Friday, July 19, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

UN Plans to Expand Arakan Aid to Thousands of Villagers

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:36 AM PDT

A child uses a World Food Program bag to shelter from the rain at Bawdupha camp for internally displaced Rohingya Muslims, near Sittwe, Arakan State. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The UN announced that it plans to expand aid operations in Arakan State to another 36,000 people in 113 isolated villages.

These communities, which are most Rohingya Muslim, have seen their livelihoods destroyed by inter-communal conflict, while government security measures have restricted their access to healthcare and other basic services.

The new UN aid plan, however, does not include support measures for Aung Mingalar, the isolated Muslim neighborhood in Sittwe town where authorities are confining some 6,500 people.

The proposed aid measures, which are yet to be formally endorsed by the Burma government, would raise the total number of UN aid recipients in Arakan to 176,000 people.

So far, the UN response in Arakan has focused on 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, who are living in crowded camps in the countryside. They were displaced by last year's violence between Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) released on Thursday said a recent joint mapping exercise by aid organizations had identified 113 villages that also required support.

"A year after the violence, many people in villages are now isolated, with no or very limited access to basic services, including markets, education and health care. Many have suffered trauma and require support," the report said. "This is due to continued restrictions on movement, ongoing tensions and no return options."

The plan also seeks to address the needs of the approximately 20,000 children in Arakan who have missed one year of schooling. The UN plans to set up temporary learning facilities for 12,000 children living in camps.

UNOCHA said it would cost US $80 million to implement the revised 2012-2013 response plan, adding that a $10 million funding gap remains.

A UN official, who asked not be named, said UNOCHA had kept the government informed on its revised aid plan but authorities have yet to formally endorse the measures.

Asked if the isolated Muslim neighborhood in Sittwe town would receive aid under the new plan, the official said, "We could not find it in the list… We are trying to find out why this data has not come through."

Security forces surround Aung Mingalar, a quarter in the town's old center, and its approximately 6,500 inhabitants cannot leave. Authorities have restricted food and medical aid deliveries to the Muslim ghetto, even though it lacks health care facilities.

The government has also imposed travel restrictions on the isolated Rohingya villagers and the displaced living in camps. Authorities have so far limited UN aid deliveries to Muslim villages.

Burma's government appears to have taken the measures with the aim of reinforcing the Rohingya's statelessness. It has also been accused of supporting of the Buddhist majority in its attacks on Muslims.

The measures have been criticized by human rights groups and international aid organizations, such as Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The groups say the restrictions violate basic human rights, such as freedom of movement and access to health care.

On Friday, MSF welcomed the new UN plan to expand aid coverage to isolated villages, saying it was a step in the right direction.

"It’s recognition that the affected population is wider than the [displaced] population. People in these locations have also lost access to services like health facilities, food markets, their fields and sometimes even clean water," said Peter Paul de Groote,MSF Head of Mission in Burma.

MSF has repeatedly complained that government restrictions are constraining its medical aid work. Currently, its mobile health clinics are only allowed to visit Sittwe's Muslim quarter twice a week.

De Groote urged the government to lift all "restrictions on freedom of movement for both humanitarian workers and communities."

"What we have seen shows that current policies … are having a detrimental impact on people’s health. This includes TB patients unable to access the treatment they need to stay alive, and pregnant women dying unnecessarily because they have nowhere safe to deliver," he wrote in an email.

Shwe Maung, a parliamentarian with the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, welcomed the UN plan, saying that the isolated Muslim villages had long been in desperate need of support.

"In the isolated villages it's worse than in the displaced people camps because they can't even get regular food rations," said Shwe Maung, who represents the Muslim-majority Maungdaw Township in northern Arakan State.

However, Arakanese nationalist politicians, who are influential in the state, said in a reaction that an increase in security forces — and not an increase in UN aid — would improve the livelihoods of those affected by the conflict.

"Security is more important than international aid," claimed Khin Maung Gree, a central committee member of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP), which supports the Buddhist community. "If the villagers have good security they could easily go back to their work."

Activist Bauk Ja Arrests for Negligent Homicide

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:21 AM PDT

Land rights activist Bawk Ja at the press conference in Rangoon on Friday. (Photo: Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy)

Bauk Ja, an ethnic Kachin activist and member of the National Democratic Force political party, was arrested on Thursday by police in Myitkyina, Kachin State, where she has been accused of negligent homicide on charges that her party says are politically motivated.

She is charged under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code, causing death by negligence. She is also charged with two counts under the Medical Council Act: Section 41, for possession of medical equipment not registered with the Medical Council, and Section 33, illegal possession of medicine.

Two police officials and a Karmine Township resident will serve as plaintiffs in the case, according to Bauk Ja's lawyer, Myint Thwin.

Myint Thwin told The Irrawaddy that the charges leveled were based on an incident more than a year ago.

"Bauk Ja was treating sick villagers where there are no physicians available with the medicine," Myint Thwin said of the activist, whose siblings are a nurse and physician. "There was a person who died, reportedly from her treatment, over a year ago. For that case, she is now accused."

Bauk Ja will appear before the Hpakant Township court on Tuesday. Her lawyer said if found guilty, she could be sentenced to seven to 10 years' imprisonment under Section 304(a) alone.

Moe Kyaw, an NDF organizer in Mokaung Township, told The Irrawaddy that Bauk Ja was arrested at their NDF office in Myitkyina and was later transferred from the local police station to two others, first in Mokaung and then on to Hpakant.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Moe Kyaw said Bauk Ja will stand trial in Hpakant Township.

Khin Maung Swe, the head of the NDF, said the party would help Bauk Ja mount the best defense possible, with the NDF leader hinting at potential political motivations for the prosecution.

"This case [the villager's death] happened before the election and she was accused once over a year ago. But the plaintiff had already closed the case. Our lawyer U Myint Thwin is now representing her."

He said he would send letters of protest to Union ministers as well as the Kachin State chief minister, if necessary.

Moe Kyaw said they are not being told about the reason she has been detained.

When contacted by The Irrawaddy, Hpakant Township police and a township administration official confirmed the arrest, but did not elaborate on the details surrounding her detention.

Bauk Ja contested the 2010 general election, representing Hpakant Township for the NDF. She lost the bid to former Northern Regional Commander Ohn Myint from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and lodged a complaint with the elections court alleging electoral fraud. Ohn Myint is now the minister of cooperatives

Bauk Ja again tried to contest the seat in the April 2012 by-elections, but her would-be constituency was among three seats withdrawn from contention by the government following renewed fighting between the Kachin Independent Army (KIA) and the Burmese military.

Bauk Ja is also an activist who represents farmers whose lands were confiscated by the Yuzana Company, led by current parliamentarian Htay Myint.

Together with the comedian Zarganar and Khin Than Myint from the National League for Democracy (NLD), Bauk Ja met with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, DC, in February 2012, on a visit sponsored by the US-based National Endowment for Democracy.

Kachin Farmer Brang Shawng Imprisoned 2 Years

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 08:11 AM PDT

Brang Shawng, far left, stands in front of Janmai Kaung Baptist Church in December 2011. (Photo: Hkamung Pan / The Irrawaddy)

Just three days after Burma's President Thein Sein pledged to release all remaining political prisoners by the end of the year, a farmer with great public support in Kachin State was sentenced to two years in prison under the Unlawful Associations Act.

Lahtaw Brang Shawng was on Thursday found guilty after the government accused him of connections to the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), an ethnic rebel group that is engaging in peace talks with the government after decades of civil war.

The farmer—who was accused of participating in a bomb plot and being a soldier for the KIO's armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)—was living at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) when he was arrested in June last year. Other residents at the camp and people in the north Burma state say he had no connections to the rebel groups and was merely an ordinary civilian seeking shelter from the fighting.

The final verdict on Thursday—which was delayed for several weeks—came after Thein Sein vowed on Monday to release all remaining political prisoners by the year's end. It also followed recent assurances by the government that the KIO would be removed from its list of illegal associations and that Brang Shawng would be released from custody.

The decision by the township court in Myitkyina, the state capital, drew criticism from the public, who have for months petitioned the government to release the farmer, who was denied bail after his trial began last year.

"The court's verdict for an ordinary IDP is worrying," said Aung Myat, a priest at the Janmai Kaung Baptist camp, where the farmer lived before his arrest. "Every innocent refugee in Janmai Kaung camp is worried about what this means for them."

Defense lawyer Mar Khar said his client did not receive a fair trial. "The judge didn't make a decision based on my arguments—the verdict was already decided," he told The Irrawaddy.

Brang Shawng was taken away by security shortly after the decision was read in court.

"They didn't let me talk to him," said his wife, Ze Nyoi. "They took him away in their vehicle and there's been no news of his whereabouts."

"I worry about him because we cannot contact each other," she added. "I learned that he was not sent to prison. I'm so worried that I cannot even eat."

It has been nearly two months since the government's main peace negotiator, Minister Aung Min, said Brang Shawng would be released within a week. During a meeting with the internally displaced Kachin people at the end of May, the minister said the government would remove the KIO from its list of illegal associations and that Kachin detainees being held under the Unlawful Associations Act, including Brang Shawng, would be freed.

Brang Shawng, 25, a father of two children, was arrested last year at the Janmai Kaung camp in government-controlled Myitkyina Township. His family was taking shelter at the camp amid fighting between the KIA and the government's army, after a ceasefire between both sides broke down in 2011.

His family and lawyer say he was forced to confess during a brutal round of interrogation the month he was arrested. Soon after that, his trial began and he was charged under Section 17 (1) of the Unlawful Associations Act.

In Kachin State, 76 people have been accused of violating the act since fighting resumed in 2011. Sixteen cases are still pending, although clashes have died down since the resumption of ceasefire talks in February this year.

The highly criticized act was used by the former military regime to detain dissidents who communicated with exile organizations and ethnic rebel groups. The law has come into question since Burma's nominally civilian government has signed ceasefire agreements with most major ethnic armed groups, with critics saying the law threatens to invalidate the government's peace process and communication with those groups.

Burma Campaign UK released a statement on Friday calling for the "immediate unconditional release" of Brang Shawng and condemning the government for being inconsistent with its promises.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK 10

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:53 AM PDT

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Burma President Says Not Preparing Himself for 2015 Election

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 07:41 AM PDT

French President Francois Hollande, left, shakes hand with Burma's President Thein Sein as he arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on July 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

PARIS — Burma President Thein Sein is not preparing himself at the moment to contest the 2015 presidential election and has "no objections" to Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi running, he said in an interview aired on Friday.

Thein Sein was speaking to France 24 television after the former military leader had completed a visit to London and Paris as part of a tour aimed at securing Western aid to help his country emerge from decades of dictatorship.

"As of now, I have not prepared myself to run for the 2015 presidential election," he said, through an interpreter.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited the former military dictatorship last year, has pressed Thein Sein to ensure the Constitution is changed to allow opposition leader Suu Kyi to contest the election.

A year ago, Suu Kyi was feted at home and abroad, flush from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's landslide wins in April 2012 by-elections, which swept her into Parliament.

But to emerge as president after the election, Suu Kyi, 68, must convince the military-dominated Parliament to amend the Constitution, which now bars from the presidency anyone married to a foreigner or who has children who are foreign citizens.

Suu Kyi and her late husband, British academic Michael Aris, had two children who are British.

Thein Sein said the Constitution was amendable, but added it was up to lawmakers to decide on amendments and if needed the provisions required would have to be put to a referendum.

"As far as her candidacy is concerned I have no objections," he said.

Western leaders have praised Thein Sein for ending Suu Kyi's house arrest and other reforms but want him to loosen the military's grip further.

Ethnic Cleansing

Even if the Constitution were amended in time, Suu Kyi could then face a voter backlash over her position on a violent and widening rift between Burma's Buddhist majority and its minority Muslims.

Her rare public expressions of support for Muslims, who have borne the brunt of waves of sectarian violence, have put her in a politically fraught position.

Thein Sein said on Sunday that he had disbanded a security force accused of rights violations against the Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State in the west of Burma.

He dismissed accusations of ethnic cleansing.

"This is not ethnic cleansing," he said. "Outside elements are just exaggerating and fabricating news. The government has been able to contain this communal violence and things have returned to normal."

He has already freed some political prisoners and earlier in the week he promised to free all those remaining by the end of this year, saying a special committee was tackling the backlog.

Thein Sein told France 24 there were fewer than 100 political prisoners left in jail.

In Burma, a Day for Fallen Heroes Is Resurrected

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 06:54 AM PDT

Children hold roses to be laid out at Aung San's mausoleum in Rangoon on Martyrs' Day. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON—At a park here in Burma's biggest city, a standing bronze statue of the country's national hero, Gen Aung San, rarely draws visitors on ordinary days.

But on Friday, hundreds of young people gathered at the statue to honor the late general and his comrades—who were gunned down by a political rival exactly 66 years ago—in an act of commemoration that would have been prohibited before the country's quasi-civilian government came to power in 2011.

One of Burma's most important holidays, Martyrs' Day, is marked each year on July 19, but such public displays of celebration were long forbidden by the country's former military rulers, who sought to discredit Aung San—the father of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi—and his contribution to Burmese society.

"July 19 is the day we lost our leaders, and since then our country has experienced great suffering," said Thurein, a Rangoon-based activist from Generation Wave, one of 30 youth networks gathered at the statue.

"We are here to take a lesson from what happened to them," he added.

Martyrs' Day was commemorated with a state-level ceremony for the first time last year, a practice that was repeated again this year with Vice President Dr Sai Mauk Kham and other high officials in attendance. The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper published an editorial on Friday entitled "Saluting Our Fallen Leaders," while the front pages of other state-run dailies were filled with photographs of the fallen national heroes and an excerpt from Aung San's 1947 speech to the public in Rangoon.

The annual holiday is a day for mourning in Burma, marking the anniversary of the assassination of Aung San and eight of his comrades in 1947, shortly before the country achieved independence from British rule the next year.

After the assassination, the Burmese government decreed that July 19 would become a national holiday, and for years thousands of Burmese would take the occasion to pay their respects at the fallen leaders' mausoleum in Rangoon.

Following the 1988 popular uprising, the then-military junta downgraded the ceremony and declared that the mausoleum would be off-limits for ordinary people, fearing that a public gathering at the burial site would spark more unrest.

Thereafter, the only visible commemoration on July 19 was the state flag flying at half-mast. Children born after 1988 never heard a siren wail at 10:37 am, an old tradition to mark the exact time the leaders were assassinated.

But since reformist President Thein Sein took office two years ago, the decades-long Martyrs' Day tradition seems to have been resurrected. The quasi-civilian government has also allowed some public tributes at the mausoleum, albeit with restrictions: No cell phones, cameras or bags of any kind were allowed at the site.

Since late morning on Friday, lines of people—including monks, schoolchildren and political party members—could be seen forming at the entrance of the mausoleum. When the clock struck 10:37, a siren blared from a public address system set up on the roof of a car near the park. Everyone in the vicinity bowed down for one minute in honor of the fallen leaders, while vehicles out on the roads honked their horns to mark the mournful moment.

A small number of people also gathered at the entrance of the Secretariat building, the site of the assassination, although they were not permitted to go inside.

Among the group was Yumon Kyaw, who said she and the others passed yellow and red roses to security guards at the door to put at a Buddhist shrine in a room inside where Aung San and his comrades were gunned down.

"We brought flowers here today, because our leaders died here," she said.

All Quiet on the Wa Front?

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 03:12 AM PDT

The United Wa State Army on parade in Wa State (Photo: SYCB)

Although open conflict between Myanmar’s central government and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the country’s largest ethnic armed group, appears unlikely in the immediate future, Naypyitaw and the UWSA may be on a collision course over the latter’s push for a separate and autonomous (but not independent) state.

That demand, stemming from unhappiness over the fact that large parts of UWSA territory are not recognized as such under Myanmar's 2008 Constitution, is just the latest source of tension between Naypyitaw and the Wa, who worry that they could be next in line for a Tatmadaw offensive, amid ongoing clashes between Myanmar's armed forces and other armed ethnic groups in the region.

"The relationship between the UWSA and the central government is not what it used to be," says veteran journalist Bertil Lintner, author of several books on Myanmar, referring to the cordial relations that existed between the UWSA and Myanmar's former military rulers in the wake of the collapse of the Burmese Communist Party (BCP) in 1989.

A mutiny that year by the BCP's rank-and-file — mostly ethnic Wa — against their predominantly Burman leaders resulted in the formation of the UWSA, which soon signed a ceasefire that granted it a high degree of autonomy. That agreement — which freed the Tatmadaw to concentrate its energies on containing insurgencies elsewhere — faced few serious strains until junta intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt was purged in 2004.

Relations have not really recovered since then, and have only deteriorated further in the two years since Myanmar made the transition to quasi-civilian rule, as a series of army offensives in the northern part of the country have brought renewed conflict to areas where, for most of the past two decades, an uneasy peace prevailed.

Although the fighting has so far most directly affected the Kachin and the Shan insurgent armies operating to the north and west of the UWSA's main territory, centered at Panghsang on Myanmar's border with China, clashes have come precariously close to the UWSA's doorstep. That, says Lintner, is probably why the UWSA came to the aid of the Shan State Army-North several months ago to defend Loi Lan, a mountain that overlooks an important ferry crossing on the Thanlwin River seen as the "gateway to Panghsang."

For the most part, however, the UWSA has avoided direct confrontation with Myanmar's army. Even the 2009 Tatmadaw offensive against the Myanmar National Democracy Alliance Army (MNDAA) only briefly drew in the UWSA, despite the close ties between the two former BCP factions.

If the UWSA has been reluctant to go head-to-head with the Tatmadaw, it isn't because it fears it can't hold its own on the battlefield. As the largest group to emerge from the ashes of the BCP, it inherited most of the former communist army's military hardware, including heavy artillery and gun factories. It is also estimated to have at least 20,000 troops, giving it a standing army larger than that of some European countries.

Where the UWSA is vulnerable, however, is in its relations with the world beyond Myanmar's borders. Of all the country's ethnic insurgent armies, the UWSA is the one most closely associated with the international drug trade. In January 2005, for instance, a grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, indicted eight of the UWSA's top leaders, including its chief Bao Youxiang, on charges of heroin and amphetamine trafficking. The US government has also made no secret of its desire to prosecute Wa leaders for their involvement in one of the world's most notorious narcotics operations.

Human rights groups have also had the UWSA in their sights for its forced mass relocation, between 1999 and 2002, of some 120,000 ethnic Wa villagers to an area along the Thai-Myanmar border — a process that also saw tens of thousands of Shan, Akha and Lahu pushed into northern Thailand to make way for the new arrivals. According to a 2005 report by New York-based Human Rights Watch, many died of hunger and other hardships because of the move. More recent reports by aid workers who have made clandestine visits to the area suggest that not much has improved in the decade since the move was completed.

It's unclear exactly why the UWSA inflicted this ordeal on its own people, although it's known that Myanmar's former military regime encouraged the move as a way to counter the Shan State Army-South, then a non-ceasefire group that also fought the UWSA as recently as 2005. An even stronger motivating factor, however, may have been the UWSA's desire to gain better access to its chief export market for methamphetamines, Thailand.

These days, however, the group adamantly denies that it is still in the drug business. "We, the UWSA, are wholeheartedly engaged in the fight against drug-dealing," the group's spokesperson, Aung Myint, recently told The Irrawaddy. "For seven years since 2005, there have been no poppy fields and no poppy plants in our region. This has finished. That’s why the world should recognize us," he added.

But while much of the world continues to vilify the UWSA, the group is not completely without friends in foreign lands. In recent months, China has stepped up its efforts to reach out to the Wa leadership, even—if a report published by Jane's Defence Weekly in late April is correct — adding substantially to the UWSA's arsenal with the delivery earlier this year of several medium-transport helicopters armed with air-to-air missiles.

Although the UWSA and the Chinese embassy in Yangon both deny that the UWSA has received weapons from China, there is little doubt that Beijing —which once backed the BCP's struggle against Myanmar's central government — is keen to put its relationship with the UWSA on a firmer footing, for complex reasons.

One is that China has a strong interest in maintaining the status quo. "The Chinese don’t want another war on its borders," says Lintner, noting that previous Tatmadaw offensives — against the MNDAA in 2009 and the Kachin Independence Army since June 2011 — sent thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into Yunnan Province.

Adding to Beijing's nervousness about border stability is the poor health of UWSA leader Bao Youxiang, who has reportedly been suffering for years from a neurological illness related to eating uncooked meat. His death and the inevitable change in leadership will likely have a significant impact on how the group responds to pressure from Myanmar's government.

But Beijing may also have other reasons for cozying up to the Wa. According to Lintner, "China, by arming the UWSA, is sending a strong message to Naypyitaw: ‘We are here, we are your neighbors, and we have the means to put pressure on you — so don’t play footsies with the Americans.'"

Lintner doubts, however, that China is interested in girding the UWSA for battle against the Tatmadaw — something that would not serve Beijing's strategic interests in the country. "The arms shipments are meant as a deterrent, a show of force, not to be used in combat with the [Myanmar] army," says Lintner.

While the UWSA leadership is undeniably close to China, however, those who know the Wa say they remain staunchly independent in their outlook. Aung Kyaw Zaw, the son of the late general turned BCP politburo member Kyaw Zaw, stayed with his Wa comrades for two years after his father and other Myanmar communist leaders fled into exile in China, giving him a unique insight into the thinking of the reclusive UWSA leadership.

Chinese may be the most prevalent language now spoken in the UWSA-administered area, and local rubber plantations and mining concessions may be run by Chinese businessmen, but the Wa do not see themselves as being beholden to the Chinese, says Aung Kyaw Zaw.

Instead, the Wa seem more determined than ever to stake a permanent claim to their own homeland. "We have our own people, language, traditions, culture and region. That’s why we don’t want to stay under Shan State," says Aung Myint.

After more than two decades of de facto self-determination, the UWSA may feel that it's ready for the real thing. Whether Naypyitaw agrees, however, is another matter. And if the Tatmadaw (which still has the ultimate say in these matters) decides it's time to settle the issue once and for all, the UWSA may finally have a chance to put its much talked about, but rarely seen, arsenal to the test.

This story first appeared in the July 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

Wealthy Burmese Shun Rangoon’s Property Boom to Invest in London

Posted: 19 Jul 2013 02:56 AM PDT

People walk past a colonial-era building that is under repair in central Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

Burma's richest citizens are taking their money out of the country and investing in upmarket property in London.

While foreign investors queue to get into Asia's so-called "last economic frontier," millions of dollars are flowing out and into bricks and mortar in the capital of the former colonial rulers, a survey has disclosed.

The volume of investment in London and elsewhere in Britain by Burmese in the 12 months or so is equal to that made by the wealthy of Hong Kong and Switzerland, said the survey published by PrimeResi, a journal covering the top-end of the UK residential property sector.

"Buyers from Burma accounted for just shy of 1% of all £2million-plus (US$3 million) properties bought in the UK in the 12 months to April 2013. That's in the same range as buyers from Switzerland and Hong Kong," said the journal, citing research carried out by London-based global real estate consultancy Knight Frank in its latest "Wealth Report."

The potential for Burmese investing in London is so great that British property adviser LondonDom is this month opening an office in Rangoon.

LondonDom's managing director George Shishkovsky told PrimeResi, "Our initial market research shows that there is a roughly 50-50 split in interest between new build and period properties with budgets between £500,000 and £2.5 million ($761,000 to $3.8 million).

"Some [Burmese] are interested in family houses outside of central London. Education in the UK is a big magnet to wealthy Burmese. Lots of them have strong links with Britain since colonial times."

The international editor of Singapore-based property website Property Guru, Andrew Batt, said Asians in general view London as a safe haven for their money.

"I think with London and people from [Burma] there is also a cultural link, the historical link, and also a lot of Asians are buying in London for educational reasons. They want to send their children to school and university in the UK," he said.

London-based global real estate consultancy Knight Frank, which compiled the "Wealth Report," defines an HNWI, or a high-net-worth individual, as someone with assets of $30 million or more.

It claims in its latest report that Burma had 39 HNWIs in 2012, but forecasts that this will mushroom to over 300 people within 10 years.

"Expect HNWIs from frontier markets like Myanmar and Sri Lanka to become more prominent as they seek safe havens for their newfound wealth to mitigate the risk of renewed political tensions at home," said Sudhir Vadaketh of the Economist Intelligence Unit in Asia.

"Certainly our enquiry levels for advice have increased dramatically from new Burmese clients. In addition to the normal requirements [such as] what yield they can achieve, they place great importance on capital preservation," said Benham and Reeves Residential Lettings in London, as quoted by PrimeResi journal.

"While we do not actually handle sales we are being asked for an unusually high level of information on where we think the market will go in these areas. Our enquiries have been for investment and none for owner occupied."

Ironically, a large US property firm, Colliers International, is establishing an office in Rangoon to advise foreigners on investing in Burma's property market.

"We see huge potential in the country with many of our clients seeking new opportunities in what is, arguably, the last major frontier market in the region," said Colliers chief executive Pier Brunner. "It is important for us to have the operation in place to assist our clients, as they expand their business or real estate portfolio in [Burma]."

And Batt said major London property agent Savills has also announced plans to open an office in Burma.

"The fact that we are seeing these offices opening in Rangoon shows that there is potential for more growth" in London investments, he said.

"We are going to see a lot more overseas developers and agents looking at Burma as a potential source of income."

Land and property prices in Burma's big cities, especially Rangoon, are rocketing.

The price of the best-located office properties in Rangoon have increased 150 percent in the past year, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, and at $106 per square foot, is nearly double rates in parts of New York's Manhattan district, the newspaper said.

"Commercial real estate is booming in [Rangoon] as foreign companies respond to economic and political reforms by setting up shop in the Southeast Asian nation," said Leopard Capital this month. "Top-end office spaces in the city are commanding rents higher than anywhere in Asia with the exception of Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, and numerous skyscrapers are in development to meet the rapidly increasing demand."

But clearly for some wealthy Burmese, now free of the constraints of the economic sections recently lifted by Britain and other European countries, London is regarded as a better bet than Rangoon.

2 Malaysians Charged Over Photo That Riled Muslims

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:19 PM PDT

A man reads Koran at a mosque in Dengkil outside Kuala Lumpur in August last year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Photo: Reuters)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Prosecutors on Thursday charged two Malaysians with sedition and inciting religious enmity after they posted a photograph on Facebook considered an insult to the Muslim holy month of fasting.

They face up to eight years in prison if convicted of both charges in the Muslim-majority nation.

Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee, both ethnic Chinese non-Muslims in their 20s, drew criticism when they uploaded a photograph of themselves earlier this month eating pork stew while conveying greetings to Muslims for the current fasting month of Ramadan. Pork is forbidden for Muslims.

Tan and Lee had indicated last week that the photo was meant to be humorous.

Both pleaded not guilty Thursday in a Kuala Lumpur court, which refused to allow them to remain free on bail ahead of their trial.

Malaysia's attorney general, Abdul Gani Patail, said in a statement that authorities want them detained because "they have the potential to upload content that could stir public anger." They were expected to be placed in separate prisons ahead of a preliminary hearing Aug. 24 to schedule trial dates.

Sedition as defined by Malaysian law includes spreading ill will among people of different races. Ethnic Malay Muslims comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 29 million people. Ethnic Chinese, who are nearly a quarter of the population, constitute the main minority community, mainly Buddhists and Christians.

Abdul Gani said a man was abducted and beaten up by a group of men this week in a case that was believed to be linked to the photo of Tan and Lee. He did not elaborate, but Malaysian media reports have said the incident involved an ethnic Chinese man who was stripped and eventually set free after his assailants scrawled Malay-language words translated as "I insulted the religion of Islam" with ink on his chest.

Racial and religious issues sometimes cause tensions in Malaysia, though ethnic violence is rare. Separately this month, some Muslim activists urged authorities to expel the first Vatican ambassador to Malaysia because they believed he was trying to interfere in a legal battle between the government and a Roman Catholic newspaper over the use of "Allah" as a translation for God.

Cooks Recount Horror of Indian School Lunch Deaths

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 09:52 PM PDT

Asha Devi holds her head while sitting next to her sick daughter Savita, right, who consumed spurious meals at a school on Tuesday, at a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Patna on July 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

PATNA, India — Soon after they served the lunch they had prepared for dozens of children at a rural Indian school, the two cooks realized something was very wrong. The students started fainting. Within hours, they began dying.

By the second day after that fateful meal, 23 children between the ages of 5 and 12 had died from eating food laced with insecticide and many others had fallen ill.

Authorities discovered a container of insecticide in the school's cooking area next to the vegetable oil and mustard oil, but it wasn't yet known if that container was the source, according to Amarjeet Sinha, a top official in the state of Bihar, where the tragedy took place.

Some officials have said it appeared that the rice had somehow been tainted with insecticide and might not have been properly washed before it was cooked.

"It's not a case of food poisoning. It's a case of poison in food in a large quantity, going by the instant deaths," Sinha said Thursday.

More answers were expected Friday, when a forensic laboratory was to issue the results of its tests on the dead children, the food and the uncooked grain stored by the principal in her house, he said. Police were searching for the principal, who fled after the students started falling sick, Sinha said.

The cooks, Manju Devi and Pano Devi, told The Associated Press that the principal controlled the food for the free daily lunch provided by the government at the school. On Tuesday morning, she gave them rice, potatoes, soy and other ingredients needed to prepare the meal and then went about her business. As the children ate, they started fainting, the cooks said.

The two cooks were not spared either.

Manju Devi, 30, ate some of the food and fainted. Her three children, ages 5, 8 and 13, fell ill as well. All were in stable condition Thursday.

While Pano Devi, 35, didn't eat the tainted food, her three children did. Two of them died and the third, a 4-year-old daughter, was in the hospital.

"I will stop cooking at the school," she said. "I am so horrified that I wouldn't grieve more if my only surviving child died."

Sinha said one of the cooks told authorities that the cooking oil appeared different than usual, but the principal told her to use it anyway. Doctors believed the food contained an organophosphate used as an insecticide, he said.

The free midday meal was served to the children Tuesday in Gandamal village in Masrakh block, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Patna, the Bihar state capital.

Some of the victims were buried Wednesday in front of the school building in protest.

Those who survived the poison were unlikely to suffer from any serious aftereffects from the tainted food, said Patna Medical College hospital superintendent Amarkant Jha Amar.

"There will be no remnant effects on them. The effects of poisoning will be washed after a certain period of time from the tissues," Amar said.

Amar said Thursday that the post-mortem reports on the children who died confirmed that insecticide was either in the food or cooking oil. He said authorities were waiting for lab results for more details on the chemicals.

India's midday meal plan is one of the world's biggest school nutrition programs. State governments have the freedom to decide on menus and timings of the meals, depending on local conditions and availability of food rations. It was first introduced in the 1960s in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school.

Since then, the program has been replicated across the country, covering some 120 million schoolchildren. It's part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition, which the government says nearly half of all Indian children suffer from.

Although there have been complaints about the quality of the food served and the lack of hygiene, the incident in Bihar appeared to be unprecedented for the massive food program.

But with the country focused on the safety of the program Thursday, reports emerged that others had fallen ill across India.

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, at least 100 girls became sick, vomiting and fainting, after eating lunches made with contaminated eggs, the Press Trust of India reported.

In Maharashtra, dozens of students fell ill after drinking contaminated water, media reported.

In Bihar, the state director of the feeding program, R. Lakshamanan, told PTI that some students refused to eat the lunches Thursday in the wake of the tragedy.

The national government announced it would set up a second committee to review the functioning of the meal program in addition to one that already monitors the program.

Obama’s Unlikely Climate Change Partner: China

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 09:40 PM PDT

A factory in China on the Yangtze River. (Photo: High Contrast / WikiMedia)

WASHINGTON— US President Barack Obama has stumbled on an unusual partner in his quest to combat climate change: China.

The world's two biggest emitters of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are finding common cause in efforts to reduce global warming, cooperation the United States says could clear the way for other developing, heavily polluting nations like India and Brazil to get on board, too.

Skeptics question whether either nation will follow through on lofty aspirations. Still, the budding agreements are allowing the two rivals to present a positive front at a time when tensions are running high over espionage, alleged cybertheft and American fugitive Edward Snowden.

Last week, top American and Chinese officials announced new joint initiatives, including cutting emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and upping energy efficiency of buildings, transport and industry. They also agreed to team up on large-scale experiments with "carbon capture"—technology to isolate carbon dioxide from power plant emissions so it can be safely stored. Lack of commercially viable technology has been a major barrier to making plants cleaner in the United States and abroad.

A month earlier, Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in the California desert for a summit aimed at forging closer ties. The sole concrete achievement was a deal to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

"This is a priority for the president and for me," US Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday during a speech on Asian relations, specifically mentioning the accord with China. "The impact of climate change also has an impact as growth as well as security."

The world's most populous country, China has long been perceived globally as an unabashed polluter but has started to change its tone. In 2007 China's notoriously pragmatic and economy-focused government called, in a national strategic document, for an "ecological civilization," reflecting a move toward balancing environmental protection with development.

China's environmental imperatives are clear: suffocating smog in Beijing, rising sea levels and polluted water and soil that can stifle development. Already vying with the United States as the world's largest manufacturer, China looks at policies that constrain industry growth differently than other, largely agricultural developing nations in Africa or Asia.

Beijing may also see renewable and clean energy as a growing global fad and want to ensure they're not left out. In 2010, China's government spent more than $30 billion subsidizing its solar panel industry, US energy officials said. And the US shale natural gas boom is attracting major Chinese investment, too.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn't respond to a request for comment.

For Obama, jumpstarting the global climate change effort is a key to his second-term agenda and his legacy. Reducing US greenhouse gases will only go so far. Mounting emissions planetwide could blunt the impact of what Obama does at home.

That's where China could play a critical role.

"China is a huge weight in the global system," said Jonathan Pershing, the Energy Department's top climate official and a former US climate negotiator, in an interview. "It has a developing country framework, so other developing countries say, 'Certainly if China can do it, we can do it, too.'"

Although China is unlikely to actively nudge other nations, the overriding US concern is that China not spoil global agreements that would otherwise proceed, Pershing said. That's because climate accords tend to be governed by consensus. Such a phenomenon was on display in 2009, when China was accused of wrecking a stronger agreement in Copenhagen over its resistance to specific emissions limits.

The upbeat tone on climate comes as a series of disputes have complicated Obama's attempts to improve relations with China and strengthen US influence in Asia.

Washington has complained loudly to Beijing about cyberhacking and intellectual property. The White House also says bilateral relations were dealt a serious blow by China's refusal to extradite Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker, before he fled Hong Kong. At the same time, Snowden's revelations about US surveillance emboldened Chinese officials to argue Obama's complaints about cybersecurity are hypocritical.

And China's growing investment and influence in sub-Saharan Africa, where it's surpassed the United States as the largest trading partner, was on display last month as Obama traveled the continent.

"There are pressures on the US and China to do something about global warming, and it happens to fit in with the idea of expanding cooperation to try to contain and hopefully reverse the growing strategic rivalry," said a former US Ambassador to China, J. Stapleton Roy. The White House hopes that political pressure from China's expanding middle class may spur China to further action.

It remains to be seen whether the cooperation on climate will extend much beyond diplomatic niceties. After all, the United States and China have at times made similar pronouncements, said Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"There are many, many good ideas that simply don't come to fruition," Economy said. "There are reasons why it hasn't worked very well in the past. As far as I can see, those same reasons exist today."

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

Exploring the Life of General Aung San at His Old Home

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:43 AM PDT

Bogyoke Aung San Museum is housed in his splendid old villa near Rangoon's Kandawgyi Lake. The general corner bedroom was located on the first floor. Click on the box below to see more photos of the museum. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — On Friday, Burma will commemorate Martyrs' Day to honor the nation's founding father and independence hero Bogyoke Aung San, who was assassinated along with his eight cabinet members on July 19, 1947.

Burma is experiencing a revival of interest in the general, after the former military regime tried to downgrade his national hero status when it took power in 1988.

Those who want to learn about his life can visit Gen Aung San (and Aung San Suu Kyi)'s former residence in Rangoon, which was turned into Bogyoke Aung San Museum a long time ago.

"Bogyoke" (which means general in Burmese) lived with his wife Khin Kyi and their three children, Aung San Oo, Aung San Lin and Suu Kyi, in the hill-top villa in Bahan Township near Kandawgyi Lake. Suu Kyi — Burma's current pro-democracy leader — was two years old when her father was killed in an assassination plot masterminded by his political rival U Saw.

After his death, Khin Kyi and the children lived in the villa until 1953 when Aung San Lin drowned in the compound's pool. The family then moved to a colonial-era mansion on the shores of Inya Lake on Rangoon's University Avenue, where Suu Kyi still lives to this day.

The Burmese government bought the general's former Kandawgyi Lake residence for 30,000 kyats in 1948 and converted it into Bogyoke Aung San Museum in 1962.

The splendid villa turned museum boasts a host of Aung San's personal belongings, ranging from his British-built black Wolseley motor vehicle to an overcoat given to him by the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during a trip to England in the early 1940s.

A collection of 240 books on a variety of subjects — from applied mechanics and air defense to political economy and selected short stories by D.H. Lawrence — may be a source of interest for literature fans, too.

Downstairs features pictures and paintings of Aung San and his family, while the special meeting room upstairs is decorated with extracts from some of his speeches — including the explanatory guideline relating to the 1947 constitutional law which states "no constitution in the world is perfect."

The museum is open from 8 am to 4 pm and entry fees are 300 kyat for Burmese and foreign visitors, and 100 kyat for children under 12. On Martyrs' Day the museum is open free of charge.

Make sure not to bring your camera, mobile phones and MP4 players for they are strictly banned. "It's just for museum security," explained Kyaw Aye, the curator of the museum.

A Public Holiday, Now Open to the Public

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:33 AM PDT

A Public Holiday, Now Open to the Public

Petition to Restrict Interfaith Marriage Garners 2.5 Million Signatures in Burma

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:28 AM PDT

A signature campaign in Mandalay aims to raise support for a restrictive bill on interfaith marriage between Buddhists and Muslims. (Photo: U Wirathu / Facebook)

RANGOON — Nearly 2.5 million people have signed a petition in support of a proposed law that would restrict marriage in Burma between Buddhists and Muslims, according to an ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk leading the campaign.

U Wirathu, a monk who has risen to prominence by spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric in Buddhist-majority Burma, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the signatures would be sent to Parliament along with the proposed law, which aims to restrict interfaith marriages between Buddhist women and men of other religions.

Rights activists have opposed the proposal, which emerged last month at a major conference of Buddhist monks in Rangoon. If passed, the law would force Buddhist women to get permission from their parents and local government officials before marrying a man from any other faith. A non-Buddhist man wishing to marry a Buddhist woman would be required to convert to Buddhism.

The nationwide signature campaign began in Burma's second-biggest city, Mandalay, earlier this month, with advocates distributing copies of the proposal to pedestrians. The campaign closed in Mandalay on Monday, U Wirathu said, but was continuing in other areas.

Asked if he was pleased with collecting nearly 2.5 million signatures—in a country of about 60 million people—the monk said he was satisfied.

"If the government supported us by holding a referendum [on the proposal], we would see even more support," he told The Irrawaddy.

The proposed marriage law has been promoted as a way to improve inter-communal relations in Burma and protect Buddhist women, who supporters say could face abuse or forced religious conversion in interfaith marriages.

However, it seems that not everyone who joined the signature campaign was familiar with the proposal's details.

"I don't know about the law," Ma Htay Htay, a woman signing her name at a campaign booth in Mandalay, told The Irrawaddy earlier this month. "I heard songs playing [from the booth] about protecting Burmese women, so I came here to sign.

"Burmese women cannot go out alone at night because there are many men who might insult us, abuse us or rape us. We women are weak. I think this law will protect us from these abuses."

Another Mandalay resident, Ma Myint Lwin, also joined the campaign. "I was urged to sign if I'm Buddhist," she said. "I've heard songs from this booth as well, encouraging me to protect Burmese women, so I came here to sign. I haven't read the draft law yet but will read it later."

A campaign official at one of the booths explained why he supported the bill.

"I've seen video footage showing true stories of Buddhist women who married Muslim men and are suffering now, with no right to believe in Buddhism," he said. "If this law is passed, our Buddhist women will have protection from interfaith marriage, and this will prevent suffering."

U Wirathu said that as of this week, campaigners had collected about 950,000 signatures of support from Upper Burma and more than 1.5 million signatures from Lower Burma. He said the signatures had been sent to the head monk at a monastery in Rangoon, who would submit them to Parliament at a later date.

The proposed marriage law comes amid growing unrest in Burma between Buddhists and Muslims, who are estimated to make up some 5 percent of the country's population. Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 150,000 people—mostly Muslims—have been displaced in communal violence and anti-Muslim riots since June last year. A nationalist Buddhist campaign, led by U Wirathu and known as the 969 movement, has also gained momentum by calling on Buddhists to shun Muslim businesses.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has opposed the marriage bill as discriminatory and a violation of human rights—criticisms that other women's rights activists have also highlighted.

"It's based on extreme nationalism and religious extremism," said Zin Mar Aung, a prominent Burmese activist who last year received the annual International Women of Courage Award from former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "It interferes with the individual liberty of Buddhist women and is an insult to their rationality."

Last month, the proposed law was condemned in a joint statement by eight Rangoon-based women's rights groups, including Zin Mar Aung's Rainfall Gender Study Group. Members of several women's groups also convened earlier this month in Rangoon to discuss the proposal.

Among those at the meeting on July 7 was 41-year-old Ma Htar Htar, an activist who last year helped launch the "Whistle for Help" campaign in Rangoon to raise awareness of sexual harassment. She said the group agreed that the draft law violated women's rights but decided they would not launch a formal protest against it at this time.

"We decided this is not something we should respect or focus our efforts on," she said. "Even if it is submitted, we don't think our government will accept it or pass it. It doesn't look like a proper law—a law should be really specific.

"We will be monitoring it, but we don't think we need to respond."

She said other proposed legislation, such as a bill to protect women from violence, were more worthy of attention and support. She added that the proposed marriage law could be a ploy by figures in power to distract the public from other issues as the country transitions from nearly half a century of military rule.

"I think this is a trick to make us shift our attention," she said. "They are trying to create conflict among monks and women—even monks are disagreeing with each other."

Some critics say the proposed marriage law highlights broader gender inequality in the country, while others say it is inappropriate for monks to mix with politics.

"I'm against the bill because it was drafted by monks. According to the Buddha, monks are solely responsible for guiding laymen to Nirvana," said Aye Thiri Sein, 33, a journalist at the True News Weekly Journal in Rangoon. "I simply can't accept the idea of clergymen's involvement in social and marital affairs.

"The most powerful organization in Burma is the army, and the Buddhist clergy are in second place," she added. "The drafting of the interfaith marriage law, led by U Wirathu, is, in my opinion, just testing their influence."

‘It Should Not Be Propaganda’: Ethnic Minority TV Channel to Launch This Year

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 04:46 AM PDT

A class is under way at school run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Mai Ja Yang, on the Burma-China border, in February last year. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON – A new TV channel with shows in ethnic minority languages will air on Burma's state broadcaster later this year, in a move that is being welcomed by minority representatives.

Details of the proposed channel are still being finalized, says a spokesperson from Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV), but broadcasts will likely feature news and cultural content in several of Burma's more widely used minority mother tongues, such as Shan, Karen and Kachin.

"We hope to start before the SEA Games," the MRTV spokesperson says, referring to the Southeast Asian Games, a regional athletics tournament that Burma will host in December.

The new medium comes on the back of 13 ceasefires signed by the Burma government and various ethnic minority militias, and is a signal, according to some minority activists, that Burma's government is not only trying to achieve peace in resource-rich borderlands, but is also making belated cultural overtures to ethnic minorities in the country.

Ethnic minorities make up about 40 percent of Burma's estimated 50-60 million population, with the rest being the majority Burman from which the country's name and official language derives.

But with Burma's nascent peace processes being accompanied by a somewhat convoluted and unfinished transition to a free press, the new channel's content will be watched closely to see whether it merely touts old-style government lines, long marked by an air of Burman supremacism.

"It is very well timed but it should be independent, and it should not be government propaganda," says Susanna Hla Hla Soe, executive director of the Karen Women's Empowerment Group, an NGO focused on rights for women in Karen State.

Burma's army has waged on-off wars for six decades in Karen State and other hilly, often lawless border regions close to China, India and Thailand. More than 100,000 people are stuck in ramshackle camps in Kachin and Shan states after fleeing fighting since June 2011. Overall, there are more than 600,000 internally displaced people inside Burma, mostly Karen, according to the United Nations.

But while peace is yet to come to swathes of Burma, a draft national ceasefire paper has been prepared—based on the 13 deals so far signed between the Burma government and some of the country's myriad ethnic militias—which mentions both community radio stations and the teaching of ethnic languages at primary school level.

Susanna Hla Hla Soe says moves to liberalize the education sector—to allow minorities to hold classes in their own languages—would be a logical follow-up to the proposed TV channel.

Similarly hopeful that the new channel signals a future willingness to teach ethnic languages in government schools, A Moon, a Kachin singer with the Me N Ma Girls, who are currently in studio in Los Angeles, says the channel "shows that our government cares about ethnic groups more now."

In areas controlled by ethnic militias such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), schools teach in the local language. But elsewhere, in government-held areas of Kachin and Karen states, teaching is in Burmese, save for a few scattered exceptions, which is something ethnic minority groups have long wanted changed.

Even if the Burmese government soon amends its education policy to better cater to local language education in border areas, implementation would take time, cautions Susanna Hla Hla Soe. "There are not enough teachers, there are no textbooks," she says.

But if making Burma's schools a more welcoming place for ethnic minority pupils seems a long way off, quicker cultural outreach efforts—such as the new TV channel—could in the meantime help build trust in Burma's myriad peace processes, the next step in which could be a proposed nationwide ceasefire discussion.

In a joint letter published on Wednesday, welcoming the Burma government's statement that it would hold such a parlay, Karen National Union (KNU) leader Gen Mutu Sae Poe and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) chairman Lt-Gen Yawd Serk said, "A nation-wide ceasefire is a significant milestone as it consolidates the ceasefires already signed as the foundation for the next phase of the peace process."

Among the likely participants in the mooted national dialogue will be the Chin National Front (CNF), which signed a ceasefire with the government last January. In hard-to-access Chin State— which like Kachin State is a mostly Christian region, although it mostly borders India rather than China—the new TV channel could help promote better understanding between Burma's majority Burman Buddhists and remote minorities such as the Chin.

"Raising awareness in Burma about the diversity of this country is an important step to national reconciliation, but it's just a first step," says Cheery Zahau, a Chin activist previously exiled in Thailand but now working in Burma.

Knowledge of Burma's ethnic minority regions is sketchy, even among educated urban Burmese—a legacy of long-standing mutual suspicions, restrictions on information and the shoddy state of the country's infrastructure, which leaves areas such as Chin State accessible only by air or a several days' bone-jarring drive from Rangoon.

The reach of the new channel will be hampered in ethnic minority regions by the limited reach of Burma's electricity supply. Only about a quarter of the population are connected to the country's dilapidated grid, mostly in towns and cities. And while ethnic regions are rich in resources such as hydropower that can power generators, related projects have been tarnished by allegations of land grabs, environmental degradation and—despite the domestic power shortage—the export of energy resources to China and Thailand.

"When I tell people in Rangoon I am from Chin, the first thing they say is 'Oh, Chin state is very poor,' but then that is all they know about it," says Cheery Zahau, who hopes the new TV channel will offset this knowledge vacuum.

However one group unlikely to have content broadcast on the new channel are the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living in west Burma's Arakan State who are mostly denied Burmese citizenship under a 1982 citizenship law.

Savage violence broke out in Arakan State in June last year, with clashes between Rohingya and Arakanese Buddhists later taking on the characteristics of a pogrom against not only the Rohingya, but other Muslims, before anti-Muslim violence spread to towns in central and eastern Burma this year.

Burma's President Thein Sein this week ruled out amending the citizenship law while on an official visit to the United Kingdom.

Shwe Maung, a Rohingya MP from the ruling army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the same party as Thein Sein, said he welcomed the new channel and hoped it would feature content focused on Burma's estimated 5 million Muslims, including the Rohingya.

The portents seem unfavorable, however. “The Rohingya-language was broadcast from 1961 to 1966," he says, adding that "Rohingya were acknowledged as existing up until then."

That history, he says, is in stark contrast to nowadays, with the Burmese government andmany ordinary Burmese viewing all Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

"Now this government says there are no Rohingya," Shwe Maung inveighs.

28 Tax Revenue Officials Implicated in Corruption Case

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 04:11 AM PDT

Piles of Burma's currency, the kyat, are counted in Rangoon. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Fourteen officials at the Finance Ministry's Internal Revenue Department (IRD) have been dismissed for taking bribes, while another 14 are expected to be punished soon, according to government sources.

Five deputy-directors and five officials in charge of different branches of the IRD's Rangoon Division, three deputy-directors from the IRD Mandalay Division and one deputy-director from the IRD in the Mon State capital Moulmein were sacked on corruption charges, a senior IRD official in the capital Naypyidaw told The Irrawaddy.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said another 14 senior IRD officials — including several deputy directors and other high-ranking officials — are under investigation and will soon be punished on graft charges. Seven of the officials have already been transferred to other departments and two have been asked to resign.

The senior IRD officials will, however, escape criminal charges of bribery, according to an officer with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Rangoon's Insein Township.

"This case wasn't transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department and Naypyidaw took direct control of it," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The CID is a special department of Burma's Police Force.

"It has yet to be decided exactly which organization is responsible for investigating tax-related cases in the future," he added.

The CID officer said tax officials were often approached by businessmen who attempt to bribe and negotiate with them in order to evade taxes or to lower their tax bills.

An investigation into the dismissed officials' activities was started after low-ranking IRD officials sent a complaint to Naypyidaw alleging that their bosses were taking kickbacks from businessmen.

Than Lwin, vice-chairman of privately-owned Kanbawza Bank and an advisor to the Finance Ministry, said he welcomed the measures as it was well-known that many IRD employees were taking bribes. He added nonetheless, that the officials should face criminal charges in court.

"The state has earned less revenue due to such negotiations and bribery practices," said Than Lwin. "To solve this problem, we have to start from the top. It is good that the [Finance Ministry] now listens to experts about how to tackle the problem."

Burma's government is planning to drastically reform its ineffective tax system. The recently formed Board of Scrutinizing and Monitoring of Tax Collection is currently reviewing the tax system to offer suggestions on how to end widespread corruption and tax evasion.

There have been several corruption cases involving dozens officials in the past year.

In June 2012, five employees from the Ministry of Commerce, 33 from the Finance Ministry's Customs Department and five from the Rangoon Port Authority were either dismissed, suspended or transferred because of their involvement in illegal import of unregistered vehicles from different ports.

In another case in February this year, 16 customs officers were forced to resign following an investigation that found them guilty of accepting bribes to allow the import of restricted vehicles at a port in Rangoon.

State of Emergency in Meikhtila to Be Lifted

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 03:36 AM PDT

Army trucks line up along a road in downtown Meikhtila on March 23. (Photo: Teza Hlaing / The Irrawaddy)

The state of emergency declared after communal violence tore through Meikhtila District four months ago will soon be lifted, but locals still worry that unrest could return to central Burma.

President Thein Sein reportedly sent a message to Parliament indicating that the emergency provision in effect since March for Meikhtila, Wundwin, Mahlaing and Tharzi townships in Mandalay Division would be lifted on Saturday in an indicator that authorities feel peace and stability in the area is no longer under threat.

The Mandalay Divisional government told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that Naypyidaw's order, which would lift the area's current 10pm to 4am curfew, had not yet been officially communicated.

"We heard that the president sent a message to Parliament but we have not received an official letter or order from Naypyidaw," said an officer from the Mandalay divisional government's office. "But we will take action as soon as we receive the order. The situation in the area is stable, so lifting the emergency law is appropriate."

Despite the government official's assurance, security concerns linger, with one local saying trust between Meikhtila's Muslim and Buddhist communities remained low following the unrest.

"The situation in the town is stable now, but in our mind, the scars of the violence still remain and we are suspicious of each other. Since the trust between us was affected, it is hard to say we are at a normal condition and stable. We still worry that something might happen after the emergency law is lifted," said Kyaw Oo, a resident of Meikhtila.

Nearly 7,000 people remain displaced due to the violence, the UN said in a report on Thursday, citing government data. More than 12,000 were originally forced from their homes.

"Despite there being no further security incidents in recent months, IDPs [internally displaced persons] remain cautious about returning home and tensions remain high," the UN report said.

The state of emergency was declared on March 22 as the death toll in the area rose and mobs roamed the streets of Meikhtila, burning Muslim-owned shops and homes.

The unrest between the city's Muslim and Buddhist communities was sparked by a dispute at a gold shop in Meikhtila between a Buddhist customer and the Muslim shop owner.

More than 120 suspects were reportedly apprehended following the rioting, which first broke out on March 20 and lasted three days. More than 40 people were killed, about 60 were injured and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed.

State security forces were criticized in the aftermath for their response to the escalating riots. A report in May by Physicians for Human Rights said that "armed riot police at the scene did little or nothing to intervene to prevent or halt the attacks."

The government's initial emergency declaration was extended on May 21 for another 60 days, though lawmakers at that time acknowledged that the situation had stabilized, calling the move a precautionary measure.

The events in Meikhtila marked the second major outbreak of religious unrest in Burma over the last year, following two waves of violence in Arakan State that began in June 2012 and killed nearly 200 people. About 140,000 others were displaced, most of them minority Rohingya Muslims.

Since Meikhtila, smaller cases of violence between members of the two religions have taken place in other towns across the country.

With additional reporting by Andrew D. Kaspar.

Author Discusses Martyrs’ Day Assassination of Aung San

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 03:26 AM PDT

Gen Aung San, considered the father of Burma's independence, was assassinated on July 19, 1947. (Photo: public domain)

Kin Oung is the author of the book "Who Killed Aung San?" He is the son of Tun Hla Oung, the deputy inspector general of police, CID department, who was credited with the rapid capture and arrest of U Saw and his men after the assassination of Gen Aung San. He is also the son-in-law of Justice Thaung Sein, who played a vital role in bringing the assassins to justice.

Kin Oung spoke to Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of The Irrawaddy magazine, in 2010, just before the 63rd anniversary of Martyrs' Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the assassination of nine heroes of Burma's independence movement—including Aung San—on July 19, 1947, just six months before Burma won independence from Britain.

Aung San, the father of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, is also considered the father of Burmese independence, and led the fight for colonial liberation from Britain, which had ruled Burma since 1885.

Question: Were the British thought to be involved in the assassination of Aung San?

Answer: Aung San wanted independence and wanted the Burmese to be wealthy. He also wanted the Burmese and ethnic nationals in hill areas to be united and friendly. Then some British companies got involved because it was important for them to stay on in Burma and for Burma not to gain its independence. Aung San's ideology was close to socialism and he gave some speeches about it and hinted that nationalization should take place for the sake of the Burmese people. But whether they [the British] had an intention to kill Gen Aung San and his ministers is unclear.

Q: So Aung San could potentially have united the whole country and seemed to be a left-wing leader who sympathized with socialism. Were these the two main factors that caused him to be assassinated? Were there other factors?

A:  Among the British there were differing points of view. It's possible that some British companies financially supported the ambitious politicians who disliked Aung San. But British governments, first [Winston] Churchill's and then [Clement] Attlee's, were not able to provide such support. The government could not give openly, but the British companies could give clandestinely. They did provide financial support to U Saw [a rival of Aung San who plotted to kill him]. At that time, Maung Maung Gyi, the brother of U Saw, was in London. U Saw would take as much as they were willing to give. And there was a black market after the war.

At that time I was in Burma's navy and knew such things well. People tried to sell or trade everything they got—just like you see high-ranking officials of the current military government involved in the businesses of opium, jade and so on. In those days some smuggled in even small items such as flint. What I mean is people did business in whatever was accessible to them. As for British military officers, they had to send their weapons to Singapore because Burma was soon to be given independence. They also sold their machine guns, tommy guns and other weapons. So U Saw bought them.

Q: Were Maj C.H.H Young, a British commander of No.1 BEME, and Maj Lance Dane the core suppliers of weapons and ammunition? Some said Lance Dane was not a core supplier and U Saw got weapons from Young.

A: The police might have heard this from my father, who was deputy police commissioner at the time. But the military intelligence men detected these facts in many ways, and they became known by U Nu, U Kyaw Nyein and Aung San. They informed the British governor, but he did nothing. Many weapons had been lost.

Q: They informed the British governor after they received information that U Saw had obtained many weapons?

A: Yes, the governor was informed by my father's department. They knew something would be happening due to the loss of weapons. At that time, U Nu and U Kyaw Nyein also received information that something was in the works.

Q: It was reported that Aung San was not actually assassinated by the weapons that Young supplied. Reports said other weapons were used to assassinate him and his colleagues. Is this correct?

A: There were four assassins. Three of them used tommy guns. The youngest assassin, Yan Gyi Aung, used a Sten gun. After the assassination, the weapons were taken to India and thoroughly examined.

Q: What was discovered?

A: They found that the weapons had come from the British army, and they found out who sold them. Young was arrested. But later, the suppliers were secretly freed.

Q: How did British leaders regard Aung San and other Burmese leaders?

A: Churchill was the war-time prime minister. When U Saw asked for dominion status, Churchill told U Saw to ask him again after the war. But Churchill was defeated in the election and succeeded by Attlee, a socialist. If Churchill had kept power, Burma wouldn't have gained its independence.

Q: Churchill said something about Aung San after he was assassinated.

A: He said that Aung San, his 30 comrades and the Thakhins were rebels who fought against the British, so why should he contact and help them? Churchill meant they didn't need to help Burma because it had fought against the British. Lord Mountbatten, however, favored Burma. After the war these issues needed to be debated, and there were debates in the British House of Commons about how to handle Burmese affairs. Nothing would have happened if Lord Mountbatten was not there. He helped Burma a lot. He told Aung San that he must give up his military position if he wanted to be a politician. Then Aung San resigned from the military.

Q: What is your opinion of U Saw?

A: U Saw was very ambitious and selfish. Although he was an uneducated person, he achieved a high position due to his political ambition. Probably some British in the government liked him and used him.

Q: U Saw went to London together with Aung San to make an agreement with Prime Minister Attlee. Was his refusal to sign the agreement due to envy of Aung San or policy disagreements?

A: As you know, an agreement must consist of many points, so one can easily find fault and withdraw. U Saw tried to find fault in the Nu-Attlee agreement and then the Aung San-Attlee agreement. Thakhin Ba Sein as well. Thakhin Tun Oak accused Aung San of killing a village headman and attempted to have him jailed.

Q: What do you think would have happened in Burma if Aung San and his cabinet ministers had not been assassinated?

A: It would have been much better. He was not a god. He himself said that he was not a god. U Nu was the only person who listened to him when he said that U Kyaw Nyein, Thakhin Than Tun, U Ba Swe and Thakhin Soe needed to be controlled.

Q: Was it possible for Aung San to get along with those men who needed to be controlled or those who opposed him?

A: The military respected him. There were people who admired him. Although our navy was small, we had many well-trained and well-disciplined men. As did the air force. The air force and navy supported him. Our men knew all about them. Communists started organizing the
military personnel, but well-disciplined personnel could not be organized. Those personnel supported Aung San. Karen and Kachin army personnel also supported Aung San.

Q: Do you see any significant differences between Aung San and his daughter, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?

A: His daughter returned to Burma for her ill mother. When her mother died, she decided to lead the people in their struggle for democracy. She resembles her father. She has a good nature and is intelligent as well. People like what she has spoken and done. I say she is very smart and wise.

Fleeing Rohingya Women Fall Prey to Traffickers in Thailand

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 02:13 AM PDT

Rohingya refugees from Burma sit on a boat as they try to get into Bangladesh. (Photo: Reuters)

PHANG NGA — The men managed to gain access to the detained women and promised Narunisa she would be reunited with her husband, who had left for Malaysia seven years ago when their second daughter was just a year old.

So the stateless Rohingya Muslim from Burma sneaked out of a government-run shelter in southern Thailand where she has been held since January.

Instead of taking Narunisa to Malaysia, the traffickers smuggled her, her two daughters and two other Rohingya women in and out of numerous hideouts where they were kept against their will. One of the men raped Narunisa repeatedly.

She now wants the traffickers, including a Thai policeman, to be punished, but the slow, creaky wheels of Thai justice are proving a challenge.

The incident also raises concerns over the safety and vulnerability of detained Rohingya women in Thailand and shines an unflattering light on Thai police — at some officials' possible complicity in the trafficking of Rohingya and in harming rather than helping victims.

Narunisa is one of 62 women and children at the shelter in Phang Nga, near Thailand's popular beach resorts. The 25-year-old fled Arakan State in western Burma when it became impossible to make a living after two bouts of sectarian violence last year left scores dead and some 140,000 displaced, most of them Muslims.

Although the Rohingya have been in Arakan for centuries, Burma has excluded them from the country's 135 recognized ethnic groups and denied them citizenship, rendering them stateless. Rights groups say they face some of the worst discrimination in the world, which worsened after the riots.

Narunisa's village, unlike many others, was not destroyed in the violence, but her source of income quickly vanished when she could no longer go to the main market in Arakan's capital Sittwe to sell fruits and vegetables she had grown. Sittwe is now, except in one cordoned off area, devoid of Muslims.

Raped At Knifepoint

Three days after arriving on Thailand's shores in a wooden boat, Narunisa was detained and sent to the shelter in Phang Nga. Soon after, traffickers gained access.

"The guys came once first and looked from the outside. They came again and got permission from the shelter people, and we started talking," Narunisa said in an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation at the shelter. She gave one of the traffickers, a Rohingya, her husband's phone number in Malaysia.

"He called him and said, ‘I’ll bring your wife and kids to you, send me money'."

She persuaded two other women to escape from the shelter with her on May 27. Two men were in a pick-up truck waiting for them – 26-year-old Rohingya Korlimula and a Thai man, who Narunisa later learned was Senior Sergeant Veerayut Ferngfull.

They were taken to different hideouts. The traffickers asked for 50,000 baht (about $1,600) from each woman for the journey. Narunisa's husband, who now has a second wife, paid the full amount for his wife and daughters but the other two could not afford to pay in full.

After 12 days, the two other women were taken elsewhere – Narunisa did not know it yet, but they had been released after failing to pay more money and brought by police back to the shelter – while she and her 8- and 10-year-old daughters were brought to a house on an island.

That night, after her children had fallen asleep, Korlimula said he wanted to marry her. When she refused, he raped her repeatedly at knifepoint for the next three nights.

"I told him, 'You know I’m married and my husband is in Malaysia. You call him "brother". Why are you doing this?'" she recalled in tears.

On June 13, Narunisa and her children were dumped on the side of the road in Phang Nga province's Kuraburi district.

After police found her, she was charged with absconding from the shelter and was kept in a police station. Her daughters were sent back to the shelter.

Death Threats

On June 18, Narunisa was released and went to the Khao Lak district police station to press charges. Thomson Reuters Foundation was present and saw firsthand the problems faced by rape victims seeking justice in Thailand.

The petite woman, dressed in a brown headscarf, a green top and a printed pink sarong, recounted her experience while waiting patiently to get the attention of the policemen, who for at least 15 minutes argued among themselves whether Khao Lak was the right jurisdiction to investigate the crime.

They then questioned her in detail – a process that required four languages – and were flippant when she was unable to recall some details.

The police continued to voice concerns over jurisdiction problems. At one point they asked for the exact address of where she was raped, despite repeated explanations that she is unfamiliar with Thailand. They finally started taking notes, nearly an hour after the victim had stepped inside the station.

"He told me he was going to take me to my husband and then raped me. This shouldn't happen. He should be punished," Narunisa said, remaining her composure.

She only burst into tears later, as her daughters ran out to greet her when she was taken back to the shelter.

Her ordeal is not over yet. A day after filing her complaint, a Thai man reportedly turned up at the shelter and threatened Narunisa and the shelter director, saying he had killed several Rohingya already and killing more "would be no problem", according to Human Rights Watch.

The threat was reported to the authorities, but no police protection has yet been assigned to the shelter at the time of writing. The shelter director has purchased a gun and set up surveillance cameras.

Korlimula and Veerayut the policeman have since been charged but they remain free. Veerayut is believed to be the first Thai official to be charged with trafficking of Rohingya.

Both deny the charges. Korlimula claims he and Narunisa were in love. Meanwhile, Chalit Kaewyarat, Phang Nga provincial police commander, told Thomson Reuters Foundation "an internal investigation shows it was unlikely (the policeman) was involved in human trafficking."

Only Fraction of Land Seized by Military Will Be Returned: Minister

Posted: 18 Jul 2013 12:26 AM PDT

Farmers from Rangoon Division's Swepyitha Township play instruments during a protest in January to demand compensation for loss of their land. (Photo: Aye Kyawt Khaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's Minister of Defense said the military has reviewed half of all complaints of land-grabbing by its units, but has so far decided to return only a fraction of all farmland it forcibly seized during the junta-era.

Last year, a parliamentary Farmland Investigation Commission was set up to look into massive land-grabbing by the military in the decades when it ruled the country.

Between July 2012 and January 2013, the commission received 565 complaints from farmers who alleged that the military had forcibly seized 247,077 acres (almost 100,000 hectares) of land, mostly in Irrawaddy Division, central Burma and some ethnic regions.

Defense Minister Lt-General Wai Lwin told Parliament on Tuesday that the military had reviewed 238 complaints so far and decided to return only a fraction of the confiscated land to the affected farmers.

"We will be able to give back 18,364.49 acres [7,431 hectares] of unused farmlands which were confiscated by the army to the original owners," Lt-Gen Wai Lwin said, adding that affected farmers simply had to accept they could not have all their land back.

"It is impossible for security reasons, to give back lands that are located close to some areas used by the military, such as army practice grounds and buildings, and areas that have projects on it," he said. "So the farmers need to stop staging protests or their fight to win back their lands."

The parliamentary commission had recommended that undeveloped lands are returned to their owners or handed over to the state. In cases where land has been developed, affected farmers should receive adequate compensation from the military.

However, the Defense Minister did not address the issue of compensation during Tuesday's parliamentary session.

Opposition politicians and activists advocating for land rights said the announcement by the minister was but a small step in the right direction.

"It is good that some unused lands would be returned to their owners. We are welcoming the decision," said Nay Myo Wai, chairman of the Diversity and Peace party, which supports the farmers in their demands.

"But we have to wait and see how much land [the military] would return to the farmers in total. Because they said that there are many cases that remain to be reviewed," he said.

"If the farmers don't get back most of their confiscated land, we will have to come up with another way to continue our fight to reclaim the land."

During a speech at Chatham House in London earlier this week, President Thein Sein acknowledged that land-grabbing was one of Burma most important challenges.

"Land ownership issues … are extremely complex. As part of our drive to foster growth for all the people of Myanmar, we will develop clear, fair and open land policies," he said.

Burma's military ruled the country for decades and land seizures by the army for government projects, army zones and industrial estates were widespread. It used the 1963 Land Acquisition Act, which nationalized land ownership across the country, to justify the land grabs and local dissent was brutally crushed.

After President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government took over in 2011, the military announced that it would end such practices, but whether it will do so remains to be seen. Land-grabbing by powerful private companies meanwhile, has increased rapidly in the wake of Burma's socio-economic reforms and rapid economic development.

Across Burma, and particularly in the Irrawaddy Delta, farmers are becoming increasingly bold in demanding back their land or compensation. Farm communities are frequently staging land demonstrations, after the Thein Sein government adopted a more tolerant attitude towards public protest.
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