Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Historic peace talks for Kachin and gov’t

Posted: 28 May 2013 05:16 AM PDT

Representatives from the Kachin Independence Organisation and Naypyidaw's official peace team held their first round of talks in government-controlled territory on Tuesday as the UN's special envoy to Burma observed the negotiations.

UN envoy attends latest round of Kachin, govt peace talks

Posted: 28 May 2013 04:51 AM PDT

Representatives from the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and Naypyidaw's official peace team held their first round of talks in government-controlled territory on Tuesday as the UN's special envoy to Burma observed the negotiations.

The government's team led by President's Office Minister Aung Min and KIO officials made familiar promises to open a political dialogue and bring an end to fighting between the two sides.

"Today's meeting mainly focuses on discussing principles. Previously, we held meetings in China's Ruili town focusing the discussion on whether a political dialogue would really take place in the future," said Guan Maw, Deputy Commander-in-chief of the KIO's armed wing the Kachin Independence Army.

"The government stated that it will take place."

As the meeting commenced, Burma's military representative at the talks said the government was committed to putting an end to violence that's rocked the country's northern state since a ceasefire with the KIO collapsed in 2011.

"We are determined to hold union-level meetings with the KIA to reach a conclusive agreement to bring about a complete end to the bilateral fighting," said Lieutenant-General Myint Soe, chief of the military's Bureau of Special Operations.

While the two sides were due to meet in April, the talks were postponed as the KIO continued to push for the presence of international observers at the next round of negotiations.

Although representatives from western governments did not travel to Myitkyina, the United Nations' special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar and members from the ethnic-umbrella organisation the United Nationalities Federal Council sat in on the arbitration at the invitation of the KIO.

According to Aung Htun Myint, a DVB reporter in the Kachin capital, representatives from the Chinese government were also in attendance.

Today's meeting follows up on an earlier round of talks held in Ruili, China on 11 March, where the two parties agreed to reduce fighting, but failed to sign an official ceasefire agreement.

While the government has continually pushed for a new truce with the Kachin, the KIO have refused to sign any agreement until Burma's ethnic groups are guaranteed greater political rights in the country.

According to Aung Htun Myint, the government's chief negotiator Aung Min announced that President Thein Sein was planning to hold a larger conference this summer that would invite representatives from the country's myriad armed groups to discuss ceasefires and open a political dialogue.

According to one analyst, the government must address the political grievances of the country's ethnic groups if they hope to bring an end to fighting.

"I think there will be a political dialogue. I don't think there will be any kind of alternative to that," said Paul Keenan, research coordinator at the Burma Centre for Ethnic Studies.

"I don't think there's going to be a substantive one for at least another year or so. So really what I think what the [KIO] are doing now is they're going to be trying to make sure that it is on the table and that the government will actually at least try to give them enough trust to try to believe it.

"These meetings right now are just trust-building exercises."

During a speech in Rangoon on Monday, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi slammed the government's recent reforms for failing to produce 'tangible changes' and said Burma's officials were continuing to discriminate against the country's ethnic minorities.

"My ethnic representatives said that as long as there is inequality among the races of Burma, there will not be peace," said Suu Kyi, according to a report published in the Irrawaddy on Monday.

As the Kachin delegation arrived in Myitkyina on Monday, thousands of supporters lined the streets to greet the convoy, effectively dispelling the government's familiar narrative that the KIO did not have the support of the Kachin populace.

"Around 40,000-50,000 locals showed up unannounced yesterday," said Aung Min during his opening address.

"We can see everyone wishes for peace. I strongly believe that this meeting will [produce] a fruitful agreement."

Clean water delivery for Burma

Posted: 28 May 2013 01:03 AM PDT

Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton with the Director of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme, Dr Greg Allgood visit Gway Dauk Chaung village in Panthein township, to mark the sixth billionth litre of clean drinking water the company has delivered.

Wa rebels seek a state of their own

Posted: 27 May 2013 09:44 PM PDT

Burma’s most heavily armed and powerful rebel group has said it is looking to carve out a legitimate state, as experts say it is flexing its muscles amid tense relations with the government.

The United Wa State Army, which commands an estimated 30,000 troops, holds sway over a remote mountainous area on the northeast border with China that is believed to be awash with drugs and has long been aloof from the central government's control.

Shielded from the reach of the previous junta by its close links to Beijing and formidable military might, observers say the group is using political openings under a new government to push for greater official acknowledgement.

The Wa self-administered region consists of six townships in the rugged borderlands of Shan state, but UWSA spokesman Tone Sann told AFP that the current arrangement was “not enough”.

“We want them to be acknowledged as a state,” he said on the sidelines of a religious ceremony in northern Shan that marked a rare public appearance for officials from the rebel group.

The UWSA has upheld a ceasefire agreement with the government since 1989, one of the longest such deals in a country that has been riven by pockets of ethnic rebellion since independence in 1948.

A raft of tentative new ceasefires have been inked by the new quasi-civilian government that replaced military rule two years ago as part of reforms that have raised hopes of greater federalism in a nation long gripped by junta insistence on unity and conformism.

“The Wa have proven adept, in the past, at garnering the concessions they need,” Nicholas Farrelly of the Australian National University told AFP, adding that the group’s military, economic and political resources makes them a “force to reckon with”.

“Moreover, given they run what often feels like an independent borderland fief, it is logical that the Wa leadership would be the first to test a new style of decentralisation.”

Ethnic Wa make up about one percent of the Burmese population, with about 800,000 people of various ethnic groups in the self-administered region, according to Tone Sann.

He said the UWSA made an official request for their region to be upgraded to “Wa State” in talks with a government peace team this month, adding they received assurances it would be considered in the country’s parliament.

Burma has seven ethnic minority states and seven regions, mainly of the majority Burman ethnicity.

Tone Sann said the Wa want their region to be recognised as a state to take advantage of regional development, as resource-rich and strategically located Burma looks to reap the rewards of ending decades of isolation.

Sai Pao Nap, an upper house MP from the Wa Democratic Party said the group is also keen to deal directly with the central government, rather than the current arrangement of communicating through authorities in Shan state.

“I do not think their demand to be a state can cause any complication,” said the politician, who is also a chairman of the parliament’s National Races Affairs Committee.

But he added that there have been heightened tensions between the UWSA and the military for two years, when the group was asked to join a so-called border guard force under the command of the Burmese army.

The Wa claim comes as the country’s military is locked in a deadly conflict with rebels in neighbouring Kachin, where a 17-year ceasefire collapsed soon after the new government came to power in 2011.

Peace talks with the Kachin, which were set to continue on Tuesday, have stumbled at several hurdles and the unrest has continued amid suspicions that the army is determined to bring all the insurgents to heel once and for all.

A recent report by analysts IHS Jane’s said the UWSA ceasefire was “fragile” and suggested the group had purchased armed helicopters from China as part “a programme of rapid rearmament” – a claim denied by both Beijing and the Wa.

Tone Sann said some aircraft had been bought as “samples” to put on display to the public. “These are not real ones and cannot be used. We just wanted to attract more people to visit our museum,” he said.

“It is not true that we bought helicopters from China,” he added, also rejecting persistent claims of widespread opium and methamphetamine production in Wa territory as “just accusations”.

Farrelly said China was the “sponsor and facilitator of Wa success”, a situation that the Burmese government may “resent” but would have little opportunity to counter.

“It is a borderland defined by its entanglements and ambiguities, with the Chinese playing an inevitable role in what they consider their own backyard.”
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