Friday, October 4, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

‘We Have No Future Now and No Place Where We Can Stay’

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 06:13 AM PDT

Arakan, Rakhine, Buddhist, Muslim, conflict, inter-communal violence.

Myint Myint Naing, a young Kaman Muslim girl, cries as her family pack their belongings in Pauktaw village, Thandwe township, on Thursday. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

THANDWE — After four days of attacks on at least five Muslim villages around Thandwe town, southern Arakan State, inter-communal violence seemed have to come to a halt by Thursday.

But hundreds of Muslim villagers remain scattered throughout the countryside after they were forced to flee attacks by Arakanese Buddhist mobs on their communities. Some fled to nearby Muslim villages or into local forests and other hideouts.

On Thursday evening, small groups of Muslims were trying to collect some of their remaining belongings from their home villages under police protection.

In Pauktaw, a village where 28 homes were burned down on Tuesday, a frightened ethnic Kaman Muslim family was collecting some belongings and livestock, while a few unarmed policemen provided security.

"I am losing my life. I am losing my life," Ba Saw Lay, 30, said repeatedly, as he loaded some of the family's belongings into a small truck while dusk fell over the paddy fields around the village. Ba Saw Lay said he was a farmer who was born and raised in Pauktaw.

But now, he can no longer stay in his native village. "They burned down my house. I have nowhere to stay," he said.

His young daughter tried to collect a few chicks, which seem to have lost their mother during the recent chaos.

"I could not find their mother. That's why I tried to catch all of them to save them," Myint Myint Naing said. Soon after, the little girl broke down in tears. "Please help us… We have no future now and no place where we can stay safely," she told Irrawaddy reporters.

During a visit to the villages in the countryside around Thandwe town, a few dozen security forces could be seen patrolling the main roads. In Pauktaw village, Buddhist youths carrying sticks and swords walked around, while police looked on. An Arakanese man said he did not know who burned the Muslim homes in his village, adding, "I was not at my house when it happened."

A police officer told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that a mere 80 security forces had been deployed to bring Thandwe Township under control.

A video posted on Youtube on Thursday, purportedly recorded by police officers, claims to show a Buddhist mob of several hundred people heading towards a Muslim village in Thandwe Township.

Police can be heard speaking to the crowd through megaphone, ordering them: "Please don't go ahead. The law doesn't allow arson. Government officials, including the president, are trying to resolve the situation." A man wearing red scarf and carrying a megaphone is seen leading the mob, which is temporarily deterred from advancing.

Nge Pu, a woman belonging to the Kaman family who were packing to leave Paktauw village, said local Muslims felt unsafe as police had failed to protect them during the recent attacks. "We could not trust these security forces because we told them our people were under attack, they did not come to help," she said.

"We saw that some people came to check where we [Muslims] are now staying. They can attack us any time as we do not have enough protection," Nge Pu said. A Muslim youth called Ko Gyi said, "We have no places to run to anymore. If they come to attack us, we just fight back until we die."

The complaints echo recurrent claims made by Burmese Muslim leaders and international human rights groups, which have accused the Burma government and Arakan State authorities of doing little to prevent the Buddhist mob attacks on Muslim minorities in the country.

The US-based Human Rights Watch has alleged that Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) members, Buddhist leaders and ethnic Arakanese civil society groups organized the attacks on the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Arakan in June and October 2012, with tacit support of state authorities.

According to several Thandwe inhabitants, anti-Muslim sentiments in the town in southern Arakan State began to rise after Aug. 26. On that day a community organization called Protection of Nationality, Religion and Dhamma organized 'Buddhist Day', an unofficial religious celebration that was proposed as a national holiday in Burma in the early 1960s, but which was never officially introduced.

Thandwe National League for Democracy representative Win Naing said the event drew tens of thousands of local people and hundreds of monks, adding that the ultra-nationalist Buddhist 969 movement had used the event as a platform to actively spread its message.

The 969 movement, led by the Mandalay-based monk U Wirathu, has become notorious across Burma for spreading virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric, such as calls for the Buddhist majority to shun Muslim-owned shops.

Stickers, flags and flyers of the 969 movement started to appear all over Thandwe, said Win Naing, while the movement's songs — with its fiery, nationalist messages — started being played in public spaces in the town.

A Muslim resident of Thandwe said, "People were playing [969] songs about protecting their religion and they started hanging Buddhist flags around the town. That's how the tensions started."

The town had already experienced a brief outburst of anti-Muslim violence in early July, when three Muslim-owned homes were destroyed, but the tensions came to a head last Sunday, after an argument broke out between the owner of a motorbike carrying a Buddhist flag and a local Kaman Muslim.

The Muslim was taken in for questioning by local police, but a Buddhist mob gathered at his house and began pelting it with stones. Later that night, several Muslim homes were burned in Thandwe, a town of around 100,000 inhabitants, while the violence began to spread through villages around the town.

More than 100 houses and several mosques were burned from Sunday to Wednesday, in the Muslim villages of Thapyu Kyain, Pauktaw and Mae Kyun. Two other Kaman villages were also attacked. Six people were reportedly killed and at least five injured in the violence, which caused hundreds of Muslim residents to flee.

The unrest coincided with President Thein Sein's first visit to the strife-torn region in western Burma since violence broke out last year. About 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya Muslims, were displaced and 192 people were killed during two waves of violence in June and October 2012.

Burma's government refuses to recognize the Rohingya as citizens, but the Kaman Muslims in southern Arakan are recognized as an official minority.

Thein Sein visited the state capital Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, Maungdaw and Thandwe townships on Tuesday and Wednesday, and he met with Muslim and Buddhist community leaders. During his visit, he said that "external motives" were behind the violence in Thandwe Township, according to state-owned newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

"Ethnic Rakhine [Arkanese] and ethnic Kaman have been living here in peaceful coexistence for many years," he was quoted as saying. "According to the evidence in hand, rioters who set fire to the villages are outsiders. Participation of all is needed to expose and arrest those who got involved in the incident," said the president.

Since Wednesday, Thandwe police have been making several arrests in relation to the violence. Two local RNDP members, including the Thandwe RNDP chairman Maung Pu, were apprehended, while two members of civil society group Protection of Nationality, Religion and Dhamma were also detained.

"Now, Maung Pu is in Thandwe Prison," Thandwe RNDP secretary Maung Phyu told The Irrawaddy on Friday, adding that four more Arakanese community leaders from Thandwe had been detained by authorities.

Maung Phy said that another nine people, from both Arakan and Muslim communities, had been arrested in the villages surrounding the town. "Now Thandwe and the villages are under control of authorities," he said.

Additional reporting by Lin Thant and Paul Vrieze.

The post 'We Have No Future Now and No Place Where We Can Stay' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Suu Kyi Calls for More Women in Parliament

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 05:02 AM PDT

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar, Burma, parliament, women leadership

From left to right, Wilhelm Hofmeister, director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation, sits with Burmese lawmaker Aung San Suu Kyi and Theo Kidess, deputy head of mission at the German Embassy, at a forum in Naypyidaw on Friday to encourage women leadership in politics. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy)

Naypyidaw — Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has called for more women leaders in her country's government and Parliament, which have long been dominated by men.

Speaking in Naypyidaw on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and parliamentarian told a forum of female lawmakers from around the world that women in Burma continue to face widespread discrimination and lack sufficient representation in politics.

"Many people say Burmese women are perfectly equal in society—it's not true," said the 68-year-old chairwoman of the National League for Democracy (NLD). "Women are underrepresented in government."

According to official statistics, of 200 ministers, union ministers and deputy ministers in Burma, only four are women.

"It's because women lack access to education. Women in some other countries are in a similar situation," Suu Kyi said. "Women are not playing a role in political life."

Twenty women lawmakers from Asia, Latin America and Europe joined Burmese women lawmakers at the forum to promote female leadership. The event was organized by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) political foundation of Germany.

Suu Kyi called for greater gender equality in her country's 659-seat Parliament, which includes only 20 women lawmakers.

"I would like to see more women parliamentarians involved in the political field. Burmese women are capable in this field," she said. "There is very low involvement of women in the legislature in this country. … It's because we have been under the military [dictatorship] for half a century."

She added, "The Constitution was drawn by the military government, and by male military parliamentarians, so it should be amended to reduce gender discrimination."

Suu Kyi, who was elected to Parliament in by-elections last year, said she drew strength as a child from her mother, who raised her and her two brothers.

"My father died when I was 2 year old. I grew up with my mother. She was very capable, very principled. She told us who our father was and asked us to be proud of him," the democracy icon said. "She was absolutely essential."

Burmese participants at the forum included women lawmakers from the NLD, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and other smaller parties.

Phyu Phyu Thin, a member of the Lower House, said women lawmakers faced challenges in Parliament. "Sometimes older male parliamentarians discriminate against us, acting as though women parliamentarians are young and under experienced," she said.

The post Suu Kyi Calls for More Women in Parliament appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Crowns First Miss Universe Candidate in Half Century

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 03:42 AM PDT

culture

Moe Set Wine, winner of the Miss Universe Myanmar 2013 competition, waves to the audience at Rangoon's National Theater on Thursday. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

For the first time in more than 50 years, Burma crowned the country's representative to the Miss Universe pageant at Rangoon's National Theater on Thursday.

Moe Set Wine, one of 20 finalists, won the Miss Universe Myanmar 2013 crown and also took home another two titles: Miss Famous, awarded based on votes from the public on the pageant's official website, Facebook and SMS, and Miss Healthy Skin, which were among seven titles conferred in addition to Miss Universe Myanmar.

The other titles awarded were Miss Environment, Miss Healthy Body & Beautiful Skin, Miss Perfect Body, Miss Photogenic and Miss Beautiful Smile.

"I feel as if I have been granted a chance to climb a big mountain because today's event isn't the end of the game. There's a long road ahead," Moe Set Wine told The Irrawaddy after being crowned. "I have to compete with candidates from other countries. I have to think fast because every move I make and every word I speak will represent Burma and the Burmese."

As the winning contestant, 25-year-old Moe Set Wine receives 10 million kyats (US$10,300), a Honda Fit car and the opportunity to serve as Burma's representative in the 62nd Miss Universe pageant, to be held in Moscow on Nov. 9. More than 80 countries' representatives will compete for the global title in Russia.

"For the first-time appearance of Myanmar in over 50 years to Miss Universe, I am glad for that," said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, at the National Theater on Thursday.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest begun in 1952 and held by the Miss Universe Organization. The current Miss Universe 2012 is from the United States.

The first representative of Burma in the Miss Universe beauty pageant was Than Than Aye in 1959 and the second was Myint Myint May in 1960. Myint Myint Khin was Burma's last representative, in 1961.

Less than a year later, a coup by Gen Ne Win would plunge Burma into a half century of military rule in which the country became increasingly isolated from the international community.

The post Burma Crowns First Miss Universe Candidate in Half Century appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US Maintains Block on Military Assistance to Burma

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 03:30 AM PDT

United States, child soldiers, military, Child Soldiers Protection Act, Thein Sein, Barack Obama, Trafficking In Persons

A billboard promoting a "No Child Soldiers" campaign was erected in Rangoon earlier this year. The United States has maintained a block on military assistance to President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government for its use of child soldiers in armed conflict. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Following pledges to enhance military ties with Burma, the United States has maintained a block on military assistance to President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government for its use of child soldiers in armed conflict, US officials said on Thursday.

Burma is one of five countries that will not receive US military assistance in 2014 under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), which places restrictions on security assistance and commercial licensing of military equipment for governments found to use child soldiers.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the sanctions would affect Burma, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Sudan and Syria.

The CSPA requires the United States to identify countries whose government armed forces or government-supported armed groups recruit and use child soldiers. Ten countries were identified on the 2013 list, published in the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

Harf said President Barack Obama on Tuesday waived in full or in part the restrictions on military assistance for five countries on the list this year—including Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen—while deciding not to waive the restrictions for the rest, including Burma.

Restrictions will apply in the 2014 fiscal year and prohibit assistance through International Military Education and Training (IMET), which helps train foreign militaries, as well as Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which funds the sale of US military material and services.

When asked why Burma did not receive a waiver, Harf said "steps are being taken … to begin to address the child soldiers issue in Burma."

"In 2012, the government of Burma signed a child soldiers action plan with the UN, which had been under negotiation for more than five years," she told reporters in Washington on Thursday, according to a press briefing transcript on the State Department website. "So we'll continue to raise this issue diplomatically with the Burmese government."

While some sanctioned countries including Rwanda were earlier slated to receive a small amount of IMET and FMF funding, Harf said she did not believe that Burma received such assistance.

Burma has been on the CSPA list since 2009, when the US law went into effect.

Since Thein Sein's reformist government came to power in 2011, the United States has lifted nearly all of its economic sanctions on Burma as a reward for political reforms, but it has kept an embargo on arms sales, amid ongoing accusations of rights abuses by Burma's armed forces.

However, the Obama administration has indicated that it wants to resume nonlethal defense training and assistance for Burma. The United States cut military assistance after the Burmese military junta brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in 1988.

In the eight years prior to 1988, the United States reportedly financed US$4.7 million in military sales to Burma and trained 167 officers at US military schools, according to the Associated Press.

Amid ongoing political and economic reforms, the Obama administration has expressed a desire to improve military-to-military relations with Burma to encourage a more professional armed forces. US defense legal experts visited the Southeast Asian nation in August for the second time in two months to consider possibilities of offering training on human rights and rule of law. US Ambassador Derek Mitchell also met with the chief of Burma's military, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, in Naypyidaw to discuss legal practices in military combat.

Despite reassurances that any assistance would be gradual and nonlethal, the idea of enhancing military ties has met with resistance from some US lawmakers and activists who caution against granting international legitimacy to a Burmese military that continues to use child soldiers and has displaced more than 100,000 civilians over the past two years in clashes with non-state armed groups.

The US Embassy in Rangoon could not be reached on Friday to comment on how the military assistance restrictions in 2014 would affect US efforts to enhance military ties with Burma.

The Burma military was notorious under the former regime for recruiting child soldiers to wage wars over several decades against non-state armed groups in ethnic states. Thein Sein's administration has sought to clean up the military's image by discharging dozens of underage soldiers. In August, the Burmese military erected an eye-catching billboard in downtown Rangoon to promote a "No Child Soldiers" campaign.

The military discharged 68 child soldiers in August, according to the United Nations, and in July it released 42 children and young adults who were recruited for soldiering and other duties.

However, new cases of child soldiers continue to be reported. In August, around the same time the billboard went up in Rangoon, two families in the city publicly alleged at a press conference that the military had recruited two of their children.

The post US Maintains Block on Military Assistance to Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

‘Access to Mobile Services is Almost Like a Human Right’

Posted: 04 Oct 2013 03:04 AM PDT

Petter Furberg, chief executive officer-designate of Telenor Myanmar, speaks to The Irrawaddy in Rangoon this week. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

Norway's Telenor was one of two international companies named in June as winners of an open tender to operate mobile phones in Burma. It is hoped an injection of competition and international expertise will rectify the country's position at the bottom of most rankings for mobile phone and Internet access.

The company has promised to have SIM cards available to the public for just 1,500 kyat, about US$1.50, eight months after it receives a license to operate. Telenor Myanmar's Chief Executive Officer-Designate Petter Furburg spoke to The Irrawaddy's Simon Lewis this week to discuss the challenges and opportunities of bringing telecommunications to the people of Burma.

Question: Telenor has promised to provide mobile phone coverage to 80 percent of the country within five years. How difficult will this be?

Answer: It's a challenge. It's not an easy country to operate in, it's not an easy country to build infrastructure in, so we're very humbled by the task. We know it's not going to be easy. And it's also important that people have realistic expectations to the fact that it does take time to build infrastructure like this.

Q: There are still some parts of Burma where government forces are fighting armed rebel groups and many parts of Burma are very remote. Are there places where it may not be possible for Telenor to reach in the first five years?

A: We are extremely aware of all the challenges we are going to meet in Myanmar. The normal type of challenges in many ways are bigger here just by lack of infrastructure. So roads are poor and not available. You have [a lack of] electricity availability. All of these things you also find in other markets are here. And then, of course, you also have the other dimension here which is the potential difficulties in certain areas due to conflict, due to land mines.

We are aware of the challenges. Have we found solutions to all of them? No. Do we think it will be possible to find solutions? I hope so, because this is about giving access to something which is good. Whether you are living in Yangon or in the north of Kachin. To get access to mobile services I think is almost like a human right.

At Telenor, if you look at how we are operating in the five markets we now have in Asia—in Pakistan , India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia—our philosophy has always been about going mass. It's about giving everyone the right to these services. So when we talk about Myanmar, a lot of our bid was related to this—making it affordable and making it available. So building the network is challenge number one. Getting the distribution to reach everyone is challenge number two. And then of course, bringing the prices to such a level that they actually can afford. Because you can be fooled by walking around the streets of Yangon—the affordability level in this country outside the cities is totally different.

Q: How will you distribute SIM cards?

A: There won't be limited supply…. Making it available, that's important. It's not just about building the network, you have reach people where they are living. So they shouldn't have to commute to buy a SIM card. SIM cards will be available at 70,000 points of sale. And those points of sale, they are not mobile phone shops, these are the mom-and-pop stores that might have a tiny section of the shop where they sell SIM cards, and maybe they can afford stock up three phones. They can start selling phones too.

This is about creating a business where it's not like we are going to do everything. Our philosophy is that what we are good at is to do the big heavy lifting. All the others will start to create business around us.

When you change from having 7 million people in a country going to buy a refill to, say, 50 million people, there's business for a lot of mom-and-pop stores across the country.

Q: What services beyond phone and Internet are you going to offer?

A: It's early, but we have in our bid said we are interested in developing services. What we've also done in other markets is farmers' information services, which is about giving access to market price, giving access to markets etc.

With health, you don't even have to leave Yangon to see that health services is a huge area [needing] improvement. It's an enormous distance from Yangon—and the most advanced health services of course—to the remote areas. So to be able to use telecommunications to give people in the most remote areas access to information and also potentially [medical] consultations is going to be quite important. And that's probably only through our type of services that you can do that.

And then financial services: At Telenor we have tested different models for financial services. The most advanced one we have is in Pakistan. It's called Easypaisa.

Mobile financial services is actually not about the phone, in my view. It is about the fact that we have the distribution. So we have access to, for mobile top-up, 165,000 points of sale. Not all of them would qualify for handling financial services, but what they are used to is to take cash in. And to take cash in, that agent has actually already paid us. To be able to sell you top up of 1,000 kyat he had already paid us 1,000 kyat. So he has on his account points that he can sell to you. So you come to him and you get that money.

It's a very closed system that allows money transfer because of the agent network. Not because of the mobile phone itself. So I think our strength relies in the fact that mobile distribution will reach the most remote villages and that power gives us the opportunity to also handle money transfer. This is not really big business for the mobile operators, the main reason we do it I think is because it's an added benefit and it ties the customer closer to us.

Q: Have you had any discussion with government about the upcoming Telecommunications Law and its contents?

A: We've had the dialogue in terms of the process following, in terms of getting things sorted out for our license, but not, in any way, related to the telecom law as such. We don't know what's in the telecom law and we are just simply waiting.

Q: Foreign companies have been warned that there's a risk of corruption when dealing with the Burma government and local companies. What measures are you taking to deal with these risks?  

A: When it comes to corruption, our philosophy is very simple and we're operating in many markets in the world, so this is a challenge that we are faced with in all our markets, and our philosophy is simple: We have zero tolerance for corruption and we just have to work on that basis.

Q: Human Rights Watch has warned foreign telecoms companies working in Burma about the risks of being involved in country with a reputation for government rights abuses, including surveillance and censorship.  Is this something you're concerned about?

A: It's right that we have received a letter from Human Rights Watch to Telenor some months back where they pointed to this issue, and it's been answered and we'll be able to answer more when the law comes out.

Right now, we don't know what the law actually says, particularly regarding legal intercept [the authorities requesting access to communications data]. I think we have to wait until the law is out to comment on that. But Myanmar is not the only country in the world where there is a regulation which allows for legal intercept and there will be international practices in this, and we are also following our internal procedures with regards to how this access can be given. Of course in general we have to follow the law and therefore we have to wait until the law is out to get clarity on how this will be practiced.

The post 'Access to Mobile Services is Almost Like a Human Right' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Internet to Receive High-Capacity Upgrade

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 11:16 PM PDT

internet cafe in Yangon

Internet users in Burma may experience a pleasant jolt when the capacity of the country's cross-border internet link with Thailand more than doubles later this month. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Internet users in Burma may be able to more quickly upload and download information later this month, after the state telecommunications agency more than doubles the bandwidth of one of the country's international fiber connections.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transmitted over an Internet connection. Measured over a period of time, usually in bits per second, it represents the capacity of a network to transfer information.

The current low bandwidths of Burma's international Internet connections are a large reason for the congestion and slowness that local Internet users experience, especially during the afternoon, a peak time for Internet use.

According to the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Burma's cross-border Internet link to China currently has a bandwidth of 2.5 gigabytes per second (Gbps); the country's subsea link, known as SEAMEWE-3, has a bandwidth of 6.2 Gbps; and a cross-border link to Thailand has a capacity of 8.5 Gbps.

Myo Swe, chief engineer of the IT department at MPT, said the bandwidth of the Thai cross-border Internet link would be increased to 20 Gbps this month, although he could not provide an exact date of when testing would be completed. "It will be before the SEA Games," he told The Irrawaddy recently, referring to the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional sporting event that will take place in Burma in December.

The upgrade on the Thai terrestrial link comes on the heels of a Japanese government-funded project to increase the bandwidth of the network between Burma's three largest cities—Naypyidaw, Rangoon and Mandalay—to 20 Gbps in time for the SEA Games. Other Japanese-led upgrades expected before the Games include improvements to international routing capabilities, as well as the creation of a temporary 4G mobile network.

Increased bandwidth usually means greater overall network performance, but other factors such as latency—the time it takes for data to travel over a network—and user demand can affect performance as well.

Although the exact date of implementation is unknown, Internet users in the country should be able to tell when the upgrades go through, as the effects will be felt the next time they open their Internet browsers.

The post Burma's Internet to Receive High-Capacity Upgrade appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Resources Star Dims After Mine Reform Delay

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 11:04 PM PDT

Workers at the Chinese-backed Letpadaung copper mining project in Sagaing Division install a pipeline for waste on October 1, 2013. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)

SINGAPORE — A year ago Burma was the hot new destination for resources investors looking to make a fast buck in a country opening up to the outside world, but a new mining law is still not passed, the hot-money crowd has filed out and reality has set in.

Yet while funding options may have slimmed, opportunity is still knocking, industry participants at a conference in Singapore said this week.

"A year ago everyone was going to Burma. You couldn't get on a flight there because every flight was booked," said Edward Rochette, chief executive of Canadian explorer East Asia Minerals Corporation, which has applied for an exploration permit in the country.

"Investors were thinking: 'It's wide open, it's the Wild West, we'll just sign and be done.' Unfortunately, it's going to take time," he added.

Explorers have banged up against processing times for prospecting permits stretching out several years while commodity prices have fizzled and debt and equity funding markets have dried up. The country has to fight harder to attract capital.

"In up markets they [explorers] can sell the blue sky, greenfield projects. In a down market these companies are on the edge and just cannot attract capital. Most of the people here are at the small end of town," said a source from a commodities trading house who was attending the conference.

This is dampening government efforts to raise foreign capital in the mining sector and has pushed out processing times for local-foreign joint ventures to gain the right to explore, participants said.

"There's disappointments in local parties not coming through, there's disappointments in foreign parties not being able to raise money once they promised it," said Ma Cherry Trivedi of Burma-based Two Palms Mining Company, whose company has several permits in the application stage.

Burma is rich in minerals including gold, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, tin, antimony and chromite. It passed foreign investment legislation almost a year ago, but its mining law is still at least six months away.

"The government worries about fluctuations of commodity prices as well as the waiting time," said Aung Thuyein Win, a director at Burma's mining ministry, on the sidelines of the conference.

But if the government had rushed to pass legislation to capture better prices, it would have risked selling itself short, he said.

"The government is still waiting for foreign investors, but they have to protect locals," he added.

Doing the Homework

Opportunities still exist for investors with longer-term horizons such as commodity trade houses and specialized private equity. The new mining investment law could spark a flurry of interest in companies that have obtained exploration permits.

"We are doing our homework on Myanmar right now," said one private equity investor based in Singapore, noting there was ample investment choice in existing projects elsewhere in Asia, given lower commodity prices.

"Myanmar projects are all pretty much greenfield projects…but if we found a management team with experience and expertise we believed in, then we'd invest," he added.

Among the companies in the queue for prospecting rights is Indonesian state-backed tin producer PT Timah, which applied for an exploration permit in Burma last year, primarily looking for tin and tungsten.

"Timah is expanding to become a regional player," said an official from the producer, who declined to be named. "We are optimistic but need some more time."

Burma has approved more foreign direct investment in the past five months than all of last year, but the receding tide of mining-focused capital has left greater scope for the patient.

"I have better opportunity now without the crowds than with the crowds because I'll have actual time with the ministry," said Rochette of East Asia Minerals Corporation.

The post Burma's Resources Star Dims After Mine Reform Delay appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Recycling Cleanup Jolts Global Industry

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 10:59 PM PDT

A worker separates plastic bottles at a recycling depot in Beijing on May 23, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon)

BEIJING — China for years has welcomed the world's trash, creating a roaring business in recycling and livelihoods for tens of thousands. Now authorities are clamping down on an industry that has helped the rich West dispose of its waste but also added to the degradation of China's environment.

The Chinese campaign is aimed at enforcing standards for waste imports after Beijing decided too many were unusable or even dangerous and would end up in its landfills. Under the crackdown dubbed Green Fence, China has rejected hundreds of containers of waste it said were contaminated or that improperly mixed different types of scrap.

It is abruptly changing a multibillion-dollar global industry in which China is a major processing center for the world's discarded soft drink bottles, scrap metal, electronics and other materials. Whole villages in China's southeast are devoted to processing single products, such as electronics. Household workshops break down discarded computers or appliances to recover copper and other metals. Some use crude smelters or burn leftover plastic and other materials, releasing lead and other toxins into the air. Green Fence is in line with the ruling Communist Party's pledges to make the economy cleaner and more efficient after three decades of breakneck growth that fouled rivers and left China's cities choking on smog.

Brian Conners, who works for a Philadelphia company that recycles discarded refrigerators, says buyers used to visit every week looking for scrap plastic to ship to China for reprocessing. Then Beijing launched its crackdown in February aimed at cleaning up the thriving but dirty recycling industry.

"Now they're all gone," said Conners, president of ARCA Advanced Processing.

American and European recyclers send a significant part of their business to China and say they support higher quality standards. But stricter scrutiny has slowed imports and raised their costs. The decline in the number of traders buying scrap to ship to China has also depressed prices American and European recycling companies can get for their plastic and metals.

"While we support Green Fence, it has increased our cost of doing business," said Mike Biddle, founder of MBA Polymers, a plastics recycler with facilities in California, Europe and southern China. "It takes longer and there are more inspections."

At the same time, people in the industry say recyclers that invest in cleaner technology might be rewarded with more business as dirtier competitors are forced out of the market. The crackdown also might create new opportunities to process material in the United States and Europe instead of shipping it around the globe.

China's recycling industry has boomed over the past 20 years. Its manufacturers needed the metal, paper and plastic and Beijing was willing to tolerate the environmental cost. Millions of tons of discarded plastic, computers, electronics, newspapers and shredded automobiles and appliances are imported every year from the United States, Europe and Japan.

But environmentalists have long complained the industry is poisoning China's air, water and soil. And Beijing, ever vigilant about possible threats to the legitimacy of one party rule, now wants to be seen as addressing increased public awareness and concern over pollution.

"The waste recycling system in China really needs to be updated to reduce pollution," said Lin Xiaozhu, head of the solid waste program for the Chinese group Friends of Nature.

In 2011, recycled scrap supplied some 21 percent of the nearly 100 million tons of paper used by Chinese industry, according to the state-run newspaper China Daily. It said that resulted in a savings of 18.7 million tons of wood.

In Europe, electronics recyclers recover about 2.2 million tons of plastic and metal annually and send about 15 to 20 percent of that to China, according to Norbert Zonnefeld, executive secretary of the European Electronics Recyclers Association. Its 40 member companies include electronics manufacturers and copper smelters.

European recyclers welcome China's tighter enforcement because it will help them comply with European Union rules on tracking waste and ensuring it is properly handled, said Zonnefeld. Still, he said, some traders have run into trouble.

"I have heard material has been sent back," said Zonnefeld. "Of course, they should have known. They were just gambling."

The United States relies even more heavily on China to recycle its waste.

Americans threw away 32 million tons of plastic in the form of packaging, appliances, plates and cups last year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. About 1.1 million tons was collected for recycling.

About half of plastic soft drink and water bottles collected in the United States for recycling are sent to China, according to Kim Holmes, director of recycling for the Society of the Plastics Industry in Washington. She said nearly all plastic from US electronics waste is exported to Asia.

"The export market is a major component of the broader US recycling industry," said Holmes in an e-mail.

China allows waste shipments to contain no more than 1 percent unrelated material. But Customs officials say some were found to be up to 40 percent unrecyclable trash.

"Some unscrupulous traders, in order to maximize profit, smuggle medical and other waste inside shipments, a direct threat to everyone's health," said a Shanghai Customs Bureau statement in April.

Despite a ban on imports of used tires, inspectors intercepted a 115-ton shipment of them in March, the bureau said. They were labeled "recycled rubber bands."

ARCA Advanced Processing dismantles about 600,000 refrigerators a year and recovers 80 tons of plastic a week, plus copper, aluminum and other metals, according to Conners. He said those still are sold to traders who ship much of it to China, but the number who can satisfy Beijing's requirements to separate and clean waste has plunged.

"There used to be guys who would come to our facility probably once a week to buy our plastic to take back to China," he said. "That has gone down to where I have two vendors who still are able to do business to get it into China."

In a reflection of more stringent controls, customs data show Chinese imports of waste plastic fell 11.3 percent in the first half of this year compared with a year earlier to 3.5 million tons after soaring over the past decade.

MBA Polymer's facility in the southern city of Guangzhou, in the heart of China's manufacturing industry, can process 40,000 tons of plastic a year, according to Biddle. It transforms waste into pellets to be used as raw material for new products. Buyers include Chinese manufacturers that work for companies such as computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. and consumer electronics giant Philips NV.

Biddle said he welcomes Green Fence despite the disruption of imports because higher standards will favor more responsible companies.

"We've had to compete for raw materials with people who treat the materials not in ways that protect workers or the environment," Biddle said by phone from California. "I see China moving toward encouraging companies like ours to develop."

Conners said that by raising the cost of dealing with China, Green Fence might make it profitable for more Western companies to conduct the whole recycling process themselves. He said his company is looking at possible ventures to do that with partners.

"The advantage China had has been reduced considerably. That advantage was low-cost processing," he said. "This is going to spur investment in the United States to process materials here."

The post China Recycling Cleanup Jolts Global Industry appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China’s Xi Sidesteps SE Asia Pressure Over South China Sea Disputes

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 10:42 PM PDT

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks to Indonesian parliament members in Jakarta on Oct. 3, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Supri)

JAKARTA — Chinese President Xi Jinping showed no sign of bending to Southeast Asian pressure to resolve increasingly irascible territorial disputes over the South China Sea on Thursday, simply repeating calls for dialogue.

Xi, in the first address by a foreign leader to Indonesian MPs, made no reference to regional demands, echoed in Washington, that Beijing deal with the rival claims through multilateral talks rather than with individual negotiations.

The issue is certain to overshadow two regional summits next week that Xi will attend. But while Xi is touring Southeast Asia, including signing off on multibillion dollar deals with Indonesia, U.S. President Barack Obama has had to cancel trips to the Philippines and Malaysia because of the U.S. government shutdown.

The U.S. crisis has also put into doubt Obama’s attendance at the two regional summits at a time when Washington has been promoting its strategy of putting more emphasis on its ties with Asia.

"As for the disagreements and disputes between China and certain Southeast Asian nations on territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, both sides must always uphold the use of peaceful methods …to maintain the broad picture of bilateral relations and regional stability," he told MPs on the second and last day of his visit to Southeast Asia’s largest country.

"China’s development is a force for peace and friendship in the world, bringing development opportunities for Asia and the world and not threats."

Last month, the Philippines accused China of violating an informal code of conduct in the South China Sea, home to some of the world’s most vital trade routes, by planning new structures on a disputed shoals.

The disputes have centred on concerns that China’s use of its growing naval might to back claims to much of the oil- and gas-rich sea could spark a military clash.

Four of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), including Vietnam and the Philippines but not Indonesia, have overlapping claims with China. Indonesia has offered to mediate but has in the past criticized China for not showing more restraint over the disputes.

Next Tuesday sees the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Indonesian resort island of Bali. After that, Xi and several other leaders will head to Brunei for the East Asia summit.

"What we wanted to hear from President Xi Jinping was whether China has the goodwill to resolve the South China Sea issue … But he didn’t address the issue at all, so I’m disappointed," legislator Tantowi Yahya told Reuters.

Xi has used his visit try to lift relations in the region, saying China hoped trade with ASEAN would reach $1 trillion by 2020. He flies later in the day to Malaysia.s

$33 Billion Worth of Deals

Indonesian companies secured $32.8 billion of financing and investment from Chinese firms on Thursday during the state visit, an Indonesian government official said.

Xi, in his first visit as president to southeast Asia’s biggest country, became the first foreign leader to address Indonesian lawmakers in parliament.

He said China hoped trade with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would reach $1 trillion by 2020, from $320 billion in 2012, according to ASEAN’s website.

Negotiated by companies including Indonesian state-owned firms and privately held Sinar Mas Group, deals included a $1.8 billion loan to PT OKI Pulp & Paper Mills – an affiliate of Sinar Mas – to build a mill in Sumatra, and funding for five Boeing 777-300 ER planes for PT Garuda Indonesia.

Several Chinese companies also pledged to invest in Indonesia, including Hangzou Jinjian Group Co. Ltd, which plans to spend $600 million on a bauxite-processing complex there, according to the government official.

The post China’s Xi Sidesteps SE Asia Pressure Over South China Sea Disputes appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Laos Pushes Ahead With Mekong Dam Without Consulting Neighbors

Posted: 03 Oct 2013 10:37 PM PDT

A man casts his fishing net into the Mekong River in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. (Photo: Reuters / Pring Samrang)

BANGKOK — Laos is to forge ahead with a second hydro power dam on the mainstream Mekong River, side-stepping its commitment to consult its downstream neighbors before starting work.

Laos on Monday notified the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a consultative body that works with lower basin countries — Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia — of its intent to build the 260-megawatt Don Sahong Dam, despite calls from foreign donors to consult neighbors that face a risk of depleted fish stocks and damaged livelihoods.

The four countries are bound by a treaty to hold inter-governmental consultations before building any dams.

"This is a shared river and the dam will bring devastation to Laos’ neighbors … they should demand that Laos undergo the consultation process," Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia Program Director for International Rivers, said in an interview.

Officials from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam were not immediately available for comment.

The three countries have repeatedly voiced concern about Laos failing to honor a consultation agreement on a bigger project, the $3.5 billion, 1,260 megawatt Xayaburi dam, for which it held a groundbreaking ceremony late last year.

Thai builder Ch Karnchang PCL started construction of that dam prior to conclusion of talks and studies. Laos long maintained the building was only preparatory work.

Laos is one of Asia’s poorest countries, but it has big ambitions and wants to become the "Battery of Southeast Asia" through power exports from its dams, mostly to Thailand.

The Don Sahong Dam, to be developed by Malaysia’s Mega First Corporation Bhd, is the second of 11 dams planned by Laos along its stretch of the 4,900 km (3,044 mile) Mekong. Construction is expected to begin next month at a site 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Cambodian border. It was unclear what the financial cost of the dam would be.

Representatives from 10 of the MRC’s international donors, including the European Union, Japan and the United States, had asked Laos to submit the project for consultation in June.

Hans Guttman, of the MRC secretariat, said Laos had "indicated its willingness" to talk if its neighbors were concerned.

Commercial operation for Don Sahong is set to start in May 2018. Energy generated will be sold to Laos’ national power utility, Electricite du Laos, to supply domestic energy needs, according to a statement by the MRC.

Activists believe the dam could cause flooding and threaten food security in Cambodia and Vietnam.

"It’s irresponsible to proceed without carrying out a credible trans-boundary impact assessment. The Don Sahong Dam will only push Cambodia and Vietnam closer to a flood crisis," said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum Cambodia.

The post Laos Pushes Ahead With Mekong Dam Without Consulting Neighbors appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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