The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- US Business Delegation to Arrive After Election: UMFCCI
- Convent in Pegu Trashed by Angry Mob After Child Killed
- “Who Needs a Coup When You’ve Got the Green Book?”
- Alleged Rapes Spur Rohingya Upheaval in Indonesia Camp
- For Families Split by Korean War, a Bittersweet Reunion or Despair
- Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Files Case Against Public Prosecutor
- Islamic State Group Says It Murdered Aid Worker in Bangladesh
| US Business Delegation to Arrive After Election: UMFCCI Posted: 30 Sep 2015 05:26 AM PDT  UMFCCI Chairman Win Aung, center left, shakes hands with US Assistant Secretary of State Jose Fernandez after the signing of a memorandum of understanding on Feb. 25, 2013. RANGOON — A delegation of some 80 US business representatives is set to arrive in Rangoon late this year, according to an official from Burma's chamber of commerce, on the heels of a landmark general election to be held in November. Maung Maung Lay, vice chairman of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), told The Irrawaddy that the delegation, comprising mostly directors of small and medium enterprises, will attend a "business-matching" workshop with local entrepreneurs. "The UMFCCI has information that US investors will come to learn about the current economic situation after the election, probably at the end of this year," Maung Maung Lay said, adding that the forum is expected to focus on investment law awareness and incentives for foreign financiers. The event does not appear to have been facilitated by either the US Embassy or the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), though the latter confirmed that an unrelated annual US-Burma Business Forum will likely be held early next year. The United States restored diplomatic relations with Burma in 2012, after the former military regime ceded power to a quasi-civilian government led by President Thein Sein. Economic sanctions were eased for some sectors and individuals, though a number of Burmese business people remain on the Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. Despite the easing of restrictions, US investment remains relatively low in Burma, as many potential investors have taken a "wait and see" approach to entering the frontier market, which was off limits for about 15 years. A number of major American brands, however, have already broken ground in the country, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Pepsi, Cisco, Gap, KFC and Colgate. Maung Maung Lay said he is optimistic about American investment, in hopes that diversifying the market would accelerate economic growth and bring the once-isolated nation up to speed with its neighbors. "When I meet US businessmen, I tell them to come here fast—even before the election—because the early birds will get the opportunities," Maung Maung Lay said. Economist Maung Maung Soe was less hopeful, predicting that American companies will not show much more interest in Burma whether or not the Nov. 8 poll is carried out in accordance with international standards. "Actually, the United States isn't as interested in Burma as China is," Maung Maung Soe said. "It's not a concern because the US is far from here, and they don't have much of an Asian strategy in terms of investment." According to figures from the Myanmar Investment Commission, Singapore tops the list of Burma's foreign investors at US$1.8 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year. During that same period, US companies invested only $2.6 million, the MIC said. Since 1988, US investment totals about $248 million, a figure that pales in comparison to China and Thailand, which during the same period invested more than $14 billion and $10 billion in the country, respectively. The post US Business Delegation to Arrive After Election: UMFCCI appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Convent in Pegu Trashed by Angry Mob After Child Killed Posted: 30 Sep 2015 03:18 AM PDT  Photos show damage to the Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Convent in Nyaungwun village, Pegu Division. (Photos: Kaung Myat Min / The Irrawaddy) PAUKKAUNG TOWNSHIP, Pegu Division — A convent at a village here was damaged on Sunday by angry local residents following the killing of a 4-year-old girl that is being pinned on a teenager who was living at the Christian establishment. The 4-year-old victim was allegedly killed by a 14-year-old boy at Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Convent in Nyaungwun village. The parents of the girl regularly sent their daughter to the convent to be watched after. The girl went missing on Sept. 24 and her body was found three days later in a bush near the building. Angry family members of the victim and other local residents ransacked the property, according to local Ngwe Myo, after it was learned that police had detained a 14-year-old boy who was living at the convent and charged him with murder. "Since [the victim] was a baby, her father and mother used to leave her at the convent when they went to work in the morning and would pick her up in the evening," said Ngwe Myo, who added that the teenager charged with her murder was an orphan who had only recently been taken in by the convent. Damage to the property was extensive and nuns and vicars fled after police failed to provide adequate security, according to a priest belonging to the convent. "As the situation deteriorated, we asked the police if they could provide security. They said they could not guarantee [our safety] and we fled the same night in two cars," recounted Father Benjamin Htwe Naing. "We won't sue them. We understand and forgive them, but what happened that night was like the end of the world. I am afraid the nuns dare not go back to the convent," he added. The accused teenager is being detained at the house of a police officer with the approval of a local magistrate, Prome District Deputy Police Col. Aung Thet Naing told The Irrawaddy. "This was not a case of religious strife," Aung Thet Naing said. "The major reason for this incident was because of the mind of a teenager who is without parents. There is no precedent for such a case. They just exploded with rage at the murder of a local child." There are more than 280 households in Nyaungwun village, only two of which are Christian. The Catholic convent has existed for more than three decades and 13 ethnic Karen children are receiving primary education there. Prome Catholic Bishop Alexander Pyone Cho said Paukkaung authorities and spiritual leaders of different faiths have held talks in recent days aimed at ensuring communal harmony. The post Convent in Pegu Trashed by Angry Mob After Child Killed appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| “Who Needs a Coup When You’ve Got the Green Book?” Posted: 30 Sep 2015 01:03 AM PDT 
The post “Who Needs a Coup When You’ve Got the Green Book?” appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Alleged Rapes Spur Rohingya Upheaval in Indonesia Camp Posted: 30 Sep 2015 12:31 AM PDT  Rohingya Muslims who arrived in Indonesia by boat in May walk back after collecting breakfast at a temporary shelter in Aceh Timur regency near Langsa in Indonesia's Aceh province on May 27, 2015. (Photo: Reuters) BLANG ADOE, Indonesia — More than 200 ethnic Rohingya stormed out of an Indonesian encampment Tuesday as tensions erupted following alleged rapes and beatings by locals at the site where members of Burma's long-persecuted minority have been held since arriving by boat four months ago. The incident occurred after authorities forced one of the females to go to a hospital. Other Rohingya did not want her to leave, fearing she could be abused more if separated from the group, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the International Organization for Migration in Indonesia. That "caused some panic and a brief chaotic response, with Rohingya trying to stop the ambulance," he said at the scene. Four females and six males, aged 14 to 28, said they were attempting to flee the camp Monday night because they wanted to go to neighboring Malaysia, where a large community of Muslim Rohingya exists, Hamilton said. They said they were stopped not far from the camp by a group of Indonesian men with masks and taken into the woods, where they were beaten and three of the females were raped, including a 14-year-old. "When they returned to the camp, word of sexual abuse and torture committed by local residents blew up at the camp," said Lhokseumawe district Police Chief Lt. Col. Anang Triarsono. He said that anger boiled over Tuesday when the Rohingya surged out of the camp carrying rolls of clothes and other supplies. They were later persuaded to return. "We very much regret this incident and will definitely thoroughly investigate it," said Amir Hamzah, a spokesman for the district government in North Aceh. He said the females were traumatized and wanted to seek medical attention, but were stopped when Rohingya men in the camp insisted they stay. Immigration officials were working to identify everyone who returned to the camp Tuesday night after the tensions calmed, and some women were being examined at the hospital, said North Aceh Deputy Police Chief Maj. Irsyad Haryadi. "We are still investigating this serious case while waiting for the hospital results," he said. No arrests have been made, and Haryadi said it was difficult to find witnesses to corroborate the story. Since Burma opened up following a half-century of military rule in 2011, an estimated 130,000 Rohingya have fled violence and persecution, sparking the largest boat exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War. Earlier this year, the situation spiraled after a crackdown on people smugglers in Thailand and Malaysia left thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis stranded at sea when their agents and captains, fearing arrest, abandoned them. Several countries in the region refused to let the boat people come ashore in May, worried that opening the door to a few would invite a massive influx. Under international pressure, Indonesia and Malaysia finally allowed the boats to land and said they would temporarily host those on board until a more permanent solution could be found. Hundreds of Rohingya ended up in Indonesia, but it was never their intended destination. They are being held in camps, cannot work and are separated from family members, including those living in Malaysia.
The post Alleged Rapes Spur Rohingya Upheaval in Indonesia Camp appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| For Families Split by Korean War, a Bittersweet Reunion or Despair Posted: 29 Sep 2015 10:06 PM PDT  Im Chae-yong, 63, who was one of the participants in the last inter-Korean reunion in 2014 for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. (Photo: Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters) SEOUL — For 87-year-old Lee Yong-nyo, the last chance to meet a daughter she had not seen for decades disappeared with the click of a mouse. The Red Cross was holding a computer algorithm-driven lottery in Seoul, the first step in choosing 100 South Koreans who can meet kin in the North separated since the 1950-53 Korean War. Tens of thousands of South Koreans have applied to meet families living in North Korea. When the two governments agree, the Red Cross sets up a three-day meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort near their border for some of the families. “My heart is going to burst,” wept Lee after she did not make the first cut at the Red Cross draw for the next reunion in October. “I want to find my daughter, or at least know if she is dead or alive. I left her when she was three. When am I going to get the chance, if not now?” The reunions are an important marker for the state of relations between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war. Nineteen such reunions have been held since 2000, the last one in February, 2014. The random draw whittles down the list to 500 from the 66,000 South Koreans who have registered for the visits. The Red Cross pares the number to 250, reflecting applicants’ health and whether they still want to go. Authorities in the North then try to locate the relatives, and finally, about 100 families are chosen for the reunion, with the elderly and those with immediate family members on the other side getting priority. “I can’t begin to tell you how empty I feel now,” said Jung Se-hoon, an 85-year-old man seeking his mother and three younger siblings. He did not make it through the computerised draw either. For those who win, the victory is bittersweet. Kang Neung-hwan was among 82 South Koreans picked to visit the North in February 2014, the last time the Koreas held reunions of family members, briefly seeing the son he had never met and will probably never see again. “I wish it was 10 days or two weeks, but three days went so fast,” Kang, 94 and in declining health, said from the couch of his home in Seoul, pictures of his son on the wall behind him. The meetings, held in a ballroom of the resort, are watched by officials and media and include only two hours of private meeting time, if previous reunions are a guide. Kang was a schoolteacher when he joined a wave of people fleeing the North as China entered the war, leaving behind his wife of four months and promising to return. He had not known that she was pregnant, and that the border would be shut. When he applied to join a reunion he hoped to see his lost sister. Kang learned that she had died but discovered he had a son: “I hugged him and told him: be healthy and I hope unification will happen soon before I die so we can meet again.” A government guidebook for South Korean participants discourages questions about whether their relatives eat well, advised them not to talk about politics, and warned them against getting drunk on potent North Korean liquor. Compared to the South, North Korea is impoverished. But its leaders maintain that the people are well fed and prosperous. Im Chae-yong’s siblings were unsuccessful on several attempts to see their eldest brother in the North. Then, Im learned that his brother, now 83, was looking for relatives in the South. With his sister, Im joined the last reunion trip and saw the brother he had never met. They took a watch, socks and aspirin for their brother, who gave them photos of his own family and a gift package of blueberry liquor and a red tablecloth, which every North Korean participant had. “We were eating and talking but that North Korean song ‘Nice to Meet You’ kept playing so loud we couldn’t really hear each other,” Im recalled. “My brother was also hard of hearing so we had to shout.” The post For Families Split by Korean War, a Bittersweet Reunion or Despair appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Files Case Against Public Prosecutor Posted: 29 Sep 2015 09:59 PM PDT  Ousted former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrives at the criminal court in Bangkok on Tuesday. (Photo: Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters) BANGKOK — Deposed Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra filed a criminal case against the attorney general on Tuesday alleging unfair handling of charges against her that could see her jailed for 10 years. Thailand’s first woman prime minister faces charges in the Supreme Court of negligence in her management of a rice subsidy scheme the ruling junta says was tainted by graft and caused $16 billion in losses. Rivalry between the royalist-military establishment and the Shinawatra family, in particular Yingluck’s brother, deposed populist premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has been at the heart of a decade of political turmoil in the kingdom. The attorney general indicted Yingluck in January on the same day she was banned from politics for five years by a legislature appointed by the generals who toppled her government last year. Yingluck’s legal team on Tuesday drew attention to the timing of the indictment—an hour before the legislature’s impeachment began—and alleged the attorney general charged her without sufficient examination of evidence and witnesses. The public prosecutor had included accusations related to corruption in the rice scheme and added 60,000 pages of material that had not been part of the case filed by the country’s anti-graft agency, Yingluck’s legal team said in a statement. Yingluck told reporters in a statement the attorney general’s actions were “wrong and unfair”. Her flagship rice policy aimed to boost farmers’ incomes by buying their grain at above market prices and helped sweep her to office in a landslide in 2011. She insists she acted honestly in administering the scheme. Critics said it was aimed at winning votes in the countryside. Yingluck’s supporters have accused the courts of bias in rulings against her and allies of the Shinawatra clan. The prosecutor’s office denied that. “The prosecutor took the rice scheme case in a straightforward manner,” said Chutichai Sakhakorn, the official at the Attorney General’s office responsible for Yingluck’s case. “There was no bullying.” Yingluck was removed from power in May 2014 after a court found her guilty of abuse of power. Days later, the army staged a coup after months of sometimes violent street protests in Bangkok aimed at ousting her government. Former telecoms tycoon Thaksin was removed in a coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for abuse of power. The post Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Files Case Against Public Prosecutor appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Islamic State Group Says It Murdered Aid Worker in Bangladesh Posted: 29 Sep 2015 09:54 PM PDT  Rail commuters in Dhaka on Sept. 24. (Photo: Ashikur Rahman / Reuters) DHAKA — The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for gunning down an Italian aid worker in the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital, according to an intelligence group that monitors jihadist threats, while the government said it had no evidence to back up that claim. The claim by the Islamic State group could not immediately be verified independently. If confirmed, it would mark the Sunni extremist group’s first attack in Bangladesh, a secular country with a predominantly Muslim population. The South Asian nation has been struggling in recent months with the rapid rise of hardline Islamist groups, banning several that have been blamed for killing four bloggers this year. Home Minister Asaduzzamn Khan said, however, that authorities had found no evidence that the Islamic State was involved in the killing. “The claim has not been confirmed, there is no such evidence,” Khan told reporters Tuesday afternoon in the capital, Dhaka. Police said earlier that they had no leads in tracing the three unidentified assailants who, riding on a single motorcycle, drove up alongside Cesare Tavella, an Italian citizen, and shot him Monday night. “We have no idea, we can’t say anything definitively for now,” police official Mukhlesur Rahman said. “Let the investigation happen.” Initial evidence suggested the attack was planned, police said, noting that nothing had been taken from Tavella. The Islamic State said in a statement dated Monday that a “security detachment” had tracked and killed Tavella with “silenced weapons” in Dhaka, according to the SITE intelligence group’s website. IS warned that “citizens of the crusader coalition” would not be safe in Muslim nations. Almost 90 percent of Bangladesh’s 160 million people are Muslim. Witnesses said they heard at least three gunshots and saw the attackers flee after Tavella fell to the ground, according to police. Tavella was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead. It was not immediately clear how close the witnesses were to the attack or how the gunshots could have been heard if a silencer was used. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday evening in New York that “we are working to verify” the Islamic State’s claim. The Italian Embassy in Dhaka said in a notice on its website Tuesday that “the responsibility for the murder claimed by ISIS is yet to be verified.” It also asked Italian citizens to avoid public places such as hotels, restaurants and clubs usually frequented by foreigners. Tavella had been working in Dhaka for ICCO, a Netherlands-based church cooperative, serving as program manager of a project focusing on food security and economic development for people living in rural areas in Bangladesh, according to ICCO’s website. A veterinarian in his early 50s, Tavella had spent extended periods of time traveling the world and giving instruction on how to raise animals, according to Italian media reports. He left for Bangladesh in late August and had a daughter. Reports indicate he hadn’t spent much time in Italy recently, at least extended periods, and that he last lived in central Italy above Ravenna. Heleen Van Der Beek, country director for the Bangladesh branch of the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation, or ICCO, said they were extremely shocked by the loss of their colleague. “We miss him and we extend our deepest, deepest condolences to his family…and loved ones,” Van Der Beek told reporters. She said the organization was waiting for the results of the police investigation. The US is working with Bangladeshi authorities and other partners “to assess who is responsible for this cowardly attack” and bring them to justice, the US State Department said. The US and Britain warned their citizens to be cautious and limit their movements in Bangladesh, with both saying they had “reliable information” that Western interests could be targeted. The statements did not elaborate on the intelligence. Over the weekend, Australia’s national cricket team delayed its planned tour in Bangladesh over security concerns. The tour has not been rescheduled despite assurances from Bangladesh’s government that the players would have a full security detail. Dhaka police were questioning witnesses, including street beggars who allegedly heard the gunshots and saw the attackers flee. One of the witnesses, Sitara Begum, said she was terrified upon hearing the shots while she was sitting on the road at an intersection near the scene of the attack. “Hearing the gunshots, I looked at the west side and saw two men running to a waiting bike,” Begum said. “They were very young, not more than 20 years old…There was another man on the bike and they fled.” Despite the government’s banning of several radical Islamic groups, intelligence sources have confirmed that several hard-line groups are active in Bangladesh. The local group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which has apparent links with al-Qaida on the Indian subcontinent, has claimed responsibility for killing four bloggers who criticized Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and radical Islam. The post Islamic State Group Says It Murdered Aid Worker in Bangladesh appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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