Democratic Voice of Burma

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• Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung
• Rangoon City Hall protestors forcibly evicted
• Roadshow recap: The mystery of the Kyatgu caves
• Latpadaung death ‘senseless’, says Chinese mining firm
• Minimum wage talks ongoing
• Two more injured at Latpadaung as police fire rubber bullets
• Latpadaung’s first fatality as riot police move in

Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung Posted: 23 Dec 2014 03:59 AM PST International watchdogs and Burmese activists have voiced distress and disdain over the Burmese police handling of protestors at the controversial Latpadaung copper mine site, where a woman was killed on Monday. Local villager Ma Khin Win, was shot dead and several other local protestors were injured both with live ammunition and rubber bullets in separate incidents on Monday and Tuesday. David Mathieson, the senior researcher on Burma at the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointedly blamed the Burmese authorities for their "abject failure" to resolve the land dispute at the mine site near Monywa in Sagaing Division. "Ongoing protests at Latpadaung demonstrate the abject failure of the government and the 2013 Investigation Commission to resolve this vexed land dispute peacefully, and the distain both government and companies have to meaningfully consult with and fairly compensate villagers who have had their land forcibly seized by a project that will barely benefit them," he said on Tuesday. Mathieson noted that the protestors should not have resorted to violence in frustration, following a report by DVB that villagers had fired stones from slingshots at the police prior to the gunfire. "Despite their understandable frustration, there should be no resort to violence on the part of the protestors," the HRW spokesman said. He added that the tragic killing of Ma Khin Win "shows the police still have a long way to go in deploying the correct use of force during protests." Amnesty International also weighed in, calling for a "comprehensive and independent investigation" into the 50-year-old farmer's death, and noting that this week's violence is the latest in a series of heavy-handed tactics employed by police when dealing with protestors in the Latpadaung area. The London-based rights watchdog also called for the mining project to be closed down until outstanding issues are resolved. "The Myanmar authorities must ensure a comprehensive and independent investigation into this killing and other allegations that police fired on protestors at the Latpadaung copper mine. Those responsible must be held to account,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty’s director of global issues. "While we are aware of reports that some protestors threw stones at police, the resort to firearms raises very serious questions about how the police have handled this situation. Related Stories Latpadaung death 'senseless', says Chinese mining firm Two more injured at Latpadaung as police fire rubber bullets Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in "Under international human rights standards, law enforcement officials must apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms. Intentional lethal use of firearms may only be used when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. The Myanmar authorities must immediately establish whether police violated these standards while policing the demonstration against the Latpadaung copper mine yesterday," she said. Gaughran called on the Burmese authorities to respect people's right to peacefully assemble and stage protests. "This latest incident is one of many serious human rights concerns surrounding the Latpadaung copper mine," she said, noting that many locals have been forcibly evicted from their homes by the government since the project was initiated more than 10 years ago. The Amnesty International chief called on contractors Myanmar Wanbao to "immediately halt all construction at the mine until adequate safeguards are put in place to prevent further human rights abuses." Meanwhile, Burmese activist Nay Myo Zin, a former military officer, said he believed Ma Khin Win was shot with live ammunition and called for a "thorough independent investigation" into the incident. "Judging by the exit wound [in the back of her head], I assume Ma Khin Win was shot with live ammunition," he told DVB on Tuesday. "From what I know, there are specific procedures to follow in crowd control, such as when to issue warnings and when [police] are authorised to use live ammunition, which should be as a last resort, and even then, they must aim below the knee," he said. Former political prisoner and activist Mee Mee of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society said she visited two villagers at Monywa Hospital on Tuesday and that both bore injuries consistent with bullet wounds. "One villager suffered a bullet through the arm while the other got shot in the leg," she said. "They did not receive any assistance from the security forces at the scene, but were later brought here [to the hospital] by fellow villagers on motorbikes." "I don't know much about weapons, but this sure wasn't rubber bullets they were shot with," she added. The post Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Rangoon City Hall protestors forcibly evicted Posted: 23 Dec 2014 12:32 AM PST A rally site outside Rangoon City Hall, which has been occupied for nearly nine months by land grab protestors from Michaungkan, was forcibly dispersed by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fourteen protestors were detained in the fracas, though no injuries or serious resistance was reported. The fourteen were released on bail on Tuesday afternoon. Ba Myint, an activist assisting the protestors, said around 30 police were involved in the operation. "The rally camp at the gates of City Hall has been taken down – the police detained 14 protestors and took them to Dagon Township police station," he said. "We have learnt that they will be taken to Western Rangoon District court to face charges." Related Stories Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in Michaungkan protesters light candles in front of Rangoon City Hall Protecting profits over people Some 80 to 100 residents from Michaungkan in Rangoon's eastern Thingangyun Township had been holding a vigil in front of City Hall since March, demanding the return of farmland they say was seized from them by the Burmese military in 1990. Last week, after marking 270 days of the sit-in, the villagers moved their camp site to the gates of City Hall in a bid to step up their protest. Prior to this, local police had set a deadline of 3 October for the protestors to dismantle their camp and leave the site, but this passed without incident and the protestors remained. In March over 100 residents were dispersed from a sit-in at Maha Bandula Park in downtown Rangoon. Land rights activist Sein Than was sentenced to eight months in prison in August for violating Burma's Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act due to his involvement with the Michaungkan protests. The post Rangoon City Hall protestors forcibly evicted appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Roadshow recap: The mystery of the Kyatgu caves Posted: 22 Dec 2014 11:19 PM PST On the second episode of DVB’s Doh Pyay Doh Myay Roadshow, the team visited mountainous Karenni State. The team explored the capital, Loikaw, and the surrounding mountains, home to rebel armies, opium growers— and the supernatural. DVB Bulletin will return on 5 January.     The post Roadshow recap: The mystery of the Kyatgu caves appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Latpadaung death ‘senseless’, says Chinese mining firm Posted: 22 Dec 2014 11:17 PM PST Chinese company Wanbao has confirmed the death of a female resident of Moekyopyin village, and called for Burmese police to investigate incidents on Monday and Tuesday when riot police opened fire on protestors at the company's Latpadaung copper mine site in Burma's Sagaing Division. In an official statement to DVB, Wanbao wrote: "On behalf of everyone at Wanbao we extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to her [deceased Ma Khin Win's] family and share in their grief at this difficult time. "We understand the police were at the scene, and we hope they will start investigating this event." DVB identified the villager as 50-year-old farmer Khin Win. Locals said she was shot through the head on Monday afternoon when riot police opened fire on villagers who were protesting the seizure of their land by the Myanmar Wanbao company, a joint venture between a Burmese military firm and Chinese state-backed mining company Wanbao. Estimates of injuries run from three to 20. On Tuesday morning, a second confrontation resulted in riot police firing rubber bullets on villagers; at least two were injured. In its statement, Wanbao claims that the circumstances leading up to the villager's death are still unclear. "We know nothing about the police’s handling before the accident happened," the firm's public relations manager Cao Desheng told DVB on Monday. "We made no request for the police to use any kind of violence.” Cao said the police were at the scene because the local government sent them to guard the expanded operation, which local authorities had already approved. Calling the death "senseless" in its statement, the company said, "The mining project is there to help people like the lady who has passed away," adding that the construction was able to proceed because "the vast majority of the people gave us the OK". “We have gone to every village that is affected and we have been all ears. About 70 percent of villagers have already agreed with our compensation plan," said Dong Yunfei, the company's spokesman, speaking to DVB in a telephone interview on Monday evening. He said the fences that the company are putting around the mining site are "to prevent people getting hurt". "We hope to use the fences to separate our operation site from those villages, because if we do not separate them, once they enter the mining zone, it is very easy to cause a severe accident. I am very worried about that," said Dong. Related Stories Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung Two more injured at Latpadaung as police fire rubber bullets Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in He said that, through door-to-door consultations with the majority of the villagers affected by the project, he learnt that many of them who had not yet accepted the project want higher compensation, and are going about that objective through protests and clashes. The company, he said, began offering a "Livelihood Contribution Plan" from July this year to people who are frustrated waiting for jobs that were promised to them, but which can only be awarded once the Letpadaung mine is operational. Dong said the company plans to compensate all impacted 1,032 villagers, a figure less than the estimate by Amnesty International, which has stated that some 2,500 villagers have been affected by the mining project. Dong admitted that around 100 villagers still refuse to talk despite repeated requests. "All those who have not moved away from the site still live in the three old villages," he said. "We have tried to talk with them, but they won't let us in. Neither can the government officials nor the police enter their villages. They have been effectively autonomous. "We learnt that quite a few villagers are actually willing to talk to us, but a few trouble-makers won't let them," he added. Dong said the company will not pressure villagers who refuse to move from the site, and will continue seeking peaceful dialogue. Separately, however, Amnesty International criticised the community consultation process, saying those who refused to relocate to make way for the mine were excluded from the discussions, reportedly on instructions from the Burmese government. Wanbao said it will not suspend the project because of the violence as there has been months of negotiations between villagers and the company. “We will likely continue the operation,” said Cao. Meanwhile, Burma's Ministry of Information (MoI) appeared to lay the blame for Monday's fatal violence on the villagers. State media published a report by MoI, the headline of which ran: "Latpadaung copper mining project's fence extension work disturbed". The MoI statement said that Wanbao staff were prevented from erecting fences by around 30 villagers who laid on the ground in the bulldozers' path. It said the workers were also "targeted by slingshot fire by 15 villagers from the same group, whereby security forces retaliated by firing three warning shots from 12-bolt crowd control guns". "Despite efforts to dilute tensions, around 100 villagers who had been disturbing the third work team near Ingyin Hill snatched signal flags off the [Wanbao staff], set those on fire, and surrounded the 10 workers. "At 11:15am, security forces demanded the villagers release the 10 workers; in response the villagers demanded the construction vehicles and machinery used in the fence construction be removed from the site. "Negotiations failed and tensions rose to the point of danger. The security forces again fired eight shots to disperse the crowd. "The security forces then successfully recused the 10 workers. Eleven police officers and nine villagers were injured in the incident. Daw Khin Win of Mogyopyin died from injuries," the statement concluded. The post Latpadaung death 'senseless', says Chinese mining firm appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Minimum wage talks ongoing Posted: 22 Dec 2014 11:02 PM PST A national committee tasked with fixing a minimum wage for workers in Burma says it aims to complete a survey on the issue within two months. Labour representative of the Committee to Specify the Minimum Wage, Naw Aung, said that at their fifth meeting in Naypyidaw on Thursday the committee's chairman, Labour Minister Aye Myint, urged his colleagues to reach a conclusion. "Minister Aye Myint stressed that committee members must finish the survey in two months' time, and also meet with workers and employers on regional levels to collate options on the minimum wage," said Naw Aung. "Based on findings in the survey and suggestions from workers and employers, we will correlate the findings with commodity price indices and then decide the minimum wage." The survey was launched on Friday, 19 December. The speaker of the Burmese parliament, Shwe Mann, had on 13 December stressed the need to fix a minimum wage at a meeting with workers, employers and government ministry officials. According to official accounts, Burma's legal minimum wage is currently set at 15,000 kyat (US$15) a month for salaried public employees and 500 kyat ($0.50) per day for day labourers. However this is widely ignored throughout Burma and there is little if any enforcement to guarantee employers will pay minimum wage levels. Related Stories Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in Activists charged for staging unauthorised protest Burmese women's football team prepare for 2016 Olympics Neighbouring Thailand has a fixed minimum wage of $9.14 per day, but Thai businesses are widely known to underpay Burmese and other migrants in sectors such as construction, agriculture, fisheries and factory work. Some two million Burmese work in Thailand. Malaysia has a legal minimum daily pay of $7.96- $8.96, Cambodia $3.23, and Laos just $1.41. International Labour Organisation Liaison Officer, Steve Marshall, said in an email to DVB on Tuesday: "The minimum wage is normally established on basic living costs – taking account of the required income for an average family to live in relative dignity. "The factors to be considered in setting [a minimum wage] are where it fits in context of the social protection floor concept, social security and enterprise level employment contracts/collective bargaining, etc. The government [should also] brief employers and workers on the research plan they have developed to inform the decision-making process." The Irrawaddy last month cited Myanmar Trade Union Federation (MTUF) chairperson Aung Lin as saying the MTUF had conducted its own survey in pilot areas in July 2013, the results of which were shared with the national minimum wage committee. He said the MTUF suggested a daily minimum wage be set at 7,000 kyat (US$7) for a household of three people, though he noted that the Labor Ministry disregarded the findings. The post Minimum wage talks ongoing appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Two more injured at Latpadaung as police fire rubber bullets Posted: 22 Dec 2014 09:28 PM PST Two more local villagers have been injured at the site of the Latpadaung copper mine as protestors clashed for a second day with riot police who have been protecting mining company workers as they erect fences around disputed land. Two residents of Sete village, Aung Naing and Htay Win, were shot when local farmers tried to confront staff of the Myanmar Wanbao company at around 7:30 on Tuesday morning. Riot police opened fire with rubber bullets, according to fellow villager Aung Htay Naing. "The security forces opened fire on us again this morning," he told DVB by telephone. "Two villagers were hit with rubber bullets. One was hit in the cheekbone and the other in the jaw. Related Stories Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung Latpadaung death 'senseless', says Chinese mining firm Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in "When we woke up this morning, we saw the riot police and security forces taking up positions in our bean and corn fields," he continued. "We got together and shouted at them to back off. They fired on us with rubber bullets and we withdrew. Now the villagers are just sitting around depressed, watching them [the Myanmar Wanbao employees] laying a fence on our land." Copper mine operators Myanmar Wanbao is a joint venture project involving the Burmese military-backed Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Co. Ltd and Chinese state firm Wanbao. Tuesday's violent confrontation follows a similar clash the day before when around 900 police held off about 200 local protestors for several hours. Both sides are reported to have hurled stones at each other with slingshots during the standoff. At about 2:20pm police were ordered to fire on protestors with live ammunition. One woman, Khin Win, was killed when she was shot through the head. Estimates of injuries runs from three or four to 20. Myanmar Wanbao has since issued a statement, expressing "deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to her [Khuin Win's] family". The post Two more injured at Latpadaung as police fire rubber bullets appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

Latpadaung’s first fatality as riot police move in Posted: 22 Dec 2014 08:14 PM PST Ma Khin Win, a 50-year-old farmer from Mogyopyin village, became the first fatality of Latpadaung's long-running feud between local residents who are fighting to keep their land and the forces of officialdom, personified by Burmese security forces and Chinese mine operators. On Monday, after a tense stand-off for several hours, police opened fire on a group of around 200 local protestors. Reports indicate that the villagers had earlier used slingshots to repel the police who were equipped with riot gear. Locals have told DVB that the police responded in kind with stones shot from slings, and warned the farmers that they would be shot if they did not move. "The protestors tried to block them from entering the plots and refused to give in," said one Sete villager. Khin San Hlaing, a union parliament MP from nearby Pale Township, said she was informed by locals that Khin Win was shot dead by police. "I was told by the villagers that Daw Khin Win was shot in the head when the police opened fire. The photos we received showed a bullet wound entering her forehead and exiting through the back of her head," she told DVB by telephone at 3:30pm local time. Related Stories Amnesty, HRW slam deadly use of force at Latpadaung Rangoon City Hall protestors forcibly evicted Latpadaung death 'senseless', says Chinese mining firm "Her body was still lying in the sesame field and no one had the courage to go pick it up," the MP added. "We were also informed that another villager, U Hmine, from Mogyopyin village was shot in the thigh and was bleeding out. But he was yet to be taken to hospital." She added that a third villager, a woman named Ma Kyu, was injured in the eye. Myanmar Wanbao has issued a statement, expressing its "deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to her family". The confrontation came about after staff from the Myanmar Wanbao Company, which operates the mine, arrived with police security on Monday morning to lay fences across land plots that villagers have refused to give up, despite several offers from Wanbao of financial compensation.   The post Latpadaung's first fatality as riot police move in appeared first on DVB Multimedia Group.

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