Asian Correspondent - Burma’s FM offers olive-branch while Burma Army shelling on ethnic Kachin
By Zin Linn Sep 29, 2011 4:00PM UTC
Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin told the Assembly’s high-level debate on 27 September that his Government has launched a series of political, economic and social reforms aimed at improving the welfare of its people, but uttered lament that these efforts are being hindered by international economic sanctions.
As a signal of ‘national reconsolidation,’ the Government had last month offered an olive branch to all “national race armed groups,” FM Maung Lwin said.
But, while Maung Lwin was delivering an address about his regime’s olive-branch policy towards ethnic armed groups, his government has been launching a major offensive targeting the KIA’s Brigade 4 near the Sino-Burma border.
Maj-Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, commander of northeastern Shan State regional command, takes charge of driving Kachin rebel troops out of Shan State near the Sino-Burmese border. China’s major oil pipeline which channels the Burma’s Kyaukpyu deep-sea port on Arakan coast in the Bay of Bengal to Kunming in China’s Yunnan Province will pass through central Burma and next to the current conflict zones in Shan State. That will extensively improve China’s energy security while also creating the presence of Chinese ships in India’s eastern backyard.
Kachin rebels are keeping hold of the hilly terrain of both Kachin and northern Shan states where they have launched guerrilla warfare combating the Burma Army for self-determination since 1961.
The four days of heavy fighting between the Burma Army and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Burma’s northeast Shan State has produced over 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), in line with IDP assistance groups, Kachin News Group reported.
Most IDPs are mothers and their children as well as elderly men and women who are fleeing to nearby towns, churches and the China border, leaving behind their homes, livestock, paddy fields, land and crops, quoting local sources, KNG said.Most schools in the war zone have been closed as Burmese government’s all-out offensive started on Saturday.
Some war-stricken refugees are fleeing to Pangsai and Mongkoe but the victims are prevented from crossing into China by both Burmese police and the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army and Border Guard Force, referring sources in the two border towns, KNG reported.
As said by IDPs in Kyukok (Pangsai), a large number of IDPs are fleeing from Northern Shan State after government troops fired hundreds of 120 mm mortar rounds daily into the camps and villages in the KIA controlled areas since Saturday.
The on-going civil war in Kachin State between the Burma Army and KIA has intensified since 9 June. Over 30,000 Kachin IDPs have fled to the camps in KIA controlled areas, near the Sino-Burma border as well as to government-controlled towns. Non-Governmental Organizations, churches and oversea Kachin communities have been helping IDPs in both KIA and government controlled areas In Kachin State.
Until now, IDPs in northern Shan State have not received any aid from the Burmese government or non-governmental organizations, church leaders said. As said by the KIA brigade officials, there is no ending sign of the ongoing war and thousands of IDPs under the KIA Brigade 4 controlled area are likely to run away soon.
The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has rejected an offer of Burmese government’s new peace talks along with a statement released on August 18. The government’s offer was rejected because it did not include country-wide political dialogue but only talks with each individual ethnic armed group, quoting Salang Kaba Lar Nan, Joint General Secretary-2 of the KIO, Kachin News Group said.
According to Lar Nan, the peace offer statement lacks political dialogue. The government forces the ethnic groups to talk under the rule of the military-centered 2008 Constitution. Peace negotiations have failed because the KIO desires to solve the country’s six decade-long political problems based on the 1947 Panglong Agreement. However the government is intent on negotiations based on the 2008 Constitution.
As the ethnic armed groups did not agree to the 2008 Constitution, the government peace offer seems to be empty. Unless there is genuine movement toward political change initiated by the government, such as releasing political prisoners and genuine talks with all political stakeholders, Burma’s six-decade long political stalemate will not be erased simply.
The Kachin Independence Organization urges the international community, including the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Burma’s neighbors, to facilitate ending country’s civil war by way of national reconciliation.
In fact, Burmese government needs to offer a genuine olive branch to ethnic armed-groups including the KIO, if it really wants lifting of international economic sanctions that – as said by Wunna Maung Lwin – hampered the country’s growth.
***************************************************************
Japanese tourist killed in Myanmar
AFP News – 9 hours ago
A Japanese tourist has been killed in Myanmar and a motorcycle taxi driver arrested on suspicion of her murder, a government official said Thursday.
Chiharu Shiramatsu, 31, was killed on Wednesday near Kyaukpadaung, close to the ancient temple city of Bagan, after hiring the motorcycle taxi to go sightseeing, according to the authorities.
"She was killed by a motorcycle taxi driver who tried to rape her," a Myanmar government official who declined to be identified told AFP.
Min Theik, the 39-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, was arrested at the scene.
Violent crime involving foreign tourists is relatively rare in military-dominated Myanmar.
***************************************************************
Uganda sexual rights group wins Norway prize
Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:58am GMT
OSLO (Reuters) - An annual Norwegian human rights award that sometimes presages the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a group that fights discrimination against homosexuals and others with unconventional sexual orientation in Africa.
The 2011 Rafto Prize from Norway's Rafto Foundation will be received in Bergen, Norway, on November 6 by the group's executive director, Frank Mugisha, the foundation said on Thursday.
Four previous Rafto laureates -- Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, East Timor's Jose Ramos-Horta, South Korea's Kim Dae-jung and Iran's Shirin Ebadi -- went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in subsequent years.
In announcing SMUG as this year's Rafto Prize recipient, the Norwegian foundation said social conflicts related to sexual orientation and gender equality were "getting worse" in Uganda.
"People who do not conform to society's gender and sexual norms are subject to abuse in today's Uganda," it said.
"Homosexuality is publicly portrayed as 'un-African' and a 'contagious' pollutant that destroys society and therefore must be eliminated."
The foundation added: "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are often ostracised by their families and local communities and are left without any form of social safety net. Many lose their jobs and place at school and end up having to live in the slum."
***************************************************************
ASIAONE - Suu Kyi to hold more talks with Myanmar regime
AFP Thursday, Sep 29, 2011
YANGON - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hold another round of talks with the new army-backed government, her spokesman said on Thursday, following signs of a thaw in relations.
Friday's meeting with labour minister Aung Kyi in Yangon will be the third since the Nobel Peace Prize winner's release from seven straight years of house arrest last November, shortly after a widely criticised election.
The opposition leader also met President Thein Sein - a former junta prime minister - in the capital Naypyidaw last month, one of several tentative signs that the regime is reaching out to its opponents.
Myanmar is now ruled by a nominally civilian government but its ranks are filled with former generals and the country still has about 2,000 political prisoners.
In an interview with AFP earlier this month, Suu Kyi said there had been "positive developments" in Myanmar, but added that it was unclear whether Thein Sein would be able to carry through his reform pledges.
Her spokesman Nyan Win said Friday's meeting with Aung Kyi - the former liaison between Suu Kyi and the junta - would take place at the State Guest House, but he gave no information about what might be discussed.
The 66-year-old dissident's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election but was never allowed to take power.
Last month the daughter of Myanmar's liberation hero General Aung San travelled unhindered on her first overtly political trip outside her home city since being released from detention, addressing thousands of supporters.
The international community has called for a number of reforms in Myanmar including the release of political detainees and an end to rights abuses, particularly against ethnic minorities.
***************************************************************
September 29, 2011
VOA News - Aung San Suu Kyi to Meet Burmese Labor Minister
A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi says the Burmese democracy leader will meet Friday with Labor Minister Aung Kyi.
It will be the third meeting between the two since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest late last year. She has also met with President Thein Sein as the new government cautiously begins to engage its critics.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, was unable to say what will be discussed in the meeting at a government guest house in Rangoon.
But the exile Irrawaddy newspaper said there is speculation that the talks will touch on prospects for the release of political prisoners and the NLD's bid to be re-registered as a political party.
The NLD was stripped of its party certification when it refused to contest elections in November, which were widely denounced as unfairly designed to ensure victory by supporters of the former military junta. The party refused to run because Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest at the time, was not allowed to be a candidate.
The new government, which took office at the end of March, is dominated by past and former military officers and their close supporters.
***************************************************************
Sep 30, 2011
Asia Times Online - What Thein Sein promised Suu Kyi
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - An emerging rapprochement between Myanmar President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has set a new tone over the country's historically military dominated political landscape. The two met on August 19 and details now emerging from that closed-door encounter indicate that major concessions could be in the cards in the weeks ahead.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest, recently told a small group of supporters outside of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters she believes there is an "opportunity for change". She has met and made public appearances with top government officials and insiders say that more meetings are imminent, perhaps as early as next week.
The high-level meetings, a parliamentary motion and recent official pronouncements have raised speculation that Thein Sein's government is poised to release over 2,000 political prisoners, a major sticking point to his winning international recognition for the country's recent transition from military to democratic rule. Many of those held are affiliated with Suu Kyi's NLD or other political groups opposed to military rule.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Wanna Maung Lwin told the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this week that the government intended to free more prisoners in the near future, though he did not mention whether political prisoners would be included. A government official who requested anonymity claimed they may be released in three batches, with more than 200 set to walk free within next week, including renowned comedian and blogger Zaganar.
If true, the release of political prisoners would send a clear signal both domestically and internationally that Thein Sein's government, formed in March after last year's elections, is following through on his democratic reform vows. "There is enough to make us cautiously optimistic, with the stress on optimistic," a senior International Labor Organization official in Yangon told Asia Times Online.
Although tight-lipped about the details of his visit, which included talks with both President Thein Sein and Suu Kyi, US special envoy to Myanmar Derek Mitchell was likewise upbeat about the prospects for change. At the end of an earlier visit, Mitchell said "genuine and concrete reforms" were needed before Washington would consider reciprocating. Thein Sein is lobbying for the end of US and European economic sanctions.
"I think it would be fair to say that winds of change are clearly blowing through [Myanmar]," Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told reporters in Washington earlier this month. "The extent of it is still unclear, but everyone who's gone there recognizes that there are changes."
Significantly, many of the government's concessions have come without formal announcement or legal commitment. To mark Democracy Day, the government unblocked many censored international news sites, including the BBC, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Burmese language broadcasts of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. The move followed an earlier relaxation of blocks on Skype, Yahoo! and Youtube.
The list of small incremental changes is long, though few if any have been enacted by law. The most critical change, however, is that Thein Sein, the country's quasi-civilian leader and former military general, seems willing to involve Suu Kyi in the country's political future. This represents a sharp reversal of the outgoing junta's stance, which banned her NLD after it refused to participate in last November's polls.
While Suu Kyi said she was happy with the outcome of her August 19 meeting with Thein Sein, few details of the substance of the talks have been revealed. The two met privately - "four-eyes", as Asian diplomats like to call it - for a little over an hour. Atmospherics and appearance matter in Myanmar's cultural context and both came out of the meeting relaxed and smiling.
More symbolically, a photo of General Aung San, Myanmar's independence hero and Suu Kyi's assassinated father, was hanging in the presidential palace where they met. Over the past decade, former ruling General Than Shwe had tried to remove Aung San's name and image from the national memory. Many analysts have perceived the reemergence of Aung San's portrait as a significant sign of change.
"It was important to show the Lady that we are willing to work with her," said a government official close to the president, referring to Suu Kyi. "We see her as a potential partner, not an adversary."
Another message apparently sent was that Suu Kyi is viewed by the new regime as an important public figure rather than a politician or leader of the legally banned NLD. During the closed door meeting, Thein Sein apparently talked about the role she could play in the future, according to sources in Naypyidaw who spoke on condition of anonymity.
They characterized the meeting as more trust-building exercise than negotiation, where both leaders laid out scenarios for the process of genuine reform and democracy to take root. Thein Sein apparently assured Suu Kyi that although her NLD party is currently illegal, it would be left alone and she would be free to travel freely inside the country, the sources said. Thein Sein's wife even invited her to an informal working dinner with other ministers' wives, they said.
Prisoner politics
The political prisoner issue was high on Suu Kyi's agenda, and she apparently told the president that there could be no forward movement without their unconditional release. Thein Sein's advisors know that this is also the key to improved relations with the outside world, including their neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A mass release would likely smooth the way for Myanmar to take ASEAN's chairmanship for 2014, a decision that will be made later this year.
Whether Thein Sein has the power to follow through, however, is still in question. Former junta leader Than Shwe has made it clear on at least two occasions - once just after last November's elections last and again earlier this year before Thein Sein was officially sworn in - that the release of political prisoners and jailed former military intelligence officers was non-negotiable.
However, a recent motion to free political prisoners adopted by a majority of parliament may have set the seal for the release of at least some of them. Analysts say it was highly significant that the lower house speaker Thura Shwe Mann - the former third top general in the ruling junta - was the one that steered the motion through parliament.
When it appeared the motion was set to be rejected, Thura Shwe Mann called a 15-minute recess on the pretense the computer screens which showed the voting results were down. During the break he apparently lobbied the military parliamentarians who make up 25% of parliament - a quota set by the new constitution adopted in a sham referendum in 2008 - to support the proposal. It then passed with a large majority.
Thura Shwe Mann, formerly seen as Than Shwe's heir apparent, strongly supports the new president, according to sources close to him. They say he sees the release of political prisoners issue as something he can support that would make a difference, both domestically and internationally. His support is crucial because for various reasons the government cannot be seen to be bowing to international pressure on the issue.
Thein Sein's and Suu Kyi's meeting also touched on private matters, according to inside government sources. Significantly, Thein Sein has recently intervened to save from demolition the now dilapidated house in which Aung San and his family once lived in Pymina while he was leading the battle for independence against British colonialists. Suu Kyi reportedly sent the president an old photo of the house with her standing outside of it when she was a very young child as a token of appreciation.
Diplomats in Yangon who have recently met Suu Kyi all say that she is confident about the future and optimistic about the possibility of genuine change. Thein Sein can be trusted, he is genuinely trying to reform the country, and needs international support, she has told several foreign envoys.
Long time observers see similarities between the current warming trend and previous secret talks between Suu Kyi and former military intelligence chief and prime minister Khin Nyunt. Those talks led to Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in May 2002 but little else. She was rearrested a year later after her entourage was attacked by armed pro-government thugs who massacred many of her supporters. Khin Nyunt was purged in 2004 and remains under house arrest.
While arguments persist as to whether those talks represented a genuine opening, there is little doubt that the lack of international support for Khin Nyunt's gambit contributed its demise. This time, diplomats say, the international community, including the US, is keen not to make the same mistake.
Like then, there are still military hardliners waiting in the wings ready to pounce if given the opportunity. These same hardliners - now led by the Vice President Thin Aung Myint Oo - are apparently not pleased by Thein Sein's overtures towards Suu Kyi. Some hardline ministers apparently did not know the meeting had taken place until they saw it on the evening television news, according to government insiders.
Many diplomats and analysts believe Thein Sein's conciliatory gestures are genuine and a mass release of political prisoners would set the stage for substantive talks with Suu Kyi towards national reconciliation. Government insiders claim another meeting between the two is tentatively scheduled for after next week's first phase release.
However some believe another military coup is also possible, particularly if the army decides change, including the release of political prisoners, risks instability. For the moment, the Armed Forces Commander Gen Min Aung Hlaing has signaled his support for Thein Sein and Thura Shwe Mann, but the military's sustained support is by no means certain.
That's especially true if former military supremo Than Shwe starts to feel threatened by the change underway, including engagement with Suu Kyi, and decides to intervene. Under the 2008 constitution, the military may legally seize power in the name of upholding national security. "If we fail, we'll end up in jail," said a senior member of government on condition of anonymity.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
***************************************************************
The Nation - Yingluck to visit Burma next week
September 29, 2011 10:51 am
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will visit Burma next Wednesday, a well-informed Government House source said Thursday.
She will leave Bangkok in the afternoon and visit Naypyidaw, the new capital of Burma.
Yingluck will hold a discussion with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein and will also pay a visit to Senior General Than Shwe, former chairman of defunct the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
The source said Yingluck will also visit the Uppasanti stupa in the new capital but she has no schedule to meet Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
***************************************************************
The Nation - PM has 'no plan' to meet Suu Kyi on Burma trip
September 30, 2011 12:41 pm
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has no schedule to meet Nobel laureate and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi when she pays a courtesy call on Burma next Wednesday, a government official said yesterday.
Yingluck will meet only with President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw and see only Burmese government officials during the one-day trip, the official said.
It is just a regular official visit to introduce herself after taking office to strengthen relations between |the two neighbours, the official said.
As part of Asean practice for new leaders, Yingluck has been greeting her counterparts in member countries on day trips.
Next will be Malaysia on October 11 and Singapore on October 12, followed by non-member China from October 19-21, the official said.
Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul had discussed Yingluck's planned visit with his Burmese counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin when they met in New York last week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Media have speculated that Yingluck might seek an opportunity to confer with Suu Kyi but no official has confirmed the reports.
Suu Kyi congratulated Yingluck when she won the July 3 election and hoped the first female prime minister of Thailand would support efforts in Burma to install democracy and restore national unity.
The pro-democracy leader is now in the process of making peace and reconciling with the elected Burmese government.
She met with President Thein Sein in August to discuss political reform in the country, which was ruled by a military junta for a long time.
The political situation in the country is now relaxed and Suu Kyi was allowed to make a political trip outside Rangoon as well as to meet foreigners, including many high-ranking officials from the United Nations, the United States and Europe.
***************************************************************
Business Standard India - Balance of power in Myanmar
Bhaskar K Mitra / September 27, 2011, 0:45 IST
This is probably the best book written on Myanmar after 1988. It is a must-read not only for diplomats, political analysts and CEOs of multinationals but also for readers who enjoy racy narrative, fascinating accounts of a bygone era, of Shangri-La, kings and generals, intrigue and heroism, the Tarons, remnants of the only known pigmy race in mainland Asia, and the lives of common people in some of the remotest parts of the region in and around Myanmar.
Thant Myint-U has brought to this book all his scholarship, narrative abilities, objectivity and acute powers of observation during his extensive travels through Myanmar, China and India. The nuances and undercurrents of Myanmar’s relations with China are brought out with great clarity. The author talks about the western media viewing Myanmar as a Chinese lackey, but adds, “the relationship, however, is far more complex.” This complexity is explained clearly with examples.
Since the China-Myanmar border was opened in the early 1990, one to two million Chinese have made their home in northern and north-east Myanmar, and everybody speaks about Mandalay becoming a Chinese city. An old Burmese family friend, a teacher in his 50s, tells the author that although Chinese immigration had generated economic activity in Mandalay, the Burmese people felt passed over: “the Chinese have moved in and the Burmese have had to move out.”
From the common man, the author moves to the top: “Burma’s generals were thankful for China’s friendship. But they were the same generation of generals who had fought nearly all their lives against Chinese-backed communist insurgents (and, some believed, regular Chinese soldiers), seeing their men and fellow officers die by the hundreds. Several generals in the 1990s had been trained in the West and had fond memories of America. In their minds something wasn’t quite right.”
A Myanmar army officer tells the author, “We know that India can’t really balance China for us … we would like better relations with the Americans, but as long as they are only interested in regime change, there is really nothing to talk about … we are asked to make risky concessions in return for vague promises. Maybe this works with other countries, but it won’t work with us.”
This is reflected in the Obama Administration’s policy: engagement with sanctions. As a gesture towards improving relations, the Burmese released over a hundred political prisoners and allowed senior US envoys to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi. Washington reciprocated through several small gestures. However, the interest in reaching a deal for full normalisation of relations remains tenuous.
Thant Myint-U also brings out the limitations of Chinese influence and the Myanmar regime’s ability to stand their ground when their core interests are threatened. In August 2009, the Myanmar armed forces carried out a massive strike against the Kokang (ethnic Mandarin-speaking Chinese) living in an enclave near Myanmar’s border with China, forcing almost 20,000 Chinese to take refuge in China. In December 2009, in the Chinese journal Contemporary International Relations, two academics from Yunnan University argued that the Kokang incident “was done to show the West that Myanmar ’s military government is adjusting its foreign policy, from just facing China to starting to have frequent contacts with United States, India and other large nations”.
Since Myanmar’s independence, the West had been a staunch ally and China among its greatest enemies. After 1988, the roles were reversed with unfortunate consequences: “the more the British and the Americans berated the regime at the UN, the more Chinese diplomatic protection became essential to the regime’s foreign policy.” In effect, the West handed over a solution for China’s “Malacca dilemma”, on a silver platter to the Chinese, who in 1999 took stock of the political and economic situation in Myanmar and officially inaugurated their “Western Development Strategy”.
Besides serious political issues, there are interesting stories. Herbert Hoover, about 20 years before he became US President, came to Burma as an up – and – coming partner of an international mining company. He lived for sometime with his family in a hill station called Maymyo and set up his own firm to make money from recently identified silver mines near the Chinese border.
There are many interesting descriptions of visits by Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who for a while lived and worked in Myanmar .
In the prologue, the author refers to the changing political and economic geography around Myanmar brought about by China and India and poses the central question on Myanmar: “what will be its fate, as India and China nudge closer together?” He adds that while some speak of a new Silk Road of co-operation, others warn of a new Great Game and conflict.
The answer is provided in the epilogue.
Thant Myint-U does not shy away from reflecting scenarios of dangerous cross-roads of isolation, violence and conflict but his love for Myanmar permeates the final happier
scenario, “one which sees real progress in Burma coupled with a quick end to Western sanctions because a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Burma would be a game changer for all Asia”. Hopefully, Thant Myint-U’s book will be the game-changer for Myanmar too.
The reviewer is former Indian Ambassador to Myanmar
***************************************************************
Forbes - Burma's Showy Crony
Simon Montlake, 09.28.11, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Asia Magazine dated October 10, 2011
Tay Za is the outside face of capitalism in a strange land. But who and what does he represent?
It was a clear morning last February when Tay Za boarded his private helicopter to tour a frozen lake in the far north of Burma, where he owns a luxury mountain lodge. The songs from the previous night's outdoor rock concert, a free event he had sponsored, were still ringing in his ears. As the chopper climbed above 15,000 feet he snapped photos of the lake's scalloped surface. Minutes later the pilot lost altitude and crashed-landed on a mountainside.
Tay Za and the crew scrambled free of the wreckage and made a distress call using a Chinese-made phone. Armed with a handful of candy bars and two bottles of water, they began to descend through waist-deep snowdrifts. That night, as the wind howled, five men and one woman huddled together in the lee of a rock at 12,000 feet, calling out to one another every five minutes to stay awake. "I didn't expect to make it," says Tay Za, 47.
It was another three days before they were plucked alive from the mountainside. By then the plight of Tay Za, Burma's richest tycoons, had become international news, and Burmese army and air force units had been deployed in the search, along with a chartered civilian helicopter from Thailand. All six people survived the ordeal with only minor injuries, though a pilot later lost both his feet to frostbite.
Having pulled off one great escape, can Tay Za manage another? His political connections helped him to prosper under military rule in Burma, also known as Myanmar, but also put him on the radar of Western governments that slapped sanctions on companies in his Htoo Group. The U.S. Treasury calls him "an arms dealer and financial henchman of Burma's repressive junta." While his net worth is disputed, his high-roller lifestyle--Italian sports cars, private jets, fine wines--made him an easy target for opponents of a largely faceless dictatorship.
Now that regime has gone, replaced in March by a semicivilian government that has begun to crack open Burma's economy. As a result the ground has shifted under the feet of Tay Za and other tycoons favored by General Than Shwe, the former dictator, to the delight of rival entrepreneurs jostling for openings. "The old cronies are getting passed over, and they're not happy about it," says a foreign economist.
Like Icarus, the Greek symbol of hubris, Tay Za may have flown too close to the sun. Encouraged by his junta patrons, he invested in lossmaking ventures such as aviation, hotels and agriculture, and offset his income from concessions for timber and gems and lucrative import licenses. Now he must manage a bloated empire that is vulnerable to political reversals, while navigating Burma's economic transition and the emergence of new competitors, potentially backed by foreign capital.
Tay Za says he's ready for the challenge. "We love competition ... we want a fair fight only," he tells FORBES ASIA in a rare interview at a Marina Bay Sands hotel suite in Singapore. Dressed in black jeans, a light sweater and loafers, he apologizes for canceling a previous meeting in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), his hometown. During lunch and a two-hour interview he is keen to set the record straight, while remaining coy about his financial status.
In April he told an Italian newspaper that Htoo Group had annual revenues of $500 million, making it one of Burma's largest conglomerates. Tay Za says that he's the largest shareholder in the parent company. But how much profit it generates and how much accrues to its chairman is unclear. Most companies in Burma decline to release financial data and aren't required by law to disclose their shareholdings.
Tay Za is scathing of anti-Burma sanctions in general and of U.S. sanctions that exempted Chevron, which together with Total operates Burma's largest producing gas field. Western governments have distorted the facts, he insists. He claims that he's sold only helicopters to the military--"no guns, no ammunition"--and isn't a prodigal relation of Than Shwe, as rumored. "I'm not a son-in-law of General Than Shwe. I'm not an arms dealer."
So who is Tay Za?He was born in 1964 to an army officer, a protégé of General Aung San, Burma's independence hero whose wartime alias was "Teza," a Sanskrit word that means radiant or bright (Tay Za is an alternative spelling). In 1947 a political rival assassinated Aung San on the eve of independence from Great Britain, but the two families remained close. His daughter Aung San Suu Kyi would later eclipse her father's global fame.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Tay Za enrolled at Burma's army cadet school. But in his third year he dropped out to marry his girlfriend against the wishes of both families (they separated in 2000). Back in Yangon he dabbled in business before being swept up in the events of 1988, when popular rage erupted against military rule and Suu Kyi emerged as an opposition leader. "This is our generation," says Tay Za, who joined street marches. He says Suu Kyi later stayed at his family compound outside Yangon, and was driven around in his car, before she was arrested in 1989.
The following year Tay Za founded Htoo Trading, which uses the name of his wife's family, respected merchants whose businesses had atrophied under socialism. He began by leasing a rice mill from his mother-in-law. Then he moved into timber at a time when large concessions near the border with Thailand were being auctioned off. Instead of competing with Thai bidders for easily accessible plots, Tay Za applied to log in remote areas far from the border. He extracted logs at $10 each that were later sold for $500 or more. "I was the biggest extractor in Myanmar," he says.
Yet even this apparent smart bet was greased by political connections. His father, a retired lieutenant colonel, was working for the Ministry of Industry and urged him to bid for the concessions. "My father told me ... the government floor price is too cheap. Whatever you have, you invest," he recalls. Timber remains a valuable division of Htoo Group, netting $75 million in profit in 2007, according to a leaked U.S. cable. Tay Za says he's no longer the top exporter of wood and is concerned for Burma's shrinking forests. "I try to stop because of the environment," he says.
Windfall profits from timber allowed Tay Za to invest in real estate, including his first hotel. He also began investing in Singapore and considered moving there before the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis but decided that he preferred to put capital into his own country. "If I invest in Singapore, only Singaporeans will benefit," he says.
Over the next decade Htoo Group morphed into a conglomerate with un limited appetite for new ventures. In 2004 it launched Air Bagan, the first private airline in Burma. It also rolled out branded luxury hotels and began leasing heavy machinery. That a timber trader had such deep pockets for capital-intensive projects raised eyebrows in Burma. Rumors spread that he was a bagman for the junta and had a direct line to Than Shwe and his spendthrift family.
Not so, says Tay Za, who denies that he's a nominee. He claims that his only one-on-one meeting with Than Shwe came after the helicopter crash when he thanked him for the rescue. He says his honesty and bluntness, as well as his father's rank, went down well with the junta. "At meetings, whatever I like to talk [about], I talk straightforwardly. Some generals like this very much. Not tricky, no hanky-panky," he says.
Other sources tell of a fortuitous visit by Than Shwe to Tay Za's beach resort that greatly impressed the general. Tay Za also forged an early alliance with Thura Shwe Mann, who rose to become the third-ranking leader in the regime. He first met Tay Za when he was a lowly colonel. Tay Za promptly hired the colonel's son Aung Thet Mann, a director of Htoo Group (both father and son are subject to U.S. sanctions). This was par for the course in Burma. "At the time, you know, all the colonels' sons liked to work at companies," he says.
At first he was infuriated by trade sanctions on his companies. But he argues that Western efforts to starve Burma's rulers of foreign investment have only strengthened his hand and made it harder for competitors to enter the market. "Under these kinds of sanctions, we are much richer," he says.
That argument rings true in a closed economy where generals dole out favors to cronies. But the rules of the game are in flux. Western sanctions crimp Tay Za's access to foreign capital and make him toxic to companies looking for joint-venture partners in Burma. "He needs to rebuild his reputation. He's not starting from zero. It's negative," says a consultant to multinational firms.
Take Htoo's chain of 17 hotels, which enjoys prime spots at Burma's main tourist destinations. Tay Za wants to hire an international management company to operate and rebrand them but hasn't found the right partner, for which he blames sanctions. He says he turned down an offer from a Thai hotel group because he wants a global brand. "I'm not interested in small chains," he says.
In Yangon, a long-neglected city that is slowly shedding its past, Tay Za's mansion is a local landmark. It lies a few blocks from the U.S. embassy and the lakeside villa where Suu Kyi has been detained repeatedly (she was released last November). Tay Za's collection of luxury cars (Ferrari, Rolls-Royce) is visible from the street, and passing taxi drivers point out his palatial home. Sean Turnell, an expert on Burma's economy at Australia's Macquarie University, calls him "an almost pantomime villain, clearly with a keen eye for attention."
Is Tay Za a crony? He frowns. "That's why Myanmar people aren't rich. Whoever comes up, they have so much jealousy. They attack in so many ways and create rumors," he complains.
The rumor mill has been working overtime lately. Burmese entrepreneurs say that Tay Za has run perilously short of cash, particularly since palm-oil imports were liberalized in May, and has tried to sell hotels to raise money. "He's not in a position of strength," says a businessman familiar with the operations.
Tay Za is also said to have received a recent bill for back taxes running into tens of millions of dollars. None of his companies appeared on a recent list of the top ten corporate taxpayers (Kanbawza Bank was first). Tay Za denies any tax evasion. "We pay our taxes," he says. Asked about recent tax bills, he says that he authorized a $2 million payment in early September.
Of Htoo Group's divisions, only timber, real estate and trading turn a profit. Tay Za says he prefers to invest in industries like tourism that create more jobs and diversify Burma's commodity-based economy. He has a reputation as a generous boss who instills loyalty in 40,000 full-time staffers. Hundreds of employees have gone overseas to study, including Burma's first female pilot, and perks quickly accrue to hardworking managers. "Whatever he makes, he shares. He's a fair person," says a Burmese investor with competing interests.
A football enthusiast and club owner, Tay Za often plays in staff matches at his club's training ground. He's also a patron of Burmese music. After lunch with FORBES ASIA he pops on a Burmese music CD, pulls out his guitar and calls over his executives. "I want you to hear this," he says, as he picks out a melody, face scrunched in concentration.
A trawl through leaked U.S. diplomatic cables reveals that Tay Za has defied previous doomsday calls. In March 2009 the U.S. embassy reported that "several of our business contacts believe Tay Za is bankrupt." The following year business circles were said to be "rife with rumors about Tay Za's alleged downfall" and his replacement by "upand-coming cronies."
Even before his helicopter went down, reports of his death seem to have been greatly exaggerated. He may yet have the last laugh.
Tay Za’s Major Holdings
1. AIR BAGAN
Burma’s first private airline. Fleet of 12 aircraft. $25 million to $30 million estimated resale.
2. ASIA GREEN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Opened August 2010.
3. HOTELS
Aureum Palace and Myanmar Treasure branded properties. 17 hotels, over 1,100 rooms: $120 million to $150 million.
4. MINING
Nickel, jade, limestone, gold.
5. CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE
$30 million to $40 million in Yangon residential projects.
6. EXPORTS
Timber, pulses, rice.
***************************************************************
Scoop.co.nz - Myanmar: Authorities Should Build on Gains To Transition
Thursday, 29 September 2011, 6:22 pm
Press Release: United Nations
Ban Calls on Myanmar’s Authorities to Build on Recent Gains towards Transition
New York, Sep 27 2011 - Recent developments bode well for progress in Myanmar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, while calling on the new Government to do more to ensure to bring about an inclusive transition.
A new Government was established in the South-East Asian nation six months ago, and more recently the country has received a series of high-level bilateral visits. In addition, President Thein Sein has made a pledge for Myanmar to “catch up with the changing world.”
“Real opportunities for progress exist, but the Government must step up its efforts for reform if it is to bring about an inclusive – and irreversible – transition,” Mr. Ban said in a press statement issued after the ministerial meeting of the Group of Friends on Myanmar, which was held at UN Headquarters on the margins of the 66th session of the General Assembly.
“In particular, the authorities must cultivate improved dialogue with all political actors and release all remaining political prisoners,” he said.
Mr. Ban said change is not only possible, but necessary, adding that the international community has a responsibility to support Myanmar’s change.
Formed in 2007, the Group of more than a dozen nations and regional blocs is designed to serve as a consultative forum for developing a shared approach in support of the Secretary-General’s good offices mandate on Myanmar.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister told the Assembly’s high-level debate today that the Government has launched a series of political, economic and social reforms aimed at improving the welfare of its people, but voiced regret that these efforts are being hampered by international economic sanctions.
Wunna Maung Lwin said that States that imposed unilateral sanctions against Myanmar should lift them now that it has “emerged as a new democratic nation in accordance with the constitution approved by the overwhelming majority of the people.”
He stated that Myanmar attached great importance to the promotion and protection of human rights, and that fundamental rights are guaranteed by the “relevant provisions of the constitution.”
As a gesture of “national reconsolidation,” the Government had last month offered an olive branch to all “national race armed groups,” Mr. Lwin said, adding that some of the groups had accepted the reconciliation offer.
He also highlighted what he said was the granting of an amnesty to 20,000 prisoners by Mr. Sein in May and that all of them had been released by the end of July.
“The President in exercising the mandate vested upon him by the constitution will further grant an amnesty at an appropriate time in the near future”
The Government is also reaching out to the international community, Mr. Lwin said, pointing out that Myanmar had received visits by heads of State and high-level delegations from regional and international organisations over the past five months. The President also made official visits to Indonesia and China.
***************************************************************
CIOL - Minister invites Indian cos to invest in Myanmar
Myanmar trade minister Myint said investment from India till now is very low and urged Indian businessmen to ‘explore ways and means’ to get a market in Myanmar
Thursday, September 29, 2011
NEW DELHI, INDIA: Trade minister of Myanmar on Tuesday invited Indian companies to invest in the country, saying that it offers opportunities for Indian exporters in a number of sectors.
“Since Myanmar imported a lot of consumer goods, industrial and infrastructural goods, there was a huge potential in those areas,” Myint said. He is currently on a visit to India to participate in the fourth India-Myanmar Joint Trade Committee meeting.
He said that India is presently the fourth largest export market and fifth largest trading partner of Myanmar with total bilateral trade of about $1.5 billion. He pointed out that investment from India till now was very low and urged Indian businessmen to ‘explore ways and means’ to get a market in Myanmar.
Myint said that Myanmar government is on a fast track to liberalize the economic policies through reforms to make it trade and investment friendly.
Referring to the forthcoming 'Enterprise India Show' being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Yangon from 10-13 November 2011, the minister expressed his hope that the event would provide opportunities for the enterprises of the two countries to come closer to each other and create a business environment conducive to trade and investment.
He felt that India, being rich in technology and capital resource in manufacturing and services, especially the ICT sector, could invest in Myanmar in the form of a joint venture or foreign equity.
Chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare and Chairman and MD, Medanta -The Medicity, said India-Myanmar cooperation in service sectors, such as healthcare, IT, science and technology, education, tourism etc., would create better understanding between the two countries and benefit the development on long term basis.
***************************************************************
Progress report on Myanmar
The Economist - Seeing the glass half-full
Sep 27th 2011, 10:44 by R.C. | SINGAPORE
THERE is mounting excitement about developments in Myanmar, after a summer of carefully choreographed meetings between the country’s normally shy, quasi-military rulers and...well, just about everyone else. Western diplomats and special envoys, American politicians (Republicans at that), UN folk: all have been allowed in and out to have face-to-face talks with Myanmar’s new ministers in order to assess whether the much vaunted political transformation there is real this time, or just another chimera. Just as significantly, government ministers and the new president, Thein Sein, have held unprecedented meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi, that icon of democracy and leader of the unofficial opposition—the generals even let her publish an article in a Burmese newspaper, the first time that’s happened for 23 years. For her part, she has said that the president wants to “achieve real positive change”.
If not quite a summer of love, all this certainly amounts to a step forward in Myanmar’s international rehabilitation. And last week there was another big boost for the optimists, with the publication of a report entitled “Myanmar: Major Reform Under Way” by the International Crisis Group (ICG), an influential Brussels-based think-tank. There’s nothing cynical or cautious about the tone of this report; the authors argue that “the political will appears to exist to bring fundamental change” to the country, and that “after 50 years of autocratic rule, [the country’s rulers] show strong signs of heralding a new kind of political leadership in Myanmar—setting a completely different tone for governance in the country and allowing discussions and initiatives that were unthinkable only a few months ago.”
Heady stuff—if true. However, having spoken to a couple of those who met with the generals this summer, I have the impression that the ICG is getting ahead of itself here. It’s true that the government seems eager to meet and listen to a range of people (including Ms Suu Kyi) who were off-limits only recently. But so far the government has taken almost none of the concrete stops that the West (and Ms Suu Kyi) are looking for as examples (or “benchmarks” in the diplomatic jargon) of real progress towards the sunny uplands of the new democratic, pluralistic society that the generals claim they want. In other words, so far it’s almost all words—unusually positive, and even uncensored words, but mere words nonetheless. So far, nothing has been said or done that couldn’t easily be reversed. So although most of their Western interlocutors have been encouraged by what they have seen and heard on their visits to Myanmar, there are still plenty of reasons to remain cautious and tread wearily.
Take the issue of political prisoners. The release of up to 2,000 such prisoners (mainly democracy activists and members of Ms Suu Kyi’s banned political party) is a central demand of the government’s critics. Diplomats who spoke with Myanmar’s official representatives in New York last week say that the Burmese actually discussed a list of 500 or so people that might at some point be released, but cautioned that it’s still a case of wait-and-see. Or take the issue of the ethnic conflicts on the eastern periphery of Myanmar, in Kachin, Shan and Kayin states. These have, if anything, worsened over the past year, with a rise in human-rights abuses by the Burmese army—hardly signs of a government hell-bent on fundamentally changing its ways.
Nonetheless, both sides, Myanmar’s generals and the West, are now at least engaged in a delicate diplomatic minuet—which might yield results in the future. The ICG argues that the West should take the lead with Myanmar, offering, for example, economic and financial engagement now, so at so encourage the reformers within the government. Most Western governments, however, are still waiting for more substantial signs of reform before they offer anything with cash value in exchange.
What is undoubtedly true is that if the Myanmar government does decide to make a dramatic move (release the 2,000 political prisoners, for example) then such a head of steam has built up in the West towards rethinking the old sanctions regimes that Western diplomats will have to relent. And so they should—the West has little to show for its decades-long shunning of Myanmar, other than having handed over much of the country to China. A deal is clearly there to be done. As always though, it’s how you get there that matters just as much as the outlines of the deal itself. Just ask the long-suffering advocates of a two-state solution in Palestine.
***************************************************************
The Economist - Western sanctions on Myanmar are failing. But the regime does not deserve their lifting
May 26th 2011 | from the print edition
THE party’s scarlet fighting-peacock flag flies again over the dilapidated Yangon headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Myanmar’s main opposition. This week the building housed a fund-raising art exhibition, featuring photographs of monks, pagodas and landscapes, as well as of Aung San Suu Kyi, the movement’s leader, free since November from house arrest. When she arrived to open the exhibition, it was to a dazzle of flash photography and the crush of an adoring throng.
Elsewhere, in a cramped suburban house, under a huge picture of Miss Suu Kyi, two dozen young people listen attentively to a lecture on their civic responsibilities. This is a short-term boarding school for opposition activists, run by the Bayda Institute, an NGO. Far from hiding its work, Bayda’s organisers positively welcome the increased scrutiny that foreign attention might bring.
For those looking for chinks of light in the gloom of Burmese political repression, these are cheering scenes. Some even hope for an end to the logjam in relations with the West, in which Western sanctions have further isolated a regime that has rarely sought engagement anyway. But in April the European Union’s “restrictive measures” were renewed for a year. And on May 20th, as Joseph Yun, a senior State Department official, was ending a visit to Myanmar seeking “common ground” with the new government, Barack Obama also extended American sanctions that are much more sweeping.
The move was understandable. The glimpses of tolerance for an active, vibrant opposition are largely illusory. The NLD, which boycotted the rigged election held in November, is in theory illegal. The notionally civilian regime now in power seems indistinguishable from the one in uniform it supplanted. Its newspapers still carry the same turgid slogans about a “discipline-flourishing democracy”. Parliament, meeting in a megalomaniacal complex in the remote new capital, Naypyidaw, has finished its first session with no date set for the next. The first saw some difficult questions asked of the government. But they were neither answered nor much reported in the press.
An “amnesty” from the new government, eagerly awaited by political prisoners, some of whom are serving sentences longer than 60 years, turned out, when it was revealed on May 17th, to be a cruel hoax for most. Officially, the government denies it holds any political prisoners, and its generosity entailed a blanket one-year reduction of sentences for all jailed criminals. At least 2,200 Burmese are in prison for their political beliefs.
A new crackdown on the NLD and its leader could come at any time. That it has not already is in part a measure of Miss Suu Kyi’s non-confrontational restraint since she was freed. However, she says that in a month or so she will start travelling beyond Yangon. In previous brief periods of “freedom” during her 23-year campaign for democracy, such expeditions have been enough to have her locked up again.
So it is hard to justify lifting sanctions, even though many foreigners now dealing with Myanmar, and many opposition activists in Myanmar itself, argue they are at best ineffective and probably counterproductive. Their original aim—to persuade the junta to honour the result of an election in 1990 that the NLD won in a landslide—now seems ancient history. Western squeamishness has not stopped the regime enriching itself with sales of gas to Thailand, or from opening the country to fast-growing Chinese trade and investment. Some Burmese joke bitterly their country has become the “Chinese Republic of the Union of Myanmar”.
Europe and America, meanwhile, have seen their visibility and influence in Myanmar dwindle. Some activists in Yangon even argue that Western sanctions actually make it harder for the government to make concessions, such as freeing prisoners of conscience. It cannot be seen to be bending to foreign pressure.
So long as Western governments for their part cannot be seen to be rewarding “reforms” that are largely cosmetic, there is stalemate. Miss Suu Kyi could help break it. Her unambiguous support for the end of sanctions would remove most of the political obstacles. But she, too, is in a bind. Not only can she not appear to abandon the political prisoners. But also, with her party illegal and her freedom subject to the whims of the regime, her international sway on the issue of sanctions is one of the few bargaining chips she has left.
Legitimate questions
And so the NLD has confined itself to calling for a “review” of sanctions, arguing that most harm the regime, not the Burmese people. Indeed, the measures vary greatly. America bans all fresh investment in the country, has frozen the assets of some officials and votes against loans to Myanmar in international financial institutions—one reason Myanmar receives much less aid per head of population than do, for example, Laos and Cambodia. The EU imposes an arms embargo, a visa ban on some senior officials (whose assets in the EU are also frozen) and refuses non-humanitarian aid. But Europeans are barred from investing in or importing only gems, timber and minerals.
Some of these restrictions, such as the visa ban and the arms embargo, can hardly be accused of harming the Burmese people. And even without sanctions there would be huge obstacles to Western investment: consumer boycotts, reputational risk, an unconvertible currency and an arbitrary legal framework. So a calibrated approach to lifting sanctions seems sensible. But it has to begin somewhere and, to happen at all, has to come before the next bout of repression. This week Miss Suu Kyi said she thought the regime’s leaders would now be more reluctant to crack down than in the past because “they have a lot more to lose; they are trying to establish their legitimacy.” But sooner or later, they may realise that, in the eyes of much of the outside world, as well as of their own people, they are never going to achieve that.
***************************************************************
This is Devon - Pioneering images may fetch £90,000
Thursday, September 29, 2011
A volume of photographs of Burma taken by a Westcountry photographer are being put up for auction.
The 112 prints by Victorian photographer Linnaeus Tripe are expected to sell for between £70,000 and £90,000 when they go under the hammer next month. The photographer, who was born in Plymouth in 1822, spent most of his career as an army officer in India which saw him document Indian life on film.
He gave his first exhibition in February 1854 when he took part in the Madras Exhibition of Raw Products, Arts, and Manufactures of Southern India.
His 68 images of previously unphotographed temples were judged to be "best series of photographic views on paper" by the exhibition jury.
That led to him to join an official British expedition to Burma in June 1855 where he took pictures over a 36-day period.
In all, Mr Tripe recorded 219 images of Burmese buildings and landscapes, including Amarapura, the capital of upper Burma, Irrawaddy and Rangoon.
These were subsequently assembled into 50 sets of 120 images each.
A Bonhams spokesman said the pictures were expected to fetch such a high price because very few complete or near complete sets were believed to have survived.
It added: "Tripe was an intrepid man and a true pioneer. The photographs in this volume were taken under very taxing conditions.
"Tripe himself was suffering from illness and the weather was bad.
"Instead of taking four months he'd set aside for the task, he had to achieve everything in 36 days.
"The results are astounding," the spokesman added.
Mr Tripe, who would later become official photographer to the Madras government, left India in 1873 before retiring with the rank of colonel in 1874. He returned to Plymouth where he died in March 1902.
The 112 images on sale in the "India and Beyond: Travel and Photography" have been up for auction by their American owner.
They go under the hammer next Tuesday, October 4.
***************************************************************
Bauk Ja, a Kachin activist, evades police capture
Thursday, 29 September 2011 19:49 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – National Democratic Force (NDF) member Bauk Ja, who is a leader in the signature campaign against the Myitsone Dam project, said that she has evaded arrest by police since she was informed they were searching for her this week.
On Sunday, while traveling from Rangoon to Mandalay, a person close to a Military Affairs Security Unit in Myitkyina informed Bauk Ja that police were waiting for her in a railway station and at her home to arrest her.
“A person informed me,” she said. “When the person asked me where I was, I answered that I was in Mandalay. Then, the person told me not to return because police were waiting for me not only in my home but also the railway station,” Bauk Ja told Mizzima. Similarly, in January police inquired about Bauk Ja at her home in Aungya Village in Hpakant Township in Kachin State. She was informed in advance and evaded police then also.
On Sunday and Monday, police asked her lawyer Myint Thwin whether Bauk Ja came to his house in Mandalay and monitored the house, according to Myint Thwin.
“She has to evade them,” he said. “I don’t know exactly the reason. I don’t know what the police want to do. So, I’m still inquiring about it,” Myint Thwin told Mizzima.
Bauk Ja said she has participated in the ongoing signature campaign against the Myitsone Dam project, collecting signatures from people in Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, Pegu [Bago], Bagan and Monywa, all located along the Irrawaddy River.
Originally, along with several lawyers, she had planned to provide training for party canvassing to farmers at the headquarters of the Kachin State National Democratic Force party in Myitkyina, but she was unable to travel there, she said.
She told Mizzima that she thought that the authorities were trying to arrest her to prevent her organizing similar signature campaigns in Kachin State.
The ward administrative office chiefs in Hpakant Township asked Christian churches whether she had organized signature campaign against Myitsone Dam, she said.
Recently, after widespread objections against construction of the dam, Burmese No. 1 Electrical Power Minister Zaw Min cited Parliamentary decisions as the authorization for moving ahead on the project. On the other hand, the NDF headquarters issued a party statement saying the approval of the Myitsone Dam project by Parliament was not enough to continue it and the authorities should ask for people’s opinions.
Bauk Ja has also worked to help farmers file compensation lawsuits against the Yuzana Company owned by former junta business associate Htay Myint, which seized farmland around five villages in Hpakant Township in Mohnyin District.
She ran unsuccessfully in the general election in 2010 as an NDF candidate in Hpakant Township. After the election, she filed a lawsuit with the Election Commission Tribunal against the current Union Minister for Cooperatives, Ohn Myint, (a former major general) of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party for electoral fraud. She later dropped the lawsuit.
***************************************************************
NLD considers registering as official political party
Thursday, 29 September 2011 21:35 Tun Tun
New Delhi (Mizzima) – If the government continues to make progressive political changes, the National League for Democracy (NLD) will consider registering as an official political party, according to NLD lawyer Nyan Win.
“We are awaiting the government’s changes,” he said. “We will not decide in advance whether we will register or not. As the conditions change, we will make the decision,” Nyan Win said.
Since Burma created a parliamentary government after the election in November 2010, NLD leaders have discussed the issue of re-registering the organization, he said. Currently, he said the NLD thinks that recent governmental changes–although important–have not risen to the level to justify re-registering as a political party.
“It’s unusual. But, we cannot specify what the differences really are,” Nyan Win said.
In the nationwide general election in 1990, the NLD won 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats, but the former military junta did not convene the parliament and began a campaign to arrest and oppress NLD members.
The NLD did not re-register itself as a political party and did not contest in the 2010 general election, alleging that the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and electoral laws for the 2010 general elections were unjust. However, it still claims that it is a legal political party.
On September 14, 2010, the Union Election Commission (UEC) officially declared that the NLD was dissolved because it had failed to re-register. After the announcement, the NLD filed legal appeals, but various courts rejected them.
“In politics, we need to consider the time and the real circumstances. We have not decided. We will consider everything and make a decision,” Nyan Win said.
He said there could be divergent opinions among party supporters, but the NLD will serve the people and if it re-registers, it will cooperate with other parties.
Meanwhile, NLD General-Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with the government laison representative Union Minister Aung Kyi on Friday.
It will be Suu Kyi’s third meeting with Aung Kyi under the new government. The meeting will be held at the Sane Lae Kan Thar state guesthouse at 1 p.m.
“This will be a follow-up to previous meetings. We hope that we can take a step forward to seek national reconciliation,” Nyan Win said.
Their last meeting was held on August 12. After the meeting, both sides issued a joint four-point statement of their intent: to cooperate for stability and development in the country; to cooperate for the flourishing of democracy in the country and better development in economic and social areas; to avoid conflicting views; to focus on mutual cooperation and to continue the meetings.
Union Minister Aung Kyi was appointed as liaison minister in October 2007 to meet with Suu Kyi. They have met 11 times.
***************************************************************
AAPP: rechecking number of political prisoners in Burma
Thursday, 29 September 2011 21:12 Ko Wild
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – How many political prisoners are in Burmese jails? The Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B) joint secretary Bo Kyi says his group is updating its records to try to determine an exact number.
“We are making sure of the accuracy of our numbers and updating our list,” he said. “Our list might be incomplete. We know some of them were arrested, but we can’t trace them afterwards and we don’t know their current status, whether they have been released or are being detained.”
Bo Kyi responded to Mizzima’s question after presidential adviser Ko Ko Hlaing was interviewed on Radio Free Asia -Burmese Service during his tour of the U.S. In the interview, he said that the actual number of political prisoners was less than the figure cited by AAPP-B when the government rechecked it.
“The actual figure is not as high as their [AAPP] list,” he said. “Some of the prisoners on their list are still prisoners. But I don’t know the exact number.
“Even so, some of the prisoners are imprisoned in connection with heinous crimes such as bombings, illegal drug cases and murder cases. We were told that hundreds of such criminals are included in their political prisoners’ list.”
According to the AAPP-B list, there were 1,998 political prisoners at the end of August 2011.
“Some of these political prisoners were sent to prison labour camps so it took a lot of time to access those in the camps. We cannot access some of them,” Bo Kyi told Mizzima.
The AAPP-B compiled its list from various sources such as government press conferences, prisoners released from prisons and governmental departments. Also the AAPP definition of political prisoners is different from the government’s definition, he said.
“In Burma, there are civil war and ethnic issues. In our definition, those from ethnic armed groups and those arrested for supporting and working in ‘unlawful’ associations are political prisoners,” Bo Kyi said.
He gave an example of the case of DVB reporter Hla Hla Win in making his argument. The reporter was arrested in September 2009 on her way back from interviewing monks in Pakokku. She was then charged under the Export-Import Act because her motorcycle had no license and under the Electronic Law. She was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment and is being detained in Katha Prison.
“We look at why these prisoners were arrested and imprisoned and disregard the charges made by the government under different sections of criminal laws,” Bo Kyi said.
The Burmese government does not recognize the word political prisoners; it only uses the word prisoners.
Attorney Aung Thein, a member of the Legal Aid group of the National League for Democracy (NLD), also cited the example of Myint Aye, a member of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP). Some prisoners are arrested, he said, but if the authorities lack evidence the prisoners may be tortured to extract confessions for crimes they didn’t commit. Myint Aye is being detained now in Loikaw Prison, he said.
“We cannot say such prisoners are bombers though the government charged them in a bomb blast case,” he said. He said the NLD is giving some prisoners financial assistance to help in their ordeal.
HRDP member Myint Aye worked in human rights awareness campaigns, but he was charged with the bombing of a Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) office in Rangoon. He was sentenced to prison in November 2008.
Aung Thein said that the government frequently used laws such as sedition, unlawful assembly, unlawful association, illegal border crossing, the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, the 1962 Printers and Publishers Act and the Electronic Law in charging political prisoners.
Some political prisoners are simply framed under false criminal cases, he said.
In May 2011, President Thein Sein issued a limited amnesty which commuted all prison sentences by one year and more than 14,600 prisoners were released from prisons across the country. Only a few political prisoners were included. The number of political prisoners released at that time was not made known, but it was estimated that the number was between 30 and 70.
In an address delivered at the 66th U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said that another amnesty order was likely to be issued soon.
Among the more than 1,998 political prisoners, 37 “88-generation” student leaders are serving sentences of more than 65 years; SSA-N (Shan State Army-North) chairman Major General Se Htin is serving 106 years; and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party leader Khun Tun Oo is serving a term of 93 years.
***************************************************************
DVB News - Hundreds hit by dysentery in Mandalay
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 29 September 2011
Hundreds of people are believed to have been hit by an outbreak of dysentery and influenza in Mandalay city in central Burma as hospitals struggle to cope with the burden.
A resident of the city, home to just over a million people, told DVB that the illness had spread in the densely populated downtown areas of Mandalay.
“Hospital wards are overcrowding so they [patients] are being kept on benches. Those suffering from dysentery are being given drips, but it’s life threatening for those who cannot afford [treatment].”
Influenza has also spread among inhabitants, placing a strain on the city’s already undernourished healthcare facilities.
One clinic in the city, run by the Byanmaso Charity Association, which offers medical services free of charge, had received up to 400 patients over the weekend, a member of staff there told DVB. The cause of the illnesses is unknown, although the unseasonably hot weather in central Burma is thought to have fueled the spread.
Free medical care is scarce in Burma, where the government’s annual spending on health ranks among the lowest in the world, at around two percent of the yearly budget.
The government is yet to issue a warning about the outbreak of illness in the country’s second city.
***************************************************************
DVB News - Parliament to decide on protest bill
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 29 September 2011
A bill that will enshrine into law tight restrictions on the ability of Burmese to hold political demonstrations is to be discussed in parliament after being submitted this week by the home affairs minister.
An anonymous MP in the People’s Parliament, where the motion will be voted on in early October, told DVB that the draft bill with classified for parliamentary representatives only.
“It specified that permission [for rallies or demonstration] must be sought seven days prior to the event from township-level police commanders,” he said. Details on the location, date, time, designated routes of the rally and personal details of individuals giving speeches would also have to be handed over.
Curtailment of the freedom to demonstrate was aggressively ramped up following the September 2007 uprising. In the weeks after the bloody crackdown by police and army, the government banned gatherings of more than five people in public.
The man behind the bill, Home Affairs Minister Ko Ko, was a high-ranking official in the former junta, and has retained his Lieutenant General title. He claims to have written the bill in line with the 2008 constitution, which has been widely derided.
Critics of the new Burmese government claim it is a rebranded version of the junta that ruled until March this year, with many key players, including President Thein Sein, powerful forces in the old administration.
The nearly half century during which Burma was under military left little space for public displays of anger towards the country’s leaders – the infamous 1988 uprising resulted in the deaths of more than 3000 people after the army set about neding the protests.
Myo Nyunt, spokesperson of Democracy and Peace Party, which failed to win any seats in parliament in the 2010 elections, said the government’s ongoing “paranoia” made the likelihood of unrestricted protests slim.
Parliament has set 30 September as a deadline for its representatives to submit thoughts on the bill, and will decide whether or not to approve it next week.
***************************************************************
DVB News - Bringing Burma’s nuclear secrets to the table
By ROBERT KELLEY
Published: 29 September 2011
With the recent admission that Burma does not have the resources to contemplate pursuing nuclear weapons, the government has made an important step towards rejoining the world community. It should take this opportunity to sign the international agreements it has praised and join the club of responsible nations. Failing to do so could provide something of an acid test regarding allegations levelled against its military ambitions.
That Burma “cannot afford” nuclear weapons, as the ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Tin Win, said in Vienna last week, may come as no surprise: its decision in 2005 to relocate the capital from Rangoon would have cost billions of dollars and strained the country’s treasuries. Last year’s expose by DVB of a nascent weapons’ programme clearly stated that the project would likely prove too ambitious for the government.
But the admission last week could have myriad benefits for the country and its decrepit energy and health sectors. Burma has had an on-off agreement with Russia to build a nuclear reactor and research laboratory in the country since 2001. The agreement was formalized in 2007, but Russia has never been willing to complete the deal because Burma has obsolete agreements with the IAEA. No country could consider giving nuclear technology to Burma when it has insulated itself against any IAEA inspections.
Burma’s treaty agreements with the IAEA stipulate that it has no nuclear materials and no nuclear facilities, and in practice, the IAEA waives the right to normal inspections in the country since both parties agree there is nothing to inspect. There has never been an inspection in Burma to verify the misuse of nuclear materials, and it’s unlikely there ever will be, because according to the agreement there are no materials. This is, of course, an endless circular argument.
A research reactor would be a very ordinary research tool in a small country like Burma. It would represent no threat to world peace, particularly when it is subject to regular IAEA nuclear material inspections. But without inspections there would be constant concerns that even a small facility could be used for nefarious purposes. Such a facility would cost Burma about $US150 million, a very small sum for a country rich in mineral, timber and gas resources. If Burma feels this is a strain on the budget, it is because the money is being spent elsewhere, likely on the military.
It is not clear how Burma planned to use its research reactor. The most likely use would have been to produce medical isotopes for healthcare, a sector so fractured that it might be that the relatively high technology products for nuclear medicine go unused. The reactor could be used to train nuclear engineers for bigger projects in the distant future, for at present, Burma’s decrepit technology base means that nuclear power is a distant dream.
Now that Burma has publicly renounced any nuclear activities, there should be no barriers to signing a modern nuclear materials safeguards agreement with the IAEA and modifying its existing codicils that essentially prohibit nuclear inspections in the country. Burma’s current agreements are dated from the early 1990s and are completely obsolete.
Burma needs to consider signing the Model Additional Protocol, which grants the IAEA additional inspection rights. It requires Naypyidaw to submit more information on its imports and exports of nuclear materials, and report on existing nuclear activities. Because Burma has now declared that all planned nuclear activities have ceased, this should be no problem.
It would help to refute accusations by some exiles and analysts, including me, that the government is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. This evidence comes from activities in two mechanical workshops built around 2005 and equipped with modern European machine tools of high calibre. These tools are possibly building processing equipment that could produce uranium for a reactor or a bomb. The equipment was photographed by a Burmese army defector, who smuggled the images out of the country.
To be sure, even if Burma allows inspections under a modern IAEA agreement, the workshops would not be the immediate sites for vetting because they have no nuclear materials, but are only workplaces supporting a programme elsewhere. Fears surrounding these programmes are fuelled by reports of uranium mining, mostly in Shan state, and alleged nuclear activities at Thabeikkyin, north of Mandalay. None of this is being reported to the IAEA.
If Naypyidaw steps up to the table and signs a modern full inspection agreement with IAEA, then Burma can put these claims to rest. IAEA supervision would also temper concerns about a research reactor.
Failing to do this, however, means that it remains in the small club of countries, alongside Iran and Syria, that have refused to sign the modern agreements, and will retain pariah status. Using the occasion in Vienna to reiterate Burma’s commitment to international nuclear material safeguards and robust nuclear inspections holds little credibility unless it is followed with more tangible action.
Robert Kelley is a former director at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
***************************************************************
Burma Flag
ေတာ္လွန္ေရးသီခ်င္းမ်ား(Politics Song)
Friday 30 September 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
ေမ.မရေသာ ရွစ္ေလးလံုး အေရးေတာ္ပံု
ဆက္သြယ္ရန္အီေမးလ္
လာလည္ၾကေသာမိတ္ေဆြမ်ား
သင့္ IP ကိုၾကည့္ရန္
1 comments:
Hello Everybody,
My name is Mrs Sharon Sim. I live in Singapore and i am a happy woman today? and i told my self that any lender that rescue my family from our poor situation, i will refer any person that is looking for loan to him, he gave me happiness to me and my family, i was in need of a loan of S$250,000.00 to start my life all over as i am a single mother with 3 kids I met this honest and GOD fearing man loan lender that help me with a loan of S$250,000.00 SG. Dollar, he is a GOD fearing man, if you are in need of loan and you will pay back the loan please contact him tell him that is Mrs Sharon, that refer you to him. contact Dr Purva Pius,via email:(urgentloan22@gmail.com) Thank you.
BORROWERS APPLICATION DETAILS
1. Name Of Applicant in Full:……..
2. Telephone Numbers:……….
3. Address and Location:…….
4. Amount in request………..
5. Repayment Period:………..
6. Purpose Of Loan………….
7. country…………………
8. phone…………………..
9. occupation………………
10.age/sex…………………
11.Monthly Income…………..
12.Email……………..
Regards.
Managements
Email Kindly Contact: urgentloan22@gmail.com
Post a Comment