The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Spirits, Prayers Mark Hunt for Burma’s Lost Bell
• $17m Ecstasy Haul Is Burma’s Biggest-Ever Drug Bust: Police
• Britain Will Boost Aid to Burma by More Than a Third
• Burma’s Financial Intelligence Unit Probed Ne Win Family’s Investment
• Suu Kyi Asks Artists to Expose How Reforms Have Stalled
• Rangoon Expansion Plan Criticized for Poor Transparency
• Floods Displace Over 1,000 People in Hpakant
• Ladies With Drive
• Encouraging Diners to Savor Rangoon’s Flavors
• India, Pakistan Intensify Cross-Border Firing as Ties Sour
• China Targets Ordinary Uighurs With Beards, Burkas
• Interpol Seeks Clues to Thai ‘Baby Factory’

Spirits, Prayers Mark Hunt for Burma’s Lost Bell Posted: 25 Aug 2014 05:21 AM PDT Dredgers operate as part of a salvage team attempting to retrieve the Great Bell of Dhammazedi from the Rangoon River on Tuesday. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Divers stand on the edge of a small wooden fishing boat gazing at the murky, choppy waters below. After receiving blessings from Buddhist monks, they lower their masks and plunge one-by-one into the mighty Rangoon River, clinging to garden hoses that will act as primitive breathing devices during their dizzying descent into darkness. From the shoreline, thousands of spectators look on, some peering through borrowed binoculars, praying the men will find what other salvage crews have not: The world's largest copper bell, believed to have been lying deep beneath the riverbed for more than four centuries. Weighing an estimated 270 tons, the mysterious bell is a symbol of pride for many in this country of 60 million that only recently emerged from a half-century of military rule and self-imposed isolation. And for the first time, search crews are largely relying on spirituality rather than science to try and find it. Burma's superstitious leaders have, in years past, been part of a colorful cast of characters who believe reclaiming the treasure is important if the nation is ever to regain its position of glory as the crown jewel of Asia. It's a story of myth and mystery: King Dhammazedi, after whom the bell was named, was said to have ordered it cast in the late 15th century, donating it soon after to the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's most sacred temple which sits on a hilltop in the old capital, Rangoon. The bell remained there for more than 130 years, when it was reportedly stolen by Portuguese mercenary Philip de Brito, who wanted to take it across the river so it could be melted down and turned into cannons for his ships. With tremendous difficulty, his men rolled the massive bell down a hill and transferred it to a rickety vessel, which sank under the weight at the convergence of the Rangoon and Pegu rivers and the Pazundaung Creek. The bell never reached its destination of Thanlyin, then called Syriam, which was part of Mon Kingdom and subsequently became a port of the Portuguese and French in the 16th century. Most people in Burma believe the bell is still lying deep beneath the riverbed, buried under layers of silt. But numerous efforts to locate it with the help of sonar imaging and other high-tech equipment have failed, and some historians now question whether it even exists. The latest operation—which is expected to last up to 45 days and cost $250,000 raised through donations—is being headed by a former naval official, San Lin, who believes the copper treasure is protected by a curse. When he told reporters at a press conference in July that he was one of the reincarnations of the 14 guardians of the bell and could speak to the spirits of those who have blocked past retrieval efforts, many local reporters laughed, ignoring the story altogether. But accounts of the extravagant recovery efforts have since captured imaginations—the prayers, the offerings to "nats," or spirits, the vegetarian diets adopted by the diving team in deference to Buddhist principles. Now, the stories grace the local papers' front pages. And thanks to social media, unsubstantiated rumors that the bell has been spotted have sent thousands of curious spectators flocking to the banks of the Rangoon River. For small boat owners, shuttling passengers to within a few meters (yards) of the divers' boats has become a brisk business, with dozens of wooden, canoe-like vessels lining the rocky banks. On shore, men and women charge 200 kyat (20 cents) for photocopied pamphlets describing the bell and its remarkable history. Food and drink stalls have popped up. "We came because, as Buddhist people, we are responsible to pray for the bell to get it back to its original place," said Tin May, 43, dressed in her finest pagoda-wear: a traditional longyi, or sarong, and a crisp, white blouse. "I don't live far from here. But I keep getting calls from relatives living in the countryside asking for the latest news. Finally, I decided I better get a firsthand look." Chit San Win, a historian who has taken part in several of the searches in the last two decades, wants to believe the story of the bell. But as divers plunge into the water, some of them resurfacing within minutes because the currents are so strong, he's starting to have his doubts. Three major historical records written about that period do not mention the bell, Win said, and King Dhammazedi, who carefully recorded all his donations, did not document gifting a bell that would have weighed more than 100 Asian elephants. The only record Win has found that mentions the bell was written by an Italian merchant, Gasparo Balbi, who came to Burma in the 16th century and wrote that he saw it. And as for the new supernatural search technique? Win has little faith. "The bell cannot be located with the help of astrology or spirits," he said. "It is just like consulting an astrologer to find a lost cow who would ask you to look for it in all four directions." The post Spirits, Prayers Mark Hunt for Burma's Lost Bell appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

$17m Ecstasy Haul Is Burma’s Biggest-Ever Drug Bust: Police Posted: 25 Aug 2014 05:14 AM PDT Ecstasy pills are pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. (Photo: Reuters / U.S. DEA) RANGOON — Burmese authorities off the coast of Tenasserim Division say they have seized nearly 2.4 million Ecstasy pills valued at more than US$17 million, the largest drug bust in Burma's history. Border guard police officers intercepted the Ecstasy-laden boat at around 4 pm on Aug. 19, according to Police Brig-Gen Kyaw Win, as the ship was headed to Malaysia from Kawthaung, the southernmost port town in Burma. Police said they believed Burma was being used as a transit point for the drugs, which were destined for Malaysia and eventually the United States. "The name of the drug is Ecstasy. It amounted to 2.385 million tablets," Kyaw Win told The Irrawaddy. "There are two kinds of logos on the Ecstasy. One is Nike, and the other is RM." Police seized 297 bags of the "Nike" branded pills and 180 bags of the "RM" variety, with each bag containing 5,000 Ecstasy tablets, according to Kyaw Win, who serves on the Ministry of Home Affairs' Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control. All 15 men who were onboard the boat have been detained. Police calculated the total value of the seizure at nearly 16.7 billion kyats, equivalent to about $17.2 million. However, Kyaw Win also said the value per pill was 70,000 kyats, which, if accurate, would put the total drug haul at 167 billion kyats. Pressed by The Irrawaddy to clarify the discrepancy, Kyaw Win insisted that the numbers provided by police were correct. Kyaw Win claimed the Ecstasy was not produced in Burma, though he did not indicate where authorities suspected the pills originated from, and said the investigation was ongoing. "We are still investigating them [the 15 men] in Kawthaung," he said. "We are checking who allowed them to travel on this boat, and who else belongs to this illegal drug syndicate. "They were heading to Malaysia. They were to land at a Penang Island harbor, according to a tip we received," he said, adding that 90 tons of illegal timber was also found on the boat. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last week hailed the signing of a "landmark" agreement to cooperate with Burma's government to "strengthen the rule law and address significant crime and drug issues," while also warning that the illicit narcotics trade in Burma posed a domestic and transnational threat. Burma is Southeast Asia's largest producer of synthetic drugs, according to the UNODC. The post $17m Ecstasy Haul Is Burma's Biggest-Ever Drug Bust: Police appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Britain Will Boost Aid to Burma by More Than a Third Posted: 25 Aug 2014 05:07 AM PDT UK Department for International Development (DFID) Minister Desmond Swayne (left) visits a social enterprise in Rangoon's Hlaing Tharyar Township where handbags are made. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Britain's newly appointed international development minister said on Monday that the United Kingdom will increase its development aid to Burma by more than a third in the next fiscal year. Minister of State at the Department for International Development (DFID) Desmond Swayne is visiting Burma for the first time after his appointment last month, and told reporters in Rangoon that the former colonial power would be increasing its aid to Burma to US$136 million. Britain, which has embraced the reformist government of President Thein Sein, has already doubled its aid to Burma from $50 million in 2013-14 to $100 million for the current fiscal year. "We are increasing the budget because we believe this is a very important time for your country, and there are great opportunities to be had here, and that's why we're very keen to be able to assist more," Desmond Swayne said. Swayne is visiting the country from Monday to Wednesday this week, spending one day in Rangoon before traveling to Kachin State, where he will visit a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by fighting between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army, according to Gavin McFillivray, head of DFID's Burma office. "Minister will be visiting an agricultural project by the LIFT project, and he is going to an IDP camp and a voter registration pilot project for the general election in Myitkyina tomorrow," he said. Swayne will also meet with Health Minister Than Aung and President's Office Minister Soe Thane in Naypyidaw and pay a visit to Burma's Parliament. During his stay in the former capital, Swayne met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and visited a social enterprise making handbags in Hlaing Tharyar Township that received a microfinance loan from World Vision, which DFID funds. He also visited a reproductive health clinic in Shwe Pyi Tha Township run by Marie Stopes International with funding from DFID, "It’s a very impressive setup," Swayne said of the clinic. "I’m very interested to see that it's a free service and that there are satisfied customers. "Certainly our intention is to see an extension of health care services available to a large element of the population, that's certainly one of our objectives." Marie Stopes has opened four clinics in Rangoon since 2009, and DFID has pledged more than $5 million of funding to the project from 2011 to 2016. The post Britain Will Boost Aid to Burma by More Than a Third appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Financial Intelligence Unit Probed Ne Win Family’s Investment Posted: 25 Aug 2014 05:01 AM PDT Bank staff in Rangoon count piles of Burmese kyat. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has investigated an investment in one of the country's biggest banks by the grandson of the late dictator Gen. Ne Win, according to a senior official, who declined to disclose the results of the probe. Last month a 1.5 percent stake in Asia Green Development (AGD) Bank was transferred to Kyaw Ne Win in a purchase thought to be worth more than US$555,000. The bank's founder, Tay Za, has said he is looking to offload more of the bank, likely to the Ne Win family, due to difficulties resulting from his blacklisting by the US Treasury. Police Colonel Kyaw Win Thein, the FIU's deputy chief, told media last week that the unit had assessed the investment before it became public knowledge in July. He refused to say if the investigation turned up anything, but the transaction was allowed to go ahead. "The investigation has now finished but we can't publicly disclose it," Kyaw Win Thein told reporters at a meeting on Thursday on anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism in Rangoon. The FIU deputy chief did not say why the transaction was investigated, but news of the share transfer raised questions over whether the Ne Win family's wealth was gained through illicit means. At the time, Aye Ne Win, another grandsons of the ex-dictator, told The Irrawaddy that the China National Corporation for Overseas Economic Corporation (CCOEC), which is part of a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, was using the family company, Omni, to invest US$4.9 billion in various business sectors in Burma. Aye Ne Win also said the family had agreed with Tay Za to buy a 60 percent stake in AGD Bank. However, Tay Za told reporters on Aug. 12 that he was reconsidering the deal for unspecified reasons. The FIU deputy chief said that the unit—part of the Ministry of Home Affairs—had for the past two months been investigating a number of suspicious transactions and deposits in Burma's banks as part of renewed efforts to tackle money laundering. The FIU receives about 1,000 reports of suspicious transaction each month from the banks themselves, Kyaw Win Thein said, adding that more than 70 cases had been opened involving more than $200 million. "Most of the money laundering is connected with the drugs trade and human trafficking. Some includes the trading of antiques too," he added. Thit Nay Moe contributed reporting to the story. The post Burma's Financial Intelligence Unit Probed Ne Win Family's Investment appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Suu Kyi Asks Artists to Expose How Reforms Have Stalled Posted: 25 Aug 2014 04:53 AM PDT Aung San Suu Kyi, left, gives a certificate to a publisher who donated books to her late mother's Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, during a meeting with artists at the Royal Rose restaurant in Rangoon on Monday. (Photo: Thaw Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON— Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is urging Burmese artists and writers to help the world understand that their country's political reforms have stalled and are not leading to democracy. The chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) met with nearly 100 artists and writers on Monday at the Royal Rose restaurant in Rangoon. She said foreign governments were wrong in describing Burma as a democratic success story. "We can't get development unless the real situation is known. So I would like to urge artists to expose the country's real situation publicly, and to show in a visible way that our country is not still on a real path to democracy," Suu Kyi told the group of well-known writers, cartoonists, painters, poets, photographers, editors, translators, publishers and bloggers. She said political activists had worked with artists to promote democracy since the 1988 nationwide uprising against the then-military government. "Only if we can change the spirit is it a real revolution, and only if we see democracy as a culture, not as a political system, can it be firm," she said. Among those in the crowd were prominent writers Chit Oo Nyo, Ah Yoe, Ah Kyi Taw, Juu and Ma Thida, as well as blogger Nay Phone Latt, artist Kyaw Thaung, cartoonists Myay Zar and Aw P Kyel, and the founder of Rangoon's Free Funeral Services Society, Kyaw Thu. Htet Myat, chairman of the Myanmar Writers Union, said writers and artists had opposed dictatorship for over 50 years but were imprisoned many times in the process, and that they continued to face restrictions today under the reformist government that took power in 2011. He said he was disappointed earlier this year when Suu Kyi and other NLD lawmakers accepted the government's proposed publishing law, which has been criticized as overly restrictive. "I would like to request a democracy leader and party that stand beside artists, poets, writers and the media," he said. Suu Kyi said Parliament's passing of the Printers and Publishers Registration Law was a sign of poor communication. "I admit that with the print law, the NLD did not fully stand up for what we should have," she said. "But the media didn't negotiate with us. We agreed on that proposal because we understood that the ministry [of information] submitted the law after finishing its own negotiations with the media and reaching an agreement. It shows we need more connection to avoid misunderstandings." The post Suu Kyi Asks Artists to Expose How Reforms Have Stalled appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Rangoon Expansion Plan Criticized for Poor Transparency Posted: 25 Aug 2014 03:25 AM PDT A view of the traffic near Sule Pagoda in downtown Rangoon. The city is expected to grow to 10 million inhabitants in 2040. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — The Rangoon divisional government has awarded a multi-billion dollar contract to a largely unknown public company to implement the Rangoon expansion plan, a development plan that will see Burma's biggest city grow by tens of thousands of acres. Rangoon Mayor Hla Myint revealed during a session of the divisional parliament on Friday that Myanma Setana Myothit company had been awarded the contract. But the news raised concerns among lawmakers, who said they had not been consulted. "The company alone will carry out the project, and we have chosen it because it is financially strong. We have done it secretly to avoid unnecessary problems," Hla Myint told lawmakers, reading a message by Rangoon Chief Minister Myint Swe. The expansion plan will see the official city limits of Rangoon expanded by some 30,000 acres, including farmland, from Kyee Myin Daing, Seik Gyi Kha Naung To and Twante townships. According to Myint Swe, the public company will complete 70 percent of the project within three years at a cost of US$8 billion. It will construct affordable apartments, a school for 1,000 students, a home for the aged, and five six-lane bridges. Myint Swe said local residents had consented to the project, and that farmland had lawfully been claimed as urban property by a government order. Other development projects across the country, including the Thilawa Special Economic Zone near Rangoon, have led to widespread accusations of land confiscations without proper consent or compensation. "The company will take sole responsibility to ensure land owners in the planned new town area are compensated properly. It will also supply utilities and build other infrastructure," the Rangoon mayor said. However, lawmakers were not pleased by a lack of transparency in the deal, saying they did not know the company's background or how the contract had been awarded. U Kyaw, a lawmaker representing Thingangyun Township, said the parliament was left in the dark during tender process. "We've only just been informed, which is really bad. It is important to check whether the people will benefit and whether the contract was given fairly," he said. Nyo Nyo Thin, a lawmaker from Bahan Township, agreed. "It is not compliant with democratic norms that [the Rangoon government] kept it a secret until putting it on the table at the assembly. And once it's on the table, lawmakers should have a right to discuss it, but they didn't allow us to do so," she said. "We don't know how the company was selected, and it is unacceptable that a single company was awarded the entire contract. I think [the Rangoon government] is not being honest by implementing the project without seeking public approval. The project area covers farmland and it is not yet clear whether farmland owners really agreed to it." The ninth regular session of the Rangoon divisional parliament began Friday and ends Sept. 5. The post Rangoon Expansion Plan Criticized for Poor Transparency appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Floods Displace Over 1,000 People in Hpakant Posted: 25 Aug 2014 12:20 AM PDT A panoramic view of Hpakant, Kachin State, in March 2014. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) MANDALAY — More than 1,000 residents of Kachin State's Hpakant Township have been displaced by flooding over the past few days in the area, known for rich jade deposits that have spawned a veritable Wild West in illegal mining activities. The Ayemya Tharyar, Myoma and Ngatpyawdaw quarters of the town have been hardest hit, with floodwaters forcing people from their homes and into monasteries offering temporary shelter to the displaced. Locals said everything from churches to private banks had also been flooded by water and mud. "Heavy rains are to be blame. The rain was pouring all day and night and the waters could not drain from the town fast enough," said La Htaung, a pastor whose church has been inundated. Local residents say the basin of the Uru River and tributary streams near the town have been filled with sedimentary runoff from jade mining operations in the area, affecting water flows and exacerbating the flooding problem. "We've faced the floods since 2005 and it is getting worse each year," said Nang Lao Seng, a local volunteer who is helping the flood victims. "If the miners continue to pile the soil like this, our town will face serious floods in future, for sure. The authorities should take serious action against this." Last year, more than three dozen homes were damaged due to flooding in Hpakant, a jade mining hub in Kachin State. Landslides in the area—some due to mining and others blamed on heavy rains—have killed scores of people over the last several years. Local volunteers are helping the recent flood victims to move to shelters, as well as providing food supplies. Town authorities are reportedly attempting to unblock clogged drainage canals. "We cannot calculate the damages yet. There are many houses in the three biggest quarters that have been flooded with mud, and the water is still pouring in," said a duty officer from the township administrative office. Legal mining in the area was halted in 2012, after a ceasefire between the Burmese government and ethnic Kachin rebels broke down. Since then, thousands of illegal small-scale miners have rushed to fill the void. The government has said it plans to restart large-scale jade mining in the area next month. The post Floods Displace Over 1,000 People in Hpakant appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Ladies With Drive Posted: 24 Aug 2014 10:21 PM PDT Daw Ni Ni Shein reckons driving is a good job. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) YANGON— It's a hot Tuesday evening just before the start of the rainy season, and Daw Ni NiShein has parked next to Junction Mawtin, a shopping mall on Anawrahta Street just a few minutes' walk from Chinatown. "Just to take a minute's rest," explained the 60-year-old mother of three, who has been cruising Yangon's streets in search of fares since noon, explained. Daw Ni NiShein first got behind the wheel of one of the city's taxis a decade ago. At the time, her husband had just retired, and her children were reaching adulthood, so the full-time housewife decided to begin a new—and, for a woman in Myanmar, rare—career as a taxi driver. According to the Yangon City Development Committee, there are over 26,000 taxis in the commercial capital, but only five of those are driven by women. "We have around 90 drivers, but we don't have any lady drivers," said U Kyaw Lin, a director at Golden Swallow, a taxi firm based near Yangon's international airport. Asked if he would ever consider hiring a woman for the job, U Kyaw Lin was noncommittal. "Maybe this is not popular in Myanmar," he said, adding that it might be a problem for a woman to drive at night, when many customers are men who have been drinking. Not Alone Whatever the reasons for their scarcity, female drivers are a rare breed in many countries as well as Myanmar. According to the International Women's Day website, only 1.1 percent of the taxi drivers in New York City are women, with a similar figure for Toronto. In France, by contrast, women make up a relatively high 9 percent of the taxi-driving workforce. Safety is, of course, an important issue for many women who might consider driving a cab for a living—and for passengers, with specialized taxi firms in Western cities offering the reassurance of female-only drivers for female customers. But Ma Nyein Shin, another one of the handful of female cabbies in Yangon, said that it wasn't a major concern for her. "I work 9 to 5 every day," she said, agreeing with U Kyaw Lin's take that working after dark verges on taboo, but arguing that there was no reason a woman couldn't drive during the day. Ma Nyein Shin previously worked in real estate. Now just one month after working as a taxi driver, her take was that the work was fun, but sometimes trying. If she worries about anything, she said, it was Yangon's traffic, which is growing more frenetic by the day. The number of vehicles on the country's roads has shot up dramatically since economic reforms were introduced in 2011. According to figures released by the Ministry of Transport, Myanmar had a total of 400,000 registered cars and trucks last year, up from 260,000 in mid-2012. Together with Yangon's maniacal bus drivers, who careen through crowded streets as if seeking pedestrians to mill into, the sheer volume of traffic on Yangon's roads can be stressful even for the most experienced driver. But despite the heavy traffic, both women say they make a decent living. Ma Nyein Shin said she gets, on average, between 10 and 15 passengers a day—enough to keep her busy, though a lot of time is lost in Yangon's sometimes glacial downtown traffic. Daw Ni Ni Shein said she takes in around 30,000 kyat (US$30) a day in fares. "I only spend 3,000 kyat on gas, so it's a good job," she said while leaning over the steering wheel, her head almost touching the windshield as she peered left while stalled at a traffic light—the only source of illumination on the nighttime street apart from other cars. In Demand While many taxi companies may be reluctant to take on female drivers, there is clearly some demand for women who can handle a car. Barbara Myint Sein, the chief operations officer at Yangon's Parkroyal Hotel, said the hotel previously employed two female drivers, both of whom have moved on. "One left because she got a better salary to work as a secretary and driver," she said. For her part, Daw Ni Ni Shein sees no reason to give up a job that has served her well these past 10 years. "No plan to stop. I will run, run all the time," she said. Unlike Ma Nyein Shin, the more experienced Daw Ni Ni Shein is unperturbed by driving Yangon's usually quiet nighttime streets; and while both women mostly stick to the city's busy downtown core—the area centered around Sule Pagoda, from Chinatown to Botahtaung Township—Daw Ni Ni Shein is happy to do the occasional airport run. Until just a few years ago, when foreigners were still a fairly rare sight in Yangon, a driver was lucky to pick up a passenger who wanted to make the 40-minute run to the airport in the city's northern outskirts. These days, however, most drivers charge 7,000 or 8,000 kyat for the trip—and some more entrepreneurial spirits will tack on an extra 1-2,000 kyat for running the air-conditioning. "Oh, some drivers charge too expensive for foreigners!" Daw Ni Ni Shein—whose standard rate for the same route is 5,000 kyat—exclaims when she hears this. Then—demonstrating that she's mastered the fine art of snagging a fare as well as any of her male colleagues—she offers me her phone number. "Next time you fly, you call me." This article first appeared in the August 2014 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. Htet Naing Zaw contributed reporting. The post Ladies With Drive appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Encouraging Diners to Savor Rangoon’s Flavors Posted: 24 Aug 2014 05:00 PM PDT Nom Kham cofounded mylifesavour, Rangoon's first diner card. (Photo courtesy of mylifesavour) Since last month, Rangoon diners have been finding a smarter way to explore the commercial capital's evolving culinary scene. With the launch of the mylifesavour diner card, members can get up to 50 percent off their bill at an array of participating restaurants and bars. With new restaurants popping up by the month in rapidly changing Rangoon, mylifesavour's cofounder Nom Kham talks to The Irrawaddy about her company's attempt to inject some variety—and savings—into the lives of diners in Burma's biggest city. Question: What is mylifesavour's mission and how do you choose which restaurants and bars to partner with? Answer: The mylifesavour diner card is the first dining card launched in Myanmar. We have two objectives: The first is to encourage customers to eat out frequently,which could be beneficial to restaurants. The second one is to help our members have choices for great dining experiences at great value. Our theme is 'good quality.' We select our participants[restaurants and bars] based on the food they offer, ambience and their services—all have to be of good quality. We decide who we partner. In short, we want to celebrate good quality, innovation and creativity. That's all mylifesavour is all about. Q: How did you start mylifesavour? A: The mylifesavour website was launched in April this year as a blog and a restaurant listing, promoting the best places to eat and drink in Rangoon. We found out that there are more than 600 restaurants in Rangoon, not including street-hawkers. We found that some are really good, some not bad and some are quite terrible. So as food lovers, we launched a blog to recommend to our readers where best to eat in Rangoon. As a result, we got positive feedback for our unbiased, independent and informative posts. In July this year, we launched the mylifesavour diner card as we wanted to do business in Burma's food and beverage industry. With increased tourism and foreign investment, the industry here today is very exciting. Another thing is there is a change in dining customs among local people, who are eating out more. So with the card's offer of up to 50 percent discounted, people will be able to eat out and enjoy great dining experiences more often. Q: How many participating businesses do you have so far? A: We have 24 participators now. We are trying to grow our membership base. The more members we have, the more people will dine at our participating restaurants. That's good for our partners. Plus, we are trying to expand the numbers of restaurant partners to provide our members with more choices and more value when they go out to dine. Q: Your card partnerships are quite diverse. So who is the mylifesavour clientele? A:Yeah, we have a variety of restaurants and bars, ranging from high-end to affordable ones. Our target audience is affluent professionals from 20 to 45 years old. However, we do provide choices of restaurants to our target audience—from a low price bracket tie, i.e quick, casual dining to expensive, fine dining. Even on our current partnership list, we have restaurants that offer quality food at affordable prices. Q: Mylifesavour's concept is quite novel here. Did you face any difficulties in launching it? A: Of course we did. But we have had no complaints yet. This is because we tested out our partner restaurants before our members received their cards. Some restaurants staff had not been properly briefed. We identified these issues and ensured that all restaurants understood their obligations before our members started using their cards. On a few occasions, some members didn't check the website at all, so they weren't aware of the time or day restrictions that had always been applied to a particular offer. To avoid this, we are planning to publish the top offers from our website in hard copy. I think it will be OK over time, as the concept is still quite new here. The post Encouraging Diners to Savor Rangoon's Flavors appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

India, Pakistan Intensify Cross-Border Firing as Ties Sour Posted: 24 Aug 2014 11:07 PM PDT Indian security personnel walk past the main gate of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Aug. 19. (Photo: Reuters) SRINAGAR, India — Indian and Pakistani troops intensified firing across the border over the weekend killing at least four, an Indian official said on Sunday, straining ties between the arch rivals who recently called off top-level diplomatic talks. Last week India said its foreign secretary would not meet with her Pakistani counterpart as scheduled on Monday because of plans by Pakistan to consult separatists from the border state of Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the meeting. The cancelation dashed any hopes of near-term peace deliberations, chances of which had risen after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the inauguration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about three months ago. The Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since both countries became independent in 1947. They have fought three wars and came close to a fourth in 2001 and there have been regular clashes on the Line of Control that divides Indian- and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Giving ammunition to hawks on both the sides against resuming talks, firing across the border has picked up. According to India's Defence Ministry, there have been 70 ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir since Modi took over. "Pakistani troops violated ceasefire again today and restored to heavy firing targeting 22 Border Security Force (BSF) posts," BSF Inspector General for Jammu frontier, Rakesh Sharma, told Reuters. Sharma said two people were killed on Saturday and four were injured, including a BSF man. "We gave them befitting reply causing equal casualties on their side," he said. The Pakistan army's press office did not reply to calls seeking comment. But Pakistani military sources said on Saturday night that in July and August India's BSF had committed 23 ceasefire violations by resorting to unprovoked firing. Pakistani media reported on Sunday that three people were killed and 11 injured in "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops. BSF says Pakistani troops are firing to give cover to the militants for infiltration into Indian territory. A senior Indian army officer said that they have foiled 15 infiltration attempts this month in which 10 militants and two Indian soldiers were killed. The latest firing has forced 1,000 border residents to flee to safer locations, a senior Jammu and Kashmir bureaucrat said. "Our contingency plans are in place to provide all possible relief to people who might move out of their villages if tensions escalate," said Shantmanu, divisional commissioner of Jammu district. Additional reporting by Reuters' reporter Maria Golovnina. The post India, Pakistan Intensify Cross-Border Firing as Ties Sour appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Targets Ordinary Uighurs With Beards, Burkas Posted: 24 Aug 2014 10:15 PM PDT Police from a Special Weapons and Tactics team stand guard outside the South Railway Station in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, on May 1, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) AKSU, China — Outside a mosque in China's restive west, a government-appointed Muslim cleric was dodging a foreign reporter's question about why young men of the Uighur ethnic minority don't have beards when one such youth interrupted. "Why don't you just tell them the truth?" he shouted to the cleric under the nervous gaze of several police officers who had been tailing the reporters all day in the oasis city of Aksu. "It's because the government doesn't allow beards." A plainclothes Uighur policeman swiftly rebuked the young man. "Be careful what you say," he warned. The tense exchange provided a fleeting glimpse of both the extremes of China's restrictions on minority Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) and the resentment that simmers beneath the surface in their homeland. Such a mood pervades Xinjiang's south, a vast, mainly rural region that's become a key battleground in the ruling Communist Party's struggle to contain escalating ethnic violence that has killed at least a few hundred people over the past 18 months. The personal matter of facial hair has taken on heavy political overtones in the Uighur heartland. Also proscribed are certain types of women's headscarves, veils and "jilbabs," loose, full-length garments worn in public. Such restrictions are not new but their enforcement has intensified this year in the wake of attacks Beijing has blamed on religious extremists. In a recent sweep of Urumqi, the region's capital, authorities last week said they seized 1,265 hijab-type headscarves, 259 jilbabs and even clothes printed with Islamic star-and-crescent symbols. Officials also "rescued" 82 children from studying the Quran, the government said. The prohibitions on Islamic attire and beards have attracted widespread criticism, with many experts saying such repression angers ordinary Uighurs and risks radicalizing them. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, it's self-perpetuating. The more they crack down on it, the more people re-Islamize. This is a pattern we see all over the world," said Joanne Smith Finley, an expert on Uighurs at Britain's Newcastle University. "The Chinese state has created a growing terrorist threat where previously there was none. It has stimulated an Islamic renewal where there wouldn't necessarily have been one." A major thrust of the yearlong crackdown on terrorism has been a campaign against religious extremism, with arrests of hundreds of people for watching videos apparently hailing terrorism or extremist ideology. But authorities also are targeting beards, veils and other symbols of religious piety in a campaign that creeps ever further into Uighurs' daily lives despite official claims that the government respects religious freedom. "At the moment, we face a very serious, intense and complex situation with fighting terrorism and maintaining stability," a party newspaper, the Xinjiang Daily, said in an edict to "front-line" minority cadres in late July. Officials, it said, must also act to control weddings without singing and dancing and funerals where there are no feasts—referring to Uighur customs the government says Islamic conservatives have barred. Young Uighur men are discouraged from keeping beards and those who have them are stopped at checkpoints and questioned. So are women who wear Muslim headscarves and veils that obscure their faces. Some public places such as hospitals bar such individuals from entering. Earlier this month, the northern Xinjiang city of Karamay announced that young men with beards and women in burkas or hijabs would not be allowed on public buses. In the city of Aksu, Ma Yanfeng, the director of the city's foreign propaganda office, said the government was concerned that Uighurs were being unduly influenced by radical Islamic forces from overseas. "It's because they have been incited by others to do so," Ma said, noting that traditional dress of Uighur women is multicolored. "Those clothes that are all black are a sign of influence from foreigners like in Turkey and have to do with extremist thinking." Unlike in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or parts of South Asia, veils and abayas are relatively new to Uighurs in Xinjiang, only growing in popularity in recent decades, scholars say. Uighur historically have used "ikat" textiles with bold patterns and brilliant colors, an aesthetic they share with Uzbeks, Tajiks and other Central Asian cultures. Contemporary Uighur women, especially those in cities, dress like other urbanites though they aren't likely to bare a lot of skin. Uighurs have been adopting veils and beards in a shift toward more pious lives, partly as symbolic resistance to Chinese rule and partly out of a desire for the egalitarianism associated with Islam to mend social inequalities, said Smith Finley, the Newcastle expert who has studied Uighurs since 1991. The shift is also in reaction to dashed hopes for independence after bloody riots in 1997 and the ensuing crackdown, she said. Some Uighurs see their current plight as punishment from God for not being good enough Muslims. They think "if I'm a better Muslim, then the Uighurs as a whole will be better Muslims and our future, our situation, will be better," she said. Chinese authorities apparently make little distinction between these expressions of piety and the kind of extremism that poses a threat to society. In May, police in the county of Luntai raided women's dress shops and confiscated jilbabs. A photo on the local government's website showed four male police officers at a shop examining textiles while a woman in a black jilbab, likely a shop assistant or owner, stood in the background watching. The rubber-stamp legislature in the southern prefecture of Turpan says on its website it is considering a law to impose fines of up to 500 yuan ($80) for wearing veils and cloaks in public. The legislature says the law would help safeguard social stability, cultural security and gender equality and even protect health—because, the proposal says, burkas deprive skin of sunlight and can cause heatstroke in summer. Elsewhere, officials have been rounding up dozens of Uighur women to attend indoctrination sessions and to trade their jilbabs and veils for traditional Uighur silk dresses. "After today's ideological education, I now understand that the jilbab is not our ethnic group's traditional attire, and I recognize that veils and wearing jilbabs is incompatible with Islamic culture and is a backward and bad practice," a woman named Ayiguli Bake was quoted by a local party-run newspaper as saying in a scripted fashion. But on the streets of Kuqa and Aksu, many women could be seen wearing headscarves that covered their necks, though black cloaks were nowhere in sight and in most instances only elderly men had beards. Chinese officials probably are targeting outward manifestations of piety because they cannot "fundamentally alter people's inner states," said Gardner Bovingdon, a Xinjiang expert at Indiana University. "I can't make you stop admiring a more rigorous, scriptural Islam, but I can make you shave off that beard, I can make you take off that scarf," Bovingdon said. "So that's what I'll do." The authorities' heavy hand has reportedly sparked protests. In the rural town of Alaqagha, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kuqa, police fired into a crowd in May when villagers violently protested the detention of women and girls for wearing headscarves and Islamic robes, according to the US government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia. On a recent evening in Alaqagha, rows of surveillance cameras perched atop street lights watched residents breaking their fasts at a small outdoor market. Pistol-carrying police who were trailing Associated Press journalists kept an eye on the villagers, who included women with headscarves shopping at donkey-drawn fruit carts. "It's the state's way of saying 'we don't trust you, we see your religion as being something that's inherently of concern to us,'" said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "'We are going to treat it as fundamentally problematic behavior, not as the basic right that it is.'" The post China Targets Ordinary Uighurs With Beards, Burkas appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Interpol Seeks Clues to Thai ‘Baby Factory’ Posted: 24 Aug 2014 10:05 PM PDT Surrogate babies that Thai police suspect were fathered by a Japanese businessman who has fled from Thailand are shown on a screen during a news conference at the headquarters of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok August 12, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) BANGKOK — Interpol said it has launched a multinational investigation into what Thailand has dubbed the "Baby Factory" case: a 24-year-old Japanese businessman who has 16 surrogate babies and an alleged desire to father hundreds more. Police raided a Bangkok condominium earlier this month and found nine babies and nine nannies living in a few unfurnished rooms filled with baby bottles, bouncy chairs, play pens and diapers. They have since identified Mitsutoki Shigeta as the father of those babies—and seven others. "What I can tell you so far is that I've never seen a case like this," Thailand's Interpol director, police Maj. Gen. Apichart Suribunya, said Friday. "We are trying to understand what kind of person makes this many babies." Apichart said that regional Interpol offices in Japan, Cambodia, Hong Kong and India have been asked to probe Shigeta's background, beginning last week. Police say he appears to have registered businesses or apartments in those countries and has frequently traveled there. "We are looking into two motives. One is human trafficking and the other is exploitation of children," said police Lt. Gen. Kokiat Wongvorachart, Thailand's lead investigator in the case. He said Shigeta made 41 trips to Thailand since 2010. On many occasions he traveled to nearby Cambodia, where he brought four of his babies. Shigeta has not been charged with any crime. He is trying to get his children back—the 12 in Thailand are being cared for by social services—and he has proven through DNA samples sent from Japan that he is their biological father. He quickly left Thailand after the Aug. 5 raid on the condominium and has said through a lawyer that he simply wanted a large family and has the means to support it. Kokiat said Shigeta hired 11 Thai surrogate mothers to carry his children, including four sets of twins. Police have not determined the biological mothers, Kokiat said. The founder of a multinational fertility clinic that provided Shigeta with two surrogate mothers said she warned Interpol about him even before the first baby was born in June 2013. "As soon as they got pregnant, he requested more. He said he wanted 10 to 15 babies a year, and that he wanted to continue the baby-making process until he's dead," said Mariam Kukunashvili, founder of the New Life clinic, which is based in Thailand and six other countries. He also inquired about equipment to freeze his sperm to have sufficient supply when he's older, she said in a telephone interview from Mexico. As for Shigeta's motives, Kukunashvili said he told the clinic's manager that "he wanted to win elections and could use his big family for voting," and that "the best thing I can do for the world is to leave many children." Kukunashvili declined The Associated Press' request to talk to the clinic manager. Kukunashvili, who is based at the company's headquarters in the country of Georgia, said she never met Shigeta but received reports from her Thai staff. She said that in April 2013, she sent faxes in English and French to Interpol's head office in Lyon, France, and an email through the agency's website, but they went unanswered. Apichart of Interpol in Thailand said the local office never saw the warnings. An Interpol spokesman in Lyon did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Kukunashvili also sent Shigeta an email to express suspicion, and attorney Ratpratan Tulatorn responded on his behalf in an Aug. 31, 2013, email that the clinic owner provided to the AP. The attorney said Shigeta was involved in "no dishonesty, no illegal activities." He said his client hoped to keep using New Life, but the company then stopped working with him. Shigeta's activities drew no attention until early this month, when an Australian couple was accused of abandoning a baby with his Thai surrogate mother—but taking his twin sister—after learning the boy had Down syndrome. Though the couple disputes the allegation, the case prompted a crackdown by Thai authorities on what had been a largely unregulated industry. After the Australian case emerged, police received a tip that prompted the raid on Shigeta's Bangkok apartment. Ratpratan, the lawyer, appeared during the raid to insist that Shigeta had done nothing wrong. "These are legal babies, they all have birth certificates," Ratpratan told Thailand's Channel 3 television station. "There are assets purchased under these babies' names. There are savings accounts for these babies, and investments. If he were to sell these babies, why would he give them these benefits?" Ratpratan is no longer Shigeta's lawyer, and his replacement has not responded to requests for comment. Shigeta's current whereabouts are unknown. The post Interpol Seeks Clues to Thai 'Baby Factory' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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