The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Photo Of the Week (Oct 12)
• Thilawa Farmers Say Govt Pressured Them to Accept Compensation Offer
• Bumpy Start for Burma’s Divisive Miss Universe
• A Visual Feast at Rangoon’s Lokanat Gallery
• Vietnam Waives Visa Requirement for Burmese Travelers
• Ethnic Groups Plan to Finish Federalist Draft Constitution Soon
• Burma Awards Onshore Oil and Gas Blocks to International Firms
• Burma’s Farmers Find Little Relief From Land Grabs
• Asean 2014: An Exercise in Hand-Holding
• Rangoon a Refuge for Some Thandwe Muslims
• Burma Takes Long-Awaited Asean Chair, But Can It Cope?
• Wanted: A Vision of Myanmar’s Future
• Shot Pakistani Teenager Wins EU Human Rights Prize
• China Arrests Journalist Amid Crackdown on Rumors
• US Gives Tacit Backing to Philippines in China Sea Dispute
• US, Vietnam Sign Nuclear Trade Agreement

Photo Of the Week (Oct 12) Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:05 PM PDT Dock workers carry sacks of rice from the Irrawaddy Delta at Rangoon Port, where the staple crop is then shipped to other regions of Burma. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) The post Photo Of the Week (Oct 12) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Thilawa Farmers Say Govt Pressured Them to Accept Compensation Offer Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:45 PM PDT Farmers living in the planned Thilawa Special Economic Zone said government officials pressured them into accepting a meager compensation for their loss of land. RANGOON — Villagers facing relocation from the planned Thilawa Special Economic Zone said government officials have pressured them into accepting an unfair compensation offer for the loss of farmland to the Japan-backed investment project near Rangoon. A senior government official denied the allegations. Work on the first 400-hectare phase of the 2,400-hectare Thilawa SEZ in Rangoon Division's Thanlyin Township is due to start at the end of the month. At a consultation meeting in late September, most the 84 affected families signed agreements accepting the government's compensation offer of six years' worth of harvests and a roughly 60 square meter plot of land in a barren area prone to flooding. At a press conference on Thursday, however, Mya Hlaing, a representative of the villagers, came forward to complaint that villagers signed the agreement under duress, as the officials supposedly warned villagers of the consequences if they refused to sign. A joint press release issued on Thursday by the villagers, NGO Thilawa Social Development Group and Mekong Watch, a group that monitors Japanese investment projects in the region, alleged that some officials told the farmers: "If you don't sign today, you will never receive the compensation at all" and "If you don't sign, your house will be bulldozed." Thilawa SEZ is being planned the Burmese and Japanese governments, together with a consortium of Japanese firms and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The sprawling complex, located about 25 km south of Rangoon, will include a deep sea port, Japanese factories, and large housing projects. The Burmese side owns 51 percent of the project and is responsible for developing a 2,400-hectare core zone. At the heart of the disagreement between the government and the farmers are events in the mid-1990s, when the then military government seized swathes of land with little or no compensation in order to set an industrial zone. The project failed to take off and farmers resumed cultivating their lands. When plans for the zone were revamped with Japanese support last year, communities were told to leave. But land prices have reportedly soared to as much as US$10,000 per hectare, and many farmers are now demanding higher compensation. Villagers' representative Mya Hlaing said the families were disappointed by government actions as officials had previously promised that the Japanese-Burmese investment project would follow World Bank guidelines for community consultation and resettlement, and environmental and social impact assessments. "They said they'd pay the compensation according to the international standards," Mya Hlaing said. "But I doubt it." Set Aung, chairman of the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee, denied the allegations made by the farmers and said that proper consultation, compensation and resettlement procedures were followed. "We never forced any people to sign," he said, adding that a number of compensation packages were offer to affected villagers, while villagers were also offered the chance to individually negotiate for better government compensation. Japanese firms are planning to build a number of manufacturing plants in the SEZ in order to produce Japanese goods for the global market. The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a Japanese development agency, is developing infrastructure for the project. Thilawa village representatives and NGOs supporting them said they contacted JICA as they felt that the government's compensation offer violated the agency's guidelines. JICA Burma country director Masahiko Tanaka briefly attended a press conference at the Myanmar Journalists' Network in Rangoon on Thursday, where the villagers presented their complaints. Tanaka offered Thilawa Social Development Group a letter acknowledging their request for a meeting and then left before journalists could ask him questions. In a brief phone call on Friday, Tanaka said JICA was confirming the different accounts of events given by the government and the villagers. "Next week I will meet the farmers and I will hear the farmers' opinion," he said, before declining further comment. The post Thilawa Farmers Say Govt Pressured Them to Accept Compensation Offer appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Bumpy Start for Burma’s Divisive Miss Universe Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:53 AM PDT Burma's Miss Universe 2013, Moe Set Wine, center, poses with runners up at the competition in Rangoon last week. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma's first Miss Universe in 50 years had a difficult first week. Hundreds of people have taken to social media to disapprove of Moe Set Wine's acquaintance with a general's family member, and to raise questions over her status as a citizen of Burma. The vitriol prompted by the 25-year-old beauty pageant winner has shed light on some strongly held views in Burma today—a hatred of the military regime that ruled until two years ago and a resentment of the former regime's key patron, China. Crowned on Oct. 3, Moe Set Wine made her first public appearance as Burma's Miss Universe at an opening ceremony of the Universities Champions League football competition on Saturday afternoon. What should have been a proud moment turned bitter after photographs of her being greeted at the event by Nay Shwe Thway Aung, the grandson of Burma's former dictator Than Shwe, become the talk of the town. Through scorching comments, Burmese Facebook users showed their anger with Moe Set Wine—who will represent the country at the international Miss Universe contest in Moscow on Nov. 9—for associating with the general's grandson. Some even urged Moe Set Wine to give up the crown. Nay Shwe Thway Aung, who is the president of the league, has reportedly claimed he is not a friend of Moe Set Wine. A day later, Chinese media reported on her victory, noting that Moe Set Wine has Chinese ancestry. Then an archive photo was shared showing her wearing a red traditional Chinese dress and it emerged she had finished first runner up in a "Miss China-Burma" contest in 2009. The event, organized by Chinese newspaper Gold Phoenix, was participated in by women in Burma of Chinese decent. Social network users jumped to the conclusion that Moe Set Wine, who has also been identified by the Chinese name Yang Xinrong, might not have Burmese nationality, and therefore should not represent the country. A note of congratulations in Chinese, from Green Circle beverage company, fueled the fire, and comments began to associate Miss Universe with China, Burma's massive neighbor that is often seen as exerting a malign influence over Burma and propping up the previous regime even as it was isolated from much of the world. A spokesman for Hello Madam Media group, the organizer of Burma's Miss Universe contest, told Irrawaddy that the organizers would prove that Moe Set Wine is a Burmese citizen. "She is not Chinese. She was born in Rangoon and holds a Burmese national identity card," the spokesman, Chan Lin Thu, said. "We will collect proof and evidence, and will tell everyone. Her parents are from Nant Kham, northern Shan State. In her identity card, her nationality is Myanmar and was born from Shan and Burmese parents." Chan Lin Thu said the attacks against Moe Set Wine appeared to be motivated by jealousy. "We already know who [the attackers] are, but we will not say who they are. We would like to tell them to stop attacking Moe Set Wine. If they don't we will have to publish to the public," he said, denying that the winner had a Chinese name. "Since Miss Universe is world famous event, everyone wants this opportunity. If there was someone else in this position rather than Moe Set Wine, we think she would be attacked like this as well." Despite the reams of angry comments directed at her, many also took to Moe Set Wine's Facebook page to offer their support. "I greatly appreciate your love and support, especially during these difficult times. I am very glad to have you guys," she wrote in a short message to Facebook followers. Meanwhile, an alternative contest has been set up online—under the name "Beauty Pageant Grand Slam—to elect the "peoples" choice for Burma's Miss Universe 2013. Moe Set Wine is currently ranking 12th out of 82 candidates, behind many other well known models, including the popular Nang Khin Zeyar, the winner of Miss Myanmar 2012. Moe Set Wine has divided opinion and become a focus for historic animosities. And although the pageant organizers appear to be sticking their controversial choice, she is looking at a tough reign ahead. The post Bumpy Start for Burma's Divisive Miss Universe appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

A Visual Feast at Rangoon’s Lokanat Gallery Posted: 11 Oct 2013 05:21 AM PDT A visitor to the 'My Visual Space' contemporary art show. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — With 42 paintings by more than a dozen Burmese artists, a contemporary exhibition at Lokanat Gallery in Burma's former capital offers art fans a chance to appreciate a variety of artistic styles all in one place. "My Visual Space" presents a collection of artworks by established painters like Kyee Myint Saw and Win Pe Myint, as well as less well-known art major graduates from the State Culture University. The show offers a generational mélange: Its oldest featured artist is 70 years old, while the youngest is just 30. "We present different artists of different styles," said Ko Sai, the show's organizer. "Just enjoy them." He is not exaggerating. Visitors to the gallery shouldn't be surprised to find a traditional landscape painting of the majestic Irrawaddy River's banks on display next to the semi-abstract brushwork of an artist inspired by the rolling hills of Burma's border regions. Impressionist landscapes are likely to evoke different feelings for the viewer than the nudes of the famous still-life artist Win Pe Myint. The scale of the works also varies greatly, with the biggest painting measuring 5-foot-by-6-foot and the smallest just slightly larger than a sheet of printer paper. Huge palette knife works of famous painters Kyee Myint Saw and Zaw Win Pe draw visitors' attention with their dramatic contrasts in color and composition. "They are just my rendition of the places I've visited," explained Zaw Win Pe. "It's the final result after blending my feeling toward the scene with how the place really looks," the artist added, pointing to one of the paintings in which he traded his brush for a knife. "People can appreciate it as they like. When it comes to art, we have no authority to confine their appreciation," he said. 'My Visual Space' Contemporary Art Show From Oct. 7-12, 2013 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Lokanat Gallery, 62 Pansodan Street, Rangoon The post A Visual Feast at Rangoon's Lokanat Gallery appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Vietnam Waives Visa Requirement for Burmese Travelers Posted: 11 Oct 2013 04:33 AM PDT Budget airline Air Asia has moved aggressively to increase its flights to destinations in Myanmar in a bid to capture much of the tourist market. Now Burmese citizens will soon be able to travel abroad to Vietnam without a visa. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burmese citizens will soon be able to travel to Vietnam without a visa, Vietnam's government says. Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that the Vietnam and Burma governments had signed an agreement that would also allow Vietnam passport holders to visit Burma without a visa, so long as the trip was less than 15 days, according to the Vietnam-based Tuoi Tre newspaper. The visa exemption for both countries will be effective starting on Oct. 26, the newspaper reported. To qualify for the visa exemption, travelers must have a passport that has been valid for at least six months. At Rangoon-based Columbus Travels & Tours, the manager said she expected travel between both nations to increase. "Burmese people can easily visit Vietnam, and Vietnamese people can also visit here more conveniently," she said. The visa exemption agreement was signed between Burma Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and Vietnam Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh earlier this month in the United States, where the Burma diplomat was visiting for a session of the UN General Assembly. Vietnamese passport holders can now travel to nine countries in Southeast Asia without a visa. In the past, a tourist visa to Burma cost US$20 for Vietnamese passport holders. Burmese travelers were charged $55 for a visa to Vietnam. Vietnam is now targeting over $1 billion investment in Burma by 2015 and at least $2 billion by 2020, especially in the construction and banking sectors, as Burma's economy opens after decades of isolation under military rule. Bilateral trade between both countries has grown an annual average of 60 percent since 2009. The post Vietnam Waives Visa Requirement for Burmese Travelers appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Ethnic Groups Plan to Finish Federalist Draft Constitution Soon Posted: 11 Oct 2013 04:24 AM PDT An earlier meeting of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) on the Thai-Burma border in 2012. (Photo: phophtaw.org) CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Ethnic groups from Burma plan to finish drafting an alternative federalist constitution within three months, as the country's Parliament solicits public input on the extent to which it should change the current military-backed charter. An alliance of ethnic armed groups known as the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) is partnering with an alliance of ethnic political groups known as the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) to draft the alternative federalist charter, which will call for equality of all ethnic groups in Burma as well as a federalist political system to grant ethnic states more power. The UNFC will play a leading role in the drafting process, as its members have decades of experience pushing for a federalist system, while the UNA will add input, said UNFC secretary Khun Oakkar. "The 'alternative' draft could come out at the end of next month," he said on Friday, adding that the working draft would be discussed among politicians and ethnic leaders, with a final draft ready in December. Leaders of both allied groups met in the north Thai city of Chiang Mai, where many ethnic groups from Burma are based, this week to organize their constitutional drafting committee. They also brainstormed discussion points for another summit of ethnic groups that will be held in three weeks in Burma, in the town of Laiza in Kachin State. The summit will be held ahead of a government-planned conference next month in Naypyidaw to consolidate individual ceasefire agreements with ethnic groups into a nationwide ceasefire agreement. "The UNFC is calling for the government to announce the nationwide ceasefire, reposition the government troops, limit the Tatmadaw's [government military] troop movements in ethnic-controlled areas, set up a code of conduct for military relations, and facilitate political dialogue," said Nai Hong Sar, general secretary of the UNFC. Redrafting the Constitution is a controversial issue among Burma's ruling politicians and ethnic leaders. The country's ruling party, the Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP), wants to maintain the current 2008 military-backed Constitution, while Parliament's Constitution Review Committee is welcoming input from the public on the extent to which people would like to change the charter. There is debate over whether it would be better to amend sections of the current Constitution or to completely scrap the charter and write a new one. Khun Oakkar of the UNFC said he agreed with country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which has pushed for amendments. Sai Nyunt Lwin, a spokesman of the Shan National League for Democracy, which is a member of the UNA, said ethnic groups would not be able to overcome the desires of the USDP lawmakers and the military. "Every group is talking about their own opinions, but practically, the key is the USDP and the military," said the Shan leader, who is vice chairman of the ethnic committee to draft an alternative federalist constitution. "They are make up the majority of the 109-member parliamentary committee [to review the Constitution], and they will discuss secretly. … The decision is theirs." Still, he said the ethnic allied groups would continue working on the draft of a federalist charter and would offer suggestions to Parliament. The post Ethnic Groups Plan to Finish Federalist Draft Constitution Soon appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Awards Onshore Oil and Gas Blocks to International Firms Posted: 11 Oct 2013 03:59 AM PDT RANGOON — Burma's Ministry of Energy has named nine international companies, including Russian, Italian and Canadian firms, as winners of tenders to explore onshore territory for oil and gas reserves, according to an official announcement. An announcement posted on the ministry's website Thursday said 13 blocks had been awarded to firms that, if they find oil or gas, will enter into production sharing contracts with the Burmese government. Three improved petroleum recovery (IPR) blocks were also awarded. Oil wells on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in Chauk, Magway Division. (Photo: Reuters) ONGC Videsh Limited of India, Eni of Italy, Petroleum Exploration (PVT) Ltd. of Pakistan and Canada's Pacific Hunt Energy Corp. were awarded two blocks each to explore with a view to entering profit-sharing agreements with the government. Brunei National Petroleum Co., CAOG S.a.r.l. of Luxembourg, JSOC Bashneft of Russia and a consortium of Thailand's PTTEP South Asia Ltd. and Palang Sophon Offshore were all awarded one block each. The firms will enter into joint ventures with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). According to the standard terms of onshore production sharing contracts, posted on the Ministry of Energy's website, companies will have to give MOGE at least 60 percent of profits after they have recovered the expenses of exploration. They will also pay 12.5 percent in royalties, as well as taxes on their own profits. The terms say companies will have to sell at least 20 percent of crude oil and 25 percent of natural gas produced to the domestic market at a 10 percent discount from the market price. Petronas Carigali, the exploration arm of Malaysia's state-owned oil company, also won one of the production sharing blocks, as well as an IPR block in Shwepyitha Township, Rangoon Division. IPR refers to the use of advanced methods to extract more oil and gas from a field than can be extracted through traditional drilling. Two more IPR blocks, in Irrawaddy and Pegu divisions, were awarded to MPRL E & P Pte., Ltd., which is registered in the British Virgin Islands but run by Burmese businessman Michael Moe Myint. The blocks cover areas of varying size in the Irrawaddy River basin, a region known to contain large deposits of hydrocarbons that the government hopes to tap into to fuel Burma's development and provide state revenues. Another round of bidding for 11 shallow-water and 19 deepwater offshore oil and gas exploration blocks is also underway and the winners are expected to be announced early next year. Thursday's announcement said 26 companies submitted a total of 54 bids in the competitive tender for the onshore blocks. "[The Ministry of Energy] chose from them based on the selection criteria: the specified exploration period, the plans of each company and the expected expenses, ratios of sharing oil and gas [with the government], the experiences and financial conditions of each company, the signing bonus proposed by the company, etc.," it said. Details of the winning bids have not been made public. The announcement also said the companies would need to have an environmental impact assessment and a social impact assessment approved by the Myanmar Investment Commissionbefore they start work on the blocks. Myint Zaw, deputy minister of energy, told a conference last month said he was hopeful the new tenders would yield new onshorereserves, and improve the current level of oil and gas production. "Total inland production of crude oil is [so far] only 600 million barrels plus, and natural gas only 1.4 trillion cubic feet. However, I'm told by my expert geologists that Myanmar still has lots of onshore potential still remaining to be discovered," Myint Zaw said last month. "Our country Myanmar is awaiting technology, expertise and funds to discover new onshore reserves of petroleum." The post Burma Awards Onshore Oil and Gas Blocks to International Firms appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Farmers Find Little Relief From Land Grabs Posted: 11 Oct 2013 03:32 AM PDT Protesters gather near the office of the company running the Letpadaung copper mine, near Monywa in Sagaing Division, on Jan. 29, 2013. (Photo: Han Win Aung) DALA, Rangoon Division — Just after dawn, plainclothes Burmese naval officers entered a wooden shack and roused a young rice farmer from his sleep. They marched him to their nearby barracks and locked him up without explanation. By the time The Khaw Lu Maw was released, the shack that had been his lifelong home was gone, his belongings scattered amid the debris. One by one, other homes in the riverside community of Dala were bulldozed. Residents had farmed the land for generations, but the navy took it over this year to expand a base. "They want to show us they're the ones with the power," he said, his eyes welling with tears. "That they can do what they want." Recent political reforms have won Burma widespread praise and the lifting of international sanctions, but for farmers who happen to be in the way of military or business plans, land rights have improved little since a half-century era of military rule ended in 2011. It is a recipe for strife in a country where 70 percent of the labor force depends on agriculture, and where foreign investors, often working with current or former military officials, are scrambling to build roads, factories, power plants, bridges and industrial-sized plantations. The government has made it tougher in some cases for land to be seized from farmers, and has formed a commission to handle land confiscation issues. But that has not helped many farmers, like those in Dala, who have been working land that was formally taken from them years ago under the old junta. Rising prospects for foreign investment are inspiring many owners to take possession and evict the farmers. Though the new government has intervened at times, it often does not, and it has even passed laws that have been used against those attempting to resist. Legal experts in Burma said a new law on peaceful assemblies is being used regularly to arrest, try and imprison people who stand up against land grabs by the rich and powerful. In addition, recent legislation has given the government the authority to seize land in the name of "national interest." "The problem is, when the government tries to address a hot-button issue," said Murray Hiebert of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "officials simultaneously introduce reformist policies as well as ways to retreat to the behavior of the old days." Other experts say that after 50 years of military administration, those drafting the laws continue to be driven by security concerns. The most high-profile case has been in the northwest's Sagaing Division, where thousands have joined protests over plans to give 8,000 acres of farmland to an expanding Chinese-run copper mine, a joint venture with a Burma military-run conglomerate. Arrests have been common. Naw Ohn Hla, who started fighting injustice during the days of dictatorship, was hauled away for the 10th time in as many years in August while seeking permission to protest the mine. She was sentenced to two years in prison for disrupting public tranquility, said her lawyer, Robert San Aung. That is an old law, but she's also awaiting charges under the peaceful assembly law that was adopted last year. The two pieces of legislation are being used together against farmers and activists protesting land grabs and other grievances, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nonprofit organization staffed by former political prisoners in Burma. It said that as of last month, 29 people had been sentenced and 125 others were still awaiting trial or expressing their views in peaceful demonstrations. President Thein Sein has said land reform is one of Burma's most pressing issues. The country went from being a relatively wealthy Asian country to one of the continent's poorest under the military junta. Much of that former wealth came from rice exports, which plummeted as land rights weakened. Farmers officially lost property rights in the junta's early years, but were allowed to continue working the land as long as they paid taxes. In the last decade of dictatorship, land was regularly taken with little or no compensation for economic projects, industrial zones and military bases. Defense Minister Lt-Gen Wai Lwin said in July the military would not only stop seizures, but return undeveloped land that had been illegally seized. Thein Tun, a lawmaker and secretary of Parliament's farmland investigation commission, said the panel had helped resolve several land-grab cases, though there is more to be done. He said farmers have received about US$700,000 in additional compensation from a tycoon who had taken 106 acres for a hotel resort in western Burma. He also said a company that had taken 814 acres in the Irrawaddy Delta town of Myaung Mya decades ago had to give it back. Claims for more than 100,000 acres have been put before the commission, though that is believed to be a pittance of what was actually taken. The minister said only a third of those claims would even be considered, without fully explaining why. New land laws do not eliminate the potential for more dubious seizures because they include exceptions for loosely defined fallow and virgin lands. The military has long owned the Dala land, but only recently began to use it. The seizures formally occurred in the early 1990s, when officers in light blue navy uniforms offered 40 farming families cash for their land. Most agreed, feeling they had no other choice. For each acre, the families received about enough money to buy three chickens. And though they were allowed to keep farming, they were charged rent that far exceeded the payment received: $50 per acre per year, plus 10 percent of their harvest. In January 2013, farmers were told to leave because the navy was going ahead with a "special project." The Khaw Lu Maw was among those who stayed anyway, and continued plowing and reharvesting. They were forced off their land in late June. Excavators tore up freshly planted rice shoots. The foundation of a towering fence was built in July. Homes were erased, including the one where The Khaw Lu Maw lived with his parents until they died a few years ago. "This house is where I was born, where I grew up and played as a kid," the 26-year-old said. "All my memories of my mother and father were in that house." Since losing his home, The Khaw Lu Maw has been living with friends and trying to figure out what to do with his life. "If I could go back to my house now," he said, "I'd try to find a picture of my mother or anything else to remind me," he said. "But I know it's useless. They destroyed everything. It's all gone. There is nothing I can do." The post Burma's Farmers Find Little Relief From Land Grabs appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Asean 2014: An Exercise in Hand-Holding Posted: 11 Oct 2013 03:21 AM PDT Asean 2014: An Exercise in Hand-Holding The post Asean 2014: An Exercise in Hand-Holding appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Rangoon a Refuge for Some Thandwe Muslims Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:23 AM PDT Muslims gather at a mosque in Rangoon after praying as part of the Ashura religious festival in November 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Minzayar) RANGOON — Muslims hiding out in Rangoon say they are among more than 100 followers of Islam who fled religious violence in Arakan State's Thandwe Township last week to seek refuge in Burma's biggest city. An argument between an Arakanese Buddhist and a Muslim in Thandwe spiraled out of control on Sept. 29 and eventually led to the spread of violence in surrounding villages over the next three days. Five Muslims were killed and more than 100 houses were burned to the ground. Zaw Moe Win, a Kaman Muslim, was among those who fled Thandwe last week. He told The Irrawaddy that he booked a flight out of the coastal town, opting not to take the cheaper overland route from Thandwe to Rangoon for fear of his safety. "There are at least 100 of our Muslims who fled from Thandwe and came to Rangoon. It was crowded on the flight the day I flew [Oct. 1]," said Zaw Moe Win. "I am hiding my whole family here," said Kyaw Lin, another Kaman Muslim man from Thandwe who also fled to Rangoon. "I am staying at my relatives' house. All my property remains in Thandwe. I have almost run out of money now." However, many Muslims in Thandwe remain in the town, unwilling or unable to pay for a flight or bus ticket elsewhere. Many of those whose houses were razed are living with friends or relatives in the area. Following the first outbreak of violence in Arakan State in June 2012, several other townships across Burma were similarly plagued by clashes between Buddhists and Muslims. Often the violence has been triggered by rumors of Muslim men allegedly raping Buddhist women. The Thandwe violence, however, reportedly stemmed from an argument between a Buddhist motorcycle taxi driver and a Muslim man. About 90 percent of the country's population of 55 million is Buddhist, and Muslims are estimated to comprise some 5 percent. Rangoon, Burma's former capital, is a multiethnic melting pot where Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus have lived side by side for generations. Most Muslims who fled Thandwe have taken refuge in Rangoon's "Mingalar Market" neighborhood, where police occasionally crack down on individuals living there illegally. Several dozen people were detained for unauthorized residency in recent months. Despite the risk of being arrested, Zaw Moe Win said Rangoon offered a less threatening environment than Thandwe. "I found in Yangon that there is no discrimination against Muslims. The neighborhood where I stay in Yangon, I find that it is all right. They [Buddhists] do not look down on me or cause problems," said Zaw Moe Win. "We can sleep and eat very well here. I feel it is very safe to stay in Yangon," he added. The proportion of Muslims in Rangoon is larger than across Burma as a whole, as is the case in Thandwe. Zaw Moe Win and Kyaw Lin are not the first to seek refuge in Rangoon, with the city seeing new arrivals with each new inter-communal flare-up over the last 15 months as Muslims leave conflict-torn hometowns and villages for the prospect of a more welcoming day-to-day life. Anxiety has nonetheless been stoked from time to time among the Muslim community in Rangoon as anti-Muslim violence has broken out in villages outside of the city, including in Okkan Township in late April and last week in Kyaung Gone, Irrawaddy Division, the latter of which was again reportedly sparked by rumors of rape. An informal Muslim neighborhood watch has sprung up in Rangoon, with an organized group of Muslim men posted at night, on alert for any possible threats. The situation in Thandwe has stabilized, but bus ticket sales back to the town have reportedly been restricted, according to the Yangon Times. The Burmese-language daily reported on Tuesday that fears that the road to Thandwe from Rangoon might be blocked by instigators of violence had prompted the move to reject Muslim bus passengers. Zaw Moe Win confirmed the restricted sales, having once been denied the overland travel option by a bus ticket sales associate. "She asked me if I was a Muslim, and I said I was Muslim, and she was afraid to sell a ticket to me," Zaw Moe Win said. "It is safe to be in Rangoon, but some rumors of violence happening near Rangoon, this makes me worry sometimes," said Kyaw Lin, adding that he would return to Thandwe only when he felt is safety was assured. The post Rangoon a Refuge for Some Thandwe Muslims appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Takes Long-Awaited Asean Chair, But Can It Cope? Posted: 10 Oct 2013 11:03 PM PDT Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah hands over the Asean Gavel to Burma President Thein Sein as the next chairman of the Asean Summit during the Closing Ceremony of the 23rd Asean Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, October 10, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — In a room festooned with purple and yellow flowers, Burma took a long-coveted role on Thursday as chairman of Asean, the regional grouping of Southeast Asia. But in a country where three-quarters of the population lack access to electricity and basic telephone services are patchy, the job holds as many problems as promise for a semi-civilian government that emerged from 49 years of oppressive military rule two years ago to surprise the world with sweeping reforms. Burma may struggle to cope with the onslaught of meetings—a total of 1,100—it will host next year when the role of chairing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations formally begins. Many government institutions face shortages of skilled civil servants. And many government buildings lack basic infrastructure, such as computers. "It won't be perfect, but it won't be a disaster," said Tin Maung Maung Than, a Burmese scholar and senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. President Thein Sein's democratic reforms have won praise but he has also been criticized for failing to stem religious violence that has killed at least 240 people and displaced 140,000, most of them Muslims, since June 2012 in the Buddhist-majority country. "Burma can't even get its own human rights house in order, how can it be expected to lead regionally on human rights?" said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch. Apartheid-like policies in Burma's western Arakan State have segregated Buddhists from stateless Rohingya Muslims, leaving many of them in primitive camps with little hope of resettlement. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Burma by boat, washing ashore in Thailand and Malaysia. Serial human rights abuses, however, haven't stopped other Southeast Asian countries from chairing ASEAN. Last year's host, Cambodia, has tolerated little dissent since its authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen, consolidated power in a 1997 coup. 'It Will Not Be a Struggle' UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the chairmanship was a "good opportunity" for Burma to build on its socio-economic progress and democratic transition. "We all agree and we're also concerned that there are still many more challenges, particularly communal violence, which they have been experiencing, in Rakhine [Arakan] State involving Rohingya minority groups," he said. "We have been working very hard…to encourage Myanmar authorities to have inclusive dialogue and conciliatory policies." Burma officials insist they are ready to take the role of chairman. Hotels are sprouting in the once-secretive capital Naypyidaw, a sprawling city built from scratch just seven years ago. Naypyidaw hosts the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in December—a rehearsal for next year's Asean meetings that include an annual East Asia summit bringing together leaders from 18 nations including China, Japan and the United States, along with an army of inquisitive journalists. "We've been preparing for this chairmanship for quite a while," Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin told Reuters on the sidelines of this year's East Asia Summit in Brunei. "It will not be a struggle for us." Presidential Advisor Nay Zin Lat added, "We know we'll have to host about 1,100 meetings during the term, and preparations are being made accordingly." Burma was first due to take Asean's rotating chairmanship in 2006, but was passed over amid fears Western countries would boycott meetings held there. The country was then a global byword for backwardness and tyranny, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and the United States and European Union imposing strict economic and political sanctions. Most sanctions are now history, and after her release in 2010, Suu Kyi became a member of Burma's fledgling Parliament. The role of Asean chairman is the crowning achievement for a government eager to distance itself from the bad old days. At the ceremony, Thein Sein accepted a golden gavel to symbolize the job. Later, there was a screening of a short film portraying Burma as a "paradise" of rich resources, golden pagodas and ethnic diversity, as a narrator declared, "Now is Myanmar's time in the sun." The upcoming SEA Games in Naypyidaw have prompted comparisons to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which marked post-war Japan's re-emergence on the world stage. A central problem, however, could be weak infrastructure. This year's Asean summit in Brunei had 500 staff to handle more than 1,000 journalists—all of whom could place enormous strains on Burma's notoriously slow Internet. Initial fears of a dearth of hotel rooms, however, have all but vanished in a din of construction in Naypyidaw, which now has 53 hotels boasting 4,286 rooms, more than double the number needed for the current summit in Brunei. The post Burma Takes Long-Awaited Asean Chair, But Can It Cope? appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Wanted: A Vision of Myanmar’s Future Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:18 AM PDT We live in an age of "cautious optimism," when no one can say with any certainty what the future holds for Myanmar, but many believe that it will, in any case, be better than what we've had to live through in the not-so-distant past. That caution may well be justified, but perhaps it's time to start focusing on the need for greater optimism. This is not to deny that many daunting challenges lie ahead. At the same time, however, we can't afford to become so wary of them that we lose sight of the equally enormous opportunities for positive change. As a journalist who has spent more than two decades in exile, I speak from experience when I say that Myanmar is in many respects a very different country from the one I and many others once felt forced to flee. Many who once denounced the former regime are now returning, eager to assist the ailing nation through participation in the peace process and by sharing their experiences with the opposition, civil society, media and the government. Internationally, Myanmar is now seen as an exciting new frontier for investors and tourists alike. Foreign leaders fly in to meet President U Thein Sein and Nobel laureate Daw Aung San SuuKyi, and journalists from around the world are closely following developments here to meet growing demand for information about a nation that until recently was regarded as a pariah. There are many reasons for this sudden burst of intense interest. One is that Myanmar's natural resources are still relatively untapped, and thus extremely attractive to its more developed neighbors and other richer countries. Another is that it is strategically located between the world's two most populous countries, and is also at the crossroads to Southeast Asia, one of the world's most economically dynamic regions. Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org. With the steady lifting of Western sanctions as the government moves forward (however haltingly) with reforms, there is hope that Myanmar will have even greater opportunities to develop its economy, not only in the resource sector, but also in areas that will give ordinary people jobs and a chance to develop new skills. The trouble here, of course, is that Myanmar has a huge capacity gap, which will not be easy to close. But even this should not be a cause for undue pessimism: Even during the darkest days of military rule, when students were treated like criminals and universities were routinely shut down, Myanmar's people demonstrated a strong appetite for knowledge and a willingness to do anything in their power to improve their minds and abilities. Many foreigners, for instance, have remarked on the language skills of children hawking postcards to tourists. In order to eke out a meager existence, some will learn not just the rudiments of English, but also of any other language that might help them find new customers. This is no mean feat for children so poor that they have to spend their days earning a living rather than learning in school. In other areas, too, the people of this country have shown themselves to be more than capable of acquiring whatever skills they need to survive. Until recently, for example, most motorists were forced to rely on vehicles long since abandoned by their original owners in other countries—something that would have been impossible without the resourcefulness of Myanmar's mechanics. In the public sphere, despite repression by the authorities, civil society organizations sought their own solutions to Myanmar's pressing social problems, often with little or no help from outside aid agencies. What they may have lacked in "capacity," they more than made up for in their sheer determination to make a difference. Myanmar's intellectuals—its scholars, artists and writers—also showed that they could be stubbornly independent, even in the face of draconian thought control. Now that they are no longer forced to work in the shadows, the world is discovering a vibrant culture that went almost completely unnoticed just a few years ago. Of course, it will take more than the efforts of individuals, small groups and even whole communities to move Myanmar beyond the level of mere subsistence. To realize its full potential, the country needs the involvement of all of its citizens; and for that, it has to address the greatest capacity gap of all: the lack of leaders with a vision of the future. To me, Myanmar is like a dilapidated old house. Neglect has taken its toll, but it's still possible to imagine it in its former glory. All it would take to restore it is someone with a clear idea of how to get the job done, and the ability to communicate that idea to others. Myanmar has never had any shortage of leaders, but somehow this has never translated into the sort of leadership the country really needs. The military strongmen who once ruled (and who remain in positions of power today) often seemed driven by paranoia and delusions of grandeur, rather than by an understanding of the needs of a nation with many ethnic, political, social and religious divisions. Even deeply popular leaders, such as Gen Aung San and his daughter, Daw Aung San SuuKyi, are better known for what they opposed than for what they hoped to achieve. In the case of Gen Aung San, this is because his life was cut short before his dream of independence could be fully realized. In his daughter's case, many have been disappointed by what they see as her inexplicable silence on many pressing issues. It's not too late to hope that Daw Aung San SuuKyi or some other leader who emerged from Myanmar's pro-democracy struggle—or even one of the more enlightened ex-generals—will someday be able to articulate a compelling vision of the country's future. But the sooner that day comes, the better—before the optimism that's in the air is squandered, and Myanmar loses yet another golden opportunity to rebuild itself anew. This article first appeared in the October 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post Wanted: A Vision of Myanmar's Future appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Shot Pakistani Teenager Wins EU Human Rights Prize Posted: 11 Oct 2013 01:12 AM PDT Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for education for girls, wins the European Union’s annual human rights award. BRUSSELS — Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for education for girls, won the European Union’s annual human rights award on Thursday, beating fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. The 16-year-old was attacked last year while on a school bus in northwestern Pakistan, but recovered after medical treatment in Britain. She is also a favorite among experts and betting agencies to be named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. “She is an icon of courage for all teenagers who dare to pursue their aspirations and, like a candle, she lights a path out of darkness,” said Joseph Daul, chairman of the center-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament. Yousafzai started her campaigning by writing blogs in 2009 in which she described how the militant Islamist Taliban prevented girls like her from going to school. She quickly rose to international fame when more and more foreign media outlets conducted interviews with her. Her growing profile attracted the Taliban’s attention and led to frequent death threats. “I was not worried about myself that much. I was worried about my father. We could not believe they would be so cruel as to kill a child, as I was 14 at the time,” Yousafzai said in a U.S. television interview with “The Daily Show” on Tuesday. Her book “I Am Malala” is currently the second-best selling book on Amazon.com. The Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought has been awarded by the European Parliament each year since 1988 to commemorate Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. Its past winners include Nelson Mandela and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Yousafzai was chosen by a vote among the heads of all the political groups in the 750-member parliament. Snowden had been nominated by the Green group in the parliament for what it said was his enormous service to human rights and European citizens when he disclosed secret U.S. telephone and Internet surveillance programs. The post Shot Pakistani Teenager Wins EU Human Rights Prize appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Arrests Journalist Amid Crackdown on Rumors Posted: 10 Oct 2013 11:26 PM PDT Customers surf the internet at an internet bar in Beijing. (Photo: Getty Images) BEIJING — A Chinese investigative journalist who has accused officials of corruption has been arrested, his lawyer said on Thursday, becoming the latest in a series of government critics to be swept up in Beijing’s crackdown on rumors. Liu Hu, a reporter with the Guangzhou-based newspaper New Express, was arrested on a charge of defamation on Sept. 30, said his lawyer, Zhou Ze. Liu had been detained in late August in the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing on suspicion of "fabricating and spreading rumors". China’s crackdown on online "rumor-mongering", widely seen as a tool to halt criticism of the ruling Communist Party, has chilled political discourse, with high-profile bloggers saying they have reined in sensitive postings for fear of detention. Lawyers and activists called the crackdown a significant, if crude, expansion of powers to police the Internet and a blow to those who rely on microblogs to disseminate information that is often not monitored as strictly as traditional media. On July 29, Liu accused Ma Zhengqi, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, of dereliction of duty during his time as party secretary of a local district in Chongqing. Liu had posted these allegations on his microblog. The administration said it had been informed of the accusation but made no further comment, according to the Beijing Times newspaper. Zhou called the charge against his client a "speech crime" and said the government could be retaliating against Liu because he detailed specific allegations against a wide range of officials, including many senior ones, across many provinces. Liu’s information came from his reporting and through his network, Zhou said, adding that Liu had no reason to suspect the veracity of the content. "It’s impossible that passing on this information constitutes the deliberate spread of false information or the intentional fabrication and transmission of information," Zhou said. "Therefore it doesn’t constitute defamation." Liu’s microblog account has been deleted. Officials in Chongqing could not be reached for comment. Chinese President Xi Jinping has made fighting graft a top theme of his new administration, and has specifically targeted extravagance and waste, seeking to assuage anger over corruption and restore faith in the party. While the party has encouraged people to use the Internet to expose graft, it has detained activists who have called for officials to publicly disclose their assets. Zhou said he believes the Chinese government "is somewhat uneasy" about people using the Internet as a tool to fight corruption. Wary of any threat to its authority or social stability, the party has also stepped up its already tight controls over social media to limit public discussion of sensitive political issues. In September, the government unveiled tough measures to halt the spread of what it called irresponsible rumors, threatening terms of three years in jail if untrue postings online were widely reposted. "Weeks after the government passed a new rule criminalizing ‘online rumors’, a well-known whistleblower is arrested for defaming officials — the message cannot be clearer, and it is likely to further silence Chinese netizens who are already quite worried," said Maya Wang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. The post China Arrests Journalist Amid Crackdown on Rumors appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US Gives Tacit Backing to Philippines in China Sea Dispute Posted: 10 Oct 2013 11:19 PM PDT US Secretary of State John Kerry attends the 1st ASEAN-US Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, October 9, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — US Secretary of State John Kerry gave tacit backing to the Philippines' stance in a tense maritime dispute with China on Thursday, saying that all countries had a right to seek arbitration to resolve competing territorial claims. The Philippines, a US ally, has angered China by launching an arbitration case with the United Nations to challenge the legal validity of Beijing's sweeping claims over the resource-rich South China Sea. The United States has refrained from taking sides in the dispute, one of Asia's biggest security headaches, but has expressed a national interest in freedom of navigation through one of the world's busiest shipping channels. "All claimants have a responsibility to clarify and align their claims with international law. They can engage in arbitration and other means of peaceful negotiation," Kerry told leaders at the East Asia Summit in Brunei, including Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. "Freedom of navigation and overflight is a linchpin of security in the Pacific," he added. China claims almost the entire oil- and gas-rich South China Sea, overlapping with claims from Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam. The last four are members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). The row is one of the region's biggest flashpoints amid China's military build-up and the US strategic "pivot" back to Asia signaled by the Obama administration in 2011. Diplomatic efforts to ease tensions are now centered on Chinese talks with Asean to frame a code of conduct for disputes in the South China Sea, but Beijing has restricted talks to low-level consultations rather than formal negotiations. The annual East Asia Summit ended on Thursday without significant progress on the dispute, with a joint Asean-China statement saying only that the two sides had agreed to "maintain the momentum of the regular official consultations." Delaying Tactics? Frustrated by the slow pace of regional diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute, the Philippines has hired a crack international legal team to fight its unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea—ignoring growing pressure from Beijing to scrap the action. Any result will be unenforceable, legal experts say, but will carry considerable moral and political weight. Beijing has accused the Philippines of pursuing the case to legalize its occupation of islands in the disputed sea and said it would never agree to cooperate. Some diplomats have expressed concern that the Asean-China consultations are a bid by China to delay a final agreement on a code while it expands its naval reach and consolidates its expansive claims. Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh, in an interview with Reuters, insisted that the consultations that had their first round in China in September were a sign of progress. "It's especially important progress if we look at what happened a year before," he said, referring to an unprecedented breakdown of an Asean summit in Cambodia over a failure to agree wording on the South China Sea. The next round of talks will take place at an unspecified time next year, still at the relatively low "senior official" level. On Wednesday, the United States and Japan—which has its own maritime dispute with Beijing—both pressured China to agree to abide by rules for the South China Sea, where Beijing has backed its claims with an increasingly assertive naval reach. A Japanese official cited Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as telling Philippine President Benigno Aquino that Japan was "seriously concerned over efforts to alter the status quo by force, by intimidation or coercion." The post US Gives Tacit Backing to Philippines in China Sea Dispute appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US, Vietnam Sign Nuclear Trade Agreement Posted: 10 Oct 2013 10:49 PM PDT U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, listens to an interpreter as he talks with Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, right, at the 8th East Asia Summit in Bandar Seri Begawan on Oct. 10, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Ahim Rani) BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei — The United States and Vietnam on Thursday signed a pact that would allow the transfer of nuclear technology to the Southeast Asian nation and open the way for US investment in the burgeoning industry, in another sign that Washington is seeking stronger economic and strategic ties in the region. US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US-Vietnam Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement would allow US firms to tap Vietnam's future nuclear power market, although the State Department said the deal will not allow Vietnam to enrich or reprocess US-origin nuclear materials. "This agreement will create numerous opportunities for our businesses," Kerry told Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Brunei. "Obviously our nuclear cooperation is quite significant." Vietnam is working with Russia to build its first nuclear plant in 2014 for completion in 2020 in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, as demand for energy grows rapidly in response to economic growth of around 5 percent a year. It has also signed an agreement with a Japanese consortium to develop a second nuclear power plant in the same province, with two reactors to become operational in 2024-25. Vietnam has the second-largest market after China for nuclear power in East Asia, which was expected to grow to $50 billion by 2030, according to Kerry. The United States has moved to improve economic and security ties with Vietnam, part of its strategic rebalancing toward Asia that some see as a policy to counter China's rising clout. China's assertive claims over the South China Sea have raised tensions with Vietnam, as well as other Southeast Asian nations. Vietnam's poor human rights record is a major obstacle to closer ties and US labor and human rights groups have urged Obama to suspend free-trade negotiations with Vietnam because of its treatment of workers and government critics. Analysts say a sharp increase in the past few years in arrests and convictions of government detractors, in particular, bloggers, could complicate the nuclear deal as Congress needs to be convinced Vietnam is changing its tack. The deal will be submitted to US President Barack Obama for his review before it is sent to Congress for its approval by the end of the year, a US official said. "Getting to this stage moves us closer to an expanded civil nuclear cooperation with Vietnam," the official, who briefed reporters in Washington, said. "Vietnam is actively taking steps now toward development of a robust domestic infrastructure to support a nuclear energy program," the official added. With Vietnam at an early stage of nuclear development, the official said the agreement provides the basis for US firms to enter the market early as it builds nuclear power plants and for the US government to ensure the proper safeguards. The US official said the agreement "will also strengthen the Obama administration's long-standing policy of limiting the spread or enrichment and reprocessing capabilities around the world." The deal stems from Obama's Prague initiative, a drive for global nuclear security that he launched in his first term. Asked whether the provisions of the deal would ward off any concern that Vietnam might someday seek nuclear weapons capability, the official said: "That certainly would close off one path toward that." Additional reporting by Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi and Matt Spetalnick. The post US, Vietnam Sign Nuclear Trade Agreement appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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