The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Journalists Protesting Sentencing Barred From Thein Sein Event
- Sexism, Racism, Poor Education Condemn Rohingya Women
- The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 12, 2014)
| Journalists Protesting Sentencing Barred From Thein Sein Event Posted: 12 Jul 2014 03:34 AM PDT  Journalists in Rangoon stage a protest over curbs to press freedom in Burma near the Myanmar Peace Center. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Journalists in Rangoon wearing t-shirts to protest the jailing of four reporters and the CEO of the Unity journal were refused entry to an event involving President Thein Sein, sparking protests and a boycott of the meeting by other media. About two dozen journalists trying to cover an event at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) wore t-shirts on which were printed the words "Stop Killing Press." They were barred from the event—in which the president was meeting with local celebrities—and proceeded to hold a silent demonstration, taping over their mouths to imply freedom of expression is being curtailed in Burma. The demonstrating reporters said they wore the t-shirts to send a message of protest to Thein Sein over the sentences of 10 years with hard labor that were passed down to five people in Pakokku, Magwe Division, on Thursday. The conviction of the four journalists and the CEO of the Unity journal followed a lawsuit filed by the President's Office accusing them of publishing state secrets and trespassing in relation to an article in January that said a military facility in Magwe was being used to produce chemical weapons. The sentences have been denounced as harsh, and campaigners have pointed out that they are contradictory to the recently passed Press Law, which rules out prison sentences for journalists found to have broken the law in their work. "The president should not misunderstand us," said Shwe Hmon, one of the protesting journalists. "If the media is blacked out, the whole country will suffer. No one will benefit from it." She said reporters wearing the protest t-shirts were prevented by police from even entering the street on which the MPC is located. As a result, other journalists boycotted the event, during which the president met with movie stars, musicians and other people from the dramatic arts. "Today we are showing our solidarity and that we all are fighting for media freedom in Burma," said one photojournalist who joined the boycott. Maung Maung Oo, the police security chief who barred the journalists, told The Irrawaddy that the reporters were turned away not because of the protest t-shirts but because they were not dressed "properly to cover the presidential event." "You shouldn't cover an event where the head of the state is present wearing a t-shirt," he said. Myint Thien, one of the local journalists wearing the t-shirt, countered that they had not been informed of an official dress code for the event. With only government-affiliated media inside the MPC's meeting hall, other journalists stood in silence at the entrance to the building. "Even murderers rarely get 10 years in prison in this country, but journalists do," said Myint Thein, a local reporter. "I wonder if the government is targeting us for what we report." On Friday morning, dozens of journalists gathered at the prayer hall of the bronze sitting Buddha near the eastern stairway of Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda to pray and release birds for the Unity journalists. Also on Friday, the US-based group Freedom House issued a statement to condemning the sentences. "Myanmar's sentencing five journalists to 10 years imprisonment for doing their job is a huge blow for press freedom in Myanmar and reverses signs of positive change," David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House, said in the statement. The post Journalists Protesting Sentencing Barred From Thein Sein Event appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Sexism, Racism, Poor Education Condemn Rohingya Women Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:00 PM PDT  A displaced Rohingya woman sits with her child outside a temporary camp in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) THET KE PYIN, Burma — When I first met Roma Hattu, a stateless Rohingya Muslim, in April 2013, she was rolling on the dirty concrete floor of an abandoned building in western Burma, heavily pregnant and in excruciating pain. She had taken shelter in the building after Buddhist-Muslim riots in June 2012 had forced her family, like tens of thousands of other Rohingya, to leave their homes in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, and move to squalid displacement camps. A month ago, when I returned to Sittwe, I tracked down Hattu, now 31, to see how she was faring two years after the riots. I found her in a dark, dingy room at the end of a long dormitory, eight months pregnant—her fourth pregnancy—and once again in pain. "My heart beats too fast and I feel dizzy. I can't sleep and I can't eat," she said, as her year-old son, whose birth we had assisted by sending the cash-strapped mother to hospital in our car, slept soundly next to her on the bamboo floor. Money is a big worry for Hattu's family. Her husband, Kalia, is a traditional masseur. Before the riots, he used to earn around $10 a day. Now he's lucky to bring home $1 to $2. They lost their home and belongings during the riots and his job soon afterward, when Muslims were barred from Sittwe. "I told my husband I don't want more kids but he wouldn't listen," she said. My translator, a young Rohingya man, stopped translating. After repeated urging, he haltingly repeated what Hattu had said—her husband insists on sleeping with her and she could not say no, especially as she was the second wife. Hattu is uneducated and, like many other Rohingya women, does not understand the concept of family planning. The combination of poverty, pregnancy and pain that many Rohingya women endure is due to a potent combination of hostility from Buddhist Arakanese, the extreme conservatism of the Rohingya themselves and the low level of female education—the result partly of state policies and partly tradition. I've interviewed dozens of Rohingya women over the years, many of them struggling to look after large families or cope with pregnancy. Some had been abandoned by their husbands, either for a second wife from the same village or when they moved abroad to find work, as many Rohingya men do. Large Muslim Families Nationalists among Burma's majority Buddhists often point to the large families of Muslims, especially the Rohingya, to justify the religious violence that has claimed at least 240 lives and uprooted over 150,000 people, mainly Muslims, since June 2012. They say the large families are part of a Muslim drive to take over Burma—though Muslims make up only an estimated 4 percent of the 60 million population. Perversely, the aid agencies that could have promoted family planning, like Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland (MSF), have been expelled from Arakan State after being accused of favoritism toward the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in Burma despite living there for generations. Rights groups say the Rohingya face a litany of persecution and discrimination, from forced labor and land grabs to restrictions on movement and marriage. Rohingya women, many of whom are uneducated, stay-at-home wives and daughters, often find themselves at the bottom of the social ladder. Laila, for example, was 14 when she got married and 15 when she had her first baby. Six months ago, when she was pregnant with their third child, her husband fled Burma with his second wife, aged 18. Laila lost the baby. Now 20, Laila is the sole breadwinner in the family, which includes her husband's younger brother. She has resorted to selling half her rations from the World Food Programme to buy fish and firewood. Then there's Sinuwara Begum, who was about to deliver when her husband left their tarpaulin tent at dusk, ostensibly to board a fishing boat that would take him to Malaysia. He left her not a cent. She gave birth to twin boys days later. When we met, her babies were nine days old and she had still heard nothing from her husband. "Maybe he is still on the boat and has not arrived," she said, hope in her voice. The post Sexism, Racism, Poor Education Condemn Rohingya Women appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 12, 2014) Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:20 PM PDT Yadana Gas Field Set for Production Boost to Keep Thailand Supplied South Korean, Chinese and French firms have been shortlisted to build expansion facilities for the Yadana offshore gas field in Burma's Andaman Sea, industry reports said. The expansion is planned to boost production and maintain output as the field begins to age, said 2b1st Consulting of France. Most of the gas from the 5.3 trillion cubic feet field, which has been operating since 1998, goes by undersea pipeline to Thailand, with only a small volume assigned to Burma under the terms of an agreement signed by the former military regime. Yadana, operated by an international partnership led by Total of France and including Chevron of the US and the state-run Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise, will have a new platform and associated facilities added to boost production by 120 million cubic feet per day (cfpd), said 2b1st Consulting. At its peak the field has been delivering 750 million cfpd. "The race for the first of two main contracts that French major Total is tendering out for the phase four development of the Yadana field is understood to be down to a tight race between South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and a joint bid between China's Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC) and France's Technip," said Upstream oil and gas magazine. Total hopes to have the new facilities installed ready for the production boost in the first quarter of 2015, said 2b1st Consulting. UK Says It's Pressing Thailand on Burmese Migrant Labor Rights The British government is pressing the authorities in Thailand to improve the labor rights of Burmese migrant workers in the country. The London Foreign Office said it was closely monitoring the case of British citizen Andy Hall in Thailand awaiting trial on criminal libel charges for publishing allegations of Burmese worker abuse at a fruit canning factory near Bangkok in a report for human rights NGO Finnwatch. "We continue to raise the issue of labour rights in general with the Thai authorities, including those of migrant workers," said Alexandra McKenzie, deputy head of the Foreign Office Asean Department. "This is an issue to which the UK attaches great importance," she said in a letter to Hall seen by The Irrawaddy. However, McKenzie said London is "not able to interfere in an ongoing judicial process, nor attempt to influence the outcome of a trial; nor can we request that the Thai court or authorities drop charges." The case against Hall—brought by the Natural Fruit Company—is due to be heard in September and the court has confiscated his passport. If convicted, he faces up to seven years imprisonment. "The prosecution of Mr. Hall illustrates how Thailand's criminal defamation laws allow powerful corporations or individuals to criminalize and thereby silence the lawful exercise of freedom of expression guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Thailand in 1996," said Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada. Jade Price Rise Pushes Gems Auction to Record $3.4B Sale Burma's annual gems auction broke all records this year with sales income totaling US$3.4 billion, the Gems & Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association said. Most of the sales were for jade, with more than 6,000 lots going under the auctioneer's hammer, said DPA news agency this week, quoting the association. This year's auction took exactly $1 billion more than in 2013, the association said. Improved access to the country and a 20 percent rise in the value of jade boosted the total sales value. More than 4,000 buyers attended the auction, mainly from China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. However, an uncut lump of jade weighing about 250 kilograms with a starting price of $82 million failed to find a buyer, he said. Singapore is Biggest Foreign Investor in Burma So Far This Year Singaporean companies contributed almost all of Burma's incoming foreign investment in the first five months of this year, the Directorate of Investment and Companies Administration said. Singapore accounted for $1.9 billion of the total $2 billion in the January-May period. Thailand was a distant second, investing $114 million, while third-placed China invested $51 million. Most of the investment went into commodities, factory production facilities and tourism, said Eleven Media quoting the directorate. Five other Asian countries collectively invested another $114 million. Burma's giant neighbor India invested a mere $900,000 in the period. Record Visitor Turnout for Trade Fair will 'Stretch' Naypyidaw Hotels Organizers of a huge regional tourism fair in Burma's capital Naypyidaw next year say over 200 exhibitor booths have already been booked for the event. The Asean Tourism Forum, making its debut in Burma for the first time in its 34-year history, is scheduled to be held Jan. 22-29. The annual event usually attracts about 1,600 participants and the Ministry of Tourism has said there is enough accommodation in Naypyidaw to cope with such an influx. However, the travel magazine TTR Weekly said growing interest in Burma as a tourism center will make the Naypyidaw fair especially busy. "Sellers need to secure their booths early and all delegates will need to secure their hotel accommodation through officials channels as room capacity will be stretched to the limit to accommodate up to 2,000 trade visitors," TTR Weekly said. Counterfeit Goods Imports Threaten to Dissuade Foreign Investment A surging black market in illegally imported goods is discouraging some foreign investors from entering Burma, the Minister of Commerce said. The problem is compounded by the sale of counterfeit goods using internationally noted brand names, said Win Myint. "Japanese manufacturer Canon Inc. said they are holding off on setting up a Myanmar production facility until intellectual property laws are enacted and enforced, the Myanmar Times reported. "Analysts generally regard Myanmar's intellectual property environment as quite weak, with a full set of modern laws on patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright still not yet passed by parliament," it said. Search teams from the ministry of commerce will target Rangoon's main sea and airports in July in a bid to seize illegal and counterfeit goods as part of a crackdown, said Myanmar Times quoting the ministry. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 12, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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