Friday, June 13, 2014

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Authorities Charge Monks in Dispute With Govt-Backed Clergy

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:51 AM PDT

Myanmar Buddhism,

Monks look on Tuesday night as the State Sangha organized a raid to remove U Pyinnya Wuntha's followers from Maha Thanti Thukha Buddhist monastery in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Authorities in Rangoon's Tamwe Township charged five Buddhist monks with religious offenses on Friday after they became embroiled in a dispute with the government-backed Buddhist clergy over the ownership of a large Rangoon monastery.

The monks were reportedly disrobed and sent to Insein Prison to await their trial, which could result in a prison sentence.

"It's true, we brought them to the court, but I don't' want to say any more [about this case]," Ye Myo Hein, a police officer involved in the case, said when asked whether the monks had been charged with religious offenses.

Burma's Penal Code Article 295 to 298 carries provisions that set punishments for acts that insult religious feelings and beliefs, or disturb places of religious worship and assembly. The charges carry fines and prison terms of between one and two years.

U Pamaukkha, a monk who went to the trial at Tamwe Township Court, said, "They were charged with offending religion by the court.

"Five monks, including U Ottara, were forced to change their robes and they were sent to Insein Prison."

The five were part of a group of seven monks and 32 laymen who were evicted from Rangoon's Maha Thanti Thukha Buddhist monastery on Tuesday by the government-backed Buddhist clergy, the Sangha Maha Nayaka, and subsequently apprehended. The laymen and two monks were later released.

They are followers of Penang Sayadaw U Pyinnya Wuntha, an 86-year-old abbot who has been involved in a dispute with the State Sangha over the ownership of the monastery since the early 2000s. The Ministry of Religious Affairs has backed the State Sangha in the case and supported the Tuesday raid.

Burma's former military regime built the large monastery in the late 1990s at a cost of about US$8 million and put U Pyinnya Wuntha in charge, presenting him with legal ownership documents.

But in 2002, after U Pyinnya Wuntha went on a visit abroad, the government claimed it found evidence of corruption at the monastery and it granted control over the building to the State Sangha.

Most of U Pyinnya Wuntha's followers were forced to leave but a small group was allowed to stay; these last followers were evicted and apprehended by the State Sangha on Tuesday night.

U Pyinnya Wuntha condemned the raid in a phone call from Japan Thursday and claimed he had full ownership over the monastery.

Win Htein, who is a lawyer and a lawmaker in Rangoon Division's legislature, said it was uncommon for authorities to charge monks under criminal law, as the clergy has its own rules and a special office to resolve disputes between monks.

He said police had failed to give prior warning of the raid, adding that it remains unclear on what grounds the five monks were being charged for offending religion. "There is a special office and a rules handbook for monks when there is a dispute. By bringing monks to a civilian court, police ignore these laws," said Win Htein.

The open dispute between Buddhist monks and the unusual actions by authorities have fascinated Burma's predominantly Buddhist public, which deeply revers the clergymen.

U Wirathu, the nationalist monk who is the public figurehead of the 969 movement that has been spreading anti-Islamic messages throughout Burma, has sought to publicly weigh in on the case.

He said he supported the evicted the monks. "They stayed at their own monastery. They were innocent. By putting innocent monks in prison, [the government] will get punishment from all monks in the country," Wirathu said.

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Burma Teachers Group Balks at Performance-Based Transfer Scheme

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:47 AM PDT

university transfer orders

The road leading to the Convocation Hall at Rangoon University is seen in 2013. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The Myanmar Teachers' Federation has said it "strongly condemns" the Education Ministry's new approach to handling transfer orders for Burma's university educators, which will see their postings determined by peer-based performance evaluations.

The Education Ministry recently issued details of a new procedure to rate the performance of teachers beginning this academic year, with the announcement communicated to rectors at Burma's universities. Educators' performance ratings will be based on an evaluation of 10 different factors and will be carried out by departmental colleagues.

The evaluations will be used to determine university educators' promotions and transfer orders. Across Burma, university educators are rotated every one to three years, based on a combination of need and the requests of the educators. Because the nation's more remote campuses are generally less desirable, the system sought to incentivize far-flung postings by tying promotions and pay raises to service in isolated areas.

Previously, transfer orders and promotions were determined largely by tenure, with longer-serving classroom educators given priority in the event that multiple requests were made for a given teaching position. Now, competing requests will be resolved via the peer-based performance evaluations.

Zaw Myo Hlaing, deputy chairman of the Myanmar Teachers' Federation, said that among other complaints, the MTF considered the evaluations to be a poor gauge of the effectiveness of education professionals.

"The evaluation form includes 10 points. The questions look like questions you would ask of an ordinary civil servant but do not have relevance to university teachers," he told The Irrawaddy.

"The [sample] questions are like, 'Whether [the teacher] is willingly performing their duties,' 'Whether [the teacher] has good communication with their colleagues," said Zaw Myo Hlaing, who is also an assistant lecturer at Dagon University in Rangoon.

The MTF said additionally, the new system could sow ill will among teaching colleagues.

"Some factors can incite enmity among teachers and divide them. The evaluations are also not related to the nature of teachers' work," the statement said.

The federation also criticized the evaluation system as biased, with classroom-based university educators being put under the microscope while senior administrative personnel like rectors and directors general escaped scrutiny.

The new system "fails to conduct evaluations on positions that need rating," the MTF statement said. "The practice of evaluating only lower positions for ordinary education staff shows that the Education Ministry lacks goodwill and is not sincere toward teachers and the whole education sector, thus the Myanmar Teachers' Federation strongly condemns the Education Ministry's administrative change."

The MTF also called on the ministry to issue transfer orders as soon as possible for affected teachers, some of whom have already begun teaching for the year but could receive transfer orders at any point.

Transfer orders are normally received in November of the preceding academic year but have not yet been issued this year, with the ministry blaming the death of former Education Minister Mya Aye for the delay. Mya Aye died in December 2013 and his successor, Khin San Yi, was not appointed until February.

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Photo of the Week (13, 06, 2014)

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:44 AM PDT

Burma’s Upper House Votes to Change Electoral System

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 05:27 AM PDT

 

A session of the Upper House of Parliament in Naypyidaw. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's Upper House of Parliament has voted to adopt a proportional representation (PR) system for the nomination of Upper House lawmakers in 2015.

One hundred and seventeen lawmakers, a majority in the Upper House, voted on Wednesday to switch from the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, which benefits dominant parties, to a PR system, which tends to benefit smaller parties. Eighty-five lawmakers, mostly from the military, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic minority parties, voted against the change.

After approving the decision, the Union Election Commission will work with Upper House lawmakers to draft regulations and bylaws for the new electoral system. The Lower House will not be affected by the Upper House's vote, but will likely discuss next week the possibility of also adopting the new electoral system in 2015.

Under the current FPTP system, the winning lawmaker in each constituency wins a seat in Parliament. Under a PR system, the number of seats won by a party is proportionate to the number of votes received.

Military lawmakers oppose a PR system, as does the NLD, the country's biggest opposition party, which would likely see major gains during the 2015 election under a FPTP system. The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), expecting losses to the NLD, supports the PR system, as does the National Democratic Force (NDF), a small party.

The Upper House has formed a 42-member commission to consider which PR system will be most appropriate for its purposes in 2015. The commission is said to include both supporters and opponents of PR.

"We will cover a wide range of views in our consideration," said NDF lawmaker and commission member Khin Wine Kyi, who first made the proposal to adopt a PR system in the Upper House. She said the commission did not have a time frame for completing its task.

Ethnic political parties, which, under the current electoral system, would likely win seats in their constituencies of ethnic minority states, oppose the change to PR.

"We prefer the old FPTP system because our voters, also in the ethnic regions, are familiar with it, and that would mitigate the chances of any confusion," ethnic Mon lawmaker Banyar Aung Moe told The Irrawaddy, adding that many ethnic minority voters are not able to read Burmese, the language in which ballots are written.

In the Lower House, NDF lawmaker Aung Zin, who represents Rangoon's Pazuntaung Township, said he has been pushing for a PR system since last year because he believes it is best suited for a multi-party democracy.

"I think it will come up for discussion next week [in the Lower House]," he told The Irrawaddy.

"The public is not bad at voting," he added, in response to concerns among ethnic lawmakers that a PR system would confuse voters. He said the Burmese people had experience heading to the polls in the 1990 election, the results of which were annulled by the former regime, as well as the 2010 election and the 2012 by-election, which saw opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi elected to the legislature.

He also stressed the important role of the Union Election Commission in counting votes in 2015.

Ba Shein, an ethnic Arakanese lawmaker in the Lower House, expressed concerns about any change to the electoral system.

"As an ethnic parliamentarian, I would like to ask whether it is in accordance with the 2008 Constitution," he said, when asked about PR.

"We oppose the use of a PR system in these early years of our country's transition. It is unclear whether this system would really reflect minority rights."

The post Burma's Upper House Votes to Change Electoral System appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Knee-Deep in Rangoon’s Rainy Season

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 04:32 AM PDT

flooding

Young men push a car through the floods at Thamine Junction, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Rangoon, on Thursday. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON — On Thursday morning, people in Rangoon awoke to cloudy skies. With rainy season officially here, they knew it would be a wet day, at best. More likely, it would be a day of flooding.

The city of more than 6 million people is prone to flooding whenever heavy rains fall, thanks to a poorly maintained drainage system. Even downtown, people are regularly forced to wade through flooded streets after only a few minutes of rain because the drains are blocked with trash.

Earlier this year, the government boasted that it had spent more than 12 billion kyats (US$12 million) to improve the drainage system. Scenes from recent rainy days suggest that the investment has not been effective.

Thursday's downpour lasted only a few hours, but it was enough to disrupt life in the Southeast Asian city, as most of the roads and railways connected to downtown were inundated with water. With traffic at a standstill, workers were late to the office and schools were temporarily closed in some areas.

After a few hours of rain, I found myself taking pictures at Thamine Junction, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Rangoon. Around me, public buses and cars were stopped dead in the deluge, while people were wading through knee-deep water. In houses, residents struggled to bucket out the invading rains.

Flooding at the junction did not subside until afternoon. Local people said the floods coincided with a rising tide at nearby Hlaing River, somewhat preventing the water levels from dropping.

Standing at a bus stop near the junction, a resident openly blamed the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) for failing to maintain the drainage system.

"The flooding is worse because the drainage system choked with trash. Water always overflows onto the road, even after a few minutes of rain. That shows they don't do their job well," he said.

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Suu Kyi’s Presidential Bid Not Dead Yet: NLD

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 03:54 AM PDT

constitution

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi smiles before delivering the annual Godkin Lecture at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sept. 27, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

MANDALAY — There is still hope for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to become president, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party says, after a parliamentary committee said it would not endorse amendments to a constitutional article that currently blocks her from the post.

The Constitutional Amendment Implementation Committee, tasked with making recommendations to Parliament before lawmakers vote on amendments, says it believes there should be no change to Article 59(F), which bars Suu Kyi from Burma's top post.

But lawmakers are not bound to follow the committee's recommendations, meaning that Suu Kyi's presidential bid is not dead yet.

"According to law, Parliament has to make a decision about this amendment, with votes from the parliamentarians," party spokesman Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy.

"Since the decision [not to endorse an amendment] was made only by the committee, it is too early for us to comment. We need to wait and see the decision of the Parliament and the parliamentarians."

On June 6, only five members of the 31-member Constitutional Amendment Implementation Committee voted to endorse changes to Article 59(f), according to a committee member from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The committee comprises seven unelected military lawmakers, 15 USDP lawmakers, two NLD lawmakers and eight lawmakers from other political parties.

Article 59(F) is controversial because it states that a president cannot have a spouse or children who are foreign nationals. Suu Kyi's two sons from her marriage to the late scholar Michael Aris are British nationals.

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Investment in Rice Milling Key to Boosting Export, Report Says

Posted: 13 Jun 2014 03:42 AM PDT

Myanmar rice, Myanmar agriculture

A farmer plants rice seedlings in a paddy field on the outskirts of Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — A new World Bank report said Burma can greatly increase its agricultural exports if it can improve the quality of rice through investments in rice mills, while it should also reduce transport costs and formulate policies to support rice export and agricultural production.

Burma's reformist government aims to improve agricultural productivity and rice exports, and it has set a goal of exporting 4 million metric tons of rice by 2020. The report, titled "Capitalizing on Rice Export Opportunities", said that since reforms began in 2011 rice exports have significantly increased, but in the past two years export volumes levelled off at about 1.3 million tons annually.

It said much of the rice produced in Burma is of low quality and unfit for export to high-value markets such as the European Union, where Burmese products are exempt from import tariffs under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences, which grants least developed countries preferential market access.

"The current rice export strategy favors the production of low quality rice, which is largely sold to Africa and China. Consequently, farmers have earned minimal profits and agribusinesses have skipped necessary investments," a World Bank press release said. "The situation is worsening as the global demand for low quality broken rice is shrinking."

Burma's agriculture sector is the country's largest employer and 70 percent of all Burmese live in rural areas, but under the previous military regime the sector saw little improvement in agricultural productivity, while rice exports fell sharply compared to the 1960s.

Paddy yields in Burma are among the lowest in Southeast Asia at 2.5 metric tons per hectare and most rice mills used outdated machinery that produces rice with a high percentage of broken grains, making it unsuitable for foreign export markets, according to the World Bank.

"The milling sector operates with obsolete processing units that causes about 15-20 percent losses in quality and quantity during the milling," it said, adding that the government should take measures to attract foreign investment to the rice milling sector so that it can upgrade its machinery and produce better quality rice for export.

The report said the government should also take steps to make commercial loans more easily available to rice millers, who need capital to buy up paddy stocks for milling.

"A more efficient milling sector would give strong incentives to kick-start farm productivity growth as illustrated by the recent experience in Cambodia, but investments in public goods will be the key to maintain that growth over the long run," the report.

Other short term measures include establishing a predictable trade policy and lowering port charges and reducing export procedure costs. "Yangon Port, the main export gate, is small, outdated and with limited capacity during monsoons. The export procedure costs are some of the highest in the region," the report added.

To improve long-term rice production the World Bank said Burma's government should take steps such as improving water management, engaging farmers into decision-making, providing land tenure security and making investments in rural roads that connect farms to markets.

Soe Tun, general secretary of the Myanmar Rice Exporters Association, shared the conclusion of the World Bank report and he told The Irrawaddy in a recent interview that total rice exports in 2013-2014 had in fact dipped to 1.2 million tons, down from 1.47 million tons the year before.

According to the association, about 60 percent of exported rice goes to China and another large share is sent to South Africa, while small quantities of high-quality rice were shipped to the EU and Japan, with the latter receiving about 5,000 tons of Burmese rice last year.

Upgrading the country's rice mills, Soe Tun said, would be a key step towards boosting exports. "Our rice milling industry is quite old; more than 90 percent of total rice mills in Burma are of low quality… That's why we can export very little high-quality rice to Japan last year," he said.

Agriculture and rice milling have so far failed to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) required for improving rice production and processing.

"There is very little FDI in this agriculture sector. The investment rate in this sector is not increasing," Soe Tun said. "We need support from the government, and should work together with others in the private sector, government and other INGOs and local NGOs to improve the sector."

"We need to upgrade our cultivation system as well as the milling system. [And] we're facing a lack of infrastructure to export rice, for example, logistics fees are quite high, 25 percent of total [production costs are spent on logistics," said Soe Tun.

"Now, the transport costs of from Yangon to Muse [a Burma-China border crossing] is more than the transport cost from Yangon to Africa."

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India Rebuffs ‘Simplistic’ UN Criticism Over Sex Crimes

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 11:07 PM PDT

India rape, sexual violence

Demonstrators from All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against the recent killings of two teenage girls, in New Delhi May 31, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

GENEVA — India has rebuffed accusations by a U.N. investigator that sex crimes are rife in the world’s biggest democracy, calling her analysis "simplistic" and full of "sweeping generalizations".

India’s large northern state of Uttar Pradesh has seen a wave of violence and sex crimes, including the rape and murder of two girls aged 12 and 14, which stirred national outrage.

The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, said violence against women was systematic and continued "from womb to tomb" in a report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"According to numerous interlocutors, the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of women in the private sphere is widely tolerated by the State and the community," Manjoo wrote.

In its response, posted on the Council’s website on Thursday, India called that allegation "baseless". It said she had made "unsubstantiated yet sweeping generalizations".

"We do not agree with the labelling of ‘violence against women in India as systematic’," India said. "Such a sweeping remark smacks of a highly prejudiced state of mind."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that respecting and protecting women should be a priority for the 1.25 billion people in India. "The government will have to act," Modi said, breaking his silence on the crime wave.

Manjoo, a South African law professor, said India should try to raise awareness of practices such as acid attacks against women who refuse a marriage proposal, so-called honor crimes where family members murder a woman because they believe she has dishonored them for example by opposing an arranged marriage, as well as executions of women branded as "witches".

Her report ranged from decrying degrading tests used on rape victims to urging India to define marital rape as a criminal offence and to repeal a law that criminalized consensual same-sex behavior.

On honor killings, the government said it gave "due consideration" to an Indian Law Commission report that had suggested a legal framework to tackle the practice.

It said "witch-hunts" were not a national phenomenon and complaints were always investigated. It said Manjoo should have informed the government if she knew of specific cases where there had been a complaint but no investigation.

India’s response to Manjoo’s report listed 16 allegations that it said were not backed up by facts.

The examples it gave included her claim that sexual violence was widespread across the country, that members of the security forces had committed mass rapes, that trafficking of women and girls to and from India was widespread, and that police and officials discriminated against people from certain castes.

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Ferry Family Boss Eludes South Korea’s Biggest and Most Bizarre Manhunt

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 10:56 PM PDT

South Korea manhunt

A South Korea navy officer gives a briefing about a rescue operation to the family members of missing passengers onboard the sunken passenger ship Sewol in the port city of Jindo on April 25, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon)

SEOUL — South Korea's biggest and most bizarre manhunt, linked to a ferry disaster in which hundreds drowned, has come full circle at the compound of a sect known for its organic ice cream as police on Thursday used earth movers to search for tunnels.

Police have raided the grounds of the Evangelical Baptist Church in Anseong, a two-hour drive south of Seoul, twice as they try to flush out church co-founder Yoo Byung-un, 73, South Korea's most wanted man since the Sewol ferry sank in April killing more than 300 people, mostly children from the same school.

But, so far, Yoo, a businessman and photographer who was once jailed for fraud, has eluded capture in a case that has become an embarrassment for authorities already under pressure for their handling of the disaster.

Yoo is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from a web of business holdings centered on I-One-I, an investment vehicle owned by his sons that ran the shipping company, Chonghaejin Marine.

Chonghaejin owned the Sewol, which sank off the southwest coast on April 16 on a routine journey from Incheon on the mainland to the southern holiday island of Jeju.

Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers from the same school. Only 172 people were rescued and the remainder are all presumed to have drowned.

The hunt for Yoo, who once held a photographic exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, has sent authorities chasing leads from the sect compound to remote towns in southwestern Jeolla province—and back again to the compound.

The latest raid began on Wednesday and involved 6,000 police and investigators. Besides Yoo and one son, prosecutors said they were looking for two middle-aged female sect members known as "mamas" accused of helping him escape. Dogs roamed the compound sniffing for scent from Yoo's belongings.

Last month, police arrested a man on suspicion that he delivered organic food grown and marketed by the church to Yoo, as well as one of his drivers. Some church members handed out ice cream to police and journalists on Wednesday. Others threatened to fight police.

One said church members would protect Yoo.

"I don't know where he is, but he won't turn up until everything is clear about why the ferry sank," a man who said he had been a sect member for 30 years, told Reuters outside the compound.

"I respect him as a mentor. He is our fellow believer and we will protect him."

Authorities have offered a half-million-dollar reward for Yoo, the maximum allowed for an individual in a criminal case, and quietly enlisted the military, a sensitive subject in a country where memories remain vivid of troops mobilized to suppress democracy movements from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Police said they believe Yoo and one son are still in the country. Another son is based in the United States and his whereabouts could not be established by Reuters.

"We haven't received information that they have stowed away or left for somewhere. We believe we can capture Yoo and his son," Lee Sang-won, commissioner of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency, said.

Yoo's daughter, Yoo Som-Na, has been held in France since May 28 after Interpol called for her arrest "for fraud and embezzlement." She was denied bail on Wednesday.

There have been no charges against Yoo directly related to the ferry disaster, although prosecutors are trying to establish a link between the financial charges and the sinking.

Fifteen members of the ferry's crew are on trial on charges ranging from homicide to negligence after they were caught on video abandoning ship as the children stayed put in their cabins.

Enlisting the military's help in the hunt shows just how desperate the government is to catch Yoo and satisfy an outraged public's demand for accountability.

"Basically in the south and west, the units based there have been looking out for people illegally entering, especially at night," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a news briefing. "Related to that, there's a chance Yoo Byung-un may try to secretly flee, so guard duties are focused a little more on people being smuggled out."

Fatigue has become a factor as the manhunt drags on, with about a dozen investigators photographed sprawled out napping in a gym inside the Anseong compound during Wednesday's raid.

President Park Geun-hye this week said "it made no sense" that such a massive search operation had come up empty, and some sect members suggested the raid was staged to placate a bloodthirsty public.

Yu Chang-seon, an independent political commentator, said the search was excessive, expressing a minority view in a country still in mourning.

"Considering the charges against Yoo, this is basically a financial case," he said. "We should be holding him responsible to some degree, but the scale of the whole thing is unprecedented."

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Neymar Leads Brazil to 3-1 Win Over Croatia

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 10:19 PM PDT

Brazil

Brazil's Neymar celebrates his goal against Croatia during their 2014 World Cup opening match at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo on Thursday. (Photo: Reuters)

SAO PAULO — Neymar gave Brazil a winning start to its home World Cup, scoring twice to lead the host nation to an unconvincing 3-1 victory over Croatia in the opening game on Thursday.

In his 50th match with Brazil, the 22-year-old forward scored a goal in each half to help the hosts survive an early scare and escape disaster in front of a packed Itaquerao Stadium after Croatia had taken an early lead.

Marcelo found his own net while trying to clear a low cross by Ivica Olic in the 11th minute, but Neymar then showed why the nation's high hopes are all pinned on him.

He equalized in the 29th minute, clearing a defender in midfield before making a run toward the edge of the area and firing a perfectly placed low shot that went in off the post.

The game turned on a controversial penalty awarded by Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura in the 71st minute when striker Fred went down inside the area under minimal contact from defender Dejan Lovren.

Neymar scored from the spot for his 33rd goal with Brazil. The Barcelona star got a standing ovation when he was substituted near the end of the match.

"It's important to start these tournaments with the right foot, with a victory," Neymar said. "I'm happy that I got to score, but the entire team deserves credit. We maintained our calm and showed we could battle back."

The Croatians were furious.

"If that was a penalty, we should be playing basketball. Those kinds of fouls are penalized there," Croatia coach Niko Kovac said.

"That is shameful, this is not a World Cup referee. He had one kind of criteria for them and another for us. The rules were not the same," Kovac said.

As Croatia searched desperately for an equalizer, Oscar added to the lead in the first minute of injury time with a toe poke from just outside the penalty area.

Croatia had a few good chances toward the end and had a goal disallowed in the 83rd after the referee ruled Olic had fouled Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

The host nation hasn't lost the last nine times it played in the opening match. South Africa was held by Mexico to a 1-1 draw four years ago.

A draw would have been a huge disappointment for Brazil, which had won its opening match the last eight times. The five-time champion entered the home tournament having won 15 of its last 16 games, including five in last year's Confederations Cup, the warm-up tournament it won. The team hadn't been held to a draw in the opener since a 1-1 result against Sweden in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.

"The team didn't give up," Brazil defender David Luiz said "We knew it would be hard but we played well and got that first goal and then the victory."

The result kept Croatia without a win in its last five World Cup matches. Its last triumph was a 2-1 win over Italy in 2002. The Croats didn't play in South Africa four years ago.

The tournament finally got underway as planned after months of talk about the preparation problems that plagued Brazil since it was picked as host seven years ago.

The troubled Itaquerao, which wasn't fully finished for the opener, held up without major setbacks to fans or the match itself, although part of the lights atop the pitch went out a few times for brief periods in the first half.

Despite the support from most of the more than 62,100 fans in attendance, Brazil got off to a slow start and allowed Croatia to threaten early. It opened the scoring with one of its first chances as Marcelo failed to clear Olic's cross. The ball was slightly redirected by striker Nikica Jelavic before the Brazilian defender touched it backward into the goal.

"I stayed calm because if I let myself get down I would have hurt the team," Marcelo said. "It's not the first time that this has happened, so you have to stay relaxed to help the team."

The penalty kick was awarded when Fred appeared to be tugged inside the area by Lovren. The Croats insisted Fred wasn't touched and at least five Croatian players swarmed around Nishimura of Japan to protest.

Neymar converted his shot from the spot even though Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa touched the ball and nearly made the save.

Neymar had received a yellow card in the 27th for elbowing Real Madrid playmaker Luka Modric.

The other Group A match will be played between Mexico and Cameroon in Natal on Friday.

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Junta Engineers World Cup Coup for Thailand

Posted: 12 Jun 2014 10:15 PM PDT

World Cup

Singers Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull perform during the opening ceremony of the 2014 World Cup at the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo on Thursday. (Photo: Reuters)

BANGKOK — The military junta that overthrew Thailand's elected government struck a blow for freedom Thursday—the freedom to watch soccer.

As part of its goal to "return happiness to the Thai people," the junta engineered a World Cup coup that will enable the country's many soccer fans to watch all of the tournament's 64 matches for free.

The move is the latest to highlight the irony of the junta's pursuit of happiness, as it tries to win support by embracing populist policies after kicking out an administration less than a month ago that it criticized for doing the same thing.

"We hope that every Thai will receive happiness from viewing the 2014 World Cup games. Please watch and enjoy, all of you," said Lt. Gen. Chatudom Titthasiri, president of the army's Channel 5 television station.

The generals stepped in Wednesday by asking regulatory officials to find a way to deliver the World Cup to the masses. The intervention came after the telecom regulator lost its second court case seeking to have RS International Broadcasting air the matches on free TV channels.

RS, the company holding the exclusive broadcast rights, had planned to allow just 22 games to be broadcast for free. Viewing the remainder of the matches would have required fans to buy a 1,590 baht ($50) decoder box, a sum too pricey for many fans, especially in low-income rural areas.

On Thursday, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission held a news conference to announce it had struck a 427 million baht ($13 million) compensation deal with RS so the entire World Cup can be shown on free channels.

The tournament, which starts in the middle of the night Thailand time, will be broadcast on two military-run channels, in addition to a digital channel owned by RS.

The fee falls far short of the 766 million baht ($23 million) that RS had proposed to make up for the losses of its decoder boxes and licensing fees, the regulator said.

The company had initially threatened to black out the World Cup if it was forced to broadcast it for free. But its chief operating officer, Pornpan Techarungchaikul, tweeted a reaction to the deal that stayed on script with the theme of happiness, saying the company was "willing to cooperate" so all Thais could watch the event for free.

The junta that seized power May 22 has curbed freedom of expression, banned political assembly of more than five people, and has no plans to restore civilian rule any time soon. It has also summoned and temporarily detained hundreds of activists, politicians, academics and journalists who have been warned not to criticize the coup.

On Thursday, a military court extended the detention of prominent activist Sombat Boonngam-anong for an additional 12 days. Under martial law, Sombat could face up to 14 years in prison on possible charges of inciting unrest, violating cyber laws and defying the junta's orders. Sombat had spearheaded an online campaign calling for people to raise a three-finger salute borrowed from "The Hunger Games" to show opposition to the coup.

Last month's coup ousted the civilian government of ex-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, which had faced months of street protests that left dozens dead and the government paralyzed. The junta said it acted to restore order.

The military government now says that new elections will take at least a year, after political reforms occur. In the meantime, it has launched an official campaign to bring back happiness, something it says the divided nation desperately needs.

The campaign has involved weekly free concerts that offer free food and free haircuts. Authorities have announced that this week's concert will include free flu shots and entertainment including dog shows.

On Sunday, the junta is offering free admission nationwide to cinemas screening the latest installment of a popular Thai movie, "The Legend of King Naresuan 5," a nationalistic, historic epic.

While some soccer fans were bound to cheer the junta for its World Cup freebie, not all were pleased.

"This is not the way to create sustainable happiness," said Manchester United fan Paisarn Ruchisawatwong, who is rooting for the Brazil national team. "The World Cup comes and goes, but what happens next? Will the economy be good? Will Thais stop fighting? You can't just sweep our problems under the carpet by giving us free soccer matches."

For those who don't follow the sport, it seemed a high price to pay.

"I don't watch soccer, so I disagree with spending millions of baht to let everyone watch the World Cup for free," said Supanan Thaodai, a 27-year-old freelance art director in Bangkok. "The money should be spent on things that benefit everyone."

The post Junta Engineers World Cup Coup for Thailand appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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