Southeast Asia to have rights monitor
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer – Tue Oct 20, 3:31 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – Southeast Asian nations unveil a landmark human rights watchdog this week, but critics charge that it will be both toothless and include in its membership one of the world's worst human rights offenders — military-ruled Myanmar.
Myanmar is sure to prove a burden again as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds its annual summit, undermining the bloc's international standing and efforts to forge free trade areas with the United States and Europe.
"While ASEAN may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what ASEAN could ever do," says Debbie Stothard, an activist with the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, as the country is also known.
The new body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, is unlikely to set free Myanmar's 2,000 political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, or curb other violations: It cannot punish member nations, and focuses on promotion rather than protection of human rights.
ASEAN leaders realize it's just a start but say the commission can be given more teeth later.
And while members of the 10-nation bloc have recently escalated their criticism of Myanmar, the ASEAN summit will again act by consensus, avoid confrontations and maintain that the group's engagement approach to Myanmar works better than the West's sanctions and threats.
The three-day conference, which begins Friday, will also include talks with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Preliminary meetings begin Wednesday.
On the agenda are discussions on how to achieve a European Union-style community by 2015, cooperation on education, food security and bio-energy development and the signing of an ASEAN Declaration on Climate Change.
The Thai government has thrown a security cordon around the summit venue, a beach resort 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Bangkok, to prevent anti-government demonstrations.
Government spokesman Supachai Jaisamuth said Tuesday that about 18,000 policemen and soldiers would be deployed during the summit.
In April, protesters stormed an Asian summit in the seaside city of Pattaya, shutting down the meeting and forcing the evacuation of several leaders by helicopter and boat.
This time around, security forces have been empowered to impose curfews and restrict freedom of movement around Cha-Am resort and Bangkok.
Myanmar, which joined the 42-year-old bloc in 1997 despite international outrage, comes to the summit having recently released some political prisoners and allowed Suu Kyi to meet with Western diplomats and a government minister.
In a sharp break with former policy of shunning Myanmar, the U.S. government has announced it would engage the junta in direct, high-level talks while continuing its longtime economic sanctions.
But the ruling generals have also arrested more dissidents in recent weeks, and made it clear that nobody will dictate their course, not even its staunchest ally China, with which relations have soured since August when the junta launched an offensive against ethnic minorities along the Chinese border.
"Some powerful nations are resorting to various ways to pressure and influence our nation under various pretexts. However, the (military) government does not get frightened whenever intimidated," said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe last week.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month urged ASEAN to take a tougher line with Myanmar. But in the end, ASEAN leaders are only likely to prod their fellow member to accelerate its so-called "road to democracy," which includes elections in 2010.
"It is obvious that ASEAN is incapable of making any positive political change in the country. I don't have any high hopes," said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in Yangon, Myanmar.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer – Tue Oct 20, 3:31 am ET
BANGKOK (AP) – Southeast Asian nations unveil a landmark human rights watchdog this week, but critics charge that it will be both toothless and include in its membership one of the world's worst human rights offenders — military-ruled Myanmar.
Myanmar is sure to prove a burden again as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations holds its annual summit, undermining the bloc's international standing and efforts to forge free trade areas with the United States and Europe.
"While ASEAN may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what ASEAN could ever do," says Debbie Stothard, an activist with the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, as the country is also known.
The new body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, is unlikely to set free Myanmar's 2,000 political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, or curb other violations: It cannot punish member nations, and focuses on promotion rather than protection of human rights.
ASEAN leaders realize it's just a start but say the commission can be given more teeth later.
And while members of the 10-nation bloc have recently escalated their criticism of Myanmar, the ASEAN summit will again act by consensus, avoid confrontations and maintain that the group's engagement approach to Myanmar works better than the West's sanctions and threats.
The three-day conference, which begins Friday, will also include talks with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Preliminary meetings begin Wednesday.
On the agenda are discussions on how to achieve a European Union-style community by 2015, cooperation on education, food security and bio-energy development and the signing of an ASEAN Declaration on Climate Change.
The Thai government has thrown a security cordon around the summit venue, a beach resort 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Bangkok, to prevent anti-government demonstrations.
Government spokesman Supachai Jaisamuth said Tuesday that about 18,000 policemen and soldiers would be deployed during the summit.
In April, protesters stormed an Asian summit in the seaside city of Pattaya, shutting down the meeting and forcing the evacuation of several leaders by helicopter and boat.
This time around, security forces have been empowered to impose curfews and restrict freedom of movement around Cha-Am resort and Bangkok.
Myanmar, which joined the 42-year-old bloc in 1997 despite international outrage, comes to the summit having recently released some political prisoners and allowed Suu Kyi to meet with Western diplomats and a government minister.
In a sharp break with former policy of shunning Myanmar, the U.S. government has announced it would engage the junta in direct, high-level talks while continuing its longtime economic sanctions.
But the ruling generals have also arrested more dissidents in recent weeks, and made it clear that nobody will dictate their course, not even its staunchest ally China, with which relations have soured since August when the junta launched an offensive against ethnic minorities along the Chinese border.
"Some powerful nations are resorting to various ways to pressure and influence our nation under various pretexts. However, the (military) government does not get frightened whenever intimidated," said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe last week.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month urged ASEAN to take a tougher line with Myanmar. But in the end, ASEAN leaders are only likely to prod their fellow member to accelerate its so-called "road to democracy," which includes elections in 2010.
"It is obvious that ASEAN is incapable of making any positive political change in the country. I don't have any high hopes," said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in Yangon, Myanmar.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
****************************************************************
Myanmar PM to attend ASEAN summit
Mon Oct 19, 4:05 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, will attend the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Thailand this week, an official announced Monday.
The official confirmed a state media report that Thein Sein would visit this weekend's summit of regional leaders in the Gulf of Thailand.
"General Thein Sein will attend the ASEAN summit," said the official on condition of anonymity.
His trip to Thailand comes as the junta appears to be opening up diplomatic channels abroad, with Thein Sein last month becoming the highest-ranking Myanmar official to attend the United Nations General Assembly in 14 years.
The prime minister made a speech before the assembly on September 28, condemning Western economic sanctions against his country as the United States mulls greater engagement with the reclusive government.
In 2007, Thein Sein caused a diplomatic furore at an ASEAN summit by forcing host Singapore to revoke an invitation to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
Gambari had been due to brief regional leaders after a bloody crackdown on street protests in Myanmar that caused international revulsion.
Myanmar's human rights record has caused constant problems for ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1997. This year's summit is due to officially launch a new body to help prevent rights abuses in the region.
Leaders attending the 15th annual summit, being held in Hua Hin, where Thailand's revered king often resides, are due to discuss closer economic ties and ways of coping with natural disasters.
The summit will be followed by talks between the 10 members of ASEAN and the leaders of China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, India and New Zealand.
Thailand is mobilising an 18,000-strong security force and invoking a harsh internal security act to prevent protests at the meetings, which have been cancelled twice before because of anti-government demonstrations.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Mon Oct 19, 4:05 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, will attend the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Thailand this week, an official announced Monday.
The official confirmed a state media report that Thein Sein would visit this weekend's summit of regional leaders in the Gulf of Thailand.
"General Thein Sein will attend the ASEAN summit," said the official on condition of anonymity.
His trip to Thailand comes as the junta appears to be opening up diplomatic channels abroad, with Thein Sein last month becoming the highest-ranking Myanmar official to attend the United Nations General Assembly in 14 years.
The prime minister made a speech before the assembly on September 28, condemning Western economic sanctions against his country as the United States mulls greater engagement with the reclusive government.
In 2007, Thein Sein caused a diplomatic furore at an ASEAN summit by forcing host Singapore to revoke an invitation to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
Gambari had been due to brief regional leaders after a bloody crackdown on street protests in Myanmar that caused international revulsion.
Myanmar's human rights record has caused constant problems for ASEAN since it joined the bloc in 1997. This year's summit is due to officially launch a new body to help prevent rights abuses in the region.
Leaders attending the 15th annual summit, being held in Hua Hin, where Thailand's revered king often resides, are due to discuss closer economic ties and ways of coping with natural disasters.
The summit will be followed by talks between the 10 members of ASEAN and the leaders of China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, India and New Zealand.
Thailand is mobilising an 18,000-strong security force and invoking a harsh internal security act to prevent protests at the meetings, which have been cancelled twice before because of anti-government demonstrations.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
****************************************************************
Trade ties, security to dominate Asia leaders summi
By Jason Szep – Tue Oct 20, 5:12 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Trade ties, regional security, disaster relief and human rights will likely dominate a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders this week, offering a diplomatic test for host Thailand after embarrassing mishaps at past summits.
Six months after hundreds of anti-government protesters broke through security barriers at a summit at Thailand's resort town of Pattaya, forcing some Asian leaders to flee by helicopter and abruptly ending the meeting, Thailand is taking no chances.
A security force of 18,000 has cordoned off the seaside town of Hua Hin where leaders from the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations begin a series of meetings Friday, first amongst themselves and then with counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Their goal is simple: ensure no repeat of the chaotic Pattaya meeting, when half of the leaders were evacuated by helicopter and others effectively imprisoned in their hotels.
Not so simple is the bigger task facing ASEAN and its East Asia Summit grouping: how to stay relevant in a new economic order embodied by the "Group of 20," which anointed itself last month as the pre-eminent forum for global economic coordination.
The 42-year-old ASEAN has over the past decade or so been trying to position its dialogues with other regional powers as an epicenter for economic issues at the heart of emerging Asia.
But that could be overtaken, said David Kiu, an analyst at risk consultancy Eurasia Group, as rival forums such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations take on more prominence.
"That will be something occupying the minds of both ASEAN leaders and the Chinese and Japanese," said Kiu. "It is going to be a very complex issue they are not going to resolve at this summit, but they are going to start addressing it."
RICE SPAT
At least 42 agreements are expected to be signed this week, including the inauguration of an ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free-trade pact and an intellectual property agreement between ASEAN and China, according to Thailand's Foreign Ministry.
But the fragile global economic recovery is forcing some countries to take a tougher line. Rice-exporter Thailand threatened this week to delay an ASEAN free trade pact unless it can get a "fair deal" on tariffs from the Philippines, the world's biggest buyer of the food staple.
Those differences could derail a Trade in Goods Agreement expected to be signed this weekend, undermining a key plank of an ambitious bid by Southeast Asia and its 540 million people to build an EU-style economic community by 2015.
"There are issues that are cropping like this that are going to be an impediment to the whole process," said Alvin Liew, Southeast Asian economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
"We are emerging out from a very deep global recession, and some countries are faring much better than others."
A Human Rights watchdog will be launched at the ASEAN summit, though critics say it has no teeth and is already discredited by having Myanmar, seen as a serial rights abuser, as part of the mechanism.
The new body, called the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, has no power to punish members and aims to promote rather than protect human rights.
It is unlikely to have much influence, for instance, in efforts to free Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or the estimated 2,000 political prisoners in the country.
Myanmar's generals, however, will argue they are making progress. They allowed Suu Kyi recently to meet with Western diplomats about easing sanctions on the country, after Washington said late last month it was embarking on a new policy of engagement with the junta.
Yangon is also touting elections next year -- its first in nearly two decades -- as a final destination of the junta's "roadmap to democracy."
Myanmar's leaders "will want ASEAN and other countries to back them," said Win Min, an academic and Myanmar analyst from Payap University in Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai.
"The other countries will try to engage rather than criticize Myanmar," he added.
By Jason Szep – Tue Oct 20, 5:12 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Trade ties, regional security, disaster relief and human rights will likely dominate a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders this week, offering a diplomatic test for host Thailand after embarrassing mishaps at past summits.
Six months after hundreds of anti-government protesters broke through security barriers at a summit at Thailand's resort town of Pattaya, forcing some Asian leaders to flee by helicopter and abruptly ending the meeting, Thailand is taking no chances.
A security force of 18,000 has cordoned off the seaside town of Hua Hin where leaders from the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations begin a series of meetings Friday, first amongst themselves and then with counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Their goal is simple: ensure no repeat of the chaotic Pattaya meeting, when half of the leaders were evacuated by helicopter and others effectively imprisoned in their hotels.
Not so simple is the bigger task facing ASEAN and its East Asia Summit grouping: how to stay relevant in a new economic order embodied by the "Group of 20," which anointed itself last month as the pre-eminent forum for global economic coordination.
The 42-year-old ASEAN has over the past decade or so been trying to position its dialogues with other regional powers as an epicenter for economic issues at the heart of emerging Asia.
But that could be overtaken, said David Kiu, an analyst at risk consultancy Eurasia Group, as rival forums such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations take on more prominence.
"That will be something occupying the minds of both ASEAN leaders and the Chinese and Japanese," said Kiu. "It is going to be a very complex issue they are not going to resolve at this summit, but they are going to start addressing it."
RICE SPAT
At least 42 agreements are expected to be signed this week, including the inauguration of an ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free-trade pact and an intellectual property agreement between ASEAN and China, according to Thailand's Foreign Ministry.
But the fragile global economic recovery is forcing some countries to take a tougher line. Rice-exporter Thailand threatened this week to delay an ASEAN free trade pact unless it can get a "fair deal" on tariffs from the Philippines, the world's biggest buyer of the food staple.
Those differences could derail a Trade in Goods Agreement expected to be signed this weekend, undermining a key plank of an ambitious bid by Southeast Asia and its 540 million people to build an EU-style economic community by 2015.
"There are issues that are cropping like this that are going to be an impediment to the whole process," said Alvin Liew, Southeast Asian economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
"We are emerging out from a very deep global recession, and some countries are faring much better than others."
A Human Rights watchdog will be launched at the ASEAN summit, though critics say it has no teeth and is already discredited by having Myanmar, seen as a serial rights abuser, as part of the mechanism.
The new body, called the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, has no power to punish members and aims to promote rather than protect human rights.
It is unlikely to have much influence, for instance, in efforts to free Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or the estimated 2,000 political prisoners in the country.
Myanmar's generals, however, will argue they are making progress. They allowed Suu Kyi recently to meet with Western diplomats about easing sanctions on the country, after Washington said late last month it was embarking on a new policy of engagement with the junta.
Yangon is also touting elections next year -- its first in nearly two decades -- as a final destination of the junta's "roadmap to democracy."
Myanmar's leaders "will want ASEAN and other countries to back them," said Win Min, an academic and Myanmar analyst from Payap University in Thailand's northern city of Chiang Mai.
"The other countries will try to engage rather than criticize Myanmar," he added.
****************************************************************
China, Myanmar agree to work for border stability
Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:54pm IST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work together to ensure stability along their border, state media said, after violence erupted on the Myanmar side in August that pushed thousands of refugees into China.
"China and Myanmar should make efforts together to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, as well as safeguard stability on the border areas for the sake of the fundamental interests of the two peoples," Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang as telling a visiting Myanmar minister.
Li added that China "would keep supporting Myanmar's economic construction and sustainable development".
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of them Chinese citizens, who complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.
Last month, China rapped the former Burma over the violence, demanding the government protect Chinese citizens and make sure such such incidents did not happen again.
But relations appear to be improving again.
Xinhua said vice premier Li met the visiting Myanmar minister, Tin Aung Myint Oo, during a meeting in the southwestern Chinese city of Nanning.
"Tin Aung Myint Oo extended thanks for China's support during the meeting, saying that Myanmar appreciated its friendly relations with China," the report said.
Myanmar was willing to deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation and stabilise the border areas, Xinhua reported the minister as saying.
The August crisis tested ties between two countries who view each other as strategic friends.
Energy-hungry China is one of the few powers willing to do business with military-run Myanmar, and has invested more than $1 billion to get access to natural resources such as oil and gas.
Resource-rich Myanmar has parried Western sanctions and pressure from its Southeast Asian neighbours over its shoddy human rights record by courting China.
Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:54pm IST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Myanmar agreed on Monday to work together to ensure stability along their border, state media said, after violence erupted on the Myanmar side in August that pushed thousands of refugees into China.
"China and Myanmar should make efforts together to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, as well as safeguard stability on the border areas for the sake of the fundamental interests of the two peoples," Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang as telling a visiting Myanmar minister.
Li added that China "would keep supporting Myanmar's economic construction and sustainable development".
In August, Myanmar's army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.
Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of them Chinese citizens, who complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.
Last month, China rapped the former Burma over the violence, demanding the government protect Chinese citizens and make sure such such incidents did not happen again.
But relations appear to be improving again.
Xinhua said vice premier Li met the visiting Myanmar minister, Tin Aung Myint Oo, during a meeting in the southwestern Chinese city of Nanning.
"Tin Aung Myint Oo extended thanks for China's support during the meeting, saying that Myanmar appreciated its friendly relations with China," the report said.
Myanmar was willing to deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation and stabilise the border areas, Xinhua reported the minister as saying.
The August crisis tested ties between two countries who view each other as strategic friends.
Energy-hungry China is one of the few powers willing to do business with military-run Myanmar, and has invested more than $1 billion to get access to natural resources such as oil and gas.
Resource-rich Myanmar has parried Western sanctions and pressure from its Southeast Asian neighbours over its shoddy human rights record by courting China.
****************************************************************
PetroChina adds 9.5 mln bbls fuel storage in 9 mths
Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:45am EDT
BEIJING, Oct 19 (Reuters) - PetroChina (0857.HK)(601857.SS) has added 1.5 million cubic metres, or about 9.5 million barrels, of refined oil storage tanks in the first three quarters of this year, the China Petroleum Daily reported on Monday.
The second-largest refiner in China also completed early-stage works for 24 fuel storing projects during the same period, according to the report in the newspaper, which is run by CNPC, PetroChina's parent.
The report did not say where the added capacity was or how much storage capacity PetroChina has.
Chinese oil firms have been expanding their crude and fuel stockpiling capacity in recent years to improve their ability to meet rising demand and government requirements.
The report said PetroChina's market share in the domestic fuel market rose to 43.2 percent in the first three quarters, and institutional customers increased 80.1 percent.
Rival Sinopec (0386.HK)(600028.SS), the top refiner in Asia, is the largest fuel supplier in China.
PetroChina developed more than 400 service stations, adding more than 1.5 million tonnes fuel retailing capacity from January to September.
"Fuel sales enter its slow season in the fourth quarter, and fuel supplies will continue to overwhelm demand, leading to a tough situation in terms of competition," the newspaper report said.
Separately, PetroChina has started building 150,000 cubic metres fuel storage tanks in Yunnan, its largest in the southwestern province, as a supporting facility for its future Kunming refinery and China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines, according to a report by the semi-official China News Service.
CNPC reportedly planned to start building the pipelines from September that would enable it to import crude oil more quickly from the Middle East and Africa and sell Myanmar gas into the Chinese market.
But Myanmar activists called for China to halt construction of the controversial pipelines, warning of instability and civil unrest if Myanmar's ruling junta continue to starve its people of energy.
Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:45am EDT
BEIJING, Oct 19 (Reuters) - PetroChina (0857.HK)(601857.SS) has added 1.5 million cubic metres, or about 9.5 million barrels, of refined oil storage tanks in the first three quarters of this year, the China Petroleum Daily reported on Monday.
The second-largest refiner in China also completed early-stage works for 24 fuel storing projects during the same period, according to the report in the newspaper, which is run by CNPC, PetroChina's parent.
The report did not say where the added capacity was or how much storage capacity PetroChina has.
Chinese oil firms have been expanding their crude and fuel stockpiling capacity in recent years to improve their ability to meet rising demand and government requirements.
The report said PetroChina's market share in the domestic fuel market rose to 43.2 percent in the first three quarters, and institutional customers increased 80.1 percent.
Rival Sinopec (0386.HK)(600028.SS), the top refiner in Asia, is the largest fuel supplier in China.
PetroChina developed more than 400 service stations, adding more than 1.5 million tonnes fuel retailing capacity from January to September.
"Fuel sales enter its slow season in the fourth quarter, and fuel supplies will continue to overwhelm demand, leading to a tough situation in terms of competition," the newspaper report said.
Separately, PetroChina has started building 150,000 cubic metres fuel storage tanks in Yunnan, its largest in the southwestern province, as a supporting facility for its future Kunming refinery and China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines, according to a report by the semi-official China News Service.
CNPC reportedly planned to start building the pipelines from September that would enable it to import crude oil more quickly from the Middle East and Africa and sell Myanmar gas into the Chinese market.
But Myanmar activists called for China to halt construction of the controversial pipelines, warning of instability and civil unrest if Myanmar's ruling junta continue to starve its people of energy.
****************************************************************
Q+A - What's on the agenda at the Asian leaders' summit?
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:31pm IST
By Martin Petty
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Leaders of 16 Asia-Pacific countries will meet in the Thai seaside town of Hua Hin this week for the ASEAN and East Asia Summits, a forum twice postponed because of political unrest.
Trade ties, regional security, disaster relief and human rights are among the issues up for discussion at the annual meeting which Thailand is determined to complete after a series of embarrassing mishaps.
The summit was initially scheduled for December last year but was postponed when anti-government protestors shut down Bangkok's airports. It was moved to Pattaya in April but was subsequently aborted when a rival protest group stormed the summit venue.
The 10 leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations meet first on Friday, and then convene an East Asia summit with six other regional powers on Sunday.
WHO WILL ATTEND?
ASEAN groups Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei the Philippines and Indonesia. They will be joined on Sunday by the leaders of New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, India, China and Japan for the East Asia summit.
WHICH ECONOMIC ISSUES WILL BE UP FOR DISCUSSION?
ASEAN is seeking to establish an EU-style economic community by 2015 and is due to sign an ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in Hua Hin, which would be a major step toward that goal. But the pact could be delayed by a dispute over rice tariffs between Thailand and the Philippines.
ASEAN is also pushing for a free trade zone with Japan, China and South Korea that might expand to other regional players.
At least 42 agreements are expected to be signed this week, including the inauguration of an ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade pact and an intellectual property agreement between ASEAN and China, according to Thailand's Foreign Ministry.
HOW ABOUT THE ASEAN CHARTER?
ASEAN's much-derided Human Rights Mechanism will be launched in Hua Hin. But with no power to punish members, such as serial rights abuser Myanmar, the watchdog is toothless.
Meetings will also be held with legal experts to discuss the establishment of a Dispute Settlement Mechanism, a contentious issue among ASEAN members, many of which have centuries-old rivalries which occasionally resurface.
ARE PROTESTS A THREAT TO THE SUMMIT?
Lengthy, at times violent, demonstrations are nothing new in turbulent Thailand but after "red shirt" protestors breached army lines and literally smashed their way into the venue of April's rescheduled meeting, the government is taking no chances.
More than 18,000 police and members of the armed forces, empowered by a tough Internal Security Act, have set up a no-go zone around Hua Hin to ensure there is no repeat of the chaotic Pattaya meeting, when half of the leaders were evacuated by helicopter and others effectively imprisoned in their hotels.
WILL MYANMAR BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN?
As always at these ASEAN summits, reclusive and recalcitrant Myanmar will likely be a focus of attention, but this time it might not be so shy.
Myanmar's prime minister last month visited the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in 16 years to promote next year's elections -- the first in nearly two decades -- part of a rare charm offensive by country's military rulers. Analysts expect they will continue to try to sell the widely dismissed polls with ASEAN's backing.
WHAT ABOUT NORTH KOREA?
Three countries involved in the stalled six-party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament will be in town -- Japan, South Korea and China -- but no substantive talks are expected.
WILL NATURAL DISASTERS BE ON THE AGENDA?
Millions of people were affected in Southeast Asia this month when Typhoon Ketsana tore through the Philippines and parts of Indochina, and a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Sumatra, killing at least 1,000. ASEAN is expected to push for greater cooperation on disaster relief.
A declaration on climate change is also due to be adopted.
Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:31pm IST
By Martin Petty
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Leaders of 16 Asia-Pacific countries will meet in the Thai seaside town of Hua Hin this week for the ASEAN and East Asia Summits, a forum twice postponed because of political unrest.
Trade ties, regional security, disaster relief and human rights are among the issues up for discussion at the annual meeting which Thailand is determined to complete after a series of embarrassing mishaps.
The summit was initially scheduled for December last year but was postponed when anti-government protestors shut down Bangkok's airports. It was moved to Pattaya in April but was subsequently aborted when a rival protest group stormed the summit venue.
The 10 leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations meet first on Friday, and then convene an East Asia summit with six other regional powers on Sunday.
WHO WILL ATTEND?
ASEAN groups Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei the Philippines and Indonesia. They will be joined on Sunday by the leaders of New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, India, China and Japan for the East Asia summit.
WHICH ECONOMIC ISSUES WILL BE UP FOR DISCUSSION?
ASEAN is seeking to establish an EU-style economic community by 2015 and is due to sign an ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement in Hua Hin, which would be a major step toward that goal. But the pact could be delayed by a dispute over rice tariffs between Thailand and the Philippines.
ASEAN is also pushing for a free trade zone with Japan, China and South Korea that might expand to other regional players.
At least 42 agreements are expected to be signed this week, including the inauguration of an ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade pact and an intellectual property agreement between ASEAN and China, according to Thailand's Foreign Ministry.
HOW ABOUT THE ASEAN CHARTER?
ASEAN's much-derided Human Rights Mechanism will be launched in Hua Hin. But with no power to punish members, such as serial rights abuser Myanmar, the watchdog is toothless.
Meetings will also be held with legal experts to discuss the establishment of a Dispute Settlement Mechanism, a contentious issue among ASEAN members, many of which have centuries-old rivalries which occasionally resurface.
ARE PROTESTS A THREAT TO THE SUMMIT?
Lengthy, at times violent, demonstrations are nothing new in turbulent Thailand but after "red shirt" protestors breached army lines and literally smashed their way into the venue of April's rescheduled meeting, the government is taking no chances.
More than 18,000 police and members of the armed forces, empowered by a tough Internal Security Act, have set up a no-go zone around Hua Hin to ensure there is no repeat of the chaotic Pattaya meeting, when half of the leaders were evacuated by helicopter and others effectively imprisoned in their hotels.
WILL MYANMAR BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN?
As always at these ASEAN summits, reclusive and recalcitrant Myanmar will likely be a focus of attention, but this time it might not be so shy.
Myanmar's prime minister last month visited the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in 16 years to promote next year's elections -- the first in nearly two decades -- part of a rare charm offensive by country's military rulers. Analysts expect they will continue to try to sell the widely dismissed polls with ASEAN's backing.
WHAT ABOUT NORTH KOREA?
Three countries involved in the stalled six-party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament will be in town -- Japan, South Korea and China -- but no substantive talks are expected.
WILL NATURAL DISASTERS BE ON THE AGENDA?
Millions of people were affected in Southeast Asia this month when Typhoon Ketsana tore through the Philippines and parts of Indochina, and a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Sumatra, killing at least 1,000. ASEAN is expected to push for greater cooperation on disaster relief.
A declaration on climate change is also due to be adopted.
****************************************************************
Oct 20, 2009
The Straits Times - Asean appeal blocked
SINGAPORE - MYANMAR has scuttled a plan by fellow Asean members to issue a public appeal seeking amnesty for detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.
'They rejected it two months ago. They rejected the idea,' the South-east Asian diplomat told AFP just days before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders hold their annual summit in Thailand this weekend.
The source, who asked not to be named, said that while Ms Suu Kyi's plight could not be put on the formal Asean agenda, Myanmar could still be discussed during a closed-door 'retreat' in which some of the leaders could call for her release.
They could also ask that her party be allowed to contest elections planned for next year, the diplomat added.
The diplomat said he understood that a number of other countries backed Myanmar's position that a public appeal for amnesty for Ms Suu Kyi would amount to interference in its domestic affairs. Myanmar had vetoed previous efforts to use Asean meetings to openly discuss Ms Suu Kyi's fate.
Asean senior officials who met in Jakarta in August had agreed to work on an amnesty call for the Nobel Peace laureate convicted in August for allowing an American man stay in her lakeside home after he swam uninvited to the compound.
The Straits Times - Asean appeal blocked
SINGAPORE - MYANMAR has scuttled a plan by fellow Asean members to issue a public appeal seeking amnesty for detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.
'They rejected it two months ago. They rejected the idea,' the South-east Asian diplomat told AFP just days before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders hold their annual summit in Thailand this weekend.
The source, who asked not to be named, said that while Ms Suu Kyi's plight could not be put on the formal Asean agenda, Myanmar could still be discussed during a closed-door 'retreat' in which some of the leaders could call for her release.
They could also ask that her party be allowed to contest elections planned for next year, the diplomat added.
The diplomat said he understood that a number of other countries backed Myanmar's position that a public appeal for amnesty for Ms Suu Kyi would amount to interference in its domestic affairs. Myanmar had vetoed previous efforts to use Asean meetings to openly discuss Ms Suu Kyi's fate.
Asean senior officials who met in Jakarta in August had agreed to work on an amnesty call for the Nobel Peace laureate convicted in August for allowing an American man stay in her lakeside home after he swam uninvited to the compound.
****************************************************************
EarthTimes - Crisis adds to pain and gain of ASEAN free trade pact - Feature
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:10:41 GMT
Bangkok/Jakarta - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is scheduled to achieve free trade on goods among six of its 10 member countries as of January 1, but few may recall the deadline. At the October 23-25 ASEAN Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, one of the contentious sideline issues is likely to be Thailand's request that the Philippines cut its tariffs on rice imports next year, evidence that a real ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) isn't quite there yet.
The Philippines has asked to keep tariffs on rice imports at 35-40 per cent until 2015, instead of dropping them to 0-5 per cent next year as prescribed by the AFTA timetable for the six main ASEAN economies - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
"Rice is a sensitive product," said Sundram Pushpanathan, ASEAN deputy secretary general for economic community. "What is important is that they have agreed to remove tariffs through a staged process."
AFTA was launched in 1993, designed to gradually cut tariffs on trade in the region to 0-5 per cent by 2010 for the six original members. The trade pact will encompass ASEAN newcomers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2015.
AFTA has arguably been a success, at least in terms of boosting trade within the regional bloc.
From 2004 to 2008, intra-ASEAN trade rose from 260.7 billion dollars to 458.1 billion, a compounded growth rate of 15 per cent.
And the trade pact has not led to a reduction of trade with other countries, according to the World Bank's report on AFTA published in June, 2009.
ASEAN trade with the European Union grew from 131.54 billion dollars in 2004 to 202.36 billion in 2008, while to the US it edged up from 135.86 billion to 181.04 billion during that period.
One reason intra-ASEAN trade has increased as well as trade with major markets is because much of the regional commerce is in parts and components destined for products that are ultimately assembled and re-exported to the area's traditional markets - the EU and US.
So not surprisingly, this year intra-ASEAN trade has crashed almost in tandem with the plummet of exports to the EU and US.
The Thai government has forecast that the country's exports this year to the US will drop 20 per cent, to the EU 18 per cent, Japan 20 per cent and ASEAN a whopping 30 per cent.
"We have been hit by a double whammy in the ASEAN market: the decline in intra-regional manufacturing and also the decline in ASEAN consumption," said Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
"If we had developed more of a market between ASEAN countries the drop wouldn't have been this bad," Dusit said.
ASEAN deputy secretary Sundram agreed. "We really need to increase our domestic consumption for intra-ASEAN trade to grow," he said.
After the 1997 Asian financial crisis there was much talk among ASEAN governments of shifting the region's engine of growth away from exports towards more domestic consumption.
It didn't happen. Instead the ASEAN economies, taking advantage of their depreciated currencies against the dollar, became even more export-dependent over the past decade.
And there is little indication that export-bias has been altered by the recent global crisis, even through it has shaken trust in the EU and US.
"If anything, the recent increase in foreign exchange reserves in virtually every country suggests that policymakers are going back to the familiar source of growth for the region, which is exports," said James McCormack, managing director of the Asia-Pacific region for Fitch Ratings, a sovereign rating agency.
"As long as that approach continues we won't see ASEAN economies driven by consumerism," he said.
It doesn't help that the ASEAN business community, especially the most protected ones, are still reluctant to open their markets to more competition even from their neighbours as AFTA draws neigh.
"Other ASEAN countries see Indonesia as a big market," said Toto Dirgantoro, secretary general of Indonesia's Exporters Association. "Already Malaysian food products are flooding Indonesia and this is hurting local producers. We won't benefit much from ASEAN because we are not ready."
In the Philippines there are similar worries about AFTA's impact on the agricultural sector, where costs and prices are higher that its neighbours.
Ultimately, it will be up to governments to persuade their private sectors that the overall benefits of AFTA will outweigh the losses.
"Because of the crisis people have started to realize that they need to look at the regional markets," said Thailand's Dusit. "If this didn't happen the ASEAN community would never become a reality."
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:10:41 GMT
Bangkok/Jakarta - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is scheduled to achieve free trade on goods among six of its 10 member countries as of January 1, but few may recall the deadline. At the October 23-25 ASEAN Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, one of the contentious sideline issues is likely to be Thailand's request that the Philippines cut its tariffs on rice imports next year, evidence that a real ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) isn't quite there yet.
The Philippines has asked to keep tariffs on rice imports at 35-40 per cent until 2015, instead of dropping them to 0-5 per cent next year as prescribed by the AFTA timetable for the six main ASEAN economies - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
"Rice is a sensitive product," said Sundram Pushpanathan, ASEAN deputy secretary general for economic community. "What is important is that they have agreed to remove tariffs through a staged process."
AFTA was launched in 1993, designed to gradually cut tariffs on trade in the region to 0-5 per cent by 2010 for the six original members. The trade pact will encompass ASEAN newcomers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in 2015.
AFTA has arguably been a success, at least in terms of boosting trade within the regional bloc.
From 2004 to 2008, intra-ASEAN trade rose from 260.7 billion dollars to 458.1 billion, a compounded growth rate of 15 per cent.
And the trade pact has not led to a reduction of trade with other countries, according to the World Bank's report on AFTA published in June, 2009.
ASEAN trade with the European Union grew from 131.54 billion dollars in 2004 to 202.36 billion in 2008, while to the US it edged up from 135.86 billion to 181.04 billion during that period.
One reason intra-ASEAN trade has increased as well as trade with major markets is because much of the regional commerce is in parts and components destined for products that are ultimately assembled and re-exported to the area's traditional markets - the EU and US.
So not surprisingly, this year intra-ASEAN trade has crashed almost in tandem with the plummet of exports to the EU and US.
The Thai government has forecast that the country's exports this year to the US will drop 20 per cent, to the EU 18 per cent, Japan 20 per cent and ASEAN a whopping 30 per cent.
"We have been hit by a double whammy in the ASEAN market: the decline in intra-regional manufacturing and also the decline in ASEAN consumption," said Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
"If we had developed more of a market between ASEAN countries the drop wouldn't have been this bad," Dusit said.
ASEAN deputy secretary Sundram agreed. "We really need to increase our domestic consumption for intra-ASEAN trade to grow," he said.
After the 1997 Asian financial crisis there was much talk among ASEAN governments of shifting the region's engine of growth away from exports towards more domestic consumption.
It didn't happen. Instead the ASEAN economies, taking advantage of their depreciated currencies against the dollar, became even more export-dependent over the past decade.
And there is little indication that export-bias has been altered by the recent global crisis, even through it has shaken trust in the EU and US.
"If anything, the recent increase in foreign exchange reserves in virtually every country suggests that policymakers are going back to the familiar source of growth for the region, which is exports," said James McCormack, managing director of the Asia-Pacific region for Fitch Ratings, a sovereign rating agency.
"As long as that approach continues we won't see ASEAN economies driven by consumerism," he said.
It doesn't help that the ASEAN business community, especially the most protected ones, are still reluctant to open their markets to more competition even from their neighbours as AFTA draws neigh.
"Other ASEAN countries see Indonesia as a big market," said Toto Dirgantoro, secretary general of Indonesia's Exporters Association. "Already Malaysian food products are flooding Indonesia and this is hurting local producers. We won't benefit much from ASEAN because we are not ready."
In the Philippines there are similar worries about AFTA's impact on the agricultural sector, where costs and prices are higher that its neighbours.
Ultimately, it will be up to governments to persuade their private sectors that the overall benefits of AFTA will outweigh the losses.
"Because of the crisis people have started to realize that they need to look at the regional markets," said Thailand's Dusit. "If this didn't happen the ASEAN community would never become a reality."
****************************************************************
EarthTimes - Watchdog: Political conflict dents media freedom in Thailand, Fiji
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:28:44 GMT
Beijing - Political conflict has significantly reduced media freedom in Thailand and Fiji, a media watchdog said Tuesday, while six Asian countries remained among the 10 lowest-ranked nations on its global list on press freedoms. "In Thailand, the endless clashes between 'yellow shirts' and are d shirts' had a very negative impact on the press's ability to work," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, referring to competing anti-government groups.
Journalists have been assaulted at their demonstrations while in a separate development, the government has cracked down on criticism of the country's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, by employing lese majeste laws, the group said.
Thailand dropped from 124th to 130th place out of 175 nations in the annual list, remaining one place above Malaysia and three places above Singapore.
The worst Asian countries for media freedom were communist-ruled China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea, plus Myanmar and Turkmenistan, Reporters Without Borders said.
"The media in China (168th) are evolving rapidly along with the rest of the country, but it continues to have a very poor ranking because of the frequency of imprisonment, especially in Tibet, internet censorship and the nepotism of the central and provincial authorities," it said.
"Similarly in Vietnam (166th), the ruling Communist Party targets journalists, bloggers and press freedom activists over what they write about its concessions to China," it said.
Two of Asia's wealthier nations, Taiwan and South Korea, both fell sharply from last year to 59th and 69th, respectively.
"The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom," Reporters Without Borders said.
"South Korea plummeted 22 places because of the arrests of several journalists and bloggers and the conservative government's attempts to control critical media," it said.
Fiji's military coup caused it to sink 73 places to 152nd as troops entered newsrooms to censor stories and foreign journalists were deported.
"Authoritarianism" elsewhere in Asia "prevented journalists from properly covering sensitive subjects such as corruption or human rights abuses," Reporters Without Borders said.
"The Sri Lankan government," it said, "had a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison and forced dozens of others to flee the country.
"In Malaysia, the interior ministry imposed censorship or self-censorship by threatening media with the withdrawal of their licence or threatening journalists with a spell in prison."
It said war and terrorism again "wrought havoc and exposed journalists to great danger" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But Reporters Without Borders said there was some good news for media freedom in Asia as Indonesia and India both improved their rankings to 100th and 105th, respectively.
"Asia's few democracies are well placed in the rankings," it said with New Zealand, Australia and Japan all in the top 20.
The Maldives climbed to 51st "thanks to a successful democratic transition" while Bhutan rose to 70th after "further efforts in favour of media diversity."
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:28:44 GMT
Beijing - Political conflict has significantly reduced media freedom in Thailand and Fiji, a media watchdog said Tuesday, while six Asian countries remained among the 10 lowest-ranked nations on its global list on press freedoms. "In Thailand, the endless clashes between 'yellow shirts' and are d shirts' had a very negative impact on the press's ability to work," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, referring to competing anti-government groups.
Journalists have been assaulted at their demonstrations while in a separate development, the government has cracked down on criticism of the country's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, by employing lese majeste laws, the group said.
Thailand dropped from 124th to 130th place out of 175 nations in the annual list, remaining one place above Malaysia and three places above Singapore.
The worst Asian countries for media freedom were communist-ruled China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea, plus Myanmar and Turkmenistan, Reporters Without Borders said.
"The media in China (168th) are evolving rapidly along with the rest of the country, but it continues to have a very poor ranking because of the frequency of imprisonment, especially in Tibet, internet censorship and the nepotism of the central and provincial authorities," it said.
"Similarly in Vietnam (166th), the ruling Communist Party targets journalists, bloggers and press freedom activists over what they write about its concessions to China," it said.
Two of Asia's wealthier nations, Taiwan and South Korea, both fell sharply from last year to 59th and 69th, respectively.
"The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom," Reporters Without Borders said.
"South Korea plummeted 22 places because of the arrests of several journalists and bloggers and the conservative government's attempts to control critical media," it said.
Fiji's military coup caused it to sink 73 places to 152nd as troops entered newsrooms to censor stories and foreign journalists were deported.
"Authoritarianism" elsewhere in Asia "prevented journalists from properly covering sensitive subjects such as corruption or human rights abuses," Reporters Without Borders said.
"The Sri Lankan government," it said, "had a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison and forced dozens of others to flee the country.
"In Malaysia, the interior ministry imposed censorship or self-censorship by threatening media with the withdrawal of their licence or threatening journalists with a spell in prison."
It said war and terrorism again "wrought havoc and exposed journalists to great danger" in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But Reporters Without Borders said there was some good news for media freedom in Asia as Indonesia and India both improved their rankings to 100th and 105th, respectively.
"Asia's few democracies are well placed in the rankings," it said with New Zealand, Australia and Japan all in the top 20.
The Maldives climbed to 51st "thanks to a successful democratic transition" while Bhutan rose to 70th after "further efforts in favour of media diversity."
****************************************************************
EarthTimes - Thai tableware maker upbeat on ASEAN free trade agreement - Feature
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:10:43 GMT
Bangkok - When the founder of Thai tableware-maker Srithai Superware Company tried to find a logo for his product line four decades ago, he discovered that all the popular Asian animals had already been snapped up. He had to settle for a penguin, not a species one would immediately associate with tropical Thailand.
Despite the incongruous logo, the company is now one of Thailand's better-known brand names, with its products exported to 100 countries.
Srithai Superware, the world's leading manufacturer of tableware made of 100 per cent melamine - a thermosetting hard plastic - has also invested in factories in Vietnam, Indonesia, China and most recently, India.
The company, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), expects sales of 5 billion baht (152 million dollars) this year, up 3 per cent over 2008, despite the global recession.
Superware's high-grade melamine tableware and kitchenware (an innovation that was popular in the US and Britain in the 1950s-60s before its tendency to strain and crack checked its advance over chinaware) is popular at Asian food stalls, restaurants, airlines, supermarkets, and even accompanied China's first astronaut in space.
For company president Sanan Angubolkul, the South-East Asian market is an integral part of the company's future growth plans.
"We have set ourselves a challenge to double our sales over the next five years from 5 billion baht to 10 billion," he said. "This is our target and we can make it because we are not talking about 65 million people in Thailand but 600 million people in the whole South-East Asian region."
Next year, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (AFTA) will theoretically come into full force for the six main economies - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.
Newcomers to the regional bloc - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - have until 2015 to reduce their tariffs to 0-5 per cent on imports from within the area states under AFTA commitments.
While Srithai Superware has been exporting to the region for three decades, and has invested in factories and marketing operations in growing markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam, a full-fledged AFTA will allow it to streamline its operations.
"Next year, we will export some products from Thailand to Vietnam and then some products we make in Vietnam to Thailand," Sanan told the German Press Agency, dpa.
"For example, chopsticks need a lot of labour to finish, so we will import them from Vietnam where wages are one-third what they are in Thailand," he said.
The Srithai Superware success story is interesting because it is as rare as penguins in South-East Asia.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area has been in place since 1993, slashing tariffs to 0-5 per cent on the vast majority of goods exported to the region, and yet few ASEAN brands have blossomed over the past 16 years.
There are some exceptions - Malaysia's Pensonic electrical appliances, Indonesia's Kalbe pharmaceuticals, Singapore's Breadtalk fast food chain - but the region's well-known brand names pale in comparison with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Part of the failure is historical.
South-East Asia's recent industrial history took off in the colonial era. When the colonialists moved out, local trader entrepreneurs, many of them overseas Chinese, moved in, but their business focus was first on imports, then import-substitution industries and local monopolies.
South-East Asia's export-led growth kicked off in the mid-1980s when Japan and other East Asian "tigers" were forced to appreciate their currencies against the dollar, then shifted their manufacturing to the region to enjoy its low wages and currencies tied to the dollar.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997, if anything, inspired South-East Asian economies to focus even more on exports, taking advantage of their dramatically depreciated currencies.
The majority of Thai exports over the past two-three decades have been made OEM - original equipment manufacturer - meaning produced under a foreign brand name.
Trade pacts such as AFTA are forcing a mind-shift.
"In the past, Thai companies didn't pay too much attention to brands, but if your own brand isn't strong once the market opens up, the brands from the Philippines and Indonesia can come in and possibly kill us," said Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
"Once the market opens you have to think more seriously about your own brand, that's the name of the game," he said.
Posted : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:10:43 GMT
Bangkok - When the founder of Thai tableware-maker Srithai Superware Company tried to find a logo for his product line four decades ago, he discovered that all the popular Asian animals had already been snapped up. He had to settle for a penguin, not a species one would immediately associate with tropical Thailand.
Despite the incongruous logo, the company is now one of Thailand's better-known brand names, with its products exported to 100 countries.
Srithai Superware, the world's leading manufacturer of tableware made of 100 per cent melamine - a thermosetting hard plastic - has also invested in factories in Vietnam, Indonesia, China and most recently, India.
The company, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), expects sales of 5 billion baht (152 million dollars) this year, up 3 per cent over 2008, despite the global recession.
Superware's high-grade melamine tableware and kitchenware (an innovation that was popular in the US and Britain in the 1950s-60s before its tendency to strain and crack checked its advance over chinaware) is popular at Asian food stalls, restaurants, airlines, supermarkets, and even accompanied China's first astronaut in space.
For company president Sanan Angubolkul, the South-East Asian market is an integral part of the company's future growth plans.
"We have set ourselves a challenge to double our sales over the next five years from 5 billion baht to 10 billion," he said. "This is our target and we can make it because we are not talking about 65 million people in Thailand but 600 million people in the whole South-East Asian region."
Next year, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Area (AFTA) will theoretically come into full force for the six main economies - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.
Newcomers to the regional bloc - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - have until 2015 to reduce their tariffs to 0-5 per cent on imports from within the area states under AFTA commitments.
While Srithai Superware has been exporting to the region for three decades, and has invested in factories and marketing operations in growing markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam, a full-fledged AFTA will allow it to streamline its operations.
"Next year, we will export some products from Thailand to Vietnam and then some products we make in Vietnam to Thailand," Sanan told the German Press Agency, dpa.
"For example, chopsticks need a lot of labour to finish, so we will import them from Vietnam where wages are one-third what they are in Thailand," he said.
The Srithai Superware success story is interesting because it is as rare as penguins in South-East Asia.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area has been in place since 1993, slashing tariffs to 0-5 per cent on the vast majority of goods exported to the region, and yet few ASEAN brands have blossomed over the past 16 years.
There are some exceptions - Malaysia's Pensonic electrical appliances, Indonesia's Kalbe pharmaceuticals, Singapore's Breadtalk fast food chain - but the region's well-known brand names pale in comparison with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Part of the failure is historical.
South-East Asia's recent industrial history took off in the colonial era. When the colonialists moved out, local trader entrepreneurs, many of them overseas Chinese, moved in, but their business focus was first on imports, then import-substitution industries and local monopolies.
South-East Asia's export-led growth kicked off in the mid-1980s when Japan and other East Asian "tigers" were forced to appreciate their currencies against the dollar, then shifted their manufacturing to the region to enjoy its low wages and currencies tied to the dollar.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997, if anything, inspired South-East Asian economies to focus even more on exports, taking advantage of their dramatically depreciated currencies.
The majority of Thai exports over the past two-three decades have been made OEM - original equipment manufacturer - meaning produced under a foreign brand name.
Trade pacts such as AFTA are forcing a mind-shift.
"In the past, Thai companies didn't pay too much attention to brands, but if your own brand isn't strong once the market opens up, the brands from the Philippines and Indonesia can come in and possibly kill us," said Dusit Nontanakorn, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
"Once the market opens you have to think more seriously about your own brand, that's the name of the game," he said.
****************************************************************
The Frederick News-Post - Frederick resident helps others from Myanmar in his spare time
Originally published October 20, 2009
By Nicholas C. Stern , News-Post Staff
In his spare time, Phun Kar Thang likes to help others who have, like him, left their native Myanmar and its military dictatorship and landed in Frederick .
Thang has been in Frederick for about five years and is a permanent resident.
Mostly, he takes newcomers to doctors' visits, the Motor Vehicle Administration or school appointments, and helps translate for them.
Since he's moved to Frederick , he's seen an increase from about 100 to about 400 people from Myanmar living in the area.
That number would be greater, he said, if the area had more available jobs.
Community life for many is centered around church, he said. Thang is a deeply committed Christian and a chairman of Frederick 's Falam Baptist Church, Maryland.
Most of those from Myanmar who've left the country and become refugees in Frederick are ethnic Chin, a persecuted minority, he said. Many of the Chin are Christian, which is a religious minority in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.
Thang spent the majority of his adult life in Yangon, Myanmar's former capital city.
He worked as a college professor of world government and international relations for about a decade and earned two graduate degrees in those subjects; one in Myanmar and another in Tokyo.
He eventually quit his teaching position and started a publishing company, which he ran for about seven years.
His company published mostly Christian books and journals, he said.
Finally, because of the effects of political instability in Myanmar, he left for Frederick . His wife and two sons joined him about a year later.
Adjustment to life in Frederick was a bit difficult at first, he said.
He'd lived most of his life in large, metropolitan areas. Frederick appeared tidy, comfortable and pleasant. He could speak enough English to get by, but it took him almost four months to obtain a state ID card before he could begin work as a manual laborer at BP Solar.
If he hadn't lived abroad before, and understood how difficult it is for foreigners to gain employment in another country, he said the employment transition he's gone through would have been a lot less bearable.
"In fact it is hard, but I'm prepared to do it," he said.
His wife was an anesthesiologist in Myanmar, but didn't even qualify for a nursing assistant's position in Frederick as she didn't have American credentials.
Also, both he and his wife have applied, but failed to receive official copies of their diplomas from Myanmar.
Now she works in a local company scanning documents.
For the first generation of immigrants, work life can be quite a challenge, he said.
Generally, most of the people from Myanmar he's talked with feel accepted and comfortable living in Frederick , he said.
He said he plans to remain in the United States for good. "There is no hope in my country."
Originally published October 20, 2009
By Nicholas C. Stern , News-Post Staff
In his spare time, Phun Kar Thang likes to help others who have, like him, left their native Myanmar and its military dictatorship and landed in Frederick .
Thang has been in Frederick for about five years and is a permanent resident.
Mostly, he takes newcomers to doctors' visits, the Motor Vehicle Administration or school appointments, and helps translate for them.
Since he's moved to Frederick , he's seen an increase from about 100 to about 400 people from Myanmar living in the area.
That number would be greater, he said, if the area had more available jobs.
Community life for many is centered around church, he said. Thang is a deeply committed Christian and a chairman of Frederick 's Falam Baptist Church, Maryland.
Most of those from Myanmar who've left the country and become refugees in Frederick are ethnic Chin, a persecuted minority, he said. Many of the Chin are Christian, which is a religious minority in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.
Thang spent the majority of his adult life in Yangon, Myanmar's former capital city.
He worked as a college professor of world government and international relations for about a decade and earned two graduate degrees in those subjects; one in Myanmar and another in Tokyo.
He eventually quit his teaching position and started a publishing company, which he ran for about seven years.
His company published mostly Christian books and journals, he said.
Finally, because of the effects of political instability in Myanmar, he left for Frederick . His wife and two sons joined him about a year later.
Adjustment to life in Frederick was a bit difficult at first, he said.
He'd lived most of his life in large, metropolitan areas. Frederick appeared tidy, comfortable and pleasant. He could speak enough English to get by, but it took him almost four months to obtain a state ID card before he could begin work as a manual laborer at BP Solar.
If he hadn't lived abroad before, and understood how difficult it is for foreigners to gain employment in another country, he said the employment transition he's gone through would have been a lot less bearable.
"In fact it is hard, but I'm prepared to do it," he said.
His wife was an anesthesiologist in Myanmar, but didn't even qualify for a nursing assistant's position in Frederick as she didn't have American credentials.
Also, both he and his wife have applied, but failed to receive official copies of their diplomas from Myanmar.
Now she works in a local company scanning documents.
For the first generation of immigrants, work life can be quite a challenge, he said.
Generally, most of the people from Myanmar he's talked with feel accepted and comfortable living in Frederick , he said.
He said he plans to remain in the United States for good. "There is no hope in my country."
****************************************************************
Oct 21, 2009
Asia Times Online - Swarms of rats plague rural Myanmar
By Colin Hinshelwood
CHIANG MAI - A spreading plague of rats has devoured crops in western Myanmar, giving rise to a famine that threatens hundreds of thousands in the country's remote Chin State. The lack of government assistance has driven a mounting number of people across the border into neighboring India and other countries, representing the latest human crisis to emanate from Myanmar's borders.
According to a recent report issued by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), at least 54 people have died from the effects of severe malnutrition. The rights group said in September that "no less than 100,000 people [20% of the Chin population] are in need of immediate food aid". Those numbers are expected to rise as rice stockpiles are exhausted and the cold season aggravates health problems related to malnutrition.
Transportation of aid into remote areas of Chin State is nearly impossible in the rainy season, and, to compound the crisis, farmers are facing a drastically low harvest in October-November. Rather than face starvation, thousands are migrating to neighboring countries, especially India, in search of food and employment.
Some have traveled for days to the Indian border to buy sacks of rice at subsidized prices and its unclear how many are staying in the border region rather than return to famine conditions at home. Sai Nai, a 70-year-old widow, currently lives alone because her children have left for India to find work.
"When we entered her house she hid what she was eating because she was ashamed," a CHRO consultant said. "In order to survive she had to sell her dog in exchange for some rice. She told us she has only one bucket of rice remaining for the rest of this year."
Myanmar's ruling junta continues to disallow international aid organizations from operating in the ethnically diverse region. Many aid groups have requested and been denied access to the area to help offset the impact of a plague of forest rats that has torn through the Chin State's highlands for the past two years, destroying according to some estimates between 75% and 82% of the area's crops. This year's harvest, due in November, is expected to be even lower than the previous two years, according to people monitoring the situation.
The catalyst for the rat infestation is an ecological phenomenon known locally as mautam, which translates loosely into English as "bamboo death". The phenomenon occurs approximately once every 50 years with the flowering of the melocanna baccifera bamboo species, whose nutritious fruit attracts and increases the fertility of rats.
After the fruit blossomed, an exponentially expanded population of rats was forced to forage elsewhere for food, ravaging rice, maize and sesame crops in the area. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported in March that the rat infestation had spread to the outskirts of the main town in Chin State, Hakha, where the rats had invaded tea plantations and tamarind orchards.
"I have never seen such a huge number of rats," a farmer from Matupi Township said. "I had thought we could easily drive out the rats and protect our crops. Just before the rice was ready to be harvested, the rats came and ate all the rice in the fields in just one night. We lost all our rice."
The rat infestation was predictable - or at least, it should have been. British colonialists recorded in the mid-19th century that the flowering of the bamboo fruit set off a deadly domino effect every 48 years. The last cycle, in 1958-9, led to the deaths of between 10,000 and 15,000 people in Chin State and the neighboring Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which are currently 30% covered in bamboo forest.
The Indian government put in place prevention plans as early as 2000, when it convened an emergency meeting of the National Planning Commission in anticipation of the impending crisis. The Mizoram state government then initiated a "Bamboo Flowering and Famine Combat Scheme" in 2004 with the help of the central government.
In the Manipur town of Churanchandpur, Indian government troops took time off in May 2006 from battling separatist rebels to hunt rats. Education programs on pest control were organized and community farms were set up to grow aromatic spices such as turmeric and ginger, which are ignored by the rats and are valuable as a cash crop. In neighboring Mizoram, an alternative crop of potatoes was planned and rat poison was distributed. The local authorities in both states initiated a rat-culling incentive program, offering 2 rupees (5 US cents) per rat's tail submitted to their offices.
Entrenched negligence
In comparison, in military-ruled Myanmar no official precautions were taken against the imminent bamboo death. Chin State, already considered by humanitarian agencies to be one of the most poverty-stricken areas of the country, has been caught completely unprepared.
The flowering of the bamboo fruit started in late 2006, predictably 48 years after its last cycle. Within 12 months the rat infestation was endemic and now the risk of a catastrophic famine is rising. Chin farmers defended themselves with only limited resources by laying traps, building protective fences and cutting the bamboo fruit and feeding it to pigs.
Families with cats were sometimes able to keep the rats away from their sleeping areas. But the farmers were reluctant to use rat poison because they quickly realized that without other sources of food they would likely have to eat the rats to survive. In one village in Thantlang Township near the Indian border, some 55,000 rats were reportedly trapped and killed in 2008.
Other farmers, however, were unable to camp out in their fields because they could not construct shelters because of the shortage of bamboo - which Chin villagers traditionally use to build makeshift huts - after the rats had destroyed the plants in the area. Many walk to their fields every evening with their families in tow carrying catapults and pots and spoons to their fields to create noise and try to kill the rats.
By this year, overwhelmed by the huge rat population, thousands of farmers gave up and migrated closer to border areas where food could be purchased. Because it is such a social taboo for Chin people to abandon their village and their community - "a disgrace", says one Chin expert - many left secretly in the middle of the night.
At least 4,000 Chin headed to Saiha, the largest town in Mizoram. Most have had to take menial jobs - carrying wood, working in rice fields or quarries, road construction, and other labor-intensive work that pays as little as 70 to 100 rupees ($1.50- $2.10) per day. Thousands more have left their homes to scavenge for food elsewhere in Myanmar - in areas where the plague of rats has not yet ravaged the crops.
In response, WFP and their local implementing partners have initiated a "Food for Work" program in Chin State, which, in some townships, has been expanded into a "Food plus Cash for Work" program, mainly based on road construction and land development schemes.
WFP, along with United Nations Development Program and a handful of other Yangon-based agencies, is permitted by the military junta to operate in the Chin region. Although initially dismissive of the CHRO findings, the WFP has now confirmed the reports of malnourishment in Chin State, estimating that 70,000 people in seven townships (Tonzang, Tiddim, Htanlang, Madupi, Paletwa, Falam, Hakha) have been "severely affected" by rat infestation.
As of July, cross-border aid from India has been strictly banned and the delivery of relief is often carried out clandestinely, including by Christian relief agencies. Only aid groups that play by the junta's rules, including the WFP and UNDP, are officially allowed to work in Chin state. "However, the rations each family received from the cross-border relief teams were only enough for one week or two," said CHRO program officer Za Uk.
Despite the WFP's efforts and the work of some government-approved agencies from Yangon, it is noteworthy that villagers generally choose to walk to the Indian border in search of assistance rather than toward central Myanmar. "The people vote with their feet," said an international aid worker with 20 years' experience in the region.
The crisis is having a mounting social impact. Enrollment rates at schools in the region are reportedly down 50% to 60%, as children are forced to help their parents forage for food - wild yam roots, edible leaves, shoots and tree bark - as their annual rice stocks run out. Some villagers have said that they fear reprisals if they speak out about the deteriorating situation, which, as with its initial handling of last year's Cyclone Nargis disaster, would highlight the government's poor crisis management.
"The situation has been made more acute by the ruling military regime's utter neglect of the suffering, compounded by policies and practices of abuse and repression against Chin civilians," said CHRO in its recent report. "As thousands struggle with hunger, starvation and disease, the SPDC [military government] continues practices of forced labor, extorting excessive amounts of money from villagers, confiscating people's land and property, in addition to other severe human-rights abuses."
Apart from those who have taken refuge in India, thousands more have migrated to Thailand and Malaysia where expatriate Chin communities have emerged over the years. With the crisis predicted to last for as long as five years, many wonder whether the emigration will be permanent.
A non-governmental organization consultant active along the India-Myanmar border said earlier this month that the plague of rats is moving northward into areas of Sagaing Division, east of Chin State. The rat infestation generally reaches its zenith five months after the flowering of the bamboo plant. "In some areas the bamboo has just begun bearing fruit now," he said. "So, the bamboo death will follow soon."
Asia Times Online - Swarms of rats plague rural Myanmar
By Colin Hinshelwood
CHIANG MAI - A spreading plague of rats has devoured crops in western Myanmar, giving rise to a famine that threatens hundreds of thousands in the country's remote Chin State. The lack of government assistance has driven a mounting number of people across the border into neighboring India and other countries, representing the latest human crisis to emanate from Myanmar's borders.
According to a recent report issued by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), at least 54 people have died from the effects of severe malnutrition. The rights group said in September that "no less than 100,000 people [20% of the Chin population] are in need of immediate food aid". Those numbers are expected to rise as rice stockpiles are exhausted and the cold season aggravates health problems related to malnutrition.
Transportation of aid into remote areas of Chin State is nearly impossible in the rainy season, and, to compound the crisis, farmers are facing a drastically low harvest in October-November. Rather than face starvation, thousands are migrating to neighboring countries, especially India, in search of food and employment.
Some have traveled for days to the Indian border to buy sacks of rice at subsidized prices and its unclear how many are staying in the border region rather than return to famine conditions at home. Sai Nai, a 70-year-old widow, currently lives alone because her children have left for India to find work.
"When we entered her house she hid what she was eating because she was ashamed," a CHRO consultant said. "In order to survive she had to sell her dog in exchange for some rice. She told us she has only one bucket of rice remaining for the rest of this year."
Myanmar's ruling junta continues to disallow international aid organizations from operating in the ethnically diverse region. Many aid groups have requested and been denied access to the area to help offset the impact of a plague of forest rats that has torn through the Chin State's highlands for the past two years, destroying according to some estimates between 75% and 82% of the area's crops. This year's harvest, due in November, is expected to be even lower than the previous two years, according to people monitoring the situation.
The catalyst for the rat infestation is an ecological phenomenon known locally as mautam, which translates loosely into English as "bamboo death". The phenomenon occurs approximately once every 50 years with the flowering of the melocanna baccifera bamboo species, whose nutritious fruit attracts and increases the fertility of rats.
After the fruit blossomed, an exponentially expanded population of rats was forced to forage elsewhere for food, ravaging rice, maize and sesame crops in the area. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported in March that the rat infestation had spread to the outskirts of the main town in Chin State, Hakha, where the rats had invaded tea plantations and tamarind orchards.
"I have never seen such a huge number of rats," a farmer from Matupi Township said. "I had thought we could easily drive out the rats and protect our crops. Just before the rice was ready to be harvested, the rats came and ate all the rice in the fields in just one night. We lost all our rice."
The rat infestation was predictable - or at least, it should have been. British colonialists recorded in the mid-19th century that the flowering of the bamboo fruit set off a deadly domino effect every 48 years. The last cycle, in 1958-9, led to the deaths of between 10,000 and 15,000 people in Chin State and the neighboring Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which are currently 30% covered in bamboo forest.
The Indian government put in place prevention plans as early as 2000, when it convened an emergency meeting of the National Planning Commission in anticipation of the impending crisis. The Mizoram state government then initiated a "Bamboo Flowering and Famine Combat Scheme" in 2004 with the help of the central government.
In the Manipur town of Churanchandpur, Indian government troops took time off in May 2006 from battling separatist rebels to hunt rats. Education programs on pest control were organized and community farms were set up to grow aromatic spices such as turmeric and ginger, which are ignored by the rats and are valuable as a cash crop. In neighboring Mizoram, an alternative crop of potatoes was planned and rat poison was distributed. The local authorities in both states initiated a rat-culling incentive program, offering 2 rupees (5 US cents) per rat's tail submitted to their offices.
Entrenched negligence
In comparison, in military-ruled Myanmar no official precautions were taken against the imminent bamboo death. Chin State, already considered by humanitarian agencies to be one of the most poverty-stricken areas of the country, has been caught completely unprepared.
The flowering of the bamboo fruit started in late 2006, predictably 48 years after its last cycle. Within 12 months the rat infestation was endemic and now the risk of a catastrophic famine is rising. Chin farmers defended themselves with only limited resources by laying traps, building protective fences and cutting the bamboo fruit and feeding it to pigs.
Families with cats were sometimes able to keep the rats away from their sleeping areas. But the farmers were reluctant to use rat poison because they quickly realized that without other sources of food they would likely have to eat the rats to survive. In one village in Thantlang Township near the Indian border, some 55,000 rats were reportedly trapped and killed in 2008.
Other farmers, however, were unable to camp out in their fields because they could not construct shelters because of the shortage of bamboo - which Chin villagers traditionally use to build makeshift huts - after the rats had destroyed the plants in the area. Many walk to their fields every evening with their families in tow carrying catapults and pots and spoons to their fields to create noise and try to kill the rats.
By this year, overwhelmed by the huge rat population, thousands of farmers gave up and migrated closer to border areas where food could be purchased. Because it is such a social taboo for Chin people to abandon their village and their community - "a disgrace", says one Chin expert - many left secretly in the middle of the night.
At least 4,000 Chin headed to Saiha, the largest town in Mizoram. Most have had to take menial jobs - carrying wood, working in rice fields or quarries, road construction, and other labor-intensive work that pays as little as 70 to 100 rupees ($1.50- $2.10) per day. Thousands more have left their homes to scavenge for food elsewhere in Myanmar - in areas where the plague of rats has not yet ravaged the crops.
In response, WFP and their local implementing partners have initiated a "Food for Work" program in Chin State, which, in some townships, has been expanded into a "Food plus Cash for Work" program, mainly based on road construction and land development schemes.
WFP, along with United Nations Development Program and a handful of other Yangon-based agencies, is permitted by the military junta to operate in the Chin region. Although initially dismissive of the CHRO findings, the WFP has now confirmed the reports of malnourishment in Chin State, estimating that 70,000 people in seven townships (Tonzang, Tiddim, Htanlang, Madupi, Paletwa, Falam, Hakha) have been "severely affected" by rat infestation.
As of July, cross-border aid from India has been strictly banned and the delivery of relief is often carried out clandestinely, including by Christian relief agencies. Only aid groups that play by the junta's rules, including the WFP and UNDP, are officially allowed to work in Chin state. "However, the rations each family received from the cross-border relief teams were only enough for one week or two," said CHRO program officer Za Uk.
Despite the WFP's efforts and the work of some government-approved agencies from Yangon, it is noteworthy that villagers generally choose to walk to the Indian border in search of assistance rather than toward central Myanmar. "The people vote with their feet," said an international aid worker with 20 years' experience in the region.
The crisis is having a mounting social impact. Enrollment rates at schools in the region are reportedly down 50% to 60%, as children are forced to help their parents forage for food - wild yam roots, edible leaves, shoots and tree bark - as their annual rice stocks run out. Some villagers have said that they fear reprisals if they speak out about the deteriorating situation, which, as with its initial handling of last year's Cyclone Nargis disaster, would highlight the government's poor crisis management.
"The situation has been made more acute by the ruling military regime's utter neglect of the suffering, compounded by policies and practices of abuse and repression against Chin civilians," said CHRO in its recent report. "As thousands struggle with hunger, starvation and disease, the SPDC [military government] continues practices of forced labor, extorting excessive amounts of money from villagers, confiscating people's land and property, in addition to other severe human-rights abuses."
Apart from those who have taken refuge in India, thousands more have migrated to Thailand and Malaysia where expatriate Chin communities have emerged over the years. With the crisis predicted to last for as long as five years, many wonder whether the emigration will be permanent.
A non-governmental organization consultant active along the India-Myanmar border said earlier this month that the plague of rats is moving northward into areas of Sagaing Division, east of Chin State. The rat infestation generally reaches its zenith five months after the flowering of the bamboo plant. "In some areas the bamboo has just begun bearing fruit now," he said. "So, the bamboo death will follow soon."
****************************************************************
GoKunming - China, Myanmar to work on border stability
Tuesday, 20 October
Yunnan's border with Myanmar was back in the news yesterday after officials from China and Myanmar agreed to work together on maintaining stability in the area. The agreement comes after fighting in August between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Chinese militia caused more than 10,000 refugees to spill into Yunnan.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang met with Myanmar minister Tin Aung Myint Oo in Nanning yesterday, saying that the two countries should increase cross-border exchanges and cooperation to ensure stability in the area.
In August Myanmar's army took control of Kokong, which had previously been administered by a primarily ethnic Chinese militia outside of the control of the military junta that rules the country.
Many of the refugees who fled into Lincang prefecture on the Yunnan side of the border said that their businesses and homes had been looted by soldiers during the conflict. Fighting edged close to the border between the two countries and one Chinese soldier was killed on the Yunnan side.
In September relations between China and Myanmar had cooled noticeably, with Beijing taking the rare step of criticizing its strategic Southeast Asian ally for the violence and demanding that Chinese interests in the country be protected. Around the same time, a mass email calling upon Chinese volunteers to join the fight against the Myanmar army was circulating in China.
Yesterday's meeting in Nanning suggests that relations are back to normal between the two countries. For the ruling junta in Myanmar, China is a major source of revenue as well as political legitimacy and protection. China in turn benefits from access to Myanmar's vast energy resources and its Indian Ocean ports.
Tuesday, 20 October
Yunnan's border with Myanmar was back in the news yesterday after officials from China and Myanmar agreed to work together on maintaining stability in the area. The agreement comes after fighting in August between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Chinese militia caused more than 10,000 refugees to spill into Yunnan.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang met with Myanmar minister Tin Aung Myint Oo in Nanning yesterday, saying that the two countries should increase cross-border exchanges and cooperation to ensure stability in the area.
In August Myanmar's army took control of Kokong, which had previously been administered by a primarily ethnic Chinese militia outside of the control of the military junta that rules the country.
Many of the refugees who fled into Lincang prefecture on the Yunnan side of the border said that their businesses and homes had been looted by soldiers during the conflict. Fighting edged close to the border between the two countries and one Chinese soldier was killed on the Yunnan side.
In September relations between China and Myanmar had cooled noticeably, with Beijing taking the rare step of criticizing its strategic Southeast Asian ally for the violence and demanding that Chinese interests in the country be protected. Around the same time, a mass email calling upon Chinese volunteers to join the fight against the Myanmar army was circulating in China.
Yesterday's meeting in Nanning suggests that relations are back to normal between the two countries. For the ruling junta in Myanmar, China is a major source of revenue as well as political legitimacy and protection. China in turn benefits from access to Myanmar's vast energy resources and its Indian Ocean ports.
****************************************************************
Myanmar, Thailand to build second bridge to boost border trade
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-20 13:43:57
YANGON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and Thailand will construct another friendship bridge to connect two border trade towns of the two countries to boost bilateral trade, sources with the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) said on Tuesday.
The bridge linking Myanmar's Myawaddy and Thailand's Maesot is estimated to cost 400 million bahts (11.9 million U.S. dollars), the sources said.
About 5 km away from the old one, the new bridge, on completion,is expected to raise bilateral border trade from 20 billion bahts (597.5 million dollars) to 40 billion bahts (1.195 billion dollars)once a special economic zone on the Myanmar side is opened, the UMFCCI quoted the Thai ministry of Commerce as saying.
Meanwhile, Myanmar and Thai businessmen met in Yangon last month to seek ways of boosting trade between the two countries, proposing to cooperate in some industrial sectors.
The areas of cooperation between the UMFCCI and the Thai Ministry of Commerce cover the sectors of textile, pharmaceuticals, paper plant, printing, agriculture, plastic and rubber, the sources said, adding that some Thai counterparts would move to setup factories on the Myanmar side and run their businesses with local staff.
Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade hit 3.05 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2008-09 which ended in March, according to the latest figures of the government's Central Statistical Organization.
Of the total, Myanmar's export amounted to 2.655 billion U.S. dollars, while its import stood 398.28 million dollars, enjoying atrade surplus of 2.25 billion dollars.
Thailand stood the first in Myanmar's foreign trade partner line-up during the year, followed by Singapore, China, India, China's Hong Kong region, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
In 2007-08, Thailand also led as Myanmar's top trading partner as well as top exporting country.
Thailand exports to Myanmar textile, shoes, marine products, rice, rubber, jewelry, motor cars, computer and electronic accessories and vice versa, while importing from Myanmar forestry products, marine products, agricultural produces and natural gas.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-20 13:43:57
YANGON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and Thailand will construct another friendship bridge to connect two border trade towns of the two countries to boost bilateral trade, sources with the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) said on Tuesday.
The bridge linking Myanmar's Myawaddy and Thailand's Maesot is estimated to cost 400 million bahts (11.9 million U.S. dollars), the sources said.
About 5 km away from the old one, the new bridge, on completion,is expected to raise bilateral border trade from 20 billion bahts (597.5 million dollars) to 40 billion bahts (1.195 billion dollars)once a special economic zone on the Myanmar side is opened, the UMFCCI quoted the Thai ministry of Commerce as saying.
Meanwhile, Myanmar and Thai businessmen met in Yangon last month to seek ways of boosting trade between the two countries, proposing to cooperate in some industrial sectors.
The areas of cooperation between the UMFCCI and the Thai Ministry of Commerce cover the sectors of textile, pharmaceuticals, paper plant, printing, agriculture, plastic and rubber, the sources said, adding that some Thai counterparts would move to setup factories on the Myanmar side and run their businesses with local staff.
Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade hit 3.05 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2008-09 which ended in March, according to the latest figures of the government's Central Statistical Organization.
Of the total, Myanmar's export amounted to 2.655 billion U.S. dollars, while its import stood 398.28 million dollars, enjoying atrade surplus of 2.25 billion dollars.
Thailand stood the first in Myanmar's foreign trade partner line-up during the year, followed by Singapore, China, India, China's Hong Kong region, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
In 2007-08, Thailand also led as Myanmar's top trading partner as well as top exporting country.
Thailand exports to Myanmar textile, shoes, marine products, rice, rubber, jewelry, motor cars, computer and electronic accessories and vice versa, while importing from Myanmar forestry products, marine products, agricultural produces and natural gas.
****************************************************************
Photo contest on children rights to be launched in Myanmar
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-18 11:58:59
YANGON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar Photographers Association and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will jointly launch a photo contest in the biggest city of Yangon to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on Children's Rights at UN Conference, UNICEF resident office said on Sunday.
Under four titles, the contest will feature healthy children's life, children and education, children in danger, and children and natural disaster, the sources said.
The prizes for winners are set as 700,000 Kyats (over 660 U.S. dollars) for the first prize, 500,000 Kyats (over 470 dollars) for second prize, 300,000 Kyats (over 285 dollars) for third prize, followed by other consolation prizes, it added.
The UN agreement on children's rights was signed in Nov. 20, 1989 and Myanmar ratified it in 1991.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-18 11:58:59
YANGON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar Photographers Association and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will jointly launch a photo contest in the biggest city of Yangon to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on Children's Rights at UN Conference, UNICEF resident office said on Sunday.
Under four titles, the contest will feature healthy children's life, children and education, children in danger, and children and natural disaster, the sources said.
The prizes for winners are set as 700,000 Kyats (over 660 U.S. dollars) for the first prize, 500,000 Kyats (over 470 dollars) for second prize, 300,000 Kyats (over 285 dollars) for third prize, followed by other consolation prizes, it added.
The UN agreement on children's rights was signed in Nov. 20, 1989 and Myanmar ratified it in 1991.
****************************************************************
Kazakhstan News.Net - Dhaka to protest Myanmar Navy attack on its fishermen
Tuesday 20th October, 2009 (IANS)
Bangladesh, which is locked in a border conflict with its eastern neighbour, has alleged that Myanmar Navy Monday attacked its fishermen. Dhaka plans to lodge a formal protest with Yangon.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the border guards, said it will lodge a protest with Myanmar authorities against snatching of a Bangladeshi fishing boat and nets by Myanmar naval force Sunday evening.
Rescued fishermen alleged that at least 10 armed navy men of Myanmar took away their boat and fishing nets and left them in the sea though they were fishing in Bangladesh waters.
The land border has been tense as Myanmar has ignored Bangladesh's protests and has gone ahead with erecting a barbed wire fence along the 300 km border.
As per reports in Bangladeshi media, quoting official and intelligence sources, there has been deployment of troops on both sides, movement by naval ships and even readying of fighter jets.
Myanmar has rejected allegations of troops deployment on its side, calling it 'routine work', New Age newspaper said Tuesday.
Bangladesh has intensified patrolling along the frontier with reinforcements of border guards.
'We have beefed up our patrol along Myanmar border and reinforced our outposts there,' BDR director general Maj Gen Mohammad Mainul Islam told the newspaper Monday.
Dhaka has rounded up 44 Rohingyas, the Muslim tribals who fled Myanmar as the authorities in Myanmar's bordering region have launched a voter enrolment drive.
Bangladesh has mounted diplomatic efforts and at the local level, sought flag meetings by the army and border guards authorities.
However, Lt. Col. Mozammal Hossein, commanding officer of BDR's 42 rifles battalion at Teknaf, said the Myanmarese border guards have 'not yet replied to BDR's proposal for a flag meeting to defuse border tension'.
Tuesday 20th October, 2009 (IANS)
Bangladesh, which is locked in a border conflict with its eastern neighbour, has alleged that Myanmar Navy Monday attacked its fishermen. Dhaka plans to lodge a formal protest with Yangon.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the border guards, said it will lodge a protest with Myanmar authorities against snatching of a Bangladeshi fishing boat and nets by Myanmar naval force Sunday evening.
Rescued fishermen alleged that at least 10 armed navy men of Myanmar took away their boat and fishing nets and left them in the sea though they were fishing in Bangladesh waters.
The land border has been tense as Myanmar has ignored Bangladesh's protests and has gone ahead with erecting a barbed wire fence along the 300 km border.
As per reports in Bangladeshi media, quoting official and intelligence sources, there has been deployment of troops on both sides, movement by naval ships and even readying of fighter jets.
Myanmar has rejected allegations of troops deployment on its side, calling it 'routine work', New Age newspaper said Tuesday.
Bangladesh has intensified patrolling along the frontier with reinforcements of border guards.
'We have beefed up our patrol along Myanmar border and reinforced our outposts there,' BDR director general Maj Gen Mohammad Mainul Islam told the newspaper Monday.
Dhaka has rounded up 44 Rohingyas, the Muslim tribals who fled Myanmar as the authorities in Myanmar's bordering region have launched a voter enrolment drive.
Bangladesh has mounted diplomatic efforts and at the local level, sought flag meetings by the army and border guards authorities.
However, Lt. Col. Mozammal Hossein, commanding officer of BDR's 42 rifles battalion at Teknaf, said the Myanmarese border guards have 'not yet replied to BDR's proposal for a flag meeting to defuse border tension'.
****************************************************************
20 October 2009 (E-Business)
PRMinds (press release) - Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities Market Analysis and Forecasts
Bharatbook.com included a new report on "Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities Market Analysis and Forecasts" into its market report catalogue for reselling.
This profile is the essential source for top-level energy industry data and information. The report provides an overview of the gas industry in Myanmar. It details the market structure, regulatory environment, infrastructure and provides historical and forecasted statistics relating to the supply/demand balance for the industry. It also provides information relating to the gas assets (gas fields, pipelines, LNG terminals and underground gas storage facilities) in Myanmar. The report also analyses the fiscal regime relevant to the gas assets in Myanmar and compares the investment environment in Myanmar with other countries in the region. The profiles of the major companies operating in the gas sector in Myanmar together with the latest news and deals are also included in the report.
Scope
- Historic and forecast data relating to production, consumption, imports, exports and reserves are provided for the gas industry for the period 1995-2020.
- Historical and forecast data and information for all the major gas fields, LNG Terminals, pipelines and underground gas storage facilities in Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020 for the period 1995-2020.
- Operator and equity details for major gas assets in Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020
- Key information relating to market regulations, key energy assets and the key companies operating in the Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020’s gas industry.
- Detailed information on key fiscal terms (such as rents, bonuses, royalty, cost recovery, profit oil, petroleum and corporate taxes) pertaining the geography is also provided. A sample calculation detailing how fiscal terms apply to a typical asset in the regime is included.
- Information on the top companies in the Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020 including business description, strategic analysis, and financial information.
- Product and brand updates, strategy changes, R&D projects, corporate expansions and contractions and regulatory changes.
- Key mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, private equity and venture capital investments, and IPOs.
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PRMinds (press release) - Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities Market Analysis and Forecasts
Bharatbook.com included a new report on "Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities Market Analysis and Forecasts" into its market report catalogue for reselling.
This profile is the essential source for top-level energy industry data and information. The report provides an overview of the gas industry in Myanmar. It details the market structure, regulatory environment, infrastructure and provides historical and forecasted statistics relating to the supply/demand balance for the industry. It also provides information relating to the gas assets (gas fields, pipelines, LNG terminals and underground gas storage facilities) in Myanmar. The report also analyses the fiscal regime relevant to the gas assets in Myanmar and compares the investment environment in Myanmar with other countries in the region. The profiles of the major companies operating in the gas sector in Myanmar together with the latest news and deals are also included in the report.
Scope
- Historic and forecast data relating to production, consumption, imports, exports and reserves are provided for the gas industry for the period 1995-2020.
- Historical and forecast data and information for all the major gas fields, LNG Terminals, pipelines and underground gas storage facilities in Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020 for the period 1995-2020.
- Operator and equity details for major gas assets in Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020
- Key information relating to market regulations, key energy assets and the key companies operating in the Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020’s gas industry.
- Detailed information on key fiscal terms (such as rents, bonuses, royalty, cost recovery, profit oil, petroleum and corporate taxes) pertaining the geography is also provided. A sample calculation detailing how fiscal terms apply to a typical asset in the regime is included.
- Information on the top companies in the Myanmar Gas Markets Investment Opportunities, Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020 including business description, strategic analysis, and financial information.
- Product and brand updates, strategy changes, R&D projects, corporate expansions and contractions and regulatory changes.
- Key mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, private equity and venture capital investments, and IPOs.
Reasons to buy
- Gain a strong understanding of the country’s energy market.
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To know more and to buy a copy of your report feel free to visit : http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Myanmar-Gas-Markets-Investment-Opportunities-Market-Analysis-and-Forecasts.html
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ABS CBN News - RP to host prep meet for US-ASEAN summit
by Dario Agnote, Kyodo News | 10/20/2009 11:34 AM
MANILA - The Philippines will host a meeting in Manila next month of senior officials from Southeast Asia and the United States to plan for an ASEAN-U.S. summit, a senior Philippine diplomat said Tuesday.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ricky Manalo said in an interview with Kyodo News that the preparatory meetings will be held ''soon after'' the Oct. 25 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cha-am, Thailand.
''We have to host the (preparatory) meetings. We have to prepare the papers,'' he said.
The Philippines serves as coordinator of the ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue, the first-ever summit meeting between ASEAN member-countries and the United States.
Manila assumed the role as ASEAN coordinator after taking over the three-year rotating responsibility from Singapore last July.
As country coordinator, the Philippines will be the conduit for the 10 ASEAN member-states in its interactions with the United States. It will also be in charge of organizing meetings.
''As dialogue coordinator, the Philippines will do all it can to increase ASEAN-U.S. cooperation over the next three years,'' Manalo said.
Singapore to host summit
Singapore will provide the venue for the summit between the leaders of the U.S. and the 10 members of ASEAN, having earmarked Nov. 15 for the meeting to coincide with the annual leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Thailand, the current chair of ASEAN meetings, will chair the ASEAN-U.S. summit.
''The Philippines, as coordinator, will do all the work, so we will be in the background,'' Manalo said.
He said topics to be discussed in the planned summit include political, security, economic and cultural issues.
''We will come up probably with an outcome document...so that will be like the roadmap for the next three years,'' he said.
He voiced hope that the ASEAN and U.S. leaders will adopt the document during the summit.
Myanmar to attend
Manalo said Myanmar will attend the planned summit.
''That's the significance of this meeting. The U.S. is willing to meet all 10 ASEAN countries, including Myanmar,'' he said. ''Right now, they (the U.S.) have already indicated they are willing to meet with Myanmar.''
In 2007, former U.S. President George W. Bush offered to host a summit with ASEAN at his ranch, but did not want Myanmar to join.
The 10 ASEAN members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- are also members of APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, China and other Pacific Rim countries.
by Dario Agnote, Kyodo News | 10/20/2009 11:34 AM
MANILA - The Philippines will host a meeting in Manila next month of senior officials from Southeast Asia and the United States to plan for an ASEAN-U.S. summit, a senior Philippine diplomat said Tuesday.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ricky Manalo said in an interview with Kyodo News that the preparatory meetings will be held ''soon after'' the Oct. 25 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cha-am, Thailand.
''We have to host the (preparatory) meetings. We have to prepare the papers,'' he said.
The Philippines serves as coordinator of the ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue, the first-ever summit meeting between ASEAN member-countries and the United States.
Manila assumed the role as ASEAN coordinator after taking over the three-year rotating responsibility from Singapore last July.
As country coordinator, the Philippines will be the conduit for the 10 ASEAN member-states in its interactions with the United States. It will also be in charge of organizing meetings.
''As dialogue coordinator, the Philippines will do all it can to increase ASEAN-U.S. cooperation over the next three years,'' Manalo said.
Singapore to host summit
Singapore will provide the venue for the summit between the leaders of the U.S. and the 10 members of ASEAN, having earmarked Nov. 15 for the meeting to coincide with the annual leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Thailand, the current chair of ASEAN meetings, will chair the ASEAN-U.S. summit.
''The Philippines, as coordinator, will do all the work, so we will be in the background,'' Manalo said.
He said topics to be discussed in the planned summit include political, security, economic and cultural issues.
''We will come up probably with an outcome document...so that will be like the roadmap for the next three years,'' he said.
He voiced hope that the ASEAN and U.S. leaders will adopt the document during the summit.
Myanmar to attend
Manalo said Myanmar will attend the planned summit.
''That's the significance of this meeting. The U.S. is willing to meet all 10 ASEAN countries, including Myanmar,'' he said. ''Right now, they (the U.S.) have already indicated they are willing to meet with Myanmar.''
In 2007, former U.S. President George W. Bush offered to host a summit with ASEAN at his ranch, but did not want Myanmar to join.
The 10 ASEAN members -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- are also members of APEC, which includes the United States, Japan, China and other Pacific Rim countries.
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Malaysia News.Net - Bangladesh fears Myanmar may attack their island in Bengal bay
Sunday 18th October, 2009 (IANS)
Bangladesh, which is currently engaged in a dispute with Myanmar over border fencing, fears that Yangon may attack its St. Martin's Island in the Bay of Bengal, a media report said.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), which guards the land border, has identified the St Martin's Island as the 'probable main target' of Myanmar and has asked the government to immediately strengthen its defence by constructing aircraft landing zones and concrete bunkers.
This is contained in a 'strategic proposal' that came in the wake of constant military build-up and intimidation by Myanmar, The Daily Star newspaper said.
The St Martin's Island, the only coral island of the country and the main attraction for local and foreign tourists for its panoramic beauty and pristine marine life, is under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh Coastguards.
The island, which is located in a mineral rich region in the Bay of Bengal, is 8 km west of Myanmar coast.
The BDR has submitted its proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Prime Minister's Office, the navy and air force headquarters and the director general of Coastguards.
It has also urged the government to increase defence capability of land and sea borders to 'repulse any possible aggression by the neighbouring country'.
Both Dhaka and Yangon have moved in more forces along the border and deployed naval ships and fighter jets in the last ten days since Yangon erected a barbed wire fence and allegedly pushed in thousands of Rohingya Muslim tribals who inhabit the western flank of the Arakan ranges close to the Bangladesh border.
Bangladesh, which has over 4,300 km border with India, shares 300 km of its border with Myanmar.
Marking a 148 km stretch of border with Myanmar and India as 'unguarded', the border force has suggested setting up temporary frontier camps until a new battalion is set up in Ali Kadam area as per the BDR restructuring proposal.
The restructuring proposal has been made as part of the changes Dhaka wants to effect after sections of the border guards staged a mutiny in February in which 74 people were killed.
It has asked the government to arm the paramilitary force with more manpower and modern military equipment, the report said.
The border guards say that the Myanmar military often crosses the zero line at the Bandarban frontier and carry out operations to combat various separatist organisations. Apart from erecting barbed-wire fences and unilaterally mobilising the army, the Myanmar authorities are forcing their nationals to enter Bangladesh territory.
A senior home ministry official Saturday said the Prime Minister's Office is dealing with the 'very sensitive and serious matter', the newspaper said.
Sunday 18th October, 2009 (IANS)
Bangladesh, which is currently engaged in a dispute with Myanmar over border fencing, fears that Yangon may attack its St. Martin's Island in the Bay of Bengal, a media report said.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), which guards the land border, has identified the St Martin's Island as the 'probable main target' of Myanmar and has asked the government to immediately strengthen its defence by constructing aircraft landing zones and concrete bunkers.
This is contained in a 'strategic proposal' that came in the wake of constant military build-up and intimidation by Myanmar, The Daily Star newspaper said.
The St Martin's Island, the only coral island of the country and the main attraction for local and foreign tourists for its panoramic beauty and pristine marine life, is under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh Coastguards.
The island, which is located in a mineral rich region in the Bay of Bengal, is 8 km west of Myanmar coast.
The BDR has submitted its proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Prime Minister's Office, the navy and air force headquarters and the director general of Coastguards.
It has also urged the government to increase defence capability of land and sea borders to 'repulse any possible aggression by the neighbouring country'.
Both Dhaka and Yangon have moved in more forces along the border and deployed naval ships and fighter jets in the last ten days since Yangon erected a barbed wire fence and allegedly pushed in thousands of Rohingya Muslim tribals who inhabit the western flank of the Arakan ranges close to the Bangladesh border.
Bangladesh, which has over 4,300 km border with India, shares 300 km of its border with Myanmar.
Marking a 148 km stretch of border with Myanmar and India as 'unguarded', the border force has suggested setting up temporary frontier camps until a new battalion is set up in Ali Kadam area as per the BDR restructuring proposal.
The restructuring proposal has been made as part of the changes Dhaka wants to effect after sections of the border guards staged a mutiny in February in which 74 people were killed.
It has asked the government to arm the paramilitary force with more manpower and modern military equipment, the report said.
The border guards say that the Myanmar military often crosses the zero line at the Bandarban frontier and carry out operations to combat various separatist organisations. Apart from erecting barbed-wire fences and unilaterally mobilising the army, the Myanmar authorities are forcing their nationals to enter Bangladesh territory.
A senior home ministry official Saturday said the Prime Minister's Office is dealing with the 'very sensitive and serious matter', the newspaper said.
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The Financial Times - €35m EU aid signals fresh approach to Burma
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok
Published: October 20 2009 17:39 | Last updated: October 20 2009 17:39
The European Union has announced an expansion of its aid programme to Burma, reinforcing a western trend towards engagement with the country.
The EU has pledged €35m towards a fund called LIFT – the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust fund – a sum they hope that other donors, including Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark will eventually increase the total to some €100m.
For years, the west tried to isolate the Burmese regime in an attempt to force it to improve its dismal human rights record and move towards democracy, but the sanctions and the calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi created little change inside the country.
A hint earlier this year that the United States was rethinking its hard-line isolationism has provoked a cascade of new policies. The move gathered momentum last month when Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said that although they were leaving their sanctions regime in place, it would be accompanied by talks with the generals who run Burma.
The renewed willingness of the European Union to expand its assistance to Burma also marks a significant change. In August, when a Burmese court sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to a further 18 months of house arrest, the EU reinforced its sanctions.
The EU has been the major source of funding for recovery after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in May 2008, providing some 60 per cent of the funds so far, but that money has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the worst-affected delta area, ignoring the terrible hardships that exist in other areas of one of the world’s poorest countries.
Excluding LIFT, which is to run for five years, the EU’s Burma aid budget for the year is $177m, down from $205m last year when aid was rushed out for cyclone victims.
David Lipman, the EU regional ambassador, who has just returned from a five-day visit where he met senior government and opposition figures, said he had detected a new mood among the generals.
“I think the government is being a lot more cooperative than in the past. They are basically engaged,” Mr Lipman told journalists on Tuesday.
The new fund will assist non-governmental organisations to expand the assistance they have been providing to victims of Cyclone Nargis which killed 140,000 people in the Irrawaddy delta.
“This covers more or less the whole country,” said Mr Lipman, including such sensitive areas as Rakhine, Shan, Kachin and Chin States.
He emphasised that under the strict regulations governing EU aid to Burma, none of the money would go directly to the government.
At $4 per head per year, Burma ranks alongside North Korea as the recipient of the smallest amount of aid in the developing world, according to the United Nations.
Neighbouring Cambodia at $46 per head per year, and Laos at $68 per head per year receive substantially more despite concerns over their human rights records
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok
Published: October 20 2009 17:39 | Last updated: October 20 2009 17:39
The European Union has announced an expansion of its aid programme to Burma, reinforcing a western trend towards engagement with the country.
The EU has pledged €35m towards a fund called LIFT – the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust fund – a sum they hope that other donors, including Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark will eventually increase the total to some €100m.
For years, the west tried to isolate the Burmese regime in an attempt to force it to improve its dismal human rights record and move towards democracy, but the sanctions and the calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi created little change inside the country.
A hint earlier this year that the United States was rethinking its hard-line isolationism has provoked a cascade of new policies. The move gathered momentum last month when Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said that although they were leaving their sanctions regime in place, it would be accompanied by talks with the generals who run Burma.
The renewed willingness of the European Union to expand its assistance to Burma also marks a significant change. In August, when a Burmese court sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to a further 18 months of house arrest, the EU reinforced its sanctions.
The EU has been the major source of funding for recovery after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in May 2008, providing some 60 per cent of the funds so far, but that money has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the worst-affected delta area, ignoring the terrible hardships that exist in other areas of one of the world’s poorest countries.
Excluding LIFT, which is to run for five years, the EU’s Burma aid budget for the year is $177m, down from $205m last year when aid was rushed out for cyclone victims.
David Lipman, the EU regional ambassador, who has just returned from a five-day visit where he met senior government and opposition figures, said he had detected a new mood among the generals.
“I think the government is being a lot more cooperative than in the past. They are basically engaged,” Mr Lipman told journalists on Tuesday.
The new fund will assist non-governmental organisations to expand the assistance they have been providing to victims of Cyclone Nargis which killed 140,000 people in the Irrawaddy delta.
“This covers more or less the whole country,” said Mr Lipman, including such sensitive areas as Rakhine, Shan, Kachin and Chin States.
He emphasised that under the strict regulations governing EU aid to Burma, none of the money would go directly to the government.
At $4 per head per year, Burma ranks alongside North Korea as the recipient of the smallest amount of aid in the developing world, according to the United Nations.
Neighbouring Cambodia at $46 per head per year, and Laos at $68 per head per year receive substantially more despite concerns over their human rights records
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Bangkok Post - Asean security ready 'as planned'
Published: 20/10/2009 at 12:10 PM
Security preparations for the Asean summit are going as planned, acting police chief Pateep Tanprasert said on Tuesday.
About 4,000 members of the security forces have been deployed to guard the Asean summit. Pol Gen Pateep said. More would be on stand-by if needed.
He said leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) had not informed police of their intention to hand a letter to regional leaders during the summit, which begins on Friday. Police would keep a close watch on them. he said.
Hesaid there should be more protests about traffic in Hua Hin and Cha-am during the summit, as one lane will be used for Asean delegations only.
Published: 20/10/2009 at 12:10 PM
Security preparations for the Asean summit are going as planned, acting police chief Pateep Tanprasert said on Tuesday.
About 4,000 members of the security forces have been deployed to guard the Asean summit. Pol Gen Pateep said. More would be on stand-by if needed.
He said leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) had not informed police of their intention to hand a letter to regional leaders during the summit, which begins on Friday. Police would keep a close watch on them. he said.
Hesaid there should be more protests about traffic in Hua Hin and Cha-am during the summit, as one lane will be used for Asean delegations only.
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Jane's Security News - Stemming the flow – The Mekong and regional stability
By Milton Osborne
06 August 2009
Thirty years ago the Mekong River, Southeast Asia's longest, flowed freely for 4,900 km from its source in Tibet to the coast of Vietnam. The Mekong is the world's 12th longest river and eighth or 10th largest in terms of volume of water discharged, depending on the season, and it passes through or alongside China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
However, since the 1980s the character of the river has been steadily transformed by China's hydroelectric dam-building programme in Yunnan province. Three dams are already in operation, while two more large dams at Xiaowan and Nuozhadu are under construction and due for completion in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Plans exist for at least two further dams at Gongguoqiao and Mengson, meaning that by 2030 there could be a series of seven dams in Yunnan.
These projects will have significant consequences for the populations in Southeast Asia that rely on the river. This, in turn, could heighten regional tension as downstream states protest against China's construction plans.
By Milton Osborne
06 August 2009
Thirty years ago the Mekong River, Southeast Asia's longest, flowed freely for 4,900 km from its source in Tibet to the coast of Vietnam. The Mekong is the world's 12th longest river and eighth or 10th largest in terms of volume of water discharged, depending on the season, and it passes through or alongside China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
However, since the 1980s the character of the river has been steadily transformed by China's hydroelectric dam-building programme in Yunnan province. Three dams are already in operation, while two more large dams at Xiaowan and Nuozhadu are under construction and due for completion in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Plans exist for at least two further dams at Gongguoqiao and Mengson, meaning that by 2030 there could be a series of seven dams in Yunnan.
These projects will have significant consequences for the populations in Southeast Asia that rely on the river. This, in turn, could heighten regional tension as downstream states protest against China's construction plans.
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Scoop - Burma: Government Impunity For Crimes
Monday, 19 October 2009, 10:24 am
Press Release: Terry Evans
The international community should withhold support for Burma's 2010 elections and not accept the results of the vote unless the government amends the country's constitution to end impunity for human rights violations, the International Centre for Transitional Justice says in a new report.
Civil society and international organisations should meanwhile develop a coordinated approach for gathering information about human rights violations in Burma, to help prepare for eventual prosecutions and other measures dealing with the military government's long legacy of impunity.
Those are among the key conclusions of Impunity Prolonged, a 40-page report analysing Burma's 2008 constitution as well as patterns of abuse. It focuses on three broad categories of human rights violations for which the regime has granted itself impunity: sexual violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.
"Burma presents one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity," the report says. It outlines how the international community could help Burmese civil society systematically collect information about human rights abuses, as an aid to "courts, truth commissions, reparation schemes and vetting programs that may exist in the future."
The report finds evidence that the Burmese regime responds to threats from the international community, even if the steps have been small: "Many transitions move in fits and starts... . But experience shows that progress in transition often happens through such slow cultural, structural, and institutional changes."
The report cautions that change "is not inevitable but must be achieved through the proactive defense of human rights and concerted advocacy for measures to combat impunity."
Monday, 19 October 2009, 10:24 am
Press Release: Terry Evans
The international community should withhold support for Burma's 2010 elections and not accept the results of the vote unless the government amends the country's constitution to end impunity for human rights violations, the International Centre for Transitional Justice says in a new report.
Civil society and international organisations should meanwhile develop a coordinated approach for gathering information about human rights violations in Burma, to help prepare for eventual prosecutions and other measures dealing with the military government's long legacy of impunity.
Those are among the key conclusions of Impunity Prolonged, a 40-page report analysing Burma's 2008 constitution as well as patterns of abuse. It focuses on three broad categories of human rights violations for which the regime has granted itself impunity: sexual violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.
"Burma presents one of the most difficult challenges in the world in relation to making progress toward combating impunity," the report says. It outlines how the international community could help Burmese civil society systematically collect information about human rights abuses, as an aid to "courts, truth commissions, reparation schemes and vetting programs that may exist in the future."
The report finds evidence that the Burmese regime responds to threats from the international community, even if the steps have been small: "Many transitions move in fits and starts... . But experience shows that progress in transition often happens through such slow cultural, structural, and institutional changes."
The report cautions that change "is not inevitable but must be achieved through the proactive defense of human rights and concerted advocacy for measures to combat impunity."
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US Charge d’Affairs meets with opposition leaders
by Myint Maung
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 19:18
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Charge d’Affaires from the United States Embassy in Rangoon on Tuesday met with leaders from Burma’s primary opposition party – National League for Democracy – to discuss the US’s new policy vis-à-vis Burma, according to the NLD.
NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said US Charge d’Affairs Larry Dinger, the highest ranking US diplomat in-country, and two other officials from the US Embassy in Rangoon visited their office on West Shwegondine Street to go over the new US policy on Burma.
“They explained to us that the US plans to maintain sanctions but will also directly engage the military government. He [Dinger] also asked us of the NLD’s stand on the new policy,” Nyan Win explained.
The meeting with the NLD central executive committee (CEC) members lasted for about an hour, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (local time).
The session came as a follow-up to the meeting between US, United Kingdom and Australian diplomats and detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi on October 9.
“The NLD welcomes the meetings and has a policy of working together with the international community,” Nyan Win added.
On October 9, the Burmese junta granted detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi her request to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia in order to debate the impact and appropriate extent of a sanctions policy.
The Nobel Peace Laureate in September delivered a proposal to junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, offering her cooperation in working together to ease sanctions on the country. She also requested Than Shwe to allow her to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia, which are currently imposing sanctions against the regime.
Following the proposal, the junta arranged two meeting between the detained Burmese democracy icon and the junta’s liaison minister, Aung Kyi.
“Aung San Suu Kyi, during our meeting on October 16, sent a message to the NLD CEC that she will not take any crucial decisions without first consulting them,” Nyan Win said.
Since Aung San Suu Kyi’s meeting with the three diplomats, the NLD CEC, on October 14, has also been visited by a Sweden-led delegation from the European Union.
Washington has not maintained an official ambassador to Burma since the country’s aborted 1990 general election, in which Suu Kyi’s NLD claimed a clear victory.
by Myint Maung
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 19:18
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Charge d’Affaires from the United States Embassy in Rangoon on Tuesday met with leaders from Burma’s primary opposition party – National League for Democracy – to discuss the US’s new policy vis-à-vis Burma, according to the NLD.
NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said US Charge d’Affairs Larry Dinger, the highest ranking US diplomat in-country, and two other officials from the US Embassy in Rangoon visited their office on West Shwegondine Street to go over the new US policy on Burma.
“They explained to us that the US plans to maintain sanctions but will also directly engage the military government. He [Dinger] also asked us of the NLD’s stand on the new policy,” Nyan Win explained.
The meeting with the NLD central executive committee (CEC) members lasted for about an hour, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (local time).
The session came as a follow-up to the meeting between US, United Kingdom and Australian diplomats and detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi on October 9.
“The NLD welcomes the meetings and has a policy of working together with the international community,” Nyan Win added.
On October 9, the Burmese junta granted detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi her request to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia in order to debate the impact and appropriate extent of a sanctions policy.
The Nobel Peace Laureate in September delivered a proposal to junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, offering her cooperation in working together to ease sanctions on the country. She also requested Than Shwe to allow her to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia, which are currently imposing sanctions against the regime.
Following the proposal, the junta arranged two meeting between the detained Burmese democracy icon and the junta’s liaison minister, Aung Kyi.
“Aung San Suu Kyi, during our meeting on October 16, sent a message to the NLD CEC that she will not take any crucial decisions without first consulting them,” Nyan Win said.
Since Aung San Suu Kyi’s meeting with the three diplomats, the NLD CEC, on October 14, has also been visited by a Sweden-led delegation from the European Union.
Washington has not maintained an official ambassador to Burma since the country’s aborted 1990 general election, in which Suu Kyi’s NLD claimed a clear victory.
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Burmese civil society groups call on ASEAN leaders
by Usa Pichai
Monday, 19 October 2009 22:18
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burmese civil society groups have urged Thailand to put a stop to dam projects in neighbouring Burma, while other groups at the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum called on the regional bloc to address the Burmese regime’s breaching the newly drafted Charter, amidst confusion in finding a delegation to meet ASEAN leaders.
Fifty one civil society organizations from Burma today called on the Thai government at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) People’s Forum, demanding an immediate halt to dam projects on the Salween River to avoid being sucked into Burma’s escalating civil war.
The groups, in their statement released on Monday, said military operations and human rights abuses by the Burmese regime have recently increased around the sites of the planned Hat Gyi dam in Karen State and Ta Sang dam in Shan State. It warned that the projects would never provide guaranteed energy security for Thailand.
“The Salween dams will only mean more fighting and more refugees fleeing to Thailand,” said Sai Sai, Coordinator of the Salween Watch Coalition.
“Building dams in Burma’s war zones makes no sense if Thailand wants stable power supply,” said Montree Chantawong of the Thai-based environmental group TERRA.
Renewed fighting has also erupted in Shan State, as the regime attempts to bring the ceasefire armies under its control as “Border Guard Forces.” Imminent attacks on the United Wa State Army, which controls the access routes between the planned 7,110 megawatt Ta Sang dam and the Thai border, would lead to a massive fresh refugee influx into northern Thailand.
Pianporn Deetes, an environmentalist from Living River Siam Project, who participated in the forum, told Mizzima that there is no representative from the Thai government at the forum; even though organizers have invited officials from the Ministry of Energy.
However, the group will make a submission to ASEAN leaders through their representatives, who are scheduled to meet the leaders on October 23.
Five large dams are being planned on the Salween River in Burma, four to export power to Thailand, and one to China. The regime’s military offensive on the Kokang in northern Shan State, which drove over 37,000 refugees into China in August, secured control of areas around the Upper Salween Dam, being planned by Chinese companies in Kunlong.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Burmese civil society groups organized by the Task Force on ASEAN and Burma (TFAB) are calling on ASEAN to address the SPDC’s violations of the regional body’s Charter, according to their statement released on Monday.
“The regime’s volatile approach to consolidating power in the run up to the 2010 elections, including attacks on ethnic groups and the democratic opposition, is a clear threat to regional peace and security. At the ensuing summit, ASEAN must address the junta’s serious breaches of the Charter. It can start by engaging in critical political dialogue with the regime and supporting the Burmese people’s efforts towards national reconciliation,” said Khin Ohmar, Coordinator of Burma Partnership and a member of TFAB.
The Task Force on ASEAN and Burma is a network of Burma's civil society actors working to promote a people-centered ASEAN that is supportive of the cause of democracy, human rights, and peace in Burma.
A participant in the forum, which started on Sunday, said that there is confusion in selecting a delegation to meet the ASEAN leaders because the Burmese and Cambodian governments want to send their representatives to join.
“The civil society representatives should come from among people and civil groups, not from the government. In that case, how can we call them people’s representatives,” the participant added.
The participant also added that there are about 10 officials from Burma in the forum. This is worrying some participants, who feel that they would spy on who is joining the meeting and may create problems for other participants in the future.
However, the selection of the delegation will be revealed in a press conference on Tuesday, according to a coordinator of the forum.
by Usa Pichai
Monday, 19 October 2009 22:18
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Burmese civil society groups have urged Thailand to put a stop to dam projects in neighbouring Burma, while other groups at the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum called on the regional bloc to address the Burmese regime’s breaching the newly drafted Charter, amidst confusion in finding a delegation to meet ASEAN leaders.
Fifty one civil society organizations from Burma today called on the Thai government at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) People’s Forum, demanding an immediate halt to dam projects on the Salween River to avoid being sucked into Burma’s escalating civil war.
The groups, in their statement released on Monday, said military operations and human rights abuses by the Burmese regime have recently increased around the sites of the planned Hat Gyi dam in Karen State and Ta Sang dam in Shan State. It warned that the projects would never provide guaranteed energy security for Thailand.
“The Salween dams will only mean more fighting and more refugees fleeing to Thailand,” said Sai Sai, Coordinator of the Salween Watch Coalition.
“Building dams in Burma’s war zones makes no sense if Thailand wants stable power supply,” said Montree Chantawong of the Thai-based environmental group TERRA.
Renewed fighting has also erupted in Shan State, as the regime attempts to bring the ceasefire armies under its control as “Border Guard Forces.” Imminent attacks on the United Wa State Army, which controls the access routes between the planned 7,110 megawatt Ta Sang dam and the Thai border, would lead to a massive fresh refugee influx into northern Thailand.
Pianporn Deetes, an environmentalist from Living River Siam Project, who participated in the forum, told Mizzima that there is no representative from the Thai government at the forum; even though organizers have invited officials from the Ministry of Energy.
However, the group will make a submission to ASEAN leaders through their representatives, who are scheduled to meet the leaders on October 23.
Five large dams are being planned on the Salween River in Burma, four to export power to Thailand, and one to China. The regime’s military offensive on the Kokang in northern Shan State, which drove over 37,000 refugees into China in August, secured control of areas around the Upper Salween Dam, being planned by Chinese companies in Kunlong.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Burmese civil society groups organized by the Task Force on ASEAN and Burma (TFAB) are calling on ASEAN to address the SPDC’s violations of the regional body’s Charter, according to their statement released on Monday.
“The regime’s volatile approach to consolidating power in the run up to the 2010 elections, including attacks on ethnic groups and the democratic opposition, is a clear threat to regional peace and security. At the ensuing summit, ASEAN must address the junta’s serious breaches of the Charter. It can start by engaging in critical political dialogue with the regime and supporting the Burmese people’s efforts towards national reconciliation,” said Khin Ohmar, Coordinator of Burma Partnership and a member of TFAB.
The Task Force on ASEAN and Burma is a network of Burma's civil society actors working to promote a people-centered ASEAN that is supportive of the cause of democracy, human rights, and peace in Burma.
A participant in the forum, which started on Sunday, said that there is confusion in selecting a delegation to meet the ASEAN leaders because the Burmese and Cambodian governments want to send their representatives to join.
“The civil society representatives should come from among people and civil groups, not from the government. In that case, how can we call them people’s representatives,” the participant added.
The participant also added that there are about 10 officials from Burma in the forum. This is worrying some participants, who feel that they would spy on who is joining the meeting and may create problems for other participants in the future.
However, the selection of the delegation will be revealed in a press conference on Tuesday, according to a coordinator of the forum.
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The Irrawaddy - Junta Secretary 1 Visits China
By WAI MOE, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
One of the Burmese military government’s leading generals, Secretary 1 Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, flew to Nanning in southern China on Monday, the first official visit between the two countries since the Kokang conflict in August sent some 37,000 refugees flooding into Yunnan Province.
Burma’s state-run daily, The New Light of Myanmar, reported on Tuesday that Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is quartermaster general of the Burmese armed forces, and his delegation were seen off at Naypyidaw Airport by junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his No 2 Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and No 3 Gen Shwe Mann.
China’s state-run press reported that Beijing had vowed to work with Burma to ensure stability on the Sino-Burmese border.
“China and Myanmar should make efforts together to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, as well as safeguard stability on the border areas for the sake of the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” China’s Vice-Premier Li Keqiang told Tin Aung Myint Oo, according to a report in the Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
Tin Aung Myint Oo seems to be handling the regime’s relations mission with China. On September 28, he represented the junta by attending a ceremony in Rangoon marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist rebel who observes Sino-Burmese affairs from China’s Yunnan Province, said Tin Aung Myint Oo’s trip would appear to be a regular diplomatic trip rather than a military one, judging by the fact that civilian ministers rather than military officers traveled with him on the delegation.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Aung Kyaw Zaw said that Beijing would have higher expectations over the Burmese army’s treatment of Kokang and Chinese civilians because of the high-level nature of Burma’s delegation.
According to Aung Kyaw Zaw, tensions remain high between the Burmese army and the ethnic cease-fire groups along with the border as Burmese light infantry battalions maintain their positions.
Min Zin, a freelance Burmese journalist who focuses on Sino-Burmese relations at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the Burmese junta needs to offer a guarantee to China that the Kokang conflict was an exception and that it does not intend to wage all-out war against the ethnic groups along China’s border.
“Otherwise, they will be in big trouble with China,” he said. “Also, after [US Senator Jim] Webb's visit, China is losing its cool with the junta.”
Webb visited Burma in mid-August and met with Than Shwe and other key ministers in Naypyidaw. The US senator reportedly talked with Than Shwe about China’s influence in Burma. About a week after Webb’s visit, the junta captured the Kokang capital of Laogai, effectively ending a 20 year-long ceasefire with the ethnic Chinese militia.
Also on the delegation on Monday was hardliner Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the minister of information, who went to Beijing to attend a radio and TV workshop for developing countries on October 14-17, according to The New Light of Myanmar.
It also reported that the chief of the junta’s Spoke Authoritative Team, Kyaw Hsan, met with China’s propaganda minister Liu Yunshan.
By WAI MOE, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
One of the Burmese military government’s leading generals, Secretary 1 Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, flew to Nanning in southern China on Monday, the first official visit between the two countries since the Kokang conflict in August sent some 37,000 refugees flooding into Yunnan Province.
Burma’s state-run daily, The New Light of Myanmar, reported on Tuesday that Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is quartermaster general of the Burmese armed forces, and his delegation were seen off at Naypyidaw Airport by junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his No 2 Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and No 3 Gen Shwe Mann.
China’s state-run press reported that Beijing had vowed to work with Burma to ensure stability on the Sino-Burmese border.
“China and Myanmar should make efforts together to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, as well as safeguard stability on the border areas for the sake of the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” China’s Vice-Premier Li Keqiang told Tin Aung Myint Oo, according to a report in the Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.
Tin Aung Myint Oo seems to be handling the regime’s relations mission with China. On September 28, he represented the junta by attending a ceremony in Rangoon marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist rebel who observes Sino-Burmese affairs from China’s Yunnan Province, said Tin Aung Myint Oo’s trip would appear to be a regular diplomatic trip rather than a military one, judging by the fact that civilian ministers rather than military officers traveled with him on the delegation.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Aung Kyaw Zaw said that Beijing would have higher expectations over the Burmese army’s treatment of Kokang and Chinese civilians because of the high-level nature of Burma’s delegation.
According to Aung Kyaw Zaw, tensions remain high between the Burmese army and the ethnic cease-fire groups along with the border as Burmese light infantry battalions maintain their positions.
Min Zin, a freelance Burmese journalist who focuses on Sino-Burmese relations at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said that the Burmese junta needs to offer a guarantee to China that the Kokang conflict was an exception and that it does not intend to wage all-out war against the ethnic groups along China’s border.
“Otherwise, they will be in big trouble with China,” he said. “Also, after [US Senator Jim] Webb's visit, China is losing its cool with the junta.”
Webb visited Burma in mid-August and met with Than Shwe and other key ministers in Naypyidaw. The US senator reportedly talked with Than Shwe about China’s influence in Burma. About a week after Webb’s visit, the junta captured the Kokang capital of Laogai, effectively ending a 20 year-long ceasefire with the ethnic Chinese militia.
Also on the delegation on Monday was hardliner Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the minister of information, who went to Beijing to attend a radio and TV workshop for developing countries on October 14-17, according to The New Light of Myanmar.
It also reported that the chief of the junta’s Spoke Authoritative Team, Kyaw Hsan, met with China’s propaganda minister Liu Yunshan.
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The Irrawaddy - Exile Groups to be Present at Asean Meet
By LAWI WENG, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Burmese exile Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will have their own representative at the 15th Asean Summit to be held at Hua Hin this weekend after pro Burmese government NGOs said they did not wish their representative to discuss human rights issues, according to participants at the final day of the Asean People’s Forum in Cha-am on Tuesday.
Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean), said Burmese exile CSOs nominated their own representative because the groups from inside Burma would not dare discuss human rights issues and would withdraw their representative from such meetings.
Thailand will lead the inauguration of the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and representatives from all participating countries are expected to discuss the human rights situations in their countries, she said.
Khin Ohmar, the exile Burmese chairwoman of the Network for Democracy and Development, confirmed that she has been chosen to represent the exile CSOs at the summit.
The Burmese’s junta sponsored 15 members of NGOs, including the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the Anti-Narcotics Association and the Federation of Women’s Affairs at the nominating meeting yesterday.
The junta intends to nominate their personal representative at the Asean meeting.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Kyaw Lin Oo, an exile CSO activist and participant at the Asean People’s Forum said: “The Burmese government wants to show the US and EU that it has its own representative for all the people of Burma. But, they are afraid of being questioned by the US and EU about whether their NGOs truly represent all the people in Burma.
“Thailand encouraged Burma to nominate a representative who can discuss the field of human rights and help bring the Asean human rights charter [AICHR] alive,” he said.
The Asean summit will be the first occasion the Burmese junta’s Prime Minister, Thein Sein, can meet exile Burmese CSOs. Thein Sein will meet with nine other Asean leaders on October 23.
Thein Sein threatened to boycott the last Asean meeting if Thailand proposed Burmese exile groups have a representative at the Asean summit in February.
Two exile Burmese representative organizations and Khin Ohmar were barred from attending the February meeting.
Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia have nominated delegates who work in the field of human rights to be their representatives at the Hua Hin summit. The seven other countries including Burma have refused to nominate delegates from the field of human rights, according to Kyaw Lin Oo.
Meanwhile, 10 CSOs have criticized Asean members for their lack of transparency in nominating national representatives to the AICHR.
“While Asean may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what Asean could ever do,” Stothard told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
AP also quoted Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in Rangoon, who said: “It is obvious that Asean is incapable of making any political change in the country. I don’t have any high hopes.”
By LAWI WENG, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Burmese exile Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will have their own representative at the 15th Asean Summit to be held at Hua Hin this weekend after pro Burmese government NGOs said they did not wish their representative to discuss human rights issues, according to participants at the final day of the Asean People’s Forum in Cha-am on Tuesday.
Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean), said Burmese exile CSOs nominated their own representative because the groups from inside Burma would not dare discuss human rights issues and would withdraw their representative from such meetings.
Thailand will lead the inauguration of the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and representatives from all participating countries are expected to discuss the human rights situations in their countries, she said.
Khin Ohmar, the exile Burmese chairwoman of the Network for Democracy and Development, confirmed that she has been chosen to represent the exile CSOs at the summit.
The Burmese’s junta sponsored 15 members of NGOs, including the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the Anti-Narcotics Association and the Federation of Women’s Affairs at the nominating meeting yesterday.
The junta intends to nominate their personal representative at the Asean meeting.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Kyaw Lin Oo, an exile CSO activist and participant at the Asean People’s Forum said: “The Burmese government wants to show the US and EU that it has its own representative for all the people of Burma. But, they are afraid of being questioned by the US and EU about whether their NGOs truly represent all the people in Burma.
“Thailand encouraged Burma to nominate a representative who can discuss the field of human rights and help bring the Asean human rights charter [AICHR] alive,” he said.
The Asean summit will be the first occasion the Burmese junta’s Prime Minister, Thein Sein, can meet exile Burmese CSOs. Thein Sein will meet with nine other Asean leaders on October 23.
Thein Sein threatened to boycott the last Asean meeting if Thailand proposed Burmese exile groups have a representative at the Asean summit in February.
Two exile Burmese representative organizations and Khin Ohmar were barred from attending the February meeting.
Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia have nominated delegates who work in the field of human rights to be their representatives at the Hua Hin summit. The seven other countries including Burma have refused to nominate delegates from the field of human rights, according to Kyaw Lin Oo.
Meanwhile, 10 CSOs have criticized Asean members for their lack of transparency in nominating national representatives to the AICHR.
“While Asean may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what Asean could ever do,” Stothard told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
AP also quoted Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in Rangoon, who said: “It is obvious that Asean is incapable of making any political change in the country. I don’t have any high hopes.”
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The Irrawaddy - One Hundred DKBA Soldiers Defect to KNU
By SAW YAN NAING, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
More than 100 Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers have defected to the Karen National Union (KNU) since June, following fighting and DKBA forced recruitment, according to Karen sources.
About a dozen DKBA defectors returned to areas controlled by KNU Brigade 6 and Brigade 7 last week, according to KNU and DKBA sources on the border.
Some villagers in DKBA-controlled areas have also fled to KNU-controlled areas to avoid forced recruitment by the DKBA, sources said.
Hsa Paw, a member of DKBA Battalion 5, said he was among a group of soldiers who defected to the KNU because they do not want to fight against fellow Karen in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
The DKBA, now estimated to have some 6,000 troops, began a recruitment campaign in June to increase the army to 9,000, prior to serving as a border guard force under the military government.
Despite the agreement by DKBA leaders to transform into a border guard force, some DKBA battalions have not yet agreed with the order, said Hsa Paw.
He said many DKBA soldiers are unhappy about their leaders’ decision to become a border guard force.
The DKBA is the largest ethnic cease-fire group to accept the regime’s order to become a border guard force. It signed a cease-fire agreement with the government in 1995.
The DKBA’s political wing, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization (DKBO), has not yet said if it will participate in the 2010 elections.
“Once the DKBA split and defected to the Burmese regime, Khin Nyunt [a former prime minister] told them not to become involved in politics. He said politics is complicated,” said a DKBA businessman. He said he believed the DKBA would focus on social development programs and business, while serving as a border guard force.
“They [DKBA soldiers] will not all defect to the KNU at the same time,” he said. “But there are many potential defectors.”
Meanwhile, the DKBA has increased its troops in Papun District where KNLA Brigade 5 is based. Skirmishes have occurred almost daily, according to Karen relief groups.
The Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) estimated that some 2,000 Karen villagers from six villages in Papun District have relocated to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan.
The DKBA has been recruiting at the camp, sources said, and it does not allow villagers to leave the camp area in an attempt to sever their connection with the KNU.
Many villagers want to escape from the camp, said Maw Law, a KORD relief worker.
By SAW YAN NAING, Tuesday, October 20, 2009
More than 100 Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers have defected to the Karen National Union (KNU) since June, following fighting and DKBA forced recruitment, according to Karen sources.
About a dozen DKBA defectors returned to areas controlled by KNU Brigade 6 and Brigade 7 last week, according to KNU and DKBA sources on the border.
Some villagers in DKBA-controlled areas have also fled to KNU-controlled areas to avoid forced recruitment by the DKBA, sources said.
Hsa Paw, a member of DKBA Battalion 5, said he was among a group of soldiers who defected to the KNU because they do not want to fight against fellow Karen in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
The DKBA, now estimated to have some 6,000 troops, began a recruitment campaign in June to increase the army to 9,000, prior to serving as a border guard force under the military government.
Despite the agreement by DKBA leaders to transform into a border guard force, some DKBA battalions have not yet agreed with the order, said Hsa Paw.
He said many DKBA soldiers are unhappy about their leaders’ decision to become a border guard force.
The DKBA is the largest ethnic cease-fire group to accept the regime’s order to become a border guard force. It signed a cease-fire agreement with the government in 1995.
The DKBA’s political wing, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization (DKBO), has not yet said if it will participate in the 2010 elections.
“Once the DKBA split and defected to the Burmese regime, Khin Nyunt [a former prime minister] told them not to become involved in politics. He said politics is complicated,” said a DKBA businessman. He said he believed the DKBA would focus on social development programs and business, while serving as a border guard force.
“They [DKBA soldiers] will not all defect to the KNU at the same time,” he said. “But there are many potential defectors.”
Meanwhile, the DKBA has increased its troops in Papun District where KNLA Brigade 5 is based. Skirmishes have occurred almost daily, according to Karen relief groups.
The Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) estimated that some 2,000 Karen villagers from six villages in Papun District have relocated to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan.
The DKBA has been recruiting at the camp, sources said, and it does not allow villagers to leave the camp area in an attempt to sever their connection with the KNU.
Many villagers want to escape from the camp, said Maw Law, a KORD relief worker.
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Burma drops in press freedom index
Oct 20, 2009 (DVB)–The sentencing of Burmese journalists and bloggers in September last year has pushed the country another spot lower in an annual press freedom index.
Burma has ranked 171 out of 175 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2009, released today by Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF).
Vincent Brossel, from the RSF Asia desk, told DVB today that there had been no evolution in Burma’s media environment over the past year, with journalists still facing similar levels of intimidation, imprisonment and censorship.
“It’s quite worrying because we are just one year before the elections and there is no positive improvement,” he said. “Apart from the voting system, getting access to media so that people can campaign is the most important thing for us.”
He said however that reports published yesterday by DVB that revealed that several interviews with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been printed in weekly journals inside Burma was “an intriguing development”.
Another brief interlude in the restrictions came earlier this year when foreign journalists, along with domestic reporters, were allowed inside the Rangoon prison courtroom where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was standing trial.
Brossel said however that the coverage inside Burma was ineffective because reporters “were mainly giving the government version” of proceedings.
Burma is subject to draconian censorship regulations, and all printed material is required to pass through the government’s Censorship Board before publication.
The public airing of opposition views is a rare occurrence, and can often lead to harassment of both the publisher and the interviewee.
The news followed shortly after Suu Kyi was granted a rare meeting with foreign diplomats, perhaps signaling a shift in policy from a notoriously intransigent government.
The ruling junta appears to have warmed to the idea of dialogue between itself and opposition groups, as well as what could turn out to be unprecedented engagement between itself and the United States following a recent review of US policy to Burma.
Brossel said that a signal of positive change from US engagement would be for the junta to issue foreign journalists with visas “so they don’t have to go in like tourists, which is the only way they can now work in Burma”.
The four countries that ranked below Burma in the idex were Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Reporting by Francis Wade
Oct 20, 2009 (DVB)–The sentencing of Burmese journalists and bloggers in September last year has pushed the country another spot lower in an annual press freedom index.
Burma has ranked 171 out of 175 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2009, released today by Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF).
Vincent Brossel, from the RSF Asia desk, told DVB today that there had been no evolution in Burma’s media environment over the past year, with journalists still facing similar levels of intimidation, imprisonment and censorship.
“It’s quite worrying because we are just one year before the elections and there is no positive improvement,” he said. “Apart from the voting system, getting access to media so that people can campaign is the most important thing for us.”
He said however that reports published yesterday by DVB that revealed that several interviews with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been printed in weekly journals inside Burma was “an intriguing development”.
Another brief interlude in the restrictions came earlier this year when foreign journalists, along with domestic reporters, were allowed inside the Rangoon prison courtroom where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was standing trial.
Brossel said however that the coverage inside Burma was ineffective because reporters “were mainly giving the government version” of proceedings.
Burma is subject to draconian censorship regulations, and all printed material is required to pass through the government’s Censorship Board before publication.
The public airing of opposition views is a rare occurrence, and can often lead to harassment of both the publisher and the interviewee.
The news followed shortly after Suu Kyi was granted a rare meeting with foreign diplomats, perhaps signaling a shift in policy from a notoriously intransigent government.
The ruling junta appears to have warmed to the idea of dialogue between itself and opposition groups, as well as what could turn out to be unprecedented engagement between itself and the United States following a recent review of US policy to Burma.
Brossel said that a signal of positive change from US engagement would be for the junta to issue foreign journalists with visas “so they don’t have to go in like tourists, which is the only way they can now work in Burma”.
The four countries that ranked below Burma in the idex were Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Reporting by Francis Wade
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Eastern Burma facing ‘severe’ food crisisOct 19, 2009 (DVB)–Armed conflict has contributed to what could be the worst food security problem in Burma’s eastern Karen state in over a decade, a report by Karen rights group has warned.
Multiple factors, including recent conflict, abnormal rainfall and pest infestation, have hit Karen state in recent month and laid the groundwork for one of the lowest yielding seasons in recent memory.
The region was the scene of fierce fighting in June this year between government troops and the opposition Karen National Union (KNU) that forced some 4,000 refugees into Thailand.
A report by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), ‘Starving them out’, pointed to increased activity by the Burmese army as a major factor in the food shortage.
Since 2006 the government has pursued a policy aimed at eradicating the food production abilities of the Karen people in an attempt to “significantly undermine food security,” the report states. It is hoped this tactic will undercut local civilian support for the KNU.
An official at the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), Saw Steve, echoed the report’s findings.
“The target is to destroy the food supply of the villagers, not only paddy crops but long term crops like mangosteen, jackfruit, beetle nut and other fruits and vegetables from cultivation,” he said.
The tactic marks a departure from past strategies used by the Burmese army, who until 2006 only carried out sporadic offensives against the KNU, usually commencing during the cold and hot seasons and halting in the wet season.
This break in fighting traditionally allowed local farmers the chance to harvest their crops, ensuring a stable food supply for the following months.
According to Saw Steve, government troops often launch mortars and other artillery into paddy fields, meaning farmers “dare not work in the paddy fields full time.” He added that during the harvest season farmers now only work up to 20 days a month.
Inability to tend to fields has meant that crops are now more susceptible to pest infestations and disease, and the overrunning of crops by other animals.
But the surge of military activity in the area is not the only contributing factor to this season’s drastically low yield.
Abnormal weather patterns have led to higher than average rainfall, meaning important ‘slash and burn’ farming practices cannot be carried out.
The KHRG predicts that as the Burmese army continues to “consolidate control” in Karen state, the negative effects on the food supply will be cumulative.
The report asserts that the lower quantities of available land, paired with larger populations of internally displaced people (IDPs), disease, continually interrupted agricultural cycles and unpredictable weather, have left some villages in the region “on the brink of starvation.”
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