AllSBNews: The Irrawaddy Magazine

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Burma’s Rice Exports Up 40% in 2014-15
Burma’s Lower House Approves Amendments to Controversial Education Law
Produce Pioneers Bring Safer Foods to Rangoon
Rangoon Parliament Dismiss Objections Over Project at Kyaikkasan Grounds
Power Chief Pledges End to Rangoon Outages
Fighting on 3 Fronts in Wake of Ceasefire Deal: Ethnic Armies
Remembering Pamela Gutman, a Scholar Versed in Arakan Art
Fire in Karenni Refugee Camp Guts 150 Houses
Failure to Amend Burma’s Constitution ‘Raises Questions’ on Reform: US
Hundreds of North Korean Missiles Threaten Asia: US Researchers
US Defense Chief in Japan to Show Alliance Strong Amid China Worries
4 Men Killed in Raid in South Thailand Were Not Insurgents
Living Histories
“It’s OK Guys, I’ve Got a Good Feeling About This One!”

Burma’s Rice Exports Up 40% in 2014-15

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 08:24 AM PDT

Women set rice seedlings into paddy fields on the outskirts of Rangoon in 2009. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Burma's rice exports rose more than 40 percent in the 2014-15 fiscal year, with shipments to regional heavyweight China dominating the trade despite Beijing's official ban on imports of the product from Burma, according to data provided by Soe Tun, the chairman of the Myanmar Farmers Association and joint secretary of the Myanmar Rice Federation.

Figures from the Ministry of Commerce put total rice exports at more than 1.7 million tons in the fiscal year ending March 31, bringing in nearly US$645 million. Exports were shipped to 64 countries including China and Japan, as well as other nations of Asean, Europe and Africa.

"Among them, China purchased more than 1.1 million rice tons this year via border trade. Even though they [Beijing] banned rice exports to China, the volume still increased," Soe Tun told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

In 2014, China officially banned rice imports from Burma, demanding that a trade agreement be signed guaranteeing that most rice is milled and meets certain quality standards. China had long been, and continues to be, one of Burma's biggest customers for rice, much of which is harvested in the Irrawaddy Delta and shipped over land borders in Shan and Kachin states.

Burma's government does not enforce the ban, effectively making it a trade that is legal on one side of the countries' shared border and illegal on the other.

Early this year, members of the Myanmar Rice Federation and officials from the Ministry of Commerce met with Chinese officials to discuss legalizing Burma's rice exports once again.

Soe Tun said that while Burma had proposed to export 1 million tons of rice to China this year, the agreement drawn up between the two countries only allows for 100,000 tons.

That arrangement, legalizing a small proportion of the actual trade on both sides of the border, has not yet been implemented, Soe Tun said.

"I expect that legal rice exports to China will begin in May," he said.

"As an initial step, the public company Mapco [Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation] will export 3,000 tons of rice to China in May."

A Burmese rice milling company and the Chinese firm CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd. in February signed a joint venture Memorandum of Understanding to improve the quality and capacity of rice milling operations in Burma. The partnership aims to boost Burmese rice exports, in part by improving the quality of its rice as well as milling processes before exporting to China.

The 2014-15 fiscal year's rice export volume exceed the expectations of the Myanmar Rice Federation, which had predicted the figure at 1.5 million tons.

Thaung Win, a rice exporter who also acts as secretary of the Myanmar Rice Millers Association, said that outside the China trade, rice shipments to some EU countries, Japan and other Asean nations were also on the rise.

According to the Myanmar Rice Exporters Association, Burma's rice exports in 2013-14 stood at about 1.2 million tons, down from 1.47 million tons the year before. President Thein Sein has set a target to export 4 million tons of rice by 2020.

Reliable data on rice exports prior to the installation of Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government are hard to come by, but Burma was once known as the "rice bowl of Asia" and was a major industry player until decades of economic mismanagement by success military regimes sent exports tumbling.

A World Bank report in June found that Burma could greatly increase its agricultural exports if it improved the quality of rice by expanding and upgrading domestic rice mills. The report said that since economic and political reforms began in 2011, rice exports have significantly risen, but in the past two years export volumes had leveled off at about 1.3 million tons annually.

The post Burma's Rice Exports Up 40% in 2014-15 appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Burma’s Lower House Approves Amendments to Controversial Education Law

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 05:31 AM PDT

Students protest against the National Education Law in Rangoon on Nov. 15, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma's Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday approved amendments to the National Education Law, which will be resubmitted to the Upper House with changes that activists view as regressive.

The National Education Law, passed late last year, has come under intense criticism and sparked a powerful student movement calling for decentralization, more spending and more curricular freedoms.

Student activists submitted 11 core demands to the government, all of which were accepted during quadripartite negotiations between the government, lawmakers, students and advocates.

But the bill to amend the law has been altered beyond recognition, critics said, after being volleyed back and forth in Parliament.

Key figures in the student movement said that several of their demands had been compromised during the parliamentary process, including a major raise in education spending and the freedom to form truly independent teacher and student unions.

Aung Nay Paing, a member of the Action Committee for Democratic Education (ACDE)—a student body formed in the wake of the education protests—said that while the new version of the bill technically preserves the right to form unions, it contains strict limitations on their freedom.

"Everyone is asking about this, [the government will] allow teacher and student unions. But we need to ask how freely they can be formed, whether they can be formed without being controlled by the universities," he said.

As for the budget, student negotiators initially demanded that federal education spending increase to a full 20 percent of the national budget over the next five years, a huge surge that was shot down by the Lower House on Tuesday.

Lt-Col Myo Tin, a member of the Bill Committee, told The Irrawaddy that such a rapid increase would not be feasible.

The ACDE also took issue with amendments that retain centralized power over educational policy, particularly the bill's failure to reform the National Education Commission, of which the student movement has been unwaveringly critical.

Some of the amendments were welcomed, however, Aung Nay Paing said. The current bill allows students who have left school to return and enshrines the right to incorporate mother tongues into language earning curricula for primary school students.

The amendment bill will return to the Upper House, where if accepted it will be sent to President Thein Sein to be signed into law. If the Upper House does not approve the amendments, the bill will be sent to a joint session of Parliament.

The post Burma's Lower House Approves Amendments to Controversial Education Law appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Produce Pioneers Bring Safer Foods to Rangoon

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 04:33 AM PDT

Click to view slideshow.

RANGOON — Only a few shops are open in Bahan Township's unusual bazaar at 6:45 am on a Saturday, when those who exercise nearby come to buy their produce. The once-weekly market began offering a rare selection of natural fruits and vegetables in March for customers concerned with food hygiene and safety.

The "Safe Food from Safe Farms" market was an initiative of the Myanmar Fruits, Flowers and Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association (MFVA) to ensure access to clean, natural and delicious produce. The market's dozen or so vendors don banners showing where their farms are located: Naypyidaw; Hlegu, Pegu Division; Nyaung Htone, Irrawaddy Division; Aung Pan, Pindaya and Ywar Ngan in Shan State.

Zaw Min Tun, the manager of an organic farm in Naypyidaw owned by the Dagon International company, said while the new market isn't yet bringing in much profit, he's glad to be among the pioneering merchants bringing organically produced food into the fold.

"Our products may not be as beautiful as those that use chemical fertilizers," he admitted, but ultimately, "they are absolutely safe for our health."

Dagon International, which has been using organic farming methods and cultivating chemical-free crops on some 100 acres of land since 2011, also supplies hotel restaurants in Naypyidaw, but those who shop at the Rangoon market get a much better bargain. Zaw Min Tun said his clients in the capital pay about double the price for the fresh, local products.

All of the farms in the Safe Foods network are regularly inspected to ensure that they are chemical-free and produce natural foods through sustainable practices. The MFVA can "guarantee the safety" all of the market's foodstuffs, according to the association's secretary, San Lin.

"It's not that the vegetables sold here are one hundred percent organic," he said, "but what we recommend here is safe food."

Unfortunately, he added, the 33 farms in the network are not yet ready to mass produce organic foods, but they will be in time. Organic agriculture requires pure soil, seeds and water sources, which poses problems for many farmers in Burma whose lands are near industrial sites. "Even if the farmers don't use chemicals, they can be affected," San Lin explained.

The MFVA has been providing technical support since 2010 for farmers who want to go natural, but they still have a long way to go. He said both the association and the farm owners hope to eventually produce certifiable organic produce and sell it in Rangoon, where demand is growing faster than in other parts of the country.

In just the past month, the Safe Foods market has been gaining popularity, especially among some of the city's older residents, who have been some of the most loyal and enthusiastic customers.

"As an elder person, I am careful about eating healthy food," said Daw Thwin, a 67-year-old woman who takes a daily walk in Bahan and shops at the market every Saturday. "We are reluctant to buy fruits at the regular markets out of fear of chemicals, but with this market we don't have to worry about that."

Food safety has always been an issue in Burma, but consumers often have little choice when it comes to safe food at reasonable prices. Media attention to excessive chemical use has also helped to make the public aware of health risks associated with certain foods.

As Daw Thwin hung around waiting for more shops to open, she said she had only one suggestion for making the market more successful.

"It could be improved by opening earlier for the morning walkers, as many people get up and do exercise at Kandawgyi Park," she recommended. In their defense, vendors said the city traffic slows things down, but they hope to be able to meet consumers' needs.

The Safe Foods from Safe Farms market is open every Saturday at Myay Padethar Kyun, near the Garden Mart and Education Center in Rangoon's Bahan Township, but the market will be closed during the Thingyan holiday.

The post Produce Pioneers Bring Safer Foods to Rangoon appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Rangoon Parliament Dismiss Objections Over Project at Kyaikkasan Grounds

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 02:45 AM PDT

The old stands at Kyaikkasan grounds, an area that is slated for commercial real estate development. (Photo: Yangon Architecture / Facebook)

RANGOON — An opposition lawmaker in Rangoon Division parliament has failed to get the legislature to intervene and stop a plan for commercial real estate development at Kyaikkasan sports track, Rangoon's historic former horseracing track.

During a parliamentary session on Friday, Nyo Nyo Thin, an independent lawmaker from Bahan Township constituency, proposed to parliament that it vote down a plan to develop the Kyaikkasan grounds and its old stands, as she argued that the project had been approved without following transparent government tender procedures.

"The tender for the project was not invited properly or in line with tender policies adopted by the government. It is crystal clear that a group of individuals submitted a separate proposal to do a business project on the pretext of upgrading the Sports Science building," she said, referring to the proposed project that includes an upgrade of a government building at the site.

Rangoon Division lawmakers showed no support for the objections that she raised in a letter to parliament, which was supported by urban planning expert Kyaw Latt, Lower House member Than Maung and the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society.

Rangoon Division Minister for Economics and Planning Than Myint told the assembly that that he could not intervene in the project as the Kyaikkasan grounds fall under the authority of the central government's Ministry of Sports.

Nyo Nyo Thin said she opposed the planned project after she had learned from a state media report on Jan. 3 that the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry had approved the environmental impact assessment for a real estate development project by a company named Kyaik Ka San Land Ltd.

The firm had been granted the right to develop the approximately 100-acre grounds and the old stands into a commercial business complex in a large-scale development project that includes an upgrade of the existing Sports Science building. Details of how it had obtained government permission for the project remain murky.

A representative of Kyaik Ka San Land company told local publication Weekly Eleven on Feb. 2 that the firm had discussed the project with Rangoon Division Chief Minister Myint Swe, the division parliament speaker and the division's Minister of Economics and Planning Than Myint.

The approximately 100-acre ground, located in green surroundings in Tamwe Township, was originally built as a horseracing track during the British colonial period. During the rule of Gen. Ne Win, from 1962 to 1988, it served as a public assembly ground where state ceremonies were held.

In 1974, students rising up against Ne Win snatched the coffin with the repatriated body of U Thant, the Burmese UN secretary general, and took him to Kyaikkasan grounds. There they held a wake to honor him because the general had refused to grant U Thant a state funeral.

These days the track, which has fallen into disrepair in past decades of military rule, is a popular sports and recreation area for local residents.

The post Rangoon Parliament Dismiss Objections Over Project at Kyaikkasan Grounds appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Power Chief Pledges End to Rangoon Outages

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 02:38 AM PDT

Power lines in Rangoon Division's Thilawa Special Economic Zone. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation (YESC) has pledged to supply round the clock electricity to Rangoon over the summer months, according to chairman Aung Khine.

The former Yangon Electricity Supply Board, renamed this month ahead of a planed privatization, has officially become financially independent from the Ministry of Electric Power as part of a restructure launched on Apr. 1.

"We've received enough electricity from the Ministry of Electric Power, so we can provide 24-hour supply to Rangoon, even during the water festival," Aung Khine said.

Home to more than five million people and home to most of the country's manufacturing industries, Rangoon has suffered from chronic energy shortages at a time of booming demand. During the hot season, increased power consumption and lower throughput at hydroelectric power stations generally exacerbate the length and frequency of outages.

Maung Maung Latt, the YESC's vice-chairman, said that new energy projects brought online and connected to the local grid would soon make outages a thing of the past.

"There were some hydro projects finished this year, as well as gas coming from the Zawtika project too—that's why we can provide 24 hours electricity this summer," he said.

According to the YESC, power consumption in Rangoon has increased 15 percent annually, and currently stands at about 1000 megawatts per day—about half of Burma's total nationwide electricity production.

The post Power Chief Pledges End to Rangoon Outages appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Fighting on 3 Fronts in Wake of Ceasefire Deal: Ethnic Armies

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 02:31 AM PDT

Rebel soldiers of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) gather at a base in the Kokang Special Region on March 11, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Renewed fighting was reported this week between Burma Army troops and three ethnic armed groups in Kachin and Shan states, less than a week after ethnic negotiators reached a tentative agreement with their government counterparts on the draft text for a nationwide ceasefire accord.

Fresh clashes erupted between government forces and Kachin, Kokang and Palaung rebels at three separate locations in northern and northeast Burma beginning Sunday, according to spokespeople from the respective armed groups.

"We clashed [with government troops] yesterday and the day before yesterday," Daung Khar, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) technical team, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. "We still do not have information on the exact number of casualties on the ground. Today there is no activity."

The KIO is the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Daung Khar said forces from Battalion No. 11 under KIA Brigade No. 2 and government troops clashed near Tapadaung village in Mogaung Township.

Conflict resolution teams from the two sides met in the aftermath of the fighting on Monday. The KIA's Col. Zaung Taung and Col. Than Aung from the Burma Army attended the sit-down.

"At the meeting yesterday, Col. Than Aung said they are paving a road as part of [regional] development efforts," said Daung Khar. "The clashes broke out because they asked a KIA post near a bridge on their road construction site to leave temporarily. But now, KIA troops have left there."

The fighting comes about three weeks after a KIA delegation met President Thein Sein and commander in chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing to discuss the proposed nationwide ceasefire and how to reduce hostilities between the two sides. But subsequently, on March 21, the Burma Army called in airstrikes against a KIA base in Mansi Township, an attack believed to be linked to timber smuggling in the region.

Meanwhile, battalions under Division Nos. 33, 11 and 66 of the Burma Army are said to have launched offensives on Sunday against Kokang rebels under the banner of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Laukkai, the administrative capital of northern Shan State's Kokang Special Region.

"They first fired with artillery," MNDAA General Secretary Htun Myat Lin told The Irrawaddy. "They fired at least 20 shells. After that, they launched an offensive with army soldiers. When they were repelled, they fired artillery again and launched another offensive. On April 5 alone, they launched at least six different offensives in that way."

The Kokang rebel spokesman claimed that the Burma Army had suffered 35 casualties, while four MNDAA soldiers were seriously injured over two days of fighting.

The government has yet to confirm the fighting, but previous reports of the Kokang conflict by state media have offered widely differing casualty totals compared with MNDAA accounts, with both sides claiming greater losses inflicted and fewer sustained. While state mouthpiece The Global New Light of Myanmar has provided unusually detailed coverage of the fighting in Kokang since it began on Feb. 9, including at times daily updates of Burma Army offensives and casualty counts, the newspaper has provided no reporting on the conflict since the draft nationwide ceasefire accord was signed late last month.

The MNDAA was not a signatory to that draft agreement.

Htun Myat Lin said that although the MNDAA had sent an open letter to Thein Sein expressing the group's desire to hold a political dialogue with the government, no response had yet been received. He added that fighting—which has featured some of the deadliest clashes in years—was likely to recur as the government army continues to bring troop reinforcements and supplies to the area.

Elsewhere in northern Shan State, Col. Mai Phone Kyaw, a spokesperson for the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), said Burma Army troops clashed in Kyaukme Township with rebel forces of the ethnic Palaung, also known as Ta'ang.

Clashes between the TNLA and government troops had declined since the government and ethnic leaders signed the draft ceasefire pact late last month, he said, but added that troop deployments remained a major unresolved issue fueling ongoing hostilities.

"Perhaps there will be no more clashes after the NCA [nationwide ceasefire agreement] is signed. I am not sure. But we can't just sign the NCA right now—not before having a serious discussion on troop deployments," Mai Phone Kyaw told The Irrawaddy. "If we don't have a definite agreement on troop deployments, fighting will not end, even if an NCA is signed."

On March 31 in Rangoon, government negotiators and the 16 ethnic armed groups that comprise the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) signed on to a draft ceasefire text. It laid out in-principle the terms of a peace agreement, but left several contentious issues to be negotiated at a political dialogue to be convened following the signing of the accord. Ethnic leaders have said an official signing of a nationwide ceasefire agreement won't come until after the ethnic armed groups have met to discuss the deal among themselves.

Unlike most of Burma's ethnic armed groups, none of the three armies reporting renewed clashes this week has signed a bilateral ceasefire with the government.

The post Fighting on 3 Fronts in Wake of Ceasefire Deal: Ethnic Armies appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Remembering Pamela Gutman, a Scholar Versed in Arakan Art

Posted: 08 Apr 2015 02:25 AM PDT

At a time when there is increasing interest in Australia’s developing ties with Burma (also called Myanmar), the death on March 31 of Pamela Gutman brings to an end the life of the first Australian scholar to complete a doctorate in Asian art and to do so in relation to Burma.

The fruits of this research were eventually contained in her highly praised book, "Burma’s Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan," published in 2001. To record these blunt facts tells little of the effort involved in her carrying out research in Burma in the 1970s, when the government was resistant to foreign scholarship, and travel in Arakan State could only take place with the assistance of a military escort.

Yet Pamela overcame the difficulties research in Burma posed, which involved translating Sanskrit inscriptions and becoming highly knowledgeable about obscure numismatics. She also played an early part in government-to-government relations.

She was invited to dine with the then Burmese president, Ne Win, to advance the cause of an Australia-Burma cultural agreement, an event, as she was able to recount, that involved being admitted to Ne Win’s residence only after she had been examined through a periscope at the residence’s guard post.

At a time when opportunities for full-time employment in universities were limited, Pamela worked in the Department of Immigration and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which included working in association with Professor Ross Garnaut on "Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy."

Her involvement in Australia's growing links with Asia ranged from being Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney, to being the founding Director (International) of Asialink. She also worked with the Commission for the Future in establishing cultural exchange programs. From 1997 to 2004 she was a member of the Refugee Review Tribunal, where she worked in relation to Asian issues.

Throughout her life in public and university service she never neglected her passionate interest in Burma's history, and after leaving the Refugee Review Tribunal she became an Honorary Associate in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney. The regard in which she was held as an authority on Burmese art and Southeast Asian art more generally led to her being consulted by major galleries in Australia and overseas, including recently by The Hermitage in St Petersburg and the Asia Society in New York.

Pamela Gutman, a scholar and expert on Arakanese and Burmese arts, 1944-2015. (Photo: Lowy Interpreter)

Sadly, she had not completed her planned second edition of Burma’s Lost Kingdoms, though there is hope that this may be completed by one of her PhD students, Martin Polkinghorne. She also left the incomplete text of a biography of the great English scholar of Burma, Gordon Luce. She had studied with Luce in Jersey and she was fascinated both by his renown as a scholar and by his membership of the Bloomsbury Group, which included his close association with Maynard Keynes.

Only a few months ago her major study of an inscription from Sriksetra in western Burma, written in conjunction with Bob Hudson, was published in the Bulletin of the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. This article is set to revise judgments on just when Buddhist influences became important in early Burmese history.

Above all she was a warm and extraordinarily generous person, qualities that extended to her being instrumental in ensuring that cosmetics, particularly Red Earth lipstick, could be taken into Burma for Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest. Her door was always open to those who wanted to know more about Burma or who wanted to share their knowledge with her. So a visitor to her home might find that he or she was meeting an Arakanese Buddhist monk or an exiled princely Sawbwa from Shan State. This generosity of spirit will be as much a memory of her as her admirable academic achievements.

She is survived by her daughter, three grandchildren, and her two sisters.

The post Remembering Pamela Gutman, a Scholar Versed in Arakan Art appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Fire in Karenni Refugee Camp Guts 150 Houses

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 11:55 PM PDT

About 1,000 people lost their homes to a fire in Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in northern Thailand. (Photo: Chiang Mai Rescue / Facebook)

RANGOON — A fire in a refugee camp in northern Thailand left about 1,000 people homeless as of Tuesday evening, according to a camp official.

The blaze in Ban Mai Nai Soi tore through about 150 houses made of wood and bamboo from about 11 am to 2pm on Tuesday. No casualties or injuries have been reported.

Camp official Poe Yel said the victims will be provided emergency shelter.

"We will temporarily accommodate the fire victims and the camp committee will cook meals for them," he told The Irrawaddy.

The committee is now compiling a list of the damages and rebuilding is expected to take about one month, he said.

Caused by stray embers and exacerbated by strong winds and a dry climate, the fire consumed two wards of the camp, which is home to more than 11,000 people.

The residents of Ban Mai Nai Soi are predominantly ethnic Karenni, a minority from a small state in eastern Burma.

A previous fire in Ban Mai Nai Soi in 2013 claimed the life of an elderly woman and destroyed more than 20 houses.

The camp is one of nine officially recognized temporary settlements for refugees from Burma in northern Thailand.

About 130,000 people live in the nine camps, which have existed for decades as minorities and dissidents fled across the border to escape persecution and civil war.

The post Fire in Karenni Refugee Camp Guts 150 Houses appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Failure to Amend Burma’s Constitution ‘Raises Questions’ on Reform: US

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 10:21 PM PDT

US President Barack Obama, left, meets Burma's President Thein Sein at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw on Nov. 13, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — The United States said on Tuesday that Burma's failure to amend a military-drafted Constitution raised questions about the credibility of reforms, but did not go so far as to say it would undermine the legitimacy of upcoming elections.

Burma emerged from 49 years of military rule in 2011 and its semi-civilian government has carried out wide-ranging democratic reforms, including freeing political prisoners and allowing the formation of political parties.

But concern is growing that the reform program is stalling or even sliding back.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, barred by the 2008 Constitution from becoming president, told Reuters last week that boycotting the parliamentary elections, expected in November, was an "option" if the charter was not changed.

The Constitution reserves one-quarter of Parliament and key cabinet posts for the military, giving it an effective veto over politics, and bars presidential candidates with a foreign spouse or child. Suu Kyi's late husband was British as are her two sons.

The US Embassy said the Constitution should be amended to allow civilian control of the military and provide "the right of citizens to elect freely the leaders of their choice."

"Failure to amend the Constitution will raise questions about the credibility of democratic reform going forward," an embassy spokesman told Reuters.

But the embassy did not link constitutional change to the legitimacy of the elections.

"Ultimately, however, the viability and legitimacy of the 2015 election as a democratic exercise will be determined by the people of Burma."

In an interview with Reuters last week, Suu Kyi accused the United States and others of being too soft on President Thein Sein's "hardline regime."

She said too much praise had made the government "complacent" and it was backsliding on promised reforms.

The US Embassy spokesman said the reform process had been a mixed bag.

"We recognize the reforms undertaken over the past three years to open up the country's politics, economy and society," he said. "But reform has been inconsistent in practice, and has clearly not kept pace with popular expectations."

Amending the Constitution to remove the military's role in politics or allow Suu Kyi to be president would not be easy.

Changes require a 76 percent majority vote in a Parliament dominated by military members and their allies.

Even if that were to succeed, those amendments would need to be put to a national referendum run by the Union Election Commission (UEC), which is overwhelmed with preparations for the elections.

The post Failure to Amend Burma's Constitution 'Raises Questions' on Reform: US appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Hundreds of North Korean Missiles Threaten Asia: US Researchers

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 10:17 PM PDT

A military vehicle carries a missile past late leader Kim-il Sung's portrait during a parade to commemorate the 65th anniversary of founding of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang on Oct. 10, 2010. (Photo: Reuters)

WASHINGTON — Nuclear-armed North Korea already has hundreds of ballistic missiles that can target its neighbors in Northeast Asia but will need foreign technology to upgrade its arsenal and pose a more direct threat to the United States, US researchers said Tuesday.

Those are the latest findings of a research program investigating what secretive North Korea's nuclear weapons capability will be by 2020.

Unlike Iran, the current focus of international nuclear diplomacy, North Korea has conducted atomic test explosions. Its blood-curdling rhetoric and periodic missile tests have set the region on edge and there's no sign of negotiations restarting to coax it into disarming.

For now, the emphasis is on sanctions and military preparedness. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visits Japan and South Korea this week amid speculation the United States wants to place a missile defense system in South Korea against North Korean ballistic missiles, which Seoul is reluctant about as it would alienate China. The United States has already deployed anti-missile radar in Japan.

US military officials have expressed growing concern about North Korea's capabilities. Navy Adm. William Gortney, commander of US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Tuesday that it is the US assessment that North Korea has the ability to miniaturize a warhead to put on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

US officials are most concerned about a long-range missile called the KN-08 that has been displayed in military parades. It is said to be capable of being launched from a road-mobile vehicle and would therefore be difficult to monitor via satellite.

But the research published Tuesday by the North Korean Futures Project stresses that for now the principal threat from North Korean missiles is to its neighbors in Asia. The project is conducted by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and National Defense University's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Aerospace engineer John Schilling and a research associate at the institute, Henry Kan, say Pyongyang's current inventory of about 1,000 missiles, based on old Soviet technology, can already reach most targets in South Korea and Japan.

"North Korea has already achieved a level of delivery system development that will allow it to establish itself as a small nuclear power in the coming years," they write in a paper published on the institute's website, 38 North.

Despite the North's 2012 success in launching a rocket into space—the clearest sign yet it has the potential to reach the American mainland—Pyongyang faces greater technical challenges in launching an effective missile across the Pacific at the United States.

It may already be able to field a limited number of long-range Taepodong missiles in an emergency but they would be unreliable, vulnerable to pre-emptive strike and inaccurate, the analysis says. The KN-08 may achieve "emergency operational status" by 2020, before or with very limited flight testing, it adds.

The analysis says foreign assistance could be critical for overcoming the technological and engineering hurdles North Korea now faces in developing better missiles, including progress on high-performance engines, heat shields, guidance electronics and rocket motors that use solid fuel instead of liquid fuel, it says.

And that's become tougher as North Korea's international isolation has intensified since its first nuclear test explosion in 2006.

That hasn't stopped its nuclear program. According to a recent estimate by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, the North likely has enough fissile material for at least 10 weapons, and that could increase to between 20 and 100 weapons by 2020.

But whereas the basic designs and production infrastructure are now largely in place for the nuclear program, technological progress on the missile front has been slower, the analysis says. North Korea has failed to make the kind of advances that Iran and Pakistan have made, although both countries relied on North Korean assistance for missiles in the 1990s.

Last October, the commander of US forces in South Korea, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, said North Korea may be capable of fielding a nuclear-armed KN-08 missile that could reach US soil, but because it has not tested such a weapon the odds of it being effective were "pretty darn low."

The post Hundreds of North Korean Missiles Threaten Asia: US Researchers appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

US Defense Chief in Japan to Show Alliance Strong Amid China Worries

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 10:13 PM PDT

Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, left, and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, third left, inspect the honor guard at the defense ministry in Tokyo on April 8, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

TOKYO — US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter kicked off talks with his Japanese counterpart on Wednesday aimed at demonstrating that the two countries' security alliance is tighter than ever amid China's growing assertiveness in the region.

Carter's visit coincides with the first update in US-Japan defense cooperation guidelines since 1997, a revision that will expand the scope for interaction between the two allies in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to ease the constraints of Japan's pacifist constitution on the nation's military.

Carter told Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani he welcomed the timely work on the guidelines.

"It's going to give first of all Japan, but also our alliance, much greater scope to provide security in the region, and for that matter elsewhere outside of the region," Carter said as the talks began.

Abe's move to allow Tokyo to come to the aid of an ally under attack would pave the way for closer cooperation between US and Japanese forces across Asia, Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, said last month.

In January, Thomas said the United States would also welcome a Japanese extension of air patrols into the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations have rival claims.

Neither Tokyo nor Washington have territorial claims in the South China Sea, but the US Seventh Fleet operates in the area and any Japanese presence would irritate Beijing, which has a separate territorial row with Tokyo in the East China Sea.

Washington has welcomed a broader regional military role for Japan, as the United States pushes its allies in Asia, including Australia, to do more as China takes an increasingly assertive stance in territorial disputes.

In a written interview with Japan's Yomiuri newspaper published on Wednesday, Carter expressed concern about China's land reclamation in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

"We are concerned by the scope and pace of China's land reclamation activities, which are inconsistent with China's own past commitments to Asean countries," the newspaper quoted Carter as saying.

"We are especially concerned at the prospect of militarization of these outposts. These activities seriously increase tensions and reduce prospects for diplomatic solutions," he said. "We urge China to limit its activities and exercise restraint to improve regional trust."

Reuters reported in February that China was rapidly creating artificial islands from six reefs in the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea. Beijing says the work falls "within the scope of China's sovereignty."

US and Philippine troops will take part in annual military exercises this month near the Spratlys in the largest such drills since the allies resumed joint activities in 2000.

Abe's government plans to submit bills to parliament in the coming months to ratify his cabinet's decision last year to allow Japan to exercise its right of collective self-defense, the biggest shift in Japanese security policy in decades.

Carter, Nakatani and the two countries' foreign ministers are expected to unveil the new defense guidelines in late April, before Abe meets US President Barack Obama on April 28 for a summit in Washington.

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4 Men Killed in Raid in South Thailand Were Not Insurgents

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 10:08 PM PDT

A soldier stands guard as students leave their school in southern Thailand's Pattani Province on Dec. 19, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)

HAT YAI, Thailand — Four young men who were killed during a recent raid by government security forces in Thailand's violence-plagued south were not insurgents, an investigating panel said Tuesday, finding that the authorities involved should be prosecuted.

According to police, the four were killed and 22 other suspects detained on March 25 in the raid carried out by paramilitary troops, police and local officials in Thung Yangdaeng district of Pattani province.

More than 5,000 people have been killed since an Islamic insurgency erupted in 2004 in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which are the only Muslim-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist country. Insurgents have targeted Buddhist and Muslim civilians as well as soldiers and civil servants in brutal attacks including drive-by shootings and car bombings. Government forces have been accused of unjustified and illegal detention as well as torture.

Muslim residents have for decades complained of being treated as second-class citizens. The insurgents, who come from several loosely associated groups, have not made clear their goal, though they have spoken of separation from Thailand.

Pattani Gov. Weerapong Kaewsuwan said at a news conference that a fact-finding committee led by a provincial Islamic leader found that the four dead men, mostly in their 20s, were neither insurgents nor their sympathizers, and that their confrontation with the authorities took place some 300 meters (328 yards) away from where the raid was launched.

The committee suggested that the officials involved face prosecution and that the families of the dead men receive compensation, he said.

The fact-finding panel concluded that the basis for the raid was justified, but could not judge if guns and other weapons at the scene belonged to the four men who were shot, or if those responsible for the deaths had acted lawfully.

"At this stage, the committee is unable to examine the issue of whether there was armed resistance to the authorities, so we will leave it to the process of finding evidence and witnessed within the justice system," Weerapong said.

The government initiated counter-insurgency actions in Thung Yandaeng district last October after six schools were burned down by suspected militants.

The post 4 Men Killed in Raid in South Thailand Were Not Insurgents appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Living Histories

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 05:30 PM PDT

Click to view slideshow.

"There is a Burmese saying that you will have your golden umbrella once in your lifetime," says Daw Thida, who has lived all her life in a once all-teak wooden house called the Pinlon Lodge on Kabar Aye Pagoda Road.

Daw Thida's formerly prosperous trading family bought the property in 1950 from a relative of the flamboyant Chinese tycoon Lim Chin Tsong.

When she was a girl, the house hummed with the noise and bustle of relatives, visitors, servants and nannies. But after the family's import-export business was nationalized, gradually, "we seemed to become poor," says the granddaughter of nationalist Daw Kyin Ein who was a founder of the Burmese Women's Association in 1919.

Today, ceramic tiles dated from 1886 occasionally fall from the roof and the home’s intricate parquet flooring "sounds like a xylophone." The mansion’s golden years are long gone, but for Daw Thida and her husband Professor Saw Tin, it is still a warm home; patched up and altered, but rich beyond any developer's price with its dignified, modest routines and its trove of memories.

That sense of dignity and warmth pervades the new book "Yangon Echoes," which collects, in their own words, the stories of residents living in many of the former capital's gorgeous but frequently neglected old buildings.

Behind the facades of buildings of high architectural worth live families whose relatives were connected to the Mandalay Palace and Myanmar's independence, and people barely scratching a living in structures that are little more than husks.

There's the now empty and ghostly but still grand home of the 'Stable' faction of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League leader U Kyaw Nyein on University Avenue, whose visitors before Gen. Ne Win's 1962 coup included U Nu, Chou En Lai and many other notables.

U Kyaw Nyein's sons U Tun Kyaw Nyein and U Bo Kyaw Nyein were jailed for their part in protests over the funeral arrangements for U Thant in 1974 and eventually made successful lives in the United States. They now come back regularly and are photographed reminiscing in their childhood home which has been unlived in since 1992.

Former civil servant U Aung Pe, 70, lives with his family under open-sided corrugated iron on the roof of the historic Balthazar building on Bank Street. The perch might be leaky in the rainy season and the whole structure is falling apart, but they like living downtown. And, rooftop shacks have great views and a breeze.

Also downtown in a handsome but decrepit building slated for demolition are the family of a former longtime chef at the Strand Hotel who, when home, "would never explain a dish." The family is beautifully captured here preparing to leave the mold and falling plaster of their much-loved home behind, after they eventually agreed to move out while a new apartment block is constructed.

Many of Yangon's old buildings look set to disappear and with them will go the stories and memories captured with charm and empathy in this beautifully presented and timely book. Some century-old structures featured here have already gone, just a blink in time following the 18 months that the author and photographer spent finding them. One hopes that many more, and the resilient people in them, will find a way to survive.

"Yangon Echoes," by Virginia Henderson and Tim Webster, is published by River Books this month.

This article originally appeared in the April 2015 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.

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“It’s OK Guys, I’ve Got a Good Feeling About This One!”

Posted: 07 Apr 2015 05:00 PM PDT