The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Parliament Proposes High-Level Charter Talks
• Upper House Adopts Nationwide PR System
• Govt to Push Left-Hand Steering Wheels on Future Car Imports
• Rangoon Authorities to Build New Road, Ferry Gate to Help Students Commute
• Irrawaddy Division Minister Says No Coal Power Without Public’s OK
• Report Warns Burma on Rice Price Volatility
• Exile Musician Denied Burmese Entry Visa
• Burma Army Releases 80 Child Soldiers
• A Week on the Road in North Korea
• ‘The Only Way Is Forward’
• China Seizes 31 Trafficking Suspects, 11 Burmese Victims Released
• Bangladesh Man Gets Death Penalty for War Crimes
• Hong Kong Authorities Begin Clearing Part of Mong Kok Protest Site

Parliament Proposes High-Level Charter Talks Posted: 25 Nov 2014 05:40 AM PST Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein at their first meeting in Naypyidaw on Aug. 19, 2011. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) MANDALAY — Burma's Union Parliament passed an urgent proposal on Tuesday calling for a six-member roundtable meeting about constitutional reform. The proposal, submitted by Upper House parliamentarian Myint Tun of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, requests a meeting between President Thein Sein, speakers Shwe Mann and Khin Aung Myint, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and an ethnic representative that has yet to be selected. "The meeting is important as the country needs to have a proper Constitution in order to create a better future," said Pe Than, a Lower House representative of Myay Pone in Arakan State. Lawmakers said that the meeting could be a major step toward reform, as military opposition to amendment of the controversial Article 436, which guarantees them veto power over most amendments to the charter, has brought progress to a standstill. The article has become the cornerstone in campaigns for constitutional reform because changing it would make further revisions much easier to achieve. Pe Than clarified that while the proposal for a high-level roundtable meeting was approved by Parliament, it has not yet been accepted by the other parties. "Without acceptance from the president and the commander in chief, our proposal will be in vain. We urge them to accept it for the sake of peace, stability and national reconciliation," he said. While a majority of parliamentarians supported the proposal for a meeting, some expressed doubt that it would have much impact. "I don't have high hopes for this [meeting] because I don't think the president can persuade the commander in chief," said Phone Myint Aung, a member of the Upper House. "Why would [the Burma Army] allow for the change of article 436 when it would cost them opportunities?" Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party and the face of Burma's constitutional reform movement, told reporters after the assembly that she does not oppose the idea of high-level discussions. "I do not oppose this proposal. This shows that the Parliament agrees that high-level leaders should have these discussions, and I consider this an improvement," Suu Kyi said outside of Parliament on Tuesday. Suu Kyi and her party have long called for a sit-down between herself, the president, the military chief and the speaker to discuss the issue of charter reform. That request is still unfulfilled, though the government called a 14-member roundtable meeting with a much broader scope in late October. The talks did not result in any publicly discernable progress. Burma's military-drafted 2008 Constitution has come under immense criticism for clauses that enshrine military control over Parliament and prevent Suu Kyi from becoming president. A committee was created in 2013 to review the charter and recommend amendments. Shwe Mann announced earlier this month that parliament would conclude its debate on constitutional reform on Nov. 25, by which point future changes will have already been agreed upon. The speaker added that some amendments would require a referendum after parliamentary approval which would be held in May 2015, but no changes would be implemented until after a general election slated for late 2015. Additional reporting by Htet Naing Zaw. The post Parliament Proposes High-Level Charter Talks appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Upper House Adopts Nationwide PR System Posted: 25 Nov 2014 04:23 AM PST   The Burmese Parliament in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma's Upper House on Monday approved a proposal to adopt a Proportional Representation (PR) voting system in all states and divisions for the election of Upper House lawmakers, a controversial decision opposed by Aung San Suu Kyi's party. A majority decision was reached with 138 lawmakers supporting the introduction of the PR system nationwide, while 24 MPs, mostly from the National league for Democracy (NLD) and ethnic minority parties, voted against and five MPs abstained. The decision means that Burma will have two different voting systems for the Houses of Parliament as it prepares for the 2015 general elections, which is supposed to be the country's first free and fair vote in 25 years. During the election, 75 percent of all parliamentary seats will be up for a vote, but a quarter of seats will remain under direct control of the military. A proposal to introduce PR in the Lower House failed on Nov. 14, when Union Parliament Speaker Shwe Mann announced that the proposal had been judged unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. He said the Lower House would keep the current First-Past-The-Post voting system. Under a PR system, the number of Parliament seats won by each party is proportionate to the number of votes received nationwide. Under the FPTP system, the winning lawmaker in each constituency takes a seat to represent the area in Parliament. In recent months, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)-dominated Houses of Parliament set up committees to change the voting system to PR, a move that was fiercely opposed by Suu Kyi's NLD and some of the ethnic minority parties. The proposal was first brought forward by the National Democratic Force, a small party aligned with the USDP. Banyar Aung Moe, an Upper House MP with the All Mon Region Democracy Party, said the decision to change the voting system for the Upper House to PR was constitutional. "It is different in the case of the Upper House. The PR system was considered unconstitutional in the Lower House because the Constitution states that for the formation of the Lower House the constituencies will divided based on the township and population. But for the Upper House, each division and region is considered as one single constituency," he explained. "In the Lower House, where the constituencies are based on township or population, there is one representative from each township, therefore the PR system can't be used," added Phone Myint Aung, an independent MP who is on the Upper House committee that studied the introduction of a PR system. The Constitution's Article 141(a) states that each region and state is represented by 12 Upper House lawmakers, while one lawmaker represents each of the seven Self-Administered Zones. Phone Myint Aung said that under the adopted proposal the accumulated votes for the regions and states will be translated into a share of Upper House seats. He added that the Self-Administered Zones will keep the current FPTP system. In June, the Upper House had already approved a plan to introduce PR for Burma's divisions, but this was expanded to include all divisions and states by Monday's vote. Phone Myint Aung said a report by his commission outlining the details of a PR system for the Upper House has been sent to the Union Election Commission (UEC), which would further develop laws for the PR voting system and send it back to the Upper House. Party members representing ethnic minority parties said they disagreed with the change to the Upper House's voting system, but had been powerless to stop it passing through the USDP-dominated Upper House. Chin Nationalities Democratic Party Lawmaker Paw Lian Lwin said the change in the voting system ahead of the all-important 2015 vote undermined democratic principles as Burma's electorate would struggle to understand it. "The country's parliamentary term is not very long any more, the voters will have difficulty with [understanding] the new electoral system in the coming election," he said. The ethnic parties and the NLD have repeatedly said that the change to PR is a ploy by the USDP to dilute the support for the opposition, comprising the ethnic parties and Suu Kyi's hugely popular NLD. During a rally for constitutional reform in Karenni State early this month, Suu Kyi deplored the plans to switch to the PR system. "We believe that this system is not appropriate yet for our country… By accepting the proportional representation system, it would spread out the votes of the people and it seems designed not to make our party win the election." Banyar Aung Moe added, however, "Not all ethnic parties disagree with switching to the PR system, but not all [MPs] are opposed. It is also possible that we, ethnic parties, could gain more seats under the PR system."   The post Upper House Adopts Nationwide PR System appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Govt to Push Left-Hand Steering Wheels on Future Car Imports Posted: 25 Nov 2014 04:06 AM PST A monk sits beside the driver of a passenger bus in downtown Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The government plans to carry out a policy encouraging vehicle imports manufactured with left-hand steering columns, in an apparent effort to phase out their right-hand counterparts, which currently predominate on Burma's roads and pose safety risks. Commerce Minister Win Myint told Parliament on Monday that the policy would take effect next year, though he did not explicitly state that right-hand steering column vehicles would be banned under the policy. "We're planning to practice an import policy for left-handed cars. At the moment we're allowing imports of any types of cars. We're planning to facilitate left-handed cars next year," Win Myint said. Vehicles in Burma drive on the right-hand side of the road, but the majority of cars feature right-hand steering columns, leading to safety concerns because drivers' vantage point is farther from oncoming traffic than it would be if the cars were left-hand columned. The steering wheel's location is particularly inapt when drivers are attempting to overtake another vehicle. As well as addressing a safety hazard, the policy, if implemented, would phase out one of the more bizarre legacies of Burma's former military regime: Dating back to the invention of the automobile, drivers in Burma had driven on the left-hand side of the road, until Gen. Ne Win overnight ordered the traffic laws changed in 1970. Ever since, cars have driven on the right side of the country's roads, but imports continued for decades to be fitted to the former traffic orientation. No official explanation was ever given by the late dictator, and popular lore has it that the notoriously superstitious general was advised by his astrologer that the country had moved too far left politically. Myat Thin Aung, US auto giant Chevrolet's sole distributor in Burma, said he would welcome the new policy. "I heard that the Ministry of Commerce is considering facilitating left-handed cars next year. It should be earlier than that, because most car accidents happen because of it [the right-hand steering columns]," he said. Already a growing number of vehicles in Burma can be spotted with left-hand steering wheels. As of last year, all new imported cars in showrooms have been left-handed. Several international brands' showrooms have opened in Burma in recent years, including Ford, Mercedes Benz, Chevrolet, Land Rover and BMW. Soe Tun, chairman of the Farmers Car Showroom and member of the Automobile Dealers Association, said he expected that the policy would be included in a broader automobiles bill currently being drafted. "It has been more than two years since the Ministry of Industry and the Myanmar Engineering Society began drafting the Myanmar Automobile Act, said to be submitted to Parliament soon. Our Automobile Dealers Association representatives also participated in drafting the act. Through our discussions, we have concluded that the government should only allow imported cars that comply with the traffic rules in Myanmar," he said last month. President Thein Sein's reformist government in 2011 began easing car import restrictions that had put foreign vehicles out of reach for the vast majority of Burmese. The three years since have seen imported cars flood the market, the vast majority of which have been used vehicles. According to Ministry of Commerce figures, there are about 600,000 vehicles in Burma, some 100,000 of which are trucks. The post Govt to Push Left-Hand Steering Wheels on Future Car Imports appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Rangoon Authorities to Build New Road, Ferry Gate to Help Students Commute Posted: 25 Nov 2014 02:42 AM PST Students at the blocked access gate in Ahlone Township on Monday. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Authorities in Rangoon's Ahlone Township have offered to construct a new road and ferry gate in order to help students access a school in the area, a local administrator said on Tuesday. Last week, several hundred students and their families from Oo Mya Ngar Sin Village in Kyi Myin Dine Township protested against the closing of a local road in Ahlone Township by military-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). The road's closing has added an hour to the commute of school students each morning. A Kyi Mying Dine Township MP in the Rangoon Division parliament had negotiated with division authorities and was promised that a new ferry gate and a new road would be constructed soon, said Aung Shin, administrator of Seik Gyi Oo Ngar Mya Sin No 3. Quarter in Kyi Mying Dine Township. "They will construct a new ferry gate and landing. Now, municipal authorities have started to pave the road near Thit Taw Road and it's going to finish soon," he said. "So, our side is satisfied and accepted it." MEC has also promised to arrange a school pick-up car for students from the new ferry gate to school later this year, Aung Shin said. Mya Mya Thwe, a parent of one of the students, said the headmistress of the high school had told the parents that she would ensure that the students would be able to use the new road every morning and evening. Hundreds of students commute to Ahlone by crossing the Irrawaddy River from the western river bank by ferry and then walking to their schools, but MEC's plans to expand it factory premises had led to the closure of an access road that the students were using, forcing them to use another ferry landing and walk much further to reach their school. The closed road is the primary point of entry into central Rangoon for the residents of Oo Mya Ngar Sin and nearby villages who travel to and from the city each day, including a total 350 students from the area attending No. 7 High School. The post Rangoon Authorities to Build New Road, Ferry Gate to Help Students Commute appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Irrawaddy Division Minister Says No Coal Power Without Public’s OK Posted: 25 Nov 2014 02:18 AM PST Saw Mya Thein, the Irrawaddy Divison minister for electricity and industry, speaks at a press conference on the proposed coal power plant in September. (Photo: Salai Thant Zin / The Irrawaddy) PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division — Bowing to local pressure over a proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in the coastal region of Nga Yoke Kaung, the Irrawaddy Division government has backed off the plan and says it will not proceed with the project if it is against the public's will. "We won't build the coal power plant if people do not agree," said Saw Mya Thein, Irrawaddy Division minister for electricity and industry, during a discussion on environmental and social impact assessments as part of an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) event held on Friday in Nga Yoke Kaung, a sub-township of Nga Pu Taw Township. The minister made the statement in response to a question from a Nga Yoke Kaung resident who asked whether or not plans to build the power plant would proceed if people were against it. More than 700 local residents were present at the discussion, and a chorus of voices expressing opposition to the power plant greeted the minister's reply. Nga Yoke Kaung is a coastal region comprised of two urban wards and 68 villages with a population of more than 35,000. The minister's comments ostensibly mark a victory for land rights and environmental activists who nationwide have often been on the losing end of battles over such concerns in the crush of development projects that have accompanied Burma's opening to the West in 2011. Public opposition to the power plant proposal was first aired in September, after the private companies and divisional government officials involved in the plan, including Saw Mya Thein, informed local residents of the plan at a joint press conference. "We, locals, totally disagree with building a coal power plant that could cause a lot of harm to our region," said Htein Lin, a local who attended Friday's discussion. "The emmissions produced by burning coal can harm the environment as well as the heart, lungs and kidneys of people. That's why we don't agree to it. If it is wind power or a gas-fired power plant, which causes less harm, we'll accept it," he added. Thein Aung, chief minister of Irrawaddy Division, similarly said during a youth forum earlier this month in Pathein that it was up to the people to decide whether or not to build the coal power plant. "We won't do it unless there is a guarantee. We can terminate the plant if [responsible companies] fail to keep their word. The government will not make the decision. It is up to the people," said Thein Aung. The Ministry of Electric Power, a Burmese conglomerate under the name A1 Group of Companies and a Japanese consortium announced in September that they would partner to build the Nga Yoke Kaung coal power plant, with a total installed capacity of 300 megawatts. The power plant was to be built on 200 acres of land and compensation would be paid for relocation costs and any land confiscated for the project, the A1 Company said. The company said it guaranteed that the power plant would not cause any harm to the environment or local people as it would employ advanced technologies, a promise that was met with skepticism. Writer Sein Myint, a retired assistant director of Burma's Ministry of Mines who now writes articles on environmental conservation, said coal power plants should not be given the green light in Burma because of technological requirements and the country's weak environmental laws. "Even if they have plans to ensure no impacts on the environment, the question is who will administer those plans effectively? The plant is in Nga Yoke Kaung and the environmental conservation department is in Pathein. So, how can those plans be administered? There are lots of technical and procedural difficulties and legal loopholes," he said. The post Irrawaddy Division Minister Says No Coal Power Without Public's OK appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Report Warns Burma on Rice Price Volatility Posted: 25 Nov 2014 02:11 AM PST A boy sits nearby while his parents plant rice seedlings in a paddy field on the outskirts of Rangoon in 2012. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) RANGOON — A new World Bank study warns that instability in the price of rice in Burma is posing challenges to the country's largely impoverished farmers. The study finds that "rice price volatility in Burma is the highest among net rice exporting countries in Asia, preventing farmers from earning high profits and keeping many families at or close to poverty income levels." The price of the commodity has particularly far-reaching implications in majority agrarian Burma, according to Abdoulaye Seck, the World Bank's country manager in Burma. "Agriculture is at the heart of poverty reduction in Myanmar. Changes in rice prices affect nearly 50 percent of the population whose livelihood depends on rice production," he said. According to the World Bank report, rice prices have risen by 40 percent between 2009-13, risking Burma's overall food security and export competitiveness. "A majority of rural population lives close to the poverty line and spends more than 60 percent of their incomes on food. Even temporary increase in rice prices reduces real income and households' spending on health, education or more nutritious food. Rice price volatility, indeed, should concern everyone in Myanmar," Seck said. The rice market in Burma had until recently been in a downward spiral. A Chinese ban on rice imports from Burma and a rise in rice exports by neighboring Thailand were cited as leading to the price fall. Rice exports bottomed out at US$280 per 100 baskets (about 1.5 tons) in the middle of October, before rebounding this month as heavy rains led traders to speculate that this year might see a reduced harvest. Rice rose to $380 per 100 baskets last week. "Paddy price is going up about 10 percent these days because of heavy rain—traders think prices will increase again," said Chit Khine, chairman of the Myanmar Rice Federation. The World Bank's report said price volatility in Burma was mostly due to the fact that rice production is heavily concentrated in just two months of the year, November and December. The report added that "fragmented seed market, poor roads, weak phone coverage, unreliable market information, low export diversification, and high costs for rice mills to maintain rice stocks amplify these price fluctuations even further." The World Bank recommended that rice production be better spread across a given year, and promoted efforts to lower the cost of doing business for farmers and traders, including by improving road and telecommunications links. "Any strategy for stabilizing rice price volatility has to address its structural causes," said Ulrich Zachau, the World Bank's country director for Myanmar. The global lender also advised against short-term measures to stabilize the rice market. "Stable prices per se do not generate long-term agricultural growth if it is achieved through shortsighted policies," said Sergiy Zorya, a Word Bank senior agricultural economist and lead author of the report. "Short-term measures such as export restrictions, minimum farm prices or government-owned stocks might reduce some volatility but rarely produce positive outcomes for food security and poverty reduction in the long term." Burma was once the world's leading rice exporter, but the industry all but collapsed under the former military regime. According to the Myanmar Rice Exporters Association, Burma's rice exports in 2013-14 stood at about 1.2 million tons, down from 1.47 million tons the year before. President Thein Sein has set a target to export 4 million tons of rice by 2020. The post Report Warns Burma on Rice Price Volatility appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Exile Musician Denied Burmese Entry Visa Posted: 24 Nov 2014 10:34 PM PST Mon Aung entertaining at a road show in Oslo, Norway. Mon Aung, a musician who left Burma after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and now resides in Norway, has had an entry visa application rejected by the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. "I applied for a visa with complete documentation in Bangkok. The visa section said I was rejected because of instructions from above," Mon Aung told The Irrawaddy. Mon Aung rose to national celebrity in the late 1980s with a string of albums before leaving Burma in the aftermath of the military's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. The singer has recorded his latest album "Peace Raindrops" in the Thai city of Chiang Mai and plans to release it in Burma. Mon Aung told The Irrawaddy he wanted to entertain the audience he left 26 years ago. "I am an artist. If I am given the chance, I would like to sing songs to my audience who I haven't seen for 26 years. At the same time, I expected that we could be refused entry to Burma," said Mon Aung. Once the nominally civilian government took power in 2011, President Thein Sein invited all Burmese exiles to return to country on condition that they had not committed any crime, an overture which has not always been matched in practice. The Burmese Embassy in Bangkok last month rejected an entry visa application by Cho Seint, a poet who has taken Norwegian nationality. Cho Seint is the great-grandchild of Thakhin Kodaw Hmine, a respected Burmese writer who fought against British colonial rule during the country's independence struggle. Moe Thee Zun, a student leader during the 1988 uprising, was allowed to visit twice before a further visa application was rejected by the Burmese government. Moe Hein, another prominent student and founder of the Thuriya Naywun journal, remains on a blacklist along with his family members, including his five-year-old child. "Though the Burma government said it is undertaking reforms, I see nothing to have changed, and I'm disappointed," said Mon Aung. The Irrawaddy sought comment from the Burmese Embassy's visa section and the Burmese Ambassador to Thailand. The post Exile Musician Denied Burmese Entry Visa appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Army Releases 80 Child Soldiers Posted: 24 Nov 2014 10:27 PM PST Former child soldiers attend a discharge ceremony in Rangoon in September 2014 (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Burma Army on Monday discharged and released 80 children and young people who had been recruited illegally when they were younger than 18 years, Unicef has announced. It was the eighth time the military held a ceremony to release child soldiers since June 2012, when Burma signed an action plan with the United Nations to end and prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers—an issue that was a widespread problem during decades of past military rule and that continues to some extent to this day. "To date, a total of 553 child soldiers have been released from the armed forces, with 376 of the child soldiers released in 2014," Unicef said in a press release. Among the initiatives launched by Unicef in cooperation with the Defense Ministry is a 24-hour hotline to report the recruitment and the use of children in the military and Border Guard Forces. The government has also launched a mass information campaign in 2013 to raise public awareness about the issue and large billboards can be seen in Rangoon and cities warning against underage recruitment. The discharged boys and young men are offered support to reintegrate into society and resume their education, which was broken off at the time of recruitment, through programs by NGOs funded by international donors, Unicef said. One of the boys released on Monday, Aung Thura, is 19 years old but was recruited when he was only 14; he was targeted by army recruiters after he had run away from home. "Being a cadet soldier was much more difficult than being at home," he said, according to the Unicef statement, adding that he wanted to resume his education. "It's a bit embarrassing because I'm so much older now but I do want to attend school so that I can do other things," he said. The post Burma Army Releases 80 Child Soldiers appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

A Week on the Road in North Korea Posted: 24 Nov 2014 10:06 PM PST A car drives past residential buildings in Pyongyang in 2012. (Photo: Reuters) LAKE CHON, North Korea — The Kaema Plateau, the "Roof of Korea," is a stunning, forest-covered highland nestled in such treacherous mountains that it was never taken by the Allies during the Korean War. It's now a truck stop. As we squatted beside our lunches of kimchi and cold rice, in the distance, almost hidden in the thick mist, a woman sold refreshments in a tarp-covered stall. A half-dozen older people put down their loads and sat on a weed-covered embankment nearby; they had arrived on foot, even though the nearest town was hours away. One member of the group, a leathery man, rolled a cigarette and drew the smoke in deeply. It's quite possible none of them had ever seen an American before. But our presence went unacknowledged. No glances were exchanged. No words were spoken. We had been granted unprecedented access to see North Korea and travel through places that, we were told, no foreign journalists and few foreigners had been allowed to see before. We would drive 2,150 kilometers (1,336 miles) in a country that has barely 25,000 kilometers of road, and only 724 kilometers of those paved. By the time we returned to the capital a week later, our Chinese-made Great Wall SUV had a few new scratches and one less hubcap. But this trip was on North Korea's terms. There would be no stopping to interview random people like the ones at Kaema. Even on the loneliest of lonely highways, we would never be without a "minder," whose job was to monitor and supervise our activities. We were not to take photographs of any checkpoints or military installations. For the most part, we were not to detour from our pre-approved route, which, to no one's surprise, didn't include nuclear facilities or prison camps. We finished our meal in silence and drove on. Though we would not get to know the people along the way, the country itself had a great deal to say. And it was opening up before us. We set off from a luxury hotel in Pyongyang. Before leaving the capital, we stocked up on supplies at a supermarket that sells everything from Evian to Skippy peanut butter. We also bought US$100 worth of coupons good for 65 kilograms of diesel fuel—that's how it's sold in North Korea. A big red sign at the gas station proclaimed the site a "battleground" in the nation's socialist revolution. Razed to the ground in a scorched earth policy by the US military during the Korean War, then rebuilt almost entirely from scratch with help from the Soviet Union, the North's capital is intended to awe. By many measures, and certainly by developing world standards, Pyongyang, with its pastel-colored high rises, its towering monuments and its orderly, litter-free avenues, is an impressive metropolis. And to the nine-tenths of North Korea's 25 million people who don't live there, it is probably as alien as the Emerald City was to Dorothy. As we made our way out of town down Reunification Avenue, we checked our Instagram feeds and Whatsapp chats with friends in the outside world, and gazed out at sharply dressed Pyongyang women clutching their domestically assembled Arirang smartphones, which aren't connected to the Web and can't make, or receive, international calls. Even in the capital, North Korea remains, to virtually all of its inhabitants, a country that has yet to enter the Internet age. After about 20 minutes, we, too, would be off the grid. Preindustrial Two-hundred kilometers of the country's best road is the stretch of highway connecting the capital, which is in the west, to the east coast port city of Wonsan. It's paved all the way. Beyond Wonsan, potholes, cracks, sudden patches of dirt road or, worse yet, partially paved dirt road make travel a joltingly bumpy experience. To get out of Pyongyang, we weaved our way around buses, streetcars, the black sedans of party officials and fleets of colorful new taxis that have over the past few years become commonplace. Outside the city limits, bulky, exhaust-belching trucks made in China with rounded hoods reminiscent of the 1950s rule the roads. Passenger cars—and more importantly, our attention-getting Pyongyang license plates—were so rare that when we passed police or soldiers, they assumed we were important officials and saluted. But vehicles of any kind are relatively few to begin with. Most of the action happens on the shoulder. Even on the most rugged stretches of road, lone pedestrians laden with belongings or wares for the market stoically plod to the next village, which could be half a day away. The number of bicycles, along with long-distance buses, has skyrocketed in recent years. Ox carts and cobbled-together contraptions with lawnmower-sized engines outnumber the aging trucks. And those trucks? They often end up on the side of the road, too, the driver's head buried under the hood while passengers sprawl out in the nearest patch of shade. Through the windshield, we observed a landscape that appeared somehow preindustrial. Villagers washed their clothes in rivers while barefoot children splashed and played. Old folks, in no hurry to be anywhere else, socialized under trees. And while the fashion set in Pyongyang obsesses over where to find the latest high heels, the countryside maintains a classically utilitarian look. The olive green work suit. The reliable rubber boot. 'Our Country Is The Best!' Blink-and-you-miss-them villages flew by as we headed north from Wonsan to Hamhung, North Korea's second-largest city. This is the traditional Korea: small, walled-off clusters of old but neat one-story houses, white with blue trim under clay roof tiles. Some were rigged with makeshift wire antennas, suggesting TVs inside. Others had single solar panels attached to their roofs. We would see more of those later, on the balconies of apartments in the larger provincial cities. Most of North Korea's villages—and cities, for that matter—are built around a central plaza or giant mosaics of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il. Their portraits hang in every home, and are worn over every adult citizen's heart. We could only wonder what the people in those homes might have to say to us. But we were barraged by what the government has to say to them: "We Are A Great Spacefaring Nation!" ''Our Country Is The Best!" ''Let's Go Our Own Way." And the most common slogan, "Single-Minded Unity." The slogans are written in bright red on posters, murals and banners, or chiseled in stone. In field after field, posters of workers with their fists raised to the air declare the importance of the nation's struggle, the quotas to be met and the valor of the model citizens who have fulfilled them. "Congratulations to Chong Yong-il, head of work unit 1, for taking the lead in weeding our fields," said one. Above the words was a painting of the Chollima, a mythical winged horse often used to symbolize the North's many "speed campaigns." The inescapable voice of the ruling Workers' Party is part pep talk, part reminder of who is in charge, part sermon on how the nation must strive and sacrifice to achieve the goals of "Kimilsungism" and "Kimjongilism," which long ago supplanted Marxism and Leninism. Inward-looking as it is, North Korea still likes to tout its special brand of socialism abroad. But the kind of internationalism embodied in such slogans as "Workers of the World Unite" seems today to be, at best, an afterthought. Only in the deepest mountains did the red-letter roar grow dim. Agricultural Aspirations About four-fifths of North Korea's land is too rugged to farm. But not for lack of trying. Reflecting its preoccupation with agricultural self-sufficiency, every valley and flatland we passed seemed to be utilized for some sort of crop. The countryside bursts with the bright greens of rice, corn, soybeans and cabbage. On hillier ground lie orchards for apples and pears. Up in the mountains, it's potatoes. Whole villages are devoted to growing mushrooms, a "magic bullet" innovation from the 1990s when the country faced a near-cataclysmic famine. Those desperate days appear to be long over. This year, according to United Nations experts, the North could come closer to feeding itself than it has in decades. But poor nutrition remains a serious problem. The World Food Program says a third of North Korean children are stunted. Of the thousands of people we saw on our weeklong trip, only two were clearly overweight. The wounds of famine-inspired policies fester in other ways. Hillsides were stripped of trees to allow farming, though the plots produce little and increase the risk of erosion and landslides. Grass and shrubs might help keep the slopes intact, but then there are the goats: They are everywhere, thanks to Kim Jong-il's mass goat-breeding campaign of 1996. The landscape is filled with reminders of not only the desperate 1990s, but the booming 1960s, when North Korea was among Asia's most highly industrialized nations. The once-productive cities along its east coast, like the coal mining town of Kilju and the nearby city of Kimchaek—built around a sprawling but now eerily quiet ironworks complex—have become a rust belt, gritty and relentlessly gray. Throughout our journey, we saw "shock brigades"—some soldiers but mostly regular citizens—mobilized to build levies along rivers, shovel dirt into potholes and repair retaining walls along hillsides. It's backbreaking work, done mostly by hand. Still, every year, the country faces a cycle of flooding followed by drought. Tourists experience only a bare trace of the deprivation residents feel. At the best hotels in cities such as Hamhung, Samjiyon and Chongjin, the places where we stayed as our journey proceeded through the hinterlands, the rooms, replete with doilies and cushy velvet-covered chairs, were clean, the decor retro Soviet and the food plentiful. But the vintage TVs, when they worked, offered only one channel. Standing by the window after my third night under a cold shower, in an overheated room with no thermostat, I looked out past a cabbage patch at the glow of candles and the beams of flashlights dancing in apartments across the street, where the power was out. An hour later, at midnight, the lights were shining brightly from nearly every room. I wondered if people had forgotten to turn them off before they lost their electricity, or if, despite the hour, they were taking advantage of the light while they had it. Tourism Push Despite all its firewalls, North Korea has never truly been a hermit kingdom. It has depended in turn on the largesse of the Soviets or Chinese, and has deftly extracted aid from what it sees as its own "axis of evil"—the United States, Japan and South Korea. Even so, when the North opens its doors, it does so for a reason. It is now pursuing a plan to create dozens of special foreign investment and tourism zones. The highlight of our road trip, majestic Mount Paektu, with its crystal-blue crater lake, is one of the places the North most wants to promote. That's probably why we were allowed to make the journey. Along with its natural beauty, Paektu is considered the home of the North Korean revolution, dotted by reconstructions of "secret camps," where guides dressed in period costume recount the legends of Kim Il-sung's battles against the Japanese imperialists. Though Paektu is central to North Korea's identity, much of the mountain is in China. Before we left Pyongyang we were warned, half-jokingly, not to get lost. "If you wander off into China," we were told, "you will be shot." Something similar had, in fact, happened many years ago. No borders were involved, but a South Korean housewife who strayed off the accepted path at a tourist site was fatally shot in the back by a North Korean guard. Wrested out of our beds for our ascent up to the summit, we fumbled without lights to pack our equipment, made our way down a candlelit staircase and climbed into our car in the pouring-down rain. With no signs to guide him, our driver steered silently into the night. Many people have been amazed by nighttime satellite images that show North Korea as dark as the ocean, set against a northeast Asia brimming with light. There is nothing quite like experiencing that darkness on the ground over long stretches of the North Korean back country. Possibly more than any other populated place on the globe, North Korea is terra incognita. As we drove toward the dawn, two armed soldiers in camouflage ponchos emerged from the darkness, signaled for us to stop and for our minder to get out. The rain was coming down harder as they stood in the blurry pool of our headlights. One peered in at us through the rain-dotted window. There was a good deal of gesticulating. Then some head nodding. Our minder got back in the car. We had gotten lost, but we weren't in China. We were going the wrong way down a one-lane, one-way road. The soldiers waved us on. With North Korean tourism still in its infancy, we were safe. We wouldn't see another car until we reached the snowy, wind-whipped parking lot below the crater, where two small vans full of shivering Chinese waited for a guard to wake up and lead them to Lake Chon. The post A Week on the Road in North Korea appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

‘The Only Way Is Forward’ Posted: 24 Nov 2014 04:00 PM PST Dr. Sai Sam Htun places a hand on the ornate ship's steering wheel that sits in his office. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) As Coca-Cola and PepsiCo roll into Myanmar, one of the country's most powerful beverage companies is busy strategizing its own next move. Loi Hein, a Yangon-based company that dominates the local purified water market with its popular Alpine brand and which is also behind Blue Mountain soft drinks, expects its annual revenue to grow more than five times over the next decade, in part thanks to partnerships with multinational firms. Its chairman, the physician turned entrepreneur Dr. Sai Sam Htun, tells The Irrawaddy reporter Samantha Michaels how he's dealing with foreign competition and why he's supporting a football club that's losing US$1 million a year, while also sharing his thoughts on politics and refuting any suggestion that his success is linked with cronyism. Question: Let's start with some numbers. What sort of profits does Loi Hein bring in? Answer: Our business is growing dramatically—it's moving quite fast in 2014, we'll reach $100 million in revenue this year. For profit margins, we usually have about a 10-15 percent net margin from revenues. Q: What's your market share in the beverage industry? A: Gradually, in 10 years' time, our market share in the water business has increased to 60-65 percent. But during the past two years, a lot of people have come to play in the water market—not big [companies], but some small and medium ones—so we had to give up about 5 percent of market share in water. Still, my business overall is growing. Water is growing about 25 percent [annually], soft drinks about 40 percent, energy drinks about 50 percent, and we are optimistic because we expect [greater] spending power from Myanmar's middle class, which is currently only 2 million people, compared with Thailand's middle class of about 25 million people. Q: With the lifting and suspension of economic sanctions, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have come to Myanmar. How are you dealing with the competition? A: They're still building up their own infrastructure, building up their own brands, so it hasn't had much impact on our soft drinks. In the future if Pepsi and Coca-Cola fight each other, maybe that will have an impact on us, but we don't know. If they really come, they may stay in the premium sector, like A and B [upper and middle class consumers], so we will go into the rural areas, staying in the C and D sector [working class consumers]. That's what we're planning for the future, if they really come, because they are so powerful that they can paint the whole country in blue and red, so we have to prepare for that. Q: Would you ever consider partnering with one of these beverage giants? A: We were discussing this, but their requirements and our requirements are not the same. Coca-Cola came and wanted everything of us, which is impossible because my water business has already partnered with Nestlé. They wanted us as one unit, but by that time it was too late. Q: You already sell drinking water, energy drinks, soft drinks and juices. What's next? A: Since we partnered with Asahi [a Japanese brewery and soft drink company], we will automatically go into beer, either manufactured in Thailand and brought here, or manufactured here. We are also going into dairy: fresh milk and maybe yogurt. Q: Is there anything missing in the local beverage market? A: Nobody is manufacturing natural juices in Myanmar. A lot of drinks come from Thailand, some from China, but we can do import substitution. That's why we are building a new factory at the moment, which may produce natural juices in 2014 as a substitution for Thai imports. If we finish according to schedule, I think it will be the first [factory] for natural juices in Myanmar. Q: What are your company's growth targets? A: Since our middle class is growing and the country is opening up, we expect our market size to grow 10 times over the next 5-10 years for our water, soft drinks, energy drinks and other beverages. For revenue, in five years' time we must go to about $350 million. In 10 years, we can expect about $600-700 million. Q: I heard that once you hit a certain target, you might hold an initial public offering? A: I'm still not sure whether an IPO is good for growing our family business—I'm undecided. Q: Are you planning to expand into banking, insurance or property development? A: Maybe microfinance—a purely financial company, but not a bank, so we can finance other companies. We are trying to get a license. Q: You're also involved with Myanmar's national football league, as the owner of the Yadanarbon club. The games are televised, but are you making any money? A: We lose about $1 million a year. It [the league] has been going since 2009, and we keep losing money. We charge $1 for tickets but people don't come to watch. In foreign countries you pay $30 to go to the football stadium. One day if our people can afford it, we will charge $3, and if foreign brands come it won't be difficult to get $1 million sponsorships to do their branding. Right now is the beginning of multinational [firms] flowing into Myanmar, but we expect one day we will get a sponsorship, TV rights and spectators, and we will break even or make a profit. Q: But if you're losing so much now, why stick with it? Is it a personal interest? Are you a football fan? A: I should say yes, it's a personal passion. It's spending money, it's just a passion, it's not about making money. Q: Let's talk politics. What election results in 2015 would be most beneficial for businesses? A: I honestly think a coalition [government] would be best at the moment. For the stability of the country, we need this compromise and a coalition for the next five years. If you take the example of a neighboring country for democracy, when parties fight each other there is no positive result: In Thailand, ultimately the same thing happened [there was another military coup this year]. We don't want our country to go back the same way. Q: Loi Hein was very successful under the former government, which may lead people to assume you had a connection with officials to start your business. Has this been a problem? A: Not at all, my conscience is very clean … I don't make money from the government. I don't sell products or machines to the government, I don't sell arms to them. I develop a product, create the market and make money out of the market, and that's why my conscience is very clear. Also, [my company's] growth under the military was quite small, but growth during the past three years [under the current government] has been very fast, especially in 2013 and 2014 because of the entry of multinational [companies]. Q: What are your views of the current economic outlook? A: The Myanmar economy is quite exciting. Everyone says there is big potential. Whether it is real or not, we have to judge. A lot of investors are quite positive because of the developments in oil and gas, the special economic zones, foreign banks coming in. Many people may have a negative view, and they can have that view. But because of all these things, we are positive. Our country has only one way to go, and that is to grow business. So, we are optimistic, we are excited. There will be some challenges, but we will go forward, there is no choice. This article first appeared in the November 2014 print edition of The Irrawaddy magazine. The post 'The Only Way Is Forward' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Seizes 31 Trafficking Suspects, 11 Burmese Victims Released Posted: 24 Nov 2014 08:59 PM PST The border gate between Muse in Burma's Shan State and Ruili in China's Yunnan Province. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) BEIJING — Chinese authorities in the northern region of Inner Mongolia arrested 31 people on suspicion of trafficking women because they had held 14 people, 11 of them from Myanmar, state media said on Monday. Five of the non-Chinese victims were younger than 18 and were handed to Burmese police after a three-month investigation into the gang, which ensnared the women by offering them tours and jobs, the official Xinhua news agency said. The victims were then sold as wives in rural China for as little as 50,000 yuan ($8,142) China’s gender imbalance, the result of its one-child policy and illicit abortion of girl babies because of a traditional preference for boys, has led to a huge surplus of single men. The latest census showed 118 newborn males for every 100 females. In September, state media reported that Chinese police would clamp down on websites that sell group tours to enable men to meet "foreign brides" in Southeast Asian countries, as the practice leads to human trafficking and prostitution. Last year, a U.S. State Department report cited Russia and China as being among the world’s worst offenders in fighting forced labor and sex trafficking. The post China Seizes 31 Trafficking Suspects, 11 Burmese Victims Released appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Bangladesh Man Gets Death Penalty for War Crimes Posted: 24 Nov 2014 08:44 PM PST Members of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad, a welfare association for combatants who fought during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971, demonstrate in support of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader charged with war crimes. (Photo: Andrew Biraj / Reuters) DHAKA — A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced a collaborator of the Pakistani army to death for his role in killings during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war. Mobarak Hossain, a former commander of a collaborators’ group, was given the death penalty after being convicted of killing 33 civilians in the eastern Bangladeshi district of Brahmanbaria. He was also separately sentenced to life in prison for abducting and killing a man during the war. In 1971, Hossain was a member of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which openly campaigned against the creation of Bangladesh, then the eastern wing of Pakistan. Many years after the independence war, Hossain joined the Awami League party of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a village committee member, but was expelled in 2011. The prosecution welcomed Monday’s decision, but the defense said it would appeal the verdict announced by Justice M. Enayetur Rahim, the head of a three-member panel of judges. Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month 1971 war. An estimated 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people were forced to take shelter in refugee camps in neighboring India during the war. Over the past four years, two special tribunals have convicted 13 people, mostly senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami. Hasina set up the tribunals in 2010, reviving a stalled process and making good on a pledge she made before 2008 elections. There was a process of trying suspected war criminals after Bangladesh gained independence, but it was halted following the assassination of then-President and independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Hasina’s father — and most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. The post Bangladesh Man Gets Death Penalty for War Crimes appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Hong Kong Authorities Begin Clearing Part of Mong Kok Protest Site Posted: 24 Nov 2014 08:36 PM PST Workers dismantle a barricade at small section of the Mong Kok protest site after a court issued an eviction order in Hong Kong, Nov. 25, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities encountered little resistance as they began clearing part of a pro-democracy protest camp in the bustling district of Mong Kok on Tuesday following a court order to reopen a road. The gritty, working-class area across the harbor from the main protest site at Admiralty has been the scene of some of the most violent clashes during two months of pro-democracy demonstrations in the Chinese-ruled city. Hundreds of police stood guard as authorities enforced the court order to reopen Argyle Street to free up traffic. Workers in white helmets and vests moved wooden blockades from the road after demonstrators had earlier dismantled tents and packed up their belongings. The injunction was granted to a bus company which said the blockade had hurt business. Some protesters heckled and held up yellow banners demanding Beijing allow full democracy in the global financial hub. "Even if they clear this place, our will to fight for genuine universal suffrage hasn't changed… it will only inspire people to think of other ways to continue this movement," said protester Ken Chu, 27, wearing a bright yellow safety helmet and a gas mask. Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, who has called the protests illegal, urged activists to go home. Hundreds of protesters remain camped out along nearby Nathan Road, part of which local media said would be cleared later in the week. The move in Mong Kok comes a week after the partial clearance of the largest protest site next to government buildings in Admiralty, enforcing another injunction order in a peaceful operation that left most of the main protest site intact. Mong Kok has been a flashpoint for street brawls between students and mobs intent on breaking up the prolonged protests to demand free elections for the city's next leader in 2017. In August, Beijing offered Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017, but said only two to three candidates could run after getting backing from a 1,200-person "nominating committee" stacked with Beijing loyalists. More than 100,000 people took to the streets at the peak of the demonstrations but that number has dropped to a few hundred scattered in tents over the two main sites amid dwindling public support for the street protests. The post Hong Kong Authorities Begin Clearing Part of Mong Kok Protest Site appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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