Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burmese Firm Cancels Distribution of Time Magazine, After Controversy

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 06:09 AM PDT

Radical nationalist monk U Wirathu was portrayed on the July cover of Time magazine as "The Face of Buddhist Terror." (Image: www.time.com)

RANGOON — The Burmese distributor of Time magazine Asia has said it will scrap sales of the magazine's July 1st issue because of the controversy in Burma over its cover, which features a photo of nationalist monk U Wirathu with the headline "The Face of Buddhist Terror."

Burma's government, meanwhile, is still considering a ban on the July issue.

Maung Maung Lwin, manager of Inwa Publications, which is the sole distributor of Time magazine Asia in Burma, said, "Our board of directors had decided that, as Buddhists, we should not distribute the July 1st issue of Time magazine."

"This is not due outside pressures. It is our own decision," he said, adding that the company felt it had a responsibility to scrutinize the content of the publications it distributes.

"In the past, we had a censorship board … Now, we have to take sole responsibility, that's why our board decided it should not be distributed," Maung Maung Lwin told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Inwa Publications distributes about 600 copies of Time magazine in Burma, the majority of which are delivered to subscribers, he said, adding, "In our bookstores we have officially announced that we will not distribute the July 1st issue."

Time magazine Asia's cover story explores the rise of aggressive, nationalist Buddhism in Burma and other parts of Asia, such as Sri Lanka, and describes the role of radical monks like U Wirathu in this movement.

U Wirathu leads the '969' campaign, which calls on Burma's Buddhist majority to shun the Muslim minority and their businesses, and to support only Buddhist shops. It has been accused of stirring up deadly inter-communal violence that has spread through Burma during the past year.

Time's story seems to have offended many in Burma because they feel it couples the country's Buddhist tradition — and its revered monks — with terror and violence. The Burmese government and local media outlets, such Eleven Media, have come out to condemn the article.

Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut said on Tuesday that the Central Management Committee for Emergency Periods was meeting in Naypyidaw to discuss the controversy and the possible banning of Time's July 1st issue.

President Thein Sein set up the committee in late March to address and prevent inter-communal unrest.

Ye Htut said he had felt it necessary to inform the committee — of which he is a member — about the article in Time magazine.

"If we distribute this magazine it could raise tensions, it could sort of instigate [unrest]," he said, adding that it "could lead to misunderstandings among different religious groups" and "affect citizens' constitutional rights and duties."

He added, "So far, we have no plan to take action against [Time reporter] Hannah Beech."

Burma's government has been accused of doing little to curb the anti-Muslim attacks that have wrecked dozens of communities, out of fear of losing support among the Buddhist majority. Some human rights groups allege it has actively supported the violence.

When asked why the government was considering taking action against Time magazine's English-language article but not against the divisive 969 movement, Ye Htut said, "I've never listened to the 969 materials, but I've read about it on your website.

"If you think 969 material is hate speech then you can complain to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Sangha Maha Nayak [state-controlled monastic council]. It's not my ministry's responsibility."

100K Jade Locket, Ruby Stones Stolen at Burma’s Gem Emporium

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 05:50 AM PDT

Gem traders inspect a raw jade stone at the gem emporium in Naypyidaw this month. (Photo: Sanay Lin / The Irrawaddy)

MANDALAY — Burmese gem traders are complaining about poor security at a major gemstone emporium in Burma's capital after a necklace worth more than US$100,000 was apparently stolen and other precious stones went missing.

A diamond-encrusted jade locket, worth more than 100 million kyats ($105,000) reportedly went missing earlier this month on the opening day of the 50th Myanmar Gem Emporium in Naypyidaw.

"We heard the jade on the locket was about 32 carats, and [the necklace] was decorated with diamonds, and it was lost after the opening ceremony," a gem trader told The Irrawaddy. "It is believed to have been stolen, which was such a surprise for us because the security this year was much tighter than in previous years, and there were security cameras in the area."

According to The Yangon Times, the jade locket was decorated with more than 100 diamonds weighing a total of about 20 grams. The Naypyidaw police station opened a theft case, the newspaper reported, after the locket went missing on June 15.

Gem traders also say raw ruby stones and some pieces from a set of raw jade were stolen in the following days, but authorities said poor security was not to blame.

"My friend left a collection of raw jade in the exhibition area and went to the auction hall for his gems, which got around 100,000 kyats," said a gem trader from Mandalay. "After the auction, when he went back to the exhibition area, one of the best pieces was missing. We alerted the emporium authorities but they said they were not responsible for this."

"It's a huge loss for a gem trader," he added. "Although the security system was upgraded, it's still poor because they could not provide 100 percent security to gem traders."

Raw jade—which is often cut from a single stone into between three and 10 pieces—is usually exhibited outside the auction hall under the watch of security guards.

Burmese gem traders also complained of different treatment for foreign traders at the emporium.

A jade trader from Mandalay said that if a Burmese trader fails to collect the gems purchased at the auction within three months, he or she is blacklisted from future emporiums. But he said foreign traders, especially Chinese traders with close ties to high-ranking authorities, were rarely blacklisted.

"There are some foreign gem traders who were blacklisted, but they disguised themselves and re-entered the emporium," he said. "We want emporium authorities to strictly check on this."

Burmese gem traders say they would prefer to sell crafted gem statues, rather than raw uncut stones or simple jewelry, at the emporium. Chinese traders often buy raw stones in Burma and make a profit by polishing and cutting the gems for large statues to be sold on the international market.

"If we could produce the quality crafted gem statues by ourselves, our country would get more of a profit, as would the [Burmese] traders and craftsmen," Win Thu, a gem trader from Mandalay, told The Irrawaddy. "For this we need support from the government—not only to welcome foreign investment, but to ensure that investment benefits the people most."

Gem emporiums in Burma were once held annually, but in 2010 the emporium was postponed for security reasons.

The 50th Gem emporium in Naypyidaw this year featured pearls, rubies and a variety of raw jade stones valued from 500 euros to more than 200,000 euros (about $650 to $260,000).

According to the emporium organizer, the auction featured nearly 10,000 sets of jade, more than 200 sets of pearl and more than 300 sets of other gems. Most sets included between three and 10 pieces of raw stones in various sizes.

More than 3,000 jade and gem traders—including Burmese traders and traders from China, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and India—participated in this year's event.

China Wants Action on SEZ in Arakan as Locals Cast Wary Eye

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:57 AM PDT

Construction work for the Chinese-backed Shwe gas pipeline taking place in Naung Cho Township, northern Shan State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

In a visit to Naypyidaw on Monday, a senior Chinese diplomat said Beijing wanted to see "sooner implementation" of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in western Burma's Arakan State, as some local residents cast a wary eye on the Asian giant's economic ambitions.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, the head of the Chinese delegation, said he hoped to see development of the Kyaukphyu project soon, and that "China wants to take part in the tasks of ensuring development of the southwestern part of Myanmar," during a meeting with President Thein Sein, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

Chinese projects in Arakan State include controversial natural gas and oil pipelines from Kyaukphyu to China's Yunnan province. Construction of the dual pipelines, known as the Shwe gas project, is complete, and the piping of gas and oil northward is scheduled to begin soon. Oil storage tanks on Maday Island and natural gas storage tanks on Mala Island have also been installed.

Thein Sein on Monday said he "thanks China for the Kyaukphyu industrial zone project" and expressed hope that the "region could see development" as a result, but there were no details provided on the nature of the agreement nor what kind of support the Chinese would provide.

Local residents said there were no indications that development of the SEZ in Kyaukphyu had yet begun, nor had the local population been briefed about plans for the project.

In December, Deputy Labor Minister Myint Thein—the chairman of the SEZ Implementation Committee—paid a weeklong visit to Kyaukphyu and told residents at a meeting there that the project would be implemented in accordance with the desires of the local people.

"Kyaukphyu is a center of Chinese interest, so they will want to begin it sooner and quicker," said Aye Zan, secretary of the Kyaukphyu SEZ Monitoring Committee, which was formed earlier this year after local residents called for collaboration on the project in terms of social and environmental impact assessments.

"But the authorities have not shared any plan with us," he added.

The government has invited foreign firms to invest in the SEZ project, but there remains a lack of basic infrastructure, such as roads, electricity provision and port facilities, in the area.

"No development at the project area is seen, we only know that the 'master plan' for the project has been drawn up in collaboration with a Japanese company," said Hla Myo Kyaw, a resident of Kyaukphyu and a member of the Kyaukphyu SEZ Monitoring Committee.

The residents said basic information about the SEZ—the project site, the size of the zone and whether local residents would need to be relocated—had not yet been provided to them.

A delegation of the Arakan State-based Rakhine Nationalities Development Party was among a group of Burmese political parties that visited China in April at the invitation of the External Communication Department of the Chinese Communist Party. It was not clear whether Beijing's ambitions in Kyaukphyu were discussed.

Some locals are wary of Chinese-backed projects in Arakan State, with the Shwe gas project criticized by many for a lack of transparency and its negative environmental and social impacts, including forced displacements and harm to local fishermen's livelihoods.

The monitoring committee said it would stand with local residents and air any concerns raised.

"If the villagers have to move for the project, it cannot happen," Hla Myo Kyaw said, "as no one will accept relocation from their homes."

In December 2012, the rights group Arakan Oil Watch reported that the Chinese state-owned conglomerate CITIC Group would manage the implementation of the Kyaukphyu SEZ on Ramree Island, where more than 200,000 people reside.

The report said the zone would require an initial investment of US$8.3 billion and a total of $89.2 billion over 35 years, using 120-square-km of land and 70-square-km of waterways, according to a feasibility study by CITIC Construction.

An 800-km long rail way connecting Kyaukphyu to Ruili in China's Yunnan province will also reportedly soon be built, with its planned completion in 2015. The railway will pass through cities and villages in Arakan State, Magway and Mandalay divisions, and Shan State, as the Shwe gas and oil pipelines currently do.

Dangerous Days for Burma’s Age of Reforms

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:51 AM PDT

There's no longer any doubt—Burma is heading in a dangerous direction. With the rise of radical and nationalist elements in the country, the government's top-down reform initiatives are looking increasingly fragile and at risk of completely derailing.

Since the outbreak of violence in Arakan State last year, political observers in Burma have grown ever more pessimistic about the country's prospects in the wake of the government's seeming inability to bring the situation under control. We have watched in horror as fresh clashes have broken out around the country between Buddhists and Muslims, from Meikhtila in central Burma to the latest violence in Lashio, Shan State, earlier this month.

Some, including key government leaders, have come to the conclusion that powerful figures working in the shadows are behind these deadly incidents. There are widely held suspicions about who these figures are, but so far no one has dared to hold them accountable.

There is, however, abundant evidence that there was more to the recent anti-Muslim riots than mobs running amok. In Meikhtila, for instance, Ye Myint, the chief minister of Mandalay Division, allowed the murderous rampage to continue for three days, despite receiving numerous phone calls from Meikhtila-based opposition party leader Win Htein requesting intervention. Police who were there confirmed in interviews with reporters that they had not been given orders to take any action to restore order. Burmese government officials told donor nations that they lacked the capacity to control the mobs, but this claim rings false when one recalls how quick the authorities have been in the past to quell anti-government unrest. In the end, it was only after the violence had been allowed to rage uncontrolled for days that President Thein Sein finally declared a state of emergency and sent troops to Meikhtila.

Foreign observers are also not blind to what is happening in Burma under the guise of seemingly irrational attacks on the country's Muslim minority. Speaking to reporters shortly after the Meikhtila riots, Vijay Nambiar, then the United Nations secretary general's special adviser on Burma, said that Muslims were targeted with "brutal efficiency".

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, also said earlier this year that he had received reports of "state involvement" in anti-Muslim violence, with the authorities "standing by while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes, including by well-organized ultranationalist Buddhist mobs." The government has denied the allegations.

Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org.

Whenever things have gotten out of hand, Thein Sein has stepped in to reassure the public that the government won't tolerate "political opportunists and religious extremists" to sow religious or ethnic hatred. But to this day, not one of the instigators of the violence has been brought to justice.

This week, Thein Sein's office even came out to criticize Time magazine's description of the controversial Buddhist monk Wirathu as the "face of Buddhist terror," despite the fact that he has been openly fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment through video sermons urging attacks on Muslims and boycotts of their businesses. His hateful incitement goes unchecked, and photographs on social media sites have even shown him receiving alms from hard-liners.

Wirathu and a group of young monks have reportedly thanked Thein Sein for speaking out against the Time cover, but one wonders if the president is really siding with Wirathu or just trying to limit the negative impact of Time's decision to raise the specter of "Buddhist terror". To some observers, Time's coverage has played into the hands of extremists who will gleefully use it as ammunition to exploit this volatile situation further. Already, government officials are thinking of banning the magazine—a step that could usher in the return of official censorship.

The question is, what do these extremists or hardliners hope to achieve by stirring up wave after wave of violence? There are several theories.

Some fear that if the violence continues to spread across Burma, the election planned for 2015 will be postponed.

There is even a rumor going around suggesting that Muslims will be hired to attack a famous religious shrine in Rangoon in order to ignite anti-Muslim riots in major cities. In the recent past, hired thugs have been used to stir up trouble in Rangoon and Mandalay, but this tactic has so far failed to achieve its goal of creating widespread chaos.

Leaders of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) also note that the violence began just months after the party of Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in by-elections in April 2012.

Some political observers in Rangoon say  that since the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) now knows that it is almost certain to lose in 2015, it will need to resort to desperate measures to stop the NLD juggernaut. Political unrest may be part of the plan, but it is also possible that the USDP hopes to stigmatize Suu Kyi (who was vilified for years in the state-run press for marrying a foreigner) by associating her with Burma's Muslim minority. Already, a social media campaign to portray her as a "traitor to her race" has begun to suggest that if she wins in 2015, she will turn Burma into an Islamic nation.

As in the past, the country's elite will stoop to any level to ensure that its hold on power and Burma's wealth remains secure. The best way to do this is by taking on the mantle of guarantors of peace and stability. And if this means instilling fear in the public, then so be it.

Some suspect that USDP hardliners have begun to strengthen their ties to former dictator Than Shwe, whose residence I drove past recently when I was in Naypyidaw. Officially retired and living in a palatial estate protected by military commandos, the former strongman is regarded as highly paranoid and particularly averse to the prospect of an NLD government led by Suu Kyi.

Despite not having an official role in public affairs, Than Shwe continues to receive ruling party leaders, including members of the hardline faction led by Aung Thaung, a powerful figure notorious for the vast wealth he accumulated as a member of the former ruling junta.

Aung Thaung has a long history of involvement in shady political assassination plots, and is believed to be the mastermind behind the infamous Depayin massacre in 2003, when scores of Suu Kyi's supporters were killed by hired thugs. These days, he is again in the spotlight as he has been linked to Wirathu. A recent meeting between Aung Thaung and the incendiary monk has had some observers suspecting the worst. Speaking to The Irrawaddy, however, Aung Thaung has denied any role in the recent violence.

What both Aung Thaung and Than Shwe fear most is that Thein Sein is getting too close to the West, something that has already begun to hurt the close ties that they forged with China when they were the undisputed masters of Burma.

Under the previous regime, Than Shwe and Aung Thaung reached lucrative deals with China, including contracts for gas pipeline projects and hydropower projects that were signed in secrecy and were, in fact, damaging to the country's future and environment.

It has been noted that the anti-Muslim campaign came to the fore at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment over these projects was at an all-time high. After the suspension of the Chinese-backed Myitsone hydropower dam project in late 2011, there was growing momentum to stop other projects seen as chiefly benefitting China. But religious clashes and the controversy surrounding the Buddhist nationalist 969 movement has all but completely diverted attention from the Chinese projects and ongoing political issues.

Now, it seems, many have lost sight of the bigger picture and, sadly, the "political opportunists and religious extremists" that Thein Sein said he wouldn't tolerate appear to be calling the shots.

Suu Kyi’s Absence from Nobel Group’s Anti-Discrimination Plea Due to Ineligibility

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:47 AM PDT

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her Nobel acceptance speech during a ceremony at Oslo's City Hall on June 16, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Burma's opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire in recent months for her apparent reluctance to condemn attacks on Muslims carried out by rioting Buddhists in various towns across the country.

The latest mini-furor kicked off last week with the publication by the Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI) of a letter, signed by 12 Nobel Peace Prize winners, which called for an "immediate end to the violence against Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Burma."

Among the international who's who of peace promoters who put their names to the exhortation were Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, microfinance mogul Mohamed Yunus and Iranian political exile Shirin Ebadi.

Absent from the list, however, was Burma's own democracy icon and Nobel winner Suu Kyi, an omission that was quickly picked up on by high-profile human rights advocates and Burma watchers.

"Aung San Suu Kyi can't get herself to join 12 Nobel Peace Laureates' call for end to #Burma violence against Muslims," tweeted Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth.

Asked by The Irrawaddy if Suu Kyi had been asked to sign or if she had snubbed the NWI, it turns out that as an elected parliamentarian, Suu Kyi is not part of the NWI.

"As per the by-laws of the organization, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as a member of Parliament, is not a member of the Nobel Women's Initiative," said Rachel Vincent, the NWI media and communications director.

"As you will see from the list of signatories, we do sometimes go beyond the women laureates to extend an invitation to male laureates to sign on to statements. You will also note that none of these male laureates are sitting politicians, though some, like Oscar Arias, were in the past," Vincent added.

Suu Kyi has previously said that she does not know if all the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority living mostly in Burma's west, are entitled to Burmese citizenship, sparking anger and disappointment among her erstwhile supporters outside of Burma.

In recent weeks, however, the opposition leader has been somewhat more forthright, criticizing a proposal to limit Rohingya women to two children as discriminatory, while opposing another suggestion, made by Buddhist monks, that Buddhist Burmese women should face restrictions in marrying Muslim men.

The NWI has in the past supported Suu Kyi and other politically active Burmese women. In 2010, the NWI helped kick-start the now-moribund campaign to look at the possibility of setting up a war crimes or crimes against humanity tribunal on Burma, arguing that long-standing and widely documented cases of sexual violence carried out by Burmese soldiers against ethnic minority women warranted further investigation.

U Wirathu to Propose Interfaith Marriage Law Again at Monks’ Conference

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:42 AM PDT

U Wirathu teaches Dhamma lessons to young Buddhist monks at Masoeyein Monestry in Mandalay on June 22, 2013. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Ultra-nationalist monk U Wirathu said he will attend another conference of Buddhist monks in Rangoon on Thursday in order to garner support for a controversial draft law that would put restrictions on interfaith marriages in Burma.

The Mandalay-based monk told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that he had been reworking his proposal and petitioning the public to support the bill.

"This final draft is much more balanced… We even have collected signatures from people. Lawmakers from Parliament will accept our final draft when they see the signatures from the people," he claimed.

Earlier this month, on June 13-14, about 200 monks convened at a monastery on Rangoon's outskirts to discuss the ongoing tensions between Burma's Buddhist majority and its Muslim minority, which have claimed more than 200 lives during the past year.

At the time, U Wirathu sought support from the Sangha for the draft law, which would require any Buddhist woman seeking to marry a Muslim man to first gain permission from her parents and local government officials. It also requires any Muslim man who marries a Buddhist woman to convert to Buddhism.

The proposal created a firestorm of reactions and was criticized for violating basic human rights. Women's groups have since announced that they would campaign against the draft law on interfaith marriage.

The monks who organized the conference quickly distanced themselves from the proposal on June 14, although they had held a joint press conference with U Wirathu a day earlier.

On Tuesday, the firebrand monk declined to discuss the criticism of his previous draft, adding, "Though after the release of our final draft at this [upcoming] conference, anyone can criticize it if it would still contain rights violations."

U Wirathu claimed the latest draft was the solution for Burma's sectarian tensions and would gain support from the approximately 500 monks that are expected to attend the conference.

"If we can ratify this law, there will be no more violence in our country. Buddhist majority people cannot provoke violence against religious minorities, and minority people cannot provoke violence against the majority," he said.

U Wirathu leads the nationwide 969 campaign, which has been accused of stirring up the inter-communal tensions. It encourages Buddhists to shun Muslims and their businesses, and to only support fellow Buddhists' shops.

The monk is currently at the center of a controversy over Time magazine Asia's July cover, which featured a photo of the monk with the headline "The Face of Buddhist Terror".

Burma’s Ominous Political Debate over Ethnicity

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:38 AM PDT

Representatives of ethnic minorities attend a ceremony marking the country's 64th Union Day anniversary in the capital Naypyidaw on Feb. 12, 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

Last year, I accompanied an ethnic Shan-Danu Muslim teenager to an immigration office in Burma's Shan State to inquire about the citizenship application she had submitted through her high school. Although her friends had received their cards, the girl was told to come to the immigration office.

When she inquired about the reason for her visit, she was asked: "Are you of mixed blood?" The girl didn't understand the question. The official asked again, "Are you Chinese?" The girl looks somewhat Chinese. Her father is ethnic Danu and her mother is an ethnic Shan. They both are citizens, as are their parents.

She replied: "I am Muslim."

The officer responded in an impatient tone: "Yes, that's mixed blood," adding that was why she needed to come to the office.

"Mixed blood" doesn't refer to her or her parents' ethnicities, but to her religion. It appears to be the default category for Muslims, an automatic synonym for both South Asians and Chinese. All of her hyphenated "native" ethnic identities, however socially conceived and defined, matter less than her religion.

Designating her a "mixed blood" cost her money of course. A junior officer charged her 7,000 kyat (about US$8) to file her application. His sole act was to put her documents into a cheap, old paper folder.

The girl's case is emblematic of the growing political debate over the status of Burma's Muslim communities. It is enormously tangled, and is used to further increasingly ominous jingoism against anyone presumed to be non-Burmese—and there are legions of the disenfranchised.

Although Muslims, mostly Sunnis, make up only about 4 percent of the population according to the latest government census, and as much as 6-10 percent, according to the country's Islamic scholars, they have in recent months been demonized by leaders of the 89 percent majority who describe themselves as Theravada Buddhists. The majority population, reportedly egged on by a military that wants to keep its hand in running the government from behind the scenes, repeats that Bengalis are terrorists and troublemakers who foment violence and that therefore they and their religion must be suppressed. The majority do not seem to accept that the violence must stop immediately, and that political dialogue is needed to clear misunderstandings and problems.

The racist discourse that has been fueling extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric every day on social media websites and printed in hate publications, is also found on signboards at immigration offices at all levels in the country. The signboards say, "A race does not disappear by being swallowed by landmass, but by being swallowed by another human race."

The political effect of self-victimization is that it lends support to an anti-Muslim campaign that is already manifested in large-scale violence.

The country's 1982 Citizenship Act is being used against those not recognized as official "national races" to prove that their forefathers lived in the Burmese territory prior to 1823—one year before the first Anglo-Burmese war 190 years ago.

That is odd as at that time there was no Burma as we know it today. Moreover, today's "official" categorization of 135 ethnic groups is at odds with the history of categorization itself. For example, a 1960 publication by the Ministry of Culture estimated ethnic groups to be about 50, but the manual from the Department of Immigration and Manpower published in 1971 listed 144 so-called national races.

There, Muslims and South Asian groups were listed in an alphabet soup of designations such as Rakhine-Chittagong, Burmese Muslims, Rakhine-Kaman, and Other Burmese-Indians. The updated list of the 1990s, which the government never released officially, included only 135 groups. All Muslims and South Asian-related groups were removed. U Ko Ni, a Supreme Court lawyer, writes in Pyithu Khit (People's Era) Journal that contradictions in the Citizenship Act and Burma's three constitutions create a mélange of citizens of ethnic parents, naturalized citizens, guest citizens, people whose status is doubtful, those who have the right to be naturalized citizens, citizens with the right to run in elections and citizens without the right to run in elections.

Apart from legislative flaws, legal implications and political or electoral discrimination, the experience of Muslims in Burma sheds light on the way they are made citizens and foreigners simultaneously.

First, the name of the card that identifies one's citizenship status is called a "Citizen Scrutiny Card." The use of the term "scrutiny" is a reflection of the surveillance state. It is not only to scrutinize citizens as individuals but also to limit the rights of certain people in the name of protecting race and religion.

At immigration offices, as with the girl I accompanied, the phrase "mixed blood" is frequently used. It is not something to be ashamed of in this 21st century socio-political order. Immigration Minister Khin Yi recently said citizenship in Burma is determined by bloodline.

What is equally striking, however, is the way Muslims are identified on their cards—Race/Religion for a university student whose father is ethnic Danu and mother ethnic Innthar, is identified as "India Burman Danu Innthar Islam"—without punctuation. This happens because every Muslim is required to identify on his or her card either as being from India, Pakistan or Bengali.

There are only "India" or "Pakistan" as countries but not race, if there is anything called race at all. Although there is no clarification over whether the use of these words is to refer to either nationality or citizenship, or ethnicity, using them for the category of Race/Religion appears imprudent.

The case of the student's mother is also intriguing. The mother, who is ethnic Innthar, was identified as "Bengali" although she is not even ethnically related to a Bengali. When immigration authorities began issuing the current Citizen Scrutiny Card in 1989, the mother's father in a small village in the Inle Lake region was told he must register as a Bengali on his card. Not knowing the implications, the old man said: "It doesn't matter. If you want to write, just write it." The ethnic Innthar man thus became a Bengali.

As a result, his daughter was also issued the card on which she was classified as Bengali. Having realized that being identified as a "Bengali" on the card was troublesome, the woman took an oath at the township court that she was not Bengali but Innthar. Although the township immigration officer didn't change her ethnic status after the oath, the woman's argument won at last. Her Bengali status was successfully stripped off. She un-became Bengali.

In another family in Taunggyi, the multicultural capital of Shan State, a child is identified as "India + Burmese + Islam," and another as "Pakistan + Shan + Burmese + Islam" despite the fact that they are in the same natural family unit. This doesn't seem to matter to the government.

Such is the creation of "aliens" who have lived in Taunggyi for four generations. They are not migrants, and yet legal categorization has made them foreigners from South Asia—known as kalar. The striking matter in the first two cases is that the grandchildren of once relatively well-known figureheads of the town have been designated foreigners or outsiders by ethnic Burmans who only recently came to Shan State on government duty—to scrutinize who are and are not proper members of the town and the country—strangers coming to town only to tell the native families that they are outsiders.

In addition to turning in-country born Muslims into foreigners, official ethnocide is going on. A good example is that of ethnic Pathi, a Muslim majority people in central Burma whose recorded history and recognized status go back to the Burmese dynasty era. Although referred to in general terms as "Burmese Muslims" since the mid-1900s, Pathi as an ethnic category has faded away. Members of the community only continue to use Pathi as a prefix to their names.

In 2012, a political party was barred from registering a party with the name "Pathi." Similarly, members of the community no longer register as Pathi on citizenship cards. In another case, a Mandalay woman of my acquaintance has been newly registered as "India Burmese + India Burmese/Islam." Her old card, which was issued when she was 10, identified her by "national race" as Pathi and Islam for the religion category. But when she was required to update the card as she turned 18, the immigration department denied issuing her the card with Pathi as a national race. She did not renew her card for more than 12 years, at which point she found herself holding a card that identifies her as "India Burmese" although it was not her decision to accept her new legal identity.

She was cheated by the authority. That is, she refused to renew the card for more than 12 years until she was ensured by the authorities of a card with Pathi as her ethnicity. But when she signed documents and picked up the card, it was written "India Burmese + India Burmese/Islam." Now an ethnic Pathi for 30 years is a new "India Burmese."

Religion is a major determinant of this system of alienation. For instance, a man in Mandalay has India on his card, but his brother who chooses to follow his mother's Buddhist religion does not.

Dislike of Muslims and discrimination is not new in Burma, however. It is decades-old. But the latest round of anti-Muslim hate campaigns, animated by the 969 movement, has had a serious impact on Buddhist-Muslim relations.

Striking discrimination in my recent research in Shan State is that of primary school teachers against children. This seems new. Some Muslim parents are saddened that teachers called their kids kalar (Indian/Muslim boys) or kalar ma (Indian/Muslim girls). At one school in Taunggyi, a third-grade Muslim girl was not allowed to participate in a staged activity due to her "kalar" look, discouraging her from going to school at all.

Teachers do not seem to be teaching respect and tolerance either. A grade one student, for example, was not befriended by other kids due to her kalar look, especially the "merging of the eyebrows." The list goes on.

With the anti-Muslim 969 movement, Muslims are increasingly facing discrimination in the employment sector as well. In the past, Muslims were not recruited by the military or civil service. Now employers, in both family businesses and companies, are less willing to hire Muslims. A recent university graduate applied for job at a bank in Taunggyi but was told clearly that the bank did not hire her kind.

Not all Burmese or Buddhists hate Muslims, however. There are monks, educators, activists and ordinary citizens who are frustrated with the spread of hate campaigns across the country. But their benign attitude and voices are far less powerful and felt than that of a state that has designed alienation politically and structurally, and that of majority Burmese and/or Buddhists who have internalized and unleashed anti-Muslim sentiment and actions.

While the restrictive citizenship act makes the Muslims second class citizens, the discrimination they face results not only from the matter of law (i.e. the lack of citizenship), but also from alienation—particularly the practice of outright denial, which has much do with racism and ignorance. Discrimination against Muslims is based on their socio-cultural or ethno-religious membership as much as on legal status.

Therefore, while addressing the 1982 citizenship act is a must, it is important not to lose sight of the social and political dynamics of alienation, ethnocide and discrimination. Promoting mutual respect, recognition and tolerance, and most importantly the undoing of anti-Muslim state propaganda and the majority's internalized racist thoughts and actions are must-address issues.

Sai Latt is a Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

Indonesia Neglects Fate of Migrant Children, Rights Group Claims

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 12:25 AM PDT

Illegal migrants from Burma stand at the gate of an immigration detention center in Medan in Indonesia's North Sumatra province on April 5, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Roni Bintang)

JAKARTA — A rights group on Monday criticized Indonesia over its treatment of children who are migrants or seeking asylum, saying they are placed in abysmal conditions with no way of appealing their detention.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report that Indonesia has detained hundreds of migrant and asylum-seeking children each year without giving them a way to challenge their detention. The country lacks asylum laws and allows immigrants to be detained for up to 10 years.

"Hundreds are detained in sordid conditions, without access to lawyers, and sometimes beaten. Others are left to fend for themselves, without any assistance with food or shelter," the report said.

The group said there are almost 2,000 asylum-seeking and refugee children in Indonesia as of March, and that more than 1,000 arrived in 2012. They are fleeing persecution, violence, and poverty in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma and elsewhere.

The report was based on interviews with more than 100 migrants, including children as young as 5, as well as Indonesian officials and staff members of non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

It said adults and children described abuse by guards or other detainees, including being kicked, punched, beaten with sticks, burned with cigarettes and subject to electric shocks.

Ida Bagus Adnyana, director of investigation and enforcement at the immigration office, denied the allegations.

"These are not true, that is made up. We regularly remind our officers about human rights," Adnyana said. "I am the first official to be fired if these happened."

He said migrant children are staying with their parents while those without parents are sheltered separately from adults.

"Even some of them are staying outside detention centers with adoptive parents," he added.

Alice Farmer, the group's children's rights researcher, said migrant and asylum-seeking children risk life and limb to flee their countries.

"Migrant children in Indonesia are trapped in a prolonged waiting game with no certain outcome," Farmer said. "Desperate children will keep coming to Indonesia, and the government should step up to give them decent care."

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelagic nation with thousands of islands and miles of unpatrolled coastline, is a key transit point for smuggling migrants.

Hundreds of asylum-seekers from war-ravaged countries have died in sea accidents on the hazardous sea journey from Indonesia to Australia.

Frigid Hospitals Cloud North Korea’s Picture of Health

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 12:13 AM PDT

North Korean children suffering from malnutrition rest in a hospital in Haeju, in South Hwanghae province, in 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

PYONGYANG, North Korea — In the lobby of Pyongyang's maternity hospital, a government guide pauses during a tour, pointing down to an elaborate flower pattern glowing in buffed red and green marble.

"One hundred and sixty-five tons of rare stones were used on the floor," Mun Chang Un proudly tells the foreign visitors being offered an unusual glimpse inside.

He walks toward a row of tiny booths with mounted TVs, video cameras and '70s-style phones, explaining that the "high-tech" conferencing stations are used to protect mothers and newborns from visitors' germs. Just a few floors upstairs, he says, a well-equipped breast cancer center was recently opened under new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

It's a rehearsed picture of health the reclusive government wants the outside world to see, complete with spotless granite corridors. But the reality of that image is clouded every time Mun takes a breath that explodes into icy wisps.

The hospital is so cold during this February visit, patients remain bundled in thick coats, gloves and scarves during exams, while nurses swish with every step as they hustle through the halls in white snow pants and matching puffer jackets. Mun himself wears big, furry teddy bear slippers.

The contrast raises one fundamental question: If there's no heat in many parts of one of the country's best showcase hospitals in Pyongyang—where temperatures can plummet well below zero—what type of health care exists at small clinics in the rugged mountainous countryside where even government officials say electricity and running water are sometimes hard to find?

As with so much in North Korea, it's difficult to know what the true overall picture of health really looks like beyond the face presented. Only a handful of foreign aid groups and UN agencies operate in the country, and none of them can move around freely. Some areas remain totally off limits.

Even in the gleaming capital, some health facilities appear to be a throwback to another time. Hulking machines and antiquated equipment in exam rooms could have arrived decades ago, when there was still a steady flow of medical supplies from the former Soviet Union.

The government also typically collects and analyzes health data, raising questions about accuracy and sampling methods. Some prominent foreign aid workers in Pyongyang say they were initially skeptical, but now trust the numbers after independent attempts to check their accuracy revealed similar results.

Yet even the Ministry of Public Health's own recent reports reveal glimpses into a system where all is not well. More than one in four children under 5 years old suffer from stunted growth due to a chronic lack of food; tuberculosis is raging within the country; infant death rates have jumped to levels higher than in the 1990s.

Foreign doctors, aid workers, North Korean defectors and various reports, such as a scathing 2010 assessment by Amnesty International, paint an even darker picture.

They describe beer bottles used as IV drips and broken legs splinted with sticks instead of plaster. Amputations performed without anesthesia. Dirty needles reused. A husband holding up a candle while a doctor removes a fetus from his hemorrhaging wife. Surgeons operating with Soviet-era instruments with no heat or running water.

The health system has crumbled and languished over the past few decades amid deepening poverty and desolation. Government health spending ranks among the world's lowest, with one World Health Organization estimate putting it at less than $1 per person in 2006.

Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions have resulted in further isolation and years of crushing international sanctions, with the toughest-ever restrictions coming after the country's third nuclear test in February. Humanitarian aid is not supposed to be affected, but health officials say the sanctions have made it difficult to import medicine and supplies.

Donors have also been reluctant to offer support amid rising tensions. The United Nations recently reported a desperate shortage of funds for its North Korea operation, resulting in a scarcity of drugs and vaccines for children and pregnant women. The country also lacks the basic health infrastructure and hygiene to reduce diarrhea and pneumonia, the two biggest child killers worldwide.

"Overall, it's a stark contrast between Pyongyang—which is the window to the world for North Korea—and the rest of the country," says Katharina Zellweger, who has traveled to every province during nearly two decades of humanitarian work. She routinely found clean facilities with old equipment, limited drugs and intermittent supplies of water and electricity. "There is an extended health infrastructure across the whole country. The question is really how well does it function?"

Back at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, Mun, the facility's director of foreign affairs, steps off an elevator with flickering lights and begins spitting facts about the newly built Breast Cancer Research Center.

Here, it's like being transported to a heated exam room in the United States or Europe equipped with high-tech machines for mammograms, radiation and ultrasound. Mun refuses to say how much this new addition cost, adding only that one X-ray machine totaled 700,000 euros, or $910,630, and that the late leader Kim Jong Il and his successor son spared no expense. (Young Kim's mother is rumored to have died from breast cancer, but when asked, a hospital official declined to answer).

There was just one thing missing from the model health center: patients. A waiting room with rows of shiny chrome benches is deserted, while a lone nurse sits almost hidden behind a towering work station. Mun says 80 of the hospital's 100 beds are full, but only one room shared by three women is shown.

"This morning there were many patients," says Pak Hyang Sim, director of the hospital's diagnostic imaging. "They were all diagnosed. That's why it's so empty now."

Defectors and aid workers say hospitals everywhere are often eerily vacant. Bad roads, a lack of transportation and no money make it impossible for many to access health centers. Medicine and care are supposed to be free. But in reality, everything has a price.

"There's a saying in North Korea: If your relative has cancer then your entire family is ruined because everything will go to getting that medicine," says Jeon, a 24-year-old defector in Seoul who fled North Korea five years ago and asked that only one name be used to safeguard her father still living across the border. "Some families who can't afford the medicine have no choice but to watch their loved ones die."

Despite the new center, breast cancer is far from the top of the list of health problems gripping the country, revealing a disconnect between where the government spends and what the people really need.

Hunger remains perhaps the biggest health concern, with 16 million North Koreans—two-thirds of the population—not getting enough to eat. The resulting malnutrition exacerbates a range of health issues, from hijacking child brain development to maternal death.

In the famine of the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are believed to have died. The government launched a "let's eat two meals a day" campaign, and people foraged for bark, roots and grasses, according to the Amnesty International report.

The period, known inside the country as the "arduous march," left a devastating mark on its overall health despite food aid from the international community that continues today.

Child stunting rates remain high, at 28 percent nationally and 40 percent in the worst-hit isolated province of Ryanggang. North Korean men are up to 3 inches shorter than their South Korean counterparts, according to findings published two years ago by Daniel Schwekendiek, an economist at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea. North Koreans also can expect to die around 12 years earlier than their southern neighbors.

However, some say the outside world's perceived picture of health may also be skewed. North Korea, for instance, has lower stunting rates than Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Nepal.

"We think it's a constant situation where you find malnutrition or you find undernutrition or you find people not well fed," says Gerhard Uhrmacher, program manager for the German humanitarian aid organization Welthungerhilfe, who has traveled extensively in North Korea over the past decade. "This is generally almost all over the country, but it's not to the extent where hundreds of thousands of people are dying. We don't believe that."

He says the government's propaganda machine also twists reality to fit its needs. He recalls foreign journalists a year and a half ago being shown a hospital "where they took children who were in very, very bad shape to reinforce their request for food aid."

At the Kyongsang Clinic in Pyongyang, the impact of donor money is on display, along with pageantry and a heavy dose of propaganda. Plump children in pouffy bright traditional dresses and military uniforms howl in their mothers' arms, as nurses force crushed Vitamin A tablets and chalky deworming pills into their mouths. In a nearby nursery, children take the medicine and then go onstage to sing traditional songs praising the leaders.

The campaign, supported by Unicef, reaches 1.7 million children twice a year. Eliminating parasites helps combat malnutrition, but it's clear none of these kids are going to bed with empty bellies.

The clinic does, however, showcase one of the bright spots in a generally bleak scene: A focus on prevention, which is central to the overall health system.

In the early years, North Korea set up an army of household doctors, each responsible for overseeing basic health within their communities. Tens of thousands of these physicians still exist today, with one doctor responsible for about 130 households.

North Korea has been applauded by the WHO and others for its mass mobilization, successful child immunization programs and health promotion—systematic approaches commonly deployed in top-down socialist countries. These programs are among the few reminders left of a free universal health system that in the 1960s boasted more hospital beds and a lower infant death rate than the South.

Now, it's mostly Pyongyang that benefits.

At the new breast cancer center, guide Mun stops on the stairs to show off a wide strip of jade-colored marble that "looks like a waterfall flowing down." He explains that the wooden railing was replaced with stone because Kim Jong Un thought anything less would cheapen the facility.

A female doctor later stops to point out shimmering prisms dangling from a golden chandelier before leaning in to whisper: "Look closely, doesn't it look like a breast?"

At the end of the tour, in a room with photos of founding leader Kim Il Sung and son Kim Jong Il looming overhead, Mun hands visitors a large guest book filled with pages of messages scrawled in many languages.

Please write your impression of the hospital, he says smiling, handing over a pen.

Associated Press writer Elizabeth Shim contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.

US Factory Boss Held Hostage by Workers in Beijing

Posted: 24 Jun 2013 11:58 PM PDT

Workers on strike blocking the entrance gate of Hi-P International factory yell slogans during a protest in Shanghai on Dec. 2, 2011. (Photo: Reuters / Carlos Barria)

BEIJING — An American executive said he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department.

Chip Starnes, 42, a co-owner of Coral Springs, Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said local officials had visited the 10-year-old plant on the capital's outskirts and coerced him into signing agreements Saturday to meet the workers' demands even though he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers weren't being laid off.

The workers were expecting wire transfers by Tuesday, he said, adding that about 80 of them had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office. He declined to clarify the amount, saying he wanted to keep it confidential.

"I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window's bars. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen."

Workers inside the compound, a pair of two-story buildings behind gates and hedges in the Huairou district of the northeastern Beijing suburbs, repeatedly declined requests for comment, saying they did not want to talk to foreign media.

It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners, though occasionally also involving foreign bosses.

The labor action reflects growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China's slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories. The account about local officials coercing Starnes to meet workers' demands—if true—reflects how officials typically consider stifling unrest to be a priority.

Huairou district and Qiaozi township governments declined to comment.

A local police spokesman said police were at the scene to maintain order. Four uniformed police and about a dozen other men who declined to identify themselves were standing across the road from the plant.

"As far as I know, there was a labor dispute between the workers and the company management and the dispute is being solved," said spokesman Zhao Lu of the Huairou Public Security Bureau. "I am not sure about the details of the solution, but I can guarantee the personal safety of the manager."

Representatives from the US Embassy stood outside the gate much of the day, and eventually were let in. US Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said the two sides were on the verge of an agreement and that Starnes would have access to his attorneys. It was unclear what agreement might be reached, and subsequent attempts to contact Starnes were not immediately successful.

Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing last Tuesday to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were "pretty nice," he said.

Some of the workers in the other divisions got wind of this, and, coupled with rumors that the whole plant was moving to India, started demanding similar severance packages on Friday.

Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said he wasn't familiar with Starnes' case, but that such hostage-taking was "not a major problem" for the foreign business community.

"It happened more often say 15 years ago than today, but it still happens from time to time," he said. "It rarely leads to personal harm to the managers involved, but there are cases when it has in years past."
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