Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Kachin IDPs urged to return home despite ongoing violence

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 05:02 AM PDT

Conditions are dire for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Burma, who after fleeing armed conflict are now being pressured to return to their villages in Kachin State's Mansi Township.

Faced with a severe shortage of basic aid and clean water, the villagers are said to be chaotically "flocking" back and forth between their villages and various IDP camps.

Mary Tawm, coordinator of Kachin aid group Wunpawng Ninghtoi, said that among other pressing difficulties, many IDPs are suffering from dehydration due to shortages of water and rising summer temperatures.

"The first priority for the IDPs is security, and the second is food and water. Due to rising temperatures during the dry season, they are now living in clouds of dust," she said.

She estimated that more than 2,000 IDPs from the Mansi area had abandoned their homes, many of whom have spilled over into northern Shan State's Namhkam Township since fighting broke out between the Burmese Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on 10 April.

The government announced on 19 April that 22 soldiers have died over several days of combat in the area, which reportedly began after the deployment of additional troops near the Burma-China border to accompany enumerators for Burma's national census.

"However,” explained La Nan, spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Organisation, “the clashes are not related to the census."

La Nan told DVB in an exclusive interview just after the initial outbreak that the current bout of violence is corollary to the fatal shooting of a Burmese commander on 4 April, when he and another soldier drove into KIA territory and ignored warnings to retreat.

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On 10 April, Burmese Army troops are said to have advanced near a Kachin IDP camp called Lagat Yang, resulting in rapid displacement and several days of intermittent combat.

Emergency medical aid group Free Burma Rangers (FBR) on Saturday reported atrocities committed against civilians including the rape of a 17-year-old girl by two Burmese soldiers and the shooting of two men, which left them injured and in hospital at Namhkam.

FBR estimated that as many as 3,600 people have been displaced in the clashes that have been ongoing for more than a week. While some have sought shelter in IDP camps and various overcrowded and under-resourced facilities in Namhkam, many others are said to have fled across the border into China.

Mary Tawm estimated that at least 200 people have taken sanctuary on Chinese territory, and that scores of others who attempted to do so were denied entry by Chinese authorities.

The IDPs sheltering in Namhkam, she said, are also facing pressure from the township administration to return home, insisting that calm has been restored.

"They [the IDPs] were recently told by Namhkam's Township Administrator that they should be able return to their homes in a couple of days," she told DVB on Monday.

Aid workers have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis as food, water and blankets are in short supply for the growing number of Kachin and Shan villagers displaced by fighting that appears to carry on, ironically in tandem with Burma's historic yet protracted peace process.

The KIA is the only major ethnic armed group yet to sign a bilateral ceasefire with the Burmese government, as the march towards an inclusive nationwide peace treaty continues.

Representatives of most ethnic armed groups met with government negotiators from 5 to 8 April in Rangoon, where they successfully penned the first draft of a single-text nationwide ceasefire agreement. They are scheduled to meet again in May for further drafting.

Additional reporting contributed by Aye Nai.

New technology boosts Burmese films abroad

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 03:20 AM PDT

A Burmese film titled Satan's Dancer will premiere concurrently in Singapore and Rangoon for the first time.

The movie tells the story of a couple who have a child out of wedlock and explores themes of childhood trauma and psychology.

The film's lead, Nay Toe, a well-known actor in Burma, spoke to DVB at a special screening in Rangoon.

He said it is time Burmese cinema came back to life. 

"Digital technology nowadays allows us to premier films concurrently overseas and the production quality is suitable for an international audience," he said.

"Back in the day, we wouldn't have had enough courage to showcase our films overseas. But 2014 is the right time for us."

The director and screenwriter is Burmese Academy award winner and former actor Wyne. He said he wanted to make a film that focuses on psychological issues among children.

"The film portrays a young couple who unwittingly bring a child into this world out of a momentary sexual desire. They fail to bring up the child correctly. I just want to remind people that children have a heart and emotions too – and they are vulnerable to psychological trauma," he said.

The official premiere will be shown on 18 May in both Rangoon and Singapore.

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Whirlwind wipes out homes near Inle Lake

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 02:11 AM PDT

Houses and farms in Yawnghwe, Shan State, were devastated by a whirlwind hurling hailstones "the size of fists" on 17 April. More than 150 homes were damaged by the freak weather event in Yawnghwe, near the popular tourist destination Inle Lake.

Win Myint, the Shan State government parliamentary representative for the Inntha ethnic group, said around a dozen villages were rocked by the 17 April whirlwind, which he described as the strongest of its kind in 50 years. He said the storm damaged over 150 homes in total, 30 of which were completely destroyed, and that 130 acres of farms and plantations have been severely damaged.

"The whirlwind was accompanied by hailstones ranging from the size of a pebble to as big as a fist. It was so strong. We have not experienced something like this in about 50-60 years," said Win Myint, who confirmed the worst of the damage was suffered by residents of the Thale-U village tract, east of Inle Lake.

In Thale-U, 104 houses were damaged or destroyed. In villages on the western side of the lake, such as Kyungyi village-tract and Nanthe and Eaindauntgyi villages, around 50 houses were impacted.

Two local schools and a monastery building as well as over 80 acres of tomato plantation, 15 acres of peanut and 60 acres of summer paddy farms were also destroyed by the wind and hail.

Those affected were provided an emergency stipend of 30,000 kyats (US$30) by the Shan State government. The state's Agricultural and Land Records Department has pledged to compile a list of damage and provide necessary assistance for the farms destroyed.

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One Thale-U villager said another anomalous storm hit Innma village in the area on 20 April and flattened 11 of the 15 homes in the village. He said the government has yet to provide any help for the victims and that the 30,000 kyats provided to those affected by the earlier incident is nowhere near enough to help people to get back on their feet.

"I am grateful for the 30,000 kyats, but even building a bamboo hut nowadays costs around 600,000-700,000 kyats – we can only hope for assistance from sympathisers," said the villager.

Pegu police prohibit constitution protest

Posted: 21 Apr 2014 11:02 PM PDT

Activists in the Pegu Division town of Nyaunglebin have been denied permission to hold a protest calling for amendments to the 2008 Constitution.

Bo Tauk, a former political prisoner and member of the Nyaunglebin Public Campaign Committee, said the local police had informed them that their bid to stage a protest on 25 April was rejected under the pretext that the proposed location for the rally falls within a "prohibited zone" for public demonstrations.

The activist leader said that the venue had previously hosted a rally by the National League for Democracy.

He said that the police also rejected permission on the basis that such a public demonstration might incite a religious riot.

A second request has been submitted to the Pegu [Bago] Division government requesting permission to stage the protest, said Bo Tauk, adding that his group were determined to go ahead with the rally as planned on Friday whether permission is granted or not.

Nyaunglebin police superintendent Tin Aung warned that if the organisers proceed with the rally without permission they will be prosecuted under existing laws.

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Despite being signed into law in December 2011 by President Thein Sein, Burma's Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Processions Act is a highly contested piece of legislation that has been widely denounced by domestic and international human rights groups, which claim that the law is being used to target activists who oppose major development projects.

Under Article 18 of the Act, organisers of an unapproved "assembly" or "procession" can be sentenced to a maximum of one year imprisonment or a maximum fine of 30,000 kyat (US$30) or both.

However, Article 5 of the same Act states that neither the local police nor the township authorities can deny permission for a peaceful protest, "when it is not in breach of the security of the State, rule of law, community's peace and tranquillity, and public morality."

Nonetheless, the legislation has been used across the country countless times by local authorities to deny protestors, most notably farmers and villagers who are campaigning to have lands returned that were seized from them during the era of the military junta.

Several protestors in Sagaing Division have likewise been arrested and jailed for campaigning for the closure of the controversial Latpadaung copper mine near Monywa.

Plough protestors charged with sedition

Posted: 21 Apr 2014 10:05 PM PDT

Local farmers of Madaya, Mandalay division have been charged with crimes ranging from sedition to trespassing and staging unauthorised protest after they took up tools and farmed land they claim is rightfully theirs.

Nineteen of 20 protesting farmers will face court on Tuesday.

Over 600 acres of farmland in Kyauksayit and Yaynanthar villages of Madaya, Mandalay are said to have been confiscated from 96 local farmers in 1986 under Ne Win's Burmese Road to Socialism. The land was then distributed to other tenant farmers in the establishment of agricultural cooperatives.

A petition was lodged to Madaya authorities in January 2014 in an attempt to negotiate a return of the land. The ploughing protest was called as of 1 March when no response had been received.

"The Ministry of Cooperatives seized the land in 1986," Nay Win, one of the farmers facing charges, told DVB.

"We had owned the land for generations — we even have bills proving that we paid land tax before the confiscation. It was legitimate farmland — not state owned or vacant land appropriate for government projects.

"We went back and ploughed the land on 1 March and they pressed charges on us for that — I am facing seven charges."

In March, four farmers were charged with trespassing and vandalism in connection to the protests. However since then, more farmers have been implicated on stronger charges.

Myint Myint Aye, a farmers' rights activist from Meikhtila Public Assistance Network said four of the farmers face sedition charges and two have been taken into custody in Mandalay's Obo Prison.

"Two of the four are charged with article 505(b) of the penal code, sedition, for which bail is not possible. Zaw Win and Ye Yint Aung were arrested on 10 April in a restaurant in Mandalay and the other two will likely be detained in the court hearing tomorrow," Myint Myint Aye said in a phone interview with DVB on Monday.

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She added that the Upper Burma Lawyer's Network would be providing legal assistance for the farmers and would represent them in the court.

Officers at Yaynanthar Police Station were not available for comment.

In a similar case, farmers in Yaynanthar have faced charges for ploughing an 80-acre land plot ostensibly taken to make way for a leprosy hospital.

In February, Burma’s Parliament passed a resolution urging the government to completely examine and close all settlement claims over land confiscation cases by September 2014.

Gun Maw urges US to play role in Burma’s peace process

Posted: 21 Apr 2014 08:26 PM PDT

Gen. Gun Maw, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the group's chief negotiator, has renewed an offer to the US government to become involved in Burma's ongoing peace process.

Speaking in an interview with Reuters in Washington DC on Monday, Gun Maw said he made the request to US officials last week, and that the invitation was first extended to the United States, Britain, China and the United Nations in February last year.

“We would like to have the US present at the peace process as a witness, so this agreement will become strong,” he said. “At present, we are still asking the US to be involved. Whether they will be, we don’t know yet.”

To date, only China has played a mediating role, attending and hosting negotiations between the Kachin side and a Burmese government delegation at the Sino-Burmese border last year following the breakdown of a 17-year ceasefire in June 2011.

The Kachin rebels are due to hold another round of negotiations with the Burmese government next month. A bilateral ceasefire agreement between the two sides would be seen as pivotal in the government's quest to establish a nationwide peace accord.

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“The challenge is that from the government side they would purely like to sign a ceasefire, but from the KIO [Kachin Independence Organisation] side, in the ceasefire agreement there has to be a future plan involved and what will follow after,” Gun Maw told Reuters. “For example, after the ceasefire, there will be a discussion on the building of a federal union and on the rights of the ethnic groups. We would like to have guarantees.” The KIO is the political wing of the KIA.

The US State Department has not as yet made any response to the offer to mediate in Burma's peace process, nor has the Burmese government commented on the suggestion.

Gun Maw was also quoted as saying he wished to see Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi involved in the political dialogue.

During his 12-day stay in US, the Kachin general met with: US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman; Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations Rick Barton; Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski; Senior Advisor for Burma Judith Cefkin; US Congressmen; officials from the National Security Council, USAID and Department of Defense; and officials from the United Nations including Special Adviser Vijay Nambiar, according to Kachinland News.

On Saturday, following his talks with US officials, Gun Maw met with representatives of the Kachin and Chin communities.

More than 200 representatives from 15 Kachin communities around the US and two representatives from the Kachin Canadian Association attended a seminar where Gun Maw explained the substance of his visit to the US, and laid out his views on the current peace process, as well as the ongoing conflict in parts of Kachin and Shan states.

He then proceeded to meet with representatives from 23 Chin Christian communities in a Baptist Church in Gaithersburg, MD, Kachinland News reported.

Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary Malinowski, who met with the Kachin rebel leader in Washington, said in a statementreleased on Friday: "The Kachin and American people share ties going back to WWII. Many Americans owed their lives to the Kachin fighters who guided General Stillwell's men in the high altitudes and thick jungles of Burma's upper Kachin State, and helped Allied forces secure victory in Southeast Asia.

“A Burmese government of the people, by the people, and for the people will strive on to finish the work it is in”

"But following Burma's independence, and especially after a military coup in 1962, its armed forces proved unwilling to unite Burma's diverse ethnic nationalities by democratic consent and unable to bond them by brute force. The result has been decades of war and division, with millions of civilians displaced. In Kachin State, abundant natural resources – gold, jade, teak, timber, gems, to name just a few – have been drivers of this conflict rather than sources of development."

At the invitation of Malinowski, Gun Maw also visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The US assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, is reported saying: "We hope that the words written there, commemorating our own nation's perseverance through civil war, will soon be spoken of Burma: that a Burmese government of the people, by the people, and for the people will strive on to finish the work it is in; to bind up its nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among its people, and with all nations."
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