Analysts weigh Obama's global human rights policies
updated 5:40 a.m. EDT, Thu October 15, 2009
NEW YORK (CNN) -- While President Obama takes plenty of heat over his plans to overhaul domestic policies, critics have also taken aim at his foreign policy approach, particularly as it relates to human rights around the globe.
Human Rights Watch advocacy director Tom Malinowski said Wednesday that while the administration appeared to have "gotten the balance right" on Myanmar, the military junta-ruled Asian nation formerly known as Burma, by starting a dialogue while maintaining sanctions, "China is a different matter."
"And that's where we've seen the tension play out in the most acute way, with several signals that have been sent suggesting that the administration is putting human rights issues to one side," Malinowski said on CNN's "Amanpour." "And most recently, the, I think, symbolic mistake of the president declining to meet the Dalai Lama before his own visit to China later next month." Watch the discussion »
The Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 and established a government in exile there, visited the United States earlier this month.
China considers Tibet a renegade province and accuses the Dalai Lama of inciting violence.
The timing of a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama is considered largely symbolic, and Malinowski said the president's delay "sent a message to the Chinese government that perhaps this isn't as high a priority for the United States as it has been in the past."
Malinowski also criticized the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. J. Scott Gration, who had suggested wooing the Sudanese government with "cookies" and "gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement" to change its attitude about Darfur, where genocide and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
"It's a really dumb thing to say," said Malinowski, who previously served in the administration of President Clinton.
"Governments like this, they are not children, and they do not react to cookies and gold stars," he said. "They act on their interests, and historically, as you know from Bosnia, to all the places where we have successfully defeated this kind of violence, governments respond to pressure."
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a candidate for re-election next year, has been indicted on war-crimes charges by the International Criminal Court. Despite Gration's comments, the Obama administration has not yet articulated a Sudan policy.
But Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group and a former U.N. human rights commissioner, told "Amanpour" that talking rather than pressuring governments over human rights can be beneficial.
"If you have a policy of engagement, which I think very much is the one put forward by the Obama administration, you may give an impression that you're softening," said Arbour, who is also a former war crimes prosecutor. "It's very easy to look tough, right? You don't talk to anybody, you repudiate everything, you slam all the doors and you accomplish nothing, or very little. And we have a lot of precedence for that.
"When you have a policy of reinforcing diplomatic initiatives, engagement, it may look soft, because you have to put on the table a multiplicity of issues, not just a single one. But on balance, I think there's more chance on some of these ... all important initiatives than just by looking tough and achieving nothing."
Arbour added, however, that the engagement approach to human rights abuses will not create fast change from the abusive regimes.
Noting the glacial pace of transformation in Myanmar, where democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been held under house arrest for nearly two decades, Arbour said "it's going to be very slow."
"You can't have 20 years of extremely adversarial, confrontational posturing, and then say, well, we're ready to talk and be friendly, and assume that the other side's going to roll over," she said. "It's just not going to work that way."
"There have to be very slow processes, but I think Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been encouraging more engagement. She wants to have contact with the junta and with foreigners, and it's happening. These are small steps. They're certainly in the right direction."
updated 5:40 a.m. EDT, Thu October 15, 2009
NEW YORK (CNN) -- While President Obama takes plenty of heat over his plans to overhaul domestic policies, critics have also taken aim at his foreign policy approach, particularly as it relates to human rights around the globe.
Human Rights Watch advocacy director Tom Malinowski said Wednesday that while the administration appeared to have "gotten the balance right" on Myanmar, the military junta-ruled Asian nation formerly known as Burma, by starting a dialogue while maintaining sanctions, "China is a different matter."
"And that's where we've seen the tension play out in the most acute way, with several signals that have been sent suggesting that the administration is putting human rights issues to one side," Malinowski said on CNN's "Amanpour." "And most recently, the, I think, symbolic mistake of the president declining to meet the Dalai Lama before his own visit to China later next month." Watch the discussion »
The Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 and established a government in exile there, visited the United States earlier this month.
China considers Tibet a renegade province and accuses the Dalai Lama of inciting violence.
The timing of a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama is considered largely symbolic, and Malinowski said the president's delay "sent a message to the Chinese government that perhaps this isn't as high a priority for the United States as it has been in the past."
Malinowski also criticized the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. J. Scott Gration, who had suggested wooing the Sudanese government with "cookies" and "gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement" to change its attitude about Darfur, where genocide and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
"It's a really dumb thing to say," said Malinowski, who previously served in the administration of President Clinton.
"Governments like this, they are not children, and they do not react to cookies and gold stars," he said. "They act on their interests, and historically, as you know from Bosnia, to all the places where we have successfully defeated this kind of violence, governments respond to pressure."
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a candidate for re-election next year, has been indicted on war-crimes charges by the International Criminal Court. Despite Gration's comments, the Obama administration has not yet articulated a Sudan policy.
But Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group and a former U.N. human rights commissioner, told "Amanpour" that talking rather than pressuring governments over human rights can be beneficial.
"If you have a policy of engagement, which I think very much is the one put forward by the Obama administration, you may give an impression that you're softening," said Arbour, who is also a former war crimes prosecutor. "It's very easy to look tough, right? You don't talk to anybody, you repudiate everything, you slam all the doors and you accomplish nothing, or very little. And we have a lot of precedence for that.
"When you have a policy of reinforcing diplomatic initiatives, engagement, it may look soft, because you have to put on the table a multiplicity of issues, not just a single one. But on balance, I think there's more chance on some of these ... all important initiatives than just by looking tough and achieving nothing."
Arbour added, however, that the engagement approach to human rights abuses will not create fast change from the abusive regimes.
Noting the glacial pace of transformation in Myanmar, where democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been held under house arrest for nearly two decades, Arbour said "it's going to be very slow."
"You can't have 20 years of extremely adversarial, confrontational posturing, and then say, well, we're ready to talk and be friendly, and assume that the other side's going to roll over," she said. "It's just not going to work that way."
"There have to be very slow processes, but I think Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been encouraging more engagement. She wants to have contact with the junta and with foreigners, and it's happening. These are small steps. They're certainly in the right direction."
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42 trafficked Myanmar citizens repatriated from Thailand
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 13:04:08
YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar's eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said on Thursday.
The trafficked Myanmar people, including 30 women and three children, were handed over by the Thai Ministry of Social Welfare and Development to its Myanmar counterpart in Myawaddy last weekend, the sources said.
The returnees have been brought to Mon state's capital of Mawlamyine and are being accommodated in a vocational skill training school and after the training, they will be sent back to their respective homes, the sources added.
Meanwhile, in August this year, six trafficked Myanmar young women were saved and repatriated back from China to Myanmar across the border following a joint combating of human trafficking crime by special squads of both sides
The six were handed over by the Ruili anti-human trafficking special squad of China to Myanmar's Muse squad.
A total of 13 men brokers and seven women brokers of two human trafficking gangs were also arrested in Ruili, a border town opposite to Myanmar's Muse, according to Myanmar anti-drug authorities.
According to the ministry, under the government to government system, a total of 686 victims smuggled out of Myanmar had been rescued and brought back to the country as of 2008 and they were being kept at the rehabilitation centers.
Of them, those who were repatriated back from Thailand were the majority with 344, followed by those from China with 272, Malaysia with 45, Japan, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Singapore as well as China's Macao, Chinese Taiwan, the ministry's figures showed.
Myanmar has so far set up border liaison offices in Muse with immediate neighbor of China and in Tachilek, Myawaddy and Kawthoung with Thailand to promote cooperation in cracking down on human trafficking at the basic level.
Coordination is also being made for the move involving the UNODC and UN Inter Agency Project (UNIPA) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
The government has so far built eight rehabilitation centers offering educational program and vocational skill training for the victims.
In the latest development, Myanmar is also planning to set up a temporary care center in Muse for the victims with the help of GGA organization of Japan in November this year.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 13:04:08
YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar's eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said on Thursday.
The trafficked Myanmar people, including 30 women and three children, were handed over by the Thai Ministry of Social Welfare and Development to its Myanmar counterpart in Myawaddy last weekend, the sources said.
The returnees have been brought to Mon state's capital of Mawlamyine and are being accommodated in a vocational skill training school and after the training, they will be sent back to their respective homes, the sources added.
Meanwhile, in August this year, six trafficked Myanmar young women were saved and repatriated back from China to Myanmar across the border following a joint combating of human trafficking crime by special squads of both sides
The six were handed over by the Ruili anti-human trafficking special squad of China to Myanmar's Muse squad.
A total of 13 men brokers and seven women brokers of two human trafficking gangs were also arrested in Ruili, a border town opposite to Myanmar's Muse, according to Myanmar anti-drug authorities.
According to the ministry, under the government to government system, a total of 686 victims smuggled out of Myanmar had been rescued and brought back to the country as of 2008 and they were being kept at the rehabilitation centers.
Of them, those who were repatriated back from Thailand were the majority with 344, followed by those from China with 272, Malaysia with 45, Japan, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Singapore as well as China's Macao, Chinese Taiwan, the ministry's figures showed.
Myanmar has so far set up border liaison offices in Muse with immediate neighbor of China and in Tachilek, Myawaddy and Kawthoung with Thailand to promote cooperation in cracking down on human trafficking at the basic level.
Coordination is also being made for the move involving the UNODC and UN Inter Agency Project (UNIPA) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
The government has so far built eight rehabilitation centers offering educational program and vocational skill training for the victims.
In the latest development, Myanmar is also planning to set up a temporary care center in Muse for the victims with the help of GGA organization of Japan in November this year.
***********************************************************
Myanmar to add another border trade zone in N Shan State
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 14:37:48
YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will add one more border trade zone in Kokang region, in the country's northern Shan State,to facilitate trading between the region and neighboring China, sources with the Ministry of Border Area and National Races Development said on Thursday.
The new border trade zone to be built in Yan Lone Chai township, which is about 12.8 kilometers away from the Kokang capital of Laukkai, will be another after Chinshwehaw.
Once the Yan Lone Chai border trade zone is completed, it will help enhance the economic development of Laukkai and the Kokang asa whole as the border trade zone can be accessible by direct road link with Lashio, Kuttkai and Theini townships, it said.
With an area of 5,200 square-kilometers, Kokang, bordering China's Zhenkang, Gengma, Mengding and Longling areas, has a population of about 150,000.
Myanmar has five border trade points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti which were established since 1998.
Myanmar-China border trade fair has been held annually and alternately in the two countries' border town of Muse and Ruili since 2001 and the last event was in Muse in December 2008.
Ruili remains a main border trade point of China with its border trade volume alone accounting for 70 percent of Yunnan province's border trade with neighboring countries.
Myanmar established the 150-hectare Muse border trade zone, the first largest of its kind in the country, and transformation of its border trade with China into normal trade has been underway since early 2005.
Main items that Yunnan imports from Myanmar are agricultural products, aquatic products, minerals, rubber and its products, while main items that Yunnan exports to Myanmar are electric and machinery, textile, chemicals, steel, daily-used products, pharmaceuticals and so on.
According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent. Of the total, China's export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.
Up to the end of 2008, China's contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.
China now stands the 4th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-15 14:37:48
YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will add one more border trade zone in Kokang region, in the country's northern Shan State,to facilitate trading between the region and neighboring China, sources with the Ministry of Border Area and National Races Development said on Thursday.
The new border trade zone to be built in Yan Lone Chai township, which is about 12.8 kilometers away from the Kokang capital of Laukkai, will be another after Chinshwehaw.
Once the Yan Lone Chai border trade zone is completed, it will help enhance the economic development of Laukkai and the Kokang asa whole as the border trade zone can be accessible by direct road link with Lashio, Kuttkai and Theini townships, it said.
With an area of 5,200 square-kilometers, Kokang, bordering China's Zhenkang, Gengma, Mengding and Longling areas, has a population of about 150,000.
Myanmar has five border trade points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti which were established since 1998.
Myanmar-China border trade fair has been held annually and alternately in the two countries' border town of Muse and Ruili since 2001 and the last event was in Muse in December 2008.
Ruili remains a main border trade point of China with its border trade volume alone accounting for 70 percent of Yunnan province's border trade with neighboring countries.
Myanmar established the 150-hectare Muse border trade zone, the first largest of its kind in the country, and transformation of its border trade with China into normal trade has been underway since early 2005.
Main items that Yunnan imports from Myanmar are agricultural products, aquatic products, minerals, rubber and its products, while main items that Yunnan exports to Myanmar are electric and machinery, textile, chemicals, steel, daily-used products, pharmaceuticals and so on.
According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 26.4 percent. Of the total, China's export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.
Up to the end of 2008, China's contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.
China now stands the 4th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up.
***********************************************************
DEVELOPMENT: UNESCAP Steps in to Help Burma’s Debt-ridden Farmers
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 15 (IPS) - A regional United Nations body dubbed by its critics as a "talk shop" and with limited concrete achievements to its name appears set to change that image by striking a deal with one of Asia’s recalcitrant regimes – the Burmese military government.
On the table is an invitation for the Bangkok-based Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to help the Burmese junta improve its troubled agriculture economy. The 62-year-old U.N. body has identified assisting Burma’s debt-ridden rice farmers as one of its development challenges.
"We have been asked to look at the agriculture policies, address issues of rice pricing and rural credit," Noeleen Heyzer, the head of ESCAP, said in an interview. "We have been asked to share how other countries in the region have dealt with these problems and offer models of good practice."
The seeds of this partnership between ESCAP and the Southeast Asian country that is also called Myanmar were sown during a six-day visit that Heyzer made in August. "This is the first time that the Myanmar government has invited ESCAP to be engaged at this level," said Heyzer, who was appointed two years ago to head the largest of the U.N. regional commissions. "I have been building trust with the government in order to help the rural communities."
Just how open the secretive and oppressive Burmese junta is to such U.N. assistance was reflected during Heyzer’s travels through central Burma, where she stopped and engaged with farmers by the side of paddy fields green with crops for the monsoon harvest. "I discovered that many of them were in debt because of the low level of rural credit and the high cost of fertiliser," said the first female executive secretary of ESCAP. "They are highly dependent on money lenders."
Heyzer feels confident that the initial round of talks she had with Burma’s Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, Htay Oo, indicated a willingness to listen and even consider a shift in prevailing rural credit policies. "One issue I discussed with the minister was how farmers could get greater access to rural credit," she said. "He and the other officials were open and willing to listen to new ideas."
Yet translating such good intentions of ESCAP into reality will require a sea change in a country that was once – before the military grabbed power in a 1962 coup – a leading rice exporter. Today, on the contrary, malnutrition is rampant, affecting over a third of children in a country of 57 million people. Burma is also ranked by the U.N. as one of the hunger hotspots in the world.
As daunting for the U.N. body is to get an accurate picture of the extent of the rice-growing area and the number of farmers strapped by rural debt in a country notorious for unreliable data. In May, Burma’s strongman, Senior General Than Shwe, declared that the country was having a rice surplus "due to remarkable progress in the agriculture sector." The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 7.8 million hectares are currently under paddy cultivation, up from 6.5 million hectares in the 2003-2004 period. Rice production also rose, from 23.1 million tonnes in the 2003-2004 period to an estimated 30.5 million tonnes in the 2008-2009 period, reveals the U.N. agency, which depends on official numbers for its estimates.
Yet that is far from the reality, states an Australian-based academic who heads a research team that produces independent assessments of the Burmese economy. "All the information I am in receipt of, including studies by the FAO itself, the World Food Programme, as well as independent researchers, suggests that agriculture conditions in Burma are dire, and very much at odds with a picture that agriculture in Burma is ‘on the rise’," said Sean Turnell of the Burma Economic Watch in an e-mail interview.
"The output gains that the FAO numbers seems to show could be the result of increased output amongst a number of big commercial producers," added the author of ‘Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinance in Burma’. "The narrative otherwise here is very much at odds with the very difficult circumstances faced by the average small-scale ‘family cultivator’."
The lack of rural credit for these small farmers has been "particularly problematic," said Turnell. "The policies of the Burmese government have been anything but helpful. They have, in essence, stood by while Burma’s rural credit scheme has collapsed."
The debt crisis faced by farmers in Burma was brought to light in April in a report by the British humanitarian agency Oxfam. That study centred around the farming communities affected by the powerful Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta in May last year, resulting in a death toll of about 140,000, affecting 2.4 million people and destroying vast tracts of paddy land.
"Hundreds of thousands of people who survived Myanmar’s worst-ever cyclone are facing the prospect of being trapped in debt with little prospect of securing further credit or loans," Oxfam declared at the time.
"The debt-cycle is common in the agriculture sector. They take loans before the farming season and then settle them after the harvest," Claire Light, Oxfam’s country director in Burma, said in a telephone interview from Rangoon. "But the timing of the cyclone was pretty bad. It came at the end of the growing season and destroyed an entire harvest."
The problem of rice farmers across Burma stems from the country having only one official source of rural credit – the Myanmar Agriculture Development Bank (MADB). This bank offers limited funds to farmers.
"The amount of credit MADB currently makes available to farmers – 8,000 kyats (8 U.S. dollars) per acre – is only a small fraction of the cost of paddy production," says a study of the Burmese rural economy done by researchers at Harvard University. "Official estimates of summer paddy production costs are around 180,000 kyats (180 U.S. dollars) per acre and 130,000 kyats (130 U.S. dollars) for monsoon paddy."
Added to that burden is another government restriction imposed on the farmers – controls over the price at which they can sell their rice.
"Government policy of keeping rice prices in the urban areas low have conspired to depress the price that farmers can earn from their paddy," says the Harvard University study, ‘Assessment of the Myanmar Agriculture Economy, released early this year. "Many farmers are deeply in debt. Even if credit were available and paddy prices improved somewhat, many farmers would still be in deep trouble."
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 15 (IPS) - A regional United Nations body dubbed by its critics as a "talk shop" and with limited concrete achievements to its name appears set to change that image by striking a deal with one of Asia’s recalcitrant regimes – the Burmese military government.
On the table is an invitation for the Bangkok-based Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to help the Burmese junta improve its troubled agriculture economy. The 62-year-old U.N. body has identified assisting Burma’s debt-ridden rice farmers as one of its development challenges.
"We have been asked to look at the agriculture policies, address issues of rice pricing and rural credit," Noeleen Heyzer, the head of ESCAP, said in an interview. "We have been asked to share how other countries in the region have dealt with these problems and offer models of good practice."
The seeds of this partnership between ESCAP and the Southeast Asian country that is also called Myanmar were sown during a six-day visit that Heyzer made in August. "This is the first time that the Myanmar government has invited ESCAP to be engaged at this level," said Heyzer, who was appointed two years ago to head the largest of the U.N. regional commissions. "I have been building trust with the government in order to help the rural communities."
Just how open the secretive and oppressive Burmese junta is to such U.N. assistance was reflected during Heyzer’s travels through central Burma, where she stopped and engaged with farmers by the side of paddy fields green with crops for the monsoon harvest. "I discovered that many of them were in debt because of the low level of rural credit and the high cost of fertiliser," said the first female executive secretary of ESCAP. "They are highly dependent on money lenders."
Heyzer feels confident that the initial round of talks she had with Burma’s Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, Htay Oo, indicated a willingness to listen and even consider a shift in prevailing rural credit policies. "One issue I discussed with the minister was how farmers could get greater access to rural credit," she said. "He and the other officials were open and willing to listen to new ideas."
Yet translating such good intentions of ESCAP into reality will require a sea change in a country that was once – before the military grabbed power in a 1962 coup – a leading rice exporter. Today, on the contrary, malnutrition is rampant, affecting over a third of children in a country of 57 million people. Burma is also ranked by the U.N. as one of the hunger hotspots in the world.
As daunting for the U.N. body is to get an accurate picture of the extent of the rice-growing area and the number of farmers strapped by rural debt in a country notorious for unreliable data. In May, Burma’s strongman, Senior General Than Shwe, declared that the country was having a rice surplus "due to remarkable progress in the agriculture sector." The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 7.8 million hectares are currently under paddy cultivation, up from 6.5 million hectares in the 2003-2004 period. Rice production also rose, from 23.1 million tonnes in the 2003-2004 period to an estimated 30.5 million tonnes in the 2008-2009 period, reveals the U.N. agency, which depends on official numbers for its estimates.
Yet that is far from the reality, states an Australian-based academic who heads a research team that produces independent assessments of the Burmese economy. "All the information I am in receipt of, including studies by the FAO itself, the World Food Programme, as well as independent researchers, suggests that agriculture conditions in Burma are dire, and very much at odds with a picture that agriculture in Burma is ‘on the rise’," said Sean Turnell of the Burma Economic Watch in an e-mail interview.
"The output gains that the FAO numbers seems to show could be the result of increased output amongst a number of big commercial producers," added the author of ‘Fiery Dragons: Banks, Moneylenders and Microfinance in Burma’. "The narrative otherwise here is very much at odds with the very difficult circumstances faced by the average small-scale ‘family cultivator’."
The lack of rural credit for these small farmers has been "particularly problematic," said Turnell. "The policies of the Burmese government have been anything but helpful. They have, in essence, stood by while Burma’s rural credit scheme has collapsed."
The debt crisis faced by farmers in Burma was brought to light in April in a report by the British humanitarian agency Oxfam. That study centred around the farming communities affected by the powerful Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta in May last year, resulting in a death toll of about 140,000, affecting 2.4 million people and destroying vast tracts of paddy land.
"Hundreds of thousands of people who survived Myanmar’s worst-ever cyclone are facing the prospect of being trapped in debt with little prospect of securing further credit or loans," Oxfam declared at the time.
"The debt-cycle is common in the agriculture sector. They take loans before the farming season and then settle them after the harvest," Claire Light, Oxfam’s country director in Burma, said in a telephone interview from Rangoon. "But the timing of the cyclone was pretty bad. It came at the end of the growing season and destroyed an entire harvest."
The problem of rice farmers across Burma stems from the country having only one official source of rural credit – the Myanmar Agriculture Development Bank (MADB). This bank offers limited funds to farmers.
"The amount of credit MADB currently makes available to farmers – 8,000 kyats (8 U.S. dollars) per acre – is only a small fraction of the cost of paddy production," says a study of the Burmese rural economy done by researchers at Harvard University. "Official estimates of summer paddy production costs are around 180,000 kyats (180 U.S. dollars) per acre and 130,000 kyats (130 U.S. dollars) for monsoon paddy."
Added to that burden is another government restriction imposed on the farmers – controls over the price at which they can sell their rice.
"Government policy of keeping rice prices in the urban areas low have conspired to depress the price that farmers can earn from their paddy," says the Harvard University study, ‘Assessment of the Myanmar Agriculture Economy, released early this year. "Many farmers are deeply in debt. Even if credit were available and paddy prices improved somewhat, many farmers would still be in deep trouble."
***********************************************************
VOA News - Burmese Student Receives Scholarship to Attend Green Mountain College
By Marsha James
13 October 2009
For Wai Phyo Myint, the education system isn't that good at home so coming to America was her option. “I’m originally from Burma, Myanmar. The reason I would like to come and study is because of the education system. Over there the education system is not that good and that is the main reason I would like to come here and also I am interested in Communications Journalism and the Political Science study and over there we don’t have any institution that offers Political science or any Communications Journalism so coming here for me is an opportunity to come and study Political Science and Communications.”
Green Mountain College is in Poultney, Vermont and Wai is in her third year at the college. She is also on an academic scholarship. “I think one of the very beautiful things of the Green Mountain college is we respect and we love our community. Each and every member of the GMC community maintains the community so everyone in the community and so everyone is really nice. So that is a really lovely thing. I didn’t expect I would find that beauty in the United States,” she says.
“Also, the Green Mountain College offered me a ‘make a difference’ scholarship. It is a full scholarship so I got the full scholarship to come here”
Wai Phyo Myint says being able to have open communication with her peers and her instructors is something that she appreciates and isn't able to do if she went to college back home. “Academically, I am really satisfied being here and my classes are really nice.I am quite close to the professors and the professors are also quite helpful and conversation outside of the classroom is always lively and interesting,” she says.
“There are a lot of things I still need to learn because over there in Burma, we don’t have a change to talk and be out spoken and to talk openly about what we think and about our opinion with other people so we don’t have very lively discussions, but here we can discuss everything not just about personal stuff, we can also discuss what our opinion on the government and policies,” she says.
Even though we are not the policy makers we can have a conversation in class or outside conversation so that is really helpful for me and for my career back in my country. So I am really enjoying being here.”
Wai campus activities include; “I work for the school newspaper, ‘The Mountaineer’ and also I got involved in the Indonesia Awareness Club, a club promoting awareness about different countries, culture and other situations on campus,” she says. “We do more about educating students on campus to understand different cultures and to appreciate diversity.”
Wai Phyo Myint says she has come to realize that being in the United States is nothing like she initially had learned back home. “Before I came here whenever I heard about the United States it would be mostly about the bad things basically, but now I’ve been here in at a very small and lovely community so totally different from what I heard over there and now what I am experiencing here,” she says.
“Now I see the best part of the United States because over there whenever we talk about the United States or about the wars or foreign relationships with different countries and not about the good side of the United States, now I am living in a small community and most of them are local farmers and they value their environment and have a very strong sense of community and respect other community members and that is very lovely,” she says.
“So I see and I experience it because I been in the community.”
Wai Phyo Myint will graduate in 2011.
By Marsha James
13 October 2009
For Wai Phyo Myint, the education system isn't that good at home so coming to America was her option. “I’m originally from Burma, Myanmar. The reason I would like to come and study is because of the education system. Over there the education system is not that good and that is the main reason I would like to come here and also I am interested in Communications Journalism and the Political Science study and over there we don’t have any institution that offers Political science or any Communications Journalism so coming here for me is an opportunity to come and study Political Science and Communications.”
Green Mountain College is in Poultney, Vermont and Wai is in her third year at the college. She is also on an academic scholarship. “I think one of the very beautiful things of the Green Mountain college is we respect and we love our community. Each and every member of the GMC community maintains the community so everyone in the community and so everyone is really nice. So that is a really lovely thing. I didn’t expect I would find that beauty in the United States,” she says.
“Also, the Green Mountain College offered me a ‘make a difference’ scholarship. It is a full scholarship so I got the full scholarship to come here”
Wai Phyo Myint says being able to have open communication with her peers and her instructors is something that she appreciates and isn't able to do if she went to college back home. “Academically, I am really satisfied being here and my classes are really nice.I am quite close to the professors and the professors are also quite helpful and conversation outside of the classroom is always lively and interesting,” she says.
“There are a lot of things I still need to learn because over there in Burma, we don’t have a change to talk and be out spoken and to talk openly about what we think and about our opinion with other people so we don’t have very lively discussions, but here we can discuss everything not just about personal stuff, we can also discuss what our opinion on the government and policies,” she says.
Even though we are not the policy makers we can have a conversation in class or outside conversation so that is really helpful for me and for my career back in my country. So I am really enjoying being here.”
Wai campus activities include; “I work for the school newspaper, ‘The Mountaineer’ and also I got involved in the Indonesia Awareness Club, a club promoting awareness about different countries, culture and other situations on campus,” she says. “We do more about educating students on campus to understand different cultures and to appreciate diversity.”
Wai Phyo Myint says she has come to realize that being in the United States is nothing like she initially had learned back home. “Before I came here whenever I heard about the United States it would be mostly about the bad things basically, but now I’ve been here in at a very small and lovely community so totally different from what I heard over there and now what I am experiencing here,” she says.
“Now I see the best part of the United States because over there whenever we talk about the United States or about the wars or foreign relationships with different countries and not about the good side of the United States, now I am living in a small community and most of them are local farmers and they value their environment and have a very strong sense of community and respect other community members and that is very lovely,” she says.
“So I see and I experience it because I been in the community.”
Wai Phyo Myint will graduate in 2011.
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TMCnet - Cambodia hosts forum on Mekong regional disaster management
PHNOM PENH, Oct 15, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The senior officials from countries along Mekong River including Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand on Thursday gathered in Phnom Penh to attend the Mekong Regional Forum on legal preparedness, regional arrangement for disaster, and communicable disease emergencies.
"We have to set up a regional law which has similar tools to work together in fields of disaster management and communicable diseases," Nhim Vanda, senior minister and first deputy president of the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) of Cambodia said at the forum.
Cambodia will approve a law of disaster management soon, he said. Cambodia already signed on the ASEAN law on disaster Management in 2005 to work with international partners for exchange information and help on the natural disasters and other risks for people, he added.
"The legal preparedness will ensure the national laws and policies to facilitate fast mobilization and respond to disaster respond and communicable disease emergencies," he said, calling to have good coordination and information exchange between different partners -- local, national and international.
Nhim Vanda also said that before departure for his visit to China this morning, "Prime Minister Hun Sen asked me to convey some words to forum that we have to enhance efforts to have a regional law on disaster management for serving mutual benefits and enhance cooperation." Cambodia and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) will work together to host international conference on disaster management in future. "Having good laws and systems in place will help us to get the right information to right place at the right time after a disaster," Pum Chantinie, secretary of general of the Cambodian Red Cross said.
At the same time, Stephane Rousseau, regional coordinator of ADB said that all members need to work like football team to succeed in region and rescue the victims from the disasters timely.
This event is supported from Cambodian Red Cross, Asia Development Bank (ADB), and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and NDMC.
"Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are among the countries through which the Mekong River flows," creating fertile land in what is known as the "rice bowl" of the region, according to the press release of the meeting. Unfortunately, this region is also prone to flash flooding and droughts, which occur on an annual basis, running valuable crops as well as lives, it added.
PHNOM PENH, Oct 15, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The senior officials from countries along Mekong River including Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand on Thursday gathered in Phnom Penh to attend the Mekong Regional Forum on legal preparedness, regional arrangement for disaster, and communicable disease emergencies.
"We have to set up a regional law which has similar tools to work together in fields of disaster management and communicable diseases," Nhim Vanda, senior minister and first deputy president of the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) of Cambodia said at the forum.
Cambodia will approve a law of disaster management soon, he said. Cambodia already signed on the ASEAN law on disaster Management in 2005 to work with international partners for exchange information and help on the natural disasters and other risks for people, he added.
"The legal preparedness will ensure the national laws and policies to facilitate fast mobilization and respond to disaster respond and communicable disease emergencies," he said, calling to have good coordination and information exchange between different partners -- local, national and international.
Nhim Vanda also said that before departure for his visit to China this morning, "Prime Minister Hun Sen asked me to convey some words to forum that we have to enhance efforts to have a regional law on disaster management for serving mutual benefits and enhance cooperation." Cambodia and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) will work together to host international conference on disaster management in future. "Having good laws and systems in place will help us to get the right information to right place at the right time after a disaster," Pum Chantinie, secretary of general of the Cambodian Red Cross said.
At the same time, Stephane Rousseau, regional coordinator of ADB said that all members need to work like football team to succeed in region and rescue the victims from the disasters timely.
This event is supported from Cambodian Red Cross, Asia Development Bank (ADB), and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies and NDMC.
"Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are among the countries through which the Mekong River flows," creating fertile land in what is known as the "rice bowl" of the region, according to the press release of the meeting. Unfortunately, this region is also prone to flash flooding and droughts, which occur on an annual basis, running valuable crops as well as lives, it added.
***********************************************************
ReliefWeb - Impunity prolonged: Burma and its 2008 constitution
Source: International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Date: 30 Sep 2009
Executive Summary
Burma (also known as Myanmar) has been under military rule since 1962 when General Ne Win took power from the democratically elected government. Following nationwide protests in 1988, another coup marked the commencement of the current regime (initially called the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, and now called the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC). The new regime promised to usher in democracy and elections were held in 1990. However the military rulers refused to allow the winning National League for Democracy (NLD) to form a new government. Instead, they convened a National Convention to draft a new constitution, handpicking most of the initial 702 delegates and inviting only 106 of the elected Members of Parliament to participate. After many delays, the convention completed the draft on September 3, 2007.
The convention ended just after a sudden rise in fuel costs caused the prices of commodities to increase considerably, prompting Buddhist monks to lead mass demonstrations calling for economic reform and national reconciliation. The military responded with ferocious force, raiding monasteries and firing on crowds of peaceful protestors. Many of the protesters were detained and reportedly tortured, and some were sentenced to long prison terms.
In response to international criticism over the crackdown, the SPDC announced that a national referendum on a new constitution would take place on May 10, 2008, and elections would follow two years later. One week before the referendum, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, and more than 130,000 people either died or were missing. Still, the military rulers insisted on proceeding with the referendum; they later claimed that, despite the death and mass destruction, more than 92 percent of eligible voters had approved the new constitution.
An analysis of the constitution's provisions suggests that instead of being a true catalyst for lasting change, it further entrenches the military within the government and the associated culture of impunity. In addition to providing amnesty to the ruling regime for any crimes committed, the constitution creates a governing structure that gives the military the ability to dominate the government and protect its interests in perpetuity. It reserves 25 percent of the seats in both houses of parliament for members of the security forces who undoubtedly will obey the instructions of their commanding officers. A substantial number of the remaining 75 percent of MPs will probably be ex-military and civil service officials who support the SPDC. To reinforce the structural guarantee that the regime retains its control, the constitution further requires that a number of the most important ministries be led by military personnel. As a result, military interests will dominate the government and parliament.
The constitution declares that any amendment must be supported by more than 75 percent of parliament. So any changes would require that all nonmilitary MPs (including those who had formerly been in the military) and at least one member of the armed forces vote for a proposed amendment to limit military dominance. The result is a carefully planned strategy in which a functioning democracy is impossible under the 2008 constitution, and altering its fundamentally undemocratic provisions is virtually impossible.
Although human rights organizations are unable to operate freely inside Burma, people have been able to gather reports of violations, often at great risk, and smuggle them out of the country. These reports indicate that members of the military continue to be responsible for widespread, systematic human rights violations committed against anyone perceived to oppose the regime. Those responsible for such violations do so with almost total impunity.
Although the range of reported violations is broad, including mass killings of civilians, this report focuses on three categories as a means of analyzing the manner in which impunity persists in Burma: sexual violence, forced labor, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers (often referred to as child soldiering). Each of these categories is the subject of international conventions that Burma has ratified, therefore raising obligations that the Burmese government must fulfill under international law. Such conventions include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Burma in 1997; the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, ratified by Burma in 1955; and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, with Burma's accession in 1991.
Sexual Violations
The record of sexual violations, drawn from investigations carried out by UN special rapporteurs and Burmese women's groups, demonstrates that rape is not a violation committed by rogue elements in the military, but rather appears to be a strategy of the SPDC. The perpetrators have a level of impunity that indicates institutional support for these practices.
In general, the response of the military to international accusations of sexual violations has been consistent obfuscation. Burmese officials have said that national laws and remedies exist for these crimes and allegations that sexual violence by military forces is systematic are false. More recently, however, the SPDC has begun to accept that some members of the security forces are guilty of rape, and perpetrators have been forced to pay some compensation to their victims. Although the manner and degree of this punishment is far from appropriate for such horrific crimes, it signifies a relatively minor degree of willingness to acknowledge them. Still, this level of progress pales in significance compared with the magnitude of the problem of sexual violations in Burma.
Forced Labor
The SPDC has been implicated in widespread practices of forced labor. Some people are required to carry heavy loads for the military; if they move too slowly or collapse during the process, they are treated poorly and savagely beaten. Others are forced to work on construction and public works programs, on farms cultivating subsistence crops, and on development projects paid for by foreign companies, such as gas pipelines or hydroelectric plants.
It appears that international action over the past decade—and the threat thereof—has made the SPDC take some action on forced labor as well as the related violation of child soldiering. However, it is less clear whether this pressure has prompted limited, yet meaningful change or merely created superficial steps designed to avert international scrutiny and sanctions.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) established a Commission of Inquiry in 1998 and decided two years later to impose sanctions. In response, the SPDC allowed the ILO to open an office in Rangoon. The liaison officer there reported that impunity rendered the existing national complaints system relatively meaningless. Although a new complaints mechanism has been established through the ILO, it handles a small number of cases given the widespread nature of the practice. Significantly, several people who filed complaints have been prosecuted for doing so.
Child Soldiers
Battalion commanders in the Burmese army must recruit a specific number of new recruits each year, or risk losing their commands. One method of insuring that the quota is filled is through recruiting children—a widespread practice well documented by the UN, international NGOs, and local human rights organizations over the last decade.
As in the case of forced labor, the Burmese government has reacted in a very limited fashion to international attention to the problem. During the months before the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1612—requiring the UN Secretary General to provide the Security Council with a list of parties that recruit and use child soldiers—the SPDC began to develop a plan to deal with the issue. It established a committee to demobilize child soldiers and reintegrate them into society, as well as to raise the country's awareness of the illegal practice and punish those responsible for it. Only a small number of child soldiers have been discharged so far. Impunity for recruitment and use of child soldiers remains strong.
Impunity
Whenever a country's military is charged with taking strong action in the interests of national unity, sovereignty, and security, members of the armed forces often severely
abuse civilians. Armed with guns and the knowledge that they are not likely to be held accountable for their abuses, members of the military often resort to inhumane behavior. Rape is tolerated and is seen not as a crime but rather as a necessary strategy to punish individuals, families, and communities that may oppose the government.
This illusion validates and encourages more violations. Civilians are snatched from their homes and forced to provide free labor to support the military's endeavors against opposition forces. Given the high rates of attrition in the armed forces, the expanding size of the army, the numbers of volunteers decreasing, and deserters increasing, recruiters have turned to children to meet their quotas. While all of these activities are illegal under Burmese and international law, they persist because of the country's culture of impunity.
As a result, Burma presents one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity, uncovering the truth, seeking to assist victims, and reforming institutions responsible for mass violations of human rights. The government severely restricts civil society's ability to safely promote respect for human rights, and the constitution reinforces military dominance, including constitutional guarantees of impunity.
In such a context, Burmese civil society and international actors can focus strategies on moderate shortterm goals to build the foundations for long-term change and mechanisms of accountability. One step these groups can take now is to strengthen the ability of activists in Burma and its border regions to objectively gather and use information and reports about human rights violations. In many post-conflict settings, the loss or decay of evidence, or improper methodology for collecting it has severely hampered progress on transitional justice issues. However, since recent history indicates that eventually some form of reckoning will come to those who have committed crimes in Burma, a coordinated, well-informed approach to documenting the violations can produce data that helps international actors formulate policy in response to the situation and preserves evidence for any potential prosecutions, truth-seeking mechanisms, or other measures to deal with the legacy of impunity.
Recently Burmese activists have been considering the potential value in calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into international crimes in Burma and/or calling for a referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although the court's jurisdiction generally applies to crimes committed in territories or by nationals of countries that ratified the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council has the power to refer a situation in a country that has not done so if it presents a threat to international peace and security. This happened with Sudan in 2005, where the subsequent investigation led the ICC to indict President Omar al-Bashir and issue an arrest warrant for him. However, referral requires Security Council agreement, and the unique factors that led to the Sudan referral are distinct from the current political dynamics in relation to Burma. Regardless of the likelihood of any possible referral to the ICC, establishing a Commission of Inquiry is a measure that the international community has supported in a range of situations in which more information is needed to decide if further action is necessary. Given the difficulties of getting thorough information from Burma, a commission could help assess the nature and extent of serious human rights violations.
Many groups are either considering or supporting various other strategies. These include advocating a global embargo on supplying arms to the SPDC, bringing cases for mass crimes committed in Burma under the universal jurisdiction legislation in other countries, and bringing civil claims in the United States under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows victims to sue perpetrators of international torts or crimes even if the crime does not involve a U.S. citizen and is committed outside U.S. borders.
Other recent experiences in Argentina, Peru, and Cambodia provide examples of national leaders who were tried in courts decades after they committed mass atrocities. Although the level of impunity in Burma may now appear intractable, it is no more so than the situations that existed during the reigns of the Argentine junta, Peru's President Alberto Fujimori, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It is now clear that no leader who allows such violations to take place on their watch, no individual responsible for them, can be certain that they will never be held accountable.
Burma is no exception. The Burmese continue to be forced to live with mass violations, impunity that encourages more crime, a constitution that entrenches the military's power, and a blanket of terror over political opposition. While this context does not dictate that nothing can be done toward fulfilling the right to justice, truth, and reparations, any strategic approach needs to focus on catalyzing change, preparing for future accountability measures, preserving and organizing evidence, and effectively using available international mechanisms.
Source: International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Date: 30 Sep 2009
Executive Summary
Burma (also known as Myanmar) has been under military rule since 1962 when General Ne Win took power from the democratically elected government. Following nationwide protests in 1988, another coup marked the commencement of the current regime (initially called the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, and now called the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC). The new regime promised to usher in democracy and elections were held in 1990. However the military rulers refused to allow the winning National League for Democracy (NLD) to form a new government. Instead, they convened a National Convention to draft a new constitution, handpicking most of the initial 702 delegates and inviting only 106 of the elected Members of Parliament to participate. After many delays, the convention completed the draft on September 3, 2007.
The convention ended just after a sudden rise in fuel costs caused the prices of commodities to increase considerably, prompting Buddhist monks to lead mass demonstrations calling for economic reform and national reconciliation. The military responded with ferocious force, raiding monasteries and firing on crowds of peaceful protestors. Many of the protesters were detained and reportedly tortured, and some were sentenced to long prison terms.
In response to international criticism over the crackdown, the SPDC announced that a national referendum on a new constitution would take place on May 10, 2008, and elections would follow two years later. One week before the referendum, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, and more than 130,000 people either died or were missing. Still, the military rulers insisted on proceeding with the referendum; they later claimed that, despite the death and mass destruction, more than 92 percent of eligible voters had approved the new constitution.
An analysis of the constitution's provisions suggests that instead of being a true catalyst for lasting change, it further entrenches the military within the government and the associated culture of impunity. In addition to providing amnesty to the ruling regime for any crimes committed, the constitution creates a governing structure that gives the military the ability to dominate the government and protect its interests in perpetuity. It reserves 25 percent of the seats in both houses of parliament for members of the security forces who undoubtedly will obey the instructions of their commanding officers. A substantial number of the remaining 75 percent of MPs will probably be ex-military and civil service officials who support the SPDC. To reinforce the structural guarantee that the regime retains its control, the constitution further requires that a number of the most important ministries be led by military personnel. As a result, military interests will dominate the government and parliament.
The constitution declares that any amendment must be supported by more than 75 percent of parliament. So any changes would require that all nonmilitary MPs (including those who had formerly been in the military) and at least one member of the armed forces vote for a proposed amendment to limit military dominance. The result is a carefully planned strategy in which a functioning democracy is impossible under the 2008 constitution, and altering its fundamentally undemocratic provisions is virtually impossible.
Although human rights organizations are unable to operate freely inside Burma, people have been able to gather reports of violations, often at great risk, and smuggle them out of the country. These reports indicate that members of the military continue to be responsible for widespread, systematic human rights violations committed against anyone perceived to oppose the regime. Those responsible for such violations do so with almost total impunity.
Although the range of reported violations is broad, including mass killings of civilians, this report focuses on three categories as a means of analyzing the manner in which impunity persists in Burma: sexual violence, forced labor, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers (often referred to as child soldiering). Each of these categories is the subject of international conventions that Burma has ratified, therefore raising obligations that the Burmese government must fulfill under international law. Such conventions include the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ratified by Burma in 1997; the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, ratified by Burma in 1955; and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, with Burma's accession in 1991.
Sexual Violations
The record of sexual violations, drawn from investigations carried out by UN special rapporteurs and Burmese women's groups, demonstrates that rape is not a violation committed by rogue elements in the military, but rather appears to be a strategy of the SPDC. The perpetrators have a level of impunity that indicates institutional support for these practices.
In general, the response of the military to international accusations of sexual violations has been consistent obfuscation. Burmese officials have said that national laws and remedies exist for these crimes and allegations that sexual violence by military forces is systematic are false. More recently, however, the SPDC has begun to accept that some members of the security forces are guilty of rape, and perpetrators have been forced to pay some compensation to their victims. Although the manner and degree of this punishment is far from appropriate for such horrific crimes, it signifies a relatively minor degree of willingness to acknowledge them. Still, this level of progress pales in significance compared with the magnitude of the problem of sexual violations in Burma.
Forced Labor
The SPDC has been implicated in widespread practices of forced labor. Some people are required to carry heavy loads for the military; if they move too slowly or collapse during the process, they are treated poorly and savagely beaten. Others are forced to work on construction and public works programs, on farms cultivating subsistence crops, and on development projects paid for by foreign companies, such as gas pipelines or hydroelectric plants.
It appears that international action over the past decade—and the threat thereof—has made the SPDC take some action on forced labor as well as the related violation of child soldiering. However, it is less clear whether this pressure has prompted limited, yet meaningful change or merely created superficial steps designed to avert international scrutiny and sanctions.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) established a Commission of Inquiry in 1998 and decided two years later to impose sanctions. In response, the SPDC allowed the ILO to open an office in Rangoon. The liaison officer there reported that impunity rendered the existing national complaints system relatively meaningless. Although a new complaints mechanism has been established through the ILO, it handles a small number of cases given the widespread nature of the practice. Significantly, several people who filed complaints have been prosecuted for doing so.
Child Soldiers
Battalion commanders in the Burmese army must recruit a specific number of new recruits each year, or risk losing their commands. One method of insuring that the quota is filled is through recruiting children—a widespread practice well documented by the UN, international NGOs, and local human rights organizations over the last decade.
As in the case of forced labor, the Burmese government has reacted in a very limited fashion to international attention to the problem. During the months before the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1612—requiring the UN Secretary General to provide the Security Council with a list of parties that recruit and use child soldiers—the SPDC began to develop a plan to deal with the issue. It established a committee to demobilize child soldiers and reintegrate them into society, as well as to raise the country's awareness of the illegal practice and punish those responsible for it. Only a small number of child soldiers have been discharged so far. Impunity for recruitment and use of child soldiers remains strong.
Impunity
Whenever a country's military is charged with taking strong action in the interests of national unity, sovereignty, and security, members of the armed forces often severely
abuse civilians. Armed with guns and the knowledge that they are not likely to be held accountable for their abuses, members of the military often resort to inhumane behavior. Rape is tolerated and is seen not as a crime but rather as a necessary strategy to punish individuals, families, and communities that may oppose the government.
This illusion validates and encourages more violations. Civilians are snatched from their homes and forced to provide free labor to support the military's endeavors against opposition forces. Given the high rates of attrition in the armed forces, the expanding size of the army, the numbers of volunteers decreasing, and deserters increasing, recruiters have turned to children to meet their quotas. While all of these activities are illegal under Burmese and international law, they persist because of the country's culture of impunity.
As a result, Burma presents one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity, uncovering the truth, seeking to assist victims, and reforming institutions responsible for mass violations of human rights. The government severely restricts civil society's ability to safely promote respect for human rights, and the constitution reinforces military dominance, including constitutional guarantees of impunity.
In such a context, Burmese civil society and international actors can focus strategies on moderate shortterm goals to build the foundations for long-term change and mechanisms of accountability. One step these groups can take now is to strengthen the ability of activists in Burma and its border regions to objectively gather and use information and reports about human rights violations. In many post-conflict settings, the loss or decay of evidence, or improper methodology for collecting it has severely hampered progress on transitional justice issues. However, since recent history indicates that eventually some form of reckoning will come to those who have committed crimes in Burma, a coordinated, well-informed approach to documenting the violations can produce data that helps international actors formulate policy in response to the situation and preserves evidence for any potential prosecutions, truth-seeking mechanisms, or other measures to deal with the legacy of impunity.
Recently Burmese activists have been considering the potential value in calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into international crimes in Burma and/or calling for a referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although the court's jurisdiction generally applies to crimes committed in territories or by nationals of countries that ratified the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council has the power to refer a situation in a country that has not done so if it presents a threat to international peace and security. This happened with Sudan in 2005, where the subsequent investigation led the ICC to indict President Omar al-Bashir and issue an arrest warrant for him. However, referral requires Security Council agreement, and the unique factors that led to the Sudan referral are distinct from the current political dynamics in relation to Burma. Regardless of the likelihood of any possible referral to the ICC, establishing a Commission of Inquiry is a measure that the international community has supported in a range of situations in which more information is needed to decide if further action is necessary. Given the difficulties of getting thorough information from Burma, a commission could help assess the nature and extent of serious human rights violations.
Many groups are either considering or supporting various other strategies. These include advocating a global embargo on supplying arms to the SPDC, bringing cases for mass crimes committed in Burma under the universal jurisdiction legislation in other countries, and bringing civil claims in the United States under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows victims to sue perpetrators of international torts or crimes even if the crime does not involve a U.S. citizen and is committed outside U.S. borders.
Other recent experiences in Argentina, Peru, and Cambodia provide examples of national leaders who were tried in courts decades after they committed mass atrocities. Although the level of impunity in Burma may now appear intractable, it is no more so than the situations that existed during the reigns of the Argentine junta, Peru's President Alberto Fujimori, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It is now clear that no leader who allows such violations to take place on their watch, no individual responsible for them, can be certain that they will never be held accountable.
Burma is no exception. The Burmese continue to be forced to live with mass violations, impunity that encourages more crime, a constitution that entrenches the military's power, and a blanket of terror over political opposition. While this context does not dictate that nothing can be done toward fulfilling the right to justice, truth, and reparations, any strategic approach needs to focus on catalyzing change, preparing for future accountability measures, preserving and organizing evidence, and effectively using available international mechanisms.
***********************************************************
upstreamonline - Surprise winner in Yetagun race
Thursday, 15 October, 2009, 04:30 GMT
By Russell Searancke
Larsen & Toubro was favoured to win in the battle to build a big compression platform for the Yetagun wet gas field off Burma, but one of the five other bidders has emerged as the winner.
Thursday, 15 October, 2009, 04:30 GMT
By Russell Searancke
Larsen & Toubro was favoured to win in the battle to build a big compression platform for the Yetagun wet gas field off Burma, but one of the five other bidders has emerged as the winner.
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The Irrawaddy - Many Burmese Monks Arrested
Thursday, October 15, 2009
At least 30 monks were arrested in Burma in September and October, the two-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, sources said.
Sources familiar with the Sangha, the institution of monks nationwide, said 13 monks from Meiktila and 10 monks from Kyaukpadaung townships in Mandalay Division were arrested in late September, in an effort by the military junta to discourage or break up potential demonstrations by monks.
An official in Meiktila who requested anonymity said monks from the Nagar Yone Monastery in the township were among those arrested.
A Burmese human rights group in exile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), confirmed that dozens of monks were arrested in the past two months.
“More than 20 monks were detained throughout September,” Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the AAPP, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “We’ve gotten reports of seven monks arrested recently.”
The AAPP said the recent arrests took place in Arakan State, and Rangoon, Mandalay and Magwe divisions.
There are 224 monks among the 2,119 political prisoners in Burma, said the AAPP, not including the recent arrests.
In September, the Burmese regime announced an amnesty for prisoners. The number of political prisoners released totaled 127, including four monks, of the 7,114 prisoners who received amnesty.
The All Burma Monks’ Alliance, which led the 2007 demonstrations, has renewed its call for the regime to apologize for the beating and arrests of monks in Pakokku two years ago and to release all monks who were imprisoned during the subsequent crackdown.
The monks set an Oct. 3 deadline for the regime to respond, saying that if there is no apology, monks will start another boycott of alms offered by all military and government personnel, known in Buddhism as “patta ni kozana kan.”
Burmese authorities responded to the monks’ call by increasing security in Rangoon early this month.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
At least 30 monks were arrested in Burma in September and October, the two-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, sources said.
Sources familiar with the Sangha, the institution of monks nationwide, said 13 monks from Meiktila and 10 monks from Kyaukpadaung townships in Mandalay Division were arrested in late September, in an effort by the military junta to discourage or break up potential demonstrations by monks.
An official in Meiktila who requested anonymity said monks from the Nagar Yone Monastery in the township were among those arrested.
A Burmese human rights group in exile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), confirmed that dozens of monks were arrested in the past two months.
“More than 20 monks were detained throughout September,” Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the AAPP, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “We’ve gotten reports of seven monks arrested recently.”
The AAPP said the recent arrests took place in Arakan State, and Rangoon, Mandalay and Magwe divisions.
There are 224 monks among the 2,119 political prisoners in Burma, said the AAPP, not including the recent arrests.
In September, the Burmese regime announced an amnesty for prisoners. The number of political prisoners released totaled 127, including four monks, of the 7,114 prisoners who received amnesty.
The All Burma Monks’ Alliance, which led the 2007 demonstrations, has renewed its call for the regime to apologize for the beating and arrests of monks in Pakokku two years ago and to release all monks who were imprisoned during the subsequent crackdown.
The monks set an Oct. 3 deadline for the regime to respond, saying that if there is no apology, monks will start another boycott of alms offered by all military and government personnel, known in Buddhism as “patta ni kozana kan.”
Burmese authorities responded to the monks’ call by increasing security in Rangoon early this month.
***********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Elderly Face Lonely Challenges
By SOE LWIN, Thursday, October 15, 2009
PYAPON, Irrawaddy delta—Tin Mya, 68, had a backyard poultry business. She managed to put away some money and gold. With her savings, she dreamed of having a comfortable life when she could no longer work.
Her dream became a nightmare when her gold and money—valued at the equivalent of US $500—disappeared when Cyclone Nargis pummeled Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008.
"I tried to keep my plastic sack of gold and money with me until the flood waters reached to my waist,” Tin Mya recalled. “But when I was hit by a giant wave, the sack was washed away."
Since the storm, Tin Mya has relied on food aid to survive. When the aid stops, she doesn’t know how she will find food. She believes she will never be able to rebuild her backyard business.
The Category 4 storm—the worst natural disaster in Burma’s modern history—killed close to 140,000 people and affected more than 2 million.
Like Tin Mya, there are still thousands of vulnerable elderly people who now face even harder times, 17 months after Cyclone Nargis.
According to HelpAge International, of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, an estimated 200,000 were 55 years or older at the time of the disaster.
Humanitarian aid workers say elderly people face greater challenges in terms of restoring livelihoods, earning incomes and living a healthy life, physically and mentally.
Many have forever lost the assets that they accumulated over their lifetime, and in many cases they have lost loved ones who they relied on for economic and physical support.
According to a HelpAge International report, 14 percent of the elderly said their life was more difficult now than before Nargis, while 21 percent said their life was back to normal.
In Burma, the elderly usually receive high respect within a community, which is a benefit for many old people, the aid agency said.
"Those who had no children particularly have been facing tough times,” said an official from the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross Society. “The respect of their community is very helpful.”
In Thamainhtaw village in Pyapon Township, a 73-year old man who lost his wife in the cyclone said he does not how he would have survived without his neighbors help.
Three of his neighbors fetch potable water and cook for him, he said. At night, they come and sleep in his shelter.
“Now, food aid has stopped in our village,” he said. “But my neighbors are feeding me.”
According to aid agencies, many elderly without relatives are stranded in their makeshift houses and relying solely on food aid. Many are in need of psychological counseling and suffer from trauma and depression. Some elderly people still refuse to speak, say aid workers.
"The psychological well-being of older people is so much related to the material support given to them," said an official with HelpAge.
In the meanwhile, many elderly carry on, trying to carve out a new way of life.
In Pyapon, a small village, a man in his 80s who lost his wife and one grandson to the cyclone, stays in a shelter built by aid workers.
“At night, I sleep at my home, but during the day I go to the monastery where I can chat with people my age and do religious work,” he said. “If I’m hungry, the monk gives me food.”
By SOE LWIN, Thursday, October 15, 2009
PYAPON, Irrawaddy delta—Tin Mya, 68, had a backyard poultry business. She managed to put away some money and gold. With her savings, she dreamed of having a comfortable life when she could no longer work.
Her dream became a nightmare when her gold and money—valued at the equivalent of US $500—disappeared when Cyclone Nargis pummeled Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008.
"I tried to keep my plastic sack of gold and money with me until the flood waters reached to my waist,” Tin Mya recalled. “But when I was hit by a giant wave, the sack was washed away."
Since the storm, Tin Mya has relied on food aid to survive. When the aid stops, she doesn’t know how she will find food. She believes she will never be able to rebuild her backyard business.
The Category 4 storm—the worst natural disaster in Burma’s modern history—killed close to 140,000 people and affected more than 2 million.
Like Tin Mya, there are still thousands of vulnerable elderly people who now face even harder times, 17 months after Cyclone Nargis.
According to HelpAge International, of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, an estimated 200,000 were 55 years or older at the time of the disaster.
Humanitarian aid workers say elderly people face greater challenges in terms of restoring livelihoods, earning incomes and living a healthy life, physically and mentally.
Many have forever lost the assets that they accumulated over their lifetime, and in many cases they have lost loved ones who they relied on for economic and physical support.
According to a HelpAge International report, 14 percent of the elderly said their life was more difficult now than before Nargis, while 21 percent said their life was back to normal.
In Burma, the elderly usually receive high respect within a community, which is a benefit for many old people, the aid agency said.
"Those who had no children particularly have been facing tough times,” said an official from the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross Society. “The respect of their community is very helpful.”
In Thamainhtaw village in Pyapon Township, a 73-year old man who lost his wife in the cyclone said he does not how he would have survived without his neighbors help.
Three of his neighbors fetch potable water and cook for him, he said. At night, they come and sleep in his shelter.
“Now, food aid has stopped in our village,” he said. “But my neighbors are feeding me.”
According to aid agencies, many elderly without relatives are stranded in their makeshift houses and relying solely on food aid. Many are in need of psychological counseling and suffer from trauma and depression. Some elderly people still refuse to speak, say aid workers.
"The psychological well-being of older people is so much related to the material support given to them," said an official with HelpAge.
In the meanwhile, many elderly carry on, trying to carve out a new way of life.
In Pyapon, a small village, a man in his 80s who lost his wife and one grandson to the cyclone, stays in a shelter built by aid workers.
“At night, I sleep at my home, but during the day I go to the monastery where I can chat with people my age and do religious work,” he said. “If I’m hungry, the monk gives me food.”
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The Irrawaddy - NLD Leaders Meet EU Delegation in Rangoon
By KO HTWE, Thursday, October 15, 2009
Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Wednesday hosted a delegation of diplomats representing the European Union (EU) at the party’s headquarters in Rangoon.
An NLD spokesman said the talks mainly focused on the 2010 election in Burma, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent offer to work alongside the military junta, and the party’s calls for a review of the 2008 Constitution.
Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy: “First, the EU delegation enquired into the NLD’s point of view and intentions toward competing in the 2010 election. They also asked to hear the party line about Suu Kyi’s recent offer to cooperate with the military junta in efforts to lift international sanctions, and lastly they asked why the NLD is seeking a review of the 2008 constitution.”
The 20-member EU delegation was headed by the Swedish ambassador to Burma, acting in his capacity as the current chairman of the EU. The delegation included Rangoon-based ambassadors from Germany, Britain, France and Italy, as well as Bangkok-based ambassadors from Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.
Representing the NLD were Central Executive Committee leaders Than Tun, Nyunt Wai, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Win Tin and Khin Maung Shwe.
“We explained that we are standing by our ‘Shwegondaing Declaration’ which we announced in April,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
The Shwegondaing Declaration is an NLD statement outlining three provisos for the party’s participation in next year’s election: the unconditional release of all political prisoners; a review of the provisions in the 2008 Constitution “not in accord with democratic principles”; and an all-inclusive free and fair poll under international supervision.
The NLD spokesman said that the party’s future policy can only be decided after the CEC meets with Suu Kyi. However, if electoral laws are announced and political parties are able to form, they would call a party convention so that the party’s leaders could debate the issues with NLD representatives from state and township level.
“On the issue of sanctions, we all agreed with Suu Kyi cooperating with the military junta,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
Last month, Suu Kyi sent a letter to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe seeking permission to meet Western diplomats and meet with senior members of her NLD in order to negotiate an agreement for an end to international sanctions.
As a result, last Friday Suu Kyi met three Western diplomats in Rangoon for talks on the issue. Later, the NLD’s CEC held talks with the three diplomats for about 30 minutes.
“On the question of our demand to review the Constitution, this is not a power-sharing mechanism, but a chance to democratize,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
The 2008 Constitution—drafted by delegates who were handpicked by the junta—was “approved” by more than 90 percent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008. The outcome of the referendum, however, was widely dismissed as a sham.
The regime has consistently ignored calls from the international community and the NLD to review the Constitution.
On Friday, Than Shwe said he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored Constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s election.
Khin Maung Shwe told The Irrawaddy he was optimistic because Wednesday’s meeting gave the NLD leaders a chance to explain their beliefs and opinions to the international community.
By KO HTWE, Thursday, October 15, 2009
Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Wednesday hosted a delegation of diplomats representing the European Union (EU) at the party’s headquarters in Rangoon.
An NLD spokesman said the talks mainly focused on the 2010 election in Burma, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent offer to work alongside the military junta, and the party’s calls for a review of the 2008 Constitution.
Khin Maung Swe, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy: “First, the EU delegation enquired into the NLD’s point of view and intentions toward competing in the 2010 election. They also asked to hear the party line about Suu Kyi’s recent offer to cooperate with the military junta in efforts to lift international sanctions, and lastly they asked why the NLD is seeking a review of the 2008 constitution.”
The 20-member EU delegation was headed by the Swedish ambassador to Burma, acting in his capacity as the current chairman of the EU. The delegation included Rangoon-based ambassadors from Germany, Britain, France and Italy, as well as Bangkok-based ambassadors from Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.
Representing the NLD were Central Executive Committee leaders Than Tun, Nyunt Wai, Hla Pe, Soe Myint, Win Tin and Khin Maung Shwe.
“We explained that we are standing by our ‘Shwegondaing Declaration’ which we announced in April,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
The Shwegondaing Declaration is an NLD statement outlining three provisos for the party’s participation in next year’s election: the unconditional release of all political prisoners; a review of the provisions in the 2008 Constitution “not in accord with democratic principles”; and an all-inclusive free and fair poll under international supervision.
The NLD spokesman said that the party’s future policy can only be decided after the CEC meets with Suu Kyi. However, if electoral laws are announced and political parties are able to form, they would call a party convention so that the party’s leaders could debate the issues with NLD representatives from state and township level.
“On the issue of sanctions, we all agreed with Suu Kyi cooperating with the military junta,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
Last month, Suu Kyi sent a letter to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe seeking permission to meet Western diplomats and meet with senior members of her NLD in order to negotiate an agreement for an end to international sanctions.
As a result, last Friday Suu Kyi met three Western diplomats in Rangoon for talks on the issue. Later, the NLD’s CEC held talks with the three diplomats for about 30 minutes.
“On the question of our demand to review the Constitution, this is not a power-sharing mechanism, but a chance to democratize,” Khin Maung Shwe said.
The 2008 Constitution—drafted by delegates who were handpicked by the junta—was “approved” by more than 90 percent of eligible voters during a referendum in May 2008. The outcome of the referendum, however, was widely dismissed as a sham.
The regime has consistently ignored calls from the international community and the NLD to review the Constitution.
On Friday, Than Shwe said he would not yield to demands from domestic and international critics who say that the country’s military-sponsored Constitution should be revised ahead of next year’s election.
Khin Maung Shwe told The Irrawaddy he was optimistic because Wednesday’s meeting gave the NLD leaders a chance to explain their beliefs and opinions to the international community.
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Ethnic groups grapple with election strategy
by Mungpi
Thursday, 15 October 2009 21:37
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Two exiled ethnic political organizations have expressed their opposition against the Burmese military junta’s planned 2010 election, saying it is aimed to rubber stamp the junta’s rule and does not guarantee the rights of ethnics.
Hkanhpa Sadan, Joint Secretary of the Kachin National Organisation (KNO) told Mizzima that his organization is not encouraging ethnic groups and others to support the junta’s 2010 elections as it will not provide any opportunity for change.
“It is a wrong conception to believe that this election can present even a slight opening of opportunity for change,” Hkanhpa Sadan elaborated.
Similarly, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), in an official statement on Monday, rejected the junta’s 2010 election, saying the new government elected out of the 2010 election would not act in the interests of the people, instead serving to unquestioningly carry out the junta’s will.
“The rights of the ethnic people for self-determination and protection of our customs and culture will be further endangered by this so-called Parliament,” the KNPP said.
The London-based KNO also urged the ethnic Kachin’s main group, Kachin Independence Organisations (KIO), to uphold its oath to secure the Kachin peoples’ rights, equality and self-determination.
The KIO, along with its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), in 1962 took a historic oath at a meeting in Bhamo in northern Burma, bordering China, committing to fight until Kachins gain their inherent rights.
Hkanhpa Sadan said as the KIA took the oath, “We urged them to remain committed and stop meeting the junta’s representatives under the banner of negotiations for the transformation of the KIA into Border Guard Force.”
Burma’s military rulers have pressured ethnic ceasefire armed groups to transform their armies into a junta administered Border Guard Force, setting a deadline of this October for compliance.
The KIO, along with several armed groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), has thus far rejected the junta’s proposal, but continues to meet Burma Army commanders, including Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security, and Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win.
“Altogether there have been 10 meetings between the KIO and the junta on this issue, and we want the KIO to remain firm in a decision to stop the meetings,” Hkanhpa Sadan emphasized.
The KIO’s spokesperson and Secretary, Dr. Laja, was not immediately available for comment.
The KNO and KNPP are both members of the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC), an umbrella organization representing ethnic nationalities in Burma.
In late September, a letter sent by the ENC’s secretariat to US Senator James Webb, a strong supporter of engagement with the Burmese regime, caused confusion among Burmese opposition and ethnic groups, as the letter said the ENC supports ethnic minorities in their participation in the 2010 elections, in order that ethnics have a voice in Burmese politics and play a role in the future governance of the state.
The letter said while the ENC “in principle” does not accept the junta’s 2008 constitution and the upcoming 2010 election, ethnic nationalities are nevertheless left with no choice that they will have to participate.
The letter also urged Webb not to condemn the election before it takes place but to support potential ethnic candidates and prepare them by educating them on elections and how to run for office.
The letter, however, was rejected by the Chairman of the ENC, who argued he had no knowledge of the letter and that it thus does not represent the ENC’s official policy.
Hkanhpa Sadan added that despite the letter, the KNO is committed to the ENC and is abiding by the principles that it has adopted in their last conference, which includes not accepting the 2010 election.
“The issue of the letter will be discussed in a future meeting, but I must say it does not reflect the ENC’s policy,” Hkanhpa Sadan stated.
Similarly, the KNPP, in its statement, said as a representative of the Karenni people it is fully committed to the ENC and “will comply with the ENC's principles regarding the 2010 election, as formulated during its last executive committee held on June 8 - 12, 2009.”
by Mungpi
Thursday, 15 October 2009 21:37
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Two exiled ethnic political organizations have expressed their opposition against the Burmese military junta’s planned 2010 election, saying it is aimed to rubber stamp the junta’s rule and does not guarantee the rights of ethnics.
Hkanhpa Sadan, Joint Secretary of the Kachin National Organisation (KNO) told Mizzima that his organization is not encouraging ethnic groups and others to support the junta’s 2010 elections as it will not provide any opportunity for change.
“It is a wrong conception to believe that this election can present even a slight opening of opportunity for change,” Hkanhpa Sadan elaborated.
Similarly, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), in an official statement on Monday, rejected the junta’s 2010 election, saying the new government elected out of the 2010 election would not act in the interests of the people, instead serving to unquestioningly carry out the junta’s will.
“The rights of the ethnic people for self-determination and protection of our customs and culture will be further endangered by this so-called Parliament,” the KNPP said.
The London-based KNO also urged the ethnic Kachin’s main group, Kachin Independence Organisations (KIO), to uphold its oath to secure the Kachin peoples’ rights, equality and self-determination.
The KIO, along with its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), in 1962 took a historic oath at a meeting in Bhamo in northern Burma, bordering China, committing to fight until Kachins gain their inherent rights.
Hkanhpa Sadan said as the KIA took the oath, “We urged them to remain committed and stop meeting the junta’s representatives under the banner of negotiations for the transformation of the KIA into Border Guard Force.”
Burma’s military rulers have pressured ethnic ceasefire armed groups to transform their armies into a junta administered Border Guard Force, setting a deadline of this October for compliance.
The KIO, along with several armed groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), has thus far rejected the junta’s proposal, but continues to meet Burma Army commanders, including Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security, and Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win.
“Altogether there have been 10 meetings between the KIO and the junta on this issue, and we want the KIO to remain firm in a decision to stop the meetings,” Hkanhpa Sadan emphasized.
The KIO’s spokesperson and Secretary, Dr. Laja, was not immediately available for comment.
The KNO and KNPP are both members of the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC), an umbrella organization representing ethnic nationalities in Burma.
In late September, a letter sent by the ENC’s secretariat to US Senator James Webb, a strong supporter of engagement with the Burmese regime, caused confusion among Burmese opposition and ethnic groups, as the letter said the ENC supports ethnic minorities in their participation in the 2010 elections, in order that ethnics have a voice in Burmese politics and play a role in the future governance of the state.
The letter said while the ENC “in principle” does not accept the junta’s 2008 constitution and the upcoming 2010 election, ethnic nationalities are nevertheless left with no choice that they will have to participate.
The letter also urged Webb not to condemn the election before it takes place but to support potential ethnic candidates and prepare them by educating them on elections and how to run for office.
The letter, however, was rejected by the Chairman of the ENC, who argued he had no knowledge of the letter and that it thus does not represent the ENC’s official policy.
Hkanhpa Sadan added that despite the letter, the KNO is committed to the ENC and is abiding by the principles that it has adopted in their last conference, which includes not accepting the 2010 election.
“The issue of the letter will be discussed in a future meeting, but I must say it does not reflect the ENC’s policy,” Hkanhpa Sadan stated.
Similarly, the KNPP, in its statement, said as a representative of the Karenni people it is fully committed to the ENC and “will comply with the ENC's principles regarding the 2010 election, as formulated during its last executive committee held on June 8 - 12, 2009.”
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Police brutality case under investigation
by Phanida
Thursday, 15 October 2009 20:34
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The North Okkalapa Police station is investigating the death of Kyawt Maung, allegedly beaten to death by police earlier this month.
Police Station House Officer, Divisional Health Department Office Superintendent and No. 2 Ward Peace and Development Council (PDC) Chairman have, according to a family member, thus far questioned nine witnesses in the case, including the wife of the deceased.
Police private Pan Thee and former Ward PDC Chairman Win Cho are accused of beating Kyawt Maung (56), the Chairman of the self-reliance committee of No.2 ward, at Thumarlar Road junction on the 8th of October with his hands handcuffed. He subsequently died of a blood clot in the brain, prompting his family to register the case as a murder under section 302(a) of the Penal Code.
While the former Ward PDC Chairman has been arrested in connection with the investigation, the policeman remains at large.
An alms offering ceremony dedicated to the deceased was held this morning at his house, during with township policemen took photographs of the proceedings.
It is but the latest tragic run-in in with authorities for the family. Kyawt Maung’s son, Thet Oo Maung, took part in a Free Aung San Suu Kyi campaign and continues to be held in Insein prison despite the completion of his sentence today.
Thet Oo Maung was arrested on the 7th of this month, ostensibly for taking part in a brawl with 9th grade students from a high school in North Okkalapa Township.
by Phanida
Thursday, 15 October 2009 20:34
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The North Okkalapa Police station is investigating the death of Kyawt Maung, allegedly beaten to death by police earlier this month.
Police Station House Officer, Divisional Health Department Office Superintendent and No. 2 Ward Peace and Development Council (PDC) Chairman have, according to a family member, thus far questioned nine witnesses in the case, including the wife of the deceased.
Police private Pan Thee and former Ward PDC Chairman Win Cho are accused of beating Kyawt Maung (56), the Chairman of the self-reliance committee of No.2 ward, at Thumarlar Road junction on the 8th of October with his hands handcuffed. He subsequently died of a blood clot in the brain, prompting his family to register the case as a murder under section 302(a) of the Penal Code.
While the former Ward PDC Chairman has been arrested in connection with the investigation, the policeman remains at large.
An alms offering ceremony dedicated to the deceased was held this morning at his house, during with township policemen took photographs of the proceedings.
It is but the latest tragic run-in in with authorities for the family. Kyawt Maung’s son, Thet Oo Maung, took part in a Free Aung San Suu Kyi campaign and continues to be held in Insein prison despite the completion of his sentence today.
Thet Oo Maung was arrested on the 7th of this month, ostensibly for taking part in a brawl with 9th grade students from a high school in North Okkalapa Township.
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Judges sacked in corruption probeOct 15, 2009 (DVB)–Two senior judges and one legal advisor in Burma’s northeastern Shan state have been sacked after government officials accused them of corruption in a drugs trial, a court official said.
State judge Win Myint Oo was summoned to the capital Naypyidaw last month and dismissed. Another judge, Thawtar Min from Shan state’s Taunggyi and legal advisor Bo Min Phyu, were also dismissed.
The three men had been involved in a trial in Taunggyi in June this year in which four individuals were charged in relation to a drugs seizure in Rangoon. The court acquitted three of the defendants, and passed a 20-year sentence on the final defendant.
A court official speaking under condition of anonymity said however that the three men escaped conviction because of a 100 million kyat ($US100,000) bribe paid to the judges and the state military commander by the owner of a local mattress shop, Chit Kabar.
The wife of Taunggyi-based military commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Maung Maung Myint, was found dead in August after apparently committing suicide. Her death came shortly after she was questioned by the government’s Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI), which is investigating the corruption allegations.
Local residents in Taunggyi said that she was suspected of playing a key role in persuading judges to take the bribe.
The mattress-shop owner, Khin Win, is being charged for her involvement in case and is being interrogated by the BSI, according to the court source, who added that more people were under investigation.
“Police chief Hla Htut and a deputy chief of the [Taunggyi] Special Narcotic Taskforce have been sacked and they are now under detention where they are being interrogated,” he said.
The three men previously aquitted by the court have reportedly been rearrested and are to face trial alongside Khin Win.
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