Shan Herald Agency for News |
- BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AND ARMED ETHNIC GROUPS
- Statement (A condensed version)
- To Hopeland and Back (Party IV)
| BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AND ARMED ETHNIC GROUPS Posted: 04 Oct 2013 02:55 AM PDT Recent ceasefire agreements have also resulted in similar incentives being made and a number of armed ethnic groups have taken the opportunity to create their own companies. Groups hope that if they become self-sufficient itwill remove the burden on the over taxed local population. That said, however, a number of obstacles remain and further support needs to be given in relation to allowing groups the ability to move forward in terms of creating local business opportunitiesto support their troops and their families. The Chin National Front (CNF), primarily because it had seen little in relation to armed conflict over recent years, has prioritised development when dealing with the Burmese Government. A member of the Supreme Council of the Chin National Front noted that: Business involvement is more important in Chin State because there has only been low intensity conflict. As a result, most people have not been directly affected by war.Chin State is the poorest state in the country, so when the Chin National Front negotiates with the government, the people want them to bring development, so business people are needed for this. The CNF is the largest group that is currently categorised as being at the Union level stage of peace negotiations. To provide financial support to the CNF, members of the organisation have formed the KhonumthungCompany which is primarily associated with logging. Similarly, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) hasalso been grantedlicenses to open two companies. The KNPP has created the Kayah Htarnay (Kayah Land) company, which is involved in lead exploration, and the TamawHtarcompany which focusses on theimport and export of teak. It remains too early to know how successful these companies have been in relation to supporting members of armed ethnic groups. According to the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) leader, Yawd Serk, their company, Taungdan Cherry, which was created in April 2012 along with a business liaison office in Muse has consistently found that they are unable to operate. Shan TaungdanCherry,has apparently applied for concessions on several projects including agriculture, mining, tourism, road construction and power distribution.According to Yawd Serk: Despite permits issued by the government, we have been facing official red tape in the regional level Sources quoted by SHAN suggest that the main reason for problems related to Taungdan Cherry is its areas of operation which continue to see skirmishes with Government troops. Additionally, such areas are also located in the notorious Golden Triangle where local militias continue to be involved in the drug trade. Therefore, not until a more stable peace is achieved and further efforts to wipe out drug trafficking in Shan areas are successful, can the company become more effective. Most recently, the Karen National Union has also embarked on creating a local business - The MoeKo San Travel and Tour Company Limited and Trading Company Limited. Managing Director Saw Moses administers the company, located at Thirimingalar Street in Myawaddy opposite Thailand's Mae Sot district. The company was registered in Naypyidaw on the 4 May 2013 and was set to begin tour services in June 2013. It is anticipated that the tour company would start working in collaboration with travel and tours companies from Thailand, Japan and in the United States. Recently, the Burmese Government opened a number of land crossings that will allow tourists to travel overland to non-restricted areas in the country. These include the Thai-Burma Friendship bridge which connects Myawaddy to Mae Sot in Thailand. Such an opening could, therefore, prove fairly lucrative for the Karen National Union's business enterprise. According to Karen Media sources, the company's main aim is that: We are looking to compete in the international business market in the future and see that it would be impossible to do that individually. In addition, Saw Moses noted: This office can be regarded as the KNU 7th Brigade economic office. The office would work in accordance with economic policy and regulations laid down by the KNU. It is unclear whetherfunds raised by the Karen National Union's economic office would benefit only those from the KNU's 7th Brigade and not those from other brigade areas. Previouly the funds from other brigade areas, after individual Brigade operating costs were removed,were purportedly sent to the Central Headquarters, thus providing funds for less financially viable brigades. Additionally, the Karen National Union has offered, in the 4th Brigade area, to provide assistance to individuals wanting to start their own businesses and has actively encouraged them to do so. According to one Karen offical, Saw Beeler: The KNU is ready to support any Karen company that wants to start a business. The KNU wants to see Karen people become more prosperous. . .The KNU is ready to help, facilitate and give advice on financial resources and what are the opportunities available to start a small business, this it is not a big problem. But most importantly the real need is for relevant expertise to run a company effectively While the 7thand 4th Brigades have openly welcomed the opportunity to create a friendlier business environemnt, General Baw Kyaw Heh, the former 5th Brigade commander who is now deputy Chief of Staff, is sceptical about the peace process and its relationship to business interests. While discussing outside business interests he has stated that: Businesses want to come to our areas, but we ask them not to as this is not the time, it is still too early. First we need to create a sustainable situation. Because of this issue some people claim I am a hardliner and not cooperative. I am concerned about these issues, because if we don't have rights that are guaranteed and if we let any business or any developer in, we will not be able to control them. Ifwe cannot manage these issues systematically it will create problems for us in the future. Whether he believes the same for KNU operated enterprises remains unclear. The opening of the MoeKo San Company isn't the first time thatmembers of the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army have sought to become self-sufficient and provide for their troops and family members. Col. Nerdah Mya of the Karen National Union has been involved, together with American Kurt Hanson, in forming an organisation known as Karen Enterprises. The group established a rubber and coffee plantation, with the support of local villagers, as one of its first commercial ventures in the 6th Brigade area of Karen State, and itis hoped that this will provide employment and industry for the local Karen population. It is extremely important that Armed Ethnic Groups consider different ways in supporting themselves during the transition to peace. One of the greatest challenges they faceis to reduce their reliance on taxation of the local population. Armed ethic groups involvement in creating local business opportunities can help ease the burden on local communties, however, the Government and the international donor community still needs to provide support to groups in an attempt to help troops and families through the transition period.It is likely that such companies will not be sufficiently profitable for sometime yet and, as Yawd Serk noted earlier, it is essential that the Government act swiftly to support the armed groups local enterprises. More importantly, the armed groups thmeselves have to ensure that their business dealings are done in a sufficiently transparent way. Proper bookeeping records shoul be made available to ensure that such companies are seen to benefit their communities and are not used for the personal encrichment ofspecific individuals. One of the greatest criticism of business, both external and within the armed groups themselves, is the belief that individual leaders are signing peace agreements with the government for personal gain. While there is no evidence to support this, a number of ethnic leaders in the eighties and nineties were able to amass small fortunes through lucrative, and often illegal, trade deals. A situation which should not be repeated. Business and Armed Ethnic Groups.PDF |
| Statement (A condensed version) Posted: 04 Oct 2013 02:53 AM PDT Statement (A condensed version) a. The 9-23 June trip to Naypyitaw where Chairman Sao Yawdserk met President Thein Sein was a major step in the forging of peace b. Altogether 133 clashes have taken place during the period of 18 months following the ceasefire on 2 December 2011 c. People of Shan State are invited to participate in our newly reformed Peacemaking Committee in order to forge unity and hold political talks with the government d. The RCSS/SSA welcomes the all inclusive Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement Signing Ceremony to be organized by the government |
| To Hopeland and Back (Party IV) Posted: 04 Oct 2013 02:52 AM PDT I could wait for the public transport to take me to the Shan Literary and Culture Society's Meeting Hall, some 300 meters away. But the morning was lovely, cool and pleasant. It would be good to revive some long lost memories by taking a solitary stroll down to the main road and across it to the meeting hall, I thought. And I wasn't disappointed, though I won't bother you with the details here. I walked past the Eindaw, now the residence of the Shan State Chief Minister, and through the tall pine trees that I remembered so well. Only now I had to be careful to walk on the right hand side of the road. (Burma, being under British, used to drive on the wrong side but in 1968, Gen Ne Win, during his fight against the communists, was said to have been advised by his astrologers to switch to the right hand side).  The meeting hall is located just next door to Government High School #2, the school I had attended until matriculation. Hundreds of participants were already there when I arrived. One of them was my childhood friend Sao Yun Peng, now a CEC member of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), whom I used to know as Gilbert Hti. At the sight of him, I had a mixed feeling: One side of me was glad to see him again after all these years, but the other side was sorry to see he had grown old and bald: Well, I reminded myself, I wasn't getting younger either. The second day of the forum was unquestionably Lawyer Ko Ni's day. I won't repeat myself because I have already reported on the next day how he had mesmerized the audience with his eloquent arguments about why the 2008 constitution should be dumped in favor of a rewrite. My own attention was on the Wa and Mongla representatives' presentations. While Xiao Hsarm Khun, the United Wa State Party (UWSP)'s deputy head of external affairs, made himself conspicuous (at least to me) by not reiterating his call for a separate Wa state, Kham Mawng, the chief public relations officer of the Mongla-based National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), so far reticent about his group's aim, was coming out of his shell by demanding for a "special status" to its domain along the Sino-Burmese border alongside the Wa. Mongla itself is now designated a separate township. But its Hsaleu village tract in the northwest and Nampan village tract in the southeast have been named parts of Mongyang and Mongyawng townships respectively. Losing them would mean Mongla would be cut off from its Wa allies (who would also be cut off from it) and surrounded on all sides by the Burma Army (with the same result for the Wa). "Without first reaching an acceptable political solution", one NDAA official told me earlier, "we are not going to let that happen."  Shan Literature and Cultural Hall in Taunggyi (Photo: SNLD) Another noteworthy presentation, maybe scarcely noticed, was read out by Brig-Gen Pawng Kherh of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) who had inserted a recount of the 1996-98 forced relocation campaign launched by the Burma Army. It was, I thought as I listened, a polite response to the Burma Army's 6 point in demand August which included: Not to kill civilians. According to the report published by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) in 1998, Dispossessed, over 1,400 villages in 11 townships in Shan State were forcibly relocated. At least 664 of the people were confirmed killed by the Burma Army, with one of them, a Buddhist monk, tied up in a sack and drowned. Hundreds of girls and women had also been sexually abused, which led to the better known report, License to Rape (2002). At the conclusion of the day's session, I was picked by my brother-in-law to visit my sister, age 73, who was in hospital. She was weak but in good spirits. When I was back at the hotel, I thought about what Tony Blair had said in August to Thailand's leaders on national reconciliation: "Reconciliation happens when the sense of shared opportunity is greater than the sense of grievance. The past can be honestly examined, but it can never be judged in a way that is going to be the satisfaction of everyone. Reconciliation is never going to be about people changing their mind about the past. It is really going to be about changing their mind about the future." I then jotted some notes about what I was going to say to the participants on the morrow and turned in. I went down, as Gavin Lyall once wrote, like a crashed airliner. |
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