Ethnic group in Myanmar gears up for war, peace
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 20, 3:32 am ET
LAIZA, Myanmar (AP) – Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell "Boom!"
At a camp alongside a river, the next generation of soldiers in the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar's largest armed ethnic groups, is training with a new urgency.
A cease-fire is in peril, and the Kachin do not want to patrol the border for the ruling junta.
"I don't want to kill anyone but being a soldier is the best way to change the conditions in Burma," said 23-year-old cadet La Ran, who joined four months ago. "I am ready to fight if I have to."
The possibility of armed conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is rising because a series of cease-fire agreements between the military government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups are dissolving as the regime seeks to press those groups into becoming a border militia under government control.
The government has set a deadline of April 28 for the armed groups to merge or disarm as the junta tightens its grip on the country ahead of this year's nationwide elections — the first in two decades. Their demands have largely been met with resistance during negotiations over the past year with the country's largest armed ethnic groups, including the 8,000-member Kachin army.
Myanmar's government, run by ethnic Burmese who make up the majority, is well known for repressing its own people. Considered among the world's most brutal, the regime brooks no dissent and has been accused of large-scale violations of human rights, including the yearslong detention of Nobel Peace laureate and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the country's hinterlands — home to a variety of ethnic minority groups — the junta has also faced bitter opposition from the Wa, the Shan, the Karen and the Kachin, who are united in their resentment against historical domination by the Burmese. The Karen and the Shan, who have refused to sign truces, are engaged in intense fighting with government troops.
These groups control large territories along the northern and eastern borders — along with the valuable trade in logging, jade, gems, gold, and, in some cases, illegal drugs, that have helped finance their insurgencies.
The Kachin, predominantly Christian hill tribes in the northernmost part of Myanmar, have been engaged in a decades-long struggle against the government for autonomy.
Since a cease-fire was signed in 1994, they have enjoyed de-facto self-rule: In the rebel-controlled area, the Kachin army powers the electric grid and runs hospitals while soldiers in green uniforms adorned with the Kachin flag monitor both the border with China and the frontier with government-controlled Myanmar.
But Kachin leaders are still hoping for a permanent solution. In the interim, they have rebuilt their army and their strength.
Over the weekend, the Kachin army and its political arm, the Kachin Independence Organization, adamantly rejected the government's border guard proposal at a mass public meeting held in the small town of Laiza, a rebel stronghold near the Chinese border.
"From the very beginning, the public didn't want the KIA to join the (border guard force)," said Gen. S. Gun Maw, vice chief of staff for the rebels, citing letters from thousands of people opposing the idea. "If they (the government) take the military way, it will be a big mistake for them."
Pulling up in trucks, motorbikes, buses and cars, more than 1,000 Kachin — many dressed in traditional headscarves and sarong-like longyi — packed into a large assembly hall. An overflow crowd watched intently on television monitors set up in a second room.
From the start, the rebel leaders were careful to say their stand reflects the views of the majority of Kachin people, estimated at 1 million in Myanmar. Many in the audience nodded in agreement as their leaders outlined the political stalemate after more than a dozen talks with government leaders over the past 12 months.
"We've had the cease-fire for more than 10 years now. It's a friendly peaceful society now, and I want to keep this. But (the government) violates our rights and takes our land," said Zing Hang Khawn Hpang, 45, a local trader who attended the weekend meeting.
The gathering was also intended to make a rare appeal for international attention and a small group of foreign journalists, including The Associated Press, were invited to attend. The remote and mountainous Kachin region has largely been off-limits to foreigners for years.
"Not many outsiders know very well what's happening in Burma and our region ... We hope that if they know, if they understand the situation in our region, they may be able to find a way to help us," Gun Maw said.
In Laiza, a border town of 10,000 nestled in a valley between green hills, the standard of living is better than in other impoverished areas of Myanmar.
Control over two small hydroelectric dams, built with Chinese help, provide the area with 24-hour electricity — by comparison, residents in the largest Burmese city, Yangon, only get a few hours of power every third day. Chinese telecommunications towers just over the border ensure steady cell phone service, while brisk commercial trade means a steady supply of Chinese goods, clothing and motorbikes displayed in storefronts on the main boulevard.
On the streets, people talk openly about politics — another marked difference from the tightly controlled regions of government-run Myanmar.
The stability has allowed Christianity, brought by missionaries in the 1800s, to flourish — a rare display in an otherwise heavily Buddhist nation.
Standing outside the doors of the white-tiled Laiza Kachin Baptist Church, resident Dau Lum, 36, expressed faith that a political compromise can be reached before fighting erupts.
"I try not to worry too much because the world is watching Burma so the Burmese government doesn't want to start the fight. Even if conflict happens, it will not be like those in the past. I believe that God will guide us to a good future," he said.
Though Kachin leaders are still pushing for a political solution that includes protection of ethnic rights and government-recognized self-rule, their commanders are preparing for the worst. From the Kachin army's headquarters, perched high up on the mountainside overlooking the town, they have launched a new push for training and recruitment.
More ominously, the Burmese side has also stepped up its military activities. Kachin residents report army convoys rumbling through the northern countryside in recent weeks near the regional capital of Myitkyina, which is under government control.
But any fighting in northern Myanmar would surely provoke China, the junta's biggest political ally, which has warned the Burmese government to guard against instability on its borders. Last summer, heavy fighting between troops and the Kokang ethnic group sent some 30,000 refugees across the border into China, prompting a rare reprimand from Beijing.
The Chinese leadership is in a bind, caught between its dislike of border instability and its access to the oil, natural gas, and timber that the junta provides. That makes it hard to divine how deeply Beijing will involve itself.
"We know the Chinese government has influence over the (Burmese government). We want them to use this to make change in Burma, but we're not sure whether the Chinese government will," said the Kachin army's Gun Maw.
Lamai Tang Gun, 59, a Baptist pastor from Myitkyina, notes the Kachin have lived with an uneasy peace for decades: "They (the junta) are always threatening us. We can't tell if there's a possibility of fighting. We can only pray to God."
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 20, 3:32 am ET
LAIZA, Myanmar (AP) – Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell "Boom!"
At a camp alongside a river, the next generation of soldiers in the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar's largest armed ethnic groups, is training with a new urgency.
A cease-fire is in peril, and the Kachin do not want to patrol the border for the ruling junta.
"I don't want to kill anyone but being a soldier is the best way to change the conditions in Burma," said 23-year-old cadet La Ran, who joined four months ago. "I am ready to fight if I have to."
The possibility of armed conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is rising because a series of cease-fire agreements between the military government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups are dissolving as the regime seeks to press those groups into becoming a border militia under government control.
The government has set a deadline of April 28 for the armed groups to merge or disarm as the junta tightens its grip on the country ahead of this year's nationwide elections — the first in two decades. Their demands have largely been met with resistance during negotiations over the past year with the country's largest armed ethnic groups, including the 8,000-member Kachin army.
Myanmar's government, run by ethnic Burmese who make up the majority, is well known for repressing its own people. Considered among the world's most brutal, the regime brooks no dissent and has been accused of large-scale violations of human rights, including the yearslong detention of Nobel Peace laureate and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the country's hinterlands — home to a variety of ethnic minority groups — the junta has also faced bitter opposition from the Wa, the Shan, the Karen and the Kachin, who are united in their resentment against historical domination by the Burmese. The Karen and the Shan, who have refused to sign truces, are engaged in intense fighting with government troops.
These groups control large territories along the northern and eastern borders — along with the valuable trade in logging, jade, gems, gold, and, in some cases, illegal drugs, that have helped finance their insurgencies.
The Kachin, predominantly Christian hill tribes in the northernmost part of Myanmar, have been engaged in a decades-long struggle against the government for autonomy.
Since a cease-fire was signed in 1994, they have enjoyed de-facto self-rule: In the rebel-controlled area, the Kachin army powers the electric grid and runs hospitals while soldiers in green uniforms adorned with the Kachin flag monitor both the border with China and the frontier with government-controlled Myanmar.
But Kachin leaders are still hoping for a permanent solution. In the interim, they have rebuilt their army and their strength.
Over the weekend, the Kachin army and its political arm, the Kachin Independence Organization, adamantly rejected the government's border guard proposal at a mass public meeting held in the small town of Laiza, a rebel stronghold near the Chinese border.
"From the very beginning, the public didn't want the KIA to join the (border guard force)," said Gen. S. Gun Maw, vice chief of staff for the rebels, citing letters from thousands of people opposing the idea. "If they (the government) take the military way, it will be a big mistake for them."
Pulling up in trucks, motorbikes, buses and cars, more than 1,000 Kachin — many dressed in traditional headscarves and sarong-like longyi — packed into a large assembly hall. An overflow crowd watched intently on television monitors set up in a second room.
From the start, the rebel leaders were careful to say their stand reflects the views of the majority of Kachin people, estimated at 1 million in Myanmar. Many in the audience nodded in agreement as their leaders outlined the political stalemate after more than a dozen talks with government leaders over the past 12 months.
"We've had the cease-fire for more than 10 years now. It's a friendly peaceful society now, and I want to keep this. But (the government) violates our rights and takes our land," said Zing Hang Khawn Hpang, 45, a local trader who attended the weekend meeting.
The gathering was also intended to make a rare appeal for international attention and a small group of foreign journalists, including The Associated Press, were invited to attend. The remote and mountainous Kachin region has largely been off-limits to foreigners for years.
"Not many outsiders know very well what's happening in Burma and our region ... We hope that if they know, if they understand the situation in our region, they may be able to find a way to help us," Gun Maw said.
In Laiza, a border town of 10,000 nestled in a valley between green hills, the standard of living is better than in other impoverished areas of Myanmar.
Control over two small hydroelectric dams, built with Chinese help, provide the area with 24-hour electricity — by comparison, residents in the largest Burmese city, Yangon, only get a few hours of power every third day. Chinese telecommunications towers just over the border ensure steady cell phone service, while brisk commercial trade means a steady supply of Chinese goods, clothing and motorbikes displayed in storefronts on the main boulevard.
On the streets, people talk openly about politics — another marked difference from the tightly controlled regions of government-run Myanmar.
The stability has allowed Christianity, brought by missionaries in the 1800s, to flourish — a rare display in an otherwise heavily Buddhist nation.
Standing outside the doors of the white-tiled Laiza Kachin Baptist Church, resident Dau Lum, 36, expressed faith that a political compromise can be reached before fighting erupts.
"I try not to worry too much because the world is watching Burma so the Burmese government doesn't want to start the fight. Even if conflict happens, it will not be like those in the past. I believe that God will guide us to a good future," he said.
Though Kachin leaders are still pushing for a political solution that includes protection of ethnic rights and government-recognized self-rule, their commanders are preparing for the worst. From the Kachin army's headquarters, perched high up on the mountainside overlooking the town, they have launched a new push for training and recruitment.
More ominously, the Burmese side has also stepped up its military activities. Kachin residents report army convoys rumbling through the northern countryside in recent weeks near the regional capital of Myitkyina, which is under government control.
But any fighting in northern Myanmar would surely provoke China, the junta's biggest political ally, which has warned the Burmese government to guard against instability on its borders. Last summer, heavy fighting between troops and the Kokang ethnic group sent some 30,000 refugees across the border into China, prompting a rare reprimand from Beijing.
The Chinese leadership is in a bind, caught between its dislike of border instability and its access to the oil, natural gas, and timber that the junta provides. That makes it hard to divine how deeply Beijing will involve itself.
"We know the Chinese government has influence over the (Burmese government). We want them to use this to make change in Burma, but we're not sure whether the Chinese government will," said the Kachin army's Gun Maw.
Lamai Tang Gun, 59, a Baptist pastor from Myitkyina, notes the Kachin have lived with an uneasy peace for decades: "They (the junta) are always threatening us. We can't tell if there's a possibility of fighting. We can only pray to God."
**********************************************************
Myanmar ushers in new year after deadly attack
AP - Saturday, April 17
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar ushered in its traditional new year on Saturday after four days of water festivities and merrymaking marred by bomb blasts that killed nine.
No one claimed responsibility for the three bomb blasts at a lakeside celebration Thursday in Yangon, the largest city. State media reported Friday that 170 people were wounded by the attack, raising an earlier count.
The blasts were the deadliest attack in five years in military-ruled Myanmar.
Crowds of devout Buddhists thronged Saturday to Yangon's famous Shwedagon pagoda and other temples across the city to mark the new year with prayer. Many went to lakes and ponds to release fish as part of merit making that includes visiting elders to wash their hair, clip their nails and offer food.
"I pray that we will enjoy a more peaceful and quiet year. I also pray for those who were killed and injured by the bombs on Thursday," said Khin Khin Mar, 65, who laid flowers outside Shwedagon pagoda.
The explosions occurred near pavilions erected for celebrations at the city's sprawling Kandawgyi Lake. TV footage showed pools of blood and sandals left behind by fleeing revelers who had been drenching each other with water.
Myanmar's four-day water festival is known as "Thingyan." Municipal workers cleaned up streets Saturday littered with empty beer cans and water bottles and dismantled pavilions set up for the revelry.
Neighboring Thailand and Laos also held similar water festivals this past week to celebrate their traditional new year.
AP - Saturday, April 17
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar ushered in its traditional new year on Saturday after four days of water festivities and merrymaking marred by bomb blasts that killed nine.
No one claimed responsibility for the three bomb blasts at a lakeside celebration Thursday in Yangon, the largest city. State media reported Friday that 170 people were wounded by the attack, raising an earlier count.
The blasts were the deadliest attack in five years in military-ruled Myanmar.
Crowds of devout Buddhists thronged Saturday to Yangon's famous Shwedagon pagoda and other temples across the city to mark the new year with prayer. Many went to lakes and ponds to release fish as part of merit making that includes visiting elders to wash their hair, clip their nails and offer food.
"I pray that we will enjoy a more peaceful and quiet year. I also pray for those who were killed and injured by the bombs on Thursday," said Khin Khin Mar, 65, who laid flowers outside Shwedagon pagoda.
The explosions occurred near pavilions erected for celebrations at the city's sprawling Kandawgyi Lake. TV footage showed pools of blood and sandals left behind by fleeing revelers who had been drenching each other with water.
Myanmar's four-day water festival is known as "Thingyan." Municipal workers cleaned up streets Saturday littered with empty beer cans and water bottles and dismantled pavilions set up for the revelry.
Neighboring Thailand and Laos also held similar water festivals this past week to celebrate their traditional new year.
**********************************************************
Women stitch back their lives after fleeing Myanmar
By Angie Teo – Mon Apr 19, 1:05 am ET
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) – Hunched over sewing machines, a group of Myanmar women refugees are stitching together a livelihood after fleeing persecution from the junta back home.
Their simple but modern take on traditional Burmese fabrics draws a steady flow of orders online (http://www.elevyn.com) and visitors to a crowded shoplot in a working class district within the Malaysian capital.
With a little cash, these women have become the financial backbone of ethnic Chin community, whose numbers in Malaysia have grown to 39,000 people in ten years as the military campaign of forced labor and razing of villages continues in Myanmar.
But life in Malaysia is not easy either. Classified as illegal immigrants under Malaysian laws, the refugees cannot find jobs and get access to basic education and healthcare. They run the risk of arrest and deportation.
"My husband is working but he is afraid of the local authorities. He won't get any pay this month, so it is difficult for our family," Ma Dwang, a 35-year-old mother of three, told Reuters. "I can earn some income and with that money our family survives but we cannot afford new clothes."
Around her, women were cutting out fabrics and piecing together elaborate shawls, bags and table runners. They each earn about 200-300 ringgit ($62-$93) a month, just enough for basic food and medical items as well as some savings.
The collective started in 2005 with just 20 women and has grown to 50. The Chin community, which started the project with assistance from United Nations High Commission for Refugees, calls the group "Mang Tha" or "Sweet Dreams" in their language.
The women say the project makes them assertive and gives them a haven from their cramped flats that shelter more than 30 refugees at any one time.
As the women chat and work, the topic centres around their previous lives as subsistence farmers in the mountainous, resource rich Chin state in northwest Myanmar that borders India and Bangladesh.
But more often, the women recall the persecution that their Christian communities suffered in the hands of the mostly Buddhist Myanmar government.
"There was forced labor for women. If roads need to be repaired, the soldiers call us and we would have to go. There was alot of sexual abuse," said Susan, one of the women in the collective who declined to give her full name.
"They (the soldiers) look down on us, they oppress. Most of the Chin people don't have any rights so we came here. Those left in Chin state are old people," said Susan, who was a teacher back home.
The Mang Tha women estimate more than 1 million people have fled Chin state to India, Bangladesh and Thailand. To get to Malaysia, it takes one month by road or sea.
Most are glad to make it out alive and want to work toward getting resettled in Australia and the United States with the skills they learned at the collective.
"I always hope to resettle in another country for my children's education. I will not go back for the sake of my children's future," said Ayemai as she nursed one of her children at the workshop.
By Angie Teo – Mon Apr 19, 1:05 am ET
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters Life!) – Hunched over sewing machines, a group of Myanmar women refugees are stitching together a livelihood after fleeing persecution from the junta back home.
Their simple but modern take on traditional Burmese fabrics draws a steady flow of orders online (http://www.elevyn.com) and visitors to a crowded shoplot in a working class district within the Malaysian capital.
With a little cash, these women have become the financial backbone of ethnic Chin community, whose numbers in Malaysia have grown to 39,000 people in ten years as the military campaign of forced labor and razing of villages continues in Myanmar.
But life in Malaysia is not easy either. Classified as illegal immigrants under Malaysian laws, the refugees cannot find jobs and get access to basic education and healthcare. They run the risk of arrest and deportation.
"My husband is working but he is afraid of the local authorities. He won't get any pay this month, so it is difficult for our family," Ma Dwang, a 35-year-old mother of three, told Reuters. "I can earn some income and with that money our family survives but we cannot afford new clothes."
Around her, women were cutting out fabrics and piecing together elaborate shawls, bags and table runners. They each earn about 200-300 ringgit ($62-$93) a month, just enough for basic food and medical items as well as some savings.
The collective started in 2005 with just 20 women and has grown to 50. The Chin community, which started the project with assistance from United Nations High Commission for Refugees, calls the group "Mang Tha" or "Sweet Dreams" in their language.
The women say the project makes them assertive and gives them a haven from their cramped flats that shelter more than 30 refugees at any one time.
As the women chat and work, the topic centres around their previous lives as subsistence farmers in the mountainous, resource rich Chin state in northwest Myanmar that borders India and Bangladesh.
But more often, the women recall the persecution that their Christian communities suffered in the hands of the mostly Buddhist Myanmar government.
"There was forced labor for women. If roads need to be repaired, the soldiers call us and we would have to go. There was alot of sexual abuse," said Susan, one of the women in the collective who declined to give her full name.
"They (the soldiers) look down on us, they oppress. Most of the Chin people don't have any rights so we came here. Those left in Chin state are old people," said Susan, who was a teacher back home.
The Mang Tha women estimate more than 1 million people have fled Chin state to India, Bangladesh and Thailand. To get to Malaysia, it takes one month by road or sea.
Most are glad to make it out alive and want to work toward getting resettled in Australia and the United States with the skills they learned at the collective.
"I always hope to resettle in another country for my children's education. I will not go back for the sake of my children's future," said Ayemai as she nursed one of her children at the workshop.
**********************************************************
Japan, Malaysia urge Myanmar to hold inclusive elections
AFP - Tuesday, April 20
TOKYO, April 19, 2010 (AFP) – Japan and Malaysia urged Myanmar on Monday to hold "free, fair and inclusive" general elections, government officials said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who began his first visit to Tokyo as leader on Sunday, held talks with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama after meeting Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko earlier in the day.
"The two leaders... expressed their hope that the holding of general elections in Myanmar this year would be free, fair and inclusive, thus contributing to Myanmar's stability and development," they said in a statement.
Critics have said that elections planned for this year will lack credibility because of laws that effectively bar opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part.
The poll will be the country's first election in two decades, but Suu Kyi's political party has called for a boycott over rules that would have forced it to expel her as leader if it wanted to participate.
AFP - Tuesday, April 20
TOKYO, April 19, 2010 (AFP) – Japan and Malaysia urged Myanmar on Monday to hold "free, fair and inclusive" general elections, government officials said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who began his first visit to Tokyo as leader on Sunday, held talks with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama after meeting Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko earlier in the day.
"The two leaders... expressed their hope that the holding of general elections in Myanmar this year would be free, fair and inclusive, thus contributing to Myanmar's stability and development," they said in a statement.
Critics have said that elections planned for this year will lack credibility because of laws that effectively bar opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part.
The poll will be the country's first election in two decades, but Suu Kyi's political party has called for a boycott over rules that would have forced it to expel her as leader if it wanted to participate.
**********************************************************
Bomb blasts hit remote Myanmar dam project
AFP - Sunday, April 18
YANGON (AFP) - – A series of bomb blasts at the site of a controversial dam project in a remote part of Myanmar destroyed cars and buildings and left one man injured on Saturday, an official said.
The explosions took place in the early hours of the morning at four locations where the Myitsone Dam is under construction in the country's northernmost Kachin state, the official said on condition of anonymity.
"One engineer was slightly injured. Some cars and buildings were destroyed because of the blasts," he said.
The blasts went off two days after three other bombs in the country's main city Yangon killed eight people in the worst attack there in five years.
The bombs went off at a park where revellers were celebrating an annual water festival, and led state media in the military-ruled nation to urge people to "remain vigilant against potential atrocities".
At least 170 people were also wounded, according to state media.
The Myitsone Dam project has been under way since 2005 and is being built by Myanmar's ruling junta in partnership with the China Power Investment Corporation and China Southern Power Grid Corporation (CSG).
Environmental and rights activists have campaigned against the dam, which is being built a mile below the confluence of two rivers to create a giant reservoir.
The dam will force the displacement of 10,000 people, mostly from the Kachin ethnic group, while destroying rainforest and disrupting river systems that feed local agriculture, according to the activist group International Rivers.
The latest blasts came as the country prepares for elections planned for this year that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving prisoner.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
In May 2005 blasts at two Yangon supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades.
AFP - Sunday, April 18
YANGON (AFP) - – A series of bomb blasts at the site of a controversial dam project in a remote part of Myanmar destroyed cars and buildings and left one man injured on Saturday, an official said.
The explosions took place in the early hours of the morning at four locations where the Myitsone Dam is under construction in the country's northernmost Kachin state, the official said on condition of anonymity.
"One engineer was slightly injured. Some cars and buildings were destroyed because of the blasts," he said.
The blasts went off two days after three other bombs in the country's main city Yangon killed eight people in the worst attack there in five years.
The bombs went off at a park where revellers were celebrating an annual water festival, and led state media in the military-ruled nation to urge people to "remain vigilant against potential atrocities".
At least 170 people were also wounded, according to state media.
The Myitsone Dam project has been under way since 2005 and is being built by Myanmar's ruling junta in partnership with the China Power Investment Corporation and China Southern Power Grid Corporation (CSG).
Environmental and rights activists have campaigned against the dam, which is being built a mile below the confluence of two rivers to create a giant reservoir.
The dam will force the displacement of 10,000 people, mostly from the Kachin ethnic group, while destroying rainforest and disrupting river systems that feed local agriculture, according to the activist group International Rivers.
The latest blasts came as the country prepares for elections planned for this year that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving prisoner.
Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels.
In May 2005 blasts at two Yangon supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades.
**********************************************************
Time - On Burmese New Year, a String of Bomb Attacks
By HANNAH BEECH – Mon Apr 19, 12:50 pm ET
Burmese New Year is usually a raucous time, with locals setting off fireworks and splashing bucketfuls of water on each other as part of a purification ritual. But this year's Thingyan festival took on a more sinister tone when mysterious bomb blasts hit the nation's largest city, Rangoon, on April 15. The explosions, detonated at a lakeside pavilion where residents were celebrating the new year, killed at least eight people. The military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962 quickly blamed "terrorists" and "destructive elements" for the mayhem, without further elaboration. In 2005, a set of bombs killed 23 people in Rangoon. The regime called those deaths the work of armed ethnic minorities that have battled the ethnically Burmese junta for autonomy, a charge these groups have denied.
Then on Saturday, violence spread northward to Kachin state, when a series of bombs struck a controversial dam construction site, possibly killing Chinese workers. Ethnic Kachins, who have long chafed under the repressive rule of the junta, have nothing good to say about the proposed dam, one of seven hydroelectric projects planned for Kachin state. Not only will it flood thousands of homes - as well as the Myitsone, the confluence of two rivers that holds revered status in Kachin lore - but the electricity produced by the dam will most likely be transferred to neighboring China without illuminating the local populace. Kachin preachers - the population is majority Christian - have led a spirited non-violent resistance to the dam, sending letters to various ministries and holding seminars on hydropower's devastating environmental impact. Despite pre-emptive protestations of their innocence, it seems almost inevitable that the junta will blame the explosions on armed groups fighting for Kachin rights.
But one Kachin activist accuses the junta itself of setting off the bombs in Rangoon and Kachin in order to give itself license to attack ethnic groups. "They want to crush us," he says, "and this is the excuse they will use." Although far-fetched, such speculation isn't completely illogical. In preparation for planned elections later this year, the junta has unveiled a choreographed display of democratic activity that critics have dismissed as mere window-dressing.
One of the issues that must be cleared up before the elections is the status of various ethnic ceasefire groups that have signed peace treaties with the junta in exchange for a modicum of autonomy for their peoples. Under Burma's new constitution, these ethnic groups must give up their arms and agree to reconstitute themselves as part of so-called "border-guard forces." However, nearly all of the ethnic armies have declined to sign on. An ethnically linked bombing campaign could give the junta political cover for a crack down. While the ethnic Burmese majority is distrustful of its military rulers, many are also equally skeptical of the autonomy-seeking agendas of the ethnic groups.
Before the bomb blasts, Kachin locals were already complaining that they were being forced to make contributions to Burmese new-year festivities that they had no intention of joining - just another example of how ethnic minorities are made to hew to the Burmese way. Then, the day before the dam explosions, Kachin Independence Organization delegates gathered the public to explain why they could not agree to become part of the junta's border-guard force. "Tensions were already very high," says the Kachin activist. "Everyone was expecting something to happen, but not this."
By HANNAH BEECH – Mon Apr 19, 12:50 pm ET
Burmese New Year is usually a raucous time, with locals setting off fireworks and splashing bucketfuls of water on each other as part of a purification ritual. But this year's Thingyan festival took on a more sinister tone when mysterious bomb blasts hit the nation's largest city, Rangoon, on April 15. The explosions, detonated at a lakeside pavilion where residents were celebrating the new year, killed at least eight people. The military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962 quickly blamed "terrorists" and "destructive elements" for the mayhem, without further elaboration. In 2005, a set of bombs killed 23 people in Rangoon. The regime called those deaths the work of armed ethnic minorities that have battled the ethnically Burmese junta for autonomy, a charge these groups have denied.
Then on Saturday, violence spread northward to Kachin state, when a series of bombs struck a controversial dam construction site, possibly killing Chinese workers. Ethnic Kachins, who have long chafed under the repressive rule of the junta, have nothing good to say about the proposed dam, one of seven hydroelectric projects planned for Kachin state. Not only will it flood thousands of homes - as well as the Myitsone, the confluence of two rivers that holds revered status in Kachin lore - but the electricity produced by the dam will most likely be transferred to neighboring China without illuminating the local populace. Kachin preachers - the population is majority Christian - have led a spirited non-violent resistance to the dam, sending letters to various ministries and holding seminars on hydropower's devastating environmental impact. Despite pre-emptive protestations of their innocence, it seems almost inevitable that the junta will blame the explosions on armed groups fighting for Kachin rights.
But one Kachin activist accuses the junta itself of setting off the bombs in Rangoon and Kachin in order to give itself license to attack ethnic groups. "They want to crush us," he says, "and this is the excuse they will use." Although far-fetched, such speculation isn't completely illogical. In preparation for planned elections later this year, the junta has unveiled a choreographed display of democratic activity that critics have dismissed as mere window-dressing.
One of the issues that must be cleared up before the elections is the status of various ethnic ceasefire groups that have signed peace treaties with the junta in exchange for a modicum of autonomy for their peoples. Under Burma's new constitution, these ethnic groups must give up their arms and agree to reconstitute themselves as part of so-called "border-guard forces." However, nearly all of the ethnic armies have declined to sign on. An ethnically linked bombing campaign could give the junta political cover for a crack down. While the ethnic Burmese majority is distrustful of its military rulers, many are also equally skeptical of the autonomy-seeking agendas of the ethnic groups.
Before the bomb blasts, Kachin locals were already complaining that they were being forced to make contributions to Burmese new-year festivities that they had no intention of joining - just another example of how ethnic minorities are made to hew to the Burmese way. Then, the day before the dam explosions, Kachin Independence Organization delegates gathered the public to explain why they could not agree to become part of the junta's border-guard force. "Tensions were already very high," says the Kachin activist. "Everyone was expecting something to happen, but not this."
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Sexual violence against women a war weapon
Published: April 20, 2010 at 1:20 AM
BARCELONA, Spain, April 20 (UPI) -- Sexual violence against women was used as a weapon of war in most armed conflicts in 2009, researchers in Spain said.
Researchers at the School for a Culture of Peace of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona said their report includes a Human Rights Index that measures the level of non-compliance of states -- including Myanmar, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Thailand, Russia, Somalia and India -- in their obligation to protect human rights.
The ninth annual edition of Alerta 2010! examined the 31 armed conflicts registered in 2009 -- including 14 in Asia and 10 in Africa.
The report said violence against women was a constant in all armed conflicts and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sexual violence reached chronic stages.
In addition, armed forces personnel in countries such as Colombia, Myanmar and the United States used sexual violence against women, the report said.
The report said most peace processes have ignored sexual violence against women.
Published: April 20, 2010 at 1:20 AM
BARCELONA, Spain, April 20 (UPI) -- Sexual violence against women was used as a weapon of war in most armed conflicts in 2009, researchers in Spain said.
Researchers at the School for a Culture of Peace of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona said their report includes a Human Rights Index that measures the level of non-compliance of states -- including Myanmar, Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Thailand, Russia, Somalia and India -- in their obligation to protect human rights.
The ninth annual edition of Alerta 2010! examined the 31 armed conflicts registered in 2009 -- including 14 in Asia and 10 in Africa.
The report said violence against women was a constant in all armed conflicts and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sexual violence reached chronic stages.
In addition, armed forces personnel in countries such as Colombia, Myanmar and the United States used sexual violence against women, the report said.
The report said most peace processes have ignored sexual violence against women.
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New Kerala - NE's trade with Bangladesh, Myanmar registers rise
Agartala, Apr 20 : The volume of trade between the Northeastern states and Bangladesh and Myanmar has increased substantially in the last financial year while the Centre has initiated several steps to reduce non-trade barriers.
Official sources here said following the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), India provided preferential trade exchange to neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and also signed the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) under Duty Free Tariff Preferential (DFTP) Scheme.
''The export between India and Bangladesh has been recorded at Rs 5105.81 crore in the first two quarters of the last fiscal against import of Rs 521.70 crore, which was Rs 11,317.21 crore and Rs 1418.46 crore for the whole of 2008-09,'' officials said, adding the export trade with Myanmar was recorded Rs 458.05 crore against import of Rs 2872.02 crore during the period.
Agartala, Apr 20 : The volume of trade between the Northeastern states and Bangladesh and Myanmar has increased substantially in the last financial year while the Centre has initiated several steps to reduce non-trade barriers.
Official sources here said following the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), India provided preferential trade exchange to neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and also signed the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) under Duty Free Tariff Preferential (DFTP) Scheme.
''The export between India and Bangladesh has been recorded at Rs 5105.81 crore in the first two quarters of the last fiscal against import of Rs 521.70 crore, which was Rs 11,317.21 crore and Rs 1418.46 crore for the whole of 2008-09,'' officials said, adding the export trade with Myanmar was recorded Rs 458.05 crore against import of Rs 2872.02 crore during the period.
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New Straits Times - Body found in television box
Mon, Apr 19, 2010
SHAH ALAM: He made a living collecting scraps and boxes and in the end, he was found dead in one.
Myanmar refugee Myint Shwe Sava, 40, was murdered and his body placed in a television box which was strapped on his motorcycle.
The motorcycle was parked at the industrial park at Batu 9, Jalan Telok Batu 36/1, Section 36, here, yesterday morning.
Myint is believed to have died from head injuries caused by a blunt object.
Shah Alam district police chief Assistant Commissioner Noor Azam Jamaludin said the victim was believed to have been murdered six hours before the body was found.
He said the victim was also believed to have been robbed as his wallet and handphone were missing.
The victim's body has been sent to Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) for post-mortem.
Mon, Apr 19, 2010
SHAH ALAM: He made a living collecting scraps and boxes and in the end, he was found dead in one.
Myanmar refugee Myint Shwe Sava, 40, was murdered and his body placed in a television box which was strapped on his motorcycle.
The motorcycle was parked at the industrial park at Batu 9, Jalan Telok Batu 36/1, Section 36, here, yesterday morning.
Myint is believed to have died from head injuries caused by a blunt object.
Shah Alam district police chief Assistant Commissioner Noor Azam Jamaludin said the victim was believed to have been murdered six hours before the body was found.
He said the victim was also believed to have been robbed as his wallet and handphone were missing.
The victim's body has been sent to Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) for post-mortem.
**********************************************************
Statesman - Buddhist monk says U.S. can benefit from example of monastic communities
By Eileen Flynn
Updated: 7:17 a.m. Sunday, April 18, 2010
Published: 7:23 p.m. Friday, April 16, 2010
When I visited with Venerable Cintita recently, I was eager to hear about his experience in Myanmar where he was ordained as a bhikkhu, or monk, last year. I'd known Cintita for years as Kojin, a priest at the Austin Zen Center, and was curious to learn why he left the Soto Zen tradition for Theravada Buddhism and why he believes a strong monastic community in the U.S. would benefit American society.
We sat on the sun-bathed deck of Sitagu Buddhist Vihara, the sprawling monastery southwest of Austin where Cintita, 60, now lives and teaches. He shared stories of being an American monk among lifelong Burmese Buddhists and showed me pictures of the people he'd encountered.
But I was distracted. My mind kept returning to food. It was only 1 o'clock, and I knew that Cintita had already eaten his last meal of the day.
Not eating after noon is one of the many rules Cintita now adheres to. Monks take a long list of vows handed down by Buddha. They eschew luxury. They are celibate and do not own property or acquire money. They shave their heads and wear simple maroon robes.
I know from my years covering religion that people who simplify their lives and live to serve others tend to feel happy and liberated.
Still, it's hard for most of us, especially here in the West, to imagine adopting such an ascetic lifestyle.
This is precisely why we would benefit from having monks in our midst. Learning about Cintita's lifestyle made me consider my own mindless afternoon snacking, made me question my own level of compassion and generosity.
His year in Myanmar, the largest country — and one of the poorest — in mainland Southeast Asia, showed Cintita the positive effect monasticism can have on a society.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is about 85 percent Buddhist, and the roughly 500,000 monks are completely dependent on lay people for their food, shelter, clothing and other essentials.
Monks serve the community through education, social service and counseling, but they are reminded of their vulnerability as they make their morning alms rounds, going to lay people's homes for their meals. They may not ask for food; they simply accept the offerings, usually rice and curry.
The tradition, Cintita said, inspires a "culture based on generosity." Even the poorest of families, he said, eagerly give food.
The ritualized interaction also nurtures humility and reverence among the lay people who bow before the monks. They're bowing to the robes, not the person, Cintita said.
The monastic lifestyle allows monks to pursue spiritual understanding Buddhists associate with wisdom and compassion — ideals worth bowing to.
In Myanmar, he said, monks are "the most visible sign of Buddhism."
And this is how Cintita believes monasticism, whether Christian or Buddhist, can help Americans find their spiritual moorings.
"Monastics stand for the laity (and for each other) as exemplars and also as reality checks," he told me. "As such they have a subversive influence on the laity, to curb its natural tendency toward unskillful indulgence of various forms.
Basically monastics live simple no-frills lives, but generally do so joyfully. They also tend to exemplify ... wisdom and compassion in their lives. Their presence encourages reflection that helps people get their values straight."
Before he embraced Buddhism, Cintita was John Dinsmore, a divorced father of three with a successful career in computer science. Successful, as he has written on his blog, but not satisfactory. In midlife, he found himself drawn to Japanese Zen, which emphasizes the practice of meditation. Ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 2003, he took the name Kojin Hosen and served at the Austin Zen Center.
But monasticism in the Japanese Zen tradition left room for interpretation. Some monks were celibate. Some weren't. Some had property. Some didn't.
Questions nagged him: What am I? What is this ordination?
"It became very confusing to me," he said, "because every Zen priest had a different idea of what it is."
Privately, he took the traditional monk's vows — which included being celibate and not acquiring wealth — and began visiting the Sitagu monastery to seek advice from the abbot.
In 2008, he decided that in order to fully embrace monasticism, he needed to re-ordain in the Theravada tradition and live in a community where the rules for monks were more clearly defined.
This led him to Myamar. And eventually to the idea that this wasn't just a private spiritual journey. That this ancient tradition from the East could offer something useful in the West.
Cintita wants to see monasticism thrive here and believes the best of Buddhism can be an antidote to our "relentless self-seeking behavior," our materialism and unhappiness. As Cintata sees it, America is struggling with a spiritual crisis, trying to regain — or find — its spiritual grounding.
He hopes to see more Westerners follow his journey to monasticism, but he also recognizes that addressing spiritual needs in the U.S. is not only a job for Buddhist monks.
"If I inspire someone to become a Christian monk," he said, "that's every bit as good as inspiring them to be a Buddhist monk."
To contact Cintita, go to http://bhikkhucintita.word press.com. Eileen Flynn blogs at eileenflynn.wordpress.com.
By Eileen Flynn
Updated: 7:17 a.m. Sunday, April 18, 2010
Published: 7:23 p.m. Friday, April 16, 2010
When I visited with Venerable Cintita recently, I was eager to hear about his experience in Myanmar where he was ordained as a bhikkhu, or monk, last year. I'd known Cintita for years as Kojin, a priest at the Austin Zen Center, and was curious to learn why he left the Soto Zen tradition for Theravada Buddhism and why he believes a strong monastic community in the U.S. would benefit American society.
We sat on the sun-bathed deck of Sitagu Buddhist Vihara, the sprawling monastery southwest of Austin where Cintita, 60, now lives and teaches. He shared stories of being an American monk among lifelong Burmese Buddhists and showed me pictures of the people he'd encountered.
But I was distracted. My mind kept returning to food. It was only 1 o'clock, and I knew that Cintita had already eaten his last meal of the day.
Not eating after noon is one of the many rules Cintita now adheres to. Monks take a long list of vows handed down by Buddha. They eschew luxury. They are celibate and do not own property or acquire money. They shave their heads and wear simple maroon robes.
I know from my years covering religion that people who simplify their lives and live to serve others tend to feel happy and liberated.
Still, it's hard for most of us, especially here in the West, to imagine adopting such an ascetic lifestyle.
This is precisely why we would benefit from having monks in our midst. Learning about Cintita's lifestyle made me consider my own mindless afternoon snacking, made me question my own level of compassion and generosity.
His year in Myanmar, the largest country — and one of the poorest — in mainland Southeast Asia, showed Cintita the positive effect monasticism can have on a society.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is about 85 percent Buddhist, and the roughly 500,000 monks are completely dependent on lay people for their food, shelter, clothing and other essentials.
Monks serve the community through education, social service and counseling, but they are reminded of their vulnerability as they make their morning alms rounds, going to lay people's homes for their meals. They may not ask for food; they simply accept the offerings, usually rice and curry.
The tradition, Cintita said, inspires a "culture based on generosity." Even the poorest of families, he said, eagerly give food.
The ritualized interaction also nurtures humility and reverence among the lay people who bow before the monks. They're bowing to the robes, not the person, Cintita said.
The monastic lifestyle allows monks to pursue spiritual understanding Buddhists associate with wisdom and compassion — ideals worth bowing to.
In Myanmar, he said, monks are "the most visible sign of Buddhism."
And this is how Cintita believes monasticism, whether Christian or Buddhist, can help Americans find their spiritual moorings.
"Monastics stand for the laity (and for each other) as exemplars and also as reality checks," he told me. "As such they have a subversive influence on the laity, to curb its natural tendency toward unskillful indulgence of various forms.
Basically monastics live simple no-frills lives, but generally do so joyfully. They also tend to exemplify ... wisdom and compassion in their lives. Their presence encourages reflection that helps people get their values straight."
Before he embraced Buddhism, Cintita was John Dinsmore, a divorced father of three with a successful career in computer science. Successful, as he has written on his blog, but not satisfactory. In midlife, he found himself drawn to Japanese Zen, which emphasizes the practice of meditation. Ordained as a Soto Zen priest in 2003, he took the name Kojin Hosen and served at the Austin Zen Center.
But monasticism in the Japanese Zen tradition left room for interpretation. Some monks were celibate. Some weren't. Some had property. Some didn't.
Questions nagged him: What am I? What is this ordination?
"It became very confusing to me," he said, "because every Zen priest had a different idea of what it is."
Privately, he took the traditional monk's vows — which included being celibate and not acquiring wealth — and began visiting the Sitagu monastery to seek advice from the abbot.
In 2008, he decided that in order to fully embrace monasticism, he needed to re-ordain in the Theravada tradition and live in a community where the rules for monks were more clearly defined.
This led him to Myamar. And eventually to the idea that this wasn't just a private spiritual journey. That this ancient tradition from the East could offer something useful in the West.
Cintita wants to see monasticism thrive here and believes the best of Buddhism can be an antidote to our "relentless self-seeking behavior," our materialism and unhappiness. As Cintata sees it, America is struggling with a spiritual crisis, trying to regain — or find — its spiritual grounding.
He hopes to see more Westerners follow his journey to monasticism, but he also recognizes that addressing spiritual needs in the U.S. is not only a job for Buddhist monks.
"If I inspire someone to become a Christian monk," he said, "that's every bit as good as inspiring them to be a Buddhist monk."
To contact Cintita, go to http://bhikkhucintita.word press.com. Eileen Flynn blogs at eileenflynn.wordpress.com.
**********************************************************
Washington Examiner - Immigrants from Myanmar ponder life after layoffs
By: NICHOLAS C. STERN
Associated Press
04/20/10 12:45 PM EDT
FREDERICK, MD. — Sui Luai and his wife, Ni Hniang, like many in Frederick's small but significant population of residents from Myanmar, came about nine years ago because they had a relative in town, the promise of work and a fledgling community in their local Baptist church.
Like many of the roughly 450 people from Myanmar in Frederick, Luai and Hniang also fled Myanmar's Chin state as refugees and asylum seekers because of the intolerable political, religious, ethnic and social persecution they'd suffered at the hands of their home nation's ruling junta.
Those among them fortunate enough to have owned businesses or earned university degrees in Myanmar discovered that without the resources or requalifying for the credentials they'd received decades ago, they would not be able to work in their chosen profession in the United States.
Soon, the former nurses, doctors and university professors were in the same boat as those from Myanmar without such education.
Nevertheless, they were grateful to be in the United States and to find steady work. Many did so in manufacturing positions at the BP Solar plant.
According to Luai and several others, between 100 and 120 of the 320 people BP Solar laid off March 26 were from Myanmar. Most of them worked as machine operators.
Living as an interdependent community with few resources in a troubled economy, in some cases limited English proficiency and often without attractive professional credentials, those laid off are starting to feel anxiety about their prospects in Frederick .
"I think we will suffer more than other citizens, that is sure," said Phun Thang, a BP Solar machine operator laid off after five years of working there.
The Rev. San No Thuan began his mission at Falam Baptist Church in Frederick in March 2009. The church is one of three in Frederick with congregations from Myanmar.
Thuan said there are 109 people in his church, the majority of whom are, like him, from Chin state. Chin's population consists of dozens of ethnic groups, but most are Christian, he said.
Members are typically devout and spiritual, and view the church as the heart of their community. They're also known for their hard work, Thuan said.
"Employers may be reluctant to hire them, but when they do, they don't want to let them go," he said.
The BP Solar layoffs, as well as a tough job market, have caused many of his members to worry about survival. To be sure, life in the United States is much easier than in Myanmar, and they are happy to be here, he said.
Frederick in particular, with good schools, a clean, calm atmosphere and similarity to some of the mountainous terrain in Chin, remains the place his congregation wants to stay, he said. Even some who have moved to other parts of the country to find work have told him they miss Frederick and want to return.
People from Chin are accustomed to building and owning their own homes, and many in Frederick do. They also tend to have large families with several children, he said.
Making the mortgage payments, paying children's tuition and putting food on the table are all leading his congregation to wonder whether they will be able to remain in a community they've grown to love.
"Without work, how will they survive?" he asked.
A month or so after Luai arrived in Frederick in 2001, he began manufacturing solar panels for BP Solar.
In Myanmar, Luai helped his family operate a shipping company. At BP Solar, he held various positions, including at the plant's ingot site, and casting and sizing solar panels.
Hniang arrived a few months later, and also began working at the plant. Both enjoyed their jobs and the company.
Married in Frederick in 2002, they eventually bought a townhouse not far from the plant, where they stayed until BP Solar laid them off March 26.
Like many who worked there, Luai and Hniang said they couldn't help but notice a large decrease in orders at the plant for a year leading up to its closing. Yet they were shocked the notice came so swiftly.
"We didn't expect it would happen so fast," he said.
Now living off a three-month severance package, as well as severance accrued over long careers at BP Solar, Luai and Hniang are weighing their options. Luai thinks he'll try to take advantage of a conditional $5,000 tuition stipend to retrain himself as a maintenance worker.
But Hniang, who has high blood pressure and needs daily medication and thus, health insurance, will look for a job, anything she can find, as soon as her severance begins to run out in June.
Thang said he was already taking English classes at Frederick Community College, and was considering expanding on his two certificates in human resources and management.
In Myanmar, Thang was a university professor of world government and international relations, and he owned a publishing company.
In Frederick, he's been trying to find a job in human relations, without success. Part of the reason, he said, could be that his English was not perfect.
Still, "job opportunities are very dim," he said.
People who have arrived from Myanmar in the past six or seven months and have not found work, even as a dishwasher, are now depressed, and don't know where to go, he said.
For those he knows who are thinking about coming to Frederick, Thang said he will tell them to go to Texas or Indiana or Georgia instead.
People who love this place and are more established, with homes and mortgages and children in school, people like himself, say they'll leave Frederick only as a last resort, Thang said.
"Only love is not enough to stay here," he said.
By: NICHOLAS C. STERN
Associated Press
04/20/10 12:45 PM EDT
FREDERICK, MD. — Sui Luai and his wife, Ni Hniang, like many in Frederick's small but significant population of residents from Myanmar, came about nine years ago because they had a relative in town, the promise of work and a fledgling community in their local Baptist church.
Like many of the roughly 450 people from Myanmar in Frederick, Luai and Hniang also fled Myanmar's Chin state as refugees and asylum seekers because of the intolerable political, religious, ethnic and social persecution they'd suffered at the hands of their home nation's ruling junta.
Those among them fortunate enough to have owned businesses or earned university degrees in Myanmar discovered that without the resources or requalifying for the credentials they'd received decades ago, they would not be able to work in their chosen profession in the United States.
Soon, the former nurses, doctors and university professors were in the same boat as those from Myanmar without such education.
Nevertheless, they were grateful to be in the United States and to find steady work. Many did so in manufacturing positions at the BP Solar plant.
According to Luai and several others, between 100 and 120 of the 320 people BP Solar laid off March 26 were from Myanmar. Most of them worked as machine operators.
Living as an interdependent community with few resources in a troubled economy, in some cases limited English proficiency and often without attractive professional credentials, those laid off are starting to feel anxiety about their prospects in Frederick .
"I think we will suffer more than other citizens, that is sure," said Phun Thang, a BP Solar machine operator laid off after five years of working there.
The Rev. San No Thuan began his mission at Falam Baptist Church in Frederick in March 2009. The church is one of three in Frederick with congregations from Myanmar.
Thuan said there are 109 people in his church, the majority of whom are, like him, from Chin state. Chin's population consists of dozens of ethnic groups, but most are Christian, he said.
Members are typically devout and spiritual, and view the church as the heart of their community. They're also known for their hard work, Thuan said.
"Employers may be reluctant to hire them, but when they do, they don't want to let them go," he said.
The BP Solar layoffs, as well as a tough job market, have caused many of his members to worry about survival. To be sure, life in the United States is much easier than in Myanmar, and they are happy to be here, he said.
Frederick in particular, with good schools, a clean, calm atmosphere and similarity to some of the mountainous terrain in Chin, remains the place his congregation wants to stay, he said. Even some who have moved to other parts of the country to find work have told him they miss Frederick and want to return.
People from Chin are accustomed to building and owning their own homes, and many in Frederick do. They also tend to have large families with several children, he said.
Making the mortgage payments, paying children's tuition and putting food on the table are all leading his congregation to wonder whether they will be able to remain in a community they've grown to love.
"Without work, how will they survive?" he asked.
A month or so after Luai arrived in Frederick in 2001, he began manufacturing solar panels for BP Solar.
In Myanmar, Luai helped his family operate a shipping company. At BP Solar, he held various positions, including at the plant's ingot site, and casting and sizing solar panels.
Hniang arrived a few months later, and also began working at the plant. Both enjoyed their jobs and the company.
Married in Frederick in 2002, they eventually bought a townhouse not far from the plant, where they stayed until BP Solar laid them off March 26.
Like many who worked there, Luai and Hniang said they couldn't help but notice a large decrease in orders at the plant for a year leading up to its closing. Yet they were shocked the notice came so swiftly.
"We didn't expect it would happen so fast," he said.
Now living off a three-month severance package, as well as severance accrued over long careers at BP Solar, Luai and Hniang are weighing their options. Luai thinks he'll try to take advantage of a conditional $5,000 tuition stipend to retrain himself as a maintenance worker.
But Hniang, who has high blood pressure and needs daily medication and thus, health insurance, will look for a job, anything she can find, as soon as her severance begins to run out in June.
Thang said he was already taking English classes at Frederick Community College, and was considering expanding on his two certificates in human resources and management.
In Myanmar, Thang was a university professor of world government and international relations, and he owned a publishing company.
In Frederick, he's been trying to find a job in human relations, without success. Part of the reason, he said, could be that his English was not perfect.
Still, "job opportunities are very dim," he said.
People who have arrived from Myanmar in the past six or seven months and have not found work, even as a dishwasher, are now depressed, and don't know where to go, he said.
For those he knows who are thinking about coming to Frederick, Thang said he will tell them to go to Texas or Indiana or Georgia instead.
People who love this place and are more established, with homes and mortgages and children in school, people like himself, say they'll leave Frederick only as a last resort, Thang said.
"Only love is not enough to stay here," he said.
**********************************************************
The Telegraph - The Long march from fighting to freedom
In order to move towards democracy, Myanmar must first come to terms with its long history of ethnic violence, writes Srinath Raghavan The author is Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi Tuesday , April 20 , 2010
The forthcoming elections in Myanmar and the accompanying political rumbles have evoked little interest in India. Weary resignation seems to be the dominant Indian response to the vagaries of Myanmarese politics. Yet, the political churning now underway could have significant implications, both for Myanmar and for the region.
The election laws adopted by the junta have rightly attracted widespread criticism. They call for the dissolution of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, if it refuses to participate in the elections. They also proscribe the candidacy of hundreds of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who have been convicted for spurious criminal offences. Members of religious orders cannot contest elections either — a provision aimed at keeping the Buddhist clergy at bay. With an election commission hand-picked by the junta, there is little expectation of anything like a free or fair electoral process.
The outcome of the elections is likely to be important just the same. For the army appears keen to use the elections to transition to a different model of political control. Twenty-five per cent of the seats in the new parliament are reserved for the military. Military officers have been engaged in hectic campaigning. In canvassing for votes, they have announced several development projects. Clearly, the military’s conception of its own position and role in the polity is undergoing significant changes.
The leader of the junta, General Than Shwe, is going on 79, and has no earmarked successor. It appears that he would prefer not to leave behind in office any single strongman. This has resulted in increasingly sharp differences amongst the military elite about the way ahead. In this context, it might be tempting for the army to remove itself from the centre-stage of politics, whilst continuing to hold all the levers of power. After all, this seems to have worked in Bangladesh and Pakistan — at least in the short-term.
More importantly, the junta has set in motion a process of economic liberalization and is demonstrating increasing interest in benefiting from international experience in this area. There have been signs of change in social policy as well. For instance, private players are now being permitted to run schools and hospitals. Furthermore, the junta has begun to repair relations with the West. Branded an “outpost of tyranny” by the Bush administration, the Myanmar regime is now being engaged diplomatically by Washington. The sanctions, however, are likely to remain in place until the junta shows commitment to furthering democracy and human rights.
The Indian government has refrained from airing its views on these developments. This is continuous with its avowed policy of non-interference in the affairs of Myanmar.
New Delhi persisted with this approach even during the popular movement against the junta in 2007. In the past decade-and-a-half, New Delhi’s Myanmar policy has been shaped by economic and security considerations. The estimated 300 billion cubic metres of gas reserves in Myanmar are naturally of great interest to India. Besides, several infrastructure projects are underway, aimed at improving connectivity between the two countries. These will facilitate India’s access to its own northeastern states as well as to other Southeast Asian countries.
From the standpoint of security, there are two key drivers of policy. In order to contain the insurgencies in the Northeast, it was essential to secure Myanmar’s cooperation.
Since the mid-1990s, the junta has worked with India to ensure that various northeastern insurgent groups, especially the Nagas and the United Liberation Front of Asom, do not operate out of Myanmar with impunity. The other factor is China’s growing clout in Myanmar. Since the late-1980s, when the junta drew international censure for its iron-fisted approach, Beijing has been Myanmar’s most dependable ally. China is its largest trading partner, supplying everything, from military equipment to food grain. China’s involvement in several infrastructure projects has also been a matter of concern for India. These are regarded as enabling China to access the Indian Ocean region.
Notwithstanding these, India could do more to nudge the junta towards a more democratic stance. In particular, it should make the case for a fairer parliamentary election — one that will create the space for Suu Kyi and the NLD to participate in the process. But it would be facile to assume that the problem in Myanmar is merely the struggle between forces of democracy and the junta. Ensuring a democratic transition, however imperfect, will require addressing a larger set of issues. If Myanmar has seen the longest spell of uninterrupted military dictatorship anywhere in the world, it is because the country is also home to the longest-running civil war.
From the time it became independent in 1948, Burma was wracked by a swarm of insurgencies. Initially, it was the communist party that took up arms against the government. Simultaneously, there was also an Islamist insurgency in the north of Arakan. Soon the Karens and Kachins of the highlands turned against the central government. These groups had enjoyed considerable autonomy under the British and feared that their standing would be eroded in a self-proclaimed Buddhist Burma. Both the groups were well-armed, having played a major role in the anti-Japanese resistance during World War II. Two years into these conflicts, the premier, U Nu, was periodically retreating into meditation to cope with the situation. His friend, Jawaharlal Nehru, observed that it seemed “as good a way of governing Burma as any”.
The situation was given a further twist in 1949 when the communists emerged victorious in the Chinese civil war. Sections of the worsted Kuomintang forces fled across the border into eastern Burma. There they created a safe haven, recruiting additional forces, imposing taxes and undercutting local political structures. These forces were subsequently joined by American and Taiwanese military ‘advisors’. The Burmese military’s efforts to root out these militias alienated the local population, so paving the way for an insurgency led by the Shans.
The presence of these forces resulted in periodic incursions by the Chinese army. By the mid-1960s, Beijing extended support to communist insurgents against the Burmese regime. Meanwhile, Thailand, too, had entered the fray, supporting the Karens and other insurgents operating along its borders with Burma, believing this would weaken its traditional enemy. Over time, many of the rebel groups splintered into factions, resulting in a bewildering array of insurgents with ever longer acronyms.
The upshot of this anarchical situation was that the military began to consume much the largest share of the state’s financial resources and became by far the most powerful actor. This set the stage for the military coups of 1958 and 1962. Since the mid-1950s, the military also became a major stakeholder in the Burmese economy and came to control a number of key sectors. It was only in 1989 that the government began to reach ceasefire accords. These have been concluded with around 16 groups to date. But they remain armed truces and the underlying disputes are yet to be resolved. The army continues to engage in counter-insurgency operations against other important militias, though the strength of these insurgencies has dwindled over the years. But many of these groups are active players in drug trafficking from Thailand and are supported by religious networks overseas.
Any attempt to minimize the role of the junta can only succeed as part of a larger process that ends these ethnic disputes and creates a new compact between the State and the peoples of Myanmar. The recent developments could provide the requisite opening for wider effort at national reconciliation. Encouraging the junta and other actors down this road would accord with India’s values as well as its interests.
In order to move towards democracy, Myanmar must first come to terms with its long history of ethnic violence, writes Srinath Raghavan The author is Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi Tuesday , April 20 , 2010
The forthcoming elections in Myanmar and the accompanying political rumbles have evoked little interest in India. Weary resignation seems to be the dominant Indian response to the vagaries of Myanmarese politics. Yet, the political churning now underway could have significant implications, both for Myanmar and for the region.
The election laws adopted by the junta have rightly attracted widespread criticism. They call for the dissolution of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, if it refuses to participate in the elections. They also proscribe the candidacy of hundreds of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who have been convicted for spurious criminal offences. Members of religious orders cannot contest elections either — a provision aimed at keeping the Buddhist clergy at bay. With an election commission hand-picked by the junta, there is little expectation of anything like a free or fair electoral process.
The outcome of the elections is likely to be important just the same. For the army appears keen to use the elections to transition to a different model of political control. Twenty-five per cent of the seats in the new parliament are reserved for the military. Military officers have been engaged in hectic campaigning. In canvassing for votes, they have announced several development projects. Clearly, the military’s conception of its own position and role in the polity is undergoing significant changes.
The leader of the junta, General Than Shwe, is going on 79, and has no earmarked successor. It appears that he would prefer not to leave behind in office any single strongman. This has resulted in increasingly sharp differences amongst the military elite about the way ahead. In this context, it might be tempting for the army to remove itself from the centre-stage of politics, whilst continuing to hold all the levers of power. After all, this seems to have worked in Bangladesh and Pakistan — at least in the short-term.
More importantly, the junta has set in motion a process of economic liberalization and is demonstrating increasing interest in benefiting from international experience in this area. There have been signs of change in social policy as well. For instance, private players are now being permitted to run schools and hospitals. Furthermore, the junta has begun to repair relations with the West. Branded an “outpost of tyranny” by the Bush administration, the Myanmar regime is now being engaged diplomatically by Washington. The sanctions, however, are likely to remain in place until the junta shows commitment to furthering democracy and human rights.
The Indian government has refrained from airing its views on these developments. This is continuous with its avowed policy of non-interference in the affairs of Myanmar.
New Delhi persisted with this approach even during the popular movement against the junta in 2007. In the past decade-and-a-half, New Delhi’s Myanmar policy has been shaped by economic and security considerations. The estimated 300 billion cubic metres of gas reserves in Myanmar are naturally of great interest to India. Besides, several infrastructure projects are underway, aimed at improving connectivity between the two countries. These will facilitate India’s access to its own northeastern states as well as to other Southeast Asian countries.
From the standpoint of security, there are two key drivers of policy. In order to contain the insurgencies in the Northeast, it was essential to secure Myanmar’s cooperation.
Since the mid-1990s, the junta has worked with India to ensure that various northeastern insurgent groups, especially the Nagas and the United Liberation Front of Asom, do not operate out of Myanmar with impunity. The other factor is China’s growing clout in Myanmar. Since the late-1980s, when the junta drew international censure for its iron-fisted approach, Beijing has been Myanmar’s most dependable ally. China is its largest trading partner, supplying everything, from military equipment to food grain. China’s involvement in several infrastructure projects has also been a matter of concern for India. These are regarded as enabling China to access the Indian Ocean region.
Notwithstanding these, India could do more to nudge the junta towards a more democratic stance. In particular, it should make the case for a fairer parliamentary election — one that will create the space for Suu Kyi and the NLD to participate in the process. But it would be facile to assume that the problem in Myanmar is merely the struggle between forces of democracy and the junta. Ensuring a democratic transition, however imperfect, will require addressing a larger set of issues. If Myanmar has seen the longest spell of uninterrupted military dictatorship anywhere in the world, it is because the country is also home to the longest-running civil war.
From the time it became independent in 1948, Burma was wracked by a swarm of insurgencies. Initially, it was the communist party that took up arms against the government. Simultaneously, there was also an Islamist insurgency in the north of Arakan. Soon the Karens and Kachins of the highlands turned against the central government. These groups had enjoyed considerable autonomy under the British and feared that their standing would be eroded in a self-proclaimed Buddhist Burma. Both the groups were well-armed, having played a major role in the anti-Japanese resistance during World War II. Two years into these conflicts, the premier, U Nu, was periodically retreating into meditation to cope with the situation. His friend, Jawaharlal Nehru, observed that it seemed “as good a way of governing Burma as any”.
The situation was given a further twist in 1949 when the communists emerged victorious in the Chinese civil war. Sections of the worsted Kuomintang forces fled across the border into eastern Burma. There they created a safe haven, recruiting additional forces, imposing taxes and undercutting local political structures. These forces were subsequently joined by American and Taiwanese military ‘advisors’. The Burmese military’s efforts to root out these militias alienated the local population, so paving the way for an insurgency led by the Shans.
The presence of these forces resulted in periodic incursions by the Chinese army. By the mid-1960s, Beijing extended support to communist insurgents against the Burmese regime. Meanwhile, Thailand, too, had entered the fray, supporting the Karens and other insurgents operating along its borders with Burma, believing this would weaken its traditional enemy. Over time, many of the rebel groups splintered into factions, resulting in a bewildering array of insurgents with ever longer acronyms.
The upshot of this anarchical situation was that the military began to consume much the largest share of the state’s financial resources and became by far the most powerful actor. This set the stage for the military coups of 1958 and 1962. Since the mid-1950s, the military also became a major stakeholder in the Burmese economy and came to control a number of key sectors. It was only in 1989 that the government began to reach ceasefire accords. These have been concluded with around 16 groups to date. But they remain armed truces and the underlying disputes are yet to be resolved. The army continues to engage in counter-insurgency operations against other important militias, though the strength of these insurgencies has dwindled over the years. But many of these groups are active players in drug trafficking from Thailand and are supported by religious networks overseas.
Any attempt to minimize the role of the junta can only succeed as part of a larger process that ends these ethnic disputes and creates a new compact between the State and the peoples of Myanmar. The recent developments could provide the requisite opening for wider effort at national reconciliation. Encouraging the junta and other actors down this road would accord with India’s values as well as its interests.
**********************************************************
Star Tribune - Kachin ethnic group negotiates for peace in Myanmar, but ready themselves for prospect of war
By TINI TRAN , Associated Press
Last update: April 20, 2010 - 2:32 AM
LAIZA, Myanmar - Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell "Boom!"
At a camp alongside a river, the next generation of soldiers in the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar's largest armed ethnic groups, is training with a new urgency. A cease-fire is in peril, and the Kachin do not want to patrol the border for the ruling junta.
"I don't want to kill anyone but being a soldier is the best way to change the conditions in Burma," said 23-year-old cadet La Ran, who joined four months ago. "I am ready to fight if I have to."
The possibility of armed conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is rising because a series of cease-fire agreements between the military government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups are dissolving as the regime seeks to press those groups into becoming a border militia under government control.
The government has set a deadline of April 28 for the armed groups to merge or disarm as the junta tightens its grip on the country ahead of this year's nationwide elections — the first in two decades. Their demands have largely been met with resistance during negotiations over the past year with the country's largest armed ethnic groups, including the 8,000-member Kachin army.
Myanmar's government, run by ethnic Burmese who make up the majority, is well known for repressing its own people. Considered among the world's most brutal, the regime brooks no dissent and has been accused of large-scale violations of human rights, including the yearslong detention of Nobel Peace laureate and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the country's hinterlands — home to a variety of ethnic minority groups — the junta has also faced bitter opposition from the Wa, the Shan, the Karen and the Kachin, who are united in their resentment against historical domination by the Burmese. The Karen and the Shan, who have refused to sign truces, are engaged in intense fighting with government troops.
These groups control large territories along the northern and eastern borders — along with the valuable trade in logging, jade, gems, gold, and, in some cases, illegal drugs, that have helped finance their insurgencies.
The Kachin, predominantly Christian hill tribes in the northernmost part of Myanmar, have been engaged in a decades-long struggle against the government for autonomy.
Since a cease-fire was signed in 1994, they have enjoyed de-facto self-rule: In the rebel-controlled area, the Kachin army powers the electric grid and runs hospitals while soldiers in green uniforms adorned with the Kachin flag monitor both the border with China and the frontier with government-controlled Myanmar.
But Kachin leaders are still hoping for a permanent solution. In the interim, they have rebuilt their army and their strength.
Over the weekend, the Kachin army and its political arm, the Kachin Independence Organization, adamantly rejected the government's border guard proposal at a mass public meeting held in the small town of Laiza, a rebel stronghold near the Chinese border.
"From the very beginning, the public didn't want the KIA to join the (border guard force)," said Gen. S. Gun Maw, vice chief of staff for the rebels, citing letters from thousands of people opposing the idea. "If they (the government) take the military way, it will be a big mistake for them."
Pulling up in trucks, motorbikes, buses and cars, more than 1,000 Kachin — many dressed in traditional headscarves and sarong-like longyi — packed into a large assembly hall. An overflow crowd watched intently on television monitors set up in a second room.
From the start, the rebel leaders were careful to say their stand reflects the views of the majority of Kachin people, estimated at 1 million in Myanmar. Many in the audience nodded in agreement as their leaders outlined the political stalemate after more than a dozen talks with government leaders over the past 12 months.
"We've had the cease-fire for more than 10 years now. It's a friendly peaceful society now, and I want to keep this. But (the government) violates our rights and takes our land," said Zing Hang Khawn Hpang, 45, a local trader who attended the weekend meeting.
The gathering was also intended to make a rare appeal for international attention and a small group of foreign journalists, including The Associated Press, were invited to attend. The remote and mountainous Kachin region has largely been off-limits to foreigners for years.
"Not many outsiders know very well what's happening in Burma and our region ... We hope that if they know, if they understand the situation in our region, they may be able to find a way to help us," Gun Maw said.
In Laiza, a border town of 10,000 nestled in a valley between green hills, the standard of living is better than in other impoverished areas of Myanmar.
Control over two small hydroelectric dams, built with Chinese help, provide the area with 24-hour electricity — by comparison, residents in the largest Burmese city, Yangon, only get a few hours of power every third day. Chinese telecommunications towers just over the border ensure steady cell phone service, while brisk commercial trade means a steady supply of Chinese goods, clothing and motorbikes displayed in storefronts on the main boulevard.
On the streets, people talk openly about politics — another marked difference from the tightly controlled regions of government-run Myanmar.
The stability has allowed Christianity, brought by missionaries in the 1800s, to flourish — a rare display in an otherwise heavily Buddhist nation.
Standing outside the doors of the white-tiled Laiza Kachin Baptist Church, resident Dau Lum, 36, expressed faith that a political compromise can be reached before fighting erupts.
"I try not to worry too much because the world is watching Burma so the Burmese government doesn't want to start the fight. Even if conflict happens, it will not be like those in the past. I believe that God will guide us to a good future," he said.
Though Kachin leaders are still pushing for a political solution that includes protection of ethnic rights and government-recognized self-rule, their commanders are preparing for the worst. From the Kachin army's headquarters, perched high up on the mountainside overlooking the town, they have launched a new push for training and recruitment.
More ominously, the Burmese side has also stepped up its military activities. Kachin residents report army convoys rumbling through the northern countryside in recent weeks near the regional capital of Myitkyina, which is under government control.
But any fighting in northern Myanmar would surely provoke China, the junta's biggest political ally, which has warned the Burmese government to guard against instability on its borders. Last summer, heavy fighting between troops and the Kokang ethnic group sent some 30,000 refugees across the border into China, prompting a rare reprimand from Beijing.
The Chinese leadership is in a bind, caught between its dislike of border instability and its access to the oil, natural gas, and timber that the junta provides. That makes it hard to divine how deeply Beijing will involve itself.
"We know the Chinese government has influence over the (Burmese government). We want them to use this to make change in Burma, but we're not sure whether the Chinese government will," said the Kachin army's Gun Maw.
Lamai Tang Gun, 59, a Baptist pastor from Myitkyina, notes the Kachin have lived with an uneasy peace for decades: "They (the junta) are always threatening us. We can't tell if there's a possibility of fighting. We can only pray to God."
By TINI TRAN , Associated Press
Last update: April 20, 2010 - 2:32 AM
LAIZA, Myanmar - Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell "Boom!"
At a camp alongside a river, the next generation of soldiers in the Kachin Independence Army, one of Myanmar's largest armed ethnic groups, is training with a new urgency. A cease-fire is in peril, and the Kachin do not want to patrol the border for the ruling junta.
"I don't want to kill anyone but being a soldier is the best way to change the conditions in Burma," said 23-year-old cadet La Ran, who joined four months ago. "I am ready to fight if I have to."
The possibility of armed conflict in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is rising because a series of cease-fire agreements between the military government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups are dissolving as the regime seeks to press those groups into becoming a border militia under government control.
The government has set a deadline of April 28 for the armed groups to merge or disarm as the junta tightens its grip on the country ahead of this year's nationwide elections — the first in two decades. Their demands have largely been met with resistance during negotiations over the past year with the country's largest armed ethnic groups, including the 8,000-member Kachin army.
Myanmar's government, run by ethnic Burmese who make up the majority, is well known for repressing its own people. Considered among the world's most brutal, the regime brooks no dissent and has been accused of large-scale violations of human rights, including the yearslong detention of Nobel Peace laureate and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the country's hinterlands — home to a variety of ethnic minority groups — the junta has also faced bitter opposition from the Wa, the Shan, the Karen and the Kachin, who are united in their resentment against historical domination by the Burmese. The Karen and the Shan, who have refused to sign truces, are engaged in intense fighting with government troops.
These groups control large territories along the northern and eastern borders — along with the valuable trade in logging, jade, gems, gold, and, in some cases, illegal drugs, that have helped finance their insurgencies.
The Kachin, predominantly Christian hill tribes in the northernmost part of Myanmar, have been engaged in a decades-long struggle against the government for autonomy.
Since a cease-fire was signed in 1994, they have enjoyed de-facto self-rule: In the rebel-controlled area, the Kachin army powers the electric grid and runs hospitals while soldiers in green uniforms adorned with the Kachin flag monitor both the border with China and the frontier with government-controlled Myanmar.
But Kachin leaders are still hoping for a permanent solution. In the interim, they have rebuilt their army and their strength.
Over the weekend, the Kachin army and its political arm, the Kachin Independence Organization, adamantly rejected the government's border guard proposal at a mass public meeting held in the small town of Laiza, a rebel stronghold near the Chinese border.
"From the very beginning, the public didn't want the KIA to join the (border guard force)," said Gen. S. Gun Maw, vice chief of staff for the rebels, citing letters from thousands of people opposing the idea. "If they (the government) take the military way, it will be a big mistake for them."
Pulling up in trucks, motorbikes, buses and cars, more than 1,000 Kachin — many dressed in traditional headscarves and sarong-like longyi — packed into a large assembly hall. An overflow crowd watched intently on television monitors set up in a second room.
From the start, the rebel leaders were careful to say their stand reflects the views of the majority of Kachin people, estimated at 1 million in Myanmar. Many in the audience nodded in agreement as their leaders outlined the political stalemate after more than a dozen talks with government leaders over the past 12 months.
"We've had the cease-fire for more than 10 years now. It's a friendly peaceful society now, and I want to keep this. But (the government) violates our rights and takes our land," said Zing Hang Khawn Hpang, 45, a local trader who attended the weekend meeting.
The gathering was also intended to make a rare appeal for international attention and a small group of foreign journalists, including The Associated Press, were invited to attend. The remote and mountainous Kachin region has largely been off-limits to foreigners for years.
"Not many outsiders know very well what's happening in Burma and our region ... We hope that if they know, if they understand the situation in our region, they may be able to find a way to help us," Gun Maw said.
In Laiza, a border town of 10,000 nestled in a valley between green hills, the standard of living is better than in other impoverished areas of Myanmar.
Control over two small hydroelectric dams, built with Chinese help, provide the area with 24-hour electricity — by comparison, residents in the largest Burmese city, Yangon, only get a few hours of power every third day. Chinese telecommunications towers just over the border ensure steady cell phone service, while brisk commercial trade means a steady supply of Chinese goods, clothing and motorbikes displayed in storefronts on the main boulevard.
On the streets, people talk openly about politics — another marked difference from the tightly controlled regions of government-run Myanmar.
The stability has allowed Christianity, brought by missionaries in the 1800s, to flourish — a rare display in an otherwise heavily Buddhist nation.
Standing outside the doors of the white-tiled Laiza Kachin Baptist Church, resident Dau Lum, 36, expressed faith that a political compromise can be reached before fighting erupts.
"I try not to worry too much because the world is watching Burma so the Burmese government doesn't want to start the fight. Even if conflict happens, it will not be like those in the past. I believe that God will guide us to a good future," he said.
Though Kachin leaders are still pushing for a political solution that includes protection of ethnic rights and government-recognized self-rule, their commanders are preparing for the worst. From the Kachin army's headquarters, perched high up on the mountainside overlooking the town, they have launched a new push for training and recruitment.
More ominously, the Burmese side has also stepped up its military activities. Kachin residents report army convoys rumbling through the northern countryside in recent weeks near the regional capital of Myitkyina, which is under government control.
But any fighting in northern Myanmar would surely provoke China, the junta's biggest political ally, which has warned the Burmese government to guard against instability on its borders. Last summer, heavy fighting between troops and the Kokang ethnic group sent some 30,000 refugees across the border into China, prompting a rare reprimand from Beijing.
The Chinese leadership is in a bind, caught between its dislike of border instability and its access to the oil, natural gas, and timber that the junta provides. That makes it hard to divine how deeply Beijing will involve itself.
"We know the Chinese government has influence over the (Burmese government). We want them to use this to make change in Burma, but we're not sure whether the Chinese government will," said the Kachin army's Gun Maw.
Lamai Tang Gun, 59, a Baptist pastor from Myitkyina, notes the Kachin have lived with an uneasy peace for decades: "They (the junta) are always threatening us. We can't tell if there's a possibility of fighting. We can only pray to God."
**********************************************************
Bangkok Post - Opinion: Asean's leaders growing weary of intractable junta
Published: 17/04/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
Every Asean summit for the last decade has been dominated by the Burma issue. Although discussions are usually on the sidelines and in confidential sessions, this year's meeting in Hanoi was no different. The only exception was that in the chairman's public statement at the end of the proceedings, Burma seemed to have got away unscathed.
But Burma's hopes to take the Asean chair next year were completely dashed.
The reality is that the junta was barraged behind the scenes by almost all the Southeast Asian leaders, except the hosts Vietnam - who are cozying up to the regime in the hope of wooing them away from their Chinese allies. But the most lasting impression of the meeting is that Asean countries are becoming bored with Burma's antics, lack of transparency and failure to confide in their regional supporters.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya was clearly irritated, and dismissively brushed aside my question: have you spoken to the Burmese about the election? ''I talk to them all the time,'' he said and quickly disappeared down the stairs.
Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan was also clearly frustrated by the Burmese, and perhaps even more so by journalists' questions on the issue. ''On the Myanmar issue, we just have to have patience,'' Mr Surin finally told me.
Asean's leaders have good reason to be bored with Burma _ they are completely in the dark about the future as is everyone else. ''All the Myanmar side told us is that there will be elections this year, the five laws controlling the process have been published, and the political parties are now registering,'' said Mr Surin.
For more than a year now this is the most the regime has managed to divulge to their regional allies. No wonder the other Asean leaders are getting increasingly frustrated by the regime's intransigence. But Asean cannot escape from the reality _ the elections in Burma later this year are not only a test for the regime, but for the credibility of the organisation as a whole. This is something the Thai foreign minister conceded.
''The Myanmar issue still presents a problem when we want to take Asean forward to negotiate and deal with other groupings and countries,'' Mr Kasit told Thai journalists on the sidelines of the meeting in Hanoi. ''It presents a major limitation for us.''
The former UN special envoy to Burma was even clearer: ''It will be very embarrassing for Asean if the elections go ahead as the generals plan and Aung San Suu Kyi does not play a role,'' Razali Ismail said recently.
Asian leaders and diplomats are still trying to put a brave face on it. ''We are doing what we can, and Indonesia for one, takes the issue of Myanmar very seriously,''
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said at the summit.
''But we think quiet diplomacy works much better,'' he added. ''And in private we can be more frank and forceful, and we are, without them appearing to be under pressure.''
In the past the regime complained about Thailand's ''megaphone diplomacy'', when former Thai foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai tried to bring Burma out of its isolation and encourage political change during the Khin Nyunt era. Since the military intelligence chief and prime minister was toppled in October 2004, the military junta has been extremely loath to openly discuss political developments even with its Asian allies.
But several countries in Asean _ especially Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand _ are intent on pressing the regime, at least privately, to make sure the elections do not embarrass the regional grouping, which has continually defended the junta publicly.
''We continue to remind the Myanmar government of their promises to hold elections which are internationally acceptable,'' said Mr Natalegawa.
In the key meetings, Asean leaders urged the Burmese junta to keep to its road map, Mr Surin said at the end of the summit. ''We hope these elctions will provide a mechanism for true na tional reconciliation,'' he said ''And we are ready to offer assistance, help and support.''
The Asean leaders also urged Burma to engage Asean and the United Nations in the lead-up to the elections. One thorny issue raised was the possibility of election monitors or observers being allowed in to oversee the polls _ an idea the junta has so far shunned.
While the Asean leaders understand that Burma's elections will also be a test of the regional grouping's credibilty, they are also well aware that they have very little influence on the regime. ''The coming months will be critical months for Myanmar,'' Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told journalists at the summit.
''But in the end what happens in Myanmar is for the Myanmar people to decide. We are outsiders... we hope they will make progress quickly. We are not in a position to punish Myanmar,'' he added. ''If China and India remain engaged with Myanmar, then we have to.''
But the regionl group did send a strong message to supremo Senior General Than Shwe during the summit, when it dismmissed Burma's insistent appeal to be allowed to take the Asean chair next year _ to help celebrate the ''birth of the new Burmese civilian government'' after the elections this year. Burma opted not to take its place as chairman four years ago amid strong international pressure.
Instead Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei were confirmed as the next three. Only then would Burma be considered, a senior Asean diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
''This is the only way we could show our displeasure. And it is by no means certain that they will automatically get the chairmanship for 2014,'' he said.
So while there are signs that the regional leaders may be getting tired of the regime's lack of transparency and unwillingness to cooperate, in the end they will be forced to endorse the elections no matter what happens.
As Dr Surin said, ''If the election is not objectionable, it will be acceptable [to Asean].''
Published: 17/04/2010 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
Every Asean summit for the last decade has been dominated by the Burma issue. Although discussions are usually on the sidelines and in confidential sessions, this year's meeting in Hanoi was no different. The only exception was that in the chairman's public statement at the end of the proceedings, Burma seemed to have got away unscathed.
But Burma's hopes to take the Asean chair next year were completely dashed.
The reality is that the junta was barraged behind the scenes by almost all the Southeast Asian leaders, except the hosts Vietnam - who are cozying up to the regime in the hope of wooing them away from their Chinese allies. But the most lasting impression of the meeting is that Asean countries are becoming bored with Burma's antics, lack of transparency and failure to confide in their regional supporters.
Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya was clearly irritated, and dismissively brushed aside my question: have you spoken to the Burmese about the election? ''I talk to them all the time,'' he said and quickly disappeared down the stairs.
Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan was also clearly frustrated by the Burmese, and perhaps even more so by journalists' questions on the issue. ''On the Myanmar issue, we just have to have patience,'' Mr Surin finally told me.
Asean's leaders have good reason to be bored with Burma _ they are completely in the dark about the future as is everyone else. ''All the Myanmar side told us is that there will be elections this year, the five laws controlling the process have been published, and the political parties are now registering,'' said Mr Surin.
For more than a year now this is the most the regime has managed to divulge to their regional allies. No wonder the other Asean leaders are getting increasingly frustrated by the regime's intransigence. But Asean cannot escape from the reality _ the elections in Burma later this year are not only a test for the regime, but for the credibility of the organisation as a whole. This is something the Thai foreign minister conceded.
''The Myanmar issue still presents a problem when we want to take Asean forward to negotiate and deal with other groupings and countries,'' Mr Kasit told Thai journalists on the sidelines of the meeting in Hanoi. ''It presents a major limitation for us.''
The former UN special envoy to Burma was even clearer: ''It will be very embarrassing for Asean if the elections go ahead as the generals plan and Aung San Suu Kyi does not play a role,'' Razali Ismail said recently.
Asian leaders and diplomats are still trying to put a brave face on it. ''We are doing what we can, and Indonesia for one, takes the issue of Myanmar very seriously,''
Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said at the summit.
''But we think quiet diplomacy works much better,'' he added. ''And in private we can be more frank and forceful, and we are, without them appearing to be under pressure.''
In the past the regime complained about Thailand's ''megaphone diplomacy'', when former Thai foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai tried to bring Burma out of its isolation and encourage political change during the Khin Nyunt era. Since the military intelligence chief and prime minister was toppled in October 2004, the military junta has been extremely loath to openly discuss political developments even with its Asian allies.
But several countries in Asean _ especially Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand _ are intent on pressing the regime, at least privately, to make sure the elections do not embarrass the regional grouping, which has continually defended the junta publicly.
''We continue to remind the Myanmar government of their promises to hold elections which are internationally acceptable,'' said Mr Natalegawa.
In the key meetings, Asean leaders urged the Burmese junta to keep to its road map, Mr Surin said at the end of the summit. ''We hope these elctions will provide a mechanism for true na tional reconciliation,'' he said ''And we are ready to offer assistance, help and support.''
The Asean leaders also urged Burma to engage Asean and the United Nations in the lead-up to the elections. One thorny issue raised was the possibility of election monitors or observers being allowed in to oversee the polls _ an idea the junta has so far shunned.
While the Asean leaders understand that Burma's elections will also be a test of the regional grouping's credibilty, they are also well aware that they have very little influence on the regime. ''The coming months will be critical months for Myanmar,'' Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told journalists at the summit.
''But in the end what happens in Myanmar is for the Myanmar people to decide. We are outsiders... we hope they will make progress quickly. We are not in a position to punish Myanmar,'' he added. ''If China and India remain engaged with Myanmar, then we have to.''
But the regionl group did send a strong message to supremo Senior General Than Shwe during the summit, when it dismmissed Burma's insistent appeal to be allowed to take the Asean chair next year _ to help celebrate the ''birth of the new Burmese civilian government'' after the elections this year. Burma opted not to take its place as chairman four years ago amid strong international pressure.
Instead Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei were confirmed as the next three. Only then would Burma be considered, a senior Asean diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
''This is the only way we could show our displeasure. And it is by no means certain that they will automatically get the chairmanship for 2014,'' he said.
So while there are signs that the regional leaders may be getting tired of the regime's lack of transparency and unwillingness to cooperate, in the end they will be forced to endorse the elections no matter what happens.
As Dr Surin said, ''If the election is not objectionable, it will be acceptable [to Asean].''
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The Irrawaddy - Wa Still Say “No” to Border Guard Force
By WAI MOE - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the largest armed ethnic group in Burma with more than 20,000 troops, is holding firm and refusing to join the Burmese military junta’s Border Guard Force (BGF).
The junta's plan is to put all armed cease-fire groups under the Tatamdaw (Burma’s armed forces) before Thursday, the latest junta deadline.
According to sources, the Wa leadership recently met to discuss the BGF and the future of the UWSA. They decided once again to reject the BGF plan.
This decision followed previous, unsuccessful attempts by the Wa leadership to negotiate with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
“The Wa chairman Bao Youxiang sent two letters to the SPDC, compromising over the BGF. However, the SPDC rejected both letters—and the Wa leaders decided not to give up any more ground,” said Saengjuen Sarawin, an editor of Shan Herald Agency for News monitoring ethnic affairs.
Sarawin said some Wa leaders believed that, although they could not agree to the entire BGF plan, they had to give an alternative position rather than simply saying “no.”
“This kind of thinking came not only from the Wa but also from those beyond the border,” he added, referring China's involvement in negotiations.
But the junta wants ethnic groups to accept the BGF plan without changes by April 22, and will not hold further talks with the Wa regarding the plan.
With the BGF acceptance deadline now only two days away, it is a tense time for all the ethnic cease-fire groups who have refused to join the BGF since it was first proposed in April 2009, as well as for the junta.
Although these ethnic groups have vowed to resolve the issue peacefully and politically, they are preparing for the worst.
Sources said that both the Wa and its ally, the National Democratic Alliance Army based in Mongla, eastern Shan State, began before the beginning of April to mobilize their administration staff for potential conflict.
Now the ethnic groups have put troops on alert to defend their territory if the SPDC decides to take military action.
At the same time, the junta appears to be preparing for an offensive if the armed cease-fire groups do not meet the Thursday deadline.
According to local people in Thazi, a town en route to southern Shan State, dozens of military vehicles carrying infantry troops were driving into the Shan mountains, possible to confront the Wa troops based in southern Shan State, near the Thai-Burmese border.
A rumor circulating among government troops is that an offensive against ethnic armed forces may take place on April 28, according to military sources in Rangoon.
The junta has also tightened trade routes to ethnic cease-fire areas in Shan State and Kachin State, and government agencies have launched psychological warfare attempts among business and local communities along the Burma-China border.
“The junta agents in Muse are saying that their troops would launch a five day long military offensive against the Wa in late April if they failed to join the BGF,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military observer based on the Burma-China border.
“However, it seems just a threat to the Wa and other ethnic groups. Making a new war is not so easy for the junta. It could backfire both on itself and its relationship with China.”
April 17 marked the 21st anniversary of the formation of the UWSA.
The UWSA was formed after the Wa split from the Communist Party of Burma, leading to the junta’s cease-fire agreements with former communist fighters, including the UWSA.
For the past 20 years, the Wa has held a big celebration in Panghsang, its headquarters near the Burma-China border.
At the 20th anniversary celebration on April 17, 2009, Bao Youxiang, a UWSA commander and the chairman of its political wing, the United Wa State Party, vowed before thousands of supporters to build a more solid and united Wa State.
But with the Wa and its allies living under the looming BGF deadline and potential armed conflict with the junta, the UWSA leadership did not celebrate its anniversary last weekend.
“This year the Wa would have liked to celebrate forming the United Wa State Army. However, they were busy preparing their troops for conflict while cooperating closely with their allies,” said Sarawin.
In an indication of what may be in store, last weekend government troops exchanged gunfire with Kachin Independence Army (KIA) guerrillas near the jade mine of Hpacan in Kachin State.
Kachin sources said the incident, which lasted only a few minutes, was sparked when government troops crossed into KIA territory.
The KIA, like the UWSA and some other ethnic cease-fire groups, has not yet joined the BGF.
By WAI MOE - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the largest armed ethnic group in Burma with more than 20,000 troops, is holding firm and refusing to join the Burmese military junta’s Border Guard Force (BGF).
The junta's plan is to put all armed cease-fire groups under the Tatamdaw (Burma’s armed forces) before Thursday, the latest junta deadline.
According to sources, the Wa leadership recently met to discuss the BGF and the future of the UWSA. They decided once again to reject the BGF plan.
This decision followed previous, unsuccessful attempts by the Wa leadership to negotiate with the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
“The Wa chairman Bao Youxiang sent two letters to the SPDC, compromising over the BGF. However, the SPDC rejected both letters—and the Wa leaders decided not to give up any more ground,” said Saengjuen Sarawin, an editor of Shan Herald Agency for News monitoring ethnic affairs.
Sarawin said some Wa leaders believed that, although they could not agree to the entire BGF plan, they had to give an alternative position rather than simply saying “no.”
“This kind of thinking came not only from the Wa but also from those beyond the border,” he added, referring China's involvement in negotiations.
But the junta wants ethnic groups to accept the BGF plan without changes by April 22, and will not hold further talks with the Wa regarding the plan.
With the BGF acceptance deadline now only two days away, it is a tense time for all the ethnic cease-fire groups who have refused to join the BGF since it was first proposed in April 2009, as well as for the junta.
Although these ethnic groups have vowed to resolve the issue peacefully and politically, they are preparing for the worst.
Sources said that both the Wa and its ally, the National Democratic Alliance Army based in Mongla, eastern Shan State, began before the beginning of April to mobilize their administration staff for potential conflict.
Now the ethnic groups have put troops on alert to defend their territory if the SPDC decides to take military action.
At the same time, the junta appears to be preparing for an offensive if the armed cease-fire groups do not meet the Thursday deadline.
According to local people in Thazi, a town en route to southern Shan State, dozens of military vehicles carrying infantry troops were driving into the Shan mountains, possible to confront the Wa troops based in southern Shan State, near the Thai-Burmese border.
A rumor circulating among government troops is that an offensive against ethnic armed forces may take place on April 28, according to military sources in Rangoon.
The junta has also tightened trade routes to ethnic cease-fire areas in Shan State and Kachin State, and government agencies have launched psychological warfare attempts among business and local communities along the Burma-China border.
“The junta agents in Muse are saying that their troops would launch a five day long military offensive against the Wa in late April if they failed to join the BGF,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military observer based on the Burma-China border.
“However, it seems just a threat to the Wa and other ethnic groups. Making a new war is not so easy for the junta. It could backfire both on itself and its relationship with China.”
April 17 marked the 21st anniversary of the formation of the UWSA.
The UWSA was formed after the Wa split from the Communist Party of Burma, leading to the junta’s cease-fire agreements with former communist fighters, including the UWSA.
For the past 20 years, the Wa has held a big celebration in Panghsang, its headquarters near the Burma-China border.
At the 20th anniversary celebration on April 17, 2009, Bao Youxiang, a UWSA commander and the chairman of its political wing, the United Wa State Party, vowed before thousands of supporters to build a more solid and united Wa State.
But with the Wa and its allies living under the looming BGF deadline and potential armed conflict with the junta, the UWSA leadership did not celebrate its anniversary last weekend.
“This year the Wa would have liked to celebrate forming the United Wa State Army. However, they were busy preparing their troops for conflict while cooperating closely with their allies,” said Sarawin.
In an indication of what may be in store, last weekend government troops exchanged gunfire with Kachin Independence Army (KIA) guerrillas near the jade mine of Hpacan in Kachin State.
Kachin sources said the incident, which lasted only a few minutes, was sparked when government troops crossed into KIA territory.
The KIA, like the UWSA and some other ethnic cease-fire groups, has not yet joined the BGF.
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The Irrawaddy - US Senators Want Burma Policy Assessed
By LALIT K. JHA - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
WASHINGTON — US senator Judd Gregg has introduced a resolution calling on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to assess whether the Obama administration policy of engagement with the Burmese military junta has been effective in furthering US interests.
The resolution, co-sponsored by by six other senators, also calls for the immediate release of detained National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and calls on the Secretary of State to support the NLD and the people of Burma in demanding constitutional and election reforms that will improve human rights, broaden political participation and further democracy, accountability and responsive governance in Burma.
The resolution asks the Obama administration to maintain, and consider strengthening, sanctions against Burma if the military regime continues its systematic violation of human rights and fails to embrace the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma.
It also urges the Secretary of State to engage regional governments and multilateral organizations (including China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the United Nations Security Council) to push for the establishment of an environment in Burma that encourages the full and unfettered participation of the people of Burma in a democratic transition to civilian rule.
Condemning the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and all prisoners of conscience in Burma, the resolution calls for their immediate and unconditional release and urges the Burmese military regime to engage in dialogue with the NLD and other opposition groups, as well as with ethnic minorities, to broaden political participation in an environment free from fear and intimidation.
The resolution notes that Snr-Gen Than Shwe and the State Peace and Development Council continue to persecute Suu Kyi, her supporters and the ordinary citizens of Burma, including ethnic minorities.
The senators co-sponsoring the resolution were Judd Greg, Mitch McConnell, Bob Bennett, Sam Brownback, Susan M. Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Patrick Leahy.
By LALIT K. JHA - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
WASHINGTON — US senator Judd Gregg has introduced a resolution calling on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to assess whether the Obama administration policy of engagement with the Burmese military junta has been effective in furthering US interests.
The resolution, co-sponsored by by six other senators, also calls for the immediate release of detained National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and calls on the Secretary of State to support the NLD and the people of Burma in demanding constitutional and election reforms that will improve human rights, broaden political participation and further democracy, accountability and responsive governance in Burma.
The resolution asks the Obama administration to maintain, and consider strengthening, sanctions against Burma if the military regime continues its systematic violation of human rights and fails to embrace the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma.
It also urges the Secretary of State to engage regional governments and multilateral organizations (including China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the United Nations Security Council) to push for the establishment of an environment in Burma that encourages the full and unfettered participation of the people of Burma in a democratic transition to civilian rule.
Condemning the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and all prisoners of conscience in Burma, the resolution calls for their immediate and unconditional release and urges the Burmese military regime to engage in dialogue with the NLD and other opposition groups, as well as with ethnic minorities, to broaden political participation in an environment free from fear and intimidation.
The resolution notes that Snr-Gen Than Shwe and the State Peace and Development Council continue to persecute Suu Kyi, her supporters and the ordinary citizens of Burma, including ethnic minorities.
The senators co-sponsoring the resolution were Judd Greg, Mitch McConnell, Bob Bennett, Sam Brownback, Susan M. Collins, Joseph Lieberman and Patrick Leahy.
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The Irrawaddy - Mon Prepare for Jungle Warfare
By LAWI WENG - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Several leaders, officials and soldiers of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) held secret farewell parties over the weekend in state capital Moulmein, as they made preparations to travel to jungle bases in anticipation of an outbreak in hostilities between the Mon cease-fire group and the Burmese army, a source in Moulmein told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
The source said preparations to leave town follow the breakdown of negotiations between NMSP leaders and Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief negotiator for the Burmese military regime on the border guard force (BGF) issue.
“A friend of mind told me that he will go back to the jungle soon,” the source said. “He asked me to look after his children. I was very sad as we have been friends for a long time.”
According to some members of the NMSP in Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burmese border, representatives of the Mon party have been told by their leaders to prepare for the next round of talks on April 22. If negotiations with the junta break down and war looks inevitable, they have been advised to abandon their homes and head to jungle bases.
Officially, the NMSP has 3,500 members, though perhaps only 700 currently serve as soldiers.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the NSMP, said he expects many members to head for the jungle camps if war breaks out. He said that jungle conditions will only be hard at first.
However, some observers predicted that many NMSP members in Mon State will not abandon their property and livelihoods, although they expect Mon refugees and many of those living in Thailand will join up to support the ethnic army in the event of war.
Nai Tin Aung, a former member of the NMSP executive committee, said that he doesn't believe that the Burmese government will attack the NMSP.
“If they attack the NMSP, the political process will be affected,” he said. “They are simply pressuring the Mon to act on the BGF issue.”
The junta has set a deadline of April 28 for the cease-fire groups to accept the BGF plan or be declared illegal organizations.
Ye Myint met the four executive members of the NMSP on April 7 at the Regional Southeast Command site in Moulmein to discuss the BGF proposal.
Nai Chay Mon, a spokesperson for the NMSP, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that, during the meeting, Ye Myint offered the Mon leaders an option to transform their troops into paramilitary units if they were opposed to the BGF plan.
“The party leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss Lt-Gen Ye Myint's proposal,” said Nai Chay Mon.
The NMSP is one of several ethnic cease-fire groups that the Burmese regime is pressuring to join its BGF plan under Burmese army command.
Tension has increased between the NMSP and the Burmese military since the Mon rejected the regime's order to transform its army into a BGF last year.
In March, the NMSP moved some of its administration and a stockpile of weapons to a new undisclosed base, a source close to the group said.
Party leaders have said that they will wage guerrilla warfare against the Burmese army if conflict breaks out.
The NMSP signed a cease-fire agreement with the regime in 1995. After 14 years of cease-fire, government forces have about 30 battalions in Mon State. Before the cease-fire, there were about 10 battalions.
By LAWI WENG - Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Several leaders, officials and soldiers of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) held secret farewell parties over the weekend in state capital Moulmein, as they made preparations to travel to jungle bases in anticipation of an outbreak in hostilities between the Mon cease-fire group and the Burmese army, a source in Moulmein told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
The source said preparations to leave town follow the breakdown of negotiations between NMSP leaders and Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief negotiator for the Burmese military regime on the border guard force (BGF) issue.
“A friend of mind told me that he will go back to the jungle soon,” the source said. “He asked me to look after his children. I was very sad as we have been friends for a long time.”
According to some members of the NMSP in Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burmese border, representatives of the Mon party have been told by their leaders to prepare for the next round of talks on April 22. If negotiations with the junta break down and war looks inevitable, they have been advised to abandon their homes and head to jungle bases.
Officially, the NMSP has 3,500 members, though perhaps only 700 currently serve as soldiers.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the NSMP, said he expects many members to head for the jungle camps if war breaks out. He said that jungle conditions will only be hard at first.
However, some observers predicted that many NMSP members in Mon State will not abandon their property and livelihoods, although they expect Mon refugees and many of those living in Thailand will join up to support the ethnic army in the event of war.
Nai Tin Aung, a former member of the NMSP executive committee, said that he doesn't believe that the Burmese government will attack the NMSP.
“If they attack the NMSP, the political process will be affected,” he said. “They are simply pressuring the Mon to act on the BGF issue.”
The junta has set a deadline of April 28 for the cease-fire groups to accept the BGF plan or be declared illegal organizations.
Ye Myint met the four executive members of the NMSP on April 7 at the Regional Southeast Command site in Moulmein to discuss the BGF proposal.
Nai Chay Mon, a spokesperson for the NMSP, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that, during the meeting, Ye Myint offered the Mon leaders an option to transform their troops into paramilitary units if they were opposed to the BGF plan.
“The party leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss Lt-Gen Ye Myint's proposal,” said Nai Chay Mon.
The NMSP is one of several ethnic cease-fire groups that the Burmese regime is pressuring to join its BGF plan under Burmese army command.
Tension has increased between the NMSP and the Burmese military since the Mon rejected the regime's order to transform its army into a BGF last year.
In March, the NMSP moved some of its administration and a stockpile of weapons to a new undisclosed base, a source close to the group said.
Party leaders have said that they will wage guerrilla warfare against the Burmese army if conflict breaks out.
The NMSP signed a cease-fire agreement with the regime in 1995. After 14 years of cease-fire, government forces have about 30 battalions in Mon State. Before the cease-fire, there were about 10 battalions.
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Myitsone blasts injure Chinese worker
Monday, 19 April 2010 21:03 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Serial bomb blasts at Myitsone hydropower dam project in the northern state of Kachin on Saturday left no one dead, according to local residents and a Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) source.
Four bombs exploded in rapid succession at the Asia World company office in Long Ga Zuap village, 10 kilometres south of the project site, at about 2 a.m. on April 17. A Chinese worker was injured.
“There have been no deaths. Only a Chinese worker received minor injuries to the leg,” a resident of Tan Phare village, at the May Kha-Mali Kha river confluence, the headwater of the Irrawaddy, told Mizzima.
Five heavy-duty trucks and two bulldozers were also damaged, he said.
At least 14 bombs exploded on the day; eight at Tan Phare village, two in Kyein Kha Ran and four in Lon Ga Zuap village, a KIO officer said.
The organisation denied involvement after Burma Army northern commander Major General Soe Win asked whether it had had a hand in the blasts, he said.
The blasts came just two days after the three explosions at the X2O water festival pavilion in a park beside a lake in Rangoon.
Though none have claimed responsibility for the blasts, observers speculate that the explosions were used to put pressure on the KIO by the Chinese government. Relations between the group and the Burmese junta are at an all-time low over the regime’s deadline on Thursday for the group’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, to join the Burma Army’s Border Guard Force.
But the KIO officer reiterated that the bombings had nothing to do with the group because taking part in such an attack would jeopardise relations with Beijing.
In the wake of the blasts, inspection of house guests and collection of car lists and licence-plate numbers have been stepped up on orders of the Ward Peace and Development Council chairman in Myitkyina, the state capital, the residents said.
Major General Soe Win visited the villages yesterday, a source said.
The project is being built by the junta’s Ministry of Industry No. 1 in association with the Asia World and China Power Investment Corporation, one of the five largest state-run power producers. The expected 3,600 megawatts of electricity generated will be sold to supply China’s Yunnan province.
The project led to the forced relocation of up to 15,000 residents from at least 60 villages upstream of the site. Local residents and environmentalists are protesting against the project over heritage, wildlife, ecological and seismic concerns. The dam site lies less than 100 kilometres from the Sagaing fault line, posing a risk to basin inhabitants if an earthquake weakens the structure or causes landslides in the reservoir. If the dam broke during a quake, it would endanger the lives of hundred of thousands of people downstream in Myitkyina.
This is not the first time an Asia World company holding has been bombed. An explosion occurred at the company’s port terminal in Rangoon’s Ahlone Township last July.
Dam project partner Asia World and subsidiaries, owned by Tun Myint Naing (a.k.a. Steven Law), son of the notorious drug lord Lo Hsing Han, are the subject of sanctions by the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States over links to drug-trafficking and the Burmese junta, according to the governments’ websites.
Monday, 19 April 2010 21:03 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Serial bomb blasts at Myitsone hydropower dam project in the northern state of Kachin on Saturday left no one dead, according to local residents and a Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) source.
Four bombs exploded in rapid succession at the Asia World company office in Long Ga Zuap village, 10 kilometres south of the project site, at about 2 a.m. on April 17. A Chinese worker was injured.
“There have been no deaths. Only a Chinese worker received minor injuries to the leg,” a resident of Tan Phare village, at the May Kha-Mali Kha river confluence, the headwater of the Irrawaddy, told Mizzima.
Five heavy-duty trucks and two bulldozers were also damaged, he said.
At least 14 bombs exploded on the day; eight at Tan Phare village, two in Kyein Kha Ran and four in Lon Ga Zuap village, a KIO officer said.
The organisation denied involvement after Burma Army northern commander Major General Soe Win asked whether it had had a hand in the blasts, he said.
The blasts came just two days after the three explosions at the X2O water festival pavilion in a park beside a lake in Rangoon.
Though none have claimed responsibility for the blasts, observers speculate that the explosions were used to put pressure on the KIO by the Chinese government. Relations between the group and the Burmese junta are at an all-time low over the regime’s deadline on Thursday for the group’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army, to join the Burma Army’s Border Guard Force.
But the KIO officer reiterated that the bombings had nothing to do with the group because taking part in such an attack would jeopardise relations with Beijing.
In the wake of the blasts, inspection of house guests and collection of car lists and licence-plate numbers have been stepped up on orders of the Ward Peace and Development Council chairman in Myitkyina, the state capital, the residents said.
Major General Soe Win visited the villages yesterday, a source said.
The project is being built by the junta’s Ministry of Industry No. 1 in association with the Asia World and China Power Investment Corporation, one of the five largest state-run power producers. The expected 3,600 megawatts of electricity generated will be sold to supply China’s Yunnan province.
The project led to the forced relocation of up to 15,000 residents from at least 60 villages upstream of the site. Local residents and environmentalists are protesting against the project over heritage, wildlife, ecological and seismic concerns. The dam site lies less than 100 kilometres from the Sagaing fault line, posing a risk to basin inhabitants if an earthquake weakens the structure or causes landslides in the reservoir. If the dam broke during a quake, it would endanger the lives of hundred of thousands of people downstream in Myitkyina.
This is not the first time an Asia World company holding has been bombed. An explosion occurred at the company’s port terminal in Rangoon’s Ahlone Township last July.
Dam project partner Asia World and subsidiaries, owned by Tun Myint Naing (a.k.a. Steven Law), son of the notorious drug lord Lo Hsing Han, are the subject of sanctions by the European Union, United Kingdom and the United States over links to drug-trafficking and the Burmese junta, according to the governments’ websites.
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DVB News - Junta raking candidate backgrounds
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 20 April 2010
Burmese authorities are reportedly collecting information on the backgrounds of candidates looking to contest elections this year, the head of a registered party has said.
The 19 parties that have so far registered for Burma’s first elections in 20 years, rumoured to be in October, are yet to receive an approval.
But, according to Aye Lwin, chairperson of the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP), one of the more prominent parties looking to run this year, the group learnt recently that checks were being carried out on the histories of party members.
“[The authorities] are officially collecting background information on about 27 or 28 [Central Executive Committee candidates],” he said. Fifteen of those belong to the UMFNP, while the rest are members of the closely-allied 88 Generation Students (Union of Myanmar), a party led by his younger brother, Ye Htun.
Aye Lwin, known to have close ties with the ruling junta, was a student activist in the 1988 uprising against military rule before switching sides and campaigning against international sanctions on Burma.
The deadline for parties to register expires in the second week of May. Ohn Lwin, communications officer for the National Political Alliances, speculated that the approvals would be given by the Election Commission (EC) once the deadline is up.
“It is likely that the [EC] is waiting until they get [applications] from everyone,” he said. “We are waiting to be informed and will not yet start our [campaign] activities, such as releasing statements; we are worried that we will be seen as crossing boundaries if we start now.”
Out of the 19 parties registered, 16 have been formed in the past few months. The majority of these are either outwardly pro-junta or part of the so-called ‘third force’ in Burmese politics that are allied to neither incumbent nor opposition.
It is unclear what role these parties will play in a post-election Burma: observers have said that the polls are little more than a show of legitimacy for the ruling junta, which will continue its hold on power under the guise of a civilian government.
One of the registered parties, the Kachin State Progressive Party, is comprised of members of three Kachin ceasefire groups, including the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO).
The KIO is now at loggerheads with the ruling junta following its refusal to transform into a Border Guard Force (BFG), and military analysts have warned that fighting may break out.
The BGF issue is seen as a means for the junta to shore up support and bolster its army size in the run-up to elections, with border units ostensibly coming under the command of Naypyidaw.
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 20 April 2010
Burmese authorities are reportedly collecting information on the backgrounds of candidates looking to contest elections this year, the head of a registered party has said.
The 19 parties that have so far registered for Burma’s first elections in 20 years, rumoured to be in October, are yet to receive an approval.
But, according to Aye Lwin, chairperson of the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP), one of the more prominent parties looking to run this year, the group learnt recently that checks were being carried out on the histories of party members.
“[The authorities] are officially collecting background information on about 27 or 28 [Central Executive Committee candidates],” he said. Fifteen of those belong to the UMFNP, while the rest are members of the closely-allied 88 Generation Students (Union of Myanmar), a party led by his younger brother, Ye Htun.
Aye Lwin, known to have close ties with the ruling junta, was a student activist in the 1988 uprising against military rule before switching sides and campaigning against international sanctions on Burma.
The deadline for parties to register expires in the second week of May. Ohn Lwin, communications officer for the National Political Alliances, speculated that the approvals would be given by the Election Commission (EC) once the deadline is up.
“It is likely that the [EC] is waiting until they get [applications] from everyone,” he said. “We are waiting to be informed and will not yet start our [campaign] activities, such as releasing statements; we are worried that we will be seen as crossing boundaries if we start now.”
Out of the 19 parties registered, 16 have been formed in the past few months. The majority of these are either outwardly pro-junta or part of the so-called ‘third force’ in Burmese politics that are allied to neither incumbent nor opposition.
It is unclear what role these parties will play in a post-election Burma: observers have said that the polls are little more than a show of legitimacy for the ruling junta, which will continue its hold on power under the guise of a civilian government.
One of the registered parties, the Kachin State Progressive Party, is comprised of members of three Kachin ceasefire groups, including the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO).
The KIO is now at loggerheads with the ruling junta following its refusal to transform into a Border Guard Force (BFG), and military analysts have warned that fighting may break out.
The BGF issue is seen as a means for the junta to shore up support and bolster its army size in the run-up to elections, with border units ostensibly coming under the command of Naypyidaw.
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