Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Interim Report Constitutional Reform Committee Lacks Details

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 05:28 AM PDT

A session of Union Parliament in Burma's capital, Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

A session of Union Parliament in Burma's capital, Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

An interim report by a parliamentary committee discussing amendments to Burma's controversial Constitution has failed to shed any light on what changes the committee might propose, opposition lawmakers said on Thursday.

The Union Parliament Constitutional Amendment Implementation Committee is obliged to inform Parliament about the progress that has been made since discussions began in February, but opposition MPs said it only sent a brief note on Thursday that included no details.

Ba Shein, an Arakan National Party Lower House MP, said, "It should have at least said what [planned] changes have been discussed."

The 2-page letter, dated 22 July, said the committee would share its findings and suggested amendments with Parliament "after the remaining chapters and clauses are discussed."

The letter said committee members had so far "discussed changes, removals and amendments" in seven out of 15 chapters of the Constitution, reviewing 340 out of 457 articles during 30 meetings held since February.

Banyar Aung Moe, an All Mon Regions Democracy Party Upper House MP who is a committee member, said he could not disclose details of the discussions. "We are still conducting more meetings as the discussions are not yet completed for the whole Constitution," said he, adding that there is a "hot debate" on what changes should be made.

Nang Wah Nu, a lawmaker with the Shan Nationalities Development Party, said she does not expect that the committee will make fundamental changes to the military-drafted, 2008 charter, as ethnic parties and Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) have little influence in the committee.

"Apart from our five ethnic committee members, we are not even allowed to observe [discussions]," she said.

The 31-member committee comprises 14 MPs of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and seven military lawmakers. There are only two NLD members and eight committee members of various ethnic minority parties. The USDP is the political incarnation of the former junta.

The committee has been charged with concluding its work six months prior to the elections, which are scheduled for late 2015.

Burma's charter was drafted by the then-military regime and is widely viewed as undemocratic, as it grants sweeping political powers to the Burma Army, including control over a quarter of all Parliament seats.

The committee has said it will discuss amending Article 436 and a number of other articles, but it remains to be seen whether fundamental changes will be made that would erode the power of the military. The article stipulates that amendments can only take place with more than 75 percent of Parliament votes, giving the military lawmakers a de facto veto.

The committee decided on June 12 that it was unwilling to amend Article 59 (f) after USDP and military MPs on the committee reportedly blocked the idea, landing a blow to Suu Kyi as the article prevents her from holding the post because her sons are British citizens.

Suu Kyi has launched a nationwide campaign in recent months and her party said it on Monday that it had collected 5 million signatures in favor of amending article 436.

The post Interim Report Constitutional Reform Committee Lacks Details appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Rangoon, Mandalay Universities Get Information Age Boost

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 05:23 AM PDT

A coordinator from the eLibrary Myanmar project gives training to staff from the English Department at Rangoon University. (Photo: Facebook / Library of Yangon University)

A coordinator from the eLibrary Myanmar project gives training to staff from the English Department at Rangoon University. (Photo: Facebook / Library of Yangon University)

RANGOON — Rangoon and Mandalay universities are increasingly wired to the outside academic world thanks to a program that is bringing access to scholarly literature at the institutions of higher learning, which languished for decades under Burma's former military regime.

The universities' faculty and students can now search and download a range of reputable international journals, databases and e-books free of charge under a program spearheaded by the Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) organization.

That is not to be taken for granted in Burma, where access to scholarly works has been limited for years, according to Kyaw Naing, pro-rector of Rangoon University. Under the previous junta, even if a student managed to outflank intensive Internet censorship and find an adequate connection amid notoriously slow broadband in Burma, simply paying for the academic content often proved an insurmountable hurdle.

"We have to buy some articles available online with credit card. Since international credit cards like MasterCard are not widely used here, even though the article is not so expensive, it was difficult for us to get the paper we wanted," Kyaw Naing told The Irrawaddy.

"Because of the eLibrary service, we can access all journals available in the service free of charge. Before, we would have to ask a professor who lived abroad to help us find the paper we wanted and then send the PDF to us," he said.

Since the service is based online, the technical network infrastructure and bandwidth at both universities have undergone upgrades since the project kicked off in December of last year.

The EIFL's eLibrary Myanmar project is funded by the Open Society International Higher Education Support Program, with two local coordinators providing training to faculty members and students on how to use the service over the course of 18 months.

"The University of Mandalay and the University of Yangon [Rangoon] have been quite isolated from the information world for many decades," Susanna Lob, EIFL's licensing program manager, told The Irrawaddy.

"Now, this is an opportunity for them to have the kind of library that Western universities would have—a very, very good quality online library which contains leading academic journals and a huge collection of electronic books," she added.

Lob said plans to make the services available to more schools were limited by the inadequacy of existing network infrastructure, but the program hopes to add an additional three to four universities in a few months.

"There has been a huge demand from faculty to receive this training. They are queuing up to get the training," Lob said. The training includes instruction in basic IT and research skills to instill the "information literacy" necessary to take full advantage of the access on offer.

"A key objective is to encourage the use of these resources in teaching and learning. First, people need to know which are the best journals in their field. And then they need to understand how to direct students, for example, to individual articles," she continued.

"New skills are required to understand which are the best sources and to think critically about different perspectives."

The collection of resources available through EIFL varies, from research on politics and physics to scholarly dissertations on law and history. There are more than 10,000 full-text scholarly journals and more than 13,000 full-text academic e-books available.

"This is a first-time experience for them to search academic and scholarly articles and peer-reviewed articles. Those are the most important things in doing research, writing term papers, master's theses and Ph.D.," said Myat Sann Nyein, a local coordinator of the project for Rangoon University.

Lob said the new "eLibraries" represented nothing short of a sea change for the benefitting universities.

"It's kind of going from a situation where books in the library are quite old and out of date, maybe there's only one copy," she said. "Now, overnight, there is unlimited access to a vast collection of e-books and journals."

The post Rangoon, Mandalay Universities Get Information Age Boost appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

For Burmese, Little Hope for a Jokowi of Their Own

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 05:03 AM PDT

Indonesian presidential candidate Joko

Indonesian presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo gestures during a rally in Proklamasi Monument Park in Jakarta July 9, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

When the Burmese people go to the polls next year, they are unlikely to get their own version of Jokowi, the new face in Indonesian politics and now the president-elect in that country.

The Indonesian Elections Commission on Tuesday announced that Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, had beaten his rival, ex-general Prabowo Subianto, in the election held on July 9.

The 53-year-old furniture businessman who will take office in October is seen as a clean break from the old political elite that has hung on to power in Indonesia despite the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998.That means the country's people have had to wait for about 15 years, or three electoral terms, to have a new face as their leader.

As for Burma, it seems highly unlikely that the people will be so fortunate.

It might even take longer than in Indonesia to see a Jokowi-type leader in Burma, simply because the current political atmosphere is not creating space for new or different faces that are not from the military.

The country has scarcely had a new face in the political arena in more than five decades since late dictator Gen. Ne Win staged a coup in 1962. His authoritarian regime ruled the country for 26 years until 1988 when people power toppled its iron-fisted rule.

Right after the popular '88 uprising, the Burma Socialist Programme Party appointed two Ne Win loyalists, Sein Lwin and scholar Dr. Maung Maung, as presidents of two successive governments. But demonstrations managed to remove both after very short tenures.

After that, the military made a comeback via a bloody coup, installing new leaders Snr-Gen Saw Maung and his predecessor Snr-Gen Than Shwe from 1988 to 2011.

In essence, the Burmese people have only had generals or ex-generals as their leaders since 1962.

The same elite institution that put these leaders in place continues to cling to power. In 2011, an ex-general, Thein Sein was picked by ex-supremo Than Shwe as chairman of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and became president of the nominally civilian government. It was widely believed that the 2010 election, in which the USDP won a victory, was rigged.

Burma, in fact, has no shortage of new faces in the political arena.

Kyaw Zwa Moe is editor (English Edition) of
the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at kyawzwa@irrawaddy.org.

Since 1988, many leading activists and politicians have emerged. Among them are Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, prominent activists such as Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi of 88 Generation Peace and Open Society and other leaders representing ethnic people across the country. But these emerging figures have more often found themselves in prison or under house arrest than in key positions in government.

Though many of them were released after Thein Sein's government started its reform process in 2011, they have very slim opportunity to become leading members of future governments, even in this new and more relaxed political atmosphere.

To give a significant example, the current Constitution bars Suu Kyi from becoming president on the grounds that she was married to a foreign national. Simply, therefore, despite her popularity across the country, she has no chance to become president under this Constitution.

This provision alone shows how the ex-regime calculatedly shaped the political environment, preventing the most popular leader in the country from leading.

Though there is no such a provision in the Constitution to rule out other committed political activists, they still cannot flourish in this political landscape.

According to the Constitution, the military still enjoys crucial political privileges, such as 25 percent of Parliamentary seats for its appointees. This bloc of lawmakers, handpicked by the military's commander-in-chief, forms one of three representative groups in the Presidential Electoral College.

Burma has no direct presidential election. Instead, the Constitution reads: "The President shall be elected by the Presidential Electoral College." The other two representative groups are formed by members of Parliament's two houses. The three representative groups elect a vice president each, and the president is then selected from the three by all three groups.

It's a complicated process, but guarantees that the military can choose at least one vice president, and have significant influence in the selection of the president—not to mention the power it wields through USDP, the current majority party in Parliament.

After the 2010 election, the Presidential Electoral College chose Thein Sein, an ex-general from the USDP, Gen. Tin Aung Myint Oo from the military, Sai Mauk Kham from the USDP as the three vice presidents. Two out of three vice presidents were generals and the other was from the military-aligned party.

This pattern of choosing the president is the likely scenario for the upcoming 2015 election, too.

Apart from that, the very first chapter of the Constitution guarantees the role of the military, saying "the Defense Services to be able to participate in the National political leadership role of the State."

Under this Constitution favoring the military and in the current political atmosphere, designed by the current semi-military leadership, the Burmese people are extremely unlikely to see a new face as their leader in near future. Sadly, they are likely to continue to live under the military in disguise.

The post For Burmese, Little Hope for a Jokowi of Their Own appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Thai and Burmese Officials to Begin Talks on Repatriation

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 04:39 AM PDT

Bamboo huts with leaf roofs, built by refugees, dot the hills of Mae La Oon camp southwest of Mae Sariang in northern Thailand. (Photo: Dieter Telemans / TBC)

Bamboo huts with leaf roofs, built by refugees, dot the hills of Mae La Oon camp southwest of Mae Sariang in northern Thailand. (Photo: Dieter Telemans / TBC)

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Thai and Burmese authorities will begin talks soon over plans for the repatriation of Burmese refugees, but the UN refugee agency cautions that many obstacles remain to their safe return home, including land mines and the possibility of further conflict.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said conditions in southeastern Burma, where most of the Burmese refugees in Thailand camps come from, are not conducive to an organized repatriation at this time.

"There are still challenges on the ground, including the absence of a permanent ceasefire, the presence of unmarked mine fields and the lack of critical infrastructure, services and livelihood opportunities," she told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

Thai and Burmese authorities will meet to discuss repatriation from Aug. 1-3 in Mergui, in southern Burma. The meeting will be attended by Lt-Gen Preecha Chan-ocha, co-chairman of the Thai-Burma Regional Border Committee, according to a recent report by the Bangkok Post newspaper, which cited a Thai army source.

"Lt-Gen Preecha will inspect progress of a port construction project in Mergui and discuss preparations to relocate about 130,000 Burmese refugees," the newspaper reported.

The army source added that the Thai junta's policy is to "send back all of them [the refugees] and close down all nine camps to end chronic security problems posed by the refugees."

Sally Thompson, executive director of The Border Consortium (TBC), a humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to the refugees, said her organization did not expect to be invited to the bilateral meeting between Thai and Burmese authorities.

"We understand that discussions between Thai and Burmese authorities have been in general terms, but we are not aware of any specific plans or time frame [for repatriation]. Currently all sides agree that return should be according to international principles," she told The Irrawaddy.

Tan also said the UNHCR would not attend the bilateral talks between Thai and Burmese authorities. However, she said the UNHCR's position on voluntary repatriation was in line with that of both governments, which she said had reaffirmed their commitment for a safe return of refugees in accordance with humanitarian and human rights principles.

"In short, all parties agree that any refugee returns to Burma must be voluntary and be conducted in safety and dignity," she said.

According to the Bangkok Post, Thailand has divided the refugees into three categories: refugees who want to return home, those who wish to resettle in a third country, and those who were born in refugee camps on Thai soil and wish to remain in Thailand.

Eligible refugees who have UNHCR registration documents and do not want to return to Burma can still apply for individual resettlement in a third country, but the process will take longer, according to Thompson.

Tan said registered refugees in the camps—especially those with specific protection concerns or vulnerabilities—can approach the UNHCR to express their interest in resettlement to a third country, or they can be identified as candidates for this by the UNHCR and its partners.

"That has always been the case. We submit their cases to the resettlement countries for consideration, and at the end of the day it is the resettlement countries that decide whether or not to accept these individuals," she said.

"The US, Canada and Australia have not stopped resettling Myanmar [Burmese] refugees from Thailand's border camps, but continue to accept Burmese refugees from Thailand on an individual basis. Vulnerable refugees can still access resettlement to Australia, Canada and the US and be considered on an individual basis," she added.

However, the US group resettlement program, which featured a simplified procedure to process Burma refugees, came to an end in January, she said.

The UNHCR spokesperson said there had been no agreement about what will happen to refugees who are unable or unwilling to repatriate or resettle in a third country.

According to TBC, the current policy of Thailand does not allow refugees to work outside the camps and there are no indications that local integration will be offered as a long-term solution.

The post Thai and Burmese Officials to Begin Talks on Repatriation appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Ethnic MPs Skip Lower House Vote on PR Voting System

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 04:32 AM PDT

A session of the Upper House of Parliament in Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

A session of the Upper House of Parliament in Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

About 20 ethnic party lawmakers skipped a Lower House session to protest against further discussions on a proposal to introduce a proportional representation (PR) electoral system in Burma.

During the session, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) MPs, military lawmakers and several small parties cast 312 votes in favor of further discussions on a proposal to switch from the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system to a PR system.

Several ethnic lawmakers and members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) cast a total of 42 votes against further discussions.

Nang Wah Nu, a lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities Development Party (SNDP), said 20 MPs belonging to an alliance of ethnic parties declined to attend Thursday's session. "We showed our stand as the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation," she said.

Since June, the opposition, comprising the NLD and some 20 ethnic parties, has been trying to fight off attempts by the USDP and a small party, the National Democratic Force, to change the electoral system.

Under a PR system, the number of seats won by each party is proportionate to the number of votes received. Under the current FPTP system, the winning lawmaker in each constituency takes a seat in Parliament.

Ethnic parties worry they will not fare well under a PR system. Under the current system, ethnic parties can count on winning seats in constituencies of ethnic minority states. The NLD opposes the change because they said the Burmese public would not understand that they could no longer vote directly for a representative and that the system would thus complicate the 2015 elections.

Last month, a majority of lawmakers in the Upper House of Parliament voted to study a possible switch from the FPTP system, which benefits dominant parties, to a PR system, which tends to benefit smaller parties. An Upper House committee has begun drafting a proposal for a PR system that would suit Burma.

Ba Shein, a lawmaker of the Arakan National Party, said he opposed the PR system but attended the Lower House session in order to raise his objections, adding, "We already knew that we will lose when the votes are casted."

Ba Shein said he thinks that the proposal should not be considered as it would violate Constitution Article 369 (a), which stipulates that citizens should have the right to directly vote for their representative.

Sandar Min, a NLD Lower House MP, said the opposition parties would continue to raise their objections over the adoption of PR system during further parliamentary discussions. "We object the PR system as it damages the ethnics' unity," she said, offering another explanation as to why Suu Kyi's party is against electoral system change.

Nang Wah Nu, of the SNDP, said USDP chairman and Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann had promised to look into the concerns of the ethnic parties.

"We have talked to the speaker [Shwe Mann] when we met with him. He promised that any PR system adopted would be tailored to be fair for ethnic parties. But we will know for sure only when the bill on the PR system comes out," she said.

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Arakan Govt Softens Stance Toward MSF

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 04:16 AM PDT

Medicine are seen in a pharmacy which also serves as a makeshift clinic at the Thae Chaung camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Arakan State, on April 22, 2014. (Photo: Minzayar / Reuters)

Medicine are seen in a pharmacy which also serves as a makeshift clinic at the Thae Chaung camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Arakan State, on April 22, 2014. (Photo: Minzayar / Reuters)

RANGOON — The Arakan State government and Burma's Ministry of Health have encouraged international humanitarian organizations—including the previously maligned Medecins Sans Frontieres—to work in the troubled state, where 140,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in increasingly dire conditions after interreligious violence broke out more than two years ago.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement printed in state media on Thursday that the assistance of international organizations would contribute to the stability and development of Arakan State.

The Arakan State government said in the statement that "our government would like to invite all organizations, as well as other UN agencies and including MSF, to participate in implementing the Rakhine Action Plan effectively at Union and state levels," referring to a recently issued plan that covers development in the health and education sectors of Burma's second-poorest state.

The statements mark a notable improvement in at least the public stance of state and Union-level officials toward MSF, which faced a barrage of government criticism earlier this year and has been barred from operating in Arakan State.

Members of Arakan State's Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) met with diplomats, UN agencies, international nongovernmental organizations, state government officials, civil society organizations and representatives from the Myanmar Peace Center in late June. The meeting addressed how to improve humanitarian aid delivery and relief efforts, with the parties also agreeing to put an emphasis on development issues impacting the state.

The ECC, comprised of government officials and civil society leaders, was set up in March to oversee aid operations in the state.

Win Myaing, the Arakan State government spokesman, said he had not read the statement yet and did not know anything about it, declining to provide comment on those grounds.

Than Tun, who is a member of the ECC and a community leader in Sittwe, said MSF would need to win the hearts and minds of the state's majority ethnic Arakanese population if it wanted to resume operations there.

"Arakan people did not like MSF. To let it come back, this depends only on our people," he said, adding that the Arakanese would welcome any organizations working in the region, but only if they provided humanitarian aid in an impartial way.

"There will be no problems coming here if they have transparency and no bias in offering aid. This depends on those organizations," Than Tun said.

Accusations of bias have hounded MSF, which maintains that it provides its services based solely on medical need in a state where the vast majority of the displaced populations are Rohingya Muslims.

The Burmese government kicked MSF out of Arakan State in February after the aid group said it had treated patients wounded in a massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Maungdaw Township's Du Chee Yar Tan village.

The government has denied that any attack took place.

After MSF's aid operations in the state ceased, the Ministry of Health said it had stepped up its delivery of medical services, but frequent reports since then of the deteriorating health situation in the IDP camps suggest the government's efforts have failed to plug the hole left by the MSF pull out.

In an email to The Irrawaddy, MSF responded positively to the government's apparently softened stance toward the organization.

"MSF welcomes the Myanmar Government's announcement today that the organization will be invited to resume medical humanitarian operations in Rakhine [Arakan] State," the group said. "We look forward to continuing constructive discussions with the Ministry of Health regarding how MSF can support the ministry in the immediate expansion of life-saving medical activities for the people of Rakhine currently facing a humanitarian crisis."

Despite Thursday's state media missive, MSF remains officially banned from operating in the state.

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Information on Responsible Business Practices Largely Absent: Survey

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 03:04 AM PDT

An Air KBZ plane refuels at Rangoon International Airport. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

An Air KBZ plane refuels at Rangoon International Airport. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

Most Burmese companies provide little to no information on whether they have policies on responsible business practices, a survey among 60 major firms has found, and almost half did not even have a website with general information about their activities.

A report by the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, released on Tuesday, surveyed how much information companies posted on their websites on their human rights, health, safety and environment safeguards, organizational transparency and anti-corruption efforts.

The Rangoon-based, donor-funded center found that only nine firms had made information on policies, standards and practices in all three fields publicly available. Most other company websites provided information on only one of the categories, while 25 companies did not even have a website.

The information that was provided often dealt with the companies' organizational structure.

"Companies scored fewest points in the areas of human rights, including land acquisition, and [health, safety and environment], where the center was seeking evidence both of policy approaches and information about their implementation, given that these issues are of significant concern to the Myanmar people," the center said in a press release.

During the past decades of military rule, Burmese firms often gained business concessions through secretive deals cut with the regime. Corruption was rife and firms plundered Burma's natural resources, often through projects with heavy social and environmental impacts.

The ranked companies were given points on the availability of information in each of the three fields and gained a combined score of 1 to 10. The highest score was given to KBZ (Kanbawza) Group with 6.6 points, followed by Parami Energy Group of Companies with 6.58, and Max Myanmar Group with 5.8.

KBZ conglomerate is owned by tycoon Aung Ko Win and has interests in banking, insurance and airlines. The KBZ owner is also known to have had large mining interests. Parami Group is led by CEO Ken Tun and is a service provider in Burma's growing oil and gas sector.

Max Myanmar conglomerate is owned by tycoon Zaw Zaw, who has a range of business interests, including in hotels, banking, cement and construction. His group of companies remains on a US sanctions blacklist because of past connections with the former junta.

"A surprisingly large number of companies surveyed scored zero overall," the center said. "Generally because despite their size and activities in a number of sectors of significant public interest, such as hydropower, agriculture, mining, tourism and tobacco/beverages, they did not have a group website or corporate websites for the major subsidiaries."

Major companies without a website include Eden, IGE, Ruby Dragon, Shwe Thanlwin, Yuzana, Zaykaba, and the two military-owned conglomerates, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).

"This is a study of what information companies publish, and not an assessment of their actual performance in these areas," Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, said of the survey, which was based on methodology of Transparency International's research into 100 of the world's biggest companies.

"We therefore want to encourage the local media and Myanmar civil society groups to study the public commitments that these companies have made, and hold them to account to deliver on them."

The survey will be repeated in 2015.

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Burma’s Leading Private Banks to Raise Saving Rates

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:58 AM PDT

A stack of 1,000 kyat banknotes is seen, as employees count money at Yoma Bank in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

A stack of 1,000 kyat banknotes is seen, as employees count money at Yoma Bank in Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Some of Burma's leading private banks are set to raise interest rates on savings accounts in the hope of attracting new savers, according to Bankers.

Four of the country's 20 private banks—Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank, Asia Green Development Bank, CB Bank and Myanmar Apex Bank—are said to be planning to set rates for savings deposits at 8.25 percent from Aug. 1, up from 8 percent.

Burma's Central Bank permits banks to offer up to 10 percent interest to savers, and fixed deposit accounts already yield 10 percent.

The four banks, which are among the largest in the market, are looking to draw in new customers in a growing economy where few people currently save with formal financial institutions. A recent UN-led survey of access to finance found that only 4 percent of people in Burma have savings accounts at a bank.

Than Lwin, the vice chairman of Kanbawza Bank, said the major banks were looking to attract new savers.

"The major intention is to attract our regular customers and newcomers. Actually, we can increase the interest up to 10 percent for savings deposits, but we've decided to raise it only a little amount because if we increase it too much, smaller banks will be faced with a problem in the market," Than Lwin told The Irrawaddy.

Interest rates on loans would remain at 13 percent for customers at all banks, he said.

While savers would welcome competition in the banking sector, which could usher in more favorable terms for customers, the banks are all members of the Bankers Association, and rate rises are limited by the need for broad agreement.

The country's other private banks are thought to be considering whether to follow the four large banks' 0.25 percent rate rise.

Chit Khine, chairman of the Myanmar Apex Bank, said the bank had to follow its competitors in increasing the interest rate to avoid losing customers.

"Though the increase is little, we have to remain attractive to our customers not to lose. This amount has been agreed by all bankers in the Bankers Association, which looks at all sectors. The competition in this market is very strong at the moment," he said.

Banks have been criticized for making large profits, given the gap of a full 5 percent between savings and lending interest rates. But Chit Khine said Central Bank rules around how much a bank can lend out, relative its deposits, limit how much money banks make.

"We're criticized from outside that we're taking a lot of profit between saving deposit rates and loans rates. Actually, we're only allowed to lend out 70 percent of our total savings deposits, so our service charge is really only 9.1 percent," he said.

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Wa Again Absent as Ethnic Groups Meet for Ceasefire Talks

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 02:20 AM PDT

Sai Sam, deputy commander-in-chief of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), observes peace talks between the government and Kachin rebels in Myitkyina in October 2013. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing / The Irrawaddy)

Sai Sam, deputy commander-in-chief of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), observes peace talks between the government and Kachin rebels in Myitkyina in October 2013. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Representatives from Burma's Wa and Mengla minority groups were invited but are not attending the third conference of ethnic armed groups being held in Laiza, Kachin State, at the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) this week.

The conference began on Thursday and will run through July 29, bringing together members of 12 ethnic armed groups in Burma that are members of the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) to discuss a long-sought nationwide peace agreement with the Burmese government.

Aung Myint, an information officer for the United Wa State Army (UWSA), told The Irrawaddy that his group had decided not to attend the conference because it has yet to properly study the draft nationwide ceasefire accord under consideration.

"We have studied the second draft only for a day," said Aung Myint. "We asked for the draft from ethnic armed groups, but we didn't get it. We got it from our friends just a few days ago."

The Burmese government and ethnic minority groups have reached agreement on most of the provisions of such an accord and agreed to a second draft in May, but outstanding points of contention remain.

"We are still reading it [the draft]. We haven't attended the previous meetings and have not yet studied the draft. So, we have nothing to discuss at the coming conference," Aung Myint added.

He said his group supports the conference of ethnic armed groups, despite its absence from the six-day meeting. However, he evaded a question from The Irrawaddy about the role of the UWSA in Burma's ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

"We need to study the content of the draft and should also be informed on what is embodied therein. We can't just sign it without knowing what is in it," Aung Myint said.

"We have yet to study the draft thoroughly and will accept it if we agree," he added.

NCCT member Lian Sakhong said the team is prepared to ink the final ceasefire pact after the conference, having formed a leading committee to negotiate with the government on the final draft.

"There may be some points we need to debate seriously. In this case, it is important that a leading committee is in place to make decisions," Lian Sakhong said.

"The meeting [on Thursday] will be fairly important as it will discuss how the entire conference will be held and how decisions will be made through voting," he added.

The leading committee was formed ahead of the conference and is made up of two representatives from each of the respective ethnic armed groups.

The United Nations' special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar and China's envoy on Asia Affairs Wang Yinfang will attend the conference on July 28, according to deputy chief of staff Gen. Gun Maw from the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the KIO, which is a member of the NCCT.

"The NCCT has also invited non-NCCT member groups such as the Naga, Wa, Mengla, Restoration Council of Shan State [RCSS], All Burma Students Democratic Front and United Nationalities Federal Council," said Nai Hong Sar, who chairs the NCCT.

"NCCT reps will discuss with them on 28-29 July. The RCSS replied that it would attend the conference, but the rest have not replied yet. However, I hope they will come," he said.

Attendance at the conference was expected by the 12 NCCT member groups and 22 non-NCCT member groups, though the number of non-member attendees could be fewer than 20 with the Wa and Mengla groups having pulled out and Naga representation uncertain.

The post Wa Again Absent as Ethnic Groups Meet for Ceasefire Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Culture Ministry Vows to Limit Building in Pyu Cities

Posted: 24 Jul 2014 01:23 AM PDT

A farmer tills earth beside a marker that indicates the

A farmer tills earth beside a marker that indicates the "monument zone" of the ancient Pyu city of Sri Ksetra. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON— Burma's Ministry of Culture says it will restrict construction in heritage zones to preserve the three ancient cities recently listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites and other culturally important cites in the country.

On June 22, the Unesco World Heritage Committee conferred Burma's first World Heritage listings on the ancient Pyu cities of Sri Ksetra, Halin and Beikthano, which are located in Burma's central Dry Zone and feature the walled remains of sites built by the now-extinct Pyu people from the first to ninth centuries AD.

"Within world heritage sites, the setting up of big columns is not allowed. So, new buildings and land use in the ancient Pyu cities, and in other cultural heritage regions like Bagan that are intended to go on the World Heritage list, must be restricted," Deputy Minister of Culture Than Swe told The Irrawaddy.

He said that if new construction took place in the ancient Pyu cites, they could be taken off the Unesco list.

"There are hotels, motels, guest houses, restaurants and industrial buildings, and land trading and settling and fencing going on in the restricted zones of three ancient Pyu cities and other cultural heritage regions, including Bagan and Inwa," the Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library, which is part of the Ministry of Culture, said in a notice Tuesday.

The department said that as well as threatening the Burmese sites' place on the World Heritage list, such actions are against the law, do damage to cultural heritage and ruin landscapes.

"Although it is not a problem if the ongoing constructions have permission, we will take action if they don't have permission," Than Swe said.

Under the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage Regions Law (1998), builders must apply to the Department of Archaeology before constructing or extending a building, renovating or extending the boundary of its enclosure within an ancient monumental zone (MZ), an ancient site zone (AZ) or a protected and preserved zone (PZ). There are 46 cultural heritage regions around the country.

The department must scrutinize applications and submit them to the Ministry of Culture to decide whether to grant building permission or not, the law says.

The department warned in its notice that, "we will take action against those who don't follow the law in accordance with the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage Regions Law (1998) and release notification publicly with their names."

Those who violate the law can be punished with a fine of up to 50,000 kyat, about US$50, up to five years in jail, or both, according to the law.

Moe Moe Lwin, director of the Yangon Heritage Trust, a group campaigning for the preservation of heritage, said the ground beneath Burma's ancient cities likely held many secrets that archaeologists have yet to unearth.

"There are also many things that remain to be found out about Pyu culture in the ancient cities of Pyu. These must be protected so they don't disappear," she said, adding that effective enforcement of the law and public education and participation were needed.

The post Burma's Culture Ministry Vows to Limit Building in Pyu Cities appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Seeking Independence, Opium Eradication in Palaung Territory

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 05:30 PM PDT

A boy stands below a signpost that bears the TNLA's warning in the Palaung language:

A boy stands below a signpost that bears the TNLA's warning in the Palaung language: "Opium and drug use and selling are strictly prohibited in the Ta'ang area." (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

KYAUK MAE DISTRICT, Northern Shan State — In the ethnic Palaung area in northern Shan State, speaking Burmese can generate suspicion among local people, who are distrustful due to their ongoing conflict with the Burmese military.

"For people here, Burmese is the language used by the Burmese army. So they are really afraid if they hear someone speaking in the language," one local villager explained to me after I had convinced him that I had nothing to do with the army.

The Palaung, who call themselves Ta'ang, are a hill tribe mostly living in northern Shan State. They have waged an armed struggle against the Burmese government since 1963.

After the Palaung State Liberation Organization signed a ceasefire with the former military government in 1991 and disarmed in 2005, another Palaung army known as the Ta'ang National Liberation Army
(TNLA) was established by the Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF) to continue the fight for equality and self-determination.

Burma's central government has angered the group by listing Palaung as a sub-group of the

Shan nationality.

"We are not Shan. That's why we take up armed struggle to be recognized as an independent race," said Tar Parn La, deputy spokesman for the TNLA.

During years of conflict, the Palaung region has become an economic and social backwater.

Villages are connected only by red dirt roads that turn to mud when the rains come. Teachers at schools are heavily outnumbered by students. There's no electricity. Government hospitals are unheard of. Villagers rely on nurses employed by the community. Villagers earn their living from farming and growing tea.

Migration is rampant, too. I only witnessed children and old people in most of the villages.

"Some join TNLA, while others go to China or Thailand or Rangoon for jobs," an elder explained.

Opium is another challenge in the area. Most of the men are addicted to it, and eradicating of the drug is one of the main stated goals of the TNLA, which has a target to rid the area of poppies by 2017, according to Tar Parn La.

"To be recognized as an independent race and the eradication of opium in the area are our priorities," he said.

The post Seeking Independence, Opium Eradication in Palaung Territory appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US Hails Indonesia Democracy in Turbulent Southeast Asia

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 10:07 PM PDT

Indonesia's presidential candidate Joko

Indonesia's presidential candidate Joko "Jokowi" Widodo gestures to supporters a day after he was named winner in the presidential election in Taman Proklamasi, Jakarta July 23, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's quick congratulation of Indonesia's election victor Joko Widodo on Wednesday, even as the losing candidate rejected the result, underscores Washington's intent to deepen ties with Jakarta and support democracy in Southeast Asia.

A peaceful transfer of power in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, would go against a worrying trend in the region of flawed elections and military meddling.

Over the past year, there have been disputed elections in Malaysia and Cambodia, where this week the opposition agreed to end a parliamentary boycott. Thailand, once an example of democratic progress, is facing its most repressive period of military rule in decades. Authoritarian governments prevail in Laos and Vietnam, and reforms seem to be stalling in former pariah state Burma.

Political change has been comparatively smooth in Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, over the past decade and a half. Widodo's emergence appears to reflect how far the country has come since popular protests ended the 30-year rule of former dictator Suharto in 1998.

Widodo, the 53-year-old Jakarta governor, was the first candidate in a direct presidential election without ties to Suharto. He won by 8 million votes, or 6 percent, over Prabowo Subianto, a former general and son-in-law of the late dictator. Political uncertainties remain, however, as Subianto announced Wednesday he plans to file a legal challenge in the nation's highest court.

Election observers have reported few abnormalities, and the US, whose embassy witnessed vote counting, is confident it was a credible process.

Top US diplomat John Kerry congratulated Widodo soon after Tuesday's official result, and hours later, Obama called the president-elect. He pointedly stated, according to a White House statement issued Wednesday, that "through this free and fair election, the people of Indonesia have once again shown their commitment to democracy."

Working with current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has served since 2004 and will cede power Oct. 20, Obama has cultivated a stronger US relationship with Indonesia as part of his administration's effort to "rebalance" American foreign policy toward Asia. Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a child, visited the country twice during his first term.

The two nations declared a comprehensive partnership in 2010 and cooperate on areas including health, environment, education and regional diplomacy. Washington has encouraged Indonesia's de facto leadership of Southeast Asia's regional bloc as it strives for economic integration and to cope with the rise of increasingly assertive China.

Indonesia has sought to keep a strategic balance between the US and China, and that's likely to continue under Widodo, although he's given few clues about foreign policy, a field where he has scant experience. His first opportunity to meet Obama is likely to be at the East Asia Summit to be held in Burma in November.

The former furniture exporter, who won over Indonesians with his homespun style, has little experience on the national stage but enjoys a reputation for efficient leadership. He will have to govern a vast archipelago of 240 million people. Economic growth has slowed over the past two years. The rising cost of fuel subsidies has forced cuts in state spending, and infrastructure is in a poor state.

Despite Indonesia's emergence as a democracy, corruption is chronic. Indonesia ranked 114th out of 177 countries on Transparency International's 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index.

US officials are concerned over obstacles to foreign investment and mounting resource nationalism that has resulted in new regulations limiting foreign investment in mining and oil and gas extraction.

And despite Indonesia's reputation for moderate Islam and success in counterterrorism, the US is concerned over the government's failure to prevent persecution of religious minorities, such as Christians, minority Shiite Muslims and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect.

But the Widodo victory takes at least one sensitive issue off the agenda, Prabowo's human rights record, said Doug Paal, who served as White House director of Asian affairs under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Prabowo, a former commander of Indonesia's notorious special forces, has been accused of ordering the disappearance of political activists before Suharto's fall, allegations that reportedly led to him being denied a US visa.

"That's a plus from the start with Jokowi," said Paal, referring to Widodo's nickname. "There's no legacy to detoxify."

The post US Hails Indonesia Democracy in Turbulent Southeast Asia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Dutch Mourn as First MH17 Bodies Arrive in Netherlands

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 09:57 PM PDT

People pay their respects during a national day of mourning for the victims killed in Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane disaster, in Amsterdam on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters) 

People pay their respects during a national day of mourning for the victims killed in Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane disaster, in Amsterdam on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — The bodies of the first victims from a Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine last week arrived on Wednesday at a military base in the Netherlands—a nation in shock and sorrow.

Bells pealed and flags flew at half-mast in memory of the 298 people killed when flight MH17 came down in an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, in the first national day of mourning since wartime Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962.

King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined dignitaries on the tarmac as two military aircraft carrying 40 plain wooden coffins landed at Eindhoven in the southern Netherlands.

A military guard of honor stood to attention as a trumpeter played The Last Post, the military funeral call for people killed in war.

After a minute's silence—observed in stations, factories, offices and streets across the nation—servicemen from all four branches of the Dutch military boarded the Dutch Hercules C-130 and Australian Boeing C-17 to carry the coffins to 40 waiting hearses lined up on the runway.

Relatives of some of the victims were present at the airport but were shielded from the media glare, officials said.

Thousands of people lined the 100 km (62 mile) route, watching from motorway bridges as the cortege traveled from Eindhoven to the military base at Hilversum where the bodies will remain until they can be identified, a task that could take months.

As the cortege passed, drivers spontaneously stopped their cars and watched silently from the side of the motorway. Some clapped in tribute, others threw flowers on the hearses.

The process will be repeated many times over coming days as the bodies of all the victims are brought home.

Amid US accusations that the rebels shot the civilian plane down in error with a Russian-supplied missile, an opinion poll showed an overwhelming majority of the Dutch want sanctions imposed on Moscow, even if it hurts their own economy.

The Netherlands has disproportionately large trade and financial flows with Moscow due to its position as an oil and commodities trading hub and an offshore base for companies.

Tolling Bells

Church bells tolled as the planes carrying the remains arrived from Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, shortly before 4 pm (1400 GMT), and windmills around the low-lying coastal nation had been set in a mourning position—with the topmost sail fixed counter-clockwise from the vertical.

The remains of an unknown number of victims were transported in refrigerated rail carriages from the rebel-held part of Ukraine on Tuesday. Rutte has said that while some of the bodies may be identified immediately, it may take weeks or even months to complete the task.

With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said almost every family in the country of 15 million knew someone who had been killed or their relatives.

"Think of all the people who were flying away on holiday, all the young people who had just finished their final school exams," said Jikkie van der Giessen from Amsterdam.

"They were looking fully toward the future and then you're shot down. Whether it was an accident or on purpose, the fact is it's horrible," she said.

Many of the passengers on the flight to Kuala Lumpur were tourists, but at least six were AIDS experts on their way to a conference in Melbourne, Australia, on the deadly disease.

Representatives of the many countries whose citizens died in the crash were present at the airfield, including the governor-general of Australia, Peter Cosgrove. Their flags lined the airfield at half-mast on a cloudless day.

Trains came to a stop as the country observed a minute's silence. No planes took off or landed at Schiphol Airport, from which the Malaysia Airlines flight departed, for 13 minutes around the time the bodies landed.

At Schiphol, airline and airport officials gathered in silence before a vast sea of flowers that has been swelling in front of the terminal building in the days since the crash, as travelers flying from the airport left their own tributes.

People gathered in front of the Royal Palace on Amsterdam's central Dam square on Wednesday evening in a silent tribute.

With so many of their countrymen dead, the Dutch have been taking a leading role in the international effort to recover and identify the bodies and investigate the cause of the crash.

Dutch authorities are leading the investigation, with extensive help from other countries.

The plane's black box flight recorders, handed over by the rebels' leader, were flown from Ukraine on a Belgian military aircraft on Tuesday to Britain, where a team of experts examined the Cockpit Voice Recorder on Wednesday, finding no evidence that it has been tampered with.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was unclear how many bodies had been transported to Kharkiv and how may have been left behind at the crash site.

Rutte, thrust into an unaccustomed spotlight, said on Tuesday the disaster had fundamentally changed the way the Dutch view Russia, urging the European Union to unite behind a firm approach to force Moscow to cooperate with the investigation.

He has spoken almost daily with US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other European leaders to coordinate the return of the bodies and discuss the investigation and the consequences.

With US intelligence pointing to the aircraft having been shot down accidentally by the Moscow-backed separatists, the Dutch mood of sorrow is now mixed with indignation.

The loss of life has few parallels in recent Dutch history. More than 200 Dutch citizens died in the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, in which two fully loaded Boeing 747s collided on the ground killing 583 in the world's worst civil aviation disaster.

The worst post-war disaster in the Netherlands occurred in 1953, when the North Sea flooded low-lying eastern areas one stormy night, sweeping over dikes to take more than 1,800 lives.

Additional reporting by Lucien Libert of Reuters.

The post Dutch Mourn as First MH17 Bodies Arrive in Netherlands appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Relatives Fly to Taiwan Plane Crash Site, 48 Dead

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 09:48 PM PDT

Rescue personnel survey the wreckage of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 on Taiwan's offshore island of Penghu, on Wednesday night. (Photo: Reuters)

Rescue personnel survey the wreckage of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 on Taiwan’s offshore island of Penghu, on Wednesday night. (Photo: Reuters)

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Family members of victims of a plane crash were flying Thursday to the small Taiwanese island where the plane had unsuccessfully attempted to land in stormy weather, killing 48 people. There were 10 survivors.

The ATR-72 operated by Taiwan's TransAsia Airways was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it crashed into a residential neighborhood on Penghu in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China late Wednesday, authorities said. The plane was on a flight from the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.

Two people aboard the plane were French citizens and the rest Taiwanese, Transport Minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters. The government's Central News Agency identified the French passengers Thursday as Jeromine Deramond and Penelope Luternauer.

The airline said one of the injured 10 survivors had gone home, and that five local residents had been hurt on the ground but they were also treated and released.

The twin-engine turboprop crashed while making a second landing attempt, Yeh said.

The news agency quoted a TransAsia Airways statement as saying family members had taken a charter flight on Thursday morning to Magong airport, near where the crash happened.

The crash of Flight GE222 was Taiwan's first fatal air accident in 12 years and came after Typhoon Matmo passed across the island, causing heavy rains that continued into Wednesday night. About 200 airline flights had been canceled earlier in the day due to rain and strong winds.

The official death toll was 48, according to Wen Chia-hung, spokesman for the Penghu disaster response center. He said the 10 other people were injured.

President Ma Ying-jeou called it "a very sad day in the history of Taiwanese aviation," according to a spokesman for his office, Ma Wei-kuo, the Central News Agency reported. The agency said the plane's captain had 22 years of flying experience and the co-pilot had 2-1/2 years. The airline was offering the family of each victim about $6,600 and paying another $27,000 for funeral expenses, the agency reported.

The plane came down in the village of Xixi outside the airport. Television stations showed rescue workers pulling bodies from the wreckage. Photos in local media showed firefighters using flashlights to look through the wreckage and buildings damaged by debris.

Penghu, a scenic chain of 64 islets, is a popular tourist site about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

Residents said they heard thunder and then what sounded like an explosion, the news agency said. It cited the Central Weather Bureau as saying there were thunderstorms in the area.

"I heard a loud bang," a local resident was quoted as saying by television station TVBS. "I thought it was thunder, and then I heard another bang and I saw a fireball not far away from my house."

The flight left Kaohsiung at 4:53 p.m. for Magong on Penghu, according to the head of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, Jean Shen. The plane lost contact with the tower at 7:06 p.m. after saying it would make a second landing attempt.

Visibility as the plane approached was 1,600 meters (one mile), which met standards for landing, and two flights had landed before GE222, one at 5:34 pm and the other at 6:57 pm, the aviation agency reported. Shen said the plane was 14 years old.

The Central News Agency, citing the county fire department, said it appeared heavy rain reduced visibility and the pilot was forced to pull up and attempt a second landing.

The Central Weather Bureau had warned of heavy rain Wednesday evening, even after the center of the storm had moved west to mainland China.

In Taipei, TransAsia Airways' general manager, Hsu Yi-Tsung, bowed deeply before reporters and tearfully apologized for the accident, the news agency said.

"As TransAsia is responsible for this matter, we apologize. We apologize," Hsu said.

Taiwan's last major aviation disaster was also near Penghu. In 2002, a China Airlines Boeing 747 broke apart in midair and crashed into the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 people aboard.

Associated Press writers Gillian Wong, Joe McDonald and Louise Watt in Beijing and Johnson Lai in Taipei contributed to this report.

The post Relatives Fly to Taiwan Plane Crash Site, 48 Dead appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Conditions in Burma Not Right for Refugee Repatriation: UN

Posted: 23 Jul 2014 05:00 PM PDT

Ban Mai Nai Soi, in Thailand's northwestern province of Mae Hong Son, is the biggest refugee camp in Thailand. (Photo: Echo Hui / The Irrawaddy)

Ban Mai Nai Soi, in Thailand's northwestern province of Mae Hong Son, is the biggest refugee camp in Thailand. (Photo: Echo Hui / The Irrawaddy)

BANGKOK — Conditions in Burma are not yet right for refugees living in camps near the border to return home, the U.N. said on Wednesday as concerns mount after the Thai military government pledged to repatriate them.

"There's been a lot of positive developments (in Myanmar) in the last two and a half years or so but… we don't feel that the conditions are fully in place for organized refugee return," Vivian Tan, Bangkok-based spokesperson for UNHCR, told Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Challenges include the absence of a permanent ceasefire in eastern Burma, land mines and unmarked minefields, and a lack of infrastructure, basic services and jobs, she said.

"All of this affects the sustainability and safety of any refugee return."

After the Thai military on Monday launched a refugee headcount in Mae La – the largest of nine camps along the border – refugees told Thomson Reuters Foundation that they fear being forcibly returned to Burma.

However, the Thai junta has reassured aid groups, including UNHCR, that the return would be voluntary and no timeframe has been set.

"We spoke to the Thai government, and they clarified that the policy remains the same [as before], that any returns to Myanmar must be voluntary, must be dignified and safe," Tan said.

"[The refugees] fled a terrible situation back home and of course they have trust issues and they're suspicious of the different actors involved," she said.

"We as humanitarian actors have to try our best to try and provide whatever information we can in an objective way. I think that's the best way we can try manage their anxiety."

There are approximately 120,000 Burmese refugees living in Thailand. The first waves poured across the border three decades ago after the Burmese military launched attacks against ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Burma near the Thai border.

The post Conditions in Burma Not Right for Refugee Repatriation: UN appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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