BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEPTEMBER 09, 2011

US envoy in Myanmar for talks with government
(AP) – 12 hours ago
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A United States Embassy official says Washington's special representative to Myanmar has arrived in the country's administrative capital of Naypyitaw for talks with officials of the new nominally civilian government.

Derek Mitchell is scheduled to meet the foreign minister and other government officials during the trip that began Friday. Aung San Suu Kyi's spokesman says he will return to Yangon on Saturday to meet with the pro-democracy leader.

This is Mitchell's first visit to Myanmar since the country's military regime handed power to a new nominally civilian government led by president Thein Sein, an ex-general who was prime minister under the junta.

Mitchell's trip follows a visit by U.S. Sen. John McCain in June.
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Asian Correspondent - Shining a light on Burma’s shady interlocutor
By Francis Wade Sep 09, 2011 12:04AM UTC

At the top of the pile of buzzwords being thrown about by NGO workers and foreign diplomats in Rangoon is “civil society”, a discourse championed by supposedly non-state “capacity builders” who claim they can educate and supply the tools for young Burmese to become more politically engaged, thus paving the way for democratic reform. The general feeling is that these new ‘teachers’ consider more hardline approaches to governmental change, such as popular protest by Burmese or sanctions from the international community, futile and naïve.

Emerging as the key player in what can rightly be termed the civil society “movement” is Nay Win Maung, a successful publisher, businessman and journalist, and founder of NGO Myanmar Egress. He appears to be able to successfully juggle cordial relations with foreign diplomats (a recently leaked US cable describes him as “a close contact of the British Embassy and European diplomats”) and the Burmese government – something few people in the past have managed. In the coming years he is expected to become a pivotal force in the country.

But he remains a controversial figure – he is the darling of a number of countries bent on taking a soft approach to reform in Burma, but an obstacle to those who see civil society, and his role in it, as a public relations charade by the new government. Shawn Crispin, writing in the Asia Times, says that while his proponents “see him as 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,” others are less convinced.

“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.”

Nay Win Maung’s philosophy, albeit somewhat ambiguous, however acts as a key reference point for the ongoing debate about where a post-election Burma is heading – more of the same with a government that is little more than a plain-clothed reincarnation of the previous junta, or a new era of comparative liberty after decades of military rule? His murmurings suggest a quiet support for the Thein Sein administration (he is believed to have written many of the new president’s speeches), and rejection of the traditional political opposition, despite him championing reform in Burma (the same US cable quoted him as saying that Aung San Suu Kyi should “drop ‘confrontational’ politics”).

His reputation is not helped by the opacity of his organisation, Myanmar Egress, about which little is known. While this could be excusable if indeed they were pushing the boundaries of what can and cannot be done to develop a politically engaged civilian population, one wonders whether its ambiguity instead reflects a need to keep its shady workings and proximity to the government hidden from the pro-reform lobby.

Frustratingly for the Burmese exile community that has spent decades gnawing away at the pressure points of the regime, both Nay Win Maung and his supporters in the EU appear to now regard them as superfluous. This is epitomised by a revamped EU policy that has siphoned funding from exiled media and lobby groups to the likes of Myanmar Egress, despite widespread acceptance that any freedom of political movement inside Burma requires a certain degree of adherence to tight (even counterproductive) government restrictions – something that is perhaps evidenced by Nay Win Maung’s known relations with Thein Sein et al.
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Asian Correspondent - Can new government restore peace in Burma?
By Zin Linn Sep 09, 2011 7:44PM UTC

At the invitation of the government of Myanmar (Burma) for peace talks, “Wa” Special Region (2) that is willing to make peace with the government held discussions with State level Peace-Making Committee formed by Shan State government at Kengtung on 6 September 2011, the New Light of Myanmar said today.

Representatives of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the NDAA (the Mongla group) met with the government counterparts in Kengtung, Shan State, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, for the first talks between the government and the two ethnic ceasefire groups. Another armistice talk with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) failed in June.

National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) or Mongla group said the meeting held between its delegates and the government’s representatives yesterday was promising, quoting sources from the Mongla group, Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.) reported.

According to SHAN, the two sides met in the capital of Shan State East, Kengtung, following government’s 28 August invitation letter to Mongla for peace talks. The NDAA sent over 10 members led by Vice Chairman Hsan Per and its general secretary Sao Hsengla while the Burmese side was led by Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) general secretary U Aung Thaung (Chairman of the Banks and Monetary Development Committee), and U Thein Zaw (Chairman of the National Race Affairs and Internal Peace-making Committee).

As reported by the New Light of Myanmar, the meeting with UWSA was attended by Chairman of Shan State Peace-Making Committee Col Aung Thu (Minister of Shan State Security and Border Affairs) and members, Shan State Advocate-General U Maung Maung, Col Zaw Tun Myint of Triangle Region Command, Coordinator U Aung Kyaw Myint of Department for Border Region Development of Shan State, Leader of Peace-Making Committee of “Wa” Special Region (2) CEC member U Kyauk Kwan Am and members CEC members U Pauk Yu Lyan and U Aung Myint.

After the meeting, initial agreements for cooperation of ensuring peace and stability and development of Wa Region and related areas was signed and both sides agreed to continue to hold peace talks with Peace-Making Committee that will be formed by Union Government.

A new 5 point proposal was presented by the government representatives. They are, (1) No hostilities between the two sides; (2) To reopen liaison offices on both side; (3) To maintain Mongla’s autonomous status; (4) To inform each other in advance if one side is entering the other side’s territory carrying arms; (5) To form a joint liaison committee as soon as possible.

According to ethnic sources, before their meetings with Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw in Kengtung, Wa and Mongla officials met with Chinese officials in Panghsang and Mongla to discuss the ongoing tension on the Border Guard Force between the ethnic armed groups and the Burmese government.

According to SHAN, one statement issued by UWSA on 19 March in Burmese states, “Existing differences and contradictions should be managed by Political Dialogue, Discussion on Equal Footing and Peaceful Resolution. We will oppose any settlements through intimidation and military means.”

On the other hand, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) dismissed the government’s 18-August peace-talk offer. It was sacked by the KIO and the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) since the government uses just bilateral meeting which in fact is a divide-and-rule policy towards ethnic groups devoid of the Panglong Agreement.

Currently, KIO declared that it will talk through the ethnic alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), maintaining the values of the Panglong Agreement.

It has not been confirmed so far whether the KIO and Burmese delegation led by Colonel Than Aung have reached an agreement, with Kachin sources saying further talks between the two sides were likely in the event of a standoff.

The KIO has offered to end ongoing warfare if the government will commence talks for a nationwide ceasefire. But Burmese government authorities did not show any positive signal, according to La Nang, a spokesman for the KIO.

There is a question on government’s unusual approach towards UWSA and NDAA who seem to be more close to China. The government deals with the KIO in a different way. It uses more military pressure on KIO. Issue of KIO must also be addressed by means of dialogue rather than arms.

Many political analysts believe that Burma needs extensive international encouragement for political change, starting free political prisoners plus nationwide ceasefire for true reconciliation. In addition, they also comment, it is impossible to alleviate poverty of the country without stopping the ongoing civil war.
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September 9, 2011 · Posted by: Ed Lingao · In: General
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism - PCIJ joins SEAPA appeal for release of Burma VJ

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) joins the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) it its appeal to the Burmese government to release a group of journalists who were imprisoned for merely doing their job of covering events in their country.

Video journalist (VJ) Hla Hla Win of the web-based Burma news organization Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) was sentenced to 27 years in jail simply for interviewing a monk in a monastery in Central Burma on the 2nd anniversasry of the 2007 failed popular uprising called the Saffron revolution because it was spearheaded by Burmese monks.

In a statement, SEAPA said that Hla Hla Win has 17 other media colleagues who are imprisoned for similar offenses in various parts of Burma, and who have reportedly been tortured by the government.

“We join DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) and other local and international advocacy groups in urging the association of Southeast Asian Nationas, in which Burma is a member, to persuade the Burmese government to release these journalists,” SEAPA said in its statement.

“The release of journalists and some 2,000 political prisoners should be central to ASEAN’s consideration to accord ASEAN chairmanship to Burma in 2013,” according to Gayathry Venkiteswaran, Executive Director of SEAPA.

Gayathri noted that severe restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of information still remain in Burma despite claims by Burma’s government that it has begun reforms.

“Last November’s general elections in Burma is strongly seen by critics as a mere ritual transformation of the country’s decades-long military dictatorship into civilian rule,” SEAPA said. “Substantive political change, including freedom of speech and freedom of association, is yet to be seen.”

The PCIJ is a founding member of SEAPA, a coalition of media groups throughout Southeast Asia that aims to promote the growth of a free and responsible press.
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9 September 2011 Last updated at 02:32 ET
BBC News - US special envoy in Burma for government talks
By Karishma Vaswani BBC News, Bangkok

The US Special Representative for Burma, Derek Mitchell, has arrived in the country for talks with the new nominally civilian government.

Mr Mitchell is also expected to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as a wide range of people from Burma's political and civil groups.

The US state department says the week-long trip is part of Washington's policy to engage with Burma.

It is seen as an opportunity for Mr Mitchell to press for genuine reform.

This is Mr Mitchell's first visit as the US special envoy to Burma.

He was appointed by US President Barack Obama earlier this year, in a move that many in Washington read as a sign of the US commitment to push for greater dialogue and change within Burma's military-backed government.

Mr Mitchell is expected to meet a wide range of people from Burma's political and civil groups during his visit, including opposition party leaders and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But analysts say key to the success of this trip will be the level of access Mr Mitchell is given to the new administration.

It will be a critical reflection of how much the new government wants to engage with the West.

Mr Mitchell is expected to raise America's concerns about human rights violations and the imprisonment of the estimated 2,000 political detainees in Burmese jails.

The newly installed civilian government has made several moves recently to try to improve Burma's international reputation.

It has set up a human rights commission, and last month the new government's president met with Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time.

The meeting, and other moves are all being seen as part of the new administration's strategy to soften its image, in a bid, many say, to see the lifting of sanctions.

But any lifting of sanctions following Mr Mitchell's visit is highly unlikely - analysts say the trip will not see a reversal of US policy towards Burma.

Rather, it will be an opportunity for Mr Mitchell to assess how well the process of democratic reform is going in the country.
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8 September 2011 Last updated at 12:10 ET
BBC News - Save the Children worker in Burma 'trafficked children'

A Save the Children charity worker in Burma was dismissed on suspicion of trafficking boys under 18 years old to serve in a rebel army, it has emerged.

US diplomatic cables released by the Wikileaks website said his activities came to light last year when one of the victims escaped.

At least 16 other youths were reported to have been conscripted into the United Wa State Army, which operates near the Thai and Chinese borders.

The man was arrested by Burmese police.

"It is our understanding that the individual was taken into custody by the Myanmar [Burmese] police," Save the Children spokesman Steve Sidebottom told the BBC. "The matter is now in the hands of the authorities.

Escape to China

The Save the Children employee was stationed in Shan state in the far east of Burma.

He is accused of trafficking nine young males - two of whom were under 18 - for service in the powerful UWSA, which is alleged to finance its operations through the drug trade.

The charity told the BBC that the employee had encountered the young men through "local contacts".

Save the Children told US diplomats that some of the other conscripts were thought to have escaped into China, and that others had eventually made their way home.

In diplomatic cables released by the Wikileaks website, the charity said the local representative appeared to have been working for "political reasons rather than for financial gain".
It said both he and the victims are members of the Palaung ethnic group, some of whom are allied with the Wa.

"The victim who escaped reported that at least 10 other young people from Nam Kham, and six from neighbouring Nam Sam, were serving with him in the UWSA," the cable said.
Save the Children said the staff member was suspended as soon as the allegations came to light and was later dismissed.

The charity said it had been providing assistance to all the families involved.

The legal age for army recruitment in Burma is 18, but analysts say the problem of trafficking is thought to be endemic.
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Eurasia Review - Where Is The Outrage Over Burma Army’s Ethnic Rape Policy? – OpEd
Written by: Kanbawza Win
September 8, 2011

Among the many races and different ethnic nationalities residing in Burma, the Myanmar is the only ethnic race that harbours the African mentality. This phrase may be galling to the Myanmar, but as an academic, we have to call “a spade a spade.” For we cannot lie. Burma still maintains the title of the longest civil war in the world, yet we have not heard of any ethnic resistance army or a resistance pro-democracy group committing rape. Why? This is because the ethnic nationalities army and pro-democratic groups are born out of the people, whereas the Burmese army – or rather Myanmar Tatmadaw in Burmese- is raping ethnic women with impunity because it is simply a pocket army of the Generals.

The Tatmadaw do not feel any remorse or regret, but instead they are even proud to do thist as it is their bounden duty to clean the country of the undesirable ethnic nationalities. This is the psyche and rationale of the Myanmar Tatmadaw that compels them to rape and pillage the country. Hence it is predictable that it will continue to do that in the future also because rape by a Burmese soldier is considered as a reward of his hard work.

Rape as a weapon of war has been in existence for quite sometimes particularly in Africa and later in Bosnia. The Tatmadaw just copy from these examples as is practicing it on its ethnic nationalities as a means of ethnic cleansing to create a policy of a great nation.

Harking back to World History one can discover of how William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy vanquished the Britons in 1066 (just 22 years before the first Burmese Kingdom, Pagan Dynasty was established), rape the existing Saxons women, intermarried them and later became one race, the English which is a great nation. So also when Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, the Europeans followed, kill the aboriginals (Red Indians, which are neither red or Indians) and eventually created the United States of America and Canada which are great nations of modern time.

So also the Myanmar ethnic race wants to create the fourth Myanmar Empire and is following the steps of the three warrior kings whose huge statues can be seen in Naypyidaw. Hence raping the women and girls of the ethnic nationalities is a natural phenomenon.

They construe that ethnic nationalities are all rebels bent on Balkanization. Their philosophy is that the present day Burma is developed in a linear fashion straight from the founding of the first Burmese kingdom in 1044 AD under king Anawrahta. Only the British colonization of the Myanmar Kingdom for 120 years was disrupted this historical development. They believe in the accounts of their mighty, expansionistic imperialist empires with subordinate alliances made up of multi-ethnic and multi-language communities, including the Shan, the Arakanese, the Mons, and so on, encompassing the present day Burma and its political boundaries and, at times, stretching into neighbouring India and Thailand, others are their subordinates and hence should not be treated as equal but above the ethnic nationalities.

Hence an average Myanmar views the ethnic nationality as somewhat the necessary evil of the country where he is destined to live forever and that it is his unbounded duty to lead
him to civilization. He/she must be showed the real civilization of the Myanmar people and finally lead him to Theravada Buddhism on to Nirvana. It is a historical duty to bring these ethnic nationalities into Myanmar race and this is the sole reason of why the current administration did not accept the Panglong Concordat where everyone will share as the founding father of Modern Burma said “Shan Ta Kyat Bama Ta Kyat” – meaning we will share equally in weal and woe with justice and equality among the ethnic national races. This is the underlying cause of why the Tatmadaw is a rapist army.

Before 1988 a secret order was issued that any Myanmar soldier who is able to marry an ethnic women is rewarded a handsome amount of money but this happens to be difficult and slow and so when the Tatmadaw takes over the administration, it encourages raping the ethnic nationalities.

This unwritten message can be read by the lieutenants, and captains and hence it was these ranks who committed most of the rape cases. Research by ethnic women organizations proves that an average soldier seldom committed this crime. In the long run if only there one race Myanmar, one religion Theravada Buddhism and one country Burma will be able to govern and stand tall in the international community is their basic philosophy.

A hard-hitting report released in 2002 by the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) – ‘A Licence to Rape’ – outlined in great detail the use of such a despicable ploy. International organisations and foreign governments looked into the allegations and confirmed the practice really was occurring. Today, with a number of former ceasefire groups facing the guns of the Burmese military, the use of rape has extended to women from these ethnic communities as well. As usual the Junta denied it – as they do with virtually every accusation – but things have not change. The latest report about rapes in Shan State comes only weeks after the Kachin Women’s Association denounced the rape of 18 women and girls during renewed fighting in Kachin State

Rape brings stigma, shame, and reluctance on the part of victims to speak out about what happened to them. But an increasing number of women and girls from Burma – the ones that survived – have begun to tell of their experiences of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the country’s war-torn areas. Burmese Army deserters confirm that rapes occur regularly and usually go unpunished. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women has published material that corroborates details in ‘A Licence to Rape’ and adds many new cases.

“Lying the very concept of Truth” being the motto of the Tatmadaw obviously refuses to grant the UN access to the country to enquire about the rape. As incidents of rape continue to be reported, and the Burmese military must surely know what is happening. However the Junta engages in Orwellian double-speak has rejected the reports, instead launching its own investigations, and formed Myanmar National Human Rights Commission where one can hardly have confidence in their credibility and became a laughing stock of the world.
In 2000, the UN Security Council recognised that gender-based violence thwarts security and adopted Resolution 1325, which calls on parties in conflict to respect the rights of women and children, and particularly to prevent gender-based violence. In 2004, ASEAN governments vowed to end the impunity states like Burma have enjoyed and signed the Declaration to Eliminate Violence Against Women in this region. But these resolutions won’t mean much unless action is taken. While the United Nations and a number of Western countries have spoken out against the use of rape in Burma’s military campaigns, members of the ASEAN community have been conspicuously quiet. This Constructive Engagement Policy of the ASEAN enables the Tatmadaw to carry on its horrific military tactics.

Rape in the real world, however, is receiving media attention, and public consciousness is being raised about it. What is new is not the practice of mass rape but the extent of its relatively recent publicity and some of rape’s consequences for public health in an era of HIV.

The most common post-traumatic disorders are found in women and children subject to rape: Rape victims, battered women, and sexually abused children are its casualties in this longest civil war.

Hysteria is the combat neurosis of the sex war. The role of women who are raped and then murdered is like that of people who are murdered in a bombing.

By raping women, Tatmadaw send a clear message that they will do like this again if the resistance ethnic group continue to resist and did not obey their command. This also sends
another message to the second targets i.e. the populace under their control that everybody must obey the Tatmadaw command or else face the consequence of rape. So the ubiquitous threat of rape is a form of terrorism. Rape served as a double edge dagger not only to the women survivors who were its immediate victims but also the men socially connected to them.

Rape is a cross-cultural language of Tatmadaw domination as forcible impregnation and is a tool of genetic imperialism. Where the so-conceived child’s social identity is determined by that of the biological father, impregnation by rape can undermine family solidarity. Even if no pregnancy results, knowledge of the rape has been sufficient for many men in patriarchal societies to reject wives, mothers, and daughters. Tatmadaw aims to destroy an ethnic nationality‟s identity by decimating cultural and social bonds. Many women and girls are killed when rapists are finished with them. If survivors become pregnant or are known to be rape survivors, cultural, political, and national unity may be thrown into chaos. These have been among the apparently intended purposes of the mass rapes of women in Burma, Tatmadaw treat the situation of women who are enslaved as war captives and war booty.

Captured and impregnated females might be “persuaded” to alter their loyalties where nothing comparable could have been done to change the loyalties of their fathers or spouses.
Enslavement rather than slaughter as war captives has two apparent advantages. First, if any woman might become a war captive, it could be to his advantage to survive (rather than be killed) even as a sex slave and hope for a reversal of fortune. Second, sex slavery instituted a class system, providing exploitable productive labour for conquerors. But to what advantages could a woman look forward who was enslaved rather than slaughtered? Would a captured woman who was impregnated, gave birth, and then survived to be freed when political fortunes changed are better off after the change of political fortune? What would have become of her identity or her children and her ties to them? Or, as a wife of

Tatmadaw soldier, what would it do for her were her husband to take female concubines from defeated peoples? Are the many questions that cannot be answered.

Unwittingly, rape has become a political institution in Burma . That soldiers who rape “enemy women” are not to be reported. A soldier may rape because he was ordered, or because he felt like it. Superior officers, on the other hand, may look the other way because of the martial purposes such rapes serve. Burmese soldiers may not always be given direct orders. They may be induced in other ways, for example, they may be given reason to believe that if they do not participate, they will be beaten or raped themselves. Hence the attitude of a Tadmadaw soldier to ethnic women is “We will do everything to ensure that your children become Myanmar”.

Tatmadaw use rape to demoralize and disrupt bonds among the ethnic nationalities and to create bonds among perpetrators. Of many forms of, rape has a special potential to drive a wedge between family members and to carry the expression of the perpetrator’s dominance into future generations. A major long-range aim of rape would be to eliminate patriarchal and protectionist values. Organized rape has been an integral aspect of Tatmadaw warfare for a long time The primary target here is to inflict trauma and through this to destroy family ties and group solidarity within the ethnic nationalities. It is a fundamental way of abandoning subjects: rape is the mark of sovereignty stamped directly on the body, that is, it is essentially a bio-political strategy using the distinction between the self and the body. Through an analysis of the way rape was carried out by the predominantly Myanmar soldiers is introduced within the woman‟s body (sperm or forced pregnancy), transforming her into an abject-self rejected by the family, excluded by the community and quite often also the object of a self-hate, sometimes to the point of suicide. A Myanmar soldier believes that the penetration of the woman’s body works as a metaphor for the penetration of enemy lines. In addition it is argued that this bio-political strategy, like other forms of sovereignty, operates through the creation of an “inclusive exclusion‟. The woman and the community in question are inscribed within the enemy realm of power as those excluded. The impact of rape goes far beyond the immediate effects of the physical attack and has long-lasting consequences.

Rape by the Tatmadaw soldiers is not a simple by-product of war, but is a well planned and targeted policy. This recognition of rape as a weapon of war has taken on legal significance at the Rwandan and Yugoslav Tribunals where rape has been prosecuted as a crime against humanity and genocide. The apparent primary aim of the rapes by the Burmese army is the expulsion and dispersion of entire ethnic groups. The idea is to destroy family and community bonds, humiliate and terrorize, ultimately to drive out and disperse entire peoples in “ethniccleansing,” the current euphemism for genocide in Burma Hence the international bodies and UN should consider taking the Burmese General to the International Court for Justice.

Burma has refuses to live up to the standards of decency that ASEAN has set for itself. Surely more can be done. Sadly, there seems to be little political will to do anything about ongoing atrocities in Burma. ASEAN needs to act, because its credibility erodes every day that nothing is done. What hypocrisy will be more apparent than giving the chairperson of ASEAN to Burma in 2014. Obviously it will reflect the ASEAN values to see. Marty Natalegawa, the Indonesia’s Foreign Minister and the current ASEAN Chairperson to visit Naypyidaw. instead of pushing Co1 as others civilized nations have done.

The author can be reached at bathannwin@gmail.com
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Friday, September 9, 2011
Myanmar To Allow Foreign Land Ownership

YANGON (Nikkei)--The government of Myanmar plans to revise its foreign investment law for the first time in 24 years to lift restrictions on land ownership by overseas investors.

The current government, which took control in March, is believed to be pursuing such reforms in an effort to improve ties with Europe and the U.S. and attract foreign investment.

The cabinet has already approved the legislative revisions, which could be enacted within six months, said Aung Naing Oo, deputy director general of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

Under the existing law, foreign investors seeking to build factories or other facilities in Myanmar can only lease land. Allowing overseas firms to own land, however, may help lower costs for equipment industries and other segments that need time to recoup investments.

The proposed reforms are also set to enable companies to convert the foreign-currency-denominated capital required when they invest in Myanmar into the local currency at favorable exchange rates.

Citing the former military-led government's democracy and human rights issues, the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions that barred investment in Myanmar and blocked imports.

But the new government's pro-reform stance is believed to be creating grounds for rebuilding ties. U.S. Sen. John McCain visited the nation in June, while European Union representatives have also traveled there as well.

Members of the Japan Business Federation, the powerful business lobby better known as Keidanren, also plan to visit Myanmar to explore investment opportunities.
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Reporters Without Borders - Demonstrations outside Burmese embassies in support of DVB’s detained video journalists
Published on Friday 9 September 2011.

Reporters Without Borders participated in the demonstrations that were staged outside Burma’s embassies in several capitals today in response to a call from Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a radio and TV station run by Burmese exile journalists.

“Hla Hla Win is serving a 27-year jail sentence because she wanted to tell the world what was happening in Burma,” Reporters Without Borders said. “There are many other Burmese journalists who, like her, have paid a high price for exercising their right to report the news.

“We want to show our support for DVB’s 17 detained video journalists and to urge the international community to reiterate its requests to the new Burmese government to release all detained netizens, dissidents and journalists, including DVB’s reporters, without delay.”

Around 20 journalists and bloggers have been arrested by the police or army in Burma since the Saffron Revolution in 2007

Today’s demonstrations, held outside the Burmese embassies in Bangkok, Paris, Geneva and London, were to support the “Free Burma VJ” (Free Burma’s Video Journalists) campaign that DVB launched on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, with backing from Reporters Without Borders.

Reporters Without Borders, Info-Birmanie, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), other human rights activists and members of the Burmese community participated in the demonstration outside the embassy in Paris, during which a letter was handed for Ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn.

In Geneva, the protesters marched from the Palais Wilson, the headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Burmese Mission, where they handed in a petition addressed to foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin (Burma’s former ambassador to the UN in Geneva and New York) calling for the immediate release of Hla Hla Win and all political prisoners.

The Swiss section of Reporters Without Borders plans to continue staging regular demonstrations in Switzerland’s cities until Hla Hla Win is released.

Sign DVB’s online petition for the release of Hla Hla Win and its other detained video journalists: http://www.freeburmavj.org/petition

Info-Birmanie also has an online petition: http://infobirmanie.wufoo.com/forms/patition-libarez-les-journalistes-de-la-dvb/

And this is an online petition launched by the NGO Access calling for the release of Burma’s journalists and political prisoners: https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/release-hla-hla-now

Read the letter that was handed in to Burma’s ambassador in Paris:
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Friday, September 9, 2011
Phuket Gazette - Phuket machete attack puts Burmese workers in ICU

PHUKET: Two Burmese workers on their way home from a Phuket karaoke bar were critically injured after they were attacked by knife-wielding youths yesterday.

Thalang Police received an anonymous report at 1:10am from a local resident in Srisoonthorn reporting that two heavily bleeding men were lying in an alley near the Baan Manik boxing camp on Srisoonthron Road.

Arriving at the scene with Kusoldharm Foundation workers, Thalang police found the two men, estimated to be in their early 40s, with deep slash wounds to their necks and backs.

One severe laceration was 10 inches long.

Local residents told police that the two men lived in a nearby Burmese workers camp and frequented a nearby karaoke bar after work.

As the pair were returning home, they were attacked from behind by two youths on a motorbike.

The pair ran yelling for help until they collapsed in an alley about 100 meters from the main road.

Police suspect the victims had an altercation with the youths earlier at the bar.

The two Burmese were rushed to Thalang Hospital for emergency treatment and later transferred to the better-equipped Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town, where they both are now in intensive care.

The police say they are continuing their investigations.
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Times of India - Security forces confirm Myanmar ops against NE militants
TNN | Sep 9, 2011, 09.36AM IST

GUWAHATI: Security forces on Thursday confirmed the claim made by Ulfa's faction headed by commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah that the Myanmarese army has launched an offensive against Indian militants holed up in the neighbouring country.

"There are reports of Myanmar launching an offensive against Indian rebels at their unified camp in the Taga area of Kachin region, which is close to Indian territory. This place houses Ulfa's mobile military headquarters and also serves as the base of eight other outfits of Manipur, including the NSCN (K)," a key security official said.

He added, "We have intercepted Ulfa's radio messages from Myanmar meant for its men in Assam where they have described the situation as 'ghoror phale bhal abastha nohoi' (the situation here at home is not good)."

He said, "Ulfa has about 80 to 90 members in the unified camp. Top leaders of Baruah's group like Jibon Moran, Michael Deka Phukan, Bijoy Das and Sujeet Mohan are hiding there. However, we are not sure about Baruah's presence. Ulfa has three other camps in Myanmar - the Arakan base with about six cadres, the Naga base with about eight inmates and the 28{+t} {+h} battalion headquarters with just three rebels."

The official added that the PLA, UNLF, PREPAK and KYKL also have their men at the unified camp.

Another source said the Myanmarese army would be successful in flushing out the Indian militants from its soil like Bhutan if it remained committed to the job. "In the past, we have seen Myanmar launching offensive against Indian militants - a pressure tactic to force the outfits cough up huge amount of money for shelter. The bases of militants in Myanmar are well marked by Myanmarese forces and can be easily cleansed."

Baruah, in an emailed statement on Thursday, said the Indian government has been pursuing all its neighbours to flush out Ulfa militants from their respective territories. "In 2003 it was Bhutan, which got Rs 1000 crore aid from India in reciprocation. Then came Bangladesh where India has pledged a loan of 1 billion US dollars. We have information that New Delhi has given an aid of Rs 2000 crore to Myanmar," said Baruah. He has pledged not to surrender and continue his fight for Assam's sovereignty.

He said, "Ulfa has about 80 to 90 members in the unified camp. Top leaders of Baruah's group like Jibon Moran, Michael Deka Phukan, Bijoy Das and Sujeet Mohan are hiding there. However, we are not sure about Baruah's presence. Ulfa has three other camps in Myanmar - the Arakan base with about six cadres, the Naga base with about eight inmates and the 28th battalion headquarters with just three rebels."

The official added that the PLA, UNLF, PREPAK and KYKL also have their men at the unified camp.

Another source said the Myanmarese army would be successful in flushing out the Indian militants from its soil like Bhutan if it remained committed to the job. "In the past, we have seen Myanmar launching offensive against Indian militants - a pressure tactic to force the outfits cough up huge amount of money for shelter. The bases of militants in Myanmar are well marked by Myanmarese forces and can be easily cleansed."

Baruah, in an emailed statement on Thursday, said the Indian government has been pursuing all its neighbours to flush out Ulfa militants from their respective territories. "In 2003 it was Bhutan, which got Rs 1000 crore aid from India in reciprocation. Then came Bangladesh where India has pledged a loan of 1 billion US dollars. We have information that New Delhi has given an aid of Rs 2000 crore to Myanmar," said Baruah. He has pledged not to surrender and continue his fight for Assam's sovereignty.
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The Irrawaddy - Naypyidaw Drops BGF Calls to Wa, Mongla
By WAI MOE Friday, September 9, 2011

Naypyidaw has temporarily dropped its Border Guard Force (BGF) proposal to the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and its ally, the Mongla Group, in a move observers say is aimed at appeasing the ethnic militias, prompting them to sign ceasefire agreements with the Burmese army.

Burma’s state media reported on Friday that the government signed “initial agreements for cooperation” aimed at “ensuring peace and stability and development” with the UWSA and the Mongla-based army, which is officially named the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), during bilateral talks with the groups in Kengtung this week.

The report added that the government and the ethnic armed groups “agreed to continue to hold peace talks with [the] Peace-Making Committee that will be formed by [the] Union Government.”

Sources close to the Wa and Mongla leadership said that unlike previously talks, Naypyidaw’s negotiators did not say anything about the BGF plan during separate talks with ethnic representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kengtung, eastern Shan State. The groups signed pre-ceasefire agreements, the Wa on Tuesday and the Mongla on Wednesday.

The ethnic sources said that the government's resignation over the BGF issue was the main obstacle to talks, and that both the Wa and Mongla leaderships felt this renewed approach seemed similar to talks between Military Intelligence officials and former communist troops of the Wa, Kokang and Mongla groups in 1989 which led ceasefire agreements with 17 ethnic armed groups in the following years.

Wa people traditionally mark a large festival this week, so the UWSA leaders are expected to hold an internal meeting next week to discuss the proposal in Kengtung.

In April 2009, the military junta called all ethnic ceasefire groups to transform their units into BGF battalions under the command of the Burmese army, as per the 2008 Constitution.
However, most of key ethnic ceasefire groups, including the UWSA, the NDAA and their ally, the Kokang group (also known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA), and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) rejected the offer.

Four months later, Burmese government forces seized the Kokang headquarters in Laogai, near the Sino-Burmese border, causing more than 37,000 Kokang–Chinese refugees to flee to China.

Since then Beijing has repeatedly raised with Naypyidaw the issue of peace and stability in Burma’s ethnic regions that border China.

The Burmese regime broke its ceasefire with the KIA in June following an attempt by government troops to overrun KIA troops around the China-financed Tapaing Hydropower project site. Since then, the Tapaing hydropower plant-1 has suspended operations due to security concerns.

Chinese officials are known to continuously pressure both Naypyidaw and the ethnic groups over tensions and instability along the common border and the potential threats to Chinese interests in Burma. Chinese’s most recent effort at talks came just before the Wa and Mongla meetings with Burmese government officials in Kengtung.

“Chinese has been working on the border groups to deal with the regime since 2010—to sign peace agreements: first a temporary peace, and then a permanent one— this is their strategy, to see peace and to protect their vested interests,” said a source close to Chinese officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Yunnanese authorities have been pressured by Beijing,” he added. “Actually, the Chinese don't care what the ethnic minorities want—they just want to make sure that a ceasefire agreement prevails.”

Khuensai Jaiyen, the editor of Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News, said he heard from Wa leaders in Panghsang that before traveling to Kengtung for talks, Chinese officials told them that negotiating with the Burmese government is better than nothing, and that whether they reach an agreement or not is another issue.

Apart from the UWSA and the NDAA, other ethnic armed groups who rejected the BGF plan, including the KIA, the Karen National Union , the Shan State Army and the New Mon State Party, formed in February an alliance of ethnic groups called the United Nationalities Federation Council (UNFC).

Although the UWSA and the NDAA have had informal talks with other ethnic armed groups within the alliance, they have avoided officially joining the UNFC due to Beijing’s concerns, observers say.

The UNFC says its policy is to negotiate for peace and a ceasefire with Naypyidaw for the alliance, rather than on a case-by-cease basis. Ethnic leaders said their policy is based on the experiences of failing to act together in the past.

“The government’s policy of staging peace talks as bilateral agreements with each individual group is a form of divide and rule,” said Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the UNFC and an ethnic Mon leader. “It is a way of countering the UNFC’s call for peace talks altogether.”
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The Irrawaddy - Protest Spotlights Burma's Lack of Press Freedom
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Friday, September 9, 2011

BANGKOK—A handful of protesters gathered outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok today to vent their anger against the detention of 17 journalists in Burma, some of whom have been given multi-decade jail terms for what activists describe as “no more than doing their jobs.”

Focusing on the case of Hla Hla Win, a 27-year-old reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for breaching motorbike rules and shooting video, DVB Chief Editor Aye Chaing Naing said that, "there is no legal justification to arrest Hla Hla Win and she should not have been arrested in the first place".

Decades of military rule in Burma have incorporated vice-like press controls, and though these have been loosened of late, there are questions over whether this apparent liberalization is any more than rhetorical.

The DVB is a Burmese media organization with personnel in Norway and Thailand. Hla Hla Win and the 16 other reporters are among what Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—a Thailand-based organization staffed by ex-political prisoners from Burma—calculates to be 1,995 political prisoners or prisoners of conscience.

The Burmese government says that all the country's incarcerated are criminals, including the hundreds of Buddhist monks rounded up after the 2007 “Saffron” uprising against military rule.

However, the continued detention of almost 2,000 political prisoners points to what activists believe to be a sham transition from military rule to democracy. Ex political prisoner Nyi Nyi Aung, now in the US, told The Irrawaddy that the failure to release the detainees shows the insincerity of the Burmese rulers.

"They don't want to make any reform in Burma," he said.

Burma held elections in November 2010, the first since 1990, though the result was a predictable landslide for the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Journalists have been given controlled-environment access to the recently-convened Parliament, but on the condition that they avoid reporting in a manner damaging to the “dignity of the Parliament and the State.”

An article by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi recounting her recent trip to Bagan—a temple-laden city in north-central Burma—was passed for publication in a Burmese journal called The People's Era. However, this came about only after much of the content was chopped by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), the official name for the state censor.

However, unlike some other authoritarian states, Burma has a thriving private-run media, and according to US diplomatic cables sent from the country's Rangoon embassy, “the number of weekly newspapers has gone from just a handful 10 years ago to approximately 150 today.” That said, most of the growth is in non-controversial areas “like sports and entertainment, with very little hard news about events in Burma or the outside world.”

Coverage of Suu Kyi has long been a tricky issue for Burmese publications. The journal Messenger was recently banned from publishing its supplement section for a week by the PSRD, and Shiwei Yei, the Southeast Asia point-man for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), told The Irrawaddy that the ban is likely “related to the journal's recent interview of Suu Kyi and the front page photo of her.”

While stories about soap operas and sport can, for the most part, now be run without prior vetting by the censors, political stories are subject to word-by-word examination, meaning that critical or investigative coverage of the country's government cannot be undertaken.

According to US embassy officials, writing in a cable sent before the Burma's 2010 elections, the censor bans “20-25 percent of all stories in a given periodical.” Burma's poorly-paid reporters have additional economic reasons to self-censor, say US officials in the same cable.

“Because Burmese reporters tend to get paid only for the stories that make it into the newspaper, self-censorship is prevalent.”

An April 2011 parliamentary speech by Burmese President Thein Sein describing media as the “fourth pillar” of Burmese society was followed by other apparent liberalizations such as the watering-down—for now at least—of clumsy propaganda against foreign media by the much-lampooned New Light of Myanmar, a Burmese government mouthpiece which slated DVB, along with the BBC and VOA, with gems such as “killer broadcasts designed to cause troubles.”

However, President Thein Sein—who was an army general and prime minister under the pre-election military dictatorship—tempered his 4th estate spin by telling Burma's MPs that they were “required through media to inform the people about what they should know.”

A new target for satirists might be the Burmese information czar, Kyaw Hsan, who followed up a much-derided tearful breakdown at a recent government press conference— itself a novelty in Burma—by describing media as “red ants” in a parliamentary debate on Wednesday that was held in Burma's purpose-built but isolated administrative capital of Naypyidaw.

In his eyebrow-raising and quixotic response to a parliamentary proposal on press freedom, the minister of information said it would bring “more disadvantages than advantages,” before launching into a half-hour speech which quoted from the ancient “550 Jataka Tales” and its fable of the elephant king Saddan. In the tale, the king offered flowers (press freedom) to his queen, but the flowers attracted red ants (journalists), which bit the queen.
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The Irrawaddy - Asian stocks up after China inflation moderates
By PAMELA SAMPSON/ AP WRITER Friday, September 9, 2011

BANGKOK — Asian stock markets rose Friday amid news China's inflation moderated slightly, brushing aside a sullen mood on Wall Street after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke offered no immediate support for the ailing U.S. economy.

Oil prices rose toward $90 a barrel as investors bet a new U.S. jobs package unveiled by President Barack Obama will help boost demand for crude. The dollar weakened against the yen and the euro.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index bounced back from a lower opening — up 0.1 percent to 8,801.11. The government reported that the country's economy contracted in the April-June quarter at an annual rate of 2.1 percent, worse than the initial estimate of 1.3 percent.

But the result was not unexpected, given the scope of the damage done by the March earthquake and tsunami that destroyed many of northeastern Japan's factories and businesses. Economists expect the world's No. 3 economy to pick up in the months ahead.

South Korea's Kospi was 0.6 percent lower at 1,836.42. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1 percent to 4,228.40.

Mainland Chinese shares rose after the government said consumer prices had moderated in August. Prices rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier, easing from a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July.

That raised the possibility of China easing its tight monetary policies — or at least putting further interest rate hikes on hold — and helping it to ward off the impact of a slowing global economy. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 2,517.16.

On Wall Street, stocks closed sharply lower Thursday after Bernanke in a speech closely watched by investors said the Fed will consider a range of steps at its Sept. 20-21 meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1 percent to 11,295.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.1 percent to 1,185.90. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.8 percent to 2,529.14. Each index had posted gains earlier in the day.

Also Thursday, President Barack Obama, looking to jolt the U.S. economy, proposed a $447 billion plan for creating jobs in a nationally televised speech before Congress late Thursday. Obama will likely have a hard time getting much of his plan through Congress since Republicans control the House of Representatives.

Concerns about the U.S. economy have pushed stocks lower each month since April. Many traders now say the stock market is pricing in the assumption that the economy is in a recession, meaning limited job growth and weaker corporate profits.

In energy trading, benchmark oil for October delivery was up 40 cents to $89.45 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude fell 29 cents to finish at $89.05 on Thursday.

In London, Brent crude for October delivery was down 20 cents at $114.35 on the ICE Futures exchange.

In currencies, the dollar slipped to 77.49 yen from 77.54 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro was higher at $1.3924 from $1.3876.

Credit Agricole CIB said that the debt crisis swirling around smaller European countries was finally being felt by the euro, which had be showing persistent strength against the greenback.

The euro "broke below the psychologically important 1.40 level as peripheral tensions are finally beginning to take their toll on the currency," the bank said in a research note.
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Wikileaks: US scoffed at ‘Myanmar Times’ pleas after SPDC purge
Friday, 09 September 2011 18:55 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – US diplomats in Rangoon in 2004 scoffed at a bid by The Myanmar Time’s Australian co-owner Ross Dunkley to prevent the shutdown of his paper in the wake of Khin Nyunt’s purge from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

According to a 2004 US diplomatic cable recently released by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, a December 4, 2004, letter written by co-owner and editor Dunkley was circulated to numerous embassies in Rangoon asking for statements of support should his weekly newspaper "be closed down for any reason."

The general tone of the cable indicated that the American diplomats were somewhat enthused by Dunkley’s predicament. The cable noted: “We would not view any U.S. interests at stake should The Myanmar Times and its editor, a regular apologist for the SPDC, go down in flames.”

The cable said that Dunkley, “Like many others who enjoyed the protection of the Khin Nyunt empire, his company is paying the price for having relied exclusively on connections to the ousted Prime Minister.”

The cable noted that Dunkley’s plea to the Rangoon diplomatic community was sent a few days after the arrest of The Myanmar Times then co-owner Sonny Swe (full name U Myat Swe). As the cable noted, “Sonny Swe is the son of Brigadier General Thein Swe, formerly a senior military intelligence (MI) official under ousted Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. BG Thein Swe himself was a victim of the post-Khin Nyunt purge of MI and is reportedly detained at Insein Prison.”

The cable stated that in his letter “Dunkley claims that Sonny Swe is accused of ‘using his father's influence to bypass the censorship process’ by seeking GOB approval for each edition of The Myanmar Times through MI, rather than through ‘normal channels’ at the Ministry of Home Affairs and its Press Scrutiny Board.”

The cable also said that in his letter Dunkley declared that The Myanmar Times has "never once in five years embarrassed the government or Myanmar [Burma]." According to the cable, Dunkley added, "In line with the policies of the government we have always wholly encouraged the development of the road map" and "we are...a very visible example of a successful Myanmar-foreign cooperation."

Dunkley finished his plea to the diplomats with the following: “I hope your government would defend The Myanmar Times … and see it as an integral part of the progression of the SPDC on its road map and transition to democracy.”

Dunkley’s response to cable

Reached for comment, Dunkley told Mizzima by e-mail that the cable’s author the then chief of the US mission in Rangoon, Carmen Martinez, was ill suited for the task.

Dunkley wrote: “Ms. Martinez may have been an experienced diplomat in places like Bogota or Buenos Aires, but she was sadly way too tall to hear the low, hushed tones of the chatter in Myanmar, way down at ground level.

“Her praying mantis demeanour also frightened the polite, reserved Myanmar and she rarely made her mark felt. I sensed they were rather taken aback by her stilettos and stockings, viewing them as more suitable to smoky dance bars in Mexico,” Dunkley said.

“Consequently, her ability to project a more sophisticated personality to the well-educated Burmese meant she missed out on all sorts of political goodies,” he added. “To my mind she was a markedly different creature to that of Priscilla Clapp who butterflied around the golf courses with the generals and was quite nicely 'engaged' in the political process. Pity the Americans didn't send more of her type around the world.”

Cable refutes the qualities of 'The Myanmar Times’

The cable went on to refute some of the self-described qualities of The Myanmar Times and the paper’s colourful Australian editor, Dunkley. The cable stated: “Dunkley has claimed at various international venues, most notably in Bangkok and Washington, that his newspaper is fully independent and that he uses the publication to ‘push the envelope’ and press for free speech and other political changes in Burma. The Myanmar Times does, on rare occasion, publish limited news about events generally considered off limits by state media (e.g. natural disasters inside Burma, international meetings that discuss Burma developments, etc.). However, as Dunkley freely admits, his publications are subject to government censorship and ‘sensitive’ articles routinely hit the cutting floor. The Myanmar Times never criticizes the military regime and each week prints a robust assortment of articles that praise GOB [Government of Burma] officials and the achievements of the SPDC.”

In the seven years since Khin Nyunt and Sonny Shwe’s arrest, The Myanmar Times has continued to publish weekly English and Burmese editions while maintaining a pro-regime line. Dunkley has managed to stay on as editor despite a recent power struggle with his new Burmese co-owners, a battle which was widely believed to have led to Dunkley’s arrest in February of this year on what many observers concluded were trumped up charges.

Dunkley’s recent trial in a Rangoon court on immigration, kidnapping, drug and rape charges involving an incident with a Rangoon sex worker in January was foreshadowed in the 2004 diplomatic cable which predicted that Dunkley’s continued presence in Burma could be problematic and “the Australian Embassy may have a sticky citizen case on its hands.”

The government’s case against Dunkley appeared to collapse after the women involved withdrew her testimony shortly after the trial began. The Burmese prosecutors however continued to pursue a conviction and in the end of June Dunkley was found guilty of the lesser charge of causing “minor harm” to the women and also found to have violated a minor immigration charge and sentenced to 30 days in jail, 17 less than what he had already spent prior to getting bail.

Dunkley has said that he would appeal the conviction, and he appears determined to try and stay on at The Myanmar Times. In an interview with Australia’s ABC following the verdict, Dunkley, when asked why he was appealing, responded: “Well because the importance of justice is a concept that is natural to all of us. And when you didn't commit a crime and you're found guilty of it and there's no evidence to support that – no witnesses, nothing whatsoever to be convicted – then you ought to appeal it.”

At present, a 49-percent stake in The Myanmar Times’s publisher Myanmar Consolidated Media Group Ltd. is held by Dunkley and the family of Bill Clough, an Australian mining tycoon who has offshore gas interests in Burma through his control of Twinza Oil. The remaining 51 percent is held by Dr. Tin Tun Oo, a leading figure in Burma’s military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party from Pazundaung Township. Dunkley and Clough also own a controlling interest in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post.

‘The Myanmar Times’ started with funds from controversial Japanese foundation

While Dunkley has frequently claimed his newspaper is independent and financially stable and publicly mocked The Irrawaddy magazine for receiving support from the US government, The Myanmar Times was started with support from Japan’s controversial Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF). The foundation is named after Ryoichi Sasakawa, accused but acquitted of being a Class A war criminal by American authorities, for the role he played during Japan’s fascist dictatorship.

The Sasakawa Peace Foundation and its sister organization the Nippon Foundation are run by Sasakawa’s son Yohei, who Dunkley calls “a supporter and mentor.”

In January, Dunkley was quoted in a glowing profile on Yohei Sasakawa published in the Phnom Penh Post, saying: “I cannot over-emphasise the enormously important role SPF played in the early days of our Myanmar operations providing much-needed training support when we had no cash to do so, and also allowing me to travel and meet important personalities who influenced and helped focus my energy.”

In an op-ed written in March on the DVB website former Myanmar Times journalist Clive Parker said, “Using funding and donations from Japan’s Sasakawa Peace Foundation, The Myanmar Times has trained dozens of Burmese journalists to an international standard.”

Parker’s article titled “A Myanmar Times’ closure would be bad news,” like Dunkley’s letter to diplomats seven years before, was another plea for solidarity with Burma’s only news organization that has some form of foreign ownership.

Parker citing the paper’s collaboration with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation is an interesting choice to include in a list of reasons that the Myanmar Times should stay open. In 1931, Sasakawa created the openly fascist Nationalist Masses Party and was subsequently elected to Japan’s war-time parliament. As a businessman with close ties to the Japanese army, he profited immensely from investments made in Japanese-occupied Manchuria.

At the end of World War II, Sasakawa was arrested by American occupation authorities along with dozens of other senior figures from Japan’s fascist era. American investigators described Sasakawa as “one of the worst offenders outside the military in developing in Japan a policy of totalitarianism and aggression. He has been squarely behind Japanese military policies of aggression and anti-foreignerism for more than 20 years.”

After three years imprisonment, Sasakawa and most of those classed as Class A war criminals including his friend and future Japanese Prime Minister Kishi were released without trial. Documents subsequently released decades later reveal that US authorities were afraid that Japan was shifting too far to the left and the Truman administration figured that many industrialists and ex-armed forces personal previously declared as war criminals would be useful allies in the war against communism.

Following his release, Sasakawa used his old contacts to establish himself sole proprietor of legalized betting on speed boat racing. His gambling monopoly which began in 1951 lasted for more than four decades and enabled Sasakawa to become one of the wealthiest people in post-war Japan.

Sasakawa never left his ultra-nationalist roots behind. He was quoted in a 1974 Time Magazine profile describing himself as the "world's wealthiest fascist." The same article quoted him as boasting that he bedded more than 500 women beginning with "a distant relative of Emperor Taisho to almost all the top geisha."

After his death in 1995, Japan’s largest newspaper, the normally very reserved Yomiuri Shimbun, declared Sasakawa a “monster of modern times.”
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Former No. 2 Burmese leader said nearly 300,000 killed in Cyclone Nargis
Friday, 09 September 2011 22:15 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Cyclone Nargis killed about 300,000 people, but the former military junta's second most powerful leader insisted that the number would be released to the public "over his dead body," sources told a U.S. embassy diplomat, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable sent to the State Department.

One month after Nargis, which hit on May 2, 2008, the now disbanded State Peace and Development Council's Vice Senior General Maung Aye on June 7 told the Burmese business tycoon Tay Za the cyclone’s estimated death toll, according to a diplomatic cable dated June 11, 2008, that was sent from the embassy in Rangoon to the U.S. Secretary of State in Washington D.C.

"The government calculated that approximately 300,000 people had perished in the cyclone, but that this number would be released to the public ‘over his dead body,’ the cable quoted the businessman as saying.

According to leaked diplomatic cables posted on the Wikileaks website, the regime’s leaders could not estimate exactly the scale of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis until a few days after the storm.

Some government ministers told Rangoon-based diplomats at a meeting that the death toll had reached 10,000 with 3,000 missing on May 5, 2008, or three days after Nargis hit Burma, according to the leaked US cable.

The government’s official number released before the end of June was 84,537 people dead, 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured in the cyclone. After those numbers, the government did not release additional casualty figures.

The United Nations estimated the death toll at 140,000 and said an estimated 2.4 million people were seriously affected by the storm.

The Rangoon-based US embassy said it obtained information from a source who was close to a relative of Tay Za that Vice Senior General Maung Aye was responsible for the order to impose cumbersome travel requirements and access procedures on humanitarian workers seeking to aid the survivors of the storm.

Horrific images of the cyclone damage, death and plight of the survivors were circulated on the Internet, in the international media and on VCDs throughout Burma, which embarrassed the generals. As a result, the source said that Maung Aye ordered access to the Delta for international staff to be tightened, the leaked US cable said.

The government then announced more cumbersome travel and access procedures than had been discussed and agreed upon at the TCG meetings, the cable said, and UN and Asean officials viewed the new procedures as "unacceptable."

The embassy source said that he believed factions were beginning to form among the senior generals based on those with a more flexible approach toward international assistance, such as third-ranking General Thura Shwe Mann, Prime Minister Thein Sein and Minister of Agriculture Htay Oo and a hardline faction led by Maung Aye and Secretary-1 Tin Aung Myint Oo, who were bent on closely controlling the activities of foreigners in Burma.

Another significant development after Nargis struck was the replacement of Maung Aye with Tin Aung Myint Oo as head of the powerful Trade Council by junta leader Than Shwe, to create conflict between the two hardliners and assure they did not align against him, the cable said. This was how Than Shwe cultivated loyalty and achieved a balance of power in his inner circle, the source told embassy diplomats.

The source also said that if Than Shwe were not in good enough health to be president in 2010, he would give the job to Thura Shwe Mann, who was not only his preferred choice, but also the choice of the senior-general’s powerful wife, Kyaing Kyaing.

The source said that Than Shwe planned to appoint Tin Aung Myint Oo as head of the military to counter-balance Thura Shwe Mann's power, and would appoint Agriculture Minister Htay Oo as one vice president, and the leader of the Union Pa-O National Organization, Aung Kham Htee, as the second vice president in order to appease ethnic cease-fire groups.

However, after the general election, Thein Sein was appointed president and Thura Shwe Mahn received the Lower House speaker post. Subsequently, the SPDC was officially dissolved at the end of March 2011, and both Than Shwe and Maung Aye retired.

The U.S. diplomat said that the unprecedented devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis succeeded in doing what no other situation had done before: uniting the West and Burma's Asian neighbours to bring unprecedented pressure on the regime to open up and allow international humanitarian workers unfettered access.
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DVB News - Authorities arrest farmers in land confiscation case
By AYE NAI
Published: 9 September 2011

Authorities in Pyin Oo Lwin have arrested four more locals in Nyaungon village under suspicion of being involved in the ransacking of a government coffee plantation project, on land that was confiscated from village residents.

About 500 acres of farmland belonging to residents in Nyaungon village has been confiscated for the coffee plantation project since 2008. Recently, the state owned company involved in the project began selling off portions of it and villagers were so outraged by this they reportedly ransacked about 100 acres of coffee plantation on September 4.

They claim however, to only have destroyed some other trees on the land as the coffee plants are yet be planted.

However on 6 September, five villagers were arrested for ransacking the coffee plantation on 4 September. One of them was released the next morning [Sept 7] while four remained in detention.

A a result around 100 villagers protested on 7 September in Nayungon village, calling for the release of the villagers.

Government officials led by the district administration chief, arrived in the village on the same day and held a meeting with residents regarding the situation.

After the meeting, they asked four other villagers to go with them to Pyin Oo Lwin town which they agreed to, but they were instead put in a police lockup in nearby Watwun village.

Ashin Marnita, abbot of Nyaungon village monastery who sat in on the meeting with government officials told DVB;

“They just arrested four more people – they asked those people to go with them to a concerned government office [in Pyin Oo Lwin] to help settle the case faster and that they would
let them go afterwards. But then they just took them directly to a police station and locked them up there.”

When the abbot telephoned the administration chief and inquired about the arrest, he was told the four were arrested because; ‘it was necessary.’

The newly arrested villagers were identified as Nay Win, Aye Ko, Thein Pe and another man. They are now in detention together at Watwun police lockup along with the other four detainees [transferred from the Pyin Oo Lwin lockup.]

Land confiscation is seemingly a growing problem for Burmese farmers as agriculture is becoming increasingly commercialised, with the entrance of foreign agri-business, primarily from China and South Korea.

Yesterday, the villagers were informed that the officials were coming to their village again to have further negotiations but they didn’t show up.

Ashin Marnita added that: “Now we are pretty helpless – forced to listen to whatever the authorities say and there is no one we could ask for help.”
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