The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- TNLA Rebels Reject Govt Ceasefire Proposal, Clash With Burma Army
- Courting the Tatmadaw
- Ethnic Mon Demand to Be Involved in Salvaging Great Bell
- Naypyidaw’s Synthetic Shwedagon Shimmers, but in Solitude
- ‘The Tatmadaw Loves Democracy’
- Dawei Residents Decry Arrival of Companies Following Ceasefire
- In Kachin, Burma’s Reforms Seem a World Away
- Uncle Sam Returns to the Philippines
- China Reforms Could Lead to a Social Safety Net
- Philippine President Puts Typhoon Death Toll At 2,000 To 2,500
- Torture Claims Cast Shadow Over Sri Lanka’s Commonwealth Summit
| TNLA Rebels Reject Govt Ceasefire Proposal, Clash With Burma Army Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:54 AM PST  A unit of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in Shan State in July. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawady) RANGOON — About a week after the government offered 17 ethnic armed groups a nationwide ceasefire proposal, one group—the ethnic Palaung—has stated that they reject the conditions set out in the draft agreement. In early November, ethnic groups convened in Laiza to develop a joint position in their ceasefire negotiations with Naypyidaw. On Nov. 5, at a high-profile meeting in the Kachin capital Myitkyina, Minister Aung Min's peace negotiations team met with Burma's major rebel groups and handed them a draft ceasefire agreement. The high-level talks marked a significant step towards resolving Burma's decades-old ethnic conflict, but the sides still disagreed on numerous issues. Ethnic groups have long demanded greater political autonomy for their regions and control over local natural resources. The integration of ethnic armed units into one federal military is another key discussion point between the sides. On Wednesday, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a rebel group based in the northern part of Shan State, said they would not agree to the government's ceasefire proposal. "We all need to disarm, according to their draft agreement. Then, they [the government] will hold a political dialogue if we respect their draft agreement. It will be difficult for our ethnic groups to agree to disarm," TNLA Col Ta Phone Kyaw said. "For our group, we totally reject this draft," he told The Irrawaddy. A copy of the draft agreement proposed by the government asks the ethnic groups to form political parties and to disarm before political dialogue can start. The TNLA and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) are the last two major ethnic armed groups that have not signed a ceasefire agreement with the government. President Thein Sein's reformist government has begun talks with many rebel groups since 2012 and has signed 14 ceasefire agreements. The TNLA, which is believed to have about 1,500 soldiers, have been engaged in regular clashes with the Burma Army in northern parts of Shan State in the past year. The TNLA has met for several rounds of ceasefire talks with the government, but no agreement was reached. In a statement released on Tuesday, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of several ethnic armed groups, said the meeting with Minister Aung Min in Myitkyina had "strengthened trust to a certain extent." The UNFC said it had informed the government that it would study the nationwide ceasefire proposal and discuss it with the leaders of their respective organizations. The TNLA said clashes with the Burma Army were still continuing, adding that on Nov. 5-7 deadly gun battles fighting occurred in Kutkai Township. Skirmishes recently also broke out in Namkham and Nansan townships. Ta Phone Kyaw said his troops were under sustained attacks as Burma Army units tried to conquer its Kutkai rebel base. "They destroyed our guerrilla base. They shot artillery both in the morning and night. There was heavy fighting whenever they try to climb the mountain where we are based," he said. "We could not meet again with them to negotiate because there is more fighting in our area," Ta Phone Kyaw added. Hla Maung Shwe, a senior advisor at the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center, said communication between the government and the TNLA had broken down recently. He added that the government had been pre-occupied with preparations for another round of nationwide ceasefire talks in the Karen State capital Hpa-an next month. "We have a plan to meet them [the TNLA] in November. But, we are now busy with preparations for another meeting in Hpa-an. But, they [TNLA] did not even contact us about this meeting," Hla Maung Shwe said. The post TNLA Rebels Reject Govt Ceasefire Proposal, Clash With Burma Army appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:04 AM PST  A Tatmadaw vehicle sits parked in front of a sign in Yangon promoting an end to the recruitment of child soldiers in Myanmar. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) A lot has changed for Myanmar's Tatmadaw, or armed forces, since it formally handed over power to a nominally civilian government in 2011, but there is little doubt in anybody's mind that it remains a force to be reckoned with. That's why foreign governments that once treated the country's former junta as a pariah are now lining up to restore military ties after more than two decades. What we still don't know, however, is how far the Tatmadaw itself is willing to go to change its ways after half a century of almost total control over the country. This is a question that looms large not only for countries that hope to improve relations, but also for Myanmar's people. In August, the US ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, acknowledged the continuing importance of the Tatmadaw when he appeared at a press conference alongside visiting US Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes. "This is an absolutely critical institution in the country and has been for 50 years," said the top US diplomat, explaining why his country wants to establish a regular dialogue with the Tatmadaw. But simply going back to the days of providing military assistance and training, as the US did until the Tatmadaw crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, is not enough, the ambassador added. "We need to get new ideas into that institution because they have been operating on old ideas that haven't seemed to work very well for the country," he said. One major obstacle facing any attempt to upgrade US-Myanmar military relations is the Tatmadaw's recruitment of child soldiers, a problem that has existed for decades. Myanmar is one of five countries that will not receive US military assistance in 2014 under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which places restrictions on security assistance and commercial licensing of military equipment for governments found to recruit underage soldiers. Despite this issue, however, Mr. Mitchell (who once served in the Pentagon) and other high-ranking US officials have made a point of meeting with Tatmadaw leaders, including Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing—no doubt mindful of the fact that Myanmar is strategically located between China and India, and therefore important to regional stability. Some, however, are not happy with the West's moves to engage the Tatmadaw, arguing that it is still too early to tell if Myanmar's military is really serious about ending human rights abuses, especially in ethnic areas where conflict with armed groups continues. To counter such objections, the US government, which last year allowed Myanmar to send a team of observers to its Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand, has said that its initial engagement with the Tatmadaw would focus on humanitarian issues, officer professionalization and human rights. Meanwhile, the UK is said to be finalizing the details of military assistance that will see 30 high-ranking Tatmadaw officers receive specially tailored training, including instruction on how to operate within the rule of law, the head of a UK training center said. During an official visit to London by President U Thein Sein in July, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the country would begin engaging with the Tatmadaw. The aim of cooperation, Mr. Hague said at the time, was to try to foster accountability and respect for human rights in Myanmar's armed forces. According to Dr. Laura Cleary, the head of the Centre of International Security and Resilience at England's Cranfield University and the person in charge of the course, the request for the training came from none other than Myanmar opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. On March 27, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi attended the Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw for the first time, signaling a thaw in her relationship with the Tatmadaw, which was founded by her father, independence hero Gen Aung San. According to military sources, she has also expressed a desire to meet with Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other senior military leaders to discuss ways to "help" the armed forces. What this means is not exactly clear, but it is probably related to her oft-expressed desire to rehabilitate the Tatmadaw in the eyes of Myanmar's people, who have long regarded the military as an oppressive, rather than defensive, force. While international engagement alone will likely do little to restore faith in Myanmar's men in uniform, Dr. Cleary believes that the generals can be taught to earn the respect that they have long since lost through their often brutal mistreatment of the civilian population. "The purpose of this engagement is to encourage the [Myanmar] military to normalize their role within society to improve respect for human rights and enhance the governance of those security forces," she said. "It's not tactical. It's strategic, it's political. We are not teaching people how to fire a rifle or drive a tank. We are seeking to help them better understand when military force is appropriate and when it is absolutely not appropriate." This story was originally published in the November 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post Courting the Tatmadaw appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Ethnic Mon Demand to Be Involved in Salvaging Great Bell Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:40 AM PST  An artist's impression of the Dhammazedi Bell. (Image: Wikimedia Commons) RANGOON — Just weeks after a Burmese tycoon-cum-lawmaker declared that he plans to salvage the Great Bell of Dhammazedi from the bottom of the Rangoon River, ethnic Mon community leaders have claimed ownership of the bell and demanded to be included in the project. The massive bell, which was ordered cast by the Mon King Dhammazedi in 1484, is thought to still lie where it sunk in the river more than 400 years ago. Last month, it emerged Union Solidarity and Development Party Member of Parliament Khin Shwe was planning the latest attempt to raise the bell. During a press conference last week, members of the Mon Literature and Culture Committee said the Mon are the rightful owners of the bell, and demanded that the government and all ethnic groups respect their cultural heritage. One committee member, Nai Ye Zaw, said the salvaging of the Great Bell of Dhammazedi should be a cooperative effort involving several parties, rather than being monopolized by one person. He said he was afraid a unilateral rescue effort would lead to an obscuring of the true ethnic and historical significance of the Great Bell. "We Mon also want to cooperate in this restoration. It should be an inclusive project rather than being run by only one person," Nai Ye Zaw said, without specifically naming Khin Shwe, a powerful ethnic Burman businessman who runs the Zay Kabar Company. Nai Ye Zaw claimed that Mon people have been ignored as the rightful owners of the bell, since there is rarely a mention of the Mon when the bell is described in Burmese. "We want people to call it 'the Great Mon Bell of Dhammazedi' as it is cast and donated by a Mon King Dhammazedi," he said. The copper, gold, silver and tin alloy bell is documented as weighing 290-tons—which would make it the biggest bell in the world. King Dhammazedi gifted it to Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda, where it resided until Portuguese warlord Filipe de Brito e Nicote (known as Nga Zinka in Burmese) in 1608 tried to transport it on a raft to have it melted down. The raft sank at the confluence of the Pegu and Rangoon rivers, a site known as Monkey Point, where it presumably still sits. Nai Za Naing, another member of the Mon committee, clarified that the ethnic leaders would not insist that the bell be taken out of Rangoon. "We just want people to recognize that the bell is part of Mon ancient cultural heritage. We're not asking to take it back home to Mon State," said Nai Za Nain. Dr. Banya Aung Moe, a lawmaker from Mon Sate, said that several attempts to discuss about the salvaging of the bell at Burma's Parliament were met with no concrete answers from the relevant authorities. "The Ministry of Culture once had a meeting about it, but nothing happened," the MP said. Since the late 1980s, the Burma government and local and foreign private individuals have launched various plans to salvage the bell, but the its precise location has not yet been confirmed. Singaporean firm SD Mark International in 2012 said it would salvage the bell, giving an 18 month timescale for the project and estimating the cost of retrieving it at US$10 million. The project was later canceled by the Ministry of Culture, apparently due to funding difficulties. The Shwedagon Pagoda still boasts two other huge bells: the Singu and Thayawaddy, weighing 24 and 42 tons respectively. The Singu Bell almost met the same fate as the Dhammazedi Bell in 1824 when the British tried to carry it to India and it was also sunk, but it was subsequently raised and returned to its rightful place. The Irrawaddy's Htet Naing Zaw contributed to this report. The post Ethnic Mon Demand to Be Involved in Salvaging Great Bell appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Naypyidaw’s Synthetic Shwedagon Shimmers, but in Solitude Posted: 13 Nov 2013 02:40 AM PST  Cleaning staff walk to Naypyidaw's Uppatasanti Pagoda from the shrine's elevator entrance. (Photo: Simon Roughneen / The Irrawaddy) NAYPYIDAW — While the entry fee for foreigners visiting Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda has been jacked from US$5 to US$8—coinciding with the tourist high season—accessing Naypyidaw's Uppatasanti Pagoda costs no more than whatever a visitor wants to donate to the giggly ladies who watch over pilgrims' shoes, which must be removed inside the temple gate before taking the lift up to the pagoda promenade above. There's supposedly a $5 entry fee for Naypyidaw's smaller-by-a-foot facsimile shrine, but nobody asked for money during The Irrawaddy's temple tour, a two-hour traipse during which about 40 others visited the temple. Similarly absent were the white elephants—deemed auspicious in local lore—that are kept near the pagoda, though the giant beasts usually shelter indoors and away from the glaring sun during daytime, before emerging for visitors at dusk. Uppatasanti looks impressively gilded from the highway a half-mile away, and more so at night, when Shwedagon-like, the four-year-old pagoda glimmers alone above Burma's sparse administrative capital. There's not much else to distract attention, given Naypyidaw's far-flung spattering of government buildings, villa-style hotels roofed in traditional Burmese architectural style, and vast and wide highways linking the city's scattered outposts. What from distance looks to be Uppatasanti's glittering gold is more disheveled up close, however, pockmarked with white blotches, over which sun-blasted maintenance workers splash gilded Potemkin touch-ups as they clamber up and down scaffolding. The pagoda sits on a platform overlooking the capital of this nation of perhaps 60 million, though after taking the elevator to the summit, the view is more rural than urban, with a golf course to one side and a military base a half a mile away. It's a full 15 kilometers to Naypyidaw's main hotel zone and 10 kilometers to Burma's massive Parliament complex. There's not much by way of buildings in between, save for the color-coded roofs of identikit apartment blocks housing Naypyidaw's press-ganged government workers. Inside Uppatasanti, maroon-clad Buddhas sit regally on thrones, all back-to-back around a central pillar, like multiples of the seated Saint Peter inside the Vatican. The central area is ringed by signs marked "No Lighting Candles" and "For Gents Only" in front of the icons. And while nobody flouted the pyrotechnic prohibition during The Irrawaddy's visit, the handful of ladies worshipping inside the pagoda didn't seem put off by the gents-only warnings—bowing hands-clasped before the Buddhas regardless of the injunction. Ringing the interior perimeter of the pagoda—again a bit like the Stations of the Cross inside a Catholic church—runs a series of inscribed murals depicting various scenes of Buddhist and Burmese myth and history, such as a rendering of King Anawrahtra, the 11th century ruler of the ancient kingdom of Bagan, mounted on a war elephant and carrying Buddhist scriptures. And should a devotee look to the heavens above the Buddha, he or she will read ceiling explanations of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths, explaining the cause and nature of suffering—something that Burma's long-oppressed citizens are familiar with. Uppatasanti was completed in 2009, four years after Burma's capital Naypyidaw, which means "Abode of Kings," was unveiled to an unsuspecting world. The pagoda was intended to polish Naypyidaw's faith and fatherland veneer, evoking Burma's Buddhist and royal history, though it all seems a bit incongruous given the subsequent renaming of the country to The Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The Uppatasanti Pagoda contains a Buddha tooth relic from China, an artifact said to have been sought in vain by Anawrahta, the first monarch to assert Burman dominance in the land and across an area roughly equivalent to the modern state. Anawrahtra's better-resourced successor, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, got one up on the Burmese king by managing to procure the tooth a millennium later. Burma has had numerous capitals throughout its history, with rulers seeking to burnish their legacies by building new administrative centers they could call their own. Modern Burma's military rulers were thought to want a capital in the country's interior and away from coastal regions vulnerable to on-paper invaders. They opted for a greenfield site close to Pyinmana, where Burma's modern founding father, Gen Aung San, housed the Burma Independence Army, the precursor to the modern Burmese Army and which was backed by the invading Japanese during World War II. Naypyidaw's vastness and scattered layout make regime-challenging political protests pointless too, another advantage over Rangoon for the opaque junta that ruled Burma until early 2011. Burmese rulers have also sought to bring good karma on themselves by building Buddhist shrines. Gen Ne Win, modern Burma's first military dictator, had the Maha Wizaya Pagoda built in Rangoon, while his elected predecessor U Nu commissioned the Kaba Aye Pagoda, another prominent temple landmark in the old capital. But Burma's last military dictator, for now at least, topped them all, not only with his vast and grandiose new capital, but with an almost-as-large-as-life replica of Burma's best-known shrine. Uppatasanti seems to be a stab at giving Naypyidaw a spiritual hub to emulate Burma's old capital. But Rangoon remains Burma's commercial and cultural center and by far the biggest city in the country—a noisy, dirty and vibrant Yin to Naypyidaw's sparse and sanitized (Pyong)Yang—dynamics that seem unlikely to change any time soon. The post Naypyidaw's Synthetic Shwedagon Shimmers, but in Solitude appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘The Tatmadaw Loves Democracy’ Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:24 AM PST  Lt-Gen Myint Soe attended peace talks between the government and ethnic armed groups in Myitkyina last week. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) With the conclusion of another round of peace talks between the central government and ethnic armed groups last week, the stage is set for a meeting next month in Burma's Karen State. Both sides have agreed to work toward a nationwide ceasefire agreement at that gathering in Pa-an, having exchanged draft proposals of such an accord in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, which hosted the latest round of talks from Nov. 4-5. Critical to any ceasefire accord will be the ethnic armed groups and Burma's most powerful institution—the military, also known as the Tatmadaw. The Irrawaddy sat down with Lt-Gen Myint Soe, a commander overseeing the government army's Kachin State operations, to discuss Naypyidaw's draft ceasefire proposal and broader prospects for achieving peace with Burma's numerous ethnic groups. Question: Under a section titled 'Duty for Country' in the government-drafted ceasefire proposal, references are often made to protection, security and defense of the country. As it relates to the Tatmadaw, what is meant by this? Answer: It is very simple. The meaning of 'defense of the country' is to defend all of us from enemies from other countries. This is duty for country. Today, the Tatmadaw defends the whole country. To envision a Tatmadaw made up of Shan or Kachin factions is untenable, because the Tatmadaw represents all of the country. The Tatmadaw defends our sovereignty; it is used for the defense of the country. This is not only the case in our country; it is the system in other countries as well. Q: The draft ceasefire says ethnic minority groups and the government are to cooperate on matters relating to rule of law and governance. Does this mean ethnic armed groups will be allowed to govern in the ethnic areas? A: There are many general issues at the state level to be worked out. For example, the immigration issue, and tax policy. They [ethnic armed groups] will not be allowed to interfere in some of these matters. Q: Do you think ethnic armed groups will agree to submit information on the size of their armies and the military hardware they possess to a monitoring group? Some people say this could be a sticking point to any peace agreement. A: This is done not only in this country. Look at Nepal and Sri Lanka; they have used a similar system. We did not create this system on our own. We have to use this system because they [ethnic armed groups] did not turn in their guns despite signing ceasefires. This system will work if we do it properly. Q: There will be only one army under this draft ceasefire. Does this mean ethnic armed groups will be forced to disband? A: We will grant them territorial claims in some areas. Their ethnic armies will continue to exist until they set up their own political parties. We will not tell them to disarm, but we will try to build trust with them first, and they will disarm once they have trust in us. Q: But ethnic armed leaders are saying Burma's defense must be entrusted to a federal army. A: TheArmy is not an institution whose structure can be reformed within a day. There cannot be ethnically determined Kachin or Karen factions within a Union Army. There should be one army. Q: So how will you respond when they push for a federal army in Pa-an? A: They have not said anything about this yet to us. Only you, The Irrawaddy, is worried about this and saying this. They are aware of our proposal to set up a Union Army. The world uses this system—having only one army. If there is something to discuss, it will be discussed at the meeting. They cannot cause the Army to collapse or become divided. U Nai Hang Tha [secretary of the United Nationalities Federal Council], U Gun Maw [of the Kachin Independence Army], and U Mutu Say Poe [of the Karen National Liberation Army] are aware of this. Only people who are not in the know are saying this. They do not understand the system. Under a federal system, we will have power sharing and natural resource sharing. Q: Since Gen Aung San's assassination and the disunity that followed, Burma's people have looked to many ethnic armed groups as their protectors. So under this draft ceasefire, as the saying goes, 'Gen Aung San, who is our father now?' A: [laughs] If you think like this, you are wrong. Our current army is it is Union Army. They protect the whole country. Q: The same Army that has a record of torture, rape and other human rights abuses, especially in ethnic minority areas? A: We cannot say everyone in the Army is good. There are bad soldiers in the Army. This is why we have laws, to punish them. We do not accept rights abuses perpetrated by any Army officer. There are soldiers and commanders who we have punished. They cannot just do as they please. Q: Who wrote this draft ceasefire proposal? A: The Army and government, including the president, drafted it. The president was the main person involved in this. Q: Is the Tatmadaw biased against Burma's ethnic minorities? A: This is not true. We accept all peoples. Please do not talk about the past. We are campaigning for national unity. There is no discrimination based on religion or ethnicity. Q: Will the Tatmadaw accept a democratic system in Burma? A: Let me ask you: What does democracy mean? Democracy comes from the people. The people wrote the 2008 Constitution. The Tatmadaw loves democracy. There is democracy system within the Army. You would be wrong to say that the Tatmadaw does not love democracy. Q: And if thepeople want to reform the Constitution and remove the privileged place that the military enjoys in it? A: Who are they? There are 60 million people in our country. Ninety-two percent supported this Constitution. If they want to reform it, they have the right to do so. The post 'The Tatmadaw Loves Democracy' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Dawei Residents Decry Arrival of Companies Following Ceasefire Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:28 PM PST  Laborers work at a relocation site close to the multi-billion dollar Dawei special economic zone in May 2012. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Development projects that have rushed into southern Burma's Dawei Township since ethnic Karen rebels signed a ceasefire early last year have severely damaged the livelihoods of local people, according to residents speaking in Rangoon on Tuesday. About 10 people traveled from Tenasserim Division to Rangoon to speak with the media. They called on Burma's government to rethink the rapid development of their homeland and to solve issues around the resettlement of people before allowing companies to begin operating. Naw Kerisay, an ethnic Karen from Mitta village, said that people in the area had long been ignored while government forces fought the Karen. But now that there was relative peace following the January 2012 ceasefire agreement, she said, companies have quickly arrived and land grabs have been rife. "We accept the ceasefire as it has brought peace. But we do not accept the investment after the ceasefire that has harmed our property," she said. The Dawei Development Association (DDA), the group organizing the press conference, highlighted the massive amount of economic activity now taking place around Dawei, which it says is not benefiting the local community. A multibillion-dollar Thai-backed special economic zone and port development at Dawei is reportedly stalled, but a number of projects have recently started up. Companies that have moved into the area include Thai mining firm East Star, Htoo Group, which is run by Burmese businessman Tay Za, and the military-run Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, according to DDA. In the waters off the Tenasserim coast, natural gas extraction projects are reaping huge rewards for the government and private companies. Among three offshore projects underway, the Yandanar field is generating 700 million cubic feet of gas per day and the Yetagun field is extracting 460 million cubic feet per day, DDA said. Heinda Tin Mining, which has been awarded 8,000 acres of land, is also operating in Dawei. "This is an area where local people used to stay peacefully. But they have to move it out from the area now the mining project has come," said Ye Lin Myint. The population living around the Dawei River is generally split between the ethnic Dawei, who live on the west of the river, and Karen, who like to the east, in an area dotted with coal mining projects. The gathered media in Rangoon were shown photographs of the alleged impacts of coal mining projects on the surrounding environment. Images showed a waterway in the mountainous area near Pa-Gar Yi village cloudy from pollution. Locals say they can no longer use the water after some people became sick and had skin problems from using it. "There are huge problems in our area," said Pho Ni is from Wa Khon village, in Dawei Township, who claimed fish had been dying near his home. "The main problem is mining in our area. We do not know whether they have official permission or not for mining here. But, we know they got instructions from the government to do it here." Pho Ni said that local people had little fait the government would solve their problems, and suggested that development could threaten a fragile ceasefire. "If there is another revolution, we will be first people in Burma who come out to fight—against this investment," he said. The post Dawei Residents Decry Arrival of Companies Following Ceasefire appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| In Kachin, Burma’s Reforms Seem a World Away Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:18 PM PST  Dum Phau Raw, a 63-year-old farmer, holds her grandchild in Shwe Nyaung Pin village in Burma's Kachin State on Oct. 15, 2013. (Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation / Thin Lei Win) SHWE NYAUNG PIN, Kachin State — In this farming village an hour's drive from the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, a few families ended up with nothing to eat when fighting broke out near their farms at the end of last year, just before the harvest. Fighting also destroyed villages beyond Shwe Nyaung Pin. "I don't even know whether the paddy turned out sweet, sour or bitter," said Ma Ran La, who cultivates rice to support 12 family members. "Fighting has stopped but we're too scared to go there because there may be mines." While farmers in Kachin State have struggled to make ends meet because of poor soil, a lack of irrigation, low yields and chronic indebtedness, others like Ma Ran La have been hampered by conflict. In nearby villages, there are regular food shortages of up to six months during the pre-harvest "lean season," while many farmers had their land confiscated by the military decades ago. This troubled snapshot signals the failure of Burma's much-lauded reforms to reach Kachin—a state bordering China that is impoverished despite its billion-dollar jadeite industry. It also illustrates the challenges the government faces in the country's most resource-rich areas, which are home to ethnic groups who have suffered human rights abuses by the powerful military. Once known as the rice bowl of Asia, Burma still produces enough basic grains that some are exported. Yet in Kachin, landlessness and ongoing clashes between the army and ethnic Kachin rebels have exacerbated food insecurity. Sporadic clashes since June 2011, shortly after Burma's reformist government took power, have displaced about 100,000 people. Meetings in Myitkyina on Nov. 4 and 5 between leaders of various ethnic armed groups and government negotiators ended without a nationwide ceasefire agreement the government had hoped for, though both sides did agree to further talks. The conflict is both a symptom and a result of Kachin's long list of grievances:
Experts say socio-economic progress—and peace in Burma—will come only if the government grants the ethnic groups in its border areas a degree of self-government. "I do not see real peace without dignity—that is, some self-government and safety from arbitrary use of force—and without peace there will not be progress," David Dapice, an economist and Burma expert at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. Farmers Borrow Rice Agriculture is the most important source of income for 61 percent of households in Burma's hilly areas including Kachin, according to the Livelihood and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), a multidonor fund managed by the United Nations. Burma's government says agriculture, which employs almost two-thirds of the country's population, is key to alleviating poverty in a country where more than a quarter of the population live on less than $1.25 a day. Yet Ma Ran La, who normally reaps a decent annual harvest, was forced by the fighting to borrow 30 baskets of rice from the village rice bank and another 40 from neighboring households to feed his family. The rice bank—established in January 2012 by Swiss Aid and Kachin State Urban Rural Mission, with funding from LIFT—offers villagers cheaper rice loans. "Normally, the interest for borrowing rice is 100 percent. If you borrow one basket, you have to give back two," said Khun Mine, the bank's volunteer accountant. "Here, if you borrow one basket, you only have to pay back one and a half. It's a lot more affordable." Still, 50 percent is crippling. With the right monsoon, the three to four acres of rice that Ma Ran La cultivates every year yield up to 100 baskets an acre, compared with an average of 40 baskets an acre. However, he will have to forfeit 125 baskets to repay the borrowed rice, including the 50 percent interest to the rice bank and 100 percent to neighbors. Landlessness is another reason for food shortages. In Shwe Nyaung Pin, only about 10 families own land, as the Burmese army confiscated about 80 acres in the early 1990s. Landless farmers have to rent land in order to cultivate, paying five baskets of rice per acre. In mid-October, when this reporter visited the village, the army had assured the confiscated land would be returned. It is now being measured, said the villagers, who hope the extra 80 acres of farmland will reduce the number of people going hungry. Other areas have not been so lucky. In Loi Sunt and Upper Maw Hpawng villages, several hundred acres of land confiscated two decades ago remain in the hands of the military, villagers said. In Loi Sunt, many villagers say they now pay the military rent to work on what used to be their land. In Upper Maw Hpawng, a village elder who has been pushing for the return of the land lamented that most land is gone. "There are almost no landowners in this village anymore," said Taung Jone. The lush little village is near an air force battalion, one of three military camps that grabbed about 400 acres of farmland, fish ponds and homes, he said, adding that he was never offered compensation for the eight acres of farmland he lost. Taung Jone is now part of a small project, also funded by LIFT, helping 30 households raise chickens for extra income. The 600,000 kyats (around $600) he earned from the chickens in 2013 helped to pay his children's school fees and other expenses. The villagers' big hope, however, is that as part of Burma's reforms, they will get their land back. In May and again in July, they sent letters to the parliamentary commission investigating land grabs, enclosing proof of their ownership. "We have yet to hear from the authorities," Taung Jone said. The post In Kachin, Burma's Reforms Seem a World Away appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Uncle Sam Returns to the Philippines Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:11 PM PST  US Navy sailors arrange the ladder of the USS Antietam (CG-54) from the George Washington Battle Group before sailing to the Philippines at Hong Kong Victoria Harbor on Nov. 12, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Tyrone Siu) With US President Barack Obama having failed to show up at last month's APEC summit in Bali, the US Marines have landed again on the Philippine island of Leyte in a display of quick response to Typhoon Haiyan that seems certain to be welcomed by the storm-ravaged country and is symbolic of the continued US presence in the region. The public relations value of the straight-talking, telegenic Brig-Gen Paul Kennedy, commander of the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expedition Brigade, and his troops, unarmed, helping out in the devastated city of Tacloban soon after the storm hit could hardly be lost on Washington—or the region. China's response was slower but by Tuesday a flight with relief goods on board a large Chinese cargo plane arrived. Initially, though, the United States was quicker and far more thorough. The Marine operation encompasses up to nine C-130s plus four MV-22 Ospreys—tilt-rotor planes that can operate without runways—and two P3 Orion aircraft for search and rescue. It is the first of a massive response by the United States to the tragedy, which is believed to have killed at least 10,000 people and probably many more. That the Marines are in Leyte, almost 70 years after Gen Douglas MacAthur's famous landing, displays, without much need to draw it out, the long relationship that Washington maintains with its former colony and serves as the most dramatic display possible of the region's need for a US presence. The Marines landed shortly after the disaster with Kennedy leading an advance contingent that will quickly grow. "Everything's destroyed," Kennedy said Monday in comments replayed on CNN and elsewhere. "Roads are impassable, trees are all down, posts are down, power is down…We are gonna move stuff as they direct, as the Philippine government and the armed forces [ask]." The United States' immediate response on top of the Marines' arrival includes emergency shelter and hygiene materials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), 55 tons of emergency food to feed 20,000 children and 15,000 adults for five days, and US$100,000 for water and sanitation support from the US Embassy in Manila. On Monday, the United States announced that the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and its support fleet, numbering 7,000 sailors, had been dispatched from a port call in Hong Kong to support relief efforts. That stands in stark contrast to the offer by Beijing of a relatively minuscule $200,000 in cash. If Beijing were seeking to project its soft power in the South China Sea, that didn't do it and indeed it is shown up by aid flowing in from across the world. China, of course, has coast guard vessels not far away projecting its claim to reefs and shoals that are also claimed by the Philippines. It is unlikely those Chinese vessels will be steaming to Leyte. To be sure, many Filipinos are still wary of Washington's intentions. But at least when it comes to disaster response, the US military's presence in the region can be greatly helpful. The US military response to the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, for example, helped to warm relations with Indonesia after years of tensions over human rights violations. The US legacy in the region can be mixed—and lately tarnished by a massive bribery scandal going all the way up to admirals over berthing logistics fees—but its ability to project force and lift into disasters is almost always a welcome sight. Other countries have also quickly responded. According to Reuters, Australia announced a $10 million package, including medical personnel and non-food items such as tarpaulins, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, water containers and hygiene kits; the UK announced a £6 million ($9.6 million) package including aid for up to 500,000 people including temporary shelter, water, plastic sheeting and household items. New Zealand has offered NZ$2.15 million in aid, Japan is sending a 25-strong emergency medical relief team and Indonesia is dispatching aircraft and logistical aid including personnel, drinking water, food, generators, antibiotics and other medication. Domestically the Philippines disaster response has almost never been adequate even in the normal disasters that occur on a regular basis. It lacks the kind of heavy-lift aircraft needed in a disaster and its outdated air force is hardly a match for the typhoon's devastating aftermath. The Marines, for example, brought in the mobile radar and lighting equipment needed to get the Tacloban airport working. Asked by CNN what is most needed, Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippine Red Cross, said "Heavy lifting, the movement of relief goods… to deliver goods to the areas that need them." The post Uncle Sam Returns to the Philippines appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Reforms Could Lead to a Social Safety Net Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:05 PM PST  A student uses a pencil to write in class at Pengying School on the outskirts of Beijing Nov. 11, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING/HONG KONG — Among the issues China's top leaders tackled this week as they hammered out their policy roadmap, some may determine whether children attending the likes of the Pengying school in Beijing fulfill their dreams. Thanks to China's system of internal passports, or hukou, parents in search of better jobs in the capital, or other urban areas, leave behind the public services they were entitled to as residents of their home villages—their pension, healthcare insurance and free public schooling. That means that if they want to educate their children they have to find an unlicensed school, such as Pengying, which charges an annual fee of 1,400 yuan (US$228), most of a month's earnings for some migrant families. At the school, desks are rusty, smoggy air seeps in through broken windows and the acrid smell of broken plumbing fills the hallways. Students learn the basics despite such conditions, but importantly may not sit for the official exams required to attend local universities. "There is no choice," said Mrs. Wang, the mother of another of Pengying's students who declined to provide her given name. She brought her 8-year-old to Beijing from southwest Sichuan province, more than 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) away, and started a catering business. "There is no future either if you stay at home," she said. Easing the hukou system would undoubtedly make life easier for the more than 200 million people who have moved into China's cities from smaller towns and villages and the roughly 110 million more people China expects to move from the countryside into cities in the next seven years. Beijing wants this mass migration to be the backbone of an urbanization drive to combat rapidly rising factory wages and to help wean the economy from a dependence on manufactured exports by promoting urban consumer consumption. At the Communist Party's Central Committee's third plenary session, which ended on Tuesday, the country's leaders pointed to reforms that analysts have said could set in motion changes in how social services are paid for, ultimately leading to a nationwide social safety net seen as critical if the urbanization drive is to work. A report from the official Xinhua news agency on the closed-door meeting said the leaders promised a "more fair and sustainable social security system" and deeper reform of medical and health systems. It also agreed to "step up efforts to improve social welfare and deepen institutional reforms to realize social justice for all." Benefits The ideas are broad, so it is not clear exactly what China's leaders may have in mind. That will only emerge in coming months or possibly years. But analysts say unifying China's patchwork of social services would let citizens seek opportunities wherever they might find them and produce broader benefits for the economy. Portable healthcare, pensions and education could revive China's weakening productivity gains and reduce the propensity of China's citizens to save for a rainy day rather than spend. It could also quell growing discontent over widening income inequality and a disparity of opportunity, a source of great anxiety for a leadership that prizes social stability over almost all else. "If the central government pays for this, you can build up a national standard, so people can move," said Peng Wensheng, chief economist at China International Capital in Beijing. "Mobility means a better use of skills, a more efficient use of skills." Shifting the financial burden of such social services to the national government would eliminate a mismatch between tax income and spending, whereby local governments collect just over half of national tax revenue but bear 80 percent of public spending costs. Doing that, economists say, would remove much of the rationale among local governments for a massive borrowing binge that has pushed local government debt to Detroit-like levels. Credit Suisse estimates local government debt could exceed 16 trillion yuan ($2.6 trillion), or as the IMF estimates, equivalent to roughly 30 percent of China's economic output. "Fiscal reform is bureaucratic," said Vincent Chan, head of equity research at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. "That's easier to bargain." Costs for provincial governments have risen dramatically as China's one-child policy accelerated the costs of an ageing society. Rapid urbanization meant costs for pensions, healthcare and other social services jumped as healthy wage-earners fled to more affluent provinces and the population of new citizens declined. As a result, most provincial governments saw demands on their spending surge. Beijing's solution has been to transfer a lump sum to help cover the costs, a massive annual transaction. For anything else, like investing in key infrastructure or projects designed to boost growth and the business tax revenue upon which they rely, local governments go around the law to either sell land or borrow. It is no secret the government aims to change this: Premier Li Keqiang stressed the need to tackle social safety nets and urbanization after taking office in March and the next month spoke on the dangers of local government debt. Although the central committee's pronouncements on fiscal reform were equally vague on Tuesday, they appeared to edge towards greater balance between the provinces and Beijing, talking of establishing a modern fiscal system that lets "both the central and local governments play active roles." Equals Reforms in the 1990s ended free healthcare, although the government has managed to push medical insurance to 95 percent of the population in the past several years. Still, spending on healthcare has fallen only slightly, according to the World Bank, to 8.2 percent of household income from 8.7 percent. And roughly 99 percent of the insured cost of medical care is borne by local governments, according to Credit Suisse. Creating a national healthcare insurance system could turn China into one of the world's largest pharmaceutical buyers, economists say, helping drive costs down and increasing the quality of care. Province-level pensions are also chronically underfunded, as they have been collecting from workers (about 8 percent of their wages) and their employers (20 percent of employee wages) only since 1997. Worse, workers can only draw from the employer-funded part of their pensions if they work for 15 years in a single province. That not only discourages people from moving to take up better jobs elsewhere, it encourages workers to save on their own and worsens the pressure on public funding. "It limits the overall incentive to participate in pension systems," said Helen Qiao, an economist at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. Compared to those issues, funding China's nine years of compulsory primary-school education seems an easy task. Education is the single largest government expense in China, according to Credit Suisse, larger even than outlays on defense. Yet local governments shoulder roughly 95 percent of that cost. But those costs hide the expense to migrants who have to pay for their children to attend unlicensed schools like Pengying. Many cities have committed to finding spaces in schools for migrant children, but the problem remains so widespread that the Rural Education Action Program, a group of researchers from Stanford University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Northwest Socioeconomic Development Research Center, determined there were 230 migrant schools in Beijing alone educating roughly 70 percent of migrant children. The number of children being schooled outside the education system has sparked calls for the government to let them take university entrance exams outside their home base. "It's OK if they don't give us money, but they can at least treat us as equals," said Pengying's headmistress, who would only provide her surname, Zhao. "These children are all children of China. Why should they be treated differently?" The post China Reforms Could Lead to a Social Safety Net appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Philippine President Puts Typhoon Death Toll At 2,000 To 2,500 Posted: 12 Nov 2013 10:01 PM PST  Typhoon victims queue for free rice at a businessman's warehouse in Tacloban city, which was battered by Typhoon Haiyan, in central Philippines Nov. 12, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) TACLOBAN, Philippines — The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan's rampage through the Philippines is closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than the 10,000 previously estimated, President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday as US and British warships headed toward his nation to help with relief efforts. "Ten thousand, I think, is too much," Aquino told CNN in an interview. "There was emotional drama involved with that particular estimate." Aquino said the government was still gathering information from various storm-struck areas and the death toll may rise. "We're hoping to be able to contact something like 29 municipalities left wherein we still have to establish their numbers, especially for the missing, but so far 2,000, about 2,500, is the number we are working on as far as deaths are concerned," he said. The official death toll stood at 1,774 on Tuesday. Philippine officials have been overwhelmed by Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons on record, which tore through the central Philippines on Friday and flattened Tacloban, the coastal capital of Leyte province where officials had feared 10,000 people died, many drowning in a tsunami-like wall of seawater. Aquino revealed the lower estimated toll after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington set sail for the Philippines carrying about 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft to accelerate relief efforts. It was joined by four other US Navy ships and should arrive in two to three days, the Pentagon said. "The weather is pretty bad out there, so we are limited by seas and wind," Captain Thomas Disy, commander of the USS Antietam, a missile cruiser that is part of the carrier group, said in Hong Kong. "But we are going to be going as fast as we possibly can." Relief supplies poured into Tacloban along roads flanked with corpses and canyons of debris as the rain fell again. Rescue workers scrambled to reach other towns and villages still cut off, which could reveal the full extent of the casualties and devastation. "There are hundreds of other towns and villages stretched over thousands of kilometers that were in the path of the typhoon and with which all communication has been cut," said Natasha Reyes, emergency coordinator in the Philippines at Médecins Sans Frontières. "No one knows what the situation is like in these more rural and remote places, and it's going to be some time before we have a full picture." She described the devastation as unprecedented for the Philippines, a disaster-prone archipelago of more than 7,000 islands that sees about 20 typhoons a year, likening the storm to "a massive earthquake followed by huge floods." About 660,000 people have been displaced and many have no access to food, water or medicine, the United Nations said. Britain is also sending a navy warship with equipment to make drinking water from seawater and a military transport aircraft. The HMS Daring left Singapore and expects to arrive in two or three days. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the development lender was considering boosting its conditional cash transfer program for the Philippines in the wake of the storm. Corpse-Choked Wasteland Aquino has declared a state of national calamity and deployed hundreds of soldiers in Tacloban, a once-vibrant port city of 220,000 that is now a wasteland without any sign of a government, as city and hospital workers focus on saving their families and securing food. "Basically, the only branch of government that is working here is the military," Philippine Army Major Ruben Guinolbay told Reuters in Tacloban. "That is not good. We are not supposed to take over government." Tacloban's government was wiped out by the storm, said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas. Officials were dead, missing or too overcome with grief to work. Of the city's 293 police officers, only 20 had shown up for duty, he said. "Today, we have stabilized the situation. There are no longer reports of looting. The food supply is coming in. Up to 50,000 food packs are coming in every day, with each pack able to feed up to a family of five for three days," he said. Corazon Soliman, Secretary of the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development, said aid had reached a third of Tacloban's 45,000 families. Most of its stores remain closed—either destroyed or shut after widespread looting. "Those that opened saw their goods wiped out of their shelves right away," Soliman said. Chaos at Airport Two Philippine Air Force C-130 cargo planes landed at Tacloban airport early on Tuesday, but unloaded more soldiers than relief supplies. Among dozens of troops was a unit of Special Forces, underscoring concerns about civil disorder. The Special Forces immediately deployed at the airport to hold back angry and desperate families waiting in heavy rain in the hope of boarding the planes returning to Manila. "Get back! Get back in the building!" shouted air force officials through megaphones, gesturing the crowds back inside the wrecked terminal. Many had walked for hours from their destroyed homes, carrying meager possessions. The sick, infants and the elderly were taken on board first. Pale-faced babies were passed over the crowd and carried on with several injured people. Many people wept and begged officials to let them on. Residents told terrifying accounts of being swept away by a surge of water in city hopelessly unprepared for power of Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda. Some stayed behind to protect their property, including Marivel Saraza, 39, who moved her six children farther inland before Haiyan struck, but stayed behind to look after her home only a stone's throw from the sea. She ended up battling through chest-high water to reach higher ground, while the storm surge destroyed her two-storey concrete home. "My house just dissolved in the water," she said. Saraza now struggles to feed her children. The government gave her 2 kg (4.4 lb) of rice and a single can of sardines—barely enough for a family meal—so her husband foraged for fruit farther inland. But trees have been flattened by winds of 314 kph (195 mph) and rice fields inundated with salt water. Relief Efforts Picking Up Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the economic damage in the coconut- and rice-growing region would likely shave 1 percentage point off of economic growth in 2014. "Fixation over numbers at this stage is not going to be useful," Purisima, the top finance ministry official, told reporters. "I was overwhelmed by the pictures, not the numbers." The overall financial cost of the destruction was harder to assess. Initial estimates varied widely, with a report from German-based CEDIM Forensic Disaster Analysis putting the total at US$8 billion to $19 billion. International relief efforts have begun to gather pace, with dozens of countries and organizations pledging tens of millions of dollars in aid. UN aid chief Valerie Amos, who has travelled to the Philippines, released $25 million for aid relief on Monday from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund. Rescuers have yet to reach remote parts of the coast, such as Guiuan, a city of 40,000 people that was largely destroyed. "We don't need aerial surveys. It won't help the people of Guiuan," one resident posted on the Armed Forces Facebook page. "You've already done an aerial survey and you've seen the extent of the damage, seen the devastation that Yolanda brought…. The people are desperate, hungry and feeling dejected. WE ARE CRYING FOR HELP!!!" The typhoon also leveled Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about 10 km (6 miles) across a bay from Tacloban. About 2,000 people were missing in Basey, its governor said. The post Philippine President Puts Typhoon Death Toll At 2,000 To 2,500 appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Torture Claims Cast Shadow Over Sri Lanka’s Commonwealth Summit Posted: 12 Nov 2013 09:00 PM PST  A decorated Pandal is seen ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013, in Katunayake on Nov. 11, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Dinuka Liyanawatte) COLOMBO — Allegations of abuses against ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka four years after the army won a civil war against separatist rebels have put pressure on the government as it prepares to host a Commonwealth summit. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said weeks ago he was skipping the meeting because of concern about human rights and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, has also pulled out. British Prime Minister David Cameron says he will ask "serious questions" and demand an investigation into allegations of war crimes. Separatist Tamil rebels battled government forces for 26 years until an army offensive crushed them in 2009. A UN panel has said thousands of mainly Tamil civilians died in the offensive. Both sides had committed atrocities, but army shelling killed most of the victims, it concluded. The government says Sri Lanka is on the path to reconciliation, helped by fast economic growth. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum launch on Tuesday, chided developed countries. "For genuine and credible partnerships to be established for wealth creation, the more advanced nations need to be sensitive to the issues of the lesser-developed nations, and must be honestly supportive of promoting trade with emerging nations," Rajapaksa said. However, complaints of rights abuses, such as those recently aired in a forum organized by Human Rights Watch, have raised concern about whether Sri Lanka is really on a path to peace. Two ethnic Tamils, speaking from Britain where they are seeking asylum, told reporters last month they had been detained by security forces, repeatedly raped and beaten in what rights groups say is a pattern of intimidation. One said he was picked up on the street last year. During five days in detention, men beat him with a plastic pipe and repeatedly inserted a metal rod into his rectum, he said. "I had no choice, I couldn't stand the torture so I admitted to the allegation I was in the LTTE," the man said, referring to the now disbanded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) rebels. A 30-year-old woman said she was pushed into a van in August and raped in detention for 19 days by different men. "I could hear other women screaming in other rooms," she said. Both said they were released after friends and relatives paid a ransom. Human Rights Watch investigator Charu Lata Hogg said evidence of rape had been detected by doctors, but that this was rarely included in asylum applications because of stigma. She said she had documented 75 cases. Rajapaksa's government dismisses such accusations, which it says amount to a campaign by rebel sympathizers to tarnish its image and detract from the Nov. 15-17 Commonwealth meeting. The 53-member Commonwealth, made up mostly of former British colonies, holds a summit every two years. It has little power, but wields some influence in mediating disputes between members. "Sri Lanka has zero tolerance on torture," said military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya. "If they were really victims, they should have gone to a police station and made a complaint," he said of those who complained of abuse, adding that 15 cases of torture were before courts. The government also rejects the findings of the UN panel of heavy civilian casualties at the end of the war, as well as two resolutions by the UN Human Rights Commission calling on authorities to investigate alleged war crimes. Former war zones still have a heavy military presence that leads to abuse, said M.A. Sumanthiran, a human rights lawyer and member of parliament for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) opposition party, the former political proxy of the rebels. He said public opinion in Sri Lanka, where ethnic Sinhalese form a majority, was hostile to rehabilitated fighters. Rape victims mostly came forward only if they left the country. "It is widespread, that's not to say there is a policy, but there is at least tolerance of such things happening," he told Reuters this week. After visiting the north last week, Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon alleged that soldiers there used Tamil women as "comfort women," a World War II reference to women in occupied areas forced into prostitution by the Japanese army. The TNA swept the region's first post-war election in September, showing that the cause of autonomy remains strong, though violence is seen as unlikely to resume. The post Torture Claims Cast Shadow Over Sri Lanka's Commonwealth Summit appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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