Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Govt to Compensate 90 Farmers Affected by Thilawa SEZ

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 05:55 AM PDT

A man displays his farm in front of his home in the Thilawa special economic zone, outside Rangoon, January 6, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Burma's government announced on Tuesday that it will compensate 90 farmers who will lose land during the development of the first phase of the Japanese-backed Thilawa Special Economic Zone, which is scheduled to start in September in Rangoon Division's Thanlyin Township.

"We won't offer payments to the farmers for the rest of their life, but we will offer them a fair amount so they have savings in their current situation," said Set Aung, Deputy Minister of National Planning and Economic Development.

"We will follow the international World Bank and Japanese standards [for compensation procedures]. We already collected household data between April 4 and 26," he told some 200 members of the affected communities during a public meeting in Rangoon Division's Kyauktan Township.

Set Aung, who is also the acting chairman of the Thilawa SEZ project development committee, said the survey had found that 90 farming households were eligible to receive compensation as they will lose land during the first phase of Thilawa SEZ, which will cover 400 hectares of land.

"We have aerial photographs and a detailed list of the households in the Thilawa SEZ area," he said, adding that farmers would be informed of the payment amounts in July.

Rangoon Division's Agriculture and Cultivation Minister Soe Min added, "Farmers should not register new family members on their family registration document, and should not try to deceive officials."

Some of the leaders of the affected communities told the meeting that they agreed with the proposed compensation measures.

"We accept the plan for the Thilawa SEZ, we have no objections, but the government should give us a fair amount of money," said Mya Hlaing, who represents farmers from six villages in Thanlyin Township.

"If the project starts we will vacate our land," he added, "If the project doesn't start this year, we want to be able to cultivate our land."

In 2012, Burma's government began planning Thilawa SEZ, together with Japan's government, a consortium of Japanese firms and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The sprawling industrial complex, located about 25 km south of Rangoon, includes a deep sea port, Japanese factories, and large housing projects. The Burmese side owns 51 percent of the project and is responsible for developing a 2,400-hectare core zone.

The massive project is expected to drive Rangoon's economic and urban growth in the next decades, and could generate up to 200,000 jobs when all four project phases are completed, a Burmese project developer said in May.

The Thilawa project has so far however, been marred by land disputes affecting hundreds of farmers.

The plans to develop the area first began in the 1990s under Burma's military regime, which forced farmers to give up swathes of land with little or no compensation. The project failed to take off and farmers resumed cultivating their lands.

When plans for the zone were revamped in 2012 with Japanese support, communities were told to leave. But land prices have reportedly soared to as much as US$10,000 per hectare, and many farmers are now demanding higher compensation.

Minister Set Aung stressed that these issues would now be resolved fairly. "Please don't compare [the land rights issues] at Thilawa with industrial zones that were constructed in the past. The Thiliwa SEZ is special and developed in accordance with international standards," he said, adding that work had also begun on the project's environmental impact assessment.

He said the government would not compensate farmers who would be affected by the development of the zone's deep-sea port, as the harbor belongs to Myanmar International Terminal Thilawa, which is owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings.

Although the implementation of the Thilawa project has so far been keeping pace, it could encounter further problems due to widespread land speculation in the planned second phase zone.

When Set Aung visited Thet Yer Gone, a village located in this zone, on Tuesday, he was told that businessmen had already bought up 40 hectares of local farmland, prompting the minister to remark, "Which government authority approved these land sales?"

Myanma Airways Grounds MA60s after Landing Mishaps

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 05:37 AM PDT

A Myanma Airways plane is pictured after it swerved off the runway during a landing on Monday. (Photo: Kyawmyo Kyawsan / Facebook)

RANGOON — Burma's state airline says it will stop flying its Chinese-made MA60 planes following its second accident with the turboprop model in less than a month.

Myanma Airways administration manager Hla Htay Aung said Tuesday that the airline will ground its three MA60s for the time being. One swerved off the runway Monday while landing in Kawthaung in southeastern Burma, causing no injuries but damaging both propellers.

Another Myanma Airways MA60 shot past the end of the runway on May 16 at Monghsat in northern Shan State when its brakes reportedly failed. A wing and a wheel were damaged, and two passengers suffered broken arms.

A MA60 operated by Indonesian state-run Merpati Nusantara Airlines landed hard Monday in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang, injuring several people on board.

Burmese Tycoons to Help Compatriots in Malaysia

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 05:25 AM PDT

Two injured Burmese nationals are pictured at a hospital in Kaula Lumpur. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

Burmese tycoons at the helm of leading businesses in the country are pledging to help bring back Burmese nationals wishing to return to their homeland in the wake of violence in Malaysia targeting Burmese people there.

Aung Ko Win, chairman of Kanbawza Bank, has donated US$50,000 to help Burmese migrant workers who are employed in Malaysia. He is also planning to cooperate with state-owned Myanma Airways International (MAI) to cut airfares by 50 percent for one month for migrant workers in Malaysia seeking a return to Burma.

"The donation is not for popularity. This is just our chairman wanting to show solidarity with his fellow Burmese people who are living in fear in Malaysia," said Zaw Lin Htut, senior general manager at Kanbawza Bank.

He said the Kanbawza chief was willing to cooperate with the Burmese Embassy in Malaysia to provide air transportation free of charge as well.

Violence targeting Burmese nationals in Malaysia began May 30, when a Burmese man there was beheaded by unknown assailants. Other Burmese citizens have since come under attack, with the violence being linked to communal violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims in Burma over the last year. Malaysia's population is majority-Muslim.

According to a social group helping Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia, the incidents have left at least six dead and 10 injured. As of Tuesday, however, Malaysian authorities have yet to confirm any official death toll.

The Ayeyarwady Foundation, founded by the managing director of the Max Myanmar Group, Zaw Zaw, has donated $20,000 to support the Kepong Free Funeral Service, which provides funerals free of charge to Burmese migrant workers.

According to the foundation's media relations officer, representatives of the group are in talks with government officials and plan to travel to Malaysia in person to provide support to the Burmese migrant population there. The group is also planning to donate 2,000 airline tickets to people who want to come back to the country.

The Htoo Foundation, established by another famous Burmese tycoon, Tay Za, also announced on its Facebook page that it will donate $100,000 to help those beleaguered Burmese in Malaysia wishing to return to their home country.

Air Bagan, which is also owned by Tay Za, has promised to arrange flights for citizens wishing to return to Burma, and also pledged to provide job opportunities to returning nationals.

Despite the business community's charitable gestures, migrant workers without legal documents may not be able to benefit from the offers.

According to Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia, many migrant workers are seeking a means of returning to Burma, but worry that they will be unable to do so without the necessary legal papers to travel.

"We are happy to hear that people like them are willing to help us," said Maung Ko, who lives in Malaysia's Selangor State. "There are many people who want to go back home, but the problem is they are here without legal documents and are unable to fly back home."

Thousands of Burmese migrant workers are employed in Malaysia's factories, and on rubber and oil palm plantations in the fellow Asean nation. Most of them travel to Malaysia via the Thai-Burma border and have no legal documents, including passports or work permits.

Migrant workers on Tuesday explained that most of those employed in Malaysia are required to reimburse their employer at least 1,000 Malaysian ringgits ($320) if they go home before having fulfilled their contract.

"Even though they have free tickets to fly, they are worried about the reimbursement because they do not have enough money to pay. If there's no one to help, it seems they have to let the police arrest them and let the police send them back to the border," Maung Ko said.

Others have overstayed their work permits, an immigration violation that presents its own legal challenges.

"We want to go back as we are overstaying here and have no security. But we need to have a Certificate of Identification, which is issued by the Burmese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. We hope somebody can help us to leave Malaysia," said another Burmese worker who lives in the Selayang area, about 10 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Hmuu Zaw, an officer from the Burmese President's Office, posted on his Facebook that a special delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Zin Yaw had departed for Malaysia on Monday evening.

Hmuu Zaw said in his post that the delegation would evaluate the situation in Malaysia and report back to the president in order to determine concrete steps the administration can take to assist Burmese nationals living in Malaysia.

Concerned for the wellbeing of family and friends in Malaysia, some Burmese living in Burma slammed the government's response to the recent violence, saying its actions came too late.

"It is good to hear the tycoons and the government trying to help them, but it is a bit late. If the government had cooperated with the Malaysian government to help its citizen immediately, the problem will not have spiraled so much," said Ashin Issariya, a leading monks of the anti-government uprising in September 2007.

"We worry for our fellow monks who are doing missionary [work] in Penang and other areas. Some Buddhist monks from Penang said that they have to live with caution because they received threatening phone calls from unknown people," he added.

On Facebook, many Burmese people globally have changed their profile pictures to an image of solid black, while some have posted prayers or sentiments of solidarity for victims of the violence in Malaysia. Others have urged an end to the religious violence.

Burmese beauty queen Nang Khin Zay Yar was among those expressing solidarity with the victims and urging assistance for compatriots living in Malaysia.

Malaysian police have reportedly cited the communal violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims in Burma as the root of the recent violence against Burmese migrants.

Following the incidents in Malaysia, more than 900 Burmese, mainly from the Sentul, Cheras, Brickfields and Dang Wangi areas, were arrested last week in a sweep that Malaysian police said was intended to prevent further bloodshed.

After Bangladesh Tragedy, Questions for Burma’s Garment Sector

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 04:02 AM PDT

Workers from the Myue & Soe Garment factory stand during a protest for a salary increase in front of the Mayangone Township labor office in Rangoon on Sept. 7, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

RANGOON — At last week's World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw, one message seemed to transcend the rest: Burma is open for business, and labor, the government and foreign companies are all weighing the promise and pitfalls of the nation's increasingly attractive investment climate.

With the lifting of long-entrenched barriers to investment in the country, Burma's low-wage workforce of some 33 million people could prove tempting to manufacturers globally. But labor rights groups are urging Burma to get it right when it comes to responsibly managing any new wave of labor-intensive job opportunities, as neighboring Bangladesh takes a hard look at its own textile industry after a building collapse there killed more than 1,100 garment factory workers in April.

Burma's Parliament passed a new foreign investment law last year that was largely seen as a welcoming overture to outside investors, and the business landscape is expected to boom in the coming years as the private sector adjusts to new opportunities brought about by the reformist government of President Thein Sein.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has seen its international business reputation as a low-wage manufacturing enclave tainted by serious questions about the country's ability to ensure a safe work environment for its people.

That country's labor woes were highlighted on April 24 when a building collapse outside the capital of Dhaka killed 1,129 workers of garment factories housed in the structure.

Employees there were ordered into the factories the day of the collapse despite the appearance of large cracks in the building. It was later revealed that the building's owner had illegally stacked four extra floors onto a structure that was only certified to stand five stories tall.

Apparel firms from around the globe set up shop in Bangladesh or subcontract work out to the country, which has some of the world's lowest wages. Workplace fires and other incidents like the latest collapse have put pressure not only on the Bangladesh government, but also on Western firms invested there who are seen as complicit in regulatory violations that are often the result of penny-pinching local factory owners.

Judy Gearhart, executive director of the US-based International Labor Rights Forum, said the situation in Bangladesh should serve as a cautionary tale as Burma's garment industry sees renewed interest from foreign firms.

"The one thing for sure that we hope will be the lesson drawn from the tragedy in Bangladesh is that Burma very much should take the high road to development," she told The Irrawaddy, adding that companies may start to trickle out of Bangladesh in search of countries with labor markets that are less of a potential liability.

The garment industry has historically been a first-phase path to development for impoverished nations, as it requires little initial capital investment and is well-suited to low-skilled labor.

"They've got to take some notes from the calamities in Bangladesh: to invest well in infrastructure and, frankly, to pay decent wages," Gearhart said.

The International Labor Organization's (ILO) liaison officer in Burma, Steve Marshall, describes the organization's role as "coordinating" among labor rights groups, the private sector and the government.

Marshall said he was optimistic that Burma would avoid becoming the next sweatshop hot spot.

"There are many, many companies looking at investing in this country and they are all concerned about ensuring that the risks are managed in terms of their company interests, but in the main we are actually seeing an approach in which they see and want to be seen as their investment adding to the building of the society and the building of the labor market," he said.

Burma saw a boom in garment exports beginning in the early 1990s. By 1997, exports stood at US$200 million, soaring to more than $800 million in 2001, when clothing was the country's largest export. But international boycotts and the imposition of US sanctions in 2003 sent exports plunging. Since then, the figure has slowly recovered as Japan and other Asian markets made up for the crimped Western demand.

Myint Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, said textile exports reached $860 million in 2012, and MGMA expects that $1 billion in clothing will be shipped from Burma this year as barriers to Western entry continue to fall.

The industry has some way to go, however, before it can compete with Bangladesh's garment exports, which stand at about $20 billion annually.

'Asleep for 10 Years'

Among other recent changes to Burma's investment climate, the European Union in April permanently dropped all sanctions against the country except a ban on arms exports, and the United States has suspended broad sanctions on investment and trade.

Washington is also considering granting Burma Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status, which would allow for duty-free imports on more than 5,000 items, including much of the garment world's products. The European Union has already reinstated Burma's GSP status in the 27-nation bloc.

Burma's government has put in place a fast-track registration service for outside firms looking to tap the country as a source of cheap labor, according to Myint Soe. The move aims to reduce bureaucratic headaches and streamline the application process for foreign investors wishing to set up shop in Burma.

MGMA training centers aim to better prepare Burma's underutilized workforce for an influx of garment makers and the jobs that they will bring. From the country's current textile manufacturing core in Rangoon, Myint Soe said his association is looking to expand employment opportunities in the surrounding Pegu and Irrawaddy divisions.

But as the garment industry lures investment from abroad through legislation and other carrots, there are concerns about the ability of stakeholders to ensure that everything is up to code—an obligation Bangladesh has struggled to meet.

"Having a law is one thing, the application of that law is a second," Marshall conceded, describing the task as a burden shared by government, employers and their workers. "They [Burma's stakeholders] have capacity [to follow laws and enforce regulations], but it is by no means at the level that is required for the full implementation and operation of everything."

That assessment dovetails with the observations of David Birnbaum, an American who began working as a factory manager in Asia more than four decades ago before building several factories of his own in the region. Birnbaum said he toured seven factories in a visit to Burma in February, none of which would pass a test of compliance to international occupational health and safety standards.

For a domestic industry long shut out from major Western markets, Birnbaum said the poor conditions were hardly surprising.
"These people have no idea what the [global] industry looks like. They've been asleep for 10 years," said Birnbaum, who has written textbooks on the garment industry and served as an adviser for the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank. "They have to have a series of workshops so that they can learn what the world industry looks like."

The labor rights group Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) insists that in a rush to attract outside entrepreneurs, important worker protections may get short shrift.

"It is deeply upsetting to see the EU put aside the need for due diligence in line with the UN's Guiding Principles on Human Rights and Business in favor of rewarding what even they consider to be unmet promises," Dominique Muller from the CCC International Secretariat said in a press release last month, referring to the recently lifted sanctions.

"The EU's decision further underscores the need for companies to be directly pressured into paying a living wage to ensure that the Burmese workers get the most benefit from their government's new policies. But without key leverage this will be a massive challenge," she added.

A new minimum wage law has been passed by Parliament, according to Marshall, but some of the legislation's regulatory provisions are still being drafted. The ILO liaison declined to reveal the contents of the law until it is made public, but given the country's economic position, Burma will likely continue to offer manufacturers one of the cheapest labor pools in the region.

Not a Manufacturing Eden

Despite the increasingly welcoming investment climate, there is plenty to give potential investors pause.

Infrastructure concerns, including an electricity grid that is prone to frequent blackouts, mean manufacturers run the risk of productivity losses or, alternatively, higher energy costs in the form of diesel fuel to power backup generators.

Burma's political trajectory also remains far from certain, despite a trend in the last 18 months toward democratization and more open relations with the international community. Recent deadly rioting, marked by Buddhist violence against the nation's minority Muslims in several areas across the country, has led to questions about the government's ability to maintain stability.

Ceasefires with ethnic armed groups remain tenuous, while ethnic Kachin rebels in the nation's north have yet to re-establish a ceasefire that collapsed two years ago with the government.

And there are still major gaps in information about Burma's workforce.

"Unfortunately we're working in a situation where there is almost no statistics or knowledge of the shape, size or nature of the labor market," Marshall said. His organization is in the middle of conducting a household survey to rectify that problem.

The ILO, which for more than a decade worked in Burma primarily within the limited scope of eliminating forced labor in the country, is now taking on an increasingly ambitious portfolio.

The organization is working on a wide range of issues, from better educating Burma's future workforce to ensuring that employees understand the proper procedure for carrying out a strike, in a country where labor unions were banned until just last year.

The garment industry is one of two economic sectors that will be a focus of the ILO's efforts and will serve as a staging ground for comprehensive "good practice modeling," Marshall said.

Still, he acknowledged the daunting challenges in getting the country's labor market up to international standards.

"It's not an easy task," he said. "This is not something in which you snap your fingers and everything falls into place tomorrow. It's very much an evolutionary process."

‘It’s a Question of Justice’

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 03:40 AM PDT

Salil Shetty, secretary-general of Amnesty International, participates in a panel discussion on Burma's business future at the recent World Economic Forum in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

While the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw was primarily a business-focused gathering bringing together Burma's political leaders with regional and global chief executives, human rights did get a look in, with Amnesty International secretary-general Salil Shetty a panelist in a discussion of Burma's business future.

The panel lineup, featuring the likes of Serge Pun, a well-known Burmese businessman, along with representatives of Dow Chemical and India's Hindustan Construction, hints at a growing awareness that in Burma's transitional politics and economy, the human rights-business crossover is particularly acute. Allegations of land grabs—together with jeremiads issued by rights groups warning that corporate exploitation of Burma's tens of millions of poor could replace military oppression—mean that for those companies coming to Burma to sell consumer goods, set up factories or tap gas, an appreciation of the country's long history of rights abuses is needed, and could in fact benefit their bottom line.

Salil Shetty and Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific deputy director, spoke with Irrawaddy reporter Simon Roughneen at the WEF about the state of human rights in Burma and elsewhere in the region, including Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Question: How would you assess the human rights and related reforms that have taken place in Burma so far?

Salil Shetty: Amnesty International has welcomed some important moves from the government recently, such as the release of a significant number of political prisoners, increasing freedom for the media, and a general readiness to engage in a dialogue on the human rights situation. And, of course, the release of iconic Aung San Suu Kyi, for whom Amnesty International campaigned for many years. While it is really important to celebrate the positive developments, we have to be realistic as to the situation on the ground: While prisoners have been released, it is conditional, and there are still around 200 political prisoners—we don't know the real numbers because it is not in the public domain. There are also other people detained arbitrarily. The other issue we are concerned about is that with many of the people who have protested, be that against some of the development projects or in the context of the Rohingya issue, there has been an excessive use of force and peaceful demonstrations have been broken up, and often the security forces have been involved in this. We are concerned about discrimination against ethnic minorities. Unless every person inside Myanmar feels that their rights are being respected, it will be very difficult to realize the objectives of economic development being discussed at this World Economic Forum.

Q: What did you think of Minister Soe Thane's comment that the government is considering a federal system of government, which is something that some of the ethnic minority parties and militias have been calling for?

SS: From an Amnesty International perspective, we don’t go by systems or "isms." It's the action, what happens on the ground, and we have enough examples of countries where there is a federal system and where there are human rights violations. For us, it's a question of the criminal justice system, which is really broken in this country. Aung San Suu Kyi spoke of the lack of an independent judiciary. We don't really have a rule of law in place, we have credible reports not just of arbitrary detention, but of torture.

Q: Can you put a number on those cases of arbitrary detention and/or torture?

SS: I don't think we can easily put a number in this country, as there isn't much transparency. And there's another issue of accountability for past violations. There's impunity in relation to the military. It's one thing to have a ceasefire, which is good from a security point of view, but unless you have justice and accountability it's very difficult to think of a Burma in the future which stays united and is pushing in the proper direction, as there are deep wounds which have to be healed.

Q: You mentioned impunity and accountability for past crimes. Earlier today, Aung San Suu Kyi said she doesn't want any prosecutions for past crimes, that she seemingly doesn't want any revenge enacted against those who might have commited or ordered past violations? What did you make of those comments?

SS: Well, she was very careful in how she chose her words—revenge is different from prosecution. She said she doesn't want revenge, but accountability. It's a question of justice, and people need to see that, and feel that there is justice.

Q: In terms of your own work, how has the situation changed for Amnesty International working inside Burma, since the Burmese transition, if that's what it turns out to be, started just over two years ago?

SS: It's very early days, but, for one, I'm here, and that wasn't easy before. We’ve had two missions here over that time, and I met several government figures at this meeting and they are keen for us to come and have a dialogue with them.

Q: Have you had much engagement with the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission?

SS: I met several of them and some of them are here. It's a good thing that there is a national human rights commission, but the fact of the matter is they don't have the capacity to investigate or the teeth to take up human rights issues. What needs to happen is that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights needs to have a presence here, and the country needs to move rapidly toward aligning its own domestic laws with international legal standards. They [Burma] haven't signed up to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example. I was pleased to hear Aung San Suu Kyi say that in the context of the citizenship issue for the Rohingya, to take the 1982 law, find out how many of them should have been given citizenship in the first place, then take that law and look at how it can be brought in line with international standards.

Q: Looking at the changes in this country in the context of the region, next year Burma will chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for the first time, which is partly a reflection of the changes that have taken place. So how would you rank the human rights situation in Burma, compared with other countries in the Asean region?

SS: Amnesty doesn't do rankings—that would be a slippery slope. Asean is an interesting animal, it is very economically focused. The countries in Asean, their histories, they are very different, some full-fledged democracies, some not, some partial. But if you take it as an institution, they created the charter, and in 2009 the commission [the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, or AICHR] was created. But like its counterpart here, the commission cannot place complaints, or take action. Accountability for past crimes is weak in many countries. You take Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam—there are big issues around freedom of expression, assembly. Vietnam has locked up so many bloggers and activists, who we are campaigning to have released. We are also pushing for the case of Sombat Somphone [a human rights activist who disappeared in Vientiane in December] in Laos, and in the case of Cambodia there are human rights violations around development projects. But overall the tendency in Asean is if there are human rights violations in one country, the others look the other way. It's a tough neighborhood, and I wouldn’t want to compare Myanmar with any other country.

Q: Have you been able to get access to Vietnam, to carry out official missions there?

Isabelle Arradon: We have been been able to go to Vietnam in February, and that was the first time since 1989, and we are hoping to go to Vietnam again by the end of the year. This is a very new development.

Q: What can you tell us about the conditions for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Vietnam? There has, as you mentioned, been an increase in arrests of writers, pro-democracy campaigners and others in recent months.

IA: As Salil was saying, dozens of human rights defenders are currently in jail, and the rules are very restrictive around freedom of expression, and we are concerned about conditions in detention and access for family and friends to detainees. We issued a statement recently in relation to human rights picnics, where activists have gathered to discuss human rights in cities, but have been harassed by police.

Q: Yes, I saw photos and Vietnamese online accounts of the case of journalist Nguyen Hoang Vi and her family, who were at one of those events and were apparently attacked by police— punched, some teeth knocked out. Nasty-looking way to put a stop to a picnic.

IA: Some were subjected to violence after their arrest and we have been calling for an investigation into the situation and we are calling for the picnics to be allowed to proceed without harassment.

Q: And in the case of Sombat Somphone, any progress in finding him that you know of? Any update on his whereabouts or what happened to him?

IA: We are pushing hard for his release. We will be issuing a report soon. But we have been very disappointed with the investigation so far, it has been inadequate. It is very important that the authorities look again at the video [footage of the night of his abduction shows him being stopped by the police in Vientiane] and that those who took Sombat be found, and that the truth is revealed.

Q: What are your thoughts on the post-election situation in Malaysia? The result has been contested, amid allegations by the opposition that there was cheating, and some people have been arrested on sedition charges around the protests against the results, despite some of the pre-election reforms implemented or promised by the Barisan Nasional government.

IA: We have been issuing statements on the particular arrests under the sedition laws and we have been very clear that the laws do not meet international standards and they should be repealed. There was an announcement last year, as you mention, that the law would be repealed, so it is worrying now that the laws are being used to suppress free speech again.

Q: How many people are in jail or have been charged under lese-majeste in Thailand? Are they categorized as political prisoners or prisoners of conscience if they are detained under lese-majeste or associated aspects of Thailand’s computer crimes law?

IA: Amnesty International has expressed a number of concerns with lese-majeste laws—they don't meet international human rights standards. Some of them are prisoners of conscience, such as Somyot Prueksakasemsuk [a magazine editor and labor activist who was sentenced to 11 years jail for lese-majeste in January], and we have been campaigning actively for their immediate and unconditional release. Another aspect we are concerned about is the denial of bail to those charged under lese-majeste. It is very important that all those facing charges are free pending investigation and trial. It is very hard to say the exact number detained under the lese-majeste laws, I believe it is tens of people. We are not able to say at the moment how many of those are prisoners of conscience. There are other laws such as the Computer Crime Act that we are concerned about and recently the use of criminal defamation suits as well.

SS: We will be meeting the Thai prime minister and will raise several of these issues and also issues of rights violations in the conflict in the south of Thailand. And just to go back to the region, it's not overall a pretty picture, there are violations in most countries. For the region, freedom of expression, reform of the criminal justice systems and accountability for past violations are the three key issues for us. There are land issues, issues of women's rights are other important issues as well that come up across the region in terms of human rights.

Big Debts Loom Over Thai Tycoons’ Bold Bets

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:57 PM PDT

Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman of Thailand’s largest agribusiness group, Charoen Pokphand Foods, with a net worth of $ 7.1 billion, arrives at a Thailand-China Business Council seminar in Bangkok March 15, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

SINGAPORE/BANGKOK — Two Thai business tycoons, one a politically connected Chinese speaker, the other the son of a street vendor, have spent US $27 billion on acquisitions in the past year, mainly abroad – more than all Thai firms spent overseas in the previous three years.

The billionaires — 74-year-old Dhanin Chearavanont and Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, five years his junior — personify Thailand’s bull market and Asia’s frothy credit, feeding on fast, cheap loans bolstered by a surging local currency.

The worry though is that they also represent the financial risks building inside Thailand and elsewhere in Asia amid signs of economic slowdown and tighter lending markets. Consumer growth needs to stay fairly robust to justify the valuations paid for these deals, said Standard Chartered analyst Nirgunan Tiruchelvam.

So far, Dhanin and Charoen look to be digesting their spoils without issue, but some warning bells are ringing about the high prices paid and the heavy debt load taken on – loans that are tied to real estate and a skittish Bangkok stock market that can swing sharply even when interest rates rise, let alone if there’s a credit crunch or steep economic slowdown.

“I’m a little concerned about Thailand, to be honest. It’s all debt. I’ve been in Asia long enough to remember how messed up Thailand was,” said a veteran Asia investment banker in Hong Kong, recalling the 1997 Asia financial crisis. “Financing was pretty cheap, interest rates were low. And once the music stopped ..?”

AUSPICIOUS

Early on April 23, bankers, lawyers and executives gathered in HSBC’s Hong Kong boardroom to sign the $6.6 billion purchase of Thai wholesaler Siam Makro by CP ALL, the retail arm of Dhanin’s CP Group conglomerate. According to some of those present, Dhanin’s son called for hush and counted down the seconds so his father could sign at exactly 8:45 Bangkok time – as advised by his feng shui consultant to maximize good fortune – revealing both Dhanin’s ability to command a roomful of powerful financiers and the Chinese influence on his personal and business life. The number 8 —linked by Chinese to prosperity — figures frequently in deals.

Dhanin’s father, Chia Ek Chor, left Guangdong in China in 1921 and, a quarter of a century later, renamed his seed shop Charoen Pokphand – Thai for “prosperity of consumers” – and began diversifying. Dhanin, the youngest son, a cockfighting fan at boarding school, has run the business since he was 30, growing it into a multinational with ventures across farming, retail and telecoms. His sons Suphachai and Supakit help manage the vast empire, say people close to the family.

As of March, the Dhanin estate had an estimated net worth of $14.3 billion, according to Forbes. Gold and gem statues adorn CP’s Bangkok headquarters, and Dhanin’s neo-classical mansion, bristling with high-tech gear and arranged according to feng shui, is reckoned to be worth $30 million. The fluent Mandarin speaker has strong political connections in Beijing, and one of his businesses owns Shanghai’s largest shopping mall.

Dhanin paid more than 50 times Siam Makro’s price to earnings ratio after borrowing most of the money for the acquisition from banks – a hefty premium to any recent Asian retail sector deal. “What looks expensive today will be cheap in the long term. Siam Makro is a good asset,” Dhanin said then.

That’s a positive view shared for now by Standard Chartered’s Tiruchelvam given “a transformation in retail behavior that is in favor of these businesses.”

‘TAKEOVER KING’

Charoen, too, has taken advantage of frothy debt markets.

The Charoen-controlled entity that bought Singapore’s Fraser & Neave for $11 billion in January leveraged up the balance sheet of his flagship company Thai Beverage, quadrupling its debt to core earnings ratio – a key measure of its ability to pay back debt. Charoen has indicated a cash payout from F&N will pay down some of that business’s debt.

Ratings agencies remain wary. Standard & Poor’s, which has downgraded Thai Beverage’s credit rating, was critical about Charoen banking too much on the listed company to raise debt. “When a company shifts its risk tolerance so much in such a short period of time, it’s something you have to question at this stage,” Jean Xavier, a director at S&P, told Reuters.

Like Dhanin, Charoen has weathered crises before.

His father eked out a living by selling seafood omelets on the streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown. The sixth of 11 children, Charoen demonstrated a sharp business brain at a young age, graduating late from fourth grade as he devoted his study hours to selling toys to his classmates, according to a biography.

He quickly rose from a supplier to state-owned distillers to having his own producer’s liquor license, earning the “Whiskey Tycoon” moniker, though he himself is teetotal, say bankers and businessmen who have worked with him. Backed by his father-in-law, Charoen bet on the financial sector, buying stakes in First Bangkok City Bank and Maha Thankit Finance and Securities – both of which collapsed during the 1997 Asia financial crisis.

Dubbed the “Takeover King” for his incisive acquisitions of stakes in companies struggling after the crisis – he expanded closer to home than Dhanin, focusing on Southeast Asia – Charoen is now grooming his children, including eldest son Thapana, to manage his TCC empire, which boasts a string of luxury hotels spanning four continents. His wife Wanna has been described as his “No. 1-1/2″, rather than Number 2, in recognition of her major role in managing the family business – estimated by Forbes to be worth $11.7 billion.

“The Sirivadhanabhakdi family are very humble, low-key people,” said Prinn Panitchpakdi, Thai country head at broker CLSA. “They’re very religious and attend Buddhist ceremonies.”

LIQUIDITY GLUT

Dhanin and Charoen are being showered with money for deals by banks which, says Standard & Poor’s Xavier, are extending loans as Asia has a liquidity glut – partly a spillover from Western central banks pumping funds into their markets.

“Valuations are secondary. It’s how much money is available,” said another banking source who has covered Thailand for many years. “Every bank is willing to bridge the entire acquisition off their own balance sheet.”

Siam Commercial Bank, the lead adviser to CP ALL on the Makro deal, offered so much money to the buyer that it needed a special Bank of Thailand waiver, according to a person familiar with the matter. And HSBC was comfortable enough to sit on both sides of that deal, advising the seller, Dutch trading firm SHV Holdings, and funding the buyer, CP ALL.

According to the person, banks were given very short notice that a deal was imminent, but still managed to pull together the $6 billion loan within a week – an extraordinarily short period of time for such a large amount.

For Dhanin’s $9.4 billion purchase of HSBC’s stake in China’s Ping An Insurance late last year, UBS offered a short-term facility worth $5.5 billion. Dhanin has said the Ping An loan was no more than $2.6 billion. To help finance the Fraser & Neave buy, Charoen’s Thai Beverage borrowed S$3.3 billion from seven banks for five years, replacing an earlier bridge loan, while his TCC family vehicle took a further S$9 billion jumbo bridge loan – the biggest by a Thai borrower – Thomson Reuters publication Basis Point reported.

Bridge loans are typically short-term and widely used by companies in M&A deals, replaced later by larger or longer-term financing.

“From a ratings point of view, in the case of ThaiBev/TCC, the track record of integrating very large acquisitions is largely untested,” said S&P’s Xavier. “When you have operated at low leverage for a long time and your debt load spikes very suddenly, how will the company manage a downturn?”

Neither Dhanin nor Charoen was available for interview for this article.

The Thai stock market is up nearly 9 percent this year, but has dropped more than 8 percent in the past three weeks. Thailand’s central bank cut interest rates to 2.5 percent last month after weak first-quarter GDP data.

“If you stumble a little, if that begins to unravel, whoever lent them money is going to have some serious concerns. It’s all margin loans … very tied to the market,” said an M&A adviser based in Singapore.

Burma’s labor minister accuses Thai police of extorting money from Burmese migrant workers.

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:29 PM PDT

India-based airlines win the right to use airports in Burma, paving the way for direct flights between the two countries.

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:29 PM PDT

Malaysian immigration officials say they are investigating how Burmese nationals arrested last week acquired fake UNHCR documents.

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:29 PM PDT

A Chinese-made plane has a bad landing in Kawthaung, but no serious injuries are reported.

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:28 PM PDT

Labor Min Accuses Thai Police of Extorting Burmese Migrants

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:28 PM PDT

Burmese Labor Minister Maung Myint has accused police in Thailand of extorting money from Burmese workers. In an interview with The Bangkok Post, the Burmese minister said he had heard that migrant workers, including those with legal documentation, are routinely arrested and forced to pay between 500 and 1,000 baht (US $16-32). He added that the practice "is not good for the relations between the two countries" and said that he had raised the issue with his Thai counterpart. According to Maung Myint, 1.5 million of the estimated 2 million Burmese nationals believed to be working in Thailand hold passports.

India-based Airlines to Get Burma Access

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:27 PM PDT

Indian airlines have been given a green light to fly into Burma, according to a report by The Hindu. The newspaper quoted Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who was visiting Burma, as saying that the airlines had been granted "fifth freedom rights," which allow an airline to carry revenue traffic between countries as a part of services connecting the airline's own country. At present, there are no direct flight between Burma and India, but that could change soon, as Indian private carrier SpiceJet has expressed interest in adding flights from New Delhi to Rangoon via Dhaka.

Malaysia to Probe Fake UNHCR Cards for Burmese

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:27 PM PDT

Malaysia's Immigration Department said it is investigating how 307 Burmese nationals arrested last week had acquired fake United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Malaysia cards and documents. The arrested Burmese were among 1,054 rounded up last Friday in the wake of recent violent incidents involving Burmese Buddhists and Muslims. Seven clashes, believed to be related to communal tensions in Burma, were reported between May 30 and June 4. A UNHCR spokesperson said the UN refugee agency was cooperating with the police in its investigations but clarified that some of those who carried fake documents could still have a valid refugee claim, The Star newspaper reported.

Thai Pet Shop Owner with 14 Rare Lions Arrested

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:26 PM PDT

Thai police found 14 albino lions imported from Africa and hundreds of other protected animals in a warehouse near Bangkok and have arrested a pet shop owner. Birds, meerkats, tortoises, peafowls, capuchin monkeys and other species from overseas and Thailand were found at the warehouse, police said. Montri Boonprom-on, 41, faces charges of possessing wildlife and carcasses and could face up to four years in jail and a fine of 40,000 baht (US $1,300). Montri owns an exotic pet shop at Bangkok’s renowned Chatuchak weekend market and was previously convicted of wildlife trading.—AP

Immigration Minister Backs Controversial Two-Child Policy For Rohingyas

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:22 PM PDT

Burma's Minister of Immigration and Population Khin Yi talks during an Reuters interview at his office in Naypyidaw June 10, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

NAYPYIDAW — Burma’s Immigration Minister has expressed support for a controversial two-child limit on the Rohingya Muslim minority, which opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations call discriminatory and a violation of human rights.

Khin Yi, Minister of Immigration and Population, is the most senior official to publicly support the recently announced enforcement by local authorities of a two-child policy in northwestern Arakan State for Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority termed “Bengalis” by the Burma government.

“This will benefit the Bengali women,” Khin Yi said in an interview with Reuters.

His comments coincide with mounting international concern over the treatment of minority Muslims in the majority Buddhist country following outbreaks of communal violence that have killed hundreds of people since last year and made more than 140,000, mostly Muslims, homeless.

Continued religious tensions pose among the biggest challenges for the reformist government that replaced a military junta in March 2011.

Health workers say the two-child policy encourages unsafe abortions in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest regions.

Authorities in Arakan State say they need to impose controls on Rohingya to prevent further unrest. In Sittwe, the Arakan State capital, apartheid-like policies have segregated Buddhists from Muslims, many of whom live in prison-like ghettos, since sectarian violence in June last year.

A spokesman for the Arakan State government last month reaffirmed a 2005 two-child regulation in two townships, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, part of a web of restrictions drawn up by the former military government to control a fast-growing Rohingya population.

“The Bengali women living in the Arakan State have a lot of children. In some areas, one family has 10 or 12 children,” said Khin Yi. “It’s not good for child nutrition. It’s not very easy for schooling. It is not very easy to take care of the children.”

Asked whether he supported the policy, he replied: “Yes.”

“NOT IN LINE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS”

The policy has drawn worldwide condemnation and stoked a growing debate over treatment of Rohingya, who claim a centuries-old lineage in Arakan State.

The United Nations has called on Burma to “to remove such policies or practices”. New York-based Human Rights Watch said the law was “violating international human rights protections and endangering women’s physical and mental health”.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has called the policy “discrimination” that is “not in line with human rights”.

The government says the Rohingya are Muslim migrants from Bangladesh who arrived during British colonial rule between 1824 and 1948.

The term “Bengali” suggests they are illegal immigrants from northern neighbor Bangladesh.

A 1982 Citizenship Act excluded Rohingya from Burma’s 135 recognized ethnic groups, effectively rendering them stateless. Bangladesh also disowns them and has refused to grant them refugee status since 1992.

Khin Yi put their number at 1.33 million in the country of 60 million people, above past estimates of 800,000. He said 1.08 million are in Arakan State. Only about 40,000 had citizenship, he said.

He said the two-child policy appears to have been implemented on a grass-roots level by the local authorities. “The order is not issued by the central government. It is not issued by the state government,” he said.

He said the policy would help reduce problems caused by large impoverished families.

“Almost all of the Bengali women are very poor, uneducated. It is not easy to take care of the children. The two-child policy or three-child policy is enough for these people. That is my point of view,” he said.

“UNSAFE ABORTIONS”

To avoid paying fines or being arrested, some pregnant Rohingya have resorted to illegal abortions, say health workers.

“We see women coming into our clinics with infections and medical complications because they have had unsafe abortions,” said Vickie Hawkins, deputy head of mission in Burma at international medical charity Doctors Without Borders, which has been operating in Arakan State since 1994.

“We have concluded over the years that women are having unsafe abortions because of the restrictive policies.”

Hawkins said the two-child limit was “a public reinforcement of policies that have already been in place for decades”.

Doctors Without Borders runs clinics in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, home to Arakan State’s largest Rohingya populations. The government does not allow foreign journalists to visit either area.

Human Rights Watch said some Rohingya women pay bribes to evade the regulations and register their children with other legally married adults.

Others keep their children hidden or unregistered to avoid fines or jail, it said. When authorities learn of families with more than two children, the children are sometimes placed on a government blacklist, making them vulnerable to arbitrary arrest.

The two-child policy threatens to fuel wider anti-Muslim sentiment at a time of high communal tension across Burma.

In early June, hundreds of Arakans marched in support of the policy through the Arakan capital Sittwe and the towns of Mrauk U and Minbya, reported the Yangon-based publication The Voice Weekly.

Led by Buddhist monks, the rallies carried echoes of nationwide protests against the Organisation of Islamic Conference that preceded last October’s violence.

Chinese-Made Plane Model Has 2 Bad Landings in Same Day

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:17 PM PDT

Airport staff stand on the tarmac by a damaged Merpati Nusantara Airlines MA-60 aircraft at Indonesia's El Tari airport in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara province, on June 10, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — A domestic Myanma Airways flight swerved off the runway during landing on the same day that an Indonesian flight involving the same Chinese-made aircraft made a hard landing. Neither accident caused any deaths.

Monday's accident in Burma was the third there since late December and comes as tourism booms in the country as it opens to the world after a half-century of military rule.

Burma state television showed the scene of the bad landing in Kawthaung in southeastern Burma. National police said on Facebook that the aircraft, a Chinese-made Xian MA60, was carrying four crew members and 60 passengers on a flight that originated in Rangoon, the country's biggest city.

The report said the state-owned airline's plane swerved off the runway and came to a stop in bushes about 200 feet to the west of the runway, with smoke coming from the left side propeller housing. It said the propellers on both wings were damaged. It said there were no injuries. Civil Aviation Department Assistant Director Nwe Ni Win Kyaw confirmed the accident but said she could not yet provide further details.

In Indonesia, aviation authorities said an MA60 operated by state-run Merpati Nusantara Airlines landed hard at the airport in the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang, slamming both engines into the runway. Airport authority head Imam Pramono said there were several people injured but no fatalities on the domestic flight carrying 50 people.

On May 16, another Myanma Airways MA60 shot past the end of the runway at Monghsat in northern Shan State when its brakes reportedly failed. A wing and a wheel were damaged, and two passengers suffered broken arms.

In December, a Fokker aircraft belonging to privately-owned Air Bagan crash-landed in a rice field in Burma's Shan State, killing two and injuring 11.

US Secrets Leaker Has Options to Stay in Hong Kong

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:12 PM PDT

Policemen stand opposite the Consulate of the United States in Hong Kong on June 10, 2013. Edward Snowden’s decision to flee to Hong Kong as he prepared to expose the US government's secret surveillance programs may not save him from prosecution due to an extradition treaty in force since 1998. (Photo: Bobby Yip / Reuters)

HONG KONG—The American defense contractor who says he leaked information on classified US surveillance programs could benefit from a quirk in Hong Kong law that would ensure a lengthy battle to deport him.

Edward Snowden's whereabouts were not immediately known on Tuesday, although he was believed to be staying somewhere in the Chinese autonomous region that has a well-established, Western-style legal system inherited from its status as a former British colony.

The journalist who brought his revelations to the public, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, said he had been in touch with Snowden, but declined to say whether he was still in Hong Kong and said he didn’t know what his future plans were.

"He hasn’t communicated a plan to me. I don’t know if he has a plan," Greenwald told The Associated Press. Greenwald’s reports last week, which exposed widespread US government programs to collect telephone and Internet records, were based on information from Snowden.

Snowden checked out of Hong Kong's Mira Hotel on Monday and has not been seen in public in the territory.

No charges have been brought and no warrant has been issued for the arrest of Snowden, a 29-year-old employee of government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who has been accused by U.S. Senate intelligence chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California of committing an “act of treason” that should be prosecuted.

Snowden arrived in Hong Kong on May 20 and as a US citizen is legally permitted to remain for 90 days. He can also apply for asylum through the United Nations or attempt to fly to another country which, unlike Hong Kong, does not have an extradition agreement with the United States.

Even if an extradition request is brought by the United States, Snowden could contest it on grounds of political persecution in a process that could drag on for years.

In addition, Hong Kong’s high court in a ruling on a case concerning three African asylum-seekers ordered authorities to devise a unified standard for assessing asylum applications. The ruling effectively puts applications on hold until the new system is in place.

Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, refused to say Monday whether the United States had made an extradition request or might do so in the future.

Under the terms of its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong maintained its independent legal system, a boisterous media, and strong civil society that would likely object boisterously to any attempt to railroad Snowden through the legal system.

And though a semi-autonomous part of China, it ultimately answers to Beijing, which is often at odds with Washington.

Greenwald said he wasn’t clear about exactly how Snowden made the decision to come to Hong Kong, but said simply evading the US authorities wasn’t the only factor he considered.

"It's very difficult for me to assess that choice because it was a very personal mix of factors that he took into account when deciding where he wanted to go, so if his only goal had been how can I best evade arrest, there probably would have been other better places for him to go," said Greewald.

Greenwald said The Guardian plans to publish further stories based on information provided by Snowden.

The United States and Hong Kong routinely cooperate on requests to transfer criminals; in one high-profile case, Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the United States in 2003.

The United States is also one of the largest investors in Hong Kong, a major business center for East Asia, and at least one local politician said she thought it best if Snowden simply left.

"Maybe he doesn’t know we signed so many treaties. The two parties have agreed to all of them. So he’d better leave Hong Kong," said Regina Ip, a member of Hong Kong's legislative council and former secretary for security, was quoted as telling the Takung Pao newspaper.

While Beijing at times stands up to Washington, it may not want to for Snowden. Beijing has often criticized foreign governments for harboring critics of its Communist government. China also is seeking US cooperation on retrieving corrupt Chinese officials who have fled to America, often with sizeable assets.

Cyber-hacking and cyber-espionage have emerged as the newest friction in relations that presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping pledged over the weekend to improve.

Still, the extradition agreement gives Hong Kong ways to say no. The United States and Hong Kong concluded the treaty with Beijing's blessing on the eve of the territory’s hand back from Britain to China in 1997. Provisions allow one side to refuse a request if it’s deemed to be politically motivated or if the suspect is unlikely to receive a fair trial.

Beijing may also have a veto. The agreement allows Beijing to refuse to extradite a Chinese national for reasons of national security. A study by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1997 suggests Beijing may have wider discretion to prohibit any extradition, not just of Chinese nationals, on national security grounds.

Witch Hunts in Papua New Guinea Linked to Jealousy

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 11:03 PM PDT

A young boy sits next to a small shelter made from a disused shipping container in a settlement in Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Port Moresby in 2005. (Photo: Reuters)

CANBERRA, Australia—On a tropical island where most people live in huts, assailants armed with guns, machetes and axes stormed the wooden house by night. They set the building on fire and took away four female relatives to be tortured. Their alleged crime: witchcraft.

Helen Rumbali was beheaded. Her older sister and two teenage nieces were repeatedly slashed with knives before being released following negotiations with police.

Deadly violence linked to witch hunts is an increasingly visible problem in Papua New Guinea—a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers. Experts say witch hunting appears to be spreading to parts of the country where such practices never took place before, but they and government officials in the South Pacific nation seem at a loss to say why it appears to be growing.

Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation’s widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country’s economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots.

"Jealousy is causing a lot of hatred," said Helen Hakena, chairwoman of the North Bougainville Human Rights Committee, which is based in the area Rumbali was killed. "People who are so jealous of those who are doing well in life, they resort to what our people believe in, sorcery, to kill them, to stop them continuing their own development."

Rumbali's assailants claimed they had clear proof the 40-something former schoolteacher had used sorcery to kill another villager who died of sickness: The victim's grave bore the marks of black magic, and a swarm of fire flies apparently led witch hunters to Rumbali's home.

Hakena said the witchcraft accusation against Rumbali was just an excuse.

"That was definitely a case of jealousy because her family is really quite well off," Hakena said.

She said villagers were envious because Rumbali’s husband and son had government jobs, they had a "permanent house" made of wood, and the family had tertiary educations and high social standing.

The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea in recent years and many more cases in remote areas are thought to have gone unreported. It found the attacks are often carried out with impunity.

Until last month, the country's 42-year-old Sorcery Act allowed for a belief in black magic to be used as a partial legal defense for killing someone suspected of inflicting harm through sorcery. The government repealed the law in response to the recent violence.

"There’s no doubt that there are really genuine beliefs there and in some circumstances that is what is motivating people: the belief that if they don’t kill this person, then this person is going to continue to bring death and misfortune and sickness on their village," said Miranda Forsyth, a lawyer at Australian National University who has studied the issue.

But she said recent cases in Papua New Guinea don't appear to be motivated by a genuine belief in the occult, but instead are a pretext under which the wealthy can be attacked by poorer neighbors, and, many times, get away with it.

She and other experts on witchcraft in the Melanesia region believe Papua New Guinea’s newfound prosperity and the growing inequality in its traditionally egalitarian culture is a significant cause of the violence. Neighboring Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, where belief in black magic is also widespread, haven’t seen the same level of extreme violence against accused witches.

The difference, they say, is that Papua New Guinea has had the fastest economic growth.

A wealth of mineral resources and natural gas has transformed the nation’s long-stagnant economy into one of the world’s fastest growing over the past decade, increasing on average almost 7 percent annually from 2007 to 2010. Growth peaked at 8.9 percent in 2011 before slowing to 8 percent last year.

The Asian Development Bank reported last year that Papua New Guinea has one of the highest levels of inequality, if not the highest, in the Asia-Pacific region.

These socio-economic problems have inevitably played into a cultural landscape that includes a belief in witches and black magic, said Kate Schuetze, a regional researcher for Amnesty International.

"There is always a reason for the accusation, whether it’s jealousy, wanting to access someone else’s land, a personal grudge against that person or a previous land dispute," Schuetze said.

Papua New Guinea Deputy Public Prosecutor Ravunama Auka doesn’t buy that jealousy has been behind a significant number of the sorcery-related slayings he had dealt with. While he did not have statistics, he said most victims were slain due to a genuine belief that they had killed through sorcery.

Auka had no doubt sorcery-related slayings were increasing, but could not explain why.

"There are all sorts of reasons, not only because some people are wealthy and some are not," Auka said.

Another possible explanation is the spread of particularly vicious sorcery beliefs that before were just seen in the highland province of Chimbu, said anthropologist Philip Gibbs, a sorcery specialist and Roman Catholic priest who has lived in the wilds of Papua New Guinea for the past 41 years.

In Chimbu, people bury their dead in concrete so that the bodies will not be eaten at night by small demonic animals that they believe can possess the living. Villagers pay witch doctors to divine who among them are possessed by these demons, which they believe leave the person’s body at night and take on the form of any small animal.

Gibbs said those suspected of being possessed are often tortured to make confessions and are sometimes killed.

"That form is spreading to other provinces where it’s never existed before and we’re asking the question why," Gibbs said.

Accused families abandon their small farms in a hurry, usually taking only what they can carry in a bag. The villagers must then decide who occupies the vacant land.

"That’s where the jealousy and the greed can come in," Gibbs said.

Papua New Guinea is under growing international pressure to respond to the violence after a series of high-profile cases made world headlines.

In February, a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in Mount Hagan, the country’s third largest city. In July, police arrested 29 people accused of being part of a cannibal cult in Papua New Guinea’s jungle interior and charged them with the murders of seven suspected witch doctors.

In the case of Rumbali, which took place in April, no arrests have been made, but police said they are treating it as first-degree murder.

Police Senior Inspector Cletus Tsien would not speculate on the motive for the crime.

"We know that this family was wealthy. We know that maybe there were bits and pieces of jealousy. We know they were accused of sorcery … but there’s no concrete evidence as to which factor contributed to the death of the late woman," Tsien said.

Inle Lake Locals Fearful after Police Sweep Village

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:23 PM PDT

A fisherman rows a boat with his leg while fishing in Inle Lake on Oct. 5, 2011. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

Locals whose lands around Burma's famous Inle Lake were confiscated due to a hotel zoning project are fleeing their villages in fear of being detained, after police arrested farmers there accused of illegally plowing lands seized by the hotel developers.

"Police were wandering around the village so that they [locals] were afraid and fled the area to avoid being arrested," said Aung Kyaw Myo, from the village of Kan Bae.

According to Kan Bae locals, about 100 police officers entered their village, arresting four villagers without warrant.

When the police forcibly entered the house of Khin Maung Win, fellow villagers came to his assistance, blocking police vehicles and urging the authorities to release the detainees.

"The police broke down my door as I refused to open it. As soon as I ran upstairs, my wife shouted out and all the villagers came and urged them to release all of us. Later they released the detainees and left the village," Khin Maung Win said.

"But they are still wandering around the village. So most of us are afraid to stay at home for we are worried that they might come back again and arrest us," he added.

Over 600 acres of farm lands from six villages, including lands from nearby monasteries located on the east bank of the scenic lake, were confiscated in 2012 to build a Hotel Zone in the area.

Locals have complained that they did not receive adequate compensation for the confiscated lands, and have spoken out against the hotel development on environmental grounds.

Protestors began a campaign to win back their lands in December 2012. Some protesting farmers are currently facing trial for disrupting construction of the hotel project after they began to plow their confiscated lands last week in defiance of the hotel developers' claims to the property.

"We already lost our lands, but now, we are being sued and will be arrested soon," Khin Maung Win said.

Sanay Linn contributed to this story.
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