Myanmar court jails US man for three years: lawyer
Wed Feb 10, 2:33 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A Myanmar court on Wednesday sentenced a US citizen to three years in prison for fraud and forgery, his lawyer told AFP, despite calls by 50 US lawmakers for his release.
Rights activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was sentenced to three years in jail for forging an identity card, one year for failing to declare currency at customs and one year for violating immigration law.
"He has to serve the prison terms concurrently," said his lawyer Nyan Win, who also represents the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We will appeal the sentence," he added.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested in September and a verdict for the 40-year-old had been expected late last month but the court delayed the ruling.
Washington DC-based rights group Freedom Now immediately condemned the verdict.
"Nyi Nyi Aung has been illegally and unjustly convicted on sham charges because of his tireless advocacy for democracy and human rights in Burma," the group's president Jared Genser said in a statement, using the country's former name.
The group called on the US government to make the activist's release a priority, amid a faltering rapprochement in its relations with the Myanmar regime.
In December, more than 50 US lawmakers wrote to junta chief Than Shwe, urging him to release the Myanmar-born detainee from prison amid health worries.
New York-based Human Rights watch has also called for his release and said the charges -- which Kyaw Zaw Lwin denied -- were "trumped-up" by the regime in Myanmar.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's supporters said he had visited the country in the hope of seeing his ailing mother, herself detained over political activities, when he was arrested on September 3.
His lawyers say he was deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US consular access in his first two weeks of detention.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's fiancee and his Washington-based lawyer said in December he had gone on a hunger strike to demand better conditions for political prisoners and was in deteriorating health.
The military regime has continued to crackdown on dissenting voices as it plans for national elections this year.
In late January the courts gave a 13-year jail term to journalist Ngwe Soe Lin who worked for exiled media, and in December, 25-year-old freelance video reporter Hla Hla Win was imprisoned for 20 years on similar charges.
Democracy icon Suu Kyi on Tuesday told her lawyer Nyan Win that it is too early for her party to decide whether to take part in Myanmar's polls while there is no freedom of expression and information.
The elections have been promised for this year but no date has yet been set and critics say the plans are simply to entrench the generals' power.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and an election this year would be the country's first since 1990 when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won by a landslide but was never permitted to take office.
The military regime has defied persistent international appeals by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the past two decades.
Wed Feb 10, 2:33 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A Myanmar court on Wednesday sentenced a US citizen to three years in prison for fraud and forgery, his lawyer told AFP, despite calls by 50 US lawmakers for his release.
Rights activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was sentenced to three years in jail for forging an identity card, one year for failing to declare currency at customs and one year for violating immigration law.
"He has to serve the prison terms concurrently," said his lawyer Nyan Win, who also represents the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We will appeal the sentence," he added.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin was arrested in September and a verdict for the 40-year-old had been expected late last month but the court delayed the ruling.
Washington DC-based rights group Freedom Now immediately condemned the verdict.
"Nyi Nyi Aung has been illegally and unjustly convicted on sham charges because of his tireless advocacy for democracy and human rights in Burma," the group's president Jared Genser said in a statement, using the country's former name.
The group called on the US government to make the activist's release a priority, amid a faltering rapprochement in its relations with the Myanmar regime.
In December, more than 50 US lawmakers wrote to junta chief Than Shwe, urging him to release the Myanmar-born detainee from prison amid health worries.
New York-based Human Rights watch has also called for his release and said the charges -- which Kyaw Zaw Lwin denied -- were "trumped-up" by the regime in Myanmar.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's supporters said he had visited the country in the hope of seeing his ailing mother, herself detained over political activities, when he was arrested on September 3.
His lawyers say he was deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US consular access in his first two weeks of detention.
Kyaw Zaw Lwin's fiancee and his Washington-based lawyer said in December he had gone on a hunger strike to demand better conditions for political prisoners and was in deteriorating health.
The military regime has continued to crackdown on dissenting voices as it plans for national elections this year.
In late January the courts gave a 13-year jail term to journalist Ngwe Soe Lin who worked for exiled media, and in December, 25-year-old freelance video reporter Hla Hla Win was imprisoned for 20 years on similar charges.
Democracy icon Suu Kyi on Tuesday told her lawyer Nyan Win that it is too early for her party to decide whether to take part in Myanmar's polls while there is no freedom of expression and information.
The elections have been promised for this year but no date has yet been set and critics say the plans are simply to entrench the generals' power.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and an election this year would be the country's first since 1990 when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won by a landslide but was never permitted to take office.
The military regime has defied persistent international appeals by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the past two decades.
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi undecided on junta's elections
Wed Feb 10, 8:05 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says that the military-run country's upcoming elections cannot be credible unless the government allows freedom of information, her party said Wednesday.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate — who is serving a new 18-month sentence of house arrest — also said she hasn't decided whether her party will contest this year's planned polls, said Nyan Win, her lawyer and spokesman for her National League for Democracy party.
"Aung San Suu Kyi said if freedom of information and freedom of expression are not allowed, the elections will neither be free nor fair nor credible," said Nyan Win, who met Suu Kyi at her house Tuesday.
Myanmar's military government has said it will hold a general election this year, but has not yet set an exact date or passed the necessary laws. Suu Kyi's party won the last election in 1990, but the military refused to allow it to take power.
The junta tightly controls information in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
An election boycott by the NLD would deal a blow to the government's promotion of the polls as part of a "roadmap to democracy."
Suu Kyi's party has not yet committed itself to taking part in the polls because it claims the new constitution of 2008 is unfair. It has clauses that would ensure that the military remains the controlling power in government, and would bar Suu Kyi from holding office.
Nyan Win said Wednesday that Suu Kyi said she cannot decide whether her party should take part in elections as long as she is under house arrest.
"Aung San Suu Kyi said she is in no condition to decide whether the NLD should participate in the elections or not as she cannot follow up on her decision if she remains detained," said Nyan Win.
Suu Kyi's position does not necessarily rule out her party taking part in the polls, since other party officials could make the decision to contest the election. Nyan Win pointed out that that in 1990 elections, which also were held while she was under house arrest, the National League for Democracy decided to take part in elections during her absence and she supported the party's decision.
According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi also said the international community should understand that the elections in Myanmar cannot be considered as similar to those in other countries "as everything has to start from scratch," without any new parties being approved yet and her own party not yet allowed to reopen its district offices.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, was convicted last August of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home. She was sentenced to 18 months' house arrest, less three months spent in detention awaiting the end of her trial.
Wed Feb 10, 8:05 am ET
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says that the military-run country's upcoming elections cannot be credible unless the government allows freedom of information, her party said Wednesday.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate — who is serving a new 18-month sentence of house arrest — also said she hasn't decided whether her party will contest this year's planned polls, said Nyan Win, her lawyer and spokesman for her National League for Democracy party.
"Aung San Suu Kyi said if freedom of information and freedom of expression are not allowed, the elections will neither be free nor fair nor credible," said Nyan Win, who met Suu Kyi at her house Tuesday.
Myanmar's military government has said it will hold a general election this year, but has not yet set an exact date or passed the necessary laws. Suu Kyi's party won the last election in 1990, but the military refused to allow it to take power.
The junta tightly controls information in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
An election boycott by the NLD would deal a blow to the government's promotion of the polls as part of a "roadmap to democracy."
Suu Kyi's party has not yet committed itself to taking part in the polls because it claims the new constitution of 2008 is unfair. It has clauses that would ensure that the military remains the controlling power in government, and would bar Suu Kyi from holding office.
Nyan Win said Wednesday that Suu Kyi said she cannot decide whether her party should take part in elections as long as she is under house arrest.
"Aung San Suu Kyi said she is in no condition to decide whether the NLD should participate in the elections or not as she cannot follow up on her decision if she remains detained," said Nyan Win.
Suu Kyi's position does not necessarily rule out her party taking part in the polls, since other party officials could make the decision to contest the election. Nyan Win pointed out that that in 1990 elections, which also were held while she was under house arrest, the National League for Democracy decided to take part in elections during her absence and she supported the party's decision.
According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi also said the international community should understand that the elections in Myanmar cannot be considered as similar to those in other countries "as everything has to start from scratch," without any new parties being approved yet and her own party not yet allowed to reopen its district offices.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, was convicted last August of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home. She was sentenced to 18 months' house arrest, less three months spent in detention awaiting the end of her trial.
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Security tight as Myanmar workers strike in Yangon
tightens security in industrial zone as workers strike at factories
On Wednesday February 10, 2010, 12:33 pm
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military government tightened security Wednesday at an industrial zone in Yangon where factory workers were staging a rare strike for better pay.
Protests of any kind are unusual in Myanmar, where the junta does not tolerate dissent.
Authorities used barbed wire barricades to block roads leading to the factories in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone in the city's northeast, and more than 50 truckloads of riot police carrying batons and shields were deployed and at least six fire engines and five prison vans were parked near the factories.
Workers at the Taiyee shoe factory and the Opal 2 garment factory began protests Monday calling for higher daily wages, overtime payments and several other demands, said an official from the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The labor action spread to the Kya Lay garment factory on Tuesday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The workers, mostly women, staged protests outside the factories and inside a factory compound, where they sat down and refused to work. The three factories employ a total of about 3,600 workers.
The official said factory owners and Labor Ministry officials were trying to settle the dispute, and some factories near those on strike had been closed to prevent the labor agitation from spreading.
Myanmar has about 150 foreign and locally owned garment factories employing nearly 60,000 workers, according to Myint Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Garment Association. About 120 of the factories export their products, he said.
Myint Soe said Myanmar's garment industry earned $380 million from exports in 2008 but revenues dropped sharply last year because of the global financial crisis.
tightens security in industrial zone as workers strike at factories
On Wednesday February 10, 2010, 12:33 pm
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military government tightened security Wednesday at an industrial zone in Yangon where factory workers were staging a rare strike for better pay.
Protests of any kind are unusual in Myanmar, where the junta does not tolerate dissent.
Authorities used barbed wire barricades to block roads leading to the factories in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone in the city's northeast, and more than 50 truckloads of riot police carrying batons and shields were deployed and at least six fire engines and five prison vans were parked near the factories.
Workers at the Taiyee shoe factory and the Opal 2 garment factory began protests Monday calling for higher daily wages, overtime payments and several other demands, said an official from the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The labor action spread to the Kya Lay garment factory on Tuesday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The workers, mostly women, staged protests outside the factories and inside a factory compound, where they sat down and refused to work. The three factories employ a total of about 3,600 workers.
The official said factory owners and Labor Ministry officials were trying to settle the dispute, and some factories near those on strike had been closed to prevent the labor agitation from spreading.
Myanmar has about 150 foreign and locally owned garment factories employing nearly 60,000 workers, according to Myint Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Garment Association. About 120 of the factories export their products, he said.
Myint Soe said Myanmar's garment industry earned $380 million from exports in 2008 but revenues dropped sharply last year because of the global financial crisis.
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Elections mean nothing to Myanmar's ethnic armies
Wed Feb 10, 6:25 am ET
LOI TAI LENG, Myanmar (Reuters) – Whether the country is ruled by brutal military dictators or democratically elected civilians, rebels who control this jungle enclave have made one thing very clear: they want nothing to do with Myanmar.
The country once known as Burma is preparing for its first elections in 20 years, the final step in a democratic "road map" it says will end almost half a century of unbroken army rule.
But the ethnic groups who have fought for more than 50 years to defend this mountainous region sandwiched between Thailand and China have little interest in the political process.
Myanmar, they say, has never been their country.
"We are Shan, we are not Burmese. We have a different language, a different culture," said Yawdmuang, the Shan State army's foreign affairs chief.
"We will not participate in elections -- they are their elections," he said.
The views of this group are echoed by other ethnic armies in Myanmar, which have also resisted the military regime's demands to disarm, transfer their fighters to a government-run Border Guard Force (BGF) and join the political process.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta calls itself, has failed to assert its control over the ethnic groups but wants to claim the entire country is behind its elections, a date for which has not yet been set.
The polls have already been derided as a sham by critics. They say the generals, who ignored the result of the 1990 elections, will continue to wield power from behind the scenes.
But after years of bloody conflict and deep distrust, the junta's pledges of autonomy in return for their cooperation ring hollow and have cut little ice among these ethnic groups.
"We cannot work with the SPDC, we are their enemies," Yawdmuang said. "We are prepared to talk but the SPDC cannot accept our proposal. They say we must lay down our weapons, nothing else."
Huge crowds of Shan people gathered on a remote mountain plateau to watch well-trained and disciplined troops celebrate the state's 63rd National Day on February 7 with a parade of pomp and military might to rival the junta's vast "Tatmadaw" armed forces.
ALL-OUT CONFLICT
The Shan accept their refusal to play ball with Myanmar's stubborn generals could lead to an all-out conflict with the Tatmadaw, which has so far convinced, or forced, six smaller armed groups to join their BGF.
Compared with mainstream Myanmar people, the Shan say they have their freedom and enjoy their self-sufficient existence, trading with other groups and neighboring countries and running their own communities with farms, schools, and hospitals.
They are not prepared to give that up.
"We've been fighting for our independence for more than 50 years and we won't stop until we win," said Lieutenant-General Yawd Serk, the long-serving chief of the Shan State Army (SSA).
"We will try to negotiate. But if this fails, we have no other option than to settle this with military means."
Analysts and diplomats say the biggest hurdle preventing the junta from seizing control is the neighboring United Wa State Army, a battle-hardened force dismissed as warlords and drugs barons by the United States.
Once backed by China, the Wa has an estimated 36,000 troops with arms funded by revenues generated from the sale of opium used to make heroin. Analysts say a conflict with the Wa, whose territory borders Myanmar's key economic ally, China, could be protracted and bloody and would spark a refugee crisis.
The Wa have long been in conflict with other ethnic groups but with the junta's mooted February 28 disarmament deadline approaching, the far smaller SSA now faces a big dilemma.
Despite its strict anti-narcotics stance, it realizes it needs to bury the hatchet and form an alliance with the Wa -- or face the full force of the Myanmar army alone.
"The junta is their enemy, it is our enemy and to survive against them, we must have unity," Yawdmuang said.
"Our aims are the same, we can work together. We can let bygones be bygones if the Wa accept our anti-narcotics policy.
"But if they don't accept it, we cannot have unity," he said.
Wed Feb 10, 6:25 am ET
LOI TAI LENG, Myanmar (Reuters) – Whether the country is ruled by brutal military dictators or democratically elected civilians, rebels who control this jungle enclave have made one thing very clear: they want nothing to do with Myanmar.
The country once known as Burma is preparing for its first elections in 20 years, the final step in a democratic "road map" it says will end almost half a century of unbroken army rule.
But the ethnic groups who have fought for more than 50 years to defend this mountainous region sandwiched between Thailand and China have little interest in the political process.
Myanmar, they say, has never been their country.
"We are Shan, we are not Burmese. We have a different language, a different culture," said Yawdmuang, the Shan State army's foreign affairs chief.
"We will not participate in elections -- they are their elections," he said.
The views of this group are echoed by other ethnic armies in Myanmar, which have also resisted the military regime's demands to disarm, transfer their fighters to a government-run Border Guard Force (BGF) and join the political process.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta calls itself, has failed to assert its control over the ethnic groups but wants to claim the entire country is behind its elections, a date for which has not yet been set.
The polls have already been derided as a sham by critics. They say the generals, who ignored the result of the 1990 elections, will continue to wield power from behind the scenes.
But after years of bloody conflict and deep distrust, the junta's pledges of autonomy in return for their cooperation ring hollow and have cut little ice among these ethnic groups.
"We cannot work with the SPDC, we are their enemies," Yawdmuang said. "We are prepared to talk but the SPDC cannot accept our proposal. They say we must lay down our weapons, nothing else."
Huge crowds of Shan people gathered on a remote mountain plateau to watch well-trained and disciplined troops celebrate the state's 63rd National Day on February 7 with a parade of pomp and military might to rival the junta's vast "Tatmadaw" armed forces.
ALL-OUT CONFLICT
The Shan accept their refusal to play ball with Myanmar's stubborn generals could lead to an all-out conflict with the Tatmadaw, which has so far convinced, or forced, six smaller armed groups to join their BGF.
Compared with mainstream Myanmar people, the Shan say they have their freedom and enjoy their self-sufficient existence, trading with other groups and neighboring countries and running their own communities with farms, schools, and hospitals.
They are not prepared to give that up.
"We've been fighting for our independence for more than 50 years and we won't stop until we win," said Lieutenant-General Yawd Serk, the long-serving chief of the Shan State Army (SSA).
"We will try to negotiate. But if this fails, we have no other option than to settle this with military means."
Analysts and diplomats say the biggest hurdle preventing the junta from seizing control is the neighboring United Wa State Army, a battle-hardened force dismissed as warlords and drugs barons by the United States.
Once backed by China, the Wa has an estimated 36,000 troops with arms funded by revenues generated from the sale of opium used to make heroin. Analysts say a conflict with the Wa, whose territory borders Myanmar's key economic ally, China, could be protracted and bloody and would spark a refugee crisis.
The Wa have long been in conflict with other ethnic groups but with the junta's mooted February 28 disarmament deadline approaching, the far smaller SSA now faces a big dilemma.
Despite its strict anti-narcotics stance, it realizes it needs to bury the hatchet and form an alliance with the Wa -- or face the full force of the Myanmar army alone.
"The junta is their enemy, it is our enemy and to survive against them, we must have unity," Yawdmuang said.
"Our aims are the same, we can work together. We can let bygones be bygones if the Wa accept our anti-narcotics policy.
"But if they don't accept it, we cannot have unity," he said.
*************************************************************
Facing rampant inflation, Myanmar turns to bartering
By Aung Hla Tun – Wed Feb 10, 4:42 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Faced with a shortage of small banknotes, people in Myanmar are resorting to bartering cigarettes, shampoo and other items.
The bartering illustrates the effects of sanctions on one of the world's most isolated, repressive countries, along with surging inflation and the military junta's curious decision to stop printing small notes, experts say.
"How shall I give it to you? You want coffee-mix, cigarettes, tissues, sweets or what?"
That question is heard often in shops and restaurants in the former Burma, where coins and small notes disappeared years ago and other notes have now started to follow suit.
State banks were main source of small notes for shop-owners, but they stopped issuing new currency several years ago. Today, beggars who collect money on the street now provide shops with the bulk of their small notes, often in return for food.
Rampant inflation also plays a role. Consumer prices rose by an average 24 percent a year between 2005 and 2008, according to the Asian Development Bank. That has taken a toll on Myanmar's currency, the kyat.
Officially, the kyat is pegged at 5.5 per dollar. But it fetches nowhere near that, trading instead at about 1,000 per dollar. The cost of printing small notes is now far more expensive than the face value of the notes themselves.
A Yangon government high school teacher said most of her pupils had never even seen coins or small notes.
SWEET CURRENCIES
In the commercial capital, Yangon, 100 kyat (around 10 U.S. cents) is worth a sachet of coffee-mix or a small container of shampoo. Tissue packets or a cigarette or sweets are the equivalent of 50 kyat.
"The shopkeeper gave me three sweets for change of 150 kyat when I bought a bottle of cough mixture last week," said Ba Aye, a Yangon taxi driver.
"When I told her that sweets would make my cough worse, she offered me a Thai-made gas lighter. When I said 'I don't smoke', she then asked me to accept three packets of tissues that would be useful for my runny nose."
General-store owner Daw Khin Aye said most of her customers preferred small items like sweets to notes.
"The small notes that are in circulation are in very bad shape -- worn out, torn, stained, dirty and in most cases stuck with tape," she said.
In Sittwe, the capital of western Rakhine State, teashop owners manufacture their own coupons to use as currency.
"It's far more convenient to use these self-circulated notes instead of small items," teashop owner Ko Aung Khine said.
"But you need to make sure coupons can't be forged. Mostly we use a computer to print it with the name of the shop, face value and signature of the shop owner," he added.
Officially there are 13 denominations of notes in circulation -- starting from 50 pya (one cent) up to 5,000 kyat. But only the three big notes (200, 500 and 1,000 kyat) are common. The rest are growing scarcer by the month.
"So far as I know, they print only 1,000 kyat notes now," said a retired economist from Yangon University. "The cost of printing is far higher than the face value of most small notes... so they now print just the biggest ones."
How much money is in circulation is anyone's guess. Myanmar has not publicly released money supply data since 1996-97, when it put the value at 179.82 billion kyat.
Asked by Reuters for the latest figure, a senior government official replied: "We cannot tell you. It's a state secret."
By Aung Hla Tun – Wed Feb 10, 4:42 am ET
YANGON (Reuters) – Faced with a shortage of small banknotes, people in Myanmar are resorting to bartering cigarettes, shampoo and other items.
The bartering illustrates the effects of sanctions on one of the world's most isolated, repressive countries, along with surging inflation and the military junta's curious decision to stop printing small notes, experts say.
"How shall I give it to you? You want coffee-mix, cigarettes, tissues, sweets or what?"
That question is heard often in shops and restaurants in the former Burma, where coins and small notes disappeared years ago and other notes have now started to follow suit.
State banks were main source of small notes for shop-owners, but they stopped issuing new currency several years ago. Today, beggars who collect money on the street now provide shops with the bulk of their small notes, often in return for food.
Rampant inflation also plays a role. Consumer prices rose by an average 24 percent a year between 2005 and 2008, according to the Asian Development Bank. That has taken a toll on Myanmar's currency, the kyat.
Officially, the kyat is pegged at 5.5 per dollar. But it fetches nowhere near that, trading instead at about 1,000 per dollar. The cost of printing small notes is now far more expensive than the face value of the notes themselves.
A Yangon government high school teacher said most of her pupils had never even seen coins or small notes.
SWEET CURRENCIES
In the commercial capital, Yangon, 100 kyat (around 10 U.S. cents) is worth a sachet of coffee-mix or a small container of shampoo. Tissue packets or a cigarette or sweets are the equivalent of 50 kyat.
"The shopkeeper gave me three sweets for change of 150 kyat when I bought a bottle of cough mixture last week," said Ba Aye, a Yangon taxi driver.
"When I told her that sweets would make my cough worse, she offered me a Thai-made gas lighter. When I said 'I don't smoke', she then asked me to accept three packets of tissues that would be useful for my runny nose."
General-store owner Daw Khin Aye said most of her customers preferred small items like sweets to notes.
"The small notes that are in circulation are in very bad shape -- worn out, torn, stained, dirty and in most cases stuck with tape," she said.
In Sittwe, the capital of western Rakhine State, teashop owners manufacture their own coupons to use as currency.
"It's far more convenient to use these self-circulated notes instead of small items," teashop owner Ko Aung Khine said.
"But you need to make sure coupons can't be forged. Mostly we use a computer to print it with the name of the shop, face value and signature of the shop owner," he added.
Officially there are 13 denominations of notes in circulation -- starting from 50 pya (one cent) up to 5,000 kyat. But only the three big notes (200, 500 and 1,000 kyat) are common. The rest are growing scarcer by the month.
"So far as I know, they print only 1,000 kyat notes now," said a retired economist from Yangon University. "The cost of printing is far higher than the face value of most small notes... so they now print just the biggest ones."
How much money is in circulation is anyone's guess. Myanmar has not publicly released money supply data since 1996-97, when it put the value at 179.82 billion kyat.
Asked by Reuters for the latest figure, a senior government official replied: "We cannot tell you. It's a state secret."
*************************************************************
Q+A - Will Myanmar's ethnic groups agree to junta deal?
6 hours 58 mins ago
by Martin Petty
(Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar wants ethnic groups to take part in this year's elections, the first in two decades, but most do not trust the regime and are refusing to join the political process. Skip related content
WHY DOES THE JUNTA WANT ETHNIC GROUPS TO TAKE PART?
Despite holding a tight grip on power for almost 50 years, the military has never had control over rebellious ethnic groups along its borders with Thailand and China, many of which have their own governments and armies and have enjoyed a degree of unofficial autonomy for decades.
Their participation would help the junta claim the country was fully behind its elections, which critics say are a sham that will create a facade of civilian rule, with the top generals still pulling the strings.
IS THERE A DEAL ON THE TABLE?
In April last year the government asked the groups to take part in the election process, offering a degree of self-rule if they disarm and instruct their militias to join a national Border Guard Force (BGF) under the control of the army.
However, most groups have refused, saying they have nothing to gain. For months, these groups have been expecting an offensive by government troops to force them to disarm and hand over control of their territory to Yangon.
HAVE ANY GROUPS JOINED THE PROCESS?
In August 2009, the Kokang Group, the weakest of the rebel armies in Shan State, was overpowered in a bloody offensive by the Myanmar army. About 800 fighters surrendered and joined the BGF, while an estimated 37,000 people flooded into neighbouring China, turning once thriving trade posts into ghost towns.
A local administration was immediately installed in the ethnic Chinese enclave. The junta said the group had "agreed" to take part in the election and would be granted autonomy later.
Of the 12 ethnic armies that agreed cease-fire deals with the junta 20 years ago, half have said they will join the BGF, according to the Thai-based Shan Herald News Agency. They are the smallest of the armies, with 150 to 5,000 fighters each.
The junta had given them until the end of February to disarm, according to activist groups with connections in Shan State.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF MORE FIGHTING?
Exiled activist groups say the Myanmar military has a sizable presence in Shan and Kachin states, but analysts and diplomats are split on whether it will launch offensives on other groups and risk a drawn-out conflict before or during the polls.
Another eruption of violence would further strain ties with China, its biggest economic ally, as a mass exodus of refugees into neighbouring countries, including Thailand, would create a humanitarian headache.
While the military is strong enough to defeat most of the armed groups, it is possible the ethnic armies could form an unprecedented alliance to defend their territories, increasing the likelihood of a protracted unrest that could cause delays in the construction of a massive oil pipeline to China.
Myanmar might be hesitant about attacking the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a formidable fighting force once backed by China. The Wa's cultivation of opium has provided ample revenue to arm an estimated 36,000 troops. Wa-controlled areas have enjoyed de facto autonomy for decades and function like an independent country. The Wa are not likely to give that up.
HOW HAS IT AFFECTED RELATIONS WITH CHINA?
China wants a stable Myanmar, and the Yangon regime cannot afford to upset its powerful neighbour because of the economic and diplomatic assistance it provides through trade and protection in the international political arena.
Beijing has called on Myanmar to maintain stability along the border, urging dialogue with the ethnic groups and measures to protect Chinese citizens there. Myanmar has apologised for the Kokang attack and has given China assurances over border stability and the crude oil pipeline.
WILL THIS AFFECT THE TIMING OF THE ELECTION?
Yangon has yet to announce a date for the election, or say who can take part, and analysts say the delay is largely due to its inability to get the ethnic groups to join the process.
Common sense might suggest the regime would do all it could to avoid conflict and disruption during the election. However, Myanmar did hold its 2008 constitutional referendum just days after Cyclone Nargis swept through the country, killing an estimated 134,000 people and leaving 2.4 million homeless.
6 hours 58 mins ago
by Martin Petty
(Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar wants ethnic groups to take part in this year's elections, the first in two decades, but most do not trust the regime and are refusing to join the political process. Skip related content
WHY DOES THE JUNTA WANT ETHNIC GROUPS TO TAKE PART?
Despite holding a tight grip on power for almost 50 years, the military has never had control over rebellious ethnic groups along its borders with Thailand and China, many of which have their own governments and armies and have enjoyed a degree of unofficial autonomy for decades.
Their participation would help the junta claim the country was fully behind its elections, which critics say are a sham that will create a facade of civilian rule, with the top generals still pulling the strings.
IS THERE A DEAL ON THE TABLE?
In April last year the government asked the groups to take part in the election process, offering a degree of self-rule if they disarm and instruct their militias to join a national Border Guard Force (BGF) under the control of the army.
However, most groups have refused, saying they have nothing to gain. For months, these groups have been expecting an offensive by government troops to force them to disarm and hand over control of their territory to Yangon.
HAVE ANY GROUPS JOINED THE PROCESS?
In August 2009, the Kokang Group, the weakest of the rebel armies in Shan State, was overpowered in a bloody offensive by the Myanmar army. About 800 fighters surrendered and joined the BGF, while an estimated 37,000 people flooded into neighbouring China, turning once thriving trade posts into ghost towns.
A local administration was immediately installed in the ethnic Chinese enclave. The junta said the group had "agreed" to take part in the election and would be granted autonomy later.
Of the 12 ethnic armies that agreed cease-fire deals with the junta 20 years ago, half have said they will join the BGF, according to the Thai-based Shan Herald News Agency. They are the smallest of the armies, with 150 to 5,000 fighters each.
The junta had given them until the end of February to disarm, according to activist groups with connections in Shan State.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF MORE FIGHTING?
Exiled activist groups say the Myanmar military has a sizable presence in Shan and Kachin states, but analysts and diplomats are split on whether it will launch offensives on other groups and risk a drawn-out conflict before or during the polls.
Another eruption of violence would further strain ties with China, its biggest economic ally, as a mass exodus of refugees into neighbouring countries, including Thailand, would create a humanitarian headache.
While the military is strong enough to defeat most of the armed groups, it is possible the ethnic armies could form an unprecedented alliance to defend their territories, increasing the likelihood of a protracted unrest that could cause delays in the construction of a massive oil pipeline to China.
Myanmar might be hesitant about attacking the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a formidable fighting force once backed by China. The Wa's cultivation of opium has provided ample revenue to arm an estimated 36,000 troops. Wa-controlled areas have enjoyed de facto autonomy for decades and function like an independent country. The Wa are not likely to give that up.
HOW HAS IT AFFECTED RELATIONS WITH CHINA?
China wants a stable Myanmar, and the Yangon regime cannot afford to upset its powerful neighbour because of the economic and diplomatic assistance it provides through trade and protection in the international political arena.
Beijing has called on Myanmar to maintain stability along the border, urging dialogue with the ethnic groups and measures to protect Chinese citizens there. Myanmar has apologised for the Kokang attack and has given China assurances over border stability and the crude oil pipeline.
WILL THIS AFFECT THE TIMING OF THE ELECTION?
Yangon has yet to announce a date for the election, or say who can take part, and analysts say the delay is largely due to its inability to get the ethnic groups to join the process.
Common sense might suggest the regime would do all it could to avoid conflict and disruption during the election. However, Myanmar did hold its 2008 constitutional referendum just days after Cyclone Nargis swept through the country, killing an estimated 134,000 people and leaving 2.4 million homeless.
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Feb 11, 2010
Asia Times Online - Myanmar takes a democratic step
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - As Myanmar prepares for its first elections in 20 years, uncertainty surrounding the promised democratic transition has crippled the workings of government and raised tensions inside the armed forces. While many analysts view the highly anticipated polls as mainly a one-horse race, there is also a growing sense that the elections may not go exactly as dictator Senior General Than Shwe plans.
Even though an official polling date has not been announced, election fever has gripped the country, one of Asia's poorest and most politically repressed. The state-controlled media are now full of reports, footage and photos of government ministers in full
campaign mode inaugurating community development projects, meeting with local leaders and handing out government assistance.
At least a dozen current military appointed ministers have reportedly been selected by Than Shwe to run for office. They and others will have to resign their post to contest the elections and most are expected to vacate their seats by April, when the government's financial reports are due.
Thereafter an interim administration is expected to be established to run the country for the six months leading up to the elections and for a period thereafter until the newly elected parliament is up and running. Leading up to that transition, changes to the government and military are also in the pipeline, including a cabinet shake-up, streamlining of government administration and enforced mass retirements of civil servants and soldiers.
Thousands of senior officers will be forced to retire to make way for a new generation of younger officers, as Than Shwe apparently plans to firmly enforce the 60-year-old retirement rule in the transition towards democracy. Because there will inevitably be winners and losers in the process, the planned changes are already causing ripples among the rank and file.
"Periods of uncertainty like this disturb the army more than anything else," said the Chiang Mai-based Burmese academic and military specialist Win Min. "They are only confident when everything is predictable," he added.
In recent weeks there have been unconfirmed reports of unrest among army ranks, with soldiers worried about their futures apparently protesting against low pay and meager rice rations. The reports mentioned in particular mutinies in the Light Infantry's 66th and 77th divisions. Government officials have dismissed the media reports as unfounded rumors.
Yet it is clear that there is uneasiness within the army that its now dominant political, economic and social role in society will be diminished significantly after the elections. Soldiers in the army's far-flung regional commands must often fend for themselves in finding food, supplies and other essentials due to their meager salaries.
There have been growing reports of corrupt officers demanding even more "taxes" from impoverished farmers in the areas they control. "There is tremendous fear within the army about the future and increasing anger at their living conditions, especially out in the far-flung regions," said Win Min. "This is only likely to increase as the elections draw nearer."
"After the elections, soldiers will be nominally under civilian control," the Myanmar specialist and Aung San Suu Kyi's biographer Justin Wintle told Asia Times Online. "This is something that the [Myanmar] army is not used to having been in control for nearly 50 years and will certainly create unease and friction."
In the promised shift towards a civilian-led administration, regional commanders will in theory be required to answer to local government authorities - a potential fundamental shift to the military's autonomous operating procedures over the past 20 years. There have also been reported tensions between local authorities and the central government, including over forced labor issues.
While a select group of military officials will benefit from the redistribution of power in the democratic transition, the vast majority of Myanmar's 500,000 strong military will likely see their roles diminish. Over the past year, certain junior officers have been given intensive instruction in politics and economics as part of senior officer training courses.
The sessions aim to prepare them for possible service as military members of parliament, according to Myanmar military sources. (According to the 2008 constitution, 25% of the seats in parliament will be reserved for military officials.) Many of those who have attended the prestigious officers' school, the National Defense College, are now reportedly preparing to take up positions in the new parliament. As many as 2,000 soldiers may be assigned to parliamentary work in the national and provincial assemblies.
Those legally reserved seats, onlookers say, show that the transition to civilian rule will not result in a clean transfer of power. "Things will remain the same, there will be no change in political power in Naypyidaw," one senior Chinese government official told ATol. "There is no chance that any civilian government after the elections will have real power," said Martin Moreland, a former British ambassador to Myanmar.
Lessons learned
Moreland served in Myanmar, then known as Burma, during the 1988 mass pro-democracy demonstrations, the military crackdown on those same protesters and the 1990 elections the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, overwhelmingly won but the military later annulled.
The generals have apparently learned from that experience and are now tightly controlling the electoral process to ensure a more favorable result. Myanmar watchers meanwhile doubt that Than Shwe will quietly leave the scene after the polls, as some people close to the authoritarian leader have previously intimated.
"Than Shwe is unlikely to retire. More likely he will copy his predecessor, Ne Win, and remain the ultimate authority behind the scenes," Moreland added.
Than Shwe, a former psychological warfare operative, is treating the upcoming elections more like a military battle plan than democratic process. That has included a high degree of secrecy surrounding the process, including uncertainty surrounding the actual election date. "Ministers are tight-lipped about the election and keeping their political work low key," said a senior government source in the new capital Naypyidaw.
The military is now reportedly quietly selecting its candidates and launching unpublicized campaigns in their favor. In that direction, Than Shwe recently moved the usual weekly cabinet meeting back by a day, from Thursday to Wednesday, to allow ministers to travel in their respective regions for four consecutive days to hand out development aid and other state funds in a bid to build their candidacies.
"Clearly the military are now trying to win the hearts and minds of the people," said an Asian diplomat charged with monitoring Myanmar. While ministers and other military affiliated candidates go on the hustings, already severe restrictions and controls have intensified apparently to avoid independent reports on the military's electoral maneuvers.
For instance, United Nations representatives and international aid workers are now finding it more difficult to get visas into the country and permission to travel outside Yangon. The International Labor Organization and several European non-governmental organizations active in the country have had their operations only sanctioned through April, according a European diplomat who monitors Myanmar from Bangkok.
"No decision is being taken that does not relate to the election preparation," a senior UN official in Yangon told ATol on condition of anonymity. Government officials have informed the UN official that several projects they had scheduled will only be allowed to start after the election.
Censorship and control of the media is also tightening. While the election itself is frequently mentioned in the tightly censored local news publications, items about the formation of political parties have been banned by the government's censorship board, according to editors of privately run publications.
Significantly, Than Shwe has put influential Energy Minister Aung Thaung in charge of the election campaign and tasked him with providing funds to pro-junta candidates, according to sources close to Than Shwe. That includes ensuring that the two main pro-junta organizations - the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and the National Unity Party (NUP) - secure the popular vote. The junta chief has instructed soldiers and government officials to view the NUP as "a sister to the army", according to a government source.
Junta head start
The main opposition NLD has not yet indicated whether it will field candidates in the polls. The party has called for the release of all political prisoners, including NLD leader Suu Kyi, as a conciliatory gesture before the polls are held.
Other prospective parties and individuals planning to contest the polls have been hobbled by the lack of official regulations to govern the campaign process. Until the election laws are made public, political parties can not register and their candidates are barred from campaigning.
"The electoral laws are now 70-80% complete," Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win recently told his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, at a meeting of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc in Hanoi. "So, I think the elections would be most probably held in the second half of the year," he reportedly said.
"The political parties and election laws will be revealed at the last minute even though we understand they have been completed for some time," said Win Min, the Chiang Mai University-based academic. "They want to keep any potential opposition wrong footed and not allow them time to organize." In the run-up to the 1990 polls, the electoral law was made public 20 months before the polls, giving opposition parties and candidates time to prepare their campaigns.
Some have speculated that the upcoming polls may be on October 10, 2010 - or 10-10-10 - because of the military regime's obsession with numerology. Military leaders have made key decisions in the past on the basis of what astrologers have determined as auspicious or significant dates, including the 1990 election date and recent sudden move of the national capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw.
Following that logic, only 10 political parties will be allowed to run in the elections according to Prime Minister General Thein Sein, who reportedly tipped the regime's plans at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit held last October in Thailand, according to an Indonesian diplomat at the briefing. There was no mention of Suu Kyi's or the NLD's participation in the polls, the diplomat added.
Myanmar is now a very different country than it was the last time it went to the polls. Decades of repression, harassment and economic decay have left many citizens bewildered and angry at the military, though whether this will be translated into a strong anti-government vote at the polls remains an open question.
Money will obviously be a factor. Businessmen with close connections to the regime have been told by the military that they must support pro-government candidates and provide funds for their campaigns. A source familiar with the situation said that the junta has already allocated specific electorates to certain businessmen and demanded their financial backing.
"We cannot afford to lose this election," Thein Sein reportedly told leading businessmen at a meeting last year. "Otherwise we have wasted the last 20 years for nothing," he concluded, according to Western diplomats with close connections to the local business community.
Many Myanmar citizens inside and outside the country believe that the elections have been specifically designed to convince the international community that the junta has willingly moved towards participatory democracy while top generals will in effect retain near absolute power. They note, for instance, the fact that under the new 2008 constitution one-quarter of the parliament's seats will be reserved for army officers.
But fixing outright what will be closely watched elections will pose problems for the junta. Those who stand under the military will finally have to attract the popular vote - which with the pent up resentment against the regime will be no mean feat if the election is even remotely free and fair.
"The race is on, but as the weeks roll by the regime is increasingly worried that they may not be able to control the results," claimed an Asian diplomat based in Yangon.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
Asia Times Online - Myanmar takes a democratic step
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK - As Myanmar prepares for its first elections in 20 years, uncertainty surrounding the promised democratic transition has crippled the workings of government and raised tensions inside the armed forces. While many analysts view the highly anticipated polls as mainly a one-horse race, there is also a growing sense that the elections may not go exactly as dictator Senior General Than Shwe plans.
Even though an official polling date has not been announced, election fever has gripped the country, one of Asia's poorest and most politically repressed. The state-controlled media are now full of reports, footage and photos of government ministers in full
campaign mode inaugurating community development projects, meeting with local leaders and handing out government assistance.
At least a dozen current military appointed ministers have reportedly been selected by Than Shwe to run for office. They and others will have to resign their post to contest the elections and most are expected to vacate their seats by April, when the government's financial reports are due.
Thereafter an interim administration is expected to be established to run the country for the six months leading up to the elections and for a period thereafter until the newly elected parliament is up and running. Leading up to that transition, changes to the government and military are also in the pipeline, including a cabinet shake-up, streamlining of government administration and enforced mass retirements of civil servants and soldiers.
Thousands of senior officers will be forced to retire to make way for a new generation of younger officers, as Than Shwe apparently plans to firmly enforce the 60-year-old retirement rule in the transition towards democracy. Because there will inevitably be winners and losers in the process, the planned changes are already causing ripples among the rank and file.
"Periods of uncertainty like this disturb the army more than anything else," said the Chiang Mai-based Burmese academic and military specialist Win Min. "They are only confident when everything is predictable," he added.
In recent weeks there have been unconfirmed reports of unrest among army ranks, with soldiers worried about their futures apparently protesting against low pay and meager rice rations. The reports mentioned in particular mutinies in the Light Infantry's 66th and 77th divisions. Government officials have dismissed the media reports as unfounded rumors.
Yet it is clear that there is uneasiness within the army that its now dominant political, economic and social role in society will be diminished significantly after the elections. Soldiers in the army's far-flung regional commands must often fend for themselves in finding food, supplies and other essentials due to their meager salaries.
There have been growing reports of corrupt officers demanding even more "taxes" from impoverished farmers in the areas they control. "There is tremendous fear within the army about the future and increasing anger at their living conditions, especially out in the far-flung regions," said Win Min. "This is only likely to increase as the elections draw nearer."
"After the elections, soldiers will be nominally under civilian control," the Myanmar specialist and Aung San Suu Kyi's biographer Justin Wintle told Asia Times Online. "This is something that the [Myanmar] army is not used to having been in control for nearly 50 years and will certainly create unease and friction."
In the promised shift towards a civilian-led administration, regional commanders will in theory be required to answer to local government authorities - a potential fundamental shift to the military's autonomous operating procedures over the past 20 years. There have also been reported tensions between local authorities and the central government, including over forced labor issues.
While a select group of military officials will benefit from the redistribution of power in the democratic transition, the vast majority of Myanmar's 500,000 strong military will likely see their roles diminish. Over the past year, certain junior officers have been given intensive instruction in politics and economics as part of senior officer training courses.
The sessions aim to prepare them for possible service as military members of parliament, according to Myanmar military sources. (According to the 2008 constitution, 25% of the seats in parliament will be reserved for military officials.) Many of those who have attended the prestigious officers' school, the National Defense College, are now reportedly preparing to take up positions in the new parliament. As many as 2,000 soldiers may be assigned to parliamentary work in the national and provincial assemblies.
Those legally reserved seats, onlookers say, show that the transition to civilian rule will not result in a clean transfer of power. "Things will remain the same, there will be no change in political power in Naypyidaw," one senior Chinese government official told ATol. "There is no chance that any civilian government after the elections will have real power," said Martin Moreland, a former British ambassador to Myanmar.
Lessons learned
Moreland served in Myanmar, then known as Burma, during the 1988 mass pro-democracy demonstrations, the military crackdown on those same protesters and the 1990 elections the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, overwhelmingly won but the military later annulled.
The generals have apparently learned from that experience and are now tightly controlling the electoral process to ensure a more favorable result. Myanmar watchers meanwhile doubt that Than Shwe will quietly leave the scene after the polls, as some people close to the authoritarian leader have previously intimated.
"Than Shwe is unlikely to retire. More likely he will copy his predecessor, Ne Win, and remain the ultimate authority behind the scenes," Moreland added.
Than Shwe, a former psychological warfare operative, is treating the upcoming elections more like a military battle plan than democratic process. That has included a high degree of secrecy surrounding the process, including uncertainty surrounding the actual election date. "Ministers are tight-lipped about the election and keeping their political work low key," said a senior government source in the new capital Naypyidaw.
The military is now reportedly quietly selecting its candidates and launching unpublicized campaigns in their favor. In that direction, Than Shwe recently moved the usual weekly cabinet meeting back by a day, from Thursday to Wednesday, to allow ministers to travel in their respective regions for four consecutive days to hand out development aid and other state funds in a bid to build their candidacies.
"Clearly the military are now trying to win the hearts and minds of the people," said an Asian diplomat charged with monitoring Myanmar. While ministers and other military affiliated candidates go on the hustings, already severe restrictions and controls have intensified apparently to avoid independent reports on the military's electoral maneuvers.
For instance, United Nations representatives and international aid workers are now finding it more difficult to get visas into the country and permission to travel outside Yangon. The International Labor Organization and several European non-governmental organizations active in the country have had their operations only sanctioned through April, according a European diplomat who monitors Myanmar from Bangkok.
"No decision is being taken that does not relate to the election preparation," a senior UN official in Yangon told ATol on condition of anonymity. Government officials have informed the UN official that several projects they had scheduled will only be allowed to start after the election.
Censorship and control of the media is also tightening. While the election itself is frequently mentioned in the tightly censored local news publications, items about the formation of political parties have been banned by the government's censorship board, according to editors of privately run publications.
Significantly, Than Shwe has put influential Energy Minister Aung Thaung in charge of the election campaign and tasked him with providing funds to pro-junta candidates, according to sources close to Than Shwe. That includes ensuring that the two main pro-junta organizations - the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and the National Unity Party (NUP) - secure the popular vote. The junta chief has instructed soldiers and government officials to view the NUP as "a sister to the army", according to a government source.
Junta head start
The main opposition NLD has not yet indicated whether it will field candidates in the polls. The party has called for the release of all political prisoners, including NLD leader Suu Kyi, as a conciliatory gesture before the polls are held.
Other prospective parties and individuals planning to contest the polls have been hobbled by the lack of official regulations to govern the campaign process. Until the election laws are made public, political parties can not register and their candidates are barred from campaigning.
"The electoral laws are now 70-80% complete," Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win recently told his Thai counterpart, Kasit Piromya, at a meeting of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc in Hanoi. "So, I think the elections would be most probably held in the second half of the year," he reportedly said.
"The political parties and election laws will be revealed at the last minute even though we understand they have been completed for some time," said Win Min, the Chiang Mai University-based academic. "They want to keep any potential opposition wrong footed and not allow them time to organize." In the run-up to the 1990 polls, the electoral law was made public 20 months before the polls, giving opposition parties and candidates time to prepare their campaigns.
Some have speculated that the upcoming polls may be on October 10, 2010 - or 10-10-10 - because of the military regime's obsession with numerology. Military leaders have made key decisions in the past on the basis of what astrologers have determined as auspicious or significant dates, including the 1990 election date and recent sudden move of the national capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw.
Following that logic, only 10 political parties will be allowed to run in the elections according to Prime Minister General Thein Sein, who reportedly tipped the regime's plans at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit held last October in Thailand, according to an Indonesian diplomat at the briefing. There was no mention of Suu Kyi's or the NLD's participation in the polls, the diplomat added.
Myanmar is now a very different country than it was the last time it went to the polls. Decades of repression, harassment and economic decay have left many citizens bewildered and angry at the military, though whether this will be translated into a strong anti-government vote at the polls remains an open question.
Money will obviously be a factor. Businessmen with close connections to the regime have been told by the military that they must support pro-government candidates and provide funds for their campaigns. A source familiar with the situation said that the junta has already allocated specific electorates to certain businessmen and demanded their financial backing.
"We cannot afford to lose this election," Thein Sein reportedly told leading businessmen at a meeting last year. "Otherwise we have wasted the last 20 years for nothing," he concluded, according to Western diplomats with close connections to the local business community.
Many Myanmar citizens inside and outside the country believe that the elections have been specifically designed to convince the international community that the junta has willingly moved towards participatory democracy while top generals will in effect retain near absolute power. They note, for instance, the fact that under the new 2008 constitution one-quarter of the parliament's seats will be reserved for army officers.
But fixing outright what will be closely watched elections will pose problems for the junta. Those who stand under the military will finally have to attract the popular vote - which with the pent up resentment against the regime will be no mean feat if the election is even remotely free and fair.
"The race is on, but as the weeks roll by the regime is increasingly worried that they may not be able to control the results," claimed an Asian diplomat based in Yangon.
Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.
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New Kerala - Myanmar refugees seek Orissa Govt.'s attention at their neglect
By Sarada Lahangir, Nayagarh (Orissa) Feb 10 : Families of the people of Indian origin, evicted from Myanmar and presently living in rehabilitation camps in Orissa's Nayagarh district, want Orissa Government to have a look at their plight and help them lead a better life.
Families here say that almost all of them are still languishing to get the basic amenities, which were promised to them by the government over 45 years ago.
Around 100 families from Burma crossed the border in 1965 and sought refuge at the tiny village of Darpa Narayanpur in Nayagarh District.
However, the successive State governments had assured that these refugees would be given five acres of land and 12000 rupees to settle themselves in the new place.
The authorities failed to provide them the promised piece of land and other resources until a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in 1998 came forth to help them.
It was then that with the help of this NGO, the Burmese refugees filed s case under the public interest litigation (PIL) in the state high court.
The High Court then ordered the government to provide 50 units of land to these refugees, which they are yet to receive although not at commercial rates.
"The government had promised us 5 acres of land and 12000 rupees to set up our abodes. But when we came here, they gave us 5000 rupees instead of the promised 12000. We were trying to manage with the 5000 rupees which was given to us through a society. But the society later became bankrupt. We had no other source. Our parents died due to poverty," lamented Paduan Daguri, a refugee.
From then on, most of the displaced families, residing at the make-shift resettlement colonies of Orissa, are a disappointed lot.
These refugees are living below poverty line (BPL) and even after 45 years, these families are struggling to survive, living in utmost awful conditions amid poverty, illiteracy and under development.
"The government does not listen to us despite our repeated appeals. Recently we appealed to the district authorities of Nayagarh. But they do not pay attention to our plight. Instead of giving the land to us as per the court's directives, what they gave us was very less," said Gurei, a Burmese refugee.
It was not just the economic problems that they had to deal with but also the societal acceptance that made their survival even tougher.
The villagers treated them like untouchables and even barred them from using common community resources and places.
Some refugees were forced to leave the district and went over to other states to earn a decent livelihood.
A majority of these families are surviving with the heads of the families, working as porters, rickshaw pullers and labourers.
Reportedly, a good number among them were forced to work as bonded labourers.
The refugees, who stayed back in the Darpa Narayanpur village, are solely dependent on forest produce for their living, selling products made from Sal leaves such as leaf plates for dining and bowls known as Patals and Donnas respectively.
Thus over the past three decades, only 20 families of the original refugees from Burma are left in the village.
Meanwhile, the concerned authorities in the state government including the minister feign ignorance about the plight of the persons displaced from Burma.
"I can't say anything. I will have to look up the case. If at all any news of the refugees will come to me from somebody or some local MLA will come and tells me, then only I will take up the matter. I will ask the Collector to inquire about it," said Suryanarayan Patra, Revenue and Disaster Minister, Orissa.
These refugees from Myanmar are currently getting financial support from 'Adhikar Micro-finance', a non-governmental organisation based at Bhubaneswar.
By Sarada Lahangir, Nayagarh (Orissa) Feb 10 : Families of the people of Indian origin, evicted from Myanmar and presently living in rehabilitation camps in Orissa's Nayagarh district, want Orissa Government to have a look at their plight and help them lead a better life.
Families here say that almost all of them are still languishing to get the basic amenities, which were promised to them by the government over 45 years ago.
Around 100 families from Burma crossed the border in 1965 and sought refuge at the tiny village of Darpa Narayanpur in Nayagarh District.
However, the successive State governments had assured that these refugees would be given five acres of land and 12000 rupees to settle themselves in the new place.
The authorities failed to provide them the promised piece of land and other resources until a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in 1998 came forth to help them.
It was then that with the help of this NGO, the Burmese refugees filed s case under the public interest litigation (PIL) in the state high court.
The High Court then ordered the government to provide 50 units of land to these refugees, which they are yet to receive although not at commercial rates.
"The government had promised us 5 acres of land and 12000 rupees to set up our abodes. But when we came here, they gave us 5000 rupees instead of the promised 12000. We were trying to manage with the 5000 rupees which was given to us through a society. But the society later became bankrupt. We had no other source. Our parents died due to poverty," lamented Paduan Daguri, a refugee.
From then on, most of the displaced families, residing at the make-shift resettlement colonies of Orissa, are a disappointed lot.
These refugees are living below poverty line (BPL) and even after 45 years, these families are struggling to survive, living in utmost awful conditions amid poverty, illiteracy and under development.
"The government does not listen to us despite our repeated appeals. Recently we appealed to the district authorities of Nayagarh. But they do not pay attention to our plight. Instead of giving the land to us as per the court's directives, what they gave us was very less," said Gurei, a Burmese refugee.
It was not just the economic problems that they had to deal with but also the societal acceptance that made their survival even tougher.
The villagers treated them like untouchables and even barred them from using common community resources and places.
Some refugees were forced to leave the district and went over to other states to earn a decent livelihood.
A majority of these families are surviving with the heads of the families, working as porters, rickshaw pullers and labourers.
Reportedly, a good number among them were forced to work as bonded labourers.
The refugees, who stayed back in the Darpa Narayanpur village, are solely dependent on forest produce for their living, selling products made from Sal leaves such as leaf plates for dining and bowls known as Patals and Donnas respectively.
Thus over the past three decades, only 20 families of the original refugees from Burma are left in the village.
Meanwhile, the concerned authorities in the state government including the minister feign ignorance about the plight of the persons displaced from Burma.
"I can't say anything. I will have to look up the case. If at all any news of the refugees will come to me from somebody or some local MLA will come and tells me, then only I will take up the matter. I will ask the Collector to inquire about it," said Suryanarayan Patra, Revenue and Disaster Minister, Orissa.
These refugees from Myanmar are currently getting financial support from 'Adhikar Micro-finance', a non-governmental organisation based at Bhubaneswar.
*************************************************************
DATE:10/02/10
SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news
Flightglobal - Myanmar's MAI set for ownership change as Singaporeans exit
By Leithen Francis
Myanmar Airways International (MAI), the country's main international carrier, is in the throes of another ownership change.
This carrier was a joint-venture between Singapore's RegionAir and the Myanmar government's Myanma Airways but the Singaporeans exited the business a few months ago and Myanma Airways is now working to sell an 80% stake, says a senior source at MAI.
Some news reports in the country say Myanmar's privately-owned Kanbawza Bank has succeeded in buying the 80% stake. The bank is controlled by Myanmar businessman U Aung Ko Win, who has strong links to Myanmar's military junta.
But the senior MAI source says the bank's proposal to buy 80% is still before the transport ministry.
There is also at least one other private company vying for the stake, says the source, who declines to name the competing bidder.
MAI operates two Airbus A320s on lease from a Hong Kong leasing company and it plans to lease a third A320, says the source.
One of the reasons the Singaporeans let Myanma Airways take over 100% of MAI is because they didn't want to inject more money, adds the source.
The government's move to sell 80% of MAI is in line with current government policy. Reports in Myanmar say the government is busily selling state-owned assets before the country's national elections due to take place later this year. So far no firm date has been fixed yet for the elections.
It will be the country's first in 20 years. although it is likely to exclude the country's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest due to the country's military junta which controls the government.
SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news
Flightglobal - Myanmar's MAI set for ownership change as Singaporeans exit
By Leithen Francis
Myanmar Airways International (MAI), the country's main international carrier, is in the throes of another ownership change.
This carrier was a joint-venture between Singapore's RegionAir and the Myanmar government's Myanma Airways but the Singaporeans exited the business a few months ago and Myanma Airways is now working to sell an 80% stake, says a senior source at MAI.
Some news reports in the country say Myanmar's privately-owned Kanbawza Bank has succeeded in buying the 80% stake. The bank is controlled by Myanmar businessman U Aung Ko Win, who has strong links to Myanmar's military junta.
But the senior MAI source says the bank's proposal to buy 80% is still before the transport ministry.
There is also at least one other private company vying for the stake, says the source, who declines to name the competing bidder.
MAI operates two Airbus A320s on lease from a Hong Kong leasing company and it plans to lease a third A320, says the source.
One of the reasons the Singaporeans let Myanma Airways take over 100% of MAI is because they didn't want to inject more money, adds the source.
The government's move to sell 80% of MAI is in line with current government policy. Reports in Myanmar say the government is busily selling state-owned assets before the country's national elections due to take place later this year. So far no firm date has been fixed yet for the elections.
It will be the country's first in 20 years. although it is likely to exclude the country's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest due to the country's military junta which controls the government.
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ReliefWeb - Myanmar: A new life for San Lwin
Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Date: 09 Feb 2010
By Myat Thu Rein, Reporting Officer, Myanmar Red Cross Society
Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis, the Ayeyarwady delta is gradually recovering. Major challenges remain and survivors are still struggling, but thousands of families have received new houses, villages have been restored and now have improved water supplies. Farmers have received fertilizer and tools, and fishermen have received boats. Schools and health centres are being constructed and numerous training sessions on health and disaster preparedness have been conducted.
The recovery operation is well underway and some of the new innovative approaches used can now serve as examples for other operations, not least because of the involvement of affected communities. Link to more stories about recovery in Myanmar here.
For San Lwin, life as a boatman now seems worlds apart from the night Cyclone Nargis struck the Ayeyarwady Delta in early May 2008.
The 37-year old man was swept away during the disaster, loosing sight of both his son and his wife. He was later reunited with his wife, who had been clinging on to a tree, but the couple lost their five-year old son Pyay Phyo. His body was found four days later in a pile of wreckage.
Altogether, the disaster left 84,500 people dead and 53,800 missing. An additional 2.4 million people, mainly in the delta, were severely affected, according to the United Nations.
On the evening of the cyclone, "the wind got stronger and the sky darkened. The wind was so strong it blew off the roof and walls of the building we were in," says San Lwin. To escape the increasingly bad weather, San Lwin put his wife and child in his boat not suspecting that the waters would sweep them away. Apart from losing their son, the family also lost their home, their belongings, and their fishing boat with all equipment.
New beginnings
Today, San Lwin is grateful that the ordeal is over. He now works for the Myanmar Red Cross Society's office in Bogale. He transports staff and Red Cross volunteers from the town centre to villages where recovery activities under the society's Cyclone Nargis Operation are taking place.
Bogale is one of 13 townships targeted for assistance under the three-year operation which aims to reach 100,000 families. This relief and recovery operation, running until 2011, seeks to assist affected communities through the following programmes: shelter, livelihood, community-based health and first aid, psychosocial support, water and sanitation, and disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The operation is conducted with the assistance of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
San Lwin's knowledge of the river and minor waterways, along with his two boatmen colleagues, make them important assets for the hub office. His working hours are flexible – sometimes, he makes overnight trips with recovery teams, and some days he waits in the office for news of the next field trip.
"I'm happy here," he says of his job which began in August 2008. He had heard about the job through an assessment and relief officer based at the Bogale office.
Making their way to safety
With their home and livelihood destroyed in the cyclone, San Lwin and his wife Mi Mi Nwe, 22, struggled to regain their way of life – a life so different from Kyein Chaung Gyi, the village San Lwin lived in since his childhood and where he caught fish, prawns and crabs to sell in the market.
After cremating their son, San Lwin and Mi Mi Nwe made their way to Bogale township.They walked, travelled by boat and even swam across streams, to make the four-day journey to Bogale, in the aftermath of the disaster.
"We ate banana stems and leaves to make our hunger go away," recalls San Lwin.
"The fields and the rivers were filled with floating bodies. There were dead people hanging on trees and piled up on river banks".
When they reached Bogale, the couple sought refuge in the home of Mi Mi Nwe's uncle. They were not eligible to receive assistance because Bogale township was not as badly affected as the villages where storm surges reached up to 1.2 metres high.
"Besides helping my wife's uncle with his fishing business, I started a stall selling cigarettes and betel leaf but I made very little money – just enough for a daily meal for my wife and me", says San Lwin.
The new life was tough but the couple did not want to return to their village, Kyein Chaung Gyi. There were too many painful memories there. "All my relatives there – all 22 of them, except my mother-in-law – died." This village of about 500 farming and fishing households was almost completely wiped out by the disaster.
The earnings from his new job have enabled San Lwin and his wife to move from a simple shelter he built in September 2008, to a stronger structure which they are now renting.
Thinking of the future
San Lwin is also saving some money for the future when his contract as a boatman ends in 2011. He plans to use the money to a buy a boat to trade vegetables for a living as well as take care of their new baby – Mi Mi Nwe is now pregnant.
Myat Thu Rein is a reporting officer with the Myanmar Red Cross Society's office in Bogale township, in the Ayeyarwady Delta. The office is one of nine "hubs" set up to complement pre-existing Red Cross township structures in the implementation of the three-year Cyclone Nargis relief and recovery operation.
Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Date: 09 Feb 2010
By Myat Thu Rein, Reporting Officer, Myanmar Red Cross Society
Almost two years after Cyclone Nargis, the Ayeyarwady delta is gradually recovering. Major challenges remain and survivors are still struggling, but thousands of families have received new houses, villages have been restored and now have improved water supplies. Farmers have received fertilizer and tools, and fishermen have received boats. Schools and health centres are being constructed and numerous training sessions on health and disaster preparedness have been conducted.
The recovery operation is well underway and some of the new innovative approaches used can now serve as examples for other operations, not least because of the involvement of affected communities. Link to more stories about recovery in Myanmar here.
For San Lwin, life as a boatman now seems worlds apart from the night Cyclone Nargis struck the Ayeyarwady Delta in early May 2008.
The 37-year old man was swept away during the disaster, loosing sight of both his son and his wife. He was later reunited with his wife, who had been clinging on to a tree, but the couple lost their five-year old son Pyay Phyo. His body was found four days later in a pile of wreckage.
Altogether, the disaster left 84,500 people dead and 53,800 missing. An additional 2.4 million people, mainly in the delta, were severely affected, according to the United Nations.
On the evening of the cyclone, "the wind got stronger and the sky darkened. The wind was so strong it blew off the roof and walls of the building we were in," says San Lwin. To escape the increasingly bad weather, San Lwin put his wife and child in his boat not suspecting that the waters would sweep them away. Apart from losing their son, the family also lost their home, their belongings, and their fishing boat with all equipment.
New beginnings
Today, San Lwin is grateful that the ordeal is over. He now works for the Myanmar Red Cross Society's office in Bogale. He transports staff and Red Cross volunteers from the town centre to villages where recovery activities under the society's Cyclone Nargis Operation are taking place.
Bogale is one of 13 townships targeted for assistance under the three-year operation which aims to reach 100,000 families. This relief and recovery operation, running until 2011, seeks to assist affected communities through the following programmes: shelter, livelihood, community-based health and first aid, psychosocial support, water and sanitation, and disaster preparedness and risk reduction. The operation is conducted with the assistance of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
San Lwin's knowledge of the river and minor waterways, along with his two boatmen colleagues, make them important assets for the hub office. His working hours are flexible – sometimes, he makes overnight trips with recovery teams, and some days he waits in the office for news of the next field trip.
"I'm happy here," he says of his job which began in August 2008. He had heard about the job through an assessment and relief officer based at the Bogale office.
Making their way to safety
With their home and livelihood destroyed in the cyclone, San Lwin and his wife Mi Mi Nwe, 22, struggled to regain their way of life – a life so different from Kyein Chaung Gyi, the village San Lwin lived in since his childhood and where he caught fish, prawns and crabs to sell in the market.
After cremating their son, San Lwin and Mi Mi Nwe made their way to Bogale township.They walked, travelled by boat and even swam across streams, to make the four-day journey to Bogale, in the aftermath of the disaster.
"We ate banana stems and leaves to make our hunger go away," recalls San Lwin.
"The fields and the rivers were filled with floating bodies. There were dead people hanging on trees and piled up on river banks".
When they reached Bogale, the couple sought refuge in the home of Mi Mi Nwe's uncle. They were not eligible to receive assistance because Bogale township was not as badly affected as the villages where storm surges reached up to 1.2 metres high.
"Besides helping my wife's uncle with his fishing business, I started a stall selling cigarettes and betel leaf but I made very little money – just enough for a daily meal for my wife and me", says San Lwin.
The new life was tough but the couple did not want to return to their village, Kyein Chaung Gyi. There were too many painful memories there. "All my relatives there – all 22 of them, except my mother-in-law – died." This village of about 500 farming and fishing households was almost completely wiped out by the disaster.
The earnings from his new job have enabled San Lwin and his wife to move from a simple shelter he built in September 2008, to a stronger structure which they are now renting.
Thinking of the future
San Lwin is also saving some money for the future when his contract as a boatman ends in 2011. He plans to use the money to a buy a boat to trade vegetables for a living as well as take care of their new baby – Mi Mi Nwe is now pregnant.
Myat Thu Rein is a reporting officer with the Myanmar Red Cross Society's office in Bogale township, in the Ayeyarwady Delta. The office is one of nine "hubs" set up to complement pre-existing Red Cross township structures in the implementation of the three-year Cyclone Nargis relief and recovery operation.
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Bangkok Post- Army denies haven to Karen refugees
Published: 10/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
The army is accused of sending a group of Karen refugees back to Burma, despite government assurances to the contrary.
Human rights activist Surapong Kongchantuek yesterday said authorities at Ban Usutha in Tak's Tha Song Yang District had pushed back a few dozen Karen refugees into Burma. He said this was a breach of the government's announcement last week that there would be no repatriation of Karen refugees who fled fighting in Burma last year.
The army had earlier prepared to send back some 1,700 refugees from both Ban Nong Bua Khao and Ban Usutha camps last week, despite protests from human rights activists that they would be put in danger from fighting and landmines inside Burmese territory.
The National Human Rights commission will take up the issue today.
Published: 10/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
The army is accused of sending a group of Karen refugees back to Burma, despite government assurances to the contrary.
Human rights activist Surapong Kongchantuek yesterday said authorities at Ban Usutha in Tak's Tha Song Yang District had pushed back a few dozen Karen refugees into Burma. He said this was a breach of the government's announcement last week that there would be no repatriation of Karen refugees who fled fighting in Burma last year.
The army had earlier prepared to send back some 1,700 refugees from both Ban Nong Bua Khao and Ban Usutha camps last week, despite protests from human rights activists that they would be put in danger from fighting and landmines inside Burmese territory.
The National Human Rights commission will take up the issue today.
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The Nation - Image not compassion behind refugee stance
Published on February 11, 2010
Rohingyas, Hmong, Karen, Haitians - any Thai help is based on boosting our international image
First it was the Rohingya boat people who were pushed back out to the sea to fend for themselves. Then there were the Hmong refugees who were sent back to Laos - which gave the country another black eye in the international community. Although Thailand is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, the forced repatriation of refugees goes against international norms.
Now, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Thailand is accused of acting too slowly and not being sympathetic enough to the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless there. Only after a few scoldings and embarrassing criticism did the government quickly find that it actually had some compassion set aside somewhere.
Last but not least are the Burmese refugees - specifically the ethnic Karen who have been fleeing civil war and taking refuge along the Thai-Burmese border. It has been pointed out that the designated "return zone" will place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and death and injury from landmines.
Fierce fighting between the pro-government Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the rebel Karen National Union in May and June last year sent some 4,500 Karen fleeing into Thailand, where they were housed at Nong Bua and Mae U Su, two temporary refugee camps in Tak's Tha Song Yang district. According to Human Rights Watch, an estimated 2,400 refugees are living in rudimentary quarters in these isolated sites close to the border.
Last Friday, Colonel Noppadol Watcharajitbaworn, the local military commander in Tak province, said a group of 30 families who planned to go back to Burma that day changed their minds after talking with representatives from Western embassies and the UN.
Local NGOs said there was a lot of arm twisting by the Thai Army, but the authorities decided to back off after strong pressure from the international community.
While it is welcome that the Thai authorities backed down from their preferred plan of repatriating refugees, it was unfortunate that they chose to overlook an incident on January 18, when a 25-year-old Karen who was nine months pregnant stepped on a landmine in the refugee return zone, and had half her left foot blown off. She was carried back to the Thai side and taken to a Mae Sot hospital, where she gave birth on the day she was being treated.
According to the annual "Landmine Monitor Report", 721 victims died from landmine injuries in 2008. Conflicting parties in Burma's Karen State continue to lay anti-personnel mines around their military bases, on jungle trails, and around civilian settlements and farms. Burma has not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty and rarely participates in international forums to ban the use of landmines. There are virtually no de-mining operations going on in eastern Burma, and landmine education and awareness is limited.
For a nation that cares so much about how other people perceive it - probably more so than any feeling of compassion towards fellow human beings - Thailand is quickly shooting itself in the foot. Bangkok loves to talk about how millions of Indochinese refugees - particularly from Cambodia and Laos - have passed through Thailand before being relocated to third countries. To some extent, credit should go to this and previous governments, although compassion may have not been the key motivation for the official refugee policies.
We just didn't want to look bad in the eyes of the world. We wanted to be seen as doing the right thing - but we didn't tell the world that the reason for our policy was not genuine.
Today, with the Indochina wars and the Vietnamese boat people saga behind us, we are still bogged down with refugees coming from the Burmese side of the border. We often overlook the fact that our Burma policy also fuels this conflict. Our craving for Burma's cheap labour and natural resources, not to mention the lucrative gem trade, have fed into the ongoing conflict there.
The strength of a society should not be gauged by the size of its roads and height of its skyscrapers, or its armed forces, but by the degree of its compassion and mercy. Have we forgotten how the world helped us during The tsunami devastation of December 2004?
Published on February 11, 2010
Rohingyas, Hmong, Karen, Haitians - any Thai help is based on boosting our international image
First it was the Rohingya boat people who were pushed back out to the sea to fend for themselves. Then there were the Hmong refugees who were sent back to Laos - which gave the country another black eye in the international community. Although Thailand is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, the forced repatriation of refugees goes against international norms.
Now, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Thailand is accused of acting too slowly and not being sympathetic enough to the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless there. Only after a few scoldings and embarrassing criticism did the government quickly find that it actually had some compassion set aside somewhere.
Last but not least are the Burmese refugees - specifically the ethnic Karen who have been fleeing civil war and taking refuge along the Thai-Burmese border. It has been pointed out that the designated "return zone" will place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and death and injury from landmines.
Fierce fighting between the pro-government Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the rebel Karen National Union in May and June last year sent some 4,500 Karen fleeing into Thailand, where they were housed at Nong Bua and Mae U Su, two temporary refugee camps in Tak's Tha Song Yang district. According to Human Rights Watch, an estimated 2,400 refugees are living in rudimentary quarters in these isolated sites close to the border.
Last Friday, Colonel Noppadol Watcharajitbaworn, the local military commander in Tak province, said a group of 30 families who planned to go back to Burma that day changed their minds after talking with representatives from Western embassies and the UN.
Local NGOs said there was a lot of arm twisting by the Thai Army, but the authorities decided to back off after strong pressure from the international community.
While it is welcome that the Thai authorities backed down from their preferred plan of repatriating refugees, it was unfortunate that they chose to overlook an incident on January 18, when a 25-year-old Karen who was nine months pregnant stepped on a landmine in the refugee return zone, and had half her left foot blown off. She was carried back to the Thai side and taken to a Mae Sot hospital, where she gave birth on the day she was being treated.
According to the annual "Landmine Monitor Report", 721 victims died from landmine injuries in 2008. Conflicting parties in Burma's Karen State continue to lay anti-personnel mines around their military bases, on jungle trails, and around civilian settlements and farms. Burma has not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty and rarely participates in international forums to ban the use of landmines. There are virtually no de-mining operations going on in eastern Burma, and landmine education and awareness is limited.
For a nation that cares so much about how other people perceive it - probably more so than any feeling of compassion towards fellow human beings - Thailand is quickly shooting itself in the foot. Bangkok loves to talk about how millions of Indochinese refugees - particularly from Cambodia and Laos - have passed through Thailand before being relocated to third countries. To some extent, credit should go to this and previous governments, although compassion may have not been the key motivation for the official refugee policies.
We just didn't want to look bad in the eyes of the world. We wanted to be seen as doing the right thing - but we didn't tell the world that the reason for our policy was not genuine.
Today, with the Indochina wars and the Vietnamese boat people saga behind us, we are still bogged down with refugees coming from the Burmese side of the border. We often overlook the fact that our Burma policy also fuels this conflict. Our craving for Burma's cheap labour and natural resources, not to mention the lucrative gem trade, have fed into the ongoing conflict there.
The strength of a society should not be gauged by the size of its roads and height of its skyscrapers, or its armed forces, but by the degree of its compassion and mercy. Have we forgotten how the world helped us during The tsunami devastation of December 2004?
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VOA News - Thai Government, UN, Civic Groups Look to Protect Burma Refugees
Ron Corben | Bangkok 10 February 2010
Civic and refugee activist groups hope talks with the Thai government will ensure the safety of Karen refugees from Burma who face deportation.
Talks Wednesday between civic groups and Thailand's Human Rights Commission came after strong efforts by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, diplomats and rights groups prevented the deportation of 1,700 Karen.
The Thai military last Friday tried to push the Karen back to Burma, which they fled last year to avoid fighting between Karen rebels and the Burmese military.
Soe Aung, a Burmese activist, says now it is important for refugee activists and the Thai government to cooperate to ensure the refugees are safe when they do return to Burma.
"Official policy of the Thailand government is that they are not going to deport any refugees until the situation is normal; so that the refugees will not face any life threatening situation, such as landmines," he said. "They need to have better cooperation interagency of the government - make priority of safety of people because of landmines food shortages - based on these factors."
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn says the final decision about when the Karen will be sent back lies with military commanders near the border with Burma. But, he says, the military will consult with refugee aid groups. Panitan says Karen who already have returned did so willingly.
"They plan to resume the program once civil society and others have been satisfied with the information about this program," said Panitan. "Basically, we receive the report from the officers on the ground that people volunteer to go back. They have been moving back and forth already across border.
Rights workers say the main block to the Karen's return is increased activity by Burma's military over recent months. Debbie Stothardt is spokeswoman for the Alternative ASEAN Network, which pushes for political change in Burma.
"What should concern us is the fact that over 100,000 people were newly displaced in eastern Burma alone - that's a very concerning statistic because it's telling to us that the situation is getting worse in eastern Burma," she said. "So any moves to push people back into areas which are notoriously land mined, which are extremely insecure goes against international principles."
Burma has been trying to quash armed ethnic rebels in the country. Over the past several months, refugees and Burmese dissidents have reported increasing military activity in the country.
The talks in Bangkok took place Wednesday as a court in Burma sentenced a U.S. citizen, Nyi Nyi Aung, to at least three years jail on charges of forging documents and undeclared foreign currency. He was arrested in September on arriving in Rangoon.
The charges included failure to renounce his Burmese nationality once he took U.S. citizenship.
Burmese activists in Thailand say the sentence was handed down in a closed hearing at the Insein prison in Rangoon. Rights groups say Burma's military government holds more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Ron Corben | Bangkok 10 February 2010
Civic and refugee activist groups hope talks with the Thai government will ensure the safety of Karen refugees from Burma who face deportation.
Talks Wednesday between civic groups and Thailand's Human Rights Commission came after strong efforts by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, diplomats and rights groups prevented the deportation of 1,700 Karen.
The Thai military last Friday tried to push the Karen back to Burma, which they fled last year to avoid fighting between Karen rebels and the Burmese military.
Soe Aung, a Burmese activist, says now it is important for refugee activists and the Thai government to cooperate to ensure the refugees are safe when they do return to Burma.
"Official policy of the Thailand government is that they are not going to deport any refugees until the situation is normal; so that the refugees will not face any life threatening situation, such as landmines," he said. "They need to have better cooperation interagency of the government - make priority of safety of people because of landmines food shortages - based on these factors."
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn says the final decision about when the Karen will be sent back lies with military commanders near the border with Burma. But, he says, the military will consult with refugee aid groups. Panitan says Karen who already have returned did so willingly.
"They plan to resume the program once civil society and others have been satisfied with the information about this program," said Panitan. "Basically, we receive the report from the officers on the ground that people volunteer to go back. They have been moving back and forth already across border.
Rights workers say the main block to the Karen's return is increased activity by Burma's military over recent months. Debbie Stothardt is spokeswoman for the Alternative ASEAN Network, which pushes for political change in Burma.
"What should concern us is the fact that over 100,000 people were newly displaced in eastern Burma alone - that's a very concerning statistic because it's telling to us that the situation is getting worse in eastern Burma," she said. "So any moves to push people back into areas which are notoriously land mined, which are extremely insecure goes against international principles."
Burma has been trying to quash armed ethnic rebels in the country. Over the past several months, refugees and Burmese dissidents have reported increasing military activity in the country.
The talks in Bangkok took place Wednesday as a court in Burma sentenced a U.S. citizen, Nyi Nyi Aung, to at least three years jail on charges of forging documents and undeclared foreign currency. He was arrested in September on arriving in Rangoon.
The charges included failure to renounce his Burmese nationality once he took U.S. citizenship.
Burmese activists in Thailand say the sentence was handed down in a closed hearing at the Insein prison in Rangoon. Rights groups say Burma's military government holds more than 2,000 political prisoners.
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Radio Australia News - Questions over Australia's involvement in Burma exercises
Last Updated: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +1100
Australia's Green Party is questioning why the government sent a Navy patrol boat to take part in a military exercise with Burma, despite having military sanctions against the regime.
Ships from 13 navies across the Asia-Pacific Region are currently taking part in anti-piracy and counter-terrorism exercises in the Indian Ocean.
The annual 'Exercise Milan', organised by India, is being run from Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Burma's navy has sent one boat to take part in the exercise and it will be working alongside the Australian Navy's HMAS Glenelg.
It's the third year Australia's taken part in the exercise despite signing up to sanctions against Burma, which ban training and arms sales.
Last Updated: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +1100
Australia's Green Party is questioning why the government sent a Navy patrol boat to take part in a military exercise with Burma, despite having military sanctions against the regime.
Ships from 13 navies across the Asia-Pacific Region are currently taking part in anti-piracy and counter-terrorism exercises in the Indian Ocean.
The annual 'Exercise Milan', organised by India, is being run from Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Burma's navy has sent one boat to take part in the exercise and it will be working alongside the Australian Navy's HMAS Glenelg.
It's the third year Australia's taken part in the exercise despite signing up to sanctions against Burma, which ban training and arms sales.
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Sixty villages to be relocated for hydropower projects
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:37 Salai Han Thar San
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta authorities are gearing up to relocate about 60 villages from the site of hydropower projects at the confluence of May Kha and May Likha Rivers, an environment group said.
The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) said that the Asia World Company is constructing houses for villagers to be relocated from the project sites. Villagers have been told to move to this new place soon.
"We have heard that about 100 houses have been built and junta officials have already instructed local residents to move to the new place," KDNG Chairman Awng Wah told Mizzima.
The Asia World Company built houses for project workers, conducted hydrology tests and other survey works downstream of Irrawaddy in early December 2009. The company built houses at the site near the Kyinkhan Line Ka Zup village.
The relocated villages upstream of hydropower plant projects include Tan Paye, Myit Sone, Kyein Khayan, Dau Pan, Khan Bu among others.
Moreover, Asia World Company, a partner of China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in the hydropower projects, also built concrete roads in the valley near Tan Paye village and Inn Khai Lwan mountain range, and heavy concrete mixers near Oo Byit village, 13 miles from Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State.
Awng Wah predicted that thousands of Chinese engineers and skilled workers will arrive at the dam sites after the forthcoming Chinese lunar New Year or spring festival.
"The hydropower project is creating a lot of trouble for local villagers and will severely impact the environment and ecology. Worse there is the danger of heavy flooding if the dam collapses. Then the scale of destruction will be terrible," he added.
Anti-dam activists estimated that about 20 villages between Myit Sone (the river confluence) and Myitkyina besides Myitkyina itself, which is about 27 miles downstream from the dam site, will be inundated if the dam breaks.
Given the potential of such large scale catastrophe, ethnic Kachin organizations in exile as well as the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which has a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime, are protesting against the Myit Sone hydropower project.
"We have been opposing the project for over a year. Our central committee sent the objection letters to the authorities concerned as we continue opposing the project," a regional development committee member of the KIO in Laiza, Kachin State told Mizzima.
Ethnic Kachin people in exile launched a worldwide campaign against the project on the 49th Kachin Revolution Day which fell on February 5.
The hydropower project comprises five dams on May Kha River and two more dams on May Likha River. It is expected to generate 3,600 MW of electricity
The hydropower implementation department under the No. 1 Electric Power Ministry and the Chinese firm CPI concluded an agreement to build seven hydropower projects including Myit Sone. The expected total generation from these projects is 13,360 MW, the state owned 'New Light of Myanmar' reported in May 2007.
Six other hydropower projects are Chi Bwe (2,000 MW), Pa Shi (1,600 MW), Lar Kin (1,400 MW), Phi Zaw (1,500 MW), Khaung Galan Phu (1,700 MW) and Lai Zar (1,560 MW).
This is the biggest ever hydropower project in Burma. The second largest project is the Tahsan Dam project in Shan State with an installed capacity of 7,100 MW.
Though the precise investment in the Myit Sone project is not known, it could touch about USD 3.6 billion. The power generated is likely to be sold to China and has the potential of earning USD 500 million every year, according to a report prepared by the KNDG and released in October 2007.
The World Commission on Dams estimates that 40 to 80 million people have been relocated due to dam projects worldwide.
River Irrawaddy with two main tributaries called May Kha and May Likha, which originate from the Himalayan mountain range, is the main waterway in Burma and is about 1,450 miles long. The endangered Irrawaddy dolphins can be seen in this river.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:37 Salai Han Thar San
New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta authorities are gearing up to relocate about 60 villages from the site of hydropower projects at the confluence of May Kha and May Likha Rivers, an environment group said.
The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) said that the Asia World Company is constructing houses for villagers to be relocated from the project sites. Villagers have been told to move to this new place soon.
"We have heard that about 100 houses have been built and junta officials have already instructed local residents to move to the new place," KDNG Chairman Awng Wah told Mizzima.
The Asia World Company built houses for project workers, conducted hydrology tests and other survey works downstream of Irrawaddy in early December 2009. The company built houses at the site near the Kyinkhan Line Ka Zup village.
The relocated villages upstream of hydropower plant projects include Tan Paye, Myit Sone, Kyein Khayan, Dau Pan, Khan Bu among others.
Moreover, Asia World Company, a partner of China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) in the hydropower projects, also built concrete roads in the valley near Tan Paye village and Inn Khai Lwan mountain range, and heavy concrete mixers near Oo Byit village, 13 miles from Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State.
Awng Wah predicted that thousands of Chinese engineers and skilled workers will arrive at the dam sites after the forthcoming Chinese lunar New Year or spring festival.
"The hydropower project is creating a lot of trouble for local villagers and will severely impact the environment and ecology. Worse there is the danger of heavy flooding if the dam collapses. Then the scale of destruction will be terrible," he added.
Anti-dam activists estimated that about 20 villages between Myit Sone (the river confluence) and Myitkyina besides Myitkyina itself, which is about 27 miles downstream from the dam site, will be inundated if the dam breaks.
Given the potential of such large scale catastrophe, ethnic Kachin organizations in exile as well as the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which has a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime, are protesting against the Myit Sone hydropower project.
"We have been opposing the project for over a year. Our central committee sent the objection letters to the authorities concerned as we continue opposing the project," a regional development committee member of the KIO in Laiza, Kachin State told Mizzima.
Ethnic Kachin people in exile launched a worldwide campaign against the project on the 49th Kachin Revolution Day which fell on February 5.
The hydropower project comprises five dams on May Kha River and two more dams on May Likha River. It is expected to generate 3,600 MW of electricity
The hydropower implementation department under the No. 1 Electric Power Ministry and the Chinese firm CPI concluded an agreement to build seven hydropower projects including Myit Sone. The expected total generation from these projects is 13,360 MW, the state owned 'New Light of Myanmar' reported in May 2007.
Six other hydropower projects are Chi Bwe (2,000 MW), Pa Shi (1,600 MW), Lar Kin (1,400 MW), Phi Zaw (1,500 MW), Khaung Galan Phu (1,700 MW) and Lai Zar (1,560 MW).
This is the biggest ever hydropower project in Burma. The second largest project is the Tahsan Dam project in Shan State with an installed capacity of 7,100 MW.
Though the precise investment in the Myit Sone project is not known, it could touch about USD 3.6 billion. The power generated is likely to be sold to China and has the potential of earning USD 500 million every year, according to a report prepared by the KNDG and released in October 2007.
The World Commission on Dams estimates that 40 to 80 million people have been relocated due to dam projects worldwide.
River Irrawaddy with two main tributaries called May Kha and May Likha, which originate from the Himalayan mountain range, is the main waterway in Burma and is about 1,450 miles long. The endangered Irrawaddy dolphins can be seen in this river.
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Fear of strikes leads to factories declaring holiday
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 16:08 Min Thet
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Fear of strikes by workers spreading has forced some factory managements in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone to declare a holiday, an industrial zone official said.
"The factory was closed for the Union Day holiday. This was not a holiday in earlier years for workers though it is an official holiday in Burma. But workers used to get overtime. We gave the Union Day holiday or else the strike will spread to all factories here," he added.
About 1,400 workers went on strike at the Korean citizen owned Opal 2 and Mya Fashion factories on 8 February demanding a wage hike. The strike spread to Tai Yee and Kyarlay factories yesterday.
The military regime has ordered authorities in Rangoon Division, Township Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), Fire Brigade, the police and Labour Ministry officials to be on standby in the industrial zone.
There are over 1,700 workers in Tai Yee Footwear factory owned by Sein Oo a.k.a. Laurein Trip (55). These workers staged a sit-in strike yesterday on U Shwe Oh Road, outside the factory, demanding an off on government holidays, increase in daily wage and overtime and other rights related to wages.
After the No. 3 Military Region Commander Col. Tint San and Rangoon northern district police chief Lt. Col. Ko Ko Aung put pressure on striking workers to disperse, some of them entered the factory and some went home.
Soon after the factory management threatened the workers that they would be fired if they are absent for three consecutive days.
Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone is the biggest in Burma and about 50,000 to 70,000 workers are employed in many manufacturing industries like cold storages, garment factories, foodstuffs, value-added timber works, chemical industries and household appliances accounting for over 800 factories. But according to the management committee of the industrial zone, just over 400 have been able to operate their business since 2007.
Last month too, there were three labour strikes demanding better wages and labour rights in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone.
About 100 workers staged a strike at the Sonny footwear factory in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone No. 3 in early December 2009. Another labour strike took place in Weng Hong Hung garment factory in on 14 December in the same zone and about 100 workers demonstrated at the prawn cold storage factory in Zone No. 2 on 7 January.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 16:08 Min Thet
Rangoon (Mizzima) – Fear of strikes by workers spreading has forced some factory managements in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone to declare a holiday, an industrial zone official said.
"The factory was closed for the Union Day holiday. This was not a holiday in earlier years for workers though it is an official holiday in Burma. But workers used to get overtime. We gave the Union Day holiday or else the strike will spread to all factories here," he added.
About 1,400 workers went on strike at the Korean citizen owned Opal 2 and Mya Fashion factories on 8 February demanding a wage hike. The strike spread to Tai Yee and Kyarlay factories yesterday.
The military regime has ordered authorities in Rangoon Division, Township Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), Fire Brigade, the police and Labour Ministry officials to be on standby in the industrial zone.
There are over 1,700 workers in Tai Yee Footwear factory owned by Sein Oo a.k.a. Laurein Trip (55). These workers staged a sit-in strike yesterday on U Shwe Oh Road, outside the factory, demanding an off on government holidays, increase in daily wage and overtime and other rights related to wages.
After the No. 3 Military Region Commander Col. Tint San and Rangoon northern district police chief Lt. Col. Ko Ko Aung put pressure on striking workers to disperse, some of them entered the factory and some went home.
Soon after the factory management threatened the workers that they would be fired if they are absent for three consecutive days.
Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone is the biggest in Burma and about 50,000 to 70,000 workers are employed in many manufacturing industries like cold storages, garment factories, foodstuffs, value-added timber works, chemical industries and household appliances accounting for over 800 factories. But according to the management committee of the industrial zone, just over 400 have been able to operate their business since 2007.
Last month too, there were three labour strikes demanding better wages and labour rights in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone.
About 100 workers staged a strike at the Sonny footwear factory in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone No. 3 in early December 2009. Another labour strike took place in Weng Hong Hung garment factory in on 14 December in the same zone and about 100 workers demonstrated at the prawn cold storage factory in Zone No. 2 on 7 January.
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The Irrawaddy - Flu Outbreak in Rangoon
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Eleven more students were confirmed with A/H1N1 flu in Rangoon on Wednesday, and the spread of the virus has reached a critical stage, a physician from the Ministry of Health said.
The latest figure raised the accumulated number of confirmed cases of the disease in the former capital to 27 since Feb. 7. All 27 were students from primary and high schools in North Dagon Township in Rangoon.
“We found eight cases on Feb. 7, eight more cases on Feb. 8 and 11 cases today. All of them are students,” said another official from the Ministry of Health on conditions of anonymity.
On Feb. 5, four people in Chin state tested positive for the virus. In 2010, a total of 31 confirmed cases of human infection of influenza A/H1N1 have been reported so far.
Schools would be closed if more cases are found, the ministry official said. Currently, students in North Dagon Township are required to undergo an influenza A/H1N1 test and other medical check-ups including checks for fevers.
News of the virus has created a panic among parents, who are now asking their children to wear masks to school. Some parents have decided not to let their children go to school, said one parent in North Dagon township.
Last year, 69 confirmed cases of the disease were found across the country. The first case was found on June 27, 2009.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Eleven more students were confirmed with A/H1N1 flu in Rangoon on Wednesday, and the spread of the virus has reached a critical stage, a physician from the Ministry of Health said.
The latest figure raised the accumulated number of confirmed cases of the disease in the former capital to 27 since Feb. 7. All 27 were students from primary and high schools in North Dagon Township in Rangoon.
“We found eight cases on Feb. 7, eight more cases on Feb. 8 and 11 cases today. All of them are students,” said another official from the Ministry of Health on conditions of anonymity.
On Feb. 5, four people in Chin state tested positive for the virus. In 2010, a total of 31 confirmed cases of human infection of influenza A/H1N1 have been reported so far.
Schools would be closed if more cases are found, the ministry official said. Currently, students in North Dagon Township are required to undergo an influenza A/H1N1 test and other medical check-ups including checks for fevers.
News of the virus has created a panic among parents, who are now asking their children to wear masks to school. Some parents have decided not to let their children go to school, said one parent in North Dagon township.
Last year, 69 confirmed cases of the disease were found across the country. The first case was found on June 27, 2009.
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Riot police deployed to Rangoon protest
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–Hundreds of armed police in Burma were yesterday told to monitor closely a protest by some 2000 female Rangoon factory workers demanding a pay
rise and better workplace conditions.
One eye witness said that “there are about 40 riot police trucks, six lockup trucks and four fire engines at the scene” before the strike finished at 4pm yesterday in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone on the outskirts of Rangoon, Burma’s former capital.
“They don’t need to show this much strength. It is just some workers calling for their rights,” the eye witness added.
“They were going on strike for a pay raise. The factory is paying 10,000 kyat [$US10] extra for supervisors and advisors, but [basic level] workers were not included,” he said.
“Also the workers are upset that they have to work from 11am until midnight and the factory cuts 5000 kyat [$US5] from their pay for one day’s absence from work.”
A seven-point demand made by the workers, from the Korean-owned Opal-2 garment factory, includes a pledge from factory owners that staff will not have to work beyond 9pm, as well as easing restrictions on going to bathroom. They have also requested not to work on weekends or national holidays.
The factory's proposal to pay an extra 10,000 kyat for just this month was yesterday turned down by the workers.
Yesterday’s strike has however spread to two factories nearby, although demands made by workers there are not known.
The government’s Labour Administration Department was unavailable for comment.
Any public display of protest in Burma is closely monitored by the ruling regime, while the issue of trade union organization in the country is murky.
Unions are legally allowed, although a clause in the 2008 constitution states that their formation is conditioned on not being "contrary to the laws enacted for Union security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquility, or public order and morality." The subsequent definitions for these criteria are vague.
Reporting by Aye Nai
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–Hundreds of armed police in Burma were yesterday told to monitor closely a protest by some 2000 female Rangoon factory workers demanding a pay
rise and better workplace conditions.
One eye witness said that “there are about 40 riot police trucks, six lockup trucks and four fire engines at the scene” before the strike finished at 4pm yesterday in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone on the outskirts of Rangoon, Burma’s former capital.
“They don’t need to show this much strength. It is just some workers calling for their rights,” the eye witness added.
“They were going on strike for a pay raise. The factory is paying 10,000 kyat [$US10] extra for supervisors and advisors, but [basic level] workers were not included,” he said.
“Also the workers are upset that they have to work from 11am until midnight and the factory cuts 5000 kyat [$US5] from their pay for one day’s absence from work.”
A seven-point demand made by the workers, from the Korean-owned Opal-2 garment factory, includes a pledge from factory owners that staff will not have to work beyond 9pm, as well as easing restrictions on going to bathroom. They have also requested not to work on weekends or national holidays.
The factory's proposal to pay an extra 10,000 kyat for just this month was yesterday turned down by the workers.
Yesterday’s strike has however spread to two factories nearby, although demands made by workers there are not known.
The government’s Labour Administration Department was unavailable for comment.
Any public display of protest in Burma is closely monitored by the ruling regime, while the issue of trade union organization in the country is murky.
Unions are legally allowed, although a clause in the 2008 constitution states that their formation is conditioned on not being "contrary to the laws enacted for Union security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquility, or public order and morality." The subsequent definitions for these criteria are vague.
Reporting by Aye Nai
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Police mob beat drunk man to death
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–A man from Burma’s southern Mon state yesterday died from injuries sustained whilst beaten by a mob of around 20 policemen, his mother told DVB.
Pyi Sone had entered into an argument with a village official near to Moulmein, the Mon state capital, on 31 January. That evening police took him from his house.
The 28-year-old was reportedly beaten en route by around 20 policemen before being taken to the station.
“He was really drunk when the policemen arrived. They dragged him out of the house and he asked them if he had done anything wrong. They beat him up in the street and took him [to the station],” said his mother, Kyi Shein.
He was taken to hospital in the early hours of the morning, his mother said, where he was closely watched by two policemen whilst “screaming that he was suffering from chest pains”.
“When the dawn broke, I saw his face his all black from bruises. He was also unable to urinate and excrete and was having difficulty breathing,” she said. “Eight days later, he said couldn’t bear it anymore, and took his last breath.”
She said the hospital’s crime scene doctor reported that Pyi Sone had died from a disease and not from the injuries.
“The doctor claimed that my son has hepatitis B. And that’s true as the whole of Burma has hepatitis B. My son has never been sick and the village can confirm that. He died because policemen beat him up.”
Officials at Rogo police station, where Pyi Sone was initially taken, were unavailable for comment.
Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–A man from Burma’s southern Mon state yesterday died from injuries sustained whilst beaten by a mob of around 20 policemen, his mother told DVB.
Pyi Sone had entered into an argument with a village official near to Moulmein, the Mon state capital, on 31 January. That evening police took him from his house.
The 28-year-old was reportedly beaten en route by around 20 policemen before being taken to the station.
“He was really drunk when the policemen arrived. They dragged him out of the house and he asked them if he had done anything wrong. They beat him up in the street and took him [to the station],” said his mother, Kyi Shein.
He was taken to hospital in the early hours of the morning, his mother said, where he was closely watched by two policemen whilst “screaming that he was suffering from chest pains”.
“When the dawn broke, I saw his face his all black from bruises. He was also unable to urinate and excrete and was having difficulty breathing,” she said. “Eight days later, he said couldn’t bear it anymore, and took his last breath.”
She said the hospital’s crime scene doctor reported that Pyi Sone had died from a disease and not from the injuries.
“The doctor claimed that my son has hepatitis B. And that’s true as the whole of Burma has hepatitis B. My son has never been sick and the village can confirm that. He died because policemen beat him up.”
Officials at Rogo police station, where Pyi Sone was initially taken, were unavailable for comment.
Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet
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Shan army ‘should prepare for fighting’
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–A senior Burmese junta security chief has reportedly warned a Shan-based ethnic army to expect conflict unless it transforms into a Border Guard Force and allies itself with the government.
The deadline for ceasefire groups to transform into Border Guard Force (BGF) has been inked for the end of February.
Lieutenant General Ye Myint met with the chairman of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), Lwe Mong, on 6 February to make another pitch for the transformation, according to China-Burma border-based military analyst, Aung Kyaw Zaw.
He told DVB that the meeting “didn’t go well…Ye Myint gave the impression that the group should make their decision clear within two months or otherwise there will be fighting.”
The SSA-N reportedly told Ye Myint that it would stick to its ceasefire agreement [made with the Burmese army] that the group will only discuss political issues with the next [elected] government, and thus will not transform.
Only a handful of Burma’s 18 ceasefire groups have accepted the proposal, which will see them come under direct control of Naypyidaw. The ruling junta has framed it as a way for ethnic armies to return to what it calls “the legal fold”, whilst ostensibly cementing rather fragile ceasefire agreements.
The initiative has however caused heavy tension between the Burmese army and ceasefire groups, many of which hold only tenuous truces with the junta. Resistance to the transformation led to heavy fighting last year between Burmese troops and a Shan-based Kokang army.
It emerged last month that the 30,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ceasefire group also based in Shan state, had reportedly been training thousands of civilians in lieu of a government offensive following its resistance to the transformation.
The UWSA had however suggested in December last year that it could reach a compromise over the BGF by installing two government officials within its senior rank, although little appears to have come of this.
Reporting by DVB
Feb 10, 2010 (DVB)–A senior Burmese junta security chief has reportedly warned a Shan-based ethnic army to expect conflict unless it transforms into a Border Guard Force and allies itself with the government.
The deadline for ceasefire groups to transform into Border Guard Force (BGF) has been inked for the end of February.
Lieutenant General Ye Myint met with the chairman of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), Lwe Mong, on 6 February to make another pitch for the transformation, according to China-Burma border-based military analyst, Aung Kyaw Zaw.
He told DVB that the meeting “didn’t go well…Ye Myint gave the impression that the group should make their decision clear within two months or otherwise there will be fighting.”
The SSA-N reportedly told Ye Myint that it would stick to its ceasefire agreement [made with the Burmese army] that the group will only discuss political issues with the next [elected] government, and thus will not transform.
Only a handful of Burma’s 18 ceasefire groups have accepted the proposal, which will see them come under direct control of Naypyidaw. The ruling junta has framed it as a way for ethnic armies to return to what it calls “the legal fold”, whilst ostensibly cementing rather fragile ceasefire agreements.
The initiative has however caused heavy tension between the Burmese army and ceasefire groups, many of which hold only tenuous truces with the junta. Resistance to the transformation led to heavy fighting last year between Burmese troops and a Shan-based Kokang army.
It emerged last month that the 30,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burma’s largest ceasefire group also based in Shan state, had reportedly been training thousands of civilians in lieu of a government offensive following its resistance to the transformation.
The UWSA had however suggested in December last year that it could reach a compromise over the BGF by installing two government officials within its senior rank, although little appears to have come of this.
Reporting by DVB
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