Myanmar to stop construction of controversial dam
Myanmar president calls for halt to construction of controversial Chinese-backed dam
On Friday September 30, 2011, 6:49 am EDT
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's president called Friday for work on a controversial Chinese-backed hydroelectic dam to be halted and the concerns of its critics settled, in a startling turnaround welcomed by democracy activists and environmentalists.
President Thein Sein said in a statement read out on his behalf at Parliament that the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project in the northern state of Kachin should be suspended because "it is against the will of the people."
Thein Sein said all construction would be stopped for the duration of his term -- at least until 2015 -- in a striking reversal for the government. Earlier this month, Electric Power Minister Zaw Min had vowed the project would go ahead despite swelling public opposition and widespread criticism.
The construction by Chinese state-owned companies already had been under way, and it was not clear how Myanmar's decision would affect relations with Beijing, which had no immediate reaction to the announcement.
Thein Sein's statement said Myanmar would discuss pending contracts regarding the dam with China.
Environmental activists have said the dam would displace countless villagers and upset the ecology of one of the country's most vital national resources, the Irrawaddy River. It also would submerge a culturally important site in the ethnic Kachin heartland where the Malikha and Maykha rivers meet to form the Irrawaddy.
The Myitsone dam was supposed to export about 90 percent of electric power it generated to neighboring China, according to the government. The vast majority of Myanmar's residents, meanwhile, have no electricity.
"This is the first time in 50 years that the government has given in to the wishes of the people," said Dr. Than Tut Aung, a prominent publisher who is also one of the leading advocates of the "Save the Irrawaddy" campaign. "The decision to suspend the dam project is not just an environmental issue but a national issue. We welcome the good news."
Thein Sein came to power in March after the nation's long-standing junta disbanded, promising to bring democratic reforms to one of Asia's most repressive nations.
But skeptics see his government -- dominated by retired military officers -- as a proxy for continued army rule, and there has been much debate over whether his reform pledges are merely rhetoric.
The new government has boosted hope for change by unblocking the long-censored Internet, calling on exiles to return, and holding talks with prominent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from seven years of house arrest last year.
Yet more than 2,000 political prisoners remain behind bars, while fighting with multiple armed ethnic rebellions has displaced about half a million people within the country and forced at least 200,000 more to flee abroad.
On Friday, Suu Kyi met for a third time with Labor and Social Welfare Minister Aung Kyi, part of an ongoing dialogue between the two sides that some see as proof the that concrete change is imminent.
Afterward, Suu Kyi said she welcomed Thein Sein's message on suspending the Myitsone dam.
"All governments should listen to the voices of the people," she said.
Last month, Suu Kyi joined forces with activists opposing the project. She said about 12,000 people from 63 villages had already been forced from their land. The government has put the figure far lower, saying around 2,000 people have been relocated.
Thein Sein's statement was read out during a Parliament session in the capital, Naypyitaw, by lower house speaker Thura Shwe Mann.
"We have to honor the wishes of the people and we have to seriously consider and settle the concerns of the people," the statement said. "Hence, the construction of Myitsone hydropower dam project shall be suspended."
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei had no immediate reaction to the developments, telling a daily news conference he had to "verify the situation you have raised."
With China on the eve of a weeklong national holiday, major state-run companies involved in the project -- China Power Investment Corp., China Gezhouba Group Corp. and China Southern Power Grid Corp. -- either deferred comment or did not answer telephone queries.
Environmental groups say such projects are helping fuel violence in the region as government forces struggle to secure them. In June, fighting broke out in Kachin state for the first time in nearly two decades at the site other Chinese-backed dam projects opposed by rebels and local residents.
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FIFA kicks Myanmar out of 2018 WCup qualifying
4 hours, 36 minutes ago
ZURICH (AP)—FIFA has kicked Myanmar out of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup as punishment for crowd violence at a 2014 qualifier in July.
Fans threw stones and water bottles onto the field during Myanamar’s game against Oman on July 28, forcing the referee to abandon the match.
Oman was leading 2-0 at the time and was awarded the victory by that score. Oman, which also won the first leg 2-0, advanced to the next round of Asian qualifying on 4-0 aggregate.
FIFA’s disciplinary committee says the Myanmar soccer federation failed to prevent “improper conduct of supporters” and “is excluded from taking part in the matches of the preliminary competition” for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The federation was also fined $28,000.
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Myanmar, US diplomats hold rare talks in Washington
(AFP) – 19 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin held rare talks Thursday in Washington with senior US State Department officials as the United States welcomed signs of political change in Myanmar.
Wunna Maung Lwin met Derek Mitchell, the newly appointed US coordinator on Myanmar, Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Michael Posner, a specialist in human rights, US officials said.
State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said he did not know when was the last time a foreign minister from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, visited the State Department.
"The meeting follows on recent US engagement efforts with the Burmese delegation at the UN General Assembly last week, as well as Ambassador Mitchell's travel to Burma earlier in September," Toner said.
Under US President Barack Obama, the United States has pursued a dual-track policy of diplomatic engagement towards and sanctions against Myanmar, which has a record of crushing political dissent.
Toner said Washington will maintain its dual-track approach but "we do welcome recent developments in Burma, such as the government of Burma's ongoing dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi," the democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate.
"And we're going to continue to encourage progress on all the core issues," he added.
These include the release of all political prisoners, "as well as an inclusive dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minorities towards national reconciliation, and improvements in accountability on human rights," he said.
They also include "an end to violence occurring in ethnic minority areas, as well as an adherence to... relevant UN nonproliferation resolutions," Toner added.
A senior US official said earlier this month the United States was studying the "clear winds of change blowing through Burma" to determine whether the countries could "substantially improve" their relationship.
The official, however, reiterated that the United States still had "real concerns" in Myanmar, including the military's "horrible brutalities" against ethnic minority guerrillas and the treatment of women.
Myanmar last year held rare elections after which the military nominally handed power to civilians, although the opposition and the United States have criticized both steps as shams.
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Myanmar makes exchanging money easier
AFP News – 8 hours ago
Myanmar is to allow six banks to open foreign exchange counters from October, state media reported, in a step towards reforming its currency regime and stamping out illegal money-changing.
The New Light of Myanmar said the official currency exchange counters on Yangon's Theinbyu Road would make life easier for tourists, help eliminate black market money changing and stabilise the kyat exchange rate.
The booths will exchange US and Singapore dollars as well as euros at rates in line with international currency exchange markets, it said.
They will be the first foreign exchange counters operated by private banks.
Myanmar has a highly complex exchange rate system, with official, semi-official and unofficial rates, as well as Foreign Exchange Certificates.
With the official government rate fixed at around just six kyat per dollar, almost everyone uses black market money changers, who were offering about 800 kyat per dollar this week.
The new civilian government has invited a team from the International Monetary Fund to visit the country formerly known as Burma in October to offer advice on reforming the forex market and unifying its multiple rates.
The unusual request by a regime which regards international institutions with suspicion is seen an indication of the gravity of the currency market disarray and a tentative sign it is warming to modern economic reforms.
The kyat's value has risen sharply against the dollar in recent years, dealing another blow to the authoritarian country's crumbling economy, particularly for exporters.
Experts say possible reasons for the currency's strength are the general weakness of the greenback, booming exports of gas and other resources, weak import demand, more foreign visitors and rising investment inflows.
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Asian Correspondent - Burma’s President postpones the Irrawaddy dam project cleverly
By Zin Linn Sep 30, 2011 6:05PM UTC
Burma’s nominal civilian government has suspended a controversial $3.6 billion hydroelectric power project which has faced objections from various social strata nationwide, according to the Eleven News Media Group.
The 500-foot dam has been under construction at the confluence of the Mali Hka River and N’Mai Hka River, 27 miles north of the Kachin capital of Myitkyina. Construction at Myitsone began December 21, 2009, led by China’s state owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in cooperation with Burma’s Asia World Company (AWC) and the Burmese government’s No. 1 Ministry of Electric Power.
Remarkably, AWC owner is former drug lord, Lo Hsing Han. It will cost 3.6 billion dollars and most of the 6000 MW of electricity produced will be sold out to China.
On 10 September, Union Minister for Electric Power No (1) Zaw Min said in a meeting with media, the government will carry on construction of the Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River despite severe criticism and environmental and communal risks, some Rangoon-based journals spotlighted.
Zaw Min also challenged the people that the government will not withdraw the project due to any objection.
Antagonism to the hydro-power dam on the Irrawaddy has been increasing because pro-democracy and environmental activists test the limits of their right under the new outwardly civilian government, which is under control by military officers from previous junta. If the government stubbornly stuck up for the dam project, there might be another mass protest similar to the 1988 people’s uprising.
In such a critical moment, President Thein Sein sent a letter of presidential office dated 29 September to the current parliament regular session. There are 10 points in the President’s letter. Suspension of the Myitsone dam project is one in the 10-point letter saying that the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin state would be put off during the term of the existing government.
According to the president’s letter No. 151 (2) 8/3, the Irrawaddy dam project must be postponed since the government has been elected by the people and it has an obligation to respect the determination of the people, the Eleven Media Group’s Online journal said.
In 2009, Thailand-based Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) published a report – “Resisting the Flood” – highlighting the implementation of the Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River. The report demanded a halt to the project that is sponsored by the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), its main investor and contractor.
The dam project creates unwelcome impacts like social, environmental, livelihood, cultural and security problems for tens of thousands of people in the Kachin State. The report states that more than 15,000 people in 60 villages around the dam sites are being forcibly relocated without proper relocation. These individuals have lost their means of livelihood such as farming, fishing and collection of non-timber forest products.
In the past, Kachin people had made an official plea to the former junta’s boss Senior-General Than Shwe to stop the project due to environmental damage. But he always turned a deaf ear to the call. The junta boss regularly obeys the Chinese government over the dam projects.
In a statement issued on 11 August, Burma’s Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said the dam endangers the flow of the Irrawaddy River, which she described as “the most significant geographical feature of our country.
“We believe that, taking into account the interests of both countries, both governments would hope to avoid consequences which might jeopardize lives and homes,” Suu Kyi emphasized.
“To safeguard the Irrawaddy is to save from harm our economy and our environment, as well as to protect our cultural heritage,” she added.
On 20 September, Burmese security Police detained a 46-year-old man who staged a rare solo protest against the project outside a Chinese embassy building in Yangon. He raised a banner demanding a halt to the Myitsone hydropower dam project in Kachin state, electricity from which will sell out to neighboring China.
As a great number of Burmese citizens inside and outside the country opposed the massive dam project, the president decided to suspend it. The president’s decision seems to be wiser this time avoiding nationwide protest in time.
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30 September 2011 Last updated at 12:10
BBC News - Burma dam: Why Myitsone plan is being halted
By Rachel Harvey BBC South East Asia Correspondent
In a rare concession, the Burmese government has suspended a long planned and highly controversial hydroelectric dam project in the face of growing public opposition.
The campaign against the construction of the Myitsone dam brought together conservationists, scholars, and political activists including Aung San Suu Kyi, and had become a serious test for the new civilian-led, military-backed government.
Myitsone was being developed jointly by the state Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power, the privately-owned Asia World Company of Burma and the China Power Investment Corporation.
Scheduled for completion in 2019, the dam would have created a reservoir some 766 sq km (296 square miles) - an area slightly bigger than Singapore. The vast bulk of the electricity generated - some reports say as much as 90% - was destined for export to China.
Myitsone had become something of a cause celebre for those who fear China's growing influence in Burma. Beijing, exploiting the void created by international sanctions, has moved rapidly to harvest Burma's rich natural resources.
"There's a widespread perception that China has taken advantage of Burma's situation over these past decades," according to Thant Myint-U, author of Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia.
"Burma can benefit enormously from Chinese trade and investment, but there is almost bound to be a backlash if Chinese projects are undertaken with zero transparency and little concern for their impact on local communities."
Myitsone is, or rather was, being built at the head of the Irrawaddy - the confluence of the Mali and N'Mai rivers - in Kachin state. It's an area of rich biodiversity, less than 100km from a tectonic fault line. Or to put it another way, Myitsone was a huge construction project in an environmentally sensitive, earthquake-prone area where armed ethnic minority Kachin fighters are battling the Burmese army.
The Kachin Independence Organisation saw the dam as a direct threat to its people and their livelihoods. Thousands of local villagers have already been resettled to make way for the dam; thousands more would have been forced to move as the project developed. But there was no public consultation.
Burma's birthplace
The potential environmental impact is harder to gauge. There is no legal obligation in Burma to conduct any assessment, though the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) did commission a study by Chinese and Burmese experts. The report has not been made public, but parts have been leaked to activists. It is understood to have recommended two smaller dams be built instead of one, but that advice was ignored.
According to Grace Mang, from lobby group International Rivers, the CPI instead said it would study the impact of the dam during its construction. "The whole point of conducting an impact assessment is to prevent or mitigate impacts before they occur," she said. "If it's found that the environmental or social impact is unacceptable, then the project shouldn't be going ahead."
In the event, it may have been cultural and political calculations that led to the project being suspended. The Myitsone dam resonated well beyond the conservationist or Kachin communities because of its location, at the birthplace of the Irrawaddy.
"The Irrawaddy is the Burmese people's heritage, lifeline and civilisation," said Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy news website. "Everyone feels attached to it. That's the reason the campaign [against the dam] gained such support."
Outside Burma, activists from both environmental and human rights groups threw their weight behind the campaign. As Grace Mang put it: "They are flooding, quite literally, the birthplace of Burma. That's why so many are opposed."
'Bold decision'
Despite the fact that the man responsible for the project, Burma's minister of electric power, Zaw Min, only recently vowed that "we will never back down", other government figures began to waver. A diplomatic source based in Rangoon told the BBC: "There are signs of increasing unease among some ministers in Nay Pyi Taw. Maybe some political leaders do not want their legacy to be one of irreparable damage to the Irrawaddy."
This is, after all, a government that has been trying hard to convince a sceptical public at home and abroad that it is different from its military predecessor and serious about reform. Speaking ahead of the announcement that the Myitsone project was to be put on ice, Burmese author Thant Myint-U put forward the view that the dam could be a perfect opportunity for the new administration to prove itself. "Suspending work on the dam would be the best sign so far that the new government is serious about taking popular concerns into account."
It seems Burmese President Thein Sein agrees. The government will point to this decision as concrete evidence of its willingness to listen and to work in the interests of the people. Its critics will interpret the move as a cynical piece of public relations which can easily be reversed - the Myitsone project has, after all, only been suspended, not cancelled.
Aung Zaw thinks the suspension of the Myitsone project may encourage Burma's long-suffering activists.
"It is a bold decision to stand up against China but there are several dams [due to] be built along the Irrawaddy," he said.
"What about other mega-projects with China, including the gas pipeline? I predict there will be more campaigns in the future."
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September 30, 2011
VOA News - Wary Welcome for Burma Dam Suspension
Daniel Schearf | Bangkok
Environmental activists in Burma are cautiously welcoming President Thein Sein’s parliamentary announcement to suspend construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam in the north.
Although the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam project has been opposed by pro-democracy groups and local residents, the rare government concession came as a surprise to many.
The president said the project would be terminated because it is against the will of the people, but no official documentation has been issued to corroborate the announcement.
"If they really stop the project it is a victory of the people," said Ahnan, a representative of the Thailand-based Burma Rivers Network who like many in Burma goes by just one name. "But, we cannot trust at all. We don't see any official statement and we don't see any change in the construction site, so we don't know is that really [a] stop or not."
Activists have long criticized the project for a lack of transparency, public consultation, and its potential impact on the unique environment along the Irrawaddy River. Its construction also would have displaced thousands of villagers in an area where Burma’s military has been clashing with ethnic Kachin rebels.
Unusually candid criticism of the project surfaced in the media and in small street protests, and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi wrote a letter urging the dam's suspension.
But until Friday, authorities largely ignored those concerns and said construction would go ahead.
According to Ahnan, Beijing, which backed the project and was expected to purchase the electricity it generated, has yet to issue an official reaction to new announcement.
The president said Burma would negotiate with the Chinese company building the dam, but he gave no further details. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Friday had no immediate reaction to the decision, explaining that he needs to learn and verify the information.
Regardless of official confirmation that the project will indeed be terminated, U Ohn of the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association called the decision the best news of the year for the biodiversity hotspot.
"I'm very glad to hear that this dam is going to be stopped," he said. "We can get money from other, smaller dams in our areas instead of a big dam which is very very devastating to the environment physically, culturally, historically."
The $3.6 billion dam was the largest of seven being constructed by the China Power Investment Corporation. Activists say the decision-making process for all of the dams must be transparent, include public participation, and consider the environmental and social impact on the people.
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Myanmar minister visits DC for rare meeting with U.S. officials
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:01 PM EST, Thu September 29, 2011
Washington (CNN) -- Myanmar's foreign minister held a rare, historic meeting with U.S. officials Thursday in Washington following what a U.S. State Department spokesman characterized as positive developments after years of discord over human rights and other issues.
Derek Mitchell, the U.S. point-person for Myanmar, attended the meeting, as did two assistant secretaries of state -- Kurt Campbell for East Asian affairs and Michael Posner for democracy, human rights and labor -- U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday. The meeting took place inside the U.S. State Department's main building in Washington.
The talks involving Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin follow "recent U.S. engagement efforts" with Myanmar authorities at the U.N. General Assembly as well as Mitchell's trip earlier this month to the south Asian nation.
"We haven't changed our basic ... dual-track approach of sanctions (and) principled engagement," said Toner in referring to the U.S. policy toward Myanmar, which he referred to as Burma. "But we do welcome recent developments ... such as the government of Burma's ongoing dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi."
The nations have been at odds for years, with the U.S. instituting high-level sanctions in reaction with Myanmar rulers' ongoing clampdown on their political foes. Most famous among them is Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention before being freed a week after last November's election.
In August, she met with Myanmar's President Thein Sein at the presidential residence in Naypyitaw and the two vowed to work together in the nation's interest, state media reported. Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said then that he thought the meeting "may be the first step towards reconciliation."
The NLD party had been barred from participating in last November's election after it refused to register under the nation's new constitution, which automatically made it illegal. The constitution requires that parliament include more than 100 military nominees, a set-up critics say is aimed at tightening the regime's grip on Myanmar. Critics also raised concerns the election would create a facade of democracy.
In a press briefing Thursday, Toner said U.S. officials are "going to continue to encourage progress on all the core issues" in Myanmar. That includes including the release of all political prisoners, an "inclusive dialogue" with opposition parties and ethnic minorities, adherence to U.N. non-proliferation agreements, greater accountability on human rights issues and an end to violence targeting ethnic majorities.
Despite such challenges, Toner said that there is reason for optimism, pointing to Mitchell's recent trip to the region and Thursday's talks.
"Ambassador Mitchell ... was encouraged by his conversation with Burmese authorities, and I think we're just trying to build on that momentum," he said.
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Kiama Independent - Burmese rebels block Asia's 'Suez Canal'
LINDSAY MURDOCH
01 Oct, 2011 12:00 AM
BURMESE rebels are blocking construction vehicles using a road linking Thailand to a proposed $US60 billion ($A61.7 billion) development project at a sleepy Burmese seaport that its backers say will reshape Asia's trade routes.
Rebels of the Karen National Union say the building of a massive transport and manufacturing hub at Tavoy, also called Dawei, on Burma's east coast, will destroy the environment and cause people to suffer.
Zipporah Sein, the Karen union's general secretary, called on the Italian-Thai Development company to carry out an environmental impact assessment before continuing with the $US8 billion first-stage building of a deep-sea port and other facilities.
''The people must have the right to decide. They need to know about the impact of the project,'' Ms Sein said.
Documents show the company plans a deep-sea port in a 250-square-kilometre special economic zone that would create a short cut for trade between Europe and Indochina.
Traders would save fuel and time by avoiding the journey of several thousand kilometres through the Strait of Malacca.
A little-known agreement signed late last year between Burma's military-dominated rulers and Italian-Thai Development, one of Thailand's largest civil construction companies, approves a deep-sea port with shipbuilding and maintenance facilities, a petrochemical industrial estate with oil refining and gas separation plant and other medium and light industries such as car and garment factories.
Plans also include five-star resorts on pristine islands in the area. Italian-Thai Development documents obtained by The Age show plans for an eight-lane highway and railway linking Tavoy to Thailand, forming part of a southern economic corridor in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, which would run from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Burma.
A north-south railway and pipeline running from Kunming in China's Yunnan province through the Burmese towns of Mandalay and Pegu to Tavoy is also planned.
Thant Myint-U, a US-educated Burmese academic and former UN official who has published a book titled Where China Meets India, compares the development of a new trade route through Burma with the opening of the Suez Canal joining Europe to the Indian Ocean.
He says China has long wanted an alternative route to the Strait of Malacca, which it sees as a natural choke point where future enemies could cut off foreign energy supplies.
Work began months ago to upgrade a road linking the Tavoy site to Kanchanaburi in western Thailand.
Karen rebels, who have waged war against the Burmese central government since 1949, inhabit the hills around Tavoy and control areas along the road to Thailand.
The rebels say they will allow vehicles carrying humanitarian aid to use the road but not vehicles belonging to Italian-Thai Development.
They informed the company of the ban two weeks ago.
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Time Magazine - Escaping from Burma but Falling into Slavery
By JESSE HARDMAN / BANGKOK Friday, Sept. 30, 2011
Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters
Khun Mint spins in circles on his small motorcycle, joyfully kicking up gravel on a rural road just south of Bangkok, Thailand. It's hard to express the excitement he feels to have two feet squarely on land.
That's because the 23 year-old Burmese migrant laborer spent the last year working on a Thai fishing boat. It was the worst year of his life he says, one that comes racing back whenever he hears a horn, the sound that rang in his every day at sea. "Whenever I hear a car honk, I feel like I was going back from freedom back to the prison. I started seeing all the bad things, all the fish, all the torture all over again in my mind."(Read about whether a peaceful rally could signal real reform in Burma.){http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/09/27/burma-could-a-small-peaceful-protest-signal-real-reform/}
Based on Thai government statistics, there are an estimated 2 to 3 million Burmese working in Thailand. Many of the original wave of migrants came during political turmoil in the late 1980s, but the vast majority arrived in the last decade, for economic reasons. Corruption, international sanctions, and government mismanagement have strangled the Burmese economy. Most importantly, to young Burmese like Khun Mint, the country ranks near the bottom 10% in terms of per capita GDP. So people leave, by the thousands, often with the help of what some migrant labor rights advocates worry is a growing human trafficking network.
What most Burmese migrants find in Thailand is not the fortune they imagined. Around half wind up in garment factories near the border, where they work 80 hour weeks, but often make only around $2 a day. Others find slightly higher paying work on farms, and at constructions sites. The best paying but worst-case scenario for Burmese women is prostitution. The equivalent in both respects for the men is commercial fishing boats, where they can make as much as $200 a month, but face brutal work conditions.(Read why being forced into military labor is almost like being sentenced to death in Burma.){http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2082814,00.html}
Khun Mint says two years ago he had made up his mind to head to Thailand, but he needed help. When he reached Mayawatti, the Northeastern town that borders Mae Sot, Thailand, he met what many refer to as a "broker" or "recruiter" at a barbershop. The man helped him cross the river into Thailand, for a fee to be paid later, and from there, he eventually was led to a fishing village in the South. After a week spent locked up in a safe house run by a Thai woman, Khun Mint was sold by a trafficker to a ship's captain, for 22,000 Thai Baht, around $800. That money recuperated the broker's cost for transporting Khun Mint, and then some.
The young Burmese man essentially worked as slave labor the first six months, paying off his debt. Conditions were horrible, he says, thanks in part to enforcers on the boat, who carried what Khun Mint refers to as the, "stingray." "When you're casting the net or pulling it back up, if he see something he doesn't like, or even randomly, he'll start whipping you. It's like that."Read about whether Thailand send Burmese refugees back. {http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2065397,00.html}
Khun Mint says he was forced to work through a bad injury, got little rest, and was even coerced into taking amphetamines, to help him cast nets for longer hours.
So why didn't he leave?
He claims he had heard rumors that the police would arrest him, steal whatever money or valuables he had, and either sell him back to the ship's captain, or deport him. Andy Hall, a foreign expert on migrant labor issues at Mahidol University in Bangkok, says such shakedowns are common: "There's been systematic corruption, discrimination, exploitation, migrants are treated like walking ATMs."(Read about Burmese refugees finding solace in Thailand.){http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2026552,00.html}
Mo Swe, a Burmese political activist now living in Thailand says migrants are willing to put up with a lot, because the reality of being back home sounds even worse. "One reason is there is no employment in Burma. Another problem is different kinds of human rights abuses. Another reason is the lifestyle here. Electricity and water supply for 24 hours. The living standard is high. They can have light, they can watch the TV."
The plight of Burmese migrants in Thailand is becoming a more mainstream topic these days. In June the Thai government began a registration drive attempting to get as many foreign workers legalized as possible. Hall says getting formalized can make a big difference. "You can avoid a lot of exploitation by the police, you are protected more, you can negotiate with your employer more." (Read more about Burma's minorities.){http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1874981,00.html}
Around a million Burmese workers turned out for the recently completed government survey. Hall says it's anybody's guess how many Burmese workers didn't register. He says many don't have a formal employer, are unemployed, or have employers who don't want to cover their registration fees. He says registrations aside, the main need is for a cultural shift in how migrant laborers are viewed and treated. "So unless we see a real change of attitude by Thai employers, by Thai officials, by the Thai population as a whole, then a lot of these positive developments will not have the impact they should have."
For his part, Khun Mint says he's happy to still be in Thailand, but glad his fishing days are in the past. "Working with someone who doesn't value human life, who don't treat people well. It's not worth the dangers."
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Times of India - 'Paresh doing flourishing arms business from Myanmar'
TNN | Sep 30, 2011, 08.53AM IST
GUWAHATI: Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah may have invested millions of dollars in Bangladesh, but Indian security and intelligence agencies are now concentrating on the fugitive rebel leader's business interests in the arms trade he runs from Myanmar.
"According to reports, Baruah has established a place for himself in the trade, covering the South-east Asian region and his main supplier is the United Wa State Army of northern Shan state of Myanmar bordering Thailand and China," a source said.
"Baruah purchases arms, particularly Chinese-made, which are either locally manufactured under franchise by the Wa State Army or part of the lot the PLA has discarded while overhauling its armoury. Baruah then supplies them to Indian militant outfits," a source said.
He added, "We have information that Baruah visited Ruili town in China's Yunan Province, which is very close to the border with Myanmar at least twice a year, for arms dealings," the official said. Baruah is now being seen not just as a militant leader but also as a dealer of small and light arms.
Baruah is believed to be dispatching his consignments to Maoists through Nepal which would be then pushed into India through the porous border. Earlier, illegal arms for militants of the region used to come from several South-east Asain countries through the Cox's Bazaar and Syllhet.
Baruah's shopping bag includes the Chinese versions of Russian 7.62 mm AK47, AK56 and AK81 series of automatic weapons, NDM-86s, a version of Drugnov sniper rifle, besides pistols. The Chinese manufacturer is an important military supplier but does not have any formal ties with the PLA. In 2003 and 2004, the US government had imposed sanctions on this manufacturer for allegedly supplying missile technology to Iran, sources said.
Baruah is currently facing an arrest warrant issued by a court of Chittagong judicial magistrate in Bangladesh for his involvement in an arms smuggling case in 2004. Bangladesh authorities made one of the biggest arms haul in 2004 when they seized 4,930 types of firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 grenade-launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets. All these weapons were reportedly purchased from China with the help of an UAE-based firm belonging to a Pakistani businessman and were then brought to the Chittagong Port, the biggest harbour in Bangladesh.
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Mainichi Daily News - 2nd group of Myanmar refugees arrive in Japan
(Mainichi Japan) September 30, 2011
NARITA (Kyodo) -- Eighteen refugees from Myanmar arrived Thursday in Japan from Thailand, the second such group to be accepted by Japan under a U.N.-promoted third-country resettlement program.
The newly arrived refugees -- members of four ethnic Karen families -- will take part in a 180-day support program, including Japanese language study and job training, before deciding where to work and live, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
A 33-year-old male refugee said he is happy to be in Japan and added, "I will do any work I can."
Under Japan's plan to accept 90 Myanmar refugees over three years starting in 2010, 27 refugees from five ethnic Karen families came to Japan last year as the first group, and now live in Chiba and Mie prefectures.
Two of the families in Chiba have refused to work for a farm in Chiba Prefecture due to poor working conditions, a member of a lawyers' group representing refugees said earlier this week.
The lawyers group said it has urged the Foreign Ministry to improve and sufficiently supervise the work-training programs for refugees.
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September 29, 2011
Crosscut (blog) - Making nice with Myanmar, and remembering Burma's Saffron Revolution
By Eric Scigliano
Is the brutal military dictatorship of Burma (renamed Myanmar by its ruling junta) starting to thaw, or merely angling once again to co-opt opposition and get U.S. and European sanctions lifted? This Sunday, Oct. 2, local human rights and democracy activists will hold a sutra reading, peace walk, and candlelight vigil at Green Lake’s south shore, starting at 5:30 p.m. They’ll commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, when Burmese monks and civilians took to the streets in protest and, for a heady moment, it seemed the regime might bend or break. Organized by cellphone and Internet, the Saffron Revolution was a blueprint for the peaceful uprisings of this year’s Arab Spring — except that the Myanmar thugs, like their counterparts in Iran, managed to suppress the peaceful demonstrations with truncheons, bullets, and mass arrests.
These events are preserved in a moving documentary, the Oscar-nominated Burma VJ, which could be a primer for other such uprisings. But Burma quickly vanished once again from the headlines, leaving its generals free to build their remote new fortress capital and, perhaps, resume their efforts to get nukes from North Korea. Burma's ordeals aren’t as remote as you might think; a few years ago it emerged as the United States’ and this state’s number-one source of political refugees, most of them members of the Karen, Chin, Kachin, and other minorities displaced by harsh exploitation and some of the world’s longest-running ethnic conflicts. In the new multinational mixing pot of Kent, they fill borrowed church halls with their hymns and dances.
I confess to an outsized interest in Burma, which sometimes drives my editors nuts; once the place gets under your skin, it’s hard to get it out. I crossed into the Karen rebel areas from Thailand a few months after the even bloodier military crackdown of September 1988 and met hundreds of students who’d fled into the jungle and were now dropping from malaria; they implored me to ask the CIA to send them guns. I went to the Burmese heartland and jungle logging camps in 2000 to research a book on elephants and saw both the persistence of repression — prisoners led through the streets in chains — and the endurance of an irrepressible people. A few years ago I wrote in Seattle Met about Karen refugees making a new home in anonymous apartment blocks along the aptly renamed Tukwila International Boulevard; I’ve stayed in touch with them since. When Burma VJ first showed in Seattle, I met the Venerable U Pyinya Zawta, who organized his fellow monks to be Saffron Revolutionaries and afterward escaped to the United States. He was astonishingly serene about the prospects for democracy and peace in the Burma: The regime would fall, he said, when the soldiers who were also its victims joined the monks and ordinary citzens opposing it.
Perhaps, but the new meme — sounded recently in The Economist and Financial Times — is a very different one: the regime is starting to open up. Witness: Last year it released Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader it’s kept under house arrest for most of the past 21 years (ever since her party overwhelmingly won the last free election). It’s even let her travel a bit, publish an article, do foreign radio broadcasts. The hardline junta leader Than Shwe has retired; the new quasi-civilian president, Thein Sein, talks a softer line, as does the xenophobic official press.
A prime exponent of this hopeful view is the historian Thant Myint-U, grandson of the diplomat U Thant, who was UN secretary general back in Burma’s better days. He argues in his new Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia that Burma’s underappreciated strategic position makes change inevitable; India and especially China are jockeying for influence and investment, opening things up. Meanwhile Western sanctions have made the West irrelevant there.
Maybe, but Chinese patronage hardly makes countries more democratic; look at Zimbabwe and North Korea, or China itself. And these heralded breakthroughs sound wearily like past flowerings, such as the annulled 1990 election that should have made Suu Kyi prime minister. Those withered in the official chil.
I can’t help recalling similar hopeful buzz about Syria after the supposedly kinder-and-gentler Bashar Assad succeeded his brutal father. You know how that’s gone. Don’t throw away your vigil candle just yet.
Eric Scigliano is a Seattle-based writer whose books include Puget Sound, Love, War, and Circuses (aka Seeing the Elephant), Michelangelo's Mountain, and, with Curtis E. Ebbesmeyer, Flotsametrics. He can be reached at eric.scigliano@crosscut.com.
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The Guardian - Burma's leaders are showing signs of change, but there is a long way to go
Democracy campaigners say halting the Myitsone dam project does not mean the regime has changed its spots
Simon Tisdall
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 10.38 EDT
President Thein Sein's decision to risk China's wrath and yield to public pressure to suspend the controversial Myitsone dam project will be hailed in some quarters as the latest sign that the political dynamic in Burma is changing for the better after decades of autocratic rule. But democracy campaigners urge caution, saying the revamped regime has not really changed its spots and has yet to take concrete, irreversible steps towards reform.
Thein Sein was elected to the presidency in national polls held last November that were widely dismissed as a sham. The main opposition, the National League for Democracy led by the Nobel peace prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi, was barred from taking part. In March the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1990 supposedly handed over its powers to a civilian-led government. Since then, there have been encouraging signs of change, according to a report by the independent International Crisis Group (ICG).
"In a speech on 19 August, the president made clear that his goal is to build a modern and developed democratic nation," the report said. The "refreshingly honest" speech showed "strong signs of heralding a new kind of political leadership in Myanmar [Burma], setting a completely different tone for governance and allowing discussions and initiatives that were unthinkable only a few months ago".
The ICG study suggested that an amnesty for an estimated 2,100 political prisoners was on the cards, following positive government moves aimed at "reinvigorating the economy, reforming national politics and improving human rights". The fact that Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to give this year's BBC Reith Lectures unimpeded, and has since met Thein Sein for talks, has also been interpreted as an important step forward.
The ICG said it was now incumbent on western governments that had been consistently hostile to the junta to encourage the reform process. "At the very minimum this should include a less cautious political stance and the encouragement of multilateral agencies, including international financial institutions and the UN Development Programme, to do as much as possible under existing mandate restrictions," it said.
But Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK, longstanding advocates of democratic reform, said the "small changes" so far should be treated with extreme caution. The Burmese government's main aims remained the lifting of western sanctions and confirmation of its chairmanship of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in 2014 – which would go a long way towards normalising the country's international position. The regime was not genuinely interested in building a democracy or improving the human rights situation, he said.
"As prime minister Thein Sein was in charge of drafting the new constitution that legalised dictatorship," Farmaner said. "Since the elections there have been three broken ceasefires, with the Kachin, Karen and Shan minorities, a massive increase in army attacks on ethnic groups, and a sharp rise in gang rapes involving women and children. The regime does not accept it holds any political prisoners. You could argue the human rights situation is getting worse."
Farmaner conceded there had been a "very slight" improvement in some areas, such as media controls, but that this, too, was part of an attempt to regain international legitimacy and neutralise the NLD. The dam was not a political issue, he argued. The project was opposed on environmental grounds and Thein Sein had become increasingly fearful that it could act as a trigger for broader popular discontent.
Both Farmaner and the ICG agree there is a long way to go before reform triumphs in Burma. And while Asean countries may use recent upbeat signals to justify their long-held, ill-disguised wish to normalise relations, western governments are treading carefully so far. Senior US officials met Burma's foreign minister in Washington this week, a meeting that in itself signalled a thaw. But a spokesman, Mark Toner, said American policy had not shifted, not yet at least. "We haven't changed our basic approach. Our policy is still a dual track approach with sanctions but also with principled engagement."
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The Guardian - WikiLeaks cables: Americans funded groups that stalled Burma dam project
Newly leaked document reveals support for opponents of proposed Myitsone dam, widely seen as a Chinese project
Foreign staff
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011 08.27 EDT
The US embassy in Rangoon funded some of the civil society groups in the Burmese region that forced the government to suspend a controversial Chinese dam on the Irrawaddy river, according to a US diplomatic cable.
The January 2010 cable on the $3.6bn (£2.3bn) Myitsone dam project noted that local groups had "voiced strong opposition to the project on economic, environmental and cultural grounds and have organised grassroots campaigns to rally others to their cause".
The cable, signed by then US charge d'affaires, Larry Dinger, went on to say: "An unusual aspect of this case is the role grassroots organisations have played in opposing the dam, which speaks to the growing strength of civil society groups in Kachin state, including recipients of embassy small grants."
Dinger said that although Burma had launched a number of hydropower projects to address its acute electricity shortages, the Myitsone dam was widely seen as a Chinese project, with China the principal beneficiary.
"Given past evidence from foreign investments in Burma's energy sector, it is very likely, as many locals believe, that both construction of the dam and the energy it produces will primarily benefit Chinese companies and consumers, rather than Burmese," he said.
Presciently, he added: "Dam-related social unrest is a possibility in light of the already-tense political situation in Kachin state and the dislocations the project is expected to cause."
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Oct 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Asia Times Online - Before the darkness
Rangoon Journalist: Memoirs of Burma days 1940-1958 by J F Samaranayake
Reviewed by Bertil Lintner
CHIANG MAI - When Josef Ferdinand Samaranayake first entered Burma in 1940, he did not make a brilliant first impression. A police officer in the western town of Akyab, or Sittwe, produced a paper saying that "a Ceylonese tourist has left for Burma on foot. There is nothing definite against him. He appears eccentric and mentally deficient. Watch his movements."
Samaranayake, from Ceylon, or today's Sri Lanka, was in fact on the run from the British police in India. He was suspected of being a Japanese spy simply because he had said Japan would enter the war in Southeast and South Asia before it actually did. He had come to that conclusion from reading a book called The Menace of Japan and therefore could talk somewhat authoritatively about the danger that Tokyo's imperialists posed to the region.
He had chosen to escape to Burma, now known as Myanmar, because he thought he would be safe there. Besides, he writes in his memoirs, "Those were the great days in Burma, the days of the 'Gold Rush' when displaced persons of other countries, Ceylon, India, looked to Burma for high salary jobs. And there were plenty. Employers' touts came to the port, to look for eligible young men to offer them jobs that they would not dream of obtaining in their own country."
Samaranayake's Rangoon Journalist was obviously written during a time when Myanmar was a very different country. He remained there for 18 years, became a journalist and left only after, in 1958, army chief general Ne Win assumed power for the first time. The writing was on the wall about the newly independent country's political direction, and Samaranayake decided to move on. He worked as a journalist in South Vietnam, Sri Lanka and India before he passed away in Bangalore in 1979.
His memoirs are now being published by his descendants and Rangoon Journalist will be followed by similar accounts of his life and times in south Vietnam and Sri Lanka. They have chosen not to change or edit the original manuscript, which is written in quaint Victorian English, full of archaic expressions and ripe with flowery language. But that is the charm of the book and the anecdotes he relates are not only amusing but also a reflection of what life was like in Myanmar before the military takeover.
In 1962, Ne Win seized power once again in a bloody putsch and this time he abolished the country's parliamentary system, and its federal constitution. Newspapers were nationalized and allowed to print only what the new military regime deemed as fit. The country has been under various guises of military rule ever since and the local press has never recovered its lost freedoms.
But Samaranayake does not paint an entirely rosy picture of Myanmar in the 1950s: "Bribery and corruption reigned supreme. In the courts, no peon carried a piece of paper from one part of the court to another unless he was paid, bribed. Magistrates took bribes, office clerks took bribes, and monks extorted money from people. Everyone gloated in corruption."
It was also a time of unprecedented press freedom for Myanmar, a country with a long and proud literary tradition. Although Samaranayake does not mention it in his book, Myanmar was the first country in the region to guarantee freedom of the press, done in an edict issued by King Mindon in 1873. During the British colonial period that followed, new printing methods were introduced and Myanmar was home to dozens of newspapers in Burmese, English, Chinese and several Indian languages. Periodicals were also printed in minority languages.
At independence in 1948, there were 39 newspapers in the country: 21 in Burmese, seven in English, five in Chinese, two in Hindi, and one each in Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil and Telugu. Myanmar's press was more modern, outspoken and professional than media elsewhere in the region, with perhaps the sole exception of India. Samaranayake recounts in intriguing detail his meetings with other journalists and editors, as well as politicians, diplomats and other prominent personalities.
He became an editorial writer for The Burman, and "thus began a career as a controversial writer which brought me into notoriety in the city". Samaranayake, a Roman Catholic, got into trouble with the Buddhist community by "refuting such teachings as the No-Soul Theory, or the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation." And he accepted an offer from Pakistani diplomats in Rangoon (now known as Yangon) to supply them with "private intelligence information about Myanmar, such as the activities of the Burma [Myanmar] Army, its strength, and so forth", But, he adds, only because he needed the money and then "took to writing some imaginary reports".
During that time he also met Peter Simms, an Englishman turned Buddhist who had married one of the daughters of Myanmar's first president, Sao Shwe Thaike, and become an adviser to one of the country's newspaper editors. What Samaranayake probably did not know was that Simms was also a British intelligence agent, and the model for the chief spy in John Le Carre's classic The Honourable Schoolboy.
On another occasion, Samaranayake wrote about the hardship of Burmese children which had unexpected and positive consequences. Perhaps inspired by his reporting, Daw Khin Kyi, the widow of assassinated independence hero Aung San and the mother of today's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, decided to form Myanmar's first Child Welfare League.
But times were fast changing and on December 30, 1958, Samaranayake "took the lone chilly road from Rangoon city to Mingaladon airport. I said to myself: alone, unheralded I came to Burma, and alone, unheralded I shall leave." At that time "General Ne Win's military administration was ... in full swing, and, on the way, from place to place the soldiers and policemen would stop my car, and want to look into the luggage."
Today, after half a century of military rule in one guise or another, Myanmar's press remains stifled. The Committee to Protect Journalists describes the press freedom situation there as abysmal and has appealed for the release of imprisoned Myanmar journalists. But there are also some positive signs. While the dailies may remain under military control, there are literally hundreds of privately owned magazines and journals that run on a weekly basis due to strict pre-censorship requirements.
Although they operate in extremely difficult and often dangerous circumstances, they are keeping Myanmar's old literary traditions alive - a tradition that Samaranayake has documented in a very personal way before five decades of darkness fell over the country's once vibrant press scene.
Rangoon Journalist: Memoirs of Burma days 1940-1958 by J F Samaranayake. Self-published by Christine Samaranayake-Robinson, Honolulu, Hawaii (2010). ISBN 9 781460 946954, 144 pages.
Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review and author of several books on Burma/Myanmar. He is currently a writer with Asia-Pacific Media Services.
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South African Broadcasting Company
SABC - Myanmar leader-in-exile to visit SA
Friday 30 September 2011 17:34
Myanmar's (Burma) prime minister-in-exile Sein Win is to visit South Africa to accept an honorary doctorate on behalf of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, his spokesperson said today.
Win would arrive tomorrow evening and stay until next Wednesday, spokesperson for the Free Burma Campaign Thein Win said. Seine Win would have a meeting with International Affairs and Co-operation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim on Monday.
He would also attend a public lecture delivered by the founder of the Free Burma Campaign's South African branch, Kiru Naidoothe, at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Monday.
The lecture, titled "Dilemmas in South Africa's relations with Burma", would include a live video broadcast with Suu Kyi. On Tuesday, UJ would bestow an honorary doctorate of philosophy on Suu Kyi. The conferral, at the university auditorium, would feature a pre-recorded video message from Suu Kyi.
The junta changed the nation's name to Myanmar, but many democracy supporters, including Suu Kyi, still refer to it as Burma
She won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy. The military placed her under house arrest in 1989, offering to free her if she agreed to leave the country. She refused and demanded a return to civilian government and the release of political prisoners.
Although she led her National League for Democracy to victory in the 1990 elections, the ruling military junta refused to recognise the results. The junta changed the nation's name to Myanmar, but many democracy supporters, including Suu Kyi, still refer to it as Burma.
Suu Kyi spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. Her house arrest was finally lifted in November 2010. After the 2010 elections, won by a party close to the ruling junta, military leaders turned over control to a nominally civilian government in March 2011.
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Worldcrunch.com - In Burma, Unexpected Glimmers Of ‘Glasnost’
Burma’s new ‘civilian’ government – staffed mostly by former generals – is ushering in a wave of reforms that even some of the country’s most hardened dissidents are welcoming with cautious optimism.
By Antoine Clapik
LE TEMPS/Worldcrunch
RANGOON – A perestroika wind is blowing through Rangoon these days after the formation, last spring, of a civilian government mostly made up of former generals from the cruel and corrupt military junta. The generals dissolved the former junta on March 30. Six months later there is clear evidence that a process meant to lead Burma toward “disciplined democracy” – the stated goal of the country’s leaders – is taking place.
“We are currently enjoying a degree of real, political liberty. I am today more optimistic than I was several months ago,” says Toe Kyaw Hlaing, who presided over the medical students union during the democratic movement of 1988. Burmese soldiers drowned that movement in blood.
Given Hlaing’s background and political leanings, his comments speak volumes about the changes currently taking place. Hlaing is in regular contact with opposition leader and iconic dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, who for the first time is willing to publicly express some optimism.
‘The Lady,’ as Suu Kyi is often referred to, still weighs her words carefully. But there is a noticeable contrast with the skepticism she had just after her release, in November 2010, following seven years of house arrest.
Suu Kyi met face-to-face with President Thein Sein last month. She told reporters later that Mr. Sein is indeed seeking “positive” changes. In a Sept. 18 interview with the AFP, however, she said there are “legitimate questions” about how far he is willing to go with the reforms.
Nothing much is known about the content of the discussions from their unexpected meeting. Either way, the tête-à-tête vividly symbolized the opening up of politics. At one point during the encounter, according to a Burmese source, the wife of the president spontaneously hugged the former opponent of the regime.
How far will the reforms go?
Most analysts question how long the government’s newfound openness and transparency will last. “For now, the reformists have their hand on the State apparatus,” says an anonymous source familiar with the inner circle of power. “But if the democratization process goes too far, the tough ones, the henchmen of the former dictator, Than Shwe, are ready to carry out a coup.”
Relations are reportedly tense between the president and his second in command, Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo. The vice president leads a faction of ultraconservatives who are little inclined to accept much liberalization of the system.
“The president must move quickly if he wants to keep the opposing faction from regaining control,” says Kin Zaw Win, a veteran human rights activist who was released in 2005 after 11 years in prison.
Zaw Win, a former dentist, presents himself as a supporter of ‘the third force.’ In many ways he embodies the evolution of political change in Burma. “I am neither for the government nor for [Suu Lyi’s] National League for Democracy,” he explains. “In Burma, we tend to see choices in black and white. The third force is in the gray area.”
The winds of change
Historically speaking, the president’s ‘liberal’ faction has hardly been a champion for things like freedom of expression. Yet is it showing a commitment to reform, particularly in the field of economics. Once controlled tightly by the junta, Burma’s economy is beginning to open up. “The economy,” one observers notes, “is the real mechanism driving this political openness.”
Who would have thought President Sein, of all people, would be the person opening Burma to the winds of change? “Not many,” say foreign analysts in Rangoon, the country’s economic capital. A former prime minister, Sein spent his entire career in the very military apparatus that has controlled the country for the past half-century.
No one had grand illusions that last year’s general elections, which many observers say were rigged, would change much for Burma. Voters overwhelmingly elected the party in power, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Burmese law also reserves 35% of the seats in parliament for the army.
But things sped up abruptly during this year’s drawn-out summer monsoon season. Press censorship has significantly been relaxed. “We now talk regularly about [Aung San Suu Kyi] in our columns, even if we are still submitted to censorship before publication,” says Thomas Kean, editor-in-chief of the English edition of the weekly The Myanmar Times
There are other signs of things opening up. On Aug. 17, President Sein announced that the country’s political exiles could return home. Rumors spread of an eventual and gradual release of some 2,100 political prisoners. So far, however, nothing concrete has indicated that amnesty will take place soon.
On Aug. 18, the president began peace talks with military groups of ethnic minorities who continue to battle in the border regions. They demand the establishment of a real federation where they could operate autonomously. Without a doubt, this is where prospects are bleakest: the army continues to commit terrible atrocities against the civilian populations in these regions.
As long as these violent acts continue, Europe and the United States are unlikely to lift their economic sanctions against the government, which dreams of international legitimacy. Burma is finally opening itself to change. But it still has a long journey to take if it wants to shed its reputation as a pariah state.
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The Irrawaddy - Suu Kyi Welcomes Suspension of Myitsone Dam
By SAI ZOM HSENG Friday, September 30, 2011
Emerging from a meeting with a senior government minister on Friday afternoon, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi welcomed today's surprise announcement by President Thein Sein that he had suspended the controversial Myitsone dam project in Kachin State.
Suu Kyi met with Aung Kyi, the minister of labor and minister of social welfare, relief and resettlement, for about one hour today at the Sane Lae Kan Thar state guesthouse in Rangoon. Among the issues discussed were an amnesty for political prisoners, cooperation on efforts to conserve the Irrawaddy River, and ways to achieve peace with Burma's ethnic armed groups.
“I've heard that the president sent a message about the suspension of the Myitsone project on the Irrawaddy River in response to the public’s concerns. It’s very good that the government listens to the voice of the people, as that is what they should do,” Suu Kyi said to reporters after the meeting.
Aung Kyi, a retired major general, told the reporters that both sides agreed to meet again to hold further discussions on the major issues raised in today's meeting. He also said that cooperation would increase after Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, registered as a legal political organization.
When reporters asked Suu Kyi about Burma's next elections, to be held in 2015, she said, “We accept that elections are a part of democracy, but we will have to wait and see what form they take.”
Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi previously met twice this year, once in July and again in August. Suu Kyi also met with Thein Sein for the first time in August. In statements issued after each meeting, both sides said they were satisfied with the discussions that took place.
While observers have generally welcomed the recent contact between the government and the iconic opposition leader, many still suspect that Naypyidaw's main aim is to ease international pressure and win approval of its bid to become chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2014, rather than to achieve national reconciliation.
On Tuesday, Burma’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin addressed the issue of political prisoners at the 66th session of the UN General Assembly, saying that an early amnesty program is being considered. He also called for the lifting of Western sanctions on Burma.
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The Irrawaddy - Verdict on Burma-Bangladesh Dispute Due in March
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Friday, September 30, 2011
BANGKOK—Burma and Bangladesh will have to wait until March 2012 for a verdict on their disputed maritime boundary, in a case that could facilitate both sides in acquiring new gas and oil supplies in the energy-rich Bay of Bengal.
Amid a background of stalled bilateral negotiations and sometimes acrimonious relations, hearings ran from Sept 8 -24 at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany.
International legal experts and academics lent weight to the proceedings—which unlike the simmering multi-state dispute over the gas and oil-laden South China Sea and various islands in the area—looks set to be resolved without acrimony. The outcome could establish some international maritime legal precedent, which in turn could have a bearing on any international law-based resolution to the South China Sea conundrum.
Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni addressed the opening of the hearings, expressing confidence that the proceedings and the resolution would lead to better bilateral ties.
"Our two states have long enjoyed strong ties born out of the familiarity that comes with being neighbors," she said.
However, relations between the two sides are often touchy, and the case came to the ITLOS after became Bangladeshi angered at Burmese-backed exploration work in the disputed waters, carried out by Korean company Daewoo in 2008. Prior to that, decades of on-off bilateral talks over the maritime boundary went nowhere, leading to dangerous November 2008 and October 2009 stand-offs, after it became apparent that the seabed contained gas and oil deposits.
A leaked diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Dhaka shows that the Bangladeshi authorities feared possible Burmese military action after the 2008 dispute. According to the document, dated Aug 3 2009, “Prime Minister's Security Advisor Major General (ret) Tarique Ahmed Siddique expressed concern about the possibility of hostilities with Burma related to the ongoing maritime boundary dispute. Tarique confided that he had recently been briefed by Bangladesh's Defense Advisor in Burma, who assessed that the Burmese were planning military action.”
The cable recounted a separate Aug 1 2009 meeting with Bangladesh Chief of Army Staff Gen Abdul Mubin, who, according to the cable, opined that “the Burmese had been humiliated by the need to back down and withdraw an exploration rig from the disputed waters in the Bay. He feared that the Burmese would seek revenge to coincide with the anniversary of the confrontation.” Weeks later, in October 2009, both countries sent warships to the disputed waters.
The Bangladesh military representatives said that they feared the military edge lay with the Chinese-backed Burmese, and were in turn seeking US assistance. However, in a later cable dated Nov 21 2009, “on November 5 the (US) Ambassador advised the (Bangladesh) PM that the US did not see any indications that Burma was preparing for aggressive action against Bangladesh, despite alarmist reports in the Bangladeshi media.”
Other companies—such as India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), China National Petroleum Corp., and ConocoPhilipps—have shown an interest in exploration in the disputed zone, raising the prospect of a new site of competition between China and India for commercial and strategic influence in the region.
ONGC operations off the Vietnam coast prompted an angry Chinese reaction earlier this month, with Beijing saying the exploration work was taking place in disputed waters in the South China Sea. Vietnam calls the sea the East Sea and says the work was within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the area extending to 200 nautical miles from the country’s coast. Within this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources, and the region includes the 12-mile territorial sea zone directly off the coast.
India lost out to China over Burma's Shwe Gas fields, located south of the disputed Burma-Bangladesh maritime border, with the Burmese Government hoping to start piping the gas to China by 2013, which will earn Naypyidaw almost US $30 billion in revenue over the life-span of the field, according to the Shwe Gas Movement.
India has a separate, but related, dispute with Bangladesh over territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal, which some analysts say could overlap with the Burma-Bangladesh issue, meaning that a trilateral agreement or arbitration could be necessary to resolve the seemingly-interlocking claims.
While Burma exports most of its gas and oil, Bangladesh needs energy supplies for its domestic economy, and according to a Nov 11, 2009 cable from the US embassy in Dhaka, “is taking steps to encourage foreign investment in natural gas exploration and other energy projects,” including offshore.
Julia Ritter, the press officer at the ITLOS, told The Irrawaddy that “the judges will now deliberate on the case and a tentative date for the judgment has been set for March 14, 2012.” After listening to a series of highly-technical arguments and counter-proposals, pouring over the finer points of international maritime law, the judges will likely need the six months to assess the case and finalize a ruling.
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The Irrawaddy - After Meeting in Mae Sot, KNU Calls for Talks with Naypyidaw
Friday, September 30, 2011
Leaders of the Karen National Union (KNU) ended a meeting with a government delegation led by Col Aung Lwin, the minister for security and border affairs, in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on Sept 28 with calls for direct talks with Naypyidaw government officials.
The KNU leaders told the government delegation, which included Christian community leaders, Buddhist monks and an MP named Saw Boe Ni, that they didn’t want to hold peace talks with state-level officials because they lacked the authority to reach an agreement.
“Karen State officials have no power to make decisions,” said Maung Kyaw Mahn, a Karen social worker who is close to the KNU. “This is just a tactic to divide the Karen again.”
The KNU is one of Burma’s main ethnic armed groups. It has been fighting for autonomy for more than six decades, but suffered a major setback in 1995 when a splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), broke away and signed ceasefire agreement with the government.
Last month, another delegation, consisting of Karen Christian community leaders from the state capital of Pa-an, also approached the KNU with an offer to hold peace talks on behalf of the Burmese government. The group said that it had been sent by Col Zaw Min, the chief minister of Karen State.
On Aug 18, government officials made a similar overture to a breakaway faction of the DKBA that resumed fighting with the Burmese army late last year. The officials offered peace negotiations through a prominent Buddhist monk, U Pinya Thami, the abbot of Taungalay Monastery in Pa-an.
The DKBA rejected the offer, calling instead for a withdrawal of all government troops from ethnic regions and a nationwide ceasefire, followed by inclusive peace talks involving all ethnic armed groups.
Despite the government's recent offers of peace talks, fighting between government forces and the DKBA is still occurring in southern Karen State. The government has also
launched major offensives against the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Burma and recently seized some of its bases in northern Shan State.
Meanwhile, the government is also approaching another strong ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), for talks via its local representatives.
Led by the secretaries of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, Aung Thaung and Thein Zaw, a group of government representatives will hold talks with the UWSA on Saturday in Lashio, in northern Shan State.
There have also been reports that the Burmese authorities have approached the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic Mon ceasefire group, for talks aimed at averting a return to hostilities. The NMSP has already established a group of representatives for peace talks, but hasn’t decided whether to meet the government representatives.
Burmese President Thein Sein recently announced via the country's state-run media that, in order to move the peace process forward, all ethnic armed groups are to meet first with their respective regional and state chief ministers.
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Activist group calls for cancellation of seven dams on Irrawaddy River
Friday, 30 September 2011 21:49 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma Rivers Network (BRN) released a press statement on Friday saying that China Power Investment must cancel not only the Myitsone Dam project, but all seven dam projects on the Irrawaddy River.
The statement said that it was encouraged by Burmese President Thein Sein's decision on Friday to halt the construction of the Myitsone Dam, but it wanted to see China Power Investment (CPI) remove all its personnel and equipment from the dam construction site.
“Only their actions will confirm whether the dam is indeed suspended,” the statement said. It also urged that villagers who had been forced to move to a relocation camp because of the construction of the dam should be allowed to return to their homes.
Ah Nan, the assistant BRN coordinator, said in the statement, “Until the Chinese project holders publicly declare their cancellation of the Myitsone Dam and pull out from the dam site, we must assume the project is going ahead.”
China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) is a Chinese state-owned electrical company that partnered with Burma’s state power utility Myanma Electric Power Enterprise (MEPE) and the Burmese conglomerate Asia World.
"BRN also urges continued pressure on the military government and the CPI to immediately cancel the other six mega-dams planned on the Irrawaddy source rivers, which will have the same devastating impacts on the country," said the statement.
BRN said that even if construction of the dam is halted and the project cancelled, the group's campaign to stop all seven hydropower dams at the source of Burma's largest river will continue.
"Building these six dams will also cause irreparable environmental destruction, unpredictable water surges and shortages, and inflict social and economic damage to the millions who depend on the Irrawaddy. Thousands of Kachin villagers will also be forced to relocate," the statement said.
BRN sent a letter to the President Hu Jintao of China, urging him to reconsider China's dam policy in Burma and to conduct proper environmental and social impact studies in the areas surrounding the dam sites, Mizzima reported in December 2007.
"If the Myitsone project is indeed cancelled, this would be a great victory for the people of Burma, especially the brave villagers at the Myitsone site who stood up to the Burmese Army and refused to make way for the project," said the BRN statement.
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Suu Kyi and gov’t minister discuss amnesty and establishing peace
Friday, 30 September 2011 18:20 Mizzima News
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and government Labour Minister Aung Kyi discussed granting amnesty and establishing peace with ethnic armed groups on Friday.
At a joint press conference after their 77-minute meeting in Rangoon, they also said they discussed cooperating in conservation efforts to protect the Irrawaddy River and to cooperate for the stability of the country and the prevalence of law and order. They also also said the meetings will continue.
Suu Kyi also told reporters that she welcomed President Thein Sein’s decision to halt the Myitsone Dam project at some point during his government’s tenure.
Suu Kyi said, “It’s very good that [the government] listens to the people’s voice. That is a task every government must do. Governments need to work to solve the problems that make people worry.”
On Friday, President Thein Sein informed both houses of the Burmese Parliament by letter that the Myitsone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River would be halted at some point during his government’s tenure, citing people’s concern about the dam’s impact on the environment.
The letter also said that without spoiling the friendship between China and Burma, the government would discuss the contract agreed to with China, which is funding the dam project that will generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity
Meanwhile, many people have welcomed the president’s decision on the Internet.
In reply to a question whether the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader Suu Kyi would contest in the coming by-election or not, the labour minister answered that if the NLD registers as a political party, the government is ready to cooperate with the NLD. Presently, the NLD is the main opposition group outside of the Burmese Parliament.
Regarding registering as a political party, Suu Kyi, who spent 14 years under house arrest, said that she must first consult with the NLD leadership. The NLD did not re-register to become a political party prior to the 2010 elections.
“We don’t oppose elections according to any policy. We have already accepted that elections are a part of a democratic system,” Suu Kyi said.
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Reactions to the halt of the Myitsone Dam project
Friday, 30 September 2011 19:38 Tun Tun
New Delhi (Mizzima) – President Thein Sein sent a letter to both houses of the Burmese Parliament on Friday: “Our government is elected by the people so we must pay attention to the will of the people. We are obliged to focus on resolving the worries and anxieties of the people. Thus the Myitsone Dam project will be suspended during the term of our government.”
His message said that the dam project could be “damaging the natural beauty of Myitsone, damaging the livelihood of the local people, damaging the rubber plantations and crops grown by private capital, a dam collapse due to climate change could kill many people living near the dam site and downstream could also be damaged.”
He said the government would negotiate with the Chinese government in order not to damage bilateral relations and mutual friendship. Mizzima reporter Tun Tun interviewed environmentalists, politicians, artists and anti-dam campaigners about the government’s decision.
U Ohn (environmental academic):
This is good news for us, but we don’t know yet whether this dam project will be suspended or totally stopped. Suspending the dam project for the time being is the good news for us. It will be better if this dam project is stopped absolutely because it can damage the rare species of fauna and flora in this biodiversity hotspot of Kachin State. It will be best not to touch this place.
Win Tin (central executive committee member, National League for Democracy):
It is good to see the president exercise his authority and do his job bravely and resolutely. This is the first thing. And the next thing is he made this decision by considering the will of the people and accommodated the will of the people.
We don’t know everything about it yet especially since one of his cabinet ministers, Zaw Min, told the media recently that they would continue the project no matter what people said. Now it’s good to see him override his own minister and make this decision. There are many more things to do in our country, such as the political prisoner issue, etc. It’s clear now that there are some ministers in his cabinet who disrupted and hampered his work and authority. At the same time, some cabinet members agree with him.
But one thing we have to bear in mind is that his term lasts only five years. I think the president should urge the next president not to continue this project when his current term expires. In this way, successive presidents might do the same thing and the dam project will be stopped permanently.
Cartoonist Aw Pi Kye:
It is a success rather than a victory, because it is like passing a single subject in a final exam. We need to pass all the subjects to pass the final exam. I assume that it is because of the work jointly done by academics and activists but it is just a suspension not a stop to the project. We don’t want the studies to be stopped. These studies should be done by academics, scholars, internationally recognized academics and well-known academics in the country. They should do field studies in both the lower and upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River on environmental impacts, social impacts, hydrology, etc.
In this case, another party in this agreement is a foreign country, a powerful and mighty country. There are many issues to be resolved if one party stops such signed agreements and obligations, payments must be made as per the agreement, etc. We don’t want to damage the mutual friendship between the two countries, and at the same time we don’t want to see damage to the lifeline of our country. So I think it needs to be done very systematically. We need to present these matters of the agreement and who did what in accordance with the agreement at a public forum or national convention.
There are still many more steps to go. We must go step by step but it should not take very long time. It should not take one year for each step. We want speedy and effective steps.
For some people, the Myitsone matter is a dilemma. They swallowed too much, and now they dare not vomit otherwise people will see what they swallowed. So they are in a dilemma about what to do next, swallow or vomit what they ate in the past. I see the current situation this way from a cartoonist’s perspective.
Win Cho (anti-Myitsone Dam signature campaigner):
I’d like to say we have achieved a unity between the government and people thanks to the Irrawaddy River. We see the new government’s will to negotiate and consult with the people was fulfilled by the unity of the people. If we cannot maintain our unity, there will be some problems. If they continue in this way of working in unity with the people, there will be no difficulties because they have already recognized the will of the people.
La Nang, secretary-general of the Kachin Independence Organization
It’s too early to comment. The demand from all of us was not just to halt the project in this government’s tenure. We don't want any dams to be built in that area. The government decided it would not continue the project during its term. It’s like giving the next government a chance to continue the project if they want. The current government is just trying to avoid a possible mass uprising. It is just trying to avoid a confrontation. I think people can see that. In fact, no dams should be built in the area forever. That what the people demand.
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DVB News - India and Burma set $3bn trade target
By FRANCIS WADE
Published: 30 September 2011
India and Burma will seek to diversify trade over the next four years as it sets a target of $US3 billion, effectively doubling current figures, in bilateral trade by 2015.
The goal was set on Tuesday following a meeting of the Joint Trade Commission, attended by Burma Commerce Minister Win Myint and his Indian counterpart, Anand Sharma.
India currently ranks as Burma’s fourth largest foreign investor but has sought to gain greater economic leverage in the country, both in an effort to weaken China’s influence there and gain stable access to the ASEAN economies.
Sharma was quoted in The Hindu as saying: “We need to work towards broad-basing our trade basket. Let us encourage businesses on both sides to utilise Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme and ASEAN FTA channels to diversify trade.”
India has made expansion into Burma a key priority over the coming years as it looks to gain more clout among the developing Southeast Asian economies. It is also fearful that China’s continued rise will see it out-compete India on a number of fronts, including extraction of Burma’s huge wealth of natural resources.
Burma on the other hand is known to be wary of an over-dependence on China, despite the political shielding that a strong relationship with Beijing carries, and has looked to develop ties with India and Russia as a means to avoid this.
To an extent the ball appears to be in Burma’s court, at least for the time being, as Delhi makes regular overtures to Naypyidaw in an attempt to embrace the new government. When Indian foreign minister S M Krishna visited Naypyidaw in June, one of the first senior foreign officials to break ground with the new Burmese government, he offered 10 heavy-duty rice silos as a gesture of goodwill.
One major bilateral venture underway is the $US120 million Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Project designed to link Indian ports to Burma’s western coastal town of Sittwe. Goods could then be shipped to Sittwe and on into Southeast Asia.
The Tavoy deep-sea port project in southern Burma is also being seen as a hub of connectivity between ASEAN economies, as well as China, and Indian and European trade, which hitherto has struggled for a coastal gateway to Southeast Asia.
India’s perennial competition with China was brought into sharp focus over the Shwe oil and gas pipeline project, which Delhi had originally bid for but lost out to China. The deal was thought to have been sealed after China pledged diplomatic protection in the UN Security Council, something India cannot offer.
While India’s trade with Burma last year stood at $US1.5 billion, China’s exceeded $US10 billion. Of the total Burmese exports to India, 97.5 prcent were pulses and wood products, The Hindu said, despite India’s hunger for Burmese gas and hydropower.
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Friday, 30 September 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - SEPTEMBER 30, 2011
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