Myanmar denies UN envoy a meeting with Suu Kyi
AP - Saturday, February 20
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A United Nations envoy ended his latest mission in Myanmar on Friday, expressing deep regret that the country's ruling military denied him a meeting with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana also said that elections planned for this year would not be credible unless the junta allowed freedom of speech.
Quintana arrived Monday for a five-day visit to assess progress on human rights. On Friday the Argentine envoy flew to the administrative capital, Naypyitaw, for a series of meetings with several Cabinet ministers and other key government officials.
He had sought the government's permission to meet Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, whom he was also barred from seeing on two previous visits.
"I am disappointed that even this time I was unable to meet her, in this crucial year, the election year, the first national elections in 20 years," the envoy told reporters. He said he was not given a reason for being turned down.
Speaking briefly to reporters after he returned to Yangon, the country's biggest city and commercial center, he said Myanmar's people need "to be able to freely express their opinions and to be able to cast their votes without fear."
"Without full participation, including the almost 2,200 prisoners of conscience, and an environment that allows people and parties to engage in the range of electoral activities, the elections will not be credible," he said.
Quintana thanked the government for arranging meetings during his brief mission. But he also indicated the junta did not seem responsive to his concerns.
He said he was given no indication of exactly when the general election set for this year will be held, or when an election law guiding it would be passed.
He also said the government refused to acknowledge holding "prisoners of conscience" — political prisoners.
Quintana said he met 15 political prisoners during visits to three prisons, including activists, journalists, community leaders from the Shan ethnic minority and Muslim minority and political party members.
"Despite their imprisonment, many of the prisoners hoped for national reconciliation and peaceful and democratic change in Myanmar," he said. "Their voices need to be heard in the electoral process."
On Thursday, the envoy met with senior members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
Tin Oo, the party's deputy leader recently released from seven years of detention, urged the envoy "to seek the earliest release of (Suu Kyi) and other political prisoners."
Suu Kyi — detained for 14 of the past 20 years — was sentenced last year to an additional 18 months of house arrest for briefly sheltering an uninvited American, in a trial that drew global condemnation.
The regime's critics point out that the sentence will likely keep her locked up during any election campaign. The country's new 2008 constitution has clauses that would bar her from holding political office.
Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990 by a landslide, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to cede power and has constantly obstructed her party's operations over the past two decades.
The envoy will present his findings at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in March.
AP - Saturday, February 20
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A United Nations envoy ended his latest mission in Myanmar on Friday, expressing deep regret that the country's ruling military denied him a meeting with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana also said that elections planned for this year would not be credible unless the junta allowed freedom of speech.
Quintana arrived Monday for a five-day visit to assess progress on human rights. On Friday the Argentine envoy flew to the administrative capital, Naypyitaw, for a series of meetings with several Cabinet ministers and other key government officials.
He had sought the government's permission to meet Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, whom he was also barred from seeing on two previous visits.
"I am disappointed that even this time I was unable to meet her, in this crucial year, the election year, the first national elections in 20 years," the envoy told reporters. He said he was not given a reason for being turned down.
Speaking briefly to reporters after he returned to Yangon, the country's biggest city and commercial center, he said Myanmar's people need "to be able to freely express their opinions and to be able to cast their votes without fear."
"Without full participation, including the almost 2,200 prisoners of conscience, and an environment that allows people and parties to engage in the range of electoral activities, the elections will not be credible," he said.
Quintana thanked the government for arranging meetings during his brief mission. But he also indicated the junta did not seem responsive to his concerns.
He said he was given no indication of exactly when the general election set for this year will be held, or when an election law guiding it would be passed.
He also said the government refused to acknowledge holding "prisoners of conscience" — political prisoners.
Quintana said he met 15 political prisoners during visits to three prisons, including activists, journalists, community leaders from the Shan ethnic minority and Muslim minority and political party members.
"Despite their imprisonment, many of the prisoners hoped for national reconciliation and peaceful and democratic change in Myanmar," he said. "Their voices need to be heard in the electoral process."
On Thursday, the envoy met with senior members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
Tin Oo, the party's deputy leader recently released from seven years of detention, urged the envoy "to seek the earliest release of (Suu Kyi) and other political prisoners."
Suu Kyi — detained for 14 of the past 20 years — was sentenced last year to an additional 18 months of house arrest for briefly sheltering an uninvited American, in a trial that drew global condemnation.
The regime's critics point out that the sentence will likely keep her locked up during any election campaign. The country's new 2008 constitution has clauses that would bar her from holding political office.
Suu Kyi's party won elections in 1990 by a landslide, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to cede power and has constantly obstructed her party's operations over the past two decades.
The envoy will present his findings at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in March.
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UN envoy slams Myanmar for refusing Suu Kyi visit
by Hla Hla Htay – AFP - Saturday, February 20
YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy said Friday he "deeply regretted" that Myanmar's ruling junta had refused to let him meet democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and called for her immediate release ahead of elections this year.
Tomas Ojea Quintana criticised the military regime as he ended his latest mission to Myanmar, a five-day trip focused on inspecting the human rights situation ahead of the country's first polls in two decades.
"I deeply regretted that my special request to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not granted," Quintana told reporters at Yangon international airport before flying to Bangkok. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"I am disappointed that even this time I was unable to meet her at this crucial time in this election year, the first national election in 20 years," said Quintana, making his third trip to Myanmar.
He was also refused access to reclusive junta chief Than Shwe and instead met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs minister Maung Oo and the chief justice, attorney general and police chief in the capital Naypyidaw Friday.
Quintana said that during the meetings he was given no idea of a date for the elections that the ruling generals have promised to hold this year, or even when long-awaited electoral laws would be announced.
He added that elections required the release and participation of all "prisoners of conscience" to be regarded as fair, but that the Myanmar government refused to acknowledge the existence of such detainees.
"Despite anticipation of the landmark elections I have not received any indication that the government is willing to release all prisoners of conscience," he said, adding that Suu Kyi's should be freed "immediately".
The envoy also urged the government to allow the full participation of ethnic minorities, whom rights groups say are persecuted by the regime.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years. She had her house arrest extended by 18 months in August after a bizarre incident in which an American man swan to her lakeside home.
Quintana was allowed to meet key figures from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) during his visit, including vice chairman Tin Oo, who was freed from house arrest on February 13 after seven years in detention.
Tin Oo said at the meeting late Thursday they had told Quintana of their request for a meeting between Suu Kyi and Than Shwe and between her and the NLD's central executive committee.
The NLD has not yet said whether it will take part in the polls, the first in Myanmar since 1990 when the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Myanmar's new constitution, voted through in a 2008 referendum just days after a devastating cyclone killed around 138,000 people, effectively bars Suu Kyi from standing and reserves a quarter of legislative seats for the military.
The junta has also continued a crackdown on dissent ahead of the polls.
A court at Yangon's notorious Insein prison sentenced Buddhist abbot Gaw Thita to seven years in jail on various charges on Wednesday, the opposition said, the fifth dissident to be imprisoned during Quintana's visit alone.
Four women activists were sentenced to two years each with hard labour on Monday, the same day Quintana arrived in Myanmar.
The United Nations says there are at least 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar's notorious jails.
Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma, has traditionally been loath to allow UN officials to meet Suu Kyi, even refusing to let UN chief Ban Ki-moon see her when he visited the country last year.
US officials have however received a warm welcome since President Barack Obama's administration began a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.
US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell met Suu Kyi last year, as did US congressman Jim Webb when he visited Myanmar to secure the release of John Yettaw, the American who swam to her house.
by Hla Hla Htay – AFP - Saturday, February 20
YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy said Friday he "deeply regretted" that Myanmar's ruling junta had refused to let him meet democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and called for her immediate release ahead of elections this year.
Tomas Ojea Quintana criticised the military regime as he ended his latest mission to Myanmar, a five-day trip focused on inspecting the human rights situation ahead of the country's first polls in two decades.
"I deeply regretted that my special request to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not granted," Quintana told reporters at Yangon international airport before flying to Bangkok. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"I am disappointed that even this time I was unable to meet her at this crucial time in this election year, the first national election in 20 years," said Quintana, making his third trip to Myanmar.
He was also refused access to reclusive junta chief Than Shwe and instead met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs minister Maung Oo and the chief justice, attorney general and police chief in the capital Naypyidaw Friday.
Quintana said that during the meetings he was given no idea of a date for the elections that the ruling generals have promised to hold this year, or even when long-awaited electoral laws would be announced.
He added that elections required the release and participation of all "prisoners of conscience" to be regarded as fair, but that the Myanmar government refused to acknowledge the existence of such detainees.
"Despite anticipation of the landmark elections I have not received any indication that the government is willing to release all prisoners of conscience," he said, adding that Suu Kyi's should be freed "immediately".
The envoy also urged the government to allow the full participation of ethnic minorities, whom rights groups say are persecuted by the regime.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years. She had her house arrest extended by 18 months in August after a bizarre incident in which an American man swan to her lakeside home.
Quintana was allowed to meet key figures from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) during his visit, including vice chairman Tin Oo, who was freed from house arrest on February 13 after seven years in detention.
Tin Oo said at the meeting late Thursday they had told Quintana of their request for a meeting between Suu Kyi and Than Shwe and between her and the NLD's central executive committee.
The NLD has not yet said whether it will take part in the polls, the first in Myanmar since 1990 when the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Myanmar's new constitution, voted through in a 2008 referendum just days after a devastating cyclone killed around 138,000 people, effectively bars Suu Kyi from standing and reserves a quarter of legislative seats for the military.
The junta has also continued a crackdown on dissent ahead of the polls.
A court at Yangon's notorious Insein prison sentenced Buddhist abbot Gaw Thita to seven years in jail on various charges on Wednesday, the opposition said, the fifth dissident to be imprisoned during Quintana's visit alone.
Four women activists were sentenced to two years each with hard labour on Monday, the same day Quintana arrived in Myanmar.
The United Nations says there are at least 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar's notorious jails.
Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma, has traditionally been loath to allow UN officials to meet Suu Kyi, even refusing to let UN chief Ban Ki-moon see her when he visited the country last year.
US officials have however received a warm welcome since President Barack Obama's administration began a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.
US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell met Suu Kyi last year, as did US congressman Jim Webb when he visited Myanmar to secure the release of John Yettaw, the American who swam to her house.
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UN envoy meets Myanmar ministers, not junta chief
Fri Feb 19, 1:16 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A UN rights envoy held talks in Myanmar's remote capital with senior members of the military regime Friday but was not granted an audience with reclusive junta supremo Than Shwe, officials said.
Tomas Ojea Quintana travelled to Naypyidaw on the fifth and final day of a trip that has focused on elections promised by the military government at some point in 2010.
He met Foreign Minister Nyan Win and was due to see the home affairs minister, chief justice, attorney general and police chief, before flying to the commercial hub Yangon and then Bangkok, officials said.
Quintana was due to address the media in Yangon on the progress of his trip, during which he has also met key members of the opposition, although not detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
He held talks on Thursday with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was freed from seven years of detention at the weekend.
"We met for about one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners," Tin Oo told reporters late Thursday. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"We also spoke of our request for a meeting between the Senior General (Than Shwe) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a meeting between (her) and our central committee members so that we can continue our work for the future," he said.
Quintana told the NLD members that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had had no answer yet from the junta, Tin Oo said, adding that the party had not yet decided if it would take part in the elections.
The government has still not yet set a date for the polls, the first in Myanmar since elections in 1990 that the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
Earlier in the trip Quintana visited the northwestern town of Sittwe, where rights groups accuse the junta of repressing ethnic minority groups.
Sittwe was the site of the first protests by Buddhist monks against the government in 2007, a movement that spiralled into the so-called "Saffron Revolution" that was brutally suppressed by the military.
Fri Feb 19, 1:16 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A UN rights envoy held talks in Myanmar's remote capital with senior members of the military regime Friday but was not granted an audience with reclusive junta supremo Than Shwe, officials said.
Tomas Ojea Quintana travelled to Naypyidaw on the fifth and final day of a trip that has focused on elections promised by the military government at some point in 2010.
He met Foreign Minister Nyan Win and was due to see the home affairs minister, chief justice, attorney general and police chief, before flying to the commercial hub Yangon and then Bangkok, officials said.
Quintana was due to address the media in Yangon on the progress of his trip, during which he has also met key members of the opposition, although not detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
He held talks on Thursday with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was freed from seven years of detention at the weekend.
"We met for about one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners," Tin Oo told reporters late Thursday. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"We also spoke of our request for a meeting between the Senior General (Than Shwe) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a meeting between (her) and our central committee members so that we can continue our work for the future," he said.
Quintana told the NLD members that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had had no answer yet from the junta, Tin Oo said, adding that the party had not yet decided if it would take part in the elections.
The government has still not yet set a date for the polls, the first in Myanmar since elections in 1990 that the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
Earlier in the trip Quintana visited the northwestern town of Sittwe, where rights groups accuse the junta of repressing ethnic minority groups.
Sittwe was the site of the first protests by Buddhist monks against the government in 2007, a movement that spiralled into the so-called "Saffron Revolution" that was brutally suppressed by the military.
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UN envoy presses Myanmar ministers on Suu Kyi
by Hla Hla Htay – Fri Feb 19, 4:48 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy met ministers from Myanmar's military junta Friday to press for a meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and discuss human rights ahead of elections this year.
The talks came as the opposition said a senior Buddhist monk had been jailed for seven years, becoming the sixth dissident to be jailed in a week as the regime steps up a crackdown on dissent.
On the fifth and final day of his trip to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana flew to the remote capital Naypyidaw for talks but was not meeting the regime's reclusive supremo, Senior General Than Shwe, officials said.
Quintana met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs minister Maung Oo, as well as the chief justice, attorney general and police chief, officials said.
"He will not see our senior general," a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity. Details of Friday's talks were not immediately available.
Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said Quintana had told them at a meeting late Thursday that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had received no answer yet from the junta.
Quintana has not spoken publicly since arriving in Myanmar but said in a statement a week ago that "I hope that my request to the government to meet with... Aung San Suu Kyi will be granted this time."
He was due to address the media later in the former capital Yangon before flying to the Thai capital Bangkok.
Quintana met Thursday with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of the NLD, who was freed from house arrest on February 13 after a total of seven years in detention.
"We met for about one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners," Tin Oo said. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"We also spoke of our request for a meeting between the Senior General and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a meeting between (her) and our central committee members so that we can continue our work for the future," he said.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
Adding to the number languishing in Myanmar's jails, a court at Yangon's notorious Insein prison sentenced Buddhist abbot Gaw Thita to seven years in jail on various charges on Wednesday, the opposition said.
"He was sentenced to three years under the Immigration Emergency Act, two years under the Unlawful Association Act and two years under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act," Aung Thein, a former NLD lawyer, told AFP.
Gaw Thita was arrested in August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan, while seven other monks detained with him were later freed. His lawyer plans to appeal, Aung Thein said.
The monk is the fifth dissident to be jailed since Quintana arrived in Myanmar on Monday. Four women activists were sentenced to two years each with hard labour on the same day for donating literature to a monastery.
Dozens of people have received tough jail sentences since the so-called "Saffron Revolution" led by Buddhist monks against the junta in 2007, and the pace of repression has picked up ahead of elections promised for this year.
The junta has not yet set a date or published election laws, adding to criticisms that the vote is a sham designed to legitimise the generals' hold on power.
The NLD has not yet said whether it will take part in the polls, the first in Myanmar since 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Myanmar's new constitution, voted through in a 2008 referendum just days after a devastating cyclone killed around 138,000 people, effectively bars Suu Kyi from standing and reserves a quarter of legislative seats for the military.
by Hla Hla Htay – Fri Feb 19, 4:48 am ET
YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy met ministers from Myanmar's military junta Friday to press for a meeting with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and discuss human rights ahead of elections this year.
The talks came as the opposition said a senior Buddhist monk had been jailed for seven years, becoming the sixth dissident to be jailed in a week as the regime steps up a crackdown on dissent.
On the fifth and final day of his trip to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana flew to the remote capital Naypyidaw for talks but was not meeting the regime's reclusive supremo, Senior General Than Shwe, officials said.
Quintana met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs minister Maung Oo, as well as the chief justice, attorney general and police chief, officials said.
"He will not see our senior general," a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity. Details of Friday's talks were not immediately available.
Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said Quintana had told them at a meeting late Thursday that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had received no answer yet from the junta.
Quintana has not spoken publicly since arriving in Myanmar but said in a statement a week ago that "I hope that my request to the government to meet with... Aung San Suu Kyi will be granted this time."
He was due to address the media later in the former capital Yangon before flying to the Thai capital Bangkok.
Quintana met Thursday with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of the NLD, who was freed from house arrest on February 13 after a total of seven years in detention.
"We met for about one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners," Tin Oo said. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"We also spoke of our request for a meeting between the Senior General and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a meeting between (her) and our central committee members so that we can continue our work for the future," he said.
Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
Adding to the number languishing in Myanmar's jails, a court at Yangon's notorious Insein prison sentenced Buddhist abbot Gaw Thita to seven years in jail on various charges on Wednesday, the opposition said.
"He was sentenced to three years under the Immigration Emergency Act, two years under the Unlawful Association Act and two years under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act," Aung Thein, a former NLD lawyer, told AFP.
Gaw Thita was arrested in August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan, while seven other monks detained with him were later freed. His lawyer plans to appeal, Aung Thein said.
The monk is the fifth dissident to be jailed since Quintana arrived in Myanmar on Monday. Four women activists were sentenced to two years each with hard labour on the same day for donating literature to a monastery.
Dozens of people have received tough jail sentences since the so-called "Saffron Revolution" led by Buddhist monks against the junta in 2007, and the pace of repression has picked up ahead of elections promised for this year.
The junta has not yet set a date or published election laws, adding to criticisms that the vote is a sham designed to legitimise the generals' hold on power.
The NLD has not yet said whether it will take part in the polls, the first in Myanmar since 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide. The military subsequently annulled the result.
Myanmar's new constitution, voted through in a 2008 referendum just days after a devastating cyclone killed around 138,000 people, effectively bars Suu Kyi from standing and reserves a quarter of legislative seats for the military.
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Myanmar's Rohingyas - who are they?
8 hours 59 mins ago
(Reuters) - Rohingya refugees who fled oppression in their native Myanmar are facing similar abuse at the hands of Bangladeshi authorities, who rights groups say are trying to drive them out of the country.
Tens of thousands of Rohingyas, who are not recognised in their homeland, live illegally in Bangladesh and face attacks by police and the destruction of their homes, according to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Here are some facts about Myanmar's Rohingya people.
-- The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly Burma. The military government does not recognise them as one of the country's roughly 130 ethnic minorities.
-- Most Rohingyas come from Rakhine State, also known as Arakan State, in northwest Myanmar, abutting the border with Bangladesh.
Their roots are thought to date back to 1821, when Britain annexed the region as a province of British India and brought in large numbers of Bengali-speaking Muslim labourers, who later called themselves "Rohingyas."
-- When Burma won independence from Britain in 1948, the Bengali-speaking Muslim population near the border exceeded that of the Buddhists, leading to secessionist tensions.
This translated into harassment following a 1962 coup that has led to nearly five decades of military rule by the ethnic Burman majority. Thousands fled to Bangladesh to escape a 1978 military census of the Rohingyas called "Operation Dragon."
-- In 1991, another wave of refugees fled to Bangladesh, where the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says 300,000 Rohingya now live a perilous, stateless existence.
-- Rohingyas in northwest Myanmar are restricted from travelling inside the country, and those already in Bangladesh have little prospect of ever returning home as long as the army runs the country.
As a result, thousands have fled to try to start new lives, chancing their luck in rickety wooden boats they hope will get them to Malaysia, home to 14,300 official Rohingya refugees and maybe half as many again unregistered ones.
-- The Rohingyas seldom hit the headlines. One exception was in April 2004, when a group armed with axes and knives burst into the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, attacked embassy officials and set fire to the building.
-- In January 2009, Thailand's military was accused of towing 992 Rohingya boat people far out to sea before abandoning them to their fate with little food or water in boats without engines. The Thai government said its investigations were inconclusive.
A Rohingya human rights group and the testimony of survivors to Reuters in Aceh, Indonesia, and Indian police in the Andaman Islands suggested as many as 550 may have died.
8 hours 59 mins ago
(Reuters) - Rohingya refugees who fled oppression in their native Myanmar are facing similar abuse at the hands of Bangladeshi authorities, who rights groups say are trying to drive them out of the country.
Tens of thousands of Rohingyas, who are not recognised in their homeland, live illegally in Bangladesh and face attacks by police and the destruction of their homes, according to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
Here are some facts about Myanmar's Rohingya people.
-- The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly Burma. The military government does not recognise them as one of the country's roughly 130 ethnic minorities.
-- Most Rohingyas come from Rakhine State, also known as Arakan State, in northwest Myanmar, abutting the border with Bangladesh.
Their roots are thought to date back to 1821, when Britain annexed the region as a province of British India and brought in large numbers of Bengali-speaking Muslim labourers, who later called themselves "Rohingyas."
-- When Burma won independence from Britain in 1948, the Bengali-speaking Muslim population near the border exceeded that of the Buddhists, leading to secessionist tensions.
This translated into harassment following a 1962 coup that has led to nearly five decades of military rule by the ethnic Burman majority. Thousands fled to Bangladesh to escape a 1978 military census of the Rohingyas called "Operation Dragon."
-- In 1991, another wave of refugees fled to Bangladesh, where the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says 300,000 Rohingya now live a perilous, stateless existence.
-- Rohingyas in northwest Myanmar are restricted from travelling inside the country, and those already in Bangladesh have little prospect of ever returning home as long as the army runs the country.
As a result, thousands have fled to try to start new lives, chancing their luck in rickety wooden boats they hope will get them to Malaysia, home to 14,300 official Rohingya refugees and maybe half as many again unregistered ones.
-- The Rohingyas seldom hit the headlines. One exception was in April 2004, when a group armed with axes and knives burst into the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, attacked embassy officials and set fire to the building.
-- In January 2009, Thailand's military was accused of towing 992 Rohingya boat people far out to sea before abandoning them to their fate with little food or water in boats without engines. The Thai government said its investigations were inconclusive.
A Rohingya human rights group and the testimony of survivors to Reuters in Aceh, Indonesia, and Indian police in the Andaman Islands suggested as many as 550 may have died.
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Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
UNPO - Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar
Friday, 19 February 2010
Later this year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in 20 years. Leading up to the elctions Amnesty International has published a report highlighting the continuing human rights abuses that the ethnic minorities suffer.
Later this year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in 20 years against a backdrop of political repression and unresolved armed conflicts. The country’s record on human rights is extremely poor. Myanmar’s 50 million people continue to suffer from poverty and public health challenges, wrought largely by the government’s longstanding economic mismanagement. Widespread and systematic attacks on civilians in eastern Myanmar have been carried out with virtual impunity.
Despite prodding from its neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), renewed communication with domestic political opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and various foreign critics (chief among them the United States), and another round of United Nations (UN) visits and resolutions, the government has not meaningfully improved the country’s human rights situation. As this report conveys, there are real reasons to fear that the 2010 elections will intensify the already severe repression of political critics, in particular those from the country’s large and diverse population of ethnic minorities.
UNPO - Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar
Friday, 19 February 2010
Later this year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in 20 years. Leading up to the elctions Amnesty International has published a report highlighting the continuing human rights abuses that the ethnic minorities suffer.
Later this year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in 20 years against a backdrop of political repression and unresolved armed conflicts. The country’s record on human rights is extremely poor. Myanmar’s 50 million people continue to suffer from poverty and public health challenges, wrought largely by the government’s longstanding economic mismanagement. Widespread and systematic attacks on civilians in eastern Myanmar have been carried out with virtual impunity.
Despite prodding from its neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), renewed communication with domestic political opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and various foreign critics (chief among them the United States), and another round of United Nations (UN) visits and resolutions, the government has not meaningfully improved the country’s human rights situation. As this report conveys, there are real reasons to fear that the 2010 elections will intensify the already severe repression of political critics, in particular those from the country’s large and diverse population of ethnic minorities.
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FEBRUARY 18, 2010
The Wall Street Journal - Myanmar Moves to Privatize Key State Enterprises
By A WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER
BANGKOK—A flurry of privatizations of key state enterprises in Myanmar is raising speculation about whether the country's military regime is planning more market reform or simply trying to cash out before an election expected later this year.
The Myanmar government plans to sell a number of major assets, including a network of 250 state-owned gas stations, and ports handling a large percentage of the country's trade, according to local industry officials and Reuters news agency. It also is planning to sell factories, cinemas and warehouses, and may be contemplating a sale of the country's international airline, among other assets.
Obtaining complete information about the moves is difficult, as it is with any government activity in Myanmar, a country notorious for its secrecy. The regime rarely speaks to foreign journalists, and attempts to reach the government to confirm details, such as as sales prices and buyers, were unsuccessful. Than Shwe is the country's top military leader, but he doesn't often speak openly on policy, and it isn't clear which senior junta members are driving the latest privatization push.
But core elements of the push, including the sale of ports and gas stations, were confirmed by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which represents Myanmar's business sector, and by economists and dissidents familiar with the government's plans.
"We expect more" privatizations to come, said Maung Maung Lay, secretary-general of the federation, in a telephone interview. "The government wants to go according to international norms" and expand the role of the private sector, he said.
Local media have reported that Myanmar's Kanbawza Bank, one of the many private banks that proliferated amid reforms in the 1990s, will buy up to 80% of state-controlled Myanmar Airways International, while the government would hold the remaining 20%. An employee at the airline said only that a deal was "not officially announced yet." Efforts to reach Kanbawza were unsuccessful.
Buyers of the newly privatized assets are expected to be mostly local companies, Mr. Maung Maung Lay said. U.S. companies are, for the most part, prohibited from operating in Myanmar because of sanctions against the regime, which is accused of an array of human-rights violations. But other investors, especially in Asia, may seek to play a role.
Asian companies have entered a number of joint ventures with Myanmar's government over the years and are keen to expand in the country because of its vast natural resources and potential consumer market of 50 million people.
The privatization effort appears to be an acceleration of market reforms started in the late 1980s. At the time, the goal was to undo socialist policies imposed after the military took over in 1962—including the nationalization of key industries—that held Myanmar back while neighbors such as Thailand boomed.
Since then, privatizations have helped to boost growth and have brought more efficiency to some industries. But momentum has ebbed and flowed over time, depending on the whims of the regime, and the government has refused to let go of many of its most lucrative assets, including investments in infrastructure and natural resources.
A broad array of critics of the regime have long complained that the program lacks transparency, which increases the odds that assets wind up in the hands of allies of the regime. Many of Myanmar's biggest private companies—including some believed to be in the running for the latest assets—have close ties to military leaders and are targeted by U.S. sanctions. Myanmar consistently ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world, according to annual indexes produced by Transparency International, an advocacy group.
Momentum for the program appears to be building again, though, most likely because of national elections planned for later this year. Analysts generally believe the regime is holding the election as a bid to boost its legitimacy in the eyes of residents and foreign governments. Few expect it to be a free and fair vote, given the country's record of abuses.
The last vote, in 1990, was won by opponents of the regime led by famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. But the regime ignored the result and now holds Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest. Officials on Saturday released Tin Oo, a leading dissident who helped to found the National League for Democracy opposition party along with Ms. Suu Kyi.
Still, some observers have predicted the election may trigger more economic reform, as the regime looks to curry favor with supporters. Other analysts suspect officials simply want to cash out now, in case the election—whose date is still unknown—has an unexpected result.
Even if the vote is rigged, it is widely believed some top military figures will retire or leave office, resulting in a possible leadership shuffle that could lead to instability or other changes.
If it is possible to sell assets, "while you're utterly in control of the country, with soldiers in the streets and everything locked down, why not do it?" says Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar's economy at Macquarie University in Australia. "This is about locking up wealth now."
The proposed sale of fuel stations is particularly sensitive given the importance of fuel costs in the local economy. In 2007, a government decision to cut fuel subsidies helped trigger protests that ended in a harsh government crackdown, killing at least a dozen people.
According to Irrawaddy, a Myanmar-focused news organization based in Thailand, a contract to operate at least some state fuel stations has already been awarded to local entrepreneur and alleged arms dealer Tay Za, who is targeted by U.S. sanctions because of ties to the military regime. The publication cited unnamed business sources in Myanmar.
Attempts to reach Mr. Tay Za were unsuccessful. Mr. Maung Maung Lay at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the stations, which are owned by a state vehicle under the Ministry of Energy, hadn't been sold yet but that the fuel-station privatization would be complete soon, possibly by the end of March.
Other planned privatizations include three Yangon ports owned by Myanmar's Port Authority under the Ministry of Transport.
At least one other port in the region already is operated by a private company, Asia World, a Myanmar conglomerate whose managing director also is on a U.S. sanctions list.
The Wall Street Journal - Myanmar Moves to Privatize Key State Enterprises
By A WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER
BANGKOK—A flurry of privatizations of key state enterprises in Myanmar is raising speculation about whether the country's military regime is planning more market reform or simply trying to cash out before an election expected later this year.
The Myanmar government plans to sell a number of major assets, including a network of 250 state-owned gas stations, and ports handling a large percentage of the country's trade, according to local industry officials and Reuters news agency. It also is planning to sell factories, cinemas and warehouses, and may be contemplating a sale of the country's international airline, among other assets.
Obtaining complete information about the moves is difficult, as it is with any government activity in Myanmar, a country notorious for its secrecy. The regime rarely speaks to foreign journalists, and attempts to reach the government to confirm details, such as as sales prices and buyers, were unsuccessful. Than Shwe is the country's top military leader, but he doesn't often speak openly on policy, and it isn't clear which senior junta members are driving the latest privatization push.
But core elements of the push, including the sale of ports and gas stations, were confirmed by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which represents Myanmar's business sector, and by economists and dissidents familiar with the government's plans.
"We expect more" privatizations to come, said Maung Maung Lay, secretary-general of the federation, in a telephone interview. "The government wants to go according to international norms" and expand the role of the private sector, he said.
Local media have reported that Myanmar's Kanbawza Bank, one of the many private banks that proliferated amid reforms in the 1990s, will buy up to 80% of state-controlled Myanmar Airways International, while the government would hold the remaining 20%. An employee at the airline said only that a deal was "not officially announced yet." Efforts to reach Kanbawza were unsuccessful.
Buyers of the newly privatized assets are expected to be mostly local companies, Mr. Maung Maung Lay said. U.S. companies are, for the most part, prohibited from operating in Myanmar because of sanctions against the regime, which is accused of an array of human-rights violations. But other investors, especially in Asia, may seek to play a role.
Asian companies have entered a number of joint ventures with Myanmar's government over the years and are keen to expand in the country because of its vast natural resources and potential consumer market of 50 million people.
The privatization effort appears to be an acceleration of market reforms started in the late 1980s. At the time, the goal was to undo socialist policies imposed after the military took over in 1962—including the nationalization of key industries—that held Myanmar back while neighbors such as Thailand boomed.
Since then, privatizations have helped to boost growth and have brought more efficiency to some industries. But momentum has ebbed and flowed over time, depending on the whims of the regime, and the government has refused to let go of many of its most lucrative assets, including investments in infrastructure and natural resources.
A broad array of critics of the regime have long complained that the program lacks transparency, which increases the odds that assets wind up in the hands of allies of the regime. Many of Myanmar's biggest private companies—including some believed to be in the running for the latest assets—have close ties to military leaders and are targeted by U.S. sanctions. Myanmar consistently ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world, according to annual indexes produced by Transparency International, an advocacy group.
Momentum for the program appears to be building again, though, most likely because of national elections planned for later this year. Analysts generally believe the regime is holding the election as a bid to boost its legitimacy in the eyes of residents and foreign governments. Few expect it to be a free and fair vote, given the country's record of abuses.
The last vote, in 1990, was won by opponents of the regime led by famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. But the regime ignored the result and now holds Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest. Officials on Saturday released Tin Oo, a leading dissident who helped to found the National League for Democracy opposition party along with Ms. Suu Kyi.
Still, some observers have predicted the election may trigger more economic reform, as the regime looks to curry favor with supporters. Other analysts suspect officials simply want to cash out now, in case the election—whose date is still unknown—has an unexpected result.
Even if the vote is rigged, it is widely believed some top military figures will retire or leave office, resulting in a possible leadership shuffle that could lead to instability or other changes.
If it is possible to sell assets, "while you're utterly in control of the country, with soldiers in the streets and everything locked down, why not do it?" says Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar's economy at Macquarie University in Australia. "This is about locking up wealth now."
The proposed sale of fuel stations is particularly sensitive given the importance of fuel costs in the local economy. In 2007, a government decision to cut fuel subsidies helped trigger protests that ended in a harsh government crackdown, killing at least a dozen people.
According to Irrawaddy, a Myanmar-focused news organization based in Thailand, a contract to operate at least some state fuel stations has already been awarded to local entrepreneur and alleged arms dealer Tay Za, who is targeted by U.S. sanctions because of ties to the military regime. The publication cited unnamed business sources in Myanmar.
Attempts to reach Mr. Tay Za were unsuccessful. Mr. Maung Maung Lay at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the stations, which are owned by a state vehicle under the Ministry of Energy, hadn't been sold yet but that the fuel-station privatization would be complete soon, possibly by the end of March.
Other planned privatizations include three Yangon ports owned by Myanmar's Port Authority under the Ministry of Transport.
At least one other port in the region already is operated by a private company, Asia World, a Myanmar conglomerate whose managing director also is on a U.S. sanctions list.
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Feb 19, 2010
The Straits Times - Myanmar jails Buddhist abbot
YANGON - A MYANMAR prison court sentenced a Buddhist abbot to seven years in prison, an opposition source said on Friday, as a UN rights envoy wrapped up a visit to the military-ruled nation.
Gaw Thita was arrested in August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan and convicted at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison on Wednesday on three charges including unlawful association, the source said.
'He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on Wednesday at a special court in Insein Prison,' Aung Thein, a former lawyer for the opposition National League for Democracy party, told AFP.
'He was sentenced to three years under the Immigration Emergency Act, two years under the Unlawful Association Act and two years under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. He has to serve the prison terms consecutively,' he said.
Seven other monks arrested with Gaw Thita on Aug 26 at Yangon International Airport were later released without charge and the reasons for his initial detention were not clear, Aung Thein said.
'His lawyer says he will appeal for U Gaw Thita soon,' Aung Thein said. U is a Burmese-language term of respect. 'He did not break any immigration law as he used his valid passport. Also there was no evidence of unlawful organisation,' he said.
The Straits Times - Myanmar jails Buddhist abbot
YANGON - A MYANMAR prison court sentenced a Buddhist abbot to seven years in prison, an opposition source said on Friday, as a UN rights envoy wrapped up a visit to the military-ruled nation.
Gaw Thita was arrested in August as he returned from a trip to Taiwan and convicted at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison on Wednesday on three charges including unlawful association, the source said.
'He was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on Wednesday at a special court in Insein Prison,' Aung Thein, a former lawyer for the opposition National League for Democracy party, told AFP.
'He was sentenced to three years under the Immigration Emergency Act, two years under the Unlawful Association Act and two years under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. He has to serve the prison terms consecutively,' he said.
Seven other monks arrested with Gaw Thita on Aug 26 at Yangon International Airport were later released without charge and the reasons for his initial detention were not clear, Aung Thein said.
'His lawyer says he will appeal for U Gaw Thita soon,' Aung Thein said. U is a Burmese-language term of respect. 'He did not break any immigration law as he used his valid passport. Also there was no evidence of unlawful organisation,' he said.
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The Nation - EDITORIAL: Burma's continued tricks: the same old story
Published on February 19, 2010
The junta will delay and rig its proposed election once international observers are out of the way
No country in the world today spends more time hatching new political ploys, on a day to day basis, to fool the world, as much as the current military regime in Burma. The recent release of senior leader U Tin Oo, of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), was good news amid a more opaque political situation. The opposition senior has spent too long since 2003 under house arrest, along with the NLD's figurehead and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. It is strange that, every time the junta releases a prisoner, it becomes headline news around the world. In the case of Tin Oo, he should not have been under house arrest in the first place.
It is obvious to all that the Rangoon junta continues to manipulate international public opinion, especially the influential Western media, on the situation in Burma. After all these years, the game of cat and mouse continues unabated. Despite the initial goodwill encounters between US and Burmese senior officials, both in the US and Burma, in the last quarter of last year, the prospect of moving toward national reconciliation and free and fair elections is now as distant as ever.
Washington has learned firsthand that by bending a bit in favour of a broader dialogue with the regime, it has been used and manipulated to the utmost by Rangoon. This should hardly come as a surprise after decades of Burmese manipulation. Now the US has learned the hard way that when dealing with the regime, one needs more than just goodwill and good rationales. Washington's hope that Asean - of which Burma is a member - would do more to help with the Burmese crisis, has also been dashed for the time being. Indeed, with Vietnam as the new Asean chair, Burma is no longer under its peers' microscope or pressure.
It was almost a hellish experience for Rangoon under the Thai chair because Bangkok constantly put the regime under pressure to free political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei refused to back the Thai initiatives, which should highlight the concerns of all Asean members. So, this year, under this chair, Asean is not expected to call upon its members to ponder possible joint statements pressing for Suu Kyi's freedom, or advocating free and far elections, or national reconciliation, as the regional grouping has done since 2007.
From now on, the Burmese junta will be free to continue with its own propaganda, using its membership of Asean for publicity. Vietnam will not want to get involved in this mess - or, for that matter, allow Asean to do so - as Hanoi has its own skeletons in the closet. The arrest recently of Vietnamese human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, and other activists, has greatly tarnished Hanoi's once excellent image and its reservoir of goodwill in Washington and the rest of the world. In the remaining months of 2010, Vietnam wants to steer clear of any controversy among the Asean members.
Doubtless, Rangoon will continue with its intransigence. It is currently not willing to reveal the date of its proposed election this year. It will probably be a surprise to all when the generals do finally make an announcement. The trick, for them, is to ensure that the poll date will benefit the regime and its candidates the most. At the moment, the election timeframe is a lethal weapon in the junta's armoury. Obviously, the poll will be held in the second half of the year, when the international relief organisations and their representatives have left the country, with the post-Cyclone Nargis relief and rehabilitation plans supposedly to end by June. There will thus be no local or international scrutiny of the poll.
It is a win-win situation for the Rangoon generals. Again.
Published on February 19, 2010
The junta will delay and rig its proposed election once international observers are out of the way
No country in the world today spends more time hatching new political ploys, on a day to day basis, to fool the world, as much as the current military regime in Burma. The recent release of senior leader U Tin Oo, of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), was good news amid a more opaque political situation. The opposition senior has spent too long since 2003 under house arrest, along with the NLD's figurehead and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. It is strange that, every time the junta releases a prisoner, it becomes headline news around the world. In the case of Tin Oo, he should not have been under house arrest in the first place.
It is obvious to all that the Rangoon junta continues to manipulate international public opinion, especially the influential Western media, on the situation in Burma. After all these years, the game of cat and mouse continues unabated. Despite the initial goodwill encounters between US and Burmese senior officials, both in the US and Burma, in the last quarter of last year, the prospect of moving toward national reconciliation and free and fair elections is now as distant as ever.
Washington has learned firsthand that by bending a bit in favour of a broader dialogue with the regime, it has been used and manipulated to the utmost by Rangoon. This should hardly come as a surprise after decades of Burmese manipulation. Now the US has learned the hard way that when dealing with the regime, one needs more than just goodwill and good rationales. Washington's hope that Asean - of which Burma is a member - would do more to help with the Burmese crisis, has also been dashed for the time being. Indeed, with Vietnam as the new Asean chair, Burma is no longer under its peers' microscope or pressure.
It was almost a hellish experience for Rangoon under the Thai chair because Bangkok constantly put the regime under pressure to free political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei refused to back the Thai initiatives, which should highlight the concerns of all Asean members. So, this year, under this chair, Asean is not expected to call upon its members to ponder possible joint statements pressing for Suu Kyi's freedom, or advocating free and far elections, or national reconciliation, as the regional grouping has done since 2007.
From now on, the Burmese junta will be free to continue with its own propaganda, using its membership of Asean for publicity. Vietnam will not want to get involved in this mess - or, for that matter, allow Asean to do so - as Hanoi has its own skeletons in the closet. The arrest recently of Vietnamese human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, and other activists, has greatly tarnished Hanoi's once excellent image and its reservoir of goodwill in Washington and the rest of the world. In the remaining months of 2010, Vietnam wants to steer clear of any controversy among the Asean members.
Doubtless, Rangoon will continue with its intransigence. It is currently not willing to reveal the date of its proposed election this year. It will probably be a surprise to all when the generals do finally make an announcement. The trick, for them, is to ensure that the poll date will benefit the regime and its candidates the most. At the moment, the election timeframe is a lethal weapon in the junta's armoury. Obviously, the poll will be held in the second half of the year, when the international relief organisations and their representatives have left the country, with the post-Cyclone Nargis relief and rehabilitation plans supposedly to end by June. There will thus be no local or international scrutiny of the poll.
It is a win-win situation for the Rangoon generals. Again.
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THE NATION - 25% of power to come from neighbours
By WATCHARAPONG THONGRUNG
Published on February 19, 2010
A revised national power-development plan (PDP) sees Thailand purchasing as much as one-quarter of its electricity needs from neighbouring countries within the next 20 years.
With Thailand signing many new deals for power supplies from Laos, Burma and southern China, the PDP opens the way for power-plant operators in neighbouring countries to sell much more of their electricity across borders.
Energy Policy and Planning Office director-general Viraphol Jirapraditkul said the high proportion of Thailand's power needs that was expected to be met by neighbouring countries was aimed at reducing the country's reliance on natural gas to produce power. Most power plants in neighbouring countries were hydropower or coal-fired plants.
So far, Thailand has reached preliminary agreements to buy 11,500 megawatts of electricity from its neighbours. It has signed memoranda of understanding with Laos to purchase 7,000 megawatts, southern China for 3,000MW and Burma for 1,500MW.
The Nam Theun-Hin Bun and Hua Hoh power plants in Laos already supply 187MW and 126MW of electricity, respectively, to Thailand.
Other projects in Laos with which Thailand has already signed electricity-purchase deals but which have not yet begun delivering power to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), include the Nam Theun 2 plant, which will begin supplying 920MW to Egat next month; Nam Ngum 2, which will begin supplying 615MW next month; and an extension of the Nam Theun-Hin Bun project, which will come on line with 220MW in March 2012.
Egat has also signed a memorandum of understanding related to an electricity-purchase rate with the Hongsa lignite project in Laos, which plans to begin supplying 1,473MW to Thailand in 2015, and the Mai Kok project in Burma, which will begin supplying 369MW in 2016.
Other power-plant projects that will sell to Thailand include the Nam Theun 1, Nam Ou, Nam Ngiep 1 and Xayabury hydropower projects, all in Laos.
By WATCHARAPONG THONGRUNG
Published on February 19, 2010
A revised national power-development plan (PDP) sees Thailand purchasing as much as one-quarter of its electricity needs from neighbouring countries within the next 20 years.
With Thailand signing many new deals for power supplies from Laos, Burma and southern China, the PDP opens the way for power-plant operators in neighbouring countries to sell much more of their electricity across borders.
Energy Policy and Planning Office director-general Viraphol Jirapraditkul said the high proportion of Thailand's power needs that was expected to be met by neighbouring countries was aimed at reducing the country's reliance on natural gas to produce power. Most power plants in neighbouring countries were hydropower or coal-fired plants.
So far, Thailand has reached preliminary agreements to buy 11,500 megawatts of electricity from its neighbours. It has signed memoranda of understanding with Laos to purchase 7,000 megawatts, southern China for 3,000MW and Burma for 1,500MW.
The Nam Theun-Hin Bun and Hua Hoh power plants in Laos already supply 187MW and 126MW of electricity, respectively, to Thailand.
Other projects in Laos with which Thailand has already signed electricity-purchase deals but which have not yet begun delivering power to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), include the Nam Theun 2 plant, which will begin supplying 920MW to Egat next month; Nam Ngum 2, which will begin supplying 615MW next month; and an extension of the Nam Theun-Hin Bun project, which will come on line with 220MW in March 2012.
Egat has also signed a memorandum of understanding related to an electricity-purchase rate with the Hongsa lignite project in Laos, which plans to begin supplying 1,473MW to Thailand in 2015, and the Mai Kok project in Burma, which will begin supplying 369MW in 2016.
Other power-plant projects that will sell to Thailand include the Nam Theun 1, Nam Ou, Nam Ngiep 1 and Xayabury hydropower projects, all in Laos.
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Bangkok Post - Exports push lube sales
50% surge projected, China plant planned
Published: 19/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business
Exports to China and Burma are expected to lift PTT's sales of lubricant products by 50% this year, says Rachadech Khemthong, a vice-president of the country's biggest oil company.
For 2010, the majority state-owned company aims for its export sales to grow by 40% to 10 million litres from 7.1 million last year.
Mr Rachadech said the company hoped the fastest-growing export market would be China, where sales could rise to 6 million litres this year from only 646,000 litres last year. China's lube consumption last year was 7 billion litres and would rise by 10% this year.
Once lubricant sale volume rises in China to more than 1.5 million litres, PTT will join a local partner, Guangdong-based Topship Chemical, in building a lube-blending factory in China to save unit costs.
The investment cost is about 100 million baht, excluding land acquisition, and the factory will have an annual output of 30 million litres.
Closer to home, Burma also shows strong potential, as PTT targets sales of 3.15 million litres, up from 831,000 a year earlier.
PTT has seen a warm response to its products among Burmese motorists since its entry last year. "Our lube products are considered of high quality in the [China and Burma] markets. That makes us feel confident," said Mr Rachadech.
PTT Lube started aggressive marketing activity overseas in 2007 and succeeded in improving sales from 4.7 million litres in 2008 to 7.1 million litres last year. PTT decided to appoint a local business partner, Tunn Star Co, as its sales agent in Burma late last year.
"In order to keep our strong growth in those markets, we joined hands with the local partner who can access the market more easily," he said.
Last year, PTT stepped up its marketing activity in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Greece. This year, it will focus on the US, Lebanon and Southeast Asia.
Also, PTT this year expects to sustain its growth at home to more than 120 million litres from 113 million last year. The increase will come from the rapid rebound in some sectors, particularly automobiles. As well, its rivals have eased their marketing campaigns, allowing PTT to grab a bigger market share.
Overall domestic lubricant oil sales last year fell 10% to 498 million litres from 508 million in 2008. PTT commands the largest market share of 22.7%, followed by Shell (18.3%), Castrol (11%) and Chevron, Esso and Trane (7% each).
PTT this year will focus on new lubricant oil products for vehicles and also on developing special products for the food and cosmetic industries, which demand extra-purified grades of lubricants.
The company will also conduct research into the needs of the aviation sector, which uses high-quality grades.
Shares of PTT closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 218 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 704.8 million baht.
50% surge projected, China plant planned
Published: 19/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business
Exports to China and Burma are expected to lift PTT's sales of lubricant products by 50% this year, says Rachadech Khemthong, a vice-president of the country's biggest oil company.
For 2010, the majority state-owned company aims for its export sales to grow by 40% to 10 million litres from 7.1 million last year.
Mr Rachadech said the company hoped the fastest-growing export market would be China, where sales could rise to 6 million litres this year from only 646,000 litres last year. China's lube consumption last year was 7 billion litres and would rise by 10% this year.
Once lubricant sale volume rises in China to more than 1.5 million litres, PTT will join a local partner, Guangdong-based Topship Chemical, in building a lube-blending factory in China to save unit costs.
The investment cost is about 100 million baht, excluding land acquisition, and the factory will have an annual output of 30 million litres.
Closer to home, Burma also shows strong potential, as PTT targets sales of 3.15 million litres, up from 831,000 a year earlier.
PTT has seen a warm response to its products among Burmese motorists since its entry last year. "Our lube products are considered of high quality in the [China and Burma] markets. That makes us feel confident," said Mr Rachadech.
PTT Lube started aggressive marketing activity overseas in 2007 and succeeded in improving sales from 4.7 million litres in 2008 to 7.1 million litres last year. PTT decided to appoint a local business partner, Tunn Star Co, as its sales agent in Burma late last year.
"In order to keep our strong growth in those markets, we joined hands with the local partner who can access the market more easily," he said.
Last year, PTT stepped up its marketing activity in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Greece. This year, it will focus on the US, Lebanon and Southeast Asia.
Also, PTT this year expects to sustain its growth at home to more than 120 million litres from 113 million last year. The increase will come from the rapid rebound in some sectors, particularly automobiles. As well, its rivals have eased their marketing campaigns, allowing PTT to grab a bigger market share.
Overall domestic lubricant oil sales last year fell 10% to 498 million litres from 508 million in 2008. PTT commands the largest market share of 22.7%, followed by Shell (18.3%), Castrol (11%) and Chevron, Esso and Trane (7% each).
PTT this year will focus on new lubricant oil products for vehicles and also on developing special products for the food and cosmetic industries, which demand extra-purified grades of lubricants.
The company will also conduct research into the needs of the aviation sector, which uses high-quality grades.
Shares of PTT closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 218 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 704.8 million baht.
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Bangkok Post - Yadana shutdown won't cause power shortage
Published: 19/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business
A 16-day shutdown of gas supplies from Burma next month will not result in power blackouts but could lead to higher electricity costs later in the year, said Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul.
The pipeline carrying gas from the Yadana field in Burma will be closed for maintenance from March 19 to April 3. The pipeline supplies 1.1 billion cubic feet a day of gas, or 41% of the 2.7 billion cubic feet used for generating power.
Natural gas accounts for about 70% of the fuel used to produce electricity in Thailand. About 75% of the gas used for all purposes, including industry, comes from the Gulf of Thailand and the rest from Burma.
Mr Wannarat said operators of eight fields in the Gulf were lifting production in anticipation of the Burma shutdown. The fields are Chevron, Pailin, Benchamas, Arthit, Bongkot, Tantawan and two blocks of the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA).
The eight fields have a current output of 2.7 billion cubic feet per day and will increase the total by 22% during the second half of March.
Power plants are also expected to consume an additional 236 million litres of fuel oil and 21 million litres of diesel to make up for the gas shortfall. Fuel oil costs twice that of gas and will result in extra expense totalling 1.8 billion baht.
The additional cost could push up the fuel tariff (Ft) charge by five satang per unit (kilowatt/hour). Every increase of 400 million baht in fuel costs equals an Ft rate of one satang per unit.
"We consider [the shutdown] a planned one that was already publicised; it is not an emergency," he said.
He said there would be no immediate impact on costs as the current Ft rate has been fixed until August. "As to the amount by which it will be increased, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will consider that."
Kuruchit Nakornthap, director-general of the ministry's Mineral Fuels Department, said gas from Block B17 in the JDA began entering Thailand's pipelines early this month. Production as of yesterday was 135 million cubic feet per day, and is expected to double within three months.
Published: 19/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business
A 16-day shutdown of gas supplies from Burma next month will not result in power blackouts but could lead to higher electricity costs later in the year, said Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul.
The pipeline carrying gas from the Yadana field in Burma will be closed for maintenance from March 19 to April 3. The pipeline supplies 1.1 billion cubic feet a day of gas, or 41% of the 2.7 billion cubic feet used for generating power.
Natural gas accounts for about 70% of the fuel used to produce electricity in Thailand. About 75% of the gas used for all purposes, including industry, comes from the Gulf of Thailand and the rest from Burma.
Mr Wannarat said operators of eight fields in the Gulf were lifting production in anticipation of the Burma shutdown. The fields are Chevron, Pailin, Benchamas, Arthit, Bongkot, Tantawan and two blocks of the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA).
The eight fields have a current output of 2.7 billion cubic feet per day and will increase the total by 22% during the second half of March.
Power plants are also expected to consume an additional 236 million litres of fuel oil and 21 million litres of diesel to make up for the gas shortfall. Fuel oil costs twice that of gas and will result in extra expense totalling 1.8 billion baht.
The additional cost could push up the fuel tariff (Ft) charge by five satang per unit (kilowatt/hour). Every increase of 400 million baht in fuel costs equals an Ft rate of one satang per unit.
"We consider [the shutdown] a planned one that was already publicised; it is not an emergency," he said.
He said there would be no immediate impact on costs as the current Ft rate has been fixed until August. "As to the amount by which it will be increased, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will consider that."
Kuruchit Nakornthap, director-general of the ministry's Mineral Fuels Department, said gas from Block B17 in the JDA began entering Thailand's pipelines early this month. Production as of yesterday was 135 million cubic feet per day, and is expected to double within three months.
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Series: Guardian Environment Network
The Guardian - A new strategy for saving the world's wild big cats
Friday 19 February 2010 10.30 GMT
The Guardian - A new strategy for saving the world's wild big cats
Friday 19 February 2010 10.30 GMT
Populations of many of the world's wild cats are plummeting, with the number of tigers falling to roughly 3,200. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Alan Rabinowitz, a leading wild cat biologist, lays out a vision of how populations of these magnificent creatures can be brought back from the brink.
For more than three decades, Alan Rabinowitz has studied tigers, jaguars, and other wild cats in some of the world's most remote regions. But working for years at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, Rabinowitz did far more than research these great animals — he helped create parks and preserves to protect wild cats, including the world's first jaguar sanctuary in Belize and a network of protected areas for tigers in the authoritarian nation of Myanmar.
For the past two years, Rabinowitz has been the CEO and president of the conservation group, Panthera, which has the lofty goal of saving wild cat species across all their ranges worldwide. Hiring some of the world's most respected wildlife biologists and wild cat specialists, Panthera is working with other conservation groups and with governments to develop and implement tiger-recovery strategies and to create a jaguar corridor across much of South and Central America, protected areas for snow leopards in the Himalayas, and a network of linked refuges and corridors for lions across parts of Africa.
Rabinowitz — in an interview with Yale Environment 360 senior editor Fen Montaigne — says plenty of habitat still exists to increase populations of some wild felines, such as tigers, ten-fold. The key, he says, is for conservation groups to be held fully accountable for their work and to commit to reviving wild cat numbers by carefully studying existing populations, working with governments to crack down on illegal hunting and other threats, and developing scientifically-sound programs for recovery. "The ball has to stop somewhere," says Rabinowitz, "and I think it has to stop with the international conservation community."
Rabinowitz is certain of something else: None of the planet's wild cat species should be allowed to go extinct. "The world," he says, "will absolutely be a much, much poorer — and, I believe, unhealthier — place with the loss of any of the world's great cats."
Yale Environment 360: I read the astonishing figure recently that tigers in the wild, throughout the whole world, [number] roughly 3,500. How has this situation come to pass?
Alan Rabinowitz: Well unfortunately, I would say 3,500 right now is being a bit optimistic. I'd say it was closer to 2,500 to 3,000 maybe left in the wild — with thousands upon thousands in captivity, which is an unfortunate number. This has not come to pass slowly. I actually believe that the conservation community is to a fairly large part to blame for why the tiger is in its current situation and more is not being done.
The tiger is in desperate shape — the worst shape of any of the great cats. It's the biggest cat in the world. It's probably one of the most iconic species on the planet, [but] it's left roaming approximately 5 to 7 percent of its historic habitat.
How did we get to this? Well there are many reasons, but the primary cause of tiger death — like many of the big cats — is people killing tigers themselves and people killing tiger food. Many of the people who live in tiger habitat kill much of what tigers need to survive. Tigers need big prey. Now those same animals that the tiger needs to survive, people often hunt for food, for trade in the marketplace, for money. Another big cause of tiger decline is loss of habitat, but frankly, even with the loss of habitat, the current existing potential tiger habitat could hold probably up to 30,000 tigers right now at reasonable densities...
The reason why the situation is so bad for tigers, versus other big cats, is because they're driven by a trade that no other big cat currently is involved in to that same extent, and that's the Chinese medicine trade.
There is and has been for centuries a demand by Asian traditional medicine — not just the Chinese by the way, but that's the biggest trade — for big cat parts and bones. It is not driven by the concept of an aphrodisiac, as many people think. It's mostly been used for other kinds of things that Western medicine generally hasn't been able to address, like joint complaints, rheumatoid arthritis. Now as the Chinese economy has boomed, more people could afford it and there's been more demand. And that has driven tiger numbers very, very low, because if you're a poor local person in a place like Myanmar or India, or even Thailand, killing one tiger could basically change your life. It could give your daughter a dowry; it could buy you a marketplace in a local village. It's basically a pot of gold for a local person. The issue is how do we turn that around.
e360: When you look at tigers around the world, relatively healthy populations exist in what pockets now?
Rabinowitz: There are landscapes where we might think there are a few hundred left, but that's actually a bit different from even saying it's a healthy population. In fact, all of them are in steep decline. In the Russian Far East, in a large contiguous landscape, we have several hundred tigers left, but our recent data shows that that population is in steep decline.
On Sumatra, probably several hundred [are] left over the entire island. We're dealing with only a relatively small island, lots of people, lots of habitat degradation, and whether that population is going to be able to be maintained at current levels is a big, big question mark. Tiger numbers are dropping precipitously.
e360: Is that in some measure due to palm oil plantations?
Rabinowitz: In Sumatra, hunting has been a big problem, but I'd say the greatest current threat is deforestation that's contributed by factors such as palm oil plantations.
Other populations, which are actually contiguous populations with over a hundred tigers, there aren't many out there. Possibly Bangladesh. India has always been held up as the country with the most tigers, but all of its tiger populations are highly fragmented with no single population actually being that large.
We're dropping the ball — "we" meaning the international conservation community. We are not properly measuring what we're starting out with, where the best core tiger areas are, and putting money towards these core sites and staying on top of mitigating critical threats. Panthera started a program four years ago now, in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, called Tigers Forever. The point of that program was to pick some key tiger sites where through years on the ground, we knew we had control of those sites, control meaning we had the ears of the government, we had community buy-in. At those key sites, we would set up models where we put as much money as they felt they needed to mitigate criminal threats within an area they felt they could control. All signs three years later are that that program has been a huge success.
e360: Tell me about a few of the sites that have worked.
Rabinowitz: In Thailand, a place called Hukawng, which is on the Thai-Burmese border, [where] actual tiger numbers have increased. Now I was in that area more than 20 years ago and I thought tigers would be wiped out. That situation has been completely turned around, partly through the efforts of the Thai government and now through the strategic monitoring and measuring of the Tigers Forever program. It is considered by the Thai government to be the best protected area in all of Thailand, and it's now a model for Thailand.
In the Western Ghats [in India], we're actually documenting young dispersing males leaving the good, well protected site of Nagarahole. That was a good core site prior to Tigers Forever and now [tigers are] spreading out and they're able to re-inhabit and start new, better core populations.
In Burma, where I was working and we set up the world's largest tiger reserve, a place called Hukawng Valley, it had horrible threats... Within the last three years, we have not noticeably been able to bring back tiger numbers, but three years is too short a time to really tell over a huge landscape if tiger numbers are coming back. What we have seen is the amount of poaching has gone way, way down. Guns have been confiscated, people are not hunting as much anymore, marketplaces selling wild meat have all been shut down and people are seeing tiger tracks. Prey has come back.
In all of the tiger range countries, there are pretty good laws in place that if they were enforced, we probably wouldn't have nearly the situation we do with tigers. Most of the time the government wants to enforce, but it's not a big priority. It's very interesting because I've never met a head of state that will say, "We don't care about our big cats.
Look, development comes first, my people come first. If that means all the tigers are gone, so be it." What they will say is, "Of course we want to save our tigers. Our tigers are part of our natural heritage. If you can show us a way where we could save our tigers and yet people benefit, we can develop the country as we need to develop, then we are willing to listen."
This is where I think the international conservation community has fallen short — in taking that opportunity and moving from there because the international conservation community, especially with the agenda of tigers, has not come together. They've done everything but. They are all fighting for their own piece of the donor pie. They all want to put their own name to what kind of agenda they are doing.
The problem is it takes intensive work and monitoring and accountability, and most organizations and people don't want to be held accountable. They want to say, "Look, we did great things, we trained a hundred teachers, we trained a hundred tiger guards, we have put millions of dollars into tiger range countries, don't blame us if the tiger is still going downhill." That's crap.
The ball has to stop somewhere and I think it stops with the international conservation community. If there's any watchdog out there, it should be us, and if there is anybody who's held accountable for decreasing tiger numbers and eventually possible tiger extirpation on this world, it is us as the international conservation community. We are taking people's money and we're saying we will help tigers, and it's not like trying to figure out how to land a human being on Saturn. We know how to save tigers. We know how to turn tiger numbers around.
e360: And your protocol is basically to study what's there, secure the core habitat with greater enforcement?
Rabinowitz: First of all, do what's called a critical threats assessment. You go into an area that is known to have a good tiger population or a potential tiger breeding population. You can estimate how many tigers are there — there's now camera trapping, occupancy surveys, track surveys. You can estimate how many tigers could potentially be there based on what size of the protected habitat is existing, what's stopping the number of tigers from being there that could be there. That's the critical threats assessment.
You focus in on what needs to be done as you measure and monitor that what you are doing is having impact. So say we know that [in Myanmar] we have to try to get at the Lisu, [and stop] hunting. You know they're one of our biggest problems because there it is so embedded in their tradition.
There are certain people where the only thing that works, at least for the short term, is strict enforcement, so with the Lisu we have had to bring in the Burmese police. We have had to bring in the forest guards and say, "We're watching you. We know it's part of your tradition to be killing tigers, but it's not a tradition which you need or really have any justification for. There are so few tigers left, you'll be down to nothing anyway if you continue your tradition." And actually they acknowledge that. But a few of them still go out and do it.
The only way you can bring [tigers] back is find out who those last organized tiger hunters are. We're dealing with less than 3,000 tigers left in the world and there are people out there who don't give a damn because them getting a tiger is going to mean a lot more money in their pocket. I don't blame them, but the way we counter it, in some cases, is simply hardcore enforcement. We confiscate their weapons, we arrest them, we do whatever has to be done to save the last tigers in that area.
e360: How would you characterize the state of African lions today and what are you doing to try and increase numbers?
Rabinowitz: Well the state of African lions is not as great as people might think because people watch all these beautiful shows on Animal Planet and Discovery, great footage of lion prides, and in actual fact it's only a few places in the world where that kind of footage can be taken. The African lion, our second-largest cat in the world, is actually down to occupying less than about 20 percent of its historic habitat.
Now a lot of good people are out there studying lions. Unfortunately, the lion arena has always been a very shotgun type approach. So you have people working in Tanzania.
You have people working on lions in Kenya. You have people working in South Africa, in Botswana. They're all different groups of people capturing, radio collaring, studying lion-human interaction and, it's never been brought together under one umbrella. Again, that's been one of the major failings of conservation is all of these good people, good projects, usually good agendas working in isolation from one another.
Panthera has attempted to step back and say let's look at what is going on range-wide with each of these cats. We want to be kind of a think tank. We try to bring on all the best minds in cat biology and cat conservation in the world.
With lions, it's been assumed that the lion range is so broken up that basically the best you could do is study the world's major six to eight lion populations and try to save them as these disjunct populations. Again, we're looking beyond just where the core populations are, out into the human landscape where these lions are coming, which, by traditional conservation thinking, has always been kind of the black hole. Unless we figure out a way that these big cats live within the human landscape, live with people or at least get to move through those human landscapes to the next protected area, then we're going to lose all our big cats eventually because all we'll end up having are disjunct populations, bio-zoos of a sort.
So what we've done with the lion is we've looked at the whole range. We've looked at the fact, known good populations of lions could be looked at, maybe instead of eight disjunct populations, three to four meta-populations. We can actually look to genetically combine a lot of these populations by working with local people and protecting landscapes between populations, outside of the protected areas.
e360: Tell me briefly the state of jaguar populations.
Rabinowitz: Well, fortunately, jaguars are in a better state than either lions or tigers. As good of a state as they are in — meaning that they're threatened more than really endangered right now — they are still occupying only approximately 48 to 50 percent of their historic habitat. However, through our research, we're finding that they're actually ranging over and potentially still using up to 80 percent of their historic habitat, in terms of genetic corridors.
I grew up in traditional wildlife conservation, meaning the traditional paradigm was go find a good population. If it's not in a protected area, get the area protected. Once you set up a protected area, where hopefully people are outside and the animals inside, your job is done. But now the whole paradigm has shifted because we know that with the large predators, that genetically if we relegate them to isolated, disjunct populations, even if they're in pretty damn big areas with good, large landscapes, the future doesn't look very bright because there needs to be genetic connectivity. There needs to be mixing.
When cats have good core areas where they can come from or go to, where they have abundant food, then outside those areas, they can mix into the human landscape in limited numbers. Yes, there will always be some conflict and some interaction, but generally people and animals can live together. With the jaguar corridor, we're actually getting heads of state to sign papers saying they support the jaguar corridor in principle. When we get a government backing the jaguar corridor, we can then put that corridor into the land use policy and planning system of that country. So say that Costa Rica wants to build a new dam or a big four-lane highway, they need, just like most countries, to do an environmental impact statement. They go to their computers and boom, it pops up that they're inside of a jaguar corridor. Now it doesn't stop them necessarily. They then come to us or to the jaguar group in that country, and say, "It's right in your jaguar corridor, what can we do?"
e360: So you're basically saying, that even as we're moving towards a world with nine billion people, that with smart and aggressive conservation there will still be enough wild lands and corridors and areas of mixed use that you can not only preserve what you have now [but expand wildcat populations]?
Rabinowitz: Absolutely, no doubt about it. People say that at the beginning of the 1900s there were perhaps as many as a hundred thousand tigers in the world, which might or might not be true. Now we're down to 3,000. My objective is not to try to get back to 100,000 tigers because that's just an unrealistic projection, but working within existing human landscapes, working within existing protected areas, we could be having maybe twenty to thirty thousand tigers.
But the conservation community has to be more accountable. With the Tigers Forever program, we have made a biological commitment, which was determined by the scientists at the tiger sites we chose, that we will increase tigers at those sites overall by a minimum of 50 percent over the next 10 years, and that's based in science. And we're going to put the money towards that. If that doesn't happen, I won't blame politics, I won't blame anything. It will be our fault. It will be my fault.
e360: As someone who's worked with big cats for decades, what is the moral or spiritual significance of making sure that tigers remain on Earth?
Rabinowitz: Spiritually I feel very strongly about the tigers. I think you can drop me off any place in the world and I can tell you if the big cats are around me or not. I have been face to face with wild lions, with wild jaguars, and there is a real energy emanating from them. I've been in jungle and watched as big cats move through the jungle and hear all of the animals go silent as the big predator moves through it. The energy in a jungle with big predators is a very, very different energy, and when you truly merge with it and feel it, it's not a dangerous energy. It's not a negative energy — completely the opposite. It's this huge, positive, overwhelming force which humbles you, makes you realize that there are things much greater on the Earth than you.
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The Irrawaddy - Exchanging One Prison Existence for Another
By KO HTWE - Friday, February 19, 2010
UMPIEM MAI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand—After surviving repression and imprisonment in Burma and then seeking refuge in Thailand, many former Burmese political prisoners feel they have exchanged one prison for another.
Aung Pan, a former political prisoner who now lives in Umpiem Mai refugee camp near the Thai-Burmese border, said: “We're jailed here. We have no freedom of movement.”
Aung Pan is one of 53 former political prisoners and family members in Umpiem Mai, which houses about 30,000 refugees. Umpiem Mai is one of nine camps along the Thai-Burmese border, where about 140,000 Burmese refugees eke out a confined life, many of them hoping for resettlement in the West.
Hla Than, another Umpiem Mai resident, came to Thailand after serving 14 years in a Burmese prison for his political activities. “In Burma it was difficult to engage yourself in politics, so I came here hoping to be able to do that,” he said.
Hla Than said he had originally had no intention of applying for resettlement in the West after coming to Thailand. Now he's hoping to move to the US, Canada or Norway.
“We face a lot of problems in the refugee camp here,” he said. “Security, accommodation, food...”
Many of the former political prisoners in Thailand's refugee camps were imprisoned because of their involved in major events such as the 1988 uprising or the 2007 monk-led demonstrations. The threat of further imprisonment led them to flee to Thailand after their release.
Thein Zaw is one of about 80 former political prisoners in Nu Po camp, which houses nearly 17,000 refugees.
“Life in a refugee camp is rigid, it's hard to describe” he said.
Fellow refugee Kyi Win, another former political prisoner, said: “Living in prison, I knew the day I would be freed. But I don't know when I shall be released from this camp.”
Arriving refugees are screened by the Thai authorities and then registered by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Not all are granted registration and some choose to live illegally in Thailand.
“Without legal status, we have no security,” said Hla Than. “We are stateless and hopelesss.”
Refugees without legal status are also denied the daily rations distributed to the camps by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, and at least 14 former political prisoners have to work illegally in order to provide for themselevs and their families.
One 60-year-old former political prisoner crossed to Thailand with eight family members, including a 7-month-old infant and an HIV-infected son.
His son and a daughter work as day laborers outside the camp, scratching together the 100 baht (US $3) the family needs to survive.
Kyi Win, another former political prisoner, left Burma accompanied by five family members and now supports them by selling snacks near the camp school.
Although the resettlement program introduced in 2005 has given many refugees the chance of a new life in the West, it has also led to the breakup of some families.
Htay Htay Win, a former political prisoner, said one of her sons had been resettled in the United States and another in Australia. “I just don't understand it,” she said.
Another former political prisoner, Ye Htun, complained he had been rudely treated by the UNHCR after withdrawing his application to resettle in the West with his wife.
The couple had wanted the wife's mother to accompany them, but her application was rejected.
“I inquired at the UNHCR office about our case, explaining our culture to the officer there,” said Ye Htun. “But he told me to leave and said the UNHCR was not a travel agency!”
Kitty McKinsey, the regional UNHCR, denied the UN agency was being unhelpful or rude to refugees.
“We are not the one who gives recognition to the people who come to the camps. It is the Thai goverment that gives recognition. We do other things in the camp. We protect people in the camps to make sure their human rights are respected."
By KO HTWE - Friday, February 19, 2010
UMPIEM MAI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand—After surviving repression and imprisonment in Burma and then seeking refuge in Thailand, many former Burmese political prisoners feel they have exchanged one prison for another.
Aung Pan, a former political prisoner who now lives in Umpiem Mai refugee camp near the Thai-Burmese border, said: “We're jailed here. We have no freedom of movement.”
Aung Pan is one of 53 former political prisoners and family members in Umpiem Mai, which houses about 30,000 refugees. Umpiem Mai is one of nine camps along the Thai-Burmese border, where about 140,000 Burmese refugees eke out a confined life, many of them hoping for resettlement in the West.
Hla Than, another Umpiem Mai resident, came to Thailand after serving 14 years in a Burmese prison for his political activities. “In Burma it was difficult to engage yourself in politics, so I came here hoping to be able to do that,” he said.
Hla Than said he had originally had no intention of applying for resettlement in the West after coming to Thailand. Now he's hoping to move to the US, Canada or Norway.
“We face a lot of problems in the refugee camp here,” he said. “Security, accommodation, food...”
Many of the former political prisoners in Thailand's refugee camps were imprisoned because of their involved in major events such as the 1988 uprising or the 2007 monk-led demonstrations. The threat of further imprisonment led them to flee to Thailand after their release.
Thein Zaw is one of about 80 former political prisoners in Nu Po camp, which houses nearly 17,000 refugees.
“Life in a refugee camp is rigid, it's hard to describe” he said.
Fellow refugee Kyi Win, another former political prisoner, said: “Living in prison, I knew the day I would be freed. But I don't know when I shall be released from this camp.”
Arriving refugees are screened by the Thai authorities and then registered by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Not all are granted registration and some choose to live illegally in Thailand.
“Without legal status, we have no security,” said Hla Than. “We are stateless and hopelesss.”
Refugees without legal status are also denied the daily rations distributed to the camps by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, and at least 14 former political prisoners have to work illegally in order to provide for themselevs and their families.
One 60-year-old former political prisoner crossed to Thailand with eight family members, including a 7-month-old infant and an HIV-infected son.
His son and a daughter work as day laborers outside the camp, scratching together the 100 baht (US $3) the family needs to survive.
Kyi Win, another former political prisoner, left Burma accompanied by five family members and now supports them by selling snacks near the camp school.
Although the resettlement program introduced in 2005 has given many refugees the chance of a new life in the West, it has also led to the breakup of some families.
Htay Htay Win, a former political prisoner, said one of her sons had been resettled in the United States and another in Australia. “I just don't understand it,” she said.
Another former political prisoner, Ye Htun, complained he had been rudely treated by the UNHCR after withdrawing his application to resettle in the West with his wife.
The couple had wanted the wife's mother to accompany them, but her application was rejected.
“I inquired at the UNHCR office about our case, explaining our culture to the officer there,” said Ye Htun. “But he told me to leave and said the UNHCR was not a travel agency!”
Kitty McKinsey, the regional UNHCR, denied the UN agency was being unhelpful or rude to refugees.
“We are not the one who gives recognition to the people who come to the camps. It is the Thai goverment that gives recognition. We do other things in the camp. We protect people in the camps to make sure their human rights are respected."
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The Irrawaddy - Returned Burmese Migrant Killed by DKBA
Friday, February 19, 2010
An illegal Burmese migrant was was returned by Thai authorities was shot dead by Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers on Tuesday at Zero Gate in Myawaddy Township opposite Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, according to a witness.
Zero Gate, a border crossing point on the Burmese side, is controlled by the DKBA, an ally of the Burmese regime.
“DKBA troops shot the man after they tortured him because he tried to escape from Zero gate,” the witness said.
The man, about 17 years old, was a Burmese Muslim who was arrested by Thai immigration officials at Mae Sot and returned back to the Burmese side to DKBA Zero Gate during the second week of February, according to the source, who said he witnessed the incident.
The source said he crossed over into Thailand after paying 1,200 baht. He said that Burmese migrants deported from Thailand through the DKBA checkpoint have to pay 1,200 baht to reenter Burma.
“The man was afraid because the DKBA told him that if he couldn't pay enough money, he would be sent to a force labor camp,” said the source. “The man tried to escape, but he was caught and torture and finally he was shot by DKBA soldiers on the same day.”
At least 2 million Burmese migrants work in Thailand, most of them illegal.
Burmese illegal migrants from across the country are returned to Burma through Thai- Burma border gates. Mae Sot is a major border crossing between the two countries.
Friday, February 19, 2010
An illegal Burmese migrant was was returned by Thai authorities was shot dead by Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers on Tuesday at Zero Gate in Myawaddy Township opposite Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, according to a witness.
Zero Gate, a border crossing point on the Burmese side, is controlled by the DKBA, an ally of the Burmese regime.
“DKBA troops shot the man after they tortured him because he tried to escape from Zero gate,” the witness said.
The man, about 17 years old, was a Burmese Muslim who was arrested by Thai immigration officials at Mae Sot and returned back to the Burmese side to DKBA Zero Gate during the second week of February, according to the source, who said he witnessed the incident.
The source said he crossed over into Thailand after paying 1,200 baht. He said that Burmese migrants deported from Thailand through the DKBA checkpoint have to pay 1,200 baht to reenter Burma.
“The man was afraid because the DKBA told him that if he couldn't pay enough money, he would be sent to a force labor camp,” said the source. “The man tried to escape, but he was caught and torture and finally he was shot by DKBA soldiers on the same day.”
At least 2 million Burmese migrants work in Thailand, most of them illegal.
Burmese illegal migrants from across the country are returned to Burma through Thai- Burma border gates. Mae Sot is a major border crossing between the two countries.
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The Irrawaddy - Swine Flu Reported in Nyapyidaw
Friday, February 19, 2010
Cases of A/H1N1 swine flu have been reported in Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital, following a similar outbreak in Rangoon earlier this month, according to sources in the former capital.
A number of people, including government employes, in Naypyidaw have been diagnosed with A/H1N1 swine flu, and the authorities are providing vaccines and medicine, said a journalist in Rangoon.
About 30 civil servants who attended ceremonies for the 63rd Union Day in Naypyidaw were reportedly quarantined in the capital, according to one report, which could not be confirmed.
It was not clear if those quarantined had already contracted the flu or only had been exposed to people with the flu.
An outbreak of A/H1N1 flu was reported in Rangoon in early February when dozens of students contracted the disease.
According to a physician at the Ministry of Health, 27 cases of the disease have been confirmed since Feb. 7. The total number number in Burma now stands at 31, although the official number is 29, according to state-run media.
All 27 cases were students from primary and high schools in North Dagon Township in Rangoon. The infected students were admitted to the Wai Bar Gi infectious disease hospital. Seventy-three people with whom they had contact were quarantined.
On Feb. 5, four people in Chin State also tested positive for the A/H1N1 virus.
Cases of the H5N1 virus and A/H1N1 flu have both been reported in Rangoon, sources said.
Meanwhile, sources in Rangoon said that Burmese authorities have banned the sale of eggs in some markets in Rangoon Division after the discovery of the H5N1 virus at a chicken farm.
Last year, 69 cases of the disease were confirmed.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Cases of A/H1N1 swine flu have been reported in Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital, following a similar outbreak in Rangoon earlier this month, according to sources in the former capital.
A number of people, including government employes, in Naypyidaw have been diagnosed with A/H1N1 swine flu, and the authorities are providing vaccines and medicine, said a journalist in Rangoon.
About 30 civil servants who attended ceremonies for the 63rd Union Day in Naypyidaw were reportedly quarantined in the capital, according to one report, which could not be confirmed.
It was not clear if those quarantined had already contracted the flu or only had been exposed to people with the flu.
An outbreak of A/H1N1 flu was reported in Rangoon in early February when dozens of students contracted the disease.
According to a physician at the Ministry of Health, 27 cases of the disease have been confirmed since Feb. 7. The total number number in Burma now stands at 31, although the official number is 29, according to state-run media.
All 27 cases were students from primary and high schools in North Dagon Township in Rangoon. The infected students were admitted to the Wai Bar Gi infectious disease hospital. Seventy-three people with whom they had contact were quarantined.
On Feb. 5, four people in Chin State also tested positive for the A/H1N1 virus.
Cases of the H5N1 virus and A/H1N1 flu have both been reported in Rangoon, sources said.
Meanwhile, sources in Rangoon said that Burmese authorities have banned the sale of eggs in some markets in Rangoon Division after the discovery of the H5N1 virus at a chicken farm.
Last year, 69 cases of the disease were confirmed.
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NLD presents Aung San Suu Kyi case to UN rights envoy
Friday, 19 February 2010 16:50 Sai Zuan Sai, Myint Maung
Chiang Mai, New Delhi (Mizzima) – The National League for Democracy's (NLD) Central Executive Committee (CEC) told UN rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana yesterday that Aung San Suu Kyi must to be released.
Her release is vital for Burma's national reconciliation; the five NLD CEC members told Quintana during their one hour meeting at Rangoon's Mya Yeik Nyo Royal Hotel.
“We talked with him about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We told him that she must be released. He also said that he wanted to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”, said U Win Tin an NLD CEC member present at the meeting.
Leading the NLD delegation was NLD Vice-Chairman Tin Oo the eighty-four year decorated soldier released last weekend after serving 6 years of house arrest.
“Mr. Quintana said to us that he was very glad to see all of our CEC members here and he was encouraged seeing us altogether. And he would note down what we presented here to him and report to his superiors”, Khin Maung Swe told Mizzima.
At the meeting the NLD brought up the junta's rejection of the NLD's 1990 election victory, the NLD's demand for the immediate release of all of Burma's more than 2000 and the urgent need to amend the widely reviled 2008 constitution which permanently enshrines the military's domination of national affairs.
The NLD team also made clear to the UN envoy that they were still adhering to the points outlined in the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration and therefore the party will not contest the upcoming national elections supposedly set to take place at some point this year. The Shwe Gong Daing Declaration was adopted last year and approved at plenary meeting attended by delegates from State and Division NLD branches, MPs and the party's central leadership.
“Human rights issues are important and they cannot be considered separate from basic politics. We have no plan to join the upcoming election. We will stand on the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration.”, Win Tin said.
In the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration, the NLD party called for amending the 2008 constitution, releasing all political prisoners, the resumption of real dialogue between the opposition and the military for national reconciliation and the need for some kind of official recognition of the NLD's 1990 election landslide victory.
During the meeting the NLD informed the UN rights envoy about the regimes numerous attacks on the NLD, including the forcible closing of NLD party offices, the removal of party signboards from NLD offices and the regime's various restrictions which prevent the NLD from working with the party's grassroots supporters.
Unclear if Envoy will be allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi
The envoy told the NLD representatives that he would leave for Naypyidaw on Friday and hoped that upon his return from the capital the generals would allow him to see Aung San Suu Kyi. It appears Quintana will only find out if he will be able to meet the Nobel Peace Prize Winner when he returns from the military regime's sparsely populated new capital.
Following the meeting the NLD expressed their satisfaction with the UN envoy and his visit to Burma.
“We are satisfied with his visit as he will present the human rights situation in Burma to the relevant UN authorities. With regards to Burma, it is not only a human rights issue, there are also political issues which must be presented too. We hope he understands about our political situation. We hope he also presents these political issues to the UN”, Win Tin said.
During his 5-days fact finding trip which began on the February 15th, Qunitana also visited Sittwe and Buthidaung prisons in Rakhine State. While in Rakhine State, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Resident Representative in Burma Steve Marshall also accompanied him. In Rakhine they met with over 20 NGOs and Muslim leaders.
According to the UN's Rangoon spokesperson at Buthidaung prison, Quintana met with prominent 88 Generation Student activist Htay Kywe and other political prisoners including Tun Nyo, Myat Tun, Ahmed and Kyaw Min. Kyaw Min, a member of the Rohingya minority and an elected MP member is presently serving a 47 year prison sentence following his 2005 arrest and subsequent nullification of his Burmese citizenship.
At Sittwe prison the envoys met with political prisoners Than Tin, Pyae Phyo Hlaing, Aung Tun Myint and U Sandar Thiri. After arriving back in Rangoon on Thursday, Quintana met with political prisoners at the infamous Insein prison. This group included Naw Ohn Hla, Ma Than Than Htay, Kyaw San, Kyi Than, Myo Win and Khai Kyaw Moe.
Although the Information Department of the UN's Rangoon office claimed their envoy would meet with ethnic leaders during his trip, the respected United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) told Mizzima they did not receive a request for a meeting from the UN.
The UNA spokesperson Pu Cing TsianThang.told Mizzima that “the SPDC (junta) interprets ethnic leaders as those having cordial relationship with them and non opposition parties. As we have not yet received any information from UN office until today, there is almost no hope for us to meet with him”.
Friday, 19 February 2010 16:50 Sai Zuan Sai, Myint Maung
Chiang Mai, New Delhi (Mizzima) – The National League for Democracy's (NLD) Central Executive Committee (CEC) told UN rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana yesterday that Aung San Suu Kyi must to be released.
Her release is vital for Burma's national reconciliation; the five NLD CEC members told Quintana during their one hour meeting at Rangoon's Mya Yeik Nyo Royal Hotel.
“We talked with him about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We told him that she must be released. He also said that he wanted to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”, said U Win Tin an NLD CEC member present at the meeting.
Leading the NLD delegation was NLD Vice-Chairman Tin Oo the eighty-four year decorated soldier released last weekend after serving 6 years of house arrest.
“Mr. Quintana said to us that he was very glad to see all of our CEC members here and he was encouraged seeing us altogether. And he would note down what we presented here to him and report to his superiors”, Khin Maung Swe told Mizzima.
At the meeting the NLD brought up the junta's rejection of the NLD's 1990 election victory, the NLD's demand for the immediate release of all of Burma's more than 2000 and the urgent need to amend the widely reviled 2008 constitution which permanently enshrines the military's domination of national affairs.
The NLD team also made clear to the UN envoy that they were still adhering to the points outlined in the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration and therefore the party will not contest the upcoming national elections supposedly set to take place at some point this year. The Shwe Gong Daing Declaration was adopted last year and approved at plenary meeting attended by delegates from State and Division NLD branches, MPs and the party's central leadership.
“Human rights issues are important and they cannot be considered separate from basic politics. We have no plan to join the upcoming election. We will stand on the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration.”, Win Tin said.
In the Shwe Gong Daing Declaration, the NLD party called for amending the 2008 constitution, releasing all political prisoners, the resumption of real dialogue between the opposition and the military for national reconciliation and the need for some kind of official recognition of the NLD's 1990 election landslide victory.
During the meeting the NLD informed the UN rights envoy about the regimes numerous attacks on the NLD, including the forcible closing of NLD party offices, the removal of party signboards from NLD offices and the regime's various restrictions which prevent the NLD from working with the party's grassroots supporters.
Unclear if Envoy will be allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi
The envoy told the NLD representatives that he would leave for Naypyidaw on Friday and hoped that upon his return from the capital the generals would allow him to see Aung San Suu Kyi. It appears Quintana will only find out if he will be able to meet the Nobel Peace Prize Winner when he returns from the military regime's sparsely populated new capital.
Following the meeting the NLD expressed their satisfaction with the UN envoy and his visit to Burma.
“We are satisfied with his visit as he will present the human rights situation in Burma to the relevant UN authorities. With regards to Burma, it is not only a human rights issue, there are also political issues which must be presented too. We hope he understands about our political situation. We hope he also presents these political issues to the UN”, Win Tin said.
During his 5-days fact finding trip which began on the February 15th, Qunitana also visited Sittwe and Buthidaung prisons in Rakhine State. While in Rakhine State, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Resident Representative in Burma Steve Marshall also accompanied him. In Rakhine they met with over 20 NGOs and Muslim leaders.
According to the UN's Rangoon spokesperson at Buthidaung prison, Quintana met with prominent 88 Generation Student activist Htay Kywe and other political prisoners including Tun Nyo, Myat Tun, Ahmed and Kyaw Min. Kyaw Min, a member of the Rohingya minority and an elected MP member is presently serving a 47 year prison sentence following his 2005 arrest and subsequent nullification of his Burmese citizenship.
At Sittwe prison the envoys met with political prisoners Than Tin, Pyae Phyo Hlaing, Aung Tun Myint and U Sandar Thiri. After arriving back in Rangoon on Thursday, Quintana met with political prisoners at the infamous Insein prison. This group included Naw Ohn Hla, Ma Than Than Htay, Kyaw San, Kyi Than, Myo Win and Khai Kyaw Moe.
Although the Information Department of the UN's Rangoon office claimed their envoy would meet with ethnic leaders during his trip, the respected United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) told Mizzima they did not receive a request for a meeting from the UN.
The UNA spokesperson Pu Cing TsianThang.told Mizzima that “the SPDC (junta) interprets ethnic leaders as those having cordial relationship with them and non opposition parties. As we have not yet received any information from UN office until today, there is almost no hope for us to meet with him”.
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