Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

‘Boatpeople’ story lands Reuters a Pulitzer as local reporters face jail

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 05:29 AM PDT

Two Reuters reporters were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for international journalism on Monday for reporting on the trafficking of Burma's stateless Rohingya Muslims. The prize was announced just days before two Thailand-based journalists are set to appear in court, where they may face up to seven years in jail for republishing one paragraph of the award-winning work that they, in part, made possible.

The prestigious award was granted to Jason Szep and Andrew RC Marshall for their "courageous reports" detailing abuses against Rohingya Muslims trying to flee Burma. Their coverage was the first by international media to suggest official state cooperation with inhumane and highly lucrative human trafficking networks based in southern Thailand.

"We are delighted for Reuters," said Alan Morison, the Australia-born founder and editor of Phuketwan online news. "We've helped many organisations to cover the Rohingya, and we were very pleased when Reuters decided to take up the issue."

Speaking to DVB on Tuesday, Morison expressed gratitude that the international media has taken interest in the story, though his own reporting on that very issue has landed him in less alluring circumstances.

Morison and his colleague, staff reporter Chutima Sidasathian, were summoned by the Phuket Police in December, five months after publishing an article titled, "Thai Military profiting from trade in boatpeople, says special report."

The article relayed the findings of a Reuters investigative feature by Szep and collaborator Stuart Grudgings that implicated Thai naval officials in direct profits from a surge of Rohingya refugees.

While the movement of Rohingya from Burma to Malaysia — by way of Thai waters — has been ongoing for years, numbers have swelled since 2012, when communal violence in Burma's western Arakan State led to sweeping displacement of the stateless minority. Over the past two years, an estimated 80,000 Rohingyas have taken the dangerous route from the Arakan coast to the Andaman Sea in hopes of finding refuge in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

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Phuketwan has reported consistently on the issue for years, and in 2009 received international recognition for breaking the story of Thailand's "pushback" policy, whereby Thai authorities were authorised to tow boatloads of refugees out to sea and simply let them float away, many to their deaths.

At that time, said Morison, Phuketwan felt some pressure from the Thai police, but they were "very professional" and no charges were brought against him or his staff.

The pair were not so lucky in December, when the Royal Thai Navy threatened to levy charges of defamation and violation of Thailand's Computer Crimes Act, claiming that Phuketwan's full citation of one particular paragraph amounted to endangering state security.

Phuket Police have stated the intention to sue Reuters, but whether the London-based agency will also face charges remains unclear.

"The comparison couldn't be more stark," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia Division, "on one side of the world, Reuters journalists win media's top prize for revealing abuses against Rohingya boatpeople while in Thailand, the Thai Navy files serious criminal charges against a small website for simply re-printing the story."

HRW has been steadfast in its criticism since the onset of the case, urging the government to drop all charges, revoke the Computer Crimes Act and investigate the Navy. Thai authorities could not be reached for comment and have made no indication that any of the requests will be addressed.

An initial hearing set for early March was postponed until 17 April, which could end in arraignment. Morison said there is little chance of the charges being dropped and that he and Chutima are prepared to go to prison.

While expressing congratulations to Szep and Marshall, Morison confessed he was "a little bit surprised that Reuters hasn't said a bit more about what this means for media freedom."

Ancient Burmese sculptures on display for the first time

Posted: 14 Apr 2014 11:42 PM PDT

Rare and ancient artefacts from Burma will appear outside of the country for the first time ever. The priceless religious sculptures were loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City by the Burmese government.

The artefacts will be on display in a new exhibition called Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century.

“We were very honoured that the minister for culture and the government of Myanmar [Burma] consented to our request to borrow some enormously important objects, first millennium objects, belonging to the Pyu, early Pyu culture of central Myanmar and we presented those here for the first time," said John Guy, curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A 4th century sandstone throne stele from central Burma.

A 4th century sandstone throne stele from central Burma.

Among the ancient sculptures on display is a 4th century sandstone throne stele from central Burma. The throne stele is an example of the various religions respected in ancient Burma.

“It bears witness to the practice of both Hinduism and Buddhism, one treated on each side of the relief, in the ancient city of Sri Ksetra," said Guy. "We know that kings, the ruling household there, had assumed Sanskrit names and that those names suggest that they were followers of Vishnu. But it’s also clear that they patronised Buddhism as well. So both things were coexisting in what appears to be a harmonious way."

Also on display is a Khin Ba relic chamber cover from 6th century central Burma. The sandstone slab is an example of the ancient Pyu’s Buddhist beliefs.

Three fired clay Buddha sculptures, ranging from the 7th to 9th centuries, reveal how Buddhists could accrue religious favour.

In addition to the sculptures from Burma, the exhibition also features Buddha sculptures from Thailand and Vishnu sculptures from Vietnam. Art from Cambodia and Malaysia is also on display.

The Lost Kingdoms exhibition will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 14 April until 27 July.

The ambitious exhibition brings together 160 works and is, according to the curators, an attempt to redefine our understanding of early Southeast Asia.

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Burma’s poultry potential

Posted: 14 Apr 2014 08:53 PM PDT

Than Win can kill, pluck and disembowel a chicken in less than three minutes. He does it at least a hundred times a day, seven days a week and makes around 300,000 kyats a month. While sipping green tea in a blood-stained singlet and longyi at a roadside teashop opposite Burma's largest poultry market, known simply as the "Chicken and Duck Market" in Rangoon's Mingalar Taungnyunt Township, Than Win explained that his shift begins at midnight.

He and a small team travel by truck to collect about 1,300 chickens from some 50 different homes in Pegu Division and Rangoon's northernmost townships of Taikkyi and Hmawbi.

"Most farmers live in small huts and each owns about 1,500 chickens," he said.

The mission is usually complete by 4:30am, after which time the chickens are brought to the market in time for its 6am opening.

He said most buyers are Burmese and Indian-Burmese restaurant and shop owners, while "The Chinese prefer to shop at the wet markets downtown."

The market is a cacophony of sounds and nauseating smells, and many of the chickens are in bad shape. In addition to having their legs tied together in groups, many are virtually bald or emaciated, and even those in the shade pant thirstily with open beaks. A man mercifully tosses a bucket of water over a cage crammed full of layer chickens, but drinking water itself seems non-existent.

With the exception of the day-old chicks crammed into large cardboard boxes, most of the animals lack the energy to even utter squawks of protest. Whether it's the dire conditions that made authorities decide to ban photography inside the market is uncertain – however the workers themselves were jovial, posing goofily with eggs in hand.

Aung Ko Min, 12, told DVB that he began work as a "chicken cleaner" at the market five months ago.

"I work with my older brothers and I like it because I'm strong," he said.

Aung Ko Min said he started chewing betel 10 days earlier, and that there are 50 to 60 boys of the same age also pulling 12 hour shifts.

Far away in Inein Township, Khine Zar Win runs a shop called Win Win, which sells day-old-chicks, feeds and medicine. She got into the trade because her father was a vet and her family owned a poultry farm.

"We're selling around 20,000 day-old-chickens every week and sales are improving every year, because Burmese people are consuming more meat. I think CP Freshmart outlets have encouraged us to eat chicken as a snack, which is something we didn't use to do."

She said that the chicken and duck market sells about 40,000 chickens a day, the vast majority of which are broilers, bred specifically for meat.

However Khine Zar Win added that due to increasing competition, Win Win sells to farmers on credit, with a 50-day repayment period.

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"We have so many competitors nowadays that our business depends on having good relationships. However, if market prices drop, we're unable to get the money back," she said.

She explained that ever-increasing profits are due to the expansion of existing farms rather than a wave of newbies deciding to set up poultry farms.

"Some farmers, particularly the smaller ones, lack knowledge about biosecurity. A lot of chickens are getting sick from respiratory tract infections as a result. Myanmar CP Livestock has a technical group for small farmers who will send out their vets – but awareness about this is low."

She added that mortality rates are currently "unusually high" and said she suspects at least some of these deaths are caused by bird flu, which was first detected in Burma in March 2006.

"For the past three or four years, most cases of bird flu have been in Yangon [Rangoon]. It's also a problem in Bago [Pegu] and parts of Ayeyarwady [Irrawaddy] regions, and I've heard of cases of it in Mandalay also," Khine Zar Win told DVB.

"When bird flu was first discovered in Myanmar [Burma], the government undertook widespread culling and many farmers lost everything. I myself lost 60,000 birds and because the market was destroyed, I wasn't able to get back the money owed to my feed mill from buyers. I lost more than US$200,000," said Dr Hla Hla Thein, who is vice chairperson of the Myanmar Livestock Federation (MLF) and chairperson of the Broiler Association.

"The military government had no concept of our suffering. Compensation was never more than five percent – and sometimes compensation was in the form of a mobile phone! When we asked why, we were told that communication was important," she added.

Due to lasting bitterness about the lack of compensation provided, many farmers remain reluctant to inform the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development about suspected cases of bird flu.

"Farmers don't want all their chickens killed, so they try to arrange their own biosecurity measures and just kill the chickens themselves," said Khine Zar Win.

She added that the government itself isn't announcing cases of bird flu – only one case was ever officially confirmed. In the 7 March edition of The New Light of Myanmar, it was reported that while a "controlled zone for chicken farms will be established [in Tamu] at the border with India to prevent an outbreak of bird flu… Myanmar has so far not reported any outbreaks of bird flu."

The MLF is an NGO which was set up in 1999 and has 13,000 members, although it is only active in Rangoon Division – which Dr Hla Hla Thein asserts is unaffected by bird flu. However, if a case is suspected elsewhere, its representatives will travel to the area to investigate and will report to the ministry as necessary.

"MLF doesn't have the technology to confirm bird flu – only the ministry does," she said.

One of the core aims of MLF is to raise funds so that farmers can be adequately compensated in the event of loss, whether it be the result of culling or a market collapse – the latter of which has happened several times in previous decades. Since 2008, MLF has raised US$100,000, which was accrued through a 1 kyat payment being contributed to a fund for every chicken bought and sold in Rangoon’s markets and farms.

It also sets market prices as a means of helping local poultry farmers compete against the Thai-owned behemoth, CP Chicken, which entered Burma in 1997.

"CP would like to kill all business for local farmers. However it can no longer monopolise Myanmar's poultry market because we've actively fought against it," she said.

CP declined to be interviewed for this article or respond to allegations about its purported attempts to monopolise Burma's poultry industry. According to Khine Zar Win, CP has a 50 percent market share in feeds.

Soon after Burma's political reforms began in 2011, members of the international community stepped in to help develop the sector. The US Agency for International Development, for example, works with MLF to support local farmers by providing vocational training and spreading knowledge about the use of technology to keep production costs down.

Unfortunately, however, although one of MLF's aims is to liaise with the ministry on policies and issues affecting livestock, the relationship isn't productive, according to Dr Hla Hla Thein.

"The ministry people are just soldiers – it's the departments that have the professional expertise, but they aren't listened to. I always submit my ideas to the government – I recently suggested that the ministry hasn't done us any favours by extending itself yet again to include rural development, and before that, fisheries. I've openly fought with the minister and one time he said to me, 'You are the lady that talks too much.' But I don't care," she said defiantly.

Burma's poultry sector has a lot at stake – if the various problems confronting it can somehow be overcome, it could be a boom area for national economic growth.

Analysts have already predicted that Burma's meat industry could explode over the coming decades. In a May 2012 article in FEED Business Worldwide titled, "Myanmar: Asian feed and livestock's new frontier," F.E Olimpo and Eric Brooks wrote, "With a population of over 64 million… ample untapped arable land and a per capita meat consumption of just 10kg, Burma contains the same ripe elements for exponential feed and livestock expansion that China had in the early 1980s and Vietnam in the late 1990s".

Moreover, as Burma's neighbours include the growing economic powerhouses of India, China, and Thailand – which have a combined population of 2 billion people –this "represents a great market for exports of meat, feed or both."

At present, Burma exports negligible quantities of poultry to China and India through border trade, however Khine Zar Win told DVB that Vietnam and Korean investors are beginning to show an interest in setting up joint partnerships.

"Not all farmers have the opportunity to travel outside the country to learn new farming techniques. We want foreign investors to come here, which is why we hold three expos a year," said Dr Hla Hla Thein.

Despite its enormous potential, it is uncertain whether foreign investors will simply feel too overwhelmed by the inherent challenges poultry farming in Burma presents.
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