Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burma Govt Allows Oil and Gas Firms to Name Profit-Sharing Terms

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 05:13 AM PDT

Oil wells in the Burmese town of Chauk in Magway Division. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — In an apparent bid to make tenders to explore for oil and gas more attractive, Burma's Ministry of Energy is inviting international companies preparing their bids to suggest their own terms for profit sharing with the government, a ministry official said Tuesday.

The ministry is currently accepting bids from companies for exploration licenses on 18 "blocks" of onshore territory, and 11 shallow-water and 19 deepwater offshore blocks, in an attempt to tap into the countries largely untapped and highly lucrative energy reserves. Firms winning the tenders will be invited to enter so-called production sharing agreements with the state-owned Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise.

A detailed outline of the bidding process—presented to potential investors and contractors at the Myanmar Oil and Gas conference, held in Rangoon by the Centre for Management Technology (CMT) on Tuesday—suggested that the government is considering awarding the blocks on more generous terms than it had previously announced.

Aung Kyaw Htoo, deputy director of the Ministry of Energy's production planning section, told potential investors and contractors at the conference that Burma's government needed international help developing reserves below the deep seabed of the Bay of Bengal.

"The offshore blocks are a good incentive for the investors," he said. "Especially the deepwater blocks; they are untapped, they are never touched before. So we believe, more or less, the giant oil and gas reserve will become [available]."

Aung Kyaw Htoo said that, in the companies' bids, an upfront "signature bonus" to be paid to the government for exploration licenses was an important factor in choosing the winning bids.

An additional "production bonus" to be paid to the government if and when the company is approved to begin extracting oil or gas, the amount the company will put into a local training fund, and the amount of capital gains tax they will pay on profits are all also factors the companies must include in bids, he said.

And, contrary to "standard terms" of the production sharing contracts, set by the Ministry of Energy in September 2012 and published on the ministry's website, Aung Kyaw Htoo said companies could set in their bids how much of the profits they want to share with Burma's government.

"Profit split is very important for both sides," he said. "In the offshore area, generally 60 percent- 40 percent—60 percent for government, 40 percent for investor—that is our preferable business scale. But all of you investors can submit what's your scale."

The original published terms for the profit split gave the private companies a maximum of only 40 percent of profits for most projects and 45 percent for offshore projects at a depth of more than 2,000 feet.

Aung Kyaw Htoo said that, under the government's favored terms—when royalties of 12.5 percent, all taxes and other factors are taken into account—the total "government take" from oil and gas revenues would be 81.4 percent.

An adviser to one of the foreign firms licensed to bid in the tender said the original terms were "very tough" for companies. The change appeared to be a concession from the government to make the tender more attractive to firms, the advisor said.

Jean Loi, managing partner at legal consultants VDB Loi, told the Myanmar Oil and Gas conference that, based on the way bidding had gone in the telecommunications tender awarded to Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo in June, the amount of money companies promise to inject into Burma would be a deciding factor.

"At the end of the day, [the telecoms tender was] all about the roll out [of the] projects: how much money are you going to spend on the roll out? And how much money are you going to pay for the spectrum," she said.

"The reputation of the contractor is also very important. Myanmar government wants to show the rest of the world that they can do business with the East and the West," Loi added.

Deputy Energy Minister Myint Zaw, also speaking at the conference, said 26 companies had already submitted bids for the onshore blocks since bidding began in January, and that 61 prequalified firms are preparing bids for the offshore areas.

A previously announced list of the 61 firms bidding for offshore blocks includes Total of France, Chevron of the United States, Daewoo of South Korea PTTEP of Thailand and CNPC of China, as well as Burmese firm MPRL E&P.

"We are planning the award of onshore blocks before the end of 2013, and offshore blocks by the first quarter of 2014," he said.

Myint Zaw said the total cumulative crude oil production in Burma had so far been 600 million barrels and 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

"However, I'm told by my expert geologists that Myanmar still has lots of onshore potential still remaining to be discovered," he said. "Our country Myanmar is awaiting technology, expertise and funds to discover new onshore reserves of petroleum…. [And] our new round of bid invitations for 11 shallow-water blocks and 19 deepwater blocks will surely give us new discoveries in the next five to seven years time."

According to a presentation to potential investors by Lynn Myint, vice general manager at China's North Petro-Chem Corporation (Myanmar) Ltd, some 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves had already been discovered beneath Burma's waters, and there were an additional 80 trillion cubic feet of "probable and possible" gas reserves, before the unexplored deepwater areas are taken into consideration.

"As the exploration is not fully conducted yet, the hydrocarbon reserves of Myanmar offshore is still unknown. However it can be envisaged as a sleeping petroleum giant in the Southeast Asia region," the presentation said.

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World Bank Provides $140 Million Loan for Burma’s Electricity

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 05:00 AM PDT

From left, Charles Schneider of the International Finance Corporation sits with Khwima Nthara and Kanthan Shankar of the World Bank at a press conference in Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Back in Burma after a 20-year absence, the World Bank has approved an interest-free US$140 loan to fund a power plant in Mon State, the bank's first international investment project in the country since re-engaging last year.

Kanthan Shankar, the World Bank country manager in Burma, said a monitoring team would ensure that the funds supported the country's electricity supply, as more than 70 percent of the population currently lacks access to power.

The gas turbine plant in Thaton Township, a four-hour drive from Rangoon, will have a capacity of 106 megawatts of electricity, covering half the peak demand in Mon State and 5 percent of peak demand in the country, the World Bank said.

"Burma's per capita energy consumption level is one of the lowest in the world, with fewer than 30 percent of its people having access to electricity, and only 16 percent in rural areas," Shankan said.

"We have a team here to monitor the progress of the project, and to conduct a financial audit of where the money goes. The responsibility is the government's, but we will monitor them."

The Ministry of Electric Power will receive the 40-year loan, of which $130 will go toward the establishment of the plant and $10 million toward technical support.

The natural gas-fired plant will improve access to reliable electricity in Mon State as well as Rangoon Division and the Irrawaddy delta area. It is intended to support Burma's goal of providing universal access to electricity by 2030.

The World Bank expects to call for tenders for the project next month.

Due to decades of underinvestment in electricity infrastructure, 80 percent of Burma's rural population lacks access to electricity, while 77 percent of the total population—including in urban areas—lacks access, according to statistics from the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network.

Many families in rural areas collect firewood for cooking, with the average five-person family gathering 2.5 tons of wood annually, according to Global Environmental Institute-China, an independent environmental nonprofit, which said the time and cost of collecting the wood was significant for families and that the practice was detrimental to the environment.

According to figures from the Rangoon Electricity Supply Board, Burma as a whole uses 1,500 megawatts of electricity annually, of which Rangoon consumes 720 megawatts.

The World Bank started work with Burma in 1952 and pulled out in the 1990s, under the country's former military regime. The loan for the power plant follows an $80 million grant for a national community-led development project last year that was designed to help 3.6 million people in rural communities.

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Karen Woman Found Dead Outside Refugee Camp

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 04:15 AM PDT

Mae Lae camp in Thailand is home to Burmese refugees, including many from Karen State. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — A Karen refugee woman who disappeared two days ago was found dead on Wednesday morning at the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand's Tak Province.

Shwe Hla Aye, 37, originally from Hlaing Bwe Township in Burma's Karen State, disappeared from the camp on Monday afternoon. Her body was discovered at 7 am on Wednesday, with all her clothes except her bra removed.

Family members reported the disappearance on Monday night to Daw Aye, a member of the Karen Women Organization who handles abuse cases for girls and women. Daw Aye said photographs were posted of the missing woman around the camp but that search attempts on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

On Monday, rations for the refugees were distributed. When Shwe Hla's name was called, however, she did not come forward for her share. She had reportedly gone to the camp grocery store to make some purchases, but her neighbors said she never returned.

Saw Honest, the new chairman of Mae La camp, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the woman's neck was broken. "Her chest seemed to have been hit by something tough," he added. "We're not sure whether she was raped. Thai authorities have been investigating."

Daw Aye said a Thai police-investigator and doctors arrived at the scene at about 9 am.

"They said, the body must be brought to a hospital in Bangkok if the family wants to know whether she was raped or not," Daw Aye said. "But they did not guarantee to cover the cost, so the family members decided not to go, as they cannot afford it, and will bury her right away."

Shwe Hla Aye has been living in the refugee camp for more than a decade, with certification from the UN refugee agency. She was a widow with two children.

Amoegyi, her neighbor, said, "She had no problem with the neighbors, she was quiet. But nobody knows how this happened to her."

Camp residents said the woman had been mentally ill, with a history of losing consciousness.

Refugees said such cases of disappearance and death were rare but that several rape cases were reported every year.

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Shwe Mann Assures Yingluck Burma Has Inclusive Democracy

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 03:58 AM PDT

Speaker of Myanmar’s Lower House of Parliament Shwe Mann, left, shakes hands with Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during his visit to Thailand at the Government House in Bangkok September 23, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House of Burma's Parliament, assured Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that Burma was now practicing a democratic system, and that ties between the two countries remain strong, state media reported.

The Thai premier told the Union Development and Solidarity Party (USDP) chairman that Thailand recognized the progress Burma has made in recent years. Burma's military regime ceded power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, ushering a series of reforms opening up the country economically and politically.

The two met at Government House in Bangkok on Monday, where they also discussed bilateral cooperation to achieve a multi-million dollar Dawei deep-sea port project in southern Burma, Burma’s state-run radio announced Tuesday. A report in the English-language Bangkok Post said the two agreed to accelerate progress on the Thai-and-Japanese-backed project.

State radio said Shwe Mann emphasized to Thai government officials that the President Thein Sein-led government is attempting reforms, and that representatives from all different ethnic and opposition parties, as well as the military, are included in Burma's Parliament.

The two also agreed to maintain good relations and to cooperate to boost the border trade, it said.

State radio also said that Shwe Mann thanked Thailand for hosting more than 3 million Burmese migrant workers, and said he wanted the Thai government to keep helping Burmese workers in the future, adding that Burma's government and Parliament were willing to cooperate with Thailand on migration issues.

Shwe Mann is on a five-day trip to Thailand that ends Thursday. He was officially invited by Somsak Kiatsuranont, president of Thailand's National Assembly and speaker of House of Representatives, with whom he met to discuss parliamentary matters.

According to state-run radio, Kiatsuranont told Shwe Mann that Burma and Thailand were a geographically important part of Southeast Asia becoming a more important economic market to the world.

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Two Men Sentenced to Prison Terms for Okkan Violence

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 03:28 AM PDT

A young Muslim boy runs through the ashes of his village in Kyawe Poan Lay, Okkan township, which was razed by a Buddhist mob in May. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Taik Kyi Township Court on Tuesday sentenced two Buddhist men to five years imprisonment for their role in the violence that erupted in April between Buddhists and Muslims in Okkan, a town located not far from Rangoon.

"Two of them got five years each. The court sentenced them for their involvement in arson and destroying public property," said Myint Maung, in Rangoon's Division's Taik Kyi Township police officer.

"The court plans to sentence another 20 detainees, but no date has been set yet," he said. A total of about 40 suspects were reportedly detained by local police in May and June for their involvement in the April violence.

Myint Thein, a local political leader, said the men who were sentenced on Tuesday are Soe Win and Kyaw Myo Thu, both from Khon Nyi Tan Village. On Wednesday, another eight suspects are due to be sentenced for their role in the inter-communal violence, he added.

Last month, the Taik Kyi Court sentenced three other Buddhist men on charges of destroying property and carrying out violence, Myint Thein said, adding that a detainee named Sein Han received five years imprisonment, while detainees Win Than and Kyi Khaing Pyo were both sentenced to seven years.

Aye Taung, a Muslim resident from Okkan whose parents lost their home during the April violence, said he felt disappointed by the recent sentences. "We feel the court could have handed down stronger sentences than this," he said.

An altercation between a Muslim woman and Buddhist novice monk sparked an outbreak of inter-communal violence in Okkan in late April. Buddhist mobs went on a rampage, burning down 81 Muslim-owned homes and businesses and one mosque, while killing one Muslim man and injuring nine others.

In June, Taik Kyi Court convicted two Muslim women for their involvement in the altercation with the 11-year-old novice. They were each sentenced to two years in prison and hard labor under the Penal Code charges 295 and 296, which provide punishment for "insulting religion or religious beliefs."

Okkan, a Rangoon Division town located about 100 km north of Rangoon, was among a dozen or so towns that were affected by a wave of anti-Muslim violence that spread through central Burma in March and April. The worst violence occurred in Mandalay Division's Meikthila in late March, when 40 people were killed, 60 injured and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed.

Muslim leaders and human rights groups have accused Burma's government of doing little to prevent the violence by Buddhist mobs against the country's Muslim minority.

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Supplies Dwindling at Kachin Border IDP Camps

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 02:27 AM PDT

Families at Jeyang IDP camp near the Sino-Burmese border, which has a population predominately made up of women and children. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

Food is in short supply at camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near Burma's border with China, prompting humanitarian concerns as clashes in the region between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) reportedly continue.

The fighting, which has occurred despite ongoing talks between the two sides aimed reaching a ceasefire, has led more civilians to seek shelter at the camps, straining humanitarian supplies even as access to some of the IDP sites remains difficult.

"A number of UN organizations have donated rice sacks at the Hlaing Zar headquarters. But no rice was delivered to places situated in remote areas near the border. Now, students from our orphanage have to eat rice with salt as there is nothing else to eat it with," Hlu Twei, at the Maijayan IDP camp in Lwe Jae Township, told The Irrawaddy.

Musicians from the band Lawkanat and an aid group named "A Phyu Yaung Twe Let" (White Holding Hands) will donate 7.5 million kyats (US$7,700) in concert proceeds to the IDP camps in remote areas near the border. The money will go toward food and medical supplies for the camps, which are often inadequately supplied due to the difficulty of accessing them.

"We reached those refugee camps near the border this September. I really felt sad because I saw that the students there ate only rice with salt," Bo Bo, who is a member of Aphyu Yaung Twe Let Myar, told The Irrawaddy. "I am worried for their health. So, we are going to donate all the profit [from concerts] to those refugee camps in order to buy food for the students there."

Health conditions at the squalid and cramped IDP camps are a major concern, according to Bo Bo. In addition, the provision of health care has been hampered by a lack of medical supplies, doctors and nurses, leaving some IDPs in need untreated. Dwindling food supplies have also resulted in malnutrition among camp residents.

Conditions at the IDP camps have led some youth to attempt to cross into China in order to find work, making them targets for human traffickers, according to sources in the border camps.

"Knowing the difficult living conditions at the refugee camps, Chinese people particularly try to persuade young women and children from the camps [to cross into China]. Everyone from the camps has been warmed and taught not to trust and follow them," said Mai Jya, who is campaigning against human trafficking along the Sino-Burmese border.

Young unmarried Kachin girls from IDP camps, typically between 15 and 16 years old, fall prey to human traffickers, according to Mai Jya.

Burma's police force and its anti-human trafficking task force told The Irrawaddy that they were cooperating with officials from the Chinese government in an effort to root out human trafficking in Kachin State.

Burma's central government and the KIA managed to reach a seven-point accord in late May, in which the two sides agreed, among other things, to "undertake efforts to achieve de-escalation and cessation of hostilities." Clashes have nonetheless taken place sporadically since then, even as the government trumpets plans for a ceremony next month at which it says a "nationwide ceasefire" will be signed with the country's many ethnic armed groups.

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Greenpeace Calls for Renewed Vigor in Asean’s Renewable Energy Drive

Posted: 24 Sep 2013 10:54 PM PDT

A villager carrying wood for cooking walks near a geothermal power plant project in Indonesia's Central Java province. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta)

JAKARTA — Greenpeace Southeast Asia laid out an argument on Tuesday for a concerted push for renewable energy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), focusing on both the economic and environmental benefits of a greener power policy.

"The deteriorating climate should be Asean's top concern, given that the region is experiencing frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to climate change caused by carbon emissions," said Amalie H. Obusan, regional climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

Launched at the 31st Asean Ministers of Energy meeting in Bali, "Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable Asean Energy Outlook" emphasizes the socioeconomic advantages of pursuing renewables in a roadmap detailing how the regional group could safeguard its energy security.

"The Asean region, with its rapid pace of economic and population growth should play an important role in this global solution as the E[R] report clearly shows that a low carbon development path is possible," Obusan said.

The report said sustainable energy sources—such as wind, photovoltaics and geothermal energy—could comprise 70 percent of the region's total electricity generation by 2050. This is due in part to a "democratization of energy production," according to Greenpeace—access to solar panels could bring electricity to remote or deprived Southeast Asian communities currently unconnected to electricity grids.

Costs and Benefits

The exploitation of green-energy sources across Asean could, the report said, result in US$2.8 trillion worth of investment, $2.7 trillion in fuel-cost savings and 1.1 million jobs by 2030.

"There is already a strong global movement for reducing the dependency on fossil fuels by increasing the share of renewable energies," said lead author Sven Teske, renewable energies director at Greenpeace International.

"The Asean countries have more than enough natural resources to become a leading player for clean, renewable energies. Renewable energies are more competitive than coal, utilize indigenous local resources and create more employment. Using more renewables is now an advantage for the economy, not a burden and reduces their dependence on dirty, imported fossil fuels like oil and coal."

Indonesia, a net importer of gasoline and one of the biggest markets for natural gas in the world, has in the past acknowledged the need to gradually switch over to renewable energy sources, but the obstacles—bureaucracy, corruption, funding and land law among them—remain as plentiful as the sources themselves.

On Sept. 20, state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara forecast that Indonesia would need at least $77.3 billion to sufficiently develop renewable energy as a source of electricity by 2021.

Mochamad Sofjan, head of the renewable- and new-energy division at the Jakarta-based company, said that amount would be enough to add another 13,000 megawatts to the country's power grid over the next eight years.

"During that period, we will build power plants with hydro, geothermal, biomass and solar as energy sources," Mochamad said.

PLN, which provides much of the power to the country's population of nearly 250 million, believes renewable energy will contribute at least 20 percent of the country's electricity needs by 2021.

"Currently, 86.3 percent of our power plants are powered by conventional energy, while renewable accounts for only 13.7 percent," he added.

Facts on the Ground

In April, Israeli business website Globes reported that Ormat Technologies, a subsidiary of Israel-based renewable energy company Ormat Industries, had signed a joint-operating contract to construct a 330-megawatt geothermal power plant in Tapanuli, North Sumatra. The project would be Indonesia's largest to date, after the Wayang Windu plant in West Java.

Refurbishment of existing infrastructure—as opposed to new, big-ticket renewable-energy projects—is another avenue along which Indonesia has taken some steps.

Entec Indonesia, the Bandung-based subsidiary of its Swiss parent, Entec, worked with a local firm in West Sumatra to develop the Salido Kecil mini hydroelectric plant in a fairly remote area 50 kilometers south of Padang.

The plant was built almost a century ago to power the local gold mining operation. Ardi, Entec Indonesia's project manager, told the Jakarta Globe that the company replaced the three turbines and installed a new generator to improve the power station's output.

"We were able to use the existing superstructure because it was in good condition," he said.

The plant's 660 kilowatts, at a cost of 4,500 tons of CO2 per year, has the potential to power almost 1,000 homes.

Green politics

Greenpeace warned, however, that Asean's renewable-energy outlook was inextricably linked with the contours of its political landscape.

"Climate change is a wholesale problem requiring a wholesale solution, one that needs the absolute cooperation of every nation in the region," said Obusan.

"For the sake of a sound environment, political stability and thriving economies, now is the time for Asean to commit to a truly secure and sustainable energy future—one built on genuinely clean technologies, economic development and the creation of hundreds of thousands of green jobs."

Additional reporting by Tito Summa Siahaan.

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Cambodia’s Hun Sen Pushes On With Forming Govt, Rejects Opposition Role

Posted: 24 Sep 2013 10:50 PM PDT

Prime Minister Hun Sen smiles during a meeting with opposition leader Sam Rainsy at the National assembly in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. (Photo: Pring Samrang / Reuters)

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen pushed ahead with forming a new government on Tuesday and said he had rejected a demand from the main opposition party, which says it won July’s general election, to be given senior positions in parliament.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which boycotted the opening of parliament on Monday, said it would hold further protests around the country. One man was shot and killed during a rally in the capital, Phnom Penh, last week.

Hun Sen told reporters that, in talks last week, the CNRP had not pressed its demand for an independent inquiry into alleged irregularities during the July poll, but had sought the position of National Assembly president plus six of the 12 committee chairmen’s jobs.

"Have you ever seen, anywhere in the world, a minority party holding the position of the president of parliament?" he asked.

The prime minister suggested the real reason for the opposition boycott of parliament was not alleged vote-rigging, but its failure to secure top jobs.

"If we’d agreed to their demand for the presidency, they would surely have attended the meeting," he said.

Hun Sen, 61, has been in power for 28 years and has said he will rule Cambodia into his seventies. He portrays himself as the man who saved Cambodia from the terror and chaos of the Khmer Rouge years in the 1970s and the civil war that followed.

But his authoritarian rule and widespread corruption alienated many young people who did not live through that era and who turned to the newly merged CNRP in the election.

The National Election Committee says Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won 68 seats in the poll to the CNRP’s 55. That was already a big setback for Hun Sen, but the CNRP claimed victory, saying it was cheated out of 2.3 million votes.

Hun Sen has ridden roughshod over critics in the past, but was obliged to hold talks with CNRP leader Sam Rainsy last week as an emboldened opposition took to the streets.

He has taken back the initiative by forcing the opening of parliament in the face of the CNRP boycott, leaving the opposition struggling to keep up the momentum.

"We will hold nationwide demonstrations and we will mount a diplomatic campaign to ensure that the election results and the unconstitutional meeting of parliament are not recognized," CNRP lawmaker Yim Sovann told Reuters.

The Cambodian constitution stipulates that "the National Assembly shall comprise at least 120 members".

The opposition and some political analysts say that means a quorum of 120 lawmakers is needed to open parliament. Monday’s session went ahead after the names of the 123 elected members were simply read out and Hun Sen said in a short speech to the house on Tuesday that everything had been done legally.

He says the rules stipulate a new government can be formed if a minimum 63 of the 123 lawmakers vote in favor and his premiership was endorsed by the 68 CPP members on Tuesday.

The names of ministers have not yet been announced, but a first cabinet meeting is due to be held on Wednesday.

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East Timor Bans Martial Arts Clubs Amid Killings

Posted: 24 Sep 2013 10:45 PM PDT

A Sacred Heart martial arts gang member is arrested by a UN police unit during a violent gang clash in the Dili suburb Bairo Pite in this file photo. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

DILI — East Timor police say there will be zero tolerance against those who continue to practice a local martial art after the government banned all clubs following deadly gang violence, an official said Monday.

At least 12 East Timorese have been killed and more than 200 injured in the past two years as a result of fighting among rival pencak silat clubs, said Armando Monteiro, National Police detective chief. Two were killed in neighboring Indonesia, while other deaths and injuries have occurred as far away as England and Ireland. He said the number of casualties is likely higher since many people are afraid to report gang activity or go to the hospital for treatment.

"Any martial arts clubs members that violate the government resolution will be dealt with under the law," Monteiro said. There will be "zero tolerance for martial arts activities in the country."

Schools and clubs for pencak silat, an adapted form of the Indonesian martial art, have a long history in East Timor, with many students in the past fighting against Indonesia’s military occupation. They also became active clandestine members in supporting guerrilla fighters and some made significant contributions toward winning the country’s independence in 2002.

Later, martial arts students became rivals and began killing each other in the streets as happened in 2006 during a violent political crisis that left dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced in the tiny half-island nation.

In many villages across East Timor, students start learning pencak silat at age 13. Less popular martial arts, such as karate, kung fu, taekwondo and judo, are not banned.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao issued a resolution outlawing the popular clubs two months ago. He said he has tried to work with the groups for years to allow them to continue to operate peacefully, but said the original purpose and philosophy of martial arts has been lost in East Timor.

"I have no more mercy and no more patience," said Gusmao, who added he has tried to work with the groups since becoming the country’s first president in 2002. "I cannot tolerate the situation anymore, and I cannot permit it anymore."

Gusmao said police and members of the military have been told to leave martial arts groups or be fired.

Some clubs have publicly handed over their uniforms to police in front of government officials, but police say some members continue to conduct their training secretly at night.

Monteiro said anyone caught violating the resolution will be punished under the law. Seven martial arts clubs were registered, but many others exist without the government’s knowledge making it difficult to estimate the number of members nationwide.

Last month, one East Timorese student was killed at Widyagama University in Malang, Indonesia, and another had his hand cut off with a samurai sword by a martial arts gang member.

"I need justice because the suspects who cut off my hand have not yet been captured by the police," said Jacinto Cipriano Ximenes, 25, a final-year telecommunications student who plans to return to school and finish his studies this year.

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