Lawyer: Myanmar-American weak after hunger strike
Fri Dec 18, 7:33 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A jailed U.S. citizen who was on hunger strike for more than a week in military-ruled Myanmar attended his trial Friday looking thin and weak, his lawyer said.
Myanmar authorities accused Kyaw Zaw Lwin — also known as Nyi Nyi Aung — of entering Myanmar to stir up protests by Buddhist monks, who led pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar in 2007 that were brutally suppressed by the junta.
Myanmar-born Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested on arrival at Yangon airport on Sept. 3 and was charged with forgery and violating the foreign currency exchange act.
Nyan Win, a lawyer for Kyaw Zaw Lwin, said he had little time to talk with his client at Friday's court appearance but learned from him that he had ended his hunger strike. The trial is still in the exploratory stage, with the case subject to dismissal.
The Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Freedom Now, which has also taken up Kyaw Zaw Lwin's case, said he initiated his hunger strike on Dec. 4 to protest conditions of political prisoners in Myanmar. Human rights groups estimate that there are more than 2,000 political prisoners in the country.
Nyan Win said his client "looks thinner and a bit weak," and that two prosecution witnesses testified at Friday's trial.
"The trial will resume on Dec. 29 when both sides will give their arguments whether to charge him or not," said Nyan Win.
Under Myanmar's legal system, defense and prosecution spend initial sessions presenting their case so the judges can determine whether to formerly charge the defendant and proceed with the trial. Nine prosecution witnesses have testified so far.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin was unable to appear in court last Friday because of poor health.
State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said last week that the United States had contacted the junta to express its worry and to make sure Kyaw Zaw Lwin is being treated well.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Friday the government had not yet responded to its request for "immediate consular access to Kyaw Zaw Lwin outside the trial setting."
The U.S. Embassy was last granted consular access on Dec. 3.
The spokesman confirmed that the U.S. consul in Yangon attended Friday's court hearing and that Kyaw Zaw Lwin has resumed eating.
Fri Dec 18, 7:33 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A jailed U.S. citizen who was on hunger strike for more than a week in military-ruled Myanmar attended his trial Friday looking thin and weak, his lawyer said.
Myanmar authorities accused Kyaw Zaw Lwin — also known as Nyi Nyi Aung — of entering Myanmar to stir up protests by Buddhist monks, who led pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar in 2007 that were brutally suppressed by the junta.
Myanmar-born Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested on arrival at Yangon airport on Sept. 3 and was charged with forgery and violating the foreign currency exchange act.
Nyan Win, a lawyer for Kyaw Zaw Lwin, said he had little time to talk with his client at Friday's court appearance but learned from him that he had ended his hunger strike. The trial is still in the exploratory stage, with the case subject to dismissal.
The Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Freedom Now, which has also taken up Kyaw Zaw Lwin's case, said he initiated his hunger strike on Dec. 4 to protest conditions of political prisoners in Myanmar. Human rights groups estimate that there are more than 2,000 political prisoners in the country.
Nyan Win said his client "looks thinner and a bit weak," and that two prosecution witnesses testified at Friday's trial.
"The trial will resume on Dec. 29 when both sides will give their arguments whether to charge him or not," said Nyan Win.
Under Myanmar's legal system, defense and prosecution spend initial sessions presenting their case so the judges can determine whether to formerly charge the defendant and proceed with the trial. Nine prosecution witnesses have testified so far.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin was unable to appear in court last Friday because of poor health.
State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said last week that the United States had contacted the junta to express its worry and to make sure Kyaw Zaw Lwin is being treated well.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Friday the government had not yet responded to its request for "immediate consular access to Kyaw Zaw Lwin outside the trial setting."
The U.S. Embassy was last granted consular access on Dec. 3.
The spokesman confirmed that the U.S. consul in Yangon attended Friday's court hearing and that Kyaw Zaw Lwin has resumed eating.
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Report: Blast in northern Myanmar kills 7
Fri Dec 18, 1:02 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A bomb planted at a fair celebrating the ethnic Karen minority's New Year holiday killed seven people and wounded 11 others, state media reported Friday.
The bomb exploded Wednesday evening near food stalls at a festival ground in Hpa-pun in northern Karen state where celebrations were under way for the lunar Karen New Year, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.
Myanmar's tightly controlled state media typically reports violence several days after it occurs.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which the newspaper blamed on rebels from the Karen National Union. The KNU has been fighting for more than 60 years for greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government, but its strength has dwindled over the past decade because of army offensives and divisions within its ranks.
The paper warned that rebels might try to create panic by exploding more bombs and called on the public to report any suspicious activities to authorities.
Fri Dec 18, 1:02 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A bomb planted at a fair celebrating the ethnic Karen minority's New Year holiday killed seven people and wounded 11 others, state media reported Friday.
The bomb exploded Wednesday evening near food stalls at a festival ground in Hpa-pun in northern Karen state where celebrations were under way for the lunar Karen New Year, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.
Myanmar's tightly controlled state media typically reports violence several days after it occurs.
No one claimed responsibility for the blast, which the newspaper blamed on rebels from the Karen National Union. The KNU has been fighting for more than 60 years for greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government, but its strength has dwindled over the past decade because of army offensives and divisions within its ranks.
The paper warned that rebels might try to create panic by exploding more bombs and called on the public to report any suspicious activities to authorities.
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Thai PTT says Myanmar gas field to close for 20 days
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:38am GMT
BANGKOK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - PTT PCL PTT.BK, Thailand's top energy firm, said on Friday that operations at the Yetagun gas field in Myanmar would be stopped for maintenance for 20 days from Dec. 22 as part its annual maintenance plan. The shutdown at Yetagun -- also called Yetakun -- would not affect Thailand's gas consumption or power production plans, the state-controlled energy firm said in a statement.
"We have prepared for gas fields from the Gulf of Thailand to run fully and arranged for a certain amount of oil reserves, which should mean there will be no effect on natural gas users in the industrial and transport sectors," the statement said.
PTT Exploration and Production PTTE.BK, a subsidiary of PTT, operates five blocks in Myanmar and is a minority partner in the Yetagun and Yadana gas developments.
Myanmar natural gas accounts for about 30 percent of Thailand's consumption, mostly in power generation. About 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Yetagun and nearby Yadana fields is exported to Thailand.
PTTEP's subsidiary also owns 100 percent of offshore block M9, which is sill under exploration in the Gulf of Martaban, south of Yangon, Myanmar's main city.
The Thai government has said it planned to import natural gas from M9 from late 2013.
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:38am GMT
BANGKOK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - PTT PCL PTT.BK, Thailand's top energy firm, said on Friday that operations at the Yetagun gas field in Myanmar would be stopped for maintenance for 20 days from Dec. 22 as part its annual maintenance plan. The shutdown at Yetagun -- also called Yetakun -- would not affect Thailand's gas consumption or power production plans, the state-controlled energy firm said in a statement.
"We have prepared for gas fields from the Gulf of Thailand to run fully and arranged for a certain amount of oil reserves, which should mean there will be no effect on natural gas users in the industrial and transport sectors," the statement said.
PTT Exploration and Production PTTE.BK, a subsidiary of PTT, operates five blocks in Myanmar and is a minority partner in the Yetagun and Yadana gas developments.
Myanmar natural gas accounts for about 30 percent of Thailand's consumption, mostly in power generation. About 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Yetagun and nearby Yadana fields is exported to Thailand.
PTTEP's subsidiary also owns 100 percent of offshore block M9, which is sill under exploration in the Gulf of Martaban, south of Yangon, Myanmar's main city.
The Thai government has said it planned to import natural gas from M9 from late 2013.
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Myanmar accuses separatists over deadly bomb blast
12 hours ago
YANGON (AFP)— Myanmar's government accused armed separatists Friday of a bomb attack that killed eight people and left 13 others injured at a market in the country's restive Karen state, state media and officials said.
The bomb exploded late Wednesday as members of the ethnic Karen minority celebrated their New Year at a bazaar in the eastern state bordering Thailand, an official told AFP.
Six people died at the scene and two died later in hospital.
"The New Year's ceremony had already ended so there were not many people still around," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The bomb exploded in Phapun town in Karen State, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the economic hub and former capital Yangon, he said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the attack, but English-language daily New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta, blamed ethnic Karen separatists.
The Karen National Union (KNU) has been fighting the Myanmar government for autonomy for more than five decades.
"The offender is from the KNU terrorists insurgent group that is active in the area between Phapun and the border," the New Light said.
The regime has in recent months stepped up its decades-long campaign against minority groups, with offensives against ethnic Chinese Kokang rebels in the northeast in August and the Christian Karen insurgents in June.
Civil war has wracked the country since independence in 1948, and while most rebel groups have reached ceasefire deals with the junta, analysts say the army is determined to crush the rest before national elections scheduled for 2010.
The government has co-opted some previously hostile rebel groups to become junta-backed border forces that have taken on their former brothers-in-arms.
Military ruler Than Shwe has long made the struggle for the "stability of the state" the main justification for the army's continued dominance over the Southeast Asian nation.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
12 hours ago
YANGON (AFP)— Myanmar's government accused armed separatists Friday of a bomb attack that killed eight people and left 13 others injured at a market in the country's restive Karen state, state media and officials said.
The bomb exploded late Wednesday as members of the ethnic Karen minority celebrated their New Year at a bazaar in the eastern state bordering Thailand, an official told AFP.
Six people died at the scene and two died later in hospital.
"The New Year's ceremony had already ended so there were not many people still around," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The bomb exploded in Phapun town in Karen State, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the economic hub and former capital Yangon, he said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the attack, but English-language daily New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta, blamed ethnic Karen separatists.
The Karen National Union (KNU) has been fighting the Myanmar government for autonomy for more than five decades.
"The offender is from the KNU terrorists insurgent group that is active in the area between Phapun and the border," the New Light said.
The regime has in recent months stepped up its decades-long campaign against minority groups, with offensives against ethnic Chinese Kokang rebels in the northeast in August and the Christian Karen insurgents in June.
Civil war has wracked the country since independence in 1948, and while most rebel groups have reached ceasefire deals with the junta, analysts say the army is determined to crush the rest before national elections scheduled for 2010.
The government has co-opted some previously hostile rebel groups to become junta-backed border forces that have taken on their former brothers-in-arms.
Military ruler Than Shwe has long made the struggle for the "stability of the state" the main justification for the army's continued dominance over the Southeast Asian nation.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
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The Christian Science Monitor - Burma (Myanmar) military junta shows signs of thaw before elections
The military junta in Burma (Myanmar) is making calculated gestures to loosen its grip ahead of elections next year, the first since 1990. It allowed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet publicly with politicians and for the MTV documentary 'Traffic' to be screened.
By Simon Montlake Correspondent / December 18, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand
A flurry of public activity by an imprisoned opposition leader and the screening of a US-funded anti-trafficking documentary may signal a tentative thaw in military-ruled Burma, one month after a high-level US diplomatic visit aimed at improving bilateral ties.
On Wednesday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet three senior executives in the National League for Democracy (NLD) for the first time in several years. She also met privately with the visiting US diplomats and has stepped up her contacts with the junta while separately appealing her latest 18-month sentence to house arrest. The Supreme Court hasn’t decided whether to hear the appeal.
Analysts say the Burmese military is determined to tightly control a planned political transition next year, when the impoverished Southeast Asian country is due to hold its first elections since 1990. This transition is likely to trump any desire to build common ground with the Obama administration, which has sought to engage with the regime while sticking with economic and political sanctions.
A key question remains the role of Ms. Suu Kyi and the NLD in the elections. The party won the 1990 poll that was later annulled. The US and its allies have pushed for Suu Kyi’s release and participation, but analysts and diplomats say her popularity is seen as posing a direct threat to a military-guided process.
This balancing act may explain the air of détente in Burma, if indeed there is room for compromise on the fate of a democracy icon who has been in detention for much of the last two decades.
"It's hard to say there's been a real thaw, only that the junta are interested in improving relations with Washington and realize that some gestures towards (Suu Kyi) are essential if this is going to happen,” says Thant Myint-U, an author on Burma’s political history and former United Nations official.
In what may be another such gesture, authorities in Burma recently gave a green light to the broadcast of ‘Traffic’, an MTV documentary that is part of a regional anti-human-trafficking campaign. The 2007 film was funded by the US Agency for International Development, whose logo is prominent in the campaign, and has already been screened nationally and promoted at live concerts across Asia.
The film, which includes a Burmese couple talking off-camera about being forced to work without pay in Thailand, was screened at a ceremony Friday at a hotel in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city. A state broadcaster has agreed to show the film and it will also be distributed on DVD and rebroadcast.
Approval by Burma to screen ‘Traffic’ came within the last month, says Simon Goff, the campaign’s executive director. Censors demanded cuts to a segment on sex trafficking in the Philippines that included graphic descriptions. But the section on the Burmese couple, who were eventually rescued from the Thai factory, hasn’t been changed, he said.
In its annual report on trafficking, the US State Department lists Burma as a ‘Tier 3’ country, the lowest category, due to its failure to tackle the flow of people sold across its international borders. Only a handful of countries are in this category. At least one million Burmese are estimated to live in Thailand, including those who have fled from conflict areas and have been resettled in refugee camps, as well as those trafficked into exploitative work.
More concrete concessions by Burma's regime, including the release of elderly and sick political prisoners and more regular contacts between Suu Kyi and the NLD, would show that it is serious, says Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a campaign group in Thailand. The NLD hasn’t been allowed to hold a party congress in many years and its members have suffered repeated harassment by authorities, he complains.
“We can’t tell if there’s been any progress,” he says.
The military junta in Burma (Myanmar) is making calculated gestures to loosen its grip ahead of elections next year, the first since 1990. It allowed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to meet publicly with politicians and for the MTV documentary 'Traffic' to be screened.
By Simon Montlake Correspondent / December 18, 2009
Bangkok, Thailand
A flurry of public activity by an imprisoned opposition leader and the screening of a US-funded anti-trafficking documentary may signal a tentative thaw in military-ruled Burma, one month after a high-level US diplomatic visit aimed at improving bilateral ties.
On Wednesday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet three senior executives in the National League for Democracy (NLD) for the first time in several years. She also met privately with the visiting US diplomats and has stepped up her contacts with the junta while separately appealing her latest 18-month sentence to house arrest. The Supreme Court hasn’t decided whether to hear the appeal.
Analysts say the Burmese military is determined to tightly control a planned political transition next year, when the impoverished Southeast Asian country is due to hold its first elections since 1990. This transition is likely to trump any desire to build common ground with the Obama administration, which has sought to engage with the regime while sticking with economic and political sanctions.
A key question remains the role of Ms. Suu Kyi and the NLD in the elections. The party won the 1990 poll that was later annulled. The US and its allies have pushed for Suu Kyi’s release and participation, but analysts and diplomats say her popularity is seen as posing a direct threat to a military-guided process.
This balancing act may explain the air of détente in Burma, if indeed there is room for compromise on the fate of a democracy icon who has been in detention for much of the last two decades.
"It's hard to say there's been a real thaw, only that the junta are interested in improving relations with Washington and realize that some gestures towards (Suu Kyi) are essential if this is going to happen,” says Thant Myint-U, an author on Burma’s political history and former United Nations official.
In what may be another such gesture, authorities in Burma recently gave a green light to the broadcast of ‘Traffic’, an MTV documentary that is part of a regional anti-human-trafficking campaign. The 2007 film was funded by the US Agency for International Development, whose logo is prominent in the campaign, and has already been screened nationally and promoted at live concerts across Asia.
The film, which includes a Burmese couple talking off-camera about being forced to work without pay in Thailand, was screened at a ceremony Friday at a hotel in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city. A state broadcaster has agreed to show the film and it will also be distributed on DVD and rebroadcast.
Approval by Burma to screen ‘Traffic’ came within the last month, says Simon Goff, the campaign’s executive director. Censors demanded cuts to a segment on sex trafficking in the Philippines that included graphic descriptions. But the section on the Burmese couple, who were eventually rescued from the Thai factory, hasn’t been changed, he said.
In its annual report on trafficking, the US State Department lists Burma as a ‘Tier 3’ country, the lowest category, due to its failure to tackle the flow of people sold across its international borders. Only a handful of countries are in this category. At least one million Burmese are estimated to live in Thailand, including those who have fled from conflict areas and have been resettled in refugee camps, as well as those trafficked into exploitative work.
More concrete concessions by Burma's regime, including the release of elderly and sick political prisoners and more regular contacts between Suu Kyi and the NLD, would show that it is serious, says Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a campaign group in Thailand. The NLD hasn’t been allowed to hold a party congress in many years and its members have suffered repeated harassment by authorities, he complains.
“We can’t tell if there’s been any progress,” he says.
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Los Angeles Times - North Korean arms seizure could be a boost for nuclear talks
The seizure of $18 million worth of arms is devastating to the impoverished nation, which relies heavily on revenue from arms sales. Some say it could be used as leverage to restart nuclear talks.
By John M. Glionna
December 18, 2009
Reporting from Seoul - The recent seizure of a transport plane carrying North Korean-made weapons for sale was more than just an embarrassment for Pyongyang. It represents another significant loss the financially struggling regime can ill afford, analysts here say.
An anemic North Korean economy has continued a perilous tailspin in recent months triggered by international sanctions imposed on the combative nuclear-armed state. The United Nations-imposed restrictions have led to several risky measures that experts suggest may be warning signs of worsening economic woes.
Days after North Korean officials signaled that they were considering a return to the stalled six-party nuclear talks, the regime apparently sanctioned the departure of a transport plane loaded with an estimated $18 million of weapons that authorities believe were destined for Iran.
The plane was seized last week as it refueled in Thailand.
The regime also has faced widespread public anger at home over its move this month to revalue the national currency, making a 10,000-won note worth 10 won. A recent newsletter of the Seoul-based aid group Good Friends reported that authorities publicly executed a man after he burned a pile of currency.
The discontent led officials to ease the devaluation, which was aimed at curbing runaway inflation.
Analysts say North Korea's need to bolster its weakened economy may be the leverage needed to bring its leader, Kim Jong Il, back to talks designed to persuade the regime to give up its nuclear arsenal.
"The U.N. embargo has had an effect," said Choi Soo-young, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "The plane detained in Thailand will have a big impact. It shows North Korea's illegal air trade has been restricted. It is very difficult for the regime to make money."
Pyongyang's struggles will depend on just how much China -- its longtime communist ally and biggest benefactor -- will follow through in its promise of continued economic help.
In a visit to Seoul on Thursday, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping called on North Korea to resume the long-stalled talks, which include the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
Analysts say they do not know how much longer the North Koreans can rely on Chinese aid if they ignore such pleas. "China's help has allowed North Korea to stay un-swayed," Choi said.
During a recent visit to North Korea by U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth, officials there demanded that U.N. sanctions be lifted, according to the South Korean Yonhap news service, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.
The U.N. Security Council imposed stricter sanctions in June after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, its second in three years. The embargo seeks to ban Kim's regime from developing its nuclear program and selling conventional arms.
U.S. officials have pressed the international community for strict implementation of the sanctions and have targeted firms they suspect of aiding North Korea's arms sales.
With an estimated annual gross domestic product of $17 billion, North Korea is believed to earn as much as $1 billion annually by selling missiles, missile parts and other weaponry to nations such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"To reduce North Korea's economic suffering, support and resources from the outside world are essential," said Cho Myung-chul, a North Korean economist at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
He said that North Korea's economy is at its worst since 2006. "Arms sales are the biggest part of North Korean exports and have a big influence" on the economy, he said.
North Korea is one of the world's most-sanctioned nations.
For now, Cho said, Pyongyang's gamble is to give the impression of continued economic health as the regime deals with Washington over its nuclear ambitions.
"North Korea thinks it will be able to contend with the United States in further negotiations when its domestic politics and society become stable," he said. "If North Korea is seen unstable, the U.S. may have the upper hand."
Still, international assistance to the regime is dwindling. Since conservative Lee Myung-bak became president of South Korea in 2008, his nation's food and economic aid to the North, once estimated at more than $1 billion a year, has also been curtailed.
"We estimate the North Korean food shortage to be as much as 2 million tons" of what it once received, said Choi. "The lack of food means that to fill the gap, North Korea needs some help from China or the international community."
Analysts say North Korea's economic survival depends on its stream of foreign currency, which is being constricted. Meanwhile, they said, continued unrest may make North Korea more willing to make concessions in exchange for increased food and economic aid.
"And the regime knows that [on its present course] there can be no large-scale investment from outside," said Cho, the economist.
The seizure of $18 million worth of arms is devastating to the impoverished nation, which relies heavily on revenue from arms sales. Some say it could be used as leverage to restart nuclear talks.
By John M. Glionna
December 18, 2009
Reporting from Seoul - The recent seizure of a transport plane carrying North Korean-made weapons for sale was more than just an embarrassment for Pyongyang. It represents another significant loss the financially struggling regime can ill afford, analysts here say.
An anemic North Korean economy has continued a perilous tailspin in recent months triggered by international sanctions imposed on the combative nuclear-armed state. The United Nations-imposed restrictions have led to several risky measures that experts suggest may be warning signs of worsening economic woes.
Days after North Korean officials signaled that they were considering a return to the stalled six-party nuclear talks, the regime apparently sanctioned the departure of a transport plane loaded with an estimated $18 million of weapons that authorities believe were destined for Iran.
The plane was seized last week as it refueled in Thailand.
The regime also has faced widespread public anger at home over its move this month to revalue the national currency, making a 10,000-won note worth 10 won. A recent newsletter of the Seoul-based aid group Good Friends reported that authorities publicly executed a man after he burned a pile of currency.
The discontent led officials to ease the devaluation, which was aimed at curbing runaway inflation.
Analysts say North Korea's need to bolster its weakened economy may be the leverage needed to bring its leader, Kim Jong Il, back to talks designed to persuade the regime to give up its nuclear arsenal.
"The U.N. embargo has had an effect," said Choi Soo-young, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "The plane detained in Thailand will have a big impact. It shows North Korea's illegal air trade has been restricted. It is very difficult for the regime to make money."
Pyongyang's struggles will depend on just how much China -- its longtime communist ally and biggest benefactor -- will follow through in its promise of continued economic help.
In a visit to Seoul on Thursday, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping called on North Korea to resume the long-stalled talks, which include the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
Analysts say they do not know how much longer the North Koreans can rely on Chinese aid if they ignore such pleas. "China's help has allowed North Korea to stay un-swayed," Choi said.
During a recent visit to North Korea by U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth, officials there demanded that U.N. sanctions be lifted, according to the South Korean Yonhap news service, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.
The U.N. Security Council imposed stricter sanctions in June after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, its second in three years. The embargo seeks to ban Kim's regime from developing its nuclear program and selling conventional arms.
U.S. officials have pressed the international community for strict implementation of the sanctions and have targeted firms they suspect of aiding North Korea's arms sales.
With an estimated annual gross domestic product of $17 billion, North Korea is believed to earn as much as $1 billion annually by selling missiles, missile parts and other weaponry to nations such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"To reduce North Korea's economic suffering, support and resources from the outside world are essential," said Cho Myung-chul, a North Korean economist at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy in Seoul.
He said that North Korea's economy is at its worst since 2006. "Arms sales are the biggest part of North Korean exports and have a big influence" on the economy, he said.
North Korea is one of the world's most-sanctioned nations.
For now, Cho said, Pyongyang's gamble is to give the impression of continued economic health as the regime deals with Washington over its nuclear ambitions.
"North Korea thinks it will be able to contend with the United States in further negotiations when its domestic politics and society become stable," he said. "If North Korea is seen unstable, the U.S. may have the upper hand."
Still, international assistance to the regime is dwindling. Since conservative Lee Myung-bak became president of South Korea in 2008, his nation's food and economic aid to the North, once estimated at more than $1 billion a year, has also been curtailed.
"We estimate the North Korean food shortage to be as much as 2 million tons" of what it once received, said Choi. "The lack of food means that to fill the gap, North Korea needs some help from China or the international community."
Analysts say North Korea's economic survival depends on its stream of foreign currency, which is being constricted. Meanwhile, they said, continued unrest may make North Korea more willing to make concessions in exchange for increased food and economic aid.
"And the regime knows that [on its present course] there can be no large-scale investment from outside," said Cho, the economist.
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Dec 19, 2009
Asia Times Online - Myanmar's generals plow a rich furrow
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Joseph Stiglitz, the American Nobel economics laureate, advised Myanmar's military-run regime this week that political reform is necessary if the generals hope to revitalize the country's stagnant, mostly agriculture-based economy. Any reform of the rural sector, which employs 70% of the workforce and accounts for nearly half of gross domestic product (GDP), will run up against the widespread and largely institutionalized corruption of the military.
Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank and Nobel Prize winner in 2001, is renowned for his sharp critiques of conventional free-market development policies, including those espoused by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. His comments came in the context of a forum arranged by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the invitation of the government of Myanmar.
The forum in the capital, Naypyidaw, was attended by Myanmar Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation Major General Htay Oo and Minister for National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha and was aimed at exploring strategies for poverty alleviation and rural development. Both ministers are known to be close to Senior General Than Shwe, the reclusive authoritarian leader who is known to have the final say on all policy decisions.
The dialogue was the second in a planned series of events initiated with a visit to Myanmar in July by United Nations under secretary general and executive secretary of ESCAP, Noeleen Hezyer. The previous visit was at the invitation of Oo and, according to an ESCAP press release, was the "first step in a development partnership with the government of Myanmar to discuss its agriculture economy and policy".
The Myanmar government has also requested the UN agency to assist in conducting an economic and social assessment of the country's rural economy in 2010. Talks during the UN visit explored the need for farmers to gain greater access to credit and UN concerns over state-mandated low prices for agricultural products that contribute to rural poverty.
When Myanmar achieved independence from colonial rule in 1948, its economic prospects looked good as the world's leading rice exporter. Years of civil war and gross economic mismanagement, magnified after the country came under military rule in 1962, have instead left the country stuck on the UN's list of least-developed countries since 1987.
Despite its abundance of arable land and once storied reputation as the "rice bowl of Asia", malnutrition is now rampant, affecting over one-third of the country's children and ranking the country by the UN as one of the world's "hunger hotspots". The situation is aggravated by widespread corruption by local military commanders and civil servants. Transparency International ranked Myanmar 178th, or third from the bottom, of all surveyed countries in its most recent corruption perception listing.
Economists and exiled activists point to government policies that favor the military over other sectors. That includes government-imposed crop quotas, which require farmers to hand over without compensation a percentage of their yields. Although the policy was officially discontinued in 2004, it is still effectively implemented by military officers in rural areas that confiscate through the threat of force a share of farmers' crops.
The extortion and confiscation of crops by corrupt military officials is the upshot of a 1998 Ministry of Defense directive that required military units to be self-sufficient for their food and other supplies. The order to effectively live off the land has never been rescinded, despite the extraordinary outlays that go towards the military, estimated by some as high as 40% of the national budget.
Crop extortion
Since 2005, there has been an upsurge in demands by the military for farmers to produce cash crops such as rubber, corn and jatropha. Portions of the harvest, independent researchers say, must be handed over to the military and are then sold for a profit. The Karen Human Rights Group, a Thailand-based rights advocacy, has documented the widespread use of forced labor by military officers to grow and harvest crops, often on fields confiscated from villagers.
Human-rights researchers who spoke to Asia Times Online say the practice means many Myanmar farmers are left with little time to work their own crops, which results in poor harvests. This is especially the case in the border areas with Thailand, where the army expropriates whatever it needs in terms of food and land in the name of counter-insurgency operations. It is also prevalent in the Irrawaddy Delta and the central plains.
Researchers in Myanmar's northern Shan State told Asia Times Online about a recent military scheme that forces local farmers to purchase genetically altered rice seeds from China as a part of a crop substitution program to reduce the cultivation of opium poppies. According to the researchers, yields have fallen because farmers cannot afford the high costs of the fertilizers necessary to grow the rice. The policy has raised uncertainty among agrarians and undermined what were already low local yields.
During his address, Stiglitz urged the government to promote greater access to financing, improve access to seeds and fertilizers and boost spending on public health and education. The economist also advocated stimulating local development and job creation through spending on rural infrastructure.
Some say the discovery and exploitation of offshore natural gas deposits has contributed to the official neglect of the agriculture sector, which in the past was heavily relied on for export earnings. The junta has in recent years reaped multi-billion dollar profits from deals running gas pipelines to Thailand
Those revenues will flow stronger when gas fields off the country's western Arakan coast come on line for sale to China. Stiglitz called on the government to use oil and gas sale profits to stimulate other sectors of the economy, including agriculture. "Revenues from oil and gas can open up a new era, if used well," said Stiglitz. "If not, then valuable opportunities will be squandered."
Analysts believe that without significant political change there is little hope for Myanmar's rural economy. In a UN press release following Tuesday's forum, Stiglitz warned the generals that economics and politics cannot be separated if the country wishes to boost agricultural yields again.
"For Myanmar to take a role on the world stage - and to achieve true stability and security - there must be widespread participation and inclusive processes," he said. "This is the only way forward for Myanmar."
Sean Turnell, an economist who specializes in Myanmar's economy, concurs. "This is because the principal problems stem directly from the nature of the regime itself - its insatiable demands, its turning loose of the Tatmadaw [Myanmar armed forces] in the countryside, the lack of property rights - both in a formal sense in terms of the ability to pledge land as collateral and in a more visceral sense that there are no rights to property - even over one's body - in a place where an army expropriates what it needs."
Few believe that the general elections slated for next year will change the situation, as the new constitution reserves a role for the military in government. As long as the army remains a powerful political actor, it will maintain influence over agricultural policies. Changing the system would entail a market-based system in which military officers would be required to pay for what they consume.
Myanmar maintains the second-largest standing army in Southeast Asia, after Vietnam, with about 350,000 foot soldiers. The majority of them are known to live off the land and the power of their station rather than from state-paid salaries. Although a high percentage of Myanmar's gross domestic product is annually dedicated to the military, security analysts say much of that goes towards buying frivolous new weapons systems rather than food and equipment for soldiers.
Calls by the UN and other multilateral organizations for reform and change in Myanmar's failed agricultural policies are well-intentioned and well-timed. But as long as agriculture and politics remain so tightly intertwined in Myanmar, and the military dominates government, even prescriptions from a Nobel Prize winning economist will likely go unheeded.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Myanmar's generals plow a rich furrow
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Joseph Stiglitz, the American Nobel economics laureate, advised Myanmar's military-run regime this week that political reform is necessary if the generals hope to revitalize the country's stagnant, mostly agriculture-based economy. Any reform of the rural sector, which employs 70% of the workforce and accounts for nearly half of gross domestic product (GDP), will run up against the widespread and largely institutionalized corruption of the military.
Stiglitz, a former chief economist at the World Bank and Nobel Prize winner in 2001, is renowned for his sharp critiques of conventional free-market development policies, including those espoused by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. His comments came in the context of a forum arranged by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the invitation of the government of Myanmar.
The forum in the capital, Naypyidaw, was attended by Myanmar Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation Major General Htay Oo and Minister for National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha and was aimed at exploring strategies for poverty alleviation and rural development. Both ministers are known to be close to Senior General Than Shwe, the reclusive authoritarian leader who is known to have the final say on all policy decisions.
The dialogue was the second in a planned series of events initiated with a visit to Myanmar in July by United Nations under secretary general and executive secretary of ESCAP, Noeleen Hezyer. The previous visit was at the invitation of Oo and, according to an ESCAP press release, was the "first step in a development partnership with the government of Myanmar to discuss its agriculture economy and policy".
The Myanmar government has also requested the UN agency to assist in conducting an economic and social assessment of the country's rural economy in 2010. Talks during the UN visit explored the need for farmers to gain greater access to credit and UN concerns over state-mandated low prices for agricultural products that contribute to rural poverty.
When Myanmar achieved independence from colonial rule in 1948, its economic prospects looked good as the world's leading rice exporter. Years of civil war and gross economic mismanagement, magnified after the country came under military rule in 1962, have instead left the country stuck on the UN's list of least-developed countries since 1987.
Despite its abundance of arable land and once storied reputation as the "rice bowl of Asia", malnutrition is now rampant, affecting over one-third of the country's children and ranking the country by the UN as one of the world's "hunger hotspots". The situation is aggravated by widespread corruption by local military commanders and civil servants. Transparency International ranked Myanmar 178th, or third from the bottom, of all surveyed countries in its most recent corruption perception listing.
Economists and exiled activists point to government policies that favor the military over other sectors. That includes government-imposed crop quotas, which require farmers to hand over without compensation a percentage of their yields. Although the policy was officially discontinued in 2004, it is still effectively implemented by military officers in rural areas that confiscate through the threat of force a share of farmers' crops.
The extortion and confiscation of crops by corrupt military officials is the upshot of a 1998 Ministry of Defense directive that required military units to be self-sufficient for their food and other supplies. The order to effectively live off the land has never been rescinded, despite the extraordinary outlays that go towards the military, estimated by some as high as 40% of the national budget.
Crop extortion
Since 2005, there has been an upsurge in demands by the military for farmers to produce cash crops such as rubber, corn and jatropha. Portions of the harvest, independent researchers say, must be handed over to the military and are then sold for a profit. The Karen Human Rights Group, a Thailand-based rights advocacy, has documented the widespread use of forced labor by military officers to grow and harvest crops, often on fields confiscated from villagers.
Human-rights researchers who spoke to Asia Times Online say the practice means many Myanmar farmers are left with little time to work their own crops, which results in poor harvests. This is especially the case in the border areas with Thailand, where the army expropriates whatever it needs in terms of food and land in the name of counter-insurgency operations. It is also prevalent in the Irrawaddy Delta and the central plains.
Researchers in Myanmar's northern Shan State told Asia Times Online about a recent military scheme that forces local farmers to purchase genetically altered rice seeds from China as a part of a crop substitution program to reduce the cultivation of opium poppies. According to the researchers, yields have fallen because farmers cannot afford the high costs of the fertilizers necessary to grow the rice. The policy has raised uncertainty among agrarians and undermined what were already low local yields.
During his address, Stiglitz urged the government to promote greater access to financing, improve access to seeds and fertilizers and boost spending on public health and education. The economist also advocated stimulating local development and job creation through spending on rural infrastructure.
Some say the discovery and exploitation of offshore natural gas deposits has contributed to the official neglect of the agriculture sector, which in the past was heavily relied on for export earnings. The junta has in recent years reaped multi-billion dollar profits from deals running gas pipelines to Thailand
Those revenues will flow stronger when gas fields off the country's western Arakan coast come on line for sale to China. Stiglitz called on the government to use oil and gas sale profits to stimulate other sectors of the economy, including agriculture. "Revenues from oil and gas can open up a new era, if used well," said Stiglitz. "If not, then valuable opportunities will be squandered."
Analysts believe that without significant political change there is little hope for Myanmar's rural economy. In a UN press release following Tuesday's forum, Stiglitz warned the generals that economics and politics cannot be separated if the country wishes to boost agricultural yields again.
"For Myanmar to take a role on the world stage - and to achieve true stability and security - there must be widespread participation and inclusive processes," he said. "This is the only way forward for Myanmar."
Sean Turnell, an economist who specializes in Myanmar's economy, concurs. "This is because the principal problems stem directly from the nature of the regime itself - its insatiable demands, its turning loose of the Tatmadaw [Myanmar armed forces] in the countryside, the lack of property rights - both in a formal sense in terms of the ability to pledge land as collateral and in a more visceral sense that there are no rights to property - even over one's body - in a place where an army expropriates what it needs."
Few believe that the general elections slated for next year will change the situation, as the new constitution reserves a role for the military in government. As long as the army remains a powerful political actor, it will maintain influence over agricultural policies. Changing the system would entail a market-based system in which military officers would be required to pay for what they consume.
Myanmar maintains the second-largest standing army in Southeast Asia, after Vietnam, with about 350,000 foot soldiers. The majority of them are known to live off the land and the power of their station rather than from state-paid salaries. Although a high percentage of Myanmar's gross domestic product is annually dedicated to the military, security analysts say much of that goes towards buying frivolous new weapons systems rather than food and equipment for soldiers.
Calls by the UN and other multilateral organizations for reform and change in Myanmar's failed agricultural policies are well-intentioned and well-timed. But as long as agriculture and politics remain so tightly intertwined in Myanmar, and the military dominates government, even prescriptions from a Nobel Prize winning economist will likely go unheeded.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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Fibre2fashion.com - German investors show interest in Myanmar markets
December 18, 2009 (Myanmar)
Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s last month visit to Myanmar might open new trade avenues in coming months, said a Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) official.
Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry representatives visited the country for the first time and studied market potential for trade and investment. These representatives represented German investors interested in investing money in Malaysia and now Myanmar, informed Dr. Maung Maung Lay, General Secretary of UMFCCI.
Feasibility surveys of the Myanmar market was the key objective of this visit, and more visits to the country have already been lined up. The representatives will revisit the country soon to have talk with local authorities and businessmen pertaining to the investments, informed an official of UMFCCI.
Germany is one of the largest trading partners of Myanmar amid all the European nations. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around US $610 million, including $360 million in exports to Germany and $250 million in imports, as per Myanmar’s Central Statistical Organization (CSO).
Around 80 percent of Myanmar’s exports to Germany comprise garment products, while imports include machinery, chemical products etc. German FDI in Myanmar is just around $15 million, added the official.
December 18, 2009 (Myanmar)
Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s last month visit to Myanmar might open new trade avenues in coming months, said a Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) official.
Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry representatives visited the country for the first time and studied market potential for trade and investment. These representatives represented German investors interested in investing money in Malaysia and now Myanmar, informed Dr. Maung Maung Lay, General Secretary of UMFCCI.
Feasibility surveys of the Myanmar market was the key objective of this visit, and more visits to the country have already been lined up. The representatives will revisit the country soon to have talk with local authorities and businessmen pertaining to the investments, informed an official of UMFCCI.
Germany is one of the largest trading partners of Myanmar amid all the European nations. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around US $610 million, including $360 million in exports to Germany and $250 million in imports, as per Myanmar’s Central Statistical Organization (CSO).
Around 80 percent of Myanmar’s exports to Germany comprise garment products, while imports include machinery, chemical products etc. German FDI in Myanmar is just around $15 million, added the official.
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New York Times - Where Impunity Reigns
By BENEDICT ROGERS
Published: December 17, 2009
The world needs to be reminded, again and again, that the military regime in Burma (Myanmar) continues to perpetrate every conceivable human rights violation.
Any Burmese showing any dissent is brutally suppressed, as the world witnessed two years ago when peaceful Buddhist monks demonstrated. Many monks were killed or have disappeared; several hundred remain in prison.
Beyond that, more than 2,000 political activists are in Burmese prisons today, subjected to torture, denial of medical treatment and ludicrous sentences.
Student leader Bo Min Yu Ko is serving a 104-year prison term; Shan ethnic leader Hkun Htun Oo has been imprisoned for 93 years; democracy activist Min Ko Naing for 65 years. The most famous human rights activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for almost 14 years, and the term was extended for a further 18 months after a sham trial.
Many of these activists are in prisons thousands of miles from their families, and several are critically ill.
One category of victims of the military dictatorship that gets far less attention is Burma’s ethnic minorities.
In eastern Burma, the regime has been conducting a brutal military campaign against people of the Karen, Karenni and Shan groups. Since 1996, more than 3,300 villages have been destroyed and more than a million people internally displaced. A Karenni friend of mine has described it as “Pol Pot in slow motion.”
The catalogue of terror includes the widespread, systematic use of rape as a weapon, forced labor, the use of human minesweepers and the forcible conscription of child soldiers.
In northern and western Burma, the predominantly Christian Chin and Kachin peoples also face systematic religious persecution.
The Muslim Rohingyas, targeted for their faith and ethnicity, are denied citizenship, despite living in Burma for generations. Thousands have escaped to miserable conditions in Bangladesh.
I have travelled more than 30 times to Burma and its borderlands. I have met former child soldiers, women who have been gang-raped, and many people who have been forced to flee from their burned villages.
Earlier this year, I met a man who had lost both his legs following an attack on his village.
When the Burmese Army came, he fled, but after the troops had moved on, he returned to his smoldering village to see if he could salvage any remaining belongings. Where his house had stood, he found nothing except ashes — hidden in which was a landmine laid by the troops. He stepped on the mine, and lost both legs.
He was carried for an entire day for basic medical treatment and then, a few weeks later, he walked on crutches through the jungle for two days to escape. He fled to a camp for internally displaced people near the Thai border. Four months later, that camp was attacked and he had to flee again.
An eyewitness once told me that in a prison camp in Chin State, prisoners who tried to escape were repeatedly stabbed, forced into a tub of salt water, and then roasted over a fire. A woman in Karen State described to me how her husband was hung upside down from a tree, his eyes gouged out, and then drowned.
The United Nations has documented these atrocities. For years, General Assembly resolutions have condemned the abuses. Previous special rapporteurs have described the violations as “the result of policy at the highest level, entailing political and legal responsibility.” A recent General Assembly resolution urged the regime to “put an end to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The U.N. has placed Burma on a monitoring list for genocide, the Genocide Risk Indices lists Burma as one of the two top “red alert” countries for genocide, along with Sudan, while the Minority Rights Group ranks Burma as one of the top five countries where ethnic minorities are under threat. Freedom House describes Burma as “the worst of the worst.”
This year, the United States reviewed its Burma policy and adopted a new approach of engagement while maintaining existing sanctions.
While this is the right approach in principle, and one advocated by the democracy movement, the danger is that the message has been misinterpreted, both by the regime and countries in the region.
Even though President Obama and senior U.S. officials have consistently emphasized that sanctions will not be lifted until there is substantial and irreversible progress in Burma, including the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and a meaningful dialogue between the regime, the democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities, the impression created in the region is that the U.S. is going soft.
This is unfortunate, as it has let Burma’s neighbors off the hook just when they were showing tentative signs of toughening up their approach. Trying to talk to the generals is right, but it needs to be accompanied by strong and unambiguous pressure.
In short, little action has been taken by the international community. Countries continue to sell the regime arms, impunity prevails.
The violations perpetrated by the regime amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Harvard Law School’s report, “Crimes in Burma,” commissioned by five of the world’s leading jurists, concludes that there is “a prima facie case of international criminal law violations occurring that demands U.N. Security Council action to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these grave breaches.”
Last week marked the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If that is to mean anything in Burma, the time has come for the U.N. to impose a universal arms embargo on the regime, to invoke the much-flaunted “Responsibility to Protect” mechanism, and to investigate the regime’s crimes. The time to end the system of impunity in Burma is long overdue.
Benedict Rogers is East Asia Team Leader with the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and author of several books on Burma, including “Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant.”
By BENEDICT ROGERS
Published: December 17, 2009
The world needs to be reminded, again and again, that the military regime in Burma (Myanmar) continues to perpetrate every conceivable human rights violation.
Any Burmese showing any dissent is brutally suppressed, as the world witnessed two years ago when peaceful Buddhist monks demonstrated. Many monks were killed or have disappeared; several hundred remain in prison.
Beyond that, more than 2,000 political activists are in Burmese prisons today, subjected to torture, denial of medical treatment and ludicrous sentences.
Student leader Bo Min Yu Ko is serving a 104-year prison term; Shan ethnic leader Hkun Htun Oo has been imprisoned for 93 years; democracy activist Min Ko Naing for 65 years. The most famous human rights activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for almost 14 years, and the term was extended for a further 18 months after a sham trial.
Many of these activists are in prisons thousands of miles from their families, and several are critically ill.
One category of victims of the military dictatorship that gets far less attention is Burma’s ethnic minorities.
In eastern Burma, the regime has been conducting a brutal military campaign against people of the Karen, Karenni and Shan groups. Since 1996, more than 3,300 villages have been destroyed and more than a million people internally displaced. A Karenni friend of mine has described it as “Pol Pot in slow motion.”
The catalogue of terror includes the widespread, systematic use of rape as a weapon, forced labor, the use of human minesweepers and the forcible conscription of child soldiers.
In northern and western Burma, the predominantly Christian Chin and Kachin peoples also face systematic religious persecution.
The Muslim Rohingyas, targeted for their faith and ethnicity, are denied citizenship, despite living in Burma for generations. Thousands have escaped to miserable conditions in Bangladesh.
I have travelled more than 30 times to Burma and its borderlands. I have met former child soldiers, women who have been gang-raped, and many people who have been forced to flee from their burned villages.
Earlier this year, I met a man who had lost both his legs following an attack on his village.
When the Burmese Army came, he fled, but after the troops had moved on, he returned to his smoldering village to see if he could salvage any remaining belongings. Where his house had stood, he found nothing except ashes — hidden in which was a landmine laid by the troops. He stepped on the mine, and lost both legs.
He was carried for an entire day for basic medical treatment and then, a few weeks later, he walked on crutches through the jungle for two days to escape. He fled to a camp for internally displaced people near the Thai border. Four months later, that camp was attacked and he had to flee again.
An eyewitness once told me that in a prison camp in Chin State, prisoners who tried to escape were repeatedly stabbed, forced into a tub of salt water, and then roasted over a fire. A woman in Karen State described to me how her husband was hung upside down from a tree, his eyes gouged out, and then drowned.
The United Nations has documented these atrocities. For years, General Assembly resolutions have condemned the abuses. Previous special rapporteurs have described the violations as “the result of policy at the highest level, entailing political and legal responsibility.” A recent General Assembly resolution urged the regime to “put an end to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
The U.N. has placed Burma on a monitoring list for genocide, the Genocide Risk Indices lists Burma as one of the two top “red alert” countries for genocide, along with Sudan, while the Minority Rights Group ranks Burma as one of the top five countries where ethnic minorities are under threat. Freedom House describes Burma as “the worst of the worst.”
This year, the United States reviewed its Burma policy and adopted a new approach of engagement while maintaining existing sanctions.
While this is the right approach in principle, and one advocated by the democracy movement, the danger is that the message has been misinterpreted, both by the regime and countries in the region.
Even though President Obama and senior U.S. officials have consistently emphasized that sanctions will not be lifted until there is substantial and irreversible progress in Burma, including the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and a meaningful dialogue between the regime, the democracy movement and the ethnic nationalities, the impression created in the region is that the U.S. is going soft.
This is unfortunate, as it has let Burma’s neighbors off the hook just when they were showing tentative signs of toughening up their approach. Trying to talk to the generals is right, but it needs to be accompanied by strong and unambiguous pressure.
In short, little action has been taken by the international community. Countries continue to sell the regime arms, impunity prevails.
The violations perpetrated by the regime amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Harvard Law School’s report, “Crimes in Burma,” commissioned by five of the world’s leading jurists, concludes that there is “a prima facie case of international criminal law violations occurring that demands U.N. Security Council action to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these grave breaches.”
Last week marked the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If that is to mean anything in Burma, the time has come for the U.N. to impose a universal arms embargo on the regime, to invoke the much-flaunted “Responsibility to Protect” mechanism, and to investigate the regime’s crimes. The time to end the system of impunity in Burma is long overdue.
Benedict Rogers is East Asia Team Leader with the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, and author of several books on Burma, including “Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant.”
*************************************************************
ZeeNews - Govt approves 100-km Mizoram to Myanmar highway worth Rs 650cr
Updated on Friday, December 18, 2009, 22:18 IST Tags:
Mizoram, Myanmar
New Delhi: The High Powered Committee of the government has approved construction of a 100-km highway from Mizoram to Myanmar border involving an investment of around Rs 650 crore.
The Committee, headed by Transport Secretary Brahm Dutt, in its meeting held today cleared the proposal for constructing the highway from Lawngtalai in Mizoram to the Myanmar border.
"The highway would provide linkage to the proposed port facilities at Sittwe in Myanmar. The port facilities in the Bay of Bengal at Sittwe will provide water route to the whole of North East through the State of Mizoram," said an official statement.
The High Powered Committee of the government has been set up to look at projects for the North East region.
Updated on Friday, December 18, 2009, 22:18 IST Tags:
Mizoram, Myanmar
New Delhi: The High Powered Committee of the government has approved construction of a 100-km highway from Mizoram to Myanmar border involving an investment of around Rs 650 crore.
The Committee, headed by Transport Secretary Brahm Dutt, in its meeting held today cleared the proposal for constructing the highway from Lawngtalai in Mizoram to the Myanmar border.
"The highway would provide linkage to the proposed port facilities at Sittwe in Myanmar. The port facilities in the Bay of Bengal at Sittwe will provide water route to the whole of North East through the State of Mizoram," said an official statement.
The High Powered Committee of the government has been set up to look at projects for the North East region.
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International Water Power and Dam Construction - Myanmar adds new hydro capacity
18 December 2009
Myanmar has commissioned three new hydro power plants in western Rakhine state to meet electricity demand in the region, China View has reported.
The Saidin, Thahtay Chaung and Laymyomyit project, which have a combined capacity of 687MW, cost approximately US$800M to develop. Of the total capacity, 30MW will be used in Rakhine, with the remainder distributed to the rest of the country.
18 December 2009
Myanmar has commissioned three new hydro power plants in western Rakhine state to meet electricity demand in the region, China View has reported.
The Saidin, Thahtay Chaung and Laymyomyit project, which have a combined capacity of 687MW, cost approximately US$800M to develop. Of the total capacity, 30MW will be used in Rakhine, with the remainder distributed to the rest of the country.
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ABC Radio Australia News - Bank cool on Burma trade
The Asian Development Bank's trade facilitation loans are being extended in other parts of the world. [Reuters]
Last Updated: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:00:00 +1100
The Asian Development Bank does not see enough demand from Burma to warrant extending a loan-support program into the country.
The bank says it is not interested in expanding its trade finance facilitation program (TFFP) in Burma.
The bank's Steven Beck says there is low demand for such trade facilitation in Burma.
Under the program, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provides loans and guarantees with local and international banks to support trade transactions.
The ADB says lack of finance is holding back trade, particularly in developing economies.
Set up in 2004, the finance program was expanded to $1US billion in March,
It is being used in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
The Asian Development Bank's trade facilitation loans are being extended in other parts of the world. [Reuters]
Last Updated: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:00:00 +1100
The Asian Development Bank does not see enough demand from Burma to warrant extending a loan-support program into the country.
The bank says it is not interested in expanding its trade finance facilitation program (TFFP) in Burma.
The bank's Steven Beck says there is low demand for such trade facilitation in Burma.
Under the program, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provides loans and guarantees with local and international banks to support trade transactions.
The ADB says lack of finance is holding back trade, particularly in developing economies.
Set up in 2004, the finance program was expanded to $1US billion in March,
It is being used in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
*************************************************************
Friday, December 18, 2009
Proactiveinvestors - Interra Resources starts drilling in Yenangyaung oil field
Singapore-incorporated company Interra Resources (ASX: ITR) has announced its jointly controlled entity Goldpetrol Joint Operating Company kicked off drilling infill development well YNG 3234 in the Yenangyaung oil field in Myanmar.
Interra has a 60% interest in the Improved Petroleum Recovery Contract of the Yenangyaung field and also owns 60% of Goldpetrol which is the operator of the field. Well YNG 3234 will be drilled using Goldpetrol’s Cooper LTO 350 rig in the northern area of the field. Interra’s share of the cost of drilling will be funded from existing funds on hand.
The proposed well is intended to be drilled to a depth of approximately 2950 feet as a replacement well for a well previously shut in for mechanical reasons while still producing 60 barrels per day. The primary objective of this well is to produce remaining oil from the 3000FT sand to 3200FT sand, with a secondary objective to produce oil not drained by existing wells from shallower sands.
Interra estimates that the results of the drilling should be available in approximately six weeks time. The Company will announce the results of the drilling operation as soon as they may be ascertained. Additional updates reflecting critical or unexpected events during drilling will also be announced.
The Company wishes to advise that investors should exercise due care and caution when trading Interra’s shares. It is not certain that the development drilling mentioned above will ultimately yield commercially recoverable hydrocarbons or profitable production.
Proactiveinvestors - Interra Resources starts drilling in Yenangyaung oil field
Singapore-incorporated company Interra Resources (ASX: ITR) has announced its jointly controlled entity Goldpetrol Joint Operating Company kicked off drilling infill development well YNG 3234 in the Yenangyaung oil field in Myanmar.
Interra has a 60% interest in the Improved Petroleum Recovery Contract of the Yenangyaung field and also owns 60% of Goldpetrol which is the operator of the field. Well YNG 3234 will be drilled using Goldpetrol’s Cooper LTO 350 rig in the northern area of the field. Interra’s share of the cost of drilling will be funded from existing funds on hand.
The proposed well is intended to be drilled to a depth of approximately 2950 feet as a replacement well for a well previously shut in for mechanical reasons while still producing 60 barrels per day. The primary objective of this well is to produce remaining oil from the 3000FT sand to 3200FT sand, with a secondary objective to produce oil not drained by existing wells from shallower sands.
Interra estimates that the results of the drilling should be available in approximately six weeks time. The Company will announce the results of the drilling operation as soon as they may be ascertained. Additional updates reflecting critical or unexpected events during drilling will also be announced.
The Company wishes to advise that investors should exercise due care and caution when trading Interra’s shares. It is not certain that the development drilling mentioned above will ultimately yield commercially recoverable hydrocarbons or profitable production.
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The Nation - Thai crisis set to turn towards Burma
Published on December 18, 2009
Step aside, Cambodia! It's Burma's turn now. The crisis in Thailand is set to take another major turn in the next few days, and this time it will relate to our neighbour to the northwest when the Supreme Court wraps up its hearing on ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's frozen Bt76 billion in assets.
The prosecution hopes its final blow will arrive next Tuesday.
Former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai will testify as a state witness, purportedly to provide the final piece of the jigsaw, proving Thaksin's failure to be honest about his assets was no honest mistake.
The prosecution is confident it has what is needed to prove Thaksin did not relinquish control of his business empire as legally and constitutionally as required when he served as prime minister.
Waratchya Srimachand, assistant secretary-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has told the court there was reliable evidence to prove Thaksin had concealed his massive shareholding in the telecom business - something he was supposed to have given up as head of the government.
Her testimony corroborates findings by the Assets Examination Committee, whose origin has been decried by the Thaksin camp, because it was set up after the September 19, 2006 coup.
The court has reviewed financial documents allegedly indicating stock transactions involving obscure "nominee" firms that held shares in Thaksin's telecom empire were endorsed by the man himself, not his children or even his wife.
The hearing has revisited the infamous Ample Rich and Win Mark. Yet all fishy transactions involving the nominee companies can only prove Thaksin was concealing his assets - an offence that is not enough to justify the seizure of his wealth. The prosecution must prove Thaksin not only failed to give up control of his businesses, but also helped them through suspicious government policies or decisions.
This is where Surakiart comes in. There were several dubious moves made by his government cited by the prosecution, not least the telecom excise tax scheme that greatly affected the industry's playing field, and a few witnesses have testified about them. The ex-foreign minister, though, is being tipped as a star witness because he used to work in the Thaksin Cabinet and was once seen as someone who had the former PM's trust.
Surakiart is expected to testify about the circumstances behind the Thaksin Cabinet's decision to grant controversial Export-Import Bank of Thailand loans to the Burmese junta, or more specifically how the loans jumped from Bt3 billion to Bt4 billion. The money, as has been widely reported, was to be partly used to pay for equipment and services provided by Shin Satellite.
What Surakiart tells the court will be crucial, and testifying the same day will be Klanarong Chantik from the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
These two will be the final witnesses in the case, and the court will conclude the hearing if it does not feel the need to hear more testimony. This means a verdict will most likely come next month, ending a long, painful chapter on Thailand grappling with a very unfamiliar issue: conflicts of interest.
Whatever the verdict is, it should not be mistaken as the beginning of an end. All it will do is simply close one episode, after which many things can happen. Thailand was very immature when the patriarch of one of the biggest business empires was allowed to take political power despite his questionable baggage. With the Supreme Court set to issue a ruling about those mistakes and their costly consequences, the environment is oddly familiar - the nation does not seem to have grown very much since.
Published on December 18, 2009
Step aside, Cambodia! It's Burma's turn now. The crisis in Thailand is set to take another major turn in the next few days, and this time it will relate to our neighbour to the northwest when the Supreme Court wraps up its hearing on ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's frozen Bt76 billion in assets.
The prosecution hopes its final blow will arrive next Tuesday.
Former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai will testify as a state witness, purportedly to provide the final piece of the jigsaw, proving Thaksin's failure to be honest about his assets was no honest mistake.
The prosecution is confident it has what is needed to prove Thaksin did not relinquish control of his business empire as legally and constitutionally as required when he served as prime minister.
Waratchya Srimachand, assistant secretary-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has told the court there was reliable evidence to prove Thaksin had concealed his massive shareholding in the telecom business - something he was supposed to have given up as head of the government.
Her testimony corroborates findings by the Assets Examination Committee, whose origin has been decried by the Thaksin camp, because it was set up after the September 19, 2006 coup.
The court has reviewed financial documents allegedly indicating stock transactions involving obscure "nominee" firms that held shares in Thaksin's telecom empire were endorsed by the man himself, not his children or even his wife.
The hearing has revisited the infamous Ample Rich and Win Mark. Yet all fishy transactions involving the nominee companies can only prove Thaksin was concealing his assets - an offence that is not enough to justify the seizure of his wealth. The prosecution must prove Thaksin not only failed to give up control of his businesses, but also helped them through suspicious government policies or decisions.
This is where Surakiart comes in. There were several dubious moves made by his government cited by the prosecution, not least the telecom excise tax scheme that greatly affected the industry's playing field, and a few witnesses have testified about them. The ex-foreign minister, though, is being tipped as a star witness because he used to work in the Thaksin Cabinet and was once seen as someone who had the former PM's trust.
Surakiart is expected to testify about the circumstances behind the Thaksin Cabinet's decision to grant controversial Export-Import Bank of Thailand loans to the Burmese junta, or more specifically how the loans jumped from Bt3 billion to Bt4 billion. The money, as has been widely reported, was to be partly used to pay for equipment and services provided by Shin Satellite.
What Surakiart tells the court will be crucial, and testifying the same day will be Klanarong Chantik from the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
These two will be the final witnesses in the case, and the court will conclude the hearing if it does not feel the need to hear more testimony. This means a verdict will most likely come next month, ending a long, painful chapter on Thailand grappling with a very unfamiliar issue: conflicts of interest.
Whatever the verdict is, it should not be mistaken as the beginning of an end. All it will do is simply close one episode, after which many things can happen. Thailand was very immature when the patriarch of one of the biggest business empires was allowed to take political power despite his questionable baggage. With the Supreme Court set to issue a ruling about those mistakes and their costly consequences, the environment is oddly familiar - the nation does not seem to have grown very much since.
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The Irrawaddy - Indian Diplomat to Succeed Gambari
Friday, December 18, 2009
The United Nations will appoint a veteran Indian diplomat, Vijay Nambiar, as its new special envoy to Burma, replacing Ibrahim Gambari, according to a report on Dec. 14 by New York-based Inner City Press.
The UN has not made any official statement regarding the appointment. In early December, Ban announced that Gambari will be reassigned as joint special representative of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur in January. Gambari was repeatedly criticized by Burma experts and the Burmese opposition during his mission to Burma.
Nambiar, 66, has been the chief of staff under UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon since January 1, 2007, and was previously under-secretary-general and special adviser to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Prior to joining the UN, Nambiar served the Indian government as head of the National Security Council Secretariat, and in 2002-04 was India's permanent representative to the UN in New York. Nambiar also served as Indian ambassador in Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Algeria. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976.
Two days after Cyclone Nargis slammed southwestern Burma on May 2-3, 2008, Nambiar met with Burma's UN ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, and discussed grant allocations from the UN's US $500-million Central Emergency Response Fund.
After the meeting, the military junta agreed to begin airlifting relief material and life-saving drugs to the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The United Nations will appoint a veteran Indian diplomat, Vijay Nambiar, as its new special envoy to Burma, replacing Ibrahim Gambari, according to a report on Dec. 14 by New York-based Inner City Press.
The UN has not made any official statement regarding the appointment. In early December, Ban announced that Gambari will be reassigned as joint special representative of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur in January. Gambari was repeatedly criticized by Burma experts and the Burmese opposition during his mission to Burma.
Nambiar, 66, has been the chief of staff under UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon since January 1, 2007, and was previously under-secretary-general and special adviser to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Prior to joining the UN, Nambiar served the Indian government as head of the National Security Council Secretariat, and in 2002-04 was India's permanent representative to the UN in New York. Nambiar also served as Indian ambassador in Pakistan, China, Malaysia, Afghanistan and Algeria. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1976.
Two days after Cyclone Nargis slammed southwestern Burma on May 2-3, 2008, Nambiar met with Burma's UN ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, and discussed grant allocations from the UN's US $500-million Central Emergency Response Fund.
After the meeting, the military junta agreed to begin airlifting relief material and life-saving drugs to the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
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The Irrawaddy - 'Constructive Engagement' Policy Has Not Worked: US
By LALIT K JHA - Friday, December 18, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC — A US Congressional report has said that Asean's official policy of “constructive engagement” with military rulers in Burma has proven to be ineffective.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) in its latest report “US Relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations”also noted that the proposed 2010 elections in Burma may prove critical to Asean’s future relationship with Burma.
“While few expect a free and fair election, if the results provide some space for opposition views in the government and indicate a possible shift in power to civilian rule, then Asean will likely continue its policy of modified 'constructive engagement',” said the CRS in the 24-page report.
An independent and bipartisan research wing of the US Congress, the CRS prepares reports on various issues for members of the US Congress.
“If, however, the election results provide only a veil of cover to the continuation of military rule, then Asean may be willing to consider adopting a policy closer to that of the Obama Administration,” the report said.
“The actions of Burma’s military in response to Burma’s last two national plebiscites—staging a military coup in 1990 and producing fraudulent results in 2008—may be indicative of how the elections of 2010 will be handled.
“In practice, under the new charter, Asean has shown a greater willingness to express its opinion about the situation in Burma,” it said.
In response to the conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi in August 2009, Asean’s chairman issued a statement expressing Asean’s “deep disappointment” at the verdict, calling for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and asserting that “such actions will contribute to national reconciliation among the people of Myanmar, meaningful dialogue and facilitate the democratization of Myanmar.”
In addition, the report said, Asean has indicated that the Burmese military’s treatment of opposition groups and ethnic minorities will affect how the election results will be perceived by the Asean.
Although Asean appears to be more willing to publicly criticize Burma’s military government, it has not shown a greater willingness to impose economic sanction on the country, it noted.
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are major trading partners with Burma, and may be reluctant to forswear the economic benefits of bilateral trade and investment.
Indonesia’s civilian government may be more willing to consider economic pressure on Burma, in part because of its history of military rule and in part because of its concern about Burma’s Muslim minority.
According to the report, the Obama administration’s revision of US policy towards Burma has coincided with a similar review by Asean of its stance on relations with the military junta.
“While the new US policy may be viewed as a tacit admission that sanctions alone were not sufficient to effect change in Burma, recent statements and actions by Asean may indicate that their past policy of 'constructive engagement' had proven equally ineffective,” it said.
As a result, there may be an opportunity for Asean and the United States to confer and coordinate their policies towards Burma’s military government, the report said.
Some of the strongest supporters of Asean’s policy of 'constructive engagement', the CRS said, have been the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for slightly different reasons.
Thailand has had an ambivalent view of Burma, as its domestic unrest has had a more immediate adverse impact on Thailand. In addition, at the time of Burma’s admission to Asean, Thailand was emerging from a period of military coups.
However, the new civilian government in Thailand decided to support Burma’s admission and follow a policy of engagement. Under the Suharto regime, the Indonesian government shared some ideological views with Burma’s military government that led to its support of Burma’s Asean membership and closer relations, although Jakarta has taken a harder line as the country has democratized.
“Malaysia at the time was concerned about both Chinese and US influence in the region, and found similar views among Burma’s military rulers. The Singaporean government saw economic opportunity in closer relations with Burma, and for a time was a major supplier of equipment and arms for the Burmese military,” the CRS said in its report.
By LALIT K JHA - Friday, December 18, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC — A US Congressional report has said that Asean's official policy of “constructive engagement” with military rulers in Burma has proven to be ineffective.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) in its latest report “US Relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations”also noted that the proposed 2010 elections in Burma may prove critical to Asean’s future relationship with Burma.
“While few expect a free and fair election, if the results provide some space for opposition views in the government and indicate a possible shift in power to civilian rule, then Asean will likely continue its policy of modified 'constructive engagement',” said the CRS in the 24-page report.
An independent and bipartisan research wing of the US Congress, the CRS prepares reports on various issues for members of the US Congress.
“If, however, the election results provide only a veil of cover to the continuation of military rule, then Asean may be willing to consider adopting a policy closer to that of the Obama Administration,” the report said.
“The actions of Burma’s military in response to Burma’s last two national plebiscites—staging a military coup in 1990 and producing fraudulent results in 2008—may be indicative of how the elections of 2010 will be handled.
“In practice, under the new charter, Asean has shown a greater willingness to express its opinion about the situation in Burma,” it said.
In response to the conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi in August 2009, Asean’s chairman issued a statement expressing Asean’s “deep disappointment” at the verdict, calling for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and asserting that “such actions will contribute to national reconciliation among the people of Myanmar, meaningful dialogue and facilitate the democratization of Myanmar.”
In addition, the report said, Asean has indicated that the Burmese military’s treatment of opposition groups and ethnic minorities will affect how the election results will be perceived by the Asean.
Although Asean appears to be more willing to publicly criticize Burma’s military government, it has not shown a greater willingness to impose economic sanction on the country, it noted.
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are major trading partners with Burma, and may be reluctant to forswear the economic benefits of bilateral trade and investment.
Indonesia’s civilian government may be more willing to consider economic pressure on Burma, in part because of its history of military rule and in part because of its concern about Burma’s Muslim minority.
According to the report, the Obama administration’s revision of US policy towards Burma has coincided with a similar review by Asean of its stance on relations with the military junta.
“While the new US policy may be viewed as a tacit admission that sanctions alone were not sufficient to effect change in Burma, recent statements and actions by Asean may indicate that their past policy of 'constructive engagement' had proven equally ineffective,” it said.
As a result, there may be an opportunity for Asean and the United States to confer and coordinate their policies towards Burma’s military government, the report said.
Some of the strongest supporters of Asean’s policy of 'constructive engagement', the CRS said, have been the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for slightly different reasons.
Thailand has had an ambivalent view of Burma, as its domestic unrest has had a more immediate adverse impact on Thailand. In addition, at the time of Burma’s admission to Asean, Thailand was emerging from a period of military coups.
However, the new civilian government in Thailand decided to support Burma’s admission and follow a policy of engagement. Under the Suharto regime, the Indonesian government shared some ideological views with Burma’s military government that led to its support of Burma’s Asean membership and closer relations, although Jakarta has taken a harder line as the country has democratized.
“Malaysia at the time was concerned about both Chinese and US influence in the region, and found similar views among Burma’s military rulers. The Singaporean government saw economic opportunity in closer relations with Burma, and for a time was a major supplier of equipment and arms for the Burmese military,” the CRS said in its report.
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The Irrawaddy - DKBA 'Involved in Human Trafficking'
By ALEX ELLGEE / MAE SOT - Friday, December 18, 2009
It's early morning, and even the check points which guard the border roads are still closed as the sun rises above the hills and shines down on the Moi River, which separates Burma and Thailand.
The roar of an engine breaks the silence as a boat makes its way across the river from “Gate Zero,” a Thai checkpoint, to a border post on the other side, controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).
Within the next half hour six boats make the crossing, picking up goods—mostly bags of rice— from the Thai side and delivering to them to the DKBA checkpoint, where a group of about 20 unload the freight.
The bags of rice and other goods aren’t the only commodity traded across the Moi River. The Burmese migrants workers employed on its banks are also worth money to the traders, the brokers who find them work—and to the DKBA.
Kyaw Gyi was lured to southern Thailand by a broker who promised him a job in a fish processing factory. He was held captive by a fishing boat owner who forced him to work long hours to pay for the cost of bringing him to Thailand.
He and other migrants contacted the Labor Rights Protection Network (LPN) and appealed for help to return to Burma. The LPN intervened just as the migrants were being sold on to another fishing boat owner and the group were sent to the Thai-Burmese border for repatriation.
Kyaw Gi's ordeal wasn't yet over, however. When he arrived at the Thai-Burmese border the Thai authorities handed him over to the DKBA, which demanded payment for his release.
“I had no money and I didn’t have any family or friends to turn to for help” Kyaw Gyi said
“As a result, the DKBA gave me to their brokers and they sent me back to Thailand and sold me to a fishing boat owner where, again, I didn’t receive any money for my work.”
Ko Ko Aung, a labor activist in Mahachai, southern Thailand, told The Irrawaddy how hundreds of migrant workers undergo the same ordeal every week. Many of the penniless migrants who are handed to the DKBA end up being resold to Thai fishing boat captains to work in slave-like conditions.
“This system of handing them back to the DKBA is making so many problems for migrant workers,” said Ko Ko Aung. “Men are being trafficked into fishing boats and women into sex work.”
A solution to the problem will be difficult to find, according to LPN's Sompong Sakaew. Burmese authorities are reluctant to accept the returning migrant workers, he said. But Thai authorities also bear some responsibility, he maintained.
“Some Thai police are benefiting from the handing over of migrant workers,” Sompong told The Irrawaddy. “Even though many people know this and many NGOs are working to stop it, it will be hard to stop because it is a national problem.”
Sompong’s claim was supported by one of the brokers who work at the DKBA checkpoint. When asked by The Irrawaddy during an undercover phone call why he charged so much for the release of returning migrants he responded that he needed to pay both the DKBA and the Thai authorities.
Migrant workers who have been through the process report that when they arrive at the DKBA check point the brokers split them up according to their ethnicity. Their finger prints are taken, personal details are recorded and a release fee is calculated. Fees range from about 1,500 baht (US $4.70).
If migrants have to call home for the money they are kept in a simple, bamboo-built compound, where they are charged for their food and lodging. If they can't raise the money they are forced to work for the DKBA, according to Moe Swe, of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association office in the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot.
Than Sein, 23, was five months pregnant when she was arrested by Thai police in Bangkok, where she worked on a construction site. She spent the next four months sleeping on a prison floor without any proper medical care.
Shortly before the birth of her baby, she was loaded onto a truck with other detained migrant workers and driven to the border, where they were handed over to the DKBA.
“We told them I was nine months pregnant, but they didn't care,” she said. The DKBA demanded 12,000 baht ($370) to drive her to the Mae To Clinic in Mae Sot.
“We didn’t have any money so we were terrified that I would have to give birth in the DKBA camp, where there is no doctor or medicine,” she told The Irrawaddy. “To make matters worse, they kept telling us to find the money or they would send my husband to the frontline to be a porter.”
Social Action for Women (SAW), an NGO based on the Thai-Burma border, came to her aid and raised the money to get her to the clinic.
Kyaw Gyi and Than Sein fell victim to human traffickers despite Thailand's acceptance of the the Anti-Trafficking In Persons Act, B.E. 2551, which it signed in 2008.
“If Burmese migrants are being deported and handed over by Thai Immigration to DKBA forces in Mae Sot to be exploited and sold to brokers, this is a serious violation of the Anti-Human Trafficking legislation in Thailand,” said Paul Buckley of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP).
“UNIAP is greatly concerned by such reports. We work with the Thai government and partner non-government organizations to fight against such critical abuses of human rights and we will continue to develop appropriate responses with these partners.”
Andy Hall, director of the Migrant Justice Program at the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), told The Irrawaddy he believes that Thailand has a responsibility to create a system where migrants are not vulnerable to trafficking at the hands of the DKBA.
“Everybody knows that the Thai economy relies heavily on the 1 million-plus work force from Burma,” Hall said.
“It’s the Thai immigration and police who are making money out of bringing them in illegally so they have to take responsibility for them when they are sent back to the DKBA.
“The most important thing is for Thailand and Burma to work together to create an efficient system whereby all workers can enter the country legally, and be sent back officially,” he said.
By ALEX ELLGEE / MAE SOT - Friday, December 18, 2009
It's early morning, and even the check points which guard the border roads are still closed as the sun rises above the hills and shines down on the Moi River, which separates Burma and Thailand.
The roar of an engine breaks the silence as a boat makes its way across the river from “Gate Zero,” a Thai checkpoint, to a border post on the other side, controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).
Within the next half hour six boats make the crossing, picking up goods—mostly bags of rice— from the Thai side and delivering to them to the DKBA checkpoint, where a group of about 20 unload the freight.
The bags of rice and other goods aren’t the only commodity traded across the Moi River. The Burmese migrants workers employed on its banks are also worth money to the traders, the brokers who find them work—and to the DKBA.
Kyaw Gyi was lured to southern Thailand by a broker who promised him a job in a fish processing factory. He was held captive by a fishing boat owner who forced him to work long hours to pay for the cost of bringing him to Thailand.
He and other migrants contacted the Labor Rights Protection Network (LPN) and appealed for help to return to Burma. The LPN intervened just as the migrants were being sold on to another fishing boat owner and the group were sent to the Thai-Burmese border for repatriation.
Kyaw Gi's ordeal wasn't yet over, however. When he arrived at the Thai-Burmese border the Thai authorities handed him over to the DKBA, which demanded payment for his release.
“I had no money and I didn’t have any family or friends to turn to for help” Kyaw Gyi said
“As a result, the DKBA gave me to their brokers and they sent me back to Thailand and sold me to a fishing boat owner where, again, I didn’t receive any money for my work.”
Ko Ko Aung, a labor activist in Mahachai, southern Thailand, told The Irrawaddy how hundreds of migrant workers undergo the same ordeal every week. Many of the penniless migrants who are handed to the DKBA end up being resold to Thai fishing boat captains to work in slave-like conditions.
“This system of handing them back to the DKBA is making so many problems for migrant workers,” said Ko Ko Aung. “Men are being trafficked into fishing boats and women into sex work.”
A solution to the problem will be difficult to find, according to LPN's Sompong Sakaew. Burmese authorities are reluctant to accept the returning migrant workers, he said. But Thai authorities also bear some responsibility, he maintained.
“Some Thai police are benefiting from the handing over of migrant workers,” Sompong told The Irrawaddy. “Even though many people know this and many NGOs are working to stop it, it will be hard to stop because it is a national problem.”
Sompong’s claim was supported by one of the brokers who work at the DKBA checkpoint. When asked by The Irrawaddy during an undercover phone call why he charged so much for the release of returning migrants he responded that he needed to pay both the DKBA and the Thai authorities.
Migrant workers who have been through the process report that when they arrive at the DKBA check point the brokers split them up according to their ethnicity. Their finger prints are taken, personal details are recorded and a release fee is calculated. Fees range from about 1,500 baht (US $4.70).
If migrants have to call home for the money they are kept in a simple, bamboo-built compound, where they are charged for their food and lodging. If they can't raise the money they are forced to work for the DKBA, according to Moe Swe, of the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association office in the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot.
Than Sein, 23, was five months pregnant when she was arrested by Thai police in Bangkok, where she worked on a construction site. She spent the next four months sleeping on a prison floor without any proper medical care.
Shortly before the birth of her baby, she was loaded onto a truck with other detained migrant workers and driven to the border, where they were handed over to the DKBA.
“We told them I was nine months pregnant, but they didn't care,” she said. The DKBA demanded 12,000 baht ($370) to drive her to the Mae To Clinic in Mae Sot.
“We didn’t have any money so we were terrified that I would have to give birth in the DKBA camp, where there is no doctor or medicine,” she told The Irrawaddy. “To make matters worse, they kept telling us to find the money or they would send my husband to the frontline to be a porter.”
Social Action for Women (SAW), an NGO based on the Thai-Burma border, came to her aid and raised the money to get her to the clinic.
Kyaw Gyi and Than Sein fell victim to human traffickers despite Thailand's acceptance of the the Anti-Trafficking In Persons Act, B.E. 2551, which it signed in 2008.
“If Burmese migrants are being deported and handed over by Thai Immigration to DKBA forces in Mae Sot to be exploited and sold to brokers, this is a serious violation of the Anti-Human Trafficking legislation in Thailand,” said Paul Buckley of the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP).
“UNIAP is greatly concerned by such reports. We work with the Thai government and partner non-government organizations to fight against such critical abuses of human rights and we will continue to develop appropriate responses with these partners.”
Andy Hall, director of the Migrant Justice Program at the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), told The Irrawaddy he believes that Thailand has a responsibility to create a system where migrants are not vulnerable to trafficking at the hands of the DKBA.
“Everybody knows that the Thai economy relies heavily on the 1 million-plus work force from Burma,” Hall said.
“It’s the Thai immigration and police who are making money out of bringing them in illegally so they have to take responsibility for them when they are sent back to the DKBA.
“The most important thing is for Thailand and Burma to work together to create an efficient system whereby all workers can enter the country legally, and be sent back officially,” he said.
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Ethnic leaders welcomed NLD leadership reformation
Friday, 18 December 2009 15:20
Friday, 18 December 2009 15:20
Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Ethnic political leaders in Burma on Thursday welcomed leaders of the National League for Democracy party’s consideration reforming party leadership.
NLD Chairman Aung Shwe, Secretary U Lwin, central executive committee member Lun Tin and detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday, during a rare meeting arranged by the government, discussed on reforming party leadership as many of the CEC are ageing and a few ailing.
“Aung Shwe, Lun Tin and U Lwin all agreed to Daw Suu’s suggestion of reforming party leadership, which is a good sign and we welcome it. The party needs younger generation as we do not know how long our struggle will continue,” Thakhin Chan Tun, a veteran politician in Rangoon, told Mizzima.
Aye Thar Aung, secretary of the Committee for Representing People’s Parliament’ (CRPP), a group formed with members of parliament elected in 1990 elections, said, “We welcome the meeting between the NLD CEC members. We know that the CEC will be expanded with new members. It is a good sign as a first step.”
Similarly, Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress (ZNC), said, “NLD is the biggest and strongest party in Burma. Many have said aging and inactive leaders should retire. It is good to see Daw Suu paying her respects to the three elderly leaders and they agreeing to her proposal. I think it is not only for the party, it’s also good for our country.”
The Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate on Wednesday was granted her request to allow her to pay respect to three of the NLD’s aging leaders Seinlea Kan Thar state guest house. The NLD leaders met for about an hour, where detained party general secretary proposed of reforming party CEC. Reportedly, all the three aging leaders agreed to her proposal.
For the past nearly two decades, the 1990 election winning party the NLD is served by the 92 year-old chairman U Aung Shwe, 88 year-old CEC member U Lun Tin and 85 year-old secretary U Lwin.
“Those ageing leaders and in frail health should retire, as they cannot carry their duties effectively. Active and capable persons should be inducted in the leadership and the elderly leaders should advise the new leaders,” Thakin Chan Tun suggested.
“The leadership should be expanded by inducting capable and smart youths replacing frail and inactive aging leaders. This is routine in any party. We hope, in this way, the party will become dynamic and can work effectively for democracy and Burma,” Aye Thar Aung said.
The three party leaders Aung Shwe, U Lwin, and Lun Tin are currently joined in the CEC by General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, Vice-Chairman Tin Oo, who is also currently under house arrest, members Win Tin, Than Tun, Thakin Soe Myint, Hla Pe, Nyunt Wei and U Khin Maung Swe.
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Ethnic political leaders in Burma on Thursday welcomed leaders of the National League for Democracy party’s consideration reforming party leadership.
NLD Chairman Aung Shwe, Secretary U Lwin, central executive committee member Lun Tin and detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday, during a rare meeting arranged by the government, discussed on reforming party leadership as many of the CEC are ageing and a few ailing.
“Aung Shwe, Lun Tin and U Lwin all agreed to Daw Suu’s suggestion of reforming party leadership, which is a good sign and we welcome it. The party needs younger generation as we do not know how long our struggle will continue,” Thakhin Chan Tun, a veteran politician in Rangoon, told Mizzima.
Aye Thar Aung, secretary of the Committee for Representing People’s Parliament’ (CRPP), a group formed with members of parliament elected in 1990 elections, said, “We welcome the meeting between the NLD CEC members. We know that the CEC will be expanded with new members. It is a good sign as a first step.”
Similarly, Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress (ZNC), said, “NLD is the biggest and strongest party in Burma. Many have said aging and inactive leaders should retire. It is good to see Daw Suu paying her respects to the three elderly leaders and they agreeing to her proposal. I think it is not only for the party, it’s also good for our country.”
The Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate on Wednesday was granted her request to allow her to pay respect to three of the NLD’s aging leaders Seinlea Kan Thar state guest house. The NLD leaders met for about an hour, where detained party general secretary proposed of reforming party CEC. Reportedly, all the three aging leaders agreed to her proposal.
For the past nearly two decades, the 1990 election winning party the NLD is served by the 92 year-old chairman U Aung Shwe, 88 year-old CEC member U Lun Tin and 85 year-old secretary U Lwin.
“Those ageing leaders and in frail health should retire, as they cannot carry their duties effectively. Active and capable persons should be inducted in the leadership and the elderly leaders should advise the new leaders,” Thakin Chan Tun suggested.
“The leadership should be expanded by inducting capable and smart youths replacing frail and inactive aging leaders. This is routine in any party. We hope, in this way, the party will become dynamic and can work effectively for democracy and Burma,” Aye Thar Aung said.
The three party leaders Aung Shwe, U Lwin, and Lun Tin are currently joined in the CEC by General Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, Vice-Chairman Tin Oo, who is also currently under house arrest, members Win Tin, Than Tun, Thakin Soe Myint, Hla Pe, Nyunt Wei and U Khin Maung Swe.
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Editorial: Is Stiglitz speaking the obvious to deaf ears?
Dec 17, 2009 (DVB)–The renowned US economist Joseph Stiglitz has spelt out a path to revive Burma, ‘the rice bowl of Asia’, with doses of the obvious that appear diametrically opposed to the policies of the ruling junta.
In a presentation delivered to government officials and seen by DVB, he outlines the need for education, health and property rights in Burma, with an emphasis on ‘protecting the vulnerable’.
Stiglitz will know that Burma has one of the lowest per capita investments in health and education anywhere in the world. Economists meanwhile regularly scathe about the lack of security in Burmese property rights and the financial system that underpins sound economic growth.
“It is my hope these ideas and analysis will open a new space for policy discussion and a further deepening of our development partnership,” UN under secretary general Noeleen Heyzer said at the event in Naypyidaw.
Indeed, Stiglitz also called for “transparent rules and regulations [and] level playing fields”, both of which are a state of affairs that will be alien to the two ministers in audience, one agriculture, one economic development, and a point sadly deemed too offensive for the junta mouth piece New Light of Myanmar newspaper in its report of the meeting. He also added that “politics and economics cannot be fully separated in any country” before highlighting Burma’s vast gas reserves, a so-called “good fortune”.
It is this point that he elaborates on later in his presentation. He refers to the “natural resources curse”, more commonly seen in Africa, where quick profits are utilised by an elite to dominate a society, by selling off raw materials and neglecting to invest in development. He adds that this is a common state of affairs in countries like Burma, but says that there are exceptions. “If a country doesn’t reinvest wealth below ground above ground, growth is not sustainable,” he says.
The Burmese junta has shown no inclination to do what Stiglitz suggests; indeed it has deliberately shunned advice from the international community, including fellow American economist Jeffrey Sachs who visited Burma in 2004, to restructure its economy to benefit the poor. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are channeled out of the country, while it ranks ever lower on global poverty indicators.
Stiglitz may well have the right ideas, but he stands before the wrong audience. It is whether he can articulate well enough the message that both parties – the junta and the people – stand to gain from a strong economy that will really distinguish between a fruitless visit and a glimmer of progress.
Dec 17, 2009 (DVB)–The renowned US economist Joseph Stiglitz has spelt out a path to revive Burma, ‘the rice bowl of Asia’, with doses of the obvious that appear diametrically opposed to the policies of the ruling junta.
In a presentation delivered to government officials and seen by DVB, he outlines the need for education, health and property rights in Burma, with an emphasis on ‘protecting the vulnerable’.
Stiglitz will know that Burma has one of the lowest per capita investments in health and education anywhere in the world. Economists meanwhile regularly scathe about the lack of security in Burmese property rights and the financial system that underpins sound economic growth.
“It is my hope these ideas and analysis will open a new space for policy discussion and a further deepening of our development partnership,” UN under secretary general Noeleen Heyzer said at the event in Naypyidaw.
Indeed, Stiglitz also called for “transparent rules and regulations [and] level playing fields”, both of which are a state of affairs that will be alien to the two ministers in audience, one agriculture, one economic development, and a point sadly deemed too offensive for the junta mouth piece New Light of Myanmar newspaper in its report of the meeting. He also added that “politics and economics cannot be fully separated in any country” before highlighting Burma’s vast gas reserves, a so-called “good fortune”.
It is this point that he elaborates on later in his presentation. He refers to the “natural resources curse”, more commonly seen in Africa, where quick profits are utilised by an elite to dominate a society, by selling off raw materials and neglecting to invest in development. He adds that this is a common state of affairs in countries like Burma, but says that there are exceptions. “If a country doesn’t reinvest wealth below ground above ground, growth is not sustainable,” he says.
The Burmese junta has shown no inclination to do what Stiglitz suggests; indeed it has deliberately shunned advice from the international community, including fellow American economist Jeffrey Sachs who visited Burma in 2004, to restructure its economy to benefit the poor. Meanwhile, billions of dollars are channeled out of the country, while it ranks ever lower on global poverty indicators.
Stiglitz may well have the right ideas, but he stands before the wrong audience. It is whether he can articulate well enough the message that both parties – the junta and the people – stand to gain from a strong economy that will really distinguish between a fruitless visit and a glimmer of progress.
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