Tuesday, September 18, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

India, Myanmar to Begin Using E-Visas Along Land Border

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 05:23 AM PDT

MANDALAY — The Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population and the Myanmar Embassy in India announced on Thursday that checkpoints along the India-Myanmar border will begin using e-visas for travel between the two countries.

According to a government announcement, the system will start this month at two checkpoints: the Tamu-Moreh checkpoint, along India’s border with Sagaing Region; and the Rih Khaw Dar-Zokhawthar checkpoint, along India’s border with Chin State.

The announcement says the e-visas will make crossing the border easier and that the application process, through the Labor Ministry’s website, will be the same as it is for paper visas.

It says travelers can apply online for tourist visas, express tourist visas and business visas.

The Tamu-Moreh checkpoint connects upper Sagaing Region with Manipur State of India. The Rih Khaw Dar-Zokhawthar checkpoint connects Chin State with India’s Mizoram State. Both have been important trade corridors for Indian and Myanmar nationals travelling between the two countries for many years.

They were designed the first international crossings along the border in August, meaning that nationals of other countries can freely use them as well.

The two governments had been negotiating the terms of transforming the checkpoints into international crossings for the past six years but were slowed down in their work by frequent clashes between the area’s rebel groups and paramilitary forces.

Clashes reportedly disrupted cross-border trade in the area earlier this year.

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Analysis: ‘Debt Trap’ Alert Rises in Myanmar as More ‘Belt and Road Projects Scrapped

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 05:16 AM PDT

YANGON — Pakistan has recently halted agreements reached under China's Belt and Road Initiative, including the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor seeking to connect Asia and Europe along the same route as the ancient Silk Road, because it was found to unfairly benefit Chinese companies.

Malaysia has also announced the cancellation of two major infrastructure projects, with a total value of $23 billion, which make up part of the Belt and Road Initiative in order to avoid falling into a debt trap.

While several Asian countries have scrapped mega projects planned under Chinese president Xi's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative in their countries, Naypyitaw's recent agreement with Beijing for a multibillion-dollar economic project has raised eyebrows over its potential for creating a "debt trap" in a country with a low sovereign credit rating and a low capacity to service the debt.

Last week, Myanmar's planning and finance minister, U Soe Win and the chairman of China's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), He Lifeng signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the establishment of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC). It will connect Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan Province to the Bay of Bengal at a deep sea port in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Myanmar Minister of Planning and Finance U Soe Win and He Lifeng, a chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, signed memorandums of understanding on establishing of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor on Sunday in Beijing. / China National Development and Reform Commission website

Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) policy, later known as the "Belt and Road Initiative" was unveiled in 2013 and aims to build a network of roads, railways and shipping lanes linking at least 70 countries from China to Europe passing through central Asia, the Middle East and Russia, fostering trade and investment.

In 2017, Myanmar's State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. An MOU of cooperation within the framework of the "Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative" was signed during the visit.

The CMEC project will be one of the biggest packages of foreign direct investment (FDI) yet under the National League for Democracy's administration and it comes while Myanmar is struggling with declining of FDI year by year and the country's image in tatters over the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine State.

The 1,700-kilometer-long corridor will pass through Myanmar's major economic hubs including Mandalay in central Myanmar, then going south-east to Yangon before turning west to its end point at Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

According to CMEC proposal, the initial stages of the project include an estimated 24 projects with a total budget of $2 billion which is exclusive of the other major infrastructure projects that will begin in a later stage. From this budget, Myanmar's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation will receive $400 million to develop the irrigation system along the corridor in Myanmar.

In Yangon, as part of the CMEC, the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) has already proposed the $100 billion New Yangon City, a development project that aims to construct a combination of new cities, industrial parks and urban development projects.

The proposal also includes upgrades to three major roads through Mandalay, Muse on the Myanmar side of the border with China, and some roads in Shan State. The highway and a high-speed railway are expected to cross war-torn Shan and Kachin states. To bolster the success of the strategic plan, China has been making efforts in assisting peace negotiations between Naypyitaw and the ethnic armed groups.

According to Myanmar's Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), the economic corridor project will boost basic infrastructure, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, transport, finance, human resources development, telecommunications, and research and technology.

The proposal claimed that the CMEC would allow a direct flow of Chinese goods into the southern and western regions of Myanmar and that Chinese industries could transfer here in order to abate the rising labor cost and overcapacity of China's industries. It said Myanmar would become a major trade hub between China, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

However, experts are questioning how the infrastructure projects across Myanmar would be financed.

Associate Professor at the Institute of Security and International Studies in the Faculty of Political Science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, Thitinan Pongsudhirak told The Irrawaddy, "The CMEC can take the example of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in view of other infrastructure connectivity [projects in] China’s Belt and Road."

"The conspicuous risk is the so-called “debt trap” whereby China lends substantial sums to construct corridor projects and leave recipient countries saddled with debt obligations they will have difficulties repaying. This gives China leverage and influence over recipient countries," he said.

In March 2018, a report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development said, China is putting many countries under the Belt and Road Initiative at financial risk through a series of aid activities and huge amounts of lending. The report said countries which are at a particularly high risk are Laos, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, the Maldives, Djibouti, and Montenegro.

The head of the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation has echoed this concern, warning that China's Belt and Road Initiative was creating a debt trap for many poor nations.

A deep-water port project of the Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka was recently handed over to a Chinese state-owned company on a 99-year lease after Sri Lanka failed to make its loan repayments. Sri Lanka is one vivid example of China's ambitious use of loans and aid to gain influence long the Belt and Road route.

A key strategic project under the Initiative, Kyaukphyu's seaport is already a major doorway allowing China's oil imports to bypass the Strait of Malacca and gives China direct access to the Indian Ocean. The project will fulfill China's dream to boost development in land-locked Yunnan Province.

A map of China's Trans-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipelines. / ‘China's Role in Myanmar's Internal Conflicts’ report by United States Institute of Peace

A recent successful share renegotiation of Kyaukphyu SEZ—also combined with MoU for Economic Corridor, Myanmar is stepping into China's strategic plan to achieve economic supremacy in the region. China is Myanmar's unavoidable neighbor geographically and economically at a time when western investment is turning away from the country due to the internationally condemned human rights crisis in Rakhine State.

"Myanmar has no one else to rely on but China. The West is pushing Myanmar into China's hands," Yangon-based political analyst U Maung Maung Soe told The Irrawaddy.

"China won't give up on their strategic plan; they will try to find several ways to move it forward. We need to find a better way of working with them practically," said U Maung Maung Soe.

Experts have said the Kyaukphyu port could be a key project in the Myanmar, Bangladesh and North East India Economic Corridors for its role as a transport center. Myanmar is already essential to China's access to fuel supplies as Chinese pipelines having been pumping oil and gas from the port at Kyaukphyu to Yunnan since 2017.

Developing Asian countries like Myanmar, experts have pointed out, are undeniably in need of infrastructure upgrades in order to promote economic development and improve living standards but there are key questions surrounding the ownership, operation and terms of these projects.

"Myanmar will have to eke out favorable terms that are fair and not disadvantages. Laos is a good example of what not to do, of why not be too heavily indebted to China," Thitinan Pongsudhirak said.

"Myanmar also has to be careful about other strings attached, such as land use rights and other concessions and terms for these projects. Doing so will allow Myanmar to safeguard sovereignty and economic national interest," he added.

According to a DICA official, the MOU includes 15 points of collaboration between the relative ministries from both sides, but the Myanmar government has not yet released it to the public.

In August, at a seminar titled "Myanmar's Economy 2018: Progress, Problems, Possibilities" special economic consultant to the Myanmar state counselor, Sean Turnell said that regarding Chinese mega investment, Myanmar needs to consider whether China's mega-projects are for Myanmar's national and economic interest or not.

Despite some countries having run into major financial difficulties after Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure projects began, in August vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Ning Jizhe claimed the projects are not a debt trap. He said the countries with debt problems have long-standing high debt levels which shouldn't be blamed on the Initiative.

"For China, it has to be careful not to be seen as ripping off countries like Myanmar or Laos or Sri Lanka because this could lead to local resentment and pushback against Chinese interests," Thitinan Pongsudhirak said.

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Analysis: Myanmar Still Living with Legacy of 1988 Military Coup

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 04:59 AM PDT

YANGON — Shortly before nightfall on Sept. 17, 1988, the fortified gate of Yangon's War Office was flung open to allow an Army convoy to stream out. The city was wearily silent, as if exhausted from witnessing the pro-democracy demonstrations, occasionally bloody, that had been raging across the country since August. In an armored vehicle within the convoy sat the then Military Intelligence director, Colonel Khin Nyunt, and military Commander-in-Chief General Saw Maung. Their destination was a leafy neighborhood near Inya Lake—the residence of their former leader, General Ne Win, the freshly retired dictator of Socialist Myanmar who still wielded power over his subordinates.

Their mission was to "report directly" to their former boss about the current situation in the country; as President Dr. Maung Maung put it at the time, "Hazards to life and limb and property" had risen "beyond tolerable limits" due to what he characterized as violence, anarchy and mass looting by hooligans and thugs. The government was unable to effectively maintain law and order in the wake of the nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations known as the '88 Uprising that had brought the country to a standstill.

Upon their arrival, Col. Khin Nyunt and Gen. Saw Maung briefed the retired general, who replied, "I hadn't realized the situation was that bad," according to the spy chief's 2015 memoir, "Lives I Have Been Through."

According to Khin Nyunt's account, the meeting was prompted by a discussion earlier that day between himself and then Deputy Minister of Defense Lieutenant-General Than Shwe; the Military Intelligence director was angered by the events unfolding in the streets. The two explained the situation to Gen. Saw Maung, who responded, "We need to see Chairman U Ne Win."

The following morning, Sept. 18, the dictator summoned six senior government officials, including President Dr. Maung Maung, the prime minister and foreign minister, to his office to ask them, "Can you take care of the country?" Col. Khin Nyunt and Gen. Saw Maung were also present.

"We can't, sir. We will follow your instructions," was the reply from the government ministers.

Turning to Gen. Saw Maung, U Ne Win ordered him to protect the country in accordance with the laws, saying that no one else could handle the situation.

"Only the military can do this. It is obliged to do so," said the chairman, according to the memoir.

When Gen. Saw Maung complained that he had no idea how to proceed, U Ne Win ordered Dr. Maung Maung, a former chief justice of the country's Supreme Court, to help the general legalize the takeover. The president dictated four orders and notifications to Col. Khin Nyunt, who jotted them down in order to make a public announcement in the afternoon.

At 4:00 pm, a male announcer proclaimed on the state-run Burma Broadcasting Service that "In order to bring a timely halt to deteriorating conditions all over the country and in the interests of the people, the defense forces have assumed all power in the state, effective from today." The broadcaster's regular programs were then interrupted by strident martial music before other announcements were heard, such as the formation of the 19-member military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Gen. Saw Maung was appointed chairman of the SLORC, whose members included Lt-Gen. Than Shwe and Khin Nyunt, who was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and occupied the position of Secretary (1) in the new regime. (U Khin Nyunt was later promoted to general and was one of the most powerful men in the junta until his arrest in 2004 for corruption.)

Later that evening, the phone rang at the Bangkok home of Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, who was then the Myanmar correspondent for the now-defunct Far Eastern Economic Review. Lintner picked up the receiver and recognized the voice of Denis Gray, The Associated Press' Bangkok bureau chief. Gray said, "Gen. Saw Maung has taken over. There's been a coup in Rangoon."

Having already received information about the military's "counteroffensive" against the pro-democracy demonstrators—since Sept. 12, unusual troop movements had been reported, with soldiers coming into the then capital Rangoon (now Yangon) from various parts of the country—Lintner had sensed that the Army was gearing up for a major showdown, one that he knew could lead to a bloodbath. He had written about the possibility in a cover story for the Review three days before the coup.

"So I wasn't surprised, but I was shocked by the brutality of the crackdown that followed on the 18th and immediately afterwards," he told The Irrawaddy, referring to the Army's indiscriminate shooting of nearly 1,000 unarmed people who turned out in Yangon to protest the coup on Sept. 19.

"It wasn't random shooting, as in August. More people were killed in August, possibly around 3,000, but the September massacre was carried out with military precision," said Lintner, who documented the carnage in his 1989 book "Outrage", which recalls the '88 Uprising and its aftermath.

The radio proclamations announcing the military takeover on the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1988 marked the beginning of 23 years of military dictatorship, an era in which the men in uniform were involved in running every sector of the country from banks to bus lines. The economy was shattered and job prospects were so poor that people would joke about living in a country where soldiers ran the nation while university graduates drove taxis.

In 2011, the military ceded power to a quasi-civilian government led by former generals under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution. The charter has been criticized as undemocratic by many, including the current government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which came to power after a landslide electoral victory in 2015. It reserves 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military representatives and places control of three security-related ministries in the hands of the military.

Thirty years on, Lintner identifies two main legacies of the 1988 coup.

He points out that while the movement didn't cause the fall of the regime, it did force it to end the "Burmese Way to Socialism". And although repression was harsh—it was not until 2011 that some fundamental freedoms and civil rights were introduced—the movement never died.

"It survived through underground groups, in the border areas, and in exile. It gave birth to a new generation of Burmese who are determined to defend their democratic rights," he said.

On the other hand, he said, the coup established a culture of military power that has shown no signs of disappearing. People enjoy more freedoms than before, but Myanmar is not yet a democracy. Despite the fact that there is an elected Parliament and government in Naypyitaw, the military remains the country's most powerful institution.

"The military was determined not to give up power in 1988, and that mindset hasn't changed," he said.

Of course, the generals see things differently. Writing about the events of Sept. 18, 1988 in his autobiography 27 years later, Gen. Khin Nyunt insisted that there was no military coup.

"The military," he wrote, "just intervened for the safety of the people, stability of the country, rule of law and resurrection of the governing mechanism."

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Police Recapture 2 of 3 Escapees Who Cut Their Way Out of Cell in Bogale

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 04:44 AM PDT

PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Region — Police have recaptured two of three detainees who escaped from Myoma Police Station in Irrawaddy Region's Bogale Township early Tuesday.

The three escaped at around 3:30 a.m. after using hacksaws to cut through the bars of their cell. After breaking out of the police station, the trio stole a motorbike from a driver and headed in the direction of Mawlamyinegyun Township.

Two of the detainees were recaptured near Ye Lel village in Maubin Township at around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday during a joint search operation conducted by police from Pyapon District, Bogale Township and Maubin.

The third escapee, identified as Hla Naing Oo, remains at large, according to Irrawaddy Region police.

"We have cordoned off the area to recapture the last escapee," Police Lieutenant-Colonel Tun Shwe told The Irrawaddy.

One of the two recaptured escapees, former policeman Akar Jue, 23, was originally detained for theft. The other, Poe Phyu, 19, was originally detained on a charge of assault to commit theft. Hla Naing Oo, 33, was detained on a rape charge, police said.

Irrawaddy Regional police commander Police Colonel Shwe Thaung was personally supervising the effort to find Hla Naing Oo.

In August last year, 10 detainees escaped from a cell at the Myoma Police Station in Irrawaddy Region's Mawlamyinegyun Township, though all were later recaptured.

On Sunday, 41 inmates managed to escape from Taung Kalay Prison in Karen State's Hpa-an Township after stealing a truck that had come to collect garbage at the prison. Twenty-one of them were recaptured the following day, while the leader of the prison break was reportedly shot dead.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Two Men Sentenced to Death for 2017 Rape, Murder

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 04:31 AM PDT

Mon State — A court in Shan State on Monday sentenced two men to death for the rape and murder of a 10th grade student last year, according to a local police officer.

The two men, Soe Lwin, 40, and Sai Shing, 29, were each convicted on two counts — murder and destroying evidence — by the court in Kengtung Township.

U Aung Moe Khaing, a police officer in Kengtung, told The Irrawaddy that the court sentenced them to death.

"They admitted they raped and murdered her," he said.

Ma Aye Pi La, an ethnic Lahu, was raped and murdered in December. The body was burned so as to hide evidence of the crime and left near the highway in Kengtung. Her boyfriend recognized her remains by her ring and reported the case to police, who then arrested Soe Lwin and Sai Shing.

The two men told the court that Ma Aye Pi La had borrowed money from them but refused to repay the debt, and that they kidnapped her while intoxicated.

"They [the men and the girl] knew each other. They had a money problem. They said they did not care what would happen to them, so they just decided to kidnap her when they were drunk," said U Aung Moe Khaing.

Although the men were sentenced to death, Myanmar has not executed a convicted criminal since the 1980s, according to Amnesty International. They also have the option to ask the president to commute the sentence.

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Myanmar Govt Plans to Open Private Medical Universities

Posted: 18 Sep 2018 04:14 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar has received proposals from foreign countries to open private medical and nursing universities in the country, Union Minister for Health and Sports Dr. Myint Htwe told the Upper House on Monday.

"We are planning to open private medical and nursing universities. Many (founders of medical schools) have come and spoken with us. We are ready. But there is still no related educational law. We can open them after the law is enacted," said Dr. Myint Htwe.

India and Korea have made proposals, said the Union minister, adding that nursing assistants have good job prospects not only in Myanmar but also in foreign countries.

"The nurse-patient ratio is poor in hospitals. And the number of nurses who have resigned from public hospitals to work in private hospitals has also increased. So, it is a good idea to open such schools," lawmaker Daw Phyu Phyu Thin of the Lower House Health and Sports Development Committee told The Irrawaddy.

"Such schools will also create job opportunities for locals," she added.

Dr. Myint Htwe revealed the plan in response to the question of lawmaker Dr. U Kywe Kywe, which urged the ministry to abolish the 50-50 quota system for male and female enrollees in public medical universities.

The lawmaker asked the ministry to admit students according to their marks on the matriculation examination, saying that the current system is unfair for female students, who have generally tested better than their male counterparts on the exam in the past.

The Union minister said his ministry has no plan to change the system for the time being, because it is not convenient for female doctors to work in remote areas.

According to the minister, more than 60 percent of doctors working at public hospitals in Kachin, Karen, Chin, Rakhine, and northern Shan states are male doctors.

In order to improve the ratio of nurses at public hospitals, the health ministry, since 2015, appoints nursing graduates as civil servants on graduation day.

The ministry will recruit some 2,000 doctors and up to 3,600 nurses this year for public hospitals across the country as part of its annual recruitment. Previously, the ministry recruited around 1,800 nurses on average, the minister said during the peace talks of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with locals in Pakokku in August.

Myanmar has more than 1,100 public hospitals ranging from 16-bed to 2,000-bed hospitals, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Mudslide in Mae Hong Son Refugee Camp Leaves 1 Dead, 7 Missing

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 11:12 PM PDT

YANGON — One person died and seven were reported missing after a mudslide at a Myanmar refugee camp in Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province on Sunday night, the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) confirmed to The Irrawaddy.

The torrent of earth and rocks, caused by heavy rain, poured down the hill and into the refugee camp around 6:30 pm in Mae La Oon in Mae Sariang, near the Thailand-Myanmar border.

"It rained heavily yesterday. That creek usually dries up in summer. So, no one was aware [of the swollen creek] when it rained. Then the torrent came down and eight people were swept away. We've only found one body," KRC chairman Saw Robert Htwe told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The Bangkok Post, citing a report by the provincial governor, said the fatality was a 2-year-old girl.

Mae La Oon refugee camp after the mudslide. /Federal Union Army

The mudslide destroyed 13 houses in the refugee camp and also injured 16 people. Thirteen of them are still in treatment, Saw Robert Htwe said.

"Some were swept away along with their houses. Authorities and non-governmental organizations are carrying out rescue operations," Saw Pwe, who lives in Mae Sariang, told The Irrawaddy.

The mudslide is the worst to hit Mae La Oon refugee camp, he said.

The refugee camp, opened in 2004, currently houses some 10,000 displaced people from Myanmar, most of them ethnic Karen, displaced by the fighting between the Myanmar Army and the Karen National Union (KNU) in Karen State.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Bangkok Street Vendors: From Michelin Star to Fighting Eviction

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 09:38 PM PDT

BANGKOK — When Jay Fai, a 70-year-old street food seller in Bangkok known for her crab omelettes, won a Michelin star last year at the launch of the city’s first restaurant guide, few locals were surprised.

“Auntie Fai” is as renowned for the ski goggles she wears to protect her eyes from hot oil splashing, as she is for her thick crab curry and dry congee that customers, including many who drive up in luxury cars, swear by.

But the afterglow from the global adulation was short-lived, as city officials soon resumed a drive to “return the pavement to pedestrians” evicting hundreds of vendors selling food, clothing and trinkets, for greater “order and hygiene."

Earlier this month, hundreds of hawkers marched to city hall following a daytime ban on vending on the sidewalks of Khao San road, a favorite haunt of backpackers.

What began as disparate protests by vendors facing marching orders has now morphed into an organized citywide movement that has also won support from academics and other public figures against the perceived heavy-handedness of officials.

“Street vending occupies an important space in Thai culture and history, helping to build community bonds, enabling women to work, innovating in Thai cuisine, and enriching families with no opportunity otherwise,” said Chawadee Nualkhair, a food blogger.

“Shepherding them into ‘centers’ or eradicating them completely leaves a huge hole in the city’s ecosystem.”

“This hole will inevitably be filled by big corporations” like food companies and department stores, she added.

The crackdown on street vendors is part of a wider effort by Thailand’s military government, which came to power in a 2014 coup, to impose order in a city famous for its vibrant nightlife and cheap and varied street food.

Authorities are also removing shanties along the Chao Phraya River to build a promenade, and have forced out a community near an old fort to make way for a public park.

Civic groups say the evictions mostly target poor residents who have little legal recourse, as they have no formal rights.

“A war is being waged against the city’s own people, the poorest and most vulnerable,” said Poonsap Tulaphan, director of HomeNet Thailand, which supports informal workers.

“Many of these vendors have been selling in the same spot for decades, and rely on their earnings to support themselves and their families. Without that, they have nothing,” she said.

Eyes and Ears

Across Asia, governments keen to modernize booming cities increasingly view street vendors as a hindrance, and as usurpers of public spaces meant for formal businesses and wealthy residents.

But hawkers enhance the business environment, make localities more dynamic and walkable, and help deter crime by being the “eyes and ears” of the neighborhood, said Narumol Nirathron, a professor at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

From Bangkok’s older floating markets to an estimated 240,000 street vendors today, they also contribute to a functioning food system with cheap meals and snacks, particularly for less well-to-do residents, Narumol said.

Narumol’s research showed that 87 percent of Bangkok’s residents buy food or other items from street vendors.

Of the more than one-quarter of residents who buy from them every day, many earn less than 9,000 baht a month ($275).

Of the vendors themselves, more than 70 percent are women, and more than two-thirds are over the age of 40 and have little education, making them particularly vulnerable, Narumol said.

The recent crackdown has hit them hard: licensed vendors are down by thousands, and tens of thousands more may be banned in 683 spots in the city, said Rewat Chobtham, president of the Network of Thai Vendors for Sustainable Development.

“This is the most devastating policy of the government,” he said.

“The cancellation of licenses and evictions have resulted in vendors losing their life savings, pulling their children out of school, and losing assets such as homes and vehicles,” he said.

They are not alone.

Street vendors are facing animosity everywhere, as officials try to make their cities look like those in the United States or Europe, said Sarah Reed of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), an advocacy group.

“Let’s call it what it is: elitism and corporate gentrification,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“This is particularly misguided given that many of the cities they seek to emulate are now striving to attract vendors and street markets to create the kind of street life that Southeast Asian cities like Bangkok have in abundance.”

Messenger Group

Bangkok’s street vendors, unlike the city’s “motorbike taxis” who are also facing increasing restrictions, had not organized into a unified lobbying group before.

That changed following vendor evictions in 2016 and 2017. As group leaders from across the city met at forums and at government agencies, they began to chat and coordinate their actions via messenger apps, said Rewat.

The Network of Thai Vendors for Sustainable Development, established in April, has more than 7,500 members from 25 districts of the city, he said.

They are being backed by academics and lawyers, who have asked Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to reconsider vending regulations.

In an open letter handed to the prime minister and to city officials earlier this month, the network demanded that those evicted be allowed to return to their old spots.

They also asked for formal recognition of their right to earn livelihoods, and to be allowed to participate in decision-making on vending.

“We will consider their requests seriously and decide on a course of action,” said a government spokesman.

A new committee, with vendor representatives as well as officials from the Bangkok metropolitan authority and the traffic police, will be set up within 30 days, he said.

A new vending law is needed to address issues like hygiene, stall regulation and taxes, said Rewat.

“We need a strategy that does not evict street vendors. Ending this crisis is urgent and critical,” he said.

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Japanese Submarine Conducts First Drills in South China Sea

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 09:38 PM PDT

TOKYO — A Japanese submarine joined a naval drill in the South China Sea for the first time, the Ministry of Defense said on Monday, in an escalation of Japanese activity in the disputed waterway claimed by China and others.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine Kuroshio conducted a naval exercise on Thursday with other Japanese warships in the South China Sea, including the Kaga helicopter carrier, which is on a two-month tour of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said.

She said it was the first time a Japanese submarine had conducted drills there, confirming an earlier report in the Asahi newspaper.

The exercise, which involved the submarine trying to evade detection, was conducted away from island bases constructed by China to push its claims in the strategic sea. However, it could still anger Beijing because submarines represent a greater potential menace to shipping than surface vessels.

It came after a British Royal Navy amphibious assault ship, HMS Albion, sailed close to islands claimed by China in the South China Sea late last month to exercise “freedom of navigation” rights.

Britain’s first such operation prompted a strong protest from China, which sent aircraft and a naval vessel to meet the British ship.

The US Navy has conducted similar operations in the South China Sea. Washington has said it would like to see more countries challenge Beijing in the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of shipborne trade passes each year.

Foreign aircraft and vessels in the region are routinely challenged by Chinese naval ships and monitoring stations on the fortified islands, sources have said previously. Beijing insists its intentions in the South China Sea are peaceful.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have territorial claims in the area.

In a separate announcement, the Defense Ministry said the Kuroshio, with a crew of 80, would make a five-day port visit to Vietnam’s strategic naval base at Cam Ranh Bay from Monday.

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Leaders of Two Koreas Meet in Pyongyang for Talks on Ending War

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 09:34 PM PDT

SEOUL — North Korean’s Kim Jong Un greeted Moon Jae-in with hugs and smiles on Tuesday as the South Korean president arrived in Pyongyang to discuss faltering talks on denuclearization and the prospect of officially ending the Korean War.

Hundreds of North Koreans wearing suits and traditional dresses also greeted Moon, carrying flowers and waving Korean peninsula and North Korean flags. A sign behind them read: “We ardently welcome President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Pyongyang!”

The two leaders stepped out of the same black Mercedes vehicle with open-top rear seats to arrive at Paekhwawon State Guest House, where Moon will stay.

The guesthouse was also used by two former South Korean presidents during their own summits with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, in 2000 and 2007.

Kim and Moon will hold formal talks from 3:30 pm to 5 pm (0630 to 0800 GMT), Moon’s office said.

The inter-Korean summit, the third between Moon and Kim, will be a litmus test for another meeting Kim has recently proposed to US President Donald Trump.

Trump has asked Moon to be “chief negotiator” between himself and Kim, according to Moon’s aides, after Trump cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by his secretary of state last month.

Washington wants to see concrete action toward denuclearization by North Korea before agreeing to a key goal of Pyongyang – declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

“If North Korea-US dialogue is restarted after this visit, it would have much significance in itself,” Moon said before his departure.

Underscoring the challenges ahead, North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun said on Tuesday “the responsibility falls squarely on the United States” for the stalled nuclear discussions.

“It is due to its nonsensical, irrational stubbornness that other issues can only be discussed after our country has completely verifiably, irreversibly dismantled our nuclear capabilities… without showing the intention to build trust including declaring the end of war,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

Moon, himself the offspring of a family displaced by the war, has met Kim twice this year at the border village of Panmunjom.

As he landed at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport on Tuesday morning, Moon was greeted by Kim, his wife Ri Sol Ju and other top North Korean officials, as well as a large honor guard and a military band.

Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the leader and a key propaganda official, was seen preparing officials for Moon’s arrival and accompanying Kim Jong Un and his wife.

South Korean corporate executives, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee and the chiefs of SK Group and LG Group, will meet with North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Ri Ryong Nam, who is in charge of economic affairs.

On Wednesday, Moon and Kim plan to hold a second round of official talks after which they are expected to unveil a joint statement, and a separate military pact designed to defuse tensions and prevent armed clashes. Moon will return home early Thursday.

Sanctions Pressure

This week’s summit comes as the United States presses other countries to strictly observe UN sanctions aimed at choking off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

North Korea says it has destroyed its main nuclear and missile engine test site, and has halted atomic and ballistic missile tests but US officials and analysts believe it is continuing to work on its weapons plans covertly.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Russia on Monday of “cheating” on UN sanctions on North Korea.

Moon is hoping to engineer a proposal that combines a framework for the North’s denuclearization and a joint declaration ending the Korean War, Seoul officials said.

The conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving US-led UN forces including South Korea technically still at war with the North.

But US officials remain “unenthusiastic” about declaring an end to the war without any substantial action toward denuclearization from the North, Seoul officials said.

South Korea is pinning high hopes on Kim’s remarks to Moon’s special envoys earlier this month that he wants to achieve denuclearization within Trump’s first term in office ending in early 2021.

Agreeing on a timetable is a core task for Moon, as it would induce U.S. action, said Lee Jung-chul, a professor at Soongsil University in Seoul.

“Given US skepticism that South Korea may have oversold Kim’s willingness to denuclearize, how President Moon delivers his sincerity toward denuclearization to Trump would be a key factor for the fate of their second summit,” Lee told a forum on Monday in Seoul.

The post Leaders of Two Koreas Meet in Pyongyang for Talks on Ending War appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

From the Army’s Perspective, Now Is Not the Time to Stage a Coup

Posted: 17 Sep 2018 06:30 PM PDT

Amid increasing instability inside the country and threats of Western sanctions, some analysts are openly discussing the possibility that the Myanmar military will stage another coup.

Not surprisingly, support for the idea has been voiced by former generals who are members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party. If a coup does take place, some senior USDP leaders warned last week, the ruling party will be to blame.

Speaking in Singapore recently, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi deflected a question about the likelihood of a military takeover.

She said it was a question best put to the Tatmadaw (Myanmar's armed forces). "They will be able to answer better," she replied, adding, "But I'm not worried about it. In politics anything can happen. Our relationship with the Tatmadaw is not that bad. Please don't forget that our cabinet includes three men who are in fact military men, generals, and they're all rather sweet."

We all know that relations between the government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, and the generals are unstable, and that the military could come back at any time. But with the 2008 Constitution drafted in its favor — it grants the Army a key role in national politics — the generals will think twice before staging a coup. Why bother abolishing the 2008 Constitution, which gives them so much power?

Under the present charter, the Army holds 25 percent of parliamentary seats and controls the key ministries of Defense, Border Affairs and Home Affairs. It is a hybrid power-sharing government structure that some former military leaders claim is designed to prevent a military coup like the ones the country experienced in 1962 and in 1988 – exactly 30 years ago.

If necessary, declaring a state of emergency would likely be the preferred option of the generals; a military coup is a last resort. The irony is that a coup could also make the ruling party and the government popular again.

In November 2016, amid a flare-up in the military conflict in northern Shan State and threats from Muslim terrorists in northern Rakhine, Tatmadaw commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the military is a stabilizing force in political and ethnic issues.

He said at the time the military would not engage in "party politics," but that the 2008 Constitution did enshrine provisions for a state of emergency.

According to the Constitution, only the president can declare a state of emergency, after consulting and coordinating with the commander-in-chief of Defense Services and the Home Affairs Ministry.

This declaration must be submitted to the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) for approval as soon as possible, according to the Constitution.

Since the NLD party came to power, there has not been a regular NDSC meeting, but some irregular high-level security meetings have been held.

The commander-in-chief would have executive power to head the government, but would have to seek NDSC approval to extend the emergency period to six months or more.

He would also have to report to an emergency session of the Union Parliament. This scenario is likely if the country is seen to be facing a serious emergency situation or a genuine threat to its sovereignty.

In June this year rumors of coup swirled when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing met for a high-level security meeting.

According to one news report, the Army commander reacted angrily over the government's handling of the Rakhine issue and even threatened a coup. The government denied it, and senior officials who attended the meeting recalled that it was quite productive.

Some analysts have gone even further, saying that the country will witness the same scenario as in 1958, when Prime Minister U Nu invited General Ne Win to form the military-led Caretaker Government.

The political instability in the country at that time, and the serious split within the ruling party, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, forced U Nu to reach a compromise with Gen. Ne Win, then the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to hand over power with the promise of holding free and fair elections in the near future.

Gen. Ne Win, a member of the legendary "Thirty Comrades," was arguably already planning to seize state power. Gen. Ne Win became prime minister, but as promised, he held a free and fair election in 1960, which U Nu won. Two years later, however, the general staged a coup and threw U Nu and his cabinet ministers in prison.

Will Daw Aung San Suu Kyi follow in U Nu's footsteps? Do the generals expect her to surrender power to them when she thinks or feels she can't run the country, so they can play the role of national savior again?

The generals have keenly observed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's failing health, her inability to unify and govern the country, or to work with stakeholders, ethnic leaders and armed groups, as well as her lack of progress in finding a successor in the near future. The generals have surely noted that so far the NLD seems to have produced no clear succession plan for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is 73 and will be 75 at the time of the 2020 general election.

Additionally, there are external dynamics affecting domestic politics in Myanmar that fuel the talk of a military coup.

Many believe that Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has political ambitions and has set his eyes on the 2020 general election. But now the top general himself faces serious challenges.

In August, the UN issued a damning report on Myanmar, calling for the country's top military commanders, including Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, to be investigated for what it claims are crimes against humanity under international law.

The UN mission called for Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over the Tatmadaw's crackdown on Muslims along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and crimes committed by security forces in other ethnic areas.

It is unlikely he will face trial at the ICC. Myanmar is not a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute, under which the ICC was established, and is under no obligation to hand Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing or other commanders over to the court.

Last month, social media giant Facebook removed the accounts of the senior general and some other military leaders. But he is still the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. He will not leave the post because of international pressure.

Since it came to power, the NLD's opponents have been waiting eagerly for the government to stumble on every front – the peace process, the economy, political stability and the burning issue of Rakhine State — and to fail to keep the promises it made to the public. And indeed, the NLD has failed to live up to expectations.

Beyond Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is a fallen icon in the international arena, particularly in the West. The irony is that, despite their sharply differing views on the major issues facing the country, in terms of their international standing, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr-Gen. Min Aung Hlaing now share a similar status—condemned as outcasts.

So far, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's political opponents should be fairly pleased—many must feel they have witnessed the failure of this government in many areas, and watched it underperform in terms of its achievements over the last two-and-a-half years. But this doesn't mean the public wants the USDP to return to power. So the attention returns to the men in uniform, as guarantors of stability and protectors of the nation's sovereignty. At a minimum, they don't want to see the NLD winning another landslide victory in 2020, controlling the Lower and Upper houses of Parliament.

So, until 2020, we are likely to see endless rumors of a coup, and of the military taking steps to assume power.

But the point is, the generals are well aware that the government has not lived up to expectations, and that people have begun to question the government and its poor performance. In their game against the NLD, the military and the former generals are already winning. As the country's problems mount and it braces for more storms, the military can publicly bask in an attitude of, "I told you so."

Given the present situation, from the military's perspective, it is better off not staging a coup.

The post From the Army's Perspective, Now Is Not the Time to Stage a Coup appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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