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Posted: 29 May 2013 06:13 AM PDT
Men with weapons ride a motorcycle during a riot between Buddhist and Muslims in Lashio township on Wednesday during a second day of sectarian clashes. To see more photos click on the box below. (Photo: Reuters /Soe Zeya Tun)
RANGOON—At least one person died and four were injured as fresh clashes occurred between Buddhists and Muslims in Lashio, Shan State, on Wednesday afternoon, an official said. A journalist working for the Democratic Voice of Burma was also injured while covering the riots.
Earlier on Wednesday, officials claimed that order had been restored in the town in northeastern Burma after anti-Muslim violence first erupted on Tuesday night.
"According to initial reports, one is dead and four are injured" in Lashio, President Thein Sein's spokesman Ye Htut wrote in Facebook post on Wednesday night. "Security forces fired warning shots during riots, which happened around 2 pm," he stated.
The Associated Press and Reuters reported from Lashio that hundreds of young Buddhist men were driving and walking around the town on Wednesday evening waving iron rods, machetes and bamboo poles.
Inkura, a local Buddhist monk, told The Irrawaddy by phone that Muslims fought with Buddhists near the town's Muslim quarter on Wednesday afternoon.
During these clashes, he said, eight Buddhists were injured and two of his friends were killed. "Muslims killed one Buddhist riding a motorcycle in the Seven Quarter," he claimed, adding that further casualties occurred during street fights between the groups.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) said late on Wednesday afternoon that one of its reporters had been attacked during the unrest. "Journalist working for DVB attacked and injured by mob while covering Lashio riots. Camera was taken and SIM card," the news outlet said on its Twitter feed.
Early Wednesday afternoon, officials claimed that order had been restored in the town after anti-Muslim violence first erupted the day before, reportedly destroying many Muslim-owned buildings.
"One mosque, a Muslim orphanage and 15 Muslim-owned shops were torched in Lashio [Tuesday] night" Kyaw Khin, chief secretary of the All Myanmar Muslim Federation, said by phone.
Buddhist mobs in Lashio, a mountain town of around 150,000 people located close to the Chinese border, went on a rampage on Tuesday night following a dispute during which a supposedly Muslim man set a Buddhist woman on fire.
Government spokesperson Ye Htut said the mayhem occurred after a crowd surrounded the local police station to demand that the suspected perpetrator be handed over to them. When the police failed to do so, they attacked Muslim buildings in Lashio.
"People demanded that the police hand over the man to them. The police refused, so the mob attacked the mosque," said a Buddhist monk Khema, who witnessed the scene.
Ye Htut said in a Facebook post on Wednesday morning that a man named Ne Win, 48, got into an argument with a 24-year-old petrol vendor, Aye Win, and then doused her with petrol and set her on fire.
"The police detained Ne Win and they found two methamphetamine tablets in his pocket. He was charged with causing severe injuries, and drug-related charges," Ye Htut wrote.
Around noon on Wednesday, an official at the Lashio District Police Office told The Irrawaddy that a curfew had been imposed the night before and the town's streets were quiet and shops were closed.
"We detained the man [Ne Win], and the victim was hospitalized with burn injuries. One mosque and a Muslim orphanage were torched," he said, adding that the reasons for the unrest were "under investigation."
Lashio is the latest town to be hit by anti-Muslim violence in Burma. Large-scale clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims first broke out in west Burma's Arakan State in June and October last year, killing 192 people and displacing 140,000.
In late March, inter-communal clashes erupted in Meikhtila town, Mandalay Division, where 44 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 10,000 displaced. A total of 10 townships in central Burma were subsequently affected and remain under a state of emergency. On May 1, clashes between Muslims and Buddhists occurred in Okkan Township, located about 100 km north of Burma's biggest city, Rangoon.
Additional reporting by Lawi Weng and Zarni Mann.
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Posted: 29 May 2013 05:57 AM PDT
Gen Gun Maw, deputy chief of the Kachin Independence Army, on the way to a meeting room on Tuesday ahead of peace talks with the government. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
MYITKYINA, Kachin State—After an unprecedented round of peace talks between ethnic Kachin rebels and the national government here in Burma's northernmost state, Kachin leaders say they remain wary of Naypyidaw and will only agree to a ceasefire in the presence of international observers from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Hundreds of Kachin leaders on Wednesday met in the state capital of Myitkyina with the UN special advisor on Burma, who was allowed to attend the peace negotiations for the first time on Tuesday, and spoke to him openly about their continuing mistrust of Burma's quasi-civilian government.
The leaders warmly welcomed UN envoy Vijay Nambia and thanked him for participating in the negotiations, but said they worried that the Burmans—Burma's majority ethnic group which dominates the government—had been "bound to tell lies" for decades.
Ang Phan Ja Ra, an 81-year-old former singer, said the Kachin people had suffered for about half a century under an oppressive Burmese regime.
"How can we trust them, when, despite talks between the KIO [Kachin Independence Organization] and the government, more troops have been deployed?" she said.
Labang Gam Aung, secretary of the Kachin Consultative Committee, which organized the meeting on Wednesday, said he also welcomed the participation of Chinese observers in the peace talks.
"We welcome international observers and their attention to our affairs," he said.
Prior rounds of negotiations this year have been held over the border in China, with Beijing prohibiting the participation of other international observers. The talks on Tuesday were the first to take place inside Burma with the UN envoy in attendance.
Gam Aung said the Kachin people wanted "genuine peace, ethnic equality and a federal system."
"We hope for the best," he said.
The UN's Nambia said the discussion with Kachin leaders was productive. "I think it's been a good meeting," he told reporters after the event. "There were frustrations, as well as expectations and hopes, which have been expressed."
"I think there is hope," the UN envoy added. "But people feel everywhere. I think it's necessary that those views come out and are openly expressed."
He told the Kachin public: "You are moving, you must move and you will move for the future."
Meanwhile, leaders of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) discussed military affairs with a commander from the government army, although no details of were revealed.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy after the meeting, KIA deputy chief Gen Gum Maw said a press conference would be held on Thursday.
Both sides said they were satisfied with the meeting. Gen Gum Maw and Gen Zaw Taung represented the KIA, while Lt-Gen Myint Soe represented the government army.
Lt-Gen Myint Soe said the group discussed troop deployments as well as the ongoing clashes between the government army and other ethnic armed groups which have already signed ceasefires.
Shortly after these meetings, several hundreds of Kachin activists and community leaders met the KIO peace delegation led by Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, who addressed the crowd in their Kachin language.
The KIA general said a ceasefire agreement could only be signed if international observers from the United Kingdom and the United States were present at the talks, saying that trust between the KIO and the government was destroyed when their 17-year ceasefire broke down in 2011.
"It is the first time that KIO leaders held a meeting with us," a female participant told The Irrawaddy. "I'm so happy I could shed a tear of joy."
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Posted: 29 May 2013 05:01 AM PDT
A copper mine excavation about 24 km (15 miles) from Monywa in Sagaing Division. Farming families from 26 villages have lost land for the Letpadaung copper mining project. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)
More than 400 farmers and other locals from the Letpadaung copper mine area in central Burma's Sagaing Division urged local authorities on Wednesday to immediately release three detainees and stop their manhunt for people accused of supporting and assisting the displaced farmers there.
Three protesters, including activist Aung Soe of the Rangoon People's Support Network, were detained after security forces moved in to prevent farmers from plowing fields in the villages of Hse Te and nearby Moegyopyin on April 25.
"We would like to request that authorities unconditionally release these people and immediately stop the manhunts. They have done nothing wrong but were just helping us [the farmers] to win back our lands," said Sandar, a protesting farmer who participated in Wednesday's protest march to commemorate the six-month anniversary of a pre-dawn crackdown on peaceful anti-copper mine protesters camped out in the area.
Activists in Rangoon, Meikhtila, Prome and Nattalin also showed solidarity with those in Sagaing Division by holding prayer services at pagodas in their respective towns.
"We have not received information about them since they have been detained. The police refuse to give the information. Since we do not know their condition and where they are keeping them, family members are worried," Sandar added.
The protesters also urged authorities to investigate and take action against the perpetrators of the Nov. 29 crackdown, in which incendiary devices that seriously injured more than 70 anti-mine protesters, including Buddhist monks, were used.
"It's been six months since the crackdown but we haven't seen the culprits of the incident punished," said another protesting local from the village of Tone.
They also complained that the mining company had not yet not followed through on the recommendations of a government commission's report on Letpadaung.
"Formally, the mining company said that they would redo the mining contract with transparency and would take care of the environmental matters as well. But the company has not yet drawn up the new contract and instead is continuing its mining without taking care of the area's environment," he said.
"We just want justice to be done and to win back our lands as well."
Protests against land confiscation and pushing for an end to copper mining in the area began last year.
The Letpadaung copper mining project, which is a joint venture between the Chinese company Wanbao and Burma's military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings has displaced farming families in 26 villages, with more than 7,000 acres confiscated in 2010.
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Posted: 29 May 2013 04:32 AM PDT
Central Bank Deputy Governor Maung Maung Win speaks at Traders Hotel in Rangoon on Wednesday morning. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON — Burma remains on track to establish a stock exchange in the commercial hub of Rangoon by the end of 2015, Burma's Central Bank Deputy Governor Maung Maung Win said on Wednesday.
The official told a gathering of local and international would-be investors in Rangoon on Wednesday morning that the proposed Yangon Stock Exchange (YSE, using the official name for Rangoon, Burma's biggest city) is needed to boost Burma's economic growth. At present, local businesses must depend on bank loans for financing in what remains the only country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) without a stock exchange.
"The SEC [Securities and Exchange Law] is vital to the economic development of our country," the deputy governor said, adding that the law, which was sent back to Burma's Parliament in March by President Thein Sein, is expected to be discussed in Parliament over the summer with a view to it being passed before autumn.
Following that, securities and exchange rules are scheduled to be set in stone next year, prior to the establishment of the YSE in 2015.
Establishing a stock market is seen as key to reforming Burma's ossified financial architecture and ensuring that the country's economic potential is realized.
As well as passing the SEC Law, however, there are additional obstacles to setting up and running an exchange in Burma.
"We need securities companies, accounting firms and law firms to support a capital market," said Koichiro Miyahara, senior executive officer at Japan Exchange Group, which runs the world's third biggest stock exchange and is advising the Burmese government on the proposed YSE. "There are several good accounting and law firms in Yangon, and foreign firms are coming, so I think there will be enough in a few years to support," Miyahara said.
It is difficult for companies to raise capital in Burma at present, with banks the main above-board source of financing. Stock exchange advocates argue that the YSE could help finance these ventures. Highlighting this gap in Burma's financial architecture, the prominent Burmese businessman Zaw Zaw recently sought to list one of his companies in Singapore—a gambit that was rebuffed due to his inclusion on a US sanctions list.
"Loans from banks are more suitable to short-term and low-risk investment," said Shinsuke Gote, an investment analyst with Daiwa Securities Group, outlining why a stock exchange could help finance longer-term, higher-risk but potentially more lucrative business ventures.
Daiwa, a Tokyo-based investment company valued at US$400 billion, has worked in Burma since 1996, teaming-up with Myanma Economic Bank—which was recently given the go-ahead to do business with US companies as part of Washington's removal of sanctions on Burma—as part of the Myanmar Securities Exchange Center (MSEC).
The Japanese government is supporting the SEC legislation process through its Ministry of Finance, another signal of Tokyo's keen interest in Burma. Last weekend Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Burma, pledging a half billion dollars worth of loans to improve Burma's roads and electricity supply, as well as writing off almost $2 billion in Burmese debt.
Those involved in setting up the YSE sought to downplay prospects for the exchange on Wednesday. "Don't expect too much, at least five years is needed to get the market going well, it will be a modest stock exchange, not a big one," said Soe Thane, executive director of the MSEC.
Few Burmese companies are expected to be ready to list by the time the YSE opens in late 2015. Gote of Daiwa Securities Group said he expects "between five and 10" companies to list during the YSE's first year of operation, with 10 to 20 listed by the end of 2017.
Though requirements for companies listing on the YSE have not yet been finalized, draft rules show that a minimum capital amount of 500 million kyat ($525,000) will be needed, with aspirant companies needing to show two years' profitability. YSE-listed companies will need a minimum of 100 shareholders and minority shareholders will have to account for at least 10 percent of total equity.
The exchange—if Burma's big businesses decide to list—could help improve corporate governance in Burma, where large businesses are often associated with "cronies," or businessmen sanctioned by Western governments due to close ties to the former military regime and, in some cases, allegations of involvement in illicit activities such as drug trafficking and illegal logging.
"A listed company's operations and financial results must be open to public scrutiny," said Gote, reminding that listed companies must file regular financial reports with the exchange and "conduct investor relations by publishing annual reports and press releases."
Miyahara of Japan Exchange Group outlined that profits should be known to shareholders of and investors in listed companies, to ensure that money does not flow "inappropriately to related parties," such as the company owner's family or "other persons that have a special relationship with the company."
Burma's military government first began drafting an SEC Law in 1996. The code was never implemented, despite 10 revisions, "because of lack of experience locally, lack of contact with the outside world," Soe Thane said.
And though foreign assistance is needed to set up the proposed YSE, it is not clear yet what foreign participation will be permitted once the exchange is up and running.
"In the early stage, within the context of the current Myanmar legal framework and other laws, foreign involvement will be small or nonexistent," Soe Thane said, adding however "that eventual foreign participation should be allowed in many areas of the market."
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Posted: 29 May 2013 03:25 AM PDT
Boys who offer horse rides to beachgoers are pictured in Mon State's Setse. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
A group of boys leading small horses mill about the beach in Mon State's Setse, enlisting their steeds in service of beachgoers looking for a ride along the sand.
Even if they're not paying to saddle up, most visitors to the beach are at least inclined to stop and admire the young entrepreneurs' skills on horseback. At Setse, in Thanbyuzayat Township, fast riding and occasional leaps that harken to the age of the cowboy-ridden Wild West are crowd pleasers. More than a dozen boys regularly ply this beach trade.
Among the thousands that thronged Setse during the Thingyan water festival last month, the boys were doubtless the busiest, foregoing Buddhist New Year leisure in favor of the money that was to be made.
It was hot, wet and messy along the beach over the course of those four days as crowds strolled the coast, but the boys and their horses seemed tireless, as holiday-goers took turns taking the reins. The energy spent was, after all, in exchange for money—and far more than is typical.
On normal days, the beach is sparsely populated, and a day's pay for the boys is commensurately small.
The beach runs about 60 miles from Moulmein, the state capital, to Thanbyuzayat. It is popular among the ethnic Mon and Karen in the region. While it spans 60 miles, Setse suffers from poor infrastructure, both in terms of access to its sands and accommodation for tourists. There are few decent hotels.
Nonetheless, ample trees provide shade from the tropical sun, and small beachside restaurants offer visitors food and beer.
The beach boys, in their pre- and early teens, are of an age that should put them in classrooms instead of on the beach, but instead they roam the coast, some earning less than $3 a day. Every new visitor to the beach is greeted by one of the young cowboys with horse in tow, the youngsters offering rides at by-the-minute rates.
On a typical day, about 40 horses will trot the beach, all of which are miniature versions of the average riding horse.
The boys' skillful handling of the horses draws in visitors, proving especially popular with children whose faces betray their delight.
"This horse is for visitors who come here to ride. We charge 1,000 kyat [US$1.05] for 10 minutes," said one of the horse masters, a 12-year-old.
He said that the horses belonged to the owners of some of the restaurants along the beach, adding that he was paid 2,500 kyat a day.
The horses' owners only hire children, according to a man involved in the practice.
"They use children as they do not have to pay as much as to older people," he said. "They can pay as much as they want to children, it does not matter, even if it is a little money."
One boy, an orphan from the Irrawaddy delta, explained what had brought him to work on the beach.
"I do not have parents," he said. "I stay with my older brother and sister. We do not have jobs for children here. This is the only job for children. There is no choice, even though it is small pay.
"Many children here who are like me do not have people whom they can rely on for a living. If we didn't have this job, we could not eat regularly."
And not unlike the Wild West of yore, he described a rough-and-tumble business. If one of the young equestrians falls ill, the solution for horse owners is simple: "They give their horses to another person."
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Posted: 29 May 2013 02:19 AM PDT
An aerial view of central Burma's Dahatpin oil fields, 20 miles outside Minhla township in Magway Division. (Photo: Sanay Lin / The Irrawaddy)
Oil fields abandoned by Burma's state-owned oil company in Magway Division have turned into a lawless arena for local drillers and smugglers looking for a profit—with knife fights settling scores between rival drillers, company officials and local residents say.
The Dahatpin oil fields, on a highway about 20 miles outside Minhla Township, was once controlled by the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) in a joint venture, but has recently become a magnet for illegal drillers and crude oil sellers.
“There were two oil fields under our supervision, but now the joint venture is gone and we're not working there anymore. It's being explored illegally," the company's deputy engineer in the Minhla Township told The Irrawaddy.
Thawzin, an oil driller from Htankai village, said people from many different regions were trying their luck at the two fields, which are 25 miles wide.
"There are more than 40,000 small oil wells here, and the oil field workers are from various regions," he said.
A sign at the gate of the oil fields warns of punishment for illegal drillers, but it seems no deterrent. The fields have become a popular market for not only crude, but also illegal drugs, alcohol and prostitutes, locals say.
And when tensions arise, they knife fights are common, with three fights occurring recently.
"Sometimes there are problems, but if you just work your job and don't get involved in other people's affairs, it's OK," Thawzin said.
Another oil driller added: "If you don't have any problem with the landowners, you can drill at your will and sell your crude to any oil dealer. No one will arrest you if you pay money illegally to officers."
Min Latt, a driller who goes to Magway from neighboring Mandalay Division, said some wells produced 25 barrels a day.
The crude is transported for sale either by waterway or by highway to the town of Monywa, which has about 10 refineries. On the drive, traders pass directly in front of the MOGE office.
"We don't have any right to arrest the drivers who transport the crude oil in front of our office. We see them every day, but that's the job of law enforcement," a MOGE official told The Irrawaddy, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The oil fields in Htankai village came into MOGE's control in the 1990s, during the former military regime. The old oil fields were explored by locals before 1996, but were then seized by MOGE in a joint venture with a private firm.
Local residents did not receive any benefit from the venture, and many lost their land
Last month, about two years after reformist President Thein Sein assumed office, local residents took legal action and MOGE returned the land to them. As part of the deal, MOGE ordered the landowners to block the oil wells and forbid local oil drillers from working in the area.
Although some landowners, mostly farmers, tried to follow these orders, their attempts to block the wells were stopped by prospective oil drillers and crude traders. As a result, farmers say they have been unable to grow their crops.
Drillers say they pay the landowners anywhere from 100,000 kyats to 1.5 million kyats (US $105 to $1,600) for rights to a small oil well, depending on the oil yield, but some farmers say they receive no compensation.
“To be frank, if other people are taking crude oil, we'd like to do it too," said Aung Moe Hein, a resident of Htankai village. "When the farms were given back to us, we weren't allowed to drill and we didn't receive any money from the other oil drillers. As they continue drilling, we can't grow any crops and life gets so much harder for us."
Others in the area do profit, however. Drillers and traders say they pay monthly bribes to local government officials, often of about 500,000 kyats. Car owners must also give drivers about the same amount of money to bribe officials along the way to Monywa.
“We bribe the village police so they don't arrest us," one trader said. "The officer shares the money to his superiors."
Thirty-two miles from Minhla Township, MOGE is allowing a private company to explore another oil field. Local drillers who want to work at the Ya Naung-Mone oil field make a deal with the landowners, and the oil company buys the crude for nearly market value.
One oil trader said other oil fields in the region should learn from the Ya Naung field, where the drilling and trade occur legally and the state benefits from paid tax. At other fields, drillers continue to give bribes and lack legal rights.
"If we have to give money [bribes], we would prefer to pay [tax] to the government," the trader said. "We prefer to drill legally under the same circumstances, rather than wasting money."
There are many potential oil reservoirs around the township.
“Actually, there are vast of natural mineral resources in our area, but there's development in our region so we can't save money for a prosperous life," Aung Moe Hein said. "We'd love to get opportunities just like other regions benefit."
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Posted: 29 May 2013 02:06 AM PDT
Mourners pay respect to Burma's independence heroes at Aung San's mausoleum in Rangoon on Thursday. (Photo: Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON—A mausoleum filled with Burmese martyrs will soon be open to the public, after two decades of tightly restricted access, according to Rangoon's municipal authorities.
The mausoleum, where independence hero Gen Aung San and eight others martyrs were entombed, was closed to the public by the former military regime, which sought to downplay Aung San's legacy and the popularity of his daughter, democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
In past years, the site has only been open to visitors on July 19, the anniversary of the martyrs' assassination, but even then, the gates were closely guarded by security officials who only allowed government officials, family members and special guests to enter.
"With permission from the national government and the Rangoon divisional government, the mausoleum will be open to the public starting in June," Rangoon municipal authorities announced in state-run media recently. The mausoleum, once controlled by the Ministry of Culture, was handed over to the Rangoon municipal department in February.
Members of the public can visit the site daily except on Mondays and public holidays, according to the announcement. The entrance fee will be 300 kyats (30 cents) for adults, 100 kyats for children and US $3 for foreigners. Students with valid ID cards can visit without charge. Entry will also be free for everyone on July 19.
Aung San, who fought for Burma's independence from British rule, was gunned downed by a political rival in July 1947. Eight of his comrades were also killed, and their bodies were buried six months later.
The mausoleum was destroyed in 1983, in a bomb attack by North Korean agents trying to assassinate former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. While Chun Doo-hwan escaped, 20 others were killed in the plot, including South Korean officials and Burmese journalists.
After the attack, the mausoleum was rebuilt and stands today near Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, with a white star painted on a red.
Burma's former military regime downgraded the annual national ceremony to honor the Burmese martyrs after the pro-democracy uprising in 1988. The site was then closed to the public, as the junta feared a gathering there could spark further unrest.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:29 PM PDT
Firefighters try to put out a fire that was started by mobs during unrest in Lashio, Shan State, on Tuesday night. (Photo: Facebook/Ye Htut)
RANGOON—Sectarian violence spread to a new region of Burma, with a mob burning shops in the Shan State town of Lashio, after unconfirmed rumors spread that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman.
The spread beyond the western and central towns where deadly mob attacks and arsons have occurred since last year will reinforce doubts that President Thein Sein’s government can or will act to contain the violence.
The extent of Tuesday night’s violence was unclear, as the area is remote and officials were difficult to reach at a late hour. Unconfirmed reports on Muslim news websites said a large mosque and a Muslim orphanage had been burned down.
A politician in Lashio in Shan state, Sai Myint Maung, said authorities banned gatherings of more than five people after about 150 massed outside a police station demanding that the alleged culprit in the unconfirmed immolation be handed over. The mob also burned some stores, he said.
According to the rumors, the man doused the woman with gasoline and set her alight. The attack could not be confirmed, but a Muslim-oriented news website that described it said the attacker was not Muslim.
A police officer and a monk also confirmed that a mob burned down a mosque, a Muslim orphanage and shops in the northeastern town after rumors spread that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman.
According to the policeman and the Buddhist monk contacted by telephone on Wednesday morning there were no fatalities after violence erupted the night before in the northeastern city.
A resident who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals said by phone that some shops were burned near the police station and the hospital where the victim was said to have been taken. A Lashio resident, Than Htay, said he could see smoke and had heard about the ban on gatherings. He said calm had been restored.
However, the website of the Muslim-oriented M-media Group said Lashio’s biggest mosque had been torched by a mob while firefighters stood by, and a Muslim school and orphanage was also burned down. It did not say if there were any casualties. Its report acknowledged the burning of the woman but said the perpetrator was not a Muslim.
While the account could not immediately be confirmed, the website’s accounts of past violence against Muslims in Burma were subsequently reported in other media. Several photos circulating on Facebook also showed what was purported to be the mosque in flames.
The sectarian violence began in western Arakan state last year, when hundreds died in clashes between Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims that drove about 140,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, from their homes.
The violence had seemed confined to that region, but in late March, similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila in central Burma, killing at least 43 people. Several other towns in central Burma experienced less deadly violence, mostly involving the torching of Muslim businesses and mosques.
Muslims account for about 4 percent of the nation’s roughly 60 million people. Anti-Muslim sentiment is closely tied to nationalism and the dominant Buddhist religion, so leaders have been reluctant to speak up for the unpopular minority.
Thein Sein’s administration, which came to power in 2011 after half a century of military rule, has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslims.
He vowed last week during a U.S. trip that all perpetrators of the sectarian violence would be brought to justice, but so far, only Muslims have been arrested and sentenced for crimes connected to the attacks.
Muslims, however, have accounted for far more of the victims of the violence, and rights groups have accused certain authorities of fomenting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:59 PM PDT
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Posted: 28 May 2013 10:32 PM PDT
Chinese hackers stole the blueprints of Australia's new spy agency headquarters years ago and the breach has been dealt with since then, a lawmaker said on May 29, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Pawel Kopczynski)
CANBERRA, Australia — Chinese hackers stole the blueprints of Australia's new spy agency headquarters years ago and the breach has been dealt with since then, an opposition lawmaker said Wednesday in the first confirmation of media reports.
"These events did take place some time ago," senior opposition lawmaker George Brandis told Sky News television after a confidential briefing with Australian Security Intelligence Organization officials.
"I can say this is a very serious matter; ASIO has dealt with it; beyond that I'm not sure that there's a lot I can say," he added.
The 630 million Australian dollar (US$608 million) building housing the headquarters of Australia's main spy agency is near completion in the national capital.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. television had reported on Monday night that a cyberattack on a building contractor exposed plans such as communications cabling, server locations and security systems and was traced to a Chinese server.
The government has refused to discuss specifics on the matter. When Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Parliament the ABC report was "inaccurate" on Tuesday, she refused to go into any detail.
Brandis later demanded and got a confidential briefing with ASIO Director-General David Irvine. And while he wouldn't discuss what was said, he disputed Gillard's statement.
"She said the allegations are false; that claim is wrong," Brandis said.
The government responded by criticizing Brandis for discussing in the media a confidential security briefing.
The ABC reported that China could use the blueprints to bug the building.
Des Ball, an Australian National University cybersecurity expert, told the ABC that given the breach, ASIO would either have to operate with "utmost sensitivity" within its own building or simply "rip the whole insides out and … start again."
But The Australian newspaper reported on Wednesday that the plans were stolen at least three years ago and the agency's operations were no longer at risk.
In an unsourced report, the newspaper said the breach occurred in 2009 or 2010. Although construction began in 2008, the discovery of the breach meant that ASIO had the opportunity to alter the designs of the building to reduce the risk of espionage.
The lakeside glass and concrete structure was to be completed in 2012, but has faced construction delays and cost blowouts since it was initially budgeted to cost AU$460 million (US$440 million).
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, the minister in charge of the spy agency, said ASIO will move in this year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China opposed hacking in any form and questioned what evidence the ABC report relied on.
"Since it is technically untraceable, it is very difficult to find the source and identify the hacker," Hong said. "Therefore we have no idea what is the evidence for their report in which they make the claim with such certainty."
He said countries needed to cooperate to fight hacking. "Groundless accusations won't solve the problem," Hong said.
ASIO has grown rapidly since the al-Qaida attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and needs the new headquarters to house its growing staff that has trebled to almost 1,800 in a decade.
AP researcher Zhao Liang contributed to this report from Beijing.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 10:26 PM PDT
US and Philippine Marines simulate an amphibious landing as part of RP-US Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) at the beach in San Antonio, Zambales province, north of Manila on Oct. 23, 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)
MANILA — A wrecked navy transport ship perched on a remote coral reef could be the next flashpoint in the South China Sea, where China and five other claimants bitterly dispute territory.
The Philippine government is accusing China of encroachment after three Chinese ships, including a naval frigate, converged just 5 nautical miles (9 km) from an old transport ship that the Philippines deliberately ran aground on a reef in 1999 to mark its territory.
Philippine officials say they fear the Chinese ships will block supplies to about a dozen Filipino marines stationed in abject conditions on the rusting ship, raising tensions over one of Asia's biggest security issues.
The area, known as Second Thomas Shoal, is a strategic gateway to Reed Bank, believed to be rich in oil and natural gas. In 2010, Manila awarded an Anglo-Filipino consortium a license to explore for gas on Reed Bank but drilling stalled last year due to the presence of Chinese ships.
Manila says Reed Bank, about 80 nautical miles (148 km) west of Palawan Island at the southwestern end of the Philippine archipelago, is within the country's 200-nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.
Beijing says it is part of the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles, claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
"China should pull out of the area because under international law, they do not have the right to be there," said Raul Hernandez, a spokesman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, noting the area's proximity to Palawan, the country's largest province.
He said the Chinese ships were a "provocation and illegal presence."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday the Second Thomas Shoal was part of the Spratly Islands, over which China had "indisputable sovereignty."
"It is beyond reproach for Chinese boats to carry out patrols in these waters," Hong said, adding that China called on all parties to "refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation."
The tension illustrates how a decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea is entering a more contentious chapter as claimant nations spread deeper into disputed waters in search of energy supplies, while building up navies and alliances with other nations.
Second Thomas Shoal is one of several possible flashpoints in the South China Sea that could force the United States to intervene in defense of its Southeast Asian allies.
The tension comes just before US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel meets his Asia-Pacific counterparts at the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore at the weekend. The South China Sea is on the agenda of the regional security forum.
'Clear and Present Danger'
Philippine authorities say the three Chinese ships arrived in Second Thomas Shoal on or around May 8, escorting a fleet of 30 fishing boats. Two days later, the Philippines formally lodged a protest with China over the vessels.
As of Tuesday, two Chinese marine surveillance ships remained in the area, Philippine navy spokesman Colonel Edgardo Arevalo said. The fishing boats and the frigate had left, he said.
"The presence of those ships is a clear and present danger," said another senior Philippine navy officer, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Philippines believed China was trying to pressure it to leave the shoal.
"We don't want to wake up one day with fresh structures sitting near our navy ship there. We have to bite the bullet and strengthen our position there or risk losing the territory."
The wrecked US-built ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, is among Asia's loneliest military outposts. The ship was launched in World War Two, saw action in Okinawa and was used again in the Vietnam War. It was transferred to the Philippine government in 1976 under a military assistance program.
Soldiers are equipped with a small generator for cooking. Radios are battery-powered and supplies are delivered by boat.
"They want us out of the area," another Philippine navy officer said of China.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), a 10-nation grouping that includes the Philippines, has been talking to China about a binding code of conduct to ease tension. But China says it will negotiate "when the time is ripe."
Asean foreign ministers are due to meet in Thailand in August to forge a position on the code of conduct before meeting Chinese officials in late August or early September in Beijing.
The easternmost territory held by China is Mischief Reef, about 65 km (40 miles) northwest of Second Thomas Shoal. China occupied it in 1995. The Philippines occupied Second Thomas Reef with the BRP Sierra Madre in 1999, preventing China moving further east.
In March, Malaysia protested against the incursion of four Chinese ships in James Shoal, about 80 km (50 miles) off Sarawak on Borneo island. Chinese sailors fired guns in the air during the visit to the shoal. Last month, a Chinese maritime surveillance ship returned to James Shoal to leave behind steel markers to assert its claim.
Risk of Miscalculation
Zha Daojiong, an international relations professor at Beijing's Peking University, said China was serious about asserting its claims in the South China Sea and it was important the region did not misunderstand this.
"There is now a quiet agreement among different Chinese voices that sometimes you have to act as well as issuing statements," he said. China would, however, never completely close the door on possible cooperation.
Ian Storey, a scholar at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies, said tension at Second Thomas Shoal could prove more dangerous than last year's stand-off at unoccupied Scarborough Shoal, given the presence of Filipino troops.
"It is hard to imagine China using force to gain full control over Second Thomas, but some kind of blockade to drive out the Philippines' troops would have to be a possibility," Storey said. "There is a real chance of escalation or miscalculation."
Additional reporting by Greg Torode in Hong Kong and Terril Jones in Beijing.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 10:13 PM PDT
A South Korean protester shouts slogans after he tore the rising sun flag of Japan next to a statue of a girl representing victims of the wartime Korean sex slaves made by the Japanese military, during a rally held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Aug. 29, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Kim Hong-Ji)
OSAKA, Japan — More than 70 years ago, at age 14, Kim Bok-dong was ordered to work by Korea's Japanese occupiers. She was told she was going to a military uniform factory, but ended up at a Japanese military-linked brothel in southern China.
She had to take an average of 15 soldiers per day during the week, and dozens over the weekend. At the end of the day she would be bleeding and could not even stand because of the pain. She and other girls were closely watched by guards and could not escape. It was a secret she carried for decades; the man she later married died without ever knowing.
Tens of thousands of women had similar stories to tell, or to hide, from Japan's occupation of much of Asia before and during World War II. Many are no longer living, and those who remain are still waiting for Japan to offer reparations and a more complete apology than it has so far delivered.
"I'm here today, not because I wanted to but because I had to," Kim, now 87, told a packed audience of mostly Japanese at a community center in Osaka over the weekend. "I came here to ask Japan to settle its past wrongdoing. I hope the Japanese government resolves the problem as soon as possible while we elderly women are still alive."
The issue of Japan's use of Korean, Chinese and Southeast Asian women and girls as sex slaves—euphemistically called "comfort women"—continues to alienate Tokyo from its neighbors nearly 70 years after the war's end. It is a wound that was made fresh this month when the co-head of an emerging nationalistic party, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, said "comfort women" had been necessary to maintain military discipline and give respite to battle-weary troops.
His comments drew outrage from South Korea and China, as well as from the US State Department, which called them "outrageous and offensive."
Hashimoto provided no evidence but insisted that Tokyo has been unfairly singled out for its World War II behavior regarding women, saying some other armies at the time had military brothels. None of them, however, has been accused of the kind of widespread, organized sexual slavery that has been linked to Japan's military.
Historians say up to 200,000 women from across Asia, including China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as the Netherlands, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers.
To many people, even within Japan, Hashimoto's comments suggest that even after all these years, Japanese leaders don't want to fully acknowledge wartime wrongs and are out of touch with the sentiments not only of their neighbors and the international community, but also many of their own citizens.
"It's not a problem of the past. It's a continuing problem that involves people who are still alive," said Koichi Nakano, a Sophia University political science professor. "Japan is perceived as merely waiting for them to die while looking the other way and dragging its feet. That looks bad from a humanity point of view."
According to a survey conducted over the weekend by the conservative Sankei newspaper and FNN television, more than 75 percent of Japanese said Hashimoto's sex slave remarks were inappropriate, while support for his party slumped to 6.4 percent—nearly half what it was last month.
The comments come amid rising concerns in the region over the nationalistic shift in Japan's political leadership under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has suggested he wants to revise Japan's past apologies for its wartime aggression and change its pacifist constitution.
In 1993, Japan officially apologized to "comfort women" in a landmark statement by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, acknowledging "immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds."
But Kim and other women want a full apology approved by parliament and official compensation from the government. Tokyo has resisted that, saying war reparations with South Korea were dealt with in treaties restoring relations after the war. In 1995, Tokyo created a fund using private donations as a way for Japan to pay former sex slaves without providing official compensation.
The fund provided 2 million yen ($20,000) each to about 280 women in the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea, and funded nursing homes for Indonesian victims and medical assistance to about 80 former Dutch sex slaves.
In South Korea, 207 women formally came forward and were recognized as eligible recipients. But only a fraction actually accepted the money because of criticism of the private fund. Instead they receive support from the South Korean government and a support group.
In Japan, public sentiment has become less compassionate in recent years toward Asian victims of the country's wartime aggression. References to "comfort women" once in school history textbooks have disappeared.
Much of the debate over "comfort women" still focuses on what role the government at the time played in organizing brothels, and if—or to what extent—the women were coerced. The Kono statement says the military was involved directly or indirectly in the establishment and management of front-line brothels and transfer of women, and that many women were in many cases "recruited against their own will through coaxing and coercion."
Nobuo Ishihara, who was then deputy cabinet secretary, said in March 2006 that interviews with 16 South Korean women in Seoul led to the conclusion that there was coercion though there were no official documents showing so.
"After interviewing the 16 comfort women, we came to believe that what they were saying could not be fabrication. We thought there was no doubt they were forced to become comfort women against their will," Ishihara said. "Based on the investigation team's report, we, as the government, concluded that there was coercion."
The government investigation also found that many of the Dutch victims were selected from concentration camps and forcibly sent to brothels, while those in the Philippines and Indonesia were raped at battlefronts, kidnapped and forced to provide sex under confinement.
Hashimoto, 43, sought to calm the uproar Monday, telling a packed news conference that he personally didn't condone using "comfort women," which he labeled a violation of human rights.
But he repeatedly insisted that Japan's wartime government did not systematically force girls and women into prostitution, although he acknowledged that some may have been deceived and coerced. He said the historical record isn't clear, which is similar to Abe's view that there is no proof the women were coerced as a result of a state order. He said historians from both Japan and South Korea should settle the matter.
Hashimoto acknowledged that this murkiness probably is the key stumbling block in Japan's ties with South Korea.
Chuo University historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, one of Japan's most respected experts on "comfort women," criticized the Japanese government for taking an extremely narrow interpretation of what constitutes coercion.
He said documents show "comfort women" recruited in Japan were mostly adult professionals, although many had been sold into the sex industry by their poor families. However, in Asian countries invaded by Japan, there was no consideration of the rights of minors or the right to quit, which he said should constitute coercion by international standards.
"Neither Prime Minister Abe nor Mayor Hashimoto has tried to look at how those girls and young women were abused. Their view is worlds apart from the international view," he said.
Kim was dragged across Asia, from Hong Kong to Singapore and Indonesia, until the end of the war in 1945. She was freed in Singapore and returned home in 1946. She later was married but— like most former sex slaves—was never able to reveal her past to anyone but her mother—until decades later.
"Even as I returned to my homeland, it never was a true liberation for me," she told listeners at the community center. "How could I tell anyone what had happened to me during the war? It was living with a big lump in my chest."
She finally broke her silence several years after her husband died in 1981. Later she joined a group of women seeking official recognition as victims of Japan's sex slavery.
Kim has since traveled around the world to tell her story and participates in weekly protests in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
Kim and another former sex slave, 84-year-old Kil Won-ok, had been seeking a meeting with Hashimoto for some time when he made his comments this month. He then offered to meet with them, but they canceled, saying they didn't perceive that he was remorseful and didn't want to be used by him to rehabilitate his image. Instead, they spoke to the public in Osaka.
"We won't be around much longer," Kil said. "But we have to tell you our stories because we don’t want the same mistake repeated again."
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:59 PM PDT
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:58 PM PDT
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:57 PM PDT
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:57 PM PDT
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:55 PM PDT
Burma's armed forces have continued to recruit underage soldiers more than a year after signing an agreement with the UN aimed at ending the practice, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday. "One year into the Burma-UN action plan, the Burmese military has failed to meet even the basic indicators of progress," said Jo Becker, HRW's children's rights advocacy director. The report notes that on at least four occasions, the Burmese military has reneged on its commitments by refusing the UN access to military facilities to assess the presence of child soldiers.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:55 PM PDT
Thousands of people have been deprived of basic health care due to restrictions imposed by the Burmese government on Rohingya Muslims, according to a report released by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Ronald Kremer, the aid group's emergency coordinator in Arakan State, said in a statement published in New York on Tuesday that around 140,000 people face severe hardships due to the restrictions. A lack of medical facilities for Muslims confined to camps following last year's communal clashes with ethnic Arakanese Buddhists was "having a detrimental impact on people's health," he said.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:54 PM PDT
Burmese authorities seized arms and ammunition from an abandoned car in northern Shan State, according to a report by The New Light of Myanmar. The car, which was found to contain grenade launchers, automatic rifles and pistols, had earlier forced its way past a police checkpoint. It was later discovered inside the compound of a monastery in Nasot, a village in Hsenwi Township, the state-run newspaper reported. Further investigation revealed that more weapons and ammunition had been dumped outside the monastery.
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Posted: 28 May 2013 09:53 PM PDT
The head of the Philippine Sports Commission, Richie Garcia, said he will not be attending this year's Southeast Asian Games in Burma because of the host's efforts to rig the event in favor of its own athletes. According to a report in the Philippine Star, Garcia noted that Burma had eliminated several sports that commonly feature in major international competitions and replaced them with local martial arts that are little known outside of Burma. "Of the 36 events which the Filipinos won in the last SEA Games, 16 will not be played in Myanmar," the report said.
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