Friday, November 7, 2014

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Slain Reporter Laid to Rest in Rangoon

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 05:51 AM PST

Family members, prominent activists and other mourners gathered at Rangoon's Yay Way cemetery on Friday evening to lay slain reporter Aung Kyaw Naing to rest. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Family members, prominent activists and other mourners gathered at Rangoon's Yay Way cemetery on Friday evening to lay slain reporter Aung Kyaw Naing to rest. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The body of journalist Aung Kyaw Naing, who was killed by the Burma Army early last month, was brought to Rangoon by his family and laid to rest in a tomb at Yay Way cemetery on Friday.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral to pay their respects to the slain reporter, including National League for Democracy (NLD) patron Tin Oo, prominent leaders of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, and dozens of activists and other mourners.

NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi sent her condolences and a bouquet of flowers to honor Aung Kyaw Naing, better known as Par Gyi, who for several years was a member of her bodyguard. Numerous bouquets of flowers, wreaths and messages of condolences were placed at his grave on Friday evening, while Buddhist monks performed funeral rites.

Some two dozen activists and students gathered near the funeral and staged a small demonstration that called for justice in the case of the killing, with some holding up placards that read: 'Does the Army Have a License to Kill?'

Speaking at the funeral, Ko Ko Gyi said the killing was a clear example of the lack of rule of law in Burma and would be a test of the independence of the country's court system, which is viewed as being influenced by the government and army.

"This is a case that challenges how much rule of law Myanmar has. This is a challenge that the local and international community has to keep an eye on," he said.

Ko Ko Gyi said extrajudicial killings by authorities have long been common in Burma, adding that often these cases were covered up with excuses by officials. "Actually, there are lots of similar cases [of killings] in the ethnic border areas. Some people were reported [by authorities] as being killed because they ran away while they were in prison," he said.

The body of Aung Kyaw Naing was exhumed on Wednesday afternoon from a grave in Shwe War Chaung Village in Kyeikmayaw Township in Mon State, after the government ordered the National Human Rights Commission to investigate his death.

The freelance reporter disappeared while covering the fighting between Karen rebels and the army in late September. The army said in a statement later it had apprehended, interrogate and on Oct. 4 shot him, purportedly because he had seized a weapon from a soldier in an attempt to flee.

His death drew widespread local and international criticism as a gross rights violation and an extrajudicial killing by the Burma Army.

After he had disappeared, his wife Thandar and activists visited Mon State to talk to the army and authorities, but were turned away. After his wife went public with the disappearance, the army sent a statement regarding his killing to reporters and said he had been buried in a remote village.

The reporter's family and activists demanded his body be exhumed and returned to Rangoon.

On Friday morning, Mon State municipal authorities had tried to prevent the family from taking his body to Rangoon, insisting for some unknown reason that he had to be buried in Moulmein. His family members took him to Rangoon regardless.

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YCDC Approves Nearly 300 Candidates for Municipal Elections

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 05:16 AM PST

Yangon City Development Committee election official Tin Aye, left, hands candidates documents on Friday indicating they qualified for the YCDC municipal elections. (Photo: May Kha / The Irrawaddy)

Yangon City Development Committee election official Tin Aye, left, hands candidates documents on Friday indicating they qualified for the YCDC municipal elections. (Photo: May Kha / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) election commission officially approved 291 candidates on Friday for the YCDC municipal elections, which will be held on Dec. 27 for the first time in more than 50 years.

Up for grabs are four seats on the Divisional Municipal Committee, 12 seats for the District Municipal Committee and 99 Township Municipal Committee seats. For decades under Burma's former military regime, these 115 seats were appointed by the government. The nine-member Divisional Municipal Committee will still be comprised of five appointed seats, however.

A total of 305 candidates applied to run in the elections, with 41 candidates applying for the Divisional Municipal Committee, 43 candidates for the District committees and 221 candidates for the Township posts.

Only 291 of the 305 candidates qualified, however, after seven candidates withdrew their applications and seven others were rejected because they did not meet candidature requirements stipulated by the election commission, according to Tin Aye, the commission president.

Win Cho, a former political prisoner and land rights activist, was rejected by the commission for providing an incomplete biography, including omitting the jail time he has served as a prisoner of conscience. The YCDC election commission has put forward more than a dozen restrictions on who is eligible to run for office and who can vote for candidates, with one such restriction barring anyone convicted of a crime from running.

"There are some parts of his history that were not listed in his biography so his biography is incomplete and he is not eligible under the YCDC election rules and regulations," said Tin Aye.

Win Cho told The Irrawaddy that in addition to his omission about prison time served, he was told that a failure to list his activism had been counted against his application.

"The president of the election commission said that I didn't write things like having led famers' issues demonstrations and having served prison sentences in the biography."

Win Cho, who applied to run for a Divisional Municipal Committee seat, said he would appeal to the election commission but would first try to obtain the official letter stating the reason for the election body's rejection of his application. Rejected candidates are given 30 days to appeal.

The election commission said that as of Friday, it had not received any appeals from rejected candidates.

The nominated candidates can begin campaigning from Friday, and must end campaign activities one day before the election.

Susanna Hla Hla Soe, an approved candidate for the Divisional Municipal Committee and director of the Karen Women's Action Group (KWAG), told The Irrawaddy that she would assess the needs of constituents and vowed to improve Rangoon residents' quality of life if elected.

"In our city, the daily problems of flooding when it rains heavily and heavy traffic jams are problems," she said. "If I am elected, I will research the people's needs and the budget we get and negotiate these things."

She said she would begin campaigning next week, including organizing public seminars.

Nyi Nyi, the YCDC associate secretary, said elected candidates would be expected to work full time in their committee roles, adding that divisional committee members would be paid about 320,000 kyats (US$320) per month. District committee members' salary is 220,000 kyats and Township-level representatives are given 180,000 kyats.

Under the voting system put forward by the YCDC election commission, only one person will be allowed to vote per household, putting the voter roll at about 800,000 people. Still, that marks a dramatic increase from an initial proposal that would only have allowed about 30,000 people to vote.

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Vietnamese Class

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 04:48 AM PST

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Chef Phan Van Pluioc at work. (Photo: Dani Patteran)

Oriental lanterns hang from a high roof, casting light onto an open courtyard where diners sit nestled among bamboo plants and dark wooden beams. A newcomer to Yangon, Vietnamese restaurant "The Vietnam Kitchen," boasts a carefully designed, pared-back setting that creates a tasteful atmosphere with an Asian twist.

Open since May, the family-run restaurant is seeking to fill the gap in high-quality Vietnamese food in Yangon. Dedicated to serving dishes that are as authentic as possible, they regularly fly in from Vietnam those herbs, vegetables and spices that are unavailable in Myanmar. The proprietor (who asked to remain anonymous for this article) explained that the restaurant takes care to only use fresh ingredients, avoiding any frozen meat or seafood.

"The food is cooked by the feeling of the chef… We focus on the balance of the food—meat, vegetable, rice, soup," he said. "We try to keep the original taste [so] we try to use more vegetables and fresh ingredients." With three Vietnamese chefs in the kitchen, it seems they are off to a strong start.

The menu features a hefty selection of both northern and southern Vietnamese dishes, as well as seasonal juices and the distinctive Vietnamese coffee—served as individual drip-filters, as strong and black as sin. Old favorites such as spring rolls and beef noodle soup (pho) grace the menu, alongside more unusual dishes such as Vietnamese-style pork leg; grilled beef wrapped in vine leaves; and tiger prawns steamed with coconut. Prices are mid-range, from 800 kyats for spring rolls, to upwards of 7,000 kyats for larger main dishes.

Known as the healthier of the Southeast Asian cuisines, Vietnamese dishes commonly use fresh herbs and a delicate combination of flavours—hence the emphasis on fresh ingredients makes a big difference. The beef pho tastes clean and flavorful, without any cloying aftertaste of MSG. The proprietor explains that the stock is simmered for more than 12 hours to get the right depth of flavor. It is served as it is in Vietnam—steaming hot with a large plate of cilantro, basil, limes and bean sprouts.

The fried spring rolls, stuffed with pork, herbs and veggies, have a nice hearty flavor that is well finished with a crisp, light batter; while the healthier raw spring rolls are a fresh, crunchy appetizer—though they benefit from the accompanying spicy dip to give them a stronger kick.

Featuring a range of vegetable and tofu dishes, the restaurant is a good location for vegetarians or vegans (though watch out for some of the sauces, which contain fish sauce or pork). Helpings are generous and good to share, including the large hotpots or the enormous plates of steamed vegetables.

With its open-air, atmospheric setting, it is easy to imagine The Vietnam Kitchen as a place of choice for a quiet romantic date, but the versatile courtyard also allows for large groups and the proprietor explains that the restaurant can cater for up to 200 people. Three large dining rooms built discreetly into the side of the building are also an attractive alternative for those hosting private parties.

Tucked just behind Chatrium Hotel on Pho Sein Road, the restaurant's central location is easily accessible and a great place to finish up after a sunset stroll around Kandawgyi Lake or the botanic gardens.

It would be nice to see some dessert options on the menu, and the inevitable onslaught of mosquitoes can be a drag, but these small gripes aside, The Vietnam Kitchen has succeeded in providing exactly what it sets out to achieve—quality, well-cooked and traditional Vietnamese food for a reasonable price, in a relaxed and stylish setting.

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Central Bank Reduces US Dollar Sales to Private Lenders

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 04:08 AM PST

A US$100 dollar bill sits beside the Burmese kyat equivalent. (Photo: Giles Orr)

A US$100 dollar bill sits beside the Burmese kyat equivalent. (Photo: Giles Orr)

RANGOON — The Central Bank of Myanmar has sharply reduced its sales of US currency to private banks since late October, according to banking industry sources.

Since the end of last month, the Central Bank has decreased its sales of US currency by around $3 million per day, in the face of a strengthening US economy, a weakening kyat and a widening trade deficit in Burma.

"The Central Bank's US dollar sales to private banks have decreased. It's significant, it might be from US$10 million to $7 million," said Chit Khine, the chairman of Myanmar Apex Bank.

On Friday, local publication 7 Days reported an anonymous employee saying that the Central Bank was issuing $25-27 million in US currency per day earlier this year, dropping down to $10 million per day in September, where the market had stabilized until recently.

The US dollar value has increased in the world market as the country has made a tentative recovery from the 2008 economic crisis and recession.

Since Nov. 7 last year, the US dollar has risen more than 8 percent against a raft of currencies known as the US Dollar Index, according to Bloomberg. The dollar's rise on the index indicates strong performance over the last year across six major currencies meant to gauge the greenback's value globally.

In the local currency market, the kyat has weakened relative to the greenback in recent months, trading at 970 to the dollar in September and increasing to more than 1,000 per dollar last week.

Another likely factor in the Central Bank's decision to reduce US currency sales is Burma's widening trade deficit in the country. As the Burma's economy has undergone substantial restructuring since the installation of a nominally civilian government in 2011, total trade volume has increased, but a widening trade imbalance has emerged.

According to figures from the Central Statistical Organization, Burma's total exports were valued at $1.08 billion from April to September this year, with total imports of $1.74 billion over the same period, leaving a trade deficit of nearly $660 million.

Economist Khin Maung Nyo said he expected that the Central Bank had reduced its sales to private banks partly in an effort to offset the trade deficit.

"I think the Central Bank is considering the trade deficit right now, that's why they are decreasing US dollar sales to the market," he said. "But it won't be the only reason. It's hard to guess what the Central Bank's ideas are."

Than Lwin, the vice chairman of Kanbawza Bank, said that the Central Bank's actions were part of normal fluctuations in the banking sector.

"The drop from US$10 million to US$7 million issued to private banks from the Central Bank is not a surprise," Than Lwin said. "It's a normal condition in the banking sector that the Central Bank will watch and control the exchange currency market as part of their role.

"Though the Central Bank has decreased its sales amount, this will not impact upon the market, as private banks have their own money in addition to the individual money still flowing in the market," he added.

Central Bank of Myanmar Deputy Governor Sett Aung was unavailable for comment to confirm the exact figure for today's sales amount.

The kyat underwent a managed float in 2012, prior to which the government set the exchange rate at an absurdly inaccurate 6.4 kyats to the US dollar. Despite the official rate, the black market rate put the kyat much closer to its initial float value of 818 per US dollar.

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State-Owned Bank Threatens Legal Action Against 15,000 Indebted Farmers

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 03:49 AM PST

Farmers tend to their paddy crops along the Rangoon-Pathein highway in Irrawaddy Division. (Photo: JPaing/Irrawaddy)

Farmers tend to their paddy crops along the Rangoon-Pathein highway in Irrawaddy Division. (Photo: JPaing/Irrawaddy)

PATHEIN — The Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank is threatening legal action against more than 15,000 farmers in Irrawaddy Division who have failed to pay back their loans on time, a representative of the state-owned bank said.

A total of 15,472 farmers in the Irrawaddy Division districts of Pathein, Myaubin, Hinthada, Pyapon and Labutta have to repay a combined US$8.9 million, or about $575 per farmer, which they borrowed to grow paddy in the 2013 monsoon and dry seasons, said Kin Maung Lwin, manager of the bank's Irrawaddy Division branch in Pathein.

He said the bank had extended the grace period of the loans until September but still the repayments were overdue, and bank employees had now posted notices on the homes of the farmers warning them to pay.

"Through the concerned village administrators we issued a notice urging the farmers to pay back the loans within one or two weeks. If they still fail to repay we put up notices on their houses or their paddy fields, asking them to repay the loans after they sell the house or after the harvest," Khin Maung Lwin said. "If they do not do so, we will charge them with misappropriation."

He said the farmers could be charged under the Land and Revenue Act. It is unclear what penalties this law sets out for misappropriation.

The Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank is the largest microfinance lender in Burma, where private and commercial microfinance is still in its infancy, and it provides low-interest loans of about $100 per acre of paddy to more than 1 million farmers.

Khin Maung Lwin said local branch managers had also been instructed to take action against farmers who had lied about the amount of acres they own in order to get bigger loans from the bank. The farmers have been warned to repay their loans within five to ten days or face legal action for cheating under the Penal Code's Article 420, which stipulates prison terms of up to seven years and a fine.

Khin Maung Lwin said the number of farmers who are indebted to the bank rose sharply last year, adding that in 2013 farmers in 16 townships had repayment problems, while 2012 farmers in only two townships had problems.

Farmers in the Irrawaddy Division regions told The Irrawaddy that the bank was to blame for their financial woes as it had been late in providing loans in 2013—something that was confirmed by the bank.

This forced the farmers, who need cash ahead of the harvest season, to loan money from predatory private lenders that charge very high interest rates. When the bank finally provided the loans, farmers said they used them for household expenses or to pay off their rising debts to private lenders. Subsequently, they were left without enough money to repay the bank.

"Farmers did not get government loans when it was time to grow paddy in the [2013] monsoon. So they have to borrow at high interest rates from private lenders," said a farmer from Pathein Township's Ward No 9.

"When they get loans from the government bank, the money goes to household expenses. After they reap the harvest, they have to repay the private lenders," said the farmer, who asked not to be named.

He added that some farmers also acted irresponsibly by spending the government loans on buying possessions, such a motorbikes.

Khin Maung Lwin said the repayment problems presented the bank with a serious challenge as it could undermine its financial stability and threaten its future loan-providing capabilities.

"It will affect lending by the government if the bad debt increases. If the government is no more able to provide loans because of this, ultimately farmers will suffer," he said.

The Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank is one of several decades-old, state-owned banks that have been providing loans in agriculture areas against low interest rates, while running financial losses.

According to Khin Maung Win, it provided loans to farmers owning 2.45 million acres of farmland in Irrawaddy Division. The region is Burma's most productive rice-growing area and home to more than 3 million farmers.

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US Pressure Urged Over Jailed Journalists in Burma

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 02:29 AM PST

Thura Aung, a journalist with the defunct Bi Mon Te Nay journal, leaves the Pabedan Court after having been sentenced to two years in prison last month. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

Thura Aung, a journalist with the defunct Bi Mon Te Nay journal, leaves the Pabedan Court after having been sentenced to two years in prison last month. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

WASHINGTON — Burma's transformation from pariah state to aspiring democracy has been kind to blogger Nay Phone Latt. He was freed from a 20-year prison term imposed for his coverage of anti-junta protests. He now has a weekly program on US-funded Radio Free Asia and runs an internationally praised campaign against sectarian hate speech.

But he has a sobering message for US officials he'll meet in Washington on Friday. While the nation's media have more freedom than in decades, the powerful military is still "untouchable."

US President Barack Obama visits Burma next week, and Nay Phone Latt and fellow dissident writer Ma Thida say he should call for the release of a mounting number of journalists facing stiff jail terms—one of the troubling signs that the political reforms in Burma, championed by the Obama administration, have stalled.

"Words are not crimes," said Ma Thida, who speaks from experience. She spent five years in prison in the 1990s for her prodemocracy activities under the former ruling junta, on charges including distributing unlawful literature. She contracted tuberculosis in prison and was eventually released on humanitarian grounds.

Today, she and Nay Phone Latt lead PEN Myanmar, a branch of an international charity that represents 190 writers in the Southeast Asian country. It's an organization that couldn't have operated under the former regime, and it is a positive sign of the times that former dissidents are free to travel abroad. They will meet with senior officials at the State Department and the White House.

Easing state control of the media has been one of the most significant achievements of Burma's transition from authoritarian rule. But optimism has ebbed since Obama became the first US president to visit Burma two years ago, and journalists are increasingly punished under antiquated security laws.

Ma Thida, 48, who edits Echo, a current affairs weekly magazine, contends that the recent jailings are meant to intimidate a fledgling free press, which is already struggling because of commercial pressures and a lack of training. Those concerns could intensify as the country prepares to hold general elections late next year.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the military and media are increasingly at odds over the reporting of information perceived as sensitive. The authorities typically defend arrests as a matter of national security.

Among the recent high-profile cases:

— Freelance photojournalist Aung Kyaw Naing died after he was detained by the military last month while covering clashes between the army and ethnic rebels. His wife Ma Thandar said his body, which was exhumed Wednesday, showed signs of torture. The military said last week they shot him dead Oct. 4 as he tried to reach for a soldier's gun during an attempted escape.

— Four reporters and the chief executive of the now-defunct Unity journal are serving seven year jail terms for a January report about an alleged chemical weapons factory that the government said was false.

— Three journalists and two publishers of Bi Mon Te Nay journal, who got two years for a July 7 front-page story, reporting an activist group's false claim that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic leaders had formed an interim government to replace the current quasi-civilian administration of President Thein Sein.

Ma Thida attributed the misreporting to a lack of professionalism rather than political intent, and asks: "How does the government expect journalists to gain more skills when it puts them behind bars?"

Nay Phone Latt, 34, who was among 1,300 political prisoners who have been freed in the past three years, said the military remains isolated from the rest of society and above criticism, setting limits on Burma's new democracy and freedom of expression.

"We have freedom, but it is a limited freedom," he said.

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Journalist’s Body Moved to Rangoon Against Local Orders

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 09:21 PM PST

The body of Aung Kyaw Naing, a journalist killed by the Burma Army, was exhumed from a grave on Nov. 5, 2014. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

The body of Aung Kyaw Naing, a journalist killed by the Burma Army, was exhumed from a grave on Nov. 5, 2014. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

The body of slain journalist Aung Kyaw Naing was taken to Rangoon on Friday morning, despite an order from the Moulmein Municipal office that the body be buried in Moulmein, the Mon State capital.

The body of Aung Kyaw Naing, also known as Par Gyi, was exhumed on Wednesday from a grave in Shwe War Chaung village in Mon State's Kyaikmayaw Township. According to autopsy results released yesterday, five gunshot wounds were found on the journalist's body.

Activist Naw Ohn Hla told The Irrawaddy that Thandar, the victim's widow, received a letter from the Moulmein Municipal office at 9:30 pm yesterday stating that the corpse must be buried at a cemetery in Moulmein, within 24 hours after the autopsy. The letter said that the order was in accordance with section 68(a) of the Moulmein Municipal Act.

Naw Ohn Hla said that family and friends supporting Thandar decided to proceed with plans to take the body to Rangoon, despite pressure from local authorities.

"We left Moulmein at 8 am this morning," Naw Ohn Hla said by phone on Friday.

The head of Moulmein hospital had issued a letter giving approval for the corpse to be taken to Rangoon, but monks, town elders and local authorities objected. Thandar pleaded with them "to respect the family's desire" to conduct a proper burial at a place of their choice.

The Free Funeral Service Society in Rangoon helped transport the corpse and representatives of the Mon National Party accompanied the convoy.

As of Friday morning, the group had not faced any obstruction as it traveled to Rangoon, Naw Ohn Hla said.

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Trio of Burma Govt Leaders Guilty of War Crimes: Report

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 01:44 AM PST

Allegations of human rights violations have plagued the Burma Army for decades. (Photo: Reuters)

Allegations of human rights violations have plagued the Burma Army for decades. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Burma's current home affairs minister is one of three Burma Army generals who could be arrested and prosecuted for offenses that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the previous military regime, according to a report released on Friday by a US-based human rights institute.

Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Ko Ko is implicated in a three-year offensive in Karen State that displaced some 42,000 civilians and left untold dead, the report by Harvard University's International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) said.

Brig-Gen Khin Zaw Oo, currently commander of Burma Army Bureau of Special Operations No. 4, and Brig-Gen Maung Maung Aye, whose position is currently unknown but who had served as Naypyidaw regional commander, are also accused of war crimes related to the offensive.

The 78-page report lays out a legal basis for the men's guilt, and states that IHRC researchers had compiled sufficient evidence for the issuance of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

On Friday, however, the principle author of the report Matthew Bugher made clear that the IHRC was "not calling for a prosecution or an arrest," and he noted that because Burma is not a party to an international legal treaty known as the Rome Statute, any ICC action would first require UN involvement.

"What we are calling for is a clear discussion about how to address these things, that involves all stakeholders," he said at a press conference in Rangoon, calling the information presented "very sensitive."

Focusing on a period from 2005-06 in Karen State, the report comes at an awkward time for the Burmese government, as US President Barack Obama prepares to visit the country for two regional summits amid a growing chorus of critics who say Naypyidaw's once-vaunted reform program is backsliding. Its release also comes just weeks after the Burma Army admitted that journalist Aung Kyaw Naing was shot dead while in military custody.

Bugher said the timing of the report's release was not intended to coincide with the upcoming Asean and East Asia summits, and was contingent on IHRC first meeting with the Burma Army. That meeting took place on Wednesday, when Bugher sat down with Deputy Defense Minister Maj-Gen Kyaw Nyunt for a discussion of the report's findings, which Bugher said the minister assessed as "one-sided and inaccurate."

Intentional attacks and displacement of civilians, forced labor, rape, torture and murder are just a few of the international crimes committed by two combat units—the Southern Command and Light Infantry Division 66—in Karen State, according to the report. The three generals named were not necessarily found to have directly ordered any of the abuses against civilians, the report says, but could be held criminally liable due to their positions within the chain of command hierarchy at the time.

The offensive's purpose was "to drive the civilian population from [Karen National Liberation Army]-controlled areas to government-controlled areas or across the border into Thailand, where they could less easily provide material support to the armed group," it alleges.

Based on interviews with some 150 people in Thandaung Township who were in some way affected by the offensive, the report says the abuses documented were likely only the tip of the iceberg.

"Given the limited geographic and temporal scope of its investigation, the Clinic believes that the abuses that it documented are only a small fraction of those that were perpetrated during the Offensive."

An email to presidential spokesman Ye Htut seeking comment on the report went unanswered on Friday.

The report raises the thorny issue of transitional justice, and how to go about seeking accountability for decades of human rights atrocities in Burma.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a political prisoner for 15 years under the former military regime, has herself said she is not interested in pursuing legal action against members of the former junta, many of whom still serve in Burma's quasi-civilian leadership ranks.

Bugher on Friday said the fact that the men accused in the report still hold senior positions in government was troubling.

"We are concerned that the commanders who oversaw these egregious abuses have a prominent place in the military and the government," Bugher said. "We think that it calls into question the sincerity of the reform movement—the fact that the home affairs minister oversaw these kinds of abuses."

In a separate report released on Thursday, the advocacy group Fortify Rights accused the Burma Army of more recent abuses in northern Burma, alleging that military personnel have "targeted, attacked, and killed civilians with impunity in ongoing fighting in Kachin State and northern Shan State."

Its findings were corroborated by Bugher on Friday.

"We are also concerned that the policies and practices which we documented being implemented in eastern Myanmar in 2005 and 2006 continue to be implemented in [Kachin and Shan states]," he said.

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Repatriation Thwarted By Militarization in Eastern Burma:Report

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 01:37 AM PST

A young girl living at Mae La refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

A young girl living at Mae La refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Military activity linked to competition over resources and commercial development is hampering the return and resettlement of displaced persons and refugees near the Thai-Burma border, according to aid coordination agency The Border Consortium (TBC).

In a statement made on Thursday by TBC, an NGO that has facilitated aid to refugees and displaced persons around the border for the last 30 years, prospects of a return home for those displaced by ethnic conflicts remain limited, despite the negotiation of at least 16 ceasefires between non-state armed groups and the Burmese government since 2011.

"We have only seen small scale and tentative return of refugees from Thailand, and this survey suggests that the overall number of internally displaced persons has not reduced significantly either," said TBC executive director Sally Thompson in the statement.

"Efforts to prepare for the return and resettlement of displaced persons have been thwarted by ongoing militarization and insecurity."

Duncan McArthur, partnership director of TBC, told The Irrawaddy that community leaders of conflict-hit areas don't believe that current ceasefire agreements are sustainable.

"During the ceasefire, we have recognized a significant reduction in fighting. But the ongoing militarization is not helping to build confidence in the peace process," said McArthur.

According to TBC, while there has been a reduction in fighting between the government and ethnic armed groups, there has been an increased military presence in some ethnic states as a result of resource extraction and commercial development.

McArthur said that ongoing commercial development in ethnic regions led to competition between the Burmese military and ethnic rebel groups to secure resource-rich parts of the country, leading to widespread land confiscations.

A consultation hosted by TBC, attended by international donors, representatives of nongovernmental organizations and ethnic community-based organizations, took place in Chiang Mai this week.

Representatives from conflict-affected communities were wary of the current peace process, saying that the ceasefire had only brought about a temporary reduction in armed conflict.

Consultation participants identified demarcation of troops, demilitarization, and peace monitoring mechanisms as key priorities for a sustainable peace, and were pessimistic about the prospects for durable ceasefire agreements while the military maintained a large presence in ethnic regions.

The ethnic rights group Karen Rivers Watch (KRW) released a statement on Friday saying that recent fighting between the government and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) had displaced more than 2,000 villagers near the planned site for the Hatgyi hydropower dam on Karen State's Salween River.

"Villagers and Karen resistance leaders in the area believe they are being attacked to make way for the Hatgyi Dam," said KRW spokesperson Saw Tha Phoe in the statement.

The group also urged world leaders to pressure Burma's government to halt military offensives and pursue genuine peace as they arrive in Naypyidaw for the East Asia Summit and Asean meetings next week, warning that the peace process was in jeopardy.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday warned that Burma's political reforms have been stalled since early last year, and that the US government has been too optimistic about the pace of reforms started under President Thein Sein's administration. She called on the US government to "seriously think" about the lack of democratic progress in Burma.

The statement released by TBC was based on research conducted by eleven civil society organizations, which interviewed community leaders in more than 220 village tracts in conflict-affected regions of Burma.

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Migrant Rights Activist Temporarily Detained in Airport

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 01:27 AM PST

Kyaw Thaung, director of Myanmar Association in Thailand. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy)

Kyaw Thaung, director of Myanmar Association in Thailand. (Photo: Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — A prominent migrant rights activist was briefly detained by immigration authorities in Rangoon on Thursday, for reasons that remain unclear.

Kyaw Thaung, director of the Bangkok-based Myanmar Association in Thailand (MAT), was stopped by immigration officers at Rangoon International Airport while attempting to return to Thailand after escorting the parents of two Koh Tao murder suspects back to Burma.

Officers of the Immigration and Population Department reportedly told Kyaw Thaung that he had been "blacklisted" before detaining him in an immigration office.

"I was taken aback when they told me I had been blacklisted," he told The Irrawaddy. "I asked them who said that, they phoned someone, and about five minutes later I was brought into an immigration office at the airport."

Immigration officials kept him in custody for more than an hour.

Airport immigration officials could not offer a clear account of the incident, but an officer on duty told The Irrawaddy that Kyaw Thaung had most likely been "mistaken for someone who has the same name as him."

The activist has now returned to Bangkok, where he resides.

Kyaw Thaung, who is from Arakan State in western Burma, has spent years assisting migrant laborers and victims of human trafficking in Thailand. The MAT, founded in 2008, works collaboratively with Thai police on dispute mitigation and rescue operations for abused migrants.

He is also a member of a team established by the Burmese Embassy in Thailand to oversee an investigation into the murder of two British backpackers in mid-September, of which two Arakanese migrants have been accused.

An investigation by the Royal Thai Police has come under serious criticism, and on Monday the families of the accused demanded that Thailand's Department of Special Investigations carry out a separate and independent inquiry.

The post Migrant Rights Activist Temporarily Detained in Airport appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China Premier Won’t Meet Suu Kyi During Burma Visit, Will Offer Aid

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 12:36 AM PST

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers his speech on stage at the opening ceremony of the 4th Ministerial Conference of Istanbul Process of Afghanistan in Beijing October 31, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers his speech on stage at the opening ceremony of the 4th Ministerial Conference of Istanbul Process of Afghanistan in Beijing October 31, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will not meet Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi when he visits the country next week, but will announce a new aid package and series of deals, officials said on Thursday.

China and Burma have traditionally had close ties, with Burma relying on its powerful northern neighbor for economic and diplomatic support when it was under wide-reaching Western sanctions, before embarking on political reforms four years ago.

Beijing has watched nervously since then as the new government has courted the United States, though it has also been keen to reach out to Suu Kyi.

This week, a senior official at Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said she would visit China next month, though she later said that trip was not yet confirmed.

Li will be visiting the country to take part in a regional summit, and is also paying a formal visit to the country, but has no plans to meet Suu Kyi, said deputy Chinese foreign minister Liu Zhenmin.

"Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Myanmar is very short. Mainly it’s about bilateral arrangements with President Thein Sein. The other meeting is with the head of the Myanmar Parliament. We have no other meetings," Liu told a news briefing.

"As for the Myanmar side announcing Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to China, we have not received confirmation about this. We’ve only heard the reports from Myanmar. I’m not certain what the next arrangements there will be."

Since taking power in March 2011, Myanmar’s reformist government has sought to decrease its dependence on China, which was cemented during years of Western sanctions put in place in response to human rights abuses carried out by the ruling junta.

China, a major investor in Burma, has been stung by criticism it is only interested in the country for its natural resources and that its investment has come at a huge cost, with criticism focused on a gas and oil pipeline and hydroelectricity projects.

In 2011, President Thein Sein suspended the $3.6 billion, Chinese-led Myitsone dam project, some 90 percent of whose power would have gone to China.

Chinese Assistant Commerce Minister Tong Daochi said Li would announce a new aid package to "help Myanmar improve people’s livelihoods", as well as a series of agreements about energy, power, agriculture.

"These measures are currently in discussion with Myanmar … You can expect a rather substantial outcome," Tong added, declining to provide details.

The post China Premier Won’t Meet Suu Kyi During Burma Visit, Will Offer Aid appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Japanese Woman Abducted by North Korea Died of Drug Overdose

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 10:09 PM PST

Shigeru Yokota (right) and his wife Sakie (centre), parents of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea agents in 1977, are surrounded by members of the media after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. (Photo: Issei Kato / Reuters)

Shigeru Yokota (right) and his wife Sakie (centre), parents of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea agents in 1977, are surrounded by members of the media after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. (Photo: Issei Kato / Reuters)

SEOUL — Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted by North Korean agents decades ago as a schoolgirl, died from an overdose of medication in 1994 and was buried in a pit with other corpses, a South Korean newspaper said on Friday.

Yokota, who has been an iconic symbol of Japanese nationals abducted by the North and Tokyo’s efforts to ascertain their fate, died of an overdose of sedatives and sleeping pills in a psychiatric ward, South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration eased some sanctions on North Korea in July in return for Pyongyang’s reopening of a probe into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted in the 1970s and 1980s.

Dong-a Ilbo said the finding was included in a report by Japanese officials who had interviewed North Korean witnesses who were on the staff of the hospital where Yokota died, and Abe’s administration had been briefed about the fresh details.

Abe, whose government is under fire for fund-related scandals in his cabinet, has made resolving the abductee issue a priority. Last week, he said the North had told Japan it intended to deepen its probe into their fate.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens to help train spies, and five abductees and their families later returned to Japan.

Japan wants to know about the fate of the remaining eight, who Pyongyang has said have died, and others that Tokyo believes were also kidnapped.

Yokota was snatched off a beach in northern Japan on her way home from school in 1977 at the age of 13. Pyongyang has said she had committed suicide after suffering from mental diseases.

Japan has never accepted North Korea’s explanation of Yokota’s death, after bones North Korea said were hers were shown by DNA testing to be those of a man.

The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said two North Koreans who were on the staff of the hospital gave testimony that Yokota was given sedatives and sleeping pills that exceeded safe doses.

“At the time of the patient’s death, there were blue marks all over her body,” one of them was quoted as saying. That was an indication that poison or excessive medication was taken or injected, the person was quoted as saying.

Her body was dumped in a pit to be buried without a coffin, the report said.

While in the North, she married a South Korean abductee named Kim Young-nam in 1986, and they had a daughter. Yokota died in 1994, said Kim, who was one of more than 500 South Korean civilians thought to have been abducted by the North and who was briefly reunited with his South Korean family in 2006.

At the rare family reunion event held by the two Koreas, he said Yokota had suffered from depression and schizophrenia and repeatedly attempted suicide.

The post Japanese Woman Abducted by North Korea Died of Drug Overdose appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Tanzania Probes Alleged Ivory Smuggling During Chinese State Visit

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 09:14 PM PST

China's President Xi Jinping (L) and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete (R) walk through women waving China and Tanzania national flags at the State House in Dar es Salaam, March 24, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

China’s President Xi Jinping (L) and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete (R) walk through women waving China and Tanzania national flags at the State House in Dar es Salaam, March 24, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)

DAR ES SALAAM — Tanzania is studying a report alleging that Chinese officials bought large amounts of illegal ivory during a visit by President Xi Jinping last year and smuggled it out in diplomatic bags aboard his plane, a Tanzanian government official said on Thursday.

Beijing denied the allegation by an environmental campaign group, describing it as without foundation.

Poaching has risen in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa, where well-armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.

The situation has been most dramatic in Tanzania, where 10,000 elephants were killed last year alone, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the international campaign group which reported the alleged Chinese smuggling.

"The government is studying the report and will issue a statement at the appropriate time," a Tanzanian government official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

"China has a special relationship with Tanzania. We don’t want to make any rash comments before we establish the real truth behind these allegations."

At a daily news briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei called the report "baseless."

Hong said China was committed to upholding international conventions on protecting endangered species and stopping the smuggling of ivory into China.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said on Nov. 4 that China was his country’s "all weather friend" after returning from an official visit to Beijing where officials of the two countries signed multi-billion-dollar investment deals.

Officials in the east African nation have said they see poaching as a threat to tourism, a major foreign currency earner.

Crime and Corruption

EIA said its findings are based on meetings between its undercover investigators and individuals tied to the trade.

"The poaching crisis in Tanzania is due to a toxic mix of criminal syndicates, often led by Chinese nationals, and corruption among some Tanzanian government officials," its report said.

The group said it had dispatched undercover investigators to meet with "a tight-knit group of traders" at the Mwenge market in Dar es Salaam, which it called an important hub for ivory trading.

Two of those traders said that ivory sales had boomed when a large entourage of businessmen and government officials accompanied Xi on a state visit to Tanzaniain March 2013.

"The two traders claimed that a fortnight before the state visit, Chinese buyers began purchasing thousands of kilos of ivory, later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane," the report said.

It quoted one of the men as saying the scale of the buying was such that the price per kilogram of ivory had doubled to $700 during the visit.

More than 1.3 million elephants roamed Africa in 1979, but the number has dwindled to an estimated 419,000 today, according to figures quoted in the EIA report. The scale of poaching in the 1980s sparked an outcry, prompting the adoption of a ban on international commercial ivory trade in 1989.

Tanzania’s elephants, which had been making a comeback over the last decade, "are again being slaughtered en masse to feed a resurgent ivory trade," the report said.

The post Tanzania Probes Alleged Ivory Smuggling During Chinese State Visit appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Indian Intelligence Agency on the Cheap Hampers War on Militants

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 09:09 PM PST

Indian police inspect the site of a bomb explosion outside a polling station at Palhalan in Baramulla district, north of Srinagar May 7, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Indian police inspect the site of a bomb explosion outside a polling station at Palhalan in Baramulla district, north of Srinagar May 7, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

NEW DELHI — When a bomb went off last month in West Bengal state, police at India’s leading counterterrorism organization had to hail taxis to get to the scene because they did not have enough cars.

The admission by two officers from the National Investigation Agency underlines how poorly equipped it is to fulfil its role of investigating the most serious terrorism cases, cutting off funding to militants and putting suspects on trial.

The NIA’s woes are symptomatic of an overstretched intelligence network at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi must counter the growing threat of Islamist militants from al Qaeda, and possibly also Islamic State, gaining a foothold in the world’s largest democracy.

The NIA has no officers specializing in cyber surveillance, explosives or tracing chemicals and has been forced to ask companies to decrypt computers recovered at crime scenes, officers said.

"The government has its budget constraints; we have done quite well in cracking cases with the resources at our disposal," NIA head Sharad Kumar told Reuters in an interview.

When NIA officers eventually arrived at the scene of the blast in West Bengal, bordering Bangladesh to India’s east, what they discovered was important.

Two members of a banned Bangladeshi militant group had blown themselves up building bombs, and the NIA believes they were part of a series of plots to destabilize Bangladesh.

The NIA, which had only opened its West Bengal branch five days earlier, was caught by surprise by the blast, as were other Indian intelligence agencies.

It is now investigating the case and says it is struggling to find a dozen senior militant leaders who it said had fled the area after the explosion.

Shoestring Budget

The NIA was created in response to the siege of Mumbai, India’s financial capital, when Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people in a commando-style assault on two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in 2008.

The agency is seen as India’s answer to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterterrorism wing, although, despite a population four times that of the United States, it has about 0.5 percent of the funding of its American counterpart.

Before the Mumbai attack, India’s security agencies were so riven by conflict and miscommunication that they failed to process warnings about the threat of a sea-borne assault, the government said later, vowing to revamp the state machinery.

Six years later and Modi has yet to lay out plans to overhaul the structure of the security services or improve the information flow between agencies, according to police and intelligence officers.

Since winning power in May, his domestic security focus has been to boost surveillance of suspects in the Muslim community following the rise of Islamic State and to improve intelligence ties with the U.S. and Israel, government officials said.

So far his government has not responded to the NIA’s request made months ago to double the staff, recruit more specialists and create a national center of excellence to train officers.

A home ministry spokesman declined to comment on those requests, part of a blueprint to overhaul the NIA.

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said there had been "aggression from the new government in its statements and its posturing on terrorism.

"There is no sign of a dramatic transformation in its approach, and until we get that, then the best you can hope for is for the same people to do a little better."

Infighting Among Intelligence Groups

Like many countries, India has several intelligence and investigation agencies.

The Intelligence Bureau is the domestic unit and the Research and Analysis Wing is an external spy agency. The military runs its own intelligence wing and so do paramilitary organizations like the Border Security Force.

Infighting continues to hinder India’s ability to prevent attacks and agencies are often reluctant to share information, according to intelligence officials at these organizations as well as experts.

"The Indian intelligence services have long been plagued by stove piping and failure to share information," said Bruce Riedel, a former senior CIA expert on South Asia who has advised President Barack Obama on policy in the region.

"Modi’s new national security adviser, Ajit Doval, a long-time intelligence professional, will have the job of making the services perform at a higher level."

The NIA was supposed to be complemented by a National Counter Terrorism Centre that would sit above other agencies and sift through what they provided, as well as a national intelligence database accessible by other agencies.

But the plan has been stalled by opposition from Indian states concerned about giving up powers to central government.

India’s constitution makes law and order primarily a state issue, and NIA officers say part of the problem is that they need help in intelligence gathering from local police, who are typically poorly trained and ill-equipped.

At present, when Indian police arrest suspects there is no way to check if they are wanted, a problem that has led to embarrassing blunders.

Police arrested Yasin Bhatkal, accused of orchestrating a series of deadly bomb blasts, as one of the co-founders of the militant Indian Mujahideen group.

Bhatkal spent months in a West Bengal jail for handling forged currency before he was released four years ago because police were unaware he was on the NIA’s most wanted list.

He was finally re-captured in a hideout on India’s border with Nepal last year.

The Indian government is working to build a national computer database linking the country’s 14,000 police stations. This will allow officers for the first time to check a suspect’s background based on fingerprints or iris scans.

Warning Signs

One major concern is that Islamic State and a new branch of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent may start to recruit from the world’s third-biggest Muslim population, which has largely stayed away from global jihad.

When the NIA’s director was asked about local media reports that suggested up to 150 Indians had joined Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, he shrugged his shoulders.

"We don’t know, it could be more, it could be less," Kumar said. "We really don’t know."

Alarmed by intelligence reports warning of an imminent attack in the eastern city of Kolkata, India’s navy withdrew two warships on Tuesday.

A suicide bomb attack at the weekend near the India-Pakistan border, which killed at least 57 people, was designed to stir tension between the rival countries, intelligence sources said.

Over the last six years, officers working at the NIA have secured 31 convictions and more cases are working their way through the courts, India’s junior minister of home affairs told parliament in July.

The agency has an annual budget of $16 million and only three quarters of the sanctioned strength of 865 officers.

When the NIA started out it was headquartered at the Centaur Hotel in New Delhi, then ranked the dirtiest hotel in India for three consecutive years by the Trip Advisor website.

The agency moved to a makeshift office in a shopping center on the outskirts of the capital in 2011 before moving into an office close to parliament last year.

"I always felt vulnerable there because it was in a commercial complex and it could have been attacked," said a senior officer at the agency.

"We are slowly building up our capabilities," he said. "It is going to take time. We are doing the best with what we have."

The post Indian Intelligence Agency on the Cheap Hampers War on Militants appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

US Commission Urges Obama to Meet Persecuted Rohingya in Burma

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 08:57 PM PST

Burma's President Thein Sein, right, is pictured alongside US President Barack Obama as they participate in a group photo at the East Asian Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Nov. 19, 2011. (Photo: Reuters) 

Burma's President Thein Sein, right, is pictured alongside US President Barack Obama as they participate in a group photo at the East Asian Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Nov. 19, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

WASHINGTON — A US government agency called on President Barack Obama on Thursday to meet with Rohingya Muslims and other minorities when he Burma government to act to prevent "serious and alarming violence" against them.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also said the United States should continue to use sanctions against officials and individuals in Burma responsible for religious persecution and consider a binding agreement with the government linking the lifting of sanctions to rights reform.

"The political reform process in Burma is at great risk of deteriorating if religious freedom and the right to equal treatment under the law are not honored and protected," the commission said in a report after its first visit to predominately Buddhist Burma.

"USCIRF is concerned that recent openings have coincided with serious and alarming violence against religious and ethnic minorities."

The report from the commission, an independent, bipartisan agency funded by the US government, said attacks against Muslims, particularly stateless Rohingya Muslims, as well as Christians, had continued with impunity and the government appeared "unable or unwilling to address the abuses."

The commission called the situation faced by Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State "appalling" and said its four-member team was "struck by the bigotry and chauvinism exhibited by important religious figures within the Buddhist community."

The report highlighted proposed legislation to restrict religious conversions and marriages between people of different faiths and said this had "no place in the 21st century."

It urged Obama to meet Rohingya and other Muslims, Christians and activists when he visits Burma next week to attend regional summits.

The US government, it said, should show solidarity by using the term "Rohingya," despite objections by government officials, and said US Secretary of State John Kerry had disappointed Rohingya by failing to do so on a visit in August.

"The United States and the international community need to ensure that religious freedom and related human rights remain a high priority in their engagement with the Burmese government while also assisting those in Burma subject to religious-based abuses," the report said.

The report said the abuses underlined the appropriateness of the continued designation of Burma as a "country of particular concern" by the State Department under the US Religious Freedom Act and a US arms embargo linked to this.

It said the US should consider a binding framework linking an end to this designation to progress on religious freedom and other human rights issues.

Burma launched widespread economic and political reforms in 2011, convincing the West to suspend most sanctions on the country. However, Washington maintains a blacklist and imposed sanctions on a prominent lawmaker and businessman on Friday for undermining reforms.

Obama urged the protection of minorities in an Oct. 30 call to President Thein Sein. He stressed the importance of addressing the humanitarian situation in Arakan State and measures to support Rohingya rights.

The post US Commission Urges Obama to Meet Persecuted Rohingya in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma Profits Off Rohingya Exodus

Posted: 06 Nov 2014 08:52 PM PST

An armed policeman observes a scene at an unofficial camp for displaced Rohingya in Sittwe. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy)

An armed policeman observes a scene at an unofficial camp for displaced Rohingya in Sittwe. (Photo: J Paing / The Irrawaddy)

MYINT HLUT — The small wooden boats leave the shores of western Burma nearly every day, overloaded with desperate Rohingya Muslims who are part of one the largest boat exoduses in Asia since the Vietnam War.

Helping them on their way: Burma's own security forces, who are profiting off the mass departure of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities by extracting payments from those fleeing. A report to be released Friday by the Bangkok-based advocacy group Fortify Rights, and reporting by The Associated Press, indicate the practice is far more widespread and organized than previously thought, with Burmese naval boats going so far as to escort asylum seekers out to larger human trafficking ships waiting at sea that are operated by transnational criminal networks.

“Myanmar [Burmese] authorities are not only making life so intolerable for Rohingya that they have to flee, they’re also complicit in the process — they’re taking payments and profiting off their exodus,” said Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights.

Arakan state spokesman Win Myaing dismissed the allegations as “rumors,” saying he has not “heard of anything happening like that.” He said any naval boats approaching such vessels were likely aiming to help fishermen in need.

More than 100,000 Rohingya have fled Burma's western shores by boat since Buddhist-Muslim violence erupted in Arakan state two years ago, according to estimates provided by experts tracking their movements.

Chris Lewa, director of the advocacy group Arakan Project, said increasing desperation is behind a huge surge since Oct. 15, with an average of 900 people per day piling into cargo ships parked offshore. In Arakan state, an aggressive campaign by authorities over the last few months to register family members and officially categorize them as “Bengalis” — implying they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh — has aggravated their situation.

The deepening crisis comes ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama to Burma next week for a regional summit, his second in two years. Obama, who has repeatedly pointed to democratic changes in Burma as a foreign policy bright spot, called President Thein Sein recently by telephone to express concerns about a reform process analysts say has been backsliding for months.

Burma is home to an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya, and most are considered stateless. Though many of their families arrived from Bangladesh generations ago, almost all are denied citizenship by Burma as well as Bangladesh. In the last two and a half years, attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds dead and 140,000 trapped in camps where they live without access to adequate health care, education or jobs.

Smith said authorities in Burma have been profiting off the Rohingya for decades, and extracting money from those departing was only one way. If Rohingya residents attempt to travel to neighboring villages without permission from local authorities, they risk being arrested and forced to pay bribes for their freedom, he said. The restrictions are so intense that even those who repair their own houses — which often crumble during the rainy season — can be fined if they do so without permission.

Many of those fleeing today have been forced to sell everything they have, including precious belongings — land, cattle, gold — to human trafficking brokers who typically charge $2,000 for passage to Malaysia, a Muslim country. Many end up in secret jungle camps in Thailand, where they face extortion and beatings until relatives come up with enough money to win their release.

Thai authorities have also been accused of colluding with traffickers, but have denied the allegations.

“It’s draining them economically,” Smith said. “This is one of the poorest communities in Asia, one of the most abused, and this whole process is taking the little resources that they have left in exchange for even more abuse.”

According to Fortify Rights, the brokers may collect sums averaging $500 to $600 per small boatload of asylum seekers, usually numbering between 50 and 100 people, and hand those payments to officials from Burma's police, navy and army. Police also have collected payments directly from passengers, the group said, adding that the Burmese navy once demanded $7,000 from a trafficking ship offshore to allow them to leave.

The small boats transport the Rohingya to larger ships further out at sea that can carry as many as 1,000 people. The Fortify Rights report said the vast majority of those fleeing are routinely deceived, finding themselves “in the custody of abusive human trafficking and smuggling gangs, who detain them in conditions of enslavement and exploitation … nearly all endure or witness torture, deprivation of food and water, confinement in extremely close quarters and other abuses throughout their journeys.”

The Associated Press has documented similar accounts in Arakan state. The family member of one Rohingya broker — since arrested on drug trafficking and other charges — said his boat set off from a small creek inland and had to pass a police post on the way to the sea where an obligatory payment had to be made. The family member spoke in Myint Hlut town on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested.

The family member also recounted navy ships escorting Rohingya asylum seekers out to sea, as well as chasing them to extract more bribes. In another instance documented by AP, a dozen Burmese soldiers boarded a vessel filled with Rohingya in the Bay of Bengal, bound their hands and bludgeoned them with wooden planks and iron rods before finally extracting money and letting them go.

Smith said the reason Burmese authorities were exploiting trafficking networks themselves was simple: they can make tremendous money doing it.

“Assuming that just half the 100,000 who have fled in the last two years have been forced to pay $2,000 each for passage to Malaysia, we’re talking about a trade worth $100 million, he said. “That’s why we see government complicity. There is a perverse and disturbing economic element to all of this.”

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