| Court Sentences 3 Journalists, 2 Media Owners to 2 Years in Prison Posted: 16 Oct 2014 05:42 AM PDT  Thura Aung, a journalist with the defunct Bi Mon Te Nay journal, leaves the Pabedan Court after having been sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Pabedan Township Court in Rangoon sentenced three journalists and the two owners of the defunct Bi Mon Te Nay journal to two years in prison on Thursday after the journal published a story that upset the Burmese government. The court sentenced reporter Kyaw Zaw Hein, editors Win Tin and Thura Aung, and owners Yin Min Htun and Kyaw Min Khaing under the Penal Code's Article 505(b). This broadly defined charge punishes those who spread or make statements that can "alarm the public" or "whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state." The charge was widely used to crush dissent under the former military regime. The court handed out the maximum punishment under Article 505(b) of two years' imprisonment. After the sentence, the convicted men were led passed reporters outside court and Kyaw Zaw Hein shouted, "This is totally unfair and if the country wants to change into a democracy, the country needs press freedom." Special Branch Police launched an investigation into Bi Mon Te Nay journal in early July and arrested the journalists and owners at the newspaper after it ran a front page story on a statement by activist group the Movement for Democracy Current Force (MDCF), which mistakenly claimed that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had formed an interim government. The journal was shut down shortly after the men were arrested. Lawyers of the convicted men said that the judge in the case had failed to consider the new Press Law. The law was approved in March and states that any dispute arising from a news article should first be mediated by the Myanmar Press Council, before being referred to the court. The law carries no criminal punishment but carries fines in the case of wrongdoing by journalists during their work. Lawyer Kyaw Win said, "I constantly referred the court to the Press Law, but the judge didn't analyze one word of Press Law." He said the defendants would file for appeal with a district court and later the Supreme Court, adding, "The Supreme Court can analyze [the case] more broadly and change the charges. It can probably review the case under the Press Law." Thiha Saw, a member of the Interim Myanmar Press Council, said authorities had declined to bring the case against the Bi Mon Te Nay journal to the council for mediation because the additional rules and regulations for the Press Law had not yet been approved by President Thein Sein yet. "The law is not complete… That is why the judge doesn't use the Press Law and accepted charges under the Penal Code," he said, adding that the rules and regulations of the press law were expected to be passed "within months." Family members of the convicted men said the sentence had been too harsh. "It is unfair, and they decided to give them the highest punishment instead of judging the case under the Press Law," Khin Aung, father of Kyaw Zaw Hein, told The Irrawaddy "It is very unfair," said Myint Oo, the brother-in-law of Yin Min Htun. "The decision means that the justice system signals to the media not to criticize the government about anything." The sentencing of the Bi Mon Te Nay journalists and owners is the latest in a number of criminal cases by authorities against Burmese journalists, and appears to be part of wider effort by the government to reign in and intimidate local media, which had been enjoying a period of relative freedom after President Thein Sein lifted junta-era media restrictions in 2012. In July, a court sentenced four journalists and a CEO of the Unity journal to 10 years in prison under the State Secrets Act for reporting on a secretive military installation. The sentence was recently reduced to 7 years. Pho Thauk Kya, a veteran local journalist, said the sentence had been unnecessarily harsh and does not fit with the democratic reforms that the Thein Sein has pledged to implement. "Journalists who are doing their work… do not deserve such unfair punishment," he said. "Such a punishment does not suit a government that is moving towards a democratic system." He said, however, that he believed that the Thein Sein's government was becoming more accepting of Burma's independent media, but that low level authorities were still sticking to their junta-era repressive ways. A number of local journalists assembled outside the Pabedan Court on Thursday to hold a demonstration to express their support for the convicted men. Some of them carried banners saying "Stop Killing Press." Demonstrator and journalist Shwe Hmone said, "The two years prison sentence is too much. I think they gave them the maximum prison term because they are journalists." The post Court Sentences 3 Journalists, 2 Media Owners to 2 Years in Prison appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Says Some Victims of Yunnan Land Clash Burned Alive Posted: 16 Oct 2014 03:50 AM PDT  A villager holds a pitchfork and a police shield, which fellow villagers took from injured police during clashes at Fuyou village in Kunming, Yunnan province October 15, 2014. (Photo: Wong Campion / Reuters) BEIJING — Chinese villagers kidnapped construction workers, tied them up, doused them in gasoline and set it ablaze when a land dispute turned violent, the government said on Thursday, providing grisly details of the latest bout of rural unrest. Eight people died in Tuesday's unrest when tension over a new trading and logistics center boiled over in Jinning, a suburb of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in China's southwest. Six of the dead were workers and the other two villagers, while 18 people were injured, one of them seriously. The Kunming government's propaganda department said on its official microblog that residents of Fuyou village had been upset for many months over compensation for the land being used in the project, and had already forced building to stop in May. But on Tuesday, thousands of workers flooded back to the site to resume construction, it added. "On that day, eight workers who were having breakfast in Fuyou village were illegally detained by villagers, their hands and legs tied up, they were beaten, had gasoline poured on them and were then taken to a road near the building site," the government said. Later, hundreds of villagers raided the construction site and fought with workers. "During the clash, villagers threw home-made explosives into the crowd and set the kidnapped workers alight, while the workers fought the villagers with their tools, causing serious injuries and loss of life," the government said in a brief statement. Police will severely punish those who "organized, carried out and proactively participated in illegal criminal activities, no matter who they are", the government added, without giving details. Land disputes are one of the main causes of the tens of thousands of protests across China each year. Most go unreported, though some, such as a revolt in the southern village of Wukan in 2011, have attained a high profile and spurred Beijing to promise action. China's slowing economy has reduced tax revenues for local governments at a time when the cooling property market has also dampened land sales, an important source of government income. The unrest in Yunnan comes as the ruling Communist Party meets next week for a conclave to discuss how to strengthen the rule of law, in hopes of damping instability that is greatly feared by the party. The post China Says Some Victims of Yunnan Land Clash Burned Alive appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| After Karen Groups Pledge Military Cooperation, Leadership Divisions Appear Posted: 16 Oct 2014 03:34 AM PDT  A soldier from the KNLA [right] greets a DKBA counterpart at a military base on 17 November, 2011. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) On Tuesday, some commanders of units of different Karen rebel groups publicly vowed to begin military cooperation in the face of growing of Burma Army operations in southeastern Burma. But since then, cracks have begun to appear within the leadership of the various groups. On Wednesday, a Karen National Union (KNU) leader sought to distance the organization's political leadership from the cooperation agreement signed by two of its military commanders. Saw Roger Khin, chief of the KNU department of defense, said in a statement that the KNU leadership was not involved in the agreement signed by the vice-chief of staff of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the commander of the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO), two military organizations of the KNU. Saw Roger Khin said the cooperation agreement "was signed by the KNLA vice-chief of staff and the commander of the KNDO…through their own ideas." On Tuesday, KNLA Vice-Chief of Staff Gen. Baw Kyaw Heh and KNDO leader Col. Nerdah Mya signed an agreement with Gen. Saw Lah Pwe, the head of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), in which they pledged to cooperate militarily. Col. Tiger, a commander of a small Karen splinter group, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, also joined the agreement. The commanders, who can muster a combined force of an estimated 4,000 fighters, said they were seeking military cooperation because of an increase in Burma Army operations in their areas. In recent weeks, fighting has erupted in Karen and Mon states between the DKBA and the Burma Army. The KNLA has not been involved. The agreement is potentially significant as it would further cooperation between the KNU and the DKBA. The latter is a Buddhist Karen group that broke away from the KNU and joined the government in 1994 after falling out with the KNU's predominantly Christian leadership. The KNU/KNLA Peace Council was until recently a pro-government Border Guard Force. Saw Roger Khin could not be reached for comment on why he and the KNU leadership had distanced themselves from the agreement. It has been known for some time, however, that there are divisions within the KNU leadership. Baw Kyaw Heh, who has support of KNLA "hardline" brigades 2 and 5, and KNU vice-chairperson Zipporah Sein have expressed doubts over the direction of the KNU's ceasefire negotiations with the central government and the Burma Army. The KNU signed a bilateral ceasefire with Naypyidaw in early 2012 and the group has since maintained relatively good relations with the government. On Thursday, KNU secretary Mahn Mahan sought to downplay the public differences over the recent agreement and insisted these were not signs of internal divisions. "I don’t see it is a sign of a split within the KNU, because we all want to [unify] one way or another" with other groups, he said. "We are not against each other, although the two statements seem different." He added that a recent KNU congress decided to try to bring the disparate Karen rebel groups together, as the Karen public desires. A source within the KNU leadership, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saw Roger Khin was angry because he had not been informed of the cooperation agreement. The source added that he had not been informed because some KNLA commanders believe he is close to a pro-government Border Guard Force commander named Col. Chit Thu. In another sign of a lack of unified leadership within the Karen rebel groups, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council also put out a statement on Wednesday saying that Tiger had been removed from the group's command and had no authority to sign an agreement on the group's behalf. Tiger told The Irrawaddy that he had not been informed of the decision. Paul Sein Twa, director of Karen Environmental and Social Action Network, a local NGO, said he welcomed Tuesday's initiative of the Karen commanders to seek closer cooperation, adding, "It definitely meets the desire of the Karen people, especially those who are caught in the middle. They have been calling for this for a long time." Asked about the subsequent public quarreling among Karen leaders, he said, "We are not afraid of unity, but of disunity or more divisions." The post After Karen Groups Pledge Military Cooperation, Leadership Divisions Appear appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| New Political Party Aims to Put Burma’s Women in Power Posted: 16 Oct 2014 03:24 AM PDT  Members of the newly formed Women's Party provide educational assistance for children in Mon State capital Moulmein. (Photo: Shin Sawbu Organization / Facebook) RANGOON — A group of politically minded women in Mon State have formed a party to contest general elections in 2015, with the express goal of securing more seats for women in both houses of Burma's Parliament. The Women's Party was founded on the principle of gender equality and aims to increase female representation in politics by creating an inclusive and welcoming space for women of all ethnicities to participate in governance. Party Chairperson Mi Layaung Mon, also known as Than Shin, told The Irrawaddy that she and a few party leaders met with the Union Election Commission in Naypyidaw on Tuesday to discuss the measures necessary for official party registration. "The commission is very interested in this because it is the first time women have had their own party in our country," Mi Layaung Mon said. Their primary intention, she explained, is to give voice to women's concerns and promote equal rights by ensuring that women hold more parliamentary seats. "There are many women in this country, with many different interests. Some want to work in civil society, some want to be business women. Others want to join politics—they can join our party." Committee members are still working on a constitution, which Mi Layaung Mon said will be carefully drafted to empower ethnic women and will establish the party as a potential network for women all over the country who wish to enter politics. Mon State is an ethnic state in eastern Burma with two dominant political parties: the All Mon Region Democracy Party and the Mon Democracy Party. The state has a population of about two million, but estimates on the total ethnic Mon population in Burma vary widely, with the discrepancy not likely to be resolved until the full results of this year's census are released. Political unity has become a priority for many people of the Mon minority, but the possibility of a merger between the two main parties does not seem likely before the 2015 elections. Mi Layaung Mon said that she rejects the suggestion that creating a new party for women will divert support from ethnic parties. Even though most ethnic people want less fractured politics, she explained, there is a need for diverse female leadership, which a new party could address. Mi Layaung Mon referred to a growing movement in Burma demanding a compulsory 30 percent female representation in both houses of Parliament. The Women's Party will be fully devoted not to a particular platform or policy agenda, but to securing this representation for women, regardless of ethnic or religious identity. "Some people treat women as equals, but some people do not want to give us our rights. We want to send a clear message to the women of this country that if we want our rights, we need to fight for them ourselves," said Mi Layaung Mon. In its current form, the Women's Party has nine executive and 15 central committee members. The post New Political Party Aims to Put Burma's Women in Power appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| ‘Those Raised in A Locked-Up Society Are Different’ Posted: 16 Oct 2014 02:38 AM PDT  Director The Maw Naing, center, talks about 'The Monk' before its screening at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July. (Photo: kviff.com) "The Monk," a film about a novice weighing the choice between monastic and lay life, has earned the respect of international audiences and brought greater world exposure to formerly hermetic Burma. The film has won several international film festival awards and in July of this year earned the distinction of being the opening feature to screen at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, one of the Europe's major cinema events. The film's director The Maw Naing, 42, sat down with The Irrawaddy to talk about the international acclaim and how he expects Burmese audiences to receive the film. Question: Why did you direct 'The Monk'? Answer: I'm more interested in art film than entertainment film. As I read more books on art films, I decided to create an art film as my first work. There are many, many nonsensical and ridiculous things taking place in Burma. Those are the resources for us. I would like to show the international community what is happening in Burma. If we don't do so, who will? The media do talk about what is happening in Burma, but their focus is on information. In the arts, it is not just about information. The majority of Buddhist monks, who are respected a great deal in our society, are leading very hard lives. Again, I would like to communicate the message that most of the youths [in Burma] do not know exactly what they want to be, and many let their dreams fade away. Q: Is this your first film? If not, what have you previously directed? A: It is my first long film. It was around 2004 or 2005 that I started shooting while studying. I started shooting short films. In 2008, I shot a 90-minute feature essay film about [Cyclone] Nargis. I gave it the name 'Nargis: When Time Stops Breathing.' When it was shown abroad in 2010, we did not use the real names of the crew on the credits because it would be risky for them as the crew was living inside Burma. It was only in 2011 that we put the real names on the credits. That film won awards at four international film festivals. Q: In which countries will 'The Monk' be screened next? A: It will be shown at the Busan [International] Film Festival in Korea; in Poland; India; in Qatar's Doha; and in New York. The film is also scheduled to be screened in Singapore in December. I'm looking forward to the show in Singapore because there are many Burmese there and I would like to hear their feedback. I also plan to show the film in countries and cities where there are many Burmese people. Q: How has the international feedback been? A: Feedback has been positive. They said the shooting is nice. We mainly did the shooting under natural light and did not use much light to make the pictures vivid. The focus is on problems inside a society. They like the lighting. Some have even said they would replicate our lighting style in their next films. Some have discussed Vipassana with me and some introduced themselves to me, held my hand and said 'I can't believe your country Burma can shoot such a nice film.' I am pleased. It is the outcome of the strenuous efforts of our crew. [Audiences] are interested in the film because it is from Burma and it is about something they did not know about before. Q: What kind of feedback do you think you will get from Burmese audiences? Your take on life in the monkhood is probably not how most people perceive the situation. A: There will be criticism, for sure. For example, I write a poem about something and readers may think it is about something different. That's their right. The way they understand it may be different from one another. We have lived in a locked-up society. Those who grow up in a locked-up society are different from those grow up in open societies. Those who grow up in a locked-up society are somewhat abnormal. We ourselves are. We are not frank with each other. We dare not complain even when we are right. Since this has been going on for a long time, there has emerged misunderstanding as a result. Burmese people have a fear, since they were not allowed to think freely. Most of the people who have watched the entire film like it when they grasp the essence of it. Q: How can the living conditions of the monkhood be improved? What is your assessment as an ordinary person, not as a director? A: It is quite clear. It is all because of the military dictatorship. Things will get better gradually when there is no military dictatorship and everything is fair. You can't build Rome in a day. It is common knowledge that many problems remain unresolved in Burma. Q: What will your next film be about? A: The script is still being written and will be completed in November. But I won't be able to shoot it until October next year. The main character in the film will be a woman who searches for truth and ultimately fails. But she has sowed the seed of a thirst for truth in the minds of people, and then many follow in her footsteps. That film will be more challenging. The post 'Those Raised in A Locked-Up Society Are Different' appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| 9 Jailed for Farming Confiscated Land in Mon State Posted: 16 Oct 2014 12:22 AM PDT  A sign erected on farmland reads: "Military land: No trespassing." (Photo: Naing Swan / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — Nine farmers were each sentenced to seven years in prison for working on lands they say were unlawfully seized by the military in Mon State. The farmers claim that they are the original and rightful owners of several acres of crop land in Ah Nan Pin village, Thaton Township, but that the lands were confiscated by the Burmese military in 1984. Farmers' rights advocate Than Myint, who liaises on behalf of the farmers, told The Irrawaddy that Maj-Gen Myo Khin ordered the seizure under the premise of regional development projects. He said that the government didn't occupy the land until 2004, when the Ministry of Industry took over the property as a rubber plantation. The plantation was a failure and was later abandoned, he said, so the farmers reoccupied the land and resumed tending the fields. Nine of the original landowners entered the property in March 2014 and attempted to weed out the overgrowth. They were shortly after summoned to Thaton District Court on charges of trespassing and destruction of property. A sentence of seven years each was handed down on Tuesday. Than Myint, who serves as a central standing committee member of the Burma Federation of Farmers and Agriculture Unions, said that the group will appeal the decision and continue fighting for the right to use what they say are their ancestral lands. "They received no compensation at all when those lands were stolen from them," Than Myint said. "It is very unfair for them to be jailed for seven years, and we will appeal." Five farmers from Mon State's Paung Township are currently facing similar charges for attempting to plough seized lands. The group is still awaiting a verdict. Reports of land-grabbing have sprung up across the country in recent years, as many farmers claim that their property was seized by the military in the early 1990s, often to be used for unsuccessful agro-industrial projects and later abandoned. Many farmers have returned to use the lands and are now being forced out by the military, which still claims ownership. The Burmese government initiated major land policy reform in early 2012, but the new legislation has been criticized for its weak protection of small-scale farmers and legitimation of government land acquisitions. A parliamentary Farmland Investigation Commission was created in 2012 to resolve disputes, which has already received thousands of claims about hundreds of thousands of acres of land. Earlier this year, the commission ordered relevant government bodies to resolve outstanding cases by September at the latest, a deadline that came and went without incident. In August, the Rangoon Division government admitted that it would be unable to settle some 300 claims by the end of its term in 2016. Other parts of the country have experienced similar setbacks as regional governments lack capacity for appraisals and compensation schemes. The post 9 Jailed for Farming Confiscated Land in Mon State appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Japan Jets Scrambling to Counter Rising Russian Incursions Posted: 15 Oct 2014 10:14 PM PDT  Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe poses inside the cockpit of a T-4 training jet plane of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse flight team at the JASDF base in Higashimatsushima in May 16, 2013. (Photo: Reuters) CHITOSE, Japan — The number of times Japanese fighter jets scrambled to ward off Russian military aircraft more than doubled in the last six months, amid diplomatic tensions between the two countries which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to ease. The increased activity in Japan’s north also comes as the armed forces pivot their focus southwards towards China, the assertive Asian giant which is seen in Tokyo as the more immediate challenge. According to government figures released this week, instances of fighter jets scrambling into the skies above Japan jumped by 73 percent in the six months through September, led by sorties confronting Russian bombers and spy planes. Scrambles jumped to 533 from 308 a year earlier, the Defense Ministry said, and the total is on course to surpass figures seen during the last fiscal year, themselves the highest in nearly a quarter of a century. Flights dispatched specifically to meet Russian aircraft in the latest six months soared to 324 from 136, although they eased during the second half of the period under review. "We don’t know the reason for the increased air activity. That’s something for the Russians to answer," said a Self-Defense Forces official, who declined to be identified under ground rules for a recent press tour of facilities in Hokkaido. The official would not discuss the circumstances surrounding the surge in scrambles against Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry failed to answer repeated telephone calls made by Reuters on Wednesday for comment. Territorial Dispute Hokkaido is a Japanese island to the north of the country’s main land mass, and it lies close to four smaller islands which are claimed both by Japan and Russia. The territorial dispute has prevented Japan and Russia from concluding a formal peace treaty and helps explain Japan’s north-facing military posture, with mechanized infantry divisions and tank brigades set up to repel a feared Soviet invasion. Besides economic and energy ties, Abe’s diplomacy aims at resolving the dispute over the islands that Moscow seized in the final days of World War Two. That task is being complicated by Japan’s decision to join Western sanctions against Moscow for its annexation of the Crimea peninsula in March and its involvement in a pro-Russian rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies sending troops and arms to the area. However, Tokyo’s measures against Russia have been lighter than those of the United States or the European Union. Abe said on Wednesday he hoped to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at an Asia-Europe summit this week, and the two are expected to meet at a Pacific Rim gathering next month. Only Minutes to Intercept Russian aircraft often fly a circuitous route around the long Japanese archipelago. Countering them are fighter jets, including two squadrons of Japanese F-15 fighter jets, around 40 aircraft, at Chitose air base, less than 200 miles from the Russian border. Incursions in Japan’s northern air zone in the latest six months rose to 189 from 110 a year earlier. Capable of flying at two and a half times the speed of sound, the F-15s can intercept Russian aircraft within minutes. Pilots, alerted by phone, dash to waiting F-15s using afterburners to speed their ascent. The unexpectedly high number of overflights by Russian aircraft from the north comes as Japan is thinning out its forces in Hokkaido in order to focus more on China. Its 700-strong tank force, for example, is to shrink by 300 vehicles, with a similar cut in the number of howitzer artillery pieces. Army units such as the second division in Asahikawa, which is closer to Khabarovsk than to Tokyo, have to make do with older equipment while new spending goes to pay for amphibious assault vehicles, troop-carrying aircraft and new mobile armored vehicles destined for units in the southwest. Northern troops, three-quarters of whom are Hokkaido natives used to training in waist-deep snow, are being told to look to the subtropical south. As a result of the pivot, logistics officers in Hokkaido must devise plans to ship their units and equipment south at short notice should they be needed during an emergency. Russia’s ability to prod Japan’s northern defenses, meanwhile, may increase. Moscow plans to spend as much as a fifth of its national budget on defense by 2018. That means an 18 percent increase in military outlays this year followed by 33 percent more over the next two budget terms. The post Japan Jets Scrambling to Counter Rising Russian Incursions appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Expresses Concern About Indian Border Road Plan Posted: 15 Oct 2014 10:08 PM PDT  Indian army soldiers march near an army base on India's Tezpur-Tawang highway, which runs to the Chinese border, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh May 29, 2012. (Photo: Reuters) BEIJING/NEW DELHI — China expressed concern on Wednesday after India announced plans to build a road along the remote eastern part of their disputed border, saying it hoped India would not "further complicate" the festering disagreement. China defeated India in a brief war in 1962 and the border has remained unresolved since, despite 17 rounds of talks. The two armies cannot even agree on where the Line of Actual Control, or the ceasefire line following the fighting in 1962, lies, leading to face-offs between border patrols. In September, India eased curbs on building roads and military facilities within 100 km (62 miles) of the contested border in remote Arunachal Pradesh, so as to hasten construction of some 6,000 km (3,730 miles) of roads. The move came as Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India, in a bid to defuse the deep distrust between both countries, despite growing trade and business ties. A senior official in the Indian home ministry’s border management department said the ministry was seeking cabinet approval for the road in Arunachal Pradesh and had preliminary support from the prime minister’s office. The road will run from the key town of Tawang in the northwest to Vijanagar in the far east and is expected to cost 400 billion Indian rupees ($6.5 billion). "The minister of state has conceived the idea of building a road that could be about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) long. The project has not been given cabinet approval but the preliminary nod from the PMO has come," said the official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "China has already spread their network of roads and rail network near the border. Whatever we make on our territory should not be a concern of China." China disputes the entire territory of Arunachal Pradesh, calling it south Tibet, especially Tawang, a key site for Tibetan Buddhism. The historic town briefly fell into Chinese hands during the 1962 war before Beijing retreated. Asked about the road plan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the government needed to "further verify the situation". "The border issue between China and India is a problem left over by the colonial past. Both China and India need to work together to solve this problem," he told a daily news briefing. "Before the border problem is solved, we hope the Indian side will not take any action that could further complicate the relevant issue, so as to preserve the current situation of peace and stability in the border area and create conditions for the final settlement of the border issue." Last month, India and China agreed to pull back troops ranged against each other on a remote Himalayan plateau on the other side of the country from Arunachal Pradesh, ending their biggest face-off on the disputed border in a year. The two armies had mobilized about 1,000 soldiers each in Ladakh, each accusing the other of building military infrastructure in violation of a pact to maintain peace until a resolution of the 52-year territorial row. India has previously also announced plans to refurbish civil and military infrastructure in the remote mountains, but progress has been slow. For instance, it has completed just a tenth of a 2,400-km highway to link the middle portion of the sprawling state, plans for which were announced by the previous government in 2008. An Arunachal Pradesh government official said the administration was committed to the highway, some parts of which will overlap with the new project. The post China Expresses Concern About Indian Border Road Plan appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| China Blocks BBC Website as Hong Kong Tensions Rise Posted: 15 Oct 2014 09:45 PM PDT  Police use pepper spray as they clash with pro-democracy protesters at an area near the government headquarters building in Hong Kong early October 16, 2014. (Photo: Carlos Barria / Reuters) SHANGHAI, China — Chinese censors have blocked the website of Britain's national broadcaster, the BBC said in a statement late on Wednesday, as tensions rise in Hong Kong between pro-democracy protesters and police. The broadcaster said that the move seemed to be "deliberate censorship". It did not say what may have prompted the move by Beijing, which also blocks the websites of the New York Times, newswire Bloomberg and the BBC's Chinese language website. "The BBC strongly condemns any attempts to restrict free access to news and information and we are protesting to the Chinese authorities. This appears to be deliberate censorship," said Peter Horrocks, director of the BBC World Service Group. The BBC's English-language website was still inaccessible in China on Thursday morning. In Hong Kong, police used pepper spray early on Thursday to stop pro-democracy protesters from blocking a major road near the office of the city's embattled leader amid public anger over the police beating a protester a day earlier. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China. A Chinese official told foreign media in Hong Kong on Wednesday that China has seen interference in the city's pro-democracy protests from outside forces and called on international journalists to report "objectively". Earlier this month a Chinese court issued new rulings clamping down on what "netizens" can say and do online, a reflection of Beijing's desire to influence popular opinion, both online and offline. This is not the first time the BBC has been blocked in China. In 2010, the broadcaster's website was blocked for several days, which coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. According to China-based anti-censorship group Greatfire.org the BBC's English-language website has been partially blocked in the last 90 days. It was only fully blocked on Wednesday. "The BBC provides impartial, trusted news to millions of people around the world, and attempts to censor our news services show just how important it is to get our accurate information to them," added Horrocks. The post China Blocks BBC Website as Hong Kong Tensions Rise appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burmese Media Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Posted: 15 Oct 2014 05:00 PM PDT  A woman sells newspapers in Rangoon on April 1, 2013. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) News dailies, weeklies and tabloids of all hues are a common sight in Rangoon these days. Whether they are covering politics, elections, business or fashion, there is certainly no dearth of news stories today. Of course, that wasn't the case during my first visit to Rangoon in 2010, just one year before President Thein Sein's reformist administration took office. At that time, news on politics and the democracy movement was still too sensitive to sell openly. And traveling in more rural states of the country was much like roaming in the wilderness, with virtually no access to information. But that is a story of the past, and now you can find newspaper hawkers just about everywhere in Burma's biggest city—a reflection of the political and economic changes sweeping across this beautiful country. In that case, why are journalists still getting arrested and jailed? Since last December, as many as 12 journalists have been arrested. Even the wives of journalists have not been spared. Did the journalists do something wrong to deserve jail sentences? The government continues to defend its actions, saying the arrests were within the bounds of law. If the government is to be believed, the journalists indulged in unethical reporting, disclosed state secrets and caused harm to the reputation of the state with their reports. However, all of these arrests have taken place under questionable circumstances and have faced strong criticism from both the media and rights groups, which allege that most of the prosecutions were politically motivated. Questions are also being raised about the international support that Burma continues to receive, and understandably so. Can the government keep arresting journalists at the drop of a hat? The answer is anyone's guess. Journalists say it matters little that the government's censorship board has been done away with and that manuscripts no longer need to be sent to a censorship committee. They say the current laws are no better than those of the past, and may in fact be even worse. The plight of the Burmese media was summed up nicely by Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "The switch from crude censorship to fines for crossing ambiguous lines will deny Burmese the press freedom they deserve," he said in a statement in May. The new media laws—including the Printers and Publishers Registration Law (drafted by the Ministry of Information) and the Media Law (drafted by Burma's Interim Press Council)—are contrary to the functioning of a free press, and it is not surprising that journalists have vehemently opposed them. With the first law, the Ministry of Information has given itself the power to revoke the registration license of any publication that it finds "has taken any of a number of broadly defined actions such as insulting religion, disturbing the rule of law, or harming ethnic unity," according to a statement by Human Rights Watch. It is absurd, to say the least. Meanwhile, Special Branch police officers have been summoning editors and reporters in Rangoon for questioning, while also paying unsolicited visits to newspapers' offices. Owners of weeklies told this writer that they fear "midnight knocks" from the Special Branch, and prefer to either lie low or close shop to avoid the risk of arrest. For example, the owner of The Right Time weekly ended his operations in July after Special Branch officers hounded him and his editorial team for publishing a Photoshopped image of President Thein Sein in a dancer's getup, with the caption: "The president will soon become a key dancer on the political stage." After the photo was published, the government let loose its fury with criticisms of the weekly on social media and regular interrogations by the police. The weekly's editor resigned, fearing for his life and that of his family. A few other journalists followed suit, leaving the owner with no choice but to close shop. Today the owner continues to report to the police twice every month. The image of the president was published on his weekly's cover page on Feb. 12, but the nightmare of police scrutiny continues. What questions do the police ask when they summon editors and reporters? They mostly inquire about the publication's income, the number of staff and their background, and the volume of the publication. Interrogations can become more intense if the police have been instructed by top-brass military officials or government ministries to rattle the publication owners through relentless questioning. Therefore, it is understandable when journalists say they are moving forward cautiously because they are worried about meeting the same fate as some of their other colleagues. A chronology of the arrests this year tells its own story. In February, four journalists and the chief executive of Rangoon-based Unity journal were arrested for reporting on a factory that was allegedly being used to produce chemical weapons. The government has denied the allegations, and the journalists were later sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor, reduced to seven years on appeal. In April, Zaw Pe, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, was imprisoned for trespassing and disrupting the duties of a civil servant when he tried to conduct an interview. He was released after three months. Also in April, Yae Khe, a correspondent for Mizzima in the Bago Division town of Prome was arrested under Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law for organizing a rally to call for greater press freedom and the release of detained journalists. In July, the publisher and five journalists of Bi Mon Te Nay weekly were arrested after reporting on a statement by an activist group that falsely claimed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic political forces had been elected to serve as the country's temporary new leaders. One journalist from the now-defunct journal was acquitted but the rest continue to stand trial. Surely, the arrests will not end as the government continues to hound journalists on one pretext or another. Even foreign journalists have come under the radar, facing restrictions on their visas and undue delays in receiving permission to visit different parts of the country. Why aren't more questions raised when Minister of Information Ye Htut boasts about the government's commitment to a free press, as he did at a recent conference about media development that was attended by officials from Unesco and international media. If such forums do not include discussions about the arbitrary arrests of journalists, they will only legitimize the government's actions. B.D. Prakash is a journalist and commentator on politics, elections, and peace- and conflict-related subjects, with a focus on South and Southeast Asia. He prefers to use his pen name and is currently based in Bangkok. The post Burmese Media Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
