News & Articles on Burma

Tuesday, 06 September, 2011
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Free political prisoners in Myanamar: Indian MPs
Calcutta News.Net
Tuesday 6th September, 2011 (IANS)

More than 100 Indian MPs have urged the Myanmar president to free more than 2,000 political prisoners.

The appeal has been made by Ram Jethmalani, convener of the Indian Parliamentarians' Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), and members of the group.

They are backing a call from Myanmar democratic leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the release of political prisoners.

There are still more than 2,000 political prisoners in prisons in Myanmar, and many are in deplorable conditions, the group said.

Most of them have been sentenced to 65 years and more, it said.

'We, Indian parliamentarians, hope to see a genuine democratic system in Burma and ... call upon the government to release all political prisoners in the country.

'Their release will be a positive step in the spirit of conciliation and dialogue that Burma now needs.' http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/839194/ht/Free-political-prisoners-in-Myanamar-Indian-MPs
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Burma is selling out its future to China
By Zin Linn Sep 06, 2011 10:08PM UTC

The Shwe Gas Movement and The Palaung Women’s Organization held a press conference today at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok. During the press conference, a new report entitled “SOLD OUT” was also released by the Shwe Gas Movement.

The report details the expending construction of a deep seaport, gas terminal and oil transfer point in Burma’s Arakan State as well as placing of nearly 800-kilometer pipe-line. Allowing freely of China pipeline project has become the cause of human rights abuses across the country. Dual pipelines across the country will become major structure pumping Burma’s natural-gas reserves as well as oil from middle-east and Africa to feed energy greedy China.

The 6,600 government soldiers to guard a corridor for the pipelines deployed from western coastline of Burma to north-eastern Sino-Burma border. The deployment risks growing abuses and ethnic instability, according to the report – Sold Out – by the Shwe Gas Movement.

Wong Aung of the Shwe Gas Movement explained the situation on the ground during the press panel that thousands of acres of farm lands have been confiscated in Arakan and Shan states as well as Magwe and Mandalay divisions to clear areas for the pipeline and associated infrastructure.

Fields have also been made unreachable; on Ramree Island the amount of land classified as “restricted access” by local authorities has recently increased in the areas around Sichoun, Sittaw and Ngagamaw villages. Construction equipment and trucks have ridden roughshod over fields, destroying crops and damaging soils. Some farmers have been prevented from harvesting crops in fields adjacent to construction areas. Companies have also dumped waste materials on paddy lands, the report says.

“Companies are ignoring widespread abuses and worsening civil war,” said Wong Aung.

Lway Aye Nang of the Palaung Women’s Organization highlighted the evil impacts of the civil war along the Chinese pipeline areas where Burmese soldiers committed rapes, murders, lootings and forced-laboring.

“The investors should pull out now before the project blows up in their faces,” Wong Aung added.

According to the Shwe Gas Movement group, the natural gas should be used domestically to transform deteriorating economy of the country. Due to fuel shortage and transportation prices increasing, a protest grew into the saffron revolution in 2007, the report said.

Burma’s Special Economic Zone Law was enacted in 2011 with the aim of encouraging more foreign direct investment and offers special concessions and tax incentives to companies investing in these zones. The law specifies that investors have a duty to increase the number of skilled “locals” to 25% ten years into the project, the report points out.

However “local” is defined as “national,” as a result there is no guarantee for local people to enjoy job opportunities. Land speculation and confiscation pushes out locals.

As corrupt officials and businessmen rival for major real-estate near special economic zones and land prices skyrocket, local people are forced off their lands by a “market-based forced relocation.” At the same time outright confiscation of lands in the zone by military authorities is ongoing in the Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone.

The report urged corporations such as China National Petroleum Corp and South Korea’s Daewoo International to withdraw from the projects, which will ship natural gas from Burma and oil from the Middle East and Africa to China.

As a final point, the Shwe gas movement accused the Burmese government of selling out the country’s economic future to China. The use of country’s natural gas domestically could change Burma into an economically healthy nation, it gave a positive message. http://asiancorrespondent.com/64349/burma-is-selling-out-its-future-to-china/
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RPT-China pipelines threaten Myanmar economic security-NGO
Tue Sep 6, 2011 3:28am EDT

(Reuters) - Controversial oil and gas pipelines spanning Myanmar will deprive its people of billions of dollars worth of their own resources and risk sparking armed conflict that threatens energy security for neighboring China, activists said on Tuesday.

Chinese-led construction of a combined 3,900 km (2,420 miles) of pipelines has displaced thousands of people and damaged livelihoods of farmers and fishermen, prioritising China's growing energy needs before those of the Burmese people, the Thailand-based Shwe Gas Movement said.

The project involves the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation , India's ONGC Videsh and South Korea's Daewoo International .

Its construction, which began in June, has led to human rights violations from beatings, forced labour and rape to unlawful imprisonment and forced eviction, the non-governmental organisation said in a report entitled "Sold Out".

The Shwe project, it said, would earn Myanmar's government just $1 billion a year for the next 30 years and was doing nothing to address the acute domestic power shortages.

"The 'Shwe' offshore fields will produce trillions of cubic feet of natural gas that could be used to spur economic and social development in one of the world's least developed nations," it said.

"Instead it will be piped across the country to China, fuelling abuses and conflict in its path."

RISKY INVESTMENT

The pipelines, due for completion in 2013, are a major factor behind Myanmar's close ties with economic heavyweight China.

China enjoys easy access to its neighbour's abundant and cheap resources, with barely any competition from Western firms, most of which have stayed on the sidelines due to sanctions on Myanmar.

The relationship covers opaque deals worth billions of dollars in energy, mining, transport, telecommunications and construction that critics say will have only limited benefits for Myanmar's 50 million people. Many in Myanmar live below the poverty line and have watched their country wilt under five decades authoritarian military rule.

An estimated 12 million cubic metres of Burmese natural gas will be transported annually through a 2,800-km pipeline running deep into southwest China to generate electricity. A further 22 million tonnes of oil originating from the Middle East and Africa will flow into China through another 1,100-km pipeline.

The group warned firms to think twice about investing in Myanmar's energy sector because of festering political conflicts with the country's armed ethnic groups. It cited attacks by separatists in May that temporarily halted operations on a hydropower plant, leaving 30 Chinese engineers trapped.

More than 6,000 Burmese troops had been deployed to provide security, and the decision to build the pipelines close to the rebellious border states of Kachin and Shan presented a high risk of protracted conflict and severing of energy supplies.

"Armed conflict can break out at any time, posing enormous risks to foreign investments," the group said.

"Projects may be delayed and or temporarily or permanently halted due to conflict and the safety of project personnel suddenly brought into question." (Reporting Martin Petty; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/myanmar-china-pipelines-idUSL3E7K51NN20110906?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssEnergyNews&rpc=401
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Nai Mya Thi, member of Mon ‘Twenty Comrades,’ dies
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 12:03 Kun Chan

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – One of the last surviving members of the "Twenty Comrades," the first Mon revolutionary armed group, died of natural causes in Thailand on Sunday.

Nai Mya Thi, 85, who was one of the last survivors of the “Twenty comrades,” served as a patron of Mon social organizations in the Sangkhlaburi District in Kanchanaburi Province.

In 1958, when the Mon People's Front revolutionary armed group surrendered to the Burmese Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League’s government, Mon leaders of the group formed the New Mon State Party (NMSP). Nai Mya Thi did not join the group, but the leaders of New Mon State Party recognized him as a Mon revolutionary leader.

“He is a leader who sowed the seeds of revolution. Our New Mon State Party mourns his death,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nyan Tun, a NMSP foreign affairs official.

Nai Mya was born in 1926 in Mawkanin village in Ye Township in Mon State. He left school at grade 7. In 1947, when he was 21, he worked as a secretary and canvasser for the Mon Independence Group organized by Nai Ba Lwin [New Mon State Party chairman Nai Shwe Kyin].

On August 19, 1948, he was involved in a raid on the Zathapyin Police Station to seize weapons. The date is celebrated as Mon Revolutionary Day.

Under the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League government, he worked in the Mon Language programme at Myanmar Radio.

He was a member of the Mon National Defence Organization.

He was imprisoned in Mawlamyaing Prison for two years, and he was detained in Rangoon in 1957.

His wife, Mi Ban Aung, three children and seven grandchildren survive him. His body will be cremated at a monastery in Sangkhlaburi on Wednesday afternoon, according to his family. http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/5887-nai-mya-thi-member-of-mon-twenty-comrades-dies.html
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EU diplomats to be briefed on Burma ahead of human rights meeting
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 18:17 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and NGO groups plan to discuss the call for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) into war crimes in Burma with European Union (EU) diplomats ahead of a European Council meeting on human rights in Brussels on Monday.

UN special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana will speak to EU representatives about war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. In this file photo, he reads a press statement while on a visit to Burma. Photo: Mizzima

UN special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana will speak to EU representatives about war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. In this file photo, he reads a press statement while on a visit to Burma. Photo: Mizzima
The institute has arranged the meeting for diplomats on Tuesday with the aim to discuss the urgent need for the establishment of a United Nations COI into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, according to a press release.

To this end, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, together with a representatives from Burma Campaign UK; the Burma Lawyers’ Council and the International Federation of Human Rights and Human Rights Watch will brief EU diplomats.

The meeting is scheduled ahead of a EU representatives gathering at the Meeting of the Human Rights Working Group of the European Council to discuss, among other human rights issues, the UN General Assembly resolution on Burma for 2011, which must include a provision for a COI if its establishment is to be realized in the near future, according to the press release.

The experts will summarize the current human rights situation in Burma, taking into account recent political developments there, and explain why a COI is the best way forward for deterring the commission of further crimes––reported as murder, systematic rape, sexual violence, torture, the recruitment of children as soldiers, warrantless detention, widespread forced relocations and forced labour ––and ensuring justice for victims. The technicalities of such a COI, including the terms of reference, will also be discussed, according to the institute.

In comments provided before the meeting, Dr. Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, said: “The Burmese people have suffered grave human rights violations for more than 20 years. The perpetrators act with immunity in an environment absent of action by the international community. The United Nations General Assembly should act promptly and decisively to establish a UN COI into human rights abuses in Burma.

“A transparent, impartial and independent UN commission of inquiry is an established tool for investigating allegations of international crimes committed by all parties to a conflict,” he said. “Establishing a commission for Burma would be a crucial and long overdue step in bringing accountability to Burma.” http://www.mizzima.com/news/breaking-and-news-brief/5890-eu-diplomats-to-be-briefed-on-burma-ahead-of-human-rights-meeting.html
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Human Rights Commission Met with Skepticism
By KO HTWE Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Burmese human rights groups have greeted news of the creation of a “Myanmar National Human Rights Commission” (MNHRC) with doubts about how independent the new body will be and questions about key members, who include past defenders of the country's human rights record.

The MNHRC was officially formed on Monday to promote and safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens in accordance with the 2008 Constitution, Burma's state-run media reported on Tuesday. The 15-member body includes retired senior officials, diplomats, academics, doctors and lawyers.

The chairman and vice chairman of the commission are retired ambassadors Win Mra and Kyaw Tint Swe, while its secretary is Sit Myaing, the retired director general of the Social Welfare Department.

“I am skeptical about whether the commission will speak based on the truth and take action against human rights violations in accordance with the law,” said Aung Myo Min, the director of the Thailand-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma.

Aung Myo Min said it was doubtful that a human rights body led by former officials who have defended the country against criticism of its human rights record in the past would act independently of the government.

Win Mra once told a UN gathering that there was no religious discrimination in Burma, and also insisted that there was no such racial group as the Rohingya—a Muslim minority living in Arakan State—in the country.

As the Burmese representative of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Human Rights Commission, Kyaw Tint Swe was often unwilling to discuss rights restrictions in Burma, added Aung Myo Min.

At a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Burma's human rights situation by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Burmese representatives continued to deny reports of forced labor, sexual violence against women and other abuses perpetrated by the country's military.

At the UPR meeting in January, the Burmese delegation said that accusations of widespread rights violations, especially in ethnic areas, were “baseless and merely aimed at discrediting the Burmese armed forces.”

Despite these denials, however, there are many well-documented cases of human rights abuses in Burma, including land confiscation, forcible recruitment of child soldiers, forced labor and rape and murder of ethnic civilians in conflict zones.

Maung Maung Lay, of the Rangoon-based Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group, said he welcomed the creation any organization seeking to promote human rights, but would have to wait and see whether the new commission acted in an independent manner.

In the 1990s, Burma's ruling junta formed a human rights committee led by Home Affairs Minister Col Tin Hlaing, and later by Maj-Gen Maung Oo. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22025
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Burma's State Media Reports Shoot-out Between Kachin Leaders
By BA KAUNG Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Burmese state media alleged that a deadly shoot-out took place during a recent meeting of top Kachin rebel leaders due to differing views on ceasefire negotiations with the government, but the report was rejected as propaganda by the rebel leaders.

According to reports in the state-run newspapers on Tuesday, the deadly shoot-out occurred at a meeting of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) leaders held on Thursday in Laiza, Kachin State, where the 10,000-strong ethnic armed group has its military headquarters.

The reports said that the incident left one KIA leader dead and one wounded. It was alleged to have occurred due to different views among KIA leaders over renewing the group's ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government. The reports also said that KIA military chief Gun Shawng and his deputy, Gun Maw, were present at the meeting.

The reports came amidst growing obstacles in the efforts by the KIA and the Burmese government to renew the ceasefire agreement, which collapsed following armed clashes between the two sides in June near the Chinese border.

Col. Zau Raw, a top KIA official who along with Gun Maw participated in previous discussions with the Burmese government, rejected the report of violence at the meeting as a sheer propaganda effort aimed at misleading the people about the KIA leadership.

“The report is really outrageous. Nothing of that sort happened,” he said, adding that he and Gun Maw were on a trip together on the day when the alleged incident took place, and that the daily meeting of top KIA leaders, including Gun Maw, was held in Laiza today.

“The government wants to create confusion among our troops about their leaders. This is totally baseless,” he said.

During the past few days, several posters were put up by unknown people in Kachin State alleging that Gun Maw had been killed during internecine fighting among the KIA leadership. It is suspected that the posters were made and distributed upon the instruction of local government officials.

In discussions with Naypyidaw, the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), has demanded that the government open an inclusive political dialogue with all ethnic armed groups based on the pre-independence 1947 Panglong Agreement, which guaranteed ethnic minorities basic autonomy in a federal state—a promise that never materialized.

But Naypyidaw has insisted that the KIA join its border guard force under the central command of the Burmese army, and that the KIO participate in the national political process under the terms of the 2008 Constitution, which was drafted by the previous military regime.

While a renewed ceasefire remains uncertain, sporadic armed clashes between the government and the KIA continue to take place in the strategic region along the China-Burma border. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22024
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Exiled Journalist Detained after Returning to Rangoon
By WAI MOE Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Sein Kyaw Hlaing, a veteran Burmese journalist working in exile for the BBC Burmese Service (BBC Burmese) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), was reportedly detained and interrogated in Rangoon after accepting President Thein Sein's offer to exiles to return home.

Sein Kyaw Hlaing, who became well-known by Burmese audiences while working as a broadcaster for the BBC Burmese in the1990s, was reportedly detained by Burmese secret service officers shortly after he arrived at the Rangoon International Airport in late August, one of his friends told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

“I heard he [Sein Kyaw Hlaing] negotiated his return home with Burmese officials in Mae Sot after Thein Sein made his comments about exiles,” she said. “He was reportedly detained shortly after he landed at the Rangoon airport. He is now believed to be at the Aung Tha Pyay interrogation center of the Special Branch.”

It has not been disclosed whether Sein Kyaw Hlaing would be charged or just detained for interrogation.

On August 17, Thein Sein told Burmese businessmen and civic group officials: “We will conduct a review to make sure that Myanmar [Burmese] citizens living abroad can return home if they have not committed any crime.” However, the president did not clarify what the regime's definition of a “crime” was.

An official of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although President Thein Sein invited exiles to return home, old laws still remain and the ability of exiles to go home without fear still yet unkown.

While he worked with BBC, Sein Kyaw Hlaing was notable for his business reporting. With the Washington-based RFA, he covered the affairs of the ruling generals and ministers. One minister he reported on was Aung Thaung, a leader of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party and former minister of Industry-1.

After working with the RFA, Sein Kyaw Hlaing became the editor of the New Era Journal based in Thailand. Currently, he is an outside contributor for RFA. http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22022
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Deep-sea Port, Pipelines Have 'Devastating Impact': Shwe Gas
By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, September 6, 2011

BANGKOK—The construction of China's deep-sea port off the Arakan coast, and the laying of gas and oil pipelines across Burma is having a devastating impact on thousands of people and the environment, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The report by the Shwe Gas Movement, titled “Sold Out,” said the ongoing projects, which involve Chinese, Korean and Burmese cooperation, have directly affected 80,000 people displaced along the 800-km (500 mi) pipeline route.

The dual pipelines will pump Burma’s natural gas reserves as well as oil transported from the Middle East and Africa across the country to feed China’s energy needs.

“The regime is selling our economic future to China,” said Wong Aung of the Shwe Gas Movement at a press conference in Bangkok on Tuesday.

While China takes energy from Burma, some 79 percent of Burmese people live without electricity, said Wong Aung, quoting regional energy research.

The report stated that widespread land confiscation—to make way for the pipeline corridor—is leaving farmers jobless while fishing grounds are now off limits, contributing to rising migration.

Local people are able to secure only low-wage, temporary and unsafe jobs on the project. They are banned from demanding fair wages. To date, 60 workers at the onshore Gas Terminal site alone have been fired for demanding fair wages, said the report.

Wong Aung said that 33 Burmese army battalions are currently deployed along the pipeline corridor in Arakan and Shan states. Naval patrols guard offshore construction, and a missile complex is also being built next to the deep-sea port.

The Burmese government has ordered its troops to launch offensives to clear ethnic armed groups out of resource-rich areas in northern Kachin and Shan States since March 2011, leaving thousands of people displaced, according to the report.

Wong Aung said that lands have been confiscated along the pipeline route and 80,000 people in 21 townships have been directly affected.

From a human rights perspective, Lway Aye Nang of the Palaung Women’s Organization said that local villagers have already experienced forced labor, forced relocation and land confiscations in the Palaung area of Shan State.

“Some plantations were seized even though the owners didn’t know,” said Lway Aye Nang, adding that the new government takes no responsibility for the affected people.

The report also tackled environmental issues. The clearing of forest areas and animal corridors for the pipeline route and the potential for explosions and leaks could impact areas across the country, it said.

Shwe Gas Movement said oil spills and refuse disposal off the coast endanger the entire catchment area of the Bay of Bengal, while fuel discharge as well as oil leaks and spills from the tankers offloading at the deep-sea port would have devastating impacts on the coastal ecosystem, particularly mangrove forests.

The development of large-scale petrochemical facilities on Remree and Maday islands increases the likelihood of deadly spills or the outright dumping of toxic materials into the sea and local waterways.

The construction project incorporating the deep-sea port, the gas terminal and oil transfers involves the China National Petroleum Corporation and companies from South Korea and Burma. Despite the outbreak of armed conflicts, the companies, however, have speeded up the construction.

The report said the natural gas, if used domestically, would transform Burma’s failing economy, addressing chronic energy shortages and unaffordable petrol prices that led to uprisings in 2007. The gas will instead be exported and revenues from the sale of gas—estimated at US $29 billion—will be swallowed up by a fiscal black hole that omits gas revenues from the national budget.

“The investors should pull out now before the project blows up in their faces,” said Wong Aung. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22023
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New Light of Myanmar
Myanmar National Human Rights Commission formed

NAY PYI TAW, 5 Sept-The Union Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar issued Notification No. 34/2011 dated 5-9-2011 as follows:-

Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Union Government
Notification No. (34/2011)
8th Waxing of Tawthalin1373 ME
(5 September, 2011)
Formation of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission

Myanmar National Human Rights Commission was formed with the following persons with a view to promoting and safeguarding fundamental rights of citizens described in the constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

(a) U Win Mra
Ambassador (Retd)
Chairman

(b) U Kyaw Tint Swe
Ambassador (Retd)
Vice-Chairman

(c) U Tun Aung Chein
Professor (Retd), Department of History
Member

(d) U Hla Myint
Ambassador (Retd)
Member

(e) U Than Swe
Director-General (Retd), Forest Department
Member

(f) Dr Nyan Zaw
State Medical Officer (Retd)
Member

(g) Dr Daw Than Nwe
Professor (Retd), Department of Law
Member

(h) Daw Saw Khin Kyi
Professor (Retd), Department of International Relations
Member

(i) U Tin Nyo
Director-General (Retd), Basic Education Department
Member

(j) U Kwa Htiyo
State Law Officer (Retd)
Member

(k) U Khin Maung Lay
Director (Retd), Labour Department
Member

(l) U Lapai Zawgun
Minister Counsellor (Retd)
Member

(m) U Nyunt Swe
Deputy Director-General (Retd), Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Member

(n) Daw San San
Director (Retd), Labour Department
Member

(0) U Sit Myaing
Director-General (Retd), Social Welfare Department
Secretary

By order,
Tin Myo Kyi
Secretary
Union Government
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