Sunday, March 12, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine


Mon Women Urge Strong and United Voice for Equality

Posted: 11 Mar 2017 08:27 PM PST

The Mon Women's Organization urges government to take responsibility for lack of women participating in the peace process and development of Burma.

The post Mon Women Urge Strong and United Voice for Equality appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Shan Herald Agency for News

Shan Herald Agency for News


Commentary on " UWSA fires a salvo of criticism at peace process"

Posted: 12 Mar 2017 05:01 AM PDT

The UWSA venturing into the national-level politics, through its acceptance of the legacy in being part of the "Federated Shan State", that came into being in 1922 under the British and later as "Shan State" on the eve of the independence, could be said as a progress.


It is a progress as it seems to be abandoning the approach that it could directly handle its aspiration of separate statehood directly with the Burmese center and starting to accept the fact that its future is tied to that of the Shan State as a whole, somewhat similar to the arrangement of Federated Shan State within the context of decentralization and self-rule.

This is not to say that the Federated Shan State that had to answer to the British Governor was perfect but only the way in managing the territories in a federal sense and its decentralization. The Federated Shan State then had some 33 principalities. The Wa, Danu, Pa-O and Palaung all had their own principality with their own chosen traditional leader.

The second point that the Wa now become a staunch supporter of the Panglong Agreement, and also equating or interpreting it with "the right of self-determination, democracy and equality" as the Shan and ethnic nationalities "political legacy" that could not be nullified, is that it now sees the situation that all ethnic nationalities should be united in their struggle to regain back their lost rights that have been robbed by the successive Bamar-dominated military governments, since 1962 military coup.

It should be noted that prior to the 1962 military coup, the then U Nu government and all the ethnic leaders had sought to correct the flawed 1947 Union of Burma Constitution, within the parliament, to be more equitable and federal, as it was federal only in name but in essence it was unitary.

The recent 21st Century Panglong Conference is, in fact, a replay of the 1962 Federal Amendment Debate and history is now repeating itself. It is not a wonder that the ethnic nationalities don't want to be tricked again this time.

As the Wa and many ethnic leaders see that the recent peace process is lop-sided and in favor of the Bamar political class and the Tatmadaw, it needs to be corrected to become a level playing field, more thoughts and consideration should be given to the Panghsang initiated peace overtures rather than just to reject it out of hand.

THE BURMA ARMY - SCHOOL FOR SEXUAL SADISTS

Posted: 12 Mar 2017 04:57 AM PDT

Last week the Permanent People's Tribunal on Myanmar's State Crimes against Rohingya, Kachin and other groups was held in London. Its objective was to determine if the actions of Burma's military dictatorship constitute crimes against humanity.


The People's Tribunal found that the charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide have merit, and that the regime should be indicted in a court that holds jurisdiction (e.g., the International Criminal Court). Unfortunately, this is only a recommendation. However, the conclusion has been affirmed, for the Rohingya crisis, by U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee. She conducted her own investigation and determined that crimes against humanity against the Rohingya are being perpetrated.

The United Nations, unlike the tribunal, has formal power. It can respond by launching a Commission of Inquiry through to action in the Security Council.

The BBC covered all of this yesterday, in its article Myanmar Muslim minority subject to horrific torture, UN says.

"Contacted by the BBC, both the UK and the EU refused to say they would support the establishment of a commission of inquiry."

"Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in power almost a year, declined an interview."

It has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the military regime has committed crimes against humanity. But, there is a conspiracy of denial by those parties who have an ability to act. This is revolting. For the ethnic nationalities of Burma, it adds insult to injury.

For Suu Kyi, whatever the reason for her silence, from political calculation through to outright personal racism, at this point it doesn't really matter. It is clear not only that she won't help, but that she will continue to protect the regime savages. As I and others have argued, through this cover-up she is complicit in their crimes.

For Europe, its behavior is so bad that it is almost enough to make you wish the Nazis had won. Europe experienced the worst barbarity in history, but today's political leaders don't seem to have learned the lesson. This is apparently because it didn't happen to them personally, and since the people who suffered the worst were the Jews. Now, whenever other minorities are slaughtered around the world, they don't care, either. The leaders have no empathy at all. For Burma, they are blinded by its business prospects. They are the worst possible hypocrites. They act high and mighty - look how advanced we are with all of our social programs, but internationally they are still colonialists.

The examination that has been underway in turn raises the question, just how bad is the Tatmadaw? For example, is the dictatorship as bad as the Nazi SS, and which among other crimes ran Germany's concentration camps? Indeed, is it even possible to be as evil as that?

I would argue that the Tatmadaw and the police and, for the crimes against the Rohingya, their racist partners from the general public, are actually worse than the SS. The Nazis murdered on an industrial scale. But to my knowledge they didn't gang rape women and even little girls, and throw their baby brothers and sisters on fires or cut them in half with field knives. No doubt with some exceptions (Josef Mengele, etc.), they didn't inflict torture and pain to derive sadistic pleasure. Burma Army soldiers are serial killer pedophile sadists. It's clear they use their imagination and do the worst things they can think of. There are individual psychopaths in all countries who exhibit this behavior, sadist killers, but in Burma the dictatorship has turned them into an institution. You could even call the Tatmadaw their school. Even ISIS, when they burn people or thrown them off buildings or do mass beheadings - it's not the same thing. They are clearly trying to be as brutal as possible, to shock the world. But it doesn't seem like they achieve a sadist's blood lust and sexual satisfaction. Even though it's a rough estimate, over the last thirty years, first with the barbarity in Eastern Burma against the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Kachin, and now in the West against the Rohingya, there must be literally thousands of sexual psychopathic sadists. This is unprecedented. It's also a barrier to any future peace. Such individuals should be punished. To the extent that they are not, and they remain free in society, they will want to perpetrate new atrocities. The pattern is well known. Sadism is addictive. Really, the psychopaths feel compelled to do it. That Suu Kyi doesn't recognize this, that her beloved regime is an army of depraved monsters, is her worst failure, and denial.

Link story : http://www.dictatorwatch.org/prBurmasexualsadists.html

Commentary on "Never let it be like throwing water on the sand!"

Posted: 12 Mar 2017 04:53 AM PDT

The Global New Light of Myanmar opinion piece that asked critical question and as well, predicted scenario that could be met for failing to rid of ourselves from narrow-mindedness and short-term visions would be like throwing water on the sand, is worthy of further critical thinking.


First of all, if all parties involved in the whole political spectrum and military conflict are on the same page that we all are in the situation going down the path of throwing water into the sand, which literally means conflict scenario without end, or better, on the road to destruction.

If we are in agreement this continuing trend would put all of us - Bamar political class, Bamar military, ethnic political leadership and ethnic armed organizations, into a mutually destructive future of lose-lose scenario.

If the answer is a big "YES", then we could continue to dwell on the hypothesis of finding a solution to this situation. But if one party or the other is of the opinion that it is capable of achieving a "win-lose" outcome that would benefit itself, we could disregard this solution-finding and go back to achieving result through conflict-employing mode.

This writer doesn't like to make judgment who is right and who is wrong at this stage. Suffice is to say that if all adversaries or negotiation partners are in agreement to find a solution through political means, on equal basis, we could continue to find ways for a political settlement.

Now let us say that finding a solution through political means is accepted literally in words and deeds, we now need to find some guidelines that are basic to peaceful negotiation that is being practiced in all political and armed conflict settlement.

Regarding our conflict situation, in a nutshell, we have political grievances that are embedded in the controversial constitution and political power distribution, or should we say "constitutional crisis", and the other, the armed conflict that is, in fact, the ramification of the political grievances.

And in order to approach the solution stage, two thing is crucially essential: one is the "political will" or the vision that peaceful solution is the sole way out and the other, "treating all adversaries or negotiation partners as equal".

The main flaw in the present government initiated peace process failed, as the said two factors were not seriously taken into account.

In concrete terms, the government and military should accept that their adversaries, particularly the ethnic armed and unarmed organizations' demands, which call for a shared-sovereignty, with equitable power-sharing, is a legitimate concern and not its (government and military) sole ownership domain or taken for granted as god-given.

Another most important factor to make the solution-finding feasible is to embrace that all negotiation partners are equal and not employing the government-military's attitude of paternalistic, where the all-powerful authority is negotiating the term of surrender to forcibly fit into its prescribed political mold, understood by the ethnic nationalities as Bamar ethnocentrism and watered down semblance of federal union anchored in unitary system of governance.

If this two major flaws could be corrected or overcome, there is every possibility that the scenario of throwing water into the sand could be diverted. Otherwise, we will be on our way to self-destruction, whether we like it or not.

Link to the story: http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/never-let-it-be-like-throwing-water-on-the-sand/