The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Aid Group at Center of Sittwe Riots Cannot Return to Arakan: Official
- Kachin Won’t Suffer From Missing Out on Census: KIO
- Mandalay Journalists Decry ‘Dark Age’ Tactics Against Press
- Ethnic Leaders, Govt Peace Team to Meet on Merging Ceasefire Texts
- Burma Bans Foreign Fishing Boats From Its Waters
- Win Tin Still in Critical Condition, Supporters Pray for Recovery
- The Military Ties That Bind
- Malaysia PM Visits Search Base for Missing Jet; Sub Joins Hunt
- Pyongyang Opens Marathon to Tourist-Runners
- Sheer Size Is Just One Complexity in Indian Election
| Aid Group at Center of Sittwe Riots Cannot Return to Arakan: Official Posted: 03 Apr 2014 05:57 AM PDT  A family stand at the entrance of their temporary shelter as the government embarks on a national census at a Rohingya refugee camp near Sittwe. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Arakan State authorities will not let Malteser International return to the region to resume aid operations, a state official said, after the rumored improper handling of a Buddhist flag by a Malteser employee sparked attacks on United Nations and international NGO offices last week. The riots by Arakanese Buddhist mobs damaged offices, storage facilities and transport vehicles, and forced more than 170 aid workers, local and foreign, to flee the state capital Sittwe, bringing aid operations that provided vital support for more than 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya, to an end. Arakan State spokesman Win Myaing told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that aid groups "could come back here to work if they still have a MOU agreement period." He added, "But, for Malteser International, we will not let them come back or give them an extension of the MOU because the local people have protested against them for some time." Win Myaing hung up on a reporter when asked to further clarify the reasons for the decision. On Wednesday, he told BBC Burmese radio service that local Arakanese Buddhists had protested against Malteser International and Médicine Sans Frontièrs (MSF) Holland before, out of anger over the groups' aid support for the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Arakan. Burma's government suspended MSF operations in February in response to recurrent local protests and out of anger over statements MSF made over the alleged killings of scores of Rohingya by government forces. "Local people have asked our government not to give further extension of their [Malteser] MOU during a previous protest in front of their office. We met them to solve tensions with the locals. This time they take down the flag, which is another problem. [So] we will not let them come back," he told the BBC. An employee of Malteser International removed a Buddhist flag from a building that the organization was renting in Sittwe. Shortly afterwards, rumors spread that she had handled the flag disrespectfully—a claim Malteser has denied. The allegations proved an excuse for Buddhist mobs to attack aid offices. Johannes Kaltenbach, a spokesperson for Malteser International in Rangoon, said the organization had not heard of the decision by Arakan authorities to end the group's aid operations in the troubled region. Kaltenbach said Arakan State authorities had not informed the group of its decision. "We would first need to see an official letter signed by the Rakine State government," he said, adding that international NGOs were trying to discussing their cooperation with the Arakan government in order to return to the region. "For the Rakine State government to make such press statement, probably will not help the situation," he said. The UN has kept about 50 staff in Sittwe but all international NGO staff have left. A delegation of the heads of all UN offices in Burma met with local authorities in Sittwe on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a return of the NGO and resumption of aid operations. "[N]ow health services for most of the 140,000 displaced people in Rakhine and over 700,000 vulnerable people outside camps are severely hampered, particularly in terms of life-saving emergency medical referrals," Dr Liviu Vedrasco, Health Cluster Coordinator for the World Health Organization said in a UN statement released Wednesday night. "Our main priority now is to work with the government to put the necessary conditions in place to allow more than a thousand humanitarian staff to get back to work to assist vulnerable people from all communities," UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Renata Dessallien said. The UN said 1,300 metric tons of food will need to be distributed in Arakan State within the next two weeks in order to provide food security for tens of thousands of people. On Thursday, the US State Department called on Naypyidaw to take steps to assure that aid operations can restart in Arakan State as soon as possible. Deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said, "We call on the Burmese government to rescind travel restrictions and to facilitate the appropriate travel authorizations to the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations so they may resume services." The State Department also said the government should implement the current nationwide census "in a manner consistent with international standards." Last week's unrest in Sittwe was in part fueled by opposition among the Arakanese Buddhist population against the UN-backed census because it would allow Rohingya respondents to fill in their ethnicity as they wish. Burma's government and local Arakanese insist the Muslims are "Bengali" immigrants from Bangladesh. When the census began on Sunday, Naypyidaw had changed its stance on the census and decided to ignore any respondent who self-identifies as Rohingya. The post Aid Group at Center of Sittwe Riots Cannot Return to Arakan: Official appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Kachin Won’t Suffer From Missing Out on Census: KIO Posted: 03 Apr 2014 05:15 AM PDT  Residents of Rangoon's Thaketa Township complete Burma's first nationwide census for more than three decades. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Census enumerators' inability to collect data in parts of Burma's far northeast under the control of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) will not negatively impact the local people, a rebel leader said. Salang Kaba Doi Pi Sa, a member of the central committee of the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), was responding to a report in Burmese government-run newspaper that "threats and disrupt[ion]s" from the ethnic rebel group had prevented census-takers from reaching people in parts of northern Shan State and Kachin State. The government and the KIA still clash intermittently, and fighting has been at times intense since a longstanding ceasefire broke down in 2011. As well as villages within its area of control, the rebel group administers camps on the Burmese-Chinese border for more than half of the estimated 100,000 people displaced by fighting. The Kachin rebel organization said ahead of the census, which began nationwide March 30, that it would not participate. Salang Kaba Doi Pi Sa, also the head of the KIO-aligned Kachin Relief and Development Committee, confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the KIA would not allow the census to be conducted in areas under its control. He cited objections among ethnic Kachin to the list of 135 ethnicities used to record the country's ethnic makeup. The official list breaks up the Kachin into 12 "subgroups," some of which ethnic leaders say are erroneous categorizations. "We decided at a KIO central committee meeting in March not to have the census here, and we have already reported about it to the relevant authorities," Salang Kaba Doi Pi Sa said. The New Light of Myanmar said Thursday that enumerators had so far been unable to conduct the census in 40 village tracts in Kachin State and three in northern Shan State, blaming KIA troops. The newspaper also said Thursday that the census had by March 31 already reached a total of 2,035,001 households nationwide. Salang Kaba Doi Pi Sa declined to comment on the state-run newspaper report, dismissing it as the merely the government's opinion. He added that the KIO and KIA collect population data in their areas of control every three years. "There is no harm to Kachin people from not participating in the government's census taking process now underway," he said. Ye Htut, a spokesman for Burma President Thein Sein, told reporters on the weekend that the government had agreed with some rebels to collaborate on taking the census in conflict areas that would otherwise be off-limits to enumerators "We don't have our staff in some Karen areas that the KNU's [Karen National Union] Brigade 5 and 6 controls. So we trained KNU members for census taking procedures and sent them back to their areas to collect data," Ye Htut said. Similarly, the United Wa State Army has also told media that its members would volunteer to take the census themselves in their areas, rather than allowing government census teams into their territory in eastern Shan State. The last time Burma held a census was 1983, when even larger parts of the country were under the control of ethnic armed groups. Ye Htut said that census missed out nearly 1.9 million people. "Now we are trying to cover the whole country, except for some villages in conflict areas," he said. Additional reporting by Kyaw Phyo Tha. The post Kachin Won't Suffer From Missing Out on Census: KIO appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Mandalay Journalists Decry ‘Dark Age’ Tactics Against Press Posted: 03 Apr 2014 04:50 AM PDT  Protestors march in Mandalay on Monday, voicing opposition to an electricity rate price hike that went into effect this week. (Photo: Teza Hlaing / The Irrawaddy) MANDALAY — Journalists in Mandalay are planning to submit a complaint to the divisional government, urging authorities to take action against unidentified individuals whose recent heavy-handed intervention in a protest is believed to have been state-sponsored, or at least tacitly approved by local law enforcement. On Monday, during a protest against an electricity rate hike in Burma's second city, journalists on the scene of a confrontation between police and demonstrators were violently pushed away from the gathered crowd by men wearing plainclothes. Journalists targeted by the men, including a photojournalist from the local Mandalay Khit biweekly journal, were pulled away from the crowd while taking photos of the protesters or otherwise attempting to cover the stand-off. One plainclothes officer ripped the motorcycle helmet off this Irrawaddy reporter and aggressively used his elbows to push her away from the scene, where protestors were engaged in an argument with police officers who were informing them that they would not be allowed to continue the protest. As the three organizers of the candle-lit protest returned to their homes, in compliance with the orders of law enforcement, journalists attempting to interview a senior police officer about the authorities' action against the activists were again assaulted by the men in plainclothes, who tried to sweep them from the area. A uniformed police officer shouted out, calling for the arrest of the journalists for impeding the path of the senior officer, and some even ran at the journalists, holding riot shields and wielding rubber truncheons. As the journalists complained about the plainclothes men's brutality, uniformed police officers moved to shield them, and one police officer threatened to take legal action against the journalists for disrupting law enforcers in the execution of their duties. A group of journalists then went to the divisional police headquarters to file a complaint, where the deputy police superintendent denied that their unit had any plainclothes officers and claimed that the unidentified men had not received protection from uniformed personnel on Monday. The senior officer assured the journalists that the press had a right to cover the news unobstructed. "These actions, however, totally go against the rights of the journalists, which are codified in the recently enacted Media Law. The police said we have the right to cover the news, but the reality is totally different," said Min Din, associate secretary of the Mandalay Divisional Journalists Association, the group planning to lodge the complaint against the events of Sunday. The Media Law was enacted by the government on March 14. In Chapter 3 of the legislation, concerning the rights of the press, it states that journalists shall not be arrested and their equipment shall not be confiscated or destroyed by authorities while they are reporting. Another provision requires that authorities ensure protection from harm for journalists. Min Din pointed out that journalists, particularly in Mandalay Division, were regularly threatened by plainclothes men who were carrying out their campaign against the press with impunity. "Almost every time, those people have slapped down the cameras and pretended the crowd is pushing them. And sometimes they have tried to block coverage of the scene with their hands, head and bodies," he said. "They have also carried cameras, pretending they are journalists. When there is a conflict, they have shouted, urging police to arrest the protesters and activists. In these cases, people might mistakenly think that the journalists are biased and are helping the police to arrest the activists," he added. Mandalay-based journalists worry that authorities' attitude toward press freedom is reverting to the stance adopted by law enforcers under the former military regime. "It is nothing different from the last three to five years, in which we have had to struggle for freedom of the press. The plainclothes men usually take pictures of us, try to interfere with us in covering the news, as it was back three years ago. We are just afraid the dark era for press freedom will return again," said Kyaw Zay Win, a Mandalay-based video journalist. The post Mandalay Journalists Decry 'Dark Age' Tactics Against Press appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Ethnic Leaders, Govt Peace Team to Meet on Merging Ceasefire Texts Posted: 03 Apr 2014 04:33 AM PDT  A meeting between the government's negotiators and ethnic armed group leaders in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, on Nov. 4, 2013. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) Leaders of ethnic armed groups in Burma and the government will meet to discuss the drafting of a single text laying out the terms of a proposed nationwide ceasefire agreement this weekend in Rangoon. The leadership of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordinating Team (NCCT) and other ethnic groups who are not represented in the NCCT plan to meet with the government at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) in the former capital, according to a special advisor to the MPC. Nai Hong Sar, the head of the NCCT, told The Irrawaddy that the ethnic coalition has its draft in hand and will present it to the government for further discussion. "We will have to negotiate with the government's proposed draft to create a single text for the nationwide ceasefire" during the weekend meeting, he said en route to Rangoon via Tachileik Township in Shan State. "But it [the meeting] could take longer than two days." The NCCT and the government-affiliated MPC agreed last month to invite other ethnic armed groups that are not NCCT members, including the Shan State Army South, and ethnic Wa, Kokang and Naga rebel groups, to join the meeting. Hla Maung Shwe, an MPC advisor, wrote on his Facebook that five non-NCCT ethnic armed groups—the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Democratic Karen Buddhist These groups will act as observers to the meeting, RCSS spokesman Col. Sai La told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. The ethnic leaders will meet with the government's chief peace negotiator, President's Office Minister Aung Min, as well as parliamentarian Thein Zaw and the top commanders of Burma's military, Hla Maung Shwe said. Prior to the upcoming meeting, NCCT leaders gathered in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on Wednesday to discuss the principles of their draft ceasefire accord, Nai Hong Sar said. The NCCT and the government last month agreed to form a joint committee to draft a single text for a nationwide ceasefire agreement, which President Thein Sein has pushed to have signed since mid-2013. The government has maintained that a ceasefire would have to precede political dialogue to address the ethnic groups' various concerns and demands. The joint committee of the NCCT and the government's peace team is to be comprised of 18 members, with equal representation for both sides. The NCCT says it has already selected its representatives for the committee. In a speech to Parliament marking the three year anniversary of his administration last week, Thein Sein warned that the longer it took to ink a nationwide ceasefire, the more a sense of hopelessness would set in among ethnic minority populations. Previously, the president has given assurances that the army, which plays a key role in Burma's politics, is backing the peace negotiations. But some ethnic leaders are skeptical of a process that has already dragged on for longer than some government officials had predicted, and continuing clashes between the Burma Army and ethnic rebel fighters has fed into the distrust that has existed between the two sides for decades. In the three years since Thein Sein's administration initiated peace talks with the various ethnic rebel groups, the government has signed separate ceasefire agreements with 14 of 16 ethnic armed groups in Burma. Only the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) have yet to ink an accord. The NCCT was formed in November 2013 at a conference held by the ethnic armed groups in the KIA stronghold of Laiza. Its formation was followed a few days later by a meeting with government negotiators in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, which resulted in only a joint statement between the two sides expressing a mutual commitment to the eventual signing of a nationwide ceasefire agreement. Both sides have agreed to meet again in Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, to set up a date for the signing of a nationwide ceasefire in Naypyidaw, but the meeting has been repeatedly delayed and the government has said any gathering will have to wait until after the Thingyan water festival in late April. The post Ethnic Leaders, Govt Peace Team to Meet on Merging Ceasefire Texts appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Burma Bans Foreign Fishing Boats From Its Waters Posted: 03 Apr 2014 01:33 AM PDT  Local Burmese fishermen check their catch at Ngwesaung beach in Irrawaddy Division. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma has banned foreign fishing vessels from its waters as of the beginning of April amid concerns about overfishing, an official from the Myanmar Fishery Federation (MFF) said. "Fish and other marine resources in our waters were declining. So [Burma] banned foreign fishing boats from fishing in our waters to prevent that," said Han Tun, MFF vice chairman told The Irrawaddy. He said that large Burmese fishing companies would also reduce their fishing operations at sea by 35 percent during April and May—the reproductive season for many marine species—to allow fish stocks to replenish. Foreign fishing boats have been allowed to purchase permits to fish in Burmese waters since 1989. In the 2013-14 fiscal year—which came to an end earlier this week—around 40 foreign fishing boats were operating, according to MFF. Maung Maung Soe, chairman of the Yangon branch of the Myanmar Marine Fisheries Association, said the government's ban on foreign boats was a long time coming, as the local fishing industry has been lobbying for a ban for a decade. He estimated that the government earned about US$12 million during the last fiscal year from selling fishing permits to foreign boats, but said the true scale of fishing by foreign boats was unknown. "No one knows how many foreign fishing boats are actually fishing in our waters, how much they have caught and also to what extent marine resources have been destroyed. Even the government doesn't know," he said. Zaw Tin Moe, secretary of Fish Federation in Irrawaddy Division's Latputtar District, welcomed the ban. "It's really a relief for local fishermen," he said, estimating that foreign boats catch as much as 100 times as much fish as local fishers, who usually operate on a much smaller scale. "Local fishermen are just using traditional methods while foreign fishing boats are huge commercial operations," he said. However, Kyi Ngwe, a fisherman also from Irrawaddy Division, said that as well as large foreign fishing boats, large Burmese companies' fishing operations are a threat to the livelihoods of small-scale fishers. "The prohibition in our waters will not affect us because even though there will be no foreign fishing vessels, there are big fishing boats from local big companies," Kyi Ngwe said. "I also don't think it will be implemented fully." He said that fish stocks in the seas off the coasts of Irrawaddy Division had been declining significantly year by year for the past five years due to increased large-scale, modern fishing operations, which catch huge quantities of fish at a time and cause damage to the seabed. The post Burma Bans Foreign Fishing Boats From Its Waters appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Win Tin Still in Critical Condition, Supporters Pray for Recovery Posted: 02 Apr 2014 11:30 PM PDT  NLD members and people from civil society organizations staged a candle-light vigil for Win Tin’s good health at the entrance of Rangoon General Hospital on April 2, 2014 afternoon. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Win Tin, the octogenarian co-founder of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, remains in critical condition and under intensive care in Rangoon General Hospital for a fifth day. A group of supporters have started gathering to pray for the recovery of the veteran journalist and outspoken democracy activist. "Doctors said he is not yet in safe condition as there's bleeding from the colon," said Kyaw Aung, the secretary of Win Tin Foundation, a group founded by Win Tin to take care of former political prisoners and their families. Win Tin was admitted to a private hospital on March 12 seeking treatments for respiratory problems and hip pain. He was moved to Rangoon General on Saturday after his health failed to improve and as the public hospital has better medical equipment. He was reportedly put on oxygen therapy after losing consciousness.
A group of around 30 people from the NLD, Generation Wave and the Laiza Peace March group gathered at Shwedagon Pagoda on Wednesday morning to pray for the 85-year-old. On Wednesday evening, some NLD members and people from civil society organizations staged a candle-light vigil for Win Tin at the entrance of Rangoon General Hospital. After Aung San Suu Kyi, Win Tin is one of Burma's best-known opposition figures. Since his release from prison in 2008, he has continued to wear his blue prison-issued uniform as a sign of solidarity with other political prisoners. He refused to return the shirt in April last year when the police demanded it back. The post Win Tin Still in Critical Condition, Supporters Pray for Recovery appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Posted: 02 Apr 2014 09:22 PM PDT  Burmese soldiers who violently cracked down on the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were armed with the Fritz Werner GmbH Company’s G3 automatic rifles. (Photo: Alain Evrard / Impact Photos) Last week, Burma's Tatmadaw celebrated the 69th Armed Forces Day with an elaborate parade in Naypyidaw, showing off troops and some of the military equipment it possesses. This story, originally published by The Irrawaddy in August 2011, charts the history of close relations between Burma's military rulers and Germany's Fritz Werner GmbH Company. Geisenheim is a small town in the State of Hessen of the Federal Republic of Germany that hosts a plush old spa of sumptuous beauty, where since Roman times people have bathed amidst lush forests beneath the Taunus Mountains. To the surprise of all visitors, in the middle of a vineyard near the town is a grand, Burmese style house. The Myitta Paungku Beikman (Love Connection Monument), was built by former Burmese dictator Gen Ne Win and donated to the Fritz Werner GmbH Company (FWG) on Jan. 1, 1971 as a sign of appreciation for the company's assistance in preserving him and his much-hated military regime in power. FWG is a Berlin-based company which since 1896 has specialized in machinery for the production of small arms and ammunition. The company, which played a vital role in Germany's WW I efforts, has cultivated a unique relationship with the Burmese ruling elite over the years. There is a great deal of mutual trust between FWG and the Burmese regime, whose military-minded leaders look for characteristics such as reliability and discretion in a business partner. After WW II, FWG was wholly-owned by the West German government, falling under the jurisdiction of the government's Ministry of Economy. The company was bought with money from the Marshall Fund which was meant to rebuild industries that were destroyed during WW II, a war which FWG helped fuel with its machinery for the production of weapons and ammunition. In 1948, Burma gained independence from Great Britain, and FWG struck up its partnership with the new Burmese government in 1953. The German company's first project was the production of the BA52 submachine gun—aka the Ne Win sten.  Burmese soldiers who violently cracked down on the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were armed with the Fritz Werner GmbH Company’s G3 automatic rifles. (Photo: Alain Evrard / Impact Photos) Beginning at the time of this original contract, Ne Win cultivated friendly relations with FWG, both diplomatically and personally. Fritz Werner technical advisors posted in Rangoon had continuous access to the dictator, a rare privilege not extended to the representatives of other foreign firms. The fact that FWG was owed by the West German government itself created a close personal relationship between the two governments, causing some to say that Burma was the friendliest nation toward West Germany in Asia. FWG's secretive Burmese operations, which have often been shrouded under a veil of mystery, got into full swing in 1960 when the West German Ministry of Defence gave the company permission to produce G3 rifles in Burma and it later established its first weapons factory on the outskirts of Rangoon with the assistance of the West Germany arms company Heckler & Koch. The factory was supervised by German engineers from the German Technical Corporation Agency (GTZ). Until the production of that plant started, the Burmese regime used FWG as the middleman to purchase G3 rifles through Düsseldorf based arms producer Rheinmetall, which shared production with Heckler & Koch. In 1961, West Germany's Foreign Office in Bonn granted permission to export 10,000 G3 rifles as well as four million rounds of ammunition manufactured by Metallwerk Elisenhütte Nassau (MEN), an FWG subsidiary, to Burma. The West German government had "no reservations" about authorizing further transfers, even when Ne Win toppled the democratic government of U Nu in 1962—Rheinmetall received permission from Bonn to sell 12,000 G3 rifles and 800 MG42 machine guns, and MEN received permission to export 18 million rounds of ammunition. Then in 1969, the West German Foreign Office permitted FWG to export machinery for the production of explosives, as well as a complete rolling mill for sheet brass. With the assistance from West Germany, the self-sufficiency of the Burmese armed forces increased continuously, and the Burmese military often used German-produced weapons to oppress the Burmese people and various ethnic minority groups, especially after Ne Win and the military seized power in 1962. For example, on July 7, 1962, just three days after the military's Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) was formed, the students of Rangoon University organized a peaceful demonstration inside the Campus. The Burmese military— equipped with G3 automatic rifles—fired into the crowd of thousands of students, killing over 100 and injuring many more. The next morning, the military blew up the Rangoon University Student Union building, which was a treasured historical monument of the Burmese struggle to gain independence from Great Britain. The building was blasted to pieces by heavy explosives, and every trace of it removed. During the 1988 democratic uprising, over 3,000 people were once again killed by Burmese troops using German-produced weapons. Despite this, the West German government welcomed Ne Win as a guest of FWG in March 1988. In addition, after the military coup by Burmese Gen Saw Maung in Sept. 1988, the West German Federal Ministry of Economics gave permission for FWG to export machinery for the production of ammunition. Not only did FWG set up three plants in Rangoon and Prome to produce the vast majority of armaments required by the Burmese military, they also served as a conduit for all importation of raw materials, machine parts and chemicals used in explosives production.  Burmese soldiers who violently cracked down on the 1988 pro-democracy uprising were armed with the Fritz Werner GmbH Company’s G3 automatic rifles. (Photo: Alain Evrard / Impact Photos) The cozy relationship between the West Germans and the Burmese military was something of a closely kept secret until 1988, when the democracy uprising and surrounding political crisis blew the lid off the Burmese situation and drew the attention of the whole world. Due to international pressure brought upon the West German government by the horror of the Sept. 1988 coup, it suddenly became one of the outspoken critics of the Burmese regime, as if it didn't know before how many Burmese had died at the hands of Burmese troops firing West German weapons. The German government did, however, suspend development co-operation activities with Burma, including negotiations regarding Burmese debt cancellation, and ceased authorization of arms shipments to Burma. But regardless of assertions made by the Germans that FWG was no longer participating in the production of weapons and explosives inside Burma, and that technical co-operation had been reduced to a minimum, the manufacture of explosives and weapons continues to date, and German employees of GTZ remain in the country, disguising their true field of expertise. Despite Germany's hasty withdrawal of economic support from Burma after the 1988 crackdown, it didn't take long before FWG found an opportunity for renewed investment. In 1990, FWG formed a joint venture with the Burmese military, a partnership that was made possible thanks to an old US $500 million loan that the West German government had made to Burma in the 1960's. FWG stands by itself in Burma, and the joint venture grew out of a very personal relationship between the company and the Burmese generals. This personal relationship has helped preserve the Burmese military regime in power, despite the various insurgencies and unrest in the country. Following the uprising in 1988, the European Community and the US began imposing economic sanctions on Burma, identifying the high incidence of human rights abuses by the military regime as the primary reason for imposing sanctions. However, the annual reports of the German Federal Office for Export and Trade proves that licences for the export of dual-use-goods were authorized nearly every year, despite an EU arms embargo established in 1991. In 1999, Germany even allowed the Burmese regime to renovate the notorious "Myitta Paungku Beitman" in Geisenheim. On May 4, 2011, during a Burma Conference in Berlin, Dr. Markus Löning, Germany's Federal Government commissioner for human rights policy and humanitarian aid, pushed for more engagement with the Burmese military regime and for the modification of sanctions on Burma. For many Burmese activists, Germany is just paying a lip service to the human rights situation in Burma. A cable revealed in a 2009 Wikileaks report indicated that Germany exported sophisticated equipment to Burma, which was followed by a visit of German diplomats to the factories where the machinery was installed. In 2009-10, Germany was the biggest trade partner of Burma in the European Union. The suffering of the Burmese people at the hands of their military rulers is undeniable. The irresponsible investments by foreign firms and others are not benefitting the people of Burma, but only contributing to the torture, persecution and killing of the many ethnic nationals, monks, students and activists who are struggling for democracy inside Burma. For the Burmese people, FWG's cooperation and partnership with the Burmese regime has been extremely discouraging. It is time for Germany to start listening to the cry of the Burmese people for democracy, and start building a real, people to people, Myitta friendship that will live forever. The author is a former student activist and chairman of Camp Thaybawboe run by the ABSDF. At present, he is a member of the KNU Foreign Affairs Relations efforts. Related article: Intelligent Dialogue Partners or Useful Idiots? The post The Military Ties That Bind appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Malaysia PM Visits Search Base for Missing Jet; Sub Joins Hunt Posted: 02 Apr 2014 10:15 PM PDT  Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (L) and Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott arrive at a briefing on the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth April 3, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia's prime minister visited the Australian search base for missing Flight MH370 on Thursday as a nuclear-powered submarine joined the near-four week hunt that has so far failed to find any sign of the missing airliner and the 239 people on board. Najib Razak joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott at RAAF Base Pearce, near Perth, where aircrews from seven countries have been flying dozens of missions deep into the southern Indian Ocean looking for debris from the Malaysia Airlines jet. "The world expects us to do our level best, and I'm very confident we will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations; that we want to find answers, that we want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found," said Najib, as the two leaders spoke to search and recovery team at the air base. The Boeing 777 lost communications and disappeared from civilian radar less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. It was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic "pings" sent to a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane crashed far off the west Australian coast hours later. Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, said an international air crash investigation team with analysts from Malaysia, the United States, Britain, China and Australia was continuing to refine the search area. "Based on that continuing flow of information, the search area is being continually adjusted and today it will be adjusted to move the search area a little bit further to the north," he told Najib and Abbott at the base. Huge Search Area On Thursday, up to eight planes and nine ships will join the search area of about 223,000 sq km (86,000 sq miles)—roughly the size of the US state of Minnesota—some 1,680 km (1,040 miles) west-north-west of Perth, he said. Britain is also sending HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities, to help with the search, Malaysia's transport ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Sonar may help find the plane's "black box" voice and data recorders, which only have an expected battery life of around 30 days and are key to unlocking what happened on the flight. An Australian navy ship fitted with a US black box detector and unmanned submarine is also on its way to the search area. But experts have warned the "Towed Pinger Locator" may be of little use unless investigators can get a much better idea of exactly where the plane went into water, because its limited range and the slow speed at which it must be pulled behind the ship mean it cannot cover large areas of ocean quickly. On Monday it will be 30 days since the plane went missing. Australia's Abbott warned that the task would not be easy. "We cannot be certain of success, but we can be certain of the professionalism and the effort that will be brought to the task," he said. Continued Criticism Najib arrived in Perth with Malaysia coming under fresh fire for its handling of the incident, after authorities there changed their account of the plane's critical last communication. Malaysia on Tuesday released the full transcript of communications between the cockpit and local air traffic control. While indicating nothing abnormal, the transcript showed the final words from the cockpit were not the casual "All right, good night" that authorities first reported, but the more standard "Good night Malaysian three seven zero." Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search, now in its fourth fruitless week, and holding back information. Most of the 239 people on board the flight were Chinese. Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say all the evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route. Malaysia's police chief said the investigation was focusing on the cabin crew and pilots, after clearing all 227 passengers of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the disappearance. The post Malaysia PM Visits Search Base for Missing Jet; Sub Joins Hunt appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Pyongyang Opens Marathon to Tourist-Runners Posted: 02 Apr 2014 10:10 PM PDT  Participants run in the International Association of Athletics Federations' 26th Mangyongdae Prize Marathon, held in conjunction with celebrations for the 101st birth anniversary of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, in Pyongyang, in this photo distributed by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on April 14, 2013. TOKYO — Runners of the world, unite! For the first time ever, North Korea is opening up the streets of its capital to runner-tourists for the annual Pyongyang marathon, undoubtedly one of the most exotic feathers in any runner's cap. Tourism companies say they are getting inundated by requests to sign up for the April 13 event, which this year will include amateur runners from around the world. The race includes a full marathon—with a handful of world-class, invitation-only athletes—a half marathon and a 10-kilometer run. The opening of the race to recreational runners is in keeping with the North's ongoing, but sometimes sporadic, effort to earn cash revenue by boosting tourism, usually with well-orchestrated group tours to major arts performances or attractions the North wants to show off. Earlier this year, North Korea's government announced a plan to create special trade and tourism zones across the country and unveiled its first luxury ski resort, aimed largely at luring ski enthusiasts from abroad. Under the watch of young leader Kim Jong-un, the North has also been giving sports in general a higher profile. Simple recreational sports facilities, such as outdoor basketball courts and roller skating rinks, have been popping up lately in Pyongyang and some other cities. Much of North Korea remains off-limits to foreigners, but Pyongyang, with its broad avenues and ubiquitous monuments, is a showcase city and more accessible than other places in the secretive and isolated country. "I think a lot of the attraction is the 'Pyongyang' part rather than the 'marathon' part," said Simon Cockerell, a Beijing-based agent for the Koryo Tours travel agency. "A lot of the people going along to take part are interested in simply doing something a bit unusual, something that would cause a bit of cognitive dissonance in friends of theirs when they tell them they ran a marathon in North Korea." Known officially as the Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon, the race is sanctioned as a bronze label event by the International Association of Athletics Federations and has been held annually for 27 years. The generally flat, full-marathon course entails four loops around the center of the city of 2.5 million. The race starts at the 70,000-seat Kim Il-sung Stadium and moves on past the Monument to Chinese Soldiers to the Kim Il-sung University area. After that, the runners cross a bridge over the Taedong River to the east side of the city and wind their way along the river bank to the stadium. Spectators back in the stadium will be treated to football games, volleyball and martial arts exhibitions while they wait for the runners to return. Cockerell said nearly 200 foreigners have signed up for the event, which coincides with commemorations of the April 15 birthday of North Korea's first leader, Kim Il-sung. That is an unusually large number, though the North's famous mass games are also often a big draw. As a practical matter, aspiring runners had to apply through agencies familiar with the North Korean bureaucracy in order to get the proper visas. Cockerell said most are joining packaged group tours to see the sights while they are in Pyongyang. In the past, the main race has been restricted to a select group of elite runners. Recreational jogging isn't a part of ordinary North Korean life, but past events have included races for local students and junior runners. Though many national teams are reluctant to come to North Korea for political reasons, times in the elite part of the race have been up to international standards. Last year's marathon was won by Ethiopia's Ketema Nigusse in 2:13:04. North Korea's own Kim Mi-gyong won the women's title for the second straight year, with a personal best of 2:26:32. What's new this year is the decision to open up the marathon, half-marathon and 10-kilometer courses to recreational runners of any nationality. The only requirement for marathon runners is that they finish in four hours; those who don't will be escorted back to the stadium. In 1995, South Korean runners were allowed to participate in a road race in the North, but that was a one-off, Koreans only event. Because of South Korea's travel restrictions to the North, participation from south of the border this time was unlikely. "The marathon has traditionally been open only to professional runners with 2:27 male and 2:38 female cutoff times, making it impossible for even the best recreational runner to participate," said Andrea Lee, head of Uri Tours, an American company offering tours to North Korea. It is bringing 20 runners, most of them American. "Generally, the country has become more friendly for tourism," she said. "This change in policy is in line with what we've seen to be the tourism administration's willingness to explore different tour programs and other avenues to attract tourism." Cockerell warned against reading too much into the North's decision to ease its restrictions. It was unclear whether the same rules would apply next year. "Maybe [it's] just because they wanted more people in the marathon," he said. "Maybe the powers that be didn't expect there to be so many runners entering." The post Pyongyang Opens Marathon to Tourist-Runners appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Sheer Size Is Just One Complexity in Indian Election Posted: 02 Apr 2014 10:04 PM PDT  A police officer in plainclothes, casts her postal ballot at a polling station in Agartala, capital of India's northeastern state of Tripura, April 2, 2014. India, the world's largest democracy, will hold its general election in nine stages staggered between April 7 and May 12. (Photo: Reuters) NEW DELHI — In a country where men have long told their wives whom to vote for, Sheila Kumar says she has no intention of letting her husband dictate her vote in next month's national election. "Never again," Kumar said as she waited to collect a bucket of drinking water from the communal tap in a south Delhi slum. She sounds every bit the modern Indian woman, a reflection of a country with many of the outward signs of modernity: the glitzy shopping malls, the tech-savvy billionaires and the burgeoning focus on women's rights. But it's not so simple. Because even if she won't allow her husband to choose her candidate, there is someone else who gets that power. "The caste elders will decide who we should vote for," said Kumar, 43, a member of the small, midlevel Kurmi caste. "We will vote for someone from our own caste. Why should we support anyone else?" As the world's largest democracy heads to the polls starting Monday, India's often baffling contradictions are on full display, with age-old traditions of caste loyalty, patriarchy and nepotism often clashing with the values of a modern world. But even though democracy is far from perfect here, it still lurches forward. Elections in India are generally considered free and fair, and even the powerful often fall to defeat at the hands of voters. A strong Constitution, hammered out by political leaders who were veterans of India's struggle for independence from British colonial rule, laid the foundations for the democratic process. The politically independent Election Commission, empowered by the Constitution, has the last word on political wrangles. "Politicians know that they are accountable to their electorate. If people have voted them into office, they can just as easily toss them out in the next election," said Ajoy Bose, a political commentator in New Delhi. Still, the challenges are rife. Voting patterns are heavily influenced by caste, the complex social ladder that mobilizes entire communities. Although India's Constitution and laws forbid discrimination on the basis of caste, the social division continues to dominate electoral politics. The former "untouchables," or Dalits, are a powerful vote bank and political parties make all manner of promises to woo them. Women's votes are often dictated by the men in the household, although that appears to be changing somewhat with growing literacy and as more women get jobs. But family and community elders still hold enormous sway. Corruption, a longtime scourge in India, is impossible to ignore. And many Indians say the lack of election primaries prevents voters from ushering out the old guard. Apart from caste and social inequalities, the lack of development in much of India also poses challenges. In a large swath cutting across the vast hinterland of the Indian subcontinent, rebels inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong have called for a boycott of the polls. The armed guerrillas always threaten to disrupt national elections; this year is no different. The rebels are active in 20 of India's 28 states, from Bihar in the east through central India, to the borders of the southernmost states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The rebels demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources and more jobs for farmers and the poor. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in rebel ambushes and gunbattles between police and rebels since 1979. Security, already tight in rebel areas, will be reinforced with even more troops to protect voters and electoral staff. Similar boycotts are also expected in the violence-wracked northern state of Kashmir, where separatist groups have called on people to shun the elections. In the last parliamentary election in 2009, 40 percent of Kashmir's eligible voters turned out despite rebels' calls for boycotts and strikes. Separately, in India's remote but restive northeastern states bordering China, a host of separatist groups warring against the Indian state for decades pose yet another obstacle. The massive size of the electorate is its own unique challenge. The Election Commission has counted 815 million eligible voters. The increase in the number of eligible voters since 2009 elections is more than 100 million, or close to the population of the Philippines. Many Indian states are so huge that elections have to be conducted in several phases to enable security forces to be moved around. In two states, elections will be held on six polling dates given their size and histories of violence. One of these is Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state. Its population of 200 million almost matches that of Brazil. Had it been a separate nation, Uttar Pradesh would count as the world's sixth most populous country. The other six-election-day state is neighboring Bihar, where polls have often been rocked by violence and "booth capturing," in which armed supporters of candidates have stormed polling booths and stuffed ballot boxes. In all, around 3 million paramilitary troops and police will be deployed to maintain law and order during the polls, officials said. "The unique thing about Indian elections is that huge numbers of people are voting," said Bose, the political commentator. "And it's the poorest who will make it a point to go out and vote. For this one time, people feel a sense of power. They feel they are relevant." The post Sheer Size Is Just One Complexity in Indian Election appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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