Shan Herald Agency for News |
- Ethnic ceasefire draft accepted ‘in principle’
- Myanmar seeking to manage media
- THE UNFC AND THE PEACE PROCESS
- The Peace Process: Knowing the Burma Army
| Ethnic ceasefire draft accepted ‘in principle’ Posted: 09 Sep 2013 12:43 AM PDT "The wording as well as some specifics need some touch-up," the Karen National Union (KNU) and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) representatives were informed on 23 August in Rangoon. Specifics include Human Rights issues (Point #13) where the WGEC has proposed regional independent Human Rights Committees be established. "A National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been set up by the government," the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) was reported as saying. "The proposition therefore will need some careful treatment."  Sao Yawdserk and RCSS delegation with U Aung Min and UPWC delegation, Larn Kham Village, Chiangmai, 7 September 2014 (Photo: Nyo Ohn Myint) The 14 points proposed by the WGEC are:
The government, in turn, has agreed upon 4 points, according to the briefing:
A time table was also proposed by the MPC (on 24 September): October 2013: Signing of Nationwide Ceasefire Accord November 2013-March 2014: Negotiations on Framework for Political Dialogue ("during which the COC will also be negotiated," according to the MPC) April 2014-March 2015: Union Conference The Nationwide Ceasefire Accord should also have 5 signatories on the government side, instead of 4 as proposed by the WGEC: Not only the President, Upper House Speaker, Lower House Speaker, and the Commander-in-Chief but also the Attorney General. Among the witnesses, the MPC proposed, there should be national leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Hkun Htun Oo and those from groups such as 8888 Generation Students. Among the world leaders, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon has already assured he would be at the signing ceremony. On the resistance side, U Aung Min, Vice Chairman of the Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC) reported to the meeting between Vice President Sai Mawk Kham and the Karen-Shan representatives on 31 August that 10 out of 14 groups that had concluded state level ceasefire agreements had agreed to attend the ceremony. "We will also invite groups like the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) that has yet to sign a state level agreement," U Hla Maung Shwe of MPC told the RCSS representatives on 15 August. "If they wish to be there only as observers and sign the accord only later, that's okay for us." The MPC and the joint KNU-RCSS technical team will meet again this week to draft the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord. The joint technical team that met the MPC on 23 August included Saw Htoo Htoo lay, Saw Kwe Htoo Win, Ta Do Moe, Sai La, Sai Ngeun, Dr Lian H.Sakhong and Naw San. |
| Myanmar seeking to manage media Posted: 09 Sep 2013 12:42 AM PDT Published on Sep 06, 2013 By Nirmal Ghosh Indochina Bureau Chief In Bangkok NOT too long ago in the office of Myanmar's media censor, a young military officer crumpled up a newspaper article by a noted Myanmar writer and, dropping it on to the floor, used a golf putter to send it across the room. The putter is now in the closet and the censorship office no more. After four decades of military rule, the civilian government has freed the Internet, and handed out licences for private newspapers. So far, 31 licences have been issued and 12 privately run dailies appear regularly, in addition to four state-owned newspapers. But private media has not exercised the responsibility that comes with freedom, critics say, especially on the hot-button issues of religion and ethnic relations. Some think the anti-Muslim sentiment that has seized parts of this mostly Buddhist nation would not have been so inflamed had private media outlets applied higher standards and separated comment from reportage. Sectarian violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state last year killed more than 100 people, most of them minority Muslim Rohingya, and displaced 140,000 others. This year, violence across central and northern Myanmar has left over 50 dead and displaced thousands. The anti-Muslim wave is driven by right-wing nationalist Buddhist groups such as the 969 Movement led by Mandalay-based monk U Wirathu, who freely courts the media. "The media in general tends to be nationalistic and stokes anti-Muslim fear," says Mr Aung Zaw, editor of the Irrawaddy news magazine. "And users of social media have been especially irresponsible." There are at least two instances of what some consider to be partisan reporting. When United Nations special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana was in Myanmar last month, reports of private media groups such as Eleven Media portrayed him as being overly respectful to Muslims and not showing enough respect for the majority community. But a source who was at some meetings refuted this, saying the envoy was equally respectful to all those he met. At a peace conference in Yangon in July, a reporter from The Voice Weekly asked Muslim leader U Aye Lwin to sing the national anthem to show that he knew it. The latter said the conference was not an appropriate venue and that he could sing it in private for the journalist. However, the report said he refused to sing the national anthem. Burman-Buddhist nationalism is a frequent theme. Recently, Buddhist mobs sang the national anthem as they torched Muslim homes and shops in a town in north-western Myanmar. Dr Maung Zarni, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, said in an e-mail to The Straits Times: "Most Burmese journalists are Islamophobic… and unprofessional. I am not surprised at all about irresponsible reportage (attempting) to stoke further ultra-nationalist sentiment." Distorted reporting is not uncommon in Asian societies, especially those where religion and the state are closely intertwined. In Sri Lanka, the predominantly Sinhala-language media has developed a strong anti-Muslim bias since early last year. The country's majority Sinhalese, much like the Burman majority in Myanmar, sees themselves as guardians of orthodox Theravada Buddhism. "Myanmar is an extreme example of this - lifting the lid and seeing all the grievances emerge," says Mr Kunda Dixit, editor of Nepali Times and former co-publisher of Himal, a news magazine focusing on South Asia. "And the media laps it up. Hate speech sells - and worryingly, it is often on ethnic and religious lines which the media exploits for political or commercial reasons." The government, which is now trying to place limits on the new free-for-all, has drafted legislation to give it the power to issue and cancel publication licences. Information Minister Aung Kyi told journalists recently that Myanmar at this juncture needed a "socially responsible media code" with the government as a regulator. It is faced with the choice of falling back on old authoritarian instincts or finding a balance between openness and control, according to author-historian Thant Myint U. "The outcome remains unclear." nirmal@sph.com.sg |
| THE UNFC AND THE PEACE PROCESS Posted: 09 Sep 2013 12:41 AM PDT At the beginning of June 2013 the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance representing 11 armed ethnic groups, took the unanticipated decision of withdrawing from the Working Group for Ethnic Coordination (WGEC). The WGEC had been formulating a framework that would focus on upcoming political dialogue including the agenda, the composition, the mandate, the structure, any transitional arrangements, and also its core principles. Read More: THE UNFC AND THE PEACE PROCESS.pdf |
| The Peace Process: Knowing the Burma Army Posted: 09 Sep 2013 12:32 AM PDT  Sun Zi, the warrior-philosopher who was believed to have flourished 2,500 years ago, about the same time as the Buddha, had coined the following much-quoted saying:"If you know others and know yourself You will not be imperiled in a hundred battles If you do not know others but know yourself You win one and lose one If you do not know others and do not know yourself You will be imperiled in every battle" (Thomas Cleary's version) Interestingly, late Zen musician and writer Philip Toshio Sudo (1960-2002) has paraphrased it for partnerships this way: "If you know yourself and know your partner Your relation will flourish If you know yourself but not your partner The road will be rocky If you know neither yourself nor your partner Your relationship doesn't stand a chance" In comparison, if Sun Zi had taught us The Art of War, Sudo is sharing with us The Art of Peace. Thinking along this line, the Burmese military is a partner for those who are crusading for peace. That is whether or not they consider it a partner. And whether or not it still considers peace crusaders as enemies. If he's right, in what way does the 70 page minutes of the Burmese military's first tri-annual meeting increase our knowledge of our partner for peace? (For more details, please SHAN report, 28 August 2013) There were many lessons the Burma Army had drawn from the Kachin campaign:
Accordingly, Naypyitaw has resolved that 2013 would see a series of military exercises for both battalion and division levels. The minutes also inform the reader of the 4 principal assignment for units, whether they be at war or not, to report at each tri-annual meeting: Military operation, Security, Territorial control and Military build-up. The minutes not surprisingly found units with paymasters and quartermasters with little knowledge on the art of book keeping. Commanders must put the right man in the right place, it warns. A long standing problem is that there are few citizens who want to enroll in the national service. Subordinate commanders are warned they are liable for legal action taken against them for not being able to report on new recruits during the past 4 months. Another no less interesting point. Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in his opening address to the meeting on 28 January, was reported as saying every able bodied citizen in Israel is a soldier. "As for us, we will not be able to do that until we have overcome political intrigues and racial prejudices," he commented. Both commanders, Min Aung Hlaing and Brig Gen Aung Soe, Commander of the Northeastern Region Command, based in Lashio, had also stressed the overriding need for the support by the people. The latter also instructed his officers not to commit abuses against the populace, such as beating and torturing them and burning their villages especially after a clash takes place in the vicinity, the army's usual modus operandi. We therefore hope that all commanders and the rank and file, on both sides of the conflict, take heart to their counsel when dealing with the people. Because the day both sides sign the peace agreement will not be the day of peace. On the contrary, it will be the day when the people whom both claim to be working for no longer suffer from either side. They might or might not be sure whether a peace agreement has taken place. But they will know for sure peace has been achieved. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Shan Herald Agency for News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.