and peace.”

The statement was reportedly made by Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint in response to a question by Quintana regarding the detention of political prisoners and Shan politicians, land confiscations, and the teaching of ethnic languages at schools.

On Friday, NLM quoted Khin Aung Myint as saying: “The present government is very moderate; that any government [sic] does not want to put its people behind bars, sacrificing the labor of the nation.”

According to NLM, Quintana told government officials during his visit to Naypyidaw that Burma is on the right track toward reforming into a democratic country. He said that the UN secretary-general, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, and the people who report on the human rights situation in the country are urging the government to release political prisoners because it is the main key in the formation of a democratic country.

However, despite the House Speaker's statement regarding the release of political prisoners, Burma's Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo was quoted in NLM as saying: “There is no prisoner serving a term for his belief. Prisoners are all serving their terms for the crimes they have committed.”

Tun Tun Oo said that the country's judges should stay away from politics and, under the present judicial system, they must handle cases in accordance with the constitution. He also said that the judiciary is one of the three sovereign powers of a nation.

At a press conference on Thursday evening to conclude his five-day visit to the country, UN envoy Quintana said that serious human rights issues remain in Burma despite positive steps by the authorities. He urged the government to intensify its efforts to implement its own commitments and to fulfill its international human rights obligations.

“Another concern is the continuing allegations of torture and ill treatment during interrogation, the use of prisoners as porters for the military, and the transfers of prisoners to prisons in remote areas where they are unable to receive family visits or packages of essential medicine and supplemental food,” Quintana said.

“In Insein prison, I heard disturbing testimonies of prolonged sleep and food deprivation during interrogation, beatings, and the burning of bodily parts, including genital organs. I also heard accounts of prisoners being confined in cells normally used for prison dogs as means of punishment,” he added.

Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), said that the Burmese government has been lying to the international community for a long time by saying that there are no political prisoners in Burma.

“The use of the words ‘political prisoners’ is included even in prison guards' handbooks,” he said. “Some prison directors still use the expression. When the government says there are no political prisoners, it shows that their activities and their words don't match.”

According to AAPP data, there are more than 2,000 political prisoners in the country.

Burma's opposition National League for Democracy, which is led by Aung San Suu Kyi, already addressed with Quintana issues surrounding the 2003 Depayin Massacre when dozens of party members were killed by a pro-government mob. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21969
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Burma needs constitutional rectification to stop civil war
Fri, 2011-08-26 00:46 — editor
By - Zin Linn

Recently, Burma’s new government has released a number of statements indicating its willingness to reach settlement with ethnic armed-groups and political opponents, domestic and exile. Regrettably, those offers have been considered inconsistent.

According to the speech delivered by President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) U Thein Sein at the first Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament) second regular session, he and his government has been gearing up to work with the international community.

For instance, the president said, “Our government has inherited traditional foreign policy which has never been harmful to international and regional stability and security and it is maintaining friendly relations with global nations. What’s more, we are trying to stand tall as a dutiful member of the global family in international and regional organizations. For this reason, we have officially proposed to take the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014. We are extending the hand of friendship to all global nations and all international organizations including the ASEAN.”

It is obvious that President Thein Sein’s government has set its sights on being allowed to hold the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014, a year before the country’s next scheduled polls.

Although Thein Sein’s government seems to make softer its political stance against its opponents in recent weeks, it fails to do more tangible improvement. For example, the release of political prisoners and approval of settlements with ethnic armed-groups are still delayed as yet.

However, Thein Sein emphasized that his new government was working for “citizen rights.”

“We are ready to co-operate with the international community,” he underlined.

Even though, the Thein Sein government turns a deaf ear to calls for the release of political prisoners. Besides, the government repeatedly declares the National League for Democracy, led by Suu Kyi, an unlawful party.

In addition, Thein Sein told members of parliament that his government will pay attention to oppositions’ suggestions. He said the government has already prepared to talks on peace with armed ethnic groups since the progress of the frontier areas is dependent on stability.

But, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has rejected an offer of new peace talks from the government. On August 18, the government proposed joining in peace talks towards ethnic armed groups. But, it was dumped by the KIO and the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), because the government uses merely bilateral meeting which really is a divide-and rule policy towards ethnic groups without considering the Panglong Agreement.

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 the contrary, 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, according to the Kachin News Group. The government sticks to the 2008 controversial constitution as the guideline for the peace talks.

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.

Burma’s new Constitution, approved in a May 2008 referendum, is inundated with misleading principles. It says the country must be united under one military command. To bring the ethnic groups in line with this proviso, the military regime has ordered all armed rebel groups to become part of Burma’s border guard force ahead of the 2010 election.

Ethnic minorities have been suffering through five decades of brutal military operations in the name of national unity. Attacks on these rural civilians continue on a daily basis. There is a constant demand from Burma’s ethnic groups to enjoy equal political, social and economic rights. The Constitution must guarantee the rights of self-determination and of equal representation for every ethnic group in the Parliament. It must also include provisions against racial discrimination.

At the June-2004 National Convention, 13 ceasefire groups submitted a political proposal demanding equal access to the plenary session. But the convention’s convening committee dismissed the proposal as improper. When the 2008 Constitution came out, none of the political points proposed by the ethnic representatives were included.

There is a big gap between the military junta and the NLD led by Aung San Suu Kyi. To the military autocrats, allowing the ethnic minorities to enjoy equal political, social and economic rights is a hazard to national unity and sovereignty. To the NLD and ethnic alliance parties, granting equal rights to ethnic minorities will guarantee peace, stability and prosperity of the country.

In his latest speech, President Thein Sein said, “We know what happen to people and what people want. And we are striving our best to fulfill their needs to the full extent. To conclude my speech, I promise that our government as a democratically-elected government will do our best for the interests of the people.”

If the president really knows what people want, he should think about amending of the controversial constitution in which none of the political aspirations suggested by the ethnic representatives was integrated. If the current government truly committed to start political reforms, the first thing it should take into consideration is providing access to debate on constitutional flaws in the parliament.

Without a debate on the 2008 Constitution by all stakeholders, Burma will not win through its political catastrophe.

If the president wanted to do his best for the interests of the people, he should not be a dogmatist sticking to the unreasonable bill which will prolong the ongoing civil war.

- Asian Tribune - http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/08/25/burma-needs-constitutional-rectification-stop-civil-war
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Bangkok Post
UN envoy urges Burma to probe rights abuses

Published: 26/08/2011 at 03:32 AM
Online news: Asia

A UN envoy called on Burma Thursday to urgently investigate human rights abuses, saying serious concerns remained despite signs of an improvement under the new nominally civilian government.

A UN envoy called on Myanmar Thursday to urgently investigate human rights abuses, saying serious concerns remained despite signs of an improvement under the new nominally civilian government.

"This is a key moment in Burma's history and there are real opportunities for positive and meaningful developments to improve the human rights situation and bring about a genuine transition to democracy," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma.

"The new government has taken a number of steps towards these ends. Yet many serious human rights issues remain and they need to be addressed," he said, calling for the release of Burma's estimated 2,000 political prisoners.

Quintana said he had "a frank and fruitful exchange of views" with government figures during his five-day visit, which follows recent signs that the regime is softening its stance towards opponents.

A civilian administration is now nominally in charge of Burma following a controversial election last year, but its ranks are dominated by former generals.

Quintana called on the government "to take the necessary measures for investigations of human rights violations to be conducted in an independent, impartial and credible manner, without delay".

The UN envoy, who visited Rangoon's notorious Insein jail earlier this week, voiced concern over allegations of torture during detention and the use of prisoners as porters for the military.

"In Insein prison, I heard disturbing testimonies of prolonged sleep and food deprivation during interrogation, beatings, and the burning of bodily parts, including genital organs," he said.

He also voiced concern about the situation in ethnic conflict zones, including attacks against civilians, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, arbitrary arrest, the recruitment of child soldiers and forced labour.

His visit comes after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met with President Thein Sein last week in the highest-level discussions with the authorities since her release in November, days after a controversial election.

Quintana also held talks with Suu Kyi during his latest trip.

After his visit to the country last year, the envoy angered Burma's ruling generals by suggesting that human rights violations in the country may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry. http://www.bangkokpost.com./news/asia/253554/un-envoy-urges-burma-to-probe-rights-abuses
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Advisor: govt to form rights committee
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 26 August 2011

An advisor to President Thein Sein, Dr Nay Zin Latt has said the government is to form a national-level, independent human rights committee to handle human rights issues in the country, but doubts remain about a future body’s autonomy.

Dr Nay Zin Latt, after meeting with UN Human Rights Rapporteur Thomas Ojea Quintana, told DVB that a constitution is being drawn up for the committee and will likely be announced in the near future;

“The President has told us to work on this since some time ago and we are currently working on it. Actually, we had groups like this in the past but they were not properly organised,” said Nay Zin Latt.

“This time, we are forming a committee that is capable of working on a broad range of human rights issues.”

“You will see an organisation that is free from government’s influence and is capable of working independently,” he claimed.

Despite that Nay Zin Latt refused to disclose who would be on the committee.

The National League for Democracy’s (NLD) spokesperson and lawyer Nyan Win, however, said he was doubtful about the potential committee’s autonomy;

“If the [committee] is to be independent, then the government shouldn’t get involved – otherwise there will be limitations. It sounds like there will be improvements in the new committee than the previous one. But I’m still doubtful whether it would really be independent or not,” said Nyan Win.

“It is not likely that a few independent individuals would be able to protect our human rights. It would be more meaningful if they included more outside individuals to work together with government departments in forming the committee because otherwise these departments could collude – so we have to look at it from both sides.”

“Personally I’d prefer an organisation formed with independent and credible individuals,” he added.

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are not allowed to work officially inside Burma. Such groups have claimed that a UN commission of inquiry is necessary following years of alleged abuses by the government. Such a suggestion needless to say is rejected out of hand by the government.

Human Rights Watch voiced concerns that practices such as forced portering and using convicts as porters are continuing apace under the new regime. A report they penned indeed alleged that in January of this year alone some 700 convicts had been press ganged into the dangerous job of slave portering in war torn Karen state.

Whilst the issue of autonomy for any institution is problematic in the current political climate, with parliament filled with the ranks of the military. http://www.dvb.no/news/advisor-govt-to-form-rights-committee/17288
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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 http://asianmedia.com/GAAN/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=1076&campaignid=23&zoneid=36&loc=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atimes.com%2Fatimes%2FSoutheast_Asia%2FMH26Ae01.html&cb=81e7e55fb1high-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 University 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.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/MH26Ae01.html
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Will the Kyat Be Floated?
By YENI Friday, August 26, 2011

As Burma's president, former general Thein Sein, acknowledges that the country's economy is struggling under the weight of multiple challenges, the question that is foremost on many minds right now is how his government will restructure a foreign-exchange regime that is fast becoming his administration's most pressing problem.

Since the beginning of this year, the Burmese currency, the kyat, has appreciated by more than 25 percent, putting severe pressure on the country's export sector and threatening any effort to restart the economy after decades of stagnation under direct military rule.

Currently sitting at around 750 kyat to the dollar, compared to more than a 1,000 kyat to the US unit a year ago, the exchange rate received a rare mention by a Burmese ruler last week, when Thein Sein, speaking to an audience of economists, businessmen and local aid organizations, said on Wednesday that the strengthening local currency is hurting the economy.

To reduce the burden on exporters, the government has cut export revenue tax on seven items—rice, beans and pulses, sesame, rubber, corn, marine products and animals and animal products—from 7 to 2 percent, and given them an exemption from commercial tax for a period of six months, from Aug 15 to Feb 14, 2012.

“We very much welcome the government's decision to provide a tax cut,” said Hla Maung Shwe, the vice-chairman of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation—adding, however, that with a loss in revenue of around 25 percent, “exporters are still feeling the pinch.”

There are several reasons for the appreciation of the kyat. Besides the declining value of the dollar worldwide, other factors include high oil and gas prices (Burma's biggest export is natural gas) and a spending spree by cronies of the military elite, who in the run up to this year's transition to ostensibly civilian rule used their massive dollar reserves to buy up property, gems and state assets.

The danger now, say experts, is that the exchange rate could reach a point where repatriated earnings from exports are no longer sufficient to cover the costs of production, inflicting huge losses on businesses that could force enterprises to shut down.

Another problem that could emerge is that locally manufactured goods could be squeezed out of the domestic market by cheap imports—something that would have far-reaching effects on an economy that has long been geared to self-sufficiency.

“The economic, social and political consequences of this chain of events could be serious,” wrote U Myint, a leading Burmese economist and the top economic advisor to Thein Sein, in a recent paper addressing the exchange-rate issue.

If any good has come of this situation, it is that Naypyidaw seems to be taking U Myint's warning to heart. The government recently told Burmese business leaders that it was preparing to change the official exchange rate, currently set at around six kyat to the dollar, and would soon terminate its use of Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs), which are circulated in place of US dollars domestically.

Dumping an unrealistic and grossly inefficient system that has long distorted the country's economy is definitely a step in the right direction, but it is one that will require a degree of expertise that is completely lacking among the country's key decision makers.

That's why the government has turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for advice. This will first of all involve asking Naypyidaw to provide key macroeconomic data, such as foreign exchange reserves, balance of payments, national budget, money supply, and GDP—including its sectoral composition and growth rate—household income and expenditures surveys, foreign direct investment inflows, and foreign trade statistics.

There is little, however, that the IMF can do in practical terms.
Because Burma hasn't paid back its debts to multilateral financial institutions—and because the US wields effective veto power over the IMF—the country is barred from receiving and new financial aid.
That shouldn't matter, however, because Burma is believed to have abundant foreign exchange reserves (thanks to its sales of gas, gems and other natural resources), which it would need if it decided to simply float the kyat, discarding a fixed exchange rate that has long since ceased to have any relation to economic reality.
Floating the kyat “would require quite literally little more than the stroke of a pen,” according to Australian economist Sean Turnell, an expert on Burma's economy at Macquarie University.
In fact, introducing a floating currency would only be a matter of making official the informal system that has long been in place in Burma, where for decades most international transactions have been based on an unofficial exchange rate determined by market forces.
If the Burmese government allowed the kyat to float, it would reduce bureaucracy, increase economic freedom and hinder those elements that use the current exchange-rate arrangements as a vehicle for corruption.
The only danger, however, is that bringing a degree of common sense to Burma's exchange rate system could create the false impression that the country's economic problems can be solved without other, more fundamental changes.
“The exchange rate issue is important, but it's far from the most serious of Burma's economic problems, which have their roots in the lack of property rights, reasonable policy making, a voracious state apparatus, etc,” said Turnell.
According to a 2008 paper by Dr. Tin Soe, a former professor and head of a department at the Rangoon Institute of Economics, Burma's economy since the early 1960s, when the country first came under military control, has been characterized by “inconsistency, instability, interruption and discontinuation, rigidity and limited scope and vision, lack of transparency, unpredictability and uncertainty, quantitative physical targets-orientation, inefficient and ineffective implementation and use and abuse of consultancy and advisory services.”
In other words, if Thein Sein really wants to make a difference, his government will have to break half a century of bad habits. Floating the kyat would be a start, but it will take much more than this to clean out the Augean stables of Burma's economy. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21971