Thursday, June 6, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

What it means to host the World Economic Forum

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 04:51 AM PDT

Union Minister for Economic Affairs Soe Thane spoke to DVB about the benefits of hosting the World Economic Forum in Burma.

War, displacement fueling trafficking scourge in Kachin state

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 04:36 AM PDT

After two years of war and displacement in northern Burma's Kachin state, more people are being trafficked along the Sino-Burmese border, according to a report published by the Kachin Women's Association-Thailand (KWAT) on Wednesday.

In "Pushed to the brink", KWAT documented 24 instances of individuals who were trafficked after the Burmese military ended a 17-year ceasefire and launched an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in June 2011.

According to KWAT, the documented cases in the report "represent only a small fraction of the actual trafficking cases" that have occurred since hostilities erupted.

"We wanted to highlight to the international community that economic hardship leads to an increase in human trafficking," said Sai Shang, KWAT general secretary, during an interview with DVB.

"Despite the government's claim that the country is opening up, there are various issues that have yet to be solved.”

As business groups and politicians flock to Naypyidaw for the World Economic Forum in East Asia (WEF) this week, the group urged "governments and investors to review their policy on Burma".

While the reforms instituted under Thein Sein's government have led to the removal of most sanctions targeting the country, the military offensive against the KIA has cast a dark shadow over the nascent political developments in the country.

Since fighting commenced just two years ago, approximately 100,000 people have been uprooted and are now living in displacement camps.

Over the course of the two-year conflict, Thein Sein's government has constituently blocked international aid organisations from accessing IDP camps under KIO-control, while China refuses to provide Kachins from seeking refuge across the border, said the report.

In August 2012, the Chinese government even went so far as to force thousands of Kachins seeking refuge in the country back across the border into Burma.

"Push tens of thousands of people to China's doorstep, deprive them of food and status, and you've created a perfect storm for human trafficking," said KWAT spokesperson Julia Marip in a press release.

Once trafficking victims are illegally moved across the border into China, they are then sold as brides and labourers.

According to one NGO worker DVB spoke with in 2012, trafficking agents have been seen eyeing displacement camps and offer families sums of money as a dowry for their daughters, in accordance with local customs.

While the KIA and government negotiators agreed to a preliminary truce last week, the Kachin have refused to sign another ceasefire with Naypyidaw until ethnic minorities are granted greater political autonomy.

During a debate hosted by the BBC at the WEF in the capital, President's Office Minister Soe Thane said that the country's leaders were considering adopting a federal system of governance to bring an end to the country's myriad civil wars.

"We are thinking about the federalism – that is the sharing of power, the sharing of resources," said Soe Thane.

"Federalism had another definition. Now federalism is not like that definition. It is power sharing and resource sharing and equality for the [ethnic nationalities]."

Will there be genuine peace in Kachin state?

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 04:20 AM PDT

Politicians and analysts hailing the recent seven-point agreement between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) as a major breakthrough have demonstrated their lack of understanding of Burma’s affairs and the root causes that led to the conflict.

It has been two years now since the Burmese government broke a 17-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Since then, the government's troops have launched major military offensives targeting the Kachin people and committed serious human rights abuses. It broke my heart to see the on-going attacks against my people, especially when the perception of many outsiders is that Burma is now a "free" country.

I travelled back to Kachin state last year with my colleagues from the Kachin National Organisation. We went to see the situation for ourselves and tried to learn how we could help those who have fled in the wake of the Burmese army's assaults on their villages. We saw how the situation was for tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs). Children were sick and people were struggling to survive as President Thein Sein continues to prevent humanitarian organisations from delivering aid to the IDPs living in the KIO-controlled areas.

But as well as being horrified by the suffering we saw and the stories of human rights abuses we heard, we were also encouraged by the Kachin leadership's response to the crisis and the overwhelming support provided by the Kachin communities across the globe during this difficult time.

Despite a significant increase in human rights violations in Kachin state, western governments have ignored realities on the ground in Burma and rewarded the former pariah nation by lifting almost all sanctions targeting the government, which leaves the international community little leverage in the future if the reforms stall.

The agreement signed at the end of May between the Burmese government and the KIO does give some cause for hope, but not much. The agreement is not a ceasefire. We have had many deals in the past that promised peace, but they were broken.

It's also important to ask why the Burmese government violated the 17-year truce in the first place? And why did they continue to commit human rights violations in Kachin state and other ethnic regions in clear violation of international law?

In order to understand the complexities of Burma, it's important to remember the country's history. The central government's failure to accept Burma as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, and in turn deny ethnic people the right to have a say over their own affairs, is the root cause of these decades-long conflicts.

In fact, Prime Minister U Nu's plan to institute Buddhism as the state's sole religion in Burma in 1961 was one of the main triggers that pushed the Kachin to take up arms and resist Burmanisation.

The failure by both the central government and the international community to address the root causes of conflict has lead to decades of war, several humanitarian crises and devastating poverty in Burma.

If durable peace is to take root in the country, there must be fundamental change in Burma's system of governance. Any agreement between President Thein Sein's military-backed government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi alone will not solve the problems that ethnic people face.

Ethnic political organisations should be involved in all levels of any political process in Burma. The conversation in parliament concerning potential constitutional amendments has largely excluded key ethnic voices.

As long as ethnic people are denied their equal rights, many legitimate questions and demands will remain. We need equal rights to protect our people and to live with dignity. Until this is accomplished, ethnic people will have to fight for their rights and will continue to require international support, in much the same way that Aung San Suu Kyi relied on global solidarity only a few years ago.

Goon Tawng is the chairperson of the Kachin National Organisation-UK

-The opinions and views expressed in this piece are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect DVB's editorial policy.

Suu Kyi lays out presidential ambitions at economic forum

Posted: 06 Jun 2013 01:32 AM PDT

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday declared her intention to run for president, calling for all of the country’s people to share the fruits of its dramatic reforms.

Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia in the capital Naypyidaw, the Nobel Peace laureate appealed for the amendment of the military-drafted constitution, which prevents her from leading the country.

“I want to run for president and I’m quite frank about it,” the veteran democracy activist told delegates, as she sets her sights on elections due to be held in 2015.

“If I pretended that I didn’t want to be president I wouldn’t be honest,” she added.

The current constitution blocks anyone whose spouses or children are overseas citizens from being appointed by parliament for the top job.

Suu Kyi’s two sons with her late husband Michael Aris are British and the clause is widely believed to be targeted at the Nobel laureate.

Changing certain parts of the text requires the support of more than 75 percent of the members of the fledgling parliament, one quarter of whom are unelected military officials, she noted.

“This constitution is said by experts to be the most difficult constitution in the world to amend. So we must start by amending the requirements for amendments,” Suu Kyi said.

President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government has surprised the world since coming to power two years ago with dramatic political and economic changes that have led to the lifting of most Western sanctions.

Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, democracy champion Suu Kyi has been welcomed into a new parliament and tentative ceasefires have been reached in the country’s multiple ethnic civil wars.

Suu Kyi, who was herself locked up by the former junta for a total of 15 years, remains hugely popular in Burma and her National League for Democracy party is widely expected to win the elections if they are free and fair.

The opposition leader called for all of the country's people to be included in the reform process, warning that otherwise the changes could be jeopardised.

“If the people feel that they’re included in this reform process then it will not be reversible – or at least it will not be easily reversible,” she said.

“But if there are too many people who feel excluded then the dangers of a reversal of the situation would be very great,” Suu Kyi added.

Some 900 delegates from more than 50 countries are gathered in the capital Naypyidaw for the three-day WEF on East Asia – a regional edition of the annual gathering of business and political luminaries in the Swiss resort of Davos.

Foreign firms are queuing up to enter the country formerly known as Burma, tantalised by the prospect of a largely untapped market with a potential 60 million new consumers in addition to Burma’s pool of cheap labour.

But experts say businesses entering Burma face major hurdles, including an opaque legal framework as well as a lack of basic infrastructure and government and private-sector expertise.

“Look at the poverty in the country,” said Martin Sorrell, chief executive of British advertising giant WPP.

“As you land you look at this capital and you see oxen and ploughs. And getting the balance right I think in terms of expectation is critically important because it’s going to build expectations to a level… which I think will be unrealistic,” he said.

The forum is a huge logistical challenge for Burma’s government, which is more used to hosting smaller business and diplomatic delegations as well as the occasional influx of Chinese visitors for jade emporiums.

For many of the delegates, it is also their first glimpse of the sprawling capital built in secret by the former military rulers, who surprised the world in 2005 by suddenly shifting the seat of government from Rangoon.

Home to luxury hotels, broad roads and even a 20-lane boulevard leading to the new parliament, the city’s lack of nightlife, restaurants and cafes has not gone unnoticed by delegates.

“Traffic conditions is very nice,” one Korean delegate said of the city’s near empty multi-lane highways. “Here no traffic – but nowhere to go.”

After violent week, Malaysian police detain hundreds of Burmese migrants

Posted: 05 Jun 2013 09:56 PM PDT

Malaysian police said Thursday they had detained more than 900 Burmese nationals in a security sweep after at least two were killed last week in clashes believed to be linked to sectarian violence back home.

The two dead were likely Burmese Buddhists killed during a spate of violent incidents in Kuala Lumpur since 30 May, said Amar Singh Ishar Singh, the Malaysian capital’s deputy police chief.

He added that two other people were in critical condition and the attacks were “believed to be the result of violence in Myanmar (Burma).”

“The operation is to send a clear message to stop this nonsense and not bring the violence over to Malaysia,” he told AFP.

He gave no details on the attacks but Malaysian media reports, which said as many as four may have died, have suggested Buddhists came under attack from their Muslim countrymen seeking vengeance over violence back in Burma.

Deadly sectarian strife pitting Burma’s majority Buddhists against the Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority has flared since last year in the country’s western state of Arakan.

Muslim-majority Malaysia says it is home to more than 80,000 Burmese nationals, many of them Rohingya fleeing alleged persecution by Burma’s Buddhist authorities and, more recently, the Arakan violence.

Amar said more than 250 of those detained in Malaysia were handed over to immigration authorities as they lacked proper documentation.

The rest were released and no formal arrests have yet been made as investigations continue, he said.

Burma on Tuesday called on Malaysia to take action against those responsible for the attacks and protect Myanmar citizens.

Maung Hla, who heads the Burma Refugee Organisation in Malaysia, said violence between exiled Burmese communities here was not uncommon and was “sometimes due to religion.”

The Rohingya have been described by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. About 800,000 are estimated to live in Burma, which denies them citizenship, rendering them stateless.

Malaysia does not grant Rohingyas refugee status but has turned a blind eye to the steady arrivals.

In April, Human Rights Watch accused Burma of “a campaign of ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya, citing evidence of mass graves and forced displacement affecting tens of thousands.
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