The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Ethnic Leaders Propose Talks in Kachin Capita
• Facing Opposition, Kachin Govt Maintains Manau Dance Plans
• KBZ Bank Tops Tax-Paying List, Alongside Army-Owned, Blacklisted Firms
• More Villagers Injured in Letpadaung Mine Protests
• Police Arrest 14, Dismantle Protest Camp at Rangoon City Hall
• In Jakarta, That Sinking Feeling Is All Too Real
• Cambodia Unlicensed Doctor Faces Murder Rap in HIV Outbreak 
• China to Investigate Former President Hu Jintao’s Top Aide
• 10 Years After Tsunami, Burmese Victim’s Mom Learns Body Wasn’t Lost

Ethnic Leaders Propose Talks in Kachin Capita Posted: 23 Dec 2014 06:09 AM PST Hla Maung Shwe of the Myanmar Peace Center talks with ethnic leaders in Rangoon on Dec. 22, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Ethnic peace negotiators have requested a meeting between the government and ethnic armed groups in Burma's troubled north, where an artillery attack on a rebel training facility in late November brought peace talks to a standstill. Speaking to reporters on the tail end of grossly under-attended negotiations lasting two days in Rangoon, representatives of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) said the meeting is meant to focus on resolving the bitterness caused by the attack, which left 23 rebel cadets dead near Laiza, headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). "To solve the problem of the incident in Laiza, we proposed holding the meeting in [Kachin State capital] Myitkyina, but we don't know yet when it will be held," said Kwe Htoo Win, a deputy leader of the NCCT. The official said the meeting was first requested by Kachin leadership, and that the proposal is now under consideration by the Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC), a team of government negotiators that liaises with the NCCT on the long course toward an eventual nationwide peace accord. The KIA and the NCCT requested attendance by representatives of the three major ethnic groups in the country's north currently affected by conflict with the Burma Army: Kachin, Palaung and Shan. Top-level Kachin and Palaung leadership notably abstained from this week's two-day meeting. Kwe Htoo Win said the UPWC will present the proposal to its central committee and they will "inform us about when it will be." Hla Maung Shwe, a senior government advisor at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), which hosted this week's discussions and plays a facilitative role in the peace process, kept his optimism about Burma's stagnating peace process. Ethnic and government negotiators will continue to work in tandem and address the situation in Laiza, he said, particularly toward the goal of preventing another similar incident. He said the current government would like to reach a ceasefire agreement with the country's many ethnic armed groups by mid-February, 2015, though several earlier deadlines have already come and gone to little astonishment. The next round of negotiations is set to be held in January, when the nuts and bolts of the nationwide ceasefire draft will again be up for debate. Hla Maung Shwe said that—despite setbacks caused by the recent attack—the two sides are very near to an agreement and need only adjust three of the document's seven provisions. He declined to provide any further detail about the remaining points of contention. "We don't have much more to talk about," he said. "We have only three more points to discuss with our top leaders." The sticking points in the peace process have been fairly consistent, however, mostly centered on issues of federalism, creation of a federal armed forces and establishing a code of conduct. This week's talks prioritized discussions related to the attack in Laiza and the allowance of peace monitors. The NCCT has recommended that the European Union carry out peace monitoring activities, though the government has only agreed to let China and the United Nations serve as observers at negotiations. Members of the NCCT said that they do not want to proceed with nationwide talks until after the government agrees to meet with ethnic stakeholders in Myitkyina to discuss the shelling of Laiza, which is believed to have been the most deadly singular attack by the Burma Army on rebel forces since the peace process began in 2011. The post Ethnic Leaders Propose Talks in Kachin Capita appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Facing Opposition, Kachin Govt Maintains Manau Dance Plans Posted: 23 Dec 2014 05:10 AM PST Ethnic Kachin revelers celebrate the Manau festival at the Thai village of Baan Mai Samaki in early December 2014. (Photo: Lin Thant / The Irrawaddy) Despite the objection of thousands of members of the Kachin public, the ethnic minority group's state government has vowed to go ahead with plans to include the famed Manau dance at Kachin State Day celebrations in Myitkyina, the state capital, early next year. The state's chief minister said at a meeting with Kachin youths in Myitkyina earlier this month that the government would proceed with plans to include the traditional dance in commemoration of Kachin State Day on Jan. 10. Those remarks came in defiance of the expressed wishes of more than 8,000 Kachin State residents who had signed a petition by November, voicing opposition to the proposal. Tu Raw, an executive committee member of the Kachin Traditional Literature and Cultural Committee, said petitioners felt it was "not the appropriate time" to bring back the formerly annual dance tradition, which has been absent in the state for the last three war-torn years. The last time Kachin dancers performed the Manau was in early 2011. About six months later, a 17-year ceasefire agreement between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) broke down and open war resumed. The two sides have been trading fire and casualties intermittently ever since. In August, the state government announced plans to bring the Manau dance tradition back for the Jan. 5-11, 2015, celebration of Kachin State Day. By November, however, a petition against the proposal had garnered more than 8,000 signatures. "It is not that we, all the Kachin public, agree to the inclusion of the Manau dance during the State Day celebration, as the authorities have claimed," said Tu Raw. "We are not against [celebrating] Kachin State Day, we just think it [including the Manau dance] is not right amid its people facing homeless and insecurity." The Burma Army's Nov. 19 attack on a KIA military academy, which caused 23 deaths and injured 20 others, has only added to sentiment that the Manau dance should not be performed in January, he said. On Nov. 25, Kachin State's Minister of Border Security Col. Than Aung told The Irrawaddy that that the Burma Army would provide additional security for the festival. The petition was sent to the state government three days later, on Nov. 28, according to Tu Raw, who added that many of the Kachin sub-tribes' representatives on the Manau dance organizing committee had left it in a boycott against the plan. In the years leading up to its cancelation following the resumption of hostilities in June 2011, the Kachin Traditional Literature and Culture Committee had led the Manau festival. The Manau dance can be performed year-round to celebrate accomplishments or other special occasions, but traditionally takes place in its fullest splendor during Kachin State Day, which has been celebrated since 1948. A remnant of animistic beliefs that is still practiced today by the now largely Christian Kachin, the Manau spectacle features hundreds of traditionally attired, sword-wielding Kachin whose march-like dancing holds a colorful assemblage of "Manau poles" as its focal point. Though both the KIA and Burma Army have lost scores of soldiers over the last three years, it is Kachin State's civilian populations that have endured the brunt of the hardship stemming from the conflict. About 100,000 civilians remain in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), where conditions are poor and inhabitants are largely dependent on humanitarian supplies from overstretched aid groups, a somber reality that those in opposition have cited as reason to abstain from Manau festivities again in 2015. But Hkyet Hting Nan, an Upper House lawmaker and chairman of the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State, said the iconic Manau dance was one of three critical components to Kachin State Day festivities. "Despite opponents, the Kachin State Day celebration will be a greater success with the inclusion of the Manau dance, modern songs and sporting activities," said the ethnic Kachin lawmaker, who served as the Manau festival's lead organizer from 2005 to 2008. The post Facing Opposition, Kachin Govt Maintains Manau Dance Plans appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

KBZ Bank Tops Tax-Paying List, Alongside Army-Owned, Blacklisted Firms Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:16 AM PST Staff members work at Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank in Rangoon October 10, 2012. (Photo: Reuters) RANGOON — Burma's Internal Revenue Department has announced that Kanbawza Bank (KBZ) topped the list of corporate tax payers in 2013-2014, while two army-owned companies paid the most in sales tax. Among the other top corporate tax contributors to the government coffers last year, according to the department's figures, are a number of large conglomerates owned by US-blacklisted drugs lords and ex-junta "cronies." The department released a top 1,000 list of tax payments by Burmese companies online Tuesday and identified the top 100 tax-paying companies in a list published in the state-run media. The list breaks down the biggest payers of corporate and of sales taxes last year. KBZ paid more than US$17 million in corporate tax, making it the biggest payers of corporate tax. Myawaddy Trading Company and Dagon Beverages Company topped the sales tax list, with both firms paying more than $10 million last year, according to the department's figures. KBZ Group owns one of Burma's largest banks and also has business interests in the domestic airline industry; it was founded in the 1990s in the Shan State capital Taunggyi and is owned by Aung Ko Win. Unlike some of the other large firms set up during the junta years, KBZ is not on a United States Treasury's blacklist. Myawaddy Trading Company and Dagon Beverages Company are among a range of subsidiary owned by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, one of two massive conglomerates run by the Burma Army. The second, third and fourth largest payers of corporate tax to the government are Asia World, Shwe Taung Development and Max Myanmar, respectively, the department announced. It did not specify the taxes paid by the firms, other than to state all had paid between $4 million and $5 million. Asia World is one of Burma's biggest conglomerates and owned by Steven Law, a businessman on the US blacklist because of ties to the Shan State drugs trade. Shwe Taung Development is a sprawling corporation owned by Aik Htun, also on the blacklist because of ties to the illicit drugs trade. Max Myanmar conglomerate is owned by Zaw Zaw, who remains blacklisted because of past connections to the former junta. There were 22 gem-trading companies among the 100 tax-paying companies listed on Tuesday, indicating the importance of the lucrative mining sector to Burma's economy and government revenues. Military-owned firms and businessmen close to the former regime have long dominated the economy, a situation that is only slowly beginning to change as economic reforms are introduced and the country opens up to foreign investment. Among the key reforms introduced by President Thein Sein's government are efforts to revise the tax collection system through measures that aim to improve collection of sales, corporate and property taxes. The Internal Revenue Department has said that its tax collection methods are improving and government revenues from tax are rising. Myo Min Zaw, the deputy head of Rangoon Division's internal revenue department, said the number of companies registering with the department and complying with company tax requirements was growing. "As the numbers of registered companies become bigger year by year, the amount of tax paid by companies also increases," he said, "and KBZ's corporate tax amount paid has become the highest." Myo Min Zaw said challenges remained, however, as tax evasion was a problem among businesses. "Some businessmen may have their various issues, I hope that they will definitely pay tax later," he said, without specifying how many firms were still due to pay taxes. Department officials said in late October that the department expects to collect about $4 billion in all taxes this budget year 2014-2015. In 2013-2014, the department said it collected 3,852 billion kyats, a little under $4 billion against last year's exchange rate, while a year earlier it collected about $3.1 billion. The expected tax revenues fall short, however, of the most recent International Monetary Fund projections for tax collection by the Burmese government. Maung Aung, an economist and consultant to the Ministry of Commerce, said he believed tax evasion remains common in Burma. "There are still some businessmen evading tax. Even though they pay some tax, some people are still evading taxes, people have told me," he said. He said the amount of tax collected by the government is low and insufficient to cover the government's plans to expand expenditures in coming years. "Right now, the government's public expenses, for example on education and health, are going up, but the tax revenues remain low," Maung Aung said. "The amount of collected tax represents only about 6 percent of the total GDP [Gross Domestic Product]," he said. "The government should raise awareness of the tax paying among the public and they should find out other ways to collect more the tax." The post KBZ Bank Tops Tax-Paying List, Alongside Army-Owned, Blacklisted Firms appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

More Villagers Injured in Letpadaung Mine Protests Posted: 23 Dec 2014 04:10 AM PST Security forces take position outside Hse Tae village on Tuesday morning. (Photo: Aung Nay Myo) RANGOON — Three people were injured on Tuesday morning when police used rubber bullets to quell an attempt to halt land seizures near the Letpadaung copper mining project, the day after one woman was shot dead by police in the same village. A doctor from the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, who is giving medical assistance at Hse Tae village and who spoke to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, said he had treated 16 people who were injured in confrontations over the last two days, including several shot with rubber bullets, while others were hit and kicked by police and Chinese employees working on the project. "Most of them are women," he said. According to Hse Tae residents, more than 17 acres of farmland in the surrounding area had been bulldozed since 6:30am on Tuesday, destroying a swath of sesame, sunflower and bean crops. "Right after the bulldozer passed, the Chinese workers planted posts to demarcate the land for fencing," said Phyu Hnin Htwe, a Hse Tae resident who witnessed the seizure. "When the villagers attempted to stop the bulldozer, police shot them down." An official from Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Limited, the Chinese company constructing the Letpadaung mine in a joint venture with the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, told the Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the company will continue to fence the area. "We will keep fencing today," said Dong Yunfei, Wanbao's administrative manager. "We are just doing our business on the land we leased, and there are some people who are not pleased with what we are doing because of instigation by some political forces." Dong added that the project had the approval of the majority of local villagers, and the land had been appropriated by the government in 2001 and leased to the company in 2011. A report in state-run media on Tuesday, headlined 'Extension of Letpadaung Copper Mine Fence Disturbed', said that villagers attacked security forces and detained 10 workers. The article stated that 11 police and nine villagers were injured in the confrontation, in addition to the death of 56-year-old villager Khin Win. In a press statement on Monday, Wanbao said it would extend its working area under the direction of the Burmese government in order to comply with the requirements of its investment permit granted by the Myanmar Investment Commission. In a subsequent press release, issued on Monday after Khin Win's death was made public, Wanbao described the death as "senseless" and expressed hope for a full police investigation, while touting the copper mine's broad public support in the affected communities. "91 percent of impacted villagers in 27 villages who were consulted through door to door consultations have also supported us," the statement read. "So we have achieved great strides in our community relationships. There is a great story of hope and reconciliation […] This is what makes this senseless death even more painful and poignant. The mining project is there to help people like the lady who has passed away." On Tuesday the company accused protestors of using slingshots and throwing rocks at police and Wanbao staff, while vehemently denying accounts on social media that its employees had assaulted villagers and carried knives. "These stories are hurtful and totally untrue," read a statement on the Wanbao website. "If anything it has been Wanbao staff and contractors who have been at the receiving end of intimidation and beatings by activists and extremists as they carry out their work." The Letpadaung copper mining project has gained international notoriety since a Nov. 2012 incident in which police fired at demonstrators using incendiary rounds, believed to be white phosphorous, during a brutal crackdown at a protest camp. In the last two years, there have been numerous confrontations between villagers and security forces as the mine's operators attempted to extend the project's operating area. Protests continue over the project due to loss of farmland, ecological impact and the destruction of sacred religious structures. Four villages are being completely cleared for the mine and land around 26 other farming villagers, inhabited by more than 25,000 people, are also being acquired by the project. Many villagers are reluctant to take compensation after growing up in families that have tilled the surrounding farmlands for generations. "We are just farmers," said 38-year-old Hse Tae villager Yee Win, whose 14 acres of land were confiscated last year. "All we know is how to do farming. I just want my land back, as I am not sure the compensation they pay will guarantee our livelihoods." Win Mar, whose seven acres of crops outside Hse Tae were flattened by a bulldozer on Tuesday morning, has also refused compensation. "We tried to prevent them but it was in vain," she said. "We were outnumbered. There were police vans and fire engines behind them." "I'm very sad. They robbed me of my land. I don't know what to do next," she added. The post More Villagers Injured in Letpadaung Mine Protests appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Police Arrest 14, Dismantle Protest Camp at Rangoon City Hall Posted: 23 Dec 2014 12:47 AM PST Protestors demanding better compensation for the loss of their land in Michaungkan, located on Rangoon's outskirts, blocked an entrance to City Hall on Dec. 12. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — An encampment at the foot of City Hall was dismantled by police on Tuesday morning, as 14 land rights protesters from Rangoon's Michaungkan village were arrested and charged for unlawful assembly and obstruction of a public walkway. All of the accused have been released on bail and are due back in court on Jan. 6, 2015. Police arrived at the site around 5:30am, when they woke the protesters and ordered them into vehicles. Municipal workers then began removing the makeshift tents that had been home to the demonstrators since Dec. 12. Upon leaving the court, accused demonstrators told The Irrawaddy that 14 people were each charged with two counts of violating Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law. Each received an additional charge of obstruction under Article 341 of Burma's Penal Code, as the encampment blocked part of a sidewalk near the entrance to Rangoon's City Hall. Unlawful assembly carries penalties of up to six months in prison, while Article 341 stipulates a fine of 500 kyats (US$0.50), one month in prison, or both. Tuesday's eviction was the latest drama in the Michaungkan saga, an ongoing land dispute playing out on the steps of City Hall. The villagers said that their farmlands were confiscated by the military in the 1990s and rented out for industrial agriculture projects. A group initially set up camp near the disputed property in late 2013, but they left the site within three days because authorities promised a speedy settlement. When the Ministry of Defense announced in early 2014 that they would not return the land and would instead turn it into a veteran's housing complex, the villagers took their occupation to the margins of Mahabandoola Park on March 24, and have since faced a series of eviction threats by local authorities. On Dec. 12, the protesters set up a smaller encampment on the sidewalk in front of City Hall, where about 20 people had been living under bamboo and tarpaulin tents adorned with red signage bearing slogans such as "our land is our livelihood." On Monday, two Kyauktada police officers summoned five of the demonstrators to inform them that they would soon face obstruction charges for blocking the walkway. One of the five, Aye Mi, described the encounter to The Irrawaddy on Monday, explaining that, "we didn't understand, but we were told we can be fined 500 and face one month in prison." To date, only one person—protest leader Sein Than—has been jailed for protests related to the Michaungkan land dispute, though as many as 15 could now face charges. Last week, activist Wai Lu—known mostly for his involvement in protests against the Letpadaung copper mining project—was arrested and charged with incitement related to the Michaungkan demonstrations. Demonstrators at the camp denied that Wai Lu played a crucial role in their movement. Maung Maung, one of the villagers now facing obstruction charges, said that Wai Lu visited the site but played no further role. "He just comes to give his support, like other politicians and organizations," Maung Maung said on Monday, barely 12 hours before being ushered into custody himself. This article was updated on Dec. 23 to add that the 14 demonstrators now each face two additional charges of unlawful assembly. The post Police Arrest 14, Dismantle Protest Camp at Rangoon City Hall appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Jakarta, That Sinking Feeling Is All Too Real Posted: 22 Dec 2014 09:23 PM PST A man fishes along a seawall in north Jakarta on Nov. 12, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) JAKARTA — The Ciliwung River flows from a volcano south of the Indonesian capital, through the heart of one of the world's most densely populated cities and almost into Jakarta Bay. Almost, because for the final mile or so of its course, the river would have to flow uphill to reach the bay. The same is true for the rest of the half-dozen sewage-choked rivers that wind though central Jakarta. Unable to defy gravity, they've been redirected to canals that drain into the sea. The reason these conduits are necessary is that Greater Jakarta, an agglomeration of 28 million people, sits on a swampy plain that has sunk 13 feet (4 meters) over the past three decades. "Jakarta is a bowl, and the bowl is sinking," said Fook Chuan Eng, senior water and sanitation specialist with the World Bank, who oversees a US$189 million flood mitigation project for the city. The channels of the Ciliwung and other rivers are sinking. The entire sprawl of Jakarta's north coast—fishing ports, boatyards, markets, warehouses, fish farms, crowded slums and exclusive gated communities—it's all sinking. Even the 40-year-old seawall that is supposed to keep the Java Sea from inundating the Indonesian capital is sinking. Just inside the seawall sits the Muara Baru kampong, or village, that is home to more than 100,000 people. It is now at least 6 feet below sea level, and residents like Rahmawati, a mother of two small children, gaze upward from their front stoops to view the sea. "When there's a high tide, the ships float almost at the same height as the seawall—we can see the ships from here," said Rahmawati, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. Flooding from overflowing rivers and canals in the area is at least an annual event that forces Rahmawati and the rest of the kampong to evacuate to public buildings nearby. High-water marks from the last big flood, in 2013, are still visible on the walls of the kampong. 'Worst Sinking City' Jakarta is sinking because of a phenomenon called subsidence. This happens when extraction of groundwater causes layers of rock and sediment to slowly pancake on top of each other. The problem is particularly acute in Jakarta because most of its millions of residents suck water through wells that tap shallow underground aquifers. Wells also provide about a third of the needs of business and industry, according to city data. "It's like Swiss Cheese underneath," the World Bank's Fook said. "Groundwater extraction is unparalleled for a city of this size. People are digging deeper and deeper, and the ground is collapsing." The effect is worsened by the sheer weight of Jakarta's urban sprawl. Economic development in recent decades has transformed the city's traditional low-rise silhouette into a thickening forest of high-rise towers. The weight of all those buildings crushes the porous ground underneath. Previous articles in this series have focused on rising seas, which are climbing as the warming atmosphere causes water to expand and polar ice to melt. Ocean levels have increased an average of 8 inches globally in the past century, according to the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But in many places—from metro Houston, Texas, and cities on the US East Coast to the megacities of Southeast Asia—the impact of subsidence, due mainly to groundwater extraction, has been greater. Manila is sinking at a rate of around 3.5 inches a year. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is subsiding 3 inches a year, and Bangkok around an inch. This has been happening even as populations around the world have tended to concentrate along low-lying coastal land. In 2010, an estimated 724 million people around the world lived in what researchers consider low-elevation coastal zones—coastal areas 10 meters or less above sea level. That number increased 34 percent from 538 million people in 1990, according to a Reuters analysis of data developed by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center at Columbia University. The phenomenon has been most pronounced in Asia, home to the top five nations in terms of population growth in vulnerable coastal areas. In China, that population rose 29 percent to 162 million during the 20-year period; in India, the increase was 43 percent to 88 million; and in Bangladesh, it was 46 percent to 68 million. In Indonesia, the number of people living in vulnerable coastal areas was 47.2 million—one of the highest totals in the world, and up 35 percent since 1990. Higher seas, sinking cities and more people mean worsening impacts from storms and floods. And the frequency of these events is increasing, too. Recorded floods and severe storms in Southeast Asia have risen sixfold, from fewer than 20 from 1960 to 1969 to nearly 120 from 2000 to 2008, according to an Asian Development Bank study. No city is subsiding faster than Jakarta. As a whole, the city is sinking an average of 3 inches a year, far outpacing the one-third inch annual rise in mean sea level in the area. The coast near Jakarta is sinking at a much greater average of six inches a year—and in some places as much as 11 inches—according to a 10-year study by a team of geodynamics experts from the Institute of Technology Bandung. Today, 40 percent of the city is below sea level. "Jakarta is the world's worst sinking city," said JanJaap Brinkman, a hydrologist with the Dutch water research institute Deltares, who has spent years studying the city's subsidence and helping devise solutions for it. Little can be done to halt the slow upward creep of the seas. But it is possible to stop subsidence. Jakarta has regulations limiting the amount of water that can be extracted daily from licensed wells. A public-awareness campaign on television urges viewers to "save groundwater for the sake of our nation." But enforcement is weak, and illegal wells are rife in the city. About three-fourths of residents rely on groundwater. Many of them are refusing to connect to the piped water distribution system because it is more expensive, is not always available and sometimes looks dirty coming out of the tap. The city has a moratorium on new mall construction, mainly to ease notorious traffic congestion, but has otherwise not tried to temper the building that weighs on the ground below. Watershed Moment Unable to stop itself from sinking, Jakarta has focused its attention on walling off an inevitable inundation from the sea. A February 2007 storm was literally a tipping point for moving the government to act. A strong monsoon storm coinciding with a high tide overwhelmed ramshackle coastal defenses, pushing a wall of water from Jakarta Bay into the capital. It was the first time a storm surge from the sea had flooded the city. Nearly half of Jakarta was covered by as much as 13 feet of muddy water. At least 76 people were killed, and 590,000 were left homeless. Damage reached $544 million. As Jakarta cleaned up, then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono formed a task force to come up with a strategy to deal with more frequent flooding. One option discussed was to move the overcrowded capital to higher elevations southeast of the city or to another island altogether, said Robert Sianipar, a top official from the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, which convened the task force. With 5,585 people per square km (0.4 square mile), Jakarta is among the 10 most densely populated cities in the world. Another thought was simply to abandon the old city district of north Jakarta. Both ideas were dismissed. Jakarta is the economic hub of Indonesia, contributing 20 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Allowing the sea to claim 40 percent of the capital city, home to nearly half of Jakarta's population, was unthinkable, Sianipar said. "If we abandon north Jakarta, that would cost $220 billion in assets—not to count the number of people and productivity that would have to be replaced," he said. The group decided to focus on bolstering coastal defenses and refurbishing the crumbling flood canal system. The Dutch government offered technical assistance. The height of the existing 20-mile seawall was raised in 2008. But as that structure slips under the waves, it offers little protection against another big storm surge, or even a moderately high spring tide. At high tide in some places, the city's old seawall can barely be seen poking above the water's surface, both because the sea is rising and because the wall itself is sinking into soft alluvial sediments. The World Bank warned in a 2012 report that catastrophic floods would soon become routine in Jakarta, "resulting in severe socio-economic damage." The task force was still trying to decide on an overall strategy when the World Bank's prediction came true in January 2013: Parts of the city were submerged under 6 feet of water after a heavy monsoon storm. Days later, President Yudhoyono ordered the task force to take a bolder approach. The result was the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development Master Plan, better known as the "Giant Sea Wall" or the "Great Garuda," for its resemblance from the air to the bird-god of Hindu mythology that is Indonesia's national symbol. The $40 billion complex will include a 15-mile outer seawall and 17 artificial islands that will close off Jakarta Bay. Construction of the first stage of the plan, a new 6-foot-wide inner seawall just behind the existing one, was launched on Oct. 9. The inner seawall is aimed at buying time, holding off another inundation until the new outer wall of the Great Garuda provides long-term protection. The Great Garuda won't, however, restore the flow of some of the sinking city's 13 rivers and various canals into Jakarta Bay. Some of the channels drain into floodwater retention lakes, a magnet for new migrants from outlying provinces who squat illegally around their perimeters. Pumping stations then spew the highly polluted water from these lakes the last few hundred yards into Jakarta Bay. More and bigger such lakes will soon be needed to discharge the water of all other rivers and canals, including the large flood canals, according to the NCICD Master Plan. "You're talking about pumping lakes up to 100 square kilometers," said Victor Coenen, Indonesia chief representative for Dutch engineering and consulting firm Witteven+Bos, who was part of the government's Dutch consulting team. "Where do you find room for that in a densely populated city?" The Great Garuda would solve that problem by creating a single gigantic storage lake in Jakarta Bay, enclosed by the inner and outer seawalls and fed by pumping stations onshore. "If it comes to that, I'd prefer to have the one big black lagoon offshore," Coenen said. To prevent the Great Garuda from looking like a great black lagoon, the city must address another huge priority—providing clean piped water to most of its citizens and setting up waste treatment facilities so the rivers and canals no longer have to function as open sewers. 'Not a Drop to Drink' Jakarta under Dutch rule was known as Batavia, styled "the Queen of the East" for its distinctive colonial architecture and tree-lined canals. Closer inspection of the coast revealed "a dismal succession of stinking mud-banks, filthy bogs and stagnant pools [that] announces to more senses than one the poisonous nature of this dreadful climate," British writer John Joseph Stockdale observed in his 1811 book, "Island of Java." Then as now, "stagnant canals" functioned as open sewers and exhaled "an intolerable stench." In the wet season, "those reservoirs of corrupted water overflow their banks in the lower part of town, and fill the lower stories of the houses where they leave behind an inconceivable quantity of slime and earth." Today, the city has just one small wastewater treatment plant that serves the central business district. Almost everyone uses septic tanks or dumps waste into neighborhood sewers that flow into the canal system. The slime has mounted over the centuries in the canals, and their embankments have risen in a failing effort to contain the flood waters. The canals that flow to the sea or into the coastal retention ponds have lost up to 75 percent of their capacity, said Brinkman at Deltares. The city is near the end of a three-year project to deepen the canals and increase the height of their walls. But the homes alongside them are often below the level of the canals now, leaving no "vertical escape" to the rooftop in a flood, he said. A city with an extensive canal system and a tropical rainforest climate should not have a water shortage. Yet only about a quarter of Jakarta's population is connected to the city's piped water system. Half draw their water from wells, and the other quarter buy from vendors who get their water from both legal and illegal public wells. Some city residents who could have access to piped water prefer to use groundwater because connection fees—a month's minimum wage—and additional charges on the bill make it much more expensive than a backyard well. Piped water is also unpopular because it is often filthy when it comes out of the tap. There's a good reason for that: Half of Jakarta's water supply comes from the basin of the Citarum River, which the Asia Development Bank has dubbed "the world's dirtiest river." It is so clogged with industrial and agricultural effluents and waste from the teeming settlements along its banks that it almost seems like you could walk across parts of the river. Groundwater is hardly better. Seventy percent of the wells in the city are contaminated by the E. coli bacteria from leaking septic tanks, according to a study conducted by the city government. The water crisis has been a boon to the increasing ranks of water vendors who drag long carts filled with 5-gallon (20-liter) jerrycans of water around the kampongs. One jerrycan costs about 500 rupiah (4 U.S. cents). They are especially prevalent in the coastal districts, where subsidence has allowed saltwater to flow into the water table, making well water undrinkable. And in some areas along the coast, piped water is only sporadically available during the day. The Jakarta government does not publish data on the volume of groundwater use. But the city's new governor, Basuki Tjajaja Purnama, said illegal use of groundwater had reached "alarming levels." He said he will start enforcing a 2008 law that imposes fines of up to 1 billion rupiah ($80,000) and jail terms of six years for those who misuse groundwater. The concrete jungle is not only an intensive water user; it has also taken over natural drainage sites and green areas, preventing the water tables below from being recharged. Instead of seeping into the ground, monsoon rains now wash into the canals and out to the sea. In 2009, the Ministry of Environment came up with a novel idea to restore the water tables: It issued a decree requiring homeowners and commercial buildings to store rainwater in 3-foot-deep "biopore cylinders" on their properties to absorb and store rainwater. The decree has no enforcement mechanism, and the city environment ministry could not say how many cylinders had been installed. On the Move The city has recently tried another tack in its water wars: evicting settlers to create green areas along the coast. Tens of thousands of squatters occupy large swaths of the Muara Baru kampong, behind the seawall and around a retention pond, scavenging, collecting green mussels or shrimp from the dirty water, or picking up work in the boatyards. Every year, the floods come, people evacuate to public buildings, and the kampong sinks some more. "It's not that bad," says Sukiman, a 41-year-old father of three and a neighborhood chief in Muara Baru. "We can live here." But Muara Baru's days appear to be numbered. The city has begun shifting the residents to create green space and to restore the Pluit retention pond, which had become clogged with garbage and waste. Those who have a residency card may be eligible to get an apartment in new high-rise public housing projects. Those buildings, going up alongside luxury apartments and retail stores, will add to the weight pressing down on steadily subsiding land and—as with other besieged coasts around the world facing rising sea levels—only worsen the problem. The post In Jakarta, That Sinking Feeling Is All Too Real appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Cambodia Unlicensed Doctor Faces Murder Rap in HIV Outbreak  Posted: 22 Dec 2014 09:07 PM PST Chan Toma, a 40-year-old HIV positive man, is treated by a doctor at his new house after his family was evicted from the city to Toul Sambo, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, August 31, 2009. (Photo: Reuters) PHNOM PENH — An unlicensed medical practitioner suspected of negligently infecting more than 100 villagers in northwestern Cambodia with the virus that causes AIDS was charged Monday with murder and other crimes, a prosecutor said. Yem Chhrin was charged with murder carried out with cruelty, intentionally spreading HIV—human immunodeficiency virus—and practicing medicine without a license, said Nuon San, a Battambang provincial court prosecutor. Health officials say 106 people out of more than 800 tested in Roka village were found to have the virus. Yem Chhrin is being held pending further investigation. Nuon San declined to say what penalty might be applied for the crimes. Cambodia has no death sentence. Yem Chhrin was arrested over the weekend after being taken into protective custody last week, said Seng Loch, a senior provincial police officer. He said the suspect acknowledged reusing syringes for treatment of patients, a practice that can spread HIV. "He told us that he had no intention of spreading HIV to villagers. He doesn’t know who among his patients was infected with HIV," Seng Loch said, adding that Yem Chhrin claimed to frequently change the needles he used for injections. The police officer said that Nhem Chhrin, 53, had been popular in the community because of his kindness and health care treatments, which he had been carrying out for many years even though he had no formal medical training or certification. Cambodian media have reported that the infected villagers range in age from 3 to 82 years old and include Buddhist monks. The Health Ministry said in a statement last week that a team including experts from U.S. and U.N. agencies had been sent to Battambang province "to determine the source, extent and chain of transmission of HIV infection." Cambodia had a high HIV prevalence rate of 2.0 percent in 1998, but an aggressive campaign to promote safe sex brought the figure down to an estimated 0.7 percent this year, according to the U.N. agency that spearheads the worldwide fight against AIDS. The post Cambodia Unlicensed Doctor Faces Murder Rap in HIV Outbreak  appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

China to Investigate Former President Hu Jintao’s Top Aide Posted: 22 Dec 2014 08:49 PM PST Ling Jihua, at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Mar. 2013. (Photo: Jason Lee / Reuters) BEIJING — The top aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao has been placed under investigation for unspecified disciplinary violations, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, in a sign that President Xi Jinping is removing his predecessor’s influences while consolidating his power. The evening announcement came two years after the former aide, Ling Jihua, fell out of political favor when a lurid scandal involving his alleged cover-up of his son’s death in a speeding Ferrari disrupted his political ascent. But Ling returned to the public eye this year when authorities put his two brothers—one a politician in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi and the other a businessman—under investigation, triggering speculation that Ling too would be implicated under Xi’s widening anti-corruption campaign. The campaign is seen by many as a means to not only restore public confidence in the ruling Communist Party, but also to root out threats to Xi’s political dominance. Already, Xi has removed Bo Xilai, a former Politburo member, after imprisoning him for life on corruption charges. In early December, authorities arrested Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo’s powerful Standing Committee, on charges ranging from adultery and bribery to leaking state secrets. Both Bo and Zhou were seen as challengers to Xi’s power. Now, the latest to fall is Ling, Hu’s former right-hand man. Although it is unclear whether Ling, 58, will be put on trial, the announcement of the investigation all but means the end of his political career, because the top leadership has likely already determined his fate. Steve Tsang, senior fellow at the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute, said Ling’s fall is a clear sign that Hu never gained enough power to protect his associates after he stepped down as party chief in 2012. "Ling Jihua has been in trouble for two years, but the question was whether Hu Jintao’s protection could keep him out of trouble," Tsang said. "In the end, not surprisingly, it was not enough." Tsang said Xi did not turn his attention to Ling earlier because he needed the support of associates of the Youth League—the party’s youth arm—to topple Zhou. Before becoming China’s president, Hu led the Youth League, which became his power base. Ling also hailed from the Youth League. "It’s a case that was put aside until they didn’t need that support any longer," Tsang said. "There will be backlash from the Youth League people, but it won’t matter any longer." Ling had served as head of the Communist Party’s general office, which gave him influence over key personnel arrangements, a position comparable in US politics to the president’s chief of staff. He became a household name in 2012 when his son crashed a Ferrari in Beijing during what might have been sex games with two nude or half-dressed women, reports by Hong Kong media said months later, and Ling Jihua was accused of covering up the scandal. In the lead-up to a generational handover in power in 2012, Ling had appeared destined for a seat in the party’s Politburo, a council of top leaders, but instead was removed from the top leadership when he was named the head of the United Front Work Department. Premier Li Keqiang hails from the Youth League base, but his powers as China’s economy chief have been compromised under Xi, said Willy Lam, an expert on Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "It’s an open secret that he’s been sidelined. He’s no longer the economy czar but has to defer to Xi," he said. Two other prominent members of the Youth League political faction—Vice President Li Yuanchao and Vice Premier Wang Yang—also have seen their powers limited after they failed to make it to the Politburo’s Standing Committee in 2012, Lam said. "It looks like the entire Youth League faction will be under threat, as Hu Jintao has not been able to do anything about it," Lam said. "Ling Jihua is the symbol of the Youth League, as he has had close associations with Hu Jintao for more than 10 years." The post China to Investigate Former President Hu Jintao's Top Aide appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

10 Years After Tsunami, Burmese Victim’s Mom Learns Body Wasn’t Lost Posted: 22 Dec 2014 04:00 PM PST Gravestones are seen at the Tsunami Victims Cemetery near the former identification center outside Ban Nam Khem in Thailand's Phang Nga province, on Dec. 12, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) SEINT PAING, Karen State — Of all the moments to chase a dream, May Aye Nwe chose the morning of Dec. 26, 2004. A child of rural Burma, she boarded a small boat seeking a better life in Thailand, just as the Indian Ocean tsunami raced in. Ten days later, her mother got a phone call that her 20-year-old daughter had died, and apparently vanished at sea in one of modern history's worst natural disasters. It took her nearly 10 years to learn the truth. Her daughter's body had in fact been recovered after the tsunami and was buried in an anonymous grave. It lies today beside more than 400 unclaimed bodies at the Tsunami Victims' Cemetery in southern Thailand, a memorial to the disaster's forgotten victims. The tombstones are marked with numbers, not names. An Associated Press investigation helped track down two families with loved ones at the cemetery, including May Aye Nwe's mother. As the 10th anniversary of the disaster approaches, Aye Pu, now a 55-year-old widow, says her healing process can finally begin. "For so long, I believed my child was lost," said Aye Pu, her eyes filled with tears, during an interview at her remote village in Burma's southern Karen State, where she taps rubber trees for a living. "It's impossible to put into words how very sad—and very happy—I now feel." The discovery has rekindled emotion and memories of her daughter, a bright star in a family of farmers who was on the cusp of a new life. May Aye Nwe dreamed of becoming a nurse and set off for Thailand to earn money, as do so many of Burma's poor. She and a childhood friend, Khin Htway Yee, traveled 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from their village to the country's southern tip. At about 10 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2004, they boarded a boat to cross a tiny patch of the Andaman Sea to Thailand, a trip that takes about 15 minutes. Earlier that morning, a magnitude-9.1 earthquake tore open a vast stretch of sea bed off Indonesia's Sumatra coast. It displaced billions of tons of water, sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean, in some places at jetliner speeds. It killed about 230,000 people in 14 countries. More than 5,000 died on Thailand's Andaman Sea coast, where the waves swallowed resort beaches and flattened fishing villages. Khin Htway Yee, who survived, said the calm sea turned violent a few minutes into the boat ride. She and May had never seen the ocean before, and didn't realize the waves were unusual. The boat flipped and there was panic, screaming, struggling. Khin Htway Yee, now 31, remains haunted by her friend's desperate last moments. "We were grabbing at one another," she said, speaking in the shade of her friend's family home. "She tried to pull me, but finally I had to push her away. "There was nothing I could do. I was struggling for my life, and I couldn't save her," Khin Htway Yee said. She said she survived by holding onto a plastic container bobbing in the water. After an hour at sea, she struggled ashore with one goal: To evade arrest. She had entered Thailand illegally and was too afraid to report what had happened to authorities. She disappeared into the illegal workforce and stayed two years in Thailand before returning home and starting a family. May Aye Nwe's story helps explain why there are 418 unclaimed bodies at the Tsunami Victims' Cemetery, in the town of Ban Bangmuang. Experts believe most of those buried are migrant workers from Burma, who came to do the jobs that Thais shun. Then, as now, many were working in the area illegally and had no documents. When they died, no one knew who they were, and those who did know were too scared to go to authorities. "I believe that over 90 percent of these bodies are Burmese migrant workers," said Htoo Chit, a human rights advocate for Burmese migrants, during an interview at the cemetery. "Many migrants who lost their loved ones, they were afraid of being arrested and deported. That's why there are so many bodies here." The cemetery was created after a massive operation by international forensics experts to identify and repatriate victims was completed. As part of the AP investigation, reporters sifted through more than 100 documents, finding mostly single names that led nowhere and non-working phone numbers. Some have DNA data but most have little beyond a reference number. Their gravestones are concrete blocks with metal plaques that bear a reference number. May Aye Nwe's reference number was PM66-TA1415. It is unclear why she went unidentified because her body was found with her national identity card, which AP used to find her village, and then her mother. While most of the bodies in the cemetery will probably never be identified, one other family now has a degree of closure, after 10 years of waiting. On a sunny morning last month, the body of Bhesraj Dhaurali, a tailor from Burma of Nepalese descent, was exhumed from the cemetery and cremated with Hindu rites, after the AP investigation traced police records to his family. The ceremony was attended by his 19-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter. They were still in Burma when the tsunami killed both their parents, who had gone to Thailand to work. The son and daughter have followed in their footsteps, and now live in southern Thailand. "If I could speak to my father today, I would ask him why he left us so early," said the daughter, Dipa Dhaurali. "It has been so many years. But after being able to see this with my own eyes, in a way it gives me some joy." May's mother is too poor to travel to Thailand to retrieve her daughter's body, or to pay to have it brought home. She hopes the body can be cremated in line with Buddhist customs. "I'm not angry. I don't blame anyone. I want to thank those who kept her body," Aye Pu said, sobbing. "This was my daughter's fate." The post 10 Years After Tsunami, Burmese Victim's Mom Learns Body Wasn't Lost appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

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