AllSBNews: The Irrawaddy Magazine

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

‘Death Highway’ At Center of Burma’s Worsening Traffic Safety
Burma’s Extractive Industries Not Digging Deep Enough with Reforms: Report
A Funeral for ‘the Godfather of Heroin’
Will Burma’s Superhero Save the Nation??…

‘Death Highway’ At Center of Burma’s Worsening Traffic Safety

Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:25 AM PDT

The car of well-known Burmese singer Soe Tay lies along the Rangoon-Naypyidaw-Mandalay highway on Sunday. Click on the box below to see the unconventional warning signs posted along Burma's "death highway." (Photo: The New Light of Myanmar)

In 2005, Burma's junta ordered its military engineers to quickly build a new road that would connect Rangoon with its brand new capital Naypyidaw and with Mandalay, and in 2011 the 366-mile road was completed.

But few funds were invested in safety measures and engineers admit the project was a rush job. As Burma's roads become busier and more dangerous, the new road has emerged as the country's foremost "death highway" with at least 432 crashes resulting 216 deaths in the past four years.

In the past two weeks several serious crashes were reported on the Rangoon-Naypiydaw-Mandalay highway. On Sunday, well-known Burmese singer Soe Tay's car punctured a tire, skid off the road and plunged 5 meter into a gully near Meikhtila Township. The singer sustained severe head injuries and is receiving treatment in Mandalay Hospital. His 22-year-old girlfriend Chaw Chaw died on the spot.

Highway Police Col Nay Win said the fatal accident was one of many tragedies that are taking place on the highway. "We have to deal with several accident cases every day," he said. Between March 2009 and April 2013, there have been 432 accidents, resulting in 216 deaths and 678 injuries, according to data from the Highway Police.

The high number of crashes along the Rangoon-Naypyidaw-Mandalay highway is indicative of a nationwide worsening of Burma's road safety record. As the country's road network expands and the number of cars plying its roads increases, so have the number of traffic deaths and injuries.

In 2012, there were 9,339 traffic accidents leading to 15,720 injuries and 2,653 deaths, according to government figures supplied to the World Health Organization. The numbers represent an almost 100 percent increase in fatalities in Burma since 2005, when there were 1,331 traffic deaths nationwide.

The number of traffic accidents are expected to rise even faster in coming years after the government lifted car import restrictions in October 2011, leading to a surge in car sales in the country.

Currently, the number of average traffic deaths in Burma already stands at 15 per 100,000 peoples, compared to 38 deaths in Thailand. Yet, Thailand owns 16 times more cars than Burma, according to recent auto market research carried out by Deutsche Bank.

The Rangoon-Naypyidaw-Mandalay "death highway" is at the center of the growing tragedy, as the country's most important road connection was poorly funded and quickly built, according to engineers involved in the project.

The former military regime prioritized rapid development of a new highway between Burma's major cities after it began its secret construction of a new capital. Located in central Burma, between Rangoon and Mandalay, Naypyidaw was completed in 2005.

Using forced labor, military engineers pushed through its rapid construction. The Rangoon-Naypyidaw stretch was completed between October 2005 and March 2009, while the part between Naypyidaw to Mandalay was built between July 2008 and December 2011.

The project was plagued by accusations of corruption and a shortage of funds, and was built without any support from multilateral donors such as the Asian Development Bank, which funds high-quality road projects across the region.

Ministry of Construction engineers acknowledge that consequently, road construction left much to be desired — and road safety became a low priority.

Along the highway there a few warning signs, or light reflectors to indicate a bend in the road, while at many places there is no railing along the roadside. Although there are a number of unconventional warning signs that carry messages such as "Life Is A Journey, Complete It" and "Drive With Care, Make Accidents Rare."

"There are weaknesses," Kyi Zaw Myint, Chief Engineer at Public Works Enterprise acknowledged in an interview with The Irrawaddy. "The road's construction was not perfected. Its completion was rushed due to an inadequate time frame."

"This was done because of the immediate need to commute between Rangoon and Naypyidaw, after the previous government moved there," said Kyi Zaw Myint, who oversaw the highway's construction.

Engineers say, however, that this meant that the public has extra responsibility to drive safely on the below-standard highway, adding that accidents are usually due to drivers' carelessness, or because they were speeding or drunk-driving.

Myo Myint, Chief Engineer at Road Maintenance and Upgrading Unit under the Public Works Enterprise, said the road was "incomplete" and that "many needs remain," but he nonetheless placed any responsibility for traffic safety with the public.

"The accidents happened to those who have less knowledge about the road. When something happened, they could not control their speed," he said. "The risk could be reduced if drivers follow safety-driving guidelines."

Some 5,000 passenger busses and cars drive on the road daily, according the Ministry of Construction. Heavier trucks transporting goods are only allowed to travel on the old Rangoon-Mandalay highway.

According to some drivers who use the road regularly, tire punctures caused by the road's concrete surface are a leading cause of accidents. "The concrete road causes flat-tires, especially on hotter days," said Aung Myint Kyaw, a taxi driver.

The engineers said they are taking some provisional measures to improve road safety. "Now, we are working to find a way to make it a safe road with less cost," said Myo Myint. "We are conducting a survey of the needs for repairs together with foreign specialists."

Engineers said that government hopes attract international donor funding to upgrade the road and widen it to eight lanes in the coming years.

The US government announced during President Thein Sein's trip to Washington in May that it would allocate some donor funding to improve the Rangoon-Naypyidaw-Mandalay highway.

Burma’s Extractive Industries Not Digging Deep Enough with Reforms: Report

Posted: 17 Jul 2013 05:48 AM PDT

Wong Aung, left, the coordinator of the Shwe Gas Movement, speaks during a press conference launching his group's report, 'Good Governance and the Extractive Industry in Burma,' in Rangoon on Wednesday. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's extractive industries remain plagued by transparency and governance shortcomings, a watchdog said on Wednesday as it released a report attempting to dampen the hype that has surrounded the country's opening up to foreign investment after decades of isolation and economic stagnation.

The report by the Shwe Gas Movement pummeled the existing regulatory regime as woefully inadequate to address the social and environmental concerns facing Burma as its resource bounty is put up for auction, and said that pending major policy changes, further extractive projects "should be put to a halt."

With Burma's large untapped oil and natural gas reserves—and a new foreign investment law that has welcomed firms from abroad—the Shwe Gas Movement urged policy makers to handle newfound interest in the sector responsibly.

"Despite taking superficial steps towards reform, encounters with local populations show that little substantial change in terms of extensive environmental degradation, human rights, and government transparency is actually being witnessed on the ground," the report said.

The group urged an overhaul of Burma's legal and regulatory frameworks, including amending the 2008 Constitution to enshrine guarantees on freedom of expression and assembly.

A law forbidding unregistered protests was used in April to arrest and charge 10 people in Arakan State who were speaking out against the Shwe oil and gas pipelines, a project that served as the impetus for the Shwe Gas Movement's founding. That law, and others that have been used in Burma to stifle dissent, hamper the ability of affected communities to have a say in resource extraction issues, the watchdog said in the report.

Many of the proposed reforms would require engagement from Parliament and the administration of President Thein Sein. Wong Aung, coordinator for the Shwe Gas Movement, said he thought most lawmakers saw the need for the changes recommended in the report, but were not collaborating sufficiently with many of those most affected by the country's troubled extractive industries.

"They need to engage more with the various stakeholders like the ethnic communities, ethnic leaders and other political stakeholders in various parts of the nation," he told The Irrawaddy. "It's really important."

Ethnic communities concentrated in Burma's border areas are often disproportionately affected by extractive practices, because most of the country's remaining natural resources are also located on the fringes of the country. Wong Aung said a desire to secure access to those resources was one factor driving a government push to reach ceasefire agreements with armed rebel ethnic groups nationwide.

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (EIA/SIA), mandatory in many countries before any project with potential effects on people or the environment is undertaken, are not required under Burmese law. Legislation containing mandatory assessments may be enacted "in the near future," Wong Aung said, but added that he worried the law might not contain strong enough provisions on public disclosure of EIA/SIA findings.

Another recommendation made by the report advises that Burma join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global standard on transparency in the sector that Thein Sein says his government is actively working to join.

The Shwe Gas Movement said Wednesday that despite the president's stated EITI ambitions, the sector remains far from meeting the initiative's governance and regulatory requirements.

The opacity of accounting for resource revenues has helped foster military entrenchment in the extractive industries, according to the report. It pointed to state-owned Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE) as a primary vehicle through which revenues end up in the military's pockets.

In May, Revenue Watch Institute ranked Burma dead last among 58 nations evaluated for resource governance, receiving an average score of just four out of 100 across four aspects of the industry assessed.

Burma's natural resource endowment is substantial, including more than 8.1 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and nearly 490 million tons of estimated coal reserves, according to a June report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the consultancy Accenture. The country has 37 oil blocks in operation, with 66 more having been offered up over the last two years, the ADB report said.

Last year Burma's government took in US$3.5 billion in natural gas exports alone, and that revenue is expected to grow in the coming years.

Shwe Gas Movement was formed in response to work on the dual Shwe oil and gas pipelines in Arakan State. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been widely criticized for its handling of the project, accused of forced evictions, inadequate compensation and environmental degradation as it laid the 800-km pipeline, which passes through 21 townships across Burma before terminating in China's Yunnan Province.

The pipelines have already been constructed and are now undergoing testing, but Wong Aung said oil and gas was not expected to start flowing from the Bay of Bengal until early next year because work on the Chinese side of the border remained.

Chinese companies are the largest investors in Burma's extractive industries, and their operations have frequently faced protests from local communities. As public discontent has mounted, Chinese executives have sought to assuage the concerns, with some implementing social programs in Burma that have included the provision of schools and medical facilities. Representatives from Chinese companies and the government held a press conference earlier this month at the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon, where they sought to convey their work in the country as mutually advantageous.

"The current Chinese investments in Burma are very important investments for the two countries—these are very beneficial for the development of the countries," China's Economic and Commercial Counselor Jin Honggen said.

This week Burma's government said the Chinese firm Wanbao would renegotiate its contract for the controversial Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Division, with a new deal—which has not yet been signed—giving the government a 51 percent share of profits from the venture. The government receives no share of profits under the current contract, which splits earnings between Wanbao and the Burmese military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL).

Gao Mingbo, a Chinese Embassy spokesman, told The Irrawaddy that "the Chinese side keeps close contact with the Myanmar side regarding the implementation of bilateral projects."

"The Embassy has always asked the Chinese companies to strictly follow relevant laws and regulations in Myanmar," he wrote in an e-mail. "On the other hand, we are happy to see that the Chinese companies have over the past few years stepped up their efforts to fulfill their social responsibilities.

"We would also like to see further outreach efforts by relevant companies to better engage the local community so that the Myanmar public will have a more comprehensive understanding of the win-win cooperation projects between our two countries."

A Funeral for ‘the Godfather of Heroin’

Posted: 17 Jul 2013 04:58 AM PDT

A procession of cars drives to the cemetery for Lo Hsing Han's funeral. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON—Myint Aung is building a tombstone for Lo Hsing Han, a notorious Burmese crony—dubbed the "godfather of heroin" by the US government—who died earlier this month after decades as a global drug trafficker.

On the day of the funeral on Wednesday, at about 2 pm, Myint Aung and other laborers at a cemetery in Rangoon are busy at work on the tombstone after the ethnic Kokang drug kingpin has been laid to rest in his grave.

"The only thing I knew about him was that he was a rich man from Asia World," Myint Aung says, referring to a conglomerate founded by Lo Hsing Han's son, allegedly as a front for their drug trade business. The conglomerate gave 3,000 kyats (US$3) to the dozen or so workers hired to prepare the tombstone, Myint Aung adds.

Lo Hsing Han died of heart failure at his home in Rangoon on July 6, and thousands of people attended his traditional Chinese funeral on Wednesday.

Before driving to the cemetery, dozens of relatives in white clothes gathered at his home, where they walked around his coffin to pray and pay their last respects.

Friends of the family were allowed inside the large Rangoon home but reporters were barred, taking photos when they could along the road and at the cemetery.

One video reporter was grabbed by security when he attempted to film inside the house, while police officers were deployed along the street.

Lo Hsing Han's wife, Zhang Pengshin, was absent at the funeral, reportedly due to an illness. Many of the drug king's children refused to speak with reporters.

Lo Hsing Han was born on Sept. 25, 1935 in Kokang region of Burma's Shan State, an area populated by a Han Chinese ethnic group known as the Kokang.

He became the leader of Kokang home-guard militia in 1962, according to the Shan Herald Agency for News, and later fought against the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). He and his family had a close relationship with Burma's former military junta.

Hao Xao Chan, a lawmaker from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), attended the funeral.

"He was my teacher," said the Upper House lawmaker. "I was very sad for his death. I took one day off from Parliament to come here because I wanted to show my condolences."

A 50-year-old man from Lashio Township, Shan State, said, "About 300 members of our cultural organization from Lashio came here. We wanted the family to know we're mourning."

A woman from China's Yunnan Province also attended. “He had a good mind and was rich, but he was No. 4 on the world's 'most wanted' list," she said.

Lo Hsing Han amassed a fortune in the early 1970s during the Burmese military regime as a leading figure in Burma's notoriously rampant drug trade. His narcotics empire included lucrative opium production in Kokang.

He was arrested by Thai authorities and extradited to Burma after crossing into northern Thailand in 1973, during a period in which he went underground and teamed up with the Shan State Army, an ethnic Shan rebel group. He was later freed, in 1980, in a general amnesty.

Following his release, Lo Hsing Han returned to Lashio, where he built up a new militia force under a government-backed paramilitary force.

He and his son Steven Law were put on the US sanctions lists in February 2008, along with their companies Asia World, Asia World Port Management, Asia World Industries Ltd and Asia World Light Ltd.

For decades, Lo Hsing Han was considered one of the world's biggest traffickers of heroin and was slapped with financial sanctions for allegedly helping prop up Burma's brutal former military junta through illegal business dealings.

He is survived by a wife, four sons, four daughters and 16 grandchildren.

Will Burma’s Superhero Save the Nation??…

Posted: 17 Jul 2013 03:27 AM PDT