The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Burma Fares Poorly in Global Rule of Law Gauge
• Protestors Only Required to ‘Inform’ in Lower House Change to Section 18
• No Census for Rebel-Controlled Parts of Kachin State
• 88 Generation, Ethnic Alliance Join to Promote Reform
• Parliament OKs Development Fund Over Burma President’s Objection
• Trafficking Abuse of Burma’s Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia
• India Announces General Elections to Start April 7
• China’s Civilian Fleet a Potent Force in Asia’s Disputed Seas
• Three Times a Loser, Indonesia’s Megawati Is Pivotal in Elections
• Arakanese MPs Oppose Census Classification for Rohingya
• Burma’s Parliament Approves ‘Parallel’ Media Laws
• FDI in Timber Processing Tops $51Mln, India Biggest Investor
• Plan to Shed Light on Burma’s Secretive Companies
• Burma’s Govt Accused of Excluding Education Network From Reform Talks
• ‘This Is a Human Industry, a Service Industry’
• Rights Group: Thai Fishing Sector Abuses Burmese Migrants
• China’s Xi Ramps Up Military Spending in Face of Worried Region
• US Calls for ‘Urgent’ Restraint to Ease Japan, South Korea Tensions
• Fighting in North Burma Could Derail Peace Process: Ethnic Leader
• Army Increases Attacks in North Burma, Seizes 2 Shan Rebel Camps

Burma Fares Poorly in Global Rule of Law Gauge Posted: 06 Mar 2014 05:54 AM PST Police officers on standby near Sule Pagoda in Rangoon on June 5, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun) A report measuring global adherence to the rule of law, released on Wednesday, finds Burma near the back of the pack, ranked 89th out of 99 nations studied. In addition to its low global ranking, the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index 2014 placed Burma 14th among 15 countries surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region, in an assessment that weighed eight factors and 44 sub-factors related to the rule of law in a given country. Regionally, the country fared better than Cambodia (91st) and Bangladesh (92nd). "Restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms are sources of concern," the report said of Burma, while noting that "the country is safe from crime and places 3rd among 16 low-income countries in control of corruption [placing 63rd overall]." Political interference by the executive branch within Parliament and the judiciary, weak administrative enforcement of regulations and insufficient nongovernmental checks on power also dragged down Burma's Index score. The World Justice Project describes rule of law as "notoriously difficult to define and measure," but says it broadly consists of "a system of rules and rights that enables fair and functioning societies," using four principles as the basis for its definition. The Index based its rankings on interviews with more than 100,000 households globally, combined with consultations with experts, typically in the academic and legal fields, in the countries surveyed. It is the WJP's fourth annual report on rule of law globally, but the first in which Burma is included. Of the eight factors assessed, Burma performed most poorly on guarantees of fundamental rights, ranking 97th and ahead of only Zimbabwe and Iran. Those rights include due process of law, freedom of expression and protection against discrimination, among others, the report said. Shortcomings were also glaring in the country's adherence to principles of open governance, and in rule of law assessments in the realms of criminal and civil justice. Speaking to The Irrawaddy following the report's release, Juan Carlos Botero, executive director of the US-based World Justice Project, said open governance initiatives would likely constitute the easiest short-term means of improving rule of law in Burma, citing neighboring India as a potential example to follow. "This area in particular is an area in which many countries, with a piece of legislation and a governmental campaign, can quickly see major advances," he said. "Changing the criminal or civil justice system is something that takes many years of sustained effort, whereas changing to open governance is something that can be achieved in one or two years of dedicated and mindful efforts, so that would qualify, I think, as the closest possible 'low-hanging fruit.'" The report describes open government as "the extent to which the society has clear, publicized, accessible, and stable laws; whether administrative proceedings are open to public participation; and whether official information, including drafts of laws and regulations, is available to the public." Burma currently lacks a freedom of information law, legislation that is a common feature of democracies globally and is designed to give citizens the legal right to request a broad range of government records. "Official communications" from Burma's government often take the form of posts to the Facebook account of presidential spokesman Ye Htut and brief announcements in state-run media. Despite reforms over the last few years lauded at home and abroad, concerns about the absence of rule of law in Burma have weighed on the country's transition to a more democratic form of rule after the long-standing military junta ceded power to a nominally civilian government three years ago. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has frequently emphasized the need for rule of law in Burma, and heads a parliamentary committee on the matter. The government has been criticized for its handling of several outbreaks of communal violence since June 2012 in Burma, where clashes between the nation's majority Buddhists and minority Muslims have most devastatingly plagued western Arakan State. While several dozen people have stood trial in connection with the violence, it is believed that many more have eluded justice, and Physicians for Human Rights in a May 2013 report went so far as to accuse government forces of complicity in attacks on Muslims in Meikhtila, central Burma. The country's Constitution is considered inherently undemocratic, and includes a provision that prevents the prosecution of members of the former military regime "in respect to any act done in the execution of their respective duties," an effective immunity that bars any substantive approach to transitional justice for the brutal wielders of pre-2011 power. The country's judicial system is said to be rife with corruption, while a lack of regulatory certainty and land rights issues are often cited as holding back prospective foreign investors to one of Asia's last "frontier markets." "Myanmar is a country that has raised significant attention due to its general movement toward openness that is perceived, at least, in the international community," Botero said, explaining the reason for Burma's debut in the WJP's rule of law index. "The other part of the reason is that it is a very important country with a significant population." The report's lead author Alex Ponce acknowledged the limits of the WJP research, which may in fact undervalue the extent of Burma's rule of law shortcomings. Based on a survey of 1,004 households and at least 16 experts, the Index compiles data gathered from Burma's three biggest cities—Rangoon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw—but did not poll public or experts' sentiment in the country's ethnic minority border regions, where some of the harshest criticisms regarding a lack of rule of law have been made. "We would say that they are a fair assessment of the situation of the three cities, but do not speak about the situation in other parts of the country, including the ethnic border regions," Ponce told The Irrawaddy. The post Burma Fares Poorly in Global Rule of Law Gauge appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Protestors Only Required to ‘Inform’ in Lower House Change to Section 18 Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:52 AM PST A protester holds a large collage of photos relating to the Kachin State conflict. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) The Lower House passed amendments to Burma's Peaceful Assembly Law on Wednesday, dropping a provision that allows local authorities to deny would-be protestors permission to carry out a demonstration. The proposed changes will now go to the Upper House's Bill Committee, and if the proposed legislation is passed in its current form, protesters would no longer need to seek permission from local authorities to stage a protest, and would be required only "to inform" township administrators about any planned demonstration. "The authorities cannot deny permission under [the amended] Section 5 of the [Peaceful Assembly Law] if the protesters inform them," said Phay Than, an Arakanese lawmaker. "It would be very convenient for the protesters." According to Phay Than, protesters must still inform authorities of any planned demonstration "so that unnecessary or unexpected situations—such as riots, or other disturbances or crimes—can be prevented." "We have reduced many of the restrictions so that it would work for the protesters," added Thein Nyunt, a legislator from the New National Democracy Party. The amendments approved by the Lower House represent a liberalization of the Peaceful Assembly Law's controversial Section 18. The provision has riled freedom of expression advocates since the law's passage in December 2011, because it allows for the imprisonment of protestors who fail to obtain local authorities' permission to stage a demonstration. The maximum punishment under Section 18 of the original law is one year in prison. Lawmakers in the Lower House this week agreed to reduce that to six months, and make it a charge that activists would face only if they fail to inform local authorities of a planned protest. Thein Nyunt was reluctant to declare a victory for free speech on Wednesday. "We have to wait and see what will be the Upper House's decision," he said. Under Section 17 of the amended law, violence and unrest caused during demonstrations would carry with it a maximum sentence of one year in prison, a halving of the law's current two-year sentence that was put before the Lower House by the chamber's Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee last month. The Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee's proposal, however, maintained the requirement that protestors receive local authorities' permission before carrying out the action—the provision that the bill passed Wednesday was stripped of. The Home Affairs Ministry has signed off on a reduction in the law's punishments, but has been reluctant to accept removal of the requirement that local authorities' permission be received. More than 100 people were facing trials on charges of violating Section 18 at the end of last year, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. An amnesty from President Thein Sein on Dec. 31 saw all of those pending charges dropped, but since that time, another 21 people have been charged under the provision and are awaiting trial, while five others have been found guilty of the charge and given sentences ranging from three to six months, AAPP said. The post Protestors Only Required to 'Inform' in Lower House Change to Section 18 appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

No Census for Rebel-Controlled Parts of Kachin State Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:39 AM PST People displaced by fighting between Kachin rebels and the Burma Army keep themselves busy in Woi Chhyai camp, near the Kachin Independence Organization's headquarters at Laiza. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) LAIZA, Kachin State — About 80,000 people living in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) will be left out of Burma's nationwide census, a rebel spokesman told The Irrawaddy this week. Numerous ethnic organizations and NGOs have raised concerns that United Nations-backed census could be divisive. Objections range from fears that the results will have a political impact or be used by groups with an agenda, to complaints around the categorizations of ethnic groups into subgroups of other ethnicities. But while most of Burma's ethnic armed groups—who are in talks with the government toward a nationwide ceasefire agreement—have agreed to work with the government to administer the census in rebel-controlled areas, this is not the case here in Kachin State. Fighting between the Burma Army and the KIO's military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since a ceasefire broke down in 2011 has left about 100,000 people residing in temporary shelters, at least half of them in 22 camps in rebel administered areas. Many people are divided from family members, and many have misplaced their identification documents while fleeing violence. KIO spokesman and joint secretary La Nan said the organization was not ready to conduct a census of the population living in its areas—about 80,000 people in total. "There has been no invitation or initiations by any organization to conduct a census so far," La Nan told The Irrawaddy in an interview at the KIO's headquarters in Laiza, on the Burmese-Chinese border. "The census is a state project and we will not do it right now." He dismissed a letter sent from Naypyidaw to the Kachin State government and forwarded to the KIO, which invited the group to send representatives to the launch of the census in Naypyidaw last week. The letter arrived just a day before the meeting took place, La Nan said, adding that he also took exception to a reference in the letter to ethnic armed groups "coming under the rule of law." La Nan said that the KIO already had records of all the people in its area and in its camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Doi Be Za, the officer in charge of the KIO's IDPs and Refugees Relief Committee, said that more time was needed to conduct a census in conflict-affected parts of Kachin. "The practical tasks of collecting the census need to be flexible with the time and situation. It will not get support from the people if it is conducted right now," he said, adding that local civil society groups were discussing how to conduct a census in the future. Organizations representing ethnic groups in Kachin State say that the government's list of 135 recognized ethnic groups, which includes 12 groups in the state as subgroups of Kachin, is "incorrect." The Kachin National Council said in a statement that "the census procedure is seen as alienating and breaking up ethnic national identity." In government-controlled parts of Kachin, the local government has reportedly decided to begin the census early to account for potential delays caused by the ongoing conflict. While in most of the country the census will not begin until March 30, the Democratic Voice of Burma said Thursday that it was already underway in Kachin's Putao, Machanbaw, Nawngmun and Suprabum. Among the ethnic armed groups, only the Kachin and Ta'ang National Liberation Army—both of which have regular clashes with government troops—have said they will not allow the government to conduct the census in areas under their control. De De Poe Jaine, the general secretary of the Ta'ang Women's Organization (TWO) said the ethnic group, known as Palaung in Burmese, also rejected the subgroup system, which places it within the broader Shan ethnicity. "We were descended from Mon-Khmer race, not from the Shan. Thus, we should not be placed under it," said De De Poe Jaine. "Instead, we should have given a specific code for us. We will make demands for our rights at different levels." She also said it was not a good idea to conduct the census in conflict-afflicted areas. "One thing I am certain of is that if a census is conducted in an unpeaceful land, it will end up with inaccurate data. That's why we have also called for the postponement of 2014 census until a genuine peace plan has been made," said De De Poe Jaine. Additional reporting by Thuzar in Rangoon. The post No Census for Rebel-Controlled Parts of Kachin State appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

88 Generation, Ethnic Alliance Join to Promote Reform Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:10 AM PST Leaders of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society and the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) meet in Rangoon on Thursday. (Photo: 88 Generation Peace and Open Society / Facebook) RANGOON—The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society has pledged to collaborate with ethnic leaders of the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) to advocate for constitutional amendments. At a meeting in Rangoon on Thursday, leaders of both sides agreed to push for amendments that would promote a more democratic and federal political system in the country. The two groups have not collaborated formally in the past, although both have worked separately to advocate for democracy and ethnic minority rights. The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society also recently pledged to team up with the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, to promote constitutional reform. When asked about the collaboration with the UNA, Mya Aye, a spokesman for the 88 Generation, said it was crucial to focus on ethnic issues to put a stop to decades of conflict between government troops and ethnic armed groups. "We agreed on three points of collaboration, including to hold inclusive stakeholder meetings, to amend Article 436 of Section 12 [of the Constitution], and to promote a democratic and federal system in the country," he told The Irrawaddy. Article 436 says constitutional reform can only take place with the support of more than 75 percent of the lawmakers—giving the military, which holds 25 percent of seats in Parliament, an effective veto over amendments. Sai Nyunt Lwin, secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and a member of the UNA, said the stakeholder meetings would be particularly important. "From the meetings we will agree on a framework, and then the new government will continue to work through the framework," he said. Parliament is preparing to amend the 2008 Constitution, which was written by the former military regime. After soliciting feedback from the public last year, a new implementation committee has been formed by lawmaker to decide what should be changed in the charter. Over the weekend, hundreds of protesters in Rangoon, Mandalay and Pegu Division called for changes to an Article 436 and another article that currently bars Suu Kyi from the presidency. "Political movement outside of Parliament is needed. The government needs to listen to the voice of the people while amending the Constitution," Mya Aye said. The UNA is an alliance that includes representatives from several ethnic political parties. The 88 Generation Peace and Open Society is a political organization born out of the student-led uprising of 1988 that almost toppled the then-military government. Many of its members were formerly student leaders of the pro-democracy movement. In a joint statement last month, the NLD and the 88 Generation said they had been working together toward democracy for 25 years, and would join their efforts to ensure a transition to "real democracy" by amending the charter. The association between these two groups was also not new, but previously under the government of President Thein Sein they had not formally cooperated in political activities. The post 88 Generation, Ethnic Alliance Join to Promote Reform appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Parliament OKs Development Fund Over Burma President’s Objection Posted: 06 Mar 2014 02:52 AM PST Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann arrives at the Parliament meeting room in Naypyidaw in this file photo. (Photo: Reuters) The Union Parliament has approved a development fund bill that will allot 100 million kyats (US$102,000) to each of Burma's 330 townships annually, with the legislation set to become law despite President Thein Sein's objection to it earlier this week. The President's Office has been against the plan since it was first proposed last year, but lawmakers pushed the legislation through over his objection on Tuesday. Though it had not been put to a vote until this week, parliamentarians had already in effect been implementing the bill's provisions since the end of 2013, using funds allocated for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The undertaking of small-scale development projects is intended to improve the country's stunted social, health and education sectors at the local level. The total 33 billion kyats budget will be available for use each fiscal year. A letter from the President's Office to Parliament, also on Tuesday, stated objections to more than 10 sections of the bill, insisting that "the new law would allow for legislative intervention in the executive's works," according to legislators. "We have contrary thinking," said Thein Nyunt, a lawmaker from the New National Democracy Party. "We, the parliamentarians, view the projects as enhancing collaboration between the administrative and legislative branches." It is not unusual for Thein Sein to have disagreements with parliamentary proposals, but Lower House legislator Phay Than defended Parliament's disregard for the president's concerns by saying, "it is our duty to enact such laws in the public interest." The Thein Sein administration has initiated its own program of "people-centered" development projects, funded out of the budgets of a handful of ministries and administered by local authorities. The program targets "most-needed projects" and does not offer a role for Union-level lawmakers whose constituencies benefit from them. An official from the President's Office, who asked to remain anonymous, said that although the president accepted the parliamentarians' aims "in principle," Thein Sein objected on the grounds that the development fund would "overlap" with the plans of his administration. Lawmakers counter that the development initiatives they support are spending no more than 5 million kyats per project, and consist of improvements to electricity access, road and bridge repairs, school buildings' renovation and provision of clean drinking water. These small-scale projects are not included in the ministries' budget plans, lawmakers say, and represent unmet needs for their constituencies. "The impoverished people gain benefits from the projects," Thein Nyunt said, listing efforts to improve sanitation, renovate public buildings and improve local water supplies as among the benefits that had already come out of the development fund and would not have been funded otherwise. "It is like an emergency fund that aims to fill these gaps." Ba Shein, a member of Parliament's Bill Committee, said "Parliament performs its duty to make laws that will benefit the public. There is no restriction in the Constitution that we cannot create laws." According to Article 106 of the Constitution, the bill will become law—whether the president signs the legislation or not—one week from its passage. Parliamentarians in support of the bill remained adamant that the fund would help people in need while also aiding the government. "It seems the administrative body still wants to manipulate, as in the past," said Ba Shein, adding, "Within the three years of the country's transition period, the actual changes have not yet taken place. The government thinks the country's development is moving forward, but if you look at the ground level, the actual movement is just a tiny bit of an inch. This is why we want to do our part to make the move quicker and faster." Hla Swe, an Upper House lawmaker from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), said the fund should be considered a means of improving the efficiency of government spending as well. "It is a worthy law because the funding of 100 million kyats per township could save another 200 million for the government, because the small-scale development projects will be done at cheaper cost than those working with municipal departments or the Construction Ministry. Our projects are done with much public support, where they [beneficiaries] volunteer in terms of their physical or material services." Under the development fund, MPs and local township administrators collaborate in carrying out each project. The MPs head Township Development Implementation Committees and township administrators manage the projects. "We oversee the projects' implementation and we are not in control of financial management. That is the job of the township administrators," explained Phay Than. In addition to Thein Sein's concerns of overlapping authorities, others contend that MPs are using the development fund to their personal benefit, in what amounts to buying votes from the public ahead of elections in 2015. The post Parliament OKs Development Fund Over Burma President's Objection appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Trafficking Abuse of Burma’s Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia Posted: 05 Mar 2014 10:46 PM PST Mohamed Nor, left, 20, Mohamed Einous, center, 19, and Hamidul Hoque, 15, speak to Reuters during an interview in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, on Feb. 21, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) BUKIT MERTAJAM, Malaysia — Human traffickers have kept hundreds of Rohingya Muslims captive in houses in northern Malaysia, beating them, depriving them of food, and demanding a ransom from their families, according to detailed accounts by the victims. The accounts given to Reuters suggest that trafficking gangs are shifting their operations into Malaysia as Thai authorities crack down on jungle camps near the border that have become a prison for the Muslim asylum seekers fleeing persecution in Burma. Police in the northern Malaysian states of Penang and Kedah have conducted several raids on the houses in recent months, including an operation in February that discovered four Rohingya men bound together with metal chains in an apartment. But Reuters' interviews reveal a trafficking network on a far bigger scale than authorities have acknowledged so far, with brokers herding groups of hundreds of Rohingya at night over the border and holding them captive in the Southeast Asian country. The abuse in Malaysia is the latest oppression against the Rohingya. They are mostly stateless Muslims from western Burma, where clashes with majority Buddhists since the middle of 2012 have killed hundreds and forced about 140,000 into squalid camps. Many of the tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing Burma by boat have fallen into the hands of human traffickers at sea who then hold them hostage in remote Thai camps near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay thousands of dollars to release them, according to a Reuters investigation published on Dec. 5. Some were beaten and killed, others held in cages where they suffered malnutrition. The Reuters investigation found Thai authorities were sometimes working with the traffickers in an effort to push the Rohingyas out of Thailand because immigration detention camps were getting overwhelmed with asylum-seekers. In January, Thai police said they rescued hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from a remote camp in southern Thailand, a raid they said was prompted by the Reuters investigation, and had launched a manhunt for the "kingpins" who routinely smuggle humans through southern Thailand to Malaysia with impunity. The intensified trafficking of Rohingyas into Muslim-majority Malaysia threatens to undermine its anti-human-trafficking record, which is at imminent risk of being downgraded by the United States to a par with North Korea. It also highlights the porous state of Malaysia's 500 km (310 mile)-long northern border, with thousands of Rohingya entering unhindered at a time when the government has taken a tough public stance against illegal immigration. For the desperate Rohingya, Malaysia is the promised land, where at least 30,000 already live. The country does not give them full refugee rights, but has allowed them to stay and register with the United Nations. Thousands have picked up work at the bottom rungs of the informal economy. 'Now We Don't Have Land' Mohamed Einous, a 19-year-old Rohingya from Buthidaung Township, felt relief sweep over him as he scrambled over a border wall in a group of 270 refugees in mid-February, about a month after he left Burma. The crossing took place at night using two ladders supplied by his captors. "I believed I could make money here," Einous told Reuters. His hope of freedom was short-lived. Handed to a new gang of brokers on the Malaysia side of the border, the Rohingya were packed into vans and driven to a house with blacked-out windows the traffickers said was in the border town of Padang Besar. Once there, the brokers beat Einous with long wooden sticks and threatened to kill him if he did not secure a payment of US$2,000 from his parents in Burma. Distraught at Einous' cries over the telephone, his parents sold their family home for $1,600 and borrowed the rest from relatives, Einous said. "There are no words to express how sorry I feel," Einous told Reuters on Feb. 21, just hours after the brokers dumped him near a market in the town of Bukit Mertajam in Penang, ending his eight-day nightmare in the house. "Now we don't have land. My parents have nowhere to live." Einous said the brokers in Thailand had told him he could pay a much smaller amount ("whatever I wanted") to be released once in Malaysia. He said the refugees only received rice once a day in the house and were packed so tightly into two rooms that they couldn't lie down. Abdul Hamid, a 23-year-old motorbike mechanic from Sittwe, in Burma's Arakan State, recalled similar conditions at the compound where he was imprisoned for a week with more than 200 others in Penang. About 16 guards kept watch over them in two shifts. The traffickers' boss, a man in his 30s known as "Razak" who wore a suit and steel-rimmed spectacles, regularly kicked, beat and threatened the cowering prisoners, Hamid said. "They said we don't have money to give you food. You need to get money if you want to be free," Hamid told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur following his release in mid-February. Malaysia, a labor-short country with an estimated 2 million undocumented workers that offers higher wages than its neighbors, has long struggled with a reputation as a haven for human trafficking. Like Thailand, Malaysia is at risk of being downgraded in the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report from the Tier Two watchlist to the lowest rank of Tier Three. The scale of the problem appears to have surged in recent months. "It is definitely increasing," said Chris Lewa, coordinator of Rohingya advocacy group Arakan Project, who regularly interviews those who make the journey. "In more and more stories I have heard recently they [Rohingya] have been detained in Malaysia." Several of the 10 witnesses cited the brokers as telling them they had bribed Malaysian immigration officials to turn a blind eye when they crossed the border. Reuters found no direct evidence of corruption by Malaysian officials. Five immigration officials were arrested in 2009 for working with a smuggling syndicate to traffic Rohingya into the country. "We didn't see any officials on the Malaysia side," said Korimullah, a 17-year-old from Maungdaw Township, who spent more than three months in Thai camps and was then held by traffickers in a house in the northern Malaysian city of Alor Star. "The brokers said they had already given money to them." Officials from Malaysia's immigration department, the prime minister's office, and police in Penang and Kedah states did not respond to requests for comment. Border Chaos The surge of Rohingya trafficking activity in Malaysia followed a series of raids to harass human smugglers and drive them from illegal camps dotted across remote areas of southern Thailand. In two raids in January, Thai police rescued and detained more than 600 Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Abdul Hamid and several other witnesses described chaotic scenes on the Thai side of the border in recent weeks as their captors moved them from camp to camp and hurried them over the border before they had time to secure payments from their relatives. "The guards said the police would come and drop a bomb on the camp and that we had to move into Malaysia," Hamid said. Increasingly overcrowded and deadly conditions in the makeshift jungle camps in Thailand could be another reason for the shift of operations into Malaysia. "We couldn't get enough food or water. People were dying with terrible pains in their body," said Eisoup, a 20-year-old from Sittwe, who estimates that 45 people died in 15 days at his camp in January. Many of those involved in Rohingya trafficking are Rohingya themselves, according to Reuters' interviews and the Arakan Project's Lewa. Mohamed Aslom's arms bear cuts and burn marks from where he says cigarettes were stubbed out on him by Rohingya brokers during seven days he spent in captivity in a locked, dark room in Penang with about 20 other victims. The 21-year-old former shopkeeper said he was then sold to another group of brokers who drove him and three others across Malaysia to the east coast town of Kuantan, where the torture continued for four days in a three-story house. Finally, he saw a chance to escape. When one of his captors went to the toilet, he said he rushed the remaining one and bolted into the street. "It feels worse when those from Rakhine [Arakan State] hurt us—they are our own people," said Aslom, speaking in Kuala Lumpur days after his brother picked him up from Kuantan. The post Trafficking Abuse of Burma's Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

India Announces General Elections to Start April 7 Posted: 05 Mar 2014 10:05 PM PST Supporters of Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party (AAP) protest outside the headquarters of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi March 5, 2014. Street clashes marred an announcement on Wednesday that India's general election will start on April 7 as passions run high in a race that pits Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi against the unpopular Nehru-Gandhi family's ruling party. (Photo: Reuters) NEW DELHI — India said Wednesday that it will hold national elections from April 7 to May 12, kicking off a vote that many observers see as the most important election in more than 30 years in the world's largest democracy. The run-up to the election has laid bare widespread disgust in India over corruption and disenchantment with the storied Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, which has dominated Indian politics since independence from Britain in 1947. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, a pro-business, Hindu nationalist bloc led by Narendra Modi, has the momentum heading into the elections. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center said 63 percent of Indians prefer BJP over the incumbent Congress Party. Modi's chief rival is Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old vice president of Congress and scion of the Gandhi family. "The future of Indian democracy is at stake," said Ajoy Bose, a political analyst in New Delhi. "The distinction is between the decline of India's oldest political party and an attempt by the BJP with Modi at its helm to rise as an alternative." The parliamentary election will be held over several weeks for logistical and safety reasons in the country of 1.2 billion people. There are more than 810 million eligible voters this year, an increase of 100 million from five years ago, according to the Election Commission. Vote counting will be held May 16, and most results are expected the same day, Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath said. The dates were finalized based on the onset of India's blistering summer, school schedules and harvesting season, he said. BJP's strength ahead of the polls does not necessarily translate into an automatic win. There are dozens of regional parties, as well as the upstart Aam Aadmi Party, or Common Man's Party, which had a surprisingly strong showing in local elections late last year. And 11 smaller parties joined forces last month, forming a "third front" to challenge Congress and BJP. "A number of smaller regional parties could play an important role in forming a new government in the event of a split verdict in the elections," Bose said. The campaign season got off to an unruly start Wednesday when police used water cannons and canes to disperse dozens of Aam Aadmi Party supporters who clashed in the capital with BJP workers. Aam Aadmi Party officials accused police in Gujarat state, where Modi is chief minister, of restricting campaigning there by their leader, Arvind Kejriwal. Television images showed the rivals attacking each other with plastic chairs, rocks and sticks at the New Delhi office of the BJP before the police separated them. Prashant Bhushan, an Aam Aadmi Party leader, told reporters that several of his party workers were injured in the clash and were hospitalized. The Press Trust of India news agency said the BJP supporters carrying sticks damaged the windshield of Kejriwal's car in Gujarat state after they heard about the clashes in New Delhi. Kejriwal didn't suffer any injuries and he later accused the BJP of a jittery over-reaction to his visit to the state. PTI said the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party supporters also clashed briefly in Lucknow, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh. Details were not immediately available. Modi's growing popularity has been a divisive issue in India, where Hindu-Muslim violence has erupted regularly despite the country's secular constitution. Modi's supporters say he can revive the country's ailing economy, pointing to how he turned Gujarat state into an industrial haven over the past 11 years. But critics take a darker view, blaming him for riots in Gujarat in 2002 that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Modi has denied any role in the violence and says he bears no responsibility for the killings. In December, he said that he had been "shaken to the core" by the violence, and that his government responded to it swiftly and decisively. Modi was denied a US visa in 2005 for failing to stop the religious riots, although the US ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, met with him last month in a sign that Washington believes his party is well-placed to eclipse Congress. Congress has been the most powerful political force in India for decades, but its stock is low. The party has been battered by corruption scandals, internal feuding and an inability to deal with a stumbling economy and deep-rooted problems with poverty, infrastructure and education. Analysts say the 2014 elections share some similarities with 1977 polls in which the Congress Party's supremacy was first broken. Congress leader Indira Gandhi was defeated in those elections by an umbrella coalition of all major political parties that opposed her imposition of a state of emergency in 1975. Ashok Malik, a political analyst, said this year's elections are consequential because the economy needs to be revitalized. "All elections are crucial. But this one is more so because it comes after an economic slowdown that could have serious repercussions for the Indian economy in the long term," he said. "It's a significant election to determine where we go as an economy." Since independence, only one non-Congress government has lasted a full term—the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, a coalition of several parties, which was led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2004. India's Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament, has 543 elected seats. Any party or coalition needs at least 272 seats to form a government. Hundreds of thousands of security forces will be deployed during the elections to ensure peaceful voting. India is wracked by insurgencies in central, northern and northeastern states, and rebels often target voting stations and security forces. All 930,000 polling stations will have electronic voting machines that have been developed in India. For the first time, the Election Commission has given voters the choice of not voting for any candidate by offering them a "None of the above" button. The "None of the above" votes will not affect the outcome of the election because officials will only count votes for those candidates named on the ballot. But supporters of the move say it will be a good way to gauge voter sentiment toward the candidates. The post India Announces General Elections to Start April 7 appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China’s Civilian Fleet a Potent Force in Asia’s Disputed Seas Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:59 PM PST A handout photo shows Chinese fishermen aboard their fishing boat in the Scarborough Shoal, a small group of rocky formations whose sovereignty is contested by the Philippines and China, in the South China Sea. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING/HONG KONG — From harassing Filipino fishing boats and monitoring oil exploration off Vietnam to playing cat-and-mouse with the Japanese coastguard, China’s expanding fleet of civilian patrol vessels have become the enforcers in disputed Asian waters. The ships of the recently unified Chinese coastguard are a fixture around the disputed islands and shoals of the South and East China Seas. While the ships don’t have the weaponry of military vessels, thus reducing the risk a confrontation could get out of control, they still represent a potent show of sovereignty. The coastguard is funded by China’s State Oceanic Administration, a civilian body, although one U.S. naval officer and security experts said it coordinates its operations with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). It includes the 200-strong China Marine Surveillance fleet and is seen as another example of how hard it is to get a true picture of China’s defense-related spending, the experts added. China said this week it would increase military spending by 12.2 percent to $131.5 billion in 2014 after a 10.7 percent hike last year. Much spending likely takes place outside the defense budget, however, and many experts estimate real outlays are close to $200 billion, second only to Washington. The U.S. Defense Department’s base budget for fiscal 2014 is $526.8 billion. Neither the budget for the marine surveillance fleet, which includes decommissioned warships, nor the overall coastguard is known. Premier Li Keqiang told the opening of China’s annual session of parliament on Wednesday that the government would enhance border, coastal and air defenses, but he gave no updates on the coastguard’s fleet expansions or operations. "The maritime surveillance force has been getting a number of new vessels for the last several years, reflecting growing resources and growing importance," said Dean Cheng of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington. "They are large … and can help intimidate potential opponents." The State Oceanic Administration and the Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Water Cannon and Grappling Hooks Tensions have grown across Asia as China has become increasingly assertive in pressing its claims to disputed territory. In the East China Sea, China and Japan are locked in a bitter row over a group of rocky islands administered by Tokyo. China also claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the sea, which sits above potentially rich oil and gas deposits. Beijing’s civilian fleets now routinely flank both sides of the South China Sea. At times they surround the Scarborough and Second Thomas shoals that China disputes with the Philippines, or patrol contested waters off southern Vietnam, close to oil exploration blocks leased out by Hanoi, according to regional naval officers and analysts. To be sure, China’s navy is active across the disputed areas, but is increasingly focused on operations beyond China’s near seas. China sent its sole aircraft carrier, the 60,000-tonne Liaoning, on its first training mission into the South China Sea late last year. China bought the Soviet-era ship from Ukraine in 1998 and re-fitted it in a Chinese shipyard. But the coastguard is at the sharp end in defending what China sees as its sovereign territory. Chinese media say its ships tend to be armed with water cannon and grappling hooks. In one of the most recent incidents, Manila protested against the use of water cannon on Filipino fishermen in disputed South China Sea waters on Jan. 27. China said it had every right to respond to "provocative" acts. "What we are seeing now is the PLA Navy moving into broader areas of ocean and fine-tuning their operational training, including combat, leaving the civilian fleets to concentrate on the most sensitive areas," one Asian naval officer said. "It is those fleets that represent the daily assertion of Chinese sovereignty in disputed areas – and we watch them like hawks as a result." Growing Fleet At the last annual parliament session a year ago, China merged four maritime agencies, including the China Marine Surveillance fleet, maritime police and fisheries enforcement vessels, into a unified coastguard under the State Oceanic Administration. The State Oceanic Administration, itself a relatively new body, is charged with administering China’s coastal waters and protecting its maritime rights, along with scientific research. A recent study by Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies, which conducts research for the Ministry of Defense, noted that little was known about the authority and organization of the State Oceanic Administration or its relationship with the PLA. In total, the coastguard has 370 vessels, according to figures released last month by the independent International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. The state-owned Global Times newspaper has said the China Marine Surveillance fleet alone had more than 200 vessels, nine marine surveillance planes and 8,400 personnel. It is expected to get 36 new patrol vessels by this summer, the official Xinhua news agency has reported. Many of the marine surveillance ships are old frigates decommissioned from the PLA Navy. In late 2012, Chinese media reported the navy transferred two destroyers to the fleet. Decommissioning usually removes a ship’s weapons. China is also building a 10,000-tonne maritime surveillance vessel, the world’s largest, the Beijing Times newspaper said last month. It did not say when the ship would enter service. Japan’s coastguard, the most technologically advanced in the region, has 389 vessels and 25 aircraft, according to IISS. Japanese officials say they are watching the increasing scope and reach of their Chinese counterparts with alarm. The State Oceanic Administration said last month it would base a 5,000-tonne ship on one of the main islands it controls in the Paracel chain of the South China Sea, which is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Indeed, the civilian vessels were playing the role of "antagonist" in the East and South China Seas, Captain James Fanell, director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told a maritime security conference in San Diego last month. "(They are) harassing China’s neighbors while PLA navy ships – their protectors – conduct port calls around the region promising friendship and cooperation," Fanell said in what Pentagon officials later said were his private views. "We have heard many senior PLA officers say the PLA navy and the Chinese coastguard efforts are not coordinated. This is simply not true. This campaign is being meticulously coordinated from Beijing." The post China’s Civilian Fleet a Potent Force in Asia’s Disputed Seas appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Three Times a Loser, Indonesia’s Megawati Is Pivotal in Elections Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:51 PM PST Joko Widodo, left, walks beside former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, center, and her late husband Taufik Kiemas at Megawati's house in Jakarta on Sept. 20, 2012. (Photo: Reuters / Supri) BLITAR, Indonesia — As Indonesia gears up for twin elections this year, the pivotal figure is a woman in her late sixties who has been trounced all three times that she has contested for president. Megawati Sukarnoputri dominates the opposition party that opinion polls show is likely to top the April 9 parliamentary election. She also has, if she chooses, the candidate whom polls show would sweep aside all other contenders in the presidential election three months later. But the 67-year-old daughter of the country's founding president is said to want the top job herself, although the chances of her winning it are slim. It's a dilemma that has brought uncertainty over who will lead Southeast Asia's largest economy and the nation with the world's biggest Muslim population when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono retires in October. Senior officials in Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) insisted they did not know what her final decision would be. "It ultimately comes down to her, no matter what anybody feels within the party," said one insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Whatever Ibu Mega decides, so goes the party," the source said, using her popular name. Megawati is famously enigmatic. When she filled in as the country's first woman president from 2001-2004, her term was criticized for indecisiveness. A decision on the PDI-P's presidential candidate is likely to be only after April's legislative election and could be taken as late as mid-May. Indonesia follows a presidential form of government, although power is shared with parliament. Only parties that win 25 percent of the vote or 20 percent of the 560 seats in the parliamentary poll will be permitted to name candidates for the July presidential election. PDI-P and perhaps just one or two other parties are likely to qualify. If the public had a say in the nomination, it would be for Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, a member of PDI-P who is currently the popular governor of the capital Jakarta. The frontrunner in opinion polls by a wide margin, he is widely seen as representing change in the world's third-largest democracy: a young, clean and competent operator in a system dominated by an ageing, often corrupt elite. But first, he will have to win the endorsement of his party chief. Loyal Base As the scion of Indonesia's charismatic founding father Sukarno, Megawati has headed a loyal and growing base of supporters through a decade in opposition. She has never actually won a presidential election. But she was vice president in 2001 when parliament ousted Abdurrahman Wahid, the man elected president by the legislature in 1999, and installed her in his place. She remained in office for three years. She then lost Indonesia's first direct presidential election to Yudhoyono in 2004, and again to him in 2009. Megawati grew up in the Istana Merdeka presidential palace in Jakarta during her father's long rule and dropped out of university to be with him after his fall from grace in 1965. As strongman Suharto took power, the Sukarno family was pushed to the margins of political and social life. Sukarno died in 1970. Megawati became a symbol of opposition in the over three decades Suharto was in power and went on to win a following in Indonesia's political turbulence of the late 1990s. She formed the current PDI-P soon after Suharto was forced to step down in 1998. But she was never able to reproduce her father's popularity, and analysts say that if she does still dream of winning the presidency and creating an enduring Sukarno family legacy, this will be her last chance. "She has a legacy to live up to and there's a part of her that thinks she belongs back in that presidential palace," said Douglas Ramage, political analyst at Bower Group Asia consultancy. However, opinion polls suggest she would struggle to beat off likely challengers from other parties: tycoon Aburizal Bakrie and Prabowo Subianto, an ex-general with a dark human rights record. At the rank and file level of the party, however, Megawati enjoys the support of thousands of self-proclaimed loyalists who believe that the ability to lead the country runs in her blood. "As a Javanese I believe in natural and mystical forces and so I believe the spirit of Bung Karno still protects our nation," said 40-year-old Dewi Kriswindari, using Sukarno's nickname amidst a murmur of prayer by his grave in Blitar in East Java province, one of the party's traditional strongholds. "I'm not very political, but Megawati is his daughter and I believe she can guide Indonesia as a leader." Party insiders say Megawati and the party's ageing senior leadership take this legacy very seriously—not least because they could lose influence if she goes. The death last year of Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas, whom she recently called her "sparring partner," meant perhaps the only other prominent and counterbalancing voice in the party is gone, giving her supporters ample room to urge Megawati to run for president again. Nevertheless, a growing chorus of voices within the party has called on her to instead take on the role of "Mother of the Nation" to echo her father's legacy and, considering her consistently low popularity ratings, let Jokowi run for the presidency. "The people want a new figure, and that's Jokowi," said Ali Husein, a PDI-P legislative candidate from Bangka Belitung province who co-chairs a group promoting the Jakarta governor's candidacy. "I don't think the PDI-P would be stupid enough for Mega to be the candidate." In a recent live television interview, she walked out on stage to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" and sat silently or gave typically vague answers as Jokowi watched from the audience. When asked the inevitable question about the candidacy, Megawati's answer was ambivalent. "Leaders of the party don't have to be directly related to Sukarno," she said, "But I tell them to remember that there are still many loyal followers of Bung Karno." Additional reporting by Jakarta bureau. The post Three Times a Loser, Indonesia's Megawati Is Pivotal in Elections appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Arakanese MPs Oppose Census Classification for Rohingya Posted: 05 Mar 2014 04:55 AM PST The questionnaire used during the Population and Housing Pilot Census in 2013. (Photo: Pyay Kyaw Myint / UNFPA) RANGOON — Arakanese members of Parliament said they have complained to the Minister of Immigration and Population Khin Ye over the fact that the upcoming nationwide census will allow stateless Rohingya to register their ethnic identity as they wish, in accordance with international standards. Four MPs of the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) told The Irrawaddy that they met with Khin Ye on Tuesday to express their anger over the classification option offered to the Muslim population in northern Arakan State. "We told him at the meeting that there will be a problem when using the Rohingya name in the census list," said MP Pe Than. "But he told us that according to international standards for a census, his government does not have the right to change it. If he did, there will be a problem with the international community." The census will start at the end of March and requires respondents to select their ethnicity and religion. They can choose an ethnicity from a classification list of 135 minorities drawn up in the 1982 Citizenship Law by the then-military government. The law omitted the Rohingya from the list and set them apart as a group without citizenship called "Bengalis," to suggest most are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. Rohingya Muslims claim nonetheless that they have lived in northern Arakan State for generations. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which is assisting the Burmese government with the census, has said that respondents who do not identify with one of the 135 ethnicities can describe themselves as "other" and orally report their desired ethnic affiliations to the enumerator. These responses would later be sub-coded during data processing. This option would allow Rohingya to register their ethnic identity as they wish. RNDP MPs said they were puzzled by the international standards for collecting census data as these seemed to contradict the government position that there is no Rohingya group in Burma. "The government is officially saying there are no Rohingya, so how can there be a name of Rohingya on the census list?" Pe Than said, adding that the minister replied that census classification and official government policy "are two different issues—this problem will be solved later." Pe Than said Arakanese nationalist leaders threatened to hold protests against the census operations if the classification of Rohingya is allowed, adding, "We don't have a problem with the [census classification] name Bengali. [But] our party and our people will not be satisfied with this and for us, this will be a historic mistake for our country." Burma's first nationwide census is due to get underway soon, but has caused controversy among different ethnic groups as many feel that the ethnic classifications drawn up by the government and the UNFPA are inaccurate. International observers, such as the International Crisis Group, have warned that the inclusion of questions on sensitive issues of ethnicity and religion risk inflaming ethnic armed conflict and lingering tensions between Buddhists and Muslims, in particular in Arakan State. Government data from 2010 put Arakan State's population at about 3.34 million people, of which the Muslim population accounts for 29 percent. In recent years, the Burmese government has made several attempts to survey the Muslim population in Arakan State, but Muslims have refused to cooperate because the option to identify as Rohingya was not offered. Muslims in Arakan State and international human rights advocates have repeatedly requested that Burma recognize the Rohingya, but the government has continued to adhere to the 1982 Citizenship Law. Many local Arakanese Buddhists worry that government recognition of the Rohingya population would precede an eventual shift in demographics in Arakan State, and with that a loss of political power and cultural identity. There is also a deep rooted fear that the 150-million strong Muslim population of neighboring Bangladesh is eager to settle in the sparsely populated state. During two outbreaks of inter-communal violence in 2012, nearly 200 people were killed and about 140,000 displaced, most of them Muslims. Most of the displaced continue to reside in squalid, crowded camps. In the aftermath of the 2012 violence, President Thein Sein said Burma would not accept Rohingya as citizens and has asked the United Nations to help to resettle them in any other country willing to take them in. In recent months, nationalist Arakanese have held recurrent protests against the presence of Médicins Sans Frontières Holland, who they accused of favoring the Rohingya. Last week, the government suspended work of the medical aid group in the state, ending its vital support for both Rohingya and Arakanese in need. The post Arakanese MPs Oppose Census Classification for Rohingya appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Parliament Approves ‘Parallel’ Media Laws Posted: 05 Mar 2014 04:15 AM PST The relaxation of restrictions on media has seen a boom in new daily and weekly newspapers available at Burma's newsstands. (Photo: Reuters) Burma's Parliament on Tuesday formally approved two laws to govern the country's media, which lawmakers said would extend press freedom despite leaving media licensing in the hands of the Ministry of Information (MoI). The journalist-drafted Press Law and the ministry's own Printer's and Publishers Registration Bill—both submitted the Parliament a year ago—will both now become law within the next two weeks. The easing of restrictions on publications and the scrapping of the country's notorious censorship board in 2012 have been among the most visible examples of reforms undertaken by the quasi-civilian government of President Thein Sein, which took power in March 2011. But media freedom advocates have warned that recent moves by the government threaten those gains, which they say must be enshrined in law. The state-owned New Light of Myanmar said that the Union Parliament approved both laws Tuesday, but noted that the laws had "raised disputes" between the Upper and Lower Houses. Parliament delayed passing the publishing law in January to take more time to discuss it. But it is thought that the publishing law still gives the Ministry of Information the power to withhold or revoke publishing licenses unilaterally. Opponents say this clause leaves the government still in ultimate control over what information is published in Burma. But Thein Nyunt, a Lower House lawmaker from the New National Democracy Party, told The Irrawaddy that the new laws were an improvement on previous restrictive legislation. "Both laws reflect the democratic principle, which is to enhance the freedom of the press," he said. He stressed that the Printers and Publishers Registration Law removed the legal threat of imprisonment from journalists, and said media could now get help from the courts if the Ministry of Information denies them a license to publish. "Journalists or publishers now can seek justice from the court if they are forced to quit, unlike in the past," he said. Thein Nyunt, who submitted the Press Law to Parliament on behalf of Burma's Interim Press Council last year, said that although changes had been made to the draft, its "essence" had been preserved. Zaw Thet Htwe, a member of the Interim Press Council, said the ministry-drafted law—which was submitted without consultation at the same time as the council's draft—was intended to keep government in control of the media. “The MoI still has power to withdraw the publication licenses," he said, adding that the ministry's actions meant there were now, unnecessarily, two "parallel" laws on the press. "MoI drafted this bill to control the media, not because they care about [press freedom]," he added. However, he said, lawmakers had accepted the demand that "The press council must be the sole and independent organization for journalists and the members of the council are to be recognized as public servants." He said the Interim Press Council had worked with lawmakers and the Ministry of Information to reach compromises on the law. "We had negotiations on some sections, and the Parliament approved about 70 percent of our demands [in Press Law]," Zaw Thet Htwe, he said, adding that the Lower House appeared to be in favor of the council's recommendations, but the Upper House has sought to block measures aimed at freeing up the media. The post Burma's Parliament Approves 'Parallel' Media Laws appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

FDI in Timber Processing Tops $51Mln, India Biggest Investor Posted: 05 Mar 2014 04:10 AM PST Logs are piled up at Thilawa Port in 2013 awaiting shipment abroad. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Foreign investment in Burma's timber industry reached US $51 million last year and India was the biggest investor with six investment projects representing about half of all investments, government figures show. According to statistics from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, which is under the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, eight timber-processing licenses were granted to foreign firms in the fiscal year 2013-2014, out of which India had acquired five, Singapore two and Korea one. The figures indicate that the timber processing attracted a total of $51 million in foreign investment last year, with India investing $26.04 million, while Singapore and South Korea invested $24.26 million and $0.93 million, respectively. Minister of Environmental Conservation and Forestry Win Htun said that Burma's upcoming log export ban had prompted an increase in foreign investment in timber processing. "We usually exported wood to India as logs before, but not anymore. So, businessmen there have no other choice but to come and do business inside our country," he told The Irrawaddy. Burma is one of the last countries in the world that still allows for the export of unprocessed logs, and raw timber makes up the majority of its wood export. As a result, the country has failed to build up a wood-processing industry that can add value to the vast quantity of timber that Burma produces. In an effort to reduce deforestation and the outflow of unprocessed timber, the government has banned the export of raw logs by April 1 this year and only sawn wood is allowed to be exported. India, China and Thailand are the biggest importers of Burmese timber, which is estimated to have a total worth of more than $1 billion per year, according to US-based research group Forest Trends, which estimates that about half of all timber is exported to India. Burma's timber industry has long been dogged by unsustainable practices and corruption, and is largely controlled by tycoons with connections to the former military regime. The unregulated cross-border timber trade to southern China passes through conflict-torn northern Burma and is being taxed by ethnic insurgent groups and Burma Army units. Consequently, Burma has suffered from high rates of deforestation, while a recent increase in agro-industry investment—such as rubber and palm oil plantations—is driving further forest losses, Forest Trends has warned. Last year, the European Union lifted trade restrictions on Burma, but the country would need to reform its timber sector in order to gain access to the EU export market. Burma's government has shown an interest in such reforms and is in discussions with the EU about the joint implementation of a Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan. The Myanmar Timber Association, a government body in charge of regulating the timber industry, has said that an increase in trade in high-quality timber with the EU would be a boon for Burma's timber industry. The post FDI in Timber Processing Tops $51Mln, India Biggest Investor appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Plan to Shed Light on Burma’s Secretive Companies Posted: 05 Mar 2014 04:05 AM PST A bank and office buildings are seen in downtown Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burmese companies that fail to make information about their operations publicly available could soon be named and shamed under a new initiative. While many overseas investors in Burma are subject to reporting requirements enforced by their home countries or by stock exchanges on which they are listed, locally owned firms are notoriously opaque. But the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business (MCRB), an organization set up with Western donor funding to promote good practice in commerce, is planning to launch an index later this year that it hopes will change that. The center's director, Vicky Bowman, explained the initiative—known as Transparency in Myanmar Enterprises, or TIME—during a seminar on responsible business hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Rangoon on Tuesday. Bowman said the MCRB would survey what information the 50 largest companies in the country put online, and publish the results after inviting companies to improve their transparency. "What do they reveal about themselves in terms of ownership, in terms of the structure of their group, their subsidiaries, in terms of what they have in the way of anti-bribery policies and other forms of business integrity approaches?" she said, describing the focus of the survey.  "Also what they say about human rights policies, their human rights risk, particularly around land." Bowman, a former British Ambassador to Burma, said the results of the survey would be ready in July, and that the process would be replicated annually to encourage companies to be more open about their businesses. "We're currently finding the 50 companies and their contact details, which is not as easy as it should be," she said, adding that the government-published list of 100 top taxpayers in the country was being used as a starting point to identify which companies should be included in the survey. The lack of information made available by Burmese firms can be an impediment to overseas companies looking for local partners, especially given the risks associated with Burma's history of human rights abuses. Some businessmen with close ties to the former military government remain on the US Treasury's list of sanctioned individuals. US companies investing in Burma also must file reports with the US Embassy in Rangoon that outline the due diligence they have conducted, including in relation to human rights, labor rights, corruption and the environment. Bowman said the results of the survey would be a useful indicator of how seriously a company takes transparency. "If I were looking for a partner and it didn't have a website, that would be a straight cross on the list as far as I'm concerned," she said. Some of the biggest companies operating in Burma have a limited online presence. The major construction firm Asia World and the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings do not appear to have websites and Htoo Group, owned by tycoon Tay Za, has a website that is currently "under construction." However, other large companies—Kanbawza Bank, Zaw Zaw's Max Myanmar Group and CB Bank, for example—have websites displaying contact details and other company information. The post Plan to Shed Light on Burma's Secretive Companies appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Govt Accused of Excluding Education Network From Reform Talks Posted: 05 Mar 2014 03:58 AM PST A teacher works with her students at a private school in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Burma's Ministry of Education is facing criticism again for allegedly excluding a prominent civil society network from the education reform process. The National Network for Education Reform (NNER), a civil society network that includes the education bloc of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, says the government canceled an invitation for its members to attend an education forum in Naypyidaw that started Wednesday. Thein Lwin, a spokesman for the NLD education bloc, said 150 members of the NNER had been invited to attend the National Practical Education Reform Forum, where Vice President Sai Mauk Kham gave an opening address on Wednesday morning. Government officials, lawmakers and other participants are expected to discuss education sector plans during the forum, amid a push to overhaul the public school system during the country's transition from military rule. Speaking at a press conference in Rangoon on Tuesday, Thein Lwin said a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Education informed the NNER on Monday night that their invitation to the forum had been canceled, without providing a reason for the decision. "We had already prepared to go, and they canceled," he told The Irrawaddy. "It is difficult to work together with the government because this is not the first time they have changed their minds. It's difficult to believe them, to trust them." Speaking later on Wednesday, he added that NLD chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the parliamentary committee focused on higher education, was not attending the forum. Sai Khaing Myo Tun, an NNER member and secretary of the University of Rangoon's Teachers' Union, said the invitation was initially offered and subsequently canceled by Dr. Myo Thein Gyi, director-general of the Department of Basic Education. He said participants at the forum would likely discuss two proposals for a new national education law—one drafted by the Ministry of Education, and the other drafted by lawmakers. The ministry's draft law is expected to go before Parliament this month. "There is little input from civil society in both drafts," Sai Khaing Myo Tun said, adding that although government education officials had attempted over the past few months to collaborate more with civil society, the overall reform effort was too unilateral. "In their latest action, they have denied us participation. We don't think their process is inclusive enough." The NNER is a diverse network that also includes the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, members of teachers' unions, Buddhists monks and ethnic education groups. The network formed in 2012 and has since held seminars across the country to discuss education reform. In June last year it organized a national conference attended by 1,200 participants. After that, it sent a report with recommendations to Parliament and the government. The Ministry of Education is currently undergoing a two-year review of the public school system that will identify major priorities for reform and put forward recommendations for new policy. Officials with the Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR) say they are collaborating with a range of stakeholders, from international NGOs to community-based organizations, but they have faced criticism from some teachers and ethnic education groups for not being inclusive enough. Myo Thein Gyi of the Basic Education Department did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday regarding the allegations that he had canceled the NNER's invitation to the forum in Naypyidaw. A spokesperson for the CESR also declined to comment while attempting to confirm the status of the invitation. Burma's education system was largely underfunded by the former military regime, but also tightly controlled, as students were known to lead anti-government protests. During the current reform process, civil society groups are calling for autonomy for universities, as well as higher pay for teachers and the freedom to incorporate lessons about ethnic minority histories in the school curricula. Another area of contention is the language of instruction, with ethnic groups demanding the right of teachers to instruct their students in ethnic minority languages, rather than in Burmese. The post Burma's Govt Accused of Excluding Education Network From Reform Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

‘This Is a Human Industry, a Service Industry’ Posted: 05 Mar 2014 12:46 AM PST Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung at a conference on hospitality and tourism in Rangoon. (Photo: Kyaw Hsu Mon / The Irrawaddy) There are high hopes for Burma's tourism industry, and—with a doubling in foreign arrivals over the last two years—rightfully so. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism expects tourist arrivals to reach 3 million in 2014 and has set an ambitious target to increase that figure to 7 million by 2020. With the industry's prospects never brighter, The Irrawaddy recently spoke with Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung following a tourism conference held in Rangoon, where the minister discussed future plans for the sector, challenges to their implementation, and what role foreign companies might play in the industry. Question: Which countries are interested in investing in Burma's growing tourism industry? Answer: There are many foreign companies that are speaking with us about investing here, and we expect that more companies will be here soon. Recently, the [US company] Hilton Hotels Group started working with Centrepoint Towers, [France-based] Accor is working with Max Myanmar Company now. [US-based] Best Western is working with the Green Hill Hotel. So many foreign companies are interested to invest here. Q: Homestays remain illegal in Burma. Is this something your ministry is considering changing? A: Homestays are only allowed in remote places far from urban areas. We have to allow homestays in those areas. For example, Putao in Kachin State, and other trekking areas. Visitors can negotiate with local authorities if they have to stay in local homes. Q: Do you have a prediction for international tourist arrivals in Burma for next year? A: We predict that [arrivals] will reach more than 4 million in 2015. Myanmar has the potential to receive many more foreign visitors soon because our country is not a landlocked country—we have more than 1,300 miles of coastline. We have a lot of tourist destinations in Myanmar. The main thing is we need tourists to stay for longer periods and to visit many destinations. And also we have to try to get them to spend more money. This will benefit the country. Q: How does your ministry plan to help raise the quality and standards of the domestic industry? A: This is a human industry, a service industry. Human resources development is quite important. We're training within the ministry, and also encouraging tourism [hospitality] schools. Some of them are working with foreign groups to provide better services. We have an Asean standard policy for them. We have an Asean standard curriculum for the schools, and we're encouraging them to catch up to that standard. There are a lot of foreign institutions and donor countries to help this sector develop. We have a tourism master plan. We're working to raise the standard by encouraging local groups not only in urban areas, but also in remote destinations. We will increase those activities in such areas beginning this year in April. Q: What are the emerging tourist destinations in Burma? A: Most tourists have gone to Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay and Ngapali beach in Arakan State in recent years. Now tourism is expanding to Chaung Tha and Ngwe Saung beaches [in Irrawaddy Division], Sittwe and Mrauk-U [in Arakan State], and Nat Ma Taung in Chin State. At the moment, we're trying to expand to destinations in northern Myanmar, like Putao, [Kachin State], and in the southern part of Myanmar, the Mergui Archipelago. These are developing. Q: How much revenue did the country take in from the hotels and tourism sector last year? A: Nationally, we earned US$940 million from 2.04 million visitors. Of that amount, 12 percent was earned by [enterprises that fall under] ministerial departments. We expect that revenue will reach more than $1 billion this year. The post 'This Is a Human Industry, a Service Industry' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Rights Group: Thai Fishing Sector Abuses Burmese Migrants Posted: 04 Mar 2014 10:29 PM PST A Thai employer, left, monitors migrant workers from Burma working on his fishing boat at a port in the town of Mahachai near Bangkok on March 11, 2010. (Photo: Reuters / Damir Sagolj) BANGKOK — An environmental and human rights group charged Tuesday that Thailand is not adequately addressing severe abuse against Burmese migrant workers in the Thai fishing industry. The British-based Environmental Justice Foundation said in its report that the Thai government has failed to act strongly against human trafficking and that violence is routine in the industry. "Endemic corruption, poor enforcement, inadequate victim support, unacceptable working conditions and deficient migration policy" have not been tackled by Thai authorities, the group said. Thai Labor Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary Boontharik Samiti said the government is making a serious effort to protect workers in the fishing industry. "Right now, we are aiming to reduce and eradicate human trafficking. For fisheries, all agencies have collectively come together in an effort to prevent this problem in a sustainable and long-term fashion," he told The Associated Press in an interview by phone from Songkhla, a southern seaboard province. The foundation suggested the United States consider imposing economic sanctions on Thailand, the world's third-biggest seafood exporter after China and Norway. Thailand's fishing industry is staffed predominantly by migrants from much poorer neighboring countries, including Cambodia and especially Burma. Often the workers have come to Thailand illegally with the help of human traffickers, leaving them little legal protection and large debts to be paid out of their wages. Very few have any sort of contract. "Depending on the amount paid, a trafficked fisherman could often work from one to eight months before earning any wages for himself," noted a 2011 report by the International Organization for Migration, adding that some may work without pay for years on boats that are serviced by supply ships and rarely return to port. "Migrant workers in the Thai fishing industry, many of them trafficked illegally, are suffering terrible abuses and all too often are denied their basic human rights," Steve Trent, executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said in a news release. "These people are Thailand's 'seafood slaves' forced to work to prop up the cash-rich fisheries industry," it said, urging governments and the industry to act to stop abuse. Trent said unsound environmental practices worsen the problem; overfishing has led to declining catches, so operators use the cheapest labor and keep workers at sea longer to make the catch. The organization says its findings would justify the US State Department downgrading Thailand to the lowest ranking in its annual human trafficking report, a step that would subject it to certain sanctions. Thailand has been on a watch list for four years for planning reforms but failing to implement them. The US report will be issued later this year. According to the group, the value of seafood imported by the United States from Thailand exceeded US$1.6 billion in 2013. The post Rights Group: Thai Fishing Sector Abuses Burmese Migrants appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China’s Xi Ramps Up Military Spending in Face of Worried Region Posted: 04 Mar 2014 09:46 PM PST China's President Xi Jinping (center row L), Premier Li Keqiang (center row R) and other delegates sing the national anthem during the opening ceremony of National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, March 5, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING/HONG KONG — China announced its biggest rise in military spending in three years on Wednesday, a strong signal from President Xi Jinping that Beijing is not about to back away from its growing assertiveness in Asia, especially in disputed waters. The government said it would increase the defense budget by 12.2 percent this year to 808.23 billion yuan (US$131.57 billion), partly to develop more high-tech weapons and to beef up coastal and air defenses. The increase follows a nearly unbroken run of double-digit hikes in the Chinese defense budget, second only to the United States in size, for the past two decades. "This is worrying news for China's neighbors, particularly for Japan," said Rory Medcalf, a regional security analyst at the independent Lowy Institute in Sydney. Those who thought Xi might prefer to concentrate on domestic development over military expansion in a slowing economy had "underestimated the Chinese determination to shape its strategic environment," he added. China and Japan are increasingly locking horns over uninhabited rocky islands each claims in the East China Sea. Beijing also claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim parts of those waters. The 2014 defense budget is the first for Xi since he became president. The spending increase is the biggest since a 12.7 percent jump in 2011. Speaking at the opening of China's annual session of parliament, Premier Li Keqiang said the government would "strengthen research on national defense and the development of new- and high-technology weapons and equipment" and "enhance border, coastal and air defenses." "We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernize them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age," Li told the largely rubber-stamp National People's Congress. He gave no details. China's military spending has allowed Beijing to create a modern force that is projecting power not only across the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas, but further into the western Pacific and Indian Oceans. Much military spending likely takes place outside the budget, however, and many experts estimate real outlays are closer to $200 billion. The US Defense Department's base budget for fiscal 2014 is $526.8 billion. Regional Nerves The budget spike comes as Asia reacts nervously to a string of recent moves by China to assert its sovereignty in disputed territory, expand its military reach and challenge the traditional dominance of US forces in the region. Chinese fighters and surveillance planes now routinely patrol a controversial new air defense identification zone that covers disputed Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea. Meanwhile, Beijing's sole aircraft carrier went on its first exercises in the South China Sea late last year. At a time when Washington has stepped up its military presence in the region as part of a strategic "pivot" toward Asia, China is building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air. Toshi Nakayama, a security expert at the Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, said Tokyo saw a stronger Chinese military as a worry "but a more capable submarine force would be a particular threat." Nevertheless, experts say it could be decades before China's military is a match for America's armed forces. David Helvey, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a US Senate committee hearing on Tuesday that the Pentagon was seeking to build "healthy" ties with China's military, but said Beijing needed to be more open about its armed forces buildup. "We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China's growing military and its increasingly assertive behavior in the maritime domain," Helvey said. China has repeatedly said the world has nothing to fear from its military spending, which it says is needed for legitimate defensive purposes. Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for the parliamentary session, reiterated that policy on Tuesday, saying China was seeking peace through "strength." China would "respond effectively" to provocations by those ready to sabotage regional security and order, she said. The United States last month said it was concerned that China's maritime claims in the South China Sea were an effort to gain creeping control of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region. The post China's Xi Ramps Up Military Spending in Face of Worried Region appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US Calls for ‘Urgent’ Restraint to Ease Japan, South Korea Tensions Posted: 04 Mar 2014 09:38 PM PST A protester from an anti-Japanese civic group chants slogans during an anti-Japan rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on March 1, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Kim Hong-Ji) WASHINGTON — The United States appealed to Japan and South Korea on Tuesday to work urgently to reduce the tensions between them, saying its two main allies in Asia could not afford to let their troubled history interfere with ensuring regional security. "There is an urgent need to show prudence and restraint in dealing with difficult historical issues. It is important to handle them in a way that promotes healing," Washington's top diplomat for the East Asian region, Daniel Russel, said in prepared testimony for a US Senate hearing. Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said strategic cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea was essential for future security in Northeast Asia, given the threat posed by North Korea and other "regional uncertainties," a reference to concerns about an increasingly assertive China. "No one can afford to allow the burdens of history to prevent us from building a secure future," Russel said. Russel's testimony came a day after nationalist politicians in Japan urged Tokyo to revise a 1993 apology over Asian women forced to serve in wartime brothels, saying accounts that tens of thousands of women were forcibly recruited were a "total lie." Any revision to the landmark apology made by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono would incense China and South Korea, from where most of the "comfort women" were drawn. Both accuse Japan of failing to atone fully for aggression before and during World War II. Russel told the Senate hearing it was a diplomatic priority for the United States that tensions between the two Asian neighbors be reduced—and quickly. "Both Japan and the Republic of Korea need to make respective efforts to help create a more conducive and positive climate," he said. Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the East Asia subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at which Russel spoke, said the issue needed to be given very high priority, not least because China seemed to be attempting to take advantage. "One of my concerns is that it looks like China is trying to increase the wedge between Japan and the Republic of Korea and to establish a closer relationship with the Republic of Korea to the detriment of Japan," he said. Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute think tank told the hearing that relations between Tokyo and Seoul were now so bad they barely spoke to each other and they appeared to be getting worse, to the detriment of the security alliance. "Washington should be doing much more behind closed doors to make clear that our patience is not infinite, and that we cannot be as effective as we want to be if we cannot work in a trilateral fashion with our most important allies in Asia." Tokyo's ties with Seoul have been frayed by a territorial row over small islands and the legacy of Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean peninsula—including the question of compensation and an apology to the comfort women. The Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to bolster the military and be less apologetic about the past. It has said it will set up a team to review the testimony of South Korean comfort women, but officials have been careful to avoid any mention of revising or watering down the apology. The 1993 apology recognized the involvement of military authorities in the brothel system and apologized for the women's suffering. It was based in part on the testimony of 16 South Korean women, their identities kept anonymous in line with a Japanese government pledge. On Saturday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye urged Japan to stop denying the past "and write a new history of truth and reconciliation so that we can walk together towards cooperation, peace and co-prosperity." The post US Calls for 'Urgent' Restraint to Ease Japan, South Korea Tensions appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Fighting in North Burma Could Derail Peace Process: Ethnic Leader Posted: 04 Mar 2014 06:14 AM PST Khun Okkar, the joint-secretary of United Nationalities Federal Council, talks to reporters in Rangoon on Tuesday. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — A senior ethnic leader involved in nationwide ceasefire talks with the government warned on Tuesday that a recent increase in fighting between the military and ethnic armed groups in northern Burma could derail the ongoing peace process. Khun Okkar, the joint-secretary of United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of 12 ethnic armed groups, said on Tuesday that the fighting could cause internal conflict to flare up again and ceasefire gains made in the past two years could be undone. "I am worried that Burma is going to have civil war again, like in 1980, which will spread through the whole country," he said during a press conference in Rangoon held at the end of the two-day Civil Society Forum for Peace. "Even though we are trying to negotiate for a nationwide peace agreement… there is ongoing fighting with the Palaung [armed group], there is also fighting sometimes with the SSA-North and the Kachin [group]," Khun Okkar said. President Thein Sein's reformist government has signed ceasefire agreements with 14 armed groups in the past two years and has been keen to sign a nationwide ceasefire with these ethnic rebel groups. The rebels met with the government peace negotiation of Minister Aung Min in Myitkyina, Kachin State, in November and planned to hold another conference in Hpa-an, Karen State, in January, but progress on the next round of nationwide ceasefire talks has stalled. Khun Okkar said government officials and ethnic rebel leaders would now hold preliminary talks on March 9-10 in order to smooth some differences and set up the next nationwide ceasefire conference in Hpa-an. The signing of a nationwide ceasefire would have to be followed by political dialogue over the demands of the ethnic groups who are seeking political autonomy for their regions. Khun Okkar voiced concern, however, over the fighting in northern Burma and questioned whether all government officials and leaders of the Burma Army are willing to sign a nationwide ceasefire. "I found there is problem within the government, where some people did not want to recognize a nationwide peace agreement ….they could not fight anymore with ethnic armed groups and they have to stop all military operations," he said. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) are two groups that have not signed a ceasefire with the government. The groups have sporadically clashed with the Burma Army in the past year, but in recent weeks government troops have reportedly launched a number of attacks, killing rebel soldiers and seizing several rebel defense posts in northern Shan and Kachin states. The Shan State Army-North has also come under attack in the area, despite having signed a ceasefire with Naypyidaw in January 2012. The group said it lost two strategically important camps to Burma Army attacks last week. The post Fighting in North Burma Could Derail Peace Process: Ethnic Leader appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Army Increases Attacks in North Burma, Seizes 2 Shan Rebel Camps Posted: 04 Mar 2014 04:19 AM PST SSA-North rebel soldiers take a break in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State, in mid-June. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy) The Burma Army captured two strategically important outposts of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) following a two-day offensive last week, according to Shan ethnic rebels. Palaung and Kachin armed groups, meanwhile, are also reporting an increase in military operations in northern Burma in recent weeks. SSA-North Col. Parng Hpa said government troops attacked two rebel camps located in SSA-North territories in Kyethi (Kesi) and Mongshu townships. On the night of Feb. 28, Shan rebels were forced to withdraw from their camp in Kyethi, located about 16 km away from the SSA-North headquarters at Wan Hai, after two consecutive days of bombardments and attacks, Parng Hpa said. He added that while the camp in Kyethi was under fire, three government battalions took control of another SSA-North camp in Mongshu Township, which the group has been using as a hub to transport mining products from areas under its control. "These two places are militarily and economically important to us," Parng Hpa told The Irrawaddy on Monday. "They [the government troops] can pose a military threat to our Wan Hai headquarters since they've seized those camps." The Wan Hai area in Kyethi and Mongshu townships is located at a strategically important junction connecting northern and southern Shan State. "Such kinds of acts would hinder the trust-building process between the government and us, for peace," Parng Hpa said of the attacks. The SSA-North and government signed a ceasefire in January 2012. However, fighting has continued, with the SSA-North claiming that it has engaged in more than 100 clashes since the ceasefire was signed, while the rebels lost five camps to government troops. The recent seizure of two SSA camps reportedly coincided with the arrival of Sao Khun Hsai, the general secretary of Shan State Progress Party, the political wing of SSA-North, in Naypyidaw to join discussions about the nationwide census organized by the Department of Immigration and Population. There is widespread concern among ethnic armed groups and NGOs over the census, which will start this month, with many opposing the categorization of the country's ethnic minorities by the government and the UNFPA. The SSA-North area under attack is located west of the Salween River, while the allied United Wa State Army (UWSA) is based on the opposing river bank, according to another Shan rebel source, who said the government offensive also served to put pressure on the Wa. In March 2011, the Burma Army launched a large-scale military offensive in the area displacing more than 30,000 civilians. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) also have forces in northern Shan State. The TNLA, which represents the Palaung ethnic population, said on Tuesday that it experienced a sharp increase in Burma Army attacks since last month. TNLA general secretary Mai Phone Kyaw said there were about 20 clashes in Kyauk Mae and Manton townships in February, adding that this month TNLA fighters had fought with the army two times. He said the 77th Light Infantry Division had been deployed during the operations, adding that the unit had been active in attacks in northern Shan State in the past. Both the KIA and TNLA have not yet reached ceasefire agreements with the government despite several rounds of talks last year. Kachinland News reported that the 77th Light Infantry Division on Sunday conquered a KIA post called Loi Hkam Bum, located in Namtu Township, northern Shan State. The KIA has said the Burma Army seized a number of rebel posts since last month, including a deadly attack on a rebel platoon stationed in Kachin State's Bhamo Township about an hour's drive from Laiza, a town on the Burma-China border where the KIA is headquartered. In recent months, the Burma Army also carried out operations in KIA territory in Mansi Township, southern Kachin State. The increase in Burma Army operations in Kachin and northern Shan states risks undermining planned nationwide ceasefire talks between the government and ethnic groups. President Thein Sein's government is eager to sign a joint nationwide ceasefire agreement with the groups in order to show the international community that his government is making progress in resolving Burma's decades-old ethnic conflicts. The government has signed ceasefire agreements with 14 armed groups since 2012. Mai Phone Kyaw of the TNLA said the increase in Burma Army attacks in northern Shan State casts doubt on the government's peace initiative, adding that in the past the Burma Army signed ceasefire agreements with some ethnic groups to be able to attack others. "Our ethnic armed groups have to be careful about why they are attacking us now. They did these similar things in the past," he said, adding that he also doubted whether Thein Sein had full command over the military. "President Thein Sein should maintain control of his troops if he wants to have a nationwide ceasefire agreement in the country," Mai Phone Kyaw said. The post Army Increases Attacks in North Burma, Seizes 2 Shan Rebel Camps appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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