Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Images of the Uprising

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:36 AM PDT

As part of a Silver Jubilee to commemorate the 1988 pro-democracy uprising in Burma, a collection of archival images has been put on display this week at the Myanmar Convention Center in Rangoon. During the nationwide uprising 25 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Burmese joined demonstrations to end the 26-year dictatorship of Gen Ne Win. The military government crushed the protests, killing thousands of people.

Minister Attends 1988 Uprising Ceremony, Donates to Leaders

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:17 AM PDT

Mya Aye, left, an 88 Generation leader and Minister Aung Min talk together at the 25th anniversary commemoration of the 1988 student uprising in Rangoon on Wednesday. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Marking a day shy of 25 years since Burmese students took to the streets in defiance of army rule, President's Office Minister Aung Min made a brief visit on Wednesday to the Rangoon conference hall where the former demonstrators now known as the 88 Generation are holding a three-day event to commemorate the 1988 protests.

Aung Min, the Burma government's chief negotiator in the 17 peace processes ongoing with many of the country's ethnic minority militias, sat briefly with 88 Generation leader and longtime political prisoner Pyone Cho, before giving a short address to the crowd at the Myanmar Convention Center, a cavernous hall temporarily bedecked in 1988 memorabilia, in the north of Rangoon.

"Let us take lessons from what has been done wrong from history, and let us all work together to build a new generation," the minister told the gathering, in perhaps a tacit admission by Burma's government that it did not react appropriately to the 1988 demonstrations.

The heady days of the 1988 protests were marked, in the end, by tragedy: A brutal military crackdown killed more than 3,000 civilians and saw thousands of demonstrators jailed. The 25th anniversary of the crackdown has prompted human rights groups to call for accountability for crimes committed at the time.

But now, more than two years into a reform process that many see as stalling of late—with a spate of recent arrests and jailings of land rights protestors—the government's attitude toward those it once shot at and jailed is much-changed. After his remarks, Aung Min donated 1 million kyat (US$1,025) to the 88 Generation, and then spent a short time touring the various photo displays and artwork set up around the conference hall, guided by Mya Aye, another student protest leader from 1988 who spent much of the intervening two decades in jail. Minister for Cooperatives Ohn Myint, another prominent government peace negotiator, gave 500,000 kyat to the group.

Earlier this week, Aung Min headed a government delegation that met with the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), a rebel group that dates its existence to 1988 and whose former student cadres have most recently been fighting in Burma's northern Kachin State alongside the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). A KIA ceasefire with the government collapsed in June 2011.

"We will work together in Myanmar's political and democratic reforms. The government and the ABSDF are no longer enemies. We have become close friends. The agreement we have reached now is a milestone in history," Aung Min told journalists after the Monday meeting in Rangoon.

Former ABSDF leader Moe Thee Zun, a former political prisoner and exile in the United States, recently returned to Burma to attend the silver jubilee commemorations. He says the memories— and the ongoing travails in Burma's reform process—are a source of ambivalence. "I have very mixed feelings as I miss those who lost their lives in those days and since," he told The Irrawaddy.

On his second visit to Burma since the March 2011 formation of a quasi-civilian government and the start of the post-military reforms, Moe Thee Zun said he hopes to return to Burma permanently. Brushing off some of the attacks on Facebook and other social networks that he has received for speaking out about recent violence and discrimination against Burma's Muslims, he shrugged, saying, "I don't care about that, it is part of a democracy."

At the time of the 1988 protests, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's independence hero Gen Aung San, was in Burma to visit her mother, and after the initial student protests, she addressed a huge crowd around the Shwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon's most sacred shrine, on Aug. 25 of that year, marking the start of her political career.

Suu Kyi spent a decade and a half of the intervening years under house arrest, before winning a seat in Burma's Parliament in April 2012. Commenting on the work of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Parliament, Moe Thee Zun told The Irrawaddy that he believes the party led by Suu Kyi could do more to push reforms in Burma. "I want to see more action, more democratic principle within her party as well," he said.

And, while many of the 88 Generation have remained non-committal about whether they will form a political party or join other parties in advance of Burma's 2015 national elections, Moe Thee Zun says he wants to run for office. "I have a dream that I can join the election and can be a politician to serve a free Burma," he told The Irrawaddy. "If the government and the law allows me, that is."

Burma Army Frees More Child Soldiers as Part of Pact to End Practice

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:08 AM PDT

A child soldier in the Burmese army. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

BANGKOK — The Burma Army discharged 68 children and young people on Wednesday, the United Nations said, exactly a month after it released 42 children and young adults who had been recruited for soldiering and other duties.

Senior officials from the army, representatives of the government, the United Nations and aid agencies were present at the release ceremony, said the statement from Unicef, the UN children's agency.

The impoverished Southeast Asian nation is one of 22 countries worldwide that the United Nations says are violating international law on the rights of children in armed conflict.

After years of negotiations, Burma signed an agreement in June 2012 with the United Nations to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Wednesday's release was the largest since the accord was signed.

However, rights groups have criticized Burma's government for not moving quickly enough to free them and urged the army—also known as the Tatmadaw—and rebel groups to stop recruiting young people.

Shalini Bahuguna, the Rangoon-based deputy representative for Unicef in Burma, welcomed the release and called for the discharge to be accelerated.

"Over the past 13 months, the Tatmadaw has discharged 176 children and young people formerly used and recruited as children to jubilant families and friends," she said in the statement. "The time has come for the mass release of all children from the Myanmar armed forces."

The latest report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Burma's government had made progress in reducing the recruitment of children to serve as fighters but still needed to stamp out the practice.

It said seven ethnic armed groups—including Karen groups such as the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in the east of the country and the Kachin in the north—also recruit and use child soldiers.

In late July, the KNLA signed a commitment to protect children from armed conflict and prevent recruitment of child soldiers, said Geneva Call, a Swiss humanitarian organization that works to protect civilians affected by conflicts.

While no verifiable data exists on the number of children recruited by the Tatmadaw, human rights group Burma Campaign UK estimates there are 5,000.

Burma’s Parliament Pushes for Ethnic Minority Rights

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 05:02 AM PDT

Parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann is pictured last year, when he was speaker of the Lower House. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's Parliament is considering how Constitutional amendments could protect the rights of ethnic minorities and promote a more federal system, lawmakers say.

Parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann hosted a meeting on Tuesday with other lawmakers, including ethnic minority lawmakers, to discuss options for moving toward a system that gives states and divisions more power over their own affairs.

According to a statement about the meeting published on Parliament's official website, the group considered possible Constitutional amendments to safeguard the rights of ethnic minorities, who comprise about 40 percent of Burma's 60 million or so population.

Lawmakers said the suggested amendments would protect the right of ethnic minorities to practice their own religions and host traditional ceremonies, and to teach ethnic literature and languages. Other suggested amendments would give ethnic minorities equal rights to health care and employment, and another revision would call for ethnic representatives to lead state-level governments, rather than former generals from the majority Burman ethnicity.

Two possible options were discussed on Tuesday for working toward a federal system: The Constitution could be completely rewritten, or it could be amended. Several lawmakers at the meeting said the second option would likely be easier.

In either case, Shwe Mann, a high-ranking member of the former regime who has expressed ambitions for becoming the country's next president, said more protections were needed for ethnic minority rights.

"The 2008 Constitution gave rights to the people. But if the people say those rights have not been respected, it's the duty of Union ministers to work on that," the parliamentary speaker said, as quoted by the Daily Eleven newspaper.

"If the ethnic minority people and the people haven't gotten their rights yet, how can they be satisfied?" he added. "It will be difficult to achieve national reconciliation. There should be a Constitution that is respected by everyone."

Burma began a process of political reform two years ago, after nearly half a century of military rule and decades of civil war between ethnic minority groups and the Burman-dominated national government. President Thein Sein's administration has signed ceasefire deals with 10 of the country's 11 major rebel groups, but clashes continue in some areas and ethnic minorities say their demands for political dialogue have not been met.

Burma's government recognizes eight major ethnic groups in the country and dozens of subgroups, for a total of 135 groups. The former regime said allowing a federal system or autonomy would encourage secessionist impulses.

Burma's Parliament has established a 109-member committee to consider amendments to the Constitution that could allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run for president and provide greater protections for ethnic minorities. The committee is dominated by the ruling party, with 50 members from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and 25 representatives from the military, plus seven members from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and five from ethnic-based parties.

Any amendment to the Constitution would require approval from at least 75 percent of Parliament. That poses a challenge for opposition parties because the USDP and military control more than 80 percent of seats.

"It's better to write a new one," Hkun Htun Oo, an ethnic Shan leader, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. "It might take a long time to amend it."

He said the current Constitution was not based on the people's wishes, as it was drafted without prior consultation with the NLD and other opposition groups.

"Let all people participate in writing a new Constitution," he said. "If all people can't participate, how can we solve conflicts in the country?"

Tun Ohn, an Upper House lawmaker from the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMDP), is also calling for a fresh draft.

"I believe it's better to write a new Constitution, as I have found there are no equal rights for ethnic minority groups in the current Constitution," he said.

Ba Shein, an ethnic Arakanese lawyer and lawmaker who represents the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party in the Lower House, said, "They need to share power in order to make this a fair system, as there are eight main ethnic groups in the country."

Mi Myint Than, another AMDP lawmaker, said ethnic lawmakers planned to call another meeting with Shwe Mann to discuss the issue of federalism.

"We will talk to him about our feelings on the issue of federalism for the country," he said. "We have listened to what he has to say. We want him to listen to our voice."

HRW Calls on Thein Sein to Seek Justice for ’88 Victims

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 04:55 AM PDT

Pro-democracy protesters face off against Burmese Army troops in Rangoon during the 1988 uprising. (Photo courtesy of the Silver Jubilee '88 Uprising Exhibition)

Ahead of the silver jubilee anniversary of Burma's 1988 popular uprising, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged President Thein Sein to commit to an independent investigation and fair prosecutions of officials and commanders responsible for the mass killing of pro-democracy protesters 25 years ago.

The New York-based international human rights watchdog said Burma's friends and donors should make clear that genuine reform in Burma means ensuring justice for victims of the 1988 massacres and other serious human rights violations perpetrated by the former military regime.

The 1988 uprising, which nearly toppled the military junta, was brutally crushed by the Burmese Army in a suppression campaign that killed thousands of protesters and injured countless more.

"The mass killings 25 years ago in Burma are an unaddressed open wound that challenges the government's rhetoric of reform," Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The government should shed itself of 50 years of denial about military abuses by showing that it stands with the Burmese people and not with the killers of the past," he added.

The nationwide uprising that peaked on Aug. 8, 1988, was joined by hundreds of thousands of students, Buddhist monks, civil servants and ordinary citizens. The intensity of the uprising shocked the military regime, which finally ordered a lethal crackdown on the protests, with troops firing on the unarmed demonstrators.

Daily protests continued through most of August and September as the crackdown became more violent. Some protesters fled, seeking refuge in neighboring countries, while others fought back.

Bertil Lintner, a veteran Swedish journalist who has written several books about Burma, told The Irrawaddy that the wounds of 1988 persisted.

"It is obvious that the atrocities committed in 1988 have not been forgotten, and the people in power cannot go on pretending that it's not an issue, or, as President Thein Sein [does], go on claiming that the military 'saved the country' by killing unarmed demonstrators."

"Human Rights Watch is right: Those responsible for the massacres should be brought to justice," Lintner added.

The pro-democracy group Burma Campaign UK went a step further on Wednesday, demanding that Thein Sein "reveal the exact role he played in suppressing the uprising."

"Thein Sein spent 40 years as a soldier in one of the world's most brutal military dictatorships, including during the crushing of the uprising in 1988," said Anna Roberts, executive director of Burma Campaign UK. "It is time Thein Sein acknowledged past human rights abuses and came clean about his own role in past abuses."

Citing a leaked US diplomatic cable from 2004 that said Thein Sein "distinguished himself" in the 1988 crackdown, the London-based advocacy group said the president should take the 25th anniversary to address his role in the rights abuses for the first time.

"These abuses need to be investigated and those responsible held to account," Roberts continued, echoing HRW's appeal. "At the same time it must be remembered that in Thein Sein's Burma, abuses are not a thing of the past, they are a daily fact of life. The international community should be paying more attention to the fact that despite reforms, serious human rights abuses have continued since Thein Sein became president."

HRW on Tuesday also reiterated its call to the Burmese government to immediately release all remaining political prisoners and repeal laws still used to prevent or curtail peaceful protests.

"If the government recognizes past atrocities and commits to accountability, the anniversary of 8.8.88 could be a pivotal moment in addressing decades of repressive rule. It could even be the start of a new era if the military and government move from denial to admission and from impunity to justice," Adams said.

Additional reporting by Andrew D. Kaspar.

Making Revolution Happen

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 02:53 AM PDT

Christopher Gunness conducted clandestine radio interviews with several Burmese students and activists that were broadcast to millions of Burmese in 1988. (Photo: bbc.co.uk)

Award-winning journalist Christopher Gunness, a former BBC correspondent, was in Burma during the nationwide pro-democracy uprising in 1988. He conducted clandestine radio interviews with several Burmese students and activists that were broadcast to millions of Burmese, and the military government accused the reports of triggering the August uprising. Fifteen years later, in 2003, Gunness remained blacklisted from entering Burma and was considered a top enemy of the junta. The Irrawaddy caught up with him that year via email and asked about his reporting experiences from 1988. Now, as the country commemorates the 25th anniversary of the uprising, we look back at what he had to say.

Question: When you worked in Burma as a reporter in 1988, did you get the sense that the sporadic student protests early in the year would flare up into a nationwide uprising?

Answer: I was in no doubt at all that Burma was a bomb waiting to explode; the only questions in my mind were, "When and what would be the trigger?" In 1987 there had been sporadic trouble because of the demonetization, and the students were clearly aggrieved during the early months of '88. I firmly believe Ne Win also felt that huge problems were going to flare up, unless he acted. I'm not suggesting that he was acting without self-interest, but in a pragmatic way, to protect his own interests. I believe he knew there would be major challenges to his rule unless he did something bold—which is exactly what he did, in announcing multi-party democracy and a pluralist economy. He recognized the problem, but like the administrations he spawned, had neither the will, ability, decency or imagination to find a solution.

Q: You interviewed female students who said they were raped in prison, but the government later exposed the charges as a total fabrication, and many activists back those claims. Do you still believe the stories of your interviewees? How did it affect your work as a professional reporter?

A: I have no doubt at all that the women I met had been raped. Their body language was unmistakable, and having met rape victims—subsequently in the Balkans—there are no doubts in my mind at all. The treatment of these women has also been confirmed subsequently by several unimpeachable sources. As far as government accusations are concerned, nothing the generals say will ever affect my work, except to make me more determined to keep them accountable to world opinion, if not to the people of Burma itself. I have been the subject of frequent vitriolic attacks and I take this as the highest possible compliment. It is a continued sign that my reporting is accurate and that the truth continues to irk the Burmese generals and those in East Asian governments who continue to support them.

Q: What frustrations and regrets did you experience working as a journalist covering Burma from Rangoon?

A: The greatest frustration and regret is for my friends in Burma who have suffered so much. And I regret the fact that the international community has done so little to promote change. There has always been a cause of greater interest to the men who really run the world, in Washington, European capitals and in places like Tokyo and Beijing. Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or wherever has always forced Burma off the international agenda. But I think things are changing, and since Iraq, toleration for rogue states is diminishing. And while I find the methodology of the hawks in Washington problematic, if their agenda of promoting American liberal values all over the world is followed to its logical conclusion, this can only be of benefit, ultimately to Burma.

Q: Are you still blacklisted from visiting Burma? Have you tried to return? Do you want to? If you could, what would you do?

A: Yes, I am banned. I have had it made clear to me by ambassadors in London that a visa application would not be successful. However, I have been across the border through Thailand on one occasion, but it is very frustrating not being able to go to Rangoon. If I could visit, I would be extremely careful about who I spoke to, as I have little doubt that the military intelligence would arrest anyone talking to me. If I could go, I'd try to report on aspects of Burma that touch peoples' lives rather than bang on about democracy and human rights. Although human rights are important, I would like to tell some human stories about how people have survived through 15 years of oppression. The story of modern Burma is a story about the enduring nature of the human spirit. The struggle for democracy is only one aspect of that.

Q: Both dissidents and the regime acknowledge that your reports during the build-up to the uprising played a key role in triggering the public's outrage. How do you feel now that the name Christopher Gunness has become part of the 8.8.88 legend? What was your role as a reporter?

A: The truth is that I feel very embarrassed for several reasons. Firstly, I think it is wrong. People were already outraged, not by my reporting, but by what the government was doing. To suggest that what outraged over 40 million people was the reportage of a very inexperienced BBC reporter is to miss the point about what was happening and to diminish the role of the Burmese people in those events. The Burmese people themselves rose up. They are the true heroes of 1988. All I did was report on it. Secondly, to overplay my role in the '88 events is to play into the hands of the generals. It is all too easy for a corrupt, inefficient and greedy government to blame a single reporter. It suggests that the problem is not them, but a foreigner—a classic but crass attempt to find an external scapegoat. In addition, it subtly plays on old fears and memories in East Asia about British colonialism. What I did was not neo-colonial; however, much the government would like to believe that the BBC has a specific agenda in Burma. It does not. It is my role as a reporter and the BBC's role as an international broadcaster, to hold a mirror up to Burma. If the generals don't like what they see, they have only themselves to blame.

Q: What is your assessment of the current situation in Burma? Do you see any parallels with 1988?

A: When a place is an information black hole, it is almost impossible to say anything meaningful about it. How can one assess the situation in Burma, when the government controls information so tightly and where the opposition isn't free to operate and talk to journalists? But I do think the situation is different now. In '88 there was a genuine question mark over the decency of the army and about whether the army would bow to the overwhelming will of the people who it served. That question mark was dramatically removed when in September '88, the army showed that it was prepared to slaughter thousands of people, including unarmed women and children. And today, that remains the reality. So I think it unlikely that there could be a popular uprising like 1988. But on the positive side, I think the international climate is changing. US-led action in Iraq and Afghanistan does serve notice to tyrants everywhere that they could be next. And once the argument shifted away from weapons of mass destruction to the human rights record of Saddam Hussein, it was easier to hope that those who violate international humanitarian law, like the generals in Rangoon, will be held to account.

Q: In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 8.8.88, can you share some of your memories of Burma's struggle for democracy?

A: I remember the kindness and bravery of the Burmese—those who contacted me clandestinely and, in spite of the all-pervasive military intelligence, risked their own lives to help me. And of course I remember my Burmese friends who have suffered and died.

Q: Do you have any words for the people of Burma?

A: That's a bit grand, isn't it? But if I have a message at all, it is that no suffering is ever in vain. Looking back through history, even the mightiest of empires, with their lofty values and noble institutions, come to an end. And the Burmese regime is anything but mighty and lofty. It is bankrupt, literally and intellectually. The other thing I would want to stress is that though it must often feel horribly isolated to be Burmese, the outside world is actually looking. People are recording your suffering and the deeds of the Burmese generals, and when justice comes, as it inevitably will, the world will be prepared.

This interview was originally published by The Irrawaddy on September 1, 2003.

Activists Reject Bill on Associations as Legislation Goes to Parliament

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 02:29 AM PDT

Peace protesters are confronted by security forces at People's Square in Rangoon in September 2012. (Photo: Kyaw Pyo Tha / The Irrawaddy)

Activists have objected to a draft Association Bill that will soon go before the Lower House of Parliament for consideration, with critics saying the proposal would see Burma's civil society whither under onerous regulations.

Despite widespread criticism over the proposed legislation by civil society activists, the Lower House agreed on Monday to deliberate the bill later this week or early next week.

Some 90 civil society groups in Rangoon and Mandalay had objected to the draft bill after a parliamentary committee asked for their suggestions last week.

"We object to the draft legislation because it is not clear even in its first section defining an 'association,' which says groups—either small or big—networks and unions need to inform the local authority about their formation," said Moe Thway, leader of the Rangoon-based youth activist group Generation Wave.

He told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the bill "violates the right to freedom of association as well as violating Section 354[c] of the [2008 military-backed] Constitution." Section 354(c) states that every citizen has a right "to form associations and organizations" as long as the group's formation and activities are not "contrary to the laws, enacted for Union security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquility or public order and morality."

"It [the draft bill] says even a small group of philanthropists gathering to provide social assistance must submit information about their gathering to provide relief," Moe Thway said. "That is unacceptable and directly violates our basic rights."

According to the draft legislation, which was shared with the activists, any organization must inform a yet-to-be-established committee about the formation of any association and must provide the group's name. Failure to register with the relevant authority could see both organizational leaders and members face jail terms as well as fines.

Leaders could be sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment and fined 500,000 kyat (US$515), and members would face up to six months in prison and fines of 100,000 kyat.

Lower House lawmaker Ba Shein, a member of Parliament's Bill Committee, said the bill was submitted because regulations governing associations were currently lacking. Ba Shein, a member of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, argued that legislation was needed during Burma's period of democratic transition to monitor the activities of organizations.

"It is true that administrative officials may want to restrict the associations' activities, but we will have to see how much we [lawmakers] can relax those hindrances," he added.

Activists say they agree that nongovernmental organizations, many of which accept financial assistance from foreign funders, should be required to register for the sake of financial transparency. However, they claim that passage of the proposed Association Bill would serve to deter smaller community-based groups seeking to provide a social service.

Min Htet Nyein Chan, a member of Mandalay's Sein Yaung So environmental group, agreed that the draft legislation would discourage a vibrant community of civil society organizations (CSOs).

"We just want a law that will strengthen the role of the CSOs," he said, adding that the input of people working in the field should be included in the bill's drafting process.

NGOs and CSOs in Burma must register under guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs two decades ago, but the existing guidelines allow most small and less formal associations to operate without officially registering. Last August, a proposal for a new NGO registration bill was raised in Parliament, but it was rejected by the ministry and did not pass into law.

With Burma's transition to democracy, small community-based groups have mushroomed since 2011, with organizations providing social, health and education services in the increasingly open society that has come about as a result of President Thein Sein's political reforms.

Moe Thway of Generation Wave said burdensome registration requirements could actually cost lives, pointing to HIV/AIDS organizations that distribute critical antiretroviral drugs as one group that cannot afford to waste time sorting out bureaucratic red tape.

Civil society activists submitted their suggestions to Parliament's Bill Committee in early July and will attempt to reach out to Shwe Mann, who acts as speaker of both houses, with their concerns next week.

Still haunted?

Posted: 07 Aug 2013 02:06 AM PDT

Floods in Philippines, Burma Displace Tens of Thousands

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 11:57 PM PDT

Workers try to clear a stretch of the road between Myawaddy and Hpa-an after it was hit by a landslide following days of heavy rain. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

BANGKOK — Severe flooding caused by days of heavy monsoon rains has displaced some 120,000 people in the Philippines and Burma, and the rains may not be over yet.

The government-run Philippines News Agency said up to 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes following incessant rains in Maguindanao and North Cotabato in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

In southeastern Burma, more than 23,000 people in five states and regions remain displaced by flash floods, though the waters are now starting to recede and most shelters are expected to close in the next few days, according to the latest report by the United Nations.

"The affected areas see flooding annually, but this year it was worse because the rains are heavier due to the depression and storm in Bay of Bengal and the strong monsoon," said Maung Maung Khin, head of the Disaster Management Division at Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Both countries regularly suffer from seasonal floods but the relentless downpour in the past week has submerged many areas and there have been reports of landslides, flash floods and riverbanks collapsing.

More than two-thirds of the villages in the Philippines' Cotabato City have been submerged by floodwaters for a week and forced tens of thousands of residents to move to safer ground, the PNA said, quoting Cotabato City Administrator Cynthia Guiani Sayadi.

Cotabato's clogged drainage canals and location between the heavily stilted Rio Grande de Mindanao and Tamontaka rivers contributed to the flooding, it added.

Monsoon Paddy Losses

More rain is forecast for southern Burma but rain is also expected in central Burma, which has been unusually dry, the Red Cross's Maung Maung Khin told Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Burma.

"In Upper Myanmar, heavy rain during the monsoon usually leads to flooding from the rivers such as Ayeyarwaddy and Chin Dwin. This year though, it's been dry in places which usually receive flood warnings," he said.

"We're looking to see how it will unfold in the late monsoon period. So while we are monitoring the flood situation in southern Myanmar, we're hoping for rain in central Myanmar," he added.

The floods in Burma came at a time when farmers in the affected areas—Karen, Mon and Arakan states, as well as Tenasserim and Irrawaddy divisions—were working on the monsoon paddy. Tens of thousands of acres of fields in Mon and Karen have been inundated.

The paddy can be ruined after a week under water and the farmers will need to work fast to prepare the soil again in order to get the crops ready before the monsoon ends, said Maung Maung Khin.

"It's not certain whether all the farmers will be able to make it so they will probably need help with this. They have also lost their livestock and other household items," he said.

"There are health concerns due to the continued presence of floodwaters but the department of health and other organizations are working to monitor the issue and providing timely preventive support so we haven't seen any outbreaks," he added.

No Ties? No Problem as China Courts Taiwan’s Remaining Allies

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 11:49 PM PDT

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou gives a speech during a commissioning ceremony in the port of Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, on March 30, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Pichi Chuang)

BEIJING/MEXICO CITY — Taiwan's last remaining diplomatic allies are developing increasingly tight economic ties with China, in a trend that could increase Taiwan's diplomatic isolation if the current detente between Beijing and Taipei fails.

The world's second-largest economy is gaining soft power with a series of investment commitments in Central America, home to the last significant bloc of countries that still maintain formal ties with Taiwan.

But instead of jumping on the chance to make new allies, China is stalling on Central American requests to establish diplomatic relations. The goal is to avoid galling Taiwanese voters, as Beijing is also courting the administration of the island's president, Ma Ying-jeou.

That leaves China with a trump card if cross-straits relations turn cooler under future administrations. It could then pull the diplomatic rug out from under Taiwan by engineering a mass defection of its remaining friends, analysts say.

"The economics are hot although the politics are still cold," said Zhang Zhexin, who studies Taiwan policy at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies. He estimates China has rebuffed at least five countries' requests to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

"If it weren't for the desire to support Ma, we would have let them switch already. But now we are not as much in a rush as before."

Costa Rica was the most recent nation to recognize Beijing in 2007, leaving Taiwan with 23 allies ranging in size from Paraguay to the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru.

A US State Department cable released by Wikileaks indicates that Panama sought to recognize Beijing in 2009, but was rebuffed.

"It doesn't make any sense anymore economically speaking to be affiliated with Taiwan," said Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin America program at the Interamerican Dialogue.

Beijing became more conciliatory toward Ma's ruling Nationalist Party under China's previous president, Hu Jintao, and tried to woo Taiwan's people with carrots rather than sticks.

China and Taiwan have signed a series of landmark trade and economic deals since the China-friendly Ma was elected in 2008, and the two sides have since observed an unofficial truce in the competition to lure diplomatic recognition with expensive investment deals.

Nonetheless, Beijing—the People's Republic of China (PRC)—regards separately ruled Taiwan as a renegade province, to be reunited with force if necessary. The two have been governed separately since the Communist Party won the Chinese civil war in 1949, and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan.

"The PRC now wants to be in a position without violating the truce of effectively being able to say … 'we are essentially in a position where we can take away the last remaining pieces of your diplomatic legitimacy,'" said Evan Ellis, assistant professor at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies in Washington, DC.

Business Ties That Bind

A number of Central American "dream" projects might have strategic interest for China as it seeks cheaper shipping routes for gas, ore and soybeans from the Caribbean or the Atlantic ports. But the greater allure seems to be for Central American politicians, who envision Chinese funding for their grand plans.

Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, which has ties with Taiwan, has granted a 50-year concession to a Chinese telecoms businessman with no experience in infrastructure projects, to build a canal from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean that would challenge the Panama Canal's dominance. The price tag for this project, long desired by Nicaragua, is about $40 billion.

Not to be outdone, the president of Honduras, which also has ties with Taiwan, announced that China Harbour Engineering Corp (CHEC) was conducting a feasibility study for a $20 billion port and rail project, also to cross the isthmus. China Harbour executives said they agreed to do the study, but have not yet received a contract.

Meanwhile, plans for China Railway Group to build a trans-isthmus rail and port project in Colombia, which recognizes Beijing, have seen little progress since they were announced by President Juan Manuel Santos in 2010, diplomats say.

And Guatemala is trying to tap Taiwan to finance the revival of its national train system, which has not operated for several years. Taiwan, which has ties with Guatemala, has agreed to develop a blueprint.

Beijing's single Central American ally, Costa Rica, has asked for help developing a special economic zone in impoverished port regions.

Still, in practice, Chinese firms prefer to take less risky roles as cost-effective contractors on projects that range from American-backed power plants in Guatemala to Panamanian port projects.

"In terms of our business development, we can participate in a project regardless of whether there is diplomatic recognition," said CHEC vice president Shi Yingtao. His company has worked on Panamanian port projects for Taiwanese shipping firm Evergreen Marine Corp.

While Chinese money might threaten Taiwan's diplomatic standing, Taiwan's vibrant business community has not lost out. They continue to operate export-oriented factories in Southeast Asia—despite a lack of diplomatic recognition—and in mainland China, where their investments were a major driving force for the spectacular growth of the past three decades.

In fact, politically driven overseas projects by the Taiwan government have in the past failed to attract significant interest from Taiwan businesses, to Taipei's embarrassment.

"They spent a lot of money over the years competing for recognition but without much result. There was a very low return on investment," said Chin-Ming Lin of the Graduate Institute of the Americas at Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Additional reporting by Mike McDonald in Guatemala City, Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Ivan Castro in Managua, Isabella Cota in San Jose and Lomi Kriel in Panama City.

Cambodian Opposition Threatens Protest

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:56 PM PDT

Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, makes a point as he addresses reporters at his party's headquarters in Phnom Penh. (Photo: Reuters / Pring Samrang)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's opposition party declared Tuesday it will call for a street protest if demands for an impartial investigation of irregularities in the country's recent general election are not met, raising further tensions over the disputed results.

Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy told a rally of as many as 10,000 supporters that the protest would take place in the coming days if the state National Election Committee failed to accept his side's conditions for an investigation.

Earlier, he said his party will reject the official election results due to be announced this Saturday. The election committee has said it would ratify them four days later if it receives no objections. A complaint by the opposition would mean the committee would postpone ratifying the results until Sept. 8

Provisional results released by the government-appointed election committee favor the ruling party's claim to have won 68 seats of 123 National Assembly seats against the opposition's 55. Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he will take office again if those results stand.

The opposition says it won 63 seats. Both projections show a substantial gain from the 29 seats the opposition had in the last assembly.

The threat to bring protesters into the streets ups the ante in the post-election maneuvering between Rainsy's party and Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party.

The prospect that the losing side will not peacefully accept the results has rattled some Cambodians who recall street fighting in the capital following previous elections.

The strong showing by the opposition has stirred passion among its supporters. In his spirited speech in a public park, Sam Rainsy sought to fan their enthusiasm for the long-odds battle against Hun Sen, who has led the country for 28 years.

"This time we're not scared at all," he said. "Don't intimidate us. There will be a demonstration 10 times bigger than this rally in the upcoming days."

His party charges that voter registrations were manipulated so that more than 1 million people may have been denied their right to vote. Several non-partisan groups have supported the claim.

Sam Rainsy on Tuesday released a letter to the election committee reiterating his party's demand that a special committee be set up to investigate allegations of irregularities. Preliminary agreement was reached Saturday among the committee and the contending parties to form such a group, but the opposition declined to attend its organizational meeting the next day because the group's membership was too limited.

He said that in view of the problems—including missing, duplicated and misspelled names of voters on the electoral rolls, and people registered at polling stations in areas where they were not residents—his party could not accept the results, and called for a special investigating committee to be established with representatives of the two major parties and Cambodian and foreign election observers, with the election committee as coordinator and the United Nations as mediator.

The election committee had agreed to allow representatives of the two parties join it as members, but with the United Nations and Cambodian civil society representatives serving only as observers.

Inquest: 6 Killed by Thai Soldiers During Protests

Posted: 06 Aug 2013 10:42 PM PDT

A Thai army soldier stands in front of photographs put up by protesters during an operation to evict anti-government 'red shirt' protesters from their encampment in Bangkok on May 19, 2010. (Photo: Reuters / Sukree Sukplang)

BANGKOK — Six unarmed people killed at a Buddhist temple during a military crackdown on anti-government protesters in Thailand's capital three years ago were slain by bullets fired by Thai soldiers, an inquest found Tuesday.

The inquest by the Bangkok South Criminal Court said that four men and one woman, mostly "Red Shirt" protesters who took refuge in Pathum Wanaram temple near the protest site, were killed by high-velocity bullets fired by Thai soldiers who were on the city's elevated train tracks, while another man was shot by soldiers from the ground.

The findings are a stark reminder of the bloody battle between the demonstrators and the government under then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The Red Shirts, consisting mostly of supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and anti-establishment protesters, were calling for parliament to be dissolved and for fresh elections to be held.

The findings came at a time of renewed political tension, as protest groups gathered in Bangkok this week to oppose a bill that would grant amnesty to protesters who were involved in political demonstrations since the 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin for alleged corruption and disrespect to the monarchy.

About 90 people were killed over several weeks in 2010 when demonstrators occupied downtown Bangkok for nine weeks before they were dispersed by the deadly army crackdown.

The inquest dismissed claims by a soldier that there was an unidentified armed group near the temple when the shootings happened, saying there was not enough evidence. It also said the six people were not using any weapons when they were killed.

Abhisit's government approved the use of live ammunition under limited conditions and deployed sharpshooters and snipers during the demonstration.

Nattapat Akkahad, a younger brother of the slain volunteer nurse, Kamonkade Akkahad, said he was pleased with the ruling and called for the army personnel responsible to be prosecuted.

"I'm so glad that I don't know what to say. This just confirms our stance that no amnesty should be granted to state's security officers who acted beyond what was necessary," he said. "The soldiers must be held accountable."

Relatives of the others said they were content with the detailed findings and also called for prosecution of those responsible.

The inquest said it was not known who fired the bullets but said the security forces came from a ranger battalion and an infantry battalion of the Royal Thai Army.

Thai authorities have a long history of shielding military personnel from prosecution in political bloodsheds in recent decades.

One of the judges also said there was no evidence that weapons were piled inside the temple.

Thai Army deputy spokesman Col. Winthai Suvari said it is too soon to blame soldiers for the deaths.

"Don't jump to the conclusion just yet because this is merely part of a trial," Winthai told reporters on Tuesday. "More evidence and testimonies must be taken into account when the actual prosecution occurs."

"Society knows very well that the weapons seized by the protesters were found in the temple … and neither soldiers, nor police could access that area," Winthai said, adding there were conflicts in testimonies that need resolving.

The protesters in Bangkok this week want to pressure lawmakers to withdraw the bill that was proposed by the ruling Pheu Thai Party, fearing it could pave the way for Thaksin's return.

Thaksin was sentenced to two years in jail on a conflict of interest charge in 2008, but he escaped punishment by living abroad in self-imposed exile.

Tuesday's findings were the latest in a series of inquests in the years ago. In previous cases, the court ruled that five people were killed by guns used by military personnel, and that another person—an Italian photographer—killed by bullets that was fired from the direction of security forces, while two inquests were inconclusive on who committed the killings.

Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday also gave a testimony in a hearing for the inquest of a slain Reuters Japanese cameraman, Hiroyuki Muramoto, who was shot dead on April 10, 2010, during the first round of a crackdown on protesters.

Attorneys will give the inquest results to investigators to be used in criminal prosecutions.

The Department of Special Investigation began a murder investigation of Abhisit and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban last year, but charges have not been brought to court.

 
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