Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Burmese publishers leave newspapers on the scrapheap

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 03:11 AM PST

The Burmese government's News and Periodicals Enterprise (NPE) said at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Monday that seven publishers who originally applied to open private daily newspapers have abandoned their plans and returned their licenses to the Ministry of Information.

NPE director Win Zaw Htay said the seven dailies that never went into circulation were: D-Wave Daily, Khit Moe Daily, Stop-Press Daily, Daily Eleven News, Myanmar Daily, Warazein Daily and People Net Daily.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the party had withdrawn from an original plan to publish the D-Wave Daily, the license for which was approved with Suu Kyi as publisher, due to financial shortcomings.

Currently, there are 18 private daily newspapers in circulation in Burma. Five others have until 31 March 2014 to get their presses rolling or they too may have to relinquish their licenses.

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Meanwhile, state-run The New Light of Myanmar has announced a joint-venture with Burmese firm Global Direct Link to expand their current daily into a broadsheet.

In an announcement on 13 January, the New Light said the Ministry of Information will continue to hold 51 percent of shares while its new partner will take 49 percent.

The new-look periodical is due to hit news-stands within two to three months and will feature what ministry officials at the press conference termed a "change in form and content".

Meanwhile, The Irrawaddy Publishing Group, formerly based in exile in Thailand, has launched a weekly news journal in Burmese to accompany its English-language monthly magazine.

During a launch on 2 January, The Irrawaddy was sold out at news-stands in Rangoon and Mandalay, its website said.

For more background: http://www.dvb.no/news/challenges-ahead-as-burma%E2%80%99s-newspapers-go-daily/27356

 

Rangoon squatters return to site of despair

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:44 AM PST

Squatters in Hlaing Tharyar township in Rangoon are rebuilding their huts alongside the Shwe Lin Pan Industrial Zone.

They were previously evicted from the site by the municipal department, but they haven't been able to find anywhere else to live.

“We are in complete despair. It would cost about 30,000 kyat (US$30) to rent a place”, said a woman.

The squatters say that township officials told them to apply to resettle in vacant plots elsewhere, but THAT was easier said than done.

“We submitted applications and the township officials asked us to wait”, said one of the squatters. “After we were evicted, we asked the municipal authorities and the police where we should go. They said that only land that is not fenced is available for squatting. We had a discussion about what to do, and decided to come back here on Sunday, and begin reserving plots.”

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The squatters say it's very hard to find places to live since property prices are so high and they can't afford the rent.

Another woman said: “Previously I rented a place in someone's backyard where I had to pay a deposit for three months – some 90,000 kyat. It was too much for us to pay but we had no choice. We had to endure the stench of the sewage. The rent for the front yard was double – some 60,000 kyat per month. The landlord asked how many children I have and when I said 'three' he wasn't so keen to have us.”

For the time being, no legal action has been brought against the squatters, and they remain resolute but desperate in the squalid camp.

 

 

‘Not finished yet’- political prisoner committee to continue

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 02:02 AM PST

The Committee for Scrutinizing Remaining Political Prisoners (CSRPP) will continue work through 2014 ­– despite government claims that all political prisoners were released by 31 December – according to committee member Bo Kyi, who is also the founder and joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPP-B).

He told DVB on Tuesday that "we need to continue because there are still political prisoners in Burma."

President's Office Minister and Committee Chairman Soe Thane, in keeping with official statements that all prisoners of conscience had been freed by the end of 2013, said that the CSRPP will continue so that, "if something happens, the committee will be ready," according to Bo Kyi, who added that the government has not conceded that any other activists are still in detention.

The AAPP-B, which has maintained a roster of current political prisoners since 2000, says that upwards of 33 prisoners of conscience are still behind bars, despite the government's insistence that they have all been freed.

The CSRPP was established in early 2013, just prior to President Thein Sein's June 2013 promise to free all dissidents by the end of the year.

Complete amnesty for political prisoners was a common condition among Western governments for lifting decades-long sanctions imposed on the former military-ruled country.

While a series of presidential pardons have been welcomed by the international community and Burmese activists alike – nearly 1,200 political prisoners have been released since May 2011, 57 in December alone – political and human rights groups have shown reluctance to reward the government.

"I am very pleased for the families of political prisoners who have been released, but we must remind ourselves that they should not be in the prison in the first place," read a 3 December press statement by the Kachin National Organisation (KNO).

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The group said that while many were pardoned for crimes they should not have been jailed for, others are still being held on charges they consider dubious, such as Kachin land rights activist Bawk Ja, who is currently in custody awaiting trial for "negligent homicide" after a patient in an unauthorised clinic died, allegedly under her care. The KNO called this a "politically motivated case to handicap her political career".

Similarly, Naw Ohn Hla, well known across Burma for her role in the anti-Latpadaung mine protests, was recently charged for "religious offences" she purportedly committed in 2007. The charges were brought against her within one month of a November amnesty, during which she was pardoned for sedition charges associated with the anti-mine demonstrations.

The trend towards re-imprisonment has been dubbed "the revolving door" of Burma's prisons. DVB reported last month that at least two of those freed in an 11 December amnesty were put back in jail the very same day on separate but related charges.

It has also been suggested that the pardons have been used as "political bargaining chips"; the 11 December amnesty, which – temporarily, at least – freed 41 people, was announced on the same day as the opening ceremony for the SEA Games, an international sporting event that drew nearly one million visitors to Burma including foreign heads of state, and threw the country momentarily into the international spotlight.

Soe Thane has reportedly requested and cancelled two CSRPP meetings already since the start of the month, and no further assembly has been scheduled. As the year unfolds, Bo Kyi says that the CSRPP will continue to identify and advocate for the release of all political prisoners, as soon as they reconvene.

"The committee needs to exist because we are not finished yet," he said.

Myeik residents protest coal plant plans

Posted: 13 Jan 2014 10:11 PM PST

About 100 locals staged a protest in Myeik on Sunday against a plan to build a coal power plant in the area without consulting civic groups or seeking public opinion.

A spokesperson for the protestors, who mostly came from the village of Thamote, said they wanted to voice their concerns over plans to construct a 50-megawatt coal plant in the neighbouring village of Lutlut, about 17 miles northeast of Myeik town in Burma's southernmost province of Tenasserim Division.

The protestors contend that the plant will offer nothing of interest to the local population, but instead will adversely affect their health and livelihoods.

Some protestors who spoke to DVB cited a similar case further south on the Andaman coast in Kawthaung Township where local residents reportedly suffered respiratory problems after an 8MW coal plant became operational last year despite concerns expressed earlier by residents in the town and in the neighbouring Thai border town of Ranong.

"Residents in Kawthaung are already suffering from health issues from the coal plant," said Htain Lin Aung, a protest leader from Thamote. "They are falling ill with respiratory infections and skin diseases.

"Not only that, the coal plant planned for Myeik is a 50-MW facility, much more powerful than the one in Kawthaung."

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He added that the protesting villagers had a duty to protect their livelihoods as farmers and fishermen because the coal plant would undoubtedly impact the environment.

Construction of the power plant in Lutlut is due to be completed in 2015 and is being undertaken by the Than Phyo Thu Mining Co Ltd, which also built the plant in Kawthaung.

The firm could not be reached for comment when contacted by DVB.

Locals in Myeik said they only found out about the power plant project after the Tenasserim Division Ministry of Energy revealed the plan last year.

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets in November calling for suspension of the project.

About two years ago, plans for a 4,000 MW coal plant in Tavoy, part of the Dawei Special Economic Zone, were cancelled after public protests.

With a population of just over 200,000, Myeik is home to mostly fishermen and rubber and coconut plantation workers. It is also well-known in Burma for the manufacture of shrimp paste (nga pi), a favourite condiment across the country.

Hundreds of indigenous Moken people, known as "sea gypsies", are also based around the Myeik Archipelago which has been tipped as a future tourist Mecca because of its idyllic beaches and aquamarine waters.

Set in the Andaman Sea just north of the popular Thai resort of Phuket, the archipelago comprises 800 islands, only a fraction of which are populated.
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