Refugee problem needs joint action by governments

By BUNN NAGARA

(The Star) A COMPLEX, dual injustice against the Rohingya people of Myanmar now threatens to become a more complicated problem for governments in this region.

Even as a large, 40% minority in Rakhine (the former Arakan) state in western Myanmar, the Rohingyas are denied recognition as a community by Myanmar’s military junta. And so persecution of the Rohingyas became common, forcing them to move abroad.

Rohingyas are scattered over Bang­ladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Ar­­abia, Thailand and the UAE. Refugee flows of the Muslim Rohingyas to Malaysia have risen since 2006, naturally attracted to a relatively close, prosperous and Muslim-majority Malaysia.

For years, Thai authorities had been lax about flows into Thailand, thinking that these Rohingyas were only “passing through” into Malaysia. But the former government of prime minister Samak Sundaravej tightened controls, and boatloads of refugees have since reportedly been towed into sea.

Braving such journeys may seem unnecessarily risky even for refugees, but the Rohingyas’ experience at home could have been worse. According to Amnesty International (AI), in Myanmar they suffered extortion, arbitrary taxation, land confiscation, eviction, property destruction, denial of citizenship and forced labour.

Lately, the Thai army has been accused of brutalising and even shooting some Rohingyas and leaving the rest to drift or die at sea. There are some quarters in the Thai military who even believe the Rohingyas had arrived to fight alongside separatist Muslim rebels in the country’s southern provinces.

When Rohingyas seeking to enter Malaysia through Thailand head for the south, they immediately become suspect. Their Muslim identity further inflames suspicions, particularly when they are able-bodied men who might have arrived only seeking work.

In recent days there have been reports of an illegal labour syndicate trading in migrant workers from Myanmar. This human trafficking is said to involve some uniformed Thai and Malaysian officials.

And since these “workers” are illegal, coming with hopes of a better life in a foreign land, they would want to settle in the country upon arrival.

Rohingyas resemble South Asians, speaking a language similar to Bengali, and a known number of 20,000 are already in Malaysia.

Those who had settled in Bangladesh enjoy linguistic similarities with Bangladeshi culture. However, these stateless refugees reportedly receive no assistance from the Bangladesh government.

Last week, official reports on hundreds of refugees who recently suffered alleged abuse from Thai authorities said most of them were actually Bangladeshis. The reports also said the most popular economic destination was Malaysia.

Five days ago Thailand proposed hosting a regional conference to resolve the issue. Thai authorities have come under the international spotlight for alleged mistreatment of Rohingyas, and the new government in Bangkok wants to dispel any such misgivings.

Meanwhile, the UN High Com­missioner for Refugees is investigating allegations by groups like AI.

Thailand says it wants to resolve the issue properly, while noting that the country has been a target of various economic refugees such as the Hmong people from Laos.

Thailand’s experience in handling refugees can be helpful. It had work­ed successfully with South Korea in relocating people fleeing North Ko­­rea, in the process showing that inter-governmental action is essential.

The Rohingya question should therefore be an important item at the Asean summit in Hua Hin, Thai­land next month. The issue requires a speedy and just resolution, in the interests of the Rohingyas and the countries of Asean.

But there is a misplaced view within Asean that Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia need to take a higher profile role on the Muslim Rohingyas.

To preserve the impartiality of the country and the integrity of the Asean process, a Muslim-majority country should instead avoid seeming to set the agenda.

Asean can be entrusted with finding an agreeable formula for the Rohingyas’ resettlement through consensus. The issue is in essence political, not racial or religious. (JEG's: but so far ASEAN has kept a scary silence..)

Ultimately, the Rohingya problem lies squarely with Myanmar. This and other refugee problems, and all associated hardships, are likely to continue, grow and spill overseas so long as there is a wilful and wanton denial of good governance at home.

READ MORE---> Refugee problem needs joint action by governments...

66 migrants convicted

RANONG (THAILAND - ST): A Thai court yesterday convicted 66 barefoot, dishevelled migrants detained at sea for illegally entering the country, raising the prospect that they could be sent back to Myanmar despite fears of persecution.

A Ranong provincial court judge sentenced each defendant to five days in prison after none of them was able to pay a 1,000-baht ($43) fine.

Four of them had to be ferried to court from hospital to face sentencing, one carried by two men because his legs were broken.

The Thai navy detained the Rohingya migrants on Monday after their rickety boat was found adrift in the Andaman Sea off Thailand's south-western coast. The Thai government contends that the migrants do not qualify for refugee status, and a police official said they could be expelled after serving their sentence.

'Have pity on us,' migrant Mamoud Hussain said before the ruling. 'They'll kill me and my family if I go back.'

Hussain, 50, was among 78 migrants on the boat. Twelve minors are being held separately because they are too young to be tried, said Ranong police Colonel Weerasilp Kwanseng.

The plight of the Rohingyas - a stateless, Muslim ethnic group who fled persecution in Myanmar - was highlighted earlier this month, following accusations that some of them had been abused by the Thai authorities.

Human rights groups say the Thai navy has twice intercepted boats filled with hundreds of Rohingyas and sent them back to the open seas, where hundreds later died.

The Thai authorities have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, insisting they only detain and repatriate people entering the country illegally. 'There is no reasonable grounds to believe these illegal migrants fled from their country of origin for well-founded fear of being persecuted,' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Thailand faces an 'enormous burden' because there are three million illegal migrants currently in the country, it said.

But the Washington-based Refugees International has warned that any Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar 'is subject to arrest and abuse'.

Hussain said his group fled Myanmar about a month ago to escape poverty and persecution. He said sailors from the Myanmar navy who caught up with them as they sailed towards Thailand boarded their vessel and beat them with wooden and metal rods.

'They told us there are no Muslims in Burma, and they continued to beat us,' he said. The migrants were detained for 10 days and then allowed to go.

'They told us not to come back again, or they'll shoot us all.'

Tens of thousands of Rohingyas live in camps in Bangladesh, where many have been granted refugee status.

Many more brave the seas in search of a better life, often travelling to Thailand on their way to Malaysia.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

READ MORE---> 66 migrants convicted...

Chin 'living in slavery'

Human rights body highlights plight of persecuted Christian group

By Nirmal Ghosh

BANGKOK (ST): The Chin people, Christians living in remote and rugged north-western Myanmar, are subjected to forced labour, torture, killings and religious persecution by the country's military regime, a human rights group said yesterday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report based on interviews with Chin refugees across the region, said thousands of Chin have had to flee their homeland, mostly across the border to India as well as to Malaysia and Thailand.

The population of the Chin state is reckoned to be around 500,000. But between 75,000 and 100,000 Chin currently live in the Indian state of Mizoram, without support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). About 30,000 Chin live in Malaysia.

The refugees have fled lives of constant fear, hardship and harassment, and conditions that amount to little more than slavery.

HRW's report documents cases of Chin people being forced to work without pay for the Tatmadaw - the Myanmar army - in projects such as road-building, construction and porterage. They worked under harsh conditions and could not attend to their crops and families.

The report documents several individual cases of arbitrary abuse ranging from harassment for money, to torture and imprisonment. The Chin people's religious symbols are also often destroyed.

Ms Sara Colm, a senior researcher for HRW, told journalists yesterday that the exodus of minority groups from Myanmar showed no signs of stopping, and had to be recognised as a problem for the whole region. 'The Chin state is a template for how repression works in rural Burma,' she said.

Her comments came amid a storm over the Thai military's alleged abuse of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, which has put pressure on Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to live up to his publicly stated commitments to human rights and justice.

Life for the Chin in their mountainous homeland, hard enough in normal circumstances, is made unbearable by the Tatmadaw which has 10 battalions stationed in the state. An assessment in 2007 by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar came to the conclusion that 70 per cent of the population of the Chin state live in poverty, and 40 per cent are without adequate food sources.

The junta has done nothing to alleviate famine conditions in the state, where the 50-year bamboo flowering cycle has recently fuelled a boom in the rat population - which has attacked crops after finishing off the bamboo.

The Chins' own armed group, the Chin National Army, no longer poses a significant threat to the military regime, but its cadres make matters worse by levying taxes on locals. Any contact, even accidental, between an ordinary local and a Chin National Army cadre is grounds for being beaten, tortured and imprisoned.

Conditions in Mizoram are also not friendly, even though Mizos and Chins are ethnically closely related. Chins have been harassed by the Young Mizo Association, an ultra-nationalist vigilante organisation which constantly threatens to evict them from Mizoram and has carried out its threats.

HRW called on India to do more for Chin refugees in Mizoram, including allowing UNHCR to set up an office there.

The group also called for more assistance in remote areas of Myanmar. 'There is a need to focus international attention on areas of Burma that are extremely remote and neglected,' said Ms Colm.

READ MORE---> Chin 'living in slavery'...

Strategic Outlook of 2010 and the Role of Moderates in Burma Conflict

By Min Zaw Oo
Mizzima News

Key Points
* The west-driven support to Burma's pro-democracy movement has reached its limit.
* The regime has maintained its intuitional apparatus to crackdown domestic oppositions after the monk-led protest and the Cyclone Nargis.
* The military is facing dilemma to proceed to the transition in 2010 because of the distrust of the oppositions and the lack of civilian partnership.
* Factional mobilizations can lead to instabilities after 2010.
* Conflict prevention based on reconciliation and nation-building should be priority after the coming election.
* The emergence of moderate political forces is critical to promote reconciliation after 2010.
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The Burmese regime has claimed to hold a new election in 2010 to facilitate a formation of a civil-military government in accordance with the military-orchestrated constitution which was approved in a widely slated referendum held last year. The prospect of the new election is a moral and strategic dilemma to the oppositions, especially the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its supporters who are entrenched in their upholding of the NLD's victory in the eighteen-year-old election.

Any proponent of the new election will undoubtedly find it hard to make a moral advocacy without risking an inadvertent endorsement of the reprobated constitution. However, the participation of moderate pro-democracy forces in the 2010 election is strategically sound and practically necessary to avoid instability and foster much-needed reconciliation for Burma's political and ethnic crises. This essay addresses why the 2010 election is important, and how the moderates can nurture reconciliation after 2010.

The State of the Opposition Movement

Before we think of the future, we should honestly assess our pro-democracy opposition movement, especially its west-driven support.

The attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade in Depayin and the crackdown on the NLD in 2003 marked a turning point in the conflict. The Depayin incident was also an enlightening moment for some opposition members to re-evaluate their strategies in Burma's protracted conflict.

The Depayin clampdown invigorated ferocity and anguish among the Burmese opposition communities. The emotional instinct called for escalation of the conflict to punish the military's onslaught on the NLD. Furious responses from the international community, including the abrasive condemnations coming from the US senior official, appeared to convince Burmese oppositions that their supporters in the west were ready to boost up Burma's opposition movement beyond rhetoric and miniscule financial supports.

Nevertheless, Burma's pro-democracy movement was merely a moral case for the west. Moral concern is usually inferior to strategic needs in international relations.

Even the Bill Clinton's administration approved about $ 100 million to support the Iraqi oppositions in 1998.1 Compared to this amount, less than $10 million of US funding, including the money to assist refugees and humanitarian programs, was a drop in an ocean of need to boost up an opposition movement.

The Depayin crackdown revealed the reality of the international support to the pro-democracy movement. A few exiles had reached a conclusion on the international front—the west-driven support to Burma's pro-democracy movement has exhausted its capacity in the international system.

On the political front, the NLD explicitly called for the intervention of the United Nations Security Council. The actual reason behind the NLD's SOS signal was its leadership's realization that the government had effectively clamped down the party's capacity to mobilize inside the country. While Aung San Suu Kyi and her able colleagues were under detention, the junta's restrictions had potently demolished the party's grassroots foundation.

The Burmese oppositions and their supporters in exile well heeded the NLD's distress call. Some activist lawyers in Washington prepared a lengthy and controversial appeal, commissioned by Former Czech President Vacláv Havel and noble laureate Desmond M. Tutu. The document argued that Burma under the military junta was a threat to regional stability although all neighboring countries refused to endorse this claim. Burma's threat to peace allegation came neither from the Pentagon nor the US intelligence community. It was a pure agenda from the activists using it as leverage to elevate pressure over the regime.

Despite the understanding in advance that such appeal at the UNSC would not survive, the US Congress and the Bush administration rode the flow of the activists' agenda. In contrast, the Clinton administration chose not to pursue the similar agenda at the UNSC after US ambassador to UN Madeleine Albright met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 because of the same reason of an eventual failure. The result is the history.

Both the free Burma movement and the free Tibet campaign share the same fate. Both movements have been remarkably successful in awareness campaigns. However, awareness is only the first step to mobilize international support in transnational causes. The actual policy making depends on the willingness and capability of the international powers. Both free Burma and Tibet movements grind to a halt when their fates fall into the hands of the international system.

In the domestic front, the junta faced two major crises almost simultaneously within 8 months. The monk-led uprising brought thousands of people to the streets for the first time in eighteen years. Cyclone Nargis virtually destroyed the rice bowl of Burma in the delta region and killed over 130,000 people, marking it the worst natural disaster in Burma history. Nevertheless, the regime survived both crises.

The military proved its institutional capacity to shoot, arrest and torture even monks who are regarded one of the three most revered in Burmese society. The Cyclone deepened poverty and forced people to prioritize their economic survival over political dissatisfaction. The regime has successfully preserved its capacity to quash political challenges after two major crises.

The Limitations of the Military Junta

The major difference between Gen. Ne Win's military coup in 1962 and the current junta is the former's ability to consolidate its power by institutionalizing a one-party state 12 years after the military takeover. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) successively claimed it was a coup d'état government. The nature of the current junta is transitional. Unlike Ne Win's coup, the current junta is not capable of institutionalizing its rule into a formal political system.

In addition, the regime is under constant pressures domestically and internationally although the junta is capable of withstanding them from pushing it to collapse or concede the oppositions' demands. The Depayin incident accelerated the regime's eventual end game, 7-step Road Map to a political transition.

The transition plan is based on the regime's orchestrated constitution which the junta forced through in a rigged referendum amidst the cyclone crisis in May 2008. According to the Road Map, the regime will hold a new election in 2010 and form a new government. The military will have 25 percent of seats in the Parliament, and the military's interests will be protected.

However, the interpretation of the constitution in practice will depend on the degree of participation by civilian politicians in the election and the authority of the elected representatives in the government. The constitution itself does allow elected members to hold substantial power in the new government. The legitimacy of the 2010 election depends on the participation of pro-democracy civilians and their roles in the new government.

The regime is also facing a dilemma based on three major concerns. First, the military is reluctant to open up political space for the civilian politicians to mobilize to contest in the election because the regime learned a hard lesson after it had released former student leaders and allowed them to organize their supporters. Their mobilization paved a way to the monk-led protest in 2007. The regime is very careful this time not to repeat the previous mistake.

Second, the regime is concerned with the repetition of the NLD's another victory in the 2010 election. The dominance of anti-military oppositions in the civilian portion of elected representatives will encourage the oppositions to challenge the military after the election. In other words, the military wants more 'moderate' opposition to contest in the election than the hard-liners. The release of student leaders in 2004 partially aimed at creating a so-called 'third force' between the NLD and the regime. However, the student leaders chose to take hard-line stance.

The regime's strategy appears to minimize the influence of hard liners, including the NLD, in the opposition movement. The recent arrests and severe jail-terms imposed on the activists are a part of the plan to steer clear hard-line elements before the election comes. On the other hand, an alternative third-force in the opposition movement is not in an organized form. Because of the nature of polarization in Burma's conflict, many moderate individuals are reluctant to engineer a third-force platform which is a politically derogative term for the Burmese oppositions.

Third, the regime is worried that the emerging civilian-led government would undermine the military's institutional interests. The military wants to avoid creating a Frankenstein monster by its own Road Map. The military therefore embedded protective clauses in the constitution to guarantee its own interests because of its distrust on civilian politicians.

Overall, the SPDC does not have viable civilian partnership in the new government after 2010. Lack of confidence on civilian politicians and amicable partnership has fostered siege mentality among the military leaders who cling onto the constitution and use suppression to safeguard their interests.

Civilian Forces in the 2010 Election

Depending on their roles and stance towards the coming election, there are four types of civilian politicians, in addition to the pro-military elements to contest the election. The majority of the oppositions strongly condemned the regime's road map. They will continue to reject the 2010 election and refuse to participate. These hardliners among the opposition movement are mostly in exile. Most hardcore activists inside the country have been placed under detention since the crackdown of the monk protests. The hardliners' voice will make little impact on the holding of the election.

The second type of oppositions sees the election as a step towards a confrontation with the military. Despite its call to recognize the result of the 1990 general election, the NLD is likely to participate in the 2010 election because it is the only option for Daw Suu's party to reclaim its legitimacy and remobilize its supporters after 2010. For many hardliners, including the Burmese Communist Party, the coming election is a tactical battleground for further escalation of the conflict.

The third political group views the coming election as an enticing opportunity to pursue their interests. Many ceasefire groups fall into this account. They will seek to strengthen their legitimacy through the existing electoral process regardless of the degree of fairness and freedom of the election. Some ceasefire groups are also inclined to transform into the fourth category, the third force.

Most individuals in the so-called third force inside Burma are non-NLD pro-democracy activists who disagree with the NLD's sanction-oriented policy and confrontation with the regime. They regard themselves moderates and share a view that the current NLD-led opposition movement is a failure. Many individuals in the third force include former political prisoners, elected representatives from the NLD, current leaders in NGOs, and environmental activists. Although they have not emerged as an institutionalized political force, they are likely to establish their political platform to contest the 2010 election.

Potential Instability after the 2010 Election

Under the current constitution, the likely polity in Burma is inclined towards illiberal democracy after 2010. Illiberal democracy is the most potent ingredient for instability when poor economic performance and factional mobilization characterize a new transition, according to the study of world-wide instabilities since 1955.2

Any new government, regardless of the forms of transition, will not be able to revive the country from current economic pauperization in a short term. Poverty will continue and quality of life remains poor after 2010. Economic destitutions are usually channeled towards political discontent. Under poverty, Burmese people will remain dissatisfied with the government as long as the military is a part of the ruling institution.

Illiberal democracy also expands political space for formerly suppressed oppositions who were deprived of political mobilization under the previous system. Economically dissatisfied public is vulnerable to political instigation stirring up unrests. The hardline oppositions will utilize newly emerging political space to mobilize poverty-stricken angry publics to pressure the new government. Their objective will aim to scrap the existing constitution and boot the military out of politics.

On the other hand, the military is likely to be politically defensive after the 2010 election while taking shelter under its brainchild constitution. The military's 25 percent of representatives in the parliament and its supporters will continue to preserve the military's institutional interests threatened by the oppositions' mobilization. Alternatively, the military may disenfranchise potential hardliners in the 2010 election and continue to deny their political freedom even after 2010. In both scenarios, the confrontation between the military and hardcore oppositions is likely to escalate after the election.

Another challenge for the post-2010 government is disarrangement and demobilization of ceasefire groups. Twenty-year old ceasefire has not addressed political settlement of fifteen major ceasefire groups whose strength reaches over 40,000 armed troops, approximately four-time larger than the size of Taliban in Afghanistan. Any misstep in the 2010 transition can trigger the revival of major armed conflicts in the country. The outbreak of wars will inevitably promote the role of military in Burma's politics.

Realistic Reconciliation after 2010

The only way to avoid potential instabilities, destructive confrontation and the revival of suppression is to purse realistic reconciliation after 2010. Reconciliation needs political space, common ground and readiness of both parties. The opposition's call for reconciliation in the past has failed because of the lack of all major premises.

The transition in post-2010 may not foster willingness to reconcile but will create political space to expand shared common ground where confidence can be restored among major parties in the conflict. In the past up to this point, both sides use 'reconciliation' merely as a political lexicon to take advantage over another while neglecting common grounds to cooperate on shared interests of the nation.

It will be the first time in 22 years both civilian politicians and the military representatives will be sitting under the same roof in the Parliament. It will also be the venue for both the military and civilians to interact in policy making and mutually envisioning the future. Against all odds, the transition in 2010 offers an opportunity to jumpstart confidence building to seek much need reconciliation for the country.

Realistically, the regime's Road Map is inevitable. The military will not drop its Road Map and seek an alternative political settlement with the opposition. Any political outcomes have to go through the military-led transitional process. In the past, the military is asked to sit down at a table set up by the opposition. It is now inexorable for the oppositions to proceed to the table prepared by the military.

The reconciliation after 2010 may not be an immediate tripartite dialogue among the military, pro-democracy oppositions, and ethnic minorities. The process will be likely initiated in phases, starting with the military and moderate political forces in the parliament and the government. The ceasefire groups in the political process can play a crucial role in steering the dialogue towards the issues of ethnic minorities.

Prevention of destructive conflicts and nation-building should be the priorities after 2010. These two critical processes are the indispensable steps towards successful democratization. Factional mobilization will be detrimental to any progress of liberalization and democratization. The grim truth about democratic transition is the fact that among 108 democratic transitions, only 12 countries have consolidated democracy since 1955.3 In many cases, instability follows transitions. Some countries fell back to some forms of autocracy. Many transitional countries are still struggling with factionalism.

Moderates Matter

Burma conflict is vastly factionalized, and the polarity between the military and the oppositions is deeply entrenched. The traditional opposition forces will likely take the path of confrontation with the military after 2010. Confidence building won't be materialized as long as both the civilian politicians and the military fail to cooperate in shared common interests, such as economic development, health care, security and public welfare. The essential approach is collaboration in common grounds instead of all-out confrontation.

As long as the junta sees no viable civilian partnership after 2010, the military will restrict the participation of civilian politicians in the coming election and their capacity to mobilize. The only civilian force willing to categorically cooperate with the military is moderate non-NLD pro-democracy activists who feel discontented with the status quo in the opposition movement. Although the military may not trust this so-called third force, it is the only viable civilian partnership the military needs to implement its Road Map.

The military and the third force share similar interests in development-related fields which can be the initial point of cooperation to foster confidence in civil-military relation. Pro-democracy orientation of the moderates can bridge the relationship between traditional oppositions and the military. The third force can function as a requisite buffer between both ends of hardliners by minimizing polarization in Burma conflict.

The major drawback of the potential third force in Burma is the lack of substantial leadership and institutionalization. The moderate force has not been able to organize its political platform and leadership structure to function as a feasible political institution. The election in 2010 will likely be a breeding ground to shape the structure of moderate force in Burmese politics. As long as the military's Road Map is the inescapable point for a change in Burma, the emergence of competent third force is strategically important to jumpstart reconciliation after 2010.

(Min Zaw Oo is a security analyst focusing on South and Southeast Asia region. He is also a PhD candidate at George Mason University, writing his dissertation on the analysis of 108 democratic transitions. Oo holds a MA in Security Studies, Georgetown University, and a MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolutions, George Mason University.)

READ MORE---> Strategic Outlook of 2010 and the Role of Moderates in Burma Conflict...

KNU overrules local officials

ooops... trouble in paradise ... :-)

KNU halts logging after SPDC general harvests 2,500 tons

IMNA -District level authorities from the Karen National Union (KNU) have ordered Htay Company, owned by Major General Hla Htay Win, to halt logging in the Makate Forest near Three Pagodas Pass. The halt order overrules local officials and military officers, who had permitted Htay Company to harvest over 2,500 tons of ironwood.

The 50,000 acre Makate Forest, one of the largest remaining large-timber forests in Burma’s southeastern border area, stands inside KNU Dooplaya District. The KNU and Brigade 6 of its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), have strictly controlled the forest with local villagers reporting that they are not allowed to log or even hunt within its reaches.

At the advent of the 2008 rainy season, however, Htay Company purchased logging rights from officials from Kyainnseikyi township administrative offices, the Dooplaya District Forestry Department and Battalion No. 17 of Brigade 6. The company began logging after the rains subsided in November, harvesting over 2,500 tons of timber in just two months.

The logging distressed local villagers, who felt that a forest they had been watching over for generations was being destroyed. In December, 5 representatives from 20 villages in the area drafted a complaint letter to the Dooplaya District Committee, which overseas the area.

According to Saw Liston, Dooplaya District Secretary, the villagers timed their letter to arrive on December 29th, immediately before a regularly scheduled forestry meeting involving district and township level officials. “Local villagers wrote a letter because they have protected this forest since before their grandmothers and grandfathers were alive,” Saw Liston told IMNA. “They said ‘the KNU is trading our heritage for money from the Htay company. Later, will the KNU also eat our rice?’”

Before receiving the letter, district level KNU authorities had not been aware of the logging by Htay Company, Saw Liston said, and in the subsequent meeting the Dooplaya District Committee ordered the logging to be halted. “Htay Company had an agreement with lower level district officials, but of this we did not know. When the villagers reported to us, we found out and then we discussed it in our meeting.”

Though the logging has halted, the Htay Company is being permitted to remove trees that have already been cut. “As our lower officers already made an agreement with the Htay Company, we will allow them to remove the trees they already cut,” Saw Liston told IMNA. “But we will not give them permission to cut any more trees. They have until May to remove their trees. This information has been informed to the Htay Company.”

In spite of the premature end to the timber project, Htay Company stands to make significant income. According to Htay Company sources, the large trees – each at least 15 feet in circumference and weighing 2 to 3 tons – fetch 30,000 baht per ton. Timber from the Makate forest, however, is likely destined to fetch an even higher price. According to a truck driver who is transporting timber for Htay Company, the trees are being transported to Abit village in Mudon Township, Mon State, where it is transferred and continues on for export from Rangoon.

According to an IMNA source in the Three Pagodas Pass Special Branch Police, Htay Company is owned by Major General Hla Htay Win, the former Rangoon Commander who was recently named Chief of Military Training.

With 10,000 acres and 2,500 tons of timber harvested – one fifth of the Makate forestland – local villagers left with the short end of the stick described the cultural and environmental impacts of the logging. “When the Htay Company cuts even one ironwood tree, it is very big and it destroys all the small trees around when it falls,” said one area resident. “And they [Htay loggers] leave all the branches from the trees they cut. They just leave the branches and there will fires in the hot season.”

READ MORE---> KNU overrules local officials...

Rohingya Refugees Appear in Thai Court, Face Extradition

Rohingya migrants sit on a police van after arriving at Ranong provincial court to hear charge of illegal entry in Ranong province, southwestern Thailand on Wednesday. (Photo: AP)

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Sixty two Rohingya boat people from Burma appeared before a court in Thailand’s southern Ranong province on Wednesday. All of the men, who were arrested on Tuesday by the Thai Navy, face repatriation to Burma if convicted of entering Thailand illegally.

Twelve other Rohingya refugees were under the age of 18 and are being detained at a Thai police station. Four others were admitted to hospital with injuries they say they sustained after Burmese troops intercepted their boat and beat them. One refugee reportedly died during the journey.

The Rohingyas, refugees from Burma’s Arakan State, appealed to Thai authorities not to send them back to Burma, where they face severe discrimination.

A Ranong resident who offered his help to the refugees said they had clearly been beaten. “There were many injuries on their backs. They said they were beaten by Burmese army.”

The Rohingyas, members of a Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Burma, said they had bought a boat with the intention of reaching Malaysia. They had left their wives and children behind while they set out to find refuge and work in a Muslim country.

A Ranong police officer, Col Weerasilp Kwanseng, told the Associated Press that the refugees would be expelled from Thailand if found guilty of entering the country illegally.

The Associated Press report said one refugee, Mamoud Hussain, pleaded: “Have pity on us. They [Burmese army] will kill me and my family if I go back.”

Chris Lewa, a researcher on Rohingya issues, said: “This is an issue of serious concern. We are concerned what will happen to them because we know that the Burmese government never accepts any Rohingya back.”

She urged the Thai government to allow officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to the Rohingya migrants to determine whether they needed protection.

Meanwhile, Surin Pitsuwan, Thai general-secretary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, told the TV station Aljazeera: “This is not an issue for a particular country. It is a regional issue. It is also an issue for the international community.”

Last week, Thai Foreign Ministry officials met with envoys from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Burma to discuss the exodus of the Rohingya from Burma.

READ MORE---> Rohingya Refugees Appear in Thai Court, Face Extradition...

Tensions Between Wa, Junta Continue to Rise

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

Tensions between the Burmese military and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) have been mounting since a 30-member Burmese delegation led by Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief of Military Affairs Security, was forced to disarm during a visit to Wa-held territory in Shan State on January 19, according to sources in the area.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst based on the Sino-Burmese border, said that the visiting Burmese military officials and accompanying soldiers were told to disarm as they entered Wa-controlled territory to attend a meeting with the UWSA at their headquarters of Panghsang.

According to Mai Aik Phone, who observes Wa affairs, the purpose of the visit was to allow Burmese military leaders to learn how to launch an effective election campaign in the area in 2010. However, sources said that discussions were limited to plans to develop the local economy.

Since last year’s referendum on a military-drafted constitution, the Burmese regime has been sending delegations to different parts of the country to drum up support for an election slated to be held in 2010. The regime claimed to have won overwhelming approval for its new charter, despite charges that the referendum was rigged.

As part of its plans for the future, the junta has stepped up its efforts to persuade ceasefire groups to disarm. However, the Wa have been particularly resistant to this idea, putting renewed pressure on a ceasefire agreement that was reached 20 years ago.

On December 5, Brig-Gen Kyaw Phyoe, the Burmese Army’s regional commander in the Golden Triangle area of Shan State, met with the commander of the UWSA’s 468th Brigade, Col Sai Hsarm, in Mongpawk, south of Panghsang, to pressure him to withdraw troops from the area and “exchange arms for peace.” The Wa leader rejected the demand.

Earlier this month, the UWSA proposed a plan to designate territory under its control as a special autonomous region. Although the Burmese military hasn’t responded to the proposal, the UWSA has already begun to refer to its territory as the “Wa State Government Special Region” in official documents.

The Wa area has been known by the Burmese military as “Shan State Special Region 2” since the UWSA entered into a ceasefire agreement with the regime in 1989.

In 2003, when the United Wa State Party, the political wing of the UWSA, attended a junta-sponsored national constitutional convention, it asked to be allowed to form a Wa State.

Wa political observers estimate that there are 20,000 UWSA soldiers currently deployed along Burma’s borders with Thailand and China, while an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 Wa villagers inhabit areas of lower Shan State.

READ MORE---> Tensions Between Wa, Junta Continue to Rise...

Chins Face Human Rights Abuses: HRW

By MIN LWIN
The Irrawaddy News

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday released a report calling for the Burmese military government to end human rights abuses against ethnic Chin in western Burma.

The New York-based human rights monitors also urged the Indian government and the newly formed Mizoram State government in northeastern India to “extend protection to Chin who have fled to neighboring India to escape ongoing abuses and severe repression in Burma.”

An ethnic Chin child refugee sits with his mother in a refugee camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Burma's military regime is perpetrating widespread abuse of the mainly-Christian Chin ethnic group, who face famine, forced labour, torture and persecution, HRW said. (Photo: AFP)

In the 93-page report, HRW said that ethnic Chin experience a wide range of human rights abuses, including forced labor, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and religious repression at the hands of the Burmese army and government officials.

The report also accused the ethnic Chin insurgent group, the Chin National Army (CNA), of committing abuses against Chin villagers, such as harassment, beatings and extortion.

HRW called on the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups to end abuses and for Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to allow humanitarian agencies in Rangoon unfettered access to Chin State.

The HRW report included testimonies from about 140 ethnic Chin inside Burma or living in Mizoram interviewed between 2005 and 2008.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, HRW Burma consultant David Mathieson said, “That was just from 140 interviews. There are almost half a million people in Chin State. Therefore, the true number of people who have been tortured is very difficult to calculate.

“Wherever there are soldiers of the Burmese army and non-state armed groups, such as the Chin National Front [the political wing of the CNA], civilians are vulnerable to abuses by armed groups,” he said. “Abuses sometimes happen in towns and cities in Chin state, but they happen most frequently in rural areas. Anywhere where there are Burmese army soldiers and any kind of low-intensity conflict, civilians are vulnerable to these types of abuses.”

HRW quoted one Chin Christian church leader now living in Mizoram as saying, “These underground groups, rather than being a help, make life even more difficult for us.”

However, Chin National Front Joint General Secretary (1) Shwe Khar denied the charges that CAN soldiers extort money, food and property from Chin villagers.

“Chin soldiers used to collect donations from the villagers, but did not extort money,” he said.

There are currently about 75,000 Chin people living in Mizoram and a few thousand in New Delhi. Thousands more have migrated to Malaysia and to other countries such as America and Canada.

Last year, at least 70,000 ethnic Chin were affected by a famine caused by a plague of rats, which ate rice stocks in many of the state’s villages, according to exiled Chin rights groups. More than 30 children died as a result of the famine.

READ MORE---> Chins Face Human Rights Abuses: HRW...

Junta Promises to Address Rohingya Exodus

A wounded Rohingya migrant is treated by a Thai nurse at the provincial hospital in Ranong province, southern Thailand, on Tuesday. A new boatload of the 78 ethnic Rohingya migrants was detained in Thailand, several with lacerations, burns and other wounds they said were inflicted by Burmese soldiers. (Photo: AP)

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Burma’s No 2 leader, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, has promised the Thai military supreme commander during an official visit to Burma that authorities will try to stem the flow of Rohingya refugees who try to reach neighboring countries illegally, according to the Thai News Agency (TNA).

A Thai delegation led by Supreme Commander Gen Songkitti Jaggabatara visited Naypyidaw, the Burmese capital, on Monday.

A wounded Rohingya migrant is treated by a Thai nurse at the provincial hospital in Ranong province, southern Thailand, on Tuesday. A new boatload of the 78 ethnic Rohingya migrants was detained in Thailand, several with lacerations, burns and other wounds they said were inflicted by Burmese soldiers. (Photo: AP)
Gen Songkitti was quoted by TNA that Maung Aye agreed with Thailand’s request to address the issue of Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, often risking dangerous journeys by sea in small boats.

Maung Aye said authorities will try to prevent the Rohingya from leaving Burma for other countries.

Burma’s state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, mentioned the visit by the Thai supreme commander, but disclosed no details about the meeting.

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera television reported on Tuesday that a boat with 78 ethnic Rohingya migrants was detained in Thailand. Some Rohingya had lacerations, burns and other wounds.

According to the report, the migrants fled Burma about a month ago, and the Burmese military intercepted their vessel as it sailed south toward Thailand.

A Rohingya, speaking through a translator, said the Burmese military beat them with sticks. Others said the soldiers tried to set their boat on fire, and they showed severe body burns.

A senior Thai navy official told The Associated Press news agency that the migrants would be repatriated once their boat was fixed. "We will send them back through legal channels," he said.

On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it is still awaiting a response from the Thai government one week after it requested access to Rohingya refugees in Thailand to examine whether they are in need of international protection.

NGOs have alleged that up to 300 Rohingya are missing after the Thai navy denied them refuge and turned them back out to sea.

According to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is estimated that up to 20,000 illegal Rohingya migrants have entered Thailand over recent years and remain in the country.

Last week, Thailand offered to host a regional conference to discuss the mass migration of Rohingya refugees.

Foreign Ministry officials met with envoys from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Burma to discuss the exodus of the Rohingya from Burma, where they say they are persecuted economically and denied basic rights of citizenship.

READ MORE---> Junta Promises to Address Rohingya Exodus...

Are Malaysian Officials Trafficking Burmese Migrants?

By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY
The Irrawaddy News

KUALA LUMPUR — A scandalous trade in Burmese migrant labor involving Malaysian officials and international human traffickers is now coming to light, investigators say.

Like thousands of Burmese migrant workers, That Zin Myint travelled overland from Rangoon to Bangkok and reached the Thai border where local syndicates, for a hefty bribe, helped him cross into northern Malaysia and move overland to the capital where cheap, unskilled labor is in great demand.

‘'Don't take my photographs... they will come after me,'' Zin Myint said, referring to Malaysian authorities who now closely monitor local and overseas publications for anti-Malaysia sentiments expressed by migrant workers.

On arrival Zin Myint “celebrated” with others from his village and joined some three million—documented and undocumented—Asian migrant workers who live and work here in deplorable conditions.

An estimated 150,000 of these workers are Burmese migrant workers, many of them Kachins and Muslim Rohingyas from Burma's northern Rakhine region.

‘'We Burmese migrants are sold like fish and vegetables,'' Myint told IPS in an interview in Pudu market, a big wet market in the capital where Burmese migrant workers predominate.

Myint had been arrested, taken to the Thai border, and officially “deported” which actually means getting sold to human traffickers. “I was robbed of all my cash by both Malaysian and Thai officials and sold to traffickers,'' Myint told IPS.

“I was held in a jungle camp near the border for three weeks until my relatives bought me from the traffickers. I bribed my way back into Malaysia,'' he said, adding that while conditions are tough in Malaysia, they are better than Burma or Thailand. ‘'There is food, work and a roof over my head.''


Myint is one of the luckier ones to be arrested and “deported” only once. He is now considered a leader in the Pudu area and much sought after by other Burmese workers for “assistance” in avoiding arrest and deportation all over again.

Burmese migrant workers call the trade “bwan” (thrown away) or one of the worst forms of human trafficking.

“Malaysia does not recognize key international agreements on the protection of refugees and foreign nationals. Nor does it apply to foreign migrants the same rights and legal protections given to Malaysian citizens,'' said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a rights NGO that protects migrant workers.

Human rights activists have long charged that immigration, police and other enforcement officials, including the unpopular voluntary force called RELA, have been “trading'' Burmese migrants, especially Rohingyas, to human traffickers in Thailand who then pass them on to deep sea fishing trawler operators in the South China Sea.

The women are generally sold into the sex industry.

“They are treated as a commodity and frequently bought and sold, and we have been condemning this practice for a long time,'' Fernandez said.

“Our demands have always fallen on deaf ears despite the accumulating evidence of the involvement of uniformed officials in the trade,'' Fernandez told IPS.

It has become commonplace for the authorities to use the vigilante RELA force to periodically arrest and “deport” Rohingyas, but since Burma does not recognize them as citizens, the practice is to take them to the Bukit Kayu Hitam area on the Thai-Malaysia border and force them to cross over into Thailand.

“They are arrested, jailed and deported, but since they are stateless they are taken to the Thai border and often sold to Thai traffickers,'' said Fernandez. Invariably, the “deported'' Rohingyas bribe Thai and Malaysian officials and return to Malaysia.

The accusation against corrupt Malaysian officials is long standing and made frequently by refugees, human rights activists, opposition lawmakers and is even the subject of one official probe.

Malaysian television channels have also investigated and exposed the “sale” of the Rohingya refugees on the Malaysia-Thai border, although they did not finger Malaysian officials for fear of reprisals.

A U.S. probe being conducted into trafficking by the powerful Senate foreign relations committee has stimulated interest in the plight of Rohingyas when its findings are relayed to key U.S. enforcement agencies and Interpol for possible action, Senate officials have said.
“U.S. Senate foreign relations committee staff are reviewing reports of extortion and human trafficking from Burmese and other migrants in Malaysia, allegedly at the hands of Malaysia government officials,'' a staff official told international news agencies in early January.

“The allegations include assertions that Burmese and other migrants—whether or not they have UNHCR documentation—are taken from Malaysian government detention facilities and transported to the Thailand-Malaysia border,'' the official had said.

At the border, they alleged, “money is demanded from them, or they are turned over to human traffickers in southern Thailand.”

“If they pay, they return to Malaysia. If not, they are sold to traffickers,'' the official said, adding that teams had visited Malaysia, Thailand and Burma to collect evidence on the human trade.

Some of the immigrants from Burma and other countries are refugees recognized by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has an office in Kuala Lumpur.

Since 1995, about 40,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma have been settled in the U.S., most of them after passing through Malaysia, while the emigration applications of thousands more have been rejected by third countries.

“They are left stranded, unable to return to Myanmar (official name for Burma) where they face certain persecution by the military regime and rejected from immigrating to third countries,” said opposition lawmaker Charles Santiago who has raised their plight in parliament.

“They need urgent help and understanding of their plight,” he told IPS, urging Malaysia to sign U.N. refugee conventions and accord refugees due recognition. ”We can no longer close our eyes to their plight.”

“We are trapped in a foreign country without papers and without recognition,'' said Habibur Rahman, general secretary of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia, an organization that speaks for stateless Rohingyas in Malaysia.

“We have been looking for a way to escape this dilemma but without success,'' he told IPS.

“We are denied citizenship and made stateless by the Myanmar military junta and persecuted and forced to flee to neighboring countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh,'' he said.

The involvement of the U.S. Senate in the issue has upset Malaysian officials who have warned the U.S. to ‘'take their hands off'' the country, saying such action violated Malaysian sovereignty.

However, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has asked the U.S. to pass on information pertaining to the allegations, saying the government does not tolerate extortion from migrants by officials.

“The U.S. authorities have evidence we would be very thankful for, if they can pass the information to us for investigation and appropriate action,'' he told Bernama, the official news agency, on Jan. 15.

An upset foreign minister, Rais Yatim, told local media on Jan. 19 that the allegations were “baseless, ridiculous and farfetched.”

“We are a civilized country. We are not living in barbaric times when people are sold off at the whims and fancies of people with power. It is certainly unfair of the U.S. Senate to accuse us of doing such outrageous things,'' Yatim said.

READ MORE---> Are Malaysian Officials Trafficking Burmese Migrants?...

NLD holds lecture on Law Affairs in Rangoon

By Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The fortnightly lecture on Law Affairs was held this afternoon at the National League for Democracy (NLD) HQ in Rangoon.

Thingangyun constituency (1) NLD MP and Central Legal Aid Committee member advocate U Thein Nyunt, delivered his lecture on the title 'Burmese Laws and Practical Problems' and he led the discussions on his lecture.

Central Executive Committee (CEC) member U Win Tin told Mizzima that U Thein Nyunt had based his lecture on the official strategy of the NLD, national reconciliation, restoring democracy and human rights, and also on the NLD's tactics of working within the legal framework, resolution of political issues by political means and other legal issues.

"NLD has resolved all political issues within the legal framework and by legal means throughout its history. We are also following this line. He explained and discussed all these things by blending them with his experiences and legal matters," U Win Tin said.

In the Q&A section, he discussed South Africa's experience of the 'Truth Commission' exercised by those who toppled the apartheid government for national reconciliation. In this programme, the people, who admitted their crimes, were pardoned.

The lecture was attended by youths, women's wing members and CEC members including U Win Tin, U Nyunt Wai, Thakin Soe Myint, U Khin Maung Swe among others. There were a total of over 150 people.

Today's lecture and talk was jointly organized by the Rangoon Division Assistance to Youth Organization and Township and NLD Youth Organizations in 'Youth Education Programme'.

READ MORE---> NLD holds lecture on Law Affairs in Rangoon...

Rohingyas claim Myanmar troop abuse

The migrants say they were burned when the Myanmar army tried to set light to their boat

Al Jazeera has uncovered fresh evidence from Thailand's southwestern coast of another instance of abuse of Muslim Rohingya boat people.

A recently arrived group of refugees say their boat was boarded by soldiers from Myanmar, who beat them and tried to set light to their vessel.

Al Jazeera's Selina Downes said that 78 Rohingya migrants were found on a boat near Surin island, located near Thailand's Andaman coast.

They took to the seas in search of work to support their families.

"This group, we are told, have all come from Arakan state in western Myanmar. What they got, they say, was more brutality by one of the harshest military regimes in the world," Downes said.

"One man told us the Burmese Border Security Patrol twice intercepted their boat as it headed south towards Thailand. They say dozens of officers boarded the boat and severely beat them. Many of the men appear to have severe burns to their skin."

Defenceless minority

The incident appears to be just another case of the abuses and atrocities committed against a people who are essentially defenceless and stateless.

Myanmar refuses to recognise the Muslim Rohingya minority as a distinct ethnic group.

Human-rights activists say they have been abused and exploited, forcing many to flee abroad, mainly across the border to Bangladesh.

Thousands of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis leave the country aboard rickety boats each year in hopes of finding work, with many travelling to Thailand by sea and then overland to Malaysia.

The Rohingya migrants told Al Jazeera that they each paid a few hundred dollars for the boat journey they thought would take them to a better life.

But by the time the Thai navy found them, they were floundering at sea, trying to keep their boat afloat.

But this time, the Thai authorities did not dump them at sea, but brought them to the mainland to be treated by medical staff.

Thai 'assistance'

The Thai military too have been accused of human-rights abuses against the Rohingya.

A Thai naval officer confirmed on Monday claims that Rohingya boat people from Myanmar, detained along Thailand's southwestern coast, were taken back out to sea and set adrift.


The ethnic Rohingyas are a stateless group denied citizenship by Myanmar [Reuters]

The naval officer, who declined to be identified, told Al Jazeera: "We have to take the engines off the boats or they will come back.

"The wind will carry them to India or somewhere."

Humanitarian groups have accused Thailand of systematically abusing Rohingya migrants.

The allegations surfaced after accounts emerged of a group of Rohingyas who were beaten and then towed back out to sea by Thai soldiers.

Reports from survivors who washed up on India's Andaman islands and northwest Indonesia suggested as many as 550 of the 992 towed out to sea by Thai soldiers later died.

The Thai authorities who rescued the latest group of Rohingya migrants, told Al Jazeera that once these men are processed by immigration, they too will be pushed back out of Thailand by land or, more likely, by sea.

READ MORE---> Rohingyas claim Myanmar troop abuse...

Constitution and the ethnic nationalities

By Aung Htoo

(DVB)–A constitution which guarantees the rights of the people and restricts the powers of the government is a crucial foundation in the building of a country.

But a constitution that denies the rights of the people and the rights to do things for the authorities is certain to destroy the country.

The State Peace and Development Council's 2008 constitution, which basically denies the rights of the people and prioritises the rights of the ruling authorities, will certainly lead the country to total destruction.

Moreover, the SPDC ratified the constitution in 2008 without any regard for factors that could build trust among ethnic national forces. There are many reasons for this disregard, but here I will only focus on those issues that came out during the drafting of the SPDC’s constitution.

The first and main issue is the uncomfortable situation regarding the SPDC's legal boundaries for the ceasefire armed groups. While the SPDC has declared many times that armed ethnic national organisations have been entering the legal fold, there have still been no efforts to allow these organisations to set up as legal political entities in accordance with the law.

On 9 June 2004, during the SPDC’s national convention to draw up the constitution, 13 armed ethnic national groups which had signed ceasefire agreements with the government put forward a joint proposal for the formation of a federal union. But the SPDC didn't take any action on this advice when the national convention finished. That could be said to be the moment the armed ethnic ceasefire groups’ hope was destroyed.

Some ethnic organisations openly reacted against this. At the referendum to ratify the constitution in May 2008, people in areas controlled by the United Wa State Army in northeast Shan State overwhelmingly rejected the constitution. This was the only such incident based on ethnic nationality during the nationwide referendum, and occurred on the territory of the strongest of the armed ethnic groups in Burma.

It is especially notable that this big organisation has clearly shown that it has no faith in the SPDC's constitution. The reason it was able to do so is that it could prevent the SPDC authorities who came to oversee the referendum from entering its territory. It set up its own ballot boxes, let the people vote and sent the results to the SPDC.

The second issue is the SPDC’s legal harassment of ethnic leaders. Eight Shan leaders including Khun Tun Oo were sentenced to between 75 and 106 years in prison for trying to protect the rights of ethnic nationalities with the SPDC’s legal boundaries.

They received these heavy sentences after they formed the Shan state advisory council of experts to develop a political strategy for the building of a federal union. It now seemed that ethnic organisations were not only trying to build up a momentum for a federal union within the national convention process, but also that Shan leaders led by Khun Tun Oo were trying to push for it outside the convention by forming the council of Shan state experts.

The SPDC is more afraid of the building of a federal union in which ethnic nationals would have equal rights and self-determination than it is of a tiger. The actions against the Shan leaders were a way of stopping the peaceful political activities of ethnic nationals by criminalising them. This injustice gives some indication of how much other Shan ethnic leaders and the public have lost their trust in the SPDC.

The third issue is the loss of trust on the part of the Karen National Union which is still carrying out armed struggle outside the SPDC's legal boundaries. The KNU's former leader, the late general Saw Bo Mya, tried to hold discussions with SPDC. But the SPDC instead set a trap for the KNU in the form of the national convention.

When this didn't achieve the desired effect, the SPDC did not allow the KNU to hold negotiate a ceasefire like other armed organisations. Former intelligence officer Aung Lin Htut explained the reason for this in an interview with DVB television. Aung Lin Htut started out by saying that the KNU is in a pitiable situation. General Than Shwe reportedly ordered that, unlike other groups, the KNU must be forced to lay down its arms. Given that the KNU would never surrender, the move was intended prolong the insurgency and breed more rebels, providing a justification for the army to grow and prosper.

I am not sure whether Aung Lin Htut knows it or not but I want to relate a matter that general Than Shwe pretends that he doesn't know. From the time the military dictatorship was set up by general Ne Win and under successive military leaders who have consolidated the massive army, it has never in 60 years of civil war been able to defeat any revolutionary group by military means alone.

Given this background, it is almost impossible to build trust between the KNU and the SPDC after the latter played politics with the KNU and placed it in a hopeless situation. But this is not a new development; it has been this way since the SPDC launched offensives on Manaplaw, headquarters of the KNU, and on other fronts.

The Manaplaw headquarters did not fall because of the SPDC’s military skill. It is a matter of historical record that the SPDC troops suffered heavy losses when the joint ethnic revolutionary troops and student army surrounded Khway Eit Taung [Sleeping Dog Hill]. The SPDC had to declare a ceasefire unilaterally on 28 April 1992 because of its losses. Infantry commander major-general Maung Hla declared unequivocally that offensives would be stopped in Karen state for the sake of national unity.

In reality, the idea of the SLORC military leaders working for national unity is like saying the tiger is a vegetarian. The ceasefire was declared because of the lack of military success. Only when it was able to cause a rift between Christians and Buddhists in the KNU did its true nature reemerge. Then, it restarted offensives on 24 December 1994 without giving any reason. The SPDC captured Manaplaw using underhanded means with the help of Buddhist Karen soldiers from the newly-named Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, who showed them the way to the back door of Manaplaw.

Therefore, the SPDC’s claim that it is heading towards ethnic national unity is like a picture drawn on water. If you look at it from the point of view of ethnic national leaders and organisations, there is no reason to believe it.

All that is left is to tear up the SPDC’s 2008 constitution, a constitution with no political legitimacy, no input from major ethnic national organisations, and no aim except to propagate military rule – to tear it to pieces, and dump it into the dustbin of history.

READ MORE---> Constitution and the ethnic nationalities...

More Rohingya boatpeople arrested in Thailand

By Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Thailand on Tuesday said it has arrested and detained 78 Rohingya Muslim minorities from Burma.

"We arrested a total of 78 Rohingyas on Monday," the police officer from Ranong told Mizzima, adding, "some are now being admitted to hospital."

The police officer said they are being detained at the Ranong police station, in Southern Thailand, opposite Burma's Southern most town of Kawh Thawng.

The arrest and detention of 78 Rohingya boatpeople came amidst allegations that Thailand since December, has arrested and towed away hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople to the sea.

According to reports, batches of Rohingya boatpeople, who were drifting in the Andaman Sea, were rescued from India's Andaman Islands and Sabang island of Indonesia. Survivors said, they were arrested by Thai authorities and detained briefly before being sent back to sea on engine-less boats with little food and water.

But Thailand denied the accusation, saying it has never mistreated the Rohingya boat people and that its army had given humane treatment to the boatpeople.

United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) last week requested the Thai government to allow it to access 126 Rohingyas, who they say were detained by Thai authorities at Koh Sai Daeng Island off the Thai coast in the Andaman Sea.

The UNHCR spokesman, Ron Redmond in a statement said, they had requested the Thai government to allow access to the 126 detained Muslim Rohingya boat people in order to assess their situation and determine whether any of them are in need of international protection.

But on Tuesday, Thailand said, the Rohingyas boatpeople are mainly economic migrants and that there are no grounds to believe that they have fled from their country of origin for fear of being persecuted.

"Their profile and their seasonal travel further support the picture that they are illegal migrants, and not those requiring international protection under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951," Thailand's Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

It further said, Thailand is into dialogues with the UNHCR both in Geneva and in Bangkok in this regards and also urged other relevant international organizations along with concerned countries to join hands in tackling the trend of illegal migration in the region.

Thailand said, it stopped each and every boatpeople on their arrival in Thai waters and questioned and had their needs assessed.

"If no evidence is found of their involvement in smuggling activities, they are supported in terms of basic humanitarian needs before undergoing repatriation or escorted out of Thai territory in accordance with Thai laws," the statement.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Burma's state-run newspaper, New Light of Myanmar reported that Burma will assist Thailand in stemming the inflow of Rohingya boat people.

Burma's military strongman number two Vice-Senior General Maung Aye, according to the newspaper offered to assist Thailand's Army Supreme Commander General Songkitti Jaggabatara, during his one-day visit on Monday.

Tun Khin, president of the London based Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), said many Rohingya boatpeople have fled their countries and will continue as conditions back home are worse then the risks they take on sea.

Rohingyas, who are Muslim minorities, mainly reside in parts of Burma's western Arakan state. But are being made stateless by the ruling regime in the form of not issuing national identity cards, Tun Khin said.

"We need permission even for marriage and education and traveling are all banned," Tun Khin, who fled the country to reside in UK because of such persecution, told Mizzima.

Thailand, in the statement, acknowledged that there are at least 20,000 Rohingyas in the Kingdom, while about 300,000 Rohingya refugees are reported to be taking shelter in camps in Bangladesh.

According to Burmese refugees in Malaysia, about 14,000 or more Rohingyas are registered as refugees under the UN refugee agency in Kuala Lumpur.

READ MORE---> More Rohingya boatpeople arrested in Thailand...

Burmese opposition eyes U Lin Myaing's US visit

By Zar Ni

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Burmese Opposition has its eye on former Burmese ambassador to the United States, U Ling Myaing's current visit to the US.

Speculations abound that the visit of U Ling Myaing, who has a reputation of being flexible and diplomatic, has a lot to do with the Burmese efforts at lifting of the economic sanctions imposed by the US on Burma. However, others are of the opinion that he is on a personal tour.

People have also been speculating that the junta uses him because of his reputation of having good relations with the US government, while residing in that country during his diplomatic obligations.

On the other hand, Burmese observers and analysts feel that if he really tries to get the US sanctions imposed on Burma lifted, he will undoubtedly fail.

Thailand- based Burmese analyst U Win Min told Mizzima, "I do not think he will succeed in persuading the US administration to lift the sanctions. It will only be possible depending on the Burmese government's good gesture before the upcoming general elections such as releasing political prisoners and the quantum of political concessions offered to the people".

Former Naval Officer U Lin Myaing served in the Burmese Navy for 26 years. He also worked for the Narcotic Eradication Programme in association with the US government.

With the Burmese junta intensifying its repression against political dissidents and activists by more arrests, doling out harsh prison terms to them, the US government is also moving ahead with their economic sanctions on the junta, targeting the top brass of ruling generals and their cronies.

According to the US Finance Department, they targeted major state-run businesses, the senior officials of the junta, the cronies and cohorts of the ruling junta and their economic networks and empires. Currently over 100 people are under this economic sanction.

When ousted Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt was in power, the military regime hired DCI lobby firm at the cost of USD 300,000 for lifting the US sanctions and facilitating recognition of the junta by the US government.

However, the junta stopped all its dealings with DCI later and U Lin Myaing lobbied on their behalf besides performing his diplomatic duties. He lobbied a great deal with US Congressmen, the diplomatic community said.

According to intimate friends of U Lin Myaing, he is tolerant and flexible and he managed to contain the US government's economic sanctions on Burma to some extent, with his diplomatic skill.

During his diplomatic tour to the US, under Gen. Khin Nyunt's policy, he met and discussed with the opposition parties in the US. In these meetings, he persuaded and organized these opposition parties to oppose the US economic sanctions on Burma.

When Gen. Khin Nyunt was ousted from his post in 2004, he was recalled to Burma along with many other diplomats and reassigned to the Foreign Ministry as Director General.

After two years, he retired from this post and is currently working as advisor to a company, which has close proximity with the top brass of the ruling military generals.

READ MORE---> Burmese opposition eyes U Lin Myaing's US visit...

Voice of desperation from Mandalay

By Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - U Maung, nudging 70 years or more, was taken aback when he received a notification in mid-January to evacuate his two-storey apartment building.

"I don't know where to go and what to do," says U Maung, as he talks about the notification that ordered him to leave his dear home, which he had bought a decade ago.

"The government wants it back," he said, "It's their property. I only have to plead as there is nothing else I can do."

U Maung resides in one of the two-storied small apartments on the 30th Street in Mandalay's former Police Academy compound. His worries are that an order from the Police Academy, now known as Central Police Training School, also known as Yabakah, has stated that his apartment will be retaken by the concerned police department.

"They have ordered us to evacuate our houses latest by March 31," U Maung explained in a quavering tone over telephone.

His worries are shared by several others, who like him had bought the police academy owned apartments. There are at least, 250 to 300 apartments in the entire police academy owned compound.

In the mid 1990s the Police Academy, which is the only police training school in Upper Burma, engaged private construction companies to build several two-storey apartments in and around its main training field and in parts of its officer's quarters.

The stretch of area covers the blocks of streets from 31st, 30th, 29th, 28th that runs across North to South and 66th, 67th, and 68th that runs across East to West in Chan Aye Thar Zan Township and parts of Aung Mya Thar Zan Township's police officer quarters.

U Maung said he bought the apartment from a private construction company with a contract to pay a monthly fee of 1000 Kyat (later increased to 3000 Kyat) to the police Academy as contribution to their fund.

"I was never told that we could be evacuated like this without any compensation," U Maung says.

But he said he had been afraid that his wildest nightmares would come true someday, when after about a year of moving into his newly bought apartment in 1996, he received a letter from the Police Academy and was made to sign.

"The letter was undersigned by the head of the academy and it stated - We understand that the land is owned by the Academy while the building belongs to us," U Maung said.

"We were then made to sign the letter."

But he said his fears subsided when police officers in the neighborhood told him that it was a mere formality and that nobody would force him out of his house.

"I was beginning to feel that their words were true but suddenly in mid-January I received this notification," U Maung told Mizzima in shaky tone.

To the dismay of U Maung, an officer at the Central Police Training School in Zeepinkone near Pyin Oo Lwin, about 45 miles Northeast of Mandalay, told Mizzima on Tuesday that the order was issued not only to those apartment owners in Mandalay but in all the states and divisions across the country.

"The order is from the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is for in all parts of the country," the officer said, adding that the order is to evacuate all residential houses constructed in and around police owned compounds.

"I don't know the reasons for the order but residents have to evacuate before the end of March or we will be compelled to take necessary action according to the law," the officer said.

The officer said, though the Central Police Training School had been shifted to Zeepinkone near Pyin Oo Lwin, the former Police Academy Compound in Mandalay still remains under their administration, but he failed to provide any possible reasons for re-claiming the area.

The Central Police Training School, before being shifted to Zeepinkone in the mid-1990s, filled up its previous training grounds with apartment buildings leaving only a small open field unoccupied.

"But it does account for good payment for them," U Maung said, "as they have increased the monthly contribution to 3000 kyat. They are collecting hundreds of thousands every month."

Desperate residents including U Maung have gathered in small meetings and have come up with a plan to appeal to the Ministry of Home affairs in Naypyitaw and to Burma's military supremo Snr. Gen Than Shwe personally.

"I don't know what will be the outcome. As of now we can only hope and pray that they [the junta] would be merciful and do not take away our houses," U Maung says.

"Because this is all I have and I have no where else to go," he adds.

Some part of the information contributed by The The

READ MORE---> Voice of desperation from Mandalay...

Probe questions fate of refugees in Thailand

This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees
being towed out to sea by the Thai army.


This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees
being processed on a remote Thai beach.


This picture taken December 23 by a tourist to
Thailand's Similan Islands shows handcuffed
refugees under guard.


This photo taken December 23 by a tourist to the
Similan Islands shows refugees grouped on a
beach, far right.


Photograph released by Thai navy showing a group
of illegal immigrants captured on December 12.

By Dan Rivers

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Bedraggled, hungry and dazed, the refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand after fleeing one of the most repressive governments in the world -- the hard-line military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

But a CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees -- members of a Muslim minority group -- abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand, at the hands of Thai authorities.

Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose and abandoned.

One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea.

For days, accusations have been carried in several regional papers that the Thai army has been systematically towing boat-loads of Rohingya refugees far out to sea and setting them adrift.

The army denied it, and the Thai government has launched an inquiry.

CNN's investigation -- based on accounts from tourists, sources in Thailand and a Rohingya refugee who said he was on a boat towed back out to sea -- helps to piece together a picture of survival thwarted by an organized effort not just to repel arriving refugees, but to hold them prisoner on shore, drag them in flimsy boats far out to sea and then abandon them. Video Watch CNN's investigation into reports of refugees being set adrift »

Three tourists recently voiced concern to CNN over what they had seen -- and in some cases photographed -- near Thailand's tourist areas.

One tourist provided CNN with photos last week of refugees detained by Thai authorities on a beach near a tourist site, with the refugees prone on the sun-bleached sand while guards stood nearby.

"Whenever someone raised their head or moved, they [guards] would strike them with a whip," said Australian tourist Andrew Catton.

A CNN crew traveled to a remote stretch of the Thai coast four hours north of the tourist island of Phuket to investigate the growing reports that the Thai military was secretly detaining Rohingya refugees before towing them out to sea and setting them adrift.

In an isolated beach area, debris including sandals and campfire remnants indicated that large numbers of people had been there but were nowhere to be seen.

The crew then traveled to a nearby island, where residents reported that refugees who had escaped were living in the jungle.

In one hamlet, villagers had captured a Rohingya man they believed had been living in the jungle for days.

The refugee, who identified himself as Iqbal Hussain, told CNN he was on one of six boats in a makeshift refugee fleet that arrived in Thailand in December.

He said all six boats with their refugee cargo were towed back out to sea in January, and five of the six boats sank. His boat made it back to shore, and he hid in the jungle for days until nearby villagers captured him.

In broken English and using sign language and drawings, he described what happened to the other men on the boats:

"All men dead," he said, putting the number of dead at several hundred.

The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years, in search of a better life.

In Thailand, many instead have found deprivation and the possibility of desertion far off shore, according to the CNN investigation.

The source who provided CNN with photos of refugees in a boat being towed out to sea stressed that the Thai army had given the refugees food and water, but he also confirmed that the boats had been pulled for more than two days into international waters before they were set adrift.

His account directly contradicts briefings by senior Thai army sources who denied any such operation was undertaken.

A source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. But the source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was always given sufficient supplies of food and water.

That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them.

CNN asked the government for comment and was told an investigation was being launched. Reflecting the sensitivity of the matter, a report on that investigation is expected to go directly to the prime minister.

READ MORE---> Probe questions fate of refugees in Thailand...

More proof refugee boats towed to sea

PRESSURE mounted on Thailand today to come clean on allegations the army towed Rohingya refugees out to sea and abandoned them in engine-less boats, after CNN showed pictures depicting exactly that.

The Rohingyas are Muslims from northwest Burma.

Many have fled the Bhuddist-dominated, military-ruled country, where they say they face repression and economic hardship.

The cable news channel also interviewed a Rohingya man captured by a civilian militia on one remote Thai island in the Andaman Sea, who said he had been on one of six refugee boats that arrived in December.

The boats were towed back out to sea in January but five of them sank, the visibly distressed man said in a mixture of broken English and sign language.

"All men ... dead," said the man, identified as Iqbal Hussein, corroborating other survivors' reports of boats cut adrift without engines and hundreds of migrants left to die.

The Government's chief spokesman declined immediate comment, saying all questions should be directed to the Foreign Ministry.

Rohingya rights groups and survivors who washed up on India's Andaman Islands and Aceh in Indonesia in the last four weeks say 992 migrants were towed out in two separate episodes in December.

Of the 992, 550 are thought to be missing, feared drowned.

The army colonel at the centre of the abuse allegations has denied any wrongdoing, and said the migrants were given food and water and helped on their way after Thai villagers repaired their boats.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has promised a full investigation, but has also issued on behalf of the military a blanket denial of any abuse.

As a result of decades of persecution, more than 230,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, according to the UN refugee agency.

Tens of thousands more have fled, normally in rickety wooden boats,
in search of a better life elsewhere.

Many have ended up in Malaysia.

News.com

READ MORE---> More proof refugee boats towed to sea...

Rohingyas face 'slow burning genocide': Activist

By Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - At least a hundred Rohingya ethnics and supporters on Monday gathered in front of the Thai and Burmese embassies in London, to stage a protest demanding just treatment to fellow Rohingya boat people, who are allegedly being detained by Thai authorities.

Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK), who led the demonstration, said they are concerned about their fellow Rohingya boat people, who are reportedly detained by Thai authorities and have been towed away to sea on boats without engine.

"We call on the Thai government to find a long term solution to the problem and urge them to exercise restraint from towing away our unfortunate brothers into the sea," Tun Khin said.

Migration of Rohingyas, who mainly reside in parts of Burma's western Arakan state, in search of greener pastures will persist until the root cause is solved, Tun Khin said.

"Towing them away to the sea is not a solution to the problem," he added.

According to Tun Khin, Rohingyas, who are Muslim minorities in military-ruled Burma, face the worst form of human rights violation under the military regime. They are deprived of being a citizen and are required to get permission even for marriage.

Rohingyas are banned from travelling within Burma, education and the right to own properties such as land, house and others are denied by the ruling junta, Tun Khin said.

"These [boatpeople] desperate as they are at home, are risking their lives out in the sea and are going out in search of a better place. And these waves are not going to end unless the root causes are solved," he added.

In recent months, since December, hundreds of Rohingya boat people have been reported rescued from drifting near the coast of Andaman Islands in India and at Sabang in Aceh province of Indonesia.

Survivors said, they were arrested and detained by the Thai military as they crossed the Thai waters, and were towed away in wooden boats without engines with little supply of rice and water. But Thailand has denied mistreating the Rohingya boat people.

The boatpeople were reportedly heading for Malaysia and Thailand in search of jobs and security.

Tun Khin said, this is only the tip of the iceberg of the problem and several more are likely to follow unless the Thai government as well as the international community acts to stop persecutions in Burma.

He said, the Burmese junta is targeting them in particular and are forcing them to be stateless, as younger generations of the Rohingyas are no longer issued national identity cards.

"It is a slow burning genocide," he said.

READ MORE---> Rohingyas face 'slow burning genocide': Activist...