| Three Arrested for Attempt to Bomb Rangoon’s Religious Buildings Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:49 AM PST  Authorities stand outside a madrasa in east Rangoon where 13 Muslim schoolchildren died after a fire in April. (Photo: The Irrawaddy / Steve Tickner) RANGOON — Police said they arrested three men last week who were preparing to bomb religious buildings in Rangoon. Reportedly, the targets in Burma's biggest city were mosques. Min Aung, a police colonel at the Home Affairs Ministry, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the suspects were Burmese nationals, adding that two suspects were ethnic Arakanese from western Burma. The accused include Khine Ne Lin, 34, from Arakan State's Mrauk-U Township, Bo Bo, 28, from the Arakan capital Sittwe, and Thein Nyunt, 31, according to Min Aung, who did not elaborate on the origins of the last suspect. Police acted on a tip-off on Nov. 13 and raided a guesthouse in Rangoon's Hlaing Thayar Township, the officer said, adding that further investigations led to the arrests on Nov. 16 of Bo Bo in Sittwe and Thein Nyunt in Rangoon's Hlaing Thayar Township. Min Aung said the three had been planning to blow up religious buildings in Rangoon, but declined to discuss details of the alleged bomb plot. "It is difficult to state where they got bomb-training as we need to find out more things to find out who are on behind the suspects," he added. State-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday that police caught Khine Ne Lin "red-handed making bombs with gunpowder and related materials." The suspect, the paper said, "attended a course on mine planting at the border beginning on July 3, 2013. He received two ready-to-use, white colored hand-made mines, one packet of gunpowder and lead colored gunpowder." A police official told news agency AFP that religious Muslim buildings had been the target of the foiled plot. "They were planning to plant bombs at mosques, after attending training on the border in Karen State," the unidentified officer was quoted as saying. The former capital Rangoon is Burma's biggest city and home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims, many of who live in the city's busy downtown area. Burma's democratic transition under President Thein Sein's reformist government has been marred by deadly anti-Muslim unrest. The violence first broke out between ethnic Arakanese Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims in 2012 before spreading to other parts of the country this year. Buddhist mobs have gone on a rampage in Muslim neighborhoods more than a dozen times this year, and tensions between Buddhists and the Muslim minority continue to linger. Last month, a spate of unexplained bomb blasts and attempted bombings added to ongoing tensions. The blasts killed three people and injured several others. Several of the bomb blasts occurred in Rangoon. One explosion happened in the upscale Traders Hotel, where one American tourist was wounded. Police later arrested several suspects, including a man from Karen State, who they alleged had been planning to bomb the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. The post Three Arrested for Attempt to Bomb Rangoon's Religious Buildings appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Govt Invites Private Investors to Upgrade 30 Domestic Airports Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:39 AM PST  The local airport in the Arakan State capital Sittwe. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) announced on Wednesday that it plans to use local and foreign private investors to upgrade 30 of Burma's 69 domestic airports in a bid to improve the country's underdeveloped airport capacity and infrastructure. "We want to stop using the government budget in the coming years, so we've decided to call for private sector investment in local airports," said Tin Naing Tun, the DCA director general, adding that the government currently spends about US $12 million annually on running the 69 domestic airports. "We have problems with budget constraints; we can't maintain airport facilities properly and cannot pay sufficient salaries to [maintain] skilled staff," he told a press conference at DCA offices in Rangoon. "Those factors made us to decide on this plan to call for private investment." Tin Naing Tun said the plans would help develop Burma's aviation industry and airport capacity. Currently, local airports are small, unsafe and lack sophisticated technology, following decades of mismanagement and neglect under the previous military government. Air safety has become a particular concern after a number of accidents occurred at local airports in 2012 and 2013. News agency Reuters has cited an official as saying that the accident rate of Burma's air industry is nine times the global average. Burma's aviation industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, as the number of foreign tourist visits and domestic air passengers is projected to rise sharply. According to DCA, the number of passengers in 2013 will climb to 4.2 million, up from 3.6 million last year. In 2030, the total number of air passengers is projected to rise to 30 million. DCA officials said they expect private investors to come with proposals to take over airport management and upgrade infrastructure and technology, adding that it wants to sign public-private partnership agreement in which the agency continues to be responsible for airport security and air traffic control. The agency said interested companies can register their proposal throughout the month of January, after which DCA will assess proposals and subsequently invite firms to apply for a government tender. "The tender process will be fully transparent and fair, that is what we can guarantee interested people," Tin Naing Tun said. Parliament is currently considering a revamp of the Civil Aviation Law, he said, adding that this would not interfere with the process of attracting private investors. Win Swe Tun, DCA deputy director general, said the government would prioritize local firms in awarding the contracts, adding, however, that investors should be able to prove they are in a strong financial position to implement their proposals. "We heard that local businesses complained… that some foreign investors won tenders for international airports projects earlier this year, so now we're giving them priority," he said. In August, a consortium led by the Incheon International Airport Corp was chosen as the preferred bidder to construct the $1.5-billion Hanthawaddy International Airport, a huge project that will serve as the second airport to Rangoon, Burma's commercial capital and biggest city. Rangoon's old Mingalardon International Airport will be upgraded at a cost of around $150 million by a consortium led by a firm belonging to Asia World, which is owned by US-sanctioned Steven Law, the son of the late drug lord Lo Hsing Han. Mitsubishi Corp is leading a group of Japanese firms that will revamp Mandalay international airport. The post Govt Invites Private Investors to Upgrade 30 Domestic Airports appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Activists Launch Campaign to Raise Awareness of Violence Against Women Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:33 AM PST  Representatives of civil society groups hold a press conference in Rangoon on Tuesday ahead of an event to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. (Photo: Nan Sai Nom / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Activists will gather at People's Park in the former Burmese capital on Sunday to take part in coordinated events worldwide urging an end to violence against women, event coordinators said. The United Nations has designated Monday as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The day is also the start of a period of events to promote gender equality, a campaign founded in 1991 by the US-based Centre for Women's Global Leadership. At a press conference in Rangoon on Tuesday, Chan Nyein Aung, president of Charity-Oriented Myanmar, said the civil society organizations organizing events in Burma hoped to get the public involved. "We are doing national level ceremonies and talks about gender equality and violence against women involving prominent persons from politics, business and the arts," he said. "This event is specially intended to involve the public in the movement." Sunday's ceremony will run from 3 pm to 6:30 pm, and will involve games, music and other performances. The event will begin 16 days of campaigning on Sunday, leading up to Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, in which activists hope news articles, as well as slogans and cartoons in the media, will address the issue of gender violence, said Shwe Yee Win, project manager at women's empowerment group Phan Tee Eain. "We will also do a 'white campaign' during the 16 Days of Activism. The white campaign is wearing white shirts or white accessories during the 16 days. It is intended as an individual movement to end violence," May Sabai Phyu, from the Gender Equality Network, said. In 2012, 22 organizations were involved in marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This year, 27 groups are involved, including the Myanmar Disabled Women Organization. Organizers said violence against women was frequent in Burma, but that there were no reliable figures about the scale of the problem, partly due to a lack of reporting. "Some people don't understand that they are abused, and some don't complain about that since they are afraid that it will hurt their pride," Shwe Yee Win said. She added that the Gender Equality Network was leading work to improve the situation, in particular by amending outdated laws that leave women vulnerable. "In the existing law, if a man grasps a hand of a girl who is a stranger on street, they will be fined only 10 kyat [about US$0.01]. [The law] is not really appropriate now," said Nandar, a trainer at Equality Myanmar. The post Activists Launch Campaign to Raise Awareness of Violence Against Women appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burmese Beauty Queen Wins ‘Miss Popular’ Award Posted: 20 Nov 2013 05:25 AM PST  Miss Myanmar Htar Htet Htet, second from left, poses with 10 other finalists in the best national costume category of the Miss Grand International competition, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Miss Grand Myanmar contestant Htar Htet Htet has been named the winner of the Miss Popular Award at the first-ever Miss Grand International beauty contest in Bangkok, Thailand. The 24-year-old native of Yangon claimed the title on Tuesday after receiving 8,899 votes in online polling from her fans. The award comes with a US $3,000 cash prize. Last week, at a contest in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, she was among 10 finalists in the national costume category, the prize for which went to Miss China, Jie Pan. She also finished in the top 20 among 80 contestants competing for the title of Miss Grand International 2013, won by Janelee Marcus Chaparro of Puerto Rico. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Htar Htet Htet thanked her fans for their support. "It is because of all our people's support, both inside and outside country," she said, adding that she hoped they were not disappointed that she wasn't one of the top 10 finalists in the contest for the crown. "I hope my fans understand that I tried my best in every competition," she said. She also spoke warmly of her fellow contestants, saying they took a strong interest in her country because they knew of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. "They also said I was sure to win the popular vote because many people in Myanmar were voting for me on the Internet." In addition to receiving the official Miss Popular Award, Htar Htet Htet was also the winner of the People's Choice Award on the Thai beauty pageant website T-Pageant. Htar Htet Htet is the latest of a string of Burmese beauty contestants to win recognition in international competitions. Until political and economic reforms began in the country nearly three years ago, Burmese rarely took part in such contests. Like some other Burmese beauty queens, Htar Htet Htet is involved in philanthropic work at home, volunteering with the Myanmar Gymnast Federation and also working with the elderly and people with leprosy. She said she will use her $3,000 prize to create a foundation to help fellow Burmese who are in need. "I haven't decided yet exactly which sector to support, but I will keep doing my volunteer works as a teacher, trainer and social support worker for the elder people," she said. The former national gymnast is the third Burmese beauty queen to win an online popularity contest since last year. In September, Khin Wint Wah was voted the most popular contestant in the Miss Supranational competition, held in the Belarussian capital Minsk, while Nang Khin Zay Yar won the same title at the Miss International Myanmar contest in Okinawa, Japan, in November 2012. In October, Khin La Pyae Zaw was named Miss Personality at the Miss Tourism Queen International contest in Xianning, China. In November, Moe Set Wine became the first Burmese to compete in the Miss Universe contest in more than 50 years. Next month, another beauty queen, Gonyi Aye Kyaw, will compete for the title of Miss International 2013 in Tokyo, Japan The post Burmese Beauty Queen Wins 'Miss Popular' Award appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| 4G Mobile Internet Network Set for SEA Games Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:12 AM PST  A drill is pictured at a Southeast Asian Games venue in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The installation of a fourth generation (4G) mobile Internet network for the 27th Southeast Asian Games is complete, but only local and foreign "VIPs" and members of the media will benefit from the high-speed access during the Games, according to Burma's national telecoms provider. Twenty days remain until the opening ceremony of the SEA Games in Naypyidaw, the capital of a country known for its unreliable and often painstakingly slow Internet connection. With a crush of visitors expected for the Dec. 11-22 Games, the state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) began installing the latest mobile Internet network in July at the four locations where events will take place—Rangoon, Naypyidaw, Mandalay and Ngwe Saung beach. "We installed the 4G network, and VIP and international media will be able to use the … network in venues," Khin Maung Tun, chief engineer of MPT's mobile phone division, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. It was not clear what would qualify an individual for VIP status, but access to the network will be limited by requiring that a password be input in order to connect. Khin Maung Tun added that two companies were in the process of expanding Wi-Fi access for all Internet users at the venues. "With the 4G network, photos and videos of SEA Games events can be viewed or posted in a timely manner, without waiting, so it will be really welcomed for the SEA Games," said Theinhoke, deputy general manager at MPT. Theinhoke said 4G access points will be available at SEA Games venues, airports, and at select accommodation for foreigners, with testing on the new network to be completed by the last week of November. Although the 4G infrastructure will remain in place after the games, no licenses to operate 4G services have yet been issued by the government. Currently, 3G is the most advanced Internet network system in Burma. The 3G standard is the predecessor of 4G. "The current Internet connection is not good for both IT service providers and customers. It can delay our projects' implementation and also deter customers from buying our products. Our revenue is negatively affected since our business is mainly based on customers' interest," said Tin Maung Htut, technical manager of Myanmar Soft-Gate Technology, an IT service provider. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided about US$17 million to the government for a so-called Urgent Communication Networks Improvement Plan to address serious problems in network capacity and communication quality in Burma, according to a JICA statement in December. The country's Internet infrastructure will see unprecedented demand during the SEA Games, which Burma is hosting for the first time in 44 years. Next year the 4G network will also be put to good use when Burma hosts dozens of conferences and meetings as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). In a country that has only recently embraced the telecoms revolution that has swept the globe over the last two decades, foreign Internet users are likely to be the biggest immediate beneficiary of the high-speed connection. "Out of the total population of Myanmar [about 60 million], only about 10 million people are using mobile communication and fewer than 3 million people are using Internet," said Zaw Min Oo, a director at local company Barons Tele-Link Services Co Ltd. The post 4G Mobile Internet Network Set for SEA Games appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| US Climbers Suggest Records Are Wrong on Burma’s Highest Peak Posted: 20 Nov 2013 02:04 AM PST  Panwa Valley, located in the mountain of Kachin State near the border with China, after heavy snowfall in January 2011. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma may have a new tallest mountain, though so far it seems quite happy with the old one. A US-Burma mountaineering team trekked through jungles crawling with cobras, made a brief, illegal detour through Chinese-controlled Tibet and survived a terrifying 600-foot drop into a crevice on their way to the top of what has long been thought to be the country’s second-highest peak, Mount Gamlang. Satellite and digital data, together with recent US, Russian and Chinese topographical maps, indicate it may be No. 1 after all, said Andy Tyson, leader of the team that climbed the snow-capped mountain along the eastern edge of the Himalayas in September. When Burma’s peaks were surveyed in 1925, back when the area was part of the British Indian empire, Gamlang was measured at 5,834 meters (19,140 feet), behind Mount Hkakabo at 5,881 meters (19,295 feet). Tyson’s team, equipped with a hand-held GPS device, measured Gamlang at 5,870 meters (19,258 feet). Tyson also said digital elevation data indicate that the British overestimated the height of Hkakabo, which may be less than 5,800 meters (19,029 feet). That would make Gamlang the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia, not just Burma. But the country appears cool to the idea of rewriting a key national statistic that schoolchildren have learned uninterrupted for nearly a century, through colonial rule, bloody military coups and self-imposed isolation. After Tyson and his team brought back the revised measurement of Gamlang, President Thein Sein wrote a letter congratulating them for scaling the "second-highest" peak. There were no stories in the local press. Geologists at the main university in Rangoon were unaware. Students in Kachin state, home to both mountains, continue to be taught that Hkakabo is Burma’s tallest, said Naw San, an elementary school geography teacher there. Burma missed many technological advances during 50 years of intellectual quarantine, and has been struggling to catch up since its military rulers stepped aside in favor of an elected government in 2011. Very few here know, for instance, that a man walked on the moon. "As it turns out, even the mountains are unknown, or perhaps just poorly mapped," said Tyson, of Victor, Idaho, a specialist in remote summit expeditions in the Himalayas, Antarctica and the Americas. "I definitely stand behind the statement that Hkakabo may not be the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, and our ascent of Gamlang is an important step to discovering the truth," he said. Scott Walker, a digital cartography specialist at the Harvard Map Collection, said a German radar topographic mapping mission currently underway will provide high-resolution and high-precision height measurements, though that data will not be available until next year. If Gamlang does turns out to be the highest peak in Burma, it could turn into another magnet for climbers and adventure-seekers, thanks to its beauty and unique terrain, Tyson and other mountaineers on his team said. The expedition took 35 days and – before even reaching basecamp – included nearly two weeks of trekking through hot and humid jungles. The mountaineers passed through one of the only known pygmy villages in Asia. They dodged cobras and vipers, and swatted away mosquitoes and sand flies at every turn. They also ate and slept in the homes of villagers – in some cases the chief himself – most of whom had never before seen white faces. They spent 10 days scaling Gamlang, which was when they briefly entered Tibet. Three climbers tied together endured the long drop into a crevice, but no one was hurt. "The route itself was very classic, Himalayan mountaineering," said Mark Fisher, also of Victor, Idaho. "Glacier travel, snow, ice, crevices, exposed ridgeline. A really aesthetic, enjoyable climb." Summit team member Eric Daft recorded footage for a documentary about the expedition, scheduled for release later this year. The post US Climbers Suggest Records Are Wrong on Burma's Highest Peak appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| KIA Deputy in Landmark Rangoon Speech Posted: 20 Nov 2013 01:27 AM PST  Kachin Independence Army Deputy Chief of Staff Gen Gun Maw speaks at a Kachin Baptist church in Rangoon's Sanchaung Township on Tuesday evening. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Kachin Independence Army's (KIA) deputy chief of staff on Tuesday evening addressed a packed hall in Rangoon, ahead of talks about a nationwide ceasefire involving all of the country's armed groups. Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, a senior figure in the main ethnic minority militia still at war with the Burma Army, spoke to around 700 Kachin at a Baptist church in Rangoon, after arriving in Burma's commercial hub Monday to apply for a Burmese passport. In a wide-ranging and lengthy address discussing the state of negotiations between the KIA and the Government, as well as social and economic conditions in Kachin State, Gen Gun Maw put the onus on the Burma government to push for peace. "The government's attitude counts for more than the KIA in moving to a nationwide ceasefire agreement," he said. The Burmese government's granting permission to the General to travel to Rangoon is seen as trust-enhancing measure ahead of a next round of peace talks scheduled for December. Htoi Bawk, a Kachin lawyer living in Rangoon, said that the KIA man's presence in Rangoon is being taken as positive signal. "I think it is good that the government allows him come here and it can help them trust each other more," she told The Irrawaddy. However, the visit comes amid more grim news from the war-torn northern region where the KIA is based, as over the past weekend an estimated 2,000 Kachin villagers were driven from their homes in fighting near the frontier demarcating Kachin State from Shan State—the eponymous homeland of Burma's biggest ethnic minority. The KIA and the Burma Army went back to war in June 2011, just three months after a reform-leaning government led by President Thein Sein took office, and 17 years after the two sides signed a ceasefire. Around 100,000 Kachin remain displaced by the fighting, the majority in aid-deprived camps inside KIA-held territory close to the Burma-China border. The 1994 ceasefire did not lead to talks about greater autonomy for Kachin State, a key militia demand and one shared by other ethnic minority fighters and political parties. A new ceasefire by itself will not be enough to prevent a future war, Gen Gun Maw warned, saying that discussions are needed about the division of power between Burma's central Government and the country's border regions, such as Kachin State, where ethnic minorities live. Gen Gun Maw told the Kachin in Rangoon that Burma's 2008 Constitution needs to be amended as it does not give enough local autonomy to minorities. 'I urged the Government before the Constitution came about to give greater rights for ethnic people," Gen Gun Maw said, raising wild cheers from the crowd in the hall. "I am happy he raised this issue," said Htoi Bawk, "as the Constitution is not good for the ethnic people." Burma's government has historically resisted relaxing central control of minority regions, with the 1962 military coup—the start of five decades of army rule that only ended in 2011—rationalized by the junta as needed to prevent groups such as the Kachin from seceding from Burma. However, in recent months Burmese government ministers have openly mentioned that a form of federal government could come about in future. The general's wise-cracking address lasted around two hours, punctuated by frequent bouts of laughter from the audience. Many in the crowd wore traditional Kachin headgear or came with red and green Kachin flags painted on their faces, and appeared thrilled at the novelty of a KIA leader speaking openly in the former capital. Kinraw Zau Nan, a former pastor in the Kachin regional capital Myitkyina who now works as a translator in Rangoon, said that Gen Gun Maw's speech was "a wonderful event for Kachin people in Yangon." The Kachin are one of Burma's larger ethnic minorities, thought to number over one million people out of a total Burmese population of between 50 and 60 million. While perhaps nine out of 10 Burmese are Buddhist, most Kachin are Christian, either Baptist or Roman Catholic. Speaking over the hum of closing prayers and hymns ringing out through the church, Kinraw Zau Nan added that "in fact, having the speech here and getting permission seems like several steps ahead of other developments," referring to the peace processes between the Burma government and ethnic minority militias. An aide to Gen Gun Maw said that the general was hoping to collect his new Burmese passport on Wednesday before applying for a Thai visa, documentation that will enable him travel to Chiang Mai later this week for discussions involving some of Burma's other ethnic armed groups, most of which have already signed ceasefires with the Government, unlike the KIA. The Chiang Mai parlay will include representatives of Burma's political parties as well as the militias, and is aimed at narrowing ground between the government and the militias ahead of the next round of nationwide ceasefire talks, scheduled to take place during December in Pa'an, the regional capital of Karen State, site of a long war between the Burma Army and Karen rebels. In what seemed to be a dig at the Karen National Union (KNU), which signed a ceasefire with the Burma government in early 2012 and has since been granted business concessions such as licenses to import cars, Gen Gun Maw said "to those making efforts for peace, I urge them not to exchange peace for car permits." Gen Gun Maw met with several political and business figures in Rangoon over Monday and Tuesday, including members of the 88 Generation, the former student protest leaders at the forefront of Burma's 1988 anti-military demonstrations, and who are acting as observers of Burma's peace talks. The general also met with Tay Za, the sanctioned billionaire businessman and alleged arms trafficker who has investments in jade-rich Kachin State. Fighting has flared near jade mining areas since the Burma Army-KIA ceasefire broke down in June 2011, and control over mining the lucrative commodity, estimated to be worth US$8billion per year in unofficial exports, which go mostly to China, is thought to be a key driver of the Kachin war. The post KIA Deputy in Landmark Rangoon Speech appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Mekong Dams Threaten Food Supply for Thousands Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:37 PM PST  A man casts his fishing net into the Mekong River in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. (Photo: Reuters / Pring Samrang) Hydroelectric dam constructions on the Mekong River in Laos financed by foreign businesses could undermine the massive river's fish stocks on which thousands of people Burmese depend for food, a US-based environmental organisation has warned. A dam now under construction directly on the Mekong at Xayaburi and part financed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is one such potential threat to fish stocks. But a new project just approved by the Lao government at Don Sahong, near the Lao-Cambodian border, poses an even bigger menace to fishing, said leading global river watchdog NGO International Rivers, based in California. "The Don Sahong Dam is threatening to block the only channel of the Mekong that currently allows for year-round fish migrations on a large scale, while also wiping out one of the last pools of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins," said International Rivers. The Mekong forms the border between Burma's Shan State and Laos for more than 200 kilometres (124 miles) through the so-called Golden Triangle region. "Over 22,000 primarily indigenous peoples live in the mountainous region of this isolated stretch of the river in Burma," said the NGO Burma Rivers Network, which also campaigns against the disruptive effects of hydroelectric dams. Fish from the Mekong, as well as the Salween and Irrawaddy rivers, provide up to 80 percent of protein needs for communities living alongside, said International Rivers. Dams built downstream on the Mekong will disrupt or prevent the seasonal migration upstream of fish and could thus drastically reduce the food supply of river-dwelling communities, the NGO said. The Don Sahong project—clouded in secrecy and with even the identity of its main financial backers unclear—is "reckless and irresponsible," International Rivers' Southeast Asia Program Director Ame Trandem said in a statement this week. "Scientific experts have warned that the Don Sahong and Xayaburi dams have the potential to dramatically alter fish stocks and even wipe out species, leading to serious regional food security concerns," Trandem said. Both dams are being built despite objections by Cambodia and Vietnam, two member countries of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) which is supposed to be a watchdog for the river shared by six countries though which it flows. The MRC's full members are Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. While Burma and China are not full members, they take part in meetings as "dialogue partners." The Xayaburi project in northern Laos will be capable of generating up to 1,280 megawatts of electricity—more than 25 percent of Burma's existing power capacity—and the Don Sahong in southern Laos will generate 360 megawatts. Most of the electricity is expected to be bought by Thailand. "It is still unclear who is financing Don Sahong dam. One of major issues for Don Sahong, like other large-scaled project in the region, is the lack of transparency," a Thailand coordinator for International Rivers, Pianporn Deetes, told The Irrawaddy. "A main concern for both Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams in Laos is trans-boundary impacts on ecosystems and fish migration. The dams will create inevitably devastating impacts on riverine communities and dwellers whose livelihoods and food security depend on the Mekong River's resources such as fisheries. This includes [communities] in Burma," said Pianporn. It is understood that two Malaysian engineering firms, led by Mega First Corporation, are to construct the Don Sahong dam, which the Lao government insists will go ahead even though the MRC has not yet discussed its possible impact and despite its location close to the Cambodian border. International Rivers is urging MRC members and partners to take action to protect the Mekong according to the brief of their commission's constitution. "Laos has ignored advice provided by the MRC that the Don Sahong Dam must undergo the 'prior consultation' process, instead choosing only to notify neighboring countries of its unilateral decision to build the dam," said Pianporn. "The Lao government released the project's Environmental Impact Assessment to neighboring countries and to the public only days before construction was set to begin on the Don Sahong coffer dam (temporary enclosure) and work camps. Such decisions should not be shrouded in a cloak of secrecy, but rather demand a regional decision that takes into account the opinions of millions of people whose lives depend on the Mekong," Pianporn said. According to International Rivers, Thailand's EGAT is also at the forefront of plans for two hydroelectric dams on Burma's Salween River—at Hut Gyi and Mai Tong, previously known as Ta Sang. It said fish stocks and local community food supplies would be disrupted if those projects went ahead. Thailand aims to draw more 10,000 megawatts of electricity from hydro systems on rivers in Burma and Laos over the next 20 years, the governor of EGAT Sutat Patmasiriwat is on record as saying. Burma is desperate for electricity to fuel its developing economy but the Naypyidaw government halted a massive hydro dam project on the Irrawaddy River at Myitsone on environmental grounds. Most of the electricity would have been transmitted into China's Yunnan Province. Public opposition to big-river dams is growing, not least in Thailand where not-in-my-backyard protests have virtually halted all new dam work and pushed EGAT to venture abroad. Vietnam, which until now has relied on scores of small-to-medium-sized hydro dams to generate up to 60 percent of the country's electricity, is scaling back not on environmental grounds but because electricity generation is variable and dependent on reservoir water levels. However, countries such as Laos are being encouraged to promote dams by the World Bank which has once again embraced this "clean" energy source. A decade ago, the bank had abandoned financial support for large dams but has recently reversed that decision because of concerns about climate change triggered by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. "The Mekong is in an extremely precarious situation. The full extent of the dams' impact has yet to be understood," said International Rivers' Pianporn. "Trans-boundary impact assessments have not been carried out for the Don Sahong or Xayaburi dams, and the MRC's study has yet to begin. Informed decisions are clearly taking a back seat to individual interests." The post Mekong Dams Threaten Food Supply for Thousands appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| UN to Burma: Make Rohingya Muslims Citizens Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:21 PM PST  A member of the Bangladesh Coast Guard serves food to a Rohingya refugee family in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar, in July 2012. (Photo: Reuters) UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly’s human rights committee on Tuesday passed a resolution urging Burma to give the stateless Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and other Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation. The resolution passed the committee by consensus, meaning under General Assembly rules the body will unanimously pass it later this year. Burma emerged from a half-century of military rule in 2011, but its transition to democracy has been marred by sectarian violence that has left more than 240 people dead and sent another 240,000 fleeing their homes, most of them Rohingya. Some say the inter-communal violence presents a threat to Burma’s political reforms because it could encourage security forces to re-assert control. In 1982, Burma passed a citizenship law recognizing eight races and 130 minority groups — but omitted the nation’s 800,000 Rohingya, among Burma’s 60 million people. Many Burma Buddhists view the Rohingya as interlopers brought in by British colonialists from modern-day Bangladesh, but many Rohingya say they have lived in the country for hundreds of years. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has had little else to say about Rohingya rights. She declined to meet with an Organization of the Islamic Conference delegation visiting Burma this week to look into the plight of the Rohingya. Burma had been ostracized by most of the world for 50 years after a coup that instituted military rule. But in recent years the nation has been cautiously welcomed into the international community after it freed many political prisoners and ended the house arrest of Syu Kyi and instituted reforms. President Barack Obama visited the country last year on an Asian tour, as a hallmark of Burma’s rehabilitation. The General Assembly resolution welcomed a statement by Burma’s president that "no prisoners of conscience will remain in prison by the end of the year." Burma released 69 political prisoners last week. But it also "expresses concern about remaining human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detentions of political activists and human rights defenders, forced displacement, land confiscations, rape and other forms of sexual violence and torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as violations of international humanitarian law, and urges the government of Burma to step up its efforts to put an end to such violations." In the resolution, the Assembly reiterated its serious concern about communal violence and other abuses of the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State in the past year, and about attacks against Muslim minorities elsewhere. Burma’s government calls the Rohingya "Bengalis," a reference to their reported South Asian roots. Rohingya leaders object to the terminology. The Rohingya speak a Bengali dialect and resemble Bangladeshis, with darker skin than most people in Burma. Bangladesh also refuses to accept them as citizens. The post UN to Burma: Make Rohingya Muslims Citizens appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burma Turns to Japan, Thailand to Kick-Start Stalled Dawei SEZ Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:14 PM PST  A small port was built as a temporary site for the planned billion-dollar industrial estate in Dawei in southern Burma last year. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma is set to wrest control of its Dawei industrial complex from Thai company Italian Thai Development over its failure to attract investors to a strategically located, multi-billion dollar project tipped as a game-changer for regional trade. According to two sources involved in the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ), plans have been overhauled to inject foreign capital and expertise to revive what is arguably Southeast Asia’s most ambitious industrial zone – a 250 sq km (100 sq mile) deep-sea port, petrochemical and heavy industry hub on the slim peninsular separating the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The project’s leader, ITD, and firms it had agreed contracts with, have been told to cease activities at Dawei to undergo due diligence by international auditors to create "better modality," said a senior Burma government official. The review of a project that was for years stuck in a quagmire could be a significant boost to swelling Japanese industrial interests in the region, which include numerous deals with Burma’s pro-business, quasi-civilian government and long established automobile and high-tech manufacturing plants in neighboring Thailand, led by firms like Honda, Toyota , Canon Inc and Toshiba. The planned complex, which will include a steel mill, refinery and power plant, will be linked by highway to Bangkok and Thailand’s eastern seaboard industrial zone. That will mean Dawei could serve as an industry and trade gateway to Southeast Asia’s markets, bypassing the Malacca Straits, the world’s busiest shipping lane. Burma would ask for Japanese and Thai government support to appoint companies to carry out a revised plan for the first stage of Dawei, including a small port and access roads, setting up a water supply system and small gas-fired power plant "as quickly as possible", the government source said, adding it had yet to be agreed which firms would be involved. The second stage would involve international tenders for the bigger projects, including the deep-sea port, and the building of a bigger power plant, which could be coal-fired. Junta's Deal Ditched? It had also yet to be determined what role ITD, Thailand’s biggest construction company, would play in a project for which it was granted a 75-year concession under a deal struck in the 1990s with Burma’s then military government, which ceded power in 2011. "We’re trying to figure out a different model where ITD is going to be involved as well as other investors. We’re talking about billions of dollars, how can one company be able to develop all these projects?", the source said. A Burma delegation was due to meet Thai and Japanese government officials in Bangkok from Wednesday. Thailand’s commerce minister said the gathering would see ITD relieved of its lead role and reimbursed for costs incurred. "The meeting’s agenda also includes termination of ITD’s contract in terms of the company’s role as Dawei project manager," the minister, Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, told reporters. "Myanmar wants to open up this project to other parties and involve international companies and governments in the other phases of Dawei’s construction and wants to ensure the project’s transparency." Burma’s move on Dawei comes amid a series of liberal economic reforms to attract jobs and investment to one of Asia’s poorest states. A year ago, it asked for Thai support for the project and the government pledged financing from Thai banks, including Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank. Investors have expressed reluctance to commit to Dawei because of reservations over the leadership of ITD, which was dealt a blow last year when Max Myanmar, owned by local construction and banking tycoon Zaw Zaw, announced it would divest its 20 percent stake. Burma’s government has until now had a hands-off approach to Dawei and ITD has struggled to find private investors. Despite being hailed by ITD as "the new global gateway of Indochina", with an estimated $50 billion value within the next decade, the project has been fraught with difficulties from the outset, including finding a power source amid concern about pollution from a proposed 4,000 megawatt coal-fired plant that Burma’s government rejected. A finance industry source in Bangkok with close knowledge of the deal told Reuters ITD would most likely back out of the broader Dawei plan due to a lack of funds but would stay on as the main contractor for infrastructure. ITD officials did not respond to requests for information. Burma’s decision to overhaul the plan follows rapid progress with its 2,400-hectare (5,900-acre) Thilawa economic zone near the biggest city, Yangon, to be run by a Burma-Japan joint venture involving Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp, with Japanese government support. Edwin Vanderbruggen, a Rangoon-based business lawyer with the law firm of VDB Loi, said the new approach to Dawei would be more efficient and financially secure as big players would be involved, especially those from Japan. "It’s too large to be a single-purpose, Thailand-oriented project. This is on a Southeast Asia scale so it's better to broaden the base," he said. "There’s been a lot of progress made. The regulatory framework has changed, the perception of the country has changed. It has improved. Maybe that’s why they want to reboot it." The post Burma Turns to Japan, Thailand to Kick-Start Stalled Dawei SEZ appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| 3 Wounded in Bomb Blast in Nepal Election Violence Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:08 PM PST  A Nepalese policeman stands guard in front of sealed ballot boxes stored awaiting transportation, after the completion of the Constituent Assembly election in Kathmandu on Nov. 19, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Navesh Chitrakar) KATMANDU — A homemade bomb exploded outside a polling station in Nepal's capital Tuesday, as sporadic violence cast a pall over national elections aimed at ending years of political deadlock. Three people were injured in the blast, including an 8-year-old boy who was seriously wounded. Nepalis went to the polls to choose a special assembly to draw up a long-delayed constitution, a step toward stability in a nation still reeling from a 10-year communist revolt and the overthrow of a centuries-old monarchy. Chief election commissioner Nil Kantha Upreti said voter turnout was more than 70 percent, the largest in the nation's history. But there are signs that the beleaguered Himalayan nation of 27 million could see more of the same dysfunction in coming months, a depressing prospect for citizens already struggling with daily power cuts, fuel shortages and poverty. Opposition activists who do not recognize Nepal's interim government vowed to disrupt the polls, and at least 30 people were wounded in small bomb blasts and other violence in the run-up to the election. On Tuesday, a crude bomb went off after voters lined up to cast their ballots at a busy polling station in the heart of Katmandu, seriously wounding the boy, police official Hemant Pal said. "This 8-year-old boy was playing with his friends in the neighborhood when he picked up the bomb, assuming it was something to play with," Pal said. The boy's uncle, Uttam Shahi, told The Associated Press that the child was knocked unconscious and would likely lose several fingers. Two women suffered minor injuries in the blast. In Chamundu village, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Katmandu, opposition activists stormed into a polling station and ripped up ballots, said Homnath Thapaliya, the chief government administrator in the area. He said police fired in the air and about a dozen voters suffered bruises as they tried to flee the scene. The Election Commission said voting was halted in one village in the northeast and there were brief disruptions in four other places. Candidates from more than 100 political parties competed in Tuesday's vote. The assembly will double as the parliament and choose a government. But analysts say none of the political parties is likely to get a majority, which could keep the country in a state of political paralysis. "We can only hope that the politicians will come to their senses and put the country's interest before their own," said Ranju Singh, a university student who voted Tuesday. The last Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008, following the end of a 10-year Maoist insurgency and the overthrow of the monarchy. But the assembly was riven by infighting and never finished its work. The result is a power vacuum that has left Nepal without a proper constitution for nearly seven years. Some of the political disagreements center on whether to divide the country into a federal system based on ethnic groups or strictly by geography. But the parties mostly squabble over who gets to lead the nation. The United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the party of the former communist rebels, is hoping to repeat the last election and emerge as the largest party. Its main competitors are the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist). Nepal has 12 million registered voters. Election official Upreti said vote counting would begin late Tuesday in some urban areas. First results would begin coming in Wednesday, he said. "We expect the final results to take at a least week and a maximum of 10 days," Upreti said. Ballot boxes have to be collected from remote mountain villages, which will take time. The post 3 Wounded in Bomb Blast in Nepal Election Violence appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Dismisses ‘Absurd’ Spanish Arrest Warrants Over Tibet Posted: 19 Nov 2013 09:53 PM PST  A Tibetan activist shouts slogans outside the United Nations office in Nepal in 2012. (Photo: Reuters) MADRID- Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and ex-Prime Minister Li Peng could face arrest when traveling abroad over allegations they committed genocide in Tibet, a Spanish court ruled on Tuesday, in a case Beijing has dismissed as absurd. Two Tibetan support groups and a monk with Spanish nationality brought the case against the former leaders in 2006 using Spanish law, which allows suspects to be tried for human rights abuses committed abroad when a Spanish victim is involved. The two former leaders and three other high-ranking officials, who worked in the government in the 1980s and 1990s, are accused of human rights abuses in the Himalayan region. Tuesday's court order will now trigger arrest warrants which in turn could result in the suspects being arrested when they travel to Spain or other countries which recognize orders signed by Spain. Although it is unlikely the leaders will end up in a Spanish dock, the case is reminiscent of the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998 after a warrant was issued by former Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon. Last month, another ruling by the same Spanish court indicted former Chinese president Hu Jintao for alleged genocide in Tibet. China's government denounced that move as interfering with its internal affairs. Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of China's top advisory body to Parliament, said the case was absurd, in comments published by Chinese state media on Tuesday before the ruling. "If some country's court takes on this matter, it will bring itself enormous embarrassment," Zhu said. "Go ahead if you dare." Communist Chinese troops took control of Tibet in 1950. China says it "peacefully liberated" the remote mountainous region that it says was mired in poverty, exploitation and economic stagnation. Tibet's Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. Exiled Tibetan groups are campaigning for the return of the Dalai Lama and self-rule for their region. More than 120 Tibetans have set themselves alight in protest against Chinese rule since 2009, mainly in heavily ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces rather than in what China terms the Tibet Autonomous Region. Most of those who set themselves on fire have died. The post China Dismisses 'Absurd' Spanish Arrest Warrants Over Tibet appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Signs of Life Amid Misery Reveal Filipinos’ Spirit Posted: 19 Nov 2013 09:23 PM PST  Since Typhoon Haiyan ripped through Tacloban on Nov. 9, locals have shown resilient in the face of destruction. TACLOBAN, Philippines — They found the hoop in the ruins of their obliterated neighborhood. They propped up the backboard with broken wood beams and rusty nails scavenged from vast mounds of storm-blasted homes. A crowd gathered around. And on one of the few stretches of road here that wasn't overflowing with debris, they played basketball. I didn't know what to think at first when I stumbled upon six teenagers shooting hoops over the weekend in a wrecked neighborhood of Tacloban, a city that Typhoon Haiyan reduced to rubble, bodies and uprooted trees when it slammed into the Philippines on Nov. 8. As a foreign correspondent working in the middle of a horrendous disaster zone, I didn't expect to see people having a good time—or asking me to play ball. I was even more stunned when I learned that the basketball goal was one of the first things this neighborhood rebuilt. It took a moment for me to realize that it made all the sense in the world. The kids wanted to play so they can take their minds off what happened, said Elanie Saranillo, one of the spectators. "And we want to watch so we, too, can forget." Saranillo, 22, now lives in a church after her own home was leveled by the storm. Countless families lost loved ones to the typhoon, which killed more than 4,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of survivors have endured unimaginable suffering: hunger, thirst, makeshift shelter, little if any medical care, and a desperate, days-long wait for aid to arrive. Tacloban was filled with hopeless, fear-filled faces. Even now, blackened bodies with peeling skin still lay by the roads, or are trapped under the rubble. But as the crisis eases and aid begins to flow, hope is flickering. People smile, if only briefly, and joke, if only in passing. They are snippets of life. They do not mean, by any stretch, that people are happy in the face of tragedy. But for some, there is a newfound enthusiasm for life that comes from having just escaped death. When a kid with mismatched shoes rolled the grimy, orange-and-yellow basketball my way, I was encouraged to attempt a slam dunk. I opted for free throws instead, and miraculously sank the first two, to immense cheers all around. My third shot hit the rim, circled twice and rolled the wrong way. The crowd roared a sympathetic "Awwwwwwwwww." There were a lot of laughs. In Saranillo's neighborhood, I saw four giggling children jumping up and down on two soiled mattresses strung across a cobweb of smashed wooden beams that had once formed somebody's home. Two women stood on a hilltop high above, dancing. A few yards away, a 21-year-old named Mark Cuayzon strummed a guitar. He too, was smiling. And in this city virtually erased by nature, I had to ask why. "I'm sad about Tacloban," he said. "But I'm happy because I'm still alive. I survived. I lost my house, but I didn't lose my family." I covered the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan, and cannot recall a single laugh. Every nation is resilient in its own way, but there is something different in the Philippines that I have not yet put my finger on. While walking through Tacloban's ruins, I and my colleagues were almost always greeted by kind words. When I asked how people were doing, people who had lost everything said, "Good." Superficial words, of course, but combined with the smiles, and with hearing "Hey, Joe" again and again (an old World War II reference to G.I. Joe), they helped form a picture I have not encountered in other disaster zones. Perhaps it has something to do with an expression Filipinos have: "Bahala Na." It essentially means: Whatever happens, leave it to God. Elizabeth Protacio de Castro, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Philippines in Manila, said her nation has grown accustomed to catastrophe. Some 20 typhoons barrel across the nation every year. Add to that earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, armed insurgencies and political upheaval. "Dealing with disaster has become an art," de Castro said. But Typhoon Haiyan "was quite different. It was immense, and no amount of preparation could have prepared us to cope with it." And yet, they must cope. "So rather than screaming or staring at the wall in a psychiatric ward, you do everything you can. You do your best, then let it go," said de Castro, who helped provide psychological aid to victims of the 2004 Asia tsunami during a previous job with the UN Children's Fund. People playing music or sports in the rubble, de Castro said, "is a way of saying, 'Life goes on.' This is what they used to do every day, and they're going to keep doing it." "It's not that Filipinos are some happy-go-lucky people and don't care," she added. "It's a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. They're saying: 'I can deal with this. I'm at peace, and whatever happens tomorrow, happens.'… They need help, of course, but they're also saying, they're going to get by on their own if they have to." De Castro has been counseling students in Manila who lost parents and siblings to the storm, and said some have displayed incredible determination. "They've lost their entire families, and they're telling me, 'I have to finish my studies because my parents paid my tuition through the end of the year.'" That sense of determination is literally written in the ruins of Tacloban. One handwritten message painted on a board outside a destroyed shop said the "eyes of the world" are on the city. It added, "Don't quit." Those who have gotten a chance to leave Tacloban have done so, of course, though many will no doubt return one day. On Monday, I rode on a US Air Force C-17 out of Tacloban to Manila, along with about 500 people displaced by the typhoon. There were babies and pregnant women. Some had tears in their eyes. One man held a doll with stuffed animal-like angel wings. He stared at it intensely, kissing it over and over. As the plane neared Manila, an American crew member held her iPhone to her helmet's microphone, which was linked the aircraft's speaker system. She hit play, and Earth, Wind and Fire's 1978 hit "September" belted out. The sea of eyes squatting on the cargo plane immediately turned radiant. Men twirled their arms. Women swayed back and forth, and the words echoed through the plane's cargo hold: "Do you remember… While chasing the clouds away, Our hearts were ringing, In the key that our souls were singing. As we danced in the night. Remember, How the stars stole the night away." The post Signs of Life Amid Misery Reveal Filipinos' Spirit appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
