Monday, June 10, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Govt Measures Keep Tensions High in Arakan, One Year After Violence Began

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 07:25 AM PDT

"I lived with my wife for 20 years, I want her back," he said quietly, "My wife did nothing, knew nothing."

The officials had entered his neighbor's house during a household registration procedure, but a scuffle broke out when the family refused to sign an official document stating that they were ethnically "Bengalis".

They were promptly arrested by the angered officials, as was Baudi Amin's wife and a trishaw driver who was dropping her off at home. In a reaction to the events, children at the nearby school started shouting "Rohingya! Rohingya!" Allegedly some threw stones at the officers, injuring one of them.

During an interview three weeks later, Baudi Amin, a 50-year-old thin, tall man, still seems stunned by the incident, as do his two children — his 12-year-old daughter breaks down in tears at the mention of her mother.

"I am too scared to ask the police about my wife," he said. "I don't feel like eating anymore ever since they took her."

Baudi Amin's family is ethnic Kaman, a Muslim minority that are officially recognized as Burmese citizens. But like tens of thousands of other Muslim households in western Burma's Arakan State, they are suffering the consequences of the deadly violence that broke out between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Arakanese Buddhists one year ago.

On June 8, 2012, residents of the Muslim-dominated Maungdaw District attacked Arakanese Buddhists, burning their homes and killing several villagers. The violence was sparked by two earlier incidents in southern Arakan — the killing of 10 Muslim pilgrims by Buddhists on June 3 and the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by Muslim men on May 28.

The June 8 violence quickly spread to the state capital Sittwe and surroundings, where the groups clashed for days. Unrest resurged in October 2012, reaching another three townships. About 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, were displaced by the violence, which left almost 200 people dead.

The violence also led to sectarian tensions elsewhere, and clashes in April between Buddhists and Muslims in central Burma killed 44 people.

GOVERNMENT MEASURES: REINFORCING STATELESSNESS

After the Arakan crisis began, Burma's Buddhist-dominated government segregated the two communities in Arakan State, ostensibly for security reasons. It tightened numerous restrictions on the Muslim population, which have affected their freedom of movement, access to healthcare, education and employment, and other basic rights.

For many months now, authorities have confined Rohingyas to their villages, while some 120,000 displaced Muslims are kept in dirty, crowded camps in the countryside.

The government claims the harsh treatment of the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas is justified as they are not recognized as citizens under a 1982 law. It labels them "Bengalis," to suggest that they crossed into Arakan illegally from neighboring Bangladesh in past decades — a widely-held view among the ethnic Arakanese and Burma's Buddhist majority.

Citizenship rights are at the heart of the conflict, as Rohingyas insist that they have lived in Arakan for many generations and should gain citizenship.

In the past year, however, the government has introduced measures that consolidate the group's statelessness, a move that is raising local tensions to new levels.

During a visit to Sittwe Township in mid-May, Irrawaddy reporters encountered widespread resentment among the Rohingyas against the authorities' household registration exercise, which began in Pauktaw Township in November and in Sittwe Township and Maungdaw District in April.

Maung Maung, a community leader at Te Chaung, a camp near Sittwe where thousands of displaced Rohingyas live, said that several attempts to register families there had ended in arguments due to the procedure's requirement that households register as Bengalis. "We will never accept being called Bengali, we are Rohingya," he said.

Myo Thant, a Rohingya politician of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, said that in his constituency of Maungdaw Township authorities were using digital scanners to collect fingerprints and data among households.

Local Rohingyas, he said, were determined to resist registration. "If we accept Bengali now, we worry that one day the government will take away all our rights and say that we are immigrants and we will have to leave Burma," he explained. "We are Rohingya, not Bengali — this is very important."

Arakan State spokesperson Win Myaing denied that the procedure intended to record a family's ethnicity and he insisted that only displaced Muslims were interviewed. "We just made a list of people in order to provide food and aid to them, like WFP does," he said, without explaining why those in undestroyed villages were also being questioned.

Win Myaing said the operation had been suspended in late April due to the growing resistance. "They said they will only provide the number of people in their household when they are called Rohingyas. They throw stones and beat people who were collecting information for the list. So we temporarily stopped," he said.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based Rohingya rights group, said the purpose of the registration exercise was shrouded in secrecy, and neither the Rohingyas, nor UN officials, are aware of its outcome.

Lewa said the exercise was probably being used "to confirm they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in order to deny them citizenship … and therefore to continue to justify arbitrary treatment against them, which will inevitably encourage them to leave."

"The central government has so far done nothing to reduce tensions, while the Arakan State government and other Rakhine groups are making statements that could lead to more violence," she said.

The past dry season, Lewa added, a record 27,000 Rohingyas refugees tried to flee to other countries by crossing the Bay of Bengal in small boats. Many have died on the way.

At Te Chaung camp, a maze of rickety bamboo huts covered with plastic tarpaulins located on a muddy paddy field, Rohingyas complained that they can gain only certain freedoms if they obtain a temporary ID card that designates them as "Bengali."

"We need that to travel," said a 19-year-old Rohingya, one several men who gathered furtively behind a shack to talk to reporters. "If we don't have this card and we travel, we will go to prison for six months," said another, while holding up the small paper document.

In mid-May in rural Sittwe, hundreds of armed police and soldiers could be seen at numerous check points and in compounds located along the roads between Muslim camps and villages.

In government-recognized camps, families have been dependent on UN aid handouts for many months. At unofficial camps and in the isolated Rohingya villages, families are forced to eke out a living by themselves. According to the UN Refugee Agency, authorities have refused to recognize almost 16,000 displaced people.

Most of the displaced come from Sittwe, where about 70,000 Muslims — representing almost half of the town's original's population — were chased away. The trauma of the violence, loss of family members, and the destruction of their homes, has left many deeply despondent about their future.

Sa Hein Kyaw, 20, recalled how his family in Kyaung Tatlang village, near Sittwe, was attacked by Arakanese Buddhist villagers armed with steel pipes and cleavers. "They tied our hands and brought us to a nearby stream," he said. "The hit my father on the head and broke his hands. My mother was hit above the eye, she needed seven stitches. I was knocked unconscious."

His family survived because another Arakanese man from a nearby village interfered in the violence and brought them to Sittwe Hospital. Although Sa Hein Kayw was lucky to survive, the unrest dashed his hopes for the future.

"I was a third-year Botany student at Sittwe University. But now they ban Muslims from going there," he said, "I feel like I'm a dead man — I have no future, no job, nothing."

SITTWE A YEAR ON, A BUDDHIST-CONTROLLED TOWN

Several lines of police and army security on the edge of Sittwe form a sharp demarcation line between the crowded and desperate scenes in the countryside and the quiet streets of the old town.

Here, the Arakanese Buddhist population goes about their daily business unperturbed. Students ride their bicycles to school and trishaws ferry middle-aged women through the crumbling colonial center to the busy markets.

In the Arakanese community there is a sense of contentment at the segregation, which is seen as a measure necessary to protect their interests.

"The Arakanese people don't accept to live close to Bengali people, we have too much fighting," said Khin Maung Gree, a central committee member of the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) during an interview at a run-down wooden house that functions as the party's Sittwe headquarters.

"Arakanese and Bengalis can never combine, never. They are more like Bangladeshis, their features, their dark complexion, their culture — we are different, we are Buddhists," he adds.

Several fellow RNDP members nod in an agreement, and some outline the supposed advantages of the unrest and subsequent segregation. "The conflict promotes Arakan unity," said one. "The UN will come and promote education of the Muslims. That is good, before they only went to madrassas, they didn't know anything." To the laughter of some, another added, "Most of them are thieves — now there is no more theft problem in Sittwe!"

Like many Arakanese however, the RNDP are quick to deny that they initiated the violence. "We never started it, we are under the central government and we have no arms. Maybe the government started it, or the Bengalis," Khin Maung Gree said.

The influential Arakanese politicians, community leaders and local Buddhist monks have been accused by the US-based Human Rights Watch of planning a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Burma's government, the group alleges, actively supported Buddhist mob attacks and has allowed these crimes to go unpunished — a claim that Naypyidaw has strongly denied.

The international community has criticized the government's approach to resolving the Arakan crisis and says that authorities have also hindered aid deliveries to the Rohingyas.

Khin Maung Gree dismisses the accusations of ethnic cleansing as "a point of view" and stresses that outsiders don't understand that the growing Muslim population, and the 160 million Muslims in neighboring Bangladesh, are intent on pushing out Arakanese Buddhists, who number around 3 million.

"They are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they need our land, they want to Muslimize our land," he said. "They have political, religions ambitions, so they make up a name, Rohingya, to claim they are natives of this state."

The uncompromising attitudes of Arakan politicians and community leaders seem to indicate that inter-communal violence could resume again in the coming months, and in Sittwe such anger is aimed at the inhabitants of the town's last remaining Muslim neighborhood, Aung Mingalar.

Unlike other Rohingya quarters, which have been reduced to rubble, Aung Mingalar, which comprises several street blocks in the Sittwe's old center, somehow escaped full-on attacks and destruction by Buddhist mobs. Authorities are confining its approximately 6,500 inhabitants to the area, turning it into a Muslim ghetto sealed off by security forces.

It is cut off from UN aid deliveries and aid workers struggle to gain access. Irrawaddy reporters were blocked from entering the area.

Although the neighborhood is heavily guarded, some Arakanese talk menacingly about their hate towards its residents.

"Aung Mingalar is a problem because the Bengalis live there, but we don't them want them living here," said the director of the Arakan Social Alliance Foundation, a community organization located close to Aung Mingalar. "They are hostile because they are Bengalis… Some Bengali children tried to start a fire in the neighborhood this month," the man claimed.

On the western edge of Aung Mingalar, an empty stretch of grassland spanning some about 100 meters is guarded by a few armed policemen. Before the violence, Rohingya families and Arakanese Buddhists lived here side by side, but now it forms a buffer zone between the communities.

"Fourteen houses were destroyed here: two Arakanese, 12 Muslim homes," explained Maung Aye, a 40-year-old Arakanese man. "I lost my house and moved in with my mother-in-law." Asked why Aung Mingalar had survived the unrest, he said, "Here we negotiated with each other, and after three days we had no more trouble… In other places they fought for a long time."

Aung Mingalar residents said they were glad to be under government protection, but complained that life in the area was extremely difficult.

"We are grateful to the government, without security we would have been dead a long time ago," Atea, a 40-year-old medicine shop owner told The Irrawaddy by phone. "But we have no doctors or healthcare here. Only if we have a serious health problem can we ask [community leader] U Shwe La to arrange a hospital visit."

Despondently, he added, "We cannot leave. Now, we are not humans, we are treated like animals on a farm. We get food and water, but have no rights and we can get no education, nothing." I hope one day the government will arrange a better life for me."

Names of some people in this story were changed for protection reasons. Additional reporting by Saw Yan Naing.

2 Dead in Mon State Bus Hijacking

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 06:22 AM PDT

The Aung Mingalar Highway station for coach buses is seen in Rangoon. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The police have launched an investigation after suspected armed insurgents hijacked a bus traveling from south Burma to Rangoon, robbing more than $4,000 and killing two people.

The bus was hijacked by five armed passengers on Saturday night while driving from Mon State to Burma's biggest city, local police told The Irrawaddy, adding that the attackers held the bus driver at gun point before forcing him off the road in Mon State's Thaton Township and attacking him and his assistant.

"The bullet shells we collected from the crime scene were from Brazil and were made for a 9 mm pistol," the township police chief said. "Ordinary people don't have access to that kind of weapon."

Citing testimony from passengers on board, the police chief said four of the five attackers held guns. He said the attackers fired a warning shot and seized the mobile phones of passengers to prevent anyone from calling the police. He said the gunmen escaped after the attack.

The police later found the driver's assistant dead with a bullet wound to the head. The driver was seriously injured with a bullet wound in his cheek and died of his injuries on Sunday at Thaton hospital.

"More than 4 million kyats (US$4,210) was robbed," the police chief said, adding that investigators were searching for the gunmen and planned to file charges of robbery and murder.

The incident has raised suspicions of religious violence because the bus company owner was Muslim and the attack follows a series of anti-Muslim riots in several locations around the country since the past year.

Officials at the bus company rejected that religion played any role.

“The attack had nothing to do with religion,” said Khaing Myint, director of Yazamin Express Service. “If it did concern religion, they [the attackers] would not have killed my staff or robbed the passengers, but would have only set my bus on fire, because nearly everyone on board was Buddhist.”

He blamed inadequate law enforcement on the highway and called on the government to tighten security measures.

This is not the first time a Yazamin Express Service bus has been targeted. In another past incident, a bus from the same company was set alight near the Mon State capital of Moulmein.

From Kachin State to Rangoon, Activists Raise Awareness of Long-Running War

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:31 AM PDT

Protesters in Rangoon march on Sunday to commemorate the two-year anniversary of renewed fighting in Kachin State. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON—Men dressed as dead soldiers pounded oil cans like drums on the streets of Burma's commercial capital this weekend, creating a beat for dozens of activists marching peacefully to protest the long-running conflict in the country's north.

The drummers' faces were painted white, with streaks of red dripping down their cheeks, as they walked across Rangoon with about 75 activists on Sunday, exactly two years after a ceasefire broke down between the government's army and ethnic rebels in north Burma's Kachin State, displacing about 100,000 people.

"Here there are so many people who don't know what's happening on the ground," said May Sape Phyo, an activist from the Kachin Peace Network who helped organize the event. "So for those people, this kind of march and this kind of event is really powerful."

The march in Rangoon came about two weeks after the latest round of peace talks in north Burma which were seen as the most productive yet, with a preliminary peace deal—but not an official ceasefire—signed between Kachin rebels and the government.

Pedestrians watched as the procession made its way through five townships on its way to Rangoon's Zaw Tanar Ya Ma Buddhist Monastery, where internally displaced persons (IDPs) and religious leaders spoke about the conflict. Some of the activists dressed in military fatigues and others wore T-shirts with peace signs, while monks in saffron robes carried flowers and wreathes.

Outside the temple, a display of photographs showed communities in Kachin State that have been destroyed by the fighting. A piece of installation art depicted the conflict in a more abstract way, with plastic toy soldiers encircling a large figure that held a trophy, other figurines lying mangled and bloody on the ground, and toy helicopters dangling from strings above.

The artist, Zoncy, said the piece was inspired by recent visits to IDP camps in Kachin State. "I wanted to visualize how the war is and how the war is going to affect the people there," she said.

The conflict in Kachin State began in June 2011 after a 17-year ceasefire broke down between the government's army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a rebel group fighting for greater political autonomy and basic rights for the Kachin people, who, like most minority groups in Burma, were long oppressed by the former military government.

Fighting escalated in January of this year, with the government's army launching offensives and air raids despite a call from President Thein Sein for a unilateral ceasefire. Peace talks began in February and fighting has since died down, although tens of thousands of people remain displaced in IDP camps.

In the most recent round of talks, in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, both sides agreed to a preliminary peace agreement. The seven-point agreement was not a ceasefire, but it marked an important step toward ending the clashes. Both sides agreed to "undertake efforts to achieve de-escalation and cessation of hostilities" and to "continue discussions on military matters related to repositioning of troops," according to two points from a translation of the agreement.

For Kachin State native Khon Ja, also from the Kachin Peace Network, the march in Rangoon was intended to demand accountability from the government for the war.

Of the event's highlights, she said an interfaith prayer service at the temple with Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders was particularly moving.

"Today's prayer really touched us because we know that all soldiers want this [peace], especially when they are on the frontlines," she said. "It's not easy to kill another person, but we are killing one another."

Shan State’s RCSS and Thein Sein Meet for Peace Talks

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 05:13 AM PDT

Yawk Serk, center left, dresses President Thein Sein in traditional Shan attire during their meeting in Naypyidaw on Monday. (Photo: Ye Htut / Facebook)

Leaders of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) met with President Thein Sein for the first time on Monday, when the two sides discussed the establishment of an all-inclusive political dialogue, military affairs and the formation of a conflict monitoring team in the eastern state.

Led by Lt-Gen Yawd Serk, the RCSS delegation met with the president, who was accompanied by the government's chief peace negotiator Aung Min and President's Office Minister Soe Thane, in the capital Naypyidaw.

The RCSS and its militant arm, the Shan State Army-South, agreed to work with the government on the repositioning of troops, the de-escalation of hostilities and the formation of a conflict monitoring team, said Hla Maung Shwe, a peace broker with the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center.

"The president promised to form the [conflict monitoring] committee," Hla Maung Shwe said. "The president explained the road map [to peace]," which included establishing an all-inclusive political dialogue in an effort to bring an end to fighting that has plagued Shan State for decades.

He added that the two sides also discussed the issues of internally displaced persons (IDPs), food security for the local population, transportation matters in the state and the issuance of national ID cards to ethnic Shan people.

Monday marked the first time that RCSS leaders have sat down with Thein Sein since ceasefire talks began two years ago.

The president last year met with Karen National Union (KNU) leaders, a meeting that was later heralded as an example of successful engagement by both sides on the path toward national reconciliation.

The RCSS is just the second ethnic armed group to meet personally with the president, following the KNU. Both ethnic groups have signed ceasefire agreements with the government since Thein Sein took office in 2011.

Monday's meeting came in the wake of an announcement by Aung Min last month that the government was planning to hold a nationwide ceasefire conference to include all of Burma's ethnic groups. Aung Min said he hoped the gathering next month would serve as the springboard for an all-inclusive political dialogue to follow.

Khun Htun Oo, the leader of the Shan National League for Democracy, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that "the Shan people are on the track of peace."

During the hour-and-half meeting on Monday morning, Yawd Serk gave Thein Sein a Buddha stupa and a traditional Shan outfit.

The RCSS leaders also discussed the essential points of successive ceasefire accords reached in December 2011, January 2012 and May 2012, Hla Maung Shwe said.

They then held meetings at the President's Office with 12 ministers from various ministries to discuss implementation of the policies discussed with Thein Sein.

Hla Maung Shwe said the two sides will continue their talks with government representatives on Tuesday, when the focus will be on drug issues in the state, which is a major producer of heroin.

The delegation will meet with political figures, Shan leaders and civil society groups in Rangoon on Wednesday, followed by meetings in Mandalay and the Shan State capital of Taunggyi during a tour of nearly two weeks.

Businesses Bid for Tourist Exploitation of Historic Mandalay Palace

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 04:41 AM PDT

A view of the grounds of the sprawling 413-hectare Mandalay Palace complex from the Watch Tower. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Mandalay Division's government said it is privatizing the tourist exploitation of the historic Mandalay Palace complex, the abode of Burma's last kings, the Konbaung Dynasty.

In August, several firms were invited to submit a tender to manage commercial exploitation and ticket sales at the famed Mandalay Palace complex, said Nyo Myint Tun, a supervisor of Mandalay Division's archeological department, adding that no winner had been determined yet.

"This will be a step forward for the promotion of tourism. They [private developers] will manage the area to create a fascinating [setting] and they will also have the right to collect entrance fees, manage the sightseeing around the palace and promote their services through the media," he told The Irrawaddy.

He said that the winning firm would invest in the development of tourist facilities at the palace complex such as public gardens, souvenir shops and restaurants.

Visitor facilities will be developed at main palace building (known as Mya Nan San Kyaw, or Great Golden Royal Palace) and other sites such as the stupas of King Mindon and his wives, the Royal Mint, and at the large moat around the complex, Nyo Myint Tun added.

He said the Ministry of Culture's archeological department would maintain overall authority for the management of the palace and the recreational park, and carry out maintenance and repairs at the Mandalay Palace.

One businessman with knowledge of the bidding process said that Toe Naing Mann, the son of Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann, was a contender for the commercial development project. "U Toe Naing Man, son of Shwe Man, could get it," said the man, who declined to be named.

The military's Central Burma Command will retain its location in a large compound situated in the Mandalay Palace complex. The dwellings within military quarters have been in use since the British colonial era and are reportedly in an extremely poor state after decades of neglect.

The Mandalay Palace was built in 1857 King Mindon of the Konbaung Dynasty, a line of kings that ruled from 1752 to 1885. Their reign was ended by the British colonial forces, which abolished Burma's monarchy.

The complex was badly damaged during the heavy bombardments of Mandalay during World War II. It was repaired and reconstructed in 1989, shortly after Burma's military came to power in a coup d'état.

The palace area is a major tourist draw for Mandalay and is likely to experience a sharp increase in foreign tourist visitors, who have begun flocking to Burma since its much-publicized democratic transition began.

At the World Economic Forum Asia in Naypyidaw last week, the government and the Asian Development Bank announced a Norway-funded $500 million master plan for the development of Burma's tourism sector.

In expectation of the tourist industry boom authorities had already begun raising the price of the entrance fees for the famed palace complex, Nyo Myint Tun said — even before the development of tourist facilities had started.

Previously, foreign visitors could visit the whole palace area for US $10, but he said that per June 9 foreigners are expected to shell out the same amount just to see the main palace building alone. Burmese visitors pay a mere 200 kyat ($0.25) to see the building, he added.

Kyaw Lwin Oo, director general at the Ministry of Culture, said the ministry had recently transferred the management of two other palaces, Shwebo Yadanar Mingalar Palace and the Kanbawzathadi Palace, to the governments of Sagaing Division and Pegu Division, respectively.

Like in Mandalay, the Sagaing and Pegu government might also try to privatize the tourist exploitation of these lesser known palaces.

Shwebo Yadanar Mingalar Palace was reconstructed by Burma's former military junta in 1999 at the site of the abode of Alaung Min Taya, the first ruler of the Konbaung Dynasty. The Kanbawzathadi Palace burned down in 1599, and the junta oversaw its reconstruction in 1992.

Suu Kyi Urges Job Creation After World Economic Forum

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 03:06 AM PDT

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to hundreds of supporters in the town of Pyin Oo Lwin, east of Mandalay, on Sunday. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)

MANDALAY—Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi raised the issue of unemployment during a rally near Burma's second-biggest city this weekend.

"Official polls say 4 percent of the country is unemployed, but I think it's more than that, because in Kawhmu, my constituency, more than 4 percent of the youth are unemployed," the Nobel Peace laureate told a crowd of hundreds of supporters in the town of Pyin Oo Lwin, east of Mandalay, on Sunday. "This is the biggest problem at present and for the future of the country."

"If a man is without a job, his well-being will suffer," she said. "High unemployment will discourage development. We need to focus on this unemployment."

Suu Kyi made the statement following the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw, which concluded on Friday. At the forum of business executives and political leaders in Burma's capital, the democracy icon told reporters that job creation was a top priority as the country transitions from nearly half a century of military rule.

Speaking over the weekend near Mandalay, she said foreign investment would be key to creating new jobs, but highlighted lingering challenges to attracting capital from abroad.

"Foreign investors are afraid to invest in the country because there's no guarantee for them, because we still lack rule of law and infrastructure here," she said. "That's why rule of law is fundamental to development in this country."

She said poor rule of law had also encouraged religious violence and land grabs in the country.

"Without rule of law, land is seized from farmers and families are displaced," she told the supporters who had come from as far away as east Burma's Shan State to hear the democracy icon speak. Many farmers and displaced land owners in the crowd carried placards reading, "Mother Suu, please help people who have lost their land," "Help us have rule of law," and "We support Mother Suu to be president in 2015."

The parliamentarian said lawmakers from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party had made progress since being elected to the legislature last year, but added that the fruits of their progress had yet to reach most Burmese people.

"We have made good progress even though we only have 43 seats in Parliament. But I have to admit, the citizens are still far from benefitting from the results of that progress," she said, calling for further education and health reform as well as improvements in electricity supply.

She called on her supporters to actively participate in the reform process.

"Everyone, not only the government, has a responsibility to create a democratic country," she said. "Everyone must know their duties and follow the rules."

Suu Kyi last week publicly announced for the first time her desire to be president in 2015.

"If Daw Suu becomes president, we believe there will be rule of law and no more oppression or land confiscations," Khin Maung San, a farmer whose land in Naung Cho, Shan State, had been confiscated in a land grab, told The Irrawaddy. "She is our only hope."

"But we doubt she will be president because of the 2008 Constitution," Khin Maung San added, referring to an article in the Constitution which bans Suu Kyi from running for president because her late husband was British and her children are foreign citizens. "If we can't repair the Constitution, we must fight strong so Aung San Suu Kyi can lead us."

Advertisers in Burma ‘Can’t Bill It as a Gold Rush’

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 02:34 AM PDT

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, speaks at the recent World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

Much coverage of Burma's "frontier market" has focused on sectors such as natural resources, telecommunications and manufacturing. Some of the world's biggest and best-known companies—such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Microsoft and Unilever—have in recent months put their money into Burma, or pledged to, after Western sanctions were eased or lifted in response to reforms in the one-time army-ruled country.

One sector that hasn't received as much attention is the nexus of public relations, marketing and advertising, which is, or will be, bound up with the companies and sectors that want to market and sell their wares in Burma or set up shop making goods in the country's low-wage economy.

But one media company that has come to Burma is London-based WPP—the world's biggest advertising conglomerate, which owns a number of well-known PR, advertising and market research firms. WPP-owned Ogilvy, JWT and TNS are already operating in Burma and count some of the country's biggest companies as clients. Already WPP affiliates have carried out a 12,000-person consumer survey, a novelty in Burma even two years into the country's transition from military rule.

Overall, Burma is but a tiny fraction of WPP's Asia-Pacific businesses, which generate US$5 billion in revenues and employ around 47,000 people, but WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell says that "acorn" of revenue has plenty of room to grow. Sorrell, a speaker at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw, sat down with The Irrawaddy to explain the potential of Burma's media market as foreign investors move into the country.

Question: Is Burma an important country for WPP?

Answer: One way or another, we have six operations here. They're all small but growing, and some we're started from scratch. But there'll be more to come—Millward Brown [owned by WPP] is awaiting ratification of its license, for example.

We're up to about $1.5 million to $2 million revenue; next year I anticipate $3 million, $3.5 million, $4 million. From little acorns, but we expect this to become an important market. It's 60 million people or whatever the true number is, and is a major market and a major opportunity.

As I said at the session, the sanctions were the hurdle you had to jump over. Before they were lifted, working here was a non-starter, but now it's rather like Vietnam in the '90s. I think that's the closest analogy.

Q: How would you assess the existing advertising and PR sectors in Burma?

A: I think it's very much in its early stages. But just like I didn't like the question [made at WEF's 'The Business Mandate in Myanmar' session, at which Sorrell was a panelist] about corruption, with the automatic assumption that there's no corruption in the West, it would also be arrogant to say that there's none [PR and advertising] here. It's in its early stages, and a lot of it is adaptations of overseas campaigns, but that will change.

Coca-Cola have established their bottling plant, Unilever hasn't opened yet but will, Nestle will be here. With the advent of those companies, you're going to get more locally focused stuff. Local companies are strong in areas such as beverages or retail—fast-moving consumer goods, so they will have to become a bit more sophisticated, which by the way, I think they will—and that will bring greater opportunities in terms of media.

Media prices have been quite strong—up 40 percent in some areas. You have four TV stations that are 70 percent of the advertising market. The government-owned ones do control the content, which probably limits the supply, but it's going to change over time. Then you have the advent of the telecommunications licenses, which will drive digital, so I think you'll have a sort of twin peaks in the market, the twin peaks being TV and digital.

But it's going to take time. The thing you have to be careful about is that you think this is going to be a straight growth line upwards. Even if it is 6 or 8 percent or whatever it turns out to be, there's going to be fluctuations. But if you remember the geographical location of Myanmar, there will be rub-off from China and India and Thailand. It could be the same as Eastern Europe, in the same way that Germany and Poland and Russia spin off each other as markets.

Q: What do you think the impact of private daily newspapers will be for the advertising sector here?

A: I think it's important, but I have to recall someone at our panel told us he was running a daily newspaper here but he wasn't making money off it. Well, my answer was, 'That's not a new phenomenon.' In its traditional form, and I may get in trouble for saying this, they may have missed the boat.

Facebook is very popular here, and it may be that Internet penetration is not that significant, but the power of digital media is so strong. So if you think about it, once the impact of the telecommunications licenses kicks in, which will take time, they will have a greater impact, and social and digital media will become much more effective. In the same way that you could have a leapfrog over PC to mobile, you might see a leapfrog over the traditional newspaper to digital, because the advent of the private daily newspaper here is so relatively late.

Q: How does online advertising and mobile advertising work, and particularly how can money be made that way in this country?

A: With difficulty, as there's no payment system. I've heard of one newspaper app here where they charge mobile phone credit for the download. For apps, you get consumers to pay for content; for advertising, you get companies to pay for access.

You buy the content if you value the content, and that goes back to one of the mistakes of the early Internet, when content was given away for free—it makes absolutely no sense. If The Irrawaddy is so valuable, if Simon writes good enough copy, then you should charge a subscription for it. But it can be search, it can be display advertising—they [ads] can be difficult to get in mobile screens but it can be done. It can be video, it can be social, which can be very powerful and is more about branding. Twitter is more about PR.

Q: Twitter is nowhere near as popular as Facebook here. Why do you think that is?

A: I don't know. I remember Charlie Rose was interviewing the media correspondent at The New York Times, and when he asked him, 'Well, how do you get your information when you get up in the morning?' And he said, 'Twitter.' So here's the guy from The New York Times saying that. But I don't know why it hasn't taken off here. Short text notification could be very powerful. You would think people here would seek substantial followings. Maybe Twitter hasn't pushed it. It doesn't make much sense. There's a strong journalistic strain here, with people interested in that work, so you would think people would push it.

Q: This is a poor country where most people don't have disposable income. How will that impact your sector?

A: But it's a young country, but you're right, it is a very poor country. We're looking over a 20-year timeframe, and as someone else said this morning, you can't bill it as a gold rush. The Vietnam experience is relevant: It rose, it cooled off, it rose again and now it's cooled off again. I think it is going to be bumpy and there will be turbulence. The government will do certain things and won't do other things, and you have a very important election coming up in 2015.

88 Generation Activists Meet Main Backers of Myitsone Dam

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 12:10 AM PDT

A Kachin woman at the Irrawaddy River in Myitkyina, Kachin State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON—On a visit to China, Burmese activists from the 88 Generation Students Group have urged the main backers of the controversial Myitsone Dam to completely shut down the suspended project in north Burma.

A four-member delegation from the activist group met last week with officials from state-run China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), the primary investor of the hydropower dam in north Burma's Kachin State, the group said in a statement on Friday.

The CPI officials briefed the delegation on their efforts to ensure the $3.6 billion project adhered to international business standards and caused the least possible environmental damages.

But 88 Generation leader Mya Aye said the project would nevertheless have detrimental effects on the local population. He said CPI planned to build the dam at the source of the Irrawaddy River, a cultural landmark for the ethnic Kachin people that is also highly valued by the Burmese for its historical and economic significance.

"Given those facts, he seriously requested a total shutdown of the dam," the group said in a statement on Friday.

The Myitsone Dam is a 6,000-megawatt hydropower project planned for construction at the confluence of the N'Mai and Mali rivers, which meet to form Burma's largest river, the Irrawaddy. It is part of a seven-cascade dam project mainly financed and built by Chinese state-owned companies. Much of the electricity generated by the project would be exported to China.

The project, slated for completion in 2017, would be the 15th largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

In September 2011, Burmese President Thein Sein suspended the project until at least 2016, after his term in office expires. He cited environmental concerns and widespread public criticism, including from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party called for the dam's suspension.

Last month, CPI also expressed a desire to restart the suspended project in a meeting with NLD members who had traveled to China at the invitation of the Communist Party of China.

"I welcome the 88 delegation's request," said Devi Thant Cin, an environmentalist who has led campaigns against the Myitsone Dam since 2010.

She said the project's potential damage to the Irrawaddy River was a national concern.

"We object to any attempt to resume the dam, by the government or anyone," she said.

Burma to Revamp Central Bank With New Law

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:48 PM PDT

Burma's government will soon reform its central bank, allowing the bank to adjust monetary conditions independently, Dow Jones Newswires reported Saturday. Khin Saw Oo, deputy director general of the bank's regulation and anti-money laundering department, told the business news agency that she was confident Burma's President Thein Sein would sign a new central bank law before July. She said the new law, which is seen as a step to boost foreign investment, would also stop the bank from financing the government's debt. The bank currently finances about 40 percent of the government's deficit.

Fresh Clashes Reported in East Burma’s Shan State

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:47 PM PDT

Fresh clashes have broken out between the government's army and ethnic rebels in east Burma's Shan State, in violation of a ceasefire agreement between both sides, a network of local news agencies reported. The government's army launched attacks on former temporary bases in Lashio Township on Saturday morning, Burma News International reported. Three people from the rebel Shan State Army (SSA) were injured, the news network reported, citing SSA spokesman Maj Sai La. The incident is the latest in clashes between the government's army and ethnic rebels in recent months, despite a ceasefire signed under President Thein Sein's government.

Heavy Monsoon Rains, Winds Kill 27 in Sri Lanka

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:45 PM PDT

The death toll from strong winds and monsoon rains across the Sri Lanka's coastal-belt rose to 27 while another 29 fishermen are missing. The navy is searching for the 29 fishermen and more than 32 boats missing since the monsoon rains and winds hit Saturday, said Pradeep Kodippili, a spokesman for the government's disaster management center. He said fishermen had been hardest hit by the weather, accounting for all but one of the dead. The Sri Lankan military deployed three ships and two helicopters for a rescue operation and was able to rescue 20 fishermen in the rough seas.—AP

Police in Malaysia detained 54 Burmese nationals in relation to recent clashes between Burmese Buddhists and Muslims there.

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:43 PM PDT

Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann is visiting the US at the invitation of the House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:42 PM PDT

Malaysian Police Detain Another 54 Burmese Nationals

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:41 PM PDT

Malaysian police detained 54 Burmese migrant workers on Saturday because they lacked proper documentation, Malaysian newspaper The Star reports. The group was turned over to the Immigration Department. Last week, about 1,000 Burmese were apprehended following clashes in Malaysia between Burmese Buddhist and Muslims. The incidents, which killed two, were a spillover of recent sectarian unrest in Burma. Officials claimed the workers had been "picked up" to prevent further violence. They said that 196 of those apprehended lacked proper documentation. Migrant workers told The Irrawaddy however, that they felt threatened by hostile attitudes of Malaysia's Muslim-majority population towards them. They claimed that a crackdown on Burmese migrants was under way.

Shwe Mann Leaves for US to Meet Congress Leaders

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:41 PM PDT

Lower House Speaker and Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) chairman Shwe Mann has gone on a "good will visit" to US, at the invitation of the House of Representatives Speaker and Republican leader John Boehner, government newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reports. Shwe Mann left on Saturday accompanied by several senior parliamentarians. Radio Free Asia reported last week that Shwe Mann would seek to build ties with US lawmakers and study the administrative structure of the US Congress "with a view of adopting it". Before becoming the leader of the military-affiliated USDP party, Shwe Mann was one of the most senior generals in Burma's former military junta.

The Hard Yards Begin in Burma’s Quest for Foreign Investment

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:05 PM PDT

People sit in the reception at the World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw on June 5, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

NAYPYITAW — In a cramped auditorium in Burma's capital, pro-democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi had a message for the world's business elite: Her country is teeming with foreign investors scouting for opportunities in one of Asia's final frontier markets, but not many are actually investing.

Interviews with foreign and local business leaders on the sidelines of last week's World Economic Forum in the Burma capital, Naypyidaw, show why.

Shoddy infrastructure, opaque regulations, red tape, recent bouts of sectarian violence and lingering uncertainty over US sanctions are hampering large-scale foreign investment in the country, strategically nestled between India and China.

"Actually there isn't that much investment coming in," Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader Suu Kyi told reporters.

The figures support her analysis.

Last month, reformist President Thein Sein said Burma attracted only $1.4 billion in foreign investment in fiscal 2012-13— a decent figure for a country that only recently emerged from 49 years of military misrule and isolation, but far from the amounts needed to jump-start its broken economy.

The country has clearly made a start: Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever plans to open two factories this year—part of a plan to invest 500 million euros ($661 million) there over the next decade—and The Coca-Cola Co has begun bottling there for the first time in more than 60 years.

Ford Motor Co has opened a showroom in the largest city, Rangoon. And hosting the World Economic Forum was itself was a coup for the Burma government's investment drive.

"When was the last time a market of 60 million people fell out of the sky?" said Martin Sorrell, head of advertising at marketing giant WPP Plc, which has invested in media agencies in Burma. "This is one of the last frontiers."

Sorrell said major WPP clients such as Nestle SA, the world's biggest food maker, would soon invest as well.

But there is a long way to go, with global consulting firm McKinsey estimating Burma needs $170 billion in foreign capital in the first stage of its economic transition.

And as in many frontier markets, Burma's investment climate is still anything but sunny, given the enormous changes.

Sorrell's optimism is tinged with an awareness of the risks, including growing ethnic and communal violence in Burma, where unrest between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims have killed hundreds of people in the past year and displaced more than 140,000, mostly Muslims.

"Ethnic issues are a problem," he said.

Other executives and analysts interviewed at the forum spoke of a range of major investment barriers, including Burma's poor infrastructure and unclear regulatory environment.

Speculative Fervor

McKinsey has pointed to manufacturing as a key sector that could generate 6 million jobs and eventually account for a third of the economy. But Serge Pun, who heads Serge Pun & Associates, which has interests in real estate among other sectors, said a lack of zoning laws was holding back growth in manufacturing.

"Today they go out and speculate [on] industrial land with the same fervor and enthusiasm as if it was prime residential land," he told Reuters.

Serge Pun said the government should set aside industrial land for investors to build factories and employ people. "I always advocate that if there's a factory operator that's willing to come in, the price should be very cheap," he said.

For Christopher Fossick, regional managing director for real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle, the problem is Burma's foreign investment law. It was passed by Parliament in November but the government has yet to put it into effect, leaving foreign developers waiting for certainty before moving in.

"From there you need to develop a land ownership structure," he said. "Anybody coming in here and investing will need the confidence and the understanding that there's a certain level of transparency in the market and that they can have title over the real estate that they're investing into."

A similar lack of transparency is holding back growth in agriculture, according to Don Lam, head of VinaCapital, a Vietnam-based investment management and real-estate development company. His company is looking at investing in agricultural processing and technology, but it will stay away from production in a sector vulnerable to contentious land disputes.

"Agricultural reform means the rules for investors have to be completely clear," he said.

Lam said he was also looking into hospitality and financial services in Burma but had encountered another challenge: Decades of mismanagement has left the country with a small educated workforce. Lam said VinaCapital had so far been unable to find a local CEO to head its operations there.

"We have funds allocated to Myanmar, we have investors ready to launch a Myanmar fund," he said. "So capital is not the issue—the issue is finding the right talent."

Doan Nguyen Hansen, a senior partner with McKinsey, said people in Burma had an average of only four years of education, contributing to the country's weak productivity rate, which was 70 percent below that of benchmark Asian countries, including China, Thailand and Indonesia.

But there is no way to build enough schools and train workers fast enough, she said. Technology could fill the gap with remote learning, but telecommunications infrastructure needs an overhaul: Burma has among the lowest mobile telecommunications penetration rates in the world, with only 4-8 percent of the population connected. Internet and mobile phone services are not available in much of the country.

Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, venture-capital arm of chipmaker Intel Corp, said he was looking at Burma but was waiting for the right "ecosystem"” to develop—better and faster broadband access, clearer regulations and a labor market with adequate legal and financial expertise.

"The number one thing that matters to us is Internet access—high speed, readily available, affordable relative to the incomes of the population," he said. Those factors have not been achieved "judging from the fact that none of my devices work."

Stephen Groff, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, said he was impressed with the government's commitment to reform and its efforts to attract investment. But he added that the government could do more to manage the expectations of investors and Burma's people, who are eager for the fruits of change.

"That patience runs out," he said. "How much time are people willing to give the government to see this process through?"

Obama, Xi Signal New Start with Walk in the Desert

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:28 PM PDT

US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk the grounds at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, on June 8, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)

PALM SPRINGS, California — US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping's 50-minute stroll through an estate in the California desert could mark a notable moment in the relationship between the heads of the world's two largest economies.

At the very least, it was a rare opportunity Saturday for the presidents to dispense with their advisers for one-on-one talks.

Tom Donilon, Obama's national security adviser who helped orchestrate the two-day summit, said the walk was important "to establish and deepen their personal relationship" and address "the range of issues that we have to address."

It's a big list that includes cyberspying and intellectual property theft and North Korea's nuclear provocations, as well as economic competition and climate change.

There were no policy breakthroughs, but both countries appeared to leave pleased that the issues were addressed candidly and the groundwork was laid for future talks.

The leaders "did not shy away from differences," said Yang Jiechi, Xi's senior foreign policy adviser, adding that Obama and Xi "blazed a new trail" in the relationship between their countries.

Obama and Xi held more than eight hours of talks during the two-day summit, which closed Saturday afternoon. They found common ground in their frustrations over North Korea's provocations and on climate change, agreeing to work together to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas used in refrigerators, air conditioners and industrial applications.

But there was no accord over cybersecurity, which US officials see as perhaps the most pressing issue facing the two nations. Obama confronted Xi with specific evidence of intellectual property theft the United States says is emanating from China. Xi said China was also a victim of cyberattacks but did not publicly acknowledge his country's alleged activities.

For Obama, the meetings with Xi were an opportunity to test the kind of personal diplomacy his advisers say he craves. The president and his team have long grumbled privately about the constraints of large, highly scripted international summits, with schedules packed with plenary sessions and group photos. Policy outcomes at those meetings are often predetermined during earlier rounds of talks with lower level officials.

"You're not really having an actual exchange," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said of the larger summits. "You can only really work through a small number of agenda items, and you don't get to really dig in with another leader on a bigger range of subjects."

Obama and Xi, who took office in March, had been scheduled to hold their first official meeting on the sidelines of one of those summits—a September economic meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.

But US officials were eager to move up talks with Xi. Many Obama advisers see the 59-year-old as a potentially new brand of Chinese leader, with closer ties to the United States than many of his predecessors and an apparent ease during public appearances that eluded the man he replaced, Hu Jintao.

US officials approached the Chinese earlier this year to see if Xi would be willing to dispense with the formal pageantry of a state visit to the White House and instead hold more free-flowing talks. Former American presidents dating back to Dwight Eisenhower have decamped to the California desert retreat for both policy meetings and vacations.

"There was really quite quick acceptance by President Xi," Donilon said.

Still, Obama and Xi's "shirt sleeves" summit was hardly unscripted. A pair of bilateral meetings looked and felt similar to most diplomatic gatherings, with Obama and Xi seated at the center of long tables, each flanked by several aides. And Saturday's morning walk was originally scheduled as a photo opportunity for the US and Chinese press corps, though White House aides said the leaders decided to keep the conversation going long after they passed by the media.

Like Obama, Xi appears receptive to the more low-key approach to diplomatic negotiations. He offered to host Obama soon at a similarly informal meeting in China, something White House officials say they'll work on with the Chinese.

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed.

India Opposition Party Names Modi to Head Campaign

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:22 PM PDT

Supporters of Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi celebrate while holding posters and cut-outs of Modi in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on June 9, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Amit Dave)

NEW DELHI — India's main opposition party announced Sunday that a deeply divisive Hindu ideologue will head its 2014 election campaign, indicating he would likely be its choice for prime minister if the party were to win.

The appointment of Narendra Modi to head the key campaign committee was so divisive that even some top leaders of his own Bharatiya Janata Party declined to attend the three-day party conference where he was awarded the post.

Modi, the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, is known for pushing a hard-line Hindu nationalist agenda.

He was the top elected official in Gujarat when religious riots broke out in the state in 2001, killing more than 1,100 people, mostly Muslims. While Modi was never charged with a crime, his critics say he did little to stop the three months of rioting.

Modi has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the violence, but has never expressed remorse or offered an apology.

Several top leaders of Modi's own party refused to attend the conclave knowing that Modi's appointment to head the party campaign committee was inevitable. They fear that the party will fare badly in the upcoming countrywide elections due to Modi's polarizing image.

Some party leaders fear that with Modi in charge, the BJP could turn off voters and coalition allies, throwing away a prime chance to win control of the government from the scandal-plagued Congress Party. But many also have been positioning themselves for years for the party's top job and they are annoyed at the rise of a rival as well as worried that Modi's centralized ruling style will leave them out in the cold if their party does take power.

Veteran party leader Lal Krishna Advani and many other senior BJP leaders stayed away from the conclave that was held in the southwestern beach resort state of Goa, sparking media reports of a rift in the party.

But Rajnath Singh, BJP president, said the decision to elevate Modi as the party's campaign chief had widespread support in the party.

"The decision was unanimous. The entire party has faith in Modi. BJP considers the 2014 parliamentary elections to be a major challenge," Singh told reporters.

But 63-year-old Modi has held up his success in transforming Gujarat into an economic powerhouse and contrasted it to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scandal-ridden Congress Party government, which has seen its position dramatically weaken in recent years.

Rajnath Singh said people had lost faith in the Congress Party-led government and were looking to the BJP to lead the country.

"We are confident that the BJP will be voted to power in 2014. We are determined to win," Singh said.

As his supporters set off firecrackers and beat drums in celebration of his appointment, Modi said he had the support of the party leadership.

"Senior leaders have reposed their faith in me," Modi said.

His priority would be to oust the Congress from power, he told party supporters.

"We will leave no stone unturned to achieve our goal of building an India free of the Congress," he said.

Congress party leaders reacted to Modi's appointment by referring to the dissension within the BJP.

"If they can't keep a party together, how will they run the country?" asked Rajeev Shukla, a top leader and minister for parliamentary affairs.

"Congress is not afraid of Narendra Modi," Shukla said.

2 Koreas to Hold Senior-Level Meeting in Seoul

Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:12 PM PDT

Head of South Korean delegation for an inter-Korean working-level talks, Chun Hae-sung, left, shakes hands with his North Korean counterpart Kim Song-hye during their last conference wrapping up their 17 hour-negotiation. (Photo: Reuters / Unification Ministry / Handout)

SEOUL — North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold senior-level talks this week in Seoul, a breakthrough of sorts to ease tensions after Pyongyang's recent threats of nuclear war and Seoul's vows of counterstrikes.

The two-day meeting starting Wednesday will focus on stalled cooperation projects, including the resumption of operations at a jointly-run factory park near the border in North Korea that was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement until Pyongyang pulled out its workers in April during heightened tensions that followed its February nuclear test.

The details of the upcoming talks were ironed out in a nearly 17-hour negotiating session by lower-level officials. Those discussions began Sunday in the countries' first government-level meeting on the Korean Peninsula in more than two years and took place at the village of Panmunjom on their heavily armed border, near where the armistice ending the three-year Korean War was signed 60 years ago next month. That truce has never been replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically at war.

The agreement to hold the talks was announced in a statement early Monday by South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is responsible for North Korea matters. North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, also reported the agreement.

It's still unclear who will represent each side in what will likely be the highest-level talks between the Koreas in years. But dialogue at any level marks an improvement in the countries' abysmal ties. The last several years have seen North Korean nuclear tests, long-range rocket launches and attacks blamed on the North that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

The meeting that starts Wednesday will also include discussions on resuming South Korean tours to a North Korean mountain resort, the reunion of separated families and other humanitarian issues, officials said. The issue most crucial to Washington, however—a push to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons—isn't on the official agenda.

While there was broad agreement, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a statement, sticking points arose over the delegation heads and the agenda. Seoul said it will send a senior-level official responsible for North Korea-related issues while Pyongyang said it would send a senior-level government official, without elaborating.

North Korea said that in addition to the rapprochement projects, the two sides would also discuss how to jointly commemorate past inter-Korean statements, including one settled during a landmark 2000 summit between the countries' leaders, civilian exchanges and other joint collaboration matters.

South Korea's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae proposed a minister-level meeting with the North last week. But Unification Policy Officer Chun Hae-sung, who led the South's delegation at Sunday's talks, told reporters it is not clear if Ryoo will represent South Korea. A minister-level summit between the Koreas has not happened since 2007.

Neither Korea mentioned Pyongyang's nuclear weapons. When asked Monday by reporters if South Korean delegates raised the issue during Sunday's negotiations, Chun said it wasn't appropriate to discuss issues that weren't part of the agenda.

Analysts express wariness about North Korea's intentions, with some seeing the interest in dialogue as part of a pattern where Pyongyang follows aggressive rhetoric and provocations with diplomatic efforts to trade an easing of tension for outside concessions.

Pyongyang is trying to improve ties with Seoul because it very much wants dialogue with the United States, which could give the North aid, ease international sanctions and improve its economy in return for concessions, said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.

Nuclear matters won't be on the table, Kim said, because Pyongyang wants issues related to its pursuit of atomic weapons resolved through talks with Washington or in broader, now-stalled international disarmament negotiations.

After UN sanctions were strengthened following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Pyongyang threatened nuclear war and missile strikes against Seoul and Washington, pulled its workers from the jointly run factory park at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and vowed to ramp up production of nuclear bomb fuel. Seoul withdrew its last personnel from Kaesong in May.

The summit marks a political and diplomatic victory for South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who took office in February and has maintained through the heightened tensions a policy that combines vows of strong counter-action to any North Korea provocation with efforts to build trust and re-establish dialogue.

Representatives of the rival Koreas met on the peninsula in February 2011 and their nuclear envoys met in Beijing later that year, but government officials from both sides have not met since.

Sunday's meeting follows a summit by US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California in which the White House said "quite a bit of alignment" was found on North Korea, including an agreement that Pyongyang has to abandon its nuclear weapons aspirations.

China provides a lifeline for a North Korea struggling with energy and other economic needs, and views stability in Pyongyang as crucial for its own economy and border security. But after Pyongyang's nuclear test in February, China tightened its cross-border trade inspections and banned its state banks from dealing with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un late last month sent to China his special envoy, who reportedly told Xi that Pyongyang was willing to return to dialogue. President Park will travel to Beijing to meet Xi later this month.

North Korea was probably motivated to hold talks with Seoul because it wants to ease a sense of crisis over its deepening isolation from the rest of the world, including ally China, said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

"Normally, China has been on North Korea's side, but now the United States and China have joined hands to urge North Korea to denuclearize, which is a very tough situation for North Korea," Chang said.

Pyongyang, which is estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, has committed a drumbeat of acts that Washington, Seoul and others deem provocative since Kim Jong-un took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
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