Saturday, November 30, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Incorporate child soldiers issue into ceasefire agreement

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 10:07 PM PST

Nearly 18 months back, the Myanmar [Burmese] government made a commitment to the international community and its own people. Through a Joint Action Plan signed with the UN last June, it pledged to end the recruitment and use of children into its armed forces, the Tatmadaw Kyi, and the Border Guard Forces (BGFs). It also promised to take steps to ensure that children would be protected from recruitment in the future.

Some tangible measures have been taken; however children continue to be recruited into the Myanmar military and non-state armed groups. On 30 November 2013, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, established under a 2005 Security Council resolution and consisting of all its members, begins a mission to Myanmar. It will meet with representatives from the Myanmar government and other actors to offer advice and support towards ending child recruitment and other grave violations against children in Myanmar.

The visit by the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict signals the continued engagement by the international community at the very highest level on this issue and will contribute to ensuring that the issue of children affected by situations of armed conflict in Myanmar remains prominent on the national agenda.

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More importantly it offers an opportunity for a renewed commitment to end and prevent child soldiers in Myanmar. For instance, support to ensure that all children are registered at birth and all children possess an identity document which lays out clearly their ages, is a tangible way of providing protection to children against unlawful recruitment.

Similarly, support to the Myanmar military to ensure that it professionalises recruitment in its armed forces, implements effective age verification measures which are monitored and holds violations accountable, is yet another way to effect positive change.

Research conducted by Child Soldiers International shows that the commitment by the Myanmar government to end underage recruitment and use has led to some changes on the ground. Access by the UN Country Task Force to military sites has improved; release of some children from the army, though a small number, has taken place and some measures are being taken to improve recruitment practices.

However, there is no process yet to verify and release children from the BGFs, which are under the remit of the Joint Action Plan; children who escape from the Tatmadaw Kyi continue to be detained and treated as adult deserters; and accountability measures have so far failed to deter ongoing underage recruitment despite the fact that it is against the law.

Of particular concern to Child Soldiers International, the reasons which drove underage recruitment in the past have not been addressed: the Myanmar military continues to face pressures to increase troop numbers and a system of an incentive-based quota drives demand for fresh recruitment. This puts children at particular risk. The practice of falsification of age documents, including National Registration Cards and family lists, continues unchecked and no measures have been taken to establish accountability for this practice.

Armed opposition groups active in various regions of Myanmar have also been known to recruit children and use them in hostilities and they have been listed for several years in the UN Secretary-General's annual reports because of these practices. The current efforts to resolve the armed conflicts in Myanmar constitute an important opportunity to offer children protection and remedy.

Child soldiers' issues should be fully incorporated throughout the peace process and in the mechanisms aimed at monitoring their implementation, including by establishing a mechanism to verify and release child soldiers and ensuring that the recruitment and use of children is considered a violation of ceasefire agreements. By agreeing to incorporate these measures, the Myanmar government will take another essential step towards protecting children.

Charu Lata Hogg is the Asia Program Manager for Child Soldiers International

To see Charu Lata Hogg interviewed by DVB, click here

The views expressed in this articles are the author’s and do not reflect DVB editorial policy.

EU-led project seeks to promote police accountability in Burma

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 09:19 PM PST

Officials in charge of implementing a €10 million police reform project in Burma reached out to local media in Rangoon on Friday in an attempt to explain some of the project's aims.

The 18-month-long pilot project, which got underway around two months ago, will provide some 4,000 police in Burma with training in community policing and crowd management best practices, and to promote police accountability by engaging civil society and parliament, EU Ambassador Roland Kobia said.

"The main objective of this project is actually to bring the Myanmar Police Force closer to the people, to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people," he said.

The EU launched the project following a request from the President's Office, based on recommendations made by the Latpadaung Commission Report chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi. A brutal crackdown exactly one year ago to the day on protestors at the Chinese-backed copper mine left dozens with severe burns from phosphorous bombs fired by riot police.

"The reform process will take many months and years. So while we are hopeful that we can learn quickly, we also know that it will take time, and a step-by-step approach."

Critics of the program have claimed that the EU's provision of riot gear might be in violation of a longstanding EU arms embargo. "The equipment the EU will be providing to the police is only purely defensive," Kobia claimed, "not something that can be used [offensively]… nothing of a repressive nature."

EU trainers will coach Burmese police officers on "how to secure and protect the democratic rights of citizens to gather and demonstrate, and at the same time stop communal, inter-religious and protest-related violence by using as little force as possible," according to a statement.

Under Section 18 of the Peaceful Protest and Assembly Act, Burmese citizens require prior authorisation from local police before they are allowed to stage a public protest. If demonstrators fail to receive permission, they can be arrested and face fines and imprisonment of up to one year. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, 57 individuals have been incarcerated under Section 18 since December 2011.

"The reform process will take many months and years," said Gen. Thura Bo Ni of the Myanmar Police Force. "So while we are hopeful that we can learn quickly, we also know that it will take time, and a step-by-step approach."

Rangoon's Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township has been chosen as the pilot site for the community policing project, which will be led by David Hamilton, a veteran of policing in Northern Ireland during years of sectarian violence and tensions.

"We would like Myanmar police officers to know who their community are, and vice versa, we would like the local community to know who their local police officers are," he said. "People expect the police to deal with their crimes. They expect them to quickly respond to their calls for assistance, and of course, when they respond to their calls, citizens expect them to be sympathetic, impartial, and professional."

Mingalar Taung Nyunt is Rangoon's only Muslim-majority township. Following an anti-Muslim massacre in the central city of Meiktila in late March and a deepening mistrust of the police, Muslim residents took security into their own hands and established a volunteer "night patrol" to police the neighbourhood, setting up barricades and checkpoints to screen outsiders.

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"We wanted an area that was diverse in population, we wanted it to have a business district, schools, sports and recreation, a densely populated area, both rich and poor," Hamilton said. "And I have to say, to the credit of the Myanmar police, that was the township we came up with together as being a good pilot area to deliver the community policing model."

In anti-Muslim attacks around the country, the police have been criticised for their inaction, standing by as mobs commit murder and ransack homes and businesses. Kobia claimed these sorts of incidents underscored the need for proper training. "The whole idea, of this reform of police… is to train the police to react in a proper way to incidents," he said. "This is what training is all about. It's not only to give competence, but it's also to do a mind-shift, to change mentalities when the police is confronted by an incident."

On 10 October, an umbrella group of 15 European NGOs known as the European Burma Network released a statement raising concern that the Burmese government has not met its obligations with regard to governance and human rights protection. It called on the EU to ensure that a list of demands is included in the UN General Assembly resolution on Burma.

It said that the Burmese government has not addressed reports of human rights abuses by authorities, and said no comprehensive investigation has been carried out regarding human rights violations committed by police, security forces, the army, state and national government officials or prison authorities.

While the UN resolution on 19 November did not specifically target police compliance in inter-religious tensions or other violations, it urged the Burmese government "to accelerate efforts to address the discrimination, violence, displacement and economic deprivation affecting various ethnic and religious minorities, including the Rohingya minority in Rakhine [Arakan] State."

Business Weekly

Posted: 29 Nov 2013 08:18 PM PST

 

Illegal imports down, official trade up

Burma's foreign trade has increased this fiscal year by almost US$3.5 billion on the same period in 2012-13 with a total trading value of $14.829 billion, according to Nyunt Aung, the deputy-director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, who concluded that one major reason for the official increase was a successful crackdown on illegal imports.

 

India dreams of pan-Asian gas grid

India is keen to build a 15,000-km gas grid across Asia to connect producers such as Iran, Burma, Bangladesh and central Asian nations with large consumers including itself, China and Pakistan, according to a 25 November report by Economic Times of India citing government officials. The proposal, which revives prospects of India importing gas from Iran and seeks to extend the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan, has the backing of India's oil minister Veerappa Moily, the report said, adding that the matter was scheduled to be discussed at the SAARC Energy Ministers Meet in early December but was postponed as some ministers were unavailable.

 

MRTV invite tenders for new media centre

Burmese government broadcaster Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) is inviting tender bids for the construction of a media complex to accommodate the state-run station's new digital broadcasting system in the MRTV compound in Rangoon. MRTV director-general Myint Aung said at a press conference in Rangoon on 24 November that either domestic or foreign bidders will vie to lease two acres of land owned by MRTV to work on the project. Currently, the Forever Group and Skynet have contracts to use the state-run TV facilitates.

 

Mercedes-Benz revs up for Burma

Burma's first ever auto show by Mercedes-Benz will be held in Rangoon's Mayangon township on the evening of 29 November, according to John Lwin, managing director of the Stars and Models Int'l, hired to host the show. He said the event, which will cost around 600 million kyat (over $600,000), will be "as grand as international auto events".

 

IMF's Christine Lagarde to visit Burma

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will visit Naypyidaw and Rangoon on 6- 7 December when she will meet senior government officials, including Vice-President Nyan Tun, Minister of Finance and Revenue Win Shein and Central Bank of Myanmar Governor Kyaw Kyaw Maung, as well as a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the IMF announced on Tuesday. French-born Lagarde is also scheduled to pay visits to Phnom Penh and Seoul. "I am very much looking forward to my first trip to Cambodia, Korea and Myanmar as Managing Director of the IMF," she said, adding that Burma was "undergoing a great awakening to countless possibilities."

 

Municipality objects to Rangoon boardwalk plans

A proposal to build high-rise condominiums and shops along Rangoon's landmark Strand Road has met with objections from the Yangon City Development Committee who say that the project falls within Rangoon's cultural heritage zone where buildings higher than 160 feet are prohibited, according to the Minister of Transport Nyan Tun Aung. Speaking at a press conference at the Myanmar Port Authority office on Strand Road on 25 November, the minister complained that the municipal office did not raise any objections to the port development project when an invitation for tender bidding was announced last year. Known as the Nan Thidar Project, the development would include a 20-story condominium, a 16-story luxury hotel, a shopping mall, recreation centres, shops, a marina and a pier.

 

Mitsubishi poised to build power plant at Dawei

Mitsubishi is to team up with two Thai firms – the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and Italian-Thai pcl – to construct a large fossil fuel-based power plant at Dawei Special Economic Zone in southern Burma, Thai newspaper The Nation reported this week. The project could begin as early as next year and may involve an outlay of some US$10 billion. To help recover investment, the plant will supply 3 million kilowatts within the economic zone and sell the rest to Thailand, the report said. The announcement comes just days after Italian-Thai was relieved of its position as majority shareholder in the SEZ with Japan tipped to take over.

 

An end to under-the-shelves booze?

An official at the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said a ban on the import of foreign alcohol brands will likely be lifted before the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year. Liquor shops and department stores recently rushed to clear bottles of foreign spirits from their shelves after the government's so-called Mobile Team pledged to crack down on contraband liquor.

 

Chevrolet gears up

US-based General Mortars are set to open a Chevrolet showroom in Rangoon in December, according to AA Medical Products, which holds a joint-venture agreement with the automaker. The car showroom will be located inside what is presently the SSS Car Showroom at the intersection of Dhammazedi Rd and Kaba Aye Pagoda Rd in Bahan township. An official from AA Medical Products said the company is also looking to open service centres and auto parts shops. Chevrolet joins an increasingly competitive market with rivals Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan already on the market.

 

Naypyidaw hotels get ready to roll out the red carpet

Eleven new hotels were opened in Naypyidaw on 26- 27 November in anticipation of the upcoming SEA Games which kicks off on 11 December. The 11 hotels were named as: Mya Nan Yang, ACE, Thurizza, Jade Royal, Aye Chan Thar, Pearl Thiri, Excel Capital, Mahn Myanmar, Mingalar Thiri, New Ayar and Jade City. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism recently confirmed that a sufficient number of accommodations had been built to cope with visiting athletes, tourists and guests at the SEA Games.

 

Japan, Burma sign rubber MoU

Burma and Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding on the manufacture and export of rubber, according to industry source Investvine. Citing the Myanmar Rubber Planters and Producers Association (MRPPA), the report said the MRPPA signed a four-point agreement with the Japan Rubber Manufacturers Association and the Rubber Trade Association of Japan last Monday at the head office of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Rangoon. The Japanese associations reportedly agreed to help Burma in manufacturing high-quality rubber; in return, Burma is to export the rubber to Japan, said MRPPA secretary Khine Myint.

 

Burma looks to regain 'Rice Bowl of Asia' status

Burma plans to more than double rice shipments by 2020, according to Toe Aung Myint, the director-general of the Department of Trade Promotion at the Ministry of Commerce. Shipments may increase to 2.5 million metric tonnes in 2014 and 2015 from an estimated 1.8 million tonnes in the year that started April 1, he said in an interview with Bloomberg in Hong Kong this week, adding that exports are targeted to increase to 4.8 million tonnes in 2019 and 2020.
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