Report: US must avoid legitimizing Myanmar vote
By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 31, 12:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration's new engagement strategy with Myanmar risks allowing the country's military leaders to use direct talks to justify already flawed elections expected this year, a bipartisan report warns.
The report Wednesday from the Asia Society, a leading think tank, supports U.S. efforts to press the generals who have ruled Myanmar for decades to hold credible elections and to give more rights to minorities and activists.
But the United States, the report said, must be wary of appearing to legitimize elections, Myanmar's first in two decades, that opponents say are meant to strengthen the military's power.
"The United States must tread carefully through this minefield," the report said. "It is quite possible that the leadership's primary objective in engaging with the United States is to demonstrate to its own population that the United States endorses" the junta's "road map to democracy" and a constitution that enshrines the military's leading role in politics.
The report was co-chaired by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and by Henrietta Fore, former Republican President George W. Bush's head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Its release comes about half a year into Obama's efforts to reverse the long-standing U.S. policy of isolation and instead engage Myanmar's top generals.
So far, the new direction has done little to spur democracy. Just this week, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which swept the 1990 vote but was barred from taking power, announced it will boycott the elections. Her party now faces dissolution under the junta's new, much-criticized election laws. Myanmar's government has not yet set a date for this year's polls.
The Obama administration has called for patience as it pursues talks. In the meantime, U.S. officials say they will not remove sanctions currently in place against Myanmar, also called Burma, until political prisoners are released, democracy begins to take hold and the government treats its people better.
The report warns that the United States can devote only limited time and money to Myanmar because of other global problems. Those include wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an often rocky relationship with emerging economic and military powerhouse China, and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
The report also urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy to coordinate U.S. policy on Myanmar, which Congress recommended in a 2008 law. Nine senior U.S. senators have sent a letter to Obama also calling for the envoy's appointment and for the administration to slap the junta with additional banking sanctions.
The United States should not directly monitor the elections, the report recommends, "as this could be seen as conferring legitimacy on a seriously flawed election process."
By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 31, 12:01 am ET
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration's new engagement strategy with Myanmar risks allowing the country's military leaders to use direct talks to justify already flawed elections expected this year, a bipartisan report warns.
The report Wednesday from the Asia Society, a leading think tank, supports U.S. efforts to press the generals who have ruled Myanmar for decades to hold credible elections and to give more rights to minorities and activists.
But the United States, the report said, must be wary of appearing to legitimize elections, Myanmar's first in two decades, that opponents say are meant to strengthen the military's power.
"The United States must tread carefully through this minefield," the report said. "It is quite possible that the leadership's primary objective in engaging with the United States is to demonstrate to its own population that the United States endorses" the junta's "road map to democracy" and a constitution that enshrines the military's leading role in politics.
The report was co-chaired by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and by Henrietta Fore, former Republican President George W. Bush's head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Its release comes about half a year into Obama's efforts to reverse the long-standing U.S. policy of isolation and instead engage Myanmar's top generals.
So far, the new direction has done little to spur democracy. Just this week, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which swept the 1990 vote but was barred from taking power, announced it will boycott the elections. Her party now faces dissolution under the junta's new, much-criticized election laws. Myanmar's government has not yet set a date for this year's polls.
The Obama administration has called for patience as it pursues talks. In the meantime, U.S. officials say they will not remove sanctions currently in place against Myanmar, also called Burma, until political prisoners are released, democracy begins to take hold and the government treats its people better.
The report warns that the United States can devote only limited time and money to Myanmar because of other global problems. Those include wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an often rocky relationship with emerging economic and military powerhouse China, and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
The report also urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy to coordinate U.S. policy on Myanmar, which Congress recommended in a 2008 law. Nine senior U.S. senators have sent a letter to Obama also calling for the envoy's appointment and for the administration to slap the junta with additional banking sanctions.
The United States should not directly monitor the elections, the report recommends, "as this could be seen as conferring legitimacy on a seriously flawed election process."
********************************************************
US senators seek tighter Myanmar sanctions
Tue Mar 30, 7:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nine US senators across the political spectrum are calling for tighter sanctions on Myanmar's military regime to persuade it not to hold elections that effectively bar key opposition leaders.
In the letter to President Barack Obama released Tuesday, the senators agreed with the administration that election laws made a "mockery" of democracy but called for a more robust response.
The senators -- including Mitch McConnell, the chamber's top Republican -- urged the Treasury Department to act on a law that would crack down on US bank accounts linked to Myanmar's leaders and target foreign banks that do business with the junta.
"We believe that exercising this authority represents one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal for pressuring Burma's leaders to change course," they wrote, using Myanmar's former name.
They also called for Obama to appoint a special representative on Myanmar, a position required by law but vacant as senior State Department officials spearhead policy on the reclusive Southeast Asian nation.
The Obama administration, which has made a signature policy of engaging US adversaries, last year initiated a dialogue with the junta, judging that a previous approach of isolating the regime had not borne fruit.
The junta plans to hold elections later this year which most foreign observers believe are aimed at legitimizing the rule of the regime, which never allows the opposition to take over after it won the last vote in 1990.
The main opposition National League for Democracy has decided to boycott the election rather than give in to pressure to oust its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who is under house arrest.
Besides McConnell, the letter was also signed by 2008 presidential candidate John McCain along with fellow Republicans Sam Brownback, Susan Collins and Judd Gregg.
It was also signed by Democrats Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein and independent Joe Lieberman.
Tue Mar 30, 7:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nine US senators across the political spectrum are calling for tighter sanctions on Myanmar's military regime to persuade it not to hold elections that effectively bar key opposition leaders.
In the letter to President Barack Obama released Tuesday, the senators agreed with the administration that election laws made a "mockery" of democracy but called for a more robust response.
The senators -- including Mitch McConnell, the chamber's top Republican -- urged the Treasury Department to act on a law that would crack down on US bank accounts linked to Myanmar's leaders and target foreign banks that do business with the junta.
"We believe that exercising this authority represents one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal for pressuring Burma's leaders to change course," they wrote, using Myanmar's former name.
They also called for Obama to appoint a special representative on Myanmar, a position required by law but vacant as senior State Department officials spearhead policy on the reclusive Southeast Asian nation.
The Obama administration, which has made a signature policy of engaging US adversaries, last year initiated a dialogue with the junta, judging that a previous approach of isolating the regime had not borne fruit.
The junta plans to hold elections later this year which most foreign observers believe are aimed at legitimizing the rule of the regime, which never allows the opposition to take over after it won the last vote in 1990.
The main opposition National League for Democracy has decided to boycott the election rather than give in to pressure to oust its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who is under house arrest.
Besides McConnell, the letter was also signed by 2008 presidential candidate John McCain along with fellow Republicans Sam Brownback, Susan Collins and Judd Gregg.
It was also signed by Democrats Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein and independent Joe Lieberman.
********************************************************
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wheaton Gazette - Continuing the political fight for the Burmese
Montgomery Village man suffered spinal injuries during six months as political prisoner in Insein
by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer
Nearly two weeks after returning home from a political prison in Myanmar, Nyi Nyi Aung of Montgomery Village cannot stop thinking of his homeland.
"I'm tired but I have to send out the message to the public," he said Saturday, still nursing injuries he suffered during his six-month incarceration. "I'm happy one way, but on the other hand, I am not, because I really want my mom to be free, my friends to be free, my people to be free."
The Burmese-born pro-democracy activist called for the United States to reach out to the international community to put pressure on Myanmar, formerly Burma, through increased sanctions.
The Southeast Asian country is ruled by a military junta led by Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar, and known as one of the world's most oppressive regimes. Many residents live in poverty under the dictatorial generals.
The National League for Democracy party won elections in 1990 by a landslide, but military leaders refused to recognize the victory. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected primed minister with 59 percent of the vote, has since lived under house arrest, along with hundreds of supporters.
Than Shwe's regime has promised multi-party elections in 2010, but Aung does not believe circumstances will change.
"The regime keeps doing what they want to do, they're not listening to anyone else," he said, adding that General Than Shwe's so-called democratic constitution does not work for people at all.
Aung, 40, plans to meet with U.S. officials this month to tell of his experience.
A harrowing time
Aung, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2002, was arrested in September at Yangon's international airport, while trying to visit his dying mother.
His mother, cousin and brother-in-law, as well as friends, are being held in prisons throughout Burma, said Aung, who was jailed and beaten in 1988 for organizing pro-democracy campaigns.
Aung came to the U.S. in 1993 as a political refugee, resettled in Rockville in 1994, studied at Purdue University in Indiana and Montgomery College, and worked at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. before he returned to being a pro-democracy activist for Burma.
"My focus is actually working inside the country, trying to engage, get their point of view, what young people are thinking, also get information on what they are doing," he said.
The September trip was his ninth to Burma since 2005, Aung said. He travelled on a passport bearing his legal name, Kyaw Zaw Lin, rather than the nickname "Nyi Nyi" and father's last name, which he has used most of his life.
Officials spotted Aung at customs, seized his laptop, questioned, arrested and blindfolded him, then threw him in a car and drove several hours.
"They try to make up my story, like I'm a terrorist, so they keep trying to make the connection," Aung said.
His captors asked about his contacts in Burma, where he hid documents and satellites, who gives him financial support.
They arrived at an interrogation room, where he spent two weeks with his wrists shackled to a table as officials kicked his chair off balance, Aung said, and punched him in the face when he would not answer questions. He floated in and out of consciousness in those weeks, he said. He then was transferred to the notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of political prisoners reportedly have died.
"The first 17 days was really a nightmare," said Aung's fiancée, Wa Wa Kyaw, a hospice nurse for Montgomery Hospice in Rockville, who said she told herself she might never see her beloved again.
"Then I knew that he was alive, but we had no had idea what kind of charges would be imposed on him."
Hoping for freedom
Kyaw heard about Aung's arrest from his brother in Thailand, then went more than two weeks without news. Once she learned he was alive, she scaled back her work to spend one day a week lobbying Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other members of the Obama administration to help secure his release.
Freedom Now, a Maryland and Washington-based nonprofit group that works to free prisoners of conscience, helped. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) of Baltimore were especially instrumental. Still, Kyaw is shocked by Myanmar's treatment of an American citizen, saying her native country violated the Geneva Convention by refusing to allow Aung access to the American consulate and denying him proper medical treatment.
"We organized community members here at our temple, prayer services for him, we prayed for him several times," said Ashin Asadhacara, a meditation teacher at Mangalarama Vihara, a Burmese Buddhist temple on Powder Mill Road in Silver Spring, where Aung and Kyaw worship with about 800 other members.
"[Aung] is an active man with religious affairs," Asadhacara said. "He is a good person, a good man. He is a devotee of our temple. He spent his life to receive democracy in Burma."
Aung was limping when he returned from Burma on March 19.
"His whole body was shaking," Kyaw said.
Two days later, she took him to see a spine specialist. He had suffered a herniated disc and spinal compression, the doctor said, likely the result of his punishment in the interrogation room and sleeping on uneven wooden slats for six months.
Aung said his 8-foot-by-20-foot concrete cell had no chair. He sat for hours on the floor crying out his beliefs in democracy. More than 300 political prisoners have died in Insein prison since 1998, he said.
"I have to be strong to get freedom for the people of Burma, otherwise we will be under the oppression forces," he said he told himself. "I really want Burma to be free, so I have may have to pay my life, to give to the people."
Aung feels better after receiving an epidural shot in his spine and taking prescribed medications to relieve pain. He hopes to avoid spinal surgery.
He will continue to wage a non-violent struggle against the junta in Burma, he said.
"I have to get healthy first."
Wheaton Gazette - Continuing the political fight for the Burmese
Montgomery Village man suffered spinal injuries during six months as political prisoner in Insein
by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer
Nearly two weeks after returning home from a political prison in Myanmar, Nyi Nyi Aung of Montgomery Village cannot stop thinking of his homeland.
"I'm tired but I have to send out the message to the public," he said Saturday, still nursing injuries he suffered during his six-month incarceration. "I'm happy one way, but on the other hand, I am not, because I really want my mom to be free, my friends to be free, my people to be free."
The Burmese-born pro-democracy activist called for the United States to reach out to the international community to put pressure on Myanmar, formerly Burma, through increased sanctions.
The Southeast Asian country is ruled by a military junta led by Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar, and known as one of the world's most oppressive regimes. Many residents live in poverty under the dictatorial generals.
The National League for Democracy party won elections in 1990 by a landslide, but military leaders refused to recognize the victory. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected primed minister with 59 percent of the vote, has since lived under house arrest, along with hundreds of supporters.
Than Shwe's regime has promised multi-party elections in 2010, but Aung does not believe circumstances will change.
"The regime keeps doing what they want to do, they're not listening to anyone else," he said, adding that General Than Shwe's so-called democratic constitution does not work for people at all.
Aung, 40, plans to meet with U.S. officials this month to tell of his experience.
A harrowing time
Aung, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2002, was arrested in September at Yangon's international airport, while trying to visit his dying mother.
His mother, cousin and brother-in-law, as well as friends, are being held in prisons throughout Burma, said Aung, who was jailed and beaten in 1988 for organizing pro-democracy campaigns.
Aung came to the U.S. in 1993 as a political refugee, resettled in Rockville in 1994, studied at Purdue University in Indiana and Montgomery College, and worked at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. before he returned to being a pro-democracy activist for Burma.
"My focus is actually working inside the country, trying to engage, get their point of view, what young people are thinking, also get information on what they are doing," he said.
The September trip was his ninth to Burma since 2005, Aung said. He travelled on a passport bearing his legal name, Kyaw Zaw Lin, rather than the nickname "Nyi Nyi" and father's last name, which he has used most of his life.
Officials spotted Aung at customs, seized his laptop, questioned, arrested and blindfolded him, then threw him in a car and drove several hours.
"They try to make up my story, like I'm a terrorist, so they keep trying to make the connection," Aung said.
His captors asked about his contacts in Burma, where he hid documents and satellites, who gives him financial support.
They arrived at an interrogation room, where he spent two weeks with his wrists shackled to a table as officials kicked his chair off balance, Aung said, and punched him in the face when he would not answer questions. He floated in and out of consciousness in those weeks, he said. He then was transferred to the notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of political prisoners reportedly have died.
"The first 17 days was really a nightmare," said Aung's fiancée, Wa Wa Kyaw, a hospice nurse for Montgomery Hospice in Rockville, who said she told herself she might never see her beloved again.
"Then I knew that he was alive, but we had no had idea what kind of charges would be imposed on him."
Hoping for freedom
Kyaw heard about Aung's arrest from his brother in Thailand, then went more than two weeks without news. Once she learned he was alive, she scaled back her work to spend one day a week lobbying Congress, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other members of the Obama administration to help secure his release.
Freedom Now, a Maryland and Washington-based nonprofit group that works to free prisoners of conscience, helped. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D) of Baltimore were especially instrumental. Still, Kyaw is shocked by Myanmar's treatment of an American citizen, saying her native country violated the Geneva Convention by refusing to allow Aung access to the American consulate and denying him proper medical treatment.
"We organized community members here at our temple, prayer services for him, we prayed for him several times," said Ashin Asadhacara, a meditation teacher at Mangalarama Vihara, a Burmese Buddhist temple on Powder Mill Road in Silver Spring, where Aung and Kyaw worship with about 800 other members.
"[Aung] is an active man with religious affairs," Asadhacara said. "He is a good person, a good man. He is a devotee of our temple. He spent his life to receive democracy in Burma."
Aung was limping when he returned from Burma on March 19.
"His whole body was shaking," Kyaw said.
Two days later, she took him to see a spine specialist. He had suffered a herniated disc and spinal compression, the doctor said, likely the result of his punishment in the interrogation room and sleeping on uneven wooden slats for six months.
Aung said his 8-foot-by-20-foot concrete cell had no chair. He sat for hours on the floor crying out his beliefs in democracy. More than 300 political prisoners have died in Insein prison since 1998, he said.
"I have to be strong to get freedom for the people of Burma, otherwise we will be under the oppression forces," he said he told himself. "I really want Burma to be free, so I have may have to pay my life, to give to the people."
Aung feels better after receiving an epidural shot in his spine and taking prescribed medications to relieve pain. He hopes to avoid spinal surgery.
He will continue to wage a non-violent struggle against the junta in Burma, he said.
"I have to get healthy first."
********************************************************
Calcutta Telegraph - Indo-Myanmar highway to better ties
- 100km road from Mizoram to neighbouring port to cost Rs 600cr
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Silchar, March 30: The Centre will build a modern highway spanning 99.82km between Lawngtlai town in south Mizoram to Sittwe port in northwest Myanmar on the Bay of Bengal to establish a sea link between several states in the Northeast, including Mizoram, Assam and Manipur with other parts of the country.
Union minister for national highways and transport Kamal Nath will arrive in Aizawl on April 24 to lay the foundation of the multi-modal road transport project in Lawngtlai, 335km from Aizawl. Though this project was approved four years ago after New Delhi got the clearance of Myanmar, the subsequent delay led to the escalation of the cost of the scheme from Rs 420crore to a whopping Rs 600crore.
This road, whose construction will be completed in two years, will unveil a transit access for goods and people between India and Myanmar as part of the Open Asia policy among the nations of the continent.
Sources in Aizawl said more fresh schemes for the improvement of road infrastructure and sea links are now in the pipeline, and the official delegations between India and Myanmar are busy in giving shape and finding out resources to give a go-ahead to some of the schemes. The sources added that other schemes envisaged area network of roads between towns in the Chin hills and Arakan Yoma, including Paletwa and Tiddim on Myanmar’s borders with Mizoram and Manipur to facilitate trade, cultural exchanges and tourism between the two countries and upgrade the waterways of Kaladan river flowing through Mizoram’s southern borders to Myanmar.
The sources also said improvement of the Sittwe port was on the cards. At present, Indian and Myanmarese businessmen exchange produce of the two countries in a Rs 12crore international trade centre at a village near Champhai in west Mizoram.
While India trades in cement, bicycle parts, medicines and horticulture products of Mizoram, from Myanmar handicrafts and clothes, apart from electronics goods and shoes, arrive in plenty.
- 100km road from Mizoram to neighbouring port to cost Rs 600cr
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Silchar, March 30: The Centre will build a modern highway spanning 99.82km between Lawngtlai town in south Mizoram to Sittwe port in northwest Myanmar on the Bay of Bengal to establish a sea link between several states in the Northeast, including Mizoram, Assam and Manipur with other parts of the country.
Union minister for national highways and transport Kamal Nath will arrive in Aizawl on April 24 to lay the foundation of the multi-modal road transport project in Lawngtlai, 335km from Aizawl. Though this project was approved four years ago after New Delhi got the clearance of Myanmar, the subsequent delay led to the escalation of the cost of the scheme from Rs 420crore to a whopping Rs 600crore.
This road, whose construction will be completed in two years, will unveil a transit access for goods and people between India and Myanmar as part of the Open Asia policy among the nations of the continent.
Sources in Aizawl said more fresh schemes for the improvement of road infrastructure and sea links are now in the pipeline, and the official delegations between India and Myanmar are busy in giving shape and finding out resources to give a go-ahead to some of the schemes. The sources added that other schemes envisaged area network of roads between towns in the Chin hills and Arakan Yoma, including Paletwa and Tiddim on Myanmar’s borders with Mizoram and Manipur to facilitate trade, cultural exchanges and tourism between the two countries and upgrade the waterways of Kaladan river flowing through Mizoram’s southern borders to Myanmar.
The sources also said improvement of the Sittwe port was on the cards. At present, Indian and Myanmarese businessmen exchange produce of the two countries in a Rs 12crore international trade centre at a village near Champhai in west Mizoram.
While India trades in cement, bicycle parts, medicines and horticulture products of Mizoram, from Myanmar handicrafts and clothes, apart from electronics goods and shoes, arrive in plenty.
********************************************************
The Economist - Myanmar's crushed oppositionWhether 'tis nobler
The opposition’s boycott of planned elections is understandable and principled—but still regrettable
Mar 31st 2010 | From The Economist print edition
OFFERED a choice between political suicide and a crippled half-life as a legal party, Myanmar’s main opposition force this week, unlike Hamlet, reached for the bare bodkin. Heeding the reported advice of its detained figurehead, Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy announced in effect its own termination by refusing to register for the elections the ruling junta has promised to stage later this year. A boycott was the only option if the party was to remain true to its democratic ideals. But it was also, probably, a mistake.
There is no shortage of reasons to justify an electoral boycott. The constitution, drafted without the League’s input and under which the election will be held, was foisted on Myanmar through a farcical “referendum” in 2008. It entrenches the army’s role, guaranteeing it a quarter of parliamentary seats. Many others will be filled by “retired” army officers. Laws bar Miss Suu Kyi from office both as the widow of a foreigner, and, under a rule that also debars many of the League’s other leaders, as the holder of a criminal conviction. For Myanmar’s press, as stifled as any in the world, the opposition and its point of view might as well not exist.
In 1990, the previous time the generals had an election, the League won by a landslide. The junta prevented it taking power, but was mightily embarrassed. It seems determined not to make the same error twice. After 20 years of brutal harassment and persecution of the opposition in all its forms, there is absolutely no chance of a free and fair election. Its leaders, Miss Suu Kyi above all, are cut off from the news, advice and debate to make informed decisions. The “civilian” regime that emerges from the polls will probably be dominated by the very same thugs and incompetents who have made such a benighted mess of a fertile, resource-rich country.
So it is understandable that the League should decline to afford either the constitution or the election any credibility by taking part. And their decision will at least make it harder for the outside world to pretend that these elections open more than a tiny crack in the junta’s totalitarian façade. America and Europe were in any case always going to find it difficult to pretend, but Myanmar’s Asian neighbours might have. And they probably have more influence, which is not saying much.
A crumb is better than no bread
A tiny bit of influence, however, is better than none, which is also why the League should contest the election. Its activists tell foreign diplomats in Yangon that they can continue their struggle for democracy as an NGO. That seems unlikely, given the junta’s record of unmitigated repression. The alternative to registration may well be political extinction.
The League will also be excluded from the first set of significant changes in Myanmar’s government since the present bunch of generals took over, after the crushing of a popular uprising in 1988. Some observers believe change will be far-reaching. They point to the growth of a small but wealthy business class, the limited devolution promised to some of the border areas inhabited by rebellious ethnic minorities, and the generational shift under way in the army itself.
The “senior general”, Than Shwe, is 77 and, apparently worried about the comfort and security of his twilight years, is distributing power among a coalition of interest groups. The crack he has opened, some argue, will widen inexorably. The pluralist genie will be out of the bottle. Even this seems hopelessly wishful thinking. But, at least, some change is coming to Myanmar. Almost any, short of all-out civil war, would be better than none. And it would help if Miss Suu Kyi and her party had some role, however circumscribed, in shaping it.
The opposition’s boycott of planned elections is understandable and principled—but still regrettable
Mar 31st 2010 | From The Economist print edition
OFFERED a choice between political suicide and a crippled half-life as a legal party, Myanmar’s main opposition force this week, unlike Hamlet, reached for the bare bodkin. Heeding the reported advice of its detained figurehead, Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy announced in effect its own termination by refusing to register for the elections the ruling junta has promised to stage later this year. A boycott was the only option if the party was to remain true to its democratic ideals. But it was also, probably, a mistake.
There is no shortage of reasons to justify an electoral boycott. The constitution, drafted without the League’s input and under which the election will be held, was foisted on Myanmar through a farcical “referendum” in 2008. It entrenches the army’s role, guaranteeing it a quarter of parliamentary seats. Many others will be filled by “retired” army officers. Laws bar Miss Suu Kyi from office both as the widow of a foreigner, and, under a rule that also debars many of the League’s other leaders, as the holder of a criminal conviction. For Myanmar’s press, as stifled as any in the world, the opposition and its point of view might as well not exist.
In 1990, the previous time the generals had an election, the League won by a landslide. The junta prevented it taking power, but was mightily embarrassed. It seems determined not to make the same error twice. After 20 years of brutal harassment and persecution of the opposition in all its forms, there is absolutely no chance of a free and fair election. Its leaders, Miss Suu Kyi above all, are cut off from the news, advice and debate to make informed decisions. The “civilian” regime that emerges from the polls will probably be dominated by the very same thugs and incompetents who have made such a benighted mess of a fertile, resource-rich country.
So it is understandable that the League should decline to afford either the constitution or the election any credibility by taking part. And their decision will at least make it harder for the outside world to pretend that these elections open more than a tiny crack in the junta’s totalitarian façade. America and Europe were in any case always going to find it difficult to pretend, but Myanmar’s Asian neighbours might have. And they probably have more influence, which is not saying much.
A crumb is better than no bread
A tiny bit of influence, however, is better than none, which is also why the League should contest the election. Its activists tell foreign diplomats in Yangon that they can continue their struggle for democracy as an NGO. That seems unlikely, given the junta’s record of unmitigated repression. The alternative to registration may well be political extinction.
The League will also be excluded from the first set of significant changes in Myanmar’s government since the present bunch of generals took over, after the crushing of a popular uprising in 1988. Some observers believe change will be far-reaching. They point to the growth of a small but wealthy business class, the limited devolution promised to some of the border areas inhabited by rebellious ethnic minorities, and the generational shift under way in the army itself.
The “senior general”, Than Shwe, is 77 and, apparently worried about the comfort and security of his twilight years, is distributing power among a coalition of interest groups. The crack he has opened, some argue, will widen inexorably. The pluralist genie will be out of the bottle. Even this seems hopelessly wishful thinking. But, at least, some change is coming to Myanmar. Almost any, short of all-out civil war, would be better than none. And it would help if Miss Suu Kyi and her party had some role, however circumscribed, in shaping it.
********************************************************
03/31/2010 16:05
MYANMAR
AsiaNews.it - Burmese leader fears harsh military crackdown
Win Tin believes that Myanmar’s ruling military junta will crackdown on the National League for Democracy. He anticipates the government to outlaw the party, but is certain that the opposition will continue the struggle “to dismantle the entire military dictatorship”. Tokyo announces a freeze on aid to Myanmar until Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Myanmar’s military regime is likely to launch a new crackdown against the National League for Democracy (NLD), this according U Win Tin, a member of the party’s Central Executive Committee. “Our movements will be very much limited when we don’t have a party. If we” do move “and stand against them [the junta], they will declare our party an unlawful association,” said Win Tin who was a political prisoner between 1989 and 2008. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has decided to freeze aid to Myanmar until Aung San Suu Kyi is released.
The NLD, which is the main opposition party, will not participate in parliamentary elections organised by the military junta for this year. Its central executive committee decided in a unanimous vote on Monday to stay away from the poll. However, if the party fails to register by 6 May, it will no longer be deemed a lawful organisation.
In the last elections held in 1990, the party had won by a landslide (82 per cent of the vote), but it was never able to take power because the military government refused to accept the result.
Win Tin (pictured), who spent 19 of his 80 years behind bars for his role in the struggle for democracy, is strongly opposed to registering the party. NLD leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is also against it.
“We are working to abolish and dismantle the entire military dictatorship,” he said. For this reason, he expects them to “come down harshly against us,” he said.
“We cannot expel Aung San Suu Kyi” just to run in these elections, he explained. Likewise, “We do not accept the regime's unilaterally drafted constitution,” which is “designed to legalise permanent military dictatorship.”
The NLD’s decision has not met with unanimous approval at home or among junta opponents abroad.
Some are in favour, like Burmese poet Ko Lay who was “pleased with this decision,” believing that “this election will not take place”, and the Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), which called the NLD’s decision a bold step against the military junta.
Others are against it. The New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research said the NLD is making a mistake by staying out of the political process, since the elections could provide it with a window of opportunity.
In the meantime, Japan’s foreign minister Katsuya Okada said that Tokyo would freeze aid to Burma unless the junta released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allowed her to participate in elections this year.
MYANMAR
AsiaNews.it - Burmese leader fears harsh military crackdown
Win Tin believes that Myanmar’s ruling military junta will crackdown on the National League for Democracy. He anticipates the government to outlaw the party, but is certain that the opposition will continue the struggle “to dismantle the entire military dictatorship”. Tokyo announces a freeze on aid to Myanmar until Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Myanmar’s military regime is likely to launch a new crackdown against the National League for Democracy (NLD), this according U Win Tin, a member of the party’s Central Executive Committee. “Our movements will be very much limited when we don’t have a party. If we” do move “and stand against them [the junta], they will declare our party an unlawful association,” said Win Tin who was a political prisoner between 1989 and 2008. Meanwhile, the Japanese government has decided to freeze aid to Myanmar until Aung San Suu Kyi is released.
The NLD, which is the main opposition party, will not participate in parliamentary elections organised by the military junta for this year. Its central executive committee decided in a unanimous vote on Monday to stay away from the poll. However, if the party fails to register by 6 May, it will no longer be deemed a lawful organisation.
In the last elections held in 1990, the party had won by a landslide (82 per cent of the vote), but it was never able to take power because the military government refused to accept the result.
Win Tin (pictured), who spent 19 of his 80 years behind bars for his role in the struggle for democracy, is strongly opposed to registering the party. NLD leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is also against it.
“We are working to abolish and dismantle the entire military dictatorship,” he said. For this reason, he expects them to “come down harshly against us,” he said.
“We cannot expel Aung San Suu Kyi” just to run in these elections, he explained. Likewise, “We do not accept the regime's unilaterally drafted constitution,” which is “designed to legalise permanent military dictatorship.”
The NLD’s decision has not met with unanimous approval at home or among junta opponents abroad.
Some are in favour, like Burmese poet Ko Lay who was “pleased with this decision,” believing that “this election will not take place”, and the Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), which called the NLD’s decision a bold step against the military junta.
Others are against it. The New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research said the NLD is making a mistake by staying out of the political process, since the elections could provide it with a window of opportunity.
In the meantime, Japan’s foreign minister Katsuya Okada said that Tokyo would freeze aid to Burma unless the junta released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allowed her to participate in elections this year.
********************************************************
GMA News - Report: US should push for fair Myanmar vote
03/31/2010 | 01:09 PM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's new engagement strategy with Myanmar risks allowing the country's military leaders to use direct talks to justify already-flawed elections expected this year, a new report warns.
The report Wednesday from the Asia Society, a leading nonprofit educational institution, supports US efforts to press the generals who have ruled Myanmar for decades to hold credible elections and to give more rights to minorities and activists.
But the United States, the report said, must be wary of appearing to legitimize elections, Myanmar's first in two decades, that opponents say are meant to strengthen the military's power.
"The United States must tread carefully through this minefield," the report said. "It is quite possible that the leadership's primary objective in engaging with the United States is to demonstrate to its own population that the United States endorses" the junta's "road map to democracy" and a constitution that enshrines the military's leading role in politics.
The report was co-chaired by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and by Henrietta Fore, former Republican President George W. Bush's head of the US Agency for International Development. Its release comes about half a year into Obama's efforts to reverse the long-standing US policy of isolation and instead engage Myanmar's top generals.
So far, the new direction has done little to spur democracy. Just this week, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which swept the 1990 vote but was barred from taking power, announced it will boycott the elections. Her party now faces dissolution under the junta's new, much-criticized election laws. Myanmar's government has not yet set a date for this year's polls.
The Obama administration has called for patience as it pursues talks. In the meantime, US officials say they will not remove sanctions currently in place against Myanmar, also called Burma, until political prisoners are released, democracy begins to take hold and the government treats its people better.
The report warns that the United States can devote only limited time and money to Myanmar because of other global problems. Those include wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an often rocky relationship with emerging economic and military powerhouse China, and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
The report also urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy to coordinate US policy on Myanmar, which Congress recommended in a 2008 law. Nine senior US senators have sent a letter to Obama also calling for the envoy's appointment and for the administration to slap the junta with additional banking sanctions.
The United States should not directly monitor the elections, the report recommends, "as this could be seen as conferring legitimacy on a seriously flawed election process."
03/31/2010 | 01:09 PM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's new engagement strategy with Myanmar risks allowing the country's military leaders to use direct talks to justify already-flawed elections expected this year, a new report warns.
The report Wednesday from the Asia Society, a leading nonprofit educational institution, supports US efforts to press the generals who have ruled Myanmar for decades to hold credible elections and to give more rights to minorities and activists.
But the United States, the report said, must be wary of appearing to legitimize elections, Myanmar's first in two decades, that opponents say are meant to strengthen the military's power.
"The United States must tread carefully through this minefield," the report said. "It is quite possible that the leadership's primary objective in engaging with the United States is to demonstrate to its own population that the United States endorses" the junta's "road map to democracy" and a constitution that enshrines the military's leading role in politics.
The report was co-chaired by retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, and by Henrietta Fore, former Republican President George W. Bush's head of the US Agency for International Development. Its release comes about half a year into Obama's efforts to reverse the long-standing US policy of isolation and instead engage Myanmar's top generals.
So far, the new direction has done little to spur democracy. Just this week, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which swept the 1990 vote but was barred from taking power, announced it will boycott the elections. Her party now faces dissolution under the junta's new, much-criticized election laws. Myanmar's government has not yet set a date for this year's polls.
The Obama administration has called for patience as it pursues talks. In the meantime, US officials say they will not remove sanctions currently in place against Myanmar, also called Burma, until political prisoners are released, democracy begins to take hold and the government treats its people better.
The report warns that the United States can devote only limited time and money to Myanmar because of other global problems. Those include wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, an often rocky relationship with emerging economic and military powerhouse China, and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
The report also urged the Obama administration to appoint a special envoy to coordinate US policy on Myanmar, which Congress recommended in a 2008 law. Nine senior US senators have sent a letter to Obama also calling for the envoy's appointment and for the administration to slap the junta with additional banking sanctions.
The United States should not directly monitor the elections, the report recommends, "as this could be seen as conferring legitimacy on a seriously flawed election process."
********************************************************
Channel News Asia - Strong earthquake hits off Myanmar
Posted: 31 March 2010 0257 hrs
NEW DEHLI - A strong, 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the north of India's Andaman Islands, off Myanmar at 10:24 pm (1654 GMT) Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
No destructive tsunami was expected, monitoring stations said.
The USGS placed the epicentre of the quake at a depth of 45.4 kilometres (28.2 miles) and at a point 217 kilometres (135 miles) north of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman islands.
The epicentre was also 406 kilometres (252 miles) southwest of Pathein and 500 kilometres (310 miles) southwest of Yangon, both in Myanmar.
A bulletin issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to government agencies said that the quake posed no "destructive widespread tsunami" threat.
"The situation is normal and no tsunami alert has been issued," Andaman Chief Secretary Vivek Ray told India's NDTV television from Port Blair.
"There has been no loss of life or property. The only injuries were two people who jumped from a roof after the tremor," Ray said.
In Dhaka, Bazlur Rashid, a meteorologist at Bangladesh's weather office, said they were aware of "a very small chance of a local tsunami in the Indian Ocean area."
Bangladesh lies on the northern shore of the Andaman Sea, facing the earthquake's epicentre, but, Rashid said, "we are not issuing a tsunami warning for Bangladesh, we are not concerned."
The earthquake was felt as far away as Hong Kong, around 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) to the east, where the Hong Kong Observatory said it had recorded an "intense earthquake" with a magnitude of 6.4.
Posted: 31 March 2010 0257 hrs
NEW DEHLI - A strong, 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck in the north of India's Andaman Islands, off Myanmar at 10:24 pm (1654 GMT) Tuesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.
No destructive tsunami was expected, monitoring stations said.
The USGS placed the epicentre of the quake at a depth of 45.4 kilometres (28.2 miles) and at a point 217 kilometres (135 miles) north of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman islands.
The epicentre was also 406 kilometres (252 miles) southwest of Pathein and 500 kilometres (310 miles) southwest of Yangon, both in Myanmar.
A bulletin issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to government agencies said that the quake posed no "destructive widespread tsunami" threat.
"The situation is normal and no tsunami alert has been issued," Andaman Chief Secretary Vivek Ray told India's NDTV television from Port Blair.
"There has been no loss of life or property. The only injuries were two people who jumped from a roof after the tremor," Ray said.
In Dhaka, Bazlur Rashid, a meteorologist at Bangladesh's weather office, said they were aware of "a very small chance of a local tsunami in the Indian Ocean area."
Bangladesh lies on the northern shore of the Andaman Sea, facing the earthquake's epicentre, but, Rashid said, "we are not issuing a tsunami warning for Bangladesh, we are not concerned."
The earthquake was felt as far away as Hong Kong, around 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) to the east, where the Hong Kong Observatory said it had recorded an "intense earthquake" with a magnitude of 6.4.
********************************************************
Apr 1, 2010
Asia Times Online - Migrant warning for Malaysia, Thailand
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Thailand and Malaysia have been singled out again in recent human rights reports for their systematic and unchecked exploitation of their large migrant worker populations. While both countries depend on foreign workers for economic growth and cost competitiveness, neither has taken sufficient steps to curb widespread abuses.
Thailand announced in 2008 for reasons of national security that its 1.3 million registered migrants would have to verify their nationality with officials from their own government, which would then qualify them for a temporary passport and a Thailand-issued work permit. Monitoring groups estimate there are more than two million migrants in Thailand, with most arriving from neighboring and poorer Myanmar.
The National Verification Process was intended to provide migrants with legal status to live and work in Thailand for up to two years at a time for a period not exceeding four years. Workers would also receive certain rights, including access to accident compensation and the ability to travel within Thailand, through the process.
For Cambodian and Lao migrants, the process was facilitated by government representatives who travelled to Thai work sites to assist with registering their nationals. For migrant workers from Myanmar, which account for just over one million of the official 1.3 million total, the process required them to travel across the border to employment offices at Myawaddy, Tachilek and Kawthaung for registration.
In addition to the expense of travelling from their work places to the border, many Myanmar workers fear their own government and are reluctant to provide detailed personal background information to officials on concern they might cause problems for family members back home. Myanmar's deputy minister for foreign affairs has said that the government planned to issue 1.2 million passports for workers in Thailand by February 2012.
About 850,000 migrants registered by the Thai government's March 2 deadline, but an estimated one million more undocumented workers from Myanmar failed to register, according to migrant rights groups. Human rights advocates said the failure of workers to register was due to a lack of publicity about the process and doubt among migrants that registration would bring any improvements to their working conditions.
Deportations began shortly after the deadline, with roundups of migrants in Thailand reported in the northeastern province of Buriram, in the fish and shrimp processing center of Mahachai in central Samut Sakhon province, and in the western border town of Mae Sot. The deportations have so far been much smaller than rights groups feared, a reflection some believe of the Thai government's attention to street protests rather than a lack of will.
Whether registered or not, migrants work in difficult, dangerous and low-paying jobs that most Thais no longer want to do. Most are involved in the shrimp peeling and fishery industry, agriculture, fruit picking, garment industries, construction and domestic work.
Their presence is pervasive enough that some question how great the cost would be to the Thai economy should the migrants be deported en masse. Many businesses have become accustomed to the cheap labor that they rely on to maintain their competitive edge, both in local and international markets.
Labor advocates argue that the migrants should be treated as people rather than investments. Instead of issuing threats and allowing abuses by employers and authorities to go unpunished, the government should assure them the same legal treatment and rights enjoyed by Thai workers, including payment of minimum wages and disability benefits.
Legal and illegal migrants are the frequent targets of abuse in Thailand. Human rights groups say police, immigration authorities, local officials and politicians are all involved in abuses ranging from physical abuse, sexual harassment and rape, abductions, arbitrary detention, death threats, intimidation, extortion and sometimes murder. Migrants are often afraid to report abuses and claim that even when they do so, the police rarely investigate their complaints.
Without guarantees to prevent these abuses, rights advocates say, there is nothing to stop employers from flaunting the new rules. They predict that employers will continue to pay below minimum wages and will likely confiscate their workers' new temporary passports, as they have done with registration cards for the past decade - especially since the passports provide for greater mobility to change work places.
Malaysia has also come under fire for its poor treatment of migrants. Last week Amnesty International released a report accusing employers and police of exploiting migrant workers through forced labor, arbitrary arrests, extortion, denied wages and unfair dismissal.
An estimated 2 million foreign workers live in Malaysia, representing around one in every five workers in the country. Many come from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam, among other countries. As in Thailand, they often find jobs in areas where Malaysians are reluctant to work, especially in construction, manufacturing and agriculture, and as domestic help. Malaysia has since the 1970s relied heavily on foreign workers to achieve its policy of rapid industrialization.
Amnesty claims that while in principle Malaysia's labor laws should cover migrants, in practice they are rarely enforced. The system forces migrant workers to rely heavily on their employers and recruiting brokers, which offers them few safeguards. Employers and agents often confiscate passports, and workers who chose to leave an employer have their work permits revoked and lose all legal status, making them easy targets for arrest and detention.
The rights group also claims that police and members of the paramilitary People's Volunteer Corps regularly target migrants for extortion and ill-treatment. The effective criminalization of migration in Malaysia serves only to encourage bad behavior. According to Amnesty's report, "large-scale public round-ups in markets and on city streets, and indiscriminate, warrantless raids on private dwellings in poorer neighborhoods send the message that being poor and foreign - regardless of immigration status - is automatically suspicious."
A nationwide crackdown on illegal migrant workers began in Malaysia on February 14. Hundreds of workers were arrested and reports from media groups in Malaysia and Thailand indicate that police often ignored legal travel documents during the arrests, although people were later released if their paperwork was in order.
Detainees were sent to camps for illegal workers. Conditions in one site, at Lenggeng, were so bad due to overcrowding that 1,400 detainees began a hunger strike on February 22, demanding to see a representative from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The situation was defused two days later when 106 Myanmar migrants were taken out of the camp by UNHCR after being recognized as refugees.
Corrupt immigration and security officials were accused last year of working together with trafficking gangs in Thailand to sell workers rather than simply deport them across the border. From there, the migrants must pay large ransoms to be able to return to Malaysia. Malaysia was given a Tier 3 designation - the worst category - in the US State Department's 2009 human trafficking report for failure to comply with minimum standards for combating human trafficking or taking significant steps to do so.
Malaysia claims it does not systematically exploit workers. However, statements such as those made by the home minister in February carry ominous overtones. Hishammuddin Hussein told the national press that authorities hoped to create an atmosphere where illegal migrants would "feel afraid and threatened, and prepared to leave the country immediately."
Rights groups said at the time that this type of language simply gives the police freedom to carry out random raids on migrants with little fear of repercussion.
In both Thailand and Malaysia, refugees have also run afoul of migrant policies.
No refuge
Malaysia, like Thailand, has not signed the 1951 Convention on Refugees nor its 1967 protocol, and makes little distinction between refugees and migrants. There are currently 136,519 Myanmar refugees in Thailand according to figures from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an organization that coordinates humanitarian relief to refugee camps.
Thailand's migrant population is much bigger, numbering around 1.3 million, with most hailing from Myanmar. Human rights and migrant protection groups say many of the migrants have fled ongoing insurgency in Myanmar, human rights abuses perpetuated by the government, or the chronic mismanagement of the economy that has turned the country into one of the poorest.
In Thailand, many refugees choose to seek work rather than stay in the refugee camps dotted along the border. In Malaysia, there are no camps and asylum seekers are forced to seek work in order to survive, blurring the line between refugee and migrant worker.
The issue grabbed headlines last year when the Thai navy allegedly forced Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar back to sea on rickety boats after they had landed in Thailand. The government claimed the Rohingya were economic migrants, while others say that their circumstances means they should have been considered refugees.
Rights groups alleged this was not an isolated incident and that many other Rohingya's have perished after being blocked entry to Thailand.
In December, after years of threats and despite pleas by several governments and the United Nations, 4,371 Hmong refugees were forcibly repatriated to Laos from a camp in Thailand's Petchabun province and another 158 from an immigration detention center in Nong Khai. Thailand said both groups were illegal migrants and not refugees.
While this may have been accurate in most cases, some of the Hmong had already been given "person of concern" status by the UNHCR and others, say rights groups, would have qualified if a proper screening process was carried out.
The Lao government claims the returnees have been well treated and no longer wish to resettle in third countries, but not everyone is convinced. A visit on March 26 to one of the resettlement sites by diplomats and foreign journalists was perceived as being stage-managed by the regime. Despite this several returnees were able to covey to the visitors their desire to go abroad, putting into question the Lao government's claims.
According to Amnesty International, at least 90,000 and maybe as many as 170,000 refugees are currently in Malaysia, mostly from Myanmar and the Philippines. Because no distinction is made in Malaysian law between migrants and refugees, the result is that asylum seekers can be arrested, detained and prosecuted for immigration offenses, including deportation back to their countries.
Unlike migrants who often times can return home, refugees are especially vulnerable to exploitation by employers and security officials due to their need to avoid deportation. In mid-March, 93 Rohingya men from Myanmar were arrested off the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi and detained by immigration authorities.
The group had previously been intercepted by the Thai navy, which after learning they were headed to Malaysia rather than Thailand gave them food and other supplies to complete your voyage.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
Asia Times Online - Migrant warning for Malaysia, Thailand
By Brian McCartan
BANGKOK - Thailand and Malaysia have been singled out again in recent human rights reports for their systematic and unchecked exploitation of their large migrant worker populations. While both countries depend on foreign workers for economic growth and cost competitiveness, neither has taken sufficient steps to curb widespread abuses.
Thailand announced in 2008 for reasons of national security that its 1.3 million registered migrants would have to verify their nationality with officials from their own government, which would then qualify them for a temporary passport and a Thailand-issued work permit. Monitoring groups estimate there are more than two million migrants in Thailand, with most arriving from neighboring and poorer Myanmar.
The National Verification Process was intended to provide migrants with legal status to live and work in Thailand for up to two years at a time for a period not exceeding four years. Workers would also receive certain rights, including access to accident compensation and the ability to travel within Thailand, through the process.
For Cambodian and Lao migrants, the process was facilitated by government representatives who travelled to Thai work sites to assist with registering their nationals. For migrant workers from Myanmar, which account for just over one million of the official 1.3 million total, the process required them to travel across the border to employment offices at Myawaddy, Tachilek and Kawthaung for registration.
In addition to the expense of travelling from their work places to the border, many Myanmar workers fear their own government and are reluctant to provide detailed personal background information to officials on concern they might cause problems for family members back home. Myanmar's deputy minister for foreign affairs has said that the government planned to issue 1.2 million passports for workers in Thailand by February 2012.
About 850,000 migrants registered by the Thai government's March 2 deadline, but an estimated one million more undocumented workers from Myanmar failed to register, according to migrant rights groups. Human rights advocates said the failure of workers to register was due to a lack of publicity about the process and doubt among migrants that registration would bring any improvements to their working conditions.
Deportations began shortly after the deadline, with roundups of migrants in Thailand reported in the northeastern province of Buriram, in the fish and shrimp processing center of Mahachai in central Samut Sakhon province, and in the western border town of Mae Sot. The deportations have so far been much smaller than rights groups feared, a reflection some believe of the Thai government's attention to street protests rather than a lack of will.
Whether registered or not, migrants work in difficult, dangerous and low-paying jobs that most Thais no longer want to do. Most are involved in the shrimp peeling and fishery industry, agriculture, fruit picking, garment industries, construction and domestic work.
Their presence is pervasive enough that some question how great the cost would be to the Thai economy should the migrants be deported en masse. Many businesses have become accustomed to the cheap labor that they rely on to maintain their competitive edge, both in local and international markets.
Labor advocates argue that the migrants should be treated as people rather than investments. Instead of issuing threats and allowing abuses by employers and authorities to go unpunished, the government should assure them the same legal treatment and rights enjoyed by Thai workers, including payment of minimum wages and disability benefits.
Legal and illegal migrants are the frequent targets of abuse in Thailand. Human rights groups say police, immigration authorities, local officials and politicians are all involved in abuses ranging from physical abuse, sexual harassment and rape, abductions, arbitrary detention, death threats, intimidation, extortion and sometimes murder. Migrants are often afraid to report abuses and claim that even when they do so, the police rarely investigate their complaints.
Without guarantees to prevent these abuses, rights advocates say, there is nothing to stop employers from flaunting the new rules. They predict that employers will continue to pay below minimum wages and will likely confiscate their workers' new temporary passports, as they have done with registration cards for the past decade - especially since the passports provide for greater mobility to change work places.
Malaysia has also come under fire for its poor treatment of migrants. Last week Amnesty International released a report accusing employers and police of exploiting migrant workers through forced labor, arbitrary arrests, extortion, denied wages and unfair dismissal.
An estimated 2 million foreign workers live in Malaysia, representing around one in every five workers in the country. Many come from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam, among other countries. As in Thailand, they often find jobs in areas where Malaysians are reluctant to work, especially in construction, manufacturing and agriculture, and as domestic help. Malaysia has since the 1970s relied heavily on foreign workers to achieve its policy of rapid industrialization.
Amnesty claims that while in principle Malaysia's labor laws should cover migrants, in practice they are rarely enforced. The system forces migrant workers to rely heavily on their employers and recruiting brokers, which offers them few safeguards. Employers and agents often confiscate passports, and workers who chose to leave an employer have their work permits revoked and lose all legal status, making them easy targets for arrest and detention.
The rights group also claims that police and members of the paramilitary People's Volunteer Corps regularly target migrants for extortion and ill-treatment. The effective criminalization of migration in Malaysia serves only to encourage bad behavior. According to Amnesty's report, "large-scale public round-ups in markets and on city streets, and indiscriminate, warrantless raids on private dwellings in poorer neighborhoods send the message that being poor and foreign - regardless of immigration status - is automatically suspicious."
A nationwide crackdown on illegal migrant workers began in Malaysia on February 14. Hundreds of workers were arrested and reports from media groups in Malaysia and Thailand indicate that police often ignored legal travel documents during the arrests, although people were later released if their paperwork was in order.
Detainees were sent to camps for illegal workers. Conditions in one site, at Lenggeng, were so bad due to overcrowding that 1,400 detainees began a hunger strike on February 22, demanding to see a representative from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The situation was defused two days later when 106 Myanmar migrants were taken out of the camp by UNHCR after being recognized as refugees.
Corrupt immigration and security officials were accused last year of working together with trafficking gangs in Thailand to sell workers rather than simply deport them across the border. From there, the migrants must pay large ransoms to be able to return to Malaysia. Malaysia was given a Tier 3 designation - the worst category - in the US State Department's 2009 human trafficking report for failure to comply with minimum standards for combating human trafficking or taking significant steps to do so.
Malaysia claims it does not systematically exploit workers. However, statements such as those made by the home minister in February carry ominous overtones. Hishammuddin Hussein told the national press that authorities hoped to create an atmosphere where illegal migrants would "feel afraid and threatened, and prepared to leave the country immediately."
Rights groups said at the time that this type of language simply gives the police freedom to carry out random raids on migrants with little fear of repercussion.
In both Thailand and Malaysia, refugees have also run afoul of migrant policies.
No refuge
Malaysia, like Thailand, has not signed the 1951 Convention on Refugees nor its 1967 protocol, and makes little distinction between refugees and migrants. There are currently 136,519 Myanmar refugees in Thailand according to figures from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an organization that coordinates humanitarian relief to refugee camps.
Thailand's migrant population is much bigger, numbering around 1.3 million, with most hailing from Myanmar. Human rights and migrant protection groups say many of the migrants have fled ongoing insurgency in Myanmar, human rights abuses perpetuated by the government, or the chronic mismanagement of the economy that has turned the country into one of the poorest.
In Thailand, many refugees choose to seek work rather than stay in the refugee camps dotted along the border. In Malaysia, there are no camps and asylum seekers are forced to seek work in order to survive, blurring the line between refugee and migrant worker.
The issue grabbed headlines last year when the Thai navy allegedly forced Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar back to sea on rickety boats after they had landed in Thailand. The government claimed the Rohingya were economic migrants, while others say that their circumstances means they should have been considered refugees.
Rights groups alleged this was not an isolated incident and that many other Rohingya's have perished after being blocked entry to Thailand.
In December, after years of threats and despite pleas by several governments and the United Nations, 4,371 Hmong refugees were forcibly repatriated to Laos from a camp in Thailand's Petchabun province and another 158 from an immigration detention center in Nong Khai. Thailand said both groups were illegal migrants and not refugees.
While this may have been accurate in most cases, some of the Hmong had already been given "person of concern" status by the UNHCR and others, say rights groups, would have qualified if a proper screening process was carried out.
The Lao government claims the returnees have been well treated and no longer wish to resettle in third countries, but not everyone is convinced. A visit on March 26 to one of the resettlement sites by diplomats and foreign journalists was perceived as being stage-managed by the regime. Despite this several returnees were able to covey to the visitors their desire to go abroad, putting into question the Lao government's claims.
According to Amnesty International, at least 90,000 and maybe as many as 170,000 refugees are currently in Malaysia, mostly from Myanmar and the Philippines. Because no distinction is made in Malaysian law between migrants and refugees, the result is that asylum seekers can be arrested, detained and prosecuted for immigration offenses, including deportation back to their countries.
Unlike migrants who often times can return home, refugees are especially vulnerable to exploitation by employers and security officials due to their need to avoid deportation. In mid-March, 93 Rohingya men from Myanmar were arrested off the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi and detained by immigration authorities.
The group had previously been intercepted by the Thai navy, which after learning they were headed to Malaysia rather than Thailand gave them food and other supplies to complete your voyage.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Big Storm Hits Naypyidaw, Mandalay
By AUNG THET WINE - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A strong storm hit Burma's capital, Naypyidaw, on Tuesday night, plunging the city into darkness for an hour, toppling trees, ripping off roofs—and causing some superstitious residents to believe it held bad omens following the previous day's decision by the opposition National League for Democracy not to participate in the planned election.
Winds, accompanied by rain, reached nearly 50 km per hour, according to a meteorological department official. Mandalay was also hit by the storm.
No injuries were reported from either Naypyidaw or Mandalay.
Meanwhile, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter Scale struck near the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter was 406km south-west of Pathein and 500km south-west of Rangoon.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a tsunami.
By AUNG THET WINE - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A strong storm hit Burma's capital, Naypyidaw, on Tuesday night, plunging the city into darkness for an hour, toppling trees, ripping off roofs—and causing some superstitious residents to believe it held bad omens following the previous day's decision by the opposition National League for Democracy not to participate in the planned election.
Winds, accompanied by rain, reached nearly 50 km per hour, according to a meteorological department official. Mandalay was also hit by the storm.
No injuries were reported from either Naypyidaw or Mandalay.
Meanwhile, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter Scale struck near the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter was 406km south-west of Pathein and 500km south-west of Rangoon.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a tsunami.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Jailed Burmese MPs Remembered at Bangkok Conference
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
BANGKOK—The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has called for free and fair elections in Burma, and urged Asean member-states to take a strong stand in support of democracy in Burma.
Sen Alberto Pimentel Jr. Of the Philippines, president of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, said on Wednesday, “We wish to echo the world's concern that the elections in Myanmar [Burma] should be free, fair, credible and inclusive.”
He said that “the Myanmar government is using the elections to pretend that it is is a democracy.”
The IPU has said that democratic elections are impossible in Burma, given that the electoral law excludes Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 political prisoners. It concludes that “time is running out,” if steps to ensure free and fair elections are to be implemented before voting takes place.
The IPU is chiefly concerned with parliamentarians who suffer abuse or are in detention. Pimentel and his committee will finalize a report on jailed MPs in Burma, a draft copy of which was available at the 122nd IPU assembly in Bangkok.
The parliamentarians in question were elected in 1990, the last time Burma held an election. Thirteen remain in jail, seven died while in detention or shortly thereafter, and two others were assassinated outside the country. It is thought that at least one MP contracted HIV from infected needles while in custody.
The MPs were never allowed to take their seats, and the junta ruled the 1990 election invalid in its recently published electoral law. The report outlines the harsh, and often brutal conditions the parliamentarians are kept in. One excerpt—by no means the worst—is illustrative:
“Kyaw Khin was reportedly arrested on June 5,1996, for recording and distributing video and audio tapes containing foreign ews reports and documentaries on Burma. He was charged, along with eight others, under the 1985 Video Act, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and was given an additional seven years' imprisonment under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, Article 5(j).
“Shortly after his release in 2005, he was rearrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act after pamphlets were reportedly found near him in a classroom. He is currently detained in Taung-lay-lone Prison. Kyaw Khin has been suffering from a severe form of ocular pain since 2005 and is now close to losing his eyesight because he is being denied medical treatment. The office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Taunggyi was informed by his wife of his plight but has been prevented by the authorities from providing assistance.”
Pimentel said the IPU has made “numerous requests to the Myanmar government” to be allowed to visit the detained parliamentarians. The junta has not replied. Pimentel reflected that “if the late Cory Aquino was denied the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she visited Myanmar as president of the Philippines, I don't think a group of MPs will hold much sway with the government.”
With Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa currently in Burma, in advance of the Asean summit in Vietnam next month, Pimentel urged Jakarta to follow Manila's lead.
Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo recently told his junta counterpart Nyan Win that Manila was concerned about the new electoral laws.
After that meeting, Romulo later told reporters he was not satisfied with the conversation, noting that the Burmese foreign minister did not say much about the laws. Junta ministers are widely regarded as having little authority to discuss political matters, other than that granted to them by Sen-Gen Than Shwe.
Pimentel expressed hope that individual Asean member-states could follow the lead set by Manila and Jakarta with regard to Burma. Without mentioning host country Thailand by name, he said that he hoped “other democratic countries in southeast Asia can speak out as well.”
The Asean “non-interference” principle seems set to remain, despite the recent establishment of an Asean human rights commission, and the view of the Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, meeting in Bangkok, that the internal situation in Burma constitutes a threat to regional stability and security.
Indonesia is now seen as the sole “full democracy” in southeast Asia—with countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines having regressed or stagnated in recent years.
Vietnam, Laos, Brunei and Singapore are undemocratic—one-party states in some cases. However, military-ruled Burma is seen as the litmus test of Asean's commitment to human rights and democratization.
Outside the convention hall during the inter-parliamentary caucus, a display exhorted IPU delegates to sign in support of their jailed counterparts in Burma. By this afternoon, there were 22 signatures out of a total of 1,400 delegates attending the assembly.
Pimentel and the IPU Committee on Human Rights were among the signatories, as were delegates from Chile, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa and Uganda among others, with one signature from IPU host country Thailand.
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
BANGKOK—The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has called for free and fair elections in Burma, and urged Asean member-states to take a strong stand in support of democracy in Burma.
Sen Alberto Pimentel Jr. Of the Philippines, president of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, said on Wednesday, “We wish to echo the world's concern that the elections in Myanmar [Burma] should be free, fair, credible and inclusive.”
He said that “the Myanmar government is using the elections to pretend that it is is a democracy.”
The IPU has said that democratic elections are impossible in Burma, given that the electoral law excludes Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 political prisoners. It concludes that “time is running out,” if steps to ensure free and fair elections are to be implemented before voting takes place.
The IPU is chiefly concerned with parliamentarians who suffer abuse or are in detention. Pimentel and his committee will finalize a report on jailed MPs in Burma, a draft copy of which was available at the 122nd IPU assembly in Bangkok.
The parliamentarians in question were elected in 1990, the last time Burma held an election. Thirteen remain in jail, seven died while in detention or shortly thereafter, and two others were assassinated outside the country. It is thought that at least one MP contracted HIV from infected needles while in custody.
The MPs were never allowed to take their seats, and the junta ruled the 1990 election invalid in its recently published electoral law. The report outlines the harsh, and often brutal conditions the parliamentarians are kept in. One excerpt—by no means the worst—is illustrative:
“Kyaw Khin was reportedly arrested on June 5,1996, for recording and distributing video and audio tapes containing foreign ews reports and documentaries on Burma. He was charged, along with eight others, under the 1985 Video Act, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and was given an additional seven years' imprisonment under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, Article 5(j).
“Shortly after his release in 2005, he was rearrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison under the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act after pamphlets were reportedly found near him in a classroom. He is currently detained in Taung-lay-lone Prison. Kyaw Khin has been suffering from a severe form of ocular pain since 2005 and is now close to losing his eyesight because he is being denied medical treatment. The office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Taunggyi was informed by his wife of his plight but has been prevented by the authorities from providing assistance.”
Pimentel said the IPU has made “numerous requests to the Myanmar government” to be allowed to visit the detained parliamentarians. The junta has not replied. Pimentel reflected that “if the late Cory Aquino was denied the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she visited Myanmar as president of the Philippines, I don't think a group of MPs will hold much sway with the government.”
With Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natelegawa currently in Burma, in advance of the Asean summit in Vietnam next month, Pimentel urged Jakarta to follow Manila's lead.
Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo recently told his junta counterpart Nyan Win that Manila was concerned about the new electoral laws.
After that meeting, Romulo later told reporters he was not satisfied with the conversation, noting that the Burmese foreign minister did not say much about the laws. Junta ministers are widely regarded as having little authority to discuss political matters, other than that granted to them by Sen-Gen Than Shwe.
Pimentel expressed hope that individual Asean member-states could follow the lead set by Manila and Jakarta with regard to Burma. Without mentioning host country Thailand by name, he said that he hoped “other democratic countries in southeast Asia can speak out as well.”
The Asean “non-interference” principle seems set to remain, despite the recent establishment of an Asean human rights commission, and the view of the Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, meeting in Bangkok, that the internal situation in Burma constitutes a threat to regional stability and security.
Indonesia is now seen as the sole “full democracy” in southeast Asia—with countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines having regressed or stagnated in recent years.
Vietnam, Laos, Brunei and Singapore are undemocratic—one-party states in some cases. However, military-ruled Burma is seen as the litmus test of Asean's commitment to human rights and democratization.
Outside the convention hall during the inter-parliamentary caucus, a display exhorted IPU delegates to sign in support of their jailed counterparts in Burma. By this afternoon, there were 22 signatures out of a total of 1,400 delegates attending the assembly.
Pimentel and the IPU Committee on Human Rights were among the signatories, as were delegates from Chile, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa and Uganda among others, with one signature from IPU host country Thailand.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Dam Work Continues on Eve of Mekong Conference
By WILLIAM BOOT - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
BANGKOK — Chinese construction and electricity companies have controversially begun work on hydroelectric dams in Burma and Cambodia on the eve of a regional conference dedicated to “addressing future challenges in trans-boundary water resources management.”
Another controversial hydroelectric dam has just begun pumping electricity out of Laos into Thailand.
The pace of hydroelectric dam projects is picking up across Southeast Asia at a time when their social value and threat to an environment already under stress from climate change is being questioned by many experts.
But the Mekong Rivers Commission, comprising Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, is meeting in the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin on Friday for a two-day conference to celebrate its 15 years existence.
Government officials from China and Burma have been invited to what is widely seen as a very political gathering—with environmentalists saying
billions of US dollars are being committed to rashly harnessing delicate river systems on which millions of people depend.
“Extensive plans for hydro power development threaten the ecological integrity of the entire Mekong basin, and will undermine the food security and livelihoods of millions of people that depend on the region's rivers' natural wealth,” Carl Middleton of the US-based NGO International Rivers Network told The Irrawaddy.
“These projects epitomize an out-dated and unsustainable mode of development that violates affected people’s rights and fails to ensure equitable and sustainable development,” he said.
Middleton is a co-organizer of an alternative environmental conference being held at the Mekong Studies Center of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. to coincide with the “official” rivers meeting in Hua Hin. It has attracted 12 NGOs.
Political leaders in some of the countries where hydroelectric schemes are being built or planned argue that the electricity will bring benefits to poor people who now have no access to anything as simple as an electric light switch.
That’s the view of the Cambodian government, which gave the green light to two hydroelectric dams to be built by Chinese firms at a cost of about US $1.1 billion.
The dams will be built in Koh Kong province west of Phnom Penh but there is a suspicion that some of the 580 megawatts of capacity planned might be sold across the border to Thailand.
Critics of the MRC argue that it has failed to communicate with the people most affected by dams.
Mean Meach, of the 3S Rivers Protection Network working with dam-affected communities along the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong rivers in northeast Cambodia, said: “It would be beneficial if the MRC were more proactive on promoting issues of public participation, inclusion of indigenous people, and transparency.
“Improvements in technology and policy now make renewable electricity a viable option [to hydroelectric dams] in developing countries.”
To the west of Thailand meanwhile, just inside the Burmese border, work has begun on the biggest hydroelectric dam ever to be built in the region—the massive 7,100 megawatt capacity Tasang project on the Salween River.
Again, Chinese state firms are involved. They took over the $9 billion development after a Thai firm failed to get the project under way.
Most of the electricity from this dam was originally earmarked for Thailand , certainly not impoverished Burma, which has one of the lowest levels of electricity availability in the world for a country of its size and population.
Now, however, it’s believed by observers that much of the power will be pumped to China’s neighboring Yunnan province, where a central government ban on many hydroelectric dam projects has been imposed.
Earlier dams on the Yunnan section of the Mekong are being blamed for record low water levels on the river downstream, exacerbated by a severe drought.
Researcher Jeff Rutherford, who several years ago made a furtive tour of Yunnan’s dam projects (some now aborted) for a Chiang Mai University project, is not surprised by China’s increasing involvement in hydro dam work, especially in Burma.
“It's business. It’s dirty, murderous business, but it has a certain twisted logic,” he told The Irrawaddy.
“It's a kind of environmental dumping.
When the Thais closed their forests to logging in the late 1980s, no one said anything about cutting back on wood or paper. The logging industry just jumped across the border into Burma, where the generals are only too eager to exchange trees for money to buy arms.”
Longtime Burma watcher Sean Turnell is pessimistic about the prospect of any positive outcome from the Hua Hin conference for people whose land and livelihoods are at risk from river developments.
“It stretches credulity that the MRC conference can achieve anything much at all,” said Turnell, an economics professor at Australia's Macquarie University and compiler of the Burma Economic Watch.
Given the track record of the participating countries, he said, “maintaining existing livelihoods, ecosystems and biodiversity is unlikely when placed against insatiable and much more profitable demands for hydro-generated electricity.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
China Denies Cutting off Water to SE Asia
By CHI-CHI ZHANG / AP WRITER
BEIJING — China denied Wednesday it has "hijacked" water from the Mekong River, causing its lowest levels in 20 years for areas downstream in Southeast Asia.
Liu Ning, vice minister of water resources, suggested that China's dams and irrigation projects upstream have actually helped stave off some of the effects of drought — though it was not clear whether he was referring just to parched areas of southwest China or the wider region.
The Mekong River, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau, is at its lowest level in nearly two decades, halting cargo traffic on the waterway that is the lifeblood for 65 million people in Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the Mekong River Commission.
Nongovernmental organizations have long blamed China for shrinking the Mekong and causing other ecological damage. China has built several dams on the upper reaches of the river and has more planned.
"We cannot say that China hijacked water resources and contributed to the drought," Liu told a news conference when asked about the effect of China's water projects on the water supply in Southeast Asia.
"If there were no irrigation facilities and reservoirs built in drought areas, the drought would have come earlier, the situation would have been more severe, and there would have been more people suffering from a lack of drinking water," Liu said.
He did not specify which areas he meant.
Liu emphasized the need to step up the construction of more water conservancy projects to insure adequate drinking water.
He said neighboring countries are aware of China's measures and China will discuss with groups like the Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental organization that oversees the sustainable development of the river basin.
"The building and use of hydropower plants will only be done based on scientific evidence, and this process is very strict in China," said Liu, who is also secretary-general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
Little rainfall since late last year in southwest China has left millions of residents facing water shortages in that region's worst drought in a century. About 24 million people, twice more than in the same period during normal years, face drinking water shortages, Liu said.
"We should prepare to fight a long drought ... to prepare for the worst-case scenario," he said.
Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou regions have been the hardest hit by the drought despite teams of workers drilling for wells and transporting drinking water, Liu said.
Liu said the severity of this year's drought was due to a decline in rainfall, low river flows, higher temperatures, and inadequate water storage facilities and is likely to continue until mid- to late May, when the rainy season begins.
By WILLIAM BOOT - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
BANGKOK — Chinese construction and electricity companies have controversially begun work on hydroelectric dams in Burma and Cambodia on the eve of a regional conference dedicated to “addressing future challenges in trans-boundary water resources management.”
Another controversial hydroelectric dam has just begun pumping electricity out of Laos into Thailand.
The pace of hydroelectric dam projects is picking up across Southeast Asia at a time when their social value and threat to an environment already under stress from climate change is being questioned by many experts.
But the Mekong Rivers Commission, comprising Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, is meeting in the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin on Friday for a two-day conference to celebrate its 15 years existence.
Government officials from China and Burma have been invited to what is widely seen as a very political gathering—with environmentalists saying
billions of US dollars are being committed to rashly harnessing delicate river systems on which millions of people depend.
“Extensive plans for hydro power development threaten the ecological integrity of the entire Mekong basin, and will undermine the food security and livelihoods of millions of people that depend on the region's rivers' natural wealth,” Carl Middleton of the US-based NGO International Rivers Network told The Irrawaddy.
“These projects epitomize an out-dated and unsustainable mode of development that violates affected people’s rights and fails to ensure equitable and sustainable development,” he said.
Middleton is a co-organizer of an alternative environmental conference being held at the Mekong Studies Center of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. to coincide with the “official” rivers meeting in Hua Hin. It has attracted 12 NGOs.
Political leaders in some of the countries where hydroelectric schemes are being built or planned argue that the electricity will bring benefits to poor people who now have no access to anything as simple as an electric light switch.
That’s the view of the Cambodian government, which gave the green light to two hydroelectric dams to be built by Chinese firms at a cost of about US $1.1 billion.
The dams will be built in Koh Kong province west of Phnom Penh but there is a suspicion that some of the 580 megawatts of capacity planned might be sold across the border to Thailand.
Critics of the MRC argue that it has failed to communicate with the people most affected by dams.
Mean Meach, of the 3S Rivers Protection Network working with dam-affected communities along the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong rivers in northeast Cambodia, said: “It would be beneficial if the MRC were more proactive on promoting issues of public participation, inclusion of indigenous people, and transparency.
“Improvements in technology and policy now make renewable electricity a viable option [to hydroelectric dams] in developing countries.”
To the west of Thailand meanwhile, just inside the Burmese border, work has begun on the biggest hydroelectric dam ever to be built in the region—the massive 7,100 megawatt capacity Tasang project on the Salween River.
Again, Chinese state firms are involved. They took over the $9 billion development after a Thai firm failed to get the project under way.
Most of the electricity from this dam was originally earmarked for Thailand , certainly not impoverished Burma, which has one of the lowest levels of electricity availability in the world for a country of its size and population.
Now, however, it’s believed by observers that much of the power will be pumped to China’s neighboring Yunnan province, where a central government ban on many hydroelectric dam projects has been imposed.
Earlier dams on the Yunnan section of the Mekong are being blamed for record low water levels on the river downstream, exacerbated by a severe drought.
Researcher Jeff Rutherford, who several years ago made a furtive tour of Yunnan’s dam projects (some now aborted) for a Chiang Mai University project, is not surprised by China’s increasing involvement in hydro dam work, especially in Burma.
“It's business. It’s dirty, murderous business, but it has a certain twisted logic,” he told The Irrawaddy.
“It's a kind of environmental dumping.
When the Thais closed their forests to logging in the late 1980s, no one said anything about cutting back on wood or paper. The logging industry just jumped across the border into Burma, where the generals are only too eager to exchange trees for money to buy arms.”
Longtime Burma watcher Sean Turnell is pessimistic about the prospect of any positive outcome from the Hua Hin conference for people whose land and livelihoods are at risk from river developments.
“It stretches credulity that the MRC conference can achieve anything much at all,” said Turnell, an economics professor at Australia's Macquarie University and compiler of the Burma Economic Watch.
Given the track record of the participating countries, he said, “maintaining existing livelihoods, ecosystems and biodiversity is unlikely when placed against insatiable and much more profitable demands for hydro-generated electricity.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
China Denies Cutting off Water to SE Asia
By CHI-CHI ZHANG / AP WRITER
BEIJING — China denied Wednesday it has "hijacked" water from the Mekong River, causing its lowest levels in 20 years for areas downstream in Southeast Asia.
Liu Ning, vice minister of water resources, suggested that China's dams and irrigation projects upstream have actually helped stave off some of the effects of drought — though it was not clear whether he was referring just to parched areas of southwest China or the wider region.
The Mekong River, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau, is at its lowest level in nearly two decades, halting cargo traffic on the waterway that is the lifeblood for 65 million people in Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the Mekong River Commission.
Nongovernmental organizations have long blamed China for shrinking the Mekong and causing other ecological damage. China has built several dams on the upper reaches of the river and has more planned.
"We cannot say that China hijacked water resources and contributed to the drought," Liu told a news conference when asked about the effect of China's water projects on the water supply in Southeast Asia.
"If there were no irrigation facilities and reservoirs built in drought areas, the drought would have come earlier, the situation would have been more severe, and there would have been more people suffering from a lack of drinking water," Liu said.
He did not specify which areas he meant.
Liu emphasized the need to step up the construction of more water conservancy projects to insure adequate drinking water.
He said neighboring countries are aware of China's measures and China will discuss with groups like the Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental organization that oversees the sustainable development of the river basin.
"The building and use of hydropower plants will only be done based on scientific evidence, and this process is very strict in China," said Liu, who is also secretary-general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
Little rainfall since late last year in southwest China has left millions of residents facing water shortages in that region's worst drought in a century. About 24 million people, twice more than in the same period during normal years, face drinking water shortages, Liu said.
"We should prepare to fight a long drought ... to prepare for the worst-case scenario," he said.
Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou regions have been the hardest hit by the drought despite teams of workers drilling for wells and transporting drinking water, Liu said.
Liu said the severity of this year's drought was due to a decline in rainfall, low river flows, higher temperatures, and inadequate water storage facilities and is likely to continue until mid- to late May, when the rainy season begins.
********************************************************
The Irrawaddy - Burma's Press Censored on NLD Decision
By KO HTWE - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Outside Burma the reactions of the press and observers to the National League for Democracy's (NLD's) decision not to contest this year's election have been numerous and varied, but inside Burma the military government's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) is forcing newspapers and other publications to publish the official line on the NLD decision, if they publish at all.
To date, Burma's state-run newspapers have been silent about the NLD's decision.
After submitting articles to the censorship board for verification, journals Myanmar Newsweek and The Yangon Times on Tuesday were forced by the PSRD to report that the NLD's decision will disrupt the election, according to media sources in Rangoon.
Myanmar Newsweek wrote: “The NLD's decision not to participate in the planned election damages the peaceful transition to democracy for the country and its citizens.”
In Burma, every publication is required to verify its articles through the PSRD before publication.
One Rangoon-based editor told The Irrawaddy: “For our journal, if we want to publish the NLD decision, I think the censorship board will only give us permission if we write what they want.”
The NLD executive committee decided unanimously on Monday not to register the party for the election. The election laws promulgated by the regime state that any party that fails to register by a deadline in early May will cease to exist legally.
The NLD executive committee's decision not to register was prompted by the election laws, which members described as “unjust” and unlikely to result in a fair and inclusive election.
The laws excluded anyone serving a criminal sentence from participating in the election—a provision that bars NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. In order to participate in the election, the NLD would have had to expel Suu Kyi from the party.
In contrast to the muted reaction inside Burma, observers and publications outside the country have lined up to deliver their opinions on the NLD decision and its consequences.
“If the NLD fails to register, Burma's regime will do as they did at the 1993 National Convention. They will say it is not our fault the NLD did not participate in the elections and become part of the new government. That it was the NLD's own decision,” said Win Min, a Burma analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political commentator living in exile, told The Irrawaddy that the NLD decision stemmed from the unjust 2008 Constitution and the unjust election laws. “The NLD has to confront these unjust laws,” Aung Naing Oo said. “So the question arises how they will confront them: within the law or outside the law. The party cannot legally stand without registration, so they have to confront the unjust laws outside the law.”
Aung Naing Oo said the NLD's next step is “delicate and important.”
Other observers say that the future response of the Burmese military junta depends on the next steps of the NLD.
“The situation is now in the military junta's hands and they can do what they want,” said Chan Htun, a veteran Rangoon politician, pointing out that if NLD members continue to deliver speeches urging a boycott of the election, they could be arrested.
“The parties that boycott [the election] will be outlawed,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma. “And we have to understand that in the past when people were members of a so-called outlaw organization, they were sent to jail. So this is a very big threat.”
Stothard used a football analogy to describe the environment established by the regime's election laws, saying that the Burmese military government has organized a game where only one team is allowed to play and there is only one goal post.
By KO HTWE - Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Outside Burma the reactions of the press and observers to the National League for Democracy's (NLD's) decision not to contest this year's election have been numerous and varied, but inside Burma the military government's Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) is forcing newspapers and other publications to publish the official line on the NLD decision, if they publish at all.
To date, Burma's state-run newspapers have been silent about the NLD's decision.
After submitting articles to the censorship board for verification, journals Myanmar Newsweek and The Yangon Times on Tuesday were forced by the PSRD to report that the NLD's decision will disrupt the election, according to media sources in Rangoon.
Myanmar Newsweek wrote: “The NLD's decision not to participate in the planned election damages the peaceful transition to democracy for the country and its citizens.”
In Burma, every publication is required to verify its articles through the PSRD before publication.
One Rangoon-based editor told The Irrawaddy: “For our journal, if we want to publish the NLD decision, I think the censorship board will only give us permission if we write what they want.”
The NLD executive committee decided unanimously on Monday not to register the party for the election. The election laws promulgated by the regime state that any party that fails to register by a deadline in early May will cease to exist legally.
The NLD executive committee's decision not to register was prompted by the election laws, which members described as “unjust” and unlikely to result in a fair and inclusive election.
The laws excluded anyone serving a criminal sentence from participating in the election—a provision that bars NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. In order to participate in the election, the NLD would have had to expel Suu Kyi from the party.
In contrast to the muted reaction inside Burma, observers and publications outside the country have lined up to deliver their opinions on the NLD decision and its consequences.
“If the NLD fails to register, Burma's regime will do as they did at the 1993 National Convention. They will say it is not our fault the NLD did not participate in the elections and become part of the new government. That it was the NLD's own decision,” said Win Min, a Burma analyst based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political commentator living in exile, told The Irrawaddy that the NLD decision stemmed from the unjust 2008 Constitution and the unjust election laws. “The NLD has to confront these unjust laws,” Aung Naing Oo said. “So the question arises how they will confront them: within the law or outside the law. The party cannot legally stand without registration, so they have to confront the unjust laws outside the law.”
Aung Naing Oo said the NLD's next step is “delicate and important.”
Other observers say that the future response of the Burmese military junta depends on the next steps of the NLD.
“The situation is now in the military junta's hands and they can do what they want,” said Chan Htun, a veteran Rangoon politician, pointing out that if NLD members continue to deliver speeches urging a boycott of the election, they could be arrested.
“The parties that boycott [the election] will be outlawed,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma. “And we have to understand that in the past when people were members of a so-called outlaw organization, they were sent to jail. So this is a very big threat.”
Stothard used a football analogy to describe the environment established by the regime's election laws, saying that the Burmese military government has organized a game where only one team is allowed to play and there is only one goal post.
********************************************************
Fresh sentence for NLD youth leader
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 20:55 Mizzima News
(Mizzima) - In continuance of harsh judgments against dissidents, a youth leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Tarmway Township, in Rangoon Division, was sentenced to two more years in prison by the Tarmway Township court yesterday for allegedly being in touch with an illegal team.
Kyaw Myo Naing the youth in-charge 2 (Tarmway Township), was sentenced to two years by the Bahan Township court last year. Now he has been sentenced to two more years by Tarmway court.
A relative of Kyaw Myo Naing told Mizzima, “His case was heard in the Tarmway court and he was sentenced two more years according to Act 17 (1). Moreover, he will be charged with the Electronic Act 33 (A) in the Tarmway court on April 9.
On November 20, 2009, Aung Aung Oo, the NLD youth in-charge of Tarmway Township, Kyaw Min Tun (alias) Bo Tun, the Township’s security and discipline in-charge and Kyaw Myo Naing (alias) Kyaw Gyi, the NLD youth in-charge 2 of Tarmway Township were charged under Act 505 (B) for public mischief and sentenced to two years by Bahan court.
Two policemen from Bahan police station arrested them for distributing photo stickers of Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD leader on July 18 last year.
A NLD youth member, who went to the court yesterday said, U Aye Thein was Kyaw Myo Naing’s lawyer. Kyaw Myo Naing was detained in the special detention room in Insein Prison and not allowed to walk.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 20:55 Mizzima News
(Mizzima) - In continuance of harsh judgments against dissidents, a youth leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Tarmway Township, in Rangoon Division, was sentenced to two more years in prison by the Tarmway Township court yesterday for allegedly being in touch with an illegal team.
Kyaw Myo Naing the youth in-charge 2 (Tarmway Township), was sentenced to two years by the Bahan Township court last year. Now he has been sentenced to two more years by Tarmway court.
A relative of Kyaw Myo Naing told Mizzima, “His case was heard in the Tarmway court and he was sentenced two more years according to Act 17 (1). Moreover, he will be charged with the Electronic Act 33 (A) in the Tarmway court on April 9.
On November 20, 2009, Aung Aung Oo, the NLD youth in-charge of Tarmway Township, Kyaw Min Tun (alias) Bo Tun, the Township’s security and discipline in-charge and Kyaw Myo Naing (alias) Kyaw Gyi, the NLD youth in-charge 2 of Tarmway Township were charged under Act 505 (B) for public mischief and sentenced to two years by Bahan court.
Two policemen from Bahan police station arrested them for distributing photo stickers of Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD leader on July 18 last year.
A NLD youth member, who went to the court yesterday said, U Aye Thein was Kyaw Myo Naing’s lawyer. Kyaw Myo Naing was detained in the special detention room in Insein Prison and not allowed to walk.
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Mixed response from India over NLD’s decision
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 11:09 Kyaw Mya
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Indian parliamentarians have applauded the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) decision not to participate in the Burmese junta’s planned elections, which would be the first in two decades.
The Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB) said the NLD’s decision on Monday was a bold step in opposition to the military junta, countering the junta’s continuing plans to sustain power through stage-managed elections.
Sharad Joshi, convenor of the IPFDB, told Mizzima, “It is a great step to boycott the elections.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has decided not to participate in the upcoming election, sighting the electoral laws as unfair and the fact that the junta has not revised the 2008 constitution, which the NLD claims was written in a one-sided fashion.
The decision came after a meeting of members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and Central Committee of States and Divisions at Rangoon headquarters on Monday.
The junta’s electoral laws, announced earlier this month, restrict Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from running for office in the upcoming elections. According to the laws, if the party wishes to contest the polls it will have to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi and several other NLD’s Central Committee members.
While the IPFDB voiced their support on the NLD’s decision, a New Delhi think tank, Centre for Policy Research, said the NLD is making a mistake by staying out of the political process, as the elections could be a window of opportunity.
Sanjay Hazarika, the Managing Trustee for the Centre’s Northeast Studies and Policy Research, told Mizzima, “The party [NLD] must think of the interests of the people of Burma instead of the interests of individual party leaders.”
Hazarika said though it is unfortunate that the NLD must leave out Aung San Suu Kyi, it would still do well to participate in the elections, as it would allow the party to have a role in the process.
He believes that the election would be the best opportunity to fight the regime, as there are no other institutions remaining to fight, including the sangha (monks), who failed in the 2007 protests.
“This kind of opportunity might not come again, how long will the party wait for such an opportunity? We cannot live in hope that the people will take part in another uprising against a brutal military regime that kills its own people,” Hazarika added.
The NLD, for its part, is in a difficult situation, as they will be declared outlawed if they refuse to re-register as a political party. But if they do so, they will have to abandon their leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with several other leaders still languishing in prisons across the country.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 11:09 Kyaw Mya
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Indian parliamentarians have applauded the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) decision not to participate in the Burmese junta’s planned elections, which would be the first in two decades.
The Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB) said the NLD’s decision on Monday was a bold step in opposition to the military junta, countering the junta’s continuing plans to sustain power through stage-managed elections.
Sharad Joshi, convenor of the IPFDB, told Mizzima, “It is a great step to boycott the elections.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD has decided not to participate in the upcoming election, sighting the electoral laws as unfair and the fact that the junta has not revised the 2008 constitution, which the NLD claims was written in a one-sided fashion.
The decision came after a meeting of members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) and Central Committee of States and Divisions at Rangoon headquarters on Monday.
The junta’s electoral laws, announced earlier this month, restrict Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from running for office in the upcoming elections. According to the laws, if the party wishes to contest the polls it will have to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi and several other NLD’s Central Committee members.
While the IPFDB voiced their support on the NLD’s decision, a New Delhi think tank, Centre for Policy Research, said the NLD is making a mistake by staying out of the political process, as the elections could be a window of opportunity.
Sanjay Hazarika, the Managing Trustee for the Centre’s Northeast Studies and Policy Research, told Mizzima, “The party [NLD] must think of the interests of the people of Burma instead of the interests of individual party leaders.”
Hazarika said though it is unfortunate that the NLD must leave out Aung San Suu Kyi, it would still do well to participate in the elections, as it would allow the party to have a role in the process.
He believes that the election would be the best opportunity to fight the regime, as there are no other institutions remaining to fight, including the sangha (monks), who failed in the 2007 protests.
“This kind of opportunity might not come again, how long will the party wait for such an opportunity? We cannot live in hope that the people will take part in another uprising against a brutal military regime that kills its own people,” Hazarika added.
The NLD, for its part, is in a difficult situation, as they will be declared outlawed if they refuse to re-register as a political party. But if they do so, they will have to abandon their leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with several other leaders still languishing in prisons across the country.
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DVB News - Japan ‘to freeze aid’ unless Suu Kyi walks
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 31 March 2010
Japan’s foreign minister Katsuya Okada has said that Tokyo will freeze aid to Burma unless the junta releases opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allows her to participate in elections this year.
Okada said that “the current situation [in Burma] will not result in receiving [fully-fledged economic assistance from Japan]”, according to Kyodo News. The junta’s refusal to allow Suu Kyi a platform in the elections has drawn widespread international condemnation.
He also crucially backed calls for the powerful Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations to add Burma’s political situation and human rights abuses by the military government to its agenda for upcoming talks in Toronto in June.
Okada conveyed these sentiments to Burma’s ambassador to Japan, U Hla Myint, on 25 March before speaking to a press conference.
Kanae Doi, Tokyo director at Human Rights Watch, who had also called on the G8 to discuss Burma, welcomed Okada’s stance. “[He] is committed to making the upcoming elections free and fair. It’s very important now that foreign minister Okada reaches out to ASEAN countries, which he said he would do at the press briefing on Friday”.
The 10-member ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) bloc, which includes Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Burma, has been criticised for its soft approach to the ruling junta and has resisted calls to expel Burma from the grouping.
Japan has been one of the biggest aid-giving nations to the whole Southeast Asia region, including Burma, but the election to office in 2009 of the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan raised questions as to how strong Japanese support of the military government would remain.
This is not the first time that Japan has used its donor clout to attempt to pressure the junta. Following the shooting by Burmese military in September 2007 of Japanese photojournalist, Kenji Nagai, Japan cancelled a grant to the military government. It also made similar threats in November last year in the wake of Suu Kyi’s renewed house arrest.
Tokyo has had an ambiguous relationship with the junta, as civil society and business interests have pulled successive Japanese governments in opposing directions.
Doi added that “there are many diplomats who fear that the Chinese influence in Burma is going to hamper the influence of Japan. Therefore Japan needs to maintain or increase their influence with the [junta]; this sort of position is very counterproductive to promoting rights in Burma”.
By JOSEPH ALLCHIN
Published: 31 March 2010
Japan’s foreign minister Katsuya Okada has said that Tokyo will freeze aid to Burma unless the junta releases opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allows her to participate in elections this year.
Okada said that “the current situation [in Burma] will not result in receiving [fully-fledged economic assistance from Japan]”, according to Kyodo News. The junta’s refusal to allow Suu Kyi a platform in the elections has drawn widespread international condemnation.
He also crucially backed calls for the powerful Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations to add Burma’s political situation and human rights abuses by the military government to its agenda for upcoming talks in Toronto in June.
Okada conveyed these sentiments to Burma’s ambassador to Japan, U Hla Myint, on 25 March before speaking to a press conference.
Kanae Doi, Tokyo director at Human Rights Watch, who had also called on the G8 to discuss Burma, welcomed Okada’s stance. “[He] is committed to making the upcoming elections free and fair. It’s very important now that foreign minister Okada reaches out to ASEAN countries, which he said he would do at the press briefing on Friday”.
The 10-member ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) bloc, which includes Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Burma, has been criticised for its soft approach to the ruling junta and has resisted calls to expel Burma from the grouping.
Japan has been one of the biggest aid-giving nations to the whole Southeast Asia region, including Burma, but the election to office in 2009 of the left-leaning Democratic Party of Japan raised questions as to how strong Japanese support of the military government would remain.
This is not the first time that Japan has used its donor clout to attempt to pressure the junta. Following the shooting by Burmese military in September 2007 of Japanese photojournalist, Kenji Nagai, Japan cancelled a grant to the military government. It also made similar threats in November last year in the wake of Suu Kyi’s renewed house arrest.
Tokyo has had an ambiguous relationship with the junta, as civil society and business interests have pulled successive Japanese governments in opposing directions.
Doi added that “there are many diplomats who fear that the Chinese influence in Burma is going to hamper the influence of Japan. Therefore Japan needs to maintain or increase their influence with the [junta]; this sort of position is very counterproductive to promoting rights in Burma”.
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