Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

UN Rights Envoy Condemns “Shocking” Killing of Rohingya Women

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 06:12 AM PDT

A Rohingya family have a meager meal in a camp for displaced Muslim families. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The UN human rights rapporteur for Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana has condemned a shooting incident that killed three Rohingya women in Arakan State last week, calling it a "shocking example" of how government security forces continue to mistreat the Muslim minority "with complete impunity."

On June 4, local authorities ordered a group of Rohingyas living in makeshift homes in Parein Village, Mrauk-U Township, to leave their village and relocate to another site. When they protested against the order police opened fire on the villagers, killing three women, and injuring five villagers

"The fatal shooting last week of three Rohingya women participating in a peaceful protest in [Arakan] State is the latest shocking example of how law enforcement officials operate with complete impunity there," Quintana said in a statement released on Tuesday.

He said that Burma's government should conduct an impartial investigation into the deadly shooting and other gross rights abuses committed by security forces against the Rohingyas, which the UN envoy said are "widespread and systematic."

"However, since the violence in [Arakan] State first erupted last June, I have seen absolutely no evidence that the government is fulfilling this obligation," Quintana said.

His comments come ahead of a statement on Burma by the President of the UN Human Rights Council, which is expected this week.

One year ago, waves of blood inter-communal violence broke out between Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists. Some 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, were displaced by the unrest, which killed almost 200 people.

The government, which has deployed thousands of armed security forces in the region, has been accused of actively supporting the Arakanese mobs and of committing a wide range of human rights abuses against the Rohingya population, including confining them to camps and villages.

Burma's Buddhist-majority government rejects the citizenship claims of the Rohingyas and stresses that they are "Bengalis," who crossed into Burma illegally from Bangladesh in the past decades. The Rohingya insist they have lived in Arakan State for many generations.

Shwe Maung, a parliamentarian with the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, said some villagers involved in the shooting incident had told him that they were shot at simply because they had objected to being relocated.

Shwe Maung, who comes from the Muslim-dominated constituency of Maungdaw Township in Arakan State, said the incident was "a clear-cut case of human rights violation," as police should have never opened fire on an unarmed crowd. "They could have shot in the air, they could have used teargas or rubber bullets," he added.

The lawmaker said however, that UN rights envoy Quintana had put out his statement too soon, as a thorough investigation into the incident should be conducted first to gather all the facts. "If he now already says that it happened with impunity, I would not agree," Shwe Maung said.

Myo Thant, a Rohingya politician with the Maungdaw-based Democracy and Human Rights Party, said villagers had told him that the police opened fire without any provocation by the villagers.

"The officials came and said that they will move them to a refugee camp," he said, "But they villagers didn't want to go, they are afraid they will lose their land, and that they will have to stay in the camps, or have to go another country."

Since the shooting, he said, police had come to the village to arrest 30 men and boys, adding that authorities were trying to accuse the Rohingyas of having resisted government orders in order to make them culpable for the incident. "They are accused of disturbing the policemen while they are carrying out their duties," he added.

Burma Gas Pipeline Complete but Cites China Delays

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 05:33 AM PDT

Burma's Energy Minister Than Htay speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office in Naypyidaw on June 11, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun)

NAYPYIDAW — A pipeline connecting western Burma to China is ready to carry gas from July, but it won't be fully operational for about three more months due to construction delays in China, Burma's energy minister said.

The multibillion-dollar pipeline stretches 870 km from the Indian Ocean to the Chinese border and will deliver oil and gas to energy thirsty western China and generate much-needed revenue for Burma's new reformist government.

"The pipeline construction inside Myanmar is 100 percent finished. But the China portion that is over 1,600 km long, they are not able to finish in time," Than Htay said in an interview in the capital, Naypyidaw, estimating a delay of two or three months.

Despite the delay, gas will begin flowing in the $2 billion pipeline from July but it will be used domestically until construction in China is completed, he told Reuters. "For Myanmar's domestic utilization, we can take [gas] starting from July," he said.

A parallel $2.3 billion, 770-km oil pipeline would be completed in September, he added.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country's top oil and gas producer, owns the pipelines, which will channel natural gas from the Shwe fields off the coast of Western Arakan State along with oil originating from the Middle East and Africa.

CNPC said last week it had completed construction of the gas pipeline and 94 percent of the crude pipeline was finished. It also said has completed six oil storage tanks on an island off western Burma, with six more due to be finished soon. CNPC could not provide further comment on Wednesday.

The pipelines are China's most strategically important investment in Burma, a vital energy security asset that will reduce Beijing's reliance on shipping through the narrow choke-point of the Malacca Strait. Thousands of Chinese workers were enlisted to build them. In some areas of Burma, the pipelines have stoked anti-Chinese sentiment, raising security concerns.

In May, ethnic minority guerrillas attacked a compound of the state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) near the pipelines in northern Shan State not far from the Chinese border, killing two people and wounding three, according to state media.

That incident added to debate over how well authorities can secure the pipelines, which are capable of carrying 440,000 barrels of oil a day and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to China's southern Yunnan province, one of its most under-developed regions.

"The security will be strong," said Than Htay. "If necessary, in some areas the armed forces will take charge. In some areas, the police will take charge. In some areas, the pipeline company security personnel will take charge."

The project was agreed with Burma's former military junta as a way to generate much-needed foreign exchange while the country was under Western economic sanctions. In March 2011, the generals ceded power to a quasi-civilian government that has embarked on a series of democratic reforms including an economic transformation that is projected to vastly increase energy demand.

Than Htay repeated that new energy discoveries would be used to address acute domestic energy supply shortages in Burma, a break from the past when the vast majority of Burma's energy resources were exported to neighboring Thailand and China.

At present, just a quarter of Burma's estimated 60 million people have regular access to electricity.

Hydroelectric plants have proved unreliable due to seasonal rain patterns and only 12 percent of power generated by Burma comes from gas.

"Any new discovery we will use that for our domestic utilization first … if we have excess hydrocarbon, it will be considered value-added for selling to other buyers," Than Htay said.

"Power is very much crucial to our transformation process," he said, adding that gas sales contracts signed by the previous government still need to honored.

Than Htay said Burma's domestic requirements for natural gas were 500 million cubic feet per day, but the current supply available after exports was just over half of that, or 270 million cubic feet.

Burma would therefore consider following China and Thailand in using coal power in addition to hydro power and gas, he said.

"We need to turn to that option. We need to produce electricity from coal," he said, adding that in terms of fuel, Burma had "a huge gap between supply and demand."

Coal is cheaper than natural gas and other Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, have been turning to the dirtier fuel for power generation despite its higher levels of carbon emissions.

Burma is now using nearly 100,000 bpd of liquid fuels such as diesel and motor oil, he also said. Its crude production from both onshore and offshore was a fifth of that, or about 20,000 bpd.

Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun.

Social Network Activists Arrested After Supporting Farmers in Pegu Division

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:39 AM PDT

A farmer plants rice seedlings in a paddy field on the outskirts of Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON—Three Burmese activists involved in social network groups have been detained for allegedly participating in illegal associations after showing support for farmers who plowed land confiscated by the police and military in Pegu Division.

The activists from the Nattalin Social Network and the Meikhtila Social Network were detained on Tuesday after visiting Pae Ma Khan village in Pegu Division's Nattalin Township as an act of solidarity for the farmers, whose land was seized nearly 20 years ago by the Burma Army and Nattalin Police.

During their visit to the village, Myint Myint Aye, Khin Mi Mi Khine and Thant Zin Htet watched the farmers plow to offer encouragement but did not participate in the plowing themselves. They say the police went to the fields at the same time and began plowing alongside the farmers, in a bid to demonstrate that the police controlled the land.

The three activists were summoned to Nattalin Township Court for questioning and were later arrested and detained at Paung Dae Prison on Tuesday for allegedly violating the Unlawful Association Act, which requires social organizations to register with the government.

The police initially tried to file charges against the activists for allegedly trespassing and deterring authorities from taking action against the farmers, local residents say. However, the charges were changed after one of the activists pointed out that police officers had also plowed the land illegally, because some of the land belonged to the military and some had been leased out to other farmers who had not given the police permission to plow.

"Thant Zin Htet explained that the court must also take action against the police who plowed on the confiscated land, so authorities changed the charge," said Yin Kyi, a community leader from Pae Ma Khan village.

The police say the Nattalin Social Network and Meikhtila Social Network are illegal because they are not registered with the government, but the activists and their supporters say the networks are not associations at all because they do not have a meeting space and simply function through mobile and online communication.

"They [the activists] are not from an association," said Yin Kyi. "They are just from a network that cooperated to help promote the rights of farmers."

He said he and other residents would push for the release of the activists.

"We tried to pay bail but the township judge said she could not allow [release on] bail in this case," he said, adding that the judge urged him to wait for a decision from the district court. "We will work together with the lawyers for the release of these people who helped us."

Farmers from Pegu Division told The Irrawaddy that authorities were also planning to file charges against the farmers who plowed the confiscated land.

Meanwhile, in Tharzi Township, Mandalay Division, 18 farmers are on trial for allegedly plowing on 3,000 acres of land confiscated by a state-owned factory for canned foods. A leader of that protest, Ma Thandar, has been detained since May and faces at least six months in prison.

Man Sentenced to 26 Years for Incident That Sparked Lashio Riots

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 03:34 AM PDT

Aye Aye Win, who was doused with petrol and set on fire on May 28, was being treated for serious burns in Lashio Hospital a few days later. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — A Muslim man who was accused of setting fire to a Buddhist petrol vendor in Lashio was sentenced to 26 years' imprisonment on Tuesday, an official said. The incident on May 28 sparked an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in the Shan State town, which displaced about 1,400 Muslim residents.

Lashio Township Court began proceedings against the man, called Ne Win, on Monday and he was convicted the next day, according to Shan State government spokesperson Wai Lin.

"The court sentenced him to 26 years, on four charges in total," he said. "We transferred him yesterday to Lashio Prison at 2:20 pm local time," he said, adding that Ne Win had been charged with attempted murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, and two drug-related charges.

Another 44 people are being detained for their alleged role in the Lashio riots and they have yet to be charged, Wai Lin said. He added that most of the detained were Buddhists.

The judge in the case, who is also called Ne Win, told The Irrawaddy that the accused had declined legal counsel from a lawyer. "We did not ask him many questions during the trial because he confessed to every charge," the judge added.

The Muslim man Ne Win had become embroiled in a dispute with a female petrol vendor Aye Aye Win, a 26-year-old Buddhist, on May 28. He then doused her body with petrol and set her on fire, causing terrible burns to parts of her body, including her face. It was reported that a small amount of methamphetamine was found in his pockets following his arrest.

The victim's younger sister, who declined to be named for security reasons, said the family would accept the sentence "even though we are not satisfied with it."

She said that Aye Aye Win had been transferred to a Mandalay Hospital where her health had improved, although she remains in pain.

The May 28 incident caused an outburst of anti-Muslim violence in Lashio and for several days Buddhist mobs clashed with Muslim residents. Dozens of Muslim-owned buildings were destroyed in the mountain town in northeastern Burma, and about 1,400 Muslim families were forced to flee. Many have since returned to their neighborhoods.

The riots were the latest in a series of outbreaks of violence between Buddhist and Muslims in Burma this year. Waves of deadly inter-communal violence first rocked Arakan State one year ago, and in recent months unrest also spread to parts of central Burma, such as Pegu and Mandalay divisions, where scores were killed.

Govt Delegation Travels to Malaysia to Probe Violence against Burmese

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 01:49 AM PDT

Five people representing Burmese communities living in Malaysia protest recent violence perpetrated against their compatriots outside the Burmese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

A special delegation, led by senior officials from Burma's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labor, departed for Malaysia on Tuesday evening to probe violence against Burmese migrant workers there, state-owned newspaper The Mirror reported on Wednesday.

"We are leaving for there to provide more effective protection to our Burmese," Zin Yaw, a leader of the delegation and the deputy foreign affairs minister, was quoted as saying at Rangoon International Airport. He added that the delegation would investigate the recent violence and planned to meet with officials of the respective ministries in Malaysia.

Attacks targeting Burmese nationals in Malaysia began on May 30, when a Burmese man there was beheaded by unknown assailants. Other Burmese citizens in Malaysia have since come under attack, with the assaults being linked to communal violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims that has taken place in Burma over the last year. More than 150,000 people, mostly Muslims, have been displaced in Burma since the first of several violent outbreaks occurred in June 2012.

Malaysia's population is majority-Muslim.

Zin Yaw said on Tuesday that since the May 30 incident, the violence in Malaysia has seen four Burmese nationals killed, with those behind the attacks still at large.

Another delegation leader, Deputy Labor Minister Win Maw Tun, said the group will provide assistance to Burmese people in Malaysia who fear for their safety in light of the recent attacks and want to return to their home country.

"The government will help the Burmese in Malaysia to return home, whether they are working there legally or not," she said.

Myanmar Airways (MAI) said on Tuesday that it would offer half-priced airfares to Burmese nationals currently in Malaysia and seeking repatriation.

Refugee Repatriation Talks Held in Karen State Capital

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 01:40 AM PDT

A Karen refugee with her child in Mae La Oon refugee camp in Thailand. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing / The Irrawaddy)

CHIANG MAI, Thailand—The UN refugee agency has met with high-ranking Burmese officials in the Karen State capital to discuss plans of repatriating more than 140,000 Burmese refugees over the border in Thailand.

The discussions in Pa-an focused on the Burmese government's desire to repatriate the refugees and its plan to provide shelters for them in Mon State and Karen State, Thai news agency Nation Channel reported on Monday.

Most of the Burmese refugees in Thailand are ethnic Karen people who fled their homes in southeast Burma in the early 1980s amid fighting between Karen rebels and the government's army. They have been living in nine refugee camps on the Thai border since then.

Refugees from three of the nine camps will be targeted for repatriation first, according to the report, which said the three camps were in Tak Province. It added that Burma planned to amend education laws to allow Burmese refugees who studied in Thailand to return with an approved equivalent high school certificate.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Vivian Tan, the spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Asia, said Burmese and Thai authorities were trying to ensure refugees were informed about the situation in Burma so they could make independent, informed decisions about whether to return.

The UNHCR has not promoted the repatriation program, she added.

Tan said UNHCR officials told Burmese authorities that if the situation in Burma became safe enough for repatriation, authorities would need to agree on a basic principle of "voluntary return."

"There will be no pressure to close down the camp for now," she said. "On the Myanmar side, I think it is a good sign that the authorities say they welcome the refugees to return home. We stress that any return that happens must be voluntarily."

Tan said Burmese authorities pledged to give returning refugees the right to select where in Burma they would live.

Although there has been no official public announcement of repatriation efforts, some temporary shelters have been built for returning refugees in Karen State's Hlaing Bwe Township, according to local residents.

In a meeting with the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) in Pa-an on April 26, Karen State's chief minister, Zaw Min, said he wanted some refugees—about 30 households—to return to the temporary shelters in Karen State.

Refugees in Thailand say they have seen other signs of impending repatriation. At Mae La camp in Tak Province, the biggest camp on the Thai border, refugees say Mae Fah Luang Foundation, a Thai organization, has distributed forms that require refugees to select from three options: move elsewhere in Thailand, return to Burma, or resettle in a third country. Mae Fah Luang Foundation, based in Chiang Mai Province, is under the royal Thai patronage.

15 ethnic groups in Burma will establish an alliance ahead of the country’s 2015 general elections

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:21 AM PDT

Police search for the body of a missing Thai businessman and government critic who is feared dead

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:21 AM PDT

Fifteen of Burma’s Ethnic Groups to Form Unified Party

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:20 AM PDT

Fifteen ethnic groups in Burma will establish an alliance ahead of the country's 2015 general elections, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday. The new Federated Union Party (FUP) hopes to "get on the same political level as the [military-backed] Union Solidarity and Development Party [USDP] and [Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition] National League for Democracy [NLD]," RFA quoted the general secretary of the Rakhine Nationality Development Party (RNDP) as saying. The 15 groups are all members of the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBF), but the FUP will not include some of Burma's major ethnic groups, such as the Kachin and Karen.

Outspoken Thai Businessman Feared Slain by Driver

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:20 AM PDT

Police are searching for the body of a missing Thai businessman and critic of the government who is feared dead. Bangkok police said Wednesday the driver of Akeyuth Anchanbutr has confessed to killing him and says he's buried on a mountain in Thailand's southern Phatthalung province. Akeyuth is a critic of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, current premier Yingluck Shinawatra. His lawyer says he believes Akeyuth was targeted by political opponents. Akeyuth, 58, fled Thailand after he was convicted of running an investment pyramid scheme in 1983 and returned after the statute of limitations ended. —AP

Japanese firms will implement a US $1.7 billion project to overhaul the Rangoon-Mandalay railway.

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:14 AM PDT

The government will increase its efforts to promote tourism in the isolated Mergui Archipelago in southern Burma.

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:13 AM PDT

Japanese Firms to Develop $1.7Bn Rangoon-Mandalay Rail Link

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:13 AM PDT

Japan has completed a feasibility study on the proposed rehabilitation of the 640-km Rangoon-Mandalay railway line and Japanese firms will be contracted to implement the US $1.7 billion project, Indian newspaper Live Mint reports. Deputy Minister of Railway Transport Thura Thaung Lwin announced the news and also stated that Burma would develop facilities to manufacture diesel locomotives in Naypyidaw and coaches in Mandalay by 2015. "The twin facilities will be operational within three years. The tender has been completed and the contract will be awarded to a Chinese company," he was quoted as saying. The $100 million investment would be funded for 90 percent through Chinese loans, the minister added.

Burma to Boost Tourism in Mergui Archipelago

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:12 AM PDT

Burma's government will increase its efforts to promote tourism in the Mergui Archipelago, a group of some 800 of isolated islands located in the southern Tennasserim region, state-owned newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reports. Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung said his ministry planned to extend regional tours in the archipelago. It would also "set up camps to offer swimming and scuba-diving trainings in Dawei" and support "marine research and development". The archipelago, spread out over hundreds of square kilometers in the Andaman Sea, has long been off limits for independent travelers and could only be visited through tours organized by companies with links to the former military regime.

Red Dirt and Pebbles: For Farmers, Broken Promises at the Myitsone Dam

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:06 AM PDT

A house in Aungmyinthar, Kachin State, where a resident from Myitsone village was relocated. The house, which was provided by the China Power Investment Corporation, was built on a slant. Authorities moved nearly 400 households to Aungmyinthar village to make way for the Myitsone Dam project.

KACHIN STATE—In Burma's northernmost state, 44-year-old Ywal Nu once supported her children by farming a plot of land along the fertile Irrawaddy River. In 2010, the mother of seven was forced to relocate as part of efforts to develop the Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam, but was told she would receive compensation—including a new house, 100,000 kyats ($105) and two acres of land—so she could continue farming in a new location.

With little choice, the ethnic Kachin farmer picked up and moved, as did her neighbors and the residents in five other villages near the dam site. But two years later, she says the compensation from the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI)—a flimsy home that shakes in the wind, and red land that is littered with pebbles—was far from what she had in mind.

"The crops don't grow here because the ground is stone land," she told The Irrawaddy recently. "So I have to leave my children at home and go back to my old village, Tangphre, to do [small-scale] gold mining."

The 6,000-megawatt Myitsone Dam, was suspended by the Burmese government in September 2011 due to widespread public outcry over its potential environmental and social impact. However, in Aungmyinthar and Maliyang villages—where Ywal Nu and hundreds of other farming families were relocated—many say they lack job opportunities and have been unable to support their families by farming.

"It's very hot here, and the plants have to fight to grow in this reddish ground you see," said 45-year-old Mong Rein La, who moved to Aungmyinthar from Padan Kwin village. More than a dozen residents in Aungmyinthar and Maliyang told The Irrawaddy that their new land was not suitable for farming.

Authorities relocated nearly 400 households from Padan Kwin, Tangphre and the village of Myitsone to Aungmyinthar, while about 70 households from Taungpyan, Kharbar and Shwephar were moved to Maliyang, on the other side of the Irrawaddy River.

In Aungmyinthar, residents say they rely in small-scale gold mining during the dry season from September to May and work as wage laborers the rest of the year, often cutting wild grass for wealthy plantation owners.

"Our villagers come back here for small-scale gold mining and agricultural work," a woman [working] at a small grocery store in Myitsone village told The Irrawaddy.

Aungmyinthar and Maliyang also lack compounds to store livestock, and many residents say their cattle has wandered off to areas near the dam project.

"Our animals, like our cows and buffalo, go back to the grasslands, which now are owned by Asia World and CPI," said Zaw Lwun, the sole villager of Tangphre who refused to leave his home. Asia World, a major Burmese conglomerate, is building the dam project in collaboration with CPI.

Zaw Lwun said he and about 30 other residents had lost their livestock over the past two years.

"When we want to get back our cows [which entered the dam project area], we have to go through a long process of asking permission at the project's checkpoint, as it is a restricted area," he said.

Mong Rein La also tried to fetch his livestock in June last year, but the cattle continued returning to the original grassland for food.  "So we leave our animals where they are—we don't even know if they're still alive," he said.

After two years, the newly built houses in Aungmyinthar and Maliyang are also in poor condition. Residents say the two-storey structures, which were built from inexpensive wood and cement, are not durable and shake when gusts of wind blow. Toilet areas also lack deep holes for waste, raising sanitation concerns.

In their old villages, the farmers lived in houses with thatched roofs and bamboo walls. "We lived in traditional Kachin houses, which were cool and very comfortable, with enough space to relax," said Mong Rein La. "Here, the houses are so closed off and dirty."

The homes in the new villages were not built in traditional Kachin style, although a Kachin cultural house stands at the village entrance as a symbol.

The farmers say that although they were offered some compensation, the Chinese company did not give them a choice of whether they wanted to relocate.

"I stay here whether I'm happy or not," said an 84-year-old Kachin man from Padan Kwin.

Zaw Nan, a 40-year-old from Myitsone village, said he could not earn enough money to support his children's education. "I've lost much of the plantation I used to support my family," he said. "I can't grow certain crops or breed animals here."

Khun Taung, who moved from Tangphre in March 2011, said her family did not receive the compensation money because they only left their old homes when they were forced out.

As a form of support, CPI provides rice for residents in the new villages. However, residents say the Chinese company has taken no responsibility to repair their damaged and flimsy homes, despite promising to take care of upkeep for five years.

Six months ago, CPI officials visited Aungmyinthar and the residents asked for help with repairs.

"The door isn't well built, the floor cement in the kitchen is very thin, and termites are inside them," said Khun Taung, pointing at the post of her house. "But they said the houses were fine and they had no plan to support [repairs]."

Grocers who commute back to their stores near the dam project say business has dried up, and they now rely on domestic tourists who come to see the Mali River.

Although the dam project is suspended, Chinese investors have reportedly approached Burmese politicians, civil society leaders and local Kachin residents recently to push for the right to resume construction.

Many residents told The Irrawaddy they did not want the project to continue and still hoped to return to their original villages.

"If the dam project continues, it will affect all of Burma, not only us," said Mong Rein La. "But it gives us relief to know that people all over the country are on our side."

"My village, Laphwae, is not what it once was for us," he continued, using the local name for Padan Kwin village. "The landscape has been reshaped with bulldozers. It [the project] has already destroyed our highlights and sterilized our farmland."

‘There’s a Huge Thirst for Knowledge and Human Capacity Here’

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 11:49 PM PDT

General Electric CEO for Asean Stuart Dean gestures during an interview in Jakarta on April 28, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

Last July, General Electric was the first American company to invest in Burma after the US government eased sanctions on the former military-ruled country. That initial deal was to supply medical equipment to hospitals, but in the 11 months since, GE has begun training medical staff, commenced aircraft leasing in Burma and signed agreements to distribute lighting products and power alternatives to generators.

Stuart Dean, CEO of GE's Asean division, spoke with The Irrawaddy at the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw, and gave insight into how the one-time pariah country is to do business in its changed political and business environment. Dean discussed options for Burma to upgrade its electricity supply, which currently covers only about one-quarter of the population—mostly just in urban areas—and spoke about the need for, and interest in, more skills and leadership training in Burma.

Question: How does GE see the reform process in Burma so far, and how has it been for you as a company setting up operations here?

Answer: After this emergence of Myanmar on the world stage, which has really been a remarkable transformation in a short period of time, it seems now that continuing on the reform path requires meeting the needs of the population.

A lot of those needs revolve around getting the basic infrastructure in place—water, electricity, health care, transportation—so this is a huge opportunity for companies like GE to play a constructive role to help the country develop, meet the needs of its population and really reward the reform process. We really think of ourselves as trying to partner with the country on the reform path.

We've been very pleasantly surprised with their openness to work with Western companies, and get access to the technology and also the corporate governance that Western companies can bring. That's encouraging us to do more here.

Q: Both the government and the opposition here have been talking about the need for jobs, and their hope that foreign investment can create jobs. Will GE's investment here lead to many jobs being created?

A: There's a huge thirst for knowledge and human capacity here, which is not surprising, given the long years of sanctions and isolation from many parts of the world.

We've been working with the Ministry of Health to train medical engineers in maintaining hospital equipment. We've trained 50 and we'll do more. If you see our latest press release, there's more there, but it's overwhelmingly about improving human capacity and also general leadership skills, for both the government and for the private sector.

There's a small direct hiring that GE will bring about here, but the much bigger piece is the indirect hiring we can help facilitate by making hospitals more professional, by upgrading hospital equipment, building power plants with partners, eventually upgrading water systems. We're leasing aircraft here, which will create jobs in airlines.

Q: You mentioned power plants, and on a related issue, I was at a press conference earlier where the ADB [Asian Development Bank], Accenture and the Energy Ministry launched a new report on ways forward for the energy sector. One of the things said was a lack of coordination across the seven ministries they said were involved in the energy sector: Has navigating the bureaucracy here been a challenge for you?

A: That's a challenge in every country we operate in and Myanmar is no exception. It's a smaller government in some ways than others we deal with, and I think there's better communication across ministries than in other countries. But their starting point is way behind other Asean countries. The ministries want to do the right thing, but there's not a lot of depth there. They need training, they need skills, and this is something GE can provide in areas like electricity, health care.

They don't have money to build power plants, they need private sector assistance there, but we have been amazed that there are companies here, now, working on this, and there's investment right now in the power sector in Myanmar.

Q: So there's competition for you here? Do you see this being a tough field to compete in?

A: There's not a place in the world where we don't have competitors and therefore it's very important that GE offer a very competitive solution to the country. But what is very critical is that pretty quickly they have government policies in place to support private sector investment. It's great that people are building power plants today, but they need to know how much power they can sell, at what price, but none of those things are there yet. The government knows this, but these are not easy issues to solve quickly, and the Parliament here has to see that taxpayers' money is being spent well.

Q: The power supply is one area that needs money allocated. Maintenance and repairs to the existing system could do a lot to improve the current availability of electricity, according to the ADB report that I mentioned earlier. Does this assessment tally with what GE has found in its 18 months' work here?

A: Because of sanctions, the gas turbines have not been adequately maintained. If those existing turbines could be refurbished, we could generate twice the amount of electricity with the same amount of gas. That was one of the recommendations from the energy summit yesterday, it's low-hanging fruit and I think the government gets that. Longer term, they should want to diversify their sources. They're blessed with gas and should find ways to divert more of it to the local market. Coal should be part of the base load options, hydro is great too but they can't rely on that all year round.

But then you get to rural areas, where people are not connected to the grid, and there refurbishment doesn't apply. Given the numbers [the ADB suggests that 84 percent of Burma's rural populations lack electricity], it's going to be at least a decade before you connect most of those folks. But there are so called 'distributed power solutions,' such as biomass, there's solar, there's wind. There are a lot of different options out there, but the government needs to find ways to get those financed.

I also suspect there's stranded gas and oil fields in the country that could be tapped to increase supply domestically—that is something they did in Indonesia in recent times.

Q: That touches on something that Deputy Energy Minister Htin Aung said earlier: that in future, or for future contracts, the government will not export gas or oil unless there is a surplus and unless domestic requirements have been met first.

A: That came up yesterday when we met with the minister, and again Indonesia is an example here. In the past they were selling to Japan, to other countries, but they realized they had needs at home, and walked away from some export contracts, and that caused a lot of heartburn. They [the Burmese government] shouldn't break contracts, but they can talk to people and say 'we have a problem,' if need be.

Burma Finally Takes a Seat at Its Own Oil and Gas Feast

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 11:38 PM PDT

Workers building the Chinese-backed Kyaukpru deep-sea port project, which will include a gas refinery. (Photo: Irrawaddy)

NAYPYIDAW — In a few months, impoverished Burma plans to start pumping roughly $45 million worth of oil and gas a day from the Bay of Bengal to China by pipeline. The vital fuel for China's growing economy will bypass the Malacca Straits and US ally Singapore.

It will mostly also bypass Burma.

Though rich in natural resources, Burma has little capacity to use them for its own development. For decades, its leaders valued gas for the hard currency it could earn rather than the economic development it could fuel. Today, only one in four of Burma's citizens have electricity.

Now, two years after sweeping aside six decades of self-imposed isolation in favor of democratic reforms, Burma's leaders face pressure to deliver tangible results, to appease voters ahead of 2015 elections and to quell sectarian unrest.

"We're now entering the third year of the reforms," said opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who used her appearance at the World Economic Forum's East Asia summit in Burma last week to underline her ambition to run for president. "What we really want to see now are results in the form of a real change in the lives of our people."

That, experts say, means giving Burma energy.

"Electricity is definitely number-one," said Hans Vriens, a Singapore-based consultant who advises companies on investing in Burma. "No electricity. No factories."

Making the switch from seller to consumer, however, could change Burma's attitude toward its resources in a way that may smack of "resource nationalism."

Multinationals vying to drill for gas and oil off Burma will have to negotiate with the nation as a customer instead of as a partner. And Burma's own customers, China and Thailand, already find themselves re-drawing old purchase agreements.

"We're renegotiating already," said Pailin Chuchottaworn, CEO of Thai oil company PTT, which imports $2 billion of gas a year from Burma. Last year, Burma approached PTT with a proposal to retain a fifth of the gas its sells Thailand.

"The problem is not the gas, it's the overall capacity."

Burma produces gas equivalent to 10.2 million tons of oil a year, according to a report prepared for the forum by Accenture and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). All but about 15 percent of it is sold to Thailand.

"Myanmar has a supply deficit," said Stephen P. Groff, ADB Vice-President for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. "You've already set aside a fairly substantial amount of your resources for export."

In the Dark

As a result, Burma only counts on gas for about 12 percent of the power it generates. Most power comes instead from hydroelectric plants whose water supply varies so widely between the monsoon and dry season that they run at roughly 60 percent of generating capacity. Even in the commercial capital, Rangoon, residents can only count on power for roughly a third of any given day, according to the report prepared for the forum.

A new offshore gas field near Burma's maritime border with Bangladesh will boost output by 75 percent. The gas is bound for China, earning state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) another $1.8 billion annually, the report estimates. Though at least a portion of the gas has been reserved for domestic use, Burma lacks the onshore infrastructure to make much use of it.

Where MOGE has been putting its money is a mystery, experts say. Burma's government budget accounting remains murky, the result of antiquated record-keeping and widespread corruption.

As part of its plan to streamline national energy policy, Burma in January put MOGE along with the Ministry of Energy and the 10 other government institutions involved in energy development under a single National Energy Management Committee.

Burma has also vowed to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), set up in 2002 by then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to help reduce the potential for payments to developing nations to feed graft and conflict.

Following President Thein Sein's visit to the United States last month, Washington is working with the government to help it meet EITI's membership criteria. Burma and the United States are drafting a letter of intent to publish at the June 15 launch of the Group of Eight's new transparency initiative, according to Julia Nesheiwat, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US State Department's Office of the Bureau of Energy Resources.

"They could be in the EITI by December," Nesheiwat said.

That would coincide with the deadline for companies submitting bids to Burma's government to explore for oil and gas in 30 offshore blocks. Bids are due on June 14, with contracts due to be awarded by year-end.

Another Nigeria?

Whatever they find and whenever they find it, they will end up negotiating with a government more determined to lavish most of these new resources on its citizenry, which already pays less for the electricity they do receive than it costs to produce.

"If we have any new discovery we will use that for our domestic utilization first. And then if we have excess hydrocarbon, it will be considered value-added for selling to other buyers," Burma's Energy Minister Than Htay said in an interview on Tuesday.

Energy companies say returns will need to be commensurate with growing risks, particularly as violence between Buddhists and Muslims grows in western Arakan State.

Arakan stretches along roughly one-third of Burma's coastline, and China's pipelines already traverse the state. Foreign industry and government officials worry that adding more oil and gas to this landscape could increase the likelihood that it becomes a new battle ground for religious extremism.

Drilling for oil and gas produces few local jobs. So keeping Burma from becoming a new Nigeria, Sudan or Iraq will require making sure that local populations benefit from the investment.

"It's critical that the government makes investments in health, in education and in agricultural productivity," said Groff at the ADB.

But the new gas is still years away. For Burma to deliver power quickly to its rural masses, industry executives say, it must look to Laos and Cambodia where small generators produce power by burning farm byproducts such as rice husks or pig manure.

An even simpler step would be to fix Burma's existing infrastructure. Aging turbines and transmission losses have cut the nation's power output to just 44 percent of capacity.

"There are a lot of GE gas turbines running at half their efficiency," said Stuart Dean, head of General Electric's Southeast Asian operations. "By refurbishing them you could double capacity overnight."

Thai Muslims Debate Their Future as Peace Talks Raise Hope

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 11:30 PM PDT

Thai security personnel carry Malaysian flags found in Thailand's southern Yala Province. (Photo: Reuters)

PATTANI, Thailand — Huddled in a room on the periphery of a university campus in the southern Thai province of Pattani, Muslim students debate ideas that have long been considered inflammatory or even treasonous.

An insurgency by shadowy Muslim fighters in predominantly Buddhist Thailand's three southernmost provinces has claimed 5,700 lives since 2004.

Just a few hundred kilometers from tourist beaches, the conflict rarely hits the headlines but the failure to stamp it out is an embarrassment for a country that prides itself on being a developed, international business and travel hub.

There are signs that the government has become more conciliatory since it agreed to hold talks in February with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), a major rebel group.

The student gathering this month at the university and debate of concepts such as autonomy would have been rare, if not impossible, a few years ago. Those present would have risked being detained on charges of sedition.

The Thai constitution sets out that the country's territory is indivisible and talk of separatism is tantamount to treason.

Few details have emerged from two preliminary rounds of peace talks, brokered by neighboring Malaysia, between the government and the BRN. Some rebels have called for a degree of self-rule.

On Wednesday, Thai officials will sit down for a third round of talks with the BRN to try to resolve Southeast Asia's deadliest internal conflict.

Despite hopes for change that the talks have brought, those attending the student gathering were still nervous.

"There is no guarantee we will not be blacklisted after this meeting," said one student who did not want to be identified.

"Someone could be a spy and report us, but our need to talk has overcome our fear."

Muslims in the three provinces have chafed under the rule of faraway Bangkok since Thailand annexed what was then an Islamic sultanate a century ago.

Generations of men have fought the state and the latest and most serious violence erupted in the early 2000s.

But analysts say incremental changes are taking place and have gathered momentum since the talks began. Frustration once expressed with graffiti daubed on walls after dark is now being vented openly among a growing network of civic groups.

They have opened discussion in meetings and on social media, fueling debate about the political aspirations of the region's ethnic Malay, Muslim population.

"For a long time, the Thai state's interest was to consolidate control of the border states," Thomas Parks, regional director for conflict and governance at the Asia Foundation, a US-based development organization, told Reuters.

"The word 'autonomy' was a bad word, but now there's open discussion about it."

Srisompob Jitpiromsri of the Deep South Watch think-tank said he also saw a change in government attitudes.

"The mindset of many of the policy-makers is different, they have become more accepting of the demands of the local population," Srisompob said. "There is optimism."

'Same Rights, Not Separatism'

The mayor of Yala town, Pongsak Yingcharoen, said the talks had raised expectations.

"Locals expected the violence to decrease when talks began. That didn't happen, so now they are trying to better understand this peace process," Pongsak said.

For years, the state has worked to instill a strong sense of Thai nationalism in the region's Malay-speaking population and symbols of "Thainess" pervade. The national anthem blares out of public speakers in the morning and at night.

Many Muslims say harsh government assimilation policies have led to the suppression of their religion, language and culture.

Army checkpoints dot the roads through a picturesque region rich in rubber yet bypassed by Thailand's economic boom. Pattani, along with neighboring Yala and Narathiwat provinces, are among Thailand's least developed areas with some of the lowest education levels.

Thailand's powerful military, which has 60,000 troops in the region, has been lukewarm about talks that could confer legitimacy on an armed movement the generals have dismissed as more criminal than political.

As some feared, the talks also appear to be encouraging ethnic Malay Muslims to express political aspirations Bangkok has long viewed as disloyal.

"People have to watch themselves when talking about separatism, but we won't detain them," said Pramote Prom-in, an army spokesman. "We understand some young people are hot-headed."

While the militants are often described as separatists, many southerners acknowledge that creating a tiny Islamic republic sandwiched between Thailand and Malaysia is unrealistic.

"Most people here aren't after a separate state, they just want to have the same rights as Buddhists," said Romuelah Saeyeh whose husband, Muhamad Anwar Ismail Hajiteh, a freelance journalist, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May for being a member of the BRN rebel group.

The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been credited for giving dialogue a chance.

Critics say her influential brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has become involved in trying to end the conflict because he is aiming to boost his standing as he plots a return to the country, and perhaps to power, from self-imposed exile.

Thaksin was widely blamed for exacerbating the conflict with harsh tactics when he was in power, including the death in 2004 of 78 Muslim protesters.

Thai security chief and Thaksin loyalist Paradorn Pattanathabutr, a key figure in the talks, told Reuters Thaksin had met separatists in Malaysia. Thaksin denied that.

Shintaro Hara, a Malay-language professor at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, said Bangkok politics were not a factor for most people in the south.

"Thaksin's involvement is secondary, people are just glad to see talks happening," he said.

"We cannot afford more corpses, our graveyards are already full. If we miss this chance, when will the next one come?"

US-China Climate Deal Called ‘Breakthrough’ but No Long-Term Cuts Yet

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 11:24 PM PDT

US President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, on June 7, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)

WASHINGTON — China and the United States took a major step in the fight against climate change over the weekend, but what was termed a "breakthrough" might not do much in the longer term to lock in legally binding carbon emission cuts from the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Still, environmental groups and some US and global policymakers said the agreement could give fresh momentum to the United Nations' arduous process of finalizing a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by 2015.

In their first talks, US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping agreed to phase out production and consumption of the gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), working under the UN's 1987 Montreal Protocol.

Used mostly in air conditioners and refrigerators, ozone-harming HFCs make up roughly 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, but are rising at a rate of up to 9 percent annually.

The White House said a global phase-down could reduce the carbon dioxide equivalent of 90 billion tons by 2050, roughly two years' worth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"We see that as just the first step of a long and robust international climate agenda in the second term," Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said on Tuesday.

Analysts worry that the UN climate talks continue to be hampered by deep divisions between developed and developing countries over the responsibility for carbon emissions.

One official close to the negotiations said the agreement was a political breakthrough, but the road ahead to a global deal on climate change would still be long.

The official said the weekend agreement, which followed earlier talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Xie Zenhua, a vice chairman in China's top economic development body, can inject a dose of optimism into the UN climate talks. But the deal represents a powerful example of what can be done when two major powers work together, the official added.

Tale of Two Treaties

Experts have said addressing HFCs under the separate Montreal Protocol, regarded as a successful international treaty, can lead to major emissions reductions while negotiators hammer out parameters of a workable new climate treaty by 2015.

"This is the biggest, fastest, most effective climate mitigation that could happen in the near term," said Mark Roberts, international policy advisor of the Environmental Investigation Agency, a group involved in climate issues.

Unlike carbon dioxide, the most prevalent and longest-lasting greenhouse gas produced across many sectors of a country's economy, HFCs are short-lived and confined to just a handful of sectors, making them easier to tackle.

The Montreal Protocol also creates different timetables for rich and poor countries to phase out production of the gases and gives poor countries financial support to use alternatives. It has already phased out the use of 100 hazardous chemicals.

The United States, Mexico and Canada first proposed the phase-out of HFCs under the Montreal Protocol in 2009. At that point China, India and Brazil opposed the plan, arguing that HFCs should be addressed in UN climate negotiations.

Durwood Zaelke, founder of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said the constraints of UN climate talks have created the need for diplomatic moves outside of that process, such as the new US-China agreement.

"This is the beginning of a movement to enlist more climate mitigation from parallel venues," he said, adding that such deals take some pressure away from UN climate talks and open the way for other solutions.

Zaelke pointed to negotiations within the International Maritime Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization as examples of venues where shipping and aviation emissions can be addressed untethered from UN climate talks.

The HFC agreement is "rebuilding an urgent sense of optimism" in the multilateral process that can pave the way for agreements on other short-lived greenhouse gases, such as black carbon, the soot emitted from cook stoves and diesel engines, Zaelke said.

More of these kinds of agreements could be on the horizon, those familiar with climate negotiations have said.

A US-China climate change working group formed in April is expected to come forward with a number of new proposals at the next US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue from July 8-12.

Diplomats will also gather in Bangkok on June 24 for a week of Montreal Protocol meetings and could start negotiations on an HFC phase-down at that point.

Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker and Ayesha Rascoe.

Philippines Vows to Defend Territory, Sovereignty

Posted: 11 Jun 2013 10:22 PM PDT

Filipinos chant anti-China slogans as they march toward the Chinese consulate in Manila's Makati financial district on May 11, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

MANILA — Philippine President Benigno Aquino III vowed Wednesday that his country will not back down from any challenge to its sovereignty and territory amid a sea dispute with China.

He said in a speech marking the 115th anniversary of the country's independence from Spain that the Philippines has not claimed territory that clearly belongs to another country but only asks that "our territory, rights and dignity be respected."

"Aggression does not run in our veins, but neither will we back down from any challenge," Aquino told government workers, diplomats and supporters at a public square named after revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio, where he also led a flag-raising ceremony.

Aquino said in the next five years, 75 billion pesos ($1.74 billion) will be spent to modernize the armed forces.

He did not mention China by name, but the two countries have an ongoing territorial row in the disputed Spratly islands.

Last month, the Philippines protested the presence of a Chinese warship, two surveillance vessels and fishing boats off a shoal occupied by Filipino troops in the Spratlys in the latest territorial squabble between the two Asian countries.

Ayungin Shoal lies 196 kilometers from the southwestern Philippine province of Palawan. It is guarded by a Filipino marine unit based in a rusty warship that ran aground on a coral outcrop several years ago. The shoal is near Mischief Reef, which the Philippines had claimed but was occupied by China in 1995, sparking intense protests from Manila.

Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the Spratlys, a chain of islands, islets and reefs.
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