Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

CB Bank to Issue Prepaid Debit Cards for Domestic, International Use

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 07:07 AM PDT

An advertisement for prepaid debit cards from CB Bank. (Photo: Facebook / CB Bank)

RANGOON — Burma's Central Bank has given private lender Cooperative Bank the green light to issue internationally accepted prepaid debit cards, a senior Central Bank official said this week, in a first for the country's antiquated financial system.

The "Easi Travel" prepaid card was made available this week for pre-order, and holders-in-waiting are being told the cards will be in their hands by Oct. 1 for use on transactions in Burma and abroad.

CB Bank, which will be the nation's first lender to issue the cards, is working with MasterCard to bring the service to its customers. The card has already been tested at banks in Thailand, Singapore, China and the United Kingdom, CB Bank Managing Director Pe Myint told The Irrawaddy last week.

CB Bank—chaired by presidential advisor Khin Maung Aye—has also agreed to work with Visa, and will begin development of a similar Visa-branded card after the MasterCard version has been rolled out.

"We have already had a lot of meetings to allow it [CB Bank to issue the cards]," a senior official from the Central Bank told The Irrawaddy this week, saying CB Bank was the only lender currently in talks with the Central Bank.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Central Bank had to weigh several factors before giving the go-ahead to CB Bank, including the potential macroeconomic effects of the new prepaid cards—and eventually, credit cards.

"We had to consider many issues in allowing the issuance of such cards, as well as credit cards. … As far as we know, right now money inflows and outflows are not balanced; money outflows from the country are more than inflows, meaning we will allow [prepaid cards first] while we can adjust at a later date," he said, referring to a timeline for the issuance of internationally accepted credit cards as well.

The prepaid card, likely to be offered in one-time-use and reloadable versions, will be available to CB Bank account holders only. CB Bank announced that it would begin accepting pre-orders for the card beginning on Sept. 24.

Some of Burma's other private lenders, including Asia Green Development (AGD) Bank and Kanbawza Bank, are approaching the issuance of prepaid debit cards with more hesitancy.

"We still have economic sanctions [against us] in this sector, we have to use caution," said Than Lwin, vice chairman of Kanbawza Bank, whose owner Aung Ko Win remains on a US blacklist.

AGD Bank, owned by the also-blacklisted business tycoon Tay Za, is in talks with MasterCard about a prepaid card partnership but will not be leading the charge on the offering, Ye Min Oo, the managing director of the bank, told The Irrawaddy.

"We have a plan but we will not be the first bank issuing this prepaid card," he said.

Work to facilitate the issuance of internationally accepted prepaid cards is being carried out separately by the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU), a grouping of 14 of Burma's 19 private banks that allows the banks to issue mutually accepted debit cards. Those cards do not work overseas, however, frustrating migrant workers and outbound Burmese travelers.

The Central Bank official expressed optimism that the forthcoming prepaid cards would ameliorate this financial hassle for Burmese nationals traveling abroad.

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‘The Elders’ Call for Burma Election Observers in 2015

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 04:58 AM PDT

Former US President Jimmy Carter speaks during a press conference at the Strand Hotel in Rangoon on Sept. 26, 2013. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — A trio of former heads of government, including Nobel Peace laureates Jimmy Carter and Martti Ahtisaari, have called on Burma to allow foreign organizations to observe the country's 2015 national elections.

"I suggested that the Carter Center come as an international observer," former US President Carter said on Thursday, citing his organization's record as observer of 94 elections around the world in recent years.

Carter added that any observation work needed to be agreed to and started soon, to take in important pre-election processes such as the upcoming national census and voter registration, to ensure that the election will be free and fair.

Carter was speaking alongside Ahtisaari, an ex-president of Finland, and former Norway Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, as part of a delegation of The Elders, a group of internationally known former world leaders, which includes figures such as Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, and Nelson Mandela, South Africa's revered anti-apartheid leader.

The three, who are in Burma to meet with policy makers including President Thein Sein and military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, were in the main fulsome in their praise of Burma's lawmakers, saying the country's reforms were going well for the most part.

The group will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-detained presidential hopeful, later Thursday. Suu Kyi has called for Burma's Constitution to be changed, to enable her to assume the presidency if her National League for Democracy (NLD) wins the 2015 elections.

"We were impressed by the pace with which reforms are proceeding," a press release sent out by The Elders quoted Carter as saying.

David Scott Mathieson, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, a New York-based international watchdog, however, said, "They [ethnic rebels and the government] have already intended to sign ceasefire with 13 groups. A ceremony where all 13 signed a nationwide ceasefire together is basically an event. It doesn't mean conditions on the ground are going to improve, because conditions on the ground haven't markedly improved.

"You get peace only when the life of people in the ground starts improving. And that hasn't happened yet," he added.

Warning that "Myanmar has a long way to go" in its political transition, Carter added on Thursday that the absence of citizenship for 800,000 Muslims in Arakan State needs to be addressed. Notably, the three did not refer to these Muslims as Rohingyas, a name that the Burma government does not recognize because it regards the Rohingyas not as a distinct ethnic group, but as immigrants from Bangladesh. Over 100,000 Rohingyas were driven from their homes during two bouts of bloody violence in 2012.

Elsewhere in Burma's borderlands, Burma's government has signed ceasefires with most of the ethnic militias operating in resource-laden regions close to China and Thailand. Former Norway Prime Minister Bruntdland told media that Burma's natural resources development would be an important aspect of the country's peace processes going forward. "These issues will be addressed once political dialogue starts," she said.

The ethnic militias want broader political negotiations about the future political system under which Burma will be governed, as part of any wider peace deal. Most ethnic groups want Burma's 2008 Constitution revised and more powers devolved to resource-wealthy minority regions.

Former President Carter said he thought that ceasefires would be signed soon between the government and those groups, such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which remains at war with the Burmese military.

Recommending that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon take part in Burma's peace negotiations, Carter said the process needed to be seen as wide-ranging if it was to be a success, and include Burma's Parliament as well the executive, though Carter was generous in his praise for the Burma government's main peace negotiator, President's Office Minister Aung Min.

The group also said Burma needs to improve conditions for women, citing the low representation of women in Burma's military and ex-army dominated Parliament, with the latter's female representation at only 5 percent of lawmakers.

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‘Saffron Revolution’ Leaders Say Rangoon Chief Minister Should Face Court

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 04:52 AM PDT

Thousands of monks and bystanders march to the city center in an anti-government protest in Rangoon September 26, 2007. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON/MANDALAY — Leaders of Burma's 2007 "Saffron Revolution" on Thursday called for Rangoon Division Chief Minister Myint Swe to stand trial over his alleged role in the violent crackdown against demonstrations led by Buddhist monks.

Thursday saw events in Burma to mark the sixth anniversary of the start of arrests and violent suppression of the uprising. In the former capital, Rangoon, dozens of monks and activists gathered at Shwedagon Pagoda to pray in remembrance of the military crackdown, in which at least 31 people were killed, according to the United Nations. In Mandalay, about 500 monks gathered at a monastery to remember the date.

U Vayama, a monk at from Twante Township who was among the leaders of the 2007 demonstrations, said at Shwedagon on Thursday that Myint Swe—who was in charge of security operations in Rangoon at the time—should stand trial for the crackdown. Myint Swe has denied any role in the violence and earlier this month reportedly said he was willing to be hanged if he was convicted of ordering the crackdown.

"If he [Myint Swe] says that he is not involved in the violence, let's go to sit in front of the court together to investigate about this," U Vayama told the Irrawaddy.

"We have ears, memories and eyes. We can remember everything, how we had to struggle during the crackdown. It is important to have it said out in the open in court."

U Vayama said he was not concerned about revenge or punishment for Myint Swe and other alleged perpetrators of the crackdown, but wanted them to acknowledge their crimes and apologize.

"You dared to do it, you must dare to admit it," he said.

At the ceremony in Mandalay, the monks who participated in the September uprising six years ago recalled their experiences and urged the people not to forget history.

"To look from the bright side, the Saffron Revolution somehow played an important role in the changes of the country we have seen today. However, we must not forget what we have experienced, not to take revenge, but to learn lessons from it," said U Saedita from Magway Division's Pakokku Township, where the uprising began in August 2007 as a protest against commodity prices.

Monks in Mandalay also urged the government to rewrite or abolish the 2008 Constitution and to solve land confiscation issues across the country.

"To form a democratic country and to have peace and stability in the country, the 2008 Constitution must be rewritten or repaired," said U Tayzawbartha, a monk of Mandalay's Kantatgone Masoeyein monastery who participated in the monk-led mass protests.

The monks said that solving the land issue is the most important for country's stability and the economy, as Burma depends heavily on the fruits of agriculture.

"We would like to urge the government to take care first of the land issues, which are happening across the country because the farmers are suffering as their land has been confiscated. If farmers lost their land forever, the country's agricultural sector will be suffered," said U Tayzawbartha.

The monks explained that the commemoration ceremony in Mandalay on Thursday was initially prohibited by local authorities, but later got official approval.

"If we were not allowed to do this ceremony, we would have decided to go out into the streets [in protest]. But, thanks to our senior monks, we are allowed. Their [the authorities'] intention is to try to eliminate history. We would like to urge the authorities not to try covering up the history as well," said U Tayzawbarth.

A statement from the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society said that the movement led by Burma's Buddhist monks in 2007 had very important role the country's current political reforms.

"We salute to whose participated in the movement, which was a victory of mitta [love and kindness], not only from the monks and but also with cooperation from students and civilians for this victory," said the statement.

The movement highlight to the world the military regime's brutality in the face of peaceful protest, added the statement.

Burma's government has not yet apologized for the killings and suppression of monks and activists in 2007, despite the quasi-civilian government that took power in 2011—still dominated by the military and former generals—pledging to move the country toward democracy.

"They have guilt for the crackdown on our monks. Unless our monks forgive them, this guilt will not be let out of them. So they need to apologize for this first," said U Vayama.

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Astrologists Tell the Future, Offer Hope in Burma

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 04:45 AM PDT

This jeep, permanently parked opposite Sula Pagoda, offers palm reading and astrological readings to both locals and tourists. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Fortune-tellers around the world tap into a natural desire to know what's in store next, and the Burmese seem to be particularly curious.

Setting up shop around Buddhist pagodas, palm readers and astrologers in Burma's biggest city are never short on clients.

"The Burmese are not superstitious, but they have extreme beliefs by nature," said Myat Thukha, a young fortune teller who sees five clients a day in downtown Rangoon, outside Sule Pagoda. He said the majority of his clients believe in astrology, which makes use of the position of stars and planets to predict future events.

Thousands of astrology offices can be found surrounding the pagodas in Rangoon, and many more exist on roadsides around the city.

At Maha Wizaya Pagoda in Dagon Township, for example, more than 30 astrologers have set up shop, while another 20 astrologers have offices at Kodatkyi Pagoda in Sanchaung Township, with the floor price for honorarium at 1,500 kyats ($2).

Forty-year-old Aung Myo said he visited an astrologer to decide which business partner to choose for a new contract, while another client, Nay Myo, asked for advice selecting a career path after selling his farm.

"Some clients come when they are not doing well, and they ask for certain magical observances that can remove all unnecessary defects in the present and future," said astrology expert San Hla Mya.

Nu Nu, 52, said predictions about the future—specifically concerning negative future events—allowed her to proceed with caution and deliberation, but she added that she did not fully rely on astrology.

"I accept astrology as one branch of study that I should admire, and I ask often about my children's education, health and business," she said. "As a Buddhist, I fully trust the consequences of my past actions, although I ask astrologers for help."

Astrologer Aung Chit Po, who studied under prominent Burmese astrologist Min Theinkha, said about 80 percent of people in the country believed in astrology. "My room is regularly full with about 40 clients daily, and on Sunday about 100 clients come," he said.

Not everyone is convinced, however. Soe Win, a taxi driver, said he had never visited a fortune-teller because he believed in the power of his own actions.

"Some Burmese ask for their fortunes because they want a source of hope or an exit from their adversity—some form of relief from their grief," he said.

U Paing, 60, just opened his astrology office this month at Maha Wizaya Pagoda. "Most people come to the pagodas to alleviate their unhappiness and also to ask for fortune-tellers," he said.

A resident from Thingangyun Township said she fully believed in astrology and had regularly visited astrologers in the past. More recently, however, she prefers reading the astrology section of weekly journals and daily newspapers.

Astrology expert San Hla Mya said his field of study dated back to before the time of the Buddha in India.

"Buddha recognized astrology as a form of worldly knowledge, not as the noble path, so the Buddhists who believe in astrology just for worldly matters cannot be against Buddhism," he said.

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Why It Makes Sense to Engage With Burma’s Military

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 04:11 AM PDT

On Sept. 18, Burma marked the 25th anniversary of the most important military coup in its recent history. When state-owned radio announced that the military had taken over at 4 pm on Sept. 18, 1988, I was just 14. My fellow students and I were staging a hunger strike as part of a nonviolent protest to call for the restoration of democracy in Burma.
A dreary rain was falling. A voice on the radio read the coup announcement over and over again, alternating with loud military marching songs. The noise from the radio was agonizing enough. But then we heard a series of gunshots, and when we realized that they were gradually getting closer, older students and community leaders rushed to a nearby intersection to set up roadblocks so that an approaching column of soldiers couldn't reach us and clear out our camp. The younger hunger strikers, including myself, were promptly escorted to a nearby Buddhist monastery that the opposition was using as a refuge from the military crackdown. The junta imposed martial law and a corresponding curfew. Gen Saw Maung, the man in charge of the coup, once notoriously stated that "martial law means that there's no law in the country."

In the military crackdown that followed, I saw people being shot to death in front of me. Thousands of people, including many of my colleagues, left for the border areas, where ethnic rebel groups helped them form a student army to wage an armed struggle against the junta. After a few months of activism, I went into hiding to avoid arrest. That period ultimately lasted nine years. Eventually I crossed the border into Thailand in 1997. I've worked as a journalist ever since.

That was 25 years ago. In 2011, President Thein Sein (once the top general in the previous junta) took office, and the government he headed soon began signaling a political opening and the possibility of reform. Thein Sein's administration released political prisoners, lifted media censorship, and allowed opposition participation in the country's parliament. Most exiles, including me, were allowed to come back home.

I recently went back to the place where we staged the hunger strike and the monastery where we took refuge. It was a surreal experience. None of the people in my old neighborhood believed that they would ever see me again in this life. They've always assumed that anyone who fled the country and lived in exile would never be able to return. Whenever they see me again, they pinch my hand as if to convince themselves that it's really me. They hope, they tell me, that our horrible past won't ever be repeated. I have the same dream. I don't ever want to relive such a tragic past, not even in memory. And yet I sometimes feel like we're reliving those old days again, right now.

People often ask me if I think the country is sliding back into the dark age of military rule. If someone had asked me that question last year, I would have given a more optimistic answer. But now, I see that Burma and my people are slipping into a state of profound anxiety as communal riots, deepening poverty, ongoing civil strife, and the rivalries of political elites ravage the country. I don't think we can rule out any scenarios. In fact, two senior insiders of the ruling party have told me that another coup could well be a last resort if the nation slides into chaos.

A coup can be carried out legally under the current Constitution, and that's the likely outcome if the reforms fundamentally hurt the army's institutional, political, or economic prerogatives. The military's decision to stage a coup, however, would depend not only on domestic politics, but also on the army's geopolitical calculations.

The Burmese military has long been aware of its over-dependence on China for equipment and training as well as political and economic support. Almost all the former and current military officers I've met tell me that the quality of Chinese equipment is terrible. The officers can still remember the days when they received US military assistance, which they preferred. They recall that the United States financed $4.7 million in military sales in the 1980s as well as paid for about 175 Burmese officers to attend US military schools under the International Military Education and Training (IMET) security assistance program. This bilateral defense relationship was abruptly terminated by the United States when the Burmese army seized power in September 1988. That was the end of the "good old days," as one officer lamented.

Since the mid-1990s, the Burmese army has been eager to diversify and reduce its dependence on China. But US-led Western arms embargoes have prevented the military from doing so. Yet the military's willingness to support political reform in Burma has won Washington's support. Now a lot is riding on the possibility of reestablishing military-to-military relations with the Western countries.

The US defense secretary said in 2012 that the United States was open to forging better military ties with Burma. Early this year, the United States allowed Burma to send a team of observers to the Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand. In late August 2013, US Ambassador Derek Mitchell met with the head of Burma's armed forces, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, to discuss legal practices in military combat in a "cordial" effort to strengthen defense relations between the two countries. Australia, Britain, and other Western countries are also gradually resuming military ties with Burma.

Though the skeptics are rightly uneasy about the nature and extent of such defense relations, the opportunity to re-engage with Western militaries is an important incentive for the military's continued support of political reform.

In short, any positive political concessions the Burmese military is likely to make regarding constitutional reform and the 2015 elections rest to a significant degree on a mil-to-mil incentive package from the United States. I think that smart, timely action by the United States to reconnect with the Burmese military would be one of the best insurance policies against another military take-over. And that could well save me and my compatriots from reliving that tragic day in September 1988.

Min Zin is the Burma blogger for Foreign Policy's Transitions blog, where this article first appeared on Sept. 19, 2013.

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In Burma, a Fight for Affordable HIV Medicine

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 03:14 AM PDT

Patients wait for the results of their HIV tests at a hospice in the suburbs of Rangoon in May. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — People living with HIV in Burma are worried that a patent law under development could significantly hinder their ability to access affordable medicine, in a country where about 40 percent of those requiring HIV treatment are already unable to get it.

Facing pressure from Western nations looking to invest in the country as it transitions from military rule, Burma's government is developing intellectual property laws to replace legislation that dates back to the colonial era. The laws would help protect against counterfeiting, but they would also introduce a patent system for medicine that could significantly drive up prices.

Myo Thant Aung, chairman of the Myanmar Positive Group, an advocacy network for people living with HIV, says the network will meet with members of Parliament next Thursday to brief them on how a new patent law could hinder access to affordable treatment.

"We will tell them, 'A patent law will really affect us, so please be patient'," he told The Irrawaddy this week at an annual forum in Rangoon for people living with HIV. About 250 HIV-positive people attended, including those from some of the most marginalized populations, such as sex workers and drug users, along with speakers from UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and other local and international NGOs.

The issue of patents is crucial in the health care sector, especially in developing countries such as Burma that cannot afford costly brand-name drugs. Patents allow pharmaceutical companies to have a monopoly on the production of a drug they invented, in a bid to promote innovation, for the course of the patent term, defined by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as at least 20 years. A patent prevents other companies from producing, selling or importing more affordable generic versions of a drug.

The biggest supplier of HIV medicine in Burma, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), sources about 80 percent of its drugs from generic markets. The humanitarian organization, which provides half of Burma's HIV medicine, says that if it were not able to import generic drugs, the cost for patients would significantly increase and it would not be able to treat as many people as it does.

"The reason that MSF is able to treat so many people with HIV in Myanmar [Burma] is simply that the drugs used are generic versions and are therefore affordable," said Paul Cawthorne, a coordinator for the MSF Access Campaign, an offshoot advocacy group that promotes access to medicine.

Generic competition over the years has led to a massive price reduction in antiretroviral drugs, a combination of which are used for antiretroviral therapy (ART). The price of ART has decreased from US$10,000 per patient per year a decade ago when MSF first started treating HIV in Burma, to $100 per patient per year now.

All medicines need to be registered before they can be used in a country. Currently in Burma, a generic version of any medicine can be registered and used. If Burma introduces a patent law for pharmaceuticals, all medicines currently in use would continue to be available, but if a new medicine came into the country and was patented, no other company could register a generic version. If only the originator brand-name drug is currently available, a patent law could prevent the registration of a generic version in the future.

"Our concern for the future is that if Myanmar introduces patents on medicines, which it is currently under no obligation to do, it will close the door on the use of new generic medicines that will become available. In the future, new more effective medicines may then be priced at unaffordable levels, not only for the general population, but also for organizations such as MSF," Cawthorne said. "This issue goes beyond HIV medicines—it includes a future threat to affordable medicines for diseases such as malaria, TB, heart disease, cancers and diabetes."

Burma has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Asia, and a lack of funding for medicine already requires health care providers to regularly turn away HIV patients. Of about 200,000 HIV-positive people in the country, at the end of last year only about 40 percent of those who required ART were receiving it, according to MSF.

At Odds Over Medicine

Developed countries have long been at odds with the developing world over the pricing of medicine. Brand-name pharmaceutical companies in Western countries say they need patents to ensure they make enough profit to continue developing and producing innovative medicines, while poorer countries say they cannot provide treatment without cheaper generic medicines.

Internationally, a major agreement by the WTO sets standards for protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights, including through patents. Known as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), it came into effect in 1995.

The agreement meant the introduction of patents in some countries, but to maximize access to life-saving drugs, a group of least-developed countries —including Burma—were given a transition period to comply. The deadline for compliance was extended this year, from 2016 to 2021.

Some least-developed countries have used the extra time to develop legislation that allows for flexibility with patents, and to manufacture HIV-related medicines. India waited until 2005, later than some other developing countries, and as a result, drugs produced by its generic companies are among the cheapest quality-assured medicines in the world. Because of these affordable medicines, India—which borders Burma—is now known as the pharmacy of the developing world. Eighty percent of HIV medicines used by MSF are sourced from Indian generic drug companies.

In contrast, South Africa, with one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, complied with TRIPS earlier but did not insert certain flexibilities into its patent legislation, leading to the issuance of far more patents than in some other developing countries.

Investors Push in Burma

Despite the 2021 deadline to comply with TRIPS, new intellectual property laws in Burma could be introduced later this year, legal experts say, in a bid to boost the economy by wooing foreign investors.

"Lack of specific intellectual property laws and reliable enforcement are major concerns for foreign investors, especially the ones in science and technology businesses," said Nikolas Tun of Kelvin Chia Yangon, the oldest foreign legal consultancy firm based in Rangoon, which works with international businesses.

He said Burma planned to pass intellectual property laws by later this year or early next year.

"The Myanmar government is in its 11th draft of the intellectual property laws right now, which is expected to be the final version for submission to the parliament for legislative discussions and approval, and is keen to move forward as fast as possible to enact them," he told The Irrawaddy.

The draft Patent Law was developed in coordination with the World Intellectual Property Organization, he said, in line with TRIPS as well as international standards and norms, to ensure easy accessibility of patients to life saving drugs, such as ART.

The draft law could include provisions allowing the government to override patent rights for drugs deemed important enough for the country's well-being, by granting a license that allows someone else to produce the patented product without the consent of the patent owner.

Use of these licenses, known as compulsory licenses, is one of the flexibilities of patent protection included in TRIPS. The licenses could help ensure access to generic drugs but would likely meet with resistance from Western pharmaceutical companies, which would lose their monopoly on production—and the profit that comes with it.

Western countries in the past have tried to employ carrot-and-stick measures to convince developing countries to adopt more stringent protections for intellectual property rights, including by promoting trade agreements with clauses that undermine flexibilities for patent protections.

"It is difficult to know exactly what pressure is being placed on the Myanmar government to adopt IPR that goes beyond what is legally required by the WTO," said Cawthorne of the MSF Access Campaign, adding that he had not seen the draft law. "We do know that the World Intellectual Property Office is offering technical assistance to Myanmar, and that such technical assistance in other countries as been somewhat skewed toward higher-than-necessary IPR standards. We also know that both the US and EU have been 'offering advice' to Myanmar, but we can only guess at what this advice is.”

He urged the Burma government to seriously consider not including medicines, vaccines or medical devices in its new law, as he said this would not be required under WTO regulations.

"If the government wishes to proceed with including these items in the new law, they should ensure that as broad a range of flexibilities are included to avoid the direst of consequences on access to medicines," he said. "The India patent law is perhaps the best example in the world of a patent law that is compliant with WTO TRIPS regulations yet maintains all TRIPS flexibilities and a very strict interpretation of what is patentable and what is not."

Loon Gangte, a leader of the Delhi Network of Positive People, an India-based advocacy group for HIV patients, urged Burma to wait as long as possible to become TRIPS compliant.

"The main barrier to access to treatment is TRIPS and bilateral agreements between countries," said the activist, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1997 and traveled to Rangoon this week for the forum. "Other countries are pressuring Myanmar [Burma] to make its laws comply with TRIPS earlier. But look at South Africa. By waiting until 2005, India inserted more flexibility, and as a result, India has one of the world's best patent laws."

He cautioned against signing trade agreements with Western countries that could limit flexibilities on patents. "Myanmar is up-and-coming," he added, "and no country can sustain itself alone. We need to work with other countries, fine. Let's trade everything—let's trade cigarettes and jeans. Imported cars, no problem. But don't trade your life or my life."

'The Only Thing That Can Stop It'

Even without patents, HIV patients in Burma face barriers to treatment, as the country struggles to reform its health care system, which was chronically neglected by the military regime and continues to be hampered by budget constraints.

Health care providers say they do not have the capacity to follow global guidelines on when to begin treatment for HIV, with low funding forcing them to routinely need to turn away patients. Clinics offering HIV medicine can only take the sickest people, usually at a stage in the disease that puts them close to death.

Until recently, one of the biggest challenges to scaling up treatment was a lack of international financial support, especially after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria suspended its grants to Burma under the former junta, citing political interference in its programs. The Fund returned to the country two years ago, pledging to provide $161 million through 2016 for HIV activities.

Dr. Khin Nyein Chan, medical coordinator for MSF in Burma, said the additional funding would allow about 85 percent of patients in need of ART to receive treatment based on national enrollment criteria.

"The big challenge now is whether there is the overall capacity within the health care sector in Myanmar, and particularly within the Ministry of Health, to start enrolling increased numbers of patients," he said. "Increased human resources and expertise on HIV care and treatment is necessary, especially outside the main centers, as only a decentralized treatment model will be able to reach most patients.

Zarni, another HIV-positive patient in Rangoon, was unable to access treatment in his hometown in Magway Division. "ART is only available in the big cities," he told The Irrawaddy. He came to the commercial capital for treatment and now works for MSF. "We need more ART."

Loon Gangte from India agreed. "We all have HIV," he said, referring to a crowded room at the HIV forum this week. "HIV is not sitting idle—it is always working, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nothing in the world can stop it—better nutrition can't stop it, religion can't stop it. The only thing that can stop it is ART. In order to live, nothing is more important than ART."

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Burma Support Withheld on UN Pledge to End Sexual Violence

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 03:03 AM PDT

A woman is seen at a temple in Shan State. Women in Burma are calling for justice for victims of sexual violence in conflict zones. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's government has not supported a declaration launched on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week to end sexual violence in conflict zones, as women in the country report continuing rape by soldiers amid the transition from military rule.

Despite lobbying from the British government, the Burma government has not endorsed the declaration, which was signed by 113 UN member countries as of this week and pledges not to allow amnesties for sexual violence in peace agreements.

The UK-led declaration also pledges to adopt a new international protocol next year to ensure that evidence collected in abuse cases can stand up in court, and to support civil society organizations to improve monitoring and documentation in cases of sexual violence.

"They don't want to admit that they have actually committed these kinds of crimes—I think that is one reason they do not want to sign," Tin Tin Nyo, general secretary of the Thailand-based Women's League of Burma, told The Irrawaddy of the Burma government's refusal to sign. "If they sign, they will have to follow up on a lot of cases of sexual violence in the country. Many crimes have happened with impunity, but the cases we have recorded have not seen any legal justice."

She said women activists in the past have called on the United Nations to independently investigate sexual violence in Burma's conflict zones.

"Conflicts are continuing, and it is difficult for the UN agencies and other official agencies to verify the cases," she added.

Burma has been praised by the international community for its political and economic reforms since President Thein Sein came to power in 2011. But despite ceasefires, clashes are continuing between government soldiers and armed rebel groups in ethnic minority areas, with some activist groups including the Burma Campaign UK saying they have received an increasing number of reports of rape over the past two years.

Last weekend, an historic women's forum in Rangoon saw more than 400 activists and policy makers discussing women's rights and calling for an end to gender-based violence.

"As we pass years of civil war, women have been raped and tortured, suffering many forms of violence," said Susanna Hla Hla Soe of the Karen Women's Action Group (KWAG). She said leaders of the women's forum sent a petition to Naypyidaw on Wednesday, with 474 signatures, calling for an end to violence against women and justice for victims of past abuses.

Aung Tun Khaing, director general of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, said the issue of sexual violence was being discussed as part of peace negotiations between the government and ethnic rebel groups.

"In the Myanmar [Burma] Army, we have a rigid rule against sexual violence against local people," he told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. "Some problems remain with this issue, but not very much. According to our survey, in Kachin State, there are offenders not only in the Army, but also from some [rebel] armed groups. So now in the peace process, the government is discussing this."

He declined to comment on Burma's decision not to sign the declaration this week. "I cannot say now [about the declaration], but the first step now is that we are trying to develop an anti-violence against women law," he said. "This would include domestic violence and sexual violence. So this is the first step."

The Shan Women's Action Network, a network of Shan women in Burma and Thailand, documented 173 of cases of rape and other sexual violence at the hands of government soldiers in Shan State between 1996 and 2001. Since 2002, the network has received more than 300 complaints of rape committed by soldiers, and less than a year after the government signed a ceasefire with Shan rebels in January 2012, the group said it had received more than 10 reports of rape, adding that many more cases likely went unreported.

In Kachin State, where a ceasefire broke down in 2011, sexual violence has also been reported amid continuing clashes between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). In a shocking case last year in May, a grandmother with 12 children was reportedly beaten and gang-raped by 10 soldiers in a church.

"The use of rape and sexual violence in conflict in Burma must be stopped," Zoya Phan, campaigns manager at Burma Campaign UK, said in a statement. "If Thein Sein refuses to cooperate, then international legal action should be taken to prevent these crimes."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Thein Sein to participate in the initiative to prevent sexual violence when the Burmese president visited London in July, according to Burma Campaign UK.

Hague reportedly said this week that he would continue to encourage UN member states that have not signed the declaration to do so.

At the women's forum in Rangoon, participants also called for amendments to the Constitution to offer greater legal protection for women. They urged the government to allow women to play a greater role in peace negotiations.

"The issue of sexual violence shouldn't be ignored—it needs to be brought to the table of negotiations taking place between ethnic armed groups and the government and democratic forces," said Tin Tin Nyo of the Women's League of Burma. "This is something women's groups have been pushing for. At the very least we are looking for an apology from those who have committed these abuses. For the women of Burma, we will continue to fight in any way possible to get justice for those who have been the object of rape in conflict."

The post Burma Support Withheld on UN Pledge to End Sexual Violence appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burmese ‘Slave Labor’ Continues in Thailand, Despite Bangkok Promises

Posted: 26 Sep 2013 02:50 AM PDT

Burmese workers protest outside a CP seafood-processing plant in Mahachai in Thailand's Samut Sakhon Province on June 23, 2013. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

Tens of thousands of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, including children, continue to be used as virtually forced labor in the seafood processing industry, according to NGOs, despite pressure on the Thai government by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and US State Department monitors.

They are subjected to wage theft, falsification of labor documents, excessive fees for work permits, confiscation of travel documents and in some cases physical abuse, the Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) told The Irrawaddy.

The ILRF this week issued a statement spotlighting what it said were appalling work conditions and misuse of countless thousands of mostly illegal migrant Burmese in Thailand's lucrative shrimp industry, which is worth US$1 billion in annual exports mostly to the United States, the NGO says.

"Migrant workers are paid such shockingly low wages because it benefits Western importers that can get large quantities of cheap shrimp," ILRF's director of campaigns Abby Mills told The Irrawaddy.

"Those importers play Thai producers off each other, seeking lower and lower prices, which puts downward pressure on wages and increases the likelihood of labor rights abuses. The incentive for everyone involved is to glaze over potential exploitation while continuing to pay low wages."

The ILRF's call for action to stop the abuse comes as the ILO begins a campaign to persuade Thai seafood industry companies to reform.

The Switzerland-based ILO launched in Bangkok on September 16 a Good Labour Practices program "for addressing child labor and forced labor in the Thai fisheries industry."

The program, funded by the US government, is seeking to bring Thai government officials, industry management leaders and Thai trade union representatives together to address the problem.

However, the ILRF says previous efforts by Thailand's seafood processing industry to reform and regulate itself have failed.

"Industry-led monitoring systems do not work. The incentives in such a system do not take into account the needs of low-paid migrant workers," Mills told The Irrawaddy. "Auditors paid for by suppliers want more business from suppliers, so they are more likely to produce positive reports that conceal systemic concerns."

Employee problems in the shrimp industry in particular have worsened if anything, Mills said. This is because shrimp farms in Samut Sakhon province south of Bangkok have been hit by a fish disease which has reduced production.

"Shrimp production is down by 40% and our partners on the ground are saying layoffs are a big problem right now, particularly as these workers do not seem to be getting any compensation when they are laid off," Mills told The Irrawaddy.

"The workers who stay, but only work 3-4 days because of fewer shrimps are also not being paid the statutorily required 75 percent salary on days off, according to our partners. It's a really tough situation."

Thousands of Burmese are caught in this employment crisis in the shrimp industry because they have no documentation to enable them to move elsewhere in Thailand to find work—and there is little prospect of jobs back home despite Burma's reviving economy.

As prominent economist Sean Turnell told The Irrawaddy earlier this month, the lack of employment opportunities in Burma remains a "truly critical issue."

Turnell, co-editor of Burma Economic Watch, was commenting on the plight of as many as 100,000 legally registered Burmese in Thailand whose work permits are due to expire in the next few months. Unless Thai rules are changed these legal workers must return home.

More than 2 million Burmese are estimated to be working in Thailand, most of them illegally and therefore liable to abuse, said the ILRF.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting estimated that 400,000 Burmese were in Samut Sakhon province alone.

A UN-funded study by the Thai-based Labor Rights Promotion Network found that "for roughly 20‐30% of Burmese migrant workers, the coercive and deceptive means by which they are recruited into, and then retained, in exploitative working conditions constitutes trafficking into forced labor," Mills said.

The launch of the ILO's good labor practices program was attended by several senior Thai government and civil service officials, including Siriwat Kajornprasart, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Pranin Muttaharach, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, as well as industry leaders and foreign diplomats.

But Thailand's chaotic handling of visa and work permit rules for legal foreign migrant workers—from Laos and Cambodia as well as Burma—suggests that speedy action to clean up the fish processing industry as advocated by the ILO and ILRF is unlikely.

"We hope that the Thai government listens, as it is once again being considered for downgrade in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons report, and this year they have run out of time to stay on the Tier Two Watch List," Mills told The Irrawaddy.

The State Department publishes an annual survey of developing countries' efforts to eliminate exploitation of people and has three categories for effort. Tier Two is to "warn countries that they were on a downward trajectory," says the department. Tier Three lists countries failing to take "affirmative steps necessary to fight human trafficking."

Thailand has been on the Tier Two Watch List for four years and was told by Washington in June that it was doing too little to stop "modern slavery."

The post Burmese 'Slave Labor' Continues in Thailand, Despite Bangkok Promises appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Resource Rights groups Call for Doubling of Community-Controlled Land

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 11:49 PM PDT

A copper mine excavation about 24 km (15 miles) from Monywa in Sagaing Division. Farming families from 26 villages have lost land for the Letpadaung copper mining project. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

LONDON — A group of international organizations working on rights linked to natural resources has called for the amount of land recognized as owned or managed by indigenous peoples and communities globally to be doubled by 2018, a goal that will also require better cataloguing of land tenure.

At a major conference on community land and resource rights in Switzerland last week, participants proposed the production of a global community land tenure map that identifies the population in each area and its boundaries.

So far, most of the data collected has been segmented by land type. For forests, around 451 million hectares were owned and managed by indigenous and other local communities in 2012, representing 31 percent of the developing world's forests, up from 18 percent in 2002. But a thorough analysis of all land types has yet to be carried out.

"As natural resource development—national and international land transactions establishing logging operations, mines and agricultural plantations—extends to almost every corner of the globe, we need to secure the rights of the people who live on the land," said Duncan Pruett, policy advisor on land rights for Oxfam. "This is an age-old problem whose urgency only increases as the demand for resources skyrockets."

The conference was organized by Oxfam, Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, the International Land Coalition (ILC), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

Michael Taylor of the ILC secretariat described land rights as "a basis for food security, overcoming poverty and human dignity." "Land rights need to be prioritized if equitable and inclusive development is to take place," he added in a statement issued at the end of the conference on Friday.

The problem is that ownership of more than half of the developing world's rural areas, forests and dryland is contested, directly affecting over 2 billion people, the statement said. They often have no formal title to the lands that sustain them, nor the means to defend their rights, it added.

Private-Sector Role

As governments and private investors increasingly sign deals to exploit natural resources, the ambiguity over claims to this land is fuelling social tensions and even violent conflict around the world. Such disputes can worsen poverty for local people and cause severe business disruption.

A new study of 12 emerging-economy countries, released last week, revealed that at least one out of every three hectares of land licensed for commercial exploitation in emerging economies overlaps with land to which indigenous communities have a claim. The report, commissioned by RRI, urged investors to start factoring land tenure risk into resources deals, and to help develop a new approach that includes local communities in a more equal way.

At the Interlaken conference, 180 delegates from 40 countries—including indigenous and community leaders, representatives of the corporate and financial sectors, civil society and national governments—put forward a strategy to promote the practices of private-sector companies that have a good track record on recognizing local land rights, and to take action against those that don't by improving transparency and spreading information.

There was also support for increased dialogue between conservation groups and local communities, whose interests can clash, as well as for crafting indicators to measure progress on strengthening community land rights as part of the post-2015 development framework now under discussion.

"Insecure land rights [are] a global crisis—one most immediate and direct for the millions of indigenous peoples and rural communities who risk losing their homes and livelihoods," said RRI coordinator Andy White.

"What we—governments, civil society, businesses and international NGOs—have been doing on this issue is not enough. The crisis profoundly impacts our ability to confront climate change, address food security, and overcome poverty. Together, we need to do much more," he added.

The post Resource Rights groups Call for Doubling of Community-Controlled Land appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Hacker “Mercenaries” Linked To Japan, South Korea Spying: Researchers

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 11:44 PM PDT

Chinese hackers stole the blueprints of Australia's new spy agency headquarters years ago and the breach has been dealt with since then, a lawmaker said on May 29, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Pawel Kopczynski)

Washington — A small, sophisticated international hacking group was responsible for a widely publicized 2011 spying attack on members of Japan’s parliament as well as dozens of previously undisclosed breaches at government agencies and strategic companies in Japan and South Korea, security researchers said.

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab believe they have found a squad of hackers for hire, who contract out to governments and possibly businesses, in contrast to recent reports on hacks said to be carried out by full-time government employees.

"What we have here is the emergence of small groups of cyber-mercenaries available to perform targeted attacks," said Kaspersky’s global research director, Costin Raiu, in an interview with Reuters.

"We actually believe they have contracts, and they are interested in fulfilling whatever the contract requirements are," he said.

The espionage against members of the Japanese Diet had been blamed by that country’s officials on Chinese hackers, according to local media, but few details had been provided. Kaspersky attributed the attack to the new group. He was unable to say if the Chinese government was behind or contributed to the attack.

Logs and other records show that the same group also took aim at some of the world’s biggest shipbuilders, media companies and defense contractors including Selectron Industrial Co., although Kaspersky did not say which attacks had been successful.

Selectron, which supplies US-designed components to defense and industrial customers in Korea, Japan and elsewhere, had no immediate comment.

Kaspersky said it was working with some of the companies and with law enforcement in multiple countries.

In a report released on Wednesday, Kaspersky said researchers had won access to many of the command computers used in the campaigns and that logs and other material showed a long list of intended victims.

They said that comments within the attack programs and the names of some internal files were in simplified Chinese, but that members of the group were also conversant in Japanese and Korean, suggesting a presence in all three countries.

Servers were discovered in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and the United States.

Hacking teams often suck up enormous amounts of data with little discrimination over long periods, aiming to filter through the trove afterwards, according to reports suspected state-sponsored electronic espionage.

But this team acted with great precision, targeting specific documents or log-in credentials and then leaving the victimized network within weeks.

The report by Moscow-based Kaspersky follows a Sept. 17 research paper by SymantecCorp that blamed a separate, larger Chinese group for well-known attacks on Google Inc, EMC Corp’s RSA division, and Adobe Systems Inc.

Kaspersky dubbed the new campaign IceFog, after the name of one of the control servers, and said attacks typically began with emails tailored to a specific person at a victim company.

Microsoft Word or other attachments, once opened, allowed direct access to the attackers, who then roamed the network looking for blueprints or other treasure. The multiple security holes that were used were previously known, but the systems had not been patched.

There were a few dozen victims who used Windows, Raiu said. A Mac variant of the same malicious software was detected in thousands of infections, but was spread casually on a Chinese-language bulletin board, perhaps as a test. He said there was no evidence that any of the Mac victims had files copied and removed.

The hackers have changed their attack software in the past two years, leaving fewer clues to what was done, Kaspersky said.

The objectives of the customers appeared to vary. In one case, the detailed budget for a national army was sought, Kaspersky said, declining to name the army. In other cases, product blueprints were sought.

Raiu saw no evidence of tampering or destruction, only the removal of sensitive information.

The post Hacker "Mercenaries" Linked To Japan, South Korea Spying: Researchers appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Facebook and Twitter Too Late for China’s Internet

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 11:38 PM PDT

A man holds an iPad with a Facebook application in an office building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, Sept. 25, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

BEIJING — Facebook Inc and Twitter face a daunting task in China, if access to their social networks is unblocked, as they would be up against deeply entrenched domestic rivals which cater to local needs and tastes.

Years of isolated growth means China’s sophisticated social media companies, including Tencent Holdings, Sina Inc and Renren Inc, won’t be too worried if Facebook and Twitter prise open the door to China’s 591 million Internet users, the world’s biggest online population.

Access to Facebook and Twitter has been blocked in China since 2009, but will be lifted by the government in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) which is due to launch this weekend, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday – a move that has been popularly dubbed the "Internet Concession".

But it may be too late for them to repeat their success elsewhere in one of the world’s most promising, yet most restricted, Internet markets – where online advertising revenues soared almost 47 percent last year to $12.3 billion.

"The Chinese social media landscape is among the most developed, sophisticated landscapes out there," said Sam Flemming, chief executive of China-based social media intelligence firm CIC. "These aren’t just niche social networks, these are a major part of the Internet in China."

China's Water Cooler

Tencent’s popular messaging app WeChat has 236 million active users, more than half of all China’s smartphone users, and micro-blogging service Sina Weibo had more than 500 million registered accounts last year.

Tencent, whose market value topped $100 billion this month, stole the march on rivals with its WeChat social messaging app that lets users talk privately and in groups, play games, update friends on recent events, send voice messages and make online payments.

Facebook, valued at $118 billion, said in its IPO prospectus last year that its China market share was almost zero, and recent studies say Twitter has no more than 50,000 active users in China. Access to both is limited to people with Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that can bypass China’s Great Firewall—the colloquial term for Beijing’s Internet blocking mechanism.

"Weibo has similar features to Twitter, but its role in China for the dissemination of news, information and entertainment, that’s what’s critical," said CIC’s Flemming.

"Weibo is the zeitgeist of China, the water cooler of China."

Crackdown on Rumors

A major challenge for the likes of Facebook and Twitter on entering the Chinese Internet would be how to address the issue of official censorship, which has a stranglehold on domestic online media. Chinese authorities are cracking down on anyone posting "online rumors" and have arrested influential celebrities on Weibo, known as "Big Vs", and even jailed a 16-year-old boy for spreading rumors online.

"Facebook would make extensive compromises it’s not willing to make in other parts of the world in order to facilitate its introduction in China," said David Kirkpatrick, author of ‘The Facebook Effect’, adding that a Chinese fondness for brands, and a desire to interact globally, would draw users to the social network, which has 1.15 billion monthly active users worldwide. Renren, its nearest Chinese equivalent, has 54 million users as of June, and a market value of less than $1.3 billion.

While Twitter—which has 200 million active users and has been valued at around $15 billion ahead of a likely IPO—can offer information and content from outside China, little of it is in Chinese.

Overall, the effect of China unblocking these social networks, even on a scale larger than just the Shanghai FTZ, is likely to be limited.

"The impact is primarily on people who have a global point of view and need to communicate globally. Most Chinese people are not pining for an alternative to Weibo and WeChat," said Kirkpatrick.

The post Facebook and Twitter Too Late for China’s Internet appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Sri Lanka Drifting Toward Authoritarian Rule: U.N. Rights Chief

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:57 PM PDT

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay speaks during a news conference on her trip around Sri Lanka at the U.N. headquarters in Colombo August 31, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

GENEVA — Four years after it crushed a long separatist rebellion, Sri Lanka may be sliding towards an authoritarian system as President Mahinda Rajapaksa gathers power around him, the UN. human rights chief said on Wednesday.

The report by Navi Pillay said the largely Buddhist South Asian state was also seeing a surge of violence against religious minorities—Christians, Muslims and Hindus—while the Colombo government stood by.

Pillay said she had found great disquiet "about the degree to which the rule of law and democratic institutions in Sri Lanka are being undermined and eroded."

She said a newly created Ministry of Law and Order would come under Rajapaksa's direct control, as had happened with the Defense Ministry, and that recent changes to the Sri Lankan  Constitution had weakened checks and balances on his rule.

She said this year's removal of an outspoken chief justice had eroded the long-standing independence of the judiciary.

The report, presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council, was rejected as "unsubstantiated" and biased by Sri Lanka's ambassador in Geneva, Ravinatha P. Aryasinha, who said it was inspired "by parties with a vested interest."

This was an allusion to Western states which the Rajapaksa government accuses of waging a vendetta against it since its defeat in 2009 of Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country amid allegations of atrocities against civilians by the army.

Rajapaksa's administration, which suffered a severe rebuff in elections in the Tamil-populated north of the country last weekend, is highly sensitive to criticism of its human rights record ahead of a Commonwealth summit on the island in November.

There have been calls from international rights groups, echoed by some governments, for the venue to be switched because of what they say are continuing disappearances and killings of opponents and critics of the president.

In an interview with Reuters in Geneva, the father of a Tamil student killed along with five others during the civil war in the northern city of Trincomalee said victims would get justice only via international investigations, which have been rejected by Rajapaksa.

"Sri Lanka is not a human rights country," said the man, Dr. K. Manoharan, after delivering a 50,000-signature petition on behalf of Amnesty International to Aryasinha.

Manoharan said the six students slain in 2006 had nothing to do with the Tamil Tigers.

Pillay spoke of "high levels of harassment and intimidation meted out to human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists" and of "white vans" that picked up dissenters around the country.

The former International Criminal Court judge said inquiries ordered by the Colombo government into alleged atrocities at the end of the war with Tamil Tigers had produced few results.

Aryasinha told the Geneva rights council that Rajapaksa was committed to democracy and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

The post Sri Lanka Drifting Toward Authoritarian Rule: U.N. Rights Chief appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Mission Impossible?

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 10:42 PM PDT

Mission Impossible?

The post Mission Impossible? appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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