The Irrawaddy Magazine

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• Former USDP Gen-Sec Denies Involvement in Jade Trade
• Locals Urge Japan to Rule Out Burma Coal Plant Funding
• Clashes Cease in Wan Hai, but for How Long?
• USDP Official Who Posted Fake Suu Kyi Image Rearrested
• China Releases Journalist after Guilty Plea
• North, South Korea Plan Further Talks after Standoff
• Gunmen Attack During Prayers at Bangladeshi Mosque
• Ceasefire Dialogue off to Rocky Start as Parties Complain of Exclusion

Former USDP Gen-Sec Denies Involvement in Jade Trade Posted: 27 Nov 2015 04:39 AM PST Dump trucks load with soil at a jade mine in Hpakant on Thursday. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) RANGOON — Outgoing lawmaker and Shwe Mann ally Maung Maung Thein has hit back at a bombshell expose of Burma's jade industry, denying that he and his family were involved in the lucrative trade. October's Global Witness report alleged the former general and junta-era minister had a controlling interest in two jade mining companies operating in the jade-rich Kachin State township of Hpakant, with both companies netting a combined US$142 million at Burma's 2013-14 jade emporiums. Explaining that "silence is a sort of admission", Maung Maung Thein called a press conference on Friday to deny any involvement in the companies, saying that Global Witness had misrepresented his son Nay Aung's involvement in the Myo Nwe jade mining company. ''Their accusations are groundless and one sided," he said. "My son Nay Aung is working as a staff member." In its report, Global Witness cited information from Maung Maung Thein's profile on the Union Parliament website, which listed Nay Aung as a director of Myo Nwe. Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday evening, Nay Aung said his company was working in a joint venture with the Burmese government and denied allegations he had hired police and military personnel to police the mine's operations. "I am working as a geologist and I don't know the profits of the company," he said. Nay Aung had declined to comment when asked by Global Witness, prior to the report's publication, whether his father was the owner of the Myo Nwe and Myat Yamon companies. Maung Maung Thein was formerly the general secretary of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) until his ouster in mid-August, as a faction of the party loyal to President Thein Sein moved to oust party chairman Shwe Mann and his allies from USDP leadership positions. According to an estimation of official sales by Global Witness, Maung Maung Thein and his family have profited exorbitantly from the jade trade, behind only former dictator Than Shwe, the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and the Ever Winner Group of Companies. Maung Maung Thein is the first person named in the report to issue a public response. When asked by The Irrawaddy on Friday if he had any involvement with other companies, military interests and junta-era luminaries involved in the jade trade, he emphatically replied that he was "not related with these groups". "I can't answer that question, don't make a dilemma for me please," he said. Based on 12 months of research, the Global Witness report estimates that Burma's jade production was valued as high as US$31 billion in 2014, a figure that vastly overshadows the country's other major resource earners, including natural gas exports. The post Former USDP Gen-Sec Denies Involvement in Jade Trade appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Locals Urge Japan to Rule Out Burma Coal Plant Funding Posted: 27 Nov 2015 03:57 AM PST Part of a Burmese delegation in Tokyo on Friday, protesting against Japanese financing of a number of coal-fired power projects in southern Burma. (Photo: Mekong Watch) RANGOON — Villagers have urged overseas development agencies and corporate investors in Japan not to underwrite three contentious coal power projects in southern Burma, each of which has been subject to sustained local opposition. A delegation of locals from Irrawaddy Division, Mon State and Tenasserim Division are now in Tokyo in an attempt to meet with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), along with companies that have already committed to investing in the projects. They are seeking guarantees that prospective Japanese investors will rule out funding any future coal project, in addition to the three already tied to Japanese financing and investment. "International and national financial institutions, such as the World Bank, are moving away from financing coal," said Thant Zin, coordinator of the Dawei Development Association (DDA), in a Friday statement from Tokyo. "In this day and age, when there are clean and renewable energy options available, it is unacceptable that Japanese actors are promoting such polluting energy projects in other countries." In one project, centered on Nga Yoke Kaung village in Irrawaddy's Ngapudaw Township, the Japanese firms Mitsubishi and J-Power are planning to build a 600 megawatt facility and adjoining deep sea port in partnership with the A1 Group of Companies, a local construction conglomerate. Both Mitsubishi and J-Power have claimed that JBIC will partially finance the scheme. Villagers have opposed the project, despite Mitsubishi chaperoning a delegation of Ngapudaw villagers in April to showcase two coal power plants it operates in Japan. Over 8,000 signatures have been collected for a petition urging President Thein Sein to veto the Nga Yoke Kaung development. Japan's Marubeni Corporation is working with one local and three Thai partners to build an 1,800 megawatt coal-fired plant in the Tenasserim village tract of Thar Ra Bwin, near the famed Myeik archipelago. The consortium signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Electric Power in October 2014, but local resident Saw Naing Than said that many villagers had only heard about the project recently. "We have not seen any construction carried out yet, but locals reject this project," he said in Rangoon on Friday. "Today, we are coming to refute the Japanese company who will invest in this project." Saw Naing Than was one of a number of villagers from across southern Burma who traveled to the Japanese Embassy on Friday, in order to file petitions against a number of coal plant projects to coincide with the overseas delegation. In Mon State's Inn Din village, the Toyo-Thai company is seeking loans from JBIC and the Sumitomo-Mitsui Bank (SMBC) bank for a 1280 MW coal plant, expected to cost upwards of US$2.8 billion. A 30-year construction and operating agreement was signed between Toyo-Thai and the Ministry of Electric Power in April. "All villagers from Inn Din have rejected this transparency-lacking project and have no trust in it," said Ye Township local Thiri Oo. "We don't want these already developed places to be destroyed." The Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA), a consortium of more than 400 local civil society organizations, also released a statement on Thursday calling on the government to review its existing policies on coal power, stating that the current projects posed "grave threats to the public health and are severely damaging the natural environment." "We note that the policy action plan to extract five million tons of natural coal by 2030, as outlined in the National Energy Policy, will definitely lead to the increased unjust exploitation of natural resources in civil war-affected ethnic areas," the group added. In an open letter addressed to JBIC chief executive Hiroshi Watanabe and JICA president Shinichi Kitaoka, 72 local civil society groups called on both agencies to take into account the views of locals before any funding is allocated to coal projects. It added that JBIC's funding of coal projects could be deemed a breach of that agency's guidelines, which require "social acceptability" for foreign economic development grants. Analysts and lawmakers expect that the Union Parliament will pass an update to Burma's Foreign Investment Law before the end of January. If enacted in its current state, the law will mandate stronger social and human rights protections for potential investors. The post Locals Urge Japan to Rule Out Burma Coal Plant Funding appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Clashes Cease in Wan Hai, but for How Long? Posted: 27 Nov 2015 01:13 AM PST Shan State Army-North soldiers at the hilltop outpost of Loi Sang on Thursday. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) WAN HAI, Kyethi Township, Shan State — For the second month running, most of the few villagers left in Wan Hai did not make their customary visit to the local monastery in order to mark the full moon. At the end of October, celebrations of the Thadingyut holiday to mark the conclusion of Buddhist Lent were cut short when the village was hit by mortar fire shortly after midnight. Many locals had already fled at the urging of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), who believed the Burma Army was preparing to attack the town. This time around, a few elderly villagers who had stayed behind went to pay their respects at the monastery, which had nearly been hit by a mortar round during last month's assault. But the others went to their crops. It was the first time they had been able to tend to their paddy fields in more than a month. The end of the harvest season is in two weeks. If they weren't able to return now, they would risk starving later. From the time since the military offensive began on Oct. 6, when the SSA-N refused a deadline to vacate its longstanding port base at Tar San Pu village, somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 locals have been displaced. Clashes ceased three days ago in Kyethi, Mong Hsu and Mongkaing townships, the epicenter of SSA-N territory, in the mountainous ranges south of Hsipaw. Locals say that peace talks are underway between the Burmese government and the Shan State Progressive Party, the SSA-N's political wing. The Irrawaddy was given a tour of the ethnic armed group's frontline posts in Mong Hsu, to the east of the SSA-N's Wan Hai headquarters. Encountering a number of officers along the way, many spoke of the pitched battles waged against the military since the conflict began. Few believe the temporary lull in fighting will last. Close Quarters At the base of Mount Ju Mauk Kuang is one SSA-N post, with the Burma Army's base at the mountain's summit just barely visible from the perimeter. The base commander, a cheerful man sporting a giant tiger tattoo on his bare torso, eagerly showed off the post's 60mm mortar while describing the area's most recent clash. "They fired their artillery down on our base, so we shot them back," he said, pointing out bits of shrapnel embedded in the fortifications, adding that no-one on their side was hurt in the exchange. He later brandished a small tablet computer, which he said had taken from a Burma Army major killed in a recent battle. He scrolled through the self-portraits of the deceased, a young man of no more than 35. Officers say the Burma Army has made a concerted effort to take the SSA-N's hilltop posts in Mong Hsu, an objective it has largely failed at despite nearly two months of fighting. Were the military able to take these hill posts, they would be able to block the road between Mong Hsu and the Wan Hai headquarters, severely restricting the movement of SSA-N troops and cutting the armed group's territory in half. Maj. Sai Phone Han of the SSA-N said that the government is demanding a withdrawal from these bases in current ceasefire talks, which the rebel group is unwilling to countenance. The SSA-N's withdrawal from Tar San Pu in October did not halt the military's offensives for long. "We have bad conditions from these peace talks," the major said. "The government still want us to withdraw our troops currently based on the east side (of our territory). We cannot agree to this." In the meantime, the Burma Army has wanted the group to withdraw from their Mong Hsu positions in three days. If they don't, the clashes will resume. The military has already shelled and strafed villages in the township with the support of helicopter gunships and fighter planes. As in Wan Hai, many civilians have already fled. Mong Hsu town itself looks devoid of life, with many houses boarded up and schools closed. At a frontline post in Wan Loi village, SSA-N battalion commander Sai Seng Hein told The Irrawaddy that there had been a number of casualties on the Burma Army side, playing video footage he took of a recent clash on a small camera. "It was not an easy job to defend our post," he said. "[Their soldiers] know they will get shot, but they keep coming. When they get wounded, they move back—then as soon as they recover, they come to attack again. We fought each other at very close quarters." "The biggest offensive was at Mount Pu Lone. They attacked us for three days and used 6 air force planes at the end," he added. "Shells hit the ground and the earth shook very strongly. But they could not get our post." It may be only a matter of days before they try again. The post Clashes Cease in Wan Hai, but for How Long? appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

USDP Official Who Posted Fake Suu Kyi Image Rearrested Posted: 27 Nov 2015 12:43 AM PST Than Tun, the joint secretary of the Kangyidaunt Township USDP office in Irrawaddy Division, who has been charged for allegedly sharing a digitally altered image of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Facebook. RANGOON — Than Tun, an official of Burma's ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), was rearrested on Wednesday after he had previously been charged and released on bail last month for sharing a fake, digitally altered image of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Facebook. "We've rearrested U Than Tun and have sent him to Pathein Jail. We have also submitted his case to court," Ye Lwin, a police officer, told The Irrawaddy. Than Tun, the joint secretary of the Kangyidaunt Township USDP office in Irrawaddy Division, was arrested on Oct. 20 for allegedly sharing an image of National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi's face transposed onto the body of a naked woman. After complaining of illness, he spent two days in Kangyidaunt Hospital and another four days in Pathein Hospital before he was returned to police custody for an additional week. He was released on bail earlier this month. Than Tun was reportedly rearrested after communications minister Myat Hein determined that his case should receive legal action. He will face trial at a local court in Kangyidaunt Township, with a hearing set for Dec. 2. "The Ministry of Communications made a [swift] decision to charge Patrick Khum Jaa Lee but took so long to make a decision about USDP leader U Than Tun," said Sithu Aung, a volunteer with the Hand to Hand Free Education Network who filed the original lawsuit against Than Tun under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law. The case is one of several currently before the courts related to materials shared on social media. Aid worker Patrick Khum Jaa Lee has been jailed since October and refused bail on several occasions over a Facebook post he disputes sharing. Chaw Sandi Tun, a 25-year-old woman, is facing trial in Maubin Township, Irrawaddy Division, after allegedly sharing a satirical Facebook post deemed insulting to the military. She is facing twin charges, under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law which carries up to three years imprisonment and Article 500 of the Penal Code which stipulates punishment of up to two years. The post USDP Official Who Posted Fake Suu Kyi Image Rearrested appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

China Releases Journalist after Guilty Plea Posted: 26 Nov 2015 09:10 PM PST Chinese journalist Gao Yu in 2012. (Photo: Bobby Yip / Reuters) BEIJING — A 71-year-old Chinese journalist imprisoned on a state secrets conviction was released for medical reasons Thursday after pleading guilty during a closed-door appeal hearing, her lawyers and state media said. Gao Yu, one of the best-known intellectuals to have been imprisoned for supporting the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was detained again last year on charges of leaking a document to the media detailing the Communist Party leadership’s resolve to tamp down on Western notions of constitutionality and freedom. She refused to admit guilt during her April trial, when she was sentenced to seven years in prison, and later appealed the conviction. When Beijing’s high court heard her case Tuesday, Gao pleaded guilty, which is normally seen by courts in China as contrition deserving of leniency. However, her defense continued to argue for her innocence, her lawyers said. The court reduced her sentence from seven years to five years. Later Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency announced that the court had decided that Gao is qualified to serve her sentence outside of prison because of “severe illnesses.” “We had expected her to be released for medical reasons, but it came as a surprise” that the release came so soon, lawyer Shang Baojun said, adding that Gao has heart problems. Gao was convicted of leaking the official report—known as Document No. 9—to an overseas news site. The site, Mingjing News, has said Gao did not provide the document, and her lawyers said they presented evidence to the appeal court that Gao was not the source of the report. Foreign governments and human rights groups have denounced the verdict against Gao as politically driven retribution for her criticism of the government, and urged authorities to release the elderly journalist. Before her April trial, Gao appeared on state television and said she was guilty, but she told the trial court that police had threatened her son to force her into making the confession. Gao was also imprisoned on state secrets charges for more than a year after the 1989 crackdown. She was detained again in April last year, weeks before the 25th anniversary of the bloody military suppression of the protests that killed at least hundreds of people. The post China Releases Journalist after Guilty Plea appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

North, South Korea Plan Further Talks after Standoff Posted: 26 Nov 2015 09:04 PM PST North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on Wednesday. (Photo: KCNA / Reuters) SEOUL — North and South Korea agreed to hold talks at the vice-minister level next month, after a meeting on Thursday aimed at further easing tensions following the end to an armed standoff in August. The meeting of officials at the border truce village of Panmunjom came after the two sides signed an agreement in which Pyongyang expressed regret over landmine blasts near the border that wounded two South Korean soldiers. Officials agreed to vice-minister-level talks on Dec. 11 at the industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong just a few kilometres on the northern side of the border run jointly by the two Koreas, a joint press statement said. The talks are a fresh attempt at dialogue between the rivals, which have all but cut off ties since 2010, when a South Korean navy ship was destroyed by a torpedo that Seoul said was fired from a North Korean submarine. Pyongyang denies any role. The North also bombed a South Korean island later that year, blaming Seoul for provoking it by firing into its territorial waters during a military exercise. “The agenda will be issues that will improve relations between the South and the North,” the statement issued after the talks said. As part of the August agreement, the two sides held reunions last month of families separated during the 1950-53 Korean war. North and South Korea are technically still at war because the conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. If dialogue makes progress, the North is expected to seek the resumption of cross-border tours from the South to its Mount Kumgang resort, a once-lucrative source of cash for the impoverished state that was suspended in 2008. Seoul in turn is expected to try to get Pyongyang to agree to hold family reunions on a regular basis, a top humanitarian priority for the South, where there are more than 60,000 mostly elderly people who are looking for relatives in the North. The post North, South Korea Plan Further Talks after Standoff appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Gunmen Attack During Prayers at Bangladeshi Mosque Posted: 26 Nov 2015 08:54 PM PST Bangladeshi police stand guard outside the Westin Hotel in Dhaka. (Photo: Ashikur Rahman / Reuters) DHAKA — Gunmen opened fire on worshippers during evening prayers at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Bangladesh on Thursday, killing one person and wounding three, police said, the second attack on the country’s tiny Shia Muslim community in a month. The shooting in northwestern Bogra district came a day after police killed a top militant, the main suspect behind last month’s bombing of a Shi’ite shrine that left two people dead. “The attackers entered the mosque and opened fire on the devotees after locking the main gate and then fled immediately after the shooting,” police official Ahsan Habib said. Witnesses said three young attackers stormed into the mosque and shot at worshippers indiscriminately when they were praying. Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners, four secular writers and a publisher killed this year. Tensions have rising since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a crackdown on militants, putting several leaders on trial for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence. About a dozen Christian priests in the north have also received death threats, a week after after an Italian doctor working as a missionary was shot and wounded, police said on Thursday. “We have already stepped up security around the churches,” local police chief Abdullah Al Faruk said. Hardline Sunni Muslim movement Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing on the Shi’ite shrine in Dhaka on Oct. 24. But police said on Thursday home-grown militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was behind the attack and arrested five members of the banned outfit. “They were involved in various subversive activities including attacks on a police checkpoint and Shi’ite gatherings during Ashura,” Police joint commissioner Monirul Islam told a news conference as the men were brought out in handcuffs. The government has rejected Islamic State claims of involvement in other attacks and says local militants are involved. Critics say the government is whipping up a climate of fear to go after its political rivals. The post Gunmen Attack During Prayers at Bangladeshi Mosque appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ceasefire Dialogue off to Rocky Start as Parties Complain of Exclusion Posted: 26 Nov 2015 08:47 PM PST On Nov. 21, a meeting in Rangoon was held to elect 16 representatives of political parties that would make up part of the 48-member Union Political Joint Dialogue Committee. (Credit: Phyo Thiha Cho / Myanmar Now) RANGOON — While fighting rages in northern Shan State between Burma's army and ethnic rebel groups that failed to sign a nationwide ceasefire, the start of a dialogue among signatories of the accord also ran into problems, as some political parties voiced anger over being excluded from the process. On Oct. 15, the government and army representatives signed a so-called nationwide ceasefire accord with the Karen National Union, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, the Shan State Army-South and five smaller armed groups. Seven of Burma's most powerful ethnic rebel groups, including the United Wa State Army, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North), declined to sign as the government refused to include three small rebel groups in the agreement. In recent weeks, heavy clashes have broken out between the army and the KIA and the SSA-North, causing some 10,000 civilians to flee. According to the accord, a long-term political dialogue to resolve issues such as ethnic demands for a federal union has to begin within three months of its signing, so no later than Dec. 15. On Saturday, a meeting was held to elect 16 representatives of political parties that would make up part of the 48-member Union Political Joint Dialogue Committee. The other two groups are 16 representatives from the ethnic armed organizations and 16 of the government and military. Representatives of 87 registered political parties assembled at Yangon Regional Government's Office for a meeting chaired by outgoing President's Office Minister Aung Min and organized by the influential government advisors of the Myanmar Peace Centre (MPC). Aung Min, who has lead the government side in ceasefire negotiations since 2012, oversaw the process of selecting party representatives and his remarks and decisions quickly raised the ire of some of parties. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which crushed the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the Nov. 8 polls, should get two representatives each, said Aung Min, so he could continue to play a lead role in the process, despite losing his parliament seat in the elections. "You're probably asking: 'Is it too much that the USDP is taking two seats when the NLD has two seats? Please consider, if U Aung Min leaves the government where would we be? Do you want me to sit in the USDP seat? If so, you need to give two seats to USDP," he told attendees. He also told the meeting that a seat each was allocated to the Shan National League for Democracy, the Arakan National Party, and the United Nationalities Alliance, Federal Brotherhood Alliance and Federal Democratic Alliance. The latter three organizations are alliances comprising several ethnic parties. The fact that the NLD and USDP were awarded two seats each angered a number of representatives from ethnic parties and small parties from central Burma, some of whom walked out of the meeting before lunch. After they left, Aung Min oversaw a ballot among attendees to determine which other seven parties could participate in the dialogue. The ballot lead to the selection of seven small or little-known parties, most of which failed to win seats on Nov. 8. These are the National Democratic Force, Democratic Party (Myanmar), Democracy and Peace Party, All Mon Region Democracy Party, Chin League for Democracy, Federal Union Party and the Phone-Sqaw Democratic Party. Small, Ethnic Parties Excluded The selection results angered some representatives of smaller parties and ethnic parties. "They should prioritize the ethnic people's wishes, but in the end they went ahead with their own plans. The ethnic groups couldn't say anything," said Nan Sandar Su of the Kayin Democratic Party. "No party should take two seats, everyone should just have one seat each." Aung Min and the MPC advisors "said because of time shortage, we are sorry, but we are going to do this whether you agree or not," according to Kam Lam Khup, whose Zomi Congress for Democracy was left out of the dialogue despite winning four union level seats and two Chin State parliament seats on Nov. 8. "They didn't care no matter how much you objected, or if you left the room," he said. "That's not democratic." Mi Than Shin of the Women Party (Mon State) said she was unhappy with her party's exclusion from the dialogue, but noted that a new NLD government was likely to take a different approach to the dialogue and ceasefire process. "This is a transition period so we have to pass through this period with patience," she said. MPC government advisor Aung Naing Oo said there were some complaints by parties on Saturday, but added the process would enable official discussions to start almost immediately. This would allow the political dialogue to be established by Dec. 15, as prescribed by the NCA. "The process isn't perfect… but the design, the representation aren't fixed, they're flexible. After January 14, the new government can re-negotiate," he said. NLD Leading the Ceasefire Process? Some observers have also questioned why the MPC and government had first sought to bring in numerous small political parties at Saturday's meeting when only a handful of parties had won seats in the elections. "When they were first in the process they never invited these kinds of small parties to be involved in peace talk issues," said Zin Lin, managing director at Burma News International, a network of ethnic media outlets that run the Myanmar Peace Monitor, a resource site on the peace process. "They would like to leave many problems, chaos in those areas for the NLD, because they think the NLD has no experience in administration," he added. In the coming weeks, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi hopes to meet with President Thein Sein and Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing to discuss the formation of a new government. Her party has said little about how it intends to approach the nationwide ceasefire process. Suu Kyi declined to attend the signing of the accord in October. The NLD's approach will be a highly sensitive issue for Burma's powerful military. The army fought for decades to suppress insurgencies among dozens of ethnic minority groups in Burma's rugged periphery who seek greater political autonomy. Last week, NLD spokesperson Win Htein told Myanmar Now that he could not see any reason to involve many small parties in the political dialogue, particularly since some are considered "proxy" parties of the USDP. "In the future, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will look at this process. We will review the processes of the MPC," he added. The post Ceasefire Dialogue off to Rocky Start as Parties Complain of Exclusion appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

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