Friday, July 4, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Bullet Points

Posted: 04 Jul 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Today on Bullet Points:

DVB video journalist Zaw Pe was freed from Thayet prison in Magwe early on Friday afternoon.

Burmese Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing has hailed the recent Thai military coup on a visit to Bangkok.

Seven miners from the Moehti Moemi goldmine have been sentenced to 20 months in prison.

France's largest bank, BNP Paribas has been fined nine billion dollars for violating US sanctions.

 

Watch Bullet Points on DVB TV after the 7 ‘o clock news.

Kyaukphyu SEZ construction undergoing bidding process

Posted: 04 Jul 2014 02:45 AM PDT

The construction companies for a planned special economic zone in Arakan State will be selected through an international tender process that will conclude in December, officials in charge of the SEZ said on Thursday.

The Kyaukphyu SEZ project– which will include a port, an industrial zone and a residential area – is led by Singapore-based CPG company. According to state media, it is valued at about US$227 million.

Myint Thein, secretary of the project's committee, said on Thursday during an event in Rangoon that three companies will be selected in December to construct the project, which will span about 4,000 acres.

"We will choose the three developers for this Kyaukphyu special economic zone in December. They have to then draw up the detailed planning in January and February," Myint Thein said. "After drawing up the plan, we will go through the project plan."

The government has high hopes for this industrial zone because of its geographical location, said Maung Maung Thein, deputy minister of finance, who is also serving on the selection committee for the SEZ's construction companies.

"Kyaukphyu is situated between three giants," Maung Maung Thein said.

Situated near China and India, the SEZ's deep sea port will also be able to process commerce from ASEAN member states as well, he said.

The location of the economic zone is the starting point for the Shwe Gas pipeline to China. Backed by an international consortium headed by the China National Petroleum Corporation, the oil and gas pipelines run 500 miles from Kyaukphyu to Yunnan, China, and currently pumps natural gas from the Bay of Bengal with crude oil due to begin flowing later this year.

Besides the Kyaukphyu SEZ, Burma is also implementing SEZs in Thilawa, in southern Rangoon, and Dawei, in Tenasserim Division. A Chin State minister also said this week that two SEZs planned in the state capital Hakha and Tedim will be completed in early 2015.

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Min Aung Hlaing hails Thai coup

Posted: 04 Jul 2014 01:09 AM PDT

The visiting Burmese armed forces leader Min Aung Hlaing on Friday praised the decision by Thai generals to seize power in the May 22 coup.

Gen Min Aung Hlaing said he has confidence in the Thai armed forces as “they are duty-bound to maintain national security and ensure safety for the public,” the Supreme Command quoted him as saying in a press release on his talks with Thai Supreme Commander Tanasak Patimaprakorn.

“We also have confidence in the success of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) roadmap,” he added, according to the press release.

Burma went through a worse situation than Thailand in 1988, he claimed.

The Burmese armed forces cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 and subsequently rejected the election in 1990 won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

Gen Tanasak, who is the NCPO deputy chairman, claimed all Burmese workers in Thailand would be taken well care of. The junta is implementing a policy to end the use of illegal migrants and legalise their status in Thailand, according to the press release.

He pledged deepening cooperation with Burma at all levels including defence relations, strengthening border ties, an exchange of military personnel and the participation of Burma in the joint military drill Cobra Gold this year.

The coup regime set up the first centre to register illegal workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia in Samut Sakhon province on Monday. Similar one-stop centres are due to be opened in all provinces by mid-July as part of the policy to end the illegal, lucrative business of trafficking in illegal, smuggled labour.

This article was originally published in the Bangkok Post on 4 July 2014.

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France’s largest bank hit with $9B fine for violating US sanctions

Posted: 04 Jul 2014 12:35 AM PDT

France's largest bank, BNP Paribas (BNPP), will plead guilty to violating US trade sanctions by processing billions of dollars for Burmese entities – as well as institutions from Iran, Sudan and Cuba – via US financial institutions, and will face a record penalty of nearly US$9 billion.

According to a 30 June statement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), BNPP's admission of guilt is "the first time a financial institution has agreed to plead guilty based on large-scale, systematic violations of US economic sanctions."

DOJ documents show that BNPP conspired with banks and other entities located in Burma, Iran, Sudan and Cuba from 2004 to 2012 to "knowingly, intentionally and willfully move at least $8,833,600,000 through the US financial system on behalf of Sanctioned Entities in violation of US sanction laws".

The conspiracy involved BNPP using an elaborate method of "payment messages", which concealed the transactions of sanctioned entities processing through BNPP's New York branches and other American financial institutions.

The French bank also structured payments in highly complicated ways, instructed co-conspirator financial institutions not to mention the sanctioned entities in their payment messages, and removed information naming identifying the sanctioned institutions.

US Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell condemned BNPP's evasion and persisted in the violations even after their own lawyers informed them of the illegality.

"BNPP deliberately disregarded US law of which it was well aware, and placed its financial network at the services of rogue nations, all to improve its bottom line," Caldwell said in the DOJ statement. "Remarkably, BNPP continued to engage in this criminal conduct even after being told by its own lawyers that what it was doing was illegal."

While BNPP's admission of guilt will waive criminal charges, stiff penalties will be instated, said Richard Weber, chief of the US Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation department.

"BNP Paribas will forfeit the historic figure of almost $8.9 billion representing the proceeds of criminal activity," Weber said. "BNPP had many opportunities to take corrective action and abide by the law, and yet, despite warnings from American regulators and other banks, consciously chose to ignore those warnings and commit literally thousands of flagrant violations."

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According to a 1 July statement released by BNPP, CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe expressed regret for the institution's past misconduct.

"The failures that have come to light in the course of this investigation run contrary to the principles on which BNP Paribas has always sought to operate," he said, adding that the bank is working with US authorities to "strengthen" its internal controls and processes.

Despite this hefty fine, Bonnafe said that the bank still be able to post "solid results" for this quarter.

BNPP is the second institution that the US government has fined in June in relation to violating sanctions by conducting businesses with Burmese entities.

Earlier last month, Fokker Services, a Dutch aerospace company, was hit with a $21 million fine for providing services between 2005 and 2010 to Myanma Airways, Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan – which is owned by Burmese tycoon Tay Za, who has close links to the junta.

Sacked religious affairs minister swears he is innocent

Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:44 PM PDT

Deposed Religious Affairs Minister Hsan Hsint appeared in a Naypyidaw court on Thursday to face a hearing for his forthcoming trial following charges for misappropriation of state funds.

As he left the courthouse, the controversial minister was mobbed by crowds. He called to reporters to maintain his innocence, and said the alleged case of embezzlement had been brought up before and that he had been cleared.

"I see this as extremely unjust," he called out. "I believe the Śāsana [Buddhist religion] will protect those who work in the interest of the Śāsana."

Hsan Hsin's remarks would appear to relate to widely accepted rumours that he had been sacked as a result of his handling of the Mahasantisukha Monastery debacle last month when officials from the Religious Affairs Department and riot police raided the monastery and apprehended resident monks and their supporters.

The monks were escorted to the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee – the highest order of the Buddhist monkhood in the land – and were disrobed. The monastery is at the centre of a land ownership dispute.

"I would like to request the Sangha Maha Nayaka leaders and the Buddhist community to understand that I did the right thing, and to stand by me and protect me," he called out to supporters. "I call upon the deities of righteousness and divine guards of the Śāsana to protect me!

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"I swear an oath that to this day, I have never misappropriated a penny from state funds."

Hsan Hsint was elected as a representative of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party in the Irrawaddy Division Parliament in the 2010 elections, and became parliamentary speaker before being offered the position as head of the Religious Affairs Ministry by the Union Government.

Prior to the elections in 2010, he served in the army as a major-general and was posted as the deputy-commander of the Rangoon Regional Military Command.

After the court hearing on 3 July, Hsan Hsint was taken back into custody at Yamethin Prison where he will be remanded pending a further hearing in two weeks.

 

DVB journalist Zaw Pe freed

Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:39 PM PDT

DVB video journalist Zaw Pe was released from Thayat prison in Magwe at 1pm on Friday.

Win Myint Hlaing, charged alongside Zaw Pe, was also freed.

The pair's release spells an end to a three-month term in Magwe's Thayat Prison, yet the dark uncertainty over their future has been hanging over the pair for far longer.

“I have nothing to be grateful about,” complained Zaw Pe by telephone from outside the gates of the prison. “I shouldn’t have been jailed in the first place.”

Zaw Pe was released from custody on Friday after his one-year sentence for “trespassing” and “disturbing a civil servant” was reduced to three months.

It was August 2012 when Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing, the father of a student, were arrested and charged with articles 448 and 353 of the Burmese penal code, respectively "trespassing" and "disturbing a civil servant on duty". Those accusations were made after the pair attempted to conduct and interview at Magwe education department, into irregularities in the allocation of Japanese scholarship money.

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On that day, Zaw Pe rolled his camera as Win Myint Hlaing questioned an education official, who, became irate and terminated the interview. The official later pressed charges and the pair were summoned to Magwe Police station. They were detained and questioned. Zaw Pe's video camera, memory card and press badge were confiscated.

On 7 April, nearly two years later, Magwe Township Court found both men guilty of the two crimes and sentenced them to serve two one-year sentences concurrently. On Thursday a court upheld an appeal lodged on behalf of the pair by lawyer Thein Tun, who argued that Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing were acting appropriately in their role as journalists.

Yet neither has been acquitted of their crimes, an acknowledgement of the continued ability for criminal codes to be contorted against journalists, says David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch.

"While great news for Zaw Pe and his family, it doesn’t excuse the fact he was unfairly charged and convicted, and laws are still used to intimidate Burmese media throughout the country." Mathieson said. The national government should be guaranteeing the freedom of the media, not fostering an ambiguous and threateningly ambiguous environment that seeks to curtail their profession.

Zaw Pe's conviction sparked a local and international condemnation. Amnesty International, labeled the DVB reporter a prisoner of conscience and set about a mass letter writing campaign.

Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director said that:

“Amnesty International welcomes the news that journalist Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing have had their prison sentences reduced and are due to be released this weekend. However, the fact remains that they should not have been arrested and imprisoned in the first place.

“Many other prisoners of conscience – including journalists – remain jailed in Myanmar. They must all be immediately and unconditionally released. The Myanmar authorities must stop using oppressive legislation to punish peaceful dissent, or more people will continue to be imprisoned simply for peacefully exercising their human rights.”

“I have nothing to be grateful about. I shouldn’t have been jailed in the first place.”

Burma Campaign UK ran a campaign to lobby British Foreign Secretary William Hague on behalf of the jailed reporter. Mark Farmaner, director of the rights group, said:

"It is very good news that Zaw Pe will be freed, but it would be wrong to think implies any improvement in press freedom. By jailing Zaw Pe the government has already achieved its goal of sending a warning message to journalists, and negative publicity about his case was damaging their reputation.

"There is a clear shift in tactics by the government to use shorter jail sentences to intimidate activists and media, rather than the decades long sentences they used to use, but which also draw stronger international condemnation."

Rachel Wagley, policy director at US Campaign for Burma, also called on the Thein Sein government to adhere to promises of media reform.

“While Zaw Pe is now slated to be released and will be reunited with his family, his arrest and treatment call into question the Burmese government’s commitment to media freedom. The government must end the practice of politically arresting and charging journalists and instead build an environment where all journalists are granted basic rights.”

In that respect, Zaw Pe's release is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy Burmese media landscape. Revitalised by the revoking of pre-publication censorship, the repatriation of "exile media organisations" and the establishment of press councils independent from the Ministry of Information, media freedoms in Burma have been halted recently.

The Special Intelligence Department, commonly known as the Special Branch, started visiting various media companies last week, including the Voice Daily, Myanmar Post, People Era Weekly, The Irrawaddy, and the recently closed Unity Weekly, to interrogate staff on the financial details of how their paper is run.

The Interim Press Council, an autonomous network of media experts convened by presidential decree, characterized the Special Branch probes as harassment posing a disturbing threat to press freedom.

However, DVB Rangoon bureau chief Toe Zaw Latt hopes that restrictions on Burmese reporters will continue to wane, even in regional administrations seemingly slower to take up reforms than more metropolitan areas such as Rangoon.

"We see this as a very positive move by the authorities although we believe that he is innocent of both charges he was jailed under and that the sentence should be completely dropped.

"We expect that authorities in Magwe – in line with this country's reforms – will have a more moderate sentiment on media workers in the future."

 

Min Aung Hlaing to visit Thailand today

Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:09 PM PDT

The Thai Defence Ministry will welcome Burma's supreme commander who will pay an official visit to Thailand on Friday to strengthen the two nation's ties.

Supreme Commander Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn, who also serves as deputy chief of Thailand’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), and army chief and NCPO head Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, will welcome Burma’s military commander-in-chief, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, on Friday to tighten military ties.

The visit by Burma’s military will be the second made by the head of a foreign military since the May 22 coup, after Malaysia's Supreme Commander Tan Sri Dato' Zulkifeli bin Mohd Zin met Thai army leaders in Bangkok early last month.

Meanwhile, Gen Tanasak has returned from an official visit to India between Saturday and Monday.

Gen Tanasak met Indian Supreme Commander Bikram Singh to discuss the annual Cobra Gold military exercise that will take place between July 25 and Aug 8 in Thailand, in which India will also participate.

Gen Tanasak was the first foreign guest to have paid a visit to India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took office in May.

Gen Tanasak also met Indian Finance Minister and Defence Minister Shri Arun Jaitley to discuss economic and socially sustainable growth across Asia.

Also included in the discussion between Gen Tanasak and Indian finance minister was the issue of building a possible land transport route from India to Thailand through Myanmar.

Gen Tanasak’s Indian visit reflects the good relationship between the two nations, a military source said. The source said India understands the need for Thailand’s coup.

This article was originally published in the Bangkok Post on 2 July 2014.

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