The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Burmese-Only Jade Sale Pegged for December
- Burmese Investigators Urge Public to Monitor Koh Tao Trial
- Man Killed, Woman Gang-Raped in Capital: Police
- Ethnic Armed Groups Take Stock After Ceasefire Rift
- Mon Leader Slams Divisions Over Ceasefire Signing
- At the Khun Sa Museum, the House that Drugs Built
- SE Asia Seeks New Strategy to Fight ‘Slash and Burn’ Haze Problem
- East Timor Primed for Legal Tussle with Australia
- Rising Anger in Thailand’s Boom-to-Bust Northeast
- In Burma, Hell in a Very Small Place
| Burmese-Only Jade Sale Pegged for December Posted: 01 Oct 2015 05:01 AM PDT  Gem traders inspect a raw jade stone at the gem emporium in Naypyidaw in 2013. (Photo: Sanay Lin / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Myanmar Gems Enterprise will hold the year's first and only jade sale exclusively for local traders in Naypyidaw this December, with industry players hoping to see more purchases of raw jade and jadeite made with value-added intentions. In Thursday's state-run newspapers, the Ministry of Mines' Myanmar Gems Enterprise announced that the central committee of its subsidiary Myanma Gems Emporium would organize the sale of raw jade stones and jadeite at Mani Yadana Jade Hall in Naypyidaw from Dec. 7-13. The Myanmar Gems Enterprise typically aims to hold jade sales for only local traders at least twice a year, but the December showcase will be the only one for 2015. According to the announcement from the Myanmar Gems Enterprise, Burmese citizens for whom one of the following applies are eligible to attend the sale: licensed jade and gem mining operators; licensed businessmen engaged in manufacturing, selling and buying of finished jade and gems products; those who hold a gems company registration; and members of the Myanmar Gems and Jewelry Entrepreneurs Association. Tun Hla Aung, joint secretary of the Myanmar Gems and Jewelry Entrepreneurs Association, said organizers were hoping to encourage more emphasis on local entrepreneurs adding value to raw cuts of the precious stones on offer. "We want local traders to produce more value-added jade accessories; that's why we aimed to hold this kind of sale at least once per year, but it has been delayed due to various things," he said. "We expect that there will many quality raw jades on display," he added. The supply side of Burma's jade market has bounced back since the September 2014 lifting of a suspension of jade mining operations in Kachin State amid fighting between the government and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in recent years. Foreigners are invited to bid on jade and jadeite at an annual jade emporium, usually held mid-year. This year's emporium, held from June 24 to July 6 in Naypyidaw, saw a total of 8,934 jade lots and about 320 lots of various other gems, including highly coveted Mogok rubies, on offer. Tun Hla Aung said it was too early to speculate on the December jade showcase. More than 2,000 local traders attended the annual emporium earlier this year, and the association leader said similar attendance was expected for the Burmese-only sale. The post Burmese-Only Jade Sale Pegged for December appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Burmese Investigators Urge Public to Monitor Koh Tao Trial Posted: 01 Oct 2015 04:33 AM PDT  The Burma Embassy's special team, which is working on the Koh Tao case are seen outside of the Koh Samui Court on Wednesday. (Photo: Min Oo / Facebook) RANGOON — Two migrant workers accused of a grisly dual murder on a Thai island are innocent and should be cleared of all charges, a team of investigators representing the Burmese government told reporters in Rangoon on Thursday, urging the public to monitor the case as it continues later this month. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun were arrested in late 2014 after the mutilated bodies of two British tourists—Hannah Witheridge and David Miller—were discovered on a beach in Koh Tao, southern Thailand. A postmortem examination revealed that Witheridge had been raped. The gruesome murder and subsequent trial has raised questions about Thailand's safety as a tourist destination, the competence of its police force and its treatment of migrant workers. Observers close to the case claim the suspects—both migrant workers from western Burma's Arakan State—were convenient scapegoats. The trial has also been riddled with ambiguity and accusations of foul play; the suspects initially confessed to Thai police officers but later said they had been tortured in detention. A translator hired to assist with the investigation was later revealed to be a Rohingya Muslim who was fluent in neither Thai nor the suspects' native Arakanese. Htoo Chit, a migrant rights advocate who leads the investigation team formed by the Burmese Embassy in Thailand, said evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of the defendants and that the Thai justice system should declare them innocent. "At first, they confessed because they were tortured and threatened in police custody, but they told us everything because they trust us," Htoo Chit said. "I believe they are innocent and will be free soon, but we must monitor [the decision of the court] and whether they are acquitted." The most crucial piece of evidence in the trial, Htoo Chit said, was a DNA test administered by Thai investigators that has come under increasing scrutiny. A typical DNA identification can take about 20 days, he said, though the Thai investigators had completed the match in only three. Esteemed Thai forensic pathologist Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunan, who was called in by the defense team to carry out an independent inquiry, recently told the court that the assumed murder weapon showed no trace of DNA belonging to either of the suspects. The trial, which has garnered international attention over the past year since the suspects' detention, will continue on Oct. 10 and 11, and is expected to reach a verdict by the end of this year. The post Burmese Investigators Urge Public to Monitor Koh Tao Trial appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Man Killed, Woman Gang-Raped in Capital: Police Posted: 01 Oct 2015 04:11 AM PDT  Vehicles drive down a road in Burma's administrative capital Naypyidaw. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A group of four assailants fatally stabbed a man and gang-raped his partner early Wednesday morning near an area slated to serve as a quarter for diplomatic residences in Naypyidaw's Dekkhinathiri Township, according to township police. The couple was threatened at knifepoint and brought to the area by four men riding two motorbikes near the capital's Junction Center shopping mall at about 1 am on Wednesday. The couple lived in the village of Thabyaybin in neighboring Lewe Township. The attackers bludgeoned and stabbed the man before gang-raping the woman, according to the surviving victim's report to police. "The girl then ran away and reached a security guard. Then she got to the police station in the morning," a police officer from the Dekkhinathiri Township Police Force told The Irrawaddy. "Police went to the crime scene and found the body of the male victim. We have turned the girl over to her parents and we are investigating the case." The male victim was found with multiple stab wounds and police have opened a case on charges of murder and rape. No suspects have yet been detained in connection with the attack. According to the Naypyidaw Police Force, Burma saw 654 cases of reported rape nationwide in 2012, rising to 734 in 2013. Through July of last year—the most recent data provided—a total of 470 rape cases were filed. The post Man Killed, Woman Gang-Raped in Capital: Police appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Ethnic Armed Groups Take Stock After Ceasefire Rift Posted: 01 Oct 2015 04:05 AM PDT  Representatives from the Karen National Union at an ethnic summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Wednesday. (Photo: Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy) CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The united front that ethnic armed groups have striven to maintain during almost two years of negotiations on a nationwide ceasefire agreement was upended this week, as ethnic groups were split on whether to ink an agreement the government is desperate to conclude this month. After a three-day summit in Chiang Mai which the Karen National Union insisted should be the last before a potential signing ceremony, only seven of 19 ethnic groups agreed to accede to the agreement. On Wednesday, ethnic leaders focused on building mutual understanding between the two factions, with those holdout groups pledging to sign as soon as the government accepted all armed groups as signatories. Gen Gun Maw, deputy chief-of-staff of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), told The Irrawaddy the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) would not live up to its "nationwide" label unless all stakeholders were included. "We have discussed this several times during past summits. If only some groups sign, they will just be signing the NCA-draft and it will not be regarded as a nationwide accord," he said. "But if the government accepts our [demand] for all-inclusivity, we would sign the NCA." The government has only accepted the 14 ethnic armed groups that have previously inked bilateral ceasefires with Naypyidaw since 2011, in addition to the KIO, as signatories. Three armed groups locked in ongoing conflict with government troops, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army, have been excluded. The government has also refused to accept noncombatant groups, the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU), Wa National Organization (WNO) and Arakan National Council (ANC), as signatories. Gun Maw said the KIO would not be pressured into signing the NCA while conflict continued between the Burma Army and Kachin, Ta'ang, Shan and Kokang armed groups. During talks on Wednesday, ethnic leaders agreed to dissolve the recently reconstituted negotiating bloc known as the Senior Delegation (SD). "Our SD has completed its task to finalize the NCA-single text, which has 15 chapters and 33 articles," said Pu Zing Cung, secretary of the Chin National Front and a former SD member. The ethnics' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team would continue to function, Pu Zing Cung said, to complete negotiations on the framework for political dialogue, a code of conduct and the formation of a joint monitoring committee. "We will continue negotiations with the government [to discuss including members of] those groups that have not yet signed on upcoming committees for drafting the political framework, the CoC and the JMC," he said. On Tuesday, seven ethnic armed groups agreed to sign the accord: the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF); Arakan Liberation Party (ALP); Chin National Front (CNF); Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA); Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNLA-PC); Karen National Union (KNU); and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO). But major armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the New Mon State Party (NMSP), the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), declined to sign until the agreement was open to all. The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), which has clashed on multiple occasions with the Burma Army in recent weeks, has not yet revealed its intentions. At a Sept. 9 meeting in Naypyidaw between President Thein Sein and the leaders of nine ethnic armed groups, the former pledged to address the issue of incorporating non-ceasefire groups into the peace process. However, over the ensuing weeks, ethnic groups' claim there was no further communication with the president on the issue, leaving the last major obstacle to an all-inclusive signing unaddressed. Nai Htaw Mon, the chair of another holdout group, the NMSP, said in a closing speech on Wednesday that the ethnics' divergence on the ceasefire pact had endangered ongoing collaboration. "Although the majority of [ethnic armed groups] are unable to sign yet, we had to follow the minorities' desires for the sake of our future unity," he said. However, most ethnic leaders were reluctant to openly criticize the decisions of other ethnic armed groups. For the political dialogue slated to follow the ceasefire signing, the government has stipulated that non-NCA signees can participate only as observers. However, the three non-armed groups outside the NCA process—the LDU, WNO and ANC—would be accepted as full participants. Kyu Dui, secretary of the Lahu Democratic Union, told The Irrawaddy that, if invited, his group would join the dialogue.
The post Ethnic Armed Groups Take Stock After Ceasefire Rift appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Mon Leader Slams Divisions Over Ceasefire Signing Posted: 01 Oct 2015 12:46 AM PDT  Nai Htaw Mon, chairman of the New Mon State Party, during an ethnic summit in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, this week. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy) A leading member of the New Mon State Party has hit out at the decision of some ethnic armed groups to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement, calling the decision-making process undemocratic. Of the 19 ethnic armed groups represented at a three-day meeting in northern Thailand which began on Monday, only seven indicated they would sign the much debated pact. "Only a minority will sign the ceasefire agreement. But we, the majority, had to [allow] their wishes for the sake of unity. It is not democratic," said Nai Htaw Mon, chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP). "It is our weakness that we have to follow the interests of the minority." Speaking at the ethnic summit in Chiang Mai on Wednesday, the NMSP chairman said ethnic leaders should look beyond narrow business interests and personal gain and consider ethnic unity. "We shouldn't focus on our own interests. We shouldn't forget our roots. We shouldn't forget our ethnic fellows," Nai Htaw Mon said. The NMSP is one of a handful of major ethnic armed groups, alongside the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), that have withheld support for a ceasefire that the government hopes to conclude in October. The seven groups backing the agreement are: the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF); Arakan Liberation Party (ALP); Chin National Front (CNF); Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA); Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNLA-PC); Karen National Union (KNU); and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO). Nai Htaw Mon warned that those ethnic groups committed to signing the pact should temper their expectations of the incumbent quasi-civilian government. "As [the government] didn't amend the constitution, can we be sure that we will get what we want? We have to consider it carefully," he said. The post Mon Leader Slams Divisions Over Ceasefire Signing appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| At the Khun Sa Museum, the House that Drugs Built Posted: 01 Oct 2015 12:41 AM PDT Click to view slideshow. CHIANG RAI PROVINCE, Thailand — Nestled under a dense canopy of trees in a valley between the hills of the Thai-Burma border, the military camp of Ban Therd Thai village once hosted one of the most lucrative drug-running empires in history. It is now home to a museum celebrating the life of its commander, once a towering figure in the global heroin trade, who enjoyed the protection of the former junta and was as admired by his acolytes and his community as much as he was reviled by Western governments. Khun Sa, the Shan-Chinese warlord who monopolized the Golden Triangle's opium harvest between the 1970s and the 1990s, is now immortalized in a statue at the entrance of the former camp, sitting astride a horse in a pose reserved for stone tributes of decorated military leaders in other countries. Before his surrender to the Burmese government in 1996, reputedly to escape extradition to the US on drugs charges, Khun Sa's camp was home to thousands of soldiers of the Mong Tai Army. Underground prison cells, each little more than a hole in the ground, held three prisoners in each bunker, usually soldiers who had violated the warlord's rules. Those soldiers responsible for graver crimes—such as using drugs, committing rape or selling their arms to enemy forces, were summarily executed. Inside Khun Sa's own spartan quarters, mementos of the late militia leader's life have been hung on display as relics. In his bedroom alongside his military uniform and a number of traditional Shan costumes are his walking stick and sword, while in the living room next door is another imposing sculpture of the man himself, seated with legs crossed at the table where he received distinguished guests. Khun Sa's control of the regional drug trade was notorious worldwide, and at the peak of his power he is believed to have commanded over 20,000 men. Over the course of the 1980s, heroin trafficked by the Mong Tai Army came to dominate global supply to the United States and other Western countries, leading the US Drug Enforcement Administration to unsuccessfully attempt his extradition. At numerous points he proposed selling his opium crop to Western countries in exchange for dismantling his trafficking empire. Locally, Khun Sa is remembered in a different light, with those who knew him before his death in 2007 fondly recalling him as a patriotic and charismatic leader Sai Khur Lurn, who served as a teacher under the Mong Tai Army, has worked to restore and maintain the old camp, turning it into a museum that seeks to promote the drug baron's legacy amongst the younger generation in eastern Shan State and Thailand. "People from his drug network pointed their fingers to him, so he was branded as an opium kingpin," Khur Lurn claimed. "Actually, he just collected tax from drug dealers and provided security for drug trafficking route." "He did it because he needed money for his army. He didn’t use the money for himself alone. He built schools, clinics, monasteries, and houses for orphans wherever he was based." The post At the Khun Sa Museum, the House that Drugs Built appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| SE Asia Seeks New Strategy to Fight ‘Slash and Burn’ Haze Problem Posted: 30 Sep 2015 10:43 PM PDT  A tourist wearing a face mask passes the hazy skyline of the Marina Bay Sands casino and resort in Singapore on June 18, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) KUALA LUMPUR — As a blanket of haze, caused by thick smoke from forest fires in Indonesia, covers parts of Southeast Asia, the region is struggling to find an effective response to the problem, experts said. The haze has caused health problems, flight delays and school closures across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in what has become an annual ordeal that has defied attempts by governments, businesses and green groups to tackle it. At the heart of the problem are palm oil plantation owners, who use cheap and easy slash-and-burn techniques to clear forests and meet rising global demand for the oil used for cooking and in household products from shampoo to ice cream. Experts stress that Indonesia, home to the world's third-largest tropical forest acreage, holds the key to the problem and needs to put into practice a long-term plan to enforce laws, tackle the fires and spend more on prevention. Margareth Sembiring, senior analyst at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the complexity of the issue means it is difficult to make the region haze-free. "Strengthening law enforcement in Indonesia is undoubtedly key in solving the problem," she said. Other experts say companies and consumers must also play a part by pushing for palm oil to be produced more sustainably. Environmental groups like Greenpeace have targeted companies in high-profile campaigns, and some firms have made commitments to help stop deforestation by palm oil plantation owners. Golden Agri-Resources, the world's second-largest listed palm planter by acreage, said last week it had stopped buying from a supplier punished by Indonesia for allegedly causing forest fires. Indonesia, the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly from deforestation, will be one of the countries under scrutiny at December's UN climate change conference, which will try to get legally binding commitments from the 120 member nations to cut CO2 emissions. Under criticism from its neighbors, the government has investigated more than 200 companies and ordered four to suspend operations for allegedly causing forest fires as it scrambles to control blazes on Sumatra and Kalimantan islands. Weak law enforcement in Indonesia is exacerbated by a lack of transparency about land ownership, making it harder to pinpoint and punish perpetrators, experts said. "Without a centralized, public map that shows resource ownership, it will remain hard to find the offending companies or landowners," said Andika Putraditama, Indonesia research analyst at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Indonesia last December launched its long-awaited "One Map" initiative, a comprehensive map of land ownership to provide clarity on the boundaries of land owned by companies, communities and the government. It is due to be completed in two to three years, but progress has been hampered by overlapping land use permits and other technical issues, experts said. Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said her ministry had given all data about the permits it had issued to the economy ministry, which is coordinating the project. "Basically, we want early prevention [of the fires], if possible starting now," she said in response to questions put by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She declined to comment on questions about the budget for fire prevention and efforts to make land allocation more transparent. Slow Regional Efforts Indonesia in 2014 became the last country to ratify the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (Asean) transboundary agreement to tackle haze, some 12 years after it was launched. The accord calls for concerted regional efforts to prevent or put out the fires—but every year June-September monsoon winds send thick smoke from Indonesia to Malaysia and Singapore. "It is important to understand that Asean stands on a sovereignty principle," said Sembiring. "The onus is on all member states to develop their own national policies and programs based on the agreement and implement them accordingly." Singapore went further after a surge in forest fires in Indonesia engulfed it in particularly thick haze in 2013, causing record levels of air pollution. The city state passed a law last year that allows it to sue companies or individuals—based in any country—that cause haze, a step that other nations could emulate to boost enforcement, Sembiring said. The haze has also led to calls for a boycott of products containing palm oil, but green groups say a more effective approach would be to boost sustainable production. The rapid growth of palm oil plantations, now covering over 11 million hectares in Indonesia—an area bigger than Iceland—has been a leading cause of fires and deforestation. Demand for sustainable palm oil is rising, and around a fifth of the world's palm oil is now certified as such by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body of consumers, green groups, plantation firms and consumer goods companies. RSPO standards require its members to stop cutting virgin forest, produce or source oil only from land to which growers have clear rights, and not to clear land by burning. Through satellite data and online maps the RSPO has tracked the origins of the current haze. The data showed no fire alerts at RSPO-certified palm oil concessions between January and August, compared with 627 at those without certification. The post SE Asia Seeks New Strategy to Fight 'Slash and Burn' Haze Problem appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| East Timor Primed for Legal Tussle with Australia Posted: 30 Sep 2015 10:24 PM PDT  Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop speaks during an ASEAN-Australia ministerial meeting at the Myanmar International Convention Centre in Naypyidaw, August 10, 2014. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) Thirteen years after winning independence from Indonesia, East Timor has to wage another struggle for justice with a more powerful neighbor—but this time in the courts, the nation's prime minister says. After two years of inconclusive technical talks, East Timor last week announced it was initiating arbitration with Australia on jurisdiction of a seabed petroleum field—the latest round of litigation in a messy dispute between the two countries over how they split lucrative oil and gas revenues. "We are claiming what belongs to us. It's an issue of sovereignty and an issue of justice," said Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo, who took office in February after independence hero Xanana Gusmao resigned to make way for a new generation of Timorese leaders. Araujo spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN. East Timor, an impoverished nation of 1.1 million, became a sovereign state in 2002. It depends on petroleum revenues for 90 percent of its economy and is concerned that funds could dry up within years. In the new litigation, East Timor is disputing Australia's exclusive right to the jurisdiction and taxation of the pipeline leading into a joint petroleum development area. Australia said last week it will defend against the legal action. It said that the treaty under which the two nations divide the revenues states that jurisdiction depends on where the pipeline lands, which is in northern Australia. East Timor has already challenged the validity of the 2006 treaty. It contends that Australia spied on it during negotiations for the treaty. And in 2013, it launched a legal action at the International Court of Justice after Australian police seized documents from a lawyer representing East Timor who allegedly witnessed the spying. The court banned Australia from using the seized documents and it returned them to East Timor. Araujo said the crux of the dispute with Australia is over where the maritime border in the Timor Sea lies. The territory jointly administered by the two countries currently follows a boundary set in 1972 when East Timor was still occupied by Indonesia. That boundary is much closer to the coast of East Timor than Australia. East Timor wants it to be set at a median line between them, so more of the petroleum fields would lie in its waters, so it would earn more revenue. In June, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told parliament that Australia would resist East Timor's effort to redraw the sea border between the nations as delineated under the 2006 treaty. She said the treaty was already generous enough. Under the current arrangements, revenues from the Bayu Undan gas and condensate field that has been exploited for the past decade are divided up 90-10 in East Timor's favor. But Araujo said the field has passed its peak production and is expected to dry up within five to ten years. Revenues from the planned Greater Sunrise field would be split 50-50, but 80 percent of the field lies in Australian waters so it would earn the lion's share if production starts. Araujo says despite the political disagreement over the oil revenues and maritime border, relations with Australia are good, and he has invited new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to visit East Timor. Still, Araujo likens the long-running legal travails to the 24-year armed struggle against Indonesian occupation that had left more than 170,000 dead—a struggle that few outsiders expected East Timor to win, until a UN-administered referendum in which its people voted for independence in 1999. "People were pessimistic, saying that Indonesia will never go out from East Timor because all the big Western powers were supporting Indonesia. The only thing we used as a strong moral and political motivating factor was international law," he said. "It may sound rhetorical, but we think that we are in the right side again." The post East Timor Primed for Legal Tussle with Australia appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Rising Anger in Thailand’s Boom-to-Bust Northeast Posted: 30 Sep 2015 10:13 PM PDT  Rice mill workers react in a mill in Udon Thani, Thailand, September 16, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) KHON KAEN, Thailand — The rural heartland of Thailand's deposed leader Yingluck Shinawatra and her exiled billionaire brother Thaksin is hurting as a result of the military government's economic policies, stirring discontent and the threat of protests. The removal of generous agricultural subsidies has left rice farmers in northeast Thailand struggling with mounting debts, and they will get little relief when they sell their crop in coming months with rice prices near an 8-year low. Petty crime is on the rise and retailers are struggling. The vast Platinum 168 shopping mall on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Udon Thani was built during the boom, but it is now less than a third occupied and no longer charging tenants rent. "People are complaining about the rising costs of living, of having no money for spending," said Teerasak Teecayuphan, the mayor of the neighboring provincial capital of Khon Kaen. "Their patience will gradually run out. Sooner or later this pot will boil over." Thaksin's "red shirts", many of whom hail from the northeast, have punctuated a decade of political turmoil in Thailand with protests on Bangkok's streets. Military attempts to disperse 10 weeks of protests in 2010 left scores dead and sparked the worst arson and rioting in Thailand's modern history. Thaksin has told his supporters to stay calm and "play dead", but some in Thailand's poorest region say it is only a matter of time before discontent overcomes fear of the military and people again take to the streets. "People want to protest," said Sabina Shah, a local leader of Thaksin's "red shirt" supporters in Khon Kaen. "But we have to wait for the right trigger. If we come out now in small numbers it's suicide. We are just lying low and waiting for the opportunity—when the government argue among themselves." The military toppled Yingluck's government in a May 2014 coup and have zealously enforced a ban on political activity. Both Shinawatras mobilized the rural poor to deliver landslide electoral victories with a mixture of development projects, social benefits and subsidies. Many in the northeast, also known as Isaan, think they are paying an economic price for their political allegiance. Coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha represents a largely Bangkok-based establishment that reviles the Shinawatras' populist policies and is threatened by their rural support base. His government has been austere in support for agriculture, which accounts for just under 10 percent of the country's economy. "It is quite bad for farmers, we have heavy debt," said Pursudar Koyto, in Ban Kampom, a village surrounded by verdant rice paddy fields nearly ready to harvest. "Prayuth's government could have done more, like what they did in the Thaksin era." While incomes improved under the Shinawatras, household incomes in Isaan are still the lowest in Thailand at just over 19,000 baht (US$522.98) per month. That is less than half the 43,000 baht of the Bangkok region, according to government statistics for 2013, the latest data available. Military Warns of National Fallout The junta has now made an about-turn on policy to breathe life into a moribund economy and head off rising discontent. Prayuth in August appointed Somkid Jatusripitak—one of the architects of Thaksin's policies—as his economic tsar. Somkid has prioritized reviving the rural economy, which employs nearly 40 percent of the workforce. "They are suffering," he told Reuters in an interview. "If these people don't have enough purchasing power it will hurt the whole system." Southeast Asia's second-largest economy has undershot government targets. The central bank cut its GDP growth forecast to 2.7 percent from 3 percent on Sept. 25, and to 3.7 percent from 4.1 percent for 2016. In 2014, growth was the slowest in three years at 0.9 percent. Somkid has announced a raft of measures, including soft loans through village funds, but the jury is still out on whether he can spur more growth. Somkid said he would inject more cash into the rural economy if needed. Worse to Come The signs of economic malaise in Isaan are widespread. Private investment, vehicle sales and property values have all fallen and farmers in the world's second-largest rice exporter expect things to get worse before they get better. Cash is already running out and many are selling cars and land to repay loans. Credit is scarce as banks tighten lending to battle rising bad debt. "I have to borrow to pay some debt back every year," said rice farmer Khamkong Banphod, in the village of Ku Kaew near Udon Thani. "Those facing hardship are the people who invested a lot of money and are now facing losses. They have their debt problems and are angry with the government." The margin for millers has been razor-thin since subsidies ended, said Somsak Tungphitukkul, who owns rice mills in Khon Kaen province. Many mills cannot turn a profit and have been mothballed or closed, he said. "It's going to be a nightmare for the rice industry if the government doesn't do something when the new crop comes in," he said. The post Rising Anger in Thailand's Boom-to-Bust Northeast appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| In Burma, Hell in a Very Small Place Posted: 30 Sep 2015 10:01 PM PDT  Muslim Rohingya women look out from the front of their home at Aung Mingalar quarter in Sittwe, August 13, 2013. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) There is no starker evidence of the ethnic cleansing that rocked the Arakan State capital, Sittwe, in Burma in 2012 than the Rohingya Muslim enclave of Aung Mingalar. Crammed into a couple short blocks in the town center, ringed by police and army checkpoints, Aung Mingalar was a middle-class neighborhood of traders and shop owners with Buddhist and Hindu neighbors before the communal violence that killed hundreds and displaced over 140,000. One village elder told me the people of Aung Mingalar defended the perimeter from Arakanese Buddhist attackers "and the Tatmadaw [Burmese military] arrived in time and we worked together to save our area." Since then, Aung Mingalar has been closed off from the rest of the city—and essentially the rest of the world. With the population down from 8,000 in 2012, it now contains 4,500 residents who live in almost total isolation. Many children look malnourished. There are open sewers. Many residents, who might smile at the few foreigners granted permission to visit, look scared and haunted. Many expressed fear of being attacked again by their Buddhist neighbors living just streets away. Government officials appear genuine in guaranteeing the safety of the people here, and there have been no attacks since 2012. But that approach is clearly operating in parallel to a scheme to make life so miserable that residents will leave for rural camps or join the maritime exodus of Rohingya that dramatically increased in 2015. The enclave has a primary school and some rudimentary shops. A couple of times a week, residents can visit markets to buy food in the camp zone for internally displaced people that rings Sittwe, where 95,000 Rohingya live—but they have to pay for a police security escort. The government has presented the people of Aung Mingalar with a cruel Catch-22 in what passes for citizenship policy in Burma. After being granted voting rights in the 2008 referendum and the 2010 elections, many Rohingya were this year stripped of their temporary ID cards, a mass disenfranchisement. They have been urged to enter a verification process to determine their citizenship eligibility, but can succeed only as long as they identify themselves as "Bengali," not Rohingya, and can miraculously qualify under the draconian 1982 Citizenship Law. Even if some get full citizenship, this is unlikely to guarantee full respect for their rights as anti-Muslim ultra-nationalism grows in Burma. As the people of Sittwe head to vote in the national elections on November 8, the people of Aung Mingalar, in their isolation and squalor, will look out and see clearly the government's intention to deny them their basic freedoms. David Scott Mathieson is Senior Researcher, Asia Division, with Human Rights Watch. This article first appeared here as one of HRW's "dispatches." The post In Burma, Hell in a Very Small Place appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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