AllSBNews: 02/19/16

Friday, February 19, 2016

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Union Parliament Office Rejects Criticism of MPs’ Training
CNF Calls for Chin National Day to be State Holiday
Less Than One Percent of Rangoon-Dala Bridge Budget Allocated to Land Compensation
Eastern Shan State Villagers Flee, Fearing Wa Army Recruitment
Protests Against India Student Leader’s Arrest Spread
North Korea Satellite Tumbling in Orbit Again: US Sources
New VietJet Fleet Billed as Boost to Air Safety in the Region
Palace: Health of Thai King Improving, Still Has Infection
Scarred By Trafficking Abuses, Rohingya Stay Put in Camps

Union Parliament Office Rejects Criticism of MPs’ Training

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 03:30 PM PST

Participants at a training course for newly minted MPs in Naypyidaw, Feb. 16. (Photo: NLD Chairperson / Facebook)

RANGOON — The office of the Union Parliament issued a statement on Thursday rebutting online criticism regarding this week's induction program for newly minted lawmakers.

Beginning on Monday, the five-day training course, jointly organized by the parliament, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), covered the themes of democracy, public leadership, ethics and the responsibilities of lawmakers.

Parliamentary representatives from Australia, the UK, Pakistan and the Philippines were among foreign guests to share their expertise.

The Union Parliament Office on Thursday criticized some posts on social media regarding the training that it labeled misleading and harmful to the reputation of the Parliament and affiliated international organizations.

"The Union Parliament asks people to be mindful of such negative posts, especially at a time when the authorities concerned are trying hard for a smooth transition of power and democratization," the statement read.

Citing the participation of foreign guests in the training, some online users had questioned whether the Parliament was "now under foreign influence." One user wrote that "white men are wandering around in the Parliament," while another asked, "Why [is a man from] Pakistan lecturing the Burmese Parliament?"

The parliamentary office said that the UNDP and IPU had been collaborating on strengthening the Parliament for the past five years.

The overwhelming majority of Burma's MPs involved in the training were from the National League for Democracy, which won nearly 80 percent of contested seats in last November's general election.

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CNF Calls for Chin National Day to be State Holiday

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 03:23 PM PST

Chin State's famous heart-shaped Rih Lake, which lies nestled amid the Chin Hills of northwestern Burma, not far from the border with India. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The Chin National Front (CNF), one of Burma's ethnic armed groups, has called on the government to designate Chin National Day—Feb. 20—as an official holiday in Chin State.

"[We] seriously urge the current and incoming governments to once again make Chin National Day an official holiday in Chin State, as the Chin public wanted in accordance with the nationwide ceasefire agreement," CNF said in a statement issued on Thursday.

CNF is among eight signatories of the Oct. 15 nationwide ceasefire agreement. This year will mark the 68th anniversary of Chin National Day.

The long-time ban on events to mark Chin National Day was lifted following the signing of a bilateral ceasefire agreement on Dec. 9, 2012, between CNF and government representatives.

The CNF's call was preceded by a similar request from the Mon National Day Celebration Committee earlier this month. The committee sent a letter to President Thein Sein on Feb. 9, urging him to designate Mon National Day as an official holiday. The letter was copied to chairs of Mon National Day committees as well as to chief ministers in Karen and Mon states and Mandalay, Rangoon, Pegu and Tenasserim divisions.

Rangoon Division authorities on Feb. 3 initially denied permission to Chin and Karen groups in the former capital to use a church to mark their respective national days. Authorities later overturned their decision, however, and allowed the city's ethnic Chin community to hold a national day celebration on Feb. 20 in Ahlone Township, according to a Feb. 15 statement.

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Less Than One Percent of Rangoon-Dala Bridge Budget Allocated to Land Compensation

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 03:10 PM PST

Tin Oo, the director of the Department of Bridges within Burma's Ministry of Construction. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The government paid compensation to 66 landowners on February 17 to partially cover losses to be incurred during the construction of a bridge connecting downtown Rangoon with Dala Township.

The five-year, South Korea-funded bridge project, also being called the Korea-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, will cost an estimated US$168 million. South Korea's Economic Development Cooperation Fund provided Burma with a 40-year, US$138 million loan for the project at an interest rate of only 0.01 percent.

The bridge will start from Lanmadaw Township's Phone Gyi Street in Rangoon and connect to Dala, which is located across the Rangoon River. Tens of thousands of Dala residents work in the commercial capital and rely on daily ferries or wooden sampans to commute across the river. Many hope that the construction of the bridge will improve transportation.

Tin Oo, director of the Department of Bridges under the Ministry of Construction, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that they had written cheques worth 977 million kyats (US$793,000) in total to 68 landlords suffering losses from the project.

"We told them to withdraw the money this month," he said.

But two of the landowners refused to accept the compensation.

In accordance with the allocated budget, Tin Oo explained that the Department of Bridges could only compensate for land loss; the budget has designated funds to pay for the destruction of buildings in the project area, and the cost of rebuilding structures after the bridge is finished.

"We have collected details for the compensation, including the houses, markets, shops, schools, religious buildings and institutional items such as water pipes and electricity posts. We all agreed to compensate for them at the proper rates," he explained.

But at these rates, Tin Oo acknowledged that the compensation costs add up to 3.3 billion kyats (US$2.6 million). "We only have one billion kyats (over US$811,000) for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. We have to pay these one billion kyats as compensation. We still have to negotiate with the remaining landlords so that they will accept."

Tin Oo said that after outgoing President Thein Sein made the deal with South Korea during his visit to the country in 2012, the project began in April 2013. For nine months, Korea's Sambo Engineering Co. Ltd. collaborated with engineering consultants to complete an assessment of the social and environmental impacts of the bridge on the Rangoon River.

He added that the designing of the bridge would require another year of work and following its completion, construction would be initiated. The planned time of construction will tentatively be 2019-2020.

Translated and adapted from the original Q and A format by Nyein Nyein.

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Eastern Shan State Villagers Flee, Fearing Wa Army Recruitment

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 10:37 PM PST

A checkpoint to enter the UWSA-controlled area in the Wa autonomous region in Shan State. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy)

Over 100 villagers from Mongyang Township in eastern Shan State have fled their homes this year due to rumors that the United Wa State Army (UWSA) would come to forcibly recruit them.

The 105 people from Wankan and Kyaikham villages have left their homes and are now staying in another community in Mongloi village tract, according to the Mongloi village administrator, Sai Loi Kyauk.

"Twenty households have fled to our village since the end of January," he said. "They were terrified by the rumors that Wa soldiers would come for recruitment."

Locals have been providing those displaced with shelter, rice and clothing, the administrator said.

"We are Shan and they are ethnic Palaung, who ran from the next mountain," he said of the displaced families, referring to the Ta'ang by their name in the Shan language. "No such incident has happened before here."

A UWSA spokesperson, Kyauk Shauk Hpu, told The Irrawaddy that his organization had no knowledge of the displacement or the rumors of conscription. Kyauk Kaw Arn, the head of UWSA's international relations department, also denied the allegations.

"The UWSA does not do any forced recruitment of our local people. The news on the state-run media is not a concrete source. There are no residents running from our area," he said.

On Wednesday, the military-owned Myawaddy newspaper stated that the UWSA had been recruiting one person per household and that every man and woman over 16 years old would have to join their armed group.

Mongyang Township is not under the official control of the UWSA, but their troops are known to be active in the region. The Wa army was given a self-administrated region including six Shan State townships—Panghsang, Hopang, Mongmao, Panwai, Nahpan and Metma—according to provisions in Article 56(f) of the 2008 military-backed Constitution. But Wa authorities have also spoken of expanding their area of influence, citing the existence of Wa communities in other townships.

Headquartered in Panghsang, the UWSA is estimated to have between 20,000 and 25,000 troops, making it the largest of Burma's many ethnic armed groups. The group signed a ceasefire with Burma's military government in 1989, but has since been involved in armed conflict with other ethnic armed groups in Shan State.

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Protests Against India Student Leader’s Arrest Spread

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 09:13 PM PST

A demonstrator shouts slogans and waves the Indian national flag as she takes part in a protest demanding the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student union leader accused of sedition, in New Delhi, India, February 18, 2016. (Photo: Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters)

NEW DELHI — A protest that rocked a New Delhi university this week spread across India on Thursday, with students and teachers in at least 10 cities demanding the release of a student leader arrested on sedition charges and accused of being anti-Indian.

The protesters were outraged by nationally televised scenes of Kanhaiya Kumar, the student union president at Jawaharlal Nehru University, being kicked and punched while he was escorted to a court hearing Wednesday, renewing allegations that the Hindu nationalist governing party is intolerant.

He was arrested last Friday over his participation in events where anti-India slogans were allegedly shouted. A New Delhi court has ordered him to stay in custody for two weeks. The court will hear his bail plea on Friday.

The demands for the student's freedom in the Indian capital were met by mobs of Hindu nationalists, including many lawyers, attacking students and accusing them of being anti-Indian.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and other Hindu groups accuse left-wing student groups of anti-nationalism because of their criticism of the 2013 execution of a Kashmiri separatist convicted of an attack on Parliament.

Kumar's treatment and attacks on teachers who supported him have triggered allegations that the Modi government and the BJP are cracking down on political dissent in the name of patriotism.

Soon after the protests began, India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that anyone shouting anti-India slogans "will not be tolerated or spared."

The violence by lawyers occurred despite the Supreme Court ordering the police to ensure security in the court and has drawn wide criticism of the lawyers and police.

"Such a deliberate obstruction of justice amounts to constitutional contempt and cannot go unpunished," said Maja Daruwala of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

The Bar Council of India said it had appointed a three-member panel to investigate the violence by lawyers.

"We are going to take a strong action against them," Council president Manan Kumar Mishra said. "We are going to punish the lawyers if they are found guilty," he said before apologizing on behalf of the lawyer community.

On Thursday, students in at least 10 Indian cities marched through the streets and denounced Kumar's arrest.

In New Delhi, thousands of students, professors and journalists gathered in the center of the city. They carried flowers as a sign of peace, Indian flags and placards saying, "Free Speech under attack" and "Just because I don't agree, doesn't mean I am an anti-national."

Police said the rally was not authorized, but allowed the march to proceed to a central space used frequently for public protests.

In the southern city of Chennai, 40 students were arrested after they clashed with police.

In Kolkata, police were on alert as two groups of students held rival rallies in the Jadavpur University campus. Student groups affiliated with the BJP demanded strict action against Kumar and others who they accused of being anti-Indian.

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North Korea Satellite Tumbling in Orbit Again: US Sources

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 09:09 PM PST

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a banquet for contributors of the recent rocket launch, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on February 15, 2016. (Photo: KCNA / Reuters)

WASHINGTON — North Korea's recently launched satellite is once again tumbling in orbit, after stabilizing briefly, according to a US official and other sources.

The satellite update came as a key congressional watchdog agency said the US military had not demonstrated its ability to protect the United States against a possible North Korea missile attack.

Earlier this month North Korea launched what it said was an earth observation satellite but what the country's neighbors and the United States called a missile test. It was earlier believed to have achieved stable orbit but not to have transmitted data back to Earth.

The US official, and two other sources with knowledge of the issue, said they are less concerned about the function of the satellite than with the technology involved in launching it. They added that the launch was clearly intended to demonstrate North Korea's ability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The US Government Accountability Office, the research arm of Congress, highlighted concerns about missile attacks from North Korea in a report released on Wednesday.

"GMD flight testing, to date, was insufficient to demonstrate that an operationally useful defense capability exists," the GAO said. GMD is an acronym for a ground-based missile defense system.

The report said that the missile defense system, or the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, had only demonstrated "a partial capability against small numbers of simple ballistic missile threats."

Ken Todorov, former deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the organization faced a difficult balancing act in meeting the needs of the US military and operating with limited resources for testing.

Last month the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful test of the ground-based US missile defense system managed by Boeing Co aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of a redesigned "kill vehicle" built by Raytheon Co.

The test purposely did not include an intercept by a ground-based interceptor but was designed to demonstrate the ability of new "divert thrusters" that were developed by Raytheon to maneuver the warhead.

The report said that while there were benefits in the way the agency was acquiring the kill vehicle, challenges remained.

It added that the Pentagon's goal to reach 44 ground-based missile defense systems by the end of 2017 was based on a "highly optimistic, aggressive schedule" leading to "high-risk acquisition practices."

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New VietJet Fleet Billed as Boost to Air Safety in the Region

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 09:04 PM PST

A worker pumps fuel into a Vietjet Air A320 aircraft, in front of a Vietnam Airlines aircraft at Tan Son Nhat airport in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh city October 20, 2013. (Photo: Kham / Reuters)

RANGOON — Vietnam's budget airline VietJet announced on Thursday that it signed a US$3.04 billion deal with engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney for an engine to power the carrier's dozens of new aircraft, which was billed as increasing the safety of travelers from Burma and beyond.

VietJet has ordered 63 Airbus A320neo and A321neo models and in the statement said that the deal is one of three new agreements this year to add improvements to their services, all of which are aimed at improving the safety of their passengers. VietJet will also provide flight crew training at its training center on its incoming A320 fleet.

Didier Lux, head of Airbus customer services, said, "We are delighted to provide VietJet with equipment and materials for flight and maintenance training. We are committed to expanding our services footprint in Vietnam and the region, including Thailand, Singapore and Burma."

"Teaming-up with VietJet through our first training services agreement in Vietnam is a major milestone to deliver training by Airbus in the region, and it ensures more efficient service, support and proximity to our customers."

There is currently a route between Rangoon and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, operating with a frequency of five return flights per week.

State-owned Vietnam Airlines has flown the route between Ho Chi Minh City and Rangoon for the past five years. Communist-ruled Vietnam's first private airline to be granted an operating license, VietJet flies 33 routes inside Vietnam and within the region.

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Palace: Health of Thai King Improving, Still Has Infection

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 08:50 PM PST

A boy walks in front of a picture of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej hanging from a public building to mark his 88th birthday, in Bangkok December 5, 2015. (Photo: Jorge Silva / Reuters)

BANGKOK — The health of Thailand's 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is improving, though he still has an infection, the royal palace announced Thursday.

The palace bulletin said the fever, fatigue and occasional high blood pressure he was suffering earlier this week had eased, though a blood test found he still had an infection. He was being given two antibiotics intravenously and was also receiving oxygen and physical therapy.

Bhumibol is the world's longest-reigning monarch. His health has limited his participation in public affairs in recent times, and he has lived in a Bangkok hospital for most of the past six years. While he has been a stabilizing figure through much of his reign, worries about succession have contributed to Thailand's political instability in the past decade.

Thursday's announcement said doctors were waiting for other test results and will closely watch the king's condition.

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Scarred By Trafficking Abuses, Rohingya Stay Put in Camps

Posted: 18 Feb 2016 06:08 PM PST

Win Naing, a 43-year-old Rohingya, lives in Thet Kel Pyin IDP camp in Rakhine State with his wife and three young children. (PHOTO: Thin Lei Win / Myanmar Now)

THET KEL PYIN, Rakhine State — After Husaina's 20-year-old son fled poverty and discrimination in Myanmar's Rakhine State by boat, she heard nothing from him for seven months.

Then, in a shocking phone call, she was told the young Rohingya Muslim was in the hands of people smugglers in Thailand, and had fallen severely ill. The only way for him to be released was to somehow find the money to pay a ransom.

"The man said: 'If you don't pay money, he will die… I was so upset. How did he get into the hands of the brokers? How did he become so ill?'" she said, her eyes downcast while sitting in her dank and crumbling one-room temporary home in Thet Kel Pyin displacement camp, a few kilometres outside Sittwe.

They found an employer in Malaysia willing to pay about $1,600 in exchange for Mamed Rohim's labor. That was over a year ago and Rohim is still working to repay the debt. He only manages to send over about $50 every two to three months, which the family uses to repay their own debts.

Since fleeing their home in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar from which they are now barred, the family—seven other children and an asthmatic husband—is struggling to make ends meet. But Husaina says Rohim's plight continues to haunt her.

"Even though I want to send other children on the boat so they could find jobs, I'm really worried about the brokers so I dare not," she said, as a Rohingya neighbor joined in with a similar tale.

Waves of Rohingya Muslims have fled communal violence and apartheid-like conditions in Myanmar in recent years, many of them swept up in trafficking rings, some of which hold men like Rohim for ransom, making threats to their impoverished families that their loved ones will be killed.

But human rights groups say there has been a dramatic drop in the number of Rohingya leaving Myanmar this year. They attribute this to a crackdown on human trafficking by countries such as Thailand and Malaysia and the political changes at home following the National League for Democracy's landslide election win in November.

The Myanmar government does not recognize the 1.1 million Rohingya as citizens and calls them "Bengalis," to suggest they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The group is banned from travel within Myanmar and faces restrictions on access to education and healthcare.

Experiences such as Husaina's are common among the Rohingya, confined to the squalid displacement camps outside Sittwe. The stories are shared among residents, making many fearful of the multi-day journey. Most of the Rohingya this correspondent spoke to say they are now too scared to attempt it.

"There have been very few boats since the sailing season started in October and none at all this year, 2016. The key reason is that smugglers have no option for disembarkation due to Thailand being virtually closed. Another is the situation in Malaysia (where) there are regular immigration raids," Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group which tracks migration, told Myanmar Now.

Malaysian police have carried out arrests of asylum seekers queuing up at the offices of the U.N. refugee agency in the last week or so, and some 2,500 Rohingya are currently held in immigration detention centres across Malaysia, Lewa said.

"The majority of Rohingya who arrived over the last two, three years are unregistered and jobs have become really difficult to find… The community feels very vulnerable," she added.

Matthew Smith, executive director of Thailand-based human rights group Fortify Rights, agrees numbers leaving Rakhine have dropped, even though it is difficult to quantify the decrease in departures due to the clandestine nature of the voyages.

He warned, however, that the transnational trafficking rings have not been dismantled and "are poised to resume their activities at the first opportunity."

Hope Keeps Some in Myanmar

Since 2012 – when communal violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya displaced some 140,000 people, an overwhelming majority of them Muslims – tens of thousands have left Rakhine State by boat.

What began decades ago as a journey that would take weeks on rickety boats, has in recent years become a mass people trafficking and smuggling business. The trafficking grew to such a scale that it lead to a crackdown by Thai and Malaysian authorities last year.

In Thet Kel Pyin, home to some 5,6 00 displaced people, most of the Rohingya who have stayed behind have now settled down to a life of daily survival and a feeling that segregation is becoming more and more permanent.

Displaced teenagers now go to a high school near the camp that did not exist two years ago, and aid agencies as well as the government has set up more schools and clinics in and near the camps.

Despite continued government restrictions, some Rohingya have not left because they are holding out hope for the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, said Smith of Fortify Rights.

"Many Muslims in Rakhine State tell us they hope Daw Suu will usher in a better day for them. Anything, they say, will be better than the past," he said.

This hope is held despite the fact that the Rakhine State parliament is dominated by the virulently anti-Muslim Arakan National Party (ANP). The NLD itself failed to field a single Muslim candidate and has refused to condemn the persecution faced by the Rohingya, who are viewed with suspicion by many in Myanmar.

Sultan, 65, said the NLD government now offers the best hope for change. He says he is too old to go anywhere and refuses to countenance sending his daughters away, even though life in the camp is a far cry from his old life as the owner of three small businesses and a brick house in Sittwe.

He now goes around selling 150-kyat (12 cents) tooth powder in the villages and camps, driving a motorcycle a friend has bought for him.

"I feel really desolate over losing our right to vote, but I have hopes that things would improve under the new government," he said, surrounded by his wife and seven daughters, the youngest of whom was just 26 days old.

The Thein Sein government took away the Rohingya's last official identity papers last year, and with it their right to vote, prompting an outcry from the international community, who have been providing aid to the Rohingya.

Sultan said, "We are really thankful for the international community for helping us and I know we are still alive because of their help. But we want to stand on our own two feet. We just want to go back to where we were before."

Tales of Abuse

For others, the tales of abuse during the boat journey are a powerful deterrent. Win Naing, a 43-year-old with three young children under the age of five, said, "What would my children and my wife do if something happened to me on the boat or in Thailand? I would rather die here."

Kawri Mullah, Husaina's neighbour, concurs. About six weeks ago, the 25-year-old father of two decided to leave the camp, desperate for a stable income that odd jobs cannot provide. But he has abandoned the plan for now after thinking it over, he told Myanmar Now.

His decision was influenced by what happened to his brother-in-law, who left the camp a year and a half ago and was sold by his broker to a butcher in Thailand for $850.

"He left with only two packs of energy biscuits. When they reached Thailand, a butcher apparently liked that my brother-in-law looks big and strong," Mullah said.

After months of no pay and little to eat, the brother-in-law ran away to find another employer, but the butcher found him, and threatened and took him away, according to Mullah. That was nearly five months ago and the last time they heard from him. He wasn't able to send any money back.

"I'm really scared after hearing his story. How can you live like that? I have two children and a wife. Here, even if I die, I have my family near me," he said.

This story first appeared on Myanmar Now.

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