The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Despite Ceasefire Talks, No End in Sight for Displaced Kachin
• Weaving a Future for Sone-Tu Textiles
• ‘People Have to See What We Are Talking About’
• Burma Business Roundup (Oct. 12, 2013)

Despite Ceasefire Talks, No End in Sight for Displaced Kachin Posted: 12 Oct 2013 09:37 AM PDT Two Kachin women from Talogyi village wait at Shwezet IDP camp near Myitkyina in August. (Photo: Seamus Martov / The Irrawaddy) MYITKYINA — "Our village is now a cemetery. There are no people who are alive there, except government troops," says a displaced Kachin villager living in a camp in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina. "I’m without hope, we can’t go back and, anyway, there is nothing left behind because they [the military] took it." The 38-year-old ethnic Kachin woman is from Nam Sam Yang, a once thriving village located on the road between Myitkyina and Laiza, the de facto capital of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) located on the Burma-China border. She is one of the more than 100,000 Kachin people, according to UN estimates, who remain displaced in Kachin and northern Shan State due to the ongoing conflict between the Burma Army and the KIO. The Kachin were forced to flee their villages after a 17-year-old ceasefire broke down in June 2011. Since mid-February the fighting has quieted down and President Thein Sein’s chief negotiator Aung Min, who met with the KIO for talks this week, has said that a full ceasefire with the KIO would be reached soon. But displaced villagers told The Irrawaddy during a recent visit to Myitkyina that they don’t see themselves being able to return to their abandoned homes any time soon. The displaced Kachin woman, who asked that her name not be revealed, has been staying in a temporary shelter for internally displaced persons (IDP) on the grounds of a Myitkyina church since she fled her home in September 2011. Her camp, one of several located in and around Myitkyina, receives regular support from the UN and international NGOs The IDP camps in rebel-controlled areas—where a majority of the Kachin IDPs have taken shelter—receive far less international support, however, as the Burma government restricts aid supply to these parts. A fact not lost on the displaced in Myitkyina. "We are very thankful to those who are feeding us, but we want to eat our own food," says a camp resident, a 42-year-old farmer also from Nam Sam Yang, who yearns for the day he can resume work in his fields. Yet even with international aid support, the Myitkyina IDPs face serious difficulties and a very uncertain future, while the prospects of the IDPs being able to return to Nam San Yang and numerous other deserted villages across Kachin State remain far from clear. As has been the case in other villages in eastern Kachin state, many of the homes were burned to the ground by the military and those left standing were severely looted, explains a displaced Kachin villager, who made a brief visit home after personally negotiating access with government troops. Dangers abound too, for those who return. The villager said although his own home in Nam San Yang was still standing, soldiers warned him not to enter, claiming that it had been booby trapped with landmines. "You can only look at the house, you can’t go into the house," they told him. "I think they just didn’t want me to go in because it had been robbed," says the man, a farmer in his early 50s. Occupying troops have taken advantage of the relative lull in fighting in the area since February by inviting Chinese and Burmese businessmen to come mine shallow gold deposits. What before the conflict began as a small mining operation on the edge of the village has now been expanded significantly, according to several IDPs who have visited their occupied villages. Mine operators have already taken over a number of small farms where they have dug up the soil and used poisonous chemicals, most likely cyanide or mercury, to separate the gold from other minerals. The mining men pay a tax to the military to carry out their business and, although the KIO doesn’t currently control the area, the miners also pay tax to the group to ensure things run smoothly, says a Myitkyina-based researcher, who declined to be named. While the UN agencies running relief operations in Kachin State say they are willing to help facilitate the return of the IDPs to their villages, the conditions that would enable such a return still remain "unmet," explains Pierre Péron, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "There has not been any significant return by IDPs due to a lack of basic services and livelihood opportunities, sporadic violence, and the presence of unexploded ordnance and landmines in their places of origin," Péron told The Irrawaddy. "Any return, resettlement or local integration of the displaced must be voluntary and based on an individual informed decision," adds Péron, echoing official UN policy relating to the treatment of people displaced by conflict. Although Burma’s nominally-civilian government has made a point of emphasizing that it is operating differently from the not-so-distant days of brutal military rule, it still routinely disregards the rights of displaced people, say human rights groups. Earlier this year, local government officials tried to convince some of the IDPs living in Myitkyina to move to a newly constructed model relocation village. Several families initially agreed to relocate to the village, situated about an hour away from Myitkyina, but quickly backed out when they learned that the forms they had signed relinquish all rights to the farmlands they had before the fighting. The dozen or so hastily constructed homes in the new village, which is located on a flood plain with poor soil, remain unoccupied. According to a Kachin IDP rights advocate who visited the site, this is just as well, because the remote site is "completely unsuited" for the needs of the farming families the government wanted to relocate there. The fate of the large displaced Kachin population will likely remain a major issue in northern Burma for years to come. "Even if there is a genuine peace agreement sometime soon, safe and voluntary returns are a very long way off," said Matthew Smith, author of a 2012 Human Rights Watch report on the Kachin conflict. Smith, who now serves as the executive director of the newly-formed group Fortify Rights, warns that thousands of landmines placed by both the KIO and the government across Kachin and north western Shan state will complicate the IDP’s chances for a return home. "The landscape is littered with landmines. There would have to be a significant de-mining program throughout the state, involving the displaced communities, and that will take time, especially considering landmines are still being deployed today," says Smith. Despite the goodwill on offer at this week’s talks between the KIO and the government, which yielded another agreement but no ceasefire, neither side appears ready to give up their landmines just yet, a necessary precursor to the refugees being able to return to what remains of their rural villages. The post Despite Ceasefire Talks, No End in Sight for Displaced Kachin appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Weaving a Future for Sone-Tu Textiles Posted: 11 Oct 2013 09:24 PM PDT Mai Ni Ni Aung, the director of Sone-Tu Backstrap Weavings, has revived a traditional Chin weaving technique while helping to empower women. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) It's a long way from the ethnic Chin villages of southern Rakhine State to museums and private collections around the world, but somehow, the traditional weaving of the Sone-Tu has made that journey—and it has done so almost by accident. "It came out of frustration," explains Mai Ni Ni Aung, the director of Sone-Tu Backstrap Weavings, a project that has won international recognition for its efforts to preserve the traditional weaving techniques and patterns of the Sone-Tu, a Chin sub-group famed for its indigenous textiles. It all began in the summer of 2002, when Mai Ni Ni Aung, who is herself a Sone-Tu Chin, was working with a team documenting the oral history, rituals and customs of the ethnic group. They wanted to film the shamans who were their local interlocutors in their traditional dress, but found to their surprise that there wasn't a single item of Sone-Tu clothing to be found in the entire village. "I was shocked," recalls Mai Ni Ni Aung. "Imagine not being able to find Chin dress in a Chin village!" This experience led her to ask why Sone-Tu textiles appeared to be dying out among the people who made them, and what she could do to reverse this situation. The answer to the first question was fairly obvious: Poverty had forced many local people to sell their hand-woven clothing to outsiders attracted by its high quality, durability and sophisticated weaving patterns. In its place, the Sone-Tu started wearing cheap, mass-manufactured clothing devoid of any cultural value. The second question—how to return traditional textiles to their rightful place in the lives of the Sone-Tu—was not so simple. The problem was that the skills needed to produce the highly sophisticated weaving that was once central to Chin culture were fast vanishing, as younger generations grew up without exposure to traditional clothing. Desperate to do something about this, in May 2002 Mai Ni Ni Aung hastily recruited some young women in the village to take part in a training program under the guidance of older master weavers who still knew the secrets of Sone-Tu weaving. "I wasn't very ambitious at the time. All I wanted to do was arrange for some training," she recalls, explaining that when she started out, she had no clear idea how she would revive a dying art that had been at the heart of her people's culture for centuries. What she eventually realized, however, was that it would be futile to teach the skills unless they could be used to provide the weavers with a livelihood. As it was, even very experienced weavers were living hand-to-mouth, often forced to do odd jobs just to survive. So the first priority was to hire highly skilled weavers as teachers. Because the Sone-Tu don't have a written language, the sole repository of traditional weaving skills is the "muscle memory" of long-time practitioners of the fine art of back-strap loom weaving, the distinctive technique employed by the Chin. Using a back-tension, or back-strap, loom with cotton or silk is an extremely time-consuming process, taking even an experienced weaver two to three weeks, at six hours a day, to produce just one 80-by-20-inch single-pattern shawl. The results, however, are often quite stunning in their beauty. According to David W. Fraser, co-author with his partner Barbara Fraser of "Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh," the traditional textiles of the Chin are remarkable for their variety, quality and importance to their traditional culture as emblems of status. "Some of the Chin groups are particularly adept at using supplementary wefts to create remarkably intricate patterning," Mr. Fraser explained recently via e-mail. "Because warps are generally very closely packed in Chin textiles, in many cases the supplementary weft patterning is visible only on the front face of the textile." The patterns on Chin textiles differ greatly from one piece to the next, but all are characterized by a highly evolved aesthetic sensibility and executed with a rare virtuosity. As Dr. Khosrow Sobhe of Textile Museum Associates of Southern California puts it, the patterns vary "from minimalist statements evocative of a Mark Rothko painting to exquisitely intricate supplementary yarn patterning, in some cases using weaving structures mastered exceptionally by the Chin." In the decade since it came into existence as an "accidental" project, Sone-Tu Backstrap Weavings has made great strides in helping to keep these skills alive. It has saved 52 traditional patterns for posterity and trained more than 120 women, providing them and their elderly mentors with an income that enables them to dedicate themselves to their work. And this year, it opened its first weaving center in southern Rakhine State's Minbya Township, employing around 20 women under its motto, "Preserving Culture through Opportunity." Besides its important role in preserving cultural traditions, the project has also had a positive social impact. In addition to partially supporting the education of nearly 300 children in the region, it has also improved the status of women in their homes and communities. "The employment has significantly raised the role of women in the region," says Mai Ni Ni Aung. "With their regular incomes, they earn respect from their husbands, who are now willing to take care of their babies and prepare food while their wives are busy at their looms." The project has achieved its success—which last year earned it a grant from the National Geographic Society—by increasing international recognition of the artistry of Sone-Tu weaving. It has done this largely through word of mouth, winning Sone-Tu textiles a dedicated following among private collectors and a place in such prestigious venues as Singapore's Asian Civilization Museum, the Textile Museum in Washington and England's Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, among others. But for all that she has accomplished, Mai Ni Ni Aung is still not satisfied, because her original mission—to make traditional hand-woven clothing a normal part of everyday life among the Sone-Tu—has not yet been fulfilled. With a minimum price tag of 80,000 kyat, or US$80, for a single-pattern shawl, the project's products are well out of reach of most people in this desperately poor part of Myanmar. "I still don't feel my project is a success, as my products are not widely available in the local market," she says. "As long as Chin people can't afford to wear their traditional dress on a daily basis, I don't think my mission is completed." She adds that to make its products more affordable, the project is trying to "modify the looms to enable us to produce more textiles in a less time-consuming manner." In the meantime, other customers who are more than willing to pay top dollar for exquisite examples of hand-weaving are helping to keep the project going. Vanessa Chan, a Singaporean woman who has bought more than a dozen Sone-Tu products over the years, says they are superior to any other indigenous textiles she has ever seen. Knowing that buying them not only helps to save a rare and special weaving tradition from extinction, but also employs rural women and supports the education of their children, makes them even more precious to her, she adds. "I value the shawls that I buy from Mai Ni Ni Aung more than I would value a scarf from Hermes," says Ms. Chan, expressing a sentiment shared by many. This story first appeared in the October 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post Weaving a Future for Sone-Tu Textiles appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

‘People Have to See What We Are Talking About’ Posted: 11 Oct 2013 08:11 PM PDT U Thant Myint-U is chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) YANGON —As chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, U Thant Myint-U seeks to preserve the architectural legacy of the city's long history, including its many fine colonial-era buildings and its magnificent ancient pagodas. But for the US-born, Cambridge-educated historian and author of two acclaimed books on Myanmar, this mission is just part of a much wider vision: the transformation of Yangon into a modern city that cherishes its past and its natural environment, even as it accommodates the needs of business and ordinary citizens. In this interview, U Thant Myint-U speaks with Kyaw Zwa Moe, the editor of The Irrawaddy's English-language edition, about the challenges that Yangon faces as it tries to avoid the development pitfalls that many major Asian cities have struggled with. He says that while his ideas have been well-received by both the city's government and President U Thein Sein, public support will also be crucial if the kind of city he envisions is to become reality. Question: Let's imagine the future. What is your vision of Yangon in a decade? Answer: I'd like to see a Yangon that is both modern and also protects its very special heritage—and takes advantage of its natural position, as well. What we have right now is a city that goes back hundreds of years. We have ancient monuments like Shwedagon. We have a very special collection still of colonial-era architecture. We have a very green city. We have two lakes, we have parks, and we have this amazing waterfront. At the same time we need more modern development—we need more roads, bridges, airports, infrastructure and electricity. We need high-rise buildings, shopping centers, everything. What I want to see is a vision and a plan that combines all these things in the right way, learning lessons from others' experiences and avoiding some of the mistakes that have been made by other cities in the region. A: I think it is a big challenge. I think the good thing is that the Yangon government is also very committed to trying to find the right way forward. They have been working very closely with the Japanese aid agency JICA in developing a master plan for the city, but mainly for the infrastructure, sewage, sanitation, transport, all of these issues. I think they are also very aware of the need to try to protect some of the colonial-era buildings and to protect the views of the Shwedagon as well. Having said that, there are hundreds of challenges. Right now the market incentives are all wrong in terms of trying to protect a lot of the old buildings. And we're entering into this period where there's enormous pressure on land, where land ownership is unclear, where different government agencies own different pieces of land. I think the last big challenge is for the poor people in this city. I think one thing is to protect the old architecture, one thing is to make this city work for business, but it also has to work for ordinary people. The trick is how do you combine all of these things—a city that works for ordinary people, a city that works for business, and a city that is beautiful and attractive, and that can be really a great city going forward, as well. Q: Earlier this year, you gave a presentation to President U Thein Sein, and his response was very encouraging. So far, how much have you done and what is the current status of your project? A: We have been part of a committee that includes us, the city government, and people from other industries to craft a zoning plan for the city. It's the first zoning plan for Yangon in a long time. That is now finished. We hope very much that this will be officially adopted. We are also looking at the possibility of a conservation law. Separately with the encouragement of the President's Office, we are also starting a system of landmark plaques around the city. It can help tourists, but we also want it to help Myanmar people and people living here to really appreciate what has happened in these buildings. They forget all the Myanmar history that has taken place in these buildings. We are also trying to work with travel agencies to develop a project in a way that will also benefit people downtown. Q: How can you educate people to preserve and appreciate the heritage buildings? A: The most important thing to convince people is visualization. People have to see what we are talking about. We've talked about it. We can write about it. But what we want to do in the next couple of months are really high-tech visualizations of what Yangon can look like in the future. Q: What makes Yangon unique? A: There are many Asian countries that had very special architecture in the past, but almost all of that has been destroyed. Look at Bangkok, look at Jakarta and Singapore. Lee Kwan Yu said one of the big mistakes that he had made was destroying all the colonial architecture of the city. [Besides its colonial architecture], Yangon has Shwedagon and Sule Pagoda [and other] great centuries-old monuments that will always be here. We still have a very green city, and then we have a city with rivers on three sides. We can make the waterfront not just an industrial area, but also a place that's accessible to people to walk and enjoy themselves. Q: The Yangon City Development Committee's heritage list includes about 189 buildings. Have you managed to update the list? A: Actually I think it's 188. I think one's been destroyed over the past 10 to 15 years. The YCDC is committed to protecting the buildings on this list, but there is no law behind it. So the list needs to be updated, and it needs to be backed by law. Over the past year, we have been doing a survey of about 500 buildings downtown. We will try to decide what the criteria should be for including buildings on the list. Including public buildings is not too much of a problem—the issue will be how to include privately owned buildings and [deciding] what the regulations [should be] for privately owned buildings that are over 50 years old. There is a national heritage law which covers structures over 100 years old. That is the only law. So in theory, the Secretariat, for instance, could be considered covered by that law, and there are penalties for anyone who damages these structures. But my understanding is that the law was really intended to cover archaeological sites, like Bagan, and not urban structures, which have special issues about them. So I think in the future, it would be good to move toward a national urban heritage law. But that will take years, I think. So what we're hoping for is a local conservation law that [covers] both buildings on the list and buildings in conservation zones. Our zoning plan includes parts of downtown Yangon. Q: How confident are you that you will succeed? A: I'm confident that we will at least achieve what we set out to do, which was to protect 30 or 40 iconic buildings. I'm quite confident that no one is going to destroy these buildings. And I'm quite confident that the views of Shwedagon will be protected. I think we've achieved that in partnership with the government. Whether we can protect many hundreds of other buildings, including privately owned buildings, remains questionable. Whether we can come up with a scheme that will benefit the poor and middle-income people living downtown and keep old communities intact is also a question mark. Whether we can integrate this work into a broader urban vision is still a work in progress. So I think we have a core achievement, but we still have to work very hard. And we still need to have very strong public support. The post 'People Have to See What We Are Talking About' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Business Roundup (Oct. 12, 2013) Posted: 11 Oct 2013 08:04 PM PDT Indian Firms Spearhead Plans for Coal-fuelled Power Stations in Burma Indian companies are reportedly leading plans to build two large coal-fuelled power stations in Burma. The New Delhi-based Orange Powergen is the lead partner in a consortium to develop a 500-megawatt plant at Kyauktan in the Rangoon area, said various reports citing official sources in Burma. Meanwhile, the major Indian energy company Tata Power is carrying out a feasibility study for another coal-fuelled plant at Pathein, according to The Hindu newspaper in New Delhi, quoted by the UPI news agency. The report said a Tata plant would use "clean coal technology" using fuel imported from Indonesia. However, this would necessitate coal being shipped via Singapore and the Strait of Malacca at the southern tip of Malaysia. Orange Powergen, which describes itself as specializing in renewable energy and not fossil fuels, will be partnered by Global Advisor Limited of Singapore and domestic firm Diamond Palace Services Company, said the Chinese news agency Xinhua. Global Advisor is a financial-service business. No timetable for development of a power plant at Kyauktan has been announced. Numerous plans for new electricity-generating projects have been announced in the last year, but little progress has been made on any of them. Taiwan Plans to Invest in Boosting Burma's Rice Production China's renegade offshoot Taiwan is sending a major business delegation to Burma to explore trade and investment opportunities. The visit will focus on Burma's rice industry. A business team led by Taiwan's International Economic Cooperation Association chief, Wang Chung-yu, will visit Rangoon in November, the Taipei Times reported. The team will include businesspeople "in steel, cement and medical devices industries to explore business opportunities," the newspaper said. But foremost in Taiwan's visit will be proposals to aid Burma's rice industry, it said. "Taiwan will launch a cooperation program on rice production with [Burma]," the Taipei Times said. "Although the growth of rice yield has been highly uneven in [Burma], it has a large potential to produce more rice. We will work with [Burma] to develop rice varieties that can boost its food supplies under its climate conditions," International Cooperation and Development Fund Secretary-General Tao Wen-lung told the paper. SingTel Still Engaged in Investment with Burma's DICA: Report One of the losing bidders for a mobile telephone network license in Burma, Singapore Telecommunications or SingTel, is holding fresh talks on investment in the country, said a local report. Managers of SingTel met the director general of the state Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), Aung Naing Oo, in Naypidaw, said Eleven Media. SingTel, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in Asia, had been widely tipped to win one of two network licenses awarded in the middle of this year but they went to Norway’s Telenor and Ooredoo of Qatar. However, SingTel "will cooperate with Ooredoo and Telenor in network expansion works and help [Burma] to build its own satellite system," Eleven Media reported, citing local sources. SingTel declined to comment on the report. Financial Controls to be 'Shared' by Central Bank and Ministry of Finance Control of Burma's financial services is to be split between the newly reformed Myanmar Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, the bank reportedly said. The central bank will oversee the country's private and state-owned banks but other financial agencies will be under the control of the ministry, Eleven Media quoted central bank vice governor Khin Saw Oo as saying. A new draft law covering the operation of financial institutions is due to be made public before the end of October, said Khin Saw Oo. It is being drafted by the bank with help from the World Bank, he told Eleven Media. "The independent Central Bank will administer 22 state-owned and private banks in [Burma] to maintain the country's financial stability, but micro-finance institutions will be kept under the control of the Ministry of Finance," Khin Saw Oo was quoted as saying. Tourism Operators Protest Add-on Fees as Popular Sites Cash In Foreign tour operators have complained about "extra fees" being added to various popular tourist attractions in Burma which are angering visitors, the travel industry magazine TTR Weekly reported. The issue was highlighted after managers of the Mandalay Hill sightseeing attraction suddenly cancelled plans to charge the equivalent of US $2 for access to the hill, said the paper. The managers said the new fee would be postponed indefinitely because new facilities were not yet completed, it said. "However, it is very likely that the board deferred the decision in response to criticism by the travel trade and even some government officials who are concerned about individual historical sites adding their own fees to cash in on a tourism boom," said TTR Weekly. Tourism is one of Burma's most rapidly growing sources of income as more foreigners hurry to visit the country, but there have been many complaints about rip-off prices, especially for accommodation. The post Burma Business Roundup (Oct. 12, 2013) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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