Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

EU Mulls More Measures Against Myanmar Army Over Rakhine

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 07:38 AM PDT

YANGON — The European Council will review "all practical defense cooperation" with the Myanmar Army and may consider additional measures if the situation in Rakhine State does not improve.

"In the light of the disproportionate use of force carried out by the security forces, the EU and its member states will suspend invitations to the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar armed forces and other senior military officers and review all practical defense cooperation," it stated on Monday in its conclusions on Myanmar adopted by the EU Council.

The statement highlighted current EU restrictive measures including an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression in Myanmar. The EU may consider additional measures if the situation does not improve but also stands "ready to respond accordingly to positive developments," according to the statement.

Tensions in Rakhine reached a tipping point when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked police stations and an army base on Aug. 25 in what it called a move to obtain rights for self-identifying Rohingya.

Thousands of Arakanese were internally displaced by the militant violence and an ensuing army crackdown forced about 534,000 self-identifying Rohingya to flee for Bangladesh.

The European Council follows the British government's suspension last month of its training program with the Myanmar Army in light of the army's security operations in Rakhine State, which have been dogged by allegations of human rights abuses against the self-identifying Rohingya.

The EU Council called on all sides to bring an immediate end to the violence and urged the Myanmar Army to end its operations and ensure the protection of all civilians without discrimination.

The council said it would support the Myanmar government in order to ensure the "swift and full" recommendations of former UN chief Kofi Annan's commission on the state, including the "crucial issue of citizenship for the stateless Rohingya population."

The council added the EU would continue its work helping the government address the challenges of its democratic transition.

"When so many people are displaced so quickly this strongly indicates a deliberate action to expel a minority. Therefore it is of utmost importance that refugees can return in safety and dignity," it stated.

It reiterated its call on the government to defuse tensions between communities and grant full, safe and unconditional humanitarian access without delay, including for UN, ICRC, and international NGOs.

The council also urged the government to cooperate with the Human Rights Council's independent international Fact-Finding Mission and to allow it full access to the country without delay.

The EU Council's adopted conclusions also called the government to restore humanitarian access to all communities affected by conflicts in Kachin and Shan states, including to 100,000 internally displaced people.

The post EU Mulls More Measures Against Myanmar Army Over Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Presidential Proposal to Change Fiscal Year

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 06:29 AM PDT

YANGON — A presidential proposal to change the national fiscal year was submitted to the Union Parliament on Thursday in Naypyitaw.

The Myanmar government's fiscal year is the 12-month period beginning on 1 April and ending on 31 March. President U Htin Kyaw submitted a letter to Parliament late last month urging lawmakers to change it to 1 October through to 30 September starting from the 2018-19 financial year.

Fiscal years vary in different countries—156 countries follow the calendar year while 12 countries including the United States, Laos and Thailand use the October-September period. Myanmar has been practicing the April-March fiscal year since 1974.

On Tuesday, the first day of Parliament after more than a month-long break, the deputy minister U Maung Maung Win for the planning and finance ministry took the floor, saying that the possible redetermination was based on the nature of slow, local infrastructure businesses and a long New Year holiday in the early period of the current fiscal year.

"The construction industry doesn't have much business during monsoon while there is effective operation and no long holidays starting from October," U Maung Maung Win said, endorsing the proposal at Parliament. He added that changing it would balance the accounting process for businesses and institutions.

The determination of the fiscal year is mainly based on a country's economic mission, monetary and financial policies, he said.

The issue was brought into parliamentary discussion late last year by a lawmaker and was later discussed during the meeting of the union financial commission held in July.

Based on consultation with union ministries and state-level institutions, the decision to change the fiscal year was made by cabinet members in September, U Maung Maung Win explained.

Union lawmakers will discuss the presidential proposal later this week.

The post Presidential Proposal to Change Fiscal Year appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Police Arrest 12 in Connection with Naypyitaw Arms Seizure

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 05:42 AM PDT

NAYPYITAW — Police have detained 12 people in connection with the seizure of firearms in the administrative capital Naypyitaw, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"The most important thing is to seize remaining weapons and arrest accomplices," Deputy Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Aung Soe told reporters in Naypyitaw. "So, we are working to make sure they don't escape."

According to Maj-Gen Aung Soe, police have so far seized at least 13 guns including eight firearms seized on Tuesday.

On Sunday evening, police detained U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, ACE Company chairman and the son of sports minister under U Thein Sein's administration U Tint San, and two ACE employees—Ye Min Swe and Zaw Win Htike—at Naypyitaw Airport after discovering 12 WY tablets, 1.5 grams of methamphetamine, two pistols and 72 bullets in U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San's backpack.

Another five pistols and 804 bullets were found in his room at Naypyitaw's ACE Hotel and nine more pistols and 892 bullets were found in the room of one of the ACE employees the same evening.

Police have charged the three men for illegal possession of guns and illicit drugs. Among the nine other detainees are Ko Thiha, the driver of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San, ACE general manager U Joseph, and five ACE employees living in Dekkhinathiri Township, according to the home affairs ministry.

On Tuesday morning, police searched the house of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San in Bahan Township's Golden Valley in Yangon, and seized eight firearms, three bullets, a camouflage jacket bearing his name and the Myanmar national emblem, one long-sleeved black shirt with the Myanmar national emblem and skull and crossed bones emblem, two sniper scopes, a military green compass, a walkie-talkie, a gun sight, and two bullet-proof jackets.

In addition, a magazine bag, two hand bags, a walkie-talkie bag, two WY tablets, a bag with what is believed to be methamphetamine residue and drugs paraphernalia.

Bahan Township police have also opened a case.

"So far we've arrested nine both in Yangon and Naypyitaw. Those who were arrested in Naypyitaw will be brought to trial there, and those arrested in Yangon will be brought to trial in Yangon," said chief of Naypyitaw Police Force Police Colonel Zaw Khin Aung.

"We've arrested the employees of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San. If they have nothing to do with [the case], we will release them. It depends on their testimonies," he added.

U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San and his two staff members are under detention in Naypyitaw, said police Lt-Col Hla Yi, chief of Dekkhinathiri District Police Force.

"We are still investigating them, and police investigations are still ongoing," he said.

Following the arrest, police froze some of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San's bank accounts and planned to search places he has lived or stayed, according to police.

On Monday, police searched the seven-story ACE Company building in Yangon's Thaketa Township and put up a police cordon around the building, as they were only able to search two floors, and have yet to search the remaining floors.

Former sports minister U Tint San, the father of U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San is scheduled to arrive back in Myanmar on Wednesday from a trip to China.

According to sources close to ACE Hotel, U Phyo Ko Ko Tint San had been planning to establish a security company and was amassing capital.

In Myanmar, no organization except the Tatmadaw has authority to legally import firearms, a retired police officer in Yangon told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.

Even the police force has to seek approval of the President's Office to import anti-riot weapons, and authorities do not issue gun licenses to civilians, he said.

"There is a gun permit but it is not a given license. And such a permit is normally given to retired military officers under certain conditions, but not to civilians. And that permit has to be approved by the home affairs minister," he said.

According to the retired police officer, the government at present only allows security service providers which hire and train retired service personnel of the military and police as security guards for companies, hotels and so on. But it has not permitted security companies with armed security services.

The post Police Arrest 12 in Connection with Naypyitaw Arms Seizure appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

New Law to Protect Women, Girls Against Violence

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 03:54 AM PDT

YANGON — After four years of waiting, Myanmar's first legislation tackling violence against women will be submitted to Parliament during the parliamentary session that reconvened on Tuesday.

The Prevention and Protection of Violence against Women Bill has been in development since 2013, drafted by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and women's rights groups amid calls for an urgent need to cover women and girls with separate legal protection.

In just one recent example of brutality against women, a husband killed his wife and three daughters in Irrawaddy Division's Bogale Township. He had asked his wife for money in order to buy alcohol, the request escalating into an argument and the attacks. He was later arrested and confessed to the murders.

Upper House Lawmaker Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe, who is also a secretary of the parliamentary Women and Children's Rights Committee, cited the quadruple murder as an instance of the increasing violence against women.

Offenders are not deterred from committing violence against women—even murder, she said, adding that the rule of law is essential in preventing such cases.

The final version of the bill has been finished, according to women's right activists who helped draft the legislation. They told The Irrawaddy the draft bill would be submitted during the current parliamentary session.

The bill will better protect women from all forms of violence, including domestic violence, marital rape, sexual violence, harassment and assault in the workplace and public place, they said.

Hla Hla Yee, co-founder and director of Legal Clinic Myanmar, which provides mostly women and children with free legal aid, said when the bill is enacted, survivors of violence will receive more effective legal and healthcare support.

The draft bill carries a life sentence for rape of girls under the age of 18 and disabled women. Those found guilty of marital rape face two to five years in jail. The bill also includes harsher punishments for hurting girls and women.

The Women and Children's Rights Committee secretary Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe said the committee has been working on the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women (2013-2022) in addition to the new law.

Working committees to implement the action plan were formed soon after lawmakers returned from presenting the government’s report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to the United Nations last year.

The post New Law to Protect Women, Girls Against Violence appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Commander-in-Chief Tells UN Official People ‘Unhappy’ With UN’s Rakhine Comments

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 03:45 AM PDT

YANGON — The Myanmar Army chief told a visiting UN senior official that native ethnics were unhappy with UN comments on Rakhine State as they were totally contrary to the situation on the ground.

Since a series of Muslim militant attacks on 30 police outposts in northern Rakhine State in late August, more than 500,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh as the army launched clearance operations.

The UN, international aid groups, and journalists have documented cases of rape, torture, arbitrary killings, and arson of minority self-identifying Rohingya Muslims by government security forces.

The UN has labeled the violence a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing told Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs of the UN Jeffrey Feltman on Monday in Naypyitaw that the UN used the recent crisis as the base for comments without taking into account the long and emotional history of the situation, according to a post about the meeting on the Commander-in-Chief Office's Facebook.

The Under Secretary-General was touring Rakhine State on Tuesday. He is the most senior UN official to visit Myanmar to render long- and short-term assistance for the government's endeavors on the recent Rakhine issue.

Currently, most international relief agencies, including the UN, have been banned from northern Rakhine State as the government accused them of providing assistance to Muslim militants involved in the Aug 25 attacks.

With respect to the feelings of Arakanese Buddhists about humanitarian aid, the senior general said, the UN needed to change the view that assistance provided by INGOs was intended only for self-identifying Rohingya.

"[The perception that aid was handed out unfairly] was regarded as an act of bullying with the help of foreign organizations, including the UN, at a time when the majority Bengalis killed the minority ethnics. The UN needed to carry out the delivery of assistance fairly and equally," he said.

The post Commander-in-Chief Tells UN Official People 'Unhappy' With UN's Rakhine Comments appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

KNU Secretary Calls for Constitutional Change to Alleviate Rakhine Crisis

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 01:33 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand —The Karen National Union (KNU) has appealed for the government and military to find "politically dignified" and "nonviolent ways" to alleviate the current Rakhine State crisis.

About 536,000 self-identifying Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine for Bangladesh since Aug. 25 Muslim militant attacks on police stations and an army base intensified clearance operations plagued by accusations of indiscriminate killing, rape and arson.

The KNU had fought with the Tatmadaw for more than six decades starting in 1949 until the ethnic armed group signed a bilateral ceasefire with the quasi-civilian government in 2012 and then became one of eight signatories to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) in 2015.

Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo, general secretary of the KNU, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday the KNU is concerned about the welfare of civilians affected by the violence, as ethnic Karen endured similar military operations in 1979-80 and 1998-99 that led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of the Karen population of southeast Myanmar.

A KNU statement released on the second anniversary of the NCA on Sunday read that the government and Tatmadaw's handling of the Rakhine crisis "bring the memory of what the KNU and the Karen people have experienced under the state's four-cut policy through various forms of aggressive military operations that caused over 200,000 Karen people to become internally displaced persons (IDPs) and over 150,000 to become refugees."

The statement acknowledged "efforts to achieve peace are being made," but "regrets to witness the repeat of the history from the past 20-30 years." It called for nonviolent solutions to the crisis and stated worries that the peace process will be derailed.

"As a peace partner, we raise our concerns to change those situations," Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo told The Irrawaddy.

"For disputes and problems between our nationalities, we could find the solutions through negotiations based on our national reconciliation concept, but the Rakhine crisis is related to international and religious beliefs. Such pressure is an added burden to Myanmar and affects the peace process," he said.

Self-identifying Rohingya Muslims are not considered indigenous people of Myanmar by most in the country and widely referred to as "Bengalis."

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi launched the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, Resettlement and Development in Rakhine last week to tackle the humanitarian crisis. The enterprise will focus on repatriating and providing aid for those who fled to Bangladesh, according to the government.

But the predicament of other mass repatriation efforts paints a gloomy picture for Rakhine. Displaced Karen in the southeast, Shan in the east, and Kachin in the north are yet to be repatriated.

"We have not yet been able to start the repatriations of Karen refugees who became displaced in the last two or three decades," said Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo. "At that time, many innocent civilians faced many troubles."

Nearly 100,000 refugees live in nine camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border, the majority of them Karen, according to a 2016 The Border Consortium (TBC) report.

Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo said Rakhine's deep-rooted problems "should have been tackled carefully and systematically by the governments although they [Muslims in Rakhine] may not be the ethnic nationalities, but the remains of the negative legacy of colonial Burma [Myanmar] in northern Rakhine."

Because of the lack of solutions, he said, the problems have expanded and weighed on Myanmar's existing social issues.

The KNU statement urged for a constitutional change to "create a society for peaceful coexistence" and to address the "remaining negative legacy of colonialism" in Myanmar. The negative legacy, said Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo, was problems arising from Muslim laborers brought into Myanmar from the then Indian colony.

"In order for a check and balance system to emerge, we need to change the 2008 Constitution, as the [military-backed] Constitution is different from democratic principles, and now the government and the Tatmadaw have to negotiate for the power," he said.

The KNU statement reiterated its commitment to achieve peace through solving the problems by way of political means.

The NCA signatories' peace process steering team led by KNU chairman Gen Saw Mutu Say Poe met separately with the State Counselor and the Tatmadaw chief Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing on Monday afternoon to discuss the effective implementation of the NCA.

The State Counselor agreed to a joint review of the NCA and further collaboration in order to hold union peace conferences, said KNU vice chairman Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win, who was present at the meetings.

Leaders of the NCA signatories were in Naypyitaw for two days, as they joined the NCA two-year commemoration.

On Monday morning, Gen Saw Mutu Say Poe and Gen Yawd Serk, chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State, also separately met the former president U Thein Sein for social greetings, according to the spokespersons of both groups.

The post KNU Secretary Calls for Constitutional Change to Alleviate Rakhine Crisis appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Protests Over Dismissal of ANP Township Secretary Accused of Corruption 

Posted: 17 Oct 2017 01:24 AM PDT

YANGON – After the Arakan National Party (ANP)'s central executive committee dismissed township-level secretary Aung Than Wai last week, several hundred Sittwe residents, unhappy with the decision, protested against the party steering committee on Tuesday afternoon.

During a two-day meeting the previous week, 21 CEC members discussed the situation in Rakhine State, future development of the state, and the punishment of party officials accused of misconduct.

Khine Pyay Soe, chair of the party's disciplinary committee, told The Irrawaddy over the phone on Monday that CEC members voted to dismiss Aung Than Wai.

Twelve members voted for dismissal, seven members elected for Aung Than Wai to be removed from the position but to remain a party member, and some attendees such as Dr. Aye Maung, abstained from voting, he said.

ANP insiders told The Irrawaddy that after coordinated attacks against three border police outposts in Maungdaw district by Muslim militants on Oct. 9 and ensuing government security operations—resulting in thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs)—the ANP in Sittwe led by Aung Than Wai organized a fundraising campaign for Arakanese IDPs which received at least 10 million kyats.

Aung Than Wai allegedly embezzled eight million kyats instead of contributing the money to IDPs. The party steering committee received complaint letters from the ground. The party's top leaders established an investigation committee in order to examine the misconduct of ANP's secretary in Sittwe.

Khine Pyay Soe confirmed the dispute and explained the party faced internal division over Aung Than Wai's alleged corruption.

"He took eight million for his personal matter instead of donating to IDPs. But malpractice member Aung Than Wai refused to accept the investigation," he said.

Khine Pyay Soe recalled that Aung Than Wia also misused party funds from ANP lawmakers without informing a 25-member township level committee.

Aung Than Wai also discretely removed township level committee members who were elected at the party conference.

The Irrawaddy phoned another meeting attendee, ANP Union parliament lawmaker U Ba Shein, who said the steering committee expelled the township-level secretary for breaching the party's rules and regulations and declining to consider internal friction as well financial abuses within party.

"Lower level party members must obey the decisions of the central committee whether they like it or not", he said.

Sittwe resident Aung Ko Moe who requested peaceful assembly permission from authorities and was granted to march on Tuesday afternoon, accused secretary Tun Aung Kyaw and disciplinary committee chair Khine Pyay Soe of trying to separate the party and called for their dismissal in a Facebook post.

The post featured protest slogans such as: "We don't accept the separatist agenda against the ANP" and "The disintegrators of the ANP is our enemy."

Organizer Aung Ko Moe uploaded an apology letter from Sittwe ANP's chairman Aye Thein for insulting Aung Than Wai in early 2017 regarding financial abuses. The document mentioned the party's financial report but did not mention the IDP fund.

According to the document, Aye Thein testified that his party had already received the township-level financial report when he erroneously insulted Aung Than Wai in 2016.

Aung Than Wai filed the case against Aye Thein under Myanmar's notorious telecommunication law Article 66(d).

The case avoided going to court after Aye Thein sent the apology letter, resigned from the CEC and ANP Sittwe and Aung Than Wai withdrew case, according to an ANP committee member who asked for anonymity.

Aung Than Wai and secretary Tun Aung Kyaw could not be reached by The Irrawaddy.

The post Protests Over Dismissal of ANP Township Secretary Accused of Corruption  appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Asian Nations Struggle to Meet Global Target to Lower Deaths in Childbirth

Posted: 16 Oct 2017 10:42 PM PDT

BANGKOK — It seemed a simple statement: women should not die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.

Yet two years after world leaders agreed to 17 global goals at the United Nations, including the childbirth target, countries in Asia Pacific are grappling to twin the rhetoric with social, cultural and political realities.

An estimated 85,000 mothers died in 2015 from childbirth in the region, home to more than half of the world's population and some of its fastest growing economies, UN figures show, with the maternal mortality rate seen as a key way to measure improvement in a nation's health.

These deaths accounted for 28 percent of the global total, translating into a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 127 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the UN agency for population UNFPA, which released its latest State of the World Population Report on Tuesday.

Up to 90 percent of these deaths occur in 12 countries, according to UNFPA whose officials have calculated which are likely to meet the global target of reducing its MMR to below 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Bangladesh, Laos, East Timor and Indonesia are seen as likely to meet the deadline.

But Afghanistan, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Pakistan, India, Cambodia and the Philippines, are seen as failing to reach the target by varying degrees.

Reducing maternal deaths requires political will, government foresight and access to family planning, according to campaigners.

"[This is] an issue that's still too often seen as medical, and strictly related to women's life. It's not," Federica Maurizio, a sexual health and reproductive rights expert at UNFPA in Bangkok, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Maternal health … is one of the key indicators that really tells you how much the health system in a country is able to provide for the people."

Oona Campbell, professor of epidemiology and reproductive health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it raises wider issues of women's place in society.

"Do we care about women? Do we think it's not a problem if the wife dies? Is this something we care about enough to deliver services that are good quality?" she said.

Too Good to be True?

Campbell said it was not entirely accurate to chart a country's progress using a global goal.

Another way to measure progress, she suggested, was to use country level targets, such as aiming to reduce maternal deaths by at least two-thirds from 2010, and for no country to have an MMR greater than 140 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Campbell also cautioned that data is weak in many countries due to a lack of civil registration and poor cause-of-death records.

This could mean calculations of Afghanistan's dramatic improvement, hailed as one of the gains of foreign aid there, may be an overestimate, said Campbell.

UN figures showed the maternal mortality rate had dropped to 396 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 from 1,600 deaths in 2002 after the US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

But Afghanistan's own data put its MMR three times higher.

Mateen Shaheen, UNFPA's deputy representative in the country, said women's access to healthcare in Afghanistan remained tricky as culture dictates that women are only seen by female healthcare workers. UNFPA operates 124 clinics staffed by women and aims to nearly double that by the late 2018.

Meanwhile, the maternal mortality rate has been almost flat in the past 25 years in the Philippines, a wealthier nation than Afghanistan. In 2015, there was 114 deaths for every 100,000 births with 2,700 women dying in childbirth despite an increase in skilled birth attendants and access to anti-natal care.

A law was passed in 2012 insuring access to contraception, sexual education and maternal care but it has been mired in legal challenges, said Klaus Beck, UNFPA country director in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the only Southeast Asian country where teenage pregnancies are not falling which Beck said could also impact maternal mortality with the risk for mothers under the age of 15 in low- and middle income countries double that for older women.

"The absence of a legal framework … to provide access to family planning, particularly for the poorest, has always been a stumbling block for many, many years," in the disaster- and conflict-prone archipelago, said Beck.

The post Asian Nations Struggle to Meet Global Target to Lower Deaths in Childbirth appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week

Posted: 16 Oct 2017 10:01 PM PDT

Marizza Solo

Celebrated singer Marizza will perform to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Oct. 20, 7 p.m. Kandawgyi Hmaw Sin Kyun. Tickets- 10,000 kyats at 09-782097436, 09-451010789.

Clean Yangon

Artists, volunteers and civil society organizations will gather in a campaign to promote cleanliness of Yangon.

Oct 22. 3 p.m.-6 p.m. Kyimyindaing (Kyaunggyi Street)

Mo Mo's Birthday

Yangon Zoo's celebrity elephant Mo Mo will turn 64 this weekend. Her birthday party party will include magic, music, and animals.

Oct. 21, Yangon Zoo.

Photo Exhibition: Memory Lane by Yu Yu Myint Than

Photos feature the childhood memories of a girl who spent five years in slave-like conditions at a tailor shop in Yangon.

Oct. 19-Nov. 4. Myanmar Deitta, 3rd floor, No.49, 44th St.

HerStory – Stories of women who shape Myanmar

Rose Swe & Lynn Lynn Tin Htun, founders of Mango Group, Jonathan Kieusseian, founder of For Her Myanmar, and Yin Yin Phyu, founder of Green Way Myanmar will present their stories.

Oct. 19. 7 p.m-9 p.m. Impact Hub Yangon, No. 60, Yadana Thukha Street, Laydaungkan.

Italian Film Festival: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

The movie brings narrates a young boy’s dream to explore the world outside his little native town. The movie will be in Italian with English subtitles.

Oct 19, 7 pm. Junction City. Free Show.

Thadingyut Furniture Sale

Furniture will be on sale at discounted prices.

Oct.18-22, 9 am to 5 pm. Tatmadaw Hall, U Wisara Road

Voices of 21 Women for Peace

A group art exhibition of 21 female artists focuses on the role of women in Myanmar's peace process.

Oct. 21-23. 65 Gallery, No. 65, Yaw Min Gyi Road, Dagon Tsp.

Group Art Exhibition

Artists from South Dagon Township will feature paintings about Myanmar traditions at this exhibition.

Oct. 18-22. Myanmar Art and Artisan Organization, Bogyoke Market.

M Tin Aye Memory

An art exhibition to mark the 19th anniversary of the death of artist U M Tin Aye will feature his paintings, magazine cover illustrations and documentary photos.

Oct. 14-20. Hninzi Myaing Art Gallery, Hninzigon Home for the Aged

The post Ten Things to do in Yangon This Week appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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