Thursday, July 11, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

MP slams military promise to return confiscated land

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:14 AM PDT

A member of parliament on Wednesday accused the military of misleading the public by pledging to return thousands of acres of land confiscated under the former regime.

Hla Swe, an upper house MP for Magwe division in central Burma, told DVB that the army's northwestern command had instead tried to bargain with locals by offering them "joint ventures" on the confiscated land.

He accused the military of roaming around farmlands in his constituency inviting locals via loudspeakers to participate in "joint ventures", despite promising to unconditionally return all unused land in accordance with the law. It is not clear what type of joint deals had been envisioned.

"If they actually plan to give up the land, there is no reason to be proposing these joint ventures," Hla Swe said. "What's happening on the ground is basically far from what the senior military leaders promised."

Hla Swe is a member of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and a government-backed commission set up to investigate land disputes in the former military dictatorship. In March, a commission report revealed that the army has been accused of illegally seizing 247,077 acres of land from farmers across Burma.

The government has promised to return all unused land to its original owners in a bid to placate growing social unrest over land grabs. A 2012 farmland law requires all confiscated land to be returned to their owners within six months if it has not been used. But activists say the military continues to ignore the law.

The government-backed land grab investigation commission has also called on the military to return undeveloped land, or to provide adequate compensation to farmers.

Commission member and lower house representative, Pe Than, from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party in Myebon township, said the union parliament is currently exploring ways to speed up the returns of confiscated land. He told DVB that they have sent a formal request to the government to hasten the process.

"Implementation has been rather slow leading to several issues, including farmers protesting, waging plough wars and clashing with authorities, as well as [farmers] ending up in jail, court trials and bloodshed," said Pe Than.

"These instances lead the public to grow more disappointed and so we are going to hold further discussions with parliament."

Burma has seen a sharp rise in land grabs since reformists President Thein Sein took office in March 2011. Activists warn that large-scale foreign investment is likely to fuel such conflicts, unless the government acts swiftly to implement effective legal remedial measures.

Australia’s pivot on Burma relations

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 04:04 AM PDT

This week Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr is making his second trip to Burma since taking on the country's top diplomatic role in February last year.

During the two-day visit, Senator Carr will engage in bilateral talks with President Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and leading figures from the business community.

Australia's foreign policy has shifted significantly since Senator Carr became foreign minister. All sanctions targeting Burma have been lifted and Australia now has a policy of actively encouraging trade and investment in the former pariah nation.  While the country maintains an arms embargo against Burma, earlier this year Australia eased restrictions on defence co-operation with the country, which includes humanitarian and disaster relief activities and peacekeeping.

In addition to changing Australia's foreign policy on Burma, Senator Carr has influenced others.  He urged the European Union to also lift sanctions and pressed the UN to soften the wording of their annual resolution on Burma.

As Australia talks up the reform process in Burma, the foreign minister has made little mention of the ongoing human rights violations in the country.

But why has Australia decided not to focus on human rights?

Certainly, the new policy is not in step with the realties on the ground in Burma. Hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail, and others are continuing to be arrested and detained.  During the month of June, 17 activists were handed prison sentences, while 70 more are awaiting trail. No political prisoners were released last month, even after President Thein Sein pledged to do so.

Since June 2011, a quarter of a million people have been displaced because of violence, military offensives and sectarian violence. Aid to these communities remains heavily restricted in clear violation of international law.

Women and girls from ethnic groups continue to face sexual violence including rape.  Boys are forcibly recruited into the armed forces as child soldiers.  The military is still conscripting villagers to work as porters.

"This new policy is putting Australia's economic interests ahead of what is in the best interest of the people of Burma"

While the change in Burma has been fast pace, it has not yielded as much reform as it has been credited with. The majority of the population has still not experienced any tangible benefits since the reform process kicked off two years.   Members of the Kachin, Rohingya and Muslim communities are in a more precarious situation now than they were under military rule.

Not so long ago human rights were the primary focus of Australia's foreign policy on Burma, but now business, trade and investment have trumped the government's former goals.

The Australian government seems to believe that foreign investment will alleviate poverty in Burma, while ignoring the fact that unchecked investments might be extremely harmful to millions of men, women and children in the country.

During a recent interview with the AFP, Senator Carr's media advisor Patrick Low remarked: “There are numerous Australian companies interested in investing, particularly in the resource sector. That’s something that we encourage".

Senator Carr has gone on record saying he expects Australian companies investing and operating in Burma to follow the highest international standards. And what safeguards have been put in place to enforce these standards? Only that Australia companies investing in Burma follow the country's domestic laws.

Ministers, advisors and public servants have stridently rebuked any further discussions on the negative impacts foreign investment in Burma could potentially yield.  So unwilling is the Australian Government to engage in this discussion that they have accused individuals who have raised these concerns of defaming Australian companies.

This new policy is putting Australia's economic interests ahead of what is in the best interest of the people of Burma, while dismissing human rights as a low priority on the country's foreign policy agenda.

Sadly, this is not unique to Burma.  Australia's foreign policy is becoming more and more centred on the country's national interests.  Senator Carr is being short sighted in focusing on trade and investment, rather than pushing a policy that would benefit Burma's citizens, Australia and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.

Zetty Brake is the campaign coordinator at Burma Campaign Australia

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

Ramadan behind bars

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 02:56 AM PDT

Over 100 Muslim Rohingyas staying in the Kanchanaburi immigration centre in Thailand are observing the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

During Ramadan Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until dusk and Thai authorities at the detention centre are helping the people with clean clothes and halal food, saying everyone has the right to their own religion.

The men at the centre illegally arrived in Thailand in January, after fleeing the bloody conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in western Burma's Arakan state in boats.

Their future remains uncertain as they do not know how long they have to stay in the centre’s cramped conditions, or when they will see their families again.

 

Islamic nations press UN over persecution of Muslims in Burma

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:46 AM PDT

Islamic nations on Wednesday called on UN leader Ban Ki-moon to do more to halt the “tyranny” they say Muslims are enduring in Burma.

Religious riots in Buddhist-majority Burma have cast a shadow over heralded political reforms since military rule ended two years ago. Envoys to the UN from Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries say the global body should pressure the Burmese government over the troubles.

“Myanmar (Burma) is having a honeymoon with the world. The only problem is that that honeymoon is being built on the bodies of the Muslim victims in that country,” said Saudi Arabia’s UN ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallemi.

Mouallemi and other ambassadors from OIC members met Ban on Wednesday to demand more action by the United Nations, particularly over Rohingya Muslims.

In March at least 44 people, mainly Muslims, were killed during sectarian strife in central Burma.

Communal unrest last year in the western Arakan state left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.

Roble Olhaye, Djibouti’s UN ambassador and head of the OIC group at UN, called the action against Rohingyas “ethnic cleansing”.

“The Myanmar authorities are failing in taking the necessary measures to stem the violence,” he added at a press conference with Mouallemi.

“What we need from the UN is to have its voice heard loud and clear, being the conscience of the world,” Olhaye said.

Olhaye and Mouallemi said the UN leader had promised to be more vocal about defending Muslims in Burma.

“We called on the secretary general to interfere to make his voice heard more loudly,” said the Saudi envoy. “The most basic human rights and human values are being stepped upon by the current government and by the radical elements within Myanmar.”

Mouallemi said Islamic nations wanted the United Nations and the major powers – particularly the US, Russia, China, European Union and Burma’s neighbors – to speak out against what he called the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingyas.

“I think there is a lot more that the UN can and should do,” he said, adding that Muslim nations would also be speaking with UN Security Council members about Burma.

“Myanmar is trying to open itself to the world, trying to attract attention, investment, engagement by the entire world. It is not enough to simply say that you must have elections and feed the basic structures of democracy.

“There has to be an end to the killing, that is much more basic, there has to be an end to the persecution, to the tyranny that this population is facing,” said Mouallemi.

Ban met on Wednesday with members of the Group of Friends on Myanmar, which includes the United States, China, European and Asian nations to discuss changes in Burma and recent unrest, said a UN spokesman.

The group welcomed peace talks with Kachin rebels, but also “stressed the urgent need for effective action to punish the perpetrators of the violence” in Arakan state and “urgent attention” to issues including Rohingyas citizenship.

Ban “expressed his confidence that Myanmar would continue to make all round progress in strengthening its democratic institutions,” said the spokesman.

Rangoon police arrest Bangladeshi nationals for ‘defaming’ Buddhism

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 01:14 AM PDT

Two Bangladeshi nationals were arrested and hit with charges for defaming the Buddhist religion in Rangoon on Tuesday after they were caught disguising themselves as monks.

Bangladeshi citizens Rjin Barua, 27, and Dulal Barua, 29, had shaved heads and were allegedly wearing monk robs when they checked in at the Polo Guesthouse in the commercial capital, but later changed into normal attire later in the day.

The duo were then arrested by Pabaden township police officials on Tuesday afternoon while wearing civilian garb, according to a post published on the Rangoon police department's Facebook page.

Pabaden township's police commander Aung Naing Myint said the two arrived in Rangoon on a flight from Bangkok and were en route to Malaysia.

According to the official, the suspects are being charged under article 295 of the penal code for defaming the Sasana, while a Muslim couple in Tharkayta township who reportedly arranged their trip will also be prosecuted.

"The [couple] arranged their trips – they flew to Bangkok from Bangladesh and then changed their flight to Rangoon," said Aung Naing Myint.

"We are currently questioning the Muslim couple and they are likely to face human trafficking charges."

The arrests come as sectarian tensions in Burma continue to stew following several rounds of anti-Muslim violence and a resurgent Buddhist nationalist movement calling for a boycott of Islamic businesses and ban against interfaith marriage.

Monks protest Bodhgaya blasts

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 11:15 PM PDT

Hundreds of monks from all over Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and Nepal demonstrated in front of the United Nations building in Bangkok on Wednesday, against bomb blasts at the Mahabodhi Temple in India.

In Sri Lanka, a rally organised by the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist group Bodu Bala Sena, attracted hundreds more monks who protested outside the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

A series of bombs detonated at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodhgaya over the weekend injured two monks, one of whom was Burmese.

The temple is the place where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.

Australian FM meets with Thein Sein to discuss aid, investment

Posted: 10 Jul 2013 09:43 PM PDT

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr met Burma’s reformist leaders Wednesday on a visit aimed at boosting relations with the former junta-ruled nation in reward for sweeping political changes.

Carr discussed investment and aid with President Thein Sein and “offered Australian support” in efforts to end long-running ethnic rebellions in his talks with senior officials in the capital Naypyidaw, according to a spokesman.

“Both parties agreed that there was more to be done in the reconciliation process,” Carr’s media advisor Patrick Low told AFP.

He said talks with Thein Sein focused on raising living standards in the impoverished nation.

Canberra is increasing its development aid for Burma to Aus$100 million (US$90 million) by 2015 – more than double its 2012 level – as it looks to support education in the country.

Australia was one of the first countries to roll back sanctions against the former pariah state last year. The removal of most Western embargoes has resulted in a slew of firms eyeing the resource-rich country.

“There are numerous Australian companies interested in investing, particularly in the resource sector. That’s something that we encourage,” Low told AFP, adding that Woodside, Australia’s biggest energy firm, had already entered the country.

Carr also met opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday for discussions centred on strengthening democratic institutions, Low said.

Since Thein Sein, a former junta general, took over the presidency in 2011 hundreds of political prisoners have been released and Suu Kyi has been elected to parliament.

Tentative peace deals have been agreed with all major ethnic rebel groups, but human rights concerns remain particularly in western Arakan state where communal unrest has killed over 200 people and left tens of thousands of mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims homeless.

President Thein Sein visited Australia in March, becoming Burma’s first head of state to do so since 1974.

At the time Canberra announced an easing of restrictions on defence cooperation including humanitarian and disaster relief activities, as well as peacekeeping, but said its arms embargo would remain.

Carr will end his visit on Thursday in the commercial hub Yangon, where he will discuss efforts to preserve the city’s historic colonial era architecture.
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