Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burma Govt Releases 73 Political Prisoners

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT

Former political prisoner Win Hla is a free man after he leaves Insein Prison in Rangoon on Tuesday. (Photo: Jpaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's President Thein Sein pardoned 73 political prisoners on Tuesday, a government advisor and a human right activist said. Among the released are 29 Shan ethnic rebels and 26 Kachin prisoners of conscience.

"In total, about 70 political prisoners will be released nationwide, including 26 Kachin prisoners," said Hla Maung Shwe, a special government advisor at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC). He added that 13 detainees were being released from Kachin State's Myitkyina Prison.

"They were released as part of an amnesty by the president — this was part of his pledge to the international community to release all political prisoners by the end of the year," Hla Maung Shwe told The Irrawaddy. "This move will be a boost for the peace process."

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) had previously demanded the release of 31 Kachin political prisoners. The group is currently in ceasefire talks with the central government.

Thet Oo, a spokesman of the Former Political Prisoners group in Rangoon, said 73 prisoners of conscience had been released on Tuesday.

He welcomed the president's decision, but added, "We will be happy if they release all the people at the same time. We don't like it that the government releases one group at a time."

Thet Oo said prisoners had been released from at least six prisons located in Rangoon and in Moulmein, Hinzada, Shwebo, Myin Gyan and Myitkyina townships.

"Most of the released prisoners belonged to armed groups or were accused of belonging to an unlawful group," he said, adding that one of the released had been accused of being a member of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front.

The Former Political Prisoners group welcomed six Burmese political prisoners who walked out of the gates of Rangoon's Insein Prison on Tuesday afternoon.

"I'm happy to be free, but I also feel sad because I should have been released much earlier," said Win Hla, before walking off.

Shan State Army-South Colonel Sai Khan said he had been informed that 29 members of his rebel group were being released on Tuesday.

"We received a list in the past two days, with 29 people who are to be released. We submitted a list requesting the release of 31 people," he said. "It's not immediately clear to us how many of them have already been released."

Thet Oo said that an estimated 92 political prisoners still remain behind bars in Burma.

Hla Maung Shwe, of the MPC, said Lahtaw Brang Shawng, an ethnic Kachin farmer, was among the released.

Lahtaw Brang Shawng was arrested on June 17, 2012, in an internally displaced people's camp in Myitkyina. He was charged with violating Article 17/1 of the Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly being a member of the KIA. Last Friday, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Lahtaw Brang Shawng's family and Kachin human rights activists have long campaigned for his release and his case was seen as an example of the human rights abuses that Kachin civilians face.

The repressive Unlawful Associations Act law is widely used by the government to detain Kachin civilians and combatants during the ethnic conflict in northern Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission has said the 1908 act allows for accusing people of being "politically dangerous to the state by virtue of their identities."

Lahtaw Brang Shawng's lawyer Mar Khar welcomed his client's released, but added, "I feel very sad about Brang Shawng's imprisonment. He was tortured during interrogation even though he was just a normal civilian and had no link to the KIA."

President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government has freed thousands of prisoners since taking office in 2011, including several hundred political prisoners, as part of sweeping reforms in Burma's transition from military rule to democracy.

During a visit to the United Kingdom last week, Thein Sein said his government would release all prisoners of conscience before the year's end. He also announced that a national peace conference with Burma's 11 major ethnic rebel groups would be held this month.

Human rights groups have pointed out however, that Burma's government recently arrested a number of activists for political reasons.

Wai Phyo, secretary of activist group Generation Wave, was detained by police in Pyay Township, Pegu Division, on July 9 on charges related to his group's 2011 "Free Political Prisoners" poster campaign.

Last Thursday, Bauk Ja, an ethnic Kachin activist and member of the National Democratic Force political party, was arrested by police in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on negligent homicide on charges.

Last year, Bauk Ja helped provide medical treatment in a remote Kachin village, but a local patient later died. A police officer and another villager recently filed a complaint against her in relation to the death. Her party said the charges are politically motivated.

On July 15, on the day of Thein Sein's speech in London, security forces in Arakan State's Sittwe Township arrested prominent Rohingya human rights lawyer Kyaw Hla Aung.

The 74-year-old lawyer was one of thousands internally displaced Muslims who are living at a camp near Sittwe following last year's clashes with Arakanese Buddhist communities. He has spent many years in prison for his activism under Burma's former military regime.

Last week, Amnesty International's Burma researcher Amy Smith said that Kyaw Hla Aung "joins scores of other human rights defenders who have recently been arrested, charged, or detained for their involvement in peaceful activities."

Suu Kyi Attends High-Level Peace Team Meeting

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 05:50 AM PDT

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, second left, attends a meeting of the Union Peacemaking Working Committee along with Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann on Sunday in Rangoon. (Photo: Hla Maung Shwe / Facebook)

RANGOON — Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended a Union Peacemaking Working Committee meeting for the first time at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) on Sunday.

Her appearance came about a week after President Thein Sein announced during his European tour that a nationwide ceasefire with ethnic armed groups would "very possibly" materialize "over the coming weeks."

It also followed a request from the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a coalition of 11 of Burma's ethnic armed groups, calling for Suu Kyi's participation in their next round of talks with the Burmese government's peace delegation.

Hla Maung Shwe, a senior advisor from the MPC, said Suu Kyi's attendance on Sunday was not in any official capacity. Rather, the National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman was allowed to join in the discussion in an informal role with the permission of Shwe Mann, speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, and the Union Peacemaking Team's Central Committee.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spent 13 minutes in discussions," Hla Maung Shwe said.

The Union Peacemaking Team was reorganized in May to liaison with ethnic armed groups in ceasefire negotiations. It is divided into two parts—the Central and Working committees—with the president, vice president, government ministers, heads of divisions, members of Parliament and the chief of Burma's armed forces, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, all included on both committees.

Hla Maung Shwe said now was the time to only implement and reinforce the various ceasefire agreements reached with armed ethnic rebel groups across the country, an approach to the peace process that some ethnic leaders have said is too narrow and doesn't sufficiently emphasize the need to simultaneously begin a political dialogue between the parties.

The MPC official said he hoped Suu Kyi, ethnic leaders and other peace process participants would be involved in the next step: framework meetings for political dialogue.

Win Tin, a founding member of Suu Kyi's NLD, said the government should continue moving toward establishing a political dialogue instead of remaining fixated solely on achieving a nationwide ceasefire agreement. He added that he feared the government would use Suu Kyi to win the confidence of ethnic peoples, and as a ploy to pump international assistance into Burma's peace process.

"I'm afraid that the government will use Daw Suu just to get a ceasefire, instead of moving ahead [with a political dialogue]," he said.

Shan National League for Democracy spokesman Sai Nyunt Lwin said his party welcomed Suu Kyi's involvement in the peace process, and would be interested to see how the Nobel laureate takes take part in the peacemaking effort.

A nationwide ceasefire agreement and initiation of a political dialogue between the government and opposition forces, including ethnic groups, would likely smooth the holding of elections in 2015 and the country's democratic transition, and could also bolster the reputations of Suu Kyi and Shwe Mann, according to Yan Myo Thein, a Burmese political analyst.

Both political leaders have expressed interest in running for the presidency in 2015.

"Even though all-inclusiveness could lead to positive developments, we should be aware that too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth," Yan Myo Thein said.

Wirathu Blames ‘Islamic Terrorists’ for Mandalay Explosion

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 01:31 AM PDT

The car that an explosion reportedly emanated from on Sunday is pictured. (Photo: Mann Thar Lay / The Irrawaddy)

MANDALAY — Nationalist Burmese monk U Wirathu has claimed that Islamic terrorists are behind a bomb blast that took place during a Dhamma sermon he was conducting that injured at least five Buddhist devotees on Sunday night.

"I think the culprit might be the Islamic extremists and the terrorists," he told The Irrawaddy, adding that a video titled "Mohamed is now asking for Wirathu and Pyinnyarwara. Who will bring them?" was being spread in Mandalay, with a message against U Wirathu, fellow monk U Pyinnyarwara and the Buddhist nationalist movement that the two support.

"Since their plan to fight me via Time magazine has failed, they are now targeting my Dhamma events and the devotees with explosive devices," U Wirathu said, referring to a Time article in the magazine's July issue that took a critical tone toward Wirathu's teachings and labeled him "The Face of Buddhist Terror."

Shortly after the sermon began on Sunday, an explosion startled those in attendance, about two-thirds of whom proceed to exit the venue in fear. The sermon proceeded nonetheless, with local police guarding the site following the blast.

"I feel no fear and will not keep a security detail with me because I'm not a special person. I will continue with what I must do but have to condemn this action, as this is affecting the devotees and peace," he added.

Soe Nyein, a superintendent of the Mandalay divisional police, said U Wirathu's assertion was premature.

"It is too early to say that the perpetrators were Islamic terrorists," he told The Irrawaddy, adding that he was not at liberty to elaborate on the investigation, which is ongoing.

Wirathu is a leader of the 969 movement, which encourages Buddhists in Burma to support fellow Buddhists and boycott Muslim-owned businesses. Among other anti-Muslim positions espoused by the movement's supporters, 969 followers say Burma's minority Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the population, threaten to one day overtake Buddhists as the demographic majority. Some 90 percent of Burma's people are currently followers of Buddhism.

Sunday's incident comes just as a period of increased activity among Burma's Buddhist community kicks off.

"Since Buddhist Lent is starting, there will be many religious ceremonies and Dhamma sermons from prominent monks will be taking place every week. We are worried that devotees might not come to the ceremonies and sermons in fear of their safety. We want authorities to provide security for the monks and the devotees," said Ko Jay, an organizer of Sunday night's Dhamma sermon.

The exact nature of the attack is unclear, with varying accounts of the source of the explosive device. One devotee told The Irrawaddy that the bomb had fallen from above and struck a loud-speaker that was affixed above the crowd.

"It [the explosion] took place about 20 minutes from when Sayadaw [U Wirathu] began the sermon. In the area of the crowd, something fell from above with sparks and later I heard a thundering sound and saw a car was hit and its tires were on fire. Many people tried to extinguish the fire by throwing sand [on the flames]. Five people were hit by shrapnel on their legs and arms while many others returned to their homes in fear," said Ye Htun, who attended the sermon.

According to police, the bomb was thrown into the venue, where hundreds of devotees were listening U Wirathu's sermon.

"It was a manmade bomb that included pieces of iron, nails and wires, designed to injure many people. Luckily, the bomb did not land among the crowd and went instead under a car that was parked near the area. Five women and a young monk were hit by those pieces of iron but just have minor injuries," said an officer from the Mandalay divisional police office.

Other reports said the explosive device was planted inside or beneath the car.

Police said they were investigating the incident and planned to provide bolstered security at Dhamma sermons and religious ceremonies, especially during Buddhist Lent, which began on Monday and lasts three months.

Australia to Send Refugees to Papua New Guinea

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 11:13 PM PDT

Rohingya asylum seekers are seen after being found off the coast of Indonesia in 2009. (Photo: Reuters)

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's prime minister warned Friday that all refugees who arrive in the country by boat will be resettled on the island nation of Papua New Guinea, a policy shift that rights groups immediately condemned.

The move, described by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as "very hard line," aims to deter an escalating number of asylum seekers who travel to Australia in rickety fishing boats from poor, war-torn homelands through other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

The growing influx is a major political problem for Rudd's Labor Party, which is the clear underdog in elections expected within months.

"From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees," Rudd told reporters after signing a pact with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill of Papua New that will enable Australia to deport refugees there.

The policy was condemned by refugee and human rights advocates.

The new plan "shows not only a complete disregard for asylum seekers but absolute contempt for legal and moral obligations," said Graeme McGregor, Amnesty International's refugee campaign coordinator for Australia.

David Manne, executive director of Australia's Refugee and Immigration Legal Center, described it as "a fundamental repudiation of our commitment to protecting refugees."

Manne described Papua New Guinea—which is near Australia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean—as an unsafe country where violence is widespread and serious human rights abuses are a daily occurrence.

Rudd said the policy met Australia's obligations under the United Nations' Refugee Convention. Papua New Guinea is a signatory of the same convention that sets out refugees' rights.

The rules will apply to asylum seekers who arrive from Friday.

Asylum seekers who arrive by boat would continue to have their refugee claims assessed in Australia and at detention camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Australia would help genuine refugees settle in Papua New Guinea—a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers. Those who are found not to be genuine refugees could return to their home countries or another country other than Australia.

By Friday, 15,728 asylum seekers had arrived by boat this year. The arrivals are on track to exceed last year's total of 17,202 as well as the government's target of resettling 20,000 refugees a year.

Iran has become the biggest source country. Asylum seekers from Iran last year accounted for one in seven arrivals. This year, they make up one in three.

Indonesia announced Thursday it will stop issuing visas on arrival to Iranians in a bid to stem the flow to Australia.

Rudd said his government would negotiate with other neighbors in a bid to restrict visa access from other source countries. Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Bangladesh and Burma are the next largest sources of asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores.

O'Neill set no limit on how many asylum seekers his country was prepared to accept.

"It is not going to be easy, but of course Papua New Guinea is blessed with a large land mass and a very small population so there is enough assistance that we can give to the Australian government," O'Neill said.

Australia is PNG's former colonial master and is now its largest source of foreign aid. In return for accepting the refugees, Rudd said Australia will redevelop a hospital in PNG's second largest city and reform the country's university sector.

The new policy echoes that of a previous Australian government that in 2001 also pledged that asylum seekers who arrived by boat would never be accepted by Australia. That policy all but stopped the asylum seeker traffic.

Some refugees spent years in an Australian-run detention camp on the tiny Pacific atoll of Nauru before Australia eventually resettled them because no other country would.

A protest by 150 asylum seekers on Nauru turned violent Friday with several demonstrators and their guards injured, Australia's Immigration Department said in a statement.

The department said the unrest was unrelated to the new policy, which was announced later.

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta contributed to this report.

WHO Had Asked India to Ban Toxin That Killed Children

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 11:08 PM PDT

School children eat their free mid-day meal, distributed by a government-run primary school, at Brahimpur village in Chapra district of the eastern Indian state of Bihar on July 19, 2013. (Photo: Reuter / Adnan Abidi)

NEW DELHI/LONDON — The pesticide that killed 23 Indian schoolchildren last week is a nerve poison banned by many countries because of what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as its "high acute toxicity."

As early as 2009, the United Nations health agency urged India to consider a ban on the pesticide monocrotophos—the substance said by a magistrate investigating the deaths to be the cause of the poisoning.

It had also warned that in India—against strong international health warnings—many pesticide containers are not thrown away after use but recycled and used for storing water, food and other consumables.

In last week's case in the Indian state of Bihar, the children fell ill within minutes of eating a meal of rice and potato curry in their one-room school. They were vomiting and convulsing with stomach cramps—symptoms that experts say would be common in poisoning with such a toxic chemical.

The lunch was part of India's Mid-Day Meal Scheme, which aims to tackle malnutrition and encourage 120 million poor children to attend school. It had already drawn widespread complaints over food safety.

An initial forensic investigation found the Bihar children's meal had been prepared with cooking oil that contained monocrotophos—a substance that belongs to a family of chemicals called organophosphates that share a common mechanism of toxic action.

"Basically they are nerve poisons," said David Coggon, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Britain's University of Southampton.

"They interfere with transmission between one nerve and another, or with transmission between nerves and muscle cells."

According to WHO, swallowing just 120 milligrams of monocrotophos—the weight of about five grains of rice—can be fatal to humans. Initial symptoms can include sweating, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and hyper-salivation, or foaming at the mouth.

Monocrotophos controls a range of pests from aphids to caterpillars, mites, moths, stem borers and locusts on various crops such as cotton, rice and sugarcane.

According to a detailed 2009 WHO report on the health risks of monocrotophos in India, the countries and regions that have banned its use include Australia, Cambodia, China, the European Union, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States. Its import is illegal in at least 46 countries.

Yet in India, monocrotophos "is widely used and easily available," and is frequently linked to fatal poisoning, both accidental and intentional.

"Its low cost and many possible applications have kept up demand in India despite growing evidence of its negative impact on human health," the WHO report said.

And although both the WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recommend puncturing and crushing pesticide containers to prevent people using them for anything else, in India "the reality is different," the WHO said.

"Many pesticide containers, because of their sturdiness and look, are often later used to store objects, food grains and water, and sometimes even medicines."

Coggon said that, while a ban on monocrotophos would doubtless help reduce its risks in India, using it more safely could also help to reduce the threat.

"It's about trying to develop a safety culture," he said. "It's about developing systems that will ensure these things are handled as safely as possible—having the right sorts of containers, the size, the formulation … and educating people about the use of chemicals in general."

Cambodia Opposition Leader Loses Bid to Vote, Run

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 10:58 PM PDT

Sam Rainsy, center, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, is surrounded by his supporters in Kampong Speu province on July 20, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Samrang Pring)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's national election body on Monday rejected a late bid by the country's opposition leader to register as a candidate and vote in the general election this coming weekend.

The National Election Committee said in a letter to Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, that he had missed the deadlines for both running and voting in the July 28 polls. Rainsy and his lawyers had applied for him to vote and be on the ballot.

Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party is expected to maintain its large majority in parliament, but the vast and enthusiastic crowds that greeted Rainsy's return on Friday suggest the opposition may make its strongest showing ever.

Rainsy returned from self-imposed exile last week after archrival Hun Sen arranged to pardon him for convictions that would have put him in prison for 11 years. Rainsy had called his convictions politically inspired.

Hun Sen has been in power for 28 years and says he has no intention of stepping down soon. His authoritarian rule has given him a stranglehold over the state bureaucracy that makes challenges to his authority difficult to mount.

Rainsy and Cambodian and international rights groups charge the election environment and preparations do not meet international standards for being free and fair, with Hun Sen and his ruling party maintaining too much influence over the process.

Hun Sen said he sought the royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni in the interests of national reconciliation and unity. However, the move is more generally seen as an effort to undercut criticism over the polls, which had focused on Rainsy's exclusion. The United States and other governments had said Rainsy's exclusion from the campaign would call into question the polls' legitimacy.

The ruling by the National Election Committee is unlikely to slow the momentum of the opposition's new upsurge as Sam Rainsy, a charismatic and fiery speaker, attracts large crowds on a whirlwind schedule taking him to over a dozen provinces in a week.

In the long run, however, it puts him in a legally vulnerable position, as he will not have the protection of parliamentary immunity from arrest. In recent years, Hun Sen and his ruling party, who used to be accused of the widespread use of violence and intimidation against their opponents, have instead used the courts to harass and cripple them. The judiciary especially is criticized by rights groups for being under the government's influence.

Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for 28 years, and his party has 90 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly. The 60-year-old prime minister recently said that he intends to stay in office until he is 74—cutting back from an earlier vow to stay in control until he's 90.

The election will be the fifth parliamentary poll since the United Nations brokered a peace deal for Cambodia in 1991, a process mean to end the decades of bloodshed that included the communist Khmer Rouge's catastrophe 1975-79 rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died in torture centers and labor camps or of starvation or disease.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)