Democratic Voice of Burma |
- Rangoon crime reporter beaten
- Govt says Tasang dam will benefit Burma
- Access to education ‘minimal’ in Arakan camps: official
- Bullet Points: 17 September 2014
- 20 injured in clash with police at closed Korean factory
| Posted: 17 Sep 2014 05:36 AM PDT A crime reporter was brutally beaten while working in Rangoon on Sunday night. He remains in the neurology ward at Rangoon General Hospital, as police from Kyauktada Township investigate the assault. Bo Myint, a reporter for Myanmar Newsweek, has previously covered sensitive topics like the plight of prostitutes in the city. He says he was assaulted by a man who believed him to be a whistle-blower. "The guy asked me 'Are you an informer?'” Bo Myint told DVB from his hospital bed. "'I know you are an informer' the man shouted. He smashed a bottle in his hand but then he threw it away. I turned and went the other way." "I then arrived at Kyaw Gyi's shop, because I wanted to interview him about the Dhammazedi Bell recovery attempt. But he wasn't there so I left. Then I was attacked on Bo Aung Kyaw Rd." Bo Myint said he managed to get up and run to a friend's bar nearby, where he lost consciousness. "I wasn't investigating anything sinister, but I have reported on prostitution in the area before, for my crime column. That probably angered someone." The assault was first reported to local media by prominent labour activist Su Su Nway. She said she was appalled by the incident and called for greater protection for journalists. |
| Govt says Tasang dam will benefit Burma Posted: 17 Sep 2014 05:24 AM PDT Deputy Minister of Electric Power Maung Thar Thwe fielded questions about the controversial Tasang hydropower project during a lower house parliamentary session on Tuesday, assuring the house that the project will be implemented with a focus on domestic needs. In response to a question by lower house member Nan Wah Nu, Maung Thar Thwe said that electrical distribution will benefit Burma's populations, and that the ministry plans to consult local communities about their concerns over potential impacts of the development. The deputy minister added, however, that it is too early to tell how much profit will be earned by the government and the contracted companies. Nan Wah Nu said that she was not satisfied with the deputy minister's vows, as reports of damages have already begun to emerge from around the site. Related Stories"That particular area is usually not flood-prone, but lately we have started seeing some inundation during the monsoon season," she told DVB on Tuesday, adding that the government has insisted that the project is still only in a planning phase. Local populations, she said, fear an impending forced relocation nonetheless. The Tasang hydropower project is the largest of six dam projects proposed for the Salween River. The dam is set to be located on the upper Salween in Shan State, eastern Burma. All of the proposed dams, which are at various stages of implementation, have faced enormous criticism for lack of consultation, potential mass relocation of indigenous peoples and concerns over environmental destruction. Two of the projects are currently stalled because of public opposition and concerns about possible human rights violations. The Tasang dam is expected to generate more than 7,000 megawatts of energy, which is being eyed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and two Chinese firms, Sinohydro Corporation and the China Three Gorges Corporation. Costs of the project are estimated at around US$6 billion.
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| Access to education ‘minimal’ in Arakan camps: official Posted: 17 Sep 2014 04:56 AM PDT Only eight percent of displaced Muslim children in western Burma's Arakan State have access to secondary education, according to a senior education coordinator. While the figure is up slightly from seven percent earlier this year, education provided to internally displaced persons (IDPs) remains minimal and informal. "At the moment, the majority of children are receiving just two hours of emergency education a day, which is [Burmese] language and mathematics. The teachers are not certified or recognised," said Arlo Kitchingman, who works for Save the Children and serves as Burma's "education cluster coordinator". As such, he oversees international organisations that implement emergency education programmes in Arakan and other conflict-affected areas. A Strategic Response Plan produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in 2013 estimated that 17,500 out of 23,500 primary-aged Muslim IDPs could regularly access education, but the new figures indicate that once they reach the 11-17 age bracket those numbers tend to nosedive. In contrast, access for non-Muslim children in the same age bracket is "much higher", but remains "quite low" in comparison to other parts of Burma.The level of education reaching the camps is extremely basic, said Kitchingman, with few teachers who volunteer at temporary learning places set up inside the camps. Another shadow looming over the state's education providers is whether the curriculum will be recognised by government schools in the event that IDPs can leave the camps and return home. "We're still not sure whether — if the situation changed — whether the learning taking place, which is actually minimal… would be recognised in government schools," said Kitchingman. Emergency education providers plan to expand the current curriculum to include subjects that mirror the government's and to boost the quality of education. |
| Bullet Points: 17 September 2014 Posted: 17 Sep 2014 04:56 AM PDT On today's edition of Bullet Points:
You can watch Bullet Points every weeknight on DVB TV after the 7 o'clock news. |
| 20 injured in clash with police at closed Korean factory Posted: 17 Sep 2014 02:39 AM PDT About 20 former employees of the now defunct Master Sports footwear factory were injured during a standoff with police after they held an official captive at the facility on Tuesday. A group of workers came to the Rangoon factory on 16 September to negotiate with representatives of the Department of Labour, which was tasked with carrying out an August court ruling that the workers should receive compensation for sudden dismissal. The group became irate when the labour department's Director General Win Shein was unable to provide exact information about when and how the workers would be paid. A worker told DVB that the official said only that the workers will be paid after the factory is auctioned off on 9 October. The workers then decided to stay at the factory in what they called a "sit-in", and said that they would not let the official out of their sight until he gave them an absolute date for their payment. Police arrived on the scene later in the day to remove Win Shein, ultimately leading to a physical skirmish between police and the group of workers. Tun Naing, a labour organiser, insisted that Win Shein was not taken captive, and that the police presence caused tensions to boil over. "Police came in to forcefully extract Win Shein, further upsetting the workers," said Tun Naing. "They weren't holding him hostage; they were only staging a sit-in, refusing to leave his sight until he gives them an answer." Lawyer U Htay, who specialises in settling labour disputes, said that three of the workers were hospitalised for their injuries at the site. While the situation got out of hand on Tuesday, he said, the root of the problem is an inadequate system for settling disputes. Related Stories"Ideally, labour disputes would be handled swiftly through relevant departments. Otherwise disagreements can easily lead to undesirable situations like this one, where workers end up getting hurt," he said. U Htay added that the Master Sports employees have tried official channels to settle the problem. While the labour department has ruled in their favour, he said that extensive delays have left the workers "desperate". "They end up in this type of situation because they are not earning money to pay for food and daily living expenses," he said. More than 750 mostly female workers were dismissed by the factory's South Korean management when the facility was suddenly shut down in late June. The company's owner and his affiliates are still at large, as they left the country shortly after shutting down the factory. The employees, who claim they were not given advance notice of the closure, received assistance from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security to seek legal recourse. The ministry eventually brokered a deal through with the help of the South Korean embassy whereby the company agreed to offer one month's pay as severance; however only 56 of the 755 dismissed workers accepted the package. Workers protested at the South Korean embassy in July to demand additional compensation. They later claimed the company had coerced some employees into signing predatory agreements relinquishing severance. Burma's labour ministry came to the workers' defense in a previously unheard of lawsuit against the missing foreign managers, and the Rangoon Division Labour Tribunal ruled in favour of the workers in August. The labour department was designated to carry out disbursement of funds, but no deadline has yet been set and the dismissed workers say the months without pay have caused severe hardship.
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