Myanmar seeks outside help to build 'green economy'
AFP News – 21 hours ago
Myanmar urged developed nations on Tuesday to share their green technologies, in the military-backed government's latest effort to reach out to the global community.
"Being a developing country, we need technological transfer, particularly for the development of renewable energy through solar, wind and tidal power," Environmental Conservation and Forestry Minister Win Tun said as he opened a conference in the capital.
He said the experiences of other countries would "provide an opportunity to develop a road map for green growth for Myanmar."
Myanmar's first-ever Green Economy and Green Growth Forum comes just weeks after the authoritarian regime stunned observers by freezing work an unpopular Chinese-backed mega dam in a rare concession to public opinion.
Myanmar is one of the world's least developed countries but it is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals and gems.
Hopes of political change in the repressive state have grown in recent months, with efforts by the new, nominally-civilian government to reach out to opponents and introduce tentative steps towards more openness.
Observers say the moves appear to show Myanmar's desire to end its long international isolation, but the trade and financial sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon.
Among those attending the start of the four-day environmental conference was visiting top United Nations official Vijay Nambiar.
The chief of staff to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, arrived in the country on Monday and is expected to meet with government officials and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi during his five-day stay.
Suu Kyi is set to take part in the final day of the environmental forum on Friday when the event moves to Yangon, the latest in a series of invitations extended to the opposition leader by the government.
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Reuters AlertNet - ACT Alliance Alert: Flash Floods in Myanmar
02 Nov 2011 10:29
Source: member // Elisabeth Gouel Alert
Myanmar: Flash Floods in Myanmar
Geneva, 1 November 2011
1. Brief description of the emergency
On 20 October 2011, Tropical Storm Two, which made landfall near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border on 19 October, dumped up to 150 mm of rain on the area which subsequently triggered flash floods in Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing Regions of Myanmar.
2. Impact
Magway region was the worst affected with the four worst-affected townships being Myaing, Pauk, Pakokku and Seikphyu. The Relief and Resettlement Department (RRD) of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement (MoSWRR) estimates that more than 26,000 persons have lost their homes and belongings. As of 26 October 2011 106 people have lost their lives or are missing. The flood waters have swept away 2,123 houses and inundated an additional 8,000 dwellings.
Access in some areas is restricted due to damages to infrastructure. In Saw Township, the main road between Pakokku, Seikphyu, Saw and Kanpetlet (Chin State) is disrupted due to damage to bridges caused by landslides and only light vehicles can travel on the road. Similarly, in Pauk Township strong winds, heavy rains and strong river currents have damaged bridges and roads, making access to affected areas difficult. In Pakokku and Pauk Townshisp there was also disruption of electricity and telephone lines.
The proposed LWF response would cover the township of Pakkoku and Seikphyu in Magway division. Magway division centre is approximately 400 miles north-west of Yangon and is accessible by road. There are 12 temporary camps, accommodating an estimated 7,237 people. Five schools have been affected by floods two of which can no longer be used for education purposes and for which temporary arrangements have been provided by using community buildings. The remaining three have lost all their furniture.
3. National and international response
Local authorities, the private sector and the communities themselves, in collaboration with their partners, immediately responded to the floods. On 23 October, the vice president and president visited some temporary camps in the affected areas and provided assistance in cash and in kind worth USD 273,000 and USD 250,425 respectively.
The government and other humanitarian agencies have so far provided food (including rice, oil, salt and beans). The WFP has provided food assistance to a total of 6,433 beneficiaries from 1,550 families in 12 villages with 65.9 MT of rice, sufficient for one-month. Temporary and permanent shelter support and other non-food items, including kitchen and family sets are being distributed.
In order to restart education, UNICEF will provide cash to procure teaching materials and Save the Children is providing a teacher and student kits for primary school children living in the three temporary camps in Pakokku. Child-friendly spaces will be set up in each camp.
Relief support is being coordinated by local relief committees set up by the authorities and they are closely liaising with the humanitarian partners on the ground. The government Relief and Resettlement Department (RRD) is proactively involved in managing the situation in coordination with all stakeholders. OCHA called a meeting with the representatives from UN agencies and NGOs on 27 October to discuss the situation and mobilize stand-by assistance, based on the information available at the time of the meeting.
4. ACT Alliance Response
On 21 October 2011, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Myanmar regional representative together with a programme monitoring and evaluation consultant and an administrative officer were at the office of the Director General, RRD, Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in the capital city Nay Pyi Daw in relation to the LWF Myanmar memorandum of understanding (MoU). The Director General made a verbal request for emergency assistance to the flood affected. Accordingly, LWF Myanmar coordinated with the RRD Magway division office and received a request for iron (CGI) sheets for roofing for the temporary shelters in the camps. LWF Myanmar sent a team of two staff to Magway and supplied 1,400 units of CGI sheets (procured locally) which could also later be used for houses during the rehabilitation phase.
The Myanmar forum comprises Christian Aid (CA), FinnChurchAid (FCA), Church World Service-Myanmar (CWS), Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), Act for Peace, DanChurchAid (DCA), EED, Church of Sweden (CoS), ICCO & KerkinActie, DKH, and Lutheran World Federation (LWF). LWF is proposing this response, while having Informal discussions with other members. The Forum will meet on 1 November to discuss the situation and the action.
5. Planned activities
Based on the assessment report it is clear that most of the emergency needs are already being catered to. The Magway area lies in the dry zone, therefore livelihood is normally a challenge. The challenge is now further aggravated due to the flood damage. People have lost houses and their basis of livelihood, such as livestock.
Depending on the report from the LWF assessment team, LWF Myanmar intends to further respond to the emergency response needs. Once the assessments from the agencies are available LWF Myanmar will make an analysis and possibly plan for physical recovery and livelihood recovery. Pokkaku and Seikphyu are two of the planned intervention areas and LWF Myanmar is planning to prepare a Livelihood and Physical Recovery Plan in the most affected villages of Seikphyu and Pokkaku townships.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to Jean-Daniel Birmele, ACT Chief Finance Officer (Jean_Daniel.Birmele@actalliance.org).
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Asian Correspondent - Kachin fighters claim Burma Army using chemical weapons
By Zin Linn Nov 01, 2011 11:48AM UTC
The Burma Army’s full-scale offensives are becoming greater than ever in Kachin State. The fighting seems vengeful as Burmese soldiers commit various crimes – such as looting, killing, raping and burning down the civilians’ villages – on the front line. Actually, ordinary Kachin people are just innocent citizens of Burma and soldiers should spare their lives and properties.
However, Kachin natives are singled out by the Burmese soldiers and they are not regarded as citizens of their own nation. It looks like the Burma Army has been launching a racial war. In frontline areas, Burmese soldiers are committing crimes freely as there are no effective or appropriate penalties set by senior authorities.
The worst and concrete evidence is that the wicked Burmese Army has used a mysterious chemical weapon in the recent offensive against Kachin rebels in Northern Burma, quoting victims’ suffering, Kachin News Group reported.
For more than a week, Burmese soldiers used the unidentified chemical weapon in three war zones — Christian Prayer Hill and Lung Zep Kawng in Ga Ra Yang village, and Shwe Nyaung Pyin village — against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on Myitkyina-Manmaw (Bhamo) Road in Waingmaw Township. Those events were narrated by KIA soldiers, who said they were under attack by poisonous gas.
On October 29, Burma Army troops fired two mortar rounds of chemical weapons on the People’s Army fighters under the KIA in Prayer Hill, said civilian fighters.
“Two rounds of chemical weapons were fired at us in Prayer Hill. There were seven of us present. Dark smoke billowed from the areas where the mortar shells landed,” La Gun, a civilian fighter and a victim of the chemical weapon told Kachin News Group on Sunday.
When the victims breathed the dark smoke, they felt extremely dizzy, found it hard to breathe, thirsty and vomiting for hours, according to one victim.
The same chemical weapon was used during the week-long fighting in Lung Zep Kawng last week, La Gun said. The same day, the chemical weapon was used by the Burmese Army in Ntap Bum battle zone, near the KIA headquarters Laiza. Four KIA soldiers suffered dizziness, fell on the ground and began vomiting for a long time, said eyewitnesses.
This act breaks the Geneva Protocol which banned use of chemical and biological weapons in both civil and foreign conflicts. President Thein Sein’s government has to take responsibility for the use of such chemical weapons.
Burma observers and analysts are confused over the war between the KIA and Burma Army. While the president is speaking about the importance of national unity, his army has been increasing the hostilities in ethnic areas.
Derek Mitchell, special U.S. envoy for Burma, said on October 17 that violence had continued against ethnic minorities and there were “credible reports” of continuing human rights abuses against women and children.
During a visit aimed at assessing the military-dominated nation’s bid for the ASEAN chair, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Saturday he urged Burma’s leaders to release more political prisoners and take greater steps to reconcile with restive ethnic groups. He also said that he expected progress in these areas before the country assumes the chair of ASEAN.
Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi made an appeal last July 28 for political talk and an urgent ceasefire between major ethnic rebel groups – Kachin Independence Organization, Karen National Union, New Mon State Party, Shan State Army – and government troops.
In her open letter to the new President Thein Sein, Suu Kyi offered to act as a mediator between the government and the ethnic rebels.
“National reconciliation cannot be accomplished by using military might. If stakeholders used the gun to solve out the disagreement, it will make disadvantage for all sides. To establish an authentic national unity, that will make safe the future of the Union, can only be accomplished through political dialogue,” the open letter says.
If the President Thein Sein truly wanted to recreate the country into a democratic and developed society, all the wars with respective ethnic rebels including KIA must be stopped at once. President Thein Sein should not say poverty alleviation while he has been launching civil war against ethnic groups that make the country underprivileged in the region.
Hence, it is really essential for the president to end the civil war, particularly the war against KIA.
If Burmese troops have used chemical weapons, the president must determinedly order them to stop immediately. By doing so, president has to show the country is on the right reform path.
Judgment to end civil war will also achieve wide-ranging support domestically and internationally.
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Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011
The Japan Times - Myanmar's new guardian?
By NAING KO KO and SIMON SCOTT
Special to The Japan Times
WELLINGTON / TOKYO — Myanmar's one-time military generals, who have miraculously transformed themselves into benign politicians, really do seem to be taking remarkable steps to restructure both the domestic and foreign policy of that fragile nation.
U Thein Sein's new administration recently released approximately 208 out of the country's 2,000 political prisoners; unblocked the information super highway and has begun to ease media censorship in a land famous for black listing foreign reporters and imprisoning domestic ones.
He even invited charismatic democracy and traditional arch enemy of the regime Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to the presidential palace for a friendly chat and a cup of chai.
One can speculate until the cows come home about the regime's true motives for these reforms and the cynic may be quite right in saying it has a lot more to do with the generals finally awakening to the fact that they have more to gain by playing the reformist, but that still doesn't change the fact that changes are really happening on the ground.
A good deed no matter how small, even if done for the wrong reasons, is still better than doing no good deed at all, right?
The recent visit by Myanmar Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin to Tokyo just a week or so after the regime's highly publicized prisoner release, clearly shows the new administration is trying to court not just Washington and other Western capitals, but also Tokyo.
The former-generals-turned-civilian administrators in Naypyidaw clearly understand the importance of economic and financial support from Tokyo and are also aware of Japan's significant yet arguably diminishing foreign policy role in the Asia-Pacific region, especially its influence on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
It is certainly no coincidence that Maung Lwin's visit to Tokyo quickly followed a frosting in Myanmar-China relations due to president U Thein Sein calling a halt to the construction of the controversial $3.6 billion Myitsone mega dam project by China Power Investment Corp.
While the Myanmar-China relationship continues to stall, diplomatic and economic connections between Japan and Myanmar are growing fast. Earlier this year Japan's Vice
Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta toured the country and met with regime officials as well as Aung San Suu Kyi.
Japan's largest business association, Keidanren, also paid an official visit to Myanmar last month to pave the way for further Japanese business involvement in the country.
It is believed that the first priority of Foreign Minister Maung Lwin's recent pilgrimage to Tokyo to meet his counterpart Koichiro Genba is to seek Japanese endorsement for Myanmar's bid for the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014.
Other topics under discussion were likely to have been the ASEAN-Japan Business Meeting (AJBM) to be held in Yangon this month, which Myanmar is hosting for the first time, and the ASEAN Finance and Central Bank meetings that will be held in Tokyo later this month.
The AJBM meeting will be a key opportunity for furthering economic and trade relations between the economies of ASEAN and Japan, and an opportunity for Myanmar to gain more foreign direct investment by Japanese companies and more overseas aid. Japan is currently only ranked the 12th largest FDI investor in Myanmar, but this is set to change in the near future.
Moreover, hosting the 37th AJBM will enhance the status of the Thein Sein administration on the diplomatic playing field after decades of marginalization due to the regime's shocking human rights record.
Both governments also seem to be going out of their way to avoid diplomatic embarrassments in their pursuit of a better relationship and the recent death of 31-year-old Japanese tourist Chiharu Shiramatsu is a case in point.
Shiramatsu was raped and killed on Sept. 28 near the ancient temple city of Bagan, in Myanmar, allegedly by a motorcycle-taxi driver she had hired, yet there has been no noticeable public response to the case by Japanese officials and almost no coverage of the story in the Japanese media.
The common link that is pushing Myanmar and Japan closer together is, undoubtedly, a shared concern about China's ever-growing influence in the region. Japan has been long worried about its diminishing soft power in Asia and it fears being further marginalized by a China that is growing stronger and richer by the day.
The stopping of the Myitsone Dam project by the new administration was a strong and symbolic rejection of China's control over Myanmar and the deep opposition to the project by the Burmese people goes beyond the issue of the dam itself and suggests wider resentment toward China for the way it has unconditionally propped up the regime, especially by selling it arms. Since 1988 China has supplied $1-2 billion worth of weapons to Myanmar, including fighter jets, naval vessels and tanks.
Japanese policy-makers well understand the implications of a widening rift between Myanmar and China, and are paving the way for Japanese interests to step into the growing power vacuum. Yet Japan's re-entry into Myanmar has so far been balanced and considered as Kikuta's trip there earlier this year showed. Kikuta successfully walked a fine line by meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon for talks one day, and traveling up to Naypyidaw to pay homage to the generals in their capital the next.
On the whole Japan seems to formulating a Myanmar policy that is better thought out, more sustainable and more ethical than China's. Although Myanmar has taken a few steps in the right direction, it is critical that countries like Japan maintain a cautious approach and not the jump the gun.
All things are relative and because so little progress was made with Myanmar, for so long, even the smallest movement forward can easily be blown out of proportion. Releasing 208 political prisoners may just be the best thing that Myanmar's authorities have done in a long time, but it doesn't change the fact there are nearly 1,800 political prisoners still behind bars.
Naing Ko Ko is a leader of the NZ Burma campaign, a recipient of the 2010 Amnesty International New Zealand Human Rights Defender Award and a former Burmese political prisoner. Simon Scott is a Tokyo-based journalist who writes on Japan- and Myanmar-related issues.
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November 02, 2011 20:38 PM
Play More Active Role In Asean, Tun M Urges Myanmar
From Amer Hamzah Md Sap
YANGON (MYANMAR), Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Myanmar should play a more active role in Asean to enable it to tackle problems arising from globalisation, said Malaysia's former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said Asean member countries would achieve more by talking about its interests with one voice.
"Together, we can grow in the region," he said when delivering a business talk about Malaysia's experience in globalisation and liberalisation here Wednesday.
The talk was organised by the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) and Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) in collaboration with the Union of the Republic of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).
He said globalisation was mooted with the idea, among others, of facilitating easy access of capital and technology into another country, but the question was whether it would benefit the receiving countries.
"(For example) it is good if the capital inflow creates income for the (receiving) country but it is not if it only flows into the stock market because the share prices would go up but the value has nothing to do with the company's performance," he said.
While globalisation means bigger markets for our country's products, it also has a negative impact, he said, adding this does not mean globalisation, put forward by Western countries, should be rejected, but it should be re-examined.
Earlier, he witnessed the signing of four memorandums of understanding (MoU)at the same event.
The first MoU was signed by Myanmar Corobiz Travel and Tours Co Ltd chairman Aung Soe Har with Felda Travel and Tours chief executive officer (CEO) S. Andrew Francis to enable both parties to collaborate in Myanmar's travel and tour business.
The second MoU was signed by Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd CEO Zakaria Arshad with Golden Land East Asia Development Ltd managing director Nyein Aung to enable both sides to collaborate in the distribution of packed cooking oil under the "Saji" brand in Myanmar.
Zakaria also signed an MoU on his company's behalf with Grand Wynn Enterprise chairman Hla Wynn to collaborate in the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods in Myanmar.
The last MoU was signed by Felda Vegetables Oil Products Sdn Bhd CEO Wan Mohamad Zain Wan Ismail with Htoo group of companies managing director Kyaw Thi Ha for collaboration in rubbber and palm oil processing and for travel and tours in Myanmar.
Dr Mahathir also toured the exhibition mounted by Felda, MPOC and UMFCCI.
He was accompanied by his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad, MPOC CEO Tan Sri Datuk Dr Yusof Basiron and UMFCCI president U Win Aung.
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Police looking for two in connection with migrant smuggling case
Bernama – 6 hours ago
KANGAR, Nov 2 (Bernama) -- Police are looking for two men to help them in their investigation into recent migrant smuggling and house break-in cases.
This follows the arrest of a 15-year-old boy who was found driving a car with 10 Myanmar nationals inside in Padang Siding near here on Oct 18.
Perlis police chief SAC Zull Aznam Haron said the two, aged 40 and 22, were from Kampung Wang Kelian and Felda Chuping, respectively.
Police said the youth from Kampung Wang Kelian was believed to have been paid RM300 for each trip.
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New Straits Times - Duo gets jail and rotan for robbing Myanmar nationals
2011/11/01
AYER KEROH: Two local men were sentenced to six years' jail and three strokes of the cane each after pleading guilty to a charge of robbing two Myanmar nationals of their mobile phones and RM20 in cash.
Hairol Abu Bakar, 25, and Abdul Karim Musa, 33, had been charged with robbing Tun Naing Win, 33, and Thet Naing Soe, 26, at a house in Jalan Setia, Ayer Keroh Heights, about 10.15am on Oct 18.
Hairol appealed for leniency, saying he is married and has a one-year-old child apart from having to care for both of his parents who are living him.
Abdul Karim also appealed for leniency saying this was his first offence.
They had both used knifes to threaten their victims into handing over the cash and mobile phone.
Before meting out the sentence, Sessions Court Judge Ahmad Sazali Omar said they should have worked to earn money.
"You are healthy, so you should work. If we work, then the money will come," he said.
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Workers held over expired permits
By Meena Lakshana | Malay Mail – 11 hours ago
PETALING JAYA: Nine Myanmar factory workers alleged to have been wrongfully detained by the Immigration Department last month were found possessing expired working permits.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad said the nine detained in Section 6, Kota Damansara on Oct 4 overstayed in the country since July 22. Their employer did not renew their work permits.
"The workers are expected to be charged in court on Nov 14 for unlawful entry or presence in the country," he said.
The nine are being held at the Sungai Buloh Immigration detention centre.
Asked if enforcement action will be taken against their employer, Alias said the department was trying to identify them.
He said as the workers were detained at their residence, the department would have to check for details of the employer and the outsourcing company that recruited them.
"We can take action against the employer and the outsourcing company if they committed an offence," he said.
Alias said if the employer committed an offence, the department could propose to the Home Ministry to terminate the licence or postpone the license renewal of the outsourcing company.
On Monday, Burma Campaign Malaysia claimed the workers' passports were held by their employer and the outsourcing company cheated the workers by failing to prepare their working permits and visa documents since their arrival in June.
The NGO's director,Tun Tun, said the workers paid US850 (RM2,604) each to come to Malaysia to work and they were made to believe their documents would be ready on their arrival.
He claimed the outsourcing company shortchanged the workers as their documents were still not prepared when they arrived and had later evaded the NGO group when they tried to ask about the status of the documents.
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Asia Sentinel - India's Southern Neighbors Come Calling
Written by Harsh V. Pant
Wednesday, 02 November 2011
Vietnam and Burma’s opening towards India dovetails with India’s Look East Policy
China’s growing power and muscle-flexing vis-à-vis its neighbors have now resulted in a regional balancing effort. Earlier this month the presidents of China’s southern neighbors, Burma and Vietnam, made official visits to India – as much recognition of India’s growing economic and political heft as acknowledgement that India is a good bet as they seek strategic balance in a region transformed by China’s rapid ascent.
This is a time of great turmoil in the Asian strategic landscape, and India is trying to make itself relevant to the regional states. With its political and economic rise, Beijing has started dictating the boundaries of acceptable behavior to its neighbors, thereby laying bare the costs of great-power politics.
In July, an Indian warship on a friendly visit to Vietnam reported an unidentified Chinese radio warning when it was about 45 nautical miles off the Vietnamese coast. Tensions are rising between China and smaller states in East Asia and Southeast Asia over territorial issues as well. The US and its allies have already started reassessing their regional strategies, and a loose anti-China balancing coalition is emerging.
India’s role becomes critical in such an evolving balance of power. As Singapore’s elder-statesman Lee Kuan Yew has argued, he would like India to be “part of the Southeast Asia balance of forces” and “a counterweight [to China] in the Indian Ocean.”
Other regional states, too, are keen on a more pro-active Indian role in the region. And the visits of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Burmese President Thein Sein to India should be viewed in this broader context. Both Vietnam and Burma have hit a rough patch in their ties with China. China has sparred with regional states including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, asserting its “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea.
Some, like the Philippines and Vietnam, have pushed back. Philippines President Benigno Aquino Jr. told his nation: “We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours.” Ever mindful of not provoking China, Vietnam has sent its top party leader to China and the president to India, but has made it clear that it wants the US and India to counterbalance Chinese power.
In September, when Beijing told New Delhi that its permission was needed for India’s state-owned oil and gas firm to explore energy on two Vietnamese blocks in the South China Sea, Vietnam quickly cited the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea to claim that blocks 127 and 128 were in Vietnamese territorial waters.
New Delhi supported Hanoi’s claims and has made it clear that its state-owned firm would continue to explore in the South China Sea. This rare display of spine has helped India strengthen its profile in the region and its relationship with Vietnam in particular.
The two nations also have high stakes in ensuring sea-lane security in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Given that Vietnam and India use similar Russian and erstwhile Soviet weapons systems – from submarines to jet fighters – Hanoi has been seeking collaboration with New Delhi on defense. Talks are ongoing for India to sell the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, developed by an Indo-Russian joint venture. Such collaboration could allow Vietnam to acquire military muscle and improve deterrence against China.
Naval cooperation between Vietnam and India remains the focus with Vietnam giving India the right to use its port in the south, Nha Trang, situated close to the strategically significant Cam Ranh Bay. During Sang’s visit to India, the two sides reiterated the need to enhance cooperation in ensuring safety and security of the region’s sea lanes and launched a security dialogue. To give strong economic foundation to the bilateral ties, it was also decided to increase the trade target to US$7 billion by 2015 from the present US$2.7 billion.
Burma too has made its own overtures to India. President Then Sein has pursued a range of reforms in the domestic realm that include opening substantive talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, declaration of amnesty for political prisoners and cancellation of the Chinese-funded Myitsone Dam project.
These efforts could be viewed as an attempt to seek a rapprochement with the democratic world, and that may be why for his first visit abroad as president of a nominal civilian government, Thein Sein chose India.
During his visit, Then Sein sought greater Indian investment in Burma’s energy sector even as the two nations agreed to expand cooperation in oil and gas exploration, open border trade, and speed up construction of natural gas pipelines. India, which is investing in the Kaladan multimodal transport system, connecting India’s eastern seaboard to its northeastern states through Myanmar, further offered US$500 million in credits for infrastructure projects.
While India is under pressure from the West to demonstrate democratic credentials, its strategic interests have been winning out in relations with Burma in recent years. Due to such strategic interests, New Delhi has only gently nudged the Burmese junta on the issue of democracy, gradually gaining a sense of trust at the highest echelons of Burma’s ruling elite. India would be loath to lose this relationship.
As such, India remains opposed to Western sanctions on the country. Burma’s recent moves towards democratic transition will give India a larger strategic space to maneuver, and compared to Beijing, New Delhi will be a more attractive partner for Naypyidaw as it tries to find a modus vivendi with the West.
India is also emerging as a serious player in the Asian strategic landscape as smaller states in East Asia reach out to it for trade, diplomacy and, potentially, as a key regional balancer. The “Look East” policy initiated by one of the most visionary prime ministers India has ever had, P.V. Narasimha Rao, is now the cornerstone of India’s engagement with the world’s most economically dynamic region. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that his government’s foreign-policy priority will be East and Southeast Asia, poised for sustained growth in the 21st century.
China is too big and too powerful to be ignored by the regional states. But the states in China’s vicinity are now seeking to expand their strategic space by reaching out to other regional and global powers. Smaller states in the region are now looking to India to act as a balancer in view of China’s growing influence and America’s anticipated retrenchment from the region in the near future, while larger states see India as an attractive engine for regional growth.
To live up to its full potential and meet the region’s expectations, India must do a more convincing job of emerging as a credible strategic partner of the region. Neither India nor the regional states in East Asia have incentive to define their relationship in opposition to China. But they are certainly interested in leveraging their ties with other states to gain benefits from China and bring a semblance of equality in their relationships. Great power politics in the region have only just begun.
(Harsh V. Pant is a Reader in International Relations at King’s College London in the Department of Defense Studies. This is reprinted with permission from the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.)
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New Kerala - UN official visit Myanmar for five days
New York, Nov 1: A top United Nations official arrived on Monday in Myanmar for a five-day visit during which he will meet with a number of Government officials and other key actors.
The visit by Vijay Nambiar is at the invitation of the Government, according to a statement issued by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson.
It comes amid ongoing dialogue between the Government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate who was held under house arrest for much of the past 20 years before being released last Nov, as well as the negotiations between the authorities and ethnic groups.
It also follows the release earlier this month of a significant number of detainees, a move welcomed by Ban, who said he hoped the Government will ensure the early release of all political prisoners, consistent with its commitment to uphold fundamental rights and the rule of law.
A new Government was established in Myanmar seven months ago, and more recently the country has received a series of high-level bilateral visits. In addition, President Thein Sein has made a pledge for Myanmar to “catch up with the changing world.”
Nambiar, who is Ban’s Chief of Staff as well as Special Adviser for Myanmar, will hold meetings in Naypyitaw and Yangon with the Government, as well as political parties, civil society organizations and other key players, in carrying out the UN Secretary-General’s good offices mandate.
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Gant Daily - Poor farmers need alternatives to opium
November 2, 2011 at 6:36 AM by AHN
Vientiane, Laos (IRIN) – Training in how to prune peach trees may not be at the top of most drug and crime interventions, but perhaps they should be when it comes to opium, experts say.
Opium production was rising in Laos, formerly the third-largest producer in the world after Afghanistan and Myanmar, until the government slashed poppy plots from 26,800ha to 1,500 hectares between 1998 and 2006.
But since 2007 opium farming has doubled to 3,000 hectares and the upward trend is still continuing, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The increase has led some to characterize the previous reduction in poppy growing as a fragile success as some poverty-stricken farmers may yet relapse when left with few livelihood options.
“With no assistance people will grow [poppies]. If they have no regular work or livelihood, then it’s opium, because this is what they know how to do,” said Edna Legaspi, project manager for UNODC in the country’s northern province, Oudomxay.
Most vulnerable are the country’s poorest regions easily accessible from neighboring countries. Oudomxay, at the regional crossroads of the Laos opium trade and only hours by road to China, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, is among the most at-risk communities, according to UNODC.
“Opium is causing problems in this district because people do not have alternatives and because of a remoteness due to a lack of road access,” said Khamen Phomally, deputy district governor of Xay District in Oudomxay and chairman of the local committee on drug control. “But those who have access to other options and roads forget opium.”
New cash crops such as fruit, corn and rice have helped turn most farmers away from poppy cultivation. But the struggle is constant. From pests to pruning techniques, these crops, which take well to the region’s rugged mountainous terrain but typically earn less, demand different skills and knowledge than opium.
Alternatives
Sychan Vakongxiong, a secondary-school mathematics teacher, who struggled to feed a family of six, turned to poppy cultivation in 1993. After nearly a decade of perfecting the practice, the government told her to stop growing the illegal crop.
“I did not know opium was used for making drugs, I thought it was for medication,” she said, adding the same was true for many fellow Hmong farmers.
At first the peach trees she turned to did well, but she quickly realized she did not know the orchard business like she knew opium.
While Vakongxiong later benefited from training by UNODC, and the Thai government-backed Royal Project Foundation and Highland Research and Development Institute in vegetable gardening and new crops, including grapes, she said her income was still not enough to support her family.
Her peach trees initially earned as much as 2 hectares of poppies had (about US$125) but pests destroyed her crop. Limes, vegetables, peaches and fish now fill her farm – but so far no business has lasted as long or been as steady as opium, she said.
Demand
A farmer now earns up to $3,200 per kilogram of poppies versus corn, which brings in $150, said Houmphanh Bouphakham, director of the Oudomxay Provincial Department on Drug Control.
Before government crackdowns on poppy cultivation over the past decade, farmers earned only $80 per kilogram of opium in 2000.
Opium cultivation has been on the decline in the region, but heroin is still the drug of choice in places like Laos, Singapore and Vietnam, according to UNODC’s 2011 World Drug Report .
Half the farmers who quit poppy production during the decade-long crackdown could return, warns the government’s National Drug Control Master Plan for 2009 to 2013.
And if the relapse is due to failed promises of other income opportunities, farmers could distrust eradication efforts, making it harder to wipe out opium crops a second time.
UNODC is working with the government to expand irrigation and introduce new rice varieties in 30 villages in Oudomxay, including Moonmeuang.
Before UNODC programming in 2009 the average annual household income in these villages was $572. In 2010 this increased to $1,400, according to the agency’s calculations. Some residents attribute the boost to bigger and more frequent harvests of cash crops, especially rice.
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Manila Bulletin - Trapped Burmese face arrest, extortion to flee Thai floods
November 2, 2011, 12:04pm
AYUTTHAYA (Reuters) - With no money or identity documents and stranded in a foreign land for days on end without food and water, they are the forgotten people of Thailand's flood disaster.
Evacuation is not an option for hundreds of Burmese migrant workers marooned in the newly formed swamps and road-rivers that cover industrialized central Thailand.
Many are in Thailand illegally, but even the legitimate migrants fear arrest or becoming victims of extortion by Thai and Burmese border officials and opportunist mafia gangs.
"We have to take care of ourselves, we share the little food we have, but that's gone," said Show Tae, 34, who worked in a factory making pizza bases before water rushed in a month ago.
"We can't go home because we have no money and if I go back to Myanmar, there's no work there either."
In provinces like Ayutthaya, 100 km (65 miles) north of Bangkok, hundreds of Burmese are trying to ride out Thailand's worst floods in half a century, crammed into apartment blocks with no electricity and relying on a few aid groups to navigate submerged roads to deliver food, water and medical supplies.
Homes and shops have been destroyed, industrial estates housing hundreds of factories have been forced to shut down, leaving 650,000 people jobless. More than 400 people have been killed and 2 million affected since July.
People like Show Tae are not the priority as authorities, troops and relief workers battle to reach thousands of Thais cut off by water as deep as two meters in provinces like Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani and Nakhon Sawan.
Many Thais are in evacuation centers, or camped out along highways, sleeping in small tents, the back of parked trucks or under plastic sheets, but food and water is available.
DIRE SITUATION
Families are crammed into boats, rowing along roads and through rice fields with a backdrop of warehouses, tractors and bulldozers partially submerged by the muddy, foul-smelling water that has left this province looking like a coastal area.
For Burmese, the situation is even more dire. Activists say migrant workers hit by floods -- a crucial part of Thailand's $319 billion economy -- have been largely ignored.
"They have no one, nowhere to go and the factory owners can't take care of them," said Laddawan Tantivitayapitak of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB), which was delivering food supplies to the Burmese victims on Tuesday.
"Many lost their documents and money in the floods. Other chose to flee but were arrested."
About 250 Burmese are believed to be receiving help in shelters, but tens of thousands more were affected by the flooding.
The Labour Ministry estimates there are more than 1 million foreign migrant workers in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, including those who are registered and those working illegally. Those with documentation are not permitted to travel beyond the provinces in which they are employed.
For many, evacuation means detention or the possibility of being delayed or blocked from returning to jobs in Thailand that help feed millions of impoverished people back in Myanmar.
Many have decided to go home anyway. Activists say thousands of laborers have escaped swamped areas and have been cramming into trucks, forced to part with about 2,500 baht ($81) to get to the Thai-Myanmar frontier, where some border officials on either side have been demanding informal fees just to allow them to get home.
"It is unacceptable for Thai and Myanmar officials to be profiteering from migrants' desire to go home in a time of disaster like this," said Andy Hall, a migration expert at Bangkok's Mahidol University.
"Thailand has not been able to efficiently and humanely provide for affected migrants inside the country so far."
Win, 19, a registered worker at the pizza base factory who was born in Thailand but does not have citizenship, said she and her colleagues were destitute and many living in fear.
"We no longer have work but my friends have no choice but to wait," she said. "They're too scared to leave."
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November 2, 2011, 7:30 PM SGT
Wall Street Journal - Thaw Between Myanmar and its Critics Continues
By A Wall Street Journal Reporter
The expanding dialogue between Myanmar’s government and its many critics picked up momentum this week, raising expectations of a possible breakthrough in relations between the two camps in the coming weeks.
The new U.S. special envoy to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, arrived in Myanmar on Wednesday for his third visit in the past two months, a day after U.S. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner arrived to meet senior Myanmar officials. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Yangon said the trip “builds upon U.S.
dialogue and engagement” with the country addressing “shared goals of genuine reform, reconciliation, and peace and stability.”
A day earlier, on Monday, the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, arrived for a five-day visit at the invitation of the Myanmar government. Mr. Nambiar was expected to hold meetings in the capital of Naypyitaw and Yangon with Myanmar leaders, civil society organizations and other political figures. Mr. Nambiar’s trip, in turn, was preceded by a meeting on Sunday between dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar Labor Minister Aung Ky, the fourth such meeting between Mr. Suu Kyi and the Cabinet minister since July.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa also visited in recent days, according to Reuters and other media reports, which quoted him as saying there were “irreversible” changes underway in the country, suggesting he would support a bid by Myanmar’s government to take over the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-member regional grouping, in 2014. His trip was planned to assess recent reforms in the country to help determine whether Myanmar should take over the lead role in Asean in 2014 as it tries to rehabilitate its image on the international stage. Attempts to reach Mr. Natalegawa, whose country currently chairs the group, were unsuccessful.
The flurry of meetings has raised expectations among many residents that international leaders are looking for a way to reward the Myanmar government for backing a number of reforms in recent months after years of repressive military rule. Civilian leaders with close ties to Myanmar’s military took power in Naypyitaw this year after an election late last year that was described as a fraud by Western governments. Since then, the government has loosened restrictions on the media, permitted some small public demonstrations and released some – but not all – of the political prisoners Myanmar has long kept behind bars.
Those and other moves have put Western leaders in a bind as they try to decide how best to respond to the latest reforms. Some Western countries, especially some in Europe, believe it’s time to reward Myanmar’s government by easing economic sanctions or backing other moves, such as encouraging more financial support from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. But others, including some senior U.S. officials, believe they need to take a hard line against the Myanmar government until it releases all political prisoners, among other steps.
Speculation is rising, though, that at least some kind of deal or “confidence-building measure” may be in the offing soon, including possible moves worked out in conjunction with Ms. Suu Kyi and her political organization, the National League for Democracy. One possible step would be for NLD leaders to formally register the party with the Myanmar government after it was officially disbanded by authorities last year for boycotting the country’s first national elections in 20 years. It is widely assumed that Myanmar authorities support party registration because it would be seen as vote of confidence by the country’s largest dissident group in the country’s evolving political system.
Myanmar’s Parliament recently amended a 2010 political party registration law after complaints that it discriminated against the government’s political opponents. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Ms. Suu Kyi hinted she might be willing to register the party, noting “they seem to be changing the bits that we said were not really acceptable in 2010.” But the amendments haven’t yet been signed into law by Thein Sein, the country’s president.
A senior NLD official in Myanmar told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that party leaders were meeting on Friday to determine whether to call for a central committee meeting to discuss registration; if they do so, a date would then be set for the meeting.
Not all dissidents are thrilled about the growing signs of détente, which they fear could lead to a lessening of pressure on the Myanamr government, which is accused of numerous human rights violations despite the latest reforms.
“We’re concerned that the Western governments could reward unnecessarily the regime before the right time,” said Soe Aung, a Thailand-based dissident. “We’ll be asking (foreign leaders) to be careful with their judgment,” he said.
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[November 02, 2011]
TMC Net - Research and Markets: Myanmar (Burma): Telecoms, Mobile and Internet - 2011
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8fdca6/myanmar_burma) has announced the addition of the "Myanmar (Burma) - Telecoms, Mobile and Internet" report to their offering.
Despite the elections held in 2010 the shadow of the military regime continues to hang over Myanmar and there is no sign of the much-needed structural reform in the telecom sector.
Myanmar's telecommunications sector continues to be dominated by the state-owned monopoly telephone service provider, Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). With the military government's conservative approach to structural reform, it was not surprising that MPT continued to maintain its monopoly over the telecom sector, being the sole national telephone network operator.
Market highlights: - Myanmar's mobile market has grown by 140% over the last three years.
- Of course, this mobile subscriber growth was from a low base and the reported 550,000 mobile subscribers early in 2011 still only constituted a penetration of just over 1%.
- Fixed-line subscriber numbers have been growing erratically; but growth has been similar in overall strength to the mobile market. Penetration remained low, however, still down at just over 1% by 2011.
- Internet penetration also continues to be disconcertingly low with accurate figures hard to obtain.
- Internet user penetration was around two per 1,000 of population by 2011; at the same time internet subscriptions were particularly tiny in number with penetration below one subscriber per 1,000 of population.
- Although broadband services were also small in number, one positive aspect was the progressive introduction of a variety of platforms, including more recently WiMAX services.
- While Myanmar still needs to seriously address regulatory reform, there was no evidence that any real progress had been made on this front.
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China disabled art troupe premieres in Myanmar new capital
13:14, November 02, 2011
NAY PYI TAW, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe staged its first performance in Myanmar's new capital here Tuesday under the cultural exchange program of China and Myanmar.
The show, titled "My Dream", was attended by Myanmar Vice President Sai Mauk Kham, Acting Minister of Information and Culture Major-General Thein Htay, who is Minister of Border Affairs and Myanmar Industrial Development, Foreign Minister U Wunna Maumg Lwin, Minister of Labor cum Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Aung Kyi as well as Chinese Ambassador Li Junhua and Cultural Counselor Gao Hua.
Chinese Ambassador Li and Major-General Thein Htay delivered the opening speech representing their respective sides.
Among the variety of its program was popular dance by hearing impaired -- Thousandhand Bodhisattiva, visually impaired dance -- To See Spring and sign language dance -- The Code of Life as well as Peking Opera -- At the Crossroad.
The troupe will proceed to Yangon for charity show at the National Theater on Thursday and Friday.
China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe was founded in 1987 and has visited 71 countries in five continents. It was referred to as a "Messenger of Beauty" "Image Ambassador for People with Disabilities in the World" and was designated as " UNESCO Artist for Peace".
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China Daily - Mekong River security
Updated: 2011-11-02 08:02
The agreement reached among China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand to jointly crack down on cross-border crime and secure transportation along the Mekong River is a timely decision and will be welcomed by the 70 million people living in the river valley. It will help secure a safe waterway for passengers and cargo ships traveling along the river too.
The decision was made at a one-day law enforcement meeting held in Beijing on Monday among senior cabinet members from the four nations.
Their renewed efforts to work even more closely on the Mekong's security have come in the wake of worsening security situation in the "Golden Triangle" area, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet. A region that is notorious for its drug production and trafficking.
Under the new framework, the four countries will build sub-mechanisms for intelligence exchanges, patrolling and law enforcement, as well as for tackling major problems jeopardizing public order, combating transnational crimes and dealing with emergencies.
The results embody the four nations' commitment to building the Mekong, especially its "Golden Triangle" area where the security situation is most precarious, into a peaceful waterway free of security risks. Of course, to translate the political will into action, more efforts will still be needed to develop the legal and institutional framework.
At China's suggestion, the four nations have conducted cross-border cooperation aimed at stepping up security along the river since 2001 when transnational commercial shipping was regularized.
The Mekong, dubbed the "Oriental Danube", is an important shipping route linking China to Southeast Asia. Handling about 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) worth of cargo goods each year, it plays a growing role in regional trade.
However, in recent years, the smuggling of drugs and weapons along the river has also been on the increase, and crimes such as blackmail, piracy and armed robbery occur frequently and endanger people's lives and shipping.
In the latest case less than one month ago, 13 Chinese sailors were brutally killed in a deadly boat raid. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kowit Wattana has pledged a fair and just trial of a group of suspects in connection with the killings. According to the official, the suspects are Thai servicemen, and the Thai police are still investigating the incident.
In a joint statement issued after Monday's meeting, the quartet has "agreed to take effective measures to step up efforts in the joint investigation so as to uncover the full details of the case and bring the criminals to justice as soon as possible".
Given to the complex situation in the "Golden Triangle" area, transnational investigation and coordination is essential.
For justice to prevail, the perpetrators and instigators must be ferreted out and dealt with by law. The case should be handled with due diligence and through close cooperation among the nations involved.
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Bizjournals - Mayo Clinic radiologist traveling to Myanmar
Jacksonville Business Journal by Ashley Gurbal Kritzer, Reporter
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 11:11am EDT
A radiologist from Mayo Clinic Florida will visit Yangon, Myanmar, as part of the international visiting professor program offered by the Radiological Society of North America.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Peterson, residency program director and professor of radiology at the Mayo Clinic, will be joined by two fellow radiologists as he embarks Nov. 2 on the 11-day trip.
He will spend his visit giving presentations and teaching intensive seminars to radiology residents, as well as attending conferences and meetings.
The program fosters international relations among radiology societies to assist with medical education in developing and newly developed nations. The visiting team of radiologists informs local doctors and hospitals about the latest advances in diagnostic and therapeutic radiology. In turn, the visiting professors experience firsthand the obstacles faced by medical professionals in the host countries.
Peterson will visit the radiology departments of Yangon General Hospital, Yangon Children’s Hospital and the Central Women’s Hospital. Dr. Peterson will conclude his trip by attending the Myanmar Radiological Society Meeting.
The International Visiting Professor Program was founded in 1986 and is administered by RSNA’s Committee on International Relations and Education. This program is supported by Agfa HealthCare.
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Scoop.co.nz - BURMA: Draft land law denies basic rights to farmers
Wednesday, 2 November 2011, 5:12 pm
Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission
November 1, 2011
BURMA: Draft land law denies basic rights to farmers
During the second sitting of the new semi-elected parliament in Burma this year, the government submitted a draft land law. The government gazette published the draft on September 16, and it is currently still before the parliament.
Burma needs a new land law. The current legislation on land, either for reasons of content or because of institutional factors, lacks coherence. It is ineffectual in protecting the rights of cultivators. With the rise and rise of private businesses linked to serving and former army officers and bureaucrats, the incidence of land grabbing also is fast increasing, and is bound to increase even more dramatically in the next few years. Although a new law would not stop or perhaps even slow land grabbing of its own accord, one protecting cultivators' rights and situating powers of review over land regulations and cases in the hands of the judiciary and independent agencies could at least set some clear benchmarks against which to measure actual practices, and establish some groundwork for minimum institutional protections.
Unfortunately, the draft bill before parliament is not the law that Burma needs. In fact, it is precisely the opposite of what the country needs. Rather than protecting cultivators' rights, it undercuts them at practically every point, through a variety of provisions aimed at enabling rather than inhibiting land grabbing. It invites takeover of land with government authorization for the purpose of practically any activity, not merely for other forms of cultivation. Under the draft, farmers could be evicted to make way for the construction of polluting factories, power lines, roads and railways, pipelines, fun parks, condominiums and whatever else government officials claim to be in "the national interest".
The Asian Human Rights Commission has been working closely on a variety of land confiscation cases in Burma for a number of years. Armed with the knowledge obtained from these cases, and with a familiarity of the wider existing legislative framework for land use and cultivators' rights in Burma, it has carefully studied the new draft law, and reached the
following conclusions.
1. NO IMPROVEMENTS ON EXISTING LAW: The law does not guarantee the rights of cultivators in principle to any greater degree than the existing range of law, including the 1963 Tenant Farming Law and its amending law, and the 1963 Protection of Peasants' Rights Law, which it is set to replace. The provisions under extant law that it will replace have so far done nothing to stop land grabbing by the government in collusion with major business backers, like the Yuzana, Zegamba, Htoo and Ayashwewar companies. Therefore, in terms of basic stipulations of rights and the affording of protections for cultivators, the law offers nothing new at all.
2. AGGRANDIZING OF EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY: Not only does the new draft law not offer any more normative guarantees compared to its predecessors, but it proposes oversight and routine intervention on land planning matters by an executive agency, which would have as its chairman the agriculture and irrigation minister. Under the peak agency others would operate at various levels of government. Disputes concerning land would have to be addressed through these bodies before any matter could be taken before a court. Furthermore, under the draft law's section 21, the agriculture and irrigation ministry would have the power to alter or overturn any decisions taken in any one of the new land agencies. Other sections of the law grant the ministry a range of further powers that ensure that the day-to-day running of routine affairs concerning cultivatable land will, if the law is passed, remain firmly under the control of a highly corrupt and frequently incompetent ministry. These powers include, among other things, powers to evict persons from land and order the destruction of buildings, subject to the drafting of new procedural rules under the law.
3. DENIAL OF BASIC FREEDOMS: The draft land law denies basic freedoms to farmers to make decisions about what to cultivate on their own land. Under section 23, the president is given full authority to issue instructions over the use of land for particular purposes in any part of the country. The past record of centralized land management and planning in Burma has been one of abject failure; the list of ineptly managed and spectacularly unsuccessful projects over the last half-century is far too long to mention. In fact, the only reason that the agricultural economy in Burma has not collapsed entirely is because of the capacity of cultivators to defy or sidestep authorities' instructions on land use. The draft law, regrettably, spells only more of the same problems for farmers, giving the president all the powers to do as he pleases, and none of the responsibility when things go wrong, as inevitably they shall if this law is enacted.
The land law draft is not a forward-looking piece of legislation for the new century, but a backwards-looking and highly regressive law modelled on 1960s quasi-socialist legislation, evincing an old-style authoritarian frame of mind, but one with the interests of the new class of military-connected entrepreneurs at the fore. It is designed to ensure the primacy of the executive authorities in all decision-making events, and to keep the role of the judiciary to a minimum. It aggrandizes the functions of executive officers, and like other aspects of the new constitutional arrangements, situates dictatorial powers in the presidential office. It is a law that has been written for the interests of powerful businessmen whose companies are already causing massive hardship and misery to people in various parts of Burma, and who are lining up to grab as much territory as possible in the next few years, and to share the spoils with their partners in government.
In short, this draft law is an odious draft and one that under no circumstances ought to be passed through the parliament, lest it cause chaos to the already uncertain lives of cultivators across Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon all independent legislators to oppose the draft law, and for public and media action to speak out strongly against it, clearly and unequivocally. We have seen recently that large-scale public outcry and activism in Burma and abroad can have an affect on policymaking there. Concerted efforts to oppose this law are needed, or else within a few years smallholder cultivators around the country will be reduced to working in servitude for the interests of corporations and retired army officers on land that they once themselves possessed. This is the vision of the future contained in the draft land law currently before the parliament, and it is a nightmare vision that we are all obligated to reject.
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
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The Irrawaddy - Burma Missing Chance to Solve Ethnic Conflicts
By SAW YAN NAING Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Despite having instituted a series of domestic changes, Burma’s new government has thus far missed a chance to solve the deeply rooted conflicts with ethnic groups, some of which have lasted for more than 60 years, said ethnic minority leaders.
While launching a report titled “Discrimination, Conflict and Corruption – The Ethnic States of Burma,” in Chiang Mai, Thailand, leaders of the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) said that the Burmese government is still engaging ethnic armed groups in a military manner—which they said is a mistaken approach that has failed to solve the problem since the era of Gen Ne Win, the former Burmese dictator who took power in 1962.
As a result, although Naypyidaw has made significant progress in other areas, such as relations with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the suspension of work on the Myitsone hydropower dam and the relaxation of press restrictions, the government has not made any meaningful progress in the area of ethnic minority affairs.
The ENC’s Vice chairman, Salai Lian H Sakhong, an ethnic Chin professor who has written several books about the ethnic minorities of Burma, said, “If military means were a solution to ethnic conflicts, I think Gen Ne Win would have already solved the problem. We ethnic people hold arms not because we want war, but for the purpose of self-protection.”
The ethnic leaders said that while Naypyidaw made positive progress in other areas, military conflicts initiated by government troops have actually been increasing in ethnic areas, especially in Kachin State, where about 25,000 civilians have been internally displaced. Separate hostilities have also been reported in Karen State and Shan State, said Saw Kwe Htoo Win, the chairman of the ENC.
The ENC report said that the Burmese government, particularly from 1962 until 2010, pursued only a military solution to what is primarily a political problem, and have consequently given ethnic groups no other option but to engage in an armed struggle.
Burma, known to be well-equipped from a military standpoint, has an estimated 400,000 military troops, while ethnic armed groups are estimated to have between 40,000-50,000 armed troops.
Suikhar, the secretary general of the ENC, said that Burma’s national army should only protect against external evasion and have nothing to do with internal affairs.
A change from militarization to demilitarization is needed, and unless demilitarization takes place there is no indication that a real peace will be achieved in Burma, said Sakhong.
In order to solve the ongoing conflicts, the ethnic leaders called for tripartite dialogue among the Burmese government/military, the pro-democracy opposition and the ethnic groups, as well as a constitutional amendment turning Burma into a federal union. They also said that international figures, including UN envoys, have not done enough to help end Burma’s ethnic conflicts.
Between 35 and 40 percent of Burma's population of 55 million is non-Burman, comprised of indigenous ethnic groups such as Karen, Shan, Karenni, Kachin, Mon, Chin and Arakanese, almost all of which have fought against the central government for independence or autonomy for decades, some since Burma gained independence from Great Britain in 1948.
On August 18, Naypyidaw announced that it offered an “olive branch” to the ethnic armed groups, encouraging them to contact their respective state or division governments as a first step toward meeting with a union government delegation.
After the announcement, there were some minor peace talks reported in ethnic areas, but they had no significant results, according to observers who recently visited ethnic areas.
Some commentators and analysts have argued that the delay in addressing the ethnic issues may stem from an internal power struggle taking place between hard-liners and reformists in the current government cabinet.
They said that while Burmese President Thein Sein used his civilian authority to rebut China with respect to the Myitsone Dam, he may not have the power to effectively deal with ethnic armed conflicts because they fall under the authority of the military. In addition, some analysts said that some cabinet members might attempt to block Thein Sein even if he had the power and desire to strike a peace deal with the ethnic armed groups.
In addition, there has been speculation that some ministers in the current cabinet who were hard-liners in the previous military junta are not happy with the suspension of work on the Myitsone Dam by Thein Sein. These hard-liners include Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo and Zaw Min, the minister for Burma’s Ministry of Electric Power-1.
The power struggle is an obstacle to progress on the ethnic issues, said the observers.
“The ethnic conflict needs to be resolved in order to bring about any lasting political solution in Burma,” said Tom Kramer, who spent more than 15 years working on Burma and visited armed ethnic regions, in a report titled “Burma: Neither War nor Peace” published by the Transnational Institute.
The US special envoy to Burma, Derek Mitchell, earlier said that reports of human rights abuses in ethnic areas are “credible,” and the UN envoy to Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, also said he is still receiving such reports.
In late 1980, the former Burmese military regime reached ceasefire agreements with ethnic armed groups, including the United Wa State Army, the Kachin Independence Army
(KIA) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). But ceasefire agreements between the Burmese military and major ceasefire groups such as the KIA and DKBA broke down when the previous regime tried to force the ethnic groups to become members of its Border Guard Forces.
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The Irrawaddy - IMF Concludes Mission to Burma
By BA KAUNG Wednesday, November 2, 2011
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation concluded a visit to Naypyidaw on Wednesday but has not yet determined whether the Burmese government will accept currency conditions regarding changing its monetary exchange system.
Ms Meral Karasulu, deputy division chief of the IMF Asian Pacific Department, led the mission team which was comprised of representatives of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. They met the Burmese minister for finance, officials from the Central Bank of Burma, the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and private banks during a lengthy visit which began on Oct. 19.
The mission came at the request of the Central Bank of Burma to discuss plans to unify the country's multiple exchange rates as well as lifting restrictions on international payments and transfers. The hope was that Burma would accept the obligations of Article VIII of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement which deals with international payments and currency exchange rates.
According to a press statement issued by the IMF on Tuesday, the mission gave an initial diagnostic assessment of the legal framework and actual market practices governing the exchange rate system of Burma. This dealt, in particular, with the country's existing exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices.
The IMF team will continue its work from its Tokyo headquarters in cooperation with the Burmese authorities as they formulate their policies towards accepting the obligations of Article VIII. The mission expects to visit Burma for a follow-up early in 2012, the statement said.
According to the official line of the Burmese government, part of its economic reform agenda involves seeking the technical assistance of the IMF regarding the country's economic progress, foreign exchange rate, economic and monetary stability plus legal reforms.
The United States, a key player in the IMF, maintains sanctions against Burma that prohibit US support for lending or technical assistance by international financial institutions in Burma.
In 2001, IMF officials repeatedly failed to convince the Burmese government to undertake limited, incremental reform measures that would not require a large financial investment, according to a US diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks.
“The IMF's suggestions for incremental economic reform fall on deaf ears here... The official line of the Burmese government has long been that no economic reforms will be possible without a large structural adjustment loan,” the cable said.
But now the US has apparently thrown its support behind the IMF giving technical assistance to the Burmese government in response to its recent moves towards political and economic liberalization.
Simultaneously, it has also increased its diplomatic exchanges with the Burmese government with US special envoy to Burma Derek Mitchell arriving in Naypyidaw on Wednesday for his third visit to the country. He will hold talks with the Burmese officials regarding further reforms.
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The Irrawaddy - Lower House Rejects Speaker’s Bill
By WAI MOE Wednesday, November 2, 2011
On the 44th day of the second parliamentary session in Naypyidaw, the Lower House ruled against a bill passed on Friday in the combined houses of Parliament that all laws and amendment of laws that are approved by both houses must be submitted to the Constitutional Tribunal.
The proposal to overturn Fridays' bill—proposed by Upper House and Union Parliament speaker Khin Aung Myint—was put forward on Tuesday by the secretary of the Parliamentary Rights Committee, Soe Yi.
According to state-run-newspapers, Soe Yi “submitted the proposal to appeal against and overturn decision of sending bills approved or deemed to be approved by Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (combined houses) to the Constitutional Tribunal of the Union to vet whether the bill is accorded with the Constitution if doubted before sending it to the President to sign and promulgate … ”
Soe Yi claimed that Friday's bill was not in accordance with the 2008 constitution or with parliamentary law and regulations.
Rivalry within the Naypyidaw hierarchy was on open display at the Lower House on Tuesday. Lower House Speaker ex-Gen Shwe Mann responded to the proposal by declaring that former Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint had “damaged” the Parliament.
“Although the decision in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw damages the reputation of Parliament, the submission of [a new] proposal and discussions will restore the reputation of the State and the Hluttaw,” he said.
Seven MPs, including outspoken independent MP Thein Nyunt, also raised objections against the bill. Burma's state-run-media reported the MPs as saying that the bill is “legally incorrect.”
Thein Nyunt, who is also a lawyer, told BBC Burmese Service that the Union Parliament speaker’s actions on Friday were outwith parliamentary rules.
“Regarding parliament's reputation and its rules, the speakers of the houses have to call for discussion—to hear the pros and cons—of any bill or law that is proposed for approval,” he said. “But on Friday, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw speaker only called for the 'pros.' That why the act was outside parliamentary regulations.”
Several Burma observers have described Shwe Mann, President Thein Sein and their close allies within the government as more reform-minded compared to the so-called hardliners such as Khin Aung Myint, First Vice President ex Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, and Information and Culture Minister ex Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan.
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Mizzima News - Editorial: NLD party registration is a must
Wednesday, 02 November 2011 18:56 Mizzima News
The time has come for the National League for Democracy (NLD) to decide whether it should register as a legal political party under the Union Election Commission.
As Burma delicately walks the path of democratic transition, a process that could easily be undermined by the countervailing interests of various groups, the decision is a potentially pivotal moment in the country’s political future.
At this critical juncture, what should the NLD do? Will the party opt to remain un-registered, because it is unwilling to compromise its stance or will it choose to register and focus on capacity building and organizational development?
Because the NLD has consistently championed national reconciliation, registration is surely the best option. Isolation is not a viable alternative: it is time to engage with domestic and international stakeholders.
Critics of the pro-registration camp quickly point to a number of reasons why the NLD should remain outside the legal fold.
Their reasons include the nearly 2,000 political prisoners who remain incarcerated, ongoing human rights abuses and fighting in frontier areas. Yet, there are even bigger factors. For one, registration could be viewed as giving legitimacy to President Thein Sein’s government, and it could be construed as capitulation on the part of the NLD after 21 years of resistance.
However, the primary hurdle remains a pervasive doubt and distrust in opposition politics after decades of suffering under various forms of authoritarian governance.
But, things have changed in Burma.
Though regulations and various events prevented the country’s main opposition party from registering prior to the controversial 2010 election, recent alterations in the political party registration bill, now awaiting President Thein Sein’s signature, offer new opportunities.
Significantly, under the initial political party registration law, no political prisoners could be party members and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi was ineligible to stand as a candidate.
Moreover, Suu Kyi has now met with the government’s appointed liaison minister four times in the past four months, in addition to meeting with President Thein Sein. Both sides have spoken positively of this engagement. It cannot be denied that Burma’s opposition leader now has a voice in the affairs of the country inclusive of finance, trade, domestic peace and amnesty. This is surely preferable to isolation, and it is a voice and influence that will only grow once she and her party are recognized as legal entities within the political system.
Now the time for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party to register, organize, improve capacity and engage with the grassroots level.
We have witnessed the opposition's resistance, its heavy sacrifice and its commitment to democratization. These are all principle factors in the new opportunities that exist today.
While it is understandable that many would like to see substantive changes sooner, it is unrealistic to expect deep-rooted problems to be solved overnight. Therefore, complacency and the loss of momentum in the reform process must be avoided at all cost.
If there is a loss of momentum in the drive for greater democracy, extremists on all sides are liable to hijack the political process, proposing unilateral and heavy-handed solutions that would only serve to further postpone any hope of national reconciliation.
We hope the NLD will announce its decision to become a fully functioning political party as soon as possible, dedicated to working for democracy within the Parliament as well as in its traditional areas of public service.
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Mizzima News - Interview: ‘Our people must bridge the gap’
Wednesday, 02 November 2011 18:07 Tun Tun
November 1 was the 23rd anniversary of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front [ABSDF]. The group says it will continue its armed revolution. ABSDF was formed on November 1, 1988, with the objective to fight against the former military regime in an armed revolution. A total of 1,024 ABSDF soldiers died in fighting during the past 23 years, according to the ABSDF. Mizzima correspondent Tun Tun talks with ABSDF chairman Than Khe about his ABSDF experience, its current political posture, his opinions on the new government and Parliament, and the group’s future plans.
Question: Can you about the formation of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front?
Answer: The ABSDF was formed in 1988. At that time, we had three options: we could join the legal political organizations or the underground, or we could choose an armed revolution. Various ethnic people from all social strata including students and monks who wanted to carry out an armed revolution arrived in the ethnic areas. Young students of different nationalities arrived in the areas controlled by the ethnic armed groups. Then we formed basic units. Students arrived in areas in Kachin State, Shan State, Karen State, Karenni State and Mon State and the Pa-O and Palaung areas. Some students arrived in areas of western Burma, along the Indo-Burmese border. Then the representatives from basic units in different areas met. The ethnic leaders organized a meeting in the Wankha area to form the ABSDF.
Student representatives attended the meeting and formed the All Burma Students' Democratic Front on November 1, 1988. The representatives of the basic units elected members of the Central Committee. Then the Central Committee elected members of a Central Leading Committee.
Q: To what extent have you accomplished your objectives?
A: First, I believe that we bridged the gap between [fighting against] lack of Democracy and [fighting against] lack of national equality in Burma. Before 1988, the pro-democracy movement and the movement for national equality were separate from each other. After 1988’s pro-democracy movement, because of the efforts of politicians and students who arrived in ethnic areas, the two forces [pro-democracy activists and ethnic activists] established a mutual understanding. We believed that we must cooperate and work together. So now we have formed an ABSDF branch again in Kachin State. Moreover, we have cooperated with Karenni leaders in their areas, KNU leaders in Karen State and leaders in the Mon areas as much as we can.
Q: During the past 23 years, what were some of the biggest challenges to your organization?
A: The struggle of the ABSDF has been in two parts. The first was the political survival of our group. We needed to stay in touch with Burmese politics. There was political trickery by the former military junta. It affected us from 1992 until 2010. The junta agreed to a cease-fire with ethnic armed groups in areas where our units were based. During that period, some of our activities stopped in those areas. But the cease-fire did not bring a political solution. After 2010, cease-fires were broken because the political solution was not resolved, so our group could again cooperate with ethnic groups in fighting against the government. The second thing was that we encountered difficulty finding support and food.
Because we are an armed revolutionary group, we are always in a tight corner. As soon as we arrived in ethnic areas, we received support from organizations. And we had tactical land. At that time, all [ethnic armed groups] were fighting against the junta. We received food and social support from our people and some foreign countries. At that time, we could solve problems to a certain extent. But, we could not find a solution for the survival of the whole movement. Later, the organizations that backed us stopped providing help so we encountered more difficulties. Now it has been more than 10 years. From that time until now, we did not get any help from other countries. We are surviving with the help of [former] ABSDF members currently living in foreign countries, and Burmese patriots living in foreign countries.
Q: Now, a civilian government has assumed power in Burma. What is your opinion on Burma’s current political situation?
A: We think that Thein Sein’s government is just a result of the “Road Map” to democracy. Since Burma achieved Independence in 1948, it’s been 63 years. During the 63 years, there were some periods in which the country was ruled under constitutions and some periods in which the country was ruled without a constitution.
For instance, Burma had a parliamentary democracy era with the 1947 Constitution. But the country had a lack of stability at that time. Then Burma had a socialist era under the 1974 Constitution and a lack of stability in that era too. Then in the era of the State Law and Order Restoration Council / State Peace and Development Council [the former junta], the country was ruled without a constitution. Now, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party [USDP] rules the country with the 2008 Constitution.
We can draw lessons from those periods. If a constitution cannot guarantee to fulfill people’s rights and the country’s basic political needs, the country cannot be stable. In my opinion, the 2008 Constitution was not drafted in accord with people’s rights. It is just for the army’s sake, not for the people’s sake. So if a constitution does not guarantee the welfare of the people, democracy or national equality, it cannot bring stability to the state.
Q: Which process might best be used to establish democracy in Burma?
A: Dialogue and national reconciliation are the best answers. Hold a political dialogue and seek national reconciliation. The government’s meetings with national leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be transparent and equal. The processes should be all-inclusive to solve problems.
But I don’t think the current meetings have reached that level. First, the country must achieve stability within the state. The first step should be the release of all political prisoners including 88-generation student leaders. Another thing is that the government needs to stop fighting in military offensives across the country. Those are things the government should do as the first step.
Then the meetings with leader Suu Kyi should be more transparent and the government should create situations in which conflicts with ethnic people can be discussed frankly.
Q: What are the future plans of the ABSDF?
A: Our conference agreed that our armed revolution needs to cooperate with public uprisings to achieve our objectives. We need to hold to this policy. We say this because political changes have not been made in Burma. Burma’s politics are not stable. We do not live under equal laws that all people obey. So we are likely to explode. All of us can be prisoners at any time in this country under these circumstances. We will prepare things in accordance with our strategy in which armed revolution and public uprising are combined.
Q: Others believe the best road to progress is a political dialogue. To what extent is an armed revolution important?
A: The ABSDF does not reject the idea of holding a dialogue. We always welcome dialogue. We always urge authorities to hold transparent and equal [fair] dialogues. But, in a situation in which a fair dialogue is impossible, we need to prepare to fight in every way, I think. We are cooperating with the groups that are fighting for national equality. If the government opens a transparent and equal dialogue, the problems can be solved. Peace can be achieved. On the other hand, the government still holds on to the 2008 Constitution and tries to put everything in the framework of that Constitution. Public uprisings can occur at any time and armed revolution will continue to exist. That’s why we have prepared for it.
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Mizzima News - ENC chairman urges UN’s Nambiar to address ethnic issues in Burma
Wednesday, 02 November 2011 21:26 Thomas Maung Shwe
(Mizzima) – Speaking at a press conference in Thailand on Tuesday, the secretary-general of the Ethnic Nationalities Council, Dr. Sui Khar, urged the UN Burma envoy Vijay Nambiar to address the status of Burma’s ethnic nationalities.
Sui Khar, who also serves as a senior leader in the Chin National Front, a non-ceasefire armed group, described the position of Burma’s ethnic minorities as being central to the county’s ongoing struggle for democracy and stability.
Sui Khar said his message to Nambiar continues to be “without incorporating the issue of ethnic nationalities your mission will never be fulfilled.” The call for Nambiar to become more involved in Burma’s ethnic issues coincides with the special envoy’s current visit to Burma, his second this year.
ENC advisor Professor Lian H. Sakhong, who joined Sui Khar at the podium, expressed disappointment that Nambiar’s stated itinerary did not include any meeting with representatives from opposition ethnic political parties or ethnic armed groups. Referring to Nambiar’s track record, Sakhong told the assembled gathering in Chiang Mai: “I strongly criticize the way he conducts Burma issues from the highest office of the U.N. They should be more serious about ethnic issues. Of course there were elections, but there is still fighting in Kachin State, still armed conflict in Karen State, still problems in Shan State. Why can’t they see? Because they are closing their eyes.”
The criticism of Nambiar’s handling of the Burma portfolio was made at the launch of the latest ENC report on the situation of ethnic minorities in Burma titled “Discrimination, Conflict and Corruption: The Ethnic States of Burma.” The stated aim of the 98-page booklet is to “examine the lives of those people living in ethnic areas from their perspective.” Written by researcher Paul Keenan, the report contains excerpts of interviews with 53 individuals who are from ethnic or religious minorities.
Those sympathetic to the cause of Burma’s ethnic nationalities will not dispute the report’s stark conclusion: “Sixty years after independence, life for the ethnic peoples of the country has declined markedly. While conflict has played a major part in this inertia, government policy has consistently sought to maintain the status quo of keeping non-Burman people at the lowest levels of society, uneducated, ill-treated and abused.”
The report quotes from a wide cross-section of Burma’s diverse ethnic minorities including the often-overlooked Muslim community in Karen state. A man of Bengali heritage told the ENC interviewer:
“I have seen ethnic discrimination. I want to talk both of ethnic and religious discrimination. Some of the villagers are ethnic Karen, and some are Karen-Burmese-Bengali, and Karen-Paoh-Bengali but their religion is Muslim. We can all speak Karen fluently, but we are seen as Muslim. Most of the places have a notice-board that says, ‘Muslim Not Allowed in this place.’ We can buy something in a Karen shop but Karen are not permitted to buy something at a Muslim shop. And then, although ethnic Karen can buy houses or farms of Muslims, Muslims are not permitted to buy the possessions of Karen.”
The report also contains a detailed narrative explaining how the ethnic question was dealt with during Burma’s immediate post-war period that marked the lead up to independence in which Burma’s left-wing nationalist liberation hero Aung Saw concluded a potentially far reaching agreement with ethnic leaders at Panglong just months before his assassination.
As the report noted following Aung San’s death, his successor the mercurial U Nu retreated from many of the concessions given to ethnic minorities that his close friend had previously made at Panglong. U Nu’s conflict-filled term as Burma’s first and arguably only democratically elected prime minister ended shortly after his 1961 decision to declare Buddhism Burma’s national religion.
Whether Burma’s new period of parliamentary rule will lead to an eventual transition to something more democratic remains a hotly contested issue. The conclusion of the report states: “While the current government has been seen to be reform minded and is praised for attempts at ‘reinvigorating the economy, reforming national politics and improving human rights,’ such acclaim fail to acknowledge that what reforms undertaken so far will affect very little of the population.”
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DVB News - Lawyer claims drugging by police
By SHWE AUNG
Published: 2 November 2011
A high-profile lawyer in Burma arrested last week after police in Rangoon dispersed a farmers’ protest claims he was drugged whilst under interrogation by intelligence officials.
Pho Phyu is accused of leading around 60 landless farmers during a rare demonstration in Rangoon on 27 October. He spoke to DVB yesterday after being released from detention pending 11 November court trial where he will face charges of taking part in an unlawful gathering.
“I was put in a blindfold with holes for breathing and was given water that had an odour and a taste – naturally water doesn’t have an odour or taste,” he said. “The effect wasn’t noticeable right after drinking it, but after a minute or two my heart began racing and I started to feel nauseous and very exhausted and depressed.”
He claims the interrogation lasted around 12 hours after which he was sent to a police station in Botahtaung township, where says he was treated well.
Prior to his release in February last year, Pho Phyu had spent nearly a year in prison after helping farmers in Magwe division file a complaint over land confiscation to the International Labour Organisation.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission released a statement today demanding that Burma implement a new land law to override the current one that it claims “is ineffectual in protecting the rights of cultivators”.
“With the rise and rise of private businesses linked to serving and former army officers and bureaucrats, the incidence of land grabbing also is fast increasing, and is bound to increase even more dramatically in the next few years,” it warned.
A draft bill on land rights was submitted to parliament in September, but has received heavy criticism. The AHRC said it was “precisely the opposite of what the country needs.
“Rather than protecting cultivators’ rights, it undercuts them at practically every point, through a variety of provisions aimed at enabling rather than inhibiting land grabbing.” It continued that the bill would enshrine into law the legal eviction of farmers for whatever the government decides are reasons that are “in the national interest”.
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DVB News - Concern at Insein jailhouse surgery
By NAY THWIN
Published: 2 November 2011
Doctors at a hospital inside Rangoon’s Insein prison say they will perform surgery on the former army captain Nay Myo Zin, who is yet to receive treatment for a fractured pelvis.
But his family and lawyer, who have repeatedly lobbied the government to release him in order that he can receive medical care, say the facilities inside the prison are not fit for such an operation.
His health is believed to be deteriorating, and when his wife visited him last Thursday he was brought out from the prison hospital on a stretcher after severe back pain stemming from the fractured bone left him unable to walk.
The 36-year-old’s lawyer, Hla Myo Myint, told DVB that he has also needed assistance getting to the toilet.
The injury is believed to have resulted from a fall he had in his jail cell. The former army captain-turned-charity worker is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of subversion stemming from articles he published that allegedly defamed the Burmese military.
“He was kept at the prison hospital which not well-equipped at all,” said the lawyer. “There’s no medicine to treat his condition; that can only be obtained from the orthopaedic hospital [in Rangoon].”
Nay Myo Zin’s mother, Khin Thi, said the family will visit him on 3 November and decide then whether to approve the operation.
“Apparently doctors suggested he needs to have a surgery and that it could be arranged at the prison’s hospital. Maybe he’ll get better or he won’t. It requires a signature approval from his relative so we will ask for his opinion [before deciding],” she said.
Prison authorities appear to have rejected a letter sent two weeks ago by his family requesting that he be treated outside of the hospital.
An official from the government’s Prison Administration Department admitted last year that there were, in total, 109 medical staff assigned to all the prisons, equating to one for every 8000 inmates. Only 32 of these were fully trained.
Prisoners are often forced to bribe medical staff in order to receive treatment; the majority who cannot have to rely on medicine supplied by visiting family members.
Nay Myo Zin’s legal team have consistently criticised his sentencing, which came five months after the new Burmese government came to power. An appeal was submitted a month ago to Rangoon Divisional Court 6 but to date no response has been issued.
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DVB News - Global bid to end tiger trade launched
By AFP
Published: 2 November 2011
Interpol on Wednesday launched a new campaign to coordinate the global fight against tiger poaching, warning that failure to protect the endangered cats would have economic and social repercussions.
The international police organisation said it was imperative that the 13 nations where tigers can still be found work together to combat wildlife crime.
David Higgins, manager of Interpol’s environment crime programme, said the extinction of the tiger would impact not only biodiversity but the “economic stability and security
stability” of countries where they are now found.
“The communities, the nations will lose confidence in their governments, and their good governance and their rule of law to be able to protect an iconic species such as the tiger from criminality,” he said in Vietnam.
Interpol’s new Project Predator is designed to help coordinate efforts of police, customs and wildlife officials in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Illegal trade and trafficking in tiger parts and products is rampant across international borders, making enforcement of laws against it a challenge,” Interpol said in a statement released at its annual general meeting in Hanoi.
Project Predator, which has US, British and World Bank funding, will also share information with conservation agencies in an effort to raise awareness.
Higgins said law enforcement was “not the only answer” and greater education and poverty reduction were also needed.
Tiger numbers have been devastated by poaching and loss of habitat in the last century, falling from an estimated 100,000 in 1900 to fewer than 3,500 now, Interpol said.
The big cats, which are hunted for their fur, bones and other parts, are expected to be extinct by 2022 if left unprotected, according to wildlife group WWF.
Deputy head of Vietnam’s department of environmental crimes, Major General Vu Hong Vuong, told reporters that the country had more than 110 tigers — although 80 of these were kept in captivity.
“We have detected several cases of tiger trafficking from Thailand, through Laos, Myanmar [Burma] to Vietnam and then to China. We need the cooperation from police of other countries in the protection of wild animals, especially tigers,” he said.
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Thursday, 3 November 2011
BURMA RELATED NEWS - NOVEMBER 01-02, 2011
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