Friday, July 11, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma


Burma Business Weekly

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:14 AM PDT

Ups and Downs

The Burmese currency strengthened slightly, with the buying rate finishing on Friday at 968 kyat, down from 971 the week before; while the selling rate dropped to 973 kyat from 979 last week. However, the price of gold jumped up this week to 682,000 kyat per tical from 678,300 kyat the week before. Fuel prices remained the same, with petrol selling at 820 kyat per litre, diesel at 950 kyat per litre, and octane at 920 kyat per litre. The price of rice also did not fluctuate, with high-quality pawhsanmwe rice selling for 1,300 to 1,700 kyat per basket at most Rangoon markets and low-quality Manawthukha rice going for 900 kyat per basket.

 

Industry Ministry slammed for incurring $200m loss

Burma's Ministry of Industry came under fire from MPs in parliament on Thursday for accumulating a loss of 190 billion kyat (US$200 million) over the last year. A Ministry spokesperson explained that losses were due to a cut in demand for agricultural equipment, the suspension of a paper mill and a factory, and a delay in recuperating fertiliser revenues. However, MP Khin Shwe claimed that the privatisation of profitable sectors – such as breweries, cigarette factories and soft drinks production – was the real reason for the losses.

 

Burmese govt plans for six dry ports in Rangoon, Mandalay

Myanma Railways is planning to build six dry ports in Rangoon and Mandalay to meet the expected increase of goods after the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, the New Light of Myanmar reported on Friday. According to a presentation given by Myanmar Railways deputy general manager, Aung Myo Myint, the sites for dry ports in Rangoon are Kwayt Ma, Ywathagyi and Danyingone; while the sites in Mandalay are at Myoth Haung, Myitnge and Paleik. A public tendering process to develop these ports will be announced soon, and construction should begin in November, he added.

 

Rolls-Royce to assist Burmese engineering group in Rangoon power plant

German industrial firm Rolls-Royce Power Systems signed a long-term service agreement with RGK+Z&A, a Burmese engineering group, on Monday to provide spare parts, maintenance and technical assistance to the Hlawga power plant in Rangoon. According to a Rolls-Royce statement released on Monday, the agreement was inked in London by Khin Maung Soe, the minister of electric power. Hlawga power plant is expected to generate 25 megawatts of electricity and will deliver it to Rangoon's residents.

 

Yoma, Mitsubishi ink deal on Bridgestone tyres

Through its subsidiary Myanmar Motors, Yoma Strategic Holdings will begin working with Mitsubishi Corporation to provide sales support for Bridgestone tyres in Burma, according to a statement released by Yoma on Tuesday. Mitsubishi will hold 70 percent of the shares for this joint venture, while the remaining 30 percent is to be held by First Myanmar Investment Co Ltd – a subsidiary of Myanmar Motors.

 

Burmese budget to be more transparent, says Finance Ministry

Burma will be more transparent in how the national budget is allocated, Deputy Minister for Finance Lin Aung said on Monday during a parliamentary session. According to state-run media, the Burmese government is working with the World Bank to develop a more transparent and open budget allocation process so that the public will know how their taxes are being used, Lin Aung said.

 

Burma nets $3.5 billion in latest gem sales

Burma's latest official sale of gems, jade and pearls brought in US$3.5 billion, a record high for the mineral-rich country, according to Myanmar Business Today. "Total process from the sale of jade, pearl and gems like ruby and sapphire … amounted to over 2.6 billion euros [about $3.54 billion], exceeding our expectations and hitting a record high," said Win Htein, a director general at the Ministry of Mines. Last year's sales amounted to about $2.6 billion.

 

With influx of new job seekers, unemployment in Rangoon remains high

While the number of employed people in Rangoon is expected to increase by more than 30 percent in 2013, the unemployment rate remains unflaggingly high, according to the Myanmar Business Today. Figures released by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security show that 100,000 people are expected get new jobs by the end of 2014. Yet unemployment is still rampant, due to the lack of opportunities and a lack of knowledge by job hunters about the work available.

 

Unity verdict slammed at home and abroad

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 05:04 AM PDT

International condemnation of the Burmese government was swift and scathing in the wake of a Magwe court's decision on Thursday to sentence four reporters and the CEO of Unity Weekly journal to ten years in prison with hard labour after being convicted of revealing state secrets.

The media workers were arrested for publishing an investigative report in January alleging that a military facility in the central Burmese town of Pauk was used for the production of chemical weapons.

Amnesty International said it was a "dark day for freedom of expression" in Burma, while Reporters Sans Frontières referred to the sentencing as a "grave setback for press freedom" in the country.

And in Sala Baganza, a small town in central Italy that recently bestowed honorary citizenship on the Unity staffers, Mayor Cristina Merusi said her townsfolk were "stunned and incredulous" by news of the sentence.

In Burma, where observers have in recent months observed a noticeable backsliding on media freedom by the Thein Sein government, reaction was more muted with several civic society groups expressing little surprise at the decision to convict but alarm at the severity of the sentence.

Speaking to DVB on Thursday, Rupert Abbot, the deputy director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme, said, "This is a very dark day for freedom of expression in Myanmar [Burma]. Today's sentences expose a hollowness to the government's promises to improve the human rights situation in the country. They reflect a wider crackdown on free media since the turn of the year, despite government assurances that such practices would end."

His sentiments were echoed by international press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"CPJ is alarmed that journalists were tried under a 100-year-old spying statute and slammed with an outrageously harsh sentence,” said Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz. "This conviction should shatter any illusions that President Thein Sein’s government grasps the role of a free press in a democracy. The international community should act quickly to not only get this decision reversed, but to impress upon the government that its anti-media stance will jeopardize future economic assistance.”

Fellow media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières was equally critical.

"This decision by the Magway [Magwe] court is a grave setback for press freedom," said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the organisation's Asia-Pacific desk. "Progress had been made, but this case marks a return to a dark time when journalists and bloggers who did their job were jailed on national security charges or for allegedly trying to overthrow the government."

On Friday, Gayathry Venkiteswaran, the executive director of the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, said, "We find that the use of the law in the guise of national security is a major threat to the journalist community, so it is really uncalled for – the level of harsh sentencing that was given yesterday. We are very disturbed by this."

At home, Zaw Thet Htwe of the Interim Press Council said that the verdict could be taken as an indication that all media are at risk of prosecution in Burma "at any time".

"The government will not tolerate us touching upon issues about the nation, about government policy or politics," he said.

Ko Jimmy of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society called the 10-year sentence an "extremely harsh punishment", while Ko Ni, a Rangoon High Court lawyer, called the verdict "a bit too harsh".

"In my opinion, even if the Unity staff were guilty of the charges, the court should have considered a lighter punishment since this was their first offense, and it was only recently that we found out that the facility in question was actually designated as a prohibited area under the Official Secrets Acts," said the lawyer.

Lower House MP Ye Htun was a lone voice in siding with the court verdict.

"While I acknowledge Unity journal's responsibility to inform the public, they should also have considered what the law says – that the press must not report on issues prohibited by law on grounds of national security or to avoid civilian unrest," he said. "They must abide by a code of ethics."

While on trial, the five accused media workers were presented in absentia with honorary citizenship in the central Italian town of Sala Baganza, near Parma.

News that the five – reporters Lu Maw Naing, Sithu Soe, Aung Thura and Yazar Oo, and CEO Tint Hsan – had been sentenced to a decade with hard labour "leaves the people of Sala Baganza stunned and incredulous," said the town's mayor, Cristina Merusi.

"We believe in law and democracy, and are compelled to request an explanation from the Myanmar authorities on a ruling that goes beyond all horizons," she said in an open letter. "We express the solidarity of the entire community to our fellow residents, and request that this verdict be revised immediately by the court."

An additional statement by Giuseppe Malpeli, president of the Burma-Italy Friendship Association, condemned the Magwe court's decision as a "boulder on the path of democratic transition in Myanmar". The group further called on the Italian president to cancel an upcoming EU-ASEAN meeting scheduled to take place in Milan in view of the severity of the verdict.

A day before the final hearing of the Unity Weekly trial on 30 June, operations at the news journal ceased due to financial problems.

"We told our staff members that we are going out of operation for financial reasons," said a company administrator. "The trial has been wearing us thin so we had to make this decision."

Meanwhile, as media focus has landed on the fate of the Unity Five, the original report that the Burmese military was operating a secret weapons facility, consisting of underground tunnels on more than 3,000 acres of land in Magwe Division, has largely been forgotten.

Unity Weekly reported that the Burmese government rejected the allegations; however, local villagers cited in the report said Chinese technicians were frequently seen at the facility and that its workers told reporters they were producing chemical weapons.

Karen armed groups united to combat illicit drugs

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:45 AM PDT

Leaders from six Karen armed groups have formed a task force in order to combat drug use and production in the eastern Burmese state.

The Karen National Union (KNU), Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), Karen Peace Force (KPF) and Border Guard Force (BGF) met at the BGF's headquarters in Shaw Koke Ko Myaing township in Myawaddy on 8 July.

They formed an anti-narcotic joint-committee and aim to introduce a drug-eradication programme by 15 July.

Col Saw Paw Doh, a battalion commander in the KNU's armed wing Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), said the committee was formed at the request of civilians living in the state who are concerned about widespread drug use among young people.

"After this meeting, we will start taking action, and so I would like to advise those who are in the drug business to stop at once what they are doing," he said.

Three representatives from each of the six armed groups will sit on the committee.

Alongside a drug-eradication programme, the task force say they will built two detention centres, one in Shwe Koke Ko Myaing and one in Hpa-an District, to incarcerate those charged with drug offences.

"Today we formed a joint-committee tasked with eradicating drugs and I would like to urge all the Karen youth and armed groups to assist with our efforts," said Col Saw Chit Thu, BGF commander and chairman of the anti-narcotic joint-committee.

Karen State has been plagued by the effects of drug production for decades and as general trade with Thailand continues to increase, opportunities for drug smuggling have risen with it. Border crossings between Karen State and Thailand are a major gateway for the international trade of methamphetamine pills in particular, which also make there way into local towns.

Nan Khin Htwe Myint, the National League for Democracy's Karen state chairperson, said the party has been receiving complaints from the public as to the rising drug problems of six of seven townships in eastern Burma.

"We received letters of complaint from members of the public about drug problems in almost every township [in Karen State]. We learnt that there are drug manufacturing businesses in Myawaddy while young students at schools in six of seven townships in the region are badly addicted to drugs," she said.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), methamphetamines, or ya-ba, are so widely available that pills are openly sold in small shops in Karen villages, which the group says is responsible and will lead to addiction and mental health problems.

And with drug addiction comes crime, says KHRG, who has documented multiple drug-related killings in the area.

Significantly implicated in that crime, say KHRG, are the ethnic armed groups themselves, despite each army's stated efforts to quash the drug trade.

The Karen BFG, a group of ethnic militiamen under government control, are "primarily responsible for the production and sale of drugs, and for drug related violence," according to KHRG.

DKBA leader Na Kham Mwe has a bounty placed on his capture by the Thai government for his alleged role in cross-border methamphetamines trafficking.

The villagers that appealed for a greater clampdown will hope that the unified effort may stem the flow of illicit drugs and the social problems that go with it.

President’s Office claims Facebook will help monitor hate speech

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:09 AM PDT

A President Office's official claimed on Wednesday that the Burmese government has reached an agreement with social media website Facebook to monitor hate speech that could instigate racial and religious violence in the country.

Zaw Htay, director of the President's Office, said that government officials, IT experts from a Silicon Valley company, and three Facebook representatives based in Washington, Ireland and Asia held a conference call recently to discuss the issue of monitoring hate speech.

"The first part of the agreement is to prevent instigation of riots and moderate posts in accordance to Facebook's policies," Zaw Htay said. "We also discussed monitoring, but not in a way that would impose restrictions on Facebook users.

"They recommended enacting a cyber law to moderate the use of social media, but that may take some time," he added.

On 1 July, riots broke out in Mandalay because of rumours circulating on Facebook that a Buddhist girl had been raped by two Muslim teashop owners – an allegation that has not been substantiated. Two people – a Buddhist man and a Muslim man – were subsequently murdered in mob killings.

Zaw Htay said that on the second day of the riots, the government reached out to Facebook, which assisted them in deactivating accounts believed to be spreading hate speech.

However, a spokeswoman from Facebook clarified in an email on Friday that Facebook does not moderate or monitor content. If users report that there is content violating the company's terms of use, Facebook will review it and take it down, she said.

"We regularly talk to governments around the world to address questions or concerns that have about our policies, just as we have with the Government of Myanmar," said the Facebook spokeswoman in an email. "As we have explained to them, Facebook does not permit hate speech and will not tolerate any content that attacks others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition."

She added that no proposed cyber law was suggested to the Burmese government.

"We did not suggest anything – we simply talked about our approach to content that violates our terms and explained how the process works," she said.

Ko Ni, a High Court attorney in Rangoon, said that the individuals instigating riots on the social media, if found, can be charged under existing laws.

"The instigators can be charged sufficiently under the existing laws but the problem here is that they are not being charged," said Ko Ni. "Not only on Facebook, but some people were instigating riots in person right on the streets, distributing leaflets – but none of them were charged."

While Thaung Su Nyein, the CEO of IT consultant company Information Matrix, as well as the editor-in-chief of 7Day Daily, lauded the government's efforts to stop hate speech from circulating on the Internet, but noted that he was concerned about any "ulterior motives".

"The government shouldn't be allowed to use this as a tool to oppress or suppress dissent or a public voice or the media. So there are definitely some concerns that it might lead to that, and we have to be careful," he said, adding that the government and civil society organisations should be working harder to educate the public not to engage in hate speech.

"I think it has the potential to be a positive step in getting rid of extremely foul language, extremely hateful speech, extremely offensive content – which, if it were written in English, would have been removed immediately or at least reported by users," Thaung Su Nyein said. "If it can go in that direction, then I am all for it."

According to statistics by the government's Myanmar Post and Telecommunication, there are around 2.5 million Internet users in Burma including 1 million Facebook account holders.

Bullet Points

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 03:53 AM PDT

On today’s edition of Bullet Points:

Leaders from several Karen armed groups are teaming up to fight drug production and use in Karen State.

Ceasefire group, the Shan State Progress Party has reported a surge in incursions by Burmese battalions, into areas controlled by their armed wing.

Thousands of people turn out at temples across Burma to celebrate the beginning of Vassa – or Buddhist lent.

Myanma Railways has announced the construction of six dry ports across Rangoon and Mandalay.

 

Watch Bullet Points on DVB TV after the 7 o’clock news.

Lawyers appeal murder charges in case of Muslim pilgrims lynching

Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:09 AM PDT

Seven Buddhists charged for their participation in the murder of 10 Muslim pilgrims in Arakan State town of Taunggup in June 2012 are appealing against their indictment.

The district court in Sandoway, officially known as Thandwe, indicted the seven for murder in May this year under Penal Code articles 302 and 34.

Defence lawyers Aye Nu Sein, representing six of the group, and Kyaw Nyunt Maung; who represents the other, submitted an appeal against the charges on Thursday.

"I presented an argument at the high court today stating that the charges against my clients are not in conformity with legal procedures, and so should be dropped," said Aye Nu Sein.

The Arakanese Regional High Court is due to pass a decision on the appeal within seven to ten days.

In an incident that was one of the main precursors of the communal violence erupting in Arakan State, in early June 2012 hundreds of people in Taunggup dragged ten individuals off a bus filled with Muslim pilgrims and beat them to death. The bus was then set ablaze as members of the mob urinated on the victims.

The attack was sparked by an incident the month before when three men, two of whom were assumed to be Muslim, were accused of raping and murdering a local Buddhist woman. Two of the suspects were sentenced to death while the third committed suicide in prison.

Arakanese police originally arrested 30 persons in connection with the lynching of the 10 Muslim pilgrims. However, eye-witnesses reported that local police in Taunggup stood by and watched as the lynch mob murdered the pilgrims.

Two Burmese nationals murdered in Malaysia

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 10:37 PM PDT

Two Burmese nationals were murdered in separate incidents in the Malaysian cities of Puchong and Butterworth this week.

While the deaths of the two Burmese nationals – Tony, 40, and Myo Paing, 50 – are not directly linked to the recent Mandalay riots, a representative of a Burmese community group in Malaysia noted that in recent times, communal violence in Burma has regularly been followed closely by revenge killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country.

It is not yet apparent which religion or religions the two men followed, nor whether their murders were in any way related to communal tensions in their home country.

Their deaths come days after Mandalay Division was rocked with communal violence. In Chan Aye Tharzan Township, two men – one Muslim and one Buddhist – were killed by mobs during two nights of riots.

On 7 July, Tony  was found dead in Butterworth, Penang. Two days later, Myo Paing was hacked to death by a group of unidentified men in Puchong, about 20 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur. Myo Paing, who has resided in Malaysia for roughly 25 years, had attended the funeral of Tony earlier that day.

According to San Win, chairman of Burmese community group Kepong Free Funeral Assistance Organisation, an eyewitness said that Myo Paing was walking home around 9pm at night when six men drove up on motorbikes and proceeded hack at him with long blades.

San Win said that killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia following communal riots in Burma has become a regular pattern, and he called on the Burmese embassy in Malaysia to pressure the authorities to arrest the perpetrators.

"In the last year, about nine people have been killed but not a single case was resolved; not a single arrest has been made," San Win said. "We hope the Burmese government and the embassy in Kuala Lumpur will pressure the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry to investigate these murders."

The Burmese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released a statement on 10 July saying that it had learnt that Burmese nationals in Malaysia were being targeted with violence by some "extremist groups".

In its statement, the embassy said, "We have met with the relative officials at the Malaysian Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs ministries and security organisations. We urged them to protect Burmese nationals and immediately identify and take action against the assailants."

Malaysian Home Ministry spokeswoman Fadzelette Othman Merican said investigations for the two cases were ongoing, and declined to comment further.

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine


Achieving Burma’s Energy Goal Will Be ‘Very Tough’: Report

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 05:59 PM PDT

Women cycle past a gas power plant in Rangoon's Thaketa Township. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

Women cycle past a gas power plant in Rangoon's Thaketa Township. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

Burma faces a "very tough task" to achieve the Ministry of Electric Power's ambition to develop a modern national energy infrastructure in the next 15 years, an industry report said.

The ministry has outlined plans to increase Burma's power-generating capacity to nearly 25,000 megawatts by 2030. At present, the national capacity is only 4,360 megawatts—barely one third of the capacity of tiny Singapore, which has a population of 5.3 million.

"Asia's new economic frontier Myanmar, seeking to attract tens of billions of dollars in investment, is also one of the darkest places in the world with an electricity capacity which reaches only one in five of the estimated 60 million population," said Asia Power Monitor, an international energy industry weekly newspaper.

"The Ministry of Energy has outlined vague plans for 40 power projects across the country to achieve the 2030 generating target—which is less than neighboring Thailand's today with a similar population," it said this week.

"Myanmar faces a very tough task in reaching its 2030 electricity goal without a huge injection of financial largesse from traditional donor countries like Japan and the string-attached loans of others, like China."

Last December, the Asian Development Bank provided a loan of US$60 million to help pay for grid infrastructure repair and refurbishment, and the World Bank has provided $140 million in credit to finance refurbishment of a 106 megawatt gas-fueled plant in southern Burma's Mon State.

The ministry has acknowledged that up to 20 percent of power generated is lost in transmission through decrepit equipment.

Even in the most populated Rangoon-Mandalay corridor, where much of the existing dilapidated transmission grid is installed, blackouts and restrictions are frequent, forcing thousands of businesses and factories to use back-up diesel generators. Large swathes of the country have no access to mains electricity and have to rely on age-old natural resources for energy.

"Traditional biomass and waste consisting of wood, charcoal, manure, and crop residues is widely utilized and accounts for about two-thirds of Burma's primary energy consumption," said a June report by the US Energy Information Administration.

"Such a poor level and standard of electricity is hampering efforts by government departments to attract big-name, big-ticket investors into the country," said the Asia Power Monitor report. "A number of large foreign companies—from Japan to Indonesia—have voiced interest in investing in Myanmar, but after assessing prospects many have fallen silent.

"Beyond Myanmar's traditional backer, China, and the generosity of Japan, it's hard to see where the investment will come from to build capacity—and a new grid transmission infrastructure," the report said.

The Ministry of Energy proposes a mix of energy resources, including coal and gas and renewable systems, but still with a considerable emphasis on hydropower dams, which are very unpopular in the country because of land losses and population relocation.

The ministry suggests that 37 percent of the 25,000 MW would come from hydropower, 20 percent would be fueled by natural gas, 33 percent by coal and the remainder from renewable energy sources.

At present, about 70 percent of Burma's power is generated by river-based hydroelectric turbine systems. There are plans to build more such systems which would add 10,000 MW of capacity.

Work on one massive hydroelectric project with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, at Myitsone on the Irrawaddy River, which feeds a large rice-growing delta, has been suspended by the President Thein Sein, at least until the end of his term in 2015.

The Myitsone project, in northern Kachin State, was commissioned by the last military regime in a secret deal with Chinese state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPIC), in which about 80 percent of the electricity would be transmitted out of the country to China's Yunnan Province.

Similar large hydropower dams proposed for the Salween River in eastern Burma involve Thai firms who want to pump most of the electricity generated into Thailand.

"CPIC continues to press for a resumption of the Myitsone project, having already spent millions of dollars in land clearance, but in a more liberal environment after the military era vocal public opposition grows," said Asia Power Monitor.

"The Naypyidaw government has already signaled that much more of the country's future energy resource production, notably offshore natural gas, must be retained to fuel domestic economic revival, but it must also be careful not to offend China, one of its biggest backers. China has bought virtually all the 50 billion cubic meters of gas due to be pumped out of the Shwe field in the Bay of Bengal, and Thailand buys most of the gas from two other productive offshore fields."

A recent study by London-based analysts Business Monitor International (BMI) concluded that much future investment in Burma is "significantly dependent" on the successful completion and smooth operation of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.

Burma is suffering from a "severe deficit in infrastructure," BMI said, and many overseas businesses are waiting to see how successful the Thilawa project turns out to be.

So far, the Burmese government has opted for quick-fix power boosts in the form of rented mobile units, such the 100-MW temporary gas-fueled power plant installed in the Mandalay region in June by APR Energy of Florida. The APR contract to supply electricity is for two years only, after which the equipment will be dismantled unless the contract is renewed.

A similar temporary boost to electricity supply is now planned for Kyaukphyu—the site of another planned special economic zone—where the government has just invited bids to supply a 50-MW gas-fueled mobile plant.

The post Achieving Burma's Energy Goal Will Be 'Very Tough': Report appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

The Spoils of Aid in Burma: Transition a Boon for Former Dictators

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 05:36 PM PDT

The Rangoon office of Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), which is rented from the family of Burma's former spy chief, Khin Nyunt. (Photo: Jonathan Hulland)

The Rangoon office of Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), which is rented from the family of Burma's former spy chief, Khin Nyunt. (Photo: Jonathan Hulland)

Just as Burma began opening up a little more than two years ago, aid agencies, donor organizations and international NGOs were already champing at the bit, ready to rush in at a moment's notice. For these organizations, Burma represented one of the last "development" frontiers, a vast wasteland of opportunity for maternal health projects, capacity building initiatives, microfinance schemes, election monitoring programs, an array of rule of law projects, the list goes on. A country destroyed by more than a half century of ruthless, self-serving dictatorship needed rebuilding, and the aid industry was eager to swoop in to help, grant writers at the ready.

Now, two years into Burma's aid rush, some of the very people responsible for this wasteland, Burma's aging dictators and their business cronies, are cashing in on their country's "development" by renting out properties for top dollar to the very same aid organizations there to help rebuild the country. But rather than enriching these tyrants, doesn't the international aid industry have an obligation to help Burma break from its dictatorship past?

The large white house at 70(P) Golden Valley Avenue is located in the middle of an exclusive Rangoon neighborhood called "Generals' Village"—locals gave it the nickname for its preponderance of mansions owned by members of Burma's military elite. In "Generals' Village," well-maintained streets are uncharacteristically litter free, barbed wire curls around gaudy homes like creeping ivy, and luxury Germans cars sit idle in driveways.

Today, 70(P) Golden Valley Avenue is the Burmese base of operations for Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), the private American self-styled "global development company" and a regular recipient of funds from the American government's aid agency USAID (more than US$350 million in 2010 alone) and its British equivalent DFID, among others. According to several sources that wish to remain anonymous, including one close to the rental arrangement, the house belongs to the family of Gen. Khin Nyunt, a Prime Minister during Burma's military dictatorship but better known as Burma's notorious head of military intelligence. During his long reign of terror as chief spymaster from 1988 to 2004, Gen. Khin Nyunt is thought to have personally overseen the arrest and detention of 4,000 people, mostly for political activities, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Burma's political prisoners were subject to torture and many spent up to 20 years in prison under abysmal conditions.

Just a short drive from DAI's office through swankiest Rangoon sits Unicef's sleek modernist Rangoon headquarters on Inya Myaing Road. When I visited in May to snap a photo of the blue Lego-like complex, a silver Mercedes was parked conspicuously in the driveway. Soon after, the United Nations' Children's Fund confirmed that it is renting the property from former Agriculture Minister and top general in Burma's dictatorship, Nyunt Tin, for the "very competitive" (in Unicef's words) rent of $87,000 a month, more than $1 million a year.

And it doesn't end there. The Irrawaddy reported at the end of May that the EU Ambassador to Burma is renting a home on Inya Lake that belongs to the family of Burma's first modern dictator, Ne Win, who overthrew Burma's first democratic government in 1962 and ruled with an iron fist until being deposed by a junta in 1988. Apparently, EU regulations which set caps on rental fees had to be rewritten given the high rental cost, thought to be around $80,000 a month. Rumors are also swirling that the World Health Organization's Rangoon office, which costs the organization $79,000 a month, is connected to the family of Snr-Gen Than Shwe—Burma's head dictator from 1992 to 2011—though this allegation hasn't been confirmed.

The money spent on these rentals is scandal enough, given that millions of US and EU taxpayer dollars a year are going to pay the excessive rents of "development organizations" in a country where the GDP per capita hovers around $1,200 per year. Paying these high rents also serves to increase rents everywhere in Rangoon, fueling a free-wheeling market controlled by the city's powerbrokers (and former dictators) that is already having a severe impact on local people and organizations that can't compete with international donor dollars. But the real scandal is that money is flowing from development agencies' coffers into the bank accounts of the very individuals and families responsible for Burma's development deficiency in the first place. Does Unicef, champion of the world's children, not see the hypocrisy in paying a general who helped lead a regime known for its flagrant use of child soldiers? Poetic injustice indeed.

USAID, one of the biggest aid donors in town and DAI's main source of funding, recently requested proposals from international NGOs and its coterie of private contractors that include DAI (yes, they are businesses, not non-profits) for a $20 million project entitled "Accountable to All (A2A): Strengthening Civil Society and Media in Burma Program." The language in the proposal strikes all the right notes to this human rights activist, stating, for instance, that "[u]ntil very recently, the operating environment for civil society and media in Burma was extremely repressive, and many political activists lived in fear." And that "it remains to be seen whether the [government of Burma] authorities will fully give up controls on the media, civil society, and civil liberties." The key to a successful political transition in Burma, the proposal argues, is accountability: "USAID/Burma aims to support a civil society led strategy of public engagement with the Government of Burma, to foster accountability around the reform process." Sounds great. But what about USAID's own accountability? By funding DAI, USAID is indirectly funding the very forces that threaten a successful transition to democracy in Burma.

Perhaps these organizations are paying exorbitant rents to unsavory landlords in exchange for access and protection from the men who continue to rule the country from behind the scenes. Here, we'll give you a million dollars a year for your house, but please let us get on with doing our job (the job they never did themselves). If that's the case, it's a dirty trade off that will only perpetuate the ancien régime's staying power and Burma's problems both.

In recent weeks, the popular media narrative of Burma's steady transition from dictatorship to democracy is finally starting to crumble as irrefutable evidence piles up that Burma's transition is fraught with problems and has been steadily reversing for more than a year. Yet the aid money continues to flow. Burma (or more accurately its former capital) has changed a great deal in the last two years, remarkably so compared to my first visit to the country in 2003. However, much about this country remains entirely unchanged. Real political and economic power remains firmly in the grip of former generals, their business cronies, and the military-dominated government in the new capital of Naypyidaw. With that in mind, shouldn't aid agencies be wary of cutting deals with former dictators and their kin, or at least refrain from renting their properties?

To be sure, Burma needs international aid and assistance. But it also needs responsible donors who understand what (and who) brought this once-prosperous country to its knees in the first place. The overwhelming trend of newly arrived aid agencies and international NGOs (INGOs) in Burma these days seems to be to move in big and fast, ignore the past, and help establish Myanmar Year Zero. Hardship pay negotiations and the need for DSL-ready offices are taking priority over the very real needs of this country, foremost of which should be how to address the legacy of six decades of brutal military rule. Yes, there is high demand and low supply for modern office spaces desired by aid and UN agencies and inevitably many such properties are going to be owned by former generals and their cronies, but that isn't an excuse for negligence. Burma's international aid industry, on the whole, seems befallen by a self-induced tropical amnesia. These egregious office rentals are simply a symptom of their disregard for Burma's very recent history.

If Burma's international aid industry wants to help build a new foundation for this country, and not just reap the rewards of the world's newest aid gold rush, then it must start by remembering who turned Burma upside down to begin with and act accordingly. But it likely won't do that willingly. Organizations such as DAI and Unicef claim to be working in the best interests of Burma's people. But they aren't really accountable to anyone. Burmese civil society is the only force in the country with the legitimacy and capability to make the aid industry accountable and transparent. But Burmese civil society actors must act soon before they are further compromised by that very same industry in the form of grants and contracts, as happened in Nepal when I worked there and no doubt everywhere else the moveable feast of aid has descended.

It's time to remind the donor organizations, UN agencies, and INGOs filing into Burma that justice, transparency, and accountability are not just words in a grant proposal. Simply put, Burma's civil society leaders must demand that aid entering the country be used to build a new Burma, and not more houses in "Generals' Village."

Jonathan Hulland is an independent human rights consultant and analyst.

The post The Spoils of Aid in Burma: Transition a Boon for Former Dictators appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Petro-Pirates Plague Busy Southeast Asia Shipping Lanes

Posted: 10 Jul 2014 04:43 PM PDT

 An oil tanker sails past Chemoil's Helios oil terminal on Singapore's Jurong Island February 28, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

An oil tanker sails past Chemoil’s Helios oil terminal on Singapore’s Jurong Island February 28, 2008. (Photo: Reuters)

BATAM, Indonesia — In the dead of night, as his fuel tanker sailed through the narrowest section of one of the world’s busiest waterways, Captain Thiwa Saman was wrenched from sleep and pitched into a waking nightmare.

Three men with guns and swords were banging on his cabin door. Other pirates had already stormed the bridge, seized the duty officer and smashed up the radio and GPS equipment.

Over the next 10 hours, mostly in daylight, the pirates held Thiwa and his 13 crew captive while siphoning off 4 million liters of diesel, worth around $2 million on the black market, to another tanker. They even re-painted the name of Thiwa’s ship to confuse anyone searching for it.

Then they vanished.

The May 27 attack on the Orapin 4 was one of a spate of well-organised fuel heists that are reviving Southeast Asia’s reputation as a global piracy hotspot.

Since April, at least six fuel tankers have been hijacked and drained in the Malacca Strait or nearby waters of the South China Sea, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which in mid-June warned small tankers to maintain strict anti-piracy measures in the area.

None of the perpetrators has been caught.

The most recent attack was last Friday, when armed pirates boarded a tanker in the South China Sea, took the crew hostage and stole part of the cargo. That incident is being investigated by Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency.

About a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade passes through the Malacca Strait, a choke point on the route between the Middle East and the energy-hungry economies of East Asia.

The Orapin 4 was boarded just north of the freewheeling Indonesian island of Batam, a pirate lair for centuries with sketchy law enforcement and unrivalled views of passing ships. Singapore’s skyscrapers crowd the distant horizon.

In 2013, piracy attacks worldwide declined 11 percent to 264 reported incidents due to stricter law enforcement in the Indian Ocean off Somalia, according to the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

But attacks rose dramatically in Indonesia, where 106 of those 264 incidents took place – a seven-fold increase in five years.

The Malacca Strait acquired a reputation as a modern piracy hotspot after another spike in ship boardings in the late 1990s. Back then, the attacks were mostly hit-and-run robberies – the latest outbreak appears to be more sophisticated.

A third of the 106 incidents in 2013 were reported in the last quarter of the year, suggesting "a potential for such attacks to escalate into a more organized piracy model unless they are controlled," said a report by German insurer Allianz.

The IMB has called the rise of petro-piracy "alarming".

'We Want Only Your Fuel'

Thiwa, 66, a Thai national and seafarer for 30 years, said he and his crew were so shaken by the attack that nobody felt ready to return to work. The Orapin 4 was carrying diesel between Singapore and Pontianak in Indonesian Borneo.

Tankers are relatively slow and have low freeboards – the distance from the waterline to the upper deck level – which makes them easier to board.

"Off West Africa, tankers have always been an attractive target for pirates," said Sven Gerhard, Allianz’s hull and marine liabilities chief. He suggested this "business model" could have prompted copycat attacks by Indonesian pirates.

Thiwa’s crew were forced at gunpoint into his cabin. Some were blindfolded, while others had their wrists bound with plastic cable ties.

"The pirates said, ‘We won’t harm you. We only want your fuel’," said Thiwa.

Around dawn, he felt the thump of another fuel tanker mooring alongside. Two crew members were taken away to help the pirates open the valves.

Fuel oil or diesel was an attractive cargo for resale because it was in high and constant demand, and its original ownership was difficult to identify, said Gerhard. It was also easy for pirates to go undetected, even in daylight.

"Ship-to-ship onloading and offloading of fuel oil is not unusual," he said. "Many vessels are fuelled by special bunker tankers whilst moored."

The pirates who attacked the Orapin 4 wore the same overalls as Thiwa’s crew. "There was no way outsiders could know what was happening," said Thiwa.

By simply painting over a number and two letters, the pirates changed the ship’s name to Rapi, which means "neat" in Indonesian.

By 9 p.m., the pirates had siphoned off the fuel and looted the cabins of watches, cellphones, money and other valuables. Then they slipped away into the darkness.

Thiwa and his crew freed themselves and, aided by an undamaged radar, sailed to a port near Bangkok.

Pirate 'Shopping'

"Stealing fuel is a recent trend. It never happened in my time," said Aga, 62, the nickname of a Batam shipping agent and former pirate who still counts many pirates among his friends. "Our targets were only money, the safe, or anything valuable on the ship."

In pirate parlance, thieving valuables is "shopping", said Aga. Stealing fuel is known by the Indonesian phrase "kapal kencing," or "ship (is) pissing".

There were three main pirate gangs active in the area, said Aga. They hailed from all over Indonesia, although Batam boatmen were recruited for their knowledge of local reefs and coves.

Petro-piracy is an organized crime, requiring good logistics and networks to steal and re-sell the fuel.

Local police investigated just one piracy incident in 2013 and arrested five men, said Yassin Kosasih, Marine Police director for Riau Islands Province, which includes Batam.

To catch more pirates, said Kosasih, he needed patrol ships with a greater range, better communications technology – and more fuel.

Aga said pirates choose their targets carefully, aided by live updates on websites such as marinetraffic.com, and by informants at shipping companies or among crews.

On April 22, in the Malacca Strait, pirates stole 2,500 tons of marine diesel oil from a tanker. They also took three Indonesian crew in what was initially described as a kidnapping. It is now believed the three men conspired with the pirates.

Stolen diesel is sold to dealers serving Batam’s dozens of ports and shipyards for use in trucks, boats or generators, or to black marketeers in Singapore where legal fuel is more expensive, Aga said. It fetches between $400 and $650 per tons on the black market, so the Orapin 4′s cargo was worth anything up to $2.2 million.

Pirates fear the naval ships that patrol the Strait, said Aga, but still usually manage to outmaneuver them.

"Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, with thousands of islands," said Jarek Klimczak, a master mariner and senior risk consultant at Allianz. "The proper control and monitoring of all of its waters is nearly impossible, even for an advanced navy. And Indonesia’s navy is far from advanced."

On June 14, off Malaysia’s eastern coast, pirates boarded a Honduras-registered tanker called Ai Maru carrying 1,520 tonnes of marine gas oil. The Malaysian coastguard and the navies of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore dispatched six ships.

They found the Ai Maru less than five hours later – a relatively swift response – but the pirates had already fled along with a third of the fuel.

Two years ago, in Malaysian waters, pirates boarded and robbed another oil tanker captained by Thiwa Saman.

Then, the pirates had carried only knives. Now they had guns, too. "My family don’t want me to go back (to sea) because it’s too risky," he said.

The post Petro-Pirates Plague Busy Southeast Asia Shipping Lanes appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.