Burma Newscasts

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

KIO deadline for people's suggestion on armed wing

Written by KNG

One of Burma's main ethnic ceasefire groups the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has fixed June 30 as the deadline to garner suggestions from Kachins in Burma and abroad on the contentious issue of transforming its armed wing --- the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), said KIO sources. The Burmese military junta has proposed that the armed wing be changed into a battalion of a border security force under it.

The deadline to receive letters was announced on May 30 in the KIO and KIA leaders-led Kachin public meeting in Laiza HQ or border business centre on the Sino-Burma border in Burma's northern Kachin State, said residents.

At the meeting, people were given a run down about the ruling junta's proposal to transform the KIA as a "Border Security Force" battalion in two recent meetings between KIO leaders and the junta's military officials in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina on April 28 and May 21, said participants.

The situation was explained by top KIO leaders --- Vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, Vice-president No. 2 Dr. Manam Tu Ja and General Secretary Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, according to participants.

Asking questions to KIO leaders at the meeting regarding transforming KIA was not allowed. However letters of suggestion and comments on the proposed transformation from individuals and organizations were sought by the end of June, added participants.

Maj-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng, Chief of Staff of KIA, who also attended the meeting, said "The armed struggle has come about because the political problems between the KIO and the junta could not be solved by political means."

He also rejected the transformation of the KIA, "The issue of changing KIA will be the last in the agenda after all the problems have been solved between the KIO and the junta. The army (KIA) issue is placed at the edge or the tip and the political problems must be resolved first."

The junta's proposal states KIA will have to transform to a battalion of the Border Security Force with around 300 soldiers including 30 personnel from the Burmese Army. KIA military personnel of ages ranging from 18 to 50 will be accepted in the new Border Security Force. And all those over 50 years old must retire. Compensation like government pension would be considered for them, said KIO officials.

According to KIO leaders, the junta has asked them to collect lists of KIA personnel of ages ranging from 18 to 50 and those over 50 in August and September. The lists would have to be submitted to the junta.

KIO leaders met the junta's military officials twice in Myitkyina. However they did not come up with any definite answer on whether they will accept the junta's proposal on KIA or not, said KIO leaders.

The junta is also pressurizing other ethnic ceasefire groups in the country to convert their armed units to border security forces.

Burmese Legal Experts Criticize Suu Kyi Trial

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

The absolute control of Burma’s military regime on the country’s judicial system makes the ongoing trial of Aung San Suu Kyi unfree and unfair, according to Burmese legal experts.

Legal experts made their remarks in response to high-ranking junta members who have publicly commented on the trial in recent days.

"If offenders are not [prosecuted], anarchy will prevail, and there will be breach of peace and security," Burmese Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint told a security conference over the weekend, referring to the pro-democracy leader who is now on trial in Insein Prison in Rangoon.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum of defense ministers, academics, experts and analysts, the deputy minister lashed out at foreign critics of Suu Kyi’s trial last weekend, accusing them of meddling in Burmese affairs and denying the trial was a political or human rights issue.

Aye Myint said that Suu Kyi "committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant.”

"Thus there was no option but to proceed with legal proceedings," he said. "It is the universal legal principle that no one is above the law."

Aung Thein, a well-known Burmese lawyer and member of the National League for Democracy party, responded, “Accusing Suu Kyi of being an ‘offender’ even before the decision of a judge shows that Burmese military leaders can influence Burmese laws and courts. Moreover, it is clearly a violation of human rights. They showed that they have decided to put Suu Kyi in prison anyway.”

“To be a fair trial, it must be open and offer a chance to defend freely. Suu Kyi’s trial is grossly unfair because the sole defense witness is Kyi Win [no relation to Suu Kyi’s lawyer Kyi Win]. It shows clearly that Burmese military leaders influenced the judgment of the case. If the executive body were separated from the judicial body, it could not influence the judicial body,” he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint rebuked his counterparts from Southeast Asia and Europe at a meeting in Cambodia last week, saying the trial was an "internal legal" issue.

“It’s not political. It’s not a human rights issue, so we don’t accept the pressure and interference from abroad,” said Maung Myint.

Thein Oo, the chairman of the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) in exile, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, “Suu Kyi’s trial shows that there is no freedom of judgment in Burma, and the Burmese military dominates the courts. It is a characteristic of dictatorships. Aung San Suu Kyi did not get a fair defense, and the trial is closed.”

Kyi Win, the legal expert and member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, argued there was no legal basis to the charge that Suu Kyi had violated the terms of her house arrest when an American citizen secretly swam to her home.

Suu Kyi has entered a not guilty plea. She said last week that the charges against her were “one-sided.” Her lawyers insist it was the duty of government security guards outside her closely watched compound to prevent any intrusions.

The brisk trial has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi supporters, who worry that the military junta has found a way to keep her detained through next year's elections and beyond.

Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate, could be sentenced to prison for five years.

According to the Associated Press, lawyers for pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi said that they had earlier asked the court to allow three defense witnesses. The judge approved one defense witness.

A lawyer for Suu Kyi, Nyan Win, said the defense team would submit an appeal on Tuesday at a division court in Rangoon.

No more testimony is expected in the closed trial until Friday. A guilty verdict is widely expected as Burmese courts have a track record of passing tough sentences on dissidents, often in secret trials.

The Regime’s Hollow Talk of Justice and the Law

The Irrawaddy News

"No one is above the law." The famous prosecution statement is used repeatedly and blissfully by the Burmese junta's senior officials these days.

Stung by global outrage and criticism, including from its closest neighbors in Southeast Asia, the Burmese junta has launched a diplomatic offensive against mounting international pressure to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and halt her unfair trial.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win, his deputy Maung Myint and Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint, attending separate meetings in the region, urged governments not to interfere in their "internal affair."

In the latest statement, on Sunday, Aye Myint said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum of defense ministers, academics, experts and analysts, organized by Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, that Suu Kyi was charged because she allowed a foreigner to stay in her house, communicated with him and provided him food and shelter instead of informing the police.

"It is the universal legal principle that no one is above the law," he declared, adding that the police noted that Suu Kyi "committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant."

Consequently, he said, “there was no option but to proceed with legal proceedings."

It is absurd to contemplate that, without committing any violation of any law, Burma's detained Nobel Peace laureate will probably be found guilty of harboring an American who swam across a lake to her residence. She faces up to five years in prison.

Suu Kyi had been a prisoner in her own home, held there under tight security. If that security had been adequate, no intruder could have entered her property. Until now, however, no action has been taken against any security officials.

Instead, the regime is using Burmese "law," which specifically prohibits unannounced foreign guests, to claim that Suu Kyi and her two live-in party supporters and companions, Khin Khin Win, and her daughter, Win Ma Ma, violated the terms of her house arrest and to put them on trial.

The military authorities charged them under Section 22 of the State Protection Act, which states, "any person against whom action is taken, who opposes, resists, or disobeys any order passed under this Law shall be liable to imprisonment for a period of from three years up to five years, or to a fine of up to 5,000 Kyats, or to both."

According to Suu Kyi's lawyers, the law dates back to 1975 and was part of the 1974 constitution, which was invalidated when the military seized power in 1988. Furthermore, under the junta’s “seven-step road map,” the country approved a new constitution in May 2008 by national referendum, which would also invalidate the 1975 act.

Although ordinary courts now handle high-profile political cases following the abolition of military tribunals in 1992, the hearings are held under heavy military influence.

It is very common for the Supreme Court to appoint judges after approval by the Naypyidaw regime. There are courts at the township, district, state, and national levels.

The junta has used laws such as the Emergency Provisions Act and the Unlawful Associations Act to crack down on dissent. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations have accused the junta of holding unfair trials and arbitrary imprisonment, as well as use of torture and summary execution.

The law in Burma emanates from the barrel of a gun. Although they shamelessly speak about the "law," the regime's officials have no idea about how to follow its rules and regulations. Lawyers point out that Suu Kyi is described as "an offender" even though the court has yet to pass judgment.

It is outrageous to see our justice and judiciary system destroyed by a power-hungry regime and it’s sad to see how Burma’s citizens are denied their basic rights by force of arms.

‘We Won’t Have another Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’

The Irrawaddy News

Khin Ohmar is a secretary of Forum for Democracy in Burma and a spokesperson for a campaign calling for the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. The campaign started on March 13, Burma’s Human Rights Day. On May 26, the campaign announced that it collected more than 650,000 signatures from more than 150 countries around the world. Ohmar spoke to The Irrawaddy regarding the trial of Suu Kyi.

Khin Ohmar

Question: What is your opinion of the current international pressure on the junta?

Answer: In this situation, the obvious factor is that international response is very important at this moment. The junta didn’t perhaps expect this much pressure. It has been so obvious to see how much the international community admires and respects Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They were seen to try to take actions rather than issuing statements as they did before. For example, there was huge support from the United Kingdom, as a government, which created a Web site with the intention of describing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. At least, the United Nations Security Council issued a statement. China and Russia will neither think of discussing it [the matter of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi], nor easily accept it. But due to the immediate response of the UK, US and France, a statement came out. Also, Asean and Thailand issued strong statements [on the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi].

Anyway, it is clear that most of the governments have plans to continue follow-up actions, not just issue their statements. It is different from what we saw before.

Q: What will the international community do if the junta puts Aung San Suu Kyi in prison?

A: At this time, the junta has to either release her or put her under house arrest, which is also unrealistic. So, I think the junta must give her a prison sentence. The international community is also aware of what the junta is going to do, and it won’t stop putting pressure on the junta.

The junta has been using ways to demean Suu Kyi. We have to see how much the international community and individual governments can cooperate with each other to seek a practical solution which is beneficial to our country.

It is not easy. That’s why [our struggle] has lasted such a long time, because China and Russia have blocked [the UNSC] from doing anything on Burma.
But I don’t see the international pressure decreasing. It will even increase, but what is needed from them are practical actions.

Q: What do you think about the role of exiled Burmese opposition groups?

A: We demanded Asean to send a special delegation team to meet with the Burmese junta and ask for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Another is for the US, EU and Asean to impose economic sanctions targeted individually on the junta. Currently, the international community is putting immediate diplomatic pressure on the junta. The UNSC should call an emergency meeting and pass a resolution on the Burma issue. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should actively show his personal involvement to draw up a plan in which all key countries are able to become involved and all parties can agree. When Mr. Ban Ki-moon goes to Burma to meet the junta, he shouldn’t accept anything without the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

Another issue is that the US appointed a special envoy to Burma former but the incumbent President Obama hasn’t finalized it yet. Asean hasn’t so far had a special envoy as well. Therefore, we demanded the US and Asean appoint special envoys and send them to Burma for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We already told the EU special envoy to go to Burma. All of these are diplomatic means. If all these efforts fail to persuade the junta to stop the trial and release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, another step is for the UNSC to impose an arm embargo on Burma and to form a commission to inquiry into the crimes committed by the junta.

We are preparing to send these demands to the office of the UN secretary-general.

They reflect the concerted efforts of all leading exiled political organizations, women and youth groups.

Q: As a woman, how do you view the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi?

A: This event can be viewed through the gender issue because Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the junta’s No 1 leader, is a masculine general while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a feminine democratic leader, is seen as his rival, and to say the truth, a woman who will bring his power to an end. A thin lady who is younger than Than Shwe has won not only the heart of the Burmese people but also that of the people of the world.

To be sure, Than Shwe receives the love of his family and grandchildren, but not the loving-kindness of the people. To view the situation from Than Shwe’s perspective, he will surely want the love of the people, but know that he can’t win it. In this sense, he must have personal hatred, anger and jealousy towards her. What is more troubling is that the woman who is younger than him has a better capacity than he has even though he, as a general, has the power to rule the whole country. Therefore, hatred and jealousy of Than Shwe drove him to take revenge on her.

The junta knows well that wherever Suu Kyi goes, the people follow her from dawn to night. She doesn’t need a single weapon to organize the people. On the contrary, the junta doesn’t dare to step into the crowd of the people even though they possess huge armed forces. This is the biggest threat to them.

The only weapon that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has is the people behind her. She is never reluctant to face anything for the truth. She is a woman as well as a mother of two sons and grandchildren. She could have had a peaceful life together with her family. She has all the basic needs of a human being. Even though she could have lived such a life, she has been sacrificing all of her self-interest and family life. For truth and democracy, she tolerates the current situation and doesn’t even hate the generals, who can never compete with her nobility.

History will tell the truth if they continue to do their misdeeds with hatred while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi firmly stands up for [democracy] courage and honesty. The generals know she can not compete with their might, but her popularity is greater than theirs

As a woman, I have concerns about her. She is going to be 64 and will be living under poor conditions, either in prison or under house arrest. And then, I can imagine the extent to which she can receive healthcare when she has the health problems that a woman usually has. I can imagine the hatred she receives under the junta’s atrocious behaviour. I’m really worried about her security.

I was astonished when I saw her face on the TV. Whenever I feel depressed, I try to see her face in my mind and ask myself how she can stand up for all of us. When I recently saw her during her meeting with three diplomats and her entry into the court, her face was clear, peaceful and clam. As usual, she has neither worry nor fear.

Such a mindset doesn’t fear even an army of a million soldiers. She is really an incredible person. Her firm stand [on democracy], and her strong mental as well as physical health proves she herself is free from fear.

Q: What is your view on the feelings and mood of the Burmese people?

A: I would like to say that I am worried about the people not only for the time being, but also for the future. The people have been living under extreme fear. I am worried that they have lost their motivation, leading them to become inactive. I am not blaming them, and we can’t blame them under this extreme repression.

Back to the 1990 movement, if something happened to a student, other students followed; so did their parents at the same time. But now when the Buddhist monks are beaten and put into prisons, the extreme level of fear among the people makes them unable to come out onto the streets.

We won’t have another Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the future. It is very important that we must rebuild our country together with the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the people fine it difficult to see the importance of this, because it is more for them to have two good meals a day. Another factor in fear is they don’t want to be arrested and put into prison. They fear these matters more than 24 hours of a day. As a result, the people see only a short distance ahead in their lives. I am worried about that.

While I live in exile, I don’t think it is fair for me to tell people what they should do. But I have the desire to make them active. All the people both inside and outside the country must cooperate and work together for change in our country.

I want to say to all people: Please don’t sit and accept the injustice done to our leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who faces an unfair trial. While living outside the country, I have been doing my best [to change Burma]. At the same time, I want to say to people inside the country, join together hand-in-hand to stand up for our struggle against injustice.

Hints of Burma-Thailand Tension Appear in State-run Media

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

The Burmese state-run-media hinted on Tuesday of increased tension between the military junta and the current Thai chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) over comments he made about the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burmese newspapers published a story about the Asean-EU meeting in Phnom Penh on May 27-28 which Burmese deputy foreign minister Maung Myint attended.

The story briefly outlined Thailand’s expression of concern over charges against Suu Kyi at an informal meeting on May 27.

In response, Maung Myint was quoted as saying, “The matter no longer needs to be put on the agenda of the Asean-EU meeting,” contending it had already been discussed during the Hanoi meeting.

Like other Burmese officials, Maung Myint called Suu Kyi’s trial “a matter of internal legal process.”

Burmese newspapers reported that Maung Myint said “some neighboring nations were unreasonably interested in the hearing of the case” at the Asean-EU meeting on May 28.

The deputy minister was quoted as saying at the meeting, “Actually, it is Thailand that needs to forge national reconciliation. Thailand saw year-long demonstrations in which different groups in red, yellow and blue made an attempt to oust the government and jeopardize the Asean Summit.”

Rejecting the reactions of the international community over Suu Kyi’s trial, Maung Myint said the case was not “a political or human rights issue.”

A separate Thailand-Burma story published in Myanma Alin under the headline: “Thailand should not be tension [sic] with Burma, warned Gen Sonthi.”

Quoting a story from Bankok’s Thai Rath newspaper on May 28, Myanma Alin reported on Tuesday that Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the 2006 coup maker who ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, warned that “if Thailand has a conflict with Burma, it will face defeat.”

Sonthi was quoted as saying that Burma has onshore and offshore natural resources and it has resources that can produce nuclear power, according to the report in Myanma Alin.

Sonthi’s remark came just a day after Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya’s was quoted as making a critical comment on Burma in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

“The changes in Myanmar are very much needed,” he was quoted as saying on Monday. “It not only is a necessity for the security of Myanmar but also for all the neighboring countries including Bangladesh and Thailand.”

According to Dhaka’s newspapers, Kasit said the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh went through military regimes “to some extent.”

”All of us have got rid of military authoritative regimes and emerged to have democratic societies,” he said. He suggested that Indonesia was a good model for Burma’s democratization.

"So the question to be posed on Myanmar is why can't they also emerge from that to an open society? It would be good for the whole region. It would be good for all of us,” he said.

Normally, Thailand’s relationship with Burma has been relatively stable since the 1988 military coup in Burma, largely because of Thailand’s “business first policy.” Thailand was the first country to invest in Burma after the brutal Burmese military crackdown on demonstrators. Currently, it is the Burmese regime’s biggest trade partner.

However, there was some tension between the neighboring countries when Thailand was governed by the Democratic Party in the late 1990s. Thailand’s foreign minister attempted to replace Asean’s “constructive engagement” policy on Burma with a more pro-active “flexible engagement” policy.

Currently, the Democratic party again governs in Thailand and is openly making more critical comments about Burma and the trial of Suu Kyi.

Several other Asean members including Asean founders Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, have made similar critical statements over the trial of Suu Kyi. Cambodia also has expressed a statement of concern.

Most Asean members have supported Thailand’s critical statement on the trial of Suu Kyi and the release of all political prisoners, because they see the issue as a challenge to the new Asean Charter, which has a human rights body.

Civil Servants Briefed on Suu Kyi ‘Scandal’

By AUNG THET WINE
The Irrawaddy News

RANGOON — The Burmese military government has ordered its civil servants in Naypyidaw not to criticize the junta and not to get involved in anti-government demonstrations, according to sources close to government officials in Naypyidaw.

In May, at governmental monthly meetings in Burma’s remote capital, Naypyidaw, all ministry officials instructed department heads to tell their subordinates to obey the order. Otherwise, they were told they would be punished or forced to resign.

A deputy director who works at a government ministry in Naypyidaw and who didn’t want to be named said that department heads were instructed to read out an order to their staff and to inform them about the Aung San Suu Kyi “scandal.”

Naypyidaw sources said that the content of the statement that was read out to government employees went along the lines of: “... Suu Kyi had an affair with an Indian gardener while she lived in India. After moving to England, she lived with a Burmese man before she got married to Michael Aris. The British government paid the travel costs for her return trip to Burma.”

The statement also alleged that some members of her party, the National League for Democracy, didn’t like her.

With regard to the current trial of Suu Kyi, ministry heads were reportedly ordered to tell their staff that the government had warned her many times about creating political instability in the country. However, she hadn’t heeded the warnings and was, therefore, being held in detention.

The statement went on to say that the military junta planned to release her on May 27; however, she accepted an American citizen into her house and so she was charged in accordance with the law.

The internal statement also reportedly included a denial by the junta that it had anything to do with the Depayin Massacre in 2003 when dozens of NLD supporters were beaten to death.

Department heads were told to conclude the statement by telling staff that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is a puppet of Western nations and that the West will put more pressure on Burma’s civil service if she is sentenced to jail. That is why, government employees were told, they should not become involved in the matter.

The ministry deputy director who wished to remain anonymous said that department heads were instructed to remind staff to concentrate on their own work and not get involved in the Suu Kyi trial. Otherwise, he said, they were told they would be fired.

The military government has also alerted the ministries for education, health, and science and technology to pass word down to the authorities at institutes, universities, colleges and state high schools that no demonstrations should be allowed to happen within their areas of responsibility, according to an associate professor at a Rangoon-based university.

The government also ordered educational authorities to prepare for more security guards within their grounds.

“The ministry officials told us if we found political campaign materials or discovered political activists at our universities, we had to inform the school authorities,” said the associate professor.

According to a source in Naypyidaw, some of the military officials in the capital are unsatisfied with the recent government charges against Suu Kyi. He said that even though the government was trying to restrict information being passed around the civil service, many government workers continue to talk about it.

Burmese pro-democracy icon Suu Kyi was last week brought before judges at Insein Special Court charged with violating the rules of her house arrest by allowing American intruder John William Yettaw to stay overnight at her Inya Lake home on May 3-5.

The trial is due to reconvene on Friday.

DKBA Starts Border Guard Recruitment

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a ceasefire group, has begun forcibly recruiting people to serve as border guards in compliance with orders from Burma’s ruling junta, according to Karen sources.

A Karen source close to the DKBA said that the ceasefire group recently started a three-month recruitment drive in villages in its territory. New recruits will then receive training from the Burmese army, said the source.

DKBA troops march in a parade. (Photo: Shah Paung/ The Irrawaddy)

Saw Steve, a head of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People, a Karen relief group, said the DKBA started rounding up villagers to serve as border guards in areas under its control, including Thaton and Pa-an districts, last month.

Some villagers were threatened with arrest by DKBA soldiers if they refused to join the new border security force, he said.

In January, the DKBA was told by the Burmese regime in Naypyidaw to provide border guards under the terms of Burma’s new constitution.

According to Karen sources in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, opposite Myawaddy in Burma’s Karen State, some people in villages under DKBA control have begun fleeing to Thailand to escape forced recruitment.

“Some villagers don’t want to serve as soldiers, so they are running to Thailand,” said the source close to the DKBA.

The DKBA, which signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military regime after splitting from the Karen National Union in 1995, is one of many groups that are facing increasing pressure from the Burmese army to transform themselves into border security forces.

Under the new scheme, the border guards would be commanded by officers of the Burmese army. The move is seen as a way to effectively disarm the ceasefire groups.

So far, however, few of the key ceasefire groups have shown any interest in falling in line with the junta’s plan.

Last month, two major ceasefire groups—the New Mon State Party and the United Wa State Army—rejected instructions from the junta to transform their soldiers into border guards under the joint-command of the Burmese army.

Another strong ethnic ceasefire group, the Kachin Independence Organization, has not yet made a decision regarding the Burmese regime’s plan. The organization said that it would carefully consider the junta’s proposal.

Bomb alert in Arakan State

by Nyein Chan

Dakha (Mizzima) – Authorities in Arakan State in western Burma have alerted government offices of possible bomb attacks by foreign-based armed groups.

Authorities have alerted Border Security Forces in the Maungdaw and Budithaung District and Township Council offices, Immigration offices, Post & Telegraph offices and local banks of a possible bomb attack, ordering government employees to guard the targeted locations, local residents said.

“The order was given by the command of the Border Security Force. They said they have received information that government offices in Maungdaw and Budithaung will be targeted for bomb attacks,” a clerk at the Maungdaw Township Peace and Development Council office told Mizzima.

Reportedly, government employees have been ordered to group into fours and asked to guard the offices from six p.m. to six a.m., with Police and Immigration heads also requested to join the vigil in addition to police and soldiers patrolling roads in the towns.

Several ethnic armed rebellion groups, including the Chin National Front and Arakan Liberation Party in addition to Rohingya armed groups, are fighting for self-determination in the region and have been known to operate along the Burma-Bangladesh border.

But Major Khine Myo Min, General Secretary of the Arakan Liberation Party, said, “The ALP has never set off any explosions. Especially we have never bombed or targeted civilians. If we ever have plans to do it [carry out bombings], we will target military buildings, military barracks and places concerned with defense affairs. We will avoid any actions that could hurt people and would avoid civilian casualties as much as possible.”

Call for the release of NLD Vice-Chairman Tin Oo

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – While the world remains fixated on the trial of National League for Democracy (NLD) Chairman Aung San Suu Kyi, a veteran politician has called on the international community to press equally hard for the release of the party's Vice-Chairman, Tin Oo, who is being held under house arrest.

Win Tin, veteran journalist and Central Executive Committee member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Tuesday said while monitoring the trial against party leader Aung San Suu Kyi and pressing for her release is important, the international community should also push the military rulers to release Tin Oo.

“I would like to urge the authorities to release him because his five years [detention] is already completed,” Win Tin told Mizzima.

Tin Oo, a retired military General, was arrested along with Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on May 31, 2003, after a brutal attack on their motorcade by a junta-backed mob during a political tour in the town of Depayin in upper Burma.

Win Tin, a former political prisoner himself, said Tin Oo, like Aung San Suu Kyi, has passed more than five years of detention and is thus due to be released.

“There is nothing that we can do except raise our voices for his release,” he added.

Tin Oo, following the brutal attack in Depayin, was initially taken to a prison in Kale Township in Sagaing Division. But in February 2004 he was brought back to Rangoon, where he has remained under house arrest ever since.

Tin Oo, as was the case with Aung San Suu Kyi, is being kept detained under section 10 (b) of the Law Safeguarding the State from Danger and Subversive Elements, which allows the state to detain individuals up to a maximum of five years.

Win Tin said even if the junta counts Tin Oo’s detention date commencing from February 2004, the duration of the sentence is now still more than five years and counting, and hence in violation of Burmese law.

However, the junta, in February 2009, announced the extension of his house arrest for yet another year.

Bo Kyi, co-founder and Joint-Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), based in Thailand, on Tuesday said that the continued detention of Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi clearly shows the lack of respect for the rule of law in Burma.

“Actually, they [Tin Oo and Suu Kyi] should be the ones to prosecute the authorities for their brutality in Depayin, but it has turned into the opposite. This shows that there is no rule of law in Burma,” Bo Kyi stipulated.

On Sunday, the junta’s Deputy Defense Minister told a regional security meeting in Singapore that the trial against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being conducted according Burmese law, a domestic affair in which no other states or external parties should interfere.

He said the trial was in keeping with the universal legal principle that no one is above the law; further arguing, “If offenders of the law are not faced with action, anarchy will prevail and there will be a breach of peace and security.”

Tin Oo, an ex-military man, is well respected among soldiers. He was also among the founding members of the National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in the 1990 election, the result of which has never been honored by the military.

DG of Meteorology and Hydrology Department resigns

by May Kyaaw

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Dr. Tun Lwin, the Director General of Burma’s Meteorology and Hydrology Department has tendered his resignation, departmental sources said.

Though the reason for his resignation is still not clear, it is learnt that the 61-year old Dr. Tun Lwin has begun to hand over charge to his successor.

“Saya (boss) is not working here now. He resigned from his post on health grounds,” a staff member of the Meteorology Department told Mizzima.

Dr. Tun Lwin had also been working as announcer of the weather forecast in the state-media since 1980 in his capacity as DG.

Till Cyclone Nargis, he was known as a credible and reliable person relating to weather forecast. He was also known in media circles as a media-friendly person.

After the contentious Cyclone Nargis warning in May 2008 where the department failed to provide warning in time through the media, he became the epitome of failure. He was in short, in the eye of the storm.

According to unconfirmed reports from sources close to government circles, in the wake of Cyclone Nargis the regime planned to sack him and make him a scapegoat. But surprisingly he was conferred with a doctorate degree instead and he became Dr. Tun Lwin of the Meteorology and Hydrology Department.

According to civil service rules and regulations in Burma, the superannuation age is 65. He surprisingly retired from his post at 61.

Dr. Tun Lwin was born in Kala village, Ngazun Township, Sagaing Division in 1948.

He graduated with Physics as his major in Burma and then studied Meteorology and Hydrology in Florida, US.

He won the Distinguished Service 2nd Class medal in Industry in 2003 and the regime conferred on him a honourary doctorate degree in 2008.

He served as a permanent member of the International Meteorology and Hydrology Association in 2006 and Asia Region Natural Disaster Prevention and Preparation Council, Burma Chapter Chairman in 2007.

(Additional reporting by Sein Win)

Free Suu Kyi campaign with her portrait distribution

by Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A ‘free Aung San Suu Kyi campaign’ has started with the distribution of the democracy icon’s portraits in Yenanchaung, Magwe Division and Myingyan in Mandalay Division, local people and the National League for Democracy party members said.

Youth activists and Yenanchaung NLD Township Organizing Committee members jointly conducted the ‘free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi campaign’ by distributing 500 prints of her portraits in their area starting yesterday. The people from religious backgrounds and all other walks of life took the portraits with great enthusiasm, they said.

“The Township Organizing Committee members distributed the prints at teashops in their area. People from cheroot factories and many local people, especially in the market area came and asked for the prints. We gave them only to the people who enthusiastically asked for it. There were villagers coming to the market by cars and motorboats. Some people came from the west side (of Irrawaddy River). Some monks and novices took the portraits to their villages. The campaign was successful,” Yenanchaugn Township NLD Vice-Chairman Daw Khin Saw Htay told Mizzima.

In developed countries, they are forging ahead successfully on the five pillars of the executive, the judiciary, the legislature, the media and education. But in Burma civil war is still raging and the country is still backward and underdeveloped and wallowing in abject poverty. The regime should join hands with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on whom ethnic people repose trust to stop this civil war, she added.

While the campaign was on there was no harassment by the local authorities in Yenanchaung but the police closely monitored the situation in Myingyan. They questioned some of the campaigners.

A youth campaigner in Myingyan, who took part in the movement said: “We distributed photographs in the blocks and wards yesterday. Today we distributed about 3,000 copies in Myingyan municipal market and Ayemyathida market. Soon after that, the police heard about it and they came and watched the situation. They asked shopkeepers in the market, who were the people who had come and distributed the prints. The police deployed its forces around the market and at the busy and crowded intersections in the town. The people, however, welcomed the campaign. The most favourite portrait of Daw Suu is the one with her standing by her father Bogyoke’s (General) side,” he said.

Similar movements were launched in Meiktila yesterday. The portraits went out of stock as people from Yawngshwe and Mandalay asked for more and more copies.

The campaigners said that they would ceaselessly continue the movement.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Former Burmese intelligence official ‘would testify’ at ICC

(DVB)–A former Burmese senior intelligence official and ambassador to Washington has said he would testify against Burma’s ruling generals if they are eventually brought in front of the International Criminal Court.

On Saturday Burma marked the six-year anniversary of the Depayin massacre, in which 70 supporters of opposition National League for Democracy party were killed by a government-backed militia.

The massacre happened whilst Aung San Suu Kyi had been campaigning for supporters, and following the incident she was placed under house arrest.

Speaking to DVB on the anniversary, Aung Lin Htut, who served as the junta’s deputy ambassador in Washington before he sought asylum in the US in 2005, supported the idea of bringing the junta to the ICC.

“I myself would testify if [junta leader Than Shwe] is taken to the international court,” he said.

“Even if I am imprisoned, I could appear as witness.”

The comments were backed by the general secretary of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council, Aung Htoo, who is campaigning to take those responsible for the Depayin massacre to the ICC.

“The most obvious point about Depayin is that no one was arrested and no action was taken against a serious crime known to the country and the world,” he said.

“[The authorities] not only failed to take responsibility for the security, it was also arranged that people who take the security responsibility commit the crime.”

Burma’s military government, and Than Shwe in particular, are said to be shaken by the idea of being taken to the ICC.

A number of people have suggested recently that the spiraling human rights situation in Burma, particularly regarding the use of child soldiers and increasing numbers of political prisoners, warranted attention from the ICC.

Last week, Thai MP Kraisak Choonhavan, who also heads the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, said the junta should be brought to court.

“If they [ICC] are in their right mind and they go through the facts, there is no denying that [junta leader] Than Shwe and his cronies should be persecuted at the ICC,” he said.

Similarly, a group of over 60 British MPs last month called for a United Nations commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.

And in April, former senior legal adviser to the ICC, Morten Bergsmo, said that the Burmese army’s use of child soldiers could constitute a war crime.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

Will ceasefire groups yield to junta’s pressure?

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese military junta is gearing up for another round of talks with the armed ceasefire group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), after it rejected the junta’s proposal to hand over control of its army.

An UWSA officer on Friday told Mizzima that the junta’s Chief Military Affairs Security (MAS) Lt-Gen Ye Myint is planning to pay a second visit to the UWSA in an attempt to persuade the group to accept the junta’s proposal.

“We heard that he [Ye Myint] will come again and talk about the proposal,” the UWSA official, who spoke to Mizzima on condition of anonymity, said.

“This comes after we informed the Burmese military government in Naypyitaw of our decision that we have decided to reject their proposal to turn our army into a border guard force controlled by them,” he added.

He, however, failed to mention the venue and time for the forthcoming meeting between UWSA’s leaders and Ye Myint.

In late April, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, held separate talks with delegations of several armed ceasefire groups including the UWSA, Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), Myanmar National Democratic Allied Army (MNDAA) and the National Democratic Allied Army (NDAA) in eastern Shan State.

Similarly, the Commander of the Northern Military Command, Maj-Gen Soe Win also met the Kachin Independent Organization/Army (KIO/A) and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state in northern Burma.

During the meeting, military officials proposed to the groups to transform their armies into a ‘Border Guard’ force, which will be under the administration of the Burmese Army.

According to the proposal, each battalion of border guard force will have 326 soldiers of which 30 will be Burmese soldiers. The salaries, rations, and other allowances for the soldiers would be paid by the junta. The administration of the force will include a few officers from the Burmese Army.

The UWSA, which signed a cease-fire pact with the regime in 1989, following its meeting on May 19, decided to retain its army and not to comply with the junta’s proposal.

“We think it is too early to reform our army as now we are in the transition period. We would like to keep the army,” the official told Mizzima.

The official added that transforming their army would undermine their decade-long armed struggle.

Along with the UWSA, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (MNDAA-ESS), Myanmar National Democratic Allied Army (MNDAA) and Shan State Army-North have reportedly rejected the junta’s proposal.

The decision apparently came after leaders of the UWSA, MNDAA-ESS, and MNDAA met in northeast Burma and discussed the regime’s proposal. All three groups had earlier worked together under the banner of the Communist Party of Burma (CBP), which collapsed in 1989.

Observers said the rejection could escalate tension between the ceasefire groups and the junta, as the proposal from Naypyitaw has come in a much lesser concession than the generals’ original idea of disarming the ceasefire groups.

The generals, according to Htay Aung, a Burmese analyst based in Chiang Mai, will keep the heat on the ceasefire groups to transform their armies even if they have rejected it.

“The junta will continue to pressurize them and push them, but if the cease-fire groups are reluctant and are not willing to accept their proposal, I believe, the junta will finally take military action against them,” Htay Aung said.

But he said, military action would be the regime’s last resort, as they are determined to conduct their planned elections in 2010 smoothly. The most pressing issue that the junta wants to tackle at this point is to carefully plan and eliminate the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) before the election.

“So, the regime seems to be carefully and patiently handling and trying to convince the cease-fire groups, who rejected their proposal,” he added.

While agreeing that the junta will continue stepping up pressure on the ceasefire groups to accept the offer, a Sino-Burmese military affairs analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw said it is highly unlikely that the regime would want to start a fresh military offensive against the ceasefire groups at this point.

The regime knew that their proposal would be rejected by the ceasefire groups, but is giving it a try and would follow it up with more pressure, Aung Kyaw Zaw said.

“But I don’t see the regime taking military action against them [ceasefire groups],” he said.

Meanwhile, another major ethnic rebel group, the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO), however, has not finalized any decision as yet on the junta’s proposal.

Dr. Tuja, Vice-Chairman of the KIO, in an earlier interview with Mizzima said, the KIO will decide only after taking a consensus from its organization’s leaders, community leaders and other concerned people.

“This is what has been proposed by the junta. The KIO needs to discuss it. We can decide only after a detailed discussion with KIO leaders, community leaders and others,” Dr. Tuja said.

But Dr. Tuja said he welcomed the regime’s proposal, as it aims to benefit Kachin people saying, “I'm optimistic about everything. So should be the method in implementation too.”

While observers believe that the junta’s proposal is likely to be rejected by many of the ceasefire groups, there is also a soft-corner on the ceasefire’s side. Following the ceasefire pacts, the regime has made special business concessions for leaders of these armed resistant groups, which might make it difficult for many of the groups to ignore the junta’s proposal.

Htay Aung said for some groups, it might be difficult to ignore the junta’s proposal and take up a confrontational stand, because many of the leaders from these cease-fire groups would find it hard to abandon the business opportunities they have got.

“It is not very easy for the leaders of the cease-fire groups to abandon such an opportunity and the luxuries they have received from the Burmese regime,” Htay Aung said.

Leaders of many of the ceasefire armed groups including the UWSA, and the KIO have reportedly received business concessions from the junta, and own or run companies, by proxy, in cities including Rangoon and Mandalay.

Htay Aung said the most likely situation could be that both sides would come to a compromise and remove harsh conditions, as both sides seem to prefer keeping the guns silent.

Insein Prison Trial is a One-Way Street

By AUNG ZAW
The Irrawaddy News

Burma’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi believes she is innocent and will continue to defend herself against the charge she faces in the Insein Prison court, according to her lawyers.

One of her lawyers, Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy that, according to the evidence, “we have a very good case because she has not breached any conditions and restrictions imposed upon her.”

Analysts believe, however, that the regime is likely to extend her detention, pointing to the latest official statement on the case. Burmese Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Aye Myint told a security conference in Singapore, “If offenders are not [prosecuted], anarchy will prevail, and there will be breach of peace and security.”

Breach of peace and security? What can the man mean?

Kyi Win was firm in saying that the Nobel Peace Prize winner broke no law or any of the restrictions imposed upon her during her current term of house arrest, which expired last week.

First, the restrictions bar Suu Kyi or anybody else condemned to house arrest from communicating with any foreign embassy or any political party or connected persons. House arrest restrictions also bar any postal or telephone communication with the outside world.

Suu Kyi strictly followed these regulations, addressing the regime leaders in Naypyidaw through her lawyers. Their legal appeal against an extension of her house arrest was rejected by the regime, indicating that the military leaders had already made up their minds to keep her in detention.

According to Kyi Win, the American who gained access to Suu Kyi’s home, John William Yettaw, had been guilty of breaching security, not she. “John W Yettaw came into her compound without her knowledge or invitation and he was the one who was breaching the security cordon placed around her house,” he said.

Suu Kyi asked Yettaw to leave but he begged to stay, promising to leave soon. Suu Kyi gave him the benefit of the doubt, the lawyer said.

Consequently, it’s Yettaw who should be on trial for breaches of security, not Suu Kyi. Yet, to the surprise of her lawyers, Suu Kyi said last week that she wanted to offend no one, including the regime, at her trial.

During the court proceedings, Suu Kyi is careful not to make accusations or jump onto the bandwagon of those who suggest that the case was set up by the regime to extend her detention.

“Suu Kyi herself does not suspect the government of that kind of set-up and that’s her attitude,” Kyi Win told The Irrawaddy.

“I lost my words [after hearing Suu Kyi’s remarks],” Kyi Win said.

“I was astonished to hear that kind of attitude from her,” he added with evident admiration.

During the three weeks she has now been held in Insein Prison, Suu Kyi has been denied even the limited access to outside news that she had in her home.

At home she at least had a radio and is believed to have kept herself well up to date with news on Burma and the rest of the world. Visiting UN officials were often surprised to learn how well informed she was.

In Insein Prison, however, she has no access to a radio and very limited access to news from outside. She did meet some diplomats who were allowed to attend two sessions of her trial last week, but journalists who were also present were not allowed to talk to her.

Through her lawyers, though, Suu Kyi has learned about the international outcry against her trial and the overwhelming support she commands.

Kyi Win said, “I conveyed sentiment and support from world leaders including [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown, [US President] Obama and many other leaders. She expressed her sincere thanks to them.”

Moral support alone is not enough, however.

Another of her lawyers, Nyan Win, who is also spokesman of her National League for Democracy, questioned the country’s judicial system and its independence.

It is believed that the details of the court proceedings have been submitted to the top leaders in Naypyidaw. Diplomats have said they believe that the verdict has already been written, ready to be read out on the final day of the trial.

There is no doubt that junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe holds the key to the final decision. Political observers in Rangoon believe that the decision to postpone the trial until Friday also came from Than Shwe. The judges exercise no power in the Insein Prison court.

Although they know the verdict has already been decided, Suu Kyi’s lawyers say they cannot afford to lose hope. “We will always have hope,” Kyi Win said.

Kyi Win and Nyan Win did not want to comment on why the regime has suddenly postponed the trial until Friday.

Has Than Shwe perhaps had second thoughts as international pressure mounts? Analysts say that he still can still exercise one option—placing Suu Kyi under house arrest with a suspended sentence—hoping with such a gesture to reduce at least some of the pressure.

The regime is unpredictable, however, and defendants who appear before special courts in Insein Prison rarely receive any mercy from the military authorities.

There are plenty of examples, including 88 Generation Students leader Min Ko Naing, Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo and prominent journalist and activist Win Tin, all sentenced by these courts to long jail sentences.

Whoever is unfortunate enough to be brought to trial before a special court in Insein Prison stands in a one-way street, where there is no U-turn. Suu Kyi is probably no exception, despite Kyi Win’s note of optimism.

Suu Kyi undoubtedly knows where she stands. “She is aware that there is no rule of law in the country,” according to Nyan Win.

Staff of Rangoon Journal Summoned by Censor Board

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Senior editors and staff of the True News Journal in Rangoon were summoned to appear before the censor board of Burma’s military regime on Monday following the distribution of the publication at Insein Prison, the location of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board told the publication that it objected to the headline on a story written by Ludu Sein Win, an outspoken, veteran journalist, which said: “Newsmen dare express the truth and risk arrest.”

An unidentified staff of the journal apparently sold copies of the journal to people in the crowd outside the prison last week and displayed a small sign saying, “The True Journal which dares to report the truth,” according to sources.

The staff who sold the journal in front of the prison was arrested in the journal’s office on May 28, sources said, and later released.

According to World Report 2009 by Reporters without Borders, a global media watchdog group, “Burma is a paradise for censors, one of the very few countries where all publications are subjected to prior censorship. After China and Cuba, it is the world's largest prison for journalists and bloggers.”

The junta sets out to physically and psychologically break imprisoned journalists by sending them to prisons far from the capital, according to political activists.

Burma Locked Out of Region’s Prosperity, Says Gates

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Burma is “one of the isolated, desolate exceptions to the growing prosperity and freedom of the region,” according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gates made his comment at a security conference in Singapore, where Burma’s deputy defense minister, Maj-Gen Aye Myint, tried to deflect criticism of his government and its latest action against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma’s state-run-newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on Monday that Aye Myint told the conference that Suu Kyi’s trial in Rangoon was an internal Burmese affair.

“Thus, if any country interferes in the internal affairs of another country, that particular act may possibly affect the mutual understanding and friendly relation between countries,” he said.

Gates, however, repeated calls for Suu Kyi’s release. He said, “We need to see real change in Burma—the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the institution of meaningful dialogue between the junta and the opposition.”

Gates said, “We saw Burma's resistance to accept basic humanitarian aid last year following the cyclone, a decision indicative of that country's approach to the rest of the world.”

The Singapore conference, the 8th Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the city-state’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, brought together defense ministers or their deputies from 27 countries. The situation in Burma and the trial of Suu Kyi were raised by several participants, despite Aye Myint’s objections.

Burma is facing mounting international pressure, also from within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

At an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Phnom Penh last week, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win opposed any consideration of the Burma issue, complaining that the gathering “has overlooked the important issue of non-interference.”

Nyan Win declared, “This is an internal legal issue and it is not a human rights issue.”

Despite Nyan Win’s objections, ministers from the European Union and Asean discussed Suu Kyi’s trial and called on the Burmese government to free her and other political prisoners.

Burma’s traditional allies, China and India, are also reportedly concerned about the impact of Suu Kyi’s trial.

The trial is also expected to be an issue at an Asean meeting in South Korea next week.

“Asean leaders will meet and discuss an issue that has received international attention —about a neighboring country—for further cooperation,” said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose country is currently chairman of the regional grouping.

One human rights expert, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, of Bangkok’s Mahidol University said three Burmese issues—the junta’s response to Cyclone Nargis, refugees, Suu Kyi and other political prisoners—are real threats for the Asean Charter.

Did NMSP Reject Border Guard Role?

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

One of Burma’s major ethnic ceasefire groups, the New Mon State Party (NMSP), has rejected the Burmese military authorities’ instruction to transform their soldiers into border guards under joint-command of the Burmese army, according to a source close to the party who claims to have been present at the deciding meeting on March 26.

However, Nai ong Ma-nge, a spokesperson for the NMSP, refused to comment on the Mon group’s decision. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, he would only say that the Mon army was expected to guard Mon people, not to guard a borderline.

The Mon source said the NMSP leaders met junta representative Lt-Gen Ye Myint on March 3 and were told the party would not have to disarm if they undertook the role of border guards.

If the Mon party has indeed rejected the junta’s offer, it would follow the decision of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which in May reportedly rejected the border guard role it was offered.

According to the Burmese regime’s guidelines, each border guard battalion would consist of 326 troops, including 30 from the Burmese army, of whom three would be Burmese officers with administrative positions, according to sources.

The border security force would be mobilized within the territory currently held by the armed ceasefire groups.

According to the sources, the Burmese military authorities had given several ethnic ceasefire groups a deadline of the end of May to accept their offer of undertaking the new roles.

However, several ethnic ceasefire groups have rejected the proposal because they refuse to work under the command of the Tatmadaw, the Burmese army.

A total of 17 insurgent groups have signed ceasefire agreements with the ruling generals since 1989, according to official Burmese reports.

The NMSP controls about 700 troops and the party has already announced it will not support nor participate in the national election, which is due to be held in 2010.

China’s Chance

By ANTOANETA BEZLOVA / IPS WRITER
MAY — JUNE, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.3
The Irrawaddy News

How the global financial crisis has helped Beijing expand its influence in Southeast Asia

BEIJING — The global financial crisis is proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever greater influence in Southeast Asia.

While drawing neighboring countries back into China’s economic orbit has been part of the country’s strategy for restoring what it sees as its rightful place on the global stage, recent months of recession have furnished Beijing with new opportunities to further its leadership ambitions in the region.

After the political turmoil in Thailand led to the cancellation of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit aimed at tackling the global crisis in April, Beijing made political mileage by inviting regional leaders and chief executive officers to the southern Chinese island of Hainan, where the annual Boao forum later that month was billed as a new “platform for emerging economies” to cope with the economic downturn.

With the theme “Asia: Managing beyond Crisis,” the meticulously organized Boao forum was held as a contrast to the failed Pattaya summit—with China pledging help and leadership to the region.

“Developed economies have long dominated international media,” said Long Yongtu, the forum’s secretary general. “Our aim is to offer a platform for emerging economies to present their voices. This is particularly important against the backdrop of the current financial crisis.”

China’s actions to further its leadership role in the region include a US $10 billion investment cooperation fund and an offer of $15 billion in credit to its Southeast Asian neighbors.

These are aimed at helping countries weather the current crisis. The fund will finance infrastructure development linking China and its neighbors while the loans will be offered as rescue packages over the next three to five years.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged that China would take an active role in pursuing closer economic and trade cooperation in the region. “The fate of all nations is tied together. No one is immune from the global financial crisis and is able to conquer it alone,” he told the forum.

Wen Jiabao also vowed that Beijing would encourage trade settlement in Chinese yuan with neighboring countries to help ease foreign-exchange shortages and aid bilateral trade and investment. Beijing has already signed currency swap agreements with Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea this year.

At the forum, Chinese economists promoted the use of the yuan as a regional currency while at the same time blaming the toll of the global economic crisis in Asia on the region’s high degree of dependence on the US economy.

“Asia is heavily dependent on US markets partly because of the US dollar’s role as an international currency,” Fan Gang, a leading Chinese economist, said at the forum. “America’s attitude in the past has always been ‘this is our currency, but it is your problem.’ Asia, however, is now in a position to raise demands and choose its foreign exchange reserve currencies.”

Commentators in the mainland press have called on Chinese leaders to extend a helping hand to neighboring Asian countries in order to achieve greater trade diversity while using regional markets to absorb excess manufacturing capacity at home. As many neighboring economies are undergoing a flurry of new construction projects, investment is expected to create more employment chances for China’s workers.

“Along with the World Bank and other financial institutions, China should use part of its enormous reserves to help developing countries with the hope of promoting its own development and enhance its image as a responsible world power,” Ding Yifan, a researcher with the Development and Research Center under the State Council—China’s cabinet—wrote in the China Daily newspaper.

Ding Yifan noted that by providing capital to the US and by buying its government treasury bonds, China has been blamed for its “excessively” high savings rates and for causing the credit bubble.

“It [the US] is really an unreasonable debtor,” Ding wrote. “If we invest our capital in infrastructure programs of developing countries, there will be no such blame.”

The Mekong countries—Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam—have been a particular focus of attention for China as it tries to further establish itself in Asia. Along with other proposals, Beijing has announced 270 million yuan ($ 39.7 million) in aid to Burma, Cambodia and Laos, and a donation of 300,000 tonnes of rice to an emergency East Asia rice reserve—boosting food security in the region.

“Stressing the Greater Mekong sub-region area is an important part of China’s whole periphery strategy of nurturing neighboring friendship,” said Zhang Xizhen, a professor at the School of International Studies of Beijing University.

A thousand years ago, the modern Chinese province of Yunnan was the center of the so-called Southern Silk Road, along which tea, salt, spices and medicinal herbs were transported between China, Tibet and India. Through trade and diplomacy, Chinese power spread deep into the Mekong region.

Today the countries that are bound by the Mekong River offer China’s southwestern regions the chance to catch up economically with the more prosperous provinces of the country’s east coast. The two Chinese provinces within the Mekong region, Yunnan and Guangxi, are being groomed for central roles in China’s plan to revive its influence in Southeast Asia.

Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, would be the Chinese terminus of two proposed pipelines—a gas pipeline from central Burma, and an oil pipeline from the Burmese port of Sittwe, which would create a route for Middle Eastern crude and bypass the strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait shipping route.

Guangxi—which has the advantage of being located near the economically vibrant Pearl River Delta in neighboring Guangdong Province—is focusing on increasing the seaborne traffic through the Tonkin Gulf.

Central and local government investment will finance infrastructure in the capital city of Nanning and along the coast—aiming to increase Guangxi’s access to Mekong region markets and those of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines—creating a new channel for goods to flow between southwest China and Asean countries.

Cooperation with other Mekong countries is important, not only as a way of boosting foreign trade and development in southwest China and redressing the country’s imbalanced economic structure, but also as a diplomatic tool, according to Zhang Xizhen.

“Through cooperation with these countries, China can set up an example of a ‘win-win’ partnership to prove its peaceful rise to other Asean members and the world, and to counter the spread of a ‘China threat’ theory,” he said.

Under a Stormy Sky

Thousands of Cyclone Nargis survivors are still living in tents and
temporary shelters. (Photo: Minn Minn/IPS Asia-Pacific)

By YENI
MAY — JUNE, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.3
The Irrawaddy News

One year after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, there’s a sense of accomplishment, but also a realization that recovery remains a distant goal for those without homes, land and livelihoods

AT a military top brass meeting on May 4 in Naypyidaw, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the leader of Burma’s ruling junta, declared unequivocally that the country has almost tripled its rice production in the past two decades and now enjoyed a surplus.

“There is no need to worry about food, even when the nation’s population reaches 100 million,” he stated boldly.

But, like so many of the aging dictator’s claims, the statement bears little resemblance to the realities of life in a country where 51 million people have been struggling and suffering under military rule for nearly five decades.

In a makeshift hut in Outkwin Village, near Pyapon Town, one of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3 last year, a 32-year-old mother of six, Than Myint, said she feels completely foregotten by the country’s ruling elite.

Since December, she has not received any food aid from either humanitarian agencies or the government. She constantly faces a severe shortage of rice and there have been times her family has had to skip a meal.

“I often have to go around the village to borrow rice. Sometimes, I have to exchange some of our clothes for food,” she said.

Prior to the cyclone, Than Myint’s family never found it difficult to make ends meet. Her husband worked as a fisherman and her eldest son as a day laborer in the paddy fields surrounding their village. But, since the cyclone struck, Than Myint’s husband and son have barely had a chance to earn any money whatsoever.

There are thousands of families like Than Myint’s in the cyclone-affected townships of Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions—living in swampy makeshift shelters nailed together from tarpaulin, bamboo and corrugated metal; families with no homes, no land and no livelihoods.

The cyclone and its subsequent tidal wave shattered the agricultural, fishing and small-scale business sectors—the main livelihoods of the delta people—leaving the majority of cyclone-affected people solely dependent on food aid.

On the weekend of May 2-3 this year, Burma’s military leaders coldly ignored the first anniversary of the storm that killed some 140,000 people. There were no ceremonies to mark the country’s worst ever disaster and no mention of events commemorating the dead in the state-run media. Any reports mentioning the anniversary of Cyclone Nargis in Rangoon’s privately owned journals were severely censored by the regime’s notorious censorship board.

The silence was an eerie reminder of the junta’s reaction to the storm one year ago when it stubbornly refused to allow aid to enter the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy delta. To date, no official explanation for the government’s incompetence and callousness during this period has been offered.

Bending to sustained pressure from the international community, the Burmese authorities eventually gave a green light to something approaching a full-scale relief effort, but it continued to assert control in a heavy-handed manner. Military authorities hampered the delivery of aid to the delta, and relief workers faced harassment and arrest if they failed to play by the regime’s rules.

Traumatized villagers whose houses and farms had been destroyed were forced to leave temporary shelters by security forces and return to work in their ravaged fields.

Junta-controlled newspapers carried editorials reprimanding the international community for being tightfisted with its aid. To add insult to injury—and without a hint of irony—they then claimed that Burma did not need help from the rest of the world, because people in the delta could easily survive on fish and frogs from nearby rivers.

The good news was that, despite all the constraints imposed upon them by the authorities, many Burmese did everything in their power to help deal with the horror wrought by the cyclone.

Private relief groups, formed by monks, students, celebrities, medical groups, businessmen, charitable organizations and other like-minded people, are still very active in the cyclone relief effort, laying the groundwork not only for rehabilitation in the delta, but also cultivating hope for the country’s prospects of achieving justice, pluralism and, ultimately, democracy.

“Even UN agencies and INGOs cannot access the delta and run their humanitarian projects ... without the dedication and enthusiasm of local Burmese staff,” said a foreign observer, who has spent nearly 20 years in the region.

The survivors of Cyclone Nargis have certainly been extremely resilient in the face of a dismal situation. But the recovery process has been achingly slow, with recent data showing that some 500,000 people still have no permanent place to live, 200,000 lack access to fresh water and 350,000 are still receiving food aid from the World Food Program.

Access to clean water is still one of the biggest everyday concerns for people in the delta. Wells and ponds were inundated by the inflow of seawater by the cyclone’s horrific tidal wave. Since then, ponds have been repeatedly cleaned but residents claim that the amount of saltwater leakage into groundwater has increased.

Hunger also remains a serious threat. Even farmers who own dozens of acres of rice paddies are unable to feed themselves. According to the British charity Oxfam, thousands of farmers in the delta region lost rice crops to the cyclone, leaving them unable to pay back loans or purchase seeds, water buffaloes and equipment needed to cultivate crops.

U Nyo, a 52-year-old farmer, told The Irrawaddy he grew 15 acres of paddy in the previous rice-planting season. However, this year he only harvested around five acres. The rest failed. “I had to sell all the rice just to pay off the debt that I took during the rice-planting season last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, large amounts of infrastructure—everything from schools, monasteries and churches to clinics, bridges and jetties—remain in ruins. The Burmese government’s promises to build disaster shelters in the delta have proved hollow, with only 20 communal shelters currently standing. “We have no idea where we will run to if there is another cyclone,” a survivor in Bogalay said.

These days, many frightened villagers tune in to the radio just for the weather forecasts. When the regime’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology warned in April of the approach of Cyclone Bijli, panic broke out in the delta.

People packed up their belongings and immediately headed toward the nearest city. In many villages, families were advised to send elderly folk and children to stay with relatives in Rangoon and other cities far from the Irrawaddy delta seaboard.

According to a recovery plan launched in February by the United Nations, the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) and the Burmese government, almost a quarter of households in the cyclone-hit areas have reported signs of psychosocial distress, but only 11 percent have received help. The UN estimates that more than 2,400 primary teachers have been trained to give psychosocial support.

Meanwhile, Burma’s undeveloped, broken healthcare system has little capacity for handling trauma victims, so aid groups are trying to fill the gaps.

Too often the gaps in the system are simply too large and fragmented. Take the case of Khin Yee, a 43-year-old “cyclone widow,” who was too traumatized to return home and moved with her three children into a makeshift hut along the roadside close to the town of Mhawbi in Rangoon Division.

She was initially promised a house by volunteers from humanitarian agencies. Then it became clear that only those with land could be allotted homes. Left landless and widowed by the cyclone, Khin Yee has to continue living in a shelter she constructed by hand, mainly from bamboo and sheets of tarpaulin. She said her family has nothing to go back to, and there is nowhere she can get access to daily food.

Khin Yee’s family, like others, has no other option than to wait—for aid, for food and for land.

She shook her head in despair when asked about the upcoming rainy season.

“I’m afraid our hut will just get washed away as soon as the heavy rains come and cause flooding,” she said, her tearful eyes staring out across the swamp in front of her shelter.

Irrawaddy correspondents Wai Sann, Aung Thet Wine and Kyi Wai contributed to this article

Distrust and Division in the Delta

A full year after Cyclone Nargis, evidence of its destructive force
can still be seen in many parts of the Irrawaddy delta. (Photo: AFP)

By HTET AUNG
MAY — JUNE, 2009 - VOLUME 17 NO.3
The Irrawaddy News

One year after Cyclone Nargis, doubts about the Burmese regime’s role in the relief effort continue to slow the recovery of the Irrawaddy delta

ONE year on, the nightmare of Cyclone Nargis still haunts people living in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta region. Those who narrowly survived the storm have seen their lives changed permanently. Proud farmers and workers are now vulnerable refugees living in makeshift shelters—their land destroyed, their livelihoods stolen by a horrific storm.

The magnitude of the May 2-3 disaster—the worst in Burma’s recorded history—challenged the ability of the military regime to conduct and control a massive relief operation. Around 140,000 people were killed, while some two million others were directly affected. Many suffered injuries and few were spared the trauma of losing their homes or loved ones.

The international community responded with an outpouring of emergency aid for the affected areas. But once the recovery and reconstruction phase began, the country had to pay an enormous price for the junta’s initial rejection of aid and obstruction of efforts by relief agencies to reach the delta during the first weeks after the disaster.

The United Nations appealed to the international community to donate US $690.5 million for the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP), but has so far received far less, with the total in pledges amounting to around $100 million.

Why is the international community so reluctant to donate generously for the Nargis victims in Burma? Why do donors find it so hard to accept the assessments of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) working inside Burma, who insist that aid is being utilized effectively?

The problem appears to be that the junta has done little to earn the trust of the outside world, and continues to act as if it is up to other countries to demonstrate their sincerity by providing unconditional assistance.

“Myanmar [Burma] is one of the countries that wants to seclude itself from the outside world,” said Koos Richelle, the director general of the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office during the Asia-Europe Development Conference held in Manila in April. “It’s not us punishing them; it’s them not opening up for what we consider to be normal contact.

“There is no possibility for us to start [development aid] because we are not a money machine throwing envelopes over the fence.”

Distrust of the junta

The greatest impediment to the flow of humanitarian aid into Burma is the junta’s policies and attitude towards foreign aid agencies working in the country.

It is evident that the junta tried to manipulate the international humanitarian assistance and created an element of competition between the INGOs, playing games of favoritism and giving concessions to those who pleased them.

In 2005, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) France left Burma due to the junta’s growing restrictions, while MSF Holland stayed in the country and has so far been able to carry out its programs. The Global Fund also withdrew from Burma the same year as MSF France, taking with it about $100 million in aid.

Perhaps the best example of the regime’s disdain for the work of INGOs was its treatment of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Renowned throughout the world for its impartiality and apolitical objectives, the ICRC has managed to maintain health projects and treat the wounded in world wars, civil conflicts and humanitarian disasters since 1863.

In March 2007, the ICRC made the decision to close down some of its field offices and cease several major operations because it couldn’t navigate its way through the regime’s red tape and restrictions due to a complete lack of cooperation from the junta.

Just a few months later, the junta drastically hiked fuel prices, exacerbating the already deteriorating humanitarian situation and sparking the worst civil unrest in nearly two decades, culminating in massive Buddhist monk-led demonstrations nationwide.

Witnessing the people’s plight, 13 INGOs in the country issued a joint statement in October 2007 calling on the junta and the international community to work together to achieve three goals: strengthening public sector policies by increasing public expenditure in health, education and sustainable livelihoods; improving the operating environment for local and international humanitarian organizations; and significantly scaling up international humanitarian assistance to directly address the needs of the poor.

A year later, however, none of these objectives had been met, a fact that was made evident by a report issued by MSF Holland criticizing the regime for its failure to do its part to provide adequate access to anti-retroviral treatment (ART) to patients with HIV/AIDS.

“MSF can no longer continue to scale up ART provision, in the face of so little response by other actors,” said the report, titled “A Preventable Fate: The Failure of ART Scale-up in Myanmar,” released in November 2008.

“Therefore, it has had to make the painful decision to restrict the number of new patients it can treat… With growing revenue from oil and gas exports, the government must invest more in its ailing health system and specifically HIV/AIDS care and treatment,” the report stated.

The report, released nearly half a year after Cyclone Nargis, demonstrates the military regime’s lack of commitment to cooperation with the INGOs in their efforts to meet the basic needs of Burma’s people.

This is the kind of report that international donors carefully scrutinize for indications that the junta is a reliable partner in multimillion-dollar aid projects. Generally, however, they find nothing to suggest that the country’s rulers share their concerns for the well-being of ordinary Burmese citizens.

Distrust weakens relief and breeds division

Cyclone Nargis abruptly changed Burma’s humanitarian landscape, with the number of INGOs operating in the Irrawaddy delta doubling to more than 100 and numerous field offices opening around the region since last May.

The scope and depth of the relief operation is unprecedented, requiring the creation of a networking mechanism among the INGOs to address disaster-related issues. No such mechanism had ever existed before in Burma.

Save the Children-Myanmar has emerged as the leading INGO in the region since the cyclone, coordinating a consortium of six local and international NGOs. Known as “Paung Ku,” the consortium was created to offer capacity-building support and a small grants service to the emerging local relief groups which were urgently in need of technical and financial support. Another similar consortium is the Local Resource Center (LRC) initiated by the Burnet Institute and several other INGOs.

When analyzing the expansion of the humanitarian aid programs in the region, there is no denying that Cyclone Nargis significantly altered the capacity of the INGOs in terms of the number of organizations operating and the structural expansion within those organizations. For instance, Save the Children employed around 500 staff before the cyclone; now it has a staff of 1,600.

However, now that the emergency relief period is over, many INGOs are scaling down their operations. According to a source close to Save the Children, the organization will reduce its staff by some 300 in the near future and close down five of its field offices.

Many INGOs that entered the delta after the cyclone are now leaving, even though the region is still in crisis, with many people lacking food, access to clean drinking water and shelter. Despite the evident need for their services, the INGOs are scaling down their operations or pulling out completely because they face a severe shortage of funding.

Another significant factor in the equation is the expansion of local civil society organizations (CSOs), which have continued to play a key role despite being forced to operate under numerous restrictions. One major obstacle for these local groups is that they cannot officially register or open a bank account with the state-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, which is the only conduit in the country for receiving money transfers from overseas and conducting other foreign currency transactions.

Due to such constraints, they have to rely heavily on INGOs inside the country to channel aid funds to them. This means that they are also likely to be adversely affected by the funding shortages faced by the INGOs, with the result that they may also be forced to cease or scale down their operations.

Just as aid groups working in the delta were raising the alarm about the desperate need for more international funding, a new report was released detailing human rights abuses by the junta in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

Produced by the Thailand-based Emergency Assistance Team (Burma) with technical support from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the report, titled “After the Storm: Voices from the Delta,” soon came under attack from some aid groups operating inside Burma.

A group of 21 INGOs—including Save the Children—challenged the credibility of the EAT-Johns Hopkins report and accused its authors of undermining the case for further aid to the survivors.

Andrew Kirkwood, the country director of Save the Children-Myanmar, said in an interview with The Irrawaddy that the EAT-Johns Hopkins report was not “balanced.” He went on to say that Save the Children was working closely with the Burmese junta.

“With [the regime’s] cooperation, we are able to do a lot of community-based assistance. So it’s really not right to say that all parts of the government are not being cooperative.”

However, some exiled groups say that criticism of the EAT-Johns Hopkins report is unfair. If the same report had been released by an internationally recognized human rights group, they say, its critics would not have been so quick to dismiss its conclusions, which were based on interviews with local villagers who would have been unwilling to speak openly with foreigners for fear of reprisals from the junta. Because most EAT members were ethnic Karen, they were able to conduct interviews discreetly to get a better picture of the situation in the delta, defenders of the report argued.

In any case, the report did not call for a moratorium on humanitarian aid to the cyclone victims, as some have erroneously reported, but simply urged the donor countries to ensure that aid is delivered with “transparency, accountability and respect for human rights.”

Although many aid groups inside Burma have been quick to defend the junta’s role in the Nargis relief effort, they have so far been silent on the fate of local aid workers who have been arrested by the regime and given prison sentences ranging from two to 35 years.

One year after Nargis, the regime has shown no signs of relenting in its efforts to intimidate local relief workers who might be tempted to offer a different picture of the situation on the ground from the official one. In early April, it handed down prison sentences to Dr Nay Win, his daughter and four colleagues for their efforts to help villagers in the delta cremate the bodies of the deceased. The six were detained by authorities and sentenced under sections 6 and 7 of the Unlawful Association Act.

Nargis changed the delta, not the junta

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on April 22, Dr Frank Smithuis of MSF Holland acknowledged that restrictions on the activities of international aid agencies outside the cyclone-affected areas remain unchanged.

The past two years have been a critical period for INGOs working in Burma, during which they have proven that they can carry out their programs to a certain extent even under severe governmental restrictions.

They should be commended for taking on this difficult task, and for their occasional criticism of the junta and efforts to change its policies, even if these efforts have so far not met with any success.

International relief agencies inside Burma have been especially effective in establishing networks that have enabled them to respond not only to the challenges they face in the field, but also to threats that could potentially undermine the continuation of international aid to Burma.

However, the time has come for the INGOs to reassess their three demands and exercise their networking mechanism to try to impress upon the junta the benefits of truly allowing the aid groups to work to the full extent of the capabilities.

More international humanitarian aid will follow if the regime genuinely creates a better operational environment without restrictions and repression.

The author is an independent researcher and a graduate in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok

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